Baku, one of the richest capital cities in Eastern Europe thanks to the oil money in Azerbaijan, witnessed the singer perform a set which was widely acclaimed as a superb centrepiece for the ceremony as the first ever European Games opened up on Friday night.
It subsequently emerged that her performance didn’t come cheap, with the eye-watering sum (for a set of just 10 minutes) in stark contrast to the fees demanded by the likes of Paul McCartney at the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.
Fellow soldier has confessed to killing a Russian serviceman in Armenia’s second city of Gyumri, where the Russian Military Base #102 is stationed.
“According to preliminary information, the murder could be a result of a conflict with fellow serviceman,” Interfax reports, quoting the press service of the Southern Military District.
Soldier of the Russian Military Base identified as Ivan Novikov was stabbed to death this morning near the Mother Armenia monument in Gyumri.
From June 18-28 Armenia will present a scenographic installation on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide titled “Red Hail” at the 13th international Prague Quadrennial.
The project is implemented at the initiative of the “Eiva” Arts Foundation with the support of the Armenian Ministry of Culture, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund and the Commission Coordinating the Armenian Genocide Centennial Events.
The photographs Armenia presents were taken in 1910 in the town of Mush in western Armenia by the Norwegian missionary worker Bodil Katharine Biørn (also known as Mother Katharine), who was doing humanitarian work there. They depict Armenian day-school children who, according to Biørn’s memoirs, received new Norwegian dolls as gifts. They look at the camera with their happy faces, impatient for the picture to be taken so they can continue playing with the dolls…
These children were among the victims of the Armenian Genocide organized by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
The exposition consists of nets full of toys hanging from the ceiling, resembling hail. The nets are static, except for one that is moving. A video dedicated to the children’s games is projected onto the moving net. Sometimes the toys, which are scattered all around, are set into motion as well, swinging and making noises. The music, which symbolizes the children’s unfinished games, is turned on and off unexpectedly. Visitors will notice certain movements and hear voices within the seemingly static and unmoving space. Through their movement, breathing and voices, all those entering the space become a part of the children’s unfinished games.
The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is the largest scenography event in the world that explores a wide range of scenographic practices – from stage design and costume design to lighting design, sound design and new scenographic practices such as site-specific, applied scenography, urban performance, costume as performance, and much more.
The Lost Origin Sounds Series has released “Forty Martyrs: Armenian Chants from Aleppo at the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, the bloody Ottoman campaign that drove many Armenians to the centuries-old community in Aleppo, Â reports.
The  video Forty Martyrs: Armenian Chanting from Aleppo presents a unique new recording of sacred Armenian music.
In one of Aleppo’s oldest neighborhoods rests a church, once a focal point and a haven. The head priest there, The Very Reverend Yeznig Zegchanian, agreed to chant, but he was going to do it now and he was only going to do it once. Jason Hamacher, a drummer from Washington DC who had developed a serious fascination with Syria’s endangered spiritual traditions, dashed back to his hotel to get his equipment.
The result, recorded in the resonant Forty Martyrs Armenian Orthodox Church, captures a time, place, and endangered language. The city is entrapped in Syria’s agonizing civil war. The church’s congregants, descendants of several waves of Armenian refugees, have been scattered throughout the region and beyond. The language of the chants, West Armenian, once spoken in what is now Turkey, seems destined to die out in a generation.
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Church of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, met with the Right Honourable Mr. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, on June 3, 2015, Horizon Weekly reports.
On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Pontiff expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister on Canada’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, discussed his concerns regarding the conflict in Syria and the impact it has on the Christians and Armenians in the area since its eruption in 2011. His Holiness also informed Mr. Harper on the lawsuit the Catholicosate of Cilicia has filed in Turkey’s Constitutional Court, requesting the return of the historical Catholicosate of Sis, which was forcefully taken by the Ottoman Turkish Empire, as were all Armenian churches and institutions.
During this visit, His Holiness Aram I also decorated the Right Honourable Mr. Stephen Harper with the Prince of Cilicia medal, the highest insignia of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.
His Holiness was joined by the following delegation, Bishop Meghrig Parikian, Prelate of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, Most Reverend Father Housig Mardirossian, Ecumenic Relations Officer of the Catholicosate, Krikor Der Ghazarian, Chairperson of the Executive Council of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, Dr. Girair Basmadjian, member of the Central Executive Council of the Catholicosate, Raffi Donabedian, Chairperson of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, and Hagop Der Khatchadourian, President of the Armenian National Committee International Council.
Famous doctor and clown Patch Adams is visiting Armenia. Adams and his fellow doctor-clowns visit about 10 countries a year to organize performances in hospitals, orphanages and retirement homes.
Patch Adams believes that laughter, joy and creativity are an integral part of the healing process; they strengthen the immune system, promotes the production of endorphin. With the help of friends, he founded the Gesundheit Institute in 1971 in order to address all the problems of health care in one model.
Many know about Adams from a 1998 film, featuring Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams.
Within the framework of a week-long stay in Armenia, Patch Adams and his team will visit the orphanages in Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor and Dilijan, as well as children’s hospitals to present a unique program famous in the world.
“Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a normal person in a world, where the authorities and money have become ultimate values, while love and laughter are dangerous phenomena. For example, in the US keeping the public in unhappiness, loneliness and boredom is the best means to control the society,” Adams told a press conference in Yerevan.
“Remember that happiness and unhappiness are just means to control the population. It’s no accident that the most beautiful thing in the world – love – is never praised anywhere. At last, it’s hard to control loving people, controlling unhappy people is much easier,” he added.
Asked what percentage of people he thinks are happy, Patch Adams said “just 5.”
On 4 May Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan received observers, who had arrived in Nagorno Karabakh from Abkhazia and Transnistria to carry out observation mission at the 2015 parliamentary elections, Central Information Department of the Office of the NKR President reports.
President Sahakyan noted in his speech that in Artsakh they attach particular importance to the sustainable development and deepening of relations with Abkhazia and Transnistria, accentuating its importance from historical, political and moral perspectives.