Author: Andres-Papazian

TEFAN FULE ARRIVED TO ARMENIA BEING SURE THAT OUR COUNTRY IS SERIOUSLY INCLINED TO BE CLOSER TO UN

ARMENPRESS
September 27, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
hosted EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy
tefan Fule. As Armenpress was informed from the presidential press
office the Head of the country greeted the guest and expressed his
content over the dynamic development of Armenia-Un cooperation which
was also reflected by frequent mutual visits. Serzh Sargsyan hoped
that the visit of tefan Fule would become an impetus for further
development of the relations.

EU Commissioner has agreed that recurrent meetings give opportunity to
discuss the agenda of the cooperation and get to the next, higher level
of bilateral relations. tefan Fule noted that he arrived to Armenia
has a definite position to develop the integration project with UN.

During his stay in Armenia Commissioner Fule met also with the chairmen
of the Foreign Relations and European Integration committees of the
National Assembly and the representatives of the opposition.

From: A. Papazian

TEFAN FULE: ARMENIA’S FULFILLMENT OF ITS ENORMOUS POTENTIAL DEPENDS UPON A SENSE LONG-TERM STABILITY AND PREDICTABILITY

armradio.am
19:01 27.09.2012

“Let me express here today my deep concern and regret for the damage
done, both to the peace process and to trust, by the pardon and
glorification by some of the crime of Ramil Safarov,” tefan Fule,
Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy said at
the Strengthening the Role of Civil Society in Democratic Governance
in Yerevan.

“I fully respect the feelings of Armenians, and your right to
peacefully express them. At the same time, I insist on calling for
restraint, both in words and in actions. We have to keep working for
peace; because only with a foundation of peace and stability will
the other goals we are striving towards have lasting value,” he said.

“Armenia’s fulfillment of its enormous potential depends upon a
sense of medium to long-term stability and predictability. This can
only be achieved by elimination of the threat of conflict. There
is no other way. In this respect I want to pay special tribute to
those civil society organizations who work on confidence building
in Nagorno-Karabakh. This is priceless work which must continue,
however difficult the environment,” he said.

From: A. Papazian

WHAT OF THE RIGHTS OF JAVAKHK-ARMENIANS?
by Varant Meguerditchian

September 27, 2012

While we are well aware that the UN Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is the international law under
which we seek justice for the Armenian Genocide, and we know that
the right to self-determination of Karabagh-Armenians is protected
under Article VIII of the Helsinki Final Act, what of the rights of
Javakhk Armenians?

An Armenian school in Javakhk As a member of the Council of Europe,
Georgia signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National
Minorities (FCNM) in 2005, which states that a “genuinely democratic
society should not only respect the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and
religious identity of each person belonging to a national minority,
but also create appropriate conditions enabling them to express,
preserve, and develop this identity.” Yet, Georgia fails to respect
the letter and spirit of the rights afforded to the Javakhk-Armenians
under this charter.

During a recent visit to the historic Armenian region lying north of
the present-day Armenian Republic, I lay witness to the religious
and cultural discrimination against which the Armenians of Javakhk
struggle on a daily basis.

The Armenian Apostolic Church is denied the right to register as a
religious entity and instead operates as an NGO. The Georgian Orthodox
Church is elevated above all other religious institutions including
the Armenian Apostolic Church. Georgian authorities continue to
appropriate ancient Armenian churches in Javakhk. Armenian parishioners
are prevented from visiting these Armenian churches and other places
of religious and historic significance.

The policy of discrimination against Javakhk-Armenians is further
perpetuated by Georgian limitations on the use of the Armenian
language in schools, the conversion of Armenian schools in Javakhk
into Georgian state schools, and the dismissal of Armenian teachers
who have protested against the discrimination. Armenian students in
Javakhk receive less face-to-face Armenian instruction today than
they did during the Soviet era.

The St. Mesrop Mashtots statue Akhalkalak, one of the few remaining
Armenian symbols of Javakhk.

These policies subject the Armenians in Javakhk to religious and
cultural discrimination in direct breach of Article V of the FCNM,
which states: “The Parties undertake to promote the conditions
necessary for persons belonging to national minorities to maintain
and develop their culture, and preserve the essential elements of
their identity, namely their religion, language, traditions, and
cultural heritage.”

They are also in violation of Article XIV of the FCNM, which makes
direct reference to the right to education of Javakhk-Armenians:
“In areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities
traditionally or in substantial numbers, if there is sufficient demand,
the Parties shall endeavour to ensure, as far as possible and within
the framework of their education systems, that persons belonging to
those minorities have adequate opportunities for being taught the
minority language or for receiving instruction in this language.”

It should be noted that the Georgian government’s denial of the
rights of Armenians in Javakhk additionally defies a multitude of
international laws and conventions, many of which have been signed
by Georgia and not adhered to, and others simply not signed at all.

Thus far, Georgia has failed to sign and ratify the Council of Europe
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML).

Designed to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of
national minorities, ECRML affords national minorities the right to
use their language beyond the educational system. In Javakhk, this
translates into the right to use Armenian in Javakhk public life.

Given Tbilisi’s disregard for the basic rights of Javakhk-Armenians,
it is no wonder that outspoken Armenian community leaders have been
persecuted by the Georgian authorities. Also, the few appeals made
by both the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Apostolic Church
for an improvement of the religious and linguistic rights of Javakhk
Armenians have been dismissed.

While the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Apostolic Church
must defend the rights of Javakhk-Armenians with greater vigour, the
Armenian Diaspora also has an immediate political duty towards Javakhk.

We must more actively voice our concerns regarding the rights of
Javakhk-Armenians to those individuals who represent us in legislative
bodies throughout the world. The positions of elected officials on
the rights afforded to Javakhk-Armenians under various international
agreements should play a role in our decisions to support them, just
as their positions on the issues of Nagorno-Karabagh and the Armenian
Genocide already do.

From: A. Papazian

ANOTHER SYRIAN-ARMENIAN VICTIM IN ALEPPO

2012-09-27 01:10:17

One of the two people, who were killed today in the explosions near
Gulbenkian School of Aleppo, is Armenian.

As “YERAKOUYN” Western Armenian website reports, National Primacy
spokesman Zhirayr Reyisyan has confirmed that 2 people have been
klled in the exlosions newr Gulbenkian School in Aleppo. One of them
is Armenian Vardan Mutafyan, and the other is a Christian Arab.

Vardan Mutafyan is a Der ez-Zor Armenian and had moved to Aleppo
in pursuit of a safer shelter. According to the preliminary data,
As Reyisyan reports, 4 people have been injured, but there are no
Armenians among them.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN OFFICER KILLED AS TENSION CONTINUES

Hurriyet Daily News
Sept 27 2012
Turkey

Azerbaijani forces killed an Armenian soldier on Sept. 25 on the
border between the two states, the Defense Ministry in Yerevan said.

“Serviceman Vaghinak Baghdasarian was killed by enemy fire,” a brief
defense ministry statement said without giving further details. The
soldier was the 15th reported killed this year amid clashes between
Armenian and Azerbaijani troops along their border and on the frontline
in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Tension between Yerevan and Baku is already high over Baku’s pardoning
of an extradited Azerbaijani soldier who had hacked an Armenian
to death.

Ramil Safarov, who had been incarcerated since 2004 in Hungary, where
he murdered an Armenian counterpart at a NATO event, was treated as
a hero upon his return and made a major. Yerevan reacted furiously to
the pardon and strongly condemned Baku, with Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan saying “making a hero out of a criminal is unacceptable”
and accusing Azerbaijan of endangering the region’s fragile peace.

Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan
in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 dead, and no final peace
deal has been signed since the cease-fire.

Azerbaijan has threatened to take back the disputed region by force
if negotiations do not yield results, while Armenia has vowed massive
retaliation against any military action.

From: A. Papazian

TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN ACADEMICS SEEK WAY TO BOOST BILATERAL RELATIONS

Today’s Zaman
Sept 26 2012
Turkey

Turkey and Azerbaijan, which have often been described as “one nation,
two states” since the early ’90s by the politicians of both countries,
should persist in their efforts to integrate more closely based on
the belief that they need to act in concert on foreign policy, as
both countries are facing real challenges while dealing with external
politics, Turkish and Azerbaijani academics agree.

“We are living in a globalized world of huge political difficulties,
which demands that we live in brotherhood and give each other a
helping hand. Turkish-Azerbaijani relations should serve as a model of
cooperation on issues of common interest to both sides in international
relations,” said Dr. Bulent Aras, chairman of the Turkish Foreign
Ministry’s Center for Strategic Research (SAM), while speaking to
professors and students at Azerbaijan’s Ganja State University during
“Turkey Week.”

Activities for “Turkey Week” have been organized by Turkey’s SAM
in cooperation with the Azerbaijan Presidential Office’s SAM, and
run from Sept. 23-27. As a part of Turkey Week activities, a group
of Turkish academics along with their Azerbaijani colleagues paid
a visit to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and then moved on to
two other cities, Ganja and Lenkeran. A third group of academics is
scheduled to visit Nakhichevan.

