Author: Albert Nalbandian

President Sarkissian felicitates Brazil’s Bolsonaro on Independence Day

Albert Nalbandian

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 11:54, 7 September, 2020

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian congratulated President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro on the Brazilian Independence Day.

In a telegram to Bolsonaro, the Armenian President expressed certainty that through joint efforts it will be possible to boost the mutually beneficial Armenian-Brazilian partnership for the benefit of the two nations.

“President Sarkissian wished robust health and good luck to President Bolsonaro and peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Brazil,” the Armenian President’s Office said in a readout of the cable.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Sarkissian and Pashinyan offer felicitations on Gyumri Day

Albert Nalbandian

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 12:46, 5 September, 2020

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated Armenians on Saturday on the occasion of Gyumri Day.

The President said in his address that Gyumri is a unique city with a beautiful history and open-hearted people. “The city has lots to offer, love, warm atmosphere, culture and tasty food…Everything,” Sarkissian said. “Let’s visit Gyumri more often and enjoy its unique human and cultural [flavor].”

In turn, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan shared a video online from his earlier speech in Gyumri’s central plaza, congratulating the residents of the second largest city of Armenia. “Congratulations dear Gyumri,” he wrote.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan




Music: Armenian pianist wins Grand Prix at Chicago International Music Competition

Albert Nalbandian
Public Radio of Armenia
Aug 28 2020

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Young talented pianist, soloist of the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, student of “Yerazart” program Yeva Gevorgyan won the Grand Prix at the Chicago International Music Competition.

In addition, the pianist received a special award for the best performance of Chopin’s work.

More than 400 musicians from 22 countries applied to participate in the competition. The festival is held every year in Chicago, USA, bringing together the most talented musicians in the world, contributing to their professional development. One of the goals of the competition is to promote cultural exchange and discover young talents.

<img src=””https://en.armradio.am/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/x2-12-1.jpg.pagespeed.ic.JKtB2SwCEL.jpg” alt=”” class=”wp-image-118490″ srcset=”https://en.armradio.am/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/x2-12-1.jpg.pagespeed.ic.JKtB2SwCEL.jpg 960w, 300w, 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px”/>

“It is a great pride for us that Yeva Gevorgyan is registering another victory on the international arena. The talented pianist always keeps the name of the Armenian performing art high on the most prestigious platforms,” says Arman Padaryan, chief producer of the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra and head of the “Yerazart” program.

Eva Gevorgyan is now going to participate in the International Chopin Piano Competition, traditionally held in Warsaw, Poland. It has been postponed due to the epidemic and will be held in 2021.


Defense Ministry: Internal investigation to be launched over disorientation of Armenian officer

Albert Nalbandian
Panorama, Armenia
Aug 25 2020

On August 22, at 19.30, Armenian officer Gurgen Alaverdyan who was on check of military outpost, got lost geographically due to adverse weather conditions. As the Spokeswoman at the defense ministry Shushan Stepanyan reported, an internal investigation will be launched to find out the circumstances of the case.

“We suggest the Azerbaijani defense ministry to exert no extra efforts to distort the reality. The reality will become known soon,” Stepanyan wrote on her Facebook page. 


BBC HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur challenges Aliyev for interview after Pashinyan episode

Albert Nalbandian

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 17:45, 17 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 17, ARMENPRESS. Days after the BBC HARDtalk episode with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan aired, the program’s host Stephen Sackur is challenging Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to an interview, citing “extraordinary” response to the August 14 interview with the Armenian leader.

“The response to my interview with Armenian PM @NikolPashinyan has been extraordinary – in both #Armenia and #Azerbaijan,” Sackur tweeted. “The world needs to hear from both sides. So how about it @presidentaz? Or any other senior minister in #Baku?”

The BBC HARDtalk interview with PM Nikol Pashinyan addressed issues such as the democratic reforms in Armenia, the coronavirus response, and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.

Editing by Stepan Kocharyan

Turkish Press: Armenian cemetery in Ankara ‘damaged by treasure hunters, contractors’

Albert Nalbandian
BIAnet, Turkey – “Journalism for Rights, Rights for Journalists”
Aug 20 2020
Armenian cemetery in Ankara ‘damaged by treasure hunters, contractors’
MP Paylan has asked why the government does not protect the cemetery.
İstanbul – BIA News Desk

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP Garo Paylan has submitted a parliamentary question to Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy about the photos showing the damage on an Armenian cemetery in Sincan, Ankara, the capital.

