Author: Kanayan Tamar

HRAPARAK: FAVORITE VACATION PLACE OF GOVERNORS

Tuesday,
November
25

‘Hraparak’ paper says that Armenian governors like to spend their
vacations in Jermuk. The governor of Aragatsotn province Sargis
Sahakyan who has for many years spent vacations in Jermuk did not
stay this year at Armenia Hotel owned by Ashot Arsenyan, but decided
to stay at Olympia Complex which was also the choice of Gegharkunik
regional governor Rafik Grigoryan.

In this way they demonstrated their solidarity with Edgar Ghazaryan,
Vayots Dzor governor, whose relations with Arsenyan has become so
strained that Ghazaryan started to avoid Arsenyan’s hotel and the
two men try not to attend the same events.

EEU MEMBERSHIP DEBATE: ARMENIAN LAWMAKERS DISCUSS TREATY ON JOINING RUSSIA-LED TRADE BLOC

News | 25.11.14 | 11:39

By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow reporter

Despite much criticism against Armenia’s decision on joining the
European Economic Union (EEU) the National Assembly parliamentary
hearings on the EEU agreement went on without heated discussions. The
Heritage faction was more active than others at the hearings.

Heritage faction MP Zaruhi Postanjyan said that the EEU is a political
agenda born to contrast the EU.

“Our membership will do no good to Armenia, because Russia has a big
problem in the North Caucasus immediately related to our security.

This country cannot be a reliable economic partner. There is an
obvious, screaming polarization between the oligarchs and the citizens
in this country. I do not even speak about millions of dubious affairs
of [Russian President Vladimir]Putin one of which was the Sochi Olympic
Games, when Russian citizens did not gain anything,” Postanjyan said.

Free Democrats Party Chairman, NA MP Khachatur Kokobelyan said that
starting from January 2 the Armenian Customs Code will not function,
however until now it has never been clarified what the risks for
Armenia are, meaning the factor of Western sanctions imposed on Russia.

“There are many problems and we are taking an inadequate step in
today’s developing world. Today the Russian ruble is falling and
if any businessman hoped to have 25-30 percent profit from this
membership, today it is impossible. Toward the New Year our wine and
brandy producers refuse to export products to Russia because it is
not clear where the Russian economy is going,” Kokobelyan said.

Meanwhile Deputy Minister of Economy Emil Tarasyan said that for
752 units of goods the EEU taxes will not be applied for the first
five years, and for more than 500 – they will work the way they do
in Armenia today.

“It is yet too early to say definitely that in five years goods will or
will not get more expensive. Because Russia is conducting negotiations
with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and has an obligation to
lower the tariff. We expect some taxes to lower,” Tarasyan said.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Shavarsh Kocharyan addressed
the peculiarities of the EEU-Armenia agreement, saying, “We are the
first to cross that road, there is no such prior experience, and it is
natural that more serious and diligent work is necessary. The EEU will
function only from January 1. The ratification has been completed in
all countries, and according to the May 29 agreement signed in Astana,
those countries will stop functioning as sovereign entities.”

According to the Deputy Minister, starting from January 1, when Armenia
becomes an EEU member, its relations with Georgia and Iran will not
suffer. In the EEU Committee Armenia will have three members by 2016
and they will provide one vote.

“This means if two countries make a decision they cannot do anything
without Armenia’s vote,” Kocharyan said.

Kokobelyan, meanwhile, described the EEU agreement not an opportunity,
but rather a challenge for Armenia and the Armenian economy.

“The question here is how you imagine any international company
wanting to invest in a region where the future is in a mist… Here
the question is not about being for or against Russia, and that
approach is silly… Here the question is where we are going to,
what achievements we will have, what problems we will face,” he said.

In response to the question on how Armenia can be a member of
a structure members of which are selling weapons to its military
archrival Azerbaijan, Deputy Foreign Minister Kocharyan answered: “The
EEU is not the platform where that is supposed to be discussed. The
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is another question
where Armenia is a member as well. We deal with an Economic Union
and such questions are easier to be discussed at other platforms.”

