Author: Vicken Chmshkian

 

 

 

German writer and historian Michael Hesemann has been studying the Armenian Genocide for over 20 years now.

The historian has studied more than 3000 pages of the Vatican Secrete Archives related to the Armenian Genocide. He says all archives are open, it’s only necessary to write a letter to get access to the Vatican Archives of the period of Benedict XV until 1939.

“What I found is a very drastic, very moving eyewitness reports from monks and priests who managed to escaped the genocide, managed to escape to Constantinople and reported about what happened to the Armenian Patriarchate and the Pope’s Apostolic delegate, the Representative of the Pope in Constantinople,” Hesemann told reporters in Yerevan.

“Besides, we have the documentation of the attempts to stop the killing, to stop the massacres, to stop the deportation by the Apostolic delegate and the Pope himself, who wrote hundreds of letters to the Sultan, which the Apostolic delegate tried to present to eth sultan, but never got an audience for weeks. Only with the help of the Austrian and German Ambassadors he got the access to the Sultan, and the latter responded to the letter with a great delay. When he replied in November 1915, the greatest part of the deportation had already happened, and the Armenians were already in the Syrian deserts to die,” the historian said.

“It is also a story of deceit, a story of how the Turks tried to deceit the Pope about what was going on. So the Archives clearly document what Pope Francis called in 1915 the first genocide of the 20^th century,”

Referring to the Turkish attempts to deny the Armenian Genocide, he said, all archives are open today, the Vatican , the American and German archives are open, and the only archives that remain partially closed are the Turkish ones.

According to him, all scholars in the world who have studied the archives will clearly say it was not only a genocide of Armenians, but also an extermination of the Christian element in the Ottoman Empire. It was a kind of ethnic or religious cleansing.

According to the , Dortmund have knocked back an opening £19m offer from Manchester United for the Armenia international, who is about to enter the final 12 months of his contract.

Mkhitaryan has rejected a new four-year deal on offer at Dortmund and German paper claim Mourinho is willing to double his pay to £7.9m (€10m) per season.

The 27-year-old favours a move to United, according to his agent Mino Raiola.

“Man United is a unique opportunity,” Raiola told Bild.

“Micki wants to go there immediately.”

According to reports, Arsenal have also submitted a bid.

However, Dortmund are planning to keep the attacking midfielder for the final year of his contract before allowing him to leave on a free transfer.

Following Merkel is US presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

United States Federal Reserve Chair and American economist Janet Yellen and billionaire Melinda Gates are the world’s third and fourth most powerful women, respectively.

Last year, Gates was in third place while Yellen was in the fourth spot.

Rounding up the top 10 are General Motors CEO Mary Barra, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, HP CEO Meg Whitman, and Santander Group CEO Ana Patricia Botin.

For this year, Forbes did not include women from the entertainment industry into consideration, “making room for a wide inclusion of female leaders across the globe who have been elected to office.”

This year’s ranking thus represents women from seven categories: billionaires, business, finance, media, politics, philanthropists and nongovernment organizations, and technology.

 

 

 

Fr. Shahe Ananyan, Director of the Inter-Church Relations Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin met with reporters today to present the details of the Pope’s upcoming visit to Armenia.

The visit of Pope Francis to the Republic of Armenia will start on 24 June. The official welcoming ceremony will be held upon his arrival at the Zvartnots International Airport, following which the Pope will travel to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, where a welcoming service will be offered in the Mother Cathedral.

In the evening, Pope Francis will meet with President Serzh Sargsyan, of the Republic of Armenia; then with the authorities and community leaders and representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia. The first day will conclude with a meeting at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, with His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

On the morning of 25 June, His Holiness Pope Francis will visit Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex and Museum in Yerevan. Pope Francis, along with His Holiness Karekin II, will visit the city of Gyumri, where a Divine Liturgy will be offered in Vardanants Square. The Pope will also visit Our Lady of Armenia Convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Gyumri; then the Seven Wounds St. Mary Church of the Diocese of Shirak of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church and the Holy Martyrs Armenian Catholic Cathedral. In the evening, an outdoor Ecumenical Service and Peace Prayer will be held in Yerevan – in Republic Square.

On 26 June, in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Pope Francis will meet with Armenian Catholic bishops, and then participate in a Divine Liturgy and an Ecumenical dinner, along with the Catholicos of All Armenians, the Archbishops and Bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, Armenian Catholic Archbishops and Bishops and the Papal delegation. Pope Francis will also meet delegates and benefactors of the Armenian Church. His Holiness Pope Francis and His Holiness Karekin II will sign a joint declaration.

The Spiritual leaders will offer their prayers at the Khor Virap Monastery, following which Pope Francis will depart for Rome.

The New South Wales Parliament’s Armenia-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group has released a joint statement supporting “the people of Nagorno Karabakh in seeking self-determination” and expressing “its strong concern at recent Azeri aggression” towards the Armenians of Artsakh.

The statement, was moved as a Group Resolution by Chairman Jonathan O’Dea MP and supported by all members during their joint meeting this week, attended by members of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia).

The Armenia-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group includes members of all parties, as well as Independents of the Upper and Lower Houses of the NSW Parliament.

ANC Australia Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian praised the move by O’Dea and his colleagues, at a time when reports indicate that Azerbaijan is again building up its border military resources after its unprecedented post-Ceasefire attacks on the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh from April 1-5.

“This resolution shows the unequivocal and continuing support from members of a Parliament, which has already recognised the rights to self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh in its Legislative Council,” said Markarian.

“The people of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh seek and deserve peace, and this statement shows that a bi-partisan group of NSW Parliamentarians stand with the government and people of Artsakh,” Markarian added.

The full statement reads:

“The Armenia-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group indicates its support for the people of Nagorno Karabakh in seeking self-determination, and expresses its strong concern at recent Azeri aggression towards the people of Armenian background in that region.”

On 5 May Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received prelate of the Tehran Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Sepuh Sargsyan.

Issues related to the state-church relations, the large-scale combat operations launched by Azerbaijan from 2 to 5 April and their consequences were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan underlined that the Armenian Apostolic Church had a great contribution in cementing and expanding the Motherland-Diaspora ties and expressed gratitude to Archbishop Sepuh Sargsyan for continuous assistance shown to Artsakh.

Primate of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan partook in the meeting.

The Azerbaijani side kept firing in the direction of Armenian positions in the northeastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border last night, the Ministry of Defense reports.

The front divisions of the Armenian Armed Forces show restraint and resort to retaliatory measures only in case of extreme necessity.

According to the NKR Defense Ministry, the Azerbaijani side mostly used artillery weapons as it violated the agreement on ceasefire last night.

 

 

 

The German Bundestag is set to vote on an Armenian Genocide bill on June 2, according to an agreement reached in April between the Greens and the government.

The ruling coalition, the Left and the Alliance90/Green Parties have reached an agreement to call the 1915 events “genocide.”

If adopted, the bill will come to replace the special resolution adopted by the Bundestag on 2008, which, failed to label the events as “‘genocide,” calling them “massacre” and “forced deportation” instead.

“The things that come on German agenda, are shown on German TV or discussed in the Bundestag are not decided by Mr. Erdogan, Mr. Putin or other authoritarian leaders. I’m glad that thanks to consistent serious work we’ve reached a joint approach with the Federal Government to raise the issue of the genocide of Armenians and other Christians in the Bundestag,” Green Party Co-Chair Cem Özdemir told .

“I’m glad that we can finally recognize the Armenian genocide with a joint resolution,” he said.

Green Party brought the motion to the parliament in February, but the voting was postponed, since coalition parties Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) demanded a common motion.

Bundestag discussed a motion on April 24, 2015 for the first time, but there was no voting. While the government avoided using the term “genocide”, President and President of Bundestag Norbert Lammert openly used the word “genocide” to describe the events of 1915.

“Friendship with Turkey does not mean we have to keep silent about the issues, especially considering that we share the responsibility as an ally of the Ottoman Empire. We want to see a strong, European Turkey. The opening of the shared border is in the interests on not only Turkey, but also Armenia and Europe,” Özdemir said.

Armenian lawmaker offers Russian colleagues to visit Nagorno Karabakh to assess the situation on the ground.

Kopryun Nahapetyan, Head of the National Assembly’s Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs, made the proposal at the Committee’s joint sitting with the Russian Federal Council’s Committee on Defense and Security.

“Dear colleagues, I offer to organize a visit to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic so that you see the consequences of the war and listen to the shots. The criminal actions of the Azerbaijani authorities against the people of Karabakh do not differ from those of the Islamic State,” Nahapetyan said.

Two Armenian soldiers were killed in Karvachar last night. Spokesman for the Armenian Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan confirmed the news to Public Radio of Armenia.