Author: Badalian Vardan

THE POLICE TRY “TO MEET THEIR TARGET” AND CONTINUE TORTURES

April 1 2013

The Civil Society Institute (CSI), the Norwegian Helsinki Committee
(NHC), and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) have
put forward a mid-term assessment, which was prepared within the scope
of recommendations undertaken by Armenia during its Universal Periodic
Review by the United Nations Human Rights Council in May 2010. The
report puts forward the practice of implementing those recommendations
by the Armenian legal system and state bodies. The report reads:
“The routine practice of torture and ill-treatment, especially in
police custody, continues unabated. Victims of torture do not file
official complaints fearing retaliation, and perpetrators are not
held accountable for such acts.” Artur Sakunts, the head of Helsinki
Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office, stated during a conversation
with that their researches also testified to the same
phenomenon. Talking about the reasons, he said: “The main reason is
that the Special Investigative Service (SIS) doesn’t properly examine
the reports on the police’s ill-treating citizens, the courts don’t
give a legal assessment to those cases of ill-treatment either. The
other is a structural problem. There is the internal security
service of the police, which conducts internal investigation into
the police officers’ actions based on the citizens’ reports. It is
a police unit, which means that there is no independent mechanism of
complaining. In this issue, the prosecutor’s office, which conducts
investigation into such cases and doesn’t pay proper attention, also
plays an important role.” We inquired whether even the fact that a
campaign of disseminating love for the police among society had started
didn’t contribute to normalization of the situation. Even videos have
been shot. In this regard, A. Sakunts recalled the cases of Samvel
Tonoyan, a detective, and Sargis Martirosyan, the head of the Kentron
Department of the Police, when a police officer was not punished for
misconduct, but was encouraged with promotion. Then he noted: “It is
a fact that there is a big divide between the real and publicized
actions of the police, and from this perspective, the commercials
are not ads, but rather are of absolutely different kind. Therefore,
it cannot increase trust; on the contrary, the distrust of the system
deepens. Certainly, some cosmetic changes in the system have been
made. For example, women are involved in maintaining public order,
which is important at first sight. However, when pickets or marches
are organized, where the majority is girls, there is no girl among the
accompanying police officers, and there is inadequate use of force. In
such cases, the police perform their functions by using force, and
the commercials cannot have a significant impact.” Nina Karapetyants,
a lawyer of the Helsinki Citizens’ Association, doesn’t see progress
either. During a conversation with us, she stated: “Perhaps the reason
is impunity. Perhaps that situation benefits the government; it is
in the interests of the government that the police are an instrument
in the government’s hands to punish some people. On the other hand,
the police are required to make reports with numbers. No one is
concerned about the real state of affairs. As a result, charges are
laid against people who have nothing to do with the crime. They pursue
a Soviet policy of percentage targets, as well as carry out a political
instruction; classic examples of that are cases of Arshaluys Hakobyan,
Arman Veziryan, and March 1.” Tatev HARUTYUNYAN

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© 1998 – 2013 Aravot – News from Armenia

POST-ELECTION TOURS 2013: HOVHANNISIAN PLEDGES TO MAKE HIS NEW ARMENIA VISION REAL

TERT.AM
15:22 ~U 02.04.13

At his meeting with the residents of Artik (Shirak region), former
presidential candidate Raffi Hovhannisian said he is very resolute
on his new Armenia vision.

Addressing the crowd of his supporters, the opposition Heritage party’s
leader promised his best efforts to fight migration and promote the
return of all Armenians to their home country.

“We will maintain the best relations with all countries. What we say
and want is to ensure an Armenian citizen’s protection by the law.

[Whatever we have] – whether the earth’s crust, national riches or
[Mount] Aragats – all that belongs to us. After the proclamation of new
Armenia, public servants will have a higher salary and soldiers will
serve on the border as our pride, and will never be taken [to polling
stations] for a repeated voting,” he said, promising to make the April
9 inauguration day a real remarkable event for the Armenian nation.

Gyumri

Gyumri 2

PEOPLE ARE STRUGGLING FOR “BREAD AND FUTURE OF THEIR CHILDREN” – FORMER CANDIDATE

April 02, 2013 | 13:44

ARTIK.- People are fighting for bread and future of their children,
former presidential candidate Raffi Hovannisian said speaking before
his supporters in the town of Artik.

On Tuesday Hovannisian arrived in Shirak Region within the framework
of his regional tour, theArmenian News-NEWS.amcorrespondent reports.

The time has come for people to build a country where their children
can get good education and have worthy future, he added. Together
with Gyumri and Shirak Region, the town of Artik brought faith in
the victory of entire Armenia.

Hovannisian believes in a new country taxes must serve a tool to
ensure protection of the state and rule of law for every person.

