Author: Kalantarian Kevo

SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF OSCE CHAIRPERSON-IN-OFFICE FOR SOUTH CAUCASUS MEETS WITH MEMBERS OF PUBLIC UNION “NAGORNO KARABAKH’S AZERBAIJANI COMMUNITY”

APA
Jan 27 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Ramil Mammadli – APA. Ambassador Padraig Murphy, Special
Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South
Caucasus, met with the members of the Public Union “Nagorno Karabakh’s
Azerbaijani Community”.

Chief of the Union, head of Shusha region executive power
Bayram Safarov told APA that Padraig Murphy was informed about
the consequences of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, displacement of
Azerbaijanis as a result of Armenian occupation, negative impact
of the problem on the development of the region. Padraig Murphy was
told that the Azerbaijani community of the conflict region supports
peaceful solution to the conflict and wants to return home.

Padraig Murphy spoke about the efforts made by the organization for the
resolution of the conflict, existing problems and offered rapprochement
of the communities. He expressed his hope that both sides will do
their best to achieve peaceful resolution of the conflict.

ICRC REPRESENTATIVES VISIT AZERBAIJANI PRISONER OF WAR CAPTURED SOME DAYS AGO

APA
Jan 27 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Kamala Guliyeva – APA. On January 26, the representatives
of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the
Azerbaijani prisoner of war held in Nagorno Karabakh, spokesperson
for the ICRC Delegation in Azerbaijan Shahla Gahramanova told APA.

Corporal of Azerbaijani Army, Akhundzadeh Mammadbagir Talib, 22,
was captured by Armenians on the contact line of Azerbaijani and
Armenian troops, near Yukhari Chayli village of Terter region.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry confirmed the fact.

PACE BUREAU DISCUSSES ACTIVITY OF SUBCOMMITTEE ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Trend
Jan 27 2012
Azerbaijan

Jan. 27–STRASBOURG, France — The issue related to the activity of
the subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh was discussed at a meeting of
the Bureau within the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Friday, PACE President Jean-Claude
Mignon said in an exclusive interview with Trend today.

“The issue was discussed at the meeting held in the morning,” he said.

“A decision was made that the activity of the subcommittee on
Nagorno-Karabakh will not be restored soon. We need time to consider
this issue thoroughly. We should reconsider the issue at the meeting
of the Bureau, to be held in Paris on March 9, to make a decision
on future activity of the subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh at PACE
spring session, to be held in April.”

Mignon said that it is possible to restore and continue the activity of
the subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh, but it is not the only variant.

“The other option is that we won’t create a new subcommittee
on Nagorno-Karabakh and the OSCE Minsk Group will deal with the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We have no details yet, to talk about it
more accurately. It’s just an option. We will reconsider the issue
on March. ”

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.

DENYING THE HIDDEN TRUTH: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Karolina Zydziak

The Bottom Line

University of California, Santa Barbara
Jan 31 2012

Students from the Armenian Student Association gathered on Jan. 26 to
protest the globally unrecognized genocide that occurred in 1915, and
to raise awareness about the genocides that are currently taking place.

“Our goal is to spread awareness rather than commemorate Armenian
Genocide every April 24,” said Leslie Aguilar, a third-year psychology
major and secretary of ASA.

Because of the lack of a world-wide acknowledgement of the Armenian
Genocide, students are relentlessly working to make their voices
heard so the United States will recognize what is going on to get
Turkey to ultimately admit to their wrong doing.

“We want America to recognize this [genocide] so that Turkey recognizes
it as well, because America as a hegemony in the world is one of the
most powerful, one of the most influential,” said Adam Jaratanian, a
third-year political science major. “The more nations that recognize
this will cause Turkey to also recognize it; they will be forced
politically not to ignore it.”

Beginning in the 1800s, the Armenians were treated unequally by Turkey,
and were not allowed to own property or businesses. As the early 1900s
came around, full discrimination against the people commenced as the
“Young Turks” decided they wanted a country free of minorities.

“The Turkish government rounded up Armenian intellectuals, which
included teachers, artists, writers-anyone who could possibly be a
leader and execute them, so this would make us a leaderless people,”
Shant Mirzaians, a third-year political science major, said.

ASA emphasizes that as these executions continued to take place, men
like Adolf Hitler noticed that massacres were occurring and not much
was being done about it, influencing him to believe actions such as
these were acceptable.

“If the Armenian Genocide had been recognized, there could have been
a very good chance the Holocaust wouldn’t have occurred,” Jaratanian
said. “Hitler is quoted, ‘After all, who remembers the genocide of
the Armenians today?’ It made him think it was okay to do something
like that onto another race.”

According to ASA, one critical thing to prevent genocide is
recognition. Once a society becomes aware of the various genocides
that take place, it will be able to step up and convey to the rest
of the world that such behavior is not acceptable. Thus, future
generations will perhaps refrain from committing the same mistakes.

As a branch of the nationwide group, University of California Santa
Barbara students continue to push their respected congressmen to pass
a bill that would grant Armenians the justice they righteously deserve
by officially recognizing the 1915 Armenian Genocide as a genocide.

However, it has not been passed, and some believe the lack of passage
to be an attempt to keep Turkey as an ally to the U.S.

“Turkey is the one Muslim country that is an ally in the Middle East,
so the United States wants to keep it on friendly terms with them,”
Mirzaians said. “They [the U.S.] also have military bases in Turkey
that they needed to use in the Iraq War and in Afghanistan. Turkey
is also prominent member of NATO. It is because of these politics
the U.S. doesn’t want to upset Turkey.”

Other countries are beginning to recognize the event and making it
clear that genocide is not tolerable.

“Recently France recognized it and made it a crime to deny the
genocide or any genocide,” Jaratanian said. “We’re here speaking out
for every genocide.”

ARTIST, SOPHIA GASPARIAN PARTICIPATES IN BENEFIT AT SKIRBALL CENTER
By Leslie Reed

Westside Today

Jan 31 2012
CA

Sophia Gasparian is one of many successful artists who have agreed
to donate their work to “Artworks for Healing” on Wednesday, February
8th at the Skirball Center.

Sophia Gasparian is known for her sociopolitical work. As an artist,
she thrives on blatant political subjects. Sophia was born in Yerevan,
Armenia.

Sophia’s work began in experimental film and later transitioned to
installation combining video, sound and painting. In 2002, Sophia
developed the installation “The Day of the Dead: Armenian Genocide
1915.” In 2005, she co-curated an international group exhibition
“Requiem for the Genocide” with Yerevan MOCA.

Constantly pushing barriers, Gasparian recently completed the
“Forced to Confront the Face of Evil” series. Her narrative paintings
intertwine childlike innocence with sociopolitical criticism and her
aesthetic approach remains apart from mainstream art, incorporating
stencils, stickers, spray paint and other nontraditional media.

This fundraiser will benefit the nonprofit organization, A Window
Between Worlds. Celebrating their 20th anniversary, A Window Between
Worlds has helped thousands of survivors of domestic violence,
through art programs.

The event is presented in collaboration with Heidi Gray and the James
Gray Gallery at Bergamot Station, as well as several other prominent
Los Angeles galleries.

Sophia talks about how she became involved with the projcect, “During
a group exhibition “Mysterious Objects: Portraits of Joan Quinn” where
my work was a part of, I was asked by the curators J. Cheryl Bookout
and Amanda Quinn Olivar to participate in “Artworks for Healing” to
help end domestic violence using art. It is an honor to participate
and be among a great company of people who care about public issues.”

Additional “Artworks for Healing” artists include: Kim Abeles, Janet
Inez Adams, Peter Alexander, Herb Alpert, Larry Bell, Janet Bothne,
Amy Caterina, Chase, Chukes, Charlie de Mar, Marie Lalanne Elfman, Ned
Evans, Shepard Fairey, Samantha Fields, Ed Freeman, Sophia Gasparian,
Curt Gunther, Gadi Hakim, James Hayward, David Hume Kennerly, Sally
Lamb, Michele Lee, Victoria Levine, Bernie Lewinsky, David Lloyd,
Don Morris, Ed Moses, Terry Romero Paul, Zandra Rhodes, Cathy Salser,
John Sexton, Rena Small, Myron Stephens, Lauren Szabo, Ann Thornycroft,
Tim Townsley, William Wegman, and Ron Zheng.

“Artworks for Healing” will be held Feb. 8th, 7:00pm – 10:00pm, at
Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda BLvd, in Brentwood. The
evening will feature an art auction, champagne, hors d’oeuvres,
and dessert.

For more information and tickets

TURKISH PM SLAMS FRANCE OVER APPROVAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Xinhua General News Service
January 30, 2012 Monday 4:25 PM EST
China

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday slammed France
for the approval of an Armenian ” genocide” bill by its parliament,
saying that “France was forcing the door of a very dangerous process
by trying to write history at parliament.”

The mission of parliaments was not to write history, Erdogan said
in an address to the nation, adding that Turkey is expecting French
people to raise their voices against this.

“Today, France is using the language of separatism, racism and clashes
and Sarkozy’s France was based on dogmas, prejudices and delusions,”
said Erdogan.

Noting that Turkey made its warnings to France beforehand and Turkey
proposed to leave this issue to historians and scientists, but Sarkozy
did not hesitate to crush European values just to gain a few thousand
more votes in the upcoming elections, said Erdogan.

Again he said that this bill, which was adopted at French Parliament
and Senate, is null and void for Turkey.

“We pursue our initiatives for French senators to apply to French
Constitutional Council against the bill,” added Erdogan.

Turkish government spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc
said Monday that Turkey was following developments regarding the bill.

The French Senate voted last Monday 127 to 86 in favor of the draft
bill after hours of debate, making it illegal to deny as ” genocide”
the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. The bill, yet to
be signed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been passed by the
French National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on Dec. 22
last year.

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
parliamentarians file for it. The decision lies with the court to
decide whether the bill is compatible with French law or not.

TURKISH MINISTER MAKES HARSH STATEMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN SWITZERLAND

Vestnik Kavkaza
Jan 30 2012
Russia

Egemen Bagys, Turkish Minister for EU Affairs, made a harsh statement
in Switzerland, a state that had approved the bill on criminalization
of denial of the Armenian Genocide by the French Senate, TRT reports.

Bagys said that there was no genocide of Armenians in 1915 and said
that he was ready to be arrested for saying that.

The Turkish minister attended the World Economic Forum in Davos. He
later went to Zurich and watched a performance of Turkish singer
Sezen Aksu. He made the statement after the concert.

ARMENIANS HOPE NEW DISTRICTS GIVE THEM A VOICE ON PASADENA SCHOOL BOARD
By Brian Charles

Pasadena Star News

Jan 30 2012
CA

PASADENA – Armenian voters appear to be the big winners in the ongoing
effort to divide the Pasadena Unified School District board into seven
geographic voting districts, according to Chris Chahinian, Armenian
community leader and a member of the PUSD redistricting task force.

On two of the draft maps, a voting sub-district has been formed to
keep together the ethnic group’s coalition of voters, many of whom
live along or near North Allen Avenue. Chahinian said the concessions
to his community are long overdue.

“The Armenian community has been in Pasadena since the 1880s and to not
have a consistent voice in the school district is an outrage,” he said.

Chahinian, who ran for City Council last year, said he plans to push
for a similar Armenian heavy district on the City Council.

His overtures to the task force and the broader community about forming
a voting district for Armenian constituents along North Allen Avenue
has resonated beyond the Armenian community. Leaders in Northwest
Pasadena are paying close attention to Chahinian’s political jockeying.

“Obviously the Armenian coalition was there and they are lobbying
for the Armenian community,” said Ishmael Trone, Northwest Pasadena
business leader. “They are really reaching out to other leaders in
the city to really keep their group together.”

More than 20,000 Armenians live in Pasadena, but it is unclear how
many Armenians – and more importantly Armenian voters – live in the
proposed district carved out by the task force, according to Chahinian.

“The Armenian community has another issue when it comes to filling
out the census,” Trone said. “They are lumped in with white voters.”

So who is providing the stats?

“We are relying on the Armenian community for the numbers,” said Ken
Chawkins, PUSD Charter Reform Task Force chairman.

Yet when it comes to educational needs, the community has long said
it wants its own voice or at least one that will advocate for the
needs of the ethnic community, Chahinian said.

The PUSD endeavored to create voting wards after the threat of a
lawsuit by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The
Bay Area voting rights advocacy group successfully sued a Northern
California school district for under-representation of Latinos
on a school board. The PUSD has one Latino school board member,
Ramon Miramontes, yet Latinos make up more than 50 percent of the
district’s students.

And while the maps give Armenians a chance to influence the PUSD board,
they also give Latinos a chance to influence multiple board seats,
Chawkins said.

“The numbers suggest you can have two Latino districts,” Chawkins said.

But Chawkins said more than race matters in the drawing of the
district’s voting lines.

“There are many more differences to account for beyond race,” he said.

The number of total residents, registered voters and socioeconomic
factors are plugged into the complex formula for creating voting
districts. The law also prevents those drawing the line from packing
a community into one district by creating a district with more than
70 percent of one ethnic or racial group. Voting laws also prevent
cracking or diluting the strength of an ethnic or racial group.

The lines are also drawn to lasso in communities of interest, which is
why Armenians – a group not protected by the 1965 Voting Rights Act –
can be drawn into one voting district.

MP’S SEPARATIST SYMPATHY PROMPTS IRE IN AZERBAIJAN

Sydney Morning Herald

Jan 30 2012
Australia

The state upper house Labor MP Walt Secord has incurred the wrath
of the government of Azerbaijan for visiting one of its disputed
territories and siding with the sovereignty claims of the separatist
Armenians.

Mr Secord, a former adviser to NSW premiers Bob Carr and Kristina
Keneally, as well as the former state treasurer Eric Roozendaal and
former prime minister Kevin Rudd, entered the upper house after the
March election.

He is the deputy chairman of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel
and the deputy co-chairman of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Armenia.

A supporter of various separatist causes, Mr Secord visited the
disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh last month as part of a self-funded
trip that also took him to Israel, the Palestinian territories and
Kurdish Iraq.

Nagorno-Karabakh is recognised internationally, including by Australia,
as part of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan but Armenia lays
claim to the region.

Mr Secord said he was told while there that he was the first Australian
MP to visit the region.

“While official recognition of the Mountainous Karabakh Re- public
is a matter for the federal Australian government,” Mr Secord said,
“I feel I have a duty as the co-deputy chair of the NSW Parliamentary
Friends of Armenia to see Armenia and the Mountainous Karabakh
Republic first-hand.”

Officials from the Azerbaijani embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara,
complained to the Australian mission in the same city about the visit
by the “senator of the Australian state of NSW, Walt Secord”.

An Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman, Elman Abdullayev, told
local media: “The Australian embassy told the Azerbaijani side that the
official stance of the country lies in recognition of the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan and non-recognition of any separatist regime
in its territory.”

Mr Secord said many of his colleagues had been “flooded by an email
campaign” protesting against his visit.

PUPILS’ FILM USED IN HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE

South Wales Echo
January 27, 2012 Friday
UK

A FILM made by school pupils will take centre stage in a ceremony
today to remember victims of the Holocaust and other genocides since
the end of World War II.

Students from Maesteg Comprehensive interpreted the famous Holocaust
poem First They Came as part of their peer mentoring project.

It builds on the council’s Speak Up Speak Out campaign which
urges communities and individuals to express their opposition to
discrimination.

The ceremony will be staged in the council chamber today – Holocaust
Memorial Day.

A candle will be lit and a minute’s silence held to remember all
those lost in the Holocaust and in genocide in Armenia, Cambodia,
Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Council leader Councillor Mel Nott, who will speak at the event, said:
“This is about learning lessons from the Holocaust and applying them
to the present day.”