Author: Garnik Zakarian

On November 19, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the direction of Hadrut near Horadiz settlement.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine) and Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria), as well as by representative of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group (HLPG), Colonel Andrey Barashkin (Russia).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic) and staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden), as well as by representative of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group (HLPG), Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Harvey (Ireland).

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered. However, the Azeri side did not lead the OSCE mission to its front-lines.

From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.

By Ara Khachatourian

Last month, comedian Conan O’Brien announced that he would be taking his late-night talk show on the road to Armenia. After a five-day trip, the episode will air on Tuesday, November 17 on Conan, which airs on TBS.

Ahead of Tuesday’s show, in a phone interview Friday, O’Brien discussed his experience in Armenia and producing the episode saying: “I’ve been making television for 22 year and this episode is one thing I am most proud of.”

He explained that the genesis of the show dates back six years when he moved to Los Angeles and hired Sona Movsesian as his assistance. She said she grew up in Montebello, where she attended the Armenian Mesrobian School, learning the language, culture and history of Armenians. She had never traveled to Armenia and said that she was able to experience what she had grown up hearing about from her family, school and community.

“It was amazing,” said Movsesian. “I felt a stong sense of appreciation and the people remind me of my uncles and aunts.”

“She [Movsesian] has been a big part of the show—and my life. She’s a very funny and colorful person,” explained O’Brien who said that over the years Movsesian had spoken about Armenia and being Armenian, so after the success of an episode from Cuba, which aired earlier this year, he decided to travel to Armenia to do his show from there.

In preparation for his trip to Armenia, O’Brien visited Sona’s family in their Los Angeles home.

“I wanted to talk to them and say that Sona misbehaves and watches too much American television… I am concerned about her and want to take to Armenia,” said O’Brien, adding that her parents had a long list of things that they wanted him to bring back, such as dried apricots, cognac, paintings and rugs.

Sona’s grandmother, who O’Brien said spoke very little English, told him, ”Bring back a man—I want her to marry an Armenian.”

Describing the trip as an “adventure,” O’Brien said that he took an Armenian language class with Anahit Keshishian, who taught him some words and phrases that he could use while in Armenia. He said people thought that it was funny when he spoke Armenian. He was surprised and impressed that young people in Armenia spoke English very well and recognized him, because they watched his show on YouTube.

He called Tuesday’s episode a “travelogue and a little bit of a scavenger hunt,” describing his experiences in the Armenian countryside of mingling with shepherds and trying his hand in herding sheep. He also learned how to weave a rug.

“I got her [Sona’s] parents a rug,” he said, adding that “you have to watch” to see whether he brought a man back for Sona.

The Dizidzernagepert Genocide Memorial Monument, O’Brien said “was the most powerful part of the show,” saying it was very moving to walk up toward the memorial.

“I haven’t quite done television like that. I thought it was very real. I am proud of the whole show,” said O’Brien. “It’s a very human story.”

Seeing Mount Ararat was another emotional experience that O’Brien and his team experienced. “It was like a painting,” he said recounting how the deeper they drove into the countryside the more powerful the image of the mountain was.

He thought Yerevan was a big city with buildings that clearly reflected the Soviet era, with the traditional churches and modern constructions adding to “the different textures” of the city.

While in Yerevan, O’Brien was a guest on a local comedy show and also made a cameo appearance on a locally-produced soap opera, playing a gangster with one line of dialogue: “Herika—enough.”

He also learned traditional Armenian dances. “There were these very beautiful professional Armenian dancers who were laughing at me,” said O’Brien, who learned the dances at the foot of the Garni Temple, where afterward the dancers performed.

“Trust me. No one makes a worse Armenian man than I do. It was really fun to do that,” he said adding that the episode has already aired in Armenia.

He said he would “definitely go back and hang out” in Armenia again because the five days he had there were not enough. “I was very impressed with how people were in Armenia,” he said, discussing his encounters with young people, including some Armenians who had settled there from Syria who knew of him and his show, because they followed him on YouTube. “The Armenian people were great. Very friendly.”

O’Brien said he wanted Armenians and non-Armenians to watch the episode to experience the “humor sweetness and solemn moments” that he had in Armenia.

The Armenia episode of Conan airs on Tuesday on TBS.

Asbarez – In response to the recent escalation of violence and war threats by the government of Azerbaijan against Armenians in Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia, Councilmember Paul Krekorian, the first Armenian-American elected to public office in the City of Los Angeles, urged U.S. Congressional leaders to take immediate action to save Armenian lives. In an recent letter to Southern California Congressmembers, Krekorian asked leaders to sign the Royce-Engel letter and hold Azerbaijan accountable for its crimes, refrain from further violence and take measures toward establishing a lasting peace in the region. Krekorian’s letter is attached and reprinted below:

Dear Congressmember:
As you know, more than 20 years after Artsakh’s declaration of independence and the ceasefire in its subsequent war with Azerbaijan, ongoing tension in the Caucasus region continues to devastate innocent lives and threaten regional stability. In particular, the Republic of Azerbaijan has engaged in both increasingly bellicose rhetoric and an increasing willingness to engage in active violence in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

In the past few weeks, for example, Azerbaijan’s shelling of villages in the Tavoush region of Armenia has killed numerous civilians, including 83-year-old Paytsar Aghajanyan, Sona Revazyan, 41, and Shoushan Asadryan, 94, along with at least four Armenian soldiers. Many other innocent civilians have been wounded in separate unprovoked attacks. Shellings like these, as well as cross-border killings by Azeri snipers, have taken countless lives of civilian men, women and children.

