Author: Kalantarian Kevo

IRAN
Un Monument dédié au génocide arménien inauguré à Téhéran
Un monument dédié aux victimes du génocide arménien a été érigé dans
la cour de l’Eglise catholique Saint-Grégoire l’Illuminateur de
Téhéran.
Comme le rapporte Alik le quotidien arménien d’Iran le monument a été
consacré par le patriarche Nerses Petros XIX. Dans son discours après
la consécration, le Patriarche a déclaré que l’existence d’un monument
dédié au génocide arménien à côté de l’église rappellera aux héritiers
des victimes du génocide arménien une fois de plus leurs racines
Arméniennes et les valeurs découlant de ces racines, ainsi que la
nécessité de préserver l’identité nationale et d’obtenir les droits
qui ont été volés aux Arméniens.
Le patriarche a également mentionné que le Pape François sera présent
lors d’une Divine Liturgie dédiée au 100e anniversaire au génocide
arménien au Vatican le 12 Avril 2015.
dimanche 25 janvier 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

COMMUNAUTE-VALENCE (DRÔME)
Le C24 organisera les manifestations liées au 24 Avril à Valence – Photos

Réunie à la Maison de la Culture Arménienne de Valence (Drôme)
vendredi 23 janvier en présence d’une vingtaine d’associations,
l’Assemblée générale extraordinaire du C24 (Comité du 24 Avril) de
Drôme-Ardèche a validé les statuts et le règlement intérieur de
l’organisation. Ces derniers ont été approuvés par les votes de
l’assemblée, qui forme le conseil d’administration, et qui a élu son
bureau de 7 membres. Un bureau qui a aussitôt désigné ses trois
co-présidents : Georges Ishacian, Krikor Amirzayan et Georges
Rastklan. Le C24 organisera les manifestions liées aux commémorations
liées au 24 avril à Valence et Bourg-lès-Valence avec le concours des
municipalités, des différentes autorités civiles et religieuses, et la
participation active de toutes les associations qui s’uniront dans un
programme unique.

L’Assemblée Générale Extraordinaire du C24 (Comité du 24 Avril) Drôme-Ardèche

Communiqué du C24 (Comité du 24 Avril Drôme Ardèche) 2bis Rue de la
Manutention 26000 Valence, Contact : [email protected]
:

BGN News, Turkey
Jan 24 2015

Attempt to associate Dink murder with `Hizmet’, slammed by Friends of Hrant

by Kamil Maman

`Friends of Hrant’ has harshly criticized the ruling Justice and
Development (AK Party) government over attempting to associate Dink’s
murder with the Hizmet movement, inspired by the Turkish Islamic
scholar Fethullah Gülen.

A group called `Friends of Hrant’ gathered in front of ÇaÄ?layan
Courthouse and held a press conference before the eight hearing in the
retrial of the Dink murder on Friday.

Calling on Turkish authorities to expose the real criminals behind the
Dink murder on behalf of the group, Cumhuriyet columnist Aydın Engin
stated that there is an attempt to associate the Dink murder with a
one individual or a group.

`There are attempts being made to associate the murder with the
nondescript structure called ‘parallel.’ However, we have known from
the beginning that it was a murder of national reconciliation,’ said
Aydın during a press conference.

`Parallel structure’ was a term invented by President Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an to refer to the Gülen movement (Hizmet movement).

Underlining that the trial is nothing more than a show, he added
`Concealed evidence, suspected public officials being promoted instead
of convicted and court decisions have made them all pessimistic.’

Claiming that Dink was murdered as a result of cooperation between
police, soldiers, the National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) and
some provocateurs, Aydın said `We know the names of most of the public
officials involved in the murder. They cannot make us believe in this
deceit. They cannot confine this trial only to the parallel
[structure] or any other particular structure.’

Dink was the editor-in-chief of the weekly Agos, and was considered to
be one of the most prominent Armenian voices in Turkey. He was shot
and killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager, who is serving a sentence
of 22 years and 10 months in a prison.

Jan 24, 2015 | Kamil Maman | Ä°stanbul

Outlook, India
Jan 24 2015

India, The Firangi Mahal

For over 500 years, migrants have settled down in India and
contributed to a splendiferous intermingling of ideas

Jonathan Gil Harris

It is sometimes hard for us to think of Westerners who lived in India
prior to independence as anything other than agents of invasion,
conquest, colonialism and imperialism. This is not surprising, given
the history of the subcontinent. The spectre of the British Raj still
casts an understandably long shadow. But it’s a mistake to assume that
every Eur-opean who came to India before 1947 was a would-be
colonialist–or that Westerners who had been arriving to live in India
before the East India Comp-any came here were setting the stage for
their more powerful descendants.

A large number of foreign migrants to India during the 16th and 17th
centuries came not to conquer and command, but with much humbler
ambitions: to escape poverty and persecution. Much of Europe,
including England, was at this time an economic backwater. Global
economic power was still largely concentrated in Asian empires–Ottoman
Turkey, Safavid Persia, Mughal Hindustan, Ming and Qing China. The
glamour of Eastern power is partly why many less well-off Europeans
settled in India.

Most of these poor migrants were simply economic refugees. But some
were criminals; some were religious dissidents; some were even what we
might call sexual dissidents. Many others had no choice at all in the
matter of their migration, having arrived in India as slaves,
indentured servants, or possessions of their lords, fathers and
husbands. Nearly all of them served an Indian master, and in a way
that necessitated submitting to local languages and customs. In the
process, these migrants became Indian. They ate Indian food, wore
Indian clothes, fought in Indian armies, converted to Indian
religions, performed Indian rituals, acquired Indian knowledge, made
Indian friends and enemies, fell in love with Indians, and had Indian
children.

To become Indian in the 16th and 17th centuries was not to become one
monolithic thing. What migrants became depended on their environmental
as much as cultural and economic locations. To become Indian in the
coconut-rich hinterland of the Konkan coast meant something quite
different from what it meant in the typhoon-drenched, mosquito- and
tiger-dominated terrain of the Sundarbans or in the arid hills of the
Deccan plateau. Likewise, to become Indian in the fakir-congested
galis of Ajmer meant something quite different from what it meant in
the luxurious havelis of Agra or in the Mughal harem of Lahore. Each
location prompted different bodily transformations.

In the 16th or 17th century, for a migrant to ‘become’ Indian meant
different things in different places. It meant one thing in the
Konkan, another in Ajmer.

For all their diversity, however, these locations did have one thing
in common. To lesser and greater extents, and for different reasons,
each were multicultural spaces. The Konkan coast was the home of many
religious refugees, including undercover Jews escaping the Inquisition
in the Iberian peninsula and Catholics escaping Protestant persecution
in England. The Sundarbans provided river and island hideouts to
pirate communities comprised of Bengalis, Burmese and Europeans. The
Deccan sultanates were ruled by Persian and Turkish elites who brought
foreign merchants, physicians and soldiers–including enslaved
Ethiopian Africans or Hab-shis–into cities such as Aurangabad,
Ahmednagar and Hyderabad. In addition to installing Persians and
Central Asians as courtiers and retaining mercenary soldiers from
Europe, the Mughals also welcomed Christian artisans, traders and
priests into their main cities–Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, Lahore, Delhi and
Ajmer.

Each of these different multicultural spaces asked migrants to
cultivate distinctive new bodily skills and habits. Which is to say:
these spaces not only offered migrants new homes. They also
functioned as engines of bodily transformation. The foreigners who
settled in them altered their bodies by eating Indian spices,
weathering Indian heat, and succumbing to Indian illnesses. Just as
importantly, their bodies were also transformed by the acquisition of
new skills specific to the spaces.

