5 of Yerevan protesting students declare hunger strike

November 15, 2017 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Five of the capital city Yerevan university students, who have refused to attend classes in protest of the bill that curtails the right of military deferment in Armenia, have declared a hunger strike.

“For the Development of Science [in Armenia]” initiative member Davit Petrosyan, who is also among these students that have gone on a hunger strike, informed about the aforesaid.

“The objective of the hunger strike is the fight against public apathy as well as the bill that limits the right to deferment,” he noted, in particular. “Our objective is just, pacific.”

The hunger strike is held in a lecture hall at Yerevan State University.

The bill on Military Service and the Status of Military Servicemen proposes to considerably limit the right to deferment in Armenia.

Armenian students stage walkout in protest of the new bill aimed at canceling conscription deferments

November 7, 2017 By administrator

Dozens of students from different departments across the Yerevan State University walked out of classes on Tuesday to stage a protest, venting their frustration over the new bill that abolishes the temporary exemptions from compulsory military service for graduate and undergraduate students, studying at the country’s state universities.

The protestors gathered in front of the main building of the University calling on the professors to join the strike and demanding the government to reconsider the bill provisions.

To note, the new amendments into the Armenian law “On Military Duty and Military Service” was initiated by the defense ministry and was adopted in the first reading by the parliament days ago. According to the proposed legislation, citizens liable for call-up are conscripted to army for compulsory service, while draft deferments are granted to only those students who would agree to undergo parallel military training and serve in the army as officers for three years after graduation.

Critics of the legislation point to the adverse impact of the new law on the education and science, suggesting the abolishment of conscription deferments will prevent prospective students from professional, scientific or educational activities. Meanwhile, the proponents of the law insist the deferments are a violation of social justice. Additionally, canceling all exemptions for compulsory service would minimize corruption risks in the military and educations spheres in cases when eligible citizens would wish to avoid the army.

University of Mosul students volunteer to restore library

August 29, 2017 By administrator

Volunteers clean debris from the library at Mosul’s university. Photos: Mustafa Khaled

Citing inaction by the Iraqi government and politicians, a group of student volunteers came together this weekend to clean the debris from the University of Mosul’s Ibn Khaldun Center Library.

“We are young, we saw our city destroyed and the government is unable to help,” the organizer of the volunteer group, Mustafa Khaled, told Rudaw English of their work on Saturday and Sunday.

“So we decided to rebuild it and prepare it to be the beautiful university it once was.”

Much of the University of Mosul was destroyed either under ISIS control or by coalition airstrikes in the operations to retake the city from the militant group.

Some 150,000 books were destroyed inside the Ibn Khaldun Center, according to the group.

“We were only able to save about 2,000 books,” said Khaled, a 21-year-old Computer Engineering student.

Several libraries across Mosul were targeted by ISIS and the books inside burned.

The University of Mosul is one of the largest education compounds in Iraq and is situated in the eastern part of Mosul that was announced fully liberated on January 24. The entire city was declared liberated on July 10.

ISIS used the university’s facilities to manufacture weapons and drones. The campus was also one of the group’s main command and control centres in eastern Mosul. In early 2016, coalition warplanes bombed the university, targeting ISIS’ headquarters there.

Khaled is calling for support in the restoration process of the University of Mosul, as the group of volunteers took it upon themselves to do the clean-up without funding.

UNDP stated it July it is helping to rehabilitate the university by providing 50 generators, deploying “cash-for-work” teams to clean the university grounds and clear debris as well as rebuilding dormitories, although Khaled’s group was not a part of such an UN-sponsored team.

“But we are far from the government and the politicians,” he said. “Most of the meetings are politicized and we want our support to be civil or international, not political.”

The UN has requested $707 million for stabilization programs in western Mosul, $174 million in eastern Mosul and another $232 million to stabilize other areas of Iraq.

Canadian Armenian students give international law lesson to Belarus Deputy FM “VIDEO”

February 14, 2017 By administrator

Oleg Kravchenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, on Monday delivered a lecture, entitled “Belarus and its Neighbors,” at Carleton University in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada.

