Author: Karlen Baghdasarian

Photo by XL Recordings

 

With only three days to go before Adele’s new album, 25, hits the shelves, she has released a second song from the record, the BBC reports.

When We Were Young was recently described in The Guardian as the album’s “centrepiece” and “a standard in the making”.

It has the same combination of hope and melancholy that made Someone Like You a worldwide hit, without sounding like a facsimilie of that song.

The video, uploaded to YouTube this morning, sees Adele perform the track live at London’s Church studios, where some of 25 was recorded.

Photo by AFP    

Syrian President Bashar al Assad condemned Friday’s attacks in Paris and said that such acts of terror were similar to what his people had faced in years of violent civil war, Reuters reports.

“What France suffered from savage terror is what the Syrian people have been enduring for over five years,” the Syrian President was quoted as saying on state media and Lebanese TV station al Mayadeen.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday against French comedian Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, deciding that freedom of speech did not protect “racist and anti-Semitic performances,” reports.

Dieudonne, as he is commonly known, was protesting a fine he received from a French court in 2009 for inviting a Holocaust-denier on stage.

He was fined 10,000 euros ($11,000) for what that court referred to as “racist insults”.

Dieudonne argued the fine amounted to an infringement of his freedom of speech.

During a show in December 2008, Dieudonne appeared on stage with Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson at the Zenith theatre in Paris and presented him with an award. He later defended himself in court, saying: “It was very funny.”

Photo by Kevin Tanaka/Pioneer Press

Members of the Armenian community gathered at St. James Armenian Church in downtown Evanston on Sunday, Oct. 25, for the unveiling of a traditional khachkar—or a cross stone—in front of the church,  reports.

Khajag Barsamian, archbishop of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of American, led the ceremony, which consecrated “the uniquely Armenian monument in honor of the canonization of over 1.5 million martyrs of the 1915 Armenian genocide,” according to a press release from the church.

 

Evanston’s consecration ceremony took place at the conclusion of the special Episcopal Divine Liturgy (mass). “It was very uplifting and spiritual,” the Rev. Hovhan Khoja-Eynatyan, the pastor of St. James, said on Monday, Oct. 26.

“The khachkar monument, standing over ten feet tall in St. James’ front garden,” the release said, “was carved out of tuff stone in Armenia this summer and then shipped to Evanston.”

The release also explained that the art of carving khachkars dates back to the 4th century and “symbolizes the rebirth of Armenian culture after centuries of hardship.” the release said. No two khachkars are alike, according to the release.

“St. James’ khachkar was commissioned by the parish and supported through donations by dozens of individuals and families in the community in the names of loved ones both living and deceased,” the release said.

Almost every family has a member who was killed in 1915 or forced to leave their home, said Rev. Khoja-Eynatyan. So Sunday’s ceremony, was “very personal for every family,” he said.

On the emotional day, St. James parish members also marked the occasion by celebrating their 70th anniversary as a testimony to Armenians’ presence in the greater Chicago community.

“They (Armenians) came here to the United States,” said Rev. Khoja-Eynatyan, “and the first thing they did after settling was build churches.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for “flexibility” at talks in Vienna between the countries backing rival sides in the Syrian civil war, the BBC report.

He urged the five main participants – the US, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – to abandon “national perspectives” for “global leadership”.

On the eve of the talks, Mr Ban urged the five main participants to think beyond their immediate interests.

“The longer they take their own national perspectives, the more people will suffer, and the whole world will suffer,” he said. “As I always say, there is no military solution.”

On October 28, 2015, the global forum of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative kicked off in Mexico City, United States of Mexico. An Armenian delegation is participating in the forum, headed by First Deputy Minister-Chief of Government Staff Gurgen Doumanyan, the governemnt’s press office reports.

The forum summed up the results of the 2nd Annual OGP International Awards for 2015, which kicked off in March, 2015. This year’s theme is “Improving public services using the principles of open governance.” Bids had been received from 35 out of 66 member States. Note that the applications are assessed by a 23-member-strong independent international jury.

This year Armenia participated for the first time in the competition and won a top award among the countries of the Asian-South Pacific region. The ceremony was attended by President of the United States of Mexico Enrique Peña Nieto, who handed in the honorary award.

