Author: Andres-Papazian

COMMUNITIES ADJACENT TO LAKE SEVAN – AMULSAR MINE PROJECT AFFECTED

17:27 March 26, 2015

Arthur Grigoryan – Activist of “Teghout Support” civic initiative, Lawyer

CHAPTER TWO

Let’s discuss another key legal issue, which refers to determining
Amulsar mining impact zone: eventually, which communities are exposed
to the negative impact of the project and which are legal obligations
of the state and mining company towards community residents?

Article 4 of Law on EIA says that an affected community is the
population of that community (communities), which is recognized
a project affected community not for the implementation of the
project in its administrative area, but for the factual exposure
of the community population to the impact of the project. That is,
if it’s proved that Amulsar project can impact Lake Sevan ecosystem
or can lead to the shift in the living environment of Jermuk town,
the communities adjacent to the lake and Jermuk population shall be
involved as project affected communities.

In case of Amulsar project, negative impact can be demonstrated both
with the shift in the living conditions (in the form of deterioration
of the quality of atmospheric air, soil, water, lighting, noise and
other components), harming business activities (Jermuk resort fame,
tourism, negative impact on land areas irrigation with rivers under
exposure both in qualitative and quantitative manner), deterioration
of social condition (human health, resort, negative conditions
for housing), and more global demonstrations with the exposure on
Lake Sevan (increase in water radiation background, destruction of
Vorotan-Arpa tunnel, risk of seismic hazards).

The fact that open pit mining will be implemented in the drainage
basin of Lake Sevan is already an undeniable legal ground to consider
the possible impact on Lake Sevan substantiated and to recognize at
least the communities adjacent to Lake Sevan as project affected
communities. We should understand that even possible impact on
Vorotan-Arpa Tunnel or, for example, taking water from Arpa River
for development purposes is already impact on Lake Sevan. The mining
company tried to avoid the issue of impact on Lake Sevan in its EIA,
which is not a solution to the problem, but makes the lawfulness
and professional substantiation of the state body having issue
environmental expertise opinion to the EIA of the company more
vulnerable.

Because of the geographical location of Amulsar, the negative impact
of the mine will spread over a larger area. It’s the Nature Protection
Ministry, which decides whether the communities are project affected
or not.

Still in 2012 Jermuk resident Victoria Grigoryan applied to Nature
Protection Ministry asking to recognize the community as a project
affected one and to make community residents participants in the public
hearings in Amulsar project. Sevan Town resident Anna Shahnazaryan also
posed the same demand to the minister, but they were both rejected.

In December 2014 the representatives of 18 NGOs representing
communities in Lake Sevan basin filed an application to the
financial institutions having shares in Amulsar project (World Bank
– International Finance Corporation (IFC) and European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)) requesting them to demand from
the mining company to withdraw its project and to make 40 littoral
communities in Lake Sevan participants in the process. The letter
has been formulated in a proper manner making references to the IFC
Performance Standards the company must comply with.

The same standards say the project can’t be implemented, if it
contradicts to the domestic legislation. In my next article I will
speak about contradictions to legislation.

Part one

From: A. Papazian

YEREVAN TO HOST IN TOUR EXPO-2015 IN APRIL

YEREVAN, March 30. / ARKA /. On April 10-12 Armenia’s capital city
Yerevan will host an international tourism exhibition called ‘In
Tour Expo-2015.’

The organizing committee of the event said the purpose of the
exhibition is to provide a professional platform for an open
discussion and exchange of experience ‘in order to find the best
tourism development solutions and to determine guidelines for the
industry’s further development.’

“The exhibition sets new trends in the development of tourism and
hospitality industry, revealing the most topical issues and gives every
participant an opportunity to establish new business relationships and
learn a lot of useful applied information,” the organizing committee
said in a press release.

