Volunteers from the Armenian Youth Federation’s Youth Corps program organized a car wash fundraiser on Saturday January 26 to raise money for the organization’s upcoming Camp Gyumri program in Armenia. On July 10, the Youth Corps group will depart for the Homeland to spend two weeks touring Armenia and Karabakh and four weeks operating Camp Gyumri. Over the course of the coming weeks, they will be blogging and sharing their journeys throughout Armenia and their experiences of volunteering in the Homeland. To follow their activities, visit ayfyouthcorps.org

A key U.S. House panel responsible for foreign aid voted Wednesday to approve $44 million in economic aid to Armenia – a figure $4 million less than the $48 million the same body adopted last year, but $4 million more than the amount proposed earlier this year in President Obama’s budget request to Congress, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia began His Pontifical visit of Toronto following the end of the Interfaith Summit in Winnipeg and was accompanied by His Eminence Archbishop Khajag Hagopian, Prelate of the Armenian Prelacy of Canada, His Eminence Sebouh Sarkissian, Prelate of the Armenian Prelacy of Tehran and Very Rev. Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, the Catholicosate’s Communications Officer, on June 24, 2010.

On June 26, more than 700 members of the Canadian Armenian community gathered at Cedarvale Park, Georgetown, to witness the official unveiling of the plaque, designating the Georgetown Boys Farmhouse as an historic and protected municipal site. In the presence of His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos, Minister Gary Goodyear, Ted Arnott Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), several dignitaries as well as a number of the Georgetown children’s family members, the landmark was officially integrated within the Halton Hills historic landscape.

In opposition to the recent statement by the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries—the US, France and Russia—the Armenian Revolutionary Federation “Nigol Aghbalian” Youth Organization protested at the OSCE headquarters and submitted a protest letter.

-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will press Armenia and Azerbaijan to cut a framework peace deal on Nagorno-Karabakh during her upcoming trips to the two South Caucasus states, a senior U.S. official said late on Tuesday. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon said she will “underscore” a peace message contained in a joint statement issued by the presidents of the United States, France and Russia over the weekend.

Azerbaijan is fully satisfied with the latest joint statement by the U.S., Russian and French presidents that reaffirmed their blueprint for resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a senior aide to President Ilham Aliyev said on Wednesday.

The Moscow municipality reaffirmed on Wednesday its pledge to support a massive redevelopment project in Yerevan which the Armenian government says will require billions of dollars in investments. The government announced early this year plans for building a new upscale residential and financial district in place of a rundown neighborhood perched on a hill outside the city center.

Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister on Wednesday said Armenia would not allow Azerbaijan to annex the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and called on Official Baku to withdraw from three territories of the republic still occupied by Azerbaijan’s armed forces.

In 2007, the editor of opposition newspaper Azatliq, Genimet Zahid and correspondent Adil Khalil were sued over an article entitled “Azerbaijanis Paid for Matthew Bryza’s Wedding.” The article alleges that Azeri Economic Development minister Haydar Babayev paid for a significant portion of Bryza’s wedding, which took place in Istanbul the same year. At the time, Bryza was the US co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, the body tasked with mediating a peace deal for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, a library stores precious memoirs which are all that remain of hundreds of Armenian communities, erased from the map of Turkey a century ago in the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. Now the Armenians in Jerusalem itself, many descended from refugees, fear their own 1,500-year-old Christian presence may disappear, too. Their society and extensive landholdings risk becoming collateral damage in a demographic conflict for land and power in the holy city between Israel and the Palestinians.