Author: Babajanian Karo

TURKISH PREMIER SAYS INCITING ISLAMOPHOBIA TO WIN ELECTIONS IS IRRESPONSIBLE

Cumhuriyet
March 13 2012
Turkey

Turkey’s prime minister said on Tuesday that inciting xenophobia,
particularly Islamophobia, in order to win elections was so
irresponsible.

ANKARA- Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it would be a historic
mistake for Europe, which had paid heavy prices due to fascism,
to remain silent to the new and emerging fascism wave.

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy is inciting discrimination and
xenophobia before presidential elections in the country,” Erdogan
told a gathering of his Justice & Development (AK) Party in Ankara.

Erdogan said Sarkozy had started to assume a more dangerous and
aggressive stance after French Constitutional Council corrected a
historic mistake regarding a law criminalizing denial of Armenian
allegations of incidents of 1915.

“Sarkozy is making xenophobia a matter of internal politics, and
making threatening remarks against foreigners in his country, which
are so dangerous remarks that take European Union’s (EU) universal
values and fundamental principles as a target,” he said.

Erdogan said when innocent people were killed in Gaza and people lost
their lives in Afghanistan and Syria was experiencing a massacre, it
is a shame of humanity for France to assume a synchronous xenophobia.

“Xenophobia, which has turned into a serious threat in many European
countries, is so obvious in France today. We expect European leaders
and institutions to see this threatening development and take immediate
measures,” he said.

Erdogan said Turkey believed that Europe would not make a mistake
and harm confidence among people across its borders as well as with
people outside its borders.

Moreover, Erdogan said Israel continued its massacre in Gaza, and
noted that bloodshed continued in the Middle East despite Turkey’s
warning, calls and sincere recommendations.

Erdogan said Turkey would continue to be hopeful, stand firm against
injustice, and continue to voice the realities en every platform in
order to end the massacre and bloodshed.

“I once more reiterate my call to Israel to end its inhumane attack
on Gaza and Palestine’s territories, and I particularly call on
Israeli citizens, who are also victims of a genocide, to object to
genocide attempts against Palestinians and ask their state to end
state terrorism,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan also said Turkey would continue to stand by Gazan people.

SARKOZY INCITING XENOPHOBIA: TURKISH PM

March 13 2012
Turkey

Turkey’s prime minister said on Tuesday that inciting xenophobia,
particularly Islamophobia, in order to win elections was so
irresponsible.

Turkey’s prime minister said on Tuesday that inciting xenophobia,
particularly Islamophobia, in order to win elections was so
irresponsible.

Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it would be a historic mistake for
Europe, which had paid heavy prices due to fascism, to remain silent
to the new and emerging fascism wave.

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy is inciting discrimination and
xenophobia before presidential elections in the country,” Erdogan
told a gathering of his Justice & Development (AK) Party in Ankara.

Erdogan said Sarkozy had started to assume a more dangerous and
aggressive stance after French Constitutional Council corrected a
historic mistake regarding a law criminalizing denial of Armenian
allegations of incidents of 1915.

“Sarkozy is making xenophobia a matter of internal politics, and
making threatening remarks against foreigners in his country, which
are so dangerous remarks that take European Union’s (EU) universal
values and fundamental principles as a target,” he said.

Erdogan said when innocent people were killed in Gaza and people lost
their lives in Afghanistan and Syria was experiencing a massacre, it
is a shame of humanity for France to assume a synchronous xenophobia.

“Xenophobia, which has turned into a serious threat in many European
countries, is so obvious in France today. We expect European leaders
and institutions to see this threatening development and take immediate
measures,” he said.

Erdogan said Turkey believed that Europe would not make a mistake
and harm confidence among people across its borders as well as with
people outside its borders.

TURKEY: 4 JOURNALISTS RELEASED IN COUP PLOT TRIAL
SELCAN HACAOGLU

The Associated Press
March 12, 2012 Monday 10:08 PM GMT

Four Turkish journalists were freed from jail Monday, a year after
they were detained in a case that has raised fears for press freedom
in the country. Two pledged to immediately tackle sensitive subjects
again, including the killing of an ethnic Armenian journalist.

The four were detained along with nine other people on accusations that
they had formed the media wing of an alleged secularist network that
plotted to topple Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted
government.

A court ordered their release pending trial. It cited the time they
spent in jail and noted that the charges against them might be changed.

Dozens of journalists are jailed on terrorism charges in Turkey,
and Erdogan’s government faces growing international criticism that
it is trying to silence its challengers. The government rejects the
accusation, citing its record of instituting Western-backed reforms.

