Category: 2017

Changing Lives in Lebanon: AMIDEAST and Student Scholarships

Emil Lazarian
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Board members Harry Nadjarian and Habib Debs with Lori Younisses

Young Lebanese Armenian Lori Younisses, Future Human Rights Lawyer

Since AMIDEAST opened its office in Beirut in 1968, thousands of Lebanese have benefitted from its services that help students study in the United States.

In recent years, AMIDEAST scholarship initiatives have helped more than 100 students win over $18 million in scholarships and financial aid to study at American universities and colleges.

In the first of a series of articles about AMIDEAST’s impact in Lebanon, we are featuring Lebanese student Lori Younisses, who will begin her freshman year this fall at American University on a prestigious scholarship earned through AMIDEAST.

As the only child of a computer programmer (father) and teacher (mother), Lori Younisses says she was “always encouraged … to pursue the highest education possible.” After participating in a Model UN Conference in New York, she set her sights on studying in the United States if possible. Her topic—gender-based violence—had made her see “what women and children were going through in different parts of the world.”

“I decided that I care too much about this topic to stop my work at the research stage. So, I decided to study international affairs and then pursue graduate study in international and human rights law, so that I can help improve the legal and social circumstances of those people,” she recalls.

For the important first step of completing her undergraduate studies, Lori turned to AMIDEAST’s EducationUSA Competitive College Club (CCC), a selective program that helps international students through the complicated process of applying to study in the United States. That’s where she learned about the Emerging Global Leader Scholarship, the only scholarship that the American University (AU) in offers international students. As AU offers very little financial aid for international students, the scholarship would be critical to her chances of accessing the Washington, DC-based school’s highly regarded international studies program.

Lori was selected from a pool of 1,225 candidates for the scholarship—one of only four to be interviewed and the only one selected as the winner. While her grades and extracurricular activities made her stand out, she feels the CCC gave her the edge she needed “because they know how rigorous its programs are, and how serious and hardworking the students chosen by the Center are.”

Lori Younisses

Students in the CCC are academic high achievers. The program helps them bring out other qualities and interests that help their applications stand out. Community service and participation in extracurricular activities are important. ”In Lebanon, we usually emphasize academic excellence, which is very important,” Lori observes. “However, extracurricular activities are very important in the United States. If someone wants to apply to study there, they should volunteer as much as possible and participate in as many activities as possible. I definitely encourage them to go to AMIDEAST and its EducationUSA center, because I honestly don’t think I could have done this without their help.”

Lori was born and raised in Lebanon in an Armenian family. She graduated from the Armenian Evangelical College. She feels very close to Lebanon and her Armenian roots, and her plans for the future include both. “With a degree in international law, I really want to contribute to the Armenian Genocide Recognition Program. As for Lebanon, one of the things that encouraged me to choose this major is seeing the children who beg on the streets. I plan to establish a scholarship to help them get quality school and university education for free, because this is what will move this country forward.”

AMIDEAST/Lebanon is joining with its advisory board to hold its First Annual Gala in Beverly Hills on October 14, 2017, in order to raise funds that will enable it to help promising young men and women like Lori gain the education and training they need to realize their potential. Check out the Gala’s website (www.AMIDEASTgala.com) to learn how you can participate and support this worthy cause.

Fire at Nairi plant was started deliberately – environmentalis (video)

Tambiyan Samvel
  • 17:42 | August 29,2017 | Economy
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There have always been environmental problems connected with Nairit chemical plant in Yerevan, ever since the Soviet times. I think residents of nearby residential areas were to be evacuated after a fire burst out in the chemical plant yesterday, environmentalist Silva Adamyan said on Tuesday.

“Today we have cheated employees and looted plant,” she said.

The environmentalist thinks the fire at the rubber plant was started deliberately.

“… because we all know that they [the authorities] wanted to resell the plant and there were certain things that could not be shown publicly. This is a disgraceful situation. They set the plant on fire to hide the traces of looting,” she added.

