Author: Babajanian Karo

Business Recorder
Dec 18 2011

Turkey warns France against Armenian ‘genocide’ bill

December 18, 2011
JASPER MORTIMER

Turkey raised its stakes against France Friday, with its prime
minister warning President Nicholas Sarkozy of “terrible” consequences
if the French parliament passes a bill which would punish anyone
denying that the mass killing of Armenians in 1915-18 constituted
“genocide.”

Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million Armenians citizens of the
Ottoman Empire were either killed or died of neglect on deportation
marches to the Syrian desert in 1915-18.

Turkey admits that some 300,000 Armenians died, but points out it was
because of unrest during the First World War when Russian forces
invaded eastern Turkey, where the bulk of the Armenians lived.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s warning, conveyed in a letter,
came two days after Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rebuked
French legislators, saying their desire to ban free debate on the
Armenian killings harked back to the Middle Ages.

“If this bill is passed, France will lead the return of a medieval
mentality to Europe,” Davutoglu told Turkish legislators.

However, the bill is widely supported in France’s National Assembly
and is expected to pass when it goes to the vote on December 22.

France has half a million citizens of Armenian origin, and is holding
legislative and presidential elections in next year.

A delegation of five members of Turkey’s parliament is flying to Paris
on Sunday to lobby their French counterparts against the bill.

An immediate consequence of the bill’s approval will be the recall of
Turkey’s ambassador and the freezing of Turkish-French relations, a
spokesman for the Turkish Embassy in Paris, Engin Solakoglu, told the
Hrriyet Daily News.

Erdogan wrote to Sarkozy that if the bill is passed, “the result will
be terrible for the multi-faceted relations between Turkey and France
– on the political, economic, cultural levels and, in fact, on every
level,” the semi-official Anatolian Agency reported.

Turkey and France have an annual bilateral trade of 10.5 billion
dollars, and there are 1,000 French companies operating in Turkey.

Erdogan reminded Sarkozy, who came to Ankara in February, that the
French leader had once said he had no intention of allowing a bill on
the Armenian issue to become law.

Turkish-French relations should not be held hostage by the demands of
third parties, the prime minister said in his letter, referring to
France’s Armenian community.

Advocates of the French bill argue it is hate speech to deny that the
1915-18 killings constitute “genocide”, and that hate speech is beyond
freedom of expression.

Turkey points out that an equal number of Muslim Turks died in the fighting.

Turkey denies the Armenian killings were a case of genocide, saying
there was no systematic policy to kill Armenians.

But Armenians claim that the killings and deportation marches were
ordered by the government, and that the sheer number of deaths amounts
to genocide.

In 2009, Turkey and Armenia signed an agreement known as the Zurich
Protocols under which they promised to normalise their relations, open
their common border, and set up an independent historical commission
to investigate whether the events of 1915-18 constituted genocide or
not.

But the protocols have never been ratified as they fell foul of the
dispute between the two countries over Armenia’s support for the
separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan – a
close ally of Turkey.

In a press conference for French journalists on Thursday, delegation
leader Volkan Bozkir, a former Turkish ambassador and chairman of the
parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said it was regrettable that
the Armenian issue always emerged when France was on the verge of
elections.

Energy Publisher
Dec 18 2011

France to criminalize denial of the Armenian Genocide

Saturday, December 17, 2011
by Martin Barillas

French president Nicholas Sarkozy’s party has introduced legislation
in that nation’s legislature that would make illegal the denial of the
infamous genocide perpetrated against Armenians and other Christians
by the government of Turkey during the Second World War in 1915. This
would make it a crime on par with denying the historicity of the
Holocaust, perpetrated by the Germany’s National Socialist government
before and during the Second World War. Historians estimate that
approximately 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Turks, at
the time ruled by the last of the Ottoman rulers. This was a planned
and concerted effort by the erstwhile government of Turkey that was
overthrown by Kemal Ataturk and replaced by a nationalist and
secularist government. Turkey continues to deny that it ever happened.
Turkey has long been plaqued by irredentist nationalist movements,
especially on the part of ethnics Kurds, even while the government
appears to become ever more Islamist in cast.

(child victim of Armenian genocide)

The now before France’s National Assembly will be debated on December
22. It is believed by sources in the French capital that the bill will
be passed. The new law would call for one year of prison and fines of
as much as 45,000 euros for those who deny the historicity of the
Armenian genocide. This punishment would be on par for that is exacted
for denial of the Holocaust. It was in 1990 that the Holocaust-denial
bill was passed.

Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan severely criticized the proposed
legislation. At a press conference in Ankara, Prime Minister Erdogan
suggested that France should limit itself to looking into its own
history of massacres in Algeria and Rwanda.

France is firmly opposed to extending EU membership to Turkey, due it
the latter’s supposed “democracy deficit.” This deficit has actually
increased under Turkish prime minister Erdogan. Besides Turkey’s
reiterated insistence that the megadeath of Armenians occurred within
the context of a civil war in which the Ottomons were ejected, rather
than a planned genocide, France has noted that Turkey continues to
allow persecution of minority groups such as the Kurds, as well as
Greek and Armenian Christians. Sources in Ankara warn that should the
bill be passed by the French National Assembly, Turkey will retire its
ambassador to Paris.

Over the last few years, the fears of Christians living in Greece has
been piqued by the murder of a Catholic priest and a Protestant
minister. It was a Turk who attempted to murder Pope John Paul II in
the 1980s, while in the 1950s Turkish mobs ransacked the homes of
Greek Christians living in Istanbul. It was also Turkey that invaded
the island of Cyprus in the 1970s, seizing half the island as well as
property abandoned by Greek Cypriots and then handing it over to
Turkish settlers.

Turkey is a NATO ally of both France and the United States, but that
relationship – forged during the Cold War – has been strained of late,
especially because since the effective chilling of relations between
Turkey and Israel.

New Europe
Dec 18 2011

National Assembly approves budget for 2012

December 18, 2011 – 6:17pm

Armenia’s state budget for 2012, backed by 66 parliament deputies and
rejected by two others, was recently approved by the National
Assembly. The budget initiated by Armenian Prime Minister Tigran
Sarkisian’s cabinet envisages a hike in tax revenues questioned by the
Armenian government’s tax collection agency, Armenia Liberty.org
reported. Most of the deputies representing the opposition
Dashnaktsutyun and Zharangutyun parties boycotted the vote. Both
parties slammed the government as according to them the budget
outlines a very modest rise in social spending planned in 2012.

The budget states that the government can spend 1.04 trillion drams,
up by about 5% from this year’s level. Its budgetary revenues are
projected to reach 911.6 billion drams. The resulting budget deficit
is to be equivalent to 3.1% of gross domestic product (GDP), down from
about an expected 4% this year.

To that end, the State Revenue Committee (SRC) will have to collect
101bn drams in additional taxes, duties and social security payments
in 2012. The government based its budgetary targets on the assumption
that the Armenian economy will grow by 4.2% in 2012. According to head
of the SRC, Gagik Khachatrian, this tax target seems unrealistic.
However, Sarkisian and Finance Minster Vache Gabrielian have dismissed
Khachatrian’s views as null.

CHANSON
Disparition de la chanteuse capverdienne Cesaria Evora
malade, elle avait annulé son concert à Erévan le 29 septembre dernier

Elle devait donner un concert à Erévan en Arménie le 29 septembre
dernier. Mais aussitôt il était annulé pour cause de maladie qui avait
aussitôt annoncé son retrait des scènes. La chanteuse capverdienne
Cesaria Evora a disparu hier samedi à l’ge de 70 ans des suites d’une
maladie dans un hôpital de son île natale de Sao Vicente, au Cap-Vert.
Surnommée « la Diva aux pieds nus » avait connu un succès
international très tardif après ses cinquante ans. Devenue l’une des
voix les plus célèbres de la planète, cette grande dame de la chanson
avait le 23 septembre annoncé qu’elle était en manque d’énergie et
s’excusait auprès de ses milliers de fans. De retour chez elle,
Cesaria Evora est partie entourée de sa famille sur cette île du
Cap-Vert qu’elle avait contribué à rendre célèbre à travers la
planète. Le Cap-Vert a décrété un deuil national de 48 heures.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 18 décembre 2011,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

SUD-CAUCASE
L’Azerbaïdjan va recevoir 24 hélicoptères de combat de la Russie

L’Azerbaïdjan s’apprête à recevoir de la Russie deux des 24
hélicoptères de combat Mi-35 M pour un coût total de 360 millions de
dollars. Les deux hélicoptères qui vont être livrés à l’Azerbaïdjan
subissent les derniers essais à l’usine d’armement « Rosstvertol ». Le
reste de la commande devant être livré en 2012. Ces 24 hélicoptères de
combat complèteront les 20 Mi-24 récupérés par Bakou en 1991 lors de
la dislocation de l’Union soviétique. Les hélicoptères Mi-35 M
beaucoup plus modernes disposent également d’un système de vision
nocturne. Ces hélicoptères qui peuvent emporter des bombes de 50 à 500
kg sont équipés de plusieurs canons de diverses dimensions. La Russie,
l’alliée de l’Arménie, arme ainsi l’Azerbaïdjan par un matériel dont
la première destination sera à n’en pas douter le Haut Karabagh. C’est
toute la complexité de la situation au Caucase et des jeux
stratégiques…dans une région explosive.

Krikor Amirzayan

dimanche 18 décembre 2011,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

EuroNews, France
17 dec 2011

L’Arménie à l’honneur à Venise

16/12 21:07 CET

Une exposition à Venise pour célébrer le cinq-centième anniversaire de
la publication du premier livre en arménien. Le musée Correr a invité
le président arménien Serge Sarkissian à l’inauguration de cette
exposition qui présente des manuscrits rares, des livres antiques et
divers objets que les amateurs d’histoire pourront contempler dans la
Cité des Doges jusqu’en avril.

Panorama, Armenia
Dec 17 2011

Armenian chess players at European Rapid Chess Championship

After the end of the European Blitz Chess Championship Armenian
grandmasters Hrant Melkumyan, Sergei Movsesian, Zaven Andriasian,
Hrair Simonian, Artur Gabrielian will take part in the European Rapid
Chess Championship to be held in Warsaw, Poland on December 17-18,
2011, armchess.am reported.

Iranian President to Visit Armenia in Weeks

2011-12-17

Foriegn Policy

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Armenia
later in December.

Director-General of the Iranian Presidential Office for International
Affairs Mohammad Reza Forqani told FNA that President Ahmadinejad
would pay a visit to Armenia later this month.

Forqani also mentioned that Ahmadinejad’s visit which would take place
at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsian will be
aimed at a discussion of bilateral ties and regional issues.

Last month, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told the media
that the Iranian President would visit Yerevan by the end of this
year.

According to him, preparation for Ahmadinejad’s visit to Armenia was
among the issues discussed during the meeting of Armenian and Iranian
Foreign Ministers.

President Ahmadinejad was due to visit Armenia at the invitation of
President Sargsian on June 4, but the trip was called off.

The Iranian president was last in Armenia in October 2007. During his
two day visit to the Central Asian state, Ahmadinejad met with
university students and professors and Iranian expatriates in Armenia,
and signed four agreements and a joint statement.

Also during the same visit, the University of Yerevan granted an
honorary PhD degree to the Iranian president.

Sargsian was in Tehran in March to attend the Iranian New Year festivities.

Press TV, Iran
Dec 17 2011

Turkey to recall envoy from France
Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:54PM GMT

Turkish Ambassador to Paris Tahsin Burcuoglu Turkey says it will
recall its ambassador to France if the French parliament passes the
bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide during the
First World War.

Undersecretary of the Turkish Embassy in Paris Engine Solakoglu,
warned that Turkish Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu would be recalled for
consultation for an indefinite period of time in case the bill is
passed next week.

`Passage of the measure will lead to irreparable damage in
Turkish-French ties,’ Solakoglu added.

Next week the French parliament is to vote for the bill which could
punish those denying the genocide claims with up to one year in prison
and a 45,000-euro fine.

In 2006, the French National Assembly adopted a bill aimed at
punishing deniers of the `Armenian genocide.’ However, the bill was
dropped the same year before making it to Senate.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy revived the issue during a visit to
Armenia, when he urged Turkey to recognize the killing of Armenians
years ago.

France recognized the events that took place in Anatolia during the
years of World War I as genocide in 2001, increasing tension between
the two nations.

SZH/JR/HGH

Serzh Sargsyan, Chinese company discuss investment opportunities

December 17, 2011 – 17:09 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Today, December 17, Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan met with member of the British House of Lords, Baroness
Caroline Cox, as well as Chairman of the Global Group of Companies
Johnny Hon and Vice Chairman Keith Bennett.

During the meeting Caroline Cox said that she will be glad for the
Chinese company to make investments in Armenian economy’s promising
fields.

President Sargsyan welcomed the initiative, noting Armenia’s readiness
to contribute to the investment project of Global Group of Companies.

The parties further dwelled on investment opportunities in high-tech
and mining industry as rapidly growing fields of Armenian economy.

Serzh Sargsyan positively assessed Armenian-Chinese cooperation and
the operation of several Chinese companies in Armenian market,
presidential press service reported.