Month: February 2015

ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH TO CANONIZE VICTIMS OF 1915 GENOCIDE

Catholic Culture
Feb 4 2015

Catholic World News – February 04, 2015

The Armenian Apostolic Church will recognize the victims of the
Armenian genocide as saints, the Fides news service reports.

Patriarch Karekin, the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, will
preside at a solemn liturgy on April 23 to canonize the genocide
victims, who have already been recognized by the Armenian Church as
martyrs for their faith.

Patriarch Karekin said that the Armenian Church, in canonizing saints,
recognizes the holiness of people already revered for their virtue.

“The Church only recognizes what happened: that is, the genocide,”
he said.

An estimated 1 to 1.5 million Armenians died in a brutal campaign
begun by government of Turkey in 1915.

EYEWITNESSES ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE” BOOK SHEDS LIGHT ON OTTOMAN GENOCIDE AGAINST ARMENIANS

Syrian Radio & TV Online
Feb 4 2015

The Damascus-based Commission for Commemorating the Centenary of
the Armenian Genocide held a ceremony for signing the book titled
“Eyewitnesses on Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire” by Armenia’s
Ambassador to Syria Arshak Poladian at al-Assad Library with the
presence of politicians, clergymen, intellectuals and journalists.

Dr. Poladian said in his book, issued by al-Sharq Publishing House
in Damascus that the Ottomans perpetrated genocide that expanded
geographically throughout the Armenian map- from Cilicia to Mount
Ararat through Trabzon and the eastern states- highlighting the
crimes of banishment, killing, burning of houses, pillage, rape and
humiliation against the Armenians, citing heart-wrenching stories of
pain, grief and sadness.

The book includes testimonies of three eyewitnesses (the Syrian
lawyer Fayez al-Ghussein, Naem Bek al-Turki and Father Isaac Armala
al-Syriani).

The 250-paper book contains precise documents featuring the horrible
atrocities which the Ottomans committed against a million and a half
Armenians in late 19th century and early 20th century.

ARMENIA TO OPEN GENERAL CONSULATE IN KURDISTAN REGION

BasNews, Iraq
Feb 4 2015

Twice weekly flights between Erbil and Yerevan confirmed

ERBIL

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani
has promised that his government will help Armenian businessmen invest
in the Kurdistan Region.

On Tuesday, Barzani met Armenian Ambassador to Iraq Karen Grigoryan
and his delegates in Erbil.

They discussed the close cultural and social relationship between
the Armenian and Kurdish people, and how to develop deeper ties.

Grigoryan announced that Armenia will open a General Consulate in
Erbil in June this year and that by the end of February, there will
be two direct flights a week between Erbil and Yerevan.

Barzani welcomed the news, saying that the KRG would welcome Armenian
investors in the Kurdistan Region and facilitate the process wherever
possible.

ARMENIAN RESTAURANT MAYRIG SERVES FAMILY RECIPES

Khaleej Times, UAE
Feb 4 2015

David Light (Senior Reporter) / 4 February 2015

There’s more to Armenia than Kim Kardashian. Find out what at Mayrig.

It’s the sizeable country between Georgia and Iran that evokes a
curiosity for travellers by maintaining a mysterious aura. Such is
the understated nature of Armenia; the only aspect of the country’s
culture people can usually recall is, unfortunately, Los Angeles
native Kim Kardashian whose father was of Armenian heritage.

However, Armenia has traditionally been a prosperous nation with a
rich history and culture. Combined with its welcoming population it
remains high on the list of places to visit. Though, if you’re not
able to make the time to skip over at the moment, the only place
to find authentic Armenian hospitality here in Dubai is at Mayrig,
along Emaar Boulevard, Downtown.

Founded by Aline Kamakian and Serge Maacaron, grandchildren of
Manouchag who was celebrated in the family for her cooking and whose
recipes are still used at the restaurant, Mayrig started out in Beirut,
Lebanon. The Dubai branch opened a couple of years ago with the same
faithfulness to tradition at its heart.

During our time there we were presented with a tasting platter that was
satisfying and very well done. Sat outside to also enjoy the shisha
facilities, Mayrig is a charming establishment. The faux old-world
decorations are not too over-the-top, making it as authentic as you
can get in Dubai.

Yet, it is the food that is the draw. Mayrig has new additions to its
menu, available from this month. Fresh seafood dishes, more traditional
Armenian favourites and desserts will join what the restaurant already
has to offer.

New menu items include appetisers such as Imam Bayaldi, made with
eggplant, tomato and chickpeas, and seafood items such as the chunky
gratinated fish in a spicy tahini sauce.

The Armenian delicacy Banirov Maamoul, a melted cheese stuffed cookie
topped with syrup, is also a new favourite.

Menu staples include the Hommos Sojouk, which is delicious and the
Mayrig Selection of kebbe, lentils, potatoes and raw meat. The Mante
is something you just have to try. These miniature meat dumplings
covered in yogurt are unusual, yet brilliant in their uniqueness.

One thing: if you’re a fan of nutmeg as flavouring, this is your kind
of place. Lots of the dishes contain the spice and it is wonderful.

All in all, the fact that Mayrig is the only Armenian restaurant in
Dubai is reason enough to check it out.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA OPENS CONSULATE IN IRAQ

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 4 2015

4 February 2015 – 4:04pm

Armenia is going to open a consulate in the Iraqi city of Erbil.

During the meeting with head of the Kurdistan Region in northern
Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, Armenia’s Ambassador to Iraq, Karin
Gregorian, said the consulate will open in June, APA reports citing
trthaber.com.Gregorian also said that Armenia will conduct direct
flights from Yerevan to Erbil at the end of a month.

Nechirvan Barzani noted that all the conditions would be created for
Armenian businessmen in Erbil.

ARMENIA WANTS TO EXCHANGE DATA ON MISSING PERSONS WITH AZERBAIJAN

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 4 2015

4 February 2015 – 5:38pm

Armenian Deputy Defense Minister David Tonosyan said at a meeting
today with Sarah Epprecht, the head of the IRCC office in Armenia,
that Armenia wanted to exchange data missing persons with Azerbaijan,
according to the international humanitarian law, RIA Novosti reports.

The sides discussed ways to exchange data about people I missing
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The deputy minister reminded that
Armenia had been cooperating with the IRCC since 1992.

Epprecht emphasized that the IRCC was an impartial and independent
organization. It wants to find out about the fates of about 4,500
people missing in the conflict.

U.S. CO-CHAIR SAYS OSCE MINSK GROUP IS SUFFICIENT FOR SETTLEMENT OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 4 2015

4 February 2015 – 7:05pm

U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick said today that
the organization was the only format for organizing and holding
negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia within the framework of
the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, Trend reports.

Warlick’s statement was a reply to a recent proposal on the idea of
Turkey and Germany’s joining the mediators. The diplomat emphasized
that the co-chairs were committed to their obligations and acted
according to their mandate. He added that the OSCE Minsk Group will
continue its work for as long as the sides of the conflict considered
it fruitful.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A HUNDRED YEARS OF MISUNDERSTANDING

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 4 2015

4 February 2015 – 7:26pm

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin,
responding to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s invitation to the
anniversary of the Canakkale Battle, said that it was a violation of
diplomatic norms and ignores Turkey’s attempts to normalize relations
with Armenia. Kalin added that Armenia did not want a fair study of
the events in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and was not willing to leave
occupied Azerbaijani lands.

Kalin reminded that Erdogan had called for the formation of a joint
commission in 2005 to investigate the events of 1915. Protocols on
normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations were initiated in 2009.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said on April 23, 2014, that the events
of WWI were bitter for both countries.

Turkish expert Hussein Altinalan said that some countries were taking
advantage of tensions between Turkey and its neighbours. The tragic
events of 1915, in his words, are an instrument to put pressure on
Turkey when Armenia suffers from such a policy the most. Kalin believes
that Armenia is trying to create the image of a suppressed country,
ignoring the crimes committed in Nagorno-Karabakh. In his opinion,
Turkey makes attempts at rapprochement with good intentions, but
radically-aligned Armenians do not understand it. The analyst reminded
that Turkey was ready to open historical archives to investigate
1915. He added that about 100,000 Armenians were peacefully living
in Turkey, where all nations were respected.

Concerning the factors that prevent a settlement of the conflict,
Altinalan emphasized the exploitation of the genocide issue as an
instrument to put pressure on Turkey. Another factor, according to
the expert, are the radical forces in Armenia taking advantage of
the dispute.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN LAWMAKERS OFFER TRADERS CONCESSIONS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 4 2015

4 February 2015 – 4:49pm

The Armenian parliament has postponed implementation of a compulsory
inventory count in the law on turnover tax today. 75 MPs voted for
the project, 1 against, 40 abstained. Prosperous Armenia, Heritage
and Orinats Yerkir abstained, Dashnaktsutyun and the ruling Republican
Party voted for it.

A thousand small and medium-scale businessmen held a protest against
the law in late January, resulting in the second postponement of
its implementation (the first postponement until February 1, 2015,
was provoked by protests in September 2014).

Naira Zograbyan of the Prosperous Armenia Party declared the
postponement of the law’s implementation today. Traders say they cannot
make counts of all their inventories because large distributors often
sell goods without facture invoices. Moreover, such counts would
make the turnover exceed the minimum limit of 58.3 million drams,
forcing traders to pay VAT.

From: Baghdasarian

DOHA FILM INSTITUTE TO FUND 21 PROJECTS FROM 24 COUNTRIES

Screen Daily
Feb 4 2015

4 February, 2015 | By Michael Rosser

Filmmakers from 24 countries, including the US and Italy, to receive
funding

The Doha Film Institute has announced recipients of the autumn 2014
session of its grants programme. The announcement has come just ahead
of the Berlinale (Feb 5-15) where four of the Institute’s previous
grantees will be presented, including three world premieres.

