Author: Edgar Tavakalian

Asbarez– Some of the biggest names in music, among them System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian, have come together to give thanks for one of the most influential albums of the past 40 years, all to benefit a great cause.

The album “Entertainment!” by UK post-punk band Gang of Four came out in 1979 and steered many young musicians down their artistic path.

“It [the album] completely changed the way I looked at rock music and sent me on my trip as a bass player,” said Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in praise of “Entertainment.”

Celebrity Auction Doctors circulated a copy of this CD to many artists who also have been outspoken about the significant impact this album has had on them. Each artist was asked to personalize a section of the CD artwork in their own creative way.

Some of the artists joining Tankian in the auction are REM’s Michael Stipe; Gwen Stefani of No Doubt; Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave’s Tom Morello; Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh, and Jerry Casale of Devo; and Bush frotman Gavin Rossdale.

The band Gang of Four has selected the UK-based women’s rights charity as the beneficiary of the auction. Womankind Worldwide is an international women’s rights charity that helps women and girls improve their lives in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The auction is being hosted by eBay Giving Works from October 15 to 25 at .

Celebrity Auction Doctors produced an exclusive interview with Gang of Four’s guitarist Andy Gill for the auction. In the interview, Andy talks about Gang of Four’s influences, their latest album, and the charity Womankind Worldwide. Andy will also personally call the auction’s top bidder to offer thanks. Andy was recently voted #12 in Spin Magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Celebrity Auction Doctors is an interview-and-auction charity webisode created by Auction Doctors, Inc. For more than twelve years, Auction Doctors has organized global charity auctions for national organizations, including over $2 million raised for ESPN and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Hacı Lokman Birlik, brother-in-law of pro-Kurdish, left wing HDP deputy Leyla Birlik, was killed during a clash with Turkish police earlier this week and was allegedly dragged behind a police vehicle. The Ministry of Interior Affairs has announced it has launched an investigation into the matter, BGN News reports. 

According to media reports, a clash broke out between Turkish security forces and the Revolutionary Patriotic Youth Movement (YDG-H) – the youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – in the Dicle neighborhood of Şırnak earlier this week. Hacı Lokman Birlik, brother-in-law to HDP deputy Leyla Birlik, was killed during the clash.

The photograph of Hacı Lokman Birlik’s body tied to the back of a police vehicle and dragged through the streets of Şırnak has been shared by thousands of social media users, who have condemned the photograph as a disgrace.

A video that emerged on Sunday showed a special operations police officer putting his gun on the head of a journalist after the latter wanted to record a police raid on the municipal building in Silvan which has been under a curfew for three days, Today’s Zaman reports.

The video showed police threatening journalists in front of the Silvan Municipality after reporters from Özgür Gün TV wanted to take images from the raid. One of the policeman put his gun on Özgür Gün TV cameraman Murat Demir although he had said he shut down his camera.

Police detained Demir as well as Dicle News Agency (DİHA) reporter Sedat Yüce after seizing their cameras.

President Serzh Sargsyan, who has arrived in the Republic of Tajikistan to take part in the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, had a meeting with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon.

The two heads of state discussed issues pertaining to bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Armenia and Tajikistan. The interlocutors particularly touched upon collaboration in political, economic, humanitarian and other spheres, as well as within the frames of the CSTO and other international organizations, talked about the further reinforcement of bilateral ties and the opportunities for implementation of mutually beneficial programs. President Serzh Sargsyan noted that the two peoples’ friendship and the current level of mutual understanding and trust between Armenia and Tajikistan provide a solid foundation to jointly develop and deepen interstate relations, promote inter-parliamentary ties, and enrich the Armenian-Tajik economic agenda with promising projects.

Emomali Rahmon welcomed President Serzh Sargsyan and stressed that Tajikistan is keen on developing its traditionally friendly relations with Armenia, and deepening ties both in bilateral and multilateral formats. To strengthen interstate relations and promote multi-sectoral cooperation, President Rahmon attached importance to the broadening of the legal framework between the two countries, which, according to him, will also contribute to trade growth.

The parties placed importance on senior-level reciprocal visits to develop relations between Armenia and Tajikistan and fulfill the agreements made at a high level. President Serzh Sargsyan invited his counterpart to pay an official visit to Armenia, which was accepted by President Emomali Rahmon with pleasure.

Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Emomali Rahmon exchanged views on issues vital to the two countries, as well as on current international and regional issues and challenges which will be discussed in more detail at the session of the CSTO Collective Security Council to be held tomorrow. The RA president presented the efforts of the RA and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs aimed at a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan could miss the UEFA Europa League match against Azerbaijan’s FC Qäbälä set for October 22.

According to reports in Azeri media, Borussia Dortmund’s #10 may be denied a visa because of his visit to Nagorno Karabakh in 2011.

Baku has blacklisted hundreds of politicians, actors, public figures and journalists over their visit to Artsakh.

“We hope that this is not true,” BVB spokesman Sascha Fligge told the German . “At the moment Henrikh is a super important player for us, who has shows brilliant achievements for weeks.”

Kosovo and Serbia have signed a series of agreements in key areas, in a major step towards normalising ties, the BBC reports.

Serbs in northern Kosovo will enjoy greater rights through one of the deals, while Kosovo gains its own international dialling code in another.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, who mediated, called the agreements “landmark achievements”.

Kosovo split from Serbia in 2008, a decade on since a conflict between Serb forces and Kosovan Albanian rebels.

As well as deals on energy and telecommunications, Kosovo and Serbia also agreed on how to share the symbolic Mitrovica Bridge that separates Albanian and Serb communities in the north.

Both sides aspire to join EU, which for Serbia depends on implementing a 2013 EU-brokered agreement on normalising ties with its southern neighbour.

“This is a big achievement for the whole of Serbia and it means there are no longer any obstacles, nothing stands on Serbia’s way towards Europe,” said the Serb President Aleksandar Vucic.

Islamic State militants have destroyed Palmyra’s ancient temple of Baalshamin, Syrian officials and activists say, the BBC reports.

Syria’s head of antiquities was quoted as saying the temple was blown up on Sunday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it happened one month ago.

IS took control of Palmyra in May, sparking fears the group might demolish the Unesco World Heritage site.

The group has destroyed several ancient sites in Iraq.

IS “placed a large quantity of explosives in the temple of Baalshamin today [Sunday] and then blew it up causing much damage to the temple,” Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told AFP news agency.

A Russian soldier suspected of killing an entire family in Armenia has been convicted of desertion as a precursor to his murder trial, AP reports.

Valery Permyakov, who served with a Russian military base in Gyumri, is suspected of shooting six family members dead and stabbing a 6-month-old baby to death in the Armenian city in January. He was captured quickly after the killings and pleaded guilty to the charges.

A Russian military court in Gyumri on Wednesday handed him a 10-year prison sentence on charges of desertion and illegal weapons possession. Armenian investigators are pursuing a separate murder probe, and a date for that trial hasn’t been set yet.

President of the European Council Donald Tusk visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims.

Donald Tusk laid a wreath at the eternal fire and toured the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute

 

A 102-year-old German woman will become the world’s oldest person to be awarded a doctorate on Tuesday, almost 80 years after the Nazis prevented her from sitting her final exam, the BBC reports.

Ingeborg Rapoport (then Syllm) finished her medical studies in 1937 and wrote her doctoral thesis on diphtheria – a serious problem in Germany at the time.

But because of Nazi oppression she has had to wait almost eight decades before being awarded her PhD.

Her mother was a Jewish pianist.

So, under Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic race laws, Ingeborg was refused entry to the final oral exam. She had written confirmation from Hamburg University that she would have received her doctorate “if the applicable laws did not prohibit Ms Syllm’s admission to the doctoral exam due to her ancestry.”

 

 

 

Armenians have not undergone serious genetic changes and have preserved their anthropological type at least in the course of the past three thousand years, the research by the Copenhagen University has revealed, said Professor Levon Yepiskoposyan, Head of the Ethnogenetics Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.

The Copenhagen University has studied 101 ancient genetic samples from different Eurasian regions.  The genetic data from different ancient sites of the bronze and iron ages of Armenia have been included in the research for the first time. The study was aimed at revealing the genetic characteristics of the European population.

Armenia was the only country in the region included in the study. “Why? Because we have no problems and no complexes,” Prof. Yepiskoposyan said. According to him, Azerbaijan turned down the proposal.