“Karabakh: Peaceful Life Next to War Ghosts:” A documentary about
Artsakh (video)
14:43 18/10/2014 >> CULTURE
The Voice of America has released a documentary about
Nagorno-Karabakh. The movie is titled “Karabakh: Peaceful Life Next to
War Ghosts.”
The Times, UK
Oct 17 2014
Jack Dominian: Psychiatrist whose study of marital breakdown
questioned Catholic sexual teaching and became a bestselling book
SECTION: OBITUARIES
The psychiatrist Jack Dominian was a man with a mission. Determined to
understand the increase of divorce in the Seventies, he conducted
studies that not only resulted in a bestselling book on marital
breakdown, but a re-evaluation of Catholic sexual teaching.
At a time when divorce was still taboo, he believed it ought not to
be; he helped couples through the dissolution of their marriages, yet
he also viewed their breakdown as a tragic event. He noted that 30 to
40 per cent of divorces occured in the first four years of marriage;
and he elaborated on the different stages of a couple’s experience,
from courtship to the birth of a first child, which he identified as a
“crisis point”, through to old age.
A religious man, he held conservative views on marriage for some
years. But he found that many of his clients at the Catholic Marriage
Advisory Council, where he was a consultant, had followed Catholic
sexual teaching and yet their marriages were falling apart.
Increasingly he came to reject the notion of marriage as a lawful
contract signed before God. In the modern world, he argued, it could
only be a relationship between loving partners.
Jacob Dominian, always known as Jack, was born in Athens in 1929 to an
Armenian Catholic father and a Greek Orthodox mother. With a large age
gap between him and his two older siblings, he often felt like an only
child. His struggle to avoid being smothered by his mother was at the
root of his lifelong interest in human relationships.
When the Nazis invaded Greece in 1941 the Dominians fled to India,
settling in Bombay, where young Jack learnt English, which he was
speaking fluently within a few weeks in an idiosyncratic accent and
idiom. Years later, while chairing a meeting in Britain which had
voted against one of the members, Dominian was heard to say: “His
chips are done!”
After the war they joined their extended family in Stamford,
Lincolnshire. Dominian attended the Lycée Léonin and studied medicine,
first at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, then at Exeter College,
Oxford. In 1955 he married Edith Smith, who came from a warm and
supportive family. Everything he knew about love and marriage, he
said, he learnt from her. They met through the Union of Catholic
Students while he was at Cambridge and she was a student at Newcastle
University. She helped him to research and type up his books; in their
spare time they engaged in animated discussions on poetry and music.
When she died in 2005 his world was a darker one. An inseparable
couple, they had four daughters: Suzanne works with autistic children,
Louise became a civil servant, Elise is a PA to medical consultants,
and Cate is a marketing editor; two of them are are married, one is
widowed, and one lives with her long-term partner.
Since his youth Dominian had wanted to become a psychiatrist, but the
Freudian school in particular was mistrusted by the Catholic Church.
“If you go into psychiatry, you will lose your faith,” a priest once
told him. “If I don’t I will lose my soul,” Dominian replied. After
postgraduate work at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, he studied at
the Maudsley Hospital in London. He qualified in 1961, and from 1963
he was the Central Middlesex Hospital’s first consultant psychiatrist.
The Marriage Research Centre was founded under his auspices in a
Portakabin in the hospital grounds. It began with a small group of
consultants each “putting £50 into the pot” towards research projects.
Shortly after retiring from the Central Middlesex Hospital in 1988,
Dominian presided over the centre’s transformation into One Plus One,
now a leading charity that helps couples with their relationships.
In regular articles for The Tablet, Dominian offered a reconstruction
of Catholic teaching on sex and marriage. Having opposed Pope Paul
VI’s reaffirmation in 1968 of the ban on contraception, he argued that
the presence of a genuine love between two people – whether they were
married or unmarried, gay or straight – validated sex. The home, he
said, was the “domestic church” where the gospel of love was lived
out; sex was a couple’s recurrent prayer. The late Cardinal Hume, for
one, claimed that his outlook had been changed by listening to
Dominian.
