Month: October 2016

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho needs to adopt a more attack-minded approach, according to Jamie Redknapp. The ex-Liverpool midfielder has admitted to being baffled by Mourinho’s cautious mindset at United, especially given the star-studded attacking options in his squad.

“What was the point of Jose Mourinho signing creative, exciting players like Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan if he’s going to play so negatively?” the former Liverpool star .

“This is a talented Manchester United squad but they should be going toe-to-toe with Chelsea, not setting up to try to get a draw,” he added.

“In the first half, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford were playing as extra defenders in a back six. It’s too defensive and the players aren’t able to express themselves. Why is Mourinho leaving out players like Mkhitaryan and persisting with Marouane Fellaini? Is Mkhitaryan injured, or does Jose just not fancy him? Fellaini seems so difficult to play with and it’s affecting Pogba’s game.”

Redknapp thinks Mourinho’s defensive tactics may have created a negative atmosphere in the United dressing room, with the team having fallen woefully short of fans’ expectations so far this season. “There will be questions in the dressing room over Jose’s tactics and I worry that the atmosphere could become toxic,” he said of the United boss.

“People are saying that the players have to adapt to Jose’s style but I disagree. He must change to suit the traditions of a club that produced the most exciting team of the last 20 years.”

After suffering their third defeat of the Premier League season, United are now six points behind table-topping Manchester City.

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan received METRO AG wholesale trading company vice president in charge of external corporate policy, head of the Moscow representative office Alexei Grigoryev.

Welcoming the Guest, the Prime Minister stressed the need to further develop cooperation between METRO AG and Armenian export-oriented enterprises.

Karen Karapetyan expressed the hope that METRO AG will be able to find reliable partners for long-term cooperation in Armenia, including manufacturers. The Prime Minister stressed that there are opportunities for exporting Armenian agricultural and processed products not only to the Eurasian market, but also to other markets.

Stating his company’s willingness to develop relations with Armenia, Alexei Grigoryev said they saw good opportunities for cooperation. The METRO AG vice president expressed confidence that common ground for interaction could be found through extensive discussions.

During the meeting, the parties reviewed various issues of mutual interest, including the establishment of METRO AG field office in Armenia.

Today, at the Presidential Palace President Serzh Sargsyan and the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta Fra Matthew Festing held a private meeting. Prior to that there took place an award ceremony.

President Serzh Sargsyan awarded the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta Fra Matthew Festing with the Order of Glory for the strengthening and development of the interstate relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta, as well for his considerable contribution to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

For the significant contribution to the strengthening and development of the interstate relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta the Grand Chancellor of the Order of Malta Albrecht von Boeselager and the Grand Hospitaller Dominique Prince de La Rochefoucauld-Montbel were awarded the Orders of Honor, and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Republic of Armenia Jean-Michel Oughourlian was awarded the Order of Friendship.

By the decision of the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta Fra Matthew Festing and Sovereign Council of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan was awarded the highest order of the Order of Malta the Collar pro Merito Melitensi. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian received the second highest award of the Order of Malta Grand Cross pro Merito Melitensi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia at the Holy See Michael Minassian was awarded the Grand Officer Cross pro Merito Melitensi, the Chancellery of Holy Echmiadzin Archbishop Arshak Bishop Khatchatrian received a high award of the Order of Malta the Grand Cross pro Merito Melitensi.

After the award ceremony, President Serzh Sargsyan and the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta Fra Matthew Festing summarized the results of the negotiations in the statements made for the representatives of the mass media.

In honor of the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta Fra Matthew Festing, who is in Armenia on a state visit, President Serzh Sargsyan gave a state dinner.

Statement by President Serzh Sargsyan for the mass media on the results on the meeting with the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta Fra Matthew Festing

Your Most Eminent Highness,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today is a momentous day for all of us: Today the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta is conducting his first visit to Armenia. Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta, which are developing in a friendly and constructive atmosphere, have a years-long history. However at this moment a unique, I would say, a historic bridge is being established between the world’s first Christian nation and the oldest Christian military order. It is also symbolic because back in the time of the crusades, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia and the Order of Malta had close political and cultural ties, which today are getting a new life. The visit of Your Most Eminent Highness inspires us to give a new quality to our bilateral cooperation.

Moments ago, Fra Matthew Festing and I, in the atmosphere of sincerity and great mutual understanding discussed prospects of bilateral cooperation, as well as important regional and international issues.

We certainly expressed our profound thanks for the humanitarian assistance which the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta has been providing since the devastating earthquake of 1988; the assistance has been significant and certainly didn’t go unnoticed.

We have also discussed opportunities for expanding the cooperation in the areas of medical services, protection and organization of the civilian population in emergencies, joint historical research in which the Order of Malta and Armenia have accumulated impressive experience. On this I certainly believe a very useful work can be carried out: As a result of that useful work we may obtain additional information on the cooperation between the crusaders and the Kingdom of Cilicia.

We concurred that we possess the most important thing for the further development of our cooperation – the same system of values which translates into similar approaches for the resolution of problems. It is no secret that the history of the Armenian nation has been full of struggle – for the preservation of our Christian identity and values, for the Christian culture, for the promotion of humanism. One can say that after the adoption of Christianity, Armenians have been carrying out their historic mission in line with the motto of the Order of Malta – Tuition of Faith.

We have also spoken about the special relations existing between Armenia and the Holy See, a mass offered by the Holy Father on April 12, 2015 at the Saint Peter’s Cathedral and dedicated to the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide and certainly about the visit of the Pope to Armenia last June, which in these violent days was a brilliant example of the inter-church solidarity. Taking the opportunity, I thanked His Most Eminent Highness for being present at the mass and for remembering in his prayers the sons and daughters of the Armenian nation.

We have certainly spoken about the tragic situation in Syria which became a humanitarian catastrophe. We noted with pain that the Christians, and not only the Christians, there are being prosecuted and tortured. On behalf of Armenia, I expressed readiness to bring our contribution to the implementation of any initiative which will somehow stop the elimination of the Christians and Christian heritage at the Middle East.

Your Most Eminent Highness, once again – welcome to Armenia, welcome to the first Christian nation where we are always delighted to receive Armenia’s distinguished guests.

Thank you.

The Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta Fra Matthew Festing visited  Tsitsernakaberd today and  laid a wreath at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims today. He also planted a fir-tree in the Memory Alley.

 

 

The Armenian national team will play is set to face Montenegro on November 11 in a 2018 qualifier. Armenia head coach Artur Petrosyan has announced the list of playersplaying for foreign clubs, invited for the training campaign:

On 24 October Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Igor Popov (Russian Federation), Pierre Andrieu (France), James Warlick (USA), personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and accompanying them officials.

Issues related to the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict settlement and recent developments were discussed during the meeting.
President Sahakyan noted that Azerbaijan maintains its non-constructive stance of violating the ceasefire regime and continues to pursue an anti-Armenian policy.

The President highlighted the necessity of elaborating the mechanisms of maintaining the ceasefire regime and revealing the violations,  considering it among pivotal components of the peace process.
President Sahakyan expressed gratitude to retired co-chairman Pierre Andrieu for honest and efficient work wishing him successes in life and future career.

Dresden Symphony Orchestra will perform “Aghet” progam dedicated to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide at the German Consulate in Istanbul on November 13, reports.

Turkish-Armenian Friendship Association will host a reception after the concert. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Minister of Culture Nabi Avcı have been invited to participate in both events.

“Aghet” project caused a crisis between Germany, Turkey and EU. Turkey decided to leave the Creative Europe Program, because of the latter’s support for “Aghet.” German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his support to Aghet project, causing further disturbance in Turkish government.

Expressing his support to Aghet project, Steinmeier stated: “The deportation of the Armenian people happened a century ago. However, Armenian and Turkish sides haven’t yet officially reconciled concerning the events of 1915-1916. With this project, three composers from Germany and Armenia echo the voice of the deceased and also bridge the gap between the present and a past full of hatred and violence. The project invites the audience to get out of the world of hatred. I am convinced that only the people who learn and acknowledge the dreams and traumas of the others can contribute to the bright future of this continent. And Aghet project is one of the most important milestones in this path.”

Variety – “The Promise,” a sweeping historical romance starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, is the kind of movie epic they just don’t make anymore. It’s a throwback to David Lean’s “Doctor Zhivago” and Warren Beatty’s “Reds,” movies that transposed big, emotional stories against a sprawling canvas, and tugged at the heartstrings while dealing with thorny political periods.

It’s risky, but not just in that way. Not only is it one of the most expensive independently financed films ever made, it also deals frankly with the Armenian genocide. The mass killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire took place between 1915 and 1922, but decades later, the episode remains politically fraught. Bringing the story to the masses was a mission for Kirk Kerkorian, a businessman of Armenian descent who once owned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He died in 2015 as the film was going into production.

“This was personal for him,” says Eric Esrailian, one of the film’s producers. “He always wanted to make an epic film with the best actors available that wouldn’t just be a history lesson.”

His vision wasn’t cheap. “The Promise,” co-written and directed by Terry George (“Hotel Rwanda”), cost nearly $100 million to make before tax breaks. Kerkorian provided all of the financing through Survival Pictures, a company he set up with Esrailian. The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, has yet to close a distribution deal. Esrailian thinks the subject matter may be scaring some buyers away.

There’s a reason for that fear. Officials in Turkey continue to deny that systematic killings of Armenians took place. “I’ll just say that there are some studios that have business interests in Turkey, and you can form your own opinion,” says Esrailian.

There were no public protests at the Toronto premiere, but there is already evidence of a propaganda campaign to discredit “The Promise.” The film’s IMDb page has received more than 86,000 user votes, the bulk of them one-star ratings, despite the fact that the movie has had only three public screenings. That’s more user reviews than appear for “Finding Dory,” the highest-grossing film of the year. The filmmakers say reaction on social platforms has been equally intense.

“The day after we screened the movie, 70,000 people went on IMDb and said they didn’t like the movie,” says Mike Medavoy, one of the film’s producers. “There’s no way that many people saw the movie after one screening. There aren’t that many seats in the theater. ”

“The Promise” centers on a love triangle involving a medical student (Isaac), a journalist (Bale), and the Armenian woman (Charlotte Le Bon) who steals their hearts. All three find themselves grappling with the Ottomans’ decision to begin rounding up and persecuting Armenians.

“Some critics blamed us for being old- fashioned,” says George. “But that’s what we set out to do. We wanted as wide an audience as possible.”

This isn’t the first attempt at a movie about the Armenian genocide. In the 1930s, MGM planned to adapt “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” Franz Werfel’s novel about the massacres and deportations of Armenians, starring Clark Gable. That production was abandoned after the Turkish government threatened to launch a worldwide campaign against it.

Studios may have a reason to be cautious. The film business is an increasingly globalized one, with major movies depending on foreign revenue to make a profit. When Hollywood has dramatized the genocide, the blowback has been fierce. Atom Egoyan has the scars to prove it: His 2002 film “Ararat,” which depicted a Hollywood director trying to make a film about the genocide, was the focus of a vast campaign targeting the film’s distributor, Miramax, and Disney, its parent at the time. The studio received so many negative emails that its website crashed.

Egoyan warns that the controversy is just starting. “It’s going to be a tough ride,” he says. “The denialist lobby is very well-organized.”

Armenia’s border guards are better trained to counter the illegal transport and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction thanks to border security and interdiction training provided by the U.S. The 10-day training session is the latest part of a joint U.S.-Armenian project to improve Armenia’s abilities in this fight against contraband.

From October 10 to 21, 27 Armenian border guards who serve along the Armenian-Georgian border attended training on viable border interdiction strategies that stressed the necessity for interagency cooperation. The border guards were introduced to new tools that can be used to maintain security and aid in border monitoring. The course also included sessions on basic tracking skills, operations management, safety, and evidence control.

The course, which was moderated by border security subject matter experts, consisted of lectures and practical exercises, culminating with several full-scale interdiction exercises. The training was conducted by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Cooperative Threat Reduction Program’s WMD-Proliferation Prevention Program.

Out of the dozens of agents participating in this month’s course, 12 will go on to receive additional training to become instructors. This will enable Armenian authorities to institutionalize the training locally and ensure all Armenian border guards eventually receive the training they need to succeed.

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Security Service of Armenia, and the Armenian Border Guards have a long history of cooperative efforts aimed at reducing the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Defense, through DTRA’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, has provided $21.3 million in aid to properly train and equip Armenian border guards

Asbarez – The documentary feature, Crows of the Desert has been nominated by the ARPA International Film Festival as Best Documentary Film for the 2016 season. Directed by Emmy Award winning filmmaker Marta Houske, the film will have its world premiere on Saturday, November 5th at 2pm in the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

Based on the highly acclaimed memoirs of Levon Yotnakhparian, the film chronicles the incredible true story of one man’s desperate struggle to not only stay alive but to help save his people from near extinction in the 20th century’s first genocide. According to Levon Parian, the grandson of Levon Yotnakhparian, it was his father who inspired him to publish the memoirs. He notes, “My grandfather was never able to publish his very important autobiography of what he did during and after the Armenian Genocide. His was part of an effort organized by diaspora Armenians to save their countrymen from complete annihilation by Ottoman forces. He represented and addressed the needs of the Armenians starving in the deserts of Syria. He lead a team that gave thousands of Armenians the hope of survival.” The family gathered to facilitate the completion of the book: Parian’s mother translated it into English with Parian handling the editing and the layout, his wife outlined the maps, various aunts and cousins supplied photos and documents, while his father, Benjamin—Levon Yotnakhparian’s son—“did the prodding.”

Three years of research, translating, editing and map-making transformed Yotnakhparian’s memoirs into the book Crows of the Desert: A Hero’s Journey Through the Armenian Genocide (2012). The memoirs have since encountered yet another transformation, this time into a documentary film. Executive Producer Paul Turpanjian and TF Educational Foundation, along with producer-director Marta Houske offer audiences a rare and stirring insight into the plight of survivors all but lost throughout the Syrian Desert. Completing the film is a moving score composed by renowned musician John Massari, in collaboration with a stellar cast of world-class instrumentalists and composers: Ara Dabandjian, Alan Derian, Ruben Harutyunian, Armen Ksajikian and Razdan Kuyumjian.

Set against the backdrop of World War I raging through the Arabian Peninsula, the film recounts the astonishing heroics of an extraordinary group of men who endured great tribulations in order to save the lives of countless thousands of Armenian genocide survivors scattered throughout the desert. Along the way, they would risk their lives on multiple occasions, endure unimaginable hardships, and cross paths with legendary figures such as Prince Faisal and Lawrence of Arabia. Several years of meticulous research has uncovered extraordinarily rare film footage and photographs, as well as recently rediscovered documents gathered from archives around the world to reveal a harrowing journey that is at once heart wrenching and inspirational.