Author: Badalian Vardan

IT IS TIME TO SETTLE THE NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT – FORMER HEAD OF OSCE PA

news.am
Nov 25 2011
Armenia

It is time to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, former President
of Parliamentary Assembly, chairman of the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation
Goran Lennmarker said in an interview with Azerbaijani APA agency.

According to Lennmarker, first of all that it is question of the public
opinion in Azerbaijan and in Armenia to have a debate about acceptance
of the solution that is good for people of the both countries, because
the negotiation process must be accepted by the people of Azerbaijan
and also by the people of Armenia.

He considers that otherwise there will be no solution to the conflict
and the status quo will be gone.

“I think that it is time in Azerbaijan to have a debate on that.

Because there is a possibility for the solution that is not only for
refugees who wish to come back. Another thing from the outside that
Europe could do more is that I think to give membership perspective
to Azerbaijan and Armenia and Georgia in the European Union.

Then it is up to Azerbaijan if it wishes to use it, it is voluntarily
and you must wish it yourself, but there is should be a perspective
for the European membership and insertion to reach a solution,”
he told APA.

Lennmarker believes solution depends on the negotiation process and
cannot be imposed from the outside.

“It must be negotiated. It must be a solution which is accepted by
the both sides, in other words, the compromise. Nobody will be 100%
happy because it is the nature of it. I think that the discussion
between Armenia and Turkey could be helpful, and here I have a
different opinion with the leadership of Azerbaijan. Because I
think that could help the solution. If they could get through their
complicated history in the whole manner, I think that could be a
good thing for Nagorno-Karabakh. That could help for the solution,
because this is the European experience,” he said.

YERABLUR WILL BE FULL OF PEOPLE TODAY: TODAY IS MONTE’S BIRTHDAY

Times.am
Nov 25 2011
Armenia

Today is Monte Melqonyan’s birthday. Name of Monte is especially dear
for those Armenians, who realize the importance of Artsakh liberation
war. Monte is a legend of our days, a phenomenon of Armenian hero.

Monte Melkonian (November 25, 1957 – June 12, 1993) was a famed
Armenian commander during Nagorno-Karabakh war. Melkonian had no prior
service record in any country’s army before being placed in command of
an estimated 4,000 men in the war. He had largely built his military
experience beginning from the late 1970s and 1980s where he fought
against the various splintering factions in the Lebanese Civil War,
against Israeli troops in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and was a
member of the Armenian organization ASALA.

An Armenian-American, Melkonian left the USA and arrived in Iran
in 1978 during the beginning of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, taking
part in demonstrations against the Shah. Following the collapse of
the Shah’s monarchy in 1979, he traveled to Lebanon during the height
of the civil war and served in an Armenia militia group in the Beirut
suburb of Bourj Hammoud. In ASALA, he took part in the assassinations
of several Turkish diplomats in Europe during the early to mid-1980s
and was later arrested and sent to prison in France. In 1989, he
was released and in the following year, acquired a visa to travel
to Armenia.

Throughout his tenure, Melkonian carried several different aliases
including “Abu Sindi”, “Saro”, “Timothy Sean McCormack” and “Commander
Avo”, the last of which was the name addressed by troops under his
command in Artsakh. The last years of his life were spent fighting with
the Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army. Monte was killed in the abandoned
Nagorno-Karabagh village of Merzuli in the early afternoon of June 12,
1993, with controversial reports about the circumstances of his death
and was subsequently buried at Yerablur cemetery in Yerevan,. He is
revered by Armenians as a national hero.

All these biographical facts can be found in the encyclopedias. But
we say nothing about Monte, if we tell just the facts. Monte’s friends
tell about him with proud, with admiration, as about the real hero.

Today the Yerablur will be full of people. Many youth organizations
organize marches to Yerablur to commemorate once more one of the
brightest heroes of our times.

CSTO COLLECTIVE RAPID REACTION FORCE EXERCISES TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA “AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL”

Mediamax
Nov 25 2011
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax /. Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO), Nikolay Bordzyuzha, said in Yerevan today that
the contingents making part of CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force
(CRRF) will be equipped with modern armament.

Secretary of the Armenian National Security Council, Artur
Baghdasaryan, and Nikolay Bordzyuzha signed a plan of joint measures
within CSTO in Yerevan today, Mediamax reports.

When asked about whether CSTO is going to render assistance to
Armenia in terms of armament, Nikolay Bordzyuzha said: “There are some
Russian centers and joint ventures dealing with the maintenance and
modernization of Armenian Armed Forces, which is already a significant
contribution to the provision of Armenia’s security.”

Commenting on the Action Plan, Artur Baghdasaryan said the document
envisages 15 events in Yerevan and Moscow on a wide range of issues.

He especially highlighted CSTO CRRF exercises due to be held in Armenia
next year, saying that “they will be held at the highest level.”

ARMENIAN MP PROPOSES 50% CUT OF AIRWAY TICKETS PRICES

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 25, 2011 – 14:36 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian member of parliament Hayk Sanosyan said
he intends to introduce a bill envisaging 50% reduction of prices
for air tickets in the National Assembly.

“Cooperation mechanism between the government and airway companies must
be based on a principle of subsidies. Thus, in lieu of price reduction
the government may provide airway companies with fuel,” the MP said.

According to Sanosyan, the viability of the idea is proved by global
experience. “If implemented, the initiative will boost tourist inflow,
thus positively affecting the country’s economy,” the MP said.

ANC, ARFD HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS ON ARMENIA’S INTEGRATION TO EAU

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 25, 2011 – 18:08 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia should continue European integration process
and wait until specific plans are drawn up for formation of Eurasian
Union, ARF Dashnaktsutyun Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office Director
Kiro Manoyan said.

For his part, Armenian National Congress (ANC) opposition bloc member
Vladimir Karapetyan noted that Armenia should consider joining Eurasian
Union after the latter comes up with specific documents.

On November 18, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have signed a decree to
set up a joint body to oversee and regulate the economy and trade in
the three former Soviet countries. The Eurasian Economic Commission
will be set up in January to regulate and to gradually take over
functions in shaping and executing trade and economic policies from
Russian, Belarusian and Kazakh authorities in a way similar to the
economic bodies of the European Union.

EU AGAIN ‘INTERFERES’ IN KARABAKH ISSUE

04:12 pm | Today | Politics

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in
Georgia, Ambassador Philippe Lefort, will visit Yerevan for the second
time on 28 November.

He will meet the President, the Foreign and Defence Ministers and
the Secretary of the National Security Council.

The topic of discussion will be the situation concerning
Nagorno-Karabakh. The visit is part of the European Union’s efforts
to support the work of the OSCE Minsk Group

HOLLAND MULLS INVITING GUL TO 400TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

Tert.am
25.11.11

Holland is considering inviting Turkish president Abdullah Gul for the
400th anniversary of relations between Holland and Turkey, According
to the Assyrian International News Agency.

At a parliamentary debate yesterday the Party of Freedom (PVV),
expressed opposition to the invitation, citing the following regarding
Turkey:

– Turkey refuses to recognize the Assyrian, Greek and Armenian
genocides of World War One

– History text books in Turkey portray Assyrians as “traitors”
(AINA 10-2-2011).

– Discrimination against Christians in Turkey continues

– 60 journalist are currently imprisoned in Turkey.

For these reasons, Wim Kortenoeven of the Party of Freedom said
Holland should not invite Gul to the country for the 400th anniversary
celebration.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 23 2011

PM Erdoðan apologizes over Dersim massacre on behalf of Turkish state

23 November 2011, Wednesday / YONCA POYRAZ DOÐAN, ÝSTANBUL

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan holds a book by Turkish writer
Necip Fazýl Kýsakürek as mentions details of 1937 massacre in Dersim
on Nov. 23. (Photo: AA)

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan has apologized for a 1937 massacre
in the predominantly Alevi region of Dersim on behalf of the Turkish
state, but said the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP),
which was the only political party at the time, is the actual culprit
and called on the party’s current leader to apologize for the incident
on behalf of the CHP.

“Is it me who should apologize or you [CHP leader Kemal Kýlýçdaroðlu]?
If there is an apology on behalf of the state and if there is such an
opportunity, I can do it and I am apologizing. But if there is someone
who should apologize on behalf of the CHP, it is you, as you are from
Dersim. You were saying you felt honored to be from Dersim. Now, save
your honor,” Erdoðan said during a party meeting on Wednesday.

It was the first official apology from the Turkish government over the
killing of thousands of people in the southeastern town of Dersim —
now known as Tunceli as a result of a name change in 1936 — between
1936 and 1939.

Erdoðan was responding to Kýlýçdaroðlu’s demands that Turkey must face
its past. Kýlýçdaroðlu’s family is from Tunceli. The notorious
massacre took place in 1937 in Dersim, which was historically a
semi-autonomous region, as a brutal response to rebellious events. The
alleged rebellion was led by Seyyid Rýza, the chief of a Zaza tribe in
the region. The Turkish government at the time, led by former CHP
leader Ýsmet Ýnönü, responded with air strikes and other violent
methods of suppression, killing thousands of people.

“Dersim is among the most tragic event in recent history. It is a
disaster that should now be questioned with courage. The party that
should confront this incident is not the ruling Justice and
Development Party [AK Party]. It is the CHP, which is behind this
bloody disaster, who should face this incident and its chairman from
Tunceli,” Erdoðan said, targeting Kýlýçdaroðlu. The two politicians
recently clashed over the long-controversial massacre.

In the widening debate, Erdoðan said at his party’s group meeting in
Parliament on Tuesday that he planned to release a number of state
documents about the incident on Wednesday. He then read excerpts from
archive documents related to the massacre on Wednesday, saying
thousands of people, including women and children, were killed during
the Dersim operation and that the CHP was the party of the
single-party government of the time.

Referring to a document dated 1939, Erdoðan said a total of 13,806
people were killed in operations carried out against the people of
Dersim between 1936 and 1939. He said the document bears the signature
of then-Interior Minister Faik Öztrak. Another document Erdoðan
revealed related to the Dersim events was a Cabinet decree dated Dec.
23, 1938, which said 11,683 people were deported from Dersim and that
2,000 more were to be deported.

“All of these documents have the signatures of Ýsmet Ýnönü,” Erdoðan
said, criticizing the current CHP leader for organizing commemoration
ceremonies for Ýnönü but failing to confront the party’s past.

Contacted by Today’s Zaman, Chairman of the Confrontation with the
Past Association Cafer Solgun said that the prime minister’s apology
is of great value. “An apology coming from the prime minister of
Turkey is historical. It was a historical speech. I am excited as a
person from Dersim,” he said.

Solgun’s parents were about six or seven years old at the time of the
1937 and 1938 killings in Dersim. In his book, “Alevilerin Kemalizmle
Ýmtihaný” (Alevis’ Test with Kemalism), he questions the relationship
between Alevis and Kemalism.

“If Kýlýçdaroðlu were not the head of the CHP, his feelings would be
similar to mine [after the speech of the prime minister]. But the CHP
has a hard time facing the past,” he said.

Cemal Taþ, a writer who has been working on collecting oral history in
Dersim for the last 20 years, said that it was necessary to call on
the CHP to issue an apology as the prime minister did in Wednesday’s
speech.

“It was important for us from Dersim to hear that the prime minister
does not share the CHP’s views regarding this issue. This was
important for us to hear and heals our wounds,” he said.

Regarding what needs to be done after that, Taþ said the people of
Dersim need to know where the bodies of their sisters, mothers,
brothers and fathers are. In addition, he said that they need to be
assured of their rights as citizens of Turkey, where work is under way
for a new constitution.

According to Þükrü Aslan, a sociologist at Ýstanbul’s Mimar Sinan
University and a writer from Dersim, Erdoðan’s words were important.
“It was a first in Turkey for a prime minister to call what happened
in Dersim a massacre, and say that it was not a rebellion and was
planned well in advance,” he said. “This forces other parties, like
the CHP and the MHP [Nationalist Movement Party], to develop new
polices about it.” However, he said that the documents that Erdoðan
mentioned had previously been in the Turkish press. “What needs to be
done is to have the archives of the General Staff opened. This is what
the people of Dersim demand,” he stated.

Aslan also said that it would be better if the prime minister had made
associations between some people he mentioned, like Celal Bayar, who
was the prime minister at the time, and the conservative right.
“Because the prime minister associated many people responsible for the
Dersim massacre, like Ali Çetinkaya, Ýsmet Ýnönü and Þükrü Kaya, with
the CHP, it would have been better if he mentioned that some people
are associated with the conservative right in Turkey,” he said.

Hüseyin Aygün, a writer and researcher who is also from Dersim, said
that, next to the “double-faced” politics of the CHP, the prime
minister’s words were significant. “The world has a right to know what
happened in Dersim,” he said.

CHP Diyarbakýr branch responds to PM’s call, apologizes for Dersim
In an immediate response to Erdoðan’s call to apologize for the
killing of thousands of people in Dersim, the CHP’s Diyarbakýr branch
has announced that they apologize to the people of Dersim.

CHP Diyarbakýr provincial branch Chairman Muzaffer Deðer said hours
after Erdoðan’s call that the prime minister did what the CHP should
have done already by apologizing for the Dersim massacre on behalf of
the Turkish state. He said the CHP administration should also confront
its past and apologize.

However, CHP Deputy Chairman Gürsel Tekin reacted to Erdoðan’s words
in a written statement that read: “I congratulate the prime minister.
He put dynamite under the basis of unity in our nation and country
with his language, style and explanation. He has been successful in
creating animosity among the people. We learned our history, thanks to
him. What else is left to say? What is the next step for the prime
minister? What is the end goal of his campaign?”

‘Sabiha Gökçen Airport should be renamed Seyyid Rýza’
Pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Muþ deputy Sýrrý Sakýk has
demanded that the name of the Sabiha Gökçen Airport be changed to
Seyyid Rýza, who allegedly led a rebellion in Dersim as the chief of a
Zaza tribe in the region.

Sakýk said in Parliament on Tuesday evening that it was inappropriate
to name the airport Sabiha Gökçen, who was Atatürk’s adopted daughter
and served as a pilot during the bombing of Dersim. “If you want to
make peace with Alevis and Kurds, change that name. Our suggestion is
to rename the airport’s name to Seyyid Rýza. When you say Sabiha
Gökçen, we remember bombs, massacres and genocide,” he said.

“Whatever Hitler means for Jewish people, we have similar feelings
toward the people responsible for those times,” Sakýk noted.

MHP Manisa deputy Erkan Akçay voiced opposition to Sakýk’s suggestion,
saying that Gökçen was a “hero,” and adding: “People who have
animosity toward Sabiha Gökçen hold animosity toward those who
established the republic. Those who ask for the name change regarding
Gökçen will ask to change the name of Turkey tomorrow.”

Hurriyet, Turkey
Nov 22 2011

Let’s talk about `massacres’ of today

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Initiated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and
strongly backed by the like-minded media, an ongoing campaign on the
Dersim Massacre of the late 1930s has a clear motive. It is part of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an’s strategy against his party’s
main rival that aims at tarnishing the image and value of the
country’s oldest political party in the eyes of the Turkish people.
During the election campaign, ErdoÄ?an severely criticized the
Republican People’s Party (CHP) former boss and Turkey’s second
president İsmet İnönü for launching assimilation policies against the
Kurds. Today, he and his men are leveling vocal accusations against
the CHP over the killing of more than 10,000 Alevis at the hands of
the security forces in Dersim, with undertones that everything was
done upon orders of Atatürk, the national hero of Turks.

There is nothing wrong in facing the realities of the past, or writing
newspaper articles, or shooting documentaries on such issues. This is
the only way for nations to learn a lesson from history in order not
to repeat the same mistakes in the future. In this sense, the lands of
Anatolia have not been very successful.

But consistency in politics obliges the AKP to open debate on other
and more recent historical events that remain a bleeding wound in the
inner conscience of millions of Turkish people. For example, the MaraÅ?
massacre of 1978 in which at least 111 people, mostly Alevis, were
killed and hundreds of others wounded at the hands of fascists backed
by state officials. How about opening another investigation on the
Sivas massacre of 1993 in which 37 intellectuals were killed when a
mob of Islamic fundamentalists set fire on the Madımak Hotel?

Perhaps we should once again look into the backlog of unresolved
murders in the 1990s and investigate them, no matter where the probes
lead. The list could be extended with other sour historical events of
a Communist witch-hunt in the 1950s or the massive arrests of innocent
people who were subjected to brutal torture under military rule in the
wake of coup d’états.

Let us skip over, if you may, those bitter cases of the past. Instead,
let us deal with today’s oddities. Hopa and its people, for example,
have been under close scrutiny since May just because ErdoÄ?an was
protested by dissident groups. Or Van, for example. Who do you think
will open investigations on wrongdoings in the post-earthquake period?
Children in this part of the country are still dying, not because of
the earthquake but either of hunger or tent fires.

Eight elected deputies are still behind bars. Two Ergenekon suspects
died in prison before they could even appear in court. Hundreds of
others have been in jail for years without conviction in what many now
see as `a massacre of the law.’ Unpublished books have been
confiscated and journalists have imposed self-censorship on themselves
in what has become a `massacre of free speech.’ KCK operations,
massive illegal wiretappings breaching the right to privacy, a series
of sex tapes of opposition figures, the release of the Lighthouse e.V.
(Deniz Feneri) suspects after the deposition of prosecutors¦ Hopefully
Turkey will also face those realities before they become history.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Festival des droits de l’homme
L’Arménie à l’honneur à Saint-Maur

La ville de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés lance le 24 novembre prochain la
3ème édition de son festival des droits de l’Homme `Saint-Maur en
Toutes Libertés’, autour de la thématique : `20 ans après la
dissolution de l’Union Soviétique : la renaissance des nations’.
Cette année, le festival initié par le Député-Maire de Saint-Maur
Henri Plagnol met à l’honneur l’Arménie, en mémoire d’une date
historique : 2011, 20ème anniversaire de l’effondrement de l’Union
Soviétique. Une fois encore, la charge symbolique est forte, après
deux premières éditions consacrées au Tibet (2009), puis au Japon et Ã
la Corée (2010). Festival `conceptuel’, `Saint-Maur en Toutes
Libertés’ entend allier les arts et les droits de l’Homme pour une
programmation à mi-chemin entre le poétique et le politique.
Convaincus du pouvoir du média culturel, Henri Plagnol et sa
directrice de cabinet, Stéphanie Chupin-Ohanian, ont établi avec une
grande rigueur leur programmation artistique et géopolitique.

¨Des créations artistiques uniques
Par effet de décalage, le directeur artistique Michel Pascal a
bousculé les représentations scéniques classiques, proposant au public
une incroyable féérie arménienne autour de créations uniques. Dans
©Piano et fil se répondent sur Listz et Babadjanian’, le pianiste
Christophe Bukudjian donnera la note au funambule Didier Pasquette,
sans oublier les lanceurs de couteaux et les jongleurs du cirque
Armenia, ou encore les contes de Vatchagan dans Le Château d’Erevan,
entre marionnettes et ombres chinoises … `Icônes photographiques :
au-delà du visible’, la création de Michel Pascal (exposée à la Mairie
de Saint-Maur du 15 novembre au 12 décembre 2011) trouve une deuxième
vie comme décor en mouvement dans le spectacle de Marie-Claude
Pietragalla. La danseuse étoile a en effet imaginé un spectacle unique
dans lequel elle dansera accompagnée de l’ensemble arménien Djivani et
de la cantatrice Christine Rigaud. Décidément conceptuel, `Saint-Maur
en Toutes Libertés’ promet de belles scènes pour tous les publics,
avec pour fil rouge poétique l’équilibre sur un fil.

Les enjeux géopolitiques
Parallèlement aux créations artistiques, le festival sera aussi riche
en rencontres et débats. La journée du 27 novembre est consacrée à la
géopolitique : 20 ans exactement après le démantèlement de l’Union
Soviétique, `Saint-Maur en Toutes Libertés’ rassemble des tables
rondes d’experts de renommée tels Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, André
Glucksmann, Claire Mouradian ou Henri Cuny pour s’exprimer sur la
question soviétique. Les débats porteront sur des sujets cruciaux pour
la Russie mais aussi l’Arménie, en tant qu’ancienne république fédérée
de l’Union Soviétique. Par le prisme des droits de l’Homme, le régime
poutinien et l’acte de dissidence en Russie seront questionnés – il
faut signaler par ailleurs la présence de Sergueï Kovaliov, ancien
opposant soviétique qui a fait l’expérience du Goulag.

Des débats attendus
La programmation promet quelques moments forts avec deux débats
particulièrement prometteurs. Claire Mouradian, Henry Cuny et Pierre
Rigoulot mèneront une discussion sur `L’Arménie d’hier et
d’aujourd’hui`. Comme les autres républiques fédérées, l’Arménie a
vécu près de 70 ans sous le joug soviétique. La table ronde
s’intéressera à l’identité contemporaine arménienne et interrogera les
possibilités d’une autonomie pour la nation. Second moment fort, le
Grand débat qui clôturera cette journée autour d’une question qui
parle d’elle-même, à quelques mois des élections présidentielles : `20
ans après la chute du communisme, où en est la Russie ?`. Invitée
d’honneur, l’historienne et politologue Hélène Carrère d’Encausse
s’exprimera sur le déclin des idéologies soviétiques et l’avènement
timide de la nation russe, en présence de Salomé Zourabichvili,
opposante géorgienne à l’autoritarisme russe.

Célia SADAI

Festival `Saint-maur en Toutes Libertés’ du 24 au 27 novembre 2011 au
Théâtre de Saint-Maur. Entrée libre, pour tous publics.

mardi 22 novembre 2011,
Ara ©armenews.com

D´autres informations disponibles : Consultez intégralement la
programmation du festival: