Author: Babajanian Karo

REFERENDUMS IN MAY: SEVERAL ARMENIAN COMMUNITIES TO BE ASKED ON ENLARGEMENT ISSUE

NEWS | 19.03.15 | 14:00

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

Referendums to be held in May in several communities in Armenia will
mark the practical start of the initiative of the Armenian Government
to enlarge communities.

At the government meeting on Thursday Armen Yeritsyan, Minister of
Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations, said that a local
referendum is scheduled for May 17, 2015 with the purpose to unite
the communities of Dilijan, Haghartsin, Teghut, Gosh, Aghavnavank,
Khachardzan, Hovk in the province of Tavush. The following question
will be put to the referendum: “Do you agree if the communities of
Dilijan, Haghartsin, Teghut, Gosh, Aghavnavank, Khachardzan, Hovk are
united under the name Dilijan, with Dilijan as the community center?”

Referendums will be held on the same day also in several communities
in the provinces of Syunik and Lori. The communities of Shinuhayr,
Tatev, Halidzor, Hazhis, Svarants, Khot, Tandzatap, Kashuni in the
province of Syunik are suggested to be united under the name Tatev with
Shinuhayr as the community center, and in the province of Lori – the
communities of Tumanyan, Marts, Karindz, Lorut, Shamut, Atan, Ahnidzor,
under the name Tumanyan with Tumanyan as the community center.

Still last year the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration
developed a pilot project of enlarging communities in order to
centralize and efficiently spend community resources. Two models of the
program were discussed – program and administrative. The former implies
enlarging within some program, and in case of the administrative model
enlargement takes place according to the distance between communities,
population and compatibility. A total of 14 community clusters have
been formed.

Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan introduced the community enlargement
as a step toward improvement.

“We will move toward community enlargement and in the given communities
there will be no complaints, arguable issues. This will be official
and will be continuous,” Abrahamyan said.

Referendums will be organized with the means of the reserve fund of
the state budget, 42 million AMD (nearly $87,500) will be allocated
to the Central Election Commission (CEC), and more than one million
(nearly $2080) – to the police.

It is noteworthy that these referendums will be held right before
the referendum planned for a constitutional referendum expected in
fall or at the beginning of 2016, and might serve as a touchstone
for that nationwide referendum.

ERDOGAN’S ULTIMATUM TO PUTIN ON ARMENIAN ISSUE

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 19 March 2015, 14:24

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned the Russian
President Putin and, among other issues, discussed the Armenian
Genocide, which is mentioned in the press release as the problems of
1915. Erdogan practically complained to Putin Turkey reached out its
hand but Armenia did not take it and refused the proposal to discuss
those events “justly”.

However, it is not just a complaint but a subtle hint that Russia must
“persuade” Armenia to take Turkey’s hand. In other words, it expects
Russia to use its influence on Armenia to have the letter refrain from
a tough policy on the Armenian issue, particularly in the framework
of the Centenary of the Genocide.

The current stage is important for Turkey because Ankara has serious
concerns. The problem is not that the Centenary may be marked by
u-turns for the Armenian issue. It would be ingenuous to think that a
problem with such huge geopolitical importance would be observed in
the context of a centenary. Simply this centenary overlapped with a
cloudy period in the Turkey-West relations with lack of confidence,
and Ankara must have concerns or maybe believes that the West will
use the Armenian issue to intensify pressure on Turkey and bring
Turkey under Euro-Atlantic control.

Recently Ankara has been trying to conduct an independent foreign
policy, which is not in line with the interests of the United States
and the EU and poses risks. In addition, this circumstance exposes
Armenia, and it is in line with Yerevan’s interests if Turkey is
controllable, manageable and adjustable to the Euro-Atlantic strategy.

It stems from the logic of security of Armenia and the Caucasus.

Erdogan resists, trying to make an alliance with Russia. At the same
time, official Ankara realizes that Russia also appreciates alliance
with Turkey that conducts an “independent policy” but is a mere
instrument or means of limiting Western influence in the Caucasus,
after which Russia will try to neutralize Turkish influence on the
Caucasus.

