Author: Kanayan Tamar

La Provence, France
6 janv 2015

Margarian, le coeur dans les poings

Romuald Vinace
Mardi 06/01/2015 à 06H08 Marseille

Le boxeur, qui a grandi en Arménie, à Kirovakan, a dû briser bien des
barrières pour s’affirmer

Arrivé en France sur la pointe des pieds, Araik Margarian a su se
faire une place à Marseille. Et, lors de la dernière Nuit des
champions il a pu compter sur de nombreux soutiens. Photos frédéric
speich et R.V.
A+A-

La maison, immense, grouille de monde. Un chanteur arménien achève sa
complainte dans l’indifférence presque générale, captant la seule
attention d’une mère aimante devant ses fourneaux. Hamos, khorovadz et
ghapama feront le régal de la famille.

Cousins et amis poussent une porte toujours ouverte, comme les bras du
patriarche dans lesquels se réfugie le petit Araik. Le souvenir est
tenace. Les senteurs de l’orge et du froment se mêlent encore au goût
des grenades et des pommes de terre de Kirovakan, racines de l’homme
devenu Araik Margarian. “Seize ans ont passé et je garde encore ces
bons souvenirs près du coeur”, lance l’intéressé. Regards en arrière,
passerelle vers un passé teinté de noir. Le noir du dégoût, loin, très
loin au fond de cette salle de classe marseillaise du quartier
d’Air-Bel.

“À ma descente d’avion, pour mes dix ans, je ne m’attendais pas à
vivre dans cet isolement qui trouve sa source dans la barrière de la
langue. L’école allait exacerber tout cela. J’étais toujours dans un
coin. Totalement perdu, je me faisais discret et une même réflexion
revenait : Mais qu’est-ce-que je fais là ?”. Pourtant, le jeune Araik
le sait, il n’a pas le choix. L’heure est venue de se faire sa place,
de tenter d’imposer son style et de distribuer les cartes comme il le
faisait parmi les 600 gamins entassés dans le gymnase de son passé.
“En Arménie, la lutte est le sport national et j’y ai trouvé mon
exutoire”, se souvient l’athlète.

Et si les pages des cahiers achetés par son grand-père pour le
familiariser, lui et ses quatre frères et soeurs, à la langue de
Molière ont quelque peu jauni, Araik Margarian tire le mérite de sa
soif d’apprendre, d’exister. “Je le faisais au mépris de la honte.
Pourquoi avoir honte de demander la signification d’un mot, d’une
phrase ? Pourquoi avoir honte de s’assurer de bien accorder une
terminaison si cela vous permet de vous rapprocher des autres ?Je
m’ouvrais au monde sans retenue, je parlais avec les mains.”

Aujourd’hui encore, c’est auprès d’Éric Simonini, son entraîneur au
Sambo Saint-Pierre, qu’il trouve les réponses à ses incertitudes. “Il
est un second père pour moi”, dit-il humblement. Une relation
quasi-filiale qu’évoque le coach. “Je l’ai vu grandir, devenir un
homme de coeur, généreux. Un de ceux qui donne tout et je ne le dément
pas, bien au contraire : Araik, c’est un peu mon fils avant d’être le
compétiteur que j’entraîne depuis une décennie. L’approche est avant
tout affective. Il prend souvent conseil et me consulte avant de
s’engager”.

Attachant, lucide et réfléchi, Araik Margarian sait où il va, à la
ville, où il est cantonnier, comme sur le ring, où il balaye la
concurrence. C’est à l’envie, à la détermination qu’il s’est sauvé de
l’ignorance. À 26 ans, il est devenu ce boxeur populaire qui déplace
les foules de La Nuit des Champions ou du PFC.

Une valeur sûre, toujours en quête de nouveaux défis. “J’aime le
sambo. Néanmoins, je suis animé par la seule ambition de devenir un
lutteur correct. Correct, voilà tout ! Je ne serai jamais le plus
talentueux, ni le plus doué car je garde une certitude au fond de moi
: celle que je trouverai toujours meilleur sur ma route.”

Le Matin, Suisse
04 janvier 2015 dimanche

Amal Clooney assistera la Suisse devant la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme

par Simon Widmer; Ehrbar

La Suisse est en litige avec le politicien turc Dogu Perinçek devant
la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme. Dans un discours tenu en
2005, il avait qualifié le génocide arménien commis par l’Empire
ottoman de . Né en 1942, Dogu Perinçek est
président du Parti des travailleurs de Turquie.

Au procès qui s’ouvrira le 28 janvier devant le Tribunal de
Strasbourg, la Confédération se voit gratifiée d’une alliée de poids:
Amal Clooney fait partie des avocats représentant l’Arménie. L’étude
londonienne de Mme Clooney confirme sa présence. Rappelons qu’Amal
Clooney, née Alamuddin, avocate de haut vol spécialiste des droits de
l’homme, a épousé l’acteur américain le 27 septembre dernier.

En engageant Amal Clooney, l’Arménie participe pour la première fois
au conflit juridique entre Perinçek et la Suisse. L’article 36 de la
Convention européenne des droits de l’homme (CEDH) donne en effet à un
Etat tiers la possibilité de participer à des auditions qui le
concernent.

Les juges strasbourgeois se penchent pour la seconde fois sur ce cas.
En 2013, la Cour avait décidé par cinq voix contre deux que la Suisse
avait empêché Perinçek de s’exprimer librement en lui infligeant une
condamnation pour propos racistes. Les juges de Strasbourg avaient
ainsi annulé un jugement cantonal vaudois confirmé par le Tribunal
fédéral. Suite à ce prononcé européen surprenant, l’Office fédéral de
la justice (OFJ) a fait recours, exigeant un réexamen du cas,
procédure admissible sur des questions sérieuses de principe. Il
s’agit pour Berne de savoir comment interpréter l’article 261 bis du
Code pénal suisse sur la discrimination raciale et la négation d’un
génocide.

Cette affaire est prioritaire aux yeux de l’Arménie. Louant les
efforts de la Suisse, le président Serge Sargsian a déclaré en mars
dernier:

Touting Tourism

Friday, January 9th, 2015
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN

Most people do it at some point in their lives- visit a place for
artistic, cultural, educational, health, historic, nostalgic,
photographic, recreational, relaxation, religious, restorative,
spiritual, etc. reasons.

The places visited benefit economically, at least, but also by gaining
relevancy and becoming familiar to the outside world, they become more
“secure” in some ways. Those who have visited tell their stories and
“outsiders” start to care about those places. Of course the local
people also benefit through greater exposure to the rest of the world.

This is tourism. And, as industries go, it is relatively clean both
environmentally (except for the fuels burned while travelling) and
socially, though there is a dark underside to it such as the “sex
tourism” that Thailand seems to be known for, the over-use/visitation
of some destinations, and the soiling of pristine places such as the
flanks of Mt. Everest.

That’s why so many countries and businesses are engaged in promoting tourism.

Our homeland is a fantastic destination for tourists. I am referring
to ALL of it, even the parts under Turkish occupation. So many of the
different touristic-thirsts (see the list on the first sentence), can
be slaked by visiting Armenia. It’s not like visiting Costa Rica where
the primary attraction is the outdoors, or Israel/Palestine where it’s
all about history, or Las Vegas and its mind-numbing recreation.

To date, there has been a respectable, but far from sufficient, effort
to build up the tourism industry in the Armenian-controlled parts of
our homeland. Lots of people, and not just Armenians, visit to see our
churches, climb our mountains, go to our spas, just hang out, etc. But
far more can be done. It turns out the World Bank has a trust fund,
initiated by Italy, to support heritage and sustainable tourism. U.N.
agencies also support tourism development, such as the silk roads
efforts in which the Republic of Armenia is involved.

What got me thinking about all this was the news item about three
Armenians who are working on making Armenia a “dental tourism”
destination. That is, a place people can go, especially from the
developed world where services tend to be pricier, to get excellent
quality care at a lower cost. I had mentioned “medical tourism” in a
recent article, so it clicked- we need a very serious, coordinated,
government-level plan and program to support/incubate tourism-oriented
businesses in all of the areas where our homeland naturally excels.

There are many people engaging in such enterprises already. Their
input and engagement should be sought. Part of any plan must be
infrastructure development, and by this I don’t mean just hotels. I
have been privy to laments that a treasure trove of still unexplored
archaeological sites are intentionally kept unexposed (tragically, the
country is effectively a buried museum), lest they be looted because
the funds to adequately protect them are lacking. These historic and
religious sites should be systematically rendered visitable. As part
of the South Caucasus, Armenia sits in a biodiversity hot-spot. The
country is mountainous and has excellent climbing opportunities.
Adventure-outfits have been taking people to the backcountry for years
now. Some of them are even expanding into Turkish-occupied Armenia,
particular to serve the countless Armenians whose dream it is to climb
Mount Ararat. This gradual return to the despoiled part of our
homeland is also very important.

All these resources can be sustainably used in service of tourism.
There are even people willing to pay to work in what’s called service
tourism. Even this is something that has gone on at a low level- think
of the efforts of Land and Culture Organization and AYF’s Youth Corps
in its original form. If the church got its act together, pilgrimages
could be organized, which are really nothing more than a form of
tourism. Similarly, “educational tourism” could be developed by
investing in higher education institutions coupled with the existing
wealth of scientific brainpower in the RoA. Getting students from all
over the world to study in Yerevan would build a huge network of
people-connections that would benefit Armenians for decades on end.

If you have competence in any of the areas mentioned, start looking
for others and connecting with the right agencies in Yerevan and
Stepanakert to help build Armenia’s touristic future.

Armenian Society to Host Book Signing for ‘…And Then I Met The Getty Kouros’

Friday, January 9th, 2015

‘… And Then I Met The Getty Kouros’ by Jack Njdeh Yaghoubian

LOS ANGELES–Engineer Jack Njdeh Yaghoubian, who recently published a
book about his life and his engineering accomplishments called “…And
Then I Met The Getty Kouros,” will be honored by the Armenian Society
of Los Angeles at a book signing event on Jan. 23 at 7 pm.

Yaghoubian has made a huge impact on the field of engineering in the
United States and around the world. The Armenian-Iranian-American
invented and holds the patent for an ingenious earthquake base
isolation system that enabled the Getty Museum’s broken Kouros statue
of a nude male to stand on its own two marble feet after 2,500 years.

His memoir touches on many personal as well as professional subjects:
growing up in the Armenian minority in Iran during the 1950s, the
challenges of adapting to student life in America, the ways in which
careers are shaped, playing a role in innovative engineering
initiatives, and what it means to be an informed citizen in one’s
adopted country.

Yaghoubian’s parents met as children in an Iranian orphanage set up to
help children whose parents died in the Armenian Genocide. Growing up
in Tehran, he chronicles the beginning of the Armenian Youth Cultural
Organization, later known as Ararat, being instrumental in the
phenomenal growth of the Armenian Scout Organization.

Arriving in the U.S. to study civil engineering at the University of
Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Yaghoubian writes with humor and warmth
about his early experiences, which are familiar to many immigrants:
The shock of communal showers, amazement at the tea bag and confusion
over the “hot dog”.

Author Jack Njdeh Yaghoubian

Yaghoubian was, he says, born to be an engineer and his memoir
chronicles a journey of a life fulfilled. After graduating from
college, he went on to design engineering solutions for the largest
geo-tech firms in the world. Closely working with giants such as Dr.
Charles Richter, the inventor of world famous earthquake Richter
Scale, Yaghoubian became increasingly specialized in earthquake
engineering.

On a visit to the Getty Museum in Malibu he saw that the antiquities
were vulnerable to earthquakes and developed the base isolation system
to protect them. The system made art objects behave as if suspended in
air and remain unaffected by shaking. This pioneering method
reverberated through museums worldwide.

Based on the success of this new technology, Yaghoubian was asked to
evaluate the fragmented Getty Kouros dating to 530BC – “Kouros” being
the ancient Greek marble statues of male nudes. The earthquake base
isolation system he had developed, combined with a mechanical joint
system, was what made it possible for the Getty Kouros to stand
againafter 2,500 years.

“… And Then I Met The Getty Kouros” is a compelling and beautifully
written memoir presented in an open and factual manner. It is not a
typical memoir of being trapped between two countries; rather, it is a
celebration of culture and history and moving seamlessly between two
contrasting worlds.

The book signing event at the Armenian Society of Los Angeles, 117
Louise Street, Glendale, is open to the public.

Analyst: Armenia’s integration processes a serious deterrent for Azerbaijan

13:10, 08.01.2015

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s integration processes are a serious deterrent for
Azerbaijan in the context of not stirring up hostilities in
Nagorno-Karabakh, political analyst Gagik Harutyunyan toldArmenian
News-NEWS.am.

Asked whether we can expect more frequent attempts to increase tension
in the Karabakh conflict zone by Azerbaijan, he said: “Unfortunately,
we can state the situation in the region is far from being good. I do
not see preconditions that could lead to progress on the matter. I do
not think that there will be some progress, unless, of course,
Azerbaijani leadership decides on fundamental changes in its approach
to the settlement of Karabakh conflict”.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

Armenian Banks Paralyzed for 14 Days

Roza Hovhannisyan, Reporter
Business – 09 January 2015, 01:05

In fact, Armenia’s financial market is in uncertainty which may
produce most dangerous consequences and developments, said the
economist Vardan Bostanjyan in an interview with Lragir.am, adding
that today it is impossible to rule out likelihood of ups and downs in
the financial market.

The economist notes that negative developments in the Russian economy
causing the collapse of the ruble do not tend to stop. And the
behavior of the Armenian dram is determined by developments relating
to the Russian ruble.

“The fluctuations of the rate of the Russian ruble directly impact the
dram. As the people of Armenia spent their dram amounts during the
holiday season, and loans were mainly consumer ones, we have not spent
money on development, there are no optimistic expectations,” the
economist says.

Vardan Bostanjyan says the Armenian banks have been closed for 12
days, which has negative consequences. According to him, it is
impossible to overcome problems by not working, it was necessary to
fight against these difficulties.

“It turns out that we are not undertaking targeted actions to relieve
the situation. In this situation, there is danger that ups and downs
in the financial market and bank system will repeat. It is noticed
that the entities with still a speculative stance and mood are not
resting, they are still considering how to benefit from fluctuations
of the exchange rate. Interest has become a purpose for some people,
which leads to generally negative developments for the whole country,”
he says.

Economic observer Haik Gevorgyan predicts revaluation of the dram with
ensuing negative consequences for the economy. According to him, after
January 12 when the banks open we will witness fluctuations of the
rate of exchange.

“Banks are the blood vessels of the economy and this system is
paralyzed for 14 days, is not working. Unlike the past years when it
did not have such importance, now the situation in the foreign
exchange is tense, tending to get tenser. On the 12thwhen the banks
open, we will see drastic fluctuations of the exchange rate, which
will have a very bad impact on the economy,” Haik Gevorgyan told
Lragir.am.

According to his predictions, the dram will devaluate, the Central
Bank will have to make big injections into the market to even the
fluctuations. It is impossible to predict today to what extent the
Central Bank will succeed.

“The situation in the Russian economy reflects the situation in
Armenia. Signals from Russia press the rate of the dram down but since
the banks are not working, today’s rate does not reflect the real
picture,” Haik Gevorgyan says.

REVUE DE PRESSE
Le génocide arménien a 100 ans

L’année 2015 marquera le 100e anniversaire du génocide arménien. Des
activités sont prévues tout au long de l’année dans plusieurs pays, y
compris au Canada, pour souligner la mémoire d’au moins un million
d’Arméniens massacrés en Turquie lors de la Première Guerre mondiale.

Les Canadiens d’origine arménienne préparent depuis deux ans une série
d’activités destinées à commémorer la période la plus tragique de leur
histoire.

Chahé Tanachian est membre du Comité canadien du centenaire :

Concerts, pièces de thétre, séminaires, au total une vingtaine
d’événements sont prévus au Canada, principalement au Québec et en
Ontario où vivent la plupart des 50 000 Canadiens d’origine
arménienne. Pour Chahé Tanachian ces activités ne sont pas seulement
destinées à commémorer le passé :

CHARLIE HEBDO
Après la stupeur, l’émotion, par François Rochebloine

“Ce mercredi 7 janvier restera inscrit dans notre mémoire nationale
comme une journée noire. Cet attentat aussi odieux que lche, a plongé
la France dans l’effroi.

Je tiens à saluer la mémoire de toutes les victimes de ce massacre,
qu’elles soient journalistes, policiers ou tout simplement qu’elles
aient eu le malheur de croiser les terroristes.

Si depuis longtemps, nous sommes confrontés à la folie meurtrière du
terrorisme aveugle, il nous faut admettre que nous vivons aujourd’hui
dans un climat de guerre larvée, et pas seulement parce que plusieurs
régions du monde constituent des foyers de guerre et d’instabilité,
autant de menaces pour une propagation des violences.

Notre démocratie est ainsi durement mise à l’épreuve par cet acte
criminel inqualifiable contre la liberté de la presse, les libertés
d’opinion et d’expression, ces libertés fondamentales sans lesquelles
il ne saurait y avoir de démocratie.

En ces circonstances, il est impératif de ne pas céder à la psychose.
Il nous faut par contre exercer une vigilance collective renforcée si
nous voulons préserver notre sécurité, face au danger que représente
des éléments terroristes aussi incontrôlables.

Enfin, sans remettre en cause le caractère sacré de nos libertés
publiques, ne doit-on pas malgré tout admettre que dans leur exercice,
toute liberté doit trouver ses limites, ne serait-ce que celles
imposées par le principe de responsabilité. N’y a t-il pas des limites
au “Rire à tout” ?

vendredi 9 janvier 2015,
Ara (c)armenews.com

Turkish Press
Jan 9 2015

Turkey’s FM backs politician over ‘Armenian genocide’ court hearing

Friday, January 9, 2015

Cavusoglu hopes Dogu Perincek will attend European Court of Human
Rights appeal hearing on Jan. 28 over controversial remarks about 1915
incidents.

ANKARA – Turkey’s Foreign Minister has backed the leader of a small
Turkish political party accused by the Swiss authorities of racial
discrimination over remarks made about the “Armenian genocide” issue
in 2007.

Dogu Perincek, chairman of the nationalist Workers’ Party, is due to
attend a European Court of Human Rights appeal hearing on Jan. 28 to
defend Turkey’s position on the claims of a genocide perpetrated
against Armenians in 1915.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara on Friday, Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu said Turkey would defend its thesis in the best way
possible.

“I hope he [Perincek] will be able to attend the appeal hearing,”
Cavusoglu said.

However, Perincek is currently prevented from leaving Turkey after
being jailed in connection with the “Ergenekon” coup plot case.

“The process is in the [Turkish] Supreme Court’s hands now,” Cavusoglu added.

Perincek spoke at a conference in Switzerland in 2007 and denied that
the incidents of 1915 involving Armenians constituted genocide. The
Swiss authorities found him guilty of racial discrimination.

After the Swiss court’s decision, Perincek appealed to the European
Court of Human Rights in 2008 in Strasbourg, arguing for “freedom of
expression.”

In December 2013, the court ruled that Perincek should not have been
found guilty of racial discrimination when he called the idea of an
Armenian genocide an “international lie.”

Prominent actor George Clooney’s wife, Amal Ramzi Clooney, is expected
to represent Armenia at the Jan. 28 hearing.

On a related issue, when asked about whether Turkey’s Athens embassy
is trying to prevent an expected protest today over the Armenia
controversy by Turks in Greece, Cavusoglu said Turkish citizens had
the democratic right to protest, therefore there would be no effort to
prevent it.

“This also happened once again in France,” Cavusoglu said. “Nobody has
the right prevent these kinds of protests, we will support it.”

Turks living in Athens are expected to hold a protest on Friday at
2.p.m. local time.

– Minister hails Ambassadors’ Conference

Cavusoglu also talked about the 7th Annual Ambassadors’ Conference in
Ankara, saying the meeting was “very successful in terms of both
quantity and quality.”

“This year’s conference hosted the biggest number of foreign guests in
its history,” Cavusoglu said.

Foreign ministers of the Netherlands, Argentina and Nigeria as well as
the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, the
director-general of UNESCO Irina Bokova and the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees Antonio Guterres attended.

The next conference in 2016 will be held in Turkey’s Eskisehir province.

Armenians have conducted a prevention operation killing 11 Azeris
soldiers, the Armenian army count 2 dead

January 6, 2015 By administrator Leave a Comment

Information related to the attacks of that night on the front line in
Karabakh become clearer. The official news agency APA Azeri just
clarify that 8 Azeri soldiers died in the armed confrontations between
soldiers Armenians and Azeris.Another soldier Azeri, Isa Almazov have
also died, bringing to nine the number of Azerbaijanis killed in the
fighting last night. But Azeri media evoke the number of 11-including
two Azeri military officiers- killed in that one day.

The Ministry of Defence says Karabakh Armenian forces carried out an
incursion prevention towards the Azeri positions in Aghdam and Tartar.
During firefights, 8 Azeris soldiers were killed. Armenians have 2
dead.

Krikor Amirzayan