Author: Maral Chavushian

The President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades sent on Tuesday a congratulatory message to the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Independence of Armenia, underlining that “the bonds between Cyprus and Armenia are as strong and resilient as ever,” Cyprus Mail reports.

He further reiterates Cyprus’ commitment to the enhancement and deepening of bilateral relations and notes that “Cyprus will continue to stand in solidarity and in support of Armenia’s efforts for prosperity and regional peace”.

According to an official announcement, Anastasiades also notes that both countries share common values and traditions, as well as a historical and cultural connection.

He refers finally to the presence of a vibrant Armenian-Cypriot community in Cyprus, whose invaluable contribution and achievements, he notes, enrich all aspects of society.

Massis Post – The co-mayors of Bitlis and Mutki just paid a courtesy visit to St. Sarkis Armenian Church in Kensington, London. Huseyin Olan (Bitlis) and Ozcan Birlik (Mutki), who are on a working visit to London, met with the Prelate of the Armenian Apostolic church in Great Britain, bishop Hovakim Manukyan, to discuss improving contacts between the Armenian diaspora and Kurdish communities in south-eastern Turkey. The meeting included Ali Gul Ozbek, the mayor of Haringey, as well as others.

Both Olan and Birlik are longstanding champions of better Kurdish Armenian relations and are well aware of the history of Armenians. Over the years they have hosted Armenian guests in their cities, supported exhibitions on Ottoman Armenians, and even a conference on the Armenian Genocide. The city of Bitlis even renamed a street after William Saroyan. These are all ongoing practical steps aimed at addressing Armenian issues and paving the way to a better future.

On the occasion of their visit to St. Sarkis, the co-mayors issued a formal statement inviting Armenians to reengage with their ancestral lands in Turkey, including Bitlis and Mutki

Statement Dated 11 September 2016

Today we are visiting our Armenian brothers and sisters at St. Sarkis Armenian church in London. It is good to see this fine church and members of its congregation in one of the great capitals of the world. There used to be many such Armenian communities in the Ottoman Empire, within the borders of modern Turkey. They lived on their ancestral lands alongside other communities, until 1915, when they were subjected to the first genocide of the modern era. Over a million Armenians were killed by their own government. Modern Turkey still bears the scars of those days, including in Bitlis and Mutki, where we come from. The Turkish republic still denies what happened to Armenians.

We can never reverse the terrible legacy of 1915 but, as the mayors of Bitlis and Mutki, we can express our sorrow and extend our hands of friendship to all Armenians. We want to build new bridges with you, to replace those that were destroyed in the past. The future is in our hands and we can still imagine better days ahead. We hope to see you again in Bitlis and Mutki.

Volunteers from the United States Embassy in Armenia joined the Fuller Center for Housing Armenia (FCHA) to build a home for the Aloyan family from SisavanVillage in the Ararat Region

The partnership between the U.S. Embassy and the Fuller Center for Housing Armenia started in 2008.Every year, the U.S. Embassy’s “Helping Hands” volunteer organization joins forces with FCHA to create an event where Embassy staff and family member can help build a home for an Armenian family living in inadequate housing conditions. This year, U.S. Embassy personnel joined the Aloyans to help with painting and concreting projects for their new home.

The Aloyans are a family of eleven. Sargis and his wife, Anie – together with their 2 children – live with Sargis’ parents and his brother’s family, making for eleven people in a three-room house. The extended family started building a house for Sargis and his family four years ago.

“Perhaps it is the cherished dream of everyone to have a home. As a father of two I was always downhearted that I could not provide my little ones with a decent home. It is impossible to explain the happiness we feel each day when we see the progress on the construction of our house and feel that soon, very soon, we will move to our new home,” shared Sargis.

“Back in the spring of 2016, this house had only walls and a ceiling. Today, construction is nearly complete and we are already painting the walls. The U.S. Embassy has joined us in our mission since 2008. And it is thanks to the strong conviction and dedication of our partners, volunteers, and supporters that the Aloyans and many other Armenian families enjoy the happiness of homeownership,” stated FCHA President Ashot Yeghiazaryan.

In 2009, the United States Congress designated September 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City.  In 2016, as the American people mark the 15th anniversary of those senseless acts of destruction, the U.S. Embassy was honored to partner with FCHA to give the Aloyans renewed hope as they prepare to move into their new home and begin to construct a new, brighter future.

They took stock of the discussions underway to find a negotiated, peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, under the auspices of the co-chairs of the Minsk Group.

Harlem Désir and Elmar Mammadyarov also discussed the development of relations between Azerbaijan and France, as well as between Azerbaijan and the EU.

On 27–29 August UWC Dilijan College in Armenia will host the 5^th annual meeting of the Central and Eastern Europe Wikimedia affiliates, Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2016 (#WMCEE2016), organized by Wikimedia Armenia and the Wikimedia Foundation and supported by the Scholae Mundi Armenia Foundation.

The meeting will bring together leading professionals from the most important fields of the Wikimedia movement, as well as officials from the Wikimedia Foundation led by the Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Katherine Maher who will take part in this conference for the first time.

Participants from 27 countries, including Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Iran, Israel, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine and the USA will gather at UWC Dilijan College in order to discuss topical issues in the Wiki movement.

During the three-day meeting, participants will present the activities undertaken in their Wikimedia affiliates, and the Wikimedia Foundation representatives will present free/open source software news, examining the social and technical aspects of the topics in relation to free knowledge and free content.

“Wikimedia CEE Meeting in Armenia became possible due to the hard work of the Armenian wiki-community. This conference is very significant both for Wikimedia Armenia and UWC Dilijan. I hope that after the conference the college students will also contribute to Wikipedia, editing in their native languages. I hope that our collaboration with the Scholae Mundi Armenia Foundation will continue with new initiatives”, said Susanna Mkrtchyan, the president and co-founder of Wikimedia Armenia.

The meeting is a unique opportunity for the Armenian Wiki community to learn more about the Wikimedia movement, to show what programmes are being implemented in Armenia and to exchange experience.

“It’s a great honour for us that UWC Dilijan College is hosting such a significant conference for Wikimedia, in which the technology of equal access to a quality education in Armenia will form part of the discussion. We hope that the cooperation of the Scholae Mundi Armenia and Wikimedia Armenia foundations will lay the groundwork for further disseminating the world’s best educational practices in the country”, said Veronika Zonabend, co-founder of Scholae Mundi Armenia.

President Serzh Sargsyan held consultations with the heads of the National Security Service, Police, Prosecutor’s Office and investigative bodies. The details of the armed attack on the premises of the patrol service of RA Police and the following developments, the results of the measures taken were discussed.

The President stressed that all possible measures should be taken to reach a peaceful settlement of the situation, attached importance to the comprehensive and unbiased investigation of all violations of law and stressed the inevitability of punishment of those guilty.

“Our country is living hard and responsible days today. I will not refer to the reasons now. It’s not the right time. What I want to say is that this should be a lesson to all of us,” President Sargsyan said at the beginning of the meeting.

He expressed condolences to the family and friends of Police Colonel Arthur Vanoyan killed in the attack. “It’s our duty to do our best to settle this complex situation and exclude reoccurrence of such tragedies,” he said.

“Our most dangerous concern – solution of issues through violence and force – lies at the roots of this situation. The further development of this concern is fraught with very dangerous consequences for our country and statehood,” he said.

“In Armenia issues are not being solved through force, attacks and hostage-taking. We’ll never allow that. The settlement of this situation should be an important test for Armenia and its people, the maturity of our state,” President Sargsyan added.

He urged all representatives of the society to exercise their political and civilian rights exceptionally for peaceful purposes and within the framework of law. He also called to refrain from giving tribute to the proposals and ideas of people inciting radical steps and provocations. “It’s fraught with a serious danger of new human losses.”

The President instructed the heads of law enforcement bodies to continue implementing their actions with strict restrain and in full compliance with the law.

“We keep taking all measures to reach a final peaceful settlement of the situation,” the President said, once again urging the armed group to lay down arms as soon as possible.

“We have been acting and will keep acting very patiently. The life and health of every citizen is dear to us. We have not opted for the classical way of dealing with such situations, thus providing the armed group with an opportunity to make a step back,” the President said.

He added, however, that “we do not have the right to let our society become a hostage of this tension.”

“I think the situation is lasting longer that we can afford. The period since April has not been long enough for our society to afford to forget those events,” he added.

President Sargsyan once again called for soberness and restraint for the sake of the Republic of Armenia, for the sake of the future of the Armenian people.

Photo: NASA

The American space agency’s new Juno mission to Jupiter has returned its first imagery since going into orbit around the gas giant last week, the BBC reports.

The picture shows a sunlit portion of the planet, together with three of its big moons – Io, Europa and Ganymede.

The fourth major satellite – Callisto – is out of view.

Juno is currently moving away from Jupiter on a large arc, but will sweep back in during August, enabling its “JunoCam” to take even better images.

At the moment, scientists are just relieved to know that the equipment is in good health after its encounter with Jupiter’s harsh radiation environment during the spacecraft’s orbit insertion manoeuvre on 5 July (GMT).

The mission team is now turning on all the probe’s instruments to check their status.

Photo: AFP

The death toll from Sunday’s suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has risen to 250, the Iraqi government says, making it the deadliest such attack since the 2003 US-led invasion, the BBC reports.

A lorry packed with explosives was detonated in the Karrada district while families were shopping for the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it carried out the suicide attack.

An earlier estimate for the attack had put the toll at 165.

Iraq remains under an official state of mourning following the bombing.

The destruction of the area was all but complete. Bewildered local residents have held candlelight vigils and prayed for peace.

On 27 June Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan received primate of the New Nakhichevan and Russian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Patriarchic exarch Archbishop Yezras Nersisyan, philanthropists from Diaspora Hayk Maghakelyan and Vahe Karapetyan.

Issues related to the Motherland-Diaspora, church-state ties and implementation of a range of programs in Artsakh were discussed during the meeting.

President Sahakyan noted that the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora trinity was among the cornerstones of our state-building process adding that the presence of Diaspora was tangible in almost all spheres of our republic’s life.

A group of Turkish Armenians laid a black wreath in front of the Armenian Patriarchate to protest against being denied the right to replace acting Patriarch Aram Ateşyan, who was appointed to the post by the state eight years ago when Archbishop Mesrob II Mutafyan had to withdraw due to illness, the reports.

“For exactly eight years, we [have not been able to] choose our patriarch due for various excuses. They are stalling the process with a made up, unheard of title,” writer Jaklin Çelik said on behalf of the group on June 22, defining the ongoing process as a fait accompli.

Çelik underlined that the seat of the patriarch was a 550-year-old tradition, representing the “existence and honor” of a nation whose roots go back some 3,000 years.

Mesrob II had to withdraw from his position in 2008 due to a deteriorating health condition, diagnosed as frontotemporal dementia (FTD). His seat remained vacant for two years amid debates of a reelection but current acting patriarch Ateşyan was hastily appointed to the position in 2010 through a letter from the Istanbul Governor’s Office.

“We do not want further interventions on our religious freedoms and we do not want our right to vote to be taken from us. Turkish Armenians did not and will not give the mandate of its future to anyone,” Çelik said, adding the person to take over the seat of the patriarch should be elected via a plebiscite, in line with tradition.

Following Çelik’s remarks, the group laid a black wreath bearing the inscription “We want to choose our patriarch” in front of the Patriarchate in Istanbul’s Kumkapı neighborhood.

Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, Tatyos Bebek from the Turkish Armenian community’s Thought Platform, called on the Turkish state to “fulfill its promises” by permitting an election.

Bebek said former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had promised to allow an election if the community got a report proving the incapacity of Mesrob II, during a meeting with minority representatives.

“We swiftly got a report from court, designating the patriarch’s mental faculties were inadequate for management. However, the state did not fulfill its promise,” Bebek said, adding that the seat of the patriarch remained vacant in their eyes, as Ateşyan’s title as general proxy is non-existent in Armenian traditions.

“The state created this [title] and chose a proxy within a date – an appointed one, to be exact. We want to choose our own patriarch. And we want the state to keep its promise,” Bebek added.

Meanwhile, Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos cited reports that such a protest against the patriarchate had not been reported for at least 50 years. Agos reported the final straw was Atesyan’s letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, wherein he criticized a recent decision by the German Bundestag recognizing the World War I-era killings of Anatolian Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.”