The TCA Metro Los Angeles chapter mourns yesterday’s passing of Enger Yervant Azadian, longtime President of the Central Board of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada.   Our deepest condolences to the Azadian, Tcholakian, Ipekian, Papasian, Yeretzian and Armani families and the dedicated men and women who served with Enger Yervant Azadian for decades in the ranks of the Armenian Democratic Liberal party, Tekeyan Cultural Association, AGBU and Armenian Church. Աստուած հոգին լուսաւորէ:   Funeral services will be held at St. John’s Armenian Church in Detroit, Michigan. Funeral details to follow.   Կ’աղօթենք, որ Աստուած երկնային խաղաղութեան մէջ հանգչեցնէ ննջեցեալի հոգին, եւ Սուրբ Հոգիի մխիթարութիւնը պարգեւէ անոր հարազատներուն:   Carl Bardakian, Chairman TCA Metro Los Angeles chapter ԹՄՄ, Մեծագոյն Լոս Անճելըսի Մասնաճիւղ March 25, 2023

Nikol Pashinyan wrote on Twitter after the cabinet session yesterday that “There will be a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and it will be based on official statements made at the highest levels. There will be no new escalation.

The international community must strongly support this narrative.” It seems that Nikol did not understand the meaning of the word narrative, but this is not the point. Pashinyan officially announced that he rejects the proposals of the USA and the European Union to settle the Artsakh problem and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations on the basis of internationally known fundamental principles, considers the Putin-Aliev-Pashinyan tripartite documents as a settlement and will sign the agreement based on them. It is worth recapitulating briefly what these papers imply: Abolition of the administrative and political unit “Nagorno Karabakh”, the ghettoization of Artsakh, then deportation of the native Armenian population, alienation of other regions of Armenia with “demarcation” and corridors from north to south, from east to west, around which villagers will be resettled in their villages. In addition, the first person has already announced the division of Yerevan into the Tzapar and Armenian parts, the Republic Square, along with the state symbols-monuments, being handed over to the Tzapar administration, the grafting of the Armenian ethnic group from its Indo-European, Proto-Asian roots to the Caucasian, Georgian as a sub-ethnic group, replacing the Mesoropian alphabet with Latin. The remaining Armenian population in the territory of RA will serve the Turkish-Tsaparian highways along and at intersections in “doner-kebab” taverns and “old Pera” public houses. All this, of course, is the happy “shakhov-sukhov” of the first family couple, and then the children. Nikol and his “MFA” emphasized in their speeches and statements for a long time that Baku’s rhetoric and actions are aimed at a new escalation. Yesterday Nikol presented the same in bold colors at the government session. However, after the session, he wrote that there will be no escalation. What changed in a couple of hours? His talking goncho announced the day before that they are the ones giving carte blanche to Baku. In other words, Nikol decides whether Baku will escalate or not. • Nikol called Aliyev to shoot immediately. “We give carte blanche to Baku” Nikol’s speech followed his telephone conversation with the US Secretary of State Blinken and Blinken’s statement in the US Senate that they are not imposing anything on Armenia, and referred to Pashinyan’s proposals for a “peace treaty”. It is no coincidence that on the eve of his announcement, Nikol’s pro-Russian supporters and “Westerners” masks, with the harmonious voice of the Russian Foreign Ministry and Baku, began to spread the message that “the presence of European observers does not add anything and, on the contrary, aggravates the tension”, “After Blinken’s call, they cut off the gas to Artsakh. if the Americans don’t intervene, maybe the Lachin Corridor will also open”, “the Americans put a sign of equality between the aggressor and the victim, that’s why they killed an Armenian soldier in Yeraskh” and other such propaganda agency garbage. Nikol’s “scheme” is simple: to leave the country and the people defenseless, to revere Aliyev’s threats from the highest podiums, and to silence the people and the press with the resulting awe and terror, to complete his plan to surrender Armenia. Appeals and complaints to the international community are also a disgusting attempt at packaging.

It’s alarming to see instances of #Armenophobia, the irrational fear or hatred of Armenians, persisting in various parts of the world. One recent example is the case of a #British transport company,

@transglobalexpr, which refused to deliver a package to Georgia because the recipient had an #Armenian name. The company cited the latter’s ban on goods of Armenian nationality and ethnicity, as the reason for blocking the shipment. This discriminatory act is not only unjustified but also violates the principles of fair and equal service that any reputable business should uphold. It is unacceptable for a company to blame its failure to deliver a paid-for product on the ethnicity or nationality of the customer, especially when the customer has no control over the transit routes or political tensions of different countries. Here’s the full letter that the customer received from Transglobal Express Ltd: “…Reference AF-1024065 We afraid this will be returned at your cost as the consignee is unable to receive freight at destination due to consignee being blocked in Baku GYD. I have pushed back for more information and so far they have advised further the reason is due to the name or arrests being Armenian and Azerbaijan and Armenia at war. Azerbaijan will not allow anything through to TBS that contains an Armenian name and/or address, it transpires TBS is a transit point for Armenia given so few services actually arrive into the country. Kind regards, Leanne Powell” We condemn the armenophobic stance of Transglobal Express Ltd and call for the company to take full responsibility for its discriminatory behavior.

@transportgovuk

@FCDOGovUK

@TwitterUK

@EHRC

@AnnelieseDodds We call on the British government to investigate this incident and hold Transglobal Express Ltd accountable for its discriminatory behavior. We also urge you to take measures to prevent such incidents from happening in the future and to raise awareness about armenophobia and other forms of prejudice. We should not tolerate hate in any shape or form, and we should demand accountability from those who perpetrate it. #StopArmenophobia

Alireza Monadi, a representative of Tabriz in the Islamic Consultative Council of Iran, stated that “[Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev should not risk his relative peace.” Monadi’s respective statement is presented by Eurasia Daily, citing the Iranist.

Monadi noted: “We ask Aliyev not to put the life and relative peace of his people at risk with his actions in the conditions of the world economic crisis. Our border with Armenia is one of the country’s assets, and we [i.e., Iran] hope that Aliyev will not make a wrong decision because we have friendly relations with Azerbaijan, and these actions can only weaken our relations.”

The Iranian politician added: “The Islamic Republic [of Iran] will not allow cutting our border with Armenia. Armenia also wants to keep this border, so no one should interfere in this matter.”

By Ahmed Ibrahim,

Ancient religious rituals in which professional gusans (troubadours) were hired to sing lengthy verses praising the nobleman’s ancestors gave rise to the Armenian Theatre in Ancient Greece. Both katakagusan (comedians) and voghbergus (lamentation or tragedy singers) performed at festive ceremonies.

Greek tragedies, orations, and historical commentaries by Tigran’s son Artavazd II were written in the first century A.D. and survived until that time. The second permanent public theater in Armenia was built by Artavazd in the previous capital, Artashat. There were frequent productions of Menander’s comedies and Euripides’ tragedies. He is widely regarded as Armenia’s first playwright and director of Classical Armenian Theater. There was a 53 B.C. performance of the Euripides play The Bacchae, according to Plutarch.

Numerous statues of actors and animal and bird masks were discovered during archaeological digs at the Kaitzun Bert fort in Lori, confirming the historical accounts.

Playwrights Derenik Demirchian (1877-1956) and Alexander Shirvanzade (1858-1935) were already well-known in Armenia before the Communist takeover. They remained in Armenia for the rest of their lives, where they carried on producing art. In the same era as Levon Shant, Demirchyan was a prolific novelist, poet, and playwright.

His most well-known play, Nazar the Brave (Kaj Nazar, 1923), which satirizes bourgeois morality, has been successfully adapted to the big screen. Like his contemporaries, Alexander Shirvanzade wrote in a variety of genres. His plays portray a society that is governed by greed, superstition, and hypocrisy while displaying a strong concern for truth and justice. Chaos, Namus, Evil Spirit, and For the Sake of Honor are some of his plays that are still frequently performed. The conflicting issues in the drama For the Sake of Honor are infused with his masterful use of realism.

Many well-known actors from abroad, including those whose careers had flourished in Western Armenia, came to Yerevan shortly after the Sundukian Theatre attained notoriety to join its repertory. They made significant improvements to its repertory, which included plays translated from classical, European, and American plays as well as plays in Armenian. Its modern repertoire is diverse, with Armenian translations of world-renowned dramatists among its offerings.

Petros Adamian and Vahram Papazian were actors whose accolades included superb interpretations of Shakespearean characters. Adamian specialized in playing Hamlet, which he did in Armenian on the stages of Russia and France. According to legend, Vahram Papazian performed Othello 3,000 times in French, Russian, and Armenian. Istanbul-born Papazian spent the second half of his life (1888–1968) in Soviet Armenia.

When Siranush (1857–1922) performed as Hamlet in the Armenian Theatre in 1902, the “breeches” trend—actresses in male roles—entered the theater. She performed other Shakespearean roles as well as European and Armenian roles, but throughout her thirty-year reign on the Armenian stage, her portrayals of Hamlet were a recurrent part of her repertoire. She had the longest acting career of any Armenian actress on the national stage. In 1916, when Levon Shant’s The Emperor debuted on the Tiflis stage, she and Vahram Papazian performed in it. She and Papazian both portrayed Theophano and Ohan Gourgen.

A Shakespeare Center at the Institute of Arts was established in Yerevan, Armenia, not long after England established the Shakespeare Foundation. Since the 1850s, there have been at least 50 Shakespearean drama translators, but Hovaness Massehian (1864–1922), a career diplomat of Iranian descent and Parisian education, is still the undisputed master. In addition to Armenian, he also spoke English, French, Persian, Russian, German, Arabic, and Turkish. He began by translating Hamlet in 1894, and in the years that followed, he also translated Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Macbeth. Even more of his translations, including Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Julius Caesar, and Coriolanius, were found after his passing. Massehian was a unique person who, during his career in government service, held the position of the Iranian ambassador to Berlin and London.

From the early 20th century until his passing in 1937, Hovaness Zarifian directed Shakespearean plays at the Armenian Art Theatre in New York. Elia Kimatian, a former member of the Zarifian acting troupe, organized the Armenian Youth Federation’s theatrical group, which he later directed and staged in New York City. Beginning in the early 1940s, he founded the group, which enjoyed a string of successes up until the mid-1960s.
The works of William Shakespeare have been a significant source for Armenian intellectuals throughout Armenia’s historical past.

The impact of the USSR

Vavik Vardanyan, a director and educator, was instrumental in the establishment of the Yerevan Theatrical Institute (now the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema) in 1944. People who had aspirations of building a brand-new theater stage made up the first generation of the institute’s alumni. Moscow directors were influential due to the close ties between the Soviet acting and directing schools. It should be noted that young directors who start their schools are linked to the history of theater in Soviet Armenia. One of them was Armen Gulakyan, who studied at the Armenian Drama Studio in Moscow (1918–1925), founded on the same principles as the Moscow Art Theatre Studio, under such luminaries as Yuri Zavadsky, Georgii Burdzhalov, Boris Shchukin, and Ruben Simonov. He studied under Alexander Tairov, the director and creator of Moscow’s Kamerny Theatre (Chamber Theatre), watched the growth of the Vakhtang Theatre, and attended plays at Vsevolod Meyerhold’s Theatre. Gulakyan eventually rose to lead the Theatre of Sundukyan.
Vardan Adzhemyan, a distinguished theatre director and educator of Soviet Armenian descent, started his career in Tbilisi before moving on to Yerevan.

He graduated from the Armenian Drama Studio in Moscow, just like Gulakyan. Adzhemyan returned to his native country after completing his training as a director and worked as an art director at the Theatre of A. Mravyan in Leninakan. Vardan Adzhemyan staged more than 200 plays throughout his career in numerous theaters all over Armenia, greatly influencing the growth of the directing and theatrical arts.

Repertory theaters and the directing school were instrumental in the 20th-century transformation of Armenian theater. This is because Armenian actors who appeared on various stages and went on tour with well-known bands were largely responsible for the theater’s fame in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The development of theater was greatly aided by the establishment of the national theater and school.

The development of new experimental theaters was influenced by the Soviet past, and today’s theatrical productions in Armenia are concentrated in large cities, particularly the capital. Armenian theater after the fall of the USSR is primarily discussed in terms of state theaters, which does not give a complete picture of the country’s theater scene.

Source: https://ahmedibrahim781.medium.com/armenian-theater-48c0a364482e

Dear participants of the meeting, dear people. I want to send a message to all of you and the international community. There will and will be a peace agreement on the basis of the written documents obtained at the highest levels. This was announced by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan at the government session a little while ago.

“The RA government and the public should engage in daily creative work, building, reforming, creating good, and strengthening the security system. We should not deviate for a single minute from the path of development, strengthening of Armenia, and strengthening of our democracy,” he added.

Ամբողջական հոդվածը կարող եք կարդալ այս հասցեով՝ : https://hraparak-am.translate.goog/post/761590671c18df90dc3299a6bb6d2af8?_x_tr_sl=hy&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui,sc

© 2008 – 2021 «Հրապարակ օրաթերթ»

Washington, D.C. – The Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) mourns the loss of educator and scholar Dr. Dennis Papazian, who served as a leader and pillar of the Armenian community through his achievements in academia, advocacy and church stewardship. In addition to his tenure as a professor, Dr. Papazian served as the Co-Chairman of the Assembly and the founding Executive Director in Washington, D.C. in the mid-1970s.

Dr. Papazian was honored with the Distinguished Humanitarian Award by the Assembly during its 50th Anniversary Gala held in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 2022.

Upon accepting his award, Dr. Papazian looked back on his position as Director of the Assembly and noted that “a couple of months turned into three years,” namely because of the “enthusiasm of the Steering Committee to make the organization work.”

“What I discovered back then was if you want to be successful, you can’t worry about who gets credit,” he said. “By working together, we all succeed and can lead Armenians onto a more glorious future.”

Under Dr. Papazian’s leadership as Executive Director of the Assembly, the organization worked with key elected officials to secure passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the House of Representatives. He was also instrumental in implementing a number of Assembly programs, including its Summer Internship Program in Washington, D.C. and the Lebanon Aid Project, with grants which he helped secure from the U.S. Agency for International Development to support the recovery of the Armenian community in Beirut.

Born the youngest of four children in Augusta, Georgia, to Armenian immigrant parents, Dr. Papazian and his family moved to a budding Armenian community in Detroit, Michigan in the mid-1940s. Dr. Papazian earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Wayne State University, and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which coincided with special courses of study at Harvard University and Moscow State University, as he became one of the first American students to study in the then-Soviet Union. Dr. Papazian taught at the University of Michigan, Dearborn from 1962 until his retirement in 2006.

His academic work coincided with his involvement in the Armenian American community, providing a lifetime of service in Armenian Genocide education, awareness, and affirmation.

As the founding director of the Armenian Research Center (ARC) at the University of Michigan, Dearborn in 1985, Dr. Dennis Papazian made major contributions to academia by facilitating research and publications on all aspects of Armenian history, literature, and culture. ARC’s rich depository of documentation, publications, periodicals, audio-visual collections, and oral histories of Armenian Genocide survivors is first-rate, and serves as an international center for scholars and students focused on the research, dissemination, and publication of all things Armenian.

Dr. Papazian traveled extensively, presenting papers and delivering lectures in several countries. He conducted research on the USSR and personally worked with the U.S. Department of State to coordinate an exchange between the University of Michigan and Moscow State University. In 1976, he received an award from the State Department honoring his work as a scholar and diplomat, which was followed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1977, and an award from the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1978.

Dr. Papazian is survived by his wife, academic Dr. Mary Papazian, who most recently served as President of San Jose State University, and their two daughters, Ani and Marie.

Memorial services will be held across the country to honor Dr. Papazian’s life. Visitation will be held at St. Andrew Armenian Church in Cupertino, CA on Thursday, March 30 at 6:00 pm with a prayer service at 7:00 pm. The funeral service will take place at St. Leon Armenian Cathedral in Burbank, CA and will be officiated by His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian on Tuesday, April 4 at 9:30 am. A graveside service will follow at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, with a memorial luncheon to follow. A 40-day memorial service will take place at St. John’s Armenian Church in Southfield, MI on Sunday, April 30, with a reception to follow. 

In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the Dennis R. Papazian Memorial Foundation for advancing Armenian scholarship, education, and leadership. Donations can be mailed to the Dennis R. Papazian Memorial Foundation in the care of Robert Arshagouni, 9176 Independence Avenue, Chatsworth, CA 91311.

The retired soldiers demanding better pay were clashing with riot police and troops

BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse hundreds of protesters, mainly retired soldiers, who tried to break through the fence leading to the government headquarters in downtown Beirut.
The violence came amid widespread anger over the harsh economic conditions in the country, where mismanagement by the ruling class has been rampant for years, preceding the economic meltdown that started in late 2019.
The retired soldiers demanding better pay were clashing with riot police and troops. Several people suffered breathing problems from the tear gas. The protesters hurled stones at the officers protecting the government headquarters and repeatedly tried to break through the fence.
The Lebanese pound hit a new low on Tuesday, selling for more than 143,000 pounds to the dollar before making some gains. The pound has lost more than 96 percent of its value over the past three years.
“My monthly salary is $40. How can I survive,” screamed a retired army officer.
Lebanon, a small Mediterranean nation of 6 million people, is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a political class that has ruled the country since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
The political class has also resisted the implementation of reforms demanded by the international community. Since the economic meltdown began, three-quarters of the population, which includes 1 million Syrian refugees, now lives in poverty and inflation is soaring.
Lebanon has also stalled on reforms agreed to with the International Monetary Fund to enable access to $3 billion in a bailout package and unlock funds in development aid to make the economy viable again.

HDP decision not to field contender boosts efforts of an alliance seeking to unseat Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Turkey’s third-biggest political party has said it will not field its own candidate for president in May’s election,

a move that is likely to boost support for the main opposition candidate hoping to end incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two decades in power. The Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), whose base is overwhelmingly Kurdish, stopped short of explicitly backing Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition party who has the support of five other groups that have formed an alliance to unseat Erdoğan. But the HDP’s decision, announced on Wednesday, reduces the chances of a major split in the opposition vote as Kılıçdaroğlu seeks to consolidate support ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary vote. The HDP has the support of an estimated 12 percent of the electorate, and analysts say its voters could swing the election outcome.

source: https://www.ft.com/content/681bbff7-f923-46de-99ed-15f1d462c92d

It is difficult to overestimate the role of the Stepanakert airport in the first Artsakh war.

In the early 1990s, Yak-40 aircraft and Mi-8 helicopters provided air communication between Armenia and Artsakh. The “air bridge” played a very important role, especially before the opening of the Lachin (Berdzor) corridor. Flights were operated not only to Stepanakert, but also to various settlements and terminals in the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, the Shahumyan region and the Getashen subregion.

Under fire from the ground and targeted by Azerbaijani combat aircraft in the air, Armenian pilots transported the bodies of victims, the wounded, women and children, the elderly, as well as various humanitarian aid to Artsakh, including food and fuel, as well as weapons and ammunition and freedom fighters. The flights were carried out by the pilots and aircraft of the 2nd Yerevan Detachment based at Yerevan’s Erebuni Airport.

“The flights were carried out in unfavorable weather and geographical conditions, at the lowest possible altitude and with intensive maneuvers,” writes Dmitry Atbashyan, former head of the Armenian Civil Aviation Department (1971-1987), in his unpublished book on aviation in Armenia. Transportation of large containers of fuel for combat equipment by Yak-40 passenger planes was a problem. The containers moved back and forth, which disrupted the aircraft’s center of gravity making a difficult situation worse. Nevertheless, the Armenian pilots managed to fly.

The main bases for flights to Artsakh in Armenia were Erebuni, Sisian and Goris airports, although there were also flights from other airports, particularly from Gavar and Vardenis.

“Today, everyone agrees that without the planes and helicopters of the Armenian Civil Aviation Department, without the airports of Stepanakert, Goris and Sisian, we would have lost the Artsakh war,” the famous aviator writes in his book, adding that this fact speaks about how important it is for any sovereign state to have its own civil aviation, a developed material and technical base and, primarily, national aviation personnel.

In this regard, Atbashyan emphasizes that foreign pilots would not fly for the benefit of the Armenian side in the conditions that arose during the evacuation of Armenians from Azerbaijan and the hostilities in Artsakh. The experienced aviator writes that in the first war the Azerbaijani Civil Aviation Department faced such a problem. “With almost no national staff, they had to hire mercenaries there with large sums of money, who, however, tried to avoid the slightest risk. And that is why the Azerbaijanis lost in the silent competition of the two neighboring departments.”

Civilian aircraft targeted by Azerbaijan

As noted, the flights to Artsakh, and from there to Armenia, were carried out in rather dangerous conditions, first of all taking into account the enemy factor. Here are some such cases that were directly related to Stepanakert airport.

On March 27, 1992, a Yak-40 passenger plane flying from Stepanakert to Yerevan, commanded by Mikael Andreasyan, was targeted by Azerbaijani aircraft. The plane was fired on from the Strela-2 anti-aircraft missile system, which, fortunately, did not explode, instead damaging one of the three engines of the Yak-40. The crew of the plane had to turn off the engine and managed to land successfully at Erebuni Airport. According to available data, there were 30 passengers and 4 crew members on board. There were no casualties.

After Armenian independence, the aircraft of the national airline Armenian Airlines (AAL) at Erebuni Airport was assumed by Ararat Avia, a company established on the basis of AAL. Another of the latter’s Yak-40s (still with Soviet SSR-87532 registration) was attacked on May 9, 1992.

The plane flying from Stepanakert to Yerevan was targeted by an Azerbaijani Su-25 combat plane while approaching the Kelbajar region. The latter opened fire on a passenger plane, after which the right wing of the Yak-40 started to burn, and the cockpit and the cabin began to fill with smoke. Flight engineer Artavazd Sahakyan had to seal the emergency exits, and pilots Harutyun Davtyan and Mikael Andreasyan managed to land the plane at Sisian Airport.

n addition to the three-man crew, there were 28 passengers on the plane (this, according to Captain H. Davtyan. Zori Balayan says there were 33. Other sources indicate 30. Moreover, according to Armenian data, there were freedom fighters in the cabin, including wounded. Foreign sources mention refugees). After the evacuation, the plane completely burned. There were no victims, but both pilots were injured because of the hard landing.

Vagif Gurbanov, the pilot of the Azerbaijani Su-25 that attacked the Armenian plane, seized the combat plane with his fellow servicemen on April 8, 1992 from the CIS air base in Sitalchay, Azerbaijan. He also used the Su-25 to target Armenian settlements. On June 13, 1992, over the skies of Askeran, Armenian anti-aircraft guns destroyed the plane and Gurbanov, the pilot.

Azerbaijani forces not only targeted Armenian planes in the air, but also planes parked at Stepanakert airport. In the above-mentioned case, on May 9, 1992, the Armenian Yak-40 had to get back in the air immediately after landing in Stepanakert to avoid being bombed by Azerbaijani aircraft. However, shortly after the start of the flight to Yerevan, Gurbanov’s Su-25 attacked the civilian aircraft in the sky.

One of the most tragic accidents of the Yak-40

Another incident related to Stepanakert airport is one of the most tragic in the history of Yak-40. According to aviation-safety.net, a website that deals with plane crash statistics, the plane struck a cloud-covered hill in the Lachin region, during its approach to Stepanakert, killing 46. This is the third largest disaster in the history of the Yak-40.

Read more on: https://hetq.am/en/article/126065