Author: Babajanian Karo

IRAN UNDERLINES NECESSITY OF POLITICAL SOLUTION FOR NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT

14:20, 4 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS: The Islamic Republic of Iran highlights
the necessity of dialogue and political solution for Nagorno Karabakh
conflict. The Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Islamic
Republic of Iran, Head of the General Department of Public Diplomacy
and Media Ramin Mehmanparast stated this during the press conference
held on April 4. In addition he wished success to the present format
of the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. As reports
“Armenpress” Ramin Mehmanparast noted: “During my visit to Armenia we
had a conversation regarding this issue with the Armenian officials
as well.”

Among other things the Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Islamic Republic of Iran, Head of the General Department of Public
Diplomacy and Media Ramin Mehmanparast underlined the significance
of the regional security and emphasized that peace, security, and
stability spring from everyone’s interests.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Edward
Nalbandyan hosted the delegation headed by the Spokesman of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ramin
Mehmanparast on April 3. He highly appreciated the balanced stance
of Iran over the Karabakh issue.

PEOPLE IN ARMENIA WANT TO MIGRATE MORE THAN THOSE OF OTHER FORMER SOVIET UNION COUNTRIES – GALLUP

12:45 ~U 04.04.13

Fifteen percent of adults across 12 former Soviet Union (FSU) countries
desire to migrate to another country permanently, according to Gallup
data collected between 2010 and 2012.

Desire varies within the region, from 40% in Armenia to 5% in
Uzbekistan. Adults in Central Asian countries are generally less
likely to want to migrate than those living in other areas within
the larger region.

Gallup asked the respondents: Ideally, if you had opportunity, would
you like to move permanently to another country, or would you prefer
to continue living in this country?

The picture is the following: Armenia 40% Moldova 32% Ukraine 21%
Belarus 17% Kyrgyzstan 16% Russia 14% Georgia 14% Kazakhstan 13%
Tajikistan 11% Turkmenistan 6% Uzbekistan 5%

When Gallup asked potential migrants in 2011 and 2012 to identify
the main reason they would like to move, the majority cited
economic-related factors. Fifty-two percent of potential migrants in
FSU countries say they want to improve their standard of living or
live in a country with a better standard of living. Another 10% say
they want to get a good job or cannot find a job in their own country.

More than one in eight (13%) are thinking not of their own futures,
but those of their children.

Main reasons for Desire to Move to Another Country Permanently are:

Improve standard of living 52% For your children’s future 13% To get a
good job/Cannot find job 10% Because of social benefits (retirement,
medical benefits, etc) 4% To be closer to family 3% To live in a
country where human rights are protected 3% To live in a country
with less crime 1% Because of environment problems in country 1%
Other reason 2% Don’t know/Refused 12%

But 12% said they did not have an opinion on the reason they desire to
move. Four percent or fewer potential migrants mentioned other reasons
such as social benefits (namely retirement and medical benefits).

In contrast to the commonly held belief that reuniting families is one
of the most important reasons for migration in the region, Gallup data
show that it is not near the top of the list for residents in these
12 countries. Those in Central Asian countries are the most likely
to cite wanting “to be close to family” as the main reason they would
like to migrate, with the highest percentage in Kazakhstan, at 11%.

Potential migrants aged 50 and older are more likely than younger
respondents across all 12 countries to want to move to be closer to
family. In Central Asian countries, nearly one in four adults in this
older age group say family is the main reason they desire to migrate.

Results are based on aggregated face-to-face interviews with 41,072
adults, aged 15 and older, in 12 countries from 2010 to 2012: Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Armenian News – Tert.am

NEITHER ME, NOR YOU: HOVANNISIAN CALLS ON SARGSYAN TO QUIT TOGETHER

VOTE 2013 | 04.04.13 | 13:12

Opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian has called on President Serzh
Sargsyan to “quit the presidential fight” together with him and serve
the nation otherwise.

Hovannisian, who claims victory in the February presidential election
officially won by Sargsyan, has been touring provinces in recent
days to drum up support for a Yerevan protest on April 9 – the day
for the official presidential inauguration.

The opposition movement led by Heritage Party leader Hovannisian has
spoken about a possible ‘alternative’ inauguration to be organized
in Yerevan on that day.