Participating in panel discussions titled “Turkey-Azerbaijan
Relations,” “Turkey’s Caucasus Politics in General,” and “Turkey’s
Foreign Policy in General” the academics debated issues that are of
importance in boosting bilateral relations.

“Turkey Week” in Azerbaijan comes after “Azerbaijan Week” was held
in Turkey last year, where the strategic research centers of the
two countries jointly organized a series of academic events in the
provinces of Trabzon, Erzurum, Igdır, Kars and Konya on Oct. 25-27
on the 20th anniversary of the independence of the Central Asian
Turkic republics.

In his opening speech at a ceremony kicking off “Turkey Week” at Ganja
State University, the head of Azerbaijan’s SAM, Farhad Mammadov,
said bilateral relations between the two countries are regularly
studied and that the aim of “Turkey Week” is to brief the Azerbaijani
audience on Turkey’s external policy in the region.

“Today’s Turkey is not the same as it was 10 years ago. Turkey is a
rising power with its economic growth and dynamic foreign policy in
the region,” Mammadov said adding: “We are very keenly interested
in getting to know Turkey’s political reality and what issues are
high on the country’s agenda. Only after figuring that out can we
introduce Azerbaijan’s policies and vision to the Turkish public as
well as contribute to the development and strengthening of bilateral
relations between the countries.”

Turkey can never overlook Nagorno-Karabakh

Based on the motto of “one nation, two states,” many think that
Azerbaijani-Turkish relations are built solely on common cultural,
ethnic and linguistic affiliation. “We should not forget the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which has colored Turkish-Azerbaijani
relations,” said Cihat Göktepe, rector of Antalya International
University, during a speech on one of the panels. Noting that the
football diplomacy which was launched when Turkish President Abdullah
Gul attended a football match in Armenia followed by a reciprocal
visit from his Armenian counterpart ushered in Turkey-Armenian
rapprochement process and hampered Turkish-Azerbaijani relations,
Göktepe said that Turks support Azerbaijan’s position and understand
that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations will happen only
after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is peacefully settled.

The football diplomacy, which started with Armenia in late 2008 and
resulted in the signing of two protocols one year later in Zurich,
hasn’t produced any breakthroughs in relations between Turkey and
Armenia yet, but it has enraged Azerbaijan as the territorial dispute
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven adjacent territories
between Armenia and Azerbaijan has not yet been solved.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with
Azerbaijan after Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of
Azerbaijan in 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The
Azerbaijani government was against the establishment of diplomatic
relations until the dispute was resolved in Baku’s favor. It has
already been more than two decades since the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group has been serving as
mediator between the two sides in order to find a peaceful solution
to the conflict with little result.

Calling Nagorno-Karabakh not only just an Azerbaijani territory, but
a territory belonging to the whole Turkic world, Aras said Turkey will
continue with its efforts to get the occupied Azerbaijani territories
back and strengthen bilateral relations. “The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
is a problem for all of us. It is also Turkey’s problem. It doesn’t
matter how much time passes, we will never give up on Nagorno-Karabakh,
as it is a Turkish, Muslim territory, it needs to be taken back,”
Aras concluded.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH EU MINISTER NAMES FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM AN INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM

Anadolu Agency
Sept 25 2012
Turkey

ANKARA (AA) -The Turkish EU minister has said the fight against
terrorism was not only Turkey’s problem, but an international matter.

“Turkey’s fight against terrorism is not only the problem of our
country, but it is an international matter. PKK [Kurdistan People’s
Congress, KGK] kills our citizens, but on the other hand it poisons
Europeans. By managing the biggest drug gang of Europe, it keeps
poisoning European youngsters. In that sense, we have common interests
with Europe and Europeans take the necessary steps on this issue,”
EU Minister & Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis told reporters during
his meeting with Belgian Ambassador to Turkey Pol de Witte in the
Turkish capital on Tuesday.

Bagis said the cooperation between Turkey and EU countries on
counter-terrorism activities was at a much better level nowadays,
saying even Denmark, which hosted Roj TV, had started to detain
PKK members.

“We keep on displaying every effort to make the sensitivities of our
nation be understood by Europeans,” he said.

Bagis noted that he would be leaving for Brussels on Wednesday to
hold a series of talks with Belgian authorities and officials from
the European Commission.

The minister also said Prince Philippe of Belgium, accompanied by a
crowded business delegation, would visit Turkey in mid-October and
details of the upcoming visit would be discussed during his meeting
with the Belgian ambassador.

“We attach great importance to this visit both in terms of bilateral
and commercial ties, and relations with the EU,” he said.

Upon a question on the latest news reports claiming that the draft
law penalizing the denial of Armenian allegations on incidents of
1915 would soon be brought to the agenda of the French parliament
again, Bagis said no decisions had been taken on the issue yet,
but the Turkish ambassador in Paris closely monitored the developments.

From: A. Papazian

MARCH 1 EVENTS COMMITTEE CREATION NOT DISCUSSED – PROSPEROUS ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net

March 1 events committee creation not discussed – Prosperous Armenia
September 26, 2012 – 17:34 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Prosperous Armenia hasn’t yet determined its position
on Armenian National Congress (ANC) proposal to set up an ad-hoc
committee for March 1, 2008 events, party member Naira Zohrabyan said.

As she told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, Prosperous Armenia MPs will
discuss the party’s stance on the issue, after ANC posts the proposal
on its official website.

Armenian National Congress (ANC) opposition bloc plans to introduce
a proposal on creation of an interim parliamentary committee for the
investigation of March 1, 2008 events.

As ANC MP, former judge advocate Gagik Jangiryan stated, the committee
will be engaged in investigation of the circumstances of the death
of 10 people and injuries of over 100.

Discovering the identities of perpetrators and providing financial
compensation to the families of the victims will be among the
committee’s main goals.

Jangiryan further expressed hope for the other parliamentary forces
to support the initiative. “That will be a test to find out who really
cares to probe the tragic events of March 1,” he said.

>From February 20, 2008, the Armenian opposition led by first president
Levon Ter-Petrossian, who ran for presidency in 2008, but was not
elected, held rallies in the central part of Yerevan, protesting
against the election results.

The protest actions resulted in unrest and clashes between the police
and rally participants on March 1-2. According to the Office of RA
Prosecutor General, around 200 people were injured, 10 people were
killed, and over 100 people were arrested.

From: A. Papazian

HALIDZOR FORTRESS IS A BARN (PHOTOS)

2012-09-26 23:42:38

Today our church culture, that has a centuries-old history, is in
helpless and hopeless condition. And often the tramplers are not only
enemies, but also “bearers” of the culture- Armenian people. Today
words of preserving our rich historical heritage , which is left
in the clutches of the Kurds and the Turks of Western Armenia are
heard everywhere and all the time, calls are made to fight- to go and
take the lands back, save Armenian churches, which have been turned
into houses, at best luck, and often into barns; final destructions
threatens to those. But how many of us pays attention to what goes on
today in Armenian churches and monasteries? At churches, which have
been shelter to an Armenian peasant when war and disaster, a peasant
who said a daily prayer to God. At churches where Armenian heroes –
Mamikonyan and Marzpetuni, Nzhdeh and David Bek fought for centuries
against their enemies, encouraged by the prayers of our sacred fathers.

Yesterday lurer.com had published an article, which touched the
issue of St. Karapet monastery, which has been turned into a barn by
the Kurds.

The response to that article was not late, but, unfortunately,
not from relevant bodies or NGOs, but from one of our readers, who
handed to lurer.com photos, showing how Armenian herdsmen turned
the already-restored Halidzor fortress, one of Armenian remarkable
architectural complexes of late middle ages, into a barn. The fortress
is on 1km south-west from the city of Kapan, on the right high bank of
Voghdji river. A nunnery-desert has been operating in the territory of
the fortress in the first half of the 17th century, which, after the
enclosure is serving as Melik Parsadanyans’ ancestral fortress. It
has become the center for the liberation of Syunik since 1720s,
due to its unachievable position.

David Bek and Mkhitar Sparapet destroyed a great number of Turkish
troops near the fortress of Halidzor in 1725-27.

This church complex, which has a rich history, is not an ordinary
temple or monastery, but the witness of one of the most remarkable
events of our history. And a question arises after this sad incident:
what does our “religious” nation, having a history of more than 1700
years, and our “religious” government think about this, and who are
the responsible bodies for this or similar situations?

Nelly Avetisyan

From: A. Papazian

BENCHES SET UP IN LOVERS’ PARK IN YEREVAN TO HONOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II

news.am
September 26, 2012 | 16:37

YEREVAN. – The British Embassy in Yerevan and the Boghossian Gardens
foundation will hold on Thursday an opening ceremony of benches
honoring the 60th anniversary of the UK Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

The benches symbolize the UK, while the statue of the Queen next to
benches will provide the visitors with an opportunity to take a photo
with Her Majesty.

The representatives of the Lovers’ Park and the Embassy will be
present at the opening ceremony, while UK Ambassador Katherine Leach
will deliver a speech.

From: A. Papazian