Author: Kanayan Tamar

ARMENIA PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WOUNDED IN SHOOTING

1 Feb 2013
By by Mariam HARUTYUNUAN (AFP)

YEREVAN – A prominent candidate in Armenia’s presidential elections
who was wounded in a gun attack said Friday he would seek a two-week
postponement of the polls set for February 18.

“Doctors say I must undergo lengthy treatment,” Paruyr Hayrikyan, 63,
told public television after he was shot in the chest in an attack
that shocked the ex-Soviet state.

He noted that Armenian law allows polls to be postponed by two weeks
if a candidate is deemed to have suffered an insurmountable obstacle.

If the candidate is still unable to take part after two weeks, new
elections must be called for 40 days later — a result Hayrikyan said
he wished to avoid.

Hayrikyan, head of the Union for National Self-Determination, is one
of Armenia’s best-known politicians and a veteran figure who was
jailed in Soviet times and then exiled for promoting Armenian
independence.

Police said Hayrikyan was rushed to hospital after being shot in the
upper chest in central Yerevan as he was heading home late Thursday.

Doctors successfully removed the bullet in a one-hour operation,
health ministry spokesman Anahit Haytayan told AFP.

A criminal probe was swiftly launched to find the gunman, police said.

Hayrikyan gave his first interview from his hospital bed, looking pale
and speaking in a quiet voice.

The candidate said the attack was reminiscent of Soviet days, when
special service operatives persecuted him as a dissident.

“It is their style,” he said in the somewhat rambling interview, in
which he also linked the attack to a political statement he made
saying that Armenia had suffered under tsarist Russia.

“I think that the attempt was linked to this statement, since I have
no personal enemies,” he said.

Despite being a respected figure, Hayrikyan was not seen as a serious
challenger to President Serzh Sarkisian, who faces six other
candidates besides Hayrikyan in the polls with the incumbent tipped to
win.

President Sarkisian, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian (no relation) and
other politicians visited Hayrikyan in hospital vowing that Armenia
would not be destabilised.

“The disgusting crime has been directed not only against the
presidential candidate, but also against our state,” President
Sarkisian told reporters.

“It is evident that those who are behind this crime are pursuing the
goal to affect the normal electoral process,” he added.

Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus media institute, said
Hayrikyan was targeted as a “symbolic figure” of Armenia’s
independence.

“This is a person who was in prisons and camps for 20 years for this
independence. This (shooting) was aimed at destabilising the country,”
he told AFP.

The Soviet-era dissident and veteran politician spent several years in
Soviet labour camps and was exiled to Ethiopia before later being
granted asylum in the United States.

In the period of glasnost under the last Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, Hayrikyan’s citizenship was restored and he returned to
Armenia. He has remained active in Armenian political life ever since.

Sarkisian’s governing Republican Party last year won parliamentary
elections that strengthened his grip on power but highlighted the
fragility of Armenia’s fragile democracy.

International observers criticised the 2012 vote, claiming a series of
democratic failures.

The authorities have promised a fair vote this month, as they seek to
avoid a repeat of violent clashes between police and protesters after
a disputed presidential election in 2008 left 10 people dead.

WESTERN PUSH TO OUST SYRIAN REGIME ESCALATES
By Oliver Campbell

January 31, 2013 “Information Clearing House” – Statements by
top Iranian officials last weekend are another indication of the
destabilising impact of the escalating efforts by the US and its
allies to oust the Syrian regime of President Bashar al Assad. Ali
Akbar Velayati, a top aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the media
that “an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran and
Iran’s allies.”

The warning, the sharpest by Tehran since the civil war in Syria began,
came as batteries of patriot missiles deployed by the US and NATO on
the Syria-Turkey border, manned by hundreds of NATO troops, began to
go operational. On Saturday, a pair of missile batteries provided by
the Dutch government became active at Adana in Southern Turkey.

According to media reports, a German security official confirmed
on Tuesday that the two German missile batteries, stationed near
the city of Kahramanmaras, 100 kilometres from the Syrian border,
also became functional as of Monday. The US government has deployed
two missile batteries to the border region.

The US, NATO and the Turkish government claim that the missile
batteries are purely defensive-aimed at protecting civilians in
southern Turkey from Syrian missiles. In reality, the deployment of
the missiles is a preparation for the imposition of a no-fly zone and
a campaign of aerial bombardment to support anti-Assad militias-along
the lines of the Libyan regime-change operation.

On Tuesday, the US government committed $155 million in “non-lethal”
and “humanitarian aid” to be channelled into pro-Western forces in
Syria. A CNN report noted that previous “non-lethal” aid to anti-Assad
fighters had included advanced technology, such as phones, computers
and cameras.

On Sunday, Israel stepped up the pressure on the Assad regime. The
Israeli military deployed two missile systems, part of an “Iron
Dome” battery, near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, close to the
Israeli-Syrian border. While some Israeli security officials claimed
the deployment was a routine rotation of military infrastructure,
it coincided with a significant ratchetting up of the threats against
Syria.

Following meetings among Israeli security officials, Israel’s vice
prime minister Silvan Shalom suggested that Israel could launch an
attack on Syria, using the pretext of preventing Syrian chemical
weapons coming into the hands of Hezbollah, or Al Qaeda-linked
organisations. Speaking on an army radio station, Shalom declared
that such a possibility “would be crossing a line that would demand
a different approach, including even action.” He did not rule out a
pre-emptive attack.

Chemical weapons have been repeatedly raised as a possible pretext
for war since last December, when unspecified American intelligence
reports first claimed that Assad’s regime could unleash chemical
weapons against the opposition. Allegations that the Syrian government
is preparing to use chemical weapons, or transfer them to other
organisations, have never been backed up by evidence. In December,
it was revealed that the Israeli government had twice asked Jordan for
support and assistance in carrying out Israeli strikes against Syria.

On Monday, the French government pressed for a stronger support for
the Syrian National Coalition (SNC)-the puppet regime-in-waiting
being established by the US and its allies. While content to allow
Al Qaeda-linked militias inside Syria to weaken the Assad regime
militarily, there are growing concerns in Paris and other imperialist
centres that such groups could marginalise the overtly pro-Western
SNC and its associated fighters.

Late last year, the US and other major powers reshaped the Syrian
National Council into the SNC in a bid to bring opposition groups more
firmly under their control. Inside Syria, however, Islamist extremists
such as al Nusra have remained in the forefront of the fighting.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called on the Friends of Syria
group meeting in Paris to provide greater finance to the SNC, warning:
“Facing the collapse of a state and society, it is Islamist groups
that risk gaining ground if we do not act as we should… Chaos is
not tomorrow, it is today and we need to end it.”

At a meeting in Marrakech last month, the Friends of Syria group,
which involves more than 50 nations, pledged $100 million to support
the SNC. But SNC vice president George Sabra complained that the
money had not arrived and was insufficient. He said that at least
$500 million was needed to set up a viable government-in-exile,
and repeated an appeal for arms.

The SNC has been recognised by over 100 countries, but is yet to form
a provisional government. France, which is playing an increasingly
prominent role in the predatory scramble for Africa and the Middle
East, was the first country to recognise the organisation as the
“legitimate representative” of the Syrian people. The SNC is dominated
by Islamists with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Around two-thirds
of the 30-member unified military command elected at an SNC conference
in December reportedly also had links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Another push for greater Western intervention and arms emerged at the
World Economic Forum held at Davos last week. Prince Turki Al-Faisal,
former chief of Saudi intelligence, called on the major powers
to provide the Syrian opposition with sophisticated anti-aircraft
weaponry, noting that this would strengthen their ability to “select
the good guys, and … build their credibility.”

These comments underline the danger that the Syrian civil war conflict
will expand into a broader regional conflict. With the backing of
the US and its European allies, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States
are deliberately fanning sectarian animosities, along Sunni-Shiite
lines, not only in Syria but throughout the Middle East, directed in
particular against the Shiite regime in Iran.

The warning by top Iranian officials last weekend against Western
intervention to oust its Syrian ally demonstrates just how quickly
a broader conflagration could erupt.

This article was originally posted at World Socialist Web Site.

U.N.: ISRAELI PRACTICES COULD BE SUBJECT TO PROSECUTION FOR WAR CRIMES.

January 31, 2013 | Filed under: israel/palestine,News,Violence,World |
Posted by: admin

GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. human rights investigators called on Israel
on Thursday to halt settlement expansion and withdraw all half a
million Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its
practices could be subject to prosecution as possible war crimes.

A three-member U.N. panel said private companies should stop working
in the settlements if their work adversely affected the human rights
of Palestinians, and urged member states to ensure companies respected
human rights.

“Israel must cease settlement activities and provide adequate, prompt
and effective remedy to the victims of violations of human rights,”
Christine Chanet, a French judge who led the U.N. inquiry, told a
news conference.

The settlements contravened the Fourth Geneva Convention forbidding
the transfer of civilian populations into occupied territory and
could amount to war crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations report said.

“To transfer its own population into an occupied territory is
prohibited because it is an obstacle to the exercise of the right to
self-determination,” Chanet said.

In December, the Palestinians accused Israel in a letter to the United
Nations of planning to commit what it said were further war crimes by
expanding Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto U.N.

recognition of statehood, and said Israel must be held accountable.

Israel has not cooperated with the probe set up by the Human Rights
Council last March to examine the impact of settlements in the
territory, including East Jerusalem. Israel says the forum has an
inherent bias against it and defends its settlement policy by citing
historical and Biblical links to the West Bank.

Israel’s foreign ministry swiftly rejected the report as
“counterproductive and unfortunate”. The Palestine Liberation
Organisation welcomed its “principled and candid” findings.

“The only way to resolve all pending issues between Israel and the
Palestinians, including the settlements issue, is through direct
negotiations without pre-conditions. Counterproductive measures –
such as the report before us, will only hamper efforts to find a
sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” Israel’s
Yigal Palmor said.

“The Human Rights Council has sadly distinguished itself by its
systematically one-sided and biased approach towards Israel. This
latest report is yet another unfortunate reminder of that.”

But Hanan Ashrawi, a top PLO official told Reuters: “This is
incredible. We are extremely heartened by this principled and candid
assessment of Israeli violations…This report clearly states the
Israel is not just violating the 4th Geneva Convention, but places
Israel in liability to the Rome Statute under the jurisdiction of
the ICC.”

The independent U.N. investigators interviewed more than 50 people
who came to Jordan in November to testify about confiscated land,
damage to their livelihoods including olive trees, and violence by
Jewish settlers, according to the report.

“The mission believes that the motivation behind this violence and the
intimidation against the Palestinians as well as their properties is
to drive the local populations away from their lands and allow the
settlements to expand,” it said.

“CREEPING ANNEXATION”

About 250 settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,
have been established since 1967 and they hold an estimated 520,000
settlers, according to the U.N. report. The settlements impede
Palestinian access to water and farm lands.

The settlements were “leading to a creeping annexation that prevents
the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state and
undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination,”
it said.

Chanet said: “To maintain such a system of segregation you need strict
police and army control. It means a lot of checkpoints, violation of
freedom of movement, no access to natural resources, demolition of
houses and sometimes even destroying the trees.”

After the General Assembly upgraded the Palestinians status at the
world body, Israel said it would build 3,000 more settler homes in
the West Bank and East Jerusalem – areas Palestinians wanted for a
future state, along with the Gaza Strip.

The U.N. human rights inquiry said that the International Criminal
Court had jurisdiction over the deportation or transfer by the
occupying power of its own population into the territory.

Chanet, asked whether the violations constituted war crimes that could
be tried at the Hague-based court, said: “These offences are falling
into the provision of article 8 of the ICC statutes. Article 8 of
the ICC statute is in the chapter of war crimes, that is the answer.”

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; additional reporting by
Ori Lewis and Noah Browning in Jerusalem; Editing by Jon Boyle)

‘AMERICA’S NAZI SCIENTISTS FULFILLING DREAM OF RULING THE WORLD’ – BRUCE GAGNON
By John Robles

February 01, 2013 — In an exclusive interview with the Voice of
Russia, Bruce Gagnon shares little known facts about the militarization
of space by the United States, the development of first strike space
drones and the foundation of the US Military Industrial Complex by
Nazi scientists bent on victory in World War III. If you thought
missile defense and drones were bad, you haven’t heard anything yet.

Robles: According to your organization the US Space Command has
publicly stated they intent to control space in order to protect US
interests and investments. Is space now US territory?

Gagnon: Well, indeed the United States likes to believe that it
is its own space, and particularly the Space Command, who on their
headquarters building in Colorado Springs, just above the doorway
they have their logo that reads “Master of Space”. So, I think that
it is quite evident that the Space Command does indeed view space as
US territory that must be controlled because they clearly understand
that all warfare on the earth today is coordinated by space technology
and that whoever essentially controls space will control the planet
below, in this case on behalf I believe of corporate globalization. And
so the Space Command in our thinking has become the military arm of
corporate globalization.

And so today the US is developing a whole host of technologies to allow
it to fight war from space, through space and in space, controlling
not only the Earth but also the pathway on and off the planet Earth,
the pathway to other planetary bodies as resources are discovered on
other planets: magnesium, cobalt, uranium, gold, water etc.

In a congressional study done back in the 1980s, the Congress gave
the Pentagon the mandate to develop the technologies to control the
pathway on and off the planet Earth. So, the Space Command sees its
role in a very-very robust kind of way.

Robles: Several questions just popped up after what you just said.

First one: how do they intend to “control the pathway”, I mean there
is not only one pathway off the planet, I mean, how are they going
to do that?

Gagnon: Well, in this particular study entitled “Military Space Forces
the Next 50 Years”, they talk about the Earth-Moon Gravity Well, that
whoever controls the Earth-Moon Gravity Well, essentially with bases
on the Moon and armed space stations between, what they said were
the L4 and L5 positions in space, they would be able to control these.

And interestingly enough, we know that it was in fact the former Nazi
scientists that were brought to the United States following World
War II under a program, a secret program, called Operation Paper Clip.

These Nazi scientists that ran Hitler’s V1 and V2 rocket programs,
they were the first to bring to the Congress of the United States,
this idea of having orbiting battle stations controlling the pathway
on and off the planet as well as the Earth below.

So, today again there is the whole host of technologies that are
being developed by the Space Command. They say at the Pentagon that we
are not going to get all of these technologies to work, but through
the investment and the research and development in these various
technologies, things like “Rods from God”: orbiting battle stations
with tungsten-steel rods they would be able to hit targets on the
Earth below…

Robles: They call those “Rods from God”?

Gagnon: Yes, they call it “Rods from God”. The new military space plane
that is being tested now by the Pentagon, it has shown its ability
to stay in orbit for a whole year at a time: an unpiloted space drone
essentially. And then with ground stations all over the planet that the
United States has established, what they call downlink stations that
communicate with US military satellites all over the planet. This whole
network has been put into place to really give the US, as they say
in one of their planning documents, “control and domination of space”.

Reminder

Robles: More questions: The space drone that you just mentioned,
it is actually… it’s operational right now?

Gagnon: It is called the X37B, it’s been over the past couple of
years. The testing program has accelerated and they’ve had three
successful launches of it now. Just recently, I believe it was just
at the end 2012, was the last of the missions, the third mission
actually. But prior to that they had one of them spend a whole year
in space.

The role of this X37B, or the military space plane, is somewhat in
dispute. Some people believe that it is for surveillance, to spy on
various countries, like Russia and China. Or others believe that it
is actually a first strike weapons system whose job would be to fly
down from orbit, drop an attack on a particular country.

In fact the Space Command annually war games a first strike attack
on China set in the year 2016. And in one of the articles, in one
of the industry publications, Aviation Week and Space Technology,
I read a report about the first weapon that was used in one of these
computer war game attacks of China, was this military space plane. So,
indeed they are war gaming with it as a first strike weapon.

Robles: Now, you mentioned Nazi scientists a minute ago, I mean, it is
not a very widely known fact that after World War II, I believe it was,
about 400,000 Nazis found refugee in the United States. Can you tell us
a little more on the scientists that were developing these programs and
working with the US Government? Can you expand on that a little bit?

Gagnon: Under Operation Paper Clip, 1,200 Nazis were brought into the
United States, former Nazi intelligence. They were brought in to help
create the CIA.

Wernher von Braun, the Nazi scientist that ran the V1 and V2 operations
was brought in. He became one of the leaders of NASA and he built the
first successful rockets that were launched by the US military after
the Kennedy Administration wanted to respond to the Soviet Union’s
launch of Sputnik.

Other Nazi scientists were brought in to create US Flight Medicine
programs, the MKUltra LSD-drug experiments of the 1960s in the United
States, where people were jumping out of windows and killing themselves
because they were given drugs.

The people that were running these were the former Nazi scientists
who had been doing similar tests on prisoners of war and Jews and
other people in concentration camps inside of Germany.

So, the entire military industrial complex was seeded with these top
Nazi operatives. And I’ve always maintained that when you do that:
“Is there an ideological contamination that comes along with that?” My
belief is: indeed there is.

Robles: That’s exactly the point I wanted to make myself.

Gagnon: Major-General Walter Dornberger was the Head of Hitler’s
secret Space Development Program. He was brought to the United States
to work for Bell Aerospace in New York State after the war.

He testified before the Congress in the 1950s. And I can quote him,
he said to the Congress: “Gentlemen, I didn’t come to this country
to lose the third world war, I lost two already.” And he again was
one of the first to layout this vision of control of space, giving
the US full control of the planet Earth.

Bruce Gagnon is the coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons
and Nuclear Power in Space.

This article was originally posted at Voice of Russia

HRANT DINK, AN ANATOLIAN ARMENIAN
by Raffi Bedrosyan

Published: Friday February 01, 2013

A view of Hrant Dink’s funeral in January 2007. Ara Sarafian

On the sixth anniversary of his assassination and more significantly,
on the sixth anniversary of the Turkish state’s inability or
unwillingness to find his real killers, Hrant Dink was remembered
by tens of thousands of people in many countries and in Turkey,
including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Diyarbakir, Malatya and Bodrum.

International, Turkish and Armenian speakers reiterated his vision
and message of direct dialogue between Turks and Armenians. Year by
year, instead of gradually diminishing in numbers toward oblivion as
is the case for other assassinated journalists in Turkey, there is
a snowballing increase in number and intensity of people attending
the Hrant Dink commemorations, protesting and demanding justice,
as well as adopting Hrant’s messages with more determination. It
is not the tiny Armenian community in Turkey but Turks (and Kurds)
from all walks of life who have embraced Hrant as a tragic hero. The
momentum is building to declare Hrant a martyr, in fact, the first
shared martyr by historically opposing nations of Armenians and Turks.

But what exactly was Hrant’s message? He would define Armenians
and Turks as two sick people, clinical cases, Armenians suffering
from trauma (obsessed with 1915), Turks suffering from paranoia
(fear of consequences of acknowledging 1915). He would advocate
Armenians and Turks to be each other’s doctors, with dialogue as
the only prescription. And he would clap his large hands vigorously,
exclaiming that ‘there is no other medicine, no other doctor, no, no,
no’. He knew dialogue would be useless if one couldn’t discuss the
painful 1915 but only pleasant subjects such as Turks and Armenians’
shared values, shared culture, shared foods like dolma and kebab. He
knew that dialogue would also be useless if one is unable to really
‘listen and hear’, in addition to talking. And most importantly,
he knew that dialogue would be useless if one didn’t know the real
historical facts of 1915. After being systematically brainwashed by
the state with ever changing official versions of 1915 history, people
in Turkey have now finally started to learn the true historic facts,
reasons and consequences of 1915, not as so-called Turkish version
versus Armenian version. So, if and when there is willingness to
talk and listen, both sides can and should engage in direct dialogue,
without the need to convince third parties to pressure the other side.

Hrant had studied zoology and he would explain that if you remove
any living organism from its natural environment, you would cause
its extinction. He would then say: ‘If you remove an entire people
from its land where it has lived continuously for 3000 years, even if
you transport them with great care in “golden airplanes”, this would
still be similar to taking an axe to the roots of an ancient tree’. He
didn’t need to explain 1915 with long words; in a corner of AGOS, every
week, he would place some facts about a village or town in Anatolia,
could be in the west, east, north, south or central Anatolia, giving
the Armenian and total population numbers, the names and numbers of
churches and schools there, before 1915. He would have photos of these
active Armenian churches and schools in that village or town before
1915, and photos of these non-existent churches or schools today,
totalling more than 4000 buildings. That would be enough for anyone
to understand the reality of 1915.

But he wouldn’t only talk about the Armenians gone or dead in 1915. He
would be much more interested to talk about the Armenians who remained,
who stayed in Anatolia, those people who stayed and survived, but no
longer as Armenians. These were the Armenians who stayed and survived,
by converting to Islam, by assimilation into Turkish, Kurdish or Alawi
identities. These were the Armenian girls and boys captured or sold,
kept hidden, protected or married to Turks and Kurds. These were
some entire Armenian villages which converted to Islam, or stayed
protected by friendly Kurdish and Alawi leaders.

Hrant was obsessed with this subject. What happened to these people?

Did they secretly keep their Armenian identity? Did they pass it on to
the next generations? Where are they now? How many are there? If there
are hidden Armenians, what would be the trigger for them to ‘come out
of hiding’? Genocide is not a single event but a continuous process.

It is not only denial of a genocide that continues it, but assimilation
and conversion also continue it. Scholars have recently started
defining genocide not only as destruction of the oppressed nation,
but also construction of the oppressor nation – using assimilation
and conversion processes. For Armenians, these processes continued
on all fronts.

Hrant didn’t or couldn’t write much about this sensitive subject,
but he was pre-occupied by it, gathering stories, anecdotal evidence,
always encouraging others to find out more. Obviously, this was
not a subject that could be researched openly and scientifically,
but whenever a new revelation came out about hidden Armenians in
Anatolia, he would be greatly excited. His lawyer, famed lawyer
Fethiye Cetin’s ‘My Grandmother’ was only an example of the fate of
the hidden Armenians. In an interview with London filmmaker Nouritsa
Matossian for the documentary ‘Hrant Dink: A Heart Of Two Nations’,
Nouritsa asked him: ‘Do you see Armenian faces in Anatolia?’ Hrant:
‘Yes, often’. Nouritsa: ‘Apparitions (meaning, ghosts)?’ Hrant:
‘Apparitions AND real ones’. One can tell that Hrant, the emotional
Hrant with the biggest heart, is like a child who has a secret that
he can hardly keep.

The answer to the question that kept him wondering – what would be
the trigger for the hidden Armenians to come out, came four years
too late for Hrant to witness, unfortunately. The trigger was the
reconstruction of the Diyarbakir Surp Giragos Church in 2011.

Thousands of Anatolian people, young and old, Turkish and Kurdish
in appearance and identity, returned to their Armenian roots with
the reopening of this church. Some got baptized in the church,
some changed their Turkish names to Armenian originals, some changed
their identity to Armenian but remained Moslem (a new phenomenon of
Moslem Armenians), some started learning the Armenian language. Hrant
would have danced with joy to see an eleven year old Kurdish girl,
not only learning Armenian but also singing Armenian songs at the
first Armenian concert in the Diyarbakir Surp Giragos Church in
2012. Hrant would have danced on the table, as he is photographed on
a happy occasion, to see a thousand people from Adiyaman, Amasya,
Arapkir, Dersim, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Harput, Hemshin, Istanbul,
Kastamonu, Kayseri, Malatya, Musadagh, Sason, Sinop, Sivas, Tokat,
Van and Yozgat organize activities together and to celebrate the Surp
Hagop day in December 2012, singing Armenian songs, even though none
knew how to speak Armenian.

Hrant was an Anatolian Armenian and wished to have the same democratic
rights as all other citizens of the state, without being excluded,
without being discriminated, without being pressured to lose his
identity. Armenians wished to have exactly the same things 100 years
ago, no more, no less. The state felt threatened and when fear got
combined with opportunity, it wiped out the Armenian identity in
Anatolia to build a Turkish identity to the exclusion of all others,
including Greeks, Assyrians and Kurds.

The enormous transfer of wealth and assets from the Armenians to the
Turks has added to the fear and paranoia of the state in facing its
past. A new Turkish identity, which does not fear threatened from
the diversity of minority identities, needs to be created in Turkey
in order to face both the past and the future. The state has finally
started this process with the Kurds, but not the Armenians. The Kurds
have started this process with the Armenians, openly acknowledging
their role in 1915, and starting to make amends. It is hoped that
Turks will see the light and follow them.

MEMBERS OF ARMENIAN COMMUNITY IN USA LAUNCHED PROTEST ACTION AGAINST CLOSURE OF ARMENIAN “HORIZON” TV

20:56, 1 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 1, ARMENPRESSA: Group of concerned community
members and leaders has come together to form the “Save Horizon TV
Task Force” to chart out the legal and other elements of the recent
decision by Charter Communications, Inc. to arbitrarily yank Horizon
Armenian Television off its Charter lineup effective February 19,
2013. As Armenpress was informed from “Save Horizon TV Task Force”
committee, special working committee has been formed which will
organize number of events, first of all carry out legal and other
immediate counteract steps.

Earlier this month, the management of Horizon Armenian Television
was notified by Charter Communications that the channel that has
been serving the Armenian community for more than two decades would
be yanked off the Charter lineup effective February 19, despite the
fact that Horizon signed and delivered a contract for 2013. Deeming
this action by Charter as nothing short of bullying a non-profit
organization, which is dedicated to service and betterment of the
community, “Save Horizon TV Task Force” has initiated an online and
print petition drive that has been met with overwhelming support by
the community. In a matter of days there are thousands of responses
to the online petition.

Horizon Television was the first Armenian-language channel to
become part of the Charter lineup with a 24-hour channel in 1999
and was chosen by the corporation because of its deep roots and its
demonstrated service to the community. Horizon Television debuted in
May of 1989 with a mission to inform and serve the Armenian-American
community. In a short time, Horizon became a broadcast outlet for news
and information and evolved into a true voice for the ever-expanding
Armenian community. In 1999, Horizon expanded its programming to
become the first 24-hour television channel in the Armenian community
and since then, by partnering with organizations and businesses alike,
it has provided groundbreaking coverage of all things Armenian for its
viewers. Horizon is the Armenian language equivalent of the non-profit
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) network on mainstream television.

RAMKAVAR AZATAKAN PARTY CONDEMNS HAYRIKYAN SHOOTING

February 1, 2013 – 18:38 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Ramkavar Azatakan party issued a statement, deeming
Armenian presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan’s shooting an incident
having hampered the normal course of the election campaign.

“The incident harms Armenia’s image in international institutions.

Ramkavar Azatakan party condemns the move, slamming it as a mean
action aimed against the Armenian statehood, the ruling authorities
and Armenian people in general. We urge relevant institutions to
find those guilty in shortest terms and make all those behind the
crime accountable.

The days when problems were solved with shootings are in the past. All
those trying to destabilize the country must be punished. Ramkavar
Azatakan party wishes speedy recovery to Paruyr Hayrikyan,” the
statement reads.

STILL NO SUSPECTS ON ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SHOOTING – DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF

news.am
February 01, 2013 | 15:15

YEREVAN. – There are no suspects so far in connection with the
assassination attempt against presidential candidate, opposition
National Self-Determination Union Chairman Paruyr Hayrikyan. Armenia’s
First Deputy Police Chief, Police Major General Hunan Poghosyan told
Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“We, jointly with our National Security Service colleagues, are
working along those lines. Once Paruyr Hayrikyan returns to normal
[health condition], we will speak with him in more detail. At this
point, a general search is in progress,” Poghosyan noted.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, an assassination attempt
was made against presidential candidate, opposition National
Self-Determination Union Chairman Paruyr Hayrikyan, on Thursday at
around 11:20pm in downtown Yerevan, in front of his home. Hayrikyan
was shot and hospitalized with a gunshot wound . He underwent a
surgery Friday morning, and a bullet-which was located in the soft
tissues of his right elbow shoulder-was removed.

Numerous senior officials, politicians, and other presidential
contenders are coming to the hospital to visit him.

A criminal case is opened in connection with the assassination attempt
against Paruyr Hayrikyan. It is launched on charges of carrying out an
assassination attempt against a statesman, political or public figure,
which-that is, the attempt-is carried out to end this person’s noted
activities. This crime is punishable by imprisonment for 12-20 years,
or life in prison.

The National Security Service is conducting the investigation.

NEPHEW: PARUYR HAYRIKYAN WAS WITH SEDRAK ZATIKYAN’S SON BEFORE HE WAS SHOT

11:47 01/02/2013 ” LAW

The Nephew Of National Self-Determination Union Paruyr Hayrikyan
Says Hayrikyan Was With The Son Of Karabakh War Participant Sedrak
Zatikyan, Vrezh Zatikyan, Before He Was Shot By Unknown Gunmen Late On
Thursday Evening In Yerevan. Vrezh Zatikyan Gave Testimony To Police
But Refused To Talk With The Media.

Paruyr Hayrikyan’s Nephew, Varuzhan Ter-Simonyan, Told The Reporters,
“He Was Going Home After Leaving His Office Located At The Crossroads
Of Tpagrichneri And Alaverdyan Streets. A Shot Was Heard After He Came
Out Of The Car And Walked Towards His House. His Wife, Susan Avagyan,
Says That They Heard Screams And Coming Down They Saw Hayrikyan Lying
On The Ground Near The Stairs, Covered With Blood.

Hayrikyan received no suspicious calls or threats before the shooting
incident, Varuzhan Ter-Simonyan said.

Source: Panorama.am

OMBUDSMAN OF ARMENIA: ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AGAINST PARUYR HAYRIKYAN IS A PROVOCATION AND CHALLENGE TO ARMENIAN STATEHOOD AND PUBLIC

ARMINFO
Friday, February 1, 14:00

The assassination attempt against candidate for president Paruyr
Hayrikyan is a provocation and challenge to Armenian statehood and
public, says the statement by Armenian Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan.

The human rights defender hopes the law-enforcers will properly inquire
into the incident and expose who is behind the assassination attempt.

The assassination attempt against Paruyr Hayrikyan, candidate
for president of Armenia, Leader of the Union for National
Self-Determination Party, was made in the Tpagrichnery Street in
Yerevan overnight. Hayrikyan was hospitalized with a gunshot wound
in shoulder.

A criminal case was initiated on Article 34-305 of the Criminal Code of
Armenia (assassination attempt against a statesman, political figure
or public worker in order to stop his activity). Besides Hayrikyan,
the presidential candidates are as follows: incumbent president Serzh
Sargsyan from the Republican Party and former prime minister Hrant
Bagratyan from the Liberty Party, Leader of Heritage Party Raffi
Hovannisian, Advisor for Political Issues of the Refugees and the
International Law Civil Society Network, ex-foreign minister of NKR
Arman Melikyan, Leader of National Accord Party Aram Haroutiunyan,
political expert Andrias Ghukasyan, and specialist in epic Vardan
Sedrakyan. The elections will be held on Feb 18 2013.