Category: News

A wide-ranging panel discussion at the Hammer Museum at UCLA delved into the challenges of using film to depict genocide and ethnic conflict, according to UCLA’s official website.

The event, held April 6, featured Terry George, an Academy Award-nominated writer and director; Dr. Eric Esrailian, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; and Stephen D. Smith, executive director of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation.

George is the director and co-writer, and Esrailian a producer, of a new feature film called “The Promise,” which is set during the 1915 Armenian genocide, and is set for a wide premiere April 21.

Esrailian, a digestive disease expert and philanthropist, also sits on the executive board of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and has been involved in developing the school’s Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment. He said one hurdle for the filmmakers is that the events of 1915 are still so poorly understood by the general public.

“One of the challenges is the lack of general awareness of the Armenian genocide,” he said. “Because the denial has been so heavy, it crushes the truth. You have to counteract that.”

That meant striking a careful balance: telling a story through specific characters while also establishing the facts around historical events. George said finding an empathetic person to serve as the focal point can be the key to taking on an emotionally difficult subject in a film. So “The Promise” uses fictional characters who, George said, “allow us to walk through the tumultuous events that defined the Armenian genocide.”

In addition to writing and directing “The Promise,” George was the co-writer and director of “Hotel Rwanda,” and his other projects have examined the Vietnam War and the conflict in Northern Ireland. Creating sympathetic protagonists is one of the important ways to draw viewers into stories about such major conflicts, he said. “An ordinary person who transcends the horrible situation they are put in and, in battling against it, proves our own humanity,” he said.

Smith said that balancing historical accuracy with interesting storylines is a tension that frequently arises in historical films aimed at mass audiences.

“Filmmakers want to keep the engagement of the audience,” he said. “The telling of the story is what’s going to do that and, therefore, artistic license is a really important part of that process.”

But that can raise questions about historical accuracy and credibility — something Smith said can be mitigated in part through close collaboration between scholars and filmmakers.

George said filmmakers have to research and source their work as accurately as possible so their films’ truthfulness isn’t in question.

The film’s release date is within days of both Armenian Genocide Awareness Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day, which this year both fall on April 24. Smith pointed out that April is also the month during which the Cambodian genocide began and that the movie premiere falls during the 100-day period of commemoration of the Rwandan genocide.

“Survivors are still feeling the pain of those events,” he said, adding that the confluence of those anniversaries and commemorations are “good opportunities for communities to come together, because the grief that is shared is universal.”

Esrailian said the new film has struck an emotional chord with audiences who feel connected to the Armenian genocide. “Art can allow people to heal,” he said. “That’s why we made the movie.”

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin attended today the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Footbal Academy in Vagharshapat.

Aleksander Čeferin arrived in Armenia today for a one-day official visit. He was welcomed at Zvartnots Airport by Ruben Hayrapetyan, President of the Football Federation of Armenia.

Upon his arrival in Armenia, the UEFA President headed for the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, where he was hosted by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. Mr. Čeferin learnt about the history of the Holy See and its cultural legacy.

 

Statement by Edward Nalbandian at the Eastern Partnership and Visegrad 4 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

Dear colleagues,

I would like to thank the Visegrad 4 Polish Presidency for hosting this ministerial meeting.

Approaching the upcoming Summit in Brussels with tangible achievements will be important for the future of the endeavors within the Eastern Partnership. In this regard we appreciate the initiative to give a political push to our sectoral cooperation and focus the debate on infrastructure connections, since it is one of the priorities of the Eastern Partnership enshrined in the Riga joint declaration.

On March 21st Armenia and the EU  initialed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement that will reflect the depth and essence of our relations and set new guidelines for enhanced partnership.

Interconnectivity occupies a solid place in the Framework Agreement, as well as in the Armenia-EU Partnership Priorities for 2017-2020, underlining its importance not only for the bilateral relations, but also in the context of the regional cooperation.

Dear Colleagues,

Together with the EU and other partners, we are involved in different interconnectivity projects. We welcome the decision to extend the Trans-European Transport Network to the Eastern Partners. Last year, Armenian and Georgian principal highways were included as core connections on the comprehensive network of TEN-T maps.

Another good example is the Armenia-EU negotiations that started a month ago to conclude the Common Aviation Area Agreement.

The European Union, through the European Investment Bank, contributes to the realization of the one of Armenia’s strategic projects – the construction of the North-South road corridor that crosses the country with 556 km-long modern highway.

The recent modernization of Armenia-Georgia border crossing points with the support of the European Union is a practical step towards implementation of the Eastern Partnership Integrated Border Management Initiative. It provides more efficient capacities for increased volumes of transit and trade.

Interconnectivity does not limit only to transport communications. The European Union through the Neighborhood Investment Facility has contributed to the construction of a new Armenia-Georgia high-voltage transmission lines.

Ensuring mobility and people-to-people contacts are essential for enhancing the connections between our societies. This was one of the core principles set into the foundations of the Eastern Partnership. One of the ways to realize this commitment and to bring our societies closer is the visa free regime. Armenia and the EU for the past three years have been actively implementing the Visa Facilitation and Readmission Agreements. The next step is the visa liberalization dialogue as targeted in the Riga Summit Declaration.

Dear Colleagues,

Through connectivity and economic cooperation we can effectively foster growth and stability in the region at large. It is essential that we consider the notion of connectivity in a broader context, not only among EU and EaP countries but also between different integration formats.

The links between the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union should be a matter of pragmatic and result oriented dialogue. Armenia as a member state of the EAEU and one of the Eastern Partnership countries is ready to contribute to this end.

Promoting the connectivity and strengthening economic cooperation can help to forge common interests and joint projects that bring mutual benefits. In this regard they should also be viewed as confidence building measures and should be considered as a strong tool within the context of the efforts of agreed formats of the conflict resolutions.

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to use this opportunity to thank the European Union for significant financial and technical assistance in support of organising a free and fair parliamentary elections in Armenia in the beginning of April. After the elections the European Union stated that they were well administered, fundamental freedoms were generally respected, and that the result reflected the overall will of the Armenian people. The EU further stressed its willingness to work with the democratically elected new Parliament and Government.

Armenia is also looking forward to continue its close cooperation with the European Union.

Thank you.

“Shocked” Borussia Dortmund players will “pull together” when they face Monaco, 24 hours after their team bus was damaged by explosions in Germany.

Defender Marc Bartra fractured his wrist in the incident, which led to Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg being postponed.

The match has been rescheduled for Wednesday, with a 17:45 BST kick-off.

“In such a crisis situation, all of Borussia will pull together,” said chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke, the reports.

“The team and coaches were shocked. Now we must channel it in some way.”

Dortmund said Bartra had an operation on Tuesday after “breaking the radial bone in his arm and getting bits of debris lodged in his hand”.

The 26-year-old, who has played 12 times for Spain, joined Dortmund from Barcelona in June last year.

Captain Marcel Schmelzer said: “We’re all in shock and our thoughts are with Marc. We hope that he will make a speedy recovery.”

The bus was damaged at 18:15 BST on Tuesday – 90 minutes before kick-off – when it was about six miles from the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund.

Police said there were three explosions in the vicinity of the coach. They called it “a targeted attack” and found a letter at the scene, but did not disclose its contents.

They are preparing for a “large deployment” at the rescheduled game.

The Armenian Genocide is an atrocity that has been denied by the Turkish government for nearly 100 years. The US, UK, Israeli and many other countries have not formally recognized this horrendous event either. There are even those who have only adopted this position within the last twenty years, despite the fact that the actual events took place in the early 1910s to 1923.

In the last century, two different works intending to depict the truth of the Armenian Genocide were shut down before they’d even had a chance to be made. To combat this, The Promise was mostly privately funded.

“We were fully backed by the Kerkorian Foundation. And we had an Armenian-American production company”, director Terry George said after the London screening of the film, reports.

The Kerkorian Foundation was founded by the late Kirk Kerkorian, an Armenian businessman whose intention was to fund a truthful story of the Armenian Genocide.

Because of the sensitivity of the issues The Promise seeks to bring to the screen, this film was kept quiet.

“We tried to fly under the radar as much as we could so that we didn’t have to deal with outside pressure. So we shot in Spain and Portugal and Malta. We were crucially aware of what we were trying to do, so we said, let’s get this thing made and put it out there, and then have the political debate and the conversation that we need to have.”

With The Promise, George stated that he intended to “entertain as well as educate”.

“I wanted to make something that would appeal to audiences with no particular interest in the war or the conflict that would stand on its own, because this is one of the most contentious subjects out there. Even now, they’re locking up journalists who speak up on the matter”.

This makes the character of Chris Meyers (Christian Bale) so important. George stated that by introducing an American journalist it allowed him to move into the history outside of the characters of Mikael and Ana, to see how and what information was being sent across the world around this period of time.

The presence of Meyers also allowed for the introduction of historical figures, such as Henry Morgenthau, who was Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and published his memoirs about his dealings during that time.

Although The Promise is no doubt going to meet opposition, whether in the form of denial, or by those who see exploitation for money, or those who cannot understand the importance of this story, George doesn’t seem deterred.

“I wanted to make a film that moves and enrages, that really evokes the spirit of rage, because that’s what the events called for. If we can do that, then we’ve succeeded.”

There are no problems between Armenia and Georgia, just issues that can be solved through joint efforts, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said after talks with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Janelidze.

At a meeting in Yerevan the Foreign Ministers of the two countries discussed a broad range of issues of cooperation in the fields of trade, energy, transport infrastructures, tourism and others.

Minister Nalbandian emphasized the essential progress in the relations between the two countries and pointed to dialogue on regional security as an important component of cooperation.

Issues of concern for Georgian Armenians and the ways of their solution were also discussed.

Minister Nalbandian briefed his Georgian counterpart on the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs towards creating conditions conducive to furthering the Karabakh conflict settlement process.

“We attach importance to Georgia’s continuous support to the activity of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs,” he said.

A number of pressing regional and international issues were also discussed.

Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES    

Two adults and a child have been killed in a shooting in a classroom of a primary school in San Bernardino, California, police say, the BBC reports.

The suspect shot and killed his estranged wife, a teacher, and wounded two children who were behind her, one of whom died of his wounds.

He then turned the gun on himself, police said.

Police chief Jarrod Burguan described the incident as a suspected “murder-suicide” attempt.

The shooting happened at 10:30 local time (17:30 GMT) at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino county, 96km east of Los Angeles.

The gunman, named as 53-year-old Cedric Anderson, had gained entry to the school as a visitor and kept his weapon concealed until he opened fire in the classroom where 15 children with special needs were being taught, authorities said.

He killed his wife Karen Elaine Smith and fatally wounded eight-year-old Jonathan Martinez, who was airlifted to hospital but later died.

In December 2015, 14 people were killed and 21 others wounded when a couple entered a disabled service centre in San Bernardino and began firing at a group of county health workers.

The Chairmen and Ranking Members on both the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees joined today with the leadership of the Armenian Caucus and more than eighty of their U.S. House colleagues in calling upon President Trump to properly commemorate the Armenian Genocide in his April 24th White House statement, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

In a bipartisan letter calling upon the President to “appropriately mark April 24th as a day of American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide, signatories noted that, “by commemorating the Armenian Genocide, we renew our commitment to prevent future atrocities.”

“We join with Members of Congress in calling upon President Trump to reject Turkey’s gag rule and embrace an honest American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “It’s long past time for America to stop outsourcing our national policy on the Armenian Genocide to Recep Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian and anti-American regime.”

 

In calling upon President Trump to properly mark April 24th, the signatories highlighted the U.S. record of past recognition, including “President Reagan, who recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1981, and the Eisenhower Administration, which did the same in a 1951 submission to the International Court of Justice.” These actions, as well as resolutions by the House of Representatives in 1975 (H.J.R.148) and 1984 (H.J.R.247), while clearly constituting U.S. recognition, just as clearly did not translate into either consistent official annual Armenian Genocide commemorations or sustained U.S. pressure on Turkey to end its denials of this crime.

The letter specifically cites Christian populations targeted by the Ottoman Empire’s genocidal campaign, including “Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Pontians, Syriacs, and other persecuted peoples.” The full text of the letter is provided below.

On March 22nd, Rep. Trott was joined by Rep. Adam Schiff and the Congressional Armenian Caucus leadership in introducing a bipartisan anti-genocide resolution (H.Res.220) calling on the United States to apply the lessons of the Armenian Genocide in seeking to prevent modern day atrocities across the Middle East. That measure stresses that “proper commemoration and consistent condemnation of the Armenian Genocide will strengthen our international standing in preventing modern day genocides,” and, building upon the 2016 official U.S. designation of an ISIS genocide against Middle East minorities, specifically calls for the following: “[T]he United States, in seeking to prevent war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against Christians, Yezidis, Muslims, Kurds, and other vulnerable religious and ethnic groups in the Middle East, should draw upon relevant lessons of the United States Government, civil society, and humanitarian response to the Armenian Genocide, Seyfo, and the broader genocidal campaign by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Greeks, Pontians and other Christians upon their biblical era homelands.”

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Congressional Letter to President Trump Regarding the Armenian Genocide

Dear Mr. President,

We are writing to encourage you to properly commemorate the Armenian Genocide on April 24th.

In leading an honest and accurate American remembrance of this known case of genocide, you will stand with President Reagan, who recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1981, and the Eisenhower Administration, which did the same in a 1951 submission to the International Court of Justice. The House of Representatives has also commemorated the Armenian Genocide, through HJR148 in 1975 and HJR247 in 1984.

Armenia remains deeply committed to expanding the bonds of friendship that have long connected the American and Armenian peoples. Among the proudest chapters in our shared history is America’s remarkable record of protesting the Genocide and in caring for the survivors of this crime. The United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1915, Henry Morgenthau, helped to chronicle the brutal extermination of the Armenian people through a campaign of mass murder and violent expulsion.

In the years after the genocide, Ambassador Morgenthau and other concerned Americans launched the Near East Relief, a Congressionally chartered humanitarian organization, which raised $116 million (over $2.5 billion in 2017 dollars) to aid the victims of the Ottoman Empire’s mass murder of millions of Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Pontians, Syriacs, and other persecuted peoples. The generosity of the American people saved countless lives and helped to ensure the continued survival of the Armenian culture.

The Armenian Genocide continues to stand as an important reminder that crimes against humanity must not go without recognition and condemnation. Through recognition of the Armenian Genocide we pay tribute to the perseverance and determination of those who survived, as well as to the Americans of Armenian descent who have helped strengthen our country. It is our duty to honor those contributions with an honest statement of history recognizing the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as the 20th century’s first genocide. By commemorating the Armenian Genocide, we renew our commitment to prevent future atrocities.

In that spirit of honoring the victims and redoubling our commitment to prevent genocide, we ask you to appropriately mark April 24th as a day of American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.

Thank you for taking our views into consideration.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

The Armenia Airline has officially launched direct flights between Yerevan and Beirut. Representatives of both countries say the event is of landmark importance for the development of bilateral relations.

The inaugural flight was carried out on April 10 with 80 passengers on board,  90 passengers arrived in Yerevan on the return flight.

“The Airline will operate flights once a week, and will increase the number to four in summer.  The two-way ticket will cost $320,” said Robert Oganesyan, Director General of Armenia Airline.

The demand for the flight is high, considering that there are more than 150 thousand Armenian living in Lebanon.

The plane was welcomed in Beirut by Lebanon’s Tourism Minister Avedis Guidanian and Armenia’s Ambassador to Lebanon Samvel Mktchyan.

Avedis Guidanian said the flight creates a stronger bridge between Armenia and Lebanon. As Tourism Minister, he pledged to prepare a tourism package and include Armenia in it. He added that Lebanese businessmen are interested in investing in Armenia.

What attracts the Lebanese most is Armenia’s rich cultural legacy and its national cuisine, Ambassador Samvel Mkrtchyan says.

“Lebanon and Armenia are tied by firm threads, and the flights will serve an additional link between the two countries that will contribute to the deepening of relations,” Amb. Mkrtchyan told reporters.

Representative of the ARF Central Committee of Lebanon, MP Hakob Bagratuni said that “aside from contributing to the development of tourism, the flights will create opportunities for cooperation in the fields of culture and economy.”

Vice-President of the State Tourism Committee Mekhak Apresyan says “the launching of flights has always been on the agenda, especially after 2013, when Armenia adopted an ‘open sky’ policy.”

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the cover star of this month’s after providing an exclusive insight into his rise from Yerevan in Armenia to Old Trafford.

The 28-year-old can be impossible to stop when he motors forward in possession of the ball and there was no way he was going to be halted in his dream to reach the top in football, either.

The interview focuses on five key factors behind the evolution of any player – background, talent, personality, experience and ambition – and his honest answers suggest he was never going to be knocked off course when attempting to realise his dream.

As a 13-year-old, he spent time in Brazil with Sao Paulo to hone his skills and take another step along the path to footballing fame. There were those who doubted his ability to achieve such lofty aspirations but the desire to prove them wrong burned bright in the youngster. “I can say that most people did not believe in me,” he told Inside United. “They were just laughing and thinking that what I used to say was crazy and I would not reach this level.”

While others laughed, Mkhitaryan cried as a child when told “football would not exist for me anymore,” but he would have the last laugh, securing a move to United from Borussia Dortmund last summer. “I had a dream to play for one of the best football clubs in the world. And that is what I am doing now.”

It is difficult to quickly sum up the midfielder’s character. He is, at the same time, serious and focused while maintaining an easy charm and relaxed outlook. He has a sharp sense of humour and follows some of his answers up with a hearty laugh or cheeky grin.

Yet there is an underlying steely determination to Henrikh Mkhitaryan which may be understandable as someone who has overcome adversity and setbacks to reach the top. He also explains how he is a different character on the field to the one sitting and chatting.