Category: News

Egypt intends to establish a free trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), comprising Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia, by the end of 2016, the Egyptian ambassador to Russia told

A free trade zone deal between the sides was discussed in February during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Cairo. Egypt sent an official request to establish a free trade zone with the EEU last year.

“There is a kick-off already in the negotiation process and we estimate that it is going to take from 12-18 months,” Mohamed Elbadri told Sputnik.

At this stage of negotiations, the envoy added, each party will study the benefits of mutual cooperation before entering into direct talks regarding the details of the agreement.

The treaty should cover all trade in commodities between the countries.

The Russia-led EEU officially came into force on January 1. The bloc aims to achieve the free flow of goods, services, capital and labor across its member states, with provisions for a greater integration in the future.

Last week, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved a free trade zone agreement between the EEU and Vietnam.

More than 1,200 people gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument at Sunset Park which is the largest area park and centrally located in Las Vegas, reports.

Armenian-American Cultural Society of Las Vegas (AACS) is leading this project with the support of all Las Vegas Armenian churches and organizations. The project was initiated in 2006. Since then, AACS Board Members had several meetings with Las Vegas city authorities and Sunset Park was selected as the future location for the Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument.

Clark County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the monument proposal on January 5, 2015. The monument is a gift from AACS and the Nevada Armenian-American community and Clark County Board of Commissioners accepted the monument to be placed at Sunset Park.

The project is estimated to cost $200,000 which will cover the design and construction of the monument in addition to a maintenance agreement reached with Clark County Parks and Recreation Department.

The $200,000 is anticipated to cover all groundbreaking, inauguration, maintenance expenses as well as funds to publish a book regarding the Las Vegas Armenian-American community history leading to the construction of the monument. The book will be authored by UNLV History Department Professor Michelle Tusan.

Mistress of Ceremonies Lenna Hovanessian invited the guests to stand for the flags presentation by Las Vegas Homenetmen Artsakh chapter scouts followed by both the Armenian and USA national anthems sang by Maral Saccoyan. After the emcee’s introduction, the newly appointed Honorary Consul of Republic of Armenia in Las Vegas, Adroushan Andy Armenian delivered the keynote speech. Armenian provided a brief history of the Las Vegas Armenian community going back to 1911, when the first Armenian family settled in the area. Armenian also referred to the State of Nevada saving the lives of tens of thousands of Armenian orphans by donating in 1919 over $100,000 to the Near East Relief Fund as part of fundraising efforts that was taking place across USA during that period.

Armenian concluded his remarks by thanking America and thanking the State of Nevada for providing the Armenian-American community an opportunity for new beginnings in fabulous Las Vegas. The monument at Sunset Park will be a gift from the Armenian-American community in Las Vegas to the people of Southern Nevada so that new generations remember the tragic history in order not to repeat such terrible deeds in the future.

Armen Anooshian provided the latest update regarding the monument fundraising progress stating that all building department approvals are in place and that $122,000 in donations have already been raised. We estimate construction to start in July with completion by end of September 2015. Anooshian shared the podium with AACS veteran Board members Hriyr Dadaian, Arpiar Babikian and Garry Deratzou who all emotionally expressed their appreciation of this landmark event.

Hovanessian invited official guests who took the podium and expressed their support for the construction of the Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument at Sunset Park while condemning the Armenian Genocide and urging President Obama to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Among the speakers who presented proclamations were US Senator Dean Heller, US Congresswoman Dina Titus, US Congressman Cresent Hardy, Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, Clark County Commissioner Mary Beth Scow, City of Las Vegas Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian and Councilman Stavros Anthony. Also Present was Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald and representatives of Nevada Lieutenant Governor Mark Hutchison, Senator Harry Reid and Congressman Joe Heck.

As a guest speaker, Deputy Consul General, Valery Mkrtumian from the Consulate General of Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles, on behalf of the Republic of Armenia greeted the official guests and members of the Las Vegas Armenian-American community. Mkrtumian expressed his appreciation for State of Nevada’s official recognition of the Armenian Genocide as well as Nevada Legislators who on April 14, 2015 adopted proclamations at the State capitol, Carson City, in both the State Assembly and State Senate.

