Category: News

– 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.

A delegation of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe will carry out an Electoral Assessment Mission to Armenia from 14 to 18 September, in order to monitor the local by-elections to be held on 18 September. Headed by Liisa Ansala (Finland, ILDG), the delegation includes eight Congress members and two members of the EU Committee of the Regions.

High-level meetings are scheduled on 15 September in Yerevan, where the delegation will exchange views with Tigran Mukuchyan and David Loqyan, respectively President of the Central Election Commission of Armenia and Minister of Territorial Administration and Development. Furthermore, the delegation will meet representatives of the diplomatic corps, NGOs and the media in Yerevan.

On 16 September, meetings are planned in Armavir with members of the Province Electoral Commission, representatives of the Armavir Development Centre and local media.

On 17 September, the delegation will also meet candidates for mayors and councillors from the Ararat and Aragatsotn regions and the President of the Union of Communities of Armenia, Emin Yeritsyan.

On Election Day, seven Congress’ teams will be deployed to different areas in which by-elections are going to be organised. The Electoral Assessment Mission will be followed by an Information Report to be discussed in the framework of the 31st Congress Session (19-21 October 2016).

Photo: AFP 2016/A MAJEED

 

A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people and wounded 35 others as they attended Friday prayers at a mosque in northwestern Pakistan, officials said, AFP reports.

The bombing took place in the village of Butmana in the Mohmand tribal district bordering Afghanistan where the Army has been fighting against Taliban militants.

“The Friday prayer was in progress at the mosque when a suicide bomber blew himself up killing at least 16 worshippers and wounding 35 others,” a senior tribal administration official told AFP.

Photo: Erfan Kouchari

Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Iran will express Baku’s position to Tehran over the participation of representatives of Nagorno Karabakh in the Pan-Armenian Games in Tehran, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, told Trend Sept.16

Tehran hosted the opening of the 48th Armenian Olympiad on September 13.

“Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry has been informed about that and Azerbaijan’s embassy in Iran will express the ministry’s position to this country’s relevant structures,” Hajiyev added.

The Armenian national team has dropped to the 112^th place (down from 102^nd last month) in the FIFA World Ranking released today.

Argentina and Belgium remain fixed in first and second place respectively, cementing their positions at the summit of the World Ranking for another month.

Elsewhere in the top five, Germany (3, up 1) and Colombia (4, down 1) traded places while a rejuvenated Brazil, under new coach Tite, moved into joint fourth place thanks largely due to victories against Colombia and Ecuador in World Cup qualifiers.

Dasaran was recognized as one of the best 5 innovative enterprises in the final round of Accelerate 2030 – joint international initiative by the UNDP and Impact Hub.

For the first edition of Accelerate2030, applications were submitted by 177 ventures from across 4 continents, out of which the international expert jury selected five ventures clearly contributing towards the Sustainable development goals, and Dasaran is among the top 5.

Being among the best innovative enterprises, Dasaran was invited to represent Armenia at the inaugural Social Good Summit to take place in Geneva, Switzerland on the 6th of October, 2016.

“With our activities we aim to increase Armenia’s image abroad and promote it as a modern education-exporting country,” commented Suren Aloyan, Founding President of Dasaran Educational Program.

 – The unsung efforts of the Australians who helped Armenians after the First World War have been celebrated in a special ceremony in Sydney almost a century later.

Brothers John and David Knudsen never met their grandfather John Henry Knudson.

But family mementos tell a story of bravery, sacrifice and compassion.

Sprawled on a dining-room table at David Knudsen’s house in northern Sydney are a series of black-and-white photographs and medals.

And, there is a small, silver identification tag his grandfather wore when he fought in the First World War.

But it is what John Henry Knudsen did after the fighting was over that he is most remembered for.

The New Zealand-born soldier and his Australian wife Lydia, a nurse, travelled to the Middle East.

They wanted to help the Armenian refugees who fled or were marched out of Turkey following the killings Armenia calls a genocide, a term the Turkish government disputes.

The couple joined Near East Relief, an organisation overseeing aid to the multitudes of Armenian refugees.

When the Australasian Orphanage opened in late 1922 in Antelias, Lebanon, they were appointed its directors.

Their grandson John Knudsen says they became parents to about 1,700 Armenian orphans.

“It’s good to see that they made a difference out of a terrible, terrible situation. Those kids, they would have been dead. They would have been in the desert, forgotten … gone … a whole generation of human beings, as far as I’m concerned.”

The orphanage closed in 1929, and John and Lydia Knudsen settled in Australia.

Now, their humanitarian efforts have been recognised in a special ceremony in Sydney, bringing together the descendants of those who lived and worked at the orphanage.

Nora Grigorian says her grandfather, Mihran Terzian, was eight years old when he sought refuge with the Knudsens.

“I have so many emotions. It’s incredibly full-circle for me personally, very personally, the way my grandparents were rescued and saved, their lives were secured by Australians. And they had no idea, they could not have dreamed, that some of their grandchildren and seven of their great-grandchildren would be contributing Australians one day. They’re pictured under the Australian flag in an orphanage far away from their birth home, as well as from Australia. And Australians reached out. And for me personally, it makes me very proud to be Australian, as well as Armenian.”

Author and historian Vicken Babkenian has documented the Australian response to the Armenians after the war in his book Armenia, Australia and the Great War.

He says that response has been largely ignored.

“Unfortunately, generally, particularly in Australia, much of the focus of popular and official narrative is on the heroic military side of our country’s participation during the First World War. But an area that’s been quite neglected and excluded from the narrative is the humanitarian aspect.”

John Knudsen says his grandparents would be humbled by the recognition of their work.

And he says Australia should be doing more to welcome refugees today.

“Look at all those little children. Look at all those refugees that are clinging and all their houses have been destroyed. What’s going to happen to them? The rest of the world’s trying to take them, but we’ve got to do something more. There’s got to be something more that we can do like they tried to do. They tried to make a difference. They did make a difference. And that’s what we need to do.”