Author: Andres-Papazian

THE EXTENT OF DISPUTED BANS

Today’s Zaman
Sept 18 2012
Turkey

Protests against the movie spread from Libya and Egypt across all
parts of the Muslim world. While the movie revived old debates over
the distinction between freedom of expression and insults or hate
crime, it is certain that the controversial movie mocking the Prophet
Muhammad was merely a provocation.

In his article titled “Can the US empathize with the protestors?” Yeni
Å~^afak’s Akif Emre says the film, which was clearly produced to be
used as a tool for provocation and anger, brought two old arguments
back onto the agenda: Muslims don’t grasp the West’s principle of
freedom of expression, and the West does not want to understand what
religious values mean for Muslims. Emre argues that this two-sided
claim points out the inherent contradiction between the principles of
the modern Western world and religion, specifically Islam. Secular
societies exclude religion from public life, and moreover they
question the legitimacy of every statement that refers to religion,
whereas religion can never be held separate from public life for
Muslims. And the political reason for the West failing to understand
and build empathy with Muslims is that it does not need to understand
this concept due to its hegemonic position.

Sabah columnist Emre Aköz focuses on debates over whether the
controversial film should be banned for hate crime and whether
insulting religion should be criminalized. Aköz says it is one of our
common mistakes to make a law or introduce a ban over a contemporary
event. The controversial US-made film is indeed horrible and bearing
the film in mind, plans to bring in such a ban on insulting religions
or religious figures sounds reasonable. “But life is not black and
white. There are many grey areas as well. Where will the line between
insults and comments about religion stand? Who will draw that line?”

Aköz asks. Drawing a parallel between this issue and Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code, criminalizing “defaming Turkishness,”
Aköz says this article has been wrongly used because of the obscure
definition of this “crime.” When somebody says the 1915 killings of
Armenians as the Ottoman Empire broke up was genocide, he could be sued
for “defaming Turkishness.” In this case, the article is wrongly used
with the excuse of “defending our nation” and the same situation might
occur for “defending religion.” It is really difficult to determine
when insulting religion becomes a crime, the columnist maintains.

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIJAN AND FRANCE TO DISCUSS NAGORNO-KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS

Vestnik Kavkaza
Sept 18 2012
Russia

Azerbaijani and French Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Francois
Hollande will discuss the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, head of the
socio-political section of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration
Ali Gasanov said, Trend reports.

Aliyev has arrived in Paris and will meet Hollande for the first
time today. The Azerbaijani leader will meet head of GDF-Suez Gerard
Mestrallet to discuss the Absheron Gas Field and water treatment,
Executive Vice President of Tecnip Philippe Barille to discuss Shah
Deniz-1 Field development and Executive Secretary of Total Christophe
de Margerie to discuss the fields of Absheron and Shah Deniz.

From: A. Papazian

PHILIP MORRIS GIVES 5.8 MILLION DRAMS TO ORRAN TO TRAIN CHILDREN FROM NEEDY FAMILIES

/ARKA/
18 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, September 18. / ARKA /. Philip Morris International has
provided Orran non-governmental organization with a 5.8 million dram
assistance to finance a program called The future is in your hands,
designed to train children from vulnerable families, the company said
in a statement.

“The purpose of the program is to assist 76 children registered with
Orran. They are from vulnerable families aged 6-15 years. The money
will be used to organize a needlework course for 30 children, wood
carving course for 18 and pottery course for 28 children,” according
to the statement.

The program will help prepare the children for unassisted life,
provide them with new skills and an opportunity to earn money for
their families by honest labor.

The products made by children will be offered for sale – 20% of
the proceeds will be paid to children and their teachers, and the
remaining 60% will be used to buy new materials for further work.

Employees of Philip Morris Armenia will regularly attend Orran to
monitor the progress of the program and its results.

>From 1997 to 2012 Philip Morris has directed 121 million drams to
various charity projects in Armenia to help the disabled, World War
II veterans, orphans, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia.

In 1988, when Philip Morris International was not present in Armenia,
it sent f 70 tons of food and other goods, worth $250,000 to help
people who survived the devastating earthquake.

From: A. Papazian

CRITICISM DOES NOT APPLY TO G. BEGLARYAN?

05:03 pm | Today | Politics

Minister of Transport and Communication Gagik Beglaryan interprets
the criticism leveled by Serzh Sargsyan at the structure headed by
him from a different point of view.

“The criticism applies to the past period,” he said.

According to Beglaryan, Serzh Sargsyan demands only one thing from the
ministry headed by him: “that we should eliminate the shortcomings
in our ministry as quickly as possible. We will clarify how quickly
we should eliminate”.

Chairing a consultation of the government recently, Serzh Sargsyan
expressed dissatisfaction with the existence of numerous problems in
various spheres such as urban development, transport and communication,
defense, healthcare, and especially the drug market.

By the way, today Minister Beglaryan took part in the 26th sitting
of the Commission on Regional Cooperation in Communication of CIS
member states.

Beglaryan has today reached an agreement with CIS member states on
retraining of our young specialists.

From: A. Papazian

MENTAL PATIENTS FORCED TO LOOK AFTER CATTLE

08:41 pm | Today | Social

Hunan Navoyan, a pateint of the Vardenis mental hospital, is grazing
a flock of hospital sheep in hills of Nerkin Shorzha.

Hunan was diagnozed with schizophrenia. He speaks inadibly in response
to most of our questions. Nevertheless, he is aware that nobody asked
his opinion when entrusting that job to him. «All of us are forced
to do such work, no one wants to do it».

It is 6 pm. Hunan says that he had a meal early in the morning. The
cattle of the hospital director have been entrusted to the care of
Mushegh Bagoyan, another patient who has epilepsy.

Mushegh had told the director that he was unwilling to tend cattle,
but nobody considered his opinion. In the words of the mentally ill
old man, the staff of the mental hospital often treats cruelly those
patients who make such complaints.

«They even beat us.They break all teeth in the mouth», he said during
a talk with «Hetq».

Mushegh has not eaten anything since morning. He is going to have a
snack in the evening. At the end of the conversation, Mushegh implores
the interlocutors to put in a word for him so that he will no longer
graze sheep. By the way, the mental hospital director denied the fact
that patients are forced to tend cattle. He said that their patients
just go out for a walk.

«It is a kind of medical therapy,» Nver Hovhannisyan said. «Hetq»

From: A. Papazian

PROFANATION DE L’EGLISE ARMENIENNE CATHOLIQUE DE ZALKA

armenews.com

mardi 18 septembre 2012

Des inconnus ont penetre par effraction a l’interieur de l’eglise de
la Croix, a Zalka, en banlieue de Beyrouth au Liban, relevant de la
communaute armenienne-catholique,

Les inconnus ont dechire des icônes et des images de saints installees
dans l’eglise, et on jete a terre et brise une statue representant
sainte Rita, precise le pretre de la paroisse P. Narek Louissian,
qui a appele les autorites a rapidement identifier les auteurs de la
profanation. Les forces de l’ordre et les responsables politiques
ont ete informes de ce forfait, que certains associent a la vague
de reprobation suscitee dans le monde par la projection d’un film
profondement offensant a l’egard des musulmans.

From: A. Papazian

CA SUFFIT !
Jean Eckian

armenews.com

mardi 18 septembre 2012

GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

Quoi qu’en disent certains, le processus genocidaire engage contre
le peuple armenien dès 1894, poursuit son oeuvre funeste motivee par
la haine et le racisme.

Gourgen Margarian, 26 ans, lieutenant de l’armee armenienne, decapite a
coups de hache dans son sommeil a Budapest par Ramil Safarov, 27 ans,
un officier azeri, lors de l’operation ” Partenariat pour la paix ”
sous l’egide de l’OTAN.

Hrant Dink, journaliste et un ecrivain turc d’origine armenienne,
53 ans, assassine par Ogun Samast, un nationaliste turc de 17 ans,
dans le quartier d’Osmanbey a Istanbul, devant les locaux de son
journal bilingue Agos.

Sevag Balikci, 25 ans, soldat turc d’origine armenienne, tue dans sa
caserne de Kozluk d’un coup de fusil par Kivanc Agaoglu, l’un de ses
camarades du contingent.

From: A. Papazian

APA
Sept 17 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku expresses concern about secrete arms deal with Armenia during
Ukrainian Defense Minister’s visit

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. Ukrainian Defense Minister Dmitriy
Salamatin, who is on a visit to Baku, discussed with Azerbaijani
side the issue on a secrete arms deal with Armenia. Military source
told APA.

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. Ukrainian Defense Minister Dmitry
Salamatin, who is on a visit to Baku, discussed with Azerbaijani
side the issue on a secrete arms deal with Armenia. Military source
told APA.

According to information, Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Safar Abiyev
told his counterpart that Official Baku is seriously concerned about
the issue.

Note that, there are the facts proving the secret deal between Armenia
and Ukraine in the middle of 2011. The document defines that Ukraine
delivered Armenia arms and military vehicles.

From: A. Papazian

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY DEMANDS REFORM IN EDUCATION

Today’s Zaman
Sept 17 2012
Turkey

Representatives of the Turkish-Armenian community have renewed their
plea for reform in education to eliminate the state of uncertainty
for children of illegal Armenian immigrant workers, who are not
considered officially eligible to receive education in state schools,
through receiving a valid diploma rather than being granted “guest
student status.”

Officials of the GedikpaÅ~_a Armenian Protestant Church, which opened
its doors last year to 84 students whose parents are undocumented
immigrants in Turkey from Armenia, are still awaiting a response to
their ongoing grievances.

The church officials are striving to provide education for 100 students
this school year under tough conditions, facing many legal and physical
challenges. The classes are held in the basement of the church and
some of the makeshift classrooms have no doors. The classrooms used to
be divided by curtains before board separators were recently installed.

“Churches do not only provide religious services. So we took
responsibility and took those children in,” Krikor Agabaloglu told
Today’s Zaman last year. However, the problems they face have not
changed since then.

Church officials and families are frustrated that nothing has changed
since last year as they tried to address the fact that “guest student
status” does not correspondent to the needs of Armenian immigrants’
students. The parents of these Armenian children were concerned because
guest student status would not be enough for their children, who needed
proof of their education in Armenia, where they planned to return.

Agabaloglu said granting “guest student status” was a deceptive move
and aims to silence the community. “Neither we nor any family are
happy with that. We call on the state to give our children a valid
certificate or a valid diploma.”

Regarding the status of illegal Armenian workers, he underlined that
the state prefers to name Armenian workers as immigrants rather than
illegal workers. If it considers them as immigrants, he noted that the
state has to recognize the right of education in their language for
Armenian students with regard to international norms for immigrants.

“The problem still prevails and there is no reason to think positively
about the current picture. No decision or policy of the state solved
the problem,” he said, expressing his disappointment on government
policies.

Turkey’s new academic year kicked off on Monday for around 17 million
students and 800,000 teachers, with a new education system that
increases the duration of compulsory education from an uninterrupted
eight years to 12 years. The introduction of the system has sparked
ongoing discussions over its practicability.

Beyond that, there are also serious challenges for the children of
illegal Armenian immigrants. Regarding children of “illegal Armenian
workers” if they are born in Turkey, their parents cannot apply for
Turkish citizenship for their child because they are undocumented
aliens. They cannot go back to Armenia, either, because then they
will not be able to return to Turkey. Therefore, the child is not
able to obtain an Armenian passport. According to laws in Turkey,
only Turkish citizens of Armenian descent are allowed at “Armenian
minority schools” in the country.

Since 2003, the number of students has gradually increased even though
the Turkish government has allowed those children to be accepted in
local Armenian schools as “guest students” this school year.

Highlighting that they praised what Turkey had done for Myanmar, which
is not a familiar place for most people in Turkey, Agabaloglu said that
the state should show the same sensitivity towards its own citizens.

“Any child cannot be kept responsible for the festering problems
between two states [Turkey and Armenia]. Turkey could lose nothing but
would gain a lot by providing a future to these children. This could
easily bring prestige to Turkey in the international arena,” he stated.

Seda Movsisyan, 11, who has been living in Turkey with her family
for 10 years, said they are living with the dream of gaining Turkish
citizenship.

“I have come to this church since I was a first grader. Two years from
now, I will complete my eight-year education but this does not help
anything because I will not be given a diploma or a valid certificate.

So I will be treated as if I have never gone to school. This really
upsets us,” the young student said. Movsisyan urged the prime minister
to understand their situation and to help them.

Heriknaz Avagyan, the school principal, said the classrooms are very
small and the church garden not large enough for lectures. They are
trying to provide an education under adverse conditions in the church
basement. A total of 100 students are educated at the GedikpaÅ~_a
Armenian Protestant Church, while 10 teachers work there.

From: A. Papazian

YOU CAN’T KEEP GOOD CLUBS DOWN, EVEN IF THEY DON’T HAVE A PLACE TO CALL HOME

The Times (London)
September 17, 2012 Monday
UK

by Gabriele Marcotti

This is the story of two neighbouring football teams, who, in a normal
world, really should be playing regular derbies, since their grounds
are less than half an hour away from each other. Once upon a time,
in the days of the Soviet Union, they did just that.

Except, you see, there’s a problem. One team’s ground is a pile of
rubble in a ghost town with a population of zero, excluding stray
dogs. Which is why, until 2009, they played their football in exile,
a six-hour bus ride away. The other club’s stadium is fine. The problem
is, as far as Fifa is concerned, it is in a state that does not exist.

Which is why the team moved 200 miles away to another country, renamed
themselves after that nation’s capital and played in its league for
a decade, just so that they could be part of world football.

Then, in 2007, they returned home because a sense of identity can be
more important than being in the nether regions of Fifa’s football
pyramid.

The irony is that both clubs have historically had the same name:
Karabakh in English, Garabag in Armenian, Qarabag in Azerbaijani.

Today, one is called FK Qarabag and plays in the Azerbaijani league;
the other is known as Lernayin Artsakh Stepanakert, but was previously
called Karabakh Stepanakert (and, during its time in exile in the
Armenian capital of Yerevan, Karabakh Yerevan).

Were it not for the Dutch writer-photographer duo of Arthur Huizinga
and Dirk-Jan Visser, whose book was recently published in the
Netherlands, most of us would never have heard about these clubs and
their fans. When we think of the disintegration of the Soviet Union,
we usually do so in the context of the end of the Cold War and the
diminished threat of nuclear annihilation. Yet one of the side-effects
of independence was that age-old ethnic disputes could now bubble over.

So, about 20 years ago, the majority Armenian enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh in the newly independent country of Azerbaijan became
the scene of ethnic fighting. By the time a ceasefire was reached,
in May 1994, thousands were dead and the Armenian army had control
of the region, even as it remained a part of Azerbaijan. Eighteen
years on, the Nagorno-Karabakh is still in limbo, a state that is
recognised only by three other non-UN states.

Stepanakert, left with no league to play in, joined the Armenian
league. Fifa would not allow them to play in Armenia, however, since
they were technically from Azerbaijan. So the club moved to the
Armenian capital, changed their name and basically played in empty
stadiums for a decade, before returning home in 2009.

Qarabag had to move, too, mainly because their home town, a city of
nearly 50,000, no longer exists. Aghdam, were Qarabag had been based
since their founding in 1951, was an Azeri base during the conflict
and was flattened by Armenian artillery. Among the worst-hit was
their ground, the Imarat Stadium.

As a result, Qarabag moved to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. To the
refugees, living in tents outside what had been Aghdam, it became a
critical point of reference, a link to the recent past. Most weekends,
busloads of Qarabag supporters would pile into buses to make the
12-hour round trip to Baku, watch their team play and, perhaps,
keep their town’s flame burning.

Qarabag were actually quite successful, qualifying for European
football on a number of occasions. But, still, hundreds of miles away
from home, the club felt rootless and disenfranchised.

Whether or not we ever get a happy ending to this tale now depends on
the diplomats and the politicians, which suggests that it’s a good
idea not to hold your breath. Instead, you’re grateful for little
things. Three years ago, Qarabag were finally allowed to move closer
to home. (Going home, of course, would ” be impossible, since it no
longer exists.) They now play in the Quzanli Olympic Stadium. It’s a
tiny, 2,000-seat ground, but at least it’s only a few few miles away
from where Aghdam once stood and is easily accessible to the tens of
thousands of displaced refugees.

As for Stepanakert, they are still not on anyone’s football map and
likely will not be for a long time. But Nagorno-Karabakh at least now
has its own national team. They are unrecognised, of course, which
means that they are footballing pariahs and any Fifa member who play
even a friendly against them face a ban. But there’s no shortage of
unrecognised footballing nations in the world today. There’s talk of
a friendly against Abkhazia and possibly Kosovo.

Football has a way of enduring, even when pitted against the
self-destructive stupidity of mankind.

One team’s ground is a not recognised by Fifa ” pile of rubble. The
other club are in a state that is.

From: A. Papazian