Author: Kanayan Tamar

ERDOGAN: ARMENIA WILL NOT GAIN ANYTHING FROM PROPAGANDA

Daily Sabah, Turkey
March 19 2015

DAILY SABAH WITH ANADOLU AGENCY

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Armenia will not gain anything
from propaganda against Turkey. “The purpose of this campaign against
Turkey is to treat our country as an enemy instead of keeping alive
Armenians’ sorrow,” Erdogan said on Thursday in Istanbul, as Armenians
prepare to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1915 incidents
on April 24.

Erdogan also called on Armenians to study archives pertaining to the
era in order to uncover what actually happened between the Ottoman
government and its Armenian citizens. The president said Armenia
had never answered Turkey’s call to study the archives, adding:
“You cannot gain anything from the propaganda against Turkey with
bribing countries, immoral ways and lobbying.”

He claimed that the purpose was not to find the truth, but to damage
and attack Turkey, adding: “We do not have to account to anyone on
this issue. If we pursue our nation’s 100, 150 years of sorrow we
can find more than Armenian allegations.” Not just Armenians were
affected by the war, but hundreds of Muslims, too,” he added.

Turkish-Armenian relations have remained strained for decades due to
Armenia’s constant demand for Turkey to officially accept the Armenian
claim of “genocide.” Tensions peaked in 1993 when Turkey closed its
border with Armenia in reaction to the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in
support of its close ally Azerbaijan.

Nevertheless, last year, Erdogan made attempts to thaw the tensions
between the two countries by issuing a message ahead of the 99th
anniversary of the 1915 incidents. In an unprecedented move, as
prime minister, Erdogan extended condolences to the grandchildren of
Armenians who lost their lives in the 1915 events.

The debate on using the term “genocide” and the differing opinions
between the present-day Turkish government and the Armenian diaspora,
along with the current administration in Yerevan, still generates
political tension between Turks and Armenians.

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire approved a deportation law for
Armenians amid an uprising with the help of the invading Russian army.

As a result, an unknown number of people died in civil strife and
forced migrations. Turkey’s official position against the allegations
of genocide is that they acknowledge that the past experiences were
a great tragedy and that both parties suffered heavy casualties,
including hundreds of Muslim Turks. Turkey agrees that there were
Armenian casualties during World War I, but that it is impossible to
define these incidents as genocide.

PRINCETON WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM IS PERFECT IN MANY WAYS

LA Daily News
March 19 2015

Courtney Banghart began coaching Princeton’s women’s basketball team
in 2007. She noticed a lot of other Princeton teams were winning. So
when someone on campus took an Ivy League title, Banghart got her
players to send congratulatory notes.

A winning contagion, she hoped, would kick in.

Since then, the Tigers have won five of six Ivy League championships.

This season, the notes and the interviews and the commemoration
came from everywhere. Princeton is 30-0 in a very good year to be
30-0 because, for two months Kentucky’s men have been identified as
“one of two” teams sporting the magic 0. Thanks to Stanford’s upset
of Connecticut, Geno Auriema does not coach that other undefeated team.

Banghart does.

The difference is Kentucky is supposed to win the NCAA tournament.

Princeton is not. The Tigers are seeded No. 8 in their region. If they
beat Green Bay, they play top-seeded Maryland, at Maryland. Still,
it is the highest seed ever for an Ivy League team.

“A lot of people talk about the pressure involved,” said Annie
Tarakchian, who went east from Chaminade College Prep in West Hills,
just as Michelle Miller did from Pasadena Poly. “But we’ve embraced
being undefeated. To us, pressure is a privilege.”

The pressure disappears when you exercise the privilege of beating
everyone else into vapor. Princeton got those 30 wins by an average
margin of nearly 25 points. Their rebound margin was more than 10 a
game, and their opponents shot just 24.7 percent from the 3-point line.

There are five juniors on this team. Miller was the diamond of that
recruiting class. She scored more points during her California high
school career than anybody except Cheryl Miller, and she posted a 5.0
GPA, and she was a league champion freestyle swimmer and second-team
all-state in volleyball.

“But I’d been involved in basketball since the fourth grade,” Miller
said. “I liked the other sports, and it really helped me to have some
new challenges, and to take a break from basketball.”

Miller also said she’s learned to “be more of a leader” at Princeton,
where Banghart, a 3-point artist herself at Dartmouth, never lets a
team-building opportunity slip away. Four players, including Miller,
had committed in 2012 and were on campus when Tarakchian visited. When
Tarakchian took her recruiting visit, Banghart got the four together
and said, “Sign her.”

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Banghart was already enchanted by Tarakchian’s instincts. At 6 feet,
she knew where the rebounds would fall, and she passed and cut and
shot. Banghart saw Larry Bird in all of that.

“I just didn’t know when we’d have a chance to recruit somebody with
that type of understanding,” she said.

Tarakchian did sign, but it took a while for her holistic game to
settle down.

“I had to go through an identity crisis,” she said. “I was having
trouble matching up with people on the court, but then I began to
realize that I can be a problem for them, too.”

Tarakchian now averages 10.1 points and 9.2 rebounds and shoots 48.5
percent from long range, and is also second on the Tigers in assists.

It goes back to an episode late last season, when Banghart could
no longer tolerate Tarakchian’s unwillingness to shoot. Instead,
Tarakchian would get the ball, put it over her head and look for
a cutter.

Banghart finally said, “If you do that again, I don’t want you on
the bus.” Since hitch-hiking can be a frigid proposition in the Ivy
League, Tarakchian scored on her next three possessions.

Since it’s Princeton, all these players will become seniors, and
their stories are all over the lot.

Miller is on a pre-med track. Alex Wheatley is majoring in ecology and
evolutionary biology. Blake Dietrick, the leading scorer, also plays
lacrosse. Freshman Leslie Robinson is the daughter of ex-Oregon State
coach Craig Robinson, which means she’s also Michelle Obama’s niece.

Tarakchian is the daughter of immigrants from Armenia, and speaks
Armenian and Russian. Her dad Arshak brought the whole family over,
including his grandmother, Pati. Annie was enthralled with the stories
she told and the life she lived, and began volunteering at senior
centers. She hopes to pursue a career in gerontology when this is over.

“It’s an incredible place,” Banghart said. “The key is to be present
— to give everything to basketball when it’s time, and then give
everything to academics and the other things when it’s time to
do that.”

The Tigers are hoping to extend time to its limit, but to call it a
“pursuit of perfection” is to invite disappointment.

What Princeton has done, so far, is perfect the pursuit.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION INTRODUCED TO US CONGRESS AMID TURKISH-AMERICAN CRITICISM

Daily Sabah, Turkey
March 19 2015

RAGIP SOYLU

A bipartisan group of Congressmen on Wednesday introduced the
Armenian-lobby-backed controversial Armenian Genocide Truth and
Justice Resolution and faced harsh criticism from leaders of the
Turkish-American community.

Reps. David G. Valadao (CA-21), Robert Dold (R-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA)
and Frank Pallone (D-NJ), along with 39 other Members of the House of
Representatives publicized House Resolution 154 with a press conference
in front of Congress. Rep. Schiff said that the draft resolution,
if passed by Congress, would officially recognize the Armenian
genocide and call upon President Obama to work with the Turkish and
Armenian governments to bring about the reconciliation based upon
full acknowledgment of the historic fact of “Armenian genocide.”

Representatives declared last month that they would be introducing
the resolution on February 24, which accuses the Ottoman Empire of
committing genocide in 1915 by killing 1.5 million Armenians, but
they failed to find enough signatories.

The Turkish Institute for Progress (TIP), a New York-based increasingly
influential Turkish-American association, condemned such “divisive
tactics” implemented by the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) and said that the resolution undermines U.S. interests and
jeopardizes the chance for peace and reconciliation between the
Turkish and Armenian communities. TIP adviser and former U.S.

Representative, Solomon P. Ortiz, said, “We ask the Armenian Diaspora
and the powerful lobbying groups behind them to cease the tactics
that create further conflict and join us in our mission to look toward
the next hundred years.”

The resolution, marking the 100th anniversary of the 1915 incidents,
recalls President Barack Obama’s early remarks on the issue before
entering the office, when he stated that he firmly held the conviction
that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation or a personal opinion
but rather a widely documented fact. The resolution also blames the
Turkish government for the collapse of diplomatic reconciliation
between Turkey and Armenia by quoting then Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton’s statements, “the ball remains in Turkey’s court.”

Ä°brahim Uyar, co-chair of the Turkish American Steering Committee –
a joint endeavor of 145 Turkish American organizations – said that
the resolution might not succeed. “Armenians clearly see that the
Congress will not pass the resolution. They have a new date, which is
2023, the 100th anniversary of Turkish Republic, to complete their
task. This is why they focus more on state-level resolutions in New
Jersey and Massachusetts.”

The Armenian lobby recently increased its pressure on Turkish
communities abroad and has sometimes used somewhat bold tactics. The
Turkish Ambassador to France Hakkı Akil was attacked with a cup of
pomegranate juice by a French-Armenian protester on March 2 during
his talk on “Secularism in Turkey and France” at the faculty of law at
Paris Descartes University. An Armenian publication recently targeted
Congressman Bill Schuster because of his refusal to become one of
signatories of the Armenian resolution. Publisher of the Armenian
community daily, The California Courier, said that Armenians should
apply “such pressure” to Bill Schuster to create an example showing
other representatives that they too would be targeted for defeat. The
same newspaper called on Armenians to pressure American companies
to cancel their official contract with the Gephardt Group, one of
Turkey’s lobbying firms.

ARMENIA, BULGARIA RACE TO SELL BONDS

Capital, Greece
March 19 2015

By Ben Edwards

Armenia and Bulgaria are racing to sell bonds Thursday as the global
hunt for yield continues to boost the appeal of lower-rated debt.

Junk-rated Armenia is seeking to issue a 10-year dollar bond, its
second on record, with bankers working on the deal suggesting a yield
in the area of 7.625%.

Bulgaria, meanwhile, is seeking to issue three lots of euro bonds
maturing in seven, 12 and 20 years. Bankers are marketing those bonds
at implied yields of roughly 2.3%, 2.9% and 3.4% respectively.

The latter deal follows a wave of longer-dated bonds sold in euros
after Italy and Slovenia this week issued debt that won’t mature
until 2032 and 2035.

Armenia’s proposed deal follows a week of sales pitches to investors
in London and the U.S., as it seeks to raise cash partly to buy back
about $200 million of its existing bonds.

Deutsche Bank, HSBC and J.P. Morgan are the banks managing Armenia’s
bond sale.

Citigroup, HSBC, Societe Generale and UniCredit are managing Bulgaria’s
sale.

EU CAN MAKE TURKEY CHANGE ITS STANCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: GIANNI PERRELLI

10:43, 19 March, 2015

YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Turkey can change its position on
Armenian Genocide issue only under the pressure of Europe. The
Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Journalism Department of L’Espresso
periodical Gianni Perrelli stated this in a conversation with
“Armenpress”. This is his first visit to Armenia.

Among other things, Perrelli noted that the time of his visit to
our country ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
has not been chosen accidentally. “Majority of the Western countries
has forgotten the tragedy of the Armenians. By all means, there are
intellectuals and activists, who remember what happened, but there
is a huge difference in the level of awareness in comparison with
Holocaust,” he underscored.

In addition, Gianni Perrelli noted: “We know that the Armenian Genocide
served as a model for Hitler for the realization of the Armenian
Genocide, but many people have forgotten about that. Armenia is small
country and the Armenians need strong lobbying around the world.”

Perrelli’s visit to our country mainly aims writing an article based
on the meetings with the eyewitness-survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

Article by Araks Kasyan

HRAPARAK: TURKISH SIDE DID EVERYTHING POSSIBLE SO THAT PUTIN GOES TO TURKEY ON APRIL 24

11:42 19/03/2015 >> DAILY PRESS

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s early statement on visiting Armenia
on April 24 was to some extent unexpected for Armenia, Hraparak writes.

“The point is that the Turkish side did everything possible so that
Putin visits Turkey on April 24 to attend the 100th anniversary
commemorations of the Battle of Gallipoli, which would be its trump
card against the Genocide. The Putin administration announced early
about visiting Yerevan in order to introduce clarity into this issue
and not to cause speculation in Armenia,” the newspaper says.

SERGE SARKISSIAN PREOCCUPE PAR LES VENTES D’ARMES RUSSES A L’AZERBAIDJAN

Armee

Serge Sarkissian a de nouveau exprime hier ses inquietudes sur
les livraisons a grande echelle d’armes russes a l’Azerbaïdjan, en
disant qu’ils pourraient endommager les relations russo-armeniennes
traditionnellement etroites.

“Le fait que la Russie vende des armes a l’Azerbaïdjan pour diverses
raisons nous inquiète”, a declare Sarkissian lors d’un forum
international des medias tenue a Erevan.

