Author: Babajanian Karo

ASAS IN CALIFORNIA COLLEGES TO HOST SILENT PROTESTS CONDEMNING GENOCIDE DENIAL

asbarez
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

ALL ASA to hold silent protest Thursday

LOS ANGELES-On Thursday, January 26 California universities will be
hosting simultaneous silent protests on their respective campuses.

Demonstrations, coordinated by The Confederation of All-Armenian
Students Associations, will take place at UCLA, USC, UCSD, UC
Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, Loyola Marymount
University, Occidental College, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Los
Angeles, and Glendale Community College. Members of the Armenian Youth
Federation and ARF Shant Student Association will also participate.

The Stain of Denial, as the events is titled, aims at educating the
greater campus community about the Armenian Genocide and the ensuing
denial campaign by the government of Turkey. The ASA’s have partnered
with various on-campus organizations to protest the continuous
repression of justice. On the heels of the passage of legislation
criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial in the French Senate, we demand
that the government of the United States, like France, can stand
up to empty political bullying from Turkey and properly condemn the
Armenian Genocide. The United States, following the French example,
should continue the fight against genocide denial and reject Turkey’s
gag rule.

Students, faculty, and community members are invited to commemorate the
memories of the millions killed in the Armenian Genocide and to take
action for recognition of the atrocities. Please contact the Armenian
Student Association nearest you or visit for
more information.

Classified as the first genocide of the 20th century, the Armenian
Genocide claimed the lives of 1.5 million people and forced the
dispersion of Armenians throughout the world. The Republic of Turkey,
descendants of the Ottoman Empire, have led a denial campaign in an
attempt to stave off responsibility, setting a cyclical precedent for
the repression of justice.The United States, under political pressure
from Turkey, has refused to acknowledge the events by its rightful
classification. As Armenian-Americans, we believe that politics and
humanity need to be held in separate realms. Genocide is a punishable
crime and ignorance on the part of other countries further encourages
the tactics of denialists.

The Confederation of All- Armenian Student Associations is a league of
Armenian college student organizations that promote communication and
collaboration amongst the constituent organizations. All-ASA provides
a forum through which organizations can announce events, publicize
activities, and share ideas regarding the Armenian college community.

The formulation of All-ASA events and programs are run through a
series of committees, hosted by individual constituent organizations.

FAMOUS TURKISH WRITER TO SUE HIS ARMENIAN EX-GIRLFRIEND

news.am
January 25, 2012 | 00:04

ANKARA. – Famous Turkish writer, Noble Prize winner Orhan Pamuk warned
his Armenian ex-girlfriend Karolin Fisekci through his lawyer to stop
talking about him with or without any reason.

Pamuk’s lawyer stated that Fisekci is not Pamuk’s girlfriend anymore
and warned the woman to stop talking on that topic. Otherwise Pamuk
will solve it through court, Turkish Posta reports.

After the statement, Karolin claims that she is shocked by his words
being at the same time still his girlfriend.

“It is a misunderstanding, or I was just being used. It will be right
to meet and talk,” she told.

To note, Pamuk and Fisekci were seen together several months ago,
then it turned out to be that they are dating.

ARMENIA AND IRAN TO SHARE EXPERIENCE ON TRANSPORTATION, RECYCLING AND ENVIRONMENT

news.am
January 24, 2012 | 18:21

YEREVAN. – Yerevan city Mayor Taron Margaryan met the Iranian
Ambassador to Armenia Seyed Ali Saghaiyan.

The mayor mentioned that a long-term cooperation experience has been
established between the local authorities of the two countries and
that experience must be expanded and strengthened with the help of
practical projects.

“Yerevan city hall cooperates with the city halls of Isfahan, Tabriz,
Shiraz and Tehran. We are ready to discuss programs concerning all
areas of the urban economy,” Taron Margaryan mentioned.

The mayor stressed the cooperation in the environment area and
expressed hope that the cooperation will continue in the future
as well.

The Iranian Ambassador stressed the importance of partnership in
areas like transportation unloading, waste recycling and environmental
issues.

TURKEY ATTACKS FRANCE OVER ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL

Daily Telegraph
24 Jan 2012
UK

Turkey has warned Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, against
signing a law that makes it a crime to deny that the killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted a genocide.

Franco-Turkish demonstrators wave French and Turkish flags near the
French Senate in Paris Photo: EPA/IAN LANGSDON9:11AM GMT

France’s parliament approved the bill late on Monday, risking more
sanctions from Turkey and complicating an already delicate relationship
with the rising power.

Turkey, which sees the allegations of genocide as a threat to
its national honour, has already suspended military, economic and
political ties and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when
the lower house of parliament approved the same bill.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday strongly condemned the decision,
and called it an example of irresponsibility. It said the law should
not be finalised to “avoid this being recorded as part of France’s
political, legal and moral mistakes.”

Mr Sarkozy, whose party supported the bill, needs to sign it into law,
but that is largely considered a formality.

“We find it useful to remind all parties that, in case of the
completion of the finalisation process for the law, we will not
hesitate to implement, as we deem appropriate, the measures that we
have considered in advance,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said.

“Similarly, it must be also known that we will continue to strongly
use our right to defend ourselves on a legitimate basis against
unfair allegations.”

The debate surrounding the measure comes in the highly charged run-up
to France’s presidential elections this spring, and critics have
called the move a ploy by Sarkozy to garner the votes of the some
500,000 Armenians who live in France.

“It is further unfortunate that the historical and multidimensional
relations between the Republic of Turkey and France have been
sacrificed to considerations of political agenda,” Turkey said. “It
is quite clear where the responsibility for this lies.”

FRENCH BILL AGAIN

Today’s Zaman
Jan 24 2012
Turkey

While I was writing this article, I joined a live discussion on the
BBC world service.

The topic, of course, was the French genocide denial bill. For a while
I listened to the discussion between a Turkish academic and a British
lady. The Turkish gentleman was repeating all those well-known axioms:
“This discussion should be left to historians, no one denies in Turkey
that tragic things happened in 1915, but these events cannot be labeled
as genocide,” so on and so forth. The British lady was well-prepared
for this defensive denialist attitude and advanced strong arguments
showing that 1915 events were indeed genocide, and she was beating
the Turkish guy with her well-tuned “civilized manner.” The Turkish
guy may not be aware of it, but his remarks had no meaning for anyone
outside of Turkey.

Then I joined the discussion, and I tried to make my point. I said:
“It is not relevant to discuss whether the 1915 events were genocide
or not, but rather we should discuss if this French genocide bill
will help Turkey to confront its past. There are people in Turkey,
including myself, who believe what happened in Turkey in 1915 was
indeed a genocide and who try to bring this subject to the attention
of the Turkish public. This French bill, however, took hostage all
these discussions, giving strength to Turkish nationalists only,
and nowadays, we cannot discuss anything but this genocide bill.”

Then the British lady took the floor once again and stated quite
confidently that what I was saying “is another way of blackmailing.”

At this exact moment, I lost my temper, and I said something like,
“Look, I have been defending human rights in Turkey for the last 20
years and fighting against this nationalist mentality, which carried
out all these massacres, it is very easy for you speaking like that
sitting there…” And all of a sudden, we came to the end of the
program. I did not have a chance to share all my thoughts.

After the discussion, I found myself pondering different things.

Everyone may be right about his or her respective positions.

Armenians, for example, may ask how long they should wait for Turkey
to come to terms with recognizing what happened in 1915. Some Europeans
may think that without this kind of outside pressure, Turkey will never
discuss what happened in the past. However, I strongly believe the
French move and others like it are only delaying Turkey’s inevitable
confrontation with its past; this is the only purpose they serve.

Does France really want Turkey to confront its past, to see a more
democratic Turkey, to see Turkey as a good neighbor to Armenia? Why
then it is so strongly against Turkey’s accession to the EU? Why
then does it try to push Turkey off the European map? Perhaps French
President Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to kill a few birds with one stone:
He will get more votes from Armenians; he will advance his agenda
of killing Turkey’s chances to join the EU by provoking Turkey into
giving these primitive reactions to this French bill and showing all
the world that Turkey has not taken any step toward democratization,
but rather it repeats its past, etc.

I repeat in this column many times, Sarkozy and like-minded people in
Europe share the same agenda with some Turkish nationalists and with
the Turkish deep state. They all want to end Turkey’s progress toward
becoming a member of the EU. They want to see an isolated Turkey. To
whose benefit would such a Turkey be? The Greeks? The Cypriots? The
Armenians? The Muslim world? Whom?

Some Armenians may think Sarkozy is trying to help them force Turkey to
recognize the Armenian genocide, and thus, they will protect Armenia
and so on. However, if they pay more attention, they could easily see
that Sarkozy’s mind works in exactly the same manner as the people
who did terrible things to Armenians in 1915 in Anatolia. They are all
nationalist, they are all short-sighted and they are all Machiavelists,
who believe they could do anything to advance their political agenda!

ARMENIA REJECTED RUSSIA’S PLAN ON GARABAGH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

Azerbaijan Business Center
Jan 24 2012

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Armenia has rejected the Russia’s actual proposal
to exchange the settlement of the Garabagh conflict for big economic
projects.

Yesterday, in Sochi, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested to
his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan to discuss new large projects
after the most important regional issue – peaceful settlement of
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno Garabagh conflict.

The proposal was not passed if to judge on the final statement made
by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Serzh Sargsyan of
Armenia and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia following the results
of their trilateral meeting.

According to Azerbaijani Presidential Administration’s press service,
the statement says that the three presidents claimed that as a result
of intense negotiations it was achieved progress in the coordination
of the Basic Principles of the Nagorno Garabagh settlement.

“Given the importance of the transition to the development of a peace
agreement, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan expressed their
willingness to accelerate the achievement of agreement on the Basic
Principles taking into account the work done so far,” the statement
says.

The Presidents also reaffirmed that one of the confidence-building
measures in the context of the Garabakh conflict was the development
of cultural contacts between the parties.

“In this connection, the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
declared their readiness for further dialogue among representatioves
of intellectuals, scientific and social circles,” the statement says.

TURKEY WARNS FRANCE AS GENOCIDE LAW IS PASSED
Scott Sayare and Sebnem Arsu

Sydney Morning Herald

Jan 25 2012

RELATIONS between France and Turkey have hit a new low as the French
Senate approved a bill making it a crime to deny the 1915 killings
of Armenians as genocide.

Turkey’s Prime Minister, anticipating the bill’s passage, called the
move “incomprehensible” and pledged to “take steps”.

Turkey has already suspended military co-operation, bilateral political
agreement and economic contracts with France, and on Monday raised
the possibility of withdrawing support for Euronews, an international
news network based in France, in which Turkey’s radio and television
network holds a 15.5 per cent stake.

After lengthy debate, the Senate voted 127 to 86 in favour of the
legislation, as hundreds of Turks and Armenians demonstrated outside.

If signed into law by President Nicolas Sarkozy, the legislation would
call for up to one year in prison and a fine of ~@45,000 ($A55,435)
for those who deny an officially recognised genocide.

The bill does not specifically refer to the estimated 1.5 million
Armenians slaughtered under the Ottoman Turks, but France recognises
only those deaths and the Holocaust as genocides and already
specifically bans Holocaust denial.

In Turkey, public affirmation of the Armenian genocide is a crime, on
the premise it is an insult to Turkish identity. In March, writer Orhan
Pamuk was fined $US3670 ($A3492) by a Turkish court for his statement
that Turkey had killed “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians”.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, warned of “permanent
sanctions” if the bill passed.

ROW CONTINUES BETWEEN FRANCE AND TURKEY

Voice of Russia
Jan 24 2012

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has surprised the public
when, instead of announcing new sanctions he had been expected to
impose on France, he simply criticized the French Senate’s decision
and called for tolerance. The Upper House of France had adopted a
draft bill which envisages that anybody who denies the genocide of
Armenians will face a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 Euros.

Traditionally, the Turks have been very sensitive to any criticism
of the events of 1915. But what upset the most was that historical
reality has been transferred into politics. On the 22nd of December
when the Lower House of the French parliament approved the bill on
genocide denial, rumours engulfed that President Nicolas Sarkozy
had there by wanted to secure the support of France’s large Armenian
Diaspora in the forthcoming presidential elections.

“France has several items on its agenda in relation to Turkey. These
include obstructing Turkey’s bid to join the European Union
and preventing it from increasing its influence in the Eastern
Mediterranean. The third one is Sarkozy’s and his supporters’ have
covert hatred towards Turkey. This is not just an attempt to win the
votes ahead of the elections, but it’s also France’s general attitude
towards Turkey,” an international affairs journalist at the Turkish
daily “Milliyet” Semikh Idiz said in an interview with the Voice
of Russia.

After the bill was approved by the Lower House of French parliament
in December, Prime Minister Erdogan announced a package of eight
sanctions against France. The Sabakh, an influential Turkish daily
published a provisional list of sanctions which Turkey intended to
impose against France. These included the expulsion of the French
Ambassador to Ankara, the suspension of political cooperation on
the Syrian issue, a ban on French ships and aircraft from entering
Turkey’s ports and airports, a boycott of purchase of Airbus planes and
exerting efforts to persuade other PACE members to adopt anti-French
policies. In addition to this, according to Turkish daily Milliyat,
French companies will be banned from taking part in Turkish tenders.

The Turkish public kept a close eye on what went on in the French
Senate Monday evening and night. Television channels broadcast live
debates and there were interviews taken in the streets of Paris. Many
politicians criticized the document during their interviews.

Commenting on the French Senate’s decision, Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davtoglu said: “This decision will put the European values under
threat. If the parliament bases its decision on its own approach
towards history taking into account internal political decisions,
an era of inquisition will descend on Europe. Any books opposing
these views will be burned. People who express any opinion or make
any statement of historical analysis which will be at variance with
the adopted views will be sent to prisons. We all know that things
like these took place during the inquisition in the Middle Ages. It’s
a disgrace for France to revive them”.

Turkish Ambassador to Paris Tahsin Burcouglu also emphasized that
this decision was a big mistake.

“The decision made by the Senate does a great injustice to Turkey
and shows a lack of respect for it,” Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin
told CNN-Turk.

However, as for Prime Minister Erdogan, he confined himself to mere
criticism of the move. “The bill adopted in France is discriminative
and racist and is a deadly blow to freethinking. As far as we are
concerned, it is not a law”. Such a decision by the Prime Minister
could be seen as his unwillingness to take any hasty steps since the
Senate’s decision can still be appealed. Prime Minister announced
that the sanctions against France would be implemented step-by-step.

In the meantime, Turks are planning to attempt to bring discussion
on the introduction of a criminal responsibility for denying genocide
of Armenians to the European Court of Human Rights.

TURKEY WARNS FRANCE OVER ‘RACIST’ GENOCIDE BILL
By George Thomas

Christian Broadcasting Network

Jan 24 2012

Turkey is urging French President Nicolas Sarkozy not to sign a bill
that would make it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide.

France’s parliament approved the genocide bill late Monday.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the decision
“racist,” and within hours of the vote his countrymen were reacting.

“I condemn France. I’m boycotting all things French and I’m not buying
any French products,” said Recep Ayanoglu, a resident of Istanbul.

“I think our country should retaliate for this action,” Istanbul
teacher Irfan Canturk added.

Historians say around 1.5 million Christians were killed in what is
now eastern Turkey during World War I, and was the 20th Century’s
first genocide.

Armenians claim the 1915 killings were part of a deliberate policy
of genocide ordered by the Ottoman Turk government.

Turkey has denied the charge for years and has said many Turks also
died as the Ottoman Turk Empire disintegrated.

In Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, citizens awoke Tuesday morning
to the news that the French had voted 127-86 to pass the bill.

“This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship
between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the
history of the protection of human rights worldwide,” said Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

Under the measure, anyone who denies the killings were genocide will
be jailed up to a year and fined around $57,000.

Twenty countries including Germany, Sweden, Russia and Canada recognize
the violent acts in 1915 as genocide. Forty-three U.S. states have
done so as well.

The bill requires Sarkozy’s signature in the next 15 days to become
law.

FRANCE MAKING IT A CRIME TO DENY ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Newser

Jan 24 2012

Turkey expected to withdraw ambassador

(Newser) – If you are in France and deny that Turkey committed
“genocide” against 1.5 million Armenians in 1915-1916, be prepared
to be fined $57,000 and spend a year in jail. Actually, the new
legislation applies to genocide denial in general, but it is the
law’s application to the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey
nearly 100 years ago that has Turkey furious-and Armenia elated,
of course-reports the BBC.

“This day will be written in gold not only in the history of friendship
between the Armenian and French peoples, but also in the annals of the
history of the protection of human rights,” says the Armenian foreign
affairs minister. Turkey is expected to withdraw its ambassador to
France in protest. (Sound familiar?) “France opened a black page
in its history,” tweeted the head of Turkey’s foreign relations
committee. Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to sign it into law next month.