18:36,
YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, ARMENPRESS. The National Assembly of Armenia has convened an extraordinary sitting, ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the parliament of Armenia.
By the decision of President of the National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan and the initiative of the MPs the extraordinary sitting will take place on February 6 at 11:00.
The sitting will address mainly constitutional issues.
Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 27
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
Baku should focus UNESCO’s attention on the issue of armenization of Azerbaijan’s historical and cultural monuments, Director of the Caucasus History Center, well-known Azerbaijani historian scholar Rizvan Huseynov told Trend.
Huseynov was commenting on the illegal actions of the Armenian authorities and the illegal regime in Nagorno Karabakh under the guise of reconstruction in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
It is necessary to study and use all leverage that UNESCO can apply in this matter, given the fact of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, said the director.
“Unfortunately, so far there has been no precedent for any processes conducted by the occupying regime of Nagorno-Karabakh to be stopped in the occupied lands,” Huseynov noted. “That is, neither UNESCO nor other structures have interfered to suppress the facts of falsification of Azerbaijan’s historical architectural heritage by Armenia under the guise of restoration. Accordingly, one cannot count on concrete steps besides attracting the attention of the world community to UNESCO.”
The director added that the falsification process carried out by the Armenian side can be stopped only by liberating the occupied Azerbaijani lands.
Recent statement by the Azerbaijani community of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region reads that Armenian authorities and the illegal regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan have been recently conducting the armenization policy under the cover of reconstructing Azerbaijan’s historical and cultural monuments on the occupied territories.
“The puppet regime having “rehabilitated” the Yukhari Govhar Agha Mosque in Shusha city considered an architectural pearl of Nagorno Karabakh and naming it as the “Persian cultural center” some time ago, currently is going to “rehabilitate” Shusha fortress founded by Panah Ali Khan Javanshir, the builder of Karabakh Khanate in the 18th century,” reads the statement. “According to the information disseminated by mass media, it is not ruled out that in the future the same vandalism will be applied to the historical monuments in Aghdere and Lachin districts.”
“It is well known that thousands of our cultural, historical and religious monuments on Azerbaijan’s occupied territories have become victims of Armenian aggression,” the Azerbaijani community said. “Some part of these monuments has been completely erased from the earth, and the remaining monuments have been brought into unfit condition.”
“Along with occupying our lands, exposing our people to genocide and displacing thousands of people from their native land, Armenia also destroys our historical monuments,” the statement said. “Armenia hypocritically calls these processes “repair and rehabilitation work” in order to erase this stain from itself.”
“Not only us, but also international organizations should think of the outrageous purposes of Armenia under the cover of “rehabilitation” of these monuments, as spread of this tendency jeopardizes cultural-historical heritage of the world,” reads the statement.
“All the monuments, situated in occupied territories, were erected by our forefathers, they bear handprints of our ancestors,” the Azerbaijani community said. “Vitalization of these monuments, which were inherited for us, will be one of our main duties after the return of the Azerbaijani lands.”
“All these along with being in contradiction with the obligations undertaken by Armenia to UNESCO, are also the manifestation of this country’s hypocrite trait and the attempt to deceive the international community and to give a cultural and civil veneer to its vandalism actions,” the statement said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
In a 405 to 11 vote on Tuesday, legislators passed a resolution titled “Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide”.
The bill marks the first time either chamber of Congress has described the killings of Armenians as a genocide.
“Today let us clearly state the facts on the floor of this House, to be etched to the congressional record: The barbarism committed against the Armenian people was a genocide,” said Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ahead of the vote.
Turkey denounced the passage of the resolution calling it “devoid of any historical or legal basis”.
“The resolution itself is also not legally binding. As a meaningless political step, its sole addressees are the Armenian lobby and anti-Turkey groups,” the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.
The resolution states that “the United States has a proud history of recognising and condemning the Armenian Genocide, the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923”.
The country has also provided “relief to the survivors of the campaign of genocide against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Arameans, Maronites, and other Christians”, the bill reads.
‘Today let us clearly state the facts on the floor of this House, to be etched to the congressional record: The barbarism committed against the Armenian people was a genocide’
– Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Similar measures have failed in the past – most recently in 2010 when then-President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to drop a resolution that would have recognised the killings as a genocide.
Successive US presidents have refrained from using the term “genocide” in reference to Ottoman massacres of Armenians to preserve Washington’s alliance with Ankara.
While Turkey acknowledges that Ottoman forces killed Armenians in battles during World War I, it rejects the number of victims often cited by historians.
