Author: Badalian Vardan

BERDZOR BEATING: ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES MUM ABOUT POLICE CRACKDOWN ON ARMENIAN HARDLINERS IN KARABAKH

News | 02.02.15 | 16:57

Igor Muradyan (left)

GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

related news

ANC on Berdzor incident: Regime sees only salvation in intimidation
of public

By Monday afternoon, two days after the events in Nagorno-Karabakh,
during which the local police forcefully blocked access to a group
of radical opposition members to the republic, neither Armenian nor
NK officials have reacted to the incident.

On January 31 members of the Founding Parliament, considered as
radical opposition seeking a regime change in Armenia, tried to enter
Karabakh on around four dozen cars full of around 120 people in order
to realize a political actions there latter. However, the progress of
their automobile march was halted by the Karabakh police and some of
the participants, former Shushi special detachment commander Zhirayr
Sefilyan, political analyst Igor Muradyan and other freedom fighters
were beaten up.

At a press conference on Monday Karabakh Committee member Igor Muradyan
said that he is returning his Mesrop Mashtots medal granted by the
Nagorno-Karabakh National Assembly in 2003, saying that the reasons
for returning the medal are very deep and based on principle, and
that the incident was just an occasion for that.

The incident has elicited wide public debate, however officials in
the two countries refrain from addressing the matter. Deputy chief of
presidential staff in Karabakh David Babayan, regarding the incident,
told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that, most probably, the
Founding Parliament members provoked the police. According to Babayan,
what happened is an exceptional case, however, he added, the Founding
Parliament’s initiative had long received negative reactions in NK,
and they were urged to refrain from the initiative, however the calls
fell on deaf ears.

On Monday, during the opening of the spring session of the Armenian
Parliament, opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan suggested creating a
representative delegation of Armenian MPs which will immediately
leave for Stepanakert and discuss the Berdzor incident with their
Karabakhi counterparts, as well as the methods to be implemented for
neutralizing its negative consequences.

Armen Rustamyan, an Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) faction
member said that they also condemn the incident and added that
disproprotionate force was used against the march participants, and
that the ARF sees the latter as victims, however, they also condemn
the fact that the Founding Parliament members went to another country
to realize a political protest. Besides, the ARF does not approve of
the Founding Parliament trying to realize a protest with a political
subtext right before April 24, the day when Armenians around the
world and in Armenia will mark the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide.

In response to these statements, Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan
said that he will try to discuss the issue with his Karabakhi
counterpart.

“I think that state officials are dealing with the case, I will try to
analyze the information and respond to your statements,” Sahakyan said.

The NA Deputy Chairman, ruling Republican Party spokesperson Eduard
Sharmazanov in relation to the incident told reporters that nobody
should take internal misunderstandings, ideas and fight to Artsakh.

The Karabakh-based Movement 88 Party, however, strictly condemned
the incident, saying that entire responsibilities for it lies with
the government.

Armenian Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan, meanwhile, turned to his
Karabakh counterpart Yuri Hayrapetyan, saying that “considering that
the incident happened on the territory of NK, we have no competence
to interfere in the investigation, therefore I ask you to study the
details of the incident within your competence and restore the rights
of the citizens.”

EXPERT: ARMENIA SHOULD GET INVOLVED IN RUSSIA’S ANTI-CRISIS PROGRAM

YEREVAN, February 2. /ARKA/. Armenia should get involved in the
implementation of Russia’s anti-crisis program, Ashot Tavadyan,
head of the department of economic and mathematical methods of the
Armenian State University of Economics, said on Saturday.

“It is necessary to support exporters for that, to develop small and
mid-scale businesses, subsidize those loans taken for production of
exports as well as to help socially unprotected categories of people,”
he said.

In his words, Armenia has no any anti-crisis program, and the
government should work out it.

“The first step has already been done – duties of large exporters of
manufactured goods have already been lowered, and the central bank
is taking appropriate steps – it has increased its refinancing rate
to 9.5%,” Tavadyan said. —0—–

RUSSIA BEGINS WMD DEFENSE DRILLS IN ARMENIA

17:28, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Large-scale exercises of Russian radiation, chemical, and biological
defense troops have started on seven firing ranges in Russia’s
Southern Military Region, as well as the Crimean Peninsula and Armenia,
Russia’s news agency RIA Novosti reports.

A total of 1,700 military personnel and more than 350 pieces of
military hardware are taking part in the war games, according to the
press service of the Southern Military Region.

“Large-scale field exercises of radiation, chemical, and biological
defense specialists began on seven firing ranges of the Southern
Military Region, including in the Volgograd region, Stavropol and
Krasnodar regions, Republic of Crimea, North Ossetia and Armenia. The
drills involve units from the Southern Military District, the Black
Sea Fleet, the Caspian Flotilla, as well as the 4th Air Force Command
and Air Defense,” the press service said.

During the exercises, the troops will drill prepare themselves using
the most advanced military equipment, which was put in service in
the Russian army in 2012.

The equipment includes a RHM-6 chemical reconnaissance vehicle, which
is designed to remotely detect toxic and casualty-producing substances.

The drills also involve the ARS-14KM mobile spray station, the TDA-2K
engine smoke generating system, the BMO-T heavy armored personnel
carrier equipped with flame throwers and the TOS-1A Buratino heavy
flame throwing system attached to the chassis of a T-72 main battle
tank, according to the press service.

NKR LEADERS’ OBJECTIVE IS THE ENTRANCE OF RUSSIAN TROOPS INTO KARABAKH, SAYS EXPERT

02.02.2015 16:31 epress.am

On January 31, the violent police attack on the members of Founding
Parliament movement in Nagorno-Karabakh can only be explained by the
fear of an anti-Russian protest, said Founding Parliament member and
political expert Igor Muradyan.

“Karabakh has one objective, which its leadership has a rough idea of.

They aren’t even told this from Yerevan. Karabakh’s objective is for
Russian troops to enter,” said the expert.

According to him, everything possible is being done so that no
“anti-regime” activities take place in that territory and everything
goes according to plan. The only alternative for coming out of the
current situation, according to Muradyan, is to integrate Armenian
world into western society, which is what assumes the removal of
today’s elite from the ruling authorities. “Only Russia stands behind
their back,” said the expert.

During the press conference, Muradyan stated that he is returning his
Mesrop Mashtots medal that he received in 2003 from the NKR Parliament.

“I don’t need it. Why? Not because of these events. They only added to
it. It’s because I’ve never been able to obtain a relationship with
the ruling authorities of Karabakh. I know many people who have been
able to have a relationship, but those are illusions, while I’ve never
had illusions,” said Muradyan. According to him, it is a fact that
Karabakh is one with Armenia, however, foreign guidance created NKR.

“How come the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh has not been and can not
be recognized until today? Because it does not exist. How can one
recognize a dependent state?” said the political expert, and continued
saying that Karabakh does not have the criteria to be independent,
except for the existence of its army.

Note that on January 31st, the Lachin (Berdzor) NKR police
representatives and civilian clothed individuals violently beat
Founding Parliament members, who had organized a car rally to
Nagorno-Karabakh. The attackers also smashed the rally participants’
cars.

ARMENIAN CHILDREN WERE TAKEN TO THE TURKISH ORPHANAGE TO BE TURKIFIED

February 1, 2015

Harutyum Alboyadjian’s testimony

…When they killed my parents, they took me and other under-age
children to Djemal pasha’s Turkish orphanage and turkified us. My
surname was ‘535’ and my name was Shukri. My Armenian friend also
became Enver. They circumcised us. There were many others who did
not know Turkish; they did not speak for weeks, with a view to
hiding their Armenian origin. If the gendarmes knew about it, they
would beat them with ‘falakhas.’ The punishment consisted of twenty,
thirty or fifty strokes on the soles of the feet, or being forced
to look directly at the sun for hours. They made us pray according
to the Islamic custom, after which we were compelled to say three
times ‘PadiÃ…~_ahım cok yaÃ…~_a!’ (Long live my King! – Turk.). We
were clothed in the Turkish manner, a white robe and a long black,
buttonless coat. We had a mudur and several khojakhanums. Djemal
pasha had ordered that we should be given proper care and attention,
since he appreciated the Armenians’ brains and graces and hoped that,
in case of victory, thousands of Turkified Armenian children would,
in the coming years, ennoble his nation and we would become his future
support. Towards that aim Djemal pasha had teachers brought from
Constantinople; he had brought doctors, because most of the orphans
fell ill with scurvy and died. I was a very feeble, small child.

Our orphanage was about seven miles from Beirut towards Cilicia. It
was at the foot of Djyuni – a huge mountain, and it stretched until
the building of Antoura, which had a French, semi-independent status.

That was why the French, the English, and the Germans had their
colleges separate from each other. But each one had already retreated.

We were given little food at our Turkish orphanage. Our gharavanadjis
were on duty in the dining-room. One day one of the gharavanadjis,
an Armenian boy from Gyurin, saw me while entering the dining-room,
held me by the arm and said in Turkish: “Shukri, will you make a belt
for me?” I thought – he was a gharavanadji; he might help me in return
and give me some more dinner.

The building of our orphanage had been a French college, and the
French had left it after the war started. There were monasteries
surrounding it. Statues, mummies and velvet clothes were found there.

That boy from Gyurin brought me some clothes, to make a belt for him
with pockets, where he could keep money, for he sold small loaves of
bread to the Arabs and received money. One day, at night I thought of
climbing to the roof of the building, where a few things might be left
by the French, for my father was a blacksmith, and I had taken after
him in crafts. I went to the roof. There I found some steel wire. I
had no instruments: my instruments were stones. I had neither needle,
nor anything. I cut some wire, rubbed it on a stone; the edge became
sharp. Then I thought to flatten the other edge with a stone, to butt
it, then fold it and then rub it with a piece of glass. I fashioned
a hole. I searched and found a broken nib, which was hard and had
a sharp point. With it I opened a hole. Now I had a needle. So, I
could sew. But there was no thread. I thought of undoing the cloth and
spin the thread. I looked through the garbage; I found something like
leather. I made a belt with pockets for that Armenian boy. He liked it
very much. Now other boys also began asking me to make belts for them.

By and by, I began earning money.

One day, Djemal pasha came to the orphanage to see the state of
his Armenian boys, who had become Turks. It was one of the Muslim
religious holidays. I do not remember – it was either Ghurban Bayram
or Ramadan. On those days, they gave us good food with meat. Once,
when Djemal pasha came, they called me: “‘535’ – Are you Shukri?”

I said: “I am.”

My friend held me and took me to the guests. Djemal pasha asked me:
“My son, Shukri, what have you made?”

I had a drawer made by hand and a belt. I showed them to him.

He said: “With what instruments are you making them?”

I said: “I have no instruments.”

Djemal pasha was astonished. He said with regret: “It’s a pity,
pay attention to him; he’s a gifted child.”

It seemed he wanted to transfer me somewhere else, but the Arab
Sheriff came.

One day, we woke up without the bell ringing; the doors were not
opened. When we opened the doors and went down, we saw there were
no Turkish guards or soldiers, no officers, inspectors or teachers;
there was no one. There was no one to ring the bell for us to go to
the dining-room. Our big boys who had become Turks: our chiefs, had
attacked the Kurd Silo and were beating him, and Silo was bellowing
like a buffalo. He could hardly free himself from the boys and found
refuge in the forest nearby. This was that same Silo, who had said
to Khoren over and over: “I have killed ninety-nine Armenians. If I
kill you too, that will be one hundred.” This was that scoundrel Silo,
whom the Armenian orphans had taught a good lesson, feeling free to
do so, because not a Turkish officer was left, for they had heard
that Beirut would be liberated.

As our orphanage was a military orphanage, we had special rules. Each
class had to stand around its table, but there was neither chief,
nor corporal or sergeant. All of us were standing and waiting,
and there was no bread on the table. Our Erza bey, the pharmacist,
came. He had the military rank of major, and three Armenian orphans
(Ariph and others) helped him. That doctor of ours came. He was
walking between the tables up and down. He gave the order, ‘Sit
down.’ We all sat down. He continued going and coming up and down,
in deep thought. He came up to our corporal Enver, who was Armenian
but he was circumcised and said: “Oglum Enver, senin ermeni ismin ne
idi?” (My son, Enver, what was your Armenian name? – Turk.).

“Toros idi, efendim” (It was Toros, Sir – Turk.), said the boy
saluting.

Then he went to the corporal of the next class: “My son, Djemal,
what was your Armenian name?”

“Vardan idi, efendim” (It was Vardan, Sir – Turk.).

Then he came to the others. All the corporals were on foot and said
their names. One minute of silence reigned. All of us were waiting…

He said: “Bu gunden sonra hepiniz de gene ermenisiniz” (Beginning from
this day all of you are Armenians again – Turk.). And continued in
a sorrowful mood: “As you see there’s no one today of our officers;
they are absent. Had I wanted, I might be absent, too. I could go
with them, but I decided not to go, not to leave you. It may so happen
that they come in a few minutes, put handcuff on my hands and take me
prisoner. But I remained, I didn’t leave you. I beg you don’t give
trouble to the Kurds around you. Continue to live in peace as you
have done so. If I were not here; you would not be here either…”

He did not continue, but later we learned that they had asked the
pharmacist to poison our last supper, but he had refused to obey
their order.

And really, soon they came with the Arab Sheriff, put handcuffs on
his hands and took him away. We all were sad and silent. When they
were taking him out, he said:

“It’s a pity that God did not return to me all the kindness I have
done. God blinded my only son, Nedjatli, and I treated you as my
own son…”

Verjine Svazlian. The Armenian Genocide: Testimonies of the Eyewitness
Survivors. Yerevan: “Gitoutyoun” Publishing House of NAS RA, 2011,
testimony 247, pp. 426-427.

HEAD OF THE MILITARY INSTITUTE AFTER VAZGEN SARGSYAN RESIGNS

12:22, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Lieutenant General Martin Karapetyan, Head of the Military Institute
after Vazgen Sargsyan, has filed his resignation, Tert.am reports.

Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan has accepted the resignation.

Moreover, Martin Karapetyan has been tasked with dismissing the whole
leadership of the Military Institute.

Remind that serviceman of the Institute Haykaz Barsegyan was found
hung in the gym on January 29. Probe into the details of the case
is underway.

ARA PAPIAN: PAN-ARMENIAN DECLARATION A STEP FORWARD, BUT NOT ENOUGH

14:47, 02 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The pan-Armenian declaration on the centennial of the Armenian Genocide
was a step forward with regard to the formulation of our demands,
but was not enough, Head of the Modus Vivendi center Ara Papian told
reporters today.

He attaches special importance to the part of the declaration referring
to the Treaty of Sevres and President Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award
of November 22, 1920.

“This was the first time the President stressed this on behalf of a
representative body like the State Commission. This means that besides
recognition and commemoration, we define certain land claims,” Ara
Papian said.

He noted, however, that the declaration has a serious shortcoming – it
conflicts with the Zurich protocols signed between Armenia and Turkey.

“If we assume Turkey ratified the protocols, the two documents will
contradict each other, and it will be unclear what policy we should
adopt. If this declaration is not of formal character, Armenian should
take two important steps – recall the signature from the protocols
and declare November 22 the Day of Reclaiming the Homeland,”

According to Ara Papian, Armenia does not pursue the issue of
reconciliation with Turkey. What’s important is the issue of justice,
which our people want to restore. “This first of all envisages
elimination of the genocide consequences, which refers to material,
moral and territorial losses,” he said.

ROBERT KOTCHARIAN RENOUVELLE SES CRITIQUES A L’ENCONTRE DU POUVOIR ACTUEL

ARMENIE

Les quotidiens rendent compte de l’entretien du deuxième President
Robert Kotcharian sur son site non-officiel 2rd.am, dans lequel
il a critique les autorites pour ne pas avoir veille a ce que le
soldat russe accuse du meurtre de la famille armenienne a Gumri
soit juge par un tribunal armenien. Selon lui, les declarations > des autorites armeniennes n’ont fait
que mettre de l’huile sur le feu, dont les policiers armeniens,
attaques par des manifestants en colère a Gumri, sont devenus les >.

L’ex-president a par ailleurs critique la politique socio-economique
du gouvernement actuel, en appelant a des > en Armenie et, au premier chef, a l’eradication des monopoles
politiques et economiques. Selon lui, le plus grand obstacle a de
tels changements est le >. Tout en
soulignant la necessite de changements radicaux, M. Kotcharian relève
qu’il ne s’agit point de la reforme constitutionnelle entreprise
par le gouvernement de S. Sarkissian. Il voit egalement d’un mauvais
oeil les perspectives de l’adhesion de l’Armenie a l’Union economique
eurasiatique, alors que celle-ci sera, a moyen terme, en recession : >.

Prie de commenter les propos de l’ex-President, Edouard Charmazanov,
porte-parole du parti Republicain, a dit ne pas comprendre cette
habitude des anciens presidents de noircir le travail de leurs
successeurs. D’après lui, le message principal de R. Kotcharian,
c’est qu’il est oppose a la reforme constitutionnelle.

Les quotidiens d’opposition, tout en partageant les preoccupations de
l’ex-President, l’appellent a ne pas oublier sa part de responsabilite
dans la formation d’un système economique et politique vicieux dans
ce pays.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 26 janvier 2015

lundi 2 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

NATO: Georgia Training Facility Could Open in 2015
Jan. 30, 2015
Reuters

TBILISI, GEORGIA’

NATO said Friday that it hoped to open a training center in Georgia by
the end of the year, signaling a strengthening of its relationship
with the former Soviet republic that is likely to antagonize Russia.

Georgia’s government has long hoped to join the military alliance. But
Russia, which fought a 2008 war with Georgia over two Moscow-backed
breakaway regions, has said such a move would threaten its security.

The Kremlin last month accused NATO of turning another former Soviet
state, Ukraine, into a “front line of confrontation” amid the worst
standoff between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow said the new training
center would be set up as part of a package of measures to boost
Georgia’s defense capabilities agreed upon at a summit in September.

“We are hoping that it can be operational by the end of this year,”
Vershbow told reporters in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

NATO has already agreed in principle that Georgia should one day
become a member. But analysts say the process has been delayed by
member countries’ reluctance to further provoke Russia.

Vershbow said Georgia was moving forward on its path toward membership
but declined to set out a timetable.

NATO boosted its military presence in Eastern Europe last year, saying
it had evidence that Russia orchestrated and armed a pro-Russian
rebellion in eastern Ukraine, which followed Russia’s annexation of
Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the overthrow of a Kremlin-backed
president in Kyiv.

Moscow denies supporting the rebellion.

Georgia, a South Caucasus country crossed by pipelines that carry
Caspian oil and gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, has sent its troops to
support the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 31 2015

Traces of three Armenian families in Depo show

For the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Depo culture and
arts center is putting on several exhibitions about families who were
forced to leave their homes and properties or killed in various cities
in Anatolia.

The first of these shows `Armenian Family Stories and Lost
Landscapes,’ featuring a photography and research project by Helen
Sheehan about three families who are currently living in diaspora, is
currently on view in the Tophane neighborhood of Ä°stanbul.

Irish artist Sheehan became interested in the subject while she was a
teacher at the Mechitarist Seminary School on the Armenian Island of
St. Lazzaro in Venice in the 1990s. In 2009, she decided to do
research on Armenians in diaspora in Paris and London where she was
able to find members of these families. The ancestors of the people
she found were from the eastern Anatolian city of Diyarbakır, known to
them as Digranagerd, and from Marash, Zeytun and Van region.

For the exhibition she took a series of photographs taken in the
properties of these people, sometimes projecting their old photos onto
the wall of a dilapidated house, or with the daily objects of family
members such as a scarf or a pocket watch.

Asena Günal, program coordinator at Depo, explains in an interview
with Sunday’s Zaman that they are aiming at putting on shows exposing
the lost past of the Armenian people. `Rather than documents showing
numbers or facts, we are trying to exhibit human stories and we
believe this is more effective. In our previous exhibitions on the
same topic, it was clearly seen that once these people were living
here together with us and we were next to each other in cultural and
social spheres, they contributed a lot to the cultural heritage of the
area.

“We will continue to do so. This year is very important because it
marks the 100th anniversary of the genocide and it has a symbolic
meaning. So we will be showcasing a number of shows both from Armenian
artists living in diaspora and also artists from Turkey who are
interested in the topic,’ she explains.

Regarding the current exhibition, Günal says the photographer is
attempting to bring their past back to places she calls lost
landscapes. `She is kind of reviving these families in the lands from
where they were forced to move,’ she notes.

In his article in the show’s catalogue, Dickran Kouymijan writes that
this research is about memory, lost landscapes and the destruction of
the concept of home, themes underlining this exhibition. “In one
passage while Marianna [Patricia] is looking at an album of old
photographs she sees one of her mother as a young, elegant woman in
Beirut. She exclaims, ‘I would have been just like her, surrounded by
admirers at parties, dancing to Arabic music so beautifully that
everyone stops and stares. I stare. It is how things should have
been.’

“But as we see in Helen Sheehan’s pictures, no matter how hauntingly
beautiful they are, things are not like they should have been. The
dilemma is how to live with that reality: the destroyed concept of
home or homeland, the haunted mind of memory? Or as Patricia Sarrafian
Ward has one of Marianna’s relatives say, ‘The past will never be
undone’,’ he writes.

`Sheehan’s photographs and her profound texts on exile and
extermination, on Genocide and its negation, her determination through
art to allow the Armenians to inhabit again their homes, tries and for
most succeeds in creating optimal conditions to re-imagine a past that
in many respects has in fact been resurrected, at least in Diyarbakir,
renewed like the Church of St. Giragos has been restored,’ Kouymijan
writes, adding that Diyarbakır is full of people searching for a new
identity, and though it is not the one his own ancestors knew, it is,
nevertheless, Armenian.

`Armenian Family Stories and Lost Landscapes’ will run through Feb. 8
at Depo in Tophane. For more information, visit