Author: Frangulian Shushan

Asbarez –  The “Friends of Maria Jacobsen” committee has organized a special memorial service in commemoration of the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The ceremony will be held at the courtyard of the Bethania Lutheran Church (where Maria Jacobsen’s bust stands), 603 Atterdag Rd., Solvang, California on May 14, following the church worship service at 11 a.m.

Armenian community representatives will lay a wreath in honor and memory of 1.5 million Armenian martyrs as well as Danish humanitarian/missionary Maria Jacobsen (1882-1960) whose entire life was dedicated to serving orphaned Armenian children both in the Ottoman Empire and in Lebanon and was a key witness of the Armenian Genocide. “We are honoring Maria Jacobsen’s memory on Mother’s Day”, said Dr. Garbis Der-Yeghiayan, chairman of the Committee, “she is known as the beloved ‘Mama” by her grateful former orphan children.”

On October 23, 2016, Jacobsen’s bust was unveiled in the courtyard of the Bethania Luthern Church in the presence of hundreds of her admirers, including her former orphans.

The Committee will make an important announcement at the conclusion of the memorial ceremony: Student Essay Contest in Honor and Memory of Maria Jacobsen. The theme of the essay contest is: In the more than 100 years that have passed since the first Genocide of the 20th century – the Armenian Genocide of bigotry, prejudice, intolerance, persecution, deportations, and heinous plans to annihilate a nation – what you believe your generation can do to make NEVER AGAIN a reality? The essay contest is open to all students attending Armenian, public or private high schools in Southern California and all high school students living in Solvang, California.

– The Promise is a sweeping romantic epic in the tradition of Dr. Zhivago, its lavish budget denoted by its stars, Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale. It includes a scene unlikely to be equalled in importance this year. It is 1915, and Mikael (Isaac) has slipped back through lines of marauding Turkish troops towards his home village, hoping to rescue his family. Instead, he finds the villagers piled like rubbish by a river, the female corpses’ headscarves a futile effort at modesty. The wooded setting could be a Belorussian forest in 1941, in one of the souvenir photos Nazis snapped of the Jewish Holocaust.

But these are Armenians, the Christian minority who lost 1.5 million to systematic extermination by the Ottoman Turkish government in World War One. The term “genocide” was coined by Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 to describe the Armenians’ destruction, when its pre-echo of ongoing Nazi slaughter was clear. And yet this is the first time a major film has shown audiences what happened. After 102 years, its visceral impact finally pierces the silence.

Isaac, who made his name as the failed folk-singer anti-hero of the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), and found true fame as dashing, sexually ambiguous X-wing fighter pilot Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its upcoming sequel, felt the scene’s impact when he read it.

“I was incredibly moved every time I would go back to it,” the 38-year-old says, speaking with soft fluency in a Manhattan hotel room. “I had questions about certain other aspects of the movie, but every time I would read that scene, it would never not affect me. That was one of the big reasons I wanted to do the movie – to try to understand how a moment like that could happen, and to figure out how I would get myself to have an at least somewhat honest reaction to it.”

Isaac’s preparation for playing an Armenian villager who leaves for cosmopolitan Constantinople to be a medical student in 1914, only to be almost drowned by history’s tide, involved deep research amongst LA’s Armenian community, and in the genocide’s copious archive. “What was particularly useful,” he explains, “was listening to recordings of older gentlemen speaking many, many years after the fact about what they witnessed as children. Seeing their grandmother stabbed to death by the gendarmes. Little babies being laid by a tree and left there. Being marched out to the desert. All these different kinds of images that you read about, so they became very personal.”

Isaac entered an almost meditative state as the crucial, draining scene approached. “I just came on the set and tried to feel quietly concentrated, but not overly focused, and listened to music. So you’re in a state of relaxation, and ready to respond. Doing that scene felt like it did when I read it.”

Michael’s doctor is an unusual, quietly decent hero, reminding Isaac of people almost as close to home. “There’s a gentleness to him,” he considers. “I come from a family of doctors – my father and two brothers are all doctors, my sister’s a scientist – and there’s an element of people who dedicate their lives to helping others, or hoping to understand things, where there’s an innate gentleness. And on the other hand, they can quickly feel pretty superior! I was more interested in the gentleness.”

Isaac admits he was “pretty ignorant” about the genocide before working on The Promise. The Independent’s Robert Fisk has relentlessly fought to bring its well-documented events to public light, most memorably in the report recalled in his book The Great War for Civilisation (2005), when he and his photographer, searching for evidence of the mass killings in Margada, Syria, discover they are standing on a hill of skeletons. Mainstream cinema, though, has turned a blind eye. Micro-budget Armenian-language films apart, there’s been the fine Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan’s modern-day meditation on the genocide, Ararat (2002), and maverick German-Turkish director Fatih Akin’s The Cut (2014), starring Tahir Rahim as an Armenian death-marched into the desert before a picaresque journey.

Asbarez – Tens of thousands of community members marched to the Consulate General of Turkey in Los Angeles Monday demanding justice for the Armenian Genocide in an event organized by the Armenian Genocide Committee—a coalition of groups the include the four denominations, the national political parties, as well as the most prominent relief, youth and advocacy organizations in the community.

The march began at Pan Pacific Park, the site of the Holocaust Museum and spanned for one and a half miles through the streets of Los Angeles to the Turkish Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard.

Before the beginning of the march, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garecetti headed a program that included remarks by LA City Councilmembers Paul Krekorian and David Ryu.

The march culminated into a rally at the Turkish Consulate. Among the public officials who addressed the crowd were Rep. Adam Schiff, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, LA City Councilman Paul Koretz and President of the LA Unified School District Steve Zimmer.

The program began with the leaders of the four denomination leading the crowd into prayer, followed by the singing of the United States and Armenian national anthems by Maria Colette.

Masters of Ceremony Hrach Avedissian and Lara Armani expertly guided the program, which included remarks from the Armenian Genocide Committee by Silva Kachigian, Raffi Hamparian and Armig Khodanian. The youth’s message was delivered by Rafi Orphali.

The program also featured musical performances by R-Mean, Joseph Krikorian, Armenchik and Maria Cozette, with a grand finale by Harout Pamboukjian.

An explosion has hit a bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund football team to a Champions League match, the club says, the BBC reports.

Player Marc Bartra has been injured and has been taken to hospital.

North-Rhine Westphalia police said they were at the scene and there are reports that the fire service are also there.

The team tweeted (in German) that the other players were safe.

The Armenia Airline has officially launched direct flights between Yerevan and Beirut. Representatives of both countries say the event is of landmark importance for the development of bilateral relations.

The inaugural flight was carried out on April 10 with 80 passengers on board,  90 passengers arrived in Yerevan on the return flight.

“The Airline will operate flights once a week, and will increase the number to four in summer.  The two-way ticket will cost $320,” said Robert Oganesyan, Director General of Armenia Airline.

The demand for the flight is high, considering that there are more than 150 thousand Armenian living in Lebanon.

The plane was welcomed in Beirut by Lebanon’s Tourism Minister Avedis Guidanian and Armenia’s Ambassador to Lebanon Samvel Mktchyan.

Avedis Guidanian said the flight creates a stronger bridge between Armenia and Lebanon. As Tourism Minister, he pledged to prepare a tourism package and include Armenia in it. He added that Lebanese businessmen are interested in investing in Armenia.

What attracts the Lebanese most is Armenia’s rich cultural legacy and its national cuisine, Ambassador Samvel Mkrtchyan says.

“Lebanon and Armenia are tied by firm threads, and the flights will serve an additional link between the two countries that will contribute to the deepening of relations,” Amb. Mkrtchyan told reporters.

Representative of the ARF Central Committee of Lebanon, MP Hakob Bagratuni said that “aside from contributing to the development of tourism, the flights will create opportunities for cooperation in the fields of culture and economy.”

Vice-President of the State Tourism Committee Mekhak Apresyan says “the launching of flights has always been on the agenda, especially after 2013, when Armenia adopted an ‘open sky’ policy.”

Today, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Mongolia to the
Republic of Armenia (residence in Moscow) Banzragch Delgermaa presented her credentials to President Serzh Sargsyan.

The President of Armenia congratulated the Ambassador on her appointment and wished every success. Serzh Sargsyan noted that Armenia attaches great importance to the development of the relations with the countries of the Asian region and expressed hope that the appointment of the Mongolian ambassador will promote and strengthen the Armenian-Mongolian interstate relations. In this context, the President of Armenia stressed the importance of creating a necessary legal field.

Ambassador Delgermaa thanked the President and assured that during her tenure she will do her best to re-establish the traditionally good relations between Armenia and Mongolia and to find new avenues for the development of cooperation in the mutually beneficial trade, economic, humanitarian, and other areas.

Mrs. Delgermaa underscored that she was very proud to be Mongolia’s first ambassador to a wonderful country such as Armenia which established diplomatic relations with Mongolia 25 years ago. According to Madam Ambassador, the jubilee is a good occasion to reevaluate the past and to deepen the relations. The Mongolian Ambassador noted that her country is interested in the market of the Eurasian Economic Union and expressed hope that Armenia, which is a member to the Union, will support Mongolia’s efforts aimed at the establishment of cooperation.

At the meeting, Ambassador Delgermaa also congratulated President Sargsyan on the successful parliamentary elections held recently in Armenia.

The Armenian national team has climbed 18 places and is currently placed 67th in the FIFA World Ranking.

Brazil has reclaiming its seat at the top of the podium after a seven-year hiatus. Argentina and Germany follow in the 2^nd and 3^rd places respectively.

Photo: Getty Images

Russia says that chemical gas that killed and injured dozens of civilians in a rebel-held town in northern Syria came from rebel weapons on the ground, the BBC reports.

Its defence ministry acknowledged that Syrian planes had attacked the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province.

But it said the aircraft had struck a depot producing mines filled with a poisonous substance, for use in Iraq.

The US and others said Syrian planes had dropped chemical weapons, which Damascus denied.

UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll in Khan Sheikhoun at 72, including 20 children.