Author: Badalian Vardan

Secretary of Security Council: They will start fighting sects in Armenia

arminfo
Saturday, March 3, 18:30

Armenian National Security Council has started drawing out the
national strategy to fight destructive sects. We are going to resolve
this problem using the best experience of the European Union,
Secretary of Armenian National Security Council, Artur Bagdasaryan,
told journalists today when presenting the results of the Council’s
session held on 1 March.

“I would like to emphasize that I don’t mean discrediting of citizens
on the basis of religion. I mean only the destructive sect movements.
Taking into consideration that their activity is dangerous and truly
threats the national security of Armenia, drawing out of such a
strategy is still extremely relevant today”, –
Bagdasaryan said.

The total of 67 religious sects and 100 non-official religious
organizations have been officially registered in Armenia. There are
more than 100 thsd people in these sects.

At the same time, Bagdasaryan added that international partners
offered Armenia during the next three months to draw out the programme
of events within the frames of the National strategy for fighting
terrorism.

Vahan Hovannisyan advises prime minister of Armenia not to frighten
community by international experts

arminfo
Saturday, March 3, 18:28

The prime minister of Armenia should not frighten us by international
experts, the head of the ARF Dashnaktiutyun parliamentary faction,
Vahan Hovannisyan, said over today’s briefing in the parliament when
commenting on the fact that Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that
the bill “On legal regime of the state of emergency” was discussed
with international experts which positively assessed it.

“We understand that when the debates were held on transition to the
100% proportional electoral system, the authorities of Armenia were
referring to the samples and experience of other countries and trying
to prove that the system offered by us is dangerous. But the point is
that international experts, deputies and politicians do not know what
takes place in our country during the elections. There are not aware
of the rules reigning here. For instance, I cannot explain a Swiss
deputy what is a principle of “merry-go-round” voting at the
elections, as he simply cannot understand it”, – Hovannisyan said.

He also added that very often representatives of European structures,
when giving their assessment to legislative changes in Armenia, cannot
be aware of consequences of these changes, for this reason, they
positively assess them. “But as I am aware, I am against this bill. At
the same time, I don’t think that the bill “On legal regime of the
state of emergency” would be acceptable by the international experts.
Certainly, I cannot cast doubt upon the words of the prime minister,
but at the same time I can present viewpoints of other experts which
are very much professional. So, one should not frighten us by
international experts”, – Hovannisyan concluded.

To recall, parliament of Armenia passed the first reading of the Bill
On the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency by 67 votes “for”, 1
vote “against” and 25 abstentions on March 1. The Bill stipulates
that the state of emergency in the republic may be introduced only in
case of circumstances, which are directly dangerous for the
Constitutional regime of Armenia, or in case of an attempt to change
by force or overthrow the constitutional regime or the power. The bill
allows involvement of army into “liquidation of consequences of the
state of emergency”.

“Cultural Genocide” in Turkish way: 98% of Armenian monuments in
Western Armenia destroyed

arminfo
Saturday, March 3, 18:27

Almost 98% of the Armenian monuments in Turkey have been destroyed,
Director of the Research on Armenian Architecture NGO Samvel
Karapetyan said in an interview to ArmInfo.

He said that the Armenian Genocide of 1915 was followed by the
genocide of the Armenian cultural heritage in Turkey.

“There still are a few monuments the Turks have not dared to destroy,
one of them being Ani, but their efforts to restore them may prove
even more dangerous. For example, after such a recovery the 1,000-year
old Arakelots Church in Kars has been turned into a mosque. The
others, like Narekavank and Msho Sub karapet monasteries, have been
razed to the ground,” Karapetyan said.

He said that the Turks continue their “cultural genocide.” “For
example, when restoring the Surb Khach Church, they destroyed a nearby
1,000-year old Armenian monastery. We are failing to save them. In the
last 100 years we did nothing to preserve our cultural heritage in
Western Armenia,” Karapetyan said.

