Author: Jagharian Tania

Three Spanish cities will unanimously recognize the Armenian Genocide on April 27 and 28, thus bringing the total number to 17, head of the Armenian community of Valencia Ararat Ghukasyan told

He said the events commemorating the Armenian Genocide anniversary started on April 22. A conference on the Armenian Genocide was held at Valencia University, Fatih Akin’s film was screened in the evening of April 22.

Today the Armenians of Valencia will march in memory of the Genocide victims.

“What we want to stress here is Valencia is that today Azerbaijan continues Turkey’s policy, to make it clear that Azerbaijan is a terrorist state, and express our full support not only to Artsakh, but also to all Armenian soldiers,” he said.

As the anniversary of the April 24, 1915 Armenian Genocide approaches, one of the world’s most visible descendants of that atrocity, SOAD frontman Serj Tankian has released his score for 1915, a fantastical, fictional narrative steeped in the tragedy.

“I’ve done 20 some soundtrack pieces before on different films and whatnot and [the Morning Star] video game score. But 1915 is my first full film-scoring gig. Since then, I have another film, which will be going to festivals this year,  The Last Inhabitant. It’s great. I really love scoring and doing pieces for orchestras. I’m still writing rock music, of course, that’s on the horizon here and there, but most of my time is actually spent doing more classical type of compositions,” Tankian said in a ninterview with Alternative Press. 

Member of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Naira Zohrabyan has accused PACE of supporting Azeri aggression.

According to her, by voting in favor of a resolution on Sarsang water reservoir, the Parliamentary Assembly actually gave Azerbaijan a carte blanche for unleashing large-scale military actions all along the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

“On the night of April 2 Azerbaijan unleashed large-scale military actions, using tanks, rocket launchers, and air forces. The Armenian military positions and civilians were targeted,” Naira Zohrabyan said.  She reminded that a child was killed on his way to school, combatants were tortured and beheaded.

“Aliyev’s mercenaries committed war crimes and bombed civilian establishments, while the President of our Assembly encouraged the Azeri military criminals,” Zohrabyan said.

“The current President of the Parliamentary Assembly is the representative of Azerbaijan. He’s the spokesperson of Ilham Aliyev. When making his first visit to Azerbaijan after being elected, he confirmed his loyalty to Aliyev’s tyranny. At the difficult moment of military actions, Pedro Agramunt made a statement that openly encouraged the homicidal regime of Aliyev,” she added.

“The Council of Europe is an organization with 47 member states that should represent and defend the interests of all European citizens. The President of such an organization should be impartial and equitable and not someone who openly defends tyranny in criminal Azerbaijan,” the Armenian lawmaker concluded.

On 14 April NKR President Bako Sahakyan was present at the Republican Divine Liturgy served by Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I at Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

Chairman of the NKR National Assembly Ashot Ghoulyan, Prime Minister Arayik Haroutyunyan, other high-ranked official, representatives from Armenia and Diaspora were present at the event.

– For Shake Tukhmanyan, an actress since age 17, starring in “Armenia, My Love” was an especially emotional experience.

The Glendale resident, who plays a grandmother in the new film about the Armenian Genocide, was traveling through the desert, filming a sequence that depicts the deadly travails many Armenians were subject to in 1915, when the Ottoman Empire began systematically killing more than 1.5 million of them in an effort to force them out of their historic homeland.

Tukhmanyan’s character, Anoush, was struggling to push on with her family in what ultimately became a deadly march. Like so many others, her character’s family had lost their home and an otherwise happy, peaceful existence.

“We were so tired,” Tukhmanyan said of shooting the desert scenes. “We were without water, but it was nothing compared with my people of that time.”

Tukhmanyan and her co-stars couldn’t help compare their own experiences to that of the Armenian families suffering through the atrocities 101 years ago.

“We cannot feel the same thing, but a little bit of it we felt when we were shooting,” she said. “You have to go deep inside and put a parallel between them and yourself.”

“Armenia, My Love” will premiere Thursday at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. It includes a question-and-answer session with the film’s writer and director, Diana Angelson, as well as the cast and crew.

On Friday, the theatrical release extends to the MGN Five Star Cinema in Glendale and the Laemmle NoHo 7 in North Hollywood.

Angelson, who also stars in the film as a pregnant mother, centers her script on a young boy who escapes the genocide, makes it to the United States and becomes a successful Armenian-American painter. His works depict his childhood, family and struggles back in his native country.

“While ‘Armenia, My Love’ does expose the harsh realities faced by the entire Armenian people who were violently ripped from their homeland, it is ‘Armenia, My Love’s’ strong messages of hope, love, faith, perseverance and strength that I wanted to prevail,” Angelson said in a statement.

Angelson, who’s Romanian American, said she felt compelled to make the film at the behest of her Armenian friends whose family histories needed to be told.

The film’s release coincides, nearly to the day, with the 101-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24.

For Tukhmanyan, born and raised in Armenia, that was significant.

“I’m really happy to have a part in this movie because it’s like a recognition of genocide for the entire world,” she said. “The entire world has been misled for a hundred years into thinking this genocide never happened.”

On Friday, 8th April, over 250 members of the Armenian-Australian community made the four-hour bus trip from Sydney to Canberra, to protest against the attacks on Nagorno Karabakh at the Azerbaijani Embassy.

A small group of 30-40 Azerbaijani and Turkish Australians were also present to counter protest.

The Armenian protesters made their voices heard, chanting “Karabakh Is Ours”, “Shame on Aliyev”, “Get Your Hands Off Our Lands”, and more. The protesters held up dozens of banners, prepared by members of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF Australia) in preceding days, as well as Artsakh and Armenian flags.

Vache Kahramanian of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) led the speakers, which also included AGBU Executive Director, Sarkis Manoukian, ANC Australia Executive Administrator Arin Markarian and AYF Australia chapter chairs, Aram Tufenkjian and Michael Kolokossian. The clergy present, from the Armenian Apostolic Church and Armenian Catholic Church began proceedings with a group prayer.

Kahramanian said: “Are we living in a world that protects borders drawn up by the Stalins of the world? Is it Stalin who should decide if the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh are Independent today? Or is it the people who live in Nagorno Karabakh?”

“Azerbaijan argues that it is Stalin who should decide. Would you, Azerbaijan, also agree to Hitler’s dreamed up European borders? After all, he to was a Dictator who had ideas about who should own what land?”

“We say NO TO STALIN. NO TO ALIYEV. NO TO DICTATORS.”

“We argue WITH the people of Nagorno Karabakh! Over 90% of them voted for Independence. They have the right to self-determination according to the Helsinki Act. They have as much right to Independence as Azerbaijan. If not more, considering pre-Dictator Stalin, Artsakh was Armenian.
Artsakh is Armenian. Nagorno Karabakh is Armenian.”

AYF Australia prepared and read out a letter to Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Australia, which was not accepted.

Tufenkjian read the letter, which in part said: “The attacks your government and military initiated on April 1-2 were unprovoked, and a threat to the sovereignty of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh, who practiced their right to self-determination nearly 25 years ago.”

“The helicopter shellings, tank fire and drone explosions – all well-documented in this modern age of communications – are evidence of your attempt to destroy Armenian civilians; their homes, churches, businesses and schools.”

“Further evidence of these attempts by Azerbaijan is the brutal murder by shelling of our fellow Armenian youth from Martuni. Why did 12-year-old Vaghinak Grigoryan have to die while on his way to school? Why did his 3 classmates, one of them his brother, have to be wounded?”

“We cannot forgive this.”

“We also cannot forgive the war crimes that have also been documented during the previous week by your government. Three of our elderly in Talish were butchered in their homes. Their ears cut off.”

“This is not something Australians take too kindly to. This is not something we forgive.”

ABC TV covered the protest, as well as ABC Radio, 2UE Radio and 2GB Radio.

In an interview on national radio, Haig Kayserian of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation said: “It never ceases to amaze me how some so carelessly misrepresent history. If we call Australia – born in 1788 – a ‘young’ nation, then Azerbaijan – born in 1918 – is barely a ‘toddler’ nation.”

“Armenia is one of the world’s oldest civilisations, and Armenians have inhabited Nagorno Karabakh for thousands of years.”

“Therefore the so-called ‘territorial claims’ of Azerbaijan can be likened to a child seeking the estate of their unrelated neighbour’s great great great great great grandparents, as Armenians have inhabited Nagorno-Karabakh for thousands of years.”

“Why do they feel they deserve that estate? Because a brutal Communist dictator from the dark pages of world history, Joseph Stalin, decided to give it to them when establishing the Soviet Union.”

“Australia and the nations of the world need to ask themselves? Do they want to continue protecting the dreamed up borders of Stalin? Or do they want to recognise the right to self-determination of the native Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh?”

The Protest was organised by the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Catholic Church, the Armenian Evangelical Church, the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Armenian Liberal Democratic Party, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Hamazakaine, the Armenian Relief Society, Homenetmen, Tekeyan, Dkhrouni, the Armenian National Committee of Australia, Nor Serount, and the Armenian Youth Federation of Australia.

– Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has presented an inquiry to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu regarding the cabinet decision to expropriate a number of areas and structures in Diyarbakir (Dikranagerd), among them the Surp Giragos Armenian Church.

In his inquiry, which he also posted on his Facebook page, Paylan asked Davutoglu about the reason of “immediate expropriation” of the total 6,300 areas, what legislations are to be made under the act, and how the rights of the citizens living in Sur will be protected.

In addition, the inquiry requests to clarify whether the expropriation decision affects the Christian, the Assyrian and Chaldean churches. At the same time it is requested to clarify by what standards and laws the “under risk” areas were selected.

While clashes and curfews continue in Diyarbakir, the cabinet took an urgent expropriation decision. St. Giragos Church, the largest Armenian church in Middle East, is among the places in Sur province of Diyarbakir that are expropriated by the decision of the cabinet. The church was restored and opened to worship in 2011. With the same decision, Assyrian, Chaldean and Protestant churches are also expropriated.

The co-chairperson of the HDP, Figen Yuksekdag, slammed the government decision saying “They want to destroy the living spaces and houses of the people who survived death and the massacres in those places, in Sur, in Silopi [in in the southeastern province of Sırnak] today,” reported the Hurriyed Daily News on Tuesday.

“Where is the law, right and justice in this?” asked Yuksekdag, who also remarked about the injustice of arresting more than 600 residents in the areas during Norooz festivities earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Adnan Ertem, General Director of the Directorate General of Foundations of Turkey, which oversees landmarks in Turkey told the Agos newspaper that the expropriation envisions the preservation of the historic structures around which numerous illegal buildings were constructed.

“This expropriation decision is not about historical structures or civil architecture. On the contrary, this decision is made for making the historical structures more visible by demolishing the unplanned structures around them. After ’80s, unplanned urbanization has been increasing in Sur. We want to eliminate that. This is an authorization which will be exercised only if there is a need to protect the historical structures. Whether a church or a mosque, it doesn’t matter, we want to preserve the historical structures,” rationalized Ertem. “Rest assured. We only want to preserve the historical structures.”

As a results of this vast expropriation order, hundreds of thousands of Sur citizens in Diyarbakir will be driven from their homes, creating a refugee crisis within Turkey’s borders.

Member of the UK House of Commons, member of the British delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Mark Pritchard visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today accompanied by Armenian lawmakers Hermine Naghdalyan and Naira Zohrabyan.

Mr. Pritchard laid flowers at the Memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims and paid tribute to their memory with a minute of silence.

The British MP toured the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute and left a note in the Book of Honorary Guests.

A small restaurant in West Bengal is baking Armenian lavash in traditional tonirs. “This restaurant is my small effort to tell a story as beautiful and age-old as Armenia, rather than the history of Armenians in West Bengal,” chief Sabyasachi Gorai says, the reports.

In the chef’s own words, the restaurant is the “fruit of his lost nostalgic past.”

“Lavash (the bread) is a word that has found a permanent spot in UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list (incidentally the only food item to make it to that list from around the world). A word that goes so deep not just into the food history of the world, but also the culture that Armenia had to offer. Till date, we are baking lavash at Kashmir in traditional tonirs after so many centuries. This restaurant is my small effort to tell a story as beautiful and age-old as Armenia, rather the history of Armenians in West Bengal,” Saby says.

Saby grew up in Asansol, a small town steeped in Armenian influence, around the then-thriving bakeries, the churches and the graveyards, playing with the Armenian boys, under the tutelage of the elegant and well-spoken principal of AG Church School, Mrs Aedinnangze. Those memories came flooding back when Saby picked up a book written by his father Sakti Gorai, a scholar and researcher, called 100 years of Coal Mining History. The twin towns of Asansol and Durgapur, and neighbouring suburbs Kulty and Raniganj, came back to Saby, and with them the whiff of the many Armenian dishes. The idea of Lavaash germinated thus. The year was 2015, the centenary year of the Armenian genocide.

“While assimilating the Armenian story I have also taken influences of other foreign settlers in Bengal like the Portuguese and the French. My grandmom’s cook book from 1938 passed on to my mom and my mom’s hand-written recipe notes have also done their bit in finalising the Lavaash menu. Traditional Armenian food is not available anywhere and it took me a lot of research to get this right,” says Saby.

On 14 March Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan met head of the General Staff of the Republic of Armenia’s Armed forces, colonel-general Yuri Khachaturov, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

Issues  related to army building and cooperation between the two Armenian states in this sphere were discussed.

Artsakh Republic defense minister Levon Mnacakanyan partook in the meeting.