Armenia came up with the “Creation and introduction of community management and development-oriented information systems in regional administrations” initiative. A program referred to as “Smart community” (Smart Municipality) was presented to the jury. The program is meant to increase efficiency in the activities of Armenia’s local self-governance authorities and improve public services based on the principles open governance.

 

 

 

The violence and tensions on the line of contact and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will be high on the agenda of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’s meetings in Yerevan and Baku.

“We are concerned about these tensions, in particular, the use of heavy weapons, including mortars. We are concerned that this leads to increasing violence, heightened tensions and civilian deaths,” US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Ambassador James Warlick told reporters in Yerevan.

“Our message in both Yerevan and Baku is to respect the ceasefire and reduce tensions.”

Warklick said the mediators will discuss with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan the principles behind a comprehensive settlement and will talk about the possibility of organizing a summit meeting before the end of the year.

“Both Presidents have committed themselves to an intensified dialogue. They signal that they do want to meet with each other, and we’d like to use this visit as an opportunity to identify the possible dates and begin to make arrangements for the summit,” Warlick said.

The third reason the mediators are in the region is to talk about building trust and respect for security. “It comes to confidence-building measures and people-to people programs,” Amb. Warlick noted.

The US Co-Chair said that negotiations have been going on in one form or another for 20 years now, and added that “time has come for more structured negotiations.”

As for the Royce-Engel letter, Mr. Warlick said: “We fundamentally agree with the recommendations Congressmen Royce and Engel are making. Honestly, they are not new. Those are the ideas and issues the Co-Chairs have been working with for quite some time.”

The Ambassador stressed the importance of resuming discussions on an OSCE investigative mechanism, which would be helpful along the line of contact and the international border.

“We need an investigative mechanism so that we don’t see one side accusing the other and have no bases to know who committed particular acts of violence,” he added.

Warlick reiterated his earlier statement that recognition of Nagorno Karabakh by Armenia would be seen in Baku as a provocation. “Neither side should take steps that will incite violence or provoke the other side.”

ArmTech Congress’15, the 8th Global Armenian High Tech Business Conference will be held in Armenia from October 12 to 14 in Armenia and Artsakh.

The conference will be held under the patronage of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

It is expected to further expand the frontiers of Armenian high tech industry promotion and attract new participants and prominent representatives of the global technology community.

The Conference will bring together a wide range of high-tech industry business leaders and corporate executives, representatives of universities, research centers and related global organizations and government officials from Armenia, the U.S., Russia, European Union, CIS countries, the MENA region, South-East Asia.

The event will focus on Armenian high tech industry’s current and future successful participation in a dynamic global economy, its immense potential for development and exceptional proposals for joint venture and investment.

“The Karabakh talks suffered after Ramil Safarov’s extradition, when it became clear Azerbaijan is not an adequate partner,” says Karen Vrtanesyan, coordinator of Razm.info military-analytical website. At a meeting with reporters the expert referred to the recent escalation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the reasons behind it.

“By escalating tensions at the border, Azerbaijan pursues one goal – to grab concessions from Armenia through psychological pressure on the Armenian public,” Vrtanesyan told a press conference today.

The expert said the policy leads to a “deadlock.” “Azerbiaijan only suffers losses, while the Armenian side is not going to make concessions under the pressure of provocations,” he said.

Karen Vrtanesyan rules out the view that Azerbaijan is inciting war through border tension. According to him, Azerbaijan is afraid of war, primarily for economic reasons. “The Aliyev clan cannot be happy about the perspective of losing the successful oil business.”

Under Article 4 of the CSTO Treaty, “If an aggression is committed against one of the States Parties by any state or a group of states, it will be considered as an aggression against all the States Parties to this Treaty.” The organization never interferes with the developments at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, although Armenia is one of its founding members and has been in a military alliance with the member states since May 15, 1992.

“We see no need to apply to CSTO. We have been successfully fulfilling our tasks by now,” Karen Vrtanesyan said.

The expert believes that for more effective control and objective assessment of the border situation, the monitoring missions should be replaced by smaller and more flexible groups that will even keep watch over the frontline villages to react to any assault against the peaceful population on the ground.