AT 13, ARMENIAN SAM SEVIAN BECOMES YOUNGEST EVER CHESS GRANDMASTER IN THE US

11:01, 25 Nov 2014

It’s a new low for chess’ highest achievement. On Saturday at the
Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, 13-year-old American
Armenian Sam Sevian completed the final requirement to earn the
title of Grandmaster, the highest title a chess player can attain,
Fox 2 News reorts.

He is now the youngest American Grandmaster in history. Sevian is
13 years, 10 months and 27 days. The previous record was 14 years,
11 months and 16 days set by Webster University student Ray Robson.

Sevian, who is from Boston, had already completed his three “norms”,
or superior performances in high-level tournaments, required by FIDE,
the World Chess Federation. He just needed to top a strength rating
of 2500 to earn the Grandmaster title. He was just 16 points shy of
the mark when he arrived in St. Louis Friday to compete in the CCSCSL
Invitational. He won his first four games giving him the points needed.

Once you earn Grandmaster status, you have it for life.

Armenian woman was entrusted with an important mission in Vienna

18:52 | November 22,2014 | BY THE WAY

On November 29 a festival-bazaar will be held in Austrian center of
Vienna, the money collected during the bazaar will be directed to the
implementation of different projects connected with children
throughout the world.

It is organized by United Nations Women’s Guild of Vienna, which
includes wives of ambassadors, diplomats as well as officials working
in various international organizations.

During these days the women work effortlessly in order to collect as
much money as possible during this charitable action. By the way,
money is invested in various projects of not only one but different
countries. Applications are submitted by local organizations. UNWG
Election of Board chooses the best ones.

Few days ago the election of 2015 Board new members was held. Nona
Tumasyan was also elected for this important position.

She moved from Yerevan to Vienna in 2012, when her husband started
working at International Atomic Energy Agency. Nona Tumasyan is a
physicist.

During last two years Nona took part in annual bazaars as a volunteer.
She hopes that as a member of the Board 2015 she will have more
contribution to the event held in support of children.

Armenian organizations can also submit an application for funding to
United Nations Women’s Guild of Vienna.

Syrian Christians: ‘Help us to stay – stop arming terrorists’

Christianity is being extinguished in the land of its birth and the
West is to blame, say Syria’s faithful

By Ruth Sherlock, Izraa, Deraa
3:00PM GMT 22 Nov 2014

Outgoing artillery shook St Elias church as the priest reached the end
of the Lord’s Prayer.

The small congregation kept their eyes on the pulpit, kneeling when
required and trying to ignore the regular thuds that rattled the
stained glass windows above them.

Home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, the hard
to reach Syrian agricultural town of Izraa has stood the comings and
goings of many empires over the centuries.

But as the country’s civil war creeps closer, it is threatening to
force the town’s Christians into permanent exile: never to return,
they fear.

“I have been coming to this church since I was born,” said Afaf Azam,
52. “But now the situation is very bad. Everyone is afraid. Jihadists
control villages around us.”

A Canaanite city that was mentioned in the Bible, Izraa has lived
through Persian and Arab rule, with St Elias’s Church being built in
542AD – 28 years before the birth of the Prophet Mohammed in Mecca.

During the past four years of Syria’s war, its Christian population
has largely stayed put, despite the war destroying much of the
surrounding province of Deraa.

In the last two weeks however, men from the al-Qaeda linked Jabhat
al-Nusra and other rebel groups have captured the nearby towns of Nawa
and al-Sheikh Maskin, bringing the frontline to less than two miles
away. They are now trying to assault Izraa.

Some of the rebels were vetted by the CIA as “moderate Muslims” and
subsequently trained and armed in Jordan, as part of a US-led program
to bolster a non-sectarian opposition to President Bashar-Assad.

Sunday service at the church of St Elias in Izraa. The pews are
sparsely populated because the frontlines are less than two miles
away. The sounds of outgoing shellfire regularly interrupts the
service. Photo: Ruth Sherlock/The Telegraph

But past experience has rendered such distinctions irrelevant to
Izraa’s Christians. After all, in Syria – and on this frontline – the
“moderates” continue to work in alliance with Nusra. And the conquest
of other Christian villages by the opposition has shown that more
moderate factions frequently do little to stop the jihadists imposing
their will.

“It’s simple,” said Father Elias Hanout, 38, who led the prayers at
Sunday’s service. “If the West wants Syria to remain a country for
Christian people, then help us to stay here; stop arming terrorists.”

The pews were sparsely occupied for last Sunday’s service in St Elias,
with the choir missing its tenors and altos. Mrs Azam, who led the
hymns, was reluctant to acknowledge the exodus at first, saying the
singers were absent “because of work”. But as the tempo of the falling
shells increased outside, she admitted: “People from here are leaving.
Many are applying to emigrate.”

Exactly how many Christians have left Syria is difficult to say, but
according to the Christian charity Open Doors, some 700,000 have left
the country, which equates to some 40 per cent of Syria’s pre-war
Christian population.

Christian leaders in the country warn of an exodus on the scale of
Iraq, where the 1.5 million-strong community that lived there prior to
the first Gulf War is now down to as little as a tenth of its former
size.

The threat to towns like Izraa will be uppermost in the mind of the
Pope during his visit to Turkey this week, amid warnings from
Christian leaders worldwide that their religion might soon lose its
foothold in the very region where it was born.

Looking around his 1,500 year old church, Mr Hanout warned: “In this
land the Word started. And if you delete the Word here, then
Christianity across the world will have no future.”

Evidence of the Church’s heritage is everywhere in Izraa’s narrow
streets. Across from St Elias, lies the chapel of St George, an
octagonal stone building that is said to be one of the most ancient
churches in the world. Dating to 515 AD, it was originally converted
from a pagan temple, and an inscription on its stone lintel reads:
“Hymns of cherubs replaced sacrifices offered to idols and God settles
here in peace, where people used to anger him.”

The church of St George is said to be the oldest continuously
inhabited church in syria and one of the oldest in the world. Photo:
Ruth Sherlock/The Telegraph

Today, Izraa remains a mixed down of both Christians and Muslims. And
in early 2011, when the uprising in Syria was defined by popular
protests rather than war, a small number of Christians had welcomed
the calls for regime change.

That changed when the Islamists began to dominate the rebel ranks.

“Nobody wants these men to advance,” said one resident said, who asked
not to be named. “They are frightened of their town being overrun by
Islamists,”

Instead Izraa’s Christians have sought solace in the government’s
defences, and increasingly blame the West for their suffering.

Mrs Azam added: “When evil comes you have to defend your country. We
love our government, just as we love our country.”

The picture in Izraa is one repeated across other Christian pockets of
Syria. Christian homes in Deir Ezzour, Raqqa, and in Hassakeh, home to
the Syriac Christians, the oldest denomination on earth, are all
devoid of their inhabitants. From Homs too, a major Christian
stronghold, many have left.

Map of Syria showing the location of Christian communities Image:
Telegraph Graphics

Some Christian residents initially remained in the Christian town of
Ghassaniyeh in northern Latakia province when it first fell to the
rebels in mid-2012. A few weeks later however, Islamic extremists took
control of the terrain. Christian men were kidnapped, captured or
forced to flee. They desecrated the church, ransacked homes and
murdered the priest.

Even in Bab Touma, the Christian quarter in the old city of Damascus,
residents told the Telegraph they were looking to leave.

Eva Astefan, 43, said she applied to the United Nations for asylum,
after her 14-year-old daughter, Adel was shot and killed by a rebel
sniper in 2012.

Eva Astefan, 43, is seeking asylum after her 14 year old daughter Adel
– in the photo – was shot by a sniper. Photo: Ruth Sherlock/The
Telegraph

The family had been driving down the highway back to Damascus after
attending the “Feast of the Holy Cross” in nearby Maaloula, when a
hail of bullets pierced their vehicle, one entering her daughter’s
skull who was sitting in the back.

Mrs Astefan’s nephew, Joseph Haroun, 29, said: “Its our country and we
love it, but we feel we have little choice.

