Month: February 2012

SARKOZY ORDERS DRAFTING OF NEW ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW

Expatica France

Feb 28 2012

President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered his government to draft a new law
punishing denial of the Armenian genocide Tuesday after France’s top
court struck down a previous bill.

France’s Constitutional Court earlier Tuesday ruled that the law,
backed by Sarkozy, was unconstitutional as it infringed on freedom
of expression.

In a statement, Sarkozy’s office said: “He has ordered the government
to prepare a new draft, taking into account the Constitutional
Council’s decision.”

Sarkozy noted “the great disappointment and profound sadness of all
those who welcomed with hope and gratitude the adoption of this law
aimed at providing protection against revisionism.”

Genocide denial “is intolerable and so must be punished,” the statement
said, adding that Sarkozy would soon be meeting with representatives
of the Armenian community in France.

FRENCH COURT REJECTS GENOCIDE DENIAL BILL

EuroNews
Feb 28 2012
France

France’s top legal body has thrown out a law making it illegal to deny
that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was genocide.

Ankara has already welcomed the news, saying a “grave crisis” has
been avoided.

Both houses of parliament had approved the bill which made denying
genocide a crime in a move which strained ties between France and
Turkey.

The law was due to be ratified by President Nicolas Sarkozy by the
end of the month.

But not the Consitutional Council has rejected it on the grounds
it runs the against the freedom of expression enshrined in France’s
founding documents.

FRENCH CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL REPEALS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW

Vestnik Kavkaza
Feb 28 2012
Russia

The Constitutional Court of France on Tuesday repealed a law
criminalizing denial of Armenian genocide, which had been adopted by
the country’s Senate

Trend reports.

Relevant information has been posted on the official website of the
Constitutional Council of France.

The Council justified it by the fact that the law contradicts Article
33 of the Constitution of France and freedom of speech.

On January 23, after an eight-hour debate, the Senate adopted the
bill criminalizing denial of the alleged “Armenian genocide”. Some
127 senators voted in favor, while 86 voted against.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY WELCOMES FRENCH COURT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RULING

Ynet News
Feb 28 2012
Israel

Turkey welcomed on Tuesday a ruling by France’s highest court
overturning a law making it illegal to deny the killing of Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire a century ago was genocide.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the cabinet would meet to
consider whether to restart economic, political and military contacts
with France which were frozen after the French parliament passed the
law on January 23. (Reuters)

PREVIEW: CANADA FACE MOVSISYAN & IMPROVING ARMENIA

Major League Soccer

Feb 28 2012

Canada’s national team plays its first match of 2012 on Wednesday in
Cyprus, meeting up with Armenia on neutral ground at Tsirion Stadium
(noon ET, Rogers Sportsnet One). The two countries have never met
before.

After a roller-coaster 2011, coach Stephen Hart hopes that his squad
puts in a good effort, ahead of a hectic schedule that will see the
Canadians take part in a grueling World Cup qualifying campaign that
kicks off in June.

History Canada have never played Armenia at senior men’s international
level.

Canada The 71st-ranked Canadians put an underwhelming 2011 CONCACAF
Gold Cup tournament behind them later that year during the second round
of World Cup qualification, the round in which Canada entered the fray.

Hart’s team predictably finished atop a group that included three
Caribbean minnows, although a couple of unexpected draws raised
some questions.

Canada have been idle since pummeling St. Kitts and Nevis in
mid-November, and will use the Armenia game to get a number of core
players reacquainted with one another, as well as introducing a few
younger names into the fray.â~@¨â~@¨ Given that this game falls on a
short mid-week international break, Hart elected to call a largely
Europe-based squad. Many of Canada’s bigger names will be present,
but quite a few important absences will test the Canadians’ depth.

The biggest question facing the 18-man squad is the fitness of a few
players returning from recent injuries, most notably midfield general
Atiba Hutchinson, who underwent a couple of knee surgeries in recent
months and has only recently made his way back into the starting XI
of club side PSV Eindhoven.

Hutchinson is joined by stalwarts Kevin McKenna, Josh Simpson, Iain
Hume, Mike Klukowski and Julian de Guzman, all of whom lend a veteran
presence to an otherwise young group. Rob Friend, who was added to
the roster over the weekend, is another familiar face that will give
the coaching staff an added option up front.â~@¨â~@¨ At the other
end of the spectrum are youngsters Nana Attakora, Marcus Haber, and
17-year-old Samuel Piette, all of whom will be eager to give coach
Hart reason to call them up again when the games start to count in
the summer.

Armenia The Armenians come into the game ranked 30 places above Canada,
following a heartbreaking 2011 that saw the tiny former Soviet republic
narrowly miss out on booking a spot in Euro 2012 after losing its
final do-or-die qualifying game to Robbie Keane’s Ireland.

Armenia led their group in goals scored, thanks in part to onetime
Real Salt Lake man Yura Movsisyan. The striker had three goals in
his country’s qualification campaign, and is among the 31-man roster
called in for Armenia’s mini-camp in Cyprus that also includes a game
against Serbia on Feb. 28.

Head coach Vardan Minasyan will be splitting his squad for the two
friendlies, and has said that he intends to use his entire roster
over the pair of matches, so Canada could see a relatively weakened
opponent on Wednesday.

Players to watch CAN – Simeon Jackson (right). The 24-year-old has
settled into the Premier League after a career spent climbing the
ranks of England’s lower divisions, and is now a regular on a Norwich
City side that has surprised many observers.

ARM – Henrikh Mkhitaryan. An attacking force in the midfield, the
23-year-old Shakhtar Donetsk player led Armenia with six goals in
Euro qualifying.

â~@¨â~@¨Canada Roster Milan Borjan (Sivasspor), Nik Ledgerwood
(SV Wehen Wiesbaden), Mike Klukowski (Manisaspor), Kevin McKenna
(FC Köln), Adam Straith (FC Saarbrucken), Julian de Guzman (Toronto
FC), Iain Hume (Preston North End), Pedro Pacheco (CD Santa Clara),
Tosaint Ricketts (FC Politehnica TimiÅ~_oara), Simeon Jackson (Norwich
City FC), Josh Simpson (BSC Young Boys), Nana Attakora (Unattached),
Atiba Hutchinson (PSV Eindhoven), Samuel Piette (FC Metz), David
Edgar (Burnley), Rob Friend (Eintracht Frankfurt), Marcus Haber
(St. Johnstone), Kenny Stamatopoulos (AIK Fotbol)

Armenia Roster Roman Berezovsky (Dinamo Moscow), Stepan Ghazaryan
(FC Banants), Arsen Petrosyan (FC Pyunik), Grigor Meliksetyan (Paykan
FC); Sargis Hovsepyan (FC Pyunik), Hrayr Mkoyan (PFC Spartak Nalchik),
Valeri Aleksanyan (Sanat Naft Abadan FC), Levon Hayrapetyan (Lechia
GdaÅ~Dsk), Robert Arzumanyan (Jagiellonia BiaÅ~Bystok), Artak Edigaryan
(FC Pyunik), Arthur Yuspashyan (FC Pyunik), Varazdat Haroyan (FC
Pyunik); Hovhannes Hambardzumyan (FC Banants), Andranik Voskanyan
(FC Mika), Gagik Daghbashyan (FC Banants), Arthur Yedigaryan (FC
Banants), Karlen Lazarian (Metalurh Donetsk), Gevorg Ghazaryan
(Metalurh Donetsk), Marcos Pizzelli (FC Kuban), Henrikh Mkhitaryan
(Shakhtar Donetsk), Zaven Badoyan (BATE Borisov), Edgar Malakyan (FC
Pyunik), David Manoyan (FC Pyunik), Kamo Hovhannisyan (FC Pyunik),
Valter Poghosyan (FC Banants), Masis Voskanyan (KSV Roeselare),
Aras Ozbiliz (Ajax); Yura Movsisyan (FC Krasnodar), Artur Sarkisov
(Shinnik Yaroslavl), Norair Mamedov (FC Zwolle), Hovhannes Hovhannisyan
(FC Pyunik)

FRENCH CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL REJECTS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Press TV
Feb 28 2012
Iran

Turks protesting the Armenian genocide bill.

The Constitutional Council of France has rejected a bill which aims
to set a punishment for the denial of an Armenian genocide carried
out by the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Press TV reports.

This is while the controversial bill was approved by the French Senate
last month.

The bill has received harsh criticism from Turkey who says the bill
is disrespectfull to all Turks.

Ankara has also threatened broader diplomatic and trade sanctions
against Paris as a result of the law.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will redraft the
bill if it is rejected by France’s top judicial body.

Sarkozy, whose right-wing UMP party introduced the bill, is accused
of using the bill to win the support of France’s estimated 500,000
ethnic Armenians in the French presidential election, which will be
held in April.

Armenia claims that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in an
act of genocide carried out by the forces of the Ottoman Empire in
1915 and 1916.

Ankara rejects the use of the word “genocide” and instead says that
only 500,000 Armenians died and they were casualties of World War I.

Paris formally recognized the killings of Armenians as genocide in
2001, but had imposed no penalty for anyone denying that genocide
had occurred.

FRENCH SUPREME COURT RULES LAW ON ARMENIA UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia

Feb 28 2012

(AGI) Paris – The French law punishing negation of the Armenian
genocide is unconstitutional according to the Supreme Court, which
has ruled that parliament has committed an “unconstitutional attack
on freedom of speech.” The appeal against the law approved in January,
had been presented by a group of Members of Parliament. Led by a number
of left-wing senators and supported by 76 colleagues, this initiative
had been welcomed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
who had announced sanctions against France when the law was passed,
describing it as “racist and discriminatory.” . .

INSURANCE CASE IN US NOT PRECEDENT FOR Ä°NCIRLIK

Hurriyet Daily News
Feb 29 2012
Turkey

A U.S. federal appeals court ruling against a lower court ruling
allowing Armenian descendants to file claims against life insurance
companies over the 1915 incidents may not serve as a precedent for
three Armenians who claim their property was confiscated from them,
their lawyer has said.

“The [U.S.] ruling for the moment is being applied to the cases against
insurance companies, and not the [three Armenians’] Ä°ncirlik case,
which is more related to stolen properties,” said Vartkes Yeghiayan,
lawyer for Rita Mahtesyan, Anais Harutyunyan and Alex Bakalyan. “We
would not like to characterize this ruling as evidence that the court
is ‘against Armenians,'” said Yeghiayan. “It is difficult to determine
if any political factors were at play in the court’s decision-making,
but the fact that they mentioned the French denial law is significant
in and of itself.” The federal court’s decision came after the French
Senate passed a bill criminalizing denials of Armenian genocide claims.

Ä°ncirlik is now the site of a major military base in the southern
province of Adana.

HEAD OF RIGHTS COMMISSION CALLS ON PROSECUTORS TO ACT AGAINST RACIST SIGNS

Today’s Zaman
Feb 28 2012
Turkey

The head of Parliament’s Human Rights Commission, Ayhan Sefer Ustun,
has called on the country’s prosecutors to take action against
protesters who displayed racist and discriminatory signs at a rally
to commemorate the victims of the Khojaly massacre, which saw 600
Azerbaijanis killed by Armenian forces in 1992.

Many Azerbaijanis also attended the rally, held Sunday in Ä°stanbul’s
Taksim Square. Some of the protestors held signs with remarks that
targeted Armenians. One read “You are all Armenians. You are all
bastards,” referring to the phrase “We are all Armenians,” used many
times in various rallies held in protest of the lack of action taken
to solve the murder case of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist
who was assassinated in 2007.

Ustun, speaking to journalists on Monday, said some of the slogans at
Sunday’s rally praised the murderer of Dink and were about Armenians.

“The posters there had completely racist, discriminatory expressions
that are hateful. We made amendments to the penal code in 2005. The
law states the terms for those who commit overt discrimination.

However, because prosecutors don’t act on these [laws], racist and
discriminatory expressions are still used. They want us to pass a
law against hate crimes. Yes, we should do that. But first, we should
apply the laws that we have.”

He also stated that the “ugly signs” held up by protestors during
the demonstration invalidated what was being done. “Whatever is
necessary [for justice regarding Khojaly] should be done, but that
crowd shouldn’t have used those expressions. It completely devalued
what was being done. We always say Turkey will be a great state. It
will embrace all colors. We always say we are striving for the ideal
of co-existence. But it is unacceptable that such racist language is
being used — that other people are being insulted.”

In response to a question about what he thought of the participation
of Interior Minister Ä°dris Naim Å~^ahin in the demonstration, who
also made a speech while he was there, Ustun said: “This is for each
individual to decide. I don’t know if he saw those signs or not,
so I can’t really answer.”

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Association (Ä°HD) filed a criminal
complaint on Tuesday against the organizers of Sunday’s rally and
Interior Minister Ä°dris Naim Å~^ahin for displaying “signs with racist
and hateful content.” A group of Ä°HD members who met outside the
Caglayan Courthouse in İstanbul filed the complaint. Meral Cıldır,
a spokesperson for the group, indicated that some Armenians in Turkey
feel increasingly threatened. She said Å~^ahin’s speech also included
instances that could be considered racial crimes.

NEW LEGISLATION TO HELP STRUGGLING MINORITY NEWSPAPERS GOES INTO FORCE

Today’s Zaman
Feb 28 2012
Turkey

A recent legislative change enabling newspapers run by Turkey’s
non-Muslim minority groups, which fall under the category of minority
according to a legal definition in the Lausanne Treaty of 1924,
to publish official notices became effective on Tuesday.

The amendment was published in the Official Gazette on Tuesday.

Minority newspapers will have to apply in writing to be able to publish
official announcements in their newspapers. The new law is effective as
of Feb. 28, but there are some articles that will go into force later.

Ara Kocunyan, editor-in-chief of the Jamanak newspaper, an Armenian
weekly, said although he hadn’t seen the full text of the new
legislation, he saw it as a positive development. “We’ve had meetings
with the Press Bulletin Authority (BÄ°K) about this. We are grateful
that legislative changes have been made as promised. We appreciate
the positive steps the government has taken.”

In August BÄ°K pledged TL 250,000 from a special fund to be given to
minority newspapers as a temporary solution to help them stay afloat
prior to the amendment that was published in the Official Gazette
on Tuesday. Previously, newspapers run by minorities were prohibited
from publishing official advertisements.

The meeting Kocunyan mentioned was held with executive officials from
BÄ°K in July of last year with representatives of minority newspapers.

The suggestion to support newspapers published by Greek, Armenian
and Jewish minorities in Turkey by allowing them to publish official
announcements came out of that meeting. The recent amendment is a
product of that suggestion.

Most minority newspapers published in Turkey have been at a
disadvantage in terms of state support and have not been represented
as fully as other newspapers by journalist organizations.

Last year, the editor-in-chief of Apoyevmatini announced that he would
have to shut down the newspaper because of financial problems. The
daily has been in publication since 1925 and currently has a
circulation of 600. He couldn’t be reached for comment on Tuesday.

When news of its potential closure started circulating in the media,
campaigns were launched by university students to save the newspaper.

BÄ°K got involved in the situation last summer to support minority
newspapers.