Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Sept 21 2013

Baku urges Ankara not to repeat 2009 ‘mistake’

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
Serkan Demirtaþ

The chief of the foreign relations department of the Azerbaijani
Presidency urges Ankara not to repeat the 2009 ‘mistake’ of attempting
to open borders with Armenia before the country withdraws from
occupied lands

A senior Azeri official has urged Turkey not to repeat the 2009
“mistake” of attempting to open borders with Armenia before the
country withdraws from occupied Azeri lands, underlining that they are
suspicious of similar efforts to revive the stalled process between
Ankara and Yerevan.

“There are such attempts [for the revival of the Ankara-Yerevan
process] these days. I am hopeful and sure that the Turkish leadership
will not take steps contrary to the will of Azerbaijan and the
Azerbaijani people,” Novroz Mammadov, chief of the foreign relations
department of the Azerbaijani Presidency, told the Hürriyet Daily News
in an interview on Sept. 19.

Without further elaborating on what these attempts were, Mammadov said
he was talking about “possibilities” rather than concrete moves.
Approached by the Daily News, Turkish diplomatic sources said there
were no intentions for the revival of the reconciliation process and
that Turkey’s position vis-à-vis the Nagorno-Karabkh issue had not
changed.

“A step was taken in 2009. An agreement was signed between Turkey and
Armenia under the monitoring of six foreign ministers. It was not
possible to implement this agreement because it was unfair,” he said.
“We do not want it to occur a second time.”

Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols in 2009 but neither side
succeed in bringing them before their Parliament for ratification and
implementation. Turkey stopped the process because of a fierce
reaction from Azerbaijan, 20 percent of whose territory is still under
the occupation of Armenian troops.

“We are grateful for Turkey’s support to Azerbaijan with regard to the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem. We are regretful because of the failure of
the international community’s efforts to resolve the problem since the
early 1990s,” he said.

President Ýlham Aliyev’s adviser underlined that Baku was not in fact
against Turkey opening its borders with Armenia but that such a move
should follow a step taken by Yerevan with regard to Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Turkey sealed its borders and cut diplomatic ties with Armenia after
this country occupied our territories and the U.N. Security Council’s
resolution on this occupation. We’ll have no objection to Turkey if it
says it will move forward with Armenia on condition of ending this
occupation,” Mammadov said, in reference to the withdrawal of Armenian
troops from the regions surrounding Karabakh.

There are seven regions occupied and, as the Madrid Principles
recommends, a gradual withdrawal process from such regions would allow
Baku and Yerevan to start political talks for future steps.

“Withdrawal from even three regions would allow the opening of the
Turkish-Armenian border and the beginning of Azerbaijan-Armenia
relations,” he said.

TANAP a historic deal

Since 2009, Turkey and Azerbaijan have boosted economic, energy and
political relations. The most important achievement was the signing of
the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline Project (TANAP), aiming to carry Azeri
gas to Europe via Turkey.

“Our relations have entered into a new historic phase. The two
countries have proven that they can initiate such projects together
and take advantage of it,” Mammadov said.

Recalling that Turkey and Azerbaijan were already connected via the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural
gas pipeline, Mammadov said the accomplishment of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway would add another chain to this strong
connection.

“TANAP is the joint project of our two countries. Some other countries
have also joined but this project is a success of our countries. Our
brotherly relations have arrived at such a point that we can carry out
such big projects,” he said.

TANAP will likely cost $7 billion and is expected to send 6 billion
cubic meters (CBM) of gas to Turkey and 10 billion cbm to Europe by
2018.

$17 billion Azeri investment

The Azeri diplomat forecast that total Azeri investment into Turkey
would reach around $17 billion by 2020, which would make Baku the
biggest foreign investing country in Turkey. So far, the State Oil
Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has initiated the Petkim
Star Refinery, the Petkim Container Port, the Step Power Plant and the
TANAP project. TANAP will be followed by the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline
(TAP) project to carry Azeri natural gas to Greece and Italy.

“These projects will make our relations much more important and will
give an additional impetus to our ties,” he said.

September/21/2013

From: Baghdasarian

Police fail to make protestors walk on sidewalk

September 21, 2013 | 17:15

YEREVAN. – The `Nationwide March of Independence’organized by civic
activists in the Armenian capital is disrupted by arguments between
activists and police officers.

The police officers are urging participants to walk on the sidewalk
not to block the traffic. Despite the efforts taken by police, at the
moment the protesters are moving along Mashtots Avenue. Some drivers
are supporting the activists.

The demonstrators are chanting `We are to decide’ and `the Republic of
Armenia is a sovereign state’ mottos.

In this way, the civic activists are expressing their dissatisfaction
over President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement on Armenia joining the
Customs Union.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

ARARAT ESKIJIAN MUSEUM HOSTS LECTURE ON AINTAB

September 21, 2013 – 11:58 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Ararat Eskijian Museum in Mission Hills, CA, wore
the image of Old Aintab earlier this month as fifty or more Aintabtsis
and supporters gathered to hear a lecture by Umit Kurt, PhD candidate
in the department of History at Clark University, Asbarez reports.

The lecture, titled The Emergence of the New Wealthy Class Between
1915-1922: The Seizure of Armenian Property by Local Elites in Aintab,
focused on the importance of acquiring Armenian wealth and material
possessions to the local Kurds and Turks in Aintab before and during
the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

As to the lust for Armenian property that could act as a motive for the
killings, Kurt described a “link between the role of stolen Armenian
assets in the integration and stabilization of Turkification, which
makes confiscation of Armenian properties a social process”. The fate
of the Armenians was not only linked to the Committee of Union and
Progress party (CUP) orders, but behavior of the local elites.

Material rewards were given for collaboration at the regional level.

In Kurt’s words, “the large distribution of Armenian property provided
a useful incentive that strongly reinforced Armenian hatred and other
political and personal issues.”

Besides the local elites, many other state companies were also involved
in the seizure of Armenian properties including auction houses,
property assessors, trustees, and transportation companies in support
of Turkish anti-Armenian policies in Aintab. The opportunities for
success and growth facilitated the removal of Armenians, whereas the
effects of the loss of properties to the victims were demoralizing and
stigmatizing. Additionally, the deportation of Armenians to the Syrian
Desert proved effective in separating them from their properties as
they were made not to return. A new local wealthy class emerged and
prospered through the obtainment of Armenian wealth and property.

After the lecture, Umit Kurt displayed a short film called My Father’s
Aintab and old and recent images of the Armenian quarter in Aintab.

The evening followed with a Q&A session where one of the audience
members asked Kurt why he chose to research the destruction of Aintab’s
Armenians and their properties.

As a native of Aintab, when Kurt was younger, he did not know about
the presence of Armenians or about the Armenian quarter in Aintab.

When one of his friends invited him to a unique coffee shop to meet,
his life and interests changed forever. When he reached the coffee
shop, he first noticed the intricately carved, monumental front door
of the coffee shop and was amazed at the internal beauty and homey
design, which contained every feature of an Armenian home. He asked
the owner, who was Turkish, to show him around the place and the
upstairs section composed of many rooms aesthetically extrinsic to
his eyes. Kurt noticed the numbers “1894” (when the first Hamidian
massacres took place) on the wall and asked about the previous owner.

The man replied, “I don’t know, Armenians were here.” Later, he
discovered that a man named Nazaret Agha of the Kimia family owned the
house, before it became a coffee shop. It became the groundbreaking
point in his life where he sought out to research the history of the
Aintab Armenians and in the meanwhile, also write his own story.

Umit Kurt is of Kurdish descent maternally, but is not certain of his
father’s side. He is a PhD candidate at Clark University and student
of Taner Akcam, a prominent scholar on the Armenian Genocide. During
the Q&A session, Kurt was asked if he received any objections or had
been tried for “insulting Turkishness”, in which he responded that
he has not yet encountered any objections from the Turkish government
regarding his research on the stolen Armenian properties.

In the last minutes, Kurt spoke words that made everyone smile. He
said, “I don’t work for Armenian people; I work for my own people to
reckon their own historical wrongdoings.”

From: Baghdasarian

ANCA URGES OBAMA TO CONDEMN AZERI LEADER’S ANTI-ARMENIAN RANT

September 21, 2013 – 12:11 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Voicing the Armenian American community’s outrage
over Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s most recent anti-Armenian
rant, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Chairman Ken
Hachikian has called upon President Barack Obama to publicly condemn
the Azerbaijani leader’s renewed threats of war, exaltation of ethnic
cleansing, claims to Armenian land, and renewed praise for unrepentant
axe-murder Ramil Safarov, ANCA reported.

In a September 19th letter addressed to the President, Hackikian noted
that a strong U.S. stand in response to Aliyev’s tirade can help “deter
Baku from its announced intention to re-launch its war on Artsakh.”

“In public remarks, President Aliyev threatens to renew his war on
Nagorno Karabakh and extols the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from
Baku, warning of Azerbaijan’s preparedness to repeat these atrocities.

He claims essentially all of Armenia’s sovereign territory, including
Yerevan, and he praises an unrepentant axe-murder who was pardoned by
President Aliyev after his release from Hungary, where he was serving
a life sentence for murdering Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in
his sleep during a NATO peacekeeping program.

President Aliyev’s speech honoring Safarov, coming as it does after
the public praise, military promotion, and financial payments he
received from Baku in the months following his release last year,
represents a serious setback to the peace process. His remarks are
all the more offensive in light of the White House’s statement of
August 31, 2012, expressing your deep concern and disappointment over
President Aliyev’s decision to pardon Ramil Safarov. It is in this
spirit, and in the hope that a strong U.S. stand may deter Baku from
its announced intention to relaunch its war on Artsakh, that we ask
you to clearly condemn President Aliyev’s incendiary diatribe.

In closing, we would also like to take this opportunity to extend,
once again, our willingness to work with your Administration to
invite the broad-based leadership of our community to meet with you
to discuss your Administration’s policies on this matter, your pledge
to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and the full range of Armenian
American concerns,” the letter said.

From: Baghdasarian

ZIRVE CASE KEY TO ARMENIAN-TURKISH JOURNALIST DINK, FATHER SANTORO CASES: LAWYER

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Sept 20 2013

ISTANBUL – Hurriyet Daily News
by Vercihan Ziflioglu

Once the Zirve Publishing House trial is enlightened, many other
murders from the past 60 years including journalist Hrant Dink’s and
Father Andrea Santoro’s will also be solved, according to Zirve’s
lawyer

The solving of the murders in Turkey’s recent past will shed light
on key points of the deep state, according to Erdal Dogan, the lawyer
for the Malatya Zirve Publishing House and Hrant Dink cases.

Dogan, who until recently was also an attorney for the Dink case,
told the Hurriyet Daily News that the Zirve Publishing House trial was
a key case that would unravel the last 60 years of Turkey’s deep state.

“Once the Zirve Publishing House trial is solved, a picture of
Turkey’s past 60 years will appear. It will be clear how governments
have been brought down, how ethnic structures have been played with,
and how psychological propaganda has been made,” he said.

Three missionaries, a German, Tillman Geske, and two Turks, Necati
Aydın and Ugur Yuksel, were tied up and tortured before their throats
were slit at the Zirve Publishing House, a Christian publisher in
Malatya, on April 18, 2007. Prior to that incident, Father Andrea
Santoro was shot dead on Feb. 5, 2006 as he prayed in his church
in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. In addition, Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink was shot on Jan. 19, 2007 in front of the building of the
Armenian-Turkish Daily Agos, where he was the editor-in-chief.

Dogan said that the latest indictment in the Zirve trial openly
showed the cell structure of the Ergenekon coup plot group, adding
that Christians – especially Armenians – were targeted. “The structure
that committed the Zirve murders is the same structure that committed
the Dink and Santoro murders. The government is targeted, and chaos
is aimed for,” he said.

Dogan claimed that all of these cases had ties with the Special
Warfare Department, which also helped organize the anti-Greek riots
in Istanbul of Sept. 6-7, 1955.

“The structure of 1955 was developed in the 1990s, and a structure
under the Special Forces Command was formed. We talk about a structure
named Turkey’s National Strategies and Warfare Department (TUSHAD),
which came up clearly with documents in the Zirve murders trial,”
said Dogan.

‘Black and white’ forces

He also claimed that the Turkish General Staff had approved of
the existence of this structure of “black and white” forces. “The
whites are established as civilians and they point out targets by
disinformation,” he stated.

Retired General HurÅ~_it Tolon and former Malatya Gendarmerie Regiment
Commander Mehmet Ulger, who both were convicted in the recent
Ergenekon coup case verdict, have also been added as suspects in
the Zirve murders’ case. In addition, the court that is considering
the case has also demanded the court files of the Ergenekon, Balyoz,
JITEM and Musa Anter cases.

Upon being asked whether the government could be held responsible
for these murders, Dogan said that as the government had signed the
National Security Council decision of 2003, which perceived missionary
works as a threat, it could be held responsible.

He said sufficient speed could not be given to the Dink case thus far
as there had been considerable levels of disinformation. Dogan claimed
that the 14th High Criminal Court looking at the case had reached its
verdict by ruling at the very beginning of the trial that there was
no organization behind the murder. He also stated that the 9th penal
chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals had “signed Dink’s death
decree” by notoriously putting him on trial for breaching Article
301 of the Turkish Penal Code. “Therefore, neither of the courts are
objective or independent,” said Dogan.

September/20/2013

From: Baghdasarian

MINISTRY EXPECTS 245 THOUSAND TONS OF GRAPES TO BE HARVESTED THIS YEAR

24 thousand tons of grapes were purchased this year by 16 organizations
at the price of 145 AMD a kilogram in the Ararat Valley and at 135
AMD in Tavush province of Armenia, Aysor.am was informed by Deputy
Minister of Agriculture Robert Makarian.

According to him, demand for grapes amounts to 170 thousand tons this
year as compared with 157 thousand tons last year.

There are 17,415 officially registered vineyards in Armenia, 15,720
of which are fruit-bearing.

Agriculture Ministry expects 245 thousand tons of grapes to be
harvested this year – the same amount as in 2012.

From: Baghdasarian

6 ARMENIAN NEWSPAPERS WILL BE PUBLISHED WITH SAME SENTENCE ON FIRST PAGE – OPPOSITION MP

September 20, 2013 | 15:33

YEREVAN. – The Tigran Arakelyan Protection Committee is formed at the
initiative of the opposition Armenian National Congress Party (ANCP).

All those who will sign under the following sentence can become
a committee member: “We recognize Tigran Arakelyan as a political
prisoner and demand his immediate release.”

“This will be the most massive organization in Armenia’s history
because it will be signed by people with different political views,
but united under one thing: there should not be a political prisoner
in Armenia,” stated ANCP Vice-Chairman and ANC NA (i.e., Armenian
National Congress National Assembly) Faction leader Levon Zurabyan.

He informed that six newspapers have joined the aforesaid initiative.

As of Saturday, September 21-that is, on the 22nd anniversary of
Armenia’s independence-, these newspapers will be published with the
following sentence on their first page: “We recognize Tigran Arakelyan
as a political prisoner and demand his immediate release.”

Zurabyan called upon all media in Armenia to join this initiative
and to start every morning with the above-said sentence, so long as
Tigran Arakelyan is in jail.

To note, a general jurisdiction court had sentenced ANC activists
Tigran Arakelyan, Artak Karapetyan, Sargis Gevorgyan, and Davit
Kiramijyan to six, three, and two years, respectively, as a result
of an incident that had occurred on August 9, 2011, in capital city
Yerevan. The Criminal Court of Appeals had upheld this ruling, and
therefore the activists’ attorneys had submitted to the Court of
Cassation their objections to this verdict. As a result, six of the
young activists were released on signature bond, whereas Arakelyan
had remained under arrest.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA’S ANNOUNCEMENT ON CUSTOMS UNION ENTRY IS CERTAIN BREAKTHROUGH – POLISH POLITICAL SCIENTIST

September 20, 2013 | 00:33

The Russian president’s more active policy toward the Caucasus is
one of the greatest achievements in the region in recent times.

Political scientist Mateusz Piskorski, Director of the EuropeanCenter
of Geopolitical Analysis, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In his words, the Armenian president’s announcement, with respect to
the intention to become a member in the Customs Union and taking part
in the Eurasian integration, is an important step in the integration
processes in the post-Soviet environment.

“One might even say that Armenia has made a specific progress. And
I assume that, after Armenia, the other post-Soviet states will
seriously consider accession to the processes of integration in the
Eurasian Economic Union,” Piskorski concluded.

To note, following the talks that were held on September 3 in Moscow
between Armenian and Russian Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir
Putin, Sargsyan had announced that Armenia plans to join the Customs
Union and subsequently engage in the formation of the Eurasian
Economic Union.

From: Baghdasarian

INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS LOOK TO CONTINUE COOPERATION WITH ARMENIA DESPITE ITS CUSTOMS UNION ORIENTATION

Analysis | 20.09.13 | 18:57

NAZIK ARMENAKYAN
ArmeniaNow

By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent

After Armenia’s announcement of its decision to join the Customs
Union, the international financial organizations that have provided
assistance and credits to Armenia have been trying to clarify prospects
for further cooperation.

Although immediately after the announcement by President Serzh
Sargsyan on September 3 there were fears that Western foundations
and banks will stop cooperation with Armenia, some two weeks after
the event it became clear that a political decision has been made to
continue and even build up this cooperation. Over the past two days
at least three major financial partners of Armenia declared about
the continuation of their programs.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will
provide financial aid of $43 million to Armenia, said Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan. For the purpose of establishing a competitive and
diversified private sector, by September 2017 USAID will provide $10.4
million to the Armenian government. The prime minister also said
that the U.S. has provided $1 million in additional aid to Armenia
for agricultural registration.

The mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which arrived in
Yerevan on September 5, made progress in discussions with the Armenian
authorities on the action plan for the current and subsequent years,
the statement by the head of the IMF Armenia mission Mark Horton says.

Based on the results of the inspections Armenia will be granted
an additional funding of $84 million. Thus, the total issuance in
accordance with arrangements will amount to $407.2 million.

The new head of the Yerevan office of the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Mark Davis is also going to
make an effort to continue the implementation of the Bank’s programs
to promote private sector development in Armenia. To this day, the
EBRD has invested over 656 million euros (about $888 million) in
120 programs. In 2012, the Bank signed an agreement in Armenia on 15
programs for a total amount of 94 million euros (about $127 million).

In an interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia John Heffern said that support for reforms in Armenia will
be continued and that the Customs Union does not prevent it. European
officials have also said that “the EU will not abandon Armenia.” And
the fact that financial institutions have decided to continue working
with Armenia suggests that in Armenia, parallel to the “political”
accession to the Customs Union, a closer “economic” integration with
the West may be launched.

The opening in Armenia of the office of one of the world’s most
renowned IT companies, Oracle, could mean that Washington intends
to launch the second stage of “diversification” of Armenia. And this
company certainly will not be the last.

From: Baghdasarian

EUROPEAN UNION REMAINS COMMITTED TO DEVELOPING TIES WITH ARMENIA, COMMISSIONER SAYS

YEREVAN, September 20. / ARKA /. The European Union remains committed
to developing cooperation with Armenia, despite the fact that it
has no interest in signing an association agreement with it, having
chosen to join the Russia-led Customs Union, European Commissioner
for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fuele said, according
to RIA Novosti.

“The European Commission is ready for new forms of cooperation with
Armenia” – Fuele said at a news conference on the fringes of a Yalta
European Strategy forum. According to him, Armenia remains an active
member of EU’s Eastern Partnership program and continues implementation
of EU-proposed reforms.

Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan announced September 3 after talks
with Russia’s Putin in Moscow that his country would join the Customs
Union. Before that Armenia was expected to initial an association
agreement with the European Union in late November. Following this
the Armenian government offered to finalize a watered-down version
of the association agreement, but EU’s enlargement commissioner
Stefan Fuele dismissed this idea during a visit to Armenia saying
the association agreement was actually one agreement. “They (the
association agreement and the deep and comprehensive free trade
area) are two parts of one treaty that have been negotiated with our
Armenian colleagues. There are clear links between those two parts;
you can’t separate just one at the expense of the other,” he said at
a news conference in Yerevan. -0-.

11:48 20.09.2013

From: Baghdasarian