Author: Andres-Papazian

LES FRICTIONS ENTRE LA FRANCE ET LA TURQUIE TOUCHENT AUSSI LA TOILE

ITespresso.fr

26 de 2011
France

Le site web de la deputee UMP Valerie Boyer, a l’origine de la
proposition de loi chargee de reprimer la contestation de l’existence
des genocides, a ete pirate par un groupe de hackers turques.

Le 26 decembre 2011 par David Feugey

La polemique entre la France et la Turquie enfle suite au projet
de loi visant a punir la contestation des genocides. Des militants
pro-Turquie ont ainsi mis a sac le site Internet de Valerie Boyer,
qui a ete mis hors ligne dans la foulee.

Dimanche, l’adresse ne proposait qu’un ecran
noir affichant le drapeau de la Turquie et un message vindicatif en
turc et en anglais visant le gouvernement francais et la communaute
armenienne de France, expliquent nos confrères d’ITespresso.fr. ”
Vous, la diaspora armenienne, etes de tels lâches que vous n’avez pas
le cran d’ouvrir les archives armeniennes et de faire face a la verite
“, pouvait-on lire.

Une personnalite au c~ur de la tempete En qualite de vice-presidente
du groupe d’amitie France-Armenie, la deputee UMP (Bouches-du-Rhône)
est a l’origine d’une proposition de loi destinee a reprimer la
contestation de l’existence des genocides reconnus par la loi. Dont
celui des Armeniens en 1915 (qui, selon les Armeniens, avait fait
plus de 1,5 million de morts dans l’Empire ottoman).

Elle a ete adoptee par l’Assemblee nationale jeudi 22 decembre. Mais
elle a provoque une polemique en Turquie et genere des tensions
diplomatiques avec ce pays (gel de sa cooperation militaire avec la
France, rappel de l’ambassadeur turc a Paris).

Valerie Boyer assure qu’elle a egalement recu des ” menaces de mort,
de viol, de destruction, ainsi que des injures et des insultes
“. Elle veut porter plainte.

Un groupe turc a l’origine de l’attaque Concernant le hacking du
site de la deputee, il serait revendique par le groupe de pirates
turcs GrayHatz. Il serait proche de celui baptise ” Akincilar “,
a l’origine de l’attaque contre le site Internet de Charlie Hebdo
en novembre en guise de represailles après la publication de dessins
satiriques anticharia (loi islamique).

Plus inquietant, les sites Internet de l’Assemblee nationale et du
Senat etaient difficilement accessibles, voire indisponibles, lundi
matin. Il est possible qu’il existe un lien avec la polemique liee
a la proposition de loi de Valerie Boyer.

From: A. Papazian

L’OSCE S’INQUIÈTE DES CONSEQUENCES DE LA LOI FRANCAISE SUR LE GENOCIDE
Stephane

armenews.com
lundi 26 decembre 2011

L’Organisation pour la securite et la cooperation en Europe (OSCE)
a critique la loi adoptee jeudi par le parlement francais punissant la
negation du genocide des Armenien, propre selon l’OSCE a criminaliser
les debats historiques et entraver la liberte d’expression.

“Je reconnais tout a fait les intentions humanitaires des membres de
l’Assemblee nationale, qui ont redige et soutenu cette proposition”
de loi, a declare la representante de l’OSCE pour la liberte des
medias Dunja Mijatovic dans un communique.

“Je crois neanmoins que l’adoption finale de ces amendements soulèvera
de serieuses inquietudes concernant les standards internationaux de
la liberte d’expression”, a-t-elle ajoute, exprimant le voeux que le
Senat rejette le texte.

Elle craint en particulier “une criminalisation des debats historiques
publics”, qui ne favorise pas a ses yeux “une meilleure entente entre
les peuples et les communautes” membres de l’OSCE.

Mme Mijatovic redoute egalement que d’autres pays imitent la France
et criminalisent aussi certaines prises de position historiques,
en violation de leurs engagements au sein de l’OSCE, qui visent a
encourager la libre discussion sur des sujets d’interet public.

“Une proliferation de telles interdictions nationales” concernant des
prises de position liees a la culture et l’histoire d’autres nations,
“rendrait inapplicables les standards internationaux de la liberte
d’expression et les subordonnerait a une plethore de strategies
nationales sur la regulation du discours et de l’expression”,
a-t-elle argumente.