His acclaimed book Marital Breakdown, published in 1968, was reprinted
17 times. He later published a study of depression, from which he
himself occasionally suffered severe bouts.
In 1994 he was appointed MBE for his services to marriage counselling.
Prone to self-examination, he identified his own personality type as
neurotic. “But then,” he said, “neurotics can be fascinating to live
with.”
Jack Dominian, MBE, psychiatrist, was born on August 25, 1929. He died
on August 11, 2014, aged 84
Trend, Azerbaijan
Oct 18 2014
US State Dept. wants to spoil Azerbaijan’s int’l image – top official
18 October 2014, 13:26 (GMT+05:00)
The US Department of State wants to spoil Azerbaijan’s image on the
international arena by making groundless statements, Deputy Head of
the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan, head of
the Administration’s Foreign Relations Department Novruz Mammadov said
in his interview with AzerTAg news agency on Oct.17.
He was commenting on the statement made by the US Department of
State’s spokesperson on Azerbaijan on Oct.15.
“Unfortunately, the US Department of State’s spokesperson has made a
number of groundless, false statements about Azerbaijan recently,”
Mammadov said. “This appears to be a more acceptable way of
interfering into a country’s internal affairs and exerting pressure on
it.”
He said it would be better for the Department of State, which claims
to act under the banner of the rule of law, to make a statement on the
situation and rights of a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs, which
have been deprived of all their rights for more than 20 years, instead
of financially and morally assisting aggressor Armenia and the
separatist regime of the Nagorno-Karabakh over the years.
The top official added that the Department of State would be better
making fair statements on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict under an international legal framework that the country
itself created.
“But the United States disregards such important issues, and thinks
that raising the issues of human rights and freedoms whenever it wants
is solely its international responsibility, while the Department of
State wants to cast shadow – through its spokesperson – on
Azerbaijan’s cooperation with the European Union and the US, and spoil
Azerbaijan’s international image.”
Manual on Holocaust presented at Armenian Genocide Museum
14:46, 18.10.2014
YEREVAN. — Presentation of “History of the Holocaust in the USSR”
manual was held at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute on Saturday.
This manual will be a contribution to Armenia’s education system in
terms of telling about the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany
during the Second World War, co-chairman of the center of the
Holocaust, Russian professor Ilya Altman said.
“The book which we published in 2002 and which was the first manual on
Holocaust recommended by the Ministry of Education in the post-Soviet
area, will be published in the native language here,” he said.
Armenia has accumulated vast experience in teaching the Armenian
Genocide. The publication of this book is the first step to exchange
the methods, techniques, historical information that links the tragedy
of the two nations.
He stressed that Auschwitz was liberated by representatives of
different nationalities, and there were definitely Armenians among
them.
“I have been already told stories about the rescue of Jews by
Armenians. Therefore, today’s presentation is a very important event
for us,” Altman added.
One of the problems, he added, is to consolidate teachers and
researchers from Russia and Armenia, also Jewish and Armenian
communities in other countries to not only tell the world about these
tragedies, but so that this kind of books could become red line
against any hatred, genocide against any other nation.
Armenia News – NEWS.am
Armen Martirosyan: Armenian authorities do not want Armenia to lag
behind Azerbaijan by number of political prisoners
by Nana Martirosyan
Saturday, October 18, 15:36
The Armenian authorities do not want to lag behind Azerbaijani
colleagues by the number of political prisoners in the country, Armen
Martirosyan, Deputy Head of Heritage Party, told ArmInfo when
commenting on the verdict against Shant Harutyunyan and his friends.
“If the authorities continue the reforms making people like Shant
Harutyunyan prisoners and appointing people like Surik Khachatryan
governors, Armenia will degrade to the feudal system period in the
near future”, he said. To resist this process, all public strata
should join efforts to get rid of the ruling regime, he added.
Martirosyan pointed out that the verdict against Shant Harutyunyan and
especially his son Shahen Harutyunyan is unacceptable. “Every father
would be proud of such a son, who would defend him without violating
the law and moral standards”, he said. The politician stressed that
the 5 Nov 2013 incident was the result of provocation of the police
dressed as civilians.
