Category: News

The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) has raised the ongoing human rights violations in Azerbaijan to Australia’s Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, and members of the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

In light of the inaugural European Games – currently taking place in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku – ANC Australia raised the deteriorating human rights conditions in that country and called on the Australian government to protest these grave violations in all official contact with Azerbaijani authorities.

In recent months, Azerbaijan has embarked on a global public relations campaign to try and cover up the country’s entrenched human rights issues, and has attempted to present what is a violence-preaching dictatorship in a positive light.

In its letter, ANC Australia made reference to the, as well as to Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, who all strongly condemn Azerbaijan’s ongoing human rights violations.

Azerbaijan’s ongoing war-mongering against the Armenians of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the Republic of Armenia were again brought to the attention of the Australian Foreign Minister.

The letter reads: “In addition to the ongoing violation of human rights, Azerbaijan has dramatically increased its ongoing military threats against the people of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the people of the Republic of Armenia.”

“Over the past six months there have been numerous military incursions by Azerbaijan resulting in over 20 Armenian servicemen being killed. I again reiterate the need for the Australian Government to continue to raise these serious human rights violations in all dealings with Azerbaijan and call on Azerbaijan to adhere to its obligations under international law and customs.”

ANC Australia’s Executive Director, Vache Kahramanian, said: “It is vital that Australia uses its position at the United Nations to raise these serious human rights violations with Azerbaijan.”

“For many years, Azerbaijan has attempted to use its petrodollars to conceal these issues, which have been put into the spotlight as a result of the European Games taking place in the country.”

ANC Australia will release any responses from the Foreign Minister and/or the Joint Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

Reports in Turkish media reveal the Armenian ancestry of a newly elected MP.

Mehmet Ali Aslan elected to the Turkish Parliament from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) refused to utter the words “Great Turkish nation” at the oath-taking ceremony at the Grand National Assembly.

The MP said “The Great Nation” instead and was required to repeat the oath under the pressure of some MPs.

Reports in Turkish media reveal that Aslan is of Armenian descent, Akunq.net reports.

A British national working at the inaugural European Games was killed in a road crash in Baku, The Associated Press reports.

The Briton, who has not been named, was a passenger in a vehicle driven by an Azerbaijani, who was also killed in the incident on Tuesday, police spokesman Ehsan Zahid said.

Two more British nationals were hospitalized, and receiving consular assistance, British Embassy spokesperson Gunel Ahmedova told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

California-based company FiveCurrents, which is working on the opening and closing ceremonies for the games, said the Briton who was killed had been working for one of its subcontractors, and expressed “great sadness” at the death.

“Three other team members also required immediate hospital treatment after the incident, and will be repatriated so they can receive further medical attention,” FiveCurrents said in a statement released via games organizers.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on French Presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande in 2006-12, Wikileaks says, the BBC reports.

The whistleblower website cites “top secret intelligence reports and technical documents” from the NSA.

A French official said spying “between allies was unacceptable”. Mr Hollande is to discuss the issue with security chiefs.

The US would not confirm the veracity of the documents.

In 2013 the NSA was accused of spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On Tuesday, Wikileaks said it began publishing the files under the heading “Espionnage Elysee” – a reference to the French presidential palace.

It said the secret files “derive from directly targeted NSA surveillance of the communications” of the three French presidents as well as French ministers and the ambassador to the US.

 

The Islamic State fighters have destroyed two ancient Muslim mausoleums in the historic Syrian city of Palmyra, the country’s antiquities director said June 23, AFP reports.
Maamoun Abdulkarim said ISIS jihadists blew up the tombs of Mohammed bin Ali, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed’s cousin, and Nizar Abu Bahaaeddine, a religious figure from Palmyra, three days ago.
Bin Ali’s burial place is located in a mountainous region four kilometres north of Palmyra, in central Syria.

Abu Bahaaeddine’s tomb, nestled in a leafy oasis about 500 metres (yards) from Palmyra’s ancient ruins, is said to be more than five centuries old.

ISIS has destroyed at least 50 mausoleums dating between 100-200 years old in the regions under its control in north and east Syria, the antiquities director said.

“They consider these Islamic mausoleums to be against their beliefs, and they ban all visits to these sites,” Abulkarim said.

President Serzh Sargsyan attended today a ceremony in memory of great Armenian philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian, National Hero of Armenia, at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. The president took part in a session devoted to the great Armenian philanthropist at the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Library where he delivered a speech. Afterwards, the president attended the requiem service for the rest of Kirk Kerkorian’s soul at Etchmiadzin Cathedral which was led by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

Remarks by President Serzh Sargsyan in honor of Kirk Kerkorian

Your Holiness, Your Eminences, Ladies and gentlemen,

We have gathered here today to honor the memory of great philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian, National Hero of Armenia, who passed away one week ago.

Kirk Kerkorian deceased in the year of the Armenian Genocide Centennial when Armenians all over the world commemorated the innocent martyrs who had fallen victim to that crime. It is known that history does not admit “ifs.” But perhaps Kirk Kerkorian might have really become a businessman of another, different Armenia, one who pushes life forward, or an Armenian boxing champion, or, let’s say, a heroic pilot of Armenia’s air force. Perhaps he might have been an ordinary worker earning his family’s bread with dignity in that another, different Armenia.

Today nobody can answer this question, but like many Armenian girls and boys who have been destined to live in a foreign land, Kirk Kerkorian shows the Armenia which could have been real. He embodies the Armenia which was stolen from us with the aim of utterly annihilating the name of Armenians on the earth.

Honoring Kirk Kerkorian’s memory, we should also appraise America and its people at their true worth. It was exactly there where his business talent revealed itself, making it possible for him to promote his multifarious activities. And he was not the only one. The United States of America became home to hundreds of thousands of Armenians, which gave them the opportunity to survive the Armenian Genocide and start a new life.

He earned his bread since he was nine years old so that he could help his parents. He was a boxer and a pilot, a major player in the machine and entertainment industries. He never forgot his Armenian roots, which was easy to do in that atmosphere of immigrants.

Since the devastating earthquake in 1988, Kerkorian lent a helping hand to Armenia, thus supporting his sisters and brothers. He was so modest that he never allowed anything in Armenia and another place to be named after him. Such proposals were made everywhere where he sponsored charitable projects, but Kirk Kerkorian remained adamant about that fundamental position.

A man lives as long as people remember and talk about him. We will not forget our hero, Kirk Kerkorian. We will remember that thanks to him, numerous roads, infrastructures and cultural centers of Armenia were built and renovated, thereby giving fresh impetus to Armenia’s economy.

We are grateful to our great Armenian-American compatriot for his major contribution to Armenia’s life, and we will never forget it. Kirk Kerkorian’s memory will live forever in his mother country of Armenia.

It will live so that another great Armenian-American’s words to be become a reality again and again: “Try to destroy Armenia, and see whether you can do it. Drive them out from their houses to the desert, do not forget to snatch out their bread and the last mouthful of water, set on fire their and their God’s houses. See that they are going to revive again. See that when two of them meet and laugh in their mother tongue after 20 years, the nation will rise again.”

Throughout the last hundred years, one Armenian met another one and started to build a new Armenia.

Kirk Kerkorian and the new Armenia met each other, talked to each other and made fun of the mean ideas of hangmen.

On behalf of all of us, I express my thanks to you, Kirk Kerkorian. Rest in peace.

The situation in Armenia should not be politicized by foreign media or governments, Serj Tankian of the System Of A Down has said in a Facebook post.

“It seems like the brutal police crackdown with water cannons and beating up people including journalists has predictably brought more people out into the streets of Yerevan today. This was a peaceful sit in. The police had the right to clear it and legally detain people without using undue force,” Tankian said.

“The situation should not be politicized by foreign media or governments. This is a non-political reaction to an endemic economic marginalization of a large segment of the Armenian populace. The government of Armenia should make every effort to ameliorate the economic suffering of its citizens and address this and other concerns,” Tankian concluded.

The Queen may have to move out of Buckingham Palace to allow maintenance work costing £150m to be carried out, the BBC reports.

It is one option being considered by the royal household, which says the palace needs new plumbing and wiring and has not been decorated since 1952.

It comes as the Crown Estate, which owns property on behalf of the Queen, returned record profits of £285m to the taxpayer last year – up 6.7%.

Public funding of the Queen is expected to rise by £2m next year – to £42.8m.

The monarch is paid 15% of the Crown Estate’s profits by the government under the Sovereign Grant formula launched in 2011.

Last year, the Queen received £37.9m from the grant – of which she spent £35.7m. That figure will increase to £40.05m this year, and is expected to rise to £42.8m next year.

It comes as the Crown Estate’s annual results show its capital value is at a historic high of £11.5 billion – up 16.1%.

A crowd of a few dozen gathered in front of the Armenian embassy in Tbilisi on Wednesday afternoon to show their solidarity with protesters in Yerevan, DFWatch reports.

One of the rally organizers Rezo Karanadze from the Self-Organized Student Network, a grass-root leftists organization, told that the idea was to express solidarity with Armenian protesters who were suppressed by the police yesterday.

