Author: Bedik Zaminian

In November Kolkata will witness the biggest congregation of Armenians in recent times. They will gather in the city to be a part of celebrations lined up by their alma mater – Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy (ACPA), which will turn 195 this year. The get-together of sorts will also help the community relive its past, connecting with old acquaintances now spread across the globe, the  reports.

Amid all the hype, ACPA has embarked upon the most difficult task of creating a databank of Armenians from Kolkata. “This is the first such databank since 1956,” said Rev. Zaven Yazichyan, the India-Armenian Spiritual Postorate, ACPA.

Entrepreneurial and devout Christians, Armenians arrived here in early 1600s, some 60 years prior to East India Company. When Kolkata – then Calcutta – was the British capital, the Armenians poured money into colonial mansions, virtually transforming the wilting city into what Kolkata eventually became.

Though they called it their home, Armenians started leaving ‘Calcutta’ even before the British started moving out. For the last six decades, their numbers have dwindling alarmingly. The city of 4.5 milling barely has 150 Indian Armenians left now. According to the Armenian General Benevolent Union news magazine, the number of students dropped from 206 in 1961 to just six in 1998. Among the 68 students studying here now, only two are Armenian-Indians. The school relies on students from abroad – mostly immigrants from Iraq, Iran, Russia and Armenia – to fill its dormitories.

Pope Francis joined Instagram on Saturday.  

Within an hour of signing up to the photo-sharing app he had gained 10,000 followers. The number has already exceeded 1.2 million.

Not bad for someone who has only posted two photos so far but there are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world.

He is using the name @Franciscus, Latin for Francis.

Pray for me Rezad por mí Pregate per me صلوا من أجلي Priez pour moi Módlcie się za mnie Rezem por mim Betet für mich Orate pro me

Фото опубликовано Pope Francis (@franciscus) Мар 19 2016 в 4:24 PDT

The first photo wasn’t a selfie, it was a picture showing Pope Francis kneeling with his head bowed in prayer.

The accompanying caption reads “Pray for me” and is repeated in eight other languages.

The account won’t be maintained by Pope Francis himself – other people within the Vatican will be responsible for the content.

The Pope is no stranger to social media, he already has a Twitter account using the handle @Pontifex.

He used that to announce his presence on Instagram.

Armenia is ranked 121^st among 156 countries in the released today. Denmark is still the happiest country in the world followed by Switzerland and Iceland. The top ten also includes Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.

Armenia’s neighbors are ranked as follows: Georgia – 126th, Azerbaijan – 81^st, Turkey – 78^th, Iran – 105^th.

Our partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Kazakhstan and Russia are placed  54^th and 56^th respectively, Belarus is 61^st, Kyrgyzstan – 85^th.

The World Happiness Report 2016 Update prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University looked at data recording how highly people evaluate their lives on a scale running from 0 to 10. The rankings are based on surveys in 156 countries covering the three years 2013-2015.

The World Happiness Report 2016 Update, which ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, was released today in Rome in advance of UN World Happiness Day, March 20th.

There are five Armenians on 2016 World’s Billionaires list published by Forbes on March 1.

Founder and CEO of Magnit, Russia’s biggest supermarket chain and owner of football team Krasnodar (Arutyunyan) (219th) is the world’s richest Armenian with an estimated net worth of $$5.7 billion.

Other Armenians on the list include head of Taship Group  (549th), Argentinean Armenian businessman (810th), and (1275th), CEO of Rosgosstrakh Insurance Company.

Volatile stock markets, cratering oil prices and a stronger dollar led to a dynamic reshuffling of wealth around the globe and a drop in ten-figure fortunes for the first time since 2009. For our 30th annual guide to the world’s richest, the Forbes found 1,810 billionaires, down from a record 1,826 a year ago. Their aggregate net worth was $6.48 trillion, $570 billion less than last year.  It was also the first time since 2010 that the average net worth of a billionaire dropped – it is now $3.6 billion, $300 million less than last year.

remains the richest person in the world with a net worth of $75 billion, despite being $4.2 billion poorer than a year ago. He has been No. 1 one for 3 years in a row and topped the list 17 out of 22 years.  Also holding steady is at No. 3. Zara ’s moves up to No. 2 for the first time, displacing Mexico’s Carlos Slim, who slips to No. 4. Slim’s fortune fell $27.1 billion to $50 billion in the past year, as shares of his telecom business América Móvil tumbled.

Facebook’s had the best year of all billionaires. The 31-year-old added $11.2 billion to his fortune and moved up to No. 6 from 16. He and Amazon’s both make their first appearance in the top ten of Forbes’ annual ranking of the world’s wealthiest.

Asbarez – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) entered the following statement into the Congressional Record:

“Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. On this day in 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians. When the violence finally subsided, hundreds of Armenian civilians had been brutally murdered and injured, women and young girls were raped, and victims were tortured and burned alive. Those that survived the carnage fled their homes and businesses, leaving behind everything they had in their desperation.

“The pogroms were not an accident. They were the culmination of years of vicious anti-Armenian propaganda, spread by the Azerbaijani authorities. The Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, as well as denying the role of senior government officials in instigating the violence. Unsurprisingly, it was not the end of the violence, and was followed by additional attacks, including the 1990 pogrom in Baku.

“The Sumgait massacre and the subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, resulted in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted in thousands dead on both sides and created over one million refugees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“Time has not healed the wounds of those murdered in the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku. To the contrary, hatred of Armenians is celebrated in in Azerbaijan, a situation most vividly exemplified by the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who savagely murdered an Armenian army lieutenant, Gurgen Margaryan with an axe while he slept. The two were participating in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise at the time in Hungary. In 2012, Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead, he was pardoned, promoted, and paraded through the streets of Baku as a returning hero.

“The assault on ethnic Armenian civilians in Sumgait helped touch off what would become a direct conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karbakh. And today, Azerbaijan’s dangerous behavior on the Line of Contact threatens peace and stability in the region. Artillery and sniper fire across the Line of Contact has become a fact of daily life for civilians in the Nagorno Karbakh Republic, causing numerous casualties. I have urged the OSCE Minsk Group to deescalate the situation by ending a policy that equates unprovoked attacks by the Azerbaijan with the defensive responses of Karbakh and Armenian troops, and by pressuring Azerbaijan to accept the installation of technological monitoring devices along the border. The anniversary of Sumgait is a reminder of the consequences when aggression and hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.

“Mr. Speaker, this April we will mark the 101st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan’s closest ally, goes to great lengths to deny. We must not let such crimes against humanity go unrecognized, whether they occurred yesterday or 28 years ago or 100 years ago. Today, let us pause to remember the victims of the atrocities of the Sumgait pogroms. Mr. Speaker, it is our moral obligation to condemn crimes of hatred and to remember the victims, in hope that history will not be repeated.”

Armenia’s Ambassador to Iran Artashes Tumanyan had a meeting with Masoumeh Ebteka, Iran’s Vice-President and head of Environmental Protection Organization.

The Ambassador noted that Armenia and Iran have a positive experience of cooperation in the field of environmental protection both in bilateral and multilateral formats.

The parties stressed that the lifting of sanctions against Iran opens new perspectives for the development and reinforcement of bilateral cooperation in different spheres, including environmental protection.

The interlocutors referred to the pollution of Araks River, establishment of a national friendship reserve at the Armenian-Iranian border and development of programs to protect some species.

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says he does not consider the conflicts in Nagorno Karabakh and Transdniestria are “frozen.”

“They bring suffering to people year after year and hamper the development in the corresponding regions,” Mr. Steinmeier said in an interview with Interfax.

“We plan to strengthen the ceasefire regimes, reinforce trust and ease everyday life of the people in the conflict zones, e.g. through intensification of economic exchange,” the German Foreign Minister added.

“As for the Karabakh conflict, the military clashes at the line of contact and at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border are causes of concern. Germany stands for intensification of negotiations within the framework of the Minsk Group. Creation of a mechanism of investigation of border incidents would be an important step here,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

After drawing a blank in his last four appearances for Arsenal, Mesut Ozil has now been dethroned as Europe’s assist king, Goal.com reports.

Instead, it is now Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan who leads the way with the most assists of any player in Europe’s top five leagues, having collected 17 in all competitions this season.

Admittedly, the Armenian only has nine league assists compared to Ozil’s 16, but he has been prolific in Dortmund’s cup competitions while the German has yet to create a goal outside the Premier League this season.

Mkhitaryan has assisted six times in the Europa League (including qualifiers) and twice more in the DFB-Pokal, with his most recent assist coming in the 3-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach.

After helping Barcelona run riot against Gary Neville’s Valencia, Neymar is now tied with Ozil on 16 assists, making him the most creative member of the fabled MSN attack.

Any further competition for the European assist crown is likely to come from Angel Di Maria, currently tied in  fourth place with 12 assists, with Kevin De Bruyne’s contribution likely to stall following his injury setback.

Meanwhile, Tottenham fans may be surprised to see a familiar name sneak into the top 10, with Roberto Soldado tied with Cristiano Ronaldo and Douglas Costa with 10 assists this season.

Israel and Turkey have reached a preliminary agreement on normalising relations, an Israeli official said, the BBC reports.

Ties broke down after the Israeli navy raided a flotilla trying to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza in 2010. Ten Turkish activists were killed.

The deal will see Israel compensate families of those killed while Turkey will drop all claims against Israel, the unnamed official said.

There has been no official confirmation yet from either side.

The agreement is reported to have been reached at a meeting between senior Israeli and Turkish officials in Switzerland.

According to the official, the deal will also see the renewed exchange of ambassadors.

Talks will also begin on laying down a natural gas pipeline from Israel to Turkey, the official added.