Author: Kanayan Tamar

Iran’s President Donates $340,000 to Armenian Hospital in Tehran

Monday, December 30th, 2013

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani visited Armenian families for Christmas

Visit Armenian families.

YEREVAN (Combined Sources) – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has donated
10 billion Iranian Rials (approx. $350,000) to an Armenian community
hospital based in Tehran, the IRNA News Agency reported.

His advisor, Hossein Fereydoon, who visited the hospital, said that a
co-existence of Muslims and non-Muslims is a good example for all the
countries in the region.

Meanwhile, Rouhani also paid what is being dubbed as a Christmas visit
to Iranian-Armenian families whose members had fought in the Iranian
Army, repooted Armenpress, quoting sources at the Iranian Embassy in
Armenia.

Rouhani first visited the Movsisyan’s family. The father and son of
the Movsisyan’s family `sacrificed their lives for the sake of the
Islamic revolution and protection of the homeland.’

The Iranian president expressed well wishes to the family members and
highlighted the significant role the religious minorities played
during the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war.

Among other things the Iranian President noted that the Muslims
consider Jesus Christ a prophet of mercy and kindness.

`This is a good occasion to express our gratitude to the families of
the victims and honor their self-sacrifice and resistance,’ said
Rouhani noted.

The Prelate of the Armenian Church in Isfahan, Archbishop Babken
Charian said Monday that the religious minorities’ right to have
representation in Iran’s parliament is an indication to the freedom of
speech in the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to IRNA, Archbishop Charian said Iran is a symbol of peaceful
coexistence of followers of divine religions.

If PM does not understand, he has experienced degradation of
rationality – Armenia’s second president

December 30, 2013 | 12:15

YEREVAN. – In an interview with2rd.am, Armenian second President
Robert Kocharyan commented on PM Tigran Sargsyan’s statement, at a
recent press conference, that the `construction balloon’ as exploded
in Armenia.

Kocharyan specifically said the following in the interview:

`The PM’s response to the journalist’s question about the causes of
the continuing decline in the volume of construction in the republic
caught my attention, since the PM’s explanation had nothing in common
with reality. I will try to answer that question myself.

`Why is the volume of construction steadily declining for five
consecutive years?

`1) The mass exodus of the people from Armenia. The potential buyers
of new apartments are leaving [thereby] reducing the demand in the
real estate market. The drop in the real estate demand and price has
undermined the investment charm of the construction industry.

`2) The significant deterioration of the mortgage terms. Few
intelligent people would dare to use such a `mortgage.’ And the banks
are not to be blamed in this. Also add the substantial growth in the
poor population to all this.

`3) The mood of our citizenry. Apathy, the sense of hopelessness,
[and] the lack of faith in the country’s prospect are becoming a
stable factor in the conduct and motivation of the people. A person,
who plans to leave, never acquires real estate in the country, or the
city, which he wants to leave. The same also applies to launching a
new business.

`And [all] this is not the fault of the previous government. The
[economic] crisis likewise has no connection for a long time. So, it
is impossible to evade accountability here. If the PM does not
understand this, he has experienced a degradation of rationality. If
he is lying and maneuvering while understanding [this], this is an
ethical degradation. In any case, a low-worth PM is an impermissible
luxury for the country.’

Le Monde, France
24 décembre 2013 mardi

Armen Petrossian, le caviar dans le sang

Laurence Girard

Le directeur de la célèbre maison de produits de luxe ne veut pas
entendre parler de démocratisation de son produit phare

Armen Petrossian jubile. Pour les fêtes de fin d’année 2013, c’est lui
qui, une fois encore, a créé l’événement au rayon du luxe
gastronomique avec une boîte de 10 kilos de caviar ! Mieux, avec une
trilogie, déclinée en 10 kilos, 5 kilos et 2,5 kilos, à la manière des
matriochkas, comme le suggère ce russophile invétéré.