It says it must prosecute an alleged network of hardline secularists
accused of plotting a coup.

Six of the defendants in the case remain in jail, including writer and
government critic Yalcin Kucuk and Soner Yalcin, the owner of Oda TV.

The suspects deny the charges. Three others had already been freed
pending trial.

Some 400 other people also are on trial for being part of the alleged
network, which prosecutors say plotted in 2003 to create chaos and
spark a military coup. Critics say the trial is based on flimsy or
fabricated evidence and aims to intimidate and muzzle government
opponents.

“Free press can’t be silenced,” shouted dozens of journalists as they
celebrated the release of their colleagues.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc expressed satisfaction at the court
ruling. “It is pleasing,” Arinc said. “It was sad to see them jailed.”

Nedim Sener, an award-winning reporter for Milliyet newspaper,
promised to keep investigating the 2007 assassination of an ethnic
Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink.

Sener had already faced an earlier prosecution for a book about
the assassination, in which he had alleged official negligence and
argued that an alleged coup plot gang was behind the murder. He did
not serve time in jail for that prosecution.

After his release Monday, Sener said he will work to “have the
murderers of Dink imprisoned.”

“They first tried me, then put me in jail, but the truth cannot be
imprisoned,” Sener said.

A recent trial failed to shed light on alleged official negligence or
even collusion in Dink’s killing. A presidential investigation last
month concluded that officials had neglected to protect Dink despite
signs that he would be targeted.

Ahmet Sik, another investigative journalist, who was among the four
released, had been preparing a book about the alleged infiltration
of Islamists into the Turkish police when he was charged and jailed.

“Justice will prevail when perpetrators of this case against us are
imprisoned,” Sik said. He added that the entire press was under intense
pressure from the government and that he would continue to work as an
“independent.”

ARMENIA: TURKISH MIGRATION CRACKDOWN LEAVES THOUSANDS OF ARMENIANS IN THE LURCH
by Marianna Grigoryan

EurasiaNet.org
March 13 2012
NY

Seven years ago, like thousands of other Armenians, 58-year-old Anahit
opted to overlook the age-old hostility between Armenia and Turkey
and move to Istanbul from her hometown of Gyumri. One simple factor
guided her decision — she needed a job, and Turkey offered the best
place to find one.

The $600-$700 that Anahit (not her real name) earned each month as
a cleaner and caregiver for Turkish families was enough to support
a family of four back in Armenia. But, now, with the February 1
imposition of new tourist visa regulations that limit the stay of
non-residents to no longer than 90 days within a 180-day period,
she says that she may consider returning home.

In the past, illegal labor migrants regularly used the three-month
tourist visas, easily renewable, to live in Turkey for years.

“We are in absolute uncertainty. Every day we wait, unaware of what
situation we might face in case the new regulations are applied,”
Anahit said of the Armenian migrant community in Istanbul. “Nobody
knows what will happen to us.”

In theory, the new regulations make it plain what will happen to
Anahit and others: if they are found to be in Turkey illegally,
they risk deportation with no ability to return for five years, as
well as the imposition of fines. According to a report distributed
by RFE/RL’s Armenian-language service, financial penalties range as
high as $4,000 for employers and $400 for employees.

Active enforcement of the regulation is not known to have begun. In
the meantime, the scarcity of work in Armenia encourages many illegal
Armenian migrants to stay in Turkey after the expiration of the 90-day
visas. Although Armenia’s official unemployment rate (6 percent) is
lower than Turkey’s (9 percent), estimates put the actual Armenian
jobless rate in the double digits. Some 35.8 percent of Armenia’s
population of 2.97 million people lives in poverty, according to
official data.

The Turkish government in the past has threatened to expel the tens of
thousands of illegal migrants estimated to be working in the country.

While some Turkish observers attribute that stance to Turkey’s own
employment problems, or a desire to conform to European Union norms,
many in Armenia see it as an extension of diplomatic enmity between
Yerevan and Ankara.

In 1993, Turkey severed diplomatic relations and closed its border
with Armenia in retaliation for Armenia’s war with Azerbaijan, a
close Turkish ally, over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. In
more recent years, after a brief attempt at reconciliation, the two
countries have tangled over Yerevan’s continuing campaign to secure
international recognition of the Ottoman Empire’s World War I-era
slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide; most notably, in France.

Many Armenians prefer to keep quiet about relatives working in Turkey.

The government apparently shares that reticence; officials at the
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs declined to comment about what
Turkey’s new visa regulations might mean for illegal Armenian migrants.

