Author: Andres-Papazian

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Nov 17 2013

Turkish Foreign Minister DavutoÄ?lu on trip to US, Russia and Iran

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
Sevil ErkuÅ?

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu has set out on a trip to the
United States, which will be followed by visits to Russia and Iran,
with the Syrian crisis high on the agenda.

Following his trip to Washington on Nov. 17-18, DavutoÄ?lu will head to
Russia to attend the Turkey-Russia High Level Strategic Cooperation
Council’s meeting on Nov. 21-22, with a delegation headed by Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an.

He will pay a visit to Iran for another meeting of the Economic
Cooperation Organization, set for Nov. 26-27.

During his visit to the U.S., DavutoÄ?lu aims to make Turkey’s
positions on a number of issues clearer in the eyes of different
decision makers in Washington through separate meetings, with the
Syrian crisis top of the agenda.

In his first official visit to Washington after last year’s U.S.
presidential elections, he will meet his U.S. counterpart John Kerry
and have a meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The minister will also make contacts in the U.S. Congress and hold
talks with representatives and opinion leaders of a number of NGOs in
Washington.

The U.S. has made it clear that it has no intention of intervening
militarily into Syria, and Turkey, one of the most vocal proponents of
action to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is uneasy at being
left to confront the consequences of conflict in neighboring Syria.

Turkey has been accused of turning a blind eye to extremist Islamic
militants streamed through the country en route to fight alongside
rebels.

U.S. officials say Ankara and Washington agree on the larger strategy
for Syria, but sometimes differ in tactics.

DavutoÄ?lu’s visit to Washington comes on the heels of recent
engagement of the U.S. with Iran, which is also expected to be part of
the talks. Ankara supports a diplomatic settlement to the dispute over
Iran’s nuclear program and says it will continue to advocate this
initiative.

Missiles also on agenda

Turkey’s much-debated choice to acquire a Chinese long-range
air-defense system is also expected to be raised in Washington. Ankara
announced that it would start contract talks with the FD-2000
missile-defense system from China Precision Machinery Import-Export
Corporation (CPMIEC) over rival systems from U.S. and European firms.
However, the Chinese firm is under U.S. sanctions for violations of
Nonproliferation Act Sanctions (INKSNA).

After U.S. officials voiced concerns over the selection of the Chinese
company, Turkey said it was open to new proposals from the U.S. and
European companies, which recently contacted Turkish defense
authorities to renew their proposals.

DavutoÄ?lu’s visit also comes after Turkish officials were recently
irked by a series of recent articles in the U.S. media criticizing the
policies of Hakan Fidan, the chief of Turkish intelligence. Taking
account of the timing of Ankara’s decision for a Chinese firm, the
Turkish Foreign Ministry has conveyed its unease to U.S. officials
over those articles and stressed that they would not only harm
bilateral interests, but also U.S. interests.

The U.S. has long been urging normalization in relations between
Turkey and Israel, after both countries launched compensation talks on
the Mavi Marmara incident of 2010. There has been some recent progress
in compensation talks, and negotiations could be finalized in the near
future, sources told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Turkey also wants to lend impetus to the Minsk talks for a settlement
in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, which would also pave the way for
implementation of the protocols between Turkey and Armenia that aim to
normalize relations. Getting a positive message from the Azerbaijani
side for progress in the Minsk process, Minister DavutoÄ?lu is expected
to urge the U.S. to push the negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh.

As Turkey is making efforts to fine-tune relations between Ankara and
Baghdad, the issue of Turkey’s energy deals with the Iraqi Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) are also set to be on the agenda. A possible
settlement in Cyprus will be discussed as well, with Turkish and Greek
Cypriots about to resume negotiations.

`Turkey and the US do not have the luxury of remaining apart from each other’

Meanwhile, on the occasion of his trip the U.S., DavutoÄ?lu has written
an article for Foreign Policy magazine, in which he underlined the
vital relationship between the two countries. `In today’s ever more
complex and fluid international environment – with Syria in crisis and
much of the Middle East in flux – the U.S.-Turkish relationship
remains vital for a sustainable regional and global order,’ he wrote.

`Alignment with the West during times of crisis, such as the Arab
Spring, is testament to how deeply such shared values are embedded in
the genesis of our foreign policy. On that ground, the United States
and Turkey do not have the luxury of remaining aloof or apart from
each other; our joint work has proven indispensable to regional
security and stability,’ he added.

`Despite our many and early warnings about the radicalization of the
Syrian opposition, the international community has so far failed to
deliver a just and decisive settlement. Yet, even counting the
attempts of extremist groups to step into the political void, there is
no greater threat to Syria and its people than al-Assad and his
anachronistic rule,’ DavutoÄ?lu also wrote in the article.

November/17/2013

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
Les corps des pêcheurs disparus retrouvés sur le lac Sevan

Les sauveteurs arméniens ont trouvé les corps des deux pêcheurs
disparus sur le lac Sevan a signalé le bureau de presse du ministère
des situations d’urgence.

Tôt mercredi matin, deux habitants du village de Tsovak sont allés
récupérés leurs filets de pêche. Le bateau a été retrouvé vide à un
kilomètre du rivage dans l’après-midi.

Une équipe spéciale de sauvetage nautique a également été impliqué
dans la recherche. Dans la soirée, les opérations de secours ont été
suspendues en raison de l’aggravation des conditions météorologiques.

Le responsable des situations d’urgence Armen Yeritsyan a été impliqué
dans les opérations.

Les sauveteurs, en collaboration avec les résidents locaux, ont trouvé
les corps des deux hommes.

dimanche 17 novembre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
Décès de Monseigneur Arsen Berberian

C’est avec un profond regret que nous vous informons nos fidèles que
dans la matinée du 16 Novembre, Son Eminence l’Archevêque Arsen
Berberian, est entré dans son repos éternel au saint Siège
d’Etchmiadzine. Son Éminence avait 76 ans. La mort de Son Eminence est
une perte pour l’Eglise apostolique arménienne et ses fidèles.

Sa Sainteté Karékine II, Patriarche suprême et Catholicos de tous les
Arméniens, le Conseil spirituel suprême de l’Eglise arménienne et le
clergé pleurons la perte de l’archevêque Arsen Berberian

Le corps de l’archevêque Arsen sera placé dans le monastère de
Saint-Gayane. Le rite de l’enterrement débutera à 17h30. Le 19
november19, une divine liturgie sera célébrée à 10h30, au cours de
laquelle les derniers sacrements et services d’inhumation seront
offerts. Son corps sera inhumé dans le cimetière de la Confrérie du
Saint Etchmiadzine.

Béni soit le mémoire des Justes.

dimanche 17 novembre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com
‘872

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE
Le secrétaire du parti communiste arménien démissionne

Le secrétaire du Parti communiste d’Arménie, Ruben Tovmasyan, a
démissionné a affirmé un membre éminent du parti, Boris Gyurjyan.

Il a décliné les allégations des médias affirmant que la démission de
Torosyan a été forcé par des problèmes de santé. Selon lui, le 23
Novembre lors d’un rassemblement le parti élira un nouveau chef. En
attendant le deuxième secrétaire Tachat Sarkissian sera président par
intérim du parti.

Ruben Tovmsyan 76 ans a dirigé le Parti communiste d’Arménie depuis 2003.

dimanche 17 novembre 2013,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIE-AZERBAÏDJAN
L’Azerbaïdjan tire sur des civils Arméniens dans la région frontalière
de Tavouch (Arménie)

Hier de 12h30 à 14h des tirs nourris venant des positions frontalières
azéries ont pris pour cible une route et une localité située dans la
région de Tavouch. Une nouvelle fois, malgré l’appel du Groupe de
Minsk de l’OSCE l’Azerbaïdjan violait une nouvelle fois le
cessez-le-feu en tirant même sur la population civile arménienne.
Selon le porte-parole u ministère arménien de la Défense, Ardzroun
Hovhannissian, les Azéris ont pris pour cible des voitures civiles sur
une route menant vers le village de Vakachen dans la région de Tavouch
eu nord-est de l’Arménie. Le feu provenait d’armes automatiques mais
également de canons. Fort heureusement aucune victime n’est à
déplorer. Les forces armées arméniennes, appliquant les ordres du
ministre Seyran Ohanian, n’ont pas répliqué aux tirs azéris. La
semaine écoulée a été marquée une nouvelle fois par de nombreuses
violations du cessez-le-feu par les Azéris, à la frontière avec le
Haut Karabagh. Ces violations furent au nombre de 200.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 17 novembre 2013,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com
‘861

From: A. Papazian

The New York Times
November 15, 2013 Friday

Poignant Images, With Posterity the Ultimate Winner

By KEN JOHNSON

In a photograph shot by Spencer Platt in Lebanon in 2006, the
spectacle of five attractive, fashionably dressed young people in a
glossy red convertible occupies the foreground. By surrealistic
contrast, the immediate background is filled with the smoking wreckage
of bombed buildings, where a few pedestrians pass by. While the title
obliquely explains, ”Beirut Residents Continue to Flock to Southern
Neighborhoods,” the impression you get is of obnoxious rich kids out
for a sensation-seeking drive.

But the truth of Mr. Platt’s picture, which won the 2006 World Press
Photo of the Year award, was not what it seemed. In response to
widespread criticism, the car’s driver and passengers protested to
news reporters that they were not disaster tourists but residents of
the neighborhood returning to recover their belongings.

Mr. Platt’s photograph is one of the less gut-wrenching stops on the
harrowing journey that is ”War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict
and Its Aftermath,” a vast, deeply flawed but intensely absorbing
exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. It’s not the most sensational image
in the exhibition, but it’s especially striking because of how many
different issues it brings to the fore. What’s the relationship
between machine-made pictures and reality? What do photographers look
for? What do we see, what do we learn when we look at photographs of
people in extreme situations? Are we like what the people in the car
seemed to be: safe, relatively financially secure and out for some
visual entertainment? Or are we members of a world community concerned
for the fate of our global neighborhood?

The way the show is installed doesn’t favor the more high-minded
perspective. Pictures by more than 280 photographers from 28 countries
dating from the past 166 years are crammed in groups in a mazelike
series of narrow corridors. It doesn’t take many visitors to make you
feel hurried and harried. With a profusion of labels and wall texts
stenciled in white walls painted in dusky shades of red, brown and
blue filling just about every space not occupied by a photograph, it
feels as if you’re being yelled at from every direction. This is
unfortunate because there is hardly a single picture here that doesn’t
cry out to be seen and thought about on its own for some time.

A color photograph by Alexandra Avakian from 1992 shows a woman
sitting in a bed, her open hospital gown exposing a bandaged breast.
She’s looking away to her right while a young boy stands at bedside
gazing at her. The title explains: ”Leonora Gregorian was tortured
and raped in front of her 4-year-old son by Azerbaijani troops before
Armenian soldiers rescued her, Nagorno-Karabakh.” That’s a picture
whose abysmal psychic charge should have a whole room to itself.

I imagine that many viewers who stop to think about it will wonder
where is Nagorno-Karabakh and what was going on there? That’s another
big problem with the show: With so many different images of so many
different events mixed together, a clear sense of history remains
elusive. There are lots of famous photographs whose context may be
familiar, like John Filo’s picture of a distraught woman kneeling over
the body of a college student killed by National Guard gunfire during
the Kent State antiwar demonstration in 1970. One section is devoted
to how Joe Rosenthal’s picture of American soldiers raising the Stars
and Stripes on Iwo Jima came about. A sequence of four prints by
Robert Clark shows the World Trade Center’s twin towers smoking and
burning. But lots of less familiar images pertain to wars in faraway
lands that many viewers — myself included — will know little or
nothing about.

This historical confusion is a result of an approach taken by the
show’s organizers: Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator, and Natalie Zelt,
curatorial assistant, in the photography department of the Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston; and Will Michels, a photographer and teacher who
also works at that museum. Instead of a chronological organization,
the curators decided on a thematic approach in which images from
different times and places would be grouped together according to
topics like ”Recruitment and Embarkation,” ”Reconnaissance,
Resistance and Sabotage,” ”Leisure Time,” ”Medicine,” ”Victory
and Defeat” and ”Homecoming.”

In her introductory essay in the show’s 606-page, $90 catalog, Ms.
Tucker weighs the pros and cons. She admits that the thematic approach
”posed the danger of diminishing each picture’s individual
complexities and histories.” She also acknowledges that the approach
suggests that all wars are generally similar, even though every war is
different in its particulars. She argues, however, that ”certain
patterns nevertheless begin to emerge in the recurrence of certain
types of pictures when looking at thousands of photographs, and these
photographs relate to a rough order of war.” So the show was
organized ”according to the most common and meaningful of the
recurring types.”

That approach provides a neat conceptual context for every photograph
and a comprehensible overall narrative, making the show readily
digestible for a popular viewership. But ”recurring type” is close
to the definition of ”cliché.” Slotting every image into that kind
of category has a sentimentalizing, mind-numbing effect, as if the
show were designed in accordance with a Hollywood war movie template.
This is war photography as seen through the eyes of a mass-market
magazine’s photo editor. The nonchronological layout also obscures how
technologies of war and photography evolved together in time and the
degree to which photography itself has served as a tool of war,
ideological as well as technical.

A better exhibition could be done simply by hanging all the same
photographs in chronological order, grouping them only according to
the armed conflicts represented — from the Mexican-American War of
1846-48 to the Arab Spring revolution that began in 2010 — with a
brief text describing the war at hand. That’s the show I wish I could
see.

”War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath”
continues through Feb. 2 at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway,
at Prospect Park; (718) 638-5000, brooklynmuseum.org.

URL:

From: A. Papazian

`There are no obstacles to fulfillment of promises to Georgian Armenians

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Fair and transparent presidential elections were held in Georgia,
which is a great achievement in the region, Armenian parliamentary
deputy, member of Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) Tachat Vardapetian
told journalists today.
According to him, Ivanishvili has no intention of quitting politics,
while Margelashvili is a preferable candidate for Georgian Armenians.
‘Although Interior Minister Irakli Garibashvili headed the ministry
for a short time, he managed to achieve progress in the sphere so the
Georgians expect that if he becomes prime minister, Georgia will
follow the path of democracy,’ he said.

Vardapetian noted there are no obstacles to fulfillment of the
promises that Bidzina Ivanishvili gave Georgian Armenians during the
parliamentary elections.

`We hope that now that there is no an atmosphere of diarchy, there can
be no obstacles to fulfillment of the promises given to Georgian
Armenians. It is important to introduce the institution of dual
citizenship in Georgia. It was one of the newly-elected Georgian
president’s pledges,’ the deputy noted.

TODAY, 16:17
Aysor.am

From: A. Papazian

Hraparak: Nothing heard from Armenian POW

11:49 16/11/2013 » DAILY PRESS

It has been one month that neither the Armenian Defense Ministry nor
the ICRC has heard anything from Armenian POW Hakob Injighulyan.
Hraparak daily contacted the ICRC press service to discuss the matter.

`As you know, the negotiations are conducted confidentially. But I
must say that under any possible scenario, our focus will be on the
POW and his final decision,’ the press service said.

Injighulyan has reportedly said that he wishes to be transferred to a
third country. However, his decision is not final. The last meeting
was between representatives of the ICRC Baku office and the POW on
October 14, the newspaper notes.

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

Days of Israeli Culture to be held in Armenia

16:25 16/11/2013 » CULTURE

The Days of the Israeli Culture in Armenia will open with a gala
concert at Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theatre of Yerevan on
November 18, the Armenian Culture Ministry reported.

The participants of the Days of Israeli Culture include singers A.
Reznikova, V. Blayberg, M. Dvir, M. Brikman, Vis-a-vis dance group, A.
Kochetkov and Labasta bands.

Concerts will also take place in the cities of Vanadzor on November 19
and Gyumri on November 21.

A delegation of Israel’s Ministry for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs
will visit Armenia on November 16-22.

From: A. Papazian

Profusion of Medals: Compensation or Compromise?

By Edmond Y. Azadian

The Russian novelist Anton Chekhov once wrote a satirical
short story about the significance of medals in 19th-century
Russian society. The story dwells on the predicament of a
poor teacher who is invited to a dinner party in high society
circles. To prove that he deserves the honor, he decides to
borrow a medal from a friend. Upon arriving at the party,
however, he encounters an acquaintance, who knows that he
has not received such an honor. The teacher tries to hide the
medal, devising many ruses which eventually spoil the dinner
and the evening. But before taking his leave, he discovers that
his acquaintance is also in the same boat, trying to hide his
own borrowed medal.

Chekhov ridiculed characters chasing such vanities. He
died in 1905 and yet, since then, not much has changed in
that part of the world when it comes to tributes.

The Soviet inheritors of the Russian Empire also stressed
the significance of those medals, to the point that many anecdotes
and jokes were cracked about Leonid Brezhnev, a particular
devotee of medals. As the chevrons on his lapel
extended, Armenians were wondering that they had never
seen hyphenated chevrons.

Today, those coveted medals can be bought at the
Vernissage, the glorified flea market in Yerevan, for pennies.
But, on the other hand, the tradition seems to be
entrenched in Armenia so much so that pretty soon no tourist
will return from Yerevan without a medal awarded by an
authority or agency in Armenia.

The same may apply also to the church. It looks like soon
the recipients of medals will outnumber Armenians who have
been deprived of such honors.

In the past, the people who were awarded such medals were
few and far between. But today, the abundance of such
medals leaves everyone baffled and devalues the honor. Some
recipients even wonder what good deed they have done for
Armenia in order to deserve such honors.

It looks as if the time has come to revise the value system
in Armenia, where they seem to be banking on the naiveté of
Diasporan Armenians. It is true that for some people, those
medals serve as an effective bait to get them to make some
contributions. But, as time goes on, with the proliferation of
those honors, the value system is undermined and deserving
people cannot be distinguished from the ones who have taken
the bait and been elevated to a rank to which they don’t
belong.

There is a saturation point where the law of diminishing
returns is activated.

Yet another group in the diaspora is critical of generous distribution
of those questionable honors, that is, until their
turn arrives. At that point, they believe that unlike undeserving
honorees, they are meritorious and have fully earned the
honors.

But eventually, they are bundled in the same batch of people
who had been wearing those medals, whether they
deserved them or not.

Come to think, by the unrestricted dispensation of those
medals, the authorities, eventually, insult the intelligence of
the Diasporan Armenians, believing that those methods can
buy influence, loyalty and sacrifice.

Any contribution to or sacrifice for Armenia loses its value
the moment the motivation becomes reciprocal compensation.
And unfortunately, our poor homeland has not much
more to offer than those pieces of metal to reward those contributors.
It is really very difficult to differentiate who is more naïve:
the people who shower those honors or those who get the
medals? Maybe both.

When those medals were awarded sparingly, the recipients
were distinguished members of the community and they
stood above the multitudes. But today, when the spigot of
those awards has been turned loose, the value of those
medals is dead on arrival.

Individuals with self-esteem need to think seriously if the
medals they have received truly signify an appreciation for a
righteous deed or whether they have been decorated with an
ulterior motive.

Of course, the generous distribution of medals needs to be
distinguished from the prizes awarded to the writers, scientists,
scholars and performers by the government or by other
organizations, since the latter come with monetary compensation,
which will go a long way to inspire new pieces of literature
or composition, or new volumes of academic work.

Now that there is a large army of medal bearers, where do
we begin to raise our value system?

Of course, the change has to begin from the top. But before
adopting a new system, there has to be a change in our people’s
mentality and attitude. Brezhnev is dead and his medals
have been buried with him; we cannot buy them at the
Vernissage anymore.

Once we change our mentality, it would be rather easy to
come up with a new value system. Committees of unbiased
and qualified scholars may be assigned with the task; people
who truly are familiar with the face (and the heart) of the
diaspora and Armenia. They can come up with a short list of
candidates who should be vetted properly, before being nominated
for the awards. That way, no recommendation can be
smuggled on the list of nominations if all they have done is
treat a minister to lunch or given a lavish present.

During the last 21 years, from the ashes of the ragtag fighters
an effective army was formed in Armenia. Legislative and
executive branches of government were put in place.

Therefore, Armenia’s value system should also correspond to
those developments. If fewer people from the diaspora are
medaled, the Diasporan-Armenians will feel more honored,
not less, if and when their turn comes.

If today Anton Chekhov were to be resurrected, I have no
reason to hide my own medals. But, in my soul searching, I
will always wonder where I stand in the value system of those
who have awarded the medals to me.

Note: This article is dedicated to the memory of my dear
friend, the late Arsen Demerjian who motivated me to write
about this topic before his untimely death.

From: A. Papazian