“The terrorists – referring to the opposition rebels – kidnap and kill
our men and dangle the holy cross over their bodies.”

It is not just Christian’s who are suffering. The war in Syria is
political as well as sectarian, and, as it draws closer to Izraa, the
town’s schools and municipal offices have become impromptu shelters
for thousands of refugees from all sects.

Only a small number of the fighters near Izraa are from Nusra, with
many of those fighting coming from local Sunni families.

Abo Mohammed, a frail Sunni man in his early sixties – who spoke using
a pseudonym – told how of men who were his neighbours, fellow Sunnis,
killed his “whole family” in revenge because his son is serving in the
Syrian military.

“They entered our house in al-Sheikh Maskin and attacked my son, my
brother, my brother’s children and my nephew. They broke their arms
and legs and then threw them from the roof. I am the only one who
escaped,” he said, tears welling in his eyes.

It is precisely because al-Qaeda is weak in the south of Syria, that
the West and its allies have concentrated on sending weapons to rebels
in this area.

An elderly lady sits in an ancient shrine in Damascus’s old quarter
Bab Touma, where she has been coming since her birth. Photo: Ruth
Sherlock/The Telegraph

Residents from other sects have been able to return to their homes,
even when they are in rebel control, but Christians fear that if they
leave and their town is then captured by the opposition – even one led
by western trained groups – they will never be able to return.

So, they put their hopes in the Syrian military that is now protecting
the town. At the main entrance to the town are sandbagged army
checkpoints, plastered with posters of President Bashar al-Assad.
Military vehicles, laden with weapons, drive full-pelt across the
intersection down the road that marks the beginning of the frontline.

In Izraa, shop fronts have been painted in the Syrian flag to rouse
nationalist fervour, the graffiti of past anti-government protests has
been scrubbed out or painted over.

Instead, the sense is of having been abandoned by other “Christian
nations” such as America and Britain, no matter what the promises of
their leaders are.

As another priest in Izraa, who asked not to be named, put it: “Please
tell Mr Cameron, we don’t want any help or donations – but please,
equally, stop arming terrorists.”

Fundamentally, Armenia may be pro-Russian but it does not mean that it
may be pro-Putin, Richard Giragosian says

by Emmanuil Lazarian

ARMINFO
Sunday, November 23, 09:53

It is very important to understand that Armenia is not yet a garrison
state of Russia, Richard Giragosian, Director of the Regional Studies
Center, said at the Second South Caucasus Security Forum in Tbilisi.

He believes that fundamentally Armenia may be pro- Russian, but that
no longer means that it may be pro-Putin. According to Giragosian, the
danger for Armenia may be one more isolation and insignificance.
“Armenia may be trapped behind a new iron curtain Putin wants to
erect”, he said.

In his speech mostly aimed at criticizing the Russian policy and the
Eurasian choice, the expert ironically pointed out that Russia “is
good at losing friends and allies and making enemies”. In the contacts
with Armenia, “Putin takes Armenia too much for granted”. At the same
time, the backlash in Armenia is based on the fact that the Russian
policy is undermining the sovereignty and independence of Armenia, he
said.

When speaking of the ideas and ideals of the European Union and
Russia, Giragosian pointed out that no one has yet defined the Russian
ideal. Corruption is hardly to attract anyone, he said. He recalled
the more- for-more principle of the EU and suggested a less-for-less
principle, i.e. the price to pay for the opportunities.

Giragosian stressed that many in Armenia want to leave the country
because of the economic crisis and lack of democracy. The country has
begun a political transition. However, the fact that Armenia gave up
the European direction may result in deformation of the reforms.

In the meantime, the expert emphasized Armenia’s significant
achievements in the security sector reforms. He stressed the “Western
style” in the reforms, pointing out Armenia’s contribution to the
peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. This should be
empowered, encouraged and inspired, he said. Giragosian also pointed
out some positive trends in Armenian-Turkish normalization, which can
geopolitically “shake up the map” in the positive sense. This is the
trend that leads to more stability and security in the region.

