Author: Babajanian Karo

UN MEMBRE DE LA FACTION HERITAGE CONSERVE SON MANDAT PARLEMENTAIRE

ARMENIE

Tevan Poghosyan membre de la faction parlementaire Heritage a retire
sa demande de demission en tant que depute.

L’annee dernière Poghosyan, qui avait ete elu a l’Assemblee nationale
sur la liste Heritage en tant que representant du >,
a annonce qu’il renoncait a son siège pour des raisons non specifiees
qui ne portaient pas sur la politique.

La decision a provoque des tensions au sein de la faction de cinq
membres dont au moins deux membres ne sont que formellement affilies
a aujourd’hui. Des differences sont egalement apparues autour de la
candidature possible pour combler la vacance. Cela a conduit a chef
du parti Heritage Raffi Hovannisian a appeler Poghosyan a reconsiderer
sa decision et conserver son siège.

Dans un post sur Facebook Poghosyan a dit qu’il avait tout pese avant
de decider de rester. > a-t-il
souligne.

mardi 11 fevrier 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

L’ARMENIE ET LA GEORGIE SIGNENT UN PROGRAMME DE COOPERATION MILITAIRE POUR 2014

ARMENIE

Une delegation georgienne dirigee par le vice-ministre georgien de
la Defense Mikheil Darchiashvili etait en visite en Armenie du 28 au
29 Janvier.

Tel que rapporte par le site officiel du Ministère de la Defense
armenien, la delegation georgienne a assiste aux celebrations du 22e
anniversaire de l’armee de l’Armenie.

Le vie-ministre Darchiashvili aurait eu une reunion avec son homologue
armenien David Tonoyan et le ministre armenien de la Defense Seyran
Ohanian. Les deux parties ont discute des possibilites de developpement
de la cooperation militaire bilaterale.

Lors de la visite les deux parties ont signe un programme de
cooperation militaire pour 2014.

mardi 11 fevrier 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

LE PARTI REPUBLICAIN MET FIN AU CONTROLE PAR L’OPPOSITION D’UN COMITE PARLEMENTAIRE

ARMENIE

La majorite pro-gouvernementale a l’Assemblee nationale a mis fin
lundi a un contrôle de l’opposition sur une commission parlementaire
cle qui avait declare que le recent accord controverse de l’Armenie
avec Gazprom etait invalide.

Le Comite de comptage charge d’organiser le vote non electronique
au parlement a jusqu’a maintenant eu sept membres representant les
differentes factions. Les trois partis d’opposition representees
au Parlement ainsi que le parti Armenie prospère (BHK) detenaient
chacun un siège dans le comite ce qui leur permettaient de contrôler
ses activites.

La minorite de l’opposition a exploite ce levier quand elle a
essaye de saborder la ratification parlementaire de l’accord gazier
russo-armenienne fin decembre. L’operation a ete soutenue par 72
membres de l’assemblee de 131 sièges par un vote a main levee. Le
President Hovik Abrahamian a decide de ne pas utiliser le système du
vote electronique après qu’un depute de l’opposition ait recueilli
des cartes de vote electronique d’environ deux douzaines de collègues
pro-gouvernementaux.

Les quatre membres de l’opposition de la commission de depouillement
après des allegations de violation de procedure graves dans le vote ont
declare le resultat nul et non avenu. La majorite pro-gouvernementale
a affirme cependant qu’il avait ete ratifie.

Ouvrant la session de printemps de l’Assemblee nationale les
dirigeants de la majorite ont mis en avant les changements dans les
lois parlementaires dans lesquels le comite va maintenant avoir
11 membres dont 6 du Parti republicain d’Armenie (HHK) et de son
partenaire de coalition, Orinats Yerkir. Les deputes du HHK et Orinats
Yerkir ont rapidement salue l’initiative.

Manvel Badeyan, un depute du HHK, a reconnu que l’objectif de la
mesure est de depouiller la minorite de l’opposition de l’un de ses
rares leviers. Il s’est plaint que le Comite de comptage ait ete en
mesure de bloquer les decisions prises par la majorite parlementaire.

Les dirigeants des partis minoritaires ont condamne les changements et
ont declare que leurs factions allaient boycotter le nouveau comite.

NOUVEAUX RENFORTS POUR LE MOUVEMENT DE PROTESTATION CONTRE LES RETRAITES

Le mouvement de protestation contre la reforme controversee des
retraites par capitalisation propose par le gouvernement a gagne du
terrain lundi avec le renfort de dizaines de chanteurs et musiciens
de l’opera et des travailleurs de chemin de fer.

Le personnel de l’Opera National du Theâtre des ballets a Erevan
touches par cette reforme impopulaire a entame une grève rare qui a
conduit a l’annulation de dernière minute d’un spectacle d’Opera. Des
centaines de spectateurs ont dû faire la queue dehors pour obtenir
le remboursement des billets. Les representants des artistes
protestataires feront une conference de presse mardi.

Plus tôt dans la journee de lundi, plus d’une centaine d’employes
du reseau ferroviaire national de l’Armenie se sont rassembles
devant le siège de la capitale pour exiger que la societe russe qui
gère l’entreprise arrete le versement de 10% de leur salaire a des
fonds prives de pension choisis par le gouvernement pour gerer les
cotisations de retraite des Armeniens âges de moins de 39 ans.

Comme les autres manifestants qui ont pris les rues ces derniers
jours, ils se sont appuyes sur la decision du 24 janvier de la Cour
constitutionnelle de geler la reforme jusqu’a la decision de l’appel
interjete par les principaux partis de l’opposition de l’Armenie. Les
autorites armeniennes insistent pour leur part sur le fait que le
versement cotisations ne doivent pas etre suspendu en raison de
cette procedure.

Les cadres superieurs de la Societe de Chemin de fer du Caucase du
Sud, a accepte de rencontrer les representants du personnel, sans pour
autant parvenir a un accord a l’issue d’une reunion de deux heures.

Les travailleurs se sont reunis plus tard dans la soiree pour discuter
de leurs nouvelles actions.

La manifestation devant les bureaux de la Societe a ete rejointe par
les membres du Dem Em ( je suis contre ), le groupe de pression qui
dirige la campagne contre la reforme des retraites.

TOPIC OF THE ARMY ‘UNDESIRABLE’ FOR ARMENIA’S LEADERSHIP: STATEMENT

01.30.2014 19:00 epress.am

At the Jan. 28, 2014 rally of the civil initiative Army in Reality,
the RA Police once again brutally dispersed a peaceful gathering
organized at Liberty Square and once again violated Armenian citizens’
freedom of expression and fundamental rights, reads a statement issued
by the initiative.

“First, they used violence to prevent mothers of soldiers who died
during times of peace to approach the square. The mothers in black had
come to remind the officials participating in the festive celebration
at the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Alexander
Spendiaryan of the unsolved cases of their sons’ murders.

Then, Army in Reality civil initiative members Vardges Gaspari,
Ara Nedolyan, and Artashes Sergoyan, who were supporting them [the
mothers], were unlawfully detained.

“The detained citizens were not given an explanation as to why they
were taken to the police station by force, and when citizen Vardges
Gaspari asked for copies of the documents related to his case,
central police division staff with the use of force and displaying
inhumane treatment put him in a van, taking him far from the building
and leaving him there in the mud and rain. The use of force against
mothers who’ve lost their sons and are searching for justice and
citizens voicing problems in the army once again proves that the
topic of the army is an undesirable and closed space for our country’s
leadership and issues related to it cannot be raised.

“We consider the use of force against mothers of killed soldiers
and citizens raising problems in the army along with the ceremony to
celebrate Army Day to be another expression of the criminal policies
of state officials, aimed at promoting a culture of impunity and
arbitrariness,” reads the statement.

Elderly join Vanadzor march against pension reform (PHOTOS)

February 08, 2014 | 15:12

VANADZOR. – The Vanadzor residents, who are against the new pension
law in Armenia, and the capital city Yerevan members of the “I am
against” civil movement against this law, and who have arrived in
Vanadzor, on Saturday commenced their assembly and march in the city
(PHOTOS)

“This is a pan-Armenian movement. There is no guarantee that the state
will return the youth’s money years later. We are fighting for the
future of us all,” Artak Baghdasaryan, a participant in the march,
told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Holding banners and chanting slogans, the participants in the protest
march are walking along Vanadzor streets.

