Yervant1
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Armenian architect wins prestigious award in LondonSociety | December 15, 2016 17:35exclusive565 viewshttp://c0.mediamax.am/datas/znews/middle_1481808896_4578541.jpgRoy Khatchadourian and Tim Flynn
University of Liverpool graduate Roy Khatchadourian, employed at Tim Flynn Architects London office, won the United Kingdom’s oldest and most prestigious award in architectural education.
Roy Khatchadourian received the Dissertation Medal of President’s Medals Student Awards held by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
President’s Medals are given to promote excellent architectural education, appreciate talent and encourage architectural discussions worldwide.
Roy Khatchadourian’s medal was a reward for his thesis titled “A Juxtaposition of Ideological Expressions: Evaluating the Urban Transformations of Yerevan (Armenia) During 1915-2015”.
Tutored by Lain Jackson, the architect focused on the role of architecture in creating a sense of identity following political oppression in Yerevan.
“What determines our sense of belonging to a territory? How can an identity be maintained, or created? Yerevan – the crown jewel and capital city of Armenia – has been grappling with these issues in a quest of rediscovering its national pride, after years of political oppression, even genocide,” Roy Khatchadourian said.
Analysis of Alexander Tamanyan’s masterplan and its appropriation in various ways over the last century is a key part of Roy Khatchadourian’s dissertation. Apart from exploration of the specifics of Yerevan, his research touches on themes such as collective memory loss, the manipulation of architecture to express political values, the impact of commercialization and city gentrification.
“What struck me was that Tamanyan’s masterplan came out of nowhere. I became interested in what he was trying to achieve in his design and what were his points of reference in creating the masterplan. This plan dictates the future architectural image of the city. His introduction of a new style in the Opera and Government Buildings became the norm for Armenian architecture,” Roy Khatchadourian said.
At the same time he noted that “developments in Yerevan seem to have been promoted to attract touristic interest and financial gains, with the cost of a city with rich history and culture, Tamanyan’s initial vision”.
RIBA President’s Medals are the oldest award of the institute. The award was established in 1836 along with RIBA Gold Medal.
Marie Taryanhttps://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/06/riba-student-winners-2016-presidents-medals-fellowships/
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U.S. gives parole to Armenian sentenced over Turkish envoy’s murder
http://media.pn.am/media/issue/228/315/photo/228315.jpgDecember 15, 2016 - 18:59 AMTPanARMENIAN.Net - An Armenian gunman serving life sentence for killing a Turkish diplomat in 1982 has been given a long-sought parole by a board in the U.S. state of California, Daily Sabah reports.
The parole board accepted Wednesday, December 14 the demand of Harry "Hampig" Sassounian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Army (ARA), who killed Kemal Arikan, Turkey's consul general to Los Angeles, on January 28, 1982.
Sassounian was originally sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole; however, he became eligible for parole after admitting his guilt and formally apologizing in 2002. Previous demands by Sassounian were rejected by a parole board in 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2015.
In a statement on Thursday, Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the court's ruling.
Sassounian, hailing from a family of Lebanese Armenian emigres, was identified by witnesses as one of the two gunmen. During the trial, the prosecutors indicated that Sassounian "was motivated to kill Arikan by vengeance for the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turkish Ottomans of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923."
http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2016/12/15/california-issues-parole-for-armenian-terrorist-serving-life-sentence-for-turkish-diplomats-murder
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Sweden court deems Barbaros Leylani’s anti-Armenian statements as criminal offense16:43, 15.12.2016
The Stockholm District Court on Wednesday made a formal judgment on the case of former Deputy Chairman of the Turkish National Association of Sweden, Barbaros Leylani, who had made several xenophobic and anti-Armenian statements containing clear expressions of incitement to violence, hatred, and racial discrimination, at a demonstration of the Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Turkmen communities of Sweden, in capital city Stockholm on April 9.
Pursuant to Chapter 16 Section 8(2) of the Penal Code of Sweden, the court found Leylani guilty of aggravated criminal agitation and hate speech against an ethnic group, and sentenced him to a two-year suspended prison term and a fine.
At the earlier trial on November 30, the prosecutor had motioned to charge Leylani with a suspended sentence and a fine, with explanation that his statements contained clear incitement to violence against a specific ethnic group, and which was made publicly in downtown Stockholm.
The attorney, however, had motioned the court to impose only a fine, claiming that Leylani was in an unstable mental condition when making these statements, he had been using medicine, and his respective remarks were delivered without prior preparation.
The court adjudicated to fully grant the prosecutor’s motion, and deemed these racist and anti-Armenian statements of Barbaros Leylani as a criminal offense.
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December 14, 2016
Irresponsible reporting on Aleppohttp://www.horizonweekly.ca/upload_files/wysiwyg/Ghazan.jpg
By Garo Armenian
Aleppo is about to be liberated. The government forces are finally able to liquidate the jihadist menace from East Aleppo. Yet the print and broadcast media in the United States keep misleading the public by their biased characterization of the realities on the ground.
The latest example is this morning's Washington Post eulogizing the imminent "fall" of Aleppo and portraying it as the suppression of the "Syrian revolution"...What revolution? Aren't these people ashamed of representing ISIS and AL QAEDA led extremist hordes as revolutionaries? Extremists who are directly supplied and trained by Turkey and naively supported by the Obama administration. Extremists who have been mutilating the peaceful city of Aleppo from their captive bases of East Aleppo and using the luckless residents there as their human shield.
The authors of the article are Liz Sly, Louisa Loveluck and Missy Ryan. Have they ever been in Aleppo? Have they seen a "Syrian revolutionary" in their lives? Do they care? They have reportedly benefited from input received from their colleagues in such cherished and comfortable locations as Stockholm and Istanbul... Where were they when Aleppo proper was being ruined by these so-called "rebels" and their incessant downpour of Turkey-supplied rockets; when entire families were being wiped out and homes, churches and schools were being destroyed?
A sinister game is being played in the region by Turkey and its regional allies all of whom being despotic and reactionary regimes. This is a huge problem which the new US administration will be confronting soon. It is a shame that the US media, by its distorted reporting of the events, is now part of the problem.
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The Second Coming of Samantha Power
Mirror Spectator
Editorial 12-17 Dec 2016
http://www.groong.com/news/attachments/msg590781/pngBfq_CyfsXE.png
By Edmond Y. Azadian
Anyone who wishes to avoid being ridiculed must refrain from seeking morality among politicians and in politics. One day Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are at each others’ throats, the next Mr. Erdogan arrives in Moscow and grovels, and thus, Russian-Turkish relations hit the reset button.
Astonishing flip-flops happened during and after the recent presidential election in the US. One of Donald Trump’s fiercest critics, former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, reached out to the president-elect to congratulate him and beg him to be considered for a position in the incoming administration. Similarly, House Speaker Paul Ryan was not far off from Romney in his vitriolic attacks on Trump, only to turn around after his win and announce that Trump had clearly heard a voice that nobody else had with his campaign.
When major statesmen make such spineless U-turns in politics, they pave the way for diplomats in low echelons to master the art of the flip-flop.
One example of such a supple spine is Samantha Power, the outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations. She is an erudite scholar with degrees from Harvard and Yale. She caught the attention of Barack Obama and the Armenian community when she published her seminal work on the issue of genocide in the modern times, titled A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide. The Armenian Genocide was prominently featured in the book, in its proper parameters, along with the Jewish Holocaust, and the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides. She hit a peak with the work, winning a Pulitzer Prize. In 2004, Time magazine counted her among the 100 most powerful women in the world, while Forbes magazine ranked her as the 41st most influential woman in the world.
Power was the senior advisor to then-Senator Obama until March 2008 during his primary run, when she was forced to resign from his presidential campaign, after the Scotsman published her comments calling primary foe Hillary Clinton a “monster.” Later she apologized, saying that those words “do not reflect my feelings about Senator Clinton, whose leadership and public services I have long admired. … of course, I regret [the statements]. I can’t even believe they came out of my mouth.”
That apology eventually ushered her back into the Obama camp, allowing her to become the chief architect of his administration’s foreign policy.
While she was defending Obama’s unfulfilled pledge to have all US combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months on BBC’s “Hard Talk” interview program, she was challenged by the host that her statement contradicted Obama’s campaign commitment. Not losing a beat, she backtracked to say, “You can’t make a commitment on March 2008 about what circumstances will be like in January 2009.”
That caveat already indicated that the flip-flop was an article of faith with Samantha Power’s politics.
A similar incident took place when some individuals accused Power of being hostile to Israel based on a statement she had made in a 2002 interview with Harry Kreisler during his program, “Conversations with History.” She again apologized for her comments and cried publicly, defending Israeli actions in the Gaza strip, where 1,200 Palestinians were slaughtered within two weeks.
She supported Israel’s right to defend itself. That, of course, won accolades from the Israeli lobby. During her nomination as US ambassador to the UN, she received support from diplomat Dennis Ross, Anti-Defamation League Chief Abraham Foxman, Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Oren, Alan Dershowitz, and President of the Rabbinical Assembly Henry Speaker.
Samantha Power’s love-hate relationship with Armenians began with the publication of her book on genocides. Seldom has a scholar/diplomat so distinctly exposed the Armenian Genocide and the denial campaign against its recognition.
But above all, she approached the Armenian-American community as the senior policy advisor to the Obama campaign and she presented the candidate as an acknowledger of history and she assured the American-Armenian community in a video released by the campaign and aimed at the community, that he “can be trusted.”
Mr. Obama’s earlier pronouncements about the issue, compounded with Samantha Power’s credibility, already generated by her book, made many in the community to cast their ballots for him. As a Senator, Obama had stated that he “firmly held the conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely-documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. As a senator I strongly support the passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (HR 106 and S Resolution 106) and as president, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
Those statements certainly garnered a considerable number of Armenian votes, to be followed by a terrible disappointment. For eight years in a row, President Obama issued statements on the Armenian Genocide, deliberately avoiding the term “genocide.” Although to be fair, we need to state that Obama bravely made a reference in his speech on the floor of the Parliament in Turkey that that nation had to face its dark history, when he had so much on his plate about US-Turkish relations.
During those eight years of denial, Power was nowhere to be found when it came to the Armenian community. Personal and media appeals got nowhere; she reemerged last year to appear with Vice President Joe Biden at the Washington National Cathedral in May, on the occasion of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
In 2012, President Obama appointed her as the chair of a newly formed body called Atrocities Prevention Board. Contradicting the mission of that board, Power, her emoting about the human condition notwithstanding, was instrumental along with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, in advocating the invasion of Libya and committing the atrocities, including the barbaric assassination of its president, which have practically decimated that country.
The recent resurfacing, or a second coming, as it were, of Power, is all the more interesting.
No one yet knows whether intentionally or inadvertently, she referred once again to the Armenian Genocide on the occasion of a memorial held at Washington’s Holocaust Museum, commemorating Holocaust survivor, writer and philosopher Eli Wiesel. In her tribute to the late Wiesel, she listed “genocide denial against Armenians” among examples of “injustice that persisted during Wiesel’s lifetime post-Holocaust.
Mind you, Power still holds an official position and whatever statement she does make may not be considered as anything more than a private opinion.
Case in point is Ambassador John Evans, who was fired by the State Department once he used the word “genocide” in his official position. Power is still the UN ambassador; she may be clearing her conscience or absolving the Obama administration.
Power’s remarks were put to a test at a recent State Department briefing when Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner was asked if there is a departure in the administration from its regular policy on the Armenian Genocide. Toner replied that Power’s remarks “did not reflect any shift in the administration’s policy.”
“To answer your question,” he added, “look at this president, the administration, as have past administrations, have repeatedly … acknowledged that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. And we have also called for a full and frank acknowledgement of the facts that happened around those deaths. And that remains our policy. I don’t want to get into terminology.”
Of course, only terminology counts. Only the use of the term “genocide” has significance, legal and practical consequences and not the escapist euphemisms.
Knowing the fluid nature of politics and the flexibility of politicians’ spines, we may have to be content with whatever political crumbs are thrown our way. And this, as long as we cannot mobilize the entire American-Armenian community as a robust political force.
The true reason for the second coming of Samantha Power remains to be seen. -
Netanyahu Hails Baku Ties as ‘Beacon of Jewish-Muslim Coexistence’
13/12/16http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/neyaliyev.jpgAzerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (right) greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Baku on Dec. 13
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
Aliyev hails $5 billion weapons purchase from Israel
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday has hailed cooperation with Azerbaijan as a beacon of Jewish and Muslim coexistence during his visit to Baku, which some in Israel are calling “historic.” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cited his country’s purchase of almost $5 billion in weapons as a sign of that truly unholy “coexistence.”
“The world sees so much intolerance and darkness, this [Tel Aviv Baku cooperation] is an example of how the Muslim-Jewish relationship can and should be everywhere,” Netanyahu was quoted by the Times of Israel as saying during the first leg of his trip to Muslim nations in an effort to bolster security and diplomatic ties.
During the same press conference at Baku’s Zagulba Palace, Aliyev took the opportunity to boast about the ongoing military cooperation with Israel and the purchase of those weapons, which were used during Azerbaijan’s aggressive attack on Karabakh last April.
“To give you one figure to illustrate how broad this cooperation is, so far the contracts between Azerbaijani and Israeli companies with respect to purchasing of defense equipment is close to $5 billion. To be more precise, $4.85 billion,” said Aliyev who acknowledged that Baku was open to further weapons purchases from Tel Aviv.
With a dowry of $5 billion in weapons, Netanyahu’s visit to Baku consummated that marriage and only time will tell what menacing fruits it will bear.
Netanyahu, whose government has yet to recognize the crime of Genocide against the Armenians, has opted to align himself– and the Jewish State—with another a criminal regime whose actions thus far have been nothing but barbaric.
The more than 100 soldiers and civilians in Artsakh who were brutally killed when Azerbaijan launched its attack in April seem to have been the beneficiaries of Netanyahu’s so-called “Jewish-Muslim coexistence.”
Simply put, Netanyahu and Israel have blood on their hands.
http://asbarez.com/158092/netanyahu-hails-baku-ties-as-beacon-of-jewish-muslim-coexistence/
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Rebels Retreat from Aleppo as Armenians Mark ‘End of Nightmare’13/12/16http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/aleppopicture.jpg
Celebrating Syrians
ALEPPO, Syria—Syrian rebel officials agreed to a cease-fire on Tuesday effectively turning over control of Aleppo to the government, in what many see as the besieged city’s liberation.
“The liberation of Aleppo put an end to the nightmare facing the Armenian community and the fear of losing relatives. The everyday shelling has ceased, but many complications still remain,” said Zarmig Boghigian, the editor-in-chief of the Aleppo-based Kantsasar weekly on her Facebook page.
“While we are enthusiastic about the recent developments, we have to remain realistic to not confuse people,” said Boghigian who added that part of the realism is to recognize that the five-year war in Syria was not yet over.
She said that among the complications facing all citizens of Aleppo is the lack of basic staples and services such as electricity. Boghigian added that municipal officials were working toward restoring services and “giving hope to the people.”
In a similar post on Monday, Boghigian said that some Aleppo Armenians were returning to their homes, but a complete re-population was still premature.
“Those who have relatives and friends have decided to return, but we do not have assurances that all can be back now. The city is only now recovering, with lots of parts still lying in ruins,” said Boghigian
“But safety is a priority, for which there are no guarantees,” said Boghigian ahead of Tuesday’s announcement of the rebels’ retreat.
Rebel resistance in Syria’s Aleppo ended on Tuesday after years of fighting and months of bitter siege and bombardment that culminated in a bloody collapse of their defenses this week, as insurgents agreed to withdraw in a ceasefire, reported Reuters on Tuesday.
Rebel officials said fighting would end on Tuesday evening and insurgents and the civilians who have been trapped in the tiny pocket of territory they hold in Aleppo would leave the city for opposition-held areas of the countryside to the west.
News of the deal was confirmed by Russia’s U.N. envoy.
“My latest information is that they indeed have an arrangement achieved on the ground that the fighters are going to leave the city,” Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters. It could happen “within hours maybe,” he said, according to Reuters.
A surrender or withdrawal of the rebels from Aleppo would mean the end of the rebellion in the city, Syria’s largest until the outbreak of war after mass protests in 2011.
By finally dousing the last embers of resistance burning in Aleppo, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s military coalition of the army, Russian air power and Iran-backed militias will have delivered him his biggest battlefield victory of the war.
http://asbarez.com/158062/rebels-retreat-from-aleppo-as-armenians-mark-end-of-nightmare/
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While this is an open knowledge for everyone to see, how Jews, Armenians, Greeks and other minorities been treated in Turkey since it's establishment, yet the Israeli government fully supports Turkey with it's denial of Armenian Genocide. Go figure!
Jews in Turkey: A History of PersecutionBy Uzay Bulut on December 13, 2016 in Headline, Special Reports //
Jews in Istanbul Threatened, This Time by Public AdvertisementsSpecial for the Armenian Weekly
http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/synagogue-bombing-1024x683.jpgA twin suicide bombing claimed by Islamic Jihad kills 22 people at the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul in 1986.
“One day you wake up and see that the neighborhoods of Kurtulus and Ferikoy have been surrounded by anti-Semitic advertisements.”
This is what Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, the leader of the Jewish community in Turkey, wrote on his Twitter account on Nov. 22. The advertisements he referred to read: “Do not be deceived by the missionary activities of the Jehovahists, who are the servants of the Jew. Wake up, hey my Muslim brother! Don’t be the captives of others’ opinions! These people are trying to destroy the religion of Islam.”
The advertisements also quoted the Koranic verse, which said: “Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam.”
These words were what Jews were forced to see in these two Istanbul neighborhoods, which are in some of the most crowded parts of the city.
http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/22112016TeguqDgi1pHJHBM3rFYFpn06M.jpg‘Do not be deceived by the missionary activities of the Jehovahists, who are the servants of the Jew. Wake up, hey my Muslim brother! Don’t be the captives of others’ opinions! These people are trying to destroy the religion of Islam.’
A similar sign at a shop in the Eminonu neighborhood of Istanbul greeted Jews in Sept. 2014. The sign read: “No Admittance to Jewish Dogs.” Many Jewish citizens of Turkey have shops in the neighborhood, according to the newspaper Salom.
Verbal attacks and insults targeting Jews in Turkey under the government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been widely covered by Israeli media in recent years. But anti-Semitism is not peculiar to Turkish Islamists only. The independent scholar Rifat Bali wrote in an article published in 2009: “Anti-Semitism in Turkey is encountered not only among the Islamists and leftists but also among the nationalist and neo-nationalist streams, which in recent years have declared their hostility to the European Union, the United States, and Israel.”
Discrimination against and hate speech towards non-Muslims, including Jews, is a deeply rooted tradition in Turkey that goes back to the founding phase of the country.
Turkey has been secretly assigning codes its Armenian, Greek, Jewish, Syriac, and other non-Muslim minorities ever since the establishment of the Turkish republic in 1923. The Population Directorate of Turkey codes Greeks using the number 1, Armenians using the number 2 and Jews using the number 3.
When the Turkish republic was founded, non-Muslim bureaucrats and public employees—Turkish citizens of Jewish, Anatolian Greek, and Armenian origin—were quickly eliminated and banned from working for public institutions. Thousands of non-Muslims lost their jobs.
http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Consequences-of-the-attack-on-the-Jewish-cemetery-in-Hatay-Photo-Birgun.jpgThe consequences of the attack on a Jewish cemetery in Hatay. (Photo: Birgun)
Like all non-Turkish languages, the public use of Ladino, or Judezmo, the language that Sephardic Jews brought to Ottoman Turkey from Spain, was also banned during the “Citizen Speak Turkish” Campaign of 1930’s. Ladino is now a severely endangered language in Turkey, according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.
In his 2005 article “The Jews in Modern Turkey,” scholar Franklin Hugh Adler describes the anti-Semitic tendencies of Turkey since the early years of the republic: “Already during the 1930s it had become clear that a distinctive form of anti-Semitism, not simply disdain of Turkey’s minorities, had taken root. Cevat Rifat Altilhan, who published the first Turkish editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Hitler’s Mein Kampf, traveled to Germany where he met with Nazi leaders who subsidized his dissemination of German anti-Semitic propaganda. Between 1940 and 1998, Mein Kampf was published in twenty-nine separate editions, while the Protocols was published ninety-three times between 1934 and 1991.”
http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Members-of-Turkeys-Jewish-community-pray-at-Neve-Shalom-Synagogue-in-Istanbul-on-October-11-2004-during-a-ceremony-to-mark-the-official-reopening-of-the-synagogue-AP-Murad-Sezer.jpgMembers of Turkey’s Jewish community pray at Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul on Oct. 11, 2004 (Photo: AP/Murad Sezer)
Anti-Semitic attacks in Turkey`s history include but are not limited to the 1934 anti-Jewish pogrom in eastern Thrace, the 1941-1942 conscription of the “twenty classes” (an attempt to conscript all male non-Muslim populations, including the elderly and mentally ill during World War II), and the 1942-1944 Wealth Tax that ripped non-Muslims of their financial power, as well as the deadly terror attacks against synagogues in Istanbul in 1986 and 2003.
When Yasef Yahya, a 39-year-old Jewish dentist from Turkey, was brutally murdered on Aug. 21, 2003 in his office in the Sisli district of Istanbul, many Jewish lawyers and doctors in Istanbul removed the signs on their offices in order not to have the same fate as Yahya.
The current Jewish population in Turkey is around 15,000. Many Jews born in Turkey left for Israel when the Jewish state was reestablished in 1948. And life is still not easy for those who stayed.
http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Yasef-Yahya-39-a-Jewish-dentist-from-Turkey-was-brutally-murdered-on-Aug.-21-2003-in-the-%C5%9Ei%C5%9Fli-district-of-Istanbul..jpgYasef Yahya, 39, a Jewish dentist from Turkey was brutally murdered on Aug. 21, 2003, in the Sisli district of Istanbul.
“The Jewish community continues to live in a world of dhimmitude where subordinate status and second-class citizenship is uncontested,” wrote Professor Adler. “Turkish Jews, as many scholars have pointed out, prefer to remain ‘hidden’ and apolitical… Jewish children know they will never hold high public office, and are steered mostly toward commerce, engineering, or the physical sciences.”
The increasing pressures against the Jewish community in Turkey as well as the post-coup purges and the threats of the Islamic State (ISIS) seem to further escalate the Jewish emigration from the country.
For example, a 42-year-old Jewish businesswoman and mother from Istanbul named Betty recently told the Times of Israel: “Of course we’re thinking about emigrating. Everyone in the Jewish community is because it is hard to imagine a future for ourselves here. Many Muslims are, too.”
For in Turkey, not only Jewish citizens, but also their synagogues and cemeteries are targeted. The Jewish cemetery in the southern Turkish city of Hatay, for example, was attacked by “unknown assailants” in June. The wall of the cemetery was broken, the gate was torn down and the grave stones damaged. The cemetery includes the graves of Jews and Armenians, as well as of Muslims.
The archeologist Jozef Naseh, the former head of the Antioch Greek Orthodox Church Foundation, said in October that there are no Jews left in Hatay and that the remaining Christians in the city are threatened.
Apparently, anti-Semitism has dominated almost all aspects of life in Turkey, where Jews—like Armenians and Greeks—have lived since antiquity, long before the Turks themselves arrived from Central Asia. According to the 2015 Anti-Defamation League Global 100 Poll, 71 percent of the Turkish adult population harbors anti-Semitic attitudes.
But Turkey does not seem to care about whether Jews and other non-Muslim citizens will leave or stay.
Many Jews left earlier to go to Israel, not because they gave up on Turkey. And those who stayed in Turkey greatly contributed to the country’s economy and commerce.
But when even the last ones want to leave, it is a sure sign that they have no faith in the country’s future, its stability, equality under the law, or even their neighbors.
http://armenianweekly.com/2016/12/13/jews-in-turkey/
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http://panorama.am/news_images/565/1693754_3/f584ff38fb9465_584ff38fb94ae.thumb.jpg
Sport 17:11 13/12/2016 ArmeniaArmenian weightlifters secured two gold, one silver and bronze medals at Junior & U23 European ChampionshipsJunior & U23 European Weightlifting Championships ended in Eilat, Israel with the Armenian athletes winning two gold, one silver and bronze medals.
Rio Olympics vice champion Simon Martirosyan (105kg weight class, coach Ashot Pilosyan) and Davit Hovhannisyan (77kg weight class, coach Rostom Khudanyan) became European champions among juniors.
Armenia’s women’s team member Sona Poghosyan conquered silver in the 75kg weight class (coach Hripsime Khurshudyan), while Samvel Gasparyan (coach Harutyun Yeghoyan), competing in the 94kg weight class, won another silver for Armenia
To note, the Armenia’s Weightlifting team participated in the U20 championship headed by head coach Melik Ghukasyan. -
Armenian districts reinstating peace in Syria’s Aleppo
18:22 • 12.12.16http://www.groong.com/news/attachments/msg590677/pngqNKrsUmipY.pngThe Armenian districts in Syria’s economic capital, Aleppo, are slowly recovering from war devastations, says Zarmik Boghigian, the editor-in-chief of the local Armenian weekly Gandzasar.
“After liberating different parts of the city from rebels’ control, the municipal authorities rapidly embarked on rehabilitation efforts,” he told Tert.am, ruling out the local Armenians’ return in the nearest future .“Those who have relatives and friends have decided to return, but we do not have assurances that all can be back now. The city is only now recovering, with lots of parts still lying in ruins.”
Boghigian added that the local authorities are also recovering the local industries, economy, and electricity and water supply in an attempt to return the city to its normal life.
“But safety is in the first place, for which we have no certainty. There are still several districts which will be hopefully liberated in the couple of days to come,” he said.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2016/12/12/zarmig-boghigian/2220965
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Jamie Redknapp: Mkhitaryan absence has cost Man Utd six or seven points
Goal.com – Jamie Redknapp believes that the Red Devils would be occupying a top-four position in the Premier League had they used their Armenian summer signing more frequently.
Manchester United’s reluctance to offer Henrikh Mkhitaryan regular football during the early part of the season has cost them “six or seven points”, according to former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp.
The Red Devils spent big on the Armenian forward over the summer, with a reported £26.3 million fee taking him to Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund.
Mkhitaryan has impressed since being brought back in from the cold and, after he netted the winner in Sunday’s crucial victory over Tottenham, Redknapp believes that United would be sitting inside the Champions League places had they shown greater faith in his ability.
“I don’t buy the argument that Henrikh Mkhitaryan needed time to adjust to the Premier League,” he wrote in the Daily Mail.
“If he had started sooner, I’m convinced Manchester United would have six or seven more points.
“He is like Philippe Coutinho or Mesut Ozil in his ability to unlock the door and see passes that others don’t.
“He shone in the fast and furious pace of the Bundesliga so why wasn’t he even on the bench for so long?”
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The Mirror, UKDec 11 2016Manchester United suffer Henrikh Mkhitaryan blow as midfielder sustains ankle injury against Tottenham The Armenian scored his first Premier League in the opening 45 minutes, then left the field on a stretcher late on
Jose Mourinho is sweating over the fitness of Henrikh Mkhitaryan after the midfielder was forced out of Sunday's clash against Tottenham with an ankle injury.
The Armenian ace scored his first Premier League for Manchester United in the opening 45 minutes to earn the Red Devils the points at Old Trafford.
However, the midfielder left the field on a stretcher in the dying minutes after a strong challenge from Danny Rose.
Mourinho is hopeful the injury to Mkhitaryan is not as serious as first feared.http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9437643.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Manchester-United-v-Tottenham-Hotspur-Premier-League.jpg
Henrikh Mkhitaryan receives treatment on an ankle injury (Photo: Getty Images)
http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article9437674.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Manchester-United-v-Spurs.jpgThe midfielder is taken off by a stretcher (Photo: Getty)The 27-year-old will definitely miss next Wednesday night's trip to Crystal Palace and is expected to sit out the clash against West Brom too.
Mourinho said: "It looks like next match, no, but it looks like it is nothing dangerous or needing surgery, so hopefully we have Mkhi back probably Boxing Day."
Eric Bailly replaced the former Borussia Dortmund star for the closing stages as United held on for a 1-0 win.
Teammate Michael Carrick added: "Henrikh Mkhitaryan is so talented, clever, such a nice lad and I just hope his injury is not too bad."
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/manchester-united-suffer-henrikh-mkhitaryan-9437615
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Pundit ArenaDec 11 2016Watch: Henrikh Mkhitaryan Puts Manchester United In Front With An Exquisite Finish
Callum Connolly December 11, 2016
It looks like Henrikh Mkhitaryan has finally hit form at the right time for Manchester United.
The Armenian has endured a somewhat frosty relationship with manager Jose Mourinho since arriving in the summer for £26.3 million from Borussia Dortmund and did not feature in the Portuguese’s plans whatsoever in the early stages of the season.
However, after fan criticism and hard work from the Armenian, Mourinho has slowly but surely introduced him back into the starting eleven, and the former Shakhtar star has surely earned his place with some recent displays.
Mkhitaryan bagged his first goal in Manchester United colours on Thursday against Zorya in the Europa League, and soon afterwards told reporters that he had set his sights upon scoring his first goal at Old Trafford.
It took the midfielder just 29 minutes to accomplish that target against Tottenham Hotspur, with United capitalising on a mistake made by Harry Kane.
Mkhitaryan latched onto a through ball and the 28-year-old made no mistake with an emphatic finish past Hugo Lloris.
Needless to say, everyone is convinced by his quality at this stage.
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The Sun, UKDec 10 2016MK SEVEN Manchester United star Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a genius on and off the pitch and can speak SEVEN different languages
Armenian midfielder is now starting to fire for Red Devils and netted his first goal for club in Europa League win over Zorya
By ALEC SHILTON10th December 2016, 4:29 pmHENRIKH MKHITARYAN has won the hearts of Manchester United fans with his attitude since moving from Borussia Dortmund over the summer.
The Armenian has not been afraid to speak to the media after matches, despite Jose Mourinho having been slow to integrate him into his team.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan can speak seven different languagesAnd it is little wonder that he is confident stepping in front of the cameras given his grasp of English.
Mkhi is a comfortable speaker and said all the right things after netting his first goal for the club in their 2-0 Europa League victory over Zorya.
And it is just one of an incredible SEVEN languages in which he is fluent.
Apart from his native tongue of Armenian, as well as the English he learned when taking his first steps in the professional game, Mkhi can speak French having lived there as a boy and idolised Zinedine Zidane before returning to Armenia aged seven.
He also learned Portuguese when he stayed in Brazil as a 14-year-old, added to the Russian he learned to speak with his grandmother.
Mkhi learned Ukrainian during five years spent there playing for Metalurh Donetsk and Shakhtar Donetsk, before picking German up for good measure during his three years at Dortmund.
Mkhitaryan nets his first goal for Manchester United
Reuters
AP:Associated PressMkhi struggled for game time in the first three months of the season under Mourinho, who has since praised the "evolution" of the man he shelled out £27million to land.
After netting a superb solo effort against Zorya, Mkhi is now targeting a goal against Spurs on Sunday to pay back the fans that have been calling for him to start.
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Mourinho is a hypocrite!!!!!!! Henrikh made him eat his words, you don't sack a player for having a half a bad game at first try when more than half your team did suck in that game.
Mkhitaryan Becomes First Armenian to Score a Goal in the Premier LeagueBy Weekly Staff on December 11, 2016 in Headline, New, News //
MANCHESTER, U.K. (A.W.)—Manchester United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan became the first Armenian national to score in the Premier League. Ninety-six countries have now been represented on the score sheet of the top English league, according to The Score sports outlet.http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Andrew-Yates-Reuters-1024x768.jpgHenrikh Mkhitaryan (Photo: Andrew Yates/Reuters)
“Since being given consistent minutes by [head coach Jose] Mourinho, the former Borussia Dortmund stud has added vital creativity and guile, showcasing the skills that made him so desirable to European heavyweights in recent years,” wrote The Score’s Gianluca Nesci.
Iranian-Armenian Andranik Teymourian—who represents Iran’s national team—had previously scored twice in the Premier League for the Bolton Wanderers F.C.
Below is a video of the game’s highlights. Mhitaryan’s goal can be seen at 0:34.
Armenia’s 27-year-old captain and star midfielder’s goal led Manchester United to a 1-0 win against rival Tottenham. Mhitaryan was carried out in a stretcher in the 85th minute with a left ankle injury. Mourinho told reporters after the match that the injury was not serious and that he expects Mkhitaryan to be back in the lineup in the next two weeks.
“Mkhitaryan has been slowly integrated into United’s first team since his move from Borussia Dortmund last summer, with Mourinho keen to ease the Armenian into the demands of English soccer. Now he is settled, Mkhitaryan is looking the part. And the pace and quick thinking he showed for his goal was something United has been lacking,” wrote The Canadian Press.
Mhitaryan agreed to join Manchester United on July 6, on a four-year contract with the option to extend for a further year.
http://armenianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/hm.png“I am very proud to join Manchester United; this move is a dream come true for me. I am excited to play for a club with such an illustrious history and hope to be part of it for a long time,” said Mkhitaryan at the announcement of the deal on July 6. “I thank the trust the club and Jose Mourinho have put in me. Finally, I believe playing for such a great club honors my father’s memory, and the inspiration and drive he gave to me when I was young,” he also added.‘[Henrikh Mkhitaryan] becomes the first Armenian to score in the [Premier League]’ tweeted the Premier League.
During the press announcement, Manchester United coach José Mourinho said that he was excited to work with the Armenian star. “Henrikh is a very talented footballer who has been in such prolific form for both his club and his country. He is a real team player with great skill, vision and also has a good eye for goal. I am delighted he has chosen to sign for United. I believe he will make an impact on the team very quickly as his style of play is suited to the Premier League. We are all looking forward to working with him,” said Mourinho.
http://armenianweekly.com/2016/12/11/mkhitaryan-premier-league/
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan strike enough for Manchester United vs. Spurs
MANCHESTER, England -- Henrikh Mkhitaryan's goal proved enough for Manchester United to claim a home win over Tottenham, but the Armenian's injury was a blow:
1. Mkhitaryan's success overshadowed by injury
It would be a cruel blow for Henrikh Mkhitaryan if the ankle injury he suffered toward the end of Sunday's 1-0 victory over Tottenham halts his progress at Manchester United.
In September, Mkhitaryan paid a heavy price for failing to play to instructions during United's 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester City: The Armenian was cast into the Old Trafford shadows for two months afterward by Jose Mourinho. But the midfielder has undoubtedly proved his worth in recent weeks.
Mkhitaryan's inability to press City's full-backs that day led to both goals by the visitors, and Mourinho's fury resulted in the summer signing from Borussia Dortmund being forced to watch from the sideline for what seemed an eternity until he returned to the fold in November with a 30-minute substitute appearance against Fenerbahce in Istanbul.
But since Mkhitaryan was handed his return to the starting XI against Feyenoord three weeks ago, there has been no looking back for the midfielder, who followed up his first goal for United against Zorya Luhansk in midweek with his first in the Premier League -- a stunner against Tottenham.
The 27-year-old's form asks whether Mourinho was too tough on him during his lengthy spell out of the team, but perhaps the United manager called it correctly.
He has spoken of needing to work on Mkhitaryan's physical attributes as well as his tactical strengths, and it is fair to say that neither were particularly impressive during his humbling 45 minutes against City in September.
Whatever Mourinho's motivation, Mkhitaryan's recent performances -- he was excellent once again against Spurs -- are justifying the treatment he received from his manager.
Mkhitaryan looks hungry and determined, and he is becoming a driving force in games for United. He has added adventure and invention in the final third, offering more mobility than Juan Mata and quicker feet than Wayne Rooney.
Danny Rose's late challenge on Mkhitaryan did not look good, however, and United and Mourinho will now be hoping he recovers swiftly.
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Jose Mourinho picks Henrikh Mkhitaryan as Manchester United’s man of the match against Tottenham
http://i1.wp.com/s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/metrouk/img/default-user.png?resize=40%2C40&quality=80&strip=all&ssl=1Chris Davie for Metro.co.ukSunday 11 Dec 2016 5:36 pmHenrikh Mkhitaryan struck to secure a vital victory for Manchester United over Tottenham. (Getty Images)
Jose Mourinho has named Henrikh Mkhitaryan as Manchester United’s man of the match against Tottenham.
The 27-year-old’s strike in the 29th minute – his first goal at Old Trafford – sealed a 1-0 win to see off Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
And while Mourinho paid tribute to the Armenian’s performance, the Manchester United boss also praised Hugo Lloris for keeping Tottenham in the game.
‘I think Mkhitaryan man of the match,’ said Mourinho.
Mkhitaryan scored his first goal at Old Trafford to see off Spurs. (Getty Images)
‘But if you have a trophy for the second man of the match you give to [Hugo] Lloris.
‘Because the save he makes with 50 seconds in the game is a goal save, and then he makes another one, and then he makes another one, and then the post is his friend.
‘We should score more goals, but because we don’t score more goals, we know that if we concede we’re in trouble.’
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Saviors in History: Ara Jeretzian By Gayane MirzoyanIn 1981 Ara George Jeretzian became the first of more than 20 Armenians whose name appears on the list of the Righteous Among the Nations – an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. During World War II, Jeretzian saved more than 400 Jews by hiding them in a hospital that he founded in occupied Budapest.One of five children, Ara Jeretzian was born in Constantinople in 1918. Soon after his birth his entire family fled to Hungary to escape the on-going violence against Armenians. In the 1930s Jeretzian joined the youth movement of Hungary’s Fascist Arrow Cross Party, but resigned when the persecution of Jews began. He went into tailoring.In March 1944 Budapest was occupied by the German army. The city’s Jews were subjected to a curfew and ordered into a ghetto. More than 220,000 people were supposed to be moved there prior to being sent to death camps in Poland.Jeretzian was quick to spot the parallels between the events his family witnessed 30 years earlier and what he was observing in the very heart of Europe.His son, Ara Jeretzian Jr, a businessman in Vienna, explains: “His mother told a lot of stories about the persecution of minorities in Turkey, and so my father felt a moral obligation to do everything he could to help other people who found themselves in the same circumstances. After all, he was only human.”
The Jeretzian family (left to right): Ara’s wife Maria, daughter Sofia, mother Sofia, son Ara Jeretzian Jr and Ara. From the family archive of Ara Jeretzian.
In the fall of 1944 the Soviet army approached Budapest. Ara Jeretzian, just 26 years old, was appointed commander of civil defence in the sixth district of Budapest. Ilby Frank, one of the people whom Jeretzian saved, continues the story: “As Jeretzian himself told us, he left the Fascist Party at the beginning of the war, but he didn’t draw a lot of attention to that. So he put on his old military uniform and went to the interior minister. Jeretzian told him that the Russians were very close, there were lots of wounded people in the city and the existing hospitals couldn’t cope. He proposed the creation of a new hospital where he would gather the best doctors and surgeons. The minister signed the decree that gave the hospital everything it needed. It was just incredible.”According to Frank, Jeretzian also stole several seals and letters signed by the minister, which he later used to protect the hospital’s residents.Together with well-known Hungarian-Jewish psychiatrist Ferenc Völgyesi, he opened a clinic in the basement of 1 Zichy Jeno Street. This clinic would save save hundreds of lives.Robert Holczer was just 15 years old when he and his mother moved to his aunt’s house, trying to escape Nazi persecution in the late fall of 1944. His story is kept in the archives of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. His aunt’s one-bedroom apartment sheltered ten relatives, but despite such cramped quarters they were all happy because they could sleep peacefully, at least. Holczer believes the decision to move to this house was fateful – that was where Jeretzian and Völgyesi’s clinic had opened. “Jeretzian was a tall, handsome man. He wore a Fascist uniform and scared a lot of people, but he was very kind to us,” Holczer remembers.Ara Jeretzian moved to the basement hospital with several loyal associates. Together with Völgyesi, they were able to staff the clinic with top-tier professionals. Anyone who was persecuted by the Nazis could find refuge in the hospital, whether as a patient or a member of staff. To make this happen, Jeretzian procured false papers. They managed to save 440 Jews in total, including 40 doctors. The Arrow Cross Party rarely bothered with inspections, despite numerous reports that Jeretzian was hiding Jews. The Fascists were distracted by detailed accounts of the hospital’s medical prowess.
