Author: Andres-Papazian

GENOCIDE ROW WITH FRANCE LIKELY TO KILL OFF TERROR DEAL

Hurriyet Daily News
Dec 26 2011
Turkey

One of the most concrete consequences of the ongoing rift between
Turkey and France will likely be the killing off of the crucial
bilateral anti-terror agreement that was signed in October.

“Ratification of this agreement in both countries’ Parliaments in
the coming months would be surprising. And what is worst is the fact
the agreement will be null and void if it is not adopted at French
Parliament before it goes to recess in two months’ time,” a senior
diplomatic source told the Hurriyet Daily News over the weekend.

The adoption of the bill penalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide
escalated tensions between Turkey and France as the former imposed
harsh measures against its NATO ally. The anti-terror agreement was
signed by Interior Ministers Claude Gueant and Ä°dris Naim Å~^ahin
on Oct. 7 in Ankara. The deal focused on deepening cooperation
on the fight against terrorism, organized crime, drug and human
smuggling and illegal immigration between the two countries. It will
be as substantive as possible and will also include establishment
of mechanisms. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has an
important presence in France, where it collects financial resources to
fund the organization’s terrorist acts. Paris has arrested high-level
PKK members but failed to extradite them to Turkey due to gaps in
French laws.

From: A. Papazian

TURKEY AIMS TO LIMIT FRANCE’S MIDEAST ROLE

Hurriyet Daily News
Dec 26 2011
Turkey

Turkey’s sanctions aim at limiting French presence in the Mideast and
Caucasus and will remain even if the French Senate disapproves the
‘genocide’ bill

Turkey’s military and political sanctions against France over the
adoption of a controversial “genocide” bill aim to limit French
influence in the Middle East and Caucasus, two important regions
associated with ongoing ethnic and sectarian conflicts.

Immediately after the French Parliament voted Dec. 22 in favor of a
bill penalizing the denial of the 1915 events as genocide, the Turkish
government announced that it would retaliate in kind with sanctions
falling into eight categories. Four of them are military-related,
three are political and the last spells out the cancelation of an
economic and trade meeting.

In addition to the cancelation of joint military drills and joint
exchange and training programs, Turkey has canceled annual blanket
over-flight permission for French state planes and will instead issue
permission on a case-by-case basis. It will also halt requests for
port visits by French warships.

A very important detail suggests that these sanctions are not going
to be removed even if France retreats from its position and quashes
the genocide bill in the Senate. “The sanctions will continue to
be valid until the Turkish government says the opposite,” a Turkish
diplomat recently told the Hurriyet Daily News.

According to the diplomats, the measures will seriously affect French
access to the Middle East and the region beyond Turkey.

“France has intense ties with so many countries in our neighborhood.

It has military and other sorts of cooperation with these countries.

They gained a great advantage in reaching out to these regions using
the blanket permission we have long provided to them,” a diplomat
told the Daily News. “Now they will lose time and money in doing so.”

Two of the Middle East’s key countries, Syria and Lebanon, where France
replaced the Ottoman Empire as the colonial power after World War I,
are seen as being crucial for the entire region’s stability and still
have close ties with Paris. Though the turmoil in Syria precipitated
rapprochement between Turkey and France, recent developments indicate
that the power struggle between the two sparring countries will now
be exercised in the Middle East.

“Turkey will do everything to prevent a meeting on Syria and other
key topics under the aegis of France,” a diplomat said.

However, this development has seriously disturbed the United States
since the tension is likely to weaken the international community’s
position vis-a-vis Syria.

Baku evaluates Turkish move

The political storm between Turkey and France will also have
ramifications in the Caucasus, developments suggest.

Even before the adoption of the law, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu complained about France’s membership in the Minsk Group at a
meeting with Lamberto Zannier, secretary-general of the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The Minsk Group was
established in 1992 to solve the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan
and consists of France, Russia and the United States.