As regards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the expert said that after
accession to the Eurasian Economic Union Armenia has become more
undefended and both countries’ presidents have become hostages of
their own policies. Neither of the sides can afford a large-scale
conflict but they are making short-term destructive movements. In this
context, the only beneficiary is Russia, Giragosian stressed.

Isis in Iraq: The trauma of the last six months has overwhelmed the
remaining Christians in the country

PATRICK COCKBURN

Sunday 23 November 2014

World View: After 2,000 years, a community will try anything –
including pretending to convert to Islam – to avoid losing everything

Two years ago Jalal Yako, a Syriac Catholic priest, returned to his
home town of Qaraqosh to persuade members of his community to stay in
Iraq and not to emigrate because of the violence directed against
them.

“I was in Italy for 18 years, and when I came back here my mission was
to get Christians to stay here,” he says. “The Pope in Lebanon two
years ago had established a mission to get Christians in the East to
stay here.”

Father Yako laboured among the Syriac Catholics, one of the oldest
Christian communities in the world, who had seen the number of
Christians in Iraq decline from over one million at the time of the
American invasion in 2003 to about 250,000 today. He sought to
convince people in Qaraqosh, an overwhelmingly Syriac Catholic town,
that they had a future in Iraq and should not emigrate to the US,
Australia or anywhere else that would accept them. His task was not
easy, because Iraqi Christians have been frequent victims of murder,
kidnapping and robbery.

But in the past six months Father Yako has changed his mind, and he
now believes that, after 2,000 years of history, Christians must leave
Iraq. Speaking at the entrance of a half-built mall in the Kurdish
capital Irbil where 1,650 people from Qaraqosh have taken refuge, he
said that “everything has changed since the coming of Daesh (the
Arabic acronym for Islamic State). We should flee. There is nothing
for us here.” When Islamic State (Isis) fighters captured Qaraqosh on
7 August, all the town’s 50,000 or so Syriac Catholics had to run for
their lives and lost all their possessions.

Many now huddle in dark little prefabricated rooms provided by the UN
High Commission for Refugees amid the raw concrete of the mall,
crammed together without heat or electricity. They sound as if what
happened to them is a nightmare from which they might awaken at any
moment and speak about how, only three-and-a-half months ago, they
owned houses, farms and shops, had well-paying jobs, and drove their
own cars and tractors. They hope against hope to go back, but they
have heard reports that everything in Qaraqosh has been destroyed or
stolen by Isis.Christians who fled Mosul pray at a church in Qaraqosh

Some have suffered worse losses. On the third floor of the shopping
mall in Irbil down a dark corridor sits Aida Hanna Noeh, 43, and her
blind husband Khader Azou Abada, who was too ill to be taken out of
Qaraqosh by Aida, with their three children, in the final hours before
it was captured by Isis fighters. The family stayed in their house for
many days, and then Isis told them to assemble with others who had
failed to escape to be taken by mini-buses to Irbil. As they entered
the buses, the jihadis stripped them of any remaining money, jewellery
or documents. Aida was holding her three-and-a-half month old baby
daughter, Christina, when the little girl was seized by a burly IS
fighter who took her away. When Aida ran after him he told the mother
to get back on the bus or he would kill her. She has not seen her
daughter since.

It is not the savage violence of Isis only that has led Father Yako to
believe that Christians have no future in Iraq. He points also to the
failure of both the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) to defend them against the jihadis. Christians in
Iraq have traditionally been heavily concentrated in Baghdad, Mosul
and the Nineveh Plain surrounding Mosul. But on 10 June some 1,300
Isis fighters defeated at least 20,000 Iraqi army soldiers and federal
police and captured Mosul. The army generals fled in a helicopter. In
mid-July Christians in the city were given a choice by Isis of either
converting to Islam, paying a special tax, leaving or being executed.
Almost all Christians fled the city.

