Author: Babajanian Karo

T. MANASERYAN: TURKEY INTERESTED WITH ARMENIA-TURKEY RELATIONS

Panorama
Dec 20 2011
Armenia

“The development of a national model is a difficult issue that needs
experienced and gifted experts. We will be putting forth efforts
to develop a model of competitiveness for Armenia’s economy and
to introduce it to you,” economist Tatul Manaseryan, the head of
“Alternative” research center, said in a news conference.

The expert has said they are working on a road map for the development
of economy, “where not only the visions, but the methods of achieving
them will be marked.”

Referring to the unemployment level in Armenia, expert highlighted
two major obstacles – “shadow unemployment” and “shadow employment.”

Mr. Manaseryan has also referred to a conference held in Ankara,
where he delivered his own remarks. “Issues covering regional
developments and their impact on Armenia-Turkey potential dialogue
and relations have been highlighted. Can you imagine that Turkey is
really interested in relations with Armenia? There are some advanced
scientists who support the improvement of those ties.”

ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN MP FORGOT ABOUT FELLOW PARTY MPS’ BUSINESSES? – NEWSPAPER

news.am
Dec 20 2011
Armenia

YEREVAN. – During his last press conference, opposition ARF
Dashnaktsutyun Party’s National Assembly (NA) Faction leader Vahan
Hovhannisyan stated that NA is not the place for businessmen MPs,
Aravot daily writes.

“Following this statement, and during personal conversations,
several businessmen MPs expressed astonishment that Hovhannisyan
forgot about the businesses of Dashnaktsutyun MPs. ‘Ours is business,
[but] theirs isn’t? Or [is it that] theirs is traditional, [that]
they are allowed?’, an MP from [the ruling coalition’s Republican
Party of Armenia] RPA told Aravot yesterday [Monday],” Aravot writes.

TURKEY CALLS ON FRANCE TO ABANDON GENOCIDE LAW

eTaiwan News

Dec 20 2011

Turkey’s president on Tuesday called on France to abandon a draft
bill that would punish anyone denying that the World War II-era mass
killings of Armenians was genocide, further souring relations between
the two countries.

The lower house of the French Parliament will debate Thursday whether
to criminalize the denial that the killings by Ottoman Turks more
than 90 years ago amounted to genocide with a punishment of one
year in prison and a (EURO)45,000 ($59,000) fine. That would bring
legislation in line with how France treats denial of the Holocaust.

France’s foreign minister reminded a delegation of visiting Turkish
parliamentarians late Tuesday of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s call
in October for Turkey to “make a gesture of memory” and recognize
its history, just as France has done by recognizing the role of the
French state in the Nazi deportation of Jews during World War II.

Alain Juppe said he is convinced that ties and strategic interests
between Paris and Ankara “are sufficiently strong to overcome
challenges,” a ministry statement said.

Turkey vehemently rejects the term genocide. It insists the deaths
occurred during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed and
that there were losses on both sides. It has threatened to withdraw
its ambassador to France if the bill is passed and warned of “grave
consequences” to economic and political ties.

President Abdullah Gul issued a strong statement Tuesday appealing
to France to drop the draft law from its “agenda.”

“It is impossible for us to accept a draft law directed toward
eliminating the freedom to reject unjust and groundless accusations
against our country and our people,” the Turkish president said.

“I hope that France will soon abandon the initiative which will put
France in a position of a country that does not respect freedom of
expression and does not allow objective scientific research,” he said.

Gul said it was “strange and thought-provoking” that the law comes
ahead of next year’s presidential elections in France, suggesting that
the move was aimed at winning the votes of Armenian-French citizens.

“I want to hope that France will not sacrifice the Turkish-French
friendship which goes back hundreds of years, its common interests
and alliance for petty political calculations,” he added.

The genocide bill threatens to further strain Turkish-French relations
already tense over Sarkozy’s opposition to Turkey’s bid to join the
European Union.

Signs of the tensions were evident Tuesday: Gul’s media adviser,
Ahmet Sever, told The Associated Press that the Turkish president
decided to issue the statement after Sarkozy failed to take his calls.

“We tried (to reach Sarkozy) for the past three days, but his aides
gave excuses to string us along,” Sever said. “He (Sarkozy) shied
away from talking to us.”

No one was immediately available for comment at the French president’s
office.

In October, Sarkozy traveled to Armenia and urged Turkey to recognize
the 1915 killings as genocide, hinting then that failure to do so
could force France to change its law and make such denials a criminal
offense.

“Turkey, which is a great country, would honor itself by revisiting
its history like other countries in the world have done,” Sarkozy
said during his visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

France went into damage control on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting between
Juppe and the Turkish parliamentary delegation, headed by the head
of the foreign affairs commission, Volkan Bozkir, visiting France to
lobby French legislators against the bill.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said France wanted to stress
to the visitors that the proposal to be debated Thursday by lawmakers
is a “parliamentary initiative,” a way of distancing Sarkozy and the
government from the measure.

Earlier, government spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse did likewise,
stressing that the draft bill does not simply target the Armenian
genocide. The text is “very broad in a way that it can apply to all
genocide recognized by France in the future,” she said, noting that
it also covers slavery.

Both she and the Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of ties
between Paris and Ankara, from their common strategic interests in
reaching peace in Syria”>Syria and Afghanistan to their roles as NATO
members and bilateral ties.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed
during the massacre, with experts saying it was the first genocide
of the 20th century.

The bill would make it a crime to deny any genocide, war crime or
crime against humanity recognized as such by French laws, and put
Armenian genocide denial on a par with Holocaust denial, which was
banned in the country in 1990.

TURKEY ASKS FRANCE TO WITHDRAW LAW ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia

Dec 20 2011

(AGI) Ankara – Turkey has again asked France to withdraw the law
punishing those who deny the Armenian genocide with prison sentences
and fines. “We cannot accept such a law that deprives us of the freedom
to reject unfair and unfounded accusations made against our country,”
warned the Turkish President Abdullah Gul. “I would like to hope that
France will not sacrifice centuries of French-Turkish friendship,
shared interests and alliances, in the name of small political gains”
he added.

TURKEY HEIGHTENS PRESSURE ON FRANCE OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Armenialiberty.org
Dec 20 2011

Turkey ratcheted up pressure on France on Tuesday in a last-ditch
attempt to scuttle the passage by the French parliament of a bill
criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide.

“It is not possible for us to accept this bill, which denies us the
freedom to reject unfair and groundless accusations targeting our
country and our nation,” Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a
statement cited by the AFP news agency.

“I want to hope that France will not sacrifice centuries-old
Turkish-French friendship, common interests and bonds of alliance for
small political calculations,” Gul said in reference to next year’s
presidential and parliamentary elections in France.

France has an estimated 500,000 citizens of Armenian descent.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan likewise warned late
last week of “grave consequences” for bilateral relations if the
bill is approved by the National Assembly, the lower house of the
French parliament.

Under the proposed legislation, which is due to be debated on Thursday,
anyone in France publicly denying that the 1915 mass killings of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide could face a
year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000). French President
Nicolas Sarkozy signaled support for its passage when he visited
Yerevan in October.

Gul issued the warning as a delegation of Turkish lawmakers and
businessmen met with officials in Paris and urged France to drop
the bill. “If this law is adopted, there will be a lot of damage
and consequences for the two countries,” said Rifat Hisarciklioglu,
head of the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges.

A Turkish government source told AFP on Tuesday that Ankara will
impose diplomatic and trade sanctions on Paris if French lawmakers
adopt the law. “Turkey will not remain silent. That will obviously have
consequences,” the source said. “We have already discussed our plans
if the bill is adopted at the French National Assembly on Thursday.”

In particular, added the source, close to 1,000 French companies in
Turkey, as well as those in partnership with Turkish companies, will be
excluded from public contracts, especially in the field of transport.

The French Foreign Ministry warned the Turkish government against
resorting to economic reprisals. According to the DPA news agency,
ministry spokesman Bernard Valero reminded Ankara of its international
commitments.

Turkey’s membership of the World Trade Organization and customs union
with the European Union “imply a non-discriminatory treatment with
regard to companies from the European Union,” Valero said.

TURKEY AND FRANCE STEP UP ROW ON ‘GENOCIDE’

December 20, 2011 8:26 pm

By Hugh Carnegy in Paris and Daniel Dombey in Istanbul

France has warned Turkey against any commercial reprisals in an
escalating dispute over a French bid to make it a crime to deny that
a genocide of Armenians took place in the final days of the Ottoman
Empire almost a century ago.

As Turkish business leaders joined a parliamentary delegation in Paris
this week to lobby against the initiative by the French national
assembly, the French foreign ministry publicly reminded Ankara it
had to respect its obligations under World Trade Organisation rules
and its agreements with the European Union.

But Turkish businessmen and leaders labelled the bill “unacceptable”.

“If it passes, the world of business between France and Turkey will
be badly hit,” Rifat Hisarciklioglu, chairman of the Turkish chambers
of commerce, told a press conference in Paris, amid suggestions of
a possible boycott of French business.

He pointedly referred to orders made by Turkish Airlines for Airbus
aircraft and billion of dollars of investment planned in the energy
sector for which French companies would likely be bidders.

Paris has refrained from reacting publicly to such threats, but
privately French officials say they have been counterproductive. “It
has gone beyond pressure and legitimate lobbying and become an attempt
at intimidation. It is unacceptable,” said one senior official.

Turkey has always rejected the description of the mass killings of
Armenians as genocide. But, by contrast with previous disputes over
similar legislation, the current fight comes at a time of heightened
tension between Ankara and France and with the EU more generally,
as well as Turkey’s increasing self confidence on the world stage.

“France should not sacrifice the centuries-old Turkish-French
friendship, common interests and ties of alliance for small political
calculations,” Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s president, said on Tuesday. “How
strange and thought provoking that these kinds of initiatives come
at a pre-election time”.

Recep Tayyip Ergodan, Turkish prime minister, has already warned
President Nicolas Sarkozy of “irreparable damage” to relations
between the two countries if the law is passed when it comes before
the National Assembly on Thursday. Mr Erdogan has threatened to raise
France’s own “dirty and bloody history” in Algeria and Rwanda and take
“all kinds of diplomatic” action in response to the law.

Alain Juppe, foreign minister, agreed to meet the parliamentary
delegation on Tuesday evening, but officials said there was no
question of intervening to delay the passage of the bill. Paris is
anxious to contain the issue, not least because it wants to continue
to work closely with Ankara on efforts to convince Bashar al-Assad,
the Syrian president, to step down.

French officials argue any threat to French business interests in
Turkey could rebound on the Turkish economy. France is the third
largest foreign investor in Turkey, with 970 enterprises operating
in the country – including names such as Axa, the insurer, Carrefour,
the retailer, and Renault, the car maker. French investments reached
~@12bn in the past year, they said. The number of French tourists
has also exceeded 1m per year.

The new law, which would make denial of an Armenian genocide punishable
by up to a year in prison and a fine of ~@45,000, is sponsored by
Mr Sarkozy’s majority right-of-centre UMP party, but is drawing
support from opposition parties as well. It comes on top of a 2001
law recognising an Armenian genocide. It has been strongly supported
by the 500,000 strong Armenian community in France.

Mr Sarkozy has in the past supported these moves – and has angered
Ankara with his explicit opposition to eventual Turkish membership
of the European Union.

Among the French business leaders seen by their Turkish counterparts
were Laurence Parisot, head of Medef, the French business
confederation, and Henri de Castries, chief executive of Axa. Medef
said it was very concerned by the issue but warned against any
commercial boycott.

