Author: Elizabeth Jabejian

At least 41 people have died after drinking tainted liquor in a slum in India’s financial hub of Mumbai, police said Friday, the Associated Press reports.

Police officer Deepak Gaikwad said 21 other people were hospitalized in critical condition after drinking the cheap liquor in Malad in northern Mumbai.

Police arrested three men and were questioning them about making and selling the drink to poor workers.

Devendra Fadnavis, the top elected official in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital, ordered an investigation.

Deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India because the poor cannot afford licensed liquor. Illicit liquor is often spiked with chemicals such as pesticides to increase its potency.

Gita Elibekyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Tbilisi

Pianist Tigran Hamasyan will present his Luys i Luso (Light of Light) program at St. Echmiadzin Church in Tbilisi today and will perform at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire on June 18.

Luys i Luso is a unique program for the piano and choir presented by Tigran Hamasyan and the Yerevan State Chamber Choir headed by Harutyun Topikyan.

The program is a new interpretation of Armenian religious music from the 5^th to the 20^th centuries, which will be released as a CD in September 2015.

The program includes works by Mesrop Mashtots, Grigor Nakeratsi, Grigor Pahlavuni, Nerses Shnorhali, Mkhitar Ayrivanetsi and Makar Yekmalyan.

The tour kicked off in Yerevan on March 24. Over the year he will give concerts in 100 churches of Turkey, Lebanon, France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Russia and the United States.

As a member of Congress, Dick Gephardt often spoke passionately about the need for the United States to recognize as genocide the mass deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians under the Turkish government that began one century ago.

But as a lobbyist for Turkey since leaving Congress in 2005, Gephardt, a Democrat, has taken the opposite side. His behind-the-scenes work has been cited as a factor in the annual failure of Congress to recognize the Armenian genocide, according to .

Justice Department records show that Gephardt’s lobbying firm has been paid more than $8 million since 2008 to fight the declaration and represent Turkey on other contentious issues, including repatriation of Christian holy sites seized over the last century in that Muslim nation.

Now, in the 100th-anniversary year of what Armenians refer to as Meds Yeghern — “great calamity” — two Armenian-American groups are pressuring Gephardt’s lobbying firm to drop Turkey as a client, and for companies to drop Gephardt as their lobbyist.

Gephardt, who declined to respond to repeated interview requests, has ignored the Armenian groups’ letters. Three companies have ended contracts with the Gephardt Group since the two Armenian-American groups launched a letter-writing campaign in January, although none publicly tied the decision to the letters.

Critics of the former congressman from St. Louis say he is just another example of the revolving door between electoral office and the lucrative lobbying business, where policy positions seem to change based on who’s paying the bill.

In 1998, speaking to frequent applause from the Armenian National Committee of America in a Capitol Hill event, Gephardt called for Congress to “solemnly remember the genocide which occurred many years ago, but which so deeply affected so many families and people in Armenia. We must always keep that fact, those real facts, in our mind.”

But after going to work for Turkey in 2007, he told the Post-Dispatch that he was working toward a reconciliation that would avoid a genocide declaration, to “get all the facts on the table and let the chips fall where they may.”

In January, as the 100th anniversary of Meds Yeghern approached, two Armenian-American groups began pressuring Gephardt and his clients.“The American corporate community must have a zero-tolerance policy against any action that either covers up past genocides or in any way contributes to future atrocities,” declared a Jan. 28 letter to the former congressman signed by leaders of the groups, the Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Assembly of America.“To that end, as a courtesy, we would like to inform you that we have reached out to all of your clients … to educate them about your lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government.”

The groups sent letters to roughly 200 clients who had hired either Gephardt or other lobbying firms that represented Turkey, saying the companies had a “troubling relationship” with genocide deniers.

The results of the letter campaign are unclear.

Spokesmen for Google, Boeing and of St. Louis-area companies Ameren, Anheuser-Busch and Peabody either refused to comment or said they had no record of receiving the letter.

But Frederick D. Palmer, Peabody’s senior vice president for government relations, wrote back to the Armenian-American groups saying his company would not drop lobbyists just because they represented Turkey.

“The events you describe are tragic indeed, but there is no basis to punish Turkey today, an ally for more than 60 years along with being a democratic and free market example that is rare in the region,” Palmer wrote.

The exactly a month after the letter was sent. Mary Grady, managing director of media and public relations for the airport, declined to say why.

Mike Zampa, communications director for the to expire in January but described it as a normal change.

The Human Rights Campaign also canceled its $10,000 monthly contract, but Fred Sainz, the rights organization’s director of communications, said it had “nothing to do with the Armenia letter.”

A lobbyist left the Gephardt Group, Sainz said, “and we followed him to his new firm.”

Reality star Kim Kardashian spoke about the recent trip to Armenia and Kanye West’s concert in Yerevan as she appeared on the May 25 episode of ‘Live! With Kelly & Michael.’

The family was in Armenia, the Kardashians’ ancestral homeland, and the visit had a profound effect on Kim.

‘That’s my heritage,’ she said. ‘I’ve never felt so at home.’

 

As for Kanye’s concert, she said it was a last minute decision and they were surprised to see about 5,000 people gathered at the Swan Lake.

Voters in the Republic of Ireland are taking part in a referendum on legalising same-sex marriage on Friday,  BBC News reports.

More than 3.2m people are being asked whether they want to amend the country’s constitution to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Polling stations opened at 07:00 BST with voting continuing until 22:00 BST and counting due to start on Saturday morning.

Same-sex marriage is currently legal in 19 countries worldwide.

Votes have already been cast in some islands as well as hospitals, hospices and nursing homes. Only Irish citizens who are registered and living in the state can take part.

They will be asked whether they agree with the statement: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex”.

The referendum is being held 22 years after Ireland decriminalised homosexuality.

In 2010, the government enacted civil partnership legislation, which provided legal recognition for gay couples.

On May 15, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian participated in the meeting of Foreign Ministers of Eastern Partnership and Visegrad Group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary), attended by Vice-President of the European Commission, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, Foreign Minister of Latvia, a state, presiding over the Council of the EU, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Foreign Ministers of Sweden and Poland Margot Wallstrom and Grzegorz Schetyna respectively.

Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico delivered opening remarks, attaching importance to the holding of the meeting, as an efficient platform for exchange of thoughts in the run up to the Riga Summit.

Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian delivered a speech at the session.

In his remarks, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian, particularly, mentioned,

“I want to thank the Visegrad Four Presidency for hosting this ministerial meeting in Bratislava.

Armenia has important objectives to accomplish in its comprehensive partnership with the European Union in all possible fields, through enhanced political dialogue, deepening sectoral cooperation, intensification of people-to-people contacts and creating favourable conditions for the facilitation of trade and economic cooperation.

To intensify our cooperation in sectoral areas we are looking towards launching negotiations with the Commission aimed at the field of science and education, concluding the agreement on Armenia’s participation in the EU “Horizon 2020”; as well as in the Programme for Competitiveness of Enterprise and Small and Medium Enterprises (COSME). In the area of transport the Government of Armenia expressed its readiness to sign a Common Aviation Area Agreement with the European Union.

We highly appreciate the EU’s continued support and assistance provided within the ENP to our country over the years, which has been instrumental for the effective implementation and sustainability of the reform process and institutional capacity building in Armenia.

We have welcomed the European Commission’s initiative to conduct a review of the ENP which is an occasion for all of us to reflect on our past experiences and highlight priority aspects of future cooperation. The situation in the larger Neighbourhood poses new challenges and undoubtedly requires renewed cooperative approaches.

We think that the ENP review should outline the importance of adherence to common values of democracy, rule of law, good governance and protection of human rights. We are also of the view that within the new policy framework the principles of a merit-based differentiation and “more-for-more” should be reinforced and continued to be applied accordingly to reflect the pace of implementation of reforms by the partner countries.

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to reflect on the state of progress in defining our future contractual relations with the European Union. Since November last year, we have been engaged with our EU partners to shape the scope of the legal framework, which will reflect the contents of our past negotiations with the European Union while taking into account our commitments in other integration formats. In mid March, the Armenian and the EU teams concluded the consultations on the scope of future legal basis and it is our understanding that based on that the EU Member States will endorse the mandate and we can launch the negotiations.

In parallel to the regular meetings of the EU-Armenia institutional setup, Armenia continues its active participation in the platforms and more than a dozen working groups of the multilateral dimension of the Eastern Partnership. We view this as an important and useful framework for sharing best practices and promoting enhanced cooperation.

The Mobility Partnership is in place since 2011 and there are several projects being implemented under its umbrella. The EU-Armenia Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements entered into force in January 2014. From our part, the Government of Armenia abolished the visa requirement for the EU citizens since 2013. On April 29 the Armenia-EU Joint Committees on the Visa Facilitation and Readmission agreements took place in Brussels and it is our hope that following these meetings we will be able to initiate a dialogue on Visa Liberalization with the EU as soon as possible.

The situation in the Eastern Partnership today poses new challenges and requires renewed cooperative approaches.

Armenia well recognizes the importance of inclusive cooperation in different formats. We hold the view that it is possible to make best use of various integration frameworks through a more visionary approach that builds on opportunities rather than incompatibilities. Building upon the results achieved in previous years it is our goal to continue the path toward deep and comprehensive partnership with the European Union”.

A former summer camp primarily for Armenian orphans located in the Istanbul suburb of Tuzla is expected to be demolished at the end of May in order to build luxury villas on the site, reports. 

A total of 1,500 orphaned children, such as the prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrank Dink, spent summers at Camp Armen, which opened in 1963 and was built in part by the orphans themselves. Dink, who was very devoted to Camp Armen, not only attended as a child but later became a camp counselor. Camp Armen is also where he met his wife, now widow, Rakel Dink. Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Erol Dora, who is Aramean (Syriac), also attended Camp Armen as a child.

A high court ruling issued in 1974 stated that “minority foundations cannot own property.” In 1983, the camp was closed and the deed to the land was returned to its former owner, despite legal action taken by the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church, which owned and operated the camp. The ownership of the land has since changed hands several times.

On Sunday, members of the Armenian community visited the abandoned camp and found it in a neglected state. They gathered the litter and tended to the garden, even planting a plum tree.

According to a news report by the Birgün daily published on Tuesday, former campers shared memories of their experiences during their visit, including one particularly interesting account of when Dink, in his role as a camp counselor, was returning with some children to the camp from a trip to the beach and the gendarmerie was waiting for him. The camp was accused of training children to join the militant Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), to which Dink reportedly responded in a state of shock and confusion, “At the beach?”

The camp’s building has gone untouched since it was forced to close and the current, private owner plans to have it demolished at the end of May, according to those who visited the camp on Sunday. Members of the Armenian community, such as former campers and activists from Nor Zartonk, a civil society group representing Turkey’s Armenian community, are still in search of a solution to prevent the demolition of the historically significant and beloved camp.