Exhibition: At Arab World Institute, 2,000 years of eastern Christianity

Vorskanian Yeghisabet
 ANSA English Media Service, Italy
Monday 7:52 PM CET
 
 
At Arab World Institute, 2,000 years of eastern Christianity
 
Starting 26/9, IMA in Paris displays 3rd century artifacts
 
 
 
(ANSAmed) – PARIS, AUGUST 28 – At the Arab World Institute in Paris, a new exhibition titled ”Chrétiens d’Orient: Deux mille ans d’histoire” (Eastern Christians: Two thousand years of history” will put precious artifacts on display, including the 6th-century illuminated Syriac gospel book known as the Rabbula Gospels on loan from the Laurentian Library in Florence.
 
The show will also display the first frescoes of the Christian era, dating to the 3rd century, from the ancient church of Dura Europos in Syria, a historic stronghold on the Euphrates River and a crossroads of Hellenic, Roman, and Eastern cultures.
 
The show opens September 26 and runs through January 14 and has been organised in collaboration with the l’Oeuvre d’Orient, a French association that supports Christians in the Middle East.
 
It highlights the kaleidoscopic Christian community of the Near and Far East, a community that has made and continues to make a significant contribution to political, cultural, social and religious development in the Arab world.
 
The show puts 300 objects on display in all, including artifacts, mosaics, icons, maps, models, diplomatic documents, and portraits such as those from the Coptic monastery of Bawit in the western Egyptian desert.
 
The show’s itinerary develops through critical moments in the history of the Coptic, Greek, Assyrian-Chaldean, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, Latin and Protestant churches of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq.
 
It examines the adoption of Christianity in the Roman Empire as the official state religion, the founding councils, the Muslim conquest, the development of Catholic and Protestant missions, the contribution of Christians to the Nahda (the Arab Renaissance), and the changes of the 20th and 21st centuries, without forgetting the current persecution in the name of Islamic fundamentalism.
 

Music/Education: Third-Generation Armenian-American Uses Song to Help Teach Armenian

Maral Takmazian
The Armenian Weekly
Aug 29 2017

By Contributor on

LOS ANGELES—Dr. Karenn Chutjian Presti, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Herb Alpert School faculty member who teaches Italian, German, French, Spanish, and English lyric diction and introduction to Armenian Music, is raising her own young children in four languages.

Dr. Karenn Chutjian Presti, UCLA Herb Alpert School faculty member who teaches Italian, German, French, Spanish, and English lyric diction and introduction to Armenian Music, is raising her own young children in four languages

She credits her success largely to song. “A large part of each day is dedicated to language exposure through song, play, and literature. Songs are especially effective in teaching vocabulary and pronunciation, so I developed the translations in My First Armenian Songbook to serve as a cross-cultural bridge and learning tool for children growing up with English and Armenian.” When asked which language is her children’s strongest, she laughs, “They prefer Armenian. It’s probably because I talk too much.”

“We took a minimalistic approach with just piano and voice so that the Armenian lyrics stayed clear and pure, but the accompaniment consisted of musically interesting arrangements,” explains Stephanie Chutjian Betjemann, who is the singer in the songbook’s accompanying Armenian-language CD, with her sister’s collaboration on the piano.

The songs, translated by Chutjian Presti, stem from American, English, Armenian, and German traditions, with the inclusion of several original songs composed by the pianist

The songs, translated by Chutjian Presti, stem from American, English, Armenian, and German traditions, with the inclusion of several original songs composed by the pianist. Each song is printed in Armenian and English, and is decorated in full-page color illustrations by British artist Alastair Sadler. Transliteration of the songs is also included.

My First Armenian Songbook is sold at Sardarabad Bookstore, Abril Books, Berj Stationery, and Amazon. Promotional videos and musical samples from My First Armenian Songbook are available at

Music: American singer Daniel Decker dedicates new project to Artsakh

Emil Lazarian
Public Radio of Armenia
Aug 29 2017
18:00, 29 Aug 2017

American singer and composer Daniel Decker will visit the Nagorno Kaabakh Republic to present his new project “My Artsakh.”

