Month: September 2015

David De Gea’s  move from Manchester United to Real Madrid has collapsed because the necessary paperwork was not submitted in time, the BBC reports.

No official announcement has yet been made by either club.

As part of the deal to sell De Gea to Real, United were planning to bring Keylor Navas in the opposite direction.

There is no precedent for Spanish clubs being given additional time to conclude transfers as there is in England.

Blame for the failure to complete the deal is already being apportioned.

Businessman German Sterligov who was detained at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday has been released, his lawyer Artur Airapetov told TASS.

“Sterligov was released after talking to the law enforcers. He is fine,” the lawyer said.

Businessman German Sterligov was detained at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport upon his arrival from Yerevan, Armenia, on Monday evening. According to Airapetov, his client stayed at the airport all the time after the detention.

He said Sterligov had been detained due to the fact that Azerbaijan had initiated criminal proceedings against the businessman and had put his name on the CIS inter-state wanted list.

The airport’s border guards told TASS that Sterligov was detained when crossing the Russian state border.

As the opening of Istanbul Biennial gets closer, it turns out that there are a lot of works that refer to the Armenian Genocide and the developments that followed it.

– This year, there is a different excitement before Istanbul Biennial. People work on the biennial in strict confidence and it will be opened on September 5; though we can roughly make out what to expect, we will be seeing lots of surprising projects.

Rubbing salt into the wound

14th Istanbul Biennial started out with a comprehensive title like “Saltwater.” When the tight-lipped attitude of curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and of the biennial team was added to this title, which refers to the source of life, geographical connection, Bosporus and many other themes, this event that will begin next week became even more mysterious.
Events of 14th Istanbul Biennial, which will be spread all over Istanbul, from Prince Islands to overseas, are designed with the works that have something to say about current issues and politics. As the curator Bakargiev says, Turkey has plenty of festering wounds. And this year’s biennial has the purpose of pointing at those wounds, though it cannot heal them altogether. In the interview that she gave to Blouin Artinfo on August 18, Bakargiev said: “This is almost a spiritual exhibition. These spirits come from the ethnic cleansing that carried against Armenians and Greeks.” And after “dOCUMENTA (13)” exhibition that she curated, she preferred not to involve in large-scaled projects for a while.

The sea that connects Istanbul to San Lazzaro

A great part of the biennial consists of individual presentations that are located in different places. This means, Bakargiev preferred to organize a group exhibition that consists of solo projects. Unusual venues like Trotsky’s house on Prince Islands, Rumeli Feneri, stores, boats and parking lots will be used as exhibition venues, in addition to museums and art institutions which are the usual destinations on the contemporary art route. The connection between those venues is constituted by the notions that are treated in various ways in the exhibitions and the saltwater that runs through Istanbul.

Considering that the works of Haig Aivazian, Anna Boghiguian, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Rene Gabri & Ayreen Anastas that were exhibited in the Armenia Pavilion of 56^th Venice Biennial and the works of Sarkis that had a solo exhibition in the Turkey Pavilion will be exhibited in this year’s Istanbul Biennial, it can be said that the saltwater doesn’t only bridges two sides of Istanbul, but also reaches all the way to Venice and Mıhtaryan Monastery on San Lazzaro Island.

As the opening of Istanbul Biennial gets closer, it turns out that there are a lot of works that refer to the Armenian Genocide and the developments that followed it. Michael Rackowitz’s work, which was inspired by the fibrous plasterer Garabet Cezayirliyan who made the ornamental work on the buildings like Yıldız Palace and Emek Movie Theater, is one of them. Tracing the footsteps of Cezayirliyan in Istanbul, Rackowitz combines his work with the remains that came from Vakıflı Village, which is the last Armenian village in Turkey. Artist Francis Alys, who lives in Mexico City, hails the bird species that no longer exist by imitating the pipes of the birds that lived in Ani district of Kars once; in this way, he also calls out to the Armenians who were forced to leave that region. Making a long-termed research on the lute player Hrant and exhibiting the conceptual sculpture that he made as a result of this research in the Armenia Pavilion in Venice Biennial, Haig Aivazian prepared a performance for Istanbul Biennial. As a part of this performance, the choir of Beyoğlu Üç Horan Church will perform a traditional song, which was also performed by the lute player Hrant, in Galata Greek Elementary School. In the project that Aslı Çavuşoğlu developed for the biennial, red dye will be produced from the insects; this is an Armenian technique that is not used anymore. Using the old building of Agos and Hrant Dink Foundation as a project venue, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri will turn this place into a truth center by referring to the past of the building. It should also be noted that Anarad Hığutyun Building, which is the new place of Hrant Dink Foundation, is one of the biennial venues.

President Serzh Sargsyan has left for the Nagorno Karabakh Republic for a working visit.

On September 1-2 President Sargsyan will participate in the festive events dedicated to the 24th anniversary of proclamation of Arsakh Republic.

Yevnige Aposhian Salibian, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, who became an outspoken advocate for truth and justice as recently as April of this year, passed away Sunday aged 101, reports.

Salibian was a resident of Ararat Home in Mission Hills, Calif. With a sharp mind she articulated her family’s story of survival at community events, becoming one of the last remaining survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

She was just a baby when the Genocide began, but the she was able to recall things that happened a few years later to her family.

Born Jan. 14, 1914, one of five children in a middle-class family in the town of Aintab. Her family was among the last to leave. It was during this trip that she received a scar on her leg when she became trapped in the reins of a horse. She nearly bled to death and the scar has become a lifelong reminder of her early miseries. The family fled Aintab in 1921.

A deeply religious woman, she learned to speak English by comparing versions of the bible. After fleeing their home, her family lived in Lebanon until 1976, when she came to the United States.

In 2014, Salibian was by the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, during the organization’s 20th anniversary gala, where Steven Spielberg and others honored the survivor.

Her story captured the attention of many, including renowned journalist Robert Fisk who her and her story in an edition of the London-based The Independent in 2014.

On 1 September Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan sent a condolence letter to the family of philanthropist Vahak Hovnanian, Central Information Department of the Office of the NKR President reported.

The letter runs as follows:

“I have learnt with deep sorrow about the death of philanthropist, deserved son of the Armenian nation Vahak Hovnanian.

VahakHovnanian was a remarkable person, a great patriot, who devoted his entire life to his native people, the development and reinforcement of the Armenian independent statehood, resolution of pan-Armenian issues. Various projects of strategic significance were implemented with his active participation.

In this hour of irretrievable loss on behalf of the Artsakh people, the authorities and on my own behalf, I express condolences and support to Vahak Hovnanian’s family, his relatives and friends. His memory will always stay bright in our hearts.”

FAIR, French Armenian International Network, aims to promote economic
synergies between the business entrepreneurs of the Rhone-Alpes region and their
counterparts in Armenia for the creation of a regional hub providing access to the region’s
markets, such as Georgia, Iran, and other CIS countries.

The worldwide networking of FAIR, which is a recently created business association, shall
definitely include the still-untapped economic potential of the Armenian diaspora, from the
Middle-East countries to the Americas, as well as the countries of Eastern Europe and the
former Soviet Union.

The Rhône-Alpes Regional Parliament is set to host the official launching of FAIR in a
special ceremony on Wednesday, September 23, 2015.

The event is organized under the sponsorship of Raffi Haladjian, inventor of NABAZTAG
and a pioneer in the field of connected items and other state-of-the-art technologies.

Kate Winslet is set to play Polish-Armenian Joanna Hoffman — one of Apple’s earliest employees who was known for standing up to Steve Jobs — in the new movie about the legendary Apple cofounder’s life.

The movie, which includes a star-studded cast that features Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs and Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, is set to debut on Oct. 9, according to Business Insider. 

In a recent interview with , Winslet explained how she landed the role. The actress was interested in the role as soon as she heard about the film from her hair-and-makeup artist, who was set to work on the movie after she had finished working with Winslet on “The Dressmaker.” The fact that the film was written by Andrew Sorkin was enough to draw Winslet in, but she was also intrigued by the movie’s three-act format.

Winslet decided to move on the opportunity right away, but there was one hurdle: she looks nothing like Hoffman, the Polish-Armenian immigrant that served as the only marketing person on the original Mac team for more than a year.

So, to audition for the role, she sent her husband out to purchase dark brown wigs in varying lengths. She took photos of herself in the wigs and sent them over to Scott Rudin, the film’s producer.

“I  wanted to please her [Joanna Hoffman] as much as I could. How she sounds, and her accent, is fairly complicated. She grew up largely in Armenia, spent some time in Poland, and has Russians in her family, so she has all three accents, but she’s been in America since she was a teenager, so she had American rhythms,” Winslet said.

 

Turkey’s newly appointed envoy to to the European Union (EU) said Tuesday that genocide was committed against Armenians in Turkey during the First World War, reports.

Ali Haydar Konca, a parliamentarian with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), was recently appointed as Minister of European Union Affairs by the Turkish interim cabinet. His comments contradict the long-held position of the Turkish government.

“The fact that genocide happened is explicit and clear and everybody accepts that. Right now, the issue is what it should be called. We will make a decision in our party about that,” Konca told the press.

This is the first time that a Turkish authority has admitted Turkey committed genocide against Armenians.