Category: News

Russia’s economic contraction will curb the growth prospects this year for ex-Soviet republics in central Asia and the Caucasus, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Declining remittances from migrant workers in Russia will take a heavy toll on countries from Armenia to Tajikistan, while oil producers such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan also have to wrestle with sharply lower global crude prices.

The EBRD released forecasts for the region during its annual meeting, held this year in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

“As the Russian economy has declined, remittances from Russia to Central Asia and to eastern Europe and the Caucasus have been declining at an alarming rate,” the EBRD said.

Neighbouring Armenia, heavily dependent on aid and Russian investment, will contract by 1.5 percent this year and grow by 1 percent in 2016, the EBRD predicted.

 

The Associated Student Body Government of the University of California, Riverside on Wednesday voted unanimously to divest approximately $72.6 million in bonds and holdings in the Turkish government, reports.

“By investing $70 million in Turkish bonds, the UC system is supporting a human rights violation that the Turkish government has denied for a century. It is important that we support this divestment revolution because it shows that UC Riverside takes a strong stance against the perpetuation of genocides,” said Armenian Student Association member Petros Keosoian.

The resolution aims to divest the funds from the Turkish government “for it’s role in and the continued denial of the Armenian genocide”.

“This marks another step in the Armenian community’s call for divestment from the Republic of Turkey, following in the steps of UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and UC Davis,” said Seto Cherchian, a member of the UC Riverside ASA and an activist from the Armenian Youth Federation.

Wednesday’s vote marks the fifth divestment resolution passed at a University of California Campus. Just last week student governments UC Irvine and UC Davis joined their peers at UCLA and UC Berkeley in passing similar resolutions. Moreover, just last month, ASUCI unanimously passed A resolution “Commemorating the Armenian Genocide and Condemning its Denial,” raising further awareness on campus about the Armenian Genocide and its need for international recognition.

The resolution is an initiative started in part by the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) Western United States- a grassroots community organization dedicated to justice for the Armenian cause and the Armenian people.

Co-ordination between different players to prevent crime among youth and children is the main focus of a roundtable discussion organized today by the Children’s Support Centre, the Police and the OSCE Office in Yerevan.

It aims to introduce the newly developed Guide on organizations which provide social services to children and their families and launch a new project to work on the development of juvenile crime prevention strategy.  The guide is based on mapping of all social services in the country and includes information on 236 public organizations, 23 foundations, 3 associations and 10 services provided by 8 church units.

“We very much hope that this initiative will be useful and instrumental for the child protection and welfare specialists in joining and doubling their efforts in strengthening the protection of the rights and best interests of a child, which forms an essential part of the OSCE Human Dimension Commitments acknowledged by the OSCE participating States,” said Lilian Salaru, Acting Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan. He said that close partnerships including families, schools and communities will be vital in developing juvenile crime prevention strategy in Armenia consistent with child-friendly justice standards.

The event brought together representatives from various state and non-state institutions including police forces, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, National Assembly Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs, Child Protection Units of the municipalities, regional administrations and civil society, which deal with juvenile crimes.

Mira Antonyan, the Executive Director of the Children’s Support Center, said: “We would like to call on our partners and all stakeholders to co-operate in the framework of the new project which strives to assist the efforts of the state bodies aimed at development of juvenile crime prevention”.

 

The roundtable follows a series of forums held last year in different regions of Armenia by the Children’s Support Center Foundation with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan to ensure better co-ordination and closer cooperation among different state and non-state agencies dealing with juvenile offenders.

The Spanish football season will be allowed to finish after the week-long Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) suspension and players’ strike ended, the BBC reports.

After Spain’s High Court ruled the players’ strike over a TV rights dispute was unlawful, the RFEF reversed a

Barcelona can win La Liga on Sunday, with a game to spare, if they beat current champions Atletico Madrid.

The Spanish Cup final will also go ahead as planned on 30 May.

Barca, who have also reached the Champions League final where they will take on Juventus, play Athletic Bilbao at the Nou Camp in the domestic Copa del Rey final.

The RFEF and the players’ union (AFE) are not satisfied with a new law introducing collective bargaining for domestic television rights, which was supported by the National Professional Football League (LFP) which runs Spain’s top two professional divisions.

On Thursday, May 14, Robert M. Morgenthau, Chairman Emeritus of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, will lead a commemoration of the Armenian Genocide at the Museum, repots the Armenian Assembly of America.

The ceremony will include remarks from Mr. Morgenthau, Carnegie Corporation President Vartan Gregorian, and His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern). The program will feature an excerpt from the award-winning PBS documentary Morgenthau and a musical performance by pianist Hayk Arsenyan, followed by a reception.

The program is made possible through the generous support of Museum Trustee Peter S. Kalikow.

On April 24, 1915, Ottoman officials ordered the deportation of Armenian intellectuals from Constantinople – a devastating blow that stripped the beleaguered community of the ability to defend itself. Word of the atrocity that befell the Armenians a century ago was spread, in no small part, by Henry Morgenthau Sr., the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and the grandfather of the Museum’s Chairman Emeritus, Robert M. Morgenthau. Remembering the Armenian Genocide has always been important for the Museum. Hitler was infamously said to have asked, “Who, today, remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?”

In holding this ceremony, the Museum affirms its commitment to remember.

Depp’s two dogs are on a deportation countdown after the actor violated Australia’s famously strict biosecurity laws by bringing them in on a private flight and without the proper documentation.

The star, who is in Australia filming the latest installment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, was told that he had to get his pets, Yorkshire terriers named Pistol and Boo, out of the country, Australia’s Minister of Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, said in a televised statement.

Joyce said that a 51-year-old man, Jonathan Christopher Depp, decided to bring two dogs to “our nation, despite not getting the proper certification and the proper permits required. Basically it looked like he snuck them in.”

He started a countdown to a deadline for which Depp, and his wife, Amber Heard, who is traveling with him, need to comply — or risk the authorities putting Pistol and Boo to sleep.

“Now Mr. Depp needs to take his dogs back to California or we’re going to have to euthanize them. He’s now got about 50 hours (out of a 72-hour notice period).”

Joyce made his statement Thursday morning local time, meaning the count will expire on Saturday morning.

The minister said that the Department needed to crack down on this high-profile case to make a point about Australia’s stringent animal import laws.

In response to a Social Media Campaign run by this organisation, Armenia Media Inc., over 100 Sydney businesses that are Armenian-owned CLOSED FOR APRIL 24 to honour the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who perished during the Armenian Genocide 100 years ago, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia.

The Armenian Genocide Centenary Commemoration Committee – Australia had prepared signs for these businesses, which would advise passers-by and customers why the business was closed on April 24th, which is not a recognised Public Holiday in Australia.
“The response was unbelievable,” said Armenia Media Managing Editor, Nerses Baliozian. “Dozens of businesses sent us pictures of the signs outside their premises, while many simply advised us they were closed.”
“We have calculated that well over 1,000 Armenian employers and employees took the day off in memory of their fallen ancestors, and this sends a very strong message to the current denialist forces running Turkey,” Baliozian added. “The message is that 100 years is nowhere near the end of our battle for justice.”

Many of those taking the day off were part of the reason there were record attendances at the Protest Against Denial at the Turkish Consulate and the National Armenian Genocide Centenary Commemoration Evening at the Sydney Town Hall.

 

 

 

is ranked 43rd out of 124 countries in the Human Capital Index 2015 released by the World Economic Forum. Armenia has scored 72.5% out of 100.

Other countries in the region are placed as follows: Russia – 26^th, Azerbaijan – 63^rd, Turkey – 68^th, Iran – 80^th; Georgia is not included in the rating.

The Baltic States are leaders among the ex-Soviet countries (Estonia is 16^th, Lithuania is 18^th, Latvia is 23^rd.

Armenia’s partners in the Eurasian Economic Union Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are placed 37^th and 44^th respectively. No data is provided for Belarus.

Globally, Finland tops the rankings of the Human Capital Index in 2015, scoring 86% out of a possible 100. Norway (2), Switzerland (3), Canada (4) and Japan (5) make up the rest of the top five. They are among a group of only 14 nations that have crossed the 80% threshold.

In addition to the 14 countries that have reached 80% human capital optimization, 38 countries score between 70% and 80%. A further 40 countries score between 60% and 70%, while 23 countries score between 50% and 60% and nine countries remain below 50%.

The index takes a life-course approach to human capital, evaluating the levels of education, skills and employment available to people in five distinct age groups, starting from under 15 years to over 65 years. The aim is to assess the outcome of past and present investments in human capital and offer insight into what a country’s talent base will look like in the future.

“The world has just commemorated the centenary of the genocide of Turkish non-Muslims. However, contrary to conventional wisdom, this crime began with the Hamidian massacres of 1894-95, which were ordered by Sultan Abdülhamid II, and continued on a huge scale with the massacres perpetrated between 1915 and 1923, planned by the young Turks. They continue today with the massacres of Deir ez-Zor and Kessab, organized by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. For 120 years, the Turkish power elite have been successively massacring non-Muslimns – to general indifference – in order to build a homogenous nation,” Thierry Meyssan writes in an article published by

According to the author, “the centenary of the genocide of Turkish non-Muslims prepared the stage for festival of hypocrisy.” “While certain states celebrated the memory of the victims in Yerevan, others showed themselves to be shameless.”

“President Erdoğan had the opportunity to confess to this very old story, of which he is in no way responsible. Had he done so, he could have made his country a normal state. But no! Instead he hung onto his lies, denying History and affirming that there had been “only”100,000 dead, and that they had been executed for their participation in terrorist activities,” the article reads.

