Author: Jirair Kafian

The Rhode Island Senate on Wednesday unanimously adopted a bill, which mandates in middle school or high school the teaching of the Holocaust and other genocides in, but not limited to, Armenia, Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda and Darfur, the  reports.

Seven states — California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — have similar legislation. A current law in Rhode Island only encourages the awareness education.

If approved, teaching is required to begin in the 2017-18 school year. The House passed a duplicate bill in early May.

A coalition made up of members of the Armenian community, Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island State Council of Churches, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center have been meeting since last fall to research and draft the legislation.

The lead sponsor of the bill is Sen. Gayle L. Goldin, D-Providence, who said on Monday: “When we look at what’s going on globally, the impact of war and strife, it’s important to place them in a larger historical context, so our children understand the long-term impact of genocides and the Holocaust, so we don’t repeat that history.”

Sen. Donna M. Nesselbush, D-Pawtucket, North Providence, said her district was recently hit by anti-Semitism: a spray-painted swastika was found outside an Orthodox synagogue in Pawtucket.

“There is no room for that kind of hatred in our communities,” Nesselbush said before the vote, “and we will do everything, in addition to this bill, to root it out of our communities.”

At the invitation of President Serzh Sargsyan, in the evening of June 7 the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman arrived to the Republic of Armenia on a state visit.

Today, at the Presidential Palace there took place high-level Armenian-Czech negotiations. After a tête-à-tête meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and the Czech Republic, the meeting continued in the extended format with the participation of the official delegations of the two countries. At the conclusion of the negotiations, Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Miloš Zeman signed a Memorandum on the Bilateral Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Czech Republic.

The Presidents of Armenia and the Czech Republic recapped the results of the meeting in the Declaration which they made at the joint press conference for the representatives of the mass media.

 

Statement by President Serzh Sargsyan for press following the meeting with the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman

Your Excellency Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we are honored to welcome the President of friendly Czech Republic and my good counterpart Mr. Miloš Zeman for a state visit. This is the first visit of the president of the Czech Republic. Indeed, it will leave its footprint on the history of bilateral relations.

Today we had a fruitful discussion on a large range of bilateral, regional and international issues, like we had in Prague, during my state visit to the Czech Republic. We noted with satisfaction that we had matching viewpoints over those issues, creating an environment of mutual understanding and trust on the ways of deepening of our relations.

Only since 2014 over two dozens of high level visits have taken place. Following our last meeting the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Armenia was established and the first resident ambassador was appointed. Inter-parliamentary relations, decentralized cooperation and collaboration in international fora have intensified. Within this context, undeniably, the continuous assistance of the Czech Republic to advance the Armenian-EU cooperation has a distinct place and we highly value it. As a result, the Czech Republic is one of our stable and reliable partners in Europe and our bilateral cooperation is at the highest level ever.

With President Zeman we thoroughly discussed bilateral economic cooperation which is one of our priorities. It is not in vein, that almost all high-level bilateral meetings are followed by business forums. Later today president Zeman and I will give a start to another business forum. Surely, we have positive developments in this field, yet there is a lot to achieve. In this respect, we discussed new opportunities derive both from Armenia’s membership to the EEU and reopening of the market in Iran, our traditional partner country. At the same time, attaching importance to the bilateral economic ties, we were unanimous with President Zeman that the pillar of our relations was not merely economic interest, rather it is the common values, having led our people through history up to the 21st century.

We highly value the position of the Czech Republic concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is in line with the general stance of the EU and is in full support of the efforts of the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs. I extended my special gratitude to Mr. President and the government of the Czech Republic for this attitude. We both attached importance to the implementation of the arrangements agreed upon in Vienna in May, including the agreements on the ceasefire from 1994 and 1995, establishing monitoring and incident investigation mechanisms and adding the capacities of the team of Personal Representative of the OSCE chairperson- in- office as an anchor for the long-lasting peace in the conflict zone. Unswerving implementation of these steps is the least to be done to pave way for the constructive and, which is more important, result-oriented negotiations.

Certainly, I also informed Mr. Zeman about the possibility of new meetings with the President of Azerbaijan mediated by the Minsk Group co-chairs. And I thanked him for his offer to use the capacities of Prague, Czech Republic for the meetings. In the meantime, I surely expressed my concerns over Ilham Aliyev’s recent unbalanced behavior, signs of which were apparently not visible in Vienna. Particularly with his speech at the “Fourth Conference of World Azerbaijanis”, where he was cynical about the Armenian state, made personal offenses against the President of the country, with whom by the way he is going to talk on certain issues, articulating thoughts that mock history, he shaped a clear perception about his inappropriateness.

I hope that this is a temporary problem; sort of machismo and it will disappear very soon as we have the commitment to get to serious work in the nearest future. Hopefully, this is not a conscious behavior intended to abort Vienna arrangements.

I expressed the satisfaction of the Armenian side about the unanimously adopted resolution on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech Chamber of Deputies as well as unambiguous attitude of the Czech President on the matter. The historic resolution on recognizing the Armenian Genocide by the German Bundestag on these days comes to prove that the process of recognition is irreversible – falsifying history, denying facts and spouting intimidation cannot stop it.

We are thankful to the Czech Republic for favorable disposition to the Armenian community. The fact of transferring the Catholic Church of Holy Spirit in Prague to the parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church is a vivid example of that. It was a major event in the life of the Armenian community of the Czech Republic in terms of preserving national identity. I would also like to deeply thank cardinal Duka in this respect.

I believe that our interstate relations will continue to successfully develop, since it is based on the unselfish friendship between Czech and Armenian people, mutual understanding and the strive to build a common future.

Thank you.

It is my pleasure to give the floor to my friend President Milos Zeman.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel agrees with her party that the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces should be branded a genocide but will not attend a parliament vote Thursday on the issue, her spokeswoman said, reports. 

“She told me this morning that she sided with her parliamentary group,” her spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz told journalists, when asked if Merkel signalled her approval of the Armenian genocide resolution during a party meeting on Wednesday.

However, the German leader will not be able to attend the vote at the Bundestag due to other official engagements on her schedule, her spokeswoman said.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats and junior coalition partner Social Democrats, along with the opposition Greens, prepared the resolution entitled “Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916”, which also carries the word throughout the text.

An alley in the French city of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence has been named after Charles Aznavour on his 92^nd birthday.

The Passage Charles Aznavour is located behind the Town Hall Square.

“There were street named after me abroad, but not yet at home in France!” Charles Aznavour said, according to La Provence.

His friends Michel Drucker, Dany Brillant, Didier Barbelivien, Alice Dona, Daniel Guichard, Antoine Duléry, Vincent Labrune, president of Olympique de Marseille, and his daughter Katia participated in the inauguration ceremony, Nouvelles d’Armenie reports.

Invited by Charles himself, Richard Findykian, Deputy Mayor of 9 & 10th districts of Marseilles, was also invited to celebrate the event and participate in the birthday lunch that followed the ceremony.

The Armenian Culture Ministry offered putting its experience and expertise at disposal for restoring the historical site of Palmyra, accoridng to .

The offer came in a letter sent by the Armenian Culture Minister, which the Syrian counterpart Issam Khalil said was received “with deep appreciation”.

His appreciation was expressed in statements to reporters following a meeting with the Armenian Ambassador in Damascus Arshak Poladian.

In addition to means of cooperation in the cultural affairs, both sides also discussed the letter and the Armenian offer included in it.

The Minister noted that a national committee has been formed to draw up the necessary plans for the restoration of Palmyra.

Palmyra-a UNESCO World Heritage site-was retaken from ISIS terrorist organization last March along with the residential neighborhoods in the city-also known as Tadmur.

Archeological monuments and artifacts in Palmyra sustained severe damage due to deliberate acts of demolition and vandalism inflicted by ISIS terrorists since they took over the city in May 2015.

In a relevant context, a separate meeting was held between the Armenian Ambassador and Minister of Higher Education Mohammad Amer al-Mardini.

Discussions focused on the scientific cooperation relations and mechanisms to renew the executive program of the joint Syrian-Armenian cultural cooperation agreement.

The files of equating certificates and exchange of scholarships and visits of academic delegation were also on the table.

The Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Artillery Brigade of the Republican Guard – backed by the 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard – imposed full control over the Armenian Cemetery of Deir Ezzor after a violent battle with the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) on Sunday,  reports.

The Syrian Armed Forces were able to liberate this strategic site in western Deir Ezzor after repelling the Islamic State’s offensive at the Panorama Checkpoint. As a result of ISIS’ failed offensive at the Panorama Checkpoint, the Syrian Armed Forces took the opportunity to strike back against the terrorist group and recapture the Armenian Cemetery.

According to Yarob Zahreddine of the 104th Airborne Brigade, the Syrian Armed Forces killed several ISIS terrorists during the battle for the Armenian Cemetery, including several foreign terrorists from North Africa.

“After failing to resolve the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict by force in early April, Azerbaijan, through fraud and manipulation tries to portray itself as a victim and to avoid responsibility for unleashing the military aggression and the numerous war crimes accompanying it,” Spokesperson for the NKR Foreign Ministry Ani Sargsyan said in comments to News.am.

The comments come after the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan organized a visit of representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Azerbaijan to the Line of Contact between the armed forces of the NKR and Azerbaijan.

“By participating in the badly staged actions of the Azerbaijani side, representatives of the international community automatically allow themselves to be drawn into the propaganda campaign of official Baku aimed at the justification of the criminal actions of the Azerbaijani authorities,” she added.

“We are convinced that in order to form a truly unbiased idea of the existing situation and get comprehensive information on the reasons and consequences of the Azerbaijani aggression, the diplomats and representatives of international organizations should, first of all, visit the NKR,” the Spokesperson added.

“The NKR authorities are ready to provide all-sided assistance in the organization of such a visit,” she concluded.

 

 

 

The recognition of NKR independence will lead to a solution of the issue, but will transfer it to a new stage, Director of the Armenian branch of the CIS Institute Alexander Markarov told reporters today. According to him, the issue of recognition will be brought into agenda if Azerbaijan unleashes more serious military actions, as this will allow Armenia to once again insist that Azerbaijan is unable to solve the issue in a peaceful way.

Political scientist Sergey Shakaryants says the recognition of NKR has numerous layers with corresponding consequences. According to him, the real recognition takes place in the nation’s subconsciousness. He believes the recognition is untimely today as it had to have been done much earlier.

Shakaryants considers that recognition would not impede the negotiation process, and there are examples of it. He says that if Armenia recognizes Nagorno Karabakh and sings a corresponding agreement with the latter, all countries tied with Armenia by different agreements will have to take this into account.

“We’ll resort to recognition of Artsakh, when we see all other options are excluded. Recognition will mean Nagorno Karabakh moves to a category of semi-recognized states.  In that case it will have some level of sovereignty, which will be somewhat restricted. In any case, recognition will mean Armenia has not seen any other option,” Markarov said.

 

 

 

“The world should listen to what concessions Artskah is ready to make,” Vice-Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Edward Sharmazanov told reporters today. He added, however, that a number of principles need to be clarified before that.

“There can be no mutual concessions without the decision of the people and authorities of Artsakh.  Speaking about concessions today is useless, as I haven’t heard anything from the Azerbaijani side,” Sharmazanov said.

The Vice-Speaker ruled out any unilateral concessions. “It is impossible after 25-30 years of struggle. We’ll fight till the end,” he said.

Sharmazanov has just returned from Artsakh. He visited Nagorno Karabakh accompanied by lawmakers from the Czech Republic, Latvia and Greece, who have already been blacklisted by Azerbaijan. The European MPs had arrived to see the consequences of the Azerbaijani aggression on the ground.

Sharmazanov quoted the European lawmakers as saying that “the people of Artsakh are not alone in their struggle, and it’s up to Artsakh to determine its future.”

Spekaing about Turkey’s reaction to the recent escalation, he noted that “attempts to ascribe a religious coloring to the Karabakh conflict” could mark the start of a catastrophe. He urged the international community to be cautious and pressure those attempting to incite escalation.

In response to the recent shelling of Armenian villages in Artsakh (also known Nagorno-Karabakh) by Azerbaijan, Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Krekorian and other elected officials joined with Armenian-American civic and religious leaders to make a call for peace in the Caucasus region, where violence by Azerbaijan’s government has taken dozens of innocent lives in recent days.

L.A. City Councilman Paul Krekorian told that the vigil was meant to call for peace and to denounce what he described as the “outrageous militarization and vicious attacks” by Azerbaijan against those living in the Artsakh region.

“They have routinely violated the ceasefire since 1994, but this last week has seen a dramatic escalation of that,” Krekorian said. “It’s outrageous, it’s unjustifiable, and it should be denounced by the entire international community.”

Krekorian said that peace in the region is in the interests of the United States and that these attacks may constitute war crimes.

“So that’s why we are putting together this vigil, and that’s why we’re going to continue to demand action from our own government in Washington to ensure that we bring peace back to this region,” Krekorian said.