To note, Leader of Tseghakron Party Shant Harutyunyan has been
sentenced to 6 years in prison and his son Shahen Harutyunyan has been
given a 4-year suspended sentence. The verdict was delivered on
October 17 by the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork
Marash communities of Yerevan. Vahe Lazarian, one of Shant
Harutyunyan’s teammates, has been sentenced for 7 years in jail,
Albert Sarkaryan – 6 years, Sevak Mnatsakanyan – 5.5 years, retired
Lieutenant Colonel Vardan Vardanyan, Liparit Petrosyan and Avetis
Avetisyan – 5 years, Hayk Harutyunyan – 4.5 years, Alex Poghosyan and
Mkrtich Hovhannisyan – 4 years. Armen Hovhannisyan, who served in the
Armenian army for 20 years, has been sentenced to 2 years in jail, and
Tigran Petrosyan has been given a 1-year sentence.
MP: Armenia, which has a ruined agriculture, can offer nothing to
Eurasian market
Saturday, October 18, 15:39
Armenia, which has a ruined agriculture, can export nothing to the
market of the Eurasian Union. Lyova Khachatryan, MP from the
Prosperous Armenia Party, thinks that Armenia’s agriculture is
absolutely unready to join the EAEU.
“Production needs money, means, investments. How can we speak of
export if the authorities are destroying not only the small and medium
businesses, but also the agriculture due to their policy?” Khachatryan
said at today’s press conference.
He said that the prime cost of the agricultural equipment is too high
and the loan rates are also high.
The MP pointed out the land contamination due to the operation of
small-scale hydropower plants. 200 ha of land plots are contaminated
in Aragatsotn region. “The HPPs have been built without a relevant
study of the local conditions”, said Khachatryan.
Venezuela Gets Security Council Seat; Turkey Fails
By SOMINI SENGUPTAOCT. 16, 2014
UNITED NATIONS — Despite objections by the United States, Venezuela
secured a seat Thursday at the global table of high power, the United
Nations Security Council, while Turkey, a vital but complicated
American ally, was resoundingly defeated.
The results came midday after voting by the 193 member states of
the United Nations General Assembly. Turkey was in the running with
Spain and New Zealand for two of three rotating two-year seats on the
Council. New Zealand secured the necessary two-thirds majority of
votes in the first round. Spain won in the third round.
By lunchtime, the General Assembly Hall was awash in embraces and handshakes.
Turkey, which has sought to project itself as a regional power in the
Middle East, campaigned intensely for the Council seat, highlighting
in particular its role in the war against the Islamic State extremist
group. But Turkey has also come under scrutiny, particularly by
European countries, for what critics call its insufficient crackdown
on foreign fighters who have traveled through Turkey to join extremist
groups in Syria.
Analysts said Turkey’s defeat also reflects the divisions in the
Middle East, as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and others jostle for power.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, rose from his seat as
soon as the results were announced and walked over to congratulate his
counterpart from Spain. On Twitter, he congratulated all five victors.
The Foreign Ministry’s Twitter handle said nothing about the results.
Anadolu, the semiofficial news agency, quoted the foreign minister as
saying: “There may be some countries disturbed by our principled
stance, and there have always been those, who, after some time,
confess that Turkey’s position was right. So, we could not abandon our
principles for the sake of getting more votes.”
There were also three uncontested seats in the Council race. Angola
was chosen by the nations of Africa to represent the continent,
starting in January 2015. Malaysia was selected as Asia’s candidate,
and Venezuela to represent Latin America. It secured 181 votes, and
may well use its perch on the Council for making anti-American
diatribes.
The United States swiftly condemned its selection. “Unfortunately,
Venezuela’s conduct at the U.N. has run counter to the spirit of the
U.N. Charter and its violations of human rights at home are at odds
with the Charter’s letter,” said Samantha Power, the United States
ambassador to the United Nations, according to a statement. “The
United States will continue to call upon the government of Venezuela
to respect the fundamental freedoms and universal human rights of its
people.”
In any case, the powers of the rotating, nonpermanent members of the
Council are limited. The United States, along with Britain, China,
France and Russia, are its permanent members. They have veto power.
Azerbaijani to increase defense spending by 3,1%
by Marianna Lazarian
ARMINFO
Tuesday, October 14, 16:57
The defense spending of Azerbaijan for 2015 will make 17.9 percent of
the state budget expenditures, APA reports.
According to the draft budget released by the Ministry of Finance, the
military expenditures for 2015 will be 3.1 percent higher than 2014.
It also includes expenditures on the financial provision of projects
and activities for special purposes. Funds are
planned to be allocated from the state budget for defense and security
agencies.
Incidentally, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu visited Baku
yesterday. According to the “Komertsant” daily, a part of Shoygu’s
talks was about the arms delivery. In 2010-2012 contracts were made
between Russia and Azerbaijan for the arms delivery for about $4
billion, In 2014 Azerbaijan will buy armament from Russia for $1
billion, the daily says.
The Register, UK
Oct 19 2014
‘Hmm, why CAN’T I run a water pipe through that rack of media servers?’
Leaving Las Vegas for Armenia kludging and Dubai dune bashing
By Simon Sharwood
eXpat Files Welcome once again to The eXpat files, our Vulture Weekend
feature in which readers who’ve well and truly left the nest explain
what it’s like to ply their technological trade in another land.
This week – we’re going weekly by popular demand – meet D. Hayes
Blanchard, who made the move from the US to Armenia, and then Dubai.
The Register: How old are you and where do you live in the US, when
you’re there?
Blanchard: I am 37 years old, born in Louisville, Kentucky, but spent
most of my life in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is also where I went to
university. I only return to the US once a year or so to visit my
family.
The Register: What kind of work do you do and with which technologies?
Blanchard: At University I studied film and computer science and I
have spent (most of) my career working on bridging those two
disciplines. I spend about 70 per cent of my time working on IT
infrastructure for media projects/companies and 30 per cent creating
the media.
The Register: Why did you decide to move to the Armenia? And then to Dubai?
Blanchard: In Las Vegas I was working for a local TV channel which was
quite bureaucratic and after a while I needed a change. I decide to
take two years and teach English abroad and the organisation I joined
sent me to Armenia. After two years teaching, I stayed in Armenia and
went to work for an art museum, going back to the IT and media path.
That project finished and I came to Dubai to visit a friend, after two
days I tripped over a job and stayed here.
The Register: How did you arrange your expat gigs?
Blanchard: I first went to Armenia with the Peace Corps. When I was
teaching in Armenia, I made many local friends and, just as my
teaching job was about to end, one of them told me he knew of this art
museum project that needed someone to design and install their IT and
media infrastructure. In Dubai, it was also through the personal
connections of my friend.
The Register: Pay: up or down?
Blanchard: In Armenia I took a large pay cut as compared to the US. In
Dubai a significant pay increase as compared to the US, astronomical
as compared to Armenia.
The Register: How do workplaces differ between the US and Armenia? And Dubai?
Blanchard: In Armenia most of the people in the museum were
Soviet-trained, still had that mentality, and were resistant to
change. The museum founder was an Armenian from the US and wanted us
to build and operate to US standards. The local Armenians on my staff
had never heard of lights out management, or half of the other IT
concepts that I wanted to implement, and there was only one company in
the city which could install and terminate fibre optic cable.
None of the media servers or equipment was available in market,
leading to many arguments with the customs’ officials. And a general
contractor didn’t understand why he couldn’t run a water pipe through
the cabinet containing a rack of media servers (the pipe wasn’t on the
blueprints).
I could give hundreds of examples but it comes down to this: Armenia
has a culture of kludging things together and working to western
standards was my biggest challenge.
In Dubai, the biggest difference is the diversity of the place and
working habits. There are people from all over the world in our office
(eight people, six nationalities), while everyone speaks English
(Dubai is an English speaking city) there are different accents, work
ethics, religions and expectations. For the most part everyone gets
along well but there is the inevitable clash of culture from time to
time.
