Author: Badalian Vardan

TURQUIE
La Turquie durcit son contrôle d’Internet

Le Parlement turc a adopté, mercredi 5 février, une série
d’amendements controversés qui renforcent le contrôle de l’Etat sur
Internet. Dénoncés comme > par l’opposition turque et
de nombreuses associations, ces dispositions visent officiellement à >.

Elles permettent notamment à l’autorité gouvernementale des
télécommunications (TIB) de bloquer sans décision de justice les sites
Internet portant atteinte à la > ou publiant des contenus
jugés > et autorisent la même TIB de
requérir auprès des fournisseurs d’accès et de conserver pendant deux
ans des informations sur les sites visités par chaque internaute.

UN DES PREMIERS CENSEURS DU WEB

Plusieurs des députés de l’opposition sont montés à la tribune
mercredi pour dénoncer la > imposée à travers cette nouvelle
loi par le gouvernement islamo-conservateur du premier ministre Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, au pouvoir depuis 2002. >, a lancé un élu du Parti républicain du
peuple, Hasan Ören.

Dès mercredi soir, de nombreux internautes ont réagi avec véhémence
contre le nouveau texte. Reporters sans frontières a dénoncé la > et le Comité pour la protection des journalistes une car elle
introduit , a-t-il précisé devant
la presse. La nouvelle loi doit

SUISSE
Echecs : Aronian dédie sa victoire à Zurich à Charles Aznavour

Le Grand Maître arménien Levon Aronian a dédié sa victoire dans
l’avant-dernier tour contre Hikaru Nakamura (USA) au Zurich Chess
Challenge à l’ambassadeur d’Arménie en Suisse Charles Aznavour.

Aznavour avait rencontré Aronian 31 ans avant le 4ème rond.

> a tweeté Aronian, affichant une photo avec Aznavour.

La veille du cinquième et dernier ronde au Zurich Chess Challenge,
l’arménien est un point derrière le champion du monde Magnus Carlsen
(Norvège).

samedi 8 février 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

ARMENIE
Restrictions de voyage : La nouvelle loi russe a des conséquences pour
les travailleurs migrants arméniens

À son retour en Arménie en provenance de Pemz en Russie il y a une
semaine, le travailleur migrant Garush Grigoryan a appris qu’il ne
pourrait pas retourner en Russie avant trois mois.

Grigoryan et des milliers d’autres travailleurs font l’objet d’une
nouvelle loi adoptée par la Russie qui restreint les voyages en Russie
pour tous ceux qui y ont résidé pendant au moins 90 jours.

> a dit Grigoryan, 51 ans, originaire du village d’Aygeshat
dans la province d’Armavir. Il prend en charge sa famille de six
membres en travaillant en Russie.

Grigoryan a dit qu’avant quand leur visa expirait ils allaient en
Ukraine ou au Kazakhstan pour un jour juste pour traverser la
frontière et ensuite revenir en Russie de nouveau, mais la nouvelle
loi prévoit un retour dans le pays d’origine de l’étranger.

Les hommes arméniens qui ne bénéficient pas du statut de main-d’oeuvre
migrante paniquent maintenant. Beaucoup de ceux qui étaient venus en
Arménie pour passer la saison des vacances avec leurs familles
réfléchissent maintenant s’il est judicieux de revenir dans les
nouvelles conditions.

> a dit Koryun Gyulnazaryan, 24 ans.

Selon Gagik Yeganyan, chef du Service des migrations d’Arménie la
toute nouvelle approche adoptée en Russie après Juillet 2013, est
destinée à limiter l’entrée des gens dans ce pays.

a déclaré Nalbandian.

Par Gayane Lazarian

ArmeniaNow

samedi 8 février 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

New EU Package For Eastern Partnership

Lragir.am
Politics – Saturday, 08 February 2014, 12:08

Radio Free Europe informed that 13 EU member states have developed a
new program of cooperation with 6 post-Soviet states. According to the
program, which is supported by the United Kingdom and Germany, Eastern
Partnership members will be offered more extended cooperation than the
Association Agreement. The paper entitled 20 Points on the Eastern
Partnership Post-Vilnius contains provisions on mobility, visa,
student exchanges, more Twinning projects, as well as increased
participation in community programs and agencies. The EU will boost
its role in the settlement of lasting conflicts. There is also a point
on an open and frank dialogue with Russia, stressing at the same time
that Russian pressure on the EaP countries is unacceptable. The EU
envisages publication of studies to explain to people the long-term
goals of the Eastern Partnership, including a possible impact on
Russia and the Customs Union/Eurasian Economic Union and negate
unfounded claims of costs.

