Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

ARDOUNY: ARMENIAN-AMERICANS WILL NOT REST UNTIL U.S. AFFIRMS GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 25, 2012 – 10:27 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – U.S. President Barack Obama commemorated the victims
of the Armenian Genocide reiterating his position that his “views on
the Armenian Genocide have not changed.” The President recalled the
“darkness of the Meds Yeghern.”

While the President continued to incorporate his prior views in which
he squarely affirmed the Armenian Genocide, the Armenian Assembly of
America (Assembly) is deeply disappointed that his April 24 statement
did not explicitly reference the Genocide.

While President Obama encouraged and tried to provide a safe harbor
for Turks who have come forward in acknowledging Turkey’s genocidal
legacy, the best safe harbor the President can provide is to reiterate
the United States’ position as reflected in the 1951 filing before
the International Court of Justice, President Ronald Reagan’s 1981
Proclamation, as well as the 1993 Federal Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia decision which found that U.S. policy recognizes
the Armenian Genocide, the Assembly said.

In a refutation of the assumptions in the February 2012 United States
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decision in the Movsesian case,
the President stated: “As we reflect on the unspeakable suffering that
took place 97 years ago, we join millions who do the same across the
globe and here in America, where it is solemnly commemorated by our
states, institutions, communities, and families.”

By doing so, the President has directly acknowledged the prerogative
of each state to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, of which 43
states are on record. It also supports the earlier opinion of the
Ninth Circuit Court December 2010 decision, which made reference to
President Obama’s previous use of the word Meds Yeghern and indicated
that “‘Meds Yeghern is the [Armenian] term for Armenian Genocide.'”

The President’s statement also echoed his April 23 address at the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum wherein he announced the
formation of the Atrocities Prevention Board: “Through our words and
our deeds, it is our obligation to keep the flame of memory of those
who perished burning bright and to ensure that such dark chapters of
history are never repeated.”

The day before, President Obama underscored that “preventing mass
atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core
moral responsibility of the United States.” Yet today’s statement,
by employing the Armenian, and not English, term for the Armenian
Genocide, fails to live up to the President’s repeated promises to
unequivocally affirm the Armenian Genocide. President Obama’s April
24th statement reflects another missed opportunity to squarely confront
genocide denial, and needlessly weakens the laudable objectives of
the newly created Atrocities Prevention Board.

“The cause of genocide affirmation and prevention is a fundamental
issue for all of humanity,” stated Assembly Executive Director Bryan
Ardouny. “Only by squarely acknowledging the Armenian Genocide,
and confronting Turkey’s denial, can the promise of the prevention
be realized and truly give meaning to the words never again.”

“The Armenian-Americans will not rest until the United States stands
firmly with the community of righteous nations, wherein 20 countries
have affirmed the Armenian Genocide,” concluded Ardouny.

From: Baghdasarian

TURKS FEAR TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – TURKISH EXPERT

news.am
April 24, 2012 | 23:22

WASHINGTON. – A new discussion on the 1915 events is necessary for
the Turkish Society, Turkish political scientist Omer Taspinar said
in an interview with Voice of America. According to him, the Turks
will enter into open dispute with Armenia and its people when Turkey
overcomes its current notion that all, who live in Turkey, are Turks.

Besides, modern Turkey’s population should realize that the project
of broad assimilation failed and Turkey does have minority, while
its acknowledgement does not necessarily mean encouraging separation.

Speaking about the reluctance of the Turkish establishment for calling
the 1915 events the Armenian Genocide, the expert said that fear
plays major role in this case.

“Many fear that recognition of the Genocide will be the first step,
followed by a flurry of claims both economic and territorial,”
he concluded.

The world commemorates on April 24 the 97th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.

Commemoration actions are held in all states, people remember this
monstrous crime against humanity as over one and a half million
innocent Armenians were massacred in the Ottoman Empire, while hundreds
of thousands were tortured and deported.

The fact of the Armenian Genocide is recognized by many states. It
was first recognized in 1965 by Uruguay. In general, the Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Turkey has already been recognized by Russia,
France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania,
Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada,
Venezuela, Argentina, and 43 U.S. states.

