Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

WE ARE DISCUSSING MATTER OF PERMITTING EU SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE’S ENTRY TO KARABAKH – EU HIGH REPRESENTATIVE

news.am
July 25, 2012 | 11:07

Upon the request of RFE/RL Armenian service, Catherine Ashton-the
European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission-who
was in Brussels on Monday to attend the European officials’
and Eastern Partnership foreign ministers’ meeting, reflected on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, specifically the chances of the EU
representative’s admission to Karabakh without preconditions, and
she said in particular:

“With respect to Nagorno-Karabakh, I spoke with Azerbaijan’s President
and also with Armenia’s President. We discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue during all meetings, specifically the matter of allowing Philippe
Lefort, the EU Special Representative [for the South Caucasus]-,
and not all European officials- to enter Karabakh.

We wish to help build trust among those people who live there, in a
very tense and extremely unstable situation.

And I want to reiterate that these are the key issues being examined,
not solely during today’s [Monday’s] meeting, but also during all
meetings.”

From: Baghdasarian

UN CIMETIERE ARMENIEN DETRUIT POUR CONSTRUIRE UNE ROUTE
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
mercredi 25 juillet 2012

La Turquie dite ” moderne ” qui repose sur le crime du genocide des
Armeniens -et d’autres peuples- n’a aucun respect pour la memoire. Le
site turc Ayiridogrular rapporte que près d’Erouhi dans la region
de Siirt, afin de construire une nouvelle route, les autorites
on detruit un cimetière armenien, sans prendre soin de reunir les
ossements dans un nouvel espace. Dans le village kurde de Khert,
tout près de la route, l’eglise armenienne abandonnee etait en etat
de ruine. Au lieu de la renover, les autorites turques ont detruit
le cimetière armenien attenant a l’eglise. La Turquie qui n’a aucun
respect pour les survivants du genocide efface egalement la memoire
des millions d’hommes, de femmes et d’enfants, innocentes victimes
tuees sur l’autel de barbarie humaine a la sauce turque.

From: Baghdasarian

CHRISTIAN MURDERS IN TURKEY AND TUSHAD
by MARKAR ESAYAN

Today’s Zaman
July 25 2012
Turkey

The massacre of Christian missionaries in Zirve Publishing House
in Malatya on April 18, 2007, which horrified the whole country and
the world, had come after the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink on Jan. 19, 2007 and the murder of priest Andrea Santoro
in Trabzon on Feb. 5, 2006. In 2004 and 2005, paranoia about a
nonexistent threat posed by Christian missionaries, just like the
fictitious Shariah threat, was systematically being pumped into
the collective subconscious of the general public. And unwittingly,
the Religious Affairs Directorate was playing into the hands of this
conspiracy with Friday sermons it prepared in 2005. The deep state
could easily spread its conspiracies by making use of the fears that
this country would be divided by Christian missionaries.

What went unnoticed at that time was that the primary aim of the
attacks against Christians in Turkey was to give the impression to
the external world that religious fundamentalism was on the rise
in Turkey. In this way, they could attain a number of aims at one
stretch: The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) derived
its greatest backing first from the general public and then from the EU
and the US in its fight against Kemalist/neo-nationalist (ulusalcı)
tutelage. The AK Party-implemented reforms would secure colossal
support from the external world, which in turn undermined the pro-coup
propaganda. It had to weaken this legitimacy, the deep state reasoned.

The most practical way to do this was to kill Christians in Turkey
and put the blame on Muslims and the AK Party. Although the Council
of State attack had been masterminded by Ergenekon — a clandestine
organization nested within the state trying to manipulate the
government — the funeral ceremony of the murdered judge, Mustafa
Ozbilgin, had been turned into a lynching of the AK Party. At that
time, everyone believed that murderer Alparslan Arslan attacked the
secular stronghold, the Council of State, in order to protest the
headscarf ban. Later this act by Ergenekon was taken within the scope
of the case against Ergenekon.

In the murders of Santoro, Dink and the missionaries in Malatya, it
was clear that the magnitude of violence and brutality was gradually
increasing and similar methods were used in all of them — such as
the hitmen employed being underage and quickly apprehended. We, as
the general public, were convinced that all of these murders were the
acts of the deep state and were orchestrated from the same center,
but we had to prove this through legal actions.

This was not possible with respect to the cases of Santoro and Dink.

For some unknown reason, the government stopped backing these cases.

Despite the facts that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
found Turkey in breach of the Convention in the way it handled
with these cases and that the State Audit Institution (DDK) of the
presidency found that the “state officials were protected and the
evidence was obscured and the investigation was not effectively
conducted,” the court held that there was “no criminal organization
behind the attack.” However, the prosecutor in the same case said:
“There is certainly an organization involved. How could the judge not
see it?” The trial ended in a sheer scandal. It is currently pending
review at the Court of Cassation.

Concerning the Zirve case, the supplementary indictment submitted
by the prosecutor to the court is of vital importance. Turkey has
to attach utmost importance to this trial because the prosecutors
recorded very significant progress.

As reported by the Zaman daily July 25th, the indictment accepted
by the court notes that the murders were committed as a result of
the field work performed by the National Strategies and Operations
Department of Turkey (TUSHAD), an undercover military unit, and Ä°lker
Cınar. It indicates that a suitable climate was created using the
media outlets for the murder of Santoro in Trabzon on Feb. 5, 2006
and Dink on Jan. 19, 2007.

The people who were killed in Zirve Publishing House were first
mentioned in a symposium held on Oct. 1, 2005, and Col. Mehmet Ulger
was appointed as the gendarmerie commander in Malatya in January 2006.

Following his appointment to the city, Ulger started to hold meetings
concerning the missionaries, a first in the city, at the Provincial
Security Commission. In addition, TUSHAD commissioned a former priest,
İlker Cınar, with the task of contributing to the provocative
reports; a research assistant at İnönu University, Ruhi Abat,
with the duty of further developing the project; Intelligence Branch
Director Haydar YeÅ~_il with the duty of ensuring coordination; and
noncommissioned officer Murat Gökturk with the duty of collecting
intelligence and establishing contacts.

It is of vital importance that we all focus on this trial so that
the scandals we saw in the Santoro and Dink cases will not be repeated.

From: Baghdasarian

ON BOARD THE POBEDA
by Paolo Martino

Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso

July 25 2012
Italia

Vartuhi left Beirut in 1946, to reach Soviet Armenia aboard a ship
called “Pobeda”. In Stalin’s land, however, the survivors of the
genocide saw the dream of a homeland turn into a nightmare. Travelling
to the Caucasus on the paths of migrations. Fourth episode of the
story “From the Caucasus to Beirut”

“To overcome the censorship of the Soviet regime, we used code
messages. ‘The bread is good’ meant we were starving. ‘The wardrobe
door is broken’ meant persecution, imprisonment. If in a picture there
were people lying down, it meant someone had died, and so on”. In her
apartment in the centre of Anjar – three thousand Armenians up in the
Lebanese mountains, Angel goes over the thread of family memories
dating back to over 60 years ago, when her sister Vartuhi left Lebanon
to move to Soviet Armenia. “Right from the early letters, all that was
written about was bread and wardrobes, then the pictures also slowly
started coming in. I realised that Armenia was not the heaven the
Russians wanted us to believe. And that I would never see my sister
again”.

Following World War II, the Armenian diaspora was faced with yet
another challenge. Determined to rebalance the demographic gap left by
the millions of casualties from the war, the Soviet Union promoted
huge repopulation campaigns. Anxious to finally be in a “motherland”
of their own, American, European and Middle-Eastern Armenian
communities, moved en masse. Starting from 1946, trains, ships and
convoys with the red star moved thousands of children of the Armenian
diaspora to Yerevan, in Soviet Armenia. Seventy percent of Anjar’s
inhabitants, 3.500 out of 5.000, chose to leave. Among these was
Vartuhi, Angel’s sister.

“It was very hard, at the beginning. Lebanese Armenians were used to
moving, reading the newspaper, speaking their minds, so they were
immediately spotted by the merciless eye of the regime. Many were
shipped to Siberia, to concentration camps”. Angel’s memory moves
smoothly to distant seasons, sweeping through the immeasurable
geography of the diaspora as if no corner of the world were unknown.

“But Anjar’s Armenians are thick-skinned. Slowly, they built their
lives, their homes, even a village, close to Yerevan”. I interrupt
her. “Is this village still there?”. Angel smiles: “Of course. It’s
called Musa Dagh. Just like our native land. My sister lives there”.

Enraptured by her memories, the old lady recounts the years of her
youth, of the irreversible choices, while in my mind, a blurred idea
is becoming clearer and clearer. While saying goodbye to Angel the
Lebanese way, with three kisses on the cheek, I take a picture of her
and make her a promise: “I will come back to see you, with a
surprise”.

>From my diary. 3rd November
The stream of memory that links the Caucasus to the Middle-East flows
just under the surface of everyday life. The Inhabitants of Musa Dagh
who leave Turkey in 1939 to move to Lebanon travel to Armenia eight
years later. One-way journeys, decisions without appeal, but each
displacement marks the land, tracing a path that from the Caucasus
leads to Beirut and viceversa.

Vakif, the only one of the seven villages of Musa Dagh that chose to
remain under Turkish authority, still inhabited by Armenians; Anjar,
the Armenian jewel in the Bekaa valley, a pacific oasis in one of the
world’s most conflict-ridden areas; the new Musa Dagh in Yerevan’s
suburbs, a refuge for those who in 1946, after so much misery, thought
they had finally found the road to the Rising Sun of the Future.

Splinters getting lost in the tragedy of the genocide, in games
between powers, among the ruins of the wars of the Middle-East and the
Caucasus. The only way to get back to the human element, to understand
the choices of the many Vartuhis and Angels of this story, is to walk
on the paths of those migrations, measure them with one’s steps, with
the rain and the monotonous horizons of the plateau and the desert.

“I’m going to Yerevan, I already have a ticket”. Sitting as usual in
front of the shutters of the shoe factory, Rafi blows the dense smoke
of the Turkish pipe unperturbed. “I knew you would leave, one day or
another. You have become paranoid in your search for a rational logic
in the history of my people. In time, you will learn it’s not worth
it”. Rafi screams something in Armenian to a boy, who immediately
serves us arak, an aniseed liquor diluted with water and ice. A
one-dollar tip and the boy disappears, swallowed up in the chaos of
Burj Hammoud, the Armenian quarter in the heart of Beirut. “What are
you going to Armenia for?” While the night is falling on the alley,
Rafi listens to the story of Vartuhi and Angel, the sisters separated
by the Pobeda, the ship that in 1946 moved thousands of Lebanese
Armenians beyond the Iron Curtain. “I want to retrace those events,
feel the missing part in the story”.

Rafi orders some more arak. “Focus on this principle: in the
Middle-East, it is points of view that count, not facts”. Burj Hammoud
is now empty, and Rafi’s words snap like stones. “Take the story of
the Pobeda, for example. It stopped existing a long time ago. In its
place, what is left is the points of view of those who had an interest
in Armenians leaving, and of those who, instead, wanted them to stay.

And above all this, the Soviet Union”. Rafi’s allusion leaves no room
for doubt. “You mean the Lebanese Armenian community was split by the
Cold War too?”. Rafi is at his third arak: “It was a fratricide. That
war killed hundreds of people right in these alleys. No one likes to
admit it, but the trail of blood has reached our days”.

While I am walking away through the deserted alleys of Burj Hammoud,
the rosary is told by the splintered walls in front of my eyes. I
think back to Rafi’s words, to the unresolved ambiguity of the civil
wars, to the warning that seems to come from the bullets thrusted on
the walls. “It was not the foreign occupant to open the fire, but the
neighbour, never forget that”. Sprayed letters steer these thoughts:
“PKK”, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The movement born in Turkey in
the ’80s fights for the independence of Turkish Kurdistan, the region
that was once the ancient Western Armenia. In the name of anti-Turkish
resentment, the children of the Armenian diaspora support the Kurdish
cause, even though they accuse the same Kurds of having been
accomplices of the Ottoman army during the genocide. The labyrinth of
these alleys is a metaphor for the intrigued stories of those living
here.

The plane takes off on time from the cement carpet in South Beirut,
where Shiite quarters fill every space before making room for the
first bits of greenery on the spur of the mountain. From the pile of
notes, e-mails and maps that I printed out in a rush before leaving,
the answer that Adakessian, the Professor at the Beirut Armenian
university, sent me a few hours ago pops out:

Dear Paolo,

I wish you the wisdom you need to discern the fine line and make
things better understood. Find the contact of Dr. Demoyan, the
director of the Armenian Genocide Research Insitute in Yerevan. This
is the Middle East, and the Genocide issue is one of the central
ingredients of this intriguing complex.

Regards, A.

Wisdom, insight, complex intrigues. Where am I going, exactly? The
night spent organising my journey has left me with doubts, more than
answers. And while the vast blue of the sky and the Lebanese sea makes
room for leaden landscapes, my mind is suddenly empty and my body
finds refuge in deep sleep.

From: Baghdasarian

FORMER SECRETARY OF PROSPEROUS ARMENIA QUITS

Vestnik Kavkaza
July 25 2012
Russia

Aram Safaryan, former Secretary of Prosperous Armenia, current Chairman
of the parliamentary commission for human rights and social affairs,
has quit the party, News Armenia reports.

Safaryan got disappointed with the party after the parliamentary polls
on May 6, when he was not granted a seat at the parliament. He has
not officially quit the party, but he does not visit its headquarters.

The official has neither confirmed, nor denied the information. He
said that he would give an interview before September.

From: Baghdasarian

MOSCOW HOPES ARMENIA WILL RATIFY FTA AGREEMENT SOON

Interfax
July 24 2012
Russia

Hopefully the National Assembly of Armenia will ratify a free trade
area (FTA) agreement in the first days of its work, Russian Duma
Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said.

“We note with satisfaction that the Armenian authorities have prepared
all the documents related with the already signed CIS free trade
area agreement,” Naryshkin said at a briefing in Yerevan on Tuesday,
summing up the results of his two-day formal visit to Armenia.

The Russian and Belarusian parliaments have already ratified this
agreement, the speaker said.

“We hope Armenia will become a third country (to ratify the agreement)
very soon, and the agreement will thus take effect,” Naryshkin said.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA MIGHT JOIN CUSTOMS UNION – NARYSHKIN

ITAR-TASS
July 24, 2012 Tuesday 06:16 PM GMT+4
Russia

Armenia might become a member of the Customs Union which incorporates
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, given its political will and readiness
of the other countries, Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin declared at a
meeting with representatives of the Armenian scientific circles held
at the Armenian Academy of Sciences on Tuesday.

The Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia is open for other
CIS to join given their political will, and it will be enlarged,
depending on an extent of readiness of the other countries, Naryshkin
said. Armenia, which already has a status of the EurAsEC observer,
is one of such countries, Naryshkin said.

We are aware of the fact what attention the Armenian scientific and
political circles pay to Armenia’s possible joining the process of
the EurAsian economic integration, the speaker said. He reminded
of a first supra-national body of the Customs Union – the EurAsian
economic commission, which began its work in 2012. On Naryshkin’s
initiative a working group was set up for parliamentary evaluation
of the EurAsian economic integration.

“A new competitive regional alliance which meets the requirements of
the global market is being formed in the world,” Naryshkin concluded.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN SCIENTISTS INTERESTED IN REVIVING TRADITIONAL TIES WITH RUSSIAN COLLEAGUES

ITAR-TASS
July 24, 2012 Tuesday 11:42 PM GMT+4
Russia

Armenia’s people of science are interested in reviving traditional
scientific ties with their colleagues from Russia, both in terms of
concrete research and training specialists, Presidential of Armenia’s
National Academy of Sciences Radik Martirosyan said on Tuesday at
a meeting with visiting speaker of the Russian State Duma lower
parliament house Sergei Naryshkin.

“We consider your visit to the Academy as a manifestation of your
keen attention to the development of science and technology,” he said.

“In recent years, Russian has being paying significant attention to
the development of science and promotion of innovations,” he went on.

“We scrutinized the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin
at the annual general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
learned about tremendous growth of state financing of scientific
research. We are glad to hear about these achievements because through
our traditional ties with Russian colleagues they will have a positive
effect on the development of science in Armenia.”

Nonetheless, he admitted that in the recent years the level of
scientific contacts between Russia and Armenia “has considerably
lowered.” But still, in his words, there are a number of various joint
projects oriented towards contemporary scientific problems. The two
academies have an agreement which targets expansion of science and
research cooperation.

“The most close and fruitful contacts between our scientists were in
the Soviet era,” the academician noted. “Many generations of scientists
and researchers were trained at world acclaimed scientific and research
centres in Russia. Along with profound knowledge, each of them received
good education and brilliant skills, learned more about the Russian
culture and kept the feelings of love and gratitude to the teachers,
to Russia and to the Russian people.”

From: Baghdasarian

TWINNING PROJECT IN ARMENIA TARGETS COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
July 25, 2012 – 20:26 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Twinning project in Armenia aims to protect
copyright, director of Armauthor NGO Susanna Nersisyan said.

According to her, the program facilitates planning of events aiming
to restore infringed copyright.

Lawyer Stepan Khzrtyan, in turn, presented a model that would allow
for free download from the music licensing sites. He offered to post
a short commercial with music download becoming available only after
watching it.

Famous Armenian singer Hayko deemed it a good idea, noting that
Armenia lacks culture of license download.

IT expert Arman Atoyan noted that copyright infringement is a common
problem in the whole world, with modern technologies being applied
to prevent the occurrence.

From: Baghdasarian

CONGRESSIONAL PRAISE CONTINUES FOR KARABAKH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Rep. Howard Berman

Representatives Berman, Sherman, Schiff, Costa, Cicilline, Eshoo
and Speier Join Leaders of Armenian Caucus in Praising Artsakh’s
Democratic Development

WASHINGTON-Meembers of Congress, among them Representatives Howard
Berman (D-CA), the Ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, Brad Sherman (D-CA), a senior member of this influential
panel, and Adam Schiff (D-CA), a leading figure on the subcommittee
that writes the foreign aid bill, continue to congratulate the citizens
and leaders of Nagorno Karabakh on the democratic conduct of their
most recent presidential elections, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).

The legislators join Reps. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ),
the Co-Chairmen of the Armenian Caucus in welcoming Nagorno Karabakh’s
July 19th Presidential balloting, which resulted in the reelection of
incumbent Bako Sahakian over two challengers. Some 110 international
observers, including those from the U.S., Canada, EU, former Soviet
republics, and Armenia gave high marks to the elections.

In a statement issued immediately after the election, Rep. Berman
said: “I commend the people of Nagorno Karabakh for continuing to
organize their governance on a democratic basis. I also congratulate
President Sahakian on his success in the July 19 election. I wish
him good luck in leading Nagorno-Karabakh toward a final settlement
of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, one that fully respects the right of
Nagorno-Karabakh to self-determination.”

Congressman Sherman, who led the initial charge back in the mid-1990s
for direct U.S. aid to Nagorno Karabakh, said: “I congratulate
President Bako Sahakyan of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh on his
reelection. Since independence, Artsakh has developed a democracy
and a vibrant civil society despite remarkably difficult challenges.

I also congratulate the people of Artsakh on their record of
democratization. I will continue to work in the House Foreign
Affairs Committee to make sure our foreign policy is supportive of
the independence and prosperity of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.”

Rep. Schiff issued a statement congratulating the citizens of Nagorno
Karabakh on the conduct of free and fair elections: “Last Thursday,
the people of Artsakh went to their polls to elect a new president in
what has been widely reported as a free and fair election. I offer
my congratulations to President Bako Sahakian, and wish him well
as Nagorno-Karabakh Republic continues its hard-won progress.” He
added that, “By their continuing devotion to freedom and democracy,
despite two decades of violence and threats from its larger, richer
and undemocratic neighbor, the people of Artsakh have reminded the
world of their commitment to representative government. Their cause
is our cause, and they will continue to have my strongest support.”

“I couldn’t be prouder of the highly successful free and fair
presidential election in Nagorno Karabakh,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo
(D-CA), along with Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA), are the two Members
of Congress of Armenian heritage. “Despite decades of violence and
threats from overpowering, undemocratic neighbors, the people of
Artsakh have maintained an unwavering commitment to freedom and
democracy, and they will always have my support.”

Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI), whose home state of Rhode
Island has recognized the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh, stated: “I
congratulate the Nagorno Karabakh Republic on holding another free
and fair presidential election – showcasing democracy in action for
the rest of the world. In addition, I would like to recognize the
invaluable contributions of former Rhode Island Attorney General
Patrick Lynch, who assisted as an international observer.”

Rep. Jim Costa, who represents much of California’s Central Valley,
said: “The United States stands with the people of Nagorno Karabakh
because our citizens share so many of the same foundational ideals,
including a commitment to the values of freedom, human rights,
self-determination and democracy. With these most recent elections,
the people of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic have truly lived up to
the promise of democracy,”

As reported earlier, Rep. Pallone welcomed Artsakh’s elections by
noting, “It is heartening to see [Nagorno Karabakh’s] continued
dedication to peaceful democracy,” adding that, “I am pleased the
Republic continues to hold regular parliamentary and presidential
elections that have previously been viewed as free and fair
by international observers.” Rep. Royce stressed that: “These
elections represent the strength of the democratic process in the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic and are a testament to the commitment of
the people in Artsakh to the Republic’s sovereignty.”

Read complete text of the Pallone and Royce statements.

From: Baghdasarian