Category: News

Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was elected the country’s new parliamentary speaker in the fourth round and with the covert support of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on July 1 in a sign of possible coming coalition between the two, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Yilmaz received 258 votes while Deniz Baykal, from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), garnered 182 votes in the last round, as none of four candidates from four political parties could attain a simple majority in the third round on July 1.  Only Yilmaz and Baykal remained in the last round as Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat from the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) were eliminated in the third round.

“Our nation has been expecting a new constitution soon from the 25th term of parliament. The economic and democratic level that our country has reached today makes a new constitution an obligation for all of us,” Yilmaz said in his first remarks delivered in parliament after being elected to his new post.

The AKP group provided full support to its candidate in both the third and fourth rounds, but the victory came thanks to the MHP’s decision not to vote for Baykal. The support of the CHP group as well as around 50 votes from the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) was insufficient to elect Baykal, the temporary speaker of the parliament, for the country’s number two place in the state protocol.

The MHP’s indirect support to the AKP’s candidate drew fierce criticisms from both the CHP and the HDP, which accused the nationalist party of acting like the crutch of the ruling party. The two opposition party executives also implied that such a composition revealed the potential partners of a coalition government.

Volkswagen has disclosed that a robot has killed a contractor involved in its installation. The fatal accident happened at VW’s Baunatal plant, north of Frankfurt on Monday, reports. 

Human error was likely to have been to blame and not a problem with the robot, said VW spokesman Heiko Hillwig late on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old victim was a member of a team setting up the stationary robot. It grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate, Hillwig said.

The man was resuscitated at the factory but died later in hospital, he said.

The Baunatal plant in Germany’s central state of Hesse produces mainly transmissions and electric motors and employs about 15,500 workers.

The contractor worked for a firm from Germany’s eastern state of Saxony.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has mocked America’s decision to legalise gay marriage across all 50 states by vowing to travel to the White House and proposing to Barack Obama, reports. 

During his weekly interview with the national radio station, the Zimbabwean president joked that he planned to travel to Washington DC ‘get down on one knee and ask his hand’.

Mugabe, who is known for his brutal crusades against homosexuality, was responding in bizarre fashion to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees gays and lesbians the same right to marry as heterosexuals.

Speaking on Saturday, Mugabe said: ‘I’ve just concluded – since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance – thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington, DC, get down on my knee and ask his hand.’

Striking a more serious tone, he added: ‘I can’t understand how this people dare to defy Christ’s explicit orders as our Lord prohibited mankind from sodomy’, going on to accuse the U.S. government of being run by ‘perverted Satan-worshipers who insult the great American nation.’

His comments came only hours after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to legalise gay marriage in all 50 states – prompting thousands of same-sex couples to immediately tie the knot.

The Socialist Party (PS) group of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives Wednesday filed a motion for a resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Belgian La Libre reports. 

With this resolution the “Socialist Party and all its MPs give a clear signal of their position on the Armenian Genocide,” while advocating rapprochement between the Turkish and Armenian peoples.

In this proposal, the Parliament “considers that the tragic events between 1915 and 1917, for which the government of the Ottoman Empire is responsible, should be classified as genocide.”

The recognition by the Parliament does not, however, entail legal consequences, notes the PS group.

The Chamber is not intended to replace court to rule on the legal characterization of those events. “It poses a solemn political act of recognizing that due to their nature and their specificity, the massacres of which the Armenians were victims fit the definition of genocide contained as defined in the 1948 Convention,” the resolution reads. It also encourages national and international courts to rule on the subject.

The authors of the resolution file their initiative in “a spirit of support and friendship for Turks and Armenians.”

They also highlight the efforts made within Turkish civil society on this issue.

The resolution has been signed by signed by MP of Turkish descent Özlem Özen, as well as Stéphane Crusnière, Philippe Blanchart and Gwen Grovonius.

On Tuesday evening His Holiness Aram I presided over a special event on the Armenian Genocide organized by the communication department of the Catholicosate of Cilicia. Professor Taner Akçam, Professor of History and the Robert Aram, Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University, spoke on the topic, “The Armenian Genocide research, findings and current challenges.“ A large number of clergy, academics, students and members of the community attended the lecture given by the Turkish scholar at the Cilicia Museum Hall in Antelias, Press Service of the Catholicosate of Cilicia reports.

Very Rev. Sipan Kechedjian introduced Professor Akçam as a Turkish intellectual who teaches, publishes and openly discusses the Armenian Genocide. In his lecture, Professor Akçam spoke of the contribution that Armenian and non-Armenian scholars have made to the historical study of the Armenian Genocide and discussed his extensive research on the Ottoman archives. He stated that the Armenian Genocide was premeditated and well planned by the Turkish authorities of the time and that the First World War had provided the appropriate context and the time to the Turkish Authorities to execute their plan. He concluded his lecture by stating that there is a crying need for new historical research on the Armenian Genocide, and he encouraged Armenian youth to become actively involved in this research.

Following a question/answer period, His Holiness Aram I concluded the evening by thanking Taner Akçam for his courage and commitment to the Armenian Genocide and also for accepting to join the team of experts who filed the lawsuit with the Constitutional Court of Turkey on 27 April 2015, demanding the return of the property of the See of Cilicia in Sis. Stating that he shares Professor Akçam’s concern to have more youth interested in the history of and research on the Armenian Genocide, His Holiness Aram I announced his determination to assist interested candidates.

Around the world, people have been asking: “April 24^th has come and gone. What’s next for the remembrance of the Armenian Genocide?”

Armenia Tree Project has initiated a new campaign called the Living Century Initiative, which enables Armenians to plant trees in remembrance of the Genocide.