D’ailleurs, il n’a pas hésité à feuilleter le grand livre de
l’histoire russe pour les baptiser ” Terrible Ivan “, ” Juste
Alexandre ” et ” Grande Catherine “. M. Petrossian prend la pose
devant le ” Terrible Ivan “, son éternel noeud papillon virant au bleu
roi, couleur emblématique de la célèbre boîte, pour promouvoir sa
version XXL.

Il a entendu les critiques, sur le côté provocant de son idée, mais
revendique, de par ses origines slaves et caucasiennes, tous les excès
et superlatifs liés au caviar. ” En 2006, j’étais le premier à
proposer une boule de caviar de 12 grammes. En 2013, je propose la
boîte de 10 kilos. Que s’est-il passé entre-temps ? Est-ce l’ge de
raison ? “, dit-il en une de ces boutades dont il truffe ses propos.

Ce contre-pied a pris de court ses concurrents. ” C’est une idée
formidable, J’aurais bien aimé l’avoir “, concède Ramon Mac- Crohon,
directeur général de Caviar Kaspia, l’une des maisons qui, comme
Prunier ou Petrossian, font rimer luxe avec caviar et tradition. Pour
comprendre cet exercice de déstabilisation, qu’un lutteur dont il a la
carrure ne renierait pas, il faut s’arrêter sur le mot que M.
Petrossian déteste tout particulièrement : démocratisation. Un mot
prononcé par quelques nouveaux venus sur ce marché.

Pas question, pour ce perfectionniste, de faire descendre les précieux
oeufs d’esturgeon de leur piédestal. Un pinacle bti en France à
partir des années 1920, lorsque le père et l’oncle d’Armen Petrossian
ont jeté l’ancre à Paris.

Pourtant, rien ne prédestinait l’avocat et l’architecte à ce destin de
négociant. Si ce n’est les dramatiques événements qui contraignirent
les Arméniens à fuir les persécutions. En installant leur boutique
boulevard de Latour-Maubourg, dans le 7e arrondissement, au coeur du
Paris des ministères, ils firent découvrir aux Parisiens ce mets prisé
à la cour des tsars.

Surtout, ils surent nouer des relations fructueuses avec les autorités
soviétiques pour développer le commerce du caviar, mais aussi d’autres
produits de l’empire soviétique : conserves de crabe Chatka, salami
Pick hongrois, conserves de poisson, vodkas, miels, fromages

Lorsqu’il parle de ses racines, M. Petrossian, véritable conteur
oriental, est intarissable. Il évoque les villes du Caucase, grandes
cités marchandes comme Tiflis, l’actuelle Tbilissi, d’où était
originaire sa famille paternelle, mais aussi Bakou, où sa famille
maternelle avait fait fortune dans le commerce du pétrole et déjà du
caviar.

Il raconte les soirées de son enfance à Paris, quand les langues
géorgienne, arménienne, russe et française se mêlaient autour de la
table familiale, toujours ouverte, regroupant poètes, hommes
d’affaires, famille ou amis. Fidèle à ses origines, il a noué des
liens forts avec l’Arménie, où il se rend régulièrement.

En choisissant de faire de leur nom une marque, Mouchegh et Melkoum,
le père et l’oncle d’Armen, ont mêlé l’histoire de l’entreprise et
celle de la famille. Et pourtant, à l’époque, dans
l’entre-deux-guerres, certains s’étonnaient de ce choix, alors que le
sentiment anti-étrangers poussait nombre d’émigrants à modifier leur
patronyme, comme le raconte M. Petrossian.

Aujourd’hui, le nom s’affiche en rouge sur la façade verte de la
célèbre boutique de Latour-Maubourg. Cette vitrine de la tradition, où
les clients se pressent avant Noël, heureux de retrouver les membres
de la famille fondatrice, venus prêter main-forte derrière le
comptoir, est le point d’ancrage immuable d’une entreprise qui a connu
un parcours plus qu’agité.

L’effondrement de l’Union soviétique fit tanguer le bateau. ” Quand
j’ai commencé, 95 % de nos produits étaient d’origine soviétique, et
nous représentions 1 % de leurs exportations “, explique celui qui est
entré dans la maison familiale en 1973, après une incursion dans la
banque, sa maîtrise en sciences de gestion en poche.

Lorsqu’il en prend les rênes, en 1992, la crise est à son paroxysme.
Les sources d’approvisionnement se tarissent. Celles du crabe Chatka,
mais surtout celles du précieux caviar. Les populations de la mer
Caspienne se ruent sur le filon, le marché noir explose, les prix
plongent. ” A Noël 1994, le caviar se trouvait en promotion à 700
francs le kilo “, raconte M. Petrossian, très vite conscient de la
mise en péril de l’esturgeon sauvage de la mer Caspienne et des
risques pour le négoce du caviar causés par ce braconnage intensif.

Il négocie alors un changement de cap, plongeant l’entreprise dans les
eaux du caviar d’élevage, auquel il va donner ses lettres de noblesse.
La décision d’interdiction de toute commercialisation du caviar
sauvage en 1998 lui donne raison. ” Il se produisait alors 500 kilos
de caviar d’élevage en France et aux Etats-Unis, contre 130 tonnes
aujourd’hui. Le caviar sauvage est, lui, passé de 300 tonnes à zéro. ”

Infatigable voyageur, il va sélectionner des fermes d’élevage
d’esturgeons dans le monde entier, des Etats-Unis à la Chine, de la
France à l’Italie, en passant par la Bulgarie ou Israël. Et surtout
mettre en avant ce qu’il considère comme étant le coeur de son
savoir-faire : l’art de l’affinage.

Même si le caviar représente toujours près de 40 % des 40 millions
d’euros de chiffre d’affaires de Petrossian, qui revendique une part
de marché mondial de 15 %, les activités ont été diversifiées. Dans
son usine d’Angers, la société produit les poissons fumés qui font
aussi sa réputation.

M. Petrossian a aussi oeuvré à l’internationalisation de l’entreprise,
à la création de restaurants et à la reprise en main de la
distribution avec l’ouverture de boutiques, le développement de la
vente sur Internet et sur catalogue.

Des aventures qu’il partage avec ses deux fils. Mikaël, qui a lancé
Yoom, l’enseigne de dimsums bouchées à la vapeur chinoises à Paris,
vient de se voir confier le prestigieux restaurant ouvert au-dessus de
la boutique de Latour-Maubourg. Son frère, lui, travaille aux
Etats-Unis, où la maison a ouvert boutiques et restaurants à New York,
Los Angeles et Las Vegas.

” Moi, je vis pour l’éternité “, confie le sexagénaire débordant
d’énergie. Il espère revoir sur les tables des fêtes du caviar de la
Caspienne, alors qu’il suit de près un projet de repeuplement
d’esturgeons.

Nagorno-Karabakh president meets with students, teachers of Hatsi village school

16:27 – 29.12.13

President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Republic Bako
Sahakyan held a meeting on Sunday with students and teachers of the
basic school in the village of Hatsi, Martouni region.

The NKR leader congratulated them on the coming New Year and Christmas
holidays. President Sahakyan wished the young people of Artsakh
success in education and life, and expressed the confidence that they
would continue their fathers’ work.

Presidential Adviser Grigory Gabrielyants, NKR Minister of Education
and Science Slava Asryan and other officials took part in the meeting.

Armenian News – Tert.am

How Armenian Genocide impacts Turkey’s Jewish community

Published: Sunday December 29, 2013

Rifat Bali. Image via tundratabloids.com.

Related Articles

Rifat Bali examines fate of Turkish Jews and impact on Armenian
Genocide recognition

TORONTO – Mr. Rifat Bali, a noted scholar and author of Model Citizens
of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party Period, deals
with the treatment of the Jewish community in Turkey since 1950.

His studies deal also with the period 1923-1949, an era that includes
the Varlik Vergisi (wealth tax law, November 1942), a law which ruined
many Jewish families financially. Balidetails the process by which the
Jewish community strived to accommodate the demands of state and
society to become “model citizens.” Jews were pressured to speak
Turkish in public and Turkify their names. Yet, no matter how much
they strived, they were always subject to second-class rights,
intimidation, anti-Semitism, and violence.

Bali demonstrates that all the non-Muslim minorities in
Turkey-Armenians, Greeks and Jews-have faced similar challenges in
their relationship with the Turkish state and society. Greeks, for
example, underwent a terrible pogrom in 1955. They all had to deal
with issues of maintaining their language, religion, culture and
identity in a society that demands total conformity, but they
responded to the challenges in different ways. Thus, the book gives
insight into the challenges of all minorities in Turkey today.

The opportunity arose for the Jewish community to become “useful” to
the state by using their influence with Israel and the Jewish
political lobby in the US to advance Turkish interests. In particular,
they worked against Armenian and Greek interests in Washington,
particularly to thwart efforts at gaining recognition of the Armenian
Genocide in the US.

The Zoryan Institute’s interest in Bali’s work arose for three
reasons. First, its relevance to the Jewish community in Turkey and
the US, as the Turkish State denial of the Armenian Genocide has been
an important element in Turkish-Jewish and Turkish-Israeli relations.
It is also an important obstacle in relations between Armenia and
Israel. Even though many Jewish scholars affirm the Armenian Genocide,
the official position of the State of Israel is that Armenians did not
experience anything comparable to the Holocaust, and therefore it is
not a genocide.

Second, the human rights aspects of the minorities in Turkey,
particularly the treatment of the Jewish community, both before and
after their instrumentalization by the Turkish State in its denial of
the Armenian Genocide, as Zoryan is a human rights organization with
educational and publication programs in that area.

Third, to show a Diaspora could be used by a host state as an
instrument of its foreign policy, as Zoryan is also devoted to the
study of Diaspora and Diaspora-Homeland relations.

Rifat N. Bali is a graduate of the distinguished École Pratique des
Hautes Études at the Sorbonne in Paris. Since 1996, he has been an
independent scholar specializing in the history of Turkish Jewry and
is an associate member of the Alberto-Benveniste Centre for Sephardic
Studies and the Sociocultural History of the Jews in Paris. Has
written or edited 28 books in English, French and Turkish, dealing
primarily with Jewish history and society within the Republic of
Turkey. He has also written numerous articles in newspapers and
scholarly journals, and contributed chapters to scholarly collections
and encyclopedias. He is the winner of the Alberto Benveniste Research
Award (Paris) for 2009 for his publications on Turkish Jewry and of
the Yunus Nadi award (Istanbul) in 2005 and 2008 for original research
in the social sciences.

One may view Bali’s lecture in Toronto at

Interview with Rifat N. Bali, author of Model Citizens of the State:
The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party Period (Fairleigh Dickinson
University Press, 2012)

In anticipation of his upcoming North American book tour, Rifat N.
Bali, born in 1948 in Istanbul, an independent scholar specializing in
the history of Turkish Jews and an associate member of the
Alberto-Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and the Sociocultural
History of the Jews (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes/CNRS/Université
Paris-Sorbonne) allowed us to ask him some questions regarding his
book, his research, and his motivations. Bali is the winner of the
Alberto Benveniste Research Award for 2009 for his publications on
Turkish Jewry. The interview was conducted via email by Deborah Hay,
Outreach Coordinator at the Zoryan Institute in Toronto, Canada and
concluded on Oct. 3, 2013.

DH: Today I’m, very lucky to be interviewing Rifat N. Bali, author of
Model Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party
Period. My first question to you is can you tell us a little bit about
what is this book covers?

RB: Very briefly, the book provides an exposé of the treatment of the
Jewish community in Turkey from 1950 to the present, their fight
against anti-Semitism, the struggle for their constitutional rights,
and the attitude of the Turkish state and society towards these
problems.

DH: What was your motivation to do research in this field and to write
this book?

RB: There are a number of factors which triggered my starting to
research the history of the Jews in the Turkish Republic. They can all
be summed up in the fact that I was tired of listening to and reading
the rosy narrative that was repeated over and over by the leaders of
the Turkish Jewish community, as well as by Turkish intellectuals,
politicians and historians. The same narrative was also predominant
outside Turkey. I wanted to discover what was really behind this
rhetoric.H: What was the reaction of the Jewish community in Turkey
towards the changes that you describe in your book, brought on by
Ataturk? Did those changes in policy make life easier for Jews in
Turkey, or harder?

RB: After the War for Independence, the founders of the fledgling
republic declared themselves prepared to accept the country’s
remaining non-Muslims as full Turkish citizens, provided that they
adopted the Turkish language, Turkish culture, and the principle of
“Turkishness.” A list of ten steps specified what this entailed. It
proved to be very difficult for the minority communities Istanbul to
fit into the mold of the “model” Turkish citizen as defined by Kemal
Ataturk, and regardless of the official government policy toward the
Jewish community, the anti-Semitic attitudes of the majority Muslim
population in Turkish society were ever present.

DH: Were there any significant global events that impacted the life of
Jews in Turkey?

RB: There were three pivotal events outside of Turkey that did just
that: various military clashes and wars between Israel, its neighbours
and the Palestinian organizations which resulted in bursts of
anti-Semitism in Turkey, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and the
movement for international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The
Turkish government in the 1970s reversed its policy of prohibiting
minorities’ links to outside organizations by encouraging the Jews of
Turkey to connect with American Jewish organizations, once it realized
the importance of American Jewish political lobby groups. Since then,
Turkey has adopted a policy of using the American Jewish lobby against
the Greek lobby to lift the Cyprus related arms embargo, and against
the Armenian lobby to further its genocide denial policies. There
were, and are, efforts to distance the American Jewish community from
the Armenian community by propagandizing that the Armenian Genocide is
a non-truth, or that whatever may have happened in 1915 it cannot be
compared to the Jewish Holocaust and therefore cannot be called
genocide, and that Turks have been very tolerant and friendly to Jews
since their expulsion from Spain in 1492.

DH: Have those efforts been successful? Has the American Jewish lobby
really been influenced by the Turkish government to serve the
interests of Turkey?

RB: Yes, those efforts have been successful so far. With this new
policy, successive Turkish governments have obtained the cooperation
of Turkish Jews to convince the American Jewish organizations to
actively support pro-Turkish measures, including fighting against
Armenian Genocide resolutions in the US Congress, excluding the
Armenian Genocide from the Holocaust Museums in Washington and Los
Angeles, prohibiting papers on the Armenian Genocide from being
presented at Israeli Holocaust conferences, prohibiting the showing of
Armenian Genocide related movies in US and Israel, et cetera.

DH: Could you explain how those Turkish governments have managed to
accomplish this?

RB: Some of the tactics they have used include financial assistance,
economic concessions and other privileges, but also veiled threats
that lack of cooperation by the Jewish organizations, the State of
Israel, or Turkish-Jewish leaders would jeopardize the safety and
economic well-being of the Jews in Turkey.

DH: Is the experience of the Jewish community’s experience in Turkey unique?

RB: All the non-Muslim minorities in Turkey-Armenians, Greeks and
Jews-have faced similar challenges in their relationship with the
state and society. They all had to deal with issues of maintaining
their language, religion, culture and identity in a society that
demands total conformity, but they have responded to the challenges in
different ways.

DH: What do you hope to achieve through your research and through the
publication of this book?

RB: I hope that at last the English-speaking public will have the
opportunity to read the “real” story of Turkish-Jewish relations,
instead of an embellished one. I do not believe that the book will
have any sort of negative impact on Israeli-Turkish and/or
Turkish-Jewish relations. Real politics and strategic concerns always
dominate and even embellish past history.

DH: What do you see as the future for minorities in Turkey?

RB: I believe that they will be used more and more as a cosmetic
element for giving the impression that Turkey is a multicultural
country where non-Muslims live peacefully.

DH: Why did you choose to bring this book to the Zoryan Institute, for
work on the publication and now for hosting the international book
tour of Model Citizens?

RB: This book serves as a valuable case study of how Realpolitik in
domestic politics and foreign relations distorts the truth and how
coercion by the powerful contributes to the violation of collective
human rights. It will be of interest to academics and students of
non-Muslim minorities in Turkey, political lobbyists in America,
Israeli policy-makers, as well as to the Jewish, Greek and Armenian
communities around the world. Because the mission of the Zoryan
Institute is to serve the cause of scholarship and to raise public
awareness relating to issues of universal human rights, genocide, and
diaspora-homeland relations, this book is really a perfect fit.

DH: What has been the reaction to this book in Turkey?

RB: In a review of the Turkish edition, Turkish journalist and human
rights activist Ay?e Gunaysu described the book as “groundbreaking …
unearthing facts and first-hand accounts that unmistakably illustrate
how the Turkish establishment blackmailed the leaders of the Jewish
community-and through them Jewish organizations in the United
States-to secure their support of the Turkish position against the
Armenians’ campaign for genocide recognition.” Gunaysu noted that,
“The book also offers rich material about how Turkish diplomats and
semi-official spokesmen of Turkish policies, while carrying out their
lobbying activities, threatened both Israel and the US by indicating
that if the Jewish lobby failed to prevent Armenian initiatives
abroad, Turkey might not be able to guarantee the security of Turkish
Jews.”

DH: That’s a positive reaction I’m sure, but I also wonder if you are
not worried by issues such as the assassination of Hrant Dink and the
harassment of journalists and writers, such as Orhan Pamuk. Do you
believe that your research puts you in any personal danger?

RB: No, but regardless, it is something I feel I have to do.

DH: Mr. Bali, thank you for your time and for answering these questions.

Rifat Bali was on a book tour for Model Citizens beginning October 14,
2013, visiting New York, Boston, Montreal and Toronto. For details
about the book tour please visit

Economists assess Armenian government’s work in 2013

11:28 – 29.12.13

Armenian National Congress (ANC) member, economist Vahagn Khachatryan,
Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) member
Artsvik Minasyan and economic Vardan Bostanjyan commented on Armenian
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s press conference on December 27.

They believe the government work has failed this year.

In the context of the latest developments related to the
Armenian-Russian gas agreements, Vahagn Khachatryan said that the
Armenian government deceived society. He does not take the
government’s statements seriously – especially the statements made at
press conferences.

`He [the premier] should have been asked about investments or how they
happened to fail to consider the rise in energy carrier prices in the
2013 macroeconomic indicators, when they were well aware of it. So I
understand the only aim was to organize a show for journalists,’ he
said.

The premier should have made assessments of the laws of oligarchy in
Armenia’s judiciary and economy and spoken of how investments could be
made in Armenia in 2014, Khachatryan said.

Also, the global crisis cannot be cited as a reason for Armenia’s low
GDP and lower wages as this year has been successful for the world
economy.

The government should have spoken of its failures rather than of `achievements.’

For his part, Artsvik Minasyan dwelt on the problem of funded pensions
and sale of ArmRusgasprom shares.
According to him, in speaking of the pension reforms the premier
refuted President Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that funded pensions will
put an end to the principle of successive generations.

`I do not share the opinion that the model is fair and will save
Armenia. It is not so. International experience, as well as the major
challenges to our economy, shows that we have to implement system
reforms only by enabling our citizens to make their own choice,’ he
said.

The MP noted that the proposed system will reduce people’s incomes and
boost further emigration with all of its negative consequences.

With respect to the premier’s statement that the sale of
ArmRusgasprom’s shares to Gazprom allows Armenia to import gas at a
lower price, Minasyan said that it is not so as well.

`It does not at all prove that Armenia will be able to import gas at
the same price for the coming five years because the agreement
envisages price revisions at least once a year,’ Minasyan said.

Vardan Bostanjyan said that the premier-cited figures were the results
of `certain methods.’ In any case, they had no positive effect on the
population not only in 2013, but also during previous years.

`We have large-scale emigration, widespread poverty, gas consumption
problems. And the planned introduction of funded pensions has produced
negative effects. We also hardly realize the advisability of joining
different unions,’ he said.

ARMENIE
La construction de la route Vardenis-Martakert va commencer en Janvier 2014

La construction de la route longue de 116 km entre Vardenis et
Martakert qui reliera l’Arménie avec le Haut-Karabagh débutera en
Janvier 2014 a annoncé le Fonds Hayastan.

L’autoroute devrait être une aubaine pour le développement
socio-économique du Haut-Karabagh et de l’Arménie en même temps. Ce
lien direct deviendra une seconde ligne de vie entre le Nord de l’
Arménie et le nord su Karabagh permettant de réduire sensiblement les
temps de voyage, de stimuler l’économie des collectivités du Karabagh
le long de son parcours, de stimuler les liens entre les communautés,
et d’améliorer considérablement l’accès géographique pour la mise en
`uvre d’initiatives de développement local.

Actuellement, le seul lien terrestre entre le Karabagh et l’Arménie
est la route Goris-Stepanakert.

dimanche 29 décembre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

LIVRE
A. Asso, Le Thétre du génocide. Shoah et génocides arménien, rwandais
et bosniaque

Annick Asso, Le Thétre du génocide. Shoah et génocides arménien,
rwandais et bosniaque

Préface par Marie-Claude Hubert

Paris : Honoré Champion, coll. `Littérature de notre siècle`, 2013.

EAN 9782745326904.

-544 p.

-Prix 95EUR

Présentation de l’éditeur :

Le Thétre du génocide rend compte de toute une orientation du thétre
engagé dans la représentation et la dénonciation des crimes de
génocide depuis la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle. Oscillant du
thétre-récit au thétre documentaire, du thétre de la monstration au
thétre de la survivance, il offre un espace à la mémoire collective
et individuelle, rend la parole aux victimes, donne un visage au
bourreau et interpelle sans relche le spectateur.

Annick Asso est agrégée de Lettres Modernes et docteur ès Lettres et
Arts du spectacle. Elle enseigne à l’Université Paul
Valéry-Montpellier III.

dimanche 29 décembre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

Box Score
Dec 28 2013

LA Galaxy, Armenia’s FC Shirak in February friendly

The LA Galaxy will meet Armenian champion FC Shirak in a preseason
friendly on February 8, 2013. (Photo: German Alegria)

CONCACAF.com CARSON, California – December 28, 2013 – The LA Galaxy
announced Monday that it will host reigning Armenian Premier League
champion FC Shirak in a friendly at StubHub Center on February 8. It
is the first confirmed match of the Galaxy’s 2014 preseason schedule
and will be the first-ever meeting between the two sides.

Shirak currently sits in second place with a 6-4-4 record for 22
points through the first half of the 2013-14 Premier League season.
Based in the city of Gyumri in the northwest of Armenia, Shirak is led
by Ivorian midfielder Serge Deble, who is tied for the league lead in
goals over the first half of the season with nine. Shirak, who won the
2013 Armenian Super Cup and reached the 2013-14 UEFA Champions
League’s second qualifying round of the.

The Galaxy will be preparing for its Major League Soccer opener on
March 8 against visiting Real Salt Lake, as well as its CONCACAF
Champions League quarterfinal series against Mexico’s Club Tijuana.

Hovnanian Foundation to fully fund Birthright Armenia

Published: Saturday December 28, 2013

Founder Edele Hovnanian catching up with volunteers and alums in the
Yerevan headquarters of Birthright Armenia.

YEREVAN – Transitions come and transitions go. And then some
transitions are large enough to change the entire playing field. It is
the latter for Birthright Armenia. Since sponsoring its very first
volunteer group to Armenia in 2004, the organization’s active alumni
base is up to 800+, representing 32 different countries, and its donor
base hit 1,500. Birthright’s founder, Edele Hovnanian, who has covered
about 50% of the organization’s annual operating budget since its
inception, explains something big is in store for the organization.

“As we are closely approaching our 10th anniversary, I could think of
nothing more fitting or meaningful than announcing to the Birthright
Armenia team that I had secured a commitment from our family
foundation to cover 100% of the annual operating costs of this program
come January 1, 2014, and moving forward,” she shared.

Birthright Armenia has been actively fundraising support from the
general public for the last eight years. The organization’s
forward-thinking vision and mission attracted the attention and
support of thousands of people on multiple continents who understood
the post-independence reality on the ground in Armenia and the
importance of youth engagement. “We cannot express our thanks enough
to our team of supporters who advocated for our work and contributed
generously of their time and financial resources to help make
Birthright Armenia the success it is. We’ve enjoyed a
multi-generational level of involvement, and without all of our
supporters, there really would have been no Birthright Armenia,”
explains Linda Yepoyan, executive director in the U.S. “The Hirair and
Anna Hovnanian Family Foundation has supported us since day one, and
we graciously welcome this generous commitment of support they have
made to us going forward, which will now enable us to focus our
resources on marketing and growing our program as well as a meaningful
activities in support of our alumni”.

One of the challenges Hovnanian has put before the Birthright Armenia
team, now that there is no need for active fundraising, is to focus on
recruitment without sacrificing quality for quantity. “At community
events, I regularly get approached by people who want to talk about
Birthright’s success, or by an alum who has done Birthright, and they
want to share with me stories about the impact it had on their lives.
Inevitably, every conversation ends with `we need thousands of youth
to experience the Homeland annually, not just hundreds, so the ripple
effect of our impact is that much greater’. And I believe we can grow
this program by making it a household name, a rite of passage that all
of our youth should pass through at one point in their young adult
lives,” she adds.

“I gave the staff a specific goal of doubling the number of
participants in 2014, our 10th anniversary year, and then tripling our
numbers by the end of 2015, without compromising the high-quality
program for which the Birthright Armenia program is widely known. And
I know they can achieve these goals,” she says confidently.

Although any amount contributed to Birthright Armenia is still fully
tax deductible, the organization sent out letters to its entire donor
base stating that they’d like to see whatever was traditionally
donated to it go instead to another Armenian charity in need. Yet
another change to the traditional playing field!

Birthright Armenia offers a full service volunteer program to young
diasporan adults 20-32 years old from all over the globe, who are
interested in volunteering their services in Armenia. In addition to a
rewarding job placement in the sector of their choice, for the length
of their stay volunteers are provided with intensive language
training, weekly excursions, educational forums on current event
topics, and can opt for homestay living accommodations.

In exchange for their service, participants with a stay of over 14
weeks of service successfully completed receive 100% of their
roundtrip airfare back in the form of a travel fellowship. Similarly,
those who complete at least nine weeks up to 14 weeks of service
receive a 50% of their roundtrip airfare travel fellowship. The
organization offers a variety of post program benefits to its alumni
including professional networking, Next-Step grants, quarterly
newsletters and most recently a Pathway to Armenia program for alums
interested in finding employment in Armenia after their volunteer
service is completed.