Author: Kajoyan Gevork

“PUTIN DID NOT COME, SO HOVANNISIAN WENT TO SEE HIM”

12:14 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

On April 9, opposition leader Raffi Hovannisian was to have led
people to Baghramyan 26 [presidential palace] to express their protest
against the ‘fraudulent’ presidential election there.

“After each rigged election people went to Baghramyan 26 and called
for president’s resignation,” Zoya Tadevosyan, Founder of the People’s
Power initiative, told reporters on April 12.

She says on April 9 people did not come to Freedom Square to listen
to Hovannisian’s moral speech.

“People long for real political changes. People swore that are
law-abiding citizens, that much,” she said.

Speaking about Hovannisian’s visit to Moscow, Zoya Tadevosyan said,
“Putin did not come to meet him [Raffi Hovannisian] in Freedom Square,
he went to see Putin as was the case with Serzh Sargsyan.”

BELEAGUERED AZERI WRITER’S NOVEL PUBLISHED IN ARMENIAN

NEWS | 12.04.13 | 10:40

Photo: Azadlıq Radiosu (RFE/RL)

A novel by an Azeri writer telling about the massacres of the Armenian
population in Azerbaijan has been published in Armenian.

Akram Aylisli’s book, ‘Stone Dreams’, that led to persecution of its
author in Azerbaijan, has been translated into Armenian and published
by a local publishing house.

The book’s publication in a Russian literary magazine late last year
sparked a government-orchestrated outcry in Azerbaijan. Aylisli’s
depiction of Armenian massacres in Baku and the negative portrayal
of the killings committed by Azeri refugees from Armenia particularly
sparked criticism against the author.

In February Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev signed a presidential
decree stripping Aylisli of his title of People’s Writer and the
presidential pension after he was branded as a betrayer for authoring
such a novel.

Members of the 75-year-old writer have also suffered the consequences
as his son was fired from a government job. Also, a local nationalist
leader promised a handsome reward to anyone who cut Aylisli’s ear off.

SARDARAPAT MOVEMENT, PRE-PARLIAMENT TO MAKE SPECIAL POLITICAL STATEMENT TODAY

11:10 ~U 12.04.13

Sardarapat movement and Pre-parliament are going to issue a special
political statement today on ‘the future fate of fight against the
regime.’ The statement will probably be presented today as a speech
at rally in the Liberty Square.

In case Raffi Hovannisian and his team view today’s event as only
theirs and members of Sardarapat and Pre-parliament won’t be given an
opportunity to deliver speech, they will spread the statement through
mass media, member of the both Sardarapat and Pre-parliament Tigran
Khzmalyan said, speaking to Tert.am. The film director responded so
asked to comment on whether the news about tough conversation between
Raffi Hovannisina and Sardarapat Movement’s founding member Zhirayrs
Sefilyan and ANC MP NIkol Pashinyan was true.

The statement’s text will more probably be guiding and principle with
Saradarapat and Pre-parliament making clarifications on what steps
are acceptable for them in the fight and what steps are not.

“We have really stated 50 days ago that the fight and the rebellion
continue, that people’s indignation exists with Raffi or without him,
and we have never focused on personalities,” Khzmalyan said. In an
earlier interview to a media, he said Raffi Hovannisian has committed
a political suicide in front of our eyes and mourns it as he did not
expect such negligent outcome.

Asked whether his opinion is collective and he presents the approach
of Sardarapat and Pre-parliament and whether the approach is shared
by Zhirayr Sefilyan who recently avoids reporters, Khzmalyan said,
they will present what they are thinking today.

“It will not be a private opinion but a result of general decision as
we understand the significance of the moment. And the most important
here is not how we treat Raffi or Raffi us, the most important
thing is that there is a more serious issue above all of us. It is
the national, liberation fight that our people are carrying out. The
names may be changed but the essence of fight does not as the issue
has not been solved. Neither immigration reduces not any economic
issues are solved,” he said.

Armenian News – Tert.am

MUFFLED CALL FOR PEACE RISES IN THE CAUCASUS

Independent European Daily Express
April 12 2013

Friday, April 12, 2013 – 09:06Inter Press Service

STEPANAKERT (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Caucasus), Apr 12 (IPS)
– Sixty-year-old Irina Grigoryan’s voice is drowned out by the
merry noise of 230 children waiting for their lunch. Director of
kindergarten N3, located in Stepanakert, capital of the self-proclaimed
Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR) deep in the Caucasus, Grigoryan smiles
tolerantly at the din.

But the poster hanging on the wall behind her desk – picturing a
single dove flying above the words “Give peace a chance” – suggests
that all is not well in this misty, mountainous city of 50,000 people,
2,400 kilometres south of Moscow.

In fact, NKR, nestled between Azerbaijan and Armenia, is in the middle
of a long-forgotten war.

[pullquote]3[/pullquote]When the USSR was still alive, Nagorno-Karabakh
was an autonomous region, but in 1936 the Russian dictator Joseph
Stalin handed it over to Azerbaijan, sparking calls for autonomy by
the primarily Armenian population.

At the end of the 1980s, amidst the rubble of the crumbling Soviet
Union, opposition to Azeri rule grew more vocal, and Stepanakert saw
mass demonstrations of citizens demanding that they be allowed to
join the Soviet republic of Armenia.

At the end of 1991, the population of 191,000, 75 percent of which
was Armenian, proclaimed an independent Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR)
– a month later, in January 1992, Baku sent in its troops to quell
the secessionist movement.

Between 1992 and 1993, Azeri forces captured 70 percent of the NKR,
prompting Armenia to enter the fray. A 1994 ceasefire “froze” the
conflict and established an Armenian-controlled buffer zone stretching
a few kilometres east of the administrative border of the Soviet-era
Nagorno-Kharabakh — but not before 30,000 lives had been lost and
over a million people transformed into refugees.

Today, the two countries remain officially at war, with 150,000 NKR
citizens living in a political limbo.

For those who survived the conflict, the precarious situation is a
source of daily stress and anxiety, and though nearly 20 years have
passed since the declaration of a ceasefire, citizens continue to
live under the shadow of war.

“During the war I was teaching at a local gymnasium, and I saw 80
percent of my male students die in the fighting,” Grigoryan tells IPS.

“I do not want this to happen again –that’s why here, in our
kindergarten, we do not speak about the war and we do not teach hatred
to our pupils,” she says.

But though she does not speak of her memories, they are still fresh
in her mind.

With vivid clarity she recalls the 1992 siege of Stepanakert, when
Azeri Grad rocket launchers positioned in the hills in the nearby
town of Shushi rained missiles down on NKR’s capital every day.

Civilians, quick to learn the rhythms of war, soon discovered that it
took soldiers 18 minutes to reload a Grad battery and would use those
intervals to move around the city, or steal brief moments of normalcy.

“I remember the mothers and fathers of the children you hear in the
next room playing 18-minute-long football matches (during the siege),”
Grigoryan says.

She is also active with the Public Diplomacy Institute, a local
organisation that works to build bridges between Armenian NGOs and
former Azeri inhabitants of NKR who were forced to flee to Azerbaijan
in their tens of thousands during the war.

Lamenting that “two communities, Armenians and Azeris, who lived side
by side for many years” are now wrenched apart, she hopes to build
ties between them, through direct dialogue among people and peace
activists on both sides.

Part of Grigoryan’s work entails “explaining” to her fellow countrymen
that if they want peace, they must be prepared to make sacrifices,
including territorial and political concessions to Azeris, like giving
up the buffer zone beyond the NKR border and allowing Azeri refugees
to return.

“We do not want to lose another generation to war,” she added,
referring to the skirmishes that constantly erupt along the ceasefire
line, and threats issued periodically from the government in Baku,
which suggest that conflict is not far off.

Until 2009, Grigoryan’s cross-border diplomacy between NGOs and peace
activists received some support form the international community,
including a series of meetings in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi,
and in Moscow, facilitated by the UK-based NGO International Alert.

But then everything slowed down, and the negotiations taking place
under the auspices of the Minsk Group, a diplomatic initiative
co-chaired by the U.S., Russia and France to mediate between the
governments on either side of the Line of Contact, or ceasefire line,
reached a stalemate.

Geopolitics hinder chances for peace

Though it boasts everything from a parliament to a ministry of foreign
affairs, located just a few paces away from Grigoryan’s kindergarten,
NKR has not been recognised at the international level.

Azerbaijan does not have any direct contact with NKR, leaving all
negotiations to Armenia, which it has labeled the “occupying force”
in the region.

NKR Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoyan says he is “ready to sit at the
table with my Azeri colleagues, but the problem is that they are not
ready to sit with a member of the NKR government.”

Mirzoyan was appointed several months ago, when the July 2012 elections
gave the incumbent president Bako Saghosyan a second term, with 64
percent of the vote.

