Author: Kajoyan Gevork

President Serzh Sargsyan convened the sitting of the National Security Council today. Issues related to the gross violation of the 1994 ceasefire agreement by Azerbaijan and the large-scale military actions against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic were on the agenda of the sitting.

During the sitting, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan reported on the provocative actions of the Azerbaijani side and the steps taken by Armenian forces to rebuff the aggression.

“Dear colleagues, as you know, the Azerbaijan armed forces undertook provocative actions all along the line of contact with the Karabakh forces. These were the most large-scale military actions ever since 1994 undertaken by the Azerbaijani side.

The NKR Defense Army regained control of the situation thanks to timely and skilled actions. The rival used air force, all types of armored vehicles and artillery. The losses of the Azeri air force, infantry and armored vehicles are sustainable. We also have losses: as of now, 18 are reported killed, 30 wounded,” the President said.

“The provocations continue, there is some tension in the north and south, but the Karabakh forces keep the situation under control,” the President said. He added that measures have been taken to ensure the security of the population in frontline villages.

“I think the Foreign Ministry needs to cooperate with the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and work towards signing an agreement on mutual assistance. It’s necessary to develop the text of the agreement and hold discussions in the National Assembly. The Republic of Armenia will fully meet its obligations of ensuring the security of the population of Nagorno Karabakh. We have all legal basis for it as a party to the ceasefire agreement signed in 1994.

“Besides the Armed Forces, other agencies are also doing their work, we keep in touch with our partners from international organizations. However, as I have said on many occasions, we have to solve our problems ourselves and not rely upon anyone,” the President said.

The NKR Defense Army has published photos presenting the losses of the Azerbaijani side in the buffer zone one of the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden met on Thursday with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan on the margins of the Nuclear Security Summit.

In addition to bilateral relations, the sides discussed the regional situation in the South Caucasus, international problems and challenges. In this context, the sides exchanged views on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement within the OSCE Minsk Group process and developments in the Middle East.

“The Vice President stressed that the United States is committed to a democratic, prosperous, and secure Armenia at peace with its neighbors. The Vice President thanked President Sarkisian for welcoming more than 20,000 Syrian refugees. Addressing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Vice President expressed concern about continued violence, called for dialogue, and emphasized the importance of a comprehensive settlement for the long-term stability, security, and prosperity of the region.”

President Sargsyan assessed current Armenian-American partnership as being on the highest level in the history through joint efforts, which is evidenced by the visits of different levels of recent years. The President praised the United States’ contribution to the economic development and implementation of reforms in various fields of Armenia.

Sargsyan stressed the importance of the US role in regional security and stability, especially the active involvement of the US in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan visited the Moderna Therapeutics Biotechnology Company in Massachusetts. Established in 2011, the Company researches and develops protein therapies based on novel messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. American Armenian Noubar Afeyan is one of its co-founders.

Moderna Therapeutics employs more than 300 people and has research centers in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Sweden’s capital Stockholm.

The same day President Sargsyan visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its media laboratory. Serzh Sargsyan met with the Institute’s Rafael Reif, founder of the media laboratory Nicholas Negroponte and Executive Director of the “Luys” Foundation Jacqueline Karaaslanian. President Sargsyan also participated in the meeting of American Armenian scholars and recipients of Luys scholarships.

President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan Speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Education and Human Capital: The path to sustainable development

Honorable President Reif;
Dear Faculty and Scientists;
Dear Fellows and Alumni of the Luys Foundation;
I am honored to be here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—one of the world’s top universities. I am grateful to you for hosting me and my colleagues today. With a wealth of teaching tradition, innovative ideas, and achievements, your Institute has made an essential contribution to the development of humanity.

In the 155 years of its existence, this Institute has not only withstood and adapted to, but also become a leader of constant progress and change. This is confirmed by your numerous inventions, achievements, and Nobel Prizes.

By the way, I am very glad that today the President of the Institute expressed the opinion that one of the graduates of the MIT will certainly win the Noble Prize. Mr. Noubar Afeyan was a witness there.

Importantly, your work turns into practical projects that benefit the entire world. I am glad that in recent years about two dozen Armenian students have become members of this Great Family.

Capacities and opportunities of your technological labs are remarkable. I just saw it myself; it was very impressive and educational for me. Of course, I hear about a lot of things; but to hear is one thing, to see is another. As a matter of fact, the methodology of the Institute’s Lego Educational Lab is replicated at the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies in Yerevan, which aims at bringing out the intellectual capacity of children and young people and enhancing their competitiveness.

Cooperation of the Armenian partners with the media labs at the MIT has enriched Armenia’s education with innovative ideas and programs. The Ayb School founded in Armenia is indeed a product of such cooperation. Our quest for the new contents of education and the creation of environments has been strongly influenced by such well-known scholars as Seymour Papert and Bill Mitchell. This year, we’ve launched two fablabs in Armenia, which provide ample opportunities for innovation and creativity to the Armenian young people interested in engineering and technologies. The “flipped classroom” program developed here at the MIT has been implemented very productively in Armenia, truly changing the perceptions of students and faculty about the modern education.

Dear Friends;

Daron Acemoğlu, a very bright representative of your Institute, recently developed a theory that became famous around the world. His major argument is that economic prosperity essentially depends on the institutional development or, to be more precise, on the inclusiveness of economic and political institutions. Poverty and other evils affecting society can be defeated through these very institutions.

We have acquired experience that proves the validity of these arguments. It is very hard to carry out a reform if public trust in fairness has been undermined, or if public institutions do not reflect the true aspirations of society. It is very difficult to strengthen institutions if people do not have faith in their effectiveness, in the rule of law, and equality of all before the law – with no exception.

But who can strengthen the institutions if not people themselves? Throughout my political career, I’ve never had any doubt that the citizens of Armenia are bright and extraordinary individuals. The time has come for this creative potential to bear fruits.

I dream of Armenia where strong and well-established individuals do not spare efforts for creating stable state and public institutions. It will come true only if they are convinced that these institutions belong to each and every one of them. It is not the first time I speak about it publicly. Moreover, we are working consistently toward the implementation of this vision in Armenia.

Recently, we’ve made major amendments to our Constitution. The next one and half to two years will be extremely important in this context, because our country is going through a systemic change.

I am confident that these efforts will be productive and visible for our people. We will achieve it through our political will, and with Armenian citizens who take initiative, aspire, and are dedicated to their homeland. We will achieve it through the will of every citizen of Armenia. We all have to bring our share to this initiative.

I hope that we will be able to prove the validity of Daron Acemoğlu’s theory. I also hope that he receives the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences and once again brings acclaim to your Institute.

Dear Scientists,

The Republic of Armenia has been independent for a quarter of a century, having traveled a complex and complicated path of development. Our state-building process has been accompanied by a disastrous earthquake, a war and a blockade imposed on us by our neighbors, and regional turmoil. They, together with scarce natural resources, have limited the development prospects of our country. But they have also provided an opportunity to build a state anchored in a democratic system and a knowledge-based economy.

The difficulties certainly pose obstacles, but they have not stalled our progress; they have not broken the Armenian people’s will to build the homeland of our dreams. Our neighbors have closed our borders, but they have not been able to curtail the advance of our intellect. Natural resources tend to expire, while human resources tend to generate.

I am glad that young people in my country are actively engaged in discussions on high-tech achievements, research and development, and are contributing to future progress. Our universities annually educate 2,000 IT and high-tech specialists.

It is through human capital that Armenia has earned its place on the IT map of the world. Solutions developed by the Armenian professionals are now widely used in various countries around the world.

Armenia has a number of competitive advantages in this field. We are fully aware that a strong educational foundation is the key to longevity of this success. The mission of our education system is to produce students and researches who keep up with the latest international achievements.

I am proud that our schoolchildren have recently achieved excellent results in the international subject Olympiads. Last year, Armenian schoolchildren earned 20 medals—5 silver and 15 bronze—in international Olympiads in mathematics, physics, astronomy, and biology. We had similar performance in the past: 19 medals in 2014, 15 medals in 2013, and 16 medals in 2012. These are significant numbers for a small country like Armenia. I am really proud in our schoolchildren: their achievements are greater by large than the awards earned by our immediate neighbors in the South Caucasus. In fact, these numbers are close to the number of medals won by countries that exceed Armenia ten-fold in terms of population.

The National Program for Educational Excellence is being implemented in partnership with the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Education at the University College London. The program aims at making advanced education accessible for all Armenian schoolchildren. The program will educate and train thousands of teachers. The program will be implemented under a new educational platform called Ararat Baccalaureate. It is an Armenian-language system that is based on the international criteria and best reflects top achievements of the global education and rich traditions of the Armenian schooling which is based on our national values. This year, the Armenian graduates will take for the first time the Ararat Baccalaureate’s international Armenian-language exam administered in Armenia.

To educate a competitive new generation, we have created the Luys Foundation that provides scholarships to Armenian young people admitted to the world’s leading universities. Of course, there was a concern that we might lose our human resources. However, as I was once told by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore that even if our compatriots do not return home after their studies, they are still our assets abroad, through whom the world recognizes our country; they contribute in various ways to the development of both the host country and their home country.

This is quite true in the case of Armenia. Achievements of our compatriots outside of Armenia are our achievements, as well. Their reputation is an essential factor in promoting Armenia’s international standing.

Experience has proved that the absolute majority of the Luys’s alumni returned home after completing their education and engaged themselves in Armenia’s development. It’s a fact.

Our young people currently studying in the top U.S. universities are present here today. I am glad to see all of you in high spirits and a determined look in your eyes. I wish success to all of you in your important work. As we were developing the idea to create the Luys Foundation and fund the education of our young people admitted to the world’s top universities, we had one goal in mind: to bring home all progressive and new that is constantly created around the world, studied and developed in the world’s leading scientific centers. “Home” includes each and every one of you—our extended family called Armenians and Armenia. I believe that every one of the Luys’s alumni, having received the best education in top universities, ought to do three things in his or her life: have a house in Armenia, work or be engaged in an Armenia-based initiative in his or her professional field, and be a lifelong “ambassador” of Armenia and the Armenian language everywhere he or she goes.

For quite some time, we have been implementing a program of targeted government assistance in Armenia called Affordable Houses for Young Families. Through affordable mortgage loans at below-market rates, we enable young families to purchase an apartment with all modern amenities. Please, keep in mind that the officials in charge of this program are waiting for you, and it is the first office you should visit in Yerevan once you finish your studies.

Dear Friends;

We are now working to forge mutually-reinforcing ties between universities, R&D, and labor market. I am grateful to the dozens of representatives of the impressive pool of Armenian American scientists who accepted my invitation to be present here today from all corners of the USA. I am confident that you have no regrets, and just like me, you take inspiration from the achievements of the Luys’s current scholarship-recipients and alumni. I am confident that this meeting will pave the way for lasting and practical ties. Many of you do not closely cooperate with the traditional Armenian organizations, parties, or at times even the community. I hope that contacts in this format can become regular and set the foundation for your mutually-beneficial everyday cooperation by creating an informal network of Armenian American scientists.

This meeting is also important in terms of forging close cooperation between Armenian and foreign universities.

We would also be delighted to host MIT faculty and students in Armenia. You could learn about our achievements firsthand, interact with our faculty and students, and visit Armenian IT companies and free economic zones.

Our dream is to promote technological higher education in Armenia in cooperation with the world’s top universities. In this context, your engagement and support would be very valuable. We have enabled the brightest of our youth to be competitive by studying at the world’s top universities. We would now like to create similar opportunities for all young people in Armenia.

We plan to host a World Forum of Information Technologies in Armenia in 2019. We would be glad if your Institute was represented at this large-scale event. Given your experience, knowledge, and achievements in this field, I am confident that your participation will greatly benefit the Forum.

In conclusion, I wish to recognize Doctor Noubar Afeyan who is present here today. Thank you for the financial support to today’s event and for brilliantly moderating this scholarly discussion. Thank you, Mr. Afeyan, also for your dedication to the Armenian Homeland and your hard work.

Thank you for this warm reception. I wish everyone present here new surges of your creative minds, scientific revolutionary ideas, and multiple discoveries.

An Armenian Genealogy Conference will take place April 9-10 in Watertown. The conference, which grew out of the group on Facebook, will feature several speakers on various topics regarding Armenian genealogy, history, geography, and presentations on different organizations and initiatives, the reports.

George Aghjayan, a retired actuary and one of the conference organizers, noted that the study of Armenian genealogy has grown substantially over the last decade, and that organizing a conference was a necessary step. “Advances in technology have allowed access to information previously thought unattainable,” said Aghjayan, who hopes the conference will become an annual event.

Aghjayan has been working with Tracy Rivest Keeney and Mark Arslan to organize the conference, which is co-sponsored by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), Project Save Armenian Photograph Archives, Inc., Houshamadyan, the Armenian Museum of America (AMA), and Hamazkayin Boston. During the weekend, participants—both beginner and advanced—will learn how to carry out genealogical research specific to Armenians and will take part in workshops, during which experienced volunteers will help answer questions, teach how to get started, and how to go beyond existing research.

“The recent proliferation and acceptance of social media has allowed a level of collaboration on genealogical and historical research never before possible,” Arslan told the Weekly. He noted that the Armenian Genealogy Facebook group has brought together people from the Armenian Diaspora worldwide, as well as the Republic of Armenia—individuals who share a passionate interest in learning more about their Armenian families and heritage. “The collective knowledge of our online community is amazing, everyone brings their own special talents to uncover genealogical treasures from the primary records online and in archives, as well as shares their own family anecdotes, memories, and experiences,” he said.

The conference will take place at the Armenian Museum of America

Photo: SPL

 

A therapy that retrains the body’s immune system to fight cancer has provoked excitement after more than 90% of terminally ill patients reportedly went into remission, the reports.

White blood cells were taken from patients with leukaemia, modified in the lab and then put back.

But the data has not been published or reviewed and two patients are said to have died from an extreme immune response.

Experts said the trial was exciting, but still only a baby step.

The news bubbled out of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in Washington DC.

The lead scientist, Prof Stanley Riddell from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer research Centre in Seattle, said all other treatments had failed in these patients and they had only two-to-five months to live.

He told the conference that: “The early data is unprecedented.”

In the trial, cells from the immune system called killer t-cells were taken out of dozens of patients. The cells normally act like bombs destroying infected tissue.

The researchers genetically modified the t-cells to engineer a new targeting mechanism – with the technical name of chimeric antigen receptors – to target acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

“As a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the United States will continue to work closely with the sides to achieve a lasting, negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the principles of international law, the UN Charter, and the Helsinki Final Act,” Ambassador Daniel B. Baer, U.S Representative to the OSCE, said is a

“Regretfully, violence along the line of contact and the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border has escalated over the past several months. The United States reiterates the concerns of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and condemns the use of mortars and other heavy weaponry that has caused civilian casualties. We echo the Co-Chairs’ appeals to the sides to take immediate steps to reduce tensions and protect lives,” he said.

“The status quo is neither acceptable nor sustainable, and we remind the sides that there can be no military solution to the conflict. The United States strongly supports the Co-Chairs’ efforts to facilitate an intensified dialogue between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan and to establish structured negotiations in order to make progress towards a peaceful settlement,” Amb. Baer said.

The Ambassador also urged the Azerbaijani government to respect and uphold the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all its citizens, consistent with its international commitments and obligations. This is not separate from, but indeed a central component of, achieving a comprehensive and sustainable security for Azerbaijan and the region.

He noted that the United States regrets the closure of the OSCE Office in Baku and hope that it is temporary because such a presence could contribute to this work, along with the work in other dimensions including the rule of law, human rights and countering transnational threats.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has issued a message on the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust:

During the Second World War, six million Jews were systematically rounded up and exterminated.  The Nazis also murdered Sinti and Roma, political prisoners, homosexuals, persons with disabilities, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Soviet prisoners of war.

The Holocaust was a colossal crime.  No-one can deny the evidence that it happened.  By remembering the victims and honouring the courage of the survivors and those who assisted and liberated them, we annually renew our resolve to prevent such atrocities and reject the hateful mentality that allows them.

From the shadow of the Holocaust and the cruelties of the Second World War, the United Nations was established to reaffirm faith in the dignity and worth of every person and to uphold the rights of all to live in equality and free from discrimination.

These principles remain essential today. People worldwide – including millions fleeing war, persecution and deprivation – continue to suffer discrimination and attacks.We have a duty to remember the past – and to help those who need us now.

For more than a decade, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme has worked to educate young people about the Holocaust.  Many partners – including Holocaust survivors – continue to contribute to this essential work.

The memory of the Holocaust is a powerful reminder of what can happen when we stop seeing our common humanity.  On this day of Holocaust remembrance, I urge everyone to denounce political and religious ideologies that set people against people.Let us all speak out against anti-Semitism and attacks against religious, ethnic or other groups.Let us create a world where dignity is respected, diversity is celebrated, and peace is permanent.

The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of different caliber, HAN-17 and RPG-7 grenades as it fired about 600 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions last night.

The special forces of the Azerbaijani army also undertook an incursion attempt in the eastern direction of the line of contact.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army were quick to spot the advancement of the rival and took relevant retaliatory measures, leaving at least to Azeri servicemen killed.

The NKR Defense Army has incurred no losses as a result of the exchange of fire.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep full control of the situation at the line of contact and confidently perform their military task.

On 23 December President Bako Sahakyan received the Armenian Central Bank chairman Arthur Javadya, NKR President’s Press Office reported.

Different issues related to cooperation between the two Armenian states in the banking sphere were discussed during the meeting.

NKR prime-minister Arayik Harutyunyan partook in the meeting.