Author: Kajoyan Gevork

Attorney: Azerbaijan saboteur to petition to Karabakh President for pardon

00:15, 04.04.2015
Region:Armenia, Karabakh, Azerbaijan
Theme: Politics

Erik Beglaryan, the attorney of Azerbaijani saboteur Dilham Askerov,
will petition to the Chamber of Appeals of the Supreme Court of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) by no later than April 10, and
challenge the rulings handed down by the two lower courts.

Beglaryan told about the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The attorney informed that he had discussed this matter with Askerov,
and the latter had decided to make such an appeal.

“And when the [Chamber of] Appeals will make a decision, this decision
will enter into force, [and] my client will petition to [NKR]
President Bako Sahakyan [for a pardon],” Erik Beglaryan added.

To note, Arkadi Israyelyan, the attorney of the other Azerbaijani
saboteur, Shahbaz Guliyev, likewise will petition to the Chamber of
Appeals of the NKR Supreme Court.

As reported earlier, Azerbaijani sabotage and intelligence-gathering
team member Dilham Askerov was charged with espionage; unauthorized
border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor, committed by
an organized group; murder committed by an organized group motivated
by ethnic hatred; and attempt of murder of two persons, committed by
an organized group, motivated by ethnic hatred. The other team member,
Shahbaz Guliyev, on the other hand, was charged with espionage;
unauthorized border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor,
committed by an organized group; and murder committed by an organized
group motivated by ethnic hatred.

On December 29, 2014, the First Instance General Jurisdiction Court of
the NKR had sentenced Askerov and Guliyev to life and 22 years,
respectively, in prison.

The saboteur’s attorneys, however, had appealed these sentences. But
on March 10, the NKR Court of Appeal upheld the earlier court verdict.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

ARMEE ARMENIENNE
26 militaires arméniens furent tués au front en 2014 contre seulement 6 en 2013

3 728 faits furent enregistres en 2014 pour l’ensemble des forces de
l’Armée arménienne contre 4 032 en 2013. Parmi ces 3 728 faits 2 578
furent des accidents ou incidents et 1 150 faits furent réalisés de
façon intentionnelle. 40 faits ayant entrainé la mort se sont produits
en 2014 contre 29 en 2013. 44 militaires sont morts en 2014 dans
l’exercice de leur fonction dont 26 tués par l’ennemi, contre
seulement 6 en 2013. En 2014 il y eut 2 assassinats (contre 3 en
2013), 2 morts par l’explosion de mines (contre 1 seul en 2013) et 1
mort par mauvaise manipulation de l’arme (également 1 en 2013). 3
militaires se sont suicidés en 2014 (8 en 2013), 4 sont morts suite à
des maladies (4 en 2013), 1 par accident de la route (4 en 2013), 3
par accidents divers (3 en 2013) et 2 dans des conditions non
élucidées à ce jour. 1 330 soldats ont subi des blessures en 2014 (1
314 en 2013) dont 58 des blessures graves.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 4 avril 2015,
Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

TURKISH PASTOR VISITS FRESNO CHURCH ASKING FORGIVENESS FROM ARMENIANS FOR GENOCIDE – VIDEO

12:54, 03 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Thursday, a Turkish pastor visited the First Armenian Presbyterian
Church in Fresno to apologize for the crimes his ancestors committed
against Armenians, Your Central Valley reports.

It’s an atrocity that the Turkish government denies. And it was only
about seven years that a Turkish pastor learned what happened when
he visited the Armenian Genocide museum in Armenia’s capital city.

“Ashamed-and I cried. I had goosebumps,” he said.

He asked the author not to identify him for security reasons. He’s
in the U.S. as a refugee fleeing religious persecution.

Thursday, he brought his message to the congregation of the First
Armenian Presbyterian Church asking for forgiveness.

“I’m asking you, please forgive my nation. Please forgive my nation.

They are guilty. They are guilty in God’s eyes. They are guilty in
your eyes,” he said tearfully.

His message was received with tears and applause.

Pastor Greg Haroutunian of the First Armenian Presbyterian Church
called it an important step in the healing process.

“Our people are hearing this for the first time. And some of them in
their 80s are just overwhelmed. They can’t believe this is happening.

They’re hearing it for the first time,” Haroutunian said.

Church member Art Terzian said he shook the Turkish pastor’s hand
in appreciation.

“I admire him because he feels guilty, and he had nothing to do with
it; that’s his grandfathers,” Terzian said.

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I THANKS CYPRUS LEADERS FOR CRIMINALIZATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL

17:44, 03 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia,
has sent letters to the President and Parliament Speaker of Cyprus,
hailing the criminalization of the Armenian Genocide denial by the
House of Representatives.

“We’ll never forget that in 1975 Cyprus became the second in the world
to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide,” His Holiness wrote.

He expressed gratitude to the Parliament of Cyprus for this historic
decision.

“This courageous decision is an expression of the commitment of Cyprus
to the protection of justice and human rights. The ties between the
Armenian and Greek peoples are deeply rooted in common history. It’s
vital to continue the cooperation with renewed efforts today for the
sake of justice and human dignity,” His Holiness said.

MOORESTOWN AUTHOR RECALLS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Courier Post
April 2 2015

Celeste E. Whittaker, Courier-Post

MOORESTOWN – Storytelling is a gift for Irene Vosbikian, an
Italian-American who grew up in South Philadelphia and married an
Armenian.

Vosbikian, 70, is a longtime Moorestown resident and author, a
mother of four and a grandmother of 11, so there is no shortage of
interesting stories.

She recently re-released her book “Bedros,” originally published more
than two decades ago. The book, based on the life of her father-in-law,
is about a young man who escapes just before the horrific Armenian
Genocide, considered the first genocide of the 20th century.

April 24 marks the 100th anniversary of the event, in which more than
1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by the Turkish government.

“I’m not Armenian but I was introduced to this family via marriage
and my father-in-law,” Vosbikian said. “My purpose was to relaunch,
not for the Armenian community, because the Armenian community has
been hearing this awful story for 100 years, literally. My purpose
was to get it into the mainstream.”

Vosbikian’s father-in-law, Bedros Vosbikian, was fortunate enough to
escape before the atrocities began in 1915.

“He happened to have been in the Turkish army and he was actually
very loved by his captain, who was a Turk,” she said. “He had
the vibrations, the insight to know that something terrible is
going to happen. The accounts that are in the book are twofold. My
father-in-law, thank God, got out one year before. His family was saved
on the other side by this Turkish captain who adored him and said to
him, ‘I will take care of your family until you get them to America.’ ”

He kept his word and Bedros escaped first to France, then the
Philadelphia area, during the buildup to the genocide.

Good timing

Irene Vosbikian says accounts of the genocide in her book came from
her personal research. Henry Morganthau, who was U.S. Ambassador to
the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, had volumes on the horrendous
acts that took place.

“I did other research as well,” said Vosbikian. ” …Some of the
other accounts are from him (her father-in-law), such as how he fled
Istanbul, which is a very funny story. He basically dressed as a
woman and stowed away from Istanbul and ended up in Marseille, France.”

Vosbikian decided about a year ago that she would relaunch her book.

It required countless hours of re-editing and repackaging.

Her son David said it’s a great time for his mother to re-release her
work. There’s more awareness about the genocide today. Amal Clooney,
the human rights lawyer who married actor George Clooney, recently
became part of a legal team representing Armenia in a case involving
denial of the genocide by a Turkish politician.

“The timing is great because as we’ve grown up, it was always, ‘What’s
Armenia? Is that Middle Eastern?’ All my life you had to go through
pains to explain to people what it meant, where it was,” David said.

“Through social media and communication being what it is today, you
have all the Armenian folks on Facebook putting posts up about the
100-year genocide.”