The Armenian issue will be an important instrument in this job. Russia
is interested in neutralizing the Armenian factor altogether for the
sake of alliance with Turkey but after neutralizing Western influence
on the Caucasus through alliance with Turkey Russia will use the
Armenian issue to corner Ankara and curb its ambitions.

Therefore, Ankara will try to bury the Armenian issue with the
help of Russia as deep as possible not only to prevent or reduce
the effect of its use in the West but also later Russia will have a
difficulty against Turkey. Therefore, Ankara is trying to rid of the
Armenian issue with the help of Moscow because Moscow is interested
in strategic alliance with Ankara.

It is obvious that Erdogan is not just complaining and hinting that
Armenia should put pressure on Armenia but he is speaking to Putin
with the tone of an ultimatum. In this regard, it is necessary to
pay attention to the time of the Putin-Erdogan conversation. This
conversation takes place on the next day of the launch of the
construction of TANAP in Kars on March 17. The pipeline the
construction of which will cost 11 billion dollars will transport
Azerbaijani gas to Europe by 2019-2020 and become an alternative to
the Russian gas.

Whether the pipeline will be laid out or not is another issue because
there are several other factors there but the EU is sees this pipeline
as an important project, and it has a significant role in the EUs new
energy security package. In fact, Turkey thus launches a project which
will end the EU’s dependence on the Russian gas. After this launch
Erdogan called Putin and reminded him that Moscow has obligations to
Ankara to use its influence to neutralize the Armenian issue.

In addition, Russia has influence not only on Armenia but on the part
of the Armenian Diaspora whose Russian sentiment could compete with
that of the Armenian political class and government.

Hence, after the telephone talk with Erdogan Putin’s visit to Armenia
on April 24 causes concerns because Erdogan could actually draft the
agenda of his visit.

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: 100 YEARS OF DENIAL

17:45, 19 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

“Is an Armenian life no more valuable than a Jewish or Rwandan or
Cambodian? As we approach the 100th anniversary this April, the
United States still has time to set the record straight,” Stephan
Pechdimaldji, a grandson to survivors of the Armenian Genocide and
first generation Armenian-American, writes in an article published
by the Huffington Post.

Just one week before he prepared to attack Poland in the summer of
1939 and embark on his quixotic campaign to take over the world, Adolf
Hitler addressed his military commanders in Obersalzberg and referred
to the Armenian Genocide by concluding his speech by saying, “Who,
after all, speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Hitler saw
what happened nearly twenty-five years earlier and thought he could
emulate what the Ottoman Turks did to ethnic Armenians living in
Asia Minor and use it as a blueprint for his own sadistic ambitions
without anyone noticing. Today we remember this dark period with
somber and reverence, and honor those who suffered during the Nazi’s
reign of terror. Since then the world has tried to bleach out this
stain in history by learning from the past and vowing that this type
of crime must never happen again. The healing process began with
Germany taking responsibility for the actions of their predecessors
and trying to make amends with the victims of the Holocaust and their
families. Laws have even been codified that make it illegal to deny
that the Holocaust ever happened. Watchdog organizations like the
Anti-Defamation League were created to monitor anti-Semitism. But what
if none of this happened? Imagine a world where governments didn’t
recognize the Holocaust and called for an historical commission to
study the facts surrounding the event to determine whether or not
a crime had been committed? This type of world does in fact exist
today for Armenian-Americans who continue to grapple with the United
State’s refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide and side with
Turkey’s ongoing contention that genocide never took place.

The Armenian Genocide is an historical fact. To say otherwise is a
lie. As the first genocide of the 20th century, more than 1.5 million
Armenians were systematically killed through wholesale massacres and
deportations carried out by the Turks during World War I and the last
days of the Ottoman Empire. Eye-witness accounts including dispatches
from Henry Morgenthau, American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire,
photographs taken from German military media Armin T. Wegner and
articles from the New York Times all chronicle the mass slaughter
of Armenians during this period. Eerily similar to the Holocaust,
Armenians were uprooted from their homes as part of a “relocation”
effort to control the minority population. Instead, thousands were
sent to their deaths by mass burnings, death marches in the Syrian
Desert and primitive gas chambers where victims were forced into
caves and asphyxiated in one fell swoop by the toxic airs lit from
fires in front of the passage ways. Years later, Raphael Lemkin,
a law professor responsible for coining the word genocide in 1943
did so with the fate of the Armenians in mind. Given this body of
historical evidence, Turkey continues to deny any responsibility
in orchestrating genocide. Turkey claims that the killings were
not calculated and were an unfortunate result of war and that the
deportations were justified because Armenians posed a threat due to
their sympathetic feelings towards the Russians.

