Author: Kanayan Tamar

ARINC: DINK RULING FAILED TO EASE CONSCIENCES

Anadolu Agency (AA)
January 18, 2012 Wednesday
Turkey

Turkish deputy prime minister has said a court ruling in a case on
the killing of a Turkish-Armenian journalist had failed to reach the
general conscience.

ANKARA “It is apparent that the ruling did not came an ease to
consciences. And I am on that side too,” Bulent Arinc told a televised
interview on Wednesday.

An Istanbul court sentenced Tuesday Yasin Hayal to life in prison for
instigating the killing of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink
five years ago.

TURKEY URGES FRENCH LAWMAKERS TO REJECT GENOCIDE BILL

Voice of America
Jan 20 2012

Turkey has urged French lawmakers to reject a bill making it illegal
to deny as genocide the mass killings of Armenians during Turkey’s
Ottoman era nearly a century ago.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on all French senators
Friday to think beyond their political interests.

He said passage of the bill would create a black stain on France’s
intellectual history, noting that Turkey will always remind the French
of that stain.

The French senate plans to debate the bill next week. France’s lower
house of parliament passed it last month.

Earlier this week, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote a letter
to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying the bill does
not single out a particular country.

The bill says anyone that denies the mass killings of Armenians by
Ottoman forces constituted genocide faces a nearly $60,000 fine and up
to one year in jail. France formally recognized the Armenian killings
as genocide in 2001, but imposed no penalty for anyone refuting that.

Turkey responded angrily to passage of the bill by France’s lower
house of parliament.

Mr. Erdogan accused France of committing genocide in Algeria more
than 60 years ago. He said French colonialists massacred 15 percent of
Algeria’s population starting in 1945. He has also accused Mr. Sarkozy
of pandering to the hundreds of thousands of French citizens of
Armenian descent heading into his re-election bid this year.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said Mr. Sarkozy is “prejudiced”
against Turkey.

Relations between France and Turkey, both members of NATO, have
been frozen due to French opposition to Turkey’s bid to join the
European Union.

Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were killed during World War One
by troops of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire, which historians say was one of
the 20th century’s worst massacres. Turkey has acknowledged the loss
of Armenian lives, but says the death toll is exaggerated and does not
amount to genocide. It says the deaths were the result of civil war.

SURVEY SHOWS RACIAL BLOCK VOTING
By Megan O’Neil

Glendale News Press
,0,1035205.story
Jan 20 2012
CA

Schools look at possibility of moving to a by-district election system.

Analysis of three Glendale City Council elections during the last
decade show some patterns of racially polarized voting and possible
violations of the California Voting Rights Act, according to a
consulting firm hired to collect and decipher the data.

Glendale Community College and the Glendale Unified School District
in November jointly commissioned Redistricting Partners to conduct
a $35,000 study to determine whether they should move from their
current at-large election process to a district system.

In the 2003 Glendale City Council race, Latino candidate Gus Gomez
garnered 94% of the Latino vote, far outstripping his city-wide
support of 23.7%, said Kimi Shigetani, vice president of the Community
College League of California who presented the data on behalf of
Redistricting Partners.

“The white voters within Glendale had a 9% support rate [of Gomez], so
this demonstrates polarized voting with the Latino population heavily
in support and the white population supporting the other candidate,”
Shigetani said.

Analysis of support for non-Armenian white candidates in the 2005
city council race show that the Latino and Armenian voters supported
non-Armenian white candidates at a rate of just 6%, Shigetani said.

And a breakdown of the 2011 races shows non-Armenian white city council
candidates John Drayman and Dave Weaver earning 55% support from
white voters, but just 9% support from Latino voters. Meanwhile, the
Armenian candidates for Glendale Community College Board of Trustees,
Vahe Peroomian and Vartan Gharpetian, drew 86% of votes among Armenian
voters, showing that Armenians tend to vote as a block for Armenian
candidates, Shigetani said.

The data is just a fraction of what the completed study will include,
Shigetani said, adding that analysis of multiple additional local
elections and state-wide ballot measures will be presented at a
special meeting on Feb. 9.

In at-large elections such as those in Glendale, candidates can run and
be elected regardless of their address within city, college district
or school district boundaries. In a district-based system, candidates
vie to represent specific geographic areas within those boundaries.

Passed in 2002, the California Voting Rights Act seeks to protect
the voting clout of minority groups by mandating a switch to a
district-based system in elections where the at-large process dilutes
their vote.

