Author: Chalian Meline

TURK DISMISSED IN NETHERLANDS FOR USING TERM DEPORTATION INSTEAD OF GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.01.2010 21:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Arman Sag, a Turkish contributor to Dagelijkse
Standaard Dutch portal was dismissed because of using the term
‘deportation’ instead of the Armenian Genocide in his article.

Besides, Sag said "Turks never committed a genocide."

After numerous complaints received by the editorial staff from the
Armenian community of the Netherlands, editor-in-chief urged Sag to
apologize. The journalist for his part said he neither denied nor
confirmed the fact of the Genocide in his article, Hurriyet reported.

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.

The date of the onset of the genocide is conventionally held to be
April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople.

Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes
and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of
food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were
indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse
commonplace. The Armenian Genocide is the second most-studied case
of genocide after the Holocaust.

The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire,
denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events. In
recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as
genocide.

To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.

news.am, Armenia
Jan 8 2010

ANC: Niko Pashinyan’s rights violated from beginning

18:09 / 01/08/2010The parliamentary candidate Nikol Pashinyan’s rights
were violated from the very beginning, as he was to have been released
immediately after he was registered by the district election
commission, ANC Chairman Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated at a rally in
support of a parliamentary candidate in the by-elections in Election
District #10.

The reasons advanced by Chairman of the RA Central Electoral Commission
(CEC) Garegin Azaryan that the CEC’s consent to Pashinyan’s arrest was
not at all necessary ` he was arrested before being registered as a
parliamentary candidate ` can hardly be considered sound. `An
official, including the CEC Chairman, can only perform duties under
law without commenting on them. Under the law a parliamentary
candidate can be under arrest only with the CEC’s consent,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.

The ANC leader called the Armenian authorities `stupid and
short-sighted,’ as they did not even failed to keep up their own image
and proved unable to realize the need for releasing Niko Pashinyan
during the election campaign. `They would with pleasure silence us,
but they want to cause as much pain as possible to their opponents,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.

`Although Nikol and another 14 of our companions are still in prison,
we are in a festive mood. I do not ant our struggle to be nervous. The
longer we struggle the more valuable will be our victory,’
Ter-Petrosyan said.

Besides Nikol Pashinyan, two other candidates are running for
Parliament in Election District #10, Ara Simonyan, a relative of
Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan, and the Marxist David Hakobyan. Nikol
Pashinyan is charged with organizing riots during the post-election
period in 2008. The Prosecution demands an 8-year imprisonment for
him. The verdict is to be returned on January 19.

T.P.

Armenian Writers Association of California to hold New Year meeting on Jan. 19
08.01.2010 14:16 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Celebrating the New Year, there will be a special
literary meeting of the Armenian Writers Association of California,
sponsored by Glendale Public Library on Tuesday, January 19, 2010.

Special guests from Armenia, poets Natella Lalabekian and Artem
Harutyunian will be present and will read their recent works. Members
of AWAOC and lovers of literature are invited, attendance is open and
free.

Poet, translator, laureate of Armenia’s state award, Doctor of
Philology and member of Writers’ Union of Armenia, Artem Harutyunyan
was born in Stepanakert on September 19, 1945. He completed his PhD in
English Literature at Moscow Gorki Institute of International
Literature. He has lectured at the State University of Yerevan,
Moscow, the Sorbonne, Marseille (France), Durham (England), Cleveland,
Harvard and Los Angeles. He also served as NKR representative to
Washington in 1994-95.

Armenian chess players to rival Turkish team in World Team Chess
Championship’s 3rd tour
07.01.2010 16:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the 3rd tour of World Team Chess Championship in
Bursa, Armenian team (Levon Aronian, Vladimir Hakobyan, Gabriel
Sarkisyan, Arman Pashikyan, Tigran Petrosyan and Tigran Kotanjyan),
led by Arshak Petrosyan, will rival that of Turkey.

After the 2nd tour, Armenian team occupies the 6th place with 4 points
to its score.

US team, with 6 points to its score, is leading the World Team Chess
Championship.

Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, Egyptian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Israeli
and Greek teams are among championship participants.

GfbV urges German Foreign Minister not to forget victims of expulsion
07.01.2010 17:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) issued an
open letter to Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at present in Turkey
through the German Embassy in Ankara and the German General Consulate
in Istanbul, Tilman Zülch, Chair of the German section of the STP
reported in his statement to PanARMENIAN.Net.

The letter runs as follows:

‘Our country has a responsibility to victims of expulsion – in Turkey
as well, Mr Westerwelle! You are today in Turkey accompanied by many
managers and you will be visiting the Gulf states.

On your visits to Istanbul and Ankara you will also be confronted with
expulsion and crimes of expulsion. With all your thoughts on matters
of commercial interest you should not forget these victims, two
million citizens of Kurdish ethnicity.

During the unhappy Turkish-Kurdish war of 1984-1999 the Turkish army
and allied militia destroyed 3,876 villages and hamlets in Turkish
Kurdistan/East Anatolia. Some 3 million people were driven out. Among
the expelled there were also Christian Assyrian Aramaeans from Tur
Abdin. The suffering caused by expulsion and the crimes of expulsion
is something which we Germans can very well appreciate. Not everyone
is in this position. But in our country millions of people expect that
the new Foreign Minister lays priority not only on matters of commerce
and strategic concern.

So we beg of you to speak up for a program of reconstruction in East
Anatolia, to promise German assistance and to work for the allocation
of funds from the EU.

To this end we also beg of you to speak out clearly to the Turkish
media and to those who are trying to block the most welcome new
Kurdish policy of the Erdogan government, which is aiming at peace.

Please do all you can to encourage measures to lift the ban on the
pro-Kurdish party DTP. Its members of Parliament had made very great
efforts to foster Turkish-Kurdish inter-ethnic social relationships
which are peaceful and respect the equality of rights’

The Society for Threatened Peoples is an international human rights
organization based in Gottingen, Germany. It attempts to create
awareness of and protect minority peoples around the world who are
threatened by oppressive governments. The group states on its website
that it "campaigns against all forms of genocide and ethnocide". It
has advisory status at the United Nations, participatory status with
the Council of Europe and has sections and offices in Germany,
Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile
and Iraqi Kurdistan.

APA, Azerbaijan
Jan 7 2010

ICRC representatives visit family of Tovuz resident captured by Armenians

[ 07 Jan 2010 15:38 ]

Baku ` APA. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) in Azerbaijan visited the family of Eldar Tagiyev,
resident of Alibeyli village of Tovuz region who was captured by
Armenian militants on December 28, 2009, ICRC spokeswoman in
Azerbaijan Gulnaz Guliyeva told APA. She said ICRC would keep
Tagiyev’s issue in the focus of its attention. `We have standard
working principles. We will try to visit him and to see conditions of
his detention, and to help him to contact with his family’.

The State Commission for Captives, Hostages and Missing People issued
statement on Thursday that resident of Alibeyli village of Tovuz
region Tagiyev Eldar Heydar, 47, who was reportedly missing on
December 28, 2009, was taken hostage by the Armenian militants on that
day and he is now in captivity in Armenia.

According to initial reports, Tagiyev was shot dead as a result of
ceasefire violation by Armenians, who shot him while he was fishing in
the Tovuz River running near the line of contact on December 28, 2009
at about 18.00. His body was left at the line of contact, but then was
taken away by Armenians.

According to other reports, Tagiyev was captured by Armenians.

Iranian ministry publishes list of 60 `enemy" organizations
05.01.2010 16:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence has issued a list of
60 international organizations and media outlets regarded active in
the `soft war’ against the Islamic Republic regime. According to the
Ministry, collaboration with media outlets such Radio Farda, British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and
the George Soros-led Open Society Institute is considered criminal.

Following the protests to the alleged fraud in the June presidential
elections that gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a new term, the Islamic
Republic has repeatedly claimed that foreign powers are attempting to
topple the government through a `soft war’ or what the Revolutionary
Guards referred to as `a velvet revolution,’ radio Liberty reports.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

VISIT TO THE DETAINEES IN THE PRISON OF BEIRUT

On Monday, 29 December 2009, His Holiness Aram I delegated a number of
priests from the Brotherhood to visit the main prison in Beirut. The clergy
held a short service, accepted confessions and shared the Eucharist. After
the service, the priests distributed gifts sent by His Holiness Aram I.
Before taking leave, they met with the prison director and prison officials
and conveyed their concerns regarding the difficulties the prisoners had
been encountering during their internment.

##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

news.am, Armenia
Dec 31 2009

Armen Ashotyan: I am Santa Claus

16:33 / 12/31/2009RA Minister of Education and Science Armen Ashotyan
plans to see the New Year in with his family in Armenia.

`Only once in my life, when a student, I was absent from Armenia
during the New Year holidays. I was in Marseilles and had no money to
buy an air ticket,’ Ashotyan told NEWS.am. The Minister likes to see
pakhlava (a kind of oriental biscuit with nuts) on the New Year table.
Ashotyan does not believe in Santa Claus. `At my age I myself am Santa
Claus for my family,’ he said.

T.P.

ARMENIA’S EXTERNAL DEBT IN 2010 WILL REACH 50% OF GDP: DAVTYAN

news.am
Dec 29 2009
Armenia

Next year Armenia’s external debt will reach 50% of GDP, up to 46%,
said the RA Finance Minister Tigran Davtyan at the Dec.29 press
conference.

According to him, in 2010 Armenia will get a credit of â~B¬100m from
EU as a full public budget loan, of which â~B¬35m as a grant. Another
â~B¬120m trade loan intended for diamond processing is expected
from Russia.

"Most probably it will not be included in state debt, as it goes
to the public sector and the country merely assists its receiving,"
the minister stated.

Speaking of the budget expenses of AMD 93bn for the forth quarter,
Davtyan outlined that though they were carried forward, but are
temporarily stopped. Instead, the critical works for as much as AMD
50bn are carried out in other fields, Davtyan added. In particular,
AMD 24bn went to disaster area, AMD 15bn-to paid to the businessmen
as VAT returns.

Tigran Davtyan compared Armenian economy with turbulence zone having
one of the engines packed up (construction), outlining that the
authorities managed to lead out of the hazard zone our plane and all
"passengers" came out unharmed.