Category: News

The local chapter of the Armenian Relief Society received a $22,000 check on Wednesday from Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital and its foundation as part of their observance of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the reports.

Staffers and physicians pooled donations, which were later matched by the hospital’s foundation.

Wayne Herron, the foundation’s vice president of philanthropy, said he initially thought no more than a few thousand dollars would be raised.

“If you do good philanthropy, if you touch people’s hearts, people will respond,” Herron said.

The check was made out to the Sepan chapter of the Armenian Relief Society, which will use the money to help pay for mental health services for Glendale area residents, said chapter chairperson Miganoush Melkonian.

“As a nonprofit organization, we are used to approaching people and asking for donations, but this was the first time an organization like Glendale Memorial Hospital approached us with a proposal so close to our hearts,” she said.

Melkonian then likened the donation to when Near East Relief, a U.S. nonprofit, aided victims of the Armenian Genocide in the years after the tragedy that claimed 1.5 million lives.

She thanked the hospital for its additional efforts toward remembering the genocide, including providing employees with memorial pins, organizing a commemoration event on April 23 and holding a moment of silence on April 24.

Mayor Ara Najarian also spoke at the check-presentation event, commending hospital staffers for working together to raise money and choosing the Armenian Relief Society as the recipient.

“It’s really one for a corporate donor to get out and write a check, it’s a little blip on their balance sheet,” he said. “But for the staff, employees and doctors, it really means a lot. It’s really a community-based effort, so I’m very proud of that.”

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received today Ebrahim Rahimpour, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who has arrived in Armenia to participate for inter-agency consultations.

Minister Nalbandian noted that Armenia and Iran are tied by warm, mutually beneficial relations, evidenced by high-level inter-state dialogue and active cooperation in different spheres.

Ebrahim Rahimpour conveyed the greetings of the Iranian Foreign Minister and said “Iran attaches importance to the reinforcement of friendly relations and expansion of cooperation with Armenia.”

The interlocutors referred to a number of issues on bilateral agenda, stressed the importance of cooperation in inter-parliamentary format and discussed the steps being taken towards the development of economic cooperation between the two countries. In this context the parties discussed the implementation of joint transport and energy projects.

Edward Nalbandian and Ebrahim Rahimpour exchanged views on a number of unrgent international and regional issues.

Iran’s Deputy FM briefed Minister Nalbandian on the latest developments in the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programs.

Minister Nalbandian presented the efforts towards the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

Renowned classical sound director and producer Igor Fiorini is planning a major project, in conjunction with acclaimed Italian live sound engineer Luca Giannerini, which will take place at the end of September 2015, according to

This will involve the live performance, recording and broadcast in high definition DXD/DSD of a concert to mark the centenary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Entitled The Amen Project, the concert will take place at the main Arena in Verona and will use music, words and dance to trace the history of the Armenian people to the current day.

“We will have plenty of musicians to capture, plus a number of choirs including a children’s choir,” Fiorini says. “This is a massive cultural event that will be broadcast live on television so it is imperative that we get it right.”

A fabulous mural produced by world renowned Armenian artist Marie Balian decorates the whitewashed exterior wall at 14 Coresh Street in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Post reports that she spent months preparing an original creation as a gift for the enjoyment of the residents of the city. She presented it to the mayor, who stuck it on a wall along one of the city’s most rundown, nondescript, least traveled byways.

Yet it is one of the most splendid features of the city and one of Jerusalem’s dozens of out of- the-way or unusual highlights that Israelis call pinot, or corners.

In 1918, the first British military governor of Jerusalem brought two Armenian families – the Balians and the Karkashians – to Jerusalem from Turkey to renovate the ceramic tiles at the Dome of the Rock. Four years later, they established the first Armenian pottery in Jerusalem. The two families eventually parted ways amicably, with the Balians remaining on Nablus Road (where one can watch the process of tile-making in their workshop). Marie, who is well into her 90s, was born in Turkey.

The government of Azerbaijan has banned , along with a number of media outlets and human rights activists, from entering the country to cover the inaugural European Games which begin on Friday.

The Guardian originally applied for accreditation for its chief sports correspondent, Owen Gibson, in January, when the process opened. Flights were booked and accommodation in the media village confirmed by the organisers.

Following repeated inquiries as to the status of the accreditation, which also acts as a visa for entry to Azerbaijan, it was confirmed on 5 June by the head of press operations that approval for Gibson was still pending subject to government background checks.

Confirmation that the application had been turned down and the Guardian would not be able to enter the country to cover the event and associated issues was not received until Thursday morning – the day before the opening ceremony and three hours before the flight that had been booked.

The decision appears to be linked to the Guardian’s trip to Azerbaijan in December to report on preparations for the European Games and the country’s ambitious attempts to expand its portfolio of international sporting events, against a backdrop of rising concern about the government’s clampdown on freedom of speech and any political opposition. Gibson met government critics including the investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, who investigates corruption in Azerbaijan’s first family. Ismayilova was jailed shortly after and remains behind bars.

A new approach to teaching kids using technology in Armenia has educators from the Middle East, Europe and the US looking to replicate the programme, according to  

The after-school curriculum run by the Tumo Center for Creative Technologies lets students pick areas of interest and acquire skills at their own pace.

“What we’re trying to do is to create an environment where teenagers will be able to reach their full potential,” Marie Lou Papazian, the centre’s director, says.

“We want to give them the opportunity to learn as much as possible, to experiment as much as possible, to be self-confident of what they can do, and never be afraid to jump and take big leaps.”

More than 6,000 students between the ages of 12 and 18 are enrolled free-of-charge at the centre, which was set up with a $20m grant from the US-based Simonian Education Foundation.