Family close by

Irene Vosbikian and her husband, Peter, raised their family in
Moorestown — two daughters, Terry Vosbikian Testa and Mary Vosbikian
Schlindwein, and two sons, Paul and David. All four are married and
reside near their parents, who have been married for 50 years.

“We’re so proud of her,” Vosbikian Testa said of her mother. “She’s
doing this for nothing except to get the message out there about the
genocide. She’s of Italian descent, married into the Armenian family
and just really kind of became an Armenian herself, in spirit, if
not in blood. She just really felt that this story was an important
one to tell.

“She’s not in it for any kind of monetary gain. She’s just in it to
get the very important story out there to the public.”

Irene, a former freelance journalist and public relations specialist,
says her husband is “very emotional and proud” with her decision to
relaunch “Bedros.”

“When we met, he (Peter) was the youngest of seven children, all of
whom married Armenians,” Vosbikian said. “It was a very difficult
courtship. We wanted to give up many times and just say forget
about it. The family, they were just frightened because they were
all immigrants. They just didn’t understand about anybody outside of
their little cocoon.

“It took a little time. I learned to speak the language. I spent a lot
of time with them. Eventually it became a very beautiful relationship.

It was just a little tough at first.”

1915-2015: COMMEMORONS EN TURQUIE LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN

La Libre. Belgique
2 avril 2015

Opinions

Une opinion de Benjamin Abtan (président du Mouvement antiraciste
européen – EGAM) , Alexis Govciyan & Nicolas Tavitian (président et
directeur de l’Union générale arménienne de bienfaisance – UGAB –
Europe) et Levent Sensever (porte-parole de Durde ! Turquie).

Se souvenir des disparus est un acte d’humanité et de réparation
symbolique qui s’impose a tous. Le faire en Turquie, c’est y accroître
la liberté d’expression.

1915-2015. Cela fait cent ans qu’a débuté le génocide des Arméniens
dans l’Empire ottoman. Un massacre au cours duquel un million et
demi d’Arméniens ont été assassinés. Cela fait cent ans, cent
ans de trop, que le négationnisme de ce crime se situe au cÃ…”ur de
la politique et de la diplomatie de l’Etat turc, qui a été fondé
notamment sur la spoliation des Arméniens et la destruction de
leur culture. Cela fait cent ans que le négationnisme continue de
faire des victimes, nourrit le nationalisme, alimente des conflits
et empêche le déploiement de la liberté d’expression et de la
démocratie en Turquie.

Cela fait quelques années que des voix, de plus en plus nombreuses
et soutenues par la société civile européenne, s’élèvent au sein
de la société civile en Turquie pour reconnaître la réalité du
génocide et commémorer en Turquie sa perpétration. C’est dans ce
cadre que se tiennent, depuis 2010, les commémorations en Turquie.

Cette année, l’Etat turc a cyniquement planifié les commémorations
de la bataille de Gallipoli pour le 24 avril, dans une nouvelle
tentative d’éclipser le génocide arménien. De plus, les autorités
turques sont engagées dans une offensive de charme afin d’éviter
un engagement international pour les commémorations du génocide
arménien. Nous, Européens, Arméniens, Turcs et Kurdes, qui avons
initié, organisé, soutenu ou participé a ces commémorations,
appelons tous les individus épris de vérité a commémorer, ensemble
et pacifiquement, a Istanbul le 24 avril prochain le génocide
perpétré contre les Arméniens.

En effet, la commémoration de ce génocide n’est pas l’affaire
uniquement des Turcs et des Arméniens mais de l’humanité entière, et
c’est notamment au sein de la société turque que se situe aujourd’hui
la ligne de front du combat contre le négationnisme. Notre démarche
partagée est universaliste. C’est une démarche de solidarité,
de justice et de promotion de la démocratie, donc d’avenir. C’est
une démarche de solidarité entre tous ceux qui se battent pour la
vérité historique.

La ligne de clivage n’est pas entre les Turcs et les Arméniens, mais
entre ceux qui combattent le négationnisme et ceux qui le promeuvent,
quelles que soient leurs origines et leurs nationalités. C’est
une démarche de justice. Le génocide est l’acte politique le plus
violent auquel le racisme puisse aboutir et le négationnisme en est
le prolongement.

Lutter contre le négationnisme, c’est ainsi lutter contre le racisme,
donc pour une société plus égalitaire et plus juste. C’est une
démarche de promotion de la démocratie. Se souvenir des disparus
est un acte d’humanité et de réparation symbolique qui s’impose
a tous. Le faire en Turquie, c’est y accroître la liberté
d’expression, c’est remettre en cause les fondements mêmes du
caractère non-démocratique du pouvoir turc. Ainsi, commémorer
en Turquie le génocide arménien permet a tous, en particulier aux
jeunes générations, rassemblés autour des valeurs partagées de
la démocratie, de se confronter a la vérité historique, donc de
pouvoir se projeter ensemble vers l’avenir.

Nous appelons tous ceux qui partagent ces valeurs et cette vision
a nous rejoindre et a commémorer, le 24 avril prochain a Istanbul,
le centième anniversaire du génocide arménien.

L’appel peut être signé en ligne en guise de soutien a :

Les signataires sont soutenus par : Charles Aznavour, Chanteur
(France), Bernard Kouchner, Ancien Ministre des Affaires Etrangères
(France), Ozutrk Turkdogan, Président de l’Association pour les droits
de l’homme – IHD (Turquie), Artak Kirakosyan, Président du bureau
de Civil Society Institute (Arménie), Dominique Sopo, Président
de SOS Racisme (France), Edward Mier-Jedrzejowicz, Président de la
fondation arménienne MKZ Tyskiewiczow Krolikiewicz (Pologne), Bernard
Henri Lévy, Ecrivain, philosophe (France), Ara Toranian, Rédacteur
en chef des “Nouvelles d’Arménie” (France), Fethiye Cetin, Avocate,
écrivaine (Turquie), Elina Chilinguirian, Journaliste (Belgique),
Daniel Cohn Bendit, Ancien député européen (Allemagne/France),
Cengiz Aktar, Professeur (Turquie), Sonia Avakian-Bedrossian,
Présidente de l’UGAB Sofia (Bulgarie), Adam Michnik, Rédacteur en
chef de Gazeta wyborcza, ancien dirigeant de Solidarnosc (Pologne),
Amos Gitaï, Cinéaste (IsraÔl), Ahmet Insel, Professeur (Turquie),
Patrick Donabedian, Historien (France), Dario Fo, Prix Nobel de
Littérature (Italie), Aydın Engin, Journaliste (Turquie), Raffi
Kantian, Président de l’Association arméno-allemande (Allemagne),
Jovan Divjak, Ancien général défenseur de Sarajevo assiégée,
Directeur exécutif de l’association “Education builds Bosnia and
Herzegovina” (Bosnie-Herzégovine), Murat Celikkan, Journaliste
(Turquie), Valentina Poghossian, Membre du bureau d’UGAB Europe
(Royaume Uni), André Glucksmann, Philosophe, écrivain (France), Umit
Kivanc, Journaliste, écrivain (Turquie), Elena Gabrielian, Journaliste
(France), Richard Prasquier, Vice-président de la Fondation pour la
Mémoire de la Shoah (France), Ferhat Kentel, Professeur (Turquie),
Hrant Kostanyan, Chercheur associé au Centre pour European policy
studies (Belgique), Karim Lahidji, Yusuf Alatas et Antoine Bernard,
Président, vice-président et directeur général de la Fédération
Internationale des Droits de l’Homme – FIDH (France), Korhan Gumus,
Architecte (Turquie), Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa, Secrétaire général, EU
Friends of Armenia (Belgique), Gilbert Dalgalian, Linguiste (France),
Angela Scalzo, Secrétaire générale de SOS Razzismo (Italie), Cafer
Solgun, Ecrivain et journaliste (Turquie), Vartkess Knadjian, Ancien
président de l’Association internationale des bijoutiers arméniens
(Suisse), Mario Mazic, Directeur exécutif de Youth Initiative for
Human Rights (Croatie), Sanar Yurdatapan, Musicien, Initiative pour
la liberté d’expression (Turquie), Ahmed Moawia, Président du Forum
grec des migrants (Grèce), Ferda Keskin, Professeure (Turquie), Harout
Palanjian, Président de UGAB Hollande (Pays Bas), Oana Mihalache,
Directrice du département Droits de l’homme a Romani Criss (Roumanie),
Sinan Ozbek, Professeure (Turquie), Mato Hakhverdian, Président de
la fédération des organisations arméniennes de Hollande (Pays Bas),
Anetta Kahane, Présidente de la fondation Antonio Amadeu (Allemagne),
Nurcan Kaya, Avocat (Turquie), Seta Papazian, Présidente du Collectif
VAN – Vigilance Arménienne contre le Négationnisme (France), Inge
Drost, Comité sur le 24 avril de la fédération des organisations
arméniennes de Hollande et secrétaire de l’association culturelle
arménienne Abovian (Pays Bas), Jane Braden-Golay, Présidente
de l’EUJS (Suisse), Zakariya Mildanoglu, Architecte et écrivain
(Turquie), Oncho Cherchian, Président de l’UGAB Jeunes Professionnels
(Bulgarie).

