Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Mehr News Agency (MNA), Iran
December 23, 2011 Friday

Iranian, Armenian presidents emphasize need for regional peace

TEHRAN, Dec. 20 (MNA) – After a meeting on Friday, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan issued
a joint statement insisting on the need to accelerate efforts to
improve security and peace in the region. In the statement, the
Iranian and Armenian presidents also expressed satisfaction at the
level of relations between the two countries and said the ties are
based on longstanding friendship between the peoples of the countries.
The presidents also said the two countries have great potential which
should be utilized to increase cooperation in all spheres. They added
that Tehran and Yerevan have many affinities which would help
strengthen their ties. The issue of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was also
addressed in the statement and the necessity of resolving the conflict
was emphasized. The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia began in
1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The two
countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the
Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
— Russia, France, and the U.S. — are currently mediating in the
peace negotiations.

MJH/PA END MNA

Interfax, Russia
Dec 23 2011

Baku regrets passage of French bill to outlaw denial of Armenian genocide

BAKU. Dec 23

The approval by the lower house of the French parliament of a bill
criminalizing the denial of “the Armenian genocide” is regretful, said
Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev.

“Turning a group of members of the French parliament into hostages in
the hands of the Armenian diaspora causes regret,” Abdullayev told
Interfax, commenting on the passage by the lower house of the French
parliament of a bill penalizing people who deny genocides.

France, which mediates the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, “should not have
turned into a hostage of the Armenian diaspora,” he said. “The
deputies who voted for the passage of this bill must also seriously
approach the Khojaly genocide which took place in the eyes of global
community,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

In the early hours of February 26, 1992, Armenian armed forces, backed
by heavy equipment and personnel from the 366th Motor Rifle Regiment
of the former USSR based in the town of Khankendi seized the city of
Khojaly. As a result, at least 613 people were brutally killed,
including 106 women, 63 young children and 70 elderly people; 487
became disabled, 1,275 were captured and 150 went missing.

The Times (London), UK
December 23, 2011 Friday
Edition 2; National Edition

Turkey recalls envoy over ban on denial of Armenian genocide

by Adam Sage; Charles Bremner

A diplomatic crisis erupted between Nato allies yesterday as Turkey
reacted furiously to French legislation making it an offence to deny
that the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire was genocide.

Relations between Ankara and Paris were pushed to breaking point as
the Bill, dealing with the pogrom of Turkey’s Armenian minority
between 1915 and 1917, was approved by the Lower House of parliament
in France.

As protests broke out in Ankara, Turkish leaders denounced what they
said was an insult to their national honour. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
Prime Minister, said he would recall his country’s Ambassador to Paris
for consultations, suspend military co-operation and cancel political
meetings between Turkish and French ministers. He described it as
“politics based on racism, discrimination, xenophobia”.

With Ankara accusing France of masking its own murky past, there were
signs of disunity in Paris. In an interview with The Times, Alain
Juppé, the French Foreign Minister, distanced himself from legislation
that was inspired by President Sarkozy. Noting that France had already
passed a law formally recognising as genocide the deaths of up to 1.5
million Armenians, Mr Juppé said: “Should one go beyond that and make
it a crime to deny the genocide? I think that that is not useful.”

In another indication that Paris may wilt under the Turkish backlash,
Bernard Accoyer, the Speaker of the National Assembly, said that the
legislation was unlikely to be adopted by both Houses of parliament
before the presidential election in May.

Although both Mr Sarkozy and François Hollande, his Socialist rival,
publicly back the Bill, commentators suggested that they may
ultimately back down. In an editorial, Le Monde pointed out that
Turkey was a key ally in the Middle East and a strategic partner in
Syria. “A showdown with Ankara today is absurd,” the newspaper said.

The measures announced by Mr Erdogan will curtail Gallic military
operations such as the docking in Istanbul last month of the frigate
Commandant Birot. Paris is also worried about the impact on bilateral
trade, which was worth (EURO)11.6 billion (£9.7 billion) last year.
With a trade deficit likely to exceed (EURO)70 billion this year,
France can scarcely afford to risk a consumer boycotts in its
sixth-biggest export market.

Franco-Turkish relations are already strained by President Sarkozy’s
opposition to Ankara’s campaign to join the European Union. About 20
countries have passed legislation to recognise the Armenian massacres
as genocide, but Britain is not among them. France is the first to
seek to punish those who contest the official version.

The maximum sentence for genocide denial, under the Bill, is one year
in prison and a fine of (EURO)45,000.

Armenia welcomed the vote in parliament as an historic move. Edward
Nalbandian, the Armenian Foreign Minister, said: “I would like to once
again express my gratitude to France’s top leadership, to the National
Assembly, and to the French people.”

France debated introducing similar legislation in 2006, but dropped
the proposal in the face of Turkish wrath. Le Monde said that Mr
Sarkozy had changed tack to win over France’s 500,000-strong Armenian
community before the presidential election.

Qatar News Agency
December 23, 2011 Friday 3:00 PM EST

Turkish Ambassador Leaves France to Ankara for Consultations

Paris, December 23 (QNA) – Turkey’s ambassador to Paris returned
Friday following a vote by the French parliament to ban the denial of
the Armenian genocide, an embassy spokesperson said noting meantime
that the recall of an ambassador is a diplomatic protest and is not
seen as a complete breakdown in diplomatic relations.

Tahsin Burcuoglu left from Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris
with his wife on a 7:40 a.m. flight and is expected in the Turkish
capital in the afternoon, the embassy spokesman Engin Solakoglu said.

Turkey’s embassy in Paris will remain open during the ambassador’s absence.

On Thursday, before leaving, Burcuoglu had told a news conference
France’s ambassador in Turkey would not be asked to leave, although
French officials said he was already on a pre-arranged holiday in any
case. “We are really very sad. Franco-Turkish relations did not
deserve this,” Burcuoglu said, blaming Paris for the row. “When there
is a problem it always comes from the French side.”

Thursday’s vote in the National Assembly was the first step towards
passing a law that would impose a jail term and a 45,000 euro fine on
anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians
constitutes genocide.

During World War I hundreds of thousands of Armenians died at the
hands of Ottoman Turk forces. Armenia says 1.5 million died in a
genocide, Turkey says around 500,000 died in fighting after they sided
with a Russian invasion.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe called on Turkey not to
“overreact” to a bill that he insisted was a parliamentary initiative,
and not a project of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government.

“The damage is already done,” responded Burcuoglu. “We have been
accused of genocide! How could we not overreact? Turkey will never
recognise this story of an Armenian genocide. “There are limits. A
country like Turkey cannot be treated like this. We’re not the Turkey
of 2001 or 2006,” he declared.

Meanwhile French President Nicolas Sarkozy Friday urged the mutual
respect of views between his country and Turkey amid a row over
France’s criminalization of the denial of the Armenian genocide. “I
respect the views of our Turkish friends — it’s a great country, a
great civilization — and they must respect ours,” Sarkozy said in
Prague where he is attending the funeral of late Czech president and
revolution icon Vaclav Havel. “France is not giving lessons to anyone
but does not want them either,” he said.

For his part, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier
accused Paris of committing “genocide” in its former colony Algeria
after French lawmakers voted a bill criminalizing the denial of
Armenian genocide by Ottoman-era troops.

“France massacred an estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population
starting from 1945. This is genocide,” Erdogan told a news conference.
The Turkish premier also accused Sarkozy of “fanning hatred of Muslims
and Turks for electoral gains.” (QNA)

Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho)
December 23, 2011 Friday

Turkey-France ties fray over Armenian genocide bill

PARIS – Ties between France and Turkey, strategic allies and trading
partners, abruptly unraveled Thursday after French legislators passed
a bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constitute genocide.

The bill strikes at the heart of national honor in Turkey, which
denies the genocide label and insists the 1915 massacres occurred
during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, with losses on
both sides. But it’s seen as a matter of principle for some French
politicians, and a matter of long-overdue justice for the half a
million people in France of Armenian descent, many of whom had
relatives among the 1.5 million Armenians killed.

The French bill still needs Senate approval, but after it passed the
lower house, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Enhanced
Coverage LinkingRecep Tayyip Erdogan -Search using:Biographies Plus
NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayshalted bilateral political and economic
contacts, suspended military cooperation and ordered his country’s
ambassador home for consultations. Turkey argues France is trampling
freedom of expression and that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is on
a vote-getting mission before April presidential elections.

France formally recognized the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001, but
provided no penalty for anyone refuting that. The bill passed Thursday
sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of $59,000
for those who deny or “outrageously minimize” the killings, putting
such action on par with denial of the Holocaust.

The diplomatic riposte by Turkey over the vote by lawmakers in
France’s lower house, the National Assembly, may get even tougher. It
hurts ties as both NATO members are involved in international efforts
for peace from Syria to Afghanistan.

“Our measures and precautions will come to life stage-by-stage
according to France’s position,” Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.

France expressed regret over Turkey’s response.

“It is important, in the current context, that we keep the paths of
dialogue and cooperation open,” Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a
statement.

Strains have plagued the relationship between Paris and Ankara in
recent years, in large part because Sarkozy opposes mostly-Muslim
Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. The bill reached the French
parliament after Sarkozy visited Armenia in October and urged Turkey,
“a great country” to “honor itself by revisiting its history like
other countries in the world have done.”

But for it to become law, the Senate must also pass the bill. There is
a small window of time to quickly do so, between Jan. 10 and Feb. 24
when a four-month freeze on all but the most critical legislation goes
into effect ahead of spring presidential and legislative elections.

There’s no guarantee this will be a speedy process. A similar piece of
legislation passed by the lower house in 2006 took five years to reach
the Senate, which rejected it.

Most historians contend the killings of the Armenians constituted the
first genocide of the 20th century. But the issue is dicey for any
government that wants a strong alliance with Turkey, a rising power.
In Washington, President Barack Obama has stopped short of calling the
killings genocide.

An estimated 500,000 Armenians live in France, and many have pressed
to raise the legal statute regarding the massacres to the same level
as the Holocaust by punishing the denial of genocide.

But the Turkish premier called the legislation’s approval “unjust and
unfortunate,” adding, “There is no genocide in our history, we do not
accept it.”

“As of now, we are canceling bilateral level political, economic and
military activities,” Erdogan announced. “We are suspending all kinds
of political consultations with France” and “bilateral military
cooperation, joint maneuvers are canceled as of now.”

The Turkish prime minister said requests for military overflights or
landings on Turkish territory would be assessed on a case-by-case
basis while permissions granted to French military vessels to dock at
Turkish ports would be canceled.

Military cooperation between France and Turkey was suspended in 2006
after the lower-house bid in France to punish deniers of an Armenian
genocide. Military cooperation was gradually resumed but remains
limited.

Turkey did not limit its actions to ties with Ankara. Sounding almost
vindictive, Erdogan threatened to denounce France in Africa and the
Middle East.

“We will inform Africa, we will inform the Middle East and when
traveling in many countries we will talk about genocides which they
have been trying to make (the world) forget about,” he said. It was a
reference to France’s colonial past in Algeria, where massacres were
carried out, and to Rwanda where some claim a French role in the 1994
genocide.

It was clear long before the vote – easily passed with a show of hands
– that France was on a collision course with Turkey. Ankara had
threatened to remove Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu if French lawmakers
did not desist and warned of “grave consequences” to political and
economic ties.

The ambassador said he is leaving on the first flight out of Paris
Friday morning. He said that diplomacy is never black and white.
“There are always gray pages but now, these pages become blacker and
blacker,” he told reporters in Paris on Thursday night.

Erdogan, a devout Muslim who over the years raised the profile of
Turkey’s governing Islamic-rooted party, suggested France’s bid to
punish those who deny the Armenian genocide was in part a way to lure
far-right voters to Sarkozy’s camp by kindling the fires of
Islamaphobia.

“This decision is cause for concern not only for France where there
are efforts to make gains through enmity toward Turks and Turkey, and
in general terms, through Islamaphobia, but also for Europe and
principles defended by Europe,” he said.

“I ask: Is there freedom of expression in France? Let me answer it
myself: No. (This decision) has eliminated the environment of free
thought.”

Some French lawmakers expressed outraged at Turkey’s attempt to sway
their vote and a demonstration by Turks living in France outside the
National Assembly.

“The fact that we are subject to pressures … in front of the
National Assembly where the heart of the (French) Republic beats, I
find that particularly shocking,” said Valerie Boyer, author of the
measure and lawmaker from Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party.

“Laws voted in this chamber cannot be dictated by Ankara,” said
Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a deputy from the New Center party.

For many French Armenians, the legislation’s advancement meant a swell
of relief.

“Our ancestors can finally rest in peace,” said 75-year-old Maurice
Delighazarian, who said his grandparents on both sides were among the
victims of the 1915 massacre.

Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
December 23, 2011 Friday

France regrets Turkish envoy recall, other sanctions over Armenia issue

PARIS, Dec 23 (KUNA) – The French government said Friday that it regretted
the decision by Turkey to recall its ambassador to Paris and the other
measures taken to protest the French Parliamentary bill voted Thursday
penalizing any questioning of the Armenian “genocide” which Turkey is blamed
for.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “France regrets these
decisions” by Turkey which also include the suspension of all bilateral
visits, the cancelling of joint military exercises and a ban on port visits by
French navy ships.

Senior government officials here, led by Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, have
called for “restraint” and urged Turkey not to “overreact” to the vote this
week.

“For France, Turkey is a strategic ally and partner,” Foreign Ministry
spokesman Bernard Valero said here.

He noted that the two nations were in a variety of organisations together,
notably NATO, the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the
G20 and Mediterranean cooperation bodies.

He noted that France and Turkey were working closely together in
Afghanistan and on the Syrian issue.

“It is important in the current context that we keep open lines of dialogue
and cooperation,” Valero said.

Diplomats here indicated that France had no plans to recall its ambassador
to Ankara, who is currently in Paris and has a planned date to return to the
Turkish capital.

Trade and investment links could also be damaged by the current dispute.
France invested about USD 11 billion in Turkey in 2011 and has 1,000 companies
in that country, where 100,000 people are employed, the sources said.
There was also about USD 15 billion in trade between France and Turkey this
year and France is Turkey’s second largest client market.

The sources further indicated that there are about 350,000 Turks living in
France, 2,000 of these students, while there are 5,500 French nationals living
in Turkey, most in the area of Istanbul.

In retaliation for the French vote on genocide, Turkey on Friday accused
France of genocide during its colonial period in Algeria. (Pick up previous)
jk.ajs

KUNA 231653 Dec 11NNNN

DAILY MAIL (London), UK
December 23, 2011 Friday

ARMENIAN HORROR WAS A BLUEPRINT FOR HITLER

BY PAUL HARRIS

THEY call it the forgotten holocaust, a mass slaughter conducted under
cover of war.

For nearly a century now it has been shrouded in secrecy and mystery;
coloured with denial and contention.

But the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
between 1915 and 1916 is still held to be one of the worst atrocities
committed by one race against another ` and a historical blueprint
for Hitler’s massacre of the Jews.

In towns and villages across the Ottoman Empire, Turkish gendarmes
began rounding up Christian families and deporting them en masse.

The men were seized in the dead of night, and either killed, tortured
or imprisoned. Women and children were raped, beaten and abused. Many
would perish on the `death marches’ that forced them to walk
towards desert concentration camps. Those who didn’t may have wished
they had.

Accounts of atrocities said to have been carried out by the Turks told
how mothers were forced to watch their babies being smashed to their
deaths against rocks¦ how their daughters were raped in front of
them¦ and how guards beheaded their menfolk and played football with
their heads.

Some of the torture to which prisoners were subjected was so
unbearable they doused themselves in paraffin from prison lamps and
set themselves alight.

At one stage a caravan of more than 40,000 women was seen under escort
through the desert, some so starved they were described by one witness
as `mere skeletons enveloped in rags¦ their leathery skin burned
by the sun, cold and wind’.

According to the Armenians, it was a systematic slaughter designed to
eliminate the Armenian people whom the Turks regarded as `vermin’.
It is recorded as the first `ethnic cleansing’ of the 20th
century. Most historians accept that up to 1.5million Armenians may
have died.

`Forgotten’ therefore, is a curious term to apply to what is
widely described as an act of genocide. But in the 96 years that
followed, Turkey has consistently and resolutely refused to
acknowledge that genocide took place. It accepts that there were
atrocities but insists there was no systematic attempt to wipe out
Christian Armenians.

Now the poisonous legacy of 1915 has surfaced again. And even after so
many years, the bitterness has far from subsided.

At the turn of the 20th century, there were two million Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire. Some 200,000 had already died in pogroms. The
Ottoman Empire wanted to build a huge Muslim empire ` but the
Armenians’ Christian civilisation stood in its way.

When the First World War broke out Armenia was divided between the
Russian and Ottoman empires, which were on opposite sides of the
conflict.

Armenians on the Russian side formed volunteer battalions to help the
Russians fight the Turks and persuaded separatist-minded Turkish
Armenians to join them.

The Ottoman government responded by ordering the `deportation’ of
the entire Turkish Armenian population to Syria and Palestine. It
formed `Special Organisation’ units to implement mass killings.

Winston Churchill described the massacres as `an administrative
holocaust’ and `a crime planned and executed for political
purposes’. Years later, Hitler’s bid to exterminate the Jews would
bear startling similarities to the Armenian massacre, right down to
the number of people that could most efficiently be crammed into a
cattle truck.

The `deportation’ began on the night of April 24, 1915. The date
is seared in blood into the Armenian calendar, marked annually by
Armenians around the world.

It is unlikely ever to be erased, whatever becomes of the French
`genocide bill’.

Mass slaughter: Many Armenians were killed, others died on forced marches

Belfast Telegraph
December 23, 2011 Friday
First Edition

Genocide row: Turks pull envoy from Paris

TURKEY has retaliated against France after MPs there passed a bill to
make it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by
Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide.

Ankara ordered its ambassador home and halted official contacts,
including some military co-operation.

Turkey, a Nato member, is a strategic ally of France and valued
trading partner, and the moves diminish ties at a particularly crucial
time. Paris and Ankara are both deeply involved in international
issues from the uprising in Syria to Afghanistan.

Turkey vehemently rejects the term “genocide” for the First World War
era-mass killings of Armenians, saying the issue should be left to
historians. French MPs denounced what they called Turkey’s propaganda
effort in a bid to sway them.

But last weekend the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
said: “Those who do want to see genocide should turn around and look
at their own dirty and bloody history.”

ARMENIA, IRAN TO DEEPEN COOPERATION

United Press International
Dec 23 2011

YEREVAN, Armenia, Dec. 23 (UPI) — An Iranian delegation led by
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is making an official visit to the
Armenian capital Yerevan to increase bilateral ties.

Ahmadinejad is making the visit upon the formal invitation of Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan.

Ahmadinejad and Sargsyan had their first round of discussions Friday
concerning bilateral, regional and international issues, Iran’s
Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Iranian and Armenian officials signed five memorandum of understanding
covering a variety of fields of cooperation, including the construction
of hydroelectric turbines for the Aras dam, cooperation between
the Institute for Standards and Industrial Research of Iran and the
Armenian National Institute for Standards as well as cooperation in
the fields of social welfare, employment and environment protection.

Other major topics of discussion include Iranian oil exports to Armenia
and the construction of railways, which builds upon a July 2007 MOU
starting feasibility studies on the possibility of constructing an
Armenian-Iranian railway.

FRANCE: ARMENIAN VOTE, TURKS URGED TO BOYCOTT FRENCH GOODS

ANSAmed

Dec 23 2011
Italy

(ANSAmed) – ANKARA, DECEMBER 23 – Under the banner “Minister incites
Turks to boycott French goods”, Turkish daily Hurriyet reports that
Turkey’s EU minister said people would react to France’s Armenian
genocide denial bill. “We saw in the past for the case of Italy, those
who emptied wine onto (the streets) and burned coats and ties were
this country’s people. There is no need for suggestion, this nation’s
people decide on their own,” EU Minister Egemen Bagis told reporters
yesterday. Bagis said Turks would react by not consuming French goods
in response to the controversial bill. It was announced last night
that Ankara is recalling its ambassador and freezing political visits
as well as joint military projects, including exercises. Ankara will
also cancel permission for French military planes to land and warships
to dock in Turkey as a result of the bill.

Meanwhile, Turkish Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat
Ergun said Turkey would probably not assume an embargo policy against
France nor violate international agreements.

However, France should take into consideration the uneasiness that
would emerge in Turkish society, Ergun said. Bulent Eczacibasi,
president of the board of directors of Eczacibasi Holding, said any
boycott against the French firms in Turkey would harm the Turkish
economy. “It would not be wise to punish those companies working in
Turkey; by doing that we will hurt ourselves. We should be calm and
our steps should be outcome-oriented. We should avoid taking steps
with anger that could be detrimental to ourselves,” he said. In
a last warning to France over the Armenian genocide denial bill,
Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek said bilateral ties were under threat of
“irreparable damage” and urged French lawmakers to use “common sense”.

The planned bill has united Turkey’s ruling and opposition parties
in Parliament, which in a joint declaration denounced it as a “grave,
unacceptable and historic mistake”.