Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

TURKISH ACTIVISTS THREATEN AUTHOR OF BILL CRIMINALIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL WITH RAPE AND TORTURE

arminfo
Wednesday, December 28, 21:27

Valerie Boyer, a French M.P. who drafted the bill criminalizing
the Armenian genocide denial, has been made a target by the Turk
activists. She has received death threats following the passing of a
bill making the denial of the Armenian genocide in Turkey a criminal
offence. Valerie Boyer has also been threatened with rape and torture.

As a result of these threats, she and members of her family have
been given police protection. Since the passing of that bill in the
French National Assembly, the Turkish government has launched an
intimidatory campaign targeting French politicians. To become law,
the bill needs to be ratified by the Senate (the French Upper House
). This incident illustrates beyond doubt that Turkey does not have the
required democratic credentials and the cultural profile to be a member
of the commonwealth of civilised nations, my.telegaph.co.uk reports.

To recall, Boyer’s website was subjected to numerous attacks by
hackers on the Christmas day.

From: Baghdasarian

ANCIENT ARMENIAN CAPITAL BEING RESTORED

ARMENPRESS
DECEMBER 28, 2011
YEREVAN

In the passing year the Culture Ministry’s Historic-Cultural Heritage
Scientific-Research Center has made excavations in ten monuments.

Speaking to reporters December 28 head of the center Hakob Simonyan
said as a result of the works the state list of Armenian monuments
has been essentially filled. In the passing year “Monument” yearbook
was prepared, Goris historic-cultural union was created.

Simonyan informed that this year excavations were made in few
directions aimed at preparing monuments for the restoration. Within the
framework of the program excavations were made in Dashtadem castle,
Lori fortress, Chichkhanavank, Yeghvard St. Astvatsatsin church and
Goris St. Astvatsatsin church.

“From this year projecting works have started, in 2012 we will start
restoring so that one of the ancient towns, capital of Lori-Tashir
Kingrom become a tourism center,” he said.

From: Baghdasarian

KAJARAN MINE WILL BE DRILLED, SAYS COMBINE DIRECTOR

Tert.am
28.12.11

The mine in Armenia’s southern village of Kajaran will be drilled,
Maxim Hakobyan, General Director of Zangezur Copper Molybdenum Combine,
has said.

Speaking to reporters after a New Year reception at the presidential
office on Wednesday, Hakobyan said: “… There is no problem there:
The mine will be drilled.”

It comes after the government adopted a decision to use a copper-rich
territory – around 600 hectares – in the southern province of Syunik
for mining.

The decision kicked up resentment among local residents who condemned
the government’s move.

“Kajaran is a good city, it has good mines,” Maxim Hakobyan said,
though the reporter asking the question meant the village of Kajaran
where the area under discussion is located.

Further, Hakobyan spoke about the achievements of the factory during
2011.

“We registered a 25% growth in industrial output and about 40% growth
is forecast next year,” said he.

“This year we raised the salaries of our employees which we are going
to do also next year,” Hakobyan added.

The area that according to the government decision is set to be used
for mining encompasses 5-6 villages, including Kajaran.

From: Baghdasarian

EVEN THE GREATEST LOVE ENDS
Siranuysh Papyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:51:26 – 29/12/2011

Today, the owner of Le Cafe de Paris Company, French-Armenian
businesswoman Valerie Ashkhen Gortsunyan, left for France. We held
an interview with her before her departure.

Ashkhen, you have been in Armenia for 16 years. Your Le cafe de Paris
was a unique place. How do you dare to leave all this?

I thought a lot what to do. I even tried to persuade my sons to
come here but I could not, and I saw that I can’t make them come
here and fight in this atmosphere, which, unfortunately is not yet
close to European standards. It was difficult and sad for me to make
this decision. It is a very difficult moment for me and I appreciate
people’s support.

Even a Facebook account was created urging you not to leave.

I never said I’m leaving forever. In order to fight you need economic
means. But my business has gone bankrupt. I’m one of those people
who are out of any standards and it is normal that my business would
go bankrupt one day. Taxes are enormous and, unfortunately, if you
are not like them, you can’t resist. This does not mean I failed,
this is a protest.

You noted you will not sell your business to an oligarch. Do you
think about solving this issue by selling it to a person committed
to European values? So, you will no longer be your type?

I don’t like saying I am important. The important thing for me is
the staff of Le Cafe de Paris. I want to ensure the will have work.

The person, who is interested in buying it will have to keep the
whole staff.

You have worked during the tenure of all the three presidents. Have
you noticed any tax changes?

When I came to Armenia 16 years ago, I was freed from taxes for
the first 5 years, as a Diaspora investor. Then, during the second
president, I don’t remember much difficulty because my husband was
with me. But during the last four years, things only got worse.

Everyone created obstacles for us. Instead of helping me, they created
obstacles and sued me and fined 80 million. I am very much offended.

Are you offended by the activities of the authorities?

Unfortunately, I dealt with the justice and tax services, and I saw
a lot of unfair decisions against me and my company.

Can this be a precedent for other Diaspora businessmen to avoid
investing in Armenia?

I want Diaspora representatives to invest in Armenia. But if someone
asks me about the situation I will explain to them how they should
make investments not to have problems in Armenia because there are
keys you should have after investing.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion on the need for changes
in the country.

In these four years, the first thing that I cannot accept as an
Armenia is the March 1. This was a slap for me as an Armenian.

The change I see is that many more Armenians keep leaving the
country. I see that the population is decreasing and the quality too,
which is worrying for me as a person who loves Armenia. I have met
with young people recently related to my issues, who were intelligent,
resistant and fearless, and this gave me hope.

Is it possible that your ideas are oppositional so it hindered your
relations with the authorities?

It is very much possible. As a woman from the Diaspora who speaks,
I hindered them. If they are not so intelligent to understand that
they and the country need people like me, I was born in France where
people express their opinion without fear, this is the type of person
I am, so I am happy if I troubled them.

What should the country do to stop emigration?

Armenia has an issue of communication with Europe by sea. Inside the
country, we have oligarchy, unfair competition, unreliable economy
and the country doesn’t give any opportunities to young people to
succeed. It is necessary to change the economic policy completely
for Armenians to stay here and trust the country. A big change is
necessary, which can be called revolution or change of government.

What did these years give you?

Wealth, in terms of people. I made a lot of friends in Armenia;
I would have never had this chance elsewhere. Thanks to Armenia, I
learned Armenia’s reality and history, now I can see the differences
between the Diaspora and Armenia. I reevaluated freedom and after
living in Armenia I started appreciating the freedom I had in France.

Is there any force in Armenia fighting for freedom?

The young people who are civil and I think they will save the future
of Armenia.

You are returning in January…

Yes. When I decided to come to Armenia, all my friends wondered what
I was going to do in this collapsed country. But I decided that I
needed to invest in Armenia. I wanted to enter the economic fight to
participate in the creation of the country. I will come and protest
against the country this way to state that I disagree and that I
have no debts or obligations towards you. This is not the end of my
Armenian story; on the contrary, this is a Renaissance. My love to
Armenia does not end, it will end only when I die…

From: Baghdasarian

RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN SHOAH

,7340,L-4168159,00.html
12.29.11

Op-ed: With Turkey ties at nadir, time is right to finally recognize
Armenian tragedy

For many years now, many Knesset members (mostly leftists for some
reason) have been trying to hold the heated discussion on the Armenian
holocaust and Israel’s recognition of it.

Yet somehow, at the end of the day, a senior security official always
ends up explaining with authoritative calm that this isn’t the right
time, that it’s none of our business, that we shouldn’t quarrel with
the Turks, and that if only we wait a little more everything will
be fine.

Yet there should be no question that Israel should recognize the
Armenian Shoah. After all, there is no need to explain why we, who
experienced a Holocaust unprecedented in the history of the world,
cannot lend our hand to the denial of another Shoah (even though
there is no need to view both tragedies in the exact same way, as
regrettably our Shoah was much greater in scope and much more brutal.)

Moral duty

The question of what exactly happened there is irrelevant to this
issue. After all, no sane historian is willing to accept the Turkish
claim that it was merely a matter of a civil war and not a methodical
massacre of the Armenians by the Turks.

The only question one can consider is why now? And the answer to it is
that if not now, then when? If not at this time, when our ties with
Turkey under Erdogan – who is doing everything in order to quarrel
with and humiliate the State of Israel – are at a nadir, then when?

After reconciliation takes place, if it takes place?

There is a story about a man who was so sick that his doctors told
him that once he dies it will constitute an improvement for him.

Similarly, our ties with Erdogan’s Turkey cannot deteriorate any
further; what’s more, at this time he is preoccupied with his dispute
vis-a-vis France.

Given the fact that recognizing the Armenian holocaust is a moral
duty on our part, and also because at this time we have nothing to
lose from yet another dispute with Turkey’s current and odd ruler,
this is the time to take action. If not now, then when?

From: Baghdasarian

DUTCH PARTY CHALLENGES TURKEY’S NATO MEMBERSHIP

asbarez
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Head of the Dutch Party for Freedom Geert Wilders

AMSTERDAM-The Netherlands’ third largest political party urged
the country’s Foreign Affairs and Defense ministries last week to
reconsider Turkey’s NATO membership, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Head of the Dutch Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, and the party’s
Middle East expert, parliament member Wim Kortenoeven, accused Turkey
of abandoning its allies Israel and France, the report said.

The Turkish government had implemented sanctions on France immediately
after the French Parliament voted Dec. 22 in favor of a bill penalizing
the denial of the events in 1915 as genocide.

France and Holland were regarded as being among the leading countries
in the NATO military alliance by the Jerusalem Post.

Kortenoeven reportedly told the Jerusalem Post that “Turkey had a
short but disturbing history of abandoning its allies” and “it could
be a lethal mistake to entrust them with the custody of a crucial
element of new Western/European defence system against nuclear rogue
states such as Iran and Pakistan.”

The party’s military spokesperson also posed questions to the
ministries regarding Turkey’s reliability as a NATO partner, the
article said.

The article mentioned a statement by Radio Netherlands Worldwide
in which it said that it was unlikely for Netherlands or Germany to
follow the French example and pass resolutions against Turkey.

“Both countries have large Turkish communities. No one will be keen
to offend them with a ban. But it would be good to put a bit more
pressure on Turkey. It’s always good to take an honest look at your
history,” Lariss van den Heri, professor of international law at
Leiden University was quoted as saying.

From: Baghdasarian

Les intellectuels turcs inquiets et divises
par : Marchand, Laure

Le Figaro Economie
Vendredi 23 Decembre 2011

Les intellectuels turcs inquiets et divises

LE DEBAT qui a commence a emerger en Turquie sur la memoire du genocide
armenien pourrait etre victime de la loi francaise, selon la plupart
des intellectuels d’Istanbul. ” Depuis 2008, le debat etait plus
serein en Turquie, constate Cengiz Aktar, dont la demande publique
de pardon aux Armeniens avait, a l’epoque, recueilli plus de 30 000
signatures. Ce changement d’atmosphère s’explique par un processus
pedagogique de remise en cause de l’histoire officielle. Et, alors
que la memoire revient desormais au galop en Turquie, cette loi cree
une reaction negationniste epidermique qui envahit les medias.

C’est totalement contre-productif. ”

” Memoire academique ” Les progrès ont ete spectaculaires ces dernières
annees. Depuis 2010, des commemorations publiques sont autorisees en
Turquie, pour le 24 avril, date des premières rafles d’Armeniens a
Istanbul. La ” memoire academique ” s’est reveillee. Les publications
sur la ” question armenienne ” se multiplient sous l’impulsion de
l’editeur turc Osman Koker. En novembre, a Diyarbakir, s’est tenue une
conference universitaire reunissant des chercheurs turcs et etrangers,
où le genocide, sa genèse et ses consequences ont ete largement et
librement debattus.L’Etat turc a fait quelques gestes significatifs, en
restaurant par exemple l’eglise d’Aghdamar, sur le lac de Van. ” Tout
ca, c’est un travail de fond auquel la France n’a rien compris, c’est
gravissime. Cette introspection est la seule dynamique fondamentale
qui finira par remettre en cause la lobotomisation orchestree
par l’Etat turc depuis 1915. ” Beaucoup craignent un retour a une
position defensive. Orhan Kemal Cengiz, avocat et partisan d’une
reconnaissance, rappelle qu’en 2006 le journaliste turco-armenien
Hrant Dink s’etait lui aussi declare oppose a la penalisation de la
negation du genocide, adoptee en première lecture par l’Assemblee
nationale. Comme le directeur du journal Agos, assassine l’annee
suivante par un jeune Turc d’extreme droite, il pense que cette loi
” ne fera que renforcer les nationalistes “.

Hypocrisie

Baskin Oran, autre intellectuel très engage et volontiers provocateur
sur la question, soutient l’initiative hexagonale au risque de passer
” pour un traître a la patrie “. Car ” malheureusement “, selon lui,
” nous n’avons aucune volonte de nous debarrasser par nous-memes de
la souillure ” laissee par les commanditaires des atrocites de 1915,
le parti des Jeunes Turcs. La liberte des historiens invoquee par
les autorites turques n’est qu’une ” hypocrisie “, pense aussi Ayse
Gunaysu, presidente de la branche stambouliote de l’Association des
droits de l’homme. ” Lorsque la loi Gayssot a ete votee, personne en
Turquie ne l’a contestee “, rappelle cette militante, qui a organise
une commemoration, le 24 avril dernier, devant l’ancienne prison de
Sultanahmet, où ont ete emprisonnes des Armeniens d’Istanbul avant
la deportation. Un discours peu audible dans les medias.

From: Baghdasarian

FINANCE MINISTRY DESCRIBES ABUSES IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE UNPRECEDENTED

ARMENPRESS
DECEMBER 27, 2011
YEREVAN

Head of the Finance Ministry’s Financial Inspectorate Sona Ghaibyan
said 1.3 billion AMD ungrounded payments of pensions were made in
2009-2010 on behalf of 5 847 pensioners who were not in the republic.

According to her, 1288 dead people have been discovered who were
included in the lists of payments of the beginning of this year. On
behalf of them 105 million AMD pensions and funeral allowances
were paid.

“4 602 pensioners were not found in related bases. The payment related
to them made 2.3 billion. Wrong calculations amounting to 97 million
AMD were registered in regional departments. It was obvious that
relative of the pensioner coming into agreement with the official
appointing pension and the official who pays received part of the
money giving the rest to the state bureaucrat. In other case, the
pensioner was not paid pension: he/she were dead or were not in the
republic for years,” Gharibyan said.

She said thanks to a number of steps of the government the corruption
risks have essentially reduced.

After the inspection in the social insurance sphere was over the
results were sent to the RA prosecutor’s general office.

Criminal cases have been evoked. As of December 19, 2011 5 355 people
have been interrogated within the framework of the case, 24 accusations
have been forwarded.

From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJAN SEEKS TURKEY’S MEMBERSHIP IN MINSK GROUP – AMBASSADOR

Tert.am
27.12.11

Azerbaijan wishes Turkey to become a member of the OSCE Minsk Group,
according to Faik Bagirov, the Azerbaijani ambassador to Ankara.

Speaking to the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, the diplomat said his
country reacted to President Abdullah Gul’s statement calling for
the suspension of France’s mediation efforts in the Minsk Group.

It comes after the French National Assembly adopted the bill outlawing
the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

“The adoption of the bill harms the peace efforts in the South
Caucasus, deteriorating the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan,”
Gul said.

The OSCE Minsk Group spearheads the efforts to find a political
solution to the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh involving
Armenia and Azerbaijan. It is co-chaired by France, the Russian
Federation and the United States.

From: Baghdasarian

WHEN FREE COUNTRIES BAN OPINION, THEY’RE NOT FREE

National Post

Dec 28 2011
Canada

With the European Union in crisis mode, Iran conducting naval exercises
in the Persian Gulf and a morose youth toying with the Hermit Kingdom’s
nuclear button in the Far East, you’d think France has enough on its
plate without picking a fight with Turkey over history. That’s what
you’d think – but you’d be wrong.

Last Thursday, France’s National Assembly voted for a law that would
imprison and fine anyone who denied that the atrocities against
Armenians committed by the Ottoman authorities in Turkey 100 years
ago amounted to genocide.

By Friday all hell broke loose. Turkey’s ambassador left Paris.

Political visits between the two countries are suspended. The two
NATO allies aren’t talking to each other, but they have plenty to
say to the press.

“We have been accused of genocide! How could we not overreact?”

demanded Turkish ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu before boarding his
plane. He wasn’t trying to be funny. Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan went directly to the heart of the matter, demonstrating
that “genocide” was a game at which two could play:

“France massacred an estimated 15% of the Algerian population starting
from 1945. This is genocide,” he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy couldn’t muster much more in reply
from Prague, where he was attending former Czech leader Vaclav Havel’s
funeral, than a sentence whose second half was true: “France does
not lecture anyone but France doesn’t want to be lectured.”

Only Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian seemed happy. “Once
again,” he said, “[France] proved its commitment to universal human
values.”

Hmm. Maybe France did so 10 years ago, in 2001, when it took the
official position that Turkish atrocities against Armenians in 1915
amounted to genocide, but last week, when French deputies initiated
a process to jail everyone who disagreed, France only proved its
commitment to universal human myopia.

Viewing the atrocities committed against Turkey’s Armenian minority in
1915 as genocide was defensible historically – and even if it hadn’t
been, France would have been entitled to view them as it pleased.

Nations, like individuals, aren’t obliged to pass tests of accuracy
to hold historical views. In this case, though, France could in all
likelihood have passed a test of accuracy for a bonus.

Last Thursday the French National Assembly went a giant step further.

The deputies proposed a law that, if the Senate approves it, will
make France’s official view everyone’s obligatory view.

Criminalizing contrary opinion doesn’t illustrate France’s commitment
to universal human values. If it illustrates anything historically
French, it’s the guillotine and the Reign of Terror. But what it
really illustrates is President Sarkozy’s willingness to trade his
country’s tradition of liberty for a perceived electoral advantage.

There are an estimated half-million French voters of Armenian descent.

What France did in 2001 was compatible with a free society. Whether
or not countries need to have “official” designations for historical
events, many do. America recollects Pearl Harbor as “A Day of Infamy,”
which it was. Some recollections are undisputed; others aren’t. In
any event, to murder and dislocate an estimated one million human
beings, as the Ottoman authorities did, may be fairly described as
genocide, even if it irks the Turks – and even if some Armenians did,
in fact, side with the Russian invaders as the First World War began,
as Turkish apologists assert they did.

Being entitled and even justified to view Turkish atrocities against
Armenians in 1915 as genocidal, however, doesn’t add up to a licence to
de-legitimize other views. There can be no crime called genocide-denial
in a free society because when such a crime appears in the law books
the society is no longer free.

Saying this upsets some people. Does it apply, they ask, even to
Holocaust deniers, or to members of the Flat Earth Society? I’m afraid
so. Well, cannot free societies outlaw demonstrable error? Not if
they want to remain free. Is freedom worth it, in this case? Yes,
sure. We don’t outlaw the Flat Earth Society, yet we keep launching
space vehicles. Very few people think the Earth is flat.

Like the President of France, I believe the atrocities committed
against the Armenians in Turkey nearly 100 years ago amounted to
genocide. Unlike the President of France, I don’t think it’s necessary
to jail people who say otherwise. For one thing, I don’t think it
should be a punishable offence; for another, cooperation within NATO
seems to me far more important. Those who are too preoccupied with
the last atrocity, risk walking headlong into the next one.

I suspect France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppe, would agree with me
about this particular point more than he does with his boss. Juppe
told the press that the vote on the genocide law had been “badly
timed.” It sounded like a gigantic understatement.

From: Baghdasarian