Category: News

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the Syrian and Armenian people face the same challenges and dangers, SANA reports.

The President’s remarks came during a meeting on Thursday with the visiting delegation of the Armenian-Syrian Friendship Association at the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, headed by the Association’s President Tachat Vardapetyan.

Drawing parallels between the dangers facing the people of Syria and Armenia, the President said the Ottomans who committed massacres against the Armenian people a hundred years ago are today represented by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, using the same tools, mainly terrorism, against the Syrian people.

He warned against the expansive threat of terrorism on the entire Middle East region and the world, saying terrorism “knows no border and doesn’t stop at the frontier of this or that country.”

That’s why parliaments, in their position as representatives of peoples, are called upon to take effective action to pressure the international community into adopting an efficacious policy against terrorism and the obscurantist thinking for the sake of not just the Syrian people but also the peoples of the region and the world, the President added.

Vardapetyan, for his part, stressed that the Armenian people stand by the side of the people of Syria in the face of the regionally-backed terrorist war waged on them, voicing confidence that Syria will get over this war and rout terrorism and its backers.

Talks during the meeting highlighted that further developing the relations between the National Assembly of Armenia and the Syrian People’s Assembly would help in consolidating the relationship between the two countries.

Chairman of the Syrian-Armenian Friendship Association at the People’s Assembly Butrus Marjaneh and Armenia’s Ambassador in Damascus Arshak Poladian attended the meeting.

Armenian campaigners in Istanbul are calling for the “unconditional” return of a historic building at the centre of a demolition row, reports.

Now the Council of Europe could become embroiled in the dispute which has revived issues regarding Turkey’s minority groups and their property rights.

This is despite claims from the landowner that he intends to return the building to the religious foundation from which it was expropriated in the 1980s.

Kamp Armen, a historic building in the Tuzla district of Istanbul, has been the site of vigils by activists for the last 30 days. The protests are aimed at stopping a possible demolition of the historic structure.

“We demand Kamp Armen to be returned to its real owners … unconditionally and urgently,” Sayat Tekir, a spokesman for the Nor Zartonk campaign group, told reporters in Istanbul on Thursday.

His remarks came after attempts to partially demolish the building on May 6. The work was suspended after protests held by activists and leading figures from the Armenian community.

“Our resistance for the camp will continue till our demands are entirely met,” Tekir added.

Kamp Armen was constructed in 1962 by Istanbul-based Gedik Pasa Armenian Protestant Church and School Foundation. At one time it was home to around 1,500 orphans.

Important one-time residents included Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink — who was assassinated in 2007 — his wife Rakel and pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party deputy Erol Dora. In 1987, the camp was expropriated under old legislation which deemed ‘inactive’ religious trusts to be forfeit of their assets.

The Nor Zartonk members have also rejected reports circulating in some media organizations recently claiming that the camp had been returned to Armenians.

“Neither the camp has been returned nor any victory gained,” Tekir told reporters.

Ankara-based Human Rights Association is preparing to apply to the Council of Europe on the grounds that the case violates minority rights and property rights, Istanbul branch member Meral Cildir said at today’s press conference.

After the press conference, landowner Fatih Ulusoy, speaking to Anadolu Agency, said that he had submitted a petition to the Armenian foundation to transfer the building to them.

“The process has lengthened out because of the official transaction process and workload,” he said, adding: “It will start in the coming weeks.”

Last month, Rakel Dink wrote an article for Armenian-language newspaper Agos, running a photo of herself and her husband, together with other children.

“The biggest wish of my husband was for Kamp Armenia to survive,” she wrote.

 

 

 

“All opportunities to study the Turkish archives in a legal way have been exhausted, while approaching the issue on the academic or amateur level is senseless,” political scientist Edik Hovsepyan told a press conference today.

“If any Armenian scholar declares he can go to the new building of the Turkish national archive and study any document, I will apologize,” he said.

According to Hovsepyan, irrespective of how often Turkey declares about the transparency of its archives and invites the Armenian side to study them, it’s obvious that all opportunities to familiarize with the Turkish archive documents in a legal way have been exhausted.

“After the signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols, Abkara put its national archive under the control of the National Security Service and moved it to a new building,” the political scientist noted.

“This means all documents related to Armenians are under the control of the Turkish National Security Service,” Hovsepyan said.

He’s assured the Armenian state should seek to find other ways to familiarize with these archives. “What are we going to look for in those archives? Certainly, not an answer to the question of whether there has been genocide or not.”

According to Hovsepyan, the documents will help us ascertain what we have left in Turkey and what we should demand.

 

 

 

The national minorities residing in Armenia have decided to unite efforts to call the attention of the world to the events that happened 100 years ago. They have prepared a message to the leaders of the UN member states.

Representatives of the 11 national minorities of Armenia are preparing to address an official letter to the heads of the UN member states. Strongly condemning the genocide of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, the minorities demand from the progressive world to “establish justice and restore the rights of the national minorities residing in Turkey.”

“As descendants of the peoples that have seen consequences of the genocide, and are aware of the bitter results of denialism, we call on the Ambassadors of the UN member states to condemn the crime of genocide committed in the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago and anticipate an adequate assessment of this heaviest crime against humanity,” the letter reads.

Representative of the Armenian Assyrian community Razmik Khostoyev said “the material demands from Turkey are between the lines.” He believes claiming lands from Turkey is still untimely.

Siaband Bakoyan, representative of the Yezidi community said “the failure to condemn results in new crimes.  “In this particular case I mean the mass killing of Yezidis in the Middle East starting from August 2, 2014,” he said.

Adelina Livshic from the Jewish community confesses that “many in Israel accept there was genocide, but one should remember about geopolitics.”

Armenia is ranked 84^th in the new FIFA World Ranking released today.

World Champion Germany remains on top of the list followed by Belgium and Argentina.

Armenia’s rivals in Euro-2016 qualification round are placed as follows: Portugal – 7th, Denmark – 29th, Serbia – 45th and Albania – 51^st.

Rapper 50 Cent is dating an Armenian and she’s a beauty.  Her name is Nancy Babochian and he took her with him to the premiere of his series, Power, in New York yesterday.

The rapper escorted Babochian down the red carpet during the NYC premiere of Melissa McCarthy’s new movie “Spy” on Monday evening (June 1).

And the very next day, she supported Fifty during his “Power” season two debut, according to mstarz.com.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Pope Francis on June 10 at the Vatican, with conflicts in Syria and Ukraine likely to top the Holy See’s agenda, the Associated Press reports.

Putin last called on Francis on Nov. 25, 2013.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Thursday the meeting would take place in the afternoon of June 10; Putin is expected to visit Russia’s pavilion at the Expo world’s fair in Milan, where June 10 has been slated as Russia’s national day.

More than 90 people have died in a fire at a petrol station in Ghana’s capital, Accra, the fire service says, the BBC reports.

The fire started as people in the city are trying to cope with two days of heavy rain, which has left many homeless and without power.

The flooding hampered the rescue efforts.

There are fears that the death toll could rise as the search for bodies continues.

It is thought that people were in the petrol station sheltering from the downpour when the fire began.

President John Mahama has visited the burnt-out petrol station and has appealed for calm as the authorities try to cope with the aftermath of the fire and the flooding.

Four Armenian communities – Urtsadzor, Ararat Marz, Vardenik, Gegharkunuk Marz, Akhtala, Lori Marz, and Artik, Shirak Marz signed agreements, on 3 June 2015, with the Council of Europe to receive grants for implementing citizen participation initiatives in their communities.

The four communities have been selected through a competitive process and will receive coaching and expert support from the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

“This is the first time that the Council of Europe will provide grants to its partners in Armenia,” stated Natalia Voutova, the Head of Council of Europe Office in Yerevan, congratulating partner municipalities.

Starting from June 2015, the four communities will launch citizen participation processes by involving their residents in identifying, prioritising and finding shared solutions to urgent community problems, which will then be included in the following community annual budget.

“These are actually participatory budgeting pilot initiatives, which as a process, practically doesn’t exist in Armenia. We are confident that these “pilots” will be successful. We will assist the dissemination of results and lessons learnt to other local governments throughout Armenia,” concluded Ms Voutova.

This initiative is implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe as part of the project “Support to consolidating local democracy in Armenia”, which is funded by the Government of Denmark.