Category: News

Rafael Benitez is expected to be installed as the new Real Madrid manager after his season with Italian club Napoli finishes on Sunday, accotding to

The former Liverpool manager, 55, has not yet signed a contract with the 10-time European champions but negotiations are at an advanced stage.

on Monday after two seasons in charge at the Bernabeu.

Italian Ancelotti, 55, secured Real’s 10th European Cup last season.

But this year they were knocked out by Juventus in the Champions League semi-finals, while Barcelona won La Liga.

Spaniard Benitez has managed in his home country before, winning two La Liga titles and the Uefa Cup with Valencia.

He has been at Napoli since 2013 leading the Serie A side to the Coppa Italia last season.

The Spaniard had also been linked with the vacant job at West Ham, following the departure of Sam Allardyce.

On 21st and 22nd of May the conference “Building Bridges: Promoting Dialogue to Prevent Radicalization and Violent Extremism” took place in the headquarters of the OSCE in Vienna. The OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier and other high representatives of the organization were present.

Member and non-member countries of the OSCE were represented by their embassies, several organizations and NGO’s. Before discussions took place, experts from different fields spoke about the role of the media, education, religion and the youth.
Garo Chadoian, the representative of the Austrian Armenian Committee for Justice and Democracy, stressed the importance not only to fight religious extremism, but also nationalism, which was often the reason for terror and various genocides.

In his speech, he also emphasized, that the denial of the Armenian Genocide and the anti-Armenianism is still a part of the education system in the OSCE member country Turkey, which results in radicalization and violent extremism against Armenians and other minorities, the Austrian Armenian Committee for Justice and Democracy informs.

Chadoian added that the annihilation of the Armenian people in historical Western Armenia, or today’s eastern Turkey is the root problem which impact we can still see today.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will visit Beirut on May 26 at the invitation of Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

Within the framework of the visit Edward Nalbandian will have meetings with the leadership of the country.

In Beirut the Armenian Foreign Minister will meet with the leaders of the Armenian community organizations.

A rare bird may become extinct in Syria because of the capture of Palmyra by Islamic State, experts say, reports.

A tiny breeding colony of the northern bald ibis was found near the city in 2002.

Three birds held in captivity were abandoned last week after their guards fled the fighting. Their fate is unknown.

Officials have offered a reward of $1,000 (£646) for information about the whereabouts of a fourth bird.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon told the BBC that finding the missing female, called Zenobia, is crucial.

She is the only bird who knows the migration routes to wintering grounds in Ethiopia and without her other captive birds cannot be released.

Then the species could go extinct in the wild in Syria, said ornithologists.

“Culture and nature they go hand in hand, and war stops, but nobody can bring back a species from extinction,” said head of the society Asaad Serhal.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has conceded the election to conservative challenger Andrzej Duda following the release of exit polls, BBC News reports.

They suggested Mr Duda had taken the run-off vote by 53% to 47%.

Mr Duda had edged Mr Komorowski, who had been the favourite, in the first round but did not gain the 50% needed to win outright.

The president has limited powers, but is head of the armed forces and can veto new laws.

The exit polls had been delayed after a woman died at a polling station on Sunday.

Official results are expected later on Monday.

On May 24, a delegation of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund comprising trustees, representatives of affiliates worldwide, benefactors, and associates, began a series of project-site visits in Armenia, starting with the Tavush Region. The visits come on the heels of several others which the delegation made to the sites of current or newly completed projects in Artsakh, starting on May 20.

The delegation’s first stop in Tavush was the village of Khachardzan, where the fund is renovating the community’s school with the financial support of longtime benefactors Mr. and Mrs. Arto and Hilda Kalciyan of Argentina. With access to natural gas and equipped with a new central-heating system, the school will provide students with a comfortable learning environment year-around. The renovated and fully furnished campus will open its doors in September. Assistance to Khachardzan is also being provided by the Armenia branch of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). After planting an orchard in the vicinity of the school, UMCOR is currently donating farm animals and beehives to 28 economically disadvantaged local families.

Also on May 24, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund delegation visited the community of Lusadzor, in Tavush, for a first-hand look at the activities of a farm established through the support of the fund’s French affiliate. For the past several years, a number of far-reaching agricultural-development programs have been implemented throughout Tavush, with the joint support of France’s Hauts-de-Seine General Council and the French-Armenian community.

US mathematician John Nash, who inspired the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, has died in a car crash with his wife, police have said, BBC News reports.

Nash, 86, and his 82-year-old wife Alicia were killed when their taxi crashed in New Jersey, they said.

The mathematician is renowned for his work in game theory, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994.

His breakthroughs in maths – and his struggles with schizophrenia – were the focus of the 2001 film.

Russell Crowe, who played him, tweeted: “Stunned… My heart goes out to John & Alicia & family. An amazing partnership. Beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.”

The film’s director, Ron Howard, also tweeted his tribute to the “brilliant” John Nash and his “remarkable” wife.

Alicia Nash helped care for her husband, and the two later became prominent mental health advocates.

The owner of a historic Armenian orphanage in Istanbul has decided to donate it to the Armenian community after days of protests over its planned demolition,  reports. 

Camp Armen, a historic orphanage for Armenian children in Istanbul’s Tuzla district, may see its glory days again after the property’s owner, Fatih Ulusoy, announced he would donate it to the Armenian community.
The site, which has remained in ruins for years, was planned to be demolished by its current owner before activists, mostly from the Armenian community, rushed to stop the demolition earlier this month. The group camped out at the site for days, blocking bulldozers and later took to the streets for a rally against the destruction of the place that once housed orphaned Armenian children from all over Turkey.
Ulusoy issued a written statement announcing he has decided to donate the place to the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church Foundation that built the orphanage in 1962. Ulusoy said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu had asked Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş to help resolve the dispute, and he decided to donate it “to contribute to social peace and unity at a time of speculations over the 1915 incidents.” He was referring to the Armenian campaign to force Turkey to recognize the mass deaths of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide. Ulusoy said he was unaware that the orphanage was seized by the state in a controversial legal process when he bought it nine years ago.
Activists welcomed Ulusoy’s decision to halt the demolition and donate the land. Alexis Kalk, spokesman for Nor Zartonk (New Renaissance), an Armenian nongovernmental organization (NGO) whose members staged the sit-in strike for 18 days at the orphanage, announced the decision to the applause of activists. Kalk said they would continue their “struggle” until the formal process for the donation of the title deed to the foundation is completed. Kalk said the orphanage was not the only Armenian property seized by the state in the past and there were hundreds of others awaiting return to the Armenian community. He called on the government to draft a return policy for these properties and not to leave it to legal processes between current owners and the Armenian community.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Kalk said they were pleased that the matter was resolved “with the will of the government” and was not dragged down “despite it being a pre-election period,” referring to the upcoming general elections on June 7. He said Camp Armen would be restored and will likely be used as a center focused on children’s activities.
Camp Armen was confiscated after the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in 1974 that foundations set up by those who are not Turkish cannot acquire properties, based on a controversial 1936 regulation that paved the way for the seizure of properties from non-Muslim communities. The title deed for the orphanage, where more than 1,500 Armenians spent their childhood before its closure, was canceled in 1979. It was returned to its former owner and changed hands several times since then. Among the orphans raised in the historic building was the late Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of the Agos daily and a renowned figure from the Turkish-Armenian community who was assassinated in 2007. His wife Rakel Dink also spent time there.
Since 2011, in the wake of a landmark government decree paving the way for the return of properties seized from non-Muslim minorities, several historic buildings in Istanbul and other cities were returned to minority communities, including Armenians. Minority community foundations have been granted the return of properties forcibly confiscated by the state in the past under discriminatory policies through lawsuits.