Author: Andres-Papazian

PRESS THE AFAJA ON THE TRIAL VARDAN PETROSYAN

FRANCE

At the request of Mr. Vardan Petrosyan advice, Mr. Nikolay Bagdassarian
Bar of Armenia and Me Marie Dose Bar Paris and in agreement with
his family, the French Association of Lawyers and Jurists Armenians
(AFAJA), represented by Gerard Tcholakian, will attend, as part of
a judicial observation mission, the trial of the actor and comedian
Franco-Armenian, Friday, March 28, 2014 in Yerevan.

Following the collision of the vehicle with a car traveling in reverse
at night and on the highway, causing the deaths of two teenagers and
injuring himself seriously, Vardan Petrosyan was indicted Chief of
manslaughter offense Road and remanded in custody since October 2013.

While expertise in the investigation file shows the total absence of
alcoholic influence of a narcotic but also speeding on motorway, AFAJA
was surprised that Vardan Petrosyan has been held in custody while
his health remains fragile and requires constant care and attention,
very compatible with its prison situation.

As part of its mission of judicial observation, AFAJA remain
particularly careful to ensure that the accused be given a fair trial
and no obstacle comes hinder the truth regarding the circumstances
that led to this serious accident an Armenian family and bereaved.

Paris March 26, 2014.

Thursday, March 27, 2014, Stephane © armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

‘SAUDI ARABIA TRYING TO BACK LUNATICS’

09:38 27/03/2014 >> INTERVIEWS

Press TV has interviewed Kevin Barrett, editor of Veterans Today
from Madison, about Syrian opposition’s demand for “sophisticated”
weapons.[]

Press TV: Mr. Barrett, taking into consideration the flow of arms and
funds to militants in Syria by the West and regional countries such
as Saudi Arabia, just how much room is there left for a political
solution?

Barrett: Well as Lakhdar Brahimi said the only possible solution
would be a political solution. Although it does seem that the diehard
supporters of the Syrian militants are not giving up yet, despite the
series of military setbacks that have put them in a difficult position.

This latest appeal by the Saudi Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin
Abdulaziz asking for more sophisticated weapons for the Syrian
militants including things like Stinger type shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft missiles, I do not believe the Western powers are
going to go along with that. They already feel they made a mistake
by supporting similar kinds of extremists in Afghanistan. There was
a panic in the West when all kinds of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles
were floating around and nobody knew who had them.

And so when the Saudi leadership is telling the West to handover large
numbers of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to these groups in
Syria – some of which are so extreme that they have been expelled
from al-Qaeda for being too extremist – I do not think that that is
going to fly.

So I do think that probably the Syrian government will manage to
continue with its moving forward on the military front and I think
that the West – I hope at least – will reject this ridiculous call
from the Saudis for advanced arms for the militants and will move in
a direction called for it by Mr. Brahimi of a political solution.

Press TV: And of course the fact that many of these militants have
returned back to their homeland especially in Europe, just how much
would Saudi Arabia be affected by terrorists who might just come back
home and bite the hand that fed them?

Barrett: Well that is the real irony here. You know if there is one
autocracy in the Middle East that is crying out for regime change,
it is Saudi Arabia and the Saudis have all kinds of militants who
oppose that government.

Some of them are very reasonable people and others are extremist,
obscurantist lunatics and the Saudis are trying to throw money and
weapons at all of these people, mainly at the lunatics hoping that
they will go and overthrow somebody else’s government over in Syria.

Well I think the potential for blowback here is pretty extreme. I
think the Saudi leadership should radically reconsider its course
and consider the possibility of moving towards a more open society in
Saudi Arabia itself and stop trying to bloodily overthrow neighboring
governments.

From: A. Papazian

BBC INTRODUCES EXCLUSIVE INFORMATION ON ATTACK OF KESSAB FROM ARMENIAN EYEWITNESS

12:35, 27 March, 2014

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, ARMENPRESS. It’s very difficult — because
it’s so dangerous — to get first-hand reports on attack against
the Armenian-populated town of Kessab, which is situated near the
Turkish-Syrian border. As reports “Armenpress”, BBC has managed to
get an account of the battle for an Armenian Christian town in the
north-west. Kassab has just been captured by Islamist rebels from
government forces. This is the view of one Armenian farmer, who was
forced to flee from the town three days ago.

“For about the last three years we have civilians that have to look
out to protect our town. They noticed in the middle of Friday night
that the Turkish army which was on the border had left the area.

Kessab is very close to the Turkish border. Around four a.m. tracks
carrying armed militant started coming from the Turkish side. We heard
gunfire and the militants attacked Syrian government police posts
near the town around 5:30 am. They started using mortars against these
police posts. We heard lots of explosions near the villages close to
the Turkish border. We didn’t know at that point who these militants
were. After 6:30 people started understanding what is going on and
they started moving away from the centre of the town. We left our
homes without being able to take anything with us.

I didn’t have time even to change my clothes before leaving. We got a
few clothes and took our travel documents with us. We moved further
away from the town centre and gathered in a village further away
with our vehicles. Some people went straight to Latakia, but some
others thought the conflict will be over soon and they stayed in the
villages away from the town centre.

There was gunfire and rockets coming from the Turkish side of the
border. I had with me my children, 88-year-old father and my mother
who has cancer. We were one of the first people who left the town, we
didn’t have many problems traveling to Latakia, and we went through
many villages with different ethnicities. There has never been any
conflict in our area until very recently. More people left Kessab for
Latakia after 24 hours. The point where we all met was the Armenian
Church in Latakia.

Armenians in Latakia have been hosting us in their houses. There are
still some 50 elderly people who stayed in the town. When I tried to
contact our neighbors in the town from their land line phones they
were answered by some people who didn’t speak local Arabic they were
telling us “God is great” in Arabic. I heard that there were some
Tunisian and Chechen militants among them”.

From: A. Papazian

UN GROUPE DE PRESSION MENACE DE LANCER UNE CAMPAGNE DE DESOBEISSANCE CIVILE

ARMENIE

Les membres d’un groupe civil armenien luttant contre une reforme des
retraites ont menace de recourir a la desobeissance civile comme moyen
de lutte a moins que leur demande de suspension de la loi controversee
soit realisee par le gouvernement.

Dem.am, une organisation englobant la plupart des jeunes militants
qui ont fait pression pour le changement depuis l’annee dernière,
avait organise samedi une autre manifestation dans le centre d’Erevan,
moins d’une semaine avant l’examen par la Cour constitutionnelle de
la loi a la demande des partis d’opposition d’Armenie.

Certaines dispositions, en particulier, stipulent que tous les citoyens
qui travaillent en Armenie et qui sont nes après 1973 doivent verser
de cinq a dix pour cent de leurs salaires a des fonds de pension
prives en plus d’autres paiements de la securite sociale verses par
les employeurs afin d’epargner pour la retraite qui est fixee a 63
ans pour les hommes et les femmes en Armenie.

Beaucoup de jeunes, y compris ceux ayant des emplois bien remuneres,
sont sceptiques quant a la reforme car ils ne font pas confiance au
gouvernement ou a des fonds prives pour gerer leurs economies pour une
si longue periode de temps. En outre, beaucoup considèrent le caractère
obligatoire de la loi comme une violation grave de la Constitution.

Plusieurs milliers de personnes se sont rassemblees place de la
Liberte a Erevan samedi pour entendre les militants du groupe civile
exprimer leur vive opposition quant a la reforme et exhortant la Cour
constitutionnelle a assurer la justice quand elle commencera a entendre
l’affaire le 28 mars. Le groupe civil estime que les dispositions
contestees de la loi doivent etre reconnus comme inconstitutionnelles.

Gevorg Gorgisian, un membre eminent de Dem.am, a parle de la
possibilite de se confronter au gouvernement dans le cadre d’une
campagne de desobeissance civile. > a
dit le jeune militant. > a declare
Babayan, declenchant les acclamations de la foule.

Parmi ceux qui ont fait des discours lors de la manifestation etaient
egalement presents les deputes de l’opposition Nikol Pashinian et Hrant
Bagratian, ainsi que le militant de l’opposition, eminent veteran
de la guerre du Karabagh Jirair Sefilian. Tous les intervenants se
sont felicites du mouvement civil tout en meme temps critiquant le
gouvernement sur ses politiques dans divers domaines.

Le rassemblement s’est termine par une marche des activistes du
mouvement et de ses partisans dans les rues du centre d’Erevan.

jeudi 27 mars 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

LE CANADA CONCERNE PAR L’ATTAQUE DU VILLAGE DE KESSAB – VIDEO

Syrie

Tandis que, jusqu’a preuve du contraire, le Parlement francais semble
faire la sourde oreille au drame qui s’est trame dans le village de
Kessab contre les Armeniens de Syrie, le Canada a promptement reagi
par la voix du depute Harold Albrecht (*) (Conservateur), qui s’est
emu du sort de nos compatriotes.

Interpellant le secretaire parlementaire du ministre des Affaires
etrangères David Anderson, il a commence par dire que la crise en Syrie
etait

From: A. Papazian

VERS L’ABSTENTION DE L’ARMENIE LORS DU VOTE DE RESOLUTION SUR LA CRIMEE A L’ONU ?

Crise ukrainienne

Selon une source du ministère des Affaires etrangères, l’Armenie va
s’abstenir lors du vote sur le projet de resolution sur la Crimee
qui doit avoir lieu aujourd’hui a l’ONU.

Selon l’agence Reuters, l’Ukraine a fait circuler un projet de
resolution a l’ONU, qui declare le referendum du 16 mars en Crimee
invalide. Le texte, qui a ete distribue a l’ensemble des diplomates
des 193 pays de l’ONU, rejette le referendum montre du doigt comme
” n’ayant pas de validite, et ne pouvant pas etre la base de toute
modification du statut de la Republique autonome de Crimee ou de la
ville de Sebastopol “.

Il est a noter que, dans leur conversation telephonique du 19 Mars,
le president armenien Serge Sarkissian et son homologue russe Vladimir
Poutine ont ete cites comme disant que le referendum en Crimee ”
constitue un exemple du droit a l’autodetermination des peuples. ”
L’Ukraine a interprete cette declaration comme la reconnaissance
par l’Armenie de l’annexion par la Russie de la Crimee. La semaine
dernière, l’Ukraine a rappele officiellement son ambassadeur en
Armenie.

Pendant ce temps, un vote doit egalement avoir lieu au Conseil de l’
Assemblee parlementaire de l’Europe (APCE) sur deux resolutions
impliquant des sanctions contre la Russie dans le contexte
de l’annexion de la Crimee. Le chef de la delegation armenienne a
l’APCE, David Harutiunian, a declare que les membres de la delegation
armenienne pourraient avoir des positions differentes. ” Je ne
peux parler que pour moi et dire que je suis contre l’application
de sanctions. Je vais voter contre cette initiative plutôt que de
m’abstenir “, a dit Harutiunian, membre du Parti Republicain.

Armen Rustamian, membre de la delegation representant l’opposition
Federation Revolutionnaire Armenienne, s’est egalement prononce
contre ces initiatives. ” Cela signifierait simplement abandonner le
dialogue, qui est beaucoup plus important aujourd’hui pour parvenir a
des solutions aux problèmes dans le domaine politique. Les sanctions
pousseraient, au contraire, la Russie vers l’isolement “.

Un autre membre de l’opposition de la delegation, Levon Zurabian,
du Congrès national, s’est abstenu de commenter la question. Naira
Zohrabian, representant le Parti Armenie prospère, n’a egalement pas
revele comment elle allait voter. ” J’attends de voir la resolution
finale telle qu’elle sera presentee aux votes”.

jeudi 27 mars 2014, Claire (c)armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

The President of Armenia Serge Sarkissian and His Holiness Karekin II
Express their concern about their concern about the events in Kessab to
His Holiness Aram I

Antelias – 24 March 2014 – On Monday President Serge Sarkissian called
Catholicos Aram I asking for information about the bombing and militia
attacks from Turkey on Friday and Saturday on the Armenian town of Kessab
and its surrounding villages.

The President promised the Catholicos to appeal to all political entities
in order to protect the unarmed Armenian population of Kessab. He also
promised to help the displaced population temporarily settled in the
Armenian Church and school of the port-city Latakia.

On the same day, His Holiness Karekin II called to share his concern about
the events and the displaced population of Kessab and promised his
assistance. The two Catholicoi then decided to remain in continuous contact.

##

From: A. Papazian

European Armenian Federation
for Justice & Democracy (EAFJD)
Bedo Kurkjian-Demirdjian, President
tel : +32 2 732 70 26 / 27
Ave. de la Renaissance, 10
Bruxelles, 1000,
Belgique

March 25, 2014
BRUSSELS

To: President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy,

President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso,

President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz,

Dear Sirs,

In the last days, we are very much concerned with what’s happening in
Syria, particularly in the region of Kesab, at the north westernmost
border of Syria with Turkey, where Al-Qaeda affiliated extremists
attacked the region from Turkey, and drove the civilian population out
of their homes.

We would like to draw your attention on this matter, and ask you to
intervene and stop the organized attacks on the Armenian population, a
region that is since centuries predominantly inhabited by
Armenians. The civilian population had to be evacuated south to safer
regions along the coastline. They are being hosted by their relatives
and the Armenian community in Latakia, in churches and communal
areas. Armenians all over the world are supporting them, especially
European – Armenian communities, which have strong ties to Kesab.

In Syria, where the largest Armenian community of the Middle East
exists, and since the conflict in the country, Armenians are very
aware of Turkey’s role in assisting the extremists. For us, Turkey is
continuing her genocidal policy against the Armenians, against the
Armenian community in Syria. What was not wiped out in the deserts of
Syria in 1915 is now being annihilated by the current Turkish state.

You, Presidents of EU Institutions – the EU, a Nobel peace prize
holder – have the authority today to stop Turkey’s aggression against
the Armenians of Kesab, and stop the uprooting of a minority group,
which already twice has been the target of Turkey’s
intolerance. Giving ground, assistance and intelligence for
cross-border attacks to Al-Qaeda extremists, to target a civilian
population should not be tolerated.

In the past, EU countries have given considerable humanitarian aid to
Armenians fleeing the Ottoman Turkish persecutions. Today, they are
being persecuted anew. We urge you to immediately call on Turkey to
stop assisting these extremist groups in attacking the Armenian
population of the region, and in cooperation with Kristalina
Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian
Aid and Crisis Response, to direct immediate humanitarian assistance
to the displaced population of Kesab, currently sheltered in
Latakia. What they need now is assistance and support – until they get
on their feet again, and rebuild their villages, something that they
already have done twice.

Given the urgency of the matter, we are ready to meet you, or other EU
senior officials, any given moment, to discuss matters of humanitarian
aid for Kesabtsis and Syrian Armenians in general.

Sincerely yours,

Kaspar Karampetian,
President,
European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA MAY SKIP SESSION OF CIS COMMITTEE OF CHIEFS OF GENERAL STAFF

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 25 2014

25 March 2014 – 3:24pm

Armenia may skip the upcoming session of the CIS Committee of Chiefs
of Staff. Yerevan has not decided who to send for the meeting,
APA reports.

Artsrun Ovannisyan, spokesman of the Armenian Defense Ministry,
said that Chief of the Armenian General Staff Colonel-General Yuri
Khachaturov will attend the session in Baku. Later, he said that an
Armenian military official in Moscow will represent the country at
the Committee.

From: A. Papazian

STATE OF PLAY

The Economist
March 26 2014

Mar 26th 2014, 4:57 by S.B. | KUWAIT CITY

IT MAY look like Bashar Assad has the upper hand in the three-year-old
Syrian war as it did when his forces routed the rebels from Yabroud,
a town on the Lebanese border, on March 16th. Then suddenly a new front
opens. That has happened in the north-west where the rebels this week
took the border crossing of Kasab and a nearby town of the same name
from Syrian government forces. On March 25th, rebels advanced to Salma,
hoping to get their first outpost on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

The Kasab crossing is a vital link to Turkey for regime loyalists
living in the north-western coastal area that is the heartland of the
Alawites, the small sect from which the ruling Assad family comes. The
area is populated by other minorities too: Kasab is a mainly Armenian
Christian town and was a favoured summer resort before the war. Many in
the area are fearful since local rebel groups include devout Islamists
such as Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate, who see other sects,
especially the Alawites, as heretics. A rebel offensive last year,
which saw fighters take 12 villages before being pushed back, led to
over 200 killings which Human Rights Watch, a New York-based lobby,
condemned as a war crime.

Regime jets are bombing the area as fighting continues. The rebels,
who have their eyes set on Qardaha, the Assads’ home village, may
find it hard to advance much further since the area is well defended
by the army and local groups of the National Defense Force (NDF), a
nationwide paramilitary network. But Mr Assad has lost a relative in
the offensive. On March 23rd Hilal al-Assad, a cousin of the president
and a leader in the NDF, was killed, apparently in a rebel rocket
attack on a building in which he was meeting.

As the to and fro continues, this map shows the latest on who controls
each of Syria’s 19 border crossings, as well as territory inside Syria.

See Map at

From: A. Papazian