“We received a clear mandate from our citizens,” Mirzoyan tells IPS:
“They want to be free and independent and I am ready to make any
concession that is consequent with this goal.”

But what this means on a practical level is far from clear.

NKR authorities blame the Azeri government, led by President Ilham
Aliyev, of running an anti-Armenian campaign at the international
level and of silencing dissenting voices in its own country.

Experts point to numerous incidents that support this claim, including
the case of journalist Eynulla Fatullayev, sentenced to eight and
a half years in prison in Azerbaijan for his investigations on the
Khojaly massacre, which cast doubt on the official Azeri version of
the events. Faullayev was eventually pardoned in May 2011.

Experts like Richard Giragosian, head of the Regional Studies Centre,
an independent think-tank for the southern Caucasus, believe there is a
“desperate need for bold and creative political confidence building
measures”, such as a universal withdrawal of Armenian troops from
some stretches of the buffer zone.

“Armenia and Azerbaijan are stuck in a political stalemate that is
hurting both countries,” he told IPS. “This could fuel instability in
a region that is essential for the energy security of other countries,
like Turkey, but also of Western Europe.”

Two major pipelines, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyahn and the
Baku-Tiblisi-Supsa, plus the Baku-Tiblisi-Erzurum gas line, pass a
few miles away from the NKR border.

Experts fear there could be severe ripple effects if the international
community allows the issue to rot.

“Over the years, NKR’s independence has become an issue of national
pride and national identity for Armenians and Azeris, thus making
it all the more difficult to make concessions to the other side,”
Giragosian says.

He believes strong players like Russia – which has sturdy relations
with, and military bases in, both countries – ought to play a more
prominent mediator role.

PUSHING ISRAEL TO APOLOGIZE, WILL OBAMA ALSO PRESS ERDOGAN ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Huffington Post
April 11 2013

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Rabbi and Writer

Co-authored by Arash Farin

President Barack Obama’s first trip to Israel since he became president
had the potential to yield many tangible results, not the least of
which could have been a demand on the part of the leader of the free
world that Hamas revoke its genocidal charter against Israel.

While it produced many inspirational moments, important symbolic
gestures, and an eloquent speech before the Jerusalem Convention
Center, its carefully staged photo opportunities seem, in retrospect,
to be somewhat ephemeral, and the pressure for Netanyahu to apologize
to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan ultimately, we believe,
counterproductive.

Israel and Turkey, of course, have had a tumultuous relationship in
recent years. Although the two countries were allies for many decades,
based on security ties, Erdogan has gone out of his way to cause
relations to deteriorate and antagonize Israelis. He has repeatedly
and unfairly condemned Israeli policy on every level, accused Israel
of crimes against humanity (after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in
response to Hamas’ launching of rockets in 2008), and even stormed
out of a conversation with Shimon Peres at Davos in 2009, humiliating
the venerable Israeli leader and Nobel laureate. In November2012,
he accused Israel of state terrorism and of an “attempt at ethnic
cleansing.” As another example of Erdogan’s vitriol, in February of
this year, while speaking in Vienna at the official opening of the
fifth UN Alliance of Civilizations Global Forums, he called Zionism
“a crime against humanity.”

The distrust between the two countries culminated in May 2010,
when, in a brazen maneuver, a flotilla organized by the Free Gaza
Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and
Humanitarian Relief sought to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza –
designed exclusively to keep bombs out of Hamas terrorist hands –
and refused to allow inspections by Israeli forces. (IHH is known to
be a jihadist organization cloaked in the mantle of a charity, and it
is a member organization of Union for Good, whose president is Sheikh
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s top sharia jurist. The U.S.

Senate also voted in June 2010 to recommend that Obama investigate
IHH as a first step before labeling it a terrorist organization.)

Warnings from Israel to the Turkish flotilla to turn around were
ignored, and the militants on board, wearing orange life vests,
protective vests, and gas masks, attacked Israeli naval commandos
who boarded the ship. The Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, was full of
activists armed with iron bars and knives, a curious collection of
equipment for humanitarians delivering relief supplies. In the ensuing
standoff, as Israel tried to defend itself, tragically nine Turks died.

Had the flotilla succeeded in breaking the Gaza blockade, Israel could
have looked forward to even more bombs and rockets raining down on
its hospitals and nurseries.

In September 2011, a United Nations report mentioned “serious
questions about the conduct, true nature and objectives of the
flotilla organizers, particularly IHH.” A BBC documentary also sided
with Israel, and determined that Israel had responded to a violent
premeditated attack. As further corroboration of the Turks’ intent,
Israel released nearly 20 videos, made using night-vision technology,
that showed activists beating Israeli soldiers with metal pipes and
a chair and a soldier being pushed off the deck and thrown onto a
lower deck headfirst, nearly dying. Lastly, in June 2010, the Israeli
Ministry of Foreign Affairs released footage of a rally on board the
Mavi Marmara before the raid in which the IHH president declared to
dozens of activists, “And we say: ‘If you [Israel] send the commandos,
we will throw you down from here to the sea and you will be humiliated
in front of the whole world.'” Participating passengers chant “millions
of martyrs marching to Gaza!”

While Obama’s attempt to strengthen ties in the Middle East is
understandable, what is less logical is his attempt to strong-arm
Israel into apologizing and making concessions, as Erdogan outlined
a series of conditions for full normalization with Israel, including
compensation to the victims, and, more significantly, a lifting of
the naval blockade of Gaza.

The episode with the Mavi Marmara should have been part of Obama’s
calculus during his trip, as it sheds light on Turkish behavior toward
Israel as well as on other examples of Turkey’s stubborn denial of
historical facts, including its refusal to speak honestly about its
role in the Armenian genocide between 1915 and 1923, which resulted in
the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

If Obama were true to his word as a presidential candidate in 2008
and interested in a significant success in the Middle East, he should
have pushed Erdogan to reciprocate and apologize to the long-suffering
Armenians for this first genocide in modern history. As discussed
in a resolution by the House of Representatives, this massacre is
“documented with overwhelming evidence in the national archives of
Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United States,
the Vatican and many other countries…” To win support from Armenians
while running for office, Sen. Obama said on January 19, 2008, “Two
years ago, I criticized … the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia,
John Evans, after he properly used the term ‘genocide’ to describe
Turkey’s slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915…. The
Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a
point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an
overwhelming body of historical evidence… As a senator, I strongly
support passage of the Armenian genocide resolution, and as president
I will recognize the Armenian genocide.”

But instead of working to fulfill his promise, President Obama and his
administration repeatedly have avoided the term “genocide,” and worked
behind the scenes to prevent Congress from recognizing it. Indeed,
although in March 2010, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted
23-22 on a resolution to recognize the Armenian deaths officially, the
administration came out swinging. In Guatemala, she told reporters,
“The Obama administration strongly opposes the resolution that was
passed by only one vote by the House committee and will work very hard
to make sure it does not go to the House floor.” According to the
Associated Press, “a senior Obama administration official, speaking
on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue,
said there was an understanding with the Democratic leadership in
Congress that the resolution would not go to a vote on the floor of
the House of Representatives.”

After the vote, Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States
and warned the Obama administration about the ramifications if a vote
ever reached the House floor.

As displayed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as Hitler
prepared to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, he dismissed
objections by saying “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?” setting the stage for the Holocaust. Ronald Reagan
recognized this threat in 1981 when he said, “like the genocide of
the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians, which
followed it — and like too many other persecutions of too many other
people — the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.”

More than 20 countries and 42 U.S. states already have recognized the
events of 1915 as genocide. As Obama seeks to shape his Middle East
policy and consider his legacy over the next four years, he should
consider the promises he made as a young candidate and recognize a
massacre that never should be forgotten.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” has just published his newest
book, “The Fed-up Man of Faith: Challenging God in the Face of Tragedy
and Suffering.” Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley. Arash Farin is
investment banker based in Los Angeles. He has degrees from The Wharton
School, Harvard Business School, and also attended Oxford University,
where he was President of Rabbi Shmuley’s Oxford student organization.

DEMOCRATIC WAY PARTY LEADER SPEAKS OF ‘GOOD COP – BAD COP’

22:54 ~U 12.04.13

Chairman of the Democratic Way party Manvel Gasparyan made a speech
at a rally Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian held in Yerevan’s
Freedom Square on Friday evening.

“Armen Martirosyan is a worthy son of his fathers. Unfortunately, we
have to battle such policemen,” he said as he recalled the incident
when a policeman kicked the Heritage party vice-chairman on April 9.

But not all policemen are bad. Some of them are human and they saved
Martirosyan. “I am grateful to the policemen that helped his out. But
he went there on his own will,” Gasparyan said.

