2017 – Page 54 – Armenian Directory & News

Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) November 28, 2017 Tuesday Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II: Syrian people will defeat terrorism maya Yerevan,SANA- Patriarch of All Armenians Catholicos Karekin II said that the Armenian Apostolic Church representatives do not miss a chance at the Ecclesiastical forums to call for supporting the Syrian people, affirming that the Armenian government backs Syria in the fight against terrorism. “The new reports about Syria stir hope that settling the crisis in Syria is short and all Syrian people would take part in the reconstruction process,” Patriarch Karekin added during a meeting with the Syrian Ambassador in Armenia, Muhammad Haj Ibrahim. He pointed out that the Armenian community in Syria is considered as the largest in the Middle East and the Armenian people have lived in peace along with the Syrian people. Karekin recalled his visit to Syria many years ago and what he felt of prosperity and safety in the country. The Syrian Ambassador, for his part, asserted that the Armenians are inseparable part of the Syrian society, adding that Syria is going on in combatting terrorism and reconstructing the country.

Turan Information Agency, Azerbaijani Opposition Wednesday What Caused Failure of Aviation Agreement between Azerbaijan and EU Baku / 29.11.17 / Turan: Despite the expected signing of an aviation agreement between Azerbaijan and the European Union in Brussels during the Eastern Partnership summit on November 24, which had been announced by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Mahmud Mammadguliyev, that did not take place. Of the Eastern Partnership program participants, only Azerbaijan and Belarus have not signed such an agreement. From the Caucasus countries, Georgia signed an aviation agreement in 2010, and Armenia signed it during the Brussels summit. It should be noted that this agreement is standard for the Eastern Partnership countries. For example, the agreement with Georgia on a single airspace provides for the development of a common aviation space between Georgia and the EU within two years after its signing on the basis of rules in the fields of flight and aviation security. Georgia will harmonize its legislation with the European standards and aviation regulations in such areas as flight safety, the environment, consumer protection, air traffic management, and economic regulation. According to the signed agreement, all the EU airlines will be able to fly direct to Georgia from any point of the EU, like Georgian air carriers. The agreement will remove all restrictions on prices and the number of weekly flights between Georgia and the EU. In other words, the country's aviation market should be open to the EU companies, and given the monopolistic nature of AZAL, the failure of signing the agreement for some reason is not surprising. First, the EU would not agree with the monopoly on the part of the national air carrier, and the treaty, as in the cases with Georgia and Armenia, would say about open airspace. On the other hand, given the anti-protectionist policy of the EU, it is unlikely that Brussels will agree with the continuation of state subsidies for AZAL. It should be noted that only direct subsidies for AZAL from the state budget are 10 million manat a year. The EU also prohibits the concentration of the airport and the national carrier in one hand, which is observed in Azerbaijan. Turan previously repeatedly wrote that the airport should be separated from the air carrier and the head of the airport should be a person independent of the President of AZAL, Jahangir Askerov (https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.turan.az_ext_news_2017_-2D_free_markets_en&d=DwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=Q-2_kecyYw4EmtPEroYDpW-Z_kxj0kquwijwkWCmltA&s=eKhS6FqNPGLDNIrTMVQvsXggz6fHIZdev4RfwYH-r_A&e= /118339.htm). Negotiations with the EU are conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the national government. And given the possibility of AZAL"s pressure on the government, one can understand why the agreement was not signed in Brussels. AZAL will not agree with the access of European companies, especially low-cost ones, to Azerbaijan"s airspace, as after that it would have to yield in the price policy. As a result, AZAL and its powerful leader have won. And the citizens of Azerbaijan have lost, as they continue to face the price disgrace of the national air carrier. Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Hikmet Hajiyev, in an interview with Turan said negotiations on the agreement are continuing. "The constructive negotiations are continuing between the parties. In the final document of the summit there was also a reference to this agreement," Hikmet Hajiyev said. -71D-

APA, Azerbaijan

Nov 30 2017

Nagorno-Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan and thus any illegal entry into this Azerbaijani land is a crime, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, APA reported.

“We became upset as we heard four Turkish citizens had traveled to Nagorno-Karabakh without the consent of Turkey and Azerbaijan,” said Cavusoglu.

He noted that there is much sensitivity about Nagorno-Karabakh in particular.

Cavusoglu stressed that Nagorno-Karabakh is an occupied Azerbaijani territory, just like the other seven districts.

“Therefore, when Azerbaijan opened a criminal case, so did Turkey. A prosecutor called those persons for interrogation as to why they had gone without permit. The process is continuing. Meanwhile, those four people telephoned me to tell me that they did not know that their act was a crime and that they had to seek permit. I told them to say that to Azerbaijan. This is a crime. And the visitors were no school children,” he said.

Turkey’s top diplomat added: “They [four Turkish citizens] said they defended Azerbaijan there, raised the Khojaly territory and reiterated their support to Azerbaijan in the Kabakh issue. However, their unauthorized visit to Karabakh is a crime. Therefore, the appealed to the Azerbaijani side with a letter acknowledging their guilt. They also mentioned that they did not know about the need to obtain permission to travel, and they protected the interests of Azerbaijan there. This is a positive sign. However, a legal process has already begun. This should serve as a lesson so that no one else dares to visit Nagorno-Karabakh without the permission of Azerbaijan. Neither we, nor Azerbaijan can accept it. This is our position. This is also the position of our state and nation.”

On September 22, four Turkish citizens – Ali Bayramoglu (journalist), Sait Cekinoglu (journalist), Ufuk Uras (former MP) and Erol Katircioglu (writer, TV host) paid an illegal visit to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on the initiative of an organization called “National Congress of Western Armenians”, where they made pro-Armenian statements against Azerbaijan and Turkey.

National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post) (Canada) November 28, 2017 Tuesday Justice Served; Few Have Done More To Ensure Jazz Receives The Honour It Deserves Than George Avakian by Robert Fulford, National Post The story of George Avakian is the story of jazz being awakened to itself and finding its proper place in the world. In the middle of the 20th century, jazz was pushed to the margins of music. Nobody wrote its history and nobody taught it in the music schools. The crucial jazz records of the past were seldom heard because they were not on sale. They had been sold for a few weeks after they were produced, then forgotten. When George Avakian (pronounced a-VOCK-ee-an) saw this cultural wasteland, he knew it needed changing. And he did more than anyone to change it. When he died last week at age 98, the people who love jazz began reflecting on how much he had accomplished. He was born in 1919 in Russia to wealthy Armenians who left Europe not long after. Growing up in New York, he found himself attracted to jazz because (as he recalled), "It reminded me of the lively dance music and other folk music my parents had brought to America from Armenia." Even as a child, he listened to jazz on the radio at low volume so his parents wouldn't know he was still awake. As a 20-year-old student at Yale in the late 1930s, he wrote to several record companies with his complaint that much of the great music was unavailable in record stores. He considered it a tragedy that Louis Armstrong's two recorded groups from the 1920s, the Hot Five and the Hot Seven, could only be heard on scratchy-sounding discs. This was an example - and far from the only one - of a European pointing out the true value of American culture. At Yale, he encouraged jazz fans among his fellow students to import two French books, Charles Delaunay's Hot Discography and Hugues Panassie's Le Jazz Hot. The Europeans were ahead of North American critics in treating jazz as art. Decca Records was so impressed by his letter that it hired him to organize reissues of valuable material. A new life opened up, for Avakian and for jazz. The old Armstrong performances became widely known, and so did the work of many others. One result was the revival of Armstrong's career. Years later Avakian persuaded Armstrong to record Kurt Weill's Mack the Knife, which became a major hit. Avakian's father had always expected him to join the family's rug importing business, and in fact, the young man made a few trips to Iran and other sources of rugs. But for many decades, he devoted himself to music. He worked for Columbia and Warners as a producer of records, a talent scout and an agent. But he was in essence a man with a mission; he had an urgent need to see justice done for the musicians he admired. When the record companies adopted the LP (long-playing) discs, he saw how this innovation could benefit jazz. Great soloists appeared on discs that allowed them, for the first time, to perform according to their talent rather than the demands of technology. Avakian absorbed this alteration in the landscape of musical reproduction. One of his LPs carried the first-ever jazz liner notes - written, of course, by Avakian. In the 1950s, Avakian supervised the release of Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall 1938, a concert that told the history of jazz through musical examples. When the Duke Ellington band hit a low period in the 1950s, Avakian supervised Ellington at Newport, reviving the band's fortunes. He had a feel for more than jazz. He introduced Édith Piaf to American record buyers. He produced The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which made Newhart's reputation as a comedian. Before the record, Newhart was an accountant with only a sideline in comedy. After, he was an instant star. Avakian also produced Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy, some of Dave Brubeck's most popular albums and a great Sonny Rollins record, The Bridge. But his most surprising success was Miles Davis. "I saw him as the best trumpet ballad player since Louis Armstrong," Avakian said. He made Davis a special project, once convinced he had finally beaten the drug habit that held him back. He suggested Davis emphasize ballads and encouraged his elegant way of dressing. In 1957 he produced Davis's Miles Ahead, which sold a million copies and established him internationally. Miles Davis soon rose above the mass of musicians, taking a place of celebrity all his own, just where George Avakian thought he should be.

The Armenian Mirror-Spectator

Nov 30 2017

by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

Special to the Mirror-Spectator

BOCHUM-LINDEN, Germany — This year 2017 Germans celebrated the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Dubbed as “Luther Year,” it hosted hundreds of commemorative events, lectures, special church services, festivities, concerts and exhibitions throughout the country.

Few would have thought that “Armenia in Luther Year” could have been among the celebrations. And yet, on November 11, the Evangelical Church in Bochum-Linden hosted just such a festive gathering. Together with the Armenisch-Akademischer Verein 1860 e.V., the oldest Armenian association in Germany, the Church of Christ parish presented a program of lectures and music. Pastor Rolf Schuld, who coined the title, spoke of the connection between two themes that are very close to his heart. In his welcoming remarks, he pointed to the warm relationship his parish has developed with Armenia over many years. Since the construction of the bronze sculpture, “Ode to Peace – Pulsar” by artist Albert Vardanyan in 2006, this Protestant parish feels so closely bound to Armenia that, especially over the past years, various concerts, exhibitions and other events commemorating April 24 have taken place in the community center, in cooperation with the AAV. And the parish is also known in Armenia: outside the Berlin Art Hotel in Gyumri, which hosts artistic activities, one can admire the same statue representing “Pulsar” – an ode to peace. Sculptor Vardanyan comes from Gyumri.

Luther in Mesrob’s Footsteps…

The intimate links between Armenia and Luther reach back centuries, as Prof. Armenuhi Drost-Abarjan illustrated in a wonderful address titled, “Invention of the Armenian Alphabet and Bible Translations in the Mother Tongue in the 5th century.”

Drost-Abarjan is professor of Armenian Studies at the Halle-Wittenberg University.

Since “Luther Year” has been recognized as a celebration not only of the German Reformer, but of Christianity as a whole, it is fitting to consider other figures as well, whether co-thinkers or forerunners, whether relatively unknown or world famous.

In this context one must place the figure of the great Mesrop Mashtots (360-440) who, almost 1,100 years before Luther, translated the Bible into the vernacular, thus contributing to the development of an Armenian national literature. But, she added, it is not only in this pioneering work of language creation that they are similar; there are also cultural, political and religious aspects that are comparable. Both fought to defend their “heathen tongues” — Armenian and German — in contrast to the sacred languages of the scriptures.

Drost-Abarjan noted that the early Reformers, in establishing their own theological stances and concepts of the church, looked to the experience of the autocephalous churches, those that had become independent of the Roman or Byzantine churches. When they sent envoys to the Orient, to contact representatives of the autocephalous churches, they soon became aware of the Armenians, who had translated the Bible into Armenian (grapar) in the 5th century, using the alphabet invented by Mesrop. In 1520 Luther wrote about the “Greeks and many others who hold mass in their own languages,” and Thomas Münzer, his contemporary and comrade-in-arms, mentions the Armenians by name as among these “many others.” The methods used by Mesrop and by Luther, to conduct the necessary research to craft a vernacular were also strikingly similar, Drost-Abarjan showed.

She sketched a concise yet thorough overview of the history of the Armenian language, stressing the role it has played in shaping the political, economic, social as well as religious and cultural life of the people. Thus, it became clear why Armenians attribute such a profound and emotional meaning to the language and the church, and how a veritable “book cult” could develop, as institutions like the Matenadaran testify.

And with the language of the church came music: it was a happy coincidence that the talented soprano Lusine Arakelyan from Gyumri and Yerevan was in Germany at the time, and could accept the invitation to perform at the event. Singing a cappella, she presented by Mesrop Mashtots the sharagan Megha Kes Ter and by Komitas Krunk. Her rich, powerful delivery overwhelmed the audience. “When have we ever heard such singing here?” asked one listener, “A voice that sends tremors through you.”

Prof. Ute Gause, professor of evangelical theology (Church History) at the Ruhr University in Bochum, then spoke on “The Significance of Martin Luther’s Bible Translation into German,” the sensational achievement which has been at the center of this year’s celebrations. As a musical tribute, soprano Andrea Kampmann sang chorales from Martin Luther, accompanied on the piano by Martina Fleischer.

In his concluding remarks, Azat Ordukhanyan, president of the AAV, spoke about the activities that his association has organized in the Church of Christ in Bochum. These included the commemoration of the 500,000 Armenian victims of World War II, and the planting of 155 trees that he had brought from Armenia to Bochum in 2015. They have been planted in various locations, including the graveyard for war prisoners and forced laborers in the Bochum cemeteries, the Jewish cemetery and in front of museums and schools. In 2015, he noted, it was the first time that a German institution had commemorated the victims of the genocide, “The Friends of Nature from Bochum-Linden”. (See “Armenian Trees Planted in Germany to Bear Fruits of Friendship and Reconciliation,” May 25, 2015 and “Armenia and Germany Renew a Thousands-Year-Old Friendship,” September 17, 2015).

(Material for this article was provided by Heide Rieck-Wotke, a co-organizer of the event.)

Category: 2017

Damascus: Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II: Syrian people will defeat terrorism

Azerbaijani Press: What Caused Failure of Aviation Agreement between Azerbaijan and EU

Azerbaijani Press: FM: Turkey to further stand by Azerbaijan in Karabakh conflict’s settlement

Azerbaijani Press: The Daily Caller: Members of Congress broke law of US ally by illegally visiting Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijani Press: Turkish FM: Unauthorized visit to Nagorno-Karabakh is ‘a crime’

Azerbaijani Press: Ambassador: "Reports on possible resumption of air communication between Turkey and Armenia are not true"

Music: Justice Served; Few Have Done More To Ensure Jazz Receives The Honour It Deserves Than George Avakian

Chess: Armenian GM Levon Aronian named world’s second strongest

Culture: Martin Luther and the Armenians

Sports: Armenian swimmers win gold, silver at Iran’s International Tournament