Author: Badalian Vardan

TURKEY ARRESTS 35 IN ANTI-BRIBERY OPERATION

January 10, 2014 – 20:08 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – In an operation carried out Friday, Jan 10,
by Turkish police units from the Mersin Customs Security and
Anti-Smuggling Directorate, 35 people — including 10 customs
personnel — were detained for alleged involvement in bribery,
Today’s Zaman reports.

According to a written statement from the Customs and Trade Ministry,
the operation was conducted after the ministry and the Central
Mediterranean Customs and Trade Zone Directorate received several
letters stating that some customs personnel and shipping companies
were involved in bribery.

During pre-dawn raids at several locations in Mersin, police detained
35 people. The Mersin Prosecutor’s Office has ruled for confidentiality
in the case, meaning the media will not be able to report details of
the case.

ARMENIAN GRANNY CELEBRATES 100TH BIRTHDAY WITH 109 GRAND AND GREAT GRANDCHILDREN

15:01, 10 January, 2014

YEREVAN, JANUARY 10, ARMENPRESS. The oldest resident of the Tsovagyugh
community of the Gegharkunik Province, Armenia, Aghavni Bozoyan
celebrated her 100th birthday anniversary.

Having 109 grand and great grandchildren Aghavni Bozoyan has become
the symbol of her vast family and celebrated her birthday with her
relatives and friends.

At the course of the celebration granny Aghavni, who was born in
1914, stated: “I want peace to reign in the world forever; I want
my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to be safe and
healthy; and I want Armenia to prosper and flourish.”

KURDISH WOMAN MILITANT MAKES ANTI-ARMENIAN STATEMENT

January 09, 2014 | 15:09

Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-President Bese
Hozat made a statement that sows enmity toward Armenians and Greeks,
and this statement surprised the Armenians of Turkey.

In an interview with the Kurdish Firat news agency, and speaking
about the parallel state which Islamic opinion leader Fethullah
Gulen’s movement has established in Turkey, Hozat also reflected on
the Armenians, Greeks, and Jews.

She noted that, aside from the official state, there also are parallel
states in Turkey.

“The Jewish lobby, the nationalist Armenians and Greeks are such
parallel states. Such parallel states are in touch with one another
and have interests from each other.

“Parallel states do not have formal and constitutional rights. It
seems they do not have troops either, but they have an organized and
a strong structure,” the Kurdish woman militant said.

Bese Hozat also claimed that these parallel states hinder the
establishment of democracy in Turkey.

NEARLY 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS HAVE DEPOSITS AMOUNTING TO $1-1.5 BILLION

January 09, 2014 | 12:58

YEREVAN. – Nearly 1.5 million Armenians have bank deposits amounting
to $1- 1.5 billion, sociologist Aharon Adibekyan said during the
Thursday press conference.

He believes that after introduction of a cumulative pension system,
this amount will increase.

“We are gradually going to a market democracy. It becomes unnecessary
that our tables were traditional,” Adbekyan said.

Sociologist also expressed surprise at the fact that environmentalists
have not raised protest against imports of smoked crocodiles. Now
the country is in a state of post-holiday stress.

“The main reason for this is the uncertainty for all, as it is unknown
how the things will go. This is what throws us into a panic. Another
cause of stress is the fact that about half of Armenian families have
spent their savings to New Year celebrations,” he added.

ARMENIA CAN IMPORT NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO CUSTOMS UNION – SOCIOLOGIST

January 09, 2014 | 14:45

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s accession to Customs Union and liberalization
of customs duties will lead to price reduction, sociologist Aharon
Adibekyan told reporters.

“If the Customs Union turns out to be the future format of our life,
it is clear that we will have much more profit. We will have to deal
with the settlement of migration issues,” Adibekyan emphasized.

Sociologist is hopeful that Armenia will continue strengthening ties
with EU. He is confident that the country needs new technologies in
the field of education.

“Education is our vulnerable area. The education system is 50-60 years
behind educational trends. With the consecutive ties with EU, we can
also import new technologies into the Customs Union,” Adibekyan said.

Armenian president announced country’s aspiration to join Customs
Union during his visit to Moscow last September.

REMEMBERING THE ASSYRIAN GENOCIDE: AN INTERVIEW WITH SABRI ATMAN

By Varak Ketsemanian // January 8, 2014 in Featured, Headline, Interviews

BOSTON, Mass. (A.W.) -Exploiting an opportune moment during World
War I, the Ottoman government carried out its intent to eliminate the
empire’s Christian elements. Although a vast amount of scholarship has
been conducted on the annihilation of the Armenians, one aspect of the
genocide remains obscure-the extermination of the Assyrians. In the
interview below, Sabri Atman, the founder and director of the Assyrian
Genocide and Research Center (Seyfo Center), brings to light some of
the various characteristics of the Assyrian Genocide (or Seyfo).

Sabri Atman

Atman is one of the most well-known lecturers on the Assyrian
Genocide. He was born in Nsibin (Tur Abdin) in southeast Turkey, moved
to Austria due to political reasons, and to Sweden five years later.

He has studied economics at the University of Gothenburg and
has a master’s degree on human rights and genocide studies from
Kingston University in London, Siena University in Italy, and Warsaw
University in Poland. Atman continues to contribute immensely to
worldwide awareness of the Assyrian Genocide. He is currently a
doctoral student in genocide studies at Clark University in Worcester,
Mass. His dissertation is on the Assyrian Genocide and the involvement
of the Kurds.

Varak Kestsemanian-What is the primary sequence of events that
constitute the Assyrian Genocide?

Sabri Atman-We Assyrians call the genocide of 1915 Seyfo, meaning “the
sword.” The reason we called it the sword was that the perpetrators
were using Seyfo as a weapon for the killings. Seyfo is a term that
seeks to highlight the Assyrian share of the genocide, perpetrated
against the Armenians and Greeks as well, during the First World War.

The genocide that wiped out more than half the population of the
Assyrians took place mainly in southeastern Turkey, but also in the
northwestern town of Urmiya in Iran.

The Assyrians initially put the number of their victims at 250,000
people in both the Turkish territories and Urmiya, Iran. But, the
Assyrian delegation to the Lausanne peace talks of 1923 presented the
number of victims as 275,000, since they had collected more information
on the numbers of those who perished. But, according to some scholars,
up to 400,000 civilian Assyrians perished in the systematic killings,
which were ordered and carried out by the Ottoman state, with the
collaboration of its Kurdish subjects and with troops and divisions
of the regular Ottoman military and police forces combined.

The 1915 genocide did not target only the Armenians but also the
Greeks, Assyrians, and the Ezidis. The strategy that the perpetrators
had in mind was ethnically annihilating all non-Muslim citizens living
under the Ottoman occupation, with the objective of homogenizing
Turkey in accordance with their goal to create a nation of “One
Religion.” Indeed, their motto was “One Nation, One Religion.” To
achieve their goal, jihad (or holy war) was declared on Nov. 14,
1914 in all of the Ottoman mosques. Jihad was declared against all
Christian subjects living within the Ottoman territories without
having a particular victim. The main plot was to get rid of all the
Christian minorities of Turkey.

The execution of their primary plan to create one Muslim-Turkish
nation started with attempts to assimilate the non-Turkish Muslim
populations like the Kurds and other immigrants from the Balkans.

These Muslim groups were relocated to such cities as Ankara, Adana,
and Konya, and spread among the Turkish majority. The next step
was the removal of the non-Muslim groups from Turkey. Two million
Christian (mainly Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks) were massacred,
starved to death and deported as a result of that policy.

V.K.-How does the Assyrian Genocide differ from the massacres
perpetrated against the Greeks and Armenians?

