Author: Kalantarian Kevo

ARMENIANS ARE BANNED FROM PILGRIMAGE TO MOUNTAIN IN TURKEY

NEWS.AM
July 25, 2012 | 14:39

The Armenians’ annual pilgrimage to the chapel located atop Mount
Marout in Turkey’s Sassoon city was restricted this year by Sassoon’s
Mayor and Provincial District Governor.

Mayor Muzaffer Arslan and Provincial District Governor Bahadir Yoruk
banned the mountain climb slated for Saturday, on the grounds that
it is currently the Ramadan season in Turkey. Sassoon’s authorities
stated that the mountain climb is rescheduled for September, the
Turkish Aykiridogrular website informs.

Sassoon’s Armenian journalist Cevat Sinet pointed out that, during
their pilgrimage to Mount Marout, the Armenians light candles, pray,
and offer a sacrifice and hand out its meat to the needy.

In his words, it is a very joyful fact that Ramadan and the pilgrimage
to Mount Marout have coincided, yet, without considering this,
Sassoon’s Mayor and Provincial District Governor prohibited the
pilgrimage for their own pleasure.

To note, numerous Armenians from Armenia and abroad had arrived in
Armenia to take part in the pilgrimage to Mount Marout.

LAST PERSON TO SEE VANO SIRADEGHYAN IN ARMENIA WAS HEAD OF HIS GUARD

tert.am
25.07.12

The last person to see former Armenian influential figure, ex-interior
minister Vano Siradeghyan in Armenia was the head of his guard Suren
Sirunyan.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sirunyan said with the request of
Siradeghyan he left him in the place Siradeghyan told him to on April
3, 2000. Sirunyan said Siradeghyan has not been in Armenia since then.

According to him, no one knew about Siradeghyan’s intention to leave
the country, neither did his family.

The speaker refused to say whether he has contacted Vano Siradegyan
since then or not.

Sirunyan said while leaving the country, Siradeghyan was not wanted
by the police but possessed information about the intention of the
then prosecutor general to come to the National Assembly and deprive
him of immunity.

Vano Siradeghyan is charged with organization of assassinations of
a number of political figures and is wanted by Interpol.

The talks over possible return of Vano Siradeghyan have intensified
recently with initiatives created in Facebook.

BRIEFING OF HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN AND SERGEY NARISHKIN IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

24.07.2012

On July 24 National Assembly President Hovik Abrahamyan and Speaker
of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma Sergey Narishkin, who arrived
in Armenia on official visit, had a joint briefing.

Summing up the results of the visit, Hovik Abrahamyan noted that
numerous issues relating to bilateral relations were discussed, which
were connected with economy, science, education and partnership in
humanitarian and other spheres, the activation and development of
inter-parliamentary cooperation had been emphasized. “Taking into
consideration the allied and strategic relations of Armenia and
Russia, we also underlined the need of deepening the cooperation in
international parliamentary structures. The necessity of unified
position in the issues of mutual importance and the role of
parliamentary diplomacy in strengthening the inner-state relations
was especially stressed,” the Head of the Armenian Parliament.

Talking about effective cooperation in the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) he also
said that in September the first consultation of the Committees on
Security and Defense of the parliaments of the CSTO member countries
will be held in Yerevan.

In Hovik Abrahamyan’s word, taking into consideration the close
cooperation shaped between the two parliaments and the necessity of
deepening the partnership, the Armenian side has proposed to discuss
the possibility of forming the Institute of the representatives of the
two parliaments in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
and State Duma of the Russian Federation.

As the RA National Assembly President noted, during the meeting
with the Head of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma in the context
of deepening of inner-state relations the necessity of activation
of the activity of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Cooperation
between the parliaments of the two countries had been highlighted.

Thanking for hospitality and warm reception shown to the Russian
Delegation the S peaker of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma Sergey
Narishkin stressed that the relations with Armenia were important and
dear for Russia. “Those are relations with allies, strategic partners.

The development of relations literally in all spheres – political,
economic, security, humanitarian, and others – is important for us,”
the S peaker of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma. In his word,
the two countries pay big attention to the development of bilateral
and multilateral relations especially in the sphere of economy, and
the trade-economic cooperation between Armenia and Russia records
big rates of growth. As Mr Narishkin, particularly, the volumes of
goods turnover between the two countries had been restored, reaching
the level, which was before the world financial-economic crisis, the
annual investment of the Russian organizations in Armenia is over 3bn
USD. Touching upon the cooperation in economic sphere the S peaker
of the RF Federal Assembly State Duma also talked about the issue of
joining Armenia to Treaty on Free Trade Zone within the CIS framework,
expressing hope that it would promote Armenia’s economic development
and the increase of goods turnover with the CIS countries.

