Author: Maghakian Mike

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan, who is in Luxemburg (Grand Duchy of Luxemburg) on a working visit participated at the Summit of the European People’s Party (EPP) dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Party. The event was chaired by the President of EPP Joseph Dole. Present at the Summit were Presidents of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker, Heads of state and government of the EU and Eastern Partnership Countries – members of the EPP. They gave congratulatory speeches on the occasion of the EPP jubilee, touching in their statements upon the history of the Party, its achievements, European Community and Eastern Partnership agenda items, as well as issues related to the development and strengthening of the EPP.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the largest Pan-European family – European People’s Party President Serzh Sargsyan gave a speech.

Noting that for years the EPP has been one of the most important entities for the re-assessment of the European values and a driving force behind the Pan-European advancement, Serzh Sargsyan underscored that numerous political forces – members of the EPP today too play a significant role in the political processes of many European countries.

In his statement the President of Armenia paid special tribute to the blessed memory of Wilfried Martens, who made a remarkable contribution to the creation of the Party, its maturing and copious achievements, and noted his input and multifaceted assistance to Armenia’s European integration and to the EEP membership of Armenia’s Republican Party and two alternative political forces.

The President of Armenia attached great importance to the inter-party cooperation with the EPP for the dissemination of the European political culture and strengthening of the Pan-European system of values.

“The Armenian nation is an indivisible part of the European civilization through its past and culture, aspirations and goals, while membership of the Armenian parties to the EPP stems from our common Christian heritage and commitment to the basic freedoms, democracy, and human rights. With this regard, membership of the Armenian Republican Party’s Youth and Women’s organizations to the corresponding structures of the EPP is also noteworthy.

I also highly value the EPP’s position on the issues related to Armenia in different European structures as well as on the interparliamentary platforms.

The assistance of the European People’s Party to the development of our relations with the European Union has been impressive. Today, these relations have reached an important and meaningful milestone. Negotiations on the Armenia-EU new comprehensive legal document have already kicked off. It will reflect the nature of our relations and will reveal new directions of our mutually beneficial cooperation. I have no doubt that in calling to life this new document, the EPP will stand by our side,” said President Sargsyan in his congratulatory message and expressed confidence that under the able leadership of President Dole EPP family will continue to carry its mission which stems from the fundamental values of the Party.

Thee Armenian American Museum may receive $5 million in state funds to help pay for its construction on a potential downtown Glendale, The Los Angeles Times reports.

State Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian appropriated state general fund money for the project in the upcoming budget, which still needs legislative approval and Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature by mid-June.

The museum’s foundation in 2014 first pitched its proposal for a 30,000-square-foot museum to house artworks by Armenians and artists from other cultures.

Nazarian said he’s followed the project since then and understands its potential.

“Something like this museum can play a common denominator for furthering intercultural relations,” he said in a phone interview.

The museum’s representatives and the city were initially looking to build on a 1.7-acre lot across from Glendale Community College, but an outpouring of concerns about traffic from nearby residents compelled City Council members to recommend changing the location.

In February, the council directed members of the museum foundation to examine building the project at Central Park in downtown Glendale, adjacent to the Glendale Central Library, the Adult Recreation Center and the newly opened Museum of Neon Art.

Council members felt a downtown location would be better suited for foot traffic. Nazarian said it was the decision to relocate that was the final push for him to get involved.

“I think the fact it’s in downtown, it’s a much better location for integrating the museum into the fabric of Glendale itself as well as for tourism or closer access to long-existing transportation lines,” he said.

Nazarian said he’s been in talks with museum officials, who requested the $5 million. That money will be earmarked for construction only; ongoing operational costs would have to be covered through fundraising and donations, he added.

To that end, Berdj Karapetian, chairman of the museum’s development committee, expressed his gratitude toward the assemblyman and other state legislators.

“We look forward to working with leaders from the California State Legislature to help make our vision for the Armenian American Museum a reality in the city of Glendale and build an educational center that will serve local residents and visitors from throughout our great state of California,” Karapetian said in an email.

Despite the state funding, construction costs will likely surpass $5 million, said Tigranna Zakaryan, spokeswoman for the museum.

And Nazarian’s appropriation likely won’t speed up the construction process either, she added.

Museum officials still need to secure a ground lease for Central Park — something Zakaryan hopes can be achieved by this fall. There also needs to be an environmental review and economic feasibility study conducted, she said.

Once open, the museum will house permanent and traveling exhibitions.

Recently, museum officials helped with an exhibit titled “Armenia: An Open Wound” at the Brand Library & Art Center that will be on display through June 11.

Chelsea and Arsenal may have to wait until next summer to sign Borussia Dortmund’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan,  reports.

Mkhitaryan has been linked with a move to the Premier League following a sensational season for Dortmund.

The 27-year-old has enjoyed his best-ever campaign, scoring 23 goals and providing 32 assists in all competitions.

Reports claimed last week  the Gunners have already held talks with the player’s representatives and he has begun house hunting in London.

And German newspaper Bild said the Blues were also keen to sign the Armenia international for a fee of £46million.

However, both clubs could be forced to wait, as fresh reports in  claim Dortmund will make a shock decision to keep him for one more season and allow him to leave for free next year.

After losing Mats Hummels to rivals Bayern Munich and with Ilkay Gundogan reportedly moving to Manchester City, the German club are apparently not prepared to lose any more players.

And it is said Thomas Tuchel’s side would rather keep Mkhitaryan for the 2016/17 campaign, even if he fails to extend his contract.

The winger joined Dortmund in 2013 from Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk for £24m, signing a four-year deal.

Boris Johnson has won a £1,000 prize for a rude poem about the Turkish president having sex with a goat, reports. 

The former mayor of London’s limerick, published by the Spectator as a rebuff to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s efforts to prosecute a German comedian’s offensive poem, also calls the president a “wankerer”.

Johnson, a former editor of the magazine, won the Spectator’s “President Erdogan offensive poetry competition.” The prize money has been donated by a reader.

The limerick was written off-the-cuff by the Conservative MP during an interview with the Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoche.

Johnson – whose great-grandfather was Turkish – called it “a scandal” that a German court had granted an injunction to prevent comedian Jan Böhmermann repeating his offensive skit about the Turkish president.

“If somebody wants to make a joke about the love that flowers between the Turkish president and a goat, he should be able to do so, in any European country, including Turkey,” Johnson told interviewer Nicholas Farrell, who then challenged him to enter the Spectator’s poetry prize.

Just days before the world marked the 101st remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University conferred its second Ph.D. in Armenian Genocide Studies, the reports.

On April 19, Umit Kurt successfully defended his dissertation, “Destruction of Aintab Armenians and Emergence of the New Wealthy Class: Plunder of Armenian Wealth in Aintab (1890s–1920s).” In its pages, he produces a microhistory of the Armenians in the city of Aintab, located on the Syrian border in southeast Turkey, before, during, and after the genocide. Elucidating the economic dimensions of the genocide, Kurt describes how the Turks used the Abandoned Properties Laws to confiscate Armenian property in Aintab.

Among his many fellowships, speaking engagements and honors, Kurt was the Agnes Manoogian Hausrath fellow at Clark, and an Armenian Studies Scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation also supported his research. His research and teaching—he was a lecturer at Sabanci University in Istanbul as well as research fellow at Fresno State University—also has earned him a post-doctoral fellowship beginning in September at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University.

“I am so happy to finish my dissertation and be a part of newly emerging critical scholarship in Armenian and the Ottoman Studies,” Kurt said. “I believe my findings in the dissertation will make a concrete contribution to the existing state of art and pave the way for other scholars to dwell upon unfolding local traces of Armenian Genocide. I firmly believe that any study in this field cannot be done without having Armenian language skills.”

While writing his dissertation, Kurt also managed to publish articles in the Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and International Journal of Middle East Studies. Berghahn Books published The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide (July 2015), which Kurt co-authored with Taner Akcam, Clark professor of history and Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies.

The 2015 Centennial of the Armenian Genocide afforded several opportunities for Kurt to present his research findings. He participated in the Strassler Center’s International Graduate Student Conference, lectured at UCLA, and presented at a conference in New York on the Armenian Genocide within the context of the Ottoman Empire and World War I.

At the 2016 Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day rally in New York on April 24, Kurt appearedwith elected officials, survivors, and others to speak before thousands gathered in Times Square.

Kurt received a bachelor’s degree from Middle East Technical University in the Department of Political Science and his MA in European Studies from Sabancı University.

The Strassler center’s first student to complete a Ph.D. in Armenian Genocide Studies was Khatchig Mouradian, who defended his dissertation, Genocide and Humanitarian Assistance in Ottoman Syria (1915-1917) in January.

Mouradian, former editor of The Armenian Weekly (2007-2014), is a visiting assistant professor at the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University and is the coordinator the Armenian Genocide Program at Rutgers’ Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights (CGHR). He is also an adjunct professor in the philosophy and urban studies departments at Worcester State University, where he teaches courses on urban space and conflict in the Middle East, genocide, collective memory, and human rights.

Members of parliament unanimously approved the motion – which is not binding on the government – by 278 votes to zero.

The vote in the 650-seat lower House of Commons calls on ministers to accept formally that IS actions against Christian, Yazidi and other religious and ethnic minorities in Syria and Iraq constitute genocide.

But Foreign Office junior minister Tobias Ellwood, who has specific responsibility for the Middle East, said it was up to the courts rather than the government to make such a judgement.

“I believe genocide has taken place, but as the prime minister (David Cameron) has said, genocide is a matter of legal rather than political opinion,” Ellwood said.

MPs from all parties urged Britain to use its position as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to get the situation referred to the International Criminal Court.

Henrikh Mkhitrayan wore an Armenian armband during Borussia Dortmund’s Europa League match against Liverpool.

“Played plenty of thoughts for my motherland tonight ‪#‎Armenia,” Henrikh wrote on social media after the match.

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Liverpool held Borussia Dortmund to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinal as Jurgen Klopp made an emotional return to Signal Iduna Park.

Divock Origi opened the scoring for Liverpool. The hosts’ equalizer came within three minutes of the restart when Mats Hummels was allowed a free run at Mkhitaryan’s right-wing cross to power a header past Mignolet.

A billboard in the North End that was paid for by a group that denies the Armenian genocide was placed there “in error” and is being removed, a spokesman for Clear Channel Outdoors – the owner of the billboard – said on Thursday,  reports. 

The billboard, which is located just a few blocks from the Armenian Heritage Park, had sparked criticism on Wednesday night for its references to genocide-denial.

“Truth = Peace,” the sign says. A hand with the flag of Turkey holds up two fingers in a peace symbol, while hands with the flag of Russia (left) and Armenia (right) have their fingers crossed in the symbol of lying.

The text of the billboard directs readers to FactCheckArmenia.com, a website that dismisses the genocide as “propaganda being pushed by a powerful and well-funded Armenian diaspora.” The billboard says it is “proudly” paid for by the Turkic Platform, Istanbul.

Armenian Preisdent Serzh Sargsyan has congratulated the Assyrian community on New Year, President’s Press Office reports. The message reads:

“I cordially congratulate the Assyrians of Armenia on the occasion of Assyrian New Year – Kha b’Nisan.

I wish that this holiday, which symbolizes the revival of nature, bring our brotherly Assyrian nation new success and become a beginning for the implementation of new programs.

Let this spring holiday of love and bounty stay with you the entire year, and let wars and hardships stay away.

I wish the Assyrian community of Armenia happiness and prosperity.”

Serbian ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj has been found not guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the Balkan wars in the 1990s, the BBC reports.

The UN war crimes court at The Hague (ICTY) said he bore no individual responsibility for the crimes.

Mr Seselj had denied all the charges.

He was allowed to go to Belgrade in 2014 after being diagnosed with cancer. He was not present in the courtroom – he even refused the tribunal’s offer to follow the verdict by videolink.

He has been taking part in anti-government rallies ahead of Serbian parliamentary elections later this month.