“We are struggling for our compatriots, who fled their home to earn
living in America, Russia and France, to come back,” he emphasized.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

Products kept in monastery’s toilet

01:26 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

The people who make trade nearby Sanahin monastery every day after 6
pm collect their goods and leave in the toilet.

The merchants say that after 6 pm tourists do not come and there are
no users in the toilet.
See details on “Angle +3” TV video.

PM apologises for ‘dark period in nation’s history’

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has delivered a national apology to
victims of the government’s forced adoption practices that were in
place in Australia from the late 1950s to the 1970s

ABC News (Australia)
Thu Mar 21, 2013

More than 800 people affected by forced adoptions gathered at the
Great Hall in Canberra for the historic occasion.

“Today, this Parliament, on behalf of the Australian people, takes
responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that
forced the separation of mothers from their babies which created a
lifelong legacy of pain and suffering,” she said.

“We acknowledge the profound effects of these policies and practices
on fathers and we recognise the hurt these actions caused to brothers
and sisters, grandparents, partners and extended family members.

“We deplore the shameful practices that denied you, the mothers, your
fundamental rights and responsibilities to love and care for your
children.

“You were not legally or socially acknowledged as their mothers and
you yourselves were deprived of care and support.

“We say sorry to you, the mothers, who were denied knowledge of your
rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent.

“You were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the
coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and
in many cases illegal.”

The crowd erupted with applause and many broke down in tears at
several points throughout the speech. Ms Gillard acknowledged that
despite the apology, victims will still feel the pain.

“Friends, as the time for birth came, these babies would be snatched
away before they had even held them in their arms,” she said.

“Sometimes, consent was achieved by forgery or fraud. Sometimes women
signed adoption papers whilst under the influence of medication.

“Most common of all was the bullying arrogance of a society that
presumed to know what was best.

“The hurt did not simply last for a few days or weeks. This was a
wound that would not heal.”

She also acknowledged children who suffered sexual abuse at the hands
of their adoptive parents or institutions.

She announced $5 million funding to improve access to specialist
support, records tracing and mental health care for those affected by
forced adoption, and a further $1.5 million to the National Archives
for a special exhibition.

‘Unimaginable grief’

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott echoed Ms Gillard’s apology.

“I cannot imagine a grief greater than that of a parent and a child
parted from each other,” he said.

“I cannot imagine an ache greater than the fear that mum didn’t want
me, especially since it wasn’t true.

“But hundreds of thousands of Australians have been adopted, often
because their mothers had no real choice or were denied any choice,
and that means that there are hundreds of thousands of mothers who
hardly knew their children and hundreds of thousands of children who
hardly knew their mothers.

“This is a tragedy for them and for our nation and we must atone for
it.

“Today our nation acknowledges that this was wrong and that we are
sorry. Today, we accept responsibility for the pain, the suffering and
the grief reverberating through tens of thousands of Australian
families.

“On behalf of the nation, I join the Prime Minister in apologising.”

Last year the Senate released a report into Australia’s forced
adoption practices.

It said there were as many as 150,000 adoptions between 1951 and 1975,
but that it is impossible to know exactly how many were forced.

‘Kidnapped babies’

Those affected by forced adoptions have been lobbying for an apology
since Kevin Rudd said sorry to the Stolen Generations in 2008.

The head of the Apology Alliance, Christine Cole, lost a child through
forced adoption practices and says the apology has been a long time
coming.

“It is an historical day for me and one that I have worked towards
since 1994, I have been involved in bringing this issue to the public
and educating the public about what happened to us,” she said.

“I had my baby taken from me in 1969, and I think the use of the term
forced adoption polarises the actual phenomena of what was going on.

“What was going on was kidnapping children, kidnapping newborn babies
from their mothers at the birth, using pillows and sheets to cover
their face, drugging them as I was drugged, with drugs like sodium
pentothal, chloral hydrate and other mind-altering barbiturates.

“It was cruel, it was punitive and then often the mother was
transported like I was away from the hospital so you had no access to
your baby.”

Ms Cole says the Government needs to do more to reunite adopted babies
of the past with their natural parents, and suggests the creation of a
DNA database.

“We certainly need a central database because there are many adoptees
who are undocumented, so they just turned up as if they sort of landed
here from some alien place,” she said.

‘Apology not enough’

But one woman whose husband was born in Newcastle and forcibly adopted
in the 1970s says Ms Gillard’s apology will do nothing to ease their
trauma.

The woman, known as Sydney, says her husband’s adopted parents were
told by a social worker in 1972 that his mother was a 15-year-old
Newcastle girl with a boyfriend at school who was unable to keep the
baby.

Sydney says just this week, documents arrived from an adoption support
unit explaining that she was in fact 19-years-old, the victim of a
rape and from a farming community.

She says lies by social workers have left her husband in the dark.

