Month: September 2015

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has pledged to “wipe out” Kurdish PKK rebels in their strongholds after a deadly bomb attack on the Turkish army, the BBC reports.

“The mountains of this country, the plains, highlands, cities will be not abandoned to terrorists,” he said.

At least 16 Turkish soldiers died in Sunday’s attack in the south-eastern Hakkari province, the army said.

In retaliation, Turkey carried out several air strikes on PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) targets on Monday.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Mr Davutoglu said: “You cannot discourage us from our war on terror. Those mountains will be cleared of these terrorists. Whatever it takes, they will be cleared.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said he was saddened by the attack and promised a “decisive” response.

“The pain of our security forces who were martyred in the treacherous attack by the separatist terrorist organisation sears our hearts,” he said.

There has been a surge in violence between the army and the PKK after a ceasefire collapsed in July.

The PKK said it was behind the attack. Initially it said 15 soldiers had been killed, but later raised the figure to 31.

But the Turkish army said on Monday that 16 soldiers died, while six were injured.

Asbarez – A new organization, the Armenian Numismatics and Antiquities Society (ANAS) was launched in August on the sidelines of the American Numismatics Association’s World’s Fair of Money in Chicago.

This first gathering of the society included a public talk by renowned numismatic experts Dr. Levon Saryan and Frank Kovacs.

The fledgling organization has a website and plans to publish a quarterly journal. Dr. Saryan is vice president and journal editor and Dr. Chuck Hajinian is president of the group.

The goal of ANAS is to unite Armenians worldwide in their quest for knowledge about Armenian coins and related items, and to provide a forum for them to share their collections, post items for sale, and exchange ideas. The website is intended to be a place where anyone can find interesting items relating to Armenian history. In short, a “virtual museum” available to anyone in the world.

The website is a work in progress with pages set up for books, carpets, coins, embroidery, manuscripts, medals, and other forms of art. The initial focus has been on coins and numismatics, with plans to grow in the near future. The Los Angeles-based Armenian Numismatic Society operated successfully for more than 40 years but for various reasons its activity has diminished, which has created a void.

“We hope to keep the voice of Armenian numismatics alive and well,” says Hajinian. “We have a great love of everything Armenian, especially antique items. The reason is simple: for 1,000 years many of our families lived in western Armenia. All of their belongings—coins, ceramics, manuscripts, jewelry—were lost and stolen during the Genocide. This is our way of recapturing and honoring the lives they lived and preserving these items for future generations. We want to shine the brightest spotlight we can for all Armenians to see their history and to appreciate the artistic work that their ancestors created.”

“We have coins and artifacts all the way from prehistoric times to the present—these need to be presented to the world and to our own people. Despite the efforts of many people, most Armenians have only the vaguest notion of the heritage embodied in these items,” adds Hajinian.

“You can explore 3,000 years of Armenian culture in coinage alone. We want to bring this from the back rooms of museums, closets, drawers, and put it on the web for everyone.”

The organization is open to collaboration and ideas, and has already joined forces with Aram Manasaryan who set up the Armenian Numismatic Research Organization (ANRO) almost coincidentally. There is a prominent link to the ANRO website, which focuses on Armenian coinage with articles, a discussion board, historical data on auctions and sales, and a shop to purchase rare coins.

The launch event was significant since the World’s Fair of Money is one of the most prominent coin conventions in the US. Hajinian and Saryan discussed the new organization, as well as several specific coins and artifacts with experts and enthusiasts in the room. “The announcements in Chicago were this: We are here! This is our first meeting: join us, help us, have fun with us,” explains Hajinian.

ANAS hosted two of the finest and most knowledgeable speakers on Armenian numismatics in the world–Frank Kovacs and Levon Saryan. Mr. Kovacs reviewed highlights from his forthcoming book on the coinage of ancient Armenia. His book recasts some of the figures of ancient history, dating even earlier than the better known Artaxiad Dynasty of Tigranes the Great. One of the objects discussed is believed to be the oldest Armenian gold coin in existence, dating to the period of 401 BC.

While the topic is fairly obscure and little studied even among Armenians, the findings in this new volume are expected to cause controversy among researchers and collectors using long-established attributions for ancient artifacts and lineages of Armenian kings. “Some of our discussions are controversial,” notes Hajinian, “but this research deserves an honest and open minded review as there has been very little written in the field of ancient Armenian coins in the past 20 years, despite many new coins coming on the market around the world.”

Dr. Saryan presented several items for discussion, one of which was a rare medal issued by Russia in the 1830’s to commemorate the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in the eastern front. He also displayed extremely rare canceled checks from the early 20th century that were sent by Armenian immigrants from the St. Louis area to their families in the Ottoman Empire as a way of transferring their earnings.

In the area of ancient rugs, Chicago area dealer Oscar Tatosian shared information about the organization of antique Armenian rug collectors. The ANAS leadership confirmed that one of its goals is to unite these organizations under the ANAS banner, in order to reinvigorate the topics and attract the interest of new generations to collect Armenian artifacts and understand their cultural, historical, and political relevance.

Many questions were answered during the inaugural ANAS meeting, and it could easily have gone on for two more hours. The organization plans to hold events in other cities, with the hope of attracting dealers, collectors, and others with a curiosity or a family collection that has been passed down. For more information about ANAS, visit the website www.anasociety.org

The improvement and development of the united air defense system of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries will be discussed in Astrakhan (southern Russia) on Tuesday by members of the Coordinating Committee on Air Defense under the CIS Council of Defense Ministers, TASS reports, quoting the Russian Defense Ministry.

The Committee’s regular meeting will be attended by delegations from the Defense Ministries of the Russian Federation, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

“The meeting participants will discuss the organization of joint operational and combat training activities of the CIS united air defense system in 2016, the focal areas of the study of problems of air defence and training of military personnel for the united air defence system,” a Russian Defense Ministry official said.

After the meeting, members of the Coordinating Committee will continue their work at the Ashuluk range in the Astrakhan region, where the active phase of the Combat Commonwealth-2015 joint exercise of the CIS united air defence system is underway from September 7 to 10.

“The members of the delegations will get familiarised with the peculiarities of the joint tactical employment of the coalition aviation and air defence forces of the CIS member states in the regions of collective security during anti-terrorist actions and in armed conflicts,” the Defence Ministry said.

During the active phase of the Ashuluk drills the troops will have various tactical episodes, including repelling massive missile and air strikes using the fighter, attack, bomber and long-range aircraft, and will also conduct live firing exercise using the S-400 Triumph, S-300 Favorit, S-125 Pechora-2M, and Buk anti-aircraft missile systems.

The united air defense system of CIS countries was created on the basis of an agreement between 10 Commonwealth countries, signed on February 10, 1995 in Alma-Ata, for an indefinite period.

At present, the united air defense system of the CIS member countries brings together eight states: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Turkey’s state-run television says 12 police officers were killed in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Turkey, the Associated Press reports.

TRT television says three other policemen were injured today in the attack in the province of Igdir, near Turkey’s border with Armenia.

The attack comes amid a sharp escalation of violence between Turkey’s security forces and Kurdish rebels. Sixteen soldiers were killed in a similar attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, on Sunday.

Armenia’s Arthur Aleksanyan (98 kg) retained the World Champion’s title as he claimed victory in the 2015 Wrestling World Championships.

Aleksanyan defeated Ghasem Rezaei of Israel in the final round.

The Greco-Roman wrestler won his first World Champion’s title in Tashkent last year.

The Armenian St. Giragos Church in Diyarbekir was damaged as a homemade bomb exploded in Sur district, Ermenihaber.am reports, quoting the Turkish sources.

The windows of the church were broken, bullet traces were discovered on the walls, the source says.

On September 8, the feast of the birth of the Holy Virgin Mary, with the blessings of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; the icon of the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide was placed in the St. Gregory the Illuminator Mother Cathedral of Yerevan for veneration and prayers of our faithful.

The icon of the Holy Martyrs was consecrated on April 23, during the of the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide.

The icon will reside in the Mother Cathedral for a month.

The Greek government and the UN refugee agency have brought in extra staff and ships to deal with some 25,000 stranded migrants on the island of Lesbos, the BBC reports.

A processing centre has been also set up on an abandoned football ground to help the migrants to get to Athens.

A Greek minister said on Monday Lesbos was “on the verge of an explosion”.

Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants broke through police lines on Hungary’s border with Serbia and started walking towards the capital, Budapest.

The migrants faced down pepper spray used by police as they broke out of a holding centre in a cornfield and marched down a motorway towards Budapest. They later agreed to be taken by bus to another reception centre.

As Europe is thinking of ways to deal with thousands of migrants, Alexander C. Kaufman of the reminds that “one of the men who most dramatically impacted human civilization in the last decade was the son of a Syrian who migrated to the U.S. in 1954.”

“Perhaps you’ve heard of him. His name was Steve Jobs,” the author writes.

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to Joanne Schieble (later Joanne Simpson) and Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption.

His father, Abdulfattah Jandali, was a Syrian political science professor, and his mother, Joanne Schieble, worked as a speech therapist.

As an infant, Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara was the daughter of Armenian immigrants.

 

 

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes the events in and around Turkey that followed the previous parliamentary elections will force voters to ‘prefer stability and security’ by giving a larger amount of votes to the ruling party in the forthcoming snap elections.

Turkish analyst Ozgur Unluhisarcikli is confident Erdogan’s expectations will not come true. He says polls show the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) will retain and even increase the number of votes.

The expert is confident that the ruling party will again fail to gain majority and will have to form a coalition.

Whether the future agenda of Armenian-Turkish relations is positive or negative will depend on this coalition, he believes. According to Unluhisarcikli, Turkey is likely to develop a positive agenda if the HDP forms part of it.

The expert is assured that if talks between Armenia and Turkey resume, the bilateral relations should be clearly separated from two factors – the ‘1915 events’ and the Armenian-Azerbaijani disagreements.

Armenian analysts consider there is no ground for positive expectations today. Expert of the Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation David Shahnazaryan says any initiative should come from Turkey, as it was there that the Zurich protocols ‘faded.”

Today’s conference dedicated to the Armenian-Turkish relations was organized by the Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation with financial assistance of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.