Category: News

More than 50 miners are trapped after an explosion in a coal mine in Iran, state media reports say, the BBC reports.

It happened at the Zemestan-Yurt mine in Golestan province in the north.

Two people are reported to have died and 25 others are wounded. One emergency services spokesman said that 16 people had managed to escape.

There are some reports that the incident was caused by a gas explosion, possibly as someone was attempting to start a lorry engine.

Pirhossein Koulivand, the head of Iran’s emergency services, told the country’s news agencies that the number of trapped miners may be much higher, with 40 trapped in one section, and a similar number in another.

He said that 12 miners had escaped unhurt, and another four were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

The rescue operation has reportedly been hampered by concerns about gas in the tunnels.

Genocide denied is genocide continued.

Former Superman Dean Cain has produced a new film – Architects of Denial – which delves into the Armenian genocide and the denial by the Turkish government and other authoritative bodies that atrocities ever took place.

“Armenians have been persecuted for centuries. It’s unreal,” recently when discussing his upcoming project. “They were the first bastion of Christianity. They were the first country to, I think, recognize Christianity, and they are the only bastion of Christianity in the Middle East.”

The film shares new insight  into genocide from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, FBI Whistleblower and journalist Sibel Edmonds, US Ambassador John Evans, Genocide Watch founder Dr. Gregory Stanton and a host of eye-witnesses and survivors who reveal how easily the world turns away from the horror of mass extermination for political and economic convenience.

“Turkey has gone around the world aggressively lobbying to make sure there are no references to the Armenian genocide,” said Wikileaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange in the recently released trailer for “Architects of Denial.”

“Architects of Denial” not only digs into the persecution of Armenians and Christians in the Middle East, both past and present, but also sheds light on those politicians who refuse to acknowledge an event many historians and scholars accept as a sad reality.

The trailer shows camera crews confronting two Democratic members of Congress, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee.

“Do you deny that the Armenian genocide happened?” asks one of the filmmakers of Rep. Johnson.

She replies, “I do deny that.”

Architects of Denial is a first person account of genocide through the eyes of its survivors. Also included are several experts who graphically illustrate the real connection between its historical ‘denial’ with present day mass exterminations in conflict zones around the world.

This film warns that those responsible for genocides who are not brought to justice and confronted with the truth of their crimes, will only set the stage for more worldwide massacres in the future.

Dean Cain and Montel Williams are executive producers of the decumentary directed by David Lee George.

The film is scheduled to be released October 2017 in limited theaters.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has issued a message on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2017:

Journalists go to the most dangerous places to give voice to the voiceless.

Media workers suffer character assassination, sexual assault, detention, injuries and even death.

We need leaders to defend a free media. This is crucial to counter prevailing misinformation.

And we need everyone to stand for our right to truth.

On World Press Freedom Day, I call for an end to all crackdowns against journalists – because a free press advances peace and justice for all.

When we protect journalists, their words and pictures can change our world.

A 23-year-old woman has given birth to naturally conceived quintuplets at Erebuni Medical Center in Yerevan today. The babies (4 girls and 1 boy) weigh between 600 and 900 grams.

The Karapetyan family lives in a dormitory in the city of Metsamor. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs will provide the family 7.5 million AMD (about $15,000), of which 2.5 million will be given in cash, the rest will be transferred to the family’s account.

The Spanish city of Cullera has officially recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian Embassy in Spain reports on its Facebook page.

About 30 Spanish cities have now recognized the Armenian Genocide.

On May 4, 2017, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Republic of Artsakh, the OSCE Mission will conduct a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, in the direction of the Askeran region, south-east of Akna, Press Service of the Artsakh Foreign Ministry reports.

From the positions of the Defense Army of the Republic of Artsakh, the monitoring will be conducted by Field Assistant to the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Mihail Olaru (Moldova) and Personal Assistant to the CiO Personal Representative Simon Tiller (Great Britain).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring will be conducted by Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, his Field Assistant Ghenadie Petrica (Moldova), and staff member of his Office Martin Schuster (Germany).

The authorities of the Republic of Artsakh have expressed their readiness to assist in conducting the monitoring and to ensure the security of the OSCE Mission members.

 –  During the Argentine football match of Boca Juniors against Arsenal on Sunday, April 30, the Armenian Genocide was remembered with a banner for the 102nd anniversary.

For some years in the “Bombonera” stadium the Armenian Genocide has been remembered at the initiative of the Armenian Youth Federation of South America.

Last year, a similar banner was shown during the “Superclasico” between Boca and River, one of the most important football matches.

– Turkey under President Tayyip Erdogan has turned its back on joining the European Union, at least for now, the bloc’s top official dealing with Ankara said, offering economic cooperation instead if both sides can restore friendly ties.

After years of stalemate on Turkey’s bid to join the world’s biggest trading bloc, EU governments say the process is dead, citing Erdogan’s crackdown on dissidents, his ‘Nazi’ jibes at Germany and a referendum giving him sweeping new powers that a rights group says lack checks and balances.

“Everybody’s clear that, currently at least, Turkey is moving away from a European perspective,” European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who oversees EU membership bids, told Reuters.

“The focus of our relationship has to be something else,” he said in an interview after EU foreign ministers met in Malta and where France and Germany led efforts to consider a new deal with Ankara based on trade and security ties.

“We have to see what could be done in the future, to see if we can restart some kind of cooperation,” Hahn said on Saturday, saying that he had not had meetings on the economy with NATO-member Turkey since January last year, normally a fixture of accession talks.

