BAKO SAHAKYAN SIGNED A LAW ON MONUMENTS
ARMENPRESS
14 May, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, MAY 14, ARMENPRESS: President Sahakyan signed a law ” On
Immovable Monuments of History and Culture Considered State Ownership
of the NKR and Not Subject to Alienation”on May 14,central information
department of the office of the Artsakh Republic President informed
Armenpress.
DIASPORA MINISTRY ORGANIZES “GLIMPSES OF ARTSAKH” PHOTO CONTEST
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 14, 2012 – 17:43 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian Diaspora Ministry organizes “Glimpses of
Artsakh” photo contest. Participants must present media-published
photos portraying the history, liberation movement, historical values
and current reforms in Artsakh.
Each participant must present up to five photos that should meet the
3 mb and 300 dpi parameters.
All those willing to participate must send photos to following
e-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], or call (+374 10) 58 56 01 /109/ for detailed
information.
INSPECTION PROCEDURES IN ARMENIA TO BECOME ‘TARGETED, CLEAR AND TRANSPARENT’ – IFC
news.am
May 14, 2012 | 23:50
As a result of the introduction of a risk-based approach, inspection
procedures in Armenia will become “more targeted, clear and
transparent,” said Arsen Nazaryan, project manager of the Armenia
Investment Climate Reform Project, implemented by IFC, a member of
the World Bank Group.
The new approach groups businesses into three risk categories: high-,
moderate-, and low-risk. As a result, the number of inspections for
businesses in the low-risk category will be reduced significantly,
saving businesses’ time and resources while making the inspection
system more efficient.
“The introduction of this new approach became possible thanks to our
successful cooperation with the Ministry of Economy,” Nazaryan told
Armenian News – NEWS.am.
The project has assisted the government of Armenia in introducing the
fundamental changes needed to adopt a risk-based approach. IFC has
provided advice reflected in the amendments to Armenia’s inspections
law adopted by the government last summer.
The Armenia Investment Climate Reform Project is currently working
on simplifying and streamlining inspections conducted by agencies
such as the Food Safety Service, Sanitary-Epidemiological Service,
Fire Inspectorate and others.
There are 18 state agencies in charge of at least one type of
inspection in Armenia.
“We shared best international practices with the Inspection Reform
Coordination Council – a private-public platform established upon the
project’s recommendations, presided over by the Prime Minister. The
underlying logic of the simplification proposed by IFC is to focus
on high risk issues. For example, the Fire Inspectorate would deal
with the buildings evacuation and leave alone the toxicity of the
wall paint,” said Nazaryan.
Special checklists, which will be used by the inspecting bodies
in Armenia, are essential for conducting inspections in a more
efficient and transparent way. The project helped develop draft
checklists for the Food Safety Service, Fire Inspectorate, and
Sanitary-Epidemiological Service. Under the decision of the Inspection
Reform Coordination Council, the checklists shall be tested by initial
inspections in the state agencies. After probation, the checklists
will be adjusted, and then submitted to the government for final
approval. Development of checklists may in turn prompt relevant
recommendations for legislative changes.
“The Project also helps the mentioned inspecting bodies to draft risk
criteria and risk assessment methodologies, which along with checklists
and the inspections plan will be available for public via Internet,”
said Nazaryan.
Armenia’s Tax Service has been the first agency to set an example:
its website contains the first-ever yearly inspections plan.
The first stage of IFC’s Armenia Investment Climate Reform Project
began in 2009 and targeted improvements in the areas of taxation,
trade logistics, construction permits, and business registration and
inspections. The second stage of the project has started in October
2011 and will continue until 2014. This will include a new component –
food safety.
IFC’s Armenia Investment Climate Reform Project is supported with
funds from the Austrian Ministry of Finance and the Netherlands
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
‘MEDIA IMPOSES OFFICIAL IDEOLOGY, CREATING NEGATIVE NON-MUSLIM IMAGE’
Today’s Zaman
May 13 2012
Turkey
Intellectuals and journalists who gathered at a workshop for a debate
on how the media treats non-Muslims in society have said that the
media has had a crucial role in imposing official ideology on society.
“It is not that all negative perceptions in the media regarding
non-Muslims have been determined by media bosses or chief editors.
Everything started with the creation of a nationalist ideology back
in the years when the Turkish Republic was established and when
the nation-state was being formed,” said sociologist Ayhan Aktar
at the two-day workshop, “Perception of non-Muslims in the Media,”
on May 12-13 organized by the Medialog Platform of the Journalists
and Writers Foundation (GYV).