The response from our government has been pathetically weak. U.S. Ambassador and OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick has said that both sides should refrain from violence, but the United States refuses to state clearly that there is only one state that continues to be the predominant aggressor and provocateur, and that is Azerbaijan.

Any statement of moral equivalence in the face of continued aggression by the government of Azerbaijan is not an acceptable way forward. It could give the world the perception that the U.S. government sees no difference between the perpetrators of violence and the victims. Our government has an obligation to stand on the right side of this issue and should not give Baku cover for their crimes against the Armenian people in Artsakh and in the Republic of Armenia.

I urge you to join so many of your colleagues in signing the Royce-Engel letter, calling for a transition away from a failed policy of false parity to a constructive, accountability-based approach to peacekeeping. Renewed U.S. leadership in keeping the peace along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact is absolutely necessary as Azerbaijan steps up its attacks.

This sensible, bipartisan letter proposes three concrete steps to help save lives, avert war, and reach a just and lasting peace:

1. An agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact;
2. The placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact; and
3. The deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.
Armenia has already agreed to abide by these principles, but the Aliyev regime continues to refuse to do so.

Please sign the Royce-Engel letter today. Azerbaijan’s unprovoked attacks will continue unless we stand together for justice and peace. The government of Azerbaijan must honor its OSCE obligations to refrain from violence and to undertake confidence-building measures toward a lasting peace.

Thank you for your attention to this critical issue. I am confident that your leadership will make a material difference in helping to prevent the destructive slide toward a new war.

President Serzh Sargsyan has sent a letter of condolence to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the Republic of Turkey over the that occurred in Ankara in October 10.  The incident left a few dozen innocent people dead and more than a hundred injured.

The RA president has strongly condemned terrorism with all its expressions.

“Please accept my condolences over the incident. I wish steadfastness and strength of spirit to the victims’ relatives, and a speedy recovery to the injured,” reads the Armenian president’s condolence letter.

On her 100th birthday, legendary French singer Edith Piaf will be on an Istanbul stage with the play ‘Edith Piaf-Marcel,’ performed by the Yerevan State Youth Theater, as the first Armenian play to be staged in Turkey, the Hurrieyet Daily News reports.

The Yerevan State Youth Theater, invited by the Theater Boyalı Kuş (Painted Bird), will be performing in Istanbul for its first time in a play that focuses on Edith Piaf’s love and longing for Marcel Cerdan on Oct. 15 and 16 at the Şişli Municipality City Cultural Center.

Feminist theater company Boyalı Kuş celebrates its 15th birthday in 2015 with “Edith Piaf-Marcel” on Piaf’s 100th birthday. The play is directed by Hagob Ghazanchyan, while acclaimed, young actress Mariam Ghazanchyan plays the role of legendary French singer Edith Piaf.  

The diva of France, Piaf, also known as the Little Sparrow, was born in 1915. She started singing on the streets of Paris when she was a child. After Louis-Leplée, who ran a nightclub on the Champs-Elysées, discovered her talent, Piaf started her music career in Paris circles. She then became the most loved and sought after singer in Paris, in Europe, in the U.S. and the entire world. She was famous for her husky, mournful voice and her songs of loneliness and despair. She breathed life to more than a hundred songs from 1933 until her death in 1963. Her song “La Vie en Rose” is one of her best known songs.

The musical “Edith Piaf-Marcel” is based on Piaf’s great love for world boxing champion Marcel Cerdan and what she went through after Cerdan’s death. In the play, Piaf creates a spiritual and imaginary world in order to communicate with Cerdan after his death in a plane crash in 1949. She reaches him in this spiritual and imaginary world through her songs, each of which turns into a prayer. Ghazanchyan utters solely one word throughout the entire length of the play: M-A-R-C-E-L!

“Edith Piaf-Marcel” will celebrate both the 100th birthday of legendary singer and the first play originating from Armenia to be staged in Turkey. The solo musical performance of Mariam Ghazanchyan will tell the story of Piaf’s love and longing through songs in French.

The Azerbaijani side continued the intensive shelling in the direction of the Armenian forces last night.

The rival violated the ceasefire 260, firing more than 4,000 shots from artillery weapons of different caliber, as well as 60 and 82mm mortars, RPG-7, HAN-17 and SPG-9 grenades.

The adversary also used Turkey-made TR-107 reactive rocket launchers.

The activeness of the Azerbaijani side was pressured as a result of retaliatory measures taken by the front troops of the NKR Defense Army.

The Defense Army keeps control of the situation all along the line of contact, the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.

President Serzh Sargsyan attended today the official consecration ceremony of Holy Martyrs Armenian Catholic Church, an episcopal residence, in Gyumri. The ceremony was held as part of the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial. The church is named “Holy Martyrs” in memory of the Holy martyrs of the Armenian Genocide.

The sacred ceremony was attended by RA government officials, heads of diplomatic missions and international organizations accredited to Armenia, members of the Synod of Bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church, as well as by the sponsors of the church construction and worldly guests from different countries.

The ceremony was co-conducted by His Eminence Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and His Beatitude Gregory Petros XX Gabroyan, newly elected Catholicos-Patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church.

On the occasion of the church opening, Papal Nuncio Bishop Marek Solczynski read the message of Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, and the episcopal delegation of Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin presented the patriarchal blessings of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

It was S. E. Archbishop Nerses Der-Nersessian of blessed memory, the first primate of the Ordinariate of the Armenian Catholic Church in Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Eastern Europe, who pursued a goal to build an Armenian Catholic church in Gyumri as an episcopal residence. The preparatory actions were continued by second Primate S. E. Archbishop Nshan Karakeheeyan, construction works started in 2010 during the service of H. Vahan Ohanyan, an apostolic delegate, with the blessing of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and with the support of the RA government. The church is designed by architect Hakob Jivanyan. 

The church construction was continued and finished by S. E. Archbishop Rafael Minasyan who took the office of primate in 2011. It was his decision to name the church Holy Martyrs as a symbol of the Armenian Genocide Centennial to keep the martyrs’ memories alive forever.

The chief supporters of the construction of Holy Martyrs Church are the Holy See, the Council of Oriental Churches, the Italian Synod of Bishops, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Renovabis, Kirche in Not, the Archdiocese of Cologne, the association Work in the East, Rome’s Levonian Pontifical College, St Vlas Church, and the Caporale family from Italy.

Within the frames of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, a cross-stone to martyrs has been erected in the yard of Holy Martyrs Church.

Bishop Michael Melki, a Syrian Catholic cleric martyred during the Assyrian Genocide of 1915 for refusing to convert to Islam, has been beatified. The bishop was beheaded by the Ottomans during the Sayfo – “putting to the sword” – of Assyrians in 1915, a tragedy in which at least 250,000 Syriac-speaking Christians were murdered, alongside 1.5 million Armenians, the reports.

Bishop Melki was beatified at a monastery in Lebanon on Saturday, the centenary of his martyrdom. On Sunday Pope Francis told the faithful in St Peter’s Square that “In the context of a terrible persecution of Christians, [Melki] was a tireless defender of the rights of his people, urging all to remain firm in their faith.

“Today, in the Middle East and other regions of the world, Christians are also persecuted,” he said, and called on “legislators and rulers” across the world to protect religious freedom.

Flavianus Michael Melki was born in 1858 and went on to be an Eastern Catholic prelate of the Brothers of Saint Ephrem, and later the Syrian Catholic eparch of Gazarta, where he was killed.

He lived in extreme poverty as a priest and sold his vestments to help the poor. In the summer of 1915, with the Armenian and Assyrian Genocides in full swing, the Ottoman authorities arrested him along with the Chaldean bishop. Both were killed for refusing to renounce their faith and convert to Islam, and Bishop Melki was tortured to death and decapitated.

On August 8 Pope Francis confirmed his beatification saying he was killed in hatred of the faith.

Syriac Catholic priest Nizar Semaan said: “A blessed of our church has not been proclaimed for a long time. Bishop Melki will be the first of the martyrs of the Syrian Catholics of that genocide to be raised to the honour of the altar.

“His beatification is a gift for all Christians of the East in these times of new trials.”

Fr Nizar said Melki’s “figure shows us the luminous faith with which he lived the terrible persecution one hundred years ago, and he can give hope and courage to all the baptised.”

Within the framework of consultations with political forces on the constitutional reforms, President Serzh Sargsyan today held a meeting with the representatives of Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) party – Armen Rostamyan, Aghvan Vardanyan and Arsen Hambardzumyan.

The parties discussed the overall process of constitutional reforms. They touched upon approaches embedded in the Draft Constitutional Reforms elaborated by the Specialised Commission on Constitutional Reforms adjunct to the RA President as well as certain provisions of the draft.

The ARF representatives expressed readiness to continue active and comprehensive discussions on the Draft Constitutional Reforms, elaborated by the Specialised Commission, in the RA National Assembly. According to them, the main highlights, ensuring the development of the country, that are of importance to them and the ARF approaches are embedded in the draft.

President Serzh Sargsyan today sent a letter of condolence on the demise of Catholicos Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX of Cilicia.

“It was with deep sorrow that I learned of the passing away of Catholicos Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX of Cilicia.

Being an energetic and prestigious clergyman, for many years he played a major role in the preservation of national identity, the reinvigoration of spiritual and cultural life, as well as in developing and deepening close ties between the motherland and the diaspora.

As a member of the State Commission on Coordination of the Events for the Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the catholicos patriarch brought his valuable and effective input into the commission’s activities.

I express my deepest sympathy for the demise of the eminent spiritual leader and the merited Armenian,” reads the RA president’s condolence letter.