An explosion occurred on a mayor highway in Armenia on Friday afternoon, the emergencies ministry’s press service reported.
A rescue squad of the ministry responded to the blast on Yerevan-Sevan highway after receiving a report at 12:17pm.
Around 30-meter-long section of the highway has become hardly passable due to the incident.
No injuries were reported.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
Archeologists have discovered a 2,750-year-old cemetery beneath Cavustepe fortress (Haykaberd in Armenian) in Turkey's Van province, the excavation lead told Turkish sources. Professor Rafet Cavusoglu added that the discovery spread light on four death rituals practiced during Urartian times, including cremation and a burial of the remains in a coffin, constructing mausoleums and even decorated rooms beneath the earth.
“The discovery reveals the culture of the ancient society that exercised various funeral rituals, living under diverse religious beliefs,” the professor has noted.
To note, Cavustepe is an ancient fortified site in Van Province in Turkey's Eastern Anatolia region. It is located approximately 25 kilometers southeast of Van in a valley once known as Hayots Dzor (Armenian: "Valley of the Armenians") in historic Armenia. It was used by the Urartian kings as a fortress during the 8th century BC. In Armenian folklore it is the fortress built by Hayk, the legendary founder of the Armenian nation, close to the site where he slew the invading Babylonian King Bel or possibly Nimrod.
The California Courier Online, August 1, 2019
1 - U.S. Places Sanctions on Turkish Firm
For its Corrupt Trade with Venezuela
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Robert Morgenthau, Longtime Manhattan District Attorney, Dies at 99
3 - Turks welcome ‘Ottoman grandson’ Boris Johnson as British leader
4- Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud Honored With International
Religious Freedom Award
5- Armenian, Assyrian Communities Sign
Memorandum of Understanding & Cooperation
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*****************************************
1 - U.S. Places Sanctions on Turkish Firm
For its Corrupt Trade with Venezuela
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
In addition to U.S. and European Union punitive actions against Turkey
for various violations, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions
last week against a Turkish company “involved in a global corruption
and money-laundering network directed by Venezuelan strongman Nicolas
Maduro,” according to Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish
parliament and senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for
Defense of Democracies.
This corrupt relationship is the result of Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan’s support for Maduro’s regime which could lead to more
U.S. sanctions against Turkish firms and officials.
Erdemir wrote that U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control
“designated Istanbul-based Mulberry Proje Yatirim for facilitating
payments made as part of a ‘corruption network for the sale of
[Venezuelan] gold in Turkey.’ Mulberry’s owner is an associate of
Colombian national Alex Nain Saab Moran, who has laundered hundreds of
millions of dollars for Maduro since 2009 by exploiting Venezuela’s
food subsidy program Local Committees for Supply and Production, or
CLAP. Treasury also accused Mulberry of purchasing food in Turkey on
behalf of Venezuelan clients and marking up prices before selling it
back to Venezuela. The [U.S. Treasury] department condemned Saab and
his associates for ‘profiting from starvation.’”
The State Department’s Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott
Abrams stated last week, “Venezuela has to go to places willing to
trade gold illegally— that’s Turkey and Iran.”
Earlier this year, Marshall Billingslea, U.S. Treasury’s assistant
secretary for terrorist financing, warned, “We are looking at the
nature of Turkish-Venezuelan commercial activity, and if we assess a
violation of our sanctions, we will obviously take action.” His
warning came “shortly after a visit to Turkey by Tareck El-Aissami,
Venezuela’s minister of industries and national production, who is
known for his links to Iran and Hezbollah.” The U.S. Treasury
sanctioned El-Aissami in 2017 “for playing a significant role in
international narcotics trafficking.”
Erdemir further reported that “Mulberry is just the tip of the Maduro
regime’s illicit network in Turkey. Since 2017, with Erdogan’s
encouragement, Venezuelan government associates have established
numerous front and shell companies in Turkey.” According to Bloomberg,
in January 2018, shortly after Venezuela’s President visited Turkey,
an Istanbul-based mysterious Turkish firm [Sardes] sprang into action
by importing $41 million of gold from Venezuela. The following month,
Sardes imported another $100 million of Venezuelan gold. “By November,
when President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing
sanctions on Venezuelan gold—after sending an envoy to warn Turkey off
the trade, Sardes had shuttled $900 million of the precious metal out
of the country. Not bad for a company with just $1 million in capital,
according to regulatory filings in Istanbul.”
Bloomberg added, “It’s not the first time that Turkey has positioned
itself as a work-around for countries facing U.S. sanctions,
potentially undermining Washington’s efforts to isolate governments it
considers hostile or corrupt. Ankara has often tested the boundaries
of U.S. tolerance, and the alliance between the key NATO members is
now essentially broken, according to two senior U.S. officials.”
Erdemir indicated that U.S. Treasury’s sanction against the Turkish
firm is just the first step. “The Venezuelan government’s gold mining
company, Minerven, established a joint gold venture called Mibiturven
with the obscure Turkish company Marilyns Proje Yatirim, which shares
an address with Mulberry. Similarly, Grupo Iveex Insaat, a tiny
Turkish company tied to Maduro that has capital of just $1,775 and no
refineries, was responsible for eight percent of Venezuela’s oil
exports in April 2019.”
Erdemir concluded: “Under Erdogan’s rule, Turkey has become a
permissive jurisdiction for illicit finance and sanctions evasion. The
Turkish president’s solidarity with sanctioned countries such as
Venezuela and Iran is part of his overall pivot toward authoritarian
and kleptocratic regimes and his challenge to the U.S.-led liberal
international order. Unless Washington goes after the remaining
elements of the Maduro regime’s network in Turkey, Erdogan will see
this inaction as a license for further transgressions involving not
only Venezuela but other rogue regimes, as well.”
One has to wonder how is it that the U.S. Treasury Department placed
sanctions against a Turkish firm given the reluctance of Pres. Trump
to take any action against Turkey.
Could it be that Pres. Trump was unaware of the Treasury’s
anti-Turkish sanctions, being too busy with sending tweets against his
political opponents and making racist comments about Black Members of
Congress?
In a meeting with Republican U.S. Senators last week, Pres. Trump
asked for more time before implementing Congressionally-mandated
sanctions against Turkey for purchasing Russian S-400 missiles.
Any inaction by Pres. Trump on legally-mandated sanctions on Turkey
would serve to encourage Pres. Erdogan to further undermine U.S. and
NATO interests. Congress should take decisive steps to force Pres.
Trump to implement severe sanctions against Turkey.
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2- Robert Morgenthau, Longtime Manhattan District Attorney, Dies at 99
By Robert D. McFadden
Robert M. Morgenthau, a courtly Knickerbocker patrician who waged war
on crime for more than four decades as the chief federal prosecutor
for Southern New York State and as Manhattan’s longest-serving
district attorney, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 99.
Mr. Morgenthau’s wife, Lucinda Franks, said he died at Lenox Hill
Hospital after a short illness.
In an era of notorious Wall Street chicanery and often dangerous
streets, Mr. Morgenthau was the bane of mobsters, crooked politicians
and corporate greed; a public avenger to killers, rapists and drug
dealers; and a confidant of mayors and governors, who came and went
while he stayed on — for nearly nine years in the 1960s as the United
States attorney for the Southern District of New York and for 35 more
as Gotham’s aristocratic Mr. District Attorney.
For a Morgenthau — the scion of a family steeped in wealth, privilege
and public service — he was strangely awkward, a wooden speaker who
seemed painfully shy on the stump. His grandfather had been an
ambassador in President Woodrow Wilson’s day, and his father was
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s treasury secretary. His own early
political forays, two runs for governor of New York, ended
disastrously.
But from Jan. 1, 1975, when he took over from an interim successor to
the legendary district attorney Frank S. Hogan, to Dec. 31, 2009, when
he finally gave up his office in the old Criminal Courts Building on
the edge of Chinatown, Mr. Morgenthau was the face of justice in
Manhattan, a liberal Democrat elected nine times in succession,
usually by landslides and with the endorsement of virtually all the
political parties.