He noted that the Stanoz Armenian Cemetery was declared a protected area in the 1990s and added, “This area’s loot by treasure hunters and contractors deeply upset the Armenian community in Turkey and all our conscious citizens.”

He asked the following questions to the minister:

Why don’t you protect Ankara Stanoz Armenian Cemetery?

Do you have a plan to protect the numerous Armenian cemeteries in the country?

Have you had an attempt to catch the treasure hunters, who loot the Stanoz Armenian Cemetery?

Located in the Zir Valley in the Sincan district’s Yenikent neighborhood, the cemetery has a second-degree protection area status.

A part of the cemetery, which has agricultural lands next to it is also used as a picnic area. The barbed wires put by the Sincan Municipality to protect the cemetery are removed and cemetery’s land is added to the land of the vineyard houses in the valley.

The barbed wires around the cemetery pulled by the Sincan Municipality in recent years have been removed and added to the land of the vineyard houses built in the valley.

Photographs of human bones coming out of places dug by treasure hunters in the cemetery have been seen on social media many times. (TP/VK)


http://bianet.org/english/religion/229314-armenian-cemetery-in-ankara-damaged-by-treasure-hunters-contractors






Media Advocate: Negative articles on Arsen Torosyan prevail

Albert Nalbandian
Panorama, Armenia
Aug 13 2020

Negative media reports on Armenia’s Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan prevail, the Media Advocate initiative said in a statement on Thursday, presenting the results of its monitoring. The statement reads:

“From 1 to 10 August, 2020, the Media Advocate initiative followed online media reports on Armenian Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan’s personality and activities.

35 leading Armenian news agencies have been monitored․

In the specified period, 333 articles were declared, 176 of which were negative, 157 were neutral.

The negative articles published on Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan exceeded the number of neutral ones this time, no positive articles were declared.

The confrontation between the former head of the SCS (State Control Service) Davit Sanasaryan and Arsen Torosyan continues. According to Davit Sanasaryan, Arsen Torosyan must appear in the court as a witness. There will be surprising questions. He added: “If my powers had not been terminated, I would not have allowed the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption to study the case, because there is a specialized structure to deal with it, I would have instructed my employees to study and see how it turned out that he is a minister and makes a 170 million deal with a medical center run by his wife with a single purchase and without holding a tender. Let the relevant bodies find out, the prosecutor’s office also has something to do here.”

According to Marine Sukiasyan, who represents the Alternative Projects Group initiative, “Arsen Torosyan failed the fight against the epidemic, but he failed that case with others, that is, not alone. He failed the medical side of the disaster, but the deaths that exceeded 1000 have not stopped and this is not only a healthcare problem. Such a situation in a small country, where currently 40.000 patients are officially registered, can not go unnoticed. More than 1,000 deaths are not anonymous figures that are presented to the public every morning. Each of them is a personal, family tragedy.”

According to the press, Arsen Torosyan will be dismissed soon, the names of the candidates replacing Arsen Torosyan are even being discussed, they, by the way, according to various sources, are sponsored by the Prime Minister’s wife, Anna Hakobyan.

Tehmina Vardanyan, a member of Yerevan Council of Elders from the Luys fraction, thinks that Arsen Torosyan should resign: “It is clear that Arsen Torosyan’s great desire for the cult of his personal self exceeds the permissible limit, he does not stand anyone’s competence and professionalism. Do you know why? Complex, it is a pure complex. Of course, it is more difficult to work with a person with his own standpoint and qualities, on the same level, so that the advantages of the other person are not vivid. But not in this difficult situation. And, indeed, if there is anyone who has to resign, it is you, Mr. Torosyan. Respect us, respect the people and leave! For God’s sake, leave…”

Recently, the director of Nork Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital, Mher Davidyants, resigned. It was mentioned in the press that Arsen Torosyan will appoint his close friend Hovhannes Madoyan as the director of Nork Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital, who has certain ties with Soros and is the program consultant of the “Real World, Real People” NGO. The latter is a prominent Soros-related specialist who has been working in an NGO for more than 15 years, and is engaged in defending the interests of HIV-infected people.”

Schools in Armenia to resume classes from September 15

Albert Nalbandian

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 17:49,

YEREVAN, AUGUST 10, ARMENPRESS. Secondary schools, primary and secondary vocational schools, music and art schools will resume classes in Armenia from September 15, ARMENPRESS reports Minister of Education Arayik Harutyunyan wrote on his Facebook page, adding that sanitary and hygienic rules will be strictly observed.

‘’Decisions over higher educational institutions and some other educational institutions will be made during the week’’, the Minister wrote.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan

Schools to reopen in Armenia on 15 September

Albert Nalbandian
Panorama, Armenia
Aug 10 2020

Schools, primary and secondary vocational education institutions, music and art schools are set to reopen in Armenia on 15 September, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Harutyunyan said on Facebook on Monday.

The decision was made at a meeting hosted by the Commandant’s Office earlier on Monday, he said. 

Children will return to class at the same time observing the anti-coronavirus rules, the minister noted.

“Decisions on universities and a number of other educational institutions will be made in the next week,” he added.

“The Commandant’s Office, the ministry and its other partners have jointly developed detailed procedures and guidelines concerning all issues that will be published and disseminated in the next few days. Please follow only the official news on the matter spread by the pages of the government, the Commandant’s Office, the ministry or the minister.

Dear teachers, parents and school students, in the coming weeks we should work together to ensure the successful start and the normal course of the academic year, taking into account the pandemic-related restrictions and excluding media provocations,” Harutyunyan wrote.  

Armenia has some of the World’s Most enchanting Monasteries

Albert Nalbandian
The Daily Beast
Aug 9 2020
PEACE AND QUIET

Because secluded mountain-top churches and unspoiled nature have never sounded more appealing.

Published Aug. 09, 2020 6:28AM ET 

By now you’ve no doubt found a coping mechanism for COVID angst—maybe you fold down into child’s pose, zone out with some deep inhales, or simply pour yourself a stiff drink. Me, I like to close my eyes and conjure up one of the most peaceful places I know: Geghard monastery, in the mountains of Armenia. Some days I can almost taste the air inside, cool and pure and sweet with frankincense. Around me, candles flicker in the dimness against rough-hewn walls blackened by smoke and time. Ethereal harmonies spiral up to the soaring cupola, from which a skylight casts a beam of light that warms my forehead if I stand just so. I’m not religious, but in Armenia’s monasteries, I found a glimmer of divine serenity that followed me home.

You’re never far from a church in Armenia, a deeply Christian country bordered by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Iran. Today more than 90 percent of Armenia’s citizens—and millions of diaspora Armenians abroad—belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, an ancient Oriental Orthodox institution that shares similarities with Coptic, Syrian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Indian Churches. In fact, Armenia was the first nation to make Christianity its official region, in 301 AD, some 80 years before the Roman Empire did the same. That head start is one reason the country’s most breathtaking Christian sites are also some of the world’s oldest—take, for example, Echmiadzin Cathedral, said to be the first cathedral on earth, completed (in its first iteration) in 304 AD. 

But you don’t have to know this history—much less follow the Gospel—to be blown away by the buildings themselves, and to find rejuvenating quietude within their walls. Crowned by conical domes that pierce through clouds and tower over forests and meadows, Armenian churches are dramatic, and drool-emoji photogenic, especially viewed from afar. Get closer, and you might spot zoomorphic carvings of suns or grapevines or (long-extinct) Persian lions, holdover motifs from Armenian Zoroastrianism. Step inside, and hypnotically interlaced stone crosses, faded frescoes of wide-eyed saints, and secret nooks and passageways will jump-start your imagination and make you want to go exploring like a kid in a haunted house. 

A word of advice to first-time visitors to Armenia: Lest monastery fatigue set in, limit yourself to two or three churches a day. Skip the umpteen-stop package itineraries. Roads in Armenia are notoriously curvy, tours long and information-packed, and monasteries filled with curiosities that merit your slow, clear-eyed attention. There may be more churches in Armenia than there are seeds in a pomegranate, but these seven monastic sites—ranging from tiny chapels to grand ecclesiastical complexes—are especially pilgrimage-worthy.  

Khor Virap, Ararat, Armenia, Europe

Khor Virap

Plastered on t-shirts, printed on postcards, and painted wistfully on walls of Armenian restaurants from Los Angeles to Tbilisi to Paris, Khor Virap is one of the most celebrated symbols of Armenia. When it comes into view, you’ll understand why: The monastery appears to float above a parched plain that stretches to the foot of Mount Ararat, the snow-capped dormant volcano where Noah’s ark supposedly came to rest. It’s all phenomenally scenic, especially on windy winter mornings when the air is at its clearest. Though remnants remain of the original 7th-century chapel, the current structure, with one lone spire, dates to the 1600s. Inside, take the wobbly steel ladder down into the pit where Armenia’s chief evangelizer, Gregory the Illuminator, is said to have been jailed for 12 years by the pagan King Tiridates III. 

