Author: Andres-Papazian

NOUS FAISONS UN RÊVE COMMUN : REPONSE A TIGRANE YEGAVIAN

OPINION

Notre manifeste armeno-turc, >, a
retenu l’attention de Tigrane Yegavian, et sa lecture critique appelle
quelques reponses de la part de quelques uns de ses signataires.

Schematiquement le principal reproche qu’adresse TY a notre texte est
de se refugier dans le reve pour fuir la realite, et particulièrement
celle de l ‘evolution du gouvernement turc depuis 2010, qui aurait
rendu les intellectuels et les democrates turcs >.

Ce qui nous rassemble n’est pas une analyse sur le gouvernement turc.

Le but de notre texte se situe sur un autre plan. A l’approche
du centième anniversaire du genocide, nous avons voulu donner une
perspective commune, ecrire ce que nous pouvons assumer et ce a quoi
nous nous engageons ensemble. Il y a eu deja des actions communes
entre Armeniens et Turcs, autour du procès des assassins de Hrant
Dink, ou bien le 24 avril dernier a Istanbul où l’on voyait, en plus
grand nombre que les annees precedentes, des Armeniens de la diaspora
et meme d’Armenie ( Raffi Hovanhissian par exemple), il y a eu la
petition d’excuses et une reponse d’Armeniens dont la plupart se
retrouvent autour de ce texte-ci, qui est le premier a etre concu,
signe et diffuse ensemble. Oui, le dialogue est un processus qui
continue et qui progresse, parce qu’il est le fruit de convictions
durables qui ne dependent pas d’une parenthèse heureuse mais depassee
ni non plus de conjonctures particulièrement inquietantes comme celle
que nous traversons en ce moment.

Ce texte manifeste donc deux choix majeurs. Le premier est de dire
que l’histoire a venir de la reconnaissance du genocide se passera
principalement en Turquie, meme s’il demeure utile, pour sa place
dans l’Histoire universelle, que les grands pays qui sont restes
silencieux franchissent ce pas, et que tous donnent a la commemoration
du centenaire un caractère solennel. C’est en Turquie que nous voulons
faire un pas de plus en avant dans la resolution du problème. Un
pas que nous estimons important parce qu’il pose des acquis sur
la reconnaissance du genocide et la necessite de reparations par
une certaine partie de la societe civile. Nous sommes conscients
qu’il reviendra aux politiques de concretiser une partie, la plus
emblematique, de nos propositions et que l’on en est encore loin,
d’où la forme du reve.

Mais precisement, formuler un reve, c’est faire aussi un autre choix,
celui de donner une figure concrète a la reparation morale, de montrer
comment le visage de la Turquie doit changer, dans les morts qu’elle
honore et ceux qu’elle rejette, mais aussi par les gestes forts que
cite TY : facilites portuaires, parc de l’Ararat.

Rever ne veut donc pas dire tourner le dos aux realites. Mais
s’appuyer sur celles qui sont positives : comme le mouvement ,
dans la societe turque, qui a leve le tabou sur le mot de genocide
et multiplie les initiatives culturelles et scientifiques communes,
ou, chez les Armeniens, l’attirance vers le Yerkir. Designer celles
qui sont negatives, comme la realite persistante d’une citoyennete de
seconde zone ou la fermeture de la frontière. Interroger celles qui
derangent , comme l’emergence des Armeniens islamises. Beaucoup des
avancees ont recu leur elan, sans doute irreversible, de la parole,
de l’action et de la mort de Hrant Dink. Il est la personnalite la
plus marquante du peuple armenien depuis longtemps, la plus lumineuse
aussi, et cette lumière qui rayonne toujours vient de sa capacite a
dire la complexite, a vouloir la partager avec le plus grand nombre
, a deceler l’avenir dans le present. Qu’il appartienne aussi au
monde turc n’est pas une restriction, mais un moteur pour mener vers
des solutions la question armenienne nee du genocide. Bien entendu
la societe, les societes, ne peuvent pas tout. Mais une constance
dans l’action et dans la vision de l’avenir permettront de peser
davantage sur des opinions publiques et des Etats plonges dans un monde
incertain. Croire que rien n’est possible, ce n’est pas du realisme,
c’est du defaitisme. Notre realisme ne baisse pas les bras et propose.

Il ne s’arroge aucune exclusivite sur la question. Que naissent mille
initiatives !

Gorune Aprikian

Gerard Malkassian

Michel Marian

lundi 20 octobre 2014, Ara (c)arm

From: A. Papazian

SHANT HARUTIUNIAN ET LES 11 AUTRES MILITANTS ANTI-GOUVERNEMENTAUX CONDAMNES

Justice

Vendredi, le tribunal d’Erevan a prononce des peines allant de 1 a 7
ans de prison a l’encontre d’un eminent militant politique et de 11
autres hommes arretes l’annee dernière dans des affrontements avec
la police anti-emeute lors d’une manifestation anti-gouvernementale
violente.

Un autre militant, le fils de Shant Harutiunian âge de 15 ans, lui
aussi accuse meme s’il a evite l’incarceration provisoire, a recu une
condamnation avec sursis de 4 ans sur les memes chefs d’accusation
de >.

Les accuses, menes par leur chef Shant Harutiunian, un veteran et
militant nationaliste, etaient parmi plusieurs dizaines de manifestants
qui tentaient de marcher vers les bureaux de Serge Sarkissian pour
ce que leur chef a appele une “revolution des valeurs.” La police a
utilise la force pour arreter la foule armee de bâtons et de grenades
artisanales assourdissantes aux abords du palais presidentiel.

Les hommes arretes ainsi que le garcon de 15 ans ont ete juges
en juin. La quasi-totalite d’entre eux a plaide non coupable aux
accusations de hooliganisme. Le juge les a declare coupable.

L’un des accuses, Vahe Mkrtchian, a egalement ete reconnu coupable
d’agression de policiers et a recu la sanction la plus sevère : 7
ans de prison. Shant Harutiunian et un autre homme ont eu des peines
d’emprisonnement de 6 ans. Sept autres ont ete condamnes a des peines
allant de 4 et 5 ans et demi.

Avant le verdict, Harutiunian a voulu declarer un discours de 90
minutes, qui ressemblait plus a un discours politique qu’a une
plaidoirie, mais il a ete ecourte par le juge en depit de ses
objections vehementes.

“Je continuerai a me battre, peu importe le nombre de fois où je
serai poursuivi en justice”, a declare Alek Poghosian, père de cinq
enfants qui a ete ecope de quatre annees derrière les barreaux.

Le juge Martirosian a entendu des cris et les maledictions de colère
de proches des accuses presents dans la salle d’audience après avoir
lu son verdict tard dans la journee. La plupart des accuses sont
susceptibles de recours contre cette decision.

lundi 20 octobre 2014, Claire (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

National Post , Canada
October 17, 2014 Friday

Don’t try genocide, and other lessons from the 20th century’s brutal struggles

by David Berry, National Post

“Watchers of the Sky”

This brief history of genocide centres itself around the story of
Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the term over the course of trying
to convince the world to finally address the issue. While Lemkin was
first drawn to the issue after the Armenian genocide, and had it
driven home when the Nazis forced him to flee Poland in 1940, his
story is woven into a survey of the genocides that keep happening
across the 20th century, delving particularly into Srebrenica, Rwanda
and Darfur. Though it takes a high-minded approach – the emphasis here
is on the necessity of collective action – its wide scope keeps the
documentary overly academic, surprisingly drained of humanity
considering its subject. As the movie itself says, no one is on the
side of genocide, but few people actually seem to do anything about
it; for all its smart rhetoric, Watchers has little tangible insight
into why we shrug until its too late, but a lot of time for sober
disappointment about the fact.

“Watchers of the Sky” opens Oct. 17 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto.

From: A. Papazian

Targeted News Service
October 17, 2014 Friday 9:47 PM EST

Press Release by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

VIENNA

The U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe issued the following news release:

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group from the Russian Federation and
France (Ambassador Igor Popov and Ambassador Pierre Andrieu) traveled
to the region this week to meet with government leaders and
participate in an OSCE Monitoring Mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border. The Co-Chairs were joined by the Personal Representative of
the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk. U.S.
Co-Chair Ambassador James Warlick could not attend for personal
reasons, but the U.S. side was represented on the trip.

In Baku, the Co-Chairs met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev,
and in Yerevan, they met with Armenian President Serzh Sargsian. In
Yerevan, they also had consultations with Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian. In both capitals, the Co-Chairs discussed preparations for
the upcoming summit hosted by French President Francois Hollande later
this month in Paris. The Co-Chairs recounted the recent meetings of
the Presidents in Sochi and Wales, and noted the stabilization of the
situation along the Line of Contact and border after the increase in
violence this summer. They also expressed hope that recent ceasefire
violations would not escalate.

In addition to their meetings with the Presidents, the Co-Chairs
participated in an OSCE Monitoring Mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani
border. On both sides of the border, they met with local officials and
commanders to receive a briefing about security conditions. The
Co-Chairs urged the sides to take steps to reduce tensions and avoid
violence, particularly against the civilian population.

From: A. Papazian

“Armenia needs the Russian language”: question mark or accent?

16:12 | October 18,2014 | Social

“Moscow home” with the support of YerevanMunicipality organized a
contest of Russian language teachers. Participating teachers were
elected in their own schools. By the way, schools with advanced
courses of Russian were selected. Teachers must write a composition
titled “Armenia needs the Russian language”. They must decide to put a
question mark or accent.

Everything would be fine if it didn’t turn out that many teachers were
unaware why they had come there, “We were just told to come here to
take part in the contest, nothing more”, “let them say us the topic
and we will write and send, we all know writing, do they want to
check?”, “It is offending for a teacher”,- said the teachers, who
didn’t introduce themselves being afraid of losing their jobs.

But after expressing their anger, the teachers took part in the
contest and wrote the compositions.

Before that, we spoke to the teachers about knowledge of the Russian
language among Armenian young people. Teachers note that when they
were young, everybody knew Russian, but even today pupils learn the
language not bad, “In the past it was different, we went abroad very
often and all learnt Russian. But today children didn’t go abroad and
even if they go, they need English more,”- in the conversation with
A1+ said number 77 school teacher Anna Harutyunyan and added that
there is also another problem: today children don’t like reading
neither Armenian nor Russian, “We try to awake the love toward
language, literature and reading. We want them to realize that if they
want to achieve something they also need Russian. Our present
political situation hints that we will need Russian very much,”- she
added.

About 15 years ago the situation was worse, says number 150 school
teacher Svetlana Melikyan. Now the knowledge of Russian has improved a
little, but there is still the tendency, pupils are very weak,
“Because there is no contact, they don’t listen to Russian on TV, they
don’t read. Besides today pupils don’t even speak literate Armenian,
let alone speak Russian.”

By the way, the compositions will be checked by Russian language
specialists of the YSU. The results will be summed up on October 23.
First three places will get valuable prizes.

From: A. Papazian

Levon Hayrapetyan is in depression

14:39 | October 18,2014 | Politics

The health condition of famous Armenian philanthropist Levon
Hayrapetyan is changeable and is under the control of doctors. Levon
Hayrapetyan’s assistant Davit Yeranyan informed it to A1+.

According to his words, Armenian philanthropist is in depression, his
sister is with him.

We remind that Levon Hayrapetyan’s measure of restraint- detention was
replaced with home arrest on October 3. Moscow’s Basman District Court
took into consideration the fact that he has had two heart attacks and
suffers from diabetes and cancer.

Levon Hayrapetyan doesn’t have right to go for a walk.

The 65-year-old businessman was officially charged with embezzlement
and illegal money laundering. He doesn’t accept the accusation.

From: A. Papazian

Russia entry ban lifted for 250 Armenian citizens – State Migration Agency

01:21, 18.10.2014

YEREVAN. – The ban on entry into the Russian Federation (RF) has been
lifted for 250 Armenian citizens from the 30,000 Armenian nationals,
whose entry into the country is prohibited due to a stricter
enforcement of the RF immigration laws.

Armenian State Migration Agency Head Gagik Yeganyan told Armenian
News-NEWS.am that about 2,500 from these 30,000 people had petitioned
to them, and respective letters were sent to the RF Federal Migration
Service concerning them. They had received responses for 1,200
persons, and the entry ban was lifted for 250 of these Armenian
citizens.

Yeganyan also informed that he spoke with his Russian colleague on
this matter, and they discussed the need for increasing the number of
approvals to respective petitions.

In response to the query on whether Armenia’s forthcoming Eurasian
Economic Union (EaEU) accession will positively contribute to this
issue, the head of the Armenian State Migration Agency said that this
has nothing to do with the EaEU.

“The EaEU will relate to labor migration; the same laws and the same
penalties will continue to function in Russia,” Gagik Yeganyan stated.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

From: A. Papazian

It Is Dangerous But Tendency Is Such

Igor Muradyan, Political Analyst
Comments – 18 October 2014, 11:50

The national idea of Azerbaijanis is oil, Georgians – “democracy”. The
Armenians have neither one. Therefore, the border crossing point
became the national idea of Armenians rapidly and consciously, and all
the possible intrigues are rotating around it.

Armed clashes on the borders changed the situation and public moods in
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, mobilizing people and militarizing public
consciousness. Expectations from different elections also contain
militaristic and patriotic moods.

One of the circumstances that has caused a backlash in the Karabakh
province is the possibility of having a BCP on the border of Armenia
and NKR. In Yerevan it is difficult to imagine to what extent it has
become a factor of discussions and choice.

It should be noted that there are serious suggestions of blasting the
customs. In addition, fundamental suggestions are made, such as
exploding the BCP together with the personnel, later blast the
proposed place of the BCP, as well as warn the NKR leaders who will
allow the stationing of the BCP.

