Verjine Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital

Verjine Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital 

NEW YORK – With over 80 years of service dedicated to the Armenian nation, the Verjine Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital has been a blessing to Syrian Armenians, and, in particular, to Aleppo Armenians. This was especially true for the scattered remnants of the Armenian deportees, who, after experiencing the bitter fate of the Genocide, were able to form new families on the hospitable soil of the Syrian homeland.

 
Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital

The maternity hospital became a place for childbearing which served all without discrimination—without attention to religious denomination or politics. Multiple generations were born in this maternity hospital and today they recall the great charitable work conducted there with reverence.

Unfortunately, due to the consequences of the Syrian conflict, the Verjine Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital, along with other Armenian institutions, was forced temporarily to close its doors. The Gullabi Gulbenkian Foundation’s maternity hospital is in a comparatively more peaceful geographical area in a quarter with a large Armenian population. On the other hand, the Armenian home for the aged was bombarded and experienced damage. Consequently, over the past few years the maternity hospital has been providing a temporary safe shelter to the displaced elderly residents.

On December 25, 2015, the board of directors of the Gullabi Gulbenkian Foundation announced to all Aleppo Armenians that the Verjine Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital, a charitable institution, will once again return to its original mission, by reestablishing the first floor of its building as a hospital ward. Also, through the decision of the board of directors of the Gullabi Gulbenkian Foundation, while giving temporary shelter in its complex, it will continue to keep its doors open to the elderly until the resolution of this tragic conflict allows their return to the Armenian home for the aged.

Ohannes Ohannesian, the authorized representative of the Foundation in Aleppo, will soon initiate the preliminary work needed to restore the maternity hospital to its original splendor, so that it may resume admitting expectant mothers.

The reopening of the Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital will provide hope, security, stability and employment to the residents of Aleppo.

The Aleppo-Armenian community will soon receive notices of further developments regarding the Verjine Gulbenkian Maternity Hospital. Until then, the Gullabi Gulbenkian Foundation wishes the Republic of Syria and all Aleppo Armenians a wonderful New Year and lasting peace.

Board of Directors of the Gullabi Gulbenkian Foundation
 

La tactique de l'horreur de Daesh

La tactique de l'horreur de Daesh

par Nikos Lygeros

Traduit du Grec par A.-M. Bras

21.12.2015

En stratégie, à partir des observations précises de Clausewitz sur la guerre, et surtout pour son caractère caméléonien, nous pensons que le plus naturel est la guerre et quand elle fait des pauses que nous appelons cela la paix tandis que la société nous impose arbitrairement le contraire. 

Cela ne surprend pas celui qui traite de questions stratégiques, car il reconnaît continuellement dans le cadre de la réalité historique des schémas mentaux stratégiques qui n’existent pas pour la société. Mais actuellement, même la société la plus libre ou la plus apathique, est forcée d'accepter que nous nous trouvons dans une phase de guerre avec la question du terrorisme qui provient de l'organisation Daesh et elle commence à accepter qu'il y ait une approche différente et qu'il ne s’agit pas seulement d’un autre phénomène semblable aux précédents. 

Cette organisation a pour but un crime contre l'humanité, et si nous ne l'arrêtons pas, elle commettra un génocide sous nos yeux sans que les sociétés de l’indifférence ne s’en rendent compte. Pour créer un état, cette organisation est prête à n’importe quel sacrifice et catastrophe et ce, à différents niveaux de cruauté contre des bébés qui souffrent de maladies, pour la manipulation des enfants, pour des atrocités commises contre les hommes, pour la poursuite des ennemis, la destruction de villages, par appauvrissement économique par empiètement territorial, par des tentatives violentes et des suicides, de manière à causer des dommages, en particulier, dans des populations qui ont des religions différentes, développer une rivalité et que celle-ci permette un engagement des éléments les plus extrémistes dans sa région et modifier les données démographiques. 

Donc, tout retard de notre part, aggrave la situation pour des peuples innocents qui n’ont pas de protection.

THE GREETING ADDRESS OF DR. HAYK S. KOTANJIAN TO THE 7TH ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

THE 60^TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSSIAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION: 1955 – 2015 THE 7^TH ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 

NOVEMBER 19-21, 2015: MOSCOW

THE GREETING ADDRESS OF THE CHAIRMAN OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION OF ARMENIA DR. HAYK S. KOTANJIAN TO THE 7^TH ALL-RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ON BEHALF OF THE POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATIONS OF THE NEW INDEPENDENT STATES

Dear Madam Chair,

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of Political Science Association of Armenia and – as it was kindly offered to me – on behalf of sister Associations of the New Independent States I have the honor to extend brief greetings to the participants and guests of the 7^th All-Russian Congress of Political Science.