Etchmiadzin Cathedral 

Etchmiadzin is to Armenian Apostolic Christians what St. Peter’s Basilica is to Catholics and the Western Wall is to Jews: a place of unparalleled religious significance. Called Mayr Tachar (“Mother Church”) by Armenians, it is the seat of the catholicos, the Armenian equivalent of the pope. Its 65-foot-high cupola, ornate bell towers, and central nave blanketed in florid Persianate frescoes make it one of the grandest religious sites in the Caucasus. The site was previously a pagan altar to the fire god Vahagn, so when Gregory the Illuminator built the cathedral, it symbolized the nation’s embrace of Christianity over paganism. Tip: Luckily for travelers crunched for time, Echmiadzin is a 30-minute drive from the capital city of Yerevan, but before striking out, contact Armenia’s Tourist Committee to ensure the interior isn’t closed due to ongoing construction. 

Tatev 

To Armenian art scholars, Tatev Monastery is synonymous with medieval manuscript production, its prestigious specimens once shipped as far afield as Crimea and Italy. But today the complex is better known for its Wings of Tatev cable car, the “world’s longest reversible aerial tramway,” according to Guinness World Records, which swoops a whopping 5,800 meters up to the 9th-century mountaintop monastery over a clover-green gully. 

Garni Temple

Garni

What is a Parthenon-like Greco-Roman temple doing in the backwoods of Armenia? No one is quite sure, but theories abound: Some scholars believe Garni is a shrine to the Zoroastrian sun god Mihr, while others have posited that it’s the tomb of a Romanized Armenian king or even of the Roman emperor Trajan himself. Though not a church per se, the site holds major spiritual importance for thousands of Armenian Neopagans (newfound adherents to Armenia’s pre-Christian rites) who gather there for ceremonial dances, nature worship rituals, and—until a law forbade it a few years ago—animal sacrifice. Note the smattering of gray slabs interspersed with the lighter stone of the colonnade—these were incorporated in the temple’s reconstruction 1975 for easy differentiation from the original building materials.   

Keghart

Geghard is arguably the crown jewel of medieval Armenian architecture, its chapels hewn into a cliffside set among steep, scrubby peaks. Khachkars, uniquely Armenian “cross stones” bearing mesmerizing carvings of crosses, suns, and other religious and nature motifs, are strewn throughout the complex; you’ll find yourself stopping to simply stare at them as you would a trippy psychedelic animation. As you walk the grounds, ducking into the various churches, chapels, and old priests’ quarters cut into the rock, make a point to seek out Proshyan Dynasty’s zhamatun, or tomb. The doorway to this room is crowned with a primitive pagan relief of two lions with dragon tails flanking a ram’s head. What’s going on is anyone’s guess—so linger for a few minutes and let your imagination run wild. Tip: Combine a visit to Geghard with Garni, a 15-minute drive away. 

Noravank Monastery

Noravank

One of the most splendid church façades in all of the Caucasus can be found at Noravank, a monastery and one-time residence of the Orbelian Dynasty. Momik is the mastermind builder behind the cantilevered stairs (an astonishing architectural feat for the 13th century) that trace up the front entrance; he also carved the lace-like khachkars still standing at the site.  See if you can spot the tympanum bearing an uncannily East Asian-looking representation of God; legend has it that invading Mongols spared Noravank because they saw themselves reflected in that image. Indeed, in both architecture and in manuscripts, Armenians would often depict their subjects with the features of the enemy du jour in hopes that their work would not be destroyed.  

Sevanavank 

Lake Sevan sprawls 1,900 square miles and covers nearly one sixth of Armenia’s surface area. It’s beloved by Armenians for its tranquil beaches and sweet, rosy-fleshed trout, but to visitors, the lake’s main attraction is the 9th-century Sevanavank monastery. It takes a wheezy hundred-step climb to reach the small yet charming church, but the panoramic lake and mountain views from an altitude of 6,200 feet are well worth the sweat stains. Among the twenty-some khachkars spread around the grounds is a unique example bearing a depiction of Jesus on the cross, one of only three such cross stones known to exist. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/armenia-has-some-of-the-worlds-most-enchanting-monasteries?ref=scroll