Category: News

The RA Presidential Awards Ceremony for Year 2015 took place Presidential Palace today. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the representative of the Robert Pogossian and Sons Foundation, the benefactor from Diaspora Albert Pogossian presented the awards to the winners for their significant contribution in a number of areas. The awards comprise Certificates and monetary bonuses. President Sargsyan congratulated the awardees and wished them recurrent success in their future activities.

 

Remarks by President Serzh at the Award Ceremony

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Awardees,

I am glad to welcome you to the Presidential Palace where you will participate at this important award ceremony.

With the assistance of the Pogossian family, we continue every year to publicly encourage fundamental works, singling out all that is bright, lasting, and valuable. We are confident that every significant work should be acknowledged and appreciated. This Award program was created and is being carried out based on that very logic.

The mission of identifying and acknowledging those worthy is one of the important tasks of the state, while you, dear Awardees, I am sure will not tire and will not be complacent with your works and accomplishments. I want this Award to be only the beginning for the recognition of your achievements. I hope that new creative inspirations will follow and will receive international acclaim.

In the category related to the works aimed at the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, this time we have recognized the outstanding contribution of the authors of the Egyptian “Who Killed Armenians?” documentary and the Armenian-American author Peter Balakian. The Armenian nation is grateful to you for this enormous undertaking. Mr. Nasir, Mrs. Zaki, you have proved clearly that the Armenian Genocide is not an Armenian issue exclusively but a great pain for the people of good will all over the world, regardless of their nationality or religion, while Peter Balakian with his duel identity – Armenian and American, has revealed in English the power of the artistic manifestation of that pain.

In conclusion, I would be remiss not to mention the significant contribution of the Pogossian family in the implementation of this project. This is a momentous journey which we have started together and will continue standing shoulder to shoulder.

Dear Awardees,

I congratulate you once again and wish you new artistic zeal and achievements.

Thank you.

By the Presidential decrees, the RA Presidential Award for Year 2015 for the significant contribution to the process of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide was awarded to Peter Balakian (USA) for presenting through artistic expression and relaying to the world the Armenian Genocide as a all-human issue, Mohamed Hanafi Nasri and Miriam Zaki (Egypt) for the documentary “Who Killed Armenians?”

By other decrees of the President of Armenia, the RA Presidential Award for Year 2015 was awarded to:

In the area of natural sciences the Award was bestowed on Poghos Vardevanian, Valeri Arakelian, and Armen Karapetian for the series of scientific articles “A bond between the nucleic acids and biologically active compounds: Theory and Practice”, to Grigor Karagulian for the series of scientific articles “Some issues of the convergence of the orthogonal series”,

In the area of technical sciences and information technologies the Award was bestowed on Sevan Davtian and Anahit Tonoyan for the monograph (in Russian) “Theory and Practice of Adiabatic and Frontal Polymerization”,

In the area of medical science the Award was bestowed on Armen Minassian, Hrant Kalenterian, Igor Nalchajian, Shahane Gevorkian and Marine Hovakimian for the work on the “Reanimation of the Newborns and Development of Intensive Therapy in the Republic of Armenia”,

In the area of physics the Award was bestowed on Arthur Ishkhanian, Tigran Shahverdian and Tigran Ishkhanian for the series of scientific articles on “Analytical Models of the Duplex Quantum Task”,

In the area of Literature the Award was bestowed on Susanna Harutyunian for the book “Ravens before Noah”,

In the area of humanitarian sciences the Award was bestowed on Albert Kharatian for the work “Western Armenian periodicals at the closing of their history (1900-1922)

The RA Presidential Award for Year 2015 was not awarded in the area of arts.

The RA Presidential Youth Award for Year 2015 was bestowed on Narek Barseghian for the series of “Identity” paintings, Gay Ghazanchian for the series of “Beyond the Walls” paintings, Simon Petrossian for the series of the “Mythological Stories” sculptures.

In the area of literature the Award was bestowed on Grig (Grigor Shashikian” for the stories “The Cat of Jesus”,

In the area of classical music the RA Presidential Youth Award for Year 2015 was bestowed in the category of Vocal Art to Christine Safarian and Tigran Ohanian for the outstanding performance, in the category Instrumental Performance the Award was bestowed on Ani Parsadanian (violin), Instrumental Trio – Anahit Dilbarian (piano), Vigen Harutyunian (basson), Avetik Ghazarian (clarinet).

Since its establishment in 2001, the RA Presidential Award has been bestowed on 335 individuals and organizations.

 

 

 

Azeri aggression should be stopped, American –Armenian writer, Pulitzer Prize winner Peter Balakian told reporters in Yerevan today.

“The more people are informed about the history of Artsakh, the better the world will perceive the Armenian historic presence there. I hope this will contribute to finding a right diplomatic solution to the Karabakh issue,” the writer said.

By a presidential decree, Peter Balakian has been awarded RA Presidential Prize for Year 2015 for the significant contribution to the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Author Peter Balakian won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Ozone Journal. Balakian’s Ozone Journal (poems) was published by the University of Chicago Press.

“In the book I’ve tried to present the world it its diversity and explain all that’s happening in the reality surrounding us through an Armenian experience,” Balakian said about the book.

Balakian’s Ozone Journal (poems) was published by the University of Chicago Press. The long poem in Balakian’s new book is a sequel to his acclaimed “A-Train/Ziggurat/Elegy” (2010). While excavating the remains of Armenian Genocide survivors in the Syrian desert with a TV crew, the persona navigates his own memory of New York City in a decade (the 1980’s) of crisis—as AIDS and climate change make a context for his personal struggles and his pursuit of meaning in the face of loss and catastrophe. Whether his poems explore Native American villages of New Mexico, the slums of Nairobi, or the Armenian-Turkish borderland, Balakian’s poems continue to engage the harshness and beauty of contemporary life in a language that is layered, sensual, elliptical, and defined by wired phrases and shifting tempos. Ozone Journal creates inventive lyrical insight in a global age of danger and uncertainty.

 

 

 

The Karabakh issue should be solved through negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship, Iran’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia Seyyed Kazem Sajjad told reporters today.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always lived peacefully with its neighbors and has always tried to prevent military actions between the Armenian and Azerbaijani parties,” the Ambassador said.

“The issue should be solved through negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship,” he said.

Asked about his country’s stance on the perspectives of deployment of peacekeepers at the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, the Ambassador said: “We’ve always called on both parties to show restraint. The issue of peacekeepers depends on the decisions of the leaderships in the two countries.”

Speaking about the perspectives of development of Armenian-Iranian relations after the lifting of sanctions against Iran, Mr. Sajjad said “considerable growth has been registered in the field of tourism, which, in turn, contributes to the organization of reciprocal business visits, cultural exchange and development of economic ties.”

As for the Armenia-Iran railway project, the Ambassador said “Iranian specialists have already been invited to visit Armenia to hold discussions on the issue.”

The Ambassador participated today at an international conference dedicated to poet Saadi Shirazi organized at the initiative of the Yerevan State University. The event has brought together more than 80 participants from Armenia, Georgia and Iran.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will meet with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in early June.

The Minister announced the plans at the National Assembly.

The City of Geneva has authorized the construction of the “Lanterns of Memory” in the Trembley Park, reports.

Although the project was born a decade ago, the Armenian community received the permission to install the street lights in memory of the Armenian Genocide last week.

However, the fight is not yet over. Lawyer and SVP National Councilor Yves Nidegger has confirmed he will file an appeal against the authorization of the project at the request of 14 residents opposed to the construction works.

“The Trembley Park is a green area. Therefore, nothing can be built there, except possibly public interest facilities directly related to the use of the said area. This is not the case here since the applicant is a private association, pursuing private interests,” the lawyer says. The lawyer also highlights the scale of the project. “There are nine monumental candelabra nine meters high and ten meters in diameter. The impact on the park is huge and will change its character.”

Commenting on the decision, project coordinator Stefan Kristensen said he was “confident in the success of the process. This is an important step and we’re very satisfied.” He’s convinced that the motives behind the opposition to the project are primarily political. “It is painful and shocking to see people here to side with the deniers,” he said.

The course of the work was fraught with difficulties. Back in 2014 the Swiss Foreign Ministry recommended not erecting an Armenian genocide memorial in Ariana Park as originally planned.

A deal has been agreed for Jose Mourinho to become Manchester United’s new manager, after three days of talks, the BBC reports.

Negotiations between Mourinho’s agent Jorge Mendes and senior United officials have concluded, although no contract has been signed.

An official announcement from the club is expected on Friday.

The Portuguese will replace Dutchman Louis van Gaal, who was sacked on Monday, two days after United won the FA Cup.

Private of the NKR Defense Army Vahe Argam Yeghoyan, born in 1997, was fatally wounded under unknown circumstances at one of the military units located in the northern direction of the NKR Defense Ministry at about 18:20, May 25.

Probe into the details of the incident is under way, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

 

 

 

No document will be signed during a new round of talks on Karabakh in June, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said during the discussions on the 2015 budget execution at the National Assembly.

“The agreements reached in Vienna refer to creation of an investigation mechanism, enlargement of the Office of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, and exclusion of new war,” Minister Nalbandian said.

“At this point we’re working to resume the negotiations. The Minsk Group Co-Chairs will hold separate meetings with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. During the meetings we’ll probably continue discussions on the agreements reached in Vienna,” the Minister said.

He added, however, that speaking about the signing of any document is untimely and senseless.

Minister Nalbandian said that the development and conclusion of any deal will be impossible without the participation of Nagorno Karabakh. He noted that Armenia always raises the issue of Artsakh’s involvement in the talks and the matter is included in all working documents that have been discussed up until now.

As for the agreement on mutual military assistance between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, Edward Nalbandian said “the steps in that direction have not been clarified. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tasked with preparing the document, but the next steps will depend on the future developments,” he said.

Throughout his career in the NBA, Steve Kerr has achieved great success winning five NBA titles as a player and one as a head coach. But tucked behind all of the glory Kerr has achieved on the hardwood is his grandparents’ incredible story providing relief in the Middle East for Armenians during the first genocide of the 20th century.

Kerr’s grandparents, Stanley and Elsa, settled in the Middle East in the 1920s and established the Near East Relief, which helped provide aid to Armenian women and children trying to escape marauding officials in the Turkish Ottoman Empire, Uproxx reveals. They also established an orphanage for Armenian children.

The Kerrs were on the frontline of American relief after World War I. Stanley Kerr arrived in Aleppo in 1919 and began photographing, documenting, and rescuing Armenian women and orphans. He then transferred to Marash to take charge of an American mission. His memoir, The Lions of Marash, is set at this location and describes how the armies of Mustafa Kemal eradicated the Armenians from the new Turkish republic.

Private American charity reached the Armenians first. In response to the massacre of over 1.5 million Armenians, philanthropist Cleveland Dodge formed the Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. Former president Theodore Roosevelt advocated intervention, saying, “All Americans worthy of the name feel their deepest indignation aroused by the dreadful Armenian atrocities[a].”

As a junior at Occidental College, Ann left to study abroad in Lebanon. Three days a week, she taught at a Catholic Armenian girls’ school — the Immaculate Conception. She met Malcolm at AUB while he completed his Master’s, and they were soon married in Santa Monica in 1956. Today, Ann continues her work with Fulbright to engage the Middle East with American higher education.

On February 10, 1920, the French garrison at Marash withdrew abruptly, and thus abandoned more than 20,000 Armenians to the marauding insurgents of Mustafa Kemal. The Turks threw kerosene-doused rags on Armenian homes, and churches were put to flame. Sickened missionaries like Stanley Kerr could only observe helplessly through binoculars[b].

The “Marash Affair” gave rise to an irreversible tide that swept Kemal to power; for the Armenians of Cilicia, it marked the onset of a new round of devastation and the final exodus from their ancestral homeland into permanent exile.

Unlike Armenians in Beirut, Steve Kerr was not raised on stories of genocide, but he was aware of his forefather’s humanity in the face of atrocity. “I was aware of my grandparents running an orphanage in Marash and eventually finding Beirut through their travels,” Kerr says. “I have a great deal of pride in knowing how much they helped.”

Susan van de Ven, the daughter of Ann and Malcolm, has an exchange of letters with her grandparents about their experiences, which she used for her thesis at Oberlin College, and later presented at the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1986 for the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Her grandmother, Elsa Reckman, volunteered as a schoolteacher in Constantinople, and later met Stanley Kerr while working in Marash.

Elsa and Stanley ran an orphanage for Armenian children in Lebanon in the 1920s after leaving Marash until an outbreak of typhoid forced the orphanage to close. Elsa lost an unborn child when she contracted typhoid. They eventually married in Beirut in 1922, and Stanley became the chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at AUB, while Elsa served as dean of women. Following 40 years of faculty service, they retired in 1965.

The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, later known as the Near East Relief, is credited with helping preserve the Armenians in the face of the genocide that sought to destroy them. They pioneered the idea that all Americans, regardless of age, income or background, could help others.

The Near East Relief campaign raised a staggering $19.5 million from private donations by 1919, and $117 million by 1930 — over $1.6 billion today when adjusted for inflation[c].

Despite the monumental efforts of the Near East Relief, the Armenian Genocide is not recognized by the United States.

“Everybody learns about the Jewish Holocaust, but very few know about the Armenian Genocide,” Kerr says solemnly. “It’s not taught in schools, and obviously there are still the political issues of whether Turkey is willing to use the word ‘genocide.’”

After Game 3 of the first round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs last April, Dr. Douglas Kerr, Malcolm’s younger brother, gave a presentation in Cleveland entitled “Witnessing the Genocide,” based on Stanley’s book. In May, after Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, several members of the Kerr family received a posthumous award in Washington, D.C. on behalf of Elsa and Stanley during a national commemoration of the centennial of the genocide.

In 1965, Antranig Chalabian uncovered a box at AUB containing Stanley’s copies of The New York Times, which eventually inspired Stanley to write his memoir. “Lots of Armenian names in my family history,” Kerr says before retelling when family friend, Vahe Simonian, called him and broke the news of his father’s assassination.

“We’ve had so many Armenians at our house over the years. I felt like an honorary member of the Armenian community through my family.”

Donald Trump on Thursday reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president, completing an unlikely rise that has upended the political landscape and sets the stage for a bitter fall campaign, the Associated Press reports.

Trump was put over the top in the Associated Press delegate count by a small number of the party’s unbound delegates who told the AP they would support him at the convention. Among them is Oklahoma GOP chairwoman Pam Pollard.

“I think he has touched a part of our electorate that doesn’t like where our country is,” Pollard said. “I have no problem supporting Mr. Trump.”

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president. Trump has reached 1,238. With 303 delegates at stake in five state primaries on June 7, Trump will easily pad his total, avoiding a contested convention in Cleveland in July.