Month: October 2016

By Shanifa Nasser

Less than one year ago, Mher Minassian was in charge of an Armenian cemetery in Syria.

“I saw very bad things… I buried very young people, I buried innocent people.”

It’s a far cry from where he was on Thanksgiving weekend in Toronto.

Minassian was one of nearly 200 Syrian refugees who gathered for their first-ever Thanksgiving in a Toronto-area Armenian church on Sunday. While he had never celebrated the holiday before, for him and many others, starting a new life in Canada was at the top of the list of things to be grateful for.

The Thanksgiving lunch, held at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Scarborough, was hosted by Armenian Family Support Services, a non-profit organization that has sponsored nearly 300 Armenian-Syrian refugees since November 2015.

“We are thankful first that we are alive because we escaped from the war and second, thanks to the Canadian government. They brought us here,” Minassian told CBC News on Sunday.

It’s a sentiment many there repeated as they celebrated.

‘No war, no bombs’

Zovij Bartiajian has been in Canada for one year and two months.

“I’m so happy to come here because I live in peace. No war, no bombs… A lot of water, a lot of electricity,” Bartiajian said, celebrating her second Thanksgiving.

But while she says she has plenty to be thankful for, her family members back at home in Syria remain at the top of mind.

“Only my body is here. My heart and my brain are back home because our family is still there… They want to come here but it’s so difficult.”

Rita Odjaghian, chair of Armenian Family Support Services, said while the group holds a sponsorship privilege, its work goes far beyond that.

“We got into bringing the refugees but it doesn’t end there. What we do, we try to help them integrate in the society,” adding that the group helps refugees find employment, English classes and even teaches them to identify mental health challenges.

Many of the refugees at the Thanksgiving event have family members back home, Odjaghian said, making events like Sunday’s that much more important to hem.

“There is such a huge isolation in them so they feel being embraced by a larger family.”

The value of that isn’t lost on Bartiajian.

“Thanks for everything,” she said. “Thanks for the peace.”

Photo: Grigoriy Sisoev / Sputnik

UK-born Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom of Finland have won the Nobel Economics Prize for work on contract theory, the BBC reports.

Judges said their work laid “an intellectual foundation” for policies in areas such as bankruptcy legislation and political constitutions.

The pair will receive 8 million Swedish kroner (£744,652) from the committee.

It comes after Nobel prizes for physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry and peace were awarded last week.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said that Mr Hart and Mr Holmstrom’s work was “valuable to the understanding of real-life contracts and institutions”.

It also said it could identify “potential pitfalls in contract design.”

For example, contract theory can be used to assess performance-based pay for top executives, the academy said.

On October 10, Ayb School and Goethe-Institut signed a memorandum of cooperation, which confirms Ayb School as Goethe-Institut partner school, within the framework of “Schools: Partners for the Future” (PASCH) initiative. The solemn ceremony took place at Ayb school.

PASCH is a network, which spans over 1800 schools from around the world that place high value on German. The initiative is carried out by Goethe-Institut along with the Federal Foreign Office, Central Agency for German Schools Abroad (ZfA), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Pedagogic Exchange Service (PAD) of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs.

“Ayb School has simply impressed me. It’s a school that shows me once again that Armenia has great hidden potential. The Embassy is overly happy for the cooperation Goethe-Institut and Ayb School will carry on in the future, within the framework of PASCH initiative. I believe this joint project of strengthening German will yield positive results,” said Ambassador of Germany to Armenia Bernhard Matthias Kiesler.

“Our being selected as a partner school means we are an institution that places high value on German and its instruction. This grants our students broader opportunities to pursue higher education in Germany. Knowledge of German is something that students need to have today as German-language education ensures high-quality professional capacity for the European economy and professional capacity is a prerequisite for economic development,” said Head of Ayb School Aram Pakhchanian.

“By selecting Ayb School and integrating it into the PASCH network we have enriched it with a top-notch school with methodological and pedagogical teaching concepts, that serves as a lighthouse in Armenia. The fact that the far stretching mission the school has undertaken is related to German language is important for Ayb and not only – it creates long-term prospects for the development of German language in other schools in Armenia as well,” stressed expert in instruction, representative of Goethe Institute Georgia in Armenia Julia Kramer.

Goethe-Institut Deputy Director Gerlinde Massoudi, Ambassador of Germany to Armenia Bernhard Matthias Kiesler, RA Deputy Minister of Education and Science Manuk Mkrtchyan and Chairman of Ayb School Board of Trustees Fr. Mesrop Aramian and a number of other high-ranking officials attended the ceremony.

The fourth Václav Havel Human Rights Prize – which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights – has been awarded to Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad. The €60 000 prize was presented at a special ceremony today at the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg, on the opening day of the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

At the age of 21 (in 2014), Nadia Murad was kidnapped by ISIS in northern Iraq together with thousands of other women and children. She was kept in slavery and abused for three months until she managed to escape and flee to Germany. Since then, she has become a human rights activist, bringing the plight of the Yazidi community, in particular the forced sexual enslavement and human trafficking of women and children captured by ISIS, to the forefront of international attention. She was a candidate for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize; in September 2016, she was appointed as the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.

The two other shortlisted nominees – Gordana Igric, a journalist from Serbia and an active defender of human rights and media freedom, and the International Institute of Human Rights/René Cassin Foundation, which has worked since 1969 to promote human rights and peace through teaching and research, also received diplomas during the ceremony.

“This year would have marked the 80th anniversary of Václav Havel. He is not with us any more, but his legacy is more relevant than ever,” PACE President Pedro Agramunt said during the ceremony. “Through his writing and his political activity, he forewarned about the danger of hatred and prejudice, and the importance of tolerance, co-existence, and respect for human rights and the rule of law. In times when we are facing renewed challenges to the unity of Europe, when diversity is becoming a dividing element, and people are starting to look at each other with suspicion and mistrust, we must turn back to his message,” he underlined.

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded each year by the Parliamentary Assembly, in partnership with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation, to reward outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights in Europe and beyond. Nominations of any individual, non-governmental organisation or institution working to defend human rights are taken into consideration. The Prize consists of a sum of € 60 000, a trophy and a diploma.

The Prize is awarded in memory of Václav Havel, playwright, opponent of totalitarianism, architect of the Velvet Revolution of 1989, President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic and an enduring symbol of opposition to despotism.

Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan held consultations on the issue of supportto Syrian Armenians. The meeting featured heads of interested state bodies.

The Prime Minister was briefed on the distribution of humanitarian aid sent to Syria upon the instruction of President Serzh Sargsyan.

The educational, healthcare and social programs of support to Syrian Armenians here in Armenia implemented over the past five years were presented. Reference was made to the perspectives of furthering the integration and business programs.

PM Karen Karapetyan instructed the relevant state bodies to continue the coordinated work in this direction in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Diaspora.

A group of statues of the legendary “Ararat-73” football team players was solemnly unveiled in Yerevan today.

Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan, President of the Armenian National Olympic Committee Gagik Tsarukyan, Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Hrachya Rostomyan and members of “Ararat-73” – USSR Champion and Cup winner – were present at the opening ceremony.

Yerevan’s chief architect Tigran Barseghyan is the author of the statues erected in the neighborhood of Hrazdan Stadium.

In the morning of October 10, President Serzh Sargsyan met in New York with the members of the Board of Directors of the Armenian Assembly of America.

The parties discussed agenda items of pan-Armenian importance, priorities of the activities of the Armenian Assembly of America, dynamically developing Armenian-American relations and possibilities for their further strengthening and deepening. Views were also exchanged on the pressing international problems, challenges existing in the South Caucasus region, the current stage of the NK peace process and existing issues, as well as the refugee problems which emerged as a result of the ongoing military activities in Syria. In this context, the President of Armenia and members of the AAA Board of Directors discussed issues pertinent to the assistance provided through the joint efforts by the Republic of Armenia and various Armenian structures to our compatriots in Syria as well as to the friendly people of Syria, who are suffering as a result of military actions.

Serzh Sargsyan also responded to the questions raised by the participants of the meeting, presented the process and prospects of Armenia’s economic development, and expectations from the new government of Armenia.

In the framework of his working visit to the United States, in the evening President Sargsyan will participate at the Armenia Investment Forum.

Photo: AP

The death toll in Haiti as a result of Hurricane Matthew – the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade – has soared to more than 300, officials say, the BBC reports.

Some 50 people were reported killed in the town of Roche-a-Bateau alone.

The nearby city of Jeremie saw 80% of its buildings levelled. In Sud province 30,000 homes were destroyed.

The hurricane, now a Category Three storm with sustained winds of 120mph (193km/h), is heading towards the US state of Florida.

At 02:00 local time (06:00 GMT) Matthew was still off the Florida coast, centred about 37 miles (60km) east of Vero Beach and was moving north-west at about 14mph (22km/h), the National Hurricane Center said.

Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock has officially proclaimed September 21, 2016 as “Armenian Independence Day” for the “twin states of the Armenian homeland, Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic),” reports the Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR).

“Mayor Hancock’s celebration of the Armenian homeland and recognition of Artsakh’s ongoing struggle against aggression is a testament to the firm dedication of Armenian American grassroots in the Mile High City and the State of Colorado to raise awareness about human rights issues, including Azerbaijan’s April 2016 anti-Armenian war crimes,” remarked ANCA-WR Executive Director Elen Asatryan. “We thank the Hancock administration for their unwavering support of universal human rights, including recognizing Artsakh’s independence and ongoing struggle to preserve its ancient Christian heritage and protect its freedom-loving indigenous Armenian population against an army that wipes out medieval monuments and tortures civilians and soldiers alike,” continued Asatryan.

The proclamation notes that “the Denver Metro Area is home to thousands of productive and patriotic Armenian Americans who have enriched our city for many decades,” and that “Artsakh continues the monumental struggle to maintain its indigenous Armenian identity, preserve medieval monuments and secure its borders against war crimes.” Mayor Hancock’s Proclamation notes ANCA-WR’s “commit[ment] to advancing issues of concern to the Armenian community,” and “congratulates the Armenian community on their commitment to their heritage, their engagement in their new homeland and their ability to survive and thrive despite the challenges.”

The Washington, D.C.-based and US Office of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic also thanked the City and County of Denver, as well as the area’s vibrant Armenian American community for celebrating the Armenian homeland’s 25th independence anniversary. “We are grateful to Mayor Hancock and to the people of Denver for marking and celebrating this important anniversary. For over a quarter of a century Artsakh has been living as a sovereign democracy and remains resolute to continue protecting its choice for freedom. We are grateful for this support and look forward to continued cooperation. I also want to thank the ANCA-WR for their steadfast efforts towards raising awareness about our nation’s common struggle for the security and prosperity of independent Artsakh” remarked Robert Avetisyan, Permanent Representative of Artsakh to the United States.

Mr. Avetisyan also thanked ANCA-Colorado and the ANCA-WR Regional Office in Denver for their ongoing support of Artsakh that builds on community-wide successes such as the April 24, 2015 unveiling of the Armenians of Colorado-sponsored Colorado State Capitol Armenian Genocide Monument – a replica of one of the 2,000 medieval Djulfa khachkars demolished by the Azerbaijani army.

The full text of the Proclamation reads:
“City and County of Denver

Proclamation

WHEREAS, the Denver Metro Area is home to thousands of productive and patriotic Armenian Americans who have enriched our city for many decades; and

WHEREAS, in 2016, the twin states of the Armenian homeland, Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), celebrate the 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union; and

WHEREAS, Artsakh continues the monumental struggle to maintain its indigenous Armenian identity; preserve medieval monuments and secure its borders against war crimes; and

WHEREAS, the Armenian National Committee of America, Western Region, is a grassroots public affairs organization that is committed to advancing issues of concern to the Armenian community in the United States, as well as in Europe, Russia, South America, the Middle East, Australia, Armenia and Artsakh; and

WHEREAS, the City and County of Denver congratulates the Armenian community on their commitment to their heritage, their engagement in their new homeland and their ability to survive and thrive despite the challenges.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, MICHAEL B. HANCOCK, MAYOR of the City and County of Denver, Colorado, by virtue of the authority vested in me, do hereby officially proclaim SEPTEMBER 21, 2016, to be known as:

“ARMENIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY”
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the official seal of the City and County of Denver to be affixed this 21st day of September, 2016
MICHAEL B. HANCOCK
MAYOR”