The US is committed to working with Russia and France in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakah conflict.
“In meetings in Washington the Co-Chairs heard from the US that we are committed to working with Russia and France on Nagorno Karabakh settlement,” US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick said in a Twitter post.
The Co-Chairs were in Washington on June 6 to hold meetings at the US Department of State the Department of Defense and the National Security Council.
Just like their ancestors forced from their homes in 1915-16, the last Armenian families living in the embattled northern Syrian town of Kobane have fled after the repeated jihadist attacks – and they do not intend to go back, according to the Hurriyet Daily News.
Agop Tomasyan, an Armenian from Kobane close to the Turkish border, who fled his hometown for Turkey around nine months ago when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched an attack, said the last eight Armenian families had left Syria for good and would not return.
“There were only eight families left before the ISIL attack [in October 2014]. All of these families left Kobane after the attack,” said Tomasyan.
Syrian Kurdish forces expelled ISIL fighters from Kobane on June 27 and retook full control after three days under siege, after a group of ISIL militants stormed into the border town. ISIL had also failed to capture Kobane at the start of 2015 after four months of deadly clashes.
Three Armenian families are currently living at the Turkish Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) refugee camp in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa province.
Tomasyan, who belongs to one of the three families in the Suruç refugee camp, said they had to leave their hometown after ISIL’s attack because they knew that the jihadists would kill them once they learned that they were Christians.
“We understood that it was time for us to go. We decided to come to Turkey after a discussion between the last Armenians left. Eventually we came to Suruç,” he said. From Suruç, the eight families had spread to various other places.
“One family settled in Şanlıurfa, another in Hatay, and another in Aleppo. Two of the families who had passports went to Armenia. The remaining three families were placed in refugee camps in Suruç,” Tomasyan said.
He added that they had at one point decided to return to Kobane but changed their minds after his brother was killed by jihadists in front of his son’s eyes during ISIL’s latest attack.
“Before the recent ISIL assault, my brother wanted to return to Kobane to see how his house and store was. He took his 14-year-old son with him, but later he was killed by ISIL in front of his son,” Tomasyan said.
“Kobane is not our homeland anymore.”
The 14-year-old Aram Tomasyan, who is Agop Tomasyan’s nephew, said four ISIL members wearing uniforms of the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) had shot his father on the morning of June 24.
“My father was bleeding from his heart when he fell on the ground. Despite this he still raised his hand and said, ‘Son, run, they are ISIL.’ I ran. If I hadn’t run, I would have been shot too,” the boy said.
The elder Tomasyan said the ancestral roots of Kobane’s Armenians could be traced back to Southern and Central Anatolia, but his ancestors were exiled during the massacre and deportation of Ottoman Armenians in 1915-16. They fled to Kobane and settled there to start a new life.
“We had said that we would never leave Kobane, no matter what,” said Tomasyan, adding that they had two churches in the town and lived in harmony with everyone around them.
Award-winning Armenian jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan performed a concert on June 23 outside the Akhtamar Church on the historical Akhtamar Island in Van, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
The concert on Akhtamar Island was “vigorous,” said Tamar Nalci, the project coordinator at Anadolu Kültür (Anatolian Culture), a non-profit cultural institution that organized Hamasyan’s concerts in Turkey.
“Tigran Hamasyan is a reputable Armenian jazz pianist who performs mini concerts at historical sites and churches with the company of the state chamber choir of Armenia [Hover]. This is a concert of church music.”
Tigran Hamasyan is accompanied by a group of 25 musicians. This has been our second concert. It attracted much interest. The concert was vigorous,” Nalci said after the concert held on the historical island.
Van Deputy Mayor Cahit Bozbay and Gevaş District Mayor Sinan Hakan were among the attendees of the concert, along with a number of local residents.
Hamasyan will continue performing in various Turkish provinces until June 30 in a project called “Luys i Luso.” He will also perform in 100 churches in Armenia, Georgia, Lebanon, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Luxembourg, Russia and the U.S.
Hamasyan, 27, who started playing piano at the age of three and won the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2003 and the Thelonious Monk Institute piano contest at the age of 18, performs traditional Armenian music in his concerts.
On June 17, USAID marked the completion of a water supply improvement project in the village of Hartavan, Aragatsotn region. The community event was attended by USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia Jonathan Katz, USAID Armenia Mission Director Karen Hilliard, Governor of Aragatsotn Sargis Sahakyan, community mayor Zhirayr Avetisyan, local residents, and partners. During the event, the attendees viewed the newly-installed pumping station and water supply network of the village and met with project beneficiaries.
Before the inception of the USAID/CEWP water improvement project, Hartavan did not have access to a safe and reliable water supply. Most of the village’s water sources were seasonal and did not have any protection from potential pollution. The village’s only reliable source of water was the small and obsolete pumping station located on the Aparan-Yerevan water main. The water distribution network of Hartavan was also in poor condition. Household connections were not metered, and the water loss due to leakage and waste was very high (80% or more). Water was available only 2-3 hours a day, and the risk of waterborne diseases was high.
In response, USAID made several critical improvements to Hartavan’s existing water system, resulting in a safe chlorinated water supply for all the households in the village that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thanks to the installation of water meters throughout the village, water consumption is more accurately accounted for. CEWP also provided the municipality with new software to help them with billing and the collection of water fees. As a result, the community’s water service revenue has almost doubled, and it is anticipated that Hartavan will annually save about 23,360 cubic meters of water and 17,280 kilowatt-hours of electric energy due to improved efficiency.
Since 2011, nearly 50,000 people living in vulnerable communities in six Armenian provinces have benefitted from improved energy and water services made possible through USAID. When improving rural infrastructures, USAID also introduces modern and energy-efficient approaches to street-lighting, heating, and the drinking water supply, allowing communities to generate additional savings in water and energy expenses.
Turkey’s AK party faces a challenge to form a government after losing its majority at a general election for the first time in 13 years, the BBC reports.
It secured 41%, a sharp drop from 2011, when it won nearly half of the vote.
Under Turkey’s proportional representation system, this means the AKP will need to form a coalition or face entering a minority government.
The pro-Kurdish HDP crossed the 10% threshold, securing seats in parliament for the first time.
The result is a blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to boost his office’s powers.
Speaking from the balcony of the AKP headquarters in Ankara Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: “The winner of the election is again the AKP, there’s no doubt.”
But he added: “Our people’s decision is final. It’s above everything and we will act in line with it.”
Armenia closely follows the developments in Syria and tries to find ways to ensure the security of Syrian Armenians, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a joint press conference with visiting OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić.
Speaking about his recent visit to Syria, the Foreign Minister said the objective was to see the developments on the spot.
“We consider that it will be possible to solve the crisis by immediately stopping the military actions, launching dialogue between all political forces in Syria,” Minister Nalbandian said.
“There are thousands of Syrian Armenians living in Armenia today. The Armenian leadership has been doing and continues to do its best to support them,” the Minister added.
“It was important to meet with representatives of the Syrian Armenian community, to offer them our support and to reconfirm that Armenia stands by them,” Edward Nalbandian said.
UN OFFICIER DE POLICE DU COMMISSARIAT DE TCHARENTSAVAN A ETE ARRETE
Stephane
armenews
28 avril 2010
ARMENIE
Selon Hayots Achkhar, Haykakan Jamanak, Aravot et 168 Jam, un
officier de police du commissariat de Tcharentsavan a ete arrete,
suspecte d’avoir force le jeune Vahan Khalafian a se suicider lors
d’un interrogatoire. 168 Jam rapporte les propos de l’Ombudsman
Armen Haroutiounian, selon lesquels, dans tous les cas, en depit
des hypothèses sur les causes de ce decès, la police doit assumer
ses responsabilites. Ce n’est pas la première fois, rappelle-t-il,
qu’un citoyen de la RA entre dans un commissariat de police et en
sort inanime.
Chronicle of Higher Education
March 28 2010
A Turkish Scholar Talks About the Armenian Genocide
By Andrea Fuller
Taner Akçam made history in the 1990s as the first Turkish academic to
publicly acknowledge that an Armenian genocide took place, an
assertion long disputed by the Turkish government.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire died
beginning in 1915 and culminating in the years following World War I.
The Armenian National Institute, in Washington, says those lives were
lost through mass slaughter, starvation, and disease as Armenians were
displaced by the Ottoman
ith-Taner-Ak-am-a/64847/
RA PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN HOSTED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF DAMASCUS
5604/lang/en
2010-03-23
On the second day of his working visit to Syria, RA President Serzh
Sargsyan was hosted in the University of Damascus where he came forth
with a lecture on the Armenian-Syrian relations.
Presidential Press office told Armenpress that the Armenian President
also met with the Chairman of the Syrian People’s Assembly Mahmud al
Abrash, discussed Armenian-Syrian inter-parliamentary ties and issues
on cooperation in international establishments.
RA CONSTITUTION PROHIBITS PARLIAMENT TO PARTICIPATE IN CONCLUSION OF INTERNATIONAL TREATIES
PanARMENIAN.Net
25.02.2010 17:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Proposal of the ARFD parliamentary group about
involvement of the Armenian Parliament in negotiating of international
treaties is understandable and acceptable for me," Armenian MP Viktor
Dallakyan said.
However, according to him, that proposal cannot be applied in practice,
since the Armenian Constitution does not allow that. "Under the
Constitution the Parliament ratifies and denounces international
treaties only by the president’ request. So unfortunately, according
to RA Constitution, Parliament has no right to take the initiative
to denounce or suspend a treaty," he stressed.
The MP also suggested to preserve the right of initiative to suspend
or denounce international treaties only for the president, since he
concludes international treaties. "A government should have the right
to make proposals to suspend a treaty," Victor Dallakyan said.