Ankara says the killings were not part of an organised campaign and do not amount to genocide, and it has previously condemned countries that recognised the killings as a genocide.
The Turkish embassy in Washington did not respond to MEE’s request for comment on Tuesday.
But as several US representatives spoke in favour of the historic bill, the focus often shifted to a more recent conflict: Turkey’s incursion in northern Syria.
“Turkey’s current action in northern Syria against our Kurdish allies is extremely concerning, and … we cannot stand by and let egregious human rights violations happen,” Republican Congressman Gus Bilirakis said on the House floor before the vote.
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Indeed, the resolution comes amid growing anger in the US against Turkey, which launched an assault against the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) earlier this month.
In fact, lawmakers followed the vote on the Armenian genocide on Tuesday by passing a bill that would impose sanctions in Turkey over the offensive in Syria.
The sanctions measure, which would include a visa ban on Turkey’s defence minister if it becomes law, passed in a 403-16 vote.
In its statement on Tuesday, the Turkish foreign ministry suggested that the House measure on the Armenian genocide is aimed at Turkey’s military offensive in Syria.
“Those who felt defeated for not being able to forestall Operation Peace Spring would be highly mistaken [if] they thought that they could take vengeance this way,” it said.
The operation began after after Donald Trump withdrew American troops from northern Syria.
The pullout prompted a backlash against the White House, with Democratic and Republican lawmakers accusing the US president of betraying the country’s Kurdish allies.
The Kurds played a major role in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.
The US brokered a ceasefire agreement on 17 October that led Trump to lift the economic sanctions that his administration imposed on Turkey over the offensive.
However, members of Congress have said they intend to continue to push for measures to punish the Turkish government for its incursion in northern Syria.
On Tuesday, Turkey said the passage of the sanctions proposal in the House of Representatives violates the ceasefire agreement, which stipulated that Washington would lift sanctions on Ankara after the fighting is halted.
N:During the last two days of the weekend, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, was on a working visit to the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabad, where he participated in the session of the CIS Heads of State Council and made a speech. Yesterday, the Prime Minister of Armenia met with the President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirzoev. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was also in Ashgabat. Within the framework of the event, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev discussed for 1.5-2 hours the current situation of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the possibilities to ease the tension. This was announced by the RA Prime Minister’s spokesperson in a conversation with “Armenpress”. Vladimir Karapetyan.
The heads of the foreign political departments of Armenia and Azerbaijan also presented their positions on the settlement of the Artsakh issue at the meeting of the CIS foreign ministers.
…CIS: countrysorry leaders the most scandalous episode of the summit Armenian: prominent statesman and military figure Garegin Take it down about Inspiration Ali:and:in: commentit was In one of the sessions, the agenda of which included the issue of adopting a joint message on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, Azerbaijan the president in his speech the occasion open did not leave of Armenia former and: presentmy to the authorities to criticize fordeclaring that In Armenia makes a hero are fascism: «of Armenia former authorities Er:and:do in the center to stop are fascist butcher and traitor Garegin Take it down the statue, and: it today email her on the spot isAliyev said, describing it as “cynical step»:
Pashinyan, to his credit, responded sharply and harshly to the President of Azerbaijan, who, according to him, distorts the facts – there was a certain tension in the atmosphere of the session. to insert purpose: “Ithe truth it is, that Garegin Nzhdeh in the struggle was Հայաստանի՝ turkish occupation against, in the struggle was of Armenians Genocide against, which organize were the Turks, and: the reality it is, that Garegin Nzhdeh, in: by the way, russian a lot officers with 1918 in the year in management was front line a lot there wasand:that section Armenian:–turkish of war time“, he countered of Armenia the prime minister and in the continuation of speech Nzhdehin comparel: Nobel Prize award winner Alexander: Solzhenitsyn with, who was also there in those years In the Gulag: “Iwhat? is all them, who? convicted are was 1937-1950-mine in years, we համարում we are of the people թշնամինե՞ր։ Եթե այդպես is, then outstanding a lot figures convicted are was and: their of life last the days exactly in prison are finish»,- stated Pashinyan, considering it unnecessary distortion of historythe:
And the funniest thing is that xenophobic insidious murderous ramilsafarov breeder ohand the first face of the country who glorifies them, you don’t know, by what moral right, tries someone else similar chargener “paste”. Just like the thief who shouts the loudest “catch the thief”: Of course, Aliyev can be understood. He knows that this is a sensitive issue for Russia, so he thinks he will kill two birds with one stone. will endear Russia and cause a certain coldness in Armenian-Russian relations. And, apart from that, Heydaroghli thinks that the platform of the CIS summit is the most suitable place to discuss it once again. the questiontrying to belittle the immortal heroism of the Armenian people in the Second World War, which his country lacks.
