Author: Andres-Papazian

SARGSYAN-TSARUKYAN RECONCILIATION MEETING TOOK PLACE UNDER MEDIATION OF “DASHNAKTIUTYUN”

by Tatevik Shahunyan

Tuesday, February 17, 18:53

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the leader of the Prosperous
Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan met in the president’s residence under
the mediation of the ARF “Dashnaktiutyun”, a representative of the
ARFD Supreme Body, Aghvan Vardanyan, told Arminfo correspondent.

He said that they simply needed such a meeting after the confrontation
of the RPA and PAP in order to prevent further worsening of the
domestic political situation in Armenia.

According to Arminfo’s sources, in a certain sense the meeting was
fruitful and the parties have come to a compromise. However, the
sources could not answer how the position of the PAP will change
after the meeting, and if the authorities will go on implementing
the punishing actions regarding the leader of the PAP.

To note, the owner of the “Tashir-group” Samvel Karapetyan arrived
in Yerevan yesterday and met Tsarukyan. His purpose was to reconcile
Gagik Tsarukyan and Serzh Sargsyan.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA HALTS RATIFICATION OF AGREEMENT WITH TURKEY

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Feb 17 2015

YEREVAN – The Associated Press

The Armenian president has said he has asked the country’s
parliamentary speaker to withdraw his signature from a groundbreaking
2009 agreement with Turkey meant to restore ties between the two
nations.

President Serzh Sargsyan said in a statement yesterday that Armenia
would not ratify the agreement because of the “preconditions” that
Turkey is putting in place before it ratifies its part of the deal.

The agreement aims to restore diplomatic ties between the countries
as well as reopen the common border, which has been closed since
1993. It was brokered by the United States and other nations.

The move comes in a year that Armenia is remembering the mass killings
of Armenians in the Ottoman era in 1915, 100 years ago.

The relations between the leaders of both countries is tense with
recent remarks on the issue.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Armenia Feb. 10 to
examine the 1915 events through the lens of “science, not politics,”
criticizing the rejection of Ankara’s invitation to representatives
of the country to attend war commemoration ceremonies in Turkey.

In January, the Turkish president sent invitation letters to more
than 100 leaders, including Sargsyan, to participate in ceremonies on
April 24 marking the centenary of the Battle of Gallipoli in Canakkale.

The ceremonies in Canakkale were rearranged this year to coincide
with Armenia’s traditional day of remembrance for the Armenian victims
of 1915.

Sargsyan denounced Erdogan’s invitation as a “short-sighted” attempt
to overshadow the massacres of Ottoman Armenians.

“We would like them to come and be in Canakkale on April 24,
to breathe in that atmosphere and try to understand that happened
among our hundreds of thousands of martyrs. But they won’t do that,”
Erdogan said.

February/16/2015

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIA WITHDRAWS PROTOCOLS WITH TURKEY FROM PARLIAMENT

World Bulletin, Turkey
Feb 17 2015

The protocols, aimed at normalizing relations between the two
countries, were signed in 2009, as a result of a landmark process
facilitated by Switzerland.

World Bulletin / News Desk

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced Monday his decision to
withdraw from parliament the Armenian-Turkish protocols that aimed
to normalize relations between the two countries.

According to the Armenian news agency, Armenpress, the Armenian
president’s office said that Sargsyan had sent a letter to the
chairman of the National Assembly, Galust Sargsyan, informing him of
his decision to withdraw the “Protocol on Establishment of Diplomatic
Relations ” and “Protocol on Development of Relations” between Turkey
and Armenia.

The two protocols were signed on Oct. 10, 2009, as a result of a
landmark negotiation process facilitated by Switzerland, which remain
suspended in Armenian parliament since 2010.

Turkey and Armenia, two neighboring countries, have no diplomatic
relations.

Turkish Foreign Ministry has repeatedly said that Turkey wishes to
normalize bilateral relations with Armenia, and within this perspective
it started “to unilaterally implement certain confidence-building
measures.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has said that the Armenian government
sent the protocols to its Constitutional Court for approval.

“Consequently, the court found the protocols to be commensurate with
the Armenian constitution with its reasoned statement, which contained
contradictory elements to the letter and the spirit of the protocols,”
the Turkish ministry says.

On April 22, 2010, the Armenian president suspended the ratification
process of the protocols.

Armenian-Turkey ties

During the First World War, the Ottoman Empire approved a deportation
law for Armenians amid their uprising with the help of the invading
Russian army. As a result, an unknown number of people died in
civil strife.

Armenian diaspora and state of Armenia term the incidents as “genocide”
and ask for compensation, whereas Ankara maintains that while Armenians
died during deportation, many Turks also died because of the attacks
by Armenian gangs all around Anatolia.

The high-tension rhetoric between Armenia and Turkey reached new high
this year when Turkish president’s invitation for Armenian president
to visit Turkey was refused.

In mid January, the Turkish president sent invitation letters to
more than 100 leaders, including Sargsyan to participate in the
commemoration of the Battle of Canakkale on April 24.

From: A. Papazian

CHP DEPUTY: AK PARTY SPENT MILLIONS TO SEEM FRIENDLY WITH ISRAEL

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 16 2015

February 16, 2015, Monday/ 17:55:07/ TODAY’S ZAMAN / ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ä°stanbul deputy Aykut
Erdogdu has claimed that the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AK Party) spent $65.4 million up until 2013 on efforts to portray
itself as a pro-Israeli administration while pretending to its voter
base that it is one of Israel’s staunchest critics.

Erdogdu, who is the head of the CHP’s corruption investigation unit,
shared a number of documents with the press on Monday, claiming that
they reveal the importance that the AK Party’s places on its relations
with Israel.

To prove his claims, Erdogdu said the documents show that the AK
Party paid $65.4 million to lobby groups in the US to promote its
relations with the Israeli government. However, Erdogdu did not
explain how paying lobby groups in the US helped Turkey to maintain
good relations with Israel. In common with a large number of countries,
Turkey works with a variety of groups in Washington to lobby for its
interests in the US capital. The groups that Turkey has worked with
over the past years have mostly worked against the strong Armenian
lobby groups in the US which have been working on the passage of a
resolution which would recognize the 1915 mass killings of Armenians
as a genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey says the 1915
events cannot be considered genocide because Turks also died due to
the chaotic conditions in Turkey during the break-up of the Ottoman
Empire in World War I.

AK Party government officials have increasingly employed anti-Israeli
and anti-Semitic rhetoric to gain votes from the party’s conservative
base before the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on
June 7 this year.

“We [the CHP] have determined that the AK Party paid $65.4 million
to lobby firms in the US to tell the world that they’re friends
of Israel. We have documents to prove it,” Erdogdu said in a press
conference in Ä°stanbul.

The deputy claimed that the AK Party paid 19 lobby firms in the US,
including DiNovo Strategies, FleishmanHillard, Neusner Communications,
Livingston Group, Gephardt Group and DPA Piper in order to appear as a
friend of Israel. He said that the AK Party government is exploiting
the sensitivities of Turkish people to the Palestine-Israel conflict
in order to solidify its support among its conservative voter base.

“On the one hand they portray themselves to the Turkish people as
being in a constant fight with the Israel while on the other hand
they worked hard to make the Jewish lobby in the US believe that the
AK Party is a pro-Israeli administration and paid millions of dollars
to that end. This is completely hypocritical,” said Erdogdu.

The unofficial Jewish caucus in Congress has traditionally supported
Turkey’s position on the Armenian issue in the past, but this support
seems to be on the wane in recent years in parallel with AK Party
government officials’ increasingly anti-Semitic rhetoric.

From: A. Papazian

BAKU CALLS FOR SERIOUS TALKS OVER CONFLICT IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Feb 17 2015

17 February 2015, 15:13 (GMT+04:00)
By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Azerbaijan is ready to start serious negotiations to prepare a draft
peace agreement on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, said a top
Azerbaijani official.

Elmar Mammadyarov, Foreign Minister, exchanged views with Co-Chairman
of the Minsk Group of Organization for Security and Cooperation Igor
Popov (Russia), Pierre Andrieu (France), and James Warlick (US), and
Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman Andrzej Kasprzyk during
talks on the negotiation process to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict, in Baku on February 16 .

Focusing on the ceasefire violation, Mammadyarov called on the
mediators to urge Armenia to liberate the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan based on international law and four UN Security Council
resolutions as the first step of the settlement process.

“The withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani
territories will be an important step to resolve the conflict and to
build trust between the sides,” he said.

Mammadyarov underlined an urgent need to start serious negotiations
on the draft peace agreement.

“Azerbaijan is ready for these negotiations,” he said.

The sides also discussed the schedule of actions to start working on
a peace agreement.

Meanwhile, Pierre Andrieu, French Co-Chairman, said the Minsk Group
mediators will do everything to reduce tension in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.

“We hope that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will keep on
meeting in the future. We would like the presidents to meet during
the upcoming summit of the UN General Assembly in September. The final
decisions are usually made by the presidents. We are trying to play a
mediation role. It is not easy, but we are moving in this direction,”
he noted.

Andrieu added that the Minsk Group co-chairmen will soon visit
member-states of the Minsk Group, including Belarus, Serbia and Italy.

He also talked about the recent negotiations in Helsinki through
the invitation of the Finnish foreign minister. Andrieu said the
middlemen informed the Finnish side about the current situation in
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

Andriue revealed the plan of the co-chairmen to meet with
representatives of the Red Cross in Baku and Yerevan as part of the
current visit to the region.

“We would like the Red Cross to start working over the hostages issue
as soon as possible, because thousands of families want to know about
their relatives. It is a sensitive topic, being a part of the measures
for rapprochement and understanding,” he said.

Touching upon the conflict in Ukraine, Andrieu noted that it does not
affect the coordination of the OSCE Minsk Group and the co-chairmen
are working as they did before.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

From: A. Papazian

PRESS RELEASE
ARS of Western USA, Inc.
Regional Office
517 W. Glenoaks Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91202-2812
Tel: 818-500-1343
Fax: 818-242-3732
Email: [email protected]
Web:
FB:

Support ARS Javakhk Fund Programs

The ARS Javakhk Fund Committee, cognizant of the determination of the
communities in Javakhk (Georgia) to preserve the Armenian heritage,
has organized an annual cruise and lecture programs to spread the word
and raise funds to support programs in Javakhk.

A dinner cruise is scheduled for Sunday, March 1, 2015, from Newport
Beach harbor. Professor Ashot Melkonyan, a native of Javakhk and
historian in Armenia will be the guest speaker.

Honorary guests of the Sunday evening cruise are Mr. Alec &
Dr. Alenoush Baghdassarian. “Our community and nation are fortunate to
have individuals such as Alec and Alenoush Baghdassarian who sponsor
and contribute to many important causes. They are not only kind,
selfless and humble but are visionaries,” said Lena Bozoyan, ARS
Javakhk Fund Committee Chairperson. “Their everlasting love for our
homeland and our people are exemplary.’More Info
()

Prof. Melkonyan will also lecture about the “Past, Present and Future
of Javakhk” in Glendale ()
and San Francisco ():

On Friday, March 6, 2015 at 7 p.m., at the Glendale Central Library,
222 E.Harvard St., Glendale, Calif.

On Sunday, March 8, 2015, following Church Services (around 1:30
p.m.), Vasbouragan Hall,51 Commonwealth Ave., San Francisco, Calif.

Armenian Relief Society of Western USA, Regional Executive

()

ARS Mid-Year Presentations Reinvigorate Members

The ARS Regional Executive presented a look back and a look ahead to
the ARS membership on the west coast with a 2-week long tour, starting
with a presentation to members from more than a dozen Los Angeles area
chapters at the Pasadena Armenian Center, and after stops in San
Francisco, and Fresno, the tour was completed in Laguna Niguel in
South Orange County. Read More
() Armenian
() Photographs
()

()

The ARS Anahid and Lori Chapters celebrated the feast of the
Presentation of the Lord to the Temple, known as Diarenuntarach
(Õ?Õ¥Õ¡Õ¼Õ¶Õ¨Õ¶Õ¤Õ¡Õ¼Õ¡Õ»)
together

()

The ARS Arax Chapter Friday School of South Bay held a program to
celebrate Vartanants — the heros of the Battle of Avarayr (451 AD)

()

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day

ARS Anahid Chapter of San Fernando Valley, Calif. celebrated Martin
Luther King Jr.’s Day by holding a lunch-lecture event on January 19,
2015, in Encino, Calif. Seta Krikorian spoke about Human Rights,
Dr. King’s legacy and Hrant Dink. Proceeds were donated to the ARS
Regional Executive.Read More in Armenian
()

Breakfast Fundraiser for ARS Schools

The School Board of Regents breakfast fundraiser will take place on
Sunday, March 8, 2015 at 10 a.m. at the ARSRegional Headquarters, in
Glendale, Calif.

Chapter Events

Wedensday, February 18, Encino: Anahid Chapter Arevakal (Pagyal
Khoran) Luncheon ()

Saturday, March 7, at 10 a.m., Van Nuys: Meghry Chapter Michink
(Mid-Lent) Luncheon ()

Saturday, March 7, at 10:30 a.m., Glendale: SepanChapter Fashion Show
()

Wednesday, March 11, at 11 a.m., Pasadena: Sosse & Talin Chapters
jointly celebrate Michink (Mid Lent) Luncheon
()

Sunday, March 15, at 1 p.m., Encino: Anahid Chapter Mid-Lent Luncheon
()

Sunday, May 10, Pasadena: Sosse Chapter’s 40th Anniversary

()

Requiem Services for Past ARS Members & Benefactors

Requiem Services will be held at various churches in memory of past
ARS members and benefactors. Some chapters continue to serve “madagh”
(food served in their memory) such as the ARS Anahid, Meghry and Sepan
Chapters. Other chapters serve desserts.

()

Under the auspices of the ARS Central Executive Board, Genocide
Centennial commemorations will be held in New York City, from March 5
to 6, 2015. The ARS of Eastern USA will hold a commemorative event on
March 7, 2015, in North Bergen, New Jersey.

()

LA 5K Run/Walk & Marathon

Run or walk with the ARS team in memory of the 1.5 Armenian Genocide
martyrs and raise funds for the ARS.

The Los Angeles 5K Run/Walk (3.1 miles) will be held on Saturday,
March 14, 2015 at 8 a.m. at Dodger Stadium. Departure will be at 6:30
a.m. from the ARS Regional Headquarters.

The 26.2 mile LA Marathon will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2015,
starting at 7:28 a.m. at Dodger Stadium and ending at the intersection
of Ocean Avenue and California Avenue in Santa Monica. Half Marathon
relay positions are also available through the ARS.

()

Gala Celebration

Join us for our annual gala celebration on Friday, May 15, 2015 at the
Sheraton Universal,333 Universal Hollywood Dr., Universal City, Calif.

517 W. Glenoaks Blvd. | Glendale, CA 91202-2812 US
Phone: (818) 500-1343 | Fax: (818) 242-3732
Website:
Email: [email protected]

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIDJAN : NOUVELLES ACCUSATIONS CONTRE KHADIJA ISMAILOVA

Publie le : 17-02-2015

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif vAN vous
invite a lire cette information publiee sur le site des Reporters
sans frontières le 13 fevrier 2015.

Reporters sans frontières

Azerbaïdjan

Nouvelles accusations contre la celèbre journaliste Khadija Ismaïlova

De nouvelles accusations fallacieuses ont ete portees contre la
journaliste azerbaïdjanaise Khadija Ismaïlova, en detention depuis le
5 decembre 2014. Elles lui font encourir jusqu’a douze ans de prison.

Le 13 fevrier 2015, de nouveaux chefs d’accusation ont ete portes
contre la figure de proue du journalisme independant en Azerbaïdjan,
Khadija Ismaïlova, placee en detention provisoire depuis plus de
deux mois. Arretee le 5 decembre 2014 pour avoir soi-disant “incite
au suicide” un de ses collègues, elle est desormais accusee de
“detournement de fonds a grande echelle”, de “commerce illegal”,
d'”evasion fiscale” et d'”abus de pouvoir”, sur la base des articles
179.3.2, 192.2.2, 213.1 et 308.2 du code penal. Elle risque pour ces
charges jusqu’a douze ans de prison.

“Nous reiterons notre appel a la liberation immediate de Khadija
Ismaïlova et a l’abandon de toutes les charges qui pèsent contre
elle, declare Johann Bihr, responsable du bureau Europe de l’est et
Asie centrale de Reporters sans frontières. Le seul tort de cette
journaliste est d’avoir enquete sur la corruption au sommet de l’Etat
et d’etre venu en aide aux prisonniers politiques qui remplissent
les geôles azerbaïdjanaises”.

Les nouvelles accusations ont ete portees suite a la perquisition,
le 26 decembre 2014, des locaux de Radio Azadlig, le service
azerbaïdjanais de Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), que
Khadija Ismailova a dirige avant de le quitter il y a plus de quatre
ans. Les locaux de Radio Azadlig ont ete places sous scelles a l’issue
de cette intervention.

Selon l’avocat de la journaliste, Fariz Namazly, les autorites ne
cherchent qu’a compenser l’inconsistance des premières accusations. Il
relève que les nouvelles charges portees contre Khadija Ismaïlova sont
“standards”, dans la mesure où les defenseurs des droits de l’homme
Intigam Aliev, Rassoul Djafarov et Anar Mamedli, entre autres, sont
incarceres sur des bases similaires.

L’Azerbaïdjan figure a la 162e place sur 180 du Classement mondial 2015
de la liberte de la presse de Reporters sans frontières. Suite a la
campagne d’eradication sans precedent que les autorites mènent contre
les dernières voix independants, le pays a enregistre l’une des chutes
les plus importantes du Classement mondial en performance absolue.

Signez la petition : “Monsieur Aliev, liberez Khadija Ismaïlova !”

Lire aussi :

Dossier du Collectif VAN : L’Azerbaïdjan, une dictature nationaliste
et negationniste

Source/Lien : Reporters sans frontières

From: A. Papazian

SEYRAN OHANYAN HOSTS CO-CHAIRS OF ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN INTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMISSION

15:10 17/02/2015 ” POLITICS

Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan on Tuesday received the
co-chairs of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission
on Military-Technical Cooperation, Konstantin Biryulin and Alik
Mirzabekyan, the press service of the Armenian Defense Ministry
reported.

The meeting focused on the activities of the Commission, as well as
on issues related to military-technical cooperation.

Source: Panorama.am

From: A. Papazian

LE GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS : LA CARICATURE >

Publie le : 17-02-2015

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
invite a lire cette information publiee sur le site de la Mission du
centenaire de la Première Guerre mondiale.

Legende photo : Caricature “Intimes aus dem Weissen Hause”, d’Olaf
Gulbransson, dans “Simplicissimus”, 9 novembre 1915, p.383 / Caricature
anonyme “La deportation en Belgique et en France”, dans “La Guerre
Illustree”, mars 1917, Londres, Milford Lane, p.19.

(c) BfZ / BnF

14-18 Mission Centenaire

par Oliver Stein

Le 9 novembre 1915, le journal satirique allemand Simplicissimus
publie une caricature qui fait reference, sans en avoir l’air,
au genocide perpetre envers le peuple armenien, qui, a cette date,
suivait pleinement son cours depuis des mois. Le dessinateur Olaf
Gulbransson met en scène le president americain Woodrow Wilson,
s’adressant a son Ministre des Affaires etrangères : il ne sait pas
si les Turcs commettent des atrocites envers les Armeniens, mais
ce qui est insoutenable dans cette situation, dit-il, c’est que ces
atrocites ne sont pas commises avec des munitions americaines.

Le destinataire principal de la critique de cette caricature sont les
Etats-Unis, qui tout en se declarant neutres, s’etaient en realite
engages du c̫te des Armeniens Рavant tout a travers les prises de
positions personnelles de leur ambassadeur a Constantinople, Henry
Morgenthau. On accuse ainsi la politique de Wilson et son ministre
d’une duplicite totalement hypocrite, ne visant qu’a soutenir une
soif de puissance indecente. Le motif de cette critique tient au fait
que malgre leur neutralite, les Etats-Unis fournissaient, en realite,
de grandes quantites d’armes et de munitions aux pays de l’Entente.

L’originalite de cette caricature reside moins dans l’accusation
qu’elle porte envers les Etats-Unis que dans le fait qu’elle evoque un
thème qui n’a publiquement ete aborde qu’avec d’extremes precautions
en Allemagne durant la Première Guerre mondiale : le genocide des
Armeniens dans l’Empire ottoman allie. À partir du printemps 1915,
les dirigeants Jeunes Turcs commencèrent a organiser la deportation
systematique et l’assassinat des Armeniens, qu’ils tenaient pour
des irredentistes et des allies potentiels des ennemis russes. La
population armenienne fut deportee dans le desert de Mesopotamie,
dans de terribles marches de la mort. Beaucoup furent massacres ou
perirent de fatigue durant ces marches, tandis que ceux qui avaient
survecu moururent finalement de faim ou de maladie dans des camps. Plus
d’un million d’Armeniens perdirent la vie.

Les Turcs ne purent pas empecher, meme après avoir interdit la
presence de temoins etrangers dans les regions où etaient commises ces
atrocites, que de nombreux Allemands assistent a ces exactions. Ils
etaient deja en poste dans ces regions, que ce soit en tant que
soldats, diplomates, ingenieurs, employes du train Berlin-Bagdad,
medecins ou missionnaires. Ils devinrent des chroniqueurs de ces
horreurs, qu’ils conservèrent a travers leurs rapports et leurs
photographies.

Un bon nombre de ces rapports etait destine au gouvernement allemand,
qui etait ainsi très precisement tenu au courant de l’ampleur des
massacres. Il devenait ainsi impossible de nier, dans cette situation,
que les deportations et les massacres n’etaient plus justifies par
les conditions de la guerre, mais qu’elles relevaient d’une volonte
de destruction systematique et totale. C’est le jugement que transmit
l’ambassadeur Hans von Wangenheim au Chancelier du Reich Theobald
von Bethmann Hollweg en juillet 1915. Bien que les evenements qui se
deroulaient dans l’Empire ottoman aient une repercussion importante en
Allemagne, les protestations repetees des diplomates allemands envers
le gouvernement ottoman restèrent relativement prudentes. Ce n’est que
le 31 octobre 1915 – soit une semaine et demie avant la publication
de la caricature du Simplicissimus – que Bethmann Hollweg nota :
“Il me semble qu’il est grand temps d’envoyer une note très claire a
la Turquie dans laquelle nous protesterons contre cette folie qui est
en train d’etre commise avec la persecution des Armeniens.” Cependant,
alors que le nouvel ambassadeur a Constantinople, le comte Metternich,
proposa de publier une denonciation officielle dans le journal
semi-officiel Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Bethmann Hollweg fit
passer le calcul politique en priorite. Compte-tenu de l’importance
strategique de l’Empire ottoman, il pensait devoir eviter tout ce qui
pourrait porter prejudice aux relations germano-ottomanes. “Notre
unique objectif”, ecrivit-il en reaction au rapport de Metternich,
“est de garder la Turquie a nos côtes jusqu’a la fin de la guerre,
que les Armeniens dussent en mourir ou non”.

Ce principe pourrait d’ailleurs servir a decrire la couverture des
evenements par la presse allemande. Suite a une recommandation faite
le 7 octobre 1915, la censure s’appliquait sur cette thematique et les
evenements ne pouvaient etre qu’evoques superficiellement. Les articles
qui furent rendus publics faisaient en grande majorite reference
aux articles accusateurs publies par les journaux de l’Entente,
qui utilisaient le genocide dans l’Empire ottoman a des fins de
propagande anti-allemande et laissaient entendre que les Allemands
etaient les instigateurs reels du massacre. Les denegations allemandes
insistaient souvent sur le fait que les rapports sur les assassinats
relevaient de la propagande de guerre et que les decisions du pouvoir
turc visaient a empecher un soulèvement de la population armenienne. La
caricature de Gulbransson ne cherche pas a justifier quoi que ce soit,
mais entoure les evenements d’un brouillard d’incertitude. La realite
des evenements dans l’Empire ottoman fut cependant decrite et publiee
en 1915 dans la presse missionnaire chretienne, notamment dans le
journal Die christliche Welt. Ce n’est que vers la fin de l’annee
1915 que les cercles ecclesiastiques et les affaires etrangères se
mirent d’accord pour que de tels rapports arretent de paraître, si,
en retour, on arretait de publier des rapports hostiles aux Armeniens
dans la presse allemande. Malgre cet accord, un pretre comme Johannes
Lepsius, entre autres, a contribue, a travers un travail intensif
de publication de brochures et de bulletins, a mettre en lumière le
destin des Armeniens auprès de l’opinion publique allemande pendant
les annees de guerre.

Traduit de l’allemand

Lire aussi :

> vs >

Agenda – Paris : Colloque international sur le genocide des Armeniens

Source/Lien : 14-18 Mission Centenaire

From: A. Papazian

THE STATE IS TRYING TO LIMIT THE WORK OF NGOS: DISCUSSION IN YEREVAN

02.17.2015 15:58 epress.am

A group of NGO leaders are concerned about a Government proposed
draft law related to NGOs. Today, during a press conference at the
Media Center, Eurasia Partnership Foundation project manager Mikayel
Hovhannisyan said that fears are that the state wishes to create
measures to limit the work of NGOs and currently the government is
conducting discussions with NGOs about the draft.

According to the draft, NGOs need to present a detailed financial
and contextual account of their work to state bodies.

Mikayel Hovhannisyan stressed that NGO representatives have fears
that the law would be used selectively, as done before in Armenia,
after it passes.

“We had initially suggested that strict reporting be fixed by the
law, but only for NGOs financed by the state. Those finances are
foundationally different than the rest from a financial perspective,”
said Open Society Foundation – Armenia Deputy Director of programs
Davit Amiryan.

With the new law, NGOs can be involved in for-profit (entrepreneurial
activities). In the past, it was necessary to register as LLC and be
its 100% shareholder, however that will no longer be necessary.

Transparency International anti-corruption center legal advisor
Heriknaz Tigranyan said that there may be limitations in that regard
as well. The for-profit activities , according to the draft, have to
fall in line with the NGO’s charter goals, while Tigranyan proposes
another definition in the law, stating that an NGO’s profits from
their for-profit activities must be used for implementing the NGO’s
charter goals.

From: A. Papazian