Author: Arsine Chaltikian

The European Court of Human Rights will be delivering a Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Perinçek v. Switzerland (application no. 27510/08) at a public hearing on Thursday 15 October 2015 at 11.45 a.m. in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, according to the Court’s website.

The case concerns the criminal conviction of a Turkish politician for publicly expressing the view, in Switzerland, that the mass deportations and massacres suffered by the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and the following years had not amounted to genocide.

The applicant, Doğu Perinçek, is a Turkish national who was born in 1942 and lives in Ankara (Turkey). He is a doctor of laws and chairman of the Turkish Workers’ Party. In 2005 Mr Perinçek participated in three public events in Switzerland, in the course of which he expressed the view that the mass deportations and massacres suffered by the Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 onwards had not amounted to genocide. The Switzerland-Armenia Association lodged a criminal complaint against Mr Perinçek on account of the statement made at the first event.

The investigation was later expanded to cover the two other statements as well. On 9 March 2007 the Lausanne District Police Court found him guilty of the offence under Article 261 bis § 4 of the Swiss Criminal Code, holding in particular that his motives appeared to be racist and nationalistic and that his statements did not contribute to the historical debate. The court ordered him to pay 90 day-fines of 100 Swiss francs each, suspended for two years, a fine of 3,000 Swiss francs, which could be replaced by 30 days imprisonment, and 1,000 Swiss francs in compensation to the Switzerland-Armenia Association for non-pecuniary damage.

Mr Perinçek appealed against the judgment, seeking to have it set aside and additional investigative measures taken to establish the state of research and the positions of historians on the events of 1915 and the following years. The Criminal Cassation Division of the Vaud Cantonal Court dismissed the appeal on 13 June 2007. The Federal Court dismissed a further appeal by Mr Perinçek in a judgment of 12 December 2007. Mr Perinçek complains that his criminal conviction and punishment for having publicly stated that there had not been an Armenian genocide was in breach of his right to freedom of expression under Article 10. He also complains, relying on Article 7 (no punishment without law), that the wording of Article 261 bis § 4 of the Swiss Criminal Code is too vague.

The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 10 June 2008. In a judgment of 17 December 2013 a Chamber of the Court held, by five votes to two, that there had been a violation of Article 10 of the Convention. The Swiss Government requested that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber under Article 43 (referral to the Grand Chamber), and on 2 June 2014 the panel of the Grand Chamber accepted that request. A Grand Chamber hearing was held on 28 January 2015. In the Grand Chamber proceedings, third-party comments were received from the Turkish Government, who had exercised their right to intervene in the case (Article 36 § 1 of the Convention). Third-party comments were also received from the Armenian and French Governments, who had been given leave to intervene in the written procedure. The Armenian Government were in addition given leave to take part in the hearing. Armenia was represented by human rights lawyers Amal Clooney and Geoffrey Robertson and Armenia’s Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan.

President Serzh Sargsyan attended today the opening of the RA Investigative Committee’s new building in Yerevan’s Arabkir Administrative District.

Armenia’s president toured the building, visited offices of different committee subdivisions, talked to some of the employees, familiarized himself with the working conditions provided for the Investigative Committee, including modern IT-based programs, e.g. digitalization of criminal cases, the electronic system of preliminary investigation, aimed at raising investigative officers’ work effectiveness.

Ambassador James Warlick, the lead U.S. negotiator in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process, has voiced the Obama Administration’s support for common-sense measures, advanced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY) and a growing number of their Congressional colleagues, to stop increased cease-fire violations along the Karabakh line of contact.

In a statement issued to H1 Television’s Haykaram Nahapetyan, Ambassador Warlick explained, “We fully support the initiatives proposed by Congressman Royce and Congressman Engel. Confidence building measures and people-to-people programs reduce tensions and lay the basis for a lasting peace. We have raised each of these initiatives with the parties and will continue to pursue all steps that can lead to a negotiated settlement,” concluded Warlick.

“We are pleased to see the Obama Administration joining with key Congressional leaders from both parties in supporting common-sense peacekeeping proposals for Nagorno Karabakh,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “These U.S.-backed life-saving initiatives have long been endorsed by both Artsakh and Armenia, but – at the cost of lives on both sides – rejected by the increasingly aggressive and isolated Azerbaijani regime of Ilham Aliyev.”

Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel are currently collecting Congressional signatures on a letter addressed to Ambassador Warlick – the U.S. representative to the OSCE’s Minsk Group tasked with reaching a resolution of Nagorno Karabakh-related security and status issues – specifically calling for the U.S. and OSCE to abandon their failed policy of false parity in responding to acts of aggression, noting that: “The longstanding U.S. and OSCE practice of responding to each new attack with generic calls upon all parties to refrain from violence has failed to de-escalate the situation. Instead, this policy of artificial evenhandedness has dangerously increased tensions. There will be no peace absent responsibility.”

The letter outlines three concrete pro-peace steps that would, “in the short-term, save lives and help to avert war. Over the longer term,” the letter notes, “these steps could contribute to a comprehensive and enduring peace for all the citizens of the region:”

— An agreement from all sides not to deploy snipers along the line of contact.

— The placement of OSCE-monitored, advanced gunfire-locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact.

— The deployment of additional OSCE observers along the line of contact to better monitor cease-fire violations.

Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have both expressed support for these life-saving initiatives; Azerbaijan has not.

ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian, Executive Director Aram Hamparian, Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian and the ANCA Eastern Region’s Armen Sahakyan met with Ambassador Warlick last week, in the immediate aftermath of the latest fatal Azerbaijani attacks against Armenia and Artsakh, expressing concern about the OSCE negotiators’ reluctance to clearly and unequivocally condemn Azerbaijan’s fatal ceasefire violations.

 

 

 

The recent escalation at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has revealed new problems on the Armenian media field, information security expert Samvel Martirosyan told a press conference today. This reminds him of a situation leading to the 2013 elections, when a huge number of websites with no owner and no journalists started disseminating misinformation and black PR, but disappeared after the elections.

According to the expert, the main objective is to attract visitors to the website to boost traffic.

“They started by posting ‘innocent’ materials, but started disseminating absurd information, when tensions increased. Those are mostly articles and videos raising panic,” Samvel Martirosyan said.

“Perhaps, the situation forces to implement censorship, which is a negative phenomenon and will work for the benefit of the society for two weeks only. Moreover, officials may use it to bloc anti-corruption materials,” he added.

The expert suggests applying ‘self-regulatory techniques’ to solve the problem. He also recommends to ignore websites, where every second article starts with the word “Urgent.”

Martirosyan warned that Azerbaijanis are creating fake Armenian websites to spread false information.

“More and more Azerbaijanis are ‘migrating’ to Armenian websites, aware that they will not find the truth in their media outlets,” the expert noted.

He concluded that any information published by media leaves a great psychological impact on the society. Therefore, before posting any news, it’s necessary to check the sources.

Liverpool hope to appoint Jurgen Klopp to replace  by the end of the week, the reports.

The former Borussia Dortmund coach is favourite to take over from the Northern Irishman, with ex-Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti also a contender.

German Klopp, 48, is understood to be open to the idea of a move.

Talks with his representatives are progressing well and the club want a new manager in place to prepare for a visit to Tottenham on 17 October.

In a statement issued by the League Managers’ Association on his behalf, Rodgers, 42, said he was “incredibly disappointed” his three-and-a-half-year tenure at Anfield was over.

Rodgers, who said he is in no rush to take another job, added the Reds squad was in transition but was showing a “strong sense of togetherness”.

More than 100 people were killed in South Sudan when an oil truck exploded as a crowd tried to gather fuel from the vehicle after it had veered off the road, a regional official said on Thursday, a day after the incident, Reuters reports.

In addition to those killed in Wednesday’s blast, Charles Kisagna, the minister of information in Western Equatoria, said about 50 people were seriously injured.

“We don’t have medical equipment and these people may not survive because we do not have the facilities to treat the highly burnt people,” he told Reuters, adding the truck had been travelling from the capital Juba to the Western Equatoria area.

Such incidents have happened before in the east African region where fuel tankers often have to travel long distances along potholed roads and pass through poor communities.

Five Turkish police officers were killed in two separate bomb attacks staged by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeastern provinces of Mardin and Hakkari late on Tuesday, Today’s Zaman reports. 

A bomb, planted by persons suspected to be militants linked to the PKK, was detonated when an armored police vehicle was passing by in the Demiryolu-Üçyol neighborhood. Three police officers were killed instantly, while another one was injured in the explosion. The wounded police officer was taken to Nusaybin State Hospital for treatment.

Dozens of police vehicles were dispatched to the area following the incident and the security services have launched a large-scale operation in the district to find the perpetrators.

In the second bomb attack, two police officers were killed and two others were injured after the terrorist PKK detonated explosives that it had planted on the Hakkari-Van Highway, which hit a police vehicle that was passing. The attack occurred in the southeastern province of Hakkari on Tuesday evening.

 

Earlier on Tuesday security sources said 12 Turkish soldiers were wounded when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb explosion in the province of Mus.

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

An unknown assailant threw a Molotov cocktail at the Armenian Consulate in Glendale, California, on August 10, an informed source who wished to remain anonymous told The California Courier.

Surveillance video cameras at the Consulate recorded a car stopping next to the Consulate building around 3 am. A passenger got out of the car and threw a bottle filled with flammable liquid after lighting it. The tossed object left burn marks on a small section of the outside wall of the building and scorched the branches of a nearby tree.

Glendale Police arrived at the Consulate moments after the assailants had fled the scene of the crime.

Both the Glendale Police Department and the U.S. State Department’s Security Office are vigorously investigating the attempted arson.

This is the first time that an Armenian diplomatic building has come under attack in the United States, and probably anywhere else in the world.

A Spokeswoman for the Glendale Police Department told The California Courier that she cannot make any comments as the incident is under ongoing investigation.

Armenian Sargis Parsikian, born in 1954, was killed as Damascus came under heavy rocket attack on Thursday, September 3, Lebanon-based Aztag daily reports.

The funeral will take place today at the Armenian St. Sarkis Church in Damascus.

The attacks on the city over the past few days have left tens dead and wounded.