Author: Ara Felekian

During the first sitting week of the 45^th Parliament, Tim Wilson, the new Member for Goldstein and former Human Rights Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) acknowledged his Armenian heritage when he delivered his maiden speech in the House of Representatives, the Armenian National Committee of Australia reports.

Wilson rose to political fame in Australia as an outspoken believer of true liberalism and has advocated for maximum “freedoms” as a think tank director and as Human Rights Commissioner in the past, and he pledged to do the same in Federal Parliament.

Wilson’s wide-ranging maiden speech touched on his upbringing and family tree, as these speeches often tend to do. He referred to the bloodied past of his mother’s father, who had to endure and survive the Armenian Genocide, which was a source of inspiration for Wilson.

He said: “My maternal Grandpa left behind the genocide of his people. I never met him. He died before I was born. But I still see him everyday when I look into the mirror and into his dark and recessed Armenian eyes.”

Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian said: “We congratulate Mr. Wilson on his fantastic maiden speech as he enters public office. It is also encouraging to see Mr. Wilson seek inspiration from his family’s history, mentioning his grandfather who survived the Armenian Genocide.”

Mr. Wilson was elected to his seat, taking over from former Minister for Trade and Investment, the Hon. Andrew Robb.

Photo: Reuters

 

Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov is critically ill, the Uzbek government has said in a statement carried by local media, the BBC reports.

He is reported to have been taken to hospital on Saturday after suffering a stroke. His health has sharply deteriorated over the past 24 hours, the government said on Friday.

Opposition news reports have suggested that Mr Karimov, 78, has died.

He has led the former Soviet republic since independence in 1991.

On Sunday, the Uzbek government said Mr Karimov was receiving treatment but did not give details.

The next day, the president’s daughter said he had suffered a brain haemorrhage.

Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection in New England hosted its annual summer festival Sunday, according to ,

The Stanley Street parish hosted hundreds of people, many of whom share family ties, according to the church’s pastor, Kapriel Mouradjian.

“A lot of people here are related to one and other,” he explained. “It’s like two degrees of separation.”

Local families were joined by fellow Armenians from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. In a few weeks, many of them will head to Springfield, Mass., where St. Mark Armenian Church will be hosting its annual picnic.

Members of the New Britain church spent over a week preparing food for Sunday’s event, expecting to serve over 400 meals. On the menu were lamb kebab, shish kebab, rice pilaf, tabouleh and a khema sandwich, filled with spiced minced meat.

“We make a lot of money for the church today,” said Violet Terdjanian, one of the cooks. “We work a few hours and then we eat. It’s nice to see people come and enjoy.”

The event has been happening since the church building was consecrated in 1982. Before that, the church was on Erwin Place and the festival was held at Falcon Field.

 

In October, the parish is hosting another celebration, in honor of its 75th anniversary.

A missile fired by terrorist groups exploded next to the Armenian St. Astvatsatsin Chucrh (Church of the Holy Mother of God), destroying one of the nearby houses, the Aleppo-based Armenian newspaper reports.

According to the source, the church and the adjacent Gertasirats High School have not been damaged in the attack, only the windows are broken.

The Church of St. Astvatsatsin is the only Armenian Church in Aleppo that has escaped losses.

Years ago the terrorists set the St Gevorg Church on fire. The Church of Gregory the Illuminator often comes under rocket attack. The Holy Trinity (Zvartnots) Church of the Catholic community and the adjacent college have also suffered as a result of shelling.

Russia plays a leading role in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Russia’s Plenipotentiary Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich told Russia-24 in an interview.

“The attempt to reach an agreement with the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna through the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (Russia, France, USA) certainly gave some impulse, but the Russian side has the largest potential,” the Russian diplomat said, TASS reports.

He noted that he expects no breakthrough connected with the visit of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Yerevan and Baku.

“Although the acting chairmanship leads the process, it’s states that make decisions. The Chairman-in-Office, undoubtedly, plays an important role, but it’s not the driving force. The driving force is the Minsk Group with its three co-chairs,” he noted.

Photo: DPA

 

A German court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan after he was denied an injunction to prevent the chief executive of Europe’s largest newspaper publisher Axel Springer from repeating an insulting poem, reports.

In an open letter published in April, Mathias Doepfner expressed his support for German comedian Jan Boehmermann, who is being investigated by prosecutors for reading a crude satirical poem about Erdogan on television in March.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been widely criticized for allowing German prosecutors to pursue a case against Boehmermann at the behest of Erdogan, a key partner in her effort to stem the flow of refugees from Turkey into Europe.

German-Turkish ties have also been strained by Turkey’s outrage over resolution passed by Germany’s parliament declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide..

The appeals court in Cologne said it had upheld the ruling in May from the lower court which rejected a preliminary injunction against Doepfner, saying his comments constituted acceptable expressions of opinion and were protected under German freedom of speech laws.

The court said no further appeals were possible, although Erdogan could still file a constitutional complaint. Such complaints are seldom upheld.

 

France has identified Saturday’s match between England and Russia in Marseille as one of the Euro 2016 soccer games most likely to lead to violence involving fans, and is determined to avoid more trouble after scuffles on Thursday and Friday, according to Reuters.

“This is one of the five risky matches of the tournament … British and Russians with the heat, that can be explosive,” Sports Minister Patrick Kanner told i-Television on Saturday. “Everything will be done to secure that match tonight” he added.

French police stepped in to break up small groups of English and Russian fans who squared up and hurled taunts at one another in Marseille, southern France, on Friday.

Late Thursday, about 100 England fans and 50 local residents were involved in another fracas around the Vieux Port (Old Port) area, where several English and Irish bars are located.

In the 1998 World Cup, England fans were involved in serious disorder over several days in Marseille before and after a match against Tunisia.

About 1,000 police will be deployed in the Mediterranean city as up to 70,000 England fans and 20,000 Russians arrive ahead of the match between the two countries.

On 3 June Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received a group of Armenian philanthropists from the USA and the Republic of Armenia, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

Issues related to the implementation of various charity programs in Artsakh were discussed during the meeting. Special attention was paid to social sphere.

President Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the philanthropists for active participation in the development of Artsakh calling it significant and demanded.

NKR minister of labor and social affairs Samvel Avanesyan and other officials partook at the meeting.

Senior House Foreign Affairs Committee member Brad Sherman (D-CA) on Wednesday called on the State Department to conduct a “Leahy Law” investigation of Azerbaijani war crimes committed during the April 2-7 attacks against Nagorno-Karabakh, and urged an immediate suspension of military aid to Baku, citing the Aliyev regime’s ongoing attacks on Armenia and Artsakh, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We echo Congressman Sherman’s call for a thorough Leahy Law investigation of Azerbaijani atrocities,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “The leaders of our State Department would clearly be derelict in their duties if they did not adhere to the spirit and the letter of the Leahy Law, a statute enacted not only to prevent international atrocities, but also to protect us, as Americans, from having our tax dollars used by foreign forces to commit human rights atrocities.”

In a May 18th letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Sherman urged that “pursuant to your obligations under 22 U.S. Code § 2378d (d) to seek out and evaluate credible information about human rights abuses by foreign security forces, you quickly and thoroughly investigate allegations that the Azerbaijani armed forces committed human rights abuses during the conflict with Nagorno-Karabakh from April 2 – 7.”  He went on to urge that U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan be immediately suspended, arguing that “the Aliyev government continues to launch cross-border attacks against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, regularly threatens to renew hill-scale hostilities, and refuses U.S. and international calls to pull back snipers. Azerbaijan neither needs nor deserves American military aid.”

“If people rose up tomorrow in Turkey and were free of fear – it would be a free country….a country -where, regardless of their ethnic group, people, would be able to see a better future,” German-Turkish-Armenian musician Marc Sinan said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

German-born Turkish Armenian guitarist Marc Sinan organized concerts in cooperation with the director of the Dresdner Sinfoniker Markus Rindt on April 30 and May 1 to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, and Turkish government was upset about that.

Musicians from Turkey, Armenia and Germany came together for the concert project “Aghet” in remembrance of the persecution and massacre of Armenians 101 years ago during the final days of the Ottoman Empire. The musical project in Dresden, however, came under fire for branding the Armenian massacre a “genocide.”

Marc Sinan’s Armenian grandmother survived the genocide 100 years ago. Her accounts of those events were included in the concert. The concert also included original quotes from Turkish officials and President Erdogan.

Marc Sinan said the concert had no political dimension. “We are people, so we express ourselves and take a stand on issues. This is an artistic project and a musical project that had an astonishing political effect. ”

The project was supported by an EU cultural fund, which restored its initial support shortly after it retreated as a result of Turkish government’s intervention.

Speaking about the failure of the Bundestag to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Sinan said: “Just imagine what it would be like if we in Germany denied that the Holocaust took place. That would be a de-facto continuation of the Holocaust. As long as this cycle of genocide continues, genocide will continue in a way. And the political forces behind it are now targeting the Kurdish population. Turkey is a country controlled by fear. People are afraid that the future will be even worse. They’re afraid of being killed like Hrant Dink for criticizing the government over the genocide,” Marc Sinan said.