1 Zichy Jeno Street, Budapest
In his book “Stories of a Survivor,” Canadian physician Norbert Kerényi shares his recollections of his time in the hospital. Kerényi was 17 years old at the time. One day, he met a former high school classmate on the street. The boy, wearing a Nazi uniform, didn’t shake his old friend’s hand, but instead reported to the commander of the sixth district that he had seen a Jew entering the hospital and asked for permission to arrest him. The commander (Jeretzian himself) said that he knew this Jew personally, adding that if the young man was so full of patriotic fervor, he should go to the front and fight there.“This certainly was a dangerous situation, but our commander, George Jeretzian Ara protected me,” writes Kerényi.The clinic played an important role in the city’s life by providing free medical assistance to the district’s residents. In November 1944, when the Soviet army surrounded Budapest, the clinic was turned into a full-fledged military hospital. During the siege, the Nazis were impressed by Jeretzian’s patriotism, as he treated Hungarian soldiers and Budapest residents at his own expense.
The forged documents of one of Jeretzian’s patients. From the Open Society Institute archive.
“The days during the siege were full of events, with constant actions and interactions. In a way, they could to a certain extent be compared to ‘Forty Days of Musa Dagh’ written by Franz Werfel, describing a small group of Armenians resisting a holocaust of Turkish design. We had essentially passive resistance, using forged papers and the hospital’s protection,” writes Norbert Kerényi.Before the occupation, more than 250,000 Jews lived in Budapest. During the Holocaust, most were annihilated by the Nazis. Mass murders continued all the way untill the Soviet army entered the city.Any Jews found outside the ghetto were taken on a death march toward the Danube.Several non-Jewish families lived in the hospital building. Some of them hoped that this would give them protection when the Red Army entered the city. But even then, there were those who continued to inform on their neighbors.
Ara Jeretzian with his wife Maria, daughter Sofia, and son Ara, 1956. From the family archive of Ara Jeretzian.
“Not long before the military assault on the city, a neighbor informed on us, and the Fascists attempted to disarm Jeretzian’s people to stop them from guarding us. He seemed somewhat bewildered. We all got ready to pack up and go, but suddenly Ara was back with some document from a higher authority and ordered them to leave because this was a protected territory and the clinic was working for the government,” Holczer recalls.Here’s how Ilby Frank remembered this story: “Early in the morning on January 2 we were woken by the Hungarian Nazis. They ordered us out into the courtyard. The winter air was very cold. Jeretzian came in wearing a Nazi uniform, and he ordered them not to touch anyone until he had spoken with the higher-ups. Several hours later he was back with a letter signed by the minister. Two days later Jeretzian admitted to my husband that he couldn’t find the minister because the government was already in chaos. He simply took a piece of paper with the minister’s signature, wrote the letter himself and stamped it with one of the seals he stole earlier.”
Ara Jeretzian Jr with his daughters Constance and Clarissa. From the family archive of Ara Jeretzian.
On February 13, 1945 Budapest was overtaken by the Soviet army, which began arresting Nazis and their collaborators. After the city was liberated, Ara Jeretzian was arrested and spent about six months in the custody of the Soviet intelligence service. “There he met an Armenian prison guard who advised him not to sign any confessions. Thus, after suffering through much torture, he was finally freed,” says Jeretzian Jr.In the early 1960s Ara Jeretzian moved to Vienna. He kept in touch with very few of the people he saved.“Father didn’t think much of gratitude. For him, everything he did was a matter of course,” says his son.It wasn’t until 1982 that the Israeli Ambassador to Austria and the bishop of the Armenian church presented Ara Jeretzian with a Yad Vashem medal at a ceremony in the Armenian church of Vienna.Ara Jeretzian died in 2010. He was 92.“For many years nobody was interested in this story of salvation. But over the last few years, my father has been awarded several prizes posthumously. Right now, they are filming a documentary about him, and they plan to hang a memorial plaque on the building where the hospital was,” Ara Jeretzian Jr. says proudly. -
Armenian stone record unearthed in Eastern Anatolia
13:01 • 11.12.16http://www.groong.com/news/attachments/msg590610/pngO9ycDSk9a1.png
Archaeological excavations in Elazig, a city in Eastern Anatolia (historical Armenian name: Kharberd), have led to the discovery of a stone record with Armenian inscriptions.
The relic, measuring 80’ x 53’, was unearthed in the vicinities of the Armenian church St Karapet, a 19th century construction. It dates its history back to 165 years, Ensonhaber.com reports.
According to the website, the stone record has been handed over to the city’s history museum. -
http://panorama.am/news_images/565/1692439_3/f584c00bc4fbdf_584c00bc4fc1d.thumb.jpg
Politics 17:18 10/12/2016 NKRDavit Babayan: The time has come for the Minsk Group Co-Chair countries to issue targeted statementsPress secretary to the Artsakh President Davit Babayan says the joint statement by the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries issued on December 8 is interesting and positive alike. In an interview with Panorama.am Babayan welcomed that the states have condemned the April war.
“It means the peaceful solution to the conflict is prioritized, and any scenario suggesting military means to resolve the problem means is rejected. It is important to see strong formulations in condemning the brutalities, barbarity,” Babayan said
In his words, Azerbaijan is apparently the addressee of those calls, yet the time has come to issue targeted statements.
“If those calls are not targeted, the perpetrator, that is Azerbaijan, will take advantage of that. This is especially relevant with all the facts provided by Armenia to the UN and the OSCE personal representative, different international organizations, including documented photos, footages, and other factual evidence,” press secretary to the Artsakh President explained.
Babayan also welcomed the meeting in the 3+2 format held in Hamburg, suggesting the discussion is a part of the peace process.
“Any meeting is important and positive as long as it serves as a part of the peace process. The Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement should be viewed in two dimensions. The first is the maintenance of the stability and peace in the region and the second is the resolution of the conflict itself. Since the parties have divergent positions with Azerbaijan increasing its fascist rhetoric and policy, it is too early to expect any progress in the settlement process from those meetings. Those discussions are valued in terms of keeping the peace and stability in the region,” Babayan concluded.http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2016/12/10/Davit-Babayan-Minsk-Group-Co-Chair-statements/1692439
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What a delight to watch Henrikh this morning, what a beautiful game winning goal. People remember my words we have a legend in the making, he plays football like a grand master of chess.
His football sense is amazing, he knows where to be when he is without the ball, his quick turns with the ball creates the necessary space with clinical passes. I'm pretty sure he will be the man of the match again, but unfortunately he sustained an injury towards the end and left on a stretcher, looked like an ankle problem I hope it's a minor one. Good luck!
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The WrapDec 9 2016Oscar Isaac Armenian Genocide Film ‘The Promise’ Goes to Open RoadTerry George historical romance will hit theaters on April 28Matt Pressberg | December 9, 2016
Open Road Films has acquired the U.S. rights for “The Promise,” a Terry George love story set during the Armenian genocide, TheWrap has learned. The movie will come out on April 28, 2017.
“The Force Awakens” star Oscar Isaac headlines the film, playing Michael Boghosian, an ethnic Armenian medical student living and studying in Constantinople. Christian Bale plays Chris Myers, a photojournalist in love with Armenian artist Ana (Charlotte Le Bon). The two men form a romantic rivalry over Ana, but as the Ottoman Empire aligns with Germany and starts cracking down on minorities, they have to work together to survive.
“The Promise” also features Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Sarafyan, Jean Reno, James Cromwell, Daniel Gimenez Cacho and Marwan Kenzari. It was produced by Eric Esrailian, Mike Medavoy and William Horberg.
Also Read:'The Promise': Oscar Isaac Brings a Human Face to the Armenian Genocide
“We are proud to add this prestigious film to our 2017 slate,” Open Road President Tom Ortenberg said in a statement. “An epic love story set against a turning point in world history, ‘The Promise’ features top notch performances and first class filmmaking and we are looking forward to sharing the movie with audiences across the country.”
The deal was negotiated on behalf of Open Road Films by Ortenberg, Elliott Kleinberg, the studio’s chief operating officer and general counsel, and SVP of acquisitions Lejo Pet.
WME and David Boyle handled the negotiations on behalf of Survival Pictures.
http://www.thewrap.com/oscar-isaac-armenian-genocide-film-promise-goes-open-road/
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WikiLeaks Claims Prove Turkish Minister's Link to ISIL Terrorists
Fri Dec 09, 2016 2:23
http://www.groong.com/news/attachments/msg590527/pngHeOGyeQvvE.png
TEHRAN (FNA)- WikiLeaks released thousands of emails of Turkish Minister Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, proving his links to deals concluded with ISIL-controlled oilfields in Iraq, media sources said.
Wikileaks released a cache of emails, demonstrating his insider knowledge of Powertrans that have had complete monopoly of Iraqi Kurdistan's roads and rail system into Turkey, while Albayrak denied in the past that he had any connections to Powertrans, massdar news reported.
Powertrans have consistently been accused of facilitating ISIL blood-oil from reaching the fields in Iraq to Turkey.
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, justified the email release because of Erdogan's crackdown on free media.
“The people of Turkey need a free media and a free internet,” Assange said.
In December 2015, sources close to the ISIL confirmed that Ankara supplies the Takfiri militants with weapons and ammunition through Qatari brokers in lieu of the oil the Takfiri terrorist group sells to Turkey through the same channel.
"The ISIL regularly sells crude it obtains from Iraqi and Syrian oil wells to Turkey through some Qatari middlemen," the Arabic-language Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted unnamed sources inside ISIL as saying at the time.
The sources reiterated that Turkey also sold part of the oil it bought from the ISIL at cheap price to some East European countries.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950919000301
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00:56 AMT, December 9, 2016Europa League: Mkhitaryan is recognized Man of the Match
As a result of an online voting on the Manchester United (a.k.a. Red Devils) official Twitter account, midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been recognized Man of the Match in the English club’s last Europa League group match Thursday against FC Zorya Luhansk (Ukraine).
In the game that was played in Odessa, Ukraine, the 27-year-old Armenia international was in Man United’s starting eleven, and he scored his first goal for the Red Devils who won the match by a score of 2-0.
Manchester United have advanced to the Europa League playoffs.
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The truth about Syria
in International
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Armenian soldiers in Havresc
NEW YORK — It’s a remarkable Armenian village somewhere in Iraq with about 200 to 500 people. And it is surviving through courage, faith, fortitude and about 22 dedicated men against the massive force of the Islamic State. Its name, Havresc, translates to big revenge, and its history dates back to 1915, when survivors of the Genocide constructed it.
On Thursday, December 8, the Zohrab Information Center hosted David Ritter, who has spent months in the village, who presented his documentary titled, “Havresc, Stand on Courage,” to a large audience, detailing the daily struggles of Armenian and Assyrian Christian Iraqis and the village they have built on the edge of ISIS-controlled territory.
Ritter was introduced by the Zohrab Center’s executive director, the Very Rev. Daniel Findikyan, who related that this issue “transcends ethnic interests. One doesn’t have to be Armenian to care about others.”
Before showing the film, Ritter who is not Armenian, commented that he was “filled with rage at the plight of the Christians, not about ethnicity,” he said, and praised the leader of the 22 soldiers, Murad Vartanian, whom he called “one of the most amazing men I have ever met, a man of conviction, courage, tenacity, and also a poet and an artist, a natural born leader.”
The documentary detailed the history of the Genocide with disturbing graphic images of death and destruction. It was a group of survivors from that tragedy that went to Iraq and built villages, including the mostly agricultural village of Havresc. In time, other persecuted Christians — Assyrians and Yezidis — also settled there. In 1975, many Christian villages were destroyed, including Havresc, with the villagers fleeing. One of the only buildings that remained were the ruins of the original school.
In 2006, many of the people of Havresc returned, and decided to rebuild their homes, churches and schools. Armenians also came from abroad and helped in the construction. Vartanian, who was originally born in the village, led the effort, and with other villagers created a communal system where goods are shared. They also erected a monument to the victims of the Genocide.
Today, it is 22 young and old men led by Vartanian, who protect the village 24 hours a day against ISIS. Kurdish militias are also helping these 22 soldiers. The film showed Murad’s home which is the headquarters of the militia, and houses an armory of weapons. Also seen are the villagers tending to their flocks of sheep and peacefully farming the land. In the future, a small airport will be built.
Shortly after the film was completed, Vartanian was shot by ISIS. He is now recovering, and has said, “Even trees need water to live. We are like these old trees. We never give up. Let us live like lions, and if need be, die like lions.”
Ritter was born to a Roman Catholic family in Haiti. He is a documentarian who has gone to areas of the world where Christian communities are in danger, and filmed their struggles. He is currently traveling to Armenian communities and showing this documentary of Havresc . He announced that 30 percent of the proceeds of this DVD will go back to Havresc. Already, he said, $2,000 has been raised.
For more information, to purchase a DVD, or to help Havresc, visit www.echo612.org
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2016/12/15/havresc-an-armenian-iraqi-village-fighting-to-survive/