Author: Kanayan Tamar

THE GEORGIAN DIOCESE TO APPLY FOR RETURN OF ARMENIAN TEMPLES
Gita Elibekyan

“Radiolur”
12.01.2012 17:38
Tbilisi

The Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church will apply to
the Office of the State Register of Georgia for legal registration.

The Diocese got the right under the law adopted last year, which
provides a status of legal entity to five religious unions of Georgia,
including the Armenian Apostolic Church.

In case of getting a legal registration, the Diocese will enjoy certain
rights. “We’ll apply to the Georgian Government with the request to
return all our temples,” head of the Georgian Diocese Bishop Vazgen
Mirzakhanyan told “Radiolur.”

He informed that the expert commission of the Armenian Ministry of
Culture was holding working meetings with corresponding structures
of Georgia to discuss the state of St. Nshan Church.

A fire broke out in the 18th century Saint Nshan Armenian Apostolic
Church in Tbilisi on January 9, causing a column supporting the
already damaged dome to topple.

The Georgian Patriarchate, the Tbilisi City Hall, the Ministry of
Culture and Monument Protection is informed of the incident and have
promised to help. Saint Nshan Church in the center of Tbilisi was
built in 1701.

JAVAKHK ARMENIANS OF RUSSIA READY TO FINANCE RESTORATION OF ST. NSHAN CHURCH IN TBILISI

ARMENPRESS
JANUARY 12, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, JANUARY 12, ARMENPRESS: Javakhk Diaspora NGO operating in
Russia released a statement about the incident in St. Nshan Church
in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi. Citing Yerkramas newspaper, Armenpress
reports that out of 29 Armenian churches operating in Georgia in
late 19th century, only two have remained currently. Eight of them
have been turned into Georgian ones, followed with the elimination
of Armenian cross-stones and miniatures.

“Currently the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Church demands return
of five churches in Tbilisi and one Armenian church in Javakhk,”
the statement runs.

The Javakhk Armenians stated that after St. Nshan Church is passed
to the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Church they will be ready to
finance the restoration works of the church.

SOLDIER WHO CONTRACTED CHICKEN POX WAS FORCED TO RUN 10 KMS ON MILITARY BASE, SAYS FAMILY

epress.am
01.12.2012

On Dec. 30, Hayk Khachatryan, who was serving his mandatory two-year
term in the army, died. The soldier’s grandmother, Aida Avagyan,
has written an open letter (published by local news outlet A1+) in
which she ponders the cause of death and asks: “What is the reason
that in the 21st century chicken pox became the cause of death for
an 18-year-old soldier?”

In the letter, Avagyan outlines the events leading to her grandson’s
death, who was called to service on Jun. 1, 2011. Hayk was an excellent
serviceman, she writes; however, on the morning of Dec. 29, 2011,
Hayk begun to experience sharp pain in his abdomen area, followed
by epileptic seizures. Doctors said he had appendicitis and should
remain in hospital, under their supervision, so if necessary, he can
undergo surgery. According to Avagyan, it was already apparent that
Hayk had contracted the chicken pox virus.

“His father’s insistence that he be moved to the hospital for
infectious diseases was refused with the reasoning that first the
appendicitis must be treated then [doctors] could work on treating
the chicken pox,” Avagyan writes.

Nevertheless, Avagyan continues, after his father continued insistence
and threats, Hayk was moved to Yerevan’s Nork-Marash Infectious
Diseases Hospital where it was confirmed that he had chicken pox,
which was in a very neglected and complex condition.

“According to the doctor, nearly all of Hayk’s internal organs were
damaged including his brain, and there was practically no hope to
save his life. And the real reason for the abdomen pains and recent
epileptic seizures became clear. Let us also note that during
conversations with his son, his father found out that when Hayk
complained about his health on the base, he was accused of feigning
illness and forced to run 10 kms.

“On the night of Dec. 30, at 11:40 pm, Hayk died, leaving a series
of unanswered questions,” Avagyan concludes in the letter.

According to Meri Sargsyan, head of the media and public relations
division at the RA Ministry of Defense’s investigative service, a
case has been launched under charges of RA Criminal Code Article 376
Section 2 (“negligent service that caused grave consequences”). No
arrests have yet been made.

ENGLISH FOR STATE EMPLOYEES

NKR Government Information and
Public Relations Department
10.01.2012

In 2011 on the initiative of the NKR Prime Minister Ara Haroutunyan
a goal-oriented program of learning English has started. Four-month
courses financed by the NKR Government have been attended by about
100 state employees at will.

Three current and one general exam was organized for the employees
included in the program; 78 participants have passed the exam.

In 2012 English learning courses for the state employees will be
continued including professional courses.

John Baird: Canada Enjoys Developing Cooperation With Armenia “ISRIA” News Agency Posted A Statement By Canadian Foreign Affairs

Panorama.am
12/01/2012

“ISRIA” news agency posted a statement by Canadian Foreign Affairs
Minister John Baird issued on the 20th anniversary of Armenia’s
Independence. The statement particularly reads: “20 years ago Canada
was among those first Western countries to recognize Armenia as an
independence state and a couple of years later diplomatic relations
were established with Armenia.

Today we enjoy that powerful and developing cooperation. During the
years we achieved a cooperation committed to democratic values and
global peace and security. Those relations have been strengthened
by more than 50.000 Canadians of Armenian descent who have their own
contribution to Canadian culture, political and economic life.”

GENOCIDE-DENIAL BILL ROCKS TURKISH-FRENCH RELATIONS

The National Interest Online

Jan 11 2012

A while back, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that
his country had embarked on a foreign policy based on “zero problems
with our neighbors.”

But it would seem that Turkey’s “zero-problems” policy has in recent
years been anything but-with Turkey most recently and loudly at
loggerheads with Israel (over Palestine), Cyprus (over the extent
of territorial waters and gas-drilling zones and rights), Syria
(over the Assad regime’s bloody suppression of internal dissent),
Iraq (over anti-Kurdish cross-border incursions by the Turkish army)
and Greece (over Greece’s planned border fence to keep out would-be
infiltrating Turkish emigrants bound for the EU).

Recently, it was the turn of Turkish-French relations, with Turkey
recalling its ambassador from Paris and suspending all bilateral
contacts and relations-political, economic and military-in the wake
of the passage by the French lower house of parliament, the National
Assembly, of a law prohibiting genocide denial, including the Armenian
genocide of World War I.

Armenian spokesmen at the time and many subsequent historians of the
period have alleged that the Ottoman Turks murdered between a million
and 1.5 million Armenians in the Middle East and the Caucasus in
a series of planned and systematic massacres. Though these actions
often were camouflaged as “deportations,” the intent, according to
historians, was to exterminate the Armenian race, i.e., genocide.

Successive Turkish governments, including the incumbent Islamist
government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have consistently denied the
allegation, arguing that Istanbul had merely put down internal
Armenian rebellions-an Armenian “stab in the back,” as it were-as the
hard-pressed Ottomans were fighting the Russians, British and a variety
of Balkan Christian states during World War I. They have insisted
that the death toll amounted to no more than three hundred thousand
Armenians (alongside tens of thousands of Turks allegedly murdered by
Armenians). Occasionally Turkish spokesmen have conceded that there
had been some “excesses”-but by local Ottoman officials and units.

Most non-Turkish historians dealing with World War I have concluded
that the Turks, assisted by Kurds, Circassians, Tatars, Azeris and
Arabs, committed genocide. For example, Donald Bloxham, a respected
historian at Edinburgh University, recently wrote:

It may be said categorically that the killing did constitute a
genocide-every aspect of the United Nations’ definition of the crime
is applicable. . . . [There was among the Turks] a general consensus
of destruction of the Armenian national community, a consensus which
developed and was augmented over time around broad principles of
discrimination and xenophobia, progressing from notions of removal
by dilution andor assimilation to physical removal by deportation
andor murder.

Increasingly Turkish historians, especially those working in democratic
countries outside Turkey, have reached the same conclusion.

The Turkish-born and educated Taner Akcam, who teaches at the
University of Minnesota, investigated the evolution of Turkish policy
toward the Armenians. In his major study A Shameful Act: The Armenian
Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility, he called what
happened to the Armenians “the deliberate destruction of a people.” It
was preceded by a plan by the Turkish ruling party, the Committee for
Union and Progress. One of the triumvirs who ruled the Ottoman Empire
during World War I, Talat Pasha, reportedly explained: “Necessary
preparations have been discussed and taken for the complete and
fundamental elimination of this concern [i.e., the Armenians] … What
we are dealing with here . . . is the annihilation of the Armenians.”

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his usual combative
style, parried the French move by charging France with committing
“genocide” against the Algerians during the 1940s and 1950s, and
he even hinted that French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s father, Pal
Sarkozy, as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion, had taken part.

Pal Sarkozy responded that Erdogan’s charge was “ludicrous” and that
he had never served in Algeria. The Turks added that the French move
was governed by Sarkozy’s electoral considerations. France has an
estimated half a million citizens of Armenian origin and Sarkozy is
seeking reelection next year.

For the past few years, Turkey has been fighting a rearguard action
against international recognition of the Armenian genocide, often
brandishing diplomatic and political threats. But a growing number
of countries-including, recently, Argentina and Sweden-have done just
that, braving possible Turkish retaliation.

The Turkish suspension of relations with France is probably designed
to deter the French upper house, the Senate, from endorsing the
genocide-denial bill and perhaps to deter other countries from going
down the same path. The United States and Israel are among the states
that have so far avoided this path, although the legislatures of
forty-three U.S. states have “recognized” the Armenian genocide.

Benny Morris is a professor of history in the Middle East Studies
Department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is the author
of 1948, A History of the First Arab-Israeli War (Yale University
Press, 2008).

‘GENOCIDE’ IN ARMENIA IS NOT FOR ISRAEL TO DECIDE
by Mark Meirowitz

New Jersey Jewish News

Jan 11 2012

The Education Committee of the Israel Knesset recently held open
hearings on whether the events in Armenia in 1915-18 should be defined
as “genocide.” The committee closed the hearing without taking any
action. Hopefully, the Israeli Knesset will not take any further action
on this issue, since it is not appropriate for the State of Israel
to become the arbiter and decider of whether the events in Armenia –
or any other historical event for that matter, with the exception of
the Nazi Holocaust – are or are not properly defined as genocide.

The Knesset’s taking up this issue is part of a trend in which
legislatures of various countries have considered (and made
determinations on) the question of whether the events in Armenia
constituted genocide. Most recently, the lower house of the French
legislature passed a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the
events in Armenia were genocide (this bill still requires approval
of the French Senate to become law). It seems quite hypocritical
for the French – whose Vichy government collaborated with the Nazis
to implement the genocidal Holocaust in France – to sit in judgment
of others.

Regretfully, words like “genocide” and “Holocaust,” used outside the
context of the Shoa, have become terms of political dynamite with
meanings light-years away from their significance in the context
of the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people. The careless and
inappropriate use of the term “genocide” outside the context of the
Jewish Holocaust diminishes the significance and uniqueness of the
Nazi genocide against the Jewish people.

Some have suggested that politicians in the Knesset took up the
Armenia issue to retaliate against Turkey for its actions against
Israel (including the expulsion by Turkey of Israel’s ambassador in
connection with the Gaza flotilla debacle). However, this strategy
could backfire to the detriment of Israel, because further action
on this issue could interfere with efforts to repair and reinstate
relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, and could even terminate
relations entirely. Even the Israeli Foreign Ministry – whose head,
Avigdor Lieberman, has been a sharp critic of Turkey – urged the
Knesset not to take up the Armenia issue.

Because of developments in Iran and the Middle East, it is very likely
that the interests of Turkey and Israel will converge at some point in
the future, and that Turkey, Israel, and the United States will have
to work together to maintain stability in the region. Further Israeli
actions on the Armenia issue could disrupt efforts at achieving peace
and stability in the region.

It is also important to mention that Turkey and Armenia agreed
to protocols in 2009 to normalize their relations. One aspect of
this agreement was the establishment of a historical sub-commission
consisting of Armenian, Turkish, and international experts to perform
an impartial scientific review of historical archives relating to
the events in Armenia. These protocols, unfortunately, are in limbo
because the parliaments of Turkey and Armenia have not ratified them.

The United States is in favor of their ratification.

Turkey and Armenia need to move forward with the protocols and also
establish the historical sub-commission to perform the historical
analysis of the events in Armenia. This is a job for the historians,
not the politicians. Historians are divided on the Armenia issue, and
even distinguished historians such as Bernard Lewis and Steven Katz
have taken the position that the events in Armenia did not constitute
“genocide.”

As people of conscience, Jews have given the world the gift of
human compassion. However, we must also be vigilant and oppose
the mischaracterization of historical events, other than the Jewish
Holocaust, as genocide. We must never forget, as Steven Katz tells us,
that the Holocaust was “unique” because “never before has a state set
out, as a matter of intentional principle…to annihilate physically
every man, woman, and child belonging to a specific people.”

Finally, Israel’s further involvement in this issue can only lead
to problems and difficulties, and will provide no benefit – moral,
political, or otherwise – for Israel at this time of crisis in the
Middle East.

Mark Meirowitz is a business lawyer in New York City. He holds a
doctorate in politics and has taught politics, history, and law at
colleges in the New York area.

GEORGIA’S MIDNIGHT EXPRESS
By Paul Rimple

The Moscow Times

Jan 11 2012
Russia

Crossing the Georgian border from Armenia or Azerbaijan, the first
thing you notice, besides the new customs buildings, is a sense of
legitimacy. You do not have to jump through hoops to get a visa, nor
will you be slapped with arbitrary crossing fees. You will not see cops
slouching at the side of the road with whistles in their mouths and
batons in their hands. Georgian cops drive new patrol cars and write
tickets for only actual infractions, just like police in the West.

Behind the Western veneer, however, is a judiciary that resembles
Georgia’s neighbors. You do not want to be accused of even breaking
a little law in Georgia, particularly if you are a political activist.

Human Rights Watch released a report on Jan. 4 that reveals how
Georgia’s Soviet-era Code of Administrative Offenses still fails
to meet the country’s human rights obligations, even after being
redrafted last year.

Administrative offenses are misdemeanors that used to carry a maximum
punishment of 30 days, but after large-scale opposition protests
in 2009 the law was fortuitously amended to 90 days. According to
international law, such punishment constitutes a criminal penalty,
or felony, and therefore you should have the same due process rights
as a felony defendant. But Georgia’s administrative code has loopholes
that allow police to throw you in a holding cell without telling you
what you were arrested for.

You have the right to legal counsel at the hearing, but the code does
not state whether you have that right from the moment of your arrest.

The police are not necessarily obliged to inform you of your rights,
and they may not let you make a phone call. It’s up to your family
to find out that you have been detained and to hire a lawyer, who
must then try to find where you are being held.

Administrative trials are swift 15-minute affairs, where the court
extensively relies on police testimonies. Because the accused is
assumed in advance to be a troublemaker, the judge will not notice the
wounds he has sustained during the detention process. Furthermore,
a defendant’s lawyer will not have had time to prepare a defense,
especially if he was appointed by the court. Of course, the judge may
decide the accused doesn’t need a lawyer at all, even if he is a minor.

Giorgi Lapiashvili, 17, was arrested in May after calling Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili a “murderer” at a theater the president
was present at. Police refused Lapiashvili’s request to call his family
or a lawyer. During the trial, the judge also denied the boy’s request
to have his parents and lawyer present and appointed the arresting
officer to represent him instead. Lapiashvili was fined 400 lari
($240).

In Georgia, felons serve time in prison while misdemeanor offenders
serve their sentences in temporary detention facilities, which were
designed to hold people for 72 hours and are often in conditions akin
to Midnight Express.

Armenia and Azerbaijan make no pretenses about egalitarian reform,
so we are not surprised when opposition activists, journalists or even
satirists are imprisoned on bogus charges. But Georgia is different.

It prides itself on being the region’s leader of reform, and if you
look in the right places you can see evidence of this. But the day
Georgia truly distinguishes itself from its neighbors is when Lady
Justice will finally be blindfolded and holding a set of scales
instead of the current hammer and sickle.

Paul Rimple is a journalist in Tbilisi.

CANADA MARKS 20 YEARS OF RECOGNITION OF ARMENIA’S INDEPENDENCE

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

Government of Canada
Jan 11 2012

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today issued the following
statement on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Canada’s
recognition of Armenia’s independence:

“Twenty years ago today, Canada was among the first Western nations
to recognize Armenia as an independent state and, a few days later,
to formally establish diplomatic relations. Today, we enjoy a strong
and growing partnership, notably through our ongoing cooperation in
multilateral organizations.”

“Over the years, we have forged bonds of friendship and cooperation
based on our shared commitment to promoting democratic values and
global peace and security. These links have been further strengthened
by the presence of more than 50,000 Canadians of Armenian descent
who continue to make significant contributions to Canada’s cultural,
political and economic life.”

To mark the anniversary, Minister Baird recently met with Armenian
ambassador to Canada, Armen Yeganian, and presented him with a framed
reproduction of the official declaration establishing diplomatic
relations between Canada and Armenia.

ARMENIA’S NATIONAL ARCHIVE ORGANIZES EXHIBITIONS ON 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN TYPOGRAPHY

News from Armenia – NEWS.am
January 11, 2012 | 15:21

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s National Archive will organize exhibitions
dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the Armenian typography and
20th anniversary of the establishment of the Armenian Army.

Armenian Deputy PM, Minister of Territorial Administration
Armen Gevorgyan visited archive on Wednesday to get familiar with
digitalization equipment acquired last year, ministerial press service
informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The equipment is to accelerate the process of digitalizing the
documents.

The archive had organized over 14 thematic exhibitions dedicated to
the establishment of the 15th anniversary of local self-governmental
system. Moreover, it organized exhibition on the 20th anniversary of
Armenia’s Independence together with the Armenian Museum of History.

The archive cooperated with international organizations and concluded
contracts as well, in particular, those with Georgia’s and Finland’s
National Archives.