ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
Tuesday
Armenian Ministry of Energy: 2/3 of lifetime extension works on
Armenian NPP 2nd unit are close to completion.
Yerevan May 30
Alexander Avanesov. As of today, from USD 205 mln, allocated by
Russian Federation for the implementation of Armenian NPP lifetime
extension project, USD 136 mln is already utilized. This was stated on
May 29 at the session on loans and grants management board conducted
by Minister of energy infrastructures and natural resources of RA
Ashot Manoukyan..
According to the statement of the Ministry press office, the results
of the works implemented at NPP in QI of 2017 were represented to
attendants of the session. The importance of the implementation of all
arrangements in the terms set and within high quality. Based on the
results of the session the Minister issue appropriate instructions.
The Press office of Armenian Ministry of Energy states that 2/3 of
lifetime extension works on Armenian NPP 2nd unit are close to
completion.
Earlier, during his interview with ArmInfo correspondent, AEP N2
energy bloc term prolongation works head said, that a considerable
amount of work will be carried out during the preventive maintenance.
The main focus will be put on the safety of the nuclear power plant:
works related to the repair of equipment will be performed, as well as
work on instrumental inspection of equipment. The repair of the
equipment will be assisted by employees of the Kolskaya and
Novovoronezh nuclear power plants - they are the ?twinning? stations
of the Armenian NPP, scientific management will be carried out by JSC
TsNIITMASH, an industrial enterprise of the Rosatom. As for the
instrumental survey, the main task of this exercise is to calculate
and confirm the residual life of the equipment using non-destructive
testing methods. In simple words, it is necessary to check the
possibility of further operation of NPP equipment. As you know, there
is a lot of equipment on the NPPA, so the instrumental survey is
distributed for several years, without compromising the safety and
operation of the NPPA. Last year, we started this process; this year
the volume of the surveyed equipment increased by 50% compared to last
year (150 types of equipment) at the request of the supervisory
authority. We hope to finish the instrumental survey process next year
and in 2019. Transfer calculations and conclusions to the supervisory
authority - the State Committee for Nuclear Safety Regulation. We hope
to finish on time, but everything will depend on the results of the
survey and the decision of the Gosatomnadzor. On 30 Sept 2015, Tashir
Group headed by Russian businessman of Armenian origin Samvel
Karapetyan and Inter RAO signed an agreement of purchase and sale of
electric power assets of the Russian energy holding in Armenia - ENA
CJSC and Hrazdan TPP. The reason of the sale was the public discontent
about the ungrounded growth in electricity prices by approximately
16.7% (6.93 AMD per 1 kWh). The Public Services Regulatory
Commission's (PSRC) decision to raise the tariff sparked protests and
the Armenian authorities agreed to audit both the expediency of PSRC's
decision to raise the tariff and the activities of the Electric
Networks. In addition, the authorities and Tashir Group took a
decision to subsidize on a parity basis the raised tariff for the
households and SMEs until the audit is completed. Since August 1,
2015, the daytime tariff for households (from 7 am till 11 pm) has
been 48.78 AMD per 1kWh, while the nighttime tariff has been 38.78 AMD
per 1 kWh.
At about 4 years old, Alex Babajanyan II used to run away from his school in Armenia so that he could spend time drawing.
Although today the E.D. White Elementary School art teacher advises his students against the same practice, Babajanyan said his uncle, for whom who he’s named, bought him art equipment back then and encouraged him to draw as much as possible.
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“There hasn’t been a day when I wanted to try something else,” Babajanyan said. “It’s always been art.”
Babajanyan, a professional artist since he was 14, is now living with his 7-year-old son in the newly opened affordable housing artist colony in Glendale, ACE 121, which was created to bring local artists under one roof near the downtown hub of culture and entertainment.
Roger Wilson / Glendale News-Press
The Glendale artists’ colony ACE 121 at 121 N. Kenwood St. had its grand opening on May 25. (Roger Wilson / Glendale News-Press)
Located at 121 N. Kenwood St., walking distance from the Alex Theatre and the Museum of Neon Art, ACE 121 is a five-story, 70-unit colony that integrates a maker space, performing arts and music room, as well as a gallery run by resident artists.
Babajanyan contributed two pieces to the gallery, one titled “Vladimir Atanian,” a pencil-on-paper drawing of his former art teacher. The piece won a National Juror’s Award for works on paper last year.
“When I teach art history at school, I talk about the community of artists that they used to have in Paris — even in Armenia they had a community of artists,” Babajanyan said. “That sense of community, you don’t see it a lot anymore.”
Babajanyan also works out of his nearby studio, which he keeps open to the public. He runs regular art programs out of the space, including a twice-monthly session that gives the ability for military veterans and orphans to come in and draw for free.
Michelle Coulter, project manager at Meta Housing Corp., which, along with the city’s Housing Authority, developed the complex, said the colony brings a level of authenticity.
“As [nearby artist colonies] get more investment and make their names as arts districts, they are also pushing out many of the artists,” Coulter said. “And so what ACE 121 does is really preserve an authentic community of artists.”
Babajanyan is currently working on three pieces, one of them for a forthcoming art show at the Brand Library and Art Center.
“We’re always fighting for the arts, always fighting for arts education in school, so when you have an artist colony … it sends a positive message,” Babajanyan said.
The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the main direction of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday.
He made the remarks while addressing an official reception held on the occasion of the national holiday of Azerbaijan, Republic Day, APA reported.
Azerbaijan’s stance on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unchanged, noted President Aliyev.
The president stressed the need to resolve the conflict on the basis of the norms and principles of international law and in accordance with the Helsinki Final Act.
He said that Azerbaijan will never allow the creation of a second Armenian state on its territory. “The existing Armenian state was established on our territory. We know perfectly well that in 1918 Yerevan was presented to Armenia. Therefore, it’s impossible to create a second Armenian state on our lands,” the Azerbaijani president added.
President Aliyev called for the fulfillment of the UN Security Council resolutions which demand the unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from Azerbaijani territories.
“We are satisfied with the decisions and resolutions of international organizations. This is a legal base for resolving the conflict. At the same time, the statements made recently and the steps taken should also be highly appreciated,” said the president. “The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, the EU and other international institutions unequivocally reiterate the inadmissibility of the status quo. However, no steps are taken following these statements. We are waiting for this step to be taken and a pressure to be exerted on the occupier. It’s necessary to impose sanctions against them. If no sanctions are taken against Armenia for its aggressive policy, this will be another manifestation of double standards. Despite this, I believe that such statements are positive steps.”
The Azerbaijani president pointed out that neighboring countries, the Minsk Group, the EU and other countries harshly reacted to the so-called “referendum” recently held in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“No one recognized this so-called “referendum”, on the contrary condemned it. Thus, they proved once again that Nagorno-Karabakh is an inseparable and integral part of Azerbaijan,” he added.
The head of state vowed that Azerbaijan will continue its policy.
“Azerbaijan’s principled stance in negotiations is fully justified and it will never step back a millimeter from this policy,” said President Aliyev concluding his speech.
The Nazis’ murder of 220,000 Roma, or Gypsies, has always been a historical anecdote overshadowed by the extermination of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.
Mina Miller, president and artistic director of Music of Remembrance, wanted to focus on the persecution of Roma and decided it would be best told through the artwork and writings of Ceija Stojka, an Austrian Roma who survived internment at three concentration camps.
Miller was at a concert by the Kronos Quartet at UC Santa Barbara in December 2015 when she heard “Silent Cranes,” a multimedia work by composer Mary Kouyoumdjian commemorating the centennial of the Armenian genocide.
Mary Kouyoumdjian
Miller immediately knew she had found the right person to create a piece about the Roma, but at first Bay Area native Kouyoumdjian was reluctant to take on the commission. Once she discovered Stojka’s work, she changed her mind.
“I didn’t really feel comfortable writing a piece about the Roma in the Holocaust because that’s not the community that I’m from,” Kouyoumdjian, 34, said in an interview from her home in Brooklyn, New York. “But I was comfortable writing about another artist. I really connected with her writings, and especially her paintings.”
Kouyoumdjian’s composition, in a program titled “Mirror of Memory,” will be performed Wednesday, May 24, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music — three days after the world premiere in Seattle. The program includes San Francisco Opera mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook singing Yiddish songs written in the Vilna Ghetto.
Stojka, who survived the Auschwitz, Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen camps, went on to write three autobiographies that focused on Nazi persecution of Roma. She began painting at the age of 56, and her artwork was heavily based on depiction of the death camps, where her father and one of her five brothers were killed. She died in 2013.
Miller, who founded the Seattle-based nonprofit Music of Remembrance, said she felt it was time to focus on the plight of Gypsies, who like Jews were deemed racially inferior by the Nazis and targeted for extinction.
Last year, Miller, the daughter of Holocaust refugees who lost all their family members, commissioned an opera by Jake Heggie that was based on the writings of a Polish dissident and a gay man. “When you think about the victims of the Holocaust — the 6 million Jews, the gays, the Gypsies, political dissidents, journalists — it’s been the goal of Music of Remembrance from the beginning to illuminate not just the tragedy of the Jews but others as well,” she said. Kouyoumdjian, an Armenian American who grew up in Pleasant Hill and now is working toward her doctorate in music composition at Columbia University, is a big fan of Roma music and said it’s similar to Armenian tunes.
Her 26-minute piece based on Stojka’s artwork, “to open myself, to scream,” is scored for violin, cello, bass, clarinet and trumpet. It includes live music and an electronic track recorded by the musicians, the latter symbolizing a survivor’s reflections on the past.
With Stojka, “There’s this constant burden of a horrific past. She’s sort of exploring these horrific things that make no sense,” Kouyoumdjian said. “A lot of people who have gone through genocide feel this too; they create artwork to express their feelings.”
The music is complemented with a film by Syrian Armenian projection artist Kevork Mourad, who animated Stojka’s artwork and synched it to the music.
Miller said this year’s focus on Roma will be followed in 2018, Music of Remembrance’s 20th anniversary, by pieces focusing on the World War II experiences of Japanese and Japanese Americans. One work will be about internment in the U.S. and two pieces will be based on texts from victims of the atomic bombings.
For 2019, she plans to commission a work focusing on the current refugee crisis “because that mirrors what Jews experienced during the Holocaust.”
“We’re extending our focus beyond the Holocaust itself,” Miller said.“It’s really important today that Music of Remembrance is not just an organization for Jews talking to Jews, it’s about moral lessons.”
Kouyoumdjian supports such a change. “We still have genocide happening today, so this is a conversation that continues. Anything that gives listeners a connection to history is incredibly important.”
video of one of Kouyoumdjian’s compositions can be watched at
Home favourite Yury Rybak prevented Russia from claiming victories in all eight finals in which they were represented on the final day of the 2017 European Sambo Championships here after beating Aslan Kambiev to the men’s over 100 kilograms gold medal.
The Belarusian, a 2015 world bronze medallist, established a match-winning eight-point lead over Kambiev, who was the only Russian to suffer defeat in a final today.
Bronze medals in the men’s over 100kg category went the way of Spain’s Spain’s David Fernandez and Georgia’s Beka Berdzenishvili.
Russia were rampant from the outset this evening, winning the opening six finals.
The first four of those were all won inside the distance, starting with Anastasia Valova’s victory over Belarus’ Krystsina Kazanoy in the women’s 56kg gold medal match.
Vladimir Berezovskiy then made short work of Armenia’s Artur Saakyan in the men’s 62kg, before Vladimir Lamanov crushed Armenia’s Grigor Mhitaryan in the combat sambo 52kg and Anastasia Khomiachkova comfortably overcame Serbia’s Ivana Jandric in the women’s 68kg.
Bronze medals were won by France’s Laure Fournier and Ukraine’s Nataliya Ilkiv in the women’s 56kg, Georgia’s Zviad Odoshashvili and Estonia’s Vadim Fomin in the men’s 62kg, Lithuania’s Gintapas Katkus in the combat sambo 52kg, and Ukraine’s Kateryna Moskalova and Belarus’ Anzhela Zhylinskaya in the women’s 68kg.
The first Russian to face any sort of challenge was Ali Kurzhev, who had to hold off a late surge from Belarus’ Tsimafei Yemelyanau to secure a 5-4 win in the men’s 82kg final.
Normal service was soon resumed, however, as Pavel Panteleev cruised to a 6-0 victory at the expense of France’s Antoine Lefevre – the only athlete from a Western European nation to reach a final throughout the Championships – to take the combat sambo 68kg crown.
Ukraine’s Oleksii Nizhenko and Georgia’s Niko Kutsia were the men’s 82kg bronze medallists, while Bulgaria’s Ivan Krastev and Lithuania’s Aurimas Krukauskas shared the third step of the combat sambo 68kg podium.
Russia’s seventh gold medal of the day was won by Sultan Aliev after he quickly gained a decisive eight-point advantage over Belarus’ Vladzimir Sutotski in the competition-ending combat sambo 90kg final.
Victory took his country’s overall gold medal tally to 18 from 27 categories and meant that Russia had triumphed in all nine of the combat sambo divisions.
Ukraine’s Petro Davydenko and Armenia’s Edgard Mehrabyan were the combat sambo 90kg bronze medallists.
The only final not to feature a Russian today was that in the women’s over 80kg category, which saw Ukraine’s Anastasiya Sapsai defeat Georgia’s Elene Kebadze 8-2.
France’s Elena Chirac and Russia’s Anna Balashova rounded out the podium.
Of the nine gold medals not won by Russia at the Championships, Belarus won three, Ukraine and Georgia claimed two apiece and Armenia and Bulgaria secured one each.
Next year’s European Sambo Championships are scheduled to take place in Greece’s capital Athens.
Texas Recognizes Armenian Genocide
Armenia -- People lay flowers at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial,
Yerevan, 24Apr2015
The Texas House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution
recognizing the Armenian Genocide on Friday.
Thus, Texas has become the 46th state in the U.S. to officially
classify and commemorate the 1915-1923 annihilation of Ottoman
Turkey's indigenous Christian Armenian community as genocide, reports
Asbarez.com.
"We are grateful to the Texas House of Representatives for standing on
the right side of history by making their dynamic state the latest
member of our Union to unequivocally and vociferously honor the memory
of the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide despite
overwhelming Turkish opposition," remarked Armenian National Committee
of America-Western Region Chair Nora Hovsepian, as quoted by the news
website.
Turkey denies the World War I-era killings of Armenians constituted
genocide. Its government did not immediately react to the resolution
in Texas.
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
Friday
British International School of Armenia to hold Open Doors event June 3
YEREVAN, MAY 19, ARMENPRESS. The British International School of
Armenia (BISA) is proud to announce the official opening of High
School for 2017 academic year.
BISA is a Pearson Authorized High School in Armenia certified to offer
Edexcel Academic Qualifications to students aged 13 - 16. All the
subjects are offered in accordance with the academic program of
British educational system. Upon graduation the students will receive
Edexcel International Advanced Levels /A-Level/ qualification and an
opportunity to continue their further studies in leading international
universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and others.
As the director of the school mentions, BISA’s core mission is to
raise the competitiveness of education in Armenia to international
level and to facilitate academic mobility. BISA high school is the key
link in providing pre-vocational education, which enables students to
orientate in their further vocational studies. The Student Advisors at
BISA will be ready to provide guidance to those willing to study
abroad. The courses at school are delivered in English, in the
afternoon. This gives the students an opportunity to combine education
at BISA with their public school education. Apart from the main
program, BISA students will also take TOEFL/IELTS and SAT preparation
courses.
British International School of Armenia will hold an Open Doors event
on June 3, at 15:00. During the event the parents and the students
will learn about the general provisions of the school, its programs
and admission procedure, as well as get acquainted with the school,
the educational environment, the teachers and the staff. The admission
of the school has already started and the deadline for applications is
June 16, 2017.
Details on admission procedure are available atwww.bis.am. To check
eligibility for scholarships visit the relevant section
(
) of the website.
Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
Wednesday
Two beauties to represent Armenia in 'Miss CIS 2017' International
Beauty Contest
YEREVAN, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS. Two beauties – Arpine Balyan andMarine
Margaryan, will represent Armenia in the finals of ‘Miss CIS 2017’
International Beauty Contest on June 6 in Yerevan, reports Armenpress.
The girls already have great experience, they managed to participate
in various beauty contests.
They are preparing to properly present Armenia with the goal to win.
The Beauty Contest finals will be held in ‘Paravon’ entertainment
complex. 18-25 years old 20-25 beauties from the CIS member states
will arrive in Armenia to take part in the Contest.
The ‘Miss CIS 2017’ International Beauty Contest is a new program
organized by two brand-name organizations, including Alex Group LLC
Production Center (Moscow) and NAIRI TRAVEL (Yerevan).
The jury for the final stage is comprised of 11 experts. 3 of them are
from Armenia, 4 from Russia and 4 from other CIS states. 13 countries
are taking part in the Contest. The prize fund is worth 16.2 million
AMD.
Among the supporters of the Contest are the CIS Interstate Committee,
Armenia's Ministry of Economic Development and Investments, the
Municipality of Yerevan.
Emmanuel Macron was sworn in as French president Sunday following his landslide victory a week ago, in which he vowed to unite a country with deepening divisions.
At 39, Macron becomes the youngest president in France’s history, and the youngest leader since Napoleon. He has little experience in governance, serving as economy minister for two years as his most senior role.
But the young leader has promised to breathe new life into French politics and kickstart the country’s sluggish economy.
In his speech, Macron said he would restore France’s global standing.
“France is only strong if it’s prosperous. France is only a model for the world if it is exemplary,” he said.
“We will have given back to the French a taste for the future – and pride in what they are.
“The whole world will pay attention to what France says – because we will, together, go beyond our fears and anxieties.
“We will, together, be an example of a people that knows how to affirm their values, their principles – those of democracy and the republic.”