Author: Emma Jilavian

News.am, Armenia

May 4 2018

Elton John to visit Armenia Elton John to visit Armenia

Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)

Tuesday

Armenian Ambassador: Turkish acts in Syria are extension of what they committed against Armenians

 

 

Damascus, SANA – Armenian Ambassador to Syria Arshak Poladian said that history repeats itself, and what Turkish politicians are perpetrating against the Syrian people nowadays is an extension of what they have done to the Armenian people in the past.

 

On April 24, the Armenians commemorate the anniversary of the genocide in which one and a half million Armenians were killed at the hands of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, in one of the most repulsive massacres in human history.

 

Speaking to SANA, the Ambassador said that although 103 years have passed since the Armenian genocide, the Armenian people are still struggling to regain their rights and their stolen territory, adding that the issue of the Armenians is presented in international forums and the Armenian people insist on recognition and condemnation of the genocide.

 

Poladian pointed out that the Armenian tragedy was a crime of annihilating an entire nation and erasing its heritage and civilization, as it was the result of a tendency to establish a Turkish empire from Anatolia to the easternmost part of Asia.

 

The historical area of Armenia is more than 300,000 square kilometers, which is ten times the size of the current Republic of Armenia.

 

Manar al-Freih / Hazem Sabbagh

ArmenPress, Armenia

US Congressmen call on Trump to mark April 24 as Armenian Genocide commemoration day

YEREVAN, APRIL 12, ARMENPRESS. The leadership of the Congressional Armenian Caucus today called on their U.S. House colleagues to join them in pressing US President Donald Trump to reject Turkey’s gag-rule by honestly and accurately commemorating the Armenian Genocide thisApril 24th, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“Recep Erdogan is undermining U.S. interests, insulting U.S. allies, and threatening U.S. forces, yet he’s still granted a veto over U.S. policy on the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “American complicity in Ankara’s genocide denial is a relic of the Cold War. It didn’t make sense then, and it makes even less sense now. “Take a moment today to ask your U.S. Representatives to demand an end to Turkey’s gag-rule.”

In a “Dear Colleague” letter to U.S. Representatives, Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Jackie Speier (D-CA), David Trott (R-MI) and David Valadao (R-CA) as well as Vice-Chairs Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) explained that: “The Armenian Genocide continues to stand as an important reminder that crimes against humanity must not go without recognition and condemnation. Through recognition of the Armenian Genocide, we pay tribute to the perseverance and determination of those who survived, as well as to the Americans of Armenian descent who continue to strengthen our country to this day. It is our duty to honor those contributions with an honest statement of history recognizing the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as the 20th century’s first genocide. By commemorating the Armenian Genocide, we renew our commitment to prevent future atrocities.” They closed by asking that the President: “appropriately markApril 24thas a day of American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”

The ANCA has launched a nationwide online letter writing and calling campaign urging Members of Congress to co-sign the Armenian Caucus letter to President Trump.

Text of Congressional Letter to President Trump

Dear President Trump:

We are writing to urge you to properly commemorate the 103 rd Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide onApril 24th.

In leading an honest and accurate American remembrance of this known case of genocide, you will stand with President Reagan, who recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1981, and the Eisenhower Administration, which did the same in a 1951 submission to the International Court of Justice. The House of Representatives has also commemorated the Armenian Genocide, through H.J.Res.148 in 1975 and H.J.Res.247 in 1984.

Armenia remains deeply committed to expanding the bonds of friendship that have long connected the American and Armenian peoples. Among the proudest chapters in our shared history is America’s remarkable record of protesting the Genocide and in caring for the survivors of this crime. The United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1915, Henry Morgenthau, helped to chronicle the brutal extermination of the Armenian people through a campaign of mass murder and violent expulsion.

In the years after the genocide, Ambassador Morgenthau and other concerned Americans launched the Near East Relief, a congressionally chartered humanitarian organization, which raised $116 million (over $2.7 billion in 2018 dollars) to aid the victims of the Ottoman Empire’s mass murder of millions of Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Syriacs, and other persecuted peoples. The generosity of the American people saved countless lives and helped to ensure the continued survival of the Armenian culture.

The Armenian Genocide continues to stand as an important reminder that crimes against humanity must not go without recognition and condemnation. Through recognition of the Armenian Genocide we pay tribute to the perseverance and determination of those who survived, as well as to the Americans of Armenian descent who continue to strengthen our country to this day. It is our duty to honor those contributions with an honest statement of history recognizing the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as the 20th century’s first genocide. By commemorating the Armenian Genocide, we renew our commitment to prevent future atrocities.

In the spirit of honoring the victims and redoubling our commitment to prevent genocide, we ask you to appropriately markApril 24thas a day of American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.

Thank you for taking our views into consideration.

Sincerely. “

English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan

MediaMax, Armenia

The agency writes that the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has made a decision, according to which any nation with 20 or more doping violations from 2008 to 2020 will have just one man and one woman at the Games.

The list involves Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Belarus, which have already registered a number of disqualified athletes.

Let us remind that in 2008-2012 tests of several Armenian athletes revealed prohibited substances, while at the beginning of 2018 only one Armenian athlete’s doping test showed positive result. 

The new policy has been approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

TASS, Russia

April 8 2018

 

 

 

YEREVAN April 8

 

The political dialogue and economic relations between Armenia and Russia keep developing consistently, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a meeting with the outgoing Russian ambassador to the country.

 

 

 

YEREVAN, April 8. /TASS/. The political dialogue and economic relations between Armenia and Russia keep developing consistently, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a meeting with the outgoing Russian ambassador to the country.

 

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ivan Volynkin has recently completed his diplomatic mission to Yerevan.

 

“President Sargsyan noted with satisfaction that political dialogue and economic ties between Armenia and Russia develop consistently. Cooperation in humanitarian, military and defense spheres is also on the rise,” the Armenian president’s press service said in a statement.

 

Sargsyan thanked the outgoing ambassador for his contribution in developing Russian-Armenian relations.

 

“The embassy’s active work remains a part of the Russian government’s vast effort to expand and strengthen Armenian-Russian strategic alliance,” the statement reads.

 

The Russian diplomat was decorated with the Armenian Order of Friendship for his significant contribution in developing bilateral friendship.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to appoint Sergei Kopyrkin to the post of Russia’s ambassador to Armenia on April 6.

Agence France Presse

March 9, 2018 Friday 2:15 AM GMT

Baghdad, March 9 2018

 

As jihadists swept across Iraq three years ago, he rescued a treasure trove of ancient religious manuscripts from near-certain destruction. Father Najeeb Michaeel is now training fellow Iraqis to preserve their heritage.

 

“My duty is to save our heritage, a significant treasure,” the Dominican friar told AFP in a telephone interview from his office in the city of Arbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

 

“We can’t save a tree if we don’t save its roots, and a man without culture is a dead man.”

 

In August 2014, as the Islamic State (IS) group charged towards Qaraqosh, once Iraq’s largest Christian city, Father Najeeb filled his car with rare manuscripts, 16th century books and irreplaceable records.

 

He fled towards the relative safety of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

 

With two other friars from his Dominican order, he also moved the Oriental Manuscript Digitisation Centre (OMDC).

 

Founded in 1990, the centre works in partnership with Benedictine monks to preserve and restore documents. It also scans damaged manuscripts recovered from churches and villages across northern Iraq.

 

In all, some 8,000 Chaldean, Syrian, Armenian and Nestorian manuscripts have been digitally copied.

 

Today, the OMDC has about 10 employees, “displaced people who have turned into professionals” who host researchers from France, Italy or Canada, the friar said.

 

– ‘Whole heart into it’ –

 

The new recruits are all academics who lost their jobs after fleeing their homes during the jihadist takeover.

 

“They are working for the future and they know it. They put their whole heart into it,” said Father Najeeb, whose team includes Christians and Muslims.

 

Thousands of religious relics and sites, both Christian and Muslim, were destroyed by IS before Iraqi security forces finally declared victory against the extremists in December.

 

“I’ve trained four or five different teams,” said Father Najeeb, explaining that as Iraqi troops advanced against IS, many trainees returned home, forcing him to take on fresh recruits.

 

The centre now makes several copies of each document to guarantee its preservation. Originals are returned to the owners, one copy is kept on file and another posted on its online digital database.

 

Until 2007, these documents were kept in the convent of Al-Saa church, also known as Our Lady of the Hour, in the city of Mosul, which became the major battleground of Iraq’s war against IS.

 

The archives contain nearly 850 ancient manuscripts in Aramaic, Arabic and other languages, letters dating back three centuries and some 50,000 books.

 

Al-Saa church takes its name from its clock, which was a gift from France in 1880, given to the Dominicans in recognition of their social and cultural work.

 

The Dominican order had opened 25 schools across Mosul and its surrounding province, and — on the backs of camels trekking across the desert — brought Iraq its first printing house in 1857.

 

– ‘Peace, not the sword’-

 

But attacks against churches in Mosul were on the rise even before IS seized control of the city in 2014. At least five priests and a bishop had been murdered since 2004.

 

“I was on the list of religious figures to kill,” said Father Najeeb.

 

In 2007, he moved the archives to Qaraqosh, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) away.

 

Thanks to “a premonition” in late July 2014, the Dominicans relocated the archives once again, this time to Iraqi Kurdistan.

 

When IS pushed into the Christian city less than two weeks later, the friars filled their cars with the remaining documents and followed suit.

 

Jihadists tried to stop them at the Kalak crossroads into Iraqi Kurdistan but Kurdish peshmerga fighters intervened. The friars were left without a car and forced to continue on foot.

 

“As soon as I saw anyone with their hands empty, I handed them some of the cultural treasures and asked them to return them once they entered Kurdistan,” said the friar. “I got everything back.”

 

When he returned to Mosul last year to attend the first post-IS Christmas mass, Friar Najeeb found his church in ruins.

 

The tower that housed the clock had vanished, the convent had been converted into a jail, rooms transformed into workshops for bombs and explosive belts, and gallows had replaced the church altar.

 

But Father Najeeb, who plays organ and electric guitar, remains hopeful. “I’m optimistic. The last word will be one of peace, not the sword,” he said.