Author: Badalian Vardan

FORMER SOVIET COUNTRIES SEE MORE HARM THAN GOOD FROM BREAKUP

United Press International UPI
December 19, 2013 Thursday 11:46 AM EST

PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 19

Residents in most of countries once part of the Soviet Union say
the breakup more likely hurt their countries, not benefited them,
a Gallup poll indicated.

Of the 11 countries that resulted from the collapse 22 years ago, only
Azerbaijanis, Kazakhstanis and Turkmens said they were more likely
to see benefits, results of the poll released Thursday indicated.

Georgians were divided.

Overall, 51 percent of residents of the former Soviet republics said
the collapse of the Soviet Union hurt their countries while 24 percent
said it benefited their countries, results indicated.

Adults 15 to 44 were nearly three times as likely as those 65 years
and older to say the breakup benefited their countries, results
indicated. Older residents in all 11 countries were more likely to
say the breakup harmed their countries.

Overall, residents who are more educated are less likely to say the
collapse harmed their country and more likely to say it benefited them,
the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Thirty percent of residents who say children in their country have
the opportunity to learn and grow say their country benefited, while
18 percent expressed the opposite view.

Results are based on face-to-face interviews with at least 1,000 adults
conducted from June to August in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
and Ukraine. The margin of error ranges from 2.7 percentage points
to 3.8 percentage points.

ARMENIA’S MEMBERSHIP TO ECONOMIC ALLIANCES WON’T LIMIT MILITARY COOPERATION WITH U.S., DAVIT TONOYAN SAYS

Thursday 19 December 2013 16:57

First Deputy Minister of Defense of Armenia Davit Tonoyan

Yerevan /Mediamax/. First Deputy Minister of Defense of Armenia
Davit Tonoyan said today that Armenia’s possible membership to any
commercial-economic alliances won’t limit military and security
cooperation with the U.S. or other states.

Davit Tonoyan said this after the end of Armenia-U.S. bilateral
defense consultations held in Yerevan today, Mediamax reports.

“Vice versa, our defense cooperation with the U.S. will develop
even faster. There are no restrictions and there may not be any. The
cooperation is realized within our priorities and it’s our sovereign
right to set them”, said the Deputy Minister.

Evelyn Farkas, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, who arrived
in Yerevan to take part in the defense consultations recalled touching
upon Russia’s possible impact on U.S.-Armenia cooperation that the
U.S. also cooperates with Russia in defense sphere and the current
political discords on other issues between the two states don’t affect
discussions in the defense sphere.

– See more at:

FOREIGN MINISTRY WILL HELP ARMENIANS WISHING TO RETURN TO SYRIA

December 19, 2013 | 17:29

YEREVAN. – Armenian government on Thursday approved regulations,
according to which citizens can apply to foreign ministry to get a
document that attests to a person being Armenian.

In certain cases, a person who cannot return to a country because of
not having any sufficient documents can apply to the foreign ministry’s
consul department that is authorized to confirm the document that
attests to a person being Armenian. This particularly refers to
Armenian citizens who have come to RA from Syria.

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS RECEIVED THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE OF THE USA

18.12.2013

On December 18 Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received Evelyn N.

Farkas, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine
and Eurasia.

Greeting the guest Minister Nalbandian stated with satisfaction that
Armenian-US partnership in different areas including in defense and
security areas, have experienced dynamic development during the recent
years and there are the conditions for their expansion.

Expressing gratitude for the reception Evelyn N. Farkas stated that
the United States attaches a great importance to the development
of cooperation in the area of defense and her visit is dedicated to
their further enhancement.

During the meeting the sides touched upon Armenia’s participation in
international peacekeeping activities and stressed the importance of
the contribution of Armenia in the peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan
and Kosovo.

Armenia-NATO relations were also discussed.

The Foreign Minister referred to the problems of the armament control
in the region, particularly the importance of the modernization
of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe(CFE) for the
preservation of regional peace.

The Minister emphasized that Armenia actively participates in the
international initiatives of the elimination of weapons of mass
destruction, non-proliferation of nuclear, biological, chemical
weapons and the fight on terrorism.

Upon the request of the guest Minister Nalbandian presented the recent
developments in Nagorno-Karabakh regulation process and Armenia’s
approaches towards the regional issues.

PROSECUTION FOR DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE UNJUSTIFIED, COURT RULES

United Press International UPI
Dec 18 2013

Dec. 17, 2013 at 6:09 PM

STRASBOURG, France, Dec. 17 (UPI) — Prosecuting someone for denying
Turkey’s 1915 massacre of Armenians is an attack on freedom of
expression, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday.

The ruling by the court in Strasbourg, France, is a response to a
2007 case in Lausanne, Switzerland, in which Dogu Pernicek, leader
of the leftist Turkish Workers Party, was found guilty of “denying
the Armenian genocide for racist motives.”

Denial of genocide is a violation of Switzerland’s anti-racism law.

Pernicek’s testimony did not deny the massacres of Armenians by the
Ottoman Empire, which ruled Turkey during World War I, the human
rights court said, but noted he was active at conferences in which
he described the Ottoman Empire’s alleged genocidal motives as an
“international lie.”

The judgment came as the French newspaper Le Monde reported a law
banning denial of the Armenian genocide, an election promise of
President Francois Hollande, will be sent to the French Parliament
within months.

A similar French law, passed in 2011 to the anger of Turkey, was
declared unconstitutional, Radio France Internationale reported.

SENIOR ARMENIAN LAWMAKER LAMBASTES AZERBAIJAN OVER ‘GENOCIDE’ CLAIM

Karabakh | 17.12.13 | 14:22

Photolure

Deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament Eduard Sharmazanov has
described the recent statement by a senior Azeri official accusing
Armenians of carrying out “genocidal policies” as something that
shows Azerbaijan’s “real face, desires and goals”, reports Aysor.am.

Ali Hasanov, head of the Public-Political Department of the Azerbaijani
President’s Office, in particular, claimed that Armenians have for
more than 200 years carried out “genocidal policies” against Azerbaijan
and also called on Azeris to avoid being good neighbors with Armenians.

Sharmazanov, who is also a spokesman for the ruling Republican Party
of Armenia, said: “While leaders of the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chair
countries are visiting the region, Azeris, remaining committed to
their policies of lies and falsehood, disseminate hatred and hostility
towards Armenians, and the result of this is also the recent killing
of an Armenian soldier by their sniper. History has shown that such
policies have negative consequences for Azerbaijan itself. One thing is
clear: they have not learned anything and have not forgotten anything.”

EUROPEAN COURT: DENYING ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’ IS NO CRIME

Journal of Turkish Weekly
dec 17 2013

STRASBOURG, France – Denying that mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman
Turkey in 1915 were genocide is not a criminal offense, the European
Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday in a case involving Switzerland.

The court, which upholds the 47-nation European Convention on Human
Rights, said a Swiss law against genocide denial violated the principle
of freedom of expression.

The ruling has implications for other European states such as
France which have tried to criminalize the refusal to apply the term
“genocide” to the massacres of Armenians during the breakup of the
Ottoman empire.

A Swiss court had fined the leader of the leftist Turkish Workers’
Party, Dogu Perincek, for having branded talk of an Armenian genocide
“an international lie” during a 2007 lecture tour in Switzerland.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning
in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that it
constituted an act of genocide – a term used by many Western historians
and foreign parliaments.

“Genocide is a very narrowly defined legal notion which is difficult
to prove,” the court said.

“Mr Perincek was making a speech of a historical, legal and political
nature in a contradictory debate.”

The court drew a distinction between the Armenian case and appeals it
has rejected against convictions for denying the Nazi German Holocaust
against the Jews during World War Two.

“In those cases, the plaintiffs had denied sometimes very concrete
historical facts such as the existence of gas chambers,” the court
said. “They denied crimes committed by the Nazi regime that had a clear
legal basis. Furthermore, the facts they denied had been clearly been
established by an international tribunal.”

The judges cited a 2012 ruling by France’s Constitutional Council which
struck down down a law enacted by then President Nicolas Sarkozy’s
government as “an unconstitutional violation of the right to freedom
of speech and communication”.

Switzerland has three months to appeal against the ruling.

