Author: Badalian Vardan

MARSEILLE
Patrick Devedjian à Marseille pour soutenir la députée Valérie Boyer
P. Devedjian « la Turquie va suivre de très près le vote de cette
circonscription ! »

L’ex-ministre, député et Président du Conseil général des Hauts de
Seine Patrick Devedjian était hier à Marseille, pour soutenir la
députée Valérie Boyer aux législatives. Accompagné du Premier Adjoint
Roland Blum, la députée Valérie Boyer, l’Adjoint Didier Parakian, les
élus Frédéric Dournayan et Garo Yalic, Patick Devedjian s’est tout
d’abord rendu devant le mémorial du génocide arménien de Beaumont, le
« quartier arménien » de Marseille (12e) pour y déposer une gerbe.

Puis à 17 heurs, à la salle communautaire de l’Eglise de Beaumont
bondée par un public de plus de 400 personnes, s’est tenu un meeting
essentiellement porté sur la Loi de pénalisation du génocide arménien
-dite Loi Boyer-, la reconnaissance du génocide arménien par la France
et la présence arménienne à Marseille.

Didier Parakian a tout d’abord salué les invités et le très large
public. Il a également rappelé les combats des Arméniens pour la
reconnaissance du génocide. « Dans cette salle nous étions très
nombreux et émus, le lendemain du vote de la Loi sur le génocide
arménien en 2001 et je salue Jean-Claude Gaudin qui est ici présent et
qui était l’un des meilleurs défenseurs de cette loi ». D. Parakian a
également salué Valérie Boyer « notre princesse arménienne pleine de
courage et qui se bat pour notre juste cause ». Puis Didier Parakian
laissant la parole au député Guy Teissier qui fut « l’un des premiers
à faire voter le génocide arménien par mon conseil municipal ». Roland
Blum présenté comme un « grand ami de l’Arménie et fin connaisseur du
Haut Karabagh » rappela son soutien indéfectible au combat des
Arméniens pour la reconnaissance du génocide et de la loi de
pénalisation.

Puis le Sénateur-Maire de Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin fit brièvement
l’historique du vote de la loi de 2001 dont il fut l’un des meilleurs
artisans ainsi que le vote de la Loi Boyer par le Sénat. « J’ai
toujours soutenu votre noble cause et je vous soutiendrai toujours ! »
dit Jean-Claude Gaudin très fortement applaudi. L’arrivée sur scène de
Patrick Devedjian donna lieu à un tonnerre d’applaudissements d’un
public debout. Patrick Devedjian rappela le combat des Arméniens pour
la reconnaissance du génocide et appela la France à prendre ses
responsabilités dans la Loi de pénalisation. « Ce n’est pas une loi
mémorielle » dit-il « et cette affaire n’est pas une affaire entre
Turcs et Arméniens comme veulent bien le dire nombre de personnes car
elle concerne également la France ». Et Patrick Devedjian de rappeler
l’Histoire et notamment les accords Sykes-Picot dans laquelle la
France avait un rôle de protectorat en Cilicie où vivaient des
centaines de milliers d’Arméniens rescapés du génocide et « qui
furent lchés à leur sort ». La France est dont concernée. Patrick
Devedjian a également rappelé le combat des Arméniens pour la
reconnaissance du génocide et affirmer « tout est parti de Marseille
». Evoquant la stèle du génocide placée dans la cour de l’Eglise
arménienne du Prado qui donna lieu au rappel à Ankara de son
Ambassadeur et 1973.

Enfin, Patrick Devedjian appela à voter Valérie Boyer pour les
législatives « car la Turquie va suivre de très près les résultats de
ce vote ici même…donc votez en votre me et conscience ! ».

Valérie Boyer remercia Patrick Devedjian d’avoir accepté l’invitation
de venir à Marseille. Elle rappela également l’anecdote, celui de
l’achat en sa compagnie d’une croix arménienne en or sur un marché
d’Erévan en octobre dernier lors du voyage du président Français en
Arménie. « A chaque fois que j’ai un problème, je touche cette croix »
dit Valérie Boyer. Elle rappela également l’historique de sa Loi (Loi
Boyer) sur la pénalisation du négationnisme du génocide arménien. Elle
affirma également son engagement sans faille auprès des Arméniens «
qui sont toujours dans mon c`ur » dit-elle. La sénatrice Sophie
Joissains (Bouches du Rhône) qui revenait d’un voyage en Arménie et au
Haut Karabagh remit à Valérie Boyer un cadeau ramené du Haut Karabagh.

