Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Problem or Challenge?: National currency down about 16 percent over year ago

ECONOMY | 29.01.15 | 15:05

By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

The downturn of Russia’s economy resulting from Western sanctions
negatively affects Armenia, but could also be an opportunity,
economists say.

At a discussion Thursday at Media Center in Yerevan, Ashot
Khurshudyan, an expert with the International Center for Human
Development, predicted that if Saudi oil prices continue to drop, the
already-weakened Armenian dram will deflated further. The national
currency has felt the impact of the 34-percent depreciation of the
Russian ruble, dropping by Thursday to 475 drams/US dollar (as opposed
to 409 this time last year).

According to Khurshudyan, the current situation is not profitable for
Armenian producers, either, while many products of Russian origin may
become cheaper and throw local producers out of competition.

Nevertheless, the US dollar’s appreciation may not last long, as,
according to economist Tatul Manaseryan, Head of Alternative Research
Center, because of decrease of export volumes the US might implement
artificial devaluation of the dollar.

“Global tendencies will reflect on Armenia, and in order to prevent
the country from being a simply a passive recipient, we must use the
opportunities the crisis has created,” Manaseryan said.

According to the expert, Armenia can use the opportunity and cut down
its dependency on transfers, or import cheaper materials from Russia
and use them in production.

“We must also open the doors for high technologies, and not tax
equipment running on new technologies,” Manaseryan added saying that
currently only those who import equipment of more than one million AMD
use this advantage.

“This adds water to the mill of business,” the economist said.

Meline Toumani, the Armenian Genocide and the Politics of Appeasement
Posted: 01/28/2015 5:34 pm EST Updated: 01/28/2015 5:59 pm EST

Huff Post Books

Christopher Atamian
Writer/Producer/Director

Meline Toumani’s puzzling and sometimes maddening first book *There Was and
There Was Not: A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia
and Beyond* purports to analyze the hatred still separating Armenians and
Turks on the eve of the one hundredth commemoration of the Armenian
Gencocide. The biggest problem with the expos©e lies perhaps in Toumani’s
underlying assumptions, i.e. that Armenians and Turks all hate each other
and in equating victim and perpetrator. Toumani is usually a fluid writer,
but here she gets lost in an often muddled and contradictory analysis.

The author has a point when it comes to Genocide obsession among certain
Armenians, though by this late date, it is no longer a particularly
original one. Armenians as a group do spend a lot of time talking about and
trying to convince the world of the terrors they experienced from 1915 to
1923 when the Ottoman Turks massacred some 1.5 million Armenians along with
another 1.5 million Christian Assyrian and Pontic Greeks. For over a
decade, others have made the same point that Toumani makes and more
eloquently. Curator Neery Melkonian, for one, has said time and again that
the Armenian obsession with genocide hinders their ability to move forward
as a progressive people and reach their true, brilliant potential. And
theorist Marc Nichanian has argued that it is demeaning to keep begging the
world for recognition: everyone, including those Turks who really want to
know, are aware of what really happened from 1915 to 1923 — the Armenian
Genocide was amply documented and written about when it happened and
afterwards for the last century.

At times, Toumani’s book seems to be more of an expos©e of her own
insecurities and shame. She reproduces often demeaning stereotypes about
Armenian physical appearance, cultural traditions and all manner of details
that she would be taken to harsh task for were she writing about another
ethnic group. And after all, why shouldn’t Armenians in the far-flung
diaspora obsess about the Armenian genocide, one may justifiably ask?
Unlike the Jews and the terrifying Holocaust of WWII for example, the
Armenian Genocide has never been properly acknowledged and lost property,
money and trauma never compensated by its perpetrator, the Turkish
government. The glowing reception that her book has received in the press
seems to buttress those who argue that the publishing world sometimes works
in lockstep with mainstream elites and governmental structures who have
tried their best to get Armenians to lay down their claims to reparations
and thus appease the often aggressively denialist governments of the
modern-day Republic of Turkey.

