Author: Badalian Vardan

The Sofia Globe, Bulgaria
March 2 2013

Democracy making strides in former Soviet Armenia

Posted Mar 2 2013 by James Brooke VOA Moscow Bureau Chief in CEE, News

Twenty-one years after gaining independence from the Soviet Union,
Armenia may be coming of age. It is developing a more open society,
and even a messy democracy. This is clear after the February 18
presidential election – won by incumbent Serzh Sargsyan.

Armenian opposition presidential candidate Raffi Hovhannisyan claimed
victory – even though he lost the election. `For the first time in 20
years the citizens have said yes to our constitution, yes to the rule
of law, yes to democracy in our future,’ he said.

Hovhannisyan has been joined in protesting the results by Andreas
Gukasyan, a candidate who spent the election campaign on a hunger
strike. He said he went on strike to protest what he calls Armenia’s
rigged elections.

Deadly past electionFive years ago, post-election protests in the
capital, Yerevan, ended with 10 dead in the streets. This time, police
and protesters are following a peaceful path. Some see a new spirit of
openness that is nurturing democracy.

Richard Giragosian, who runs a think tank in Yerevan, said, `In a
general sense, I’m optimistic in the trend now present in Armenia in
terms of democratization, more of an orientation Westward.’

When Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan cast his ballot on February 18,
he knew the opposition would not win only three percent of the vote –
as in some other former Soviet republics. He did get reelected, but
with just 59 percent of the vote.

Making progress

Opposition supporters rallied to the California-born Hovhannisyan, who
was Armenia’s first foreign minister after independence from the
Soviet Union in 1991. He won 37 percent of the vote, twice the amount
forecast by polls before the election.

`We are into now our 22nd year of independence, and we have never ever
had a transition of authority through free and fair elections. It’s
about time that Armenia take the initiative and return democracy, the
rule of law, and civil rights to the people of Armenia,’ said
Hovhannisyan.

Almost 7,000 foreign and Armenian observers watched the voting.

Karin Woldseth, head of a European parliamentary delegation, gave a
qualified approval to the vote.

`We have noted deep progress in many areas, such as the media
environment, legal framework, freedom of assembly, and freedom of
speech,’ she said.

Vibrant opposition

As she spoke, protesters interrupted the news conference. They said
the European observers were `political tourists’ rubber-stamping a
fraudulent election.

`They announce that we are one step forward, that we had transparent
elections, but it’s a lie. Because our observers are in those
stations all day, they are being violated, abused. Their observers
are going there for just 15 minutes,’ said one protester, Mamikon
Hovsepyan:

Since the vote, Hovhannisyan has been touring this mountainous nation,
leading protest rallies, and working to unify the political
opposition.

`I am committed to bring, with the people of Armenia, a bloodless
transfer of power. And I am sure that in five years we will have the
first free and fair elections in Armenia,’ said Hovhannisyan.

Democracy – disorderly, unpredictable, and with citizen participation
– seems to be brewing in post-Soviet Armenia.

US Official News
March 1, 2013 Friday

Washington: HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF OF CALIFORNIA IN THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, February 28, 2013

Washington

The Library of Congress, The Government of USA has issued the following Speech:

Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, this week marks the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the pogrom against people of Armenian descent in the town of
Sumgait, Azerbaijan. The three-day massacre in the winter of 1988
resulted in the deaths of scores of Armenians, many of whom were burnt
to death after being brutally beaten and tortured. Hundreds of others
were wounded. Women and girls were brutally raped. The carnage created
thousands of ethnic Armenian refugees, who had to leave everything
behind to be looted or destroyed, including their homes, cars and
businesses.

These crimes, which were proceeded by a wave of anti-Armenian rallies
throughout Azerbaijan, were never adequately prosecuted by Azerbaijan
authorities. Many who organized or participated in the bloodshed have
gone on to serve in high positions on the Azeri government. For
example, in the days leading up to the massacre, a leader of the
Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Hidayat Orujev, warned Armenians in
Sumgait: “If you do not stop campaigning for the unification of
Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia, if you don’t sober up, 100,000 Azeris
from neighboring districts will break into your houses, torch your
apartments, rape your women, and kill your children.” In a cruel
twist, Orujev went on serve as Azerbaijan’s State Advisor for Ethnic
Policy and later as head of State Committee for Work with Religious
Organizations.

The Sumgait massacres led to wider reprisals against Azerbaijan’s
ethnic minority, resulting in the virtual disappearance of
Azerbaijan’s 450,000-strong Armenian community, and culminating in the
war launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted
in almost 30,000 dead on both sides and created more than one million
refugees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In the years since the fighting ended, the people of Artsakh, the
region’s ancestral name, have struggled to build a functioning
democratic state in the midst of unremitting hostility and threats
from Azerbaijan, as well as sniper fire and other incursions across
the Line of Contact between the two sides. Hatred towards Armenians is
both inculcated and celebrated in Azeri youth, as exemplified by the
case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who had confessed
to the savage 2004 axe murder of Armenian army lieutenant Gurgen
Margaryan, while the latter slept. At the time, the two were
participating in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise in Budapest,
Hungary. After the murder, Safarov was sentenced to life in prison by
a Hungarian court and imprisoned in Hungary.

Last August Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve
out the remainder of his sentence. Instead of prison, he was greeted
as a hero by the Azeri government and promenaded through the streets
of Baku carrying a bouquet of roses. President Ilham Aliyev
immediately pardoned Safarov and he was promoted to the rank of major
and given a new apartment and eight years of back pay.

In recent weeks, 75-year-old Akram Aylisli, one of Azerbaijan’s most
celebrated writers, has been subjected to a campaign of hatred.
According to a report in the BBC, ‘[h]is books have been publicly
burnt. He has been stripped of his national literary awards. And a
high-ranking Azeri politician has offered $13,000 as a bounty for
anyone who will cut off his ear. Aylisi’s ‘crime?’– in his short
novel Stone Dreams, he dared to look at the conflict between Azeris
and Armenians from the Armenian perspective.

With these disgusting acts, the Azeri state reminded the whole world
why the people of Artsakh must be allowed to determine their own
future and cannot be allowed to slip into Aliyev’s clutches, lest the
carnage of Sumgait a quarter century ago serve as a foreshadowing of a
greater slaughter.

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VOTE 2013 FALLOUT: GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS SHIRAK GOVERNOR’S RESIGNATION, BUT ARMAVIR MAYOR TO STAY IN OFFICE

Vote 2013 | 28.02.13 | 13:44

The government on Thursday officially accepted the resignation of
Shirak Governor Ashot Giziryan linked by many to the poor performance
of President Serzh Sargsyan in the region in last week’s presidential
election.

Giziryan as well as representatives of the ruling Republican Party have
denied that the resignation has anything to do with the election in
which the government candidate, according to official data, suffered
a sensitive defeat to opposition challenger Raffi Hovannisian in the
Shirak provincial center of Gyumri.

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan also denied today that Giziryan had
been forced to step down. “He himself tendered a letter of resignation,
and this is an important circumstance, as media today are disseminating
information not corresponding to the reality. We respect his decision,”
said Sargsyan (no relation to President Sargsyan).

At the same time, the government rejected the letter of resignation
tendered by Ruben Khlghatyan, the mayor of Armavir, another town
where the opposition candidate won in the February 18 vote.

Unlike governors, mayors in Armenia are elected officials, and
Khlghatyan formally could not be dismissed.

Deputy head of the Ministry of Territorial Administration Vache
Terteryan reportedly explained reasons for such a step by the
“emotional” decision not connected with the “proper execution of
duties”.

Earlier reports about the resignation of Samvel Darbinyan, the mayor
of Vanadzor, where, too, the incumbent president lost in the ballot,
have not been confirmed yet.

Experts believe that losing elected mayors in communities where an
opposition candidate has just won and with a prospect of new elections
is not advisable for the ruling party.

DEUX JEUNES AGRESSES A L’ASSEMBLEE NATIONALE

Le Figaro, France
28 fevr 2013

Par Raphaël Gibour etudiant INSEEC

C’est un pugilat inedit a l’Assemblee. Deux Franco-azerbaïdjanais,
venus assister a une conference sur la cause armenienne, ont ete
frappes par des participants en colère et sauves par Jean-Louis Borloo.

PubliciteC’est une première a l’Assemblee nationale. La conference
organisee mardi par le Bureau Francais de la Cause Armenienne a
l’occasion des 25 ans des pogroms anti-armeniens dans la ville
Soumgait, en Azerbaïdjan ,a degenere. Deux jeunes Azerbaïdjanais
presents dans la salle ont violemment ete pris a partie par les
militants armeniens. Ils ont ete evacues in extremis.

La bataille de la memoire À la fin de la conference, les participants
se sont leves pour observer une minute de silence en hommage aux
morts armeniens des pogroms de Soumgait. Sauf Mirvari Fataliyeva,
Francaise d’origine azerbaïdjanaise, et Vusal Huseynov, etudiant
chercheur azerbaïdjanais.

Un refus evident “de respecter la memoire des victimes”, selon la
Federation revolutionnaire armenienne (FRA), qui parle de provocation.

Ce serait meme Vusal Huseynov qui aurait le premier “tente d’agresser
un des representants armeniens”.

L’ambassade d’Azerbaïdjan livre une toute autre version, dans une
lettre ouverte adressee au president de l’Assemblee nationale, Claude
Bartolone :”Les participants armeniens ont commence a crier sur eux
en leur reclamant de commemorer les pogroms”. À cette demande, Mirvari
Fataliyeva aurait repondu: “Aujourd’hui, c’est le 21e anniversaire du
massacre de Khodjaly et nous commemorons les victimes azerbaïdjanaises
de ce massacre. C’est en leur memoire que nous souhaiterions observer
une minute de silence”.

“Ils se sont jetes sur lui” Les reactions n’ont pas tarde. “Tout le
monde s’est mis a nous tabasser, plusieurs personnes m’ont giflee ,
les coups pleuvaient”, detaille Mirvari Fataliyeva. De justesse, ils
s’engouffrent par une porte et s’echappent de la salle en courant. Ils
se retrouvent alors dans les couloirs de l’Assemblee nationale sans
reussir a sortir. “On a fait un tour et on est retombe dans la meme
salle”…

“On a encore pris des coups, Vusal a essaye de me proteger et ils se
sont tous jetes sur lui”. Le champ libre, Mirvari s’echappe a nouveau,
paniquee, affolee, elle court chercher du secours et tombe nez a
nez avec Jean-Louis Borloo (UDI) en pleine reunion. En quelques mots
les deputes la rassurent, elle leur decrit la situation mais ils lui
expliquent que les forces de l’ordre ne sont pas habilitees a entrer
dans l’Assemblee. Ils mettront tout de meme un terme a l’altercation.

Les deux jeunes, emmenes a l’hôpital avec des blessures legères,
en sortiront quelques heures plus tard.

Incident diplomatique Avant la chute de l’URSS, les deux pays se
disputaient deja un territoire sauvage et montagneux: le Haut-Karabakh
.À l’eclatement du bloc sovietique, l’Armenie et l’Azerbaïdjan sont
entres dans une guerre qui a fait 22.000 morts en deux ans. Si un
cessez-le-feu a ete signe en 1994, les exactions commises lors des
precedents conflits ont aneanti toutes formes de relations et instaure
un conflit “gele”.

L’altercation a l’Assemblee nationale a ravive les plaies. Un depute
azerbaïdjanais s’est publiquement indigne: “Aujourd’hui, dans les
pays tels que la France, qui souhaitent enseigner la democratie a
d’autres pays, il y a des signes très graves de fascisme”, rapporte
l’Agence de presse azerbaïdjanaise (APA ).

Toutes les parties s’entendent au moins sur un point: il faut que la
justice francaise tranche. Thierry Mariani (UMP), en tant que president
du Groupe d’amitie France-Azerbaïdjan a l’Assemblee nationale, a deja
publie un communique dans lequel il condamne “de la manière la plus
ferme les evenements survenus hier au sein meme de notre institution”
et insiste pour que les auteurs soient “sanctionnes”. Mais qui a
allume la mèche? Difficile, semble-t-il, de l’etablir.

AUTHOR ARIS JANIGIAN TO SPEAK AT NAASR ON ‘EXILE, MEMORY AND ASSIMILATION’

ARTS | FEBRUARY 28, 2013 1:36 PM

Aris Janigian

BELMONT, Mass. – Writer Aris Janigian, author of the acclaimed novel,
This Angelic Land, will give a lecture titled “Exile, Memory and
Assimilation: The Armenian Experience as the Essential American
Experience,” on Thursday, March 14, at 8 p.m. at the National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), 395 Concord
Ave. The lecture is co-sponsored by the AGBU-YP, Boston, and NAASR.

This lecture is given in recognition of Emmanuel P. Varandyan
(1902-1988), novelist (The Well of Ararat, The Moon Sails), professor
of English literature at Ohio State University, NAASR Board Member
and benefactor, and tireless advocate for Armenian Studies.

Janigian is considered one of the most important Armenian-American
novelists working today. Each of his three critically-acclaimed novels,
Bloodvine, Riverbig and This Angelic Land, places ethnic Armenian
characters against the backdrop of the American cultural landscape. The
first two novels are set in the Central Valley of California in the
early 1960s, and the third, This Angelic Land, published last May,
is set during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. In tapping themes of exile
memory, and assimilation, Janigian uses the Armenian experience as
a lens through which to explore the central American experience. In
that context, critic D. J. Waldie of the Los Angeles Review of Books
has called This Angelic Land, “Today’s necessary book.”

Holding a PhD in psychology, from 1993 to 2005, Janigian was
senior professor of humanities at Southern California Institute
of Architecture. He has published in genres as diverse as poetry,
social psychology, and design criticism. Aside from his novels,
he is co-author along with April Greiman of Something from Nothing,
a book on the philosophy of graphic design.

Janigian was a contributing writer to West, the Los Angeles Times
Sunday magazine, a finalist for the William Saroyan Fiction Prize and
the recipient of the Anahid Literary Award from Columbia University.

He is a contributing writer for thenervousbreakdown.com, and lives
in Los Angeles.

More information about Janigian’s lecture may be had by e-mailing
[email protected].

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EVENTS, IN MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN MASSACRE IN SUMGAIT AND 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF KARABAKH MOVEMENT TAKE PLACE IN PARIS

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
2013-02-28 19:38

Since February 24 events, dedicated to the memory of the victims of
the Armenian massacre in Sumgait and 25th anniversary of Karabakh
movement took place in Paris. According to the information from the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic Permanent Mission to France a memorial
service for the victims of Sumgait massacre was held in St. John the
Baptist Armenian Apostolic Church.

After the event the permanent representative of the NKR to France
Hovhannes Gevorgyan, the Armenian Ambassador to France Vigen Chitechyan
and other officials paid homage to the victims of Sumgait massacre
and laid wreaths at the statue of Komitas near the Garden of Yerevan
in Paris.

On February 25, Hovhannes Gevorgyan was the guest of “Ayb” radio
station on live, where he answered the questions regarding the Sumgait
massacre and events marking the 25 anniversary of the Karabakh movement
and Sumgait massacre, planned to take place in the coming weeks in
different cities of France.

On February 26, the French office of “Hai Dat” organized a conference
titled “25 years after the Sumgait massacre: the current situation
and prospects for the future of the people of Nagorno Karabakh” in
the National Assembly of France. At the beginning of the conference
a documentary prepared by the NKR Permanent Mission about the
massacres in Sumgait was shown. Co-chair of the Coordinating Council
of the Armenian Organizations of France Murad Papazyan, Permanent
Representative of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic to France Hovhannes
Gevorgyan and Chairman of the France-Armenia Friendship Group of the
National Assembly of France Rene Rouqet delivered speeches. The event
was concluded by closing remarks of Vigen Chitechyan, Ambassador of
the Republic of Armenia to France.

Journalists, a great number of deputies, representatives of Armenian
organizations in France were present at the conference. At the end
of the event when the participants were paying silent tribute to the
memory of the victims of the Sumgait massacre two Azeris tried to
make a provocation but were expelled from the hall.

THE SYRIAN ISSUE IN THE SPOTLIGHT OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WESTERN ARMENIA
Lilit Muradyan

“Radiolur”
18:16 28.02.2013

The number of Armenians currently residing in Syria exceeds 200
thousand. Today their fate depends on funds and their presidents,
Head of the National Council of Western Armenian Armenak Abrahamyan
told reporters today.

According to him, last November $21 and $10 mln were raised in the
US and France respectively. The donators had initially promised to
allocate the money to help the working groups establish and maintain
relations with other resident peoples, ensure the security of the
regions, organize the self-defense and guarantee the protect human
rights. However, the benefactors say now that they will provide the
money only after peace is established.

Even in that case the sums will be spent on the reconstruction of
buildings and construction of new ones, he said.

If we fail to help organize the self-defense, Armenians will not
manage to survive in Syria, member of the Council Tigran Pashabezyan
said, adding that the issue cannot be left to the NGOs and charity
foundations.

“The issue of security of Syrian Armenians should be of nationwide
significance. We must focus attention of the issue. We must have
programs and resoluteness to resist the crisis,” he said.

GIRL, 15, JUMPS FROM HIGH-STOREYED BUILDING IN YEREVAN

TERT.AM
17:38 ~U 28.02.13

A 15 year old girl jumped to her death today in South-Western A 1
district in Yerevan. The police press service told Tert.am the girl
jumped from 14-storeyed building.

“The circumstances are being cleared out. A criminal case has been
filed,” the press service reported.

ARMENIAN FM MEETS UN, OSCE SECRETARY GENERALS

13:05 28.02.2013

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the 5th Global
Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Vienna. The Secretary
General asked to convey his congratulations to Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan on re-election and wished him success during the second term
in office.

During the meeting the parties exchanged views on issues on UN agenda.

Edward Nalbandian reiterated that Armenia will continue its active
involvement in the UN and its agencies.

At Ba Ki-moon’s request, Minister Nalbandian presented the efforts of
Armenia and the international community towards the peaceful settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. In this context the UN Secretary
General expressed his support to the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group.

The interlocutors touched upon the situation in Syria and the problems
facing Syrian Armenians.

In Vienna, Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with OSCE Secretary General
Lamberto Zanier.

The OSCE Secretary General asked to convey his congratulations to the
Armenian President on re-election and praised the positive assessment
of the Armenian presidential elections by the OSCE Observation Mission.

The interlocutors exchanged views on Armenia’s active involvement in
the activities within the framework of the OSCE and the process of
settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Also, Edward Nalbandian met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar
Salehi. The parties discussed bilateral and international issues.

TURKISH PM SAYS ZIONISM ‘CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY’

February 28, 2013 – 15:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called Zionism
a “crime against humanity” likening it with anti-Semitism, fascism,
and Islamophobia while speaking at a UN forum on Wednesday, Feb 27,
according to The Jerusalem Post.

Erdogan was speaking before a Vienna forum of the Alliance of
Civilizations, a UN framework for West-Islam dialogue.

UN Watch urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon who was present on the stage yet
stayed silent, according to UN Watch, to speak out and condemn the
speech. It also called on Erdogan to apologize.

“We remind secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that his predecessor Kofi
Annan recognized that the UN’s 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution
was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he welcomed its repeal,”
UN Watch stated.

In its condemnation of Erdogan’s remarks which it called
“Ahmedinejad-style pronouncements,” UN Watch stated that the remarks
“will only strengthen the belief that his government is hewing to
a confrontational stance, and fundamentally unwilling to end its
four-year-old feud with Israel.”

Israel sent messages to Ankara over the last two weeks that it is
interested in creating a more “positive dynamic” in its badly strained
relationship with Turkey so the two countries can work together to
further common interests, government officials said on Monday.

The messages were sent prior to John Kerry’s maiden trip abroad as
U.S. secretary of state, a trip that will take him to nine countries
including Turkey. Kerry is scheduled to arrive in Turkey on Friday.

It is widely expected that Kerry will raise the issue of ties with
Israel during his talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara.

The U.S. has long been pressing both Ankara and Jerusalem to take
steps to improve relations that went into a nosedive following the
2010 Mavi Marmara incident.

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