The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a draft resolution on the commemoration of the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, Belgian websites report.
The resolution must now be voted in a plenary session of the House. Three coalition parties abstained from voting.
Head of the MR group Denis Ducarme welcomed the vote.
A few weeks ago the tragic events committed between 1915-1917 in the Ottoman Empire should be “considered a genocide.”
Ornella Muti and Nastassja Kinski will be guests of honor at the 12th edition of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan, Director General of the Festival Harutyun Khachatryan told reporters today.
Italian film star Ornella Muti made her debut in 1970 in the film The Most Beautiful Woman.
She’s better known to the Armenian audience for her role in the comedy Il Bisbetico Domato (The Taming of the Scoundrel) where she plays alongside Adriano Celentano.
Ornella Muti is a permanent guest of honor at the Cannes Film Festival.
Within the frames of the Golden Apricot, the film Swann in Love with Ornella Muti will have its Yerevan premiere.
Nastassja Kinski is famed for roles in films by directors Roman Polanski, Wim Wenders, Francis Ford Coppola and others.
The German-born actress had her worldwide breakthrough in 1978 with Italian-Spanish romance Stay As You Are by Alberto Lattuada. Then she starred in Roman Polanski’s Golden Globe award-winner Tess (1979). One of her most celebrated parts is Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (1984), which went on to win top prizes at Cannes.
This year’s retrospective screening of teh Golden Apricot Film Festival will be devoted to Nastassja Kinski.
French actor and director Patrick Chesnais will also arrive in Yerevan as a special guest of the festival. The film with Chesnais Not Here to be Loved by Stephane Brize will be screened within the framework of the festival.
Harutyun Khachatryan was an honorary Jury member at the Moscow International Film Festival’s International Documentary Competition. On June 25 a special evening was held on the occasion of the director’s 60th birthday anniversary. During the evening his full-length debut, The Wind of Oblivion (1989) was screened.
The Moscow International Film Festival awarded Harutyun Khachatryan with a prize for his contribution to cinema and Armenian-Russian cultural cooperation.
The Russian Guild of Film Critics and Film Journalists awarded Khachatryan with its prestigious “Elephant” prize for his great contribution to world cinema and for the establishment of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival.
Khachatryan said a special “Never Again” program of the Moscow IFF was dedicated to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
The owner of a historic Armenian orphanage in Istanbul has decided to donate it to the Armenian community after days of protests over its planned demolition, reports.
Camp Armen, a historic orphanage for Armenian children in Istanbul’s Tuzla district, may see its glory days again after the property’s owner, Fatih Ulusoy, announced he would donate it to the Armenian community.
The site, which has remained in ruins for years, was planned to be demolished by its current owner before activists, mostly from the Armenian community, rushed to stop the demolition earlier this month. The group camped out at the site for days, blocking bulldozers and later took to the streets for a rally against the destruction of the place that once housed orphaned Armenian children from all over Turkey.
Ulusoy issued a written statement announcing he has decided to donate the place to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation that built the orphanage in 1962. Ulusoy said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had asked Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş to help resolve the dispute, and he decided to donate it “to contribute to social peace and unity at a time of speculations over the 1915 incidents.” He was referring to the Armenian campaign to force Turkey to recognize the mass deaths of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide. Ulusoy said he was unaware that the orphanage was seized by the state in a controversial legal process when he bought it nine years ago.
Activists welcomed Ulusoy’s decision to halt the demolition and donate the land. Alexis Kalk, spokesman for Nor Zartonk (New Renaissance), an Armenian nongovernmental organization (NGO) whose members staged the sit-in strike for 18 days at the orphanage, announced the decision to the applause of activists. Kalk said they would continue their “struggle” until the formal process for the donation of the title deed to the foundation is completed. Kalk said the orphanage was not the only Armenian property seized by the state in the past and there were hundreds of others awaiting return to the Armenian community. He called on the government to draft a return policy for these properties and not to leave it to legal processes between current owners and the Armenian community.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Kalk said they were pleased that the matter was resolved “with the will of the government” and was not dragged down “despite it being a pre-election period,” referring to the upcoming general elections on June 7. He said Camp Armen would be restored and will likely be used as a center focused on children’s activities.
Camp Armen was confiscated after the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in 1974 that foundations set up by those who are not Turkish cannot acquire properties, based on a controversial 1936 regulation that paved the way for the seizure of properties from non-Muslim communities. The title deed for the orphanage, where more than 1,500 Armenians spent their childhood before its closure, was canceled in 1979. It was returned to its former owner and changed hands several times since then. Among the orphans raised in the historic building was the late Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of the Agos daily and a renowned figure from the Turkish-Armenian community who was assassinated in 2007. His wife Rakel Dink also spent time there.
Since 2011, in the wake of a landmark government decree paving the way for the return of properties seized from non-Muslim minorities, several historic buildings in Istanbul and other cities were returned to minority communities, including Armenians. Minority community foundations have been granted the return of properties forcibly confiscated by the state in the past under discriminatory policies through lawsuits.
On May 5, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the north-west direction of the Seisulan settlement of the NKR Martakert region.
From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria), as well as by staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden).
From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and his Field Assistant Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic), as well as by Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain).
The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.
From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.
His Holiness Kaarekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, has left for Washington to participate in the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Within the framework of the visit, His holiness will also attend the annual diocesan meeting of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America.
NEWS ABOUT WAR WITH AZERBAIJAN JUST EMPTY WORDS: MANASYAN
Tert.am
17:06 ~U 06.04.10
"If the news about war are coming from Baku, then they’re empty words,
but if they’re being disseminated from inside [Armenia], then it’s
something unhealthy," said Armenian Academy of Political Research NGO
President Alexander Manasyan at a press conference today when asked
whether he considered the recommencement of war possible.
Manasyan mentioned that Azerbaijan cannot initiate a war unless it
gets permission from the world’s superpowers. And even if it does so,
according to Manasyan, there will be a repetition of what has already
happened before – Azerbaijan will be defeated.
In turn, political analyst Stepan Grigoryan, also present at the
conference, said that there has always been a likelihood of war,
but that probability is periodically growing.
As for Azerbaijan’s bellicose statements, according to Stepanyan,
they are addressed not to Armenia, but to Turkey and aim at hinting
at Ankara that it must not open the border with Armenia.
LEVON ARONYAN IN THE 9TH POSITION
Aysor
March 22 2010
Armenia
The 7th and 8th rounds of the "Amber" chess tournament in France
took place. The Armenian representative Levon Aronyan at first played
with the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. In the "Blind" game
Kramnik took a privilege over the Armenian chess player. In the fast
chess Levon Aronyan was stronger. In this contest they received the
following score, 1:1.
In the two games of the 8th round the Armenian Grand Master signed
a peaceful treaty with Boris Gelfand.
Thus in the last two rounds Levon Aronyan gained only 2 points. Now
he is on the 9th position with 7 points. The leader is Ukrainian
Ivanchuk with 11 points.
ENTERPRISE TO DEAL WITH EXPORT AND IMPORT PROBLEMS TO BE ESTABLISHED
Noyan Tapan
March 9, 2010
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. During the March 9 meeting with the
Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, the members of the Council
of the National Union of Farmers spoke about their problems related
to agricultural development, in particular the current problems in
poultry farming, potato and vegetable growing, sheep breeding and
beekeeping. Priority was given to expansion of the opportunities to
export agricultural products, improvement of the legislative field,
and elaboration of a model of long-term development of agriculture.
The RA Government Information and PR Department reports that
T. Sargsyan gave instructions to the minister of agriculture regarding
solution of the indicated problems. He assigned the ministry of
agriculture to establish jointly with the National Union of Farmers
an enterprise to deal with export and import problems. The prime
minister attached importance to the development of an efficient
model of cooperation, saying that he would personally control the
implementation of joint projects.
GEORGIAN, ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS TIES
Public Television Channel 1
Feb 28 2010
Georgia
[Presenter] The Armenian president has completed his visit to Georgia
with a meeting with Mikheil Saakashvili. The Georgian president
received Serzh Sargsyan at the Georgian Palace Hotel [in Batumi,
Georgia]. At the meeting they discussed relations between the two
countries and future cooperation. The presidents spoke about the need
to enhance economic cooperation and to bring the two peoples closer
together. The Armenian president visited Batumi yesterday and held
several meetings there. During his visit, Sargsyan met representatives
of the Armenian diaspora and parishioners of an Armenian Church.
[Saakashvili, standing beside Sargsyan, speaking to TV cameras in
Russian with Georgian translation overlaid] I want to say that the
Armenian president is a brave man who inspires me in a lot of ways. I
am delighted with how the country is achieving success.
We agreed that the integration of our countries’ economies should
further intensify. We need more communication and more work to bring
our peoples together, though they already are close to each other.
Such meetings will take place much more frequently and this will
benefit everyone.
We are small countries and we need each other very much. We are
dependent upon each other and we should use this circumstance for good.
[Sargsyan, in Russian with Georgian translation overlaid] I am very
happy about this meeting. I have once again become convinced that it is
possible to achieve great things in a short time. We should cooperate
more closely. We should think very seriously about integrating our
peoples. I am sure that this year will be very important for our
relations.
SCR’S DELIVERY TECHNOLOGY WELCOMED BY RUSALARMENAL DELEGATION
PanARMENIAN.Net
12.02.2010 14:49 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On February 12 South-Caucasian railway JSC Director
General Shevket Shajdullin met with the leadership of RusalArmenal,
the press service of SCR reported.
Shevket Shajdullin presented the work of the company aimed to create
the most favorable climate for the work with clients: modernization
of infrastructure, introduction of IT-technologies and application
of a flexible tariff policy. Representatives of the factory visited
by the Road Center. The proposed by SCR a delivery technology was
welcomed by RusalArmenal delegation.
Both sides agreed that it is necessary to increase the rail component
of transportation and agreed to organize a second meeting.