Former Aide Disrupts Armenian Minister's News Conference
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SEPTEMBER 7, 2019 Mirror-SpeTHE ARMENIAN ctator Volume LXXXX, NO. 8, Issue 4601 $ 2.00 NEWS The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932 INBRIEF Erdogan Meets with Former Aide Disrupts Armenian Armenian Community Leaders ISTANBUL (Agos) — Turkish President Recep Minister’s News Conference Tayyip Erdogan met with Bishop Sahak Mashalian, the locum tenens of the Istanbul Patriarchate of YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Health Minister ter refused, leading Torosyan to end the The former official, who now works at the Armenian Church, and Bedros Sirinoglu, chair- Arsen Torosyan cut short a news confer- news conference. the Hematology Center, accused Torosyan man of the Board of Trustees of the Holy Savior ence on Tuesday, September 3, after it was “I have no problem with him,” Torosyan of disrupting government-funded treatment Armenian Hospital of Istanbul, on September 2. gatecrashed by one of his former aides who told reporters as he left the room. “But he of cancer in Armenia. In that regard, he Erdogan was interested in the organization probably has a prob- deplored the sacking of the head of the process of the election of an Armenian Patriarch, lem with me because National Oncology Center, Armen and in response, Mashalian said they are waiting he is pursuing some Tananyan. The minister has alleged corrupt for the government to release the rules of proce- other interests. I practices in the hospital. dure. won’t say who I’m Tamamyan also decried the fact that Erdogan said he required information from the talking about.” after taking office last year Torosyan Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, who in Tamamyan then sharply increased government funding for a turn said the government will release the rules of read out his questions medical center owned by his wife. The cen- procedure within a week. to the minister in the ter performs computer tomography and Istanbul’s Armenian Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan presence of the jour- magnetic resonance imaging. died on March 8, 2019, at the age of 64, after which nalists and a dozen The health minister apologized to the Mashalian was elected locum tenens. doctors from the journalists for cutting short his news con- state-run clinic spe- ference in a live video address aired cializing in treatment through Facebook later in the day. “I could- Armenia Not Pressured of childhood n’t concentrate in that tense atmosphere,” To Stop Aiding Syrian Health Minister Arsen Torosyan, center, and Dr. Tamamyan, at leukemia. Ester he said. right Demirchian, the exec- Torosyan also accused his former subor- Civilians utive director of a dinate of staging the “show” in a bid to dis- charity helping the credit him. YEREVAN (Armenpress) — The Armenian accused him of mismanagement and cor- Hematology Center’s patients, was also in Foreign Ministry has denied a media report pur- ruption. attendance. porting that the United States Government has Dr. Gevorg Tamamyan, who until recent- The charity called the City of Smile was demanded the Armenian Government to withdraw ly advised the Armenian Justice Ministry on founded last year by Prime Minister Nikol Amulsar Mine Operator its team of de-miners and medics from Syria. child oncology, entered a conference room Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan. Currently there are a few dozen de-miners and of the Yerevan-based Hematology Center Tamamyan is a member of its board of Slams Environmental medics from the Armenian Center for where Torosyan met the press. Tamamyan trustees headed by Hakobyan. (A massive Humanitarian Demining and Expertise deployed in said he too wants to ask the minister ques- fundraising effort was conducted in the US. Consultants Syria on a humanitarian mission. tions. See https://mirrorspectator.com/2019/04 “We have already denied this information many YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — A British- times. Currently an attempt is being made to re-cir- Torosyan suggested that Tamamyan hold /11/city-of-smile-banquet-is-great-success- American mining company has accused a a separate news conference instead. The lat- with-headliner-anna-hakobyan/) culate with new made-up details — which are also Lebanese-based consultancy of misleading false — information which has already been denied the Armenian government about the envi- by a governmental agency,” foreign ministry ronmental risks of its project to develop the spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan said in response to Amulsar gold deposit in southeastern an inquiry from Aysor, an online Armenian news- Armenians Armenia. paper. In a statement released late on Friday, Armenian doctors in Syria have provided med- August 30, the company, Lydian ical aid to 4870 people since February, Prime In Berlin International, also challenged the govern- Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Facebook, and ment to name rival mining firms that have performed 394 surgeries. allegedly helped to disrupt the multimillion- dollar project. By Muriel Mirak-Weissbach “The Government of Armenia has said Events Dedicated to Special to the Mirror-Spectator publicly that Lydian and the Amulsar Project have been the subject of a cam- Composer Mansurian paign by rival mining companies providing YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Tigran Mansurian’s BERLIN — “Berlin ist eine Reise wert” – support to opponents of the Amulsar music will be played from September 1 to 13 in all Project … When will the Government of that’s a saying every German knows and few Katerina Poladjian by Henning Fritsch stations of the Yerevan subway in honor of the would disagree with; yes, it is always worth Armenia identify the rival mining compa- composer’s 80th anniversary of birth. it to take a trip to Berlin. I realized this once nies conducting this campaign, how much The initiative is part of the Mansurian 80 series again last week when I went for a few days, ed me to join her at the Academy of Arts, in has been paid to oppose the Amulsar of concerts organized by Yerevan City Hall in just to visit friends I hadn’t seen for a long the beautiful Pariser Platz, to attend a book Project and who has been paid?” read the honor of the composer. time. Among them, Bea Ehlers-Kerbekian, reading on August 29. statement. Mansurian turned 80 in January 2019. an Armenian actress and teacher who invit- see BERLIN, page 17 see MINING, page 3 Rex Kalamian Turns Laser INSIDE Focus on NBA’s LA Clippers Hye Pointe LOS ANGELES — The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most popular sporting leagues in the world; in the United States, the NBA is on its way to eclipsing the National Football Picnic Highlights League (NFL). Its growing popularity By Michael Melkonian leads to some of the greatest coach- Page 11 Special to the Mirror-Spectator ing minds in sports vying for a shot to lead a team in the league. With only 30 NBA teams, there are 30 head coaching slots in contention along with staff positions, making it an exclusive club — and Rex Kalamian has earned his highly coveted spot as an assistant coach. INDEX His intense passion for the sport, his strategic mind, and unmitigated dedication Arts and Living . 13 Armenia . 2,3 have led him to take part in some of the sport’s most monumental events, includ- Community News. 6 ing coaching a game in the NBA Finals and the fan favorite NBA All-Star games. Editorial . 18 Kalamian is a second-generation Armenian-American, born and raised in Los International . .. 4,5 see KALAMIAN, page 20 2 S ATURDAY, S EPTEMBER 7 , 2 0 1 9 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia Aurora Prize Laureate Catena to Speak At the 2019 World Health Summit PM Presents Awards to Winners of Kangaroo- YEREVAN — Dr. Tom Catena, Aurora sibilities in improving global health. Humanitarian Initiative Chair and 2017 Catena’s participation at the World 2019 Math Contest Aurora Prize Laureate, will participate Healthcare Summit is part of a broader as speaker at the 2019 World Health agenda of speaking engagements span- YEREVAN (news.am) — Prime Minister Nikol Summit to take place on October 27-29, ning Europe, North America and Africa. Pashinyan hosted the recipients of the 2019 2019 in Berlin, Germany. Dr. Catena In Europe, Dr. Catena will be partici- Kangaroo International Math Contest at his resi- will join leading healthcare experts and pating at the inaugural Aurora Forum dence on August 30. decision-makers from around the globe and the 2019 Aurora Prize Ceremony Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport to discuss ways to advance global to take place in Yerevan, Armenia in Arayik Harutyunyan also attended the event. health agendas and promote science October. In November, he will attend This year, 38,616 schoolchildren from 940 schools thought leadership. the Paris Peace Forum, among other in Armenia and 97 schools of Artsakh (Nagorno- Catena, an American physician, events. Karabakh Republic) participated in the contest, joined the Aurora Humanitarian Catena’s speaking commitments in 1,474 third to twelfth graders received awards, and Initiative as its inaugural Chair in Africa include the AidEx Nairobi out of those 1,474, 653 had the best results and also December 2018. He is also the founder Conference, a high-profile event focused received certificates, while 3 were recognized as win- and Medical Director of the Mother of on aid and development within Africa, ners. Let us mention that all 1,037 participating Mercy Hospital in Sudan where for the and his participation in the 25th anniver- schools had at least one award recipient. past decade he has served as the only Dr. Tom Catena sary of Maison Shalom, an organization The first time Armenia participated in the contest surgeon permanently based in the war- founded by 2016 Aurora Prize Laureate was in 2009.