Some 21 projects from 24 countries – comprising nine narrative
feature films, eight feature documentaries and four short films –
will receive funding for development, production or post-production.

It marks the ninth session of the grants programme, which supports
new cinematic talent, with a focus on first and second-time filmmakers.

A total of 11 of the projects are from the Middle East North Africa
(MENA) region; eight are from the OECD’s Development Assistance
Committee list of countries (DAC); and two are from the rest of
the world.

For the first time, filmmakers from Italy, Madagascar, Myanmar, Nepal,
The Philippines and US will receive grants.

Among the 21 projects selected for funding, three films are from
Tunisia:

Walid Mattar’s narrative feature Northern Wind, an exploration of
friendship between two men whose lives cross paths due to a factory
relocation;

Claire Belhassine’s feature documentary The Man Behind The Microphone,
about Hedi Jouini who is known as the ‘Frank Sinatra of Tunisia’;

and second-time grantee Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary Zaineb Hates
the Snow, a family portrait about a young girl who is relocated to
Canada following the death of her father.

Two projects from Qatar-based filmmakers were awarded grants:

Nora Al Subai’s Opening Doors, the true story of Amna Mahmoud, a
Qatari teacher who opened the first school for girls in Qatar in 1957;

and Karem Kamel’s Light Sounds, about an unlikely duo of Sri-Lankan
immigrants who work as cleaners in a washroom neighbouring a mosque.

MENA conflicts on film

Several projects with perspectives on the conflicts in the MENA region
are among the grantees.

Degrade is the debut feature from twin brothers Arab & Tarzan Abunasser
about 12 women stuck in a Gaza hair salon for an entire afternoon,
as they witness a violent confrontation taking place across the street.

In the Future, They Ate from the Finest Porcelain by Larissa Sansour
is an experimental short about Palestine which examines the role of
myth in history and national identity.

To All Naked Men by Bassam Chekhes is a narrative drama set in the
aftermath of the Syrian war.

Fatma Al Remaihi, CEO of the Doha Film Institute, said that latest
group of grantees “represent some powerful new voices in cinema”.

Women directors

“The cultural diversity among the projects is very inspiring, as is
the fact that once again, we are seeing so many strong female-driven
projects,” added Al Remaihi, as 12 of the the 21 funded projects are
directed by women.

These include:

Deniz Erguven’s Mustang, a Turkish project about five girls who grow
out of childhood in a family obsessed with their virtue;

Anahita Ghazvinizadeh’s They, about the transition from childhood
to adulthood and the open-ended questions of identity faced by the
young protagonist;

Nour Wazzi’s family drama, The Trophy;

and Scales by Saudi Arabian director, Shahad Ameen, which blends
fantasy and reality in a tale of a 13 year-old girl fighting against
her imminent fate of becoming a mermaid.

Documentary

Female-driven projects are also strongly represented in the documentary
category where seven of the nine grantees are women. They include:

Marie-Clemence Andriamonta Paes’s ‘Madagascar 1947, The Sound Of
Silence’, about the largely unknown post-WWII rebellion by Malagasy
war veterans which was harshly suppressed by the French colonial
authorities;

Jewel Maranan’s ‘Tondo, Beloved’ about the effects of poverty as
people are caught up in the path of Manila’s port expansion;

and Maryam Ebrahimi’s ‘The Confiscated Images’, about Iranian Gulf
war photographer, Saeed Sadeghi, whose images were used to propel
the myth of the Holy War.

Tamara Stepanyan has received a grant for the third time, making her
the first third-time grantee of the programme. Her feature documentary,
Limbo, explores the experience of Armenian asylum seekers.

Berlin titles

Four of the Institute’s grantee alumni are screening at the 65th
Berlin International Film Festival which opens on Thursday (Feb 5).

Two documentaries will make their world premiere in The Forum section
– David Yon’s ‘The Night and The Kid’ (Fall 2012 grantee) and Michel
Zongo’s ‘The Siren of Faso Fani’ (Fall 2013 grantee).

Also in the Forum section is Ghassan Salhab’s ‘The Valley’ (Fall
2012 grantee) which had its world premiere at Toronto 2014, while
‘Out on the Streets’ (Spring 2013 grantee) by Jasmina Metwaly and
Philip Rizk will have its world premiere in Forum Expanded.

Submissions for the current grants session are now open and will
close on February 15.

The fund is available to projects by filmmakers from around the world
with an emphasis on supporting filmmakers from the MENA region with
certain categories of funding reserved for MENA and Qatari filmmakers.

The fund is primarily for first and second-time filmmakers with
the exception of the category of post-production which, as of the
11th session, will be newly open to established filmmakers from the
MENA region.

For more information about eligibility and submission process
visit:

DFI grantees Fall 2014 session

[parts omitted]

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY – DEVELOPMENT

Limbo by Tamara Stepanyan (Lebanon, Armenia, France, Qatar)

Marseille, 2014. Dozens of Armenian asylum seekers are trying to
survive while waiting for their applications to be considered. They
live in an indeterminate space, wandering in limbo.

For full list of grantees, go to

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress