Author: Kanayan Tamar

Stamp dedicated to 20th anniversary of Armenia’s membership to UN, canceled

arminfo
Saturday, March 24, 16:58

The canceling ceremony of the stamp dedicated to the 20th anniversary
of Armenia’s affiliation to United Nations took place on 23 March.

As press-service of CJSC “Haypost” reported, the stamp has been named
“Armenia – member of United Nations Organization”. The designer of the
project is Stepan Azaryan, the paper – offset, and the nominal price
– 350 drams. The stamp was canceled by UN Resident Coordinator in
Armenia Dafina Gercheva, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan
and Transport and Communication Minister Manuk Vardanyan.

Armenia’s Communist Party expects 17% of parliamentary votes

March 24, 2012 – 12:48 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Communist Party of Armenia claims to get 15-17% of
votes during the parliamentary elections due on May 6, the party’s
first secretary Ruben Tovmasyan said.

The Communist Party has its offices in 45 communities of Armenia,
which are `ready for action’ to take part in the election campaign, he
told a press conference in Yerevan.

Tovmasyan reminded of Communist Party’s success in Soviet Armenia, in
particular, about the social security the population enjoyed during
the epoch, saying his party is joining the election race with
`Communists’ victory is Armenia’s victory’ slogan.

For his part, leader of Progressive Communist Party Vazgen Safaryan
emphasized that `Armenia’s Communist forces have joined efforts for
the first time over the past 13 years’.

Expert: Assad’s regime preferable for Armenians

March 24, 2012 – 15:15 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Maintenance of current President Bashar al-Assad’s
power is preferable for Armenian community in Syria, according to
Arabist Armen Petrsoyan.

`From political perspective, Assad’s regime is preferable to that of
Muslim Brotherhood with uncertain prospects through Turkish backing,’
he said.

The expert further voiced hope for the Syrian authorities to control
the situation and avert development of a dangerous political scenario.

ARMENIA: PASQUA DELLE CRISTIANITA D’ORIENTE

Il Sole 24 Ore

16 marzo 2012
Italia

È la terra della cristianita d’Oriente. E qui si celebra una Pasqua
davvero speciale. Siamo in Armenia, dove la Zatik (Pasqua) è uno
dei momenti più suggestivi e magici che la spiritualita cristiana
possa offrire. Stretta tra il Caucaso e il Medio Oriente l’Armenia,
cerniera tra Asia ed Europa, è una piccola nazione che sta tenacemente
cercando, dopo la caduta dell’impero sovietico, una propria strada,
sorretta da un profondo legame con il passato.

Qui la chiesa Apostolica Armena celebra la Pasqua lo stesso giorno di
quella cattolica, quasi a significare che in questo spicchio di terra
è l’Europa che fa maggiormente sentire la sua importanza culturale,
attraverso rituali commoventi per la loro semplicita e bellezza. Da
ammirare in un luogo speciale: nella cattedrale di Echmiatsin, la più
antica del mondo, dove nel 303 fu fondata la prima Chiesa Nazionale
Cristiana e dove ha avuto origine la Chiesa Apostolica Armena,
indipendente e fiera, fatta di riti e canti, di croci scolpite nella
pietra e di liturgie che affondano le origini nei primi secoli del
Cristianesimo. Scoprire l’Armenia in occasione della Pasqua, significa
allora rivivere cerimonie suggestive e toccanti, e avere l’occasione di
visitare alcune delle decine di chiese paloeocristiane, molte delle
quali appartenenti al World Cultural Heritage Sites dell’UNESCO,
nascoste tra monti, laghi e altopiani del Caucaso.

Questo viaggio di otto giorni è quindi un salto nel passato, perchè
l’Armenia descrive alcune delle tappe fondamentali vissute dalla
civilta europea. Una terra che porta alle origini della religione
cristiana, ed è un incrocio delle culture che si sono succedute:
dall’antico regno hurrita di Urartu all’impero persiano achemenide,
ai regni ellenistici, parti, poi le dominazioni romana, bizantina,
araba, turca e, infine, russa.

Dedicato agli amanti della storia che desiderano scoprire i complessi
monastici e le chiese in pietra simbolo della cristianita, ma anche
l’ambiente naturale con le campagne caucasiche e lo specchio azzurro
del lago Sevan, il viaggio parte dalla capitale Yerevan e fa tappa
all’antica capitale di Vagharshapat, l’attuale Echmiadzin, il luogo
più sacro dell’Armenia, sede patriarcale del Catholikos, la maggiore
autorita della Chiesa armena. Qui nella Cattedrale di Echmiadzin si
partecipa alla Santa Messa di Pasqua e si visita il vicino parco dove
sono esposte alcune khatchkar, le “Croci di Pietra”.

Tocca poi alle rovine della cattedrale di Zvartnots, eretta nel VII
secolo, con il magico sfondo del monte Ararat innevato, a Tsaghkadzor
con il complesso monastico di Kecharis, costituito da 2 cappelle e
4 chiese la più antica delle quali fu edificata da Grigor Magistros
Pakhlavuni nell’anno 1003, dove si assiste alla Messa di commemorazione
dei Defunti, quindi alla vallata del fiume Aghstev, dove si trova il
complesso monastico di Haghartsin (X-XIII sec.), e infine al lago
Sevan, 1900 metri di altitudine, dove si visita la penisola con il
monastero Sevanavank (IX-XIII sec.) costruito quasi a picco sul lago,
in una bellissima posizione.

Si passa poi al sud dell’Armenia, per visitare il monastero di
Khor Virap, luogo di pellegrinaggi che sorge sul luogo di prigionia
(un profondo pozzo) di San Gregorio l’Illuminatore, a cui si deve la
conversione al cristianesimo dell’Armenia. Dal monastero, arroccato su
un colle, si gode una splendida vista del monte Ararat. Nella regione
di Vayotz Dzor si visita il complesso monastico di Noravank. Le sue
chiese, Astvatsatsin e San Karapet, sono in una spettacolare posizione,
sulla cima di un precipizio.

Nella regione di Lori, vicino al confine con la Georgia, si visitano
i complessi monastici di Haghpat e Sanahin. Haghpat è un bellissimo
monastero del IX-XIII secolo dichiarato Patrimonio dell’Umanita
dall’Unesco: un luogo deserto, dove regna il silenzio. Sanahin (IX-
XIII sec.) è invece in uno stato quasi di abbandono, che conferisce
all’intero sito un tono nostalgico e malinconico. Sia Sanahin sia
Haghpat sono stati per molto tempo importanti centri spirituali e
culturali, dove vivevano e lavoravano i più celebri artisti armeni:
qui venivano scritti, copiati e decorati con miniature i manoscritti.

Ed è proprio grazie alle traduzioni in armeno dal siriaco e dal greco,
che sono arrivate fino a noi diverse versioni della Bibbia, nonche
le opere di Platone ed Aristotele.

Infine nella regione di Kotayk si visita il tempio pagano di Garni,
con i resti della muraglia risalente al III secolo a.C. e delle terme,
e il monastero di Geghard, per meta costruito e per meta scavato
nella roccia che risalirebbe, secondo la tradizione, al IV secolo. E
che porta il nome della lancia che trafisse il corpo di Cristo.

Partenza unica: 6 aprile Questo viaggio di 8 giorni, con accompagnatore
dall’Italia, base 10-19 partecipanti costa da 1695 euro a persona
in camera doppia con pensione completa e comprende i voli di linea
Austrian Airlines da/ per Milano e trasferimenti. Con Il Tucano Viaggi
Ricerca, tel.

0115617061.

Altri operatori che propongono l’Armenia: Adenium – Soluzioni di
viaggio, Atacama Travel, Antichi Splendori, Metamondo, Kel 12.

MINSK URGES PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO KARABAKH

Hurriyet Daily News
March 23 2012
Turkey

The United States, Russia and France yesterday urged Azerbaijan
and Armenia to show the “political will” needed to find a lasting
settlement to their conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe issued the
statement to mark the 20th anniversary of the formal request to
convene a conference on the conflict. In a joint statement issued by
the U.S. State Department, the three co-chairs of the so-called Minsk
Group said they “call upon the sides to demonstrate the political
will needed to achieve a lasting and peaceful settlement.

“A new generation has come of age in the region with no first-hand
memory of Armenians and Azeris living side by side, and prolonging
these artificial divisions only deepens the wounds of war,” the
statement said. “For this reason, we urge the leaders of the sides
to prepare their populations for peace, not war,” according to the
statement.

Armenian forces seized Nagorno-Karabakh and some surrounding territory
from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that claimed an
estimated 35,000 lives and forced about a million people on both
sides to flee their homes. A ceasefire was signed in 1994, but the
two countries have cut direct economic and transport links and failed
to negotiate a settlement on the status of the enclave.

But the joint statement said “progress toward peace has been made,”
citing joint presidential statements from the Minsk group over the last
three years outlining elements of a framework for a comprehensive peace
settlement. The Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to bring about a peaceful
resolution to the conflict. It is co-chaired by the United States,
Russia and France.

DISCOVERING THE FORGOTTEN HOLY LAND

Wall Street Journal

March 23 2012

Overlooked Armenia is home to a complex culture and some of the
world’s greatest religious shrines.

The Armenian man let loose a single musical note. It ricocheted
between the 1,000-year-old stone walls of Haghpat Monastery, echoes
transforming his warm, lonely voice into a full symphony.

If time has a sound, it sounds like Haghpat, one of the world’s
greatest religious shrines-and also one of the least explored.

Every year, millions of tourists flock to the predictable splendors of
Rome and Jerusalem, filling the Vatican and the Old City. Armenia,
meanwhile, hosted fewer than 100,000 visitors in 2009. It’s
understandable: On first impression, this country of three million
on the Caucasus does not feel like a holy land.

Armenia’s cities are filled with grim industrial buildings. Hundreds
of miles of barbed wire separate it from Turkey, from whom it is still
awaiting an apology for a 1915 genocide. Relations with neighboring
Azerbaijan, which claims territory within Armenia, remain fractured.

The bulk of Armenian tourists are, in fact, Armenians, who scattered
after World War I and through later years of economic decay.

Yet it is this tangle of histories and enmity that makes Armenia such
a compelling place to visit, as my wife and I learned when we spent a
week there last summer. Men roast giant pots of corn by the roadside;
Armani-clad hustlers share streets with farmers wearing thick,
Soviet-era suits. And magnificent, soot-stained monasteries like
Haghpat and Geghard, which was carved into the side of a mountain,
still preside atop green valleys.

Perhaps fittingly, a fine airborne grit-and surprisingly friendly
gun-toting guards-welcomed us to Armenia’s northeastern border crossing
with Georgia. We were driven by a 48-year-old former architect who
said he changed careers because there is no work to be had designing
new buildings. Old structures-abandoned Soviet factories-still loom
over the landscape.

But soon enough, crumbling concrete gave way to thick forest, spread
across a series of river valleys. The occasional ox cart appeared on
the uneven roads, slowing our progress. At a roadside restaurant, a few
dollars bought a lunch of fresh lamb, eggplant and hearth-baked bread.

The bucolic, shambolic setting only made the 10th-century Haghpat,
in the northeastern corner of Armenia, feel all the more remarkable.

With its gilded and vaulted spaces, the Vatican implores its visitors
to be inspired. Haghpat doesn’t have to try so hard. It and sister
monastery Sanahin, which form a Unesco World Heritage site, are
little visited on Armenia’s back roads. At Sanahin, only a wizened
female caretaker was on site. (And down the hill was a memorial to
Artem Mikoyan, father of the Soviet MiG, complete with a fighter jet.)

>From the outside, Haghpat looks like a jumbled castle whose owners keep
randomly adding on wings and storerooms. About 500 years after King
Vartan Mamikonian made Christianity his nation’s official religion,
a monk named Nishan set upon a hillside near the modern-day town of
Alaverdi to build Haghpat. The main two-story sanctuary was begun in
967 and was finished 24 years later. In the centuries that followed,
descendants built scriptoria and belfries, refectories and mess halls,
chiseling many of their walls with fine crosses.

Haghpat’s monks formed a devotional, if paranoid, communal existence.

Their lives were short. Books and manuscripts were fiercely protected.

Invaders were so frequent that the windows were designed as narrow
slits, which today seem to concentrate the power of the sunlight that
beams through them.

Nishan named the place more suitably than he may have
imagined-“Haghpat” means “strong walls” in Armenia’s curled 36-letter
alphabet. The blackened stone walls have survived earthquakes and
sackings, Muslim invaders and atheist pedants, and convey fortitude
where little has managed to endure. In a country full of monasteries,
Haghpat, which outlasted the Cilicians, Egyptian Mameluks, Kurds,
Turks, Mongols, Ottomans, Persians and Russians, particularly inspires
simply because it is still here.

Inside, towering arches are caked with a patina of soot, mold and plain
old dirt. Birds roam throughout the many rooms, their tweets echoing
among the stones. The sparse walls once held a series of religious
murals and paintings. Most were scrubbed off by the Soviets, though
a few splashes of red and blue peek through the grime.

There are also tracks of soot from a set of flickering candles. It’s
as if you can see the centuries of invisible prayer that accumulated
with each lighted wick, making the ethereal into the tangible.

As we explored the complex, we trod on tombs and crypts laid down
century by century. Most feature the ancient Armenian script, surely
describing the pious and glamorous of the day. Some are simpler,
depicting only the most basic outline of an adult’s body-or a child’s.

To pray at Haghpat is to offer thanks for our short time here; to
know that our tombstones will one day be flooring; and to respect how
a rock arch can plant itself in the ground and not let go of the sky.

Getting There: Russian airline Aeroflot flies to Yerevan, Armenia’s
capital, from Moscow, but visa requirements mean it can be easier to
take Lot Polish Airlines from Warsaw.

Where to Stay: Avan Villa Yerevan Hotel, atop a hill just outside
the city center, is a welcome respite from the capital’s hot, dusty
streets (from about $96 per night, tufenkianheritage.com). Options
diminish near Haghpat; consider staying in well-groomed Dilijan,
about two hours away.

Where to Eat: Mercedes Benzes line up outside Dolmama’s, one of
Yerevan’s finest restaurants. Try the eggplant rolls with walnut and
cream (dolmama.am).

US PATENT ISSUED TO JEFFERSON SCIENCE ASSOCIATES ON MARCH 20 FOR “RADIO FREQUENCY PHOTOTUBE” (AMERICAN, ARMENIAN, JAPANESE INVENTORS)

US Fed News

March 22, 2012 Thursday 10:35 AM EST

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 22 — United States Patent no. 8,138,460,
issued on March 20, was assigned to Jefferson Science Associates LLC
(Newport News, Va.).

“Radio Frequency Phototube” was invented by Amur Margaryan (Yerevan,
Armenia), Karlen Gynashyan (Yerevan, Armenia), Osamu Hashimoto
(Sendai, Japan), Stanislaw Majewski (Morgantown, W.va.), Linguang Tang
(Yorktown, Va.), Gagik Marikyan (Yerevan, Armenia) and Lia Marikyan,
legal representative (Yerevan, Armenia). According to the abstract
released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: “A method and apparatus
of obtaining a record of repetitive optical or other phenomena having
durations in the picosecond range, comprising a circular scan electron
tube to receive light pulses and convert them to electron images
consisting with fast nanosecond electronic signals, a continuous wave
light or other particle pulses, e.g. electron picosecond pulses, and
a synchronizing mechanism arranged to synchronize the deflection of
the electron image (images) in the tube (tubes) with the repetition
rate of the incident pulse train. There is also provided a method and
apparatus for digitization of a repetitive and random optical waveform
with a bandwidth higher than 10 GHz.” The patent was filed on March 8,
2010, under Application No. 12/660,966.

For further information please visit:

ELMAN ABDULLAYEV: “PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE OF TWO COMMUNITIES ON ONE TERRITORY IS THE ONLY TRUE PATH TO GENERAL PEACE IN THE REGION”

Vestnik Kavkaza
March 22 2012
Russia

Interview by Elmira Tariverdiyeva, exclusively to VK

The official representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry,
Elman Abdullayev, comments on the major trends of Azeri foreign policy.

– How would you characterize current Russian-Azeri relations?

– The level of these relations is very high for today, this
relationship can be called strategic partnership. Baku and Moscow have
constructed a mutually beneficial relationship in all possible spheres,
and this relationship is developing. A lot of official visits are being
made, including high-level visits. Russian and Azerbaijani experts
and journalists have a high level of cooperation. One can’t pass up
the exclusive role of Russia in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Both states are interested in further development of their
relationship in all spheres. Just recently the states finished the
process of demarcation of their border-line – and it is a great
success, as the process lasted for quite a long while.

Of course, some issues remain, but they are technical and will be
resolved soon. The issue of the two villages that are situated on
Azeri territory but are populated with people from Dagestan is also
being resolved at state level, and now it is up to the residents of
these villages – they can live wherever they choose.

Today the number of spheres of Russian-Azeri cooperation is
increasing, and there are many issues on which Baku and Moscow agree
almost completely. We are interested in strengthening our bilateral
relations, and I think the newly-elected President, Mr Putin, will
guarantee that. And our states’ relations are already on a level from
which only further progress is possible, no matter who is in power in
Russia. The trade turnover between the two states grows constantly,
the business communities of the countries have a rather high level
of cooperation and interaction. The level of cooperation between the
two states in the area of education is also pretty high.

– What can you say about the recent diplomatic successes of Azerbaijan?

– Azerbaijan is increasing its international influence, it participates
in many international organizations, like the UN Security Council, the
Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The
recent meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers
that took place on Azeri soil in Nakhchivan demonstrated that Baku
attributes a great deal of attention to regional cooperation and
development. Recently Azerbaijan was invited as a special guest to
the G20 summit – and this is a great step forward for Azerbaijan.

Also, the Azerbaijani President was invited to the Seoul summit
related to nuclear issues. So Azerbaijan is evolving from a regional
leader to a strong international player. Azerbaijan is strengthening
its economic and military potential, which is natural for a state
20% of whose territory is occupied. Today Azeri foreign policy is
aimed at creating an image of a reliable and stable partner in the
global arena. The increasing role of Azerbaijan in the frameworks of
international organizations – the entrance to the UN Security Council,
the election of Azerbaijan to a number of leading positions in the
UNESCO organization – all this points to the fact that Azerbaijan’s
position in the world is becoming stronger.

– How would you characterize the process of the Nagorno-Karabakh
settlement? And what’s the role of Russia in this process?

– We all witnessed President’s Medvedev attempt to become a personal
mediator between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We appreciate these efforts
highly and we hope this initiative will continue in the future. We also
hope that the OSCE Minsk Group will become more active – there is a
great need for that, as prolongation of the period of the conflict’s
unresolved state touches upon all countries of the region. And this
conflict isn’t ‘frozen’, as many think, while many powers regard it
from a position of double-standards.

The EU has to take a clear position regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh
issue. The world has to react to the fact that Yerevan ignores four
resolutions of UN Security Council that called for a withdrawal of
troops from occupied Azeri territories. It is most surprising, as we
see how quickly other resolutions of the Council are being carried out,
for example, the one on Libya.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has to be resolved, as if a war breaks
out in such an strategically important region, it would make the
whole South Caucasus vulnerable, and that can’t leave our neighbors
indifferent. The danger of the conflict turning into a shooting war
should become a good motivation for the mediators, including the
Minsk Group co-chairs, to try to settle it as quickly as possible in
accordance with international law.

Today Azeri territories are still occupied and millions of Azeri
refugees can’t return to their homes. This concerns the Azerbaijani
authorities, but the recent statement made by the Armenian President
shows that Armenia is negatively disposed. Armenia wants to maintain
the status-quo and tries to hamper the negotiation process. It seems
that Yerevan wants to shift the responsibility of aggressor onto
someone else, but it is Azeri territory that is being occupied by
Armenian troops, and not the other way around. Azerbaijan is very
concerned about the fact that the international community chooses to
ignore the violations of international laws by Armenia, as well as
important principles of international relations, such as a state’s
right to territorial integrity. This principle is at the basis of the
current global system, all states exist thanks to it, so it can’t be
ignored. Of course, we are not opposed to the right of a nation for
self-determination, but it still should be carried out for Karabakh
in the framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Azerbaijan is
ready to grant special status and wide autonomy to Karabakh Armenians.

However, all our suggestions were ignored by the Armenian authorities.

I think the international community should pay attention to the
attempts of Yerevan to create a second Armenian state. But it is
unacceptable to alter state borders by force in the 21st century. The
international community shouldn’t remain inert. It is a positive
moment that the OSCE Minsk Group is monitoring the situation on
the border, but the lack of any positive results in 20 years is
almost a failure. The conflict can explode in any moment, and it is
a great danger to the region. We see how the conflict has affected
the development of the South Caucasus, even though Azerbaijan does
its best to ensure sustained development of the region. Azerbaijan’s
economy has a direct influence on the economy of the region in general,
and 80% of the region’s GDP is created by our country.

However, the conflict damages not only the general situation in the
region, but the economy of Armenia as well. Today’s stagnation is
unprecedented. The country is also going through a demographic crisis –
80-90,000 people leave the country every year. The state’s leadership
has to think, is it wise to drive the country into such a miserable
state by its ambitions. Today the main question is – does Yerevan have
the will to resolve the conflict? Unfortunately, today the Armenian
government is doing all in its power to maintain the status-quo.

But I think a final resolution of the conflict is inevitable, it
can’t remain unresolved for long.

– What is the role of civil diplomacy in this settlement process?

Could Armenia’s refusal to participate in the Eurovision contest be
regarded as a step back in the dialogue?

– We always believed in civil diplomacy, we believe it can be most
effective if both sides have the will. But unfortunately it seems that
the Armenian side doesn’t have this will. We saw how Yerevan hampered
the meetings of Azeri and Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh communities’
representatives in Berlin and Paris. Azeri representatives came but
the Armenian side refused at the last moment. But of course such
meetings should take place. Azeri community representatives should
have an opportunity to come to Nagorno-Karabakh, to see their homes,
to honor the graves of their ancestors. They have this right and the
international community shouldn’t idly stand by while this right
is being violated. We try to establish relations between the two
communities, but Armenia blocks these attempts as if it doesn’t
understand that peaceful coexistence of two communities on one
territory is the only true path to general peace in the region.

SENSING A SIEGE, KURDS HIT BACK

The International Herald Tribune
March 21, 2012 Wednesday
France

Clashes in Turkey flare as more officials arrested and communities
falter

ABSTRACT Tensions with Turkey’s large Kurdish population have risen
in recent days as activists have intensified their calls for greater
autonomy after dozens of officials have been arrested or jailed.

FULL TEXT In this town on the Tigris, a dozen men huddled in a corner
of city hall’s assembly chamber earlier this month, forgoing the empty
rows of leather seats for a few chairs pulled up in an informal group.

“We’re keeping things going here,” Mustafa Goren, the acting mayor
of Cizre, said, glancing up from zoning maps and applications for
building permits. “We’re not going to be intimidated.”

The group is all that remains of the municipal council of this city,
population 105,000, after successive waves of arrests have swept
mayors, council members and staff into jail over the past couple
of years.

Mr. Goren is the third mayor Cizre has seen since his party, the Peace
and Democracy Party, won office in some 98 towns, including this one,
across the Kurdish southeast of Turkey in elections in March 2009. The
results horrified the political establishment in the Turkish capital,
Ankara, where the party is suspected of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers’ Party, or P.K.K.

Since then, some 630 Peace and Democracy Party officials, including at
least 24 mayors and dozens of city council members, have been jailed
on terrorism and separatism charges, according to a count kept by
the party at its headquarters in Ankara.

Tensions with Turkey’s large Kurdish population have risen in recent
days as Kurdish activists have intensified their calls for greater
autonomy, hoping to pressure the Turkish government, which has backed
the Arab revolts but has shown limited patience for opposition or
street protests in its own country.

Over the weekend, the Turkish police used water cannons and tear
gas to put down Kurdish demonstrations across the country before
the Kurdish New Year, Newroz, which begins Wednesday. On Sunday,
one local politician died in the protests in Istanbul.

Thousands also gathered in Diyarbakir, the regional capital in the
predominantly Kurdish southeast, waving Kurdish flags and holding up
portraits of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed P.K.K. leader.

Following escalating P.K.K. violence in recent months, the government
in November ordered an intense air and artillery operation against the
group’s bases across the border in northern Iraq. It has also arrested
dozens of prominent Kurdish journalists, intellectuals and academics.

The government has made changes aimed at better relations with Kurds,
including the introduction of private Kurdish language courses. But
these have been greeted as insufficient by Kurdish activists, who
want a new constitution to enshrine the rights of the country’s 15
million Kurds.

Here in Cizre, the elected mayor, Aydin Budak, has been in jail for
more than two years, arrested on charges of membership in a terrorist
organization. His successor, Mehmet Saci, elected by the city council
to replace him, fled the country when a warrant was issued for his
arrest on similar charges in October.

The acting mayor, Mr. Goren, is now trying to hold things together
with what is left of the city council, more than half of whose 25
members are behind bars or on the run from arrest warrants.

He is also having to make do without the head of the sanitation
department, the municipal health clinic’s doctor, a fire chief and
several other administrators, all of whom have been arrested over
the past months.

Among the hardest-hit municipalities is Kiziltepe, population 140,000,
where the acting mayor, Serife Alp, herself only two weeks out of jail,
returned from a prison visit to Mayor Ferhan Turk this month to find
her deputy, Leyla Salman, had been released after a month behind bars.

“My deputies are continually changing, they are arrested almost as
fast we can replace them,” Ms. Alp said as she greeted Ms. Salman in
her office.

Ms. Alp, 34, has been running the town for most of the time since Mr.
Turk, the mayor, was arrested in a predawn raid on his home on Dec.

24, 2009, along with Mr. Budak in Cizre and six other mayors across
the region.

Both Mr. Turk and Mr. Budak are now on trial together with 150
other Peace and Democracy Party officials and Kurdish politicians in
Diyarbakir, facing terrorism and separatism charges.

According to the 7,578-page indictment issued in June 2010, they stand
accused of taking orders from the P.K.K. and conspiring to create a
separate Kurdish administration system in Turkey’s southeast.

Led by the judiciary, the clampdown has been vigorously defended by
the Turkish government.

“Yes, mayors and other officials are being arrested,” Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in November, according to the Anatolian
news agency. “But, brothers, they are no innocents. They have all
been up to something. They are doing illegal work under the guise
of legality, and this illegal organizing is basically just another
version of the P.K.K.”

In Diyarbakir, Serdar Celebi, a lawyer and board member of the local
Human Rights Association, disagreed. “Mayors are being put on trial
for sending out invitations in Kurdish,” he said.

In many of the cases before the courts, the charge of membership in a
terrorist organization is backed by no more than the accused having
made a public speech in Kurdish or participated in a protest rally,
he said.

This complaint was echoed in municipalities around the region.

Even before his current trial, Mr. Budak, the Cizre mayor, was
convicted in December 2010 and sentenced to seven and a half years on
the grounds that he had been present at an unauthorized demonstration
against the prison conditions for the P.K.K. leader, Abdullah Ocalan,
a year earlier.

Mr. Budak argued that he had been trying to convince protesters to
disperse, and he has since been formally stripped of his office,
along with half a dozen other mayors from his party, several of whom
have not yet been sentenced.

Other towns have fared little better.

In Nusaybin, a town of 86,000, Mayor Ayse Gokkan noted this month
that she was the defendant in more than 100 court cases, most of them
for posting billboards in Kurdish, giving streets Kurdish names and
similar offenses.

While Kurdish is widely spoken throughout the region, Turkey’s law
on political parties makes it illegal to use any language but Turkish
in meetings, brochures, billboards or any other public communications.

“I have to go to court to testify two to five times a week,”
Ms. Gokkan said.

Most recently, the Interior Ministry had opened proceedings to
dissolve Nusaybin’s city council because, Ms. Gokkan said, it had
voted to put up signposts in all the languages spoken in the town –
Arabic, Armenian and Aramaic, as well as Turkish and Kurdish.

In Kiziltepe, Ms. Alp blames Turkey’s governing party, Prime Minister
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., for the crackdown.

“The A.K.P. wins elections everywhere, but not here in Kurdistan,”
she said. “Now that they have taken over the state apparatus, they
are ordering the judiciary to come after us.”

As for the charges of attempting to build a parallel administration
system in southeastern Turkey, Ms. Alp refutes them.

“We’ve been elected to serve our people, to collect the trash, to build
sewers, to pipe water – that is what we are here to do,” she said.

But this work has been severely hampered by the crackdown, she said,
with 24 of the Peace and Democracy Party’s 29 council members in
Kiziltepe arrested over the past six months and 4 others on the run
from arrest warrants.

The council has called up its reserve members, but the new members
have to be allocated to the various committees and to learn the ropes,
effectively slowing municipal services, Ms. Alp said. In the meantime,
five reserve members have already been arrested as well.

Work has also been hampered by police raids on city hall, she added.

Twice this year the building has been cordoned off by hundreds of
police officers for searches taking up to 12 hours.

To reassure intimidated residents, Ms. Alp had billboards posted around
the town, advising citizens that municipal services continued despite
the raids. “But the prosecutor’s office had them taken down,” she said.

ARMENIAN GIRL COMMITS SUICIDE BECAUSE OF SEXUAL BLACKMAIL IN TURKEY

news.am
March 23, 2012 | 23:34

ISTANBUL. – Armenian Narine Lazarian, 21, who had gone to Istanbul
with her stepfather and half-brother, was sexually blackmailed by a
Turkish man called Orhan and committed suicide.

Narine’s brother Jora informed, that Narine was in love with
Orhan but the later cheated her. After having love with Narine,
Orhan somehow managed to take nude pictures of Narine, Akos paper
informs. Then Orhan’s brother Bares tried to persuade her to living
together blackmailing her with the photographs. After being refused,
he showed the pictures to Narine’s brother. As a result Narine and
her brother started arguing and Jora slapped her on the face.

Orhan and his brother started blackmailing her demanding money and
threatening to post her nude pictures on the internet. Not being able
to deal with the situation the girl committed suicide.

Her step-father discovered her body. They did not report to the police
as they were staying in Turkey illegally.

Narine’s mother went to Turkey after being informed about her
daughter’s death. She did report to the police.