Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

OPPOSITION MEMBERS TO BE RELEASED AMONG HUNDREDS OF OTHER PRISONERS UNDER ARMENIAN AMNESTY

26.05.11 | 08:42

A general amnesty in Armenia is going to cover about 800 convicted
prisoners or people serving suspended jail sentences, including several
key opposition members imprisoned following politically charged trials,
it emerged on Wednesday.

Late last week President Serzh Sargsyan asked lawmakers to consider
such a move, timing it to the 20th anniversary of the declaration of
Armenia’s independence to be marked in September.

The amnesty is to cover people who committed crimes before May 1, 2011.

According to preliminary estimations presented by Justice Minster
Hrair Tovmasyan, 400 people will be fully relieved from further
serving out their sentences and about 400 people will see their
remaining time in jail cut.

Addressing his colleagues on Wednesday, Parliament Speaker Hovik
Abrahamyan described the current amnesty as “an expected and quite
justified step.”

“This is the ninth amnesty in the history of independent Armenia;
however it will be unprecedented as to the nature of its application
and the frames of impact and will have both humanistic and political
importance,” he said.

On Thursday, the National Assembly approved the general amnesty
resolution by a vote of 91 to none, with only one abstention.

Unlike the 2009 amnesty, the current act does not contain a separate
provision concerning oppositionists who were convicted and jailed in
connection with their roles in the 2008 post-election clashes.

By force of its other provisions, however, the amnesty is likely
to cover several opposition members, including former lawmaker and
Karabakh war veteran Sasun Mikayelyan and editor-in-chief of the
Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper Nikol Pashinyan, both of whom were jailed
in connection with the March 1, 2008 events.

The latest move by the Sargsyan administration effectively amounts to
the authorities’ full compliance with the main opposition alliance’s
three major demands for “a political dialogue” to begin.

The other two demands set forth by the Armenian National Congress and
its leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan earlier this spring concerned a fresh
probe into the deadly suppression of opposition street protests in
2008 and the removal of a de-facto ban on holding political gatherings
in Yerevan’s Liberty Square.

Speaking at the latest rally in Yerevan on April 28, Ter-Petrosyan said
the door for a political dialogue with the authorities was ‘half-open’
and urged the government to release all of his loyalists remaining
in prison before May 31 – the date of the next scheduled rally –
for such a dialogue to start.

From: Baghdasarian

ARAVOT: WHY DID IT TAKE THREE YEARS TO RELEASE POLITICAL PRISONERS?

Tert.am
26.05.11

The paper’s editor writes that back in mid March of 2008 -Serzh
Sargsyan was not yet sworn in as president – he said during a TV
show that Sargsyan’s first step as president should be to release
the political prisoners.

“What should have been done three years ago, took three years to
complete,” the editor says.

Why did it take so long, and why it did happen, anyway?

“The answer to the second question is somewhat clear: inside and
outside pressures, as well as the fact that Sargsyan is led by
pragmatic calculations instead of vengeance emotions have contributed
to that decision,” he goes on commenting. “But I don’t have an answer
for the second question. The only explanation might be that Sargsyan
was trying to first strengthen his positions against the oligarchs
and bureaucrats to succeed in the reforms he had in mind.”

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENBAR CONVENES ANNUAL MEETING IN SAN FRANCISCO

asbarez
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

A scene from one of the ArmenBar sessions

SAN FRANCISCO-More than a150 Armenian American lawyers, judges, and
community leaders gathered in the city by the bay from April 29 to
May 1 for a breakthrough convention of the Armenian Bar Association.

“This has been the most fantastic convention of the Armenian Bar
Association,” Chairman Edvin Minassian said. “We now return to work
with high spirits and a renewed dedication to justice-before our
country, our homeland, and our history.”

The weekend was officially opened at the California Supreme Court,
where Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye received the members of the
ABA, first at a meeting of the California Judicial Council and then
at a private luncheon reception. Drawing from her own background
as a Philippina, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye said that she shared
with the ABA a deep faith that a dedication to the national heritage
“translates directly to our commitment to the rule of law and the
strength of our community.”

The Chief Justice also expressed her gratitude for the contribution
of so many Armenians, especially Governor George Deukmejian, both to
her professional career and to the law at large. It was fitting, then,
that several Armenian American legal luminaries were in attendance.

Supreme Court Justice Marvin Baxter, a guiding member of the ABA,
presided over the afternoon meeting and later led a tour through the
Supreme Court building. Retired Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian
and Court of Appeal Justice Charles Poochigian delighted the crowd
with short, sweet reflections.

The convention was reconvened in the evening, this time at the rooftop
hall of the Union Square Marriott Hotel, where Ann Lousin, a celebrated
professor of commercial law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago,
presented the weekend’s first public service award. The recipient was
David Balabanian, a premier civil litigator with the law firm Bingham
McCutchen, who spoke of the complex controversies surrounding the
103-foot concrete cross on San Francisco’s Mount Davidson, the tallest
monument ever dedicated to the Armenian Genocide. With signature wit
and passion, Balabanian told the compelling tale of how the Armenian
community-represented pro bono by his law firm-was able to crush a
Turkish-funded lawsuit launched against the memory of 1915.

A night of festivities gave way to a serious and sober morning,
with the first of two extensive panels, titled “Armenia on the
Road to Judicial Independence and Legal Reforms.” The Republic of
Armenia’s newly appointed Minister of Justice, Hrayr Tovmasyan, led the
discussion with an eloquent and candid survey of the problems plaguing
the post-Soviet country’s legal system. “The elimination of corruption,
the independence of the judiciary, the protection of human rights,
the supremacy of law-these are problems that we must face together,
if Armenia is ever to become the land of our dreams,” Tovmasyan said.

The minister’s general comments were complemented by the detailed
accounting presented by Yerevan State University professor Ruben
Melikyan, who addressed specific problems-such as the lack of a system
of precedent in Armenia-and offered specific solutions toward reforming
the judicial culture in Armenia. His proposal, that diasporan lawyers
and judges be invited to take on official, legally binding roles in
the administration of law in the republic, was met with particular
enthusiasm. Also on the panel, and contributing the diaspora’s
perspective, were Antranig Kasbarian, director of the Tufenkian
Foundation, and Garin K. Hovannisian, author of Family of Shadows.

The second panel, “The Armenian Genocide’s Legal Significance
in Recovery Litigation,” was powered by a distinguished panel of
experts on international law: Harut Sassounian, public commentator and
political scientist specializing in international law; Steven Dadaian,
lawyer, advocate, and leading draftsman of legislation that governs
genocide litigation in the United States; Professor Lee Crawford-Boyd,
chief architect of genocide litigation ongoing in the California
courts; and Federico Hairabedian, Argentine Armenian lawyer who
recently won a historic lawsuit against Turkey in Argentine Federal
Court, which issued a verdict recognizing the Armenian Genocide and
the murder of his family by Ottoman Turkey.

“We set a landmark in which we took the genocide, which is an
international crime, into a federal court, but we did this without
considering the next step,” Hairabedian said. Indeed this was
the panel’s original goal and ultimate success: to serve as the
foundational discussion about that “next step”-how to organize the
disparate efforts of Armenians across the world into a clear and
comprehensive international campaign to seek justice for the victims
of the Armenian Genocide.

Tucked between the extensive Saturday deliberations was the gala
luncheon, which was billed as the celebratory event of the weekend
convention, but which transformed, through successive heavyweight
speeches, into a long, saturated afternoon.

After an elegant and heartrending introduction by founding member
Vicken Simonian, Garo Ghazarian took the podium to deliver the
keynote lecture. Drawing from his friendship with Simonian, who was
his athletic adversary and best friend on the racetracks of Southern
California, Ghazarian inspired the crowd with his larger-than-life
story of failure and redemption in America. He concluded with a
fascinating chronicle of his recent mission to Yerevan, where he
monitored the progress of civil rights and visited Raffi K.

Hovannisian, the first foreign minister of Armenia and present-day
leader of the Heritage party who had declared a freedom fast at
Liberty Square.

Raffi Hovannisian himself, who had made a surprise appearance in San
Francisco, followed Ghazarian to address the members of the Armenian
Bar Association, the organization he founded in 1989. “Our nation
is not lost,” he said. “We still have a cause to deliver on-to make
Armenia the land of liberty, sovereignty, and the national interest
that we all expect it to become.” Hovannisian also expressed his
appreciation to David Balabanian, Walter Karabian, and all those who
nourished the ABA from its humble beginnings, and fueled its evolution
into a pioneering force of justice in the United States.

The gala luncheon was closed by Raffi’s brother, Armen K. Hovannisian,
who had organized and presided over the weekend’s many events and
festivities, and who now stood before the crowd to receive the
Armenian Bar Public Service Award for decades of dedication to law
and community. In a powerful and deeply moving acceptance speech,
which incited the tears and laughter of a hundred lawyers and judges,
Hovannisian spoke about his grandmother Siroon Hovannisian and
grandfather Hovakim Kotcholosian, who represent for him the different
faces of the Armenian Genocide, as they do the common formula of his
service to his community and country. “I’m not one of those people
who can leave a mark,” he said. “I’m somebody who carries the marks
of others.”

The convention, which was the 22nd annual convention of the Armenian
Bar Association, was interspersed with social events, long walks
through the golden city, and a concluding dinner in Little Italy,
where the lawyers and judges offered toasts and sang Armenian songs.

In attendance throughout the weekend were Zaven V. Sinanian, Los
Angeles County Superior Court Judge; Amy Hoogasian, Federal Immigration
Law Judge; Garo Mardirossian, Immediate Past President of Consumer
Attorneys Association of Los Angeles; Frederick K. Ohlrich, Clerk of
the Court, California Supreme Court; Debbie Poochigian, Fresno County
Supervisor; Metropolitan News Publisher and Editor-In-Chief Roger
M. Grace and President Jo-Ann Grace; and many distinguished others.

The members of the Armenian Bar Association left San Francisco on
Sunday with a newly elected 17-member board, including the most recent
class of Michael Amerian, Ara Babaian, Garo Ghazarian, Armen K.

Hovannisian, Laura Karabulut, Edvin Minassian, and Gary Moomjian. The
executive officers for the 2011-2012 term were also elected: Edvin
Minassian, chairperson; Garo Ghazarian, vice chairperson; Harry
Dikranian, vice chairperson; Sara Bedirian, treasurer; and Hovanes
Margarian, secretary. Sonya Nersessian will continue in her role as
chairperson ex-officio.

From: Baghdasarian

LES TELEGRAMMES DETOURNES LEVENT UN PEU LE VOILE SUR LE JITEM TURC

NAM
Publie le : 26-05-2011

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
invite a lire une traduction de Gilbert Beguian d’un article en
anglais mise en ligne sur le site de NAM (Nouvelles d’Armenie Magazine)
le 18 mai 2011.

Un telegramme de l’Ambassade des USA recemment revele par le
partenaire turc de WikiLeaks, le quotidien Taraf, met en lumière
sur les discussions internes au JITEM, une unite militaire turque
clandestine supposee, dont l’existence a toujours ete niee.

Le telegramme titre “Un exceptionnel regard sur le renseignement
militaire turc : Irak, les soucis du PKK, paranoïas, campagne
anti-Otan,” a ete ecrit le 21 decembre 2004, par Robert Deutsch, le
secretaire de la defense a l’ambassade des USA a Ankara a cette epoque.

Deutsch parle d’une source dont le nom est garde secret, qu’il
decrit comme une personne “ayant l’experience du renseignement et
des analyses de securite” et “ayant travaille pendant douze ans
dans l’espionnage militaire et donne dans le passe, des cours a
l’academie de police”. Les sources font etat d’un rapport base sur
les declarations transcrites de 40 operateurs JITEM, ainsi que des
interventions sur place en Anatolie du sud-est.

On peut lire dans ce telegramme que selon le rapport, l’etat avait
assigne le JITEM a combattre le “separatisme armenien” en Anatolie du
sud-est. Selon la source dont le nom n’est pas revele s’adressant a
Deutsch, l’ordre avait surpris beaucoup d’officiers parmi le JITEM,
etant donne ” (qu’on savait) qu’il ne restait en Anatole du sud-est
qu’une poignee d’Armeniens.” Il y est explique cependant que beaucoup
d’Armeniens avaient change leur nom et cachaient leur identite par la
force ou volontairement au cours des evenements de 1915, c’est cette
presence armenienne en Anatolie du sud-est, qui bien que cachee,
suscitait les craintes de l’etat.

Tandis que la source dont le nom n’est pas revele etait consideree
comme fiable du fait de ses precedents rapports a l’ambassade, Deutsch
a dit que l’ambassade etait incapable de determiner si l’information
sur le JITEM etait ou non digne de foi.

Entre temps, Dogu Perincek, suspecte d’appartenir a Ergenekon avait
ete arrete. Dogu Perincek, dirigeant du Parti des Travailleurs, ou IP,
et sa publication, l’hebdomadaire Aydinlik, etaient mentionnes dans le
telegramme comme “source de desinformation pro-Eurasiatique, anti-USA,
anti-Otan et anti-Israël.” Selon de “nombreuses sources turques”,
Perincek et Aydinlik avaient le soutien financier de la Russie dont
ils recevaient egalement des informations.

Toujours selon le telegramme, JITEM etait sense enqueter sur les
allegations faisant etat de l’acquisition de terres en Turquie du
sud-est par Israël, avant qu’on ne s’apercoive qu’il ne s’agissait
que d’une rumeur repandue par Israël elle-meme.

Le câble fournit egalement des details sur l’embuscade suivie de
l’assassinat d’une equipe des forces speciales par le parti illegal
des Travailleurs du Kurdistan, le PKK, en collaboration avec les
“Sunnites Radicaux” le 17 decembre 2004.

Selon le telegramme, JITEM se disait aussi preoccupe par l’armement
introduit en fraude a cette epoque en Turquie venant d’Irak.

Le JITEM est soupconne d’etre une organisation de renseignement a
l’interieur de la gendarmerie et a ete accuse d’etre derrière des
douzaines d’assassinats non elucides, specialement dans les annees
1990. Les militaires ont cependant toujours nie son existence.

Traduction Gilbert Beguian

mercredi 18 mai 2011, [email protected]

Retour a la rubrique

From: Baghdasarian

MEHMET SAHIN : ” LES EVENEMENTS DE 1915 DANS L’EMPIRE OTTOMAN UNE QUESTION POUR LES HISTORIENS”
Stephane

armenews.com
jeudi 26 mai 2011

Le President de l’Assemblee Nationale de Turquie a decrit comme un
“evenement malheureux” l’adoption par le Riksdag suedois d’un projet
de loi reconnaissant le genocide armenien.

Mehmet Sahin a fait ce commentaire après une reunion avec son homologue
suedois Per Westerberg a Ankara a indique l’agence Anatolie.

Le President de l’Assemblee Nationale turque a declare que les
parlements ne devraient pas assumer le rôle d’ecrire l’histoire
ajoutant que des questions telles que les evenements de 1915 dans
l’Empire ottoman doivent etre examinee par les historiens.

Le Riksdag suedois a adopte une resolution sur le genocide armenien
le 11 mars 2010.

From: Baghdasarian

DEBAT AUJOURD’HUI SUR L’AMNISTIE GENERALE
Stephane

armenews.com
mercredi 25 mai 2011

La totalite de la presse relève, citant le President de l’AN Hovik
Abrahamian, que la proposition presidentielle de declarer une amnistie
generale sera debattue en seance extraordinaire le mercredi 25 mai.

Lundi, les elus ont adopte des amendements au Code penal sans lesquels
l’amnistie n’aurait pu etre decretee. Ces amendements prevoient
notamment une diminution des peines pour certains crimes. Lors d’un
point de presse, M. Abrahamian a salue l’initiative presidentielle ”
qui intervient au bon moment, a l’occasion du 20ème anniversaire de
l’independance de l’Armenie “. Ce geste du chef de l’Etat vise aussi
a restaurer le credit du gouvernement et ne manquera pas d’attenuer
la tension.

D’après Azg, Hovik Abrahamian a laisse entendre que l’amnistie allait
concerner les personnes condamnees en relation avec les evenements
du 1er mars. Elle devrait demeurer en vigueur jusqu’au 21 septembre,
jour anniversaire de l’independance de l’Armenie. M. Abrahamian a
dit esperer que suite a l’amnistie, l’opposition extra-parlementaire
renoncerait a sa demande d’organiser des elections anticipees.

Puisqu’il reste moins d’un an d’ici aux prochaines consultations
electorales, le President du Parlement a appele toutes les forces
politiques a s’y preparer, au lieu d’exiger des elections anticipees
qui, selon lui, se repercuteraient negativement sur l’image du pays,
qu’elles soient legislatives ou presidentielles.

Ambassade de France en Armenie

Service de presse

From: Baghdasarian

UNE FAUSSE ALERTE A LA BOMBE CAUSE DES PERTURBATIONS A EREVAN
Marion

armenews.com
mercredi 25 mai 2011

Des centaines de personnes ont ete brièvement evacuees du siège de
la plus grande societe de telephonie mobile, a Erevan, mardi 24 mai,
suite a ce qui s’est avere etre la troisième fausse alerte a la bombe
en moins d’une semaine en Armenie.

Le ministère armenien des Situations d’urgence a indique que les
forces de l’ordre, les secouristes et les experts en deminage ont ete
depeches au quartier general de la societe VivaCell-MTS au centre-ville
d’Erevan, après un appel anonyme d’un homme revendiquant y avoir pose
une bombe. Après une inspection du bâtiment pendant environ une heure,
aucun engin explosif n’a ete trouve.

Le Service de securite national (SSN) a, quant a lui, annonce
l’arrestation d’un homme suspecte d’etre l’auteur d’un appel similaire,
qui a retarde un vol Erevan-Amsterdam, dimanche 22 mai.

D’après un communique du SSN, il s’agirait d’Hayk Vartanian, residant
a Erevan. L’homme, âge de 43 ans, a un casier judiciaire.

Le vol Erevan-Amsterdam a ete retarde après un appel anonyme a
l’administration de l’aeroport d’Erevan alertant qu’une bombe se
trouvait a bord de l’avion.

Trois jours plus tôt, l’aeroport international Zvartnots avait deja ete
ferme pendant plusieurs heures après un appel telephonique similaire
annoncant un attentat imminent. Les enqueteurs du SSN et les chiens
renifleurs n’ont rien trouve.

Le SSN a averti, mardi 24 mai, ” que les auteurs de ces actes seront
identifies et punis en vertu de la loi “.

From: Baghdasarian

LEYLEGIAN: HER NAME WAS SARAH
By Dorothy Leylegian

Mon, May 23 2011

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire
planned the brutal removal of its Christian minorities. Among the
nationalities that were targeted, the Armenians were singled out
to be destroyed. Initially women and children were forced into
the desert ,where the elements of nature alone would mark their
graves.Those fortunate enough to die were spared the degradation of
rape or, even worse, being taken into a harem or into bondage in a
Turkish household. Mothers literally threw their infant or toddler
daughters into the rivers to drown rather than relinquish them to
Turkish soldiers.

Among the little girls that met this fate was my husband’s mother,
Sarah. Sarah’s family lived in a little village called Khoshmat in
eastern Turkey. I made a journey to Turkey, where I spent a month in
the interior visitingthe cities and villages of both my husband’s
family and my own. When I reached Sarah’s village, I was totally
puzzled how anyone found it or built there, let alone why the Turks
even bothered to go up what was a hillside that only donkeys had
originally been able to climb. The entire village was like a time
warp–left exactly as the Turks took it over after slaughtering its
inhabitants. When they crashed into Sarah’s family’s house, they
killed her entire family as she watched in horror. Somehow, even at
age six, she managed to find a way out. And she ran and kept running
until she only remembers being exhausted, the dark, and being unable
to go any further.

Unable to run another step, she came upon a cow barn, where she found
a corner to hide in, and fell asleep on some hay. In the morning the
farmer found her, grabbed her and, knowing she was Armenian, sold her
to a Turkish neighbor who already had a number of Christian girls in a
harem, which was monitored by a woman called Khahnum who disciplined
and ruled the girls. The girls were there for one purpose only, to
service the Agha (or master of the house). Those girls who reached
puberty were not only sexually used by the Agha, but sold at will to
anyone who paid for the service. It was not advantageous to be pretty.

Sarah was only six, and she would need training before she was
subjected to this treatment. The girls were also there to serve meals
and be on call to the Agha’s wife.

On her first day of capture she was brusquely grabbed from her bed
and taken to the barn, where she endured the gruesome and excruciating
pain of having a hot branding iron, which bore the mark of the house
to which the animals belonged, pressed to her cheek. This was in
the event she ran away (she would have the initials of the owners
so she would be returned), just like the little tags that dogs wear:
“Return to owner.” While screaming from pain and crying in her bed,
the Khahnum told her to stop crying or she face further punishment.

Within a few days, Sarah was taught to go to the well to fetch water,
and she was expected to return with the water jar atop her head,
without the use of her hands to balance. She was commanded to learn
how to pour the water into the glass of the master’s wife without a
single drop spilling onto the table. On her way back from the well,
being little and not yet able to balance a heavy water jar, Sarah’s jar
tilted and began to slide off her head, and although she prevented it
from falling and breaking, the Khahnum grabbed her by her arms, dragged
her into the house and, in full view of all the other girls, threw
her onto the floor, slapped her, and called her names. While Sarah
tried to defend herself, the woman bent down close to her, shielding
her from the others, and whispered into her ear, in Armenian: “Sarah,
don’t be scared. I am an Armenian, and I am going to save you. I want
you to scream and scream as loud as you can.” To be sure she would
do just that, the woman gave her a strong pinch. Sarah screamed,
and the woman picked her up, threw her into her bed, and told her to
“sus” and not to move.

The next morning toward dawn, while the entire household was still
asleep, the bread wagon pulled by donkey arrived at the back service
door of the house. Sarah suddenly felt a hand on her mouth; the woman,
giving her a “shh” signal, wrapped her in a blanket and carried
her out, tucking her in under the cover of the bread wagon. The
driver took Sarah to the local orphanage, where she was taken in by
missionaries who were, at least for a short while, able to shelter
those who were placed there. Sarah grew up in the orphanage. When the
girls were old enough, photographs of them were mailed all over the
world to secure a home for them; mail-order brides became a lucrative
business. Sarah’s father’s brother, who had settled in Rhode Island
in the United States in the late 1800â~@²s, located her through the
Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) and arranged to have
her brought over as his daughter. She arrived as a young woman, and she
met my father-in-law, who asked her uncle’s permission to marry her.

The agreement was made after my father-in-law paid all of the expenses
incurred for Sarah’s passage–basically, the second time she was sold.

When I met Sarah for the first time, I could not believe what a
stunning woman she was, with her cat eyes, her jet black hair, her
distinctively high cheekbones, a body that was like a model’s, skin
as smooth as silk, a total beauty–marred by what appeared as a huge
scar in the center of her cheek. The surface scar, however, was nowhere
near as deep as the emotions she must have lived with all her life.

Despite all the odds working against her, she did grow to be a
beautiful woman. And despite inner turmoil, she remained staunch
and solid, had 2 handsome and wonderful sons (one of which is my
fantastic husband), 5 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren–the
next generation of wonderful Armenian people that the Turks wished
to annihilate from earth. They planned a genocide, but here we are,
living proof that God had another plan for us.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN SUPPORT BSEC MANAGEMENT ROTATION SYSTEM

PanARMENIAN.Net
May 25, 2011 – 11:18 AMT

Armenia and Azerbaijan support the rotation principle for BSEC
management, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on
Financial-Credit, Budgetary and Economic Affairs Gagik Minasyan said.

As he told a news conference in Yerevan, the issue of organization’s
new Secretary General election was discussed at PABSEC regular meeting
in Kiev, on May 16-17.

“Secretary General election is a very long and hard process,”
Minasyan remarked, adding that Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, having
the largest PABSEC delegations, wanted to make a decision themselves,
thus stirring up resentment among other countries.

Minasyan said that the election of BSEC Secretary General needs not
only the majority of PA deputies, but the majority of delegation
votes as well. He noted that it was decided to create a working group
including one representative from each member state to meet in Istanbul
on June 13-14 and discuss the issue.

The election will take place during PABSEC meeting to be held in Kyiv
on June 30.

From: Baghdasarian

ANTOINE AGOUDJIAN SUR FRANCE-INTER ET ARTE TV

France-Inter
Publié le : 25-05-2011

Info Collectif VAN – – Le photographe Antoine
Agoudjian est francais, né de parents arméniens, petits-fils de
rescapés du génocide arménien par les Turcs. Depuis 20 ans, il
sillonne la Turquie et même au-dela, tout l’ex-Empire ottoman,
avec son Leica, a la recherche des traces de vie arménienne,
souvent enfouies, cachées, oubliées, et qui rejaillissent devant
son objectif.

Les photos d’Antoine Agoudjian ont trouvé un lieu d’accueil
inattendu : Istanbul. Jusqu’au 5 juin 2011. Adresse : DEPO/Tutun
Deposu Luleci Hendek Caddesi No.12. Tophane 34425 Ä°stanbul. E-mail:
[email protected], Téléphone:+90 212 292 39 56. Le Collectif
VAN vous propose de suivre les reportages de France-Inter et d’Arte.

photo : © Antoine Agoudjian

L’humeur vagabonde

par Kathleen Evin

Le reportage

Le photographe Antoine Agoudjian est francais, né de parents
arméniens, petits-fils de rescapés du génocide arménien par
les Turcs.

Depuis 20 ans, il sillonne la Turquie et même au-dela, tout
l’ex-empire ottoman, avec son Leica, a la recherche des traces
de vie arménienne, souvent enfouies, cachées, oubliées, et qui
rejaillissent devant son objectif.

Les photos d’Antoine Agoudjian ont trouvé un lieu d’accueil
inattendu : Istanbul. La-bas, un mécène turc, touché par le
travail d’Antoine Agoudjian, lui a ouvert les portes de sa galerie,
pour une exposition qui a ouvert cette semaine. Une tonne de photos
protégées dans des grandes caisses en bois qu’il a fallu passer a
travers une frontière sensible : l’Etat turc, on le sait, s’obstine
toujours a nier l’existence du génocide, et mène une politique
virulente de propagande et de désinformation. Pourtant des voix de la
société civile commencent a s’élever, les langues se délient peu a
peu.. C’était le cas samedi dernier, 24 avril, anniversaire du début
du génocide en 1915, un sitting était organisé en plein centre
d’Istanbul. Antoine Agoudjian était sur place, puisqu’il terminait
l’accrochage de ses photos.. Un reportage de Baptiste Etchegaray.

Une exposition très politique a Istanbul : la métropole turque
accueille les travaux du photographe francais d’origine arménienne
Antoine Agoudjian. Le terme génocide n’est toujours pas accepté
par la Turquie mais l’on assiste a une prise de conscience dans la
société civile turque comme le montre le reportage de Vladimir Vasak.

Date de première diffusion: Jeu., 5. mai 2011, 19h00

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From: Baghdasarian