Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

ARTSVIK MINASYAN URGES EMPLOYEES NOT TO CHOOSE FUNDS

19:22 | February 19,2014 | Economy

Artsvik Minasyan, a lawmaker from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation-Dashnaktsutyun, urges employers not to come into conflict
with their employees over the mandatory funded pension component. “It
is another trick by the authorities to spoil relations between
employers and employees,” he says.

The deadline for making transfers to the pension fund from January
wages expires on February 19… The joint statement made by the
Ministry of Finance and State Revenue Committee has caused a stir,
given the Constitution Court’s decision to suspend the application
of the new pension law until March 28.

The minister said that about 90 percent of employers have made
deductions but have not transferred the money to personal accounts.

Artsvik Minasyan urges everyone not to yield to provocations, make
transfers or choose funds.

From: Baghdasarian

MAN FEIGNED DEATH TO ESCAPE POLICE BRUTALITY IN TURKEY

15:22 â~@¢ 19.02.14

A man in Istanbul has released security camera footage showing he was
violently beaten by police officers, saying that he pretended to be
dead because he was scared of being actually killed.

The man, identified as Kenan Eroglu, was reportedly travelling with
three friends at around 11:30 p.m. in Istanbul’s BayrampaÅ~_a district
on Feb. 15 when traffic police warned them to stop their car. The
police fired warning shots before Eroglu’s friend stopped the car 200
meters away. When they left the car, police officers reportedly came
and swore at them. After his friends escaped out of fear, a quarrel
erupted and police officers and the driver of a tow truck began to
beat him.

“I asked to police to take us to a police station if we did something
wrong. [One of them] punched me after saying ‘do you have a private
driver?’ Then the tow truck’s driver got me on the ground. I tried
to protect myself. They started violently beating me,” Eroglu said.

“Both police officers and the other driver kicked me while I was
on the ground. I was scared because it was a desolated area. They
hit me on the face with a wire fence. I fainted. When I woke up,
the driver was searching my pockets. There was a gun in the police
officer’s hand. I was afraid they would kill me. They sprayed tear
gas on me. I pretended to be dead and then they left me,” he added.

“The incident lasted around fifteen minutes,” Eroglu said, adding
that he did not remember the rest after paramedics arrived.

Doctors gave an eight-day incapacity report to him and there was a
blood clot in his brain as well as bruises on his body, Eroglu said,
denouncing the officers and the driver.

The Istanbul Police Department said the incident had been carefully
followed and official action was taken against the officers as part
of the investigation.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: Baghdasarian

ARPA-SEVAN TUNNEL REPAIR TO TAKE TWO MORE YEARS – MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT

YEREVAN, February 19. /ARKA/. Repair work in Arpa-Sevan tunnel will
be completed in the next two years, said Artashes Ziroyan, head of
bioresource management agency, Armenia’s ministry of environment.

Arpa-Sevan is still one of the most important problems in the sector,
Ziroyan said Tuesday, at a discussion on effects of discharges from
the lake.

Repair work that started in September 2010 is carried out by Arpa-Sevan
Armenian company. A total of 11.8 billion drams only were allocated
for the work, of it 6 billion has been already spent.

Ziroyan said the tunnel repair will allow supplying water to Sevan
Lake on a permanent basis and raising water level by more than 20
centimeters every year.

The 48.3-kilometer-long tunnel supplying water from Kechut reservoir
to the lake was constructed in 1961-1981.

Lake Sevan, one of the largest alpine lakes in Europe and Asia,
is located in the heart of the Armenian plateau, at an altitude of
1,914 meters. The lake stretches over 70 kilometers from northwest
to southeast. Its water surface area is nearly 1500 square kilometers.

The lake is the main source of drinking water in the region. The
water level in the lake will be raised to the optimum 1,903.5 meters
by 2030. -0–

– See more at:

From: Baghdasarian

IN PARIS AND MOSCOW THEY PAY TRIBUTE TO MEMORY OF ARMENIAN OFFICER GURGEN MARGARYAN VICIOUSLY MURDERED BY AZERI RAMIL SAFAROV

by Marianna Lazarian

Wednesday, February 19, 16:11

A memorial service for Armenian Officer Gurgen Margaryan, murdered
by Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov, was held at St. Hovahannes Mkrtich
Church in Paris. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the
Armenian Embassy in France, the Representation of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic, and a number of members of the Armenian Community of France,
the Armenian Foreign Ministry told ArmInfo.

Armenian Ambassador to France Vigen Chitechyan, the leaders of the
Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France also attended
the ceremony.

After the service the participants marched to the Yerevan Park in
Paris, where they laid wreaths at the Komitas Statue on behalf of
Armenians of Armenia, Artsakh and France. Services commemorating
Gurgen Margaryan were offered in Armenian Churches of Marseille,
Lyon and other cities.

On February 16 a memorial service for Gurgen Margaryan was held in
Moscow. Leaders of the Armenian Union of Russia, the Russian-Armenian
Cooperation NGO, the cultural Union, and a number of other
guests attended the ceremony.

To recall, on February 19 2004, R. Safarov viciously axed sleeping G.

Margaryan in Budapest. Both the officers were undergoing an English
language course under the NATO PfP program. On April 13 2006 the First
Instance Court of Budapest sentenced Safarov to life imprisonments
without the right to pardon for 30 years. In February 2007 the Court
of Appeal left the verdict unchanged. President of Armenia Robert
Kocharyan decreed awarding Gurgen Margaryan with Gallantry Medal
posthumously.

Later on 31 August Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan, where the
president pardoned and rewarded him. In fact, Armenia has severed
its diplomatic relations and official ties with Hungary.

From: Baghdasarian

KARABAKH PRESIDENT DISCUSSES ARMY BUILDING WITH ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES OFFICIAL

February 19, 2014 | 11:58

STEPANAKERT. – President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh)
Bako Sahakyan on Wednesday received first deputy chief of the general
staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Enriko Apriamov.

The issues related to army building were discussed at the meeting.

NKR Defense Minister, Lieutenant General Movses Hakobyan participated
in the talks.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

FRANCE HONORS MEMORY OF ARMENIAN OFFICER GURGEN MARGARYAN KILLED BY AZERBAIJANI RAMIL SAFAROV

17:12 19/02/2014 >> SOCIETY

In the Armenian Church of St. John the Baptist (St. Hovhannes Mkrtich)
in Paris service for the peace of soul of Gurgen Margaryan, killed
by Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov, was held.

At the service, held on February 16, the employees of the Armenian
Embassy in France, the NKR representatives, members of Armenian
Organizations in France and local Armenian community were present.

Upon completion of the church-event those gathered there marched to
Yerevan Park in Paris, where, on behalf of the Armenians of Armenian
Republic, NKR and France laid wreaths and flowers at the monument
to Komitas. The procession was headed by the RA Ambassador to France
Vigen Chitechyan.

In 2004, Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan was taking part in
a three-month English course of NATO “Partnership for Peace” in
Budapest. Early in the morning of February 19 he was murdered. The
murderer – Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov – delivered 16 blows
of ax to the face of the sleeping Armenian officer. As a result, the
Hungarian court found him sane and sentenced him to life imprisonment
without a right of pardon for 30 years. The news about the extradition
of Ramil Safarov to his homeland and pardon by the Azerbaijani
president Ilham Aliyev broke out on August 31.

The pardoned murderer Ramil Safarov was greeted as a hero in
Azerbaijan; he was given an apartment and was paid an officer salary
for 8 years spent in detention. Moreover, Safarov was breveted
Major by the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, who also wished him
“every success.”

Because of Safarov’s extradition to Azerbaijan the president of Armenia
Serzh Sargsyan announced the suspension of diplomatic relations
with Hungary. Safarov’s extradition, pardon, and glorification in
Azerbaijan was condemned by the US president Barack Obama, US State
Department, Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia and France,
Secretary General of Council of Europe, Secretary General of CSTO,
NATO, and international human rights organizations. In addition to
that, European Parliament adopted a condemning resolution on September
13, 2012.

Today, February 19, the 10th anniversary of commemoration of Armenian
officer’s death. To the 10th anniversary of Gurgen Margaryan’s murder
in the frameworks of the “Ordinary Genocide” project a video-footage
has been prepared called “Azerbaijan: Racism without borders.” The
video footage is in English and Russian. It concisely presents
the history of the murder that had stunned the world, as well as
the programs following the incident and Safarov’s glorification in
Azerbaijan.It is significant that the authors chose Symphony number 7
(“Leningrad”) by Dmitri Shostakovich known as “the invasion of the
Nazis” as a soundtrack for the footage.

The “Ordinary Genocide” project is being implemented by the Information
and Public Relations Center under the RA President’s administration.

Source: Panorama.am

From: Baghdasarian

REVUE DE PRESSE N°1 – 19/02/14 – COLLECTIF VAN

Publié le : 19-02-2014

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN [Vigilance
Arménienne contre le Négationnisme] vous propose une revue de presse
des informations parues dans la presse francophone, sur les thèmes
concernant la Turquie, le génocide arménien, la Shoah, le génocide
des Tutsi, le Darfour, le négationnisme, l’Union européenne, Chypre,
etc… Nous vous suggérons également de prendre le temps de lire ou
de relire les informations et traductions mises en ligne dans notre
rubrique Par
ailleurs, certains articles en anglais, allemand, turc, etc, ne
sont disponibles que dans la newsletter Word que nous générons
chaque jour.

Pour la recevoir, abonnez-vous a la Veille-Média : c’est gratuit !

Vous recevrez le document du lundi au vendredi dans votre boîte email.

Bonne lecture.

Réponse des Arméniens de Turquie a Ocalan Info Collectif VAN –
РLorsque Bese Hozat, co-pr̩sidente du KCK (Union
des Communautés du Kurdistan), a récemment analysé dans le média
kurde Fırat News, l’assassinat des trois militantes du PKK a Paris en
janvier 2013, elle s’est exprimée ainsi : ” En Turquie, en dehors de
l’Etat officiel, il existe aussi des Etats parallèles. Par exemple,
la confrérie Gulen est un Etat parallèle. Le lobby d’IsraÔl, ainsi
que les lobbies nationalistes arménien et grec sont chacun un Etat
parallèle ”*. Sebahat Tuncel et Ertugrul Kurkcu, co-présidents
du HDP (Parti démocratique du peuple), ainsi que les journalistes
du journal arménien AGOS, ont vivement réagi a cette déclaration
gravissime. Alors que les débats autour des propos de Bese Hozat
continuaient, le leader du PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, a adressé une lettre
a la communauté arménienne de Turquie pour les appaiser. Elle a été
publiée le 30 janvier 2014 dans le journal AGOS. Les journalistes du
journal AGOS et ceux du journal Taraf ont analysé cette lettre. Le
Collectif VAN vous propose la traduction d’un extrait d’un article
paru en turc, dans le journal Radikal, le 31 janvier 2014.

“Espaces et temps de la nation turque” Info Collectif VAN –
– “Le manuel scolaire est une forme de discours
historique bien particulière. Il est a l’extrémité d’une chaîne,
a l’autre bout de laquelle se trouvent des ouvrages universitaires
spécialisés ou de première vulgarisation.

Aussi, après un temps de latence variable selon les époques et
les lieux, reflète-t-il généralement les tendances dominantes
de l’historiographie. Néanmoins, une interprétation du passé,
parmi d’autres, peut être imposée par l’Etat, un parti au pouvoir,
ou une forme quelconque de mainmise idéologique ou religieuse”. Le
Collectif VAN vous propose cet article d’Etienne Copeaux publié sur
son blog susam-sokak.fr.

Corée du Nord : une commission de l’ONU réclame la saisine de la
Cour pénale internationale Info Collectif VAN –
– “De multiples crimes contre l’humanité, découlant de politiques
établies au plus haut sommet de l’Etat, ont été commis et continuent
d’être commis en République populaire démocratique de Corée (RPDC),
selon un rapport d’une commission d’enquête de l’ONU publié lundi. Ce
rapport réclame une action urgente de la part de la communauté
internationale pour faire face a la situation des droits de l’homme
dans le pays, y compris la saisine de la Cour pénale internationale
(CPI)”. Le Collectif VAN vous invite a lire cette information publiée
sur le site de l’ONU le 17 février 2014.

Article du journal franco-turc Zaman – 19/02/2014 – 1 Le Collectif
VAN relaye ici les articles du journal franco-turc Zaman (équivalent
du Today’s Zaman en langue anglaise, diffusé en Turquie).

Attention : ces articles ne sont pas commentés de notre part. Il
s’agit pour l’essentiel de traductions des versions turque et anglaise
du Zaman, journal proche du parti au pouvoir (AKP). “Actuellement en
visite en Hongrie, Gul s’est exprimé sur les deux textes de loi qui
lui ont été récemment soumis”.

Les présidents turc et hongrois conviennent de renforcer les échanges
commerciaux Le président turc en visite Abdullah Gul et son homologue
hongrois Janos Ader ont annoncé lundi qu’ils aimeraient voir les
échanges commerciaux plus que doubler entre leurs pays d’ici les
cinq prochaines années.

L’info vue par la TRT (1) Le Collectif VAN vous propose cet article
publié sur la TRT (Télévision & Radio de Turquie). Les articles
de ce site ne sont pas commentés de notre part. Ils peuvent contenir
des propos négationnistes envers le génocide arménien ou d’autres
informations a prendre sous toute réserve. “La Turquie assumera la
présidence tournante du G-20 a partir du 1er décembre 2014″.

Une délégation interparlementaire britannique honore les victimes
du génocide des Arméniens Une délégation d’une union d’un
groupe interparlementaire britannique a honoré la mémoire des
victimes innocentes du génocide arménien aujourd’hui au Mémorial
Tsiternakaberd et a examiné les archives de presse britanniques de
la collection de l’AGMI.

Génocide au Rwanda : sourde bagarre mémorielle au procès Simbikangwa
Deux semaines après le début du premier procès en France d’un
ex-capitaine de l’armée rwandaise accusé de complicité de génocide,
la cour d’assises de Paris, présidée par Olivier Leurent, affronte,
bien au-dela de la personnalité de Pascal Simbikangwa, un ” passé
qui ne passe pas ”, y compris dans l’ancienne Europe coloniale.

Dépêche de l’APA [ 18 Février 2014 16:29 ] – Agence de Presse
d’Azerbaïdjan Le Collectif VAN vous propose un article de l’APA
(Agence de presse azérie) daté du 18 février 2014. Les articles
de ce site (écrits généralement dans un francais rudimentaire)
ne sont pas commentés de notre part. Ils peuvent contenir des propos
négationnistes envers le génocide arménien ou d’autres informations
a prendre sous toute réserve. “” Le conflit du Karabakh est une
menace pour la sécurité des pays de la région et du monde ” a
annoncé le Président du parlement azerbaïdjanais Ogtay Assadov,
lors de la 9ème session de la Conférence de l’Union Parlementaire
des Etats membres de l’OCI (UPCI) débutée mardi a Téhéran”.

Condamnation en Allemagne d’un Rwandais pour le génocide de 1994
La justice allemande a condamné a quatorze ans de prison, mardi
18 février, un Rwandais, reconnu coupable de complicité dans le
génocide au Rwanda en 1994. Agé de 56 ans et réfugié depuis 2002
sur le sol allemand, Onesphore Rwabukombe était jugé depuis janvier
2011 par la haute cour régionale de Francfort. Le parquet fédéral
avait requis la réclusion a perpétuité, tandis que la défense
avait demandé l’acquittement.

Retour a la rubrique

From: Baghdasarian

TURKISH GOVERNMENT CATCHES SAME OLD ILLNESS

Today’s Zaman (Turkey)
February 17, 2014 Monday

by LALE KEMAL

The Turkish state’s ideology is based on preventing its citizens
from discussing matters freely in a democratic manner, despite some
attempts in the past decade to reverse this course of state mentality.

Starting in primary school, Turkish pupils are discouraged
from challenging differing ideas and are encouraged to learn by
memorization. The Turkish establishment, backed by a militaristic
mindset, has succeeded in maintaining its power at the expense of its
citizens’ freedom by making them obedient to its repressive ideology.

Those challenging the state’s repressive ideology were frequently
silenced through different means, including extrajudicial killings.

Retired Col. Cemal Temizoz and five others are finally facing criminal
charges for being responsible for the extrajudicial killings of more
than 20,000 Turkish Kurds between 1993 and 1995 in the southeastern
township of Cizre.

Thousands of others, be they leftists, Kurds, or conservatives —
irrespective of their different ideologies — were tortured at various
jails or hanged during and after the 1980 military coup. Hundreds of
others were sacked from the fiercely secularist Turkish Armed Forces
(TSK) during the Feb. 28, 1997 postmodern coup on the grounds that
they were practicing their Muslim religion, and they were denied jobs
afterwards in private and government institutions.

A state-imposed repressive ideology resulted, among other things,
in a poverty of ideas in Turkey.

If Turks from every walk of life, i.e., politicians and intellectuals,
as well as ordinary people, frequently accuse each other of treason,
this is inherited from the repressive state ideology.

“We immediately label the opposition with having committed an act
of treason. Our language in debating issues is very harsh; this
language does not deal with understanding, debating and compromise. We
immediately jump on this ‘magical concept’ of treason,” says historian
Ahmet Demirel in his article published in the Taraf daily on Feb. 16.

Inciting hatred among those with different ideologies or religions
is also common in Turkey, where the majority Sunni Muslim population
lives with a sizeable number of Alevis, Turkish Kurds and a small
number of Greeks and Armenians.

Sowing the seeds of hatred among differing sects or religions has
served to keep the repressive state ideology intact.

Take, for example, the Sunni majority ideology of denigrating the
Alevis or the deep state link to the murder of Turkish Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, who was branded an enemy of Turkey
for his claims that the Ottoman Turks committed genocide against the
Armenians in 1915.

Dink was also known for his efforts to achieve reconciliation between
Turks and Armenians and his advocacy of human and minority rights in
Turkey, but he was prosecuted for violating the infamous Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and “denigrating Turkishness.”

A teenager was put in prison for Dink’s murder, but others accused of
having a role in the plot that culminated in Dink’s assassination,
including a colonel and a senior police officer, have been brought
under state protection and have escaped investigation.

The recent controversy surrounding an attack on a headscarved woman
in Istanbul and her testimony stands as a typical example of how
governments can abuse the sentiments of Turkey’s practicing Muslims
to create support for their propaganda on a specific issue. Despite
government claims that a headscarved woman was attacked in front of
Istanbul’s Kabatas pier by Gezi Park protesters at the height of the
anti-government protests last June, it was recently revealed that
apparently she was not, in fact, attacked.

Many months after the incident, private television station Kanal D
aired security camera footage last week that suggests that there was
no physical attack on the woman who claimed at the time that she and
her baby were attacked by up to 100 protesters for wearing a headscarf.

This event reminded me of similar psychological propaganda warfare that
the Turkish military used to resort to in order to justify its claims
prior to its Feb. 28 postmodern coup that, for instance, the government
at the time intended to change the nation’s secular character.

Professor Umit Cizre from Istanbul-based Sehir University makes
an accurate diagnosis of what I describe as the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) catching the same old illness, in her
article published on Feb. 13 on the Open Democracy website:

“Secondly, not unlike the Kemalist, non-Kemalist or centrist politics
since the very beginning (of the republic), the troubling features of
Erdogan’s [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan] AKP [AK Party]
are rooted not in ‘Islamism,’ but in some fundamental structural and
cultural flaws and deep-seated undemocratic habits and traditions of
the regime entrenched in the decades since independence.”

Referring to several reforms initiated by the AK Party, such as curbing
the military’s power in politics, she, adds, “To be fair, however,
there are some novel sources of the AKP’s anti-statist reforms that
we have not really experienced before.”

But Cizre also underlines the state of Turkish politics: “Coupled
with a political tradition which allows for few true meeting points
and consensus-seeking mechanisms between the opposing parties,
all political actors are boxed into a ‘white or black’ demagoguery,
resulting in an authoritarian stance, a kind of ‘pragmatism’ as a
disguise for a distinct poverty of ideas together with an isolation
from reality.”

From: Baghdasarian

“IT’S DREADFUL NOT THAT THERE ARE TURKS…”

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 18 2014

18 February 2014 – 10:17am

By New Time

Vestnik Kavkaza continues following cultural life in republics of the
North Caucasus and countries of the South Caucasus. Today we publish
an interview by the Armenian periodical New Time with the art director
of Yerevan Puppet Theater, Ruben Babayan.

– Why does TV promote rubbish?

– To be honest, I don’t watch our TV. However, any person from time
to time sits in front of a TV-set and flips through the channels,
including myself. And I watch this or that show.

… I think language regress should be considered through a perspective
of our routine problems. The “language” reflects our life, our level
of thinking and existing. A language cannot exist separately from
everyday life. So, speaking about the problem, roots should be found
in the conscience, the system of values of our society.

– “People eat this” is a motto of our time. But there are people
who don’t like “the food.” However, they keep silence. You say you
don’t watch Armenian TV, isn’t it conscious choice? You don’t like
it – you don’t watch it. But the problem cannot be solved by ignoring
it. Is it a problem of our time?

– We don’t choose time, we live and die in it. There was a lot of
dirt in times of Khachaturian, Aivazovsky and Rafael. Dirt is not
remembered, unlike great minds who stay in history for centuries.

The other thing is orienting points. However, they shouldn’t be
connected with time as well. The principle of rating is working on TV;
and it requires wide audience, i.e. absence of a high cultural level.

But the same principle of rating could work in times of Aram
Khachaturian, when all Yerevan turned on Baku Radio at 5 a.m. and
listened to songs by Zeinab Khanlarova. And Zeinab concerts were
as popular as Aram Khachaturian’s performances. However, there was
a system of values which was developed in details and directed
preferences and priorities of the society into a right way. The
current problem is that people who impose their doubtful taste on the
society have no the system of values and refer to false democracy,
as if people want it. It is interesting that the public opinion is
considered exclusively in questions of “culture,” in other spheres
nobody is interested in the public opinion…

… In Armenian “culture” is “mshaluit”, from “mshakel” which means
“to cultivate.” You cannot grow culture in a tube; values should be
constantly cultivated and promoted. All our current troubles are a
result of an irresponsible attitude to our culture. When practical
usage of our culture will be realized – either at the dinner table
or in the sphere of food for thought – there will be progress. At
the moment we eat unnatural food and pollute both our bodies and minds.

… I have recently visited the UAE – I have never felt more
discomfort than there. It is a fake country based on surrogates. They
have everything, but everything is fake. And it is awful that for
the majority of our people the UAE is an ideal model of a society,
paradise where they want to live. How can a generation with national
priorities be raised with such a spiritual level?

– What would you do, if you had an opportunity to correct our
TV? What can make a viewer like you watch national TV channels again?

– … Previously I never watched the First Channel, but today
I’m glad to see scientific and educational shows which my children
like. There are things that I don’t like, but I understand that a
channel cannot satisfy all my preferences. It is public television,
i.e. it should satisfy demands of the whole society.

As for KVN (a Russian humour TV show and competition where teams
compete by giving funny answers to questions and performing sketches),
it doesn’t matter who and how started it, but it is important what
were results. The KVN school has both negative and positive moments.

For example, an ability to improvise, feel time, show off interestingly
and brightly – these are advantages of KVN. For me it is not so
important whether a person graduated from circus school or came from
KVN, but it is important what conclusions he made, what values he has.

… Rating cannot be a concept; it is one of its components at
most. And it is wonderful that the First Channel realizes it.

Regarding the language, today it is being spoiled in series,
sitcoms and various talk shows. Audience complains that there is no
censorship, mechanisms which would direct and sometimes forbid certain
matters. Is it good or bad? There is a successfully approved system
in the world – Public Management Councils. We have them as well,
but only formally. They don’t decide anything, nothing depends on them.

… Any normal owner of TV understands clearly that he has no
sufficient knowledge and taste to define policy of its company
alone. I mean not only culture, but any sphere. In the whole world
huge concerns and holdings have Public Management Councils which help
to develop policy and avoid unnecessary things. I think problems of
our TV could be solved by such organizations, rather than censorship.

…TV-slang causes disguise because of its criminal character. A
language is a living organism, and it reflects our society. Why
is thieves’ slang popular in our society? Because our society is
criminalized. When we eliminate criminality as an ideal model of our
society, dismiss our illegal president, the language will change. A
language is a factor of production, rather than a factor of producing.

At the same time, criminality can be shown on TV, but the point
is in a system of values. I don’t think that America of the 1930th
was more criminalized than Armenia. But criminality wasn’t a goal,
a striving, a living standard there. I think we should establish
value TV, a system of values as an example for future generations.

– Hzhde said: “It’s dreadful not that there are Turks, but that
there are Turk-like Armenians…”

– I don’t see anything bad in propaganda of any national culture. The
UK spends huge resources on promotion of its art; France holds
Francophonie Days in Yerevan from time to time… Is it bad? We should
learn about it, but not take it and sell it as our own product.

Yes, we have Turkish genome and can’t do anything with this. What
should be done? Should we forbid it simply? No way! They will listen
to them even harder. We should promote our national culture and fill
all gaps for there would be no space for foreign cultures. It is
interesting that those who shout that they are true Armenians and
hate the Turks and the Azerbaijanis promote foreign culture. Let’s
not forbid their culture and cultivate ultranationalist statements,
but influence our internal nature. If a person has Armenian nature,
there will be no necessity to shout about his or her origin. A person
will realize that he or she is an Armenian, and it will be enough! And
today an Armenian lacks the conscience. Turkisation, criminal slang,
Russian popular music – it is a gum which we are chewing and don’t
want to deal seriously with our own culture. Give me Armenian nature,
and I will understand everything else…

From: Baghdasarian

THE CRUMBLING RUINS OF THE CITY OF ANI (PHOTOS)

The Weather Channel
feb 18 2014

By Lorraine Boissoneault

The crumbling ruins speckle the Turkish border with Armenia in a
hodgepodge fashion; a half-standing wall here, an empty church there.

Standing in defiance to the elements and to the geopolitical turmoil
that has ravaged the region of generations, the ancient ruins of Ani
are a reminder of both mankind’s ability to build magnificent cities
and our willingness to allow these monuments to succumb to decay.

The various structures of Ani have stood for hundreds of years, with
historians first mentioning the city in the 5th century, according to
Armenian History. Known as the “City of a Thousand and ONe Churches,”
Ani rose to prominence in the Middle Ages. The city included a citadel,
an inner city, suburbs and an underground city of caves.

Around the 11th century, Ani had around 100,000 residents, despite
the surrounding area being repeatedly destroyed and conquered by
Ottoman Turks, Byzantine emperors, nomadic Kurds and Russians, wrote
The Atlantic.

But the city wasn’t destined to survey until the modern era. After
being conquered and ransacked several times, Ani went into decline
and was finally abandoned in the 1700s. But the city’s tragic destiny
didn’t end when its citizens left. The buildings were raided by vandals
and looters and the remaining structures were neglected. In 2010 the
Global Heritage Fund listed Ani as being in danger of disappearing
entirely due to insufficient management, neglect and looting and
vandalism by Turks trying to eliminate Armenian history, the Global
Heritage Fund wrote.

Since that time, further efforts have been made to safeguard the
city’s future. The most recent archaeological excavations took place
in 2011 and it has become a popular destination for tourists straying
off the beaten path and visiting the eastern border of Turkey.

“When we speak of Ani, we call it an iceberg,” said the Kars Culture
and Tourism Director to the Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet Daily News.

“The visible surface is one-tenth of the invisible face of Ani.”

View slide show of photos at

From: Baghdasarian