First round works of construction of North-South highway to launch this year

15:38, 3 March, 2012

YEREVAN, MARCH 3, ARMENPRESS: The first round works of construction of
North-South highway will launch this year, Prime Minister of Armenia
Tigran Sargsyan told in Meghri today at the meeting with the local
members of the Republican Party of Armenia, active public figures. “In
the first round the construction of Yerevan-Gyumri-Georgia border
sector will be implemented. The projects are already ready. The Asian
Development Bank provided 180 million AMD with the first tranche,”
Tigran Sargsyan said. In his word’s the construction of the second
round is intended to start from Syunik province where in high
mountainous conditions bridges and tunnels will be built.

“The construction of the North-South highway is being implemented in
cooperation with the Asian Development Bank which will provide 500
million USD for it. For the first time in Armenia a contemporary
speedy road will be built which will allow cutting the period of
reaching from Meghri to Yerevan twice,” Tigran Sargsyan said. He said
the North-South highway program has been valued 1.5 billion U.S.
dollars.

The PM said the equal development of provinces is agreed with the road
construction. The road construction is a target direction in the
pre-electoral program of the Republican Party of Armenia and the state
will stage by stage provide funds for it.

Armenia successfully develops its military industry – university head

NEWS.AM
March 03, 2012 | 13:19

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s Armed Forces are not only the guarantors of the
country’s security, but also a factor for regional stability and
balance, Yerevan State Medical University Rector Derenik Dumanyan on
Saturday noted during the University’s conference, on military medical
service in Armenia, which is devoted to the 20th anniversary of the
country’s Armed Forces

Noting that, the establishment of the military medical service is one
of Armenia’s accomplishments after its independence, Dumanyan added
that the country is not only an international consumer, but it also
partakes in international peacekeeping missions.

`We commenced the [Karabakh] War, which was imposed upon us, with
hunting rifles and Soviet-era weapons. [But] Now, our country
successfully develops its military industry,’ Derenik Dumanyan
recalled.

French Cultural in Boston to host Armenian soirée

March 3, 2012 – 10:31 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Armenian Library and Museum of America and the
French Cultural Center will hold an Armenian Soirée at the French
Cultural Center in Boston.

According to a press release, France and Armenia have been close for
centuries, despite their geographic distance. From the Armenian
alphabet Denis Diderot published in 1765, to numerous French
personalities of Armenian descent (singers Charles Aznavour and Sylvie
Vartan, film director Francis Veber, former prime minister Edouard
Balladur), the two cultures have shared a rich history.

In honor of this exchange, ALMA has teamed up with the French Cultural
Center to organize an Armenian soirée as part of 2012’s Francophone
Celebration in New England.

This event will feature a one-night-only exhibition of the French
Cultural Center’s collection of photographs by Yousuf Karsh and a
small traveling exhibit produced by ALMA, “Armenie, Mon Amie: The
French-Armenian Connection”, which includes an original Armenian
alphabet from the French Encyclopedia and some beautiful examples of
Armenian laces.

Armenian hors-d’oeuvres and French wine will be served throughout the
evening along with musical entertainment.

FOOTBALL
« L’Arménie était beaucoup plus forte » Stephen Hart, le sélectionneur Canadien

Au lendemain de sa défaite face à l’Arménie en match amical à Limassol
(Chypre), dans une interview au « Toronto Star », l’entraîneur
national du Canada, Stephen Hart a affirmé que « la sélection
arménienne était beaucoup plus forte que je l’imaginais ». L’Arménie,
classée numéro 41 mondial par la FIFA a survolé le match en
surclassant le Canada (71e mondial) sur le score de 3-1. Une Arménie
très à l’aide et dominant tant dans sa technique que par le physique
de ses joueurs. « Nous devons beaucoup travailler. La sélection
d’Arménie nous a dominé par sa rapidité et ses opérations tactiques
(…) je suis satisfait de nos gardiens de buts qui nous ont sauvé
d’une défaite encore plus lourde. Car en seconde partie de jeu,
l’attaque arménienne était particulièrement dangereuse avec de
nombreuses occasions de buts » dit Stephen Hart.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 3 mars 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

US, TURKEY FAULTED FOR FAILURE OF PROTOCOLS

asbarez
Friday, March 2nd, 2012

Armenia and Turkey sign the doomed Protocols in 2009

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-The United States deserves its share of the blame
for the failure of recent years’ efforts to normalize Armenia’s
relations with Turkey, according to a renowned U.S. scholar who has
been actively involved in Turkish-Armenian dialogue in the past.

In an extensive monograph released by New York’s Columbia University
on Friday, David Phillips says that the administration of U.S.

President Barack Obama did not do enough to stop the Turkish government
linking parliamentary ratification of the 2009 Turkish-Armenian
normalization agreements with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He also
calls for a U.S. “policy review” on Armenia-Turkey that would consider
the possibility of officially recognizing the Armenian Gencoide.

David Phillips “The United States is also at fault. The Obama
administration missed an opportunity to reaffirm de-linkage of the
Protocols with negotiations over NK (Nagorno-Karabakh) when Obama
visited Turkey in April 2009,” Phillips writes. “U.S. officials did not
accurately assess the level of opposition to ratification in Turkey.”

“While U.S. influence was essential to signing of the Protocols, the
Obama administration bureaucratized the follow-up. It should have
appointed a ‘Special Envoy for Ratification of the Turkey-Armenia
Protocols.’ The Special Envoy could have played a useful role in
maintaining momentum, working the system in Washington, and keeping
the parties focused on next steps rather than pre-conditions,” he says.

The 130-page text contains a detailed description and analysis of
the failed normalization process as well as events leading up to
its effective launch by Switzerland in late 2007, several months
before Serzh Sarkisian took over as Armenia’s president. Its author
coordinated the work of the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission
(TARC), a U.S.-sponsored panel of retired diplomats and other public
figures, in 2001-2004.

The Swiss mediation, fully backed and facilitated by Washington,
culminated in the high-profile signing in Zurich in October 2009 of the
two protocols that commit Ankara and Yerevan to establishing diplomatic
relations and opening the Turkish-Armenian border. Turkey had closed
it at the height of the Armenian-Azerbaijani war for Karabakh, out
of solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Faced with an uproar from Azerbaijan, Ankara subsequently made clear
that Turkey’s parliament will not ratify the protocols until there
is decisive progress towards a resolution of the Karabakh conflict
acceptable to Baku. The Armenian side denounced that stance, arguing
that neither document makes any reference to Karabakh. Sarkisian
froze the process of Armenian protocol ratification in April 2010
and has since repeatedly threatened to scrap the Western-backed
deal altogether.

Phillips, who is now a program director at Columbia University’s
Institute for the Study of Human Rights, essentially agrees with
Yerevan on the issue. “The Protocols included no pre-conditions or
linkage to NK,” he writes. “[Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip]
Erdogan, however, established a pre-condition when he went to Baku
[in 2009] and stated that the Protocols would not be ratified unless
Azerbaijan’s sovereignty was restored.” Erdogan could have ignored
the vehement Azerbaijani protests had he been “truly committed”
to the Turkish-Armenian normalization, says Phillips.

Turkish officials have claimed all along that the protocols make
indirect and implicit references to Karabakh. An unnamed Turkish
Foreign Ministry official interviewed by Phillips is quoted in the
monograph as saying that there was a “gentleman’s agreement” between
Ankara and Yerevan that bilateral ties and the Karabakh dispute “will
be considered in parallel.” James Jeffrey, the former U.S. ambassador
to Turkey, likewise told Phillips that the two issues were not quite
delinked.

“According to Jeffrey, Obama did not discuss de-linkage with [President
Abdullah] Gul or Erdogan during his April [2009] trip.

Instead of affirming de-linkage, Obama was silent on the issue,” says
Phillips. He cites other U.S. diplomats as saying that Washington had a
“plan B” in case the Turks refused to unconditionally implement the
protocols. But, he adds, “no fallback plan was apparent other than
convincing Sarkisian to suspend rather than withdraw his signature.”

Incidentally, Phillips called for stronger U.S. pressure on Ankara when
he visited Yerevan in February 2010. “Unless the Obama administration
presses the Turks at the highest level, the likelihood of the protocols
being ratified in Ankara will decrease,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian
service (Azatutyun.am) at the time.

In his monograph, Phillips criticizes Armenia for agreeing to announce,
in a joint statement with Turkey, a “roadmap” to the normalization
on April 22, 2009, two days before the annual remembrance of the
Armenian genocide victims. An unnamed senior Armenian official is
quoted as confirming that this was done to make it easier for Obama
to backtrack on his campaign pledge to recognize the genocide once
elected president.

“Washington wanted us to announce the agreement before Genocide day so
President Obama wouldn’t have to mention genocide in his statement,”
the official told Phillips. “The Turks expected us to say ‘no,’
but we fooled them.”

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation pulled out of Sarkisian’s
coalition government just days after the Turkish-Armenian statement.

“The timing of the announcement galvanized opposition among a broad
cross-section of Armenian society, which believed that the Protocols
would be manipulated by Ankara to undermine genocide recognition,”
argues Phillips. He also faults Yerevan for agreeing to disclose the
Turkish-Armenian protocols only four months after they were secretly
finalized in April 2009.

Like many other pundits, Phillips believes that the protocols
can hardly be revived “in their present form.” Still, he says the
Turkish-Armenian border can be reopened even without their entry
into force. “Erdogan can make history by issuing an executive order
to open the border and normalize travel and trade as a step toward
diplomatic relations,” he says.

Phillips also makes a case for continued U.S. financing of direct
contacts between the civil societies and business communities of the
two estranged nations. He goes on to urge the Obama administration
to rethink its policy on Turkish-Armenian relations and consider
“innovative ideas” suggested by U.S. and other experts. “The
discussion could consider whether U.S. reaffirmation of its genocide
recognition [proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981] would
remove recognition as a bargaining chip, thereby creating conditions
more conducive to reconciliation,” he says.

The monograph reaffirms Phillips’s view that a landmark study
commissioned by the TARC from the New York-based International
Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) could serve as a blueprint for
ultimate Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. The ICTJ concluded in 2003
that the Armenian massacres “include all of the elements of the crime
of genocide” as defined by a 1948 United Nations convention. But it
also said that the Armenians can not use the convention for demanding
material or other compensation from Turkey.

“In any event, [genocide] recognition should not be an item for
negotiations,” concludes Phillips. “It should not be traded for
political concessions. Not only does negotiating recognition dishonor
past victims, but it also sends a signal to future perpetrators that
they can act with impunity when great powers find it politically
expedient.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Asbarez obtained the 130-page Phillips monograph on
Friday. Upon thorough review, it will present its perspective on
the report.

ARMENIA GENOCIDE LAW CAST OUT BY TOP FRENCH COURT
by Charles Bremner

The Times
February 28, 2012 Tuesday 5:10 PM GMT
UK

France’s highest court today struck down a law, promoted by President
Sarkozy, that would make it illegal to deny that Ottoman Turks had
committed genocide against the Armenian people nearly a century ago.

The ruling by the Constitutional Council was an embarrassment to Mr
Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement, which had promoted the law,
but it will end a diplomatic spat with Turkey.

Ankara has threatened to cut all diplomatic relations with France
over the legislation, which was backed by both sides of Parliament
but opposed by senior figures including Alain Juppe, Mr Sarkozy’s
Foreign Minister.

Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, welcomed the court
ruling. The Turkish Cabinet would meet to consider whether to restart
economic, political and military contacts with France which were frozen
after the French parliament passed the law on January 23, he said.

The Council ruled that the law, which would have imposed a (EURO)45,000
(£38,000) fine, a one-year prison sentence, or both, on genocide
deniers, infringed the principles of freedom of expression which
are written into France’s founding documents. “The Council deems
the law contrary to the constitution,” the Council said. Politicians
had entered a “realm of responsibility that belongs to historians,”
it added.

The ruling is final, but Mr Sarkozy has promised to submit a new
draft of the law if it was rejected.

Critics said that MPs had backed the law to curry favour with France’s
big Armenian diaspora community ahead of presidential and parliamentary
elections this spring.

REPRESENTATIVES OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT TO OBSERVE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN RUSSIA

ARMENPRESS
MARCH 1, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MARCH 1, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Speaker of Armenian National
Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov will leave for Saint Petersburg, where
as a representative involved in the Observation Group of the CIS
Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (IPA) of the Armenian National Assembly
will take part in the presidential elections in Russia.

On March 3 the NA Deputy Speaker’s meeting with Sergey Narishkin,
Speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation is planned.

Gagik Melikyan, Secretary of the NA RPA faction, is also involved
in the IPA CIS Observation Group, who will implement his observation
mission in Moscow.