Start of activities at Abovian Armenian Cultural Association on Sunday 29 September 2010.
Russian president’s visit to Armenian Genocide memorial
News.am
12 July 2010
Golden Apricot Film Festival opens in Yerevan
The 7th Golden Apricot International Film Festival has just opened in Yerevan. Armenian Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan handed a gold medal of Culture Ministry to the honorary guest of the festival actress Claudia Cardinale.
The festival opened with screening of “Mayrig” (Mother) by Henri Verneuil (dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the director) where Claudia Cardinale had one of the roles.
The presenter of the festival was French director of Armenian origin Serge Avedikian. His “Barking Island” animation won the Best Short Film prize at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival.
Prior to the opening ceremony, Armenian Premier Tigran Sargsyan, Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan, Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan and Claudia Cardinale opened the stars of Sergei Parajanov, Henri Verneuil, Ruben Mamulyan and Hamo Beknazaryan in Charles Aznavour square near Moscow cinema.
News.am
Հուլիս 12, 2010
Մեկնարկեց «Ոսկե ծիրան» 7-րդ միջազգային կինոփառատոնը
Րոպեներ առաջ մեկնարկեց «Ոսկե ծիրան» 7-րդ միջազգային կինոփառատոնը։ Բացման արարողությանը Մշակույթի նախարար Հասմիկ Պողոսյանը փառատոնի պատվավոր հյուրին՝ աշխարհահռչակ դերասանուհի Կլաուդիա Կարդինալեին հանձնեց Մշակույթի նախարարության ոսկե մեդալը։
Փառատոնը մեկնարկեց Անրի Վեռնոյի «Մայրիկ» ֆիլմով։ Պատահական չէ այս ֆիլմի ընտրությունը, քանի որ այս տարի լրանում է ֆրանսահայ ռեժիսորի 90-ամյակը եւ հենց այս ֆիլմում է, որ իր լավագույն դերերից մեկը խաղացել է Կլաուդիա Կարդինալեն։
«Ոսկե ծիրանն» այս տարի վարում էր «Կաննի» միջազգային կինոփառատոնում 2010 թվականի լավագույն անիմացիոն ֆիլմի համար «Ոսկե արմավենի» ստացած ֆրանսահայ ռեժիսոր Սերժ Ավետիքյանը։
Նշենք նաև, որ նախքան փառատոնի մեկնարկը, Շառլ Ազնավուրի հրապարակում՝ Մոսկվա կինոթատրոնի առջև, վարչապետ Տիգրան Սարգսյանի, Մշակույթի նախարար Հասմիկ Պողոսյանի, քաղաքապետ Գագիկ Բեգլարյանի եւ Կլաուդիա Կարդինալեի մասնակցությամբ բացվեցին Սերգեյ Փարաջանովի, Անրի Վեռնոյի, Ռուբեն Մամուլյանի և Համո Բեկնազարյանի աստղերը։
Հետաքրքական է նաև այն փաստը, որ Երևանի քաղաքապետ Գագիկ Բեգլարյանը «Ոսկե ծիրանին» ուղղված իր ողջույնի խոսքում նշեց, թե փառատոնը այսուհետ կունենա իր սեփական տարածքը։
See also an Acticle in Dutch Daily NRC Handelsblad on 10 June 2010 “De oudste schoen lijkt op een pantoffel”.
11 July 2010
TimesBulletin.com
A real ‘vintage shoe’
From the Palette
By Kay Sluterbeck
If you’re a woman who wears a size 7 shoe – and you happen to be 5,500 years old – your lost right moccasin has been found, and it’s in great condition. It might smell a bit funky, though. The world’s oldest shoe was recently discovered under a layer of sheep dung in a cave in Armenia, on the border between Iran and Turkey. This shoe was worn by someone who lived a thousand years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was built.
It isn’t known if the shoe was accidentally lost by its owner, or if it was deliberately buried in the cave as part of a ritual. Along with the shoe, the archaeologists also found three pots, each containing a child’s skull, as well as containers of well-preserved barley, wheat, apricot and other edible plants.
The right-footed shoe is made from a single piece of cowhide that was wrapped around the foot. The leather was tanned using vegetable oil. The back and top of the shoe were stitched together with a leather thong that ran through four and 15 sets of eyelets respectively. Loose grass was stuffed into the shoe, either as padding to keep the shoe warm or as a way to maintain the shape of the shoe when it was not being worn.
“We were all amazed to see its state of preservation and the fine details such as the laces, eyelets and the straw inside it,” said Ron Pinhasi of Ireland’s University College Cork and lead author of the research published in “PLoS One,” a journal of the Public Library of Science.
Scientists aren’t really sure if the shoe was worn by a man or a woman, because people were probably much smaller 5,500 years ago. They speculate that it may have been worn by an early farmer living in the mountains of the Vayotz Dzor province.
Its incredible preservation is due to the cool, dry cave and the thick layer of sheep dung. The dung acted as a solid seal to keep the ancient leather piece in perfect condition. In fact, the shoe was in such good shape that archaeologists initially thought that the shoe and other objects found in the cave were only about 600-700 years old.
“It was only when the material was dated that we realized that the shoe was older by a few hundred years than the shoes worn by Oetzi, the Iceman,” said Pinhasi.
Oetzi, you may recall, is Europe’s oldest natural human mummy, dating back 5,300 years. He was found in a melting glacier, and is preserved in cold storage in a scientific facility. Oetzi’s shoes included an inner “sock” made of grass, and a separate sole and upper made of deer and bear leather held together by a leather strap. Prior to the discovery of the shoe in the Armenian cave, Oetzi’s shoes were the oldest known leather footwear, and they were not complete; only parts of his footwear were discovered.
The previous oldest known non-leather footwear were sandals made from plants found in a cave in Missouri. They were made and worn a few hundred years after the Armenian shoe.
Three samples of the shoe’s leather were carbon-dated at the University of Oxford and the University of California. All tests gave the same results: Both the shoe and the grass in it date back to the Chalcolithic period, around 3,500 B.C.
Pinhasi says, “We now know that people were wearing shoes already 5,500 years ago and that these were not so different from the ones we had until recent times.” In fact, up until the 1950s, shoes very similar to the shoe from the cave, called “pampooties,” were worn on the Aran Islands in the west of Ireland.
Armenia’s climate 5,500 years ago was similar to today’s – hot in the summer, snowy in winter. The owner of the shoe would have worn wool and leather clothes, and relied on the shoes for protection as she walked around the rocky terrain. The shoe may have been made locally, or acquired through trade with the more sophisticated peoples of Mesopotamia.
5 July 2010
Հիլարի Քլինթոնն այցելել է Մեծ Եղեռնի հուշահամալիրը
Hillary Clinton bezocht Het Armeense genocidemonument
Hillary Clinton visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial
4 July 2010
The New York Times
Clinton Urges Azerbaijan and Armenia to End Dispute
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appealed to Armenia and Azerbaijan on Sunday to peacefully settle their long-running territorial dispute, but there were no outward signs of diplomatic progress.
The dispute between the two former Soviet states risks escalating to warfare and has caused diplomatic problems beyond their borders. Shuttling between their capitals, she told leaders to act quickly to settle the matter.
“The final steps toward peace often are the most difficult, but we believe peace is possible,” Mrs. Clinton said at news conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, with her counterpart in that nation, Elmar Mammadyarov.
She soon made the one-hour flight to Armenia and drove to the presidential palace in Yerevan for a meeting and dinner with President Serge Sarkisian, who said the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been under the control of Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian forces since a 1994 cease-fire, was the single most important issue for his country.
The truce ended six years of war that killed about 30,000 and displaced an estimated 1 million.
Mr. Sarkisian’s words were almost identical to those made in a statement hours earlier by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran, is of particular strategic importance to the United States. Tens of thousands of flights carrying war supplies to United States and allied forces in Afghanistan have crossed Azerbaijan’s airspace over the past nine years of fighting there since the Sept. 11 attacks. Azerbaijan also is part of an overland supply chain that is a critical alternative to the main land route through Pakistan to Afghanistan.
The United States also has good relations with Armenia, and has worked to broker an agreement between Armenia and Turkey on establishing formal diplomatic relations and opening their sealed border after a century of enmity.
Turkey, however, has refused to ratify the agreement until Armenia removes its military forces of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turks have close cultural and linguistic ties to Azerbaijan.
At an evening news conference in Yerevan, Mrs. Clinton implicitly criticized Azerbaijan for a recent outbreak of violence. In mid-June, an exchange of gunfire along the front lines near Nagorno-Karabakh killed four ethnic Armenian troops and one Azerbaijani soldier.
The secretary of state urged Turkey to move ahead with the agreement to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia and said Armenia has done its part by stating its willingness to go forward with ratification of the agreement once Turkey drops its insistence that Armenia and Azerbaijan first settle their differences.
4 July 2010
Voice of America
Clinton Presses Armenia, Azerbaijan for Nagorno-Karabakh Settlement
David Gollust | Yerevan, Armenia
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Sunday with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to press for progress toward settling their long-standing dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. Clinton completes her brief visit to the southern Caucasus region Monday in Georgia.
She delivered the same message in Yerevan and Baku: that settling the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, on the basis of principles offered by international mediators, will open the way for political and economic gains that have eluded the region thus far.
The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic-Armenian enclave controlled by Armenian forces within the borders of Azerbaijan, has been a sources of periodic violence since before the collapse of the Soviet Union, including clashes in recent weeks.
The United States and its partners in the Minsk Group, France and Russia, have been trying to defuse the issue with confidence-building interim proposals aimed at spurring direct negotiations.
Clinton, beginning her day in Baku was told by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that peace requires an Armenian troop withdrawal. “As you know, for many years, our lands are under occupation. The United Nations Security Council, the OSCE, European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Islamic Conference organization, all have adopted resolutions which reflect the situation and which demand the withdrawal of Armenian troops from internationally-recognized territories of Azerbaijan,” she said.
Hours later in Yerevan, the Secretary was meeting with Armenian President Sergh Sarkisyan, who depicted the conflict as a struggle for self determination for Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic-Armenian majority.
“The people of Nagorno Karabakh have a right for free development and advancement on their historic land. And the right of people for self-determination is one of the most fundamental principles of international law, which has been the basis of independence of most countries in the world today,” Sarkisyan said.
Nagorno-Karabakh is considered one of the “frozen conflicts” of the southern European-Caucasus region, but the lethal clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the disputed area last month underline its volatility.
Meeting with reporters after her meeting with the Armenian president, Clinton said the clashes are unacceptable violations of a 1994 cease-fire and contrary to the stated commitments of both sides.
She said the United States urges them to refrain from the threat of, and use of, force and apply themselves to the Minsk peace process and completing basic principles leading to a final settlement.
“Everyone knows these are difficult steps to take, but we believe they are important ones and we have expressed our concern to both presidents today that the return to violence is unacceptable. We regret the incidents of the last several weeks. And it is in the interests, first and foremost of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, but certainly of Azerbaijan, Armenia and the greater region, to work as hard as we can together to come up with an acceptable, lasting settlement of this conflict,” Clinton said.
Clinton, who is to spend several hours Monday in Georgia, reaffirmed her call for Russia to end what she termed the “continuing occupation” of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia since the 2008 war with Georgia.
But she said the Obama administration believes it is possible to pursue a “comprehensive common agenda” with Moscow without disagreements on such issues as Georgia, as she put it, “freezing our relationship.”
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