The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire about 120 times at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan over the weekend, the NKR Minstry of Defense reports
The rival fired more than 2,000 shots from weapons of different caliber, including RPG-7 grenades in the direction of the Armenian positions.
The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep control of the situation and confidently continue with their military duty.
A U.S. airman who was injured while helping thwart an attack on a train bound for Paris two months ago has been stabbed in northern California, a U.S. defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said Thursday, the CNN reports.
Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone suffered multiple stab wounds after an incident at a bar near Travis Air Force Base, where he is stationed, the official said.
Stone is being treated for his latest injuries at a hospital and is in stable condition, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said Thursday.
Further details about the stabbing weren’t immediately available.
Stone was one of five men who officials say stopped a gunman from attacking passengers of a Amsterdam-to-Paris train in August.
He also tended to one of his fellow heroes, Armenian-American Mark Moogalian. The latter was shot while confronting the gunman, and Stone, after the gunman was subdued, was credited with helping stop Moogalian’s bleeding.
All five were feted. Stone, Moogalian and the other three — Briton Chirs Norman and Stone’s two American friends, Anthony Sadler and Army National Guard Spc. Alek Skarlatos — received France’s highest recognition, the Legion of Honor.
Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich has won the 2015 Nobel Prize for literature.
Announcing the prize in Stockholm, the chair of the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, called her writing “a monument to courage and suffering in our time”.
The award, presented to a living writer, is worth 8m kronor.
Alexievich, 67, is a political writer who has often been critical of her home country’s government.
Her best-known works in English translation include Voices From Chernobyl, an oral history of the 1986 nuclear catastrophe; and Boys In Zink, a collection of first-hand accounts from the Soviet-Afghan war.
“By means of her extraordinary method – a carefully composed collage of human voices – Alexievich deepens our comprehension of an entire era,” the Swedish Academy said.
The Indian portal presents the story of Zabel Joshi, the last surviving Armenian of Mumbai
By Vasundara R
The famous Dalal Street, home to the Bombay Stock Exchange always looks like a place that’s in a hurry to go somewhere. Tall and old buildings mark that street and the area surrounding it. Regardless of the age, there is one thing common amongst all of them – flourishing commerce. Amidst this hustle and bustle lies a far quieter and very old edifice, which stands still, almost forgotten.
St. Peter’s Armenian Church was built three centuries ago in 1796 for a thriving community of Armenians in the Bombay of old. Today, the number of Armenians in Mumbai has dwindled to exactly one woman, and the church has no Armenian priest to conduct their services.
“There are no services for Armenians, though we use the church to do our prayers,” says Zabel Joshi, the last surviving registered Armenian in the city. Mother to model-cum-actress Tulip Joshi, Zabel once had all her three daughters baptised in this church.
The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Government in Turkey in 1915 may seem like another world away and in a different time zone to most of us Indians, but for Zabel Haykian, it has played a big part in establishing her roots.
“Due to the genocide, our ancestors were forced to leave and settle in different parts of the world,” she narrates. “I was raised in Beirut, blessed to have had wonderful parents, along with two brothers and a sister. Beirut, which was considered the Paris of Middle East, was home for me then.”
Zabel had whirlwind romance in Beirut with Gujarati cloth merchant Kishore Joshi, who made frequent trips to the city for his business. At the age of 23, Zabel married Joshi and moved to India and the romance continued, this time also with India and with Bombay, its melting pot of languages and cultures.
“Bombay has been very kind to me,” says Zabel. “I have a wonderful family and great friends who are Indian Hindus. In fact, today I feel like one. I speak Hindi fluently, I also speak Gujarati.”
Armenians first came to India via Kerala and established solid roots in Kolkata. They then expanded to Mumbai, Chennai, Agra, Gwalior and Lucknow. Over the centuries, the community has had significant economic and cultural association with the local Indians. Today, they are as much a part of India’s melange of cultures as anybody else, speaking the local language, absorbing some customs and feeling perfectly at home.
Kolkata still has a visible Armenian community of over 150 people, but Chennai’s Armenian population is long gone and over the years, Mumbai’s Armenian population or what was left of it migrated to the US and Canada, while the older generation joined their ancestors in the cemetery at Antop Hill. Zabel now remains the sole registered Armenian in Mumbai and the trustee for the Church.
With no community to conduct services for and no priest to conduct the services either, St. Peter’s stayed shut for a long time. But the ivory coloured walls of the cathedral speak of cheerful tales, of a happy community that once got together for festivals, for Easter and for a Christmas, that was celebrated twice.
“That’s my favourite part about Christmas-having two Christmases!” gushes her daughter Tulip Joshi. “Armenian Christmas is on January 6, so we celebrate both Christmases – the regular one in December and the Armenian one. We decorate the tree and have traditional sweets and Christmas pudding (anooshabour).”
Tulip and her sisters, all of whom speak Armenian fluently, are particularly fond of Armenian food. “It’s so healthy – it’s very Mediterranean in flavour and composition. And I just love the dolmas and sarmas that my mum makes – that’s grape leaves rolled and stuffed with either vegetables or minced meat and steamed until soft.”
Zabel’s memories with the Armenians in Mumbai go beyond just festivals, though. “Every Sunday morning my family would attend Sunday mass along with many Armenians who were alive back then,” she says. “In fact we used to wait for Sundays. Easter was our favourite one. After the mass, we would go for lunch and play Easter games.”
“Things are very different now,” she continues. “I am the only Armenian living in this city. Of course, my children have Armenian blood and I am proud to say that they speak the language, which is really the first step towards preserving anything that might not be around forever.”
Recently, St.Peter’s Church, after lying forlorn and silent for years, has opened its doors to the Syrian Christians of its sister church – the Malankara Orthodox Syrian church for use during Sunday services. Feet once again troop through the doors of the church, the pews now sigh under the weight of the faithful, but they are not the people the church was built for.
La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra performed a concert in Rome dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The orchestra was let by famous British conductor Daniel Harding.
The concert titled “For you, Armenia” was organized by the “Yerevan Perspectives” International Music Festival under the auspices of the State Commission Coordinating the Armenian Genocide Centennial Events and the Armenian Embassy in Italy.
In his opening remarks Armenian Ambassador to Italy Sargis Ghazaryan emphasized the role of music in uniting people around universal values. He noted that “there is no language more universal than music that can touch the human souls and tell them about a crime against humanity such as genocide.”
“The persecution of religious and ethnic minorities in the Middle East comes to prove that the issue of genocide is still urgent,” the Ambassador added.
Works by Aram Khachaturian, Beethoven and Dvorak were performed at the concert.
Attending the concert were Armenian Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan, Italian culture and public figures, Ambassadors accredited to Italy, representatives of the Armenian community and journalists.
As Europe is thinking of ways to deal with thousands of migrants, Alexander C. Kaufman of the reminds that “one of the men who most dramatically impacted human civilization in the last decade was the son of a Syrian who migrated to the U.S. in 1954.”
“Perhaps you’ve heard of him. His name was Steve Jobs,” the author writes.
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to Joanne Schieble (later Joanne Simpson) and Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption.
His father, Abdulfattah Jandali, was a Syrian political science professor, and his mother, Joanne Schieble, worked as a speech therapist.
As an infant, Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara was the daughter of Armenian immigrants.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has pledged to “wipe out” Kurdish PKK rebels in their strongholds after a deadly bomb attack on the Turkish army, the BBC reports.
“The mountains of this country, the plains, highlands, cities will be not abandoned to terrorists,” he said.
At least 16 Turkish soldiers died in Sunday’s attack in the south-eastern Hakkari province, the army said.
In retaliation, Turkey carried out several air strikes on PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) targets on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Mr Davutoglu said: “You cannot discourage us from our war on terror. Those mountains will be cleared of these terrorists. Whatever it takes, they will be cleared.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said he was saddened by the attack and promised a “decisive” response.
“The pain of our security forces who were martyred in the treacherous attack by the separatist terrorist organisation sears our hearts,” he said.
There has been a surge in violence between the army and the PKK after a ceasefire collapsed in July.
The PKK said it was behind the attack. Initially it said 15 soldiers had been killed, but later raised the figure to 31.
But the Turkish army said on Monday that 16 soldiers died, while six were injured.
The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire 100 times at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan overnight, the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Despite the decreased number of ceasefire violations, the rival fired 1,800 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions using weapons of different caliber, including 60 and 80mm mortars.
The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army pressure the activeness of the rival and confidently continue with their military duty all along the line of contact.
Greek banks are reopening after three weeks of closures sparked by the deadlock over the country’s debt, the BBC reports.
Athens reached a cash-for-reforms deal aimed at avoiding a debt default and an exit from the eurozone.
But many restrictions remain, including a block on money transfers abroad, and Greeks also face price rises with an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT).
Meanwhile, Germany has said it is prepared to consider further debt concessions to Greece.
Work has been initiated for the ancient Ani ruins, which date back thousands of years, in the eastern province of Kars to receive the status of a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Kars Culture and Tourism Director Hakan Doğanay said in the case of its acceptance, Ani would be Turkey’s 16th world heritage site on the UNESCO list.
“The ministry has applied to UNESCO on Feb. 15 with a detailed report on the Ani ruins and we are on the temporary list. Work continues to be included on the permanent list,” Doğanay said.
He said a team from UNESCO would visit Kars for the final decision.
Ani was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present-day Armenia and eastern Turkey. Ani is protected on its eastern side by a ravine formed by the Akhurian River and on its western side by the Bostanlar or Tzaghkotzadzor Valley. The Akhurian is a branch of the Aras River and forms part of the current border between Turkey and Armenia.