03 January – 02 February 2009

03 January – 02 February 2009











Dubai: Fundraising for ARF's Armenian Cause offices Monday, February 02, 2009
Fundraising for Armenian Cause officeThe 3rd prestigious fundraising banquet dedicated to ARF's Hai Tad (Armenian Cause) activities took place in Intercontinental Hotel Festival City Dubai (United Arab Emirates) on 31 January 2009, with the presence of dignitaries from Europe, Middle East, Armenia, Russia and other places.

ARF (Tashnaktsoutyoun party) Ministers in the current coalition Armenian Government, Arsen Hambardzumyan (Minister of Labor and Social Affairs), Spartak Seiranyan (Minister of Education and Science) and Aramayis Grigoryan (Minister of Agriculture) attended the glamorous event together with Lebanese Former MP Andre Tabourian.


The previous fundraising banquets (Geneva 2001, Paris 2005) raised only half of the US$ 5 million pledged in Dubai, despite the current worldwide economic crisis. Read more 













Abu Dhabi: Koriun Sarkissian and Arman Stepanian exhibition Monday, February 02, 2009

Map of Ghaf Gallery in Abu DhabiUnder the Patronage of H.E. Vahagn Melikian, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia – Abu Dhabi


Ghaf Art Gallery cordially invites you to attend the photography exhibition “Back to the Future”


Artists: Koriun Sarkissian and Arman Stepanian


Opening reception on Monday 2 February, 2009 at 8pm


Exhibition continues until 12 February, 2009


We look forward to your presence


For more information call 02-6655332


Kind regards,
Ghaf Art Gallery
Tel: +9712-6655332
Fax: +9712-6655292
P.O.Box: 42366
Abu Dhabi, UAE
www.ghafgallery.com


 













Parev Emirates monthly gathering: February 2009 Friday, January 30, 2009



















Parev Emirates Event








Monthly gathering: February 2009

 





Our next meeting will take place on Wednesday, 04 February 2009 in The Sapphire, The Century Village, Garhood, Dubai, at 09:00 pm (Location map)

When you are there ask for the Parev Emirates corner.









The Saphire Dubai


















The Sapphire's telephone

(useful for last minute directions, access and parking info):

04 2868520












Job Seekers: Saro Ohanian looking for a job Friday, January 30, 2009

Saro Ohanian from Sharjah is looking for administrative or customer service position, where his skills and experience can be effectively utilized to improve the image of the company.


See Saro's CV here.


Saro Ohanian's job request posting





Note: It is a known fact that in the past few months thousands of people living in the UAE lost their jobs. As a result, dozens of Armenians have suffered job redundancies.


You can post your job related request in Azad-Hye at the blow links and we will highlight your request in this community page, hoping that, at times of difficulty, community members will help each other and provide necessary hints and advice to cope the economic crisis.


Important note: If you are able to provide job opportunities to our compatriots, please act quickly and post the job openings in the below Job Offers link or check the Job Seekers link to see if you can offer anything that matches with the existing working needs. Every day counts. Our jobless friends will not be able to wait for long. Their residency visa will soon expire.


Job Seekers


Job Offers













Sharjah: Catholicos Aram I lectures in the American University of Sharjah (02 February 2009) Friday, January 30, 2009

Lecture titled: “From inter-religious dialogue to living together”


Presented by: His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia


Organized by the American University of Sharjah


The lecture will take place on Monday 2nd of February 2009 at the American University of Sharjah, Lecture Hall A at 10.30am


The presentation will in English language.


All interested people are invited to attend this important event.


Council of the Armenian Community In the Northern Emirates


Original announcement (PDF format, 1 page, Armenian and English)













Sharjah: Film display for children of the weekly school Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Board of Trustees of the Ohannesian Armenian weekly school in Sharjah is continuing its extra-curriculum activities with this Thursday, 29 January 2009, at the Community's Hall in Sharjah, starting 5:30pm


Two videos will be displayed:


1- Armenian dance group Antranig.
2- “Madagascar 2” kids movie*.


Participation rate for each child is AED 5 (about US$ 1.4), which includes also pop corn and juice.


Armenian bazaar items will be on display in the church yard with reasonable rates for parents to purchase.


(Source: Circular by the Board of Trustees. See announcement in PDF format in Armenian here).


*Armenian subtitles not available.  













Armenian professional chef for work in Abu Dhabi Tuesday, January 27, 2009

We are looking for a professional Chef for Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) from native Armenia who is expert in original Armenian cuisines and has good experience working in class Hotels and expert also in typical Armenian food preparations. 


Contact e-mail: [email protected]


Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates


Original posting in our Services: Job Offers section













Tebi Hayrenik organizes second pilgrimage to Armenia Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Tebi Hayrenik! is organizing its second Pilgrimage to Armenia to mark the 94th year of Armenian Genocide.


Participate with us, ask your family and friends to join, to experience this unique experience which every Armenian should, at least once in their lifetime.


Pay respect to our compatriots, families, our grandfathers and grandmothers who lost their life in the 20th century's first genocide.


Please check the pictures of the first Pilgrimage and participation in the march with torches on 23 April 2008. Read more and see photo here













Catholicos Aram in Sharjah Friday, January 23, 2009

Catholicos AramHis Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the See of Cilicia, will visit UAE and preside the Holy Mass ceremony and deliver Pontifical sermon in the Saint Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Church in Sharjah on Friday, 30 January 2009, at 11am.


The Holy Mass will be officiated by His Grace Archbishop Goriun Babian, Catholicosal Vicar of the Prelacy of Kuwait and Arabian Gulf Countries.  


Following the Holy Mass the traditional gesture of kissing His Holiness? right hand (known in Armenian as Achahampouyr) will take place in the adjacent Pierre Keuseyan Armenian Community Hall.


The Catholicos will also preside a special reception. 


Announcement in Armenian language (PDF format) by the Council of the Armenian Community in the Northern Emirates


UAE Armenian Community page


Read about Catholicos Aram in Azad-Hye:


General Assembly of the Catholicosate of Cilicia concludes its sessions


Catholicos Aram I meets with Syrian President and Grand Mufti


Catholicos Aram examines the state of Armenian structures in the occupied territories of Cyprus


Catholicos Aram I meets with President Dimitris Christofias of Cyprus


International conference on refugees and migration convened in Antelias


Christian-Muslim conference in Beirut on mutual respect


Catholicos Aram declares 2008 Year of Christian Education


Conclusive event in the Antelias Theological Seminary devoted to the Year of Armenian Language


Each and every year should be considered 'The year of the Armenian language'


Catholicos Aram I visits Italian Catholic Church in Naples named 'Saint Gregory the Armenian'


The Association of Muslim Clerics of Lebanon visits Aram I


Aram I meets with the President of Ethiopia


Popular welcome to Catholicos Aram in Kamishli


Aram Catholicos meets with the Armenian youth in Aleppo


Grand Mufti of Syria visits Aram Catholicos


'We must move forward from recognition to compensation' stated Aram I


Aram I presides over sunrise service marking the median day of Lent (Michink)


Aram I visits the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Lebanon


Aram I visits the Armenian elderly and orphans in Lebanon


A delegation from Hunchak Party visits Catholicos Aram I


Aram I meets with the spiritual leaders of the Armenian Catholic and Evangelical Churches


Respect for life should be the priority says Aram I


Religion has a pivotal role in bringing about peace with justice in the Middle East, states Aram I


Antelias archives undergoes complete reorganization


'Culture of Cilician Armenia' International Conference in Antelias


Aram I receives the representatives of the Diocese of Lebanon


Aram I expresses concern about the Anti-Armenian demonstrations in Tabriz


Catholicos Aram I meets the Brazilian President


The Year of the Armenian School


Armenian Catholicos to visit Kuwait to cement relations













Sharjah: A new community approach adopted by the School?s Board of Trustees Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Armenian Church in Sharjah: the churchyardThe Board of Trustees of the Ohannesian Armenian Weekly School in Sharjah has formed a group of female teachers who will voluntarily work on organizing off-school activities, with the aim of bringing the students, their parents and friends of the school together.


In an announcement circulated on 18 January 2009, the Board of Trustees expresses its belief, that “with these activities the Armenian Community center will get more vibrant, Armenian children will be able – through games, movies and competition – to accumulate more knowledge, feel closer to their friends, to love and feel attached to the school, the church and any other Armenian institution in general”.


The circular emphasizes that “through dinner, music, songs and games, a club atmosphere will be created for the Armenian parents and friends of the school”. Read more













Abu Dhabi: Invitation to 'First Appearances' (18 January 2009) Thursday, January 15, 2009

Chritch and Linda Stephanian participate in Fanaan group exhibition


We are pleased to announce the participation of two Abu Dhabi based armenian artists, Chritch and Linda Stephanian, to the “Fanaan” group exhibition to be held in Ghaf gallery in Abu Dhabi, between 18th and 29th of January 2009.


Fanaan is a group of Abu Dhabi based artists established in 2008 with the purpose of bringing together and cultivating an artistic community in Abu Dhabi. The group currently comprises 10 artists from diverse backgrounds.


We cordially invite you for the Opening Reception of this exhibition on Sunday 18th January 2009 at 8.00 PM.


Looking forward meeting you there.
Maxime Miloyan & Razmik Simonian


Click here for the Invitation













Sergey Khachatryan performs in Abu Dhabi Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Gemma Champ published a reveiw in Abu Dhabi's daily (“The National”, 12 January 2009) on Maxim Shostakovich's recent musical event in Abu Dhabi. In the review Champ says:


“The incredibly young Sergey Khachatryan is, at 23, a formidable talent, with a mastery of bowing, precision of fingering and perfection of pitch that astounds the listener. The silvery tone of his 1708 Stradivarius perfectly suits his agile style, while still giving him the tonal depth needed for sawing out the folky dance melodies of the second movement.


Those ethereal, delicate harmonics of the cadenza in the first movement, the deftly managed double-stopping that looked oh-so easy in his hands and the sweet, wistful tone in the slower passages were all charmingly achieved.”













Armenian telephone Directory 2009 Tuesday, January 13, 2009

With great pleasure we received the announcement about republishing the Armenian Directory of Dubai and Northern Emirates this year.


The announcement (see below) says that the publication will take place ?shortly?. We hope that there is one meaning for this word. Last time the data gathering for the same purpose took several months, while the publishing needed more than one year. By the time the end user was able to use the Directory of 2006, the information there were heavily outdated.


On organizational level the initial signs for the new edition do not look good. For example, in the original announcement circulated today (see PDF format here), the fax number in the English version is not correct. Even if rectified with subsequent emails, there still would be individuals who will be sending their data to the wrong number. Read more













Sharjah: Video clip from the 10th anniversary of the Sharjah Armenian Church Saturday, January 10, 2009

Previously we had covered the celebration on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Sharjah Armenian Church (see our report here). You can find below a one minute video clip from the celebration day (12 December 2008), showing the participants chanting “Cilicia” in the church yard, before the blessing of the sacrifice.














Yervant Zorian: The Armenian Virtual College is scheduled to launch in January 2009 Friday, January 09, 2009

Education is one of the first examples where we can use modern technologies. If we cannot secure the Armenian school physically, we can have it virtually.


On Friday 19th of December 2008, the Armenian Community Hall in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) hosted a presentation by Dr. Yervant Zorian, Member of Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Central Board of Directors and President of AGBU Virtual College, on the subject of “The Armenian Virtual College”.
  
Azad-Hye took advantage of Dr. Zorian's visit to Sharjah and had the following interview with the distinguished guest.  Read the interview here.


LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW  (2.5 MB, 21 minutes, in Armenian)













Do we need to publish community annual reports? Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Azad-Hye Special


Annual reports of community life are important research and decision making tools. They enable us to stay up to date on community's yearly outlook, understand the present situation and make comparisons with past tracks. They help us in taking decisions about the future course of events.


It will be very good if we as a community start adopting the practice of preparing annual reports of community life with the aim of making them accessible to the public. It is not enough to prepare reports for close meetings and then shelve them or throw them in the archives, thus making them useful for future researchers only. 


The content of community annual reports should be the possession of the public. Through these reports we can know how well the community was doing in the past year, not only on financial level, which is easy to quantify, but also on moral and other stands (educational, social, communicative etc.), which need more expertise to assess. Read more













UAE Foreign Minister receives letter from his Armenian counterpart Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Ambassador Vahagn Melikian and Dr. Anwar GargashUAE Foreign Minister H.H. Sheikh Abdulla Bin Zayed Al Nahyan received on 06 January 2009 a letter from the Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian on the UAE – Armenia bilateral relations, ways to further promote them in various areas as well as on the exchange of views on issues of common concern.


The letter was delivered to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Anwar Gargash by the Armenian Ambassador to the UAE Vahagn Melikian at a meeting at Gergash's office in the capital Abu Dhabi.


(Reported by Emirates News Agency, Abu Dhabi, 06 January 2009)


Photo: Ambassador Vahagn Melikian (left) and Dr. Anwar Gargash (right)













Two individuals from the UAE support 'Sponsor an Article' project Saturday, January 03, 2009

Hratch Brunsuzian and Shakeh Grogan have vowed to support the “Sponsor an Article” project, which aims at enriching Azad-Hye with creative and translated articles, in three language (English, Armenian and Arabic), with special emphasis on Armenian.


Read more about the project here.


Until today Hratch Brunsuzian has sponsored the following articles:


1) Zohrab the royal photographer


2) Monument of Gratitude to Arabs


3) Call to support the fundraising campaign for the Monument of Gratitude to Arabs


4) Garo Arslanian: My true hope is to find the same kind of eagerness to read and write in my students


 



Shakeh Grogan has sponsored the following articles:


 


1) Reverend Haroutioun Selimian elected president of the Armenian Evangelical World Council


2) Haroutioun Tenguerian: The roots are talking


3) A well known name in all Armenian households: Arevig


4) Shoghagat Apartian: my first experiment was to arrange Gomidas songs to jazz   



Their commitment will continue throughout 2009.


Since its beginning in 2003, Azad-Hye has produced thousands of pages in three languages English, Armenian and Arabic.


The main language in use is English, while several articles appear also in Armenian. The Arabic website (www.azad-hye.org) enjoys the status of a complete website.


There is always a need to reward journalists and writers. By doing so we can guarantee the creation of a higher quality of written material. There is also a need to make articles accessible in more than one of the above mentioned languages. Posting articles in Armenian is particularly an important duty.  


We hope that one day the Armenian National Councils in the UAE understand our concerns and come forward with their support in this important task.


The idea behind the Sponsor an Article project is to find people who can sponsor writing and translating articles.


Be a sponsor by writing to [email protected]














Sponsor an Article project Saturday, January 03, 2009

Azad-Hye covers subjects in English, Armenian and Arabic languages.

Usually we receive articles in one of the above languages, but there is always the need to make the articles accessible in the other two languages. This is the idea behind the Sponsor an Article project.

The project is not restricted to translations only; it also covers creative works and original writings in the same three languages.

How does it work?

TRANSLATIONS:


1- Choose an article for translation either from Azad-Hye website or from other external sources. The article should be consistent with the main topics covered by Azad-Hye.

2- Indicate the language in which you would like to see the article being translated (English, Armenian and Arabic).

3- Ask for sponsorship rates for translating the particular article by professional translator. The rate depends on the number of pages or the word count.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES:

1- Choose a subject you would like to see published. The subject should be related to the Armenian reality. Subjects from the Middle East Armenian communities are most welcome.

2- Indicate the language in which you would like the article to appear (English, Armenian or Arabic).

3- Ask for sponsorship rates (as above).

IMPORTANT NOTE: YOUR NAME WILL BE MENTIONED AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE AS A SPONSOR.

Contact us and sponsor an article. The rates are very reasonable.

Photo: Mesrob Mashdots and Goriun in front of Old Manuscripts Museum (Matenadaran) in Yerevan (Azad-Hye collection, 2000).


Sponsor an Article permanent page













Violinist Sergey Khachatryan in Abu Dhabi Saturday, January 03, 2009
Sergey KhachatryanOne of the greatest violinists of the younger generation, award-winning Sergey Khachatryan will perform as soloist in Pyotr Tchaikovsky?s Cnecerto at 8pm, on 10 January 2009, in the Emirates Palace Auditorium, Abu Dhabi.

This will be part of Abu Dhabi Classics January 2009 program, organized by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (Adach). Read more