Author: Babajanian Karo

ANKARA MET EN GARDE LE PS A PROPOS DU TEXTE SUR LES GENOCIDES
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 20 janvier 2012

Un responsable du ministère turc des Affaires etrangères a declare
lundi que le Parti socialiste risquait de nuire aux relations entre
Paris et Ankara après l’election presidentielle francaise s’il ne
s’oppose pas au projet de loi visant a penaliser la negation des
genocides.

Le Senat francais, où la gauche est majoritaire, doit examiner le
23 janvier la proposition de loi UMP, adoptee le 22 decembre par
l’Assemblee nationale, visant a penaliser la negation des genocides
reconnus en France, notamment celui des Armeniens en 1915 sous
l’Empire ottoman.

Le Parlement francais a adopte definitivement en 2001 une loi qui
dispose que “la France reconnaît publiquement le genocide armenien
de 1915”.

Le PS a laisse entendre la semaine dernière que la majeure partie
des senateurs de gauche voteraient la proposition de loi.

“Le message que nous essayons de faire entendre au Parti socialiste et
a Francois Hollande, c’est que vous prendrez un mauvais depart avec
la Turquie si vous votez cela”, a declare a Reuters a l’ambassade
de Turquie a Paris Kaya Turkmen, directeur general pour l’Europe au
ministère turc des Affaires etrangères.

Turkmen, qui a ete par le passe comme diplomate a Paris, sejourne
actuellement dans la capitale francaise, et y restera jusqu’au vote
de la semaine prochaine.

Si la proposition de loi finit par etre adoptee, Ankara pourrait
rappeler de nouveau son ambassadeur, qui etait revenu a Paris au
debut du mois, et les entreprises francaises pourraient perdre des
contrats passes d’Etat a Etat, a prevenu Turkmen.

DINK CASE IS ACTUALLY CONFRONTATION WITH 1915 EVENTS
ERGUN BABAHAN

Today’s Zaman
Jan 20 2012
Turkey

Tens of thousands of people that come together in Ä°stanbul’s Å~^iÅ~_li
district every year, disregarding rainy or chilly weather, clearly
indicate that the murder of Hrant Dink caused a social trauma.

Consciences are wounded because even those who followed the case via
the newspapers see the Turkish state had a finger in the murder, and
that the state has busted a gut to hide its involvement in the murder.

The protestors realize this case is a small-scale repetition of the
1915 events. Similarly, a group of people who wanted to save the
country decided on the deportation of all Armenians, including women
and children, in 1915. The decision to deport hundreds of thousands
of people from Turkey was tantamount to killing them because of the
long journey.

When the truth about the deportation came out, there was a huge uproar
in the West but ending World War I was everyone’s main concern.

Members of the Committee of Union and Progress who saw the Ottoman
Empire governors toppled meticulously destroyed the documents
concerning the deportation of Armenians. They were the key element
of the new regime that was founded in Turkey within a republic system.

On the one hand, the Republic denied and rejected the remnants of the
Ottoman Empire, and it tried to remove the language and traditions
of the Ottoman Empire. On the other hand, it tried to make people
forget about this massacre.

Murders carried out by ASALA, an Armenian terrorist group, were
needed to readdress the forgotten Armenian issue. However, the main
confrontation started in the last five years.

The fact that the military tutelary lost power and its effect on
academicians and the media world paved the way for this issue to be
studied and investigated, and discussed freely.

Hrant was murdered because he pointed out the massacre. In the lead-up
to his murder, first, issues were broadcast that caused Hrant Dink to
be perceived as “an enemy of Turks” in the opinion of general public.

And a sentence of imprisonment was given to him. Now, the clues
indicating this horrible cooperation are being found one by one.

People in streets can clearly see the process of cooperation that
started with Veli Kucuk and Kemal Kerincsiz and extended to the
columnists of big newspapers. People now see through the state better.

The murder indicates the existence of a gangster state that doesn’t
abstain from killing its own citizens because of their ethnic or
religious origins and sees human as pawns that may be manipulated
for its goals.

Within the state, there are still remnants of this understanding that
started with the toppling of the Ottoman sultans in the past and moved
on to the killings of citizens that stood against the impositions
of the state in the republican era. This mindset still exists among
police, in the gendarmerie, judiciary, media and universities.

Eliminating this mindset will not be easy, but the scenes we saw
in the streets of Å~^iÅ~_li on Thursday indicated that thousands of
people, who are neither interested nor not interested in politics,
are for confrontation and eliminating this mindset.

These people, who cried as they heard Hrant’s favorite Armenian
ballads and demanded the people responsible for the murder of Armenian
intellectuals in 1915 be called to account, featured the voice of
humanity in Å~^iÅ~_li. This was a crowd of people that had learned
that corruption and dark games occurred in the recent past. This
was a crowd that had learned about the corruption of this structure,
which calls itself a state.

We are more bothered by the murder of Hrant than the murder of other
intellectuals.

We know the murderers of Ugur Mumcu and Cetin Emec couldn’t be found.

However, the fact that the murder of Hrant has attempted to be hushed
up wounds our feelings. It’s because, deep inside, we know this isn’t
only about killing a person, but it is the last of a series of murders
that has been going on for 100 years. Therefore, this case will not
be closed here.

WINTER OF DISCONTENT

Today’s Zaman
Jan 20 2012
Turkey

It was a beautiful winter day in Ä°stanbul. The sun was shining onto
the city, the sky was clear. Given the -12 degrees I experienced the
night before at Ankara EsenboÄ~_a Airport it was an agreeable day.

The reason for my journey to the majestic city was of course to pay
respect to the memory of Hrant Dink and express my disgust with
the recent verdict which demonstrated in no uncertain terms that
Turkeyâ~@~Ys deep state is unwilling to surrender.

I met up with Yavuz Baydar and Abdülhamit Bilici and marched together
the Agos daily where Dink was murdered in broad daylight five years
ago. There were a number of observations I need to mention here. The
crowd was less than I expected, but other than the quantity the quality
of the crowd was very impressive. A good number of high profile Turks
were there. Turks of very divergent political persuasions filled
the crowd, politicians, artists, journalists, Muslims, Christians,
atheists, young and old, men and women, with and without headscarves,
they were all there to express their outrage at the mockery displayed
in the Hrant Dink murder trial.

The primary message which the rally should have been based on is the
slogan, â~@~This case cannot be closed as suchâ~@¦â~@~] This should
have been the uniting message around which all the various groups
could have come together. It is, after all, the desire to see justice
prevail and the links inside the state apparatus exposed that these
crowds shared. I agree with Markar Esayan that no one becomes Armenian
by chanting, “We are all Hrant — we are all Armenians,” but
unfortunately decades of republican nation-state building has made
such messages problematic for ordinary Turks and thus unnecessarily
alienates people. From a strategic perspective I would focus on other
messages that would broaden the coalition of people who will continue
to raise their voices against the attempts to cover the murder up. That
said, it is up to the family and the Agos newspaper to decide what
sort of messages they wish to convey — mine is friendly advice.

The Hrant Dink case has revealed considerable pessimism over the
continued strength of the deep state. The Kurdish issue remains in
the minds of all of us and there are very few answers that offer hope.

There is substantial soul searching and disillusion among intellectual
circles. Most seem to have concluded that the current Parliament will
not be able to draft a proper constitution. If the economy worsens as
is expected this year, not to mention the complications we face in the
foreign policy arena there is little reason to be optimistic about
the coming months. One wishes to be wrong about these predictions,
but there is no doubt that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
is likely to face more challenges in the public domain.

Hrant’s murder has become a test case for instituting a normal
democracy and the upholding of the rule of law in this country. It
constitutes a prime case that will determine whether the optimism
of recent years was real or whether we simply experienced partial
and incomplete victories that can easily be reversed. Is the deep
state still alive and kicking or have we seen only a rare anomaly? The
handling of the Supreme Court of Appeals will be critical in answering
these questions. This is the case and this is the time to expose the
cancer deep inside the state. Unless we are willing to go until the
very end and hold these people accountable we will live under the
risk of being targeted by this entity every day.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS CALLS FOR PRESIDENT’S RESIGNATION

Vestnik Kavkaza
Jan 20 2012
Russia

The Armenian National Congress (ANC) has started a series of protests
which will last until February 17, demanding resignations of President
Serzh Sargsyan and formation of a mechanism for fair parliamentary
polls, News Armenia reports.

The congress passed an electoral platform with description of fair and
clear elections. One of the main demands is a proportional electoral
system for parliament. It is also discussed by two parliamentary
forces.

The Heritage Fraction of parliament and the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation Dashnaktsutyun filed a letter with legislative changes
to switch from the majority electoral system to the proportional one
on Thursday.

The Armenian National Congress was formed on August 1, 2008. It
consists of less than 20 political parties and organizations. It
main demands are off-year parliamentary and presidential polls. The
Armenian ruling coalition consists of the Republican Party, Prosperous
Armenia and Orinats Yerkir.

FRENCH CONNECTION LEADS TO SCOTLAND

Herald Scotland

Jan 20 2012

TIGRAN Hamasyan is describing how, as an Armenian experiencing the
culture shock of being transplanted to Los Angeles, he managed to
make connections that took him out of the house and on to the stage.

Not knowing anyone and feeling isolated as he confined himself to
lonely piano practice, he suddenly noticed that a familiar name was
playing in town and decided to go down to the club.

“It’s going to sound weird but there I was in Los Angeles, where
there’s any number of great musicians,” he says. “But I actually
had to use a connection I’d made in France to start meeting people
in America. Of course once I’d met and heard some people, I started
getting out to play and life became easier but in the beginning, it
was hard. I spent my first year in the US just playing and writing
music by myself.”

ARMENIAN OFFICER DIES POISONED FROM ACETIC ACID

NEWS.am
January 19, 2012 | 18:08

YEREVAN. – An officer of the Armenian armed forces died in a hospital
on Wednesday poisoned from acetic acid, representative of the Armenian
MOD Mary Sargsyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Warrant officer Vahan Aslikyan, 31, was hospitalized on Wednesday. He
was found by his wife at home.

Criminal case on incitement to committing suicide was instituted.

Preliminary investigation is conducted. There are no suspects or
detainees.

PRIME MINISTER: WE RECEIVE COMPLAINTS ABOUT POOR POLICE SERVICE

Panorama.am
19/01/2012

At a Cabinet Meeting, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, touching upon
public services in Armenia, noted that special groups periodically
monitor the situation in the sector.

There is progress in the State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre,
in registration of enterprises as well as in granting passports,
said the Prime Minister.

“We should be consistent in this issue. Recently we receive complaints
from citizens about poor police service, particularly on granting
driving licences and vehicle registration. We have given instructions
to the police chief in a bid to improve the service quality in a
short time,” noted the premier.

A new road police building with up-to-date equipment will be put into
operation in Nubarashen this April, said Tigran Sargsyan, in an effort
to reach a radical solution to this issue.

PRESS RELEASE
Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
Governmental Buiding 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
Tel:? +(3741) 56 01 06? ext. 105
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

January 20, 2012

Hayastan All-Armenian Fund begins construction of potable-water network in
Artsakh’s Hadrut City

Toward the realization of the Telethon 2011 slogan “A gift of water, a gift
of life,” the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund began construction of a
potable-water network in the city of Hadrut, Artsakh.
The project is co-sponsored by the fund’s U.S. Western Region, with a major
contribution by benefactors Mr. and Mrs. Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian of
Los Angeles, and the government of Artsakh.

“This extensive development initiative was launched in 2008, when the
Hayastan All-Armenian Fund built the 22-kilometer Arjaghbyur-Hadrut
potable-water pipeline,” said Edik Davtyan, deputy head of the Hadrut
Regional Administration. “The project will come to completion with the
currently implemented construction of Hadrut’s internal water-distribution
network, thanks to which the entire population of the city will be connected
to the potable-water grid.”

Components of the project include the construction of a distribution network
with a total length of 33 kilometers, a pump station, and two reservoirs as
well as the renovation of the city’s 1970s-built well, the daily-regulation
reservoirs, and underground springs.

“We convey our profound gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Turpanjian, whose generous
gift will enable us to provide the close to 3,200 residents of Hadrut with
around-the-clock access to drinking water,” said Ara Aghishian, chairman of
the Armenia Fund U.S. Western Region.

“We also convey our very special thanks to Mr. Albert Boyajian of the fund’s
Board of Trustees, whose efforts were instrumental in making the project
possible,” Aghishian concluded.

Another significant Artsakh initiative supported by Mr. and Mrs. Turpanjian
and spearheaded by the Armenia Fund U.S. Western Region was the construction
of Stepanakert’s No. 11 (V. Jhangiryan) School.

Realized through a major donation by the Turpanjians and the co-sponsorship
of the government of Artsakh, the U.S. $2.7 million campus was the largest
ever built by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. Opening its doors in September
2010, the school featured state-of-the-art facilities and distinctive
architecture.

JUDGE, PROSECUTOR CLASH OVER DINK CASE VERDICT

Today’s Zaman
Jan 19 2012
Turkey

The prosecutor in a court case concerning the 2007 killing of prominent
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink slammed the judge for failing to
deliver a fair decision amid growing outrage over a trial many feel has
failed to shed light on alleged official negligence or even collusion.

Editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos and Turkey’s
best-known Armenian voice, Dink was shot in broad daylight in a busy
Ä°stanbul street as he left his office on Jan. 19, 2007.

The judge presiding over the 14th Ä°stanbul High Criminal Court
sentenced Yasin Hayal to life imprisonment and acquitted 19 defendants
charged with being part of a terrorist group.

A juvenile court sentenced Dink’s assassin, Ogun Samast, to 22 years,
10 months in jail last July. He was 17 when he committed the murder.

Prosecutor Hikmet Usta said in his two-page long petition as part
of his appeal of Wednesday’s decision that there was sufficient
evidence to establish the murder was the result of efforts by an
organized criminal group. The prosecutor’s comments came in response
to presiding judge Rustem Eryılmaz’s earlier remarks published in
Vatan daily Thursday where the judge commented that while he personally
cannot deny the murder was well-organized, the evidence submitted to
the court was not sufficient to issue such a ruling.

“According to the evidence, there is no [illegal] organization
[involvement in the murder]. But we cannot say there is no organization
involved in the case,” Eryılmaz said.

In his petition, Usta said he has objected to many verdicts in
his nearly 20 years of experience and acknowledged that judges are
independent in delivering decisions. However, he dismissed the judge’s
remarks to Vatan that while there was a criminal network involved,
there is no evidence for this.

Eryılmaz told the Vatan daily that there must be some instigators, but
that in order to accept this as legal fact, convincing evidence must
be presented. “Since expectations were high in this case, this ruling
pleased nobody. If you ask me whether I was personally satisfied,
I would say no since I believe there are more instigators. But this
is the best ruling that can be issued in accordance with the evidence
in the case file,” he said.

The prosecutor added in his petition that the judge ruled in violation
of the law for failing to establish that the Dink murder was part
of an organized crime and acquitting the rest of the suspects. The
prosecutor claimed in his petition that the fact that the judge left
out one of the suspects during his final verdict is a clear indication
that the indictment was not thoroughly examined.

It emerged on Wednesday that when announcing its final ruling the court
left out the verdict of CoÅ~_kun Ä°gci, one of the 18 suspects in the
case. Sources said this person was accidentally left out of the final
verdict and that the judges will issue a separate ruling for Ä°gci.

DUE TO THE TURKISH-FRENCH CRISIS, OFFICIAL BAKU IS TO MAKE A DIFFICULT CHOICE

MilAz.info
Jan 18 2012
Azerbaijan

At a press conference on Wednesday in the Media Center, the Head of
the “Atlas” Center for Political Studies Elkhan Shahinoglu have tried
to predict the actions of the Azerbaijani authorities in case if the
French Senate adopts the law on criminal responsibility for denying
the “Armenian genocide”.

He believes that in the context of the current French-Turkish
relations, Azerbaijan should unconditionally support Turkey. He
believes that the Azerbaijani authorities bring up the question on
the removal France from the co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Official Baku has not started an open confrontation with Paris on
this issue. At the same time, the Milli Majlis of December 30, 2011
made a statement calling on the Senate not to adopt this bill.

According to the analyst, if Azerbaijan does not support Turkey in
this issue, it will cause a cooling of bilateral relations.

On December 22 the National Assembly of France passed a bill on
criminal responsibility for the denial of the Armenian Genocide in the
Ottoman Empire in 1915. The adoption of the document provoked a sharp
reaction of Ankara, and a negative response in the Azerbaijani society.

If Senate adopts the document on January 23, it will make tense
relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey more complicated, and official
Baku will have to make a difficult choice, said Elkhan Shahinoglu.

According to him, Sarkozy deliberately speeds up the adoption of the
bill, in order to get the support of the Armenian Diaspora in France
at the upcoming presidential elections.

In case if the French Senate adopts the law, there are two possible
variants of Baku~Rs actions: Azerbaijan will fully support Turkey,
and will demand from France to leave the Minsk Group, or it will be
limited to the moral support of Ankara.