The EU process is not formally frozen, but EU lawmakers called last week for a formal halt to talks, with some saying Turkey no longer met the democratic criteria to be considered a candidate, let alone a full member, for the EU.

Erdogan told Reuters in an interview last week that Turkey would not wait at Europe’s door forever and would walk away from accession talks if what he said was rising Islamophobia and hostility from some member states persist.

Launched in 2005 after decades of seeking the formal start of an EU membership bid, negotiations dovetailed with Erdogan’s first economic reforms in power as prime minister from 2003.

EU officials say Turkish reforms to enter the EU brought stability and attracted foreign investment, making Turkey an important emerging economy with high-speed trains crossing the strategically-located country bridging Europe and Asia.

That economic success remains part of Erdogan’s popularity with the pious Turkish poor, who saw living standards rise, although Hahn noted the worsening state of Turkey’s economy now.

The European Union is Turkey’s biggest foreign investor and biggest trading partner, while Turkey shares a border with Iraq, Syria and with Russia in the Black Sea.

Hahn said he would present a report by early next year to EU governments to clarify Turkey’s status. The lack of urgency shows the reluctance of EU states to upset Ankara, given that they rely on Turkey to keep migrants from coming to Europe, diplomats said.

But Hahn said that limits on with press freedoms, mass jailing and shrinking civil rights made it almost impossible at the present time for Turkey to meet EU joining criteria.

Hahn said EU rules “were not negotiable” and the bloc would not “decouple the human rights situation” from discussions.

“There is no version of Turkish democracy. There is only democracy. Turkish people have the same rights to live in freedom as Europeans do,” said Hahn, whose delegation in Turkey has visited dissidents in prison.

A slim majority of 51.4 percent of Turkish voters voted in April to grant the president sweeping new powers, the biggest overhaul of the country’s politics since the founding of the modern republic, amid opposition accusations of vote fraud.

Asked if the European Union was partly responsible for Turkey’s turn towards a more centralised system, Hahn said the drive to change had come from inside the country.

“Nobody can claim to be blameless, but it is always the sovereign decision of a country (to decide policy) … If you have a certain vision in mind, it is difficult to intervene in a meaningful way,” Hahn said.

“All these reform efforts are not done for the European Union but for the sake of (Turkish) citizens,” Hahn said, referring to the process that helped transform former communist countries in central and eastern Europe into thriving market democracies as they sought to join the European Union.

“This is not about serving the Europeans,” he said.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is in a position to achieve history for Manchester United when the Reds play in Spain on Thursday night, according to the club’s official website. 

The fans’ favourite has already become the first United player to score in four successive away games in Europe – at the expense of Zorya Luhansk, Saint-Etienne, Rostov and Anderlecht – and he can break further new ground if he finds the net against Celta Vigo in the Europa League semi-final first leg.

Should the Armenian strike at Estadio de Balaídos, he’ll be the only star in the club’s history to have scored in five different games on the road within a single European campaign.

David Herd netted on four trips during United’s 1964/65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup run – namely Djurgardens, Borussia Dortmund, Everton and Strasbourg. Herd also claimed a double in the home leg of the semi-final with Ferencvaros but did not score in two games in Hungary – neither the second leg or the resulting play-off match against the eventual winners.

Dwight Yorke was on the mark in Champions League away fixtures at Bayern Munich, Brondby, Barcelona and Juventus during the Treble season of 1998/99, and Ruud van Nistelrooy matched him by scoring in a quartet of games in the same competition in 2002/03, on visits to Bayer Leverkusen, Basel, Juventus and Real Madrid.

Two other stellar forwards can be added to the list. Cristiano Ronaldo‘s towering header in Moscow against Chelsea in the 2008 shoot-out victory over Chelsea followed earlier efforts at Sporting Lisbon, Dynamo Kiev and Roma. And current captain Wayne Rooney scored in a fourth different match away from Old Trafford in the 2010/11 Champions League campaign when beating Barcelona’s Victor Valdes in the final at Wembley. Rooney had earlier notched in ties at Rangers, Chelsea and Schalke.

A number of players have netted in three matches on the road in Europe during a single season, including centre-back Steve Bruce in the successful 1990/91 European Cup-Winners’ Cup run, when he will feel he was close to making it four with a header in the final, helped over the line from close range by Mark Hughes.

So history could beckon for Mkhitaryan, with his current achievement made even more remarkable by the fact he did not feature at all in the opening away fixture of the Europa League at Feyenoord, and only came on for the last 30 minutes in Turkey against Fenerbahce.

Agencia Prensa Armenia—The Armenian youth of Brazil held a protest in front of the Turkish Consulate in São Paulo, Brazil on April 26, demanding justice for the Armenian Genocide. More than a hundred people attended the event on one of the rainiest days of the year according to the organizers.

The act was opened by Onnig Tamdjian, Chairman of the Tashnagtsutiun Tro Committee, who called everybody to renew the struggle and that “only justice and truth can close this sad page of human history.” Bishop Nareg Berberian, Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Brazil, reminded everyone that the act of protest honored the memory of our heroes and martyrs.

The director of the Armenian Community of Osasco (a city near São Paulo and one of the oldest Armenian communities) Cesar Sarkis Guludjian read the verses of William Saroyan “Armenia” to remember the strength of the Armenian people. Armen Kevork Pamboukdjian read the manifesto entitled “Truth, nothing less than that” demanding the Turkish government to assume its responsibilities and allow its country to reconcile with its past.