July 8 Vardavar water festival, Yerevan facing Water Shortage.

July 6, 2018 By administrator

Vardavar water festival

YEREVAN — Armenia’s water provider has pledged to restore full supply in the nation’s capital, where residents have complained about water shortages amid a record heat wave that has hit the entire Caucasus region.

Veolia Djur, the Armenian unit of France-based Veolia, on July 6 said it would have water services restored by July 7 — which coincidentally is the eve of Vardavar, a religious festival in Armenia during which people traditionally pour water on each other in the streets.

The company, which provides maintenance of water and sewage services nationwide, reported major breakdowns in the system that forced it to disconnect entire Yerevan neighborhoods from the water supply for several hours.

The difficulties came as temperatures in Yerevan and the rest of Armenia in recent days hovered around 40 degrees Celsius, adding to residents’ discomfort.

The heat wave is shattering temperature records and causing power outages in the other Caucasus nations of Azerbaijan and Georgia and in Iran. Temperatures reached 53 degrees in Iran.

Gor Grigorian, operations director at Veolia Djur, said the water supply to the whole of Yerevan will be restored by July 7.

“Sometimes breakdowns require much time to repair. In this incidence, it coincided with hot weather, a breakdown of pumps, and a breakdown of the water main,” said Grigorian.

The French company in 2016 won a 15-year contract worth about 800 million euros to provide all drinking and wastewater services in Armenia.

Before winning the nationwide contract, the company provided similar services to Yerevan for more than 10 years, employing some 1,200 people in the capital.

Armenian caligraphy takes center stage at Smithsonian Folklife Festival

July 4, 2018 By administrator

Ruben Malayan

Ruben Malayan, a lean, goateed artist, is teaching kids and visitors at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., to write the letter “A” in Armenian calligraphy, the National Public Radio says.

On a sheet of computer paper, he inks a shape that looks like an old English “W,” using a pen with a flat metal nib. His strokes — black line after black line, in perfect symmetrical succession — are hypnotic.

“It’s like a rhythm, like you’re playing the piano,” Malayan says as he draws. “Long notes, long lines, short notes, short lines.” The students watch him for a beat, then practice scratching out their own lines. Over the past two weeks, he’s been teaching workshops and talking about Armenian calligraphy under a little white tent at the festival.

Back home in Armenia, Malayan, 47, is a painter, a graphic artist and the creator of the iconic protest posters that became a symbol of his country’s revolution in April.

Using a mix of traditional calligraphy and bold block script, Malayan hand-painted signs that said “defend the revolution” and “be brave” — then gave them away to people in the streets. Protesters used these fierce slogans to pressure Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan to step down. And a few weeks later, he did.’

A report from Al Jazeera in May called Malayan’s placards the “pop art of the revolution.”

Malayan, also a professor of visual communication at the American University of Armenia, is the author of The Art of Armenian Calligraphy. He’s trying to revive the art of calligraphy in his country.

Photo. Malaka Gharib/NPR

Bulgaria: Turkish-Armenian artist Julia Mutlu’s Memories from Akhtamar photo exhibition held in Sofia,

July 2, 2018 By administrator

Akhtamar photo exhibition

A photo exhibition of Armenian national dresses (taraz) titled “Memories from Akhtamar” was opened June 28th in the Museum of Ethnography in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The exhibition was organized by the Institute of Ethnographic Research of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the AGBU’s Sofia branch, the ministry of foreign affairs said.

The exhibition features a collection of Armenian national dresses, designed by Turkish-Armenian artist Julia Mutlu, displayed by models posing near Armenian churches, monuments and other sites in Van, Turkey.

The models for the photoshoot were Turks of different ages.

Armenia’s Ambassador to Bulgaria Armen Sargsyan took part in the opening of the exhibition along with representatives of the Armenian community of the city and local figures.

The photos were also displayed in Plovdiv.

This year’s Smithsonian Unfurling the Rich Tapestry of Armenian Culture

June 27, 2018 By administrator

Rich Tapestry of Armenian Culture

This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival will offer a window on Armenian visions of home.

By Ryan P. Smith,

A modestly sized landlocked nation framed by the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian to the east, Armenia links the southernmost former Soviet Socialist Republics with the arid sprawl of the Middle East. Armenia’s own geography is heavily mountainous, its many ranges separated by sweeping plateaus of vivid green. The wind is stiff and the climate temperate, and the mountainsides teem with archaeological treasures of a long and meandering history.

Thousands of years ago, the land known as Armenia was roughly seven times the size of the current country. Yet even within the borders of contemporary Armenia, cathedrals, manuscript repositories, memorials and well-worn mountain paths are so dense as to offer the culturally and historically curious a seemingly endless array of avenues to explore.

This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival will be bringing deeply rooted Armenian culture to Washington, D.C. From food and handicrafts to music and dance, the festival, taking place in late June and early July, will provide an intimate look at an extremely complex nation. Catalonia, the autonomous region of northeast Spain, is featured alongside Armenia.

What exactly makes Armenia’s cultural landscape so fascinating?

Library of Congress Armenia area specialist Levon Avdoyan, Tufts Armenian architecture expert Christina Maranci, and the Smithsonian’s Halle Butvin, curator of the festival’s “Armenia: Creating Home” program explain the many nuances of the Armenian narrative.

What was Armenia’s early history like?

Given its strategic geographical status as a corridor between seas, Armenia spent much of its early history occupied by one of a host of neighboring superpowers. The period when the Armenia was most able to thrive on its own terms, Levon Avodyan says, was when the powers surrounding it were evenly matched, and hence when none was able to dominate the region (historians call this principle Garsoïan’s Law, after Columbia University Armenia expert Nina Garsoïan).

Foreign occupation was often brutal for the Armenian people. Yet it also resulted in the diversification of Armenian culture, and allowed Armenia to exert significant reciprocal influence on the cultures of its invaders. “Linguistically, you can show that this happened,” Avodoyan says. “Architecturally this happened.” He says Balkan cruciform churches may very well have their artistic roots in early Armenian designs.

What religious trends shaped Armenia?

It’s hard to say what life looked like in pre-Christian Armenia, Avdoyan admits, given that no Armenian written language existed to record historical events during that time. But there are certain things we can be reasonably sure about. Zoroastrianism, a pre-Islamic faith of Persian origin, predominated. But a wide array of regionally variant pagan belief systems also helped to define Armenian culture.

The spontaneous blending of religious beliefs was not uncommon. “Armenia was syncretistic,” Avdoyan says, meaning that the religious landscape was nonuniform and ever-changing . “The entire pagan world was syncretistic. ‘I like your god, we’re going to celebrate your god. Ah, Aphrodite sounds like our Arahit.’ That sort of thing.”

Armenia has long had strong ties with Christian religion. In fact, Armenia was the first nation ever to formally adopt Christianity as its official faith, in the early years of the fourth century A.D. According to many traditional sources, says Levon Avdoyan, “St. Gregory converted King Tiridates, and Tiridates proclaimed Christianity, and all was well.” Yet one hundred years after this supposedly smooth transition, acceptance of the new faith was still uneven, Avdoyan says, and the Armenian language arose as a means of helping the transition along.

“There was a plan put forth by King Vramshapu and the Catholicos (church patriarch) Sahak the Great to invent an alphabet so that they could further propagate the Christian faith,” he explains.

As the still-employed Greek-derived title “Catholicos” suggests, the Christian establishment that took hold in the fourth century was of a Greek orientation. But there is evidence of Christianity in Armenia even before then—more authentically Armenian Christianity adapted from Syriac beliefs coming in from the south. “From Tertullian’s testimony in the second century A.D.,” says Avdoyan, “we have some hints that a small Armenian state was Christian in around 257 A.D.”

Though this alternative take on Christianity was largely snuffed out by the early-fourth century pogroms of rabidly anti-Christian Roman Emperor Diocletian, Avdoyan says facets of it have endured to this day, likely including the Armenian custom of observing Christmas on January 6.

How did Armenia respond to the introduction of Christian beliefs? With the enshrinement of Christianity came a period characterized by what Avdoyan generously terms “relative stability” (major instances of conflict—including a still-famous battle of 451 AD that pitted Armenian nobles against invading Persians eager to reestablish Zoroastrianism as the official faith—continued to crop up). Yet the pagan lore of old did not evaporate entirely. Rather, in Christian Armenia, classic pagan myth was retrofitted to accord with the new faith.

“You can tell that some of these tales, about Ara the Beautiful, etc., have pagan antecedents but have been brought into the Christian world,” Avdoyan says. Old pagan themes remained, but the pagan names were changed to jibe with the Christian Bible.

The invention of an official language for the land of Armenia meant that religious tenets could be disseminated as never before. Armenia’s medieval period was characterized by the proliferation of ideas via richly detailed manuscripts.

Continue Reading on: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/unfurling-rich-tapestry-armenian-culture-180969251/

From Wally Sarkeesian travel book; must see (COAF) Smart center in Lori region, Video

June 26, 2018 By administrator

(COAF) Smart center

From Wally Sarkeesian travel book; must see Education Center in the paradise, no I am not exaggerating.

see how one man dream turn a remote area of Armenia into Children Education Paradise.

the Stunning architecture married to the landscape without insulting the mother nature (COAF) Smart center in Lori region, Armenia. very impressive educational center, located in the most beautiful region of Armenian. Another diaspora successful project, it was very bumpy road it took us over 4-hour drive but it was worthy, it was very exciting to meet the children and the staff. the building structure design looks like you landed on the moon, the trip and the conversation with the fellow journalist from all over Armenian was very educational and delightful,

Elected Officials to Discuss Politics, Policy & Civic Engagement at Homenetmen Youth Centennial Forum

June 22, 2018 By administrator

Homenetmen Youth Centennial Forum

Earlier today, Homenetmen Western U.S.A. announced the lineup for its “Envisioning the Future: Youth, Politics, and Power,” panel to take place at its centennial Youth Forum this Saturday, June 23, 2018 at the Woodbury University Fletcher Jones Auditorium. California State Senator Anthony Portantino and Glendale City Clerk Ardashes Kassakhian will be joined by activist and ANCA-Western Region Board Member Anahid Oshagan as moderator.

The panel will cover an array of avenues youth can be civically engaged in, including grassroots organizing, running for elected office, and becoming active participants in shaping policies and enacting change. Panelists will also address how policy changes on the local, state and federal levels have transformed the political atmosphere and what this means for current and upcoming generations of students and Californians. Furthermore, the panelists will provide an update on policy issues important to the Armenian-American community.

“I am excited to share my experience in public service with young activists. I look forward to a robust discussion on Saturday,” stated Senator Portantino.

Senator Portantino has a long and distinguished record of service, which includes six years in the California State Assembly, representing the 44th Assembly District, nearly eight years on the La Cañada Flintridge City Council, with two terms as Mayor, and vice chair of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Committee. He also served as president of the League of California Cities Mayors and Councilmembers Department, and the legislative chair of the California Contract Cities Association.

Portantino was elected to the California State Senate, representing the 25th district, in 2016. In 2017, he was named ANCA Western Region’s “Legislator of the Year.”

Since his first days in office, Portantino has championed issues important to the Armenian community. He established the historic Senate Select Committee on California, Armenia, and Artsakh Mutual Trade, Art and Culture Exchange, which aims to expand business opportunities through trade, economic development, cultural awareness, and education between California, Armenia, and Artsakh. He also acquired an additional $3 million of funding from the State of California, a vital step in realizing the foundation of an Armenian-American Museum. As Chair of the Budget Subcommittee on Education, Portantino secured $10 million to fund the History/Social Science curriculum framework and to ensure that young Californians were educated about the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide.

In his capacity as Chair of the Senate Education Budget Sub-Committee, Portantino personally submitted two important education proposals on behalf of Armenian Californians into the California State Budget, which were both adopted on June 19th. The submission included six full tuition scholarships at Hastings College of Law for graduates of the American University of Armenia and a $500,000 state grant to create study guides for California schools to properly teach the Armenian Genocide.

Recently, Portantino was appointed as Chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

Kassakhian has served as Glendale’s City Clerk for the past 14 years and is the first person ever elected City Clerk in an open election for the position in Glendale’s 75-year history. His landslide victory in a field of nine candidates made history, also making him the youngest person elected to public office in Glendale.

During his tenure as City Clerk, Ardy has helped educate thousands of non-English speaking citizens in Glendale about the voting process, spearheading groundbreaking efforts to teach voting in Spanish, Armenian, Korean, and Tagalog. His efforts have gained attention from regional and national agencies for their creativity and ingenuity. Ardy continues to take his passion for voting and the democratic process beyond the voting booth and into the classroom to engage students in high schools and colleges in order to encourage involvement at an early age in their local government. He is a regular lecturer around the county and state on this topic and has created a curriculum on US Campaign History for high school students.

Ardy spent his early career in political campaigns and coupled that experience with a career in public relations, working for one of California’s largest public affairs PR firms. During this time, he represented international labor unions and fortune 500 companies, while working on national, state and local campaigns and initiatives, Kassakhian left the private sector to become the government relations director and later executive director of the Western U.S. offices of a national non-profit which specialized in human rights advocacy, voters rights education, and public affairs.

He worked closely with members of state legislatures throughout the Western U.S. and in the U.S. Congress on policy issues affecting Armenian-Americans. Ardy became an active member of the Los Angeles County Voter Outreach Committee (CVOC) – a group created specifically to seek different methods to raise voter participation in county, state and federal elections. Ardy’s efforts have helped make the County of LA the only county that provides Armenian language translations for election materials and information on its website.

Ardy holds a B.A. in History from UCLA, where he also participated in the University’s Center of American Politics and Public Policy program in Washington, D.C.

A member of the ANCA-Western Region Board of Directors since 2016, Oshagan’s history of activism dates back to 1988, when she first served as an intern for the organization in Washington D.C.. Among many other contributions, Oshagan has also served as ANCA-WR TV and ANCA-WR Telethon host and on the boards of the Glendale YWCA and Glendale Ghapan Sister City Organization.

Oshagan, along with her husband, Ara, is also a curator for ReflectSpace Gallery, located inside Downtown Central Library. ReflectSpace is designed to explore and reflect on major human atrocities, genocides, and civil rights violations. Immersive in conception, the gallery is a hybrid space that is both experiential and informative, employing art, technology, and interactive media to reflect on the past and present of Glendale’s communal fabric and interrogate current-day global human rights issues.

During the Armenian Genocide Centennial, Oshagan served as project coordinator for the largest public art installation in Grand Park in Los Angeles. As an integral part of the iwitness Project, Anahid also helped secure the City of Los Angeles’s first permanent monument dedicated to the Armenian Genocide in Downtown Grand Park.

Upon acquiring her bachelor’s degree from CSUN in English Literature and humanities, she taught English as a second language to refugees, before attending the Whittier College School of Law. She also studied Comparative European Union Law at Facultat Dret in Barcelona, Spain.

She currently practices law in Glendale. In 2009, she received the Armenian American Chamber of Commerce Women in Law award. During her spare time, she servers as an assistant coach for the American Youth Soccer Organization.

The forum will begin at 11AM and will also include previously announced panels – “Empowering the Future: Your Step For a Stronger Armenia” featuring Director of the Sosé and Allen’s Legacy Foundation Vaché Thomassian, Public Relations Coordinator for the Hidden Road Initiative Margarita Baghdasaryan, and political consultant and founder of The Stark Group Elen Asatryan. “Mobilizing the Future: Elevating Your Cause Through Activism” featuring moderator Dr. Talin P. Kargodorian, currently principal of Vahan and Anoush Chamlian Armenian School; former Armenian Youth Federation Central Executive member Joseph Kaskanian; Founding Board Member of the Homenetmen Youth Committee Varand Avanesian; Hyer United Board Member Meher Khechadori; Bridge of Health President Robert Agaverdian; and ALL-Armenian Student Association Advisor to the Executive Board Ripsime Biyazyan. “Fusing the Future: The Power of Mass and Social Media” will be lead by Emmy Award nominated general assignment reporter for KTLA 5 News Ellina Abovian, founder and director of New Michigan Media Hayg Oshagan, and founder of Seviant™ Studios Sevan Torossian.

A Mix and Mingle Social will follow the forum at Alumni Quad on the green.

Community members are encouraged to visit www.WeAre100.info for additional information. For sponsorship opportunities, call (510) 858-4003 or email sponsorship@weare100.info. For up to the minute updates, follow Homenetmen on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HomenetmenUSAWR and Instagram at @Homenetmen_Western_USA.

The Youth Forum is part of a series of events for Homenetmen Western Region’s centennial anniversary. Additional details on the forum and other panels are forthcoming.

The forum will be followed by an innovative, historical exhibition – open to the public on September 16th; an all-day street festival on the same day of the exhibition opening; the Navasartian Games and Festival from July 3th-7th; and a Victory Ball on July 1. Centennial activities will conclude with the official Centennial Celebration Programs scheduled for October 5th in Northern California and October 28th in Southern California at Glendale High School.

The Armenian General Athletic Union and Scouts, referred to as Homenetmen, is a 501 (C)3 non-profit organization founded in 1918, which has to date served more than 800,000 youth in five continents. Homenetmen Western Region currently has 19 chapters. It is the largest Armenian athletic and scouting organization in the United States.

Armenian sprinter Gayane Chiloyan wins U20 Balkan Championship in Istanbul

June 22, 2018 By administrator

Armenian sprinter Gayane Chiloyan

Armenian sprinter Gayane Chiloyan has won gold at the Balkan U20 Championship in Istanbul.

Chiloyan, the athlte who represented Armenia at the 31^st Summer Olympics, won the 400m event with a 55,56 result.

More than 400 athletes from 16 countries are taking part in the championship.

Silver and bronze medals were captured by Romania and Serbia respectively.

Last night Armenia celebrates the 100th anniversary of the First Republic of Armenia Video

May 28, 2018 By administrator

Armenia celebrates the 100th anniversary of the First Republic of Armenia. A festive concert took place at the Republic Square where Sirusho, Sevak Khanaghyan, Hasmik Karapetyan and other stars sang.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President Armen Sarkissian, other officials and many citizens were present at the concert.

Armenia: Century of Victories military parade kicks off in Sardarapat Memorial

May 28, 2018 By administrator

Sardarapat Memorial near a village in Armavir province.

YEREVAN, MAY 28, The Century of Victories military parade dedicated to the centennial of the First Armenian Republic kicks off in the Sardarapat Memorial near a village in Armavir province.

Today, Armenia and Armenians around the globe are celebrating the centennial anniversary of establishment of the First Republic of Armenia and the historic victory in the Battle of Sardarapat. May 28 is celebrated as Republic Day in the Armenian calendar.

Numerous events and programs such as forums, conferences, cultural and public performances, are expected to take place nationwide. Celebrations will take place in Artsakh as well.

Government officials will pay a visit to the Sardarapat Memorial to pay tribute to the memory of the fallen heroes who gave their lives for independence and freedom.

A military parade will also take place in Sardarapat.

The holiday will be wrapped up with a concert in Yerevan’s Republic Square in the evening.

On May 28, 1918 the Armenian people restored their independence, which was lost nearly 9 centuries earlier, with the triumphant victories in the fierce battles of Karakilisa, Bash Abaran and Sardarapat.

The Battle of Sardarapat shaped the destiny of Armenia. The entire people, who survived the genocide, joined forces and entire families, including women, children and elderly, were fighting alongside soldiers.

With this victory, Armenian troops were able to stop the Turkish invasion to Transcaucasia and saved Armenia from total destruction.

On May 28, after the collapse of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic in Tbilisi, the Armenian National Council declared the Republic of Armenia.

The first Prime Minister of the First Armenian Republic was Hovhannes Kajaznuni, and the last – Simon Vratsyan.

The short-lived First Republic of Armenia was subsequently invaded by the Red Army in 1920 and two years later the country became part of the USSR.

Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) SMART Center opened its doors in the Lori region

May 27, 2018 By administrator

Wally Sarkeesian with Garo Armen, founder and executive director of the Children of Armenia Fund.

By Wally Sarkeesian

Over 700 people attended the opening ceremony from government, industry, educational institutions, and technology leadership. very impressive educational center, located in the most beautiful region of Armenian. Another diaspora successful project, it was very bumpy road it took us over 4-hour drive but it was worthy, it was very exciting to meet the children and the staff. the building structure design looks like you landed on the moon, the trip and the conversation with the fellow journalist from all over Armenian was very educational and delightful, Special thanks to Anahit Evoyan, Media Relations Coordinator Job well done.

The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) SMART Center opened its doors in the Lori region of Armenia on May 27. It was noted that $ 5 million was invested in the project.
It was located at the crossroads of Dsegh and Debed villages. Smart will differ from other information technology centers by its programs and there will not be an age limit.Lori Smart Education Center is a three-wing building. It will have an alternative option of education, it will also have classrooms for parents and adults, as well as rooms for small children.
The innovative wing of the training center will consist of robotics room, an art center, a medical education room which will have all the necessary equipment for the first medical aid.
The digital library will provide an opportunity to use mainly e-books, although there will also be printed options.
The center will also have a computer room teaching coding, programming, graphic design and animation technics. There will also be English language programs for both children and adults.
The construction of the center has been financed by American-Armenian businessman, founder of the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), Garo Armen.

“If you want to inspire people, especially young people, you have to build something that will have a unique effect. My friend’s words are: And we have created the COAF SMART Center in the heart of this beautiful countryside countryside, “said Garo Armen, founder and executive director of the Children of Armenia Fund.

The Children’s Fund of Armenia (COAF) SMART Center is already operating in Debet community of Lori region.
SMART Innovative Concept Changes the Image of Rural Armenia, making it an integral part of the international community. By investing $ 5 million, this project aims to develop local resources and create opportunities for communities to use.
COAF SMART is a comprehensive environment for non-formal education. It provides equal and adequate opportunities for villages, 150,000 young people aged over 3 and adults.

SMART Center’s four pillars include innovation and creativity, language and communication, entrepreneurship and local economic development, active citizenship and personal development.

“In the face of SMART Center, we will have a new example of a creative environment. And such examples will be distributed in the near future by our personal efforts in the Republic of Armenia. My dear teenagers, be dreamers and ambitious, because your dreams and ambitions are the goals that will be put on the table of our government, and in general, at the tables of all future governments, “RA Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan said in his congratulatory speech.
Information technology and foreign language are based on SMART software programs and training materials.
SMRT’s regional partner in robotics and programming is the Next-Gen Laboratory of Automated Enterprise Resource Management (SAP).
“SAP develops the latest technology available to students in Armenia, like blockbuster. As a leader in corporate programming, SAP strives to develop communities that use our technology and provide the world’s youth with the skills needed to implement their own goals in a globalized world, “said SAP CIS director Ilya Yuryev.
COOPF collaborates with PicsArt, the developer’s application has 100 million monthly users. It allows you to mount photos and share their exciting and unexpected solutions with friends. A new partnership has been established with the “Instigate” robotics and retraining company for the purpose of bringing a variety of technologies and skills to the COAF SMART center.