Month: February 2015

HOW KIM KARDASHIANAN’S ANCESTORS ESCAPED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – PHOTOS

13:51, 06 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The extraordinary escape from the Armenian Genocide of Kim Kardashian’s
ancestors – thanks to a ‘prophet’ who urged them to uproot to America –
can be revealed today for the first time.

The Daily Mail presents images showing the reality TV star’s ethnic
Armenian forebears who fled the tsarist Russian empire in the early
20th century, many of whom obeyed the advice of the sage.

Known at the time as the Kardaschoffs, in Russian style, the family
made their way from their home village of Karakale in the late 19th
Century to German ports. From there, they travelled to a new life in
America on the passenger vessels SS Brandenberg and SS Koln.

By doing so, they escaped the triple horror of the First World War
from 1914-18, the Armenian Genocide starting in 1915 – exactly a
century ago this year – and the Russian Revolution in 1917.

History: Kim Kardashian’s great great grandparents Hovhannes Miroyan
(left, front row) and Luciag Chorbajian (second from left, front row)
fled Armenia in the early 1900s with their daughter Vartanoosh Miroyan
(second from right in back row)

Belief: Kim’s great great grandmother Luciag (seated) was part of
the Molokan faith. It means ‘milk drinkers’ because followers of the
Christian sect drank milk on traditional Russian Orthodox fast days

Meet the family: Luciag (centre in front row) and Hovhannes took
their daughter Vartanoosh Miroyan (first on the left in back row)
to America, where their legacy has thrived

Glamorous: It is quite possible that Kim Kardashian got her star
power from her ‘dynamic’ grandmother Helen (daughter of Vartanoosh)
who is pictured left on her wedding day

One hundred years after the deadly holocaust decimated their ancestral
home, the Kardashians have become one of the most influential families
in America.

The most famous of which is Kim who has chosen this year, on the
hundredth anniversary of the atrocity, to visit Armenia for the
first time.

But her lavish lifestyle, the expensive houses, an army of followers
who hang on her every tweet, the marriage to a musical superstar
would not exist if her ancestors had ignored the warning of a child
‘prophet’.

Among those fleeing Erzurum – then in Armenia, and ruled by last
Russian Tsar Nicholas II was family patriarch Hovhannes Miroyan and
Kim’s great great grandfather, born in 1844. He married the doughty
Luciag Chorbajian, born in 1853.

The couple wed in Erzurum, which is now in Turkey, in 1867 but escaped
along with their daughter Vartanoosh Mironyan, born in 1886, in the
early 20th century.

Vartanoosh’s distinctly blonde daughter Haigoohi Arakelian – known
as Helen, born in America in 1917, the year the Bolshevik Revolution
rocked the Russian Empire – was Kim’s grandmother, who later married
into the Kardashian clan.

The glamorous and ‘dynamic’ Helen wed Arthur who ran the largest
meat-packing business in southern California.

Helen’s son Robert, a celebrity lawyer who died of oesophageal cancer
in 2003, married Kris Houghton and fathered the 21st Century’s biggest
reality TV stars Kourtney, Khloe, Robert Jr and most famous of all
– Kim.

Ties that bind: The Kardashian family tree that traces back to two
Molokan Armenian families

Family tree: Luciag’s (centre in a dark dress) daughter Vartanoosh
Miroyan (left, front row) eventually gave birth to Helen Arakelian,
whose own marriage joined two immigrant families who fled the same
atrocity

Slaughter: Many Armenians who refused to heed the warnings of impending
war and revolution were killed

Flight: Luciag (pictured, centre) and Hovhannes wed in Erzurum,
which is now in Turkey, in 1867 but escaped along with their daughter
Vartanoosh Mironyan, born in 1886, in the early 20th century

Their mother Kris eventually married Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner
and together they raised two more TV personalities, Kendall and Kylie.