Kurdish peshmerga moved into Qaraqosh and other towns and villages in
the Nineveh Plain. They swore to defend their inhabitants, many of
whom stayed because they were reassured by these pledges. Father Yako
recalls that “before Qaraqosh was taken by Daesh there were many
slogans by the KRG saying they would fight as hard for Qaraqosh as
they would for Irbil. But when the town was attacked, there was nobody
to support us.” He says that Christian society in Iraq is still
shocked by the way in which the Iraqi and Kurdish governments failed
to defend them.A Christian refugee prays in Irbil

Johanna Towaya, formerly a large farmer and community leader in
Qaraqosh, makes a similar point. He says that up to midnight on 6
August the peshmerga commanders were assuring the Syriac Catholic
bishop in charge of the town that they would defend it, but hours
later they fled. Previously, they had refused to let the Christians
arm themselves on the grounds that it was unnecessary. Ibrahim Shaaba,
another resident of the town, said that he saw the Isis force that
entered Qaraqosh early in the morning of 7 August and it was modest in
size, consisting of only 10 vehicles filled with fighters.

At first, IS behaved with some moderation towards the 150 Christian
families who, for one reason or another, could not escape. But this
restraint did not last; looting and destruction became pervasive. Mr
Towaya says that the Isis authorities in Mosul started “giving
documents to anybody getting married in Mosul to enable them to go to
Qaraqosh to take furniture [from abandoned Christian homes].”

As so many had fled, there are few who can give an account of how IS
behaved in their newly captured Christian town. But one woman, Fida
Boutros Matti, got to know all too well what Isis was like when she
and her husband had to pretend to convert to Islam in order to save
their lives and those of their children, before finally escaping.
Speaking to The Independent on Sunday in a house in Irbil, where they
are now living, she explained how she and her husband Adel and their
young daughter Nevin and two younger sons, Ninos and Iwan, twice tried
to flee but were stopped by Isis fighters.

“They took our money, documents and mobile phones and sent us home,”
she says. “After 13 days they knocked on our door and the men were
separated from the women. Thirty women were taken with their children
to one house and told they must convert to Islam, pay a tax or be
killed. We told them that since they had taken all our money, we could
not pay them.” Four days later, some fighters burst into the house
saying they would kill the women and the children if they did not
convert.

Soon afterwards, Mrs Matti was taken to Mosul in a car with three
other women and a guard who, she recalls, threw a grenade into a house
on the way to frighten them. In Mosul they were taken first to
al-Kindi prison, formerly an army camp, but did not enter it and then
their guard got a phone call to bring them to a house in the Habba
district of the city.The Matti family

In the house, she and the three other Christian women were put in one
room, next to another in which there were 30 Yazidi girls between 10
and 18 who were being repeatedly raped by the guards. Mrs Matti says
that “the Yazidi girls were so young that I worried about Nevin and
told the guards that she was eight years old though she is really 10”.

They told her that her husband, Adel, had converted to Islam. She
asked to speak to him on the phone, saying she would do whatever he
did. They spoke, and agreed that they had no choice but to convert if
they wanted to survive.

When they appeared before an Islamic court in Mosul to register their
conversion, their three children were given new, Islamic names: Aisha,
Abdel-Rahman and Mohammed. They went to live in a house in a Sunni
Muslim district and from there – here the husband and wife are
circumspect about what exactly happened – they secured a phone and
contacted relatives in Irbil. They said that they needed to take one
of their children for medical treatment in Irbil, and, once there,
they had a pre-arranged meeting with a driver who took them by a
roundabout route through Kirkuk to the protection of the KRG.

The trauma of the last six months has been overwhelming for the
remaining Christians in Iraq. The Chaldean Archbishop of Irbil, Bashar
Warda, heads an episcopal commission to help displaced Christians whom
he says number 125,000, or half the total remaining Christian
population. Unlike other displaced people in Iraq, the Christians are
mostly cared for by the churches. He says that there will always be a
few Christians remaining in Iraq, but overall “they have lost their
trust in the land. Some 80 or 90 are leaving every day for Turkey,
Lebanon and Jordan.” Others would go if they had money and visas.

Mounting persecution since 2003 and now the final calamity of Isis
taking Mosul and the Nineveh Plain has convinced many that they can no
longer stay. The archbishop suspects that, even if IS is driven back
and Christians can return to their homes, half of them will only stay
long enough to sell their property. Almost exactly a hundred years
after the Armenian Christians in Turkey were slaughtered or driven
into exile, the end has come for the Christian community of Iraq.
“Have no doubt,” concludes Archbishop Warda, “that here is massacre,
here is a tragedy.”

