14:12,
STEPANAKERT, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. President of Artsakh Arayik Harutyunyan has signed an order on launching the routine summer conscription for mandatory military service of male citizens who have reached the age of 18 by June 30, 2020.
Servicemen who completed their 2-year mandatory service will be discharged by July 31.
15:11,
YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. 23 Armenian citizens were airlifted from India amid the coronavirus pandemic, the foreign ministry said.
The special flight from New Delhi to Yerevan was organized by the government of India. 130 Indian students flew to India on the same plane, the foreign ministry said.
The evac flight was carried out as a result of cooperation between the Armenian foreign ministry, the embassy of India in Armenia and the Armenian embassy in India.
“The Armenian foreign ministry expresses deep gratitude to colleagues in India for their support,” the foreign ministry said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
15:59,
YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Member of Parliament from the ruling My Step faction Rustam Bakoyan is sounding the alarm about pro-Turkish radical groups targeting the Yazidi community in Afrin, Syria.
“Syrian radical groups, sponsored by the Turkish government, have taken control over the Afrin region, including the Yazidi villages in this area. These groups are committing various atrocities against the Yazidis, they are forcing them to convert, to forcefully migrate – at the same time creating conditions for demographic changes in the region,” Bakoyan, who is of Yazidi ethnicity, said on social media.
The lawmaker said that these radical Islamic groups have recently destroyed Yazidi holy sites, set fire and ruined Yazidi villages and settlements, all of which constitute war crimes.
“These groups are forcing the Yazidis of the region to attend Islamic mosques. Some Yazidi holy sites in Afrin have been turned into mosques. Cruel atrocities are being committed against Yazidi women and children”, he said.
The MP also posted a photo of a Yazidi young woman who was killed by the Turkish-sponsored groups.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
The poster for the “An Armenian Trilogy” film
Film explores composer’s creative path from jingle writer to the drama of commemorating the Armenian Genocide and honoring his ancestors through music
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich.—“An Armenian Trilogy,” a new documentary about Dan Yessian’s journey from advertising music creator to writing his first classical composition in honor of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, has been released on Amazon.
In addition, his three-movement classical composition, An Armenian Trilogy – Live in Yerevan, performed by the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra, is now available on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon. This concert is also included as bonus footage at the end of the film. Yessian is the founder of Yessian Music Inc., an international music production company responsible for creating original music for TV commercials and programs, movie trailers, video games, theme parks and memorials, including the One World Observatory at the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City.
‘When my Armenian church priest asked me to create a piece of music to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, it proved to be a life changing request. I discovered the path my ancestors had taken during this dark time and I began to tell their story through music, then ultimately film,” said Yessian, who is Armenian-American. His film, in surround sound and closed-captioned in English, has been shown at festivals throughout the U.S. and has won numerous awards including Best Score, Audience Choice and Exceptional Merit.
The Armenian Genocide, when 1.5 million Armenian citizens were massacred by the Turkish Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1922, made headlines in December 2019 when the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to recognize the mass killings as genocide and then again mid-February, 2020, when the Syrian Parliament also recognized the massacres as genocide.
“An Armenian Trilogy” soundtrack album cover
Yessian initially wrote a An Armenian Trilogy as a duet arrangement for violin and piano creating three movements: The Freedom, The Fear and The Faith, which debuted in Michigan in 2015. Yessian then took on the immense task of orchestrating his composition for 91 pieces, which was performed at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall by the world-renowned Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra in Armenia in 2017.
The documentary film, An Armenian Trilogy follows Yessian through his childhood as a budding clarinet player, the early years of his company which was started in a 200-square-foot bait shop in metro Detroit, through to the success of the international company he heads with offices in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City and Hamburg, Germany. The film centers on Yessian’s visit to his ancestral homeland of Armenia, where he and his family explore their rich heritage and the composer hears, for the first time, his composition performed by a full orchestra.
