Author: Badalian Vardan

PRESSE ARMENIENNE : REVUE DU 23 OCTOBRE 2013

Publie le : 24-10-2013

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
presente cette Revue de Presse parue sur le site de l’Ambassade de
France en Armenie le 23 octobre 2013.

Ambassade de France en Armenie

le 23 octobre 2013

Revue de la presse armenienne du 23 octobre 2013

I. Questions regionales

1. L’attaque azerbaïdjanaise coûte la vie a un soldat
armenien/L’ensemble de la presse relève que le 22 octobre, entre
13h et 14h, la partie azerbaïdjanaise a ouvert le feu a la frontière
armenienne en direction de la route Berd-Idjevan (region du Tavouch),
visant des vehicules civils et militaires. Un camion militaire
transportant des soldats a ete touche. Un soldat de 19 ans a ete tue,
trois autres soldats ont ete blesses et transportes a l’hôpital. Le
Ministère de la Defense a souligne dans un communique que ” cet acte
criminel de l’ennemi ne restera pas sans reponse et que ceux qui ont
declenche cette provocation devront en payer les consequences “. Les
quotidiens relèvent que cet incident s’est produit au jour où le
copresident americain du Groupe de Minsk effectuait une visite a Bakou.

II. Politique interieure

1. Une deputee d’opposition vivement critiquee depuis des semaines
devenue chef du groupe parlementaire/L’ensemble des quotidiens rend
compte de la demission du chef du groupe parlementaire du parti
Heritage, Rouben Hakobian, qui a refuse de donner les raisons de sa ”
decision très personnelle “, surprenant aussi d’autres dirigeants de
son parti. De l’avis des commentateurs, cette demission serait liee au
recent incident a l’APCE dans lequel etait impliquee la deputee de ce
parti Zarouhie Postandjian (celle-ci avait apostrophe le President
Sarkissian dans l’enceinte de l’APCE, son comportement ayant ete
publiquement desapprouve par son chef de groupe parlementaire). Par
ailleurs, Mme Postandjian, qui a ete mise au pilori pendant les
semaines suivant cet incident a ete elue chef du groupe parlementaire
du parti Heritage comptant quatre deputes. /Rapporte par l’ensemble
de la presse

2. Le fils du Ministre des Sports et de la Jeunesse arrete pour
transport de drogue/Il a ete arrete a la frontière armeno-iranienne,
transportant de l’Iran vers l’Armenie une ” grande quantite ” de
drogues et de stupefiants. Il est accuse de trafic de drogues et de
contrebande. Joghovourd consacre sa ” une ” aux anciens Ministres
et fonctionnaires haut places qui ont demissionne suite a des ”
aventures ” de leurs enfants et se demande si le Ministre des Sports,
Yuri Vardanian, suivra leur exemple./Haykakan Jamanak, Joghovourd

3. 74% des Armeniens croient que le Gouvernement est corrompu/Haykakan
Jamanak rend compte des resultats d’une enquete realisee par ” Gallup
organisation ” en 2012 dans 129 pays portant sur la perception de
la corruption par la societe. 74% des Armeniens considereraient
que la corruption est un phenomène repandu au sein des structures
gouvernementales et percevraient ce fleau comme un problème majeur.

Sur ce point, l’Armenie ” devancerait ” ses voisins : en Georgie,
seuls 25% de la population croiraient que le gouvernement est en proie
a la corruption, en Azerbaïdjan ce chiffre serait de 62% et de 53%
en Turquie.

III. Relations exterieures

1. La balle est dans le camp de l’Armenie/Hayastani Hanrapetoutioun,
Hayots Achkhar, Aravot et RFE/RL rendent compte de la session du
Comite de cooperation Armenie-UE, retenant notamment les propos de
Gunnar Wiegand, negociateur en chef de l’accord d’association avec
l’Armenie au cours des quatre dernières annees, selon lequel il
incombe actuellement a l’Armenie de proposer de nouvelles formes de
cooperation avec l’Union europeenne après sa decision de rejoindre
l’Union douanière. Il a tenu a preciser qu’un accord ne peut etre
renegocie a temps pour le sommet de Vilnius : ” Après Vilnius, nous
examinerons attentivement comment nous pouvons poursuivre notre
cooperation “. Interroge sur le point de savoir quels chapitres
de l’accord d’association pourraient etre conserves, M. Wiegand
a repondu : ” C’est une question a poser d’abord et avant tout
a votre gouvernement “. Mais il a precise que l’element cle de ce
document, a savoir l’ALEAC, n’etait plus d’actualite. Les quotidiens
rapportent aussi les propos du Ministre armenien de l’economie, Vahram
Avanessian, selon lequel Erevan espère toujours signer ou finaliser,
lors du sommet de Vilnius, ” un document qui permettrait de coucher
sur le papier notre cooperation et qui couvrirait tous les secteurs,
y compris la cooperation economique “.

2. Parmi les 6 pays du Partenariat oriental, l’Armenie est classee
4ème pour son indice d’integration europeenne/La Moldavie est le
leader en la matière, suivie par la Georgie et l’Ukraine.

L’Azerbaïdjan et la Bielorussie sont classes derrière l’Armenie. Le
classement est realise par ” Open-Society Foundation Armenia “.

3. Le Secretaire general adjoint des Nations-Unies a Erevan/Hayastani
Hanrapetoutioun rend compte de la rencontre du President Sarkissian
avec Yuri Fedotov, Secretaire general adjoint des Nations-Unies,
Directeur general du Bureau des Nations-Unies a Vienne et Directeur
executif de l’Office des Nations-Unies contre la drogue et le crime.

Le Chef de l’Etat armenien a souligne l’importance particulière que
le Gouvernement accorde a la lutte contre le trafic de drogues et a
fait le point sur les mesures prises en sens, evoquant les recentes
man~uvres anti-drogue ” Canal-Caucase ” en Armenie. Les interlocuteurs
ont discute de la possibilite d’ouvrir en Armenie une representation
de l’Office des Nations-Unies contre la drogue et le crime.

4. Le Commissaire du Conseil de l’Europe pour les droits de l’Homme
et la Representante de l’OSCE pour la liberte de la presse recus
par le Ministre armenien des AE/Nils Muiznieks et Dunja Mijatovic se
trouvaient a Erevan pour prendre part a la conference internationale
” Lutte contre le racisme, la xenophobie et l’intolerance en Europe
” organisee dans le cadre de la presidence armenienne du Comite des
Ministres du CE (cf. revue du 22.10). Mme Mijatovic s’est felicitee
du long parcours de l’Armenie en matière de liberte d’expression
et a salue les mesures prises par le Gouvernement armenien en vue
de poursuivre les reformes en ce sens. Par ailleurs, les quotidiens
relèvent que le commissaire du CE pour les droits de l’Homme, Nils
Muiznieks, accompagne de l’Ombudsman, a rendu visite aux refugies
syriens d’origine armenienne, dont il a qualifie de ” satisfaisantes
” les conditions de vie.

5. Une delegation du parti Republicain conduite par le PM participera
au sommet du PPE a Bruxelles le 24 octobre/Hraparak

Redaction : Meri Hakobian

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : Ambassade de France en Armenie

UN POUVOIR ARBITRAIRE EN TURQUIE

REVUE DE PRESSE

Le 11 novembre 2011, nous avions publie dans ces pages une analyse a
chaud du “tournant liberticide turc”. En deux ans, la situation s’est
aggravee, elle est devenue meme intenable pour les nombreux acteurs
de la democratie en Turquie.

Deja, en 2011, l’inquietude etait grande. Après avoir donne certains
gages au processus de democratisation reclamee par l’Union europeenne,
le gouvernement conservateur dirige par Recep Tayyip Erdogan adoptait
en effet a cette periode la logique nationaliste recurrente du pouvoir
d’Etat. La Turquie retrouvait les pratiques de persecution systematique
de l’opposition politique, sociale et intellectuelle. La dissidence
democratique se voyait a nouveau frappee, et avec une determination
qui a pris en defaut beaucoup d’analystes persuades de la validite du
“modèle turc”.

Ce “tournant liberticide” affecta pour commencer des intellectuels
et journalistes dont le seul crime etait de contester le pouvoir
personnel d’Erdogan et les methodes autoritaires de l’AKP. Le
procès dit “Ergenekon”, ouvert contre des militaires accuses de
complots d’Etat, a amalgame ces democrates aux ultranationalistes ;
ils ont subi un emprisonnement prolonge et des procedures judiciaires
interminables achevees cet ete par de lourdes peines.

Puis le gouvernement s’attaqua au parti legal pro-kurde BDP et
aux intellectuels democrates turcs qui soutenaient son action –
convaincus que la solution a la question kurde passait par la voie
politique et l’extension des libertes civiles. Pour abattre cette
opposition, le gouvernement organisa un second procès d’Etat dit
“KCK”. Les arrestations se succedèrent. Au mois d’octobre 2011, elles
atteignirent un niveau d’arbitraire sans equivalent, justifiant le
constat du “tournant liberticide turc”.

De centaines d’etudiants ont ete alors arretes, souvent pour des
raisons ubuesques : pour avoir prononce une conference sur La
politique d’Aristote dans le cadre des activites culturelles du
BDP, le doctorant et editeur pour la maison Belge Deniz Zarakolu
fut emprisonne a Istanbul le 4 octobre, avec 91 autres personnes
dont l’etudiante Busra Beste Onder. D’autres arrestations suivirent,
frappant la traductrice Ayse Berktay puis, le 28 octobre, le fondateur
et directeur de Belge, Ragip Zarakolu et l’universitaire Busra Ersanli,
professeure de science politique et de droit constitutionnel.

Depuis la situation a degeneree, justifiant ce constat d’un pouvoir
arbitraire en Turquie. Si Ragip Zarakolu et Busra Ersanli furent
liberes preventivement au printemps 2012, a la suite d’une forte
mobilisation internationale, en revanche l’essentiel des inculpes de
l’automne 2011 furent maintenus en detention. D’autres intellectuels
et membres du BDP se trouvèrent a leur tour arretes, toujours sous le
coup de la legislation anti-terreur qui, par suite des possibilites
d’extension illimitee de l’incrimination de terrorisme, permet
l’arrestation de tout opposant public. A cela s’ajoute une manipulation
de l’opinion par des medias gouvernementaux en position de monopole,
developpant des theories du complot (complot de “l’etranger”, complot
“juif”) pour mieux recuser le caractère legitime de cette opposition
a l’arbitraire : furent ainsi expliques l’echec de la candidature
d’Istanbul aux Jeux Olympiques 2020 et le mouvement democratique de
Gezi du printemps dernier a Istanbul. Ce dernier, ecrase avec une
violence extreme par la police turque dans la nuit du 15 juin, est
depuis decapite par des vagues d’arrestation des principaux leaders
de cette protestation civile tandis que des inculpations visent
les auteurs (comme Erol et Nurten Ozkoray) des premiers livres sur
le sujet.

Cette resistance civile et liberale ne cesse d’inquieter le
gouvernement AKP dans sa marche vers un ordre autoritaire et les reves
imperiaux du premier ministre. Dans cette logique, les avant-gardes
intellectuelles de 2011 doivent etre reduites au silence. Depuis la
fin de l’ete, la justice turque accelère toutes les procedures.

Actuellement se tiennent dans l’enorme complexe judiciaro-penitentiaire
de Silivri les audiences du procès “KCK” susceptibles d’ordonner
de longues peines d’emprisonnement pour des actes qui relèvent du
seul exercice de la liberte d’expression et d’association. L’Europe
doit faire preuve de la plus grande vigilance devant les accords de
cooperation judiciaire reclames par la Turquie et mesurer combien la
justice sert aujourd’hui dans ce pays l’arbitraire d’Etat. Elle doit
ainsi, au travers de ses institutions, de ses opinions publiques,
de ses intellectuels, se mobiliser aux côtes des acteurs de la
democratisation turque. Elle affirmera ainsi sa vocation première.

Ils sont egalement fondateurs du Groupe international de travail-GIT,
“Liberte de recherche et d’enseignement en Turquie”)

Hamit Bozarslan (Directeur d’etudes a l’EHESS), Yves Deloye (Professeur
a Sciences Po Bordeaux et a l’universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne,
secretaire general de l’Association francaise de science politique),
Vincent Duclert (Chercheur a l’EHESS (CESPRA) ), Diana Gonzalez
(Enseignante a Science-Po Paris), Emine Sarikartal (Doctorante et
editrice ) et Ferhat Taylan (Directeur de programme au CIPH)

jeudi 24 octobre 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

DES PARLEMENTAIRES UMP DENONCENT UNE REOUVERTURE DES NEGOCIATIONS EN ” CATIMINI ”

TURQUIE/UE

PARIS, 23 oct 2013 (AFP) – Plusieurs parlementaires UMP dont les
anciens ministres Roger Karoutchi et Xavier Bertrand ont denonce
mercredi le feu vert de la France a la reouverture des negociations
d’adhesion de la Turquie a l’UE, effectue selon eux “en catimini”.

“C’est un changement diplomatique majeur puisque Nicolas Sarkozy avait
jusqu’a present mis son veto a l’ouverture de nouveaux chapitres”,
a declare Roger Karoutchi, senateur des Hauts-de-Seine, dans un
communique. “Une telle rupture ne peut s’effectuer en catimini,
sans en informer nos compatriotes”.

L’ancien secretaire d’Etat et vice-president de l’UMP a rappele que
son parti est “oppose a l’adhesion pleine et entière de la Turquie
a l’Union europeenne”.

“Au final, ce sera au peuple francais de decider souverainement sur
l’elargissement de l’Union europeenne”, selon M. Karoutchi, “puisque
la revision constitutionnelle de 2008 prevoit que tout projet de loi
autorisant la ratification d’un traite relatif a l’adhesion d’un Etat
a l’UE est soumis au referendum par le president”.

Xavier Bertrand, dans un communique cosigne avec ses collègues deputes
Gerald Darmanin et David Douillet, a denonce “un double scandale”.

“Un scandale europeen : La Turquie n’est ni geographiquement,
ni culturellement dans l’Europe. Plutôt que de parler de nouvel
elargissement, il faut regler au sein de l’Union europeenne les graves
problèmes auxquels les 28 Etats sont confrontes (harmonisation fiscale,
sociale, politique d’immigration…)”.

C’est aussi, ont ajoute ces trois deputes, “un scandale democratique :
Ni la Representation Nationale, ni bien evidemment le peuple francais,
n’ont ete informes au prealable de cette decision, alors que la
Nation dans ses profondeurs, a toujours montre son refus d’une
telle adhesion”. “Sur un sujet aussi important, le gouvernement ne
pouvait pas engager le pays comme il l’a fait sans un debat national
prealable. A moins qu’il s’agisse d’une nouvelle manoeuvre pour
faire monter le FN”, a dit de son côte Daniel Fasquelle, lui aussi
depute UMP.

Les ministres de l’UE charges des affaires europeennes ont decide
d’ouvrir mardi un nouveau chapitre dans les negociations d’adhesion
avec la Turquie après trois ans de paralysie.

La decision formelle d’ouvrir un nouveau chapitre dans les negociations
d’adhesion avec Ankara avait ete prise en juin avant d’etre ajournee,
notamment sous pression allemande, en raison de la repression par
les autorites turques de la vague de contestation civile partie de
la place Taksim a Istanbul.

jeudi 24 octobre 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

ARMENIE : DER ZAKARIAN PAS ATTIRE ” POUR L’INSTANT ” PAR LA SELECTION

FOOT

NANTES (AFP) – L’entraîneur franco-armenien du FC Nantes (L1) Michel
Der Zakarian, dont le nom est cite comme possible selectionneur
de l’Armenie en vue de l’Euro-2016, a declare mercredi ne pas etre
interesse “pour l’instant” par le poste.

“J’ai deja eu des contacts avec l’Armenie, des approches pour prendre
la selection il y a deux-trois ans. Pour l’instant, ce n’est pas un
poste qui m’attire, j’ai envie de travailler au quotidien. Peut-etre
plus tard”, a declare l’ancien international armenien (5 selections),
interroge sur le sujet lors d’un point-presse avant le match de Ligue
1 contre Lille vendredi.

“Pour l’instant, personne ne m’a contacte. Cela fait plaisir de voir
son nom dans une +short list+ mais ce n’est pas un truc qui m’attire
aujourd’hui”, a ajoute Der Zakarian, 50 ans, ne a Erevan et qui a
grandi a Marseille.

jeudi 24 octobre 2013, Ara ©armenews.com

ASSASSINAT DE HRANT DINK : UN SUSPECT ARRETE

Turquie

Le quotidien Hurriyet Daily News en ligne, rapporte que l’un des
instigateurs presumes du journaliste turco-armenien Hrant Dink,
Erhan Tuncel, a ete arrete dans une villa d’Istanbul.

Il aurait ete capture le 23 octobre, le jour meme où, dans une
interview publiee dans le Daily Star, le fugitif raconte qu’il se
rendrait dans 15 jours après avoir prepare avec minutie sa propre
defense et qu’il revelerait des noms…

Tuncel evoque dans cette interview le rôle qu’aurait joue la
gendarmerie et une obscure organisation, plus puissante qu’ Ergenekon,
chargee de renverser le gouvernement turc, et dont il serait l’un
des minuscules rouages.

jeudi 24 octobre 2013, Jean Eckian ©armenews.com

FUGITIVE SUSPECT IN HRANT DINK MURDER CASE CAPTURED

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Oct 23 2013

ISTANBUL – Dogan News Agency

Erhan Tuncel, the suspected instigator of the murder
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, has been captured in
Istanbul’s Kumburgaz district in a villa where he was hiding out,
after having spent 38 days on the run.

“This is the price of having served my country,” Tuncel told reporters
as he was taken into custody by police officers.

“It is an honor to be arrested the day Adnan Menderes was hanged,”
he also said, in reference to the former Turkish prime minister who
was sentenced to death following the Yassıada trials in the sequel
to the 1960 military coup.

Tuncel was captured in a police operation on the same day as an
interview was published in daily Star on Oct. 23 in which he said he
would surrender in 15 days.

“I will surrender when I complete my defense,” he said in the
interview. “I will reveal the names I am in contact with. The
gendarmerie forces have a big role in the Dink murder … I am not
running away, I am preparing a detailed defense with my application
to the European Court of Human Rights and planning to complete it
within 15 days, I will surrender right after completing this.”

Tuncel also said there was another organization within the state
“higher than Ergenekon [an allegedly shadowy organization accused of
planning to overthrow the Turkish government], that is being prevented
from shedding light on this murder. I am a little piece of all these.”

He particularly pointed to the Black Sea province of Trabzon’s police
department and gendarmerie.

The trial into the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant
Dink had restarted in Istanbul on Sept. 17 this year following an
overturning from the Supreme Court of Appeals after six years of
legal procedures. The court had issued an arrest warrant for Tuncel.

Tuncel was an informant in the Black Sea province of Trabzon ahead of
the murder of Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian-Turkish newspaper
Agos who was shot dead in broad daylight in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

Earlier in the case on Jan. 17, 2012, the Istanbul 14th High Criminal
Court had ruled to exonerate the 19 suspects from “being members of
a terrorist organization.”

