Author: Arpi Talalian

 

 

 

The National Assembly voted 103 to 0 (with one abstention) today to adopt amendments to RA Law on Value Added Tax at third reading.

Under the bill, the government refuses from charging VAT for cars imported from the Eurasian Economic Union.

The offer will apply to physical entities only and will work in accordance with the “one person – one car” method.

High Representative of the ‪‎European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Federica‪ Mogherini will visit Armenia on March 1 at the invitation of Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Federica‪ Mogherini is expected to have meetings with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

The UN says it has carried out its first air drop of aid in Syria to help civilians in an eastern city besieged by Islamic State (IS) militants, the BBC reports.

UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien told the Security Council that the plane dropped 21 tonnes of humanitarian items on a government-held part of Deir al-Zour.

Initial reports indicated that the aid had successfully reached the target area, Mr O’Brien said.

The UN says 200,000 civilians are living under siege in Deir al-Zour.

In a recent report, the UN said those trapped in the besieged areas were facing “sharply deteriorating conditions” with reports of “severe cases of malnutrition and deaths due to starvation”.

Last week, more than 100 lorries carrying food and other basic goods reached 80,000 people in five other besieged areas of Syria. Two more convoys were sent to two towns besieged by government forces on Tuesday.

“Earlier this morning, a WFP (World Food Programme) plane dropped the first cargo of 21 tonnes of items into Deir al-Zour,” Mr O’Brien told the Security Council.

He said teams from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent on the ground confirmed that “pallets have landed in the target area as planned”.

On February 15 Armen Yeganian, the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Canada, met Stéphane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada.

The sides outlined with satisfaction the intensification of political dialogue between the two countries. Ambassador Yeganian stated that during 2015 Yervand Zakharyan, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and Hranush Hakobyan, Minister of Diaspora, visited Canada; the official visit of Galust Sahakyan, Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, took place in May of 2015. At the same time, the Ambassador welcomed the visits of two Canadian official delegations to Armenia during last year, headed by Minister Chris Alexander and Minister Christian Paradis.

The progress achieved in bilateral trade and economic relations during the recent years was emphasized, and the visit of the first Canadian trade mission to Armenia in 2015 is the proof of that progress. The Ambassador mentioned that Canadian companies are interested in the different brunches of Armenian industry, especially in the mining sector.

Upon the request of Minister Dion, Ambassador Yeganian briefed on the commemoration events dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, held in different countries, including Canada.

The sides also discussed the results of the 31st Ministerial Conference of the International Organization of La Francophonie, which took place last October in Yerevan.

They agreed to continue efforts towards the further enhancement of bilateral political dialogue and deepening of trade and economic ties.

During the meeting regional issues were discussed as well.

Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh risk escalation in 2016 due to Baku’s “sustained military buildup coupled with declining economic conditions in Azerbaijan,” U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on February 9.

“Baku is in full military buildup while the deteriorating economic conditions in Azerbaijan raise the possibility that the conflict escalates in 2016,” warned Clapper.

“Azerbaijan’s aversion to publicly relinquishing its claim to Nagorno-Karabakh proper and Armenia’s reluctance to give up territory it controls will continue to complicate a peaceful resolution,” he said.

Visiting Armenia in April 2016, the 101st anniversary of the 1915 genocide, is a possibility for the Pope, although this has not been absolutely confirmed, according to .

He hopes to visit the country, but admits, “I am old and these trips are heavy.”

The Pope may also visit three South-American nations: Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Argentina, Chile and Uruguay are also awaiting a visit from the Pope.

Pope Francis confirmed that he will be visiting Mexico in the first half of 2016.

Pope Francis will also be leading World Youth Day in Kraków, Poland, the city of Pope John Paul II and Divine Mercy mystic, St. Faustina Kowalska.

The real focus of the Pope’s 2016 schedulve will be the Jubilee of Mercy, which may attract 25 million visitors. He will be modeling the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in Catholic doctrine, starting with a Jubilee for Pilgrimage Workers from January 19-21, 2016.

 

Photo by Aram Boghosuan/The Boston Globe

Peter Schworm

When the Old State House’s century-old time capsule was opened last fall, the red hardback book found inside, a routine government report, was dismissed as a mere space-filler.

Now it appears that the book’s curious inclusion was anything but an afterthought. With a corner carefully folded on a page that describes an attack agsaint Armenians by Ottoman Turks, the volume is seen as delivering a message, a call to remember from the distant past.

It was an Armenian coppersmith, Moses Gulesian, who was commissioned in 1900 to replace the wood figures of a lion and unicorn on the east facade of the building. When his work was completed, he placed the time capsule — a copper box filled with letters, photographs, and newspaper articles from the time — inside the lion’s head.

“One of the last things he did was to seal a copper box,” reported a Boston Daily Globe article from 1901.

But not before he placed the thick tome inside, nestled snugly atop the other objects as if it had been cut to size. When the capsule was opened, the book, which contained a summary of US foreign relations from 1896, was the first item seen.

Yet, the reason for such a prominent placement remained unclear. Officials at the Bostonian Society, which operates the Old State House Museum, were eager for answers, but the book’s broad scope defied them.

“It was a mystery,” said Elizabeth Roscio, the society’s archivist.

When Don and Barbara Tellalian, a couple from Newton who had researched Gulesian’s life, heard about the book, they quickly made the connection.

Gulesian was a leading figure in the Friends of Armenia, a Boston group that raised awareness about the Armenian massacres. And the book provided a historical record of attacks against Christian minorities that began in 1895.

“From his point of view, it made perfect sense to include,” said Barbara Tellalian. “It just seemed to fit.”

Don Tellalian, a retired architect who had worked on the restoration of the Old State House, set up a meeting with Roscio in October to examine the book. As he thumbed through the section about the Ottoman Empire, they came across the folded page, a cleanly pressed triangle marking page 887. The section describes an attack by Turkish forces on an American mission in an Armenian province.

“There can be no doubt I think, judging from the penetrating force of the bullets, that they were fired from rifles such as are used by the Turkish troops,” a diplomatic letter read.

In a revelatory moment, the Tellalians concluded that the book was Gulesian’s way of preserving a piece of history, to mark a moment in time for future generations. What had first seemed to be a dull, bureaucratic selection was instead a deeply personal choice to document the atrocities against his homeland, they decided.

“We knew then,” Barbara Tellalian said. “This was a passion for him.”

Gulesian was 17 when he came to the United States, arriving in New York City in 1883. He slept on a park bench before a fellow countryman put him to work at his carpet shop.

In 1890, he built a copperworks factory in Boston, and in the coming years took in scores of Armenian refugees.

He is best remembered for rallying support to save the USS Constitution from being scrapped by offering to pay the Navy $10,000 for the vessel.

At least one oil worker is dead and 30 are missing after a platform in the Caspian Sea caught fire in a storm, the BBC reports.

State oil company Socar told the BBC that 63 workers had been on the Guneshli platform at the time and that 32 had been rescued so far.

The firm said the fire began after a storm on Friday evening damaged a gas line.

The storm has hampered efforts to control the fire and rescue workers.

Azerbaijan’s Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Committee said that about 40 oil workers had tried to board a life raft attached to the platform but that the raft ruptured and a number of them fell into the sea.

Socar has not confirmed this account.

During the same storm, three workers went missing from another offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea, Socar said.

“Our mission in the Middle East is to be servants and not masters. Christians and Muslims in the region must work for peace “, was the focus of the message that Ignatius Ephrem II, new Syrian Orthodox patriarch, launched on his first official visit to Lebanon,  reports.

He concluded his visit with a solemn Mass in the Church of St. Ephrem in Beirut in the presence of Lebanese authorities and figures.

“The region of the Middle East – he said – is dear to our hearts. Here is where we have taken root and where we grew, and we will stay until the end of time. ”

Praying that ” human rights and dignity are respected”, he added. “How can we live without seeing the presence of God in every human face? Why are we working to eliminate each other, instead of educating and helping each other to grow to maturity? “.

The patriarch celebrated Mass in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Pauland and blessed one of the two stelae erected to commemorate the genocide of 1915, whose victims are Armenians, but also Syrians, Chaldeans and Assyrians. The other pillar was erected in the church of St. Ephrem.

Photo from Fars News Agency