ARMENIA AS A SHOWCASE FOR THE NEW EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY?

Carnegie Europe
April 2 2015

Posted by: Richard Youngs
Thursday, April 2, 2015 1 Print Page

Numerous policy papers and official documents now state that the
current review of the European Neighborhood Policy must deliver
policies that are flexible, more demand-driven, less bound to EU
institutional templates, and more selective in their priorities.

Largely unnoticed, in Armenia the EU is already trying to implement
these principles. Its attempt to do so demonstrates that the ritually
stated new principles of flexibility and local responsiveness do not
in themselves resolve the EU’s most important policy challenges.

Indeed, they open another level of difficult tactical dilemmas.

The EU’s current Eastern crisis started in Armenia. After more than
three years of negotiations, on September 3, 2013, Armenia pulled
out of its just-concluded Association Agreement with the EU. Instead,
Yerevan joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

The EU appears to have learned some important lessons from that jolt.

For some months after September 2013, the EU was understandably frosty
toward Armenia. More recently, however, the EU’s response has been
pragmatic. Most forms of cooperation have continued.

The EU invited Armenia to identify those elements of the Association
Agreement in which it is still interested and that are compatible with
the country’s EEU commitment. The EU has accepted this tailor-made
and demand-driven route toward drawing up a replacement agreement.

The EU’s stated aim is to help Armenia retain a degree of multivector
pluralism in its foreign relations. Armenia is seen as a kind of
experimental gateway between the EEU and the Eastern Partnership
(the Eastern dimension of the European Neighborhood Policy).

Instead of punishing Armenia for choosing a partnership with Russia,
the EU is–in principle–offering cooperation around a set of
priorities chosen by Armenia. The difference with a vengeful Russia
is perhaps nowhere clearer. In the country that provoked the first
big shock for the Eastern Partnership, diplomats are now remarkably
sanguine about the EU’s strategic positioning.

However, the way ahead is unlikely to be smooth. The EU might
espouse demand-driven flexibility in its new approach to the Eastern
Partnership, but this does not prevent the union from getting caught
up in some very tense domestic politics in places like Armenia.

The Armenian government seeks pragmatic areas of EU funding from
the new agreement and some areas of technical alignment. Government
officials in Yerevan are once again keener on some kind of economic
agreement with the EU, in part because Russia’s financial troubles
have had a serious impact on the Armenian economy.