From: Baghdasarian

THE EU AND THE CAUCASUS: NAVIGATING THE COURSE OF INTEGRATION
by ZAUR SHIRIYEV

Today’s Zaman
April 24 2012
Turkey

This month has seen increased EU-based involvement in the South
Caucasus, with the second plenary session of the Euronest Parliamentary
Assembly held in Baku from April 2-4 and with recommendations
being issued at last week’s European Parliament session to the
European Council and European Commission regarding the negotiation
of Association Agreements with Armenia and Azerbaijan, which first
began in July 2010.

The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, it was hoped, would provide
a platform for mediation between Azerbaijan and Armenia and would
serve to build trust and understanding between the two countries. The
European Parliament issued two documents, one each for Azerbaijan
and Armenia, which addressed two key issues for the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the implementation of the EU Association
Agreement.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict In their recommendations to the European
Council on the EU-Azerbaijani Association Agreement, the members of
the European Parliament touched on the importance of the resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, emphasizing the right to return to
the region, the property rights and the right to personal security of
Azerbaijani internally displaced persons (IDP) from Nagorno-Karabakh
and the surrounding territories.

They called for the unconditional restoration of their rights and
financial support from the EU for those affected.

Many of the same recommendations appear in the EU-Armenian Association
Agreement, in which the members of the European Parliament call upon
Armenia to withdraw its forces from the occupied territories and to
return these territories to Azerbaijani control, which would be a
positive development from the EU perspective. The same recommendation
was made in the past but saw little follow-up action, despite the
European Parliament’s resolution of May 20, 2010, “on the need for
an EU strategy for the South Caucasus,” which stressed that “frozen
conflicts are an impediment to the economic and social development and
hinder the improvement of the standard of living of the South Caucasus
region, as well as the full development of the Eastern Partnership;
whereas a peaceful resolution of the conflicts is essential for
stability in the EU neighborhood.”

Another important aspect of the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is security guarantees following the post-settlement
return of IDPs to their homes, which the EU describes as a “genuine
multinational peacekeeping operation in order to create suitable
conditions for the future legally-binding free expression of will
concerning the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh.” But the question of
who will lead such a peacekeeping operation is conspicuously absent
from this document, and the matter remains one of some contention. Any
UN-mandated multinational peacekeeping force would likely be seen as
neutral and a potentially realistic solution.

Regional issues beyond the Association Agreement One of the concerns
raised by the members of the European Parliament is Armenia’s policy
regarding Iran; Armenia still does not fully support the sanctions
against Iran. The recommendation by the European Parliament states
the need to “urge Armenia to make efforts to align its policy towards
Iran with the EU approach to this country.”

Clearly, Armenia’s energy future, as far as it is based on
joint initiatives with Iran, will be negatively affected. Despite
international sanctions on Iranian oil exports, Armenia has continued,
and even increased, its import of Iranian oil, much to the dismay of
the West.

When Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan visited Washington on
March 20, his US counterpart, Leon Panetta, raised the question of
Armenia’s coziness with Iran. It seems that the EU and the US are both
concerned about the future of this Armenian-Iranian cooperation. When
asked, Armenian government officials simply replied, “We have several
scenarios, and they are described in our National Security Strategy.”

If we look at Armenia’s National Security Strategy, it states only
that the sanctions against Iran pose security challenges to Armenia,
despite claims by Armenian officials that there is described in
the document a strategy for how to join in the implementation of
sanctions against Iran. In fact, there is not; neither is there any
description of what Armenia’s strategy should be nor any possible
alternate courses of action for how to deal with security if Armenia
chooses to fall in line with the sanctions.

Another issue in EU-Armenian cooperation is the upcoming parliamentary
elections in Armenia in May. The EU has urged Yerevan to take all
possible steps to ensure free and fair elections. While the EU does
not seek to impose a model or “recipe” for political reform in either
Armenia or Azerbaijan, it supports a policy of mutual effort; “do more
to get more.” The resolution notes that at the time of Armenia’s last
elections, people were killed during the course of police attempts to
prevent an opposition demonstration. It further notes that Armenia
has yet to complete a “transparent and impartial investigation of
the events of 1 March 2008.”

Additionally, one of the important points in the European Parliament’s
recommendations relates to democratic development and political
reform. The EU emphasizes in the Association Agreement the crucial
importance of freedom of expression and human rights issues.

It appears that such issues are high on the agenda of the EU; the EU’s
general strategy since 2009 can be read as supportive of sensitive
issues — namely territorial integrity. Additionally, it has used
this support as leverage in improving human rights and democracy.

One of the basic problems with the EU’s regional policy is that
on the one hand it wants to perform a balancing act, especially
between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but on the other hand it demands full
support for the Minsk Group process, in which it is not directly
involved. The Minsk Group spearheads efforts by the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to find a political
solution to the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh involving
Armenia and Azerbaijan. This balancing act is the main problem in
the EU’s conflict resolution policy, as EU assistance cannot replace
a targeted political and security strategy for conflict prevention
and the deterioration of the situation on the ground has destroyed
the potentially stabilizing effect of EU financial efforts towards
long-term conflict resolution. This is related to the EU’s failure to
create sufficient leverage over the conflicting parties, which would
have enabled it to broker peace. Moreover, the EU proved incapable of
using policies of conditionality, which bring to bear the pertinence of
European Commission President Romano Prodi’s decade-old comment that
“the European Union has ‘limited resources’ to settle the unresolved
conflicts in the South Caucasus” (November 2002). The real question
is whether they have limited resources or whether they only want to
invest limited resources.

From: Baghdasarian

SONYA BEDROSYAN: THERE IS NOT A SINGLE ARMENIAN FAMILY THAT DOES NOT HAVE A RELATIVE KILLED IN THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Focus News
April 24 2012
Bulgaria

Sonya Bedrosyan, Chairperson of the Armenian General Benevolent Union
‘Parekordzagan’ – Sofia (AGBU) , comments on the events organised by
the Armenian community in Bulgaria to mark the 97th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide, in an interview with FOCUS News Agency.

FOCUS: Mrs Bedrosyan, how would the Armenian community in Bulgaria
mark the anniversary of the Genocide?

Sonya Bedrosyan: On Saturday, April 21, the Limier cinema in Sofia
presented a very interesting and impressive movie. It presented a
historical fact, which many people in the world do not know about.

Thanks to the efforts of our organisation and the contacts we have
established, Missak Keleshian [an Armenian researcher] accepted
our invitation and we had the pleasure to listen to his lecture,
in addition to the movie.

The movie was also presented in Bulgaria’s second biggest city
of Plovdiv.

The movie and Mr Keleshian’s lecture were widely covered abroad by
Robert Fisk, who is a popular journalist with the Independent.

On April 24, there will be an event, which will be held in front of
the Khachkar Monument in the Yerevan Garden, behind the building of
the Ministry of Agriculture in Sofia. There will be a procession,
which will start from the Armenian House to the monument.

FOCUS: What is the message sent by Mr Keleshian’s movie The Cry of
the Orphans and what merely known facts does it reveal?

Sonya Bedrosyan: It is a very interesting movie. Five years ago Mr
Keleshian read a book of a German author, titled the Lions of Marash –
Marash is a region in the former Turkish Armenia. Armenians used to
live in this region. The author tells very interesting and strange
things. He tells about the Antoura College in Beirut, Lebanon, which
is located some 20 minutes away for Keleshian’s home. He gets on his
car and goes there. When he arrives, he asks the head of the college
to show him the archives from 1917. The college provides the entire
information it has, including a rich photo collection, and he sees
things, which nobody has seen or heard of before. What he manages to
shoot is what he now presents to the audience.

The materials he studied show that there is a grave of 300 orphans
there, buried in a Muslim manner, without an Armenian liturgy,
without an Armenian cross.

Thanks to him and his work, an Armenian cross – Khachkar, was put
there. It is a very beautiful cross. There was also a liturgy,
following the Armenian traditions.

Since then, the place of the grave has turned into a commemoration
place, visited by many Turks, Armenians and foreign citizens.

What Mr Keleshian shows is a mixture of scenes and frames from the
college where all these things have happened, and where in 1917
Djemal Pasha took 1,000 children, Armenian orphans, and 200 Kurds,
planning to turn them into Muslims.

We do not see anything to be the reason for a riot or negative
consequences neither in the movie, nor in the lecture and the story
itself. These are historical facts, which should be known, since this
thing has happened and it is very interesting, it is something never
shown before.

FOCUS: What is the mark left by the Genocide on the Armenians in the
world, and more precisely, on the Armenians in Bulgaria?

Sonya Bedrosyan: There is not a single Armenian family, which does
not have a relative – a brother, sister or another relative, killed
in the Genocide. At least I do not know of any.

Speaking of my family, two of my aunts were killed on one and the
same day, and my grandfather had to raise their children.

FOCUS: Are there any Bulgarian sources, testifying to the Genocide?

Sonya Bedrosyan: There are definitely some historical sources to prove
these events. There are several cities in Bulgaria, which have already
recognised the genocide, but unfortunately Sofia is not one of them. I
hope that some day the entire country will recognise the Genocide.

FOCUS: According to you, why haven’t Bulgaria already officially
recognised the Genocide?

Sonya Bedrosyan: I guess that one of the reasons is that it is close to
Turkey. In addition, there are still too many facts that are unknown
and that is why we organised this presentation – to show people what
happened in the past and avoid facing such things in the future,
in other countries and other ethnic groups.

FOCUS: What are the relations between Armenia and Turkey today?

Sonya Bedrosyan: The two countries are under negotiations but it is
very hard. The population itself has nothing against the recognition
of the Genocide, but the state has not adopted such a policy. I hope
that some day, this painful issue will be solved with understanding and
good will, there will be a recognition and the souls of the victims
will be relieved, and the relations between the two countries will
start developing in a new way.

From: Baghdasarian

WE REMEMBER, WE FORGIVE, WE SEEK JUSTICE
By Madeleine Mezagopian

AMMON NEWS

April 24 2012

With great sorrow and pain today, April 24th, the Armenians in
the Republic of Armenia and world-wide, joined by their friends,
remember the genocide of One and Half a Million Armenians during
1915-1918. To those who question this most tragic and inhuman event,
I say all Armenians in Diaspora, whose ancestors unarmed and helplessly
watched their brethrens being massacred were left with one choice of
fleeing their lands leaving behind their properties to avoid having
their wives, daughters and sisters being raped and eventually all
getting massacred, are witnesses of the genocide.

Today, as devout Christians, we don’t seek revenge. Today, as
devout Christians, we approach the people of Turkey, not the Turkish
Government, the Turkish people who then and now are Armenians’ friends,
neighbors and partners. The Turkish people whose songs many Armenians
sing, whose food many Armenians cook and enjoy it as the Armenians
enjoy singing Armenian songs and eating Armenian food. We tell the
Turkish people:

We remember the miseries inflicted on our ancestors by your past
Turkish tyrants.

We forgive the Turkish perpetrators for the sake of you the people
of Turkey.

We approach you the people of Turkey, not the Turkish Government,
seeking justice through recognizing the genocide for the souls of
the one and a half million massacred for once and for all to attain
eternal peace.

Today, We remember the injustice inflicted on the Armenians. But
equally and with great gratitude and appreciation we remember each
country with its people, with its governments who provided a safe
heaven for every Armenian refugee.

Today, We the family of late Manuel and Anjel Mezagopian, with immense
love, remember the Hashemite Family, the Jordanians in every part of
beloved Jordan not least in Karak and the people of Jerusalem where
my grandfather Roupen Mezagopian found safe and sacred heaven for
his family among the families of Karak and among the Jerusalemites.

Today, every Jordanian of Armenian origin expresses, with great pride
and respect, loyalty to Jordan, to the Jordanian People and to Jordan’s
Hashemite leadership.

Today, We approach the Divine Providence to embrace not only the
Armenian victims of the Genocide, but all victims of injustice in
the heavenly Kingdom.

Today, We pray for God to enlighten and empower the Turkish people
towards having their government acknowledge the genocide paving the
way for truth and reconciliation which above all will best serve the
interests of Turkey and of the Turkish People.

Today, We Remember, We Forgive, We Seek Justice.

Madeleine Mezagopian Amman, April 24, 2012 Jordan

From: Baghdasarian

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – 97 YEARS ON
By Robert Kazandjian

The Comment Factory

April 24 2012

An article that addresses Turkish state denial of the Armenian Genocide
on the 97th anniversary.

inShare.Malcolm X said ‘If you stick a knife in my back nine inches
and pull it out six inches, that’s not progress. If you pull it all
the way out, that’s not progress. The progress comes from healing the
wound that the blow made. They haven’t even begun to pull the knife
out. They won’t even admit the knife is there.’

The catastrophic wound inflicted upon our collective identity by the
Armenian Genocide cannot begin to heal. The blade of the Ottoman
Gendarme’s bayonet is lodged deep in our hearts. There can be no
progress without recognition.

Ataturk built his modern Turkish state on the myth of resistance
against the imperial powers and their influence. The reality is his
immediate predecessors had expunged all minority peoples from the
land. From Ataturk, to Erdogan, successive Turkish governments have
followed a policy of fierce denial, perpetuating historical lies
through propaganda and repression.

Self-declared beacons of democracy, Israel, the United Kingdom and
the United States, still fail to officially recognise the Armenian
Genocide. Turkey has long been of great strategic importance to
these nations, during the cold-war era as NATO defender on the Soviet
border, today as a proxy in the crusade to liberate specific Middle
Eastern states. It is not surprising that the Armenian Diaspora in
Syria, directly descended from genocide survivors left to languish
in desert deportation camps, shudders at the increasing prospect of
a Turkish-led military intervention.

Any move towards international recognition prompts a predictably
angry response from Ankara.

French parliament submitted legislation that would make it a crime
to deny any genocide officially recognised by the state. France
only recognises the Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. The
legislation prompted a furious response from Prime Minister Erdogan.

Turkey threatened retaliatory measures against its NATO ally.

In the United States, an Armenian Genocide resolution was proposed by
congress to President Clinton. The resolution sought to ensure that
recognition of the genocide became constitutional, a simple bill with
no legal ramifications. Ankara warned the United States that passing
the resolution would have disastrous consequences, Turkish airbases
would be closed to American planes and weapons contracts would be
cancelled. The resolution was quashed and a super-power had been
censored by a client state.

Any attempt to recognise the Armenian Genocide within Turkey is
punishable by law and can have tragic consequences. Under Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code it is illegal to insult Turkey, Turkish
ethnicity and Turkish government institutions. Article 301 is an
overt suppression of free speech.

Prominent Turkish-Armenian intellectual Hrant Dink, who publicly
acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, was charged under Article 301.

Ultra-Nationalists with suspected links to the Turkish deep state
subsequently assassinated him. These explosions of violence are
inevitable. Governmental denial reshapes history and demonises the
victims, successfully replicating the anti-Armenian sentiment that
was rife when the genocide occurred.

The Armenian Genocide is of great importance to modern world history
because it provided a blueprint for centrally organised, systematic
annihilation of a race of people. Fuelled by a pan-Turkic ideology and
under the cover of the First World War, the triumvirate leadership
of the Committee of Union and Progress planned and conducted our
great tragedy.

On April 24th, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested prominent Armenian
community figures and intellectuals in Constantinople and the majority
were executed. This date conventionally marks the beginning of the
genocide. Operating under the pretence that the Armenian minority was
a security threat to the Ottoman Empire, wholesale deportation of all
Armenians from the eastern provinces to concentration camps in the
Syrian Desert was ordered. Deportation was code for massacre. Men,
women and children were slaughtered. The barbaric methodology varied.

Those who survived the death marches were left to starve in the camps.

Over 1,000,000 lives perished.

Immediate parallels can be made between the Armenian Genocide and
the Jewish Holocaust. World War created the ideal conditions for each
atrocity to take place. The propagandist idea that Armenians were a
disease that infected Turkish society foreshadowed the Nazi ideal that
Germany needed to be free of the Jewish race in order to revitalise
itself. When addressing his generals before the invasion of Poland in
1939, Hitler asked rhetorically ‘who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?’ This statement is indicative of the
successful erosion of memory perpetuated by Turkish governments. The
Zionist state’s failure to recognise the Armenian Genocide is
sickeningly ironic.

It is a fallacy to believe that the Armenian Genocide has two
legitimate histories, one for the perpetrators and one for the
victims. The genocide is not an allegation. It is a fact. The denial
of the genocide is a cruel attempt to subvert the truth in order to
preserve a national mythology.

The Armenian Diaspora long for a Turkish leader to recognise the
babies, tiny bodies injected with morphine, futures callously
extinguished by doctors in hospitals. To recognise the children,
forced on to crowded vessels, drowned in the Black Sea and the Tigris.

To recognise the women, brutally, repeatedly violated and left to die.

To recognise the men, horseshoes nailed to their feet, forced to walk
the dusty road towards their own crucifixions.

The Armenian Diaspora long for a Turkish leader to recognise their
ancestor’s crimes so the tortured souls of ours can finally rest.

From: Baghdasarian

CONSTRUCTION OF GUEST HOUSE OF ARMENIA’S EMBASSY IN MOSCOW CANCELLED

Vetsnik Kavkaza
April 25 2012
Russia

The Moscow Commission for Urban Planning and Land, formed by Mayor
Sergey Sobyanin to consider investment contracts, has cancelled
construction of a guest house of the Armenian Embassy at the
Andronievskaya Square in the city center, RIA Novosti reports.

Reconstruction of the residential building at the Androniyevskaya
Square, 6, building 3-4, was approved in April 2005. Moscow was to
pay for moving its residents.

The building was to become a hotel with about 5,600 square meters of
space, 2,000 square meters of them were meant to be underground.

The Armenian Embassy and Uniprom-I.V.V. were the investors of the
project.

From: Baghdasarian

TEHRAN’S ARMENIANS PROTEST AGAINST TURKISH GOVERNMENT

IRNA
APRIL 24, 2012

Tehran, April 24, IRNA – Hundreds of Tehrani Armenians commemorated
the mass slaughter of Armenians by Turkey ninety-seven years ago.

In a ceremony held on the anniversary of the mass killing on Tuesday
morning, the Armenian Archbishop of Tehran Sebouh Sarkissian said
despite nearly a century elapsed after the dreadful event, the world
Armenians will never forget the genocide.

He said the Armenian officials will strongly defend the rights of
the martyrs of the slaughter.

Armenia’s ambassador to Tehran, Armenians’ representative in the
Iranian parliament, Armenian dignitaries and ordinary people taking
part in the ceremony, too, paid tribute to the memory of the victims
of the mass slaughter by the Ottoman Empire by laying wreaths at a
site erected in their memories.

They also called for an official apology by the Turkish government.

From: Baghdasarian

MANVEL SARGSYAN: MASHTOTS PARK HAVE INITIATED A NEW MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE WHO NO LONGER ASK BUT DEMAND
David Stepanyan

arminfo
Tuesday, April 24, 10:52

ArmInfo’s interview with Manvel Sargsyan, Director of the Armenian
Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS).

There is an opinion that this time the election rigging will not
so cynical as before. Is there any change in the methods or, maybe,
the ideology of the authorities has changed?

One cannot say that the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia
will be free and fair. The methods have changed, but the goal hasn’t.

They have simply realized that it is senseless to stuff the ballot
box and they can act more fastidiously. The authorities say that the
elections in May will be transparent, but it is only the secondary
factors that will be transparent Is the administrative terror on
the threshold of the elections transparent? No, it is not. Teachers,
doctors, state officials undergo the roughest criminal pressure. What
transparency can there be? They have simply realized that all the
secondary and insignificant things can be made transparent and waved
as a flag. At the same time, the real picture is not disclosed,
because in this case they will directly go to jail.

People should make their own conclusion. The parties running for
parliament should reply to a simple question: do they think that there
is a mechanism of free elections in Armenia? If there is no such a
mechanism, they should explain to the people how they are going to
receive mandates without obtaining the electorate’s votes. If the
constitutional way of receiving deputy seats is paralyzed and does
not operate, then the seats are gained in a non-constitutional way.

Election results will depend on the

criminal and administrative machine, which dictates the rules of the
game and distributes the votes in line with these rules. People will
not only be forced to vote. The authorities also make people join the
party lists, saying that otherwise they will simply lose their job or
business. Earlier the authorities gave promises to people, but now they
are simply intimidating them. The society itself is able to change the
situation by means of its own efforts without any political parties.

Thus, do you connect the new wave of migration with the political
factors, first of all, and only then with the social factors?

Yes, of course. To do or to undertake something a citizen of Armenia
needs to join someone, otherwise it is impossible to self-realize in
the country. Therefore, people leave anywhere with the only goal to
get an opportunity of self-realization.

Do you think that mass migration from Armenia is a threat to the
national security or it means Levon Ter-Petorsyan’s theory “less
people less problems”?

Well, migration is actually a threat. However, Armenia has other
factors of national security. The system of security oriented at
Russia has no alternative. In the economic issues, Armenia may afford
staking on the West and the EU, first of all. As for the cooperation
with NATO, it is just partnership. It will be possible speaking of
alternative guarantees of national security when NATO armed forces
replace the Russian military base in Armenia. I know no political
force in the country, even in the opposition, that would harshly
oppose the pro-Russian vector of the country’s national security.

You are a member of the “brigade” for dismantling of boutiques in the
Mashtots Park. Do you consider that fight as something more than just
protection of civil rights?

Actually, everything is simple, as the young people which do not want
to let lawlessness in the Mashtots park are educated and have been
doing that what their equals in age have been doing in all over the
world. It means, these are the people which do not want to run away
from Armenia, and are going to finally build a legal state. “Before
these young people nobody disputed about pretension of the criminal
to what does not belong to it. It has turned out that every time
when suddenly somebody says or initiates something in Armenia,
the community asks first of all – who is behind it? This means that
nobody thinks that people can simply gather and do something. This
is a natural fruit of the 20-year old policy in the Armenian way.

Unfortunately, over these 20 years the Armenian society became
accustomed to think that it is practically can do nothing. In
such conditions when all people are confident in their disability,
and when they see any initiative, they ask first of all – who, if
not us? These are possible options: Russia, the West, KGB, CIA,
the American Embassy, masons, etc. He also added that the only
phenomenon which the society thinks it is its own – is criminal:
“Cherny Gago” (black Gago), “Tokhmakhi Mher” (Mher from Tokhmakh
district of Yerevan), Sashik, etc. “And the society never asks –
who gave so many billions to Gagik Tsarukyan? If Robert Kocharyan,
in that case, who gave them to Kocharyan? That is to say, the society
recognizes everything regarding corruption and criminal like its own
one, and never blames for something. Everywhere where the society
sees no corruption and criminal, it asks – who finances these people?

Describe the essence of public-authorities conflict, please.

The oligarchic regime ruling in Armenia is based on usurpation of
the property and the wealth of a whole nation. And when the regime is
illegal, nothing can be legally privatized. Those people had freely
misused our property for years until they faced people who said that
what they had stolen was ours. This is the only way we can handle those
usurpers. Calling them bandits did not work. So, we came and said:
‘This is ours, give it back to us! And that was the beginning to the
regime’s crisis. The same happened in the 1988, when people came and
said: ‘Karabakh is ours, go away!'”

As regards the conflict between the young protesters and the police,
the conflict started when the youth said that the policemen’s actions
were illegal and anti-constitutional and urged them to go away. The
policemen refused, saying that they had no right to dispute the
legality of the orders they received. We said if so, they would stand
there for ever – and not only there but all over Armenia, wherever
there was an illegal boutique. What we meant was that they would have
either to give up or to ask Sahakashvili for additional policemen. The
policemen realize that they are in a losing situation. “They say,
‘You have no right to pass the barriers we have placed,’ and we say,
‘You have no right to place barriers here.’ This is a legal dispute,
where the opponents are hiding behind each other’s backs: the mayor
behind the police, the premier behind the mayor, the president is
acting as if he has nothing to do with the whole thing. But this time
we are firmly committed to go on, and our brigade will be growing.

That is, the Mashtots Park is just a small part of the dark
phenomena that unveiled more serious problems in the system of state
governance…

The situation is extremely serious and the public has no right to
leave such big problems to the youth. The right to private property is
inviolable. But it must be legal and not just on the paper. Methods
of the fight for the constitutional statehoods are currently being
revised. Our task is to make the public behave as the owners of their
own country. Unfortunately, the greatest part of the public in Armenia
subdues to illegal decisions. When people begin to protest against
illegality this ugly phenomenon starts yielding and a constitutional
state can be built instead. The authorities have just no methods to
influence a man protesting against illegal demands. You can arrest him,
beat him up, but never influence. There is peaceful protest against
the police now. Tomorrow it may grow into peaceful protest against
courts. It is a start of a new movement when people no longer ask
but demand.

From: Baghdasarian

SCREENING OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WITH PRODUCER ANDREW GOLDBERG

AGBU University Outreach
Thursday.7:00pm until 9:00pm..

In commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, AGBU University Outreach
and the NYU Armenian Student Council invite you to a screening of the
PBS documentary “The Armenian Genocide,” on Thursday, April 26 at 7pm.

The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with producer
Andrew Goldberg.

Admission is free, but space is limited, so please RSVP to Dan at
212.319.6383 or [email protected].

AGBU is located at 55 East 59th Street, 7th floor (between Park &
Madison Aves).

From: Baghdasarian