The Register: Will your expat gigs be good for your career?
Blanchard: Absolutely, yes. The experience that I have gained, both in
Armenia and Dubai, of working with different people with different
competencies and backgrounds has made me a more effective manager. The
challenges I faced on the various projects have also taught me to
“think outside the box” (I don’t like that expression but I can’t
think of a better one) and there is always a solution to a problem,
you just have to find it.
The Register: What’s cheaper in Dubai? What’s more expensive? I’m
going to assume everything is cheaper in Armenia?
Blanchard: Housing is certainly cheaper in Armenia, so is
locally-sourced produce (which is some of the best in the world).
However, because of Armenia’s high and quite arbitrary customs’
duties, imported products are more expensive than in the US or Dubai.
This includes food items, electronics and all kind of everyday things
you never thought about as being imported. There are also many things,
everyday products in the West that are simply not available in Armenia
at any price, like peanut butter and Marmite.
Housing in Dubai here is very expensive (no one is quite sure why) but
other things are less expensive, petrol for example. Food is generally
less expensive if bought in a store or at a “normal” restaurant. There
are expensive and eye-wateringly expensive restaurants if you want.
One thing, which is a bit shocking, is the low cost of and prevalence
of domestic help. Most flats and houses have “maid’s rooms” and most
families have at least one maid or nanny. For people who have
children, school fees here are quite expensive.
The Register: What do you miss about the US?
Blanchard: My father, my sister and Eastern North Carolina Barbeque.
The Register: What’s your top tip to help new arrivals settle in to
Dubai? And Armenia?
Blanchard: For Armenia, my top tip is: don’t fight the system. The
immigration authority, customs’ authority, government offices all have
their own way of working, the rules are never clear, are enforced
haphazardly, but in the end it will work out.
If you are in management and your staff tells you “No problem”, in one
week you will have a problem.
Everyone here in Dubai is from somewhere else and there are going to
be differences of opinion and culture (especially when driving). It’s
best to save your energy and sanity for the things that really matter.
People here, for the most part, are friendly and polite. If you are as
well, your life will be much easier.
The Register: What advice would you offer someone considering the same moves?
Blanchard: Go for it, there is a huge world to explore and learn about
and lots of challenges to face. Living and working abroad can only
make you a more knowledgeable person, no matter whether you enjoy the
experience or not.
Specifically for Dubai, I would say think about what kind of lifestyle
you want to have here. Salaries are higher and there are no taxes so
you can live a more luxurious life or you can save lots of money but
you can’t do both.
The Register: And, because this is the weekend edition, what can you
do on weekends in Armenia and Dubai that you could not do in the US?
Blanchard: In Armenia, a typical weekend would see me doing a pub
crawl with my friends or going to a concert. Not much different from
the US, except Yerevan is small enough to walk everywhere so there was
no need to concern myself with driving or where to park the car.
In Dubai there is some good (if expensive) night life, as well as
desert camping, desert driving (dune bashing), scuba diving, sky
diving and a whole range of outdoor activities.
If you are an expat, or know an interesting one, let us know so we can
share your/their globe-trotting tale.
Tasnim News Agency, Iran
October 19, 2014 – 11:30
Armenian, Iraqi PMs to Visit Iran in Coming Days
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The prime ministers of Armenia and Iraq, Hovik
Abrahamyan and Haider al-Abadi, are planned to pay official visits to
the Iranian capital of Tehran to hold talks with the Islamic
Republic’s top officials on a range of issues, including ways to boost
bilateral ties.
The Armenian prime minister will arrive here in Tehran on Monday and
will be welcomed by Iranian First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri.
Abrahamyan and Jahangiri will discuss a whole range of issues,
including mutual cooperation between Tehran and Yerevan as well as the
latest developments in the region and the world.
Meantime, Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan is in Tehran and
held talks with his Iranian counterpart Hamid Chitchian on Saturday
evening, in which they explored avenues for boosting cooperation
between the two countries in energy fields.
Jahangiri is also slated to give a warm welcome to Iraqi Prime
Minister Abadi in Tehran on Tuesday.