JUDGE PROMPTS WITNESS: ARTAK NAZARYAN CASE CONTINUES IN COURT

epress.am
12.20.2011

In court today, Hrant Gevorgyan, attorney to Hakob Manukyan, one of
the accused in the case of rifle platoon commander Artak Nazaryan,
who died suddenly while serving in Tavush marz (province) during
peacetime on Jul. 27, 2010, made a motion for withdrawal (not the
first time) to Judge Samvel Vardanyan.

As told to Epress.am by Helsinki Association for Human Rights defender
Arman Veziryan, present at today’s trial, Gevorgyan named as the
basis for his motion that the judge is not impartial and that he his
overruling all the important questions directed to witnesses.

Apart from this, Gevorgyan also stressed that the judge is prohibiting
asking questions on evidence that hasn’t been investigated and thus
“taking the side of the prosecution.”

Representatives of the other defendants in the case also joined
this motion.

Attorney Alvard Mnatsakanyan noted that during the trial the judge
prompted one of the witnesses in the case, Arman Mnatsakanyan, saying
“You can say I don’t remember.”

In order to examine the motion for withdrawal, the judge went to
the consulting room and the decision will be announced at tomorrow’s
court session, which will take place at 12 pm.

FAMOUS ARMENIAN PHOTOGRAPHER’S WORKS AUCTIONED AT CHRISTIE’S

PanARMENIAN.Net
December 20, 2011 – 17:37 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Two photographs by a world-known Armenian
photographer Yousuf Karsh were auctioned at Christie’s.

According to Christie’s website, Pablo Picasso’s picture was sold at
USD 6875 (starting price USD 5000); Jean Cocteau’s photo was sold at
USD 2500.

Yousuf Karsh (December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002) was a Canadian
photographer of Armenian heritage.

A great many personalities from the cultural, scientific and political
milieus that shaped the twentieth century have been immortalized
on film by internationally renowned photographer. These portraits
where shadows play with dramatic light bear witness to a century,
but above all to the photographer’s humanistic vision. The human
aspect, exchanges between the photographer and his subject, and the
revelation of his or her personality via photography were at the core
of his practice.

IN 2012 HAYPOST WILL CARRY OUT MANAGEMENT OF LOGISTIC OUTLINING AND SORTING PROCESSES UNDER GUIDANCE OF LA POSTE MANAGERS

arminfo
Tuesday, December 20, 16:21

The managing staff of Haypost Trust Management and Haypost CJSC had
a meeting with the head of French national postal operator La Poste
Jean Paul Forceville, HayPost press-service reported.

During the meeting the sides discussed the existing project of
improvement of postal operator functions: this project had been
developing during one year period by specialists of La Poste who
carried out a monitoring to find out how the Armenian national
operator works and to figure out how to improve the logistic outline
and sorting process.

At the beginning of the next year the operation re-engineering
stage will be launched the implementation of which will create an
opportunity to carry out the transfers faster and to improve the
quality of services.

In 2012 Haypost will carry out the management of logistic outlining
and sorting processes under the guidance of La Poste managers.

Recall, on May 6, 2010 the Armenian national postal operator Haypost
and the French national postal operator La Poste signed a comprehensive
cooperation agreement to improve the functions and the services
of Haypost.

Turkey launches campaign for Ramil Safarov’s extradition to Azerbaijan

news.az
Dec 19 2011
Azerbaijan

A campaign to collect signatures for extradition of National army
officer Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan has been launched in Turkey.
According to Turkish Samanyolu, the campaign has been initiated by
the Society for Combat against Baseless Claims of Armenians.

The campaign to cover all Turkish cities started in Igdir on 18
December.

“For such a neutral country as Hungary, it would be expedient to
extradite the Azerbaijani officer to Azerbaijan for him to serve the
rest of the punishment at home”, Geksel Gulbey, head of the Society,
said.

He noted that the proclamation with signatures will be sent to the
Hungarian embassy in Ankara.

Ramil Safarov is sentenced to life in prison in Hungary for killing
Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan, who abused the National Flag
of Azerbaijan.