Author: Kanayan Tamar

EU CAN HELP TURKEY TO TRANSFORM: FRENCH PRESIDENT HOLLANDE

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 27 2014

ANKARA

French President Francois Hollande held talks with President Abdullah
Gul in Ankara Jan 27. Hollande was the first French head of state to
make a formal trip to Turkey in 22 years after Francois Mitterrand. AA
photo

French President Francois Hollande expressed his belief that the EU
can help Turkey’s transformation thanks to its ongoing accession
process, and underlined that France will “not be in a position to
stop the negotiation process,” during a first official visit from a
French head of state to Turkey since 1992.

His remarks therefore seemed to give the green light for the removal
of France’s blockage of four negotiation chapters.

“The opening of new chapters would support Turkey, as some of the
negotiation chapters are related to topics – the separation of powers,
fundamental rights, the rule of law and the judiciary – that are
also connected to the current debate in Turkey’s domestic politics,”
Hollande said on Jan. 27, speaking at a joint press conference with
Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

“The opening of new chapters would help Turkey progress,” he added.

Hollande arrived in Ankara early on Monday with a large delegation
composed of ministers, businessmen and journalists. He held talks
with Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and was also expected to
meet with Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıcdaroglu
before moving to Istanbul, where he will head a business forum and
deliver a speech at Galatasaray University.

The French leader said his country supported the continuation of
Turkey’s EU negotiation process, but added that it would make a final
decision on Turkey’s membership with a referendum at the end of the
process. “There is no need to unnecessarily agitate using some fears,”
Hollande said, in an indirect reference to skepticism in his country
about Turkey’s full membership to the EU. “Fourteen chapters out of
35 have been opened since 2004. Which means that we should continue
the negotiations process. At the end of the day, the final decision
will be given by the French people,” he said, referring to the future
referendum that will take place on Turkey’s membership.

For his part, President Gul asked Hollande not to block Turkey’s
EU candidacy.

“We welcome the positive stance that Hollande has adopted over
the past few years. But the negotiation process does not mean full
membership. The negotiation process is an adaptation process. We hope
a political blockage will not take place,” he said.

“We are not in a rush for membership. But we are in rush for the
continuation of talks without political or other sorts of blockages. I
am not only referring to France, but all countries,” Gul added.

Asked about the recent ongoing political turmoil in Turkey, he said
there were many debates in the country, “as Turkey is a democratic
country with an open society.”

“There is no question about political stability in Turkey … Debates
may be tough from time to time, but in a mature way. But all this
neither [negatively] affects Turkey’s political stability nor its
economy,” Gul said.

Describing Hollande’s visit to Turkey as “an opportunity,” Gul said
“both countries should benefit from it.”

Strategic agreements signed

Turkey and France signed a strategic cooperation agreement during
Hollande’s state visit to Ankara, along with many other agreements,
including on nuclear energy and infrastructure projects. President
Hollande underscored economic opportunities in nuclear and renewable
energy, agriculture, and transportation.

“In our talks with the [French] president we identified a new target
of 20 billion Euros for our bilateral trade volume,” Gul said, adding
that the agreements signed today would help bolster already strong
economic and trade ties between the two allies.

Touching on the Syrian crisis, Hollande stressed the issue of
cooperation to work against extremist groups in Syria, and underlined
Turkey and France’s responsibilities in the Mediterranean region.

Armenian genocide on the table

The two presidents also exchanged views on a potential attempt to
ban denial that the 1915 massacres of Ottoman Armenians constituted
genocide through a legal proposal at the French Parliament. President
Gul said they discussed the issue in a very sincere and open way and
emphasized the need for a joint study of the 1915 events by historians
and with participation of third parties.

“Just like in the French-Algerian case. We cannot deal with this
issue on our own. There is need for a joint work,” Gul stressed,
repeating Turkey’s call for the establishment of a joint committee.

Recalling that freedom of speech was an essential part of European
values, he also said both sides of the argument should be able to
express their views in France. “We respect the verdict of the French
Constitutional Council on this issue,” Gul said.

Indirectly calling on Armenia and the Armenian diaspora to leave
the pains of the past behind and not to transfer them through the
generations, Gul gave the friendship between Turkey and Australia-New
Zealand after the Dardanelles War as an example. “We should not
transfer these pains to our children. Instead we should be able to
create new friendships between our children,” he said.

Hollande also touched on the need for “intense joint work” on the
issue on the eve of the centennial anniversary of the 1915 events.

French president did not give a sign of renewing attempts to ban the
denial of the genocide, but underlined that they would be “whatever
the laws stipulated,” referring France’s recognition of the mass
killings of Armenians as genocide in 2000.

The two presidents also reviewed the developments in Syria and the
ongoing Geneva 2 conference in detail. Both Gul and Hollande stressed
that the conference should bring about a transitional government with
full executive power, in a way not to leave gray areas that could leave
“unwanted entities” within Syria.

January/27/2014

ONE PHOTO’S STORY

In the Internet I paid attention to one photo: an old woman hugs a
young man in a military uniform. In the bottom it was written: “Azeri
grandma and Armenian fighter”. I sent this photo through the net and
asked people to give me some information about this photo. Istanbul
University teacher Alber Keshish reacted. He told me that the soldier
is his classmate – Sargis Hatspanyan, Artsakh war participant. And
now I talk to Sargis.

-How was the photo made?

-It was in April 1993, during Karvachar liberation. There were hundreds
of peaceful inhabitants, men ran away leaving them helpless.

We approached a group of women. One 80 years old woman asked me with
reproach: “Why are you so late? Very soon the Armenians will enter the
city. Our men said – we leave, we’ll send helicopters after you. They
went leaving us here”. I understood that the woman took us for their
people. “Armenians are already here”, – said I. I was responsible for
the prisoners. All were instructed to be respectful to the population.

We gathered all of them and told them that their life and honour were
safe, and we were not against the peaceful population. In contrast
to Azeri soldiers we don’t use weapon towards unarmed, we don’t
humiliate them. There was an 81-year-old woman – Sheikha Khanum
who was respected by everybody. She was a poet. I liked talking to
her. She used to say: “This war is not the war of our two people,
we like Armenians, we all know that this is the country of Armenians,
there are Armenian graves everywhere, cross-stones, everywhere there
are marks of Armenian culture”. And during this talk Zaven Khachikyan
unnoticeably took our photo.

-How old were you during that time?

-30. After that the French newspaper “Liberation” publishes that photo
and writes that the Azeri woman likes the Armenian-volunteer more than
her son. They publish also an article where they quote Azeri prisoners’
words about the humane attitude of the Armenians. The next day the
Turkish newspaper “Milliyet” writes that against tens of thousand
peaceful inhabitants of Karvachar violence is being used, and they
publish the same photo. Inscription says that the Azeri woman kisses
her grandson (i.e. me) and says – go and take revenge from Armenians
for your killed and humiliated relatives. In Paris one of my friends
sees this newspaper, accidentally he reads also the article in the
“Liberation”, takes both newspapers and sends to the European Union
as a striking example of Turkish falsity and slander.

NO TO VIOLENCE AND KILLINGS IN THE ARMENIAN ARMY: DEMONSTRATION IN YEREVAN

01.27.2014 19:33 epress.am

Local initiative the Army in Reality is planning a demonstration on
Jan. 28, Army Day in Armenia, under the slogan “No to violence and
killings in the army”.

The demonstration is set to take place outside the National Academic
Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Alexander Spendiaryan at 5 pm.

Note, a concert will be taking place inside the theatre and soldiers
will be awarded medals.

The group organized a similar demonstration last year.

RESIDENTS OF COLLAPSING YEREVAN BUILDING WANT TO SEEK ASYLUM FROM RUSSIA

01.27.2014 17:07 epress.am

Several residents of 3 Sisakyan St. in Yerevan in the coming days
intend to appeal to the president’s office then march to the Russian
Embassy and surrender their Armenian passports, resident Lilit
Kocharyan informed Epress.am, saying they made the decision to leave
Armenia and seek asylum from Russia as a result of the municipality’s
incorrect allocation of apartments.

“First, we refused city hall; the next step will be to ‘refuse’
this country – let them be ashamed that they’re playing games with
people’s lives. The building is collapsing day by day; worms and
fleas are filling our apartments with the wastewater; all the walls
are soaked with sewage. And it’s not enough that we’re living with a
thousand diseases and infections, city hall says, wait till May 2015,
[then] we’ll resolve the housing issues. They issued a document that
residents living in the emergency block [the part of the building
most damaged] need to be evacuated immediately; meanwhile, city hall
provided apartments not to the residents of the marked block but to
the residents from the other, opposite wing,” Kocharyan said.

The disgruntled residents intend to ask the president’s office
to create an expert commission to prove that the apartments were
allocated incorrectly.

