Author: Lena Karagyozian

Asbarez: System Of A Down Band Members Offer Reward for Bone Marrow Donor Match

Lena Karagyozian

Daron Malakian (left) with Rafee Al-Saeegh (middle) in high school.

System of a Down band member Daron Malakian, with the help of bandmates Shavo Odadjian, Serj Tankian, and John Dolmayan, as well as their managements, are offering a reward of $37,000 for a matching bone marrow donor for Los Angeles resident Rafee Al-Saeegh.

Rafee Al-Saeegh with his wife, Arsineh Sarkissian Al-Saeegh.

Rafee, Malakian’s childhood friend, began fighting Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in October of 2019. He now desperately needs a bone marrow transplant in order to survive. This was made complicated by the Covid-19 crisis, which prevents Rafee from finding a match by testing people in person. Instead, Rafee has to rely on an online virtual drive to get as many people tested before time runs out. Due to his Armenian and Chaldean ancestry, Rafee and his wife Arsineh are asking for help from the Armenian community due to a higher likelihood of a match.

“Rafee and I have been friends for over 30 years. We met when we were 12 years old”, Malakian writes in an Instagram post. “Right now, he needs a bone marrow transplant to survive, and we have only a small window of opportunity to find a match, so your help means so much.”

To help Rafee, one need only register with the DKMS bone drive and follow the instructions to order a swab testing kit through the mail. Rafee also has a Facebook page with registration links and instructions.

As Malakian points out- even if you are not a match for Rafee, you might help someone else who is fighting the disease.




Armenian Church celebrates the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Lena Karagyozian
Public Radio of Armenia

The Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ or the Easter Feast is one of the five major feasts of the Armenian Church. The main origin of the feast is the following.

The king of Egypt didn’t agree to allow the Hebrews to travel into the desert to offer sacrifices to Lord the God, and the last punishment of God on the king of Egypt that should force the king to let the Hebrews out of the country was the death of every first-born son and every first-born of all cattle in Egypt. In order to save the Hebrews from that punishment the Lord spoke to Moses and by means of Moses ordered the Hebrews to kill a lamb and taking some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and above the doors of the houses.

On the night when He would go through the land of Egypt to kill every first-born male, both human and animal, He would see the blood on the doors and would not let the Angel of Death enter the house. He would pass over and wouldn’t harm the Hebrews when punishing the Egyptians. Finally, after that punishment, the king allowed the Hebrews to leave the country, and the Hebrews left Egypt. So, mankind obtained life thanks to the Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, in order to reach the Christians’ blessed land – the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Mystery of Easter is the mystery of Jesus Christ, His Salutary Holy Blood shed for mankind and His Rising from the dead for mankind. The Son of God should incarnate, be subjected to tortures, be crucified, buried and the third day raise from death (Ps 15:9-11, 29:4, 40:11-13, 117:16-17, Ho 6:2-3).

Following the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ His body was taken off the cross and placed into the tomb and the entrance to the tomb was closed by a large stone and the soldiers were ordered to control the entrance to the tomb. After three days the three women, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the Mother of James and Joseph, and the wife of Zebedee brought spices and perfumes to anoint the body of Jesus.

They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, so they went in but they didn’t the body of the Lord. They stood there puzzled about this, when suddenly two angels dressed in white appeared and said to them, “Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here, ha has been raised” (Lk 24:5-6). The women returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven disciples and the rest. According to Peter more than 500 people saw Christ who had risen from the dead. So, this is the evangelical tiding of the fact of Easter or Holy Resurrection.

Resurrection of Christ became the basis of the Christian doctrine and faith. “If that is true, it means that Christ has been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe” (1 Co 15:13-14).

Christ rose from the dead, by means of His Death He destroyed Death and granted eternal life. “I am the Resurrection and I am the Life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25).

Christ died for the salvation of mankind and by His Blood took away the sin in the world, so that we should inherit eternal life.

