Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

MEDIA CENTER
30 Saryan str., Yerevan
Tel: +37460 505 898
+37499 755 898
Email: [email protected]
Web:

`Only 20-30% of population participates in the elections, the rest are
indifferent to the electoral process’

Press Release

Media Center, March10. Local government elections on March 9 were not
much different from the previous presidential and parliamentary
elections. “Citizen Observer” initiative has observed and recorded
numerous violations during these elections.

`There have been recorded violations of right to expression of will,
as well as abuses of administrative resources. Traditional methods
like institute of `supporters’ and inviting voters to the elections
with various promises were applied’,- says Tigran Yegoryan, member of
“Citizen Observer” initiative.

According to Tigran Yegoryan, at several polling stations there have
been up to 75 cases of `support’, when supporters instead of helping
voters to vote, have voted themselves.

“Citizen Observer” initiative has also recorded population’s passive
participation in the elections. `Only 20-30% of population
participates in the elections, the rest are indifferent to the
electoral process’,- says Tigran Yegoryan, member of “Citizen
Observer” initiative.

According to the “Citizen Observer” members, this index is due to the
wrong perception of the local government bodies.

`The perception of local government is extremely flawed in the
communities. Population is not ready to discuss their community
issues, call head of community administration to account’,- says Levon
Barseghyan, member of “Citizen Observer” initiative.

According to Lena Nazaryan, member of “Citizen Observer” initiative,
people are not aware of the community budget, expenditures,
candidates, right of running for office.

`People have vague idea of the essence of local government
bodies. They absolutely do not participate in the local government’,-
says Lena Nazaryan.

To raise awareness, “Citizen Observer” members have arranged number of
meetings in 13 communities with 240 people before the
elections. During those meetings they have presented the purpose of
the local government, the mayor’s powers and duties.

According to Artur Sakunts, member of “Citizen Observer” initiative,
the opposition’s passiveness (ANC’s passiveness in particular) in the
local government elections is due to the fact that local government
issues are not subject to political agenda for parties.

Levon Barseghyan finds it mandatory for opposition to participate in
local government elections.

`The opposition is obliged to participate in all levels of elections,
no matter how frustrated it is. To me, not participating is
unacceptable from the standpoint of political struggle’,- says Levon
Barseghyan.

“Citizen Observer” initiative is currently developing recommendations
for amendments to the Electoral Code, which will help to make the
electoral process more transparent.

Please follow this link
()
to watch the full video of the Press Conference.

On March 10 members of `’Citizen Observer” initiative introduced
their observations on local government bodies elections. The speakers
were: Lena Nazaryan (Transparency International Anticorruption
Center), Tigran Yegoryan (Europe in Law association NGO), Artur
Sakunts (Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Vanadzor Office), Levon
Barseghyan (Asparez Journalists Club).

”Citizen Observer” initiative includes four organizations:
Transparency International Anticorruption Center, Europe in Law
association NGO, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Vanadzor Office and
Asparez Journalists Club.

From: Baghdasarian

PRESS RELEASE
Ararat-Eskijian Museum
15105 Mission Hills Rd
Mission Hills CA, 91345
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 818-838-4862

Friday March 21st 8pm Sheen Chapel Robert Fisk.

“Nearly a century after the Armenian Genocide, these people are still
being slaughtered in Syria ”

Saturday March 22nd International conference “Honoring Those Who
Helped Rescue a Generation of Armenian Survivors (1915-1930).”
Robert Fisk from The Independent newspaper, U.K. Also participating
will be other leading scholars from around the world, Prof. Vahakn
Dadrian, prominent historian and an authority in Armenian Genocide
studies, Dr. Rubina Peroomian, widely published genocide scholar,
Dr. Hayk Demoyan, Director of Genocide Museum Institute Armenia,
Mr. Shant Mardirossian Chairman of Near East Foundation, Prof. Vahram
Shemmassian, director of Armenian Studies Program, Cal. State
University Northridge, Mr. Missak Kelechian Independent Researcher,
Mr. Bared Maronian documentary film Producer, Dr. Carla Garapedian
Mistress of Ceremony, and Vatche Mankerian D.M.A

Sunday March 30th Thomas Christie of Tarsus College: His Life and
work to Assist the Armenian People, by Dr. Gregory Ketabjian.

Thomas Christie and his wife, Carmelite Christie, were in Turkey as
American Missionaries between 1878 and 1920. They witnessed the
Hamidian Massacres, the Adana Massacres, and the Armenian Genocide in
1915. While doing their teaching and missionary work they tried to
help the Armenians who suffered all of these atrocities and kept
diaries as eyewitnesses of these massacres.
One of the reports in the Bryce Blue Book is that of Carmelite
Christie.
Thomas Christie was a charismatic teacher and impressed on his
students the value of knowledge and pursuing lifetime learning. A
large percentage of his graduates went on to higher learning. Some of
these graduates and their descendants will be discussed, as will
Tarsus College’s connections to Jenanyan College, Haigazian
University, and other institutions.

All events are open to the public and free admission.

From: Baghdasarian

LIVERPOOL LINKED WITH SHOCK MOVE FOR £2M BORUSSIA DORTMUND PLAYMAKER

Caught OffSide
March 10 2014

by The Newshound March 10th, 2014

Liverpool have been linked with a move to sign Borussia Dortmund star
Henrikh Mkhitaryan with talkSPORT suggesting that the Anfield side
could finally land the Armenian international.

The 25 year old goal-scoring midfielder has stated that whilst
Brendan Rodgers failed with a move to sign him last summer there is
a possibility that he could still end up at the Merseyside club.

Mkhitaryan discussed the situation in a recent interview with a
Russian source, stating;

“Of course I know how much Liverpool wanted me, but what happened,
happened.

“Can I see myself at Liverpool in the future? You know that it doesn’t
depend entirely on me. But this is life and everything is possible.

Advertisement:Replay Ad

Rodgers may well have seen the former Shakhtar Donetsk man as a long
term replacement for Steven Gerrard and the Liverpool boss could well
do with some additional creative midfield outlets though a move for
Mkhitaryan may have to wait a while given the player only moved to
the Westfalenstadion last June.

Mkhitaryan has had a solid first campaign at Dortmund, netting nine
goals and providing seven assists in all competitions.

Rodgers will want to strengthen his squad this summer, especially
if his Liverpool side are to look to make an impact in the Champions
League after a number of seasons out of the competition.

From: Baghdasarian

RUSSIA CANNOT DO WITHOUT TURKEY

Naira Hayrumyan, Political Commentator
Comments – Monday, 10 March 2014, 16:34

The EU HR Catherine Ashton went to Tehran and met with the president
and foreign minister of Iran yesterday.

Iran and the West are trying to normalize their relations, and soon a
new power will emerge in our region which will try to open the region.

In parallel, interesting developments are on the track in Turkey which
is preparing for municipal elections. Erdogan’s party’s rating has
reached a historical low and the Turkish prime minister has announced
that he will resign in case his party does not win majority. In other
words, a change of government is not ruled out in Turkey.

In this context, Turkey will not be able to promote its interests in
Crimea and the Black Sea at full. At the end of this month a change
of government may take place in that country, and it is hard to guess
the stance of the new government on the Armenian genocide and the
settlement of Karabakh.

For the time being, Russia and Turkey have blocked the South Caucasus.

In case the blockade is broken through, Iran and the West will
have a region open for transit, and Armenia could gain an important
geopolitical role.

Currently, time in geopolitics is counted in hours, not days. The
referendum scheduled on March 30 was proponed to March 16. Russia
needs to hold the referendum before possible domestic shock in Turkey
because Putin would have difficulty confronting the United States
and NATO without Erdogan.

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian

LAWYER OF ONE OF SHANT HARUTYUNYAN’S SUPPORTERS BLAMES AUTHORITIES FOR POLITICAL PERSECUTION OF THE ACTIVIST

by Ashot Safaryan

ARMINFO
Monday, March 10, 18:14

Tigran Petrosyan, who was arrested on 5 Nov 2013 following the
developments in Liberty Square, is undergoing political persecution,
Petrosyan’s lawyer Ara Zakaryan said at a press conference on Monday.

According to the lawyer, a video material clearly shows that Tigran
Petrosyan was only parting the fighters. Ara Zakaryan thinks that not
only the charge against Petrosyan but also the decision to arrest
him were illegal. “We have video materials that demonstrate those
who really used violence against the police but they have not been
brought to responsibility so far”, he said.

“The video shows that violence was used against Shant Harutyunyan. As
a result, he found himself on the ground and when the threat of
another violence against Harutyunyan arose, Tigran Petrosyan pushed the
policeman standing next to Harutyunyan in order to approach Harutyunyan
and to prevent violence against him”, said Petrosyan’s lawyer.

Zakaryan added that Tigran Petrosyan confronted policeman Ara
Karapetyan, the aggrieved party, only once over the past 4 months.

Tigran Petrosyan is charged with violence against the police. However,
his lawyer said that the incident lasted for 3-4 seconds only. As a
result, Tigran Petrosyan has been in custody for 4 months.

To recall, dozens of policemen and activists were injured as a result
of the clashes that followed a demonstration organized in the center
of Yerevan in support of activist Shant Harutyunyan, on 5 November.

The clashes started at 05:30 PM when the demonstrators came across
a police cordon. The police say that the demonstration was not
sanctioned. As was reported earlier, the demonstrators were moving
to Mashtots Park, when Shant Harutyunyan tried to cross the street
against the traffic lights. The police’s attempt to stop him ended in
a skirmish. Harutyunyan and his son were detained. Some demonstrators
began blowing up bottles with gasoline. The police cordoned the
road leading to the presidential palace. Earlier Shant Harutyunyan
organized a picket in Liberty Square. He stood there with a poster
saying “I am Declaring a Revolution!”

From: Baghdasarian

SERBIAN FM COMMEMORATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS

15:08, 10 March, 2014

YEREVAN, MARCH 10, ARMENPRESS: The delegation, headed by the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivan MrkiÄ~G, on March 10 visited
the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial. Armenpress reports that Ivan MrkiÄ~G
laid a wreath at the Memorial and flowers at the Eternal Flame and
commemorated the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide with
a minute of silence. The members of the Serbian delegation walked
around in the Memorial Park, where Ivan MrkiÄ~G planted a tree.

Serbia has not yet recognized the fact of the Armenian Genocide
officially. The fact of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman government
has been documented, recognized, and affirmed in the form of media
and eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions, and statements by many
states and international organizations. The complete catalogue
of all documents categorizing the 1915 wholesale massacre of the
Armenian population in Ottoman Empire as a premeditated and thoroughly
executed act of genocide, is extensive. Uruguay was the first country
to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1965. The massacres
of the Armenian people were officially condemned and recognized as
genocide in accordance with the international law by 42 out of 50 US
States, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland,
Sweden, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon,
Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Canada, Vatican, and Australia.

From: Baghdasarian

GARNI CONTROVERSY: MINISTRY OFFICIAL SAYS NO CAFE CONSTRUCTION NEAR ARMENIA’S ONLY PAGAN TEMPLE

Arts and Culture | 10.03.14 | 09:32

Photolure

No cafe will be built in the territory of the Garni reserve, a senior
Ministry of Culture official confirmed over the weekend.

Deputy Minister Arev Samuelyan spoke to Hetq following a discussion
hosted by the Ministry on Saturday, informing the online publication
that they had given up the idea.

Plans to build a cafe near the Garni temple, the only pre-Christian
house of worship surviving in the territory of Armenia, had elicited an
angry response from groups of activists concerned with the preservation
of Armenian cultural and historical heritage.

Many of those activists traveled to the territory of the museum in
Garni (about 30 kilometers to the east of Armenian capital Yerevan)
the previous weekend to protest against the construction project the
spot. They, in particular, removed the sand and road-metal from what
had been turned into a construction site near the Royal Bath area at
Garni. They brought a few sandbags to Yerevan and put them in front
of the Ministry of Culture building as a sign of protest.

The Garni Castle dates back to the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, and the
Greek-Roman temple built in the first century BC, which is the
compositional center of the castle constructions, is the only pagan
temple to have been preserved in Armenia after the country adopted
Christianity in 301 AD. It was ruined in a 17th-century earthquake,
but was restored during 1969-1975.

The Ministry of Culture had explained the construction of a cafe near
the monument by the need to develop tourism, at the same time giving
assurances that the revenues made by the cafe would be directed at
the repairs of the paved road leading to the ancient site. Besides,
it had said that the cafe would not be a permanent structure, but
would operate only from May to October when most tourists visit Garni.

Many, however, disagreed with the kind of utilitarian approach,
arguing that such a cafe would only diminish the tourist value of the
place and, therefore, would put off many potential visitors. At the
same time, they also voiced their conviction that the reserve could
make enough money even without additional facilities to pay for the
needed maintenance work.

From: Baghdasarian

WITNESS DESCRIBES HOW HE WAS BEATEN BY ARMENIAN POLICE

03.10.2014 15:10 epress.am

Armen Hayrapetyan, who was sentenced on Nov. 15, 2008, to 15 years
in prison, told the court that in his testimony he wrote the name of
another person, as he was beaten repeatedly by the police.

Andranik Gasparyan is accused of — reaching an agreement with his
friend Armen Hayrapetyan — in January 2008 tricking Kristine Manukyan
to accompany them to an uninhabited part of the road leading to the
horticultural company in Erebuni, after which they robbed Manukyan,
stealing her gold jewellry and mobile phone. Hayrapetyan was sentenced
to 15 years for the rape and murder of Kristine Manukyan , now the
Court of First Instance of Erebuni and Nubarashen Administrative
Districts (presided over by Judge Artush Gabrielyan) is examining
Gasparyan’s involvement in the crime.

On March 6, Hayrapetyan was called in to court and questioned as a
witness. He said that the testimony he gave during the preliminary
investigation and the one he gave in court contradict each other
because during the preliminary investigation he was beaten by police
and forced to write that Andranik was with him during the murder.

As reported by the Yerevan-based Helsinki Association for Human Rights,
Prosecutor V. Hovhannisyan mocked the witness, for example, by asking,
“Were you crying when they beat you?”

Hayrpetyan said he was beaten on several occasions: “They beat me so
much that I even wanted to harm myself. I did what they wanted. In
short, it came to the point that I said write whatever you want; they
were hitting my legs, my kidneys… I didn’t have an attorney. The
investigator said, ‘A defender’s coming now. Once he comes, you’ll
refuse the [services of a] defender’.”

“In response to the witness’ statement that police officers are capable
of anything, out of fear he wrote what they asked of him.The judge
said that he knows that the police are capable of anything, that’s
accepted in practice, and, openly deeming Hayrapetyan’s testimonies
unreliable, urged the witness to give a testimony that’s closer to
the truth,” according to the Helsinki Association website [AM].

From: Baghdasarian

GAZPROM ELABORE UN PLAN GLOBAL POUR LE GAZ EN ARMENIE

ARMENIE

Gazprom va elaborer un plan directeur des installations de gaz en
Armenie, a declare son PDG.

Le president armenien Serge Sarkissian et le chef de Gazprom Alexeï
Miller ont discute des questions cles de la cooperation dans le
secteur de l’energie a Erevan. Un accent particulier a ete mis sur
les perspectives de cooperation pour Gazprom Armenie CJSC, une filiale
du geant gazier russe.

Miller et Sarkissian ont convenu d’elaborer conjointement un plan
directeur pour le gaz en Armenie.

Miller a rencontre le personnel de Gazprom Armenie et a discute de
l’integration de la filiale armenienne.

lundi 10 mars 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

From: Baghdasarian

SDA – Suisse
mercredi 5 mars 2014 3:50 PM CET

Oskar Freysinger relativise le génocide arménien dans une interview

Berne

Le conseiller d’Etat valaisan Oskar Freysinger a relativisé le
génocide arménien de 1915 dans une interview accordée à un journal
turc. Le président d’honneur de l’Association Suisse-Arménie qualifie
les propos du Valaisan d'”irresponsables”.

Dans cette interview publiée en anglais le 15 janvier dans le journal
“Aydinlik”, Oskar Freysinger déclare à propos du massacre: “Peut-être
a-t-il eu lieu, peut-être pas. Cela doit pouvoir être débattu de
manière ouverte”.

Plus loin, le conseiller d’Etat en charge de l’éducation se déclare
opposé à ce que le génocide arménien soit enseigné à l’école, ce
d’autant plus que les historiens ne sont pas d’accord entre eux,
dit-il.

Le conseiller national UDC a, semble-t-il, changé d’avis sur la
question. En 2003, il faisait en effet partie des signataires d’une
pétition en faveur de la reconnaissance du génocide contre le peuple
arménien, a rappelé mercredi le portail d’informations
“Tagesanzeiger.ch/newsnet”.

Oskar Freysinger était interrogé dans le cadre d’un jugement de la
Cour européenne des droits de l’homme concernant le nationaliste turc
Dogu Perinçek. Ce dernier nie le génocide arménien.

Liberté d’expression

En 2007, le Turc a été condamné en Suisse pour discrimination raciale,
une décision contre laquelle Dogu Perinçek a fait recours à
Strasbourg. La Cour lui a finalement donné raison fin décembre,
estimant que la Suisse avait violé le droit à la liberté d’expression.

La Suisse a jusqu’au 17 mars pour faire valoir son droit de recours.
Mercredi, aucune décision en ce sens n’avait encore été prise, a
indiqué l’Office fédéral de la justice.

Dans l’interview au journal turc, Oskar Freysinger salue la décision
de la Cour de Strasbourg. “Aydinlik” n’est pas n’importe quel journal,
selon Sarkis Shahinian, président d’honneur de l’Association
Suisse-Arménie. Il s’agit de la feuille du parti des travailleurs de
Turquie, dont Dogu Perinçek est le président.

Position suisse rabaissée

Avec de tels propos, Oskar Freysinger met en jeu son intégrité
personnelle, poursuit-il. “Sur cette question, il se comporte de
manière totalement irresponsable et rabaisse la dignité de la
politique de la Suisse”, ajoute Sarkis Shahinian.

En outre, le conseiller national valaisan se place en contradiction
avec lui-même: en 2003, il a voté avec six autres parlementaires UDC
un postulat sur la reconnaissance du génocide arménien. Il s’était
pour l’occasion très bien informé et avait même échangé
personnellement avec Sarkis Shahinian.

Ce retournement de position ne peut pas être pris au sérieux, estime
l’Association Suisse-Arménie qui n’envisage pas de déposer plainte.
“Pour (Oskar) Freysinger, il s’agit d’attirer l’attention”, un coup
d’éclat auquel l’association ne veut pas participer, selon Sarkis
Shahinian.

La Turquie reconnaît des massacres de 500’000 Arméniens en 1915-1917
dans les territoires administrés par l’Empire ottoman, dont elle était
l’héritière, mais récuse le terme de génocide. Les Arméniens avancent
le chiffre de 1,5 million de morts dans un génocide, reconnu par de
nombreux pays. La négation du génocide arménien est un acte punissable
en Suisse.

From: Baghdasarian