Author: Emil Karabekian

Armenia is placed first in a ranking of countries with highest rate of deaths caused by cancer. The list has been compiled by the research center. Zimbabwe and Hungary are ranked second and third respectively.

According to the study, the death rate in Armenia is 229.84 per 100 thousand people.

Aremnia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union are ranked as follows: Kazakhstan – 14^th, Russia – 15^th, Belarus – 56^th, Kyrgyzstan – 99^th.

Neigboring Georgia is placed 85^th, Azerbaijan is 72^nd, Turkey is 40^th and Iran is 113^th.

The research shows that the deaths caused by cancer are in no way related to the level of development of the country or the weather conditions. The United States is ranked 43th in the list, while France and Germany are placed 22^nd and 41th respectively.

The President of Armenia, Chairman of the Chess Federation of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan today visited the Chess Academy of Armenia and observed the Andranik Margarian 6th memorial tournament, President’s Press Office reported.

The Academy, for the sixth year in a row has been conducting a tournament in different age groups which is open for boys and girls up to 18 years old.

The tournament, which commenced on January 8, 2016, will continue through January 16. The winners will be awarded medals, souvenirs and will be allowed to participate at the meetings of Armenia’s Chess Academy.

The book, titled “Bir Ermeni Subayın Çanakkale ve Doğu Cephesi Günlüğü 1914-1918” (The Journal of an Armenian Military Officer at the Çanakkale and Eastern Front, 1914-1918), which includes Dr. Avedis Cebeciyan’s memories of the war, has been translated into Turkish, reports.The book was originally written in Armenian and published in Beirut in 1986.

The book reveals another perspective of the war and contains some of Cebeciyan’s insights. Some moments of the battle, bombardments by Allied countries and tents set up for those injured in the war are among the moments covered in the book by the Armenian doctor.

Cebeciyan states in the book that the Deportation Law, which was enacted on May 27, 1915, came as another tragic incident Ottoman Armenians suffered during the war. Cebeciyan describes the situation of those who suffered due to the deportation policy, as his family members, including his pregnant wife, were deported to Syria in 1915.

In a journal entry dated Aug. 13, 1915, Cebeciyan wrote: “An enemy aircraft bombed us three times today. One of the bombs landed four meters away from my tent. I wasn’t in the tent and the bomb didn’t explode. It just got stuck in the ground and we dug it out. There are many injured people here. It’s painful to witness the sufferings of thousands of people and not being able to do anything for them but transfer them [to hospitals]. We have transferred 11,000 wounded in the last three days and there isn’t enough space on the ships for all of them. I have spent most nights without any sleep carrying out the transfers.”

“The bombardment has finally ended. However, a ship has caught on fire. I stood up on a steep mountain, and called to the soldiers, saying: ‘Come on, this is a day to serve the country. Come to [extinguish] the fire!” Cebeciyan wrote in another entry dated Sept. 3, 1915.

Cebeciyan attended the American University of Beirut with the encouragement of his father, Hovhannes Cebeciyan — one of the Armenian gentry in Gaziantep province, and graduated as a doctor. After serving in Şanlıurfa for a while, he continued to work at the Sev Gaziantep American Hospital. He also served in Germany and Switzerland to gain more experience and specialize in his profession. The Adana massacre of 1909, which resulted in the death of 20,000-30,000 Armenians and 1,300 Arameans (Syriacs), broke out when his wife was pregnant with their first child. Cebeciyan decided to return to Gaziantep, his hometown, because things were becoming unbearable for him after his father-in-law was killed on his way to Osmaniye.

Cebeciyan heard that many of his relatives had been killed while he was treating those who were injured during World War I. His brother, Kirkor, had been banished to Syria and was able to come back only after the war. He returned to Syria’s Aleppo Governorate after the Armistice of Mudros was signed on Oct. 30, 1918. He earned a living by establishing a clinic with his brother-in-law, Filip Hovnanyan, who was also a doctor. He treated those who were injured during the 1915 Armenian massacres and worked at the clinic until 1952, two years before his death.

 

 

 

The essence of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is being distorted in the negotiation process, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters today, following the government sitting.

“Azerbaijan has adopted a policy of force in the Karabakh conflict, which began with the Sumgait massacres and continues into today. Any progress in the talks is impossible unless Azerbaijan refuses from this stance,” Kocharyan said. He added that “the international community should come to understand that the international recognition of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is the solution.”

Referring to the statement of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Deputy Foreign Minister said “they are the beginning of a direction.”

“The mediators are always trying to put an equation mark between the parties, but some change is obvious. According to my assessment, that’s not enough, but the change in the statements is apparent. This will further deepen, if Baku fails to return to a pragmatic field,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.

Photo: Getty Images

 

The Duchess of Cambridge paid a touching tribute to her late mother-in-law on Tuesday night, teh reports.

Kate Middleton attended the Queen’s annual Diplomatic Reception, on 8 December, wearing a dazzling diamond and pearl tiara once owned by Princess Diana.

She paired the stunning Cambridge Lover’s Knot tiara with one of her favourite Alexander McQueen dresses – the same lacy, ice blue gown she wore to the 2013 event.

According to the , the tiara was originally made by Queen Mary in 1914 and has been passed down through royal generations before it was given as a wedding present to Diana by the Queen.

This isn’t the first time Kate has chosen to pay tribute to Diana by wearing her gorgeous jewellery.

Prince William famously proposed to her with his mother’s engagement ring and also have her Diana’s earrings as a present.

– Famous Istanbul-based photojournalist Ara Guler has cancelled an agreement, under which he was to transfer the archive of the photos he has taken over 70 years to Dogus Holding, cumhuriyet.com reported.

In accordance with the agreement signed on November 18 between Ara Guler and Dogus Holding closely connected with Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, 3 million euros worth of the archive, the building of Ara Kafe, and a collection of photographic cameras and devices were transferred to a company set up by Dogus for the purpose of managing the archive and the property.
As a result of the transaction, Guler and his heirs were to be paid 50,000 liras a month. Guler would only have a 40% stake in the newly-established company’s shares.

Ara Güler is an Armenian-Turkish photojournalist, nicknamed “the Eye of Istanbul” or “the Photographer of Istanbul”. He is considered one of Turkey’s few internationally known photographers.

In the 1970s he held photographic interviews with politicians and artists such as Winston Churchill, Indira Gandhi, Maria Callas, John Berger, Bertrand Russell, Willy Brandt, Alfred Hitchcock, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso.Some critics consider his most renowned photographs to be his melancholic black-and-white pictures taken mostly with a Leica camera in Istanbul, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, a golden age of photojournalism.

Güler’s work is collected by the National Library of France in Paris; the George Eastman Museum inRochester, New York; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery; Museum Ludwig Köln, and Das imaginäre Photo-Museum, Köln.

 

 

 

The terrorist acts in Paris showed that there is no security anywhere in the world, not even Europe, expert of Turkish studies Hakob Chakryan told reporters today.

Chakryan said “the evil of terrorism has become a global threat since September 11, which is a consequence of the incorrect policy of the United States.”

Turkey, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, supported the jihadists of the Islamic State from the very beginning, the expert said, adding that “Ankara is playing a ‘double game’ today.”

“Turkey pretends to be fighting against IS, while continuing to support the terrorist group, providing weapons,” he said.

To what extent is Turkey-backed ISIS dangerous to Armenia? Hakob Chakryan believes “Ankara will not engage in confrontation with Moscow.”

Besides, he said, the developments in Syria provide ground for optimism. “The Syrian authorities have regained control over Lattakia, the ISIS links to its stronghold in Raqqa will soon be cut and Aleppo will be completely cleared of terrorists.”

Officials say suspected Islamist gunmen who stormed a hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, have “no more hostages,” the BBC reports.

The Radisson Blu Hotel was stormed by special forces after gunmen entered it and seized 170 people. At least 30 of the hostages are known to have escaped.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its offshoot al-Murabitoun said they carried out the attack, according to an agency used by jihadists in the region.

At least 18 people have died and two soldiers wounded.

One of those killed was Geoffrey Dieudonne, a member of parliament in Belgium’s Wallonia region.

Evidence now suggests that a bomb planted by the Islamic State militant group is the likely cause of last weekend’s crash of a Russian airliner over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, U.S. and European security sources said on Wednesday, reports.

Islamic State, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria and is battling the Egyptian army in the Sinai Peninsula, said again on Wednesday it brought down the airplane, adding it would eventually tell the world how it carried out the attack.

The Airbus A321 crashed on Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on its way to the Russian city of St Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.

The U.S. and European security sources stressed they had reached no final conclusions about the crash.

Britain on Wednesday cited the likely possibility of an explosive device as the cause of the crash, but made no mention of any group that may have been responsible.

“We have concluded that there is a significant possibility that the crash was caused by an explosive device on board the aircraft,” Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said after a meeting of the government’s crisis response committee chaired by Prime Minister David Cameron.

 

The Chamber of Senators of Paraguay unanimously adopted a declaration Thursday recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, according to the

The bill was presented by Senators Pedro Santa Cruz, Victor Bogado, Arnoldo Wiens, Eduardo Petta San Martin, Carlos Amarilla, Miguel Abdon Saguier, Arnaldo Giuzzio, Roberto Acevedo and Sixto Pereira.