During a meeting in Noyemberyan the opposition leader called on the
president to come to Liberty Square in the Armenian capital on April
9 and make it “a day of national unity”.

“If you are ready, both of us can quit the presidential struggle and
go to protect the borders. Become my teacher and let us together save
this people,” said the opposition leader, as quoted by media.

Last week Hovannisian and Sargsyan were in a dialogue by correspondence
over the possibility of meeting in person to discuss ways of ending
post-election tensions. The two leaders have not met or exchanged
messages, however, since the Heritage party leader ended his hunger
strike last Sunday.

MOMENT OF TRUTH DRAWS NEAR FOR PROSPEROUS ARMENIA PARTY, TOO – RAFFI HOVANNISIAN

April 03, 2013 | 10:39

ABOVYAN. – The moment of truth draws near for all political parties,
including Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP). Opposition Heritage Party
Chairman, former FM Raffi Hovannisian-who was declared runner-up
to the winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result
of the presidential election that was conducted on February 18,
but who claims to be the real winner in the vote-stated this on
Wednesday, during his assembly with the residents of Abovyan city in
Kotayk Region. PAP is the predominant party in this city, Armenian
News-NEWS.am reporter informs.

“The time to make a decision approaches for each and everyone.

Prosperous Armenia likewise is no exception; it has to decide on which
side it stands,” Hovannisian stressed, and added that this party has
a rich but a complicated history.

“We treat PAP with respect, but the time to make a choice now
approaches it and the rest: To be with the people, or on the opposite
side,” Raffi Hovannisian noted.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

IRANIAN FM URGES ARMENIA TO CONDEMN TERRORISTS’ USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN SYRIA

ARMINFO
Wednesday, April 3, 11:54

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called on Armenia to condemn
the recent use of chemical weapons by the terrorists against the
Syrian nation, Fars news agency reported.

The source recalls that earlier this month, terrorists fired a rocket
containing chemical substances in the Khan al-Assal area of rural
Aleppo and reports indicated that around 25 people were killed,
most of them civilians.

The Iranian foreign minister made the remarks in a message to his
Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian on Monday.

“As one of the main victims of such weapons, the Islamic Republic
calls on Armenia to spare no effort to prevent the repetition of
similar incidents in future,” Salehi said in his message. Salehi’s
message was conveyed to Nalbandian by Iranian Ambassador to Yerevan
Mohammad Rayeesi. Syria has asked for an independent investigation
into the use of chemical weapons by militants in Aleppo.

The chemical attack came after a video footage posted on the internet
late in January showed that the armed militants in Syria possessed
canisters containing chemical substances, Fars reported.

NEWSPAPER: PROSPEROUS ARMENIA PARTY EXPECTED TO SET UP “RAPID RESPONSE GROUP” TO CONTROL OVER ELECTIONS TO ELDERS’ COUNCIL OF YEREVAN

ARMINFO
Wednesday, April 3, 11:35

Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) like the Republican Party of Armenia
(RPA) is currently engaged in ‘inventory’ of its electoral resources
on the threshold of the elections to the Elders’ Council of Yerevan. A
local Hraparak newspaper writes that PAP has decided not tot yield
“a single inch of land” to the ruling party.

For this purpose, PAP representatives are expected to set up a ‘rapid
response group’ to establish full control over the voting process. PAP
will register every voter entering a polling station, take video record
of the voting process to rule out election rigging. A source in the PAP
told Hraparak newspaper that the party will exert genuine efforts to
‘take’ Yerevan on the example of Gyumri, where in September 2012 PAP
member Samvel Balasanyan was elected as the mayor.

To recall, six parties and a union have submitted their party
lists to run to the Elders’ Council of Yerevan: Republican Party
of Armenia, Prosperous Party of Armenia, Orinats Yerkir, Armenian
National Congress, Mission, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and “Barev Yerevan”
Union. The elections will be held on May 5. Political parties will
fight for 65 seats at the Elders’ Council.

DES DELEGUES DU CATHOLICOSSAT DE CILICIE PRESENTS LORS DE L’INTRONISATION DU PAPE FRANCOIS IER

Mardi 19 mars 2013, les delegues representant Sa Saintete Aram 1er
ont assiste a l’intronisation du Pape Francois Ier a la cathedrale
Saint-Pierre. La delegation etait composee de l’archeveque Moushegh
Mardirossian, prelat du diocèse de l’Ouest des Etats-Unis, de
l’archeveque Nareg Alemezian, directeur ~cumenique et des bienfaiteurs
Alecco et Annie Bezikian. Mercredi, les delegues se sont reunis avec
le Pape Francois Ier, l’ont felicite et ont transmis les salutations
de Sa Saintete Aram I. Le Pape en retour a envoye ses salutations a
Sa Saintete Aram Ier

mercredi 3 avril 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

IRAN URGES ARMENIA TO CONDEMN CHEMICAL ATTACK IN SYRIA

Press TV, Iran
April 1, 2013 Monday

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has urged Armenia to condemn
the latest deadly chemical attack near Syria’s northwestern city of
Aleppo, which left dozens of people dead.

During a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian
on Sunday, Iran’s Ambassador to Yerevan Mohammad Raeesi conveyed
a message from Salehi to his Armenian counterpart.In his message,
Salehi censured the use of chemical weapons near Aleppo, situated about
310 kilometers (193 miles) north of the Syrian capital Damascus, as
“inhumane,” and held militants in Syria and their foreign sponsors
accountable for the criminal act.The Iranian foreign minister noted
that Tehran supports a peaceful solution to the conflict in Syria,
stressing that regional stability and security can be maintained only
through a political solution to the Syrian crisis.He also called on
the Armenian government and humanitarian organizations to condemn
the chemical attack in Syria.On March 19, at least 25 people were
killed and 86 others injured after militants fired missiles containing
poisonous gas into Aleppo’s Khan al-Assal village. Women and children
were among the victims.The unrest in Syria began in March 2011,
and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security
personnel, have been killed in the violence. The Syrian government
says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country,
and there are reports that a very large number of the militants in
the country are foreign nationals. MP/HMV

WILL NON-MUSLIMS RETURN TO TURKEY?

AL-Monitor
April 2 2013

By: Orhan Kemal Cengiz for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse. Posted on April 1.

Omer Celik, minister of culture of Turkey’s Justice and Development
Party (AKP) government, has made repeated calls recently in which
he invited non-Muslims to come back to Turkey. In his most recent TV
interview on March 29, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan himself repeated
this call and he said their government is calling non-Muslims back to
Turkey. Do these calls have any potential to create a mass return of
non-Muslims to Turkey? Has Turkey made profound changes in the way
it handles its non-Muslim citizens?

I do not think that these questions have simple yes-or-no answers.

Before I try to give my own answers, I have to give little bit
background to illustrate to what extent Turkey’s non-Muslim policies
have changed.

Modern Turkey was based on the exclusion of non-Muslims from Turkey.

You can understand this by simply looking at the percentages of
non-Muslims in the population in Turkey. Before 1915, 25% of Turkey’s
population consisted of non-Muslims. With the current population of 70
million citizens, we should have 17 million non-Muslims. But today,
all non-Muslims (including Greeks, Jews, Armenians and Assyrians)
just barely exceeds 100,000. So the current rate is well below 1%.

Some of these people certainly had fallen victim to massacres in 1915
and onward. Some had left the country in population exchanges with
Greece, and some went to Israel. But during the whole Republican era,
non-Muslims continued to leave the country to escape from the endless
suffering they were subjected to. In 1934, Jews were targeted in the
Thrace region, their homes and shops looted. In 1942, the so-called
“wealth tax” dealt a huge blow to all non-Muslims who had to sell
everything in their possession to pay these extremely arbitrary fees.

In September 1955, Istanbul’s Greek and Armenian residents fell victim
to a two-day brutal pogrom. In 1974, with an extremely arbitrary
judgment by the Supreme Court of Appeals, non-Muslim foundations lost
all properties they had gained since 1936, as a result of legal tricks
created by courts which made their acquisitions illegal.

I do not want to suffocate you with all the details of this extremely
complicated history. But all these pogroms, financial tricks and
attacks were different applications of a fait accompli strategy to get
rid of every single non-Muslim from Turkey. This strategy’s application
started in 1915 with the massacres of Armenians by the Committee of
Union and Progress (CUP) and continued during the whole Republican era
by so-called deep-state elements which inherited the its traditions.

Here we come to one mind-boggling element which makes it extremely
difficult for outsiders to understand Turkey. The people who were
trying to create a nation-state by getting rid of non-Muslims were the
same who modernized the country. But this secular elite was also the
one who oppressed pious Muslims for not fitting the “ideal citizen”
role they wanted to create in Turkey.

It is obvious that the AKP, which consists of conservative and pious
Muslims, is not an inheritor of this tradition. Therefore, it is not a
coincidence that non-Muslims of Turkey have been going through their
most comfortable period, relatively, since the beginning of Turkish
Republic in 1923.

However, not coming from the CUP tradition does not mean that the
AKP is immune from this nationalist virus which created a hell for
non-Muslims in Turkey.

For example, when Erdogan cites different ethnic identities to show
how heterogeneous Turkey is, he never adds non-Muslims to his long
list of Kurds, Turks, Circassians and so forth. His government has
never considered making an apology for 1915. On the contrary, they
continued the old denialist attitude of the former elites when it
comes to the Armenian genocide.

The AKP put an end to the deep-rooted fait accompli strategy against
non-Muslims, but they were not able to create a profound change in
this area. All improvements remained unfinished, uncompleted. For
example, they allowed non-Muslims to use their historic churches
in different parts of the country; however, this permission was
only given one single day a year. The government has restored some
churches, but it did not returned them to their historic owners,
instead recognizing them as “museums.” The government changed the law
of foundations to allow non-Muslims to gain new properties, but they
gave back only limited numbers of the properties that were taken from
these foundations. The Halki Theological School is still closed. It
is this government that interfered with the election process in the
Armenian patriarchate to get their favorite candidate chosen.

When the Assyrian people started to return their traditional lands in
southeast Turkey, feeling assured by the policies of this government,
the 1,600-year-old Mor Gabriel monastery faced a devastating legal
struggle, in which the treasury claimed to be the owner of its lands.

The treasury won the case, and the Assyrian community, whose faith
in the government has been shaken to the ground, is now planning to
take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The essence of this story is this: This government has ended the
hostile and devastating policies of the secular nationalist elites,
but they could not create a new paradigm to reassure everyone that
there will be no return to the past and that a new Turkey, as far as
non-Muslims are concerned, is established. We are not there yet.

Orhan Kemal Cengiz (born in 1968) is a human rights lawyer, columnist
and former president of the Human Rights Agenda Association, a
respected Turkish NGO that works on human rights issues ranging from
the prevention of torture to the rights of the mentally disabled.

KANSAS GUARDSMEN RETURN FROM WEEK LONG DEPLOYMENT TO ARMENIA

Targeted News Service
April 1, 2013 Monday 9:27 PM EST

The Kansas Adjutant General issued the following news release:

A three-person team from the Kansas National Guard’s 235th Regiment
has returned from a weeklong trip to the Republic of Armenia where
they conducted a site survey for basic medical first responder and
casualty evacuation procedures. The trip concluded March 30 and was
in preparation for a Basic Medical First Responder course the team
will teach later in the year.

During the trip, Staff Sgt. Brian Martin, Staff Sgt. Kimberly Fox and
Staff Sgt. Vernon Perkins assessed procedures the Armenian Humanitarian
Demining Center currently has in place. They inspected the demining
center’s medical ability, identified gaps, created an equipment list
with European Command’s Humanitarian Mine Action Program and developed
a course of instruction tailored to the AHDC needs and equipment
available. The team will return to Armenia in May to provide medical
familiarization. The engagement with AHDC is coordinated through
European Command’s Humanitarian Mine Clearing Branch.

“This is a great opportunity to learn more about how the medical
piece of the Demining Center functions,” said Martin. “Our goal is
to try to add or improve their capabilities which should save lives,”

The Kansas National Guard has been partnered with the Republic of
Armenia since 2003 under the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership
Program.

“This event is part of a successful broader engagement between the
Kansas National Guard, European Command and the Armenian Ministry of
Defense to modernize and equip the Armenian Humanitarian Demining
Center,” said Lt. Col. Brent Salmans, State Partnership Program
coordinator for the Kansas National Guard.

“We are looking forward to a number of these types of exchanges between
Kansas and Armenia this year and value the opportunity to continue
to learn from and share with Armenia, said Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli,
Kansas adjutant general. “In June, we will celebrate our tenth year
of this strong and valuable partnership.”