Author: Kalantarian Kevo

The volume of international transfers of major weapons in 2011–15 was 14 per cent higher than in 2006–10, a from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows.

The five biggest exporters in 2011–15 were the United States, Russia, China, France and Germany, and the five biggest importers were India, Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia.

With a 33 per cent share of total arms exports, the USA was the top arms exporter in 2011–15. Russian exports of major weapons increased by 28 per cent between 2006–10 and 2011–15. However, exports in the years 2014 and 2015 were substantially lower than in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and were more in line with the levels seen in 2006–10. In 2011–15 Russia delivered weapons to 50 states.

Supplies to Europe increased by 264 per cent, mainly due to deliveries to Azerbaijan, which in 2011–15 accounted for 4.9 per cent of all Russian exports as against 0.7 per cent in 2006–10

WVS (the Worldwide Veterinary Service) along with its partners has successfully rescued the Gyumri Zoo lions. The Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) is a UK registered charity that provides a sustainable veterinary resource to assist animal charities throughout the world. From disaster emergency response to training and education, our aim is to provide a fast action veterinary response to charities and animals in need.

Last week, the (FPWC) in collaboration with the (WVS) organised the rescue of the Gyumri Zoo lioness Mery and her cubs Zita and Gita to the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge, a privately protected area managed by the FPWC.

Named “The World’s Saddest Zoo” by the Daily Mail, these beautiful animals were living in unbearable conditions, cramped in small dirty cages, displaying all the signs of creatures slowly being driven mad by their unnatural existence. These animals were starving, barely surviving only on scraps fed to them through bars by kind volunteers.

WVS quickly identified that swift action was required and despite the difficult weather conditions and snow, the transfer of the last inhabitants of Gyumri Zoo was managed seamlessly.

The lions are in a good physical and mental state after the adventurous experience. They are staying in heated cages until the quarantine station has been built. They will then remain there until they are ready to be moved to an appropriate facility outside of Armenia to live out the rest of their lives.

Gyumri Zoo lions are now part of a larger conservation picture. According to the memorandum signed between WVS and FPWC on February 2, 2016, the parties will work together towards in-situ conservation, animal rehabilitation and rescue initiatives in Armenia.

The construction of this quarantine station for animals in the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge, where the lions will be kept for vet examination and medicinal treatment, will mark yet another point of successful collaboration between FPWC and WVS. The quarantine station will also be the foundation stone of the Wildlife Rescue Centre, an even larger sustainable project the partners are currently designating.

It’s only because of the huge tide of support that WVS have received that this has been possible. It may only be the first step on a much bigger journey for Mery, Gita and Zita but getting them out of the ‘World’s Saddest Zoo’ asap was imperative and a brilliant achievement by all the teams concerned.

Belarus is hosting the Days of Culture of Armenia on 8-11 February, reports, quoting the Belarusian Culture Ministry.

The first event in the program of the Days of Culture will be the opening of the exhibition of ancient Armenian books at the National Library of Belarus on 9 February. Rare and unique books will be on display at the museum.

The opening ceremony of the Days of Culture of Armenia will take place at the Belarusian State Philharmonic on 9 February. Guests of the event will enjoy a scintillating performance of the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra.

The Mikhail Savitsky Art Gallery in Minsk will host the exhibition of modern Armenian artists. The exhibition will open on 10 February. The concert of the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra will take place at the concert hall of the Belarusian State Music Academy the same day.

The Days of Culture of Armenia have been organized in Belarus within the framework of the cooperation program between the culture ministries of the two countries designed to run in 2014-2017. The program aims to promote the establishment of direct contacts between the museums of the two countries, organize guests tours of theaters, music and dance companies of Belarus and Armenia, hold the Days of Belarusian Cinema in Armenia and the Days of Armenian Cinema in Belarus as part of the program.

Iran is considering the possibility of increasing gas exports to Armenia by five folds, as part of construction of a new electricity transmission line between the two countries, director of the National Gas Export Company of Iran Alireza Kameli said Sunday, reports.

The gas export is carried out in exchange for the purchase of electricity between the two sides, the media reported, citing Kameli.

“On the basis of a joint agreement, the possibility exists to increase the amount of gas exports by five times,” Kameli said, as quoted by the Mehri news agency.

Iran exports nearly one million cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia daily, the official added.

The new electricity networks are expected to increase the volume of power trade between Iran and Armenia from the current 300 megawatts to about one thousand megawatts.

Sophisticated geometry – the branch of mathematics that deals with shapes – was being used at least 1,400 years earlier than previously thought, a study suggests.

Research shows that the Ancient Babylonians were using geometrical calculations to track Jupiter across thght se niky.

Previously, the origins of this technique had been traced to the 14th Century.

The new study is published the Science.

Its author, Prof Mathieu Ossendrijver, from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, said: “I wasn’t expecting this. It is completely fundamental to physics, and all branches of science use this method.”

It had been thought that complex geometry was first used by scholars in Oxford and Paris in Medieval times.

They used curves to trace the position and velocity of moving objects.

But now scientists believe the Babylonians developed this technique around 350 BC.

Prof Ossendrijver examined five Babylonian tablets that were excavated in the 19th Century, and which are now held in the British Museum’s archives.

The script reveals that they were using four-sided shapes, called trapezoids, to calculate when Jupiter would appear in the night sky, and also the speed and distance that it travelled.

Representatives of Russian special services and Egyptian law enforcement agencies conduct joint investigation to detect the whereabouts of the terrorist, who exploded the A321 airliner with Russian passengers on board on October 31, 2015, reports.

Russian and Egyptian specialists established the identity of several terrorists, who were directly related to the accident with the Airbus A321 aircraft en route from Sharm el Sheikh to Saint Petersburg.

Special services are currently looking for six people,  the alleged person among them, who planted the bomb in the cabin of the aircraft.

The bomb was placed in the cabin by an employee of the Egyptian airport. The suspect got employed at the airport shortly before the day of the disaster and then disappeared after the tragedy occurred.

The perpetrator was working at the airport as a loader. He was one of the people who were loading passengers’ luggage onto the airplane and was allowed to go to the airfield.

After the airplane crashed, the loader disappeared from the airport. Security services found out that the suspect went to Turkey.

The largest catastrophe in the history of Russian and Soviet aviation took place on October 31, 2015, when Airbus A321 of Kogalymavia crashed over the Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 on board. The plane was carrying only Russian tourists, who were coming home from holidays in Sharm-el-Sheikh resort.

On November 17, the head of the Russian Federal Security Bureau (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, officially announced that there was a terrorist attack on board the crashed aircraft.

– The land, on which Zeytinburnu Stadium is located, has been returned to Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital Foundation, but also has turned into a green space by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Yedikule Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital Foundation, after continuous efforts, was able to get the old gardening zone (a land of 42.259 square meters) across the hospital back on January 22, 2014 with the decision of Foundations General Assembly. These lands include the Zeytinburnu Stadium, a sport complex belonging to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, as well as an open-air marketplace and a parking lot. After the deed of the land was returned, Zeytinburnu Municipality filed a suit against the decision of returning and lost the suit. Moreover, the municipality made some changes on the zoning plan and turned a part of the land (8000 square meters) that was registered as commerce space into green space on October 18, 2014. The changes on the zoning plan were approved during the meeting of municipal council held last week.

Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital Foundation filed a lawsuit against the changes on zoning plan made by Zeytinburnu Municipality. Also, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality requested an opinion concerning the changes on the zoning plan from Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital Foundation as the proprietor. The foundation delivered a negative opinion. In the letter of opinion, the foundation pointed out that the changes violate the principles of administrative law and the lawsuit is on trial. The foundation also reminded the precedent decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court.

Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital Foundation Vice President Herman Baliyan spoke to Agos about the developments: “It is true that the land in question was turned into a green space. Zeytinburnu Municipality managed to get an approval for the changes, but we will continue struggling. The case we opened is on trial in Administrative Court. We think that Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality will make it right by considering our previous applications about this change.”

This land was one of the most important properties that the Armenian community had lost because of 1936 Declaration. In the past, it was a gardening zone on which “Hampartsum” festival was held in May. In 1974, one morning, bulldozers entered the land and it was confiscated on the ground that it has no owner. After this incident, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality bought a large part of the land. Now, a sport complex, an open-air marketplace and a parking lot make up the land.

Iraq plans to reduce government imports of cooking oil from Turkey due to political tensions between the two countries, according to a trade ministry official and the newspaper al-Bayina al-Jadida, Reuters reports.

A trade ministry spokesman said the administration will gradually cut imports of Turkish cooking oil that it supplies for free to the population under a food rationing programme. “The plan is to replace Turkish oil with locally produced oil and oil from other countries,” he said, without indicating the reason for replacing Turkey with other suppliers.

Baghdad-based newspaper al-Bayina al-Jadida said the measure was meant as a protest against the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq.

Turkey says the forces are protecting its military personnel training Iraqi militia to fight against Islamic State militants. Turkey last week said it withdrew some forces, following Iraq’s complaints, without committing to a complete pull-out.

Turkey has been supplying all the cooking oil for the Iraqi trade ministry’s food rationing programme for several years, the ministry spokesman said.

Turkish cooking oil imports by the Iraqi private sector are not impacted by the decision, he said, without specifying the volumes imported by the government each year.

The rationing programme provides all Iraqis with food items every month, including sugar, flour, cooking oil and rice, in portions that vary according to family size.

Iraq’s own production of cooking oil should increase next year as old factories belonging to the industry ministry will be refurbished, Industry Minister Mohammed al-Daraji told a press conference in Baghdad on Thursday.

Acting Trade Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani discussed the possibility of buying cooking oil from Armenia instead of Turkey at a meeting with the Armenian ambassador, Karen Krikorian, in Baghdad last week, the ministry spokesman said.

An official at the Armenian embassy in Baghdad confirmed the meeting took place without giving further details.

Photos by Shant Nalbandian

 

By Maayan Jaffe

Scouts with their colorful uniforms gather. More than 20 Armenian bishops and priests stand in Manger Square in Bethlehem to greet the Armenian Patriarch, His Beatitude Archbishop Nourhan Manougian. With the sounds of trumpets, bagpipes, and music, the voices of young choir singers and shouts of joy, the Armenian Christmas ceremony commences.

It’s 10 a.m. and the procession begins. By 10:30, Israeli police on horseback meet the group. By 2 p.m., the Patriarch will enter the Church of the Nativity and the first of three masses will begin in the Grotto of the Nativity, the place where Jesus was born.

“You cannot imagine,” says Father Avedis Ipradjian during an interview with JNS.org in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem. He describes hundreds of worshippers pouring into Bethlehem from Jaffa, Haifa, Ramle, and Jerusalem. They are greeted by Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, and several other important Christian, Muslim, and governmental dignitaries.

Special permits are required to allow for the mass pilgrimage of Israeli Armenian Christians to Bethlehem. Every year, families receive a sheet of paper to affix to their cars and they go unhindered. Today, members of the PA greet the procession. Before 1995, top Israeli officials took part in the ceremony.

“With all of the children there is such joy. The Armenian scouts play beautiful Christmas music,” says Ipradjian.

The ceremony takes more than 24 hours, only ending after a 7 a.m. final mass. Throughout the evening, unique Armenian Christmas hymns are sung and a special liturgy is followed from holy books used only on Christmas. The Patriarch blesses attendees and they eat and drink together between services.

“There are hundreds of people, but they will all be fed,” Ipradjian notes. “We don’t go to sleep. It is 29 to 30 hours of no sleep.”

It is a regal Christmas party and a meaningful mass, as one would expect of a classy religious celebration in the Holy Land. But there is something very different.

“We do it all alone,” says Ipradjian.

 

The Armenian Christmas in the Holy Land is not on Dec. 25, as one would expect. It is celebrated at a time different from Christmas celebrations all over the Western world. Armenian Christmas takes place in Israel from Jan. 18-19.

In the U.S., people are familiar with Christmas occurring from Dec. 24-25. That is the date of Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, which was first instituted in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. Today, the Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar and is also known as the Western calendar or the Christian calendar.

There is another calendar that some Christians still adhere to and that is the old calendar, which is the Julian calendar. Many Orthodox Christians annually celebrate Christmas Day from Jan. 6-7, which marks Jesus’s birth according to the Julian calendar.  In Israel, Greek Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas from Jan. 6-7 and the epiphany (commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi) on Jan. 19.

Dr. Sergio La Porta, Haig and Isabel Berberian Professor of Armenian Studies at California State University, Fresno, explains that the Julian calendar is 13 days off from the Gregorian. The Jan. 7 date on the Gregorian calendar corresponds with Dec. 25 on the Julian calendar, while Jan. 19 corresponds to Jan. 6 on the Julian calendar. Those such as the Greek Orthodox who observe Christmas on Jan. 7 are actually observing a Dec. 25 birth of Jesus. The Armenian Christians are celebrating a Jan. 6 birth of Jesus.

The Armenians in Israel celebrate the birth and the epiphany within the same two-day period, from the afternoon of Jan. 18 until midnight on Jan. 19.

“It is pretty amazing,” says La Porta. “I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it—anyone celebrate it like this—anywhere in the world.” La Porta lived in Israel and worked at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem during the early 2000s.

In Israel, the Armenians are under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. According to Ipradjian, there are around 8,000 Armenian Christians living in Israel. Around 4,000 of these individuals have roots in Israel from as early as the 4th or 5th century. The other 4,000 arrived in the last century, escaping the Armenian genocide in Turkey between 1915 and 1917 or coming as part of an intermarried family with the mass immigration of Jews to Israel from the former Soviet Union between 1992 and 1995, continuing until 2006.

In Jerusalem, amid the many significant churches—such as the Holy Sepulchre and St. Mary’s at the foot of the Mount of Olives—there are two large Armenian churches, with smaller ones mostly in northern Israel. The Cathedral of St. James in Jerusalem is one of the most ornately decorated places of worship in Israel, according to La Porta. It is nestled within a walled compound in the ancient Armenian Quarter, which sits just inside the Jaffa Gate. The Cathedral of St. James is dedicated to two martyred saints of that name—St. James the Great (son of Zebedee), one of the first apostles to follow Jesus, and St. James the Lesser (the brother of Jesus), who became the first bishop of Jerusalem.

“The Armenian tradition believes that within St. James are buried the head of St. James the Great and the body of St James the Less,” La Porta says.

The Church of the Holy Archangels is another important Armenian Church in Jerusalem. It is built on a less grandiose scale than St. James and serves as a parish church. But according to La Porta, during recent excavations and restorations, workers came across inscriptions that are believed to date back as far as the 13th century.

On Christmas, all the Armenians come—members of all churches attend the ceremony in Bethlehem, and after the completion of the morning mass return home to complete festivities locally. At St. James, participants dine on pilaf and fish, celebrating by the light of hanging oil lamps.

“You cannot imagine,” Ipradjian says once again. “This is Christmas. It is everything that for Christians it should be.”