Le public assista ensuite à la projection du film « Le fils du
marchand d’Olives » de Mathieu Zeitindjioglou.

Krikor Amirzayan texte et reportage-photo à Marseille

dimanche 3 juin 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

Premier is disappointed that Prosperous Armenia Party will not be part
of new Cabinet

news.am
June 02, 2012 | 17:06

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s PM Tigran regrets the fact the Prosperous Armenia
Party will not take part in the country’s new Government. Sargsyan
stated this during a briefing with news reporters, and following
Saturday’s session of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)
Executive Body (EB).

Sargsyan informed that the new Cabinet’s makeup will be introduced soon.

Also, he promised numerous novelties.

`All the changes, which we had pledged, will be included in our
program,’ the PM said.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, the RPA EB and Council held
a session Saturday, during which a unanimous decision was reached to
nominate serving PM Tigran Sargsyan’s candidacy to the office of the
Prime Minister.

Film to portray Leonardo DaVinci’s travels in Cilicia

June 2, 2012 – 16:55 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A new film by history buff Arsen Hakobyan of Armenia
intends to put into perspective Armenia’s influence on Europe, both in
terms of exporting Christianity, as well as exporting its church
architecture and numerous saints, according to The Armenian
Mirror-Spectator.

The film, shot on location in Armenia as well as in Georgia and
several European countries, gives as examples churches in Europe that
were built heavily influenced by the Armenian church structure – most
perfectly and earliest executed in Echmiazdin and Bagaran. Among those
churches is San Satiro in Milan, the original structure of which was
based on the seventh-century Bagaran church.

The DVD can be watched in Armenian, English, Russian or French.

The film also spends time on the reported travels by Renaissance
genius Leonardo DaVinci in Cilicia, specifically around the Taurus
Mountains. According to his Codex Atlanticus, housed in the Ambrosian
Library in Milan, he spent some time in Cilicia in the 1480s, where he
witnessed an earthquake in Erzinga. He had reportedly gone there at
the behest of the Sacred Sultan of Egypt. He sketched many faces, as
well as the topography of the region.

The filmmaker, Hakobyan, said that the film would be `for all the
people who don’t know Armenia and Armenian history.’ In particular, he
said, Armenians sent many proselytizers to Europe to preach
Christianity, some even long before the formal adoption of
Christianity as the state religion in 301 AD.

Editor: counterweight to single-party system meets public interest

June 2, 2012 – 16:43 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The editor-in-chief of Beirut-based Aztag daily
published an article in which he commented on Prosperous Armenia
party’s refusal to join the new ruling coalition.

According to Shahan Kandaharian, the decision may bring about drastic
changes in the country’s political field, becoming a counterweight to
single-party system.

In this context, he noted refusal to endorse the leader of the ruling
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), President Serzh Sargsyan at 2013
presidential race as one of the reason behind Prosperous Armenia’s
decision.

The editor further brought another explanation, according to which the
party’s step is viewed as a game, aiming to attract opposition votes.

In the conclusion, Mr. Kandaharian noted that public attention is
currently focused on Prosperous Armenia as counterweight to
single-party system meets the state and public interests.

EU rep.: Armenian-Turkish process mustn’t be linked with Karabakh issue

June 1, 2012 – 21:04 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The linkage of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement
with Armenian-Turkish reconciliation may negatively affect both
processes, the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and
the Crisis in Georgia said.

`The normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations may positively affect
the whole region, however it shouldn’t be linked with Karabakh issue,’
Ambassador Philippe Lefort said.

He voiced hope for the problems to be resolved, conveying EU’s
readiness to foster building of trust between the conflicting parties.

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

Tractors for Votes

Democracy in Armenia

Jun 11, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 37 . By ALEC MOUHIBIAN

The Weekly Standard

Yerevan, Armenia

Every election in Armenia for the last 21 years has been praised by the West
as a step in Armenia’s democratic progress. That this tiny Christian nation
has held elections at all strikes the outside world as worthy of applause.
After centuries of Ottoman oppression, culminating in a genocide that wiped
out two-thirds (1.5 million) of its people and robbed the rest of their
homes, followed by 70 years of Soviet rule, the emergence in 1991 of an
independent state with the name “Republic of Armenia” was something of a
miracle. The smallest post-Soviet republic is landlocked and largely
mosque-locked: Armenia enjoys Turkey, Iran, Georgia, and Azerbaijan around
its borders. The latter threatens war at any moment to reoccupy the ancient
Armenian territory of Mountainous Karabakh-the Stalin-carved region
Armenians fought to liberate in 1993-and spends millions hosting diplomats
and journalists to inform them of the evil “Armenian enemies” who control
the world’s media and banks.

Corruption seems like small potatoes in a climate like this. Which is one
reason so few in the outside world have bothered to notice how Armenia’s
political culture is reversing the triumph of its independence, guiding the
nation steadily deeper into the lap of Grandmother Russia.

On May 6, Armenia elected its fifth National Assembly. Of the 131 seats in
parliament-90 decided by party percentage, the rest by individual regional
races-an absolute majority of 69 were won by President Serzh Sargsyan’s
ruling Republican party, whose real popularity can be gleaned from its
marvelous campaign slogan: “Believe in us, so we change.” Another 37 seats
were taken by the Prosperous Armenia party, led by oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan,
a former arm-wrestling champion who campaigned with a gun in his hip pocket
and whose arms look like a pair of overfed farm boys. Just 17 seats were
split by three other opposition forces. Each barely-and conveniently, to
quell unified protests-passed the minimum threshold to enter parliament.

American ambassador John Heffern and EU leaders gave the election a
thumbs-up. Considering the fairer media coverage and less blood this time
around, it might have been justified. Only one independent candidate
withdrew from the race, after being beaten nearly to death by the thugs of
an oligarch who opposed him on the Republican ticket. In terms of actual
voting, however, the truth was hinted at by the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe’s report of “widespread interference” in the
process. That was the notoriously namby-pamby OSCE’s way of describing the
most fraudulent and publicly dispiriting election in the country’s history.

Since Armenia’s last parliamentary election in 2007, roughly 300,000 people
have left the country. Yet voter turnout this year somehow increased by
200,000. Armenian citizens are not allowed to vote from outside the country.
But their names and passport information-plus those of many corpses-are in
the possession of the police and appeared Election Day on freshly printed
passports that droves of government hands, some clearly under 18, took from
precinct to precinct. Passports were stamped with vanishing ink that further
enabled multiple voting. Thus did the president’s party manage to forge at
least half a million of the 1.5 million total votes counted, while refusing
to publicize the eligible voter list against which the ballots could be
verified.

Fraud wasn’t the only electoral problem. Every public institution is
controlled by the ruling party. Every public employee-in schools, hospitals,
the army-is scared into voting accordingly, at threat of their jobs. Some
even stand as candidates against their will. I know of two distinguished
members of the Republican parliamentary ticket who secretly voted for the
opposition. And of those neither impersonated nor pressured at the polls, a
disheartening percentage were bought. Bribes were distributed en masse
throughout the monthlong campaign season by ruling-coalition parties,
through their offices and the charities their leaders control.

“You’re not giving money?” I was asked, by people young and old, while on
the campaign trail with the opposition Heritage party. Mostly the bribes
took the form of 5,000 or 10,000 dram notes ($12 and $24). The
arm-wrestler’s party-blatantly enough to be noticed by the OSCE-also
distributed tractors.

Some conscientious objectors ripped up the cash they were given and stuffed
it into their ballot envelopes. But they were too few, and their votes were
disqualified. With its record numbers of vote-rigging and vote-buying, May 6
“delivered a nationwide abyss deeper and more ominous than ever before,” in
the words of opposition leader Raffi K. Hovannisian, whose Heritage party
retained its minimal presence in parliament, and who will likely contest the
presidency in February 2013.

Hovannisian knows this abyss as well as anyone. In 1991, he left a lucrative
legal career in his hometown of Los Angeles to return to Armenia. Soon after
raising the Armenian flag at the U.N. as the country’s first foreign
minister, Hovannisian resigned in disgust at the machinations of Armenia’s
first president and has spent the years since as a dissident in reverse
exile. Last March he staked his life on the belief that democracy in name
only has led to an independent Armenia in name only, holding a 15-day hunger
strike on a public bench in freezing weather.

There’s plenty of evidence for that belief. The oligarchs who run Armenia
owe their monopolies-on gas, on sugar and flour, on every basic resource-to
tycoons around the Kremlin, to whom they have sold Armenia’s gold mines and
power plants. And more. In August 2010, Russia signed a 24-year extension on
control of a crucial military base in Armenia, funded and sustained entirely
by the Armenian state. As for human resources, over the last
20 years, at increasing speed, up to
1.5 million citizens have fled the country, a number whose symbolism is not
lost on those who remain.

The exodus shows no sign of slowing. And none of this helps Armenia’s
ability to handle its far wealthier Islamic foes. Given the retreating
direction of political progress, it is not farfetched to think that the
presidential election in February presents the last chance for an Armenian
Spring.

Fighting for that spring will be a few hundred thousand citizens who
continue to vote their convictions against every temptation of bribery and
despair. Many of them are the same freedom fighters who spearheaded the
democratic revolt within the Soviet Union in 1988. Their ancestors, in the
brief window between genocide and communism, managed to establish a
constitutional republic from 1918 to 1920 that even included women’s
suffrage; it failed to survive largely because isolationists in the U.S.
Senate rejected Woodrow Wilson’s Mandate for Armenia. Will the current
republic finally become a home for that spirit, or a cemetery? The answer
might depend on whether the West helps out for once in a serious way-or opts
instead for a diplomacy that wins friends and influences no one.

Aiding Armenia now would not take much courage or controversy. Words could
do the trick. Set on joining the EU and influenced by its diaspora,
Armenia’s rulers are exceedingly sensitive to European and American
pressure. The president’s Republican party is an “observing” member of the
European People’s party. The leader of that coalition could shame the
Armenian government into a few basic yet game-changing reforms- publicizing
voter lists, for one.

Instead, the president of the European People’s party, Belgium’s Wilfried
Martens, praised the May 6 travesty as “mainly free and fair” and
congratulated the victorious Republicans on an “excellent success.”

Alec Mouhibian is a writer in Los Angeles.

PUTIN DEMANDS MISSILE DEFENSE GUARANTEES

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 2, 2012 – 10:51 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Russia will hold partner-like dialogue on missile
defense with Western countries if it has guarantees that the missile
shield is not directed against it, President Vladimir Putin said on
Friday, June 1.

“We are constantly being told that the missile defense system is
not directed against Russia. We would like to receive military and
technological guarantees fixed in legally binding documents,” Putin
told journalists after talks with his French counterpart Francois
Hollande in Paris.

“Only then will we be able to feel safe and hold normal partner-like
dialogue,” he said.

“Statements like ‘don’t be afraid, we promise that nothing will happen’
are clearly insufficient in the modern world. This is childish. We need
guarantees and serious agreements in the security sphere,” Putin said.

He added that he hopes constructive dialogue with France and other
NATO members is possible, RIA Novosti reported.

Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on the so-called European missile
defense system at the Lisbon summit in November 2010. NATO insists
there should be two independent systems that exchange information,
while Russia favors a joint system with full-scale interoperability.

Russia’s military and political leaders have repeatedly warned their
western partners that if talks fail, Moscow may take a series of
measures including deployment of Iskander short-range nuclear-capable
ballistic missiles in the Kaliningrad exclave.

ARMENIA’S HERITAGE PARTY LEADER TO GIVE UP PARLIAMENTARY MANDATE?

news.am
June 02, 2012 | 13:05

YEREVAN. – When forming opposition Heritage Party’s proportional
list for Armenia’s recently-held National Assembly elections,
Heritage’s Chairman Raffi Hovannisian was in favor of not taking up
the list’s first spot and, instead, being 21st, and thus bringing the
youth forward. The Free Democrats Party likewise shares this view,
and therefore-and if need be-they are ready to yield their spots,
Hovannisian himself said during Heritage’s special congress convened
on Saturday.

At the same time he noted that he is currently putting the newly-elect
Party Board’s final list on the table of the Board.

“But in any case, together we must create an unprecedented social
and political force by [this] fall, in order to bring Armenia back,”
Raffi Hovannisian stated.

He added that the people must have a presidential candidate who
belongs to them.

TURQUIE : OPPOSITION DéTERMINéE DU PREMIER MINISTRE A L’AVORTEMENT

Publié le : 01-06-2012

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
soumet ce communiqué de presse publié sur le site de l’Amnesty
International le 30 mai 2012.

Légende photo: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Premier ministre turc, a comparé
l’avortement a un meurtre. | © Chandra Prakash/Demotix

Amnesty International

Communiqué de presse

Amnesty International est profondément préoccupée par les
déclarations du Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan annoncant
de nouvelles dispositions législatives sur l’avortement qui, si
elles étaient adoptées, restreindraient l’accès des femmes et des
filles a des soins de santé dont elles ont besoin, en violation de
leurs droits fondamentaux.

Lors d’une récente manifestation publique, le Premier ministre
a comparé l’avortement a un meurtre et a demandé au ministre de
la Santé de faire adopter une nouvelle loi en la matière, plus
restrictive.

L’avortement est autorisé en Turquie depuis 1983. Les femmes peuvent
décider d’interrompre leur grossesse durant les 10 premières semaines
de celle-ci. Passé ce délai, l’avortement ne peut intervenir
légalement que dans les cas où la vie ou la santé de la femme
enceinte sont en jeu, ou lorsqu’il y a malformation du fÅ”tus.

Santé maternelle mise en danger

Restreindre l’accès a l’avortement va a l’encontre de l’intérêt
médical et met la vie et la santé des femmes turques en
danger. Celles qui ont besoin d’avorter devront en effet se tourner
vers des solutions illégales, et donc généralement dangereuses. Pour
l’Organisation mondiale de la santé, plus la législation sur
l’avortement est restrictive, plus l’avortement est susceptible
d’être dangereux et d’entraîner la mort.

Restreindre l’accès a l’avortement et priver les femmes de la
possibilité d’interrompre leur grossesse dans la légalité et
en toute sécurité constitue aussi une violation des droits
fondamentaux des femmes garantis dans de nombreux instruments
internationaux contraignants. La Turquie est partie a plusieurs
trait̩s internationaux relatifs aux droits humains Рnotamment le
Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques, le Pacte
international relatif aux droits économiques, sociaux et culturels et
la Convention sur l’élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination
a l’égard des femmes – qui garantissent tout un éventail de droits
fondamentaux liés intrinsèquement a la possibilité pour chaque
femme de décider si elle veut être mère, a quel moment, avec quel
partenaire et combien de fois dans sa vie. Les organes d’experts des
Nations unies habilités par les Ã~Itats a interpréter ces traités
ont a plusieurs reprises demandé que les femmes et les adolescentes
aient accès a un ensemble de services de santé sexuelle et de santé
reproductive, y compris, lorsque nécessaire, a l’avortement.

Amnesty International demande au gouvernement turc de faire en sorte
que les droits fondamentaux des femmes soient pleinement protégés
et qu’aucune mesure restreignant l’accès des femmes a un service
d’avortement sÔr et légal ne soit mise en place.

30 mai 2012

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : Amnesty International

HAROUTIOUN MERDINYAN MEDAILLE DE BRONZE EUROPEENNE A MONTPELLIER
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
samedi 2 juin 2012

L’Armenie a remporte sa medaille aux Championnats d’Europe masculin
de gymnastique artistique a Montpellier (France). Haroutioun Merdinyan
a gagne une medaille de bronze dans les comptetions du cheval d’arcons.

Dimanche 27 mai, H. Merdinyan (25 ans) qualifie pour les Jeux
Olympiques de Londres a realise 15,300 points a Montpellier prenant
la 3e place. L’Armenien est derrière Krisztian Berki (Hongrie, 15,958
points) et Louis Smith (Grande-Bretagne 15,775 points). Aux anneaux,
un autre representant de l’Armenie, Vahakn Davdyan a termine a la 8e
place avec 14,400 points. En concours general Arthur Davdyan egalement
qualifie pour les J.O. de Londres s’est classe 5e.