For some migrants who already have made the move, Turkey no longer is
the enemy. Twelve years ago, the four-member Hovakimian family headed
to Istanbul from the northern Armenian city of Vanadzor, Armenia’s
third-largest city with an estimated population of 105,000. The mother,
who has worked as a cleaning lady for a Turkish family, said that her
relations with her employers are “wonderful.” The family initially
offered to register her as an official resident at their address so
that she could continue to work there. After they balked, though,
at payment of the necessary fees, Mrs. Hovakimian is on the lookout
for a new job.

Although her future prospects are unclear, she has no thought
of returning to Armenia, she claims. At 10 percent, the official
unemployment rate in Lori, the region for which Vanadzor is the
principal town, ranks as Armenia’s highest. “What are we supposed to
do in Vanadzor? Nothing. We had to leave all our property and come
here. Our kids were raised here,” she said.

The new Turkish visa regulations have made other Armenian women
reconsider their plans. Roughly a dozen women interviewed by
EurasiaNet.org in Vanadzor, Gyumri and Etchmiadzin, a small town not
far from Yerevan, said that uncertainty about the visa situation
had prompted them to stay put. “If we decide to leave, we do not
know yet what difficulties we will face in Turkey; so people are
mostly waiting for further developments,” said 49-year-old Armine,
one such prospective migrant from Vanadzor.

Apparently, some privately run bus services are waiting, too. Buses
from Vanadzor to Istanbul have not run for the past month, Armine
said. The Ministry of Transportation said it could not confirm the
report since it keeps no record of modes of transportation to Turkey.

Uncertainty is not limited to illegal Armenian migrants. Ara Gochunian,
editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Armenian-language newspaper
Zhamanak, says that affluent Turks who employ domestic help or
caregivers also are taking a “wait-and-see” stance. “This is a period
of questions,” said Gochunian.

Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series. You can read
part one here:

IRAN, AZERBAIJAN TRY TO SOOTHE TENSIONS

NOW LEBANON

March 13 2012

Iran and Azerbaijan are taking steps to soothe bilateral tensions most
recently stoked by Baku’s ties to Israel and its reported purchase
of hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons from the Jewish state.

Public assurances of good neighborly relations were being made in
Tehran during a visit by Azerbaijan Defence Minister Safar Abiyev
that continued into its second day on Tuesday.

“We are sure that we will face no problem from our brother and
neighbor Azerbaijan,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was
quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying on
Monday after meeting Abiyev.

“Rest assured that Tehran-Baku ties will never be harmed,” he said,
adding that “artificial problems” that existed would be resolved and
ties would be strengthened.

Abiyev was quoted as saying that “no nation can damage ties between
the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

He vowed that his country “will not allow anyone to use its soil and
airspace against the Islamic Republic of Iran, since we consider Iran
as a friend and brother.”

The professed closeness sought to mend a rift opened up by Iranian
news reports that Azerbaijan had bought $1.5 billion worth of weapons
from Israel.

Iran’s foreign ministry last month summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador to
Tehran to request an explanation about the purchase, and to deliver a
warning that Israel must not be permitted to use Azerbaijan to stage
“terrorist acts” against Iran.

While Azerbaijan did not confirm the arms deal with Israel at the
time, it did say it was boosting its arsenal “to liberate occupied
Azerbaijani land” and it did not have hostile intentions against
other countries in the region.

The “occupied land” referred to the disputed region of Nagorny
Karabakh which was seized from Azerbaijan by Armenian forces during
a war in the 1990s. No peace deal has been signed between Azerbaijan
and Armenia despite years of negotiations since a 1994 ceasefire.

Abiyev discussed the weapons issue in greater detail on Monday with
Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi.

After their meeting, Abiyev was quoted by the Iranian news agency ISNA
as saying: “These relations (with Israel) are not the way that the
media have portrayed and I don’t want the media to take this issue
so seriously.”

Vahidi added: “We talked about this issue with our Azerbaijani friends
and they explained to us that it is not as it was reported by the
media, and that the deal goes back to previous years and that amount
is not that much.”

Neither minister elaborated on the Azerbaijan-Israel arms deal.

The problem with that deal emerged after a separate incident in
Azerbaijan in which police said they arrested an unspecified number
of people linked to Iran and to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah
on suspicion of planning attacks in the country.

Iran last month also accused Azerbaijan, which is mainly Muslim, of
working with Israel’s spy services and helping assassins who murdered
Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years – a claim rejected by Baku
as “slander.”

ARMENIAN CLERIC MAKES SPEECH AT TURKISH PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL

Vestnik Kavkaza
March 13 2012
Russia

Archbishop Aram Ateshyan, the Vicar of the Constantinople Patriarchy
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, made a speech at the Turkish
Parliamentary Constitutional Council on March 12, bringing in
recommendations of the Armenian community, NEWS.am reports.

Ateshyan noted that the recommendations are available in oral
and written forms. He noted that the community hopes that the new
Constitution will benefit from it.

MASTERS OF THE CITY ROBBED?
Naira Hayrumyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 11:42:35 – 15/03/2012

The Police and the City Hall are not fighting for the rights of
the owners of those kiosks to be installed in Mashtots Park. They
are defending the old system which may collapse in this park. Taron
Margaryan is at the very forefront, and Serzh Sargsyan meant this
when he said, during the swearing-in ceremony of the mayor, that he
hopes Taron will live up to his expectations.

The kiosks are just an occasion, and most probably their owners
have already asked the mayor to choose another location with fewer
problems. Perhaps, they have already ignored the right to property
but for the City Hall and the oligarchy this is a crucial battle and
they cannot afford to retreat.

The understanding that the owners of the city are the citizens was a
sudden brunt to the system. The name of the organization “We are the
owners of this city” confused the ex-mayor. He could not understand
who dared state to be the owners of the city with him officially
appointed as the owner. But the worst thing is that the legislation
states that the citizens are the masters of the city.

The understanding and the public expression of this concept is the
biggest threat to the current system which made it defend itself
desperately despite the election campaign and the possible damage to
their rating. No time to think about ratings.

Formations in history have always changed in accordance with the
change of the right to property and means of production: transition of
slavery to feudalism, feudalism to capitalism. Now we have “democratic
feudalism” in Armenia where property belongs to a group of people
who defend it with the help of the democratic laws written by them.

Today the right of this group to property is doubted, and the process
of “discussion” who should own the right is underway. The progressive
part of the society is youth, which has grown up on the democratic
laws written by the oligarchy and knows what equality is and states
that everyone can possess property. The oligarchic rule defies such
assessments, and the most it can do is to redistribute property,
grab it from here and distribute it there.

In his greeting message to the Republican congress, the leader of the
European People’s Party Wilfred Martens said the historical formation
is changing in Armenia. We would like to hope that he meant the change
of the form of property, provision of basic benefits to the society.

So, Taron Margaryan cannot retreat and transfer the kiosks to another
place. He will not be forgiven surrender because behind him is “Moscow”
and the whole system which is standing on the verge of collapse.

THEY DARED SO THEY MUST BE PUNISHED

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:36:14 – 15/03/2012

One or the other survives

Two weeks ago, on 01.03.2012, I wrote my article entitled “Not DARE
Repeat. In the memory of our victims from 1915 to 1 March 2008”.

Tonight, at 9:30 pm, they again DARED. They dared think, plan and
use non-proportionate force and violence against a peaceful sit-in
of a group of civil activists, against the civil movement of the
self-determined new generation.

This is the reflection of the crystallized domestic situation, of two
mutually exclusive and opposite ideas and systems. On the one hand,
the criminal and oligarchic state, on the other hand, the formation and
consolidation of the civil state. However, the criminal and oligarchic
system – a closed, pyramid, non-free and non-tolerant in essence
– was unable to obey the rules of the game of the self-determined
civil movement of the new generation for Constitutional order on the
public and legal platform. Their experience on the field did not
last for even three weeks (21.02.12 – 14.03.12), and the criminal
and oligarchic system saw threat in further escalation of the civil
movement to its existence. They justify the use of every method to
hinder the self-determined civil movement for the RA constitutional
rights. The judgment of the Independent and Fair Civil Court (13.03.12)
and peaceful sit-in sent them into panic.

I would like to repeat against that the criminal and oligarchic
system which has impoverished and surrendered our home country for 20
years will not tolerate establishment and development of democracy
and democratic institutions, let alone their development which is
incompatible with its nature. The compromise between and coexistence
of these two opposite systems in essence is impossible in the same
area, city, institution, country, world. One of them will survive.

This is the global issue, challenge, choice. One must be aware that
everyone who accepts the rules of this game intentionally or not,
disinterested or in return for something, promote the dominance and
continuity of the criminal and oligarchic system one way or another
and hence the degradation of our people.

At home and abroad, the alarm went on for us all. Once again the
first course of display of force was served in Armenia on 14.03.12.

The criminal and oligarchic species defies the rules of the game of
the civil society, democracy and state. They are confused to have to
take account of the new civil movement which they cannot control and
which makes them obey the rules of civil and constitutional order.

The VIOLENT method is always adopted against any threat to their
existence.

The fight for values, ideas and programs must be carried on on the
civil and constitutional platforms to heal the people and the state.

When those who are opposite to clash and struggle adopt the method
of violence and bloodshed to exterminate the opponent, these people
and their harmful and dangerous actions are referred to as inhuman
scheme, injustice, unlawfulness, factors, tools, programs and actions
threatening the existence of individuals and the society. The dominance
of human consciousness and will and the mechanism of fair trial,
punishment and compensation can slow down the reproduction of such
factors, tools and programs.

We cannot allow them to attack again. Ignoring, keeping silent,
agreement, remaining neutral means supporting a greater wave of
violence. It is an action against the sovereignty of our state and
society.

All the individuals of our people and nation, organizations and
structures, at home and in the Diaspora, have to establish their
standpoint immediately if they wish to prevent and stop bloodshed
and violent encroachments on our collective existence. Inaction is
equal to cooperation with anti-constitutional and anti-democratic
officials or forces. They will also be held responsible if they dare
cooperate again.

They must be held responsible by the public and the chief of police
and mayor of Yerevan must be punished severely for their openly
anti-constitutional and illegal decisions, for misuse of their powers,
for actions against the rights of people. They must be held responsible
IMMEDIATELY and be punished in accordance with the letter and spirit
of the RA Constitution.

Armine Arakelyan, political scientist and international lawyer,
founder of Institute of Democracy and Human Rights

TURQUIE : L’INDIGNATION APRES LE CLASSEMENT DE L’AFFAIRE SIVAS

armenews.com
jeudi 15 mars 2012

Ce sont en tout des milliers de manifestants qui ont battu le pave
a Izmir, a Istanbul, mais aussi a Ankara, où un magistrat a decide
mardi de classer l’affaire Sivas. Sivas, du nom de cette ville du
centre de la Turquie, où, en juillet 1993, un hôtel accueillant des
ecrivains et des personnalites liberales a ete mis a feu.

On denombre alors 37 morts, et une soixantaine de blesses.

Cinq militants islamistes sont accuses, mais ils ne seront jamais
retrouves et ne risquent plus d’etre inquietes : quinze ans après
les faits, il y a prescription.

Une decision de justice que denonce le chef du CHP (Parti republicain
du peuple), le principal parti d’opposition, Kemal Kilicdaroglu :

” C’est une honte que les coupables ne soient pas derrière les verrous
et que l’affaire soit classee en raison du delai de prescription. Une
telle situation est inacceptable. Cette decision nuit a l’image
de la Turquie, un pays libre qui fait son maximum pour les droits
de l’homme.”

En classant l’affaire Sivas, la justice turque considère qu’il ne
s’agit pas d’un crime contre l’humanite. Mais il s’agit d’un “affront
contre l’humanite”, s’indigne encore le chef du Parti republicain
du peuple, le principal Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Il accuse le Premier
ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan et son parti, l’AKP, issu de la mouvance
islamiste, d’avoir entrave l’enquete.

Hormis les principaux suspects, trente personnes ont ete condamnees
a la reclusion a perpetuite.

MAXIME VERNER TRANSMET SON NO DE TELEPHONE
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
jeudi 15 mars 2012

C’est la dernière ligne droite pour le plus jeune pretendant a la
candidature presidentielle 2012, president de l’Association des Jeunes
de France.

Avec ses 434 parrainages, il semble hors course. Mais c’est sans
compter avec son esprit combatif. A l’instar de Corinne Lepage,
candidate de Cap21, qui après avoir publie son numero de telephone sur
Twitter pense pouvoir entrer dans la competition, Maxime Verner lance
une bouteille a la mer, ou plutôt un appel aux maires de France qui
n’auraient pas encore appose l’obligatoire signature sur le document
du Conseil constitutionnel.

Hier sur Canal+ dans le Daily Mouloud, le jeune homme n’a pas hesite
a donner son numero de telephone (06 65 13 04 27), avec dans l’esprit
que rien n’est encore tout a fait joue, et que les premiers magistrats
des communes de France seront sensibilises par sa perseverance en le
joignant directement.

Le cachet de la poste faisant foi, si le jeune candidat obtient les
promesses souhaitees, les courriers seront valides avec un cachet de
la poste date du 16 mars avant minuit.

Candidats aux 500 signatures : Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande,
Francois Bayrou, Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Melanchon, Nathalie Arthaud,
Eva Joly, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Philippe Poutou, Jacques Cheminade.

Corinne Lepage (probable). Point d’interrogation pour Dominique
de Villepin.

Aujourd’hui, a 15heures, Maxime fera une declaration devant les murs
du Conseil constitutionnel.