Details of the project dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Artsakh’s independence and liberation of Shushi will be presented at a press conference on August 30.

The project is being implemented under the aegis of the Armenian Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Culture.

Film: Burbank Film Festival to feature Armenian Genocide documentary

Mary Lazarian
PanArmenian, Armenia
Aug 29 2017
– 13:53 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – “Crow’s of the Desert: A Hero’s Journey Through the Armenian Genocide,” a 2016 film by director Marta Houske telling the story of the destruction of 1,5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire will screen as part of the Burbank International Film Festival.

The festival on Monday, August 28 announced official program selections for the 9th Annual edition of the festival set for September 6 through September 10.

The documentary is based on the “Memoirs of Levon Yotnakhparian”, a true story of one man’s brave adventures to stay alive, and help save his people from near extinction.

More than 180 feature and short films representing 60 countries will be presented during the five-day event, along with artist tributes, panels, and festivities.


ANKARA: $100 bln. trade with Turkey attainable: Russian envoy

Chakhmakhchian Vatche 
Anadolu Agency (AA), Turkey
 Monday
$100 bln. trade with Turkey attainable: Russian envoy
By Ebru Sengul
ANKARA
Turkey and Russia's desire to expand bilateral trade to $100 billion
is demanding but an attainable goal that can be realized with the help
of mutual investments globally, Russia's new ambassador to Turkey told
Anadolu Agency on Monday.
Speaking in Ankara after attending the 86th Izmir International Fair,
which runs between Aug 18 and 27, where Russia attended as a partner
country, Alexei Yerkhov hailed Turkey as a "crucial" trade partner for
Moscow in a wide range of areas including the construction sector.
"There are very serious and important investment activities for Ankara
and Moscow in our states that are not limited to only the construction
sector. Russia's biggest companies have been investing in the Turkish
economy for a long time while Turkish companies are operating very
successfully in the Russian market.
Yerkhov said that bilateral trade between Turkey and Russia started
with shuttle trade in the 1990's, but now the sphere of cooperation
has expanded to the extent now that huge infrastructure projects are
being implemented, including the Turkish Stream natural gas project
and Turkey's first nuclear plant - the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant.
The trade volume reached a record high in 2010 with $34 billion, a
time when political parties first voiced the target of $100 billion,
according to the Russian ambassador.
"However it is important to note that our trade volume recently
decreased extensively for known reasons as well as due to market
conditions. It dropped around 50 percent compared to levels seen seven
or eight years ago.
"Despite this, the target to increase the mutual trade volume up to
$100 billion is a demanding but attainable goal," he said.
Yerkhov underlined that both the business world and regional governors
are working hard to reach this goal, adding that an important example
to this effort is evident in the Alabuga Free Trade Zone in the
Republic of Tatarstan in which Turkish firms actively operate.
Cooperation areas
In reaching the trade volume target, the cooperation and synergy
between Turkey and Russia is key, Yerkhov said, adding that the recent
agreement between Iranian private company Ghadir Exploration and
Production Company, the Russian state company JSC Zarubezhneft and
Turkish Unit International to develop oil and natural gas fields in
Iran is a good example of this kind of cooperation.
"JSC Zarubezhneft is a very serious and successful company with
extensive experience especially abroad. This trilateral agreement is a
good example and indicator of cooperation between our countries," he
declared.
The Russian ambassador also invited Turkish entrepreneurs to avail of
a new Russian electronic payment system, branded 'Mir', which means
'peace' or 'world' in Russian.
Russia started to distribute its first electronic payment cards in
June, which areindependent from international payment systems such as
Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc.
"I am sure that the Turkish business world would like to integrate
this system which now works only with the local ruble currency," he
said.
Eurasia Customs Union
Turkey's economy minister Nihat Zeybekci during his speech in Turkey's
Aegean province of Izmir on the opening day of the Izmir International
Fair, said Turkey wants to start negotiations on the Eurasian Customs
Union. The union comprises members of the Eurasian Economic Union
(EAEU), which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Russia.
In response to the question on how Turkey-Russian and Turkey-EU
relations would be affected by Turkey's aim to start negotiations on
the Union, Yerkhov asserted that the issue is more to do with
macro-economical balances, but he expressed his support for the
negotiations.
He advised, as this was a new issue on the table, that it needs to be
thoroughly investigated by Turkish and Russian experts, adding "but we
are in favor of deeper examination of this issue."
Turkish tomato imports
Imports of Turkish tomatoes to Russia were discussed in detail during
the Izmir fair both at the Joint Economic Commission level and among
Turkish and Russian experts, according to Yerkhov.
"Today, Russia meets 80 percent of its tomato demand from the domestic
market and 20 percent from Iran, Azerbaijan, Morocco, etc.," he
explained.
The ambassador highlighted the importance of two upcoming meetings to
resolve the issue, one being the joint agriculture committee meeting
to be held in Antalya on Sept. 13 and the other on Oct. 20 in a
meeting of the Joint Economic Commission in Kazan.
"I hope that if we try we can find a mutually beneficial agreement at
that time," he concluded.
After Turkey shot down a Russian military jet over an airspace
violation in Nov. 2015, Moscow took several measures against Ankara,
including banning imports of Turkish agricultural products and ending
visa-free travel for Turks.
Since last summer, Russia has relaxed the measures and lifted bans on
some products, particularly citrus fruits.
During a May 3 visit to Russia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed on the resumption of
trade, including food and textiles, but with the exception of
tomatoes.

