Author: Vardan Badalian

Armenian Christmas: A personal tale

Vardan Badalian
Daily Sundial, California State University, Northridge
Jan 6 2018


By Alin Boughousi
–

Jan 6, 2018

A table set with dishes, such as zook, that are eaten during Armenian Christmas dinner . Photo credit: Karin Abcarians

Armenian Christmas occurs every Jan. 6 and is celebrated by all Armenian religions such as Catholic, Apostolic and Christian. It is a day for family to come together, break fast and be merry.

This holiday holds a special place in my heart since I am Armenian, and it gets me closer to my culture.

On Jan. 6, most of us go to church to celebrate. The church service features water blessed by the priest, which we then take home in many cups. The water is supposed to help all your ailments. When I went to my first Armenian church service, it was great and an eye-opening experience. I never knew what was involved in the ceremony. It made me feel closer to God and what it it means to be an Armenian.

This holiday is a good excuse to see family you haven’t seen a long time. We get the opportunity to gather with family one more time as the new year gets underway.

It’s all different from regular Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners; we eat traditional foods rather than turkey and ham. My family loves to cook the traditional foods: cuckoo pilaf which is a mixture of eggs and different greens that form together to make a cake-like dish, and zook, which is Armenian for “fish”. Some famiies also have kabobs.

For the zook, we sometimes have it breaded or we put the whole fish in the oven! We also add other things like salad, vegetables, rice and crispy fish for people who don’t like the normal salty fish and more. We dip Holy bread into wine and eat it – this symbolizes Christ.

We share stories of anything that has happened since we last saw each other on Christmas and eat, eat and eat! There’s also dessert after.

We end the night with goodbyes, which end up taking forever; Armenians tend to extend goodbyes. We’ll stand by the door continuously talking and almost forgetting we were leaving. Eventually, we actually say the goodbyes and head home.

One misconception people have about Armenian Christmas is that they think we get more gifts. That isn’t true. We don’t. In fact, it would be completely weird if we gave each other gifts. Ours is a celebration of Christ and his incarnation; it has to do with the baptism of Christ. People also tend to think we don’t celebrate regular Christmas because we have our own. That’s not completely true; some do and some don’t. Some families just wait until Armenian Christmas, while others celebrate both.

It’s nice to have an extra excuse to hang out with family isn’t it? In our busy and hectic lives, we sometimes forget to see our families, so the holiday season reminds us to slow down and appreciate them.

Cowritten with Karin Abcarians



Sports: Jose Mourinho reacts to Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s latest Man United performance

Vardan Badalian
The Sport Review
Jan 1 2017


The Armenia international’s future has been a source of relentless debate over the past couple of months after the attacking midfielder fell down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

The 28-year-old started his second Premier League game since a 1-0 loss to defending champions Chelsea on 5 November.

Mkhitaryan featured for a mere 45 minutes in a 2-2 draw with Burnley at Old Trafford on Boxing Day, while the Armenian playmaker lasted 65 minutes in a goalless draw with Southampton in their last home clash in 2017.

The former Borussia Dortmund midfielder has been linked with a potential return to the Bundesliga outfit in recent weeks, while Serie A giants Inter Milan have also been touted with an interest in the Armenian.

Asked about Mkhitaryan’s performances ahead of Manchester United’s dour goalless draw with the Saints, Mourinho replied: “He’s come on well with a good attitude, good dynamic and good enthusiasm.

“He gave something to the team in that second half [against Burnley last week] and so with Anthony Martial injured and Marcus Rashford playing 90 minutes of that match, it’s normal that I have to play other players when I can and have solutions in the squad to make that rotation.”

Manchester United brought in Mkhitaryan in a £30m deal from Dortmund in the 2016 summer transfer window after the attacking midfielder became the third signing of the Mourinho era.

The Red Devils are in third place in the Premier League table after Chelsea hoisted themselves above Mourinho’s side.

By The Sport Review staff

Arseny Roginsky, a Champion of Historical Truth

Vardan Badalian 
The New York Times
January 1, 2018 Monday


Arseny Roginsky, a Champion of  Historical Truth

By SERGE SCHMEMANN


Arseny Roginsky, a founder and the longtime head of the Memorial
organization in Russia who died on Dec. 18, was no doubt familiar with
the admonition of the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel that to forget a
holocaust is to kill twice. Mr. Roginsky's father died in prison, and
Mr. Roginsky himself spent four years in three different Soviet labor
camps in the 1980s for printing an underground journal whose goal was
''to rescue from oblivion all those historical facts and names that
are currently doomed to perish or disappear.''

That remained his mission to his dying day, briefly with the support
of the Russian state in the 1990s, then again in defiance of it as
Russia under Vladimir Putin set about creating a narrative of Russian
greatness in which historical facts could be a handicap. For Mr.
Roginsky, historical memory meant more than compiling records; it also
meant giving a name to the culprits -- the interrogators, the guards,
the state itself -- and sounding the alarm at violations of human
rights. In recent years, Memorial was targeted with searches, threats
of closing and identification as a ''foreign agent.''

It is not only in Russia, of course, that reckoning with a nefarious
past has been a struggle. Germany's Nazi past, America's Confederate
monuments, Turkey's refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide,
China's censoring talk about the Tiananmen massacre and many other
examples bear witness to the difficulty of confronting a troubling
history.

The reasons are many. Those who lived through hell, as Russians of an
older generation did, may prefer to blot out the horrors they endured
or inflicted. Younger generations prefer to live for today. Political
leaders prefer to project a noble history, sometimes by turning
complicity in atrocities into claims of victimhood. In Russia, Mr.
Putin and many of his lieutenants came from the K.G.B. and resisted
fully confronting its repressive history. And they, like many of their
countrymen, prefer to portray Stalin not only as the architect of the
Gulag but also as the leader who built Russia's industrial might and
led it to victory in the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known
in Russia.

The Russian state does not deny the Gulag. Memorials to victims exist
across Russia. The Butovo Poligon, or firing range, outside Moscow
where more than 20,000 political prisoners were shot and buried in
mass graves has been turned into a Russian Orthodox memorial site. In
October, President Putin opened a Kremlin-promoted monument to victims
of political repression in Moscow, the Wall of Sorrow.

To Mr. Roginsky, referring to ''victims of political repression'' was
not enough. The phrasing made it sound as if the repression descended
like a plague, he said in an interview with Masha Gessen in The New
Yorker, ''and then the repressions ended and we just keep on living.''
No, he said, ''these are victims of the state. This was state
terror.''

Yet Mr. Roginsky was not among the dissidents who scoffed at the Wall
of Sorrow as a hypocritical project of the state. It would still be
there after the current powers were gone, he argued, and even if it
did not give the full story, future generations would know there was a
great evil in Russia's past. Confronting the past is essential for a
nation's future, he believed, but it is a task for generations.

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Better Healthcare for Artsakh: Tufenkian Foundation Renovates a Clinic in Kashatagh

Vardan Badalian
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6 hours ago

Kashatagh Administration Chief of Staff Davit Davtyan joins clinic’s staff to cut the ribbon to the newly-renovated building

STEPANAKERT—The primary clinic of Iskhanadzor, a village in the liberated Kashatagh region of Artsakh, reopened its doors on Monday after months of renovation. Kashatagh Administration Chief of Staff Davit Davtyan, Tufenkian Foundation Executive Director Raffi Doudaklian, as well as representatives of the Artsakh Ministry of Healthcare, Berdzor Hospital and the Ishkhanadzor community attended the opening event.

The clinic after the renovations

Built by the Tufenkian Foundation during 2004-2006, the clinic is the only healthcare provider serving a cluster of 16 remote villages in Kashatagh. More than a decade into operations, the clinic was in need of urgent renovations if it was to continue its services.

Realizing the importance of this facility for Ishkhanadzor and all of Southern Kashatagh, the Tufenkian Foundation took up the renovation of the clinic in early September. Substantial improvements were made to the walls, flooring, windows and the external façade of the building, thus ensuring the maintenance of the clinic well into the future. As with all construction efforts carried out by the Tufenkian Foundation, the renovation works were entrusted to local workers from Kashatagh.

Addressing the guests at the opening event, Tufenkian Foundation Executive Director Raffi Doudaklian said “The resettlement and development of Kashatagh is not just important for the people living here. It is vital for all of Artsakh and Armenia. We need to work together to bring new life and opportunities to these liberated lands.”

The clinic currently employs 5 healthcare professionals serving more than 500 patients every year. Medical care provided by this clinic is essential for the people of Kashatagh, where accessible medical services are scarce due to poor roads and transportation. Until recently, village-based facilities were practically nonexistent, and medical emergencies such as snakebites, sudden illnesses, and even childbirths often resulted in casualties.

Building, equipping and later renovating the Iskhanadzor clinic is only one of the initiatives carried out by the Tufenkian Foundation towards improved healthcare in Kashatagh. Since 2005, the Foundation has built and equipped other, smaller clinics – notably those in Msheni and Aghavnatun – found in remote areas. In addition to building and renovating clinics, it operated a Mobile Clinic throughout 2008-2010. This supplementary service provided medical care to 2,000 people, including 597 children during its operations.

To further improve the healthcare situation in Artsakh’s liberated borderlands, the Tufenkian Foundation is planning to build a medical clinic in Moshatagh, a village in Northern Kashatagh that currently has no healthcare facilities.

The Foundation was launched in 1999 by entrepreneur James Tufenkian with the mission to empower the initiatives of local citizens, support the most vulnerable strata of the society, promote environmental protection and awareness, and advance social justice in Armenia. Since 2003, the Foundation has broadened its scope to embattled Nagorno-Karabagh, where it promotes resettlement and development projects in the vulnerable border zones of the region.

Dashnaktsutyun Party takes eleventh break

Vardan Badalian
  • 17:44 | December 21,2017 | Politics
  • Հայ
  • Рус

The NA Speaker Ara Babloyan put in a vote making amendments in the RA law on “Local Self-Government “and the attached draft laws.

Aghvan Vardanian, a member of the Dashnaktsutyun Party, stated that according to Article 63 of the NA Rules of Procedure, Dashnaktsutyun took a 20-minute break. Let’s note that this was the 11th break. The previous 10 were taken by the Yelk (Way Out).

Սերժ Սարգսյանը կդառնա Հայաստանի վարչապետ. Կոնստանտին Զատուլին

Vardan Badalian
  • 19.12.2017

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4
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Հայաստանի նախագահ Սերժ Սարգսյանը, հավանաբար, կպահպանի իշխանությունը և կդառնա վարչապետ երկրի խորհրդարանական կառավարման մոդելին անցնելուց հետո: Այս մասին տեսակամուրջի ժամանակ հայտարարել է ՌԴ Պետդումայի ԱՊՀ, եվրասիական ինտեգրացայի և հայրենակիցների հետ կապերի հարցերով հանձնաժողովի փոխնախագահ Կոնստանտին Զատուլինը:


«Գործադիր իշխանությունը, որն այսօր Հայաստանում կիսում են նախագահն ու վարչապետը, ամբողջությամբ կանցնի վարչապետին, բայց միևնույն ժամանակ իշխանության մեջ զգալի փոփոխություններ չեն լինի»,- ասել է նա:


Զատուլինը հայտարարել է, որ տեսնում է Սերժ Սարգսյանին վարչապետի պաշտոնում.


«Ես չեմ կարող ավելի լավ իմանալ նրա հնարավոր հետնորդներին, քան Հայաստանում կիմանան, բայց նախապատմությունը ապացուցել է, որ Հայաստանն ընդունակ է կայացնել այնպիսի որոշումներ, որոնք թույլ են տալիս շարունակել ճանապարհը առանց լուրջ ներքին ցնցումների»,- շեշտել է ռուս պատգամավորը:


Նշենք, մինչ ՀՀԿ-ականները իրար հերթ չտալով հայտարարում են այն մասին, որ վարչապետի պաշտոնում տեսնում են միայն Սերժ Սարգսյանին, վերջինս օրերս հայտարարեց, որ դեռ որոշում չի կայացրել.


«Ժամանակը դեռ չի եկել, երբ կգա` կհայտարարեմ։ Տարբեր գործոններ կան՝ անձնականից մինչև այլ գործոններ։ Կարծում եմ` մենք վերջիվերջո իրավունք ունենք որոշելու՝ նկատի ունեմ ՀՀԿ-ն` կոալիցիոն գործընկերոջ հետ միասին, թե ով, որտեղ ավելի արդյունավետ կարող է աշխատել»,- «Արմենիա» հեռուստաընկերության «Բանաձև» հաղորդման եթերում հայտարարել է ՀՀ նախագահը:

Film: The Promise (DVD) Review – A powerful, harrowing look at the Armenian genocide

Vardan Badalian
Critical Hit
Dec 3 2017
By Craig Risi
Posted on 

War movies are a regular staple of the movie world, which we see released every year. Sadly, even movies about genocide are becoming more commonplace. Most are decent, but it becomes increasingly difficult for war movies to stand out as a result.

The Promise is one of those movies that looks to stand out from the crowd, though perhaps not because of its style or angle, but more purely because of its subject matter. Whereas most war movies focus on the events of World War 1 and 2, The Promise instead takes us to 1910s Turkey to focus on the Armenian Genocide instead.

The Armenian Genocide is one of those tragic events in history that is little publicized and recognized despite the incredible depravity of the events rivalling the holocaust of World War 2. The Promise looks to change all that by bringing the plight of the Armenian genocide to the big screen. Sadly, the film didn’t quite achieve its purpose as it mostly tanked at the box office, but hopefully it can gain some life through its DVD release and be seen by more people.

As a war film that harrowingly displays the genocide of a race of people, The Promise can easily live up there with many of the best films of its type. It’s perhaps a little light on raw combat, but is heavy in its portrayal of brutality and draws you in to the despair of its characters remarkably well. The film achieves this by not trying to get too caught up in the greater war effort or vast battle scenes, but instead focusing on a small group of people as they fight for their survival. To perhaps clarify further, it will more than likely move you emotionally about the genocide and the lives lost than it will envelop your senses as a war film.

Director Terry George (who co-writes alongside Robin Swicord) has created some tight emotional drama around the production’s beautifully scenic backdrops that keep the film pretty to look at, without distracting you too much from the emotional heart of the story.  The story focuses on its small set of main characters and how they each experience the genocide in different ways.

There is Mikael (Oscar Isaac), an apothecary who moves to Constantinople to study medicine, but not before he vows to return and marry the daughter of a wealthy neighbour who will be funding his studies. However, once in Constantinople, he befriends Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), an Armenian woman from Paris and her American suitor (Christian Bale) who is in the country to report on the Ottoman empire.

Needless to say, the Ottoman Empire’s plans for genocide interfere with their intentions and they all end up trying to fight their plight in many ways. There is a lot more going on in the story, but the script focuses on the leads as much as possible, creating high emotion through their experiences rather than trying to desensitize the viewer from other details of the war.

However, as much as The Promise is a war movie, it is also trying to be a love story and this is where some of its cracks start to show. Much like how Titanic was a remarkable technical achievement showing the horror of the ship’s tragic sinking, but forced you to watch the frequently iffy romance to get through it, The Promise unfortunately does the same thing.

It is perhaps a little more realistic and covers a wider period of time to make its relationships feel more believable, but the film’s characters lack a lot of chemistry and the love story has an almost forced pacing as a result of it trying to be shoehorned into the bigger story. Indeed, the very reason the film is called The Promise relates to a romantic promise made in the early part of the film. It feels a little pointless as it actually gets fulfilled rather early on before the film focuses more extensively on their escape efforts. It’s not a terrible story, but one that probably didn’t need to be there.

There is more than enough motivation and story for the film to drive its purpose forward without the need for characters trying to be involved in a love triangle. Given the grimness of the events, it also feels a little insensitive to the cause.

This lack of chemistry though is through no fault of its actors who are simply superb. Oscar Isaac in particular as the Armenian medical student caught in the middle of both war and love does a superb job with not only the accent, but in conveying the full emotional despair of his character. Similarly, both Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale, while perhaps not having as good material to work with, continue to provide the film with a lot of heart. The dialogue in the film is perhaps not its strong point and there are several times when the actors end up having to deliver beyond it to pull you into this story.

You shouldn’t be watching The Promise for its love story though and while it does feel tacked on, it doesn’t detract from the grimness of the war and the strong message the film is trying to convey about the Armenian genocide. Hopefully it can start a trend for many other films to follow in showing this piece of at-times disputed history and bring it to more general acceptance.

The Promise is a grandiose and powerful war film that deserves to be seen if just for its unique subject matter. The love story that the script is built upon is not strong, but watchable enough to not exactly make you regret the investment you make in the movie.  It’s a gritty film that’s not going to leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, but its grim tale is powerful enough to win you over to its cause.

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ANCA-SF and HALO Trust Rally Support for Artsakh De-Mining Efforts

Vardan Badalian
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9 hours ago

Author and photojournalist Scout Tufankjian (left); HALO Trust Director of Development Andrew Moore

Renowned Photojournalist Scout Tufankjian; TUMO Students Share Images of Artsakh at Event Held at PicsArt Headquarters

SAN FRANCISCO—The Bay Area Armenian community joined the Armenian National Committee of America San Francisco in supporting the life-saving Artsakh de-mining efforts of The HALO Trust last week, raising over $8000 at an event organized at PicsArt Headquarters in Downtown San Francisco.

ANCA-SF Board member Knar Kahkejian kicked off the evening with powerful remarks about the importance of Artsakh de-mining, followed by internationally renowned author Scout Tufankjian’s presentation of her photos and that of TUMOxAGBU Stepanakert students, capturing life in landmine impacted communities in Artsakh and the humanitarian work of The HALO Trust to clear these deadly mines.

HALO Trust Director of Development Andrew Moore offered an overview of the organization’s efforts and explained that funds raised at the San Francisco event will help clear a ten-acre minefield in Nor Maragha village in the Martakert region, within the vicinity of the main North-South Highway connecting Stepanakert with Martakert, the historical site of Tigranakert, and the iconic mountaintop monastery of Vankasar. Moore thanked PicsArt, ANCA-SF, and everyone who donated to help make Karabakh Mine Free.

ANCA-SF and The HALO Trust’s community fundraising efforts augment the Congressional funding received in support of the initiative, which is restricted to clearance within the Soviet-era boundary. Most recently, on September 9th, the U.S. House adopted an ANCA-backed amendment by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) which would send $1.5 million in U.S. assistance as part of the fiscal year 2018 foreign aid bill. The HALO Trust relies on private donations to clear minefields threatening families in Lachin, Martakert and Hadrut regions that lie outside this boundary. The ANCA has been leading the call for continued U.S. assistance to Artsakh since 1997. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently noted that the “State Department and USAID support the demining program and are currently reviewing information from HALO Trust requesting additional funds.” He confirmed that over $45 million has been provided to victims of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, a larger official figure than has been previously reported.

Over the last 16 years, HALO Trust has destroyed over 8,733 anti-personnel mines, 2,584 anti-tank landmines, 180,858 small arms ammunition, 12,423 cluster bombs and 48,572 other explosive items in Artsakh. The HALO Trust looks to complete Artsakh demining efforts by 2020. For more information on the Safe Steps for the people of Karabakh campaign visit www.halotrust.org/MineFreeNK

Levon Khalikyan: In petrol stations people must be sure that they are not deceived

Vardan Badalian
  • 15:48 | October 28,2017 | Economy
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In Tavush regional center of Ijevan, the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of the Market Surveillance Inspection Body (MSIB) held a meeting with businessmen.

It has already been the fourth region where we have organized meetings, and I emphasize once again that we are here as your partners, ready to assist you to eliminate the existing violations so that you are not fined as a result of our inspections in the future,” said Levon Khalikyan, head of the MSIB.

Heads of health care facilities were invited to the meeting, whose attention was drawn to the mandatory inspection of various medical equipment used by them. Previously, this requirement existed, and mostly everyone was aware of it. However, over the last two years, because of the liquidation of Market Supervision Inspectorate, and the inspection body formation process, the result of not carrying out inspections and keeping the issue in the center of attention was neglect of the verification. That was the reason why the respondents once again urged them to pursue the problem, for which they should apply to the appropriate bodies who would perform the examinations of the used medical equipment and would give them certificates. Failure to submit such a certificate to MSIB inspectors will result in a fine in 100-300 times of the minimum wage.

In petrol stations, besides the calibration of measuring devices, the fuel quality should be kept in focus.

“When a person recharges his car, he must be sure that he is not deceived, filling 18-18.5-19 liters instead of 20 liters. Our inspections show that there are a lot of such cases. So do the calibration and follow the fuel quality standards, clean the storage wells, otherwise accumulated sediments affect the quality of the fuel,” said Levon Khalikyan.

Boxe : Hayk Sedrakyan dans la douleur

Vardan Badalian
Le Républicain Lorrain, France
29 oct 2017
 
 
Boxe : Hayk Sedrakyan dans la douleur

  • Le 29/10/2017 à 18:00
Photo HD Pour ses débuts chez les professionnels, Hayk Sedrakyan s’est retrouvé en difficulté face à Mevludin Suleymani. Mais l’ascendant pris par le Forbachois en début de combat a payé. Photo Marion BOUR     

Après une longue carrière en boxe amateur, avec 160 combats à son actif, Hayk Sedrakyan a effectué ses premiers pas chez les professionnels, ce samedi soir au Cosec du Wiesberg, à l’occasion du gala de Forbach, le club qu’il a rejoint voici un an et demi. L’Arménien, qui évolue en super-léger, a signé ce nouveau départ par une victoire, aux points, aux dépens de Mevludin Suleymani (Schiltigheim), également novice à ce niveau. Mais que ce fut dur ! Malgré une entrée en matière réussie, laissant apparaître sa vitesse de bras, faisant même compter son adversaire dans la troisième reprise, Hayk Sedrakyan s’est essouflé.

Et Mevludin Suleymani a saisi sa chance. Un crochet du gauche puis une accélération gauche-droite dans le quatrième et dernier round ont failli avoir raison du protégé de Joseph Callerame, compté deux fois. Mais les juges lui ont donné la victoire, pour deux points (36-36, 38-37 et 38-37). «  On était tous les deux prêts , constate l’Arménien du CP Forbach. Mais j’étais stressé. Je me rends compte que la boxe professionnelle, c’est vraiment différent de l’amateur. Au final, même si j’ai gagné, je ne suis pas content de ce que j’ai fait.  » Dans les vestiaires, Hayk Sedrakyan, soutenu par son clan, n’est pas dupe. Si l’objectif est atteint, il a pu mesurer les efforts à accomplir pour exister à l’avenir dans l’univers professionnel.

Le duel, un derby même, entre Daniel Mehrstein, le Forbachois, et Diego Kiner, le Freymingeois, a tenu toutes ses promesses. La confrontation des juniors a été explosive et a tourné en faveur du boxeur local, dans une ambiance bouillante. «  On se connaît bien , rappelle Mehrstein. C’est un adversaire qui boxe bien, qui n’a pas peur.  » Au terme d’une série de gauche-droite, Kiner a mis un genou à terre dès la première reprise, au point d’être compté. Puis le Freymingeois a relevé la tête et donné du fil à retordre au Forbachois qui s’est employé à le faire plier. «  Je suis chez moi, je voulais absolument gagner devant mes supporters  », lance Mehrstein, soucieux d’aller loin en championnat de France, cette saison.

Et de deux pour Sindy Benkert ! Championne de France en pieds-poings, la Forbachoise commence à percer en boxe anglaise. Au Cosec du Wiesberg, la Mosellane a signé son deuxième succès dans la discipline face à Caroline Wiss (Muhlbach), aux points. «  Mais je n’ai pas boxé comme d’habitude , regrette-t-elle. J’ai eu des problèmes de perte de poids et, au final, elle avait deux kilos de plus que moi. Avant même le début du combat, j’avais les muscles crampés. J’ai eu du mal à placer mes attaques. En plus, j’étais crispée. J’ai gagné mais j’ai besoin de combat pour progresser.  »

Maxime RODHAIN.