Author: Hovsep Chakrian

Heirs of Vartkes Serengulian, one of the seven Armenians represented in the Ottoman Parliament, are willing to hand his mandate to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Serengulian’s granddaughter told .

On her way to exile, Vartkes Serengulian’s wife received his last letter dated June 20, 1915, in which he described the “desperate conditions” and expressed doubt they would ever meet again.

In the same letter Serengulian informed he had applied to Talaat Pasha, as he was the only person that could help.

However, despite good relations with Vartkes Serengulian, Talaat ordered to arrest him and send to Urfa, where he was tortured and killed.

“In his last letter Serengulian asked his wife not to marry again for their sons not to call another man dad,” his granddaughter Izabella Serengulian said.

Hripsime Serengulian decided to settle in Tbilis together with her two sons. An expert in French, she started work at a rich Armenian family. She letter worked at an Armenian school and earned with needlework she had learnt in Erzrum as a child.

“She always had a needle in her hand. She would not tell much. She had burnt part of the documents in 1937, but carefully concealed the mandate,” Izabella said.

She now wants to hand it to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (Ambassadors Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, Stephane Visconti of France and Richard Hoagland of the United States of America), together with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, traveled to Baku (March 11), Yerevan (March 27) and Nagorno-Karabakh (March 28).

The main purpose of the Co-Chairs’ visits to the region was to receive the most current detailed political and military information on the Line of Contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, to discuss the implementation of agreements reached at 2016 Summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg and to address the next steps toward a settlement.

The Co-Chairs met with the Presidents and Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the de facto authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh. They also visited territories around Nagorno-Karabakh. In their talks, the Co-Chairs reiterated their deep concern over recent incidents along the Line of Contact, calling on the sides to exercise restraint in their rhetoric and in their actions. The Presidents laid out their positions on the Co-Chairs’ proposals to strengthen the ceasefire and to avoid further escalation of hostilities, particularly in light of the Novruz and Easter holidays. They expressed their commitment to continuing the negotiation process toward a political solution.

In their talks, the Co-Chairs stressed the essential importance of continued support for Ambassador Kasprzyk’s mission and its expansion. The Co-Chairs also emphasized their conviction that respect for the ceasefire is of the utmost importance for building an atmosphere of trust to enable further negotiations.

The Co-Chairs will soon travel to Vienna to brief the members of the Minsk Group.

Photo: ANU

The Australian National University has called on the public to help scour through images of the southern sky taken by the ANU SkyMapper telescope at Siding Spring to assist in the search for a new planet in our solar system, the so-called Planet 9, reports.

ANU astrophysicist Dr Tucker is leading the project. He said astronomers had long discussed the likelihood of a ninth planet on the outer edges of the solar system, but nothing had been found yet.

“We have the potential to find a new planet in our solar system that no human has ever seen in our two-million-year history,” he said.

Planet 9 is predicted to be a super Earth, about four times the size and 10 times the mass of our planet. It is also though to be cold and far away, about 800 times the distance between Earth and the sun.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s ability to produce sublime strikes for Manchester United has now won him a hat-trick of Goal of the Month accolades.

The Armenian was in award-winning form again at the beginning of February when he notched the best of United’s three efforts away to Leicester City. It also turned out to be the pick of all the Reds’ goals at different age levels last month, following a fan poll conducted here on ManUtd.com.

“I controlled the ball, I passed Robert Huth and then I had free space ahead of me,” said Mkhitaryan, when speaking to following the 3-0 win. “When I was in front of the goalkeeper, I saw the far post was open so I aimed my shot there and finally it went into the net.”

Mkhitaryan’s solo run and finish at the Foxes’ expense gleaned 41 per cent of the votes, to pip Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s EFL Cup-final free-kick (39 per cent). The Swede’s trophy-winning header was the supporters’ third favourite goal scored in February with nine per cent, leaving the other shortlisted strikes to sweep up the remaining 11 per cent between them.

Henrikh retains the Goal of the Month honour after winning it in January with a counter-attack in the cup win over Wigan and wowing us all in December with his scorpion kick against Sunderland.

The Azerbaijani side used special equipment as it launched an offencive in the southeastern and eastern directions of the line of contact at 03:00 and 04:00 respectively, the Artsakh Defense Ministry reports.

“The attempt was a complete failure,” the Ministry said, adding that, as usual, the Azeri side tried to ascribe its actions to the Armenian side.

In particular, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry issued a statement, claiming that the Artsakh forces had undertaken an attack with a view of improving their positions and noting that the Azerbaijani side had incurred losses in the “defensive.”

Press Service of the  Artsakh Defense Ministry declares that the claims have nothing to do with reality. The Ministry adds that the defending side could not have left losses in the neutral zone.

Armenia is taking an important step towards ending the suffering of cancer patients, Giorgi Gogia, Human Right Watch Director for South Caucasus, Europe and Central Asia Division, has said.

“The government recently adopted a national strategy to introduce palliative care services, which focuses on treating pain and other physical symptoms, and provides psychosocial support for people with life-limiting illnesses. The strategy specifies reforms in policy, education, and medicines’ availability, and designates the responsible state institutions,” he said.

The strategy recognizes the need to amend regulations restricting access to pain relief medications, and the government plans to review them in 2018. But thousands of cancer patients in Armenia have waited long enough.

“Armenian authorities should urgently overhaul the regulations and promptly take the necessary steps to ensure that cancer patients can get the pain treatment they need – and to which they have the right,” Giorgi Gogia noted.

New Zealand might be Australia’s smaller neighbor but it’s sitting on a massive new continent scientists have named “Zealandia,” according to a  the CNN reports.

Asbarez – The Sonoma State University (SSU) Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Series sponsored by the Armenian Genocide Memorial Lecture Fund, Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide at SSU, and the Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide at SSU will present the Bay Area Premiere of the Women of 1915 documentary for the annual Armenian Genocide Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 4pm to 5:50pm at Warren Auditorium in Ives Hall on the SSU campus. This event which is part of the 34th Annual Holocaust and Genocide guest lecture series is free and open to the public.

Produced by filmmaker Bared Maronian from the Armenoid Team, the Women of 1915 is the first documentary to unveil the role of the Armenian women of the era and the horrors they lived through the first massive genocide of the 20th century. The documentary highlights the integral role the Armenian women played in their respective communities and the heroic, humanitarian women advocates who came to their aid from around the world, and some who even died at the war-ravaged Ottoman Empire to empower the Armenian women as pillars of war-torn, post-Genocide societies.

Bared Maronian’s opening sequence of the Women of 1915 has been nominated by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) 40th Annual Suncoast Regional Emmy® Awards among its Craft Achievement Nominees for directing. Already a four-time Emmy award winner, this is Maronian’s first Emmy nomination as a director.

The documentary has already been awarded the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award and won the following awards at the Canadian Pomegranate Film Festival:

• Best Documentary Award 2016
• Audience Choice Award 2016
• Golden Pom Achievement Award 2016

As the founder of the Armenoid Team, Bared Maronian specializes in producing thematically Armenian documentaries, and has produced three Armenian films. Maronian is a graduate of Haigazian University with a major in Political Science, and has attended Palm Beach State College of Florida and the Broadcast Career Institute of Palm Beach, Florida.

NKR Defense Ministry has reported 70 cases of ceasefire violation by the Azeri side overnight.

The rival used firearms of different calibers as it fired over 1,050 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

More intensive firing from large-caliber machine guns was reported in the southeastern and eastern direction of the frontline.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep control of the situation at the line of contact and confidently continue with the protection of the military positions.

Photo: Reuters/Fatih Saribas

Turkish authorities must intensify their efforts to find the masterminds behind the killing of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, said today.

“Year after year, we remember the anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder, honouring his brave words advocating for minority rights, and paying tribute to his exceptional efforts to create peace,” said the Representative. “But we do so knowing that even a decade on, the masterminds behind this tragedy are still at large.”

On 19 January 2007, Dink, the editor of the Armenian-Turkish bilingual Agos magazine, was shot dead in front of the weekly’s Istanbul offices. Although his murderer was arrested and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison, the investigation into uncovering the masterminds of the crime remains open.

“I urge the authorities of Turkey to increase their efforts to ensure that justice is served and to provide closure for the friends and family of Hrant Dink after an agonizing decade of questions. Authorities must reinforce the vital message to society that those who commit violence against journalists can not do so with impunity.”

The Representative has frequently called on OSCE participating States to end impunity for violence against and killing of journalists.