TURKEY’S ACTIONS CONCERNING ARMENIA ARE LINKED TO 2015 – TURKOLOGIST

November 21, 2013 | 12:30

YEREVAN. – Turkey is attempting to revive the initiative to normalize
relations with Armenia, and this is linked to the current unfavorable
regional conditions for Turkey and, primarily, to the approaching
2015, when the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide will be
commemorated.

Turkologist Andranik Ispiryan noted the aforementioned at a press
conference on Thursday.

In Ispiryan’s words, information was recently disseminated in the
Turkish media about the need for an initiative to normalize relations
with Armenia, and this information was followed by the statements of
Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu.

As per the turkologist, however, there is nothing new in Davutoglu’s
statements in connection with normalizing relations with Armenia. What
is more, according to Andranik Ispiryan, Davutoglu again posits the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement as a precondition for normalizing
relations, and this implies that the normalization process is at
an impasse.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am

DAVUTOGLU VISITED YEREVAN TO EXPLORE POLITICAL ARENA

The visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolgu to Yerevan was
a predesigned show, parliamentary deputy Mkrtich Minasian said.

In his words, Davutoglu wanted to show that there is equality between
the two peoples. “If Turkey wants to become a civilized country,
it should face the truth,” he said.

Deputy Aragats Akhoyan said for his part that the aim of Davutoglu’s
vist to Armenia was to explore the political arena.

“Turkey has serious problems. On the one hand it speaks about zero
problems with neighbors, while on the other hand there is no neighbor
with whom Turkey has no problem,” he noted.

Turkey must recognize the Armenian Genocide, A. Akhoyan stated. “It
is necessary to file a lawsuit within the framework of international
law and declassify all archival documents,” he said.

MIKE KALEMKERIAN OBITUARY

Katy Kalemkerian
theguardian.com, Monday 16 December 2013 17.48 GMT

Michael Kalemkerian taught drama at Aston University in Birmingham
and ran the theatre programme at the university’s arts centre

Mike Kalemkerian, my father, who has died suddenly of a heart attack
aged 64, contributed greatly to drama in the Midlands. From 1980 he
lectured in drama and ran the theatre programme at Aston University,
Birmingham, at its arts centre, the Triangle. He programmed
cutting-edge touring companies including Steven Berkoff’s London
Theatre Group,Shared Experience, Monstrous Regiment and Gay Sweatshop.

He also wrote and directed plays, working with local acting talent –
including Chris Collins (now better known as Frank Skinner).

Unfortunately, the Triangle was closed in the late 1980s as a result
of government cuts to the arts.

My father channelled his creativity into setting up Education on Screen
Productions in the 1990s with Neil Gammie. The initiative provided
opportunities for young people to participate in drama. In 1991, Mike’s
production Out, exploring the issue of homelessness, won the 21st
Century award as part of the Birmingham film and television festival.

Mike was born in Redhill, Surrey, the son of Vahe Kalemkerian, an
Armenian whose family had arrived in London in the 1940s, and his wife
Esme Hutchinson, a Geordie who had moved to the capital. Growing up
in Reading, Mike attended Leighton Park school, where his classmates
included the future actor Jim Broadbent.

After obtaining a degree in education and English in 1972 at the
University of Sussex, Mike taught English and drama at Beacon school in
Crowborough. His developing interest in theatre led him to undertake
postgraduate studies in 1975 at the Central School of Speech and
Drama in London, where he met and later married Mary Kellagher.

The couple left to work in Canada, where Mike lectured in
improvisational theatre at the University of Alberta, then moved to
Scotland, Mary’s homeland, where I was later born. They both worked
for the arts in Fife, and set up youth theatre and community drama
projects at the Lochgelly Centre, with popular local productions
including The Great Coal Trade and Nellie Frae Lochgelly. The shows
were much appreciated in the mining community and despite his being
an Englishman, the locals took Mike to their hearts.

He cut back on work about 10 years ago due to ill health, but being
a feisty character, and with theatre still in his blood, he became
involved with the University of the Third Age, conducting drama
workshops in Birmingham.

His marriage to Mary ended in divorce. I survive him, along with
his partner, Maggy Markworthy, with whom he enjoyed attending and
discussing theatre and arts events.