This issue is further complicated by Turkey’s ongoing campaign to
pressure and influence U.S. foreign policy. Sensitive to not offend
Turkey for geopolitical purposes, the U.S. has yet to hold Turkey
responsible for these atrocities. For years, the U.S. claimed that
it was not in our foreign interests to do so because Turkey was a
NATO ally and strategically valuable due to its close proximity to
the Soviet Union. When the Cold War ended, the argument turned to
Turkey’s importance as a free and democratic society in a sea of
Islamic fundamentalists. Countries like Yemen, Iraq and Iran could
learn from Turkey’s example, the line of reasoning would go. This flies
in the face of our core values. How can the leader of the free world,
a champion of equality and universal civil liberties be complicit in
such an egregious violation of basic human rights?

Sadly, this issue has become a political football in our country where
politicians like President George W. Bush and Barack Obama looking for
votes and money promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide and then bow
to pressure once in office. Political expediency should play no role
in this debate when the facts overwhelmingly support what many scholars
and students of history recognize as the 20th century’s first genocide.

I grew up hearing stories of how my grandparents survived the Armenian
Genocide. Of how my grandfather hid in a haystack for more than forty
days while his father and brother were taken away, never to be seen
or heard from again. Of his harrowing escape from the tiny village of
Yozgat to Aleppo, Syria, where many survivors gathered and of how he
worked as a welder to make enough money to eventually settle in Egypt.

These stories had a profound impact on me and I could never fully
comprehend what it must have been like to go through such a tumultuous
ordeal. And as a child I remember going to Times Square every April
24th — the official day of remembrance — to commemorate the Armenian
Genocide and listen to civic leaders and politicians excoriate Turkey
and pledge recognition.

Since then, I’ve written countless letters to news publications on
this topic and have urged friends, colleagues and even strangers
to take up this cause. Some say why does this matter? How is the
relevant to their daily lives or something that the government should
get involved with? This is significant because denial is often the
last phase of genocide. What’s more, the U.S. can send a message
to despotic states like The Sudan that genocide on any grounds is
unacceptable and any attempt to obfuscate responsibility will be met
with staunch opposition. Much like the Holocaust, we owe recognition
of the Armenian Genocide to the victims and their families as well
as to the intrepid guardians of human rights both here and abroad.

While Turkey continues to uphold this policy of denial, there have
been folks like Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish novelist and Nobel-prize
winning author, who made statements regarding the Armenian Genocide
who subsequently was charged with violating Article 301 of the Turkish
penal code that prohibits and bans insulting Turkey. And then there’s
Hrant Dink, an editor of a Turkish-Armenian newspaper whose life
was cut short by an assassin’s bullet for his views on Turkey’s
denial of the Armenian Genocide. These actions do not reflect a
government that supports free speech and divergent points of view —
all vital components of a democratic society. Distorting historical
facts surrounding the Armenian Genocide is just another example of
Turkish subterfuge in trying to burnish its image with the West.

Admitting past mistakes is not uncommon for the United States. In
fact it’s in our blood. Apologizing for the mistreatment of African
Americans for slavery and the internment of Japanese Americans into
camps during World War II are just some examples. President Clinton
even went so far to make amends for not doing enough to stop genocide
in Rwanda in the mid 1990s. And time and again we see the U.S. condemn
countries like Iran for denying the Holocaust, yet continue to turn
a blind eye to the Armenian Genocide. Why are Armenians any different?

Is an Armenian life no more valuable than a Jewish or Rwandan or
Cambodian? As we approach the 100th anniversary this April, the United
States still has time to set the record straight. Time will tell if
they decide to be on the right or wrong side of history.

MEMBERS OF HERITAGE, PROSPEROUS ARMENIA, ANC MEET WITH EU COMMISSIONER JOHANNES HAHN

16:32 19/03/2015 >> POLITICS

Representatives of Heritage Party, Prosperous Armenia Party and
Armenian National Congress on Wednesday met with visiting EU
Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement
Negotiations Johannes Hahn, the press service of Heritage Party
reports.

Heritage members presented the party’s approaches on Armenia’s internal
and external challenges. The sides also discussed issues related to
regional security and Armenia-EU relations.

Source: Panorama.am

MEASURING DEMOCRACY: ANALYST SAYS ABOLISHING DIRECT PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT REMOVES ONE DEMOCRATIC INSTRUMENT

POLITICS | 19.03.15 | 15:46

Photolure

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN

While the ruling Republican Party of Armenia insists that a transition
to a parliamentary system of governance as part of the constitutional
changes in Armenia will enhance democracy, political analyst Hovhannes
Galstyan believes that thus one of the most important tools of
democracy, elections, will be cut at least by one.

If a parliamentary form of governance is adopted, starting from 2018
there will be no more presidential elections; the president will be
elected by the Parliament.

Galstyan, an independent expert, is running a study to understand
whether there are any guarantees that the suggested system will
function. He says the results are not that “comforting” yet.

“First of all, decreasing the number of nationwide elections is a
problem for the new democracy. There will be just nationwide vote –
parliamentary elections, and then simply a ceremonial president will
be elected by the parliament, and the order the president will be
elected is not clarified yet,” Galstyan told ArmeniaNow.

The expert said that the biggest counterbalance of the parliamentary
system is the independent judicial system, which, however, cannot be
considered independent in Armenia. According to Galstyan, with the
absence of an independent judiciary the parliamentary system might
develop in a very dangerous way.

“The stability mentioned in the agenda will lead to stagnation, i.e.

one political majority in the country will decide everything without
any serious counterbalance,” Galstyan said.

And although many experts and members of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) – the only parliamentary force that has so far openly
pronounced in favor of the administration-proposed constitutional
reform, say that with the parliamentary system the political party
system will develop in Armenia, however, Galstyan claims the opposite.

“With a weak party system like the one in Armenia, the parliamentary
system will not be formed,” the expert said, adding that the society
does not feel the need of constitutional changes either.

“If in 1995 or 2005 we were going in one direction, i.e. with the logic
of developing the semi-presidential system, while in this case this
is a U-turn. We must also consider the legitimacy of these changes,
how urgent is the public demand for this issue,” he said.

TURKEY HAS ALWAYS CREATED PROBLEMS IN KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT – NALBANDIAN

17:33 18/03/2015 >> POLITICS

If Turkey really wishes to assist the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it must keep away from this process,
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a news conference
with visiting EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and
Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn.

“It is obvious that Turkey has always created problems in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, on the one hand, supporting
Azerbaijan’s destructive position and, on the other hand, trying to
intervene in the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs who have
an international mandate,” Nalbandian said.

Armenia’s top diplomat also said that it is necessary to refrain from
actions that could undermine the peace process.

“I am confident that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs share this
approach,” he added.

Source: Panorama.am

TIME TO ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Porterville Recorder, CA
March 18 2015

Michael Carley / A Different Drum Recorderonline.com

When one thinks of the word genocide, what often comes to mind is the
Nazi holocaust of World War II during which Germany killed millions.

Communists, gays and minorities of all stripes were among the targets,
but Jews in particular suffered with an estimated six million of
their number killed, a substantial portion of the European Jewish
population of the time.

But, the word genocide was actually coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish
attorney from Poland, with regard to a different historical event,
one not discussed as widely, the Armenian genocide.

The Armenian genocide wasn’t simply one event. Persecution began long
before the main attacks in 1915. As Armenians began to organize for
improvement of their lot in the late 19th century, they fell victim
to persecution by authorities of the Ottoman empire. Massacres of
Armenians took place as early as 1894, taking the lives of thousands.

Further persecution took place, including more massacres, over the
next twenty years. In what would become a prelude to Nazi propaganda,
the Ottomans began a campaign in 1914 arguing that Armenians were a
threat to their society. But the genocide began in full in April 1915,
a century ago next month.

Among other events, the Ottomans arrested about 250 intellectuals
and began the mass deportation of thousands. Others were sent on what
would later be called a “death march” through the desert toward Syria
where many perished. Property was confiscated, extermination camps
were established, some temporary, others contained mass graves. Many
were drowned.

Again presaging the Nazis, many were killed through medical
experimentation, including overdoses of various drugs, including
morphine.

Estimates of those killed vary substantially, but the numbers are
likely between one and one and a half million Armenians.

Some Americans did speak out against the genocide, including former
president Theodore Roosevelt, populist Williams Jennings Bryan,
Rabbi Steven Wise and feminist Alice Stone Blackwell.

The Republic of Turkey is the successor state to the Ottoman Empire and
it staunchly opposes using the term genocide. Nonetheless, the Armenian
Diaspora has consistently pushed for recognition of it, as they should.

To date, 22 countries have adopted resolutions acknowledging the
Armenian genocide as have 42 of the 50 US states.

Numerous congressional resolutions have been put forward to formally
recognize the Armenian genocide, only to fail due to lobbying by
the Turkish government. Relationships with a key ally have taken
precedence over historical accuracy.

President George W. Bush and his state department opposed recognition
during his tenure in office. While campaigning for president,
candidate Obama promised to recognize the genocide if elected,
but reversed course once in office, adhering to the same policy of
his predecessors, his administration opposing several congressional
attempts. The same goes for potential candidate Hillary Clinton who
lobbied against recognition during her tenure as Secretary of State.

As the century date approaches next month, it would be a good time
to do the right thing and simply acknowledge history as it happened.

If we’re looking for silver linings, one only has to turn to our
neighbors to see the positive impact Armenian immigrants have had on
American society.

Armenian immigration began well before the 1915 events, with a wave
coming through the early massacres and the genocide period and another
wave coming from the 1960s onward, largely Soviet Armenians who had
not fully integrated into Soviet society.

The most recent American Community Survey (formerly the Census long
form) estimates that there are nearly half a million Armenian-Americans
in the US, though some estimates place the number far higher. The
highest concentration has been in the Los Angeles area, comprising
more than 40 percent of the national total.

Going back even further, some of the earliest Armenian immigrants
came here to the Central Valley, many of them settling in the Fresno
area as early as 1874. A number of them became Valley farmers and in
the early years, discrimination against Armenians was common.

Best known of these was William Saroyan. Born in Fresno in 1908,
Saroyan was the celebrated writer of short stories such as The Daring
Young Man on the Flying Trapeze and many others. Saroyan won the
Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1940 and an Academy Award in 1943 for
the film adaptation of his novel The Human Comedy.

You can see cultural events at the Saroyan Theatre, near the Fresno
Convention Center. One you might consider would be tonight’s town hall
event, From the Ottoman Empire To Today: The Time for Reconciliation.

Michael Carley is a resident of Porterville.

ARMENIA EXIGE JUSTICIA CIEN AÑOS DESPUES DEL GENOCIDIO QUE SUFRIO SU PUEBLO

Terra Chile
18 marzo 2015

18 Mar 2015

Armenia exigio hoy una vez mas justicia y reconocimiento internacional
del genocidio que sufrio su pueblo hace casi un siglo en el Imperio
Otomano, en el que murio, según algunos calculos, hasta un millon y
medio de armenios.

“No hay ni una sola familia en Armenia que no tenga su historia
y sus muertos durante el genocidio”, recordo hoy Viguen Sargsian,
jefe de la Administracion de la Presidencia armenia, ante cientos
de periodistas de todo el mundo reunidos en el foro “A los pies de
Ararat”, que se celebra en Erevan.

Poco despues, el presidente de Armenia, Serge Sargsian, dijo que su
país “quisiera celebrar el centenario junto al pueblo turco, lo que
significaría la paz entre nuestros pueblos”, pero enseguida denuncio
que “la negacion del genocidio por parte de Turquía se puede calificar
de crimen continuado”.

En poco mas de un mes, Armenia conmemorara el centenario de una fecha
tragica en la historia del pequeño país enclavado en el Caucaso Sur
y habitado por uno de los pueblos mas antiguos de la humanidad.