S.A.-The witnesses I’ve interviewed all have wanted to clarify that
neither the architects nor the perpetuators [of the genocide] made
any distinction between any ethnic Christians. They were claiming that
“An onion is an onion, whether it’s red or white. All must be chopped!”

This was a direct reference to the planned and calculated slaughter
of the Assyrian, Armenian, and Greek Christians.

While a large number of Armenians died during the deportation, many
Assyrians were killed in their villages and towns.

V.K.-What are the primary sources that make up the research material
for your dissertation?

S.A.-The primary sources for my research are the oral testimonies of
the events, which I’ve collected over the past decade. These sources
include unpublished interviews-that I and many other people conducted
with survivors of the genocide-which we will transcribe, translate,
and put into both historical and socio-political context.

Most of the sources addressing and documenting the Assyrian Genocide
are scattered and written in languages that are not easily accessible
to genocide scholars. These sources are either written in Assyrian,
Arabic, or Turkish.

Furthermore, oral history and testimonies are entirely ignored
by academia since most scholars concerned with the 1915 genocide
have little knowledge of the Assyrian language. However, these
oral testimonies of genocide survivors are central and immensely
important, as they can shed light on many opaque aspects of the
Assyrian Genocide. These oral testimonies represent an extensive pool
of information ready to be subjected to academic scrutiny.

Although the written sources are of paramount importance, they have
not yet been translated to modern European languages, rendering them
inaccessible to most genocide studies scholars. To mention a few,
they include Isaac Armalto’s eye-witness account that he published in
Arabic in 1919 in Lebanon; and Mar Israel Audo’s documentation of the
tragedies, which is available in an unpublished manuscript in Assyrian.

Many of our oral history documentations gathered at the Seyfo
Center are first-hand testimonies of eye-witness accounts. I had the
opportunity to interview and record many survivors, and they not only
provided me with valuable information then, but their testimonies
continue to provide me with an endless moral boost in what I do.

Today, we have been able to extract much information regarding the
1915 massacres from eye-witness accounts who reported back to their
respective embassies. The following are some examples:

-American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Jr. in Constantinople gave
reports about his contacts with the government of the Young Turks.

-A document was published already in 1916 entitled “The Treatment of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916” by James Bryce, a British
expert in political science, and Arnold Toynbee, a historian. Over
100 pages of this document are about the Assyrians.

-Johannes Lepsius, a German missionary who lived in Anatolia, informed
the authorities in Berlin about what was happening at the time. The
documentation was published in 1919 in Potsdam.

-Prof. David Gaunt together with Dr. Racho Donef published the book
Massacres, Resistance, Protectors in 2006 and covers the fate of all
the Christian groups of eastern Anatolia during World War I.

V.K.-What is the primary function of the Seyfo Center? How does it
contribute to genocide scholarship?

S.A.-The Seyfo Center has a big pool of sources and provides
research assistance to scholars, writers, journalists, filmmakers,
and government agencies. We also document the Assyrian Genocide by
collecting oral histories and publishing written evidence; presenting
the Assyrian Genocide in parliaments and government bodies; educating
non-Assyrians in political and academic forums; participating in
activism on behalf of [recognition of] the Assyrian Genocide; and
publishing books, reports, brochures, and other media. We lobby
[for recognition].

I am very glad to say that we have made great strides in the last
ten years regarding the Assyrian Genocide. First of all, the word
Seyfonow is more known on both the national and international
levels. For example:

-On May 13, 2009, a press conference took place in the Swedish
Parliament. A Kurdish intellectual called Berzan Boti apologized for
the genocide of 1915 and, as an act of restitution, handed back his
property to its rightful owners, Assyrians. The deeds of his property
were then transferred to the Seyfo Center.

-On March 10, 2010, the Swedish Parliament recognized the Assyrian
Genocide.

-Thanks to the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) and the efforts by
the Assyrians in Australia, a monument was erected on Aug. 7, 2010,
for the Assyrian victims during World War I and the Simele Massacre.

-On May 1, 2013, the Australian Parliament of New South Wales (NSW)
recognized the Assyrian and the Greek Genocide.

-On April 25, 2012, the Assyrian Genocide Monument was unveiled in
capital city of Armenia, in Yerevan.

-On April 27, 2013, the third Assyrian genocide monument was unveiled
in France.

I am sure that in the very near future, we will have more monuments
erected around the world, and the number of countries who recognize
the Assyrian Genocide will have increased dramatically.

V.K.-What are the primary demands of the Assyrian people from the
Turkish government?

S.A.-First of all, we want the Republic of Turkey to stop the lies
they have been practicing now for 98 years and recognize the Assyrian,
Armenian, and Greek genocides.

Denial is a form of continuation of the genocide. It is to be killed
twice. Failure to recognize the genocide has led to even more genocides
against Assyrians in their homeland.

We Assyrians also don’t understand the fact that the Republic of
Armenia has not recognized the Assyrian Genocide yet. Today, I am
very happy that so far about 26 countries have officially recognized
the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

March 10, 2010 and May 1, 2013 are historical days especially for us as
Assyrians and Greeks. The Swedish and Australian Parliaments passed a
resolution and recognized the Assyrian and Greek Genocides in addition
to the Armenian Genocide. I hope other countries will follow suit.

Our Armenian friends living in Armenia and around the world have to
help us and add the Assyrian and Greek Genocides on the international
agenda.

Remember: Assyrians and Greeks were subjected to the genocide in
Turkey, too. We also demand that today the whole world officially
recognize this fact. Of course, the Republic of Armenia, for many
reasons should be one of the first countries in the world to recognize
the Assyrian Genocide!

We are would very much like to have a strategy based on friendship
between Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. We, who were subjected to
the same genocide, should finds ways and means of an internal dialogue
and then speak with one voice.

POLICE CITE ‘NO NEWS’ IN IDENTIFYING YOUNG MEN WHO BERATED JOURNALISTS

01.08.2014 22:13 epress.am

On Dec. 26, 2013, the Armenian Police informed Epress.am that it
“began to study [materials]” in connection with the incident at the
Armenian State University of Economics. Recall, a group of unidentified
young men prohibited journalists from attending Yerevan Mayor Taron
Margaryan’s public defense of his PhD dissertation, insulted members
of the media and obstructed their professional activities.

Epress.am today attempted to find out if police efforts to identify the
guilty were successful, but to no avail. The Epress.am correspondent
rang police press officer Armen Malkhasyan 5 times, but each time
Malkhasyan told her to call back later, citing a lack of news.

The incident at the university was captured on camera by several news
outlets. On the same day, articles were published that identified the
perpetrators, who are young members of the ruling Republican Party
of Armenia.

Peru this Week, Peru
Jan 7 2014

Peru opens free trade agreement talks with Armenia

Via Andina

Peru moves closer to establishing itself as a force in international commerce.

Peruvian Foreign Minister Eda Rivas and her Armenian counterpart
Edward Nalbandian met in Lima on Monday to discuss the prospect of a
free trade agreement between the two countries.

Other topics discussed at the meeting were the establishment of a
political consultation mechanism and the mutual waiver of visa
requirements for holders of diplomatic, service, and special
passports.

Moreover, the two ministers talked about the appointment of honorary
consuls in both countries and Peru’s interest in signing a free trade
agreement with the Customs Union, formed by Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan.

The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Peruvian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.

Minister Nalbandian arrived in Lima on Monday as Armenia’s first
foreign minister to visit Peru since the two nations established
diplomatic relations in 1992.

During his stay, Nalbandian also met with the head of the Peruvian
Congress’ Committee on Foreign Affairs, Martin Belaunde Moreyra.

Customs Union

Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan founded the Customs Union in 2010 as a
counterweight to the EU’s economic sphere.

Its three member states launched the so-called Common Economic Space
in 2012. They said the goal is to set up a Eurasian economic union
modeled after the EU by 2015.

Meanwhile, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian recently announced that
his country would complete all procedures to join the Russian-led
Customs Union in 2014.

National News Agency Lebanon (NNA)
January 6, 2014 Monday

Aram I calls for formation of Cabinet, election of President

NNA – Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic
Church , Aram I Keshishian, chaired Monday Christmas mass at the
Orthodox Armenian Church in Antelias, in the presence of
representatives of senior Lebanese officials as well as political and
social figures.

The prelate said in his homily that there was a need for the
establishment of the new government and the election of a new
president.

“Lebanon is unique in the Arab world, due to its religious pluralism,
its democratic principles, balanced positions, the Christian-Muslim
coexistence and its role as a bridge between East and West. We must
preserve these characteristics of Lebanon away from regional turmoil
and its impact on the people of the area,” he said.

Classical music must be a little difficult to catch, says musician

14:41 – 07.01.14

The Youth Orchestra’s art director and chief conductor says he isn’t
much concerned about the fact the low- class music commonly known as
rabies (from the Russian `workers’ art’) has gained somewhat a wide
popularity in the Armenian society.

Speaking to Tert.am, Armen Smbatyan explained that he does not feel
the lack of what he called propaganda of classical music which he said
must be a little bit unreachable to wide masses.

`I don’t feel the lack of it because I don’t think classical [music]
has to be widespread enough to lose its value. Classical [music] must
be much more neutral and listened to by people with better
understanding skills capable of evaluating it, because it is very
complicated,’ he said.

`Believe me that classical music must be a little unreachable even to
those whose intellectual but also emotional understanding and
mentality do not fit it. What’s even more, I do not agree to the
opinion that classical music is being ignored today. Classical music
is now more popular than it was 4-5 years ago.’

Smbatyan further spoke of his orchestra’s latest achievements, saying
that he is very proud of the results. `Today, I speak of an orchestra
that has reached the peak of its success. Ours is perhaps the only
orchestra that receives invitations from abroad two or three times a
year; it performs concerts in different formats and is very
successful. It is necessary to be successful a little and have an
ability to present [the music] in the right way,’ he noted.

The musician said it is also important to be optimistic and have a
better eye for the positive to see the real progress in the sphere in
Armenia.

`There is an interest in Armenia; we have groups that receive a state
sponsorship. There is nothing of the kind in other countries. It is
very good, so we must be able to evaluate it. It must be propagandized
more, of course, but it is necessary to little by little awaken that
enthusiasm in the people. And that is already noticeable,’ he said,
bringing the example of the orchestra’s success particularly after
Hollywood Non-Stop.

`We performed the concert program Hollywood Non-Stop after which we
have 1,200 young people in Armenia coming to our concert. Do you
understand what a big mass it is? That means they have joined our
orchestra, so we are the first to attract members and have an audience
or friends,’ Smbatyan added.

At the end, the musician called for being optimistic in the new year
and giving up the gloomy outlook of the future. `The colors through
which a person may look upon things depends only on him or her. We
have a stereotyped opinion that everything is bad, but if you do an
analysis, you will see that we more speak than really face the
negative,’ he added.

Smbatyan said he prefers to spend the New Year and Christmas holidays
at home, surrounded by his family. `On very rare occasions have I seen
New Year in in Armenia, but since very childhood I have developed the
understanding that it’s a very intimate holiday. So I don’t understand
how people can prefer restaurants.

`For me, holidays marking the start of the year are a new phase of
life that see you try to forget all the difficulties and embark on a
new period, waiting for the best. That’s why New Year is a very
intimate family holiday in my understanding, which I think will never
transform into something else for me,’ he added.

Armenian News – Tert.am