“Through the Living Century Initiative, we are establishing 10 forests in northern Armenia that are aligned with the major Western Armenian communities that were devastated by the Genocide,” explains Executive Director Jeanmarie Papelian. “We are inviting Armenians from around the world to sponsor trees in living memory and in honor of their relatives and ancestral communities. LCI provides an opportunity to plant the new Adana, Kharpert or Marash forest, or wherever your family roots may have been.”

ATP has planted more than 4.7 million trees in over 1,000 locations throughout Armenia and Artsakh. These locations include Nor Kharpert, Musa Ler, and Zeytoun–transplanted names from communities in historic Armenia. “We have an ambitious goal to plant 300,000 trees by year’s end, including 250,000 forestry seedlings as part of the Living Century Initiative,” notes Papelian.

The 10 Living Century forest sites correspond to regions in historic Armenia and will be planted in the Shirak, Lori and Kotayk regions of modern Armenia. They focus on areas where ATP has been planting forests since 2004. “Our team has met with the local community leaders, and they are excited to work with us to establish these new forests as links to our ancestral homeland,” she adds.

Jeanmarie visited one of the new planting sites in May with outgoing director Tom Garabedian. Tom’s grandparents came to America from Kharpert, and the Living Century Initiative was inaugurated by planting a trees in the new Kharpert memorial forest in Arevashogh. This site in the Lori region is dedicated to families whose ancestors hailed from Kharpert before the Genocide.

“We hope you will join us in this celebration of life and perseverance through the planting of new forests throughout Armenia,” concludes Papelian.

ATP has launched a dedicated to the Living Century Initiative where supporters can read more about the campaign learn about the historic Armenian communities and make a gift to help populate these new forests. On the website you can select your ancestral city, town or village, or make a general donation to any of these new planting sites.

Armenia’s Pyunik recorded their first UEFA Champions League victory since July 2007, although their place in the second qualifying round is far from secure after José Hirsch’s 71st-minute reply for ten-man Folgore.

FC Pyunik scored either side of half-time to register a 2-1 victory over 10-man Folgore in the opening leg of their UEFA Champions League first qualifying round tie on Tuesday.

The Armenian side led through Vardges Satumyan and substitute Cesar Romero, but Hirsch’s header, seconds after team-mate Fabio Ceschi had been dismissed, has given the Sammarinese outfit hope of winning a UEFA tie for the first time.

Rare, moving images of survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide will be shown in Bologna on Thursday as part of the 29th edition of the city’s “Cinema Ritrovato” (Rediscovered Cinema) festival, Agence France-Presse reports. 

A significant historical source that was discovered completely by chance, buried away and forgotten in the US Library of Congress, the silent film dates from 1923 and includes images of children packed onto boats in Turkey and lines of refugees trudging along roads.

The film is being shown as part of a selection intended to honour Armenian cinema a century after the beginning of the slaughter of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turkish forces.

Also on show during the festival are “Namus” (Honour), a 1925 work by Hamo Beknazarian that is considered the first Armenian film, “Sayat Nova” (The Color of Pomegranates) a 1969 film by Sergei Paradjanov and “Naapet”, Henrik Malyan’s 1980 film about a genocide survivor.

Other rare documentary images include a five-minute film shot by the French army of Armenian refugees in camps at Port Said in Egypt.

But the jewel in the festival’s crown is the four minutes of “Armenia, Cradle of Humanity” shot in Turkey soon after the end of the killing – a time thought previously to have only been recorded in still images such as those of German photographer Armin Wegner.

Mariann Lewinsky, one of the festival’s curators, came upon the film by “a miracle” as she clicked through the internet data base of the International Federation of Film Archives (Fiaf).

Who shot the film and how it got to the Oregon Historical Society before being deposited in the Congress library is a mystery, says the Swiss researcher as she runs the recently-restored reel.

“I sent a little email to my colleagues in the library and they told me, ‘Yes we have something, but we don’t know what.’

“I insisted a bit and asked if I could come and see the condition of the film.”

Normally such a demand would take a bit of time to get a response but Lewinsky was quickly sent some photos and a telephone contact number. “The images were extraordinary, boats full of children, trains.”

Having obtained the reel, she quickly dated it to 1923, but her first thought was the people shown could be displaced Greeks – a theory that was dropped when she recognised a well-known Istanbul palace in the background of one shot.

Colleagues confirmed that, after the end of World War One, British forces assembled Armenian orphans in the building for evacuation.

“It is a miracle,” Lewinsky said.

A century on, Lewinsky believes a new Turkey is emerging in which Kurds, Greeks, Armenians and ethnic Turks are moving towards “moments of reconciliation”.

Films like “Armenia, Cradle of Humanity” can only help this process, she says, invoking her hope that it could be shown at a small silent film festival in Istanbul in the near future.

Every two years the United Church of Christ (UCC) brings together thousands of faithful members for the General Synod.

The UCC has more than 5,100 churches and 1.1 million members across the United States. Many Armenian Evangelical Churches within the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America (AEUNA) are members of the UCC.

This year, General Synod held June 26-30th in Cleveland, OH —the birthplace of the United Church of Christ.  Dr. Peter Makari, Area Executive for Middle East/Europe of the UCC, announced that on June 29 the Synod adopted the resolution of witness submitted by Wider Church Ministries “Commemorating 100 Years Since the Armenian Genocide.”

During the General Synod, Rev. Dr. James Moos, Executive Minister of Wider Church Ministries, UCC, read the statements of Rev. L. Nishan Bakalian, Pastor of Armenian Martyrs’ Congregational Church, Havertown, PA and Rev. Michelle Torigian, Pastor of St. Paul United Church of Christ (UCC) in Cincinnati, OH.