Month: April 2016

Turkey rejects a European Parliament progress report released on Thursday, Ankara’s European Union Affairs Minister said, citing a reference in the report to the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

“Unfortunately this year… the same reference takes place in the European Parliament’s Turkey report. These expressions, despite all our efforts and our warnings, could not be dropped,” Volkan Bozkir told reporters at a news conference in Austria, when asked about the report’s reference to genocide.

“That’s why we will consider this report as null and void and our permanent representative will send it back to the European Parliament.”

Serviceman of the NKR Defense Army Hamlet Hajoyan, bon in 1970, was fatally wounded as a result of shooting from the Azerbaijani side in the northeastern (Talish) direction of the line of contact, NKR Defense Ministry reports.

Investigation into the details of the incident is under way.

The NKR Defense Army shares the sorrow of the heavy loss and expresses its support to Hamlet Hajoyan’s family and friends.

In response to the recent shelling of Armenian villages in Artsakh (also known Nagorno-Karabakh) by Azerbaijan, Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Krekorian and other elected officials joined with Armenian-American civic and religious leaders to make a call for peace in the Caucasus region, where violence by Azerbaijan’s government has taken dozens of innocent lives in recent days.

L.A. City Councilman Paul Krekorian told that the vigil was meant to call for peace and to denounce what he described as the “outrageous militarization and vicious attacks” by Azerbaijan against those living in the Artsakh region.

“They have routinely violated the ceasefire since 1994, but this last week has seen a dramatic escalation of that,” Krekorian said. “It’s outrageous, it’s unjustifiable, and it should be denounced by the entire international community.”

Krekorian said that peace in the region is in the interests of the United States and that these attacks may constitute war crimes.

“So that’s why we are putting together this vigil, and that’s why we’re going to continue to demand action from our own government in Washington to ensure that we bring peace back to this region,” Krekorian said.

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA), a senior member of the House Financial Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, has called on the administration to negotiate a new tax treaty between the United States and Armenia, the Armenian Assembly of America reports.

At a recent hearing before the Financial Service Committee, Sherman told Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew that currently, “we have a chicken and egg circumstance.  You don’t get the business investment because you don’t have the tax treaty.  Then you don’t need the tax treaty because you don’t have the business investment.

“We have tax treaties with scores of countries around the world.  We devote a substantial amount of money to trying to achieve our international development goals and can always provide foreign aid to Armenia.  But we can also achieve those goals by having a tax treaty.”

– For Shake Tukhmanyan, an actress since age 17, starring in “Armenia, My Love” was an especially emotional experience.

The Glendale resident, who plays a grandmother in the new film about the Armenian Genocide, was traveling through the desert, filming a sequence that depicts the deadly travails many Armenians were subject to in 1915, when the Ottoman Empire began systematically killing more than 1.5 million of them in an effort to force them out of their historic homeland.

Tukhmanyan’s character, Anoush, was struggling to push on with her family in what ultimately became a deadly march. Like so many others, her character’s family had lost their home and an otherwise happy, peaceful existence.

“We were so tired,” Tukhmanyan said of shooting the desert scenes. “We were without water, but it was nothing compared with my people of that time.”

Tukhmanyan and her co-stars couldn’t help compare their own experiences to that of the Armenian families suffering through the atrocities 101 years ago.

“We cannot feel the same thing, but a little bit of it we felt when we were shooting,” she said. “You have to go deep inside and put a parallel between them and yourself.”

“Armenia, My Love” will premiere Thursday at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. It includes a question-and-answer session with the film’s writer and director, Diana Angelson, as well as the cast and crew.

On Friday, the theatrical release extends to the MGN Five Star Cinema in Glendale and the Laemmle NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.

Angelson, who also stars in the film as a pregnant mother, centers her script on a young boy who escapes the genocide, makes it to the United States and becomes a successful Armenian-American painter. His works depict his childhood, family and struggles back in his native country.

“While ‘Armenia, My Love’ does expose the harsh realities faced by the entire Armenian people who were violently ripped from their homeland, it is ‘Armenia, My Love’s’ strong messages of hope, love, faith, perseverance and strength that I wanted to prevail,” Angelson said in a statement.

Angelson, who’s Romanian American, said she felt compelled to make the film at the behest of her Armenian friends whose family histories needed to be told.

The film’s release coincides, nearly to the day, with the 101-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24.

For Tukhmanyan, born and raised in Armenia, that was significant.

“I’m really happy to have a part in this movie because it’s like a recognition of genocide for the entire world,” she said. “The entire world has been misled for a hundred years into thinking this genocide never happened.”

More than 7,000 polling stations opened in Syria at 07:00 local time today amid tight security measures.

The elections are held in 13 out of 15 provinces. Raqqa and Idlib provinces are the exception as they are controlled by gunmen from Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra. Refugees from these two regions will have a possibility to vote at places of their temporary domicile.

The election to the People’s Council of Syria takes place on the multi-party basis in accordance with the constitution adopted at the referendum on 26 February 2012. Syria’s parliament consists of 250 members elected for a four-year term through universal, direct and secret ballot voting.

On 13 April Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan had a meeting with His Holiness Garegin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia.

A wide range of questions covering the state-church, Homeland-Diaspora ties was discussed at the meeting.

Issues relating to the large-scale combat operations launched by Azerbaijan from 2 to 5 April and their consequences were in the focus of special attention.

President Sahakyan noted that during this ordeal the entire Armenian nation demonstrated exemplary unity and cohesion, fervent patriotism and self-dedication highlighting the role of the Armenian Apostolic Church in this process.

The Head of the State acknowledged the visit of the Supreme Patriarch, Catholicos of All Armenians and Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia to Artsakh, pointing out its historic significance from spiritual, political and the younger generations’ patriotic upbringing perspectives.

Primate of the Artsakh Diocese Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, a group of supreme ecclesiastic representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church partook in the meeting.

On Thursday April 21, Thomas Jefferson School of Law will be hosting a lecture entitled, “Genocide and the Law 101 Years Later.” This event will coincide near the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey.

The lecture will feature famed Armenian-American criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, who had represented several celebrities and was one of the lead lawyers in a pair of groundbreaking federal class-action lawsuits against New York Life Insurance and AXA Corporation for insurance policies issued in the early 20th century during the Armenian Genocide.

This event is organized by the Thomas Jefferson School of Law Armenian Law Student Association.

Photos by Karl Mancini, Gianmarco Maraviglia

In light of the recent aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan, Newsweelk presents the life of young people in Nagorno Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert. Excerpts from the article are provided below:

Many of Karabakh’s residents are given frequent reminders of a war they are too young to recall. Yet despite the harsh and fickle realities of the nearby frontline, they continue to dream and find ways to have fun.

There are not many signs of nightlife in Karabakh for teens and 20-somethings even in the capital of Stepanakert, by far the most populous and developed settlement in the aspiring republic. To those looking for a night out, Stendhal Club is the only disco opened until late in the city. Others prefer to meet at home or in restaurants.

Parts of Stepanakert, which stands around 20 kilometers from the contact line with Azerbaijan, have been rebuilt since the war. “The situation and city is quite dark,” Gianmarco Maraviglia, one of the two photographers behind our gallery says. “The frontline is very close and the people know it.” Other towns around such as Shushi, where little to no rebuilding has happened, bear the scars of war even more heavily.

Lika Zaqaryan is a political science major at Stepanakert’s Artsakh State University, where she is also prima ballerina in the ballet troupe. She knows opportunities lead abroad but she says she will always return to Karabakh.

“I want to go to another country to improve my education but when I do that I don’t want to stay there,” Zaqaryan says. “I want to come back and live here in Nagorno Karabakh. I hope it will be a peaceful Republic of Nagorno Karabakh or maybe a part of the Republic of Armenia.”

She says everyone worries about their brothers, fathers or grandfathers in the military but hopes the “problems with Azerbaijan on the border” can be resolved.

Grigor Khagramanyan, 13, has his sights on traveling the world. “I’d like to go to Iran. I’d like to see their carpets,” he says, looking on from his school window. “And Singapore, to see their many high buildings. Maybe South Africa will be good,” he says. “I have one friend, his father is working in the army, he’s a general. He wants to be like his father, I know.” Grigor himself says he has heard a lot about the army from his friend. He says it is “interesting.”

Knar Babayan, a photographer and journalist, is old enough to remember the violence of the late 1980s and so proud that she has had the chance to leave Karabakh and returned. “I studied here, then moved to Yerevan and I also had a chance to study in Georgia. I was also abroad to participate in workshops,” she says. “Every time I come back my friends ask me ‘Really you don’t want to leave Karabakh?’”

“I found that I could not live more than 10 days away from home,” she laughs. “One of my lecturers told me I am lucky because at my age I understand that I have a home.”

Wealthy benefactors from the Armenian diaspora have helped finance a handful of venues in Karabakh to help better the lives of the young and their career prospects. A small new soccer field has been built in central Stepanakert, where children can play. For those whose minds are more tech-geared, Stepanakert has also opened the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies.

The center is modeled after projects in Armenia, and it allows children develop skills in art and computer science, with a well stocked inventory of digital resources. The center is open free of charge to any under-18s and its sister-centers in Armenia have already established three startups.

Gohar Aushar, an aspiring filmmaker at the Tumo center in Stepanakert, says she would like to hone her craft abroad, but her inspiration will “always be Karabakh and Stepanakert.”

“I think a documentary would be a good idea,” she says. “Our country has a lot of history and I think other countries should know about it. I would like to film a story about our historical memorials and shoot Tigranakert.”

“I think there is no difference between Armenians and Karabakhis because we are one nation,” she says.

Bundestag is set to vote on an a motion for recognition of the Armenian Genocide  on June 2,  quoted Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) First Secretary Michael Grosse-Brömer as saying, reports.

Speaking to AFP, Green Party Co-Chair Cem Özdemir said: “We would like this motion to be brought to Bundestag sooner. However, there is something more important than the date, which is the fact that all political parties will speak the same.”

Özdemir also said, “Finally, there will be a clear and explicit statement in Bundestag. Yes, the name of the crime committed against Armenians in Ottoman era is genocide. Moreover, Germany is also responsible for it.”

“Christian Democratic Union keeps its promise. There is no turning back now,” Özdemir said.

Green Party , but the voting was postponed, since coalition parties Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) demanded a common motion.

for the first time, but there was no voting. While the government avoided using the term “genocide”, President Joachim Gauck and President of Bundestag Norbert Lammert openly used the word “genocide” to describe the events of 1915.

At a recent meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan Chancellor Angela Merkelassured the bill would be brought to Parliament.