Armenian Reporter staff

Armenia hints at rescinding protocols as Turkey stalls

Dec 17, 2009: Two months after the Armenia-Turkey protocols were signed, they remain unimplemented, as Turkey firmly links ratification to progress in the Karabakh talks. Speaking on December 10, Armenia’s President Serge Sargsyan said the linkage was unacceptable, and that he would not tolerate indefinite delays.  more...

Armenia marks quake anniversary with a focus on development

Dec 12, 2009: On December 7, the 21st anniversary of the earthquake that devastated northern Armenia, President Serge Sargsyan visited the town of Akhuryan to view a sugar factory that is being constructed there by Member of Parliament Samvel Aleksanian.  more...

Paul Krekorian wins Los Angeles City Council race

Dec 12, 2009: Paul Krekorian, assistant majority leader of the California State Assembly, won a competitive special election for membership in the Los Angeles City Council on December 8.  more...

Mother See adopts model bylaws for Church governance

Nov 05, 2009: The third Diocesan Representative Assembly of the Armenian Church was held in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin from October 31 to November 4 to review, discuss, and approve the guidelines on Diocesan Bylaws and Parish Policies.  more...

Turkey sends protocols to parliament

Oct 23, 2009: The Turkish government on October 21 submitted the protocols on the normalization of relations with Armenia, signed in Zurich on October 10, to the Grand National Assembly for ratification. The protocols go first to the Foreign Affairs Commission of the parliament.  more...

Kirk Kerkorian: Profile of a generous billionaire and people’s hero who has made a lasting impact

Oct 23, 2009: Born Kerkor Kerkorian in Fresno, California, to Armenian immigrants with roots in Kharpert, Kirk Kerkorian is an epitome of Armenians' entrepreneurial and patriotic spirit, and a source of pride for Armenians.  more...

World Bank director lauds Armenia’s crisis management and calls for urgent reforms

Oct 22, 2009: Commending Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian’s government on its handling of the effects of the global economic crisis on Armenia, World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told journalists in Yerevan that the government has to confront certain additional challenges “to assure further development of the country’s economy.”  more...

President Sargsyan goes to Turkey for Armenia-Turkey soccer match

Oct 16, 2009: Armenia's President Serge Sargsyan traveled to Bursa, Turkey, on October 14 at the invitation of Turkey's President Abdullah Gül to watch the World Cup qualifying return soccer match between their two national teams, just four days after their foreign ministers in Zurich signed protocols on the normalization of relations.  more...

Strobe Talbott: U.S. regularly briefed Turkey on Karabakh in the 90s

Oct 16, 2009: "Every time I was in Yerevan and Baku, and sometimes went to the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Stepanakert, I would always make the effort, on the way in and on the way out, to stop in Ankara and meet with the leadership there," revealed Strobe Talbott, who was deputy secretary of state from 1994 to 2001 and co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which mediates the Karabakh conflict.  more...

Armenians across the United States react to Turkey-Armenia protocols

Oct 01, 2009: Some 10,000 Armenian-Americans came together in Glendale, Calif., on September 27 to protest the terms of the agreement negotiated between Armenia and Turkey on the normalization of relations. In New York, representatives of some organizations met with Armenia's foreign minister, while in Washington, a town hall meeting was held.  more...

Serge Sargsian: Greatest risk is that protocols will be defeated

Oct 01, 2009: President Serge Sargsian expressed confidence about Armenians’ ability to benefit from the proposed normalization of relations with Turkey, even as he acknowledged that the planned signing of protocols with Turkey also involved risks and downsides. Mr. Sargsian responded to questions posed by the editors of the Armenian Reporter ahead of a five-city, four-country tour that starts this week and includes visits to New York and Los Angeles on October 3 and 4, during which he said he intends to “consult” with Armenian diaspora communities on Armenia’s Turkey policy.  more...

Raffi Hovannisian discusses protocols and the fruits of genocide

Sep 26, 2009: “The great irony is that a significant stretch of the energy and transport routes that are the sources of an emerging Turkish power pass through . . . territories [that] were also the killing fields of the Armenian Genocide,” Raffi Hovannisian wrote in a commentary published on September 24. Mr. Hovannisian, who served as Armenia’s first foreign minister, recently resigned from a seat in Armenia’s National Assembly.  more...

Kevork Hovnanian, builder and philanthropist, dies at 86 (updated)

Sep 25, 2009: Kevork Hovnanian, the chairperson of the Fund for Armenian Relief and founder of Hovnanian Enterprises, one of the largest home builders in the United States, died on Thursday, September 24, of natural causes. A memorial service is planned for New York City on Saturday, October 3.  more...

AGBU responds to Armenia-Turkey agreement with a call for “wisdom,” “national unity,” and “collaboration with the government”

Sep 13, 2009: In a statement, the Central Board of Directors of the AGBU argued that while it is important for Armenia to have normal relations with Turkey, "justice for the sacred Armenian Case and the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide should transcend and not be sacrificed for any immediate diplomatic consideration."  more...

Jivan Tabibian, 72, diplomat and Renaissance man

Jul 31, 2009: Jivan Tabibian, who had served for 10 years as Permanent Representative of Armenia to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, died on July 31, Armenia's Foreign Ministry announced the same day.  more...

Turkey moves the goalposts – by 350 miles

Jul 21, 2009: The second qualifying soccer match between Armenia and Turkey for the 2010 FIFA World Cup will take place on October 14 in Bursa, Turkey, CNN Turk reports. The match was originally scheduled to take place in Kayseri.  more...

Armenian churches nationwide to hold requiem services for victims of airline crash

Jul 18, 2009: On Sunday, July 19, all Armenian churches nationwide will offer prayers for the victims of the July 15 airplane crash in Iran during the singing of “Der Vorghormya” (Lord Have Mercy) during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.  more...

Plane crashes on Tehran-Yerevan flight, 168 presumed dead

Jul 15, 2009: An airplane bound for Yerevan from Tehran carrying 168 people crashed on July 15. Everyone on board is presumed dead. An English-language version of the list of passengers appears as part of this story.  more...

34th Navasartian Games break all-time attendance record

Jul 10, 2009: The Homenetmen Glendale Ararat Chapter placed first in basketball, tennis, and table tennis, the San Fernando Valley Massis Chapter ranked first in swimming, volleyball, and track, and the Los Angeles chapter came first in soccer as the 34th Navasartian Games came to a frenzied and excited conclusion on Sunday, July 5.  more...

Nikol Pashinian comes out of hiding and turns himself in

Jul 02, 2009: On July 1, Nikol Pashinian, 34, the fugitive editor-in-chief of the popular opposition daily "Haykakan Zhamanak," turned himself in at the general prosecutor's office in Yerevan. He was wanted for inciting riots on March 1, 2008.  more...

Iranian ambassador hopeful about Silva Harotonian appeal (updated)

Jul 01, 2009: At a news conference in Yerevan on July 1, Seyed Ali Saghaeyan, the Iranian ambassador, said he was hopeful that the Iranian court hearing Silva Harotonian's appeal would make a favorable ruling.  more...

Artbridge takes books to the regions of Armenia

Jun 20, 2009: A book exhibition and sale took place on June 12 along one of Gyumri’s most popular pedestrian streets. Organized by Yerevan’s Artbridge Bookstore Cafe and Gyumri’s Elav Bookstore, the event featured three authors who briefly presented their books and were available to sign them: former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian, the Armenian Reporter’s Tatul Hakobyan, and novelist Janna Hakobyan.  more...

Armenia’s men are the world’s chess champions – again

Nov 27, 2008: Armenia's men's chess team took the gold in the World Chess Olympiad, in Dresden, Germany, with a score of 19 points and as the only team that won nine matches. Armenia's men had also won the previous biannual World Chess Olympiad in Turin in 2006. The women's team came in 6th place out of 114.  more...

Life in Armenia appears “calm and fully under control”

Mar 15, 2008: Armenia's Constitutional Court on March 8 turned down two petitions to declare the February 19 presidential elections null and void (see story on page A5), and President Robert Kocharian on March 13 revised restrictions on the media under his order declaring a 20-day state of emergency in the capital, as relative calm continued in the country.  more...

Law-enforcement charges 90 in post-election violence, others wanted

Mar 15, 2008: Armenia's law-enforcement and security agencies have so far charged 90 individuals following the March 1-2 riots in Yerevan, the agencies reported on March 12. Most arrests were made this week. Six more people are currently in detention and will be either charged or released after questioning.  more...

People still hope

Mar 08, 2008: With six of the 20 days of the state of emergency in Yerevan gone, and the first shock seemingly lessened, the city seems to have recovered from its deadly stillness of last Sunday.  more...

Who the protestors were...

Mar 08, 2008: "In essence this is a classic, pure bourgeois-democratic revolution," Levon Ter-Petrossian, former president of Armenia and recent presidential candidate had said to his supporters a few days before the authorities decided to conduct a search of the rally that eventually led to riots on March 1.  more...

As tensions escalated, the Catholicos of All Armenians went to Levon Ter-Petrossian’s home but was rebuffed

Mar 08, 2008: Karekin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians, went to the Yerevan residence of Levon Ter-Petrossian on March 1, hours after security forces dispersed the pro-Ter-Petrossian demonstrators who had been gathered for the previous 9 days at Freedom Square and sent Mr. Ter-Petrossian home. The former president refused to see the head of the Armenian Church. The Catholicos was turned back at the door.  more...

Kocharian holds Ter-Petrossian responsible for riots, deaths

Mar 08, 2008: "Unfortunately we did not succeed in avoiding clashes and there are deaths," President Robert Kocharian said at the start of a press conference on March 5. "And of course, in the first place, I would like to extend my condolences to the families of those deceased. There are also many injured, and we hope that they will get better quickly."  more...