In September, voters in the Cerritos Community College district sued
to force the issue, saying its at-large structure diluted the Latino
vote. Representatives from the Community College League of California
and the consulting firm Redistricting Partners have warned Glendale
education officials that additional lawsuits could be forthcoming.

Further, a new state law gives community colleges the chance to
switch to a district system within a specific time frame without
putting the issue before voters, avoiding a potentially costly and
protracted approval process, they said.

A study of voting patterns would allow both the college and the
K-12 district to determine whether they should consider a change;
and if not, would provide them with evidence to defend against any
potential lawsuits, representatives from the Community College League
of California and Redistricting Partners said.

But several Glendale Community College trustees expressed skepticism
about the early findings, questioning everything from the elections
that were analyzed to the statistical significance of the numbers.

“I would be very afraid of reaching conclusions based on these numbers
that say that these trends actually make sense,” trustee Vahe Peroomian
said. “Also, I think our city has changed quite a bit in nine years
since the 2003 elections. We have a successful Latino candidate that is
currently on the city council so I don’t see why that is not included.”

Others said that they want to see voting data more specific to the
college and K-12 school districts.

“We want to get to a real understanding if there is true polarization
here,” trustee Tony Tartaglia said. “My concern is that we are getting
some conjecture and some opinions rather than factual information.”

THOUSANDS PROTEST TURKISH VERDICT OVER JOURNALIST MURDER

Agence France Presse
January 19, 2012 Thursday 3:58 PM GMT

Thousands of people gathered in Istanbul Thursday to pay tribute to
ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and to protest a court ruling
that his murder was not planned as part of a wider conspiracy.

“Murderer state will account for this,” and “Shoulder to shoulder
against fascism,” chanted the crowd near the central Taksim Square
before marching to the offices of Dink’s newspaper for a silent vigil
on the fifth anniversary of his murder.

Television reports said around 20,000 people joined the demonstration.

A leading member of Turkey’s tiny Armenian community, Dink, 52, was
shot dead in broad daylight on January 19, 2007, outside the offices
of his bilingual weekly newspaper Agos.

Dink had campaigned for reconciliation between Turks and Armenians
and his assassination sent shockwaves through Turkey, growing into a
wider scandal following reports that state security forces had known
of a plot to kill him but failed to act.

The crowd, including Dink’s widow Rakel and his children, carried
two large black banners declaring “We will not forget” and “We will
not forgive.”

Many demonstrators also carried placards saying “We are all Hrant Dink,
we are all Armenians,” in Turkish and Armenian.

Dink’s self-confessed murderer Ogun Samast, who shot the journalist in
the back of the head, was a jobless high-school dropout and 17 years
old at the time. He was sentenced to nearly 23 years in jail in July.

On Tuesday an Istanbul court sentenced Yasin Hayal, 31, to life in
prison for inciting the murder.

But the court acquitted more than a dozen other suspects, ruling that
there was no wider plot to kill Dink — who had angered nationalists
with his views on Turkish-Armenian history — as alleged by his
supporters.

“They surrounded us with lies. It has been like this for five years
and they finally gave us two people and asked us to be content with
them,” journalist Karin Karakasli told the crowd.

Dink’s family is seeking a deeper investigation to uncover state
officials who were allegedly involved the murder.

Demonstrators on Thursday left red carnations and lit candles at the
spot where Dink was shot, while the words “Hrant Dink was murdered
here” were written on the pavement.

President Abdullah Gul described the trial as a test for Turkey.

“It is an important test for us that this trial process should be
concluded in the most transparent way and in harmony with our laws,”
Gul told the media.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the government did its best
to help solve the murder.

“I see that public consciousness is not satisfied,” he said in a TV
interview broadcast Wednesday. “There have been various expectations
(about the case). It is possible to share some of them but I cannot
join them in general.”

The chief judge in the case, Rustem Eryilmaz, also expressed doubts
about his own verdict, saying that any “connections” between the
culprits and the state could not be clearly established before
the trial.

“However, this is the only decision we could take, according to the
available evidence,” Eryilmaz told private news channel NTV.

SOME MP’S FEIGN POVERTY TO GET GOVERNMENT HANDOUTS
Grisha Balasanyan

HETQ
16:04, January 18, 2012

Politicians, around the world, can be said to have one thing in common
– the drive to win the favour of voters and get elected to positions
of power.

Armenia is no exception to the rule. In fact, some Armenian MP’s go
do far as to cry “poverty” in the run-up to elections, in an attempt
to present themselves as representatives of the common man.

Even MP Samvel Aleksanyan, owner of the Yerevan City chain of
supermarkets, sees nothing wrong with going after the “compassion” vote
by lamenting the fact that he has to feed five hungry children at home.

Some MP’s whine about their salary levels and say it’s tough to get
by on just 240,000 AMD per month. You’ll hear them say that they
can’t even buy a decent suit for that amount!

Many Armenian politicos feign poverty just to get government handouts.

Armenia’s National Assembly offers housing allowances for MP’s while
staying in Yerevan for parliamentary business. Those with no place
to stay can get up to $120 per month so they can rent an apartment.

In 2011, those receiving such an allowance were MP’s Rafik Grigoryan,
Soukias Avetisyan and Lernik Aleksanyan (Republican Party; Hovhannes
Margaryan, Khachik Harutyunyan and Ishkhan Khachatryan (Rule of Law);
and Artzvik Minasyan (ARF).

Now, $120 translates into about 46,000 AMD at current exchange rates.

It’s hard to imagine what type of apartments these MP’s can rent in
Yerevan with such a measly amount.

Let’s look at a few individual cases:

Lernik Aleksanyan – This Republican Party MP has been receiving the
allowance for the past nine years. His 2010 income statement shows
the guy really doesn’t need an additional 46,000 AMD.

He purchased a Hyundai Elantra auto in 2010 worth 5.5 million AMD
on the open market. His declared revenues for the year totalled –
17,541,380 AMD. Did he really need that additional 46,000 AMD? Give
me a break.

Aleksanyan told Hetq that that he never had that much in income. “I’m
not rich but not that poor that I couldn’t do without the 46,000 AMD.

It just happened that they offered it to me and I agreed. I travel
to Yerevan ever day on business and either rent a place or stay
with friends.”

The MP added that if he thought the 46,000 AMD would result in the
parliament going broke, he’d stop accepting the allowance.

Soukias Avetisyan – This Republican Party MP was glad to note that he’s
been receiving the allowance since 1995 given that it’s compensation
for his hotel stays while in Yerevan.

When I asked if the 46,000 was enough to rent a place, Avetisyan
responded, “Yeah, it’s possible. You can rent a modest apartment at
that price.”

Avetisyan, who resides in Gyumri, declared 3,341,380 AMD in revenue
for 2010.

Rafik Grigoryan – This Republican Party MP says he has no apartment
in Yerevan. But it’s hard to believe he needs the 46,000. His son
Karen is employed as an advisor to National Assembly Deputy President
Edward Sharmazanov.

I couldn’t get in touch with Grigoryan, who hails from Dzoragyugh
in Gegharkunik Marz, by phone. So I called up Dzoragyugh Mayor Levon
Grigoryan, the MP’s younger brother.

Levon Grigoryan told me his older brother doesn’t live in the village
and has an apartment in Yerevan where he lives with his family.

Ooops….

On his 2010 income statement, MP Grigoryan declared 3,108,580 AMD in
wages; nothing else.

Artzvik Minasyan, the only opposition MP getting the allowance,
confessed that he had recently obtained an apartment in Yerevan and
that he would soon file a request to the National Assembly to remove
his name from the list of those receiving taxpayer monies.

Minasyan said he had no income other than his MP salary.

DINK CASE JUDGE SAYS UNSATISFIED WITH COURT RULING

PanARMENIAN.Net
January 19, 2012 – 14:16 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Amidst wide public criticism of a Turkish court’s
recent ruling that ruled out involvement of an organized criminal
network in the 2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink,
the court’s presiding judge has said he is personally not satisfied
with the verdict either, Today’s Zaman reports.

The presiding judge of the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court,
Rustem Eryılmaz, spoke with the Vatan daily on Thursday, Jan 19,
and responded to criticism of the court’s Tuesday ruling in the
five-year-long Dink murder case. He said while he personally cannot
deny the murder was well-organized, the evidence submitted to the
court was not sufficient to issue such a ruling.

“According to the evidence, there is no [illegal] organization
[involved in the murder]. But we cannot say there is no organization
involved in the case,” Eyılmaz said.

In what many said was a shocking and frustrating ruling for the
five-year-long trial in the Dink case, the Istanbul court cleared
all suspects in the case of membership in a terrorist organization,
angering lawyers and many others who say the trial failed to shed
light on alleged connections between the suspects and state officials.

The court convicted Yasin Hayal, a major suspect in the Dink killing,
of instigating a murder and sentenced him to life in prison, while
another suspected instigator, Erhan Tuncel, was acquitted by the
court. “We acquitted the suspects of organized crime charges. This
ruling does not mean that there was no organization involved. This
means that there was not enough evidence to prove the actions of this
organization,” the embattled judge said.

Noting that he and other judges of the court also think the Dink
murder was not an ordinary one, he said there certainly is someone
who instigated the murder, but they had no evidence to prove that.

Sharing his personal views about the case, Eryılmaz added that he
believes that the killing of Dink was not simply an idea thought up by
Hayal. “There must be some instigators. This is my personal view. But
in order to accept this situation as legal fact, there should be
evidence. Since expectations were high in this case, this ruling
pleased nobody. If you ask me whether I was personally satisfied,
I would say no since I believe there are more instigators. But this
is the best ruling that can be issued in accordance with the evidence
in the case file,” he said.

Today, Jan 19, marks the 5th anniversary of the assassination.

TURKEY CLUTCHES AT STRAWS TO PROMOTE GENOCIDE DENIAL POLICY

PanARMENIAN.Net
January 19, 2012 – 13:06 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkey seems so hopeless over the possibility of
adoption of the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial by the
French Senate that it stands ready to use any statement to pursue
its denial policy.

Turkish ultra-nationalist Aydinlik newspaper recently placed French
politician Robert Badinter~Rs photo on its cover to express gratitude
for opposing the Genocide bill in the Senate as a tool to back its
denial policy.

Such a stance is deemed a little strange as a number of countries
have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. A question arouses:
What can make Badinter to recognize Genocide as a fact?

Meanwhile, Turkish newspaper once again proved unfoundedness of
Turkey~Rs diplomacy that repeatedly resorts to aforesaid steps to
promote its ideas.

Earlier, Constitutional Commission of the French Senate passed a
decision against debating of the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide
denial, accepting Senators~R solicitation that oppose the aforesaid
legislation.

On December 22, 2011, French National Assembly passed a bill
criminalizing public denial of the Armenian Genocide. If passed and
signed into law by the Senate, the bill would impose a 45,000 euro
fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime
against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

FAMOUS TURKISH BUSINESSMAN CALLS TO ACKNOWLEDGE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

yerkir.am
12:55 – 19.01.2012

Influential Turkish businessman of Jewish origin, president of Alarko
holding Isaac Alaton sent a letter to “Economic and Social research in
Turkey” (TESEV) fund calling to make efforts for the acknowledgement
of the Armenian Genocide by Ankara.

Turkish paper Radical presents the letter.

“Dear friends, there are still 3 years left until 2015, but those
years pass without any change… April 24, 2015, approaches so let
us change our denial policy. It is a shame…I am tired of the fear
of facing the past. Let us be loud. Our duty to our coming generation
is to provide for them respect towards our country and society.

For 90 years we have committed many sins. We have filled closets with
skeletons and locked the door. For 90 years we announce the world to
be blind and we are afraid of going one on one. We have been taught
to be afraid. Skeletons rot in the closets and their stink is already
unbearable. I can’t breathe, can you? I was jealous of the Bulgarian
diplomats who confessed having treated the Turks badly.

Let us also raise our voice to be heard by our diplomats. And the
diplomats should make their voices to be heard by party leaders. Let
them help us open our closets full of skeletons. After their funeral
we will honor their memory in a minute of silence and then we will
be freed of our sins.

‘A just man should not put his sins on his son’s shoulders,’ my
philosophy teacher said. I am looking for respect. I give respect
great importance. Help me.

With respect,

Isaac Alaton,” the letter reads.

TURKISH JOURNALIST: IF HRANT WAS MURDERED FOR BEING ARMENIAN, I’M ALSO ARMENIAN

Panorama.am

Ahmet Haqan, host at “Neutral Zone” program televised by “CnnTurk”,
focused on the court verdict issued for Hrant Dink’s assassination
case.

Before on air, Haqan posted on his Twitter account that the program
would be devoted to Hrant Dink. But, in fact, it turned out that the
Turkish users of Twitter didn’t approve the journalist’s initiative
and got furious when Haqan claimed all of them were Armenians.

Later Ahmet Haqan appealed to Twitter users saying: “If Hrant was
murdered because he was Armenian, then I’m also Armenian.”

LA COLèRE ‘EMPARE DE LA RUE A ISTANBUL
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
vendredi 20 janvier 2012

Hier 19 janvier a Istanbul, devant les locaux d’Agos, Karin Karakaslı
*, journaliste, s’est adressée a l’immense foule venue rendre
hommage a Hrant Dink en ce jour anniversaire de son assassinat, le
19 janvier 2007, et protester contre la clémence incompréhensible
de la justice turque a l’égard des accusés comploteurs, coupables
de préméditation de crime.

Traduit du turc

Le 19 janvier n’est pas une date de commémoration. Et cela ne l’a
jamais été. Toutes les douleurs qu’il y ai pu avoir sur cette terre,
aucune n’a eu de commémoration.

Hrant Dink a été accusé a tord. Il a été déclaré journaliste
ennemi de la Turquie a tord. Et ce journaliste a réussi a nous
réunir au cours de ses funérailles. Parce que Hrant était contre
l’injustice dans tous les domaines.

Tous les suspects était devant nous, le plan ” Cage ” était
immergé, et ils n’ont toujours pas réussis a faire le lien avec
Ergenekon.

Ils nous on abreuvé de mensonges. Cela fait 5 ans que ca dure. A la
fin ils nous ont livré deux personnes et ils nous ont dit de nous
contenter de ces deux personnes. Et que c’en était même de trop
pour nous. Ils ont libéré devant nos yeux Erhan Tuncel et d’autres
personnes impliquées.

Nous avons tous perdu Hrant Dink, mais excusez-moi, comme vous le
savez pour nous les Arméniens c’est une perte que l’on ne peut
expliquer. En 1915, le 1er janvier, ils ont exilé a peu près 250
intellectuels Arméniens de la gare de Haydarpasa vers Ayas. Seulement
quelque uns d’entre eux on pu revenir.

Ce que vous devez comprendre c’est qu’ils ont les ont d’abord réduis
au silence. Ces gens la faisaient partie de l’Assemblée ottomane. Il y
avait des écrivains, des journalistes, des traducteurs, des médecins,
des avocats. Ils avaient tous confiance en leur assemblée, mais
c’est pas comme cela que cela s’est passé.

Aujourd’hui je vais vous citer quelque noms parmi ces intellectuels.

Celui qui se reconnaîtra répondra ” Je suis la ” : Rupen Sevag,
Siamanto, Taniel Varujan, Diran Kelekyan, Yerukhan, Rupen Zartaryan,
Hampartsum Boyacıyan, Sımpad Purad, Khyan Parsekhyan, Krikor
Zohrab…

Et finalement Hrant Dink.. Hrant Dink faisait partie de ce dernier
maillon intellectuel. Il a réussi a nous transporter tous en 1915…

Donc c’est si facile de tuer les gens comme ca !

A force de renier notre passé nous en sommes arrivé la. Que toutes
les dalles posées sur le sol ici même, soient le symbole de tous ces
intellectuels et autres personnes abattues auxquelles on a interdit
de parler et qui n’ont même pas de tombe. Que toutes c’est dalles
représentent leurs symboles.

L’Ã~Itat n’a que faire de la vie ou de la mort de son citoyen
Arménien.

Puisque il ne sait que faire, eh bien on va lui apprendre !

On nous dit que le dossier est clos. Est-ce qu’il est clôturé ? Hrant
Dink n’est pas un dossier que l’on clos. Hrant Dink est une blessure !

Maintenant nous en sommes a la dernière ligne droite avant de prendre
le chemin de non retour ! Il n’y a pas d’Etat auquel on peut faire
confiance. Il n’y a nulle part où aller vivre ! Le contraire ne serait
que mensonge et un jour tout s’abattra encore une fois sur nos têtes !

Nous serons tous laminés !

C’est pour cela qu’aujourd’hui n’est pas un journée de parole,
mais une journée de promesse !

Est-ce que l’on promet tous ensemble ? Que cette affaire n’est pas
close !

Est-ce que l’on promet tous ensemble ? Que l’humanisme n’est pas mort !

Est-ce que l’on promet tous ensemble ? Que l’Etat rendra des comptes !

Que notre parole soit une promesse. Que vivre dans cette injustice
soit interdit (haram) pour nous.

19.01.2012

* Nouvelliste, traductrice et journaliste. Karin KarakaÅ~_lı, née
a Istanbul en 1972, a étudié l’interprétation et la traduction
a l’Université Bogazici des langues étrangères. De 1996 a 2006,
elle a été éditrice et chef du département de rédaction du
journal hebdomadaire turco-arménien ” Agos ”, et chroniqueuse
pour les sections turque et arménienne. Elle étudie actuellement
la littérature comparative et travaille comme professeur d’anglais
dans des universités. Auteure du livre ” Chroniques d’un journaliste
assassiné, Hrant Dink ”