They are informing the people that they have the right not to choose a
cumulative pension fund and not to pay the mandatory 5 percent from
their salaries until March 28, when the Constitutional Court will make
a decision concerning the law on pension reforms.

In addition, the demonstrators are distributing informational
pamphlets while the police are watching over the march.

Numerous elderly people, to whom this law does not apply, likewise are
taking part in this protest march.

The new funded pension plan, which formally came into force in Armenia
on January 1, 2014, is mandatory for those born in and after 1974 and
voluntary for those born before 1974. In line with this plan, 5
percent of the monthly salaries in Armenia will be deducted and
mandatorily be allocated to cumulative pension funds; the latter will
be reimbursed as pensions once a person turns 63 years old.

On January 24, however, the Constitutional Court decided to suspend
the execution of the some components of the Law on Funded Pensions
pending the hearing of the petition submitted by the four
non-ruling-coalition parliamentary forces–specifically, the Armenian
National Congress, Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and
Heritage–, and into the constitutionality of the several articles of
the law.

Notwithstanding this, some employers already are deducing the
mandatory pension payment from the salaries of their employees.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

World Soccer Cup Responds to Azeri Objections

he Artsakh National Soccer Team lined up for a match with Abkhazia,
October 22, 2012.

ÖSTERSUND, Sweden–The Confederation of Independent Football
Associations (ConIFA) has responded to the Azeri Football
Association’s objections following Thursday’s announcement that
Artsakh’s national soccer team will participate in the first ever
World Cup held for teams outside international soccer’s governing body
FIFA.

ConIFA acknowledged an Azeri letter of protest and responded with an
open letter published on their website.
“This is what ConIFA is all about: giving unrepresented regions,
people, minorities, nations and isolated territories the chance to
represent themselves through football,” the response said.

“The ConIFA World Football Cup and, furthermore, ConIFA in general is
about bridging the world and representing the unrepresented. It is a
fact that Nagorno-Karabakh is self-controlled today and this is one of
the major facts for us, that the Artsakh Football Federation is
neither a part of the Azeri Football Federation nor any other FIFA
member,” the letter continued.

The World Football Cup will be held in Ostersund, in central Sweden,
in the first week of June and will be hosted by the Sapmi people, also
known as Laplanders.

According to ConIFA’s official website, 12 teams will participate,
including Abkhazia, Aramean Suryoye, Kurdistan, Tamil Eelam, Zanzibar,
Darfur United, Ellan Vannin, Quebec, Nagorno-Karabakh, Padania, Sapmi
and Occitania. The tournament will take place from June 1 to 8.

Rudaw, Iraqi Kurdistan
Feb 8 2014

Near a Century Later, US Yet to Recognize Armenian Genocide

By Zuber Hewrami

WASHINGTON DC–Almost one hundred years since an estimated 1.5 million
Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Turks, the United States has yet
to officially recognize the act as genocide.

Current US President Barack Obama in his 2008 election campaign vowed
to label the tragedy “genocide.” But as president, he has failed to
recognize and use the term genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region (ANCA-WR)
has been working to get through the Armenian Genocide Truth and
Justice Act that was introduced by a group of bi-partisan Democratic
and Republican Congressmen.

The resolution asks the Obama administration to acknowledge the
Armenian genocide as a precursor to improving Turkish-Armenian
relations.

“It’s a different approach to the age old question,” ANCA-WR Executive
Director Elen Asatryan told Armenpress. “There needs to be a just
acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide by the Obama Administration.
Without a clear and just resolution to the mass murder of 1.5 million
Armenians, a lasting peace between the Turkish and Armenian people is
near impossible.”

Gregory Aftandilian, a specialist and senior fellow at the Center for
National Policy in Washington, said the US is afraid of jeopardizing
strategic US-Turkish ties, because Turkey has made it clear it will
affect the bilateral relationship.

“Whenever this issue is raised in the US Congress the Turkish
government puts pressure on people related to the defense industry and
many US defense contractors actively lobby members of Capitol Hill to
oppose the genocide resolution,” Aftandilian told Rudaw.

He said business interests, lobbyists and individuals such as
ex-secretaries of Defense or State get mobilized against this act of
denial. He described that as a “shameful exercise.”

Aftandilian said that the US National Archives in Washington DC have
collected extensive evidence on the Armenian genocide and that US
diplomats at the time described it as, “race extermination,” since the
word genocide was not coined by then.

The American National Committee of America and Armenian Assembly of
America, two active lobbying groups, have lobbied the US congress and
individual states for the recognition of the Armenian genocide. Their
efforts have led to 42 US states recognizing the Armenian Genocide
legislation.

“If Turkey was smart enough it would’ve said these acts were committed
by Ottomans and not the modern Turkish state and come clean,” said
Aftandilian. “But in reality it is a big psychological issue for them
as they don’t want to admit their ancestors committed these crimes.”

He said he has met many Germans who can’t understand the Turkish
denial since Germans have come to terms with the holocaust,
acknowledged the crime and moved forward as a society.

“There is some talk that if Turkey recognizes this crime it will be
liable for reparations. But to me that is not the issue, as the mass
majority of Armenians are not after reparations but simply seek the
acknowledgement of this crime,” said Aftandilian.

Dr. Peter Balakian, an expert on the Armenian genocide and professor
of humanities at Colgate University in New York, says that passing
bills and resolutions by foreign countries wouldn’t change the fact
that a genocide had taken place.

“This issue has been clearly established by historical records and a
complete and consensual assessment of scholars of genocide; and also
by the man who coined the word genocide and conceived of the idea of
genocide as a crime in international law, Raphael Lemkin,” Balakian
told Rudaw.

In his view, when other states pass these bills they are both
reaffirming the consensual historical record and also expressing
redress to the Turkish government’s denial.

Balakian said that, with its constant denial, Turkey has in fact
raised more awareness to the genocide.

“International state resolutions are a response to the Turkish
government going around the world trying to undermine these historic
events, interfering with its representation, and falsifying the
records,” he said. “If it was not for such actions by the Turkish
government there would be no need for these resolutions.”

On the US reluctance to recognize the Armenian genocide, he said, “I
don’t find that US legislators and presidents are denying the truth
about the ethical reality of the Armenian genocide.

“What I find is that they need the courage to stand up to the Turkish
government on this issue and they need to spend a little time and
energy exerting an ethical redress to Turkey’s denial,” he added.

Balakian said that the United States should act as it did during the
killings when it got involved in rescue and relief efforts to save
Armenian victims.

“The US’s role during that time was heroic in many ways,” he said.

For the US State Department it is not worth aggravating Turkey because
of its strategic partnership with Washington in the Middle East.

Balakian said that the State Department “could certainly stand up to a
little discomfort for a few months as other countries like France,
Greece and Poland did when they passed the Armenian genocide
resolutions.”

Balakian, who is also a writer and poet, said that other countries
have had similar bitter realities about their past to face, and that
Turkey is not alone in this.

“The Soviet Union, the US and other countries have created their own
false narratives about their pasts,” he said. “But as countries mature
and become more democratic and open they push past the big lie
syndrome, and Turkey is capable of doing so as well.”

Balakian believes that recognizing the genocide would benefit Turkey
itself as much as it would give closure to the Armenians.

“It would be a great step forward for Turkey to be able to deal with
this past crime; it would raise Turkey’s status in the eyes of the
world,” he explained.

Dr. Gregory Stanton, former president of the International Association
of Genocide Scholars and the author of The Eight Stages of Genocide,
said that the US State Department and one president after another
consider maintaining good relations with Turkey more important than
telling the truth about the Armenian Genocide.

“The main obstacle for many years during the Cold War was that the US
needed Turkey as an ally against the Soviet Union,” said Stanton.
“Today, Turkey is an important ally against Arab terrorists in Iraq,
Syria, and Yemen.”

Another reason, said Stanton, is that Turkey is a member of NATO, and
has one of the largest US airbases at Incirlik in southeastern Turkey,
which has been vital for supplying US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The main lobbying groups behind the denial of the Armenian genocide
are financed directly by the government of Turkey. They hire
high-priced Washington lawyers and lobbyists to beat back recognition
of the truth about the Armenian Genocide by the US government,” he
said.

Stanton said that there are more people of Armenian descent in the US
than Turks. Therefore, “It may seem a bit strange that the US favors
Turkey over Armenia.”

“But US foreign policy is made in the Executive Branch, so even though
some Congressmen and women support Armenia, the State Department has
managed to kill every resolution on the Armenian genocide before it
ever got to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote,” he
explained.

Stanton said that The International Association of Genocide Scholars,
whose membership includes all the major scholars on genocide in the
world, has repeatedly voted unanimously that the massacres of the
Armenians would be defined today as genocide under the Genocide
Convention.

“According to the Turkish historian, Taner Akcam, who probably
understands the reasons for Turkey’s denial better than anyone, the
father of the modern Turkish nation, Kemal Ataturk, was himself
involved in policies that denied the massacres, and he fostered the
myth that everyone in Turkey is ethnically Turkish,” said Stanton.

“Akcam says that it is part of the nation-building project of Turkey
to deny that it committed the Armenian Genocide,” according to
Stanton.

He said that for many years, the US had a similar denial of the
genocides committed by some presidents in the White House against
Native Americans, most importantly by president Andrew Jackson.

“But we have finally come to accept these crimes against humanity as
indicators that we Americans, like all human beings, have committed
such crimes, including genocide,” Stanton said. “Someday, we hope that
Turkey will admit that the Ottoman Young Turk regime committed the
Armenian genocide, as well as terrible crimes against Kurds.”

Haykakan Zhamanak (in Armenian) , Armenia
Feb 6 2014

Armenian MPs mull “failure” of meeting with EU colleagues

The session of the EU-Armenian Parliamentary Cooperation Commission
held in Strasbourg on 5-6 February was a failure, the pro-opposition
Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper said on 7 February. The paper noted that
the same was true of the previous session held in October in Yerevan
due to virtual boycott by the EU delegates following Armenia’s
decision to join the Russian-led Customs Union.

Opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan opined that after Armenia’s decision,
which was a U-turn in Yerevan’s policy of European integration, the
EU’s attitude changed sharply, the paper reported. “Just seven or
eight months ago, political circles in the EU considered Armenia to be
a leader in European integration, whereas by now, we are viewed just
like Belarus or Kazakhstan,” Pashinyan told the newspaper.

Samvel Farmanyan, MP from the ruling Armenian Republican Party and the
head of the delegation, commented on the session on his Facebook page.
“It is a fact that at least a majority of the members of the European
Parliament do not comprehend Armenia’s recent foreign policy
decisions. It is clear, to me at least, that those MPs are not
inclined towards a discussion based on arguments and is lead by
situational presumptions,” he wrote.

Farmanyan also touched on the reasons for not signing a concluding
declaration, saying that it included anti-Armenian remarks and wording
on Nagornyy Karabakh problem and therefore, could not be signed by the
Armenian delegation.

“It is alarming that some MPs of the European Parliament think that
the best way of expressing their dissatisfaction with Armenia’s recent
foreign political decisions is through radical approaches to the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict resolution, which in fact does not
contribute to the process of peaceful resolution of the conflict and
even harms it,” Farmanyan added.

[translated from Armenian]

Syria may recognize Genocide, says Armenian historian

13:03 * 08.02.14

The developments in and around Syria prompt a scenario of a possible
recognition of the Armenian Genocide by that country, according to a
historian.

At a news conference on Saturday, Gevorg Melkonyan, a history
professor at the Yerevan State University, said the country is quite
likely to make such a historic move against the backdrop of Turkey’s
continuing support to the Syrian opposition.

The expert noted that the Assad regime has always treated the issue
with restraint which he said may now be given up in the light of the
continuing tensions.

“No measures were allowed in relation to the Armenian Genocide; both
countries were urged to establish good-neighborly relations. But after
Turkey was involved in the processes in Syria, the Syrian authorities
began using the issue as a method of pressure against Turkey,” he
added.

Noting that Turkey has problems with all its neighbors (whether
territorial or historical), Melkonyan said it is very important for
Armenia to get the maximum benefit out of that.

“Turkey has territorial claims to all its neighbors. With Syria
weakening a little, it began intervening in domestic policies. Armenia
must raise the question of genocides against other nations as well to
prove to the the European nations that Turkey does not have the
Western European set of values,” he said.