23 November 2017. A Light Goes Out in Our Musical Firmament… D A Khvorostovsky Passes at 55 From Brain Cancer

******

________________________

Last year, Dmitri Aleksandrovich gave a moving performance of Журавли (Zhuravli: The White Cranes)… I find this the most appropriate piece to mark his passing. There’s also the gutsy original rendition by the late great M N Bernes (People’s Artist of the RSFSR).  Mark Naumovich’s version is much more stark and raw… listen to him… it’s à propos for such a day (he also died relatively young of cancer, at age 57). This was the last recording that Bernes made… many thought it his musing on his approaching death. That may be the same with the above performance, as it occurred one year after the diagnosis of a brain tumour.

D A Khvorostovsky was a People’s Artist of Russia. I D Kobzon (People’s Artist of the USSR) reported that his funeral will be 27 November at the Chaikovsky Zal of the Moscow Conservatoire. Dmitri Aleksandrovich wasn’t a believer… his ashes will lie in Novodevichy and in his Siberian home. However, we stand in respect before the mystery of death and wish the best for his family and friends, and express sincere and honest condolences at his passing (as did President Putin). Secular people simply aren’t religious believers (for a multitude of reasons, many grounded in actuality); we should respect them and their beliefs, without reserve. I bow before all of Dmitri Aleksandrovich’s loved ones and express my solidarity with their pain and my community with their grief.

ВЕЧНАЯ ЕМУ ПАМЯТЬ!

A light went out in our musical firmament… the whole world mourns…

BMD

Advertisement

Ankara Slams Trump’s Statement on Armenian Genocide as “Disinformation”

________________________

On Thursday, US President Trump commemorated the anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide in a statement released by the White House, saying that the “Meds Yeghern”, a term used by Armenians to describe the 1915 events, was one of the worst atrocities in the history of the 20th century. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement:

We consider that the disinformation and false definitions contained in US President Trump’s written statement of 24 April 2017 regarding the 1915 events came from information pollution created over the years by some Armenian circles in the USA by means of propaganda. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the ceremony to commemorate the event at the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul on Monday. We expect that the new US Administration wouldn’t take credence in the one-sided historical narrative of these circles, known for their tendency to violence and hate speech, but that it should adopt an approach that takes into consideration the sufferings of all sides.

The Ottoman authorities killed about 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923; they also expelled hundreds of thousands out of their territory. Turkey disputed the figure and denied the genocide, blaming the deaths on wartime irregularities (it occurred during World War I and the following Greco-Turkish War of 1918-23: editor).

25 April 2017

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201704251052958584-ankara-trump-armenian-genocide-misinformation/

13 April 2017. Remember the Departed Servant of God Vladimir… Вечная ему память

____________________________________

I can’t say that I agreed overly much with Vladimir… he’d spent much of his life in the Belly of the Beast in the District and was a member of Potapov’s “party”. Yet, he was a man of good character, honour, and probity… unlike many in the District, he remained mostly clear of “Inside-the-Beltway-itis”.  You don’t have to agree with someone to pray for them (and our disagreements weren’t on basic matters… they were on political and historical questions). Indeed, it’s our Christian duty to pray for the sick, the poorly-off, those in harm’s way, and the dead. OUR DUTY. We’re Christians; that’s what we do.

I bow before Vladimir’s memory and give my heartfelt condolences to his loved ones. His fortieth day is on 21 May 2017 (a Sunday). Have your priest say Pannikhida for him and commemorate him at the Proskomidi.

ВЕЧНАЯ ЕМУ ПАМЯТЬ

BMD

The Ukraine Blocks Commemorative Resolution for Russian Representative V I Churkin at the UN

_____________________________________

Minister of Foreign Affairs S V Lavrov said of the Ukraine’s decision to block a commemorative resolution by the UN Security Council dedicated to late Russian ambassador V I Churkin:

I know how the UN works. I believe that [the Ukrainian] permanent representative wouldn’t do this on his own. This means that they ordered him to do it. This goes against Christian values. It’s beyond good and evil. Thanks to the current Ukrainian authorities, however, we’re accustomed to the fact that someone in their country treats Russians, and anyone else who refuses to dance to the tune of the neo-Nazis, precisely like that.

The Ukraine, which chairs the UN Security Council this month, cited “lack of precedent” as the reason for blocking a commemorative UN Security Council resolution for Churkin. As a result, it only released and published a press statement. If in explaining its decision, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs meant to imply that former UNSC ambassadors didn’t have commemorative resolutions passed after their death, then, it clearly missed differences in circumstances. V I Churkin wasn’t only the longest-serving ambassador in the UN Security Council but the UK’s Ambassador to the UN Matthew John Rycroft noted that he was “a diplomatic giant” who “stood out amongst all the other 193 ambassadors”. Churkin died unexpectedly whilst on active duty, this has never happened before in the history of the UNSC, and if not for anything else (including Churkin’s enormous accomplishments), this reason alone warrants a special commemorative resolution. Sputnik reported the following details:

Earlier today, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman M V Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page that this decision is “the essence of the current Ukrainian authorities”. Kremlin spokesman D S Peskov also commented that the Ukraine’s behaviour “isn’t at all as important as the loss that Russia’s diplomacy suffered”.

Russian ambassador to the UN V I Churkin passed away on Monday 20 February in New York. Churkin was the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN and its representative in the UN Security Council from April 2006. The diplomat would have been 65-years-old on Tuesday 21 February.

21 February 2017

Sergei Gladysh

The Duran

http://theduran.com/breaking-ukraine-blocks-commemorative-resolution-vitaly-churkin-un/