Author: Lilit Nahapetian

All state agencies are prepared to make prompt and balanced decisions in any situation envisaged by the scenario of the “Shant-2015” strategic command post exercises, Deputy Chief of General Staff of RA Armed Forces Movses Hakobyan told a press conference today. According to him, the country has been brought to a high level of combat readiness, Armenpress reports.

“The exercises aim to reveal the potential of the state in case of possible war. This is the first time Armenia is holding exercises of such scale, involving all state agencies,” Hakobyan said.

“It’s still untimely to assess the results, the outcome will be summed up at a later stage. The agencies get certain assignments, some of which should be applied in practice. All participating bodies will get assessed,” Movses Hakobyan said.

He stressed that the Armenian Armed Forces have seriously prepared for the military exercise and have all kind of material resources stored for as long as 65 days.

Armenian GM Levon Aronian will leave for Baku next week to participate in the World Chess Cup 2015.

“Unfortunately, it’s hard for us – chess players – to help settle the discrepancies between the two countries,” Aronian said in an interview with chess-news.ru.

“However, musicians, representatives of different creative professions visit Azerbaijan as people carrying peace, and I will try to follow their example,” Aronian said.

“I’ll try to show my respect for the neighboring country, to play my best and please the local chess fans,” the Armenian GM said.

The FIDE Chess World Cup 2015 will be played in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 10 September to 4 October 2015.

It will be a 128-player knockout chess tournament. The finalists will qualify for the 2016 Candidates Tournament.

For the first time, teams from Diyarbakir and Dersim will participate in the Pan-Armenian Games in Yerevan, the  reports.

They join 57 other teams this summer from cities in Armenia, Russia, Georgia, Lebanon, Iran, France, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, the United States, and more. The players from Diyarbakir and Dersim will participate in futsal, which is a variant of soccer that is played on a smaller field and considered as a version of five-a-side soccer. Soccer teams from Sasun and Istanbul will also be participating for the second time.

The organizers of the Diyarbakir group are members of the Surp Giragos Dikranagerd Church Restoration Committee. Since the restoration project was a global initiative with many donors and supporters from North America, Armenian athletes from the U.S. and Canada with roots in the region were invited to be part of the team. Five players from Turkey and five from North America (two from Canada, and three from the United States, including the captain of the U.S. Eastern Region Homenetmen soccer team, Asadur Tufeckgian) make up the team.

“I was honored to be invited on the team by the Church Restoration Committee,” said Toronto resident Daron Bedrosyan, who will represent Diyarbakir at the games. Speaking to the Armenian Weekly, Bedrosyan said that participating in the Pan-Armenian Games in the year of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide was especially meaningful for him. “My family’s history in Dikranagerd [Diyarbakir] dates back as far as we can trace our roots—at least two centuries back. This has been a historic year for all of us as Armenians with everything that transpired for the Centennial commemorations. The Pan-Armenian Games will also be a significant commemoration in this regard,” he said.

A group from Diyarbakir and Dersim will also travel to Yerevan to support the athletes and participate in the Ari Tun program organized by the Armenian Ministry of Diaspora. This will be the second time that Armenians from the region will participate in the program. The main objectives of Ari Tun are to introduce Diasporan Armenian youth to Armenian history, culture, public life, religion, and family traditions. Participants will visit historical and cultural sites in Armenia, and attend concerts, festivals, exhibitions, and plays. Courses will also be offered in Armenian language, literature, dance, history, and church traditions.

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Armenian international Gael Andoinian, 20, has signed the first professional contract with Olimpique de Marseille. The center back previously played at Olympique de Marseille 2 and his contract expired on June 30.

Speaking to the club’s official website, Andonian said he feels proud. “In the first team I will continue to develop as a player. We have to work hard to prepare for the new season,” Andonian noted.

The Uniting Church in Australia has formally acknowledged that the Armenian massacres and forced deportations constitute a genocide.

The UCA is the third denomination at a national level to acknowledge the genocide that took place 100 years ago.

