Author: Shushan Frangulian

Photo: AFP

 

Some 400 people in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya need to be urgently evacuated for medical treatment, says UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien, the BBC reports.

After briefing the UN Security Council on the crisis in the rebel-held town near Damascus, he warned that those people could die.

Earlier, an aid convoy brought food to 40,000 town residents who have been under government siege for six months.

The UN says it has received credible reports of people dying of starvation.

Simultaneously, aid lorries entered two towns besieged by rebel forces in the northern province of Idlib under a deal between the warring parties.

The situation in Foah and Kefraya is also said to be extremely dire, with an estimated 20,000 people trapped there since March.

The arrival of the aid was delayed until both sets of lorries were ready to enter the towns.

Elly Award-winning playwright and director Aram Kouyoumdjian returns for the Sacramento premiere of his latest work Happy Armenians presented in a joint production with California Stage Theater Company and Vista Players, the reports.

Featuring the play’s original L.A. cast, the production will enjoy a special two weekend run February 19th-28th prior to its New York engagement.

A funny, imaginative, and poignant rumination on love, war, and the burdens of history, Happy Armenians upends the world order as we know it by casting Armenia as a modern empire in its parallel version of history. But when its king has only 30 more days to live, Levon, the unexpected (and unwilling) heir to the throne, must suddenly wrestle with the world’s most delicate geopolitical crises-a war against Switzerland, the colonization of Europe, and Africa’s control of the global economy-along with his budding love for the brilliant scientist, Siran.

Reviewers hailed the play’s L.A. world premiere this past October as “captivating” (Monica Astacio of El Vaquero) and “smart, fun, fresh & cleverly executed” by “an amazing technical and artistic team” (Lorenzo Marchessi). Happy Armenians boasts a stellar cast led by Daniel Hubbard as Levon and featuring the talents of Heather Lynn Smith, Tavis L. Baker, Jade Hykush, and Gregory DePetro. Kouyoumdjian’s “thrill ride across time and space” (Ishkhan Jinbashian of Asbarez) even garnered a Best Stage Play (Drama) nomination from the NoHo Fringe Festival.

Winner of Elly Awards for playwriting (The Farewells) and directing (Three Hotels), Aram Kouyoumdjian has been lauded for having “an adventurous artistic sensibility for intelligent productions” by the Sacramento Bee. His directing credits include Arcadia, Far Away, Marvin’s Room, The Play About the Baby, and Six Degrees of Separation, while his original plays and solo pieces have enraptured audiences from Los Angeles to London. His most recent productions include Ancient Gods with Garni Theatre Ensemble at the NoHo Arts Center (2014) and the open-air, site-specific performance i Go On at Grand Park (2015).

Vista Players is an award-winning theater ensemble devoted to staging contemporary plays of social relevance. Launched in Sacramento with its production of Six Degrees of Separation, the “acclaimed” troupe (Sacramento Bee) “set the standard by which others were judged” (Sacramento News & Review) for over six seasons. Vista Players is now L.A.-based, having made its Southern California debut with Happy Armenians.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has visited the families of Iranian Christian martyrs on the occasion of Jesus Christ’s birth anniversary, reports. 

In a picture  [email protected]_ir twitter account on Saturday, Ayatollah Khamenei can be seen during a meeting with the mother of a Christian martyr who lost life during the Iraq-Iran war.

“Soldiers’ endeavor roots in mothers’ endeavor,” the Leader said.

“The Christian minority – both Armenian and Assyrian – emerged honorably from the [1978] revolution and the [1980s Iraqi-imposed] war, as loyal, wise, insightful and brave Iranians,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

“Jesus has undoubtedly no less value among Muslims than his stature in the eyes of those who are fully devoted to Christianity,” read another tweet on Christmas Day.

 

 

 

“The situation was relatively calm at the border last night,” Spokesman for the Minister of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan told a press conference today. He said the final data on the losses of the Azerbaijan side would be published by the end of the year. According to different estimates, the number of losses exceeds 210.

The Spokesman said since the beginning of the year Azerbaijan has used weapons that had not been used after the conclusion of the ceasefire, including tanks, howitzers, anti-aircraft units.

Artsrun Hovhannisyan urges not to use the term “ceasefire violation,” when speaking about the Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, since we have long not had ceasefire and peace, we have a “relatively calm ceasefire.”

He said “the rival has tried to conquer military strongholds on several occasions over the past years, but has always faced a worthy response.”

“The adversary has used different means, but has never succeeded. Therefore, we can say Azerbaijan is moving along the path of exhausting its important forces, i.e. exhausting its ‘golden fund’,” Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

The Spokesman avoided speaking about CSTO response to the border tensions and referred to President Serzh Sargsyan’s speech at the CSTO Collective Security Council yesterday.

President Sargsyan said that “every time Azerbaijani Armed Forces use automatic guns, mortars and artillery equipment against the Republic of Armenia, they shoot in the direction of Astana, Dushanbe and Bishkek, Moscow and Minsk.”

“Taking into consideration the recent tense atmosphere in the region, we should not rule out that Azerbaijan has been guided or supported by outer forces,” the Armenian President stated.

“The downing of the Russian Su-24 by Turkey was a challenge to the fight against international terrorism, the efforts targeted at the settlement of the situation in Syria and establishment of peace in the region,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said, addressing the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council. He added that “any support to terrorism should be strongly criticized.”

“In case of the developments connected with the downing of the Russian jet we witnessed how a practical military-political alliance is being formed. The unequivocal support of the NATO member states, i.e. Greece, to Turkey, obviously shows that the principle of “one for all and all for one” is a compulsory condition for the effectiveness of such alliances. Even though Turkey’s actions contradicted all norms and principles of friendship and good-neighborly relations, even though it shot down a jet on military mission against terrorism, no NATO member state questioned the auctioned the actions of the Turkish side. We must draw lessons from this,” President Sargsyan said.

The killing of minorities by so-called Islamic State should be recognised as genocide, more than 60 British parliamentarians have said in a letter to the PM, the BBC reports.

They urge David Cameron to use his influence to reach an agreement with the UN that the term genocide be used.

This would send the message that those responsible would be caught, tried and punished, the letter adds.

IS has been systematically killing minority groups including Iraqi and Syrian Christians and Yazidis, it said.

The letter, written by MP Rob Flello and Lord Alton, said there was clear evidence of IS assassinations of church leaders, mass murders, torture, kidnapping for ransom in the Christian communities of Iraq and Syria and “the sexual enslavement and systematic rape of Christian girls and women”.

It also said the group was carrying out “forcible conversions to Islam”, the destruction of churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and Christian artifacts, and theft of lands and wealth from Christian clergy.

The letter said: “This is not simply a matter of semantics.

“There would be two main benefits from the acceptance by the UN that genocide is being perpetrated.

“First, it would send a very clear message to those organising and undertaking this slaughter that at some point in the future they will be held accountable by the international community for their actions; they will be caught, tried and punished.

“Second, it would encourage the 127 nations that are signatories to the Convention to face up to their duty to take the necessary action to ‘prevent and punish’ the perpetrators of these evil acts.”

 

 

 

Expert of monuments Samvel Karapetyan has been blacklisted by Georgia. He was denied entry to the country at the Sadakhlu checkpoint on October 18.

Speaking to reporters today, Karapetyan said he has never violated any laws in Georgia and is confident that he has been added to the “black list” because of the works dedicated to the destroyed or severely damaged Armenian monuments in Georgia.

The expert presented the works born as a result of his 20-yer-long activity. Among them is the book titled “The Georgian state policy and the Armenian cultural monuments,” which tells about the Armenian monuments demolished or desecrated as a result of Georgian state policy.

Exactly ten years ago the Azerbaijani authorities destroyed the Armenian cross-stones in Old Jugha, Nakhijevan. According to the expert, Iran is the only neighboring country, where there is no need to struggle for the preservation of Armenian monuments.

Liverpool are likely to be linked with a move for Borussia Dortmund’s star players after the Bundesliga club said they would be open to speaking with former manager Jurgen Klopp about potential transfer targets, reports.

Klopp is preparing for his first transfer window as Liverpool manager following his appointment at the start of October. Despite the club’s generally positive results and improved displays that have yielded 11 points from a possible 18 in the Premier League, it’s understood the German coach is keen to bolster his side. The logical focus of his interest would be in the players he knows from his time as Dortmund manager.

Among the players at Signal Iduna Park are international stars that would instantly improve the Liverpool squad, including Marco Reus, Mats Hummels, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ilkay Gundogan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

How open Dortmund would be to selling one of their star assets is unclear, but CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has revealed that the club would be open to speaking with their former employee Klopp should he make an approach.

“One thing is clear, we at BVB have a very good relationship with Jurgen,” he told Die Welt.

“I think there would be no conflict were there to be interest in one of our players at some point. He would contact us before (he contacts the player).”

Klopp is renowned for his man-management and enjoyed excellent relationships with members of his squad, potentially making any proposed switch to Anfield an alluring one.

A male suicide bomber hit a procession of Shi’ite Muslims in Nigeria’s Kano state as they walked to the city of Zaria to pay homage to their founder in the country, security sources and a Shi’ite leader said, Reuters reports.

Muhammad Turi said that 21 people had been killed and more wounded. Police said there were casualties but they could not confirm a figure.

The blast went off at around 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) near the village of Dakozoye outside the town of Garum Mallam, south of Nigeria’s second city Kano.

“It was in a bush area, on a farmland along the highway, our concern is to make everywhere safe. The bomb was made of high calibre explosive,” police commissioner Muhammad Musa Katsina said.

The commissioner said he did not know who was behind the bombing.

Suspicion is likely to fall on Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which frequently uses suicide bombers to hit soft targets like places of worship, markets and bus stations. Since losing most of the territory it controlled this year, it has returned to guerilla tactics and pledged allegiance to Islamic State based in Syria and Iraq.

Last week, two female suicide bombers hit a mobile phone market in Kano, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 100 others.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has announced that it would be leading a Business Delegation to Yerevan, Armenia between 27 November-1 December 2015, from Chennai, News Today reports.

FICCI head, Tamilnadu State Council, Ruban Hobday, said, ‘The delegation would focus on education, film shooting, hospitality, gem and jewellery, infrastructure,  IT products and services, drugs, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, handicrafts, minerals and mineral products, textile yarns and cotton fabrics, processed and semi processed food items, marine food, fruits and vegetables, stones and other construction material, leather product and non ferrous metallurgy among other sectors of mutual interest. The visit shall also aim at creating awareness among Armenian companies regarding the policy initiatives undertaken by our Government to enhance trade and investment ties between the two economies.

During the visit FICCI would be organising the business-to-business meeting, factory visits and meetings with government authorities concerned. The meeting would serve as a platform to interact with senior businessmen from Armenia.