Arrested suspect Yasin Hayal had received aggravated life imprisonment
for instigating the murder and police informant and suspect in
the murder Erhan Tuncel was sentenced to one year and three months
in prison.

Ogun Samast, who pulled the trigger, was a minor at the time and was
sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison. Due to the fact that Tuncel had
already served time in connection to a 10 year and six month sentence
issued for an explosion at a McDonalds restaurant, he was released.

Tuncel is seen as a key in linking the murder to the state institutions
as members of the Police Department in the Black Sea province of
Trabzon, the suspects’ hometown, have been accused of failing to relay
intelligence provided by Tuncel to the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command
in a report prepared by Turkey’s State Supervisory Council (DDK).

The triggerman, Ogun Samast, 17-years-old at the time of the murder,
and Yasin Hayal, who was charged of being the instigator of the
assassination, were convicted of the murder. However, a high criminal
court dismissed charges related to an “armed terrorist organization.”

The Supreme Court of Appeals verdict defined the acts of all suspects
in the case under “an organization formed to commit crime” according
to Turkish Penal Code Article 220.

October/23/2013

ROMEO’S RIVALS IN COURAGE: DAVIT HOVHANNISYAN AND ALEXANDRE FERREIRA IN MILWAUKEE BALLET’S ‘ROMEO AND JULIET’

Express Milwaukee
Oct 23 2013

By John Schneider

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet unfolds over six days. The teenage
lovers meet on Monday and on Saturday they’re dead. “Many productions
miss the pivotal moments where it could have gone differently,” says
Michael Pink, whose exciting choreography for Sergei Prokofiev’s
musical rendering will be performed for the third time by Milwaukee
Ballet on Oct. 31-Nov. 3. “In addition to youthful energy, you have to
focus on the points of decision that change their lives.” The dancers
who will alternate as Romeo in Pink’s production made life-changing
decisions as teenagers that rival their character’s.

Davit Hovhannisyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. At six, he started
ballet lessons. Under Armenia’s communist system, children who aspire
to dance careers audition at age 10 to train with the Armenian National
Ballet. He won that scholarship. The trouble was that Armenian boys
must spend two years in the army after they turn 17, a crucial time
in a dancer’s development.

At 15, Hovhannisyan found his passion. He was allowed to leave the
country for ballet competitions. Inspired by dancers he witnessed,
he states, “I got really serious about becoming good. I started
training like crazy. Then I started to love ballet.”

He did an American tour with the Armenian National Ballet in 1999. He
was 17. “They almost didn’t let me tour,” he says, “because I was so
close to army age.” The last stop was Burbank, Calif. “I had to choose:
either stay in the United States and find a way to survive, or go home
to the army which would be the end of my career as a ballet dancer.”

He believes defecting was easier for him than for Mikhail Baryshnikov
and Rudolf Nureyev, dancers who abandoned Russia for the West during
the Cold War. Maybe. He was alone, illegal and, unlike those Russians,
not famous. He didn’t know English. He stayed with acquaintances,
worked in a carwash and restaurants. He was barred from Armenia;
his family couldn’t come here. He had no way to dance.

At 18, he fell in love with Alisa, an Armenian-American. Three months
later, they married. “She gave me confidence,” he says. “If it weren’t
for her, I wouldn’t have gone back to dancing.” It took a year of
hard training to get his body back in shape, several more to make an
audition video to send around the country. In 2004, Milwaukee Ballet
offered him a job. He didn’t know where Milwaukee was.

He was 22. He was quickly cast in principle roles that pushed him
beyond what he’d trained for. He loves it here. He’s danced all of
Pink’s important ballets; this will be his second go at Romeo. Now 31
and a full U.S. citizen, he and Alisa have four children. The oldest,
Edmond, age 9, will dance in Romeo and Juliet, the first time father
and son will appear together in a ballet.

Alexandre Ferreira will dance his first Romeo. He joined Milwaukee
Ballet in 2011 at the age of 20. His story is no less a tale of
courage and devotion, qualities so evident in both men’s dancing.

After his father’s death, Ferreira and his younger brother were raised
by their mother in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The family is poor. An
important dance school in Rio gave scholarships to qualifying public
school children. At age 10, Ferreira won one almost on a lark. It let
him travel and watch older dancers perform, as he says, “all the cool
movements.” His passion was born.

After seven years of dancing in Rio, he received a scholarship to the
Miami City Ballet School. “I turned 17 and three weeks later I left
Brazil,” he said. “I didn’t speak English. Miami was good but I wanted
something more intimate where you spend more time dancing and can be
close to everyone.” Someone told him he would find that in Milwaukee.

He has.

Until he qualifies for a green card, he must return to Brazil each
summer to reapply for a work visa. He’s saving money to bring his
mother and brother to see him perform.

Of Romeo he says, “You have to fall in love, lose your best friend,
kill someone, run away, see your love dead; you go from bring the
happiest you’ve ever been to losing everything. Also stamina-wise,
it’s very difficult. I go to the gym every day at 7 a.m., then ballet
class at 9:30 for two hours, then rehearse for six. I’ve been careful
with my diet for three months-no sugar, no fried foods. I see this
role as a big achievement for me. I’ve been working very hard for it.”

Romeo and Juliet runs Oct. 31-Nov. 3, at the Marcus Center for the
Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-902-2103 or
visit milwaukeeballet.org.

LAKE SEVAN TO IRRIGATE ARARAT VALLEY

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Oct 23 2013

23 October 2013 – 2:13pm

The law on Lake Ararat may undergo changes to increase the volumes of
its water pass (currently set at 170 million cubic meters annually),
said Karine Daniyelyan, head of the Association for Sustainable
Development, today.According to data from January 1, 2013, the lake’s
water level was below 3cm, compared with the level in 2012. The
dropping water level was a result of the increase of its water pass
from 170 million to 313 million cubic meters in 2012 to irrigate the
Ararat Valley, said Vladimir Movsisyan, head of the Commission for
Sevan Affairs.A similar decision on the Sevan water pass was made to
prevent a drought in 2008.

The law on Lake Ararat may undergo changes to increase the volumes of
its water pass (currently set at 170 million cubic meters annually),
said Karine Daniyelyan, head of the Association for Sustainable
Development, today.

According to data from January 1, 2013, the lake’s water level was
below 3cm, compared with the level in 2012. The dropping water level
was a result of the increase of its water pass from 170 million
to 313 million cubic meters in 2012 to irrigate the Ararat Valley,
said Vladimir Movsisyan, head of the Commission for Sevan Affairs.

A similar decision on the Sevan water pass was made to prevent a
drought in 2008.

ACCESS DENIED: A MEMENTO OF 1915 GENOCIDE

The Washington Post
October 22, 2013 Tuesday
Suburban Edition

by Philip Kennicott

The rug was woven by orphans in the 1920s and formally presented
to the White House in 1925. A photograph shows President Calvin
Coolidge standing on the carpet, which is no mere juvenile effort,
but a complicated, richly detailed work that would hold its own even
in the largest and most ceremonial rooms.

If you can read a carpet’s cues, the plants and animals depicted on the
rug may represent the Garden of Eden, which is about as far removed
as possible from the rug’s origins in the horrific events of 1915,
when the fracturing and senescent Ottoman Empire began a murderous
campaign against its Armenian population. Between 1 million and 1.5
million people were killed or died of starvation, and others were
uprooted from their homes in what has been termed the first modern
and systematic genocide. Many were left orphans, including the more
than 100,000 children who were assisted by the U.S.-sponsored Near
East Relief organization, which helped relocate and protect the
girls who wove the “orphan rug.” It was made in the town of Ghazir,
now in Lebanon, as thanks for the United States’ assistance during
the genocide.

There was hope that the carpet, which has been in storage for almost
20 years, might be displayed Dec. 16 as part of a Smithsonian event
that would include a book launch for Hagop Martin Deranian’s “President
Calvin Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug.” But on Sept.

12, the Smithsonian scholar who helped organize the event canceled
it, citing the White House’s decision not to loan the carpet. In a
letter to two Armenian American organizations, Paul Michael Taylor,
director of the institution’s Asian cultural history program, had no
explanation for the White House’s refusal to allow the rug to be seen
and said that efforts by the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, John A.

Heffern, to intervene had also been unavailing.

Although Taylor, Heffern and the White House curator, William G.

Allman, had discussed during a January meeting the possibility of an
event that might include the rug, it became clear that the rug wasn’t
going to emerge from deep hiding.

“This week I spoke again with the White House curator asking if there
was any indication of when a loan might be possible again but he has
none,” wrote Taylor in the letter. Efforts to contact Heffern through
the embassy in the Armenian capital of Yerevan were unsuccessful,
and the State Department referred all questions to the White House.

Last week, the White House issued a statement: “The Ghazir rug is
a reminder of the close relationship between the peoples of Armenia
and the United States. We regret that it is not possible to loan it
out at this time.”

That leaves the rug, and the sponsors of the event, in limbo, a
familiar place for Armenians. Neither Ara Ghazarians of the Armenian
Cultural Foundation nor Levon Der Bedrossian of the Armenian Rugs
Society can be sure if the event they had helped plan was canceled for
the usual political reason: fear of negative reaction from Turkey,
which has resolutely resisted labeling the events at the end of the
Ottoman Empire a genocide. But both suspect it might have been.

“Turkey is a very powerful country,” says Der Bedrossian, whose
organization was planning to fund a reception for the event.

And it’s a sign of the Obama administration’s dismal reputation in
the Armenian American community that everyone assumes it must be yet
another slap in the face for Armenians seeking to promote understanding
of one of the darkest chapters in 20th-century history.

Aram Suren Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National
Committee of America, says the president has had “a very negative
reception across the board in the Armenian world, and that includes
both Democrats and Republicans.” The principal emotion is profound
disappointment. As a candidate, and senator, Obama spoke eloquently
about the Armenian genocide, risking the ire of Turkey and Turkish
organizations. But since taking office, says Hamparian, Obama has
avoided the word, making more general statements about Armenian
suffering. Critics of his silence point to the geopolitical importance
of Turkey in a region made only more complex by the Arab Spring and
a brutal civil war in Syria.

The word genocide is a flash point in the ongoing animosity between
Turkey, Armenia and the Armenian diaspora. Turkish resistance to
accepting the historical facts of the Armenian genocide has included
wholesale denial that the events took place, an effort to contextualize
them as the fallout of a complicated, violent period, and semantic
argument based on the 1948 legal definition of genocide, established
by the United Nations. Independent scholars have eviscerated the
first of these claims, demonstrated the bad faith of the second
(the treatment of the Armenians was egregious) and grappled seriously
with the legal particulars, especially the difficulty of proving the
“intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial
or religious group, as such.” But few seriously argue that the events
weren’t genocidal.

Samantha Power, for example, uses the term “Armenian genocide”
throughout her landmark 2002 book on genocide, “A Problem From Hell.”

Power was appointed by Obama to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, and was confirmed in August.

But the president’s language has been more circumspect. As a candidate,
he said, “The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal
opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact
supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. America
deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide
and responds forcefully to all genocides.” But in his most recent
presidential proclamation honoring April 24’s Armenian Remembrance
Day, he used the Armenian term “Meds Yeghern” – “great calamity” –
while avoiding explicit mention of genocide.

U.S. government officials and the Smithsonian have been reluctant
to address a controversy that is often dismissed as just another
intractable historical dispute. Although Armenian musicians performed
at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2002, a Smithsonian spokeswoman
says the institution hasn’t taken up the subject of the genocide, a
remarkable omission of scholarship concerning an important ethnic group
in the United States and one of the last century’s most critical and
notorious historical events. (Even Adolf Hitler supposedly referred
to the Armenian genocide in a quote that is also disputed by some
scholars: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the
Armenians?” he asked in a speech just before Germany invaded Poland
in 1939.)

In Power’s book, the author notes the power of “Turkish objections”
to prevent official U.S. recognition of the genocide. As a presidential
candidate, Obama said in a statement that he “stood with the Armenian
American community in calling for Turkey’s acknowledgment of the
Armenian Genocide.” But April’s presidential proclamation finessed the
delicate situation by saying, “I have consistently stated my own view
of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed,” suggesting
he strongly supports a truth he no longer has the courage to utter.

Calls and e-mails to the Turkish Embassy in Washington weren’t
returned.

The status of the rug remains ambiguous. It was last taken out of
storage in 1995 and is reported to be in good condition. But a White
House spokesman declined to answer questions about whether it might
ever be seen again, if the climate is simply too politicized for the
rug to be exhibited.

And the Smithsonian is distancing itself from Taylor. “Dr. Taylor
put this together on his own, nobody knew about it, certainly senior
leadership didn’t know about it,” says Randall Kremer, who handles
public affairs for the National Museum of Natural History, where
Taylor is employed.

Taylor says he doesn’t want to speculate about why the White House
won’t lend the object, and he says he isn’t an expert on the tortured
politics of the region. It was the rug, its iconography, its status
among Armenians and its history that intrigued him, especially after
hearing Armenians discuss it during a 2012 visit to Armenia.

“We’re not afraid of doing Armenian exhibitions,” he says. “I would
love to do one.”

Although the White House can offer no explanation about why the rug
is off limits to the American people, Der Bedrossian is optimistic
that it might someday see the light of day.

“Rug weaving is a metaphor for me: We can make peace weaving together,”
he says. “We are patient. I tend to believe in miracles.

Someday it will come.”

PARIS MURDER OF KURDISH ACTIVISTS TRACED TO TURKEY

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

Kurdish community members march, holding a banner showing the three
Kurdish activists, (left-right) Fidan Dogan, Leyla Soeylemez and
Sakine Cansiz (Photo: Reuters)

PARIS (Reuters)–French investigators trying to solve the murder of
three Kurdish women in Paris have collected evidence about the chief
suspect’s connections to Turkey, four sources with knowledge of the
investigation told Reuters.

Police sources told Reuters the magistrate in charge of the case was
about to lodge a formal appeal for information to Turkey about Omer
Guney, a Turkish immigrant placed under formal investigation for the
triple murder eight months ago.

The move could mark a turning point in the case. It comes after
disclosures that Guney took at least three trips to Turkey and made
dozens of phone calls to contacts there in the months before the
killings, lawyers with access to investigation files told Reuters.

The Turkish justice ministry did not immediately respond to requests
for comment on cooperation with France in the case.

The murders of Sakine Cansız, 55, a founding member of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); Fidan Dogan, 32, a spokeswoman for the
organization in France and Europe; and a trainee named Leyla Saylemez,
25, sent a shockwave through Europe’s Kurdish community. The women
were shot as ceasefire talks to end 29 years of war between the PKK
and Turkey were starting.

The key question asked by lawyers and victims’ family members is who
ordered the killing. Kurds who gather each week by the crime scene say
it was a political assassination. French police quickly arrested Guney,
30. Surveillance footage placed him at the scene, and partial DNA from
one of the victims was found on a parka belonging to him, lawyers said.

Guney, who says he is innocent, has been awaiting trial for eight
months in detention near Paris. His lawyer, Anne-Sophie Laguens,
said she planned to apply to have him freed under court supervision
because he was not receiving proper treatment for a brain tumor that
induced seizures.

Laguens said she was also waiting for answers from Turkey regarding
her client’s trips. Guney told investigators he had travelled to
Turkey to find a wife and had bought tickets with disability payments
he received from the French state.

Political fallout

Lawyers both for Guney and the victims’ families in France and
in Turkey say the investigation has dragged due to concern about
political fallout from a case involving two NATO allies linked by a
2011 bilateral security accord.

“It’s my impression that we [the French investigation] have received
more information in this case through Turkish media than through
international cooperation,” said Antoine Comte, a lawyer for the
victims in France.

Thousands of people attended the funeral ceremony of the Kurdish
activists in Dikranagerd (Diyarbakir) (Photo: Reuters)

Police sources said Turkish authorities had earlier provided some
biographical information about Guney, but the French magistrate was
expected to seek responses to recent disclosures.

A spokesman for France’s foreign ministry said the French state exerts
no influence over judicial investigations. Paris’ anti-terrorism
court denied that political tension was slowing down the case.

New evidence could upset a cease-fire brokered between the outlawed
PKK and Turkey: Kurdish militants are disappointed with Turkish efforts
to address their grievances and have said they are considering whether
to maintain the deal.

Lawyers also questioned the efficiency of judicial cooperation after
the Turkish pro-government newspaper Bugun wrote that the prosecutor
in Ankara had accused French authorities in August of failing to
respond to his requests for details in the case.

Turkish media wrote earlier this year that the Ankara prosecutor
is conducting a separate probe under an article of penal law which
says a person who commits a crime abroad while in the service of the
Turkish state can be tried in Turkey, even if he is already found
guilty abroad and/or has served time.

Turkish media said the Ankara prosecutor is seeking to establish
whether Guney was in the service of the Turkish state. The prosecutor’s
office did not respond to requests for comment.

“We feel that since the crime was committed in France, the real
interlocutors are the French authorities. They must respond to the
Turkish requests for information,” said Meral DanıÅ~_ BeÅ~_taÅ~_,
a lawyer in Turkey for the victims’ families.

Two pieces of evidence in investigation files highlight Guney’s alleged
ties to people in Turkey: three trips in August, October and December
of 2012, and phone records from one of five cell phones that police
say belonged to Guney. The latter show “dozens” of calls to Turkish
numbers in the same period.

Phone records

Comte said records of Guney’s phone activity with Turkey were placed
in the investigations file in July, five months after his arrest.

These contacts could be crucial to finding out whether Guney was
involved in the killings and, if so, with or without foreign backing.

However, the details cannot be checked without help from Turkey,
Comte said.

“You need an order from a Turkish judge to identify the interlocutors,”
said another lawyer for the victims’ families, Jean-Louis Malterre.

Members of France’s Kurdish community seen gathered on Jan. 10 while
two men, pictured left, carry the body of one of the three women
slain in Paris (Photo: AFP)

In France lawyers for victims can join criminal proceedings. They
have access to investigation files and participate in trials. The
Turkish system has similar provisions.

While the French magistrate prepares to seek information from Turkey,
one of the lawyers with access to the investigation file pointed also
to hold-ups on the French side.

A month after Guney’s arrest, investigators from the French
anti-terrorist unit, Sdat, checked the contents of a borrowed Peugeot
car he used on the day of the killing; it was their second try.

Dismantling the car, they found a passport behind the radio with
stamps for three trips to Turkey, and a dry-cleaning bill dated a
few days after the killings, Comte said.

“When Guney was brought in, they missed half the things in his car,”
the lawyer said. “The dry-cleaning bill didn’t enter the investigation
file until a month later. If you look at the transcripts of the first
hours of questioning, all they are doing is trying to update their
archives about PKK activities.”

Police sources had no comment on allegations that evidence was missed
in the first search of Guney’s car. They said questioning had focused
on his links to the PKK because he claimed to be a member. PKK has
denied Guney was a member of the outlawed group.

The appeal to Turkey for judicial help, to be lodged by investigating
magistrate Jeanne Duye, comes after similar requests were sent to
Holland and Germany – where Guney lived for nine years – and received
replies.

Other factors are also complicating the investigation. On Sept. 25
Duye’s computer containing judicial files was stolen from her home.

Duye’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Duye has not
spoken publicly about the murder case.