Author: Khoyetsian Rose

The finalists of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity are arriving in Armenia for the award giving ceremony scheduled for April 24.

The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is a new global award that will be given annually to individuals who put themselves at risk to enable others to survive. Recipients will be recognized for the exceptional impact their actions have made on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes, having overcome significant challenges along the way. One of the four finalists, the ultimate Aurora Prize Laureate, will receive a grant of US$100,000 and the chance to continue the cycle of giving by nominating organizations that inspired his or her work for a US$1 million award.

The finalists

About 300 people demonstrated in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Wednesday April 13 to protest the aggression initiated by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno Karabakh, reports.

“This happened days ago in Buenos Aires and Cordoba, in Argentina. It will replicate in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and has happened in all other major capitals of the world,” said Federico Waneskahian member of Armenian National Committee of Uruguay, to EFE agency.

“This will keep happening if measures are not taken to punish and define clearly who is the aggressor in this case and condemn the aggression of Azerbaijan,” he added.

The demonstration was attended by Tourism Minister Liliam Kechichian, Senator Ruben Martinez Huelmo, Deputy Daniel Radio and former Vice Chancellor Belela Herrera.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay issued a statement days ago in which they expressed a “serious concern” over the matter and urged the parties to “respect the cease-fire and end hostilities.”

Bundestag is set to vote on an a motion for recognition of the Armenian Genocide  on June 2,  quoted Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) First Secretary Michael Grosse-Brömer as saying, reports.

Speaking to AFP, Green Party Co-Chair Cem Özdemir said: “We would like this motion to be brought to Bundestag sooner. However, there is something more important than the date, which is the fact that all political parties will speak the same.”

Özdemir also said, “Finally, there will be a clear and explicit statement in Bundestag. Yes, the name of the crime committed against Armenians in Ottoman era is genocide. Moreover, Germany is also responsible for it.”

“Christian Democratic Union keeps its promise. There is no turning back now,” Özdemir said.

Green Party , but the voting was postponed, since coalition parties Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) demanded a common motion.

for the first time, but there was no voting. While the government avoided using the term “genocide”, President Joachim Gauck and President of Bundestag Norbert Lammert openly used the word “genocide” to describe the events of 1915.

At a recent meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan Chancellor Angela Merkelassured the bill would be brought to Parliament.

President Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with Armenia’s first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the initiative of the latter.

Th hour-long meeting was dedicated to the recent development along the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, the expected developments in the negotiation process on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the need for national unity against that challenge.

The meeting took place at Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s home.

Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan met with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Igor Popov, James Warlick and Pierre Andrieu, and the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

The meeting was dedicated to the recent Azerbaijani aggression against the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

Minister Ohanyan referred to the military actions at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan and the current situation.

Seyran Ohanyan drew the attention of the Co-Chairs to the peculiarities of Azerbaijan’s obvious aggression, including the war crimes against Armenian servicemen and civilians, as well as other violations of provisions of the law of armed conflict.

The Defense Minister noted that the Azeri military aggression was rebuffed and the further actions were prevented thanks to the heroic and skilled actions of the NKR Defense Army.

The Minister said Armenia is still ready to continue negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

The Armenian Minister stressed the need of reinforcing any ceasefire with a legally binding agreement as a prerequisite for easing the military confrontation in the conflict zone.

Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev agreed new tariffs on the Russian natural gas supplied to Armenia, Abrahamyan said on Thursday after completion of talks.

“We thoroughly discussed reduction of prices for supplies of Russian natural gas to Armenia,” Abrahamyan said. An agreement reached “was fixed by signing the relevant document,” he added.

“We agreed energy issues, including natural gas supply, which is definitely critical to ensure stable energy consumption in Armenia and normal development of the Republic of Armenia on the whole,” Russian Prime Minister said in his turn.

The natural gas price for Armenia will be reduced from $165 to $150 per 1,000 cubic meters in the first quarter of 2016.

refers to George Clooney’s upcomng viti to Armenia, where he will present a $1 million humanitarian prize designed to highlight – and help – the cause of people challenging genocide worldwide.

Clooney, who will travel to Armenian capital Yerevan next month to make the award accompanied by his wife, prominent British-Lebanese human rights lawyer, Amal Clooney, is a co-chair of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. The main prize – which will also give $100,000 to one of four finalists chosen for their courage in saving lives in the face of human hatred – will be awarded to the charity of organization that inspired the struggle against genocide.

Clooney, known for his Not On Our Watch project to eliminate genocide – and a highly publicized visit to Sudan in 2014 – has teamed up with 100 Lives, an initiative set up by Armenian businessmen and philanthropists Vartan Gregorian, Rubebn Vardanyan and Noubar Afeyan to commemorate those who helped Armenians during the Armenian Genocide that began in 1915 and to “continue in their spirit by supporting people and organizations that keep the legacy of gratitude alive.”

Amal Clooney is also separately involved as patron of a scholarship in her name that will each year send one female student from Lebanon to an international baccalaureate program at a college in Armenia.

The Yerevan visit – which includes a global forum on genocide, a visit to Yerevan’s Armenian Genocide Museum and lunch with the Armenian prime minister – concludes with the prize award ceremony on Sunday April 24.

The four finalists for the prize are an orphanage founder in the central African state of Burundi who stood up against a bloodthirsty mob; the only doctor serving 500,000 people in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains; a Pakistani champion for indentured laborers; and a Roman Catholic priest who saved more than 1,000 Muslims from fatal persecution in the Central African Republic.

Clooney will be joined by other members of the prize selection committee that include Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, Eli Wiesel; former Irish president and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson and former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans.

Armenia and Belarus played a goalless draw in a friendly match held in Yerevan’s Republican Stadium.

The fixture was a farewell match for Armenia’s long-time goalkeeper Roman Berezovsky.

“There was some tension in the first half, but we played more attacking football in the second half and created more chances,” Armenia head coach Varuzhan Sukiasyan said after the match.

Sir Paul McCartney has filed legal papers in the US, as part of an attempt to reclaim the publishing rights to The Beatles’ back catalogue, the reports.

Although he co-wrote most of the band’s hits, the star has never controlled the publishing.

However, the US copyright act of 1976 gives writers the opportunity to reclaim the rights after 56 years.

The Lennon-McCartney catalogue becomes available in 2018, and Sir Paul has recently moved to recapture it.

According to Billboard, the star filed a termination notice for 32 songs with the US Copyright Office in December.

Most of the songs date from 1962 – 1964, although others come from much later in the band’s career. Some of those, including Come Together and Why Don’t We Do It In The Road, are not due to become available until 2025.

BBC’s Radio 4 presents the history of the Armenian Martyr’s Church in Der Zor as part of its Museum of Lost Objects project, which traces the histories of 10 antiquities or cultural sites that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria.

The Armenian martyr’s memorial in Der Zor, Syria was a tribute to the Armenians who perished in the mass killings of 1915. It was consecrated in 1991 and then completely destroyed in 2014 by Islamic militants. A British Armenian writer recalls her visits to Der Zor, and tracing the harrowing journey of her ancestors through the Syrian desert.