“We have made clear to the OSCE secretary-general that France
membership in the OSCE [Minsk Group] would damage the group’s works as
Paris openly took sides with the Armenians on this issue due to strong
pressure from the Armenian diaspora,” a diplomat told the Daily News.

But the diplomat said Turkey had not made any official application to
the OSCE after the adoption of the law and had not asked Azerbaijan
to do so either.

On Dec. 23 President Abdullah Gul asked for France’s immediate removal
from the Minsk Group membership on the grounds that it had lost its
neutrality on the matter.

“Evaluations on Turkey’s views are underway,” an Azerbaijani official
told the Daily News yesterday, adding that the France’s adoption of
the controversial bill had caused a serious reaction in Baku as well.

Though the government has remained silent on the issue, Deputy
Parliamentary Chairwoman Bahar Muradova said, “Such behavior by France
puts its impartiality and objectivity in doubt as a co-chairman of the
OSCE Minsk Group in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.”

From: A. Papazian

SWISS PARLIAMENT REJECTS PETITION FOR RECOGNITION OF 1915 AS GENOCIDE

Today’s Zaman

Dec 26 2011
Turkey

The Swiss parliament has rejected a petition asking it to grant
genocide status to the killings of Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and
a few other ethnic communities in 1915 by Ottoman Turks, on the grounds
that “massacres should better be brought to light by historians.”

In response to a petition placed on the agenda of the Swiss national
parliament on Dec. 23, the Swiss parliamentary commission on foreign
policy ruled that facts surrounding massacres should better be left
to historians for analysis, and that the active policy of Switzerland
constitutes the best method to answer the call of the petitioners.

Switzerland does not constitutionally mention any ethnicities or
historic events as genocides, but under the Swiss Penal Code,
anti-racism has very severe repercussions and may be applied
extensively by courts. Justifying genocide is considered a violation
of the country’s legislation and was applied to Holocaust denial in
the previous years.

A Turkish politician, Dogu Perincek, leader of the Workers’ Party
(Ä°P), was charged with the same anti-racism law in 2007 when he
uttered publicly in Lausanne that he was not denying the “Armenian
genocide” because there was no genocide, although he agreed that a
large number of people in both communities suffered heavy losses in
1915. He received a suspended sentence and a fine of close to $2,500,
and his appeal at a Swiss court did not change the results.

An anti-racism law — including sentences for denial of genocide —
was adopted in 2003 in the Swiss canton of Vaud, where Perincek made
his remarks in protest of the penal code. More than a dozen Turks
were prosecuted on such charges a decade ago but were acquitted.

From: A. Papazian

FRANCE WON’T DROP BILL UNDER PRESSURE – POLL

Hurriyet Daily News
Dec 26 2011
Turkey

74 pct say France won’t drop bill under pressure.

A Hurriyet Daily News poll asking whether Turkey’s recent reaction
toward France would convince the French Senate to drop the genodice
bill resulted with the majority voting “no.”

Seventy-four percent of the voters believed the cutting of contacts
between Turkey and France would not convince the French Senate to
drop the controversial bill, which criminalizes the denial of Armenian
claims of genocide regarding the events of 1915.

Twenty-one percent voted “yes,” claiming Turkey’s reaction will
influence the course of events.

A small group of 5 percent “had no idea” about the possible turnout
of the diplomatic and economic war between France and Turkey.

Last week, the National Assembly of France approved a first step
toward a law that would impose a jail term and a 45,000 euro ($60,000)
fine on anyone in France who denies the Armenian genocide claims. The
bill will now go to France’s Upper House, the Senate, and could become
law next year.

From: A. Papazian

ISRAELI LAWMAKERS WEIGH RECOGNISING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Reuters

Dec 26 2011

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli lawmakers debated on Monday recognising
the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide but
were warned by the Foreign Ministry about further damage to frayed
relations with Turkey.

The issue has stirred deep emotions in Israel, where some legislators
have said the Jewish people, who suffered six million dead in the
Nazi Holocaust, have a moral obligation to identify with the Armenian
tragedy, even at the risk of a Turkish backlash.

No decision was taken by parliament’s Education and Culture Committee,
which said it would hold another session at a future date.

“I can say that at this time, recognition of this type can have very
grave strategic implications,” said Irit Lillian, a Foreign Ministry
official who addressed the forum.

“Our relations with Turkey today are so fragile and so delicate that
there is no place to take them over the red line, where we have been,
I’m sorry to say, for many months,” she said.

Ties between the two former strategic allies were strained by Israel’s
killing of nine Turks in a commando raid on a Gaza-bound ship in 2010.

Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel after the incident and
suspended military cooperation.

Israel said its marines acted in self-defence after an initial boarding
party was attacked.

Zahava Gal-On, a lawmaker from the left-wing Meretz party, said Israeli
governments have refused to define the 1915 killings as genocide
“for cynical, strategic and economic, reasons, connected to ties
with Turkey.”

Israel, she said, has a “moral and historical obligation … to
recognise the genocide of the Armenian people” and ensure the subject
is taught comprehensively in its schools.

The committee session was the first public parliamentary hearing on
the issue.

Last week, Turkey cancelled all economic, political and military
meetings with its NATO partner France after the French National
Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favour of a draft law outlawing
genocide denial.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by
the Ottoman government.

Successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the
charge of genocide is an insult to their nation. Ankara argues that
there was heavy loss of life on both sides during fighting in the area.

(Editing by Myra MacDonald)

From: A. Papazian

ISRAEL DEBATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CLAIMS

B92

Serbia
Dec 26 2011

JERUSALEM — The Knesset is debating whether to recognise Armenian
claims of genocide in a move likely to further strain Israel’s tense
ties with Turkey, euronews reports

A parliamentary committee is discussing proposals to create a memorial
day to mark the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Ankara rejects the “genocide” tag.

Its once warm relations with Israel worsened severely after last
year’s bloodshed on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Israeli commandos
boarded to prevent the flotilla challenging the naval blockade of
the Palestinian territory. Nine Turks were killed in clashes.

Last week France outraged Turkey when its lower house of parliament
backed a bill making it illegal to deny Armenians were the victims of
genocide. In the diplomatic row that followed, Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France of having committed genocide
in Algeria.

From: A. Papazian

FOREIGN MINISTRY HOSTS ARMENIA-RUSSIA MILITARY CONSULTATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
December 26, 2011 – 18:03 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian Foreign Ministry hosted military
consultations with Russian delegation, with a vast range of security
issues focused on.

At the meeting, Russian delegation was led by the director of
the Russian Foreign Ministry’s department of security affairs and
disarmament, Mikhail Ulyanov and deputy director Grigory Mashkov.

Armenian delegation was headed by Armenian Foreign Ministry’s Arms
Control and International Security Department head Samvel Mkrtchian
with the emissary of the Armenian Embassy in Russia Ruben Ananyan
attending.

Arms control, implementation of bilateral agreements in defense sector,
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) were among issues
on discussion agenda, Foreign Ministry press service reported.

From: A. Papazian

ONLY ISRAELI FM WAS AGAINST GENOCIDE RECOGNITION – SENIOR ARF-D REP

Tert.am
26.12.11

The Israeli Foreign Minister was the only person who voted against
the Armenian Genocide recognition bill at the country’s parliament,
says a senior representative of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation-Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D).

Speaking to Tert.am, Kiro Manoyan, the director of the ARF-D Office of
Hay Dat and Political Affairs, said all persons attending the Israeli
Knesset committee’s session supported the bill, exccept the minister.

“The date for the next debate has not been scheduled but the Knesset
Committee on Education has asked its analytical center for the copies
of the Armenian Genocide resolutions adopted by different countries,”
he said.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH RIGHTS GROUP: UNITE AGAINST GENOCIDE DENIAL, NOT AGAINST FRANCE

Armenian Weekly
December 25, 2011

ISTANBUL, Turkey (A.W.)–On Dec. 22, the Committee Against Racism and
Discrimination of Turkey’s Human Rights Association issued a press
release and initiated a signature campaign calling on Turks to unite
against genocide denial, not against the French Parliament. Below
is the full text of the release. The Turkish version is available on
the group’s website.

Turkish Rights Group: Let’s Unite Against Genocide Denial, Not
Against France.

***

Broad segments of Turkish society seem to be united against the
bill penalizing the denial of genocide, which will be discussed on
Dec. 22, 2011 in the French Parliament [Editor’s note: The bill has
since passed]. The Turkish state’s denial and threats are supported
by business and consumer associations and civil society. Turkey’s
intelligentsia is also speaking against the bill. The common argument
for all these sectors against France is “freedom of expression”;
they are arguing that banning the denial of the Armenian Genocide
undermines freedom of expression.

We, the Istanbul Branch of the Human Rights Association of Turkey’s
Committee Against Racism and Discrimination declare that the denial
of a crime against humanity such as genocide has nothing to do with
freedom of expression.

The denial of the annihilation of a nation–with its entire social
fabric, professions, works of art, and historical heritage–by the
state itself, intentionally and in a planned manner, means endorsing
the crime and justifying such violence. Therefore, denial of genocide
cannot be considered within the boundaries of freedom of speech. It
constitutes violence against the grandchildren of genocide survivors
in Turkey and elsewhere in the world and against the memory of the
genocide victims. The European Court of Human Rights in many cases
has ruled that freedom of expression is not applicable to expressions
of violence.

The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention for Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in December 1948 and the Convention
came into force in January 1951. Since that day, Holocaust denial
has been punished in many countries with fines and prison sentences.

The punishment of Holocaust denial entails fines and prison sentences
of up to 20 years in Austria, fines and up to 1 year imprisonment
in Belgium, 6 months to 2 years imprisonment in the Czech Republic,
a fine and 5-month prison sentence in Germany, a fine and 1 month to
2 years imprisonment in France, a 3-4-year prison sentence in Italy,
and a fine and 1-10-year prison sentence in Lithuania. In other words,
punishment for genocide denial is neither new nor specific to France.

On Feb. 1, 2011, the Reis-ul Ulema (Grand Mufti) of Bosnian Muslims,
Mustafa CeriÄ~G, during a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp
together with a group of 150–comprised of Christian, Muslim, and
Jewish delegations–said that those who denied the Holocaust or the
genocide of Muslims in Srebrenica should be treated as accomplices
in the crime.

One argument progressive intellectuals use against the French bill
banning denial is the memory of Hrant Dink, who was opposed to the
passage of such laws. We believe it is wrong to base one’s opinion
on today’s French bill on the views expressed years ago by Hrant
Dink, who was assassinated as a result of collaboration between the
state’s special war apparatus and fascist elements. Not only is it
absurd to speculate on what Hrant Dink would think today, but it is
fundamental to the freedom of thought–something the intellectuals
uphold as sacred–that people should have the right to develop their
own independent opinions, free of others’ guidance.

In conclusion, we invite the NGOs, the business organizations,
such as the Union of Turkish Chambers and Commodity Exchanges and
Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen, opinion makers,
and intellectuals to stop campaigning against the French Parliament
and work for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the Assyrian
Genocide, and the ethnic cleansing of the Greeks by the state and
society.

From: A. Papazian

TURQUIA CONGELA SUS RELACIONES CON FRANCIA POR LA LEY DEL GENOCIDIO ARMENIO

Perl al dia

24 dic 2011

La aprobacion de la Asamblea francesa sobre la propuesta de ley que
sancionara a quienes nieguen la existencia historica de los genocidios
ha despertado la ira de Turquía. Tras una medida inmediata y fulminante
de retirar a su embajador en París, ha seguido el anuncio de la
suspension de las relaciones políticas y militares con Francia. La
norma, presentada por una diputada de la mayoría de Gobierno, la
UMP, esta pensada especialmente para condenar a quienes minimicen el
genocidio de decenas de miles de ciudadanos armenios a manos de las
tropas turcas entre 1915 y 1917.

El primer ministro turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dio a conocer la medida
en una rueda de prensa en la que definio como “injusto, racista,
discriminatorio y hostil hacia Turquía” el proyecto de ley frances,
que preve un año de carcel y una multa de 45.000 euros a quien niegue
el caracter de genocidio a esa matanza. En París, el ministro frances
de Exteriores, Alain Juppe, trato de reconducir la situacion con un
llamamiento al dialogo, según se informo a la prensa.

“Lamento esta primera reaccion y apelo al sentido común y a la mesura
para que las cosas se queden así, si es posible”, declaro Juppe, quien
añadio que “las relaciones entre Francia y Turquía son estrechas y
múltiples en muchos ambitos”.

Ankara había amenazado con tomar medidas muy severas si el Parlamento
frances aprobaba la ley. Aunque el voto en la Asamblea es solo
el primer paso, porque el texto debe ir todavía al Senado y eso
tomara aún varios meses, el Gobierno turco cumplio su promesa de
duras represalias. Ankara, que considera la ley una provocacion,
ha amenazado ademas con congelar importantes contratos comerciales
bilaterales. La posicion de Turquía sobre el genocidio armenio ha
ido variando con el tiempo hasta reconocer oficialmente la muerte de
500.000 personas, pero considerandolas víctimas de la I Guerra Mundial.

Ademas de la cancelacion inmediata de todas las actividades políticas
bilaterales, Erdogan informo de la cancelacion del permiso generico
anual para vuelos militares franceses sobre territorio turco y que
cada vuelo debera requerir un permiso específico. En la misma línea,
adelanto que se rechazara toda solicitud de los navíos militares
franceses para atracar en puertos turcos hasta nuevo aviso. En tono
amenazante, Erdogan dijo que las medidas enunciadas son solo una
“primera etapa”, a la que seguirían una segunda y una tercera, si
Francia persevera en su intento de implantar la ley, informa Efe
desde Estambul.

La propuesta de ley, presentada por la diputada de Marsella Valèrie
Boyer e impulsada por la influencia de la diaspora Armenia en Francia,
recibio un apoyo masivo en la Asamblea: la inmensa mayoría de la UMP,
el Nuevo Centro, el Partido Socialista y el Partido Comunista votaron
a favor. Con algunas disensiones: cinco diputados de la mayoría,
el líder centrista y presidente de MoDem, Francois Bayrou, que
expreso su oposicion a un texto que juzga “irracional y peligroso”,
y Jean Glavany, un parlamentario del PS, que cree que la ley es
anticonstitucional.

La votacion congrego ante las puertas de la Asamblea Nacional a unos
3.800 manifestantes proturcos, llegados desde distintos puntos de
Francia. Jovenes en su mayoría, portaban banderas turcas y francesas
y corearon gritos como “la historia no debe servir a la política” o
“el debate historico no es el debate político”. Un fuerte dispositivo
de agentes antidisturbios blindo la Asamblea durante la sesion.

Valerie Boyer, autora de la mocion, mostro su estupor porque los
diputados fueran “presionados ante el símbolo de la República que es
la Asamblea”, y critico a Turquía, “un país que esta a las puertas
de Europa”, dijo, por incitar a sus seguidores “a manifestarse en
Francia contra un texto que es una transposicion del derecho europeo,
y que trata de conseguir que las personas que niegan los genocidios
sean sancionadas”.

En la camara, el diputado y exministro de origen armenio Patrick
Devejdian, defendio con pasion el texto legislativo y afirmo que “no
se trata de reescribir la historia, sino de cumplir un acto político
indispensable”. Devedjian recordo que “algunos historiadores turcos
han sido llevados a la justicia por haber afirmado la existencia del
genocidio armenio”.

From: A. Papazian