But this too not everything. Ashgabatin: from what he said on the forum and from receiving the deserved answer then Aliyev, already in Baku, again is refer to the topic of Nzhdeh, noting that «Armenia: need is her the story clean up that from the trail“. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia did not leave his statements unanswered. Anna Naghdalyan, spokesperson of RA Foreign Ministry, told reporters in a conversation with said: “The numbers witness are, or we what? investment we are had Homeland in the war: Միաժամանակ՝ of existence struggle we are to push Turks and: Caucasian Tatars against, and: we respect ohand respect we are our the heroes… The story Aliyev the strongest side not, but story «to discover» unbeatable experience has: We ourselves of xenophobia victim we are, therefore refusal we are it»:
However, why is the statue of Nzhdeh so big?nhan:causes aggression to Azerbaijan, what does that country have against him? Aren’t the “sore spots” of the failed Hamaturan project still grumbling? It didn’t take long to be convinced that this was the case. Just three days after the Ashgabad event, Ilham Aliyev openly admitted at the meeting of the Turkic Council held in Baku. “The transfer of Zangezur to Armenia led to the geographical division of the Turkic world.” I would like to say that it is because of Nzhdeh that the Hamaturan plan failed. Turkish President Recep Erdogan, who was participating in the meeting, had to comfort his younger “brother” or “mwe are possible we will do Azerbaijan territorial completenessn: to provide for»:
This is the Turkey that, instead of cleaning up the “dirt” of its own history, is always ready to poke its nose into the affairs of others.
Gevorg Lalayan commented
At the invitation of Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia arrived in Armenia on an official visit on October 15. After the official application ceremony, there was a private conversation between the Prime Ministers of Armenia and Georgia, then an extended meeting, after which the Prime Ministers of the two countries made statements for mass media representatives. During the visit, Giorgi Gakharia had meetings with President Armen Sarkissian, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II. The Prime Minister of Georgia also visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial and paid tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.
On October 15, Nikol Pashinyan received the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov, Andrew Shofer, Stefan Visconti and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kaspszyk, who arrived in Yerevan. The prime minister and the co-chairs discussed issues related to the process of peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh problem. In the context of strengthening the trust between the parties, the importance of taking steps to strengthen the ceasefire agreement was emphasized. There was a reference to the need to prepare the people for peace and the steps towards it. Yesterday, RA Foreign Minister Zohrab received the co-chairs of the Council of Ministers Mnatsakanyan.
The Constitutional Court decided to reject the investigation of the case regarding termination of the powers of the President of the Constitutional Court (SC) Hrayr Tovmasyan, based on the application of the National Assembly, at the regular session held on October 14. Let’s remind that the decision of the National Assembly was received by the court last Monday, it was sent to the judges for study. The basis of the decision adopted by the Parliament is the apparently significant disciplinary violations committed by Hrayr Tovmasyan during the examination of former President Robert Kocharyan’s application, according to the ruling faction.
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan today held a meeting with the mothers of fallen soldiers.
At the meeting Pashinyan said he is ready to discuss all issues.
“During our previous meeting I stated that the list of the beneficiaries of Military Insurance Fund is expanding very quickly. According to the decision adopted, the Fund has started making payments to the families of soldiers fallen during the incidents that have taken place starting from January 1, 1998 and after that, as well as to the disabled soldiers of the 1st or 2nd group. We have gone 19 years back within one and a half year, we have solved the problem of beneficiaries of 19 years, our goal is to reach the beginning, but this requires some time and work which we will carry out”, the PM said.
The mothers of fallen soldiers raised some issues of their concern, in particular the fact that they are not included in the beneficiaries’ list. They said they expect the PM’s attention on the matter.
In response, Pashinyan said all issues are under their spotlight, the government cannot solve all the problems immediately, therefore they are moving forward with the stage by stage logic.
“We will do that and will go back to the beginning, but in this case as well we cannot state that all problems are solved. There are categories according to which soldiers fallen during the military service still are not considered as the Fund’s beneficiaries. Now our focus is on the families of soldiers, who were killed during the service but not during the military operations, to become beneficiaries. In other words, the families of those soldiers who were killed by the adversary. By the next stage we will come to the tragic incidents and so on”, the PM said.
Pashinyan assured that the government will in no way show an improper attitude to the families of fallen soldiers, or any citizen in general.
Descendants of Kharpert at an Armenian Genealogy conference in Detroit, 2017
PICO RIVERA, Calif.,—As an ancient nation with a continuous existence of thousands of years, Armenians have deep-rooted customs and traditions. Every region of the Armenian homeland has had its own unique set of cuisines, beliefs, costumes, dialects, songs, dances, as well as behavioral and physical characteristics. During the Armenian Genocide, massacres and displacement destroyed not only human lives, but also much of the rich variety that formed aggregate Armenian culture.
When Armenians meet each other for the first time, one of the first questions is usually “Oordeghen es? Sassountzee? Mshetzee? Gharabaghtzee? Vanetzee?” – single words of belonging used to identify origin-places on a map, yet also snippets encapsulating individual parts of an entire nation’s collective cultural identity.
As a result, of the Hamidian massacres and genocide, large Armenian communities formed in the United States in cities such as Boston, Chicago, and Detroit. Often, until World War II, such communities were composed of by people originating from the same village or town in the Western Armenian homeland. With the exception of Fresno, this phenomenon seems to be limited to the east coast. The west coast community, namely the Los Angeles area, is much more blended and homogenized.
Many find rediscovering some of the distinctive regional, sub-cultural features a joyous experience.
Unique beliefs and superstitions developed in Sassoun about the significance of certain animals. A dog’s mournful gaze or monotone whining meant that a house would soon be stricken by tragedy or death. Sassountzees believed that the spirit which strangled infants was kept at bay by dogs. Consequently, if newborns died in infancy, parents would name the next child after a dog.
Meanwhile, cats were considered to be Christ’s tasdmalns (“purifiers”). Therefore, killing a cat was considered a major sin, which could only be absolved if the sinner slaughtered an animal outside of a church. People feared following cats at night, believing they led people to their graves, where they would transform into skeletons and strangle their unsuspecting victims. A cat walking out of the house and eating grass outside foretold a drought and bad harvest.
In Ourfa, the game of Top Degenegi was played centuries before the origins of baseball. A thick bat and a ball were needed, the latter usually made using bits of rag tied together with colorful string. Two teams formed and stood at a distance from each other. As in baseball, one team pitched, the other batted. A batter had to hit the ball back in the direction of the pitching team, which tried to catch the ball before it hit the ground.
A grandmother from Yozgat might have mentioned the festivals and ceremonies given great importance, celebrated with great splendor, and having unique characteristics that differed by specific location. Agamor (New Year / Gaghant) was a pre-Christian festival, and a superstition-turned-tradition. It held that the rest of the year would continue based on how this particular day started off. For this reason, Yozgatsis tried to spend the day in joy and abundance.
They made numerous pastries in the shape of tools used to carry out the work of the village economy, among them the khop (ploughshare) and madj (plough handle). Made with unleavened flour, dough without salt and oil was made into round or crescent-shaped, bread-like cakes. The woman making these pastries would secretly place, without fail, a coin in one of them. On New Year’s Day, the person finding the coin was considered lucky. Yozgattzees called these pastries bak-has (fasting bread) instead of oodik-has (bread eaten on ordinary days).
Are you looking for a way you can get more in touch with these vibrant cultural aspects of our ancestral Armenian heritage? Come to the Armenian Genealogy Conference to learn how to trace your family tree in order to gain more insight into your lineage! It’s being held on the west coast for the first time, on November 15 at Armenian Mesrobian School. Learn the tips and tricks to finding previously unknown information about your family tree, the ins and outs of DNA testing to locate living relatives, the various resources available, and more!
The conference is being organized by the Western Armenia Committee and scheduled for November 15 and 16 in Montebello, CA hosted by Armenian Mesrobian School. Details and registration can be found online. ARF Dro Gomideh of Montebello, Hamazkayin, Houshamadyan.org, NAASR, and Project Save are co-sponsors of the conference.
The Western Armenia Committee is dedicated to the reestablishment of Armenians’ connection with their ancestral homeland through cultural, educational, and observational opportunities.
An alarmingly high number of children are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them, UNICEF warned today in a new report on children, food and nutrition.
The State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, food and nutrition finds that at least 1 in 3 children under five – or over 200 million – is either undernourished or overweight. Almost 2 in 3 children between six months and two years of age are not fed food that supports their rapidly growing bodies and brains. This puts them at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death.
“Despite all the technological, cultural and social advances of the last few decades, we have lost sight of this most basic fact: If children eat poorly, they live poorly,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “Millions of children subsist on an unhealthy diet because they simply do not have a better choice. The way we understand and respond to malnutrition needs to change: It is not just about getting children enough to eat; it is above all about getting them the right food to eat. That is our common challenge today.”
The report provides the most comprehensive assessment yet of 21st century child malnutrition in all its forms. It describes a triple burden of malnutrition: Undernutrition, hidden hunger caused by a lack of essential nutrients, and overweight among children under the age of five, noting that around the world:
• 149 million children are stunted, or too short for their age,
• 50 million children are wasted, or too thin for their height,
• 340 million children – or 1 in 2 – suffer from deficiencies in essential vitamins and nutrients such as vitamin A and iron,
• 40 million children are overweight or obese.
The report warns that poor eating and feeding practices start from the earliest days of a child’s life. Though breastfeeding can save lives, for example, only 42 per cent of children under six months of age are exclusively breastfed and an increasing number of children are fed infant formula. Sales of milk-based formula grew by 72 per cent between 2008 and 2013 in upper middle-income countries such as Brazil, China and Turkey, largely due to inappropriate marketing and weak policies and programmes to protect, promote and support breastfeeding.
As children begin transitioning to soft or solid foods around the six-month mark, too many are introduced to the wrong kind of diet, according to the report. Worldwide, close to 45 per cent of children between six months and two years of age are not fed any fruits or vegetables. Nearly 60 per cent do not eat any eggs, dairy, fish or meat.
As children grow older, their exposure to unhealthy food becomes alarming, driven largely by inappropriate marketing and advertising, the abundance of ultra-processed foods in cities but also in remote areas, and increasing access to fast food and highly sweetened beverages.
For example, the report shows that 42 per cent of school-going adolescents in low- and middle-income countries consume carbonated sugary soft drinks at least once a day and 46 per cent eat fast food at least once a week. Those rates go up to 62 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively, for adolescents in high-income countries.
As a result, overweight and obesity levels in childhood and adolescence are increasing worldwide. From 2000 to 2016, the proportion of overweight children between 5 and 19 years of age doubled from 1 in 10 to almost 1 in 5. Ten times more girls and 12 times more boys in this age group suffer from obesity today than in 1975.
The greatest burden of malnutrition in all its forms is shouldered by children and adolescents from the poorest and most marginalized communities, the report notes. Only 1 in 5 children aged six months to two years from the poorest households eats a sufficiently diverse diet for healthy growth. Even in high-income countries such as the UK, the prevalence of overweight is more than twice as high in the poorest areas as in the richest areas.
The report also notes that climate-related disasters cause severe food crises. Drought, for example, is responsible for 80 per cent of damage and losses in agriculture, dramatically altering what food is available to children and families, as well as the quality and price of that food.
To address this growing malnutrition crisis in all its forms, UNICEF is issuing an urgent appeal to governments, the private sector, donors, parents, families and businesses to help children grow healthy by:
1. Empowering families, children and young people to demand nutritious food, including by improving nutrition education and using proven legislation – such as sugar taxes – to reduce demand for unhealthy foods.
2. Driving food suppliers to do the right thing for children, by incentivizing the provision of healthy, convenient and affordable foods.
3. Building healthy food environments for children and adolescents by using proven approaches, such as accurate and easy-to-understand labelling and stronger controls on the marketing of unhealthy foods.
4. Mobilizing supportive systems – health, water and sanitation, education and social protection – to scale up nutrition results for all children.
5. Collecting, analyzing and using good-quality data and evidence to guide action and track progress.
Situation in Armenia
3% of Armenian children are underweight. 4 percent of children are undernourished and 2 percent are severely undernourished. According to the regions, malnutrition ranges from 0% in Tavush to 23% in Aragatsotn.
14% of children under the age of 5 are overweight. This means that being overweight is a much bigger issue among Armenian children than being underweight. Although the differences are not big, the overweight prevalence is higher among boys (15%) than among girls (13%). If we compare the regional indices, we will see that children living in Ararat are more likely to be overweight (36 percent) than children in other provinces (5-19 percent).
Another talking point is the nutrition of only 24% of 6-23-month-old babies in Armenia meet the minimum acceptable diet.
Armenia has seen a strong growth in production of carpets and carpet coverings in the first eight months of 2019, the latest statistics reveal. The country manufactured a total of 24.4 tons of carpets and carpet coverings from January to August this year, up by 44.4% times from the same period last year, Panorama.am learned from the Statistical Committee. It is noted that a total of 16.9 tons of carpets were manufactured in the country over the past eight months.
Meanwhile, Armenia produced 26.3 tons of carpets in 2018 which is 32.8% up to compare with the production levels of 2017.