Author: Kajoyan Gevork

EN MEMOIRE DU LIEUTENANT KOURKEN MARKARIAN TUE EN 2004 A BUDAPEST
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
samedi 25 février 2012

Le 19 fevrier, une ceremonie s’est deroulee au centre de Budapest
(Hongrie) près du khatchkar, en memoire du lieutenant Kourken
Markarian, sauvagement assassine dans la capitale hongroise en 2004 par
un autre militaire azeri, pendant son sommeil. La manifestation etait
organisee par les membres de la communaute armenienne de Budapest en
cooperation avec Arthur Moucheghian, le conseiller de l’Ambassade
d’Armenie. Rappelons que Kourken Markarian suivait a Budapest des
cours de perfectionnement de l’anglais dans le cadre d’un partenariat
de l’OTAN, lorsqu’il fut abattu a coup de hache dans son sommeil,
par l’azeri Ramil Safarov…detenue dans une prison hongroise et qui
est aujourd’hui adule tel un heros en Azerbaïdjan pour son ” exploit
“. Les medias hongrois etaient presents a la manifestation.

LE MAIRE DE BAEBOURT FETE LA ” LIBERATION ” DE LA VILLE SUR LES ARMENIENS
Krikor Amirzayan

armenews.com
samedi 25 février 2012

Le negationnisme est a son comble en Turquie ! Hadji Ali Polat,
le Maire de la ville armenienne de Baïbourt (Papert) en Armenie
occidentale occupee par la Turquie, desire organiser des fetes
a l’occasion du 94e anniversaire de la ” liberation de la ville du
joug des Armeniens “. Les Armeniens qui etaient sur ces terres depuis
des millenaires, bien avant l’arrivee des premières hordes turques
venues d’Asie centrate. Ainsi la Turquie qui desire integrer l’Europe
et ses valeurs, favorise la haine entre les peuples en presentant
les Armeniens genocides comme des bourreaux et occupant l’Armenie
occidentale videe des Armeniens par le genocide de 1915. Hadji Ali
Polat est du meme parti que le Premier ministre turc Erdogan. Il a
meme appele les jeunes Turcs a se venger des “exactions armenienne
sur les populations turques” au debut du XXe siècle. Le celèbre
journaliste Mehmet Ali Birand, a vivement reagi a ces provocations
du Maire de Baïbourt, sur les chaînes CNNturk et Kanal D. ” Non,
monsieur le Maire, vous vous trompez et de beaucoup. Vous semez les
graines de la haine. Cette manifestation est l’expression d’une haine
” a affirme Birand.

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN CONGRATULATES MICHEL LEGRAND ON 80TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

armradio.am
24.02.2012 16:06

President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory letter to the Holder
of the RA Order of Honor Michel Legrand on the occasion of his 80th
birth anniversary.

The letter reads: “Dear Maestro Legrand,

I cordially congratulate you on the occasion of your 80th birth
anniversary. You have made a great contribution to the development of
contemporary music, and your pieces are being performed all over the
world. Thanks to the bright individuals like you, relations between
your two motherlands – Armenia and France – have become even stronger.

I recall with special warmth our meeting in Yerevan in September 2009.

I am confident, that we will have new meeting in the future as well,
especially in Yerevan because the Armenian nation loves you and is
proud of you.

I once again congratulate you on your jubilee and wish you good health
and boundless vigor.”

DDK REPORT’S CENSORED PAGES CALL FOR PROBE OF STATE OFFICIALS IN DINK CASE

Sunday’s Zaman

Feb 24 2012
Turkey

The undisclosed sections of a report prepared by the State Audit
Institution (DDK) regarding the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink openly accuse police and intelligence officials of
negligence in the murder and call for the investigation of certain
individuals, the Haberturk daily reported on Friday.

The presidential watchdog announced its report earlier this week on
the Office of the President’s website. The report said mistakes were
made in the investigation of public officials who were suspected
of having acted negligently in preventing the murder, adding that
a sequence of negligent acts by public officials was not examined
as a whole and that no investigation was launched separately into
different state institutions.

However, six pages of the long-expected report were censored,
reportedly due to state secrecy concerns, arousing curiosity among
the public over what information they contained. Haberturk, claiming
to have obtained the full report, said on Friday that the censored
sections level serious and explicit accusations against police and
gendarmerie officers and the Ä°stanbul Governor’s Office.

The six pages also reportedly say there is sufficient evidence to file
charges of negligence against certain officials in the Ä°stanbul and
Trabzon police departments. The report adds that prosecutors failed to
file charges against members of the National Intelligence Organization
(MÄ°T) who reportedly “warned” Dink to be careful when writing his
articles prior to his assassination in 2007.

According to Dink’s own account published in Agos, of which he
was editor-in-chief, on Jan. 12, 2007, MÄ°T Marmara Regional Deputy
Director Ozel Yılmaz and another agent summoned Dink to the İstanbul
Governor’s Office and warned him, telling him to “be careful” about
what he wrote. The meeting took place on Feb. 4, 2004, shortly after
Dink wrote an article asserting that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s daughter,
Sabiha Gökcen, was of Armenian descent.

After Dink’s assassination, one of the MÄ°T agents who had spoken with
him at the governor’s office that day was revealed to be Yılmaz,
who is currently a suspect in the investigation into Ergenekon — a
clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government —
which prosecutors say might also be responsible for Dink’s murder.

Furthermore, in response to a query about the meeting from the
Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court, MÄ°T said the organization was
aware of the “meeting” with Dink and its agents at the time.

Haberturk also reported that the full DDK report underlines that
the Trabzon Police Department sent a notice to the Ä°stanbul Police
Department on Feb. 17, 2006, warning them about an assassination plot
against Dink based on intelligence received from Erhan Tuncel — a
police informant in Trabzon. The report also said this information
was not shared with the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command, although the
plot concerned individuals in the town of Pelitli, which fell under
the gendarmerie command’s jurisdiction. Despite this information no
action was taken to prevent the murder, and a fake report was prepared
following Dink’s assassination, the report said.

The DDK also reportedly discovered that information about a possible
assassination plot against Dink was received by the Trabzon Gendarmerie
Command from other sources. Although there was clear intelligence that
those plotting to kill Dink were obtaining arms, the gendarmerie did
not give any importance to this information and did not share it with
any judicial body, the report puts forth.

Dink, the late editor-in-chief of Agos, was shot dead by an
ultranationalist teenager outside the offices of his newspaper in
broad daylight in Ä°stanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.

Gul ordered the DDK to investigate the Dink murder last year, following
growing calls from the public and a European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR) ruling that found Turkey guilty of failing to protect Dink’s
right to life and of carrying out a thorough investigation into the
officers who failed to take the necessary measures in light of early
warnings and tips about the plot to kill Dink. The investigation that
followed Dink’s death revealed that police had been tipped off about
plans to murder the journalist; however, police failed to intervene.

Deputy PM: Court’s reasoned decision adds to ‘darkness’ surrounding
Dink case In a related development, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag
commented on the reasoned decision announced by an Ä°stanbul court on
Thursday on the killing of Dink. The Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court
said in its 216-page-long reasoned decision, distributed to lawyers
involved in the case on Thursday, that the court could not establish
that the journalist was killed by an organized criminal network.

Bozdag said by acknowledging that there is wider involvement in the
murder but failing to prove it, the court added more to the “darkness”
of the case. “I am not sure whether it is logical for the court to
accept the involvement of an organization in the murder but to say
that it cannot see it. The reasoned decision has been yet another dark
curtain. … The decision failed to light a candle to shed light in
this darkness,” he said.

In what many said was a shocking and frustrating ruling in the
five-year-long trial of the Dink case, the Ä°stanbul court last
month cleared all suspects of charges of membership in a criminal
organization, angering lawyers and many others who say the trial
failed to clarify alleged connections between the suspects and state
officials. The court convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the
killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, of instigating a murder
and sentenced him to life in prison. Another suspected instigator,
Tuncel, was acquitted by the court.

MAN INJURED IN SCUFFLE AT TURKISH ACADEMIC FAIR IN BEIRUT

The Daily Star

Feb 24 2012
Lebanon

BEIRUT: A group of Armenian Lebanese stormed a Turkish academic fair
at a hotel in Downtown Beirut late Thursday, injuring a man in the
subsequent scuffle, security sources said.

The incident took place at Monroe Hotel late last night when three
men entered the venue and disrupted the proceedings of an academic
fair for Turkish universities, the sources said Friday.

The group began by distributing fliers on human rights but the affair
soon escalated into an altercation between them and the organizers,
leading to the injury of citizen Mazen al-Nabulsi.

The group also vandalized a number of items at the fair.

Security forces intervened and apprehended several people.

