Category: 2017

Book: The book on Opera and Ballet Theater of Armenia published with Beeline’s support

Garik Boshkezenian
iTel.am, Armenia
Dec 18 2017
The book on Opera and Ballet Theater of Armenia published with Beeline’s support

A comprehensive work on the history of A. Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet National Academic Theater of Armenia has been published with support from Beeline.

The book gives a detailed history of foundation of the theater and tells the biographies of the founders and performers.

“It is well known that Beeline highly appreciates the significance of preserving history and passing it down the generations. The establishment of the Opera and Ballet Theater is the most important part of the cultural history of Armenia. This book is also a tribute to the renowned performers and a source of knowledge and inspiration for young people,” said Beeline Armenia CEO Andrey Pyatakhin.

The book has been published in 500 copies.


Book: Stefan Ihrig and Abraham Terian Receive NAASR’s Aronian Armenian Studies Book Prizes

Emil Karabekian
The Armenian Weekly
Dec 18 2017
 
 
Stefan Ihrig and Abraham Terian Receive NAASR’s Aronian Armenian Studies Book Prizes
 
By Contributor on
 
BEMONT, Mass.—The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) announced on Dec. 14, that Dr. Stefan Ihrig and Dr. Abraham Terian have been awarded the 2017 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies.
 
NAASR announced on Dec. 14 that Dr. Stefan Ihrig and Dr. Abraham Terian have been awarded the 2017 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies
 
NAASR’s Aronian Book Prizes were established in 2014 by the late Dr. Aronian and Dr. Geoffrey Gibbs, to be awarded annually to an outstanding scholarly works in the English language in the field of Armenian Studies and translations from Armenian into English.  The 2017 awards are for books published in the year 2016.
 
Ihrig was awarded the prize for a monograph for his book Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler (Harvard University Press), while Terian won for a translation of a literary work, The Festal Works of St. Gregory of Narek: Annotated Translation of the Odes, Litanies, and Encomia (Pueblo Books). Each book has been hailed by readers and researchers, with, for example, Yehuda Bauer praising Ihrig’s work as “a major contribution to the study of German attitudes to the Armenian Genocide,” and James R. Russell stating that of Terian’s translation that “all subsequent work on Narekats‘i will be measured by its high standard.”
 
The announcement of the prizes was made by NAASR Director of Academic Affairs Marc Mamigonian on at NAASR’s Belmont headquarters during the NAASR Christmas Open House. Thanking fellow members of the selection committee for the awards Dr. Christina Maranci, Dr. Bedross Der Matossian, and Dr. Vartan Matiossian, Mamigonian noted the difficulty in choosing among a number of outstanding works in both categories, but that this was “a wonderful problem to have since it means that good work is being done by scholars and translators.”
 
In an e-mail, Abraham Terian expressed his “deep gratitude to NAASR and, in particular, to Dr. Sona Aronian for establishing this special prize for excellence in Armenian Studies… While we venerate our martyred saints of a hundred years ago, let us not forget our great Saint of a thousand years ago, as Pope Francis reminded us on the Genocide Centennial.”
 
Stefan Ihrig, also via e-mail, wrote that “I am very humbled to be awarded the Sonia Aronian Prize and thank NAASR and my wonderful colleagues in the field of Armenian Studies. I have so far only spent a few years of my life working on the Armenian Genocide and yet they have been among the most meaningful of them all. I have seen and better understood the meaning of courage. Working on the Armenian Genocide means not only working on an immensely important and difficult topic, it also means exposing oneself to attacks and slander by those threatened by our findings, interpretations, and opinions. All too often, we find ourselves taking many of the hardest steps alone. Meeting with colleagues from all over the world, including from Turkey, over the years, I felt a little less alone. And again, with this recognition, I feel a little less alone.”
 

Sports: Revealed: Why Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s exile at Manchester United may be a clash of styles rather than work ethic

Emil Lazarian
The Telegraph, UK
Dec 17 2017
Revealed: Why Henrikh Mkhitaryan's exile at Manchester United may be a clash of styles rather than work ethic 

would not stand in the way of any unhappy player leaving United in next month’s transfer window as long as the price was right. 

It is a tried and trusted tactic – put the onus on the player at the same time as creating circumstances that leave him with his back against a wall.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is not quite at that point, but his United career is at a crossroads 18 months after his £26.3million move from Borussia Dortmund. The question is now less about his role in Mourinho's starting XI and more about whether his exile from the Portuguese's 18-man squad is temporary or something more serious. The Armenian playmaker has been omitted from seven of the past eight squads, and few will be surprised if he is left out again against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns today.

Mourinho has taken to tiptoeing around the Mkhitaryan debate, instead talking generically about others being more deserving of their place, but he had no qualms about going in with two feet last month when he accused the player of a gradual "disappearing" act.

"His performance levels in terms of goal-scoring and assists, high pressing, recovering the ball high up the pitch, bringing the team with him as a No10, were decreasing step by step," Mourinho said. But is it as clear-cut as that? Or might there be a fundamental clash of philosophies and styles here, as Alan Smith, the former Arsenal striker, suggested this week. "He has not been playing well enough, but maybe the system doesn't suit him," Smith said.

It has long been fashionable to compare and contrast Mourinho and Pep Guardiola's brands of football, but it is not unreasonable to wonder if Mkhitaryan's skill set, turn of speed and technique would be better suited to Manchester City's attacking system than United's more rigid set-up.

There was never any chance of City's creative sparks being asked to tackle Spurs last night in the way Mkhitaryan was predominantly tasked with trying to cut off Tottenham's out-ball to Harry Winks at Old Trafford in October, for example. Creator effectively became makeshift destroyer – chasing, screening, harrying, grappling. This reactive role was not what Jurgen Klopp or Thomas Tuchel envisaged for their creative fulcrum at Dortmund.

Mkhitaryan created one chance, attempted 37 passes, made three recoveries and ran 8.2 kilometres in that Spurs game compared with averages of 10.54 kilometres covered, 50 passes made, 5.8 recoveries and 3.4 chances fashioned in his opening five league games of the campaign when the accent was on attack. Against Liverpool and Chelsea, he made an average of 28.5 sprints compared with 51.6 in those first five fixtures.

Stories about Mkhitaryan going in on his days off or doing extra work to win back Mourinho's trust ignore the fact that he has always done that.

Tuchel tells how at his time at Dortmund they had returned home from a European game in the early hours and noticed Mkhitaryan's car at the training ground long after everyone had gone home. Curious as to what was going on, Tuchel found Mkhitaryan sat in an ice bath at 4am. Klopp spoke of a player who was the harshest of selfcritics. Professionalism has never been an issue. Whether Mkhitaryan and Mourinho's footballing attitudes are compatible, though, is another matter.