Author: Babajanian Karo

QUI TUE LES ARMENIENS A ISTANBUL ?
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
vendredi 18 janvier 2013

Publie le 11 janvier 2013 par Jenny White

Universite de Boston

Un autre assassinat a Istanbul d’une personne liee a la communaute
armenienne. Mardi soir, Iker Sahin, 40 ans, enseignant dans une
ecole primaire armenienne (bien que n’etant pas lui-meme armenien),
a ete trouve mort par ses camarades de travail dans son appartement
de Kadokoy, la gorge tranchee. L’appartement montrait des traces
d’une longue lutte et du sang etait repandu partout. Sahin avait une
fille, mais vivait seul. Le dernier message qu’il avait envoye etait
un message de groupe : ” Joyeux Noël “.

C’est seulement le dernier d’une serie de meurtres et d’attaques
diriges contre la communaute armenienne, trois attaques contre des
femmes armeniennes dans le seul mois passe “.

Le 6 janvier, une femme d’origine armenienne a ete sauvee d’une
agression par trois individus qui tentaient de la kidnapper. Les
suspects n’ont pas ete rattrapes.

Le 28 decembre, Maritsa KucuK, 85 ans, a ete trouvee poignardee
dans son appartement de Samatya où elle vivait seule depuis des
annees. Il etait nue et son fils a dit qu’il pensait qu’une croix
avait ete tailladee sur sa poitrine. Les autorites n’ont rendu
aucune information publique sur cette affaire et les media s’en sont
rapidement desinteresses – une simple vieille femme de plus volee et
tuee chez elle.

A nouveau a Samatya, plus tôt en decembre, une autre femme, âgee de
87 ans, d’origine armenienne, a ete trouvee battue a mort dans son
appartement de Samatya. Comme elle entrait dans son appartement, un
homme l’a poussee par derrière, l’a frappee puis etranglee. En octobre
2011, une femme armenienne etait montee dans un taxi a Zincirlikuyu,
a Istanbul. Lorsque le chauffeur apprit qu’elle etait armenienne, il
l’a insulte puis frappee. La dame avait depose une plainte contre le
chauffeur, mais, en depit des preuves, il n’a pas ete arrete quinze
mois après les faits.

Quelqu’un a-t-il mis ces faits en evidence comme crimes de haine ? Les
incidents ont ete rapportes individuellement dans les media turcs.

Mais cinq attaques et quatre meurtres successifs cibles ne sont pas
des crimes au hasard. Mais dans les articles de la presse armenienne
de Turquie, les victimes sont intimidees et craignent que leur famille
ou communaute souffrent si elles parlent.

Le monde entier devrait etre attentif pour voir si la police d’Istanbul
(puis la justice) a la volonte d’affronter le sentiment nationaliste,
et s’active pour retrouver ce qui semble etre un tueur en serie ou au
moins des crimes en serie, motives par une haine vieille de plusieurs
siècles, la vindicte de quelques esprits sectaires, et l’impunite
envers la violence (que ce soit contre les femmes ou les Chretiens)
par les institutions de la societe.

Traduction Gilbert Beguian pour Armenews

vendredi 18 janvier 2013, Jean Eckian ©armenews.com

New books offer new looks at Mamoulian, Jensen and the Civil War

OnMilwaukee.com
January 17, 2013

By Bobby Tanzilo, Managing Editor

For all the words written, all the energy expended on telling the
story of Hollywood in all its richness, the life of director Rouben
Mamoulian has been little more than a footnote at best.

Enter Milwaukee writer Dave Lurhssen, whose biography, “Mamoulian:
Life On Stage and Screen,” has just been published in hardcover by the
University Press of Kentucky.

The book traces the life and work of the Armenian immigrant from
Russia in the context of innovations in film from the 1920s through
the 1950s.

“I think I became aware of Mamoulian through my ties with the Armenian
community, and realized that here was a guy who directed the Broadway
premieres of three of the most outstanding (Broadway) musicals –
‘Porgy & Bess,’ ‘Oklahoma!,’ ‘Carousel’ – and several movies any film
buff is familiar with – ‘Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,’ ‘Queen Christina,’
‘Mark of Zorro’ – and yet, hardly anyone knows his name.

“Mamoulian’s story was a gap in the history of film. I wanted to fill
it.”