“We believe that Armenian public has legitimate reason to protest against artificially raised electricity prices. First of all, Armenia has a nuclear power plant. Also, it is weird that electricity prices in Armenia are the highest in the post-soviet space,” Karanadze said.

Another reason for the rally was to show that people care not only about liberal and human rights issues, but about socio-economic causes as well, he added.

“If nationalism divides us, our class struggle unites us. Therefore we stand here not as Armenians and Georgians, but as socialists, as one class, which is being exploited by the political and economic elites,” Karanadze said.

 

Among the protesters were few Armenians from Yerevan as well. One of them, Anna Davtyan, told DFWatch she and her friends came to Georgia on a business trip yesterday. She wished to be in Yerevan at the moment with her friends, but came to the rally in Tbilisi instead.

”We don’t understand what is written in Georgian, but it is nice to see solidarity. It is very empowering to have good, understanding neighbors,” Davtyan said. .

The current wave of protests in Yerevan started when the governmental Public Services Regulatory Commission decided to allow the rise in electricity prices.

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Since his passing on June 15, thousands of journalists have highlighted Kirk Kerkorian’s amazing business accomplishments and substantial charitable contributions. However, these journalists had never met this great man, as he rarely gave interviews to the media.

Having worked with Mr. Kerkorian for almost three decades as Senior Vice President of The Lincy Foundation and President of the United Armenian Fund, I would like to offer a personal tribute about this compassionate Armenian-American and wonderful human being.

I remember vividly the first time I met Mr. Kerkorian. It was at a Beverly Hills restaurant in the mid 1980’s during a small gathering of wealthy Armenians who supported Gov. George Deukmejian’s reelection. I was there as editor of The California Courier newspaper. When I walked over to introduce myself, Mr. Kerkorian recognized me right away and told me that he was a regular reader of my weekly columns. I was greatly surprised and flattered….

The next time I met Mr. Kerkorian was in his Beverly Hills office on November 1, 1989, eleven months after the devastating earthquake in Armenia. We discussed the possibility of forming a coalition of seven major Armenian-American organizations, including The Lincy Foundation, to airlift humanitarian aid to Armenia. Mr. Kerkorian offered to pay the full cost of transportation and went on to generously pledge to cover not only the cost of one airlift, but “all future airlifts as long as Armenia needed assistance.” Within a few days, the United Armenian Fund was born which successfully delivered over the next 25 years $700 million of relief supplies to Armenia and Artsakh, on board 158 airlifts and 2,250 sea containers.

In 1998, Mr. Kerkorian invited me to travel with him to Armenia, his first trip during which he pledged to Pres. Kocharian to allocate $100 million (raising it later to $242 million) to build or renovate tunnels, bridges and dozens of schools throughout Armenia and one in Artsakh; hundreds of miles of highways, roads and streets; 34 cultural institutions and museums; 3,700 apartments in the earthquake zone; and $20 million of loans to small businesses. These projects not only dramatically improved Armenia’s infrastructure, but also provided much needed employment to over 20,000 workers. Mr. Kerkorian asked me to supervise these projects, in my capacity as Senior Vice President of The Lincy Foundation.

Over the years, Mr. Kerkorian’s Lincy Foundation contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Armenians worldwide, including $14 million to provide heating oil for Armenia’s freezing population during the harsh winter of 1993, $4.5 million in 2006 to all 28 Armenian schools in Lebanon, and millions of dollars to Hayastan All-Armenia Fund’s projects in Artsakh. It is estimated that from 1989 to 2011, The Lincy Foundation contributed over $1 billion, split equally between Armenian and non-Armenian charities.

In 2011, when The Lincy Foundation closed its doors, unfounded and false rumors began circulating about the supposed reasons for its closure. The fact is that Mr. Kerkorian had planned all along that at a certain advanced age he would no longer deal with the deluge of daily requests for funding from around the world and distribute the bulk of his wealth after his passing.

I would like to conclude by mentioning some of the likes and dislikes of this remarkable Armenian-American:

— Mr. Kerkorian detested the divisions among Armenians. It upset him to no end that Armenians could not get along with each other. He often said: “Why can’t they unite and march in the same direction?” He was pleased to see seven major Armenian-American organizations working together under the umbrella of the United Armenian Fund.

–He cared deeply about the destitute condition of the people in Armenia and was constantly worried about emigration. He sought to create jobs so Armenians won’t have to leave their homeland.

— He hated the limelight and never lent his name to any building or institution.

— He was extremely wealthy, yet lived very modestly and spoke gently and politely. He preferred that people address him as Kirk rather than Mr. Kerkorian.

Finally, no one had to prompt Kirk to donate money to worthy causes. He often volunteered to make large contributions without being asked.

The Armenian nation and the world owe him a great debt of gratitude.