The reality in our field of Political Science viz. Strategic Security Studies is that in our research and applied-academic developments the number of new threats and their various configurations is growing. In this situation we have to academically understand the ways of promoting the dialogue and cooperation under the hardly predictable hybrid forms of armed struggle.

Responding to one of the main topics of the All-Russian Congress of Political Science, I am pleased to note that at the dawn of the US “reset policy” in 2010 I happened to be the academic consultant of the “US-RUSSIA Strategic Dialogue” at John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University involving the leading Russian and American Generals as well as strategic analysts that enables to professionally follow the current dynamics of this process. Since 2014 the subject of our special attention has been the alarming deterioration of relations between Russia and the West, which according to a number of leading international experts led to the threshold of a “new-generation Cold Peace-War”. We can admit that this situation adversely affects the promotion of security interests and development of all respected states and organizations represented in our Congress. Let me express confidence in our professional community’s clear understanding of the fact that the constructive systemic reset of international relations with the resumption of the dialogue between Russia and the West stems from the interests of security and sustainable development of all international entities.

The problem of filling the reset of these relations with a new meaningful content accompanied by the understanding of ways of comprehensive development of cooperation in the economic, political, military, communications and other fields becomes urgent due to the globalizing terrorist threat under a scenario with the clash-of-civilizations symptomatic features  – presented years ago by our distinguished colleague from Harvard, Professor Samuel P. Huntington. These catastrophic symptoms are evidenced by the crash of the Russian aircraft blown down to pieces over Sinai, terrorist attacks in Paris, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Afghanistan, and other countries all across the Globe.

The conflicting relationships between millions of migrants and local population of Europe – in connection with the problem of their cultural compatibility and conflicting divergence of their demographic dynamics – warn of value preferences and lifestyles lurking in the depths of this clash.

It should be particularly noted that recently emerging positive messages directed to the improvement of relations between Russia and the West in the context of convergence of positions in the fight against “Islamic State” allow us to hope that the dialogue’s resumption – based on the rethinking of the content and mechanisms of international cooperation and consolidation of leading actors’ efforts in confronting the challenges of terrorism threatening the outbreak of a global conflict among civilizations – could be the basis for preventing an impending crisis in the global security system and shaping a new more secure world order.

In this regard, let me run the errand of the Board of our Association and read an excerpt from its Address to His Excellency the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin and His Excellency the US President, Mr. Barack Obama, adopted in October 2014: - CIT. – “The Political Science Association of Armenia has the honor to request that you take the steps necessary to return to the “reset” policy. Undoubtedly, the states you lead possess a huge professional resource to ensure and implement the policy of rapprochement, as well as historical experience of conflict resolution between the two nuclear powers. Modern trends in the rise of global confrontation make the interaction of your states within the UN Security Council – based on principles of trust and prevalence of global security interests ‒ necessary than ever. In addition, the Association urges you to make use of the acquired and reviewed mechanisms of interaction between your states within the OSCE – an organization drawing together the interests of the Russian Federation, the United States of America and the European Union, as well as a number of countries that share the universal values ​​of security and cooperation. In the context of the contemporary development of the confrontation potential in Europe, the intensification of the cooperation within the OSCE is first of all necessary from the point of view of the leading role of the powers headed by you as the guarantors of the Pan-European security” (Europe et Orient, jeudi 9 octobre 2014, “IT IS STILL NOT TOO LATE TO AVOID A GLOBAL CATASTROPHE”,

 http://europeetorient.blogspot.am/2014/10/it-is-still-not-too-late-to-avoid.html).

I am sure that our discussions within our Congress – synthesizing political-science knowledge and art of its application in political-diplomatic, economic, military, and communications practice – will help us to find appropriate solutions that can provide new impetus to the development of political science and increasing its critical “smart-power” influence on successful joint normalization of interstate relations’ climate in the system of global security – given the very dangerous explosiveness of this period of time. 

Let me wish us all a fruitful work.

Thank you.

Major General Hayk S. Kotanjian, Doctor of Political Science (RF), Professor, Counterterrorism Fellow (USA), Head of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, MOD, RA