The flight to freedom of Arthur’s parents and grandparents from
the village of Karakale – today a snow-covered and entirely Muslim
outpost in eastern Turkey where the stone ruins of the old Armenian
homes still stand – came later than many in this community.

It was as if they had sought to cling on against the rising ethnic
violence and persecution.

The Kardashians – or Kardaschoffs – like other branches of Kim’s
paternal kith and kin were ethnic Armenian, but they were also
religious rebels, at odds with the orthodox faith in their homeland.

They had already fled persecution once before, from another location
deeper in Armenia.

‘The village bullies harassed and insulted them, dug into their tombs
and (violated) the corpses of the deceased – hanging them on trees,’
explained Joyce Keosababian-Bivin, whose ancestors also came from
Karalala, and whose family is linked by marriage to the Kardashians.

‘Because of that they wrote a letter of complaint to Nicholas II.’

The tsar decreed that they could move to Karakale, close to the
Russian military settlement, where initially they were safe in what
was ‘a modern village, with beautiful buildings and wide streets’.

Here, they became close to incoming Russian protestants against the
Russian Orthodox Church.

They were a sect called the Molokans, literally translated as
‘milk-lovers’, so-called because they drank milk, and other banned
foods, on fast days.

Some were known as Jumpers, who leapt in the air, raising their hands
high, during church services. They were pacifists and, crucially,
adhered to the power of prophecy.

Safe: Vartanoosh Miroyan (back row, left) married Arakel Arakelian
(back row, right). Their daughter Helen (front, centre), was born
in America in 1917, the year the Bolshevik Revolution rocked the
Russian Empire

Destiny: By leaving their native Armenia, Vartanoosh (front, left),
Arakel Arakelian (front, right) and their daughter Helen (second
from right, back row) escaped the triple horror of the First World
War from 1914-18, the ‘Armenian Genocide’ starting in 1915, exactly
a century ago this year, and the Russian Revolution

The legend has it that in the 1850s, an 11-year-old Efil Klubnikin
penned an apocalyptic forecast despite being apparently illiterate.

‘Those who believe in this will go on a journey to a far land, while
the unbelievers will remain in place,’ the boy prophesied. ‘Our people
will go on a long journey over the great and deep waters…people
from all countries will go there.

‘There will be a great war. All kings will shed blood like great
rivers. Two steamships will leave to cross the impassable ocean.’

In the first years of the 20th century, Efim renewed the warning
that he made to stunned believers in Karakale as a child, saying his
premonition was now coming to pass.

‘Efim called a meeting, he invited the elders from all the Molokan
villages including the two elders of the Armenian Molokan church. He
prophesied this was the time for them to leave Russia as there
were terrible times coming, especially for the Armenians,’ said Ms
Keosababian-Bivin.

Images he scrawled led locals to believe they should cross the
Atlantic to the United States, but this young diviner also indicated
they should not stop there, but trek to the west coast. He pointed
them towards Los Angeles.

ISSUE OF RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE MAY GIVE US A SURPRISE

Igor Muradyan, Political Analyst
Comments – 06 February 2015, 14:00

The existing relations between Russia and Armenia are formally
strategic to the extent it is possible between a small country located
in an unstable region and a huge nuclear country with incomprehensible
internal and external priorities, with a comprador and oligarchic
bourgeoisie.

Unfortunately, Armenia with its political class has not run out of
idealistic outlook on Russia. It is worthwhile to bring the example of
the U.S.-Israel relations when Israel is constantly fighting against
its strategic partner.

The notion of strategic partnership does not fit the rules of distinct
circles and rules, and in specific cases these relations have a
different content. Now a number of problems have not been overcome
and they have marred the Armenian-Russian relations and have grown
into anti-Russian moods.

Aside from a lot of positive circumstances the issue of coordination of
political consultations and decisions on foreign policy and security
remains up in the air. Is it possible to resolve such a problem
between countries in different weight groups? For the time being,
there are more arguments that this problem will not be resolved soon.

If the procedure of mutual consultations between Armenia and Russia
is applied, Russia will face complications in its relations with the
South Caucasus and the Western community. Russia could not afford to
adopt the concept of “prioritization”, giving up on the concept of
“parity”. In other words, Russia is not in the habit of selective
attitude to the countries of the region. The Russian elite and policy
makers were not ready for such policy when Russia would bid on one
state of the region and have to force its partnership on another
state of the region.

However, the policy of “parity” requires a lot of political resources
and only a stronger state can benefit from them. Moscow could not
implement the principle of “parity” even when the Soviet Union
existed. However, a quite unique consulting has formed in Moscow
which would not apprehend the idea of “priority” in foreign policy,
in the result of its own and group interests.

It is possible that Moscow is having problems with making foreign
political decisions.

However, the key factor that limits the practice of political
consultancies is Russia’s aspiration to close cooperation with Turkey
and exchange Armenian national interests with agreements with Turkey.

In this way Russia tries to involve Azerbaijan in its area of influence
and supplies modern weapons, which questions the security of Armenia
and partnership with Russia.

As a result, Russia views Turkey and Azerbaijan as its partners,
and Armenia as a vassal. Russia has forced Armenia to give up on a
sovereign foreign policy and subsequently its statehood, integration
with the European Union, the leading structure of the West, involving
it in the marginal Eurasian Union, thereby dooming it to international
isolation and blockade.

Now Armenia is in a systemic financial and economic crisis which
is not possible to avoid if one walks with Russia. The country has
appeared in decline and incompetent economic situation.

The United States and its partners do not just conduct a policy of
“parity” in the South Caucasus, as well as in Eastern Europe and
Eurasia, but a rather balanced policy of universalism when an identical
homogeneous but not a one-dimensional “field” is formed which involves
this super region in new relations with new priorities and purposes.

This huge political and geo-economic expansion does not leave freedom
to Russia to build relations with its partners which would take into
account their needs in economy and security.

A fight for influence is underway between the Atlantic and Eurasian
blocs which have controversial tendencies of development, and
discussing the relations of Armenia and Russia outside this context
will be misleading. However, the Eurasian bloc has already collapsed,
and the Atlantic one continues, despite existing phenomena typical
of crisis.

At the same time, this geopolitical arrangement does not reduce the
importance of secondary and tertiary factors in the Armenian-Russian
relations.

There are ubiquitous assessments in Moscow which question these
relations and forecast the integration and membership of Armenia to
NATO. In fact, this is a specific question and Russia cannot pretend
that there is no such a problem.

However, the strange thing is that the political leadership of Armenia
announces regularly that membership to NATO is not on the agenda,
there are no political forces that would lobby and promote the idea,
there is no discussion on this topic but in Moscow such assessments
are intensifying.

The political forces are busy with situational matters and have no
idea about relations with NATO. In the absence of a left political
sector, nevertheless, leftist moods are ubiquitous in Armenia, which
does not intensify the public aspiration to membership to NATO.

The military circles may have interest in NATO but it turned out that
this interest is expressed in arms and army building. Apparently,
Armenian servicemen have concerns about isolation because NATO plans
include enlargement of the alliance. At the same time, most servicemen
consider CSTO as a real alternative to the maintenance of country’s
security.

In March 2006 a brainstorming with 12 leading British military and
political experts took place in London on integration of Armenia to
NATO. Experts came to the following conclusion: not the technology
of membership of Armenia to NATO but leaving CSTO and revoking the
agreement with Russia is important.

The European Union did not offer even the minimum conditions of
security to Armenia and thereby doomed it to the September 3 decision.

Relations with the European Union have been frozen, and it will not
be possible to revive them in the nearest future.

Now the objective is obvious: the Armenian-Russian relations must be
limited, and the Russian military base must be withdrawn from Armenia.

From: Baghdasarian

FATHER TURNS TO CROWDFUNDING SITE FOR HELP RAISING DISABLED SON REJECTED BY HIS MOTHER

After his son, born with Down’s syndrome, was rejected by his mother,
a father has turned to a crowdfunding site to generate funds to help
raise the child alone

‘I looked at this guy and said, “he’s beautiful and I’m absolutely
keeping him”‘ Photo:

By Telegraph Men

10:55AM GMT 06 Feb 2015

A heartbroken father whose son was born with Down’s syndrome in Armenia
has revealed that his wife filed for divorce after he refused to give
up the baby, which she had rejected.

Samuel Forrest then took to crowdfunding site Gofundme to raise money
to return home to New Zealand and raise his son there.

Forrest told ABC News: “This pediatrician walks out of the room with a
little bundle – that was Leo. She had his face covered up and hospital
authorities wouldn’t let me see him or my wife. When the doctor came
out, he said, ‘There’s a real problem with your son.'”

After being told Leo had Down’s syndrome, Forrest said: “I had a few
moments of shock. I looked at this guy and I said, ‘He’s beautiful –
he’s perfect and I’m absolutely keeping him’.”

However, the reaction of Forrest’s wife, Ruzan Badalyan, was very
different. “I got the ultimatum right then,” Forrest said. “She told
me if I kept him then we would get a divorce.”

According to Forrest, it is not uncommon for parents in Armenia to
reject children born with Down’s. “What happens when a baby like this
is born here, they will tell you that you don’t have to keep them,”
he told ABC News. “My wife had already decided, so all of this was
done behind my back.”

Badalyan filed for divorce a week after baby Leo was born, Forrest
said. After that, Forrest, a business contractor, made plans to return
to his native Auckland, using the crowdfunding platform Gofundme.

“As a now solo father, Sam’s aim is to raise enough money to be able
to care for Leo fulltime himself for at least a year, to give him
the love, cuddles & devotion he needs to thrive,” reads a message on
Forrest’s funding page.

Within 24 hours, his story had gone viral and he had received pledges
of over $170,000 (far exceeding his target of $60,000).

Forrest has vowed to use some of the funds to help other families in
Armenia whose children are born with disabilities.

CONSTRUCTION IN ARMENIA FALLS 4.3% TO AMD 433.2 BILLION IN 2014

YEREVAN, February 6. /ARKA/. Construction in Armenia faced 4.3%
decline in 2014 – AMD 433.2 billion was spent on construction that
year, the National Statistical Service of Armenia reports.

The population-paid construction cost AMD 108.8 billion in 2014 (18.9%
decline) – this amount made up 25.1% of the total amount spent on
construction in the country.

Construction carried out at the account of organizations amounted to
AMD 199.9 billion and made up 46.1% of total amount (a 3.7% growth),
construction paid from humanitarian aid cost AMD 7.2 billion or 1.7%
(23.6% decline), that paid from the government budget AMD 59.7 billion
and 13.8% respectively (13.8% decline) and from communities’ financial
resources AMD 19.8 billion and 4.6% respectively (61.9% growth).

Besides, construction paid from international loans amounted to
more than AMD 37.5 billion and made up 8.7% of total amount spent on
construction (7.5% growth).

The World Bank had AMD 6091.5 million here, the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development AMD 6255.5 million, Asian Development
Bank AMD 20867.6 million, German Development Bank (KfW) – 2651.5
million and other organizations AMD 1677 million.

It should be mentioned that the 0.4% growth recorded at the first
half of 2014 gave grounds for thinking that this segment of the
country’s economy will rally after flagging, but in the second half,
particularly in September, construction faced a sharp diving – 13%.

It continued its downward motion also in October and November, when it
sank 14.4% and 10.1% respectively. In December a slight 0.2% growth was
recorded. This sector was one of the key catalysts of economic growth
in Armenia. Its share in GDP rose from 9.8% in 2000 to 24% in 2008.

More than that – ahead of the crisis, in 2008, the share of
construction in GDP was larger than that of any other segments of
the national economy.

