Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

100,000 COPIES OF NOVEL BY TURKISH INTELLECTUAL, WHO RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, SELLS IN 2 HOURS

April 02, 2013 | 17:10

ISTANBUL. – The novel entitled “The Last Game,” which was written by
former editor-in-chief Ahmet Altan of Turkey’s Taraf daily, was sold
out in a matter of two hours.

Once having been published on Tuesday, the novel, which Altan had
written over the course of the past three months, disappeared from
all bookstores in just two hours, T24.com of Turkey reports.

A total of 100,000 copies of the 408-page “The Last Game” were on sale.

To note, Ahmet Altan is among those unique Turkish intellectuals that
recognize the Armenian Genocide.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN INVITES SERZH SARGSYAN TO LIBERTY SQUARE ON APRIL 9

Tuesday,
April
02

The ex-presidential candidate, leader of opposition Herirtage Party
Raffi Hovannisian has invited the President elect Serzh Sargsyan to
Liberty Square on April 9, the day of Sargsyan’s inauguration.

Hovannisian told this to reporters in the city of Gyumri, adding that
his complex proposals are still valid.

“There has not been any proposal, message, or phone call from him.

This is a national problem. The fate of our state and our nation will
be decided this week. We all, including Serzh Sargsyan, must realize
it,” Raffi Hovannisian said.

TODAY, 16:16

Aysor.am

From: Baghdasarian

THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA HAS BEEN REPRIMANDED FOR CASES OF POLITICAL PERSECUTION

April 1 2013

A mid-term assessment given by the Civil Society Institute (CSI),
the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC), and the International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) urges the Republic of Armenia: “End
politically motivated prosecutions of individuals deemed opposition,
and take steps to strengthen the rule of law, including respecting
minimum guarantees as laid out in the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, equal protection of the law, and judicial
independence.” inquired during a conversation with
human rights advocates whether one could see the government of the
Republic of Armenia show political will to solve problems, along with
the international organizations’ reminding the Republic of Armenia
about the above-mentioned issues. Vardan Harutyunyan, the manager
of the Rights and Freedom Center, said in this regard: “That foreign
organizations talk about the issues of prisoners of conscience, people
persecuted for political reasons is good and effective leverage that
can be used against the government of the Republic of Armenia.

However, I don’t see any manifestation of political will. The
government of the Republic of Armenia has used and continues to
use political persecutions to strengthen its position. A striking
example of that is the case of the Armenian National Congress (ANC)
youth, Tigran Arakelyan. Pressure from outside should be so strong
that the government of the Republic of Armenia is not compelled to
take measures. Otherwise, a long time is needed for the government
to realize the essence and importance of the issue.” In response to
the counterarguments put forward by the government that the foreign
organizations used the above-mentioned issues for internal political
pressures, V. Harutyunyan said: “There are no limits for human
rights protection, it is above the state interests, the government’s
interests, and I don’t have any such fear. Let me remind with regard
to those counterarguments that the Soviet Union would also say, ‘They
interfere in our internal affairs’ etc. Thus, all dictatorships try
to justify themselves like that. Human rights are not internal affairs.

For example, if in Brazil, in Canada, in America, human rights
are violated; it is also our, the Armenians’, business too.” Tigran
Yegoryan, an attorney at law, recalled the post-election developments
with regard to the raised question and expressed the following opinion:
“If political will has been shown, we would have at least seen fair
trials of electoral cases, whereas we see the Special Investigative
Service (SIS) be engaged in petty confrontations with counselors,
wishing to prove that it is the SIS, not an ordinary investigative
body. In that case, political will is out of the question, when
the most important investigative body doesn’t conduct an efficient
investigation into the cases of electoral fraud.” T.

Yegoryan gave the example of the cases of Narine Ismail, Artak
Hambardzumyan, and Narek Babayan and went into detail: “Can political
will be in question, when trying to make an impression, prosecutors and
representatives of the police of different caliber talked about their
readiness at different TV shows to conduct impartial investigation
into more than 20 cases, but we witness now how the majority of
those cases are declined one by one. What is the problem that the
state doesn’t show enough political will and doesn’t properly examine
all the cases of electoral fraud, moreover, different investigative
bodies, but not the SIS, examine and decline the majority of them,
whereas the law requires that the SIS conduct investigation. For
example, before the ruling of the Constitutional Court, in the most
heated period, different prosecuting bodies had been very active;
their representatives would put forward numbers regarding the prepared
material and the investigations launched all the tame. After the ruling
of the Constitutional Court, no one has talked about them. Moreover, we
still have complaints about the investigations that were not launched
during the 2012 National Assembly election. Those investigations
have not been carried through so far. They started to decline all
those cases secretly. Political will is out of the question given
all this.” Tatev HARUTYUNYAN