“The Turkish political system has created factory settings. There is
an automatic reflex in the Turkish media in regards to how non-Muslims
are going to be treated,” he said, noting as an example the events
of Sept. 6-7, 1955, when minorities who were living in Ä°stanbul were
forced to leave and the media had a role in the start of the riots.
Even though the Greek population in Turkey was not less than 100,000
in the 1930s, tension between Turkey and Greece has greatly affected
their survival in Turkey. Following the Ä°stanbul Riots of 1955
and then with the 1964 deportation of roughly 12,000 ethnic Greeks,
the Greek population has been in constant decline in Turkey.
Other minority communities, despite being Turkish citizens, have also
been negatively affected by political conflicts in which Turkey has
been involved with other countries, and many of them have left Turkey.
Turkey’s population of nearly 75 million, mostly Muslims, currently
includes about 65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians, 20,000 Jews,
15,000 Assyrians and about 3,500 Greek Orthodox Christians. According
to the last Ottoman population census of 1906, the proportion of
non-Muslims among the population was about 20 percent. The first
population census of the Turkish Republic in 1927, showed that this
ratio had been reduced to 2.5 percent.
However, Aktar also said that the official ideology would not be
changed by the state. “When society does not accept the official
ideology anymore, the state will have to change it, otherwise, it
will not.”
Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a human rights lawyer who is also a columnist for
the Radikal daily, said that a bottom up approach is best suited in
that regard.
“Everybody, every group should be open to self-criticism, which is
not widely practiced in Turkish society,” he said.
Syriac Catholics are estimated to number about 5,000 in Turkey. Zeki
Basatemir, chairperson of the Syriac Catholic Church Foundation, said
at the gathering that the educational system also has an important
role in the creation of perceptions.
“Of course, the media plays a significant part, but look at the history
books. There are prejudices,” he said. “And if the government talks
about the importance of having a ‘single religion’ [Islam], then
what we talk about here remains not really meaningful. As we have
been getting together for 18 years with support from Fethullah Gulen
[the Islamic scholar], there should be no talk about ‘one religion.’ We
would like all religions to co-exist in harmony with each other.”
On the second panel on Saturday, Å~^alom (Shalom) Editor-in-Chief
Evo Molinas said that the Jewish community in Turkey is negatively
influenced by political tensions between Turkey and Israel.
“Even though we are Turkish citizens, we are treated by some people as
if we are defenders of Israel. We are grateful to the Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his remarks, which were an antidote to
anti-Semitism,” he said.
Alper GörmuÅ~_, columnist for the Taraf daily, emphasized that
“factory settings” are valid for the media in general.
“Left-leaning, nationalist or Muslim, each form of the media follows
the line that the state draws,” he said.
He added that television series should take into serious consideration
what kind of perceptions they create, not just newspaper stories.
The participants, who were hosted for a lunch on Saturday at the
Greek Boys’ High School at Heybeliada (or Halki, one of Ä°stanbul’s
Princes’ Islands), worked on Sunday on a final document which included
recommendations.
One suggestion in that regard refers to using a different terminology
in the media, for example, using “groups belonging to different
religions and belief systems,” instead of “non-Muslims.”
Participants also said that displaying bad practices — such as hate
speech — in the media would also contribute positively to the society
in changing negative perceptions.
On the role of what the minority media can do in that regard, Ohannes
Kılıcdagı, an academic and columnist at the Turkish-Armenian weekly
Agos, said that news stories that are not included in the mainstream
media can find a place in the minority media and increase the awareness
of minorities’ problems.
Medialog’s General Secretary Erkam Tufan Aytav stressed the lack of
trust between the majority and minorities in dealing with each other
and suggested more dialogue and similar workshops.
FRANCOIS HOLLANDE AND THE TURKS
Hurriyet
May 14 2012
Turkey
There is a historical trend in the main Socialist leaders of France
alternating their attitudes vis-a-vis the Turks, especially if the
Armenian question is involved. Jean Jaurès (1859-1914) diffused the
Armenian nationalist propaganda in the 1890s, in ignorance, then met
the Young Turks and became, until his death, their loyal friend. The
first years of Francois Mitterrand’s presidency were marked by a
serious crisis (1981-1984), but it was very quickly resolved and
followed by years (1985-2000) of good relations.
However, this is perhaps the first time that the victory of a Socialist
provokes both satisfaction and concern, from a Franco-Turkish
perspective. For the Turks, the main sensitive points are: French
awareness (or lack thereof) of Turkey’s growing importance; the Turkish
candidacy for European Union membership; the cooperation against
terrorism (chiefly the PKK); the situation of Turkish immigrants in
France; and the Armenian question.
Mr. Hollande understands the strategic and economic role of Turkey. He
wrote in his book Le Reve Francais (The French Dream, 2011) that
negotiations between the EU and Turkey must be “fairly” (loyalement)
pursued, until their conclusion. He criticized Mr. Sarkozy several
times for his radical opposition to Turkish candidacy. Despite the
persistent ignorance of some Socialist leaders about the PKK, there is
no reason to fear that the Franco-Turkish agreement against organized
crime, signed in October 2011, will suffer. Mr. Hollande was elected
on a program of national unity and reconciliation in a rejection of
the anti-immigrant demagogy. He even promised to present a reform
giving non-EU citizens the right to vote in municipal elections.
Consequently, it is clear that only the Armenian question represents a
serious subject of concern, which must be neither underestimated nor
overestimated. Turkey and Turks are paying the cost of more than ten
years (1997 until the late 2000s) of passivity and ineffectiveness
vis-a-vis Mr. Hollande, ten years largely used by the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) for its proper agenda. Even the staunch
support of the ARF for the Nazis, or the terrorist tradition of
this party, were not used as an argument for years. Turkey and Turks
are also paying for the more than twenty years (from the beginning
of 1990s to today) almost without translation of any scholarly work
rebutting the “Armenian genocide” allegations into French. Regardless,
is it too late? No.
Among the close friends of Mr. Hollande, you have not only members
of the ARF, but also several MPs who gave their signature to send the
Boyer bill to the Constitutional Council. Mr. Sarkozy tried until the
end to prevent these applications from being presented. Mr. Hollande
eventually renounced the pressuring the MPs of his party, after a few
days. Mr. Hollande’s recent speeches given to Armenian associations,
in Marseille and Paris, were published only by Armenian websites,
not by his campaign site or by the Socialist Party.
The current situation of both national and European jurisprudence
is another reason to be quite optimistic. The decision of the
Constitutional Council destroying the Boyer bill was based on the
principle of law, not a formal, secondary problem. It leaves very
little possibility for a new attempt. The Court of Justice of the
European Union decided in 2003 (first instance) and 2004 (appeal)
that the European Parliament’s resolution regarding the Armenian
“genocide” had no legal value. The European Parliament itself has
reversed its views since 2007.
In conclusion, a lot of work remains, but Mr. Sarkozy’s defeat
most likely marks the beginning of a new spring in Franco-Turkish
relations. A coordinated effort of information and education, which
would neglect no issue, is needed and would be very fruitful.
Maxime Gauin is a researcher at the International Strategic Research
Organization (USAK) and a Ph.D. candidate at the Middle East Technical
University Department of History.
Liberation of Mashtots Park Was Celebrated Today
Story from Lragir.am News:
Published: 19:41:30 – 13/05/2012
Today the dismantlement of boutiques and their removal from Mashots
Park was celebrated. The activists organized a show of photos which
pictured the struggle of activists from the beginning till
dismantlement. The dismantling brigades attended the celebration but
without yellow helmets and outfit.
Ruzanna Grigoryan and Arpine Galfayan briefly told about the progress
of their struggle. They announced that the slogan declared in the
beginning `This park belongs to us’ has been replaced by a new slogan
`This park belongs to everyone’.
The bards Vakhtang Harutyunyan and Armine Hayrapetyan sang for the
audience in the park.
Company with Turkish Ties Gives to Schmidt Fund
asbarez
Saturday, May 12th, 2012
Rep. Jean Schmidt
BY DEIDRE SHESGREEB
Gannett Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON – Since Rep. Jean Schmidt created a legal expense trust to
help repay an improper gift she received from the Turkish Coalition of
America, the Miami Township Republican has received a single $5,000
donation from a company called Global Eclipse.
The twist? The Delaware-registered company has significant Turkish ties.
The firm listed on Schmidt’s most recent fundraising disclosure form
is described as a limited liability company with a mailing address in
Princeton, N.J.
Schmidt spokesman Barrett J. Brunsman said he did not know what kind
of company Global Eclipse is.
What kind of company is Global Eclipse? `I could not tell you that,’
said Schmidt’s spokesman, Barrett J. Brunsman.
He emphasized that there was nothing illegal or untoward about the
donation. `It’s an American company that meets all requirements to
contribute to the legal expense trust,’ Brunsman said.
The disclosure form, which Schmidt filed last week, says that Global
Eclipse has four members. Three of Global Eclipse’s members have
Turkish connections, and the other may have links to that country as
well, although publicly available information about it is sparse.
Campaign finance watchdogs say that Global Eclipse’s donation is
notable, given that Schmidt’s association with a Turkish-American
group is what landed her in ethical hot water in the first place.
Schmidt set up her legal expense trust last year, after the House
ethics committee ordered her to repay more than $400,000 in legal fees
the Turkish coalition paid on her behalf. The Turkish coalition paid
lawyers’ fees that Schmidt racked up in a court battle with David
Krikorian, a political opponent who she sued after he falsely accused
her of taking `blood money’ from the Turkish government.
The ethics committee said the Turkish coalition’s move to pick up her
legal tab amounted to an improper gift. The panel said that while she
accepted the funds unwittingly, she still had to pay the money back.
So far, the only group that has lined up to help her pay off her debt
is Global Eclipse.
`She’s someone whose positions appeal to (the Turkish Coalition), and
at the very least some members of the Turkish community are still
rewarding her for those positions,’ said Bill Allison, editorial
director of the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group that has
researched the influence of foreign interests in American politics.
Brunsman said he was not sure how the contribution came about-whether
Schmidt solicited the firm or its members donated unprompted.
`I can’t speak to this particular company but I can tell you the fact
that she has established a legal expense trust is common knowledge,’
Brunsman said.
The two most prominent members of Global Eclipse are: EA Havacilik, or
EA Aerospace, a Turkish aviation investment firm; and Ekim Alptekin,
the founder of EA Aerospace and an executive at Eclipse Aerospace, an
aviation firm based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Alptekin founded EA Aerospace in 2009 to purchase, along with other
private investors, Eclipse Aerospace, which had developed a jet plane
called the Eclipse 500.
On its website, EA Aerospace is described as `the first Turkish
company ever to make an industrial investment in the United States.’
The company acts as `the sales office’ for the Eclipse 500 aircraft
`in a large area encompassing Europe, Russia, Turkey and Middle East,’
the firm’s website says.
`The company also provides maintenance repair and upgrade services to
Eclipse 500 owners at Europe’s first Eclipse Aerospace Platinum
Service Center at stanbul’s Atat¼rk Airport,’ according to the
website.
Together, EA Havacilik and Alpetkin have about 41 percent profit
interest in Global Eclipse.
Alptekin is a businessman with ties to an array of commercial and
defense aviation interests in Turkey and the U.S.
In addition to his leadership roles at EA Aerospace and Eclipse
Aerospace, where is he executive vice president for Europe, Alptekin
is also a co-founder or board member of other Turkish aviation and
defense companies, including Seabird Airlines and ATH Defense and
Security Company, according to his biography on Eclipse Aerospace’s
website.
`He is actively engaged in efforts to boost Transatlantic trade and
bolster the commercial angle of decades-long Turkish-American
partnership,’ the bio says.
A receptionist at Eclipse Aerospace said Alptekin is based in Europe
and she did not have a number for him. She provided an email address.
But he did not respond to questions sent to that account.
The other two members of Global Eclipse are listed as Ugur Koyluoglu
and Cenay Havacilik. Koyluoglu is a partner at Oliver Wyman, a global
consulting firm where he works on banking issues.
Reached via email, Koyluoglu said he is an investor in Global Eclipse,
not a manager. He did not respond to a request for the manager’s name
and contact information.
Koyluoglu’s bio on Oliver Wyman’s website says he taught mathematics
and engineering at Princeton and at Turkey’s Koc University before
coming to the firm. He worked as Oliver Wyman’s market manager for
Turkey from 1998 to 2010. He also appears to be the owner of the house
in Princeton that Global Eclispe lists as its mailing address.
There is no publicly available information about Cenay Havacilik.
Brunsman said he did not know anything about either Koylouglu or
Havacilik, adding that the trustee for Schmidt’s legal fund would have
been the one to review information about any donors.
`I don’t think there’s any mystery that she seems to be supported by
Turkish-Americans,’ said Jan Baran, a lawyer who specializes in
campaign finance and ethics issues. He said this donation seems to
reaffirm that, but added, `it’s not unethical or illegal for
Turkish-Americans to support her legal defense fund.’
BURCUOGLU: INSISTENCE ON “GENOCIDE” BILL TO HAMPER TURKISH-FRENCH TIES
by Ferhan Koseoglu
Today’s Zaman
May 10 2012
Turkey
Francois Hollande winning the French presidency from Nicolas Sarkozy
has increased concerns in Ankara since Hollande is regarded as
being more deeply engaged in the Armenian “genocide” bill than his
predecessor Sarkozy, although he is expected to be more flexible on
the issue of Turkey’s EU bid.
“Insistence on the Armenian ‘genocide’ bill might take the relations
between Turkey and France into a stalemate. Carrying on in the same
manner [on the issue of the ‘genocide’ bill], the two countries
will end up confronting each other,” said Tahsin Burcuoglu, Turkey’s
ambassador to France, voicing concerns over Hollande’s interest in
and support for the Armenian genocide issue similar to that of former
French leader Sarkozy.
In 2007 Sarkozy vetoed the opening of five EU negotiating chapters
with Turkey. Ankara hopes this veto will be removed during the new
French presidency. Burcuoglu considered the cancelling of the veto
very important for the progress of relations between the two sides.
Noting that other EU countries also are behind the veto of Turkey’s
bid for membership, Burcuoglu said, “If France’s veto is lifted
from the five negotiating chapters, then other EU members will not
be able to hide behind this excuse.” He further added: “We want to
hope that this period [Hollande’s presidency] will be favourable for
the development of Turkish-French ties. We want to believe that past
difficulties will remain in the past.”
Burcuoglu mentioned that in the coming days he will meet with
Hollande’s team, underlining that there are huge differences between
the views of Hollande and Sarkozy.
Commenting on an anti-Turkey declaration made by Sarkozy in 2007,
Burcuoglu said, “Hollande did not state that there was no place for
Turkey in Europe.”
In 2007, President Sarkozy said in a prime-time interview on the TF1
and France 2 television stations that he opposes Turkish membership
because “Turkey is not in Europe. It’s in Asia Minor.”
Believing that socialist leader Hollande will be involved in the
process of Turkey’s EU bid from an objective point of view, Burcuoglu
said, “Hollande used the expression that this process [of Turkey’s
EU bid] will be of long duration.”
Two new consulates during new French presidency Burcuoglu also
mentioned that during the new French presidency two more Turkish
consulates are planned to open, adding that during Sarkozy’s
government two consulates had been planned for the cities of Nantes
and Bordeaux. “In the initial phase, the Sarkozy administration gave
its consent for the consulates to be opened; however, later, due
to the tense relations between the two sides, the process stalled,”
said Burcuoglu. He stated that the Armenian “genocide” bill that came
about during the Sarkozy period not only tightened solidarity among
the Turkish community but also quintupled the number of voters of
Turkish origin in France wanting to participate in the elections.
There are currently four Turkish consulates operating in France,
with plans to increase that number to six.
TURKEY’S ERDOGAN CALLS ‘NEW ERA’ IN RELATIONS WITH FRANCE
Hurriyet Daily News
May 11 2012
Turkey
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan has called for a “new
era” in Franco-Turkish relations in a congratulatory phone call to
president-elect Francois Hollande, officials said today.
In the call late on Thursday, Erdoðan said he hoped “Turko-French
relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently
affecting them,” an official in Erdoðan’s entourage said.
“I am confident on the subject of a new era in our relations,”
Erdoðan told Hollande, according to the official.
France’s relations with Turkey have been frosty under outgoing
president Nicolas Sarkozy, who opposed Turkish entry in the European
Union.
They further soured after French lawmakers passed a bill with Sarkozy’s
backing that outlawed denying the 1915 Armenian genocide claims under
Ottoman Turkey. France’s Constitutional Council struck the bill down
in February, ruling that it violated freedom of expression.
Erdoðan had accused Sarkozy of trying to boost his election prospects
by tapping anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish sentiment.
TURKEY CONSIDERS REPAIRING TIES WITH PARIS GOVERNMENT
Hurriyet Daily News
May 11 2012
Turkey
Turkey has said it could consider lifting the eight-article
sanctions imposed on France, according to the stance the new French
administration takes on the ‘Armenian genocide’ issue.
Speaking of the French presidential candidates’ election promises to
revive the country’s “genocide denial” law, which was annulled by the
French Constitutional Court of France, Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Selcuk Unal told reporters at his weekly press conference yesterday:
“Of course we should look at those statements and monitor further
phases. We have to wait for France to form a new government.” “The
steps the French government takes will be the arbiter in our plans,”
Unal added. “The situation our bilateral relations are in today
does not suit the strong history of French-Turkish ties,” Unal said,
referring to the over 500-year history of diplomatic relations between
the two.
If France acts in what the Turkish government considers as an
appropriate manner, Turkey is ready both to strengthen bilateral ties
and to work closely with France on international issues affecting
Europe’s future, Unal said, adding that Ankara also expects that the
new French administration will open the five chapters of Turkey’s EU
membership negotiations that have been frozen by France.
Unal also said that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is due to pay
visits to Estonia today and Moldova tomorrow.