Month: December 2008

Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
[email protected]
Internet

PRESS RELEASE
December 20, 2008
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

ANCA WELCOMES CONVICTION OF RWANDAN GENOCIDE MASTERMIND

— Col. Theoneste Bagosora Receives Life in Prison, 14 Years After
Genocidal Acts

Washington, DC- The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA),
this week, hailed a United National court decision sentencing
Rwanda Genocide mastermind, Col. Theoneste Bagosora to life in
prison. Major Aloys Ntabakuze and Lieutenant Colonel Anatole
Nsengiyumva were also convicted of crimes ranging from genocide to
crimes against humanity and war crimes.

"As we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, Col. Bagosora’s conviction
sends a powerful message that there is no escape from a genocidal
past," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "The world
will continue to follow the ICTR’s efforts, as other perpetrators
of the Rwandan are placed on trial."

Following intense judicial scrutiny, Col. Bagosora, an ethnic Hutu,
was found guilty of ordering the Hutu militia to slaughter ethnic
Tutsis civilians. The U.N. established the Tanzania-based
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) tribunal in late
1994. Bagosora was captured in neighboring Camaroon in 1997 and
stood trial beginning 2002. After hearing from some 242 witnesses,
the court began its deliberation in June 1, 2007.

"After 14 years of waiting it is a relief to see a genocide
mastermind like Bagosora receive a life the sentence that he
deserves for his role in the 1994 genocide," commented Jacqueline
Murekatete, Rwanda genocide survivor and human rights activist.
"For survivors, this is certainly a step towards justice, but more
needs to be done by the ICTR. Several other masterminds still
await trial in Arusha and many more are fugitives who still enjoy
safe havens around the world. I hope ICTR will also bring justice
to these individuals for the sake of the million murdered, for the
survivors, and for humanity at large."

At the age of 9, Murekatete lost her parents, six siblings, and a
grandmother during the Rwandan genocide. In the U.S.. she founded
Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner, a genocide prevention education
program, which has helped educate thousands on the Rwandan Genocide
and genocide prevention.

The Rwandan Genocide claimed the lives of close to 1,000,000
Tutsi’s during the months of April to June of 1994. Following a
plane crash that took the life of Rwandan President Juvenal
Habyarimana of on April 6th, Hutu extremists began killing countless
Tutsis. Despite pleas to the international community, the crimes
continued until a Tutsi rebel movement, the Rwandan Patriotic Front
(RPF) overthrew the Hutu government and seized power. For years
following the Rwandan genocide, Bagosora denied responsibility for
the crimes he committed.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is the largest
and most influential Armenian American grassroots political
organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the
concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of
issues.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan moves to scrap presidential term limits

By AIDA SULTANOVA, Associated Press

Fri Dec 19, 2008

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan’s parliament voted Friday to scrap
presidential term limits, potentially prolonging a dynasty that has
led the oil-rich Caspian Sea country for 15 years.

Parliament, dominated by allies of President Ilham Aliyev ,
overwhelmingly backed a proposal for a nationwide referendum that
would also postpone elections in the event of war. The vote was 95 to
4, with one abstention.

Aliyev won a second five-year term by a landslide in October, but the
vote was boycotted by the opposition and criticized by international
observers as falling short of democratic standards. He succeeded his
father, who ruled Azerbaijan as the Communist Party boss during the
Soviet times and then as president from 1993-2003.

The authoritarian leader’s beleaguered critics say scrapping the
current limit of two straight terms would be undemocratic. The
opposition party Umid said Thursday that it would violate the
country’s international commitments to uphold political freedoms.

The U.S. and European Union are courting Azerbaijan because of its
Caspian Sea oilfields and strategic location along a corridor for
westward energy exports bypassing Russia and the Mideast . They have
expressed concern, however, about the government’s treatment of
opponents and the media.

The proposed amendments face a review by Azerbaijan ‘s Constitutional
Court , after which parliament would set a date for a vote. Past
election results indicate approval would be likely, but a vote could
prompt opposition protests.

The timing of the initiative may signal government concerns that the
global economic troubles and the plunging drop in the price of oil,
Azerbaijan ‘s main export, could weaken its position.

Other oil-rich ex-Soviet republics have implemented similar changes.

Lawmakers in Kazakhstan last year waived term limits for the
long-ruling president, and the Kremlin is moving to extend the
presidential term in Russia from four years to six.

It is proposed creating private compulsory enforcement system in
Armenia

YEREV AN, DECEMBER 19, NOYAN TAPAN. The team of the program studying the
current compulsory enforcement system in Armenia and the expediency of
introducing a private system has proposed creating a private,
self-sufficient and self-financed system of enforcement of court acts
and decisions in the country and discontinuing the functions of the
current state system. This World Bank-financed study was done by
consulting companies DPK Consulting (the U.S) and Ameria (Armenia) and
the Program Implementation Office of the Ministry of Justice that
propose creating a parallel private system competing with the state one
– as an alternative, as well as a third version: the gradual
introduction of a private system, during which the functions of the
state system will be reduced.

The program executives propose compulsory enforcement-related reforms
in Armenia, in particular, a new law on compulsory enforcement system.

The program head Joseph Traficanti said that the problems of the
service on compulsory enforcement of court acts are system ones in
Armenia. According to him, an educational visit of 5 persons from
Armenia to three countries: Macedonia, Bulgaria and Estonia was
financed under the program. The experience of the indicated countries
was studied during the visit. J. Traficanti said that a private system
will be of great use to Armenia: one of its positive aspects is that it
is neutral for the state in terms of expenditures. In reality the
system is a semiprivate one as its activities are regulated by a state
body and sums collected are also managed at the state level.

In the words of Nevenka Ivanovska, an expert representing Macedonia’s
compulsory enforcement system, Macedonia, Estonia, the Netherlands,
Latvia and Lithuania are examples of positive experience for Armenia
because the efficiency of activity has increased threefold after the
introduction of a new system in these countries.

The Armenian government will examine the conclusions of the study and
make a respective decision.

Congressman Mark Kirk announced co-chair of Congressional Caucus on
Armenian issues

WASHING TON, DECEMBER 19, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian
Assembly of America welcomed the election of Mark Kirk (R-IL) as a new
co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues. In this post
M. Kirk will replace the co-chair Joe Knollenberg who will leave
Congress in January 2009.

In the words of M. Kirk, after working with the Armenian American
community on promotion of U.S.-Armenia issues for 20 years, it was a
great honor and inspiration to him to serve together with Congressman
Pallone as a co-chair of the Caucus on Armenian Issues. He said that
the Caucus on Armenian Issues is famous for its work on development of
U.S.-Armenia relations and recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and he
anticipates to work with Congressman Pallone and all the members of the
Caucus to promote U.S.-Armenia relations in the 111th Congress.

M. Kirk was first elected to Congress in 2000, replacing John Porter
(R-IL) who was the first co-chair of the Caucus from the Republican
Party.

M. Kirk serves in the U.S. House of Representatives’s Appropriations
Committee and is included in the Committee’s Subcommittee on Financial
Services and the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related
Programs, under whose jurisdiction is the issue of financing of Armenia.

Congressman Kirk has sponsored many resolutions on the Armenian
Genocide. Besides, he assisted with adoption of resolutions on the use
of a normal constant trade regime between the U.S. and Armenia and
co-sponsored resolution 3361 of the House of Representatives, which
banned the allocation of taxpayers’ money for financing construction of
a railway bypassing Armenia.

The Los Angeles Times
Hollywood shooting leaves 1 man dead, 1 injured

No motive is known for the shooting in Little Armenia, police say. The
incident comes just days after a double slaying nearby, also of
unknown motive.

By Ruben Vives
December 18, 2008

One man was killed and another was injured Wednesday night in a shooting in
Hollywood, authorities said.

The incident occurred about 9 p.m. in the 900 block of Hobart Boulevard near
the Little Armenia neighborhood, said Officer Jason Lee of the Los Angeles
Police Department.

One man was pronounced dead at the scene, Lee said, and the wounded man was
taken by paramedics to a nearby hospital. No other injuries were reported.

The motive for the shooting was unknown.

The shooting comes just days after a double murder in the same area. Last
week, a 15-year-old Armenian girl returning home from school discovered the
bodies of her 43-year-old father and 8-year-old sister. Investigators in that
incident have not determined a motive either.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Secular Turks facing discrimination
20.12.2008 12:26 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A report in Turkey has highlighted "very worrying"
evidence of increased discrimination against secular Turks. The study,
called "Being Different in Turkey", links this directly to the
presence of the religious conservative AK Party in government. It
details widespread social pressure on non-devout Muslims to attend
Friday prayers, fast during the month of Ramadan or wear a
headscarf. It was conducted by the Open Society Institute and
Bosphorus University.

It suggests that a government policy of making appointments to local
administrations on the basis of political and religious beliefs,
rather than competence, is forcing non-devout Turks to change their
habits in order to protect their business or their jobs.

The AK Party has its roots in Political Islam, but has always insisted
its views have changed.

Last year, the party survived an attempt to close it down, as a threat
to Turkey’s strict secular system.

The study documents what many secular Turks have complained about in
the years since the AK Party came to power. Based on interviews with
almost 5,000 secular Turks, Alevites and Christians in 12 cities, it
concludes that religious conservatism is flourishing, breeding
increasing intolerance of those outside the Sunni Muslim majority. It
claims that the appointment of AK Party devotees to local
administrations, schools and hospitals is changing the social
atmosphere in Turkey in what it calls a very worrying way.

The report cites page upon page of examples: non-religious nurses put
on permanent night shift; landlords refusing to take female student
tenants unless they wear a headscarf; secular civil servants bypassed
for promotion. It talks of increased social pressure to attend Friday
prayers and fast during Ramadan, and documents the difficulty in many
cities of obtaining licenses to sell alcohol.

The report’s authors accept that much of the Turkish heartland has
always been socially conservative. But they blame the AK Party for
failing to promote tolerance for other groups’ rights and freedoms
while in government. Instead, the government’s practices have had
quite the opposite effect, BBC reports.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Araz Alizade: Turkey can easily neglect Azerbaijan’s interests
20.12.2008 13:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Many Turks erroneously hope that accession to the
European Union will bring them welfare, according to an Azeri
politician.

"To become a member of the EU, Turkey should recognize the Armenian
Genocide in the Ottoman Empire," said Araz Alizade, chairman of the
Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan.

"Turkey can easily neglect Azerbaijan’s interests if Armenians
renounce financial compensation for the 1915 events. The whole thing
is money. If Turkey, which has over $160 billion debt, is imposed
payment of compensations, it will have no future," he said.

"One should not hope that Turkey will press for return of Nagorno
Karabakh to Azerbaijan," Alizade concluded.

AZG Armenian Daily #237, 20/12/2008

Armenia-Kazakhstan

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT LEFT FOR KAZAKHSTAN

Armenian President Serzh Sargsian left for Kazakhstan December 18 to
participate in the non-official summit of the heads of CSTO countries.

Presidential press service informed that Serzh Sargsian had a short
meeting with the Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev. During
the meeting, the two sides highly qualified the present level of the
Armenian – Kazakhstani bilateral relations and mentioned that they are
pleased with the level of the political dialogue between the two
states.

The Presidents underlined the role of the Armenian community of
Kazakhstan in the strengthening of Armenian-Kazakhstani friendly
relations.

After the meeting, the non-official summit of the heads of CSTO
countries started. Issues of CSTO regulation prospects, cooperation
within the framework of the organization, world economic crisis and
integration processes in the CIS region are on the agenda of the
summit.

Translated by L.H.

AZG Armenian Daily #237, 20/12/2008

Genocides

DENIAL OF THE GENOCIDE IS A PUNISHABLE OFFENCE IN THE TERRITORY OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION

Similar decision was made at the meeting of the EU member countries’
Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs in November 2008.

According to the CNNTurk, after the meeting of the Ministers the
European Council made a decision to pass a bill criminalizing the
denial of the fact of Genocide. The law will be put into circulation
in the EU member countries in the course of two years.

According to the law, everyone who publicly denies the fact of the
Genocide and the crimes against the humanity will be sent to prison
for 1-3 years.

CNNTurk adds that the law imposes punishment on the denial of the
genocides that were committed after 1938; it does not embrace the
Armenian Genocide.

Translated by L.H.

Panorama.am

14:03 20/12/2008

CULTURAL CYCLE RACE IN HONOR TO SAROYAN

Today cultural cycling race will be held in Yerevan in honor to
William Saroyan. The race will start from the writer’s monument and
will continue up to Komitas pantheon through the central streets of
the city. The participants of the race will be given ties with
Saroyan’s image, his thoughts of Armenia and nature.

The participants of the race remind us that Saroyan liked to make the
propaganda of cycling race by the examples of his heroes.

Source: Panorama.am