Author: Kajoyan Gevork

AZERBAIJANI MPS PROPOSE DISMISS OF FRANCE FROM MINSK GROUP

Feb 1 2012
Turkey

Several Azerbaijani parliamentarians proposed to dismiss France from
its mission as co-chair of Minsk Group at the Organization for Security
& Cooperation in Europe.

Several Azerbaijani parliamentarians proposed to dismiss France from
its mission as co-chair of Minsk Group at the Organization for Security
& Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Oktay Asadov said on Wednesday that
France lost its spiritual right as co-chair of Minsk Group which
undertakes a mediation role in solution of the problem of Upper
Karabagh that is under occupation of Armenia.

Recently, French Senate adopted a law which penalizes the denial of
Armenian allegations regarding 1915 incidents during Ottoman Empire
period. Under the law, people, who deny the Armenian allegations,
are sentenced to one year in prison and 45,000 euro fine. On Tuesday,
77 senators and 65 parliamentarians in France applied to French
Constitutional Council for the annulment of the law. The Council will
announce its decision within a month.

All parliamentarians at Azerbaijani Parliament including Asadov
supported the proposal.

Asadov said that Azerbaijan would try every possible way to support
Turkey.

TURKEY SAYS WELCOMES APPEAL OF FRENCH DENIAL LAW

Anadolu Agency
Feb 1 2012
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday Turkey welcomed appeal of a
French law that penalizes denial of Armenian allegations on Ottoman era
incidents of 1915 to France’s top constitutional body for annulment.

“We welcome this most honorable initiative. We will now wait for the
Constitutional Council’s ruling which we believe would fit with the
France’s rooted tradition of democracy and of rule of law,” said the
Turkish Foreign Ministry in a press release.

French senators appealed earlier today the law penalizing denial of
Armenian allegations with a prison term of one year and a fine of 45
thousand euros.

Sixty-five MPs and 72 senators signed to appeal the law at the French
Constitutional Council.

The council is expected to make public its decision within a month.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Apostolic Church of Crescenta Valley-Education Committee
6252 Honolulu Ave
La Crescenta, CA 91214
(818) 303-5566
[email protected]

Mr. Sarkis Balmanoukian, a noted architect and the author and prizewinner
of the contest for the design of the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex
built in Der Zor and many other buildings to his credit, will be the
honorary guest speaker on ” Armenian Church Architecture ” at Armenian
Apostolic Church of Crescenta Valley, located at Western Prelacy’s ” Dikran
and Zarouhi Der Ghazarian ” Hall, at 6252 Honolulu Ave., in La Crescenta,
California on Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 1pm, following the church
service.

Armenian architecture is an architectural style developed over the last
4,500 years of human habitation in the Armenian Highland (the eastern part
of Asia Minor) and used principally by the Armenian people. Medieval
Armenian architecture, and Armenian churches in particular, has several
distinctive features, believed by some to be the first national style of
church building.

Born and raised in Aleppo-Syria, Mr. Sarkis Balmanoukian attended the
local Krtasirats Armenian School and then for his secondary education
he was admitted to Aleppo-American College majoring in art. He then
traveled to Yerevan-Armenia to continue his higher education, from where,
in 1973, he received his credentials in architecture and city planning.
Returning to his birth place, Aleppo-Syria, Mr. Sarkis Balmanoukian was
employed at Aleppo City Planning Department for six consecutive years and
was credited for plannings and drawings for various city plans,
governmental foundations and institutions. During 1980 to 1987, until his
settling date in the United States, Mr. Sarkis Balmanoukian has had his
private architectural office and it was during these years that he designed
the plans for the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in Der Zor and the
Aleppo Armenian Community Catholic Church. He is also credited for the
design of memorial wall dedicated in memory of the Armenian victims of
the Ottoman-Turkish Genocide and the surviving regenerated ones in
the Karasnitz Mankantz Church surroundings along with two of its church
altars in Aleppo.

Since his youth years, Sarkis Balmanoukian has had a special love toward
art, to paint paintings, and has exhibited those in many of his individual
exhibitions. He has also taught the art of painting for groupings at Sarian
Academy in Aleppo for 12 years. During his studies in Armenia, he has
visited various and many locations with Armenian historical monuments
inside Armenia. His keen interest in Armenian culture has also taken him to
several Armenian communities-Tiflis, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Cairo and etc. In
1978 he had the exceptional opportunity to visit the Armenian Kars and then
the Armenian Ani in Western Armenia, now Turkey, the city renowned for its
1001 churches now in ruins. He has an extensive slide collection of his
visited architectural sites.

The general public is invited to this informative, very interesting and
soul searching presentation. This special event which is organized by
Crescenta Valley Armenian Apostolic Church (CV Church) and CV Church
Education Committee is sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Albert and Ramona
Tatavosian.

The event is free and open to the public. Everyone is welcomed to attend.
There will be a reception before the start of the program at the completion
of the Divine Liturgy.

TRESORS D’ARMENIE AU MUSEE DES MANUSCRITS DU MONT-SAINT-MICHEL
par GIGNOUX Sabine

La Croix
Samedi 28 Janvier 2012
France

Le Scriptorial d’Avranches, qui presente les precieux manuscrits de
l’abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michelin, exposera, a partir du mercredi 1er
fevrier, une cinquantaine d’oeuvres religieuses armeniennes du XIe au
XIXe siècle. Ces objets liturgiques, pièces d’orfèvrerie en argent
repousse et martele ou manuscrits richement enlumines, proviennent du
Musee armenien de France, actuellement ferme, et de la Bibliothèque
nationale de France. Ils sont accompagnes, pour l’occasion, de
photographies de monastères et de paysages d’Armenie realisees par
Artur Mryan. Des concerts-conferences et une visite guidee par la
commissaire de l’exposition Edda Vardanyan donneront le coup d’envoi
de la manifestation.

TURKISH AMBASSADOR: FRANCE WITHDRAWAL FROM MINSK GROUP EXPECTED

Trend
Jan 30 2012
Azerbaijan

Withdrawal of France from the OSCE Minsk Group is expected, the
Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Hulusi Kilic said on Monday.

Kilic said, further participation of France in the Minsk Group will
be considered.

“Withdrawal of France from the Minsk Group is expected. Of course,
Azerbaijan has openly announced distrust of France. We expect that
France will learn a lesson from it,” Kilic said.

Kilic stressed once again that the law, adopted by France is unfair.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

HILLARY CLINTON: “THE US IS NOT GOING TO APPLY THE CRIMINALIZATION OF DENIAL OF “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE” AS IN FRANCE”

APA
Jan 27 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Victoria Dementieva – APA. “The US is not going to apply the
criminalization of denial of “Armenian genocide” as in France”, said
US State Secretary Hillary Clinton at the meeting with the employees
of the Department of State, APA reports.

“Well, first, one of our great strengths is we do not criminalize
speech. People can say nearly anything they choose, and they do,
in our country. And so other countries, including close friends and
allies like France, have different standards, different histories, but
we are, I hope, never going to go down that path to criminalize speech.

I think it’s fair to say that this has always been viewed, and I think
properly so, as a matter of historical debate and conclusions rather
than political. And I think that is the right posture for the United
States Government to be in, because whatever the terrible event might
be or the high emotions that it represents, to try to use government
power to resolve historical issues, I think, opens a door that is a
very dangerous one to go through. So the issue is a very emotional
one; I recognize that and I have great sympathy for those who are
just so incredibly passionate about it.

But I think the free market of ideas, the academic community, the
open architecture of communication that is even greater now than it
was in the past, are the proper fora for this kind of engagement,
and that’s where I hope it is worked out. And eventually, people will
have their own conclusions, which needs to be respected, but we need
to encourage anyone on any side of any contentious historical debate
to get out into the marketplace of ideas. Muster your evidence, put
forth your arguments, and be willing to engage, and that’s what I
think should happen on that too”.

50% OF TOURISTS IN GEORGIA FROM TURKEY AND ARMENIA 2,820,185 FOREIGN TOURISTS VISITED GEORGIA IN 2011
Written by Tako Khelaia

The Financial
Jan 30 2012
Georgia

The FINANCIAL — The number of foreign visitors in Georgia increased
by 39% in 2011 compared to the previous year.

According to the Georgian National Tourism Agency 2,820,185 foreign
tourists visited Georgia in total last year. The overall flow of
tourists increased by 788,468 foreigners in 2011.

“The majority of foreign tourists that visited Georgia were from
Turkey. In 2011 738,136 Turkish tourists came to Georgia, a 38% growth
in comparison to 2010 when 535,593 people visited Georgia from Turkey.

The second biggest group of foreign tourists in Georgia belongs to
Azerbaijan. In 2010 497,969 visitors came to Georgia from Azerbaijan
and in 2011 – 714,427, a growth of 43% in accordance with last year,”
GNTA notes.

“In 2010 547,510 Armenians visited Georgia. In 2011 the number of
Armenian tourists in Georgia reached 699,391, showing 28% growth
in comparison with the year before. Among the list of the top ten
foreign countries’ visitors to Georgia, Russia holds 4th place. In
2010 170,584 Russian tourists visited Georgia, compared to 278,501
tourists in 2011 showing 63% growth,” GNTA notes.

“60,193 tourists visited Georgia from Iran in 2011, compared to 21,313
in 2010. The number of Iranian tourists in Georgia increased by 182%.

58,966 Ukrainian tourists came to Georgia in 2011 while in 2010
the number was 47,596. Last year the number of Ukrainian tourists
increased by 24%. The number of tourists from Israel was 19,447
in 2010. In 2011 the number increased to 25,438, a 31% growth in
comparison with the last year,” GNTA says.

According to the Georgian National Tourism Agency 24,224 tourists from
the USA visited Georgia in 2011 while in 2010 their number was 20,081.

The number of tourists in Georgia from the USA increased by 21%
in 2011.

22,204 German tourists came to Georgia in 2011, while their number in
2010 reached 17,619. In 2011 the number of German tourists in Georgia
increased by 26%. The number of tourists from Kazakhstan was 8,411
in 2010 and in 2011 their number reached 18,565 – a 121% increase
in comparison with the previous year. 17,664 Greek tourists visited
Georgia in 2011 and in 2010 their number was 16,424. The increase of
the number of Greek students in 2011 reached 8%.

“Georgia was visited in 2011 by 12,613 tourists from Great Britain,
12,082 from Poland, 10,695 from France, 10,309 from Bulgaria, 6,883
from the Netherlands, 6,873 from Italy, 6,522 from China, 6,114 from
the Philippines and 5,344 from Belarus,” says GNTA.

According to GNTA the number of foreign visitors from Georgia’s
neighbour countries increased in 2011.

The number of travellers to Georgia significantly increased from such
high priority country markets as Iran with 182% growth, China – 139%,
Kazakhstan – 121% and Poland with a 70% increase.

The highest number of foreign travellers to Georgia were from CIS
countries with 63% growth, EU countries with 32% and Southern Asia
with 2% increase, There was record growth of tourists to Georgia
from the Southern Asia region with 138% increase, mostly determined
by the high number of Iranian travellers.”

Georgia was visited by 1,787,728 tourists from CIS countries in 2011,
906,632 from Europe, 66,076 from Southern Asia and 28,856 from the
USA. August was the month most saturated with foreign visitors.

355,924 tourists came to Georgia in August, 332,194 in July, 252,319
in October and 282,472 in December 2011. June 2011 saw a vast increase
in percentage rate with 49% growth of visitors.

As GNTA says, the highest number of tourists visited Georgia in the
3rd quarter of 2011 with 960,307 tourists and 41% growth in comparison
to the previous year.

“The 2nd quarter of 2011 was also exceptional with 48% growth. 754,547
tourists visited the country in the 4th quarter, and in comparison
with the last year it totalled 29% growth,” GNTA says.

“2,380,760 travellers visited Georgia by road transport, 42% more in
comparison with the year 2010. 335,989 travellers visited Georgia
by air transport and in accordance with the year 2010 the number
increased by 37%. 56,909 travellers visited Georgia by sea and 55,041
by railway,” GNTA says.

As one of the most visited regions of Georgia Adjara was visited by
1,319,513 tourists in 2011. There was a 35% increase in the number of
tourists visiting Adjara in comparison with the previous year’s index.

“From the total number of tourists in Adjara, 64% were Georgian and
36% foreign. Adjara had the biggest number of visitors in July with
353,576 and in August with 330,311 tourists. According to percent
growth, the February index was one of the most exceptional compared
to the previous year with a 144% increase of tourists,” GNTA notes.

TURKEY WELCOMES APPEAL OF FRENCH “GENOCIDE” BILL

EastDay.com

Feb 1 2012
China

ANKARA, Jan. 31 — Turkish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday welcomed an
appeal of a French bill that incriminates anyone who denies Armenia’s
take on the incidents of 1915 to the Constitutional Council for
annulment.

“We welcome this most honorable initiative. We will now wait for the
Constitutional Council’s ruling, which we believe would fit with the
France’s rooted tradition of democracy and of rule of law,” said the
Foreign Ministry in a press release.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu to France on Tuesday
said he expected the French Constitutional Council to annul the
legislation that makes it a crime to deny that the incidents occurred
in 1915 during the Ottoman era were a “genocide. ”

“We have received the result we want. We thank everyone who extended
support. Turkish-French relations could not survive such a law. And
we expect a positive ruling from the council,” Burcuoglu was quoted
as saying by the semi-official Anatolia news agency.

In France, even if a bill has been approved by the Senate, it can
still be appealed to the Constitutional Court if a large number of
lawmakers file for it.

The French Senate voted last Monday 127 to 86 in favor of the bill
after hours of debate. The bill, yet to be signed by French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, was passed in the French National Assembly, the
lower house of parliament, on Dec. 22 last year.

Armenians claim that more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed
in a systematic genocide during the World War I, but the Turkish
government insists that the Armenians were victims of widespread
chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire collapsed
before modern Turkey was created in 1923.

The two countries signed protocols to normalize relations last
October but the protocols needed to be ratified by the two countries’
parliaments before taking effect. Turkish authorities have warned
that the row over the “genocide” claims could hamper the normalization
process.

RUSSIA PLAYS ACTIVE ROLE IN KARABAKH SETTLEMENT – ARMENIAN FM

ITAR-TASS
January 30, 2012 Monday 10:51 PM GMT+4
Russia

Russia plays an active role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, with the full support of the OSCE Minsk Group, Armenian
Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan said.

“The Russian side has been playing an active role in the settlement
process lately, with the full support of the other two co-chairmen of
the OSCE Minsk Group – the United States and France,” Nalbandyan said.

In their statement in Sochi, the presidents noted that the co-chairmen
of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, the United States and France –
have worked hard over the last 3-4 years to coordinate the underlying
principles of Karabakh settlement. More than 15 meetings were held
at the level of presidents alone — ten of which were initiated by
the Russian president – and dozens of meetings of foreign ministers;
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen visited the region dozens of times,
Nalbandyan said.

“Having commended the fruitful work of the co-chairmen, the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan expressed hope that the U.S., Russia and
France will continue their effort towards conflict resolution in the
same format and in the same status,” the minister said.

He stressed, “There is no other conflict on which the G8 would make
a statement at such a high level or that would get so much attention
from the presidents of Russia, the United States and France”.

The statement in Sochi said that “the presidents attach great
significance to achieving consensus on the underlying principles
and that the sides together with the co-chairmen should step up work
towards that,” Nalbandyan said.

In his opinion, “this is a very important point in the statement
because it calls for further talks on the basic principles, taking into
account the work done, in order to start drafting a peace agreement. As
a result of intensive negotiations, progress has been reached in
coordinating the basic principles of settlement,” the minister said.

“An atmosphere of trust is important for the talks both when
coordinating the principles and after that. Even if we come to
agreement on the basic principles – and a positive atmosphere will
certainly be conducive to that – we will still have a lot of work to
do after that to draft the agreement, and a positive atmosphere will
be very important for that,” he said.

The stressed the importance of “strengthening trust, creating a
favourable atmosphere and preparing the public opinion for a peaceful
resolution of the problem,” Nalbandyan said.

“If we are moving towards peace, we must prepare our peoples for peace,
not war,” he said.

A PASTICHE OF STYLES IN HERITAGE, HUMAN RIGHTS
By Sophia Tillie

The Daily Star

Jan 31 2012
Lebanon

BEIRUT: Arthur K. is a contemporary Lebanese-Armenian self-made
painter. Born in 1945, he is a doctor by profession, as well as a poet
and an essayist. In addition to working in multiple fields, in the
last 20 years of his artistic career Arthur K. has gone by many names:
Arthur, Nicolian, Nakoul and more recently Arthur K., which stands
for Harout Kapriel Nicolian.In his latest exhibition at the Hamazkayin
Gallery, “Heritage and Human Rights,” the artist employs acrylic and
print on canvas to form a series of collages that the introductory
material states “express the artist’s position and struggle against
the greed and difficulties that produce human injustice and give
commentary to his political views.” Each canvas has the words “human
rights” embossed across it, and each carries a different assemblage
of script, old photos, newspaper and magazine cutouts.

“I employ [the] letterism of the Armenian alphabet to express my
message,” Arthur K. says. “Due to the Armenian massacre there is
something of human rights in our alphabet, [that is] if there are
human rights.”

The dominant colors are black red, blue and gold. Classical images
stand juxtaposed with modern icons of famous and familiar faces such
as such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Giorgio de Chirico, Freud, Parajanov,
and Brecht. Violent and romantic images harmonize into an ascetically
pleasing bricolage whose intertextuality is obscure. This disturbs
the observer trying to weave the disparate parts into a cohesive
narrative that seems hauntingly absent.

One canvas has the late Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti placed
centrally, arms outstretched. “Pavarotti is a pillar of human rights
because he is happy,” he explained with a total sincerity that rendered
all irony and sarcasm obsolete.

Intermingled with and interrupting these series of collages are a
couple of canvases entitled “Golden Houses,” painted with mixed media
on canvas, as well as a number of naive paintings of Phoenician icons.

“Golden Houses” depict old, red roofed Lebanese houses, checkered
with brown deterioration and golden wisps that rise like smoke or thin
branches into blossoming flames of golds, reds and blues. The windows
are black and hollowed and the houses stand crowded together. “The
houses are about memory. This exhibition is about lost heritage too.”

A painting entitled “King and Queen Ashtarimus” depicts simplistic
icons of a male and female, and the use of acrylic and mixed media on
canvas gives it an appearance of being on painted wood. Their naive
faces emerge from a tapestry of colored squares and swirls. Soft
blues are scarred by red paint that drips from mouth and skull.

Arthur K. has exhibited his works internationally through Noah’s Ark
Art Gallery in Beirut, New York, Sao Paulo, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and
recently in the 12th International Art Exhibition in Beijing, China.

He says his greatest influence is the philosophy of the author Zekharia
Sitchin, who wrote about the birth of civilization in the areas where
the people of Sumer, Mari, Urartu and Phoenicia lived, and about
a missing 12th planet in the sky. Sitchin was an Azerbaijani-born
American author (1920-2010), whose books propose an explanation for
human origins involving ancient astronauts.

Sitchin attributes the creation of ancient Sumerian culture to the
Anunnaki, which he postulates was a race of extraterrestrials from
a planet beyond Neptune called Nibiru. He believed this hypothetical
planet of Nibiru to be in an elongated, elliptical orbit in the Earth’s
own solar system, asserting that Sumerian mythology reflects this view.

Arthur K.’s early works depict rocket-esque structures with the
concept of Mesopotamian, Phoenician and Egyptian figurines. “If you
look at Baalbek, the Pyramids and other ancient temples you can see
how much more evolved they were. Even … in England today you don’t
know how Stonehenge was built.”

A dark image of Picasso with black hollow eyes stares out from one
canvas. Beneath it the word “Dolly” is inscribed across an image of
a semi-naked Indian man at work. The artist has embossed the word
“pollution” into Picasso’s brain “to show that the consciousnesses
of geniuses are deformed today.”

“Human Rights and Heritage” is an interesting commentary on the
devolution of our species from ancient times to the present. The
artist’s work is a pastiche of styles from three different epochs:
naive icons, expressionism and postmodernist bricolage. The bricolage
collages, by their very nature, present a blank parody of their own
self-reflexivity and textual references and render the political
message of human rights null and void.

Rather than undermine the artist’s political views, however, this
serves to emphasize his view of our current degradation, juxtaposed
with the more idealized epochs of our lost heritage.

“Heritage and Human Rights” is at the Hamazkayin Gallery in Bourj
Hammoud’s Shaghzoyan Genter until Feb. 6. For more information,
call 01-241-262.