The exhibition, which will take place at “Yerevan Expo”, will be
attended by local and foreign tourism companies, including from
Georgia, Iran, Spain, Indonesia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

The organizer of the exhibition is PROM EXPO company. -0-

– See more at:

From: A. Papazian

INHUMAN TREATMENT IN CHILD CARE INSTITUTIONS

Roza Hovhannisyan, Reporter
Society – 30 March 2015, 12:32

The Ombudsman’s extraordinary report “Child Rights in Child Care and
Special Educational Institutions: Systemic Study” states facts that
cause concerns.

The report reveals that the special institutions in Armenia which
provide services to children do not observe the laws and government
decrees and decisions of the competent ministries. Control is poor,
whereas these institutions are financed from the treasury every year
to provide appropriate care to children.

In 2014 the experts of the national prevention mechanism had 37 visits
to child care and special educational institutions which operate
under the Ministry of Education and Science, Yerevan Municipality,
governor’s offices and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

In all the 8 child care and protection boarding institutions the
experts recorded not fully satisfactory conditions, lack of hygiene
goods in toilets, expired food, violations of rules of storing
food, quality and quantity of allocated food, use of food banned by
regulations, lack of sanitary conditions of reception of food.

It has been found out that in these institutions medicine is provided
to children without justification and prescriptions. The children of
all the boarding institutions pointed out discrimination towards them,
which is expressed in ill treatment and denigration. These children,
according to the report, undergo violence and denigrating treatment
by the teachers of public schools.

“Children of boarding institutions stated that discriminative treatment
is recorded when the teachers of the public schools label them “the
institution children” or say they “bring lice” to the school,” the
report states.

The children told about one of the nurses who offends, slaps, hits
them with objects, sometimes makes them stand in the corridor naked,
instead of soothing hits a crying child. This person sometimes forces
children to eat and humiliates them while eating, telling that these
children come from socially insecure families.

Last year the national preventive mechanism visited all the 10
institutions under the Ministry of Education and Science, all the
13 special public schools under the governor’s offices and Yerevan
Municipality. The conditions are awful. Experts observed unsatisfactory
premises and property used by children, overpopulation of bedrooms,
unsatisfactory heating, cases of not providing hygiene goods, lack of
necessary conditions for taking a shower or cases of not organizing
shower, in some cases anti-sanitary conditions.

In 2014 NPM visited 4 of the 6 boarding institutions for children
under the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

At present, there are around 737 children in orphanages, including 518
in specialized orphanages. Inadequate regulation and organization of
the process of adoption, increased number of children in specialized
orphanages, the problem of provision of apartments to children leaving
orphanages, low rates of return of children with special needs to
their biological families were reported.

Experts had private talks with children in different institutions.

During the conversations different stories of violence were told.

In one of the institutions children told that their bed linen is not
washed, instead it is just swapped with bed linen of other boys and
girls, and their beds smell urine. Night-shift nurses made girls stand
in the corridor naked all night, “naughty” children are isolated in
vacant bedrooms, they are made to stand on one foot, threatened to
leave in the boarding school forever if them misbehave, they are not
allowed to go to toilet after 10 pm.

In one of the institutions children said that nurses treat them badly,
swear, call them “idiots”, hit them with sticks, hit on the head.

Children were ashamed to utter the swearing.

Another nurse, to punish children for speaking at night, makes them
stand naked in the corridor or threatens children that they will
be locked in the toilet all night, sometimes does not let them go
to toilet after 9 pm. In one of the special public schools children
told about violence by teachers. They said the social worker of the
school hit children with a stick.

In another institution, children told that the teachers are kind and
caring but some representatives of the administration use violence
and ill treatment, slap them, pull them down from the bed and throw
them onto the floor and hit them with feet.

Test-games were conducted with children during the NPM’s visit to one
institution where children noted that most of all they are afraid of
sleeping at school, when they are angry with them, and most of all
they want to spend the summer vacations with their families.

A comprehensive study of answers of children concludes that children
do not perceive school as a safe place.

From: A. Papazian

METS AYRUM COMMUNITY RESIDENTS’ LETTER ADDRESSED TO ALL COMPETENT BODIES

13:47 March 27, 2015

EcoLur

195 residents of Mets Ayrum Community have addressed an open letter
to Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan, all MPs of the National Assembly,
Standing Committee on Agriculture and Environment of the National
assembly, RA Public Council, OSCE Ambassador to Yerevan Andrey Sorokin,
Nature Protection Minister Aramayis Grigoryan, Mets Ayrum Aldermen’s
Council Members in Lori Region, Armenia. The letter says, “We would
like to inform you that on 8 December 2014 the interdepartmental
committee on reconciliation of land use temporary schemes issued
a positive opinion to changing 40 ha of agricultural land areas
into industrial ones from the land areas of Tchotchkan and Mets
Ayrum communities in Lori Region. This land area will be provided
to “Akhtala ODP” CJSC for the construction of a new tailing dump,
afterwards the Territorial Administration Ministry proposed the heads
of Tchotchkan and Mets Ayrum communities and Aldermen’s Councils to
change the status of land areas to provide it to “Akhtala ODP” CJSC.

Mets Ayrum urgently convened a meeting of Aldermen’s Council, but
no decision was reached. Two public discussions were organized at
the request of some residents and Aldermen’s Council members, where
the residents opposed to the construction of a new tailing dump and
didn’t give their agreement, so there was need for further discussions.

Nevertheless, on 26 February 2015 the Aldermen’s Council of Mets
Ayrum without taking into consideration the opinions of the community
residents and without allowing them to express their opinions, reached
a decision on changing the status of 12 ha agricultural land areas
in Mets Ayrum Community, Lori Region.

Taking into consideration that in the past and now the tailing dumps
operating in Akhtala and Mets Ayrum have been operated without
adhering to elementary environmental and safety standards, posed
danger to community residents, where pet animals got drowned, tail
waters flow and get mixed with the waters of the Debed River, its
water irrigate our orchards. The presence of the tailing dump in the
community caused concerns of the community resident, deteriorated the
health of the residents, which the community residents mentioned in
the mass media, nevertheless, this problem was not paid attention to.

The community doesn’t get any compensation for the accumulation of
wastes in its area to solve health and environmental problems.

WE ARE PPLYING TO AFOREMENTIONED STATE OFFICIALS, BODIES AND
STRUCTURES|

WE, RESIDENTS OF METS AYRUM COMMUNITY, OPPOSE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF
NEW TAILING DUMP and are demanding to stop this process unless:

1. Akhtala ODP solves the problems of reclaiming its old tailing
dumps and compliance with safety standards,

2. Mets Ayrum community is proposed ways to compensate health and
environmental problems of legislative mechanisms.

WE, RESIDENTS OF METS AYRUM COMMUNITY, ARE DEMANDING from Mets Ayrum
local government bodies, members of Aldermen’s Council to respect
the opinions of the community residents, participatory governance
principles and to immediately annul resolution N 7- A on changing
the status of land areas, which was adopted without taking into
consideration the opinions of the resident, in a hastily manner and
to return out pastures, for which we undersign.”

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN INVESTIGATORS’RE DEPRIVED OF FULL INVESTIGATION OF PERMYAKOV’S CASE

Siranuysh Papyan, Interviewer
Interview – 30 March 2015, 16:00

Interview with Yervand Varosyan, advocate and representative of the
successors of the Avetisyan family

The chairman of the Russian State Duma has announced that Permyakov’s
trial will be in the territory of Armenia, and this is what the
Armenian people have asked for. Is this what the Armenian people
demanded and what developments have been there relating to this case?

We shouldn’t have had anything to ask others for. We simply should
have acted appropriately on the first day. The government agencies,
namely the police should have worked instead of talking to journalists
until Permyakov appeared in the Russian base. We shouldn’t have asked
anything from anyone.

Three months have passed since the incident. Wasn’t this time enough
for the society to have at least some information on the case, rather
than the incidental news?

We always try to give some information, especially relating to the
conclusions of experts, but we know about the case investigated by the
Armenian Investigative Committee only. We don’t know anything about
what is happening on the Russian side, what they are investigating,
where they are investigating, so we cannot make assessments.

What do you think about the work done by the Armenian investigators?

Do they have enough freedom to investigate or is the Russian side
dominant in the investigation of the case?

The Armenian investigators cannot conduct a full investigation
when Permyakov is not under the jurisdiction of Armenia. As to the
questions about the quality of the investigation by the Armenian
investigators, the results of it, their answers will be received after
the investigation is completed. At the moment, I can state that we
haven’t encountered obstacles by the Armenian investigators.

You, the representatives of the successors of the Avetisyan family,
held a press conference and published some information. What are your
next steps?

They will depend on the course of the investigation. There are
important forensic conclusions which have not been received yet. As
soon as they are received, we will have the answers to some questions.

If questions remain without answers, we will identify our further
tactics.

It was stated during the press conference that sweat found on the
clothes and Permyakov’s sweat belong to the same group but the genetic
examination will find out whether Permyakov was wearing those clothes
or not.

It is early to talk about this. As soon as the conclusion is received,
it will be obvious whether the clothes were on the same person or
another person with the same blood group.

Is news about Permyakov having mental disorders refuted already?

I wouldn’t like to rush forward and I think the relevant expert
should make an assessment. Not a lawyer but an expert can give a
comprehensive and final answer to this question.

Would this case have been revealed if it had not involved a serviceman
of the Russian military base? Is Russia setting obstacles to Armenia
and do you have such concerns?

We cannot claim that we don’t get any information because the
accused serves in the Russian military base. Investigation of any
case is confidential. As to the effectiveness of the investigation,
our investigative body is deprived of an opportunity for a full,
effective investigation.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office answered Zaruhi Postanjyan’s
letter but has not answered the letter of the Armenian prosecutor
general. In legal terms, is it possible to delay the response for
three months? Why no answer has been received so far?

Unfortunately, there is no time limitation for the Russian prosecutor
general to respond. It may be difficult for them to answer, I can’t
tell why they have not answered yet, or at least I am not aware if
any response has been received. Nevertheless, we don’t want to dwell
on this correspondence, its content and deadlines. Let’s come back
to them after the correspondence is over, and it is known to us what
was written in the letter and what was written in the reply.

The relatives of the Avetisyan family claim this can’t have been
committed by one person. Do you believe one person could have committed
manslaughter without anyone around the place hearing any noise?

It’s too early to make a final assessment. I hope that the study of
conclusions of all the forensic examinations will answer at least
this question.

Nevertheless, in your opinion, could one person do it, judging by
the facts that we have at hand?

The facts at hand do not exclude this but it’s impossible to answer
this question in full.

Allocation of 133/3 Lalayan Street to Russia was criticized on these
days. Do you think it was the right time for doing this, provided
the pending questions on Permyakov’s case?

This is a political issue rather, I don’t know whether it is correct
for an advocate to answer this question, so I will answer this
question as a citizen. I don’t like the allocation of a territory of
one country to another country.

If you see gaps or problems in this case, how fast will you react and
reveal to the public the problems that are in place? Can the society
expect unbiased information and assessments of this?

We are not the one who investigates but we will make our assessment,
of course. We will do everything within the powers vested in us by law
to have the investigation proceed in a way it is supposed to proceed,
and the public should be informed about the problems if any.

I think a relevant expert, not a lawyer should answer this question
to be comprehensive and exhaustive.

From: A. Papazian

LARGE-SCALE AGGRESSION AGAINST ARMENIA AND ARTSAKH EXPECTED

Haikazn Ghahriyan, Editor-in-Chief
Comments – 30 March 2015, 13:26

The chairman of the Russian Duma Committee for CIS States, Eurasian
Integration and Relations with Compatriots Leonid Slutsky announced
in Yerevan that during Putin’s visit to Armenia on April 24 the two
presidents will discuss the Karabakh issue.

“I believe that during the visit to Yerevan for the memorial events to
mark the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide Vladimir Putin and Serzh
Sargsyan will discuss this problem no less deeply than in August 2014
in Sochi,” Slutsky said.

What happened in August in Sochi? Putin met with Serzh Sargsyan
and Aliyev. Prior to that meeting Azerbaijan had caused escalation
on the borders, and the Armenian side undertook punitive measures,
hitting heavily the Azerbaijani positions and occupying new positions.

After the August victory of the Armenian army the representatives of
stakeholder countries visited the Armenian Ministry of Defense and
adopted joint statements. The operation of the Armenian army caused a
wide reaction of the international community because the Azerbaijani
side was pointed out as responsible.

Azerbaijan initiated that escalation with Moscow’s guidance, which
became clear during the August war. In order not to let the situation
get out of control Putin hurried to organize the meeting in Sochi,
during which, unlike the international community, Azerbaijan’s
operations were not assessed, and he tried to own the “peacemaker’s”
laurels. This is normal because Russia had multibillion agreements
with Azerbaijan. Besides, by boosting pressure on Armenia through
Azerbaijan Putin hoped to force the consent to station Russian troops
in Karabakh out of the Armenian side.

The accurate actions of the Armenian army thwarted this
Russian-Azerbaijani plan, the Armenian military announced that there
is no need for the military force of a third country.

The “peace” established by Putin lasted less than a month. Moscow and
Baku did not give up on their plan, and after the meeting in Sochi
Azerbaijan, with Russia’s help, adopted a new tactics, and started
using new weapons at the border, about which the Armenian military
have stated for many times.

Then Azerbaijan hit the Armenian helicopter, and now a few days
ago Azerbaijan launched a large-scale reconnaissance-in-force in the
northeast of Artsakh, killing four Armenian soldiers. This was preceded
by Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that Russian weapons kill our soldiers,
which is a concern.

Along with Azerbaijan’s actions Moscow is intensifying propaganda
for the stationing of troops in Artsakh. The latest example is
Zhirinovsky’s scandalous statements.

Ostensibly, judging by the policy conducted by Baku and Moscow,
the escalation at the border will continue until Putin’s visit, and
Azerbaijan will attempt several large-scale attacks. Over this time,
according to expert studies, Moscow has armed Azerbaijan, scaling
the balance of forces towards Baku.

Moscow denies this, pointing to the weapons in the base in Gyumri
but those weapons do not belong to Armenia and will never be used
against Azerbaijan, as Russian high-ranking military and political
officials have assured.

What will Sargsyan and Putin talk about in Yerevan? According to
Slutsky, they are going to discuss the Karabakh issue as deeply
as in Sochi. At that time no details of the meeting in Sochi were
published but, apparently, there were no significant talks there. The
only significant thing is that Putin will continue to “persuade”
the Armenian side to deploy Russian troops in Karabakh.

It goes without saying that it will indicate the gradual loss
of Karabakh. Everyone can remember the early 1990s when the
Russian-Azerbaijani forces displaced dozens of Armenian settlements,
affecting thousands of Armenians. Now Russia is close to an alliance
with Azerbaijan and Turkey, and there is no doubt that this policy
will continue.

Can the Armenian side resist? Moscow pressured on Armenia from
different sides, giving Azerbaijan an advantage in terms of its
arsenal. On the other hand, Armenia seems to have agreed with China
on military assistance, which, if implemented, will enable restoring
the military balance. Is this enough for a country in international
isolation?

From: A. Papazian

NEXT ADDRESSEE OF “2 STEPS, 1 MINUTE FOR 1,5 MILLION” CAMPAIGN IS GERMANY: CALLING TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

13:08, 30 March, 2015

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS: By April 24 the countries, which have
not yet recognized the Armenian Genocide, will get call-letters from
Armenia and different parts of the world. With the campaign “2 steps, 1
minute for 1,5 million”, the Armenian youth and foreigners, who joined
them, have already reminded the high-ranking officials of Estonia about
the greatest crime against the humanity, committed in the beginning
of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide, calling to recognize and
condemn it. The second addressee of the call-letters is Germany.

Armenpress had a talk with Lilit Lazarian, the Ph.D. of History,
the lecturer at the Yerevan State University, the chair of the Young
Historians Association. “The results are quite considerable. We have
given the launch on Monday, March 23. Representatives of different
sexes and ages take part in the campaign, which doesn’t recognize
even the nation. We have very many friends abroad, who participate
in the action with great pleasure and have sent their message to
the government and the prime minister of Estonia. Each week will
be launched for one country and the last two weeks we will give to
Turkey to “bomb” it with letters”, – said Lilit Lazarian, adding
that the campaign was joined by a great number of schoolchildren.

The objective of this campaign is to raise awareness in the countries,
which have yet to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the first genocide
of the 20th century, and urge them to formally recognize it. The
campaign calls on all of humanity to spend one minute and send
the letter, which is written by Armenian historians, to the E-mail
addresses of the target country for the given week. Each week the
initiative will announce the name of a country which has not yet
recognized the Armenian Genocide, and the E-mail addresses of this
country. Accordingly, the first week was declared Estonia Week. The
campaign states that even if one copy of this letter is made public
in the target country, this will be one step ahead on the road to the
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. The “2 steps, 1
minute for 1.5 million” initiative is organized by the Armenia-based
School for Young Leaders and the Association of Young Historians,
and with support by the Armenian Assembly of America.

From: A. Papazian

TURQUIE : LA CARICATURE D’ISLAMISTES, ET SES LIMITES

Publié le : 30-03-2015

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
propose cet article d’Etienne Copeaux, chercheur francais spécialiste
de la Turquie, publié sur son blog susam-sokak.fr le 24 mars 2015.

Susam-Sokak

Esquisse n° 54-2 – La caricature d’islamistes, et ses limites

21 Mars 2015

Publié par Etienne Copeaux

Dans l’article précédent, je voulais simplement rappeler la
mémoire d’un caricaturiste turc assassiné avec 36 autres artistes
et intellectuels en 1993. Mais il y a, dans plusieurs dessins des
artistes qui lui ont rendu hommage, un procédé graphique que je
dois souligner pour avancer dans l’analyse. Lorsque les incendiaires
de l’hôtel Madımak sont représentés, ils le sont invariablement
dans des tenues ” islamistes ” : vêtus de djellabas, coiffés de
turbans, de calottes, ou du couvre-chef propre aux imams (sarık),
chaussés des socques qu’on met pour les ablutions, parfois affublés
d’un chapelet (tesbih).

Or, sur les nombreuses photos de la foule des émeutiers visibles
sur Internet, on ne peut distinguer que quelques personnes répondant
partiellement a ce signalement. L’immense majorité des émeutiers,
tous des hommes, sont jeunes, imberbes, et sans caractère particulier
sauf lorsqu’ils font de la main le signe du Loup gris (index et
auriculaire dressé, majeur et annulaire joints au pouce). Apparemment,
la foule est composée tant d’activistes d’extrême-droite que
d’islamistes (index seul dressé, symbole de l’unicité de Dieu).

Les caricaturistes présentés précédemment se sont conformés a
un modèle qui préexistait dans la société, et qui s’est encore
développé durant l’année d’exercice du pouvoir par la coalition
Refahyol. En dehors de cette période, il n’était guère visible dans
la réalité, mais chaque apparition, a Istanbul ou Ankara, d’un tel
” déguisé ” dans un lieu public éloigné des quartiers les plus
réactionnaires était une aubaine pour les photographes de presse, et
le porteur de djellaba apparaissait presque immanquablement en une des
journaux laïcistes. L’image se répandait et les dessinateurs avaient
justement besoin d’une cible graphique visible et reconnaissable,
identifiable immédiatement par la tenue dite ” islamique ”. En
dotant, en outre, ces barbus de visages aux expressions haineuses,
en placant dans leurs mains des bidons d’essence ou des torches
brÔlantes, on obtient la caricature-type de l’islamiste.

On ne peut parler de mensonge graphique, car c’est bien l’islam
politique, secondé par l’extrême-droite, qui a tué a Sivas en
1993. La tenue imaginée des émeutiers permet aux dessinateurs un
raccourci commode, une lisibilité immédiate, une dénonciation
plus efficace par extrapolation d’un modèle plutôt marginal. En
France, Plantu, dans Le Monde, a fait le même raccourci chaque fois
qu’il placait une kalachnikov a l’épaule d’un barbu en djellaba. Le
stéréotype est désormais ancré dans les cerveaux, il est un code
dont la construction obéit a la règle de la visibilité.

Lire la suite sur le blog d’Etienne Copeaux susam-sokak.fr.

Lire aussi :

Turquie: Asaf Kocak, caricaturiste mort a Sivas (1993)

Source/Lien : Infos Collectif VAN

From: A. Papazian

SPANISH CITY OF XIRIVELLA RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

16:07, 30 March, 2015

YEREVAN, MARCH 30, ARMENPRESS. The Spanish city of Xirivella has
also joined the Spanish cities officially recognizing the Armenian
Genocide. “Armenpress” reports about this citing the official Facebook
page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.

Previously it was reported that the plenary session of City Council of
Pinto (Spain) unanimously officially recognized Armenian Genocide. The
decision, particularly, runs as follows:

“Plenary session of Pinto City Council unanimously confirms official
recognition of the Armenian Genocide and condemns crimes against
humanity committed by the Ottoman Turks. This year marks 100th year
of the first genocide of the 20th century, during which 1.5 million
citizens was massacred and 2 million was forced to leave places of
their residence.”

From: A. Papazian

Las Legislaturas de Córdoba y Santa Fe apoyan los actos de
conmemoración del centenario del Genocidio Armenio

27.3.15

La Legislatura de la provincia de Córdoba decretó el 25 de marzo su
“homenaje a las victimas del Genocidio Armenio, al conmemorarse el
100º aniversario de la masacre de más de un millón de armenios por
parte del Estado Turco Otomano, en el marco de la Ley Nacional Nº
26.199 y de la Ley Provincial Nº 9585 que declaran el día 24 de abril
de todos los años como ‘Día de acción por la tolerancia y el respeto
entre los pueblos’ y ‘Día de Conmemoración del Genocidio contra el
Pueblo Armenio'”. Además,la Legislatura adhirió a los actos
recordatorios, “como modo de afirmar la verdad sobre lo ocurrido y
mantener viva la memoria colectiva, la reivindicación constante y el
respeto entre los pueblos”.

El 19 de marzo, la Cámara de Diputados de la provincia de Santa Fe
declaró de interés “la conmemoración de los 100 años del Genocidio
Contra el Pueblo Armenio 1915-2015, el 24 de abril ‘Día de Acción por
la Tolerancia y el Respeto entre los Pueblos’ y la Agenda de dicho
Centenario organizada conjuntamente por la Secretaría de Acción Social
y Gremial y la Cátedra Armenia de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario”.
A su vez, la municipalidad de Rosario declaró de interés las
actividades por el centenario del Genocidio Armenio. En el mismo
sentido, el 23 de marzo el gobernador de Santa Fe, Antonio Bonfatti,
hizo referencia al Genocidio Armenio cuando entregó los legajos de la
policía a las víctimas de la última dictadura militar argentina, en el
marco de los actos por el Día Nacional de la Memoria.

El 12 de marzo la Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires había
aprobado por unanimidad la conmemoración del “Primer Genocidio del
Siglo XX del que fuera víctima el pueblo armenio”, así como también
adhirió a “todas las actividades que se realicen”. Además, la
Legislatura porteña se solidarizó con “los sobrevivientes y
descendientes de las víctimas y aboga por la memoria, verdad y
justicia de este crimen de lesa humanidad, en el marco del ‘Día de
acción por la tolerancia y Respeto entre los pueblos'”, en relación a
la Ley 26.199 que conmemora “el genocidio del que fue víctima el
pueblo armenio”.

From: A. Papazian