Author: Kalantarian Kevo

U.S. SAYS ‘DEEPLY COMMITTED’ TO AIDING PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
April 9 2013

By Sara Rajabova

The U.S., a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement
of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, has said
it remains deeply committed to working with the sides to achieve a
peaceful solution.

“We believe that the use of force will not resolve the conflict,
and we call upon all parties to refrain from the use or threat of
use of force,” US State Department acting deputy spokesman Patrick
Ventrell told journalists Monday while commenting on US Secretary of
State John Kerry’s visit to Turkey.

During his visit to Turkey, Secretary Kerry and Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu discussed the strengthening of the OSCE
Minsk Group’s activity and the liberation of the Armenia-occupied
territories of Azerbaijan.

“The Minsk process should be provided with an ever-increasing momentum
and the invaded territory of Azerbaijan is an issue that we need
certain advancement within,” Davutoglu said after the meeting. He
added that Turkey and the U.S. will continue to touch on those issues
in the future.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made
territorial claims against the neighboring country. Since a lengthy
war between the two South Caucasus countries that displaced over
a million Azerbaijanis and ended with the signing of a precarious
cease-fire in 1994, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent
of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory, including the
Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Peace talks brokered by Minsk Group co-chairs representing the United
States, Russia and France have been largely fruitless so far.

The negotiations are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed
by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles, also
known as Basic Principles. The document envisions a return of the
territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control;
determining the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh; a corridor
linking Armenia to the region; and the right of all internally
displaced persons to return home.

OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS CLASH WITH POLICE IN YEREVAN – PHOTO

APA, Azerbaijan
April 9 2013

Baku-APA. Supporters of opposition leader Raffi Hovannisyan, who
claims he won the presidential elections, are trying to storm the
presidential palace in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, APA reports
quoting tert.am website.

After a rally held on Freedom Square, Hovannisyan called on his
supporters to march on the presidential palace.

Near the palace, opposition activists clashed with police forces. The
protesters were chanting “Serzh go away!”, while policemen beat them
with batons.

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN’S SUPPORTERS MOVE IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS – PHOTO

APA, Azerbaijan
April 9 2013

Baku-APA. Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian resumed his rally
in Freedom Square in Yerevan, APA reports quoting tert.am website.

Today, along with the inauguration of Armenian President Serzh
Sargsysan, Raffi Hovannisian held a rally and “New Armenia’s
inauguration.”

Mr Hovannisian stated he did not recognize either Serzh Sargsyan or
Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II. He recognizes only Armenia’s
people.

The rally participants marched toward the Armenian presidential
residence, but police troops blocked their way at the
Baghramyan-Demirchyan intersection.

Raffi Hovannisian demanded the release of the detained activists and
resignation of not only President Serzh Sargsyan, but also Catholicos
of All Armenians Garegin II.

“This is neither a threat nor an ultimatum. This is your right to
your last concession,” he said.

Hovannisian stated his readiness to go to Moscow next morning to
“meet Mister Putin and bring victory to Armenia.”

Raffi Hovannisian’s supporters are in Baghramyan Avenue and have
clashed with police.

Chief of the Yerevan Police Department Nersik Nazaryan demanded that
the people stop illegal activities. Otherwise, the police troops will
have to take measures.

In response, Raffi Hovannisian said that the demonstrators will
continue their way up Baghramyan Avenue, toward Tsitsernakaberd to
lay flowers at the so called “Armenian Genocide” memorial.

Chief of Armenia’s Police Vladimir Gasparyan has arrived at Baghramyan
Avenue. He is talking with Raffi Hovannisian now.

Ruben Hakobyan, a Heritage parliamentary group member, warned the
demonstrators against responding to provocations. He informed them
of Mr Hovannisian’s talks with the police authorities.

The demonstrators are moving in different directions – some remain
in Baghramyan Avenue and others are moving along Moskovyan Str,
accompanied by police. Chief of Armenia’s Police Vladimir Gasparyan
is there as well.

Hrair Tamrazyan, Director of Azatutyun Radio turned to the activist
Alen Simonyan for detailed information on the incident involving
Armen Martirosyan.

Mr Simonyan explained that Mr Martirosyan was detained after an
incident this morning. A policeman hit Martirosyan’s mother, and he
pushed the policeman away.

Policemen also used force against Heritage party member David
Sanasaryan.

Zaruhi Postanjyan, a Heritage parliamentary group member, called on
the police to allow the people to remain in Baghramyan Avenue and
wait for Raffi Hovannisian to return from Tsitsernakaberd.

She said that the people must return to Freedom Square.

RALLY TO BE HELD NEAR ARMENIAN EMBASSY IN MOSCOW

Trend, Azerbaijan
April 9 2013

A rally of supporters of the Revolution of Smiles and Greetings
opposition movement against the ‘lie’ of the authorities and massive
fraud in the elections held in Armenia on February 18 will be held in
front of the Armenian embassy in Russia today, Armenia Today reported
with reference to a statement posted on the official page of Hello,
Russia in the social network.

According to the information, a rally is being held to recognise the
power of the people in Armenia, to hold repeated and fair elections
and to celebrate the alternative inauguration of the elected president.

Protesters plan to urge the Russian president to withdraw his
congratulations towards the illegitimate president.

‘A request was made for protesters to behave properly with law
enforcement officials and not to yield to any possible provocations’,
the rally organisers’ statement said.

The presidential elections were held in Armenia on February 18.

According to the official results, the incumbent President Serzh
Sargsyan won the presidential elections with 58.64 per cent of the
votes. The leader of the Heritage Party Raffi Hovannisian who ranked
second with 36.74 per cent didn’t recognise the results and declared a
‘Revolution of Smiles and Greetings’movement.

Zhamanak: Most of Yerevan residents unaware of upcoming elections?

10:27 09/04/2013 » DAILY PRESS

Zhamanak daily’s surveys on Yerevan elections found out that Yerevan
residents are unaware of the upcoming elections of Yerevan Council of
Elders.

The respondents mentioned Heritage and RPA among political forces
running in Yerevan elections. Most of them, however, did not know, for
instance, who tops the election list of Heritage party.

Source: Panorama.am

Spears: Exhibition `Fly to Baku is PR’ of repressive regime in Azerbaijan

20:39 08/04/2013 » SOCIETY

A travelling exhibition of Azerbaijani Contemporary art which has made
stops in London, Berlin, Moscow and Rome, before ending up in Baku is
a simply PR for a cash-rich authoritarian government of Azerbaijan,
Josh Spers writes in the British article Spears.

`The whole concept of Fly to Baku makes me uneasy, however: isn’t it
simply PR for a cash-rich authoritarian government, using art to
distract from a regime of repression?’ the author of the article
wonders.

According to him, the position of Azerbaijani artists cannot be so
different from that of Azerbaijani writers, who are restricted –
explicitly or by inference – in what they can write and beaten when
they flout the restrictions, according to a report from Human Rights
Watch called `Beaten, Blacklisted and Behind Bars’.

He brings an extract from the Human Rights Watch: `The government of
Azerbaijan is engaged in concerted efforts to limit the space for
freedom of expression in the country… Dozens of journalists have
been prosecuted and imprisoned or fined. Police and sometimes
unidentified assailants are able to physically attack journalists and
human rights defenders with impunity.’

In tune with this, the art in Fly to Baku is negligible in its
political content, perhaps because of a self-exercised censorship.

As Spero says, perhaps, Fly to Baku’s artists have in their attics
radical art which deals with repression and dictatorship and a ruling
family which spends the country’s money on vanity projects abroad.

The author quotes the journal Private Eye and says that `During the
past year at least 11 MPs, plus several peers, have benefited from the
Azeris’ `caviar diplomacy’. This usually involves no-expense-spared
junkets to Baku.’

The Eye noted how, `British politicians are unusually favourable to
Azerbaijan in the Council of Europe, `despite its consistent flouting
of decisions by the European Court of Human Rights’.’

`So it’s art and caviar diplomacy for some, and jail for others. Fly
to Baku? Easy. Just watch what you say when you’re there,’ the article
says.

In May 1012 the “European Stability Initiative” published a study
entitled “Caviar Diplomacy: How Azerbaijan got the silence of the
Council of Europe” which was showed the detailed chronology and
mechanisms of bribing the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe by the ruling regime in Azerbaijan.

Source: Panorama.am

Georgian Reintegration Minister: There is no interest from the side of
Russia in restoration of railway lines through Abkhazia

ARMINFO
Monday, April 8, 16:11

The restoration of the [Abkhazian] railway is just an idea; there are
no negotiations ongoing so far, Georgia’s Reintegration Minister Paata
Zakareishvili said in an interview to Commonspace.

“Our interest was actually to find out in how far the Russian
Federation would be ready to discuss this idea, and now we see that
there is no interest from the side of Russia. I have personally been
involved in the processes of conflict resolution for a long time, and
very often other parties have blamed Georgia for not taking steps they
were themselves not ready to implement. I doubt that Russia would be
ready to discuss the railway line because then they would have to
revise their policy of recognition [of the independence of Abkhazia].
Our motivation was to propose this idea in order to move the current
situation from deadlock but Russia lacks interest,” Zakareishvili
said.

He said that there have been two meetings so far between Russian
Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Special Representative of
the Georgian Prime Minister for bilateral relations with Russia Zurab
Abashidze and this topic has never been brought up.

Un > de l’Etat sur les Kurdes

Publié le : 08-04-2013

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
propose cette analyse d’Etienne Copeaux publiée sur son blog
susam-sokak.fr, le lundi 19 janvier 2013.

Légende photo : 26 avril 1998. Un officier supérieur fait visiter
l’exposition au président Demirel.

Photo Türkiye

susam-sokak.fr

Esquisse n° 33 – Un > de l’Etat sur les Kurdes

Samedi 19 janvier 2013

[dernière modification : 27 janvier 2013]

A la fin du mois d’avril 1998, l’état-major de l’armée turque avait
organisé dans les locaux de la banque Ziraat, rue Istiklal à Istanbul,
une exposition sur >, qui visait à dénoncer les violences de l’ >. On remettait aux visiteurs un document sur
papier glacé, intitulé dont parle Foucault dans le cours au Collège de
France du 14 janvier 1976 : >.

L’origine étatique du document transparaît par le lieu même de sa
diffusion, mais aussi par les emplois du > (biz) ou autres
formes possessives (notre, nos – en turc le suffixe -miz et ses
variantes), qui créent, entre l’énonciateur et le lecteur
(destinataire) une communauté faite de tous les éléments ainsi
connotés.

Les quatre textes du document commencent par une invocation que, pour
rester près de la forme turque, je traduis volontairement sous une
forme inusitée en français : > (Sevgili
kardeslerimiz !), > (Sevgili vatadaslarýmýz!)
et surtout > (Yüce Halkýmýz) et > (Yüce milletimiz) ; ce sont des formes fréquemment
employées par les dirigeants s’adressant aux administrés, qui dénotent
le rang hiérarchique élevé de l’énonciateur.

Les autres mots connotés par la forme possessive sont Etat,
constitution, forces de sécurité, patrie, investisseurs ; combat,
protecteurs de village, sang ; jeunes, jeunes filles, honneur,
liberté. Ainsi la communauté est définie : une nation, un territoire
et sa population ; et par-dessus tout son Etat et ses institutions qui
mènent le combat visant à la protéger. Ils forment le > global
du discours : >, >, >. Les >, désignés par un >
(onlar), sont toujours dans le titre ; c’est pourquoi une partie du texte vise à
nier toute altérité à cette population.

Le document comprend trois types de discours : textuel, iconographique
et cartographique. Le discours textuel est partagé en quatre pages ;
la première nie l’existence d’une altérité et réfute la
proposition-titre, >, en recourant à la rhétorique historique du nationalisme turc, mise
en place à la fin du XIXe siècle et reprise par Atatürk en personne
sous le nom de .

Lire la suite de l’article sur le site susam-sokak.fr, le blog
d’Etienne Copeaux

Retour à la rubrique
Source/Lien : susam-sokak.fr

Turkey to enhance aviation with Russia

08:35 ¢ 09.04.13

Turkey and Russia signed a civil aviation agreement on Monday in order
to enhance cooperation with regard to airspace use, code sharing and
increasing the number of fights between the two countries, Hurriyet
Daily News reported.

After bilateral negotiations between the Turkish Ministry of
Transport’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM) and Russia’s
Civil Aviation Authority between April 3 and 4, the two sides
concluded an aviation agreement, as SHGM made public yesterday.

As the agreement will increase the frequency of, and remove
restrictions for, flights between several Turkish and
Russianprovinces, the number of destinations served by flights to and
from Russia is set to increase, notably to include locations in
Turkey’s provinces of Samsun, NevÅ?ehir and Gaziantep. Turkey’s airline
companies will be able to fly to the Commonwealth of Independent
States (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova,
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Russia) through Russian airspace without
any restrictions on frequency, according to the agreement.

Turkey will be allowed to benefit from trans-Siberian airspace for its
flights to the Far East (Tokyo, Osaka, Bishkek, and Ulaanbaatar),
although limited to a frequency of 21 flights per week.

The agreement also allows the designated companies to engage in code
sharing applications along with third parties.

Turkey and Russia signed 11 agreements in many fields during Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Turkey in December. As the two
countries bid to increase the $32 billion annual bilateral trade to an
ambitious $100 billion, energy ties dominated the talks.

There are around 3,000 Turkish companies active in Russia, according
to Moscow sources.

After the lifting of visas in 2011, some 3.5 million Russian tourists
have visited Turkey last year.

Armenian News – Tert.am

Inauguration 2013: One country, ‘two leaders’

09:40 ¢ 09.04.13

Today is a presidential inauguration day in Armenia, an important
state event which follows presidential elections to mark the newly
elected state leader’s swearing into office.

While the third republic is preparing for the six inaugural event, the
day is going to be of special importance, with the society expected to
see the two different ceremonies simultaneously.

Former opposition candidate Raffi Hovhannisian, who disputes the
official election outcome, is going to gather a crowd of supporters in
Yerevan’s Liberty Square at midday to celebrate what he calls the
inauguration of his New Armenia.

In the meantime, Serzh Sargsyan will be sworn into his second second
term at the Yerevan Sports and Concert Complex.

According to the official voting results, the re-elected president
polled about 59% in the February 18 presidential election, as opposed
to Hovhannisian’s 37%.

Presidential inaugurations in Armenia were held in the following succession.

First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan was sworn into office on November
11, 1991 at the session hall of Armenia’s parliament (which was then
called the Supreme Council). The newly-independent Armenia not having
adopted a constitution yet, the elected president took oath with his
hand on a 7th Bible, which is now kept in the Matenadaran (Yerevan
Repository of ancient manuscripts) as a state symbol.

Ter-Petrosyan’s second inauguration, held exactly five years later,
saw the re-elected president taking oath with one hand on the ancient
relic and the other hand ` on Armenia’s Constitution (that was adopted
in a universal referendum in 1995).

Following the snap presidential election in 1998, a former president
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and an acting president of Armenia
following Ter-Petrosyan’s resignation, Robert Kocharyan, became the
country’s second leader. His swearing-in ceremony was held on April 9
at the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theatre, which five years later, again
hosted his inauguration event marking his second term in office.

Serzh Sargsyan’s first term inauguration (2008) was also held at the
Opera House.

The text of the president’s oath runs as follows, “Assuming the
office of the President of the Republic of Armenia I swear to fulfill
the requirements of the Constitution in an unreserved manner, to
respect fundamental human and civil rights and freedoms, to ensure the
protection, independence, territorial integrity and security of the
Republic to the glory of the Republic of Armenia and to the welfare of
the people of the Republic of Armenia” (Armenian Constitution,
Article 54).

This year’s event is expected to bring together around 2,000 invitees,
including international delegations and representatives from about 60
countries around the world. The ceremony will be attended by President
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan, Secretary General of
the Collective Security Treaty Organization Nikolay Bordyuzha, Iranian
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of the Russian presidential
staff, Sergey Ivanov, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the chief
of the Russian Presidential Administration’s Secretariat, Andrey
Chobotov.

Other invitees include the president of the Russian state nuclear
energy corporation, Rosatom, Sergey Kirienko, a deputy foreign
minister of Russia, Sergey Karasin, a speaker of the British House of
Lords, Salterin Wallace, Assistant Secretary General for Public
Diplomacy at NATO, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Secretary General of the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation Permanent International Secretariat,
Victor Tvirku, Deputy president of Argentina Amado Boudou, Lebanon’s
State Minister Marwan Kheireddin, a deputy speaker of the Czech
Republic’s Senate, Alena Gajduskova, President of the Belarusian
National Assembly’s House of Representatives Vladimir Andreichenko,
President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania Valeriu È`tefan Zgonea
and many others.

Resident and non-resident ambassadors from different countries
(including Russia and European states and international delegations)
are also expected to attend the event.

Despite such a geo-political representation, the domestic guests’ list
is a little bit different.

Of the eight political forces represented at the National Sssembly,
only two ` the Rule of Law and Prosperous Armenia (partially) ` will
be present at the Sports and Concert Complex today. The other
parliamentary factions (the opposition Armenian National Congress,
Heritage and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun) will
not attend the event.

With the exception 1991, the outcomes of all other presidential
elections in Armenia have been widely disputed, with public uprisings
always preceding, following or coinciding with the inaugural events.

Armenian News – Tert.am