He also thanked for promoting the development of the Russian
language in Armenia, high level of teaching at schools and higher
educational institutions and activity of Russian mass media. Noting
that the parliaments of the two countries successfully cooperate in
international platforms, Sergey Narishkin noticed that their positions
either almost coincided or simply they are identical in key issues.

The parties highly appreciated the role of the inter-parliamentary
diplomacy in the further development of relations and deepening
of cooperation.

ARMENIAN STRUCTURES CAUTION BEFORE MAMMADYAROV’S VISIT TO SOUTH AMERICA

11:19 . 25/07

Before Azerbaijani FM Elmar Mammadyarov’s visit to South America
scheduled on July 27, the responsible officials of Argentina’s and
Uruguay’s Armenian structures cautioned and reminded that Azerbaijan
runs anti-Armenian and militaristic policy around the world. They
cautioned through press or directly contacting the governments of
those countries.

The responsible officials of the Armenian structures underscored that
the Karabakh conflict must be settled peacefully based on the right of
self-determination and expressed hope that while making decisions in
their cooperation with Azerbaijan, the South America countries will
be guided by that principle and the fundamental arguments presented
by them.

Elmar Mammadyarov will pay an official visit to Columbia, Peru,
Argentina and Uruguay. The main aim of the Azerbaijani foreign
minister’s visit is to search for new markets to expand economic ties.

TURQUIE: > D’ISMAIL BESIKCI

Publie le : 25-07-2012

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
soumet cette information publiee sur le site susam-sokak.fr, le blog
d’Etienne Copeaux, le 15 juillet 2012.

susam-sokak.fr

Dimanche 15 juillet 2012

[Dernières corrections le 19 juillet 2012]

Ismail Besikci, >’ýn Dirilisi, Istanbul, Aram,
1998, 151 p.

Ismail Besikci (ne en 1939) est un des intellectuels centraux de la
periode que j’observe, les annees 1990 ; mais il n’est pas ce qu’on
appelle un intellectuel >, frequentant les colloques,
ecrivant pour les journaux et revues… car il est bien souvent en
prison. Lorsqu’il apparaît dans les journaux, au contraire, c’est en
general parce qu’il lui est arrive quelque chose de desagreable.

La decennie 1990 est marquee par une intensification progressive de
la guerre entre l’armee turque et la rebellion kurde, et l’histoire
politique et militaire de la periode atteint son apogee en 1999,
lors de l’enlèvement du chef de la rebellion et du PKK, Abdullah
Ocalan dit Apo.

Le titre du livre d’Ismail Besikci, >’ýn dirilisi
-c’est-a-dire Le Reveil du >- fait reference
a une caricature publiee dans Milliyet, 68 ans plus tôt, et qui
a ete reproduite en couverture : elle represente une sepulture,
localisee a Agrý, dans l’est du pays, non loin du mont Ararat ; la
pierre tombale indique : >. Une
reference a une periode de repression atroce contre le mouvement kurde,
et qui souligne, justement, la continuite de la repression depuis les
debuts de la republique, alors que, durant la guerre de liberation
(1919-1922), la propagande kemaliste promettait des droits pour les
Kurdes >.

Besikci retrace donc les racines du mal, qu’il faut chercher dans
un passe deja bien trop long. La revolte de 1925 a ete ecrasee si
durement, puis le soulèvement du Dersim (1938) reprime avec une
telle sauvagerie, que l’Etat turc a connu > pendant
quinze a vingt ans. Une generation avait ete brisee, il a fallu
que les forces se refassent. La mobilisation avait repris après la
guerre mondiale. Mais après le coup d’Etat de 1960, la politique
d’assimilation des Kurdes, et de negation de leur identite, s’est
renforcee. Malgre cela, 1965 voit la naissance du Turkiye Kurdistan
Demokrat Partisi (Parti democrate du Kurdistan de Turquie), en 1967
l’organisation des

LAURENT FABIUS S’ENTRETIENT AVEC EDOUARD NALBANDIAN AU QUAI D’ORSAY
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
mercredi 25 juillet 2012

Le ministre armenien des Affaires etrangères Edouard Nalbandian a
rencontre hier a Paris son homologue francais Laurent Fabius. Les deux
ministres se sont felicites que l’Armenie et la France ont developpe
des relations etroites et amicales. Ils ont discute en detail les
mesures prises pour le developpement des relations bilaterales,
ainsi que les questions regionales et internationales.

Les ministres ont egalement discute des relations Armenie-UE, et
les programmes mis en ~uvre dans le cadre de cette cooperation
et un echange de vues sur la cooperation armeno-francaise dans les
organisations internationales.

L’ordre du jour des pourparlers a egalement mis en exergue le règlement
du conflit du Haut-Karabakh. Les deux parties ont note qu’il n’y a
pas d’alternative aux negociations.

Edouard Nalbandian a particulièrement appreciee la position
constructive de la France en tant que co-president du Groupe de Minsk
de l’OSCE.

Le ministre armenien a egalement eu un entretien avec la presidente
de la commission des affaires etrangères de l’Assemblee nationale,
Elisabeth Guigou.

La question du negationnisme du genocide armenien aurait egalement ete
evoquee. Laurent Fabius aurait indique que la France respecterait dans
ce domaine les engagements du President de la Republique. Francais
Hollande s’etait engage a ce que son gouvernement propose un projet
de loi sur le sujet.

AZERBAIJANI POLITICAL ANALYST: TALKS WITHOUT MEDIATORS MAY PLAY CRUCIAL ROLE IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

Trend
July 24 2012
Azerbaijan

The talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia without mediators may play
a crucial role in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said at
a press conference, director of the Centre of Political Innovations
and Technologies Mubariz Ahmedoglu said at a press-conference today.

“Mediators and other leading international players delay the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement by their influence on Armenia,”
he said.

Armenia loses itself as a result of the unresolved conflict, he said.

“The country is up to its eyes in debt,” he said. “People leave
the country. No one gives out loans to Armenia. In this situation,
all negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia may be held in
Nagorno-Karabakh. These negotiations may involve not only officials
but also businessmen. They may discuss future of the region,
prepare joint investment projects and first of all implement them
in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh must
closely cooperate in all these processes, he added.

“It is necessary to start direct negotiations between Azerbaijan
and Armenia, in the interests of both parties, and especially
Armenia itself,” he said. “It must withdraw occupation forces from
the Azerbaijani territory. First, Lachin and Kalbajar regions must
be returned. From a geographical point of view, both regions are
contiguous with Armenia. According to our information, the total
number of Armenian servicemen is not more than 700 people there.”

In autumn 2008, after several months of his presidency, President
Sargsyan said in an interview about the possibility of making
investments in Nagorno-Karabakh. Then the mediators dissuaded Sargsyan,
he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. –
are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.
Content-Type: MESSAGE/RFC822; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-Description:

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
From: Katia Peltekian
Subject: BAKU: Azerbaijani political analyst: Talks without mediators may play
crucial role in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement

Trend, Azerbaijan
July 24 2012

Azerbaijani political analyst: Talks without mediators may play
crucial role in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement

Azerbaijan, Baku, July 24 / Trend M. Aliyev /

The talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia without mediators may play a
crucial role in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said at a
press conference, director of the Centre of Political Innovations and
Technologies Mubariz Ahmedoglu said at a press-conference today.

“Mediators and other leading international players delay the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement by their influence on Armenia,”
he said.

Armenia loses itself as a result of the unresolved conflict, he said.

“The country is up to its eyes in debt,” he said. “People leave the
country. No one gives out loans to Armenia. In this situation, all
negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia may be held in
Nagorno-Karabakh. These negotiations may involve not only officials
but also businessmen. They may discuss future of the region, prepare
joint investment projects and first of all implement them in
Nagorno-Karabakh.”

The Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh must
closely cooperate in all these processes, he added.

“It is necessary to start direct negotiations between Azerbaijan and
Armenia, in the interests of both parties, and especially Armenia
itself,” he said. “It must withdraw occupation forces from the
Azerbaijani territory. First, Lachin and Kalbajar regions must be
returned. From a geographical point of view, both regions are
contiguous with Armenia. According to our information, the total
number of Armenian servicemen is not more than 700 people there.”

In autumn 2008, after several months of his presidency, President
Sargsyan said in an interview about the possibility of making
investments in Nagorno-Karabakh. Then the mediators dissuaded
Sargsyan, he said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France and the U.S. – are
currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

RUSSIAN, ARMENIAN POLICE DEPARTMENTS DEVELOPING COOPERATION

ITAR-TASS
July 24, 2012 Tuesday 01:44 AM GMT+4
Russia

The Russian and Armenian police departments “systematically develop
cooperation in opposing illegal trafficking of drugs and psychotropic
substances,” participants in a joint collegium of the Russian Interior
Ministry and the Armenian police said here on Monday evening. Russian
Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and chief of the Armenian
police Vladimir Gasparyan chaired the meeting.

As was reported at the collegium, an exchange of “operational
information on persons suspected with good reasons of illegal
operations connected with drugs or detained for them on the territory
of Russia and Armenia, as well on ways and routes of transportation
of drugs” was organized.

According the results of discussions, the leaders of Russian Interior
Ministry and the Armenian police signed a joint document connected
with the given issue.

ARMENIAN ACADEMY AWARDS GOLD MEDAL TO RUSSIAN SPEAKER

ITAR-TASS
July 24, 2012 Tuesday 03:07 PM GMT+4
Russia

The Armenian Academy of Sciences has awarded a gold medal to Speaker
of the Russian State Duma Sergei Naryshkin for his contribution to
the development and promotion of Russo-Armenian cooperation.

The high award, instituted in 2002, is awarded for accomplishments in
the field of development of science and scientific cooperation. The
award was handed in to the Russian speaker at a gala ceremony held
at the Armenian Academy of Sciences on Tuesday.

Accepting the award, Naryshkin praised fraternal cooperation between
Russia and Armenia which the two countries demonstrate for many
centuries, he said. The geopolitical interests of the two countries
coincide, which is an important factor which promotes the development
of effective contacts in the economic, political and scientific fields,
Naryshkin said.

He reminded of an agreement on humanitarian cooperation which Russia
and Armenia signed last year. A concrete program on joint activities
for 2013- 2016 will be adopted in the near future to contribute to
this agreement, Naryshkin declared at the ceremony.

COMMERCIAL HUB ALEPPO BECOMES NEW SYRIA FRONT

Agence France Presse
July 24, 2012 Tuesday 3:17 PM GMT

A commercial hub and home to 2.5 million people, Syria’s second city
Aleppo has become a new front in the country’s 16-month uprising,
after being largely excluded from the violence.

For decades, the city has been known as an industrial manufacturing
base, particularly for textiles, thanks to rich cotton resources.

The major metropolis in the north of the country, it was also
considered the second city of the Ottoman empire.

As a stop on the Silk Route, the city sits in a region with a strong
artisan tradition, and also once served as the capital of a vast
province stretching across southeast Anatolia and the plains of the
Syrian north.

The city suffered the wrath of the Baathist regime in power since
1963 after an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood between 1979
and 1982 when many of its businessmen backed the rebellion.

But it has been able to profit from a free-trade agreement signed
with Turkey in 2005, though some small local businesses in the city
found themselves unable to compete with their Turkish counterparts.

Residents, known for their business sense, developed the local food
and pharmaceutical industries, and focused on producing the local
products for which they are reknowned, including soap, and saw trade
with Turkey soar.

“Aleppo was calm because it is an industrial and commercial town
that found favour with the regime after 10 years of punishment for
its support for the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1980s,” according
to geographer Fabrice Balanche.

“The security apparatus has been very powerful since then. The rebels
come from the countryside but Aleppo’s residents are staying home,”
added Balanche, head of the Mediterranean and Middle East Studies
and Research Group in Paris.

The lure of the big city as well as the search for jobs has pushed
large numbers of residents of the rural region around Aleppo to move
to the town, which covers some 120 square kilometres (46 square miles).

Around 45 percent of the city is made up of informal neighbourhoods,
whose residents are mostly Sunnis and Kurds.

Overall, the majority of its residents are Sunnis, around 65 percent
of them Sunni Arabs, and 20 percent Kurds, who are also Sunni Muslims.

Christians represent around 10 percent of the population of the city,
around half of them Armenians, with the remainder from the Syrian,
Greek Orthodox and Maronite churches.

Members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad
and his family belong, make up around five percent of the population.

But unlike in Damascus and the southern city of Homs, the community
is not concentrated in any particular districts.

With the exception of Hamdaniyeh, home to numerous government
employees, among them large numbers of Alawites, the community is
dispersed throughout the city’s districts, particularly its Christian
quarters.

Balanche said the neighbourhoods under rebel control include the
northeastern Tareq al-Bab, southeastern Salaheddin and unnamed areas
where most of the population comes from Aleppo province.

The rebels do not yet control the city’s central districts or those
in the west, which are home to the city’s elite, Christian residents,
and others originally from Aleppo rather than from its outskirts.

The city’s more upscale districts include Shahba, Halab al-Jadida
(New Aleppo) and the city centre. Aleppo’s historic Old City quarter
was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1986.