He presided over a battalion of 500 lawyers, a $75 million budget and
a torrent of cases every year that fixed the fates of accused stock
manipulators, extortionists, murderers, muggers, wife-beaters and
sexual predators, and in turn helped to shape the quality of life for
millions in a city of vast riches and untold hardships.
While he rarely went to court himself, Mr. Morgenthau, by his own
count, supervised a total of 3.5 million cases over the years. Many of
them were run-of-the-mill drug busts, but there were also highly
publicized trials, like those of the subway vigilante Bernard Goetz;
the Central Park “preppy” killer, Robert Chambers; and John Lennon’s
assassin, Mark David Chapman.
His victories included the 2005 conviction of L. Dennis Kozlowski,
chief executive of Tyco International, whose $6,000 shower curtains
and a $2 million birthday party for his wife on the Mediterranean
island of Sardinia came to symbolize corporate greed. Found guilty of
misappropriating more than $100 million from his company, Mr.
Kozlowski was sentenced to 8 to 25 years, although he won parole in
2014.
Mr. Morgenthau was probably the most innovative prosecutor in the
city’s history. To pursue financial crimes, he hired scores of
accountants and detectives with financial expertise. He promoted DNA
testing and other modern investigating techniques. Enlarging the
homicide bureau and other units, he hired Spanish-speaking
interpreters and hundreds of black, Hispanic and female prosecutors,
and he created the office’s first sex-crimes and consumer affairs
units.
He stressed the prosecution of career criminals, drug pushers, child
pornographers, landlords who harassed tenants and perpetrators of
attacks on gay men and lesbians. And throughout his tenure he opposed
the death penalty, arguing that it was inhumane and was ineffective as
a deterrent.
His former protégés included Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the
United States Supreme Court; Gov. Andrew Cuomo; former Gov. Eliot
Spitzer; Lanny A. Breuer, head of the Justice Department’s criminal
division; and Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who succeeded him as the district
attorney.
Robert Morris Morgenthau was born in Manhattan on July 31, 1919. His
grandfather, the real estate tycoon Henry Morgenthau Sr., was
President Wilson’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in World War I and
a prominent voice against Armenian genocide. Robert’s father, Henry
Jr., was Roosevelt’s treasury secretary from 1934 to 1945, and his
mother, Elinor (Fatman) Morgenthau, was a niece of Herbert H. Lehman,
the New York Democratic governor and United States senator.
Robert grew up with his brother, Henry III, and his sister, Joan, in
New York City, on the family’s farm in upstate East Fishkill, N.Y.,
and in a privileged world of estates, private schools and social
connections, notably with the Kennedys of Boston and Hyannis Port,
Mass., and the Roosevelts of Hyde Park, N.Y. He attended the Lincoln
School in Manhattan and graduated from the Deerfield Academy in
Massachusetts in 1937 and from Amherst College in 1941 with high
honors and a political science degree.
As a young man, he raced sailboats with Jack Kennedy off Cape Cod,
spent memorable New Year’s Eves at the White House with his father,
and in 1939 roasted hot dogs for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of
Britain at the home of his Hudson Valley friends Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt. (On leave from the Navy during World War II, he served mint
juleps to Winston Churchill and F.D.R. on the lawn of his family’s
apple farm.)
While studying at Amherst, Mr. Morgenthau met Martha Pattridge, a
Smith College student. They were married in 1943 and had five
children. His first wife died in 1972. In 1977 he married Ms. Franks,
a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. They had two children.
Besides his wife Lucinda Franks, he is survived by the children of his
first marriage, Jenny Morgenthau, Anne Morgenthau Grand, Elinor
Morgenthau, Robert P. Morgenthau and Barbara Morgenthau Lee; the
children of his second marriage, Joshua Franks Morgenthau and Amy
Elinor Morgenthau; and by six grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren.
This article appeared in The New York Times on July 21, 2019.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
3 - Turks welcome ‘Ottoman grandson’ Boris Johnson as British leader
By Ali Kucukgocmen
ISTANBUL (Reuters)—Turkey celebrated incoming British prime minister
Boris Johnson’s Turkish heritage last week, with politicians and media
proclaiming that the “Ottoman grandson” could strengthen ties between
two countries on Europe’s fringes.
The former London mayor is the great-grandson of the Ottoman Empire’s
last interior minister, Ali Kemal, and his ancestry has been a source
of pride for many Turks.
Despite his sometimes disparaging remarks about Turkey, including a
crude limerick about President Tayyip Erdogan and demands in 2016 that
Britain veto Turkey’s accession to the European Union, Johnson is
affectionately referred to as “Boris the Turk” by some Turkish media.
“Ottoman grandson becomes prime minister,” read a front-page headline
of the opposition newspaper Sozcu. “For England, a prime minister with
roots in Cankiri,” it said, referring to Kemal’s home province in
central Turkey.
Like Johnson, his great-grandfather was a journalist who went into
government, a move that proved ill-fated. In the final days of the
Ottoman Empire, Kemal was captured and lynched by nationalists
fighting to establish the Turkish state.
Erdogan congratulated Johnson on Twitter, adding that ties between
Turkey and the United Kingdom were set to improve. Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu also congratulated him, sharing a video of Turkish
reporters asking Johnson about his roots in Cankiri during a 2016
visit to Ankara.
Demiroren News Agency quoted a resident of Cankiri’s Kalfat village as
saying it was an honor that someone from their village had become
prime minister, adding that Johnson owed his distinctive mop of blond
hair to his Turkish forefathers.
“They call his ancestors from this house ‘Blond Boys’. Boris Johnson’s
blondness comes from this lineage,” Mustafa Bal said.
Johnson’s own relations with Turkey have sometimes been rocky.
Three years ago he won first prize in a British magazine competition
which asked readers to compose limericks about Erdogan “as filthy and
insulting as possible”. He later said the Turkish leader had not
brought up the verse when they met.
Johnson, a leading campaigner for Brexit in Britain’s 2016 EU
referendum, wrote to then-Prime Minister David Cameron before the vote
calling for the government to veto Turkish EU accession and stop a
planned extension of visa-free travel to Turkey.
Turkey’s EU accession talks are now stalled, while Johnson has barely
three months to meet an Oct. 31 deadline to negotiate Britain’s exit
from the bloc.
Pro-government newspaper Aksam said Johnson, who succeeds Theresa May
as prime minister after winning the leadership of the ruling
Conservative Party, may have been helped by a bit of Turkish folklore.
Receiving a Turkish award in 2012 for his work as London mayor,
Johnson was told of a belief in the Black Sea province of Rize, where
then-premier Erdogan’s family hail from, that no one could become
prime minister unless they could play the kemence, a traditional
stringed instrument.
Johnson had a go, video footage shows, and despite his limited skills
the instrument appears to have worked its charm. “The kemence brought
good luck,” Aksam newspaper said.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
4- Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud Honored With International
Religious Freedom Award
Salpy Eskidjian Weiderud, leader of the Religious Track of the Cyprus
Peace Process, has received an International Religious Freedom Award
from the US Department of State. The awards “honor extraordinary
advocates of religious freedom from around the world” and will be
presented on 17 July in Washington, D.C.
Weiderud was born in Cyprus, a grandchild of Armenian refugees. She is
an architect and facilitator of the unprecedented peacebuilding
initiative in Cyprus known as the Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace
Process, which operates under the auspices of the Embassy of Sweden.
Weiderud has focused her career on facilitating peace with passion,
said World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav
Fykse Tveit. “Salpy has used her special talents and energy for
peacemaking in many settings, some of them in the service of the WCC,”
he said. “We are grateful for her many contributions, and this award
for the work in Cyprus is well-deserved.”
Beginning as a student in the 1980s, Weiderud worked on a variety of
bicommunal civil society and women’s peace initiatives in Cyprus. She
was the first young female program executive working on religious
freedom, human rights, and peace issues at the Middle East Council of
Churches.
During her time at the WCC—between 1995 and 2005—Weiderud served as
executive secretary for International Affairs, program executive for
the Middle East, and special consultant on Palestine and Israel.
She founded the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and
Israel, was a founding member of the International Action Network on
Small Arms and Light Weapons, and initiated and led the Ecumenical
Action Network Against Small Arms. As the executive coordinator of the
Programme to Overcome Violence of the WCC, she led its Peace to the
City Campaign (1997-1998) and initiated the WCC’s Decade to Overcome
Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace (2000-2010).
Weiderud has served as the executive director of the Office of the
Religious Track of the Cyprus Peace Process since 2012. Originally a
quiet initiative that started in 2009, the religious track is now an
active peacebuilding effort based on four pillars: to get to know and
build trust among the religious leaders and respective faith
communities; to promote confidence-building measures; to advocate for
the right to free access and worship at churches, mosques and
monasteries; and to ensure the protection of all religious monuments
in Cyprus.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
5- Armenian, Assyrian Communities Sign
Memorandum of Understanding & Cooperation
GLENDALE—The Armenian National Committee of
America–Western Region and the Assyrian American Association of
Southern California, during a special ceremony last week, signed a
Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation in an effort to further
deepen and institutionalize relations between the two organizations.
The ceremony took place at the ANCA-WR headquarters in Glendale, ANCA
Western Region Chairperson Nora Hovsepian, Esq. and AAASC President
Ramond Takhsh signing the MOU, which went into effect immediately
The MOU recognizes the historic relations between both communities,
accentuates the importance of collaboration and mutual understanding,
and commits both communities to ensure comprehensive cooperation.
“The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation
elevates our relationship with the AAASC to a deeper institutional
level,” said Hovsepian. “Our nations have lived side by side for
millennia, and we’re codifying both traditional as well as novel areas
for our extensive collaboration, taking our advocacy work to new
heights.”
“We have valued our relationship with the ANCA-WR for several years
now,” said Takhsh. “The Armenian and Assyrian peoples have experienced
the best of times together, and, of course, the worst of times. We’ll
always continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Armenian
brothers and sisters… in this struggle to fight for justice for what
happened to our people.”
“In many ways, the struggle continues for both of our peoples, with
what’s happening with the Armenians of Artsakh and the Assyrians in
the Nineveh Plains. The struggle still persists. There might be
different actors, but essentially it’s the same struggle,” added
Takhsh.
Both AAASC and ANCA-WR have agreed to continue in collaboration to
undertake joint advocacy measures and public education initiatives
promoting human rights, peace, and the rule of the law, and continue
their commitment in seeking justice for the Armenian, Assyrian, and
Greek Genocide.
In recent years, both groups have worked tirelessly to fight for
recognition and justice for the Genocide of 1915 and have garnered the
support of elected officials including Cong. Brad Sherman, Cong. Adam
Schiff, Sen. Scott Wilk, LA City Councilmember Paul Krekorian, and Los
Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has been vocal about his support for
both communities in their fight for justice.
“The lies that are put out must be answered with truth. Every single
time someone says ‘that wasn’t a genocide’ we say ‘Yes it was.’ Or,
‘that didn’t happen’ we say ‘yes it did.’ We all know Ellie Wiesel who
said ‘The second death is to forget those that have died’. We will not
allow that to happen– we will not allow them to be killed twice,” said
Garcetti.
Both parties have agreed to continue their collaboration to further
strengthen their key messaging relating to the Genocide and will
continue to advocate on behalf of their communities in their homelands
and abroad.
************************************************************************************************************************************************
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requested to provide their names, addresses, and/or telephone numbers
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WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America joined with Eastern and Western U.S. leaders of the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America and In Defense of Christians last week for a Capitol Hill focus on the plight of Christians in the Middle East that coincided with the U.S. State Department’s Second Annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom.
“As Armenian Americans, we were proud to bring our contribution to last week’s religious freedom initiatives in Washington, D.C.—including through the lessons that can and must be drawn from our own Armenian experience in surviving genocide and challenging Turkey’s ongoing denials and obstruction of justice for this crime,” noted ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian, who was invited to the Ministerial.