Representatives of the Armenian Students’ Association of Ottawa and the Armenian National Committee of Canada also attended the event.

A Q&A was held after the lecture, and during which the Canadian Armenian students asked a barrage of questions to the Belarus deputy FM, and which were exclusively in regard to Israeli Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin’s extradition from Belarus to Azerbaijan, and overall, the human rights violations in Belarus. Oleg Kravchenko, however, became perplexed and gave contradicting answers to these queries.

During his lecture, Kravchenko drew similarities between Canada and Belarus. But to the remark that Canada is a democratic state, whereas the president of Belarus rules the country in an autocratic manner for more than 20 years, the Belarusian deputy FM responded by just saying there are no flawless countries.

https://youtu.be/Jh_uteCgTxI

And responding to a question on the extradition of Lapshin, Kravchenko said: “Sometimes the CIS [i.e. the Commonwealth of Independent States] conventions on extradition can contradict the UN conventions.”

This view completely unmasks the true demeanor of Belarus, which is quite far from the UN conventions and numerous other international legal acts.

After his visits to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012, blogger Alexander Lapshin was “blacklisted” by Azerbaijan.

In June 2016, however, he paid a visit to Azerbaijan–but with a Ukrainian passport–and, subsequently, he published several articles criticizing the Azerbaijani authorities.

Afterward, Azerbaijan issued an international search for this famous blogger. On December 15, 2016, Lapshin was detained in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk, and based on this search.

https://youtu.be/q71tGOdm2Ws

On January 26 of the current year, the Minsk city court dismissed the blogger’s appeal of the Belarusian General Prosecutor’s Office decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan.

On February 7, the Supreme Court of Belarus dismissed the appeals that were filed into this case, and upheld the aforesaid decision by the General Prosecutor’s Office.

On the evening of the same day, the famous blogger was extradited to the Azerbaijani capital city of Baku, where he was taken into custody.

According to analysts and human rights defenders, however, Alexander Lapshin’s case may become an appalling precedent that curtails the freedom of speech of foreigners and the freedom of movement of Armenian citizens.

Armenian students protest Atatürk scholar to leave campus

November 11, 2016 By administrator

By Robert Spallone,

Scholar George Gawrych got through no more than five sentences during his presentation on his book about Turkish army officer Mustafa Kemal Atatürk before students raised their voices in protest Thursday at the Aronstam Library in Manzanita Hall.

Over 20 protesters stood up from their seats, turned their backs on Gawrych and repeatedly chanted “Turkey guilty of genocide” and “genocide denialist.”

Gawrych waited briefly as other attendees voiced their opinions to let him speak, until he began walking up and down the aisle trying to get the protestors to face him.

Two police officers who guarded the entrance escorted Gawrych, a Baylor University Boal Ewing chair of military history, out of the library to sounds of chanting protesters.

“Our initial message was to stop the denial of genocide that cost the lives of millions,” said Eric Badivian, an Armenian protestor.

Many Armenians feel that Gawrych’s book “The Young Atatürk: From Ottoman Soldier to Statesman of Turkey” praises a leader who played a role in the Armenian genocide.

“This man coming here and claiming these claims that genocide didn’t happen is completely absurd and people know,” Badivian said. “There’s factual evidence to this happening all around.”

Gawrych was unable to speak about his book or comment on the protest once police had him leave the library.

The book received the Distinguished Book Award in 2014 from the Society for Military History, according to Gawrych’s Baylor University biography page.

John S. Harrel, who holds a masters degree in history from CSUN and authored “The Nisibis War,” said he expected this protest to happen.

“They are only interested in keeping you and I as being non-Turkish and non-Armenian from finding out both sides,” Harrel said.

Harrel added that Armenians have a legitimate grievance.

He also suggested that a lot of information about the Holocaust was discovered after scholars looked back at history to study the Third Reich.

Art history professor Owen Doonan, who invited Gawrych to speak for the Middle Eastern Islamic Studies program declined to comment to The Sundial about the protest, but did address protestors outside the library.

The Armenian Student Association, Alpha Epsilon Omega and Alpha Gamma Alpha sent a protest-letter to William Watkins, dean of students, expressing their concern and disappointment in having the guest lecturer at CSUN.

“It is quite bizarre that an event revolving around the ignorance and injustices against humanity is being allowed to take place on campus,” as stated in the letter to Watkins.

Watkins later replied in an email sent to the organizations, addressing their concerns.

“The university shares your commitment to the pursuit of truth about all aspects of Armenian history and to never forgetting those who have suffered from the tolerance and actions of others,” Watkins wrote in the email.

Source: http://sundial.csun.edu/2016/11/armenian-students-protest-atatrk-scholar-to-leave-campus/

Students and pupils from Armenia’s Sisian eager to develop ‘fast’ drones on their own

October 2, 2016 By administrator

student-drones YEREVAN. – Students and pupils from Sisian town of Armenia’s Syunik province want to develop drones on their own.

The representative of Sisian’s SarsUp Technological Center, Hayk Yeranosyan, told Armenian News – NEWS.am that the specialists of Armenian-Indian Center for Excellence in Information and Communication Technologies have already held training courses in Sisian.

The center specialists prepared instructors for educational engineering labs.

Getting up an appetite for new, the enthusiasts now want to make drones whose speed will exceed that of ordinary unmanned aerial vehicles. Both young and old will work on this project: the center unites lovers of technology of any age, starting from pupils to 40-year-olds.

“We were supported by Instigate and National Instruments. We’ve got a 3D printer, by which we ourselves made the drone’s carcase. We want to think and work ourselves. We want to try, search the Internet and model all by ourselves. And we want minimal assistance from outside,” Yeranosyan said.

The Sisian specialists presented the first drone made by them at the DigiTec Expo 2016 technological exhibition held in Yerevan.

Turkey Davutoglu’s government uses universities as tool of state control: Students

November 7, 2015 By administrator

Turkish riot police uses tear gas and rubber bullets as students shout slogans at Istanbul University during an anti Turkish Higher Education Legislation (YÖK) demonstration at the Beyazıt neighborhood on November 6, 2015 in Istanbul. (AFP)

Police in Turkey have fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse demonstrating students who were protesting against how the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan uses the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) as an instrument of state control.

Over 200 students gathered at Istanbul University campus and shouted slogans against Erdoğan and his government’s control over universities on Friday, the 34th anniversary of the foundation of the Council of Higher Education, tasked with supervising the country’s universities according to the constitution. The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey was ratified on November 7, 1982.

Students say the institution was established by the then military junta in 1981 and is still considered as a tool by the government to control the higher education centers.

According to reports, some of the students sustained injuries during the clashes and police made a number of arrests.

“The youth will not be intimidated, Erdoğan and YÖK will be toppled,” said one banner brandished by the students. They also shouted, “The killer government will be brought to account.”

Meanwhile, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported that two people were also arrested in the country’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa over “insulting” the president on social media.

Since his election as the Turkish president last August, Erdoğan’s lawyers have filed dozens of cases against alleged “insults” targeting him.

Also on Friday, Ankara police stormed the offices of a major business group accused of having ties with US-based Turkish opposition leader Muhammed Fethullah Gülen, who was a former close ally of Erdoğan’s but later became a fierce critic.

Gülen reportedly has many followers in some arms of Turkey’s state apparatus, such as the judiciary, police, and secret services.

The crackdown comes days after Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a decisive parliamentary election on Sunday. Over the past few weeks, Ankara has increased its crackdown on dissent.

CITY UNIVERSITY OF PARIS The House of Armenian Students 85 years old

July 4, 2015 By administrator

Inaugurated in 1930, the House of Armenian Students celebrating its 85 years of existence. The event was duly celebrated on June 19 at a party organized by residents of the house with the complicity of some elders.

The evening started at 19: 30 pm by a very nice surprise against residents, staff and friends of the family by Charles Aznavour came to greet them on this occasion. The moment was intense, marked by great warmth. Impressed and moved by the giant of poetry and the international variety, residents chanted his departure his song “Take me to the end of the earth”.

An hour later, the elegant lounge of the Hellenic Foundation made available to the House of Armenia by Maria Gravari-Barbas, its director, hosted the concert which provided input current residents and other older. Among them: Lusine Abgaryan, Ani Danielyan, Narek Galoyan, Ardavazd Khachatryan, Artur Makaryan, Maria and Nare Petrosyan, Hagop Talatinian, lilit Vardanyan. The evening was presented with humor and finesse by Tsovinar Banushyan. The program for this brilliant concert, works by Chopin, Lovland, Satie, Babadjanian, Carl Reinecke, Ravel, Hahn, Schubert, Komitas, Manual de Falla and Kachmaninov. Arriving the same day Yerevan, the great Armenian virtuoso Svetlana Navassardian who regularly resides in the City, once again dazzles the audience by interpreting with his usual impetuosity three works of Aram Khatchadourian. As a prelude to the program, Mr. Vahe Vahramian (Deputy Delegate to UNESCO) and Mr. Tigran Galstyan (Prime advisor), representing the Embassy of Armenia, the director remettaient a message from Mr. Armen Achotyan, Minister National Education and Higher Education of Armenia, addressed to the Rector of Paris, the President and the Managing Director of the City on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the CIUP and 85th anniversary of the MEA.

Among the audience, Mrs. Gravari-Barbas, Director of the Hellenic Foundation, several members of the Internal Council of the House of Armenian Students: Ms. Nanig Kiatibian, President of the Association of Friends of the Foundation Marie Nubar and her husband, Dr. . Kiatibian Hughes, Michel Sabbagh, Vice President of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Ms. Prof. Denise Paulin, Mr. Philippe Khoubesserian, Serge Fermandjian (French-Armenian Association of cooperation), Alexandre Aslanian.

The next day, a wreath composed of 85 roses was placed on the tomb of Marie Boghos Nubar and at Père let go, while an Office of the Dead was celebrated Sunday, June 21 in the Armenian Cathedral of St. Jean Goujon remember the founders and all the departed related to the life of the house (Personal, residents, benefactors, and members of the Association of Friends of the Foundation Marie Nubar).

On May 29, as part of the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the Genocide and the 85th anniversary of the inauguration of the MEA, a memorial window, the work of painter Robert Ayvazyan (Yerevan) was inaugurated in the Boghos Nubar sitting of the House of Armenian Students in the presence of Ms Elena Menguy, Deputy General Delegate.

Montebello Over 600 California Armenian School Students Commemorate Genocide

March 24, 2015 By administrator

Montebello Mayor Jack Hadjinian speaks to Armenian school students

MONTEBELLO, Calif.—Over 600 Armenian school students from across Southern California gathered at the Armenian Genocide Martyrs Monument in Montebello, California, to honor the memories of their ancestors and commemorate the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

Students, parents, faculty, and administration were present from the following California Armenian schools: Ari Guiragos Minassian Armenian School, Armenian General Benevolent Union Manoogian-Demirdjian School, Armenian Mesrobian School, Armenian Sisters Academy, Charlotte and Elise Merdinian Armenian Evangelical School, and Holy Martyrs Ferrahian Armenian School.

Welcoming everyone on behalf of all the Armenian school principals in his opening remarks was David Ghoogasian, Principal of Armenian Mesrobian School, which hosted the event.
Mayor of City of Montebello Jack Hadjinian was in attendance and spoke alongside Montebello Councilmember Vivian Romero and Montebello City Manager Francesca Tucker-Schuyler who both expressed their solidarity with the Armenian people’s call for truth and justice for the Armenian genocide.

All students sang “Soorperoo Achkeruh”, followed by a performance of “I Remember” by Paola Kassabian along with Ferrahian school students Sose Hovannisian and Shaunt Ghazourian.

“Each of you is a living monument, each of you will continue the Armenian people’s fight for justice,” said Gevorg Iskajyan, Executive Director of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee, in his remarks to the students.

Armenian Sisters Academy students sang “The Martyrs of April” (Abrilian Nahadagner) as students ascended to the monument to take part in the requiem service (‘Hokehankist’ – Repose of Souls) for the victims of the Armenian Genocide and victims of crimes against humanity. Every school presented wreaths that were placed at the monument.

The prayer was led by the Armenian Apostolic Church Western Prelacy’s Father Nareg Pehlivanian, the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church’s Father Sarkis Petoyan, the Armenian Catholic Church’s Father Thomas Garabedian, and the Armenian Evangelical Church’s Reverend Hendrik Shahnazarian.

People left the event feeling moved and inspired by the commemoration and the show of unity between the local Armenian schools and communities.

Pro- and anti-ISIL students clash at Turkish universities

October 13, 2014 By administrator

A series of tense incidents has taken place at some of Turkey’s universities, including İstanbul University and the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), over the past couple of weeks as pro- and anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) groups of students continue to clash. Today ZAMAN report

Twenty-seven pro-ISIL students were detained by police after a quarrel erupted with anti-ISIL students at İstanbul University’s faculty of economics and administrative sciences on Monday.

The pro-ISIL students, who reportedly had their faces covered, wearing black hats and holding sticks, were heard shouting phrases like, “We are Muslim students,” as they were taken to police vehicles. Nine of the detained students are allegedly affiliated with Muslim Youths Association which is known for its radical Islamist tendencies.

The detained students were taken to the İstanbul Police Department’s anti-terror office for interrogation after undergoing health checks at a hospital.

Some anti-ISIL students at the university’s campus issued a press statement after the attack, saying: “We, students of the İstanbul University, have been subject to the aggression of ISIL supporters who have blood on their hands. ISIL militants are known for their aggression. They murder children and rape women in Rojava and Kobani. Those pro-ISIL ‘so-called’ students with black masks attacked us with sticks.”

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has been the target of criticism for failing to act against ISIL to save Kobani. Violent protests against ISIL attacks and AK Party policy led to the deaths of 34 people last week

The anti-ISIL students also accused the AK Party government for failing to act against ISIL activity in Turkey and blamed university security for doing nothing to halt the attack. “Look at those people. They come to our university and make propaganda in favor of ISIL without any prevention. They get their power from the AK Party. The government is sending truckloads of guns to the ISIL gangs to murder people in Rojava. We would not be surprised if ISIL militants organize attacks on Turkish cities,” the students said.

On Oct. 1, three pro-ISIL students were detained by police after a quarrel erupted between students at the university. The students who were attacked said pro-ISIL students came after them while they were hanging anti-ISIL banners around the campus.

On Oct. 4, a fight again erupted after pro-ISIL students attacked another group holding an anti-ISIL protest inside the university.

In a seperate case on Oct. 10, a student of İstanbul’s prestigious Boğaziçi University and the grandson of famed lawyer Nejat Ağırnaslı was killed while fighting against the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The sociology graduate student had joined the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to fight against the terrorist group in the Turkish-Syrian border town of Kobani, where battles have raged over the past few weeks. The 30-year-old man traveled to the region as a member of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) and was one of many who have been crossing the border to take up arms against ISIL forces.

His father, Hikmet Cur, released a statement saying: “I lost my son, my comrade, my Nejat, in Kobani. Although he had a very bright future, he chose revolutionary solidarity. He kept his promise. He has not let me down.” He went on to say, “I bow down to him with respect.”

Meanwhile, police used water cannons and tear gas on Oct. 9 to disperse demonstrations held at two universities in Ankara in protest ISIL attacks on the Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobani. At ODTÜ, demonstrators who wanted to march from the university to the Ankara office of the ruling AK Party were blocked by police at the school’s gate. Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowd.