Author: Badalian Vardan

H. DEMOYAN: SENATE DECISION NEW MESSAGE CLAIMING TURKEY HAS NO ROOM IN EUROPE

Panorama.am
25/01/2012

Museums are not founded to serve as political tools for instantaneous
decisions, they are founded to preserve the memory and to hold an
important message – to prevent what has already happened,” Hayk
Demoyan, director of Armenian Genocide Museum stated on Wednesday
during Yerevan-Moscow teleconference referring to Russian political
scientist Vladimir Zakharov’s suggest to found Armenian Genocide
Museum in Russia.

Hayk Demoyan hailed the idea to found Genocide Museum in Moscow,
as many Russian military officers witnessed Turkish atrocities;
they made records and took photographs.

“Why do we seek recognition of Armenian Genocide? Not only to bring
peace to the souls of Armenians, but to prevent similar massacres,”
said H. Demoyan.

Referring to French Senate historic decision, as Russian politician
described it; Hayk Demoyan has said it is another message for Turkey
saying they don’t have any place in Europe.

HATRED AND INTOLERANCE AGAINST OTHER NATIONS IMPLANTED IN TURKEY – ARMENIAN EXPERT

news.am
January 25, 2012 | 15:11

YEREVAN.- Hatred and intolerance against other nations is implanted
in Turkey. So, even now Turkish children in schools are forced to
say how great it is to be Turkish, director of Armenian Genocide
Museum-Institute Hayk Demoyan said that during the Moscow-Yerevan
space bridge on Wednesday.

Demoyan underscored that today’s Turkey is the follower of the Ottoman
Empire and that it was created through genocides.

“The slogan of its creators was turkification of other nations,”
Demoyan said pointing out the above mentioned genocides were a result
of planned policy. Talking about Armenian-Turkish relations Demoyan
stressed that Turkey still does not perceive the Armenia’s statehood.

Talking about the bill criminalizing denial of genocides, including
Armenian Genocide Demoyan mentioned that those who are against the
bill announce that the bill contradicts freedom of speech.

“On the contrary, where racism starts freedom of speech and freedom
of expression end,” Demoyan concluded.

TURKEY WARNS OF REPRISALS OVER FRENCH GENOCIDE BILL

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Threat of sanctions as French Senate debates law criminalising denial
of Armenian massacre

Patrick Cockburn Istanbul

Turkey warned yesterday that it would impose permanent sanctions on
France if the French Senate passed a Bill which would punish with
prison and a fine anyone denying that the killing of more than one
million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 was genocide.

“Turkey will continue to implement sanctions so long as this Bill
remains in motion,” the Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said before
the debate. Turkey briefly withdrew its ambassador to Paris and placed
sanctions on economic, political and military co-operation with
France when the measure was approved last month by the lower house
of parliament, the National Assembly. If the Senate also passes the
Bill, which it was debating yesterday, offenders would be liable to
a one-year jail term and a fine of ~@45,000 (£37,200).

The French action has created extreme anger in Turkey where television
news channels gave continuous coverage to the Senate debate. Turkish
critics denounce the legislation as a cynical attempt by the French
President, Nicolas Sarkozy, to win the vote of the 500,000-strong
French Armenian community before presidential elections this year.

“Turkey is no longer the Turkey of 2001,” said Mr Davotoglu,
emphasising that Turkey is far stronger today than it was when the
French parliament first recognised the Armenian genocide.

In a tea house in the Bayoglu district of Istanbul, an elderly man
who gave his name as Ali vehemently denounced Mr Sarkozy. “He plots
like the Devil,” he said. “He wouldn’t even pick up the phone to talk
to talk to our President. People do that even in wartime. He should
resign as leader of France.”

The remaining Armenians in Turkey, believed to number about 70,000,
are not optimistic about the Turkish government ever admitting to the
genocide. At a march last week commemorating the fifth anniversary
of the murder of an Armenian-Turkish journalist, Hrant Dink, in 2007,
an Armenian woman, Mariam Kalk, said she did not expect any change.

“Turkish society is a very silent society,” she said. “The state will
never admit to the Armenian massacre.”

Cengiz Aktar, a professor of political science at Bahcesehir University
in Istanbul, said there were three reasons why Turkey could not admit
to the genocide. Those who carried it out continued to work for the
government in senior positions. The ethnic cleansing did not stop
in 1923 and surviving Armenians, who still numbered 300,000, were
being pushed out of Turkey for years afterwards. Thirdly, he said, “we
should not forget that the Armenians were often bourgeoisie and their
wealth was plundered”. Nevertheless, the present government of Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has shown itself more tolerant than any
of its predecessors towards Armenians and other Christians in Turkey.

“The words ‘Armenian genocide’ are no longer taboo,” said Prof Aktar,
adding that officials had made sure there were no attacks on those
taking part in “Genocide Day” commemorations on 24 April. He believes
there would be a nationalist backlash in Turkey if the French Bill was
passed into law, but that discussion of what happened would not cease.

“The genie is out of the bottle,” he said.

Armenians in Istanbul say they are treated with greater tolerance than
five years ago, partly because of general outrage over the murder of
Mr Dink. “Before, Armenians were second-class citizens in Turkey and
now they aren’t,” said Armen Kalk, who marched last week.

There are signs of some state support for the Armenian community,
such as at Vortods Vorodmans, a once-derelict church opposite the
Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul. It re-opened a month ago after
being restored by the government.

A million dead: Armenian massacre

The massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces began in 1915. The exact
number killed in death marches or shootings is not known but historians
estimate the figure to be between 1.2 million and 1.4 million. A
document found in the papers of one Ottoman leader said the empire’s
Armenian population fell from 1,256,000 in 1914 to 284,157 in 1916.

Turkey argues that the figures were exaggerated or that Armenians
were collateral damage, killed in military operations and not on the
state’s orders. Cengiz Aktar, of Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University,
says what happened to Armenians and other Christians was “religious
cleansing… to create a homogenous state based on Islam”.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION ISSUE SHOULD BE TRANSFERRED TO LEGAL-POLITICAL FIELD

ARMENPRESS
JANUARY 25, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JANUARY 25, ARMENPRESS: Turkey has engaged Armenian
people in the policy of denial initiated by it and Armenia and the
Armenian Diaspora are fighting mainly for the recognition of the
fact of genocide, Ashot Melkonyan, director of History Museum of
the Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences told a news conference
Wednesday, Armenpress Armenian News Agency reports.

“Unfortunately, our first and main issue has become the fight for
the registration of the fact. In reality in 50-60s the demands were
different. The Armenians were demanding return of homeland and not
recognition of the genocide, which was a fact for many,” the director
of the institute said.

Referring to the adoption of the bill penalizing the denial of
the Armenian Genocide by France’s Senate, Melkonyan said in this
way a serious attempt is being made to transfer the issue to the
legal-political field and step out from the veil of disorienting
policy of Turkey.

SARKOZY SENDS ONE MORE LETTER TO ERDOGAN

Aysor.am
Wednesday,January 25

After the French Senate passed the Armenian Genocide bill French
President Nicolas Sarkozy once again sent a letter to Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish periodical “Vatan” reports that in the letter, Sarkozy
said in particularly, “The law French Senate approved, does not target
any particular country, and Turkey should take into account its common
interests with France”.

On January 23 the French Senate passed the Armenian Genocide bill with
127 votes for and 86 against. The bill envisages one year prison term
and a fine of 45,000 euros for anyone who publicly denies the fact
of Armenian Genocide.

A. MELKONYAN: SOCHI MEETING WAS A STRAITJACKET FOR ALIEV

Aysor.am
Wednesday,January 25

Today at the press conference with the journalists Ashot Melkonyan
Director at the Institute of History of the Armenian National Academy
touched upon the trilateral meeting of the Armenian, Russian and
Azerbaijani presidents that took place in Sochi and mentioned that
the process still continues. Azerbaijan, he believes, will not be
able to escape the Minsk Group format regardless his attempts.

The historian noted that the co-chairs are against the aggressive
means that Azerbaijan applies to: “Azerbaijan on its turn is inwardly
for this format, as its statements that it has armor and weapons more
than Armenia is a myth,” A. Melkonyan said.

According to the historian Azerbaijan, regardless the fact that
it is in a negotiation process, shows as if it can go out from the
negotiations: “However, something is clear, Aliev has no choice. This
meeting was a kind of straitjacket for him.”

ISRAEL CHARNY: A MORAL ISRAEL MUST RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Tert.am
25.01.12

Below is an article by Israel W. Charny posted on
with reference to The Jerusalem Post Magazine

Israel must put an end to this charade and fully recognize the
Armenian genocide.

I never cease to be amazed at the “upside-down double talk” that
genocide deniers speak – not only in denial of the Armenian genocide,
but in denial of the Holocaust and, believe it or not, denial of the
Rwandan genocide. In fact, many of us scholars characterize denial
of genocide as the “last stage of genocide.”

In a recent article in The Jerusalem Post entitled “Armenian Genocide:
Israel must maintain its moral compass,” the arguments set forth
by Hakan Yavuz and Tal Buenos are a thin veneer for nothing less
than a pro-Turkish government position of maintaining denial of the
Armenian genocide.

What is their argument? For Israel to now to break its silence and
recognize the Armenian genocide, it would be tantamount to confessing,
retroactively, that its been playing politics all along by remaining
silent and, with crocodile tears, admitting that those of us who care
about Israel cannot allow that to happen.

Wrong enough, but their basic argument is extended by a manipulative
and factually irresponsible debate of the very concept of “genocide.”

Suddenly the historic Polish attorney Raphael Lemkin, a Jew with
a high post in the Polish government legal system who we recognize
as having virtually given his life to bring into international law
the concept of “genocide” that he created, is characterized as “an
employee of the US Government” who he was serving to gain a moral
advantage over the Germans after WWII.

There is not a word of recognition that Lemkin first submitted a
resolution about the mass killing of religious and national entities
to the League of Nations long before WWII. Lemkin was an employee of
the US occupational Army in Germany very briefly after surviving the
Holocaust in which he lost virtually all of his family. After giving up
law positions at Duke University as well as Yale, he devoted himself
full time to the passage of the Genocide Convention in the newly
founded United Nations. The authors should be reprimanded severely
for their distorted presentation of Lemkin’s identity.

The key issue that emerges is the question of whether, after years
of a realpolitik denial of the Armenian genocide, in disheartening
obsequiousness to Turkey in an attempt to gain their favor at the
expense of the basic moral principles that are intrinsic to recognition
to another people’s genocide or holocaust, Israel’s recognition of
the Armenian genocide would constitute another politicized move rather
than a moral correction.

Finally, the authors seek to stall with a disingenuous promise,
70 years after the Holocaust, that further study of the concept of
“genocide” will bring us to an understanding we do not have, as if we
do not know that genocide is the mass murder of a significant part
of a targeted people, executed by a government or any other entity,
such as a religious or ideological group or a terrorist organization.

The facts are well known: The Turkish government executed the Armenian
genocide – in which one to one-and-a-half million Armenians were
murdered.

And for us Jews and Israelis, there are added meanings: One Israeli
Professor at Bar Ilan University once characterized the Armenian
genocide as a “dress rehearsal for the Holocaust.” We also know that
Hitler explicitly built on the precedent of the Armenian genocide
when he went after us Jews.

The writer is executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust
and Genocide in Jerusalem, editor of the Web Magazine GPN GENOCIDE
PREVENTI0N NOW, a co-founder and former president of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars and editor of the Encyclopedia of
Genocide. He was awarded the Armenian Presidential Prize -similar to
the Israel Prize – in Yerevan in June 2011 for his contributions to
the study of denials of genocides-of course including the Armenian
Genocide and the Holocaust.

YEREVAN BRANDY FACTORY TO START BRANDY DELIVERY TO CHINA IN 2012

arminfo
Tuesday, January 24, 20:18

Yerevan Brandy Factory will start brandy delivery to China in 2012,
Director General of Armenian Development Agency Robert Harutuynyan
told journalists today.

He said that the arrangement on brandy delivery to the Chinese Urumchi
was made last year.

To note, Yerevan Brandy Factory was privatized in May 1998 by the
French Pernod Ricard and is the biggest producer and exporter of the
Armenian brandy.

ARONIAN TAKES THE SOLE LEAD AT TATA STEEL TOURNAMENT

armradio.am
25.01.2012 12:03

Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian is a single leader at a major
international competition in the Netherlands after scoring a victory
in the latest round of play.

In Round 9 of the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee Aronian beat
Italian Fabiano Caruana, while Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who also
played with white pieces, lost to Russian Sergey Karjakin.

With 6 ½ points FIDE~Rs current number two Aronian leads the 14-man
Group A standings and is a point clear of Carlsen, who is currently
FIDE~Rs top-ranked player.

Four rounds remain before the end of the tournament. Today Aronian~Rs
opponent is Dutch Anish Giri, while Carlsen plays Hikaru Nakamura
from the United States.

Armenia~Rs other grandmaster taking part in Group C of the tournament,
Elina Danielian, shares the 11th spot with two other players after
nine rounds of play.

L’ACCUSATION DE TERRORISME OMISE POUR LE MEURTRIER DE HRANT DINK
Stephane

armenews.com
mercredi 25 janvier 2012

Une cour d’Istanbul a publie le verdict degageant Ogun Samast, le
tueur a gages qui a assassine le journaliste armenien Hrant Dink en
2007, de l’accusation ” d’adhesion a une organisation terroriste ”
le 16 decembre.

Le procureur en chef Ali Demir avait demande la ce que l’arrestation
de Samast soit analysee a la lumière de la qualite et la nature de
l’accusation, l’existence d’un fort doute criminel et les temoignages
actuels.

Levent Yildimir avocat d’Ogun Samast a demande pour sa part la
liberation de son client affirmant que meme s’il devait etre reconnu
coupable de l’accusation, la sentence serait toujours plus courte que
quatre ans et 11 mois ; la duree que Samast a deja passe en prison
a-t-il dit.

La cour a juge en faveur de la defense et a decide de ne pas retenir
l’accsaution de ” d’adhesion a une organisation terroriste, en citant
un amendement legal quant aux enfants et le temps qu’il avait deja
passe aux arrets.

Neanmoins, Ogun Samast continuera a rester en prison car il a deja
ete formellement reconnu coupable d’un meurtre premedite.