Month: December 2008

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT ON A VISIT IN BULGARIA
Stefan Nikolov

News.bg
Dec 10 2008
Bulgaria

Armenian President Serj Sarkisian will make a two-day official visit
in Bulgaria after an invitation by President Georgi Parvanov.

Today, the two Head of State will have a personal meeting, after
which there will be talks of the official delegations.

President Sarkisian will have a meeting at a work lunch with Prime
Minister Sergey Stanishev and will also meet the Chair of the National
Assembly Georgi Pirinski.

BERNARD FASSIER: "TECHNICAL DOCUMENT ON RESOLUTION WAS PRESENTED TO THE PARTIES TO THE KARABAKH CONFLICT IN HELSINKI"

Today.Az
politics/49473.html
Dec 10 2008
Azerbaijan

The parties of the Karabakh conflict were presented a "technical"
document, which may promote the resolution of the Karabakh issue and
acceleration the coordination of basic principles on the conflict
resolution, said French co-chair of the OSCE MG Bernard Fassier,
reports the Azerbaijani service of the Liberty radio station.

He also said that this document was prepared by the Foreign Ministers
of Russia, France and the United States. According to the co-chairman,
initially the document must be developed and studied and then either
be approved or rejected by the conflict parties.

The French co-chair noted that the Foreign Ministers of Russia and
France, as well as the deputy US Secretary of State at the meeting with
the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan presented a schedule
to the parties to allow finishing the coordination of basic principles
on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict within the next year.

Fassier, called the recent Helsinki meeting of the Foreign Ministers of
the OSCE member-states to be very useful and important in the sense of
the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. "First of all, the Foreign
Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia have discussed the resolution
of the Karabakh issue for more than 5 years. The discussions also
involved co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Moreover, the Foreign
Ministers of Russia, France and deputy US secretary of state called
on the sides to make a step forward on the way to strengthening the
atmosphere of trust and withdrawing snipers from the first conflict
line", announced the French diplomat.

It should be noted that the MG mediators appealed to the sides two
weeks ago. Bernard Fassier noted that "this step will show adherence
to the Moscow declaration, under which the parties are bound to
take steps for strengthening mutual trust and will be a sign of good
will and a New Year present to young soldiers and ordinary citizens,
residing in this territory".

EU REACHES AIR SERVICES ‘BREAKTHROUGH’ WITH CANADA, INKS ACCORDS WITH ARMENIA, ISRAEL
by Aaron Karp

ATWOnline
Dec 10 2008
MD

The EU yesterday announced a far-reaching air services agreement
with Canada that includes reciprocal investment and signed new air
services accords with Armenia and Israel.

A European Commission statement hailed "a breakthrough in the EU-Canada
negotiations. . .[that] both completes the transatlantic market
started with the EU-US first stage aviation agreement and goes well
beyond it." Under terms of the agreement expected to be signed soon,
all EU airlines will be able to operate direct flights to Canada from
anywhere in Europe and all restrictions on routes, prices or weekly
flight numbers between Canada and the EU will be eliminated.

"Other traffic rights will be liberalized gradually in parallel with
the opening up of investment opportunities," the EC said, adding, "EU
nationals will be able to establish operations in Canada and freely
invest in Canadian airlines and vice versa." VP and Commissioner
for Transport Antonio Tajani called the accord "groundbreaking in
the aviation world as the agreement includes all possible aspects
of aviation, including investment." Air Canada commented that it
will open "a realm of new commercial opportunities. . .in Canada’s
second-largest travel market after the US."

The agreement signed with Armenia will allow all European airlines
to fly between Armenia and any EU state. The pact signed with Israel
"will remove nationality restrictions. . .[allowing] any EU airline
to operate flights between any EU member state and Israel where
a bilateral agreement with Israel exists and traffic rights are
available," the EC said.

ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN SECURITY COUNCILS SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENT

ITAR-TASS
Dec 10 2008
Russia

YEREVAN, December 9 (Itar-Tass) — Secretary of the Russian Security
Council Nikolai Patrushev and Secretary of the Armenian National
Security Council Artur Bagdasarian met in Yerevan on Tuesday to sign
a cooperation plan for 2009.

Patrushev arrived in Yerevan for the participation in a meeting of the
Security Council secretaries of the member states of the Collective
Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

Bagdasarian assessed the agreement as a very important document, which
declared for the first time ever close relations between the Security
Councils of Russia and Armenia that had created strategic partnership.

The document envisages special events and consultations on security
in general, as well as on the transport and energy security and
military-technical cooperation, Bagdasarian said.

