Author: Dabaghian Diana

Pope Francis has called on European parishes and religious communities to offer shelter to a migrant family, the Vatican Radio reports.

The Pope’s appeal came during the Sunday Angelus.

“May Every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary of Europe, take in one family” Pope Francis appealed.

To the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope said the faithful are called to offer a concrete gesture of hope as indicated in the Gospel.

“Before the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing death in conflict and hunger and are on a journey of hope, the Gospel – he said – calls us to be close to the smallest and to those who have been abandoned.”

Reminding the faithful of the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Pope said that offering shelter to the needy is a “concrete act of preparation” for the Holy Year.

And turning specifically to his European brother bishops, the Pope asked them to support his appeal and said that in the coming days two Vatican parishes will each be taking in a family of refugees.

Within the framework of the “Shant-2015” strategic command-post exercises President Serzh Sargsyan convened a conditional sitting of the Security Council to inform about the situation around the Republic of Armenia over the past days and the scenario of the exercises.

Members of the Council offered reports and made suggestions stemming from the situation. Instructions complying with the scenario of the exercises were given to the state bodies.

President Sargsyan attached importance to the conduct of the exercises from the point of view of reacting promptly and efficiently in concrete situations, testing the capacities and preparedness of state bodies in those situations.

President Serzh Sargsyan received the representatives of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).

The President expressed his gratitude for the high quality expert assistance to the process of elaboration of the Draft Constitutional reforms provided by this respected international institution. He also underlined the significance of such assistance for the ongoing legal reforms in the country.

During the meeting the interlocutors also underscored that there are no substantial discrepancies concerning the draft on the table. They also exchanged views pertaining to the democratic innovations embedded in the Draft Constitutional reforms of the Republic of Armenia.

“The peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict remains a priority for the European Union. The European Union supports the negotiations aimed at settling the conflict led by the OSCE Minsk Group,” President of the Council of the European Union Donald Tusk said at a joint press conference with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

“We support further dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including at the highest level – at your level Mr. President. It is critical to respect the ceasefire strictly, to exercise restraint on actions and statements, and to create an atmosphere conducive to progress in the conflict settlement,” Mr. Tusk said.

“I’m confident there is no alternative to the peaceful settlement. If we want to reach a peaceful settlement, all players in this risky game should refrain from any aggressive elements and rhetoric, because words, speeches and rhetoric have implications on politics, and sometimes dramatic ones,” he said.

As for Armenia choice not to make use of the European Union’s offer of an Association Agreement including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, Tusk said “this is a choice that the European Union fully respects.”

“We still stand ready to deepen our relations by working together to open markets and by advancing on democratic reforms, economic growth, regional integration, a better business-investment climate, and sustainable development. In short a broad reform agenda,” he stressed.

“We have just successfully completed the first stage of discussions on a new, comprehensive bilateral agreement. In this agreement we have identified areas for future cooperation. The EU Member States are already discussing the mandate for these negotiations,” the EU President said.

“One important area in our cooperation is to make it easier to travel between Armenia and the European Union. I welcome the good progress made by Armenia on the Mobility Partnership. The effective implementation of the Readmission and Visa Facilitation Agreements that entered into force in January 2014 is a crucial condition to start talks for a visa liberalization dialogue. A visa-free regime is the final goal. I am hopeful that the next step can be taken in the coming months, if this pace of work continues,” he added.

Tusk assured “Armenia can count on the European Union’s continued support to advance on a whole range of political and social reforms, and to improve the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

“The European Union supports the work of civil society in Armenia and I encourage a closer involvement of the civil society in the reform process to broaden the perspective and ensure common ownership. This year is decisive for our relations,” Donald Tusk said.

Mr. Tusk thanked for the possibility to visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial. “This was my second visit, and was as moved as during my first visit,” he said.

A white gunman opened fire Wednesday night at a historic black church in downtown Charleston, S.C., killling nine people before fleeing and setting off an overnight manhunt, the police said, the New York Times reports.

At a news conference with Charleston’s mayor early Thursday, the police chief, Greg Mullen, called the shooting a hate crime.

“It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church while they are having a prayer meeting and take their lives,” he said.

The police said the gunman walked into the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church around 9 p.m. and began shooting.

Eight people died at the scene, Chief Mullen said. Two people were taken to the Medical University of South Carolina, and one of them died on the way.

An Egyptian court has upheld the death sentence imposed on ousted ex-President Mohammed Morsi over a mass jailbreak, the BBC reports.

The sentence was initially passed in May, but was confirmed after consultation with Egypt’s highest religious figure, the Grand Mufti.

The death sentences of five other leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including its supreme guide Mohammed Badie, were also upheld.

Morsi’s supporters have described the sentence as “farcical”.

The verdict is subject to appeal. One hundred and one other defendants were also sentenced to death in absentia.

Morsi escaped from Wadi Natroun prison in January 2011 and was accused of colluding with foreign militants in a plot to free Islamists during mass prison breaks.

The 2011 uprising brought an end to Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule and Morsi was elected president a year later.

A fabulous mural produced by world renowned Armenian artist Marie Balian decorates the whitewashed exterior wall at 14 Coresh Street in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Post reports that she spent months preparing an original creation as a gift for the enjoyment of the residents of the city. She presented it to the mayor, who stuck it on a wall along one of the city’s most rundown, nondescript, least traveled byways.

Yet it is one of the most splendid features of the city and one of Jerusalem’s dozens of out of- the-way or unusual highlights that Israelis call pinot, or corners.

In 1918, the first British military governor of Jerusalem brought two Armenian families – the Balians and the Karkashians – to Jerusalem from Turkey to renovate the ceramic tiles at the Dome of the Rock. Four years later, they established the first Armenian pottery in Jerusalem. The two families eventually parted ways amicably, with the Balians remaining on Nablus Road (where one can watch the process of tile-making in their workshop). Marie, who is well into her 90s, was born in Turkey.

With their new work, Armine, Sister, Teatr ZAR, the resident company of Poland’s famous Grotowski Institute, evokes what happened in 1915 when the Turks killed more than a million Armenians – a genocide that Turkey still denies, reports.

Through singing, movement, and metaphors, Armine, Sister reflects on the world’s silence on the near extermination. The piece, which has been wildly successful in Europe, goes to the San Francisco International Art Festival (SFIAF) for its U.S. premiere. Seeing it with others is a powerful act, says Jaroslaw Fret, the artistic director of Teatr ZAR.
“In the same moment we are creating one small community and we all are witnessing something that does not belong to our experience, but to humankind,” said Fret. “We try to reduce our ignorance.”
Teatr ZAR started traveling to Georgia and Armenia in 1999. For years, they have been working on polyphonic singing, but for this piece, they have trained in Armenian monodic traditions. Along with new musical ideas,Armine, Sister differs from past work by adding people outside the company for the first time, such as Istanbul-born Aram Kerovpyan, master-singer of the Armenian Cathedral of Paris, along with other singers from Turkey as well as from Iran and Armenian.
Fret sees the incorporating of Armenian singing as a way to bear witness — to create a sort of monument to those who were killed as well as those who survived. The group, which made its Northern California debut in 2011 (also as part of the SFIAF) with Gospels of Childhood Triptych, is known for its powerful and evocative pieces, incorporating music and movement without text. Paige Rogers, co-founder of the Cutting Ball Theatre in the Tenderloin, was so enamored of their style that she brought the whole cast of the Cutting Ball’s production this season of Antigone to Poland for a two-week training workshop with movement and music coaches

Doing theater is all about powerfully affecting people, Fret thinks.

“It’s like a political stone thrown into the water and next you see the circles,” he said. “You see the waves in the audiences and in the other artists.”