What Luhrssen discovered was that Mamoulian was among the first
directors to successful transition from the silent era to “talkies.”
He also found that although Mamoulian was respected =80` he has a star
on the Walk of Fame – he rarely stepped into the limelight. Outside of
reporting on an affair with Greta Garbo, the tabloids generally
ignored Mamoulian.

He also dug into the politics that affected Hollywood during the Cold
War.

“The final addition to the book was early last year,” says Luhrssen,
“when the FBI finally provided me with what apparently is only a
portion of their file on Mamoulian. Fortunately, he was neither an FBI
informant nor a Communist Party member =80` that would have thrown off
the whole book! But it was fascinating to read the extent to which
the FBI spied on anyone who had any remote ties to the Soviet Union.”

Though Lurhssen began the book after successfully pitching it to the
publisher around 2007, he says it was a project that unfolded across
the years since.

“The Mamoulian book was written in stages,” he recalls. “Once they
gave the green light, I wrote another chapter, then had to put it
aside because of other projects. It was written like that, with the
writing of each chapter widely separated in time. I was pleasantly
surprised when I read the galley that all the chapters flow together.”

Some other new books focusing of Wisconsin subjects include:

William H. Tishler, professor emeritus of landscape architecture at
UW-Madison, has collected some of the writings of acclaimed landscape
architects and conservationists, Jens Jensen, in a new hardcover
published by Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

“Jens Jensen: Writings Inspired by Nature” contains three dozen Jensen
essays that solidify his position as one of the great naturalists and
landscape architects, especially in the upper Midwest. Included are
pieces that discuss his best-known projects: Chicago’s West Park
System, the Indiana Dunes and The Clearing in Door County.

Another essay, published in 1940 in The Capital Times, argues for the
protection of Devil’s Lake.

“Devils lake and its surroundings are one of the few outstanding
monuments in Mid-America, and as such belongs to all the people of
this great Midwestern empire.”

Bless you, Jens Jensen.

Also from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press comes “The Wicked
Rebellion: Wisconsin Civil War Soldiers Write Home,” out in hardcover.

Edited by John Zimm, who works for the press, the letters in this
lovely 214-page book were drawn from the WHS’ Quiner Collection of
more than 11,000 Civil War letters. The collection was created during
the war, when Edwin B. Quiner subscribed to every newspaper in
Wisconsin and enlisted his daughters to help clip and save letters
from soldiers published in the papers.

The letters included help illustrate how the war affected the North,
what life was like in Civil War camps, reports from battles and
thoughts on slavery and emancipations. They bring the bloodiest era of
American history right to Wisconsin’s doorstep.

IMAGE CAPTION: Hollywood and Broadway director Rouben Mamoulian is the
subject of a new book by Milwaukee’s Dave Luhrssen.

Aslan Usoyan Dead: Russian Mafia Boss Known As ‘Grandpa Khasan’ Killed
In Moscow

Huffington Post
01/16/13

By MANSUR MIROVALEV

MOSCOW — One of Russia’s top crime lords was gunned down Wednesday in
Moscow in what police described as a war between two powerful mobs
over lucrative construction projects, allegedly including ones for the
2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Police said an unidentified gunman fired seven shots from a sniper gun
at Aslan Usoyan near a restaurant in central Moscow – the third
assassination attempt on him since the late 1990s.

Usoyan, also known as Grandpa Khasan, was a 75-year-old ethnic Kurd
born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Police say for the past
two decades he headed one of the region’s most powerful criminal
groups, which trafficked in drugs and weapons and controlled
underground casinos as well as many legal businesses, including those
in the construction industry.

Police said Usoyan was hit in the jaw, hospitalized in a coma and then
died. Police said the gunman, who used a state-of-the-art automatic
rifle issued to Russian special forces, also injured a passerby, who
was hospitalized.

Usoyan came from a caste of professional criminals who sport elaborate
tattoos, follow unwritten prison laws codified in Stalinist-era Gulags
and have been romanticized in countless popular songs.

He was first convicted in 1956 in Georgia and soon became a
professional criminal. Like other members of his caste, he was
strictly forbidden from befriending men in uniform, avoided luxurious
lifestyles, never got married and considered prison his only true
home.

Having survived the totalitarian system that spawned them, Russian
criminals enjoyed a heyday in the decade after the 1991 fall of the
Soviet Union. Usoyan opened a chain of casinos in Moscow and became
the keeper of an emergency fund for jailed Russian criminals – a
position that gave him immense authority in the criminal underworld of
the vast former Soviet Union.

By the early 2000s, he had consolidated control over criminal groups
in southern Russia that united natives of Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan as well as ethnic Russians. He feuded with mobsters who
became more like Italian mafia and often disregarded Soviet-era prison
norms.

Since 2006, Usoyan had been at war with a criminal group headed by
another Georgian, Tariel Oniani, according to organized crime experts.

PHOTO CAPTION: Russian media said the battle between the two clans had
intensified in recent years as they vied for control over construction
projects in southern Russia, including the huge sports facilities
being built for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

PRESS RELEASE
The Civilitas Foundation
One Northern Avenue, suit 30
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel: +37410500119
Email: [email protected]
Web:

January 19 marks the 6th anniversary of the assassination of Hrant
Dink, in Istanbul. Hrant believed that the political and psychological
scars of 1915 would only be healed when Turkish society understood and
recognized the Genocide, its causes and repercussions. Hrant’s
personal and professional friends included historian Taner Akçam,
and publisher Ragip Zarakolu. We are pleased to be hosting Ragip
Zarakolu during our upcoming Public Forum. He will be joined on stage
by Tatul Hakobyan, journalist, Civilitas analyst and author of the
GREEN AND BLACK, a record of the Karabakh conflict. This book, which
has already been translated into English, Russian and Arabic has now
been translated into Turkish. This is the first time a book about
Armenia, about Karabakh, about the ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan,
is being published in Turkish — and both in Armenia and Turkey.

Join us for the first Civilitas Public Forum of 2013. It promises to
be thought-provoking.

Salpi Ghazarian
Director

The Civilitas Foundation cordially invites you¨ to a public discussion on

Turkish Views on
the Karabakh Conflict

The guests are

Tatul Hakobyan
Journalist

Ragıp Zarakolu
Human Rights Activist
Publisher

The discussion is moderated by
Aram Abrahamyan
Editor-in-Chief of Aravot Daily

The discussion will be held at the Ani Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, January 22,
at 12 pm.

The discussion can also be viewed online

Simultaneous translation will be provided.

To confirm your participation,
please call [2]010 500-119.
Number of places is limited.

SERZH SARGSYAN: ARMENIA IS INTERESTED IN LASTING STABILITY IN GEORGIA

The Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan received today the Prime
Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is on an official visit
to Armenia, and the delegation headed by him, the presidential press
service reports.

The president once again congratulated B. Ivanishvili on the victory
of the coalition led by him in Georgia’s parliamentary elections.

Serzh Sargsyan expressed hope that the new government of Georgia
will properly fulfill the obligations assumed. He stressed that
Armenia is interested in lasting stability in Georgia and wants to
further strengthen the brotherly relations for the benefit of both
the Armenian and Georgian nations.

B. Ivanishvili assured him that the Georgian government will do its
best so that Armenian-Georgian relations will be the best ones in
history. In his words, they together with Armenian prime minister have
conducted detailed negotiations on all the issues of mutual interest
and there is no reason to believe that the sides will have problems
reaching an agreement on any of the issues.

Noting that a presidential election will be held in Armenia soon, B.

Ivanishvili wished success and expressed hope that the election
will pass off peacefully and popular will will be expressed in the
upcoming election.

ARMENIA-GEORGIA: CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENTS ON BOTH SIDES CREATE TENSION AHEAD OF IVANISHVILI’S YEREVAN VISIT

Analysis | 17.01.13 | 13:05

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Georgia’s new Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s first official
visit to Armenia is accompanied with a certain degree of tension in
Armenian-Georgian relations.

During the last month two senior figures in Georgia, in particular
Foreign Minister of Georgia Maya Panjikidze and Catholicos-Patriarch
of All Georgia Ilia II, reportedly made controversial comments
regarding the Karabakh conflict, mainly expressing support for
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity in its dispute with Armenia. The
statements were met critically by some media and pundits in Armenia.

There were some controversial comments going the opposite direction as
well, as one of the presidential candidates in Armenia’s unfolding
race, Vardan Sedrakyan (often referred to as the Eposaget, or an epic
studies specialist due to one of his former occupations) has made
anti-Georgian statements, drawing an angry reaction in the neighboring
republic and causing an escalation of tension in relations between the
two neighbors.