However, in 2009, amid the recession raging across the world,
“construction bubble’ in Armenia burst and the sector sank 37.4%
and its share in GDP shrank to 18.4%. The fall continued also in the
next years. In 2013 this indicator dropped to 10.3%.

Although Armenia’s economy was gradually recovering its growth in
post-crisis years, construction sector remained stagnant.

In particular, it fell 2.2% in 2010 and 8.9% in 2011, showing 0.2%
growth only in 2012, which was however followed by 8.1% decline
in 2013.

According to the Armenian urban planning ministry’s forecast,
construction sector will be recorded at 4 to 5 percent in 2014
instead of the 5.2% projected in the government budget. ($1 – AMD
476.51).–0—–

BHK LAWMAKER: BHK LEADER’S SPEECH WAS NOT WRITTEN BY GALUST SAHAKYAN

15:02 | February 6,2015 | Politics

The speech made by the leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK),
Gagik Tsarukyan, at a conference on Thursday was not written by Galust
Sahakyan, a senior representative of the ruling Republican Party of
Armenia (HAK), BHK lawmaker Stepan Margaryan said on February 6.

“I do not want to insult anyone but the expressions made at yesterday’s
conference do not belong to Galust Sahakyan. I am ready to debate
with any politician who is looking for controversy,” Margaryan said
adding that Gagik Tsarukyan yesterday sent an important message to
certain forces.

“I view the conference as an important step towards creating a
consensus between the political forces and people,” he added.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SOFIA’S HISTORY MUSEUM TO HOST PHOTO EXHIBIT ON ARMENIA

February 6, 2015 – 15:15 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – National Museum of History in Sofia hosts a special
photo exhibition themed Armenia – Ancient and Modern. The exhibition
was officially opened by Ehiyazar Uzunyan, honorary consul of the
Republic of Armenia in Bulgaria, Focus News Agency reported.

The start of the current exhibition was set back in 2012 when Uzunyan
organized a photo-planner in Armenia with two amateur photographers –
Milko Iliev and Hristo Dimitrov. The two had never visited Armenia
before and were astonished by the cultural and historic heritage of
the country.

The photo exhibition is a story about the Armenians and their culture.

It is part of a series of events organized by Armenians in Bulgaria
and all over the world to mark the 100th anniversary the 1915 Genocide.

SAMUEL FORREST RECEIVES $180,000 VIA GOFUNDME PAGE TO HELP HIM TAKE DOWN’S SYNDROME BABY HOME TO NEW ZEALAND

Mr Forrest is raising money to take his son from Armenia to Auckland

HEATHER SAUL

Friday 06 February 2015

A father who is hoping to move back to New Zealand so his Down’s
syndrome baby has better care has received over $180,000 (£117,000)
in donations on a Gofundme page set up to help him raise his son.

Samuel Forrest, of Armenia, said he appealed for funds to move his
son Leo after being told he had Down’s syndrome.

“When I walked into the [hospital] room they all turned to me and said
‘Leo has Down’s syndrome,” he told ABC News. “I had a few moments
of shock.”

“They took me in see him and I looked at this guy and I said, he’s
beautiful – he’s perfect and I’m absolutely keeping him.”

Mr Forrest says he began making plans to move back to his native
country of New Zealand with Leo shortly after receiving the news.

In the meantime, he set up a fundraising page to gather enough money
for the move and to care for his son as a single parent. His page has
received hundreds of thousands of dollars within just nine days from
supporters across the globe.

From: A. Papazian

GYUMRI MURDER: LAWYER SAYS HE IS TAKING SPECIFIC ACTIONS (VIDEO)

16:58 | February 6,2015 | Politics

Lawyer Yerem Sargsyan, who represents the interests of legal successors
of the slain Avetisyan family, said he is taking specific actions
within the framework of the criminal case.

Talking to Azdarar news agency, the lawyer said he is considering
all possible and impossible hypotheses regarding the case.

Six members of the Avetisyan family, including a two-year-old child,
were shot dead in their house in Gyumri in the morning of January 12.

A six-month-old baby, Seryozha Avetisyan, was hospitalized with stab
wounds. He died in hospital a week later. The main suspect of the
crime, Valery Permyakov, a serviceman of Russian Military Base N 102
stationed in Gyumri, was detained by Russian border guards late in
the same day while attempting to cross the Armenian-Turkish border
near Yerazgavors village in Armenia’s Shirak province.

WORLD IS TREATING PUTIN THE WAY PUTIN IS TREATING ARMENIANS

Lragir.am
Society – 06 February 2015, 16:42

Pentagon has published a report on studies on Putin’s health. The
report supposes that the Russian President Vladimir Putin has
Asperger’s syndrome, “an autistic disorder which affects all of
his decisions.”

Pentagon’s report is a theory which was based on studies of body
movements, and there is no proof because the authors of the report
have no possibility to scan Putin’s brain.

In fact, the West has decided to treat Putin the way he has decided to
treat the Armenian society. Interestingly, along with the disclosure
of the Pentagon report to the U.S. press, information appeared in the
Russian press that the Russian serviceman Permyakov suspected of the
manslaughter in Gyumri, has a mental disorder and received treatment
in the psychiatric hospital before transfer to Armenia.

This version was not unexpected for the Armenian society because since
the very first day many circles in Armenia believed that Permyakov
would be ruled insane and the case would be covered up.

Apparently, this is what Russia is planning or is trying to check the
Armenian public opinion in case this scenario is implemented. And if
the Russian government really implements this scenario, it will mean
that the Armenian public, not Permyakov is taken for an insane.

It turns out that the Russian government, hence President Putin,
takes the Armenian society as someone with mental problems, and the
West, hence, the U.S. department of defense, ascribes mental disorders
to Putin.

Experts and scientists had received the order to conduct the study
a lot time ago but they have published it now. Interestingly, the
report on Putin appears in the U.S. press in the context of Russia’s
conduct towards the Armenian society.

As the ancient Greek philosopher said, you should not treat someone
the way you do not want others to treat you.

SOUTH CAUCASUS RAILWAY: $245 MILLION INVESTED IN MODERNIZATION OF ARMENIA’S RAILROAD INFRASTRUCTURE BETWEEN 2009 AND 2014

YEREVAN, February 6. /ARKA/. The South Caucasus Railway’s delegation
headed by Oleg Shatalov, deputy CEO for interaction and logistics,
took part at South Caucasus Infrastructure & New Energy Investment
Summit opened Friday in Tbilisi.

Visitors of the company’s pavilion learned from the figures presented
here that $245 million had been invested in modernization of Armenia’s
railway infrastructure over a period between 2009 and 2014.

According to the company’s press office, the exhibition visitors and
journalists paid special attention to the South Caucasus Railway’s
pavilion, since it provided comprehensive information and was properly
designed.

Shatalov had an interview with Vrastan Newspaper and Zara Agasafyants,
deputy head of the transportation services center, with INFO-9
TV Channel.

Oleg Shatalov spoke at the summit on the company’s activities and
development prospects.

Many participants, especially from European countries, didn’t know
before this event that the South Caucasus Railway is a subsidiary of
the Russian Railways.

This information surprised them and the flow of visitors intensified
even more – there were mostly forwarders and businessmen searching
for reliable partners for implementation of their projects.

the press release says.

Many visitors of this two-day international summit wanted to know
about prospects for Iran-Armenia railway construction.

The pavilion was also visited by Georgy Bekua, advisor to the Georgian
economy and stable development minister, which asked questions about
the South Caucasus Railways’ activity and development prospects. South
Caucasus Railway, a subsidiary of Russian Railways, runs Armenian
Railway, which was handed over to the South Caucasus Railway on
February 13, 2008 for 30-year concession management with a right to
prolong the management term for other 10 years. –0—