“Le problème n’est pas la qualite des armes vendues”, a t-il dit lors
d’une seance de questions-reponses qui a suivi son discours lors du
rassemblement. “Le problème est que le jeune homme armenien deploye
sur notre frontière avec l’Azerbaïdjan ou a la ligne de contact du
Haut-Karabagh se rend compte qu’on essaie de le tuer avec des armes
russes. C’est très grave. ”

La Russie semble avoir fourni des armes plus lourdes a l’Azerbaïdjan
qu’a l’Armenie, son principal allie regional, ces dernières annees.

Ceux-ci incluent des centaines de chars, des systèmes d’artillerie et
des helicoptères de combat. Les responsables russes et azerbaïdjanais
ont estime le volume total des contrats de defense bilateraux signes
depuis 2010 a plus de 4 milliards de dollars.

jeudi 19 mars 2015, Claire (c)armenews.com

ARTSAKH DEFENSE ARMY REPORTS 3 OF ITS SOLDIERS KILLED AND 4 WOUNDED REPULSING AZERBAIJANI INCURSION

16:15, March 19, 2015

The Artsakh Defense Army (ADA) reports that three of its soldiers
were killed and four wounded during a two hour firefight to repulse
an Azerbaijani incursion this morning in the direction of Gyulistan.

The ADA claims that the Azerbaijani unit was routed and eventually
wiped out as Armenian troops pursued the unit back to its base.

The three dead Armenian soldiers have been identified as Hakob
Khachatryan, Edward Hayrapetyan and Arshak Harutyunyan.

CONFERENCE ACADEMIQUE REVOLUTIONNAIRE SUR LE ENOCIDE ARMENIEN A ISTANBUL

TURQUIE

Les chercheurs du monde entier se réuniront a l’Université Bilgi
d’Istanbul le 26 Avril 2015 afin de participer a une conférence
internationale intitulée “Le Génocide arménien : Concepts et
perspectives comparatives ” et co-parrainée par l’université Bilgi
d’Istanbul, la Fondation d’Histoire de Turquie (Tarih Vakfi), et la
chaire d’histoire arménienne moderne de l’Université de Californie,
Los Angeles.

La conférence fera partie de la série d’une semaine d’activités
commémorant le centenaire du génocide arménien a Istanbul organisée
par DurDe, une organisation turque des droits de l’homme, et Projet
2015, un groupe basé aux USA visant a aider les Arméniens a organiser
des visites en Turquie pour la commémoration historique .

” C’est une occasion très importante pour les chercheurs du monde
entier de traiter des aspects critiques des faits et de l’histoire du
génocide arménien ici, a Istanbul, 100 ans après qu’il a commencé”,
a déclaré Bulent Bilmez, président du département d’histoire de
Bilgi et de la Fondation de l’Histoire en Turquie. “Nous espérons
que parler ouvertement de l’histoire commune des Arméniens et des
autres peuples de la Turquie, quelque chose qui n’a pas toujours été
possible, aidera notre société a se réconcilier avec le passé.”

Parmi les savants qui participent a la conférence figurent Norman
Naimark, Jay Winter, Dirk Moïse, Muge Göcek, Cathie Carmichael, Keith
Watenpaugh, Ugur Umit Ungör, et Mehmet Polatel. Le rassemblement
permettra de sonder le concept de génocide dans une perspective
comparative, explorer le transfert forcé des enfants, et d’examiner
comment le génocide a été cartographié dans l’historiographie et
immortalisé et inscrit dans la mémoire collective et historique.

“Pour ceux qui ont suggéré que les historiens examinent l’histoire
du génocide arménien nous disons,” Nous arrivons a Istanbul
pour faire exactement cela, avec d’autres historiens en Turquie,
“a déclaré Sebouh Aslanian et Richard Hovannisian co-présidents de
la chaire d’histoire arménienne moderne au département d’histoire de
l’Université de Californie, Los Angeles. “Une discussion franche et
ouverte sur le dossier historique est notre facon de contribuer a la
connaissance et a l’éducation sur le génocide arménien en Turquie.”

jeudi 19 mars 2015, Stéphane ©armenews.com

ARMENIA’S GROWING RELATIONSHIP WITH IRAN COULD AFFECT ISRAEL

CHRISTIAN NEWS

By JNS.ORG

03/19/2015 13:08

Armenia’s budding relationship with Iran may hurt it’s longstanding
relationship with Israel.

Armenian Christmas in Bethlehem . (photo credit:TRAVELUHJAH)

The status of the Old City of Jerusalem and those holy places also
presents one of the thorniest issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict,
and the latest installment in this long-drawn drama involves the
Republic of Armenia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Armenian leadership’s cancellation of a planned visit to Jerusalem
in February 2010 by then-prime minister Tigran Sargsyan provided
a cause for concern and puzzlement for the Israeli government that
persists to this day.

Until recently, the Armenian government had not sent a single
delegation to Israel since the cancellation of Sargsyan’s visit. In
contrast, an Armenian neighbor, the Muslim-majority Republic of
Azerbaijan, has sent a series of top-level delegations, including
cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, and Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov.

In what was reportedly a bit of damage control, on March 5, Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan arrived in Israel for what the
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs described as a “private visit,”
promoting a decidedly anti-Turkish and anti-Azeri agenda. Nalbandyan
received a less-than-warm welcome due to the well-documented and
increasing wave of anti-Semitism in the Armenian media as well as the
prolific state-sponsored anti-Israel propaganda that makes Armenia
such a darling of Iran.

What really caused the cancellation of the visit of Armenian prime
minister Sargsyan to Israel? In mid-February 2010, Yerevan notified
Israel that Sargsyan had become ill with the flu and was unable to
travel. Other diplomatic sources in Jerusalem noted that the flu struck
the Armenian prime minister in “a strange manner after a meeting with
the advisor of Iranian President Mehdi Mostafavi.”

Nearly at the same time as the Armenian official trip, the Iranian
ambassador in Yerevan, Seyed Ali Sagayan, announced that the Islamic
Republic would act as an intermediary, promoting the normalization
process between Armenia and Turkey. This was preceded by a visit
to Tehran of then-Armenian minister of transport and communication
Manuk Vardanyan, an invitation to the defense minister of Armenia to
Iran, and the arrival in Yerevan of a head of the Iranian diplomatic
delegation.

According to information received in Jerusalem, Tehran feared that
the Israelis would try to negotiate with the head of the Armenian
government about the tacit cooperation on the Iranian issue. Although
Iran remains a major regional partner of Yerevan, no less important for
the Armenians is their position in Jerusalem at the city’s holy sites.

The Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Armenian Apostolic Church controls
many Christian shrines in the city (including a part of the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre). The Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem (where
about 2,500 people live) is the spiritual center for the influential
Armenian diaspora in the Middle East, including Lebanon, Syria, and
Iran. This quarter is even called the key to the “Armenian factor”
of Middle East politics.

For Armenians, these places are particularly sensitive because of
the long-term confrontation with the Greeks regarding control over
the Jerusalem sites. In resolving a number of conflicts between
the Armenians and Greeks, the Israeli authorities, in particular the
Ministry of Religious Affairs, plays a critical role. On such matters,
Israeli state agencies prefer to remain neutral.

But recently, representatives of the Armenian Church began to
express fears that amid the crisis with Turkey, Israel had decided to
strengthen the partnership with Greece, and by consequence the Israeli
government may prefer the Greeks in the conflict over Jerusalem’s
holy sites.

“Holy Mount Zion to the Jews actually is in the possession of the
Armenian community and the Israeli government is implementing a
systematic policy to force Armenians out. Armenia as the state did
not oppose this policy.” Step Karapetyan, stated publicly ess than
a month before the announcement of the visit of the Armenian prime
minister to Israel, one of Jerusalem’s priests. He further noted
that “in such circumstances, conflicts and collisions will occur and
further, because the problem is not only religious but also political
and geopolitical conditions.”

The Iranians reportedly feared that in exchange for some assistance in
the matter of holy places, Sarkisian would agree to tacit cooperation
on subjects of strategic importance for Tehran, but the Armenians
quickly backed down under pressure from Iran.

The Iranian regime has never ceased to support Armenia in its
megalomaniac policy of occupation of the sovereign Azeri territory.

Recently, on behalf of Armenia, a blatant attack on an Azeri senior
diplomat–Baku’s ambassador to Washington, Elin Suleymanov–was aired
by the official Islamic Republic of Iran broadcaster Radio Tabriz,
in which the Iranian broadcast accused Suleymanov of “lobbying
activities against Armenia in Washington, DC.” The Iranians used a
classical anti-Semitic ruse by calling any diplomat who has healthy
relationship with Jewish people, especially American Jewry, a “secret
agent” of Zionists.

The mullah-controlled regime in Tehran manifests a growing concern
over the invigoration of relations between Israel, Azerbaijan,
and the states of Central Asia, particularly Kazakhstan. The
Iranians fear that the Israeli strategy of containing the Islamic
Republic–which continues to stall the P5+1 negotiations over Iran’s
nuclear program–is gaining momentum, while Armenia is still suffering
from the Iranian flu.