Armenian News – Tert.am

MASS CAMPAIGN COMMEMORATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS TO BE HELD IN MOSCOW

YEREVAN, April 12. /ARKA/. Armenian Youth Association of Moscow will
organize on April 21 a mass campaign to raise public awareness about
and protest against Turkey’s continuous denial of the Armenian Genocide
committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

The campaign coordinators say the activists will spread out nearly
5,000 red masks through the 500-square-meter map of the Ottoman
Empire. The masks will symbolize the killed people. After this,
the protesters will line up into “Turkey, justice will prevail!” words.

A year earlier, the Association organized a campaign like that.

Several hundreds of protesters, wearing red clothes to symbolize the
slaughter perpetrated by the Young Turks, unfurled a huge poster
saying “The 1915 Armenian Genocide is a crime with no statute of
limitation. Justice will triumph.”

Armenian genocide was the first genocide committed in XX century.

Turkey denies the accusation of massacres and the killing of one and
a half million Armenians during World War I.

The fact of the Armenian genocide is recognized by many countries,
particularly by Russia, Germany, France, Netherlands, Vatican,
Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Venezuela, Lebanon, 42 of the U.S.

states, as well as by the parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina,
Belgium, National Council of Switzerland, Common House of Canada,
the Sejm of Poland, lower house of Italian parliament, European
Parliament, World Council of Churches. -0-

HAMAZKAYIN TO HOLD PAN-GATHERING IN BOSTON ON MAY 4

Posted on April 11, 2013

WATERTOWN, Mass.-On Sat., May 4, the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational
and Cultural Society of Eastern United States will hold its third
annual Pan-Gathering at the Hovnanian Hall of the Armenian Cultural
and Educational Center (ACEC), 47 Nichols Ave. in Watertown.

Dedicated to the 300th birthday of Armenian master troubadour Sayat
Nova, the event will feature a keynote address by Dr. Thomas Samuelian,
dean of the Law School at the American University of Armenia, with
acclaimed filmmaker Eric Nazarian as a special guest.

The musical program will mark the U.S. debut of the Mayilyan Vocal
Trio from Armenia under the artistic directorship of world renowned
mezzo-soprano Anna Mayilyan, with Armine Khachatryan, Yeva Yeganyan,
and Lusine Grigoryan. All proceeds from the event will benefit the
educational and cultural initiatives of the Hamazkayin Armenian
Educational and Cultural Society.

The event begins at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased by calling Tatul
Badalian at (617) 331-0426 or visiting

For information on sponsorship opportunities of the event, call (617)
650.0412 or e-mail [email protected].

The Eastern USA region of Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural
Society, comprised of eight chapters, constitutes one of the branches
of the worldwide Hamazkayin family, which was founded in 1928. The
organization aims to empower its membership to nurture and promote
Armenian arts and culture. Given Armenians’ millennia-long history,
it is cognizant of the dynamic nature of the concept of identity and,
to that end, strives to maintain cultural identity and heritage. The
Hamazkayin is committed to furthering the contribution of Armenian
culture to the complex tapestry of world civilizations.

“KRUNK AIR” READY TO REPLACE “ARMAVIA” INVESTING EUR 750 MILLION

21:01, 11 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS: “Krunk Air” Company is ready to replace
“Armavia” and operate flights during upcoming several months. This was
noted by General Director of “Krunk Air” Company Vladimir Poghosyan at
the public council meeting. “We are ready to invest EUR 750 million in
case of having no obstacle,” Armenpress quoted Poghosyan, underlining
they were ready to bring 8 planes to Yerevan.

“Krunk Air” General Director also assured they were willing to hire
450 people from “Armavia” technical personnel.

SERZH SARGSYAN HOSTED VIKTOR KHRISTENKO

18:37, 11 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS: President of Armenian Republic Serzh
Sargsyan hosted Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission’s Board
Viktor Khristenko. As Armenpress was informed from presidential
press office, at the meeting interlocutors had evaluated bilateral
willing to establish active dialogue for the development of mutually
advantageous economic cooperation. Head of State has noted that Armenia
has always been interested in the deepening of integration processes
on the post-soviet territory and supported practical works aimed at it.

Referring to the memorandum signed between Eurasian Economic Commission
and Armenian Government on Wednesday Viktor Khristenko underlined that
thus sided had created organizational conditions for the interaction.

Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission’s Board presented to
Armenian President the possible directions of cooperation between
Armenia and the commission.