Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

Turkey’s president has declared a state of emergency for three months following Friday night’s failed army coup, the BBC reports.

Speaking at the presidential palace in Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that “all the viruses within the armed forces will be cleansed”.

The declaration could be used to extend the detention of nearly 10,000 people rounded up since the failed coup.

More than 600 schools have been closed and thousands of state workers sacked in a crackdown by the president.

“This measure is in no way against democracy, the law and freedoms,” said Erdogan after announcing the state of emergency.

He praised those who were killed fighting against the coup as “martyrs”. Some 246 people were killed resisting the attempted coup, according to the government.

rdogan was speaking after holding meetings of Turkey’s national security council and the cabinet in the capital.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire 23 times at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night, NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival fired more than 170 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions, including from sniper rifles.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army refrained from response actions and continued the reliable protection of the military positions.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images

 

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms the death of a second citizen of the Republic of Armenia in Nice attack.

The Ministry had about one Armenian killed in the attack.

At least 84 people have been killed after a lorry ploughed into a crowd attending Bastille Day celebrations in the French city of Nice on Thursday night, in what is being investigated as a terror attack.

The driver ploughed on for 2km on the Promenade des Anglais after fireworks, before being shot dead by police.

President Serzh Sargsyan on Friday met with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of a NATO summit being held in Warsaw, Poland. The Armenian President first offered condolences to Secretary Kerry over the.

The interlocutors discussed issues related to the  Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution. President Sargsyan hailed the efforts of the US, in its capacity as a Minsk Group co-chairing country, towards ensuring peace and stability in the region.

President Sargsyan praised Kerry for the practical steps targeted at overcoming the situation established in the conflict zone as a result of Azeri aggression against Nagorno Karabakh in April this year As a result, he said, meetings were held in Vienna and St. Petersburg and joint statements were adopted.

Serzh Sargsyan and John Kerry referred to issues discussed during a recent phone conversation between the Presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation.

The parties stressed the importance of unconditional implementation of the agreements reached at the summits in Vienna and St. Petersburg.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is set to become the first Armenian to wear the famous red of Manchester United following his £26 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund, but he’s not the first Armenian to make England’s north west his home.

By Matt Ford

The 27-year-old attacking midfielder, who scored an impressive 23 goals in 51 games for the German club last season, and set up 32 more, will join an established Armenian community which has lived in Manchester for generations.

And Artur Bobikyan, head of the Holy Trinity Armenian Church on Upper Brook Street which forms the centre of Manchester’s Armenian community, says that Armenians in the city are looking forward to welcoming their compatriot.

“We’re really proud of Henrikh and he is such a humble guy,” says Artur, speaking to MM at the Armenian Taverna restaurant on Albert Square.

“He’s a brilliant player and we hope he’s going to score a lot of goals for United.”

The first Armenians to arrive in Manchester were textile merchants in the first half of the 19^th century and by 1862 there were around 30 Armenian firms operating in “Cottonopolis.”

The Holy Trinity church opened its doors on Easter Sunday 1873 by which time there were over 2,000 Armenians living in the north west of England.

Manchester’s Armenian community today numbers around 400 people, many of whom gathered on 3 July to celebrate Vardavar, the annual festival during which Armenians drench each other with water.

“We invited Mkhitaryan to our Vardavar celebration at the church,” says Artur, who is also a concert pianist and composer.

“We said to him: ‘Come here and we’ll wet you properly!’ We’re sure he will turn up at church at some point.

“Media interest in Armenia is huge and I’ve already had requests from friends of mine at home asking for reports, so it’s going to be big.

“Everyone in Armenia is talking about him.”

Football is the most popular sport in Armenia and Mkhitaryan is the top scorer in the history of the national team with 19 goals in 59 appearances.

His father, Hamlet Mkhitaryan, played for Armenian side Ararat Yerevan in the 1980s, scoring 46 goals in 170 games in the former Soviet Top League, before dying of a brain tumour in 1996 when Henrikh was just seven.

“I believe playing for such a great club honours my father’s memory, and the inspiration and drive he gave to me when I was young,” reads Henrikh’s statement on the club’s website.

Artur, who played football on the pitches behind the seminary with the other priests when he was studying to join the clergy, recalls how everyone remembers when Ararat won the Soviet championship in 1973.

“Sport was very important and especially football. The Soviet Union contained over a dozen different countries so it was a very big deal back then.”

Football faces competition from another of Armenia’s favourite pastimes – chess.

Armenia has more chess grandmasters per capita than any other country in the world and chess lessons have formed a compulsory part of the school curriculum since 2011.

“The President of Armenia is a great chess player and he supports it, so they encourage chess from a young age,” explains Artur.

“It’s great to exercise the mind. If you walk around the back streets of Yerevan, you will see men playing chess in the shade – and kids playing football, obviously.

“Football is still really big now. Perhaps not compared to the Spanish or Latin countries as we are a very small nation – it’s about quality rather than quantity!”

Armenia might be a pawn in the world of professional football, but in Henrikh Mkhitaryan, United hope to have found their own grandmaster to keep their rivals in check.

And despite missing the Vandavar festival this year, he probably won’t have to wait too long to get drenched in Manchester either.

Armenia expects more countries to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a century ago as genocide after remarks by Pope Francis and the stance taken by Germany’s parliament, President Serzh Sargsyan has said.

Germany’s lower house adopted a resolution this month declaring the killings of Christian Armenians by Ottoman forces in World War One a “genocide.”

During a visit to Armenia on Friday, the pope departed from his prepared text to use the term, angering Turks.

“The principled position of the pope and the views expressed by the Bundestag will pave the way for new recognitions by other nations,” President Serzh Sargsyan told in an interview.

“Germany is a very important and significant actor on the international stage and this decision will serve as a good example for other nations to follow and to learn from it,” he said.

Sargsyan criticized Turkey’s position over its aspiration to join the European Union, saying Ankara was trying to use a policy of dictatorship to bring pressure to bear on the bloc.

“I don’t think that Turkey is … an actor that can impose its views, or exercise pressure, on the European Union,” he said.

“I don’t honestly see any prospects that would pave the way for Turkey joining the EU.”

Armenian Americans will be closely following Pope Francis’ historic trip to Armenia this weekend, energized by his moral leadership during the Armenian Genocide Centennial last year and hopeful that his courage will inspire our U.S. President and Congress to end their complicity in Turkey’s genocide denial, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

A highlight of the Pontiff’s busy three day schedule in Armenia will be his visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial (Tsitsernakaberd) on Saturday morning (local time), after which he will meet a dozen descendants of the 400 Armenian orphans who were rescued in 1915 and lodged at the papal Castel Gandolfo residence near Rome.

“The Pope’s prayers at the Armenian Genocide Memorial will echo around the world,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “The presence of Pope Francis at the Armenian Genocide Memorial – over the strident objections of Turkey’s leaders – stands as a powerful moral testament against Ankara’s ongoing obstruction of justice for this crime. In bearing witness – before all the world – at this most sacred site, Pope Francis is openly challenging Turkey’s efforts to erase from history its massacre and exile of millions of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and other ancient Christian nations from their biblical era homelands.”

Hamparian went on to share his hope that the Pope’s visit will inspire U.S. leaders to stop aiding and abetting Turkey’s century-long campaign of Genocide denial. “President Obama, Speaker Ryan and all our Congressional leaders would do well to follow the courageous moral leadership of Pope Francis in rejecting Ankara’s gag-rule and speaking honestly about Turkey’s near genocidal annihilation of the Christian Armenian nation,” explained Hamparian. “This visit by Pope Francis to the first Christian state both reflects and reinforces the Christian world’s solidarity with the Armenian people.”

 

 

 

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin does not attach importance to the issue of whether or not Pope Francis will or will not utter the word ‘genocide’ during his trip to Armenia.

“During the Mass at the Vatican in 2015 the Pope widely referred to the Armenian Genocide and called on the world to heal that bleeding wound,” Fr. Vahram Melikyan, Director of the Information Services Department of the Mother See said in an interview with .

“The Pope stressed that the tragedy should always be remembered in order to prevent reoccurrence of similar events in the future,” Fr. Vahram Melikyan said.

He added that it’s not important whether the Pope will use the word ‘genocide’ in Yerevan or not. “The fact that the Pontiff will visit the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial and participate in an Intercession Service is more significant that any term he uses,” Fr. Vahram Melikyan said.

The Vatican has also commented on the issue. “Why is there an obsession to use the word ‘genocide’ and ask about it in all the questions?” Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi testily responded to journalists at a briefing on the trip yesterday.

“We know what happened. None of us is denying that there were horrible massacres. We recognize this. We are going to the memorial precisely to remember this but we don’t want this to become a trap of political and ideological discussions,” Lombardi said.

Lombardi said he preferred to use the Armenian phrase “Medz Yeghern,” which roughly translates as “the great evil” or “the great calamity.”

Lombardi rejected a reporter’s suggestion that since the pope had used the word genocide last year the Vatican had chosen a policy of “reductionism” to placate Turkey.

 

 

 

Pope Francis will arrive in Armenia on June 24.  Ahead of the visit the Pope asked the faithful to pray for his upcoming trip to Armenia. “I ask you to pray for me, who in a few days will go as a pilgrim to an eastern land, Armenia, the first among the Nations to receive the Gospel of Jesus,” he said at an audience for the Reunion of Aid Agencies For the Eastern Churches.

“The Pontiff’s visit is a remarkable event for any country and any country he enters tries to best comprehend the meaning of the Pope’s messages,” theologian Vardan Khachatryan says. According to him, Armenia has always been seen in the Christian world as a key country, and it’s not accidental that the pope describes the visit as “pilgrimage to the first among the Nations to receive the Gospel of Jesus.” He considers that the visit at a time of turmoil in the region is not a coincidence, either.

The Pope will pray in a country, which shared the destiny of Jesus Crist by dying and rising again after the genocide. “This also contains an important message,” Vardan Khachatryan says. “Today Europe faces the challenge of restoring the Christian value system, a value system, which the Western civilizations are actually build upon.

Fr. Shahe Ananyan, Director of the Inter-Church Relations Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, says the Prayer of Peace by the Pope and His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and the Catholicos of All Armenians can serve a brilliant message of establishment of peace and religious tolerance in the region.

“I think this visit is first and foremost a sort of pilgrimage: the Pope’s gesture is one of affection and admiration for this ancient Church with its century-old Christian tradition; it is an act of devotion towards this country, the first to adopt Christianity in 301 when St. Gregory the Illuminator led the entire nation to conversion and baptism,” Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches said in an interview with La Stampa.

“The Pope will bring his gratitude and esteem for a people who were molded by the Christian spirit and managed to protect the precious treasure of faith and their own identity for centuries. This is the spiritual power upon which Armenia can build a future of peace and hope,” the Cardinal said.

The delegation headed by Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan has left for Moscow today to participate in a regular sitting of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers.