16:37,
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and Iran have signed agreements on economic cooperation in 19 different sectors during their intergovernmental commission meeting, IRNA reports.
The session was co-chaired by Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and Iranian Vice President, Planning and Budget Organization Head Davoud Manzour in Tehran.
18:45, 8 February 2024
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, ARMENPRESS. Four candidates will be on the ballot for Russian president, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairperson Ella Pamfilova told a meeting of the commission, Tass reports.
The CEC has registered four presidential candidates – Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Vladislav Davankov of New People, Nikolay Kharitonov of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin, running for a fifth term as an independent.
14:11, 5 February 2024
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 5, ARMENPRESS. Rescue teams have pulled two people alive from the rubble of two houses which collapsed after an explosion in Yerevan’s Erebuni district, Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson Narek Sargsyan told reporters. The rescued victims are a man and a woman.
Sargsyan said authorities haven’t yet determined the cause of the explosion.
Multiple search and rescue personnel are working at the scene.
The blast happened Monday morning at 34 Nor Aresh Street in Yerevan.
One of the 2 victims is in serious condition.
07:15,
YEREVAN, JANUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. Inter Milan captain Lautaro Martinez struck a late goal to snatch a 1-0 win over 10-man Napoli, claiming Inter’s eights Italian Super Cup title on Monday in Riyadh, trailing only one behind Juventus' record haul of nine.
Lautaro struck in the first minute of stoppages after Napoli played for half an hour with 10 men after Giovanni Simeone was sent off for two yellow cards in the space of five minutes.
"We must congratulate Napoli, they played a great game," Reuters quoted Inter manager Simone Inzaghi, who became the Supercoppa's record winning coach with five titles, as saying. "We played a semi-final three days ago and then a final today, it was something new for everyone. We kept our focus high."
Inter’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the former Armenia national team midfielder, was in the starting lineup and played the entire match, with the Super Cup becoming his 23rd title.
Mkhitaryan had a big chance to score in the 17th minute following an assist from Martinez as he aimed for the top left corner of the goal, but the kick was too high. The Armenian football star had Inter fans hold their breath once again in the second half when he took a hit after Çalhanoğlu’s corner shot, but the ball was too high again.
18:20, 18 January 2024
YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. On January 18, the Minister of Economy of Armenia Vahan Kerobyan in Germany met Niels Annen, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany.
According to the ministry, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Federal Republic of Germany also attended the meeting.
The parties discussed the agreements reached as a result of the negotiations and the process of their implementation.
Vahan Kerobyan presented the "Crossroads of the World" project developed by the Armenian government to his German colleague, highlighting the opportunities for economic and infrastructural development.
Fleeing Armenian refugees seek help to reclaim their homeland and preserve their Christian history
The 100,000 Armenians who fled en masse after Azerbaijan seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh – the enclave known to Armenians as Artsakh – last September are now facing a bitter winter as homeless refugees in Armenia.
They and their Church leaders are urgently seeking Canada’s and the international community’s help in reclaiming their homeland and retrieving their Christian history and heritage in Artsakh, which they fear is being deliberately destroyed by Azerbaijan.
Grieving the loss of their beloved homeland, and haunted by fears of an erasure of their 1,700-year-old history as a Christian nation in Artsakh, their collective anguish can only be described by the Welsh word “hiraeth” (a mixture of yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness and an intense longing for a lost homeland.)
“It’s now over three months since I lost my home,” Siranush Sargsyan, from Stepanakert, Artsakh’s capital, told me. “At the beginning (of the exodus), most people were relieved to be still alive. But now we are going through another stage. We can’t accept the reality that we can’t go back home.”
Sargsyan is an Armenian journalist who has documented through her own experience the persecution and ethnic cleansing of her people by Azerbaijan. Like the thousands who fled Artsakh, she now lives as a refugee in Armenia.
Archbishop Papken Tcharian, Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Canada, and Archbishop Anoushavan Tanielian, Prelate of the Eastern U.S., appealed to political leaders and the worldwide Christian community for help.
“I appeal to fellow Christian churches to raise their voice and support Armenia, the first nation to adopt Christianity in the year 301 AD as a state religion,” said Tcharian. “Otherwise, the confiscated churches, monasteries and khachkars (Armenian crosses) of Artsakh will be desecrated by Azerbaijan, and the authorities of Baku will distort the history of Armenian Christian Artsakh. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’”
Tanielian exhorted the international community to take a lesson from past genocides, including that of Armenians in 1915, and from the ongoing persecution of Christians elsewhere, to stop the aggressors’ actions before it’s too late.
“The best and most effective step the international community and Canada can take, without any delay, is to put into practice the same measures that they usually apply to despots: freezing all the assets of the corrupt government of Azerbaijan; establishing sanctions over their resources, and implementing all resolutions by international bodies,” he said.
He called on Canada to take a leading role in helping to restore the rights of the people of Artsakh.
“The Canadian government is well-positioned to play an important role in this regard,” he said. “It provided a substantial amount of money via the Red Cross in the first days after the forced evacuation – better to say ‘ethnic cleansing’ or even ‘genocidal attempt’ – of the population of Artsakh.”
He praised Canada’s role in stopping the sale of arms in 2022 to Azerbaijan’s allies that are “bent on erasing the Christian presence in the land of Mount Ararat.” (The mountain where Noah’s Ark is believed to have come to rest).
The sense of loss washed over Sargsyan and her countrymen with particular intensity on Jan. 6 when Armenians – most of whom belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, an Orthodox Christian denomination – celebrated Christmas.
“Today is Armenian Christmas, and it’s very important to celebrate it at home with family and friends,” she said. “But now we don’t have a home – a homeland, yes, but not a home.”
Christmas, even under bombardment, is preferable to one without a home, she continued.
“Last year, we celebrated Christmas under siege,” she said. “And we thought it was the most difficult ever, but this year is even worse.”
The destruction of their tangible Christian heritage, and the fear of erasure of their 1,700-year history in Artsakh caused by Azerbaijan’s revisionist policies, is another source of excruciating pain, she emphasized.
“One year ago, Christmas was under siege in Artsakh, but at least in the homeland. Now our churches in Artsakh stand silent, devoid of prayers and liturgy,” Sargsyan said.
“We have not only lost our homeland, our homes, memories, but also the cultural heritage of our millennial history,” she continued, adding that dozens of churches, as well as tens of thousands of khachkars and tombstones, have been razed to the ground.
She misses the beauty of the landscape, the rhythm of life in the village where she grew up and the iconic Amaras monastery, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world.
“I grew up near the Amaras monastery built in the fourth century where Mesro Mashtots, the monk, opened the first Armenian school and developed the Armenian alphabet,” she said. “It’s in the Amaras valley and surrounded by mulberry orchards and vineyards, where we worked and eagerly waited for the autumn harvest. It was a family tradition, which we have also lost. All our memories and traditions have been destroyed.”
Although warmly received by her compatriots in Armenia, she, like other refugees, is grappling with financial problems and physical hardship since arriving with little more than the clothes on their backs.
“If we were lucky, we could bring some documents but not much else. The government (of Armenia) and some international organizations provide some help, but it’s nowhere near enough for our basic needs,” she said.
The onset of winter, the lack of winter clothing and fuel for heating homes, not to mention inflated rental prices due to the influx of Russian refugees escaping the war with Ukraine, are multiplying the burdens of a traumatized community, she added.
Susan Korah is an Ottawa-based journalist. This article was submitted by The Catholic Register.
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https://troymedia.com/world/armenian-refugees-face-a-bitter-winter-and-a-threat-to-their-christian-heritage/
16:53, 9 January 2024
YEREVAN, JANUARY 9, ARMENPRESS. French President Emmanuel Macron appointed 34-year-old Education Minister Gabriel Attal as his new prime minister on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
Attal, a close Macron ally who became a household name as government spokesman during the COVID pandemic, will replace outgoing Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
One of the country's most popular politicians in recent opinion polls, Attal has made a name for himself as a savvy minister, at ease on radio shows and in parliament.
"Dear @GabrielAttal, I know I can count on your energy and your commitment to implement the project of revitalisation and regeneration that I announced," Macron said on X, who at the end of last year said he would announce new political initiatives.
Attal will be France's youngest prime minister.
11:21, 4 January 2024
YEREVAN, JANUARY 4, ARMENPRESS. Representatives of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia Anahit Manasyan have visited the Armavir Correctional Facility in the town of Vagharshapat for an unannounced inspection.
According to a press release issued by the Human Rights Defender’s Office, the staffers held private meetings with inmates, studied the state of ensuring their rights, as well as documents and detention conditions.
The identified problems have been discussed with the prison administration and the medical personnel of the prison healthcare center.
The Ombudsperson’s office said that the results of the unannounced visit will be summed up and recommendations will be sent to authorized bodies.
The Holy Martyrs family of schools — Ferrahian High School, Cabayan Elementary School, and Pilavjian Preschool — continues its unprecedented growth and expansion with plans to acquire a 1.7-acre parcel adjacent to the North Hills campus.
With the blessing and support of Western Prelate Bishop Torkom Donoyan, as well as the Prelacy’s Executive Council and Board of Regents, the Holy Martyrs School Board has filed the necessary paperwork to open escrow on the large property abutting the entire western boundary of the existing campus.
“This undertaking comes at a critical point for our schools, with enrollment at an all-time high and with the overwhelming desire of the community at-large to be part of this dynamic and proudly Armenian academic environment,” said a statement from the Holy Martyrs Ferrahian, Cabayan and Pilavjian School Board.
The expansion of the North Hills property will facilitate the construction of new preschool and elementary school classrooms, parking lots, athletic fields, and other upgrades. These improvements will put into greater focus the schools’ vision to provide a singular and state-of-the-art home where our children will continue to learn, laugh, and excel. Indeed, this anticipated acquisition comes during the final permitting stages of a comprehensive remodeling and new construction plan for the North Hills campus.
The groundbreaking phase of that plan is poised to commence in the near future, as final building permits are issued.
Of course, this momentous development comes on the heels of the Encino campus’ recent expansion. In 2022, the school acquired the adjacent three-acre property on White Oak Avenue, effectively doubling its footprint and providing much-needed classrooms, parking, a second gymnasium and other facilities.
“Today, Ferrahian is proud to have more than 530 students who, like their 600 younger brothers and sisters at the North Hills campus, are afforded the opportunity to thrive academically, athletically, and socially in a uniquely nurturing and secure Armenian setting,” the school Board statement added.
“The future is bright for the Holy Martyrs family of schools, now approaching its 60th year of unparalleled service to our community. As the first Armenian day school in the United States, we have every intention to continue to lead the way for the next 60 years and beyond. The recent expansion efforts will ensure that this will be the case,” the statement said.