Author: Kanayan Tamar

PERMANENT SANCTIONS AGAINST FRANCE THREATENED

Radio New Zealand

Jan 25 2012

Turkey has threatened to impose permanent sanctions on France, if
President Nicolas Sarkozy signs a bill making it a criminal offence
to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians during
World War I.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman
empire split. Turkey rejects the term genocide.

Turkish ministers described the vote in the French senate to support
the bill as unjust and completely disrespectful.

Ambassador Tahsin Burcuoglu, says there will be repercussions.

The Senate approved the bill on Monday by 127 votes to 86.

MPs in the lower house approved the bill last month. Ankara froze
ties with France afterwards.

France has already recognised the killings as a genocide but the new
bill means anyone denying it faces a year in jail and a fine of 45,000
euros ($US57,000).

France has half a million citizens of Armenian descent.

Correspondents say their votes may be important in this year’s
presidential elections.

FRANCE PASSES GENOCIDE LAW, FACES TURKISH REPRISALS

Reuters

Jan 24 2012

(Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan attacked the French
parliament on Tuesday for passing a “discriminatory and racist” bill
which makes it illegal to deny that the mass killing of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide.

However, Erdogan said there was still hope that NATO ally France
“would correct its mistake” and that any retaliatory measures would
be held back, depending on French actions.

The French Senate approved the draft law on Monday, which the lower
house also backed in December, prompting a furious response from
Ankara.

“We will not allow anyone to gain political benefit at the expense of
Turkey; the bill which was passed in France is clearly discriminatory,
racist,” Erdogan said.

“We will adopt a rational and dignified stance, we will implement our
measures step by step. Right now we are still in a period of patience,”
he told his AK Party’s deputies in the Turkish parliament.

The bill now goes to President Nicolas Sarkozy to be ratified. Turkey
accuses Sarkozy of trying to win the votes of 500,000 ethnic Armenians
in France in the two-round presidential vote on April 22 and May 6.

As Erdogan spoke, a couple of hundred protesters gathered outside
the French embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul.

Many Turks see the bill as an insult to their nation, a travesty of
history and an infringement on free speech.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who was personally against
the move, said the new law was “ill-timed”, but called on Ankara to
remain calm.

“We need good relations with it and we need to get through this
excessive phase,” Juppe said on Canal+ television. “We have very
important economic and trade ties. I hope the reality of the situation
will not be usurped by emotions.”

Some Turkish newspapers listed possible measures that Ankara might
take against France.

These included the recall of its ambassador from Paris and telling
the French ambassador to go home, reducing diplomatic ties to charge
d’affaires level, and closing Turkish airspace and waters to French
military aircraft and vessels.

Speaking shortly before Monday’s Senate vote, Erdogan said the issue
of future official visits to France would be thrown into uncertainty
if it passed the bill.

French firms stand to lose out in bids for defense contracts and
other mega-projects such as nuclear power stations.

Turkey could also seek to trumpet allegations that French actions in
Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s were also tantamount to a genocide.

“SATAN SARKOZY”

Morning headlines in Turkish newspapers were anything but calm. “A
guillotine to free thought” said Star, while Aksam described the
French move as “A guillotine to history”.

“Shame on France” cried the Vatan daily. While Sozcu, a small newspaper
that usually directs its scorn at Erdogan, found a new target with
“Satan Sarkozy”.

The mayor of Ankara has spoken of renaming the street where the
French embassy is located to Algeria Street and erecting a memorial to
Algerian victims of French colonial oppression in front of the embassy.

When the lower house backed the bill in December, Ankara cancelled
all economic, political and military meetings with Paris and briefly
recalled its ambassador for consultations.

Sarkozy is expected to ratify the bill before parliament is suspended
in February before the presidential election.

However, it could still be rejected if about 60 lawmakers agree to
appeal the decision at France’s highest court and this body considers
the text unconstitutional. The Constitutional Council would have one
month to make its decision.

Analysts believe Turkey might delay announcing measures to see how
Sarkozy handles the process.

Turkey’s ambassador in Paris, Tahsin Burcuoglu, said the vote would
lead to a “total rupture” of relations between the two countries
and Ankara could seek to downgrade its diplomatic presence in the
French capital.

Turkey cannot impose economic sanctions on France, given its membership
of the World Trade Organisation and its customs union accord with
Europe, but French firms could lose out on state-to-state-contracts,
notably in the defense sector.

France is Turkey’s fifth biggest export market and sixth biggest
supplier of imports of goods and services, and bilateral trade was
$13.5 billion in the first 10 months of last year.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about 1.5
million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey
during World War One in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by
the Ottoman government.

The Ottoman empire was dissolved after the end of the war, but Turkish
governments and most Turks feel the charge of genocide is an insult
to their nation. Ankara argues there was heavy loss of life on both
sides during fighting in the area.

The influential Armenian diaspora in France and the United States
has relentlessly lobbied for international support to bring Turkey
to account over the mass killings.

Their success in France will encourage those in the United States
to try harder in their annual efforts to get Washington to call what
happened a genocide.

U.S. presidents have so far ensured that those efforts have been
blocked to avoid alienating Turkey, an important regional ally.

However, President Barack Obama faces re-election this year and could
come under more pressure from the Armenian lobby, analysts say.

Some ethnic Armenians in Turkey saw the French move as unhelpful,
while saying wounds needed to be healed.

“This only will provide more grounds to nationalism and reactions
in Turkey,” said Robert Koptas, editor of Agos, a Turkish-Armenian
newspaper.

“I do not think the Turkish state will change its attitude,” said
Koptas, a son-in-law of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian
journalist who was murdered in 2007 who had angered nationalists with
his articles on Armenian identity.

(Reporting By John Irish in Paris and Tulay Karadeniz and Jonathon
Burch in Ankara; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; editing by David
Stamp)

TURKEY SLAMS ‘INJUSTICE’ OF FRENCH LAW ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

StarAfrica.com

Jan 23 2012

Turkey slammed on Monday the French Senate’s adoption of a contentious
bill to outlaw denial of the…

Turkey slammed on Monday the French Senate’s adoption of a contentious
bill to outlaw denial of the Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks as
disrespectful and unjust.

“The decision made by the Senate is a great injustice and shows total
lack of respect for Turkey,” Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin told the
CNN-Turk television in immediate reaction after the French Senate vote.

Turkey maintains the 1915 killings of Armenians during the Ottoman
Empire did not amount to genocide.

“France opened a black page in its history,” said Volkan Bozkir,
the head of the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee,
in a Twitter message.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to publicise Ankara’s
possible retaliatory measures against Paris during an address to his
fellow deputies in parliament on Tuesday.

French senators on Monday approved the bill that criminalises any
denial of the Armenian genocide, despite vows from a furious Turkey
that it would punish Paris with “permanent” sanctions.

Ankara froze political and military ties with France and had promised
further measures if the bill was passed by the Senate.

The bill must now be signed by President Nicolas Sarkozy — whose
right-wing UMP party put forward the measure — for it to become law.

NAGORNO KARABAKH GETS INTO THE BIRD BUSINESS

EurasiaNet.org

Jan 23 2012
NY

Last week, EurasiaNet.org reported on plans to turn breakaway Nagorno
Karabakh into a correctional facility for Armenian convicts. To
some, mindful of Armenia’s extensive presence in and support for
the predominantly ethnic Armenian territory, that may bring to mind
the colonial-era relationship between Great Britain and Australia,
the British Empire’s convict colony of choice. But the Australia
references do not end there.

Just as was the case with British convicts in Australia, outcasts
from Armenia can also find ostriches in their new homeland. These
are not going to be the squint-eyed Australian emus, but, rather,
their taller African cousins.

Karabakhi entrepreneur Ararat Bagirian imported the birds from Kenya
last August and plans to farm them for eggs, meat and feathers,
the Russian news agency Regnum reported. New businesses in Karabakh
are not a dime a dozen, so, to encourage the venture along, the de
facto government gave Bagirian a 25-million-dram (about $65,000)
credit for his new business.

After all, as the saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush. Nor is this the first example of a South Caucasus fascination
with the birds — both Azerbaijan, which claims Karabakh as its own,
and Armenia have ostrich operations, too. Georgia, meanwhile, is
keeping an eye on the abandoned ostriches of ousted strongman Aslan
Abashidze, but local farmers are skeptical about their economic
potential.

It remains to be seen whether or not this latest feathery scheme can
help alleviate Karabakh’s economic woes, but, so far, the ostriches
have adjusted to the breakaway territory’s climate pretty well,
Bagirian said.

HANDING OVER OF ARMENIAN CHURCHES MUST BE BASED ON PRINCIPLES OF EQUALITY – GEORGIAN PATRIARCH

Vestnik Kavkaza
Jan 23 2012
Russia

The Georgian Orthodox Church passed a statement after the fire at
the Church of St. Nikolai (Surb Nshan) on Serebryanaya Str. in Tbilisi.

The Georgian patriarch says that the church needs enforcement. A joint
commission should be organized for archeological studies. Georgian
and Armenian officials must take part in the process to give impartial
results.

Churches require scientific research before being passed to the
Georgian Church on the basis of equality. This concerns Georgian
churches in Armenia, Lor-Tashir Eparchy and the Armenian churches
in Georgia.

SARGSYAN THANKS MEDVEDEV FOR EFFORTS IN RESOLVING REGIONAL CONFLICTS

Vestnik Kavkaza
Jan 23 2012
Russia

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan held bilateral talks today and discussed regional problems,
RIA Novosti reports.

Medvedev reminded that the previous year had positive indicators of
trade turnover and business. He stressed on regional problems. They
will later discuss a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Sargsyan noted the fruitfulness of such meetings. He thanked Medvedev
for efforts in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The meetings
also allow sides to discuss bilateral affairs, the Armenian president
notes.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev will visit Sochi on invitation of Medvedev. They want to renew
the dialogue of December 2011, the OSCE said after the OSCE Council
of Foreign Ministers in Vilnius.

Nine trilateral meetings have been organized since 2008. Two were
organized in 2011: the first in Sochi on March 5, the second in Kazan
on June 24th. There was certain rapprochement of positions in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at the meeting in Kazan.

AFTER GENOCIDE BILL’S PASSING IN FRENCH SENATE, ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS WILL BE MORE RIGID – POLITICAL ANALYST

news.am
January 24, 2012 | 12:53

YEREVAN. – The French Senate’s passing of the bill that criminalizes
the denial of genocides, including the Armenian Genocide, will have
a huge significance for the decisions of other EU countries, and the
European countries and EU organizations could follow France’s example,
Caucasus Institute Deputy Director, political analyst Sergey Minasyan
stated during a press conference on Tuesday, and stressed that this
bill expresses the anti-Islamic attitude of the French society.

“If it continues in this way, the Genocide issue will become a
precondition for EU-Turkey relations,” Minasyan said.

The analyst also predicted that Turkey’s reaction will be heated and
rigid, which Europe will look upon negatively. “If Turkey’s denialist
policy continues, several years later France could pass another bill
against the denial of the Genocide, but moreover with the principle
of paying a fine,” Sergey Minasyan argued.

In his words, with this step both the Jewish Holocaust and the
Armenian Genocide are on the same level. “At the same time it was
understandable that this bill would not have passed if there had not
been French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political will,” the political
analyst maintained.

To note, with a vote of 127 in favor and 86 against, France’s Senate
passed Monday the bill that criminalizes the denial of the genocides
which this country has formally recognized. And these are the Armenian
Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. This bill sets a one-year prison
sentence plus a 45-thousand-Euro fine for anyone who denies these
genocides. According to the regulations, the French President will
ratify it within fifteen days. And Turkey had announced earlier
that if the bill were to pass, it will impose a number of sanctions
against France.

ANKARA DENONCE UN ACTE IRRESPONSABLE
Ara

armenews.com
mardi 24 janvier 2012

ANKARA, 24 jan 2012 – Le ministère turc des Affaires etrangères a
“condamne fermement” le vote lundi soir par le Senat francais d’une
proposition de loi penalisant la negation du genocide armenien sous
l’Empire ottoman, denoncant un “acte irresponsable” de la part de la
France. “La Turquie n’hesitera pas a rapidement mettre en oeuvre comme
bon lui semble les mesures prevues” contre la France, souligne un
communique, dans une reference a de nouvelles sanctions contre Paris.

Le document accuse en outre la France d’avoir “transforme en victime”
les relations turco-francaises, pour des visees electoralistes. “Il
s’agit d’une initiative très malencontreuse au nom de la politique
francaise”, ajoute le communique.

Ankara accuse le president francais, Nicolas Sarkozy, qui a voulu ce
texte de loi, de tenter de seduire l’electorat d’origine armenienne,
avant l’election presidentielle du printemps.

Le ministre turc de la Justice Sadullah Ergin, dont le pays a toujours
nie ce genocide, a vu dans le vote des senateurs un “manque total de
respect” et une “grande injustice” envers la Turquie. Il a indique sur
la chaîne d’information CNN Turk que pour la Turquie cette loi etait
“nulle et non avenue”.

Le Senat a ratifie lundi soir par 127 voix contre 86 ce texte deja
adopte par l’Assemblee nationale le 22 decembre. Pour etre mise
en oeuvre, la loi doit maintenant etre promulguee par le president
Sarkozy qui dispose en principe de 15 jours pour ce faire. La Turquie
a reitere aussitôt sa menace de represailles “permanentes” contre la
France, si la loi est promulguee.

“Si la loi est promulguee (…) les consequences seront permanentes.

La France est en train de perdre un partenaire strategique”, a
declare a l’AFP le porte-parole de l’ambassade de Turquie a Paris,
Engin Solakoglu. L’ambassadeur de Turquie, Tahsin Burcuoglu, va rester
en France pour suivre cette dernière etape du parcours legislatif de
ce texte.

“L’ambassadeur reste a Paris mais, si la loi est promulguee, il
partira pour une bien longue duree”, a declare le porte-parole de
l’ambassade de Turquie.

Le diplomate a rappele que l’arsenal de represailles elabore par Ankara
prevoyait un abaissement du niveau de la representation diplomatique
de la Turquie en France.

Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan doit prononcer son
discours hebdomadaire, mardi, devant ses deputes au Parlement, et on
s’attend a une violente condamnation du vote francais.

ARMENIE : VOTE HISTORIQUE DE LA FRANCE SUR LE GENOCIDE
Stephane

armenews.com
mardi 24 janvier 2012

Le vote par le Senat francais d’une loi condamnant la negation du
genocide armenien est une “initiative historique qui contribuera a
prevenir d’autres crimes contre l’humanite”, a declare mardi Edouard
Nalbandian, ministre armenien des Affaires etrangères.

“Ce jour sera ecrit en lettres d’or non seulement dans l’histoire de
l’amitie entre les peuples armenien et francais, mais egalement dans
les annales de la protection des droits de l’Homme a travers le monde”,
a assure le ministre dans un communique.

Ce vote “va en plus consolider les mecanismes existants de prevention
des crimes contre l’humanite”, poursuit le communique.

L’Armenie et la diaspora armenienne font campagne depuis longtemps pour
obtenir une qualification internationale de genocide des massacres
d’Armeniens perpetres pendant la Première guerre mondiale malgre les
denegations de la Turquie.

Cette question a empoisonne les relations des deux pays voisins dont
les frontières restent fermees et continue a passionner les Armeniens
a travers le monde.

M. Nalbandian a souligne que le vote francais etait “la suite logique”
de la reconnaissance par la France en 2001 du fait que les massacres
des Armeniens constituaient un genocide.

“La France a reaffirme son rôle pivot comme defenseur authentique
des valeurs humaines universelles”, affirme encore le communique.

Les Armeniens soutiennent que près d’un million et demi des leurs ont
ete victimes de ce genocide perpetre sous l’empire ottoman alors que la
Turquie affirme que les Armeniens ont eu entre 300.000 a 500.000 morts.

Toujours selon Ankara, il ne s’agissait pas d’un genocide puisque
les troubles et les affrontements de cette “guerre civile” ont fait
presque autant de morts du côte turc.

DINK GUNMAN’S PLEAD FOR RELEASE REJECTED

Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 24 2012
Turkey

Ogun Samast was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for
murder. AA photo The Supreme Court of Appeals yesterday rejected a
plea by a defendant lawyer in the case of murdered Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink to release convicted triggerman Ogun Samast.

Samast’s lawyer, Levent Yıldırım, petitioned the Supreme Court of
Appeals for his client’s release on the grounds that Samast’s arrest
pending trial would exceed five years by the end of January, breaching
reasonable time limits according to the Law of Criminal Procedure.

The court, however, indicated in its ruling that Samast had been
arrested pending trial for a total of four years six months and
five days and that his arrest was thus not in breach of reasonable
time limits.

The appeals court based its decision on a local court’s ruling on July
25, 2011, according to which Samast’s arrest pending trial began on
Jan. 20, 2007.

Ogun Samast was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison on the
charges of “premeditated murder” and “carrying an unlicensed weapon”
by a juvenile court in Istanbul for Dink’s murder.

Hrant Dink, the chief editor for weekly Agos, a paper published in
both Turkish and Armenian, was shot dead in front of his office on
Jan. 19, 2007.