Category: News

– It’s been years in the works, but the church that serves Armenians across the region has completed the first phase of its new complex in Haverhill near the North Andover line.

The Armenian Apostolic Church at Hye Pointe will open its new Family Life and Cultural Center this weekend, less than a year after construction began. The center cost $2.7 million, church officials said.

While plans are being made to build a new sanctuary on the grounds, the new family center will allow church members to attend “Badarak” — Armenian for church service — until the actual church is completed next to it on 9 acres that the parish bought in 2000.

Parish members have been attending Sunday Mass at Sacred Hearts Church, ever since their former church, St. Gregory the Illuminator across from City Hall, closed last fall. St. Gregory is expected to be demolished to make way for a proposed restaurant.

“Our first service in the new building will be held on Sunday,” said the Rev. Vart Gyozalyan, pastor of Armenian Apostolic Church at Hye Pointe.

Gyozalyan said the new building is a testament to the dedication of Armenians whose ancestors survived the genocide of 1915 and came to America to build a new life.

“Their decedents continue in their footsteps by building a new church and family center, to pass on to their children their faith, their culture and their history,” he said.

“There is a sense of relief, and there are a lot of emotions involved in the opening of our new center,” Gyozalyan said. “One parishioner dropped by on Wednesday and started to cry. She told me, ‘I never thought I’d see this day.’

“I knew there would be excitement, but I did not expect tears of joy,” Gyozalyan said. “People love the building. Especially our older members, as the building is one level and they don’t have to climb stairs as they did at St. Gregory. I had some parishioners who could not climb those stairs at all, so they stayed downstairs in the church hall.”

Gyozalyan, the church’s pastor since 2011, said his congregation has been counting the days until they could set foot in the new center.

He said his parishioners should love the new sound system, especially those who had difficulty hearing him speak during Masses at St. Gregory.

“I was getting complaints … We didn’t have the right equipment to deliver God’s message,” he said. “Now we have a system where everyone will be able to hear me, no matter where they sit.”

The church has about 120 members hailing from Portland, Maine; several Southern New Hampshire communities; Haverhill; Methuen; Dracut; North Andover and Andover; Reading and North Reading; Stoneham;  Lynn and Lynnfield; Groveland; Georgetown; and Manchester, New Hampshire.

The next phase of the complex, the worship area, will cost $1.5 million to $1.9 million, church officials said.

In addition to temporarily serving as a sanctuary for Masses, the Family Life and Cultural Center has six classrooms for Sunday school, three parish offices, a meeting room, a fellowship hall for 75 people, a large, commercial kitchen with appliances and a great hall that can accommodate 390 people.

The entire 15,000-square-foot Family Life and Cultural Center can accommodate 788 people.

A grand opening celebration for the Family Life and Cultural Center takes place on Saturday, beginning with a ribbon cutting at 5 p.m.

The sold-out event will include special guests Armenian Achbishop Khajag Barsamian, Armenian Olympic Gymnast Houry Gebeshian. Armenian clergy from throughout the region, Haverhill clergy members, and city and state officials.

Armenia’s Artsvik has just finished shooting her postcard for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.

As is now customary, during the live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest, short films are shown between each national entry, known as postcards.

The aim of the postcards this year is to show the most precious and memorable moments for the artists. Winning the Armenian national selection was one such moment for Artsvik who will perform Fly With Me in Kyiv, Eurovision’s official website reports.

The Armenian postcard also shows the singer travelling in a hot air balloon, showcasing the beautiful countryside and tourist attractions. The final part of the postcard depicts Artsvik and her team having fun in downtown Yerevan.

“I had a lot of fun shooting my postcard for Eurovision. We spent the whole day travelling to different locations to shoot the scenes. It was tiring but very exciting”, said Artsvik. “One of the most memorable moments from that day was flying on a giant air balloon. It was always my dream and I am very happy to have this unique experience!”

“The CSTO, which is an important component of Armenia’s security, has a number of gaps,” Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan told a press conference today.

“The two major problems include the lack mechanisms of soft power (an important security component in today’s security system) and inconsistency in positions  between CSTO member states on foreign policy issues, especially when it comes to voting in third organizations,” Vigen Sargsyan said.

He noted, however, that it’s not a problem of CSTO only. “We see that event in well-established military-political blocs with longer history, i.e. NATO, member states often have contradicting positions. Vivid examples include the periodic violations of each other’s airspace by Greece and Turkey and discussions of the issue within international organizations,” the Defense Minister said.

“We have always said we value the statements of the CSTO as a structure and its stance on the Karabakh issue, including the statement adopted within the framework of the Yerevan summit and the statements by former Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha, whose response has been very adequate and consistent with his position, especially at times of trouble and escalation,” Vigen Sargsyan said.

According to him, the appointment of Armenia’s representative to the post of the CSTO Secretary General might bring about certain difficulties, because any statement by an Armenian Secretary General will be seen differently from the ones made by Russia’s representative.

Minister Sargsyan stressed that Yuri Khachaturov will not serve as Armenia’s representative to the structure. “He’s an international official, which means that before making any statement he will have to agree it with all member states.”

“We’ll continue to work towards strengthening of the CSTO, which is a structure capable of solving many important issues, including in the fieldss of military education, establishment of rapid response forces, capacity development of peacekeeping forces, anti-terror activity. We’ll do our best for our chairmanship of eth CSTO to be maximally efficient,” the Defense Minister stated.

 – On Thursday April 18 a Khachkar was inaugurated in a square of Cordoba, Argentina.

Cordoba is the second largest city of Argentina with a population of over 4,000,000 inhabitants and has a very important Armenian community of over 5,000 people. It also the place with the remains and a memorial of the Armenian hero Aram Yerganian.

The Khachkar, donated by young Argentine-Armenian Cristian Merdinian, was inaugurated with the presence of Vice Governor Martin Llaryora, the Mayor Ramon Mestre,Ambassador of Armenia in Argentina Esther Mkrtumyan,Archbishop Kissag Mouradian, Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church for Argentina and Chile, Archbishop of the Catholic Church Carlos Nañez and Eduardo Tutuchian, President of the Armenian Community of Cordoba.

HDP Istanbul deputy Garo Paylan has presented a research proposal to the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the examination of the results of the Provisional Relocation Act enacted on 27 May 1915, Istanbul-based reports.

The MP proposes to investigate the responsibilities of the government and public officials at that time, as well as the daily effects of the consequences of the deportations.

Garo Paylan’s research proposal for the Presidency of the Turkish Grand National Assembly includes the following statements: “Following the Temporary Relocation Act, the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire was subjected to deportation, leading to devastation in the Syriac, Keldani, Ezidi and Greek peoples.

“Although the results of this law have not been investigated by the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) for more than 102 years, it has been known that a large number of casualties have been experienced due to the Deportation Law.

“A lot of cultural assets and property have been seized or confiscated. The exploitation of the responsibilities of the government and civil servants of the period, the day-to-day effects of the consequences of the deportation, the benefits of confronting the past and the truth in ensuring social peace as a whole in our country, in accordance with Article 98 of the Constitution, Articles 104 and 105 of the Constitution in order to contribute to the uncovering of “truth” in order to prevent abuse and to provide more opportunities for future generations to live together in Turkey freely and peacefully I would like to offer and propose to open the survey.”

 – The municipality of the City of Buenos Aires during a session on April 20 declared “for the promotion and defense of human rights” the central act “for the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish State, to be held next April 24 under the slogan ‘Memory, Truth, Justice and Reparation.’”

The resolution–presented by Legislator Jose Campagnoli, president of the Commission on Human Rights, Guarantees and Antidiscrimination of the legislature, with the co-author of Carlos Tomada, second vice-president of the legislature– will be presented on Monday, April 24 in front of the residence of the Ambassador of Turkey, after a rally organized by the institutions of the Armenian community. In that sense, the legislature also approved, on the initiative of Legislator Javier Andrade, an adhesion to the activities that will be carried out that day.

– “The Promise,” out tomorrow, is a love story between Mikael (Oscar Isaac) and Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), both Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) during its last days. As World War I erupts, the Turkish government turns on its citizens of Armenian descent, eventually killing more than a million of them in executions, forced labor and death marches.

The official position of the Turkish government is that the Armenian genocide never happened — that the deaths were merely collateral damage from the war, not targeted murders. That made it tricky for director and co-writer Terry George. Luckily, he’d been through similar situations before.

“On ‘In the Name of the Father,’ the British press attacked it for two reasons,” he says, referring to the script he co-wrote for the fact-based 1993 film about the British imprisonment of a group of people falsely implicated in an IRA bombing in the 1970s. “They said [prisoner] Gerry Conlon wasn’t in the same cell as his father, which he wasn’t — he was in the cell next to him, but that’s hard to shoot. The other was, at the end in the court, the judge says, ‘Can you approach the bench?’ and they don’t say that in British court. So those two items became the basis on which the film was attacked.”

For “The Promise,” fact thus became an integral part of fiction. “I was extremely fastidious on the real political moments that the story tells. All these historical moments, I can cite several historians,” he says. “I’ve learned to catalogue and very carefully research all those [real] events. I’ve learned that those little things are very important.”

Sometimes, though, it’s not the little things — just the simple fact that “The Promise” says that the Armenian genocide happened has turned into a very big thing. Users of an online Turkish message board have launched an online campaign to tank the movie’s ratings, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Since the movie debuted at the Toronto Film Festival last year, the film has received more than 120,000 ratings on IMDb — and over 61,000 of them are one-star.

George shrugs off the controversy, seeming more irritated at “The Ottoman Lieutenant,” a short-run movie released earlier this year about an American nurse and an Ottoman officer during WWI that was more sympathetic to the Turkish side. (“They even used our font on the poster!”) But he’s confident his film contains more truth than that one, even if his plot is largely fictional.

We are a nation of gardeners, but grow into a nation-army at times of trouble, President Serzh Sargsyan Sargsyan says.

“The ‘Nation-Army’ doctrine offered by the Defense Minister aims to bring up a responsible citizen in the society,” President Sargsyan said at the “Nation-Army 2017” conference dedicated to issues of the military-educational sector.

“Today’s conference is a tool for strengthening the ties between our society, especially the youth, with the Armed Forces,” he added.

The President said the state will continue to take practical steps concerning its citizens, who have chosen to be Officers. “We’ll also maintain the policy of special care for handicapped soldiers and the families of fallen servicemen,” he added.

The President said he has instructed the Ministry of Defense to take practical steps to provide the families of fallen and handicapped soldiers with housing. “The issue must be solved by 2019,” he stated.

According to the President, the best defender of the country is the one who realizes the share of his responsibility towards the Motherland.

“Responsibility is not an abstract and sublime concept. Responsible is the one who has his own corner or is at least confident that he can earn that corner with honest work,” he said.

“Nation-Army 2017” has been organized by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Education and Science.

Representatives from the defense and education sectors, heads of public and higher education institutions, teachers, lecturers, representatives of scientific centers and NGOs have been invited to participate in the forum.

India’s Vice President Hamid Ansari will embark on a five-day visit to Armenia and Poland from April 24 during which he will hold talks with the top leaders of the two countries on a wide range of issues, PTI News reports.

On the first leg of his visit, Ansari will be in Armenia till April 26. In Armenian capital Yerevan, Ansari will hold discussions with the President Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

“The visit intends to further strengthen the cordial relations between the two countries, further develop cooperation and partnership on a wide range of issues of shared common interest,” Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (East) Preeti Saran told reporters.

Ansari will also address students and faculty of the Yerevan State University.

“This year marks the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relationship with Armenia and such high level visits will further deepn the relationship between the two countries,” Saran said.

Ansari will leave Yerevan for Warsaw on April 26 for a three-day visit to Poland.