Author: Andres-Papazian

LIBERTE DES MEDIAS : L’OSCE CRITIQUE LE PROJET DE LOI SUR LA RADIODIFFUSION
Marion

armenews
jeudi17 juin 2010
Armenie

L’Organisation pour la securite et la cooperation en Europe a critique
mardi 15 juin un projet de loi armenien controverse sur la liberte
des medias. D’après l’OSCE,il permettrait au gouvernement armenien
de conserver son contrôle sur les medias audiovisuels du pays.

Dunja Mijatovic, la representante de l’OSCE sur la liberte des medias,
a declare que le gouvernement a ignore des recommendations ” cruciales
” de l’OSCE en adoptant une serie d’amendements sur une loi armenienne
relative a la radiodiffusion.

Ces derniers visent a reglementer la transition numerique en cours en
Armenie, qui doit etre achevee d’ici juillet 2013. Les associations de
defense des medias accusent les autorites d’avoir initie le processus
pour conserver leur forte influence sur la quasi-totalite des chaînes
de television armeniennes et des stations de radio.

Mijatovic avait fait entendre sa voix lors de sa visite a Erevan a
la fin du mois dernier. Elle avait alors presente aux autorites une
longue liste de recommandations relatives a ces amendements.

Les representants du gouvernement avaient assure qu’ils prendraient
en compte ces remarques.

Mijatovic a souligne que la version finale du projet de loi adopte par
le Parlement armenien, ” ne parvient pas a promouvoir le pluralisme
de l’ère de la radiodiffusion numerique “.

Elle s’est egalement opposee ” a un manque de règles claires sur
l’attribution de licences pour le satellite, la telephonie mobile et
l’Internet “.

La nouvelle loi modifiee confère egalement aux tribunaux armeniens
le droit de resilier les licences de radiodiffusion sur la base de
clauses comportant ” des limitations injustifiees de la liberte de
les medias “, a-t-elle ajoute.

Dans une declaration du 10 juin emise au nom des ambassadeurs de
l’UE bases a Erevan, la delegation de l’UE en Armenie a exhorte le
gouvernement a se conformer davantage ” aux normes internationales
afin de favoriser la pluralite des medias armeniens “.

L’UE n’a pas encore reagi a l’adoption definitive du projet de loi,
cette meme journee du 10 juin.

From: A. Papazian

L’ARMENIE, NATION LA PLUS ” PAISIBLE ” DU CAUCASE
Marion

armenews
jeudi17 juin 2010

Une etude annuelle tentant de mesurer le degre de violence dans le
monde a classe l’Armenie en 113ème position sur 149 pays dans sa
dernière edition. En depit de ce mauvais resultat, l’Armenie est le
pays le plus ” paisible ” parmi ses voisins du Caucase.

Pour la quatrième annee, l’Institut australien pour l’economie et la
paix, a cherche a mesurer la tranquillite des nations et des regions.

Le Global Peace Index (GPI), qui a inclus l’Armenie pour la première
fois cette annee, repose sur 23 indicateurs, du niveau des depenses
militaires d’une nation a ses relations avec les pays voisins en
passant par le niveau du respect des droits de l’homme.

Cette etude a ete realisee par l’institut en collaboration avec the
Economist Intelligence Unit, une equipe internationale d’universitaires
et de specialistes sur la paix.

Selon le GPI 2010, l’Armenie enregistre des resultats particulièrement
faibles (sur une echelle de 1 a 5, 1 etant le niveau le plus ” paisible
“) concernant ” le nombre estime de decès dans des conflits (externes)
” ou encore ” le niveau d’exportations et d’importations d’armes
conventionnelles “.

Les indicateurs ont tendance a augmente au niveau de ” la
sophistication et la capacite militaire “, ” le niveau de criminalite
percue dans la societe “, ” le risque de crimes et de manifestations
violentes “, ou encore le ” niveau du respect des droits de l’homme
” et de ” l’instabilite politique “. L’indice global de l’Armenie
s’elève donc a 2.266.

L’Azerbaïdjan, est quant a lui en 119ème position (indice du
GPI:2.367). La Georgie et la Russie sont placees respectivement en
142ème et 143ème place (2.970 et 3.013)

La GPI a place la Turquie (2.420) en 126ème position et l’Iran (2.202)
est le plus paisible des voisins de l’Armenie. La republique d’Islam
se positionne a la 104ème place.

From: A. Papazian

TURQUIE : DEBUT DU PROCES DE MILITAIRES ACCUSES D’AVOIR PROJETE DES ATTENTATS
Stephane

armenews
17 juin 2010
TURQUIE

Le procès de 33 personnes, pour la plupart des militaires, accusees
d’avoir projete des attentats contre des personnalites non musulmanes
de Turquie pour destabiliser le gouvernement issu de la mouvance
islamiste, a debute mardi a Istanbul avec les denegations des
protagonistes.

Les suspects -un amiral d’active et un autre a la retraite, un
vice-amiral, 29 officiers et sous-officiers de la marine et un
civil- sont inculpes pour appartenance a un groupe arme clandestin,
ultranationaliste et laïque, le reseau Ergenekon. Ils encourent de
7 ans et demi a 15 ans de prison.

Selon l’acte d’accusation, des documents saisis chez les prevenus
indiquent qu’ils voulaient s’en prendre aux representants des minorites
non musulmanes de Turquie, notamment les Armeniens, en commettant
des enlèvements ou des attentats a la bombe notamment.

Des explosifs avaient ete decouverts en novembre 2008 dans un
sous-marin expose dans un musee qui devait etre la cible d’un attentat
au moment d’une visite scolaire.

Les suspects de cette affaire, le plan “Cage”, voulaient donner
l’impression que la politique du Parti de la justice et du
developpement (AKP) etait d’encourager l’extremisme et la violence
islamiste.

Devant la cour mardi, le colonel des commandos de marine, Mucahit
Erakyol, a nie cette version des faits, evoquant une “manipulation”
visant a “nuire a l’image des militaires”.

“Nous, les militaires, nous obeissons au droit de la guerre. Nous ne
faisons pas des choses pareilles”, a insiste le colonel, s’efforcant
de demontrer, seance de retroprojecteur a l’appui, les incoherences,
selon lui, de l’accusation, et la fabrication de preuves pour
incriminer l’armee.

Dans la matinee, les juges ont par ailleurs rejete une demande de
desaisissement faite par un des accuses qui estimait devoir etre juge
par un tribunal militaire.

Ils ont aussi accepte la demande de constitution de partie civile
de l’hebdomadaire bilingue turc-armenien Agos, qui a fait l’objet
de menaces pouvant etre liees au dossier et dont le fondateur, le
journaliste armenien de Turquie Hrant Dink, a ete abattu par un jeune
nationaliste en janvier 2007.

Devant le tribunal, une trentaine de manifestants ont appele les
juges a l’intransigeance.

“Mettez les putschistes en cage”, pouvait-on lire sur une de leurs
banderoles, tandis que les manifestants scandaient : “Dites non aux
coups d’Etat”.

Un peu plus tard, une quinzaine de defenseurs de l’armee ont manifeste
avec des affiches clamant “les heros sont a l’interieur (du tribunal),
où est la justice ?” et “gloire a nos valeureux officiers patriotes”.

Au total 290 personnes ont ete inculpees dans le cadre des differentes
enquetes sur le reseau Ergenekon, accuse d’avoir voulu semer le chaos
en Turquie pour favoriser un putsch.

Les enquetes, debutees en 2007, sont controversees, certains
observateurs y voyant un moyen pour le gouvernement de faire taire
l’opposition laïque, d’autres une avancee sans precedent de l’Etat
de droit en Turquie.

L’armee, qui a renverse quatre gouvernements depuis 1960, se considère
comme garante de la laïcite.

From: A. Papazian

ERDOGAN AND HEZBOLLAH LEADER EXPECTED TO PAY MUTUAL VISITS

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 16, 2010 – 16:49 AMT 11:49 GMT

Lebanese media is circulating information on Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Lebanon as well as Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah’s return visit to Ankara.

Shahan Kandaharian, the Editor-in-Chief of Aztag Beirut-based daily
newspaper believes a struggle for Middle East leadership and zone of
influence is in progress, with rivalry preserved despite increasing
closeness in positions of Turkey and Arabic world. “On the background
of rivalry, Iran, along with the states supporting it, realizes
Turkey to be active NATO member as well as strategic partner of US
and Israel. At least it was, so far,” Shahan Kandaharian stated.

From: A. Papazian

RUSSIA READY TO PARTICIPATE IN TENDER TO OFFER TURKEY S-300 AND S-400 SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE SYSTEMS

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 16, 2010 – 21:33 AMT 16:33 GMT

Russia is ready to participate in a tender to offer Turkey S-300
and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, the state-controlled arms
exporter said on Wednesday.

“The Turkish military has a great need for S-300 and S-400 long-range
missile defense systems,” Rosoboronexport CEO Anatoly Isaikin said.

“Russia has expressed readiness to participate in a tender for the
delivery of such systems.”

He said leading SAM manufacturers from Western countries would
participate in the tender “on a par with Russia.” He gave no indication
as to what specific SAM modifications would be offered or the timeframe
for the tender.

Turkish military experts have said Ankara is interested in the Russian
missiles, which could effectively protect the country’s southern
borders, RIA Novosti reported.

From: A. Papazian

NONE OF SOUTH CAUCASIAN COUNTRIES CAN START WAR WITHOUT CONSIDERATION OF OIL CORPORATIONS’ INTERESTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 16, 2010 – 16:58 AMT 11:58 GMT

Tbilisi hosted Current State of Energy Security of the South Caucasus
conference with participation of Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani
experts and journalists.

Expert of the Azerbaijani Diplomatic Acacemy Elnur Soltanov noted
that one cannot state for sure that Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline
plays a restraining role in resumption of war in Nagorno Karabakh.

“Azerbaijan may incur financial losses in case of war resumption,
however, in case of a short-term, two-week war, its losses will not
be significant. The country’s reserve totals $20bln, while budget
amounts to $10bln, we can return the losses during 10 days. Currently
Azerbaijan is stronger than previously. In 1999, British Petroleum
(BP) company could make decisions on projects of investments, while
today the state’s investments have increased considerably, what allows
lessening the dependency on companies. I do not think that currently
BP can influence a decision on war resumption,” Elnur Soltanov told
a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director of Noravank Foundation Sevak Sarukhanyan
believes that the influential international oil corporations, which
have made multibillion investments into the South Caucasian energy,
are both economic and political factors in the region.

According to Sarukhanyan, the huge investments in the region have
become possible only due to political factors and stability guarantees
obtained by companies from the U.S and other western countries. The
expert believes that none of the South Caucasian countries can start
a war without consideration of oil corporations’ interests.

Expert of World Experience for Georgia organization Murman
Margelashvili said that energy, having an economic influence, can
resolve disputes between countries. “In case of hostilities, interests
in energy assist in preserving infrastructure. For example, Russia did
not bomb the energy infrastructure during the August war. Meanwhile,
Russia is a co-owner of majority of strategic enterprises both in
Georgia and in Armenia, and in this case it is a political factor
rather than an economic one,” Margelashvili told a PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter.

The Current State of Energy Security of the South Caucasus conference
is organized by the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA)
and Norwegian Atlantic Committee (DNAK.)

From: A. Papazian

TRIAL IN METAL CAGE VIOLATED HUMAN RIGHTS: EUROPE COURT

Agence France Presse
June 15, 2010 Tuesday 3:22 PM GMT

An Armenian man who was placed in a metal cage while he appealed a
non-violent conviction suffered degrading treatment, the European
Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday.

The court was hearing the case of the now-deceased Ashot Harutyunyan,
who in 2004 appealed against a seven-year sentence for fraud,
falsification of documents and tax evasion.

At each of the 12 hearings at the Court of Appeals in the Armenian
capital Yerevan, Harutyunyan was placed inside a metal cage, which
he found humiliating and a violation of his dignity.

The court in Strasbourg found there was nothing in Harutyunyan’s
behaviour or personality that could have justified such a security
measure as he had no previous convictions and no history of violence.

The “stringent and humiliating measure” violated Article 3 of the
European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or
degrading treatment, the court found.

However, the court determined that Harutyunyan had received a fair
trial.

“He had two lawyers to assist him and there was nothing to suggest
that the metal cage had prevented him from communicating with them
or the court,” the ruling said.

“Nor did placing the applicant in a metal cage suggest that the
Court of Appeal had presumed the applicant to be guilty, the cage
having been a permanent security measure used in all criminal cases
examined there.”

Armenia, which can appeal against the decision, was ordered to pay
Harutyunyan’s daughter 16,000 euros (19,7002 dollars) in damages.

Harutyunyan died of a heart attack in prison in January 2009.

From: A. Papazian

GEORGIA’S ETHNIC MINORITIES STILL SIDELINED: WATCHDOG

Agence France Presse
June 15, 2010 Tuesday 2:58 PM GMT

Georgia needs to work harder to welcome religious and ethnic minorities
into mainstream society despite real efforts in recent years, the
Council of Europe’s anti-racism agency warned Tuesday.

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerence (ECRI) first
praised Georgia’s adoption last year of an action plan on integrating
its minorities.

It pointed out “positive initiatives in fighting discrimination on
the grounds of ‘race’, colour, language, religion, nationality or
national or ethnic origin,” including such steps as hiring ethnic
minority police officers.

ECRI also found the situation of refugees from Russia’s breakaway
Chechnya region — on which Georgia was criticised in the watchdog’s
last report in 2007 — to have genuinely improved.

But the report said many among Georgia’s ethnic minorities, who make up
some 16.7 percent of the population, still suffered unfair treatment,
with Roma in a specially “vulnerable position.”

Meskhetian Turks, who have returned to Georgia after being deported
in the 1940s by the former Soviet Union, often suffer “hostility”
from the local population, the report said, urging the state to work
to integrate them.

Minorities including ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis from the south
were also disadvantaged by their often poor command of Georgian,
the report said, urging the state to provide bilingual teachers for
such children.

And children from religious minorities were allegedly exposed to
harrassment from teachers and pupils, in a country that counts an
overwhelming 84 percent of Orthodox Christians, the report said.

ECRI also said reports suggested that “racism in public discourse has
deteriorated in some aspects due to the August 2008 armed conflict
in Georgia,” which pitted Russian forces against Tbilisi.

More broadly, it found that Georgia had to work harder to root out
ethnic prejudice.

“Recent reports continue to mention the existence of stereotypes,
prejudice and misconceptions towards ethnic minorities in Georgia,
in particular by politicians, in the media and in school textbooks,”
it found.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH ADMIRALS, OFFICERS GO ON TRIAL OVER COUP PLOT

Agence France Presse
June 15, 2010 Tuesday 12:27 PM GMT

Thirty-three suspects, among them three admirals, went on trial Tuesday
over alleged plans to attack Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities in a plot
to discredit and unseat the government.

The suspects were charged as part of a controversial probe into a
purported secularist network which allegedly planned to plunge Turkey
into chaos and prompt a military coup against the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP), the moderate offshoot of a banned Islamist
movement.

The most senior defendants included three-star admiral Kadir Sagdic,
commander of the Turkish navy’s Mediterranean flank, one-star admiral
Mehmet Fatih Ilgar and retired three-star admiral Feyyaz Ogutcu.

The suspects, including also 29 navy officers and a civilian, risk
up to 15 years in jail for “membership in a terrorist organization.”

They are accused over a suspected plot — codenamed “Cage” — to
attack Turkey’s small non-Muslim communities, notably Armenians.

The March 2009 document, published by the Taraf daily in November,
allegedly involved plans to carry out false-flag bomb attacks in
minority-populated neighbourhoods in Istanbul and the western city
of Izmir, and to kidnap and assasinate prominent community members.

The suspects reportedly intended to blame the violence on Islamist
militants and create the impression that the AKP encouraged religious
extremism, hoping to paving the way to the party’s overthrow.

The court was expected to decide Tuesday whether to merge the case with
the trials of other navy officers, accused over an alleged plot to kill
two admirals and blow up a submarine on display in an Istanbul museum.

The bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos was expected to request an
intervening party status, arguing that the murder of ethnic Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, gunned down by a nationalist youth in 2007,
was part of the “Cage” plan.

A total of some 290 people have been charged so far in relation to the
probe into the so-called Ergenekon network, under way since June 2007.

The investigation was initially hailed as a success in a country
where the army has unseated four governments since 1960.

But its credibility waned as prosecutors began targeting academics,
journalists and writers known as AKP critics and defendants accused
police of doctoring and fabricating evidence.

The probe has deepened the rift between Turkey’s secularist
forces and the AKP, with critics saying it has degenerated into a
government-sponsored campaign to bully and silence opponents.

From: A. Papazian

AFTER ISRAEL’S GAZA FLOTILLA RAID, IS TURKEY REJECTING EUROPE?

The Christian Science Monitor
June 15, 2010 Tuesday

Israel’s Gaza flotilla raid prompted a response in Turkey that rattled
some Europeans. Turkey has been rebuffed in its efforts to join
the European Union for years, and is now forging a more independent
international course.

Europe has watched with some dismay Turkey’s strident reaction to
the fatal Israeli flotilla raid – part of what many see as a larger
Turkish “repositioning” of itself on the world stage.

While Europe also condemned the flo­tilla attack, in which Israeli
commandos killed nine Turkish citizens seeking to break the economic
blockade of the Gaza Strip, there’s wariness here over Tur­key’s
emerging persona under an Islamic-rooted party and murmurs about
whether it wants to reassert an old Ot­to­man Empire sphere of
influence.

In the past few years, Ankara has mended ties with its neighbors,
including Iran. On June 9, Turkey was one of only two countries
(Brazil was the other) on the United Nations Security Council to vote
against fresh Iran nuclear sanctions.

Yet part of Turkey’s shift is due to the European Union’s steady rebuff
of the mainly Muslim state. Turkey first applied to join the EU in
1987 and waited 18 years for the process to start, which could drag
past 2020. “A majority of Turks say they want to join Europe, but …

also feel it will never happen,” says a senior US diplomat.

Membership has been essentially nixed by Germany’s Angela Merkel and
France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, who says Turkey is not part of Europe.

“Sarkozy has few deeply rooted beliefs, but this is one of them,”
says Francois Heisbourg of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic
Research. “He would only cave under unanimous European pressure,
which won’t happen.”

Organic link

After the flotilla fallout, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates
criticized Europe for “refusing to give Turkey the … organic link
to the West that Turkey sought.”

Advocates of Turkish-EU integration – and there are many here – say
it would help mitigate religious extremism, strengthen Turkish civil
reform, and give greater strategic depth to Europe. “By showing Turkey
our defiance, we reject it into a universe where it could … become
dangerous,” argued former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard in the
Paris journal ENA recently. “We need on our southeastern flank the
hope for a social democracy mixed with rapid growth … but for that
we need Turkey to be admitted to the Union.”

Yet Europeans have become more fearful of welcoming Turkey. After the
flotilla raid, shouts of “Death to Israel” on Turkish streets looked
un-European. The Continent, unsettled by Muslim immigration, is in
a populist mood – as seen by politician Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam
party nearly tripling its seats in recent Dutch elections.

“The primary responsibility for pushing Turkey away lies in attacks
on the process by populist politicians in France, Germany, Austria,
and the Greek Cypriot government,” says Hugh Pope of the International
Crisis Group in Istanbul. “They use it for domestic political purposes
to play on people’s fears, and this has done a great deal to make
Turks angry towards Europe.”

Since 1994, the EU has enlarged from nine to 27 members, bringing
in former Warsaw Pact nations. Yet like a bouncer at an exclusive
club, the EU stiff-armed Turkey – a NATO member that modernized and
democratized in hopes of joining the European party.

Noses out of joint

“The last [Ottoman] sultans sought German and French counseling on
the renovation of armed forces and laws,” says Mr. Rocard. “Turkey has
gone through the process of modernization in an obvious reference to
Europe, and we are presently slamming the door on their nose because
they don’t sufficiently look like us.”

After French and German rebuffs in 2006, Turkey calculated it would
not be admitted to the EU and pursued a more independent path. Under
skillful new Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey has smoothed
relations with Syria, Iran, Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, and even Armenia.

“What Turkey has achieved in the past six months is spectacular – on
a par with Deng Xiaoping’s decision to make China a status quo power ..

and to mend ties with Vietnam, India, and South Korea,” says Mr.

Heisbourg, who disagrees that Turkey harbors Ottoman-style ambitions.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently blasted critics
who say Turkey has turned its back on Europe as “intermediaries of
an ill-intentioned propaganda.”

More than 50 percent of Turkish exports go to European states, and
90 percent of investment in Turkey is European.

“Turkey has no interest in turning its back to Europe,” said former
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine in a Monitor interview. “Would
we lose Turkey if the [membership] negotiations failed? I don’t think
so…. I can’t see Turkey forging an alliance with China against Europe
just for spite. Turkey’s strategic interest is to maintain relations
with everyone: the US, Europe,… Central Asia, the Arab world.”

Related:

Turkey gets a new leader of the political opposition, and a chance
to modernize its democracy

Opinion: Islam and democracy can – and do – coexist

Israeli raid on Freedom Flotilla shatters key Turkey-Israel ties

US response to Israel’s flotilla raid will shape the Middle East

From: A. Papazian