Month: February 2015

ROBERT KOTCHARIAN RENOUVELLE SES CRITIQUES A L’ENCONTRE DU POUVOIR ACTUEL

ARMENIE

Les quotidiens rendent compte de l’entretien du deuxième President
Robert Kotcharian sur son site non-officiel 2rd.am, dans lequel
il a critique les autorites pour ne pas avoir veille a ce que le
soldat russe accuse du meurtre de la famille armenienne a Gumri
soit juge par un tribunal armenien. Selon lui, les declarations > des autorites armeniennes n’ont fait
que mettre de l’huile sur le feu, dont les policiers armeniens,
attaques par des manifestants en colère a Gumri, sont devenus les >.

L’ex-president a par ailleurs critique la politique socio-economique
du gouvernement actuel, en appelant a des > en Armenie et, au premier chef, a l’eradication des monopoles
politiques et economiques. Selon lui, le plus grand obstacle a de
tels changements est le >. Tout en
soulignant la necessite de changements radicaux, M. Kotcharian relève
qu’il ne s’agit point de la reforme constitutionnelle entreprise
par le gouvernement de S. Sarkissian. Il voit egalement d’un mauvais
oeil les perspectives de l’adhesion de l’Armenie a l’Union economique
eurasiatique, alors que celle-ci sera, a moyen terme, en recession : >.

Prie de commenter les propos de l’ex-President, Edouard Charmazanov,
porte-parole du parti Republicain, a dit ne pas comprendre cette
habitude des anciens presidents de noircir le travail de leurs
successeurs. D’après lui, le message principal de R. Kotcharian,
c’est qu’il est oppose a la reforme constitutionnelle.

Les quotidiens d’opposition, tout en partageant les preoccupations de
l’ex-President, l’appellent a ne pas oublier sa part de responsabilite
dans la formation d’un système economique et politique vicieux dans
ce pays.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 26 janvier 2015

lundi 2 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

44% OF RUSSIANS SAY MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING FAMILY IN GYUMRI SHOULD BE TRIED IN ARMENIA

14:04, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Sixty-eight percent of Russians are aware of the mass killing in
Gyumri and the developments that followed, while 32 % have not heard
about the incident, according to a study conducted by the Levada
analytical center.

48% of those, who have heard about the crime, consider that the case
should be investigated jointly by Armenian and Russian law-enforcement
bodies, 42% say it should be the Russian court, but the trial should
be held on the territory of Armenia (44%).

Twenty-five percent of those surveyed said the investigation should be
carried out by Russian law-enforcers, 21% consider the probe should
be conducted by Armenians. Thirty-seven percent said the criminal
should be tried by the Armenian court.

The study was conducted from January 23 to 26 among 1,600 people in
134 regions of Russia.

Remind that Russian soldier Valery Permyakov is the only suspect in
the slaying of a family of seven in Gyumri on January 12.

ARA PAPIAN: PAN-ARMENIAN DECLARATION A STEP FORWARD, BUT NOT ENOUGH

14:47, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The pan-Armenian declaration on the centennial of the Armenian Genocide
was a step forward with regard to the formulation of our demands,
but was not enough, Head of the Modus Vivendi center Ara Papian told
reporters today.

He attaches special importance to the part of the declaration referring
to the Treaty of Sevres and President Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award
of November 22, 1920.

“This was the first time the President stressed this on behalf of a
representative body like the State Commission. This means that besides
recognition and commemoration, we define certain land claims,” Ara
Papian said.

He noted, however, that the declaration has a serious shortcoming – it
conflicts with the Zurich protocols signed between Armenia and Turkey.

“If we assume Turkey ratified the protocols, the two documents will
contradict each other, and it will be unclear what policy we should
adopt. If this declaration is not of formal character, Armenian should
take two important steps – recall the signature from the protocols
and declare November 22 the Day of Reclaiming the Homeland,”

According to Ara Papian, Armenia does not pursue the issue of
reconciliation with Turkey. What’s important is the issue of justice,
which our people want to restore. “This first of all envisages
elimination of the genocide consequences, which refers to material,
moral and territorial losses,” he said.

HEAD OF THE MILITARY INSTITUTE AFTER VAZGEN SARGSYAN RESIGNS

12:22, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Lieutenant General Martin Karapetyan, Head of the Military Institute
after Vazgen Sargsyan, has filed his resignation, Tert.am reports.

Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan has accepted the resignation.

Moreover, Martin Karapetyan has been tasked with dismissing the whole
leadership of the Military Institute.

Remind that serviceman of the Institute Haykaz Barsegyan was found
hung in the gym on January 29. Probe into the details of the case
is underway.

FRANCE MAY ENACT A LAW CRIMINALIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL

10:44, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Co-ordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF)
Co-chairman Mourad Papazyan has said France may enact a law making
denial of the rmenian genocide a crime if the European Court of Human
Rights (ECtHR) finds in favor of Switzerland in the appeal of the
case of Dogu Perincek v. Switzerland.

The issue in the case was if calling the declaration of the mass
killings of Armenians during Ottoman rule in 1915 a genocide “an
international lie,” as Perincek did, can constitute a criminal offense
in Switzerland.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman, Papazyan also said the European court’s
expected decision in favor of Switzerland will pave the way toward
punishing the denial of the 1915 events being genocide, as it is
characterized by Armenians around the world.

“We will first wait for the decision of the ECtHR. If the court’s
decision is positive, a law will be enacted in France prohibiting
the denial of the Armenian genocide,” Papazyan said, adding that he
believes the ECtHR will decide in favor of Switzerland, which is of
the same view as Armenia regarding the proceedings.

Recalling French President Francois Hollande’s statement saying a
year ago in the Armenian capital of Yerevan that he will push for
a new law that will make it a crime to deny the 1915 killings of
Armenians was genocide, Papazyan said the Armenian community trusts
the promise of the French president, as Hollande is quite sensitive
about both Armenians and the Turkish-Armenian issue.

Despite the strong opposition of Turkey to recognition of the 1915
killings as genocide last year in Yerevan, Hollande called on the
country to recognize the “Armenian genocide” and said the “recognition
of genocide will unite, not divide.”

Hollande said he would bring the “genocide denial” bill to the
national agenda, claiming that the denial is not an action, but an
insult against “victims and reality.” He said there are efforts around
the world to recognize the mass killings as genocide and they cannot
allow denial.

President Hollande is scheduled to pay a visit to Yerevan on April
24 to honor the Armenian victims of the 1915 killings.

From: A. Papazian

SERGEY SMBATYAN HEADED THE MOSCOW STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

13:04, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

On January 29 Sergey Smbatyan, the Artistic Director and Principal
Conductor of the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia performed in
Moscow, leading the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra (Music Director
and Chief Conductor: Pavel Kogan), one of the most prestigious Russian
orchestras. The audience was presented the Vocalise by Rachmaninov, the
Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra on the theme of Paganini (soloist:
the winner of numerous international competitions Andrey Gunin)
and the Symphony No.4 by Tchaikovsky.

Speaking about the bright impressions of the yesterday’s concert,
Ekaterina Polozhenceva, the manager of the guest artists of the
Federal State Institution of Culture said: “It was interesting to
listen to the orchestra’s performance under the guidance of Sergey
Smbatyan. But this cooperation wasn’t the first one with the young
conductor: as always he has justified all our expectations!”

The MSSO was founded in 1943 by the Kremlin and is one of the five
oldest concert orchestras in Russia. The Moscow State Symphony
Orchestra became renowned around the globe under the leadership
of Pavel Kogan. In 1989 he was engaged as Music Director and Chief
Conductor and immediately enriched the orchestra repertoire by the
works of European and American musical literature. During last 25
years the MSSO regularly performed overseas including the USA, United
Kingdom, Japan, Spain, Austria, Italy, Germany, France, South Korea,
Australia, China and Switzerland.

The Moscow performance became Sergey Smbatyan’s second foreign
concert in 2015. Earlier, on January 14, Artistic Director and
Principal Conductor of the Youth Orchestra performed jointly with
the world-renowned Hollywood actor John Malkovich in Seoul leading
the Korean Chamber Orchestra.

APRIL 24 TO BE GOOD TEST TO WORLD’S LEADING COUNTRIES – ARMENIAN EXPERTS

14:47 * 02.02.15

“Interests or values” is the dilemma whose outcome highly depends on
the world leaders’ decision between visiting Yerevan on April 24 to
join the Genocide centennial commemoration events or go to Turkey
to celebrate the anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign, says an
orientalist.

Speaking to Tert.am, Head of the Institute of Oriental Studies Ruben
Safrastyan said he doesn’t expect world countries’ common interests
with Turkey to hold their leaders back from making the moral choice.

“In my opinion, the absolute imperative has to work here,” he said,
considering acceptance of the Turkish president’s invitation immoral.

Safrastyan said he knows that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s message, sent
to over 100 country leaders, has already received a positive reply
by Prince Charles of the United Kingdom, and the prime ministers
of Australia and New Zealand. But he said he still has positive
expectations. “I am hopeful morality will take the lead anyway,”
noted the expert.

He said he is more than confident that Turkey’s move to reschedule
the Gallipoli Campaign remembrance to April 24 is aimed at derailing
the Genocide condemnation process in every possible way.

“I see an element of panic,” Safrastyan noted. “They are doing
everything possible and impossible to have the reality on the Armenian
Genocide produce a counter effect.”

Safrastyan said he feels that the European Court of Human Rights’
recent ruling over the Perincek case also raised panic in the Turkish
society.

“The expression ‘Armenian Genocide’ is among the top search items
today, so I think the reaction by the world’s leading [news] agencies
and the press will be even more, and it will have its positive impact,”
he added.

Karen Bekaryan, who heads the Yerevan-based NGO European Integration,
also agreed that world leaders’ choice between visiting Yerevan or
Turkey would be a test as to their real preferences.

“It is a good topic: whether values or interests, and it’s no surprise
that many countries have now begun preferring the values to interests,”
he added.

Asked whether he expects the world to share views or focus attention
on the two topics, Bekaryan replied, “It has to turn [attention]
to countries which we were confident would be next to in Yerevan on
April 24. But I do not see any such country,” he added.

UNEXPECTED POINT: KARABAKH CONFLICT FEATURES AMONG CONDITIONS PACE SET TO RUSSIA

Analysis | 02.02.15 | 10:15

By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent

Apparently, the Karabakh conflict is becoming one of the points of
confrontation in Europe and Russia. After Russia was stripped of the
right to vote at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE), it was stated that one of the conditions of its return is
the Karabakh problem.

“The head of the Assembly Anne Brasseur said that… for the powers
to be returned to the Russian delegation it is necessary to carry
out the points of the resolution (“the withdrawal of troops from
Transnistria, the return of the Crimea, progress in resolving the
situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, the release of [jailed Ukrainian pilot
and MP Nadezhda] Savchenko within 24 hours, etc.),” writes the Russian
official news agency RIA Novosti.

This is a rather unexpected point, because until now the West –
the United States and Europe – have not openly accused Russia of
preventing progress in the Karabakh settlement. The co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group on the Karabakh settlement are Russia, the United
States and France, and so far this format has played an important
role – maintaining the status quo, preventing the resumption of
hostilities, preparation of proposals and organization of negotiations
on the conflict settlement as well as prevention of the domination
of interests of one of the three mediating powers.

The co-chairmanship format exists even in conditions of the West-Russia
standoff when Moscow is subject to strict international sanctions
and isolation. The Karabakh subject is perhaps the only one on which
the presidents of the three countries in recent years have made four
joint statements.

Analytical circles in Armenia wonder why Europe has put forward
progress in the Karabakh conflict as one of the conditions for Moscow.

What is it that Russia doing or not doing in the Karabakh issue? What
are the positions of the West?

All three countries – the United States, Russia, France – once backed
the settlement plan that implies that Azerbaijan recognizes the rights
of the Karabakh people to self-determination, Karabakh troops withdraw
from part of the territory they currently control, communications are
unblocked and peacekeepers are introduced. In Armenia and Azerbaijan
they disagree with some points of this plan, but most importantly,
now it does not suit the mediator countries.

In particular, rapprochement between Russia and Azerbaijan is now
obvious as Baku gets most of its weapons from Russia today. Two other
mediators, as a matter of principle and by law, do not sell weapons
to Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan voted
against the resolution to strip Russia of its voting rights at the
PACE, and Armenia abstained in that vote.

Russia and Azerbaijan are being subjected to pressure from the West,
they suffer losses from lower oil prices, and Armenian experts say that
there comes a favorable moment to finally resolve the Karabakh problem
with the support of the West. This can be either the recognition of
Karabakh’s independence, for example, by Uruguay and other countries,
or forcing Azerbaijan to the sign the agreement that is unacceptable
to it. Moreover, it can be done in the context of the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide and the beginning of the revision of the
results of the First World War.

Although experts do not exclude that even now, like after the First
World War, some countries – Russia, Turkey, Germany – will manage to
come to agreement, and again at the expense of Armenians.

ANC ON BERDZOR INCIDENT: REGIME SEES ONLY SALVATION IN INTIMIDATION OF PUBLIC – VIDEO

News | 02.02.15 | 09:03

related news

Berdzor Incident: Karabakh police stop “hardliners” from Armenia

The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) party has condemned the
weekend incident in which members of a hardline opposition group known
to be seeking a regime change in Armenia were stopped and roughed up
by police while on their way to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Founding Parliament, a successor of the initiative called
Pre-Parliament, said more than a dozen participants of its January 31
automobile march were injured in what it described as an unprovoked
attack by the police on the Goris-Stepanakert highway near Berdzor.

About four dozen vehicles were turned away by the police and could
not get into Nagorno-Karabakh to stage an announced “automobile
march” there.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Police said the law-enforcement bodies were
acting out of public interests and were actually responding to
people’s concerns that the entry of Armenian opposition hardliners
into Nagorno-Karabakh could lead to “mass disturbances”.

Strongly condemning “the violence against peaceful participants of
an automobile march”, the ANC said it was the latest in a chain of
recent attacks on Karabakh war veterans and other public and political
figures with opposition views, including several ANC members.

“This chain [of attacks] shows that the regime that has suffered
disgraceful failures in all spheres sees the only way of its salvation
in the crazy idea of intimidating the public,” the ANC said. “It is
regretful that the violence that took place in Berdzor was committed
by the NKR police… Apart from everything else, this fact may also
have a very negative impact on the democratic rating of the NKR in
the international arena.”

Meanwhile, the Founding Parliament also disseminated a 12-minute
video showing the incident that was taken by a dashboard camera on
one of the vehicles.

RETURN THE FRAGMENTS OF ARMENIAN PAGAN GODDESS ANAHIT’S STATUE TO ARMENIA – PETITION

February 1, 2015

The remains of a statue of the pre-Christian Armenian Goddess of
fertility, healing, wisdom and water are in possession of the British
Museum. We now have the opportunity and obligation to return the
statue home to Armenia. So our people can admire their cultural and
historical artifacts in it’s rightful place.

Anahit, Goddess of fertility, healing, wisdom, water, and war is an
important part of Armenian history, mythology, and culture. According
to the website of the British Museum, the fragments (head and hand)
of Anahit’s bronze statue were accidently discovered in 1872 by a
farmer digging the land in Satagh, south-eastern Turkey. The head made
its way via Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and Italy to the dealer
Alessandro Castellani, who eventually sold it to the British Museum.

The hand was presented to the Museum a few years later.

The widespread turmoil and deportations in the region of historic
Armeniahave robbed the Armenian people of the very artifacts that would
represent the Armenian culture. The historic artifacts, such as the
remains of Goddess Anahit’s statue, that have been scattered around the
world throughout the many centuries of Armenia’s existence should not
be presented to Armenians only through textbooks and encyclopedias. The
physical presence of these remains in Armenia will give the Armenian
people the chance to visit their history in museums or galleries
without having the need to travel more than 2000 miles to do so.

If you, the petitioner, have ever been introduced to Armenians and
their culture, you would be familiar with the name of this Goddess
by the numerous Armenian women that have been named after her. The
following pictures are few of the examples showing that the sentimental
value of Goddess Anahit’s statue is worth far more for Armenians than
how it is currently represented inthe British Museum.

We petition now to return the cultural treasures to the people of
Armenia in care of the History Museum of Armenia in Yerevan, where a
copy of the statue is currently displayed. Similar cultural retrievals
have proven to be successful for countries like Greece and Egypt.

Particularly Egypt has succeeded several times in returning cultural
values from the British Museum. We can do the same!

Please sign the petition to politely urge the UK officials to approve
the transfer of the fragments of Armenian Pagan Goddess Anahit’s
statue to Armenia because it is important for Armenians to have what
reflects our cultural heritage and national history in our museums.

Sign the petition here

From: Baghdasarian