Category: News

Photo: EPA

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed victory in the referendum on granting him sweeping new powers, saying it was won by a clear majority, the BBC reports.

He was speaking in Istanbul as the count neared completion. With more than 99% of ballots counted, “Yes” was on 51.36% and “No” on 48.64%.

Erdogan supporters say replacing the parliamentary system with an executive presidency will modernise the country.

The two main opposition parties are challenging the results.

As jubilant Erdogan supporters rallied in the big cities, pots and pans were banged in Istanbul by opponents of the referendum, in a traditional form of protest.

If confirmed, the “Yes” vote could also see Mr Erdogan remain in office until 2029.

Three people were shot dead near a polling station in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakir, reportedly during a dispute over how they were voting.

 – Rising Washington Metropolitan Area rapper Marc 2Ray unleashes a visual for his gripping “” single, produced by Grammy Award-nominated producer, Godfather. With the video depicting Marc’s real-life connection to the Armenian Genocide, the powerful imagery and message of ending worldwide strife adds an especially resonant tone to the song.

The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th Century, and Marc weaves a connection between that event and the Holocaust along with other global genocides of the past. Prior to the release of the video, “1915” has been used in multiple high school and college settings to educate those about the Armenian Genocide. For over a century, the Turkish government has sought to silence those who bring up the event but Marc 2Ray has found support in moving his vision of educating the masses of the tragedy forward.

“We are proud to support Marc’s innovative approach in spreading the word about the state-sponsored genocide that befell the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people over a century ago in the Ottoman Turkish Empire,” said ANCA Eastern Region Board Member Armen Sahakyan.

”The release of the song is very timely in raising awareness not only about the three million innocent victims of the first modern case of genocide, but also of what is happening today to the Yezidi, Christian, and other minority groups in the Middle East at the hands of Daesh (the so-called Islamic State or IS). For humanity’s sake, it is crucial in stopping the ongoing vicious cycle of genocide, which begins with the truthful acknowledgment of facts and ends with the service of full justice.”

Marc is a grandson of a Genocide survivor and has spoken in area high schools and given a number of interviews describing his link to a nearly-forgotten page of history.

The video was directed by John Abarca.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire 15 times last night, Artsakh Defense Ministry reports.

The rival used firearms of different calibers as it fired over 240 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army refrained from response actions and confidently continued with their military duty all along the line of contact.

Photo: REX FEATURES

 

Actor Clifton James, who appeared as Sheriff JW Pepper in two James Bond films, has died at the age of 96, the BBC reports.

He died close to his childhood home in Gladstone, Oregon, on Saturday due to complications from diabetes.

James was best known for appearing alongside Sir Roger Moore in the Bond films Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun during the 1970s.

His daughter Lynn said: “He was the most outgoing person, beloved by everybody.”

She added: “I don’t think the man had an enemy. We were incredibly blessed to have had him in our lives.”

On April 16, the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church solemnly celebrated the Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

On the occasion of the Feast, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; celebrated Divine Liturgy in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Escorted by the Ecclesiastical procession, and under the singing of the “Hrashapar” hymn, the Catholicos of All Armenians; Mr. Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Republic of Armenia and Mrs. Rita Sargsyan; Mr. Bako Sahakyan, President of the Arstakh Republic, processed to the Mother Cathedral, where they were met by students of the Eurnekian public school; members of the AGBU Yerevan Scout Group and numerous pilgrims.

The Pontifical Canopy Bearers were: Colonel Artyom Gevorkyan; Sergeant Schooley Hakobyan; Junior Sergeant Razmik Gasparyan and Private Soldier Harutyun Badalyan. Assisting His Holiness during the Divine Liturgy were His Eminence Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan, Director of the External relations and Protocol Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and His Grace Bishop Gevork Saroyan, Dean of the Spiritual- Educational Institutions of the Mother See.

Attending the solemn Divine Liturgy were Mr. Galust Sahakyan, President of the RA National Assembly; members of the RA Government; members of the Supreme Spiritual Council; benefactors of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin; heads and representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations; members of the AGBU; education and cultural figures.

During the service, His Holiness addressed his message to faithful Armenians throughout the world on the occasion of Holy Easter offering his Pontifical blessings and proclaiming the good news, “Christ is Risen from the dead! Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ.”

THE MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II
SUPREME PATRIARCH AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS
THE FEAST OF THE HOLY RESURRECTION
OF JESUS CHRIST
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, April 16, 2017

In the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

“God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son”.
1 John 5:11

Dear Faithful People,

Today, through the Lenten mystery and reflections, with compassion for the sufferings and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have reached the luminous day of the glorious Resurrection of our Savior, which we celebrate with joyfulness and jubilation in our souls. Truly, the happiness in our hearts today is boundless, for death was shattered through the Resurrection, and mankind was granted the gift of eternal life and the heavenly kingdom. “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son”. Through these words of John the Evangelist, we extend our message to you, beloved faithful, who are gathered in this Cathedral, and to our entire nation in the homeland and in the diaspora.

The curtains of the holy altars of our churches are already open, signifying that the gates to eternity are open. The good news of the Resurrection of the Savior resounds, annunciating that whosoever has the desire, the hunger, and thirst of the heavenly kingdom, can inherit it through perceiving the life that is in Christ Himself.

Through the Resurrection of Christ, mankind has received the power of the resurrected life, the ability to drive out sin and evil, to fill earthly life with heavenly blessings and graces through love and compassion towards fellow human beings, and to establish the image of the heavenly kingdom in the world where justice and truth reign, and there is an increase of peace and joy. In the resurrected life which Christ has granted, there are no trepidations, no violence and wars, poverty and adversity, there are no various vices which cause pain and suffering to people and alienates them from each other, polarizes societies and create disasters. All these, however, continue to remain in the life of the world, for the human hearts, often devoid of love, immersed in pride and selfishness, remains unanswered to the call of a resurrected new life. In the meantime, the path towards crowning crucifixions with resurrection, conquering difficulties and tribulations, sorrows and afflictions; is the Christ-centered life, which, as it is stated by the apostle, leads to eternity through the spirit of peacemaking, righteous works, and following a pious path: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

Dear faithful people, the current earthly life is granted to us at an opportune period of time, so that we may spread the witness of the redeeming will of God, to realize His commandments and admonitions in our reality, in our families, country and in the world which surrounds us. Our life gains value and content, in the light of the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection. The apostle Paul teaches us by saying, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” ( 2 Corinthians 5:15 ). To live through Christ and for the sake of Christ – this is the saving path of our life, the foundation, the condition and guarantee, as an individual and as a collective society, for our spiritual growth and enhancement, as well as for the prosperity and development of our homeland and for the wellbeing and bright future for our people spread around the world.

Today our country is facing numerous problems. The peace at our borders is unstable, we have yet to overcome poverty and unemployment, the prevention of emigration and the return of the sons and daughters of our nation to their homeland is imperative. In the face of these challenges, our people have noble qualities such as patriotism, perseverance, dedication to family, love towards parents, and commitment to make sacrifices for the sake of our sacred values. We are able to keep our borders impregnable, make our country prosperous and thriving, and eliminate all fears and turmoil from our national life. The course of our life, our lifestyle, must not enervate and divide us, but unite us, in order to combine our efforts to withstand all the challenges and troubles of our life and to bring to life our visions for our nation. Our faith that Christ is risen transforms hopelessness into hope, weakness into strength, apathy into zealousness, greed into charity, and it also interweaves spirit of dedication and commitment with service and work. We are called to this transformation, only through which can we secure our country and national life from elimination, as well as to gain victories in the struggle for the prosperity and enhancement of our nation and homeland. Now, dear faithful, let us all, official, laborer, soldier, entrepreneur, scholar, and clergyman, with a renewed Christian spirit, walk with reinforced hope in the direction, live with the truth, and accept the life, which is Christ our resurrected Lord Himself, so that the life of our nation around the world may be illuminated with works worthy of being written down, and be filled with divine rewards and heavenly blessings. Encouraged by the salvific faith which is bestowed to us by our Lord, and filled with warm enthusiasm for good works, let us proclaim in certainty with the apostle, “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

With the joyful tidings of the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we greet our spiritual brothers, the incumbents of the hierarchal Sees; His Holiness, Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia; the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Nurhan Manoogian; the Locum Tenens of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archbishop Karekin Bekchian; and the heads of our Sister Churches, and all the clergy of our Holy Church.

With pontifical blessings, we greet the President of Armenia, His Excellency Serzh Sargsyan and the first lady present here today for the Divine Liturgy. We extend our greetings to President Bako Sahakyan of the Republic of Artsakh; Armenia’s state officials, and to all the newly-elected members of the parliament. It is our wish that the Lord may keep them strengthened in the love for their nation and the homeland, and with nation-spirited achievements be productive in their raesponsible and lofty mission. We greet with blessings and best wishes the heads and representatives of diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia. We bring our pontifical love and blessings to all our faithful people, in Armenia and in the Diaspora.

We extend prayers and pleas to our Lord, Jesus Christ, so that the graces of His glorious Resurrection may illuminate human lives, so that peace may dominate over the entire world, and so that peace may be established at our borders. It is our prayer that our homeland may be enhanced through the good results of the devoted activities of our people, our Holy Church may always remain in prosperity, and that our nation, spread all over the world, may be guided in a steady pace towards salvation and eternity, now and always. Amen.

Christ is Risen from the dead.
Blessed is the Resurrection of Christ.

Yuri Khachaturov has been appointed Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, RIA Novosti reports.

Khachaturov will take office from May 2, 2017, acting Secretary General Valery Semerikov told reporters today.

He said the decision was unanimously taken at the CSTO informal summit in Bishkek.

PHOTO: ERIC CHARBONNEAU/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

 

‘The Promise’ Star James Cromwell says the Armenian Genocide may get recognition under Trump, reports.

Attending the Los Angeles prmiere of the Armenian Genocide epic The Promise, James  Cromwell said “Hollywood has been hesitant to tackle the politically fraught subject for more than 100 years.”

“There was an extraordinary man, Kirk Kerkorian, who knew this industry and who knew that a film about the Armenian Genocide would never be made,” he said. “Finally at the end of his life, he said, ‘I will pony up $100 million, we will make this film.’ And even with Terry George as director, $100 million, and a script, they still could not sell this picture to Hollywood. Mike Medavoy stepped up, but for the rest of Hollywood, ‘no,’ because they didn’t want to be associated with something they thought was going to go in the toilet or cause a lot of ire with any other project they had that might go Turkey, might be denied the Turkish market,” he said.

The veteran actor also said the United States’ refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide reflects a systematic problem.

“For whatever reason, this community flinched. This country flinches in its responsibility for the devastation of Syria and Yemen and Libya and Iraq and Afghanistan and Somalia and the Sudan and everywhere,” he added. “If we do not acknowledge our responsibility for events like this, our history, then we are doomed to repeat them, which is what we’re doing.”

President Barack Obama reneged on his 2008 campaign pledge that said, “As President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, “The Promise’s” executive music consultant, who has long advocated for genocide recognition, said Obama’s broken promise was “extremely disappointing.”

“It was very disappointing that he would cow to political capital like that having to do with Turkey’s pressure being a NATO ally,” he said. “As we can see, [Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan is a madman and Turkey needs the U.S. more than the U.S. needs Turkey.”

Cromwell said there’s a higher chance of recognition under President Donald Trump “because he’s insane.”

“We have elected an insane man as president of the United States and he has appointed people who are, in my mind, spiritually dead to run the country, so now the American people can look at their government and say it does not work,” he said. “We must take it back. It’s called we the people, it’s not called we the 1%. It’s not we industrialists. It’s we the people.”

According to Cromwell, Americans will be moved to take to the streets to demand justice and picket the Turkish embassy until the genocide is recognized and restitutions are paid.

“The Promise” has already been forced to surmount several obstacles. When the film world-premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September, its IMDb page received a flood of negative ratings.

“When we were at the Toronto International Film Festival at its original premiere, this is the L.A. premiere, but that was the first time it was seen and only a theater full of people saw it,” Tankian said. “We had tens of thousands of 0 votes stemming from Turkey on IMDb so there was a campaign to try to discredit the film. I thought ‘that’s really ridiculous.’ This is a film — it’s media, it’s cultural. To use it as a political weapon in that sense is unfair. But that’s good, that means the denialists are afraid and we want them to be afraid.”

“The Promise” centers on a love triangle between an Armenian medical student (Isaac), a renowned American journalist (Bale), and an Armenian woman (Charlotte Le Bon).

Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, who wrote a song for the film, said being swept away by the drama will help audiences grasp the powerful message.

“I went to school in the U.S. and I wasn’t taught about the Armenian or Greek genocide in history class,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s due in part to the denial of it or what it is. It’s one of those things where it’s a story that needs to be told. And I think it needs to be told and retold. … We need to at some point as human beings preempt this from happening. Genocide is occurring right now on this planet. It’s not something of the past, it’s something unfortunately of now, and unfortunately probably will be of the future.”

The late businessman Kirk Kerkorianwho died in 2015, invested $100 million to bring the Armenian Genocide epic to the big screen after other productions weren’t able to escape what’s been dubbed the “denialist lobby.”

Open Road’s “The Promise” hits theaters on April 2.

Thank you for vowing to to be an upstander for human rights!

— Enough Project (@EnoughProject)

Former US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power has joined the #KeepThePromise campaign and vowed to be an upstander for human rights.

Survival Pictures has launched the #KeepThePromise social impact campaign connected to the Armenian Genocide film The Promise.

A number of celebrities and human rights defenders have joined the #KeepThePromise to speak out against injustice like genocide and other human rights violations.

Photo: Getty Images

 

Manchester United hold the advantage against Anderlecht in the Europa League quarter-finals after securing a 1-1 draw in Thursday’s first leg in Brussels.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored a crucial away goal 10 minutes before the break at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, netting from an acute angle to put United ahead, but Leander Dendoncker’s powerful header four minutes from time means the tie is still alive ahead of the return game at Old Trafford.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has now scored in each of United’s last four Europa League away games, his strike against Anderlecht taking his tally to nine in the past 21 matches.

On April 11 the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia performed within the framework of the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Poland. Headed by conductor Sergey Smbatyan the Youth Orchestra presented compositions by Aram Khachaturian, Ghazaros Sarian, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall.

The president of the Ludwig van Beethoven Association Elżbieta Penderecka said “the concert proved that there is a great orchestra in Armenia headed by wonderful conductor Sergey Smbatyan. “Not only Polish, but also international music lovers enjoyed the concert,” she said.

The Ambassador of Armenia to Poland Egdar Kazaryan noted that he felt pride, joy, excitement, as the Polish audience was introduced to Armenian classical music by the talented young musicians, and the concert was accompanied by ovations.

The concert of the orchestra was dedicated to the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Poland and the 650th anniversary of the Armenian community in Poland. Soloists Narek Hakhnazaryan (cello) and Jarosław Nadrzycki (violin) performed with the orchestra.