Author: Paul Hambardsumian

On Wednesday in Yerevan Kiriyenko gave the leading Armenian nuclear specialists medals linked to the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian nuclear industry, Sputnik News reports.

“It is our common anniversary – not only Russian, but anniversary of the nuclear industry of the whole Soviet Union,” Kirienko said at the ceremony.

Kirienko noted that the strategic partnership between Russia and Armenia consists of joint work on the extension of the exploitation times of the second unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant’ (Metsamor NPP), supply of nuclear fuel, nuclear and radiation safety issues.

In March 2014, the Armenian government extended the service life of its second power plant. Russia’s nuclear energy corporation Rosatom agreed to work jointly with Armenia on the project to extend the power unit’s service life until 2026.

Russia and Armenia signed a deal in 2014 to extend the service life of the second reactor.

Officials from several countries have said that more than 1,000 people died in last week’s stampede near Mecca during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, the reports.

The last figure given by the Saudi authorities was 769.

However, a Nigerian official told the BBC that more than 1,000 bodies had been taken from the disaster site to morgues in the city of Jeddah.

Indian, Pakistani and Indonesian officials have also been quoted as saying they think more than 1,000 died.

Several countries have been severely critical of the way the Saudi authorities have handled the accident’s aftermath, notably Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, which lost at least 228 people in the disaster.

Iranian  claims the Saudi government confirms the death toll in the recent Hajj tragedy has reached 4,173.

It quotes Saudi Vice Minister of Health Hamad bin Muhammad Al-Duweila as saying on Tuesday that he has received a photo showing that 4,173 pilgrims were killed in the tragic incident in Minda, near the holy city of Mecca.

Divisions among world leaders on Syria have been laid bare in speeches at the UN General Assembly.

The US and France insisted Syria’s President Assad must go, but Russia said it would be an “enormous mistake” not to work with him to tackle Islamic State (IS) militants, the BBC report.

However, the US and Russia did hint at compromise. Barack Obama said he would work with any nation and Vladimir Putin called for a “broad coalition”.

In his speech, Mr Obama said compromise among powers would be essential to ending the Syrian conflict, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives and forced four million to flee abroad.

“Lasting stability can only take hold when the people of Syria forge an agreement to live together peacefully,” he said.

“The US is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict. But we must recognise that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the pre-war status quo.”

Speaking soon after, Mr Putin said it was an “enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government and its armed forces who are valiantly fighting terrorism face-to-face”.

He also called for the creation of a “broad anti-terror coalition” to fight IS, comparing it to the international forces that fought against Nazi Germany in World War Two.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)  is extending assistance of $89.3 million to help Armenia build earthquake-resilient schools and scale up its capacity for responding to natural disasters in one of the most earthquake prone regions in the world.

“Since the massive Spitak earthquake in 1988, national authorities have taken numerous steps to develop emergency management and response systems and to improve building design and construction,” said Yong Ye, Principal Urban Development Economist in ADB’s Central and West Asia Department. “This  assistance will support ongoing government efforts to rebuild and strengthen school buildings to higher earthquake-resistant standards and to further develop the government’s capacity, ownership and initiative in the management of earthquake risks.”

Armenia has about 1,400 schools and around 1,000 of them require strengthening and reconstruction works at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion.

ADB’s loan and grant will support improvements to at least 46 priority schools. It will also help the target schools develop disaster preparedness and response plans, with earthquake awareness campaigns to be carried out in neighborhood communities for each school.

The assistance program incorporates lessons learned from ADB’s responses to natural disasters in other countries, including the recent Nepal earthquake. It will benefit around 58,700 students, teachers and other staff, as well as over 87,000 residents living near the target schools, who will have access to improved temporary shelters during earthquakes.

ADB’s assistance includes an $88.5 million loan from its concessional Asian Development Fund, and a technical assistance grant of $800,000. The government will provide counterpart support equivalent to $18.5 million. The program will run for 5 years with an estimated completion date of November 2020.

The new Moscow Cathedral Mosque opened on Wednesday in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

The new building of the Moscow Mosque was erected on the place of a historical building constructed in the early 20th century and torn down in 2011.

Ideological concepts of the Islamic State are distorting and compromising Islam, President Vladimir Putin said at the opening ceremony, Interfax Religion reports.

“We can see what is going on in the Middle East where terrorists of the so-called Islamic State are compromising the great world religion, seeding hatred, murdering people, including clerics, and barbarically destroying world cultural monuments,” Putin said at the Moscow Cathedral Mosque opening ceremony.

The ISIS ideology “is built on lies, on blatant distortion of Islam,” he said.

Four Armenians were injured in a rocket attack on Nor Geghi neighborhood of Aleppo, Kantsasar newspaper reports.

The district came under heavy shelling on September 21. The attack left nine killed and many injured, a number of buildings were collapsed, the source said.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian participated in the reception dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the signing of Helsinki Final Act. Minister Nalbandian’s full speech at the event is provided below:

Honorable ambassador Sorokin,
Honorable ambassador Peshko,
Excellencies, ministers,
Ladies and gentlemen,

This year marks important commemorations, the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide, the 70th year of memorial of the Holocaust, 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, 70th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Charter and the creation of the UN, 40th anniversary of signing of the Helsinki Final Act. They do not only refer to our past and history, but also steer our future actions towards creating in the shared OSCE area a comprehensive, inclusive and indivisible security community free of genocides, wars, conflicts and dividing lines.

It is impossible to underestimate the importance of the Helsinki Final Act in the implementation of this objectives. Its signature has been crucial in post war Europe both in defining relations and cooperations between countries of the region and considerably influencing the future development of the international relations, as a whole.

The conference convened in Helsinki in 1975 was different from the other major international events of the 20th century history of Europe, because it did not bring together the winners and defeated nations for drafting the new postwar world order, but heads of states and nations with the goal to contribute to peace, security, justice and cooperation in Europe, as stated in the preamble of the Final Act.

Although the Helsinki conference did not put an end to wars, it importantly proposed a new model of Pan-European peace which is anchored on cooperation of the participants states and security on the one hand and the protection of human rights on the other.

Armenia honors its OSCE commitments and is an active participating state. Close cooperation has evolved with the OSCE structures, including the Office in Yerevan which is the only fully-fledged office of the OSCE in the South Caucasus, which in itself speaks of Armenia’s attitude towards international cooperation and other regional realities.

In 1975 the Helsinki final act was signed by 35 countries. It is now an organisation of 57 participating states. The significant growth of the OSCE family is driven by the implementation of the principals of the Helsinki Final Act, in particular the right of peoples to self-determination.

The unequivocal implementation of the norms set forth by the Helsinki Final Act 40 years ago, which we have inherited is one of the essential prerequisites for peace, security and prosperity in Europe. Therefore, constant care and attention to it should occupy a pivotal place in current international relation.

Thank You.

On 11 September Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan convoked a consultation dedicated to preparedness for the September 13 elections to local self-government bodies.

Head of the Central Electoral Commission Srbuhi Arzumanyan delivered a corresponding report.

President Sahakyan expressed confidence that as always everything would be done for holding the elections on a high level, open and transparent, in full correspondence with democratic norms.

National Assembly chairman Ashot Ghoulyan, prime-minister Arayik Haroutyunyan and other officials partook at the consultation.

Charles Aznavour called on Tuesday to provide refuge to migrants arriving in France, defending the idea expressed in the spring to repopulate the villages with these newcomers, AFP reports.

“It troubles me a lot, it’s very hard to see those people wandering around with their children,” said Aznavour, 91, who was born in Paris in 1924 to Armenian parents.

“There is something I’ve never known, but I think my parents had to live this life,” he added.

“We need to find a way to provide for their future existence,” he said.

“I am very determined on that, it must be done!” Aznavour concluded.

As the opening of Istanbul Biennial gets closer, it turns out that there are a lot of works that refer to the Armenian Genocide and the developments that followed it.

– This year, there is a different excitement before Istanbul Biennial. People work on the biennial in strict confidence and it will be opened on September 5; though we can roughly make out what to expect, we will be seeing lots of surprising projects.

Rubbing salt into the wound

14th Istanbul Biennial started out with a comprehensive title like “Saltwater.” When the tight-lipped attitude of curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and of the biennial team was added to this title, which refers to the source of life, geographical connection, Bosporus and many other themes, this event that will begin next week became even more mysterious.
Events of 14th Istanbul Biennial, which will be spread all over Istanbul, from Prince Islands to overseas, are designed with the works that have something to say about current issues and politics. As the curator Bakargiev says, Turkey has plenty of festering wounds. And this year’s biennial has the purpose of pointing at those wounds, though it cannot heal them altogether. In the interview that she gave to Blouin Artinfo on August 18, Bakargiev said: “This is almost a spiritual exhibition. These spirits come from the ethnic cleansing that carried against Armenians and Greeks.” And after “dOCUMENTA (13)” exhibition that she curated, she preferred not to involve in large-scaled projects for a while.

The sea that connects Istanbul to San Lazzaro

A great part of the biennial consists of individual presentations that are located in different places. This means, Bakargiev preferred to organize a group exhibition that consists of solo projects. Unusual venues like Trotsky’s house on Prince Islands, Rumeli Feneri, stores, boats and parking lots will be used as exhibition venues, in addition to museums and art institutions which are the usual destinations on the contemporary art route. The connection between those venues is constituted by the notions that are treated in various ways in the exhibitions and the saltwater that runs through Istanbul.

Considering that the works of Haig Aivazian, Anna Boghiguian, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Rene Gabri & Ayreen Anastas that were exhibited in the Armenia Pavilion of 56^th Venice Biennial and the works of Sarkis that had a solo exhibition in the Turkey Pavilion will be exhibited in this year’s Istanbul Biennial, it can be said that the saltwater doesn’t only bridges two sides of Istanbul, but also reaches all the way to Venice and Mıhtaryan Monastery on San Lazzaro Island.

As the opening of Istanbul Biennial gets closer, it turns out that there are a lot of works that refer to the Armenian Genocide and the developments that followed it. Michael Rackowitz’s work, which was inspired by the fibrous plasterer Garabet Cezayirliyan who made the ornamental work on the buildings like Yıldız Palace and Emek Movie Theater, is one of them. Tracing the footsteps of Cezayirliyan in Istanbul, Rackowitz combines his work with the remains that came from Vakıflı Village, which is the last Armenian village in Turkey. Artist Francis Alys, who lives in Mexico City, hails the bird species that no longer exist by imitating the pipes of the birds that lived in Ani district of Kars once; in this way, he also calls out to the Armenians who were forced to leave that region. Making a long-termed research on the lute player Hrant and exhibiting the conceptual sculpture that he made as a result of this research in the Armenia Pavilion in Venice Biennial, Haig Aivazian prepared a performance for Istanbul Biennial. As a part of this performance, the choir of Beyoğlu Üç Horan Church will perform a traditional song, which was also performed by the lute player Hrant, in Galata Greek Elementary School. In the project that Aslı Çavuşoğlu developed for the biennial, red dye will be produced from the insects; this is an Armenian technique that is not used anymore. Using the old building of Agos and Hrant Dink Foundation as a project venue, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri will turn this place into a truth center by referring to the past of the building. It should also be noted that Anarad Hığutyun Building, which is the new place of Hrant Dink Foundation, is one of the biennial venues.