Those who joined local armies often brought with them knowledge of how
to handle firearms–a new yet devastatingly effective technology
introduced to the subcontinent in the 16th century. But they also had
to master new bodily techniques: enduring mil-itary manoeuvres in the
heat and moving efficiently through intimidating terrain such as the
rocky highlands of the Deccan, the parched deserts of Rajasthan, or
the Ghats of south India. Migrant warrior sailors in Kerala, such as
the Malaccan slave Chinali, who joined a rogue Malabari navy and
became the scourge of the Portuguese, may have developed sea legs
before coming to India. But in their new subcontinental locations,
they also had to adapt their bodily reflexes to tropical cyclones,
Arabian Sea curre-nts, and the predations of mosquitoes. Foreigners
who joined communities of itinerants in Ajmer or Delhi, such as the
English eccentric Thomas Cory-ate, had to train their bodies to
perf-orm rituals of prostration, to be satisfied with a meagre diet of
rice and dal, and to endure extremes of weather in little or no
clothing. And foreign women living in Mughal harems, such as the
Armenian Bibi Juliana Firangi and the Portuguese slave-turned-courtier
Julenna Dias da Costa, were expected to acquire an ensemble of new
bodily techniques–dancing, singing, wearing robes, beco-ming human
chess pie-ces, even bearing weapons, depe-nding upon their rank and
vocation.

Faraway links A Portuguese family in Bombay, 1880

The migrants were foreign yet not foreign: they came from elsewhere,
yet they and their bodies also became Indian. Indeed, unlike other
European travellers who retu-rned to their homes, all of them left
their bones in the subcontinent. They were emb-raced as locals. Yet
they were still often referred to as outsiders, and in a variety of
ways. The most common term for these migrants was firangi, a Persian
word derived from the Arabic farenji. The latter was itself a medieval
rendering of ‘Frank’ or Frenchman; after all, Franks dominated the
ranks of the Christian Crusad-ers from Europe, a land often known in
the subcontinent as Firangistan.

The subcontinent’s nurturing medium of tolerance has brewed a benign
Babelism that still inspires creativity in Indian arts and ideas.

In pre-British Raj India, however, the firangi was not always a
European. The term was applied variously to Christian migrants from
non-European nations, such as Armenia and Georgia; to migrants who
were native Christian converts from Portuguese Asian colonies such as
Malacca; and to migrants who were Christian slaves from African
territories. And ‘firangi’ was not applied exclusively to Christians.
It was used also of Jewish migrants from Christian nations and even of
some Muslim migrants who had once served Christian masters.

As this suggests, ‘firangi’ in its pre-Raj currency was something of
an indeterminate term. It was not just a generic name for a foreigner.
It referred more precisely to a migrant from a Christian land who had
become Indian yet continued, in fundamental ways, to be marked as
foreign. At times, this liminal status could be a source of
discomf-ort and alienation, not least in loc-ations where the
prevailing religious cultures, especially caste Hindu-ism, valued
pur-ity of body and belief. Yet it could also be a spur to
extraordinary creativity. A remarkable number migrants from humble
backgrounds engaged in innovative thought-experiments–be they
scient-i-fic, literary, military, artistic, artisanal, architectural
or spirit-ual–that could not have happened anywhere but in India, yet
could not have been produced by anyone but a migrant.

Here is a shortlist of such experime-nts. The Portuguese physician and
undercover Jew Garcia da Orta, pers-o-nal doctor to the Sultan of
Ahm-ed-nagar in the 1540-50s, wrote a rather radical treatise on
tropical med-icine based on his knowledge of Arabic and Indo-Islamic
practice as well as his dialogues with local hakims. The dissident
Eng-lish Catholic Tho-mas Stephens, who migr-ated to Rachol, on the
border of Goa and Karnataka, in the late 1570s, and became known as
‘Patri Guru’, authored an 11,000-stanza Marathi purana about Christ
and the transfor-mative power of coconuts. The Russian
slave–turned-admiral Malik Ayaz devised ingenious fortifications to
protect the Gujarati port city of Diu aga-inst the Portuguese in the
early 1500s. Mandu Firangi, a mysterious Euro-pean painter who lived
in Fate-hpur Sikri and Lahore in the 1580s, combined elements of
western and Mug-hal styles to render a blond Ram and Sita. Augu-stin
Hiri-art, a Bas-que jew-eller known to the Mughals as Hun-a-rmand,
created many ingeni-ous devices in Agra from 1614 to 1635, including a
remote device to tame a wild elephant. And the Jewish Armenian
yogi-qalandar Sa’id Sarmad Kashani, Dara Shik-oh’s spiri-tual advisor,
who gave up wearing clot-hes and cutting his hair after falling for
his Hindu lover Abhai Chand in the 1630s, wrote 321 Persian rubaiyyat,
a veritable homoerotic manifesto for religious pluralism.

Even as they transformed their bod-ies, each of these migrants also
helped transform ‘India’ into something more complex and plural than
what we might usually understand by that term. They are a reminder
that India has always been multicultural, and that the presence of
Westerners in India is as Indian a tradition as any. Let us not forget
that Ashoka, the emperor who supposedly united the Indian subcontinent
nearly 2,500 years ago, had a Graeco-Persian step-grandmo-ther and
ordered that his edicts be inscribed not just in ‘native’ Prakrit but
also in ‘foreign’ Aramaic and Greek.

(Jonathan Gil Harris is Professor of English at Ashoka University; he
is the author of The First Firangis: Remark-able Stories of Heroes,
Healers, Charl-atans, Courtesans & Other Foreigners Who Became India
by Aleph Books.)

Agence France Presse
January 23, 2015 Friday 9:59 AM GMT

Azerbaijan forces kill two Armenian troops in new border clash: Yerevan

Yerevan, Jan 23 2015

Azerbaijani troops on Friday killed two Armenian soldiers in a border
clash, Armenia said, threatening the shaky peace in the arch-foes’
conflict over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh.

“Azerbaijani commandos on Friday morning attacked the Armenian army’s
positions in the north-eastern sector of the border,” Armenia’s
defence ministry said in a statement.

“The fighting lasted for half an hour, resulting in deaths of two
Armenian servicemen, Lieutenant Karen Galstian and Private Artak
Sargsian,” the ministry added.

“The enemy troops were pushed back, suffering injuries.”

Azerbaijan is locked in a decades-long conflict with Armenia over
Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.

Sparking fears of a fresh escalation, clashes between Azerbaijani and
Armenian forces intensified in January following an unprecedented
spiral of violence last year.

Four Armenian soldiers were reported killed this month in similar
incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and along the Karabakh
frontline.

Ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control of
Karabakh during a 1990s war that left some 30,000 dead.

Despite years of negotiations, the two sides have not yet signed a
final peace deal, with Karabakh internationally recognised as part of
Azerbaijan.

Baku, whose military spending exceeds Armenia’s entire state budget,
has threatened to take back the region by force if negotiations fail
to yield results.

Armenia, which is heavily armed by Russia, says it could crush any offensive.

mkh-im/am/yad

A bas-relief of Lord George Gordon Byron inaugurated in downtown
Yerevan near the head office of ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK

by Gayane Isahakyan
Saturday, January 24, 11:13

A bas-relief of the great English poet Lord George Gordon Byron, a
great friend of the Armenian people who is known for his Armenian
studies, was inaugurated in downtown Yerevan near the head office of
ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK, 22 January.

The Bank said in a press release that since its inception it has been
actively involved in the cultural life of the country, providing
support to implementation of various cultural programs.

“By upholding its tradition, this time we cooperated with sculptor
Hayk Tokmajyan as part of our social responsibility program to
initiate the implementation of another program,” ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE
BANK said.

“Emphasizing the Armenian-British cooperation and the great poet’s
input into the Armenian studies, ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK decided to
make up for the lack of a monument to this great figure. Although the
bas-relief was mounted on the wall of a building at Byron Street, 1,
where the head office of the bank is several months ago, the grand
opening was scheduled for the birthday of Lord George Gordon Byron –
which is on January 22, 1788” the press release says.

ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK CEO Hakob Andreasyan says this event is
perhaps a bit belated, but long-awaited. “Our bank is located on Byron
Street, but there was no monument or a memorial plaque to him on the
street, and that was why we decided to make up for this omission,” he
said.

A letter of gratitude was sent by the poet’s great grandson Lord Robin
Byron, who says that placing Lord Byron’s bas-relief in downtown
Yerevan in the street bearing his name is very enthusiastic.”I first
learned about his deep respect for the Armenians in 1988 when it was
decided to name a repaired school in earthquake-hit Gyumri with the
British assistance after Lord Byron “, he says in the letter. The
poet’s great-grandson thanked all the people who were involved in this
project sending his best wishes to all Armenians.
The letter was read by Narek Tovmasian, who oversees art projects of
the British Council.

To note, ACBA ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK has been functioning in
Armenia since 1995. Long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation
between ACBA Bank and the leading French banking group Credit Agricole
led Credit Agricole bank group to become the biggest shareholder of
ACBA on September 15, 2006, by making a significant financial
investment into the bank capital – 15,56%. Then SJSC “Sacam
International” (a member of the group Credit Agricole S.A) comes with
a share – 12,44%, The fact that the customer base has grown by 25times
since establishment of the bank, is evidence of trust in the bank. The
office network of the bank grew fivefold for the last 10 years. At
present the bank has 49 offices (the third position in the market) in
Yerevan and in all the regions of Armenia.

ÃœC7BD50-A3A0-11E4-A7AC0EB7C0D21663

Former vice premier Armen Gevorgyan’s salary amounts to 50,000 USD

15:02 / 24.01.2015

As it has been reported former vice premier Armen Gevorgyan has become
the CEO of the IDeA Foundation established by Russia-based Armenian
tycoon Ruben Vardanyan and his spouse Veronika Zonabend.

Many were surprised with the decision of Gevorgyan to leave the post
of the minister as he was considered one of the best working members
of the government.

But there is nothing to be surprised at. Yesterday Nyut.am source said
that currently Armen Gevorgyan’s salary amounts 50,000 USD. Which
minister would not have leave the post for such salary?

Nyut.am

THE ARMENIAN DELEGATION AT PACE SHOULD PRESENT CORRESPONDING FACTS
AGAINST THE LIE

Friday, 23 January 2015 19:52

As we know, since October 27, 2014, a trial over Azerbaijani
subversives Dilham Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev had been held in
Stepanakert, which ended in late December with sentencing. Let’s
remember that in July, on the instructions of the security services of
Azerbaijan, they penetrated into the territory of the NKR Karvachar
region to commit sabotage-reconnaissance and espionage actions, but
were captured by the Karabakh special forces.

The third member of the subversive group – H. Hasanov –
resisted during the detention and was killed. The members of the group
committed a series of heinous crimes, killing two citizens of the NKR,
including a seventeen-year-old boy, and wounding a few men. Based on
solid facts and evidence, as well as the confessions of the accused,
the fault of the group members in committing thecrimes was fully
proved. It is important to note that the trial was extremely open and
transparent and was conducted in compliance with judicial procedures,
ensuring the legal protection for the defendants, each of which was
provided with a lawyer. According to the decision of the NKR Court of
First Instance, Dilham Askerov was sentenced to life imprisonment, and
Shahbaz Guliyev – to 22 years in prison.

It would seem that the situation is very clear, the
criminals got the deserved punishment, and an end could be put in this
particular story. But apparently, it is too early to put an end, and
here’s why. Actually, from the moment the saboteurs were taken captive
Azerbaijan, in its usual hysterical manner, initiated a propaganda and
disinformation campaign, aiming mainly to rehabilitate the criminals,
to present them to the world as innocent hostages, and ultimately to
achieve their extradition to the homeland. And this is despite the
obvious truth that it was the defendants that killed really innocent
victims, which was proven at the trial and confirmed by the defendants
themselves. In such a situation, common sense and human morality
suggest that Azerbaijan should, as they say, to be silent in a rag, as
all the arguments, I mean the evidence, is absolutely against it. But,
as we know, the criminal authorities of this country have long lost
all the human features, having turned into moral monsters, for which
the killing of innocent people and outright lies have become a norm of
state behavior.

This is confirmed also by the fact that the noted
propaganda campaign involved the state structures of Azerbaijan,
including the President himself, which try to internationalize the
issue and bring it to the international arena. Thus, recently, head of
the Azerbaijani delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe Samad Seyidov has stated that “the sentence against
the Azerbaijani hostages will be also discussed” at the winter session
of this European organization. According to him, the PACE
member-states will be required (!!!) to protest against the trial. “As
always, we will put forward our claims based on specific facts. But,
the main thing is that the international organization regard this
issue not from the position of double standards, but by justice”.

We believe there is no need to say what is “justice” in
the Azerbaijani understanding. This is its complete lack. Now, as for
the “specific facts” mentioned by Seyidov. Does he intend to submit to
the MEPs the testimony of the saboteurs published by the mass media
about how they penetrated into the NKR territory with weapons and spy
equipment, how they collected information about the military sphere,
how they killed the 17-year-old boy? Surely not, because, agree, this
kind of actions do not fit into the image of peaceful hostages, which
official Baku persistently tries to shape from thesubversive-killers.
And, of course, at the PACE session Seyidov, trying to prove the
unprovable, willnot utter a word about it and will pour a hefty dose
of blatant lie on the PACE members.

But, the Armenian delegation should not remain silent at
the PACE session. Having quite a lot of convincing facts on hand, it
should do everything to turn the process of discussion of this issue
into a kind of trial against the Azerbaijani authorities, who have
committed the graviest crimes against civilians and are committing yet
another grave crime – deception of the authoritative European
organization and the international community as a whole. We think that
the PACEsession will give the Armenian delegation quite a good
opportunity to present the real picture of what happened and,
consequently, the true face of the Azerbaijani authorities, as well as
todemonstrate to the MEPs the obvious superiority of the NKR over
Azerbaijan in terms of the development of democracy, adherence to the
norms and principles of a civilized society. And first of all, the
moral superiority. This was proved also by the abovementioned
transparent and unbiassedtrial over the Azerbaijani subversives
conducted in full compliance with the procedural canons of
administration of justice inherent to a democratic state, which cannot
be said about Azerbaijan, where Armenian hostages are brutally killed
without any trial. We’d like the sentence over the Azerbaijani
subversives to be followed by another sentence (now international)
finally passed against the criminal leadership of Azerbaijan, which
has long cynically violated the universal norms of a civilized
society. Then it will be possible to put the final end.

Leonid MARTIROSSIAN
Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper

Armenia army efficient enough to repel attacks – Karabakh war hero

14:08 * 24.01.15

Azerbaijan’s attempts to stir up panic in the Armenia’s Armed Forces
aren’t likely to succeed, as the Armenian army is vigilant and
efficient enough to repel any attack, says a veteran hero of the
Nagorno-Karabakh war,

“Our army is capable of halting and pushing back any attack plotted by
the adversary. The Azerbaijanis are training special battalions to
target us. But Armenia is now undertaking large-scale operations, and
so we should wish them success to finish all that with maximum few
losses,” Major-General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan told reporters on
Saturday.

The legendary war hero said he is confident that the experienced
heroes of the Armenian army will to all their best to secure safety
and peace.

Asked to comment on the past days’ border tensiond, the major-general
attributed all that to the symbolic
nature of 2015, which marks the Armenian Genocide centennial.
“Tensions on the border will gradually increase this year as we are
marking the Genocide’s 100 anniversary,” he said, blaming Turks for
inciting the Azerbaijani aggression.

‘HRANT’S FRIENDS’ CALLS FOR JUSTICE IN TRIAL INTO DINK’S MURDER

Cihan News Agency, Turkey
Jan 23 2015

ISTANBUL – 23.01.2015 18:35:56

Large numbers of people from a group called Hrant’s Friends, which
includes lawmakers and activists held a demonstration in front of
Ä°stanbul Courthouse on Friday and called for a fair trial into
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink who was murdered in 2007.

The group unfurled placards and shouted slogans. A press statement
was made before the trial began. Speaking on behalf of the group,
journalist Aydın Engin stated that murder of Dink was used as a
politic tool by the government and today the murder is associated with
“parallel state”.

“We know Dink was murdered with collaboration of provocateurs with
police, soldier and National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T). They
[government] cannot attribute the trial neither to the parallel
state nor to another state,” said Engin. He added that the government
should fulfill its responsibility to enable trail of the convicted
in a fair way.