Students use a workspace called a Tumo-mobile, which can be moved around for students to work individually or in groups, and they log into a special learning interface called Tumo World.

The proprietary software guides the students through a learning programme in English or Armenian, allowing them to focus on animation, digital media, game design and game development.

“Computer science or programming is a skill that is essential to everyone of the focus areas,” says Papazian.

“You cannot not know or not be familiar with computer programming today. You have to understand how programs work, where you can use them.”

“Even if you’re not a programmer and you’re an artist, you need to know those skills.”

Teachers at the centre include experienced professionals from the world’s leading companies, notably Disney and Pixar; renowned musicians including Serj Tankian, frontman of System of a Down; and film-makers of the calibre of Oscar-nominated Atom Egoyan.

Liz Artinian, a New York animation art director and background designer, volunteers her time to teach at Tumo a few weeks of the year.

“I tell them it’s an arts school, where arts meet technology. It’s a free school for kids to get a good foundation for arts and technology,” says Artinian.

“What I like is that it’s not just old art practices. It’s trying to find the new way and new programmes.”

The centre costs about $1.5m a year to run and its programmes have attracted the attention of educators from around the world, including the US, Russia, Germany, Lebanon, and Egypt.

Nearly a dozen countries are looking to replicate Tumo’s blueprint for learning centres.

“Someone came from MIT Media Lab, and I told them, this is not a school,” says Papazian.

“He said, ‘This is a school and you have to take it very seriously, because this is the future of the school system.’”

A Construction company in London has been sentenced after pleading guilty to safety failings after a 55 year old employee fell through a skylight roof, the Health and Safety Executive, Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, informs on its webpage.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Armenian national, Petros Pogosyan fell through a skylight from a unit roof on a London industrial estate while working for Race Interiors Ltd on 18 January 2013.

Mr Pogosyan fell four and half meters on to a concrete floor at Unit 1, Roseberry Industrial Estate, London and suffered life changing injuries including a fractured back. He is now partially deaf, has damage to his brain, is paralysed from the waist down and psychologically traumatised.

During the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution case, the court was told he will need personal care for the rest of his life, and will never work again. His wife has given up work to care for him full time. Since the incident the couple have been living on state benefits.

Judge May QC described the accident as highly foreseeable, pointing out there was no protection to prevent a fall from or through the roof. She ruled that the company fell far short of the required standards for managing risks at work as the supervisor was not trained and there was a complete lack of planning with no risk assessment or method statement for the work.

HSE inspector Simon Hester said: “This tragedy should not have happened. Nobody should work on a roof without proper planning.

“It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that all reasonable precautions are taken to prevent a fall. Mr Pogosyan could have been killed by his fall and now suffers massive and irreversible life-changing injuries.”

Race Interiors Limited was fined £60,000 with costs of £7,784 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

However, in a highly unusual move the fine was converted into a compensation order of £60,000 to be paid directly to Mr Pogosyan. The judge described this as “an exceptional case” as Race Interiors are in dispute with its insurance company and Mr Pogosyan is unlikely, if at all, to receive compensation for his injuries.

A former police intelligence chief is required to serve up to 860 years in prison in a wiretapping case, in which he has been found guilty of wiretapping 48 people, including several government officials, journalists, judiciary personnel and businessmen, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Ramazan Akyürek, the former chief, was indicted on the charge of “heading a terrorist organization” and sentenced to more than eight centuries in prison over the case filed by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on June 9.

Akyürek had previously been and was sent to prison on Feb.27.

Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, was shot dead on Jan.19, 2007, while Akyürek was the Trabzon Police department head.

Akyürek was among 50 police officers from various ranks whose names appeared in a 130-page indictment with charges of “forming and running a criminal organization,” “fabricating false documents,” “illegally keeping private information,” and “violating private life and communication privacy” in the wiretapping investigation, led by prosecutor Alpaslan Karabay.

All the 50 were accused of forming a terrorist organization serving the goals of the alleged “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization.”

The indictment also contained a report made by the Turkish Interior Ministry that stated the executive assistant of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli and his advisors had been wiretapped.

“Wiretapping people from a political leader’s inner circle begets wiretapping that political leader. The wiretapping done right before the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2011, could have had a bearing on the fate of a political party and the country’s domestic politics,” it stated.

 

 

 

An international conference on “NATO-Armenia relations in the context of new challenges” initiated by the Analytical Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC) was held in Yerevan today.

According to ACGRC Head Stepan Grigoryan, Armenia’s cooperation with NATO is rather constructive, but it cannot go too deep because we are part of a different security system.

“There is no doubt that the cooperation with NATO comes to supplement our security. I think NATO has chosen the right way of cooperation with Armenia to the extent the latter wants, without any noise and ambitions,” Grigoryan said.

The cooperation with NATO has risen to a certain level in the field of peacekeeping operations, which has led to the improvement of Armenia’s international standing, Stepan Grigoryan said. He added that the “humanitarian and scientific programs are also on a high level.”

Gerlinde Niehus, Head of Communications at NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, said Armenia is a very important country for NATO. She hailed the cooperation in international peacekeeping and voiced hope that the collaboration would further succeed.

German Ambassador to Armenia Rayner Morel voiced his appreciation for the level of Armenia’s relations with NATO.

Amb. Morel noted that Armenia is a good member of the CSTO and added that there are other opportunities the country should use.

As for statements from Azerbaijan suggesting that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship should be extended to include Germany, the Ambassador said “Germany supports the OSCE Minsk Group, but has no wish to join it.”

Speaking about the Armenian Genocide Resolution pending at the Bundestag, Rayner Morel said he can make no predictions, but voiced confidence that discussions will take place. He reminded that the German President made it clear that the what happened in 1915 was genocide.