In contrast, civil society leaders argue that the replacement agreement
represents an opportunity for the EU to make democracy support its
niche priority in Armenia.

The EU has been admirably inclusive in consulting with Armenian civil
society organizations over the new agreement. But with the union
having only just finished a preparatory scoping exercise to look at
what could feasibly be included in the agreement, many civil society
organizations criticize the EU for moving extremely slowly.

The texts of the original accord were, after all, finalized two years
ago, and it should be possible simply to take out the free trade
elements and move ahead with the new package. Civil society leaders in
Yerevan suspect that the Russia factor is once again holding several
member states (and, indeed, Armenia) back.

Civil society organizations want a new agreement, but they also urge
the EU not to overlook Armenia’s worsening political conditions. Since
January 2015, a political crisis has rocked the country. The government
effectively decimated one of the main political parties, weakening a
potential counterweight to executive power. Constitutional reforms are
stalled. Civic protests have grown in strength over the last year. The
government is planning a restrictive new NGO law, and executive control
over the media and judiciary has tightened–all concerns noted in
the EU’s latest progress report on Armenia released on March 25.

NGOs berate the EU for doing relatively little to keep democracy
moving in the right direction in Armenia. One factor in this may be
that most opposition parties are more nationalistic and pro-Russian
than the current government.

So, the strategic dilemma remains which kind of more flexible and
tailored agreement the EU will favor.

Will the union indulge Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s creeping
soft authoritarianism? The standard view is now that the EU needs to
be lighter in its use of conditionality. But should the EU really
abandon the use of conditionality altogether in a country in which
democracy is clearly moving backward?

Conversely, if the EU seeks a more political agreement, what is the
incentive for the Armenian government to accept this? Without the
free trade elements of the Association Agreement, one wonders what
leverage the EU will have over political and security questions.

A new accord will be valuable but will not in itself significantly
reinforce the EU’s political influence. This will require member
states to invest more political weight through their diplomacy in
Armenia, by engaging directly on high-level security issues rather
than subcontracting out the lead role to a watered-down EU agreement.

In particular, the replacement agreement is unlikely to give the EU
any role in Armenia’s security dynamics. And this matters, because
the security context looks increasingly precarious.

The ceasefire on the line of contact around the disputed region of
Nagorny-Karabakh has been shaken over the last nine months, with
Azerbaijan reminding the Armenians that this is not a frozen conflict.

And in the centennial year of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, relations
with Turkey have worsened to a new low point.

All this has made Armenia cling more tightly to its strategic
relationship with Russia as the main provider of security guarantees.

The EU and its member states are still reluctant to engage in military
support to offset this dependency.

In sum, the case of Armenia shows the EU’s willingness to be flexible
and adjust its standard neighborhood model. But it also shows how this
incipient adjustment does not in itself solve the problem of how the
EU can and should fashion a more effective geostrategic identity in
its East.

The author thanks the German Marshall Fund of the United States and
the Robert Bosch Stiftung for including him in their study tour to
Armenia on March 9-13, 2015.

GREEK CYPRUS CRIMINALIZES DENIAL OF “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
April 2 2015

Greek Cyprus has made it a crime to deny the Ottoman Turks committed
genocide against Armenian Turks a century ago, a move likely to rile
its old rival Turkey as peace talks on the ethnically-split island
remain stalled.

The Greek Cypriot parliament passed a resolution on April 2 penalising
the denial of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes,
modifying existing legislation, which required prior conviction by
an international court to make denial a crime.

“Today is a historic day,” parliament speaker Yiannakis Omirou said,
as quoted by Reuters. “It allows parliament to restore, with unanimous
decisions and resolutions, historical truths.”

The east Mediterranean island, split after Turkey’s military
operation in 1974 after a brief Greek inspired coup, was one of the
first countries worldwide in 1975 to recognise the Armenian killings
as genocide.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians were killed in
a genocide which began in 1915. Turkey denies the deaths amounted
to genocide, saying the death toll of Armenians killed during mass
deportations has been inflated and that those killed in 1915 and 1916
were victims of general unrest during World War I.

Around 20 countries have recognized the killings as genocide.

The issue has long been a source of tension between Turkey and
several Western countries, especially the United States and France,
both home to large ethnic Armenian diasporas. Cyprus too has an
Armenian population.

Cyprus has been at loggerheads with Turkey for decades. Its ethnic
Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations have lived estranged in the
south and north of the island respectively since 1974, but seeds of
division were sown earlier when a power-sharing government crumbled
amid violence in 1963.

Free speech case

The Greek Cypriot lawmakers who passed the resolution now comprise
the island’s only internationally recognised parliament.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had ruled last year the
denial of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide falls
within the limits of freedom of expression, following an appeal from
a Turkish politician against his conviction in Switzerland.

Workers’ Party (Ä°P) Chairman Dogu Perincek, who described the Armenian
genocide as an “international lie,” had complained the Swiss courts
had breached his freedom of expression, based on Article 10 covering
freedom of expression.

The ECHR ruling stated “the free exercise of the right to openly
discuss questions of a sensitive and controversial nature is one of
the fundamental aspects of freedom of expression and distinguishes
a tolerant and pluralistic democratic society from a totalitarian or
dictatorial regime.”

April/02/2015

FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS A DRAFT BILL INTRODUCED TO US CONGRESS URGING OBAMA TO RESOLVE TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 2 2015

A U.S. lawmaker have introduced a resolution on Thursday asking the
Obama administration to designate a task force to improve stranded
relations between Turkey and Armenia for the next hundred years based
upon the two countries’ common interest.

“Turkey and Armenia are very important to the American interests,”
congressman Curt Clawson wrote in a letter to House colleagues
in an attempt to garner support for his resolution that seeks to
find reconciliation between the two states. “U.S interests (in the
region) can be advanced by both countries acting to cultivate peace
and understanding.”

In the resulotion plan, Clawson called on U.S. President Obama to work
toward equitable, constructive, stable and durable Armenian-Turkish
relations and underlined that the importance of the U.S.’ relations
with Turkey because of the country’s geostrategic position between
Europe and the Middle East which has made the country an important
partner in combating extremism in the region.

“This is the first time that we see a draft bill of that kind in the
Congress,” said Derya Taskin, president of the New York-based Turkish
Institute for Progress.

She said she supports Clawson’s “historical,” bill and pointed out
that the Turkish Institute for Progress is also working to help
resolve Turkish-Armenian relations.

Relations between Turkey and Armenia have historically been poor
because of incidents that took place during World War I. The Armenian
diaspora and government describe the 1915 events as “genocide” and
have asked for compensation.

Turkey officially refutes this description, saying that although
Armenians died during relocations, many Turks also lost their lives
in attacks carried out by Armenian gangs in Anatolia.

Ankara has also long been calling for Armenia and its historians
to make a joint academic research and study into the archives of
both countries.

In April 2014, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan-at the time prime
minister – offered condolences for the Armenian deaths that occurred
in 1915-a first for a Turkish statesman.

GEORGIA OFFERS AZERBAIJAN AND TURKEY TO HOLD EXERCISES

April 2, 2015 11:15
184 views

Photo: blogspot.com

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Georgia offered Azerbaijan and Turkey to hold
joint exercises at Sachkhere Mountain Training School in summer.

Defense Minister of Georgia stated it today receiving his Azerbaijani
and Turkish counterparts Zakir Hasanov and Ismet Yılmaz in Tbilisi.

The mountain infantries for Norway, Estonia, Armenia, U.S., Latvia
and other countries trained at Sachkhere School.

NATO Training Center aimed at the training of the military of NATO
member states and alliance partners will open in Georgia in fall.