Author: nina hovnanian

OMBUDSMAN ADDRESSED QAJARAN DUST PROBLEM IN REPORT

16:07 April 14, 2015

EcoLur

One of the Nature Protection Ministry’s dereliction of duties is
non-performance of dust monitoring in Qajaran, as the Ombudsman’s
report “On Human Rights Defender’s Activities and Violation of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Armenia for 2014” says. Making a
reference to EcoLur’s article entitled “Alarm signal from Qajaran:
Our Children Get to Hospital Because of Dust”, the report says,
“Complaints have been received that huge amount of dust is in the air
of Qajaran, which violated many people’s right to live in environment
promoting health and welfare.”

During 2014 Qajaran residents beat alarm signals about huge amount
of dust in the air, particularly outlining that the town is lost in
the dust for 3-4 hours per day because of the operation of Qajaran
copper and molybdenum mine. Qajaran is include in the list of most
risky and largest town, so it can be concluded while implementing
monitoring of Qajaran air basin pollution, it’s necessary to implement
dust monitoring, moreover, the Ministry is aware of this problem.

Nevertheless, only the permissible concentrations of sulphur dioxide
and nitrogen dioxide were studied, which were sampled from 15
observation sites in the town and were considered as within standards.

Dust monitoring is not carried out in Qajaran town because of the
absence of relevant equipment on the spot. Though the Ministry informs
that currently works are carried out for the monitoring of dust in
the atmospheric air in Qajaran town, the problem remains unsolved.

Proposal: to carry out monitoring of permissible concentrations of
dust in the air in Qajaran town in shortest tie limits and to take
urgent measures in case of detecting limit deviations.”

U.S. CALLS FOR ‘FULL, FRANK’ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FACTS IN ARMENIAN SLAUGHTER

Breitbart News
April 15 2015

by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.15 Apr 20157

On Tuesday the US State Department called for a “full, frank”
acknowledgement of the facts surrounding the mass killing of Armenians
in World War I, but demurred when it came to labeling it “a genocide.”

“The president and other senior administration officials have
repeatedly acknowledged as historical fact, and mourned the fact, that
1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in the
final days of the Ottoman Empire,” said State Department spokeswoman
Marie Harf.

Later this month, on April 24, Armenians will be celebrating “Genocide
Remembrance Day,” to commemorate the centennial of the massacre of
more than half their population under the Ottoman Empire.

“A full, frank and just acknowledgement of the fact is in all our
interests, including Turkey’s, Armenia’s and America’s,” Harf said.

“Nations are stronger and they progress by acknowledging and reckoning
with pretty painful elements of their past.”

On Wednesday, the European Parliament will vote on a resolution to
determine whether to officially name the year 2015 as the centennial
of the Armenian genocide.

The motion noted that an increasing number of EU member states and
national parliaments recognize the Armenian genocide. If passed,
the Parliament would “pay tribute, on the eve of the Centenary, to
the memory of the one-and-a-half million innocent Armenian victims
who perished in the Ottoman Empire.”

Turkey has tenaciously refused to recognize the mass killings of
Armenians in World War I as “genocide.” When Pope Francis called the
slaughter “the first genocide of the twentieth century” last Sunday,
Turkey responded with a formal complaint as well as by recalling its
ambassador to the Holy See.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu dismissed the Pope’s
statement as lacking legal and historical credibility, and accused
him of fueling “hatred and animosity.”

Figures compiled by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies show that there were 2,133,190 Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire in 1914 and only about 387,800 by 1922.

More than 20 countries recognize the Armenian slaughter as genocide,
including the Pope’s native Argentina. The United States and the UK
do not, however, as Turkey is also considered a NATO ally.

During his 2008 campaign for the White House, then Senator Barack
Obama had pledged to “recognize the Armenian genocide.”

BOMBARDMENTS OF ALEPPO: SYRIAN ARMENIANS APPEAL FOR SAVING CHILDREN FROM UNSAFE CITY

NEWS | 16.04.15 | 12:19

By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

News from Aleppo, Syria, about fresh bombardments of the
Armenian-populated quarters of the city as well as injuries among
Armenians caused more concerns in Yerevan, which has given refuge to
thousands of Syrian Armenians fleeing the conflict in their country
during the past four years.

Syrian Armenians have appealed for action to evacuate from Aleppo
at least the children who, they say, have been driven to the “edge
of death”.

“Aleppo Armenians are in a desperate situation and are on the verge
of death. They want their children to be saved,” Hrach Kalsahakian,
a Syrian Armenian, wrote on his Facebook account.

He noted that school will end on May 12 and that the children need
to be taken temporarily to safe countries like Lebanon and Armenia
before the summer sets in bringing with it terrible conditions for
the children. The activist described it as a cause for the nation
that needs to be realized urgently “before it is too late”.

Vahan Kevorkian (name changed), another Syrian Armenian in Yerevan
who spoke to ArmeniaNow on condition of anonymity because of being
concerned for the fate of his children back in Aleppo, said he came
to Armenia a week ago to rent a home here and bring his family,
including two teenage daughters, along.

“I was at the airport in Beirut when I heard the news [about the
bombardments],” said Kevorkian, adding that only days later he could
learn that everything was fine with his family.

According to Kevorkian, like many other Aleppo Armenians he has also
got accustomed to the war ranging around in Syria today. “It was bad
also before, but at least it was calmer,” he said.

According to him, only one of the three Armenian schools is open to
children in Aleppo today and Armenian children from the entire city
attend it.

Kevorkian said that the conflict in Syria at times reminded him of the
horrors that Armenians experienced during the Ottoman-era massacres.

“Voices of Turkish and Muslim militants a few blocks from my home were
very disturbing for me as I feared that any moment they could come
and attack our home. It was very difficult and it seemed that we were
again going through genocide,” says the man who, as a young man, was
recording stories of 1915 Genocide survivors for the Hay Dat office.

Kevorkian is a silversmith by profession. He hopes to find a job
in Armenia in order to maintain his family while the conflict in
Syria continues.

“Here I have a narrow circle of friends, good guys from Lebanon,
Syria, local guys. If I can find means to maintain my family we will
stay here, but I haven’t decided anything yet,” he said.

Kevorkian also visited Armenia many times before and twice went to
the 1915 Genocide Memorial at Tsitsernakaberd. According to him,
this year, which marks the centenary of the Genocide, he will lay
flowers at the Memorial on April 24 and go back to his war-stricken
home to bring his family to Armenia.

REMOVAL OF CUSTOMS OBSTACLES IS MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT OF EEU – ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER

13:46 16/04/2015 >> ECONOMY

Speaker of Armenian National Assembly Galust Sahakyan on Thursday
attended the international forum “Eurasian Economic Prospects” in Saint
Petersburg, the press service of Armenian National Assembly reports.

Addressing the event, Mr Sahakyan said, in particular, that the
Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) provides great opportunities to expand
interstate cooperation in trade and economic sectors.

According to him, by joining the EEU, Armenia became a part of an
around 170-million market and this makes the country attractive
for investments.

Armenia’s parliament chief also noted in his speech that the removal
of the customs obstacles is one of the major achievements of the EEU.

In conclusion, he said that Armenia is ready to carry out the
agreements that have been reached within the framework of the EEU.

Source: Panorama.am

NEW STREET PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK CHRONICLES THE LEGACY OF BOURJ HAMMOUD

12:41, April 16, 2015

Beirut Neighborhood Became Home to Thousands of Armenian Genocide
Survivors

On the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial and the 40th
anniversary of the start of the Lebanese Civil War, filmmaker
and documentarian Ara Madzounian is releasing a book of original
photographs that chronicles Bourj Hammoud, the Beirut suburb which
became home for Armenian Genocide survivors.

Madzounian, who was born in Bourj Hammoud to parents who survived
the Armenian Genocide, has been at the helm of scores of Armenian
and non-Armenian multimedia projects around the world. His resume
includes directing films, documentaries, producing popular music and
telethons and performing theatrical productions.

After wrapping up his feature cinematography work on the feature film
Meltdown, to be released in August, he is turning his focus on BIRD’S
NEST, a published book of talking pictures and essays by a selected
group of academicians, writers and artists.

“I wanted to create a lasting legacy about this place,” says
Madzounian. “For more than 50 years, Bourj Hammoud served as the
cultural, intellectual and political beacon for the Armenian Diaspora.”

BIRD’S NEST is the culmination of Madzounian’s laborious and
emotion-provoking work to capture the soul and preserve the memories
of his birthplace, one of the first post-Genocide communities to
be established.

For generations, Bourj Hammoud was the safe harbor that allowed broken
families to get on their feet again after one of the most tragic
chapters in their history. In the safety of Lebanon, the community
flourished before it abruptly found itself in the middle of their
host nation’s civil war.

“Ara’s photographs of the faces, the streets, the old buildings and the
narrow alleyways of Bourj Hammoud recall to me all of the richness of
the place, the personal histories and the grand narratives of the past
hundred years,” says cultural anthropologist at the Kevorkian Center
for Near Eastern Studies at New York University, Joanne Randa Nucho.

A Kickstarter campaign launched on April 13th, the 40th anniversary of
the start of the Lebanese civil war that began in 1975 and continued
until 1990. Crowdsourcing will fund the costs of publishing BIRD’S
NEST, a book of photographs Nucho says capture “the ephemeral moments
of life in this place.”

To support the project and purchase a copy of the book, please go to:

“These photographs are an amazing legacy to a vanishing pocket of
Armenian culture,” says Oscar nominated director Atom Egoyan. “For
those who have never visited Bourj Hammoud, the fabled Armenian
neighborhood in Beirut, this collection will be overwhelming.”

CAMARA DE REPRESENTANTES DE URUGUAY DEDICO SESION EXTRAORDINARIA AL CENTENARIO DEL GENOCIDIO ARMENIO

16.4.15

La Camara de Representantes de Uruguay sesiono el miercoles 15 de abril
en forma extraordinaria para conmemorar el Centenario del Genocidio
Armenio, y todos los partidos con representacion parlamentaria
recordaron este crimen de lesa humanidad y reiteraron el compromiso
del país en la lucha contra la impunidad, según informo el Consejo
Causa Armenia del Uruguay.

Ante unas barras colmadas de público, hicieron uso de la palabra
los representantes nacionales Susana Pereyra (Frente Amplio),
Jorge Guekdjian (Partido Nacional-PN),Guillermo Facello (Partido
Colorado-PC), Daniel Radío (Partido Independiente),Eduardo Rubio
(Unidad Popular), Jose Luis Satdjian (PN), Conrado Rodríguez (PC),
yAntonio Zoulamian (PN), abordando en sus alocuciones no solo los
aspectos historicos vinculados al Genocidio Armenio, sino tambien el
aporte de la comunidad armenia al Uruguay y cuestiones relativas al
presente y futuro de la nacion armenia.

La diputada Pereyra destaco la trascendencia de la “memoria ejemplar”
de la comunidad armenia y la historia de su lucha por la Justicia en
el Uruguay. A su vez, refirio a la amistad y el respeto que el pueblo
armenio profesa por Uruguay por haber acogido a los sobrevivientes
del Genocidio y reconocido por primera vez a nivel internacional el
crimen cometido por el Estado turco a traves de la Ley Nº 13.326,
en 1965. A modo de ejemplo de esa hermandad, recordo una anecdota
de su experiencia como observadora internacional de las elecciones
parlamentarias en la República de Nagorno Karabaj, cuando en un remoto
circuito rural en las montañas de Karabagh, los votantes se acercaron
espontaneamente a abrazarla al enterarse que era uruguaya.