Yessian spent the bulk of his career creating music for advertisements for international brands, including many listed on the Fortune 500. He was inducted into the 2018 Adcraft Hall of Fame in Detroit and was recognized for Lifetime Achievement at the Detroit Music awards in 2016. Nowadays, he can be found working alongside his sons Brian and Michael, on campaigns for companies such as United Airlines, Ford Motor Company, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Nintendo, Disney, Walmart, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz. Yessian Music has also provided music for many television shows including NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”, “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent”, ESPN’s “College Football” and all “Major League Baseball”, A & E’s “Veteran’s Day with A & E” and “Live PD”, PBS’s “Sesame Street” and other themes and promos on channels including NBC, Disney Channel, HGTV, Lifetime, PBS and CBC. This year Yessian was responsible for preparing a 360* audio experience for Aerosmith’s Las Vegas residency. Organizations across the globe turn to the company for unique music and sound design.
By Samvel Sukiasyan
NEWS.am Sport continues to represent young Armenian football players playing abroad and wishing to play for the national team of Armenia in the future.
Vitaly Zatikyan, 16, plays for the American FC Denver U17.
“I was born on December 7, 2003, in the US. At 12, I played in the Premier League of Spain – División de Honor. From 2015 to 2017, I spent two seasons at the Barcelona Elite Academy,” he said.
“Then I returned to the US, I performed at the academies of the LAFC and Real Colorado clubs. At 16, I moved to FC Denver.”
“My main language is Spanish. I also speak Armenian (Western Armenian dialect), English, and gradually improve my Russian,” he added.
“I hope that I will receive an invitation to the youth team of Armenia. I will join the team of my homeland without any thought. It will be a great honor for me,” Vitaly noted.
Public Radio of Armenia
A resident of the central city of Konya has been arrested at his home on suspicion of sending threatening messages to the Hrant Dink Foundation, Turkey’s interior minister announced Saturday.
The professional tiler, 25, has had the cell phone he used to deliver the threats confiscated for examination and was taken to Istanbul for further questioning, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said.
The foundation, which focuses on fostering Turkish-Armenian cultural relations and was established following the assassination of namesake journalist Hrant Dink, contacted authorities after receiving an anonymous warning that: “Let’s just say you’ll have to flee or you’ll have to die – and this time it will be Rakel Dink and that lawyer who get it.”
Police immediately sprung into action and determined that the message had been sent from the central city. The local police’s anti-terror branch was then contacted, before dispatching teams on Saturday morning to apprehend the suspect at his home in the city’s Bosna Hersek neighborhood.
Dink, the editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos weekly, was assassinated outside his Istanbul office on Jan. 19, 2007, in a murder initially attributed to nationalists disturbed by his outspokenness on the Armenian genocide, a thorny issue for Turkey, and especially nationalists. Ogün Samast, a teenager, was captured and sentenced to 23 years in prison for the daylight murder, but further inquiry found several public and police officials linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) tried to cover up the case.
In reference to another incident in which a “provocateur” looking to incite tension among Turkey’s multifaith communities had been swiftly reprimanded, Soylu announced the arrest of the suspect on social media, stating that: “The provocateur who broke the cross off a church in Kuzguncuk was caught in 24 hours. The provocateur who mailed threats to the Hrant Dink Foundation was caught immediately. We will allow for zero provocations! Have faith in the Turkish police.”
by Michael Cook | |
Not getting any younger in Armenia
The tiny but fiercely distinctive and geo-politically strategic nation of Armenia is facing a demographic crisis. Its population is about 2.9 million, its fertility rate is about 1.6, far below replacement level, and the population is slowly shrinking.
The government is alarmed and launched some initiatives in March to reverse the trend — including testing the fertility of teenage girls.
According to Eurasianet, former President Serzh Sargsyan announced in 2017 a plan to increase the population to 4 million by 2040. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, promised to boost the population to 5 million by 2050.
The government has a three-point plan: “additional screening of 15-year-old girls, who are entering the age of fertility, to identify health problems and to prevent and cure infertility”; fertility check-ups for newly married couples; and prenatal exams to reduce the number of miscarriages.
There has been little comment in the media about the plan, it seems, although it raises issues of informed consent and gender-role stereotyping.
Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge