Author: Badalian Vardan

LE BHK NE SOUTIENDRA PAS SERGE SARKISSIAN POUR LES PROCHAINES ELECTIONS
Laetitia

armenews.com
jeudi 22 decembre 2011

Le deuxième parti le plus important de l’Armenie dirige par l’homme
d’affaires, Gagik Tsarukian, a insiste mercredi 21 decembre 2011
sur le fait qu’il n’a pas l’intention de former une alliance avec le
president Serge Sarkissian pour les prochaines elections legislatives.

Naira Zohrabian, membre du Parti Armenie Prospère(BHK), a declare que
le BHK devrait contester les elections prevues pour mai prochain et
a rejete les speculations des medias qui ont affirme ce mois-ci que
Gagik Tsarukian soutiendrait a nouveau la reelection de Sarkissian en
2013 et qu’il formerait un bloc electoral comprenant le BHK, le parti
presidentiel republicain d’Armenie (HHK) et le Parti Orinats Yerkir,
l’autre partenaire de la coalition au pouvoir.

Un haut representant du HHK a declare la semaine dernière que les
trois partis cherchent maintenant a ” cooperer “.

” Il n’y a eu aucune discussion concernant la liste commune [des
candidats], ni au sein de notre parti, ni au sein de la coalition “,
a declare Naira Zohrabian lors d’une interview a RFE/RL.

Zohrabian a cite trois interviews de Tsarukian faites en octobre où
il declarait que son parti souhaite participer aux elections de 2012
de manière independante.” Rien n’a change et nous n’avons pas change
de position “, a-t-elle dit.

Dans cette interview, Tsarukian a egalement refuse de dire si son
parti soutiendrait l’election presidentielle de 2013. Ses relations
avec Serge Sarkissian et le HHK se seraient deteriorees par la suite.

Naira Zohrabian a toutefois nie qu’une pression politique etait
exercee sur le BHK. Elle a insiste pour que Tsarukian entretienne ”
une relation normale ” avec le president.

” LIBERATION ” CONSACRE TROIS PAGES A LA LOI DE PENALISATION DU GENOCIDE ARMENIEN
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
jeudi 22 decembre 2011

De la presse nationale, ce matin, c’est ” Liberation ” qui consacre
une large place a la loi de penalisation avec en première page le
titre ” Genocide armenien, le clash franco-turc “. De la page 2 a 4
” Liberation ” consacre plusieurs articles sur le sujet. Mais le plus
marquant est l’editorial de Francois Sergent qui est sans doute l’un
des plus revelateurs d’une position d’intellectuels Francais qui
refusent les lois memorielles. Meme si la loi proposee ce matin au
Parlement n’est pas dans ce type de loi. Francois Sergent est ainsi
hors-sujet dans cet editorial que nous vous livrons integralement. ”
La position de l’Etat turc est indefendable. Le genocide tel qu’il
a ete defini par le juriste polonais Raphaël Lemkin appartient a une
categorie de droit precise et encadree fondee sur l’intentionnalite
des crimes et la finalite d’exterminer un groupe ethnique. Autant
de conditions qui correspondent au genocide armenien, tout comme le
genocide des Juifs et des Tutsis, les deux seuls ” reconnus ” et juges
par la communaute internationale. En niant ces exterminations de 1915,
comme elle le fait depuis près d’un siècle, la Turquie reecrit son
histoire et ment sur son passe.

Faut-il pour autant que le Parlement francais impose aux Turcs sa
morale et sa vision de l’histoire ? Imagine-t-on l’accueil qu’aurait
fait la France a une loi turque interdisant de discuter de la
deportation des Juifs par la police francaise ?

Le texte qui doit etre vote aujourd’hui ne peut cacher les
arrière-pensees clientelistes de ses promoteurs, dont les
circonscriptions abritent de nombreuses communautes armeniennes. Quant
a Nicolas Sarkozy, il apparaît qu’après avoir promis a Ankara
d’enterrer ce texte, il en fait desormais son miel a quelques semaines
de la presidentielle et des legislatives. Cette penalisation de la
negation de ” tous les genocides ” est non seulement opportuniste mais
dangereuse. Les historiens savent que la verite est une proposition
contingente. Ils s’opposent a ces textes qui polluent la memoire et
empechent les discussions sur des sujets encore a vif. Nier le debat
alimente le negationnisme. ”

Par ailleurs, nos lecteurs internautes ou @rmenautes peuvent
par ailleurs reagir aux articles de ” Liberation ” en se rendant
directement sur le site du journal ().

BRAVANT LES MENACES DE LA TURQUIE, L’ASSEMBLEE VA VOTER UN TEXTE PENALISANT LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN
Stephane

armenews.com
jeudi 22 decembre 2011

Bravant les menaces de la Turquie, les deputes francais, toutes
sensibilites politiques confondues, doivent voter jeudi une proposition
de loi UMP penalisant la negation de tout genocide, dont celui des
Armeniens en 1915.

La deputee UMP Valerie Boyer defendra dès 9h30 un texte d’initiative
parlementaire, mis a l’ordre du jour de l’Assemblee par le
gouvernement, visant a “reprimer la contestation ou la minimisation
grossière” de tout genocide, dont le genocide perpetre contre les
Armeniens dans l’Empire ottoman.

Cette initiative a dechaîne la fureur des autorites turques qui ont
depeche en debut de semaine a Paris deux delegations, l’une composee
d’hommes d’affaires, l’autre de parlementaires, pour tenter d’inflechir
la position francaise.

Depuis la semaine dernière, la Turquie menace la France de multiples
represailles, diplomatiques avec le rappel de son ambassadeur, et
economiques, avec le gel de plusieurs importants contrats.

Mardi, le chef de l’Etat turc, Abdullah Gul, est lui-meme monte au
creneau pour exhorter Paris a renoncer a une loi “inacceptable”.

Mercredi, c’etait au tour du chef de la diplomatie turque, Ahmet
Davutoglu, de reagir dans deux des plus importants medias francais,
Liberation et Le Monde. Selon lui, Nicolas Sarkozy avait promis au
Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan de renoncer au projet.

Le texte prevoit un an de prison et 45.000 euros d’amende en cas de
negation d’un genocide reconnu par la loi.

La France a reconnu en 2001 l’existence d’un genocide d’Armeniens
entre 1915 et 1917 (1,5 million de morts, selon les Armeniens).

Si la Turquie reconnaît que jusqu’a 500.000 personnes sont mortes au
cours de cette periode, elle considère qu’elles ont ete les victimes
des aleas de la Première Guerre mondiale.

Avant son election en 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy avait promis aux
representants de la communaute armenienne de France, estimee a un
demi-million de personnes, de soutenir le vote d’un texte de loi
specifique reprimant la negation du genocide de 1915.

Lors d’une visite en octobre en Armenie, a laquelle participait Valerie
Boyer, le chef de l’Etat avait souhaite que la Turquie reconnaisse
dans un delai “assez bref”, avant la fin de son mandat en mai 2012,
le genocide armenien.

FRENCH PARLIAMENT ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Dec 22 2011

PARIS (A.A) – French Parliament adopted on Thursday a resolution
that criminalizes rejection of Armenian allegations pertaining to
the incidents of 1915.

Only 70 out of 577 parliamentarians joined the voting of the resolution
which was adopted with majority of votes.

The resolution envisages “one-year prison term and 45,000 Euro fine for
those who deny genocide recognized by French laws.” French Parliament
had recognized so-called Armenian genocide in 1915 on January 29, 2001.

The draft criminalizing the rejection of Armenian allegations had
first been approved in 2006, but it could not become a law as French
President Nicolas Sarkozy prevented its presentation to Senate.

Now, the senate’s approval is necessary to make the resolution a law.

Turkey strongly opposes the issue of the incidents of 1915 being
used as a tool in French politics. Many believe that French President
Sarkozy supports the Armenian resolution in order to garner support
from France’s Armenian population that number around 500,000.

France will hold the first round of next year’s presidential election
on April 22 and the second round run-off on May 6. Sarkozy is running
for a second term.

Thursday, 22 December 2011

TURKEY-FRANCE TIES FRAY OVER ARMENIA GENOCIDE BILL

Atlanta Journal Constitution

Dec 22 2011

PARIS – Ties between France and Turkey, strategic allies and trading
partners, abruptly unraveled Thursday after French legislators passed
a bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constitute genocide.

The bill strikes at the heart of national honor in Turkey, which
denies the genocide label and insists the 1915 massacres occurred
during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, with losses on
both sides. But it’s seen as a matter of principle for some French
politicians, and a matter of long-overdue justice for the half
a million people in France of Armenian descent, many of whom had
relatives among the 1.5 million Armenians killed.

The French bill still needs Senate approval, but after it passed
the lower house, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
halted bilateral political and economic contacts, suspended
military cooperation and ordered his country’s ambassador home for
consultations. Turkey argues France is trampling freedom of expression
and that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is on a vote-getting mission
before April presidential elections.

France formally recognized the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001,
but provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The bill passed
Thursday sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of
euro45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or “outrageously minimize”
the killings, putting such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

The diplomatic riposte by Turkey over the vote by lawmakers in France’s
lower house, the National Assembly, may get even tougher. It hurts
ties as both NATO members are involved in international efforts for
peace from Syria to Afghanistan.

“Our measures and precautions will come to life stage-by-stage
according to France’s position,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.

France expressed regret over Turkey’s response.

“It is important, in the current context, that we keep the paths of
dialogue and cooperation open,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in
a statement.

Strains have plagued the relationship between Paris and Ankara in
recent years, in large part because Sarkozy opposes mostly-Muslim
Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. The bill reached the French
parliament after Sarkozy visited Armenia in October and urged Turkey,
“a great country” to “honor itself by revisiting its history like
other countries in the world have done.”

But for it to become law, the Senate must also pass the bill. There is
a small window of time to quickly do so, between Jan. 10 and Feb. 24
when a four-month freeze on all but the most critical legislation goes
into effect ahead of spring presidential and legislative elections.

There’s no guarantee this will be a speedy process. A similar piece
of legislation passed by the lower house in 2006 took five years to
reach the Senate, which rejected it.

Most historians contend the killings of the Armenians constituted the
first genocide of the 20th century. But the issue is dicey for any
government that wants a strong alliance with Turkey, a rising power.

In Washington, President Barack Obama has stopped short of calling
the killings genocide.

An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France, and many have pressed
to raise the legal statute regarding the massacres to the same level
as the Holocaust by punishing the denial of genocide.

But the Turkish premier called the legislation’s approval “unjust
and unfortunate,” adding, “There is no genocide in our history,
we do not accept it.”

“As of now, we are canceling bilateral level political, economic
and military activities,” Erdogan announced. “We are suspending all
kinds of political consultations with France” and “bilateral military
cooperation, joint maneuvers are canceled as of now.”

The Turkish prime minister said requests for military overflights or
landings on Turkish territory would be assessed on a case-by-case
basis while permissions granted to French military vessels to dock
at Turkish ports would be canceled.

Military cooperation between France and Turkey was suspended in
2006 after the lower-house bid in France to punish deniers of an
Armenian genocide. Military cooperation was gradually resumed but
remains limited.

Turkey did not limit its actions to ties with Ankara. Sounding almost
vindictive, Erdogan threatened to denounce France in Africa and the
Middle East.

“We will inform Africa, we will inform the Middle East and when
traveling in many countries we will talk about genocides which they
have been trying to make (the world) forget about,” he said. It was
a reference to France’s colonial past in Algeria, where massacres
were carried out, and to Rwanda where some claim a French role in
the 1994 genocide.

It was clear long before the vote – easily passed with a show of
hands – that France was on a collision course with Turkey. Ankara had
threatened to remove Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu if French lawmakers
did not desist and warned of “grave consequences” to political and
economic ties.

The ambassador said he is leaving on the first flight out of Paris
Friday morning. He said that diplomacy is never black and white.

“There are always grey pages but now, these pages become blacker and
blacker,” he told reporters in Paris on Thursday night.

Erdogan, a devout Muslim who over the years raised the profile of
Turkey’s governing Islamic-rooted party, suggested France’s bid
to punish those who deny the Armenian genocide was in part a way
to lure far-right voters to Sarkozy’s camp by kindling the fires
of Islamophobia.

“This decision is cause for concern not only for France where there
are efforts to make gains through enmity toward Turks and Turkey,
and in general terms, through Islamaphobia, but also for Europe and
principles defended by Europe,” he said.

“I ask: Is there freedom of expression in France? Let me answer it
myself: No. (This decision) has eliminated the environment of free
thought.”

Some French lawmakers expressed outraged at Turkey’s attempt to sway
their vote and a demonstration by Turks living in France outside the
National Assembly.

“The fact that we are subject to pressures … in front of the
National Assembly where the heart of the (French) Republic beats,
I find that particularly shocking,” said Valerie Boyer, author of
the measure and lawmaker from Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party.

“Laws voted in this chamber cannot be dictated by Ankara,” said
Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a deputy from the New Center party.

For many French Armenians, the legislation’s advancement meant a
swell of relief.

“Our ancestors can finally rest in peace,” said 75-year-old Maurice
Delighazarian, who said his grandparents on both sides were among
the victims of the 1915 massacre.

___

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Catherine Gaschka
contributed to this article.

TURKEY FREEZES ALL POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH FRANCE OVER GENOCIDE ROW

guardian.co.uk
Thursday 22 December 2011 19.26 GMT

Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalls ambassador after Paris’s decision to
prosecute people who deny killing of Armenians was genocide

Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the French
decision, to prosecute people denying the killing of Armenians was
genocide, amounted to Islamophobia. Photograph: Burhan Ozbilici/AP

Turkey has frozen relations with France, recalling its ambassador and
suspending all economic, political and military meetings in response to
French MPs’ approval of a law that would make it a crime to deny that
the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks was genocide.

The furious Turkish reaction to Paris’s parliamentary vote marked an
unprecedented low between the Nato partners.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, cancelled permission
for French military planes to land and warships to dock in Turkey,
annulled all joint military exercises, recalled the Turkish ambassador
to France for consultations and said he would decide case by case
whether to let the French military use Turkish airspace.

He said this was just the start and “gradually” but “decisively”
other retaliation measures would be taken against France. He warned
of heavy diplomatic “wounds” that would be “difficult to heal”.

A majority of the 50 MPs present in France’s lower chamber approved
the bill which would make denying any genocide – but implicitly
the Armenian genocide – a criminal offence punishable by a one-year
prison sentence and a fine of ~@45,000 (£37,500). The bill was put
forward by an MP from Sarkozy’s rightwing UMP party, but the issue
was supported by socialists.

“This is politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia. This
is using Turkophobia and Islamophobia to gain votes, it raises concerns
regarding these issues not only in France but all over Europe,” Erdogan
said, accusing the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, of deliberately
courting the large Armenian-French vote ahead of next year’s election.

The French foreign minister Alain Juppe said he didn’t want “our
Turkish friends” to “overreact”. Earlier, trying to smooth the row
with Turkey, he dismissed the bill as “useless and counterproductive”.

He said Turkey, “a proud nation”, should work on its issues of history
and memory, but threatening French criminal sanctions was not the
right way to make them do it.

Under Sarkozy, who opposes Turkish entry to the European Union,
relations between Paris and Ankara have been difficult. But the Nato
allies had been working together on key issues such as the Syria
uprising. Erdogan said Turkey was now “suspending all kinds of
political consultations with France”.

A Turkish official indicated the freeze would not affect the country’s
membership of Nato, and that the withdrawal of military co-operation
would be at a bilateral level.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during the first world war in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered
by the Ottoman government. Ankara denies the killings constitute
genocide and says many Muslim Turks and Kurds were also put to death
as Russian troops invaded eastern Anatolia, often aided by Armenian
militias.

The French bill criminalising genocide denial must now be put to the
French senate for debate next year.

TURKEY RECALLS AMBASSADOR AFTER FRENCH BILL MAKES IT A CRIME TO DENY MASS KILLING OF ARMENIANS IN 1915 BY OTTOMAN EMPIRE WAS GENOCIDE

Daily Mail

Dec 22 2011
UK

– Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu will leave Paris tomorrow in protest at
the passing of the bill – Under the law, people denying 1915 killings
of 1.5million Armenians were genocide would face a year in jail and
fine of ~@45,000. – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan describes bill as
racist and discriminatory – Turkey is a vital Nato ally for France
and could block French military from using airbases and ports

By Wil Longbottom

Turkey has reacted with fury after French MPs passed a bill that would
make it a crime in France to deny that mass killing of Armenians in
1915 by Ottoman Turks was genocide. The Turkish ambassador in Paris,
Tahsin Burcuoglu, has been recalled in protest after the bill sailed
through the National Assembly with a large majority this afternoon.
Ankara had also promised ‘grave consequences’ in terms of political,
economic and military assistance between the two countries if the
legislation went ahead.

Turkey vehemently rejects the term ‘genocide’ for the World War One-era
mass killings of Armenians. It claims that France is blocking freedom
of expression and says President Nicolas Sarkozy is on a vote-getting
mission ahead of April presidential elections. Under the bill, those
publicly denying it was genocide would face a year in jail and fine
of ~@45,000. Armenia says up to 1.5million people were killed by
the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1916.

Turkey refutes this and says the number is closer to 300,000, and
that Turks were also killed as Armenia rose up against the Ottoman
Empire. An estimated half a million Armenians live in France and
many have pressed to raise the legal statute regarding the massacres
to the same level as the Holocaust by punishing denial of genocide.
France formally recognised the killings as genocide in 2001 and more
than 20 countries have done the same.

The bill’s author, Valerie Boyer, said: ‘My bill doesn’t aim at any
particular country. ‘It is inspired by European law, which says
that the people who deny the existence of the genocides must be
sanctioned.’ Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a deputy from the New Center
party, said: ‘Laws voted in this chamber cannot be dictated by Ankara.’
Protests have taken place outside the National Assembly and in Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described the bill, passed by
France’s lower house of parliament, as racist, discriminatory and
xenophobic and said it had opened wounds that would be difficult
to heal. Earlier this month, he recalled French colonial history
in Algeria and a 1945 massacre there, as well as its role in Rwanda
in 1994. ‘Those who do not want to see genocide should turn around
and look at their own dirty and bloody history,’ he said.

‘Turkey will stand against this intentional, malicious, unjust and
illegal attempt through all kinds of diplomatic means.’

The Turkish government said Mr Burcuoglu will leave France on Friday
and further measures will be announced, including the cancelling of
all economic, political and military meetings. France and Turkey
are Nato partners and the move could see French planes barred from
landing in Turkey.

In October, Mr Sarkozy visited Armenia and its capital of Yerevan,
urging Turkey to recognize the 1915 killings as genocide.

‘Turkey, which is a great country, would honor itself by revisiting its
history like other countries in the world have done,’ Mr Sarkozy said.

France, however, took its own time recognizing the state’s role in the
Holocaust. It was not until 1995 that then-President Jacques Chirac
proclaimed France’s active role in sending its citizens to death camps.
And it was only in 2009 that his historic declaration was formally
recognized in a ruling by France’s top body, the Council of State.

——— Box ——-

THE ARMENIAN ‘PROBLEM’: HOW OTTOMAN TURKS COMMITTED THE FIRST MODERN
GENOCIDE The killing of 1.5million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
during World War I remains one of the bloodiest and most contentious
events of the 20th century, and has been called the first modern
genocide. In all, 25 concentration camps were set up in a systematic
slaughter aimed at eradicating the Armenian people – classed as
‘vermin’ by the Turks. Winston Churchill described the massacres as
an ‘administrative holocaust’ and noted: ‘This crime was planned and
executed for political reasons. The opportunity presented itself for
clearing Turkish soil of a Christian race.’

And just as Hitler wanted a Nazi-dominated world cleansed of its Jews,
so in 1914 the Ottoman Empire wanted to construct a Muslim empire
that would stretch from Istanbul to Manchuria. Armenia, an ancient
Christian civilisation spreading out from the eastern end of the Black
Sea, stood in its way. At the turn of the 20th century, there were
2million Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Already,
200,000 had been killed in a series of pogroms – most of them brutally
between 1894 and 1896. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered
World War I against the Allies and launched a disastrous military
campaign against Russian forces in the Caucasus. It blamed defeat
on the Armenians, claiming they had colluded with the Russians.
During the final months of 1914, the Ottoman government put together
a number of Special Organisation units, armed gangs of thousands
of convicts specifically released from prison for the purpose.
These killing squads committed the greatest crimes in the genocide.

On the night of April 24, 1915 – an anniversary marked by Armenians
around the world – the Ottoman government arrested 250 Armenian
intellectuals. This was followed by the arrest of a further 2,000.
Some died from torture in custody; many were executed in public places.

Between May and August 1915, the Armenian population of the eastern
provinces was deported and murdered en masse. In four days alone,
from 10-14 June 1915, the gangs ‘eliminated’ some 25,000 people in
the Kemah Erzincan area. By 1917, the Armenian ‘problem’, as Ottoman
leaders called it, had been ‘resolved’. Muslim families were brought
in to occupy empty villages. Even after the war, Ottoman ministers
were unrepentant. In 1920, they praised those responsible for the
genocide, saying: ‘These things were done to secure the future of our
homeland, which we know is greater and holier than even our own lives.’

U.S. PUBLISHER: AFTER GENOCIDE BILL ADOPTION TURKS WILL TAKE EXTREME MEASURES

PanARMENIAN.Net
December 22, 2011 – 17:26 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – After adoption of the bill criminalizing Armenian
Genocide denial by French National Assembly, Turkey will resort to
extreme measures to prevent the Senate from final passing of the
draft law, The California Courier editor said.

“This was a smashing victory for Armenians and a crushing defeat for
Turks. Moreover, Turkey’s threats contributed to the adoption of the
bill,” Harut Sassounian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

According to Mr. Sassounian, Turkey’s stand over last years proved
that the country does not deserve EU membership.

The editor did not rule out for the Turkish side to claim adoption
of the bill is of no significance.

On December 22 French National Assembly passed the bill penalizing
Armenian Genocide denial, with the number of votes in favor and
against not reported yet.

On December 7, the Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly has
passed the bill introduced by MP Valerie Boyer (UMP).

Turkey has piled pressure on France to drop the law ahead of the
vote, with President Abdullah Gul and a Turkish delegation to Paris
warning its adoption will spark a diplomatic crisis and have economic
consequences.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu threatened to introduce a
bill on “the genocide committed by France in Algeria, where 45000
local residents died in 1945.” PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu laid
“the responsibility of possible worsening of relations between Paris
and Ankara on Nicolas Sarkozy.”

AHMADINEJAD DUE IN ARMENIA FRIDAY

Fars News Agency
Dec 22 2011
Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to
visit Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, on Friday to meet his
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan and other high-ranking Armenian officials.

The two sides will discuss various political and economic issues
during the visit.

Ahmadinejad was scheduled to pay a one-day trip to Armenia on June 6,
2011 to reciprocate his Armenian counterpart’s previous visit. The
trip was later canceled, according to Iran’s Presidential Office,
after a mutual agreement by Tehran and Yerevan.

Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry Ramin Mehman-Parast announced at
the time that the trip had been delayed as more time was needed to draw
up and finalize relevant documents for the contracts were to be signed.

Ahmadinejad’s last visit to Armenia occurred on October 22, 2007,
in which he was accompanied by a high-ranking delegation. During the
two-day visit, Iran and Armenia signed four memoranda of understanding
and issued a joint statement.

Earlier, Ahmadinejad had asked for the maximum expansion of relations
between Iran and Armenia.

Speaking in a phone conversation with his Armenian counterpart last
month, the Iranian president reiterated the abundant grounds existing
for the further development of ties and cooperation between Tehran
and Yerevan.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes maximum expansion of relations
between the two countries, in various cultural , economic and
political grounds and welcomes any move which helps attainment of
this objective,” he added.

FRENCH PARLIAMENTARIAN: WE OFTEN LIED TO ARMENIANS, TIME FOR JUSTICE HAS COME

PanARMENIAN.Net
December 22, 2011 – 14:53 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – There are several reasons for adoption of the bill
on penalizing the Armenian Genocide denial, member of France-Armenia
interparliamentary friendship group said.

“First, how come human rights are violated in a democratic country?

The very denial of this fact stains us with the guilt of
extermination,” Francois Pupponi said.

“Second, we have to vote “for” in the name of Armenians who survived
the Genocide, who found shelter in France. And third, we have to act
for the political unity of the Left and Right, both having promised
the Armenian community to pass the bill. And finally we need to remove
all taboos for establishment fruitful cooperation with Turkey. We might
as well speak to them about the Kurdish and other issues,” he said.