Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

Armenian Assembly of America releases ten-page report on the Sumgait
pogroms and the targeting of Armenian Christians

In a letter to the US President Barack Obama, the Armenian Assembly of
America (Assembly) expressed its deep concern over Azerbaijan’s
attempt to subvert the Administration’s well-intentioned program to
create greater access for the American public to the White House
through the “We the People” website. The site invites citizens to post
a petition and is intended to give all Americans a way to engage their
government on the issues that matter to them.

However, the Azerbaijani government manipulated the process by
generating anonymous signatures from non-Americans emanating from
Azerbaijan and Turkey. The Assembly’s letter urged the removal of
“these harmful propaganda-based petitions” and to “safeguard against
foreign manipulation.”

The Assembly cited multiple news sources establishing the fraudulent
nature of the petition drives, including evidence that the Azerbaijani
government and Foreign Ministry were directly involved with these
petitions.

One story from Azerbaijani media quotes the Director of the U.S.-Azeri
Network as putting out a call to all Turks around the world to sign
the petitions.

“Such actions raise questions as to the appropriateness of a foreign
government exploiting a site designed for American citizens,” adds the
Assembly” and raised questions as to “whether or not the provisions of
the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) have been complied with.”

In addition, the Azerbaijan America Alliance announced this week that
it has hired former Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana as chairman of
its board. While in Congress, Burton routinely opposed U.S.
affirmation of the Armenian Genocide citing opposition from Turkey. He
also voted against Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. Enacted in
1992, Section 907 restricts U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan until it
takes “demonstrable steps to cease all blockades and other offensive
uses of force against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The Azerbaijani government, which has been spreading a virulent
disinformation campaign agitating for war by condoning the slaying of
Armenians, as with the pardon of the murderer Ramil Safarov who axed
to death an Armenian officer in his sleep at a NATO Partnership for
Peace training exercise in Hungary, and ramping up tensions along the
ceasefire line, is aiming to distract attention from the upcoming 25th
anniversary of the atrocities that mark the beginning of the pogroms
against Armenians in Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh.

To mark the occasion of the Sumgait anniversary, the Assembly released
a 10-page summary report documenting the Sumgait pogrom and subsequent
attacks against the civilian Armenian population in
other towns in Azerbaijan, including its capital city of Baku. The
publication, Sumgait Pogrom of 1988: The Public Record, Armenian
Christian Minority Targeted in Azerbaijan, may be accessed on the
Assembly’s website, and reads in part:

Twenty-five years ago, in the Azerbaijani town of Sumgait (Sumgayit),
longtime Armenian residents were brutally targeted on the basis of
their ethnicity and subjected to unspeakable crimes. According to a
March 1988 article in The Economist, “reports of atrocities, including
the murder and mutilation of pregnant Armenian women and newborn
babies in a maternity hospital, have not been denied. Other reports
speak of gangs of young Azerbaijanis hunting down Armenian families
and committing murder, rape and robbery.” The Azeri government never
saw to the punishment of the perpetrators.

February 28, 2013, marks the 25th anniversary of the pogroms committed
by the Azerbaijani authorities against its Armenian population and the
beginning of the escalation of violence against the Armenian minority
across the entire country of Azerbaijan and against Armenians in
Nagorno Karabakh, culminating in the violent expulsion of 200,000
Armenians from the Azeri capital city of Baku in January 1990.

Despite the Azeri government’s assertion that the violence was due to
spontaneous riots, the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad (now Ganja),
Baku, and elsewhere, were a retaliatory attempt to silence and thwart
the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh who lawfully
approached their government on the basis of a new openness in Soviet
society ushered in by President Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost and
perestroika.

Instead of respecting the legal rights of Armenians, Azeri mobs
targeted Armenians as a group and subjected them to gross human rights
violations reminiscent of practices and policies resulting in the
attempted annihilation of the Armenian population in neighboring
Ottoman Turkey earlier in the century.

The Sumgait pogrom was widely reported and roundly condemned, but the
violence was never contained. Increasingly anti-Armenian forces acted
with impunity and the pogroms spread across Azerbaijan leading to the
military campaigns of the late 1980s to 1994 to deport the Armenians
of Nagorno Karabakh until a ceasefire agreement was signed by
Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh, and Armenia.

Hidayat Orujev, a leader of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, days
before the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait, stated in an address to
the governing Council of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region: “If
you do not stop campaigning for the unification of Nagorno Karabakh
with Armenia, if you don’t sober up, 100,000 Azeris from neighboring
districts will break into your houses, torch your apartments, rape
your women, and kill your children.” Mr. Orujev was appointed State
Advisor for Ethnic Policy by the late President Heydar Aliyev of
Azerbaijan and head of Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Religious
Affairs by current President Ilham Aliyev.

The Sumgait pogroms are a reminder of the need to respect the ethnic
and cultural identity of all people without discrimination and
violence, concluded the Assembly in its report.

The text of the Assembly letter to President Obama, Secretary of State
John Kerry, and Attorney General Eric Holder regarding the fraudulent
petitions with links to Azerbaijani news sources is available on the
Assembly website.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public
understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

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16.02.13, 11:27

From: Baghdasarian

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Feb 15 2013

BOOKS > Meeting held to show solidarity to attacked Azerbaijani writer

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
by Vercihan ZiflioÄ?lu

The YeÅ?iller ve Sol Gelecek Partisi (Greens and Left Future Party)
held a solidarity meeting on Feb. 13 at Cezayir Restaurant located in
Istanbul’s Galatasaray district for Azerbaijani writer Akram Aylisli.
Aylisli has been under fire from both the state and the public after
the release of his latest novel, `Stone Dreams,’ which depicts a story
of Azerbaijani-Armenian friendship.

The meeting was attended by a number of intellectuals, authors, poets,
and students. Armenian writer Levon Cavakhyan, who himself suffered a
similar experience on the other side of the coin, sent a message of
solidarity to Aylisli. Cavakhyan was dismissed from the Writers’ Union
of Armenia in 2008 after writing about Azerbaijani-Armenian
friendship.

Azerbaijani intellectuals living in Turkey are to appeal to the Human
Rights Association’s Istanbul Office for Aylisli today, and they will
also ask the Azerbaijan Embassy to provide protection for the writer.

Supporting the writer

PEN International has also taken action for Aylisli. Prominent
publisher, author and human rights activist Ragıp Zarakolu called on
the international public to support Aylisli, adding that his call for
peace should be supported. `We must stop such incidents in Azerbaijan.
A voice should be raised from this geography, since we have provided
Azerbaijan with this strength,’ he said.

Zarakolu also criticized the leftist groups in Turkey. `We have become
so West-centric that we have left the Azerbaijani groups alone with
their fates. It is time to act with solidarity,’ he said.

Turkish Writers Union (TYS) chair Mustafa Köz said that the incidents
were against both reason and conscience. `Writers are the consciences
of their countries. We should protect these consciences, so we side
with Aylisli,’ Köz said.

`I would hardly believe the incidents in my country,’ Azerbaijani poet
Suna Araslı told Hürriyet Daily News before the meeting.

Araslı said a bounty of 10,000 euros had been declared for an ear of
Aylisli, his books had been buried in symbolic funeral ceremonies, and
a DNA test was demanded by the Azerbaijani Parliament to prove whether
he was actually Armenian.

Aylisli was the recipient of many national and international awards,
and was also declared `Azerbaijani National Writer’ in 1987, but
President Ä°lham Aliyev stripped him of all his national honors on Feb.
7 in light of the latest book. Aylisli’s son and wife have also been
fired from their jobs.

February/15/2013

From: Baghdasarian

PRI’s The World
Feb 15 2013

Azerbaijan: Bounty Money Offered for Author Akram Aylisli’s Ear

By Chris Woolf

Some books can make their authors pretty unpopular.

But a political party in Azerbaijan this week took matters one step further.

It offered a $13,000 bounty to anyone who can slice an ear off
novelist, Akram Aylisli.

People have also been protesting outside the 75-year-old author’s
home, burning copies of his books.

And the writer’s wife and son have both been dismissed from their jobs.

The reason for all this is that his latest book, `Stone Dreams,’ is
seen as pro-Armenian.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in savage dispute since a
bloody war over a disputed enclave in the 1990s.

Famil Ismailov of the BBC Russian Service says that history is central
to understanding what’s going on.

`Lots of atrocities were committed,’ says Ismaolov. He added that both
nations are trying to control the narrative, portraying themselves as
victims and the other side as aggressors.

Aylisli’s book upsets that `correct’ version of history by
acknowledging that some Azeris are responsible for some misdeeds.

The author hopes it’s a step toward peace, as long as the Armenians do
the same.

From: Baghdasarian

1264 babies born in Artsakh in 2012

February 15, 2013 – 21:48 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A falling birthrate has been reported in Artsakh in
2012, with 1264 births posted last year against 2011 results.
According to Karabakh Justice Ministry website, a decrease in deaths
has also been reported in 2012 (373 deaths against 565 deaths in
2011.)
447 marriages were registered in 2012 against 356 in 2011, with a drop
in divorce rate also posted, Karabakh-open.info said.

From: Baghdasarian

Armenian Finance Ministry: Armenia is not yet ready for compulsory
health insurance

ARMINFO
Friday, February 15, 18:35

Armenia is not yet ready for compulsory health insurance, Armenian
Finance Minister Vache Gabrielyan told journalists on Thursday.

He said that they are actively working to create a necessary platform.
“We don’t yet have mechanisms for compulsory health insurance, nor do
we have specialized institutions for coordinating the activities,” the
Minister said.

According to ArmInfo’s Ranking of Insurance Companies of Armenia, in
Jan-Sept 2012 the companies collected 11.8bln AMD in voluntary health
insurance premiums.

From: Baghdasarian

Of All the Candidates, Only Hovannisian Mentions Javakhk in Campaign Platform
Kristine Aghalaryan

15:05, February 15, 2013

Of all the candidates now in the race to become the next president of
Armenia, only Raffi Hovannisian has anything to say in his election
platform regarding the Armenian populated region of Javakhk in
Georgia.

Hovannisian, when discussing his goals in foreign affairs, points to
Javakhk in particular, and calls for transforming Armenian relations
with Georgia to the level of a `developing partnership’.

`Bilateral, multi-level cooperation as the path to resolving the
national-civil issues in Javakhk, which serves as a factor in the
national security of Armenia,’ Hovannisian’s platform reads.

The other candidates, including President Sargsyan, make no mention of
Javakhk in their platforms even though many Javakhk Armenians have
received RA citizenship since 2008 so that they can travel to Russia
for seasonal work.

Readers will remember that at the time of the last presidential
election in 2008, those Javakhk groups supporting Serzh Sargsyan
organized a mass influx of Javakhk Armenians to ensure sufficient
votes for Sargsyan.

It can’t be ruled out that they’ll do the same this year.

All the candidates, except for Hrant Bagratyan, have avoided any
comment on what their long-term vision is vis-a-vis relations to
Georgia.

Bagratyan says he seeks to raise the level of friendly relations that
now exist and to quicken and enlarge the processes of economic
integration between the two neighbours.

`We will welcome and assist the efforts of the Georgian authorities to
reopen the Georgian-Abkhaz railway. We express our willingness to do
all within our ability to assist the Georgian government in coming up
with constructive solutions to the problems raised by Armenian
citizens of Georgia and their community institutions,’ Bagratyan’s
platform reads.

From: Baghdasarian

France returns Nazi-looted artwork to Jewish owners’ heirs

February 15, 2013 – 16:06 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Seven paintings taken from their Jewish owners in
the 1930s are being returned to their surviving relatives as part of
an ongoing French effort to give back looted, stolen or appropriated
art, BBC News reported.

The works include four paintings that currently hang in the Louvre in
Paris. Six of the pieces were owned by Richard Neumann, an Austrian
Jew who sold off his collection at a fraction of its value in order to
leave France. The seventh was stolen in Prague from Josef Wiener, a
Jewish banker.

All seven were destined for display in an art gallery that Adolf
Hitler wanted to build in Linz, the Austrian city in which he grew up.

The gallery was to have been filled with artworks looted across Europe
by the Nazis from museums and private collections, many of them
Jewish.

The claims of the families involved were validated by the French
government in 2012 after years spent researching the works’
provenance.

The six works from the Neumann collection are to be restored to his
grandson Tom Selldorff, now 82 and a resident of the U.S.

From: Baghdasarian

Some in Armenia know who planned presidential contender’s
assassination attempt – former candidate

NEWS.AM
February 15, 2013 | 13:51

YEREVAN. – Neither the forces outside Armenia, nor presidential
hopefuls – non-party affiliate, epic poetry specialist – Vardan Sedrakyan
and – opposition Heritage Party Chairman, former FM – Raffi Hovannisian
are linked to the assassination attempt that was staged against fellow
candidate, opposition National Self-Determination Union Chairman
Paruyr Hayrikyan. Former contender, National Accord party Chairman
Aram Harutyunyan – who dropped out of the presidential race on February
8 – stated this during a press conference on Friday.

`Sedrakyan had no reason to plan an assassination attempt. If I knew
why he is running [for president], I would respond to this question,’
Harutyunyan noted, reflecting on Sedrakyan’s declarations that he will
be arrested after the election on February 18.

`Had the authorities wished to cause harm, I was the most suitable
candidate because I was the one criticizing [them] most harshly;
something would have happened to me,’ he noted.

Aram Harutyunyan also stressed that, `there are people in Armenia that
know who planned the assassination attempt,’ but he added that he is
not one of them and he does not want to make assumptions.

From: Baghdasarian

Armenia’s largest shadow economy hides within exports and monopolistic
importers – presidential hopeful

news.am
February 15, 2013 | 14:10

YEREVAN. – The presidential election campaign in Armenia has become
very intense and the interest is great in the past three or four days,
Presidential candidate, opposition Freedom Party Chairman, former PM
Hrant Bagratyan stated on Friday.

He noted that he does not speak solely about the economy, when he
meets with the voters; he presents a political platform, as well.

Bagratyan stressed that Armenia’s greatest challenges today are
poverty and emigration, which grow on a daily basis. He noted that the
society also demands that the case into the tragic events, which
occurred in capital city Yerevan on March 1, 2008, be solved.

Also, the former PM stated that Armenia’s largest shadow economy of
present-day hides within exports and the monopolistic importers,
specifically in large commercial networks.

From: Baghdasarian

Civilitas Analyst: “They’ve charged Oskanian of money laundering
without understanding what it means”
Hayk Ghazaryan

12:34, February 15, 2013

At a discussion held yesterday in Stepanakert entitled `Elections in
Armenia and the Conflict’ moderator Tatoul Hakobyan was asked about
the current state of the criminal investigation into Vardan Oskanian.

Hakobyan works as a poltical analyst with the Yerevan-based Civilitas
Foundation originally established by Vardan Oskanian. The discussion
was organized by Civilitas and the Artsakh Foreign Affairs and
Security Public Council.

Hakobyan responded that it was a difficult topic ad one he found
unpleasant to talk about.

`The case has been dragging on for nine months. They have accused
Oskanian of money laundering without any proof and without an
understanding of what money laundering actually means. They can’t make
that charge stick,’ Hakobyan said.

The Civilitas analyst added that tax officials had carried out six
audits of the foundation’s books and haven’t come up with even a 100
Dram infraction.

`Now they are examining other things, like how many litres of gas were
used, 18 or 20? The case has degraded to this level from its former
lofty goals which were certainly politically motivated. Hopefully it
will all end soon.’

Hakobyan reminded the crowd about the case of former RA Foreign
Minister Alexander Arzumanian, who was also accused of the same
charge.

`They charged Arzumanian with money laundering as well. That money was
sent to Arzumanian by his friend in Moscow. After spending time in
jail, they returned that money back to him. In other words, they
returned the money for which he was jailed in the first place.’

From: Baghdasarian