Author: Kanayan Tamar

In a video shared on You Tube, Manchester United’s Paul Pogba says a phrase in Armenian.

“What’s up, man?” Pogba says in the video.

On June 2, 1915 Ottoman Interior Minister Talaat Pasha sent a secret telegram to the Governor of Ankara, instructing to hand over the arrested Armenian intellectuals to the Military Court of Diyarbakir.

Despite the telegram, the Armenian intellectuals arrested and exiled to the city of Ayas were brutally killed without any judicial proceedings.

US-based researcher Gevorg Hakobyan has provided the copy of the document to .

 

– Armenian institutions in Argentina have issued a joint statement “rejecting” the visit of the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, to Argentina and South America.

“Not only is Çavuşoğlu the representative of the State that committed the crime against humanity, but his figure constitutes the executing arm of the negationist policy historically adopted by Turkey,” denounces the text, noting that as Minister of Foreign Affairs “Çavuşoğlu devoted his work to intimidate anyone who recognizes or even names the Armenian Genocide, as were the cases of Russia, the European Parliament and the Vatican in 2015 and Germany and the United States in 2016.”

“On several occasions, Çavuşoğlu repeated that any pronouncement on the matter not coming from the parties (Armenia-Turkey) prejudices the reconciliation between the two peoples. However, they only criticize the statements that are not ‘favorable’ to Turkey, as they do not issue statements when the Azerbaijani denialist president, Ilham Aliyev, speaks of the ‘Armenian lies’, for example. Another pattern of double standard and lies of Çavuşoğlu are seen in what they call ‘just memory,’ a concept very similar to the infamous ‘theory of the two demons’ in Argentina, when they appeal to ‘the sufferings of all parties’ as a new stage of negationism. This implies that Armenians and Turks were two different parties to a conflict, and did not constitute a State-citizen relationship. Çavuşoğlu went on to say that Pope Francis ‘discriminated between the sufferings’ when he spoke of the Armenian Genocide.”

“We consider that his work as Minister of Foreign Affairs consists solely in exporting the model of censorship to freedom of expression maintained by the regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against his own people,” said the statement. “This is evidenced in the many occasions when Turkish diplomacy lobbied to block resolutions of solidarity with the Armenian people throughout the region of South America.”

“Law 13.326 of Uruguay and Law 26.199 of Argentina, as well as resolution 550/2015 of the Federal Senate of Brazil are pillars of the Human Rights policy in our region, and they form an indispensable standard. In this context, we urge the authorities responsible for the foreign policy of our countries to avoid joining any of the manifold manifestations of the negationism and totalitarianism of the Turkish State,” finished the statement.

A petition to stop US President Donald Trump’s UK state visit has gathered more than a million signatures, the BBC reports.

Numbers of signatories have been rising rapidly since a US clampdown on immigration came into effect over the weekend, causing anger worldwide.

PM Theresa May announced the visit during her recent US trip. Downing Street has rejected calls for it to be cancelled as a “populist gesture.”

On Saturday afternoon the petition had just 60 signatures but reached 100,000 needed to be considered for debate by Parliament just after midday on Sunday.

MPs will discuss the debate on Tuesday.

Two postage stamps dedicated to the 25^th anniversary of formation of the Armenian Army were cancelled and put into circulation today.

The postage stamps with nominal values of 280 AMD have been printed at “Cartor” printing house in France.

One of the postage stamps depicts some types of the RA Armed Forces troops and the second stamp depicts a row of the Armenian soldiers in combination with the waving Armenian tricolor. Both postage stamps carry the coat of arms of RA Armed Forces. The author of the stamps’ design is the designer of “HayPost” CJSC, Vahagn Mkrtchyan.

The postage stamps were cancelled by the RA Minster of Defense Vigen Sargsyan, the RA Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Vahan Martirosyan, the Managing Director of “HayPost Trust Management” B.V. Juan Pablo Gechidjian and the holder of the second-class Order of the Combat Cross, soldier Narek Malkhasyan.

Date of issue: January 27, 2017

Designer: Vahagn Mkrtchyan

Printing house: Cartor, France

Size: 40,0 x 30,0 mm

Print run: 40 000 pcs x 2

The situation was relatively calm at the line of contact between the armed force of Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh last night, the NKR Defense Ministry reports.

The rival violated the ceasefire about 15 times in due period, firing over 140 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions.

The Azeri forces used an antitank grenade launcher in the eastern direction, the Ministry said.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army refrained from response actions and continued with the reliable protection of the military posts.

Photo: Reuters/Fatih Saribas

 

Turkish authorities must intensify their efforts to find the masterminds behind the killing of prominent Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, said today.

“Year after year, we remember the anniversary of Hrant Dink’s murder, honouring his brave words advocating for minority rights, and paying tribute to his exceptional efforts to create peace,” said the Representative. “But we do so knowing that even a decade on, the masterminds behind this tragedy are still at large.”

On 19 January 2007, Dink, the editor of the Armenian-Turkish bilingual Agos magazine, was shot dead in front of the weekly’s Istanbul offices. Although his murderer was arrested and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison, the investigation into uncovering the masterminds of the crime remains open.

“I urge the authorities of Turkey to increase their efforts to ensure that justice is served and to provide closure for the friends and family of Hrant Dink after an agonizing decade of questions. Authorities must reinforce the vital message to society that those who commit violence against journalists can not do so with impunity.”

The Representative has frequently called on OSCE participating States to end impunity for violence against and killing of journalists.

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

Last November, Americans elected the unlikeliest presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. He is not your typical politician. As a successful and prominent businessman, he is used to making off- the- cuff remarks and not subscribing to any particular direction. Given the controversial nature of the Trump Presidency, domestic and international relations may drastically change. President Trump has already revised his position on some major campaign promises: expelling illegal aliens, building a wall between Mexico and the United States, and not allowing immigrants from Islamic countries to visit the United States. President Trump has also altered his position regarding serious, international issues. President Trump may not be sure himself what positions he would take on a variety of foreign policy issues.

Here is a short list of major international decisions President Trump will have to make.

1. The most important realignment of relations will be between Russia and the United States. If these two major countries can get along, there is no reason to be at odds risking the stability of the world. Furthermore, cooperation between Russia and the United States will have a positive effect on reducing terrorism in Syria and Iraq. Many of the major international figures who are opposed to the prospect of the improved relations between Putin and President Trump are reverting back to the Cold War Era mentality. The biggest issue that has arisen in recent weeks was the accusation that Russia had hacked the US presidential election. However, Russians have not done anything extraordinary. China, Russia and even US allies have always tried to steal each other’s secrets.

2. Due to his discontent with current international agreements, President Trump will want to re-negotiate the terms, previously approved under the Obama administration. One of the most important changes President Trump wants to do is re-negotiate the nuclear deal with Iran, which involves several other countries besides Iran and the US. It remains to be seen if the Iranians will go along with any of the changes proposed by President Trump.

3. A major realignment desired by President Trump is the settling of the Israeli-Arab conflict. If President Trump goes along with his plans in moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, this could result in a major clash between the US and the Arab states leading to highly undesirable consequences.

4. The final issue that President Trump will confront is the newly improved relationship between the United States and Cuba. It remains to be seen whether Cuba will go along with any changes proposed by President Trump.

There is no guarantee that President Trump’s ideas will improve the previously negotiated agreements or if they be accepted by the rest of the world. Consequentially, there is a lot of uncertainty where the new world order is headed, and whether relations between various countries will improve. The entire world hopes that countries will get along better with each other and peaceful solutions will be found. Positive relations between Russia and the US will help recent challenges faced by the Armenian Republic.

The Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking measures connected with an Azeri attempt to violate the Armenian state border, the Ministry’s Spokesman Tigran Balayan told Public Radio of Armenia.

The Spokesperson noted that the steps include contacts with both the Peronal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Statement by Edward Nalbandian, Foreign Minister of Armenia at the Open Government Partnership Summit 2016

Excellences,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Armenia thanks the Government of France for its efforts towards advancing the agenda of Open Government Partnership (OGP) and for the extended hospitality. Our appreciation also goes to the civil society Co-Chair – the World Resources Institute. The Summit is an opportunity to galvanize our engagement in OGP initiative promoting fundamental values necessary for the inclusive and sustainable development of our societies.

Between 2011 and 2016, in line with two Action Plans Armenia implemented tangible reforms in major sectors such as the law-making activities, public procurement, access to and freedom of information, healthcare, education, local self-governance, mining industry. Through the implementation of more than 20 commitments targeted actions have been undertaken to meet main OGP challenges on improving public services, ensuring effective management of public resources, promotion of public confidence.

The cutting-edge tools, such as crowdsourcing and co-design were widely used in the drafting process of Armenia’s Open government partnership Third Action Plan (2016-2018). Government officials came together with Civil Society Organizations, experts and private sector partners to discuss and elaborate the suggested action plan commitments.

Most of the declared Summit priorities including on transparency and anti-corruption, sustainable development and climate change are included in our new Action Plan. Armenia joined other states in singing Paris Agreement on climate change. The Government of Armenia provided its final national progress report on the Millennium Development Goals. The roadmap for national implementation the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been drafted. All these processes have been done in an inclusive manner based on multi-stakeholder public discussions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Armenia continues its efforts aimed at consolidating democratic institutions, strengthening the rule of law, national mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights and in this regard sustains strong partnership with the international organizations and initiatives. Last December by the nation-wide referendum Armenia adopted amendments to the Constitution aimed at improving the governance system with increased transparency and accountability. It was followed by the adoption of a new Electoral Code to meet the necessary legal changes in line with the requirements of the amended Constitution. