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Armenia to celebrate Battle of Sardarapat and the Battle of Bash Abaran Century of Victories on Monday

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YEREVAN, MAY 26,  The day after tomorrow, Monday, Armenia will celebrate two significant events – Republic Day (100th anniversary of establishment of first republic) and the 100th anniversary of the “Heroic Battles of May” –  the historic battles which took place in early 20th century and were a turning point for the country – most notably the Battle of Sardarapat and the Battle of Bash Abaran. The Armenian victories at these battles halted the invasion of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenia’s law enforcement issued a notification ahead of the celebrations on the schedule of events for that day.

Citizens willing to attend celebrations at the Sardarapat Memorial can travel to the area by special buses from Yerevan’s Republic Square at 08:30 in the morning.

The celebrations carry the title – Century of Victories.

A celebration will also kick off 20:30 in Yerevan’s Republic Square.

Several nearby streets will be shut down for safety reasons from 17:00.

 

Around 260 million Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 7

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Badnjak’ ceremony in Serbia

A Serbian Orthodox priest attends the ceremonial burning of oak tree branches, or badnjak, on Christmas Eve outside the St. Sava church in Belgrade. The ceremony is accompanied by prayers and other rites and is widespread among Orthodox Christians in the Balkans.

Putin attends mass

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a Christmas liturgy at a St. Petersburg church on January 6. Russia has the largest Orthodox population, which celebrates Christmas according to the Julian calendar.

Orthodox celebrations in Bethlehem

Palestinian scout bagpipers perform ahead of Orthodox Christmas celebrations outside the Church of Nativity in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. The bagpipe-playing Christian scouts are a legacy of British colonialism in the Holy Land.

Epiphany day in Istanbul

Greek Orthodox men braved the cold waters of the Golden Horn in Istanbul to commemorate Jesus’ baptism on Epiphany. In the ceremony, men jump from boats to fetch a cross thrown in the water. The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch is considered the leading church among nearly a dozen autocephalous Orthodox churches.

Epiphany in Bulgaria

Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria commemorate the baptism of Jesus with Epiphany day celebrations. More than 7,000 people in the Bulgarian town of Kalofer sang and danced in and around the river Tundzha. Orthodox priests throw crosses into the river that are retrieved by men.

Egypt’s el-Sissi supports Copts

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi (R) speaks next to Coptic Pope Tawadros II during a Christmas Eve mass in Cairo. Egypt’s Coptic Christians have been under attack from Islamist militants, whom al-Sissi, a Muslim, has vowed to crush.

Copts in Athens

Coptic Christian women in Athens, Greece, celebrate Orthodox Christmas at a church. There are about 10 million Coptic Christians in Egypt, and an estimated 1 million spread across Africa, Europe and North America.

Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia

After Russia, Ethiopia has the second-largest Orthodox Christian population with nearly 36 million adherents. The Ethiopian Orthodox church was founded in the early 4th century when the Axumite Kingdom converted to Christianity.

George Clooney and wife Amal celebrate birth of twins and reveal their names

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George Clooney and wife Amal celebrate birth of twins and reveal their namesA rep for the actor confirmed that everyone is “healthy, happy and doing fine” after the births this morning.

George Clooney‘s wife Amal has given birth to twins.

The actor and his human rights lawyer wife welcomed their son Alexander Clooney and daughter Ella Clooney on Tuesday, June 6.

A rep for the couple told ET Online : “This morning Amal and George welcomed Ella and Alexander Clooney into their lives. Ella, Alexander and Amal are all healthy, happy and doing fine.

The spokesperson then joked: “George is sedated and should recover in a few days.”

It was clear last week that the twins’ births were imminent as George pulled out of attending the £850,000 Aurora Prize event he co-founded, saying he couldn’t leave Amal’s side in case she gave birth and he wasn’t there.

Skipping the awards, he said by video link: “If I came and my wife had twins while I was away I could never come home.”

It was George’s own mother who first revealed the couple’s twins would be a boy and a girl.

Speaking earlier this year, his mum Nina said: “It will be one of each! Yes, a boy and a girl. That’s what I’ve been told.

“How marvellous! My husband and I are extremely excited.”

And George is already ready for nappy duty, pointing out in a recent interview that he played a paediatrician for years on medical drama E.R. so is well aware of how to change a dirty nappy.

“Hang on for a minute! I played a paediatrician on ER so I know how to work on extra children,” the actor explained to E! News.

“If there are any accidents, I’m there. I’m the guy.”

George previously said the couple would not choose names for their twins until the births.

He said: “No we haven’t picked out any names and I’ll tell you why. Because I’ve had friends pick out names around their parents and then it becomes …

“Whatever name you pick they’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t like that. That guy’s a prime minister’ ‘Can’t name her Susan. You remember your Aunt Susan?'”

In March, George said that Amal was “doing really great” during pregnancy.

“She is doing really great. She is amazing. I don’t have anything to do. There is nothing I can do to help, but make tea and stuff,” he told Extra .

George added: “I know swaddling… I know what I’m in for.”

Kurds celebrate Newroz amidst bloody war against Islamic State and Turkey

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12884581_10154064183678872_452736500_n-620x413AKRE – The Kurds in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey celebrate the coming of spring every year [Newroz] on the 21st of March and they lit fires and torches all throughout Kurdistan despite the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) and an economic crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Near 1,500 Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been killed since the Islamic State attacked the Kurdistan region of Iraq in August 2014, and thousands of Yezidis have been killed, raped, and enslaved by ISIS when they took over Shingal (Sinjar) region in northern Iraq.

In addition, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has been suffering from an economic crisis due to the low oil prices and Kurdish dependence on oil exports, while the Kurdish government promised to tackle corruption and cut expenditures.

“It is true that Newroz [New Year] this year is celebrated differently because a lot of people wanted to celebrate Newroz but didn’t have money to celebrate it, and we have Daesh [ISIS],” said Adil Muqdad from the city of Kelek. “But the Kurdish people try to be above all of these problems and celebrate it as much as they can,” he added.

Adil’s brother agreed. “This is something Kurdish and this has been going on for a long time. If we don’t celebrate Newroz, Daesh and other enemies of the Kurds will be happy and say they prevented Newroz,” said Shkar Muqdad. “The celebration of Newroz will hopefully continue forever because this is a national Kurdish celebration.”

“In terms of the economic situation it has gotten worse, “ said Bilend Akre, 34. “Of course there is corruption but there is corruption everywhere, it’s natural and it can be tackled,” he added.

“Newroz is a national Kurdish celebration, we have to do it every year,” said Bestun Jamal, 33. “The sacred Kurdish martyrs are celebrated this year and we pay tribute to the martyrs,” he added.

“Newroz will continue because Newroz is a symbol for Kurds and it’s about freedom and a national occasion. Kurds should unite to overcome the current challenges,” said Dilgesh Yousef, 30, a Kurd from Syria.

For many Kurds it is a part of their national struggle against rival states. “The Peshmerga forces are defending Kurdistanm from Shingal until Kirkuk’s disputed territories, “ said Heval Akre, 27. “80 countries are fighting against Daesh [ISIS] and supporting the Peshmerga forces,” he said. “Israel is also approving the idea of Kurdish statehood.”

Moreover many Kurds are optimistic that the Syrian Kurds will also achieve a form of self-rule in northern Syria after the announcement of federalism for Rojava [Kurdish areas of Syria].

“It is the same in Rojava. What the Kurdish forces achieved in Rojava is a historical accomplishment for all Kurds, said Yousef. “Maybe in the future the Kurdistan territories in Iraq and Syria would be connected to each other.”

Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg

Armenian Church celebrates Great Lent or Great Barekendan

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f56b6fab561765_56b6fab56179bThe Armenian Church has defined the period of Great Lent as a time of abstinence and repentance for the faithful. Each Sunday during this period is named after an event in the Holy Bible that contains the message of the day.

According to the calendar, the days prior to weekly fasts, as well as Great Lent, (with the exception of the fast preceding Holy Nativity) are called Barekendan. The word Barekendan means “good living” or “good life”, as we are called to live cheerfully, joyfully, and to be happy on these days preceding fasting periods.

On these days of Barekendan, the angel’s words addressed to the prophet Elijah are fulfilled:  “Arise and eat, otherwise the journey will be too great for you” (1 Kings 19:7). The Armenian Church thus allows her faithful to organize games, festivals, carnivals and large, plentiful meals to observe the feast, as it is followed by a period of fasting and abstinence.

The Eve of Great Lent, as Great Barekendan is also called, commemorates the human bliss, which Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden.  It also symbolizes the heavenly right, according to which, mankind could eat all types of fruit, except the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Barekendan is the manifestation of the virtues of the soul, through which people can transform mourning to joy, and torment to peace. It is with this comprehension, with bowing of our souls, penitence, fasting and hope for mercy, that each Christian individual should take his first step on the long, 40 day journey of Great Lent, culminating with the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The period starting from the day following the Great Barekendan and lasting till the Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is called Great Lent. In the period of the Great Lent, people, refraining from bodily pleasures and sins, get prepared for the Feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ by means of abstinence and repentance. Both spiritual and moral and bodily abstinence are considered to be important.Our church fathers have called the period of the Great Lend as “Karasnordats”, as the period of fasting lasts 40 days. This period of the Great Lent is also called “Salt and bread”, as in the past during the period of the Great Lent people have eaten only salt and bread.

In the New and old Testaments there are many testimonies concerning the period of Great Lent. Moses fasted for forty days and only then received the Lord’s rules and canons. However, this period is related to 40-day period of temptation of Christ in the desert, following which our Church fathers established this period of fasting.

Fasting may be of three kinds: usual fasting, rigorous abstinence and absolute fasting. In case of usual fasting people can eat only food of vegetable origin. In case of rigorous fasting people refuse to eat any food even of vegetable origin. And in case of absolute fasting people refuse to eat any kind of food, including even bread and water.

During the period of the Great Lent curtains in the churches are closed in commemoration of the fact that after sinning Adam was exiled from Eden and the doors were closed before him.

Turkey’s Kurds celebrate Syriza victory

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Tsipras signs papers appointing him as Greece's first leftist prime minister at the presidential palace in AthensSyriza was amazingly vocal in Turkey’s Taksim-Gezi upheavals in the summer of 2013. Its banner in English during Gezi that read “The Sea Separates Us but the Dignity Unites” was unforgettable for Turkey’s young activists. Also, one of Gezi’s victims targeted by police bullets, Berkin Elvan, 14 — of Alevi origin — became a symbol of solidarity for Syriza. The posters carrying his image with the slogan (also in Turkish) “You are our brother, Berkin” were seen during the Greek election campaign.

Syriza is very sensitive to the Kurds’ plight in and around Turkey. A Syriza delegation visited the Turkish-Kurdish frontier settlements near Kobani in November, while the Kurds were engaged in their epic resistance against the Islamic State (IS).

It’s striking that the liberation of Kobani from IS coincided with the electoral victory of Syriza. While people were celebrating Syriza’s victory in Athens, the Kurds in Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Suruc, the border town right across from Kobani, were dancing in the streets, also saluting Syriza.

Turkey’s public opinion, as a matter of fact, learned that Syriza has organic relations with two Turkish parties: HDP and the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP). The latter was founded in 1996 and it is the real replica of the Syriza in Turkey. It was the coalition of a number of quasi-Marxist far-left parties of 1970s Turkey. It has been in constant contact with those who later formed Syriza. However, the ODP never succeeded to get over 0.1% of the vote in Turkey’s elections.

The HDP is a different story. The core is the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is close to the positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party. The BDP, under the instructions of the imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, decided to expand to ally mainly with the Turkish left, and transformed into the HDP to run it as a wider, Kurdish-Turkish pro-democracy leftist party. Its co-chairman, a relatively young and appealing politician, Demirtas, ran as a candidate for presidency in August and got very close to 10% of the votes, very near the national threshold in parliamentary elections. Previously, the Kurdish vote for the BDP and its predecessors was always around 6% to more than 7%.

Demirtas’ appeal, therefore, fueled the hopes of the pro-Kurdish HDP by attracting some Turkish constituency. It may reach the national threshold in the June 2015 elections.