Author: Markos Nalchajian

On 21 of July, 2015 HayPost, the national postal operator of the Republic of Armenia, opened its first international office in Glendale, California, USA. Among the guests who attended the official launch ceremony were the Minister of Transport & Communication of the Republic of Armenia Gagik Beglaryan, the Mayor of Glendale Ara Najarian, the directors & officers of HayPost and Corporacion America (the company which manages HayPost) and community representatives.

The residents of California are now able to send parcels to their friends and relatives easier and faster, using the direct delivery service from HayPost USA to HayPost in Armenia. “ShopInAmerica”, a brand new concept introduced by HayPost, will grant residents of Armenia an open access to shop and acquire goods from the USA via the office in Glendale and receive their purchases directly in their cities or villages, even in the most remote rural areas.

According to the CEO of HayPost USA Juan Pablo Gechidjian, the Company will also provide money transfer services, which will facilitate and formalize the process of money remittances from USA to Armenia and vice versa making it faster, more reliable and affordable.

HayPost International aims to create a stronger bond between Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora in USA, expanding the reach of HayPost services beyond the borders of Armenia and establishing new relationship and new service opportunities between Armenia and its Diaspora.

HayPost USA office covers an area of 3,600 square feet (340 square meters) and strategically located on North Brand Boulevard, in the heart of Glendale, a city well known for its large and prominent Armenian population. The new HayPost office is fully in line with the branding standards of all renovated Armenian HayPost offices. Equipped with the state-of-art facilities and software HayPost USA employs six fully trained staff members and offers a most welcoming environment for its customers

President of the European Council Donald Tusk visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

Donald Tusk laid a wreath at the eternal fire and toured the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute

 

Spanish giants Real Madrid have topped Forbes‘ list of the world’s most valuable sports teams for the third year running, reprts.

The 10-time European Cup winners head the world rankings with a value of $US 3.26billion, ahead of NFL franchise Dallas Cowboys and MLB’s New York Yankees, which are both valued at $3.2bn.

Manchester United remain England’s most valuable club, despite dropping from third in 2014 to fifth on the list this year at $3.1bn.

Manchester City, valued at $1.39bn or £890m, are 29th overall, Chelsea ($1.37bn) sit 31st and Arsenal ($1.31bn) are placed 36th.

The American business magazine has been valuing teams in the major sports leagues since 1998.

Champions League holders Barcelona, who sit fourth on the list with a value of $3.16bn (£2.02bn), are the remaining top five team.

American sports dominate the rest of the top 10.

The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, the New England Patriots and Washington Redskins of the NFL and baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers all make the top 10.

Ferrari, at $1.35bn, rank 32nd and are Europe’s only non-football representative on the list.

The average current value of a team on the list is $1.75bn, the highest ever, which represents a 31 per cent increase from last year.

A congregation in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi is being threatened by Muslim criminals who want to seize the church’s land. The menacing group is trying to intimidate the Christian community by saying that they’ll accuse them of the highly punishable offense of blasphemy if they don’t vacate their church property and stop worshiping there, the reports.

Members of the Jerusalem Church, a Pentecostal, 300-family congregation in Karachi, have informed International Christian Concern that they’ve been receiving deadly threats from a group of armed Muslim miscreants, who are known for seizing property from the poor and various targeted killings.

Church members said they were approached in May by the group and were told to leave the church and never return. However, the interaction in May was not the only time that church members were confronted by the group, according to one of the church’s pastors, Ilyas Masih.

“These Muslims have been pressuring the church people not to play musical instruments and asked the church leaders to stop girls from singing with boys in the church,” Masih explained. “Several times they stopped and threatened the worshipers and pastors for going into church for prayers and harassed the women in the past.”

“The Christians of the locality have responded in a brave manner and announced that they will die before they let them grab the church property,” Masih asserted.

John Nazareth Adil, a local activist, told ICC that the group of Muslims probably want to use the church property to carry out “their agendas.”

The congregation has submitted a request to the local police department for extra protection, however, the church is still being threatened, Masih said.

“Yet again a church in Pakistan faces harassment of its women and threats about how and when church services and worship should be conducted,” Wilson Chowdhry, president of the British Pakistani Christian Association, told The Christian Post on Tuesday. ”

“The threats that involve blasphemy are common in Pakistan and Muslims of Pakistan … if any Christian is accused of blasphemy then the whole community has to suffer,” Gill asserted. “Last month, the Muslim mob of about 500 attacked Christians’ homes [in Lahore] on pretexts that one Christian man burned some papers on which Islamic text was written,” Sardar Mushtaq Gill, a leading Pakistani-Christian human rights lawyer said.

Chowdhry explained that most Christians who flee Pakistan do so because of religious persecution and they end up in Malaysia, Sri Lanka or Thailand, and added that each country has a population of about 10,000 Pakistani asylum seekers.

But in most cases, those seeking refugee status in those countries are not recognized as refugees and are often arrested and fined.

“This treatment of [Pakistani] Christians is not unlike the treatment of Armenian Christians, who later faced the awful extermination during the Armenian Genocide as quoted by Lemkin. Just like Turkey before them, Pakistan denies that Christians face brutality, persecution and hatred, and Britain, as a nation, due to vested interests, remains shockingly silent,” Chowdhry contended.

“I hope we do not see a repeat of the mass killings faced by our Armenian brothers and fully understand why Christians in their droves are fleeing Pakistan despite being re-persecuted in other nations such as Thailand, where there is said to be 10,000 Pak-Christian refugees. It is time the world listened to the stories that the victims are desperate for humanitarians to hear.”

The sparkling form of Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan didn’t go unnoticed by the users on a dramatic final day in Germany’s top flight last weekend.

The Armenian Footballer of the Year capped an engrossing individual performance with a delightful goal – a wonderfully executed lob over Koen Casteels – in an equally captivating 3-2 win over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim that clinched the Yellow-Blacks’ place in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League.
Mkhitaryan took 64 per cent of the weekly poll, beating FC Bayern München’s Bastian Schweinsteiger into second place (23 per cent).

On May 21 UEFA President Michel Platini will arrive in Armenia on May 21 for a one-day official visit, Press Service of the Football Federation of Armenia reports.

Michel Platini will meet with the President of the Football Federation of Armenia, Ruben Hayrapetyan. He will visit the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and the Football Academy.

The UEFA President will have a short briefing with reporters at the Football Academy.

Two significant decisions on Aram Khachaturian International Competition were made at the General Assembly of the World Federation of International Music Competitions was held in Italy on May 8.

First, members of the Federation unanimously voted to include “conducting” in the competition program of the contest in 2016.

Moreover, the 2016 General Assembly of the Federation will be held in Armenia. That means Yerevan will host the most important event of the organization, which counts 115 members on 6 continents today.

The Aram Khachaturian International Competition was admitted as a new member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 2013, thus becoming the first Armenian member ever joining this more than prestigious musical family.

The Aram Khachaturian International Competition is organized by “Aram Khachaturian” Cultural Foundation, the Ministry of Culture and the Yerevan State Conservatory.