Author: Karagyozian Lena

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today issued the following statement after the Administration failed to call the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government a genocide:

“As we mark the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, I call on the Administration to recognize the murder of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1923 by Ottoman Turkey for what it was: genocide. Recognition of past genocides is crucial for preventing future genocides, so it is long past due to speak honestly about what happened to the Armenians.”

Asbarez – Documentary “Orphans of the Genocide” will be featured on April 24 at 1:30 p.m. PT on KCET, while documentary “Uprooted” will premiere at 8 p.m. ET/PT nationwide on Link TV (DirecTV Channel 375 and Dish Network Channel 9410) and at 7 p.m. PT in Southern California on KCET.

“Orphans of the Genocide,” Emmy award-winning Director Bared Maronian’s critically-acclaimed documentary, sheds light on crimes against humanity and tells part of a larger story of the Armenian genocide of 1915 through the eyes of some of its more than 130,000 orphaned children. The documentary focuses on one orphanage, Antoura, where 1,000 children orphaned by the Armenian genocide lived and were forcefully converted to Turkish beliefs and culture during World War I. The film features never-before-seen archival footage as well as recently discovered memoirs of orphans.

“Uprooted” is a documentary from Producer and Director Hagop Goudsouzian that traces the evolution of Armenian culture, identity and heritage. Research in “Uprooted” weaves together stories in an attempt to answer the question of what being Armenian means in America today. Goudsouzian’s personal and passionate film features interviews with expert sources who continue to delve into the critical elements of Armenian identity.

As an additional way for KCET and Link TV programming to amplify the importance of recognizing the Armenian Genocide, viewers who tune-in to the broadcast will have the opportunity to receive DVD copies of “Uprooted” as a gift for a $60 donation, or acclaimed filmmaker Hagop Goudsouzian’s DVD trilogy set of “Armenian Exile, My Son Shall Be Armenian” and “Uprooted” for a $150 donation.

In addition to the broadcast documentaries, KCET.org is offering multimedia content that showcases stories that allow users to further explore more history on Armenian heritage:

–I Am Armenian: The Intriguing Life of Aurora Mardiganian
–Visiting With Huell Howser: Armenian Christmas Meal, [www.kcet.org/shows/visiting-with-huell-howser/episodes/armenian-christmas-meal]
–Subtle Commemoration: Pasadena’s Armenian Genocide Memorial, [www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/subtle-commemoration-pasadenas-armenian-genocide-memorial]
–Armenian-American Artists Reflect the Diaspora Experience, [www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/armenian-american-artists-reflect-the-diaspora-experience]

Earlier this month, two brown bears, Masha and Girsha were relocated from the cramped quarters in a zoo in the Armenian town of Gyumri to the Libearty Bear Sanctuary in Romania, bringing to a happy end to more than six months of efforts to rescue them, according to

The bears and three lions had been living a miserable life in captivity in a privately-owned zoo in Gyumri. The zoo had been featured in the British tabloid, Daily Mail, back in January as “the world’s saddest zoo.” The article, which went viral, said that the animals were starving and had been left to die by the owner who had abandoned the facility.

An absolutely wonderful place in Romania, Libearty Sanctuary, the largest brown bear sanctuary in Europe, agreed to provide homes for the bears. Just as critical, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation (BBF), France’s leading animal protection organization, agreed to fund the relocation of the bears.

In the following months individuals and organizations from Armenia (Yerevan and Gyumri), France, Spain, and Romania put together an impressive effort to rescue the Gyumri Zoo animals.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to take efforts to promote normalization of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday after their telephone conversation, TASS reports.

“The two top diplomats hailed the agreement on cessation of hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed to take efforts to promote normalization of the situation in the regions,” the Ministry said, adding that the two top diplomats also discussed other issues on the common agenda.

Azerbaijani forces actively fired in the direction of the Armenian Army divisions and settlements near the city of Vardenis, Armenia from 10:30 to 23:00 on April 6.

Besides artillery weapons, the rival used machine guns and 60 mm mortars.

The Armenian Armed Forces did their best not to violate the agreement on ceasefire.

Photo: AP

Global sea levels could rise by more than double the current best estimate, according to a new analysis of climate change in Antarctica, the BBC reports.

The modelling assessment says that Antarctic melting alone could contribute more than a metre to sea level by the end of this century.

By 2500, according to the study, the same source could cause levels across the world to rise by 13m.

The authors say that rapid cuts in carbon emissions could limit this risk.

Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

An Israeli hiker has found a Roman coin that is almost 2,000 years old and only the second of its kind found in the world, authorities say, the BBC reports.

The coin, from 107 AD, bears the image of Emperor Augustus but was minted by Emperor Trajan.

The only other example of such a coin is held in the British Museum.

The hiker, Laurie Rimon, will be awarded a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship, Israel’s antiquities authority says.

Ms Rimon, a member of the Kefar Blum kibbutz, was hiking with friends in the eastern Galilee when she discovered a shiny object in the grass.

The group’s guide then contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), who arrived within two hours.

Ms Rimon then handed over the find, but said “it was not easy parting with the coin”.

“After all, it is not every day one discovers such an amazing object, but I hope I will see it displayed in a museum in the near future,” she said.

Danny Syon, a senior coin expert at the IAA, said the relic was “rare on a global level”.

It was, he said, “part of a series of nostalgic coins that Emperor Trajan minted and dedicated to the Roman emperors that ruled before him”.

The Azerbaijani side used weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 700 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions last night, the NKR Ministry of Defense reports.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army mostly refrained from retaliatory actions and confidently carried out their military duty all along the line of contact.

Asbarez – In 2015, “The 100-Year-Old Survivor” ran on Horizon Armenian TV, then on KLCS, the only PBS station headquartered in Los Angeles. An estimated 60,000 viewers, a third of them non-Armenians, saw the film.

In January 2016, it was honored by the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California with a Golden Mike for editing. (See ).

Attorney Mark Geragos, who is seen toward the end of the 54-minute film, speaking passionately in New York’s Times Square, calls the documentary, “An unrivaled journalistic masterpiece.”

Los Angeles Area Emmy Award-winning journalist Peter Musurlian shot the film over several years, starting at the 100th birthday party of Genocide Survivor Ghazaros Kademian. From the age of 100 to the age of 101, we see Kademian join forces with thousands of his fellow Armenian-Americans, in search of justice.

That journey for justice takes the viewer from Los Angeles to Sacramento and from New York City to Washington, DC, where Turkish and Azeri demonstrators taunt Armenian-American protesters in front of the Turkish Embassy on April 24, 2009, the first year President Barack Obama had a chance to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Musurlian personally shot 29 of the 47 individuals seen-in-soundbites in the documentary. Among them: Mark Geragos, Harut Sassounian, Ara Khachatourian, Congressman Adam Schiff, Congressman John Lewis, Raffi Hamparian, Councilman Ara Najarian, Souzi Zerounian-Khanzadian, Zanku Armenian, Dr. Hovsep Fidanian, then-Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, then-Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, the late Allen Yekikian, Ken Hachikian, Tanar Akcam, former Turkish Consul General Hakan Tekin, and Ghazaros Kademian, whose last interview (before his death) was translated by Asbarez columnist Garen Yegparian.

Since 1999, Musurlian has garnered seven Los Angeles Area Emmy nominations in four unique categories, as well as 21 Golden Mikes in 10 unique categories. The decorated U.S. Army overseas journalist has three master’s degrees and received his undergraduate degree in Broadcast Journalism & Political Science from the University of Southern California in 1983.

Archbishop of Armenians in Western Iran Grigor Chiftchian said Iran’s Armenian community is quite ready to play their due role in prosperity of Iran, reports.