Carried out during and after World War I under the Turkish Government, the genocide was implemented in two phases – the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour.

This was followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert.

Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.

The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at 1.5 million. A further one million were displaced.

Rev. Dr Krikor Youmshajekian from St Andrews Longueville Uniting Church  and former minister at the Willoughby Armenian Evangelical Uniting Church of Sydney addressed the Assembly.

“In the years of 1915-1918, the Armenian people were under the grip of annihilation and the brutal plans of genocide – but God saved this first Christian nation from being wiped out, said Rev. Dr Youmshajekian.

Rev. Dr Youmshajekian said that many countries and many communities in Australia had been involved in providing support, relief, food, and safe places for the Armenian people to live.

“By accepting this proposal the assembly will keep the story of the first Christian nation alive,” he said, giving thanks to the many Uniting Church congregations who had held liturgies to commemorate the genocide.

Rev. Dr Chris Walker, National Consultant for Christian Unity Doctrine and Worship, told the Assembly that it was deeply fitting for the Uniting Church to make give this acknowledgement as the Armenian people mark the 100 year anniversary of the Genocide.

Rev. Dr Walker acknowledged that both the World Christian Council and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA)had made statements acknowledging the massacre that took place and the suffering of the Armenian community.

“Accepting this proposal would be an act of ecumenical solidarity with the Armenian people who have suffered so much and continue to do so.”

After the proposal was adopted a prayer was offered by the NSW Moderator Rev. Dr Myung Hwa Park, both sung and spoken in Korean and English.

The 14th Assembly has also agreed to:

• commend the NSW and SA governments in acknowledging the Armenian Genocide and encourage the Federal and other state governments to do the same
• affirm the value of recognising a date on or near the anniversary of the Armenian genocide, as a day of observance and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.
• Request the National Consultant Christian Unity, Doctrine and Worship to prepare

The Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art in Cyprus will showcase a drawing exhibition by Arshak Sarkissian entitled Tera-Genesis as of tomorrow, July 1st, the reports.

Sarkissian’s art revolves around contemporary man, the complexities and controversies that surround him as well as his metaphysical peculiarities as refracted through the artist’s imagination. Convinced that the world is a pluralistic place that is not just limited to physical reality and in which many worlds – directly inspired by arts and literature – are just as factual, his world is informed by the Magic Realism of South America as well as Asiatic Shamanistic traditions.

Therefore Sarkissian illustrates the supernatural aspects of everyday life in his art. For him as an artist, the comprehension of multidimensional realities is fundamental in recognizing man’s own reality, and he is fascinated by exploring the extremes of human behavior and nature.

Sarkissian’s study of the human personality’s multitude of dimensions comes out in his drawings, which are peopled with self-conscious entities that seem to be in psychological experiments with themselves in a process of self-discovery and evolution. It is through such experiments that the personality gives way to the genesis of either a monstrous abnormality or a hybrid of fauna or flora, until human and inhuman ultimately become indistinguishable before the next stage of metamorphosis.

The drawings express the artist’s never-ending yearning for change and the novel. They are figurative as well as contemporary, and are greatly influenced by Renaissance art. His characters have an eccentric temperament and an exotic disposition, and his animal hybrids always reveal extra dimensions and expressions along the way. They emerge from an ancient world that was populated by half human, half animal prototypes, whose mythologies revealed complex worlds. The drawings, however, place these creatures in a post-modern, contemporary world where they still struggle with their daemons.

Sarkissian, from Armenia, studied at the National Aesthetic Centre of Art in Armenia and went on to participate in a residency under Stass Paraskos at Lemba Art School in Cyprus supported by the Pharos Arts Foundation.

The artist has had solo shows at the Albemarle Gallery in London, Gavriel Gallery in Bremen, Mildberry Gallery in Moscow, in Paris and New York, and participated in group exhibitions in the Centre for Contemporary Experimental Art and the Gyumri International Biennale in Armenia, the Charlie Smith Gallery in London, the Harvest Gallery in California and the Marie Pavgas Art Gallery in North Carolina.

He has been commissioned to create work for the passenger terminals at Zvartnots International Airport in Armenia. He has participated in numerous art projects, among others, as part of his residency in the OMI International Arts Centre in New York, in the “Stand Up For Your Rights” Design and Illustration Programme in Buntingford, UK, and the Andorran National Commission for the UNESCO International Art Camp in 2014. Sarkissian works and lives in Yerevan, Armenia. His works can be found in several important private collections.

The exhibition will run at the Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art until July 29 and can be viewed by appointment after the initial opening tomorrow.

The criminal case on the murder of a family in Gyumri launched by Russian law-enforcement bodies will be handed over to the Armenian side, Press Service of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia informs.

The decision is a result of long negotiations between the Prosecutor’s Offices of Armenia and Russia.

Within the framework of the talks Armenian Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan held meetings with his Russian counterpart Yuri Chayka and President of the Russian Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin.

Taking into consideration that the case was unprecedented, the issue was discussed not only from the perspective of criminal legislature, but also from the viewpoint of constitutional and international law. As a result, it was decided to transfer the investigation of the case to the Armenian law-enforcement bodies.

The case will be investigated by Armenian law-enforcers and tried by the Armenian Court, the verdict will be announced on behalf of the Republic of Armenia.

The Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs is currently experiencing technical problems with our overseas passport and visa systems.  This issue is not specific to any particular country, citizenship document, or visa category, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan informs.

This issue is affecting Americans and all foreign visa applicants, including tourist, student, and business visa applicants.  The Bureau of Consular Affairs is apologizes for the inconvenience and is working urgently to correct the problem and restore full operability.

U.S. passport applications accepted overseas on or after May 26, 2015 are affected by this delay.  If you applied for a U.S. passport at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan during this time frame and have travel plans within the next 10 business days, please consider requesting an emergency passport at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.

Applications for a U.S. visa made after June 8, 2015 are also affected by this delay. Individuals with urgent travel should contact our visa appointment scheduling office at .  You can also call the following phone numbers: +374-60-270-113 or +1-703-439-2353, or the Skype address USVISAARMENIA.  Travelers with an urgent humanitarian need for travel should contact via email at .

HDP Istanbul Member of Parliament Garo Palyan spoke to after the results of Sunday parliamentary elections in Turkey were announced.

Paylan said that they had expected to win 11-13% of the votes, and that the results were not a surprise.

Paylan stated that the HDP’s victory had come as a result of four-year hard work, and said: “We founded the HDP in 2011. During the 2-year foundation period, all identities and all democratic groups came together. Our party includes all identities, and we stand for equality. We are also aware that this has not been tried in politics in Turkey before. Ours is a discourse of radical democracy with no ifs and buts.”

One of the three new Armenian MPs in Parliament, Paylan explained his goals as follows: “It’s not having three Armenian MPs in Parliament matters, it’s what they will say and do. My party will stand out with its policy based on equality. The AKP also has Kurdish MPs but we have not witnessed an egalitarian approach from them. All other parties need to show more effort on this matter. It was this discourse that brought us success, I wish other parties can see that politics in Turkey can change.”

ARMENIA’S TIME OVER- AZERI OFFICIAL

Yerkir
05.05.2010 15:41
Yerevan

The time Armenia asked for to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
has expired, Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Foreign Relations
Department head Novruz Mammadov has said.

"Armenia has asked for two weeks in connection with resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But it took several months. There was no
response," Mammadov told media.

He said the OSCE Minsk Group is continuing to work to resolve the
conflict.

"The co-chairmen said Armenia will soon express its position. Raising
questions is the true way to resolve the conflict. Armenia should
understand this. This should be a kind of message to the presidents of
the co-chairing countries that Azerbaijan agrees with their proposals.

It is necessary to to exert pressure on Armenia to solve the conflict,"
Mammadov said.