The Armenian humanitarian mission in Syria delivered medical supplies to the military hospital of Aleppo on Thursday, the Center for Humanitarian Demining and Expertise reported.
The leadership of the military hospital expressed gratitude to the Armenian doctors not only for the medical supplies, but also for the daily medical care provided in the Armenian nursing home and in a number of medical facilities across the city.
The director of the hospital, General Fayez al-Ayoubi said that the Armenian and Syrian doctors are making joint efforts to help the war victims.
“Our Armenian colleagues provide professional humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria every day,” he said. “We all greatly appreciate this important step that Armenians have taken to support us is these difficult times.”
The hospital chief also thanked the Armenian authorities and healthcare agencies for constant support.
© Council of Europe
A workshop on Assets Declaration System in Armenia took place on in Yerevan. The event was organised within the framework of the PGG II Project on “Strengthening institutional capacities to fight and prevent corruption in Armenia. The objective of the workshop was to present the findings and recommendations from the analysis of the Armenia’s assets declarations legal framework and discuss the possible solutions for further strengthening the assets declarations system with the relevant national authorities and the civil society organisations.
Opening speeches were made by CoE head of the office Natalya Voutova and Deputy Minister of Justice, Srbuhi Galyan.
The workshop was attended by the representatives of Ministry of Justice, Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials of Armenia, National Assembly of Armenia, Prime Minister’s Office, Civil Service Bureau, State Revenue Committee, Civil society organisations, CoE office in Yerevan.
The recommendations provided by CoE expert touched the important topics as
The participants expressed their approaches and discussed the topics considering the context of Armenia․ After the discussion the finalized paper with recommendations of CoE international expert will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice.
It was only a few hours after landing at Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan does the irony of it all strike me. Mount Ararat, one the greatest symbols of Armenia (emblazoned on everything from bottles of brandy and beer to chocolate bars) isn’t even located in the Armenian territory. In fact, it can be found just over the border, in present-day Turkey.
As I stroll through leafy Yerevan, with its Parisian-style boulevards and drinking water fountains called pul pulaks at every corner, I soon realise that for the former USSR country, symbolism is everything. How else does one explain the continued presence of a five-point Soviet star atop the main spire of the city’s Central Railway Station? A likeness of Mount Ararat below the said star is perhaps why the station still uses the Soviet coat of arms.
Reclaiming glory
Speaking of which, Yerevan’s grand Republic Square was once known as Lenin Square with a giant, mid-stride statue of Vladimir Lenin that was taken down post Armenia’s independence in the autumn of 1991. Today, the square is surrounded by grand architectural examples of Soviet modernism. The brutalist façades in the indigenous pink volcanic stone called tuff gives Yerevan its ‘Pink City’ moniker.
At another popular attraction — the hilltop Victory Park overlooking Yerevan — another former Soviet leader has been dethroned.Replacing Joseph Stalin’s monumental statue and seated at the same pedestal is the sword-brandishing, 22-m tall Mother Armenia made from hammered copper. Here, too, symbolism is on display. The statue is said to not only show peace through strength, but also mirror the role of prominent female figures who joined the men in fending off Turkish troops during the 1915 Armenian genocide.
Joining a group of the Yerevan Couchsurfing chapter on a post-beer walkabout the city, I learn about how in 2010 a Facebook group called “SAVE Cinema Moscow Open-Air Hall”, successfully petitioned the Armenian government to stall the demolition of the open-air hall of the Moscow Cinema on the city’s arterial Abovyan Street. Built in 1936 in the constructivist-style, a form of modern Soviet architecture, the cinema itself replaced the 5th-century St Peter and Paul Church. It remains one of the city’s premier recreational spots with its giant chessboard set shadowed by Armenian artist Ara Alekyan’s gigantic sculpture of a spider.
Parting shots
We walk towards the Republic Square Metro Station, where I notice how well the Soviet style of almost harsh, geometric accents is merged with the more oriental features of the station. The entrance has a decorative fountain of an eight-petal concrete flower in bloom, with a huge vaulted ceiling held up by plain columns with sculpted eaves in the shape of bird heads.
From Republic Square we take a metro train ride (100 dram or ₹15) to Charbak a few kilometres away to get the real feel of Soviet suburban Yerevan with its many ‘Khrushchyovkas’. Developed all over the Soviet Union during the early ’60s, these concrete-panelled apartment buildings were named after Soviet statesman Nikita Khrushchev and provided low-cost housing in a gargantuan communal setting.
It is from the terrace of one of these 15-storey (and elevator-bereft!) buildings that I spy the ultimate remnant of the Soviet past a few yards away, eerily backlit by the setting sun. Constructed in such a way that they spell out the alphabets CCCP (which is ‘USSR’ in the Cyrillic script) when seen from above, I’m told that they were built so that the Soviets could feel patriotic as they flew in from Moscow.
Truly, one man’s Mount Ararat is another’s Khrushchyovka.
Raul Dias is a food and travel writer based in Mumbai
An upcoming dedication of an intersection in Tujunga-Sunland to an Armenian American author has sparked controversy between local residents who have claimed the initiative will overshadow the corner’s existing historical significance and those who believe the opposition is grounded in ethnic discrimination.
On Oct. 9, one day after L.A. City Council voted to designate William Saroyan Square with a plaque at the crossing of Commerce Avenue and Valmont Street, the local neighborhood council shot back with an impact statement stating that the placement was inappropriate.
The designated area is adjacent to Bolton Hall, a historic stone building built in 1913 that was originally used as a community center for a local Utopian community. It has since been used as an American Legion hall, a public library, Tujunga City Hall and a jail, and is now a local history museum.
“It’s the location, that is what people are opposed to,” said Liliana Sanchez, president of the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council.
“It’s the historical significance of that intersection. No signage should be placed there,” she added.
It also happens to be an intersection that has hosted several Armenian cultural events, according to L.A. City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who spearheaded the initiative.
A dedication ceremony for the square to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author is scheduled for Oct. 19, to coincide with the annual Sunland-Tujunga Armenian Cultural Festival, which is held along Commerce Avenue.
“It’s unfortunate that more people aren’t taking this opportunity to embrace the diversity of our community,” said Rodriguez, who represents the Tujunga area, along with neighborhoods including La Tuna Canyon, Sylmar, Pacoima and North Hills.
One longtime local resident, Robin Jodi, said she also opposed the dedication because Saroyan, who was born and died in Fresno, does not have a local connection to the area.
It was a sentiment echoed by others in their written public comments.
Bolton Hall was named after an Ireland-born author and activist who also had no connection to the immediate area, Rodriguez said.
“[Saroyan] is a true Californian, the son of immigrants and an inspiration to us all,” Vic Aghakhanian, another longtime resident, wrote in a public comment.
“I believe it is time for our community to embrace multiculturalism and appreciation of our diversity,” he added.
“It’s a welcoming community. It’s a diverse community,” Jodi said in a phone interview, “but [Saroyan] never visited here. He has nothing to do with here.”
A similar debate unfolded in Glendale last year, when the local City Council voted in June to change a two-block portion of Maryland Avenue in the city’s downtown area to Artsakh Street, after the Republic of Artsakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Some opponents of the name change said the republic had nothing to do with Glendale’s history. Several business owners argued that the renaming could hurt them economically.
Supporters, including then-Councilman Ara Najarian and current mayor, argued that it was long overdue for Glendale to have a street named to honor the city’s large Armenian American community.
In October of last year, a ceremony was held to unveil the new street sign.
However, the controversy hasn’t stopped: a cartoon published on Oct. 4 by the Glendale News-Press that juxtaposed the Artsakh Street sign with a character lamenting, “I miss the old Maryland Avenue,” drew backlash from some readers who viewed it as implicitly or explicitly xenophobic.
Others viewed the cartoon as nostalgic, hearkening back to a time when there were different businesses along the street. Reminiscence, not ethnic discrimination, was the intent, according to the cartoon’s creator Bert Ring.
Sanchez and Jodi both said they felt community input about the William Saroyan Square dedication was limited.
An Oct. 8 Facebook post by Sanchez on a community group stating that the motion had passed and the “public was not allowed to comment” drew more than 374 comments.
“We weren’t given a voice,” Sanchez said.
Members of the public were given the opportunity to submit written comments after the motion was introduced on Sept. 11, Rodriguez said. Residents were also allowed to speak when the item was considered during a public works meeting on Sept. 18.
It’s the same procedure Rodriguez said she has followed for the three other dedications she’s initiated within her district.
Sanchez said she took issue with the fact that additional oral comments were not permitted during the regular L.A. City Council meeting when the dedication was approved unanimously.
By the time the motion was voted on, about 240 public comments had been submitted — more than any other issue the council has worked on during Rodriguez’s two-year tenure, as far as she can remember. The majority were in support of the dedication, she said.
“Among all the issues that I’m working on, homelessness and everything else, [additional community meetings] would be excessive,” Rodriguez said.
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan convened today the planned extraordinary session of the Security Council.
Welcoming the present, the head of the government said that the session coincided with the heated developments in the region and today’s discussion will refer to them as well.
“Of course we will also exchange ideas, information over our international contacts and speak about peaceful settlement of the Artsakh issue,” he said, stressing that the Security Council sessions are very important as during it decisions of economic and political nature are being made which serve to the future raise of country’s security and welfare.
The court found the former head of the government inspection body had been actively involved in anti-Amulsar activities prior to his federal appointment which raised reasonable doubts about his objectivity. The court ruled Artur Grigoryan failed to recuse himself from considering the matter when required to do so and declared his directive invalid.
"This ruling is yet another confirmation that unlawful attempts have been made to interfere with Lydian's legal right to develop and operate the Amulsar project," said CEO Edward Sellers.
"It is regrettable that illegality of action against Lydian has now been found to extend to an official of the government of Armenia."
Prime minister Nikol Pashinyan publicly acknowledged in August there was no legal basis on which the government could prevent Lydian from advancing the Amulsar project, stating it was in the national interest that Amulsar proceeded.
However, the company cannot resume construction activities while an illegal blockade of the Amulsar access road is in place.