Category: News

There are conditions for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, but what we lack is the political will of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick said in a an interview with

He said the Karabakh settlement is the “sphere where the United States, Russia and France have complete understanding.”

The diplomat said “the ceasefire has been more or less maintained after the four-day war in April and this creates an atmosphere conducive to achieving progress in the negotiations.”

“We would like to hold another meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. We would like to continue to work on the proposals to find points of rapprochement and reach a final solution to the conflict that has been continuing for 20 years now,” Warlick said.

He said there is no clarity with respect to the time and place of the possible meeting of the Presidents. “As Co-Chairs we’ll meet with the Foreign Ministers to lay the basis for the next summit. We hope to see both Presidents in New York in a fortnight on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session to discuss the next steps. We hope the Presidents will meet there,” James Warlick said.

It can be difficult to balance a love story with one of the deadliest wars ever as a backdrop, and some films have done it better than others. The latest to try is The Promise starring Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale. Set during the heart of World War I, the film will tackle the Armenian Genocide, with Isaac and Bale’s characters thrown into the middle of the conflict, according to .

Set in 1914 right before the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the film follows Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac), a hopeful medical student who arrives in Constantinople to bring modern medicine to his ancestral village of Siroun in Southern Turkey. In the bustling capital, he soon meets Chris Myers (Christian Bale), an American photo-journalist, and Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), an Armenian artist. Both Michael and Chris soon fall in love with Ana and a love triangle ensues just as the Turks join the war on the German side, turning against the Armenians. Everyone must find a way to settle their differences in order to survive the coming chaos.

Massis Post – Prof. Taner Akcam of Clark University will give a lecture entitled “The Memoir of Naim Bey and Talat Pasha Telegrams: Are They ‘Armenian Forgeries’?” on Thursday, October 4, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., at First Armenian Church, 380 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA. The program is sponsored by the friends of the Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). A reception will take place following the program at the NAASR Center across the street from the church.

In 1920-21, author and editor Aram Andonian published a book known in English as The Memoirs of Naim Bey and in Armenian as Medz Vojirì (The Great Crime). It contained the writings of an Ottoman official and telegrams from Talat Pasha containing orders for the killing of Armenians.

In 1983, Turkish authors Sinasi Orel and Sureyya Yuca published a book to establish that the memoir was fake and the telegrams were forgeries.
The argument had three main pillars:
1) there was no such person as Naim Bey;
2) there is no actual memoir, since a non-existing person cannot write a memoir; and
3) the so-called Talat Pasha telegrams, like the alleged memoir, were invented by Andonian.

Although noted researcher Fr. Krikor Guerguerian (Kriger) in 1965 published a detailed examination of Andonian’s published and unpublished materials and Vahakn N. Dadrian in 1986 published a lengthy response to Orel and Yuca, in general the scholarly world ceased using the memoir and telegrams as trustworthy sources. Until now, the claims against Andonian have remained unanswered and became the cornerstone of denialism.

Taner Akcam risked venturing into this highly disputed territory and pursued the matter to its necessary conclusion, seeking out the archival sources and documents needed for a proper scholarly assessment. The first results of his research will be presented in this lecture and in a book to be published in Turkish later this fall. The question must be asked: Is it time to remove one of the last bricks in the denialist wall and watch the façade crumble?

Taner Akcam is the author of From Empire To Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide and A Shameful Act: the Armenian Genocide and Turkish Responsibility, and The Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire as well as other works in the English and Turkish Languages. Since 2008 he has been the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Professor of Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University in Worcester, MA.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire about 70 times at the line of contact with the Karabakh forces last night.

The rival used firearms of different calibers as it fired over 1,400 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army keep protecting the military positions and resort to response actions in case of extreme necessity.

On 11 September Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan visited the Alashan site of the Martakert region and met there with Talish residents who had left their houses and settled there in the aftermath of the war launched by Azerbaijan from 2 to 5 April of the current year, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

Issues related to the course of programs directed to the improving social and living conditions of the Talish residents were discussed during the meeting.

The President gave corresponding instructions to the heads of the concerned bodies for proper realization of the activities.

Primate of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, NKR National Assembly Ashot Ghoulyan and other officials accompanied the President.

Armenia welcomes the  agreements on the Syrian crisis reached between Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, and John Kerry, US Secretary of State.

“We hope that in line with those agreements all sides will maintain the ceasefire in practice and, as an urgent step, an unhindered supply of the humanitarian aid to the regions most affected by the crisis and its distribution to the population will be ensured,” Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“In this regard we are even more concerned about the humanitarian situation in Aleppo and its neighbourhood, and it is more than urgent to provide humanitarian aid to those areas as soon as possible,” he added.

“We are hopeful that these agreements can serve as a basis for comprehensive negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis,” Balayan stated.

In December 2014, the European Union confirmed financial support with total value of €25 million to the Government of Armenia, within the programme ENPARD (European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development) Armenia. This programme is being implemented over three years, providing €20 million of budget support for the Government of Armenia to sustain agricultural and rural development. A further €5 million is being provided to support the Ministry of Agriculture and to promote the development of farmers groups and value adding chains throughout Armenia.

The budget support payments are being made over three years, and the 2016 payment of €7 million has just been transferred to the Government of Armenia. In confirming the payment, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Piotr Świtalski, commented: “I very much welcome the progress achieved in the implementation of this programme as a whole, including the valuable role played by the complementary assistance. I would therefore like to congratulate the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture in particular for the achievements in the context of this support.”

This support, in line with EU assistance priorities, contributes directly to achieving the Eastern Partnership key objective of reducing economic and social disparities. Given the high unemployment and lack of livelihoods and income, poverty levels in Armenia remain high, particularly in rural areas. Agriculture and subsistence farming represent a broad-based opportunity for food security and informal employment. Thus, there is a great need for agricultural and rural development through improving agricultural institutions, strengthening the capacity and performance of farmers associations and cooperatives, increasing access to affordable food, and supporting the roll-out of a general agricultural census. All of these areas are being supported through ENPARD Armenia.

Within the framework of the programme, over €5 million has been committed to UNIDO, UNDP and FAO to provide technical support to the Government of Armenia in close cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, local authorities and other stakeholders. UNIDO and UNDP are working jointly to strengthen and establish producer groups and engage them effectively in value chain development. FAO provides technical assistance to the Ministry of Agriculture for institutional development and policy harmonization, as well as the roll-out of the national agricultural census. Beneficiaries of the programme are rural communities, farmers, producer group members, employees in agricultural value chains, and their families.

ENPARD is improving the lives of nearly 800 farmers directly, and indirectly 3,200 people, through the creation of agricultural cooperatives.  The cooperatives have been provided with the latest equipment and technology, and their staff trained in the production of high quality products. 55 cooperatives have been formed and registration initiated under the Law on Agricultural Cooperatives. The farmer groups are producing buckwheat, European type high value cheeses, non-traditional vegetables such as broccoli, and dried fruits and herbs. In every case value is added to the products before sale. Members of the groups have invested nearly €240,000 of their own funds in their cooperatives, while partner development organizations have given or lent at favourable terms a further €150,000. All ENPARD products (to be available in stores from November 2016) will meet food safety standards, and will be certified. In addition, fourteen unique brands are being developed and will be registered.

Uzbekistan will elect a new president on Dec. 4 following the death of veteran leader Islam Karimov last week, the elections authority said on Friday, Reuters reports.

Political parties will be able to nominate candidates between Sept. 30 and Oct. 20, Central Election Commission Chairman Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov told reporters.

Karimov died of a stroke on Sept.2 aged 78 after ruling the resource-rich country of 32 million people for 27 years.

On Thursday, Uzbekistan’s parliament named Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev as interim president.

Photo: AFP

At least 33 tourists who spent a cold Thursday night trapped in several cable cars high above the French Alps have been rescued, officials say, the BBC reports.

The tourists were suspended above the glaciers of Mont Blanc at an altitude of about 3,800m (12,468ft) after wires carrying the cars became tangled.

They were among 110 people initially trapped when the cable cars ground to a halt on Thursday afternoon.

The cars are believed to have stopped after cables tangled in high winds.

Those trapped overnight were freed on Friday after rescuers managed to restart the cars by relaxing the tension of tangled cables.