Author: Jagharian Tania

– 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.

A woman dressed all in black and holding what is thought to be a child’s severed head has been arrested near a metro station in Moscow. She was shouting, “I am a terrorist,” and reportedly threatened to blow herself up, reports.

According to LifeNews, the victim was a girl, identified as Nastya M. After the murder, the female suspect went to a metro station, where she was stopped by a local police officer. She immediately took the severed child’s head from her bag and started shouting that she had killed the child. The suspect is currently being detained by police authorities, Russian media reported.

“The end of the world is coming in a second…I’m your death,” the woman is heard shouting in the video released online. “I hate democracy. I’m a terrorist.”

She is heard shouting that she has been “cursed” and “destroyed” “so many times.”

“I’m your suicide bomber… I’m going to die in a second…The end of the world…,” she shouted.

The woman appeared near Oktyabrskoye Pole metro station in northwest Moscow.

Russia’s Investigative Committee later released a statement that rescuers have found a body of a three or four-year-old child after extinguishing a fire in a Moscow apartment block. A preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect is a children’s nanny in her late 30s, who is a citizen of a “Central Asian country.”

The suspect waited until the child’s parents left the apartment with an older child, then killed the child and set the apartment on fire, the Investigative Committee said.

The mother of the murdered child was taken to hospital in unconscious after she learned the news, Russia’s Zvezda TV channel reported.

Earlier on Monday, reports emerged that police had found a child’s headless body while extinguishing a fire at a Moscow apartment block. The child was about three or four years old, Interfax reported, citing sources.

The woman, identified by LifeNews as Gulchekhra Bobokulova from Uzbekistan, committed the murder because of her husband’s betrayal. According to LifeNews sources, she failed to explain how the child was connected to her husband. The woman was reportedly drugged, a source in police authorities told Interfax.

People in shops near the Oktyabrskoye Pole metro station have been evacuated, TASS reported, adding that police have sealed some exits from the station.

Switzerland’s Gianni Infantino has succeeded countryman Sepp Blatter as Fifa president, the BBC reports.

The Uefa secretary general polled 115 votes in round two, 27 more than closest rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa.

Prince Ali bin al-Hussein was third with four, while Jerome Champagne failed to get any. Tokyo Sexwale withdrew before voting began in Zurich.

The first round of voting had failed to determine an outright winner.

“I accept the result of this election, thank you,” said Infantino.

“I went through an exceptional journey, met many fantastic people who love football, who breathe football.

“I want to be the president of all of you, of all 209 nations.

“I want to work with all of you to work together and build a new era where we can put football at the centre of the stage.”

A simple majority of more than 50 per cent – 104 votes – was sufficient for victory in the second round.

Infantino is a 45-year-old lawyer from Brig in the Valais region of Switzerland, less than six miles from Blatter’s hometown of Visp.

Blatter, who led world football’s governing body since 1998, stood down last year and was later banned from football for six years.

Tonight, at the A. Spendiarian

President Serzh Sargsyan was present at the 15th Haikian award ceremony of the Youth Fund of Armenia at the Opera and Ballet National Academic Theater after Alexander Spendiaryan. It is called to encourage achievements of the youth organizations, certain young individuals, including students who in the course of the year stood out with their active stance and substance of the programs carried out in different areas.

The 2015 awards were bestowed in a number of nominations such as the best public youth organization in Yerevan, the best public youth organization in marzes, the exceptional youth project, the best Chairperson of the Student Council, the best higher education establishment program, the best youth announcement, the best journalistic project, the best international structure, the best scientific achievements made by a young scientist, the best student self-governing body.

Along with the traditional nominations presented were also special awards which were handed to the winners by President Serzh Sargsyan. Special awards were handed to Gohar Martikian for the Formula of Living military and patriotic book collection-program, Youth State Orchestra of Armenia for its contribution to the dissemination of classical art among young people and public at large and on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, to Edgar Vardanian – an alumnus of the specialized school of Physics and Mathematics for excellence in the international subject Olympiads in 2014-2015, to Samvel Karapetian for the Eghern after Eghern program carried out in the framework of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Aram Antinian for implementing the idea on the creation of the first in Armenia charity café and for helping numerous needy people, to the serviceman of the Armenian Armed Forces, Major Sargis Stepanian for valor in executing his duties and infinite dedication. President Sargsyan congratulated all winners of Haikian award and once again welcomed and stressed the importance of this initiative by the Armenian Youth Fund and wished the young people undying vigor and new success.

“I would like to confess frankly that I always attend the Haikian award ceremony with pleasure, because I find myself in a milieu where new ideas, new initiatives, good deeds are being commended, appreciated and encouraged. It is not only gratifying but also useful because a person gets positive impulses. I really do not have any participation in the award process, so I don’t know why all the awardees thank me. You’d rather thank your peers. This is one of the advantages of this award because the initiative comes for young people, the appreciation comes from the young too. It means that adults do not impose their will, don’t say one thing is good, the other is bad. It is the young who say this one is fine, the other – not so. It is, of course, inspiring. Inspiring because what we’ve seen today in this hall is directly related to the future of our country, with what’s ahead. These are clichés, however it should be repeated constantly that the future of the country is always in the hands of the young. You all are brilliant people, nice young people. I should say frankly that the majority of our young people are brilliant, they are defending our Fatherland. Today Army is the youngest structure in our Republic. Our young people have achievements in every area. Look, today he can be called a young man – he defends Armenia’s honor at the international subject Olympiads, there are other like him, twenty-one young people. At the moment we have success in every area, and it became possible because of young people. It means that the future of our country is in strong hands. I wish that in 20, 30, 40 years you become the speakers on this podium and you think what kind of initiatives you should come up with to encourage young people, where to lead them. And it should go on and on, for a million years. Thank you,” said President Serzh Sargsyan in his welcoming remarks for the young people.

Guided by the August 22, 2002 Presidential decree NH-1164-N on the Establishment and Bestowal of State Awards of the Republic of Armenia, and taking into consideration suggestions of the Award Commission, President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree to confer state awards of the Republic of Armenia for year 2015 in a number of areas. Today, at the Presidential Palace there took place the Award ceremony.

State awards of the Republic of Armenia for year 2015 have been awarded in the areas of arts and literature, architecture and urban development, hard and natural sciences.

In different spheres of arts and literature such as literature and political journalism, music and cinematography state awards were conferred on Hakop Hakopian (Hakop Movses) for the book of poems The Seventh Chase (in the area of literature and political journalism), on Vartan Adjemian for the Theater of the Sound piece written for the string orchestra, timpani and piano (in the area of music), Vahe Kevorkov (director), Samvel (cameraman), Hayk Badalian (cameraman), Anna Derdzakian (scriptwriter) and Arthur Parsian (editing) for Armenia: From Sea to Sea documentary (in the area of cinematography). In the area of architecture and urban development state awards have been handed to Narek Sarkissian (architect), Paul Chatalbashian (designer) and Stepan Akhoyan (Director of Small White House Ltd.) for the government’s administrative compound on Vazgen Sarkissian Street in Yerevan. In the area of hard and natural sciences state awards were conferred on Ashot Saghian, Anna Mkrtchian and Hayarpi Simonian for the research on the Technology for the Efficient Small-Scale Production of the New Generation of Protein Amino Acids. The chairpersons of the sub-commissions presented the nominated works and conclusions reached by the sub-commissions as a result of their deliberations as well as the works which received awards and their authors.

This year, awards have not been conferred in the areas of visual arts, theater, social and humanitarian sciences. The chairpersons of the corresponding sub-commissions informed that after the secret ballot, the nominations in the mentioned areas for 2015 did not receive the necessary number of the votes.

After the ceremony of handing the state awards, the President of Armenia in his speech congratulated all the winners.

***

Congratulatory Remarks by President Serzh Sargsyan at the ceremony of bestowing state awards

Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen;

Today, we bestow state awards of the Republic of Armenia on artists and scientists. I am confident that a new scientific achievement or a new artistic work is duly appreciated later, after it passes the test of time. It doesn’t mean that we have to wait a hundred or two hundred years to appreciate, to evaluate who did what. I am also confident that the contemporaries are responsible for those who create and those who invent. We have the responsibility to state out loud what we accept as a value and what we do not. This is an essential method for the reassertion of the society’s and the state’s system of values.
I see the very meaning of the Republic of Armenia’s state awards first and foremost in that reassertion. We point out, highlight and present to the public things which deserve recognition here and today.

Dear Attendees,

This year we have nomination areas with regard to which I certainly have mixed feelings. On one hand, I am sad that we don’t have awardees in the areas of, for instance, theater, arts, humanitarian and social sciences; on the other hand, I am glad that the relevant sub-commissions have demonstrated strict approach because if we lower the ban, we will simply devaluate our state awards. Hence, I encourage and urge the members and chairpersons of the sub-commissions which didn’t give as nominations this year, to carry on in the same spirit. I am hopeful that in coming years in these areas we will be having really outstanding nominations.

Dear Awardees,

I thank you for your important work and once again I congratulate you on receiving these prestigious awards. I wish you new scientific and artistic achievements for the benefit of our country, our science and culture.
Thank you.