After the official remarks community members gathered at the future monument site for the groundbreaking service lead by the clergy. Archpriest Fr. Nareg Matarian, Archpriest Fr. Avedis Torossian, Fr. Arsen Kassabian, Pastor Sam Agulian, Pastor Nerses Kopalyan, Father Nadim Abou Zeid from the Lebanese Maronite St. Sharbel church as well Pastors from the Ethiopian and Assyrian churches participated in ground blessing prayer service.

The ceremonial first turning of the earth took place with the participation of Senator Dean Heller, Congressman Cresent Hardy, Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, Clark County Commissioner Mary Bath Scow, City of Las Vegas Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, City of Las Vegas Councilman Stavros Anthony, Honorary Consul of Republic of Armenia in Las Vegas Andy Armenian and AACS President Levon Gulbenkian.

Reverend Fathers, followed by representatives of all local Armenian-American organizations, major donors and past and present AACS Board members took their turn for ceremonial turning of the earth.

A cultural program followed where dancers from Armenian Dance Academy of Las Vegas performed several dances followed by recitation, songs and dances performed by ARS Shoushi Chapter Saturday School students.

At the conclusion of the program, Emcee Lenna Hovanessian thanked the Centennial Commemoration Organizing Committee members and recognized the efforts of the committee chairman Abe Kassamanian for his hard work. Hovanessian also thanked Clark County Parks & Recreation Department management, staff and the park police for their valuable support.

A large number of community members then headed to Las Vegas Boulevard where a caravan of “Billboard Trucks” drove along the Strip all night long raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide Centennial to tens of thousands of tourists on Las Vegas Boulevard.

ANCA Seeks $5 Million in Aid to NKR; Zero Military Aid to Azerbaijan as House Appropriations Subcommittee Casts Initial Vote on FY2016 Foreign Aid Bill

Armenian American foreign aid priorities will be among a broad range of US assistance issues addressed this week by members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations, as they start drafting their Fiscal Year 2016 (FY2016) bill, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

The Subcommittee’s consideration of the FY2016 foreign aid bill will be  on Wednesday, June 3rd at 10:30am EST.
As in the past, the specific text of the measure will not be made available until after the Subcommittee’s consideration. The ANCA will be sharing details on issues of concern to Armenian Americans as they become available.

In the run up to this Wednesday’s vote, the ANCA is urging friends of Armenia across America to reach out to their legislators by urging them to support these aid priorities:

1. At least $5 million in U.S. developmental aid to Nagorno Karabakh.

2. Zero-out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan until it agrees with OSCE Minsk Group calls to pull back its snipers, ceases its aggression, renounces violence, and commits to a purely peaceful resolution of regional conflicts.

3. At least $40 million in U.S. economic assistance to Armenia.

4. A special focus on addressing the difficulties in providing humanitarian and resettlement aid to Armenian, Assyrian and other at-risk minorities in Syria, as well as targeted aid to help Armenia settle thousands fleeing from Syria.

5. At least 10% of U.S. assistance to Georgia to be used for job creation programs in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of that country.

6. Language strengthening Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan.

“Please join with us in asking Congress to send a strong message of support for Artsakh, by increasing direct aid to Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia, zeroing-out military aid to Azerbaijan, prioritizing assistance to Javakhk, and supporting our at-risk communities in the Middle East,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “U.S. foreign aid policy represents a vital tool both for promoting regional peace and also for complementing U.S. efforts – such as the recently signed U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement or the long overdue new U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty – to expand U.S.-Armenia economic cooperation.”

Earlier this year, the ANCA’s Kate Nahapetian testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee, outlining the Armenian American community’s foreign aid priorities.

In February, the Obama-Biden Administration released its FY2016 budget which calls for yet another reduction in U.S. economic assistance to both Armenia and Azerbaijan, while maintaining parity in appropriated military aid to these two countries.

