Author: Badalian Vardan

“President said- we’ll punch you in the face”: Manvel Grigoryan (video)

17:27 | January 27,2015 | Politics

On January 26 at the session dedicated to the 23rd anniversary of
Armenian army, YKM Chairman, NA HHK party deputy Manvel Grigoryan
assessed Serzh Sargsyan’s speech adequate.

“He didn’t speak strictly, he just said “Behave yourself”, if not we
will punch you in the face, that isn’t strict, taking actions would be
strict,”- he said by adding that ahead of the 100th anniversary of the
Genocide Turkey prods Azerbaijan and they want to divert the attention
of the international community ahead of the 100th anniversary of the
Genocide.

He thinks that large-scale war is both possible and impossible.

Turning to Gyumri tragedy Manvel Grigoryan highlighted that it was an
inhuman act and independent of the nationality he must get the
punishment he deserves, “If we stress the nationality, it means that
it has been politics. I have no doubt that the Russians will be
stricter as they have no moral right not to be strict.”

He is also against the withdrawal of Russian military base from
Gyumri, as he thinks that Russian border guards keep the border with
Turkey.

“The day when Turkey learns that our army is not strong, it will start
a war, as long as there is no war it means that our army is powerful
and capable,”- answered Manvel Grigoryan the question of “A1+”
journalist.

Nalbandian: Armenia appreciates Iran’s balanced position on Karabakh

14:45 27/01/2015 >> POLITICS

Armenia appreciates Iran’s balanced position on the Nagorno-Karabakh
problem, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at a joint
press conference with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif.

“During the talks I briefed my counterpart on the efforts by Armenia
and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries aimed at achieving an
exclusively peaceful settlement of the conflict,” Nalbandian said.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said for his part that Iran stands for a peaceful
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and his country is in
favor of peace and stability in the regional countries.

Source: Panorama.am

Police Keep Teenage Witness in Custody for 2 Days Before Murder Case Hearing

01.27.2015 13:50 epress.am

The witnesses in the case of Vanadzor resident Karen Kungortsev, who
was charged with murdering 15-year old Davit Hovakimyan, are
continuing to give their testimonies in court. During the
interrogation process in the preliminary investigation, the rights of
a few minors were violated, especially the right to give testimony
with the presence of a lawyer or parent.

A minor, R.S., who gave testimony in court yesterday, was kept at the
police station for 2 days. According to Kungortsev’s lawyer, Helsinki
Association lawyer Arayik Papikyan, they “worked on him” while he was
in the police precinct. During his testimony, R.S. slightly changed
his original testimony, stating that he had been at the site of the
incident and had seen Kungortsev there. The latter, however, denies
the claim. According to the lawyer, there are other witnesses that
claim that R.S. was not present in the location during the fight. The
other two witnesses who gave testimonies against Kungortsev, went to
the court yesterday and said that the investigator wrote their
testimonies for them. When they were shown the testimonies, the
witnesses said that they were wrong and did not remember well;
confirming that the testimony was written in their handwriting. They
also claimed that, they were not present at place of the incident and
were informed of it by friends.

Recall, that in one of the previous hearings Gevorg Avagyan, a
witness, said that he was pushed by the police to testify against
Kungortsev. According to Avagyan, at the police station they showed
him a photo of Karen Kungortsev and stated that he has to testify
against him. “They said we’ll show you four photos, this person’s
photo will be in it as well and you’ll point him out,” explained
Gevorg Avagyan. One other witness took back his testimony, saying that
he had made up everything.

Recall, Karen Kungortsev does not admit guilt, and human rights
defenders and his attorney indicate violations recorded during the
preliminary investigations.

While behind bars, the accused has resorted to self harm, as well as
beginning a hunger strike. His mother said that her son was beaten by
police while under police custody and forced to confess.

The charges against Kungortsev were changed from murder to attempted
murder last August. At the same time, the investigation accused and
detained Vanadzor Medical Center company doctor Vladimir Ghukasyan for
unfair treatment and improper implementation of professional duties.

REVUE DE PRESSE
Génocide arménien : « Le parlement ne doit pas jouer les historiens »

Mercredi, la Suisse affrontera devant la Grande Chambre de la Cour
européenne des droits de l’homme Dogu Perinçek, qui avait publiquement
nié l’existence du génocide arménien. L’avocat et conseiller national
Yves Nidegger (UDC/GE) compte faire entendre la parole des 130?000
Turcs vivant en Suisse en défendant la position de la Fédération des
associations turques de Suisse romande

Mercredi, la Suisse affrontera Dogu Perinçek devant la Grande Chambre
de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme (CEDH) Ã Strasbourg. Le
président du Parti des travailleurs de Turquie avait publiquement nié
l’existence d’un génocide des Arméniens perpétré par l’Empire ottoman
en 1915. Condamné pour discrimination raciale par le Tribunal de
police de Lausanne (jugement confirmé par le Tribunal fédéral),
l’individu a bénéficié du soutien de la CEDH, cette dernière estimant
que la Suisse avait violé sa liberté d’expression. L’avocat et
conseiller national Yves Nidegger (UDC/GE) compte faire entendre la
parole des 130?000 Turcs vivant en Suisse en défendant la position de
la Fédération des associations turques de Suisse romande.

Le Temps : Pourquoi le terme de génocide n’est-il pas applicable aux
événements de 1915 ?

Yves Nidegger : C’est aux historiens de dire si ce terme est
applicable ou non et une commission d’historiens turcs et arméniens a
précisément été formée pour cela dans le cadre des protocoles de
Zurich. Tant que ce débat historique est en cours, il n’y a pas Ã
sanctionner les opinions, fussent-elles fausses ou détestables, de
l’une ou l’autre des parties.

Le Conseil national a pourtant reconnu l’existence d’un tel génocide en 2003…

C’est toujours une erreur pour un parlement de jouer les historiens,
ce n’est pas son rôle. Dans une démocratie, on ne peut pas avoir les
mêmes personnes qui disent l’histoire officielle sous forme de
résolution et qui édictent une norme pénale pour sanctionner ceux qui
auront le mauvais goût d’être en désaccord avec elle. Si c’était
possible en Union soviétique, cela ne peut pas l’être en Suisse.

Pour quelles raisons les déclarations de Dogu Perinçek ne
tombent-elles pas sous le coup de l’article 261bis du Code pénal, qui
con damne ceux qui « minimisent les crimes contre l’humanité » ?

L’article parle de celui qui « minimisera grossièrement » un crime
contre l’humanité. Or, les massacres ne sont pas niés par M. Perinçek.
Il ne dit pas que les Arméniens n’ont pas souffert ou que leurs
souffrances sont factices. Il dit simplement que le fait de qualifier
ces événements de génocide pour accuser la Turquie est un mensonge
international. On peut être en désaccord complet avec ce qu’il dit. La
liberté d’expression a bien sûr des limites, mais les limites que
l’Etat peut mettre à l’exercice de la liberté d’expression sont aussi
limitées. La question est lÃ.

Comment expliquer la vigueur avec laquelle se battent les autorités
turques pour refuser le terme de génocide ?

L’explication est à peu près la même que pour une Suisse qui n’a pas
envie de se faire condamner par la CEDH pour avoir violé la liberté
d’expression. Les Turcs n’ont pas envie de se faire qualifier de
nazis. Qui en aurait envie, d’ailleurs ?

Il est tout de même cocasse que l’UDC que vous êtes défende un avis
qui est défavorable à la Suisse, qui plus est devant une cour que
votre parti tente de tuer, non ?

(Rires) Pour la première fois, vous allez voir l’UDC invoquer la
jurisprudence infaillible de la Cour et la supériorité du droit
international. Si la Grande Chambre désavoue la Suisse, soit l’on
modifie l’article 261bis, soit on quitte la CEDH.

Si l’on reconnaît à Dogu Perinçek le droit de s’exprimer, ne
faudrait-il pas autoriser la construction d’un mémorial arménien dans
le parc de l’Ariana, près de l’ONU ?

Pas dans le parc de l’Ariana sous les fenêtres de l’ONU. Et puis,
celui qui agit ici, c’est la ville de Genève, c’est l’Etat, même si
tout cela s’est fait à la demande insistante des Arméniens. Lorsque
l’Etat fait de l’histoire officielle en disant : « J’estime que c’est
un génocide », ce n’est pas tout à fait la même chose que si un privé
érigeait un mémorial sur une parcelle privée, par exemple à l’église
arménienne. Je suis de l’avis de Didier Burkhalter : marquer le
territoire onusien avec une accusation extrêmement grave d’un peuple
contre un autre n’est pas conforme à l’esprit de Genève ni à celui de
la Genève internationale.

mardi 27 janvier 2015,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

Perinçek leaves for Strasbourg to attend an appeal hearing by Armenia
over Genocide denial case

18:54, 27 Jan 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Turkish opposition Labor Party leader DoÄ?u Perinçek left for
Strasbourg yesterday where he will attend an appeal hearing by Armenia
over his denial of the Armenian Genocide, Daily Sabah reports.

Perinçek was cleared of charges of racial discrimination and genocide
denial by a Swiss court where he made remarks defining the Armenian
Genocide as an `international lie.’ Armenia decided to be a
co-plaintiff in the case at the next hearing on January 28.

The politician was found guilty by a Swiss court in 2007 after he made
a speech calling the genocide `an international lie’ during an event
in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2005. A Swiss court ruled that his remarks
had racist motives, pointing to anti-racism laws in place that
criminalize the denial of genocide.

In a 2013 decision in favor of Perinçek, the European Court of Human
Rights (ECtHR) ruled that Swiss legislation criminalizing the denial
of genocide violated the principle of freedom of expression. However,
the ECtHR approved an appeal by Switzerland to the ruling last June,
much to the chagrin of Ankara, which described the move as
`politically motivated.’

Speaking at the airport in Istanbul as he left for Strasbourg,
Perinçek, accompanied by 200 members of his party and opposition
Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Masum Türker, said he expected the
court to uphold the previous ruling.

Talks on free trade zone between Israel, Eurasian Economic Union in
progress: Israel FM

17:44, 27 Jan 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The negotiations on establishing a free trade zone between Israel and
the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and
Armenia may switch to a final stage already this April, Israel’s
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an exclusive interview with
TASS on Tuesday.

“We are now considering and very intensively working on creating a
free trade zone [with the Eurasian Economic Union]. This will allow us
to significantly boost our mutual trade,” Lieberman said, marking good
progress in this issue.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel’s foreign minister held a meeting with
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. “We discussed this.
If we speak about the real time framework, we hope that in April they
will switch to a final stage,” he said.

Lieberman reminded that the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and
Russia signed similar documents with Vietnam. “This is the first such
model and we hope to be the second one,” he said.

The minister said both sides have been working rather intensively and
are rather satisfied by the effort. “This is a complex system and a
complex agreement which includes many parameters: standardization,
customs procedures and many other things, but everything is going
forward normally,” he said.

IHS Global Insight
January 26, 2015

Central Bank of Armenia raises interest rates in extra meeting in bid
to curtail inflation expectations

by Venla Sipila

The monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Armenia CBA) on
22 January 2015 called an unscheduled policy meeting, in which it
decided to increase its key refinancing rate by 100 basis points, from
8.5% to 9.5%. The previous rate revision had been an increase from
6.75% to 8.5% in December. The deposit rate was also increased from 7%
to 8%, whereas the Lombard repurchasing rate was lowered from 20% to
17%. These additional rate moves follow the policy direction taken in
December (seeArmenia: 29 December 2014:Central Bank of Armenia raises
interest rate as rapid dram depreciation lifts inflation
expectations). The next scheduled meeting of the monetary policy
committee will take place on 10 February. According to ARKA News, this
will be followed by publication of a detailed monetary policy
programme for the first quarter of 2015. The latest inflation results
from the Armenian National Statistical Service had shown that consumer
prices in December increased by 4.6% year on year (y/y), following the
November gain of 2.6% y/y. Prices jumped by 3.0% from November. The
average consumer price inflation rate for 2014 measured 3.0%,
following 5.8% in 2013.

Significance:While inflation at present fits within the CBA’s target
range, which is determined 2.5 percentage points on either side of the
central target of 4%, inflation expectations in the country are
elevated (seeArmenia: 14 January 2015:Armenian inflation accelerates
at end-2014, trend is likely to continue). This is mostly due to the
recent depreciation of the dram: over 2014, the AMD/USD exchange rate
weakened by 17%, while it slid by nearly 10% during December alone,
even as the central bank engaged in currency market interventions.
Weakening had continued in the first days of January, whereas
cumulative depreciation by 21 January since the turn of the year was
relatively modest, at 0.3%.The central bank hopes that the latest
interest rate moves will help in suppressing inflation expectations
and keeping inflation in target. The further rate rise is somewhat
surprising in its urgency, but not regarding the general policy
direction. Indeed, we believe that Armenian inflation is likely to
continue accelerating in at least in the near term, while it is not
unconceivable that inflation for 2015 as a whole will exceed the
target. Even as the low international oil prices and the overall
weakness of the economy have an opposite impact, we believe that the
depreciation of the dram will be the decisive factor determining near
term inflation developments. Given Armenia’s dependence on Russia for
remittances and export markets, combined with the very weak outlook or
the Russian economy, weakening pressures on the dram are unlikely to
disappear yet.

LIBAN
Beyrouth accueillera une conférence internationale à l’occasion du
100e. anniversaire du génocide arménien

L’Université Haykazyan de Beyrouth et les autorités libanaises dans le
cadre de la commémoration du 100e anniversaire du génocide arménien
vont organiser du 31 janvier au 1er février une conférence
internationale intitulée > parrainé par le chef de l’Union des Églises
évangéliques arméniennes au Moyen-Orient, Megerdich Karageozian.

Suren Manukyan (Les conséquences démographiques, culturelles,
géographiques, économiques et politiques du génocide arménien),
Vladimir Vardanyan (L’élimination des conséquences du génocide
arménien par le droit international), Zaven Msryan (La résistance de
la communauté internationale pendant et après le génocide arménien ),
Saleh Zahreddin (abus du génocide par les Etats contre la Turquie),
Arsen Avagyan (relations Arménie-Turquie de 1991 à 2014), Tatul
Hakobyan (Arménie-Turquie les relations non gouvernementales), Bulent
Bilmez (l’attitude de la Turquie envers les minorités (1923- 2014),
Hranush Kharatyan (Le statut des Arméniens dans la Turquie moderne :
Arméniens islamisés) feront des interventions avec les titres
mentionnés ci-dessus.

mardi 27 janvier 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Inside Toronto, Ontario/Canada
Jan 27 2015

High Park artist’s mixed-media piece commemorates 100th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide

Arleen McCallum hopes to publicly showcase artwork

Bloor West Villager
By Lisa Rainford

Genocides like the Holocaust and in Rwanda, where an estimated one
million Rwandans were killed in 1994, are well-known tragedies in
modern history.

Perhaps little known is the Armenian Genocide – the first genocide of
the 20th century – that saw two million Armenians living in Turkey
eliminated from their historic homeland through forced deportations
and massacres from 1915 to 1918.

High Park-area resident and artist Arleen McCallum hopes to raise
awareness of the massacre through a mixed-media piece she has created
in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in
Turkey. The centennial will be marked through events around the world
on April 24.

Her work, entitled Hepimiz Ermeniyiz (We are all Armenian), also
acknowledges the assassination of Armenien journalist and editor Hrant
Dink, who was killed in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. Dink was murdered
for continuously maintaining that the Armenian genocide did actually
occur, an allegation considered a crime against the state.

Inspired to visit Turkey for its architecture, art and culture –
particularly its rug-making, McCallum said her travels prompted her to
learn more about its history.

“Then Hrant Dink was murdered and I found myself focusing my attention
– and my work – on the historic plight of the Turkish Armenians and
the issue of freedom – freedom of speech and of religion,” she said.

McCallum remained glued to the TV to watch hundreds of thousands of
Turks, Armenians, Muslims, Jews and Christians march in the streets of
Istanbul to mourn Dink and protest his murder. Many carried signs that
said, ‘Hepimiz Hrant Dink’iz’ (We are all Hrant Dink) and ‘Hepimiz
Ermeniyiz’ (We are all Armenian).

“It was the masses of people in the streets that really got my
attention,” said McCallum during an interview at her home. “I hadn’t
known about the Armenian genocide. I started reading about it. There’s
this whole Turkish denial – ‘We didn’t do it, it was just part of the
war.'”

To produce the piece, a diptych in acrylic and mixed media, McCallum
experimented with recycled materials like foil, fabric and found
objects as well as archival photographs. She wanted to create an art
work that would “bear proper witness to a disastrous historical event
and the suffering and bravery of those who were targeted.”

Although, she didn’t want to include any of the “horrible” and
“barbaric” images of the genocide.

The work includes portraits of Armenian survivors and witnesses, the
Armenian flag, a reference to Dink’s funeral procession and a map
marking the sites of concentration camps and massacres.

McCallum hopes to display the artwork publicly in honour of the centennial.

For further information about McCallum’s commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide, visit

Gyumri tragedy accused did not act alone?

15:32, 26.01.2015

YEREVAN. – The ongoing investigation is also considering the theory
that Russian soldier Valery Permyakov, who is the accused in the
recent murder of the Avetisyan family in Armenia’s Gyumri city, had
not acted alone.

The First Deputy Chief of Police of Armenia, Hunan Poghosyan, noted
the abovementioned at a press conference on Monday.

The deputy police chief informed that the investigation puts forward a
variety of theories, which are investigated, and, subsequently, either
dismissed or corroborated.

“The Armenian and Russian law enforcement is working, and everything
will be clear after the completion of the investigation,” Poghosyan
noted.

In addition, he dismissed the rumors that, on the day of the tragic
incident, six other soldiers had fled the Russian military base in
Gyumri.

“Upon arrival at the scene of the incident, I requested for those in
charge of the military base, who gave us clarifications,” Hunan
Poghosyan stated.

As reported earlier, six members of the Avetisyan family–including a
two-year-old girl–were shot dead, and a six-month-old baby was wounded
in their house in Gyumri on January 12; but the baby boy died in
hospital on January 19.

Valery Permyakov, a serviceman of the 102nd Russian Military Base in
the city, stands accused in this crime. Permyakov was apprehended by
the Russian border guards near the Armenian-Turkish border on the same
night, he was arrested on January 14, and he is held in custody at the
Russian military base.

The soldier is charged under Russian law, with “the murder of more
than two people” and “desertion with a service weapon.” And on January
21, the Investigative Committee of Armenia also filed a criminal
charge against Permyakov, and with “premeditated murder of two or more
persons.” The Russian soldier has accepted the charge.

Armenia News – NEWS.am