Author: Badalian Vardan

ARMENIE
Entretien avec la Ministre de la Diaspora de la République d’Arménie,
Madame Hranouche Hakobian

Le jeudi 5 février 2015, l’Ambassadeur de France en Arménie, Monsieur
Jean François Charpentier, s’est entretenu avec la Ministre de la
Diaspora de la République d’Arménie, Madame Hranouche Hakobian.

Ils ont discuté du rôle important de la diaspora arménienne en France
et des coopérations décentralisées existantes dans l’animation de la
relation bilatérale, de la manière dont la diaspora arménienne
pourrait contribuer davantage au développement de nos échanges
économiques et commerciaux à travers les organismes existants
(Chambres de commerce) et des échéances de l’année 2015 (comme le
déplacement du Président de la République à Erevan ou l’Année de
l’Arménie à Marseille).

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Arménie

dimanche 8 février 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen
Club des Chefs d’Entreprises CCIFA

L’émission de Richard Findykian >
est consacrée cette semaine à la présentation du Crédit Mutuel
Méditerranéen et aux réunions ” Clarté 2015 ” destinées aux chefs
d’entreprises, organisées avec Bernard Hatemian, Président de la
Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie Franco-Arménienne et Roland
Vartanian, trésorier de la CCIFA, le 26 mars : la réforme du 1er
janvier 2016, comment mettre en oeuvre une complémentaire santé dans
son Entreprise ? le 19 juin : L’épargne salariale et les outils de
préparation à la retraite pour vos salariés , outils de management et
optimisation fiscale et le 14 octobre : Comment gérer au mieux mon
poste clients ? Invités : Christian Marcot, Directeur Général du
Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen, Jean-Marc Mathioudakis, Directeur
Commercial du Crédit Mutuel Méditerranéen et Daniel Lacqua, Directeur
de la Caisse du Crédit Mutuel Marseille Vieux Port Carnot.

Assistant : Alexis Findykian Réalisation radio : Frédéric Marty

Site du CCIFA – ICI

dimanche 8 février 2015,
Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

VALENCE (DRÔME) FRANCE
Le bureau du C24 (Comité du 24 Avril) Drôme-Ardèche s’est réuni

Samedi 31 janvier s’est réuni à la Maison de la Culture Arménienne de
Valence (Drôme) le nouveau bureau du C24 (Comité du 24 Avril)
Drôme-Ardèche. Une réunion de travail visant à préparer le programme
des manifestations liées au 100ème anniversaire du génocide arménien
et notamment les cérémonies du 23 avril (veillée au mémorial) et 24
Avril prochain à Valence et Bourg-Lès-Valence. Les sept membres du
bureau (co-présidents Georges Ishacian, Krikor Amirzayan et Georges
Rastklan, secrétaire Nazo Alain Jinbachian, secrétaire-adjoint
Elisabeth Alachian, trésorier Bedros Ohanian et trésorier-adjoint
Hosrof Iliozer) ont également élaboré de nombreux projets pour la
réussite de ces manifestations liées à la mémoire autour des
commémorations du centenaire du génocide arménien. Les membres du
bureau du C24 ont également appelé à l’ouverture encore plus large de
l’organisation auprès de toutes les structures de la communauté afin
de renforcer les actions unitaires. Le C24 rencontrera également les
élus et autorités locales pour la coordination des manifestations du
24 avril qui seront placées sous son égide. Transparence et
communication seront les maitres mots du C23 Comité du 24 Avril
Drôme-Ardèche qui appelle une nouvelle fois à

Parlement européen
Un député belge dépose une proposition de résolution pour la
reconnaissance du génocide par la Turquie

Jordan Grosse-Cruciani, Secrétaire départemental de la Fédération FN
des Vosges, Assistant parlementaire au Conseil régional de Lorraine et
au parlement européen, Conseiller municipal de Thaon-les-Vosges, a
tweeté samedi 7 février que le député européen belge Gerolf Annemans,
ancien président du parti nationaliste Vlaams Belang (Intérêt Flamand)
a déposé au Parlement de l’Union européenne une proposition de
résolution visant à faire reconnaître le génocide arménien par la
Turquie.

Gerolf Annemans à lui-même retweeté le post de Jordan Grosse-Cruciani.

Les signataires en date du 29 janvier 2015 (anniversaire de la
reconnaissance du génocide par la France) : Gerolf Annemans, Marine Le
Pen, Louis Aliot, Marie-Christine Arnautu, Nicolas Bay, Dominique
Bilde, Marie-Christine Boutonnet, Steeve Briois, Mirreille D’Ornano,
Edouard Ferrand, Sylvie Goddyn, Jean-François Jalkh, Gilles Lebreton,
Philippe Loiseau, Dominique Martin, Joëlle Mélin, Bernard Monot,
Sophie Montel, Florian Philippot, Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, Mylène
Troszczynski, Matteo Salvini, Mara Bizzoto, Mario Borghezio, Gianluca
Buonanno, Lorenzo Fontana, Marcel de Graaff, Hans Jansen, Olaf Stuger,
Harald Vilimsky, Barbara Kappel

Voir ICI la proposition

dimanche 8 février 2015,
Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

WARLICK: THE OSCE MINSK GROUP WELCOMES ARMENIA’S COMMITMENT TO REDUCING TENSIONS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 6 2015

6 February 2015 – 4:31pm

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen have welcomed Armenian foreign
minister Nalbandian’s commitment to reducing tensions in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“A good meeting was held with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement as
part of the Munich Security Conference. We welcome his commitment
to reducing tensions,” the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James
Warlick wrote on Twitter.

He also posted a photo from Nalbandian’s meeting with the international
mediators in Munich.

NALBANDIAN MEETS WITH THE OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRMEN

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 6 2015

6 February 2015 – 4:26pm

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met with the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairmen Igor Popov, James Warlick and Pierre Andre, as well
as Personal Representative of the OSCE co-chairman Andrzej Kasprzyk
in Munich.

The discussions on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict continued at the meeting, Trend reports with the reference
to the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

Nalbandian confirmed that Armenia together with the co-chairmen will
continue making efforts for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH CANONIZES VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Ecumenical News
Feb 6 2015

Miko Morelos
Friday, February 06 2015

The Armenian Apostolic Church is set to canonize the victims of the
Armenian Genocide as the country prepares to mark the centenary of
the horrific incident which saw over a million people killed.

The church, which follows Eastern Orthodox traditions, will hold
a solemn liturgy at the Patriarchal See of the Catholicosate in
Echmiadzin on April 23, a church official said at a press conference
on February 3.

On the canonization, Bishop Bagrat Galstanyan said the process took
nearly two years before church leaders decreed sainthood for the
victims in the genocide.

In a statement, the head of the Patriarchal See of Echmiadzin explained
the implication of the canonization on the victims of the genocide,
which happened towards the end of World War I.

“The Armenian Church does not sanctify. It recognizes the sanctity of
saints or of those people that is already common among people or has
been shown with evidence,” said Catholicos Karekin in a statement to
the Roman Catholic news agency Fides.

“The Church recognizes only what happened, that is, the Genocide.”

—— Follow us

—— Discussions on bestowing the honor on the genocide victims
began in September 2013 at a meeting in Echmiadzin. the mother church
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, located in the city of Vagharshapat,
Armenia.

The gathering was a milestone in the church, bringing together all
Armenian Apostolic bishops from the Patriarchal See of Echmiadzin,
based in Armenia and headed by Catholicos Karekin II, and the
Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia, based in Lebanon and
led by Catholicos Aram I.

During the liturgy, the church will read “Martyrs of April,” a psalm
composed by the late Bishop Zareh Aznavourian, which will be used
for the canonization rite, according to Galstanyan.

The bishop added that invitations to heads of sister oriental churches
and other churches have been sent.

The genocide had been carried out by the Ottoman government, which
targeted minority Armenians who lived in their historic homeland at
a territory now part of present-day Turkey. At least 1.5 million
Armenians died in the systematic execution, also called as the
Armenian Holocaust.

Turkey denies the word genocide is an accurate term for the mass
killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915.

CONCERT COMMEMORATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Dearborn Press & Guide, MI
Feb 6 2015

Published: Friday, February 06, 2015

The Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee presents Grammy
Award-nominated Armenian Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian in
concert with her husband, pianist Serouj Kradjian, and the Henrik
Karapetyan String Quartet in My Songs, My Heritage at 7 p.m. March
7 at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave.

Tickets are $50, $35 and $25, and are available through the theater
box office at 313-943-2354, online at dearborntheater.com, or from
them, by contacting Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee members
Leslie Balian at 248-303-4690 or Shakeh Basmajian at 248-981-6825.

Concert selections include Armenian sacred hymns, folk songs, chamber
music and 20th century songs, with English surtitles.

Bayrakdarian, a Canadian of Armenian heritage, immigrated to Canada as
a teen. She graduated from the University of Toronto cum laude with
a degree in biomedical engineering science in 1997, the same year
she was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.

Her opera career, now in its second decade, makes her an eagerly
anticipated artist at opera houses and concert halls worldwide.

Celebrated for her multi-hued voice as well as her beauty, presence
and style, Bayrakdarian’s career expands beyond opera.

She is a featured vocalist on the Grammy-award winning soundtrack of
Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers, and topped Billboard charts as a
guest soloist with the Canadian band Delerium on their 2007 Grammy
nominated dance remix Angelicus.

Bayrakdarian won four consecutive Juno Awards, presented to
Canadian musical artists for outstanding achievement in the recording
industry, from 2004 to 2007, for classical album of the year, vocal or
instrumental, for Azulao, Cleopatra, Viardot-Garcia: Lieder Chansons
Canzone Mazurkas, and Mozart: Arie e Duetti.

Bayrakdarian received a Grammy nomination for the BBC-produced short
film HOLOCAUST – A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz. She was also
the focus of a Canadian television Gemini-nominated film, A Long
Journey Home, documenting her first trip to Armenia.

A century ago, the Armenian Genocide, planned by the leaders of the
Ottoman Empire, systematically exterminated 1.5 million Armenians
in what is now Turkey. The genocide had two phases: the wholesale
killing of able-bodied men through massacre and forced army labor,
followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and
the infirm on death marches to the Syrian Desert. Military escorts,
driving the deportees forward, deprived them of food and water,
and subjected them to periodic robbery, rape and massacre.

In Michigan, the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Metro
Detroit, comprised of 15 of the area’s leading Armenian-American
organizations, has organized commemorative events throughout 2015
to honor the genocide victims, demand recognition and reparations,
and increase public awareness of all genocides. For more information,
go to armeniangenocidecentennialmi.com.

ALEPPO BISHOPS SAYS SYRIAN CHRISTIANS BETRAYED BY THE WEST

ANSAmed, Italy
Feb 6 2015

Monsignor Marayati laments lack of help, ‘city is dying’

(by Fausto Gasparroni) (ANSAmed) – ROME, FEBRUARY 6 – The Armenian
Catholic bishop of Aleppo told ANSA on Friday that the Christian
community in Syria felt “forgotten, neglected and betrayed by the
West”. Monsignor Boutros Marayati added, in response to a question
about the international community’s reaction to the conflict that has
been ongoing for almost four years, that “no one thinks about us. For
example, you hear about Kobane (also known as Ayn Al-Arab, Ed.), and
Kobane is a small, unimportant town, while Christians – most of whom
live in Aleppo – are forgotten.” “The situation in Aleppo,” he said on
the fringes of a bishops prayer for peace he presided over on Friday
in the Santa Maria in Trastevere church, promoted by the Comunita di
Sant’Egidio, “is tragic. There is a lack of water, electricity, light,
heating, and fuel. The doctors have left and there is no medicine. But
we are living there, surviving. We feel a bit abandoned, forgotten,
by the West and the entire world.” Monsignor Marayati went on to say
that churchgoers “often come and ask us whether they should stay or
go. And you can’t say anything given the tragedy before us, since
there is above all a lack of security.

Rockets and bombs come from the jihadists’ area, and two weeks ago
our cathedral was also hit a rocket that destroyed the cupola and
the entire roof.” “The people are now thinking about leaving,” he said.

“Already two thirds of the Christian population, the Armenians, have
left. Only a small one-third of them have stayed – those that still
believe in peace want to stay. Especially when the appeal to save
Aleppo was launched, or at least to freeze the situation and bring
in a ceasefire, some believed and still do.

They are however becoming more pessimistic, because the situation has
not changed. It has instead become worse.” Marayati underscored that
“there is hope. There have been many appeals, and even the Comunita
di Sant’Egidio made an appeal to save Aleppo. However, nothing has
changed on the ground, in reality. To the contrary: it has become
worse.” “At this point,” he continued, “we only open our churches to
help people. Aid comes and everyone has become poor and in need of
help. Those who used to help the church now need help themselves.

People are fed up. Is there such thing as human dignity? How can you
always line up for a drop of water, to wait for petrol, wait for food.

The wealthy have left and the middle class has become poor.” The
bishop said that, nevertheless, “despite everything, we have opened
the schools and churchgoers come to church. Many of the churches have
been destroyed, but those that are still functioning are filled with
believers praying that this type of evil – as the Gospels say – will
go away simply by praying and fasting. We call for peace through
appeals for prayer and fasting. As one bishop said, ‘these are
things we ask the Lord with tears’. This is what we do now in our
communities.” On the subject of relations with other communities,
including non-Christian ones, the Armenian Catholic bishop stressed
that “what was beautiful about Aleppo was that everything is done in
an ecumenical fashion” he said.

“Either we’re together or we aren’t. And so, everything that is done
is done between the Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants, and with
moderate Muslims. Everything that happens now – at least as concerns
the part that is still there – is cooperation, a collaboration,
ecumenical and interfaith solidarity.” (ANSAmed).

CLARK U.’S AKCAM RECOGNIZED WITH HRANT DINK SPIRIT OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE MEDAL

Targeted News Service
February 5, 2015 Thursday 10:11 PM EST

WORCESTER, Mass.

Clark University issued the following news release:

Clark University History Professor Taner Akcam was recently presented
with the Hrant Dink Spirit of Freedom and Justice Medal by the
Organization of Istanbul Armenians on the 8th commemoration of Dink’s
assassination. The late Hrant Dink was a prominent Turkish-Armenian
journalist known for his efforts of reconciliation between Turks and
Armenians and his advocacy of human and minority rights in Turkey.

Professor Akcam holds the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and
Stephen and Marian Mugar Endowed Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies
at Clark. It is the only chair in the world dedicated to research
and teaching on the subject of the Armenian Genocide. He was the
first Turkish scholar to publicly express his conviction that the
1915 Armenian genocide occurred under the Ottoman Empire.

“It is a great honor for me to receive this award,” said Professor
Akcam. “Hrant Dink was the Martin Luther King Jr. of Turkey; he
symbolized freedom of speech and justice. It is critically important
to remember him and to work to keep his spirit alive as we continue
to fight for the recognition of Armenian genocide.”

Akcam will add this to his growing list of honors and accolades. In
2006, he was recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for his
outstanding work in human rights and for fighting genocide denial. He
also received the Hrant Dink Freedom Award from the Armenian Bar
Association for being “a champion of historical truth about the
Armenian Genocide” and for his “courageous defense of liberty and
free speech.”

This is the second year the Hrant Dink medal has been awarded; last
year’s recipient was Khatchig Mouradian, editor of the Armenian Weekly
and professor at Rutgers University and Worcester State University.

Mouradian is a PhD. candidate at Clark, where he is working on his
dissertation on the second phase of the Armenian Genocide. He has
also taught courses at Clark.