The President’s proposal of $18,360,000 in Economic Support Funds for Armenia in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 would, if approved by Congress, represent a record low in such aid since Armenia’s independence. The White House’s proposal for Armenia is over $2 million less than FY 2014’s actual economic aid allocation, and less than half of the $40 million requested in a Congressional Armenian Caucus letter and ANCA Congressional testimony submitted last year.

Season 10 of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” is taking a midseason break. After a drama-filled season so far – including a special documentary on Bruce Jenner’s transition – the Kardashian-Jenner clan will be away until the fall. But a preview trailer gives a sneak peek on what to expect, according to the

Armenia Trip

Khloe and Kim Kardashian are joined by Kim’s husband Kanye West and their daughter North on a trip to Armenia. The sisters are descended from Armenian immigrants on their father’s side and have always wanted to visit their ancestral lands. They finally made the trip earlier this year. The warm welcome they received and their emotional homecoming will be shown when the season returns.

Caitlyn Jenner’s Debut

Bruce Jenner has undergone facial feminization surgery. In the trailer, Kim tells Khloe that she has seen their stepfather as his female self. Vanity Fair has just revealed that she is now to be called Caitlyn Jenner. “She’s really, really pretty,” says Kim. Khloe could be seen with her mouth open and completely speechless. It remains to be seen if Caitlyn will now take the place of Bruce in the reality show.

Growing Up Jenner

In the trailer, Khloe and youngest sister Kylie are discussing birth control pills. When their mom Kris walks in, she inquires about what they are doing. Khloe explains that they are switching up Kylie’s birth control. Kris asks if Kylie is taking the pills for her skin and Khloe simply asks if Kris thinks that Kylie is knitting sweaters all day. Kris looks at the girls and is clearly lost for words.

Khloe And Lamar

Kim catches Khloe flirting on the phone and asks her if she’s talking to Lamar Odom. Khloe filed for divorce from Lamar in December 2013 but they still haven’t finalized the documents. Khloe admits that it’s her ex-husband on the phone and Kim asks if she’s calling off her divorce. Kim says that she can’t take it and Khloe simply says, “Good, you don’t have to.” It remains unclear what she means by that and if she is actually trying to get back together with her ex.

Kim Kardashian’s Pregnancy

The first half of the season dealt with Kim’s struggle with infertility. She has been going through various treatments just to get pregnant. Earlier in the season she revealed how exhausted she is from trying to get pregnant. She even had a minor surgery to correct a small problem with her uterus. At the end of the trailer, Kim is shown talking to her sister Khloe. “I just got the blood test back and I am pregnant,” she says. Khloe is ecstatic. The next half of the season is set to reveal more about Kim’s second pregnancy and all the other changes in the family’s life.

Season 10 of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” is set to return this fall only on E!. The new spin-off series “DASH Dolls” is also set to air this fall.

Five people have died and hundreds are missing after a cruise ship carrying 458 people capsized on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei province, the BBC reports.

The ship is floating upside down in a wide stretch of river – state media said rescuers tapping the hull had heard calls for help from inside.

The boat, the Eastern Star, reportedly sent no emergency signal.

Media reports say the alarm was raised by several people who had swum to shore and alerted the police.

Most of those on board were tourists aged around 50 to 80 travelling from the eastern city of Nanjing to Chongqing in the south-west – a journey of at least 1,500km.

Sepp Blatter says he will resign as president of football’s governing body FIFA amid a corruption scandal, the BBC reports.

In announcing his exit, the 79-year-old Swiss has called an extraordinary FIFA congress “as soon as possible” to elect a new president.

Blatter was re-elected last week, despite seven top FIFA officials being arrested two days before the vote as part of a US prosecution.

But he said: “My mandate does not appear to be supported by everybody.”

FIFA was rocked last week by the arrests on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering as part of a US prosecution that also indicted 14 people.

A separate criminal investigation by Swiss authorities into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were allocated is also under way.

“I am very much linked to FIFA and its interests. Those interests are dear to me and this is why I am taking this decision,” added Blatter.

“What counts most to me is the institute of FIFA and football around the world.”

Peter Balakian’s new books Ozone Journal (poems) and Vise and Shadow: Essays on the Lyric Imagination, Poetry, Art, and Culture have just been published by the University of Chicago Press, the Armenian Weekly reports.

The long poem in Balakian’s new book is a sequel to his acclaimed “A-Train/Ziggurat/Elegy” (2010). While excavating the remains of Armenian Genocide survivors in the Syrian desert with a TV crew, the persona navigates his own memory of New York City in a decade (the 1980’s) of crisis—as AIDS and climate change make a context for his personal struggles and his pursuit of meaning in the face of loss and catastrophe. Whether his poems explore Native American villages of New Mexico, the slums of Nairobi, or the Armenian-Turkish borderland, Balakian’s poems continue to engage the harshness and beauty of contemporary life in a language that is layered, sensual, elliptical, and defined by wired phrases and shifting tempos. Ozone Journal creates inventive lyrical insight in a global age of danger and uncertainty.

“In his new book, Ozone Journal, Balakian masterfully does the thing nobody else does, which is to derange history into poetry, to make poetry painting, to make painting culture, to make culture living, and with a historical depth that finds the right experience in language,” writes the poet Bruce Smith.

In Vise and Shadow, Balakian brings together his most influential essays of the past 25 years. He argues that the force of the lyric imagination is able to hold experience under pressure like a vise, while it also shadows history. Precise, lyrical, and eloquent, Balakian’s essays explore the ways poetry engages disaster and ingests mass-violence without succumbing to the didactic.

He gives us new insights into the relationships between trauma, memory, and aesthetic form. His essays on major Armenian voices (Charents, Gorky, and Siamanto) and the aftermath of genocide are a fresh contribution to contemporary literature and art. Other essays engage painting, collage, song-lyrics, and film as forms of enduring lyric knowledge, and include T.S. Eliot, Joan Didion, Robert Rauschenberg, Adrienne Rich, Hart Crane, Theodore Roethke, Elia Kazan and Bob Dylan.

About Vise and Shadow, James Carroll writes, “With soaring critical erudition, Peter Balakian’s essays range across multiple genres—poetry, memoir, film, visual art, history, ‘literary rock’—to create a brilliant ‘collage’ of both American imagination and Armenian memory. An elegantly written seminal work of sweeping importance.” Askold Melncyczuk writes, “Vise and Shadow belongs on a shelf alongside the literary essays of J. M. Coetzee, Adrienne Rich, and Seamus Heaney.”

Peter Balakian is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities at Colgate University. He is the author of seven books of poems and four prose works, including The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, a New York Times best seller, and Black Dog of Fate, a memoir, winner of the PEN/Albrand Prize.

The deal on the sale of Vorotan Hydro Cascade will be finalized in the coming days, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Ara Simonyan said at the National Assembly during the discussion of the 2014 budget execution.

“The signing of the final deal is expected in the coming 2-3 days,” he said.

According to Simonyan, the Vorotan Cascade badly needs investments, and the government has not received any better proposals.

ContourGlobal and the Government of Armenia announced on January 29, 2014 that they had signed an agreement for ContourGlobal to purchase and modernize the Vorotan Hydro Cascade, a series of three hydroelectric power plants totaling 405 MW on the Vorotan River in southern Armenia, for a purchase price of $180 million USD. The cascade is one of the largest and most flexible power generating facilities in Armenia and the Caucuses.

By Andranik Israyelyan

In March 2003, Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the Prime Minister of Turkey, replacing Abdullah Gul; the latter took the post of the Foreign Minister. Meanwhile, Ahmet Davutoglu was invited to become the Prime Minister’s chief foreign policy adviser. This triumvirate would shape Turkish foreign policy for the next decade. The “Armenian opening” was one of the most challenging tasks for these foreign policy makers of Ankara.

Erdogan, a graduate of the religious Imam Hatip School and a former semi—professional football player, was the trio’s most powerful figure, yet he had a relatively passive role in shaping Turkish foreign policy. This is best explained by his narrow worldview. His chief adviser, Ibrahim Kalin, would later describe Erdogan as a politician rather than a diplomat, and one with a poor understanding of international relations. In Kalin’s words, Erdogan “passionately believes in such values as justice” and equates such values with Islam. In hosting Sudan’s President, Omar al Bashir, in 2008, Erdogan brushed off the International Criminal Court indictment against al Bashir for genocide, claiming Muslims cannot commit genocide. Indeed, when it comes to mending fences, Erdogan is not the best candidate for the job. His tirades and hate speeches have even led to a breakdown in Turkey’s relations with Israel, Egypt, and Syria.

Abdullah Gul, a graduate of the UK’s University of Exeter, has always been a man of integrity. When in 2003 Foreign Minister Gul met with his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskanian and expressed his readiness to start a normalization process free from preconditions, it was music to the ears for Armenia’s top diplomat. Yet months later, Gul confessed to Oskanian that intense debate within the inner cycle of Turkish leadership had concluded that Azerbaijan’s interests could not be sidestepped. This, perhaps, was the first row between the ideologues and pragmatists on the “Armenian opening.”

Already serving as President in 2008, Gul accepted the invitation from his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan to visit Yerevan. This was the start of what has become known among foreign policy circles as “football diplomacy.” As Gul had been the driving force behind the Armenian opening in Turkey, his Foreign Minister, Ali Babacan, was an excellent candidate for the routine work. An economist educated in the US, Babacan is a pragmatist, and according to a senior Armenian diplomat, “open to new ideas.” This Gul—Babacan duo appeared to be the key to moving forward the process of normalization.

As these pragmatists pushed the process forward, Turkey’s ideologues did not hesitate to jump in and wreak havoc. And they did it quickly. In May 2009, Babacan was replaced by Ahmet Davutoglu. A historian who refrained from studying in the West and preferred the Islamic world, Davutoglu had extensively written on the problems of Turkey and the Islamic world. Those familiar with hisworks viewed him as a man who deeply believes in civilizational differences and sees the world through a religious prism.

Upon taking the office of Foreign Minister, Davutoglu, according to senior US diplomat David Phillips, rushed to scratch the Protocols between Armenia and Turkey. The man who had noted in his book Strategic Depth that the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh was Turkey’s greatest territorial loss since the Cold War intended to push Armenia to make unilateral concessions. A few days later after Davutoglu’s appointment, Erdogan went to Baku to allay Azerbaijani fears about normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations. What happened next was unimaginable for Gul and for Davutoglu.Ignoring the briefings by the Foreign Ministry, Erdogan declared that borders with Armenia will not open until Armenian troops withdraw from all “occupied territories of Azerbaijan.” In a moment of irony, the “football diplomacy” was obliterated by none other than a former footballer because of his aversion to diplomacy.

In 2010, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan had to suspend the ratification of the Protocols due to this Turkish policy of linkage. Sargsyan expressed gratitude to President Gul “for political correctness displayed throughout the period and the positive relationship” that had developed between them. As Gul left the office in 2014, Armenia lost the last pragmatist in Turkey’s political elite, while Babacan, in the position of deputy Prime Minister, continues to struggle with Erdogan’s disastrous economic policies. Davutoglu, the former academic, is now Turkey’s Prime Minister and has been gradually developing polarizing vocabulary for domestic politics. Erdogan, for his part, has set his sights on turning Turkey into a presidential republic so as to remain at the helm of Turkish politics. Whenever someone speaks of the “Armenian opening,” it is to blame Gul for “giving Armenia an upper hand in relations with Turkey.” Within this context, the new Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, is left with no other option but to fault Armenia for stalling the normalization process, and to lay the blame for Turkey’s tarnished image abroad with the Armenian Diaspora.

Andranik Israyelyan is an International Relations scholar. He holds a PhD degree in World History and defended his thesis on Turkish foreign policy under the AK Party (2002-12) at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Armenia. He works at the Diplomatic School of Armenia. 

President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan will meet with OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Twitter post.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić will visit Armenia on 3 June 2015. He will meet President Serzh Sargsyan, Speaker of Parliament Galust Sahakyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian, as well as members of leading political parties, and visit the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

Dačić and Nalbandian will hold a joint press conference on Wednesday, 3 June at 11.00 AM at the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.