Por su parte, el diputado Guekdjian, analizo jurídicamente el crimen
de Genocidio y su aplicacion al caso armenio, ofreciendo detalles
historicos sobre la ejecucion del mismo cien años atras. “Mi propia
madre, siendo una niña de apenas 8 años, salvo su vida escondiendose
en una cueva del desierto, luego de varios días sin probar alimentos”
recordo el diputado de origen armenio, integrando su historia
familiar con la reseña de los testimonios de los legisladores que en
1965 aprobaron la ley que establecía el “Día de Recordacion de los
Martires Armenios”.

Refiriendo a la lucha contra el negacionismo, el diputado Facello
condeno la actitud de Turquía indicando que “Suiza ha aprobado una
ley donde se castiga la negacion del Genocidio Armenio, Francia ha
discutido una ley de similares características, en cambio, otros
países prohíben el uso de la palabra genocidio”, en alusion a la
distorsion historica y limitaciones a la libertad de expresion que
impone el regimen de Ankara.

A su turno, respondiendo el agravio del presidente de Turquía Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, quien días atras solicito pruebas de la existencia del
genocidio a la diaspora Armenia, el diputado Radío expuso documentos
y testimonios que dan cuenta del plan estatal de exterminio del pueblo
armenio por parte del gobierno de los Jovenes Turcos.

“La nacion armenia no necesita de ninguna propaganda en una camiseta
de fútbol, porque aquí esta el Parlamento Uruguayo recordando, igual
que ayer. Y lo hacemos sin culpa, sin complejos y sin vacilaciones,
porque sabemos que las manos que hoy se tienden solidarias, igual que
las que se levantaron hace cincuenta años, no se manchan con petroleo”
enfatizo Radío, despertando el aplauso espontaneo de los concurrentes.

Radío invito a “resistir las dadivas demasiado generosas y los lobbys
poderosos que apuntan sospechosamente a nuestro país” y honrar la
historica hermandad entre los pueblos de Armenia y Uruguay dando nuevos
pasos de respaldo a la Causa Armenia en materia legislativa, con el
objetivo de que “no le puedan arrancar un ala a esa paloma herida”.

El representante de Unidad Popular, Eduardo Rubio, destaco el heroísmo
del pueblo armenio a lo largo de su historia, reconocio el aporte de
la comunidad armenia al Uruguay y distinguio la política negacionista
de Turquía de la actitud de amplios sectores del pueblo turco que se
suman al reconocimiento de la verdad historica en su país.

Jose Luis Satdjian, diputado integrante de la comunidad armenia expreso
el agradecimiento de los uruguayos de origen armenio hacia el país
que acogio a sus antepasados. A la vez, recordo que la consecuencia
directa del negacionismo es el asedio continuo ejercido por Turquía y
Azerbaiyan contra las Repúblicas de Armenia y Nagorno Karabaj, e invito
a las autoridades uruguayas a promover el dialogo y la resolucion
pacífica de los conflictos que amenazan la estabilidad de la region.

Conrado Rodríguez por su parte, valoro especialmente en su alocucion
los aportes de la comunidad armenia al Uruguay y su integracion en
todos los ambitos de la sociedad.

Para concluir, el diputado Antonio Zoulamian denuncio la actual
situacion deocupacion por parte de Turquía de las regiones
historicamente armenias donde se perpetro el Genocidio Armenio,
y auguro su pronta restitucion a la República de Armenia.

ROAD TO IRANIAN BORDER TO BE IMPROVED IN ARMENIA

13:15, 16 April, 2015

YEREVAN, 16 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. More than AMD 53 million was
allocated to the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the
Republic of Armenia from the reserve fund of the state budget of
2015 in the second quarter to carry out the surface and pit works
of Yerevan-Yeraskh-Goris-Meghri-Iran border highway with separate
sections. As “Armenpress” reports, the Minister of Transport and
Communications of the Republic of Armenia Gagik Beglaryan noted during
the session of the Government, that due to the lack of finances,
a problem of requesting of additional money was raised to resolve
that most important problem.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyann noted that the road is actually in
bad condition and the Government will provide the necessary amount
to restore it.

BE AS BRAVE AS KIM KARDASHIAN AND THE POPE, MR. PRESIDENT: CALL THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE A ‘GENOCIDE.’

Washington Post
April 14 2015

A century after more than 1 million Armenians were killed by the
Ottomans, Obama should call this atrocity what it was.

By Chris Bohjalian

It sounds like the set-up for a joke in a late-night talk show host’s
opening monologue:

“So, Kim Kardashian and the pope were the biggest news stories last
Sunday.”

But it’s no laughing matter. Kardashian and Pope Francis made
headlines in recent days in ways that were poignant, powerful and —
speaking as an Armenian American and descendant of survivors of the
Armenian Genocide — game-changing. Last week, Kardashian, easily
the most famous Armenian American, along with husband Kanye West and
daughter North, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan,
Armenia, and on Sunday night, Kanye gave a free concert at Swan Lake
in the city center. This week, during Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica,
the pope called out the Ottoman Empire’s systematic annihilation of
an estimated 1.5 million Armenians as “genocide,” and went on to say
that “Concealing and denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep
bleeding without bandaging it.”

Now, I hope President Obama follows their lead and takes the
opportunity, at last, to fulfill his 2008 campaign promise and
do the same. Because for seven years, he’s put realpolitik before
righteousness, avoiding the word “genocide” in an effort to appease an
American military ally — Turkey — that offers very little in return.

For most of the world, the Armenian Genocide is — to paraphrase
a character in one of my novels — the slaughter you know next to
nothing about. But every year on April 24, Genocide Remembrance
Day, we Armenians remember the injustice of a crime that is rarely
acknowledged and often flatly denied. It was April 24, 1915, when the
Armenian intellectuals, professionals, editors and religious leaders
in Constantinople were rounded up by the Ottoman authorities — and
almost all of them executed. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire
killed three of every four of its Armenian citizens. The majority of
Armenians alive today are descendants of the few survivors.

And for the last hundred years, Turkish leaders have endeavored to deny
the genocide by falsifying the historical record, despite the fact that
the International Association of Genocide Scholars unanimously calls
it genocide. In February, a Kurdish member of the Turkish Parliament,
Ahmet Turk, acknowledged his Kurdish ancestors’ role in the killing
and apologized to the Armenians for the “blood on their hands.” Even
the first postwar Turkish government convicted the three architects
of the genocide for their crimes against the Armenians in 1919 and
sentenced them to death in absentia. It wasn’t until the second postwar
government took over in 1924 — the government led by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk — that Turkey began to rewrite the history of this atrocity.

Kim Kardashian walks in Victory Park while filming in Yerevan, Armenia
on Thursday, April 9, 2015. While in Armenia, she met with Prime
Minister Hovik Abrahamyan. (AP photo/Artur Harutyunyan, PAN Photo)

They’ve gotten away with it, in part, because many Western nations
viewed Turkey as the last stop against Soviet expansion during the
Cold War, and later as a moderate ally in the Middle East. The United
States has certainly been an enabler. Washington is so fearful of
Ankara that we’ve never passed a resolution here condemning the
Armenian Genocide. While campaigning in 2008, then-candidate Barack
Obama said, “America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about
the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I
intend to be that president.” As a U.S. Senator, he supported passage
of an Armenian Genocide resolution. But for the last six years as
president, every April 24, he finds a euphemism for the “G” word to
avoid angering Turkey.

But it hasn’t helped him. Turkey, a NATO member, won’t authorize
American military flights from the U.S. Air Force’s Incirlik Air Base
for strikes against ISIS. ISIS black market oil flows through Turkey.

It is a transshipment point for weapons going to al-Qaeda affiliates,
while becoming a new hub for Hamas. Internally, Turkey has cracked
down so hard on journalists that Reporters Without Borders ranks them
149th on the World Press Freedom Index — below Myanmar and barely
above Russia.

Turkey’s leaders bristle when it comes to discussing the Ottoman
Empire’s crimes. Immediately after Pope Francis spoke, Turkey
recalled its Vatican ambassador, and its foreign minister raged,
“The pope’s statement, which is far from historic and legal truths,
is unacceptable.” But the truth hurts, and decades of scholarship
about the genocide, sometimes by Turkish scholars, has illustrated
this painful truth. So has the activism of Armenians around the world,
frustrated by the way our ancestors were massacred and our homeland
was taken from us. Now we’re a century from the start of the genocide,
and we must no longer enable Turkish efforts to sweep this mass murder
under the rug. Most years, April 24 passes without much recognition
beyond Armenian communities. But not this year. It is the centennial,
the world has taken notice of this grim milestone and Turkey has
proven itself to be an unreliable ally.

In a year that both the most visible leader in the Christian faith and
the ubiquitous face of the Kardashian empire both stood up to demand
accountability, the world, including our country, has to recognize,
mourn and condemn this atrocity.

My hope today is that the president will cement his legacy as a
statesman possessing an accurate moral compass, speak what has
previously been unspeakable, show the same courage as the pope and
call our tragedy what it is: genocide.

Chris Bohjalian is the author of 18 books, including his novel of
the Armenian Genocide, The Sandcastle Girls.

PARISOT – COMMEMORER LE GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

REVUE DE PRESSE

À l’occasion du centième anniversaire du genocide des Armeniens,
de nombreuses manifestations vont commemorer et rappeler ce meurtre
de masse qui prefigure ceux qui se sont produits au cours de ce siècle.

D’avril 1915 a decembre 1918, environ 1 500 000 Armeniens et Syriaques,
citoyens de l’Empire ottoman, sont assassines sur ordre du comite
Union et Progrès.

Deux tiers de la population armenienne ont ainsi ete decimes. À la
fin, il reste 300 000 rescapes. Stigmatiser, exclure, detruire,
sont les trois etapes de ce processus pour lequel le terme de > a ete employe.

Le peuple armenien a eu une histoire prestigieuse, autonome, mais
s’est trouve a la merci des appetits de ses voisins.

Pourquoi il s’agit bien d’un genocide ? Pour se separer des Armeniens,
l’Empire Ottomon les a presentes comme des ennemis de l’interieur,
aux mains de puissances etrangères, en vue de le destabiliser. Dans
un contexte de guerre mondiale, une organisation parallèle a celle
de l’armee ottomane a ete mise en place. Avec des criminels sortis
de prison, des groupes de tueurs ont ete constitues pour chasser les
Armeniens de leurs villages, les pousser sur les routes du desert,
les rassembler dans des camps et lorsque les camps etaient trop pleins,
les deportes etaient amenes dans le desert et tues.

Jean-Marie Lopez avait projete avec Frederic Kerestedjian que Parisot
participe a cette commemoration. Ce sera le cas les 24 et 25 avril,
a la salle des fetes, avec la presentation d’ouvrages, de musiques
et de films (>, de Laurence Jourdan).

Renseignements 06 84 05 09 10.

La Depeche du M

mercredi 15 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

ARGENTINE PRESIDENT EXPRESSES ‘SOLIDARITY’ ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL

09:52, 15 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Agencia Prensa Armenia – The President of Argentina Cristina Kirchner
met on Tuesday with representatives of the Armenian community of
Argentina to “express her solidarity with the hundredth anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide,” according to presidential press office.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Justice and Human Rights
Office, Julio Alak, along with Archbishop Kissag Mouradian, Primate
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Alberto Djeredjian, president of
the Administrative Institution of the Armenian Church, Bartholome
Ketchian, representative of the Armenian National Committee of South
America, businessman Eduardo Eurnekian, president of the Corporation
America, Leon Arslanian, former Minister of Justice of the Nation,
and Dr. Daniel Stamboulian, president of FUNCEI.