Category: News

The province of Catamarca, Argentina, joined the National Law 26,199 declaring April 24 every year as the “Day of Action for Tolerance and Respect between Peoples” in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, Agencia Prensa Armenia reports.

“The breakthrough that led to the Law 26,199 was again ratified in Catamarca and demonstrates the national and federal perspective acquired in Argentina in the struggle against denial,” said Nicolas Sabuncuyan, director of the Armenian National Committee of Buenos Aires.

Article 4 of Law 26,199, enacted on December 13 2006 and promulgated on 15 January 2007, invites provincial governments to “adhere to the provisions” something that was already done by 17 Argentine provinces along with the City of Buenos Aires.

The provinces that have already joined the National Law include Buenos Aires, Catamarca, Chaco, Chubut, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Rios, Jujuy, La Pampa, Mendoza, Misiones, Neuquen, Rio Black, Salta, San Juan, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero and Tierra del Fuego.

– Soldiers from the Swedish and the Armenian armies graduated from the Basic Leader’s Course (BLC) at the 7th Army Training Command’s (7ATC) Noncommissioned Officer Academy (NCOA) here Sept. 8.

The six Swedish service members and the one Armenian NCO were the first from their countries to attend the BLC here.

Hosts from other countries learn about the BLC when they visit 7ATC which helps to spread the word of the capabilities of the course, said First Sgt. Eric D. Lowery, the outgoing deputy commandant at the NCO Academy.

“The strategic location of the academy makes us unique and different from every other academy in the U.S. Army,” said Lowery. “Having international students here is a great learning opportunity for U.S. Soldiers and Allied partners.”

U.S. Soldiers that attend the BLC here are at an advantage because they get to expand their knowledge by sharing the leader development experience with international students, in which they would not be able to do stateside.

“Soldiers that come through this course are very fortunate because they get the opportunity to partner with people they’re probably going to be fighting with in an institutional environment,” said Lowery.

While U.S. Soldiers are able to build relationships with allies, the international soldiers are able to compare and contrast the U.S. Army’s NCO corps to their own army’s leadership development.

The 7th Army NCO Academy’s mission is to train and develop future leaders who are adaptive, disciplined and ready to lead effectively at the squad and team levels. Elements of the course include the Army Physical Fitness Test, daily physical training, classroom instruction, drill and ceremony, land navigation and the culminating training exercise at the end of the 30-day course.

According to Sgt. Wincent Truong, a squad leader assigned to the P4 Skaraborg Regiment in the Swedish Army, the U.S. Army and the Sweden army share some similarities in the following areas: physical training goals; marching commands; calling cadences; and having an Army-wide program to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and assault.

Sgt. Vahram Zohrabyan, a squad leader assigned to the Armenian Peace Keeping Brigade, also shares some similarities such as conducting land navigation back at his home unit.

Although Zohrabyan conducts physical training at his home unit, he found that conducting physical training immediately upon wake up from a night’s rest was challenging.

The students were able to not only learn the course material but some leader characteristics as well.

Zohrabyan said that one of the most valuable characteristics he learned from the instructors was confidence, an area that he wishes to improve.

“When I see the instructors, I see confidence,” Zohrabyan said as he was describing one of the instructor’s abilities to teach a class without hesitation.

Both service members are now able to take the skills they’ve learned to their country and teach to their fellow service members. But not just the skills, they’re also able to share their experience with training alongside American Soldiers.

“I’m happy to communicate with the American Soldiers, build a relationship with them and to take in more experience from the instructors,” Zohrabyan said as he advises other international students to attend the BLC here.

“It’s a good experience to be in another country, cooperate with other Soldiers, see how they see things and build some balance between America and Sweden,” said Truong.

Truong said that he hopes to remain in contact with his newly found American friends thanks to course.

On September 16, in Bishkek, Edward Nalbandian, Acting Foreign Minister of Armenia, participated and delivered remarks at the session of the Council of the CIS Foreign Minister which was held within the framework of the Organization’s 25th anniversary.

The agenda of the session included issues related to the increase of efficiency of the Organization’s activity and adaptation of the institution to the new realities.

The Foreign Minister of the CIS member-countries touched upon the issues of enhancement of cooperation in the fields of culture, education, law enforcement, emergency situations, cybersecurity.

The participants of the session discussed and approved the drafts of more than a dozen of documents, including the texts of statements to be issued by the Heads of the CIS member-countries on the 25th anniversary of the Organization and on a number of other issues.

A decision was made to held the next session of the CIS Ministerial Council in April of 2017 in Tashkent.

Vice-President of the National Assembly, Head of the Armenian delegation to the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Edward Sharmazanov will pay a working visit to Saint Petersburg September 16-20.

Sharmazanov will monitor the Russian parliamentary elections within the monitoring mission of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

The Vice-Speaker is expected to meet with CSTO Executive Secretary Pyotr Ryabukhin and leadership of the Lennigrad Region.

Photo: EPA

 

Experts in Amsterdam have concluded that troubled Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh suffered a form of repeated psychosis in his final 18 months, the repots.

However, they could not reach a definitive diagnosis on his underlying mental state.

They said the well-documented breakdown that resulted in him cutting of his own ear in 1888 could have been the result of alcohol or stress.

Van Gogh died from a gunshot wound in July 1890, in an apparent suicide.

The gathering of medical professionals and art historians weighed up evidence, including many of the Dutch post-impressionist’s letters.

Popular theories about his mental health have included bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or syphilis.

“One single thing cannot explain the entire picture of what happened to Van Gogh,” medical ethics professor Arko Oderwald told the Telegraph newspaper.

Louis van Tilborgh, a professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, told the New York Times some of the debate over Van Gogh was “fierce”.

In July, new research suggested that Van Gogh had cut off his entire ear rather than just part of it.

Later that month, The Art Newspaper named the young woman he had given the ear to with the words “keep this object carefully” as farmer’s daughter Gabrielle Berlatier.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire 20 times at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night, NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival used weapons of different calibers as it fired over 225 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army remained committed to the ceasefire regime and confidently continued with their military duty.

– A well-known Spokane doctors has been helping patients for more than 40 years but now he need your help.

Hrair Garabedian is trying to track down family heirlooms recently stolen by a burglar. Among the items taken was a medal personally given to him by the President of Armenia for his volunteer work in the country.

Garabedian said it happened back on August 23. In a matter of moments, he said they made off with jewelry, family heirlooms and a medal only owned by a few people on earth.

“They fill up everything in the pillow case and take off,” he explained.

Garabedian has been a doctor in Spokane for 45 years. He is a congenital heart specialist at Providence Sacred Heart and has also served as a pediatric heart specialist. Over the years he figures he’s treated roughly 60,000 to 70,000 patients. He also volunteers lot of his time, and medical expertise to Armenia. In 2012, the Armenian President recognized Garabedian for his efforts with a medal. A medal only given to one person each year.

“It means so much to me. Some of them, like the medal is just made of bronze, it’s not worth anything, but it’s worth a lot to me,” Garabedian said.

Police arrested the suspected burglar,Reuben Miller. Court documents show Miller he gave an ex-girlfriend two rings that he stole from the house and she told police. Officers were able to recover some jewelry from a Pawn Shop, but Garabedian said thousands of dollars’ worth of Armenian jewelry are still missing. Now, he is asking for help tracking some of it down.

Garabedian was very complementary of Spokane Police and their efforts in this case. He is just hoping that if someone comes across his medal or some of the jewelry, that they will come forward. If you know anything that can help, you’re urged to contact Spokane Police.

President Serzh Sargsyan, who is in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan on a working visit, participated at the meeting of the Council of the CIS Heads of State in Bishkek which was conducted in the restricted format. The meeting was presided over by the President of the host country Almazbek Atambaev.

At the meeting, which was conducted first in the restricted and later in the extended format, the Heads of State  discussed issues related to the cooperation of the member states in the political, economic, humanitarian and security areas, over a dozen of issues related to the countering the new challenges and threats. The discussions were followed by the document signing ceremony.

In Bishkek, the Presidents signed a Presidential Declaration on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Independent States in which they summarized the results of the activities carried out by the Organization in the last twenty-five years and  specified the prospects of the expansion and deepening of the cooperation in the framework of bringing the CIS in line with the existing reality.

President Serzh Sargsyan has left for the Republic of Kyrgyzstan for a working visit.

President Sargsyan will participate in the sitting of the Council of Heads of CIS member states.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) will host a three-day international conference “After Genocide: From Trauma to Rebirth, a Gendered Perspective” on Saturday, September 17 to Monday, September 19 at AGBU Armenia Hall in Yerevan.

The conference is organized by conflict and gender think-tank Women in War (France) in partnership with the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of Armenia, DVV International, and AGBU Armenia. The three-day event brings together over fifty speakers from around the world to discuss the gendered nature of personal, political and social consequences of genocide. Feminist thinkers and activists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and lawyers will share differing perspectives on how genocide victims and descendants have been affected by their trauma.

Conference panelists will examine genocides and mass killings, including the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, Nanking, Bosnian genocide, Rwandan genocide, mass killings during the Democratic Republic of the Congo Civil War, Cambodian genocide, and mass killings in Central America and the Middle East. The fate of persecuted people today, including Yazidis, Christians in the Middle East and Kurds, will also be examined as will questions on reparations and possibilities of reconciliation in preventing the recurrence of genocide.

This project was made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah (France), DVV International, Swedish non-governmental organization Kvinna till Kvinna (Women for Women), and the Academic Swiss Caucasus Net (ASCN). The conference will be livestreamed at www.agbu.am.

The Exhibit: “Mapping Identity: Figures, Borders, and Nations”

Artist books, paintings and works on paper by Dana Walrath for AGBU Exhibitions

“Mapping Identity: Figures, Borders, and Nations” is a solo exhibition of select works by renowned artist, author and anthropologist Dana Walrath comprised of artists’ books, paintings and works of art on paper. The series consists of handmade books on nine of the genocides of the past 500 years: American Indians, African Americans, Australian Aborigines, Armenians, the Holocaust, Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians and the Rohingya people of Myanmar. One of Walrath’s installations in the exhibition, “View from the High Ground,” renders dehumanization—the fourth stage of genocide—as an interactive process. The handmade books are interactive, forcing the viewer to experience dehumanization literally through the sense of touch as participants page through the images. Two of the nine original books—comprised of hand drawings and an old zoology text embedded within slate—will be on view at AGBU along with larger works on paper from Walrath’s “Armenian Maps” series which explores borders, identity and the fetishizing of nationalism.