Kocharyan said they are more angered by the approach of the employees
of the administrative district, who advised the residents “to complain
less; instead, go rent an apartment.”

“I asked if I go to live in a rented flat for a year and a half,
will you pay my rent? He says no. Or, if I left the house, from whom
will I demand it?” she said.

Note, the building with 126 units has been considered a “level 4
emergency” building since 2003, and only recently has the municipality
provided homes to 25 of the 104 families, telling the rest to wait
till May 2015.

MANOYAN: ARMENIAN FOREIGN POLICY SHOULD CHANGE

Monday,
January
27

Armenia’s foreign policy should change after the latest meeting of
the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, ARF-Dashnaktsutyun
Party representative Kiro Manoyan told journalists.

“Azerbaijan forgot about reality, presenting the desirable as the
negotiations’ outcome. It is time for Nagorno Karabakh to participate
in talks as a full-fledged party. The mediators should ensure this
process,” Manoyan said.

In his words, the mediators have so far hidden behind false parity
and they are thus promoting Azerbaijan’s policy.

Aysor.am

LA RUSSIE SE DIT PRETE A PROPOSER ” DE NOUVELLES IDEES ” SUR LE REGLEMENT DU KARABAGH

ARMENIE

Avec les autres copresidents du Groupe de Minsk Moscou est prete
a faire de nouvelles propositions pour le règlement du conflit du
Karabagh, mais le dernier mot sera pour Bakou et Erevan a declare
le ministre russe des Affaires etrangères Sergueï Lavrov lors d’une
conference de presse dans la capitale russe.

La declaration intervient alors que les tensions se sont accrues
dans la zone du conflit du Karabagh dans le sillage des attaques
infructueuses lancees le 19 janvier par des groupes subversifs azeris
contre les positions armeniennes au cours desquelles un soldat de
l’armee du Karabagh a ete tue.

” Nous, avec les Americains et les Francais, stimulons les deux côtes,
nous sommes prets a proposer des idees pour Bakou et Erevan mais ce
sont eux qui doivent dire le dernier mot “, a declare M. Lavrov.

Le ministre russe des Affaires etrangères a revele qu’il y avait des
lignes qui ont ete negocies autour ” des efforts supplementaires afin
d’arriver a un accord sur les principes de règlement de ce problème
regional “. Mais il a souligne : ” La chose la plus importante est
l’accord des parties sur les principes qui sous-tendent le règlement
… Nous ne ferons pas ce travail au lieu des [parties au conflit] “.

lundi 27 janvier 2014, Stephane ©armenews.com

TWO TREACHEROUS SNIPER SHOTS

Yesterday was the day of the funeral of Sergey Nigoyan who was killed
on January 22 in Hrushevsky Street of Kiev. Sergey Nigoyan is the
first victim of Ukraine developments. He was standing on the barricades
holding up the Armenian flag and was killed by a sniper shot. On the
same day, another demonstrator was killed, Belorussian by origin.

Whether it is accidental or not, of tens of thousands of demonstrators
an Armenian and a Belorussian who had joined the protest of the
Ukrainian people became sniper’s victims.

In fact, this is a stage of nation liberation fight in Ukraine. This
is not a matter of foreign political bias as they try to distort but
a movement for independence and freedom of the people of Ukraine. The
people of Ukraine do not want to be someone’s vassal or colony.

Developments in Ukraine have already gone beyond the Ukrainian
borders. The destiny of the empire and people facing colonization is
being determined here. Realizing the deep nature and prospects of these
developments, Moscow has set to keep at least part of that country.

Moscow understands that if there is a theoretical chance, it is going
to be more complicated in the other countries. Recently, experts have
often pointed out the possible developments in Belarus. It will not
be impossible to split the country to engage it in the game. Belarus
will be a nightmare for Russia, experts say.

Russia does not seem to have problems in Armenia. The political
government of Armenia, the political and business elite, have been
fully subdued to the Russian interests, the latter’s financial and
other resources are used to serve those interests. Besides, Armenia
is located in a complicated region and is vulnerable in every aspect.

Moscow and its agents in Armenia have been able to reduce Armenia to
international isolation. It has stopped being a subject of politics.

However, the situation is controllable only at first sight. A new
political movement will be created in Armenia which will aim at
sovereignty and constitutional order. There are all the preconditions
for the new movement, Russia’s tough policy has created all the
preconditions in Armenia. In this situation, the Russian agents,
the political and economic systems subdued to it, will not be able
to prevent the new movement. And would they ever want to?

In the case of Belarus direct aggression will be left. In Armenia it
may be indirect, such as a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The
Armenians will win that war, even if Moscow supports Azerbaijan
with both arms and politics. Once this happened. Direct aggression
or something like it will be left which will eventually destroy
the empire.

The first victims in Kiev were the Armenian waving the Armenian flag
and the Belorussian. This is highly symbolic.

Haikazn Ghahriyan,Editor-in-Chief 16:37 27/01/2014 Story from Lragir.am
News:

ARMENIAN SIDE MISSED CHANCE OF DIPLOMATIC DEMARCHE – HRANT MELIK-SHAHNAZARYAN

14:21 ~U 27.01.14

The Armenian side has missed a chance of diplomatic demarche in the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process – it agreed to further talks with
Azerbaijan in Paris, political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan
told journalists on Monday.

“That it, Armenia could have shown it was not always ready to
negotiate. There is a limit and we too can be the first to attack
and resume hostilities,” he said.

“I think that after Ramil Safarov’s extradition, subversive acts and
similar steps, the Armenian side’s refusal to take part in the next
stage of negotiations and demanding that the opposite side show a
constructive approach would be logical and better perceived by the
international community. Our diplomacy must be more exacting. We
are permanently stressing that our position is in conformity with
the co-chairs’ resolution. However, as soon as we realize that the
co-chairs are indifferent to our losses, we will need a revision of
our policy. Our goodwill diplomacy weakens our positions and enables
Azerbaijan to continue provocations,” Melik-Shahnazaryan said.

The diplomatic format does not need changing. The sides seem to be
convincing Azerbaijan, whereas they can shift the balance in Armenia’s
favor by doing an abrupt about-face.

“We have several times seen such a possibility. For example, during
the then US President Bill Clinton visit to Armenia, when Azerbaijan
committed a subversive act, our army’s drastic steps forced Azerbaijan
to observe the ceasefire for a long period. However, the military
factor must not be the only one – diplomacy has its own tasks,”
the expert said.

In any case, the current tension does not pose a threat of
war. It is “local-scale trouble” Azerbaijan is causing to Armenia,
Melik-Shahnazaryan said.

L’ARMENIE OCCUPE LA 4ÈME PLACE DANS L’INDEX DE MILITARISATION GLOBALE 2013

ARMENIE

L’indice de militarisation Global 2013 (GMI) montre que le Moyen-Orient
continue d’etre la region la plus militarisee au monde.

Les experts du BICC (Bonn International Center for Conversion)
soulignent que l’Asie, aussi, a fait preuve d’une tendance
particulièrement forte au rearmement regional.

Avec Israël, la Syrie, la Jordanie et le Koweït, quatre pays du
Moyen-Orient sont dans le Top 10 du GMI. Cela reflète le haut niveau
de militarisation dans cette region, qui est si riche en conflits.

Pourtant, certains pays europeens comme la Russie et Chypre continuent
egalement de faire valoir leurs positions dans le top 10. Considerant
que l’Azerbaïdjan a deja un rang eleve dans les annees precedentes,
l’Armenie est un nouveau venu cette annee. (Depuis 2013, les donnees
pour l’Armenie comprennent egalement des reservistes, ce qui explique
pourquoi le pays se classe desormais a un niveau considerablement
plus eleve que les annees precedentes.) L’augmentation rapide des
capacites militaires dans le Caucase est accompagnee par la violente
rhetorique diplomatique et le risque de raviver le conflit militaire
a long terme sur le Haut-Karabagh.

L’indice de militarisation mondiale (GMI) represente le poids et
l’importance relative de l’appareil militaire d’un Etat par rapport a
sa societe dans son ensemble. Pour cela, le GMI enregistre un certain
nombre d’indicateurs pour representer le degre de militarisation d’un
pays :

~U la comparaison des depenses militaires avec son produit interieur
brut (PIB) et de ses depenses de sante (en pourcentage du PIB) ;

~U Le contraste entre le nombre total de forces militaires et le
nombre de medecins et la population en general ;

~U le rapport entre le nombre d’armes lourdes disponibles et le nombre
de la population globale.

lundi 27 janvier 2014, Stephane ©armenews.com

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE : VISITE OFFICIELLE DANS UN ETAT NEGATIONNISTE

Publie le : 27-01-2014

Info Collectif VAN – – Visite d’Etat de Francois
Hollande dans une Turquie qui pratique le negationnisme du genocide
armenien comme politique d’Etat et qui incarcère des milliers de
prisonniers politiques turcs et kurdes. Le Collectif VAN a alerte
a maintes reprises le Chef de l’Etat sur les derives fascisantes
du gouvernement Erdogan et a mis sur pied unComite International
de Soutien aux Intellectuels de Turquie, avec le parrainage de
dizaines de personnalites. Parmi les prisonniers les plus en vue,
citons Deniz Zarakolu, editeur, fils de l’editeur Ragip Zarakolu
maintes fois poursuivi pour ses publications sur le genocide
armenien. Deniz Zarakolu est en detention preventive depuis octobre
2011. Sevan Nisanyan, celèbre Armenien de Turquie, est quant a lui,
incarcere pour deux ans depuis le 2 janvier 2014, pretendûment pour
des constructions illegales. Une vingtaine de procès sont toujours en
cours : cet intellectuel risque donc de passer de longues annees en
prison. La sociologue Pinar Selek, qui beneficie d’un asile politique
en France, est toujours sous le coup d’une condamnation a vie pour
terrorisme (accusation recurrente pour museler tous les opposants en
Turquie) et menacee d’extradition. Sans parler des trois militantes
kurdes assassinees en plein Paris en janvier 2013 par un individu
apparaissant comme un agent de l’Etat profond turc. Voici donc la
Republique autoritaire que le President de la Republique francaise
a choisi d’honorer par une Visite d’Etat.

Le President de la Republique sera egalement recu a l’Universite
Galatasaray d’Istanbul dont le recteur, Ethem Tolga, a ete l’un des
artisans, avec l’Institut du Bosphore, du lobbying de la saisine
en janvier 2012 du Conseil Constitutionnel pour faire invalider la
loi penalisant, en France, la negation du genocide armenien. Dans
une Interview du 29 fevrier 2012 sur la chaîne turque 24, pro-AKP,
Ethem Tolga, avait cite une par une les actions qu’il avait menees et
les personnes et organisations contactees pour faire obstacle a la loi.

Parmi elles, Robert Badinter, Alain Juppe, Esther Benbassa, le
president de la Paris 1-Sorbonne Jean-Claude Colliard, ainsi que le
consortium francais qui subventionne les recherches a Galatasaray.

Soulignons que le candidat Francois Hollande s’etait engage a faire
a nouveau voter, sitôt arrive a la Presidence de la Republique, cette
loi penalisant le negationnisme. Attend-il ne plus avoir la majorite
au Senat pour s’y coller ?

Elysee.fr

Visite d’Etat en Republique de Turquie

Le President de la Republique, Francois HOLLANDE, effectuera une
visite d’Etat en Republique de Turquie, les 27 et 28 janvier 2014, a
l’invitation de M. Abdullah GUL, President de la Republique de Turquie.

PROGRAMME PREVISIONNEL

LUNDI 27 JANVIER

ANKARA

13h40 Ceremonie au Mausolee Anitkabir d’Ataturk

14h45 Entretien avec M. Abdullah GUL, President de la Republique
de Turquie

Signature d’accords de cooperation, en presence des chefs d’Etat

16h30 Conference de presse conjointe

17h15 Entretien avec M. Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN, Premier ministre de la
Republique de Turquie

20h00 Dîner d’Etat offert par M. Abdullah GUL, President de la
Republique de Turquie

MARDI 28 JANVIER

ISTANBUL

10h15 Allocution a l’universite de Galatasaray

12h15 Clôture du Forum des entreprises franco-turques par le chef de
l’Etat, en presence de M. Abdullah GUL, President de la Republique
de Turquie

13h15 Dejeuner offert par M. Abdullah GUL, President de la Republique
de Turquie

16h00 Allocution et rencontre avec la communaute francaise

Lire aussi :

Comite International de Soutien aux Intellectuels de Turquie

L’Elysee repond au Collectif VAN

Le Collectif VAN sur le Huffington Post ” Les liaisons dangereuses
de nos universites ”

Le President de Paris 1, fier de servir le negationnisme ?

Universite Galatasaray : Ethem Tolga donne des gages aux islamistes

Turquie : Journalisme de caniveau et liberte academique

Turquie : Rapport sur les biens pilles des Armeniens

Retour a la rubrique

Source/Lien : Elysee.fr