NKR is discussing rumors on Russia’s likelihood to force Armenia to
hand over the NKR territories. In addition, the first reactions are
quite comprehensible: “hit your friends to frighten your foes”. Acts
of retribution from political leaders of Armenia and Russia are being
considered.

In particular, there is an opinion that it is time to collect all the
pro-Russian advocates, whether they have governmental awards or not.
It is dangerous but the tendency is such. Let us see how serious these
intentions are.

In fact those who think that the creation of the BCP will mark the end
of Nagorno-Karabakh as an Armenian territory are right.

From: A. Papazian

La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest, France
jeudi 16 octobre 2014

Solidarité pour une famille arménienne

par Jean ROUZIES

Une centaine de personnes ont manifesté hier soir pour réclamer un
logement d’urgence en faveur d’une famille menacée d’expulsion.

Rassemblement de solidarité hier soir place Auzanneau, dans le
quartier du Clou-Bouchet. Une petite centaine de personnes sont venues
manifester leur soutien à une famille arménienne sans logement depuis
le mois de juillet. Majoritairement des membres de la communauté
arménienne niortaise, ainsi que des représentants de diverses
associations, notamment l’ARDDI (Association pour la reconnaissance et
la défense des droits des immigrés), sont venus réclamer « un logement
d’urgence » pour Gagik Melkonyan, son épouse et ses deux enfants, gés
de 18 et 13 ans, tous deux scolarisés. Entre hébergement précaire,
chez des amis, dans un foyer, parfois à l’hôtel, tantôt dans une
voiture ou sous la tente, la famille se retrouve maintenant à la rue :
« Le 115 propose des logements incompatibles avec la scolarisation des
enfants », proteste l’un des porte-parole. « La revendication, c’est
un hébergement stable pour que les enfants soient scolarisés. Mais
c’est le dialogue de sourds. » Dossier d’autant plus sensible que la
famille Melkonyan, arrivée en France depuis cinq ans, à Niort depuis
décembre 2013, est sous le coup d’un arrêté de reconduite à la
frontière, qui vient de faire l’objet d’un recours.

A l’issue de la manifestation, une entrevue devait avoir lieu entre
Claude Juin, le président de l’ARDDI, ainsi qu’un représentant de la
préfecture.

From: A. Papazian

Channel 4 News, UK
Oct 19 2014

Armenians in Aleppo regard Turkey as ‘first enemy’

by Lindsey Hilsum

Maria Karjian threw back her head and laughed.

“We used to call this Midan St but now we call it Tora Bora,” she said.

How did a street in the Armenian district of Aleppo come to be
nicknamed after the caves where the Taliban fought in Afghanistan? It
lies on the frontline between Syrian government-held west Aleppo and
the rebel controlled east.

Rubble is strewn across the road and the front half of an orange car
has taken a direct hit, probably from a rocket. Maria pointed up to
the second storey apartment. Part of the wall was missing.

“My mother was inside when the bomb hit,” she said.

Syria’s Armenian community are staunch supporters of President Bashar
al-Assad whose picture adorns almost every shop window. As Christians,
one of Syria’s minorities, they see him as their protector against
Islamism and the old enemy, the Turks.

In the complexity of the current conflict, it’s easy to forget the
strong grip of the past. The Armenians, victims of genocide by Turkish
forces in 1915, at the end of WW1, fear history repeating itself.
President Erdogan has been clear that he wants to see the overthrow of
President Assad. Turkey has not only backed the opposition groups that
control the streets just east of Midan but also allowed foreign
fighters to cross its border to fight for the Islamic State and the
Al-Qaeda linked group Jabat al-Nusra.

The Old Enemy

“Turkey is the first enemy,” said Pierre Bedrossian, a local
businessman who showed me around. “They know Armenians live here.
Everyone knows.”

It’s unlikely that the Armenians were uppermost in President Erdogan’s
mind when he decided to back the Syrian rebels. He is a Sunni, with
ideological roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, while Assad is an
Alawite, from the Baath Party and linked to Shi’a Iran. They are
sectarian, political and regional rivals.

Still, the visit to Midan got me thinking about how Turkey’s struggles
are entwined in this war. The Turks are still refusing to allow
weapons across the border for the Kurdish forces fighting Islamic
State militants in Kobani. Why? One Turkish minister said he saw it as
“a battle between two terrorist groups”.

The Syrian Kurds are linked to the PKK, the Kurdish group which has
been fighting the government within Turkey for decades. The Turkish
state still sees the Kurds as more of a threat than the jihadis.

In a half destroyed health centre, Pierre and his friends showed me a
small library.

“This is our culture,” they said. “We fear it will be destroyed.”

At least half of Aleppo’s Armenians have left the country, most for
Lebanon. Once again, their community is divided and endangered. And
once again, they regard Turkey as the chief cause of their problems.

From: A. Papazian