Author: Kajoyan Gevork

RAFFI HOVANISIAN: SERZH SARGSYAN AND BAKO SAHAKYAN SHOULD RESIGN FOR THE SAKE OF OUR HOMELAND

12:29 | February 2,2015 | Politics

Heritage Party Leader Raffi Hovanissian has issued a statement
condemning the Saturday incident on the Goris-Stepanakert highway
near Berdzor in which members of the Founding Parliament, a successor
of the Pre-Parliament pressure group, were attacked and beaten up by
Karabakh police forces when trying to cross into the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic to hold a political action there.

“It is a shame for all of us on the threshold of the centenary of
the Armenian Genocide. We will achieve justice, but on condition that
we start from ourselves,” Mr Hovanisyan said adding that despite his
respect for Serzh Sargsyan and Bako Sahakyan, he believes that they
should resign for the sake of Armenia, for the future of our Homeland
and our soldiers.

“And then, after complex changes, the entire nation will elect the
first president of the united Armenia, ready to fully devote himself
to serving out country and people,” he said.

Police in Nagorno-Karabakh stopped on Saturday members of the Founding
Parliament who were holding an automobile rally to Karabakh. Among the
participants were also Jirayr Sefilian, a former commander of Shushi
special battalion, and other veterans of the Karabakh war, who are
said to have beaten up by the Karabakh police and young men wearing
special police task force uniforms. The Founding Parliament says more
than a dozen participants of the automobile rally were injured in the
incident that happened on the Goris-Stepanakert highway near Berdzor.

Journalist Anushavan Shahnazaryan was also hospitalized with injuries
in Goris.

IF YES IT IS THE MOST TERRIBLE THING

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 02 February 2015, 12:28

Could the Armenian government have prevented what happened on
January 31 at the gates of Artsakh when force was used cruelly and
demonstratively against the participants of the car march organized by
Founding Parliament? It is obvious that the violence was not a response
to the situation that got out of control but a planned action. Evidence
to this is the video published by Founding Parliament, as well as the
press release of the Police of Artsakh and the comment by the press
secretary of the president of Artsakh.

Could the government of Artsakh plan such an action without agreeing
with the Armenian government and acting upon the approval of Yerevan?

It is hard to imagine that at least Yerevan had not been informed.

Therefore, the incident was approved by Yerevan or Yerevan was
“neutral” or official Yerevan was unable to prevent the decision of
the government of Artsakh.

Could Yerevan be powerless? For example, Liska’s reappointment as
governor of Syunik demonstrates that the Armenian government, Serzh
Sargsyan is powerless. He is powerless both before the society and
before those like Liska. Simply his interests are in line with liska
interests: a mutual issue of security is addressed, and Serzh Sargsyan
prefers to cede to Liska, not the society.

After all, the problem is the same violence. Simply in one case we
deal with long-term violence, in the other case we deal with one-time
violence. In addition, it still has to be found out in which case
there were more victims and the situation was worse. For example,
throughout the years of violence there were incidents that ended up in
murder whereas the society is not shocked because it did not happen
“here and now”. At the same time, the violence of years was staged
outside the Armenia-Artsakh realm which underwent Armenian-Artsakh
manipulations for two decades, distorting public consciousness and
leaving the issue as an open wound.

Similarly, Serzh Sargsyan is equally linked with the ruling system of
Artsakh with mutual interests. On the one hand, this means that the
January 31 action was not “self-driven” and had to be agreed within
the common system, in other words, with Yerevan. On the other hand,
it is not ruled out that Yerevan went for it receiving the guarantee
of support for a serious issue from the system of Artsakh or the
Artsakh wing of the system.

It could be a foreign matter or a domestic matter, considering the
intensifying domestic scramble for the next governmental status quo and
role distribution ahead of 2017-2018. It is not ruled out that Serzh
Sargsyan did not allow Stepanakert to do what it wanted on January 31
on the condition that if need be Stepanakert will do what he will need.

As an option, this is typical and characteristic of the system in
Armenia. the objective of the society is to understand the domestic
nature, the essence of the mechanism rather than elaborate a legal and
political assessment and subsequently develop a new public methodology
for the dismantlement of this mechanism.

In the long run, the system took a step with a familiar nature but
unexpected in terms of place, time, cause and occasion.

After all, it is possible that Yerevan preferred to organize the
violent demonstration through Stepanakert. On the one hand, it
is staged far from the Armenian government, responsibility is far
from Yerevan, on the other hand, a demonstrative punitive action is
undertaken when nobody doubts that it could have occurred in any part
of Armenia if need be.

Of course, nobody cares that this incident wastes the balance of
security of Armenia and Artsakh. This issue has always been inferior
to the issues of power and money, especially in those stages of these
matters when at least interim solutions are needed.

And could Stepanakert ever do this without agreeing with Yerevan
or without a mutual agreement? It would be possible in one case –
if there is another subject that would support this step and defend
Stepanakert from possible problems with Yerevan.

Could there by such a subject and if yes, who could it be? These are
important questions, especially in the existing situation. However,
only at first sight. Because if such a thing is possible or is certain,
it is not just danger but a terrible record of complete destruction
of the Armenian factor in the Caucasus.

ERDOGAN, OTTOMAN ARCHIVES, AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

February 1, 2015

By Ara Sarafian –

Click here to see Higher Resolution photo

President Erdogan just commented on the Armenian Genocide during a live
TRT interview and stressed the need for critical debates. I would not
dismiss Erdogan’s words out of hand. There is a lot of rhetoric in what
he said, but it is possible to respond to him in a fruitful manner.

I tried to create an opportunity for a critical debate with Turkish
colleagues, on a public platform, in 2007. Speaking through Turkish
journalists, I offered a case study on the treatment of Armenians in
Kharpert (Harput) and its plain in 1915.

Since Armenians in the Kharpert region were deported without passing
through war zones, and since deportation laws specified how the
names of deportees had to be recorded at the time of their removal
and resettlement, I asked to see such records related to Kharpert in
Ottoman archives. I also proposed presenting my own sources which,
according to my understanding, suggested that the people in question
were killed.

While my offer was addressed to any historian who had potential
access to Ottoman records, Yusuf Halacoglu, the head of the Turkish
Historical Society, responded. I believe Halacoglu agreed to enter
such a debate because he was asked to do so by Turkish journalists.

Our expected encounter drew some headlines.

However, Halacoglu pulled out of the agreed project. He stated on
a CNN Turk programme that the deportation records I had asked to
examine did not exist.

According to “Talaat Pasha’s Report on the Armenian Genocide” – a
handwritten report that was found in Talaat’s possession – of 70,000
Armenians in the Kharpert area in 1914 (official Ottoman figures),
just over 2,000 could be counted in the deportation zones three years
later. These statistics were based on an Ottoman survey of Armenians
carried out in 1917. There were practically no Armenians in Der Zor,
the ostensible destination of most deportees.

I should point out that, when I proposed the case study on Kharpert,
I was helped by several people in the Turkish press who gave the
proposal due prominence. I was flattered when the late Mehmet Ali
Birand expressed his disappointment when Halacoglu pulled out. The
headline of his newspaper column was “Ermenilerden gol yedik” –
“The Armenians scored a goal against us.”

Ironically, my main disappointment was on the Armenian side, where
there was practically no reaction to the proposed case study. I
presume the lack of response was because I was not affiliated with
the Armenian Government, political parties, or lobbying organisations.

Presiden Erdogan’s latest comments raise the same issues again,
and I would restate once more: we do not need official commissions
to examine the Armenian Genocide. All we need is for the Turkish
government, which is in charge of crucial evidence, to produce the
deportation and any resettlement records which, according to the
deportation decrees, had to be filed in local and central archives
during the period in question.

Meanwhile, historians will continue to use the key records outside
Turkey for their understanding of the events of 1915.

ANC ON BERDZOR INCIDENT: REGIME SEES ONLY SALVATION IN INTIMIDATION OF PUBLIC – VIDEO

News | 02.02.15 | 09:03

related news

Berdzor Incident: Karabakh police stop “hardliners” from Armenia

The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) party has condemned the
weekend incident in which members of a hardline opposition group known
to be seeking a regime change in Armenia were stopped and roughed up
by police while on their way to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Founding Parliament, a successor of the initiative called
Pre-Parliament, said more than a dozen participants of its January 31
automobile march were injured in what it described as an unprovoked
attack by the police on the Goris-Stepanakert highway near Berdzor.

About four dozen vehicles were turned away by the police and could
not get into Nagorno-Karabakh to stage an announced “automobile
march” there.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Police said the law-enforcement bodies were
acting out of public interests and were actually responding to
people’s concerns that the entry of Armenian opposition hardliners
into Nagorno-Karabakh could lead to “mass disturbances”.

Strongly condemning “the violence against peaceful participants of
an automobile march”, the ANC said it was the latest in a chain of
recent attacks on Karabakh war veterans and other public and political
figures with opposition views, including several ANC members.

“This chain [of attacks] shows that the regime that has suffered
disgraceful failures in all spheres sees the only way of its salvation
in the crazy idea of intimidating the public,” the ANC said. “It is
regretful that the violence that took place in Berdzor was committed
by the NKR police… Apart from everything else, this fact may also
have a very negative impact on the democratic rating of the NKR in
the international arena.”

Meanwhile, the Founding Parliament also disseminated a 12-minute
video showing the incident that was taken by a dashboard camera on
one of the vehicles.

UN SABOTEUR AZERI EST SUSCEPTIBLE DE DEMANDER PARDON AU PRESIDENT DU KARABAGH

KARABAGH

Un azerbaïdjanais qui a ete juge au Haut-Karabagh et reconnu coupable
d’assassinat, espionnage et un certain nombre d’autres faits l’annee
dernière est susceptible de demander pardon au president de la
republique armenienne a dit avocat cite par Artsakhpress.

Dilham Askerov, a ete condamne a la reclusion a perpetuite a la fin
de Decembre pour avoir assassine un adolescent du Karabagh et commis
d’autres crimes après avoir franchi illegalement la frontière du
Haut-Karabagh avec l’Azerbaïdjan avec un autre saboteur en Juillet.

L’avocat de Askerov, Erik Beglaryan a dit Artsakhpress : “Après
l’annonce du verdict, j’ai rendu visite a mon client et il a dit qu’il
n’allait pas faire appel du verdict et, selon toute vraisemblance,
ferait usage de la possibilite de se tourner vers un pardon du
president de la RHK”.

lundi 2 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

NEW YORK TIMES : LES AUTORITES AZERBAIDJANAISES NOUS FONT CHANTER EN RAISON DU RAPPROCHEMENT AVEC MOSCOU

USA

Commentant l’hostilite croissante face a Washington du gouvernement
azerbaïdjanais le journaliste Joshua Kucera a ecrit dans un article
publie dans le New York Times et analyse les derniers evenements
survenus en Azerbaïdjan.

Dans l’article Joshua Kucera ecrit que depuis son independance de
l’Union sovietique l’Azerbaïdjan a ete un partenaire solide des
Etats-Unis. Il a travaille avec Washington pour briser le monopole
energetique de la Russie dans la region en soutenant la construction
de pipelines de petrole et de gaz vers la Turquie. C’est un point
de transit cle pour le fret militaire et pour l’Afghanistan. Et le
gouvernement de Bakou a tisse des liens etroits avec Israël, bases
principalement sur le commerce des armes et du petrole.

L’auteur rappelle qu’un câble diplomatique de 2009 des Etats-Unis
decrit la politique etrangère de l’Azerbaïdjan caracterisee par le

LES DECLARATIONS DU PRESIDENT ARMENIEN NE SONT PAS DIGNES D’UN HOMME D’ETAT AFFIRME ANKARA

TURQUIE

prevue les 23 et 24 avril prochain, Kalin a affirme
que >.

>,
a declare le porte-parole de la Presidence turque, jugeant “ces propos
comme etant s’inscrivant dans la foulee des declarations incongrues
et incorrectes”

Kalin a ajoute que “la Turquie ne lesine aucun moyen et ne menage aucun
effort en vue de faire face a ses maigres tentatives visant manipuler
l’histoire a travers des politiques opportunistes qui apprehendent
les choses au prisme d’une vision unilaterale”, rappelant a ce propos
“l’initiative lancee en 2005 par le president turc en vue de mettre
en place une commission formee d’historiens turcs et armeniens afin
de passer au crible les archives relatives aux evènements de 1915,
detenues par la Turquie, l’Armenie et d’autres pays en rapport avec
ces evènements”

” L’objectif etant d’informer l’opinion publique mondiale de ses
resultats dans le cadre de la neutralite et de la credibilite”,
a fait savoir le porte-parole de la Presidence.

Kalin a rappele a ce propos la signature en 2009 d’une serie de
protocoles visant a baliser la voie a la normalisation des relations
entre la Turquie et l’Armenie.

Aussi, dans le droit-fil de “politiques pacifistes et constructives”
de la Turquie, le president Erdogan a lance une initiative, la première
du genre, en publiant le 23 avril 2014, un message de condoleances
a tous les Armeniens”, a rappele Kalin.

Et le porte-parole de poursuivre que “ses mesures audacieuses ont
sape tous les stereotypes et faconne des positions claires face aux
politiques visant a instrumentaliser les souffrances et les deboires
des evènements de 1915.”

“Dans ce contexte, force est de souligner que l’Armenie persiste a
ne plus interagir positivement avec les differentes mesures prises
par la Turquie, de meme que le regime armenien semble ne pas vouloir
regler la question des evènements de 1915, conformement a une approche
historique equitable loin des calculs politiques etriques”, a denonce
le responsable turc.

The Nation, Pakistan
Jan 31 2015

Erdogan says he’s no Sultan, but more like British Queen

January 31, 2015/ 2 Comments

ISTANBUL – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan brushed off
criticism that he’s trying to amass sultan-like powers, saying he
really just wants to be more like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Erdogan told state-run TRT channel on Thursday that his desire for an
expanded presidential role would not undermine democracy – and he
pointed to the UK as an example. “In my opinion, even the UK is a
semi-presidency. And the dominant element is the Queen,” Erdogan said.

The UK is a constitutional monarchy, governed by a parliamentary
system, but its hereditary monarch wields only symbolic power.
Erdogan’s comments came after fresh criticism from the opposition that
he would act like an “Ottoman sultan” once his presidential role has
been boosted.

Erdogan said that leaders of presidential systems in the US, Brazil,
South Korea, Mexico are not accused of acting like monarchs. “I mean,
why is it only a monarchy when an idea like this is floated in
Turkey?” Erdogan asked. “We need to speed up to close the gap in this
race,” he said. “The biggest advantage… would be in abolishing
policy-making through multiple channels.”

Erdogan became president in August after more than a decade as prime
minister, but the opposition accuses him of transforming the state by
imposing a gradual Islamisation and riding roughshod over democracy.
The August elections were the first time a Turkish president,
traditionally a ceremonial role, has been directly elected by the
people. In the wake of his victory, Erdogan insisted he now has a
popular mandate to be an active and powerful leader.

Turkey is set to hold parliamentary elections in June, with the
pro-Erdogan ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) aiming for a
thumping majority to change the constitution and boost Erdogan’s
presidential powers. “A new constitution is a must for a new Turkey,”
Erdogan said.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey was
ready to “pay the price” if found guilty of the mass killings of
Armenians a century ago.
In a live interview with state-run TRT channel on Thursday, Erdogan
said his country would take the necessary steps if historians conclude
that it was at fault for the World War I-era massacres that Armenians
say amounted to genocide.

“If the results actually reveal that we have committed a crime, if we
have a price to pay, then as Turkey we would assess it and take the
required steps,” Erdogan said.

Turkey has vehemently rejected the genocide claim and says up to
500,000 Armenians died in fighting and of starvation after Armenians
sided with invading Russian troops. It claims a comparable number of
Turks were also killed.

Last year, Erdogan offered an unprecedented expression of condolence
for the massacres when he was prime minister but this did little to
satisfy Armenians, who want the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million
people recognised as genocide.

But Erdogan said in the interview: “It is impossible to accept such
thing. We are not obliged to recognise so-called Armenian genocide on
someone’s orders.”
He also reiterated that the mass killings should be studied by
historians on the basis of documents and archives, and not
politicians.

“If you are really sincere in this matter, let us give it to the
historians. Let the historians deal with the matter. We have opened
our archive and presented more than a million documents,” he said.

“If Armenia also has an archive, then they should open it too…. Then
we can sit and talk as politicians,” he said.

Earlier this month Erdogan said Ankara would “actively” challenge a
campaign pressuring Turkey to recognise as genocide the mass killings,
on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy this year.

BasNews, Iraq
Jan 31 2015

The Centenary of the Armenian Genocide. 100 years of pain, facts and figures.

“Attention will not be less this year, and the question is whether
Turkey is a strong competitor in the battle for an imaginary price for
helplessly diplomacy. Or as the sarcastic: That the Turkish definition
of genocide is “That we didn’t do against Armenians.”

by Kaiwan Bahroz

On the centenary of the Armenian genocide Turkey celebrates its heroic
efforts in the World War massacre.

April 24 this year will be the centenary of the Armenian Genocide
marked in Yerevan. It is their remembrance day. The day of pain and
torture.

100 years and Turkish government has never taken responsibility.

Turkey’s President Erdogan is showing responsibility or not. Or how
bitter the Turkish memory culture is, this statement from the 16th of
January enlightening:

On April 24, the day that the Armenian Diaspora has dedicated to
commemorate the so-called Armenian Genocide, world leaders will gather
in Turkey to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli.

Erdogan announced this as a battle and not a genocide.

On 24 April 1915 600 leading Armenian intellectuals and officials
were arrested in Constantinople: Politicians, writers, lawyers,
doctors, academics and especially officers. Most were executed in the
Syrian desert or hung from bridges in Constantinople.

The Armenians were stood puzzled. They perceived themselves as loyal
Ottomans. After Constantinople stood in the way of genocide, as the
articulate part of the Armenian opposition was removed. They wiped out
the troublesome intellectuals of Armenia.

During two years more than 1.5 million Armenians were murdered, and
hundreds of thousands of other Christians: Assyrians, Kurds, Chaldeans
and Greek Orthodox.

Erdogan’s response to the memory of slaughterhouses is thus
highlighting the Turk’s heroic efforts in the World War massacres.
Turks have sent invitations to over a hundred heads of state.

Putting it bluntly, this is like Germany, on the International
Holocaust Remembrance Day, would mark the Wehrmacht heroic efforts on
the Eastern Front during World War II.

The First World War

As a known fact, Turkey was allied with Germany and Austria / Hungary
during WWI. The battle for the Dardanelles was one of the biggest
battles of the World War, close to two hundred thousand lives were
lost. Gangway Gallipoli was the Allies (France, Russia, Britain,
Australia, New Zealand and others) attempt to conquer Ottoman empire
from the sea.

April 24th was mentioned day when Ottoman authorities murdered
Armenian intellectuals and officials in the capital. And these two
events are closely connected. Plans for ethnic cleansing of Christians
empire existed already, but the decision to arrest and kill leading
Armenians in the capital just at this time was taken because
ungtyrkerne – knowing that an allied landing was imminent – feared
Armenian treachery. A time Erdogan will now recalls.

Erdogan believes he gives an outstretched hand to the Armenians,
because Armenians also served in the Ottoman forces at Gallipoli,
which in his imaginative shall prove that Armenians were not
persecuted, but rather included as a people in the empire’s final
phase.

These are new tones. It is not long since Turkey denied that Armenians
were loyal Ottomans.

Armenians had never fought on the Turkish side.

In the history of the Armenian disloyal fifth colonist underlie the Turks.

Turkey have a pragmatic relationship to the truth as both
representations used to argue that the events of 1915 were not
genocidal.

On one side were Armenians potential traitors (therefore they were
deported out of Anatolia) and on the other side were Armenians highly
decorated soldiers in the army.

It is fascinating to read the easier humanized the tone of the Turkish
public in these infringement times. We can compare Erdogan’s language
with reactions to the cartoons. It is a potent and dangerous
mentality.

Armenians were sacrificed because of victimhood was acting out through
violence. It characterizes infringement tyranny are notions that all
political and cultural issues has its cause and origin somewhere other
than your own. Ottomans thought it was great powers who had caused the
Ottoman stagnation (both right and wrong) over several hundred years
and that Christians and Jews were superpowers collaborators.

The official Turkey claims periodically that they have nothing to
answer for when it comes to genocide, because it was the Ottomans who
ruled during WWI and not the modern nation-state Turkey. Just the
objection, however, seems to be forgotten when it comes to the
nation’s heroic past. Another factor is that there just were tensions
in transition between empire and nation that led to persecution and
murder of the minorities. And it was not so they national chauvinist
abuses disappeared in the new Turkish state.

Kurds

At the end of the 1920s and 1930s the Turks initiated what so called
a Turkishfication policy. People with a different language and culture
should be converted to the Turkish (assimilation), and many Kurds were
forcibly relocated to new areas. This led to rebellion among Kurds. In
what has become known as the rebellion in Dersim (1937/1938), a big
number of civilian Kurds were killed. The figures were vary large,
from 110,000 to 140,000 killed. Several hundred villages were burned
and conducted extensive forced relocation of the population.

In the years that followed, Kurdish struggle for an independent
Kurdistan met with harsh repression in Turkey. Kurds have been
subjected to extensive political persecution, and many Kurdish
writers, journalists and human rights activists have been imprisoned
and killed. Kurdish language and culture have been banned.

Both young Turks and later Kemalists were ideological hybrids:
Inspired by national chauvinism from Europe and the Turkish Muslim
tradition. At airports in Turkey’s major cities can be met by posters
where the victims of genocide reviled. Well paid state history
institute travels around the world with exhibitions, lectures and
literature on the “so-called genocide”, where the assailants portrayed
as the real victims. Authorities conducts active iconoclasm against
traces of victims culture: Religious buildings demolished, destroyed
or looted. Get new has been listed.

Although the genocide happened a hundred years ago, it is still
subject to potent politics. The reason is of course that Turkey has
never taken responsibility. Attention will not be less this year, and
the question is whether Turkey is a strong competitor in the battle
for an imaginary price for helplessly diplomacy. Or as the sarcastic:
That the Turkish definition of genocide is “That we didn’t do against
Armenians.”

Kaiwan Bahroz is a political analyst, human rights activist, He has
worked as a humanitarian affairs officer for the United Nations, and
obtained Masters degree from the University of Nordland, where he
studied political sciences. Follow him on Twitter: @kaiwanbahroz

States News Service
January 30, 2015 Friday

CONGRESSIONAL ARMENIAN CAUCUS ANNOUNCES CO-CHAIRS FOR 114TH CONGRESS

WASHINGTON

The following information was released by the office of New Jersey
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.:

The Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus announced that Congressmen
Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Congressman Robert Dold (R-IL) will
serve as co-chairs of the Caucus for the 114th Congress.

“I am pleased to welcome Congressman Dold as Co-Chair of the Armenian
Caucus for the 114th Congress. He has been an outspoken leader on
Congressional Recognition of the Armenian genocide, and has
consistently fought to advance the U.S. relationship with both Armenia
and the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. I look forward to working with him
to achieve our goals and observe one hundred years since the Armenian
Genocide,” said Congressman Pallone.

“It is an honor to Co-Chair the Congressional Armenian Caucus with
Congressman Pallone. I am eager to strengthen the U.S.- Armenian
relationship and work with my colleagues in Congress to promote human
rights, shine a spotlight on genocide denial, and highlight the added
importance of passing the Armenian Genocide Resolution on this
centennial anniversary,” said Congressman Dold.

The Congressional Armenian Issues Caucus was founded in 1995 to give
Members of Congress a platform to advocate for issues relating to
Armenia, and the opportunity to educate their colleagues on the
subject. This year will mark 100 years since the Armenian genocide,
when one and a half million Armenians were needlessly slaughtered by
Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923.