“It’s clear that we diminish U.S. credibility—profoundly undermining American global leadership on core atrocities prevention and religious freedom priorities—when, under heavy-handed public pressure, we grant a foreign power a high-profile veto over what the U.S. government can and cannot say about a known case of genocide. Turkey’s undemocratic and openly anti-American leaders revel in the public spectacle of having bullied and bribed the U.S. into silence over its sins for more than a century. It’s time to end Turkey’s gag-rule against honest American remembrance of the WWI-era genocide and exile of Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac, Aramean, Maronite, and other Christian nations,” added Hamparian.
Prelate Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Eastern U.S., kicked off the week-long spotlight by offering the opening prayer of the U.S. House of Representatives session on Monday, July 15, at the invitation of Armenian American Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) and U.S. House Chaplain Patrick Conroy.
“Heavenly Father, your children gathered here in this sanctuary of democracy and freedom thank thee for your providential care, full of visible and invisible blessings,” began Archbishop Tanielian. “Grant your wisdom and love upon the members of this assembly to follow thy will and fulfill their awesome responsibility toward the land of the free and the world at large,” continued Archbishop Tanielian, whose prayer was broadcast on C-SPAN.
Following the prayer, Archbishop Tanielian, Hamparian, and Chaplain Patrick Conroy reminisced about the Chaplain’s inspirational 2012 trip to Armenia and visit to Etchmiadzin. Later, Archbishop Tanielian was greeted by the ANCA Leo Sarkisian interns, who were in the House gallery to witness the prayer.
Later that day, the ANCA joined Members of Congress and clergy including Archbishop Tanielian, Western Prelate Moushegh Mardirossian, and Christian leaders from the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Assyrian Church of the East, Evangelical Protestant tradition, Greek Orthodox Church, Mainline Protestant tradition, Maronite Catholic Church, and Roman Catholic Church for a press conference and first-ever prayer service in the U.S. Capitol by Middle Eastern Christians.
During the press conference and prayer, organized by In Defense of Christians, speakers stressed the importance of a commitment to truth and decisive action to ensure religious freedom for all, including the Christian and other persecuted minorities of the Middle East.
“The right to worship must be protected throughout the globe,” explained House International Religious Freedom Caucus Co-Chair Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) in opening remarks. Bilirakis, who also serves as co-Chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, noted the difficult plight of the Greek community and other Christians in Turkey. “There only approximately 1200 Greek Orthodox Christians left in Constantinople (and it will always be Constantinople to me) … a place where the Turkish Government refuses to recognize the ecumenical nature of Patriarch Bartholomew,” said Bilirakis, who noted that the Turkish Government has closed the theological school in Halki since 1971.
Rep. Bilirakis’ remarks
Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Jackie Speier thanked all clergy present “for reminding us that every day we should be spending our waking moments thinking about those who don’t have the privilege of practicing their Christian faith in public. I am of Armenian descent. One and a half million Armenians in the early 1900’s were killed because of their religion. We see the potential of that happening even now.”
Rep. Speier’s remarks
Rep. Ann Eshoo (D-CA) explained that the In Defense of Christians’ work and efforts for international religious tolerance are very personal to her. “There is representation here from my father’s side of the family—the Assyrians and Chaldeans—and my mother’s side—the Armenians. I am first-generation American. I would not be a Member of Congress unless they were able to flee and survive. And so, I see and have seen history repeating itself. It is a repeat of what they endured, of the family that they lost, and we need to always learn and have the lessons of history speak to us.” Rep. Eshoo noted the historic Congressional vote characterizing the attacks on Christians and other minorities in the Middle East as ‘genocide,’ but noted that success has been elusive given the great need and the slow U.S. response over multiple U.S. administrations.
Rep. Eshoo’s complete remarks
Other Members of Congress offering remarks included Representatives Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Ron Estes (R-KS), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), French Hill (R-AR), Mike Johnson (R-LA), David Schweikert (R-AZ), and Randy Weber (R-TX).
Hamparian, in discussing U.S. policy on the Armenian Genocide, explained that, “when we can get the U.S. on the right side of the Armenian Genocide issue, certainly it’s going to be good for Armenians because denial will be challenged, but more importantly, it will be a tipping point in U.S. policy where we finally say that fighting against a genocide against any people—Armenians, Rwanda, Cambodia, Darfur, or the Holocaust—is a moral imperative and not a political commodity.”
Hamparian’s complete remarks
Christian leaders offered prayers in the English language following the traditions of their various faiths then proceeded to the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol to offer prayers in their native languages of Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, Greek, Syriac, and Armenian. The historic presentation of hymns included a moving rendition of Der Voghormia (Lord Have Mercy) sung by Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Very Rev. Sahag Yemishian, Vicar of the Eastern Prelacy, Rev. Sarkis Aktavoukian, pastor of Soorp Khatch Armenian Church of Bethesda, MD, and Archpriest Nerses Manoogian, pastor of St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church of Philadelphia, PA.
Armenian liturgy classic
Later in the week, the ANCA took part in the State Department’s Second Annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, joining over 1000 civil society and religious leaders, and more than 80 foreign delegations. Hamparian participated in sessions outlining successes from the first Ministerial in 2018, including funding for emergency assistance to victims of religiously motivated discrimination and abuse around the world. Participants agreed that much more needed to be done to address growing religious intolerance worldwide.
Foreign Minister Mnatsakanyan
During the conference, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan highlighted the country’s commitment to religious tolerance, noting that in the face of recurring violence against the Yezidis and Christians in the Middle East, Armenia has served as safe-haven to over 20,000 refugees. “Armenia stands ready to cooperate with all interested parties to recover ancestral presence of Christians in the Middle East by rebuilding their lives, communities and churches,” stated Mnatsakanyan. “The Armenian people historically have been significant contributors to diversity, harmony and prosperity of the countries and societies of the Middle East. This conference provides an excellent platform to initiate partnerships to this end.
Despite the danger in Berkaber, there are young people starting business, exporting organic products and even trying to develop tourism – for thrills seekers who want to have a cup of coffee between the fighting posts of the conflicting countries
Alexis Ohanian to moderate panel at WCIT 2019 in Yerevan
15:23,
YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. The Reddit and Initialized Capital co-founder Alexis Ohanian will moderate a panel at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2019) which will take place in Yerevan, Armenia, on October 6-9.
“Great news to brighten up your week! Alexis Ohanian Sr., co-founder of Reddit and Initialized Capital, is going to moderate a panel discussion during WCIT2019. Alexis now helps pave the path for brand new startups with fresh ideas”, the WCIT 2019 said on Facebook.
WCIT is the signature event of the World Information Technology & Services Alliance (WITSA), a consortium of ICT associations from 83 countries, representing 90% of the industry.
For 40 years, technology leaders—CEOs and investors, policymakers and government officials, academics and technologists—have joined in this annual event to discuss the state of the industry, where it is headed and what it means for our future.
The Congress will be held in Yerevan, Armenia from October 6 to 9 and will include sessions on topics ranging from artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and smart cities to cybersecurity, climate change, and more.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Yerevan’s Banants lost in the second leg of the first qualifying round of the Europa League hosting Serbian Čukarički. As the National Olympic Committee reported, the Armenia club suffered a major defeat 0:5 and dropped out of the competition.
Earlier the Armenian club had lost the first leg 0:3.
Parliament of Cyprus ratifies Armenia-EU CEPA
20:20, 28 June, 2019
YEREVAN, JUNE 28, ARMENPRESS. The parliament of Cyprus has ratified the Armenia-EU Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), ARMENPRESS reports spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of Armenia Anna Naghdalyan wrote on her Facebook page.
'According to the national ratification procedure, the President of Cyprus will sign the ratification in the second stage'', she wrote.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
“Hayrenadarts” is the center established by the ARF to help repatriates
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Council of Armenia has launched a service office for Diaspora Armenians who have either repatriated to Armenia or are planning to do so.
The office’s function is to provide advice, assistance and guidance to repatriates. The office will provide information and on residency paperwork, driving license, registration, service in the Armenian army, as well as educational, health, insurance, employment, and movable assets and real estate registration.
The office is located at 30 Hanrapetutyun Street, “Simon Vratsian” Center, 1st floor, room 16. Its hours of operation are Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Yerevan time. The office may be contacted via email at [email protected] or by calling 094-519-119. Visit hayrenatarts.am www.hayrenatarts.am and follow the initiative on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/hayrenatarts