Author: Ani Tigranian

Chelsea Clinton has referred to the Ayrora Prize.

“Great to hear that Syeda Ghulam Fatima, 2015 Clinton Global Citizen Award winner, is now an ‪Aurora Prize finalist,” Clinton wrote in a Facebook post.

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Syeda Ghulam Fatima is one of the four contenders for the first ever Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. Last year she was honored with the Clinton Global Citizen award in New York.

She has worked tirelessly to eradicate bonded labor, one of the last remaining forms of modern slavery. Fatima is the general secretary of the Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan (BLLF), which has liberated thousands of Pakistani workers, including approximately 21,000 children, who were forced to work for brick kiln owners in order to repay debts. The interest rates are too high for workers to pay off, trapping the workers in forced labor and poor—often brutal—conditions. Fatima has survived attempts on her life and repeated beatings during the course of her activism.

Four finalists have been announced for the Aurora Prize: Marguerite Barankitse, from Maison Shalom and REMA Hospital in Burundi; Dr. Tom Catena, from Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan; Syeda Ghulam Fatima, the General Secretary of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front in Pakistan; and Father Bernard Kinvi, a Catholic priest in Bossemptele in the Central African Republic.

The co-founders of 100 LIVES and the Aurora Prize Selection committee – co-chaired by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and Academy Award-winning actor and humanitarian George Clooney – will honor the Aurora Prize finalists for their exceptional acts of humanity with a weekend of events from April 22 through April 24, 2016.

On behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and in gratitude to their saviors, the Aurora Prize celebrates the strength of the human spirit that compels action is the face of adversity.

Recipients will be recognized for the exceptional impact their actions have made on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes. On behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and in gratitude to their saviors, an Aurora Prize Laureate will be honored each year with a US$100,000 grant as well as the unique opportunity to continue the cycle of giving by nominating an organization which inspired their work for a US$1,000,000 award.

The Aurora Prize will be awarded annually on April 24 of each year in Yerevan, Armenia.

Hayastan All-Armenian Fund has renovated the secondary school of Melik, a village in Armenia’s Aragatsotn region. The refurbishment project, which was implemented with the support of the Surenian family of Argentina, has transformed the structure of 1994 into a modern facility featuring high-standard amenities- a new roof, doors and windows, renovated floors, lavatories, new electricity and heating systems and a newly constructed boiler house, beautifully redesigned entrance, and a renovated schoolyard.

Currently 168 students attend the school, which provides elementary-to-high-school education. According to the school principal Artur Ghevondyan students demonstrate outstanding abilities for natural sciences. Every year, between eight and ten graduates continue their studies at colleges or universities.

Founded in the 17th century, Melik has a population of close to 1,300. The village is located 20 km north-east from Aparan, 2100 meters above sea level, and has a severe climate.

The Presidents of Armenia and Greece Serzh Sargsyan and Prokopios Pavlopoulos discussed a wide range of issues as they met in Athens today.

The leaders of the two countries referred to issues on bilateral and global agenda, cooperation within the framework of international organizations, development of Armenian-Greek cooperation in a number of fields of mutual interest, inter-parliamentary ties, international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, settlement of the Karabakh confect.

The Presidents discussed the Armenia-EU relations and the role of friendly Greece in their development, the crisis in the Middle East and the humanitarian disaster it has caused, consequences of the migrant crisis, which has become a pan-European issue and a serious challenge to Greece.

Following the face-to face meeting, President Pavlopoulos of Greece hosted an official dinner in honor of the Armenian President.

“Armenians and Greeks are more than friends. They are tied by common history and traditions,” President Sargsyan said at the dinner.

“As two ancient civilizations, the Armenian and Hellenic people have worked and created side by side, leaving their trace on the pages of world history. They have fought side by side to earn their right to living. As adherents of the same values and morality, they stand side by side today to earn their right to survive and flourish. We continue to build on this legacy to reinforce the Armenian-Greek friendship.”

President Sargsyan said the two countries have a rich bilateral agenda – from political dialogue to cooperation in the fields of education and culture. “We’re actively cooperating in the military sphere. Greece is an important partner in Armenia-EU relations. The periodic reciprocal visits provide an opportunity to outline new perspectives of cooperation. A vivid example is my current visit, which aims to raise our economic cooperation to a new level based on  the existing potential,” President Sargsyan concluded.

President Pavlopoulos noted, in turn, that the Armenian President’s visit is yet another testament to the high level and extreme importance of political, economic and cultural relations between the two countries. “The two peoples survived sufferings at the turn of the 20^th century because of the same reason. We’ll not forget the Armenian genocide of 1915. We’re glad to be one of the few countries to have given refuge to deportee Armenians and one of the first countries to have recognized the Armenia Genocide. On the other hand, the Armenian Parliament has recognized the genocide against the Pontian Greeks. We must keep in mind that historic memory is important for the collective consciousness of the humanity, also as for the future of the mankind.  Under the conditions of the current crisis we must remember the past not as a means of seeding hatred, but as a tool of escaping such tragedies in the future,” the Greek President said.

President Sargsyan agreed that “commemoration and condemnation of genocides pursue the aim of preventing future genocides and demonstrating that our enemies have not succeeded in their plans to annihilate a whole nation.”

A crowd of more than 3,000 fans braved a chilly Thursday night at Chukchansi Park to watch the Fresno Fuego host popular Armenian club Ararat Yerevan FC, reports.

Ararat won the preseason friendly 1-0, pleasing a pro-Ararat crowd that waved dozens of Armenian flags, large and small.

Davit Hovsepyan scored in the 42nd minute, smashing home a cross from Oumarou Kaina.

Things got chippy just a few minutes later as the Fuego’s Alvaro Nogales and Ararat’s Gorik Khachatryan got into an altercation during a corner kick. Both received yellow cards.

Nogales and Khachatryan continued battling for position ahead of the corner, with Khachatryan sent off after receiving a second yellow.

Ararat played the rest of the way with 10 players, but held on for the shutout behind a clean sheet for goalkeeper Gevorg Prazyan in front of 3,137.

The Fuego continue their preseason Wednesday, hosting the defending North American Soccer League champion New York Cosmos.

– Picasso Bust at the center of custody battle between American Armenian art dealer Gagosian and the Qatar Royal Family.

The high-powered art dealer Larry Gagosian says he bought it. The royal family of Qatar says it bought the sculpture, too. And now they are facing off in court over who owns Picasso’s important plaster bust of his muse (and mistress) Marie-Thérèse Walter, a star of the Museum of Modern Art’s popular “Picasso Sculpture” show.

The seller, in both cases, was Picasso’s daughter Maya Widmaier-Picasso, 80. She declined to comment on why she appears to have sold the artwork twice.

In a legal action filed on Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan against the Qatari family’s agent, Mr. Gagosian claims that he bought the 1931 sculpture in May 2015 for about $106 million from Ms. Widmaier-Picasso, and then sold it to an undisclosed New York collector who expects to receive it after MoMA’s show closes on Feb. 7.

But the Qatari family’s agent, Pelham Holdings, run by Guy Bennett, maintains in its own court documents that it secured an agreement with Ms. Widmaier-Picasso to buy the work in November 2014 for 38 million euros, or about $42 million.

The bust, a major work from a highly creative period in Picasso’s life, reflects the evolution of a new erotic style of curves and exaggerated forms inspired by Walter’s charms.

The conflict exposes the stubbornly elusive nature of an increasingly competitive art market, in which deals are made behind closed doors and ownership can be ambiguous.

The case is further complicated by the particular nature of Picasso’s family, which includes a multitude of wives, muses, children and grandchildren who over the years have wrangled over the patriarch’s valuable creations, and in many cases sold off works.

In the action filed Tuesday against Pelham, the Gagosian Gallery asked a judge to “quiet” any challenges or claims to its title of the bust.

“We bought and sold the sculpture in good faith without knowledge of the alleged claim,” the gallery said in a statement, referring to Pelham’s lawsuit. “We are entirely confident that our purchase and sale are valid and that Pelham has no rights to the work.”

Mr. Gagosian has a longstanding relationship with members of the Picasso family, having collaborated with Diana Widmaier-Picasso, the artist’s granddaughter, on a show of Picasso’s sculptures at Mr. Gagosian’s uptown New York gallery in 2003.

The dealer added in court papers that he “did not learn anything” about Pelham’s claim to the work until later that month, when Pelham — realizing that the disputed sculpture was in the MoMA show — alerted Mr. Gagosian that it had a “priority claim” to the work.

Glenn D. Lowry, MoMA’s director, said he had no comment on the case.

Experts say the dispute casts a shadow over a prized piece of art history. “It’s regrettable that this has come to a quarrel between dealers and collectors,” said John Richardson, Picasso’s longtime biographer. “It’s a major work by Picasso.”

Since late November, Pelham says it has been trying to get the Gagosian Gallery to provide information regarding the sale.

“They continue to obfuscate the relevant facts,” Pelham charges.

Mr. Gagosian made clear that his dispute is with the Qataris’ representative, not the royal family. “We have the highest respect for Sheik al Thani, a longtime friend of the Gallery,” the dealer said in a statement, “and regret that he has been unfairly drawn into this matter.”

President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter, embroiled in a string of corruption scandals, should be given the Nobel Peace Prize.

“That is someone who should be given the Nobel Peace Prize,” Putin said of the FIFA boss who is facing corruption allegations over his management of the world footballing body.

“His contribution to the global humanitarian sphere is colossal,” the Russian leader said.

Photo: Sputnik/ Konstantin Chalabov

 

According to Russia’s Minister of Agriculture, Moscow will boost control over the delivery of agricultural and food products from Turkey, Sputnik News reports.

Celine Dion brought the theatre to tears at the American Music Awards as she performed a tribute to the victims of the terror attacks in Paris earlier this month, the Daily Mail reports.

The French-Canadian sang Edith Piaf’s Hymne a l’Amour as a montage showing of Paris landmarks, including the the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, and the French capital uniting in the wake of the attacks, played behind her.

Several audience members at at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, California, were visibly moved as Celine sang the emotional French classic in honour of the 130 people who died in the attacks on November 13. 

Piaf wrote Hymne a l’Amour in 1949 for the love of her life boxer Marcel Cerdan, who was killed only months later while flying to New York from Paris to visit her.

Passengers were evacuated from a plane flying from Warsaw to Hurghada after a report about a bomb aboard, reports. 

A passenger jet flying from Poland to Egypt has made an emergency landing in Burgas, Bulgaria, after a report by a passenger that a bomb was placed on board the aircraft, Bulgaria’s Nova TV reported Thursday.

“A 64-year-old passenger reported the bomb and is already being questioned by law enforcers,” Nova TV said.

The passengers were evacuated from the plane flying from Warsaw to the Egyptian resort city of Hurghada.

Islamic State’s official magazine carried a photo on Wednesday of what it said was the improvised bomb that brought down the Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last month, killing all 224 people on board, reports.

The photo showed a can of Schweppes Gold soft drink and what appeared to be a detonator and switch on a blue background.

“The divided Crusaders of the East and West thought themselves safe in their jets as they cowardly bombarded the Muslims of the Caliphate,” Dabiq magazine said. “And so revenge was exacted upon those who felt safe in the cockpits.”

The group also published a photo of what it said were passports belonging to dead Russians “obtained by the mujahideen”. It was not immediately possibly to verify the authenticity of the photos published in the magazine.

Islamic State said it had exploited a loophole at Sharm al-Sheikh airport, where the Airbus 321 originated, in order to smuggle a bomb on board.

The group said it had initially planned to bring down a plane belonging to a country participating in the U.S.-led coalition bombing it in Syria and Iraq but changed course after Moscow started its own airstrikes campaign in Syria.

“A bomb was smuggled onto the airplane, leading to the deaths of 219 Russians and 5 other crusaders only a month after Russia’s thoughtless decision.”