He is confident that the cooperation plan would make possible a more
efficient coordination of activities of the two countries, mapping
out special steps and plans, as well as laying a solid legal basis
for the targeted events.

Bagdasarian is confident the planned steps will give a fresh impetus
to the fruitful cooperation between the two Security Councils in the
defence and security spheres.

Patrushev, in turn, said: "Russia and Armenia are strategic
partners. They coordinate many issues in the security sphere, which
they have to resolve."

In his words, "the agreement makes systemic the Russian-Armenian
partnership in the sphere of national security."

"We have already mapped out events, which will be implemented in 2009,"
he said, adding that the agreement envisages activities of the two
Security Councils, which "make us sure that we will work out a joint
position pertaining to all problems."

8-YEAR-OLD STANDS UP TO GENOCIDE
BY Kathryn Nelson

Minnesota Daily
-stands-genocide
Dec 10 2008
MN

Last Sunday hundreds of students gathered at Northrop Auditorium,
donning black caps and gowns, to celebrate their monumental
achievement: graduation.

After walking the stage and collecting our diplomas, it became clear
that we were not simply joining the rest of the tax-paying population,
but also that we are now responsible to control our own future —
and that of our world.

I thought it would be appropriate for my last column of the semester
to let someone else speak — someone who has consistently been the
voice of those who lost theirs.

Ellen Kennedy has worked tirelessly as the interim director for the
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies to motivate young citizens
to become involved in human rights advocacy.

The following are her personal stories of how young people, just like
us, have made amazing strides against international injustices. Take
these stories and be inspired. Make a call. Change the world for
the better.

Eight-year-old Freya Slocumb first heard about the genocide in Darfur
while listening to University alumnus Luke Walker give a homily during
Mass at their Minneapolis church.

Sitting in a pew with her mother, she listened to Walker speak about
what was happening in the Darfur region of Sudan , the first genocide
of the 21st century where approximately 400,000 innocent people had
been murdered.

Turning to her mother, Freya said: "Mom, this isn’t right. We have
to do something." And she did. Freya decided to make jewelry called
"sacrifice beads" to sell as a fundraiser, and so far this little
8-year-old girl has raised almost $600 to be donated to the Genocide
Intervention Network.

In her Dec. 3 blog entry, Freya wrote, "My mom told me that Obama
picked someone for the U.N. who is very against genocide. Her name is
Susan Rice . She wants the situation in Darfur to end, just like I do,
and she’ll be someone Obama will listen to. … I am so excited that
maybe the end of this will be soon."

Emma Weisberg, 16, is a junior at Edina High School . She organized
a citywide showing last year of "The Devil Came on Horseback ,"
a documentary about the Darfur genocide, that more than 350 people
attended.

This year, Emma and her friends arranged for Dr. Ashis Brahma — the
only doctor caring for 27,000 Darfuris in a refugee camp in Chad —
to speak in Edina in February.

Anna Donnelly , 22, graduated from the University last Sunday,
writing her honors thesis about human rights atrocities.

She often speaks to high school classes, church groups, and civic
organizations about genocide, as well as organizes fundraisers and
lobbies her elected officials to prevent genocide.

Two weeks ago she worked with the City Council of Hopkins, Minn.,
to divest the city’s portfolio from companies that are complicit with
Sudan’s genocidal government. And this spring she’ll be a University
Human Rights fellow, developing educational resources about Darfur
for Minnesota teachers.

Mark Hanis, 26, is the founder and executive director of the Genocide
Intervention Network in Washington, D.C.

Supervising a staff of 20 people and overseeing STAND, a student
anti-genocide coalition , Hanis has empowered thousands of people to
take action against the genocide in Darfur.

An 8-year-old, a 16-year-old, a 22-year-old and a 26-year-old;
ordinary people yet extraordinary. They’re all standing up to make
a difference. Young people have gotten engaged around the issue of
genocide prevention in unprecedented ways.

The question is: Why do young people care? Many people have never
even heard of Sudan or Darfur, or thought about the nightmare of
genocide. But there are important reasons why every single one of us
should — indeed, must — care.

The Torah, the Bible and the Quran all exhort us not to stand by
when the blood of our neighbor is spilled. Freya wrote on her blog,
"I am one person. I may never have the chance to do great things. I
can only offer to God the things I can do."

Impunity allows evil to flourish. Adolf Hitler said to his generals,
before sending death squads into Poland, "Go, kill without mercy
… Who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?"

The United States has signed and ratified the Genocide Convention
. It was passed in the United Nations 60 years ago, and it’s been
the law of our land for 20 years. We have a legal responsibility to
prevent and stop genocide.

Genocide breeds insecurity in the region, the continent and the
world. Genocide is a threat to our national security, according to
The Genocide Prevention Task Force.

When we see an accident, we call 911. When we know about genocide
we should call the anti-genocide hotline, 1-800-GENOCIDE, which
automatically connects all Americans to their representatives,
senators and the White House.

Freya, 8, is doing all she can. Let’s help Freya — and help all the
innocent people in Darfur who are targeted in the first genocide of
the 21 century.

Ellen J. Kennedy , Interim Director Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies Kathryn Nelson welcomes comments at [email protected].

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT BULGARIA

Focus News
Dec 10 2008
Bulgaria

Yerevan. Serzh Sargsyan will pay a two-day work visit to Sofia
December 10 with the invitation of President of the Republic of
Bulgaria Georgi Prvanov.

The same day the official reception of Sargsyan will take place and
Sargsyan will hold private talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi
Prvanov. The talks will be followed by Armenian-Bulgarian talks in a
wide format, the signing of documents and joint press conference of the
two presidents and the presidents will make a joint statement on the
results of the visit. It is foreseen to sign a protocol on Culture
Days of Bulgaria in Armenia in 2009 and Culture Days of Armenia
in Bulgaria in 2010, the 2009-2014 work plan for cooperation in
spheres of state administration, cooperation agreement in the sphere
of archives, as well as a protocol on making changes to the treaty
on excluding the double tax on income and assets of both countries,
RIA Novosti reported.

TURKISH FOREIGN POLICYMAKER: IRAN POSES THREAT TO TURKEY
By Zvi Bar’el

Ha’aretz
Dec 10 2008
Israel

"I don’t think that a military option against Iran will work," visiting
Turkish politician, Murat Mercan, told Haaretz on Sunday. "Sanctions
against Iran will be effective if they are applied efficiently. But
the truth is, I don’t know whether it is realistic to expect full
sanctions when countries are still prepared to veto these sanctions."

Mercan is visiting Israel, not for the first time, as a guest
of the Shalem Center’s Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies,
headed by former minister, Natan Sharansky. Mercan, a member of the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), is one of Turkey’s most
influential foreign policymakers. He chairs the Turkish Parliament’s
Foreign Affairs Committee, is a close adviser of Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and served in the past as AKP deputy chairman.

He said on Sunday that Turkey believes the entire region should be
free of nuclear weapons.

"Israel too?" he was asked.

"I wish Israel would not feel threatened; then it, too, could disarm
from nuclear weapons," was his circuitous answer, which allowed him to
refrain from commenting directly on whether Israel should disarm. He
immediately added that Israel was not the only country that felt
threatened by Iran’s nuclear plans. "Iran is first and foremost a
threat to us," he said. But the feeling of being vulnerable did not
prevent Turkey from recently signing a memorandum of understanding
with Iran to develop gas fields in southern Iran, not to mention that
it still maintains its extensive commercial ties to Tehran.

"We are not diverging from the policy of sanctions," Mercan explained,
"because a memorandum of understanding does not mean that anything has
actually been done. In general, Turkey will not deviate from any policy
that is accepted by the United Nations Security Council with regard to
Iran." After a short pause, he added: "You can’t expect Turkey to do
more than other countries with regard to cooperation with Iran." These
remarks were directed primarily at Germany and Switzerland, which have
signed major trade agreements with Iran. Two weeks ago, Turkey offered
to serve as a mediator between Iran and the new U.S. administration;
the Iranian response to the proposal was favorable. "But now we are
awaiting Obama’s entry to the White House," he said. "Before that,
I don’t think there is anything that can, or should, be done."

Turkish President Abdullah Gul is due in Israel in January for a
three-day state visit. Several joint policies regarding Iran and Syria
are expected to be proposed, despite the fact that it is not clear who
the Israeli decision makers will be after the elections. With regard
to Syria, Mercan believes that until Obama takes over and until the
results of the Israeli elections become clear, any indirect talks with
Syria, that were promoted by Turkey, should not be expected. "The
next stage is direct dialogue between the sides and that is what we
are working on," he said. "But a dialogue of this kind will have to
wait until after the elections."

"Dialogue" is the key word defining the fronts in which Turkey is
involved – whether Iran, Syria or Hamas. Turkey received Hamas with
open arms, but was harshly criticized for its actions; as such,
Mercan now employs diplomatic caution regarding the group.

"Yes, any attack on civilians is terror," he said with regard to the
attacks from the Gaza Strip on Sderot. "I visited Sderot, and I saw
how its residents were being attacked, but I also know the tragedy
and sorrow in Gaza well. I advise Hamas to stop attacking civilians
and propose that Israel stop imposing sanctions on Gaza. After all,
how is it possible to imagine the two nations living side by side if
each causes the other to suffer tragedies?"

A few weeks ago, Hamas considered turning to Turkey to mediate with
Israel over abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier, Gilad Shalit,
the release of Palestinian prisoners and the opening of the border
crossings, but it seems that Turkey has decided to leave this work
in the hands of the Egyptians.

Nevertheless, there is one subject about which Mercan is prepared
to speak directly and without diplomatic lingo. "It is forbidden to
endanger the ties with Turkey on a subject that should not be discussed
by the parliaments but by the historians," he said. He is referring
to the definition of the deaths of the Armenians in 1915 as a genocide.

Custom or law?

Mercan was personally in touch at the time with Knesset members to
persuade them to abandon the issue. Now he is waiting to see what
President Barack Obama’s position will be; Obama promised to recognize
the event as genocide of the Armenians.

The veil worn by observant Muslim women is once again stirring anger
in Egypt over its religious function. Is it a duty or an option? The
radical organizations offer all the suitable quotations from the Koran
and the important adjudicators to "prove" that Mohammed literally meant
for every woman to hide her face and hands, and not to make do merely
with a head covering. They believe that the eyes are the gate to the
woman’s soul and therefore need to be hidden. On the other hand, the
sages belonging to the centrist stream of Islam believe that the veil
does not appear in any of the precepts of Islam and that, at most,
this is a custom which must be permitted. But of course, as usual,
this is not a purely religious-legal argument aimed at fixing the way
in which Muslim must women appear in public. The argument is political.

At a time when the Egyptian government is investing vast efforts to
uproot religious fanaticism and is not merely making do with the
arrests of members of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, but is
banning women with veils from appearing as announcers on TV programs
and postponing the appointment of women as religious instructors
because they wear veils, the following initiative is merely the next
obvious step on the way to the religious de-legitimization of the veil.

With this, I refer to a new book being published by Egypt’s Wakf
Ministry, written by cabinet minister, Mohammed Hamdi, who is a
religious sage and religious law analyst. In the book, he "proves"
through signs and omens that wearing a veil is not a religious edict
but rather a custom, and as such it enjoys a lower status; with
this, it will soon be possible to call for the custom to be uprooted
altogether. The co-authors of the book, which will be distributed
to all the imams in Egypt’s 140,000 mosques, include the head of the
Al-Azhar Mosque, the most important religious institution in Egypt,
and the mufti of Egypt. Hamdi explained that the veil is not merely
the result of a radical religious point of view, it even creates it.

OSCE NEW CHAIRMAN TO DISCUSS NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT IN AZERBAIJAN

Trend News Agency
Dec 10 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 10 Dec /Trend News corr. I.Alizade/ New OSCE
Chairman-in-Office will discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in
Azerbaijan. OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Greece Dora
Bakoianis will visit South Caucasus and Azerbaijan next year, the head
of the OSCE Baku Office Jose Luis Herrero said to Trend News on 10 Dec.

Date of the visit has not yet been specified, Herrero said.

On 5 Dec, Helsinki hosted the 16th meeting of the OSCE Foreign
Ministers, at which Finland handed over its chairmanship duties
to Greece.

At the final plenary meeting, Finland’s Foreign Minister Alexander
Stubb, who was OSCE Chairman-in-Office in 2008, handed over his duties
to his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoianis.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GEORGIAN CHRISTIAN AND DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT DEMANDS RETURN OF GEORGIAN CHURCHES IN ARMENIA

Trend News Agency
Dec 10 2008
Azerbaijan

Georgia, Tbilisi, 10 Dec /TrendNews corr. N.Kirtskhalia/ The Georgian
Christian and Democratic Movement will hold actions at the Armenian
Embassy at 02.00p.m. on 11 Dec. The action targets to return Georgian
churches and cloisters in Armenia, Georgi Andriadze, the leader of
the movement, said. The national Christians urge the community to
support them.

"Tens of historical important Georgian churches and cloisters
are located in historical territory of Lorri-Tashir of the north
Armenia. Unfortunately, they have been fully plundered, which
indicates their belonging to Orthodox Georgian Church, but not
Armenian. Otherwise, they would be protected. I think, the Georgian
Orthodox Church deliberately has not raised a question on transfer of
these churches not to intensify the situation. However, unfortunately,
Armenia permanently seeks to strain the situation and unilaterally
demands return of churches. Since Armenia continues provocations, we
should remind them on our legal rights to demand transfer of Georgian
churches in Armenia," the Movement said.

Besides this, Andriadze expresses his supposition that all of these
are provocation of the third side and target to create dispute between
two neighbor nations.

CONVINCE RAPHAEL LEMKIN OTHERWISE!

HYE-TERT
Dec 10 2008
Turkey

The Armenian Genocide has been officially recognized by Turkey,
United States, Great Britain, Israel and many more countries, but we
just couldn’t see it.

By Vicken Babkenian, an independent researcher for the Australian
Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Sydney, Australia,
3 December 2008

It all began when I was cutting an Orange for my niece when she asked
me why the name Orange is both a color and a fruit. After doing some
research, I discovered that the root of the word Orange in the English
language is derived from the fruit. In other words the Etymology of
the color and the fruit is interconnected. No one can argue that the
fruit Orange is not Orange.

As someone who has studied the Armenian Genocide over a number of
years, I could not help but familiarize myself with the etymology of
the word Genocide. I discovered that the word genocide is from the
roots genos (Greek for family, tribe, race, a people, a nation) and
-cide (Latin – occidere or cideo – to Massacre, Kill, exterminate). I
looked up the word in the Oxford dictionary and found the definition to
be "the extermination of a race". I then recalled that this definition
of the word ‘genocide’ had been used by contemporary eyewitnesses,
diplomats, historians, journalists to describe what was happening to
the Armenians during WWI. Lord James Bryce in 1915 called it "the
Extermination of a Race" in a New York Times article. If the word
‘genocide’ had been coined before WWI, then that one word would have
been used, instead of the five words which mean the same thing.

I then conducted some research on Raphael Lemkin, "The founder of the
genocide convention" and on the genesis of the word ‘genocide’ which
he coined in 1944. In his manuscript titled "Totally unofficial",
Lemkin wrote:

"In 1915 . . . I began . . . to read more history to study whether
national, religious, or racial groups as such were being destroyed. The
truth came out after the war. In Turkey, more than 1,200,000 Armenians
were put to death . . . After the end of the war, some 150 Turkish
war criminals were arrested and interned by the British Government
on the island of Malta . . . Then one day, I read in the newspapers
that all Turkish war criminals were to be released. I was shocked. A
nation that killed and the guilty persons were set free . . . I felt
that a law against this type of racial or religious murder must be
adopted by the world"

I soon reached the conclusion that the word genocide is etymologically
interconnected with the tragedy of the Armenians, just like the word
Orange is to the fruit of the same name. The man who coined the word
genocide had in large part based it on the Armenian catastrophe. He
even stated on national television "that it happened to the
Armenians." I further realized that the legal term "Crimes against
humanity" which is affirmed by the U.N general Assembly was in the
main, derived and adopted from a declaration made by the Allies on
24 May 1915 with respect to the initiation of the wartime Armenian
Genocide, which they branded as a "crime against humanity." This
fact is acknowledged by the authoritative UN War Crimes Commission,
History of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Development
of the Laws of War.

I searched online to learn which countries had actually signed and
ratified the Genocide Convention. I discovered that most countries
in the world had done so, including the United States, Great Britain,
Turkey, Israel and so on. I concluded that by ratifying the convention
they had in fact recognized that the Armenian holocaust was in fact
a genocide.

Yes, I use the word ‘holocaust’ because that word was used to
describe what was happening to the Armenians during the Abdul Hamid
Massacres, Adana Massacres and the Armenian genocide by contemporary
writers. William Walker Rockwell in an article titled "the Total
of Armenian and Syrian Dead" in the New York Times Current History
February 1916, wrote "If the ghosts of the Christian civilians who
have perished miserably in Turkey since the commencement of the great
holocaust should march down Fifth Avenue twenty abreast there might
be a million of them … for most of them will be women and children".

The Armenian genocide has been recognized by the majority of the
nations of the world and we didn’t even know it. If those countries
who have ratified the genocide convention deny that the Armenians
were victims of genocide, then they should either terminate their
participation to the convention, or have the convention change the word
‘genocide’ to something else which is not intrinsically connected to
the Armenian slaughter.

Denying that Armenians were victims of genocide is akin to denying
that an Orange is Orange. It is insane and illogical. For those who
believe that what happened to the Armenians should not be termed a
‘genocide’, should have convinced Raphael Lemkin not to base the
word on what had happened to the Armenians. Unfortunately for them,
it is too late, by signing the genocide convention; most of the world
has already recognized the Armenian genocide.