“By draping itself in this absurdity, today’s Turkey is not only manifesting its support for the Hamidian massacres of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1894-95) – which caused between 80,000 and 300,000 victims – but especially for the crimes committed by the “Special Organization” of the Union and Progress Committee (UPC), starting from 1915 until the election of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as President of the Republic (1923), which caused between 1,200,000 and 1,500,000 deaths – and its ideological continuity with the ancient régime. And this is what we all noted with horror when, last year in 2014, we watched the Turkish army accompany the al-Nusra Front (in other words al-Qaïda in Syria) to Kessab for the purpose of chasing away the Armenian population. Or again, when the same Turkish army helped ISISto dynamite the Deir ez-Zor Memorial, which commemorated the 1916 extermination of more than 200,000 Armeniens in the camp that the Turks had built for them,” the author writes.

“Pan-Islamism, the project of Sultan Abdülhamid II and the Young Turks early in the 20th century, like the AKP today, aims to become the leader of the sunnite world, and in order to achieve this aim, it intends to create a homogenous sunnite state. This project required the extermination of the Christians (Armenians, Pontic Greeks, and Assyro-Chaldeans) and the Yezidis. They all died, exactly as ISIS is exterminating Christians and Yezidis today,” Thierry Meyssan continues.

According to him, the intervention of the Turkish army into Syrian territory, at Kessab and Deir ez-Zor, is coherent with this project, since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hopes to annex Northern Syria once NATO has overthrown President Bachar el-Assad.

Thierry Meyssan is a French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference.

Garboushian Gallery will be presenting an exhibition featuring four contemporary artists of Armenian descent, entitled “1915,” reports.

2015 is the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. Throughout this year, Armenians all over the world are commemorating the loss of their ancestors. One hundred years ago, the destiny of all Armenians was forever changed. Since then, the identity of Armenians has evolved into something new, and through the contemporary lens of these four artists, we are better able to see that evolution.

Sev Black, Kaloust Guedel, Alina Mnatsakanian and Samvel Saghatelian have been brought together by their shared heritage and creative minds. Very different in style, execution and inspiration, these four artists have led similar paths to a similar reality. All four artists have found their personal vocation of creative expression through their journey of self discovery.

Touching on themes of identity, borders, and societal critique, these four artists are brought together in the exhibition “1915” to express the contemporary vantage point of their heritage as artists.

Sev Black, also known as Henrik Khachatryan, creates politically-charged artworks in many different media. Although he started off as a writer, his passion for creativity led his expression toward a more visual form in the 1980s, including sculpture, photography, performance, and video. His works are part of the permanent collections of the Narva City Museum in Estonia; Panevezhiss City Museum in Lithuania, and Museum of Contemporary Art of Madeline, Colombia. Sev lives and works in Los Angeles.

Kaloust Guedel explores capitalism and excess in his minimalist and conceptual artworks. Reflective and symbolic, Guedel’s pieces explore the relationship between materials, metaphors, and the spiritual and physical boundaries of painting. The excess of contemporary cultures is of great interest to Guedel, and can be seen in his fascinating artistic explorations. His work belongs to numerous collections all over the world, including The Charles Saatchi collection of London. He has been featured in such publications as Masters of Today, Trends and was recently featured on the cover of New American Paintings. Guedel lives and works in Los Angeles.

Alina Mnatsakanian focuses her energy in her multimedia artworks on the themes of identity and borders. Having grown up in many different places, Mnatsakanian’s journey to self discovery has been complex and difficult. Her artwork is multifaceted and is based in research, giving real facts, information, and references substantial weight in her works of art. Utilizing painting, sculpture, robotics, photography and video as well as installation, for this exhibition, Mnatsakanian exhibits “One person died” which commemorates the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian genocide, one person at a time. The evolutive moving image is based on the repetition of the phrase “one person died” which is quantified with a counter. Garboushian Gallery is one venue out of 100 where this will be shown worldwide this year. Mnatsakanian uses her multimedia process to help create stronger links between different forms of expression and different concepts and themes to fullest. Mnatsakanian has received awards from The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and California Council for the Humanities, amongst many others. Though Mnatsakanian has lived all over the world, including in Los Angeles, she is currently living and working in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Samvel Saghatelian, also known as Sam Saga, creates many different kinds of work, including painting, drawing, installation, collage and installations. With a focus on emotional relationships and the personal reflections associated with nationality, identity and the human experience, Saghatelian creates work with a lyrical and narrative core at the base of his creations. His personal and political protest signs, designed as a visual hybrid text using both English and Armenian alphabets, will be on display alongside his narrative paintings in “1915.” Saghatelian was one of the artists representing the Armenian Pavilion in the 49th Venice Biennale in Italy. Saghatelian lives and works in Los Angeles.