Author: Kajoyan Gevork

TURKMENISTAN’S CULTURE TO BE CELEBRATED IN ARMENIA IN A SERIES OF EVENTS

YEREVAN, March 25. /ARKA/. Well-known cultural figures from
Turkmenistan have arrived in Armenia for Days of Turkmenistan’s
Culture in the country.

The series of cultural events will be opened today by a gala concert
in the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Yerevan,
Turkmenistan’s deputy minister of culture Bahargul Abdiev told
reporters on Wednesday.

An exhibition of decorative art and museum valuables will open
at Sharambeyan People’s Art Center on Thursday, she said. “Lyale”
vocal group, “Shirin Ovaglar” band and “Serpay” ethno group will give
concerts in Yerevan, Giumry and Vanadzor.

Abdieva stressed Armenia-Turkmenistan bilateral ties have been built
since 1992 based on mutual understanding and respect for each other.

Armenia’s minister of culture Hasmik Poghosyan presented a project of
restoration of Turkmen Sahadov family tomb located in Argavand village
near Yerevan, Novosti-Armenia reports. Turkmenistan’s delegation
praised the project and proposed to conserve the tomb as a first step.

Poghosyan said Armenia and Turkmenistan have been actively cooperating
in culture in the last years.

She also said Armenian experts are invited by Turkmenistan to
participate in the conference titled “Dialogue of Cultures on the
Great Silk Road”.

Concert, exhibitions and other events will be held as part of the
Days of Turkmenistan in Armenia.

The events are held by Turkmenistan’s embassy in Armenia, together with
Igityan National Center of Aesthetics, with assistance of Armenia’s
ministry of culture. -0–

PRESIDENT ERDOGAN’S TRADEMARK PARANOIA

17:36, 25 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Two large Turkish dailies, ‘Hurriyet’ and ‘Today’s Zaman’, on March
19, 2015 reported unprecedented attacks on the Armenian diaspora by
the Turkish President Racep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to ‘Today’s Zaman’, the Turkish President stated: “Oh
Armenian diaspora, Oh Armenian administration, …Bring your documents,
and we will task the historians, our historians, political scientists,
even archeologists and lawyers [with studying them]… let’s seek
the truth here.”

It looks like Mr. Erdogan is suffering from amnesia or has disjointed
from reality or doesn’t know what has transpired in the last 100
years vis-a-vis his society, academia, and the international community
regarding the Armenian Genocide.

It seems everyone other than Mr. Erdogan knows the truth. Over 400
historians, Holocaust scholars, and genocide experts have given the
authoritative answer to this issue and concluded that what happened
to the Armenians was genocide.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the leading group
tasked with researching and studying genocides, in a June 12, 2006
letter to Mr. Erdogan, then the Prime Minister of Turkey, stated:
“Scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other
ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such
so-called ‘scholars’ work to serve the agenda of historical and moral
obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how
to deny the Armenian Genocide.”

Mr. Erdogan’s suggestion to create “historians commission” to study
the Armenian Genocide is redundant. It’s akin to Holocaust deniers’
demand to create “historians commission” to prove whether the Holocaust
took place.

The Turkish President stated: “The truth should be sought in the
archives.” Many witnesses during the Istanbul Military Tribunal (1919
– 1921) of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, testified that
the documents of CUP, the government in power at the time, had been
removed and Interior Ministry archives had been burned by Talaat Pasha,
Minister of Interior, prior to fleeing the country.

Whatever is left of these archives are granted limited viewing to a
small group of selected historians who a priori have demonstrated their
support of Turkish government’s genocide denialist narrative. So the
Turkish archives openness argument is a clever way to mislead and to
divert attention from the real issue, the crime of genocide.

How about third country archives such as that of Britain, France, the
United States, Canada, Vatican, and even then-Turkish allies Germany
and Austria, among others? How about the hundreds of photographs
by war correspondents, massive eyewitness accounts and coverage by
Western journalists, missionaries and NGOs?

‘Hurriyet’ reported that Mr. Erdogan said: “The greatest massacres
targeting Muslims in the Balkans and in Caucasia happened in the same
period. In Anatolia,…as many as Armenians were harmed.” For him
to equate Armenian and Muslim loses is deceitful. The two losses are
not interrelated. The Armenian loses were due to Ottoman government
premeditated and centrally-planned race extermination. The Muslim
losses were due to Turkey taking side in a global war. It is an
Orwellian charade for Mr. Erdogan to compare the two losses.

Finally, the sultan of the new Ottomans stated: “The Armenian diaspora
is trying to instill hatred against Turkey everywhere in the world
through campaigns on genocide claims.” It is not only the Armenians
who are calling on the Turkish government to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. In addition to the international community, thousands of
righteous Turks are calling on Mr. Erdogan and the Turkish government
to end the 100-year-old callous policy of denial.

Mr. Vatche Demirdjian, the President of the Armenian Canadian
Conservative Association (ACCA),commented on Mr. Erdogan’s paranoid
statements and conspiracy theories by stating: “Mr. Erdogan’s comments
are sign of desperation and bankrupt policy.” He added: “Armenians
hold no grudge against Turks. On the contrary, we acknowledge that
many righteous Turks during the Genocide risked their lives to save
their Armenians. We also value the 40,000 Turkish intellectuals,
historians, journalists, and civil society members who have signed
an online “I apologize” proclamation asking the Turkish government to
atone for its predecessors’ crimes against the Armenians and humanity.”

RECOGNITION OR DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DOES NOT CHANGE REALITY FOR ARMENIAN FROM MALATYA

10:27, 24 March, 2015

YEREVAN, 23 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The Armenians living in different parts
of Turkey, who after the genocide had converted to Islam and become
Muslims, they are returning to their roots in recent years. One of
the important steps towards the restoration of their own identity is
the fact that they raise the issue of their Armenian identity.

We witness similar incident in Malatya in recent years. Although
there is not a large number of Armenians, nevertheless they speak
courageously about their Armenian identity. “Armenpress” has talked
with the former President of the Union of Armenians of Malatya,
businessman Khosrov Kyoledavitoghlu regarding the return of the
Armenians to their own roots in recent years, as well as other problems
faced by Armenians in Turkey.

– Mr. Kyoledavitoghlu, how many Armenians are living in Malatya? Do
they hide their Armenian identity, or openly talk about it?

– Nowadays the number of Malatya’s Armenians, who don’t hide their
own identity, is 60. At present, it is unclear how much the number of
Armenians is in the last hundred and fifty years, who voluntarily or
forcibly converted to Islam. Some families know very well about this
fact, but do not talk about it openly.

– What does it mean being Armenian in Turkey?

– Turkey’s Armenians have existed for thousands of years; they have
created history, cultural values and they are active in social and
public life. Although after all of this they have felt great pain,
but continued to cling to life. We, the Armenians of Turkey, due to
those, who caused us the pain, as well as representing these things
to the next generation in a totally different way, we have lived as
largely alienated society by the people, with whom we have shared
our life and surrounding. Over time, wider masses became aware of
some truths as a result of the spread of oral history, availability
of the foreign language literature and such other causes.

As a final result, progressively greater public awareness got a huge
strength. Today we have come to the point, when they speak about
the number and the function of the minorities’ representatives, who
participated in Canakkale War as Ottoman soldiers. Being Armenian in
Turkey means to be the center of all these processes.

(THE FULL VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW IS AVAILABLE IN ARMENIAN)

Interview by Araks Kasyan

GENOCIDE 100: SENIOR OFFICIAL PRESENTS APRIL 22-24 SCHEDULE OF COMMEMORATION EVENTS

GENOCIDE | 24.03.15 | 11:56

Chief of Presidential Staff Vigen Sargsyan, who is also coordinator
of the events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, presented the schedule of April 22-24 arrangements as he
spoke on the Public Television of Armenia recently.

According to Sargsyan, on April 22-23, Armenia is going to host an
international forum “Against the Crime of Genocide” to be attended
by about 500 scholars, politicians, public and religious figures.

A ceremony of canonization of the victims of the Ottoman-era Genocide
is to be held in Holy Echmiadzin on April 23. The ceremony will
end at 19:15 (on the 24-hour clock) to symbolize the year of the
start of Turkey’s genocidal policy in which more than 1.5 million
Armenians were slaughtered. At that time, bells at Holy Echmiadzin
and all Armenian churches around the world will ring simultaneously
100 times to commemorate the centennial of the Genocide, followed
by observance of a minute’s silence. According to Sargsyan, many
non-Armenian churches also decided to join the ceremony.

At 8:30 pm April 23, a System of a Down concert will be held in
Yerevan’s main Republic Square. Attendance at the concert will be
free for public. It is remarkably that SOAD members will gather for
the first time in years for the concert commemorating the Genocide
Centennial.

The April 24 events will start with a Genocide commemoration ceremony
at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex in the morning. It will
be followed by the ceremonial opening of an updated display at the
Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. A concert of the joint Symphony
Orchestra will be held in Yerevan’s Republic Square in the evening. As
many as 140 musicians from 70 countries of the world are expected to
take part in the concert.

According to Sargsyan, commemoration of the Genocide Centennial will
not be limited to the mentioned period only as numerous events are
planned to be held after April 24.

AROUND 24 MILLION TON ORE PRODUCED INSTEAD OF 43 MILLION TON PRESCRIBED BY CONTRACT

14:42 March 23, 2015

EcoLur

“Only 10 out of 27 companies having been issued the right to soil
management have launched business activities, but not to a complete
extent. The other companies do nothing. Contractual obligations
are not performed, investments are not made and the economy suffers
significantly. The expectations of the state from this field are too
high. Our small country has sufficient resources, but the results are
insignificant, as the statistics show,” Energy and Natural Resources
Minister Yervand Zakharyan said at the consultation with mining
company heads on 20 March.

If the contractual obligations were performed by soil managers, around
43 million tons of ore would be mined during one year. In 2014 around
24 million tons of ore was mined or 56% of the planned.

In 2014 the total value of goods production of mined natural resources
was estimated in the amount of 209,885,997.4 AMD, which accounted
for 103.36% of the total value of the goods production for 2013.

In 2014 the soil managers paid a total of 12,079194.974 AMD royalty,
which makes up 56.2% of the total royalty paid in 2013.

In 2015 the soil managers plan to mine a total of 41,679,000 tons of
mine and to bay 17 billion 172 million AMD royalty.

“You are private companies and we regulate the relations with you by
contracts. We have reciprocal obligations and we demand from you to
perform your contractual obligations,” Yervand Zakharyan said.

Under the official information, the cadaster on mines of Energy and
Natural Resources Ministry registered 970 mines, out of which 38 mines
are metallic. 27 soil management permits were issued for the mining of
natural resources, out of which 11 for gold, 5 for gold-polymetallic,
7 for copper and molybdenum, 2 for copper and 1 for molybdenum,
one for iron.

Photo is taken from

SEYFO CENTER HAILS ARMENIA’S RECOGNITION OF THE ASSYRIAN GENOCIDE

13:22, 24 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The Assyrian Genocide and Research Center, SEYFO Center, publicly
thanks the Republic of Armenia for officially recognizing the Assyrian
Genocide of the early 20th century, on March 24th, 2015, PRWeb reports.

In 1915, during the First World War, Turkish and Kurdish forces
launched a campaign of genocide to exterminate the Assyrian
people living in the Turkish Empire. Lasting from 1915 to 1923,
this campaign of genocide is known as the “Seyfo,” or “The Sword”
by Assyrians worldwide.

The centerpiece of a larger plan of ethnic and religious cleansing,
the Turkish state and its Kurdish allies conspired and murdered
millions of Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks 100 years ago during the
height of the First World War.

Descendants of those who escaped this genocide now campaign globally
for international recognition of the Seyfo and are demanding an
official apology from the Republic of Turkey for its role in the
murder of millions.

Sabri Atman, director of the SEYFO Center, noted that “Today, March
24th, 2015, history is being rewritten in Yerevan, the capital of
the Republic of Armenia, as that nation officially recognizes this
terrible and shameful period in history. The Republic of Armenia’s
decision to recognize the Assyrian and Greek Genocide, (the Seyfo),
encourages Assyrians everywhere – it strengthens us to continue
our fight to have the Seyfo recognized by the whole international
community. We salute the Republic of Armenia for taking this most
human and principled stand.”

This recognition of the Assyrian Genocide also represents a challenge
for Turkey and its National Socialist forces who still admire their
Adolf-Hitler-like historical figure, Talat Pasha.

“Talat Pasha,” stated Mr. Atman, “Who served in various high
governmental position in the Turkish state during the First World
War, was the central architect in the genocide against the Armenians,
Assyrians and Greeks. He is a war criminal of monstrous proportions
and should be viewed in the same light as Hitler, Himmler or Eichmann.”

To date, 21 countries have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide
that was part of the Seyfo Genocide. The SEYFO Center will continue its
work until all the countries of the international community recognize
Assyrians and Greeks who also fell victim during the same genocide.

Assyrian Genocide Research, Seyfo Center, is an international research
center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary
issues related to the history, politics, society and culture of
Assyrians around the world. It’s research is conducted to document
past and current events and to analyze their impact on individuals
and institutions in occupied Assyria and the diaspora.

ARTHUR ABRAHAM. “IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT FOR OUR ATHLETES IN BAKU IN TERMS OF SECURITY.”

March 23 2015

The Boxing Championship of Armenia together with our colleague Karen
Giloyan was covering the WBO world champion Arthur Abraham in the
category of the second middleweight over the “Public Television”. At
the end of the tournament, Aravot.am asked Abraham to share his
impressions about the Armenian boxers who especially presented his
weight category. “The first numbers in the categories of 64, 81,
91 kg and some other weight were strong and left a good impression,”
said the famous professional boxer. To the question of what he thinks
of the performances of our boxers in the upcoming tournaments in Baku,
the “King Arthur” replied, “It will be difficult for them. It is hard
for me to say anything. For example, I would feel a little-scared go
to a country that is at war with us, purely for security reasons.”

Ashot HAKOBYAN

Read more at:

AZERBAIJAN USES KARABAKH PRISONER OF WAR FOR PROPAGANDA, EXPERT SAYS

YEREVAN, March 24. /ARKA/. Azerbaijan is using the contract serviceman
of Karabakh army of defense Andranik Grigoryan, who crossed into
Azerbaijan on Sunday, for propaganda purposes, political analyst
Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan said on Sputik-Armenia radio.

A contract serviceman of Karabakh army of defense, 24-year old Andranik
Grigoryan left his weapon, deserted and crossed into Azerbaijan at
about 13:50 on Sunday March 22, the press office of Nagorno-Karabakh
ministry of defense reported.

Azerbaijani mass media disseminated a video of Grigoryan on Monday.

It is not the first case when Azerbaijan makes Armenian citizens
found in its territory say what it needs in front of the cameras,
to re-affirm its anti-Armenian propaganda Melik-Shahnazaryan said.

This means Azerbaijan is consistent in its policies and re-affirms
it will pull out all the stops to achieve its goals, according to
Melik-Shahnazaryan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict erupted into armed clashes after the
collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s as the predominantly
Armenian-populated enclave of Azerbaijan sought to secede from
Azerbaijan and declared its independence backed by succeeding
referendum.

A truce was brokered by Russia in 1994, although no permanent peace
agreement has been signed. Since then, Nagorno-Karabakh and several
adjacent regions have been under the control of Armenian forces of
Karabakh. Nagorno-Karabakh is the longest-running post-Soviet era
conflict and has continued to simmer despite the relative peace of
the past two decades, with snipers causing tens of deaths a year. -0–

DENIAL OF VIOLENCE DE FATMA MUGE GOCEK

LIVRE

Denial of Violence

Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the
Armenians, 1789-2009

Fatma Muge Gocek

OUP USA 680 pages | 235x156mm

978-0-19-933420-9 | Hardback | 20 November 2014

Deni de la violence

Passe ottoman, present turc, et la violence collective contre les
Armeniens, 1789-2009 de Fatma Muge Gocek

La recherche sur le violence collective contre les Armeniens se
concentre presque toujours sur les evenements entre 1915-1917, Ce
livre considère la place a la violence contre les Armeniens precedant
et suivant ces annees.

Elle emploie une analyse systematique de plus de 300 memoires en
langue turque pour montrer comment un recit de deni a ete construit
sur le cours de l’histoire.

Bien qu’une grande partie de la communaute internationale considère la
deportation forcee de sujets armeniens de l’Empire ottoman en 1915,
où environ de 800 000 a 1,5 million d’Armeniens ont peri comme un
genocide, l’Etat turc le nie encore officiellement.

Dans Refus de la violence, Fatma Muge Gocek cherche a decrypter
les racines de ce desaveu. Pour capturer les racines des sens qui
conduisent a un deni, Gocek a entrepris une analyse qualitative des
315 memoires publies en Turquie de 1789 a 2009, en plus de nombreuses
sources secondaires, des revues et des journaux. Elle fait valoir
que le deni est un processus historique multi-couches avec quatre
composantes distinctes mais qui se chevauchent : les elements
structuraux de la violence collective et de modernite situes sur
un côte, et les elements emotionnels, d’emotions collectives et les
evenements de legitimation de l’autre. Dans le cas de la Turquie, le
deni a emerge a travers quatre etapes : (i) le refus imperial initiale
des origines de la violence collective commis contre les Armeniens
commence en 1789 et a continue jusqu’en 1907 ; (Ii) le refus Jeune-Turc
de l’acte de violence a dure une decennie 1908-1918 ; (Iii) le refus
republicain precoce des acteurs de la violence a eu lieu de 1919 a
1973 ; et (iv) la fin du deni republicain de la responsabilite de la
violence collective a commence en 1974 et se poursuit aujourd’hui.

Deni de la violence se developpe un cadre un roman theorique,
historique et methodologique pour comprendre ce qui se est passe
et pourquoi le refus de la violence collective contre les Armeniens
persiste dans l’etat et la societe turque.

mardi 24 mars 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

FLU CONCERNS: AUTHORITIES EXTEND SCHOOL VACATION AMID URI OUTBREAK

HEALTH | 24.03.15 | 14:43

Gohar Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Authorities in Armenia extended the spring school vacation for one
more week after a drastic increase in cases of upper respiratory
tract infections (URI) and flu last week, hoping that the curve of
illnesses will go down.

Head of the Armenian Health Ministry’s Division of Epidemiology Liana
Torosyan told reporters still last week that results of epidemiologic
analysis show that cases of respiratory infections in the country
exceeded the epidemiological threshold by 1.5 times.

According to Torosyan, analysis shows that almost 80 percent of cases
were registered among the 0-18 age range.

The Ministry of Health said that 5,800 cases of respiratory infections
were registered within the last two weeks, as compared to 5,600 cases
of the same period of last year. Currently 570 patients are receiving
medical treatment. As many as 160 cases of pneumonia were registered,
120 among them – young children.

“This was the reason that we considered the alert and analyzed the
epidemiological state of the region and extended school vacations,”
Torosyan said.

And although on Tuesday there was information about kindergartens
closing down as well, the Yerevan municipality denied this information
saying that at the moment there is nothing disturbing in kindergartens.

“I officially say that no kindergarten under Yerevan municipality
is closed, they all function. If there appear disturbing factors,
we are ready to temporarily cease the activity of some kindergartens,
however the number of children absentees is minimal, there are even
more absences in times of no diseases than now,” Yerevan Municipality
Information Department head Artur Gevorgyan told ArmeniaNow.

Still on Monday Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan said that in order to
keep the situation under constant control daily control is carried
out on the spot and if in any kindergarten growth of illnesses-caused
absences of children are registered, then we will take up measures
to temporarily cease the given kindergarten’s activities.

“In response to opinions about closing kindergartens for a week
I must say that the majority of parents of around 30,000 children
attending those institutions are working and this way we create extra
inconveniences for those people, which, naturally, is unfortunate,”
Mayor Margaryan stressed.