Katy Pearce: Azerbaijani authorities use social media to suppress dissent

18:38 04/02/2014 >> REGION

In Azerbaijan the opposition as well as the government uses social
media to have an influence on the society of the country. Social media
provides the regime with an alternative medium to harass the
opposition and demonstrate its power. Katy Pearce, an Associate
Professor at the University of Washington specialized on technology
and media of former Soviet space wrote about this in her article
published in quarterly American journal dedicated
to studying of political processes in the post-Soviet space.

“The traditional opposition parties do not leverage all affordances of
it; however oppositionists not affiliated with traditional parties are
leveraging social media to build audiences. While the regime is
currently “winning” the social media battle, oppositionists are using
the new and creative ways to unite people around them,” the author
states.

According to her, the Azerbaijani authorities have a unique way of
regulating the Internet: instead of using high-level filtering, they
use psychological techniques to create an environment of
self-censorship. The government also monitors and punishes social
media-enabled dissent.

“In Azerbaijan, the government has nearly total control of the
mainstream media. Accordingly, in the last few years, many
oppositionally-minded Azerbaijanis have turned to the Internet to
express their political views. With the growth of social media,
especially Facebook (between 13-18 percent of Azerbaijanis had a
Facebook account as of late 2013), this sort of political deliberation
has increased. As the openness of the Internet became an attractive
space for activists, the Azerbaijani government seemingly took notice
and began formulating a policy to control it,” the article reads.

As it is stated in the article, social networks are also used for the
organization of various protest actions. Since early 2013, there has
been a number of protest actions organized primarily via Facebook
without any sponsorship from any of the traditional opposition
parties.

“Facebook is a particular threat to the Azerbaijani government. After
an increase in Facebook activism in early 2013, some pro-government
Azerbaijani politicians made statements about limiting or blocking
Facebook. “These networks create a threat to Azerbaijan’s statehood”
Fazail Agamali, leader of the pro-government party Motherland said,”
Pearce writes.

According to her, Facebook was not blocked; however that was not the
last mention of Facebook as threat during the year.

Source: Panorama.am

PRETTY AMAZING, AGAIN

Garen Yegparian

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN

No doubt you read that Abdullah “Apo” Ocalan called on the Turkish
government to recognize the Armenian Genocide. You might not have
thought much of it, but here’s why it’s so amazing.

Apo is serving a life sentence in the prison on İmralı island.

Flyovers or fishing in the vicinity of the island is prohibited.

This is the same island prison in which Billy Hayes, the American
whose story became the film “Midnight Express”, was kept.

Apo just barely got away with his life due to European pressures after
he was captured by Turkey and sentenced to death for his role as the
main leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).

He and the Turkish government are in negotiations now over the rights
and future of Kurds in Turkey. Why would he want to irritate the
government with something that is not directly beneficial to the Kurds?

Impressed yet?

Of course you could argue that this is just a ploy, a tactical move
to strengthen his hand in the negotiations. Possibly. But, there’s
more context.

Ocalan also marked the anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder, saying,
“I greet the memory and the struggle of the precious child of the
Armenian people, our brother Hrant.”

He’s also in touch with Kurdish members of Turkey’s parliament,
and probably other Kurdish leaders. No doubt they coordinate their
activities and public statements. They have been very forthcoming on
issues of concern to Armenians and relationship building with us.

If you are inclined to see conspiracy and intrigue around every
corner, then you will probably be dismissive of this little snippet
of progress, but I see one more drop contributing to the ocean that
we must fill to achieve our national goals.

Once again, as with anything regarding the evolving and chaotic
politics of Turkey, we should watch, push, and support anything in
any way that enables the 76-ish million people living in that country
to acknowledge the horrible reality of our shared past. Once they get
over the Genocide hurdle, then the emotional barriers will be gone,
and it will become a matter of diplomacy, politics, and negotiations
to get our reparations and lands.

###

Iravunk: ‘Grey Wolves’ accompanied by NSS employees in Armenia

Lieutenant General Romik Harutyunian was recently relieved of his
post as first deputy director of Armenia’s National Security Service
(NSS) by a decree of President Serzh Sargsyan.

Citing a number of press reports, ‘Iravunk’ paper says that the visit
of Turkish nationalist Hasan Oktay advocating the extermination of the
Armenians may have been the cause of R. Harutyunian’s dismissal. A
supporter of Grey Wolves organization, Hasan Oktay has paid several
visits to Armenia and was accompanied by NSS employees during one of
his visits.

According to other sources of the paper, R. Harutyunian was dismissed
because almost a ton of heroin was quietly smuggled into Armenia
quite recently.

Sources in the national security system say that Arzuman Harutyunian
may be appointed first deputy director of Armenian NSS.

###

Edward Sharmazanov: Turkey must recognize Armenian Genocide

“Genocide of 1.5 million Armenians in their homeland is nothing other
than a striking manifestation of a crime against humanity. Consigning
crimes against humanity to oblivion results in new crimes such as
the Holocaust,” the vice speaker of the Armenian parliament Edward
Sharmazanov told Aysor.am when commenting on the recent statement of
Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

During the January 27 meeting with French President Francois Hollande
in Ankara, the Turkish president urged Armenia and the Armenian
Diaspora not ‘to revive woes’ of the past and not to ‘pass these woes
from generation to generation’.

In the words of Sharmazanov, woes of the past should be resolved rather
than be consigned to oblivion. “I think the Turkish authorities should
take steps to reconcile with their own history. They must recognize
the Armenian Genocide so as not to pass on a heavy burden to the
future generations,” he noted.

“Otherwise, by a policy of denial, they will commit no lesser crime
than the one committed by the Young Turks’ government,” Edward
Sharmazanov said.

IRAVUNK: ‘GREY WOLVES’ ACCOMPANIED BY NSS EMPLOYEES IN ARMENIA

Lieutenant General Romik Harutyunian was recently relieved of his
post as first deputy director of Armenia’s National Security Service
(NSS) by a decree of President Serzh Sargsyan.

Citing a number of press reports, ‘Iravunk’ paper says that the visit
of Turkish nationalist Hasan Oktay advocating the extermination of the
Armenians may have been the cause of R. Harutyunian’s dismissal. A
supporter of Grey Wolves organization, Hasan Oktay has paid several
visits to Armenia and was accompanied by NSS employees during one of
his visits.

According to other sources of the paper, R. Harutyunian was dismissed
because almost a ton of heroin was quietly smuggled into Armenia
quite recently.

Sources in the national security system say that Arzuman Harutyunian
may be appointed first deputy director of Armenian NSS.

CZECH REP. MAY RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – DEUTSCHE WELLE

February 07, 2014 | 09:09

At his meeting with Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan, Czech President
Milo¹ Zeman qualified as genocide what was carried out against the
Armenians in 1915; this is a reason for raising, on the Czech agenda,
the matter of Armenian Genocide recognition.

The Czech Republic may soon appear in the list of countries which
recognized the Armenian Genocide, reports the Turkish service of
Deutsche Welle news agency of Germany.

Zeman had noted that the year 2015 will mark the 100th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide, and stressed that 1.5 million Armenians
were massacred in 1915.

The aforesaid was perceived as a signal for the Armenian Genocide’s
recognition in the Czech Republic.

In this connection, Czech Senator Jaromír ©tìtina stated that he will
submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security,
and by the end of the year, a bill on the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide.

The Czech senator expressed confidence that the Czech Republic will
formally recognize the Armenian Genocide by April 2015.

ALL CULTURAL STRUCTURES TO HOLD EVENTS ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL

16:58, 7 February, 2014

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 7, ARMENPRESS. All the structures representing
various branches of culture will start zealous activity advancing the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The Minister of Culture of
the Republic of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan stated this at the course of
the press conference held on February 7. Also, the Minister of Culture
of the Republic of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan highlighted that all the
branches of culture will organize conference for the organization of
the relevant activities.

As reports “Armenpress” among other things the Minister of Culture
of the Republic of Armenia Hasmik Poghosyan underscored: “We face
comprehensive issues. First of all we must be able to create a
collected field for all those materials dedicated to the Genocide.

It’s about all the books, book series, and fiction books. We must sum
up everything we have to understand our lapses. The majority of our
lapses is about the documentary and monumental works, which have not
been translated into foreign languages till now. This is the issue
number one.”

(c) 2009 ARMENPRESS.am

ARMENIAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE WEBSITE SEES 1 MILLION MORE HITS IN 2013

By MassisPost
Updated: January 26, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC — With the continuing expansion of the information on
the Armenian Genocide available on the Armenian National Institute
(ANI) website, a marked increase in the number of visitors was
registered this past year, jumping by one million hits, and growing
the site from two million to close to three million hits in 2013.

Public and scholarly interest is clearly registering with ever growing
utilization of ANI materials. Both in anticipation of heightened
worldwide interest as the centennial approaches in 2015 and as a result
of increasing Turkish openness on the subject of the Armenian Genocide,
ANI has been preparing major resources and making them available to
the public, to support educators, to encourage researchers, and to
assist Armenian community efforts.

In March 2013, ANI, along with, the Armenian Genocide Museum of
America (AGMA), and the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly),
issued a digital exhibit titled WITNESS TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE:
Photographs by the Perpetrators’ German and Austro-Hungarian Allies.

The ten-poster set included an introductory page, a detailed timeline,
a color-coded map geographically matching the photographs with their
location, and seven pages displaying 34 captioned historic photographs
depicting the deportations, massacres, and concentration camps. Since
its release, over 75,000 copies have been downloaded. Additional
downloadable exhibits will be made available, and as with the 2013
digital and printable exhibit, they will be distributed free of charge.

As part of its ongoing program to promote the teaching of genocide
and human rights and the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, in early
2013 ANI announced the release by Routledge publishers of the fourth
edition of Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts, the
genocide and human rights studies textbook widely used in college and
high school courses. This new edition addresses examples of genocides
perpetrated in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

The chapter on the Armenian Genocide, which has appeared since the
first edition of the publication, is authored by ANI Director Dr.

Rouben Adalian. More than 50,000 copies of the publication have been
sold over the years.

This publication was followed by the release of the online and print
versions of the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Race and Racism
issued by Macmillan Reference, a major publisher of educational
materials, to which Dr. Adalian contributed an entry on the Armenian
Genocide. The article appears in a section dedicated to Genocide
and Crimes Against Humanity that includes entries, among others,
on the Assyrian Massacre, Bosnia, Cambodia, Japanese Occupation,
Mayan Genocide in Guatemala, Rwanda, and Sudan.

As part of its continuing service to educators and to coincide with
the release of Centuries of Genocide, ANI expanded its “Resource
Guide” and other sections of the “Education” component of the ANI
website. Dozens of resources were selected for their instructional
value and are listed for the benefit of students and teachers. ANI
also expanded the database it maintains on Armenian Genocide memorials.

ANI also introduced a new section to its website documenting the
extent of “Press Coverage” and discussion of the Armenian Genocide
over the course of the past decade. As part of this expansion, the
section documenting the growing trend of international affirmation
of the Armenian Genocide was also updated.

The “Affirmation” section of the website reflects municipal, state,
and federal level recognitions from around the world. With 174 official
documents posted supporting the record of affirmation by 43 of the
United States, another 50 posted official enactments attest to the
extent of international affirmation of the Armenian Genocide with
21 countries formally on record. To facilitate navigation of the
growing list of international recognitions, a summary page listing
the countries in alphabetical order is provided.

Continuing its services, ANI, in coordination with AGMA and the
Assembly, is preparing to issue by April 2014 a major new online
exhibit on the Armenian Genocide featuring extensive new photographic
and documentary evidence.