Les deputes francais ont approuve jeudi la proposition de loi
sur la negation des genocides reconnus par la loi francaise, dont
celui des Armeniens en 1915, un vote qui a provoque de premières
represailles diplomatiques d’Ankara et l’annulation d’exercices
militaires conjoints.

La proposition de loi prevoit un an d’emprisonnement et 45.000 euros
d’amende pour toute negation publique d’un genocide reconnu par la
loi. La France reconnaît deux genocides, celui des Juifs pendant la
Seconde Guerre mondiale et celui des Armeniens, mais ne punit jusqu’a
present que la negation du premier.

From: A. Papazian

MK SCHNELLER: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DISCUSSION ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’

Jerusalem Post

Dec 26 2011

MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) criticized a planned discussion in the
Knesset Education Committee Monday morning on the Armenian genocide as
irresponsible, warning it would lead to worsening of already strained
ties with Turkey.

Israel must “do everything in its power to improve our relations with
Turkey increase our integration in the Islamic Middle East. Opening
another front with Turkey is irresponsible.”

Meretz MK Zehava Gal-On, however, described a moral imperative
to hold the discussion. As the Jews who also suffered genocide
in the Holocaust, Gal-On told Army Radio Monday, “we have a moral
responsibility to recognize these things.”

From: A. Papazian

LES ARMENIENS SONT LA SIXIEME NATION EN RUSSIE
Stephane

armenews.com
lundi 26 decembre 2011

Le Service federal des statistiques de Russie a publie les resultats
definitifs du recensement de la population tenue en 2010, d’après
lesquels les Armeniens representent 0,86% de la population russe). Les
Armeniens sont ainsi la sixième nation en Russie après les Russes,
les Tatars, les Bachkirs, les Ukrainiens, les Tchetchènes et les
Tchouvaches.

Ambassade de France en Armenie

Service de presse

From: A. Papazian

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Dec 24 2011

Now, let’s talk ourselves¦

by Mehmet Ali Birand

The dreaded has happened.

We are dragging France through the mud. And this is the easier side of
the job. However, the real job starts from now on. Because, whether we
like it or not, the Armenians have made the world accept their
genocide claims during those years when we buried our head in the
sand. From now on, we cannot transform international public opinion by
just publishing books, airing documentaries, cutting relations and
threats to boycott their goods. This train has left the station. We
cannot confront the whole world and live isolated.

There are three important steps we have to take if we want to avoid
being stigmatized with genocide in 2015. Firstly, we should question
the 1915 incidents without fooling ourselves. We should learn what
happened, what has been experienced and take our heads out of the
sand. We now have to be transparent. We should truly open up our
archives and, before anybody else, we should learn what has been
lived.

Secondly, using all judicial avenues, either a way should be found to
rebut genocide claims or a new strategy should be created to
re-introduce the Armenian protocols.

Thirdly, those publicity and lobby activities – and I’m not at all
hopeful — that were not able to be done for 30 years should be
activated.

I have been writing the above suggestions for maybe for the 120th
time, even though I know they will not be done, you will see. We will
be stigmatized with genocide in 2015. We will first protest, take to
the streets and afterwards, again, forget it all¦

[HH] YaÅ?ar Kemal and the award

Last week, I was at the ceremony where renowned novelist and writer
YaÅ?ar Kemal was decorated with the French Legion d’Honneur (Legion of
Honor). He received his award from Army Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin,
grand chancellor of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor,
who flew from Paris exclusively for this ceremony.

My eyes watered.

I watched the giant man with admiration as he talked to the French
Ambassador Laurent Bili and Chancellor Georgelin before the ceremony.
He was laughing when he explained, `Before being a novelist, I was
writing petitions on the street. Those who had problems would come to
me and I would write petitions for them.’

I enjoyed getting to know him better.

I remembered how we made YaÅ?ar Kemal’s life hell when we should have
been proud of him. I thought of the years when, instead of rewarding
him, the state of the Republic of Turkey was shoving him around and
treating him cruelly.

YaÅ?ar Kemal was angry but never took offence. What a pity, is it not?

We lot, who do not have our share of culture, were not able to digest
the fact a guy of Kurdish origin was being applauded in the
international arena. While he was telling the truth, we accused him of
communism and separatism. Despite this, he held his stance, remained
among us with constraint and then stood up and showed us what was
wrong and what was right.

His closest friends were invited. We applauded a master who was
laughing aloud, enjoying a time when he can now say whatever he wants
to.

It is such a privilege that we have a YaÅ?ar Kemal.

[HH] Fatma Å?ahin becomes a distinct minister
When she was first appointed, I did not know of Fatma Å?ahin. I had
doubts about what she could do as Family and Social Policies Minister.
More precisely, the appointments Justice and Development Party (AK
Parti) had made in the past to similar ministerial posts have left a
somewhat acrid taste.

Time has gone by, however, and Fatma Å?ahin has shown she is different
in terms of her personality, her stance and her speeches. She knows
her job and, more importantly, she has self-esteem. You may not share
some of her views but you will surely be influenced by her approach
and wording of the topic.
I think she is the most successful among the newcomers to the last Cabinet.
December/24/2011

From: A. Papazian

Windsor Star (Ontario)
December 23, 2011 Friday
Final Edition

Turks cut French ties over genocide bill; Sensitivity over Armenian massacre

PARIS/ANKARA

France sparked a diplomatic row with Turkey on Thursday by taking
steps to criminalize the denial of genocide, including the 1915 mass
killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, prompting Ankara to cancel all
economic, political and military meetings.

Lawmakers in France’s National Assembly – the lower house of
parliament – voted overwhelmingly in favour of a draft law outlawing
genocide denial, which will be debated next year in the Senate.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppe, speaking to journalists
after the vote, urged Turkey not to overreact to the assembly
decision, called for “good sense and moderation.”

But Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan angrily criticized France
for passing the draft legislation, which touches on a highly
controversial period in his country’s history.

The bill, put forward by members of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s
ruling party, was “politics based on racism, discrimination,
xenophobia,” Erdogan told journalists.

He said Sarkozy was sacrificing good ties “for the sake of political
calculations,” suggesting the president was trying to win the votes of
ethnic Armenians in France in an election next year.

Erdogan said Turkey was cancelling all economic, political and
military meetings with its NATO partner and said it would cancel
permission for French military planes to land, and warships to dock,
in Turkey.

Juppe said Turkey had also recalled its ambassador from France, a
decision he regretted.

“What I hope now is that our Turkish friends do not overreact about
the French National Assembly decision. We have lots of things to work
on together,” Juppe said.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during First World War 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.

“I don’t understand why France wants to censor my freedom of
expression,” Yildiz Hamza, president of the Montargis association that
represents 700 Turkish families in France, told Reuters.

Earlier, about 3,000 French nationals of Turkish origin demonstrated
peacefully outside the parliament ahead of the vote, which came 32
years to the day since a Turkish diplomat was assassinated by Armenian
militants in central Paris.

The authorities in Yerevan welcomed the vote. “By adopting this bill
(France) reconfirmed that crimes against humanity do not have a period
of prescription and their denial must be absolutely condemned,”
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian saying in a statement.

France passed a law recognizing the killing of Armenians as genocide
in 2001. The French lower house first passed a bill criminalizing the
denial of an Armenian genocide in 2006, but it was rejected by the
Senate in May this year.

The latest draft law was made more general to outlaw the denial of any
genocide, partly in the hope of appeasing Turkey.

It could still face a long passage into law, though its backers want
to see it completed before parliament is suspended at the end of
February ahead of elections in the second quarter.

National Assembly speaker Bernard Accoyer said on Wednesday that he
doubted the bill would pass by the end of the current parliament, as
the government had not made the bill priority legislation.

The French government has stressed that it did not initiate the bill,
which mandates a 45,000-euro fine and a year in jail for offenders,
and says Turkey cannot impose unilateral trade sanctions.

Faced with Sarkozy’s open hostility to Turkey’s stagnant bid to join
the European Union, and buoyed by a fast-growing economy, Ankara has
little to lose by picking a political fight with Paris.

With Turkey taking an increasingly influential role in the Arab world
and Middle East, especially Syria, Iran and Libya, France could
experience some diplomatic discomfort, and French firms could lose out
on lucrative Turkish contracts.

France is Turkey’s fifthbiggest export market and the sixth-biggest
source of its imports. About 360 French companies operate in Turkey,
employing more than 80,000 people, according to export consultancy
UbiFrance.

“Turkey is a democracy and has joined the World Trade Organization so
it can’t just discriminate for political reasons against countries,”
Europe Minister Jean Leonetti told France Inter radio. “I think these
threats are just hot air and we (have) to begin a much more reasoned
dialogue.”

The French bill feeds a sense shared by many Turks that they are
unwanted by Europe and it fires up nationalist fervour. However, in a
more self-confident Turkey, popular reaction has been more muted than
in the past.

France has been pushing Turkey to own up to its history, just as
France belatedly recognized the role of its collaborationist Vichy
government during the Second World War in deporting Jews to Nazi
concentration camps.

From: A. Papazian

ITAR-TASS, Russia
December 23, 2011 Friday 10:46 PM GMT+4

Armenian, Iranian presidents call for settling Iranian nuke problem
diplomatically

YEREVAN December 23

Armenia and Iran think that the Iranian nuclear problem should be
resolved at negotiations with diplomatic efforts, says a joint
communique of Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted
in Yerevan on Friday. Ahmadinejad is paying an official visit to
Armenia.

The presidents called important the non-proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and expressed their adherence to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the same time, they noted the right of
all states, including Armenia and Iran, to peaceful uses of atomic
energy.

Sargsyan and Ahmadinejad called necessary lasting peace, stability and
security in the region. They attributed large significance to the
deepening of multilateral regional cooperation and settlement of
regional conflicts.

While commenting on the Karabakh problem, the presidents said that the
conflict must be resolved peacefully on the basis of fundamental norms
and international legal principles.

The presidents dwelt on the latest events in the Middle East and North
Africa and stressed the need for the fulfillment of lawful rights of
peoples against the backdrop of regional stability, security and peace
and national solidarity.

Sargsyan and Ahmadinejad expressed their readiness to cooperate in the
fight against international terrorism and organized crime.

From: A. Papazian

Document titled `Model of Victory for liberation of Karabakh from the
occupation’ presented in Baku

[ 24 Dec 2011 14:29 ]

Baku. Habil Suleymanzadeh – APA. A document titled `Model of Victory
for liberation of Karabakh from the occupation’ was presented in Baku
today. According to APA, the document prepared by the Organization for
Liberation of Karabakh (QAT) consists of 7 articles. The introduction
of the document reads that this model considers liberation of our
territories occupied by Armenia – Nagorno Karabakh and 7 surrounding
regions. The model is based on Azerbaijan’s domestic opportunities and
the factor of Turkey.

The authors consider it necessary to start military operations to
liberate Karabakh. QAT says that 20-year peace talks lost their
meaning and Azerbaijan has enough military potential to liberate its
lands.

QAT chairman Akif Naghi said he hoped that the model would be taken by
the officials into consideration. Criticizing the organizations, which
campaign for dialogue and pacifism, Akif Naghi said this policy has no
perspectives and Azerbaijani society should use the military force.
QAT chairman strongly criticized the mediating countries. `The latest
decision made by France shows how biased is this country. This
decision of France is a blow on Azerbaijan as well’. He said Russia
could prevent the liberation of Karabakh and Azerbaijan needs to rely
on Turkey as a military ally to overcome this obstacle and reach
balance.

Veterans of Karabakh war, public figures and NGO leaders said that the
negotiations became ineffective and it is time for starting military
operations. According to them, the mediators try to deceive
Azerbaijan. Armenia must see strength to withdraw its troops from the
occupied lands.

From: A. Papazian

Sudan Vision Daily, Sudan
Dec 24 2011

Sudan Slams France’s Parliamentary Vote on Armenian Genocide Bill

Khartoum – The Sudanese government denounced a French parliamentary
bill criminalizing those who deny that the 1915 mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide.

The draft law angered the Turkish government which swiftly recalled
its ambassador to Paris and cancelled all joint economic, political
and military meetings.

Khartoum expressed solidarity with Ankara in its row with Paris.

`The [Sudanese] Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to express its
surprise and deep condemnation of this position by the French
Parliament, which we do not find any explanation for except that it
considers the right to differ in the understanding of history and
expression of that understanding a crime punishable by law, and at the
same time insists on the trial of history facts even on which there is
no interpretation agreement,’ the statement said.

`The insistence of the current French leadership on labeling the
Turkish state with what it considers acts in violation of the law and
linking it to the Islamic identity of the Turkish people is nothing
but a clear attempt to label Islamic history as such and criminalizing
the Islamic Caliphate era, in the context of the French position known
to oppose Turkey joining the European Union in light of the identity
of its Muslim population’.

`The Sudanese Foreign Ministry…..declares solidarity with the people
and Government of Turkey, and calls upon all peace-loving nations of
justice to stand against attempts to stir up hatred between nations
and people on the basis of ethnic or religious identity’.

From: A. Papazian

Armenian memorial By JPOST EDITORIAL
12/24/2011 21:12

Erdogan’s unmistakable aggressive stance towards the French parliamentary
initiative contains a message for Israel too.

Knesset members of radically different political orientations will seek
this week to sway the Knesset Education Committee to promote Israeli
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin
(Likud), MK Arye Eldad (National Union) and MK Zehava Galon (Meretz) will
argue for a special annual Armenian memorial day in Israel.

As Jews, we entertain understandable reservations regarding the overuse the
genocide term, already applied to numerous diverse incidents of
mass-slaughter, including Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge purges and Rwanda’s tribal
carnage. But the massacres and violent deportations by Ottoman Turks, which
claimed as many as 1.5 million Armenian lives during World War I, are
different.

They’re closer to a premeditated scheme to cleanse Turkey of Christians,
even if not imbued with the Nazis’ systematic, all-encompassing ideology
of `scientific’ racism. Not every last Armenian was hunted down as in
Germany’s methodical, industrialized extermination process that targeted
and pursued every last hidden Jewish baby.

Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer explained it best: `The Nazis saw the Jews
as the central problem of world history….

The attitude towards Jews had in it important elements of pseudo-religion.
There was no such motivation present in the Armenian case; Armenians were
to be annihilated for power-political reasons, and in Turkey only…. Yet
even if the Armenian case is not seen as a holocaust in the extreme form,
which it took towards Jews, it is certainly the nearest thing to it.’

It, therefore, amply deserves Israeli recognition. Previous attempts to
secure such recognition were foiled by Foreign Ministry opposition. Every
care was taken not to vex Turkey, for years Israel’s sole quasi-ally in the
region.

Presumably, now that Turkey has turned ultra-hostile – particularly after
Operation Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara confrontation – such constraints
should no longer be relevant.

Nonetheless, enough cautionary voices in high echelons still counsel
against `rash action’ on the grounds that residual hope might yet exist,
scant and flimsy as it may be, that some cooperation with Ankara can be
rekindled in future.

Turkey continues to cast a dark shadow over Israeli considerations even in
the stark absence of any viable relationship with that country. Turkey
continues to prevent Israel from doing the right thing even when there’s
no expedient realpolitik incentive to avoid the moral high ground.

But Ankara intimidates elsewhere as well. France’s lower house of
parliament has moved to criminalize Armenian Genocide-denial. In response,
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had thrown a super-temper tantrum,
warning that `this hostile move… will have grave consequences for future
relations between Turkey and France in political, economic, cultural and
all areas, and the responsibility will rest with those behind this
initiative.’

In retaliation, Erdogan on Thursday cut ties with France, recalled his
ambassador for consultations.

He said Turkey was cancelling all economic, political and military meetings
with its NATO partner and it would cancel permission for French military
planes to land, and warships to dock, in Turkey.

In short, Erdogan throws his weight around, in characteristic neighborhood
bully style. His unmistakable aggressive stance towards the French
parliamentary initiative contains a message for Israel too.

Obviously, it’s not Israeli `misconduct’ alone that provokes his ire. This
is something for our diplomats to stress overseas. In-house, too, we need
to realize that self-blame is inherently unwarranted vis-à-vis Turkey.

Erdogan’s ruffian demeanor isn’t Israel-specific. There’s no plausible
reason not to answer his hectoring defamations with incontrovertible
historical truths. Why, for starters, not quit our unsavory habit of
resisting Knesset resolutions on Turkey’s infamous atrocities against the
Armenians? We could elaborate on Turkey’s first Armenian massacre of 1890
(100,000-200,000 dead); Turkey’s subsequent mega-massacres of 1915 in which
over a million Armenians perished in a series of bloodbaths and forced
marches of uprooted civilians in Syria’s direction; the WWI slaughter of
tens of thousands of Assyrians in Turkey’s southeast; the ethnic cleansing,
aerial bombardments and other operations that cost Kurds untold thousands
of lives throughout the 20th century and beyond and still deny them the
sovereignty they deserve; and finally, the 1974 invasion and continued
occupation of northern Cyprus (which fails to bother the international
community).

From: A. Papazian