After recounting how embarrassed she was growing up by all manner of things
Armenian, Toumani recounts her four-year stay in Turkey where she meets
Turks who — what do you know — seem human after all. They are not
grotesque aliens, Klingons dead-set on devouring Christian children. But
who ever thought they were? Toumani spends time in Armenia as well. Upon
arriving with a friend in Yerevan, the country’s capital, she writes: “I
was embarrassed. I had lured Gretchen along by telling her that Yerevan was
a beautiful city. But the city I saw now looked shabby and grim on that
first glance into the haze.” (p199) Yerevan is a fact a pleasant mid-sized
city of pink tuff stone increasingly dotted with modern western-style
constructions. In what parallel cultural universe, one wonders, did Toumani
ever expect Yerevan, a city built by half-starved and tubercular genocide
survivors, to equal Istanbul the former capital of Byzantium, a city of
twelve million lining the Bosphorus?

Early on in her book, the author describes some perhaps lamentable scenes
at an Armenian summer camp in Massachusetts run by the nationalist Tashnag
party. At one point, a howling room of swarthy teenagers scream at each
other in support of or against the Lisbon Five, a group of Armenian
terrorists who, in a botched 1983 attempt to blow up the Turkish Ambassador
to Portugal, blew themselves up instead — along with the Ambassador’s wife
and a Portuguese police officer: “-An eye for an eye! -The ends justify the
means!…I noticed a young camper, Julie, weeping quietly while her friend
rubbed her back — but then Julie was always crying about something…As
the debate continued, things grew chaotic. A folded-up metal chair slid to
the ground with a clatter…The glass in the sliding doors fogged up.
Younger kids squirmed as the older campers and counselors argued on. Some
said the men were martyrs and that Turkish denial of the genocide was too
powerful for softer measures.” (p17-18) These people, Meline contends, are
somehow emblematic of the average Armenian viewpoint. But who in their
right mind would ever defend blowing up innocent people in the name of any
cause?

Had Toumani instead attended St Gregory’s, another summer camp in Cape Cod
run by Mekhitarist priests, she would have found the emphasis was on
religion. At Camp Nubar, a wildly popular camp in the Catskills run by the
somewhat bourgeois*parekordzagan* or Ramgavar-affiliated AGBU, the emphasis
was on togetherness and fun. (For the record, I attended all three). It is
not my intention here to argue which “version” of Armenian life or identity
is preferable or even which one I subscribe to, if any. I am perfectly able
to think for myself as are most of my Armenian friends and colleagues. I
have always had Turkish friends and as a Harvard undergrad, I dated a
Turkish girl who later became a career denialist and Turkish diplomat.
Frustration at the Turkish Government’s refusal to do the right thing, I
have always felt. Hope that one day the two people would reconcile, I have
always wished for. Hate, however, was never part of the equation.

Another example of journalistic bad faith. Toumani grew speaking Eastern
Armenian as opposed to Western Armenian like most Armenian-Americans: one
dialect’s “t” is another’s “d” for example, so that when she heard the term
“Hai Tad” (“Armenian Cause”) at camp she didn’t at first understand that it
meant “Hai Dat,” as Iranian-Armenians pronounce it. Do Hai Tad and Hai Dat
really sound so different?: “Thus the words Hai Tahd did not communicate
anything to me. I sometimes imagined my elementary school classmate, Todd
Twersky, showing up unannounced at the perimeter of the campground. Hi,
Tod.” (p16) I didn’t speak a word of Armenian when I attended Camp
Haiastan, but I never once confused Hai Tad with any boy named Tod, and I
find it hard to believe anyone else ever did either.

Though I staunchly believe in the need for an apology from Turkey and
proper reparations, the Armenian Genocide is not something that keeps me up
at night. I suspect most Armenians are more similar to me than the
caricatured nationalists Toumani describes in her book. Her apparent
inability to comprehend the feelings of Istanbul Armenians who are trapped
between a cultural rock and a hard place — neither Turkish enough for
Turks nor Armenian enough for Armenians — also begs credulity for someone
so bright and well-educated as she. And when she doesn’t get the
acknowledgment from ethnic Turks that she was hoping in Turkey, Toumani
admits to being more confused than before she left.

In the end Toumani’s book would have been more honest and effective had she
titled it: “Ultra-Nationalism and its Discontents” and simply studied some
of the Armenian community’s more right-wing members. That her book was
published in 2015 seems particularly insensitive, as if she were trying to
rub salt in the wounds of collective Armenian memory. The ultimate irony of
course is that of all the thousands of topics Armenian and non-Armenian
that Toumani could have chosen to dedicate her first book to, she chose
what else, but the very one she claims to be trying to distance herself
from.

All In the Family: Armenian Prime Minister’s Booming Business Empire

Grisha Balasanyan
14:00, October 20, 2014

Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan currently owns more than
fifty businesses in Armenia, butnone are officially registered under
his name.

Abrahamyan owns them via proxies ` his family members. (He’s married,
has three children and seven grandchildren)

This way he’s not in violation of the Armenian Constitution
prohibiting government officials from engaging in commercial
enterprise while in office.

During a May 15 cabinet session Abrahamyan declared that the
government had adopted measures to create a level economic playing
field for all and that all entrepreneurs must work on and equal
footing.

Prime Minister’s Verbal Gaffe

The prime minister then put his foot in his mouth by declaring: `And I
want to say that I will start with myself, so that all understand the
need for equality.’ In essence, Abrahamyan stated that he too was a
businessman who hadn’t been playing fairly up till then.

While the prime minister doesn’t officially own any businesses, his
financial disclosures, which all top officials must submit yearly,
tell quite another story.

For example, Hovik Abrahamyan’s financial disclosure as of April 13,
2014 (the day he became prime minister) shows 269 million AMD
(US$656,642) and US$1.940 million in bank deposits. Revenues are
listed as 4,110,330 AMD (the prime minister’s yearly salary) and an
additional 40 million AMD (US$97,642) as `other income’.

No one can say what the sources of this `other income’ are. The
Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials, the oversight body
that receives such disclosures, sees fit not to ask.

When you look at Abrahamyan’s official bio, one seeks that the prime
minister’s last job in the private sector was way back in 1995 as the
director of the Artashat Wine and Brandy Factory. He’s been in public
service, in various capacities, ever since.

The question thus arises, how did Abrahamyan and his wife become millionaires?

Hovik Abrahamyan’s private house in Mkhchyan village

On May 21 of this year, when the parliament was debating the
government’s economic reform package, MP Nikol Pashinyan directly
asked Abrahamyan how he became so rich if he wasn’t engaged in
business.

The prime minister responded that Pashinyan shouldn’t take such a
`negative stance’ towards business, adding that: `As to my assets,
I’ve never concealed the fact that I own things. I’ve revealed it all
according to the letter of the law in detail. I worked in those years
in the agricultural sector, back when it was permissible. During my
various government posts, I never acquired any holdings and neither
did I accrue them through corrupt practices.’

Prime Minister’s Missing Nine Years

Abrahamyan’s bio states that his first job from 1990 to 199 working as
division head of the Burastan Brandy Factory. It also states that he
graduated from the Yerevan Institute of National Economy, but no dates
are given.

If, as stated, the prime minister was born in 1958, entered the
institute at the age of 18 and then spent five years studying there,
we arrive at the year 1981. So what did Abrahamyan do in the
interveningnine years before getting a job at Burastan?

Prime Minister Abrahamyan first worked here

In his native village of Mkhchyan, a senior resident told me that
Abrahamyan worked as a laborer at an auto repair shop before Burastan.
The old man even showed me the place which now belongs to Abrahamyan’s
family according to workers we talked to there.

The Abrahamyans must have other income sources than agriculture

The only proof that Abrahamyan is engaged in agriculture appears on
his financial disclosure in the box marked `revenues’. Surprisingly,
Abrahamyan shows no land holdingsin any of his disclosures.

Nevertheless, every year he discloses income from the sale of
agricultural goods. In 2011, when he was president of the National
Assembly, Abrahamyan showed 40 million AMD in related income, 45
million in 2012, and 40 million in 2013. His wife Julieta also
receives similar amounts of income from the sale of agricultural
goods.

But the prime minister controls large tracts of land in Ararat
Province. Just in the village of Narek, he maintains a 120 hectare
parcel (100 grapevines and 20 hay fields) registered under his wife’s
name.

Julieta Abrahamyan’s land in Narek village

Narek Mayor Garoush Hakobyan told me, `Argam has 120 hectares. If he
didn’t buy it, or I or someone else didn’t, 70% of our lands would
have remained up in the air.’ {Argam is the prime minister’s son}

The Abrahamyan family also owns land in the villages of Kaghtsrashen,
Ourtsadzor and Goravan. (None of the mayors wanted to speak to Hetq on
the topic).

Armenian Prime Minister Declares Level Playing Field¦But Wife’s
Businesses Appear Exempt

The irrigation network in Narek and Kaghtsrashen are in bad shape and
there’s a scarcity of water. While the Abrahamyan family lands are
irrigated by another network, they too are impacted by the water
shortage.

In 2013, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development issued
Armenia a 25 year US$30 million loan to improve the country’s
irrigation infrastructure. The Armenian government chipped in US$7.5
million of its own towards the project. According to the project, the
villages of Narek and Kaghtsrashen, along with Abrahamyan family
lands, are to be guaranteed water from the River Azat on a gravity fed
basis.

The Abrahamyans: Annual Income from Sale of Agricultural Goods (in AMD)

Income Derived from Sale of Agricultural Goods (AMD)

N

Name

2011Õ©.

2012Õ©.

2013Õ©.

1

Hovik Abrahamyan

40,000,000

45,000,000

40,000,000

2

Julieta Abrahamyan

45,000,000

48,000,000

45,000,000

As the numbers in the below chart clearly imply, the Mr. and Mrs.
Abrahamyan do not only receive income from the sale of agricultural
goods.

Monetary Resources and Income

N

Name

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

1

Hovik Abrahamyan

Monetary Resources

—

310,000,000 AMD

2,100,000 USD

290.000.000

AMD

2,050,000 USD

280,000,000

AMD

2,000,000 USA

27,000,000

AMD

1,950,000 USA

Income

29,499,760

AMD

25,515,220

AMD

43,671,030

AMD

49,256,010

AMD

42,976,200

AMD

2

Julieta Abrahamyan

Monetary Resources

—

315,000,000

AMD

3,020,000 USD

300,000,000

AMD

2,900,000 USD

302,000,000

AMD

2,900,000USD

300,000,000

AMD

2,850,000USD

Income

—

—

45.000.000 AMD

Only from sale of agricultural goods

48.000.000

AMD

Only from sale of agricultural goods

45.000.000

AMD

Only from sale of agricultural goods

Businesses owned by Mr. and Mrs. Hovik Abrahamyan

No commercial enterprise can be launched in Ararat Province without
the participation of the Abrahamyan family. They have shares in many
businesses and oversee the province’s economy. Hovik Abrahamyan has
brought his brother Henrik and Henrik’s son Hovhannes into many of his
businesses. No wonder then that Rafik (another brother of Hovik) and
their father Argam have been elected to the Mkhchyan municipal
Council. Arsen Abrahamyan, a nephew of the prime minister, now serves
as the head of the Ararat Provincial Police. After being appointed the
prime minister, Hovik Abrahamyan’s son-in-law Vahan Mamikonyan was
appointed the tax agency head in Shengavit (a district of Yerevan),
while another son-in-law, Vladimir Tamrazyan was appointed head of the
Zvartnots International Airport Customs Department

Preserves, wine and cognac production

Entrance to Artashat Vincon store and factoryRear View of the factory

Artashat Vincon CJSC, located in Ararat Province, produces wine,
cognac and other alcoholic beverages. 50% of the shares are owned by
the prime minister’s son Argam Abrahamyan and 50% by Hovhannes
Abrahamyan (the son of the prime minister’s brother Henrik).

Between 2010 and 2011, the company took out a total of US$500,000 in
loans from various banks. Hovik Abrahamyan, then president of
Armenia’s parliament, cosigned as guarantor on a few of them. In
return, according to our sources, the company serves as guarantor for
Hovik Abrahamyan, allowing him to take out bank loans.

Vikom-Lab Ltd., also in alcoholic beverage production, was founded
by Hovhannes Abrahamyan in 2012 with Armenian and Canadian partners.
Hovhannes Abrahamyan and Steven Bryan Fera each owns 45% of shares.
The remaining 10% belong to Laura Petrosyan.

“ARTFOOD” Artashat Cannery is another business owned by Argam
Abrahamyan. Vachagan Karapetyan, son of Armenian Minister of
Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan, is a 50% shareholder. The general
manager is Armen Lazarian.

Artfood plant

In October 2012 the company received a five year 300 million AMD loan
from the Small and Medium Enterprises Investments Universal Credit
Organization (`SME Investments’ UCO), a government created credit
agency. Argam Abrahamyan signed as the loan guarantor.

Hetq sent an inquiry to SME Investments UCO executive Director Artur
Badalyan about this loan. Badalyan refused to comment, arguing that he
had no authority to respond under Armenian law.

Gasoline and natural gas stations bring in big bucks for the prime
minister’s relatives

Prime Minister’s Son to Open Largest Shopping Center in Artashat

The road from Artashat to Yeraskh is lined with gasoline and natural
gas stations owned by relatives of the prime minister.

Mai-Arg Ltd., owned equally by Argam Abrahamyan and Mkhchyan village
resident Nara Melkonyan, has several fueling stations in the area.

Trans Gaz Ltd., established this year, is another fueling station
company partially owned by Argam Abrahamyan (30%). 25% is owned by
Gagik Poghosyan (brother of Republican Party MP Karineh Poghosyan) and
a relative of Hovik Abrahamyan on his maternal side.

Hovik Abrahamyan’s gas stations in Artashat

Dalar Gaz Ltd., also established this year, was owned exclusively by
Argam Abrahamyan until September 26 when 100% ownership reverted to
Khachatur Hovsepyan, its director.

The company is registered at the same address as Gagik Poghosyan.
Doubtlessly, the change of owners was a formality and that Argam
Abrahamyan remains the true owner.

Of interest is that in 2013 Khachatur Hovsepyan founded a fuel
importing company called Navt and Gas Ltd. (Hovsepyan owns 50% and
Yerevan resident Roman Muradyan owns 50%)

The company delivers fuel to stations throughout Yerevan and surrounding cities.

Metzn Argami Ltd. was established in 2007 by Gagik Poghosyan. One year
later he handed 100% of the shares to the prime minister’s wife
Julieta Abrahamyan.

The company operates a number of gasoline stations and other shopping
sites in Artashat and surrounding villages. One of the gas stations is
located at the entrance to Mkhchyan village. The company’s main
business is the buying and selling of foodstuffs and non-food items.

Arashag Ltd. operates gas stations along the Artashat-Yeraskh roadway.
Gagik Poghosyan owns 40% of the shares. The company is also engaged in
construction, automotive repair, and foodstuff and non-foodstuff
trade.

One of Hovan-Lian Group’s natural gas filling stations

Hovan-Lian Group Ltd. is also a prominent owner of natural gas
stations. Henrik Abrahamyan and former MP Armen Pourdoyan own equal
shares in the company, which is named after their children Hovan and
Lian.

Ard-Gaz Ltd., created in 2013, is a new natural gas station company
servicing the village of Mkhchyan. Henrik Abrahamyan and fellow
village resident Gayaneh Hovsepyan own 30% each, with Sousanna
Khachatryan, a resident of Abovyan who also serves as company manager,
owning the remaining 40%.

(To be continued)

Armenian Parliament to discuss statement on Greek and Assyrian
genocides in Ottoman Empire

16:31 * 29.01.15

Armenian Parliament Vice-Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov hosted on Thursday
representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities of Armenia.

Mr Sharmazanov welcomed the guests and explained the reason for the
meeting: he and other MPs are drafting a statement condemning the
Greek and Assyrian genocides in the Ottoman Empire in 1914-1923.

The aim of the initiative is to remedy historical injustice, protect
human rights and struggle against Turkey’s genocide denial policy.

Crimes against humanity are likely to recur unless the entire
civilized world condemns them, and the denial policy in the 21st
century is unacceptable.

Members of different parliamentary factions welcome the draft
statement, and the Parliament plans to approve it at its spring
session.

Representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities thanked Mr
Sharmazanov for the draft and present their proposals on further
cooperation.

Threat of Drought in Armenia: Drinking and Irrigation Water Levels in Danger

01.29.2015 11:51 epress.am

Due to the scarcity of precipitation during the winter, Armenia is in
danger of a drought, writes Haykakan Zhamanak daily.

The level of snow coverage around the Republic is 60% below the
season’s norm. That signifies that the large reservoirs have not been
filled. According to experts, if there is no heavy snowfall by
February 15 and abundant rain in March, Armenia will have serious
problems with drinking and irrigation water.

168 Zham: Armenia-EU Association deal no longer on agenda

09:52 * 29.01.15

The Association Agreement, negotiated between Armenia and the EU back
in 2013, is no longer on table, according to the European commissioner
for enlargement.

Speaking to the paper, Johannes Hahn said that the deal was viewed as
a complete package comprising also the Deep and Comprehensive Free
Trade Area Agreement. Commenting on the possibility of signing a new
deal, the European official said that it has to be a new document, but
the paper says that he did not reportedly rule out the possibility of
the formerly negotiated agreement’s influence.

Armenian army’s might not limited to weapons – ex-lawmaker

10:52 * 29.01.15

The Armenian Army’s power is not restricted to its soldiers and
weapons, as our military derives much of inspiration also from culture
and the realizations of our national identity, according to Azat
Arshakyan, a former lawmaker and a Soviet-time political prisoner.

In an interview with Tert.am, the politician said he doesn’t think
that the Azerbaijani army has enough willpower to take advantage over
Armenia despite its tremendous material and human resources.

“As long as the Republic of Armenia exists, the Armenian Armed Forces
will be efficient. And they have the necessary potential which is
quite enough to inflict a heavy blow on the adversary. This, I
believe, is an obvious evaluation,” he noted.

Arshakyan he sees that Azerbaijan’s failure to use its potential and
resources blatantly demonstrates the country’s fear of losing a
possible battle to Armenia.

“They never cross the border; as for the efficiency – quantity, modern
super-powerful equipment, personnel training etc – there is only one
way to check all that: military operations. If they are really that
strong, then they have to use it. A rifle hanging on the wall shoots,
as they say, amidst or at the end of the play. As long as they do not
use their military potential, they aren’t confident that they can do
that,” he said, citing the Pan-Turkish polcies aimed at destroying the
Armenian statehood like the ancient civilizations (Assyrian, Coptic
states etc).

Arshakyan said he knows that the Azerbaijanis themselves admit that
the Armenian army’s potential means much more than just soldiers and
arms. “The Azerbaijanis themselves have given the evaluation, which is
absolutely right. They say the Armenian Army is not only soldiers and
weapons but also Martiros Saryan, Arno Babajanyan, Aram Khachatryan –
I mean the Armenian culture and the realization of the Armenian
identity. It is important to see today that our soldier and our army
are the bearer of that cultural layer and that civilization too. What
protects an Armenian is the cultural climate; that is why he always
wins, knowing the culture and history behind,” Arshakyan added.

Eduard Sharmazanov: “OSCE MG’s latest statement was unprecedented, as
the mediators took Baku down a peg for the first time ever ”

by Tatevik Shahunyan

ARMINFO
Thursday, January 29, 10:32

The latest statement of the OSCE Minsk Group co- chairs was
unprecedented, as, for the first time ever, the mediators addressed
one of the parties to the conflict with a call and even demand, Eduard
Sharmazanov, Spokesperson of the Republican Party of Armenia, Vice
Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, told ArmInfo.

“In their statement, the mediators took Baku down a peg for the first
time ever. In January, Azerbaijan suffered defeat both in the
battlefield – in its own raids – and in the diplomatic field,”
Sharmazanov said.

To recall, in their latest statement the mediators, particularly,
said: “The rise in violence that began last year must stop for
confidence to be restored and progress to be made in the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. We called on Azerbaijan to observe its
commitments to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. We also call on
Armenia to take all measures to reduce tensions. All sides must abide
by the terms of the ceasefire agreement. Violence undermines efforts
to bring about peace.”

ONU
Le président israélien reconnait le génocide arménien à l’ONU

Le Président israélien Reuven Rivlin a déclaré mercredi devant
l’Assemblée générale des Nations Unies que les accusations “cyniques”
contre Israël de crimes de génocide et de guerre nuisent à la capacité
de l’organisation mondiale pour lutter contre la vraie chose.

Prenant la parole afin de marquer la Journée internationale du
Souvenir de l’Holocauste devant l’assemblée, Reuven Rivlin a mentionné
le génocide arménien de 1915 – la mort de plus d’un million de
ressortissants arméniens par la Turquie – qui n’est pourtant pas
reconnu comme un génocide par Israël affirme le journal Haaretz.

Rivlin a déclaré :

Zoryan Institute
George Shirinian, Executive Director
255 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 310
Toronto, ON
Canada M3B 3H9
Tel: 416-250-9807
Fax: 416-512-1736

PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Shannon Scully
DATE: January 28, 2015
TEL: 416-250-9807

European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber hears
Perinçek v. Switzerland case

Strasbourg, France-The European Court of Human Rights held a Grand Chamber
hearing today, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at 9.15 a.m. in Strasbourg,
France on the case of Perinçek v. Switzerland (application no. 27510/08).
The case concerns the criminal conviction of Turkish politician Doðu
Perinçek for publicly denying the Armenian Genocide while in Switzerland.
On March 9, 2007, the Lausanne Police Court had convicted Mr. Perinçek of
racial discrimination under Article 261 bis, Paragraph 4 of the Swiss
Criminal Code, finding that his motives were of a racist tendency and did
not merely contribute to a historical debate. After exhausting his appeals,
which were dismissed at various levels of the Swiss courts including the
Federal Court of Switzerland, Mr. Perinçek’s appealed to the ECHR on June
10, 2008.

View the trial on the ECHR website: by clicking on
Webcast, Perinçek v. Switzerland (no. 27510/08)

The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (IIGHRS)
(A Division of the Zoryan Institute) was represented as observers at the
Grand Chamber, by its President, Mr. K.M. Greg Sarkissian and Mr. R.
Bedrosyan, an advisor to the Zoryan Institute on Turkish-Armenian issues.
They had worked jointly with the Human Rights Association of Turkey and the
Truth Justice Memory Centre to submit a third party amicus brief, for which
this Armenian-Turkish coalition had been granted leave by the Grand Chamber.

According to Payam Akhavan, the lawyer representing a coalition of Turkish
and Armenian human rights associations:

We have emphasized that the case is not about the historical truth as such.
>From the perspective of human rights law, freedom of expression under
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, is subjected to
certain limitations. One of those is when speech amounts to incitement to
discrimination and hatred. So debates about the historical truth or legal
classification of atrocities as genocide or some other label are not the
real issue. The fundamental issue is whether Perinçek’s statements when
considered in their proper context constitute incitement to discrimination
and hatred.

The Applicant, Mr. Doðu Perinçek, Chairman of the Socialist Workers Party of
Turkey, with ties to the nationalist Talat Pasha Organization, stated the
following:

We are here for the freedom of expression of the people of Europe. I have
always shared the pain of our Armenian nationals…Genocide allegations have
turned into a tool to humiliate the Turks.

Mr. Perinçek had travelled to Switzerland to speak at a conference and made
public appearances wherein he referred to the Armenian Genocide as an
“international lie” and defended his position during today’s hearing as
follows:

This is an imperialist lie, an international lie. It’s been brought to the
fore by the Imperialist powers – they were the parties to the First World
War, they were against the Ottoman Empire which was basically why such a
propaganda was started against the Ottoman Empire.

Frank Schurmann, the lawyer representing Switzerland, stressed that
Perinçek’s statements amounted to hate speech against Armenians. Mr.
Schurmann substantiated this by referring to the written submission jointly
prepared by the IIGHRS and the two Turkish NGOs which documented Perinçek’s
racist and anti-Armenian activities in Turkey.

Mr. Gevorg Kostanyan, prosecutor general of Armenia and Agent representing
the government of Armenia during the proceedings, said:

As an intervener, Armenia’s role is to point to the correct principles under
which this case should be decided and to indicate errors that have infected
the lower court judgment. Whether or not its conclusion was correct does not
matter, as much as certain misstatements of fact, which have comforted
genocide deniers throughout the world. We are here to ensure that such
errors should never be repeated by a court that speaks in the name of human
rights.

Mr. Geoffrey Robertson, Counsel representing the Armenian Government, began
his argument by referring to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human
Rights:

It sets up a presumption in favour of free speech, in a Convention that
protects other rights to human dignity, to live free of torture and
discrimination, to say “I am Jewish,” “I am Muslim,” or “I am Armenian,”
without fear that the race we happen to be born into will be stigmatised as
inferior or sub-human.

He also referred to “egregious errors” made by the Lower Chamber, which he
urged the Grand Chamber not to repeat. Mr. Robertson summed up the key issue
in the case as follows:

The issue in this case is whether the Swiss law, under which this man,
Perinçek, was convicted.conforms to the Freedom of Expression Guarantee
under Article 10 of the European Convention.Article 10 has its proviso,
which permits speech to be restrained by law on those occasions when it’s
likely to and intended to, cause harm to incite racial violence or hatred.
Now, in the mouth of a rabid racist with a doctorate in law and a political
party at his back, and people waving flags and fists outside this Court now,
genocide denial can have a double impact: It makes the survivors of
genocide and their children and grandchildren feel the worthlessness and
contempt and inferiority that the initial perpetrators intended, and it
incites admiration for those perpetrators and a dangerous desire to emulate
them. In this case, the Swiss courts decided that Perinçek’s intentions
were racist.that his words in the Turkish language were designed to arouse
his supporters in Turkey to hate Armenians and applaud his hero, Talat
Pasha, the Ottoman Hitler.

Mrs. Amal Alamuddin-Clooney, also representing Armenia, made her opening
statement thusly,

The most important error in the Court’s judgment is that it has cast doubt
on the fact that there was a genocide against the Armenian people 100 years
ago. I will argue that a finding on genocide was first, not necessary in
this case; second, that it was reached without a proper forensic process;
and third and most importantly – that it was wrong. The court itself
admitted that it was “not required to determine” whether the massacres
suffered by Armenians amounted to genocide…

She pointed out that the Ottoman military courts convicted the principal
perpetrators, including Talat Pasha, for the mass murders rather than
genocide because the word had not yet been invented. In her concluding
remarks, Mrs. Alamuddin-Clooney stated:

Armenia, as a third party intervening in this case, has not made submissions
on the merits and is not here to argue against freedom of expression – any
more than Turkey is here to defend it. This court knows very well how
disgraceful Turkey’s record on free expression is.So although this case
involves a Turkish citizen, Armenia has every interest in ensuring that its
own citizens do not get caught in a net that criminalizes speech too
broadly. And the family of Mr. Hrant Dink know that all too well.The stakes
could not be higher for the Armenian people. The decision you are reviewing
was a serious step in the wrong direction. Perinçek and his colleagues on
the Talat Pasha Committee, the committee named after the principal
perpetrators of the Genocide and deemed by the European Parliament to be
xenophobic, have celebrated the judgment in its current terms and
triumphantly proclaimed that it has solved the ‘Armenian Question’ once and
for all…We hope that the Grand Chamber will set the record straight.

The IIGHRS and its Turkish coalition partners hope that the Grand Chamber of
the European Court of Human Rights indeed sets the record straight by
confirming that the case is about the speech by Perinçek with the intent of
incitement to discrimination and hatred and not a debate about historical
truth or of a legal classification of genocide.

The Grand Chamber is expected to render its judgment in approximately 6 to 8
months.

The Zoryan Institute and its subsidiary, the International Institute for
Genocide and Human Rights Studies, is the first non-profit, international
center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary issues with
a focus on Genocide, Diaspora and Armenia.

For more information please contact the Zoryan Institute by email
[email protected] or telephone 416-250-9807.