BAKU: Azerbaijan says Amnesty Press correspondent’s visit to Karabakh illegal

Kanayan Tamar
APA, Azerbaijan
Aug 29 2017

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Amnesty Press correspondent Izabella Rosengren’s visit to Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenia is illegal, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry told APA on Tuesday.

 

On August 15, Amnesty Press, the publication of Amnesty International, published an article on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Amnesty Press correspondent Izabella Rosengren also paid an illegal visit to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

 

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has received no appeal regarding [Rosengren’s visit], Hajiyev said, stressing that this article is biased and promotes the consequences of Armenia’s military aggression against Azerbaijan.  

 

“Despite the fact that during the coverage of conflicts the objective media principles require taking into account the stances of both sides, unilateral propaganda was conducted in this article. This indicates that this article is custom-made,” added the spokesman.   

 

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is currently investigating the Amnesty Press correspondent’s visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, and her name can be added to the list of undesirable people.

 

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered its modern phase when the Armenian SRR made territorial claims against the Azerbaijani SSR in 1988.

 

A fierce war broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of the war, Armenian armed forces occupied some 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory which includes Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts (Lachin, Kalbajar, Aghdam, Fuzuli, Jabrayil, Gubadli and Zangilan), and over a million Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced people.

 

The military operations finally came to an end when Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in Bishkek in 1994.

 

Dealing with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group, which was created after the meeting of the CSCE (OSCE after the Budapest summit held in December 1994) Ministerial Council in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. The Group’s members include Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, the United States, France, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belarus, Finland and Sweden.

 

Besides, the OSCE Minsk Group has a co-chairmanship institution, comprised of Russian, the US and French co-chairs, which began operating in 1996.  

 

Resolutions 822, 853, 874 and 884 of the UN Security Council, which were passed in short intervals in 1993, and other resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE, OIC, and other organizations require Armenia to unconditionally withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Prime Minister emphasized the implementation of consistent steps aimed at reducing corruption risks

Mary Lazarian
  • 28.08.2017

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A session of the Anti-Corruption Council was held in the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, with the participation of civil society representatives.

During the session, the experts of the independent expert committee presented the corruption risks identified by the Police in the fields of providing services to citizens, healthcare, education and state revenue collection and the action plans aimed at reducing them. A wide discussion was held around them, a number of recommendations and observations were presented. 

Prime Minister Karapetyan emphasized the implementation of consistent steps aimed at reducing corruption risks in the mentioned areas and gave appropriate instructions in that direction. In particular, Karen Karapetyan instructed the Ministers of Education and Science, Health, the Chairman of the RA SRC and the Chief of Police to discuss all the submitted comments by September 20, to revise the drafts if necessary in cooperation with experts, and to present the revised version to the government staff. 

In addition, in order to implement the program’s activities, the Prime Minister instructed to allocate financial resources within the budget budget and, if necessary, make them a subject of discussion during the budget discussion. Karen Karapetyan instructed the head of the government’s staff to complete the document by discussing it with other interested bodies in November and submitting it for the government’s consideration.

Fresno’s Armenian School Board President Needs Lessons in History and Tolerance

Jane Topchian
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Fresno Unified School District President Brooke Ashjian

BY ARA KHACHTOURIAN

On Wednesday night, during a heated discussion at the Fresno Unified School District Board of Directors meeting, the board president Brooke Ashjian equated the LGBT community to Ottoman Turks who perpetrated the Armenian Genocide.

The discussion centered on the California Healthy Youth Act, a law requiring schools to teach medically accurate sex education, including lessons on birth control, abortion and LGBT relationships. Ashjian who has opposed the law and has been on a war path with the LGBT community and other city leaders who have not only criticized him but have called for his resignation chose to defend himself by equating opposition to his views with state-sponsored campaign to annihilate an entire race—the Armenian people.

In his remarks, Ashjian invokes his relatives whom he claims were subjected to the genocidal policies of the Ottoman Turks, making his statements absurd by equating a minority community to perpetrators of a crime against a minority population.

“It is sad, they like the Ottomans are trying to be the thought police,” Ashjian said on Wednesday reading from a two-page statement he wrote. “They are trying to make people of faith second-class citizens, as they seek to silence our voices in the public square. Just like what my grandparents and millions of other grandparents had to endure at the hands of the Ottomans before escaping to America.”

It is clear that the lessons of the Armenian Genocide have evaded Ashjian, who also seems to have forgotten the manner in which newly immigrant Armenians were treated in Fresno during the nascent years of our community there. He also seems to have forgotten that the very group he is labeling as genocide perpetrators were themselves subjected to mass killings during the Holocaust.

Rev. Ara Guekguezian, the pastor of First Congregational Church of Fresno pointed out to the Fresno Bee that it was dangerous to minimize the horrors of the Armenian Genocide, adding that the LGBT community should not be compared to Turkish officials who carried out the Armenian Genocide.

“If the Ottoman Turks say, ‘We are trying to silence you or marginalize you or demonize you,’ that is frightening because eventually they end up killing you,” Guekguezian told the Fresno Bee.

The 102-year fight for justice for the Armenian Genocide has called for recognition of the crime, based on a clear premise that the Genocide was the ultimate violation of human rights and the usurpation of people’s basic freedom through murder.

In Turkey, the country that continues to deny the Genocide, Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament representing the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has filed a law suit against the Ankara mayor who used the term “Armenian” to describe one of his opponents. Ashjian clearly has taken a page from our adversary’s playbook.

What is more repugnant in the Ashjian scenario is that he has been elected by the people of Fresno to uphold the highest standards of education in the fourth largest school district in the state. His ignorance calls into question his qualifications for leading the public school system in that city. Fresno voters must take this into consideration at the ballot box if Ashjian seeks re-election.

(It is worth noting that other on the FUSD, as well as the school’s interim superintendent have denounced Ashjian’s comments and have assertively advocated for inclusion and providing a safe educational environment for students in Fresno).

Ashjian’s unrepentant attitude and egregious comments seem to mirror the current national discourse, which, especially during the past two weeks, seems to have veered off course when the president decided to equivocate when those carrying torches and Nazi flags clashed with those who opposed that flagrant breech of humanity.