In his program related to foreign policies Sedrakyan, an obscure
figure in Armenian politics who became known to the public due to his
declaration of an intent to run for president months before the
election, said [the Armenian-populated Georgian province of] Javakhk
should be reunited with Armenia and Armenia should recognize the
independence of [Georgian breakaway republics of] Abkhazia and South
Ossetia. He said he had “analyzed” the situation and concluded that
“after destroying Syria the West would switch over to the long-planned
program of eliminating Armenia with the assistance of the ‘fraternal’
Georgians.”

Even though these statements in no way reflect the state policies of
Armenia, nonetheless in Georgia they elicit some reaction, which, as
many ethnic Armenians in Georgia complain, creates “unnecessary
tensions and anti-Armenian sentiments”.

“Irresponsible statements perhaps do not attract as much attention in
Armenia, but here [in Georgia] people don’t know whether this man is a
serious politician and presidential candidate or not, and his words do
matter in a certain way,” Chairman of the Union of Armenians of
Georgia Henrikh Muradyan explained to ArmeniaNow.

Georgia is home to more than 200,000 Armenians. In one of his first
post-election interviews current Prime Minister Ivanishvili
controversially expressed his astonishment at why Armenians do not go
to live in their homeland. “We, Georgians, are so strange, we are
connected to our land. This is our nature, For example, we have
Armenians living in our country. We are surprised that they live here.

Perhaps such questions do not occur to you, but it is unclear to me,”
said Ivanishvili in an interview with the Russian newspaper,
Newtimes.ru, last autumn.

The interview raised a new wave of anger among Javakhk Armenians, who,
although they became more cautious because of the imprisonment of
three activists (two of whom were released under an amnesty earlier
this month), still insisted that Ivanishvili owed an explanation
because they thought Armenians lived in their historical lands.

Specialist in Georgian studies who teaches at the Yerevan State
University Haykazun Alvrtsyan thinks that Georgia is advancing more
claims and is carrying out larger anti-Armenian propaganda than even
Turkey or Azerbaijan.

“This is certainly a more covert propaganda, but even in the textbooks
approved by the state it is obvious that Georgia has territorial
claims to Armenia. They show maps, alleging that many lands in today’s
Armenia once belonged to Georgia, including historical Armenian lands
such as the whole area of Ani (now in eastern Turkey),” says
Alvrtsyan, stressing that the Government of Armenia should pay more
attention to the problem of Javakhk.

Another cause for tensions in Armenian-Georgian relations is the issue
of the ownership of Armenian churches in Georgia, the poor condition
in which they are now, and, as Armenian experts argue, the
‘Georgianization’ of Armenian monuments.

Last May heavy rains in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi damaged the
local Armenian Surb (Saint) Nshan church, several other Armenian
churches have been in a neglected state and have collapsed in Georgia
recent years. “For some reason rains in Georgia damage only Armenian
monuments,” says monuments expert Samvel Karapetyan, implying that the
damage occurs only where monuments are neglected.

Armenian analysts expect no immediate answers to be given during
Ivanishvili’s Yerevan visit, to issues that have been on the agenda of
Armenian-Georgian relations for years – such as the question of
education for Javakhk Armenians, their language and ethnic identity,
liberties, the protection of Armenian monuments and their legal
status.

After seeing his political party’s success in last October’s election,
Ivanishvili, as Prime Minister, is expected to assume full executive
power in the country after current President Mikheil Saakashvili’s
departure from the top post later this year.

HEALTH MINISTER LISTENS TO DENTISTS’ COMPLAINTS, PROMISES SOLUTIONS

Health | 17.01.13 | 10:56

Derenik Dumanyan

Armenian Health Minister Derenik Dumanyan on Wednesday reportedly
received a group of heads of dental services, who have expressed
their concerns regarding the amendments to the Law on License Payments.

They, in particular, raised the issue of what they believe is a double
taxation of children’s dentistry, X-ray and dental orthopedic rooms
in dental clinics under the existing tax regulations.

Earlier, managers of some dental clinics also did not rule out that
the higher fixed payments set on each dental chair could result in
the rise in fees for some of the dental services. They also complained
about the lack of consultations with people in the profession before
making tax-related decisions.

Minister Dumanyan instructed corresponding departments to examine
the problems and submit proposals based on the results of an economic
analysis, according to the Ministry’s press service.

ZHAMANAK: ARMENIA TO GET NEW PROSECUTOR GENERAL IN AUTUMN

The Armenian power elite is discussing whom to appoint as Prosecutor
General in autumn, with Aghvan Hovsepyan’s term in office expiring
in September, Zhamanak reports.

According to the paper’s information, Military Prosecutor Gevorg
Kostanyan is one of the potential candidates. The candidacy of
Orinats Yerkir Party Chairman, National Security Council Secretary
Arthur Baghdasaryan is also being considered. Mr Baghdasaryan has
long wanted to become Prosecutor General. Aghvan Hovsepyan is aware
of his wish and therefore these two officials have strained relations.

RULING NEW AZERBAIJAN PARTY: FREEDOM HOUSE REPORT IS AN ATTEMPT TO JUSTIFY SEPARATION, ETHNIC CLEANSING AND AGGRESSION

17 January 2013, 20:09 (GMT+04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 17 / Trend E. Mehdiyev /

Azerbaijan has repeatedly talked about the prejudice and bias of
reports of several international organizations, one of which, is
surely the Freedom House organization, Deputy Chairman – Executive
Secretary of the New Azerbaijan party, Ali Ahmedov told the website
of the party on Thursday, expressing attitude to the fact of the
separatist Nagorno Karabakh regime being included in the list of
partly free countries in Freedom Houses’s last report.

“Bias of reports of this organization has been proved not only by
Azerbaijan, but also other countries as well. Biased position of the
organization in Azerbaijan has long been known,” Ahmedov said.

Inclusion in the list of the regime existing in the occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh is an indicator of “objectivity” and attitude towards
Azerbaijan, Ahmedov said.

According to him, regardless of scale for estimation of the separatist
regime, this fact alone is enough for people to form a complete image
of the nature of this organization.

The regime in the occupied Nagorno Karabakh is not recognized and will
not be recognized by any state or serious international organization,
deputy chairman of the NAP said. Therefore, the fact of the Freedom
House organization describing the occupied territory as “partly free
country” cannot but cause surprise.

“I believe this approach gives a fairly good reason to doubt the
objectivity of the organization. I consider it necessary to point that
the reference in the report of Freedom House to “Nagorno-Karabakh
“as a separate entity should be regarded as an attempt to justify
the separation, ethnic cleansing and aggression. Such attempts
hinder the efforts of the UN and the OSCE and the policy on the
Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution, and are
heightening tensions and confrontation in the region. Azerbaijani
public has always rightly protested against biased estimates of
preconceived international organizations. I believe the latest
Freedom House report is even a more well-ground argument for protests
of Azerbaijani people. It should also be noted that sometimes the
radical wing of the opposition gladly assumes the role of advocate
for biased organizations defaming Azerbaijan. I find this to be an
abhorrent form of political struggle. Supporting the position of
organization recognizing the fictional regime of “Nagorno-Karabakh”,
including it in its prejudiced and biased report, is nothing but a
violation of national interests,” the deputy chairman of the NAP said.

FOREIGN MINISTER OF GEORGIA AGAIN REFUSES FROM HER ANTI-ARMENIAN STATEMENTS

ARMINFO
Thursday, January 17, 12:58

During a visit to the Czech Republic, Georgian Foreign Minister
Maia Panjikidze again refused from her anti-Armenian statements,
RFE/RL Georgian Service reported. Thus, Panjikidze refutes media
reports that in Lithuania she had allegedly declared that she sees the
Karabakh conflict’s resolution only within the territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan. She explained that after her report in the Lithuanian
parliament, Ambassador of Azerbaijan asked a question about Georgia’s
attitude to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Panjikidze
answered that Georgia supports the territorial integrity of that
country.

Afterwards, Armenian Ambassador to Lithuania addressed her with a
question whether there is a single recipe to settle all the conflicts.

In response, Panjikidze said that the conflicts are unique and there
is no single recipe to settle them.

Panjikidze refused to comment on the Georgian media rumors that
after the scandal that aroused after the above statement, she will
be replaced by Irakly Menagarishvili, the former foreign minister
of Georgia.

The minister also touched upon the Russian-Georgian relations saying
that they try to improve the relations with Russia, but no positive
results can be expected within the coming one-two years.