Author: Badalian Vardan

REVUE DE PRESSE
Génocide Arménien – Quand Juppé s’oppose à Sarkozy en Conseil des ministres

Selon nos informations, le numéro deux du gouvernement a émis des
réserves, dans le huis clos du Conseil des ministres, sur la
proposition de loi pénalisant la contestation du génocide arménien.

En public, Alain Juppé affiche une entente parfaite avec Nicolas
Sarkozy. En privé, il n’hésite pas à exprimer des divergences avec
lui. Dans le huis clos du Conseil des ministres, le chef de la
diplomatie, poids lourd du gouvernement, a ainsi regretté ce matin que
la proposition de loi portée par la députée UMP Valérie Boyer visant à
pénaliser la contestation du génocide arménien -adoptée la semaine
dernière par la Commission des lois de l’Assemblée- soit discutée sur
le temps du gouvernement et pas sur le temps parlementaire. Une erreur
à ses yeux dans la mesure où la Turquie, pays allié et un important
partenaire commercial de la France, en tirera la conclusion que
l’exécutif la soutient. Ce qui ne dérange visiblement pas Nicolas
Sarkozy, pas mécontent d’envoyer un signal à la communauté arménienne
à l’approche de la présidentielle.

Le chef de l’Etat a donc confirmé ce matin la procédure. Fait
rarissime, l’affaire a donné lieu à des échanges nourris. Illustrant
une fois encore le poids politique d’Alain Juppé. Plusieurs témoins
ont confirmé la scène. Pas Alain Juppé, injoignable : après le conseil
des ministres, il s’est envolé pour la Lybie pour une visite
officielle de vingt-quatre heures.

dimanche 18 décembre 2011,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

LaDépêche.fr , France
17 dec 2011

Montauban. La famille arménienne ne veut pas retourner dans son pays
une nouvelle histoire d’expulsions

Martin et sa maman Anna ne peuvent plus, aux yeux de la loi, rester
sur le territoire français./ à ce jour, à cette heure, seul Hovhannes
Aghékian a le droit de demeurer encore sur le sol français. Jusqu’à
mai 2012 seulement.

C’est son statut de personne malade devant recevoir de soins réguliers
qui lui vaut de pas être renvoyé en Arménie, son pays d’origine, dans
les plus brefs délais. C’est ce qui menace précisément son épouse Anna
et son fils Martin (2 ans et demi) qui, lui, a vu le jour à Montauban.
En effet, mère et enfant sont sous le coup d’un arrêté d’expulsion, la
petite famille Aghékian ayant vu sa demande d’asile en tant que
réfugiés politiques refusée par les autorités compétentes en la
matière.

Décision qui lui a valu notamment d’être obligée de quitter le centre
Amar (1) à la date du 8 décembre dernier et, par là même, de se
trouver dépourvue de logement.

« Nos affaires sont restées là-bas » glisse au passage Anna qui chaque
matin est obligée de prendre contact avec le 115 (Samu social) afin de
trouver une chambre pour que la famille puisse bénéficier d’un toit
afin de passer la nuit.

Anna et Hovlannes sont arrivés en France le 14 avrils 2009 en
provenance d’une ville arménienne, Gumri, qu’ils souhaitaient quitter
à tout prix en raison « de problèmes politiques réguliers ». Holvannes
exerçait la profession de mécanicien et Anna avait fait des études
d’informaticienne avant de tomber enceinte de Martin.

La solidarité arménienne
Pendant deux années et demi, la famille Aghékian a espéré que sa
demande d’asile bénéficierait d’une réponse positive. Bien qu’ayant
été contraints de déménager à trois reprises, ils conservaient
toujours l’espoir de « pouvoir vivre et travailler en France
normalement ». Et puis, le 8 décembre, patatras, tout s’écroule pour
les Aghékian.

Avec 300 euros par mois et pas de toit, la famille s’est notamment
appuyée sur le Secours populaire, les Restos du c`ur, le Secours
catholique et, bien en- tendu, le 115 pour subvenir à ses besoins du
quotidien.

La solidarité arménienne a également joué à plein et plusieurs
familles de la communauté arménienne de Montauban ont apporté aide,
assistance et réconfort au trio quelque peu désemparé par la
situation. Hier matin Anna a encore réaffirmé avec beaucoup de force
et de détermination que « la famille ne voulait pas revenir en
Arménie, c’est impossible pour nous ». Un cri du c`ur difficile à
ignorer.

(1) Association Montalbanaise d’Aide aux Réfugiés (24 rue Caussat).

Interfax, Russia
Dec 16 2011

Turkish-Armenian border will open after Armenian-Azerbaijani border-
Turkish ambassador in Baku

BAKU. Dec 16

Armenia should stop occupying Azerbaijani territories and Azerbaijani
citizens should return to their residences, Turkish Ambassador to
Azerbaijan Hulusi Kilic said.

“We believe the Azerbaijani territories should be freed from
occupation and refugees and displaced persons should return to their
homes,” he told a press conference on the development of
Azerbaijani-Turkish relations in 2011 on Friday.

Speaking about the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, the
ambassador said the issue is directly connected to Armenia’s military
aggression against Azerbaijan. “Everyone wants the Turkish-Armenian
border to open. However, the first border to be closed in this region
was the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and therefore the
Armenian-Azerbaijani border has to open in order for the
Turkish-Armenian border to open,” the Turkish diplomat said.

Turkey wants all borders in the region to open and all courtiers to
work closely together, he said.

av

news.am, Armenia
Dec 17 2011

Representatives of Turkey’s national minorities meet at Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople

December 17, 2011 | 16:32

ISTANBUL. – The religious leaders of Turkey’s national minorities met,
at the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople on Thursday, to discuss
the country’s new Constitution.

The participants discussed the state’s guaranteeing of the freedom of
religion and conscience, within the citizenship concept, in Turkey’s
new Constitution.

The attendees decided that the report, which will be prepared after
four such meetings, be taken to the Turkish parliament and to discuss
it with members of the country’s Constitutional Commission, Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The next meeting will be held at the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople.

news.am, Armenia
Dec 17 2011

Armenia’s president meets with country’s young scholars, scientists

December 17, 2011 | 16:15

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s Head of State, Serzh Sargsyan, met with a group
of country’s young scholars and scientists.

The youth thanked the President for periodically meeting with them and
underscoring their role in the development of knowledge and science.

Armenia’s President and the young scholars and scientists discussed
the latter’s working conditions, and other matters concerning them.

Serzh Sargsyan also responded to the questions posed by the young
scholars and scientists, gave certain instructions – to respective state
agencies – in connection with these youth’s recommendations, and noted
that an annual financial assistance of 100 million drams (approx. US$
262,525) will be allotted to the young scholars and scientists,
Presidential Press Office informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

news.am, Armenia
Dec 17 2011

Turkish famous actress sings in Armenian in movie (VIDEO)

December 17, 2011 | 00:04

ANKARA. – Turkish famous actress Demet Akbag sang an Armenian song in
recently released Last Stopis Salvation movie.

Akbag stars Vardanush in the movie, to be released next year. She
sings Aman Aghavni (Oh, Dove) song, which is beloved by
Istanbul-Armenians, Turkish Haberturk reports.

Sezar Avetikyan participated in the song preparation works.

Armenian News-NEWS.am presents an extract from the movie.

Reuters UK
Dec 17 2011

Erdogan attacks France over Armenian “genocide” law

(Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told France on Saturday to
study its own history rather than Turkey’s in a warning against the
French parliament passing a law making it illegal to deny the mass
killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was genocide.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a major critic of Turkey’s flagging
bid to join the European Union, told Turkey in October that unless it
recognised the 1915 killings as genocide, France would consider making
denial a crime.

Erdogan has already sent Sarkozy a letter warning political and
economic relations would suffer grave consequences if the bill was
passed into law and he reiterated the message at a news conference on
Saturday.

“Those who want to see genocide should turn round and look at their
own dirty, bloody history,” Erdogan said after talks with Libyan
National Transitional Council chairman, Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

The draft law, put forward by a deputy from Sarkozy’s party, is due to
go before parliament next Thursday and proposes a one-year prison
sentence and 45,000 euro ($58,500) fine for denying the killings
constitute genocide.

“If the French National Assembly wants to take an interest in history
let it take the trouble of illuminating what happened in Africa, in
Rwanda and Algeria,” Erdogan said in his first operation since
recovering from surgery.

“Let it go and research how many people French soldiers killed in
Algeria, how they killed them and what inhumane methods they used.”

France is Turkey’s fifth-biggest export market and sixth-biggest
country from which it imports goods and services.

DENIAL

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says some 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during World War One 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 Foreign Ministry has stressed the draft law was not a
government initiative.

Erdogan said in his letter common sense should prevail over political
calculations, a hint the draft law was aimed at securing the support
of 500,000 French voters of Armenian descent in elections due in five
months time.

Turkey and Armenia signed a peace accord in 2009, agreeing to set up a
commission of international experts to examine the events of 1915,
restore diplomatic ties and open their border to trade, but neither
side has ratified the deal.

Turkey has increasingly flexed its rising economic and political
muscle on the world stage and in the Middle East as its economy
continues to show strong growth while western Europe suffers a
financial crisis.

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Sophie Hares)

If Serzh Makes Wrong Choice

HAKOB BADALYAN

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 23:42:41 – 17/12/2011

Some members of parliament running businesses announced that they will
not run in the next elections. What helped Serzh Sargsyan persuade
those members of parliament not to run in the elections? Or did he
simply instruct them not to run for parliament?

There is an opinion that Sargsyan cannot give such instructions to the
oligarchs because they will turn back and tear him to parts. In
addition, this opinion is dominant regarding other issues related to
the oligarchs. For instance, the real struggle against the oligopoly
is considered as hardly possible because the oligarchy will turn back
and tear them to pieces.

This is an important issue. Is Serzh Sargsyan the prisoner of the
`oligarchs’ or are they the `hostage’ of the government? Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, for instance, announced that the oligarchy is the
hostage of the government. It is not absolutely true, of course, but
independent from the political motives and context, in the long run,
the oligarchy is the `hostage’ of the government.

So the government is able to solve the problem of oligarchy, set this
segment in another setting, that of the liberal rules, set them equal
before the law, eliminate the economic, political and physical
privileges of the oligarchic class. The question is who the government
is, and whether Serzh Sargsyan is the government.

The fact that he is trying to be government is obvious. But the
question is how he is trying and why. Is he trying to subject the
oligarchy fully and forming his own team of oligarchs or is he trying
to be the government to promote reforms declared by him?

In Armenia, very few people believe that Serzh Sargsyan can be
committed to reforms, believe in democratic and liberal values to
underlie the rule of law in Armenia. And their doubts are justified
because Serzh Sargsyan has not proven the opposite yet. On the other
hand, democratic reforms in Armenia do not suppose that the
implementer or leader must be truly democratic and a genuine reformer.
The point is that the systemic crisis in Armenia has reached the point
of being unbearable, and he will have to implement reforms about which
he announced at international rostrums, even though he does not
believe it. His personal interest requires it, the instinct of
self-protection.

For many people, the situation grew unbearable very rapidly, for
others quite unexpectedly. But the system in Armenia expired too soon
because it coincided with the expiry of the world system, and it was
inevitable.

And the international crisis accelerated the systemic collapse of
Armenia. The only way out is reforms.

Serzh Sargsyan must establish his rule by the instinct of
self-preservation to be able to promote reforms. No doubt he is trying
to draft a scheme of succession of actions, seeking support to
establish his rule. `Help me establish my rule to go on to carry out
reforms,’ Serzh Sargsyan seems to tell the international society.

It is obvious that his words are accepted, and he is supported to
establish his rule. Serzh Sargsyan may expect that after establishing
his rule he will be able to persuade the West and avoid reforms.

But Sargsyan must be aware of hopelessness of this expectation. The
West supports him to establish his rule, considering the parliamentary
elections of 2012 as a key haven but keep the mechanisms which will
neutralize Serzh Sargsyan’s rule in a single minute, and power will go
to either Ter-Petrosyan or Kocharyan.

The point is that if no reforms will be held in Armenia, if Sargsyan
fails to keep his commitments for which he gets support, Armenia may
be controlled better through Ter-Petrosyan, and especially Kocharyan,
so the meaning of supporting Sargsyan will disappear both for the West
and Russia.

The role of Armenia in new geopolitical and economic developments
depends essentially on the democratic transition and establishment of
the rule of law. If this happens, it means that Armenia gets down to
the performance of its role. If not, it means that Serzh Sargsyan
fails to perform his role, and Serzh Sargsyan must leave, otherwise
Armenia will be removed from the map.

No doubt the West will not wish Armenia to leave, otherwise it would
not make so much effort toward reforms. Moreover, the society will not
wish Armenia’s removal from global scenarios. Consequently, in case
Sargsyan tries to stop halfway and waive its role, the public and
international consensus will inevitably push his removal.

Big choice complicates choice. Serzh Sargsyan does not have a big
choice, so his choice will not be difficult. For him, the consequence
of the wrong choice may be complicated.

POLITICIAN SEES PARALLELS BETWEEN RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE MIKHAIL PROKHOROV, ARMENIA’S GAGIK TSARUKYAN

epress.am
12.16.2011

Armenian authorities, in a moral sense, are doing something very
wrong, but they’re doing that which is the law of power, said New
Times party leader Aram Karapetyan, today at a press conference in
the Armenian capital.

“The authorities say, you want to be opposition, go ahead, no problem,
withdraw from everything, become opposition and let them hit you with
shock too, get you hospitalized, come with 40 people and arrest you,
take you, shoot in the air – either like this or like that. Well
how did you imagine it – eat well, drink well, present well, have
a TV station, have ministers, have marzpets [regional governors],
have business opportunities, make use of government leverage and
along with this, be opposition?”

According to him, otherwise how could it have been discovered in one
day that three people on the Prosperous Armenia party ticket strolled
with drugs in their pockets.

To explain his argument, the Armenian party leader cited Russian
businessman Mikhail Prokhorov (considered to be opposition), who,
according to Karapetyan, cannot be considered a serious oppositionist.

“Prokhorov asked the Kremlin for no more than 5 days to isolate his
Right Cause party. Any oligarch, who would dare to go against the
authorities, would be punished with the most severe measures applied
by the authorities; thus, no one would have the courage to make that
move,” he said.

Speaking about “the Prokhorov equivalent,” Armenian oligarch,
Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik Tsarukyan (pictured), Karapetyan
assured, “If Gagik Tsarukyan were to become opposition, the Armenian
authorities would seize the Prosperous Armenia party from him in one
to two days, whereas the Kremlin did this in five days.”

‘THERE WAS NO LONGER AN EYE’ TO SAVE: WHY JUNIOR OFFICER THREW HIS KEYS AT KARABAKH ARMY CONSCRIPT

epress.am
12.16.2011

It will take 10 to 15 days for Narek Avetisyan to recover from his
eye surgery, Georgy Grigoryan, head of the Vascular Disease Department
at the Ophthalmological Center named after S. Malayan, told Epress.am.

Right now, the young man is doing better and his friends have begun
to come visit him.

Recall, according to Yerevan-based Helsinki Association for Human
Rights, Avetisyan’s right eye was knocked out on Dec. 14 from a blow
by junior officer Armen Tovmasyan who threw his keys at him at the
mess hall of the Yeghnikner military base in Nagorno Karabakh where
the young man was stationed during his mandatory military service.

According to the human rights organization, when the 18-year-old
conscript was taken to the hospital in Stepanakert, the junior officer
visited him, persuading him to say that he (Tovmasyan) threw a pair
of keys at Avetisyan but the latter was unable to catch them and
they hit his eye instead. The reason for Tovmasyan throwing the keys
in the first place reportedly was that the junior officer asked the
young conscript to take the current (cleaning) shift at the cafeteria,
which Avetisyan apparently refused, saying he just spent 2 weeks in
the field and had walked 20 kilometers.

>From the Stepanakert hospital, the young patient was moved to the
Malayan eye center where he underwent surgery yesterday. Grigoryan
said they were unable to save the young boy’s eye because “there
was no longer an eye,” the blow was that strong. Doctors removed
Avetisyan’s right eye, placing a temporary prosthetic instead so
that in future, he might try to undergo plastic surgery and have a
permanent prosthetic in place. It will move, but of course, the young
man will never be able to see from that eye.

Note, the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Defense earlier informed
local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) that a criminal case
under charges of “abuse of authority” has been launched.

Photo courtesy of Helsinki Association of Human Rights.