“He burst out crying,” she said.

“All his life he was brought up to believe that his parents brought
him into the world with love.

“I want the social worker to apologise to my husband’s family for
lying, and being so insensitive.”

Sydney says her husband is devastated by the news.

“[His birth mother] didn’t know who the birth father was,” she said.

“He was a predator. Social workers all along had been lying.”

Hayrikian: I am entitled to larger compensation

Saturday,
March 30

The former presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrkian, who was injured in
an attempted murder committed against him in January, wrote on his
Facebook page, commenting on the government decision to allocate 20.5
million AMD for his treatment abroad:

`Feelings are running high after the government made a decision to
assist me. The funny thing is that I have not yet received that sum,
and it is strange that we have so many ill-wishers. In reality, I am
entitled to a larger compensation. The state apologized to me for my
lost 17 and a half years and offered compensation in 1991, but I
declined to accept it.

As for the current allocation, the cost was estimated by medical
establishments and may be reduced or increased, depending on the
course of treatment. I am grateful to all doctors and state figures,
who provided this allocation in order to save my health. I have my own
compensation program (I will speak about it later).

Another doctor examined me today and prescribed new painkillers. The
main treatment will start after Easter’.

TODAY, 14:55
Aysor.am

Zazoom , Italia
7 marzo 2013

Alberto Figliolia. Una serata (finalmente) dedicata agli Armeni

07 Marzo 2013

Un milione e mezzo di morti, un terzo degli armeni presenti sul
territorio dell’Impero Ottomano. Suicidi, donne violentate, bambini e
vecchi morti per fame durante le lunghe marce nel `vuoto’ dei deserti
della Mesopotamia…

La masseria delle allodole ha avuto l’impagabile merito di portare al
grande pubblico la conoscenza del primo genocidio (cioè uno sterminio
preordinato e organizzato) del XX secolo, quello degli armeni. Ed è
proprio di loro che si è parlato, il 6 marzo scorso, in via Deledda
11, sede pomeridiana e serale dei Civici Corsi di preparazione agli
Esami di Idoneità e Stato. I quali, con innegabile lungimiranza, hanno
organizzato `La tragedia nascosta’, un’iniziativa che ha avuto
l’obiettivo di raccontare questo dramma sconosciuto perché taciuto per
decenni e ancora adesso incredibilmente negato dallo Stato turco.

La serata, ripresa da la Repubblica e dal Corriere della Sera, ha
riscosso un notevole successo per la partecipazione di un pubblico
(insegnanti, alunni, ma anche milanesi comuni, visto che era aperto a
tutti) numeroso e molto interessato, e ha visto la partecipazione del
Prof. Baykar Sivazliyan, Presidente dell’Unione degli Armeni d’Italia,
che nel suo intervento ha evidenziato come esista una forte
solidarietà da parte di alcuni intellettuali turchi nei confronti
degli armeni. «A volte, siamo noi vittime a dover stare vicino ai
carnefici», ha affermato in un curioso ma significativo ribaltamento
di ruoli, spiegando le difficoltà che le persone di buona volontà
dell’altra comunità (per lui i turchi non sono `nemici’) devono patire
per l’ostinazione di molti.

In Francia, chi nega il genocidio armeno viene incriminato al pari di
chi sostiene la falsità dell’Olocausto. Ma il colpevole silenzio della
comunità internazionale, Nazioni Unite in primis, pesa moltissimo
sugli armeni, come ha spiegato la Dr. Claudia Bolognino, antropologa e
studiosa di Storia Armena, che con le sue slide e i suoi filmati ha
approfondito la questione. Dopo aver mostrato foto agghiaccianti delle
cosiddette `carovane della morte’, cioè le deportazioni di massa
durante le quali moriva la quasi totalità della popolazione armena
costretta a parteciparvi dal regime dei `Giovani Turchi’ che nel 1915
aveva deciso l’operazione di annientamento totale, ha proposto alcune
testimonianze di sopravvissuti sottolineando la loro grande
importanza. Per usare le sue parole, contenute nel sussidio consegnato
dalla scuola a tutti i partecipanti, esse «risultano fondamentali
perché è tramite la presa di coscienza del proprio passato che un
popolo reciso da un trauma collettivo enorme, come può essere un
genocidio, riesce a superare il trauma stesso e a rinascere. La
memoria delle proprie vittime, insieme al riconoscimento del torto
subito, diventano indispensabili per categorizzare un trauma, porre la
parola `fine’ alla tragedia subita e guardare al futuro, ricostruendo
la propria identità sulle basi distrutte dal genocidio».

Durante la serata si è anche parlato dei `Giusti’, visto che i Civici
Corsi di Idoneità, la maggiore espressione di multietnicità tra le
scuole milanesi grazie ai suoi 500 studenti provenienti da 32 Stati
del mondo, hanno scelto questa data proprio perché concomitante con la
prima celebrazione voluta dal Parlamento Europeo per ricordare chi ha
difeso la dignità umana calpestata nei sistemi totalitari.

Tra essi Armin T. Wegner, che con la sua opera, meritoriamente
proposta dalla casa editrice Guerini e Associati nel 1996 (AA. VV.,
Armin T. Wegner e gli armeni in Anatolia. Immagini e testimonianze),
ha fatto conoscere al mondo questa tragedia.

Per non dimenticare. Un monito che, di questi tempi, non vale solo per
l’Armenia.

Alberto Figliolia

Meri Mnjoyan is the “Voice of Armenia.”

2013-03-31 09:12:26

For months “Voice of Armenia” project, which has been broadcasted on
Armenia TV, has reached its logical end. The final stage of the
project were involved four participants -Meri Mnjoyan from Sona’s
team, Narek from Sofi’s team, Iskuhi Hovhannisyan from Tata’s team and
Gaya Arzumanyan from Arto Tuncboyacian’s team.

Summing up the results of the votes, “Voice of Armenia” has become
Meri Mnjoyan (Masha).

Note that each of the participants presented three performance.There
were, of course, nice surprises. Each of them duets with his coach,
other surprise was presence of Armenians, who achieved success in
Russia’s «The Voice»- Edward Khacharyan, Margarita Pozoyan, Artyom
Kacharyan and Gaya Zakharova.

Self-purification over: Ex-candidates prepares for `New Armenia’s
inauguration’ (videos, photos)

14:06 – 31.03.13

Former presidential candidate Raffi Hovhannisian, who earlier declared
his intention to stop his post-election hunger- strike, said Sunday
that he is now ending his self-purification to prepare for what he
called the inauguration of New Armenia.

The February 18 presidential election saw Hovhannisian poll about 37%
of votes against Serzh Sargsyan’s 59%. Claiming frauds in the voting
process, the former candidate went on a hunger-strike on March 10,
urging for the re-elected president’s withdrawal.

Hovhannisian, who heads the opposition Heritage party, said the
current struggle is not only in his personal interests. `This is not a
struggle of one person, but of an entire nation and especially its
younger generation. Their consciousness has changed. I am happy our
future is in good hands,’ he told reporters in Liberty Square.

The politician later thanked the volunteers who were in the square day
and night over the period to express their support to him. `I was
sleeping in peace, while they kept staying there in the rain at the
cold nights. It wasn’t for gratitude they were doing that. Without
them, I wouldn’t have been able to spend those 21 days like this,’
Hovvhannisian said.

Asked what benefits the hunger-strike brought to his struggle, the
former candidate said it was the nation’s imperative. `I lived like an
[ordinary] citizen, and I am hopeful the other citizens too, will feel
the imperative,’ he said, adding that he expects the Armenian nation
to demonstrate unanimity on the April 9 presidential inauguration day.

As for his plans for Easter, the politician said he would celebrate
the holiday at home with his family after attending a liturgy in Holy
Echmiadzin. Hovhannisian’s wife, Armenuhi, as well as his children and
mother were with him today while he was holding the news conference.

The ex-candidate reminded reporters that his next rally, expected to
arrange `New Armenia’s inauguration ceremony’, is due on April 5.

Rally at Liberty Square 29.03.13

Raffi Hovannisian dances at Liberty Square

FRIENDS OF CARMARTHENSHIRE ARCHIVES
Carmarthen Journal, Wales, UK
March 27, 2013
Edition 1; National Edition

ON March 13 members and guests met at the county archive office in
Parc Myrddin. Vice-chairwoman Edna Dale Jones opened the meeting and
gave a brief outline of the restoration work that was being carried
out by the conservators. This included certain parish registers and
the map books of the Bishop of St David’s and the Cawdor Estate Maps.

The estimated cost of repairs was in the region of £1,000 which would
be funded from the reserves of the Friends. Additionally an appeal
was made to fill two vacancies on the committee. The vice chair then
introduced the speaker for the evening, the well-known and eminent
archaeologist Heather James. Mrs James delivered a fascinating
account of a self-funded project that she was involved with, in
Armenia recording pre -historic rock art.

Commencing with a brief history of Armenia which included the terrible
genocide of Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1917, and the fact
that even today Turkey refuses to apologise and the fact that Armenia
was the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion. Moving
on to the project of recording pre -historic rock art, Mrs James
explained that the location of this rock art was found in an area
known as Ughtasar which bordered on Azerbaijan.

The remoteness of the area together with the threat of wild bears made
the business of recording quite an interesting experience. The speaker
was thanked by Jeremy John who compared her adventure in Armenia to
the famous Gertrude Bell, the Victorian/Edwardian Archaeologist.