Month: November 2009

‘ADANA 1909’: TWO-DAY SEMINAR IN ISTANBUL

Tert
Nov 6 2009
Armenia

The History Department at Bogazici University in Turkey, Gomidas
Institute, International Hrant Dink Foundation, Istanbul Bilgi
University History Department and Sabanci University are pleased to
present a workshop titled "Adana 1909: History, Memory and Identity
from a Hundred-Year Perspective" to take place at Sabanci University
(Sakip Sabanci Museum) in Istanbul from November 6-7, 2009.

Today’s sessions will cover Adana’s historical, political and economic
context and will run till 5 pm local time. Tomorrow’s sessions begin
at 9:30 am and run till 6 pm, and cover the topic "Testimonies and
Responses."

Speakers include Lou Ann Matossian from the Cafesjian Family
Foundation; Rita Kuyumjian from McGill University in Montreal, Canada;
Marc Nichanian from Columbia University; Barbara Merguerian from the
Armenian International Women’s Association; Zakarya Mildanoglu from the
International Hrant Dink Foundation and a number of other academics,
historians and experts on the topic.

The seminars will be presented in both Turkish and English, with
simultaneous translation provided.

For more information, please send an email to [email protected].

DEFENSE MINISTRY CLOSELY FOLLOWS FALL DRAFT

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.11.2009 22:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ RA Defense Minister Seyan Ohanyan has issued decree
on setting up a commission ensuring legitimacy and transparency
of fall draft. New commission to be headed by Advisor to Defense
Minister Gegham Harutyunyan will consider and provide prompt replies
to citizens’ appeals.

Commission will work from 12:00 to 16:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and
Saturdays. It will receive citizens in the building of Public Council
under RA Defense Minister (address: 5 Moskovyan Str.).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AHMET DAVUTOGLU URGED FRANCE NOT TO BLOCK TURKEY’S BID TO JOIN EU

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.11.2009 12:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged
France on Friday not to block Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

Davutoglu gave a lecture at the International Diplomatic Academy of
Paris on Friday and said the European Union needs Turkey in order
to overcome political, economic and cultural problems in the new
global order.

At his lecture on "Turkey’s EU vision in regional and global peace
perspective", Davutoglu said that Turkey’s regional vision for peace
would be a gain, not a burden for EU.

Informing participants about Turkey’s recent peace efforts in the
Balkans, Caucasus and the Middle East, Davutoglu said," history and
future of the Balkans, Caucasus and the Middle East are our history
and future. The number of Bosniaks, Albanians, Chechens and Abkhaz
people living in Turkey are more than Bosniaks, Albanians, Chechens
and Abkhaz people living in their countries."

Recalling the protocol Turkey signed with Armenia, the Turkey-led
meeting between Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, agreement between
Turkey and Syria to lift visa requirements, and visit made by Turkish
officials to Iraq and 48 agreements signed between Turkey and Iraq,
Davutoglu said, "our vision is a vision for peace."

"Turkey is part of Europe and will continue to be so. We follow this
active policy to contribute to global peace and security," he said."

Stating that equality, respect for common values and the principle of
pacta sund servanda were important values of EU, Davutoglu criticized
recent reactions inside the Union against some countries.

"EU must go through a sociological change too," he said.

Upon a question on relations between Turkey and France, Davutoglu
called on French leaders to act with common strategic vision, not
with public pressure. He said French political leaders should not
set aside common vision and interests, Anatolian News agency reported.

A NEW ABRIDGED ENGLISH TRANSLATION "CILICIA 1909: THE MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS" WAS RELEASED

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.11.2009 12:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A new abridged English translation by Ara Stepan
Melkonian and Ara Sarafian was just released by the Gomidas Institute
of London under the title "Cilicia 1909: The Massacre of Armenians."

The book by Hagop H. Terzian was published in Istanbul in 1912,
but confiscated by the Ottoman government. Terzian, a pharmacist by
profession, documented his own and other eyewitnesses’ experiences
during the 1909 massacres in the Adana province. Born in Hadjin in
1879 and educated in Constantinople, he barely escaped the horrific
events, however, was arrested on April 24, 1915 and killed, along
with many of his colleagues.

Sarafian introduced the new volume on Monday, October 12, during the
Armenian Studies Program Lecture Series at California State University,
Fresno, in observation of the one hundredth anniversary of the Adana
Massacres. The detailed descriptions that Terzian recorded in his
diary are chilling, to say the least, but should be widely required
reading. The suffering to which the Armenian population of Adana was
subjected by mobs – in two stages – could be summarized as "going
through hell and back," if you survived!

According to the book, over 21,000 Armenians were murdered during
less than two weeks of massacres. As a result of lootings, in the
Adana province the Armenians lost an estimated 5,400,000 gold liras
in economic and personal property.

With their translation, Ara Stepan Melkonian and Ara Sarafian have
done a great service, not only for recorded history but also for the
illumination of our coming generations. Although the book encompasses
many disturbing and graphic descriptions of eyewitness accounts, it
is easy to read and should be read by every student of humanity. It
provides a preview of what followed six years later, during the
1915 Armenian Genocide. Anyone who would like to educate younger
people about atrocities that may be committed by mankind against
man, or provide help with interpreting unfolding current events,
with the goal of pre-empting and preventing genocidal recurrences,
should hand them a copy of "Cilicia 1909", Asbarez.com reported.

EAFJD CALLS UPON THE UK GOVERNMENT TO RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.11.2009 12:18 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Internationally-recognised human rights lawyer
Geoffrey Robertson QC released a legal opinion slamming the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for having deliberately misled the
British Ministers, Parliament and People about the Armenian Genocide.

Taking ground on the declarative value of the 1948 Convention, Mr
Robertson categorically rejects the foundations of the official British
position which are deceitfully supported by the FCO and especially
the allegation according to which there is no written document
giving evidence of any governmental decision to exterminate the
Armenians. With the help of the jurisprudence from the International
Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, Mr.

Robertson recalls that such documents are absolutely not required in
establishing the genocidal intent and that it is generally impossible
to provide these kinds of documents, even for the Holocaust.

On this point, the lawyer blasts the FCO’s manipulation which would
require "sufficiently unequivocal evidences", as a "meaningless"
concept forged to be never complied with and which encroaches the
clear principles of both the civil and criminal standard of proof.

Examining the FCO’s internal documents, Mr Robertson shows that by
appeasing the Turkish State’s campaign of denial, the genuine concern
of British diplomacy is "to evade truthful answers because the Truth
would discomfort" Turkey where UK has economical interests, Turkey
being "neuralgic" to the whole genocide issue.

Mr. Robertson ends his analysis by recommending the UK to end this
denial policy and by clearly calling upon it to recognise the Armenian
Genocide. Mr Robertson concludes "if these same events occurred today,
in a country with a history similar to Turkey’s in 1915, there can
be no doubt that prosecutions for genocide would be warranted and
indeed required by the Genocide Convention".

The legal opinion shows that in giving priority to economical
considerations, the FCO departed from its mission and severely warped
its objectives.

" If true, the United Kingdom must seriously discipline this
administration" stated Laurent Leylekian. "This is the international
credibility of UK as a State of Law which is challenged by this legal
opinion" he added.

Furthermore, this study is an outstanding disavowal of the official
British position about the Armenian Genocide.

"We call upon the British government to recognize the Armenian Genocide
and to clearly state that this recognition by Ankara is a condition
for the continuation of the negotiations between Turkey and the EU"
concluded Leylekian.

ARMENIA WANTS BORDER CHECKPOINT TO REOPEN

Interfax
Nov 5 2009
Russia

Yerevan wants to reopen the Verkhny Lars checkpoint on the
Russia-Georgia border as soon as possible, Armenian Foreign Ministry
press secretary Tigran Balayan told the media in Yerevan on Thursday.

"The Armenian position is clear. It has been declared several times.

We welcome the possible Russian-Georgian agreement to reopen Verkhny
Lars," he said.

The checkpoint closed down in 2006. Russia said it needed repairs.

Verkhny Lars is a transit point for Armenia.

Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said that negotiations
were underway.

"Georgia is holding negotiations with Armenia, which, in turn,
is negotiating with Russia. A meeting has been held, mostly about
technical aspects," the Georgian media cited Vashadze.

FRANCE TELECOM LAUNCHES OPERATIONS ON ARMENIAN MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS MARKET

Interfax
Nov 5 2009
Russia

FTA Telecom (Orange-Armenia, a division of Orange SA, a company in the
France Telecom group) began offering mobile communications services
on the Armenian market on Thursday, the head of France Telecom,
Didier Lombard, said at a press conference.

Armenia is the 31st country where Orange offers mobile services.

Moreover, 70,000 people in Armenia – potential subscribers – have
already registered their telephone numbers on the company’s web site,
he said.

The company has already hired 300 employees and plans to open up a
retail network covering all of Armenia.

Orange has invested about $90 million to set up its network in Armenia,
Lombard said.

Orange expects to be the leader on the Armenian market, he said,
citing the company’s frequent technology upgrades and quality service.

GSM services are currently provided in Armenia by Armentel, a 100%
subsidiary of Russian VimpelCom (RTS: VIMP) (under the Beeline brand)

and K-Telecom, in which Russian Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (RTS: MTSS)

owns 80% of shares (VivaCell).

Orange was declared the winner in a tender to provide mobile
communications services in Armenia on October 7, 2008, offering 51.5
million euro for the license. Swedish M&A Tele2 AB bid 45.6 million
euro and British-Irish consortium CEO Blackrock Communications offered
31.6 million euro.

The winner must invest at least 200 million over the course of
15 years.

Armenia’s commission on public services issued FTA Telecom the 15-
year license to operate a GSM network in November 2008.

NATO SUPPORTS ARMENIA-TURKEY NORMALIZATION

Interfax
Nov 5 2009
Russia

NATO supports Armenia-Turkey normalization, Special Representative of
the NATO Secretary General for the South Caucasus Robert Simmons said.

He also confirmed NATO support for the OSCE Minsk Group settling the
Karabakh conflict.

Simmons met with Armenian National Security Council Secretary Artur
Bagdasarian in Yerevan on Thursday.

The sides stressed the importance of opening a crisis management
center in Armenia, border security and more profound cooperation in
the suppression of terrorism and organized crime.

KARABAKH STATUS KEY ISSUE IN TALKS – ARMENIA

Interfax
Nov 5 2009
Russia

The status of Karabakh is the central issue in the talks on the
settlement of the problem of Nagorno Karabakh, Armenia Foreign Minister
Edvard Nalbandian said.

"The status of Nagorno Karabakh, security guarantees and a land border
between Armenia and Nagorny Karabakh are the central issues in the
talks," Nalbandian told the Armenian parliament on Thursday.

Armenia’s position on the settlement of the conflict remains unchanged,
he said.

"We see no alternative to a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The conflicts must be resolved peacefully through talks," he also said.

The co-chairmen of the organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe’s Minsk Group, brokering the settlement, will arrive in
Yerevan from Azerbaijan on November 6, Nalbandian said.

ARMENIA SET TO DEEPEN COOPERATION WITH NATO – MINISTRY

Interfax
Nov 5 2009
Russia

Armenia will continue its cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) in the framework of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership
Council, said country’s Foreign Minister Eduard Naldbandian.

"Armenia will continue cooperation with the NATO in the framework
of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, as well as in peacekeeping
efforts, fighting against international terrorism and disaster recovery
operations," Nalbandian said at a meeting with NATO Secretary General’s
Special Representative to the South Caucasus Robert Simmons.

Armenia attaches significance to the mutually beneficial cooperation
with NATO and wants to deepen it, the minister said.

"We are going to deepen our cooperation with NATO, paying particular
attention to the implementation of the Individual Partnership Program,"
the Armenian foreign minister said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress