Author: Badalian Vardan

SHANT HARUTYUNYAN’S ADVOCATES FILE APPEAL WITH COURT OF CASSATION

13:09 | March 2,2015 | Politics

The advocates of Shant Harutyunyan, the leader of the opposition
Tseghakron party, and his friends have lodged an appeal to the Court
of Cassation requesting the latter to review the ruling of a lower
court. They have filed a motion to acquit their clients.

On October 19, a court in Yerevan found Shant Harutyunyan, leader
of the radical opposition party, his underage son Shahen Harutyunyan
and ten other activists who also participated in the November 5, 2013
anti-government protest, guilty of acts of hooliganism and sentenced
them from 1 to 7 years in prison. The court sentenced Shant Harutyunyan
and his son to 6 and 4 years in prison, respectively.

In February 2015, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict against
Shant Harutyunyan and his friends.

SOLDIER OF NKR DEFENSE ARMY SHOT DEAD: OFFICIAL VERSION SUICIDE

03.02.2015 12:32 epress.am

On February 27, at approximately 8:40, soldier Albert Safaryan (born
1996) died from a fatal gunshot wound at a defensive military outpost
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army, reported the NKR Ministry of
Defense official website.

Further details were not mentioned in the NKR Ministry of Defense
statement. Later on the Investigative Committee released a statement
noting that Safaryan, according to the initial details, had fatally
shot himself under the chin with his service gun. A criminal case
has been initiated based on Article 110.1 of the RA criminal code,
i.e., Commission of Suicide.

In 2015, this is the 14th death of a soldier in the Armenian and
Nagorno-Karabakh armies.

CHURCH DEDICATED TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL TO BE BUILT IN BLAGOVESHCHENSK, RUSSIA

14:50, 02 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

An Armenian Church dedicated to Gregory the Illuminator is planned
to be built in the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk.

The church will be dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide in the Ottoman Empire, Bishop Lucian of Blagoveshchensk
and Tyndinsky said at a meeting with the local Armenian community,
Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.

He called on the Armenian community to support the initiative. Bishop
Lucian informed that an Armenian cross-stone will also be erected
in Amur.

The site of construction of the church should be determined this week.

TURKISH PRESIDENT SLAMS US, RUSSIA OVER UNSETTLED KARABAKH CONFLICT

12:05 * 02.03.15

Turkey’s president has criticized Russia and the United States over
a failure to reach an accord over the unsettled Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

According to the Turkish publication Sabah, Recept Tayyip Erdogan
addressed the topic on his way to Saudi Arabiya as he was asked by
journalists to comment on the Armenian-Turkish relations and the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh.

“As long as Armenia has not made any step over the seized lands,
we are not going to open the border,” he said.

Erdogan said he thinks that both the United States and Russia will be
able to resolve the problem whenever they wish so. “As a matter of
fact the US and Russia will resolve the issue if they wish to. The
Azerbaijani nation’s civilization and belief is known also to the
opposite side. That’s what I think they base their judgment on,
not managing to demonstrate a fair approach,” he added.

FORMER POLICE OFFICIAL SENT TO PRISON OVER DINK MURDER

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Feb 27 2015

27 February 2015 13:26 (Last updated 27 February 2015 22:03)

Akyurek was charged with negligence on the job at the time of the
Turkish-Armenian journalist’s murder.

ISTANBUL

Former head of Turkey’s police intelligence, Ramazan Akyurek, has
been sent to prison late Friday over the murder of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, according to police sources.

Akyurek had been in police detention since Thursday on charges of
negligence on the job at the time of Dink’s murder.

Earlier Friday, the former intelligence chief was taken to Istanbul’s
Caglayan court for questioning after his lawyer said his client would
not answer questions at the Ankara police department.

The Istanbul public prosecutor’s office questioned Akyurek for four
hours at the court and charged him of “causing death by negligent
behavior,” “forgery of official documents,” and “malfeasance.” The
prosecutor’s office urged the court to order his arrest.

Dink was one of the founders of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly
Agos. He was assassinated outside his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19,
2007.

His murderer, Ogun Samast, who was 17 years old at the time, was
tried and convicted in 2011.

ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS UNDER ATTACK: WHO ARE THEY?

Acton Institute
Feb 27 2015

Friday, February 27, 2015
By Elise Hilton

In both Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State is literally hunting
and killing Assyrian Christians. Just this week, dozens of these
Christians in Syria were captured by the Islamic State; their fate
remains unknown. Who are these people facing persecution?

Michael Holtz, at1 The Christian Science Monitor, examines the long
history of these Christians.

Alternatively known as Syriac, Nestorian, or Chaldean Christians, they
trace their roots back more than 6,500 years to ancient Mesopotamia,
predating the Abrahamic religions. For 1,800 years the Assyrian empire
dominated the region, establishing one of most advanced civilizations
in the ancient world.

The Assyrian empire collapsed in 612 B.C. during the rise of the
Persians. Then, 600 years later, they became among the earliest
converts to Christianity. They still speak an endangered form of
Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, and consider themselves the
last indigenous people of Syria and Iraq.

Following the birth of Christianity, Assyrian missionaries spread
across Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific, and built a new
empire that lasted until Arab Muslims swept through the Middle East
in 630.

Modern Assyrian Christians are all too familiar with religious
persecution. One hundred years ago, the Assyrians were the victims
of genocide at the hands of Armenians in modern-day Turkey. About
40,000 Assyrian Christians remain in Syria today; many have fled the
country because of extremist groups like the Islamic State.

The Islamic State has imposed a “religious tax” on any groups that
are not Muslim in Syria and other regions, and there are reports
that the group has ordered the removal of crosses from churches. Of
course, these are small concerns compared to the mass kidnappings
and executions the Islamic State is known for.

Read “Who are the Assyrian Christians under attack from Islamic
State?” at The Christian Science Monitor.1

2

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Includes plenary lectures from:

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Armenia’s ancient civilization remains exotic and unknown in West: The Telegraph

13:51, 28 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS: The ancient civilization of Armenia
remains exotic and unknown in the West, but a holy monk from Lake Van
has just been declared a Doctor of the Church. Armenpress reports,
citing the article, written in the Telegraph by Christopher Howse:
“There’s a little book on my shelf that I can’t read. It is in
Armenian, and I cannot even make out the attractive curly alphabet.
Byron, by all accounts, did rather better, taking lessons in the
language, from 1816, at the monastery where my book was printed.
This is at San Lazzaro, an island in Venice, between San Giorgio and
the Lido. It was granted to the Armenian monks in 1717. The little
community was brought there in that year by their first abbot Mechitar
of Sebaste, after whom the monks are called Mechitarists.
This monastery was of Armenian Catholics, in other words, Armenians
who recognized the primacy of the Pope. The majority of Armenians
belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Armenians are fond of telling
you that theirs was the first country to adopt Christianity, in 301,
thanks to St Gregory the Illuminator. Armenia, with its Indo-European
language unrecognizably related to ours, has a proud civilization, but
to say that its history in recent centuries has been difficult is an
understatement.
I was thinking about the Armenians because, in the bright winter sun
on Tuesday, I stumbled across the Armenian Church in Kensington, St
Sarkis, its white Portland stone shining exotically amid the red-brick
mansion flats around it. It was built in 1922 in memory of the
philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian’s parents.
The Prince of Wales visited the Armenians in London a few weeks ago at
their nearby church of St Yeghiche as part of his efforts to draw
attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East. He mentioned
the destruction last November (by Islamists of the al-Nusra Front) of
the Armenian church at Deir ez-Zor in Syria. It had been built as a
memorial to the thousands of Armenian refugees from Turkey who died
there in the second decade of the 20th century.
With these thoughts in mind, I discovered that Pope Francis had last
Saturday named a great Armenian saint, Gregory of Narek (pictured
above), as a Doctor of the Church. That is a rare title, there having
been only another 35 in the history of the Church – people like St
Jerome or St Athanasius.
St Gregory (950-1003) lived as a monk at Narek, near Lake Van in what
is now Turkey. A little more than 1,000 years later, the great
monastery with its conical domes in the Armenian style was destroyed
and the Armenians living around it killed.
St Gregory of Narek’s best-known work, the Book of Prayer, also called
the Lamentations, might have been written as a meditation on that
disaster and the episodes of martyrdom that have punctuated Armenia’s
history. The saint’s aim is to bring God’s mercy to bear on mankind so
that it might share in God’s nature. “This book will cry out in my
place, with my voice, as if it were me,” he wrote. “May unspeakable
faults be confronted and the traces of evil wrung out.”
Last year Pope Francis met the Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, Karekin II, and spoke about martyrdom as a way of reuniting
the Church. He had sketched out his thoughts before by remarking: “In
some countries they kill Christians for wearing a cross or having a
Bible; and before they kill them they do not ask them whether they are
Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, or Orthodox.”
In St Gregory of Narek’s day, the Armenian Church, having followed its
own path after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, was presumed by the
Orthodox and by Western Catholics to be monophysite in teaching, with
false beliefs about the nature of Jesus as God and man. It could
hardly have been the case in practice, and the Catholic recognition of
St Gregory and other Armenian saints demonstrated a shared faith. The
proclamation of him as a doctor sets the seal on that unity of belief.
In these murderous times, Christians in the East need all the unity of
spirit they can muster”.

Taking a leaf from the Armenians’ book

Sacred Mysteries: the ancient civilisation of Armenia remains exotic
and unknown in the West, but a holy monk from lake Van has just been
declared a Doctor of the Church

St Gregory of Narek: “This book will cry out in my place.”
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Sponsored by Thomson Cruises

By Christopher Howse
7:00AM GMT 28 Feb 2015

There’s a little book on my shelf that I can’t read. It is in
Armenian, and I cannot even make out the attractive curly alphabet.
Byron, by all accounts, did rather better, taking lessons in the
language, from 1816, at the monastery where my book was printed.

This is at San Lazzaro, an island in Venice, between San Giorgio and
the Lido. It was granted to the Armenian monks in 1717. The little
community was brought there in that year by their first abbot Mechitar
of Sebaste, after whom the monks are called Mechitarists.

This monastery was of Armenian Catholics, in other words, Armenians
who recognised the primacy of the Pope. The majority of Armenians
belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Armenians are fond of telling
you that theirs was the first country to adopt Christianity, in 301,
thanks to St Gregory the Illuminator. Armenia, with its Indo-European
language unrecognisably related to ours, has a proud civilisation, but
to say that its history in recent centuries has been difficult is an
understatement.

I was thinking about the Armenians because, in the bright winter sun
on Tuesday, I stumbled across the Armenian church in Kensington, St
Sarkis, its white Portland stone shining exotically amid the red-brick
mansion flats around it. It was built in 1922 in memory of the
philanthropist Calouste Gulbenkian’s parents.

The Prince of Wales visited the Armenians in London a few weeks ago at
their nearby church of St Yeghiche as part of his efforts to draw
attention to the plight of Christians in the Middle East. He mentioned
the destruction last November (by Islamists of the al-Nusra Front) of
the Armenian church at Deir ez-Zor in Syria. It had been built as a
memorial to the thousands of Armenian refugees from Turkey who died
there in the second decade of the 20th century.

With these thoughts in mind, I discovered that Pope Francis had last
Saturday named a great Armenian saint, Gregory of Narek (pictured
above), as a Doctor of the Church. That is a rare title, there having
been only another 35 in the history of the Church – people like St
Jerome or St Athanasius.

St Gregory (950-1003) lived as a monk at Narek, near lake Van in what
is now Turkey. A little more than 1,000 years later, the great
monastery with its conical domes in the Armenian style was destroyed
and the Armenians living around it killed.

St Gregory of Narek’s best-known work, the Book of Prayer, also called
the Lamentations, might have been written as a meditation on that
disaster and the episodess of martyrdom that have punctuated Armenia’s
history. The saint’s aim is to bring God’s mercy to bear on mankind so
that it might share in God’s nature. “This book will cry out in my
place, with my voice, as if it were me,” he wrote. “May unspeakable
faults be confronted and the traces of evil wrung out.”

Last year Pope Francis met the Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, Karekin II, and spoke about martyrdom as a way of reuniting
the Church. He had sketched out his thoughts before by remarking: “In
some countries they kill Christians for wearing a cross or having a
Bible; and before they kill them they do not ask them whether they are
Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic, or Orthodox.”

In St Gregory of Narek’s day, the Armenian Church, having followed its
own path after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, was presumed by the
Orthodox and by Western Catholics to be monophysite in teaching, with
false beliefs about the nature of Jesus as God and man. It could
hardly have been the case in practice, and the Catholic recognition of
St Gregory and other Armenian saints demonstrated a shared faith. The
proclamation of him as a doctor sets the seal on that unity of belief.
In these murderous times, Christians in the East need all the unity of
spirit they can muster.

Historian says Sumgait crime was the result of Azerbaijan’s policy on
ethnic cleansing

14:22, 28 February, 2015

YEREVAN, 28 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Sumgait crime was the result of
Azerbaijan’s policy on ethnic cleansing. “Azerbaijan had been leading
a policy on ethnic cleansing against ethnic minorities residing in the
country for years, and the Sumgait Pogrom was the result of that
policy,” historian Gevorg Melkonyan said during a February 28 press
conference, as “Armenpress” reports.

Melkonyan mentioned that the crime of Sumgait showed three things.
“Firstly, the Sumgait Pogrom reinforced in Armenians the conviction
that if Artsakh hadn’t struggled, it would have been emptied of
Armenians, just like Nakhichevan. Secondly, Azerbaijan isn’t ready to
accept the principle of self-determination of nations. Thirdly, as the
years go by, ethnic minorities residing in Azerbaijan will be subject
to ethnic cleansing,” Melkonyan underscored.

Touching upon the international condemnation of the Sumgait pogrom, he
noted that Armenia can use the facts at its disposal to raise that
issue at the international level.

ARMENIENS-SYRIE
Un Arménien, Hagop Kaprielian tué à Alep

Jeudi 26 février un Arménien a été tué et deux autres blessé par des
explosions à Alep (Syrie). Selon > le journal arménien
paraissant en Syrie, la victime est Hagop Kaprielian (51 ans). Les
blessées sont Chogher Arslanian et Sossi Stamboulian-Ohanian. Le 21
février, deux Arméniens, Sako Karkélian et Harout Aghsanian étaient
tués à Alep et cinq autres blessés ( Jack Aslanian, Hovsep Tchaloyan,
Avo Zarminian, Lévon Barseghian et Nazo Aghsanian). Depuis le début
des violences, près d’une centaine d’Arméniens ont déjà trouvé la mort
en Syrie.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 28 février 2015,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com