A statement by the Tashnag Party Friday said the Turkish organizers
had initiated physical contact.

“A number of Armenian youths and students handed out fliers
denouncing the organizers at the Turkish universities academic fair
at Monroe Hotel, which aims to recruit Lebanese students to Turkish
universities. The Turks present could not suppress their feelings
of being provoked and attacked the Armenian youths and students,
which led to intervention by others,” the statement said.

“Calm returned soon afterward,” it added.

AZERBAIJANI SNIPER KILLS ARMENIAN SOLDIER: YEREVAN

Agence France Presse
February 23, 2012 Thursday 4:24 PM GMT

An Azerbaijani sniper shot dead an Armenian soldier on the border
between the enemy ex-Soviet states on Thursday, the defence ministry
in Yerevan said.

The 20-year-old soldier, named as Albert Adibekian, died from a
gunshot wound to the head, the ministry said.

“The provocation by snipers from the Azerbaijani armed forces
which resulted in the killing of soldier Adibekian will receive its
response,” defence ministry spokesman Davit Karapetian told AFP.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked in a long-running conflict over
the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, where 22 soldiers were
reportedly killed along the front line amid frequent skirmishes in
2011 — although Thursday’s incident happened a significant distance
away from Karabakh.

Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized Karabakh from Azerbaijan
in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 people dead, but despite
years of negotiations since the 1994 ceasefire the two sides have
not signed a final peace deal.

Russian-mediated talks between the enemies last month ended with
promises to speed up the peace process but no public steps towards
signing the ‘basic principles’ roadmap deal which is seen as key to
a future settlement.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly threatened to use force to win back Karabakh
if negotiations fail to yield satisfactory results, but Yerevan has
warned of large-scale retaliation if Baku launches any military action.

CALIFORNIA ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAW OVERTURNED
by Bob Egelko

San Francisco Chronicle

Feb 24 2012
CA

A California law allowing heirs of victims of the Armenian genocide to
sue in state courts for unpaid insurance benefits is invalid because
it intrudes into sensitive foreign policy questions that are the
exclusive domain of the federal government, a federal appeals court
ruled Thursday.

In an 11-0 decision that tiptoed around the use of the word “genocide,”
the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the
law, passed in 2000, “establishes a particular foreign policy for
California” that exceeds any state’s authority.

The court ordered dismissal of a class-action suit filed in 2003 by
several hundred Armenian Americans against a German insurance group
and two subsidiaries. The ruling effectively kills all suits filed
under the law, since a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Lee Crawford Boyd,
said there’s little chance that the Supreme Court would agree to
review an appeal.

It was the latest in a series of federal rulings that have barred
California and other states from allowing victims of decades-old
foreign atrocities, like the Nazi Holocaust and the alleged use of
slave labor by the Japanese military, to seek redress in their courts.

As many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Ottoman Empire
between 1915 and 1923. Most historians consider it a genocide, but
the Turkish government protests use of the term and has urged U.S.
administrations to prevent any endorsement by Congress.

President Obama, in annual speeches condemning the killings, has
refrained from describing them as a genocide. The Obama administration
took no position in the case.

The California law allows descendants of Armenians killed or deported
during that period, or of anyone who escaped to avoid persecution,
to sue insurers until 2016, long after the normal legal deadlines
would have expired.

A three-judge appeals court panel upheld the law in 2010, saying
it did not conflict with any explicit federal policy. But after the
full appeals court granted a rehearing, the 11-judge panel Thursday
said foreign affairs are an exclusive federal preserve, even if the
government has no defined policy on the subject.

California’s law was “intended to send a political message on an issue
of foreign affairs by providing (monetary) relief and a friendly
forum to a perceived class of foreign victims,” Judge Susan Graber
said in the ruling. She said the law “imposes the politically charged
label of ‘genocide’ ” – a term about which, she said in a footnote,
the court expresses no opinion.

Boyd, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said the ruling was disappointing but
sent a strong message, along with other cases, that U.S. courts will
not permit such laws. In a dispute between private parties, with the
Obama administration voicing no objection, she said, “I think the fears
(of interfering with foreign policy) are overblown.”

Neil Postman, lawyer for German insurance company Munich Re, said the
court properly recognized that “the interests of the United States
as a whole are more important than the particular interests of any
small group.”

The ruling can be viewed at

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff
writer. [email protected]

IRANIAN AMBASSADOR: NO NATION CAN BE SILENT ON TRAGEDY THAT BEFELL IT

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 24, 2012 – 16:37 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – During a meeting with Yerevan State University
students, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia Seyed Ali Sagayan said that
no country can keep silence on its tragic past.

“It’s inadmissible to impose religious nature on developments and
conflicts. Iran holds a clear stance on the issue. As an ambassador,
every April 24 I participate in events honoring the memory of the
victims,” the Iranian envoy said dwelling on Iranian position on the
Armenian Genocide, adding that reoccurrence of such dark pages must
be avoided.

HEARINGS IN TRAFFIC POLICE CHIEF CASE WRAP UP. OHANYAN INSISTS ACCUSED BEING PRESSURED (VIDEO)

epress.am
02.24.2012

The hearings in the high-profile case of former RA Traffic Police
Chief Margar Ohanyan wrapped up in a Yerevan administrative court
today. The closing statements of the prosecution and the defense,
as well as the ruling, will be heard at the next court sittings.

Ohanyan, speaking to members of the press prior to the court session
beginning today, said that the other three accused (former battalion
commander Stepan Karakhanyan and traffic police employees Ara Levonyan
and Samvel Makhmuryan) were being pressured. According to Ohanyan,
Karakhanyan, who has diabetes, prior to testifying in court was in
hospital, while law enforcement officials continuously supervised
him from the adjacent hospital room. The police official on trial
said it was under such pressure that Karakhanyan testified against
him in court.

“I have said no lies here, and my remarks fully correspond to the
truth. I’m not even mentioning Arayik Levonyan, what pressure they
applied on him – let them say. If they’re not talking, I’m not
preparing to defend them; let them defend themselves – a colonel,
a lieutenant colonel… they’re over the age of 50. I said that which
happened,” he said.

Recall, all four men are being charged with embezzling large quantities
of gasoline that was set aside for traffic police vehicles.

Note, as well, the other three, as well as witness in the case,
traffic police battalion commander Arsen Arshakyan, have testified
against Ohanyan.

The evidence in the case was examined in court today: these are the
pre-trial testimonies of the four accused and witness Arsen Arshakyan,
and papers seized from the Traffic Police office related to gasoline
receipts, accounts and other documents.

In their pre-trial testimonies, Levonyan, Karakhanyan, Makhmuryan,
and Arshakyan insisted that it was under Ohanyan’s direction that less
patrol than expected was alloted to the first and second officers’
battalion, and that when they took up the issue with him, Ohanyan said
this is how it is, after which they didn’t object. Ohanyan, however,
during his testimony refuted this, saying no one ever approached him
about this issue and the matter of divvying up the petrol was dealt
with by the finance division, the head of which is Ara Levonyan.

The next court date is set for Mar. 1 at 11:30 am, at which time
prosecutor Harutyun Harutyunyan will give his closing statement.

ARMENIA’S AMBASSADOR TO UN COUNTERS AZERBAIJAN’S PROVOCATIVE SPEECHES

news.am
February 24, 2012 | 13:26

YEREVAN. – A discussion, entitled “Women, Peace, and Security,”
was held at the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Armenia’s Ambassador to UN, Karen Nazaryan, also attended the event,
and, in his address, he reflected on violation against women and
girls during conflicts, MFA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Nazaryan specifically noted: “In several days we will commemorate the
innocent victims of Sumgait [in Azerbaijan], who were subjected to
slaughter and terrible violations simply because they were Armenian.”

And alluding to the Azerbaijani representative’s address, Armenia’s
ambassador recalled that the day’s discussion was solely about the
violations and crimes committed during the conflicts that are included
on the Security Council (SC) agenda, and therefore he deemed absurd
the Azerbaijani representative’s hint made toward the incidents that
occurred in Khojalu. Nazaryan noted that even after being elected to
the SC, Azerbaijan continues with its irresponsible modus operandi,
to conceal its own crimes and provocations.

Armenia’s ambassador to UN also called upon Azerbaijan to refrain
from cheap steps and, instead, to focus on the Karabakh peace talks
and to materialize those arrangements reached during the meetings
among the presidents of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan.

Ambassador Karen Nazaryan also remarked that Azerbaijan continues
to violate UN SC resolutions, which call upon the parties to hold
negotiations within the OSCE Minsk Group format, and he added that
Azerbaijan’s refusal to conduct talks with the elected leadership of
the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is one of the main obstacles standing
in the way of regulating the issue.