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By Pablo Munoz,The Armenian Students’ Association held its annual Armenian Culture Festival on Tuesday in Bruin Plaza. The event included traditional dances by club members and a representation of an Armenian wedding, as well as the sale of traditional food.
The Russian Embassy in Ankara on Feb. 14 expressed anger over the awarding of the prestigious World Press Photo Award for an image of an off-duty Turkish policeman assassinating the Russian envoy to Turkey last year, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
The embassy, whose ambassador Andrey Karlov was shot dead in the Dec. 19 killing, said the decision by the jury showed a “complete degradation of ethics and moral values.”
“Propaganda of the horror of terrorism is unacceptable,” it said in a statement on its official Facebook page.
The famous image was taken by Burhan Özbilici, a photographer for the Associated Press, who stood his ground as 22-year-old policeman Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş killed Karlov at the opening of an Ankara exhibition.
“Placing the photograph on this high pedestal is an invitation to those contemplating such staged spectaculars,” Franklin wrote in the Guardian.
The head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian senate Konstantin Kosachev said the choice was “on the edge of morality” and asked “how many more terrorists could be inspired by this photo,” RIA Novosti reported.
Altıntaş was killed at the scene by Turkish security forces.
Authorities claimed that he could be part of the Gülen network led by the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gülen, who Ankara blames for the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt. Russia, which sent an investigation team to Ankara after the killing, has yet to back this conclusion.
The street in Ankara where the embassy is located was recently renamed after Karlov.
A photo exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide opened in the Yerevan History Museum on Tuesday, bringing to light the personal tragedies and stories of many survivors.
Entitled “Over 100”, the event is an attempt to display the recollections and evidence preserved 100 years after the tragic crime, said Inna Mkhitaryan, a photographer and documentalist who initiated the project.
“As the Genocide centenary neared, I found myself more deeply immersed in thoughts; so I came up with the idea of this exhibition. Through the 30 photographs on display, I have tried to feature survivors and split families. I also made an attempt to address culture, which too, is of a key significance,” she noted.
Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, who attended the exhibition, honored Mkhitaryan with an acknowledgement award.
Among the guests was also renowned composer Tigran Mansuryan, who was the hero of one of the photos on display.
Speaking to reporters at the event, the musician emphasized the importance of collecting reminiscences and keeping them in memory as living heritage.
“When we lose memory, that’s the biggest loss after so many losses suffered. Our memory should be responsible for living with the lost [past] and keeping it alive at present. Preserving every single relic is important, be it a piece of painting, music or word,” he added.
The first images of Kessab after the disaster that has affected the Armenian population.
Damascus, June 15, 2014 7:30 p.m. (AFP) – The Syrian army has taken over the city Sunday to Armenian majority Kassab (northwest) and a strategic border crossing with 
Turkey, nearly three months after they fell into the hands rebels.
“Units of our armed forces, in collaboration with the forces (paramilitary) national defense restored the safety and security Kassab this morning,” the military said in a statement, confirming earlier data by television information State.
State television broadcast images then one of its journalists speaking from the border post. The chain has also accused Qatar and Turkey, supporters of the rebellion, have provided the “terrorists” (the rebels in the language of the plan) ambulances to evacuate their wounded.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH) were reported Saturday evening that “most of the fighters of al-Nosra Front and Islamic brigades had retreated Kassab, leaving behind a small number of fighters.”
Sunday, the NGO said the army had entered the city controlled by the rebels since March 21, but fighting continued. “The regime’s troops came to Kassab but have not taken the entire city. Fighting still oppose soldiers and rebels who remained, “said AFP Director of OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The withdrawal of most of the rebels came after “the army, supported by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters, was able to take the hills surrounding Kassab,” said Abdel 
Rahman. “This put the rebels in the line of sight of the army and Hezbollah,” said he added.
“There was a lack of supply and an advanced highly experienced Hezbollah and the Syrian special forces fighters,” said Abdel Rahman yet.
“The insurgents did not want to be besieged Kassab” by the army, as was the case in several localities rebels brought to their knees by the army in three years of war. “They preferred to withdraw.” Constantly bombarded by regime forces, the border post Kassab was important for the insurgents who were carrying their wounded in Turkey, an ally of the opposition.
The Syrian regime accused Ankara of aiding the rebels seize the city, whose inhabitants Armenian majority have fled their homes since March.
YEREVAN—The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute has acquired a unique and rich collection of photos related to the Armenian Genocide and its aftermath. Highlighting 
the importance of the preservations of memory and its transmission to future generations, the heirs of the Khanikian family from Greece donated around 450 original photos to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan.
The collection contains original photos documenting the lives of the countless orphans of the Genocide, the orphanages in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Greece and Syria, the orphan care activities of America’s Near East Relief organization, as well as photographs related to episodes of the history of the Armenian Genocide. The majority of the photographs have extremely important original captions on their back sides.
The director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Hayk Demoyan, noted that “on the eve of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide the acquisition of this collection is not only symbolic, but also an exceptional event for our museum, and these photographs will find their special place in the exhibition of the new museum to be opened in 2015. Among the photos, the photo of Young Turk leader Ismail Hakki Bey arrested by British soldiers is of unique importance, indeed”
The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute thanked the Armenian Ambassador to Greece Gagik Ghalachyan for his help in the acquisition of this unique collection.
In early September 1915, American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau appealed to the U.S. State Department via telegraph, in which he considered it very necessary to set up a special committee in order to organize fundraising and finding resources to support those who survived the massacres.
From October, 1915, the fundraising organizations were carried out by the Armenian Relief Committee. Two similar committees in the Middle East operating before that were then united with the Armenian Relief Committee and formed “American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief”, which on August 6, 1919 was renamed as “Near East Relief” by the decision of the U.S. Congress.
Initially established as a temporary Committee, “Near East Relief” turned into a large organization. Originally it aimed at raising about $100,000, but during fifteen years of its activity the organization had more than 110 million dollars of investment in saving refugees and orphans. This humanitarian mission was carried out by American citizens and missionaries in the Caucasus, the Middle East and the Balkans. It was the first ever large-scale humanitarian effort of its kind.