Read more at:

© 1998 – 2013 Aravot – News from Armenia

From: Baghdasarian

OSTINVESTOR CEO: COURT VERDICT WAS “RIDICULOUS”

Kristine Aghalaryan

12:46, April 2, 2013

Stefan Laxhuber, the CEO of Ostinvestor, today told Hetq that the
March 27 verdict of a Yerevan courtregarding his suit against Gagik
Tsarukyan’s Yerevan Ararat Brandy-Wine-Vodka Factory (YABWV), was
“ridiculous”.

On March 27, a Yerevan court ordered Gagik Tsarukyan’s Yerevan
Ararat Brandy-Wine-Vodka Factory (YABWV) to pay German investment
firm Ostinvestor, 14.8 million AMD ($36,662) in compensation in a
case that dates back to 2009.

Laxhuber said that he was finally expecting something rational.

“We are very disappointed and are currently discussing the verdict”
Mr. Laxhuber told Hetq.

The German CEO said Ostinvestor would take the matter to the European
Court of Human Rights and was confident of winning since the right
of ownership had been severely violated in Armenia.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA’S FOREIGN TRADE GROWS 14% TO $887.2 MLN IN JAN-FEB 2013

YEREVAN, April 2. /ARKA/. Foreign trade turnover in Armenia ascended
by 14% to $887.2 million in January-February 2013, from the analogical
period a year earlier, according to the National Statistical Service
of Armenia.

Export within the reported period stood at $241.3 million, a 30.4%
increase from a year earlier. Import climbed by 8.9% to $645.9 million.

As a result, the deficit stood at $404.6 million in January-February
2013.

According to preliminary statistical reports, adverse balance of
Armenia’s foreign trade turnover in FOB prices (a shipping term which
indicates that the supplier pays the shipping costs, and usually also
the insurance costs, from the point of manufacture to a specified
destination, at which point the buyer takes responsibility) amounted
to $305.1 million in January-February 2013.

Most of exports accounted for the following spheres: mining industry-
$72.6 million (39.9% up from Jan-Feb 2012), base metals and items made
of them-$55.3 million (15.9% up), food products -$43.2 million (52.6%
increase), precious and semiprecious stones- nearly $27.5 million
(15.3% increase), ground, air and water transportation facilities-$15.9
million (45.6 times up), etc.

At the same time, most of imports accounted for the following spheres:
mining industry-$177.5 million (8.4% increase), cars, equipment and
mechanisms- nearly $65.7 million (6.8% drop), food products-$59.7
million (64.2% up), air and water transportation facilities-$46.3
million (24.2% down), etc. ($1 – 418.58 drams). -0-

From: Baghdasarian

STATE DEPARTMENT RESPONDS TO AZERBAIJANI GOVERNMENT’S CLAIMS

April 02, 2013 | 12:25

Official representative of State Department said American NGOs
“operate within extremely tight guidelines.”

Victoria Nuland commented on recent Azerbaijani governments’ claims to
the National Democratic Institute office in Azerbaijan and accusations
of illegal fundings of the opposition groups.

“I don’t have any information on that particular assertion by the
government. I don’t know whether it happened in the last couple of
days. We’ll check into it. But as you know, all of our U.S.-funded
democracy NGOs operate within extremely tight guidelines,” she said.

She assured the NGOs don’t fund any particular party or any particular
ideological approach.

“They fund the process of democratic elections and party building in
an evenhanded manner across the political spectrum.”

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

From: Baghdasarian

Why Israel and Turkey Got Back Together

The Coming Cooperation on Syria and Energy

Michael J. Koplow
March 23, 2013

Exploratory drilling near the coasts of Cyprus, Egypt, Israel,
Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey has unearthed vast reserves of natural gas.
Competition over the rights to tap those resources is compounding
existing tensions over sovereignty and maritime borders. The eastern
Mediterranean is quickly becoming as volatile as its eastern cousin,
the South China Sea.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Umit Bektas / Courtesy Reuters)

After nearly three years of intense political feuding following the
Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara — a ship carrying international
activists who were trying to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza — Turkey
and Israel agreed yesterday to resume diplomatic ties. In a phone call
with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for the deaths of nine Turkish
citizens at the hands of Israeli forces and agreed to pay
compensation. In return, Erdogan agreed to normalize relations between
the two countries and to drop the prosecutions of Israeli officers in
connection with the flotilla raid. Turkey had previously demanded
that, in addition to apologizing and paying compensation, Israel lift
the blockade. In order to get around this last — and thorniest —
condition, Netanyahu stressed that Israel has recently eased
restrictions on civilian goods coming into Gaza, and he agreed to work
with Turkey on improving the humanitarian situation there. The details
of the arrangement still need to be worked out, but it appears that
the two countries are well on their way to resuming cooperation in a
number of areas.

It has been clear for some time that Israel was willing to make an
apology to Turkey, but less clear whether Turkey would accept it. Now
that election season is over in Israel, Netanyahu no longer has to
worry about nationalist criticism over repairing ties with Turkey, and
the temporary exclusion of former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
from the cabinet removed the biggest obstacle to reconciliation on the
Israeli side. But the politics in Turkey are a different story. The
Palestinian issue has made Israel deeply unpopular there, and the feud
has been politically valuable for Erdogan, who has been able to blast
Israel any time he has wanted to divert attention away from sensitive
domestic issues. Last month, for example, Turkish headlines were
dominated by the government’s negotiations with Abdullah Ocalan, the
leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). When Erdogan
publically called Zionism a crime against humanity, he chased the
talks right off the front pages.

Given these domestic political benefits, Ankara has had little reason
to reconcile with Israel until now. This week’s news, however, signals
that Turkey has finally come to realize that it has more to lose than
to gain from turning a cold shoulder to Israel. This is largely
because Turkey can use Israel’s help on its most pressing foreign
policy dilemma, the Syrian civil war, and on its top economic concern,
energy security.

Sometimes, a reliable friend is better than a reliable adversary.

For Ankara, the Syrian crisis has been a major headache. Turkey has
suffered a loss in trade, been forced to rely on NATO for Patriot
missiles to defend against border threats, and accepted just under
half a million Syrian refugees. Ankara’s demands for Assad to step
down have fallen on deaf ears, and its requests for NATO intervention
in the form of a no-fly zone and heavy arms for the Syrian rebels have
also been brushed aside.

All this has been unfortunate for Turkey’s leaders, but it was the
recent introduction of Syrian chemical weapons into the equation that
really changed Turkey’s calculus; now more than ever, the country
needs better intelligence and allies to bring an end to the civil war
or at least prevent it from spilling over. Turkey cannot afford to
have chemical weapons used anywhere near its border with Syria, and
the longer the fighting goes on, the greater the chances of a chemical
weapons strike gone awry. Israel simply has better intelligence on
regional developments than Turkey does, and Turkey can use that help
to monitor Assad’s weapons stores and troop movements on both sides.
In addition, whereas the United States and other NATO countries have
been reluctant to support the Syrian rebels in any meaningful way,
Israel has a greater incentive to make sure that the moderate Sunni
groups prevail over the more radical jihadist elements of the
opposition. As the situation in Syria heats up, Turkey and Israel will
be thankful that they can talk to each other and coordinate.

Another area in which Turkey needs Israel’s assistance is energy.
Turkey’s current account deficit, which stood at $48.8 billion in
2012, is almost entirely a result of the country’s reliance on oil and
natural gas imports; Turkey has no natural resources of its own.
Furthermore, Turkey is paying through the nose for both Russian and
Iranian natural gas, due to onerous price contracts. Earlier this
month, I talked with a number of people in Turkey — government
ministers, opposition politicians, business tycoons, and trade group
leaders — and they all mentioned Turkey’s growing energy needs and
lamented the country’s overreliance on Russian and Iranian natural
gas. Israel, meanwhile, has just discovered two major natural gas
basins, the Tamar and Leviathan fields, off its coast in the Eastern
Mediterranean. Since Turkey has no hope of smoothing over ties with
Cyprus, its longtime adversary, which has been the other main
beneficiary of the Mediterranean gas boom, it will likely turn to
Israel as a natural gas supplier. With Turkey’s economic growth
slowing, Israel’s potential as a partner makes reconciliation more
attractive now than at any point in recent years.

Other factors also made this week the ideal timing for Turkey to
accept an Israeli apology. For starters, doing so during President
Barack Obama’s trip to the region allowed Erdogan to hand the
president a political victory. At the same time, Erdogan gets to claim
that he brought Israel to its knees just as Turkish nationalists were
gearing up to criticize him over negotiating with Ocalan and taking a
softer line with the Turkish Kurds. A significant segment of the
Turkish population still denies that there is a Kurdish problem and
sees any government effort toward easing tensions as capitulating to
terrorists. Following Ocalan’s speech on Thursday, which signaled a
genuine break from the past by transforming the PKK’s fight against
Turkey into a political struggle rather than an armed struggle,
Erdogan now has both the political space to resume ties with Israel
and the ability to spin the rapprochement with Israel as a nationalist
victory in which Israel has ceded to Turkish demands.

Squabbling with Israel had its benefits for Erdogan, but with so many
challenges facing Turkey, and with Obama pressuring both sides to make
up, the time was finally right to do so. For the first time since the
Mavi Marmara set sail, the economic and foreign policy gains that
Turkey will realize by patching things up with Israel far outweigh the
domestic political benefits of staying apart. Sometimes, a reliable
friend is better than a reliable adversary.

From: Baghdasarian

Azerbaijani, Turkish and Georgian foreign ministers sign final
protocol of Batumi meeting

17:12 – 28.03.2013

The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia held a
trilateral meeting in Batumi as a part of `Trabzon Declaration’.

APA’s Georgian bureau reports that the ministers discussed regional
issues, the development of economic relations between the countries,
joint international projects, the issues of energy security,
environmental protection, transport and other main issues. Following
the meeting, the ministers signed a final protocol and adopted
cooperation plan for 2013-2015.

`Trabzon Declaration’ was adopted on August 8, 2012 with the
participation of the Azerbaijani, Turkish and Georgian foreign
ministers,

The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia are expected
to hold the next trilateral meeting in the second half of this year.

From: Baghdasarian

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey
March 30 2013

STATEMENT OF THE SPOKESMAN OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF
TURKEY IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTION

Statement of the Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Turkey in Response to a Question Regarding the Assertion by Charles
Aznavour, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Armenia to
United Nations Office in Geneva and Ambassador to Bern, in a
Television Broadcast in Switzerland, that a “Turkish Prime Minister
Stated That He hated Armenians and Greeks” and his Suggestions on
Turkish-Armenian Relations.

It has not been possible to understand from where Charles Aznavour’s
assertion stems. We strongly reject this baseless and meaningless
accusation. The Turkish people have a long experience of co-existence
with the Armenian and Greek peoples. We have always emphasized that it
is wrong to derive hostility from history.

On the other hand, we welcome the fact that, as a world-renowned
artist and intellectual, Charles Aznavour develops ideas and makes
suggestions for the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.
Although we do not agree with some of his views, we believe that the
right method for the two peoples to better understand each other, for
a better comprehension of historical events and for the establishment
of a peaceful common future is through dialogue, empathy and working
on just memory.

From: Baghdasarian

Ethnographic dances taught at Russian-Armenian University

21:37 – 31.03.13

It is the second week the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University has
been hosting classes of ethnographic dances.

The lessons are conducted by Gagik Ginosyan, the art director of the
ethnographic song and dance ensemble Karin.

Speaking to Tert.am, an advisor of the University’s rector, Hripsime
Margaryan, said they are the first institution of higher learning to
make such an offer to Ginosyan.

`We came up with the idea of introducing ethnographic dances to the
university’s curricula when we were considering the significance of
national dances with Gagik Ginosyan. As for the students, you don’t
imagine their reaction when they came to know of the opportunity. The
number of students attending the dance [lessons] is increasing
gradually,’ Margaryan said, adding that she is very happy that their
university is the first to offer such an opportunity.

According her, the classes are now organized as an extracurricular
activity, but the University has plans to make them part of the
compulsory program.

Speaking further, Ginosyan said their ensemble has long underlined the
importance of including ethnographic dances into the curricula of
higher education institutions and secondary schools.

`It is necessary to introduce them to universities and especially to
secondary schools as those institutions offer absolutely no subject
educating [students] on their national identity. So it is important to
make this phenomenon part of an Armenian’s set of values given that it
is a serious way towards self-identification,’ he added.

Armenian News – Tert.am

From: Baghdasarian