Author: Kanayan Tamar

TURKISH SPEAKER CICEK MEETS WITH US COUNTERPART, DISCUSS SYRIA

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 26 2015

Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek delivered a speech at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) during his
visit to the US. (Photo: Cihan, Ä°hsan Denli)

March 27, 2015, Friday/ 00:40:00/ MAHIR ZEYNALOV / WASHINGTON

Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek met with his US counterpart john
boehner on Wednesday to discuss regional developments, particularly
Syria, Boehner’s office said.

Cicek is visiting Washington this week as part of an intensified
campaign by Ankara to blunt a momentum in the US Congress as it
prepares to debate whether or not mass killing of Armenians during
WWI constituted a genocide. The issue has been Turkey’s “red-line”
for decades and Ankara even recalled ambassadors in response to similar
attempts to recognize the killings as genocide, including from the US,
France and Sweden. Previous attempts to bring a similar resolution
to the House floor were failed, particularly in 2007 and 2011.

The Boehner’s office didn’t say if both speakers discussed the newly
introduced bill on Armenian “genocide.” The Armenian National Committee
of America (ANCA), the largest Armenian lobby group in the US, said
nearly 50 members of the House are now backing the Armenian ‘genocide’
resolution. It said a broad spectrum of veteran and freshmen House
members are adding their voices to the “global call for truth and
justice,” as support for the resolution continues to grow.

On Tuesday, Cicek said during his speech at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies (CSIS) that Turkey is the country that
wants the most to illuminate every aspect of the 1915 events so that
the issue is not “exploited.”

“Whatever there is in front or behind, who provoked these events,
who promoted them … whatever happened, we want them to be unveiled
based on documents with all their dimensions,” Cicek said, adding
that Ankara wants to eliminate the exploitation of the 1915 events
and contribute to peace through exposing historic realities.

Boehner’s office also said the two speakers discussed issues of mutual
interest and concern in the Middle East, including the ongoing war
in Syria. Boehner last met with Speaker Cicek last April during a
visit to Turkey.

Before his meeting with Boehner, Cicek repeatedly called on Western
countries to broaden their efforts to defeat the Islamic State
of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) to also include the removal of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad. Cicek also expressed unease that the West
is justifying assistance to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
“just because they’re helping the fight against the ISIL.”

FISK, BOGOSIAN TO SPEAK ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT DEARBORN SCHOOL

Dearborn Press and Guide, MI
March 26 2015

Published: Thursday, March 26, 2015

Two voices on the subject of ethnic cleansing are heading to metro
Detroit in April for an interactive discussion of the Armenian
Genocide.

Robert Fisk and Eric Bogosian are to appear April 18 at Edsel Ford High
School in Dearborn to talk about the near-annihilation of Armenians
that began in 1915.

The event, titled “We Remember, We Demand,” is sponsored by the
Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Greater Detroit.

“This event will help educate people of all ages, regardless
of ethnicity, of the heinous act carried out against Christian
Armenians a century ago that is largely overshadowed on the world
stage,” committee Chairman Raffi Ourlian said. “We encourage everyone,
especially younger generations, to attend, ask questions and learn from
having unprecedented access to our speakers’ knowledge and opinions.”

Fisk is a veteran British journalist and Middle East correspondent for
The Independent, a London-based global newspaper. He has reported on
and published several books on armed conflicts, has won numerous awards
and interviewed terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden three times.

Bogosian, a well-known Armenian-American actor, is perhaps best known
for writing Talk Radio and subUrbia, two stage productions that were
successfully adapted for the silver screen. He also has starred in
“Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and soon will have a genocide-themed
book, “Operation Nemesis,” published.

Fisk and Bogosian will take to the Edsel Ford stage at 7 p.m. The
school is at 20601 Rotunda Drive, near Outer Drive, in Dearborn. The
event also will feature a genocide-themed performance by the Hamazkayin
Arax Dance Ensemble.

Admission is free but donations will be accepted.

For more information, contact the Armenian Community Center at
313-336-6840 or visit

NOTIONS OF ‘PURITY’

The Pioneer (India)
March 24, 2015 Tuesday

India

India, March 24 — Filmmaker Priya Thuvassery’s documentary raised
questions on orthodox beliefs and customs around chastity in various
parts of India

In some rural parts of Rajasthan when a girl is married she is made
to wear a white undergarment at the first night of the marriage. The
undergarment is to keep a check on her “purity.” If the bride is
found to be “impure” the panchayat is held and sometimes the groom is
asked to remarry. It is called the Kukari Ki Rasam and if the bride
is found to be non righteous, the groom’s family demands repayment
of the money they paid for the bride.

There were many such shocking facts that were brought to light
through the short film My Sacred Glass Bowl. The movie that was
recently screened at the India Habitat Centre raised questions on the
beliefs and customs of the orthodox India and dealt with the concept
of virginity in various Indian cultures.

The film, directed by Kerala-born filmmaker Priya Thuvassery was
produced by PSBT and Doordarshan. The film was conceived after Priya
read a newspaper report citing instances where virginity and pregnancy
tests were conducted on girls before matrimonial alliances. “This
short film is a documentation of the idea of virginity perceived by
different cultures. There is no masculine word for virginity, we only
find people relating virginity to females. There was an incident in
Madhya Pradesh where the government conducted a mass marriage and the
girls had to undergo a virginity test. This was under the Mukhyamantri
Kanyadan Yojna where all the expenses for the marriage were to be
taken care of by the government. The virginity test was uncalled for
as the males were not even checked for HIV,” shared the director.

The film also talked about the issue of virginity in metropolitan
cities. “We find educated people from middle class and upper middle
class families giving much importance to virginity at the time of
marriage. The generation gap can be one of the reasons. In the
documentary, I have included the advertisement of hymenoplasty,
which is one of the fastest growing plastic surgeries in India. The
girls are even ready to go under knife because of the huge societal
pressure,” shared Priya.

The documentary ended with a beautiful sequence portraying apples
lying on a bed of grass, the notion behind it could be different for
different people. But the original idea was to refer to the story of
Armenia. As per the tradition in Armenia, apples were gifted to the
bride’s family if the sheets were found stained after the wedding
night. But people protested to this tradition and apples were buried
in the ground to convey their discontent.

The narrative of the film was very personal and tried to break
many notions about documentaries. It used animation to describe the
subject. It will be aired on Doordarshan soon.

MOSCOW TO HELP VETERANS IN YEREVAN

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
March 25 2015

25 March 2015 – 8:22pm

The Moscow government and the department of external economic and
international relations of Moscow will grant about $21,200 as material
aid to veterans of the Great Patriotic War, RIA Novosti reports.

The program will start at the Moscow House in Yerevan on March 31.

Armine Tyutyujan, the director general of the Moscow House, said that
veterans will be honoured for their contribution to fighting fascism.

The Moscow House has been holding such events for 8 years. WWII
monuments were restored in Yerevan and Dilijan in 2014 with the help
of the Moscow government.

UNE SURVIVANTE AGEE DE 105 ANS RACONTE LE GENOCIDE DES ARMENIENS

Metro Montreal, Canada
25 mars 2015

Par Amine Esseghir

À 105 ans, Keghetsig Zourikian Hagopian, qui habite a Cartierville,
fait partie des derniers temoins du genocide des Armeniens. Trop
jeune a l’epoque des evenements, elle n’a jamais pu raconter a
ses enfants ce qui s’est passe. Pourtant, la tournure qu’a pris
sa vie est la consequence directe des grands massacres subis par
les Armeniens en 1915, en Turquie. Keghetsig, qui signifie la plus
belle en armenien, est nee a Bursa, dans le nord-ouest de la Turquie,
non loin d’Istanbul. Elle avait deux soeurs et un frère.

Elle a perdu son père quelques temps avant le debut du genocide. Il
etait militaire dans l’armee turque. Il a ete tue après la defaite
subie par l’armee Ottomane a la fin de l’annee 1914, face aux Russes.

Un nettoyage ethnique avait ete alors opere dans les rangs des
militaires, augurant des exactions qu’allaient connaître les Armeniens
de Turquie dans les mois qui allaient suivre. On a alors appele
sa mère pour partir recuperer les affaires de son mari a Istanbul,
la metropole qui s’appelait encore a cette epoque, Constantinople.

Debut d’une tragedie Une fois sur place, elle apprend que des massacres
et des deportations ont debute a Bursa et qu’il etait preferable
pour elle et ses enfants de rester dans la grande ville. La mère
monoparentale, ne pouvant subvenir aux besoins de tous, decide alors
de mettre ses deux plus jeunes filles dans un orphelinat.

ANKARA MAYOR FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST JOURNALIST FOR CALLING HIM ‘ARMENIAN’

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 26 2015

Turkish-Armenian journalist Hayko Bagdat (Photo: Today’s Zaman,
KurÃ…~_at Bayhan)

March 24, 2015, Tuesday/ 17:39:05/ TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

Ankara Mayor Melih Gökcek has filed a criminal complaint against
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hayko Bagdat on defamation charges, after
the latter jokingly posted tweets referring to him as an Armenian
after the March 2014 local elections.

According to the Diken website and the state-run Anadolu news agency,
Gökcek’s petition to the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office stated that
Bagdat, who has more than 300,000 followers on Twitter, wrote a
series of posts in the wake of Gökcek’s victory in last year’s
March elections. One of Bagdat’s messages said: “It is official;
they gave the capital city to an Armenian. What a shame!” according
to the petition.

The petition also said a Twitter hashtag “melihgökcekermeniymiÃ…~_”
(Melih Gökcek turns out to be Armenian) was allegedly used by Bagdat
in his tweets on the social media website.

Gökcek’s lawyer said in the petition that the mayor is “a citizen
of the Turkish Republic who loves his country and his nation” and
that Bagdat is aware of this. “The statements [by Bagdat] are false
and include insult and libel,” the petition said.

Gökcek also sued Bagdat in civil court, demanding compensation of
TL 10,000 for psychological damages. Bagdat announced the lawsuit on
Twitter, saying: “Turns out Melih Gökcek sued me demanding TL 10,000
for calling him Armenian, dude. We are going to have so much fun.”

>

Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris

Conference donnee au Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, par le
Pasteur Rene Leonian.

Cette conference a ete organisee le mercredi 18 mars 2015 par
l’Association des Protestants du Palais. Elle s’est tenue dans un lieu
prestigieux, la bibliothèque de l’Ordre des Avocats du Barreau de
Paris, au Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. L’intervenant etait
le Pasteur Rene Leonian, Pasteur de l’Eglise Evangelique Armenienne
de France et Representant du Conseil Mondial Evangelique Armenien
en Eurasie.

Maître Florence Fresnel, Secretaire Generale de l’Association des
Protestants du Palais, a salue les participants en insistant sur
le fait que leur association ne pouvait pas passer sous silence cet
evenement du centenaire du genocide des Armeniens. Le Pasteur Rene
Leonian a articule son intervention en 3 points. D’abord en faisant
un rappel de l’histoire de l’Armenie et des Armeniens. Ensuite en
presentant les massacres et le genocide des Armeniens a la fin du 19eme
siècle jusqu’aux annees 1915. Et enfin en insistant sur le processus
de reconnaissance du genocide et le dialogue armeno-turc aujourd’hui.

Le conferencier a replace le genocide des armeniens dans le contexte
historico-politique de l’epoque en detaillant le processus genocidaire
employe par les >. Il a developpe les elements de
recherche depuis une centaine d’annee et a formule l’espoir que sur
la base de la verite et de la justice, une reconciliation possible
soit envisagee entre Turcs et Armeniens.

La rencontre a dure 2 heures, laissant une large place a des questions
ou des commentaires de la part de l’assistance. Le nombreux public
a suivi avec un interet soutenu l’expose a la fois historique,
technique et ponctue de temoignages personnels de la part du Pasteur
Rene Leonian.

Les organisateurs se sont felicites d’une participation mixte, a la
fois d’avocats, magistrats, juristes de la region parisienne ainsi
que de membres de la communaute armenienne.

vendredi 27 mars 2015, Jean Eckian (c)armenews.com

EXPERT: PULLBACK OBSERVED IN AZERBAIJAN-ISRAEL RELATIONS, ESPECIALLY IN MILITARY COOPERATION AND SECURITY

18:03 27/03/2015 >> IN THE WORLD

Arastun Orujlu, the chairman of East-West Research Center, in his
interview to Azerbaijani news outlet Minval.az, commented on Israel’s
calls to its citizens to avoid trips to Baku during the First European
Games, as during Eurovision Song Contest, for the threat of terrorism.

Orujlu said that such cautious approach is natural, as the citizens
of Israel frequently suffer terrorist attacks, threats, and not only
in Israel, but also beyond its borders.

“However, what happens is that such calls have grown in number over
the recent years. This can also be conditioned by the fact that
Azerbaijan-Israel relations are not on the same level as they used
to be. Pullback is observed in the bilateral relations, especially
in military cooperation and security sector,” the expert highlighted.

However, the expert stressed that Azerbaijan needs to intensify its
relations with that country given that Iran is getting more active
in its foreign policy which can eventually harm Azerbaijan’s security
and independence.

In August 2013 Counter Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Office
of Israel called on its citizens not to visit a number of countries,
including Azerbaijan, because of the threat of act of terrorism.

Besides, as Azerbaijani news outlet Haqqin.az has reported, on
September 19, 2011 Israeli Counter Terrorism Bureau warned its
compatriots against visits to Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. Later
on, the Operations Division of the General Staff of IDF (Defense Army
of Israel) published an order banning officers and warrant officers of
IDF from travelling to 36 countries and regions, including Azerbaijan.

Related:

HAARETZ: Western leaders are happy to trade with Aliyev, but less
keen to be seen with him in public

Haaretz: Israel should not sell arms to Azerbaijan, in order to avoid
repetition of Armenian Genocide

PRISON WARDEN ACCUSED OF CRIME STILL EMPLOYED; PRISONERS AFRAID TO TESTIFY AGAINST HIM – SOURCE

03.27.2015 18:08 epress.am

The deputy warden of “Hrazdan” penitentiary, Samvel Babayan, who is
involved as a suspect in a criminal case initiated by the Special
Investigative Service for selling cell phones in the prison, continues
to hold his position, Epress.am was told by sources in the prison.

Another accused prison staff member, Leonid Lazarian, is also still
employed.

According to the case material, “Nubarashen” penitentiary inmate
Armen Shamiryan had come to an agreement with Babayan in order to sell
cell phones in “Hrazdan” penitentiary. Shamiryan’s family, friends,
and relatives bought the phones, while Samvel Babayan allowed their
entrance to the prison. The entire profit from the sale went to
Babayan, while Shamiryan had originally agreed to split the profit
50/50, however the deputy warden decided not to implement the original
agreement. Babayan is charged with abusing his official position.

Epress.am had written [ARM] about the incident back in September
12, 2014, however the Penitentiary Department Public Relations
Division Head Gor Ghlechyan had said that the deputy warden was being
slandared. Subsequently, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly’s Vanadzor
Office began dealing with the case, noting that the issue was related
to a nearly 5 million drams ($10,500) worth of cell phone sales.

Since initiating a criminal case, a dozens of witnesses have testified,
and a large number of witnesses are still to be questioned.

“Over 10 witnesses are still imprisoned, so they are afraid to give
testimonies against the deputy warden, who continues to hold his
position,” our source in “Hrazdan” penitentiary said.

Speaking to Epress.am, lawyer Harutyun Baghdasaryan clarified that
the criminal judicial code does not legally demand that a suspect in
a criminal case be suspended from work, however, the that can be done
by the prosecutor.

“There are a few precedents that show the prosecutor can file such
motions. For example, if the prosecutor thinks that the suspect could
commit other crimes when not suspended from work or that the suspect’s
continued employment could violate the witnesses’ free expression,
then the prosecutor can engage in similar interventions, however he
is not required to,”Baghdasaryan explained.

RUSSIA HAS NO INTEREST IN INFLAMING KARABAKH CONFLICT, SAYS AMERICAN EXPERT

17:49 27/03/2015 >> POLITICS

I do not believe Russia has an interest in inflaming the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, American analyst, professor in several
universities Gordon Hahn said at an internet press conference organized
by “Region” Research Center.

“The conflict is largely local and built on interethnic distrust
between Baku and Yerevan and the legacy of Soviet state-building,”
he said.

In his words, unless Yerevan and Baku can come to terms on their own,
then with Russia’s close ties to Armenia long-standing and now further
consolidated under the EEU, there are only two options.

According to the analyst, the first is “continued conflict driven
by the parties themselves and/or by competition between Russia and
the West with the latter taking Azerbaijan’s side to counter the
Russian-Armenian alliance,” while the second is “a resolution of the
conflict sponsored and guaranteed by Russia.”

Related: American analyst: Russia’s successful courting of Armenia
could make U.S. pay greater attention to Baku