Iraq’s Christian heritage

The Christian communities in Iraq can trace their history back to the
early days of their faith. Most are Chaldeans, a small sect which is
autonomous from Rome but which recognises the authority of the Pope.
There are an estimated 500,000 ethnic Assyrians indigenous to northern
Iraq, south-east Turkey, north-east Syria and north-west Iran. This
group is so ancient that some of its members still speak Aramaic, the
language of the New Testament.

The country’s other major Christian community is also Assyrian, and
its Ancient Church of the East, having embraced Christianity in the
first century AD, is believed to be the oldest Christian denomination
in Iraq.

In addition to these groups, there are small communities of Syrian
Catholics, Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholic Christians, as
well as Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities.

Jamie Merrill

ROMANS-MUSIQUE ARMENIENNE
La Musique et le chant arménien à l’honneur à Romans (Drôme) avec le
chanteur d’Arménie Robert Sargsyan accompagné d’un orchestre de jeunes
musiciens d’Ashtarak – Photos

Vendredi 21 novembre à la Cité de la Musique de Romans (Drôme),
l’Académie de danses et musiques traditionnelles arméniennes présidée
par Levon Chatikyan, présentait un >. Près de
200 personnes assistaient à ce spectacle. La soirée vit la prestation
du chanteur d’Arménie Robert Sargsyan et d’un orchestre de jeunes
musiciens venus d’Ashtarak en Arménie. Les danses des jeunes enfants
et adolescents de l’Académie de danses folkloriques arméniennes de
Valence furent accueillies par de nombreux applaudissements. Tout
comme la prestation des jeunes musiciennes prodiges au kanon ou au
duduk. A noter également la très belle prestation des jeunes
chanteuses Chaké Douneyan et Ankiné Rastklan.

Krikor Amirzayan texte et reportage-photo à Romans

dimanche 23 novembre 2014,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

FRANCE-GENOCIDE ARMENIEN
L’humoriste Mathieu Madénian >

L’humoriste Mathieu Madénian sera de passage à Bourg-Lès-Valence pour
un spectacle ce samedi 29 novembre au Thétre Le Rhône. Notre confrère
> (du 23 novembre) l’a interrogé avant ce passage
dans la région de Valence.

A la question >,
Mathieu Madénian répond >

> :

Green activists again find violations at small hydro power plants
(HPP) “Khachaghbyur-1” and “Khachaghbyur-2”

by Karina Manukyan
Friday, November 21, 17:35

The Pan-Armenian Environmental Front has again revealed violations at
the small hydro power plants (HPP) “Khachaghbyur-1” and
“Khachaghbyur-2,” the Organization says in a statement provided to
ArmInfo. Activists who have visited Tavush region lately found out
that the fish passes at both the HPPs were dry. In addition, the
activists alarm that Megaenergy LLC that is exploiting
“Khachaghbyur-2” HPP has again cut off the flow of the River of
Paghjur. The activists informed the Nature Protection Ministry of the
violations.

“In 1.5 hours, some people approached the HPP and resumed the flow.
So, the employees of the Nature Protection Inspectorate would see
quite different picture when arriving at the spot,” the Pan-Armenian
Environmental Front says in the statement.

The activists call on the Ministry of Nature Protection to reckon with
the facts and violations revealed by the public when adopting
decisions on violations, as well as to raise the fines and other
punishment measures against the economic entities that repeatedly
violate relevant rules and laws.

The Organization recalls that the companies exploiting
“Khachaghbyur-1” and “Getik-4” HPPs were fined in the amount of
100,000 drams each after alarms of activists in August. Violations at
“Khachaghbyur-2” were neglected then.

Meanwhile, public in different regions of Armenia is outraged at some
small HPP construction projects. To that end, large-scale protest
actions are held regularly. Experts say small HPPs in Armenia threaten
the ecosystems.

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