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Archives for August 2018

Armenian Bar Association & American University of Armenia Launch Legal Clinic

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GLENDALE, U.S. ‒ The American University of Armenia (AUA) and the Armenian Bar Association (ABA) joined forces to sponsor a new Technology and Innovation Legal Clinic at AUA’s campus in Yerevan through two receptions in California, led by David Balabanian, Esq.

The Golden State Bank in Glendale hosted the Los Angeles metro area gathering and the law offices of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP in San Francisco, with Balabanian as host, served as the engaging settings for legal professionals, AUA leadership and supporters who came together to learn more about ABA’s partnership with Armenia’s leading university and its innovative projects for current and future students.

Balabanian, the first chairman of the ABA, welcomed guests and highlighted the significance of raising dialogue about the role of legal education in Armenia by creating stronger ties between the Diaspora and the homeland. Through his work with the ABA, Balabanian has brought continued awareness to critical legal issues in Armenia, which is now at a crossroads thanks to the Velvet Revolution and a newfound respect for the law.

“We are experiencing a new era in Armenia,” said Balabanian, who practices commercial litigation. “We hope to expect rule of law and as lawyers we have a special obligation to ensure the safeguarding of the legal system.”

Launching in the Fall of 2018, the Technology and Innovation Legal Clinic, whose operating costs will be sponsored by the ABA, will be made available to the student community through AUA’s Master of Laws (LL.M.) program.

The clinic, which Balabanian noted as a “valuable resource,” will be the first in Armenia to address the needs for professional legal counseling in rapidly growing fields, including technology, which is experiencing a 20% growth in Armenia. Selected AUA students will gain hands-on experience working and providing counseling to IT and engineering startups in relation to a wide range of legal issues, from company registration to contracting to intellectual property rights protection.

The legal clinic is one of the many projects Balabanian has spearheaded for the legal community over the years. In addition to his impactful work with the ABA, he has served as chairman of the California State Bar Conference of Delegates, lawyer delegate to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, trustee of the Practising Law Institute, and a member of the Harvard Law School Visiting Committee. As an instructor, he has taught more than 150 continuing legal education courses and written extensively on law-related topics.

During his remarks, AUA President Dr. Armen Der Kiureghian shared with attendees important updates about the University, including the recently signed bill that provides free law school tuition to the University of California, Hastings College of the Law for AUA graduates who are residents of California.

“The signing of this bill by Senator Anthony Portantino shows the confidence that the state of California and UC Hastings have in the American University of Armenia,” said Dr. Der Kiureghian.

He elaborated on the positive changes occuring in Armenia, including the election of a government and a Prime Minister “who respects the law in Armenia and adheres to the principles of fairness and democracy.”

President Der Kiureghian noted that the student body and faculty were involved in the Velvet Revolution, choosing to exercise their civic duty and rights. He spoke of the work of AUA’s Entrepreneurship and Product Innovation Center (EPIC), which will work in tandem with the Technology and Innovation Legal Clinic, as well as AUA’s partnerships with USAID and plans to start an AUA press.

“We have matured as a university,” said Dr. Der Kiureghian. “And we maintain our promise of selecting students based on merit and not financial capacity, making sure we attract the brightest minds.”

As the director of one of the most creative and effective centers at AUA, EPIC, Dr. Michael Kouchakdjian elaborated on the activities of the ecosystem, which provides AUA’s emerging entrepreneurs with a collaborative space consisting of programs, events and a network of mentors, advisors and investors. In relation to its partnership with the Technology and Innovation Legal Clinic, workshops and seminars will be organized for EPIC and other IT and engineering enterprises and teams. In addition, thanks to the ABA’s sponsorship, top quality legal professionals will supervise the activities of the LL.M. program students in order to ensure consistency and quality of service. Touching on the synergy between the Center and AUA, Dr. Kouchakdjian said that through EPIC, the community at large can engage in the startup venture ecosystem, which is becoming increasingly popular in Armenia.

Dr. Lawrence Pitts, Chair of the Board of Trustees and former Provost of the University of California system, said AUA has become a transformative university in Armenia and through the support of benefactors, it can become the best in the region.

“AUA is a superb investment in Armenia, like the University of California is a great investment for the state,” said Dr. Pitts. “Our students are the future of the country, and AUA works hard to prepare them successfully as employees, researchers and engaged citizens, which is the best way for Armenia to grow and prosper in the coming years.”

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, and affiliated with the University of California. AUA provides a global education in Armenia and the region, offering high-quality graduate and undergraduate studies, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting public service and democratic values. For more information about the American University of Armenia and its donor opportunities, please visit www.aua.am.

Qatar and Turkey: Toxic Allies in the Gulf

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Qatar and Turkey: Toxic Allies

by Richard Miniter,

Questions began with the arrest of Andrew Brunson, an American-born Christian pastor who has lived in Turkey for 23 years without incident. Then, on October 7, 2016 Brunson and his wife Norine were seized as alleged coup plotters. Norine was released after being held for 13 days, without any charges being filed. Andrew Brunson has remained in detention since 2016 and the charges, when they finally appeared, were numerous and impossible to believe. Example: Brunson is a part of Mormon-inspired CIA plot to topple Turkey’s elected government. (Brunson is not Mormon and has no known CIA connections.) If convicted, he faces up to 35 years in prison.

  • Why not consider expanding the US deployment at Al-Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates as a replacement for the airbases used by the US in Qatar and Turkey, if the UAE accept the idea?
  • If one nation is able to defy or undermine U.S. policy while still pocketing the benefits of America’s friendship, many others may follow Qatar’s example. Why should other Arab nations endure domestic criticism, for supporting America’s war on terror if they can subvert America but still enjoy America’s military protection and their access to the world’s largest market?

Turkey revealed its true intentions when it offered to exchange Brunson for Fethullah Gülen, a self-exiled Turkish Islamic cleric who lives in Pennsylvania. The Turkish government believes that Gülen and his alleged “Fethullah Gülen Terror Organization” are behind the July 2016 alleged attempted “coup” against the Turkish government. Dissidents maintain that the “coup” was manufactured to give the elected Islamist government cover to purge pro-secular senior military officers, opposition politicians and critical journalists. For more than a decade, Turkish politics has been roiled by a debate about undoing many of secular traditions and laws enacted at the founding of modern Turkey in the 1920s, but now moving toward a more Islamic model that is friendlier to Iran’s Islamic dictatorship and less so toward the US and the EU. Brunson apparently became a pawn in a larger chess game.

Enter President Donald J. Trump, who has publicly called for Brunson’s release while privately rejecting the idea of turning over Gülen, a legal U.S. resident, to a foreign court system unlikely to give him a fair trial in a charged political environment. Next, Trump piled on economic sanctions to try to spring the jailed American pastor.

Those sanctions have gravely wounded Turkey’s weakening economy, but not weakened its resolve. Turkey’s currency registered a 40% drop against the U.S. dollar this year. Foreign direct investment into Turkey has also slowed significantly this year. Still, its government has stayed the course and refused to free Brunson. Indeed, it upped the ante: Turkey’s leader called on his followers to boycott iPhones and other iconic American products.

Remember, Turkey is a NATO ally of the United States and the second-largest contributor of troops to that vital alliance. It is also home to key U.S. air bases, including Incirlik, a massive complex near Adana housing some 5,000 US airmen.

As U.S. sanctions tightened, another U.S. ally, Qatar, intervened. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani pledged to invest $15 billion in the Turkish economy during a recent visit — and plainly declared that the point of the investment was to blunt the force of U.S. sanctions. With friends like these…

It is worth taking a closer look at America’s putative ally, Qatar. It is also home to a major US air base at Al Udeid, from which American warplanes bomb the Taliban, ISIS and elements of Al Qaeda.

Yet Qatar funds some of the same groups that America bombs. The gas-rich peninsula channels money to Al Nusra, a Syria-based affiliate of al Qaeda. It had funded Taliban leaders in the run-up to the September 11 attacks and, just a few years ago, reportedly paid some $1 billion to Iran-backed terrorists to ransom captives held in Iraq and Syria.

Qatar funds still other groups that kills Americans. Qatar’s emir has publicly and proudly announced his financial support for Hamas, which has been officially designated as a “terrorist organization” by the U.S. and the E.U. and Israel. Also, let us not forget the hundreds of millions of dollars that Qatar gives to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the gateway organization for almost every Sunni jihadi terrorist band in the Middle East. Al Qaeda’s current leader, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, began his extremist journey in a Brotherhood chapter in Egypt, as did September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in its Kuwait branch. The onetime head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, was indoctrinated in the Brotherhood’s Jordan offshoot.

The emir has also welcomed Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual guide, to live in Qatar, as well as various senior Hamas officials.

Al Jazeera, Qatar’s state-run broadcaster, frequently lionizes these groups, giving them air time to legitimize their murderous views toward Israel and America as well as their Arab neighbors.

Add to that, Qatar’s alleged hacking of U.S. citizens (including former Republican National Committee finance chairman Elliott Broidy) and distributing their private emails to journalists, according to U.S. court filings.

In addition, Qatar’s funding of lobbyists (at some $100,000 per month) who are close to the current chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and that committee’s ranking Democrat.

Senator Ted Cruz’s former deputy chief of staff, Nick Muzin, pulled down $300,000 per month from Qatar, according to Reuters.

Finally, Qatar has drawn close to America’s biggest regional rival, Iran. It shares the vast offshore Pars gas field with the Islamic Republic — providing a river of money to the very nation that America suspects of building nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles to carry them to U.S. bases in the Middle East and Europe.

US Representative Ted Budd, a member of the Financial Services Committee and its Terrorism and Illicit Finance Subcommittee, in an essential article, states:

“Iran’s continued support of the Hezbollah terrorist organization with both financial and political assistance, as well as weapons and tactical training, deserves close examination. Western diplomats and Lebanese analysts estimate that Iranian financial support for Hezbollah averages around $100 million each year, sometimes reaching amounts closer to a quarter of a billion dollars…All of these activities pose a direct threat to U.S. security interests, contribute to the prolonging of conflicts across the Middle East, and pose threats to our key allies in the region.”

Taken together, the pattern is clear. Far from faithfully supporting current U.S. policy, Qatar is using every means at its disposal to subvert or alter it. Its slap-in-face funding of Turkey, while a US citizen is held captive there, is simply the latest example of the behavior of Qatar, supposedly a US ally.

Ancient Armenian church in Turkey put up for sale for $1.5 million

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A 300 year-old Armenian church in Turkey’s northwestern city of Bursa has been put up for sale for $1.5 million.

The sales advert of the church located in the Setbasi neighbourhood has been posted on Bursasehirportali.com by a real estate agent on behalf of its owner, since the latter lives abroad, Ermenihaber  reports  .

The 1986 Bursa General Directorate of Foundations, where the building is registered, affirms it is an ancient church. The photos of the building show the dome of the three-story ramshackle church.

According to real estate agent Tayfun Ozenginler, the Setbasi neighbourhood were the church is located was once inhabited by Armenians, adding after the Kemalist movement the church began to be used for many different purposes.

“You can smell the history in every corner. Before 1980s it served for different purposes, turning into an abandoned building later,” he said.

Bursa and its neighbouring districts were home to a total of 17 Armenian churches before 1915.

 

Source Panorama.a

Dan Bilzerian hosted by NSS officers in Artsakh

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American-Armenian professional poker player, “King of Instagram” Dan Bilzerian has been hosted by the National Security Service officers of the Republic of Artsakh, Artsakh special presidential envoy, former director of the National Security Service Arshavir Gharamyan said on Facebook, Armenpress reports.

Gharamyan posted a photo and a video on Facebook.

Dan Bilzerian arrived in Artsakh on August 28.

 

Despite an Encouraging Visit to Armenia, Chancellor Merkel Didn’t Say Genocide

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By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Media reports indicated that her visit to Armenia and meetings with its leadership were very constructive. Armenian-German political, cultural and trade relations are expected to expand. Merkel’s visit resulted in a much needed boost for Armenia’s new democratic government.
 
One of the sensitive issues that both Armenians and the international community were carefully following was Chancellor Merkel’s comments on the Armenian Genocide. The German Parliament (Bundestag) almost unanimously adopted a resolution in 2016 recognizing the Armenian Genocide and declared that “the German Empire bears partial complicity in the events.”
 
Immediately after the adoption of the Genocide resolution, Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Berlin and threatened to cut off ties with Germany. Relations between Germany and Turkey remain tense for a variety of reasons, but are expected to improve after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s forthcoming visit to Germany in late September.
 
While in Yerevan, Chancellor Merkel paid a visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial. She laid a wreath in memory of the 1.5 million Armenian victims and planted a tree at an adjacent park. However, Merkel avoided the use of the term genocide in Yerevan, describing Turkey’s mass killings as “heinous crimes against Armenians” which “cannot and must not be forgotten.” She also stated that she had visited the Genocide Memorial “in the spirit of the Bundestag 2016 resolution.” She clarified that the language used was “a political, not a legal classification.”
 
Despite Merkel’s goodwill toward Armenia and her very positive statements, I hope that Armenia’s leaders reminded her that the proper term to describe the planned extermination of 1.5 million Armenians is “Genocide,” not simply “heinous crimes.”
 
Armenia’s leaders could have informed Chancellor Merkel of a recent report by Ben Knight of Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) about the weapons provided by the German Reich to the Ottoman Turkish forces to carry out the Armenian Genocide.
 
According to DW, “Mauser, Germany’s main manufacturer of small arms in both world wars, supplied the Ottoman Empire with millions of rifles and handguns, which were used in the genocide with the active support of German officers.” Furthermore, quoting from a report by “Global Net — Stop the Arms Trade,” DW stated that “the Turkish army was also equipped with hundreds of cannons produced by the Essen-based company Krupp, which were used in Turkey’s assault on Armenian resistance fighters holding out on the Musa Dagh Mountain in 1915.”
 
The author of the Global Net report, Wolfgang Landgraeber, wrote that “Mauser really had a rifle monopoly for the Ottoman Empire.”
 
DW revealed that “many of the firsthand German accounts in the report come from letters by Major Graf Eberhard Wolffskehl, who was stationed in the southeastern Turkish city of Urfa in October 1915. Urfa was home to a substantial population of Armenians, who barricaded themselves inside houses against the Turkish infantry. Wolffskehl was serving as chief of staff to Fakhri Pasha, deputy commander of the Ottoman 4th Army, which had been called in as reinforcement.”
 
In a letter to his wife, Major Wolffskehl shamelessly bragged about the killing of Armenians by German troops in Urfa: “They [the Armenians] had occupied the houses south of the church in numbers. When our artillery fire struck the houses and killed many people inside, the others tried to retreat into the church itself. But … they had to go around the church across the open church courtyard. Our infantry had already reached the houses to the left of the courtyard and shot down the people fleeing across the church courtyard in piles. All in all the infantry, which I used in the main attack … acquitted itself very well and advanced very dashingly.”
 
Landgraeber also reported that “while German companies provided the guns, and German soldiers the expert advice on how to use them, German officers also laid the ideological foundations” for the Armenian Genocide.
 
German Navy Attache Hans Humann, a member of the German-Turkish officer corps and close friend of the Ottoman Empire’s war minister, Enver Pasha, wrote: “The Armenians — because of their conspiracy with the Russians — will be more or less exterminated. That is hard, but useful.”
 
Furthermore, Landgraeber wrote in his report about “the Prussian major general Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, a key figure who became a vital military adviser to the Ottoman court in 1883 and saw himself as a lobbyist for the German arms industry and supported both Mauser and Krupp in their efforts to secure Turkish commissions. (He once boasted in his diary, ‘I can claim that without me the rearmament of the [Turkish] army with German models would not have happened.’)” Goltz “helped persuade the Sultan to try and end the Armenian question once and for all!”
 
The above quotations support the admission by Bundestag’s 2016 resolution that Germany was complicit in the Armenian Genocide and German President Joachim Gauck’s acknowledgment in 2015 about Germany’s “co-responsibility” for the Armenian Genocide. Being well aware of these facts, Chancellor Merkel should have called the Armenian Genocide by its proper name: Genocide!

Armenian PM: Prices are too high, I’m off to discuss it with head of Central Bank

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YEREVAN. – There have been warnings that the agricultural products is too expensive, so I wanted to see for myself and also understand the reasons, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan told reporters at a farmer’s market Monday, August 27.

“I mainly learnt that e.g. tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants and a number of other important seasonal vegetables are really expensive. And in fact it is strange that at this time there are greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers on the market as it is a little unusual for Armenia. There have to be vegetables from the fields now,” said PM.

Speaking about irrigation water PM said it still has to be clarified whether the problem is in the absence of water or in the poor managing and abuse by some people. Pashinyan emphasized that he cannot make a clear statement unless there is reasonable proof.

Asked what he plans to do after learning the prices of agricultural goods PM answered: “I am now going to meet with the head of Central Bank and discuss the topic of inflation as well”.

 

U.S. AMBASSADOR TOURS ANI EXHIBIT ON YMCA DURING THE FIRST REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

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U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills Jr. looking at the ANI exhibit on the YMCA in Armenia

YEREVAN – The United States Ambassador to the Republic of Armenia, Richard M. Mills, Jr., recently toured the exhibit, sponsored by the Armenian National Institute (ANI) and the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly), depicting the critical humanitarian role played by two courageous American YMCA officials during the first republic of Armenia.

On display at the Naregatsi Art Institute in Yerevan, the exhibit, entitled American Relief in the First Republic of Armenia, was created by ANI to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Republic. The exhibit highlights the role of the YMCA pair of John Elder and James O. Arroll, who rendered exceptional service during the critical early months of the republic in 1918 when a severe humanitarian crisis gripped the newborn country as it struggled with the consequences and violence of World War I.

“This exhibition captures the spirit of the American people’s affinity for Armenia and the Armenian people,” said U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard M. Mills, Jr. “From those first YMCA volunteers to the more than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers who have followed in their stead, the American people have been working side-by-side with the Armenian people to overcome turmoil and challenge in pursuit of continued peace and friendship between our two nations.”
The exhibit also expressly links the early contributions of the YMCA and other relief workers, who subsequently arrived from the United States in 1919, with the current role of the Peace Corps which has been sending volunteers to Armenia since 1992. Ambassador Mills, whose long association with Armenia began since serving as the State Department’s first Armenia desk officer upon the restoration of Armenian independence in 1991, has been a strong supporter of Peace Corps programs across Armenia.
The exhibit opening and associated events were organized by the Armenian Assembly’s Yerevan office, spearheaded by Regional Director Arpi Vartanian. The exhibit was launched on August 8 with the participation of Armenia’s Minister of Education Arayik Harutyunyan and other officials, as well as representatives of the U.S. Embassy. Upon stirring renditions of the Armenian and American national anthems by New York Lyric Opera soprano Anoush Barclay, U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Rafik Mansour made a compelling statement honoring the memories of John Elder and James O. Arroll for “their American idealism, their connections, and their business savvy.”
Additional remarks were made by Armenian National Institute Chairman Van Z. Krikorian,Naregatsi Art Institute Director Nareg Hartounian, and YMCA Europe Programmes Executive Secretary Vardan Hambardzumyan in the presence of government officials, representatives of local, diasporan, and international NGOs, as well as Armenian media which covered the exhibit extensively. Journalists from Public TV of Armenia, Armenian Second TV Channel, Shant TV, Public Radio of Armenia, Armenpress, Newspress, Orer, Hetq, Gala TV, Panorama, Lragir, Arajin Lradvakan, Mamul, NewsInfo, Shabat, Lraber, Shamshyan, and Lurer services reported on the exhibit in televised newscasts, websites, and print media.

The YMCA in Armenia was represented by a contingent of young members from around the country, as well as YMCA Armenia Acting Director Khoren Papoyan in addition to YMCA Europe Programmes Executive Secretary Vardan Hambardzumyan. Joining them were Peace Corps volunteers, who work with YMCA volunteers in Armenia’s regions, and other aid workers. Former Artsakh Foreign Minister Karen Mirozyan, Knights of Vartan Yerevan Liason Gohar Palyan, Near East Foundation-Armenia Representative Arpine Baghdoyan, ABGU Armenia President Vasken Yacoubian, ArmComedy Live’s Narek Margaryan, Artists’ Union of Armenia Director Karen Aghamyan, Aida Khachikyan from the Hayastan All-Armenia Fund, Shant Hovnanian of Hovnanian International, and Sergei Paradjanov Museum Director Zaven Sargsyan, a professional photographer who has documented historic Ani, visited the exhibit. Armenian Assembly summer interns in Armenia along with their families and supervisors also joined the event. The Vozkevaz Winery, which has been in existence since 1932, donated refreshments for the reception.
The exhibit reconstructs the story of the near superhuman efforts undertaken by John Elder and James O. Arroll to rescue Armenians from the many perils they faced during the 1918-1920 independent Republic of Armenia. The exhibit relies upon John Elder’s own words from his published journal, along with original records that he personally saved from the time of his service, and the photographs that he made and captioned.
Elder and Arroll arrived as two enthusiastic young men dedicated to the purpose of sustaining morale among soldiers enduring long campaigns and treacherous conditions as the Great War kept grinding on, year after year, without end. They departed as two celebrated heroes who stood by the Armenian people at the fateful hour. John Elder wrote on May 26, 1918, as Ottoman Turkish forces advanced to the outskirts of Yerevan: “You never can tell what may happen. Just as the end seems at hand the pendulum swings the other way…After a two-day battle at Sardarabad, the Turks have been completely routed.” With the decisive battle won, two days later, on May 28, 1918, Armenia declared independence.
The only Americans in Yerevan at the time, Elder and Arroll witnessed momentous events and the unfolding of a heart-wrenching humanitarian disaster as the ravages of war were revealed once the fighting stopped. A year elapsed before a new crew of relief workers reached Armenia to lighten the burden that Elder and Arroll shouldered. In the meantime, their efforts and accomplishments had become legend among admiring Armenians and fellow Americans at home.
Addressing the audience, ANI Chairman Krikorian encouraged YMCA members, Peace Corps participants, and others engaged in humanitarian services to see themselves in the eyes of the volunteers from 100 years ago.
Upon the conclusion of the display, the ANI exhibit will travel around Armenia and to Artsakh. ANI and the Armenian Assembly are donating the poster set to YMCA Armenia. The YMCA organizations in cities across the country, such as Gyumri, Spitak, and Vanadzor, will bring the story of the original arrival of the YMCA, and heroic tale of Elder and Arroll, to an even wider public. For Armenian audiences, the 24-panel exhibit was augmented with a two-panel Armenian-language introduction summarizing the key events and personalities highlighted in the story. Along with the support of the YMCA of the USA, preparation of the ANI exhibit was strongly encouraged by the YMCA leadership in Armenia and Europe which previously shared the announcement upon the original release of the digital version of the exhibit in April of this year. YMCA Europe shared the news of the display of the exhibit in Yerevan with its audiences on its website.
The exhibit displays 95 images, 64 from John Elder’s photo collection, 8 contemporaneous records and documents, and 4 maps. With 32 quotations from Elder’s journal authenticating the photographs, along with introductory and explanatory text, the exhibit opens a window into life during the first year of the newly independent Armenian republic in 1918. The exhibit includes the entire set of photographs Elder attributed to his time in Armenia.
Several American relief workers are also mentioned in the exhibit, including Reverend Ernest Yarrow, Gertrude Pearson, F. Tredwell Smith, and Mabel Farrington. Mary Kifer, whose life was cut short after leaving the Caucasus, improbably found romance while conducting relief work in Armenia. Her story parallels “A Farewell to Arms” before Ernest Hemingway wrote his WWI era tragedy.

Other American personalities in the region appearing in the exhibit include F. Willoughby Smith, U.S. Consul in Tiflis, who supported the efforts of the relief workers; Robert McDowell, who was at the front when the Turkish forces broke through and invaded Alexandropol (Gyumri); Dr. John H.T. Main, president of Grinnell College in Iowa, who witnessed the horrific conditions in Armenia firsthand on behalf of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East; missionary Grace Knapp; and John Mott, longtime president of the American YMCA, who, with the encouragement of his friend President Woodrow Wilson, dispatched young Americans wherever they could lend civilian support behind the front to men in combat.
The YMCA digital exhibit is the fifth exhibit developed by ANI. It follows upon other educational material developed for the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, including the four large exhibits displaying hundreds of historic photographs. These exhibits include:
Founded in 1997, the Armenian National Institute (ANI) is a 501(c)(3) educational charity based in Washington, D.C., and is dedicated to the study, research, and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.

Hotels in Armenia began price gouging

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By Wally Sarkeesian

Hotels in Armenia began price gouging. last year this time a hotel rate of $60 now is $90 and over.
Revolutions have both positive and negative impact on the country’s economy, now that more people to visit Armenia the prices have gone up and will have an effect on the regular traveler to Armenia like myself and the hotels and the merchants are taking advantages of the situation. but will this help average Armenian worker time will tell?

The British empire on which the sun never sets to Homelessness everywhere

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It is estimated that some 300,000 people in England are homeless. The number has tripled since the Conservative government’s tough austerity policy began. But a new law is aiming to prevent the problem before it arises.

“Sticky situation, and I got kicked out. So, I came here and started the hostel life,” says Brogan. She is sitting on a fluffy sofa. The sun is shining through the typical English bay windows into the lounge of the hostel for homeless young people. The organization that runs it, Roundabout, offers a home to 27 of them in Sheffield.

The charity Shelter estimates that there are 300,000 homeless people in England. Since the Conservative government’s tough austerity policy began in 2010, the number has risen sharply. Now the government is also focusing on the problem.

The government is counting on more prevention

In mid-August, James Brokenshire, Minister of Municipalities and Housing, presented a legislative initiative. The goal is that by 2027, no one should have to sleep on the street.

Since April, municipalities have been required to offer assistance the day a lease is terminated. Hospitals, prisons and job centers are obliged to refer people directly to social services if there is a risk of them becoming homeless.

With the “Homelessness Reduction Act,” the government is aiming to keep people housed by means of timely intervention.

Homelessness has risen sharply

The Conservatives have been under pressure on this issue for some time. Homelessness is no longer limited to London with its chronically inflated property market. Last year, Labour politician Andy Burnham won the election as mayor of Greater Manchester with the promise to take up the fight against homelessness.

Since then, he has, among other things, donated 15 percent of his salary for this purpose. Across England, 60 percent more people are living in emergency shelters than in 2011, and the number of people sleeping on the streets has more than doubled.

“MPs went home to their constituencies and found that people across the country were talking about homelessness. So, it’s one of these problems that people are talking about everywhere, both in the cities and towns, but also in the shires and the small towns,” says Jon Dean, who is researching the subject at Sheffield University.

Austerity policy has exacerbated the problem

Dean sees the reasons behind the current situation primarily in the cuts to social welfare and housing benefits. “So, the very hard sanctions that were brought in as part of austerity in order to get the welfare budget down to reduce the deficit did have a huge impact on rising levels of homelessness.”

Anyone who misses an appointment at the social security office or job center loses part of his or her social assistance. In addition, charities complain that in many regions of England, rents have risen more sharply than state housing subsidies.

Standard rental contracts in England expire after one year. This has become the main reason why many people end up homeless. Since 2011, the number of people losing their homes has tripled.

Dan Bilzerian receives Armenian citizenship

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American-Armenian professional poker player, “King of Instagram” Dan Bilzerian received an Armenian citizenship, Mnatsakan Bichakhchyan – head of the passport and visa department of Armenia Police, said on Facebook, reports Armenpress.

“Dan and Adam Bilzerian brothers are participating in the oath ceremony on the occasion of receiving an Armenian citizenship”, Mnatsakan Bichakhchyan said, posting the respective photo.

Dan Bilzerian arrived in Armenia on August 27.

Earlier he informed about his visit to Armenia on Twitter: “Flying to Armenia, then Thailand”.

He will stay in Armenia for several days.