Category: News

A 300-year-old Armenian church has been put up for sale in Turkey for $1.5 million, reports.

An advert on the property website Sahibinden shows the ramshackle, three-story building in the heart of Bursa, northwest Turkey, is located near the tombs of the fifth Ottoman sultan, Mehmed I, and the 14th century tomb of Bayezid I’s adviser and son-in-law.

Estate agent Tayfun Ozengirler said the building in the Setbasi neighborhood was registered in as a historical monument in 1986.

“The area where the church is situated was once inhabited by Armenians,” Ozengirler said. “You can smell the history on every corner.”

Bursa, the capital of the Ottoman Empire before the capture of Constantinople in 1453, was a center of Armenian culture and the Armenian Patriarchate was based in Setbasi before moving to Istanbul.

Ozengirler said he had received a number of queries about the advert. “No one has agreed the demanded price so far but we will do our best for the sellers,” he told Anadolu Agency.

February 25, 2015 marks the 151st birthday of Andranik Ozanian (Zoravar Andranik), Armenian military commander and statesman, key figure of the Armenian national liberation movement.

He became active in an armed struggle against the Ottoman government and Kurdish irregulars in the late 1880s. He joined the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktustyun) party and, along with other fedayi (irregular soldiers), sought to defend the Armenian peasantry living in their ancestral homeland, an area known as or Western Armenia—at the time part of the Ottoman Empire.

His revolutionary activities ceased and he left the Ottoman Empire after the unsuccessful uprising in Sasun in 1904. In 1907, Andranik left Dashnaktustyun because he disapproved of its cooperation with the Young Turks, a party which years later perpetrated the Armenian Genocide. In 1912–1913, together with Garegin Nzhdeh, Andranik led few hundred Armenian volunteers within the Bulgarian army against the Ottomans during the First Balkan War.

Since the early stages of World War I, Andranik commanded the first Armenian volunteer battalion and led them within the Russian Imperial army against the Ottoman army. After the Revolution of 1917, the Russian army retreated and left the Armenian irregulars outnumbered against the Turks. Andranik led the defense of Erzurumin early 1918, but was forced to retreat eastward. By May 1918, Turkish forces stood near Yerevan—the future Armenian capital.

The Armenian National Council declared the independence of Armenia and signed the Treaty of Batum with the Ottoman Empire, by which Armenia gave up its rights to Western Armenia. Andranik never accepted the existence of the First Republic of Armenia because it included only a small part of the area many Armenians hoped to make independent. Andranik, independently from the Republic of Armenia, fought in Zangezur against the Azerbaijani and Turkish armies and helped to keep it within Armenia.

Andranik left Armenia in 1919 due to disagreements with the Armenian government and spent his last years of life in Europe and the United States seeking relief for Armenian refugees. He settled in Fresno, California in 1922 and died five years later in 1927. Andranik is greatly admired as a national hero by Armenians; numerous statues of him have been erected in several countries. Streets and squares were named after Andranik, and songs, poems and novels have been written about him, making him a legendary figure in Armenian culture.

Andranik died from angina on 31 August 1927 at Richardson Springs, California. Andranik’s remains were originally planned to be buried in Armenia; however, the Soviet authorities refused entry.He was first buried at Ararat Cemetery in Fresno, and his remains were moved to France and buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris on 29 January 1928.In early 2000, the Armenian and French governments arranged the transfer of Andranik’s body from Paris to Yerevan.

The dreaded Islamic State miltant group has made life threats to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a new video which shows their photos riddled with digitally added bullet holes, mocking the social media websites’ attempts to block terrorist content from their platforms.

In the 25-minute video, the IS claim they are fighting back against efforts by the social media giants to wipe their platforms of accounts promoting terrorism.

The video includes a direct threat to the tech entrepreneurs, branding them allies of the American “Crusader government”.

Pictures of Zuckerberg and Dorsey can be seen being blasted with a hail of bullets in the amateur footage which emerged. The video, titled “Flames of the Supporters” and released by a group calling themselves “the sons of the Caliphate army”, ends with a direct threat to the two men, ‘The Sun’ reported.

A slide toward the end of the video reads, in English: “To Mark and Jack, founders of Twitter and Facebook and to their Crusader government. You announce daily that you suspended many of our accounts and to you we say: is that all you can do? you are not in our league. If you close one account we will take 10 in return and soon your names will be erased after we delete you sites, #Sons_Caliphate_Army”.

In a separate slide, they also claim to have hacked more than 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups, and more than 5,000 Twitter accounts.

Tonight, at the A. Spendiarian

President Serzh Sargsyan was present at the 15th Haikian award ceremony of the Youth Fund of Armenia at the Opera and Ballet National Academic Theater after Alexander Spendiaryan. It is called to encourage achievements of the youth organizations, certain young individuals, including students who in the course of the year stood out with their active stance and substance of the programs carried out in different areas.

The 2015 awards were bestowed in a number of nominations such as the best public youth organization in Yerevan, the best public youth organization in marzes, the exceptional youth project, the best Chairperson of the Student Council, the best higher education establishment program, the best youth announcement, the best journalistic project, the best international structure, the best scientific achievements made by a young scientist, the best student self-governing body.

Along with the traditional nominations presented were also special awards which were handed to the winners by President Serzh Sargsyan. Special awards were handed to Gohar Martikian for the Formula of Living military and patriotic book collection-program, Youth State Orchestra of Armenia for its contribution to the dissemination of classical art among young people and public at large and on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, to Edgar Vardanian – an alumnus of the specialized school of Physics and Mathematics for excellence in the international subject Olympiads in 2014-2015, to Samvel Karapetian for the Eghern after Eghern program carried out in the framework of the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Aram Antinian for implementing the idea on the creation of the first in Armenia charity café and for helping numerous needy people, to the serviceman of the Armenian Armed Forces, Major Sargis Stepanian for valor in executing his duties and infinite dedication. President Sargsyan congratulated all winners of Haikian award and once again welcomed and stressed the importance of this initiative by the Armenian Youth Fund and wished the young people undying vigor and new success.

“I would like to confess frankly that I always attend the Haikian award ceremony with pleasure, because I find myself in a milieu where new ideas, new initiatives, good deeds are being commended, appreciated and encouraged. It is not only gratifying but also useful because a person gets positive impulses. I really do not have any participation in the award process, so I don’t know why all the awardees thank me. You’d rather thank your peers. This is one of the advantages of this award because the initiative comes for young people, the appreciation comes from the young too. It means that adults do not impose their will, don’t say one thing is good, the other is bad. It is the young who say this one is fine, the other – not so. It is, of course, inspiring. Inspiring because what we’ve seen today in this hall is directly related to the future of our country, with what’s ahead. These are clichés, however it should be repeated constantly that the future of the country is always in the hands of the young. You all are brilliant people, nice young people. I should say frankly that the majority of our young people are brilliant, they are defending our Fatherland. Today Army is the youngest structure in our Republic. Our young people have achievements in every area. Look, today he can be called a young man – he defends Armenia’s honor at the international subject Olympiads, there are other like him, twenty-one young people. At the moment we have success in every area, and it became possible because of young people. It means that the future of our country is in strong hands. I wish that in 20, 30, 40 years you become the speakers on this podium and you think what kind of initiatives you should come up with to encourage young people, where to lead them. And it should go on and on, for a million years. Thank you,” said President Serzh Sargsyan in his welcoming remarks for the young people.

Iran is set to hold parliamentary elections on February 26. The main rivalry is expected between the conservatives and the reformists. Eight Armenian will be running for two seats in the Iranian Parliament.

Expert of Iranian studies Rudik Yaralyan expects no surprises. According to him, the Armenian community has always been conservative. Besides, the candidates previously represented in Majlis are more influential, he told reporters today.

Some of the candidates enjoy the support of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. However, they fail to follow the ARF policy line. In particular, they could be more active on issues related to Nagorno Karabakh and Armenian Genocide.

“In my opinion, the time has not come for Iran to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Guided by this logic, they [Armenian MPs] refrain from submitting a bill. They see that the Russian-Iranian ‘alliance’ is doing its best to resist Turkey’s growing influence in the region. Therefore, it’s not ruled out that the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide may be brought into agenda,” the expert said.

Zhorzhik Abrahamyan and Karen Khanlaryan, both supported by ARF, are the two candidates most likely to be elected.

Speaking exclusively to , Khanlaryan said he is going to deepen and expand the existing political course, if elected. “The Armenia-Iran relations are at the spotlight, especially considering that the lifting of sanctions is opening up new perspectives for cooperation.”

Karen Khanlaryan said they will try to raise the Armenian Genocide issue on higher podiums, and even Majlis, on the eve of April 24.

“Iran has no practice of condemning by law, the declarative approach is more common here,” he said.

It’s worth mentioning that the Armenian community is the only ethnic minority that has been allocated two seats in the Iranian Parliament.

The UN says it has carried out its first air drop of aid in Syria to help civilians in an eastern city besieged by Islamic State (IS) militants, the BBC reports.

UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien told the Security Council that the plane dropped 21 tonnes of humanitarian items on a government-held part of Deir al-Zour.

Initial reports indicated that the aid had successfully reached the target area, Mr O’Brien said.

The UN says 200,000 civilians are living under siege in Deir al-Zour.

In a recent report, the UN said those trapped in the besieged areas were facing “sharply deteriorating conditions” with reports of “severe cases of malnutrition and deaths due to starvation”.

Last week, more than 100 lorries carrying food and other basic goods reached 80,000 people in five other besieged areas of Syria. Two more convoys were sent to two towns besieged by government forces on Tuesday.

“Earlier this morning, a WFP (World Food Programme) plane dropped the first cargo of 21 tonnes of items into Deir al-Zour,” Mr O’Brien told the Security Council.

He said teams from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent on the ground confirmed that “pallets have landed in the target area as planned”.

Outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter and suspended Uefa boss Michel Platini have had bans from all football-related activities upheld, the BBC reports.

But the suspensions have been reduced from eight to six years by Fifa’s appeals committee.

Both were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) “disloyal payment” to Platini.

They both deny any wrongdoing and Blatter has already said he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The committee said “activities and services rendered to Fifa, Uefa and football” was a mitigating factor.

Fifa’s presidential election is due to take place on Friday to find Swiss Blatter’s replacement.

Armenia’s Ambassador to Iran Artashes Tumanyan had a meeting with Masoumeh Ebteka, Iran’s Vice-President and head of Environmental Protection Organization.

The Ambassador noted that Armenia and Iran have a positive experience of cooperation in the field of environmental protection both in bilateral and multilateral formats.

The parties stressed that the lifting of sanctions against Iran opens new perspectives for the development and reinforcement of bilateral cooperation in different spheres, including environmental protection.

The interlocutors referred to the pollution of Araks River, establishment of a national friendship reserve at the Armenian-Iranian border and development of programs to protect some species.