Month: February 2012

TOMORROW FRENCH CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL WILL PASS DECISION CONCERNING LAW CRIMINALIZING DENIAL OF SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

APA
Feb 27 2012
Azerbaijan

Strasbourg. Fuad Gulubeyli – APA. Tomorrow the Constitutional Council
of France will pass a decision concerning the law criminalizing the
denial of the so-called Armenian genocide.

APA’s Europe bureau reports that the Constitutional Council will more
likely pass a decision against the law.

On January 30, 77 members of the Senate and 65 members of the National
Assembly appealed to the Constitutional Council for the repeal of
the law passed by the National Assembly and the Senate.

CATHERINE ASHTON: “THE NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT IS VERY DIFFICULT AND IT NEEDS TO BE RESOLVED”

APA
Feb 27 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Victoria Dementieva – APA. “The European Union wants to play
strong role and be solidary with Azerbaijan and Armenia to be able
to help and support the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

This conflict is very difficult and needs to be resolved”, said High
Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy Catherine Ashton in the keynote speech at the meeting of the
Council of the European Union in Brussels.

Ashton noted that the situation in the South Caucasus, particularly
in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia will be discussed at the meeting:
“The Nagorno Karabakh conflict will be one of the main topics of the
discussions on the South Caucasus. We will discuss what the European
Union can do for the settlement of this conflict”. Ashton noted that
though the European Union is not an official mediator in the settlement
of the conflict, she appointed Philippe Lefort to the post of Special
Representative for the South Caucasus and crisis in Georgia.

MATTHEW BRYZA MOVES TO TURKEY

APA
Feb 27 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. Former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza and his
family, wife Zeyno Baran and little daughter, moved to Turkey.

Asked by Turkey’s Hurriyyet newspaper that could he say that his
post of US ambassador to Azerbaijan fell victim to his private life,
the diplomat said: “Yes, we could say so. After Obama’s refusal to
recognize the events of 1915 as genocide I turned into the target.

Armenians made my candidacy for the post of ambassador to Azerbaijan a
new topic. This organization (Armenian National Committee of America)
has done its best for showing me one-sided. Now probably they will use
my moving to Turkey. I love Turkey. Can’t I love Armenia and Azerbaijan
at the same time? While working a diplomat, I worked together with
Armenia for the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh problem and in that
period Armenian leadership didn’t criticize me.”

From: Baghdasarian

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP URGES INT’L COMMUNITY TO FACILITATE EFFORTS ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Trend
Feb 27 2012
Azerbaijan

The International Crisis Group calls upon the international
community, in particular the co-chairs of the Minsk Group (France,
Russia, U.S.) to facilitate efforts to reach a comprehensive peace
on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In its report, the International Crisis Group urges to facilitate
the creation of an incident investigation mechanism, including the
operation of a hotline between the sides to discuss ceasefire breaches,
and otherwise protect the civilian population living near the LoC.

The International Crisis Group also calls on to develop more
on-the-ground CBMs to create an atmosphere of trust, including
promoting civil society meetings between the ethnic Armenian population
of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri population expelled from Nagorno-Karabakh
and the occupied territories.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. –
are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

From: Baghdasarian

FRENCH CO-CHAIRMAN POST OF MINSK GROUP IS QUERIED AT OSCE PA

Trend
Feb 27 2012
Azerbaijan

The question of keeping the French co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group
has been raised by the Azerbaijani delegation at the 11th session of
the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, deputy chairman of the Azerbaijani
Parliament Bahar Muradova told Trend on Monday.

She said the Azerbaijani delegation raised a number of important
questions at the first plenary session of the OSCE in Vienna.

“In particular the question of what extent it is possible to believe
the impartiality of France as a co-chair of the Minsk Group on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, taking into account that it adopted a law
criminalising the denial of the so-called “Armenian genocide”.

“How does the OSCE assess this law against the terms of freedom
of speech and opinion? Also, what is the attitude of the OSCE and
its Parliamentary Assembly to France’s step,” Ms Muradova said. She
noted not an abstract rather than concrete answer was given to these
questions.

“In particular, it was said that it’s necessary to take advantage
of the existing format of the OSCE Minsk Group, to look only to the
future and identify suitable targets for the solution of the problem,”
Ms Muradova said.

She said during a debate a member of the French delegation said that
the aforementioned law is directed not only against Turkey and not only
the “Armenian genocide”, but all mass murders committed and bloodshed.

“The French representative found it necessary to remind us that this
law is being considered by the Constitutional Council and has not
yet come into force,” she said.

No one in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly except for the Azerbaijani
delegation expressed regret in relation to the law being adopted in
France, Ms Muradova noted.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of

Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. –
are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

From: Baghdasarian

LAWYER CHANGES REMARKS ON GULEN MOVEMENT IN CONNECTION WITH MURDER OF HRANT DINK

Today’s Zaman
Feb 27 2012
Turkey

A co-plaintiff lawyer representing the family of Hrant Dink, a Turkish
citizen of Armenian descent who was shot dead by an ultranationalist
teenager in January 2007, has told Today’s Zaman that remarks he made
in an interview with the Hurriyet Daily News misrepresented what he
really meant to say.

Cem Halavurt claimed in the Feb. 25 interview — in which he focused
on the suggestion that a presidential report concluding the murder
was committed by an organized crime group and calling for officials
suspected of involvement to be investigated might be a turning point
in the Dink case – that: “The nationalists and the Fethullah Gulen
group saw the murder coming. They both agreed to commit to the murder.

They all wanted to profit from the outcomes of the murder.” Asked by
Today’s Zaman if his statements were correct, Halavurt said he needs
to correct his wording:

“It is not possible to accuse the whole group. I meant to say that
there are some people like Ramazan Akyurek in the police department
who are known to be followers of Fethullah [Gulen]. The same goes for
the Ä°stanbul and Trabzon police departments’ intelligence services.

They have not been investigated for their role in the murder despite
several requests for an investigation into those officials, since
there is evidence that they knew about the plan to murder Dink. I
should also say that I do not mean to accuse nationalists either. I
meant to point out the neo-nationalist group [ulusalcı] nested in
the structure of Ergenekon.”

Dink was the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and
an outspoken member of the Armenian community. Despite judicial expert
opinion to the contrary,

Dink was convicted of violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code
(TCK). The article has been criticized for stifling freedom of speech
as it forbids insulting “Turkishness.”

Halavurt also said the “Gulen movement” benefited from the outcome of
the murder since he thinks: “They have used this murder against their
opponents. … Two admirals in the “Kafes” [Cage] case wanted to be
part of the Hrant Dink trial; they are saying that it is because they
wanted to prevent the murder that they are now in prison. There is
a power struggle going on within the court cases.”

Halavurt also claimed that the Ergenekon investigation started after
the murder of Dink. Ergenekon is a clandestine criminal network accused
of working to topple the government. Dozens of Ergenekon suspects,
including military officials, businessmen, journalists and academics,
are currently in prison on terror and coup charges as part of the
Ergenekon case.

Asked by Today’s Zaman if co-plaintiff lawyers of the Dink family
share Halavurt’s opinion as presented in the Hurriyet Daily News —
that the Gulen society “agreed on the commitment of the murder,” —
Arzu Becerik, another co-plaintiff lawyer in the Dink case, said that
“nobody can say that.”

Commenting on the words of Halavurt, human rights lawyer Orhan Kemal
Cengiz said as Halavurt himself admitted, he “makes no sense.”

Cengiz, who is also one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs
in the Zirve murder case of April 2007, when three people who sold
Christian literature were brutally killed, said first of all the
Ergenekon investigation started following the discovery of hand
grenades inside a house in Ä°stanbul’s Umraniye district in the summer
of 2007, not as a result of Dink’s murder.

Secondly, Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the killing of Dink, said
that he was mainly in contact with the gendarmerie commander in
Trabzon, Cengiz added.

“Let’s not forget that the Santoro, Dink and Malatya murders were
mentioned as ‘operations’ in the Cage Operation Action Plan. I agree
that those murders would not have happened if police had not turned
a blind eye. And it is also possible that the police was under the
influence of anti-missionary propaganda at the time,” he said in
reference to the Cage (Kafes) plan, a suspected Naval Forces Command
plan targeting Turkey’s non-Muslim communities.

Cengiz said that it is one thing to turn a blind eye to the murder
plans, and it is another thing to be among those planning the murder.

“Obviously, Halavurt is quite confused. His state of mind is quite
dangerous for a lawyer. His remarks show that he lacks a clear
understanding of the situation. I suspect that this unhealthy point
of view could have contributed to their loss of the case,” he said.

In April 2010, an indictment regarding the Cage Operation Action
Plan was added to the case file on the 2007 Malatya murders. The plan
calls the killings of Dink, Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro and
three Christians in Malatya an “operation.” An antidemocratic group
within the Naval Forces Command aimed at fomenting chaos in society
with those killings, but complained that the plan failed when large
groups protested the killings in mass demonstrations.

Evidence collected in the Ergenekon investigation suggested that
the brutal killings might have been organized by Ergenekon, which is
suspected of a large number of murders and bombings aimed at creating
chaos in the country to serve the organization’s ultimate purpose of
overthrowing the government.

“All those who tried to have Dink convicted are in jail as Ergenekon
suspects,” Cengiz added.

Garo Paylan, one of the leading members of the “Hrant’s Friends” group,
who, in their ongoing search for justice, call on the government to
punish the perpetrators of Dink’s murder, told Today’s Zaman that
Halavurt’s remarks are quite “provocative.”

“If he holds accountable the whole Gulen group for the murder, then
this is crossing a line. This is like saying ‘all Armenians are
betrayers.’ On the other hand, we expect a statement from the same
group saying that if there are followers of Fethullah Gulen in the
police and if they were involved in the murder of Dink, the group
supports their punishment to the end.”

According to the final verdict in the five-year-long murder trial of
Dink, the suspects had no ties to a larger crime network but acted
alone. Judge Rustem Eryılmaz said amid growing outrage over a trial
that many feel has failed to shed light on alleged official negligence
or even collaboration; and that while he personally cannot deny the
murder was the work of an organized network, the evidence submitted
to the court was not sufficient to issue such a ruling. In addition,
the prosecution believes the killers are affiliated with the Ergenekon
network. The case went to the Supreme Court of Appeals.

CATHOLICS ASK ISRAELI LEADER TO HELP STOP CHRISTIAN SITES’ ATTACKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 27, 2012 – 21:27 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A top Roman Catholic official has taken the rare
step of asking Israel’s president to help put an end to attacks on
Christian holy sites, AP reported.

The custodian of holy places in the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa,
recalled in his letter sent Sunday, February 26 to President Shimon
Peres that vandals spray-painted “Death to Christians” and “We’ll
crucify you” on the Baptist Church in Jerusalem and similar hate
graffiti on a Greek Orthodox monastery in the city.

Pizzaballa wrote that “red lines that must not be crossed have
been crossed” and asked Peres’ help to eradicate “this dangerous
phenomenon.”

The anti-Christian graffiti is suspected to be the work of Jewish
extremists who have attacked various targets, including Christian and
Muslim holy sites as well as Israeli military equipment, to protest
what they believe to be anti-settler positions by the government.

Peres’ office said the president took the appeal “very seriously”
and was working on the matter personally. It said top advisers have
already been in touch with Pizzaballa, and were working with Jerusalem
City Hall and national ministries to prevent further violence against
Christian sites.

From: A. Papazian

U.S. MANS NEW RADAR DEFENSE SITE IN TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 27, 2012 – 21:03 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – American forces are now manning a new radar defense
site in Turkey that could help defend Europe from a potential Iranian
ballistic missile attack, the U.S. Army’s commander in Europe said.

“We have the forces in place … at a radar site in southern Turkey,”
Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said in an interview at Montenegro’s main
military airport in its capital, Today’s Zaman reported.

It is the first time a senior US commander has confirmed reports that
the NATO defense shield radar – which has caused tensions between
Turkey and its Muslim neighbor Iran – has been operational in the past
few weeks. The radar is a key element in a planned ballistic missile
defense system that also would put other land- and sea-based radars
and anti-missile interceptors in several European locations over the
next decade.

“I can only speak for the ground base air defense units,” Hertling
said. “But I will tell you that we make constant coordination (with
the US Navy and Air Force), and I think we are well on track to
conduct missile defense.”

From: Baghdasarian

ZHIRINOVSKI: “KARABAKH HAS MORE MORAL, HISTORICAL GROUNDS TO BE RECOGNISED”

19:23 . 27/02

The resolution of the Karabakh issue can be presented in two planes.

Karabakh joins Armenia and becomes one state or Russia recognizes
Karabakh as an independent state, Russian presidential candidate
Vladimir Zhirinovski has presented such a position during his meeting
with the Armenian community in Moscow.

“We have recognised South Ossetia, Abkhazia, while Karabakh has more
moral, historical grounds to be recognized as an independent state. We
give the formula for it, the other four candidates don’t say a word
about the Caucasus, Near East, the military actions expected there
and Armenia. As if there is nothing beyond Voronezh and Rostov,
there is only a desert,” he has said.

Touching upon the military-political actions started in the Caucasus
and Iran, he has stressed that the aggravation of the situation will
have undesired consequences also for Armenia.

“The meeting with the Armenian community is first of all conditioned
with the fact that the political situation is aggravating and will
aggravate even more till summer this year. The decision of war against
Iran is already taken, and the date is defined. The most undesired
consequences may be for Armenia.

In the result of the war Azerbaijan will get money for lease of its
aerodromes, Americans will get the right to dispose the Iranian oil,
Israel will get security in the result of destroying Iranian atomic
bombs, Turkey will no more have a rival and will become leading in
Near East. Russians will get price rise on oil and combat experience
of the army. But what will Armenians get…?”

From: Baghdasarian

ANC TO JOIN ARF-D’S RALLY TOMORROW

18:43 . 27/02

ANC will present its pre-election action plan on March 1, which it
will implement over the coming two months, ANC press spokesperson Arman
Musinyan has said about this during his meeting with journalists today.

Attaching importance to holding fair elections, the ANC representative
has mentioned the necessity to pass the draft law on shift over to
an absolute proportional voting system. Taking into consideration the
fact that the political field of Armenia has almost fully consolidated
around that proposal he considers the ruling party’s negative approach
to the initiative is senseless.

The speaker has also stated that ANC will join the rally organised
by ARF-D and scheduled at 2:00pm-4:30pm on February 28. At that time
the discussion on the issue of the proportional voting system will
be held at the National Assembly.