On the day of the Easter feast people dye eggs red as a symbol of fruitful life, salvation and joy. St. Gregory of Datev considers the egg to be the symbol of the world, the shell of which is the sky, the membrane is the air, the white is the water and the yolk is the earth. Dyeing eggs red symbolizes the salvation of the world by means of Blood of Christ.

The Armenian Church celebrates the Easter Feast on the first Sunday following the full moon of the vernal equinox, with 35 days moveability, during the period from March 21 –April 26.

The Armenian Church traditionally celebrates evening Divine Liturgy on the evening prior to Jesus Christ’s Glorious Resurrection (Easter). Following the conclusion of the Liturgy, the assembled faithful take lit candles home, symbolizing the Light that Christ brought into the world. The Divine Liturgy celebrated on the eve is the start of the festive ceremonies.

On Sunday, the day of the feast, a morning service is conducted the Andastan Service is performed wherein the four corners of the world are blessed, afterwards the Divine Liturgy is celebrated. That day the faithful welcome each other on the occasion of the Glorious Resurrection of Christ conveying the great tiding:  “Christ is Risen from the dead” and receive the answer: “Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ.”

Fifty-day period beginning from the Easter Feast – the Holy Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ – and lasting till Pentecost in the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church is called Hinounk or Hinants period. That period is dedicated to the mystery of Resurrection of the Lord, and that is why it is Dominical period.

The name “Hinounk” comes from the word hisuonk (fifty). The first forty days of the period are dedicated to the appearings of Rosen Christ: “For forty days after his death he appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that he was alive. They saw him, and he talked with them about the Kingdom of God” (Ac 1:3).

The last ten days of the Hinants period are dedicated to the Ascension of Christ.

Hianats period is concluded with the Feast of Ascension. According to the Church laws there are no fasting days during all fifty days of Hinants period, which means that all people can eat everything during that period.


Armenia’s coronavirus cases climb to 736 as of April 3

Lena Karagyozian
Panorama, Armenia
April 3 2020
Health 11:25 03/04/2020 Armenia

Armenia has confirmed 73 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases to 736 in the country as of 11 a.m. Friday, April 3, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

So far, 43 people have recovered and 7 have died from COVID-19 in Armenia.

All coronavirus victims in the country had underlying health conditions.

The results of 3,258 tests have come back negative.

EU to provide Armenia with 51 million Euro for fight against coronavirus

Lena Karagyozian

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 19:59, 2 April, 2020

YEREVAN, APRIL 2, ARMENPRESS. The EU will provide Armenia with 51 million Euro assistance to fight against coronavirus, ARMENPRESS reports the EU Office in Armenia announced.

“Particularly, €18 million new funds + €33 million redirected towards supplying medical devices and equipment, training for medical and laboratory staff, support to SMEs and business community, as well as social and humanitarian assistance to those affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

More is yet to come through access to important regional banking facilities and further restructuring of projects”, reads the statement.

ACNIS reView from Yerevan #9, 2020_Weekly Update_7-14 March

Lena Karagyozian
Weekly Update   

 

16 MARCH 2020  

 

  • Armenia will be the focus of the World Health Organization (WHO). This was stated in a telephone conversation with the President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sargsyan by the Director General of WHO Tedros Adan Gebreisus, ARMINFO told. He noted that the WHO statement on the pandemic indicates the  complexity of the situation, in which there is an urgent need to  combine international and national efforts, to coordinate activities  on the part of states, in particular in terms of border control,  population movement and mutual assistance, which is especially  important for Armenia.

 

  • President Armen Sarkissian sent a congratulatory message to His Holiness Pope Francis on the anniversary of his election as Pontiff, the Presidential Office said. Armen Sarkissian was the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Vatican. In 1997 he received the St. Gregory the Great Order from His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Through his active participation, in 1999 in attendance of His Holiness blessed memory John Paul II and His Holiness blessed memory Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin I, the “Armenia-Rome” exhibition was opened at the Sistine Chapel to commemorate the rich common historical and cultural past. President Armen Sarkissian mentioned this in his message and noted also that Armenians’ ties and relations with Vatican go back millennia and nowadays Armenia-Vatican interstate relations continue to develop harmoniously.

 

  • RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) reported, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday continued his tour of Armenian towns campaigning in next month’s constitutional referendum, signaling no need yet for suspending public rallies in view of new coronavirus cases confirmed in Armenia. Armenian authorities reported three new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total of confirmed cases to four. The country’s Ministry of Health said that two of the people testing positive for the novel coronavirus infection known as COVID-19 were citizens of Armenia aged 45 and 27 and one was a 51-year-old Italian who works in Armenia. All three had arrived from Italy, officials said. The first coronavirus patient identified in Armenia on March 1 had arrived from Iran, another country hit hard by COVID-19. Over three dozen people have been quarantined in a disused hotel in Armenia’s resort town of Tsaghkadzor since the beginning of the month as a precaution against the further spread of the infection.

 

  • TASS informed, the World Health Organization (WHO) has officially characterized the situation with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during Wednesday’s briefing in Geneva. "WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction," the WHO chief stated. "We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic," he said. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reminded that the disease had spread to 114 countries, with over 118,000 people infected.

 

  • Contractual serviceman, 36-year-old Zohrab Sianosyan, who died from a gunshot fired by the Azerbaijani side on the border with Nakhchivan today, was from the Pokr Vedi village of the Ararat Province of Armenia and a father of two daughters aged 2 and 4. Head of the village Norik Martirosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that Zohrab had just gone to serve as a contractual serviceman and had been helping his parents with farming until then. Zohrab was the eldest, and his younger brother is working abroad. A soldier of the Armenian Armed Forces was killed in fire by Azerbaijani side, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Zohrab Sianosyan (born in 1984) was fatally wounded as Azerbaijani side opened fire on Tuesday afternoon in the direction of one of the military units in Armenia’s southwest. An investigation has been launched.

 

  • Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Brussels on a working visit. The head of the Armenian government first met with European Council President Charles Michel. After a formal photo session, the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of the European Council discussed a wide range of issues related to EU-Armenia cooperation. The meeting focused on the reform process underway in Armenia, the Prime Minister Office said. Welcoming Nikol Pashinyan’s visit, Charles Michel said it was a good opportunity to discuss cooperation prospects, including the effective implementation of democratic reforms in Armenia. Prime Minister Pashinyan appreciated EU’s support of the reforms being implemented in Armenia and expressed confidence that the EU-Armenia interaction will continue to develop effectively during Charles Michel’s tenure as President of the European Council.

 

  • During the period from March 1 to 7 the Azerbaijani armed forces violated the ceasefire regime in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact nearly 160 times by firing more than 1700 shots from various caliber weapons at the Armenian positions, the defense ministry of Artsakh told Armenpress. The Defense Army forces of Artsakh fully control the situation in the frontline and continue confidently conducting their military service.

 

Sources: https://www.primeminister.am/en/press-release/, https://www.president.am, https://www.azatutyun.am/en, https://armenpress.am, https://news.am/eng/, https://tert.am,  https://arminfo.info/.

  

New isolation facility to open in Yerevan

Lena Karagyozian
Panorama, Armenia
Society 18:59 24/03/2020Armenia

Yerevan will have a new isolation facility for people suspected of having COVID-19. As the Rector at Medical University Armen Muradyan informed, the facility is equipped with the required infrastructure and medical equipment.

Muradyan has shared photos of the new building on Facebook, expressing hope it will never serve its purpose.  “Stay at home and be healthy,” Muradyan wrote.

Armenia’s President initiates series of lectures amid coronavirus emergency

Lena Karagyozian
Public Radio of Armenia


President Armen Sarkissian has initiated a series of online lectures aimed at providing students with continuous education through the use of distance learning methods amid the state of emergency.

Today, the President delivered an online lecture for a group of students of the Faculties of Mathematics and Mechanics, Physics, Informatics and Applied Mathematics, as well as Oriental Studies of the Yerevan State University.

Among other topics, the President referred to the spread of the coronavirus in the world.

“We all live in special times when coronavirus is spreading in Armenia and around the world. Each of us strives to live, not by self-isolation, but by maintaining a certain distance from others. I think keeping social distance and focusing on own work is really a good thing, especially if you are young, if you have a lot to think about, to learn,” president Sarkissian said.

The President said that during the past two millennia there have been numerous epidemics that have been of both bacterial and viral nature. Before the antibiotics would be discovered social distancing or self-isolation was the only way to fight epidemics, he said.

Speaking about the coronavirus, the President said we are going to overcome it together.

“Remember that each of you must have a clear goal and plan for this or the coming few months and be disciplined at the same time,” the President said.

“Being well-organized and disciplined is essential. Take responsibility not only for our country, our nation, this great health problem, but also for yourself. One of your most precious values is your time, and if you are home for a month and connected to the world virtually, then you should make the most of it,” President Sarkissian stated.

“Today, the world is very different. I’ve been thinking about that world for many years, even trying to apply mathematics to the world I call quantum. In the quantum sense, the processes that take place in today’s world are not classical because the speeds are different, and we often move at a very high speed. Second, we communicate at the speed of light. Third, it is quantum in the sense that the old approaches, whether in politics, economics, relations, are practically unworkable, new forms are being created. Therefore, global risks also acquire a certain quantum character, that is, they are not classically predictable,” the President noted.  

“It is unpredictable that, for example, if the virus starts in China, where is the next country, – Italy or, let’s say, France. In one of my speeches months ago, when I was speaking about the quantum world, I gave an example that, if there is a disease, let’s say, in China, the next countries might be, say, Argentina and Italy. This, of course, was not a prediction, but a quantum process as well. Of course, you can make this conspiracy theory that I knew it would be in China, Italy would come, but that’s just a quantum behavior,” he added.

At the end of the lecture, the President suggested that each of the listeners think and somehow solve a mathematical modeling problem related to coronavirus. “You can write about any problem related to global risk, its modeling. You can write 1 or 10 pages. Consider the deadline as the end of a state of emergency,” the President said.

More than 250 Gather for 4th Annual Armenian Genocide Education Luncheon

Lena Karagyozian

More than 250 community leaders, dignitaries, educators, and supporters attended the Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region Education Committee’s fourth annual Armenian Genocide Education Luncheon. The event was held on Saturday, March 7 in Burbank, CA. Held since 2016, the Luncheon seeks to honor K through 16 public school educators who have gone above and beyond to incorporate a comprehensive lesson plan on Armenian Genocide studies within their classroom curriculum.

The event opened with the singing of the United States and Armenian national anthems, performed by Sosie Haboyan and Sose Hovannisian, respectively.

Education Committee Chairwoman Alice Petrossian then led a moment of silence for former Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian, who had unfortunately passed away a few days prior to the event.

Following Petrossian, Event Committee Chairwoman Sedda Antekelian welcomed the attendees and thanked them for making the sold-out event a success. She then opened the program with a clip of testimony from Armenian Genocide survivor Hagop Asadourian, who is one of 400 interviewees from the testimony collection of the Armenian Film Foundation, that have all been integrated and digitized into the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive and used for educational purposes via USC Shoah Foundation’s online website for teachers and students, IWitness.

Following the testimony presentation, KTLA 5 News Reporter Ellina Abovian, who served as the Master of Ceremonies, took the stage to recognize the dignitaries and educators who were present at the luncheon. The list of dignitaries included Congresswoman Jackie Chu, Glendale Councilman-Elect Ardy Kassakhian, Glendale Community College representatives, including Superintendent David Viar, Board of Trustees President Vahe Peroomian, Clerk Yvette Vartanian Davis, Board Member Armine Hacopian and Trustee-Elect Sevan Benlian, Los Angeles Unified School District Board Member Scott Schmerelson. From Glendale Unified School District representatives included, Superintendent, Vivian Ekchian President, Jennifer Freemon, Board Members, Armina Gharpetian, Shant Sahakian, Nayiri Nahabedian, Greg Krikorian and Glendale Teachers Association President, Taline Arsenian. From Pasadena Unified School District, representatives included, Assistant Superintendent, Eric Sahakian and Board Member Michelle Richardson Bailey. From Burbank Unified School District, representatives included, Board Members Armond Aghakhanian, Roberta Reynolds, and Steve Ferguson, as well as Burbank Teacher Association President, Diana Abasta.

Following Abovian’s remarks, Congresswoman Chu took the stage to thank the organizers for their tireless efforts to advocate for the education of the Armenian Genocide.

Next, filmmaker Ani Hovannisian- Kevorkian, who served as the Keynote Speaker of the event, presented a trailer of her newly featured documentary “The Hidden Map,” which depicts the gripping encounters of Hovannisian-Kevorkian’s travels through Turkey in search of her forbidden ancestral home along with a solitary Scottish explorer that she met along the way.

Following the keynote speech by Hovannisian-Kevorkian, ANCA-WR Board Member Anahid Oshagan, highlighted the litany of projects that the tireless members of the Education Committee members have been engaged in for years, including teacher workshops, preparations of teaching resources about the Armenian Genocide, as well as their continued advocacy to include Armenian Genocide in various educational curriculums.

The program also featured talented musicians from Lark Musical Society, who performed “Adagio” by Aram Khachatryan and “Haberban” by Komitas, as well as a beautiful dance performance of “Vagharshapat” by AYAC Areni Dance Group.

Master of Ceremonies Ellina Abovian presented the Armenian Genocide Education Award, awarded to educators teaching in K through 12, who have gone above and beyond to educate their students about the Armenian Genocide and are committed to teaching about it in classrooms. Three Armenian Genocide Education Awards were presented to Jennifer Davis, Clark Magnet High School (GUSD), Michelle Herczog, EdD, Los Angeles County of Education, and Susan Quintana, Pojoaque Valley School, Pojoaque Valley School District (New Mexico).

Education Committee member and Genocide Education Project Executive Director Roxanne Makasdjian presented the Zaruhy “Sara” Chitjian Armenian Heritage Award, named after educator Sara Chitjian, who was also the daughter of Genocide survivors, which is awarded to educators of Armenian descent who have gone above and beyond to teach and preserve the Armenian heritage through the prism of the Armenian Genocide. Two Zaruhy “Sara” Chitjian Armenian Heritage Awards were presented to Saakanoush Markarian, R.D. White Elementary School (GUSD), and Nancy Nazarian, Glen Hammond Curtiss Magnet Middle School (LAUSD).

Master of Ceremonies Ellina Abovian presented the Armenian Genocide Higher Education Award, awarded to college professors who are dedicated to highlighting the history of the Armenian Genocide and its impact in students’ lives today in higher education institutions. The Armenian Genocide higher Education Award was presented to Dr. Maria Armoudian, Senior Lecturer of Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand.

Dr. Rubina Peroomian, Lecturer and Research Associate at the University of California, Los Angeles, presented the prestigious Armenian Genocide Education Legacy Award, of which she was also a past honoree. The Award is presented to educators who have dedicated a lifetime of efforts aimed toward educating and providing resources for their students and other educators about the Armenian Genocide and its lasting legacy for humanity. The recipient of 2020 Armenian Genocide Education Legacy Award was presented to Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian, Professor Emeritus, UCLA.

ANCA-WR Treasurer Hermineh Pakhanians, as well as ANCA-WR Education Committee Chairwoman Alice Petrossian partook in the ceremony of presenting the awards.

At the conclusion of the luncheon, ANCA-WR Education Committee Chair Alice Petrossian announced the renaming of the Armenian Genocide Higher Education Award to the Richard G. Hovannisian Higher Education Award. Petrossian concluded by stressing the importance of genocide education within school curriculum and requested the attendees to nominate educators from their local districts for next year’s luncheon.

The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region is the largest and most influential nonpartisan Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.