El 24 de abril de 1915, en plena Primera Guerra Mundial en la que
Turquía combatía del lado de Alemania, el Gobierno otomano ordeno la
detencion de centenares de armenios en Estambul y poco despues puso
en marcha una masiva deportacion de esta etnia a los confines del
Imperio, a traves del desierto hasta la actual Siria.

“En mi familia, de 30 miembros, solo quedaron cinco tras los años
del genocidio”, que según los armenios duro hasta 1923, dijo Ashot
Dzhazoyan, presidente del Congreso de Medios “Union de Periodistas”.

Un siglo despues, solo 22 países han calificado aquellos hechos como
genocidio, mientras que Turquía, aunque reconoce cientos de miles de
muertos armenios durante la deportacion, niega que la intencion del
Imperio Otomano fuera extinguir a toda la etnia.

“El genocidio es un crimen que no puede quedar impune”, subrayo
Viguen Sargsian.

Tras mas de siete siglos sin tener un Estado propio, con una muy
breve excepcion inmediatamente despues de la Primera Guerra Mundial,
la Armenia que recupero en 1991 su independencia de la Union Sovietica
centra desde entonces su política exterior en conseguir que el mundo
reconozca su gran tragedia.

Para todos los armenios, “el genocidio sigue siendo un tema de maxima
actualidad”, no solo por la memoria de los muertos o las reparaciones
territoriales y materiales que exige Erevan a Turquía, indico Viguen
Sargsian.

“En los últimos años, la negacion del genocidio armenio es agravado
por el neoimperialismo que las actuales autoridades turcas intentan
instaurar en su país”, se quejo el ponente, que denuncio que Ankara
muestra “una postura claramente antiarmenia en las instituciones
internacionales”.

A 20 kilometros de Erevan “esta la última frontera de Europa, la
frontera turco-armenia cerrada por Ankara, que reconoce abiertamente
que el bloqueo persigue causar problemas economicos a Armenia y
presionar al país hacia la resolucion del conflicto de Nagorno
Karabaj”, apunto.

El conflicto por la soberanía sobre ese territorio azerbaiyano,
habitado historicamente por armenios y ocupado por Erevan hace
un cuarto de siglo, fue lo que trunco hace cinco años la llamada
“diplomacia del fútbol” entre Turquía y Armenia.

En 2008, despues de que el presidente turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
acudiera invitado por el líder armenio a un partido de fútbol oficial
entre las selecciones de los dos países, Armenia vio una puerta
abierta al final del aislamiento que vive por parte de su gran vecino
del oeste.

Se inicio un proceso de acercamiento y se firmo un protocolo para
normalizar las relaciones, “pero poco despues Turquía empezo a poner
condiciones relacionadas con Nagorno Karabaj”, un territorio al
que Armenia no quiere renunciar por nada del mundo, recordo Viguen
Sargsian.

“Nosotros, en cambio, nunca hemos puesto el reconocimiento de
genocidio como condicion previa para normalizar las relaciones”,
subrayo el presidente armenio.

Serge Sargsian lamento que, “en lugar de impulsar su declarada política
de ‘cero problemas con los vecinos’, los turcos tratan imponer a los
estados que la rodean sus condiciones, lo cual no es otra cosa que
una expresion del neoimperialismo”.

Tambien cargo contra Azerbaiyan, al que considera responsable directo
de la postura adoptada por Ankara poco despues de manifestar su
intencion de normalizar las relaciones.

“El presidente azerbaiyano, Ilham Alíev, ha declarado que Armenia es
el enemigo número uno de Azerbaiyan y que su política es impulsar el
aislamiento de Armenia. Y esa política tiene su reflejo en la postura
de Turquía”, asevero el líder armenio.

,15d96ed61bd2c410VgnCLD200000b2bf46d0RCRD.html

NEW ARMENIA BORDER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM LAUNCHES

15:20, 18.03.2015
Region:World News, Armenia, Russia
Theme: Politics

YEREVAN. – Over the next five years, 45 border communities in
Armenia’s Tavush region, with an overall population of 62,000, will
have the opportunity to develop their own community plans, prioritizing
activities – such as infrastructure and income generating activities
– for financing within the framework of “Integrated Support to Rural
Development: Building Resilient Communities” project.

The project is funded by the Government of the Russian Federation
and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in Armenia, in close partnership with the Ministry of Territorial
Administration and Emergency Situations of Armenia. The project budget
is over USD 5 million.

Bradley Busetto, UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative
in Armenia, Armen Yeritsyan, Minister of Territorial Administration
and Emergency Situations, and Ivan Volynkin, Ambassador of the Russian
Federation to Armenia, on Wednesday signed the relevant documents to
launch the project.

Representatives of government agencies responsible for rural and
community development, as well as international organizations,
diplomatic corps, and media attended the event.

“UNDP, as a global development organization, tries to reach remote
communities in Armenia with the support needed not to provide short
term emergency aid, but sustained development support. Our added value
has several facets – neutrality, impartiality, flexibility, as well
as innovation, which makes UNDP special as a development partner for
Armenia. For more than two decades UNDP has worked closely with the
government and other development partners to make Armenia a better
place to live and work. In this context, I would like to express my
gratitude to the Governments of Russian Federation and Armenia for
the excellent collaboration and for this important partnership to
support vulnerable communities. By working together, we can make a
difference to peoples lives,” said Busetto, in his welcoming remarks.

“We have 915 communities in Armenia and they have unique problems and
challenges. In order to make the country’s territorial administration
more efficient, it is necessary to engage in each community and
village, especially in bordering regions. Bordering communities are
always in the focus of the Government of Armenia, which carries
out various measures aimed at their support and development. We
are confident that this project will be an invaluable investment to
mitigate the burden felt in bordering communities,” noted Yeritsyan,.

“Russia consistently builds up its efforts in providing support to
its foreign partners in achieving sustainable development. Priority
recipients of the Russian international development assistance are CIS
countries and its partners in Eurasian integration. The importance
of this UNDP programme is its focus on complex development of the
vulnerable bordering communities in Tavush region and the positive
experience of its realization could be transferred to other communities
of the country. It should be noted that UNDP is a reliable partner
of the Russian Federation which has an excellent reputation and huge
experience accumulated within years of work globally,” said Volynkin.

GROUNDBREAKING ACADEMIC CONFERENCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN ISTANBUL

11:04, 18 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Scholars from around the world will convene at Istanbul Bilgi
University on April 26, 2015, to participate in an international
conference entitled “The Armenian Genocide: Concepts and Comparative
Perspectives” and co-sponsored by Istanbul Bilgi University, the
History Foundation in Turkey (Tarih Vakfý), and the Modern Armenian
History Chair at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The conference is part of the week-long series of activities
commemorating the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in Istanbul
organized by DurDe, a Turkish human rights organization, and Project
2015, a US-based group helping to organize Armenians visiting Turkey
for the historic commemoration.

“This is a very important opportunity for scholars from around the
world to address critical aspects of the facts and history of the
Armenian Genocide here, in Istanbul, 100 years after it started,” said
Bulent Bilmez, chair of Bilgi’s history department and the History
Foundation in Turkey. “We hope that speaking openly about the shared
history of Armenians and the other peoples of Turkey–something that
has not always been possible–will help our society come to terms
with the past.”

Among the scholars participating in the conference are Norman
Naimark, Jay Winter, Dirk Moses, Muge Gocek, Cathie Carmichael,
Keith Watenpaugh, Uður Umit Ungor, and Mehmet Polatel. The gathering
will probe the concept of genocide from a comparative perspective,
explore the forced transfer of children, and examine how the genocide
has been mapped in historiography and memorialized and enshrined in
collective and historical memory.

“To those who have suggested that historians review the history of the
Armenian Genocide we say, ‘We are coming to Istanbul to do just that,
with fellow historians in Turkey,’ ” said Sebouh Aslanian, Richard
Hovannisian Endowed Chair of Modern Armenian History at the History
Department of the University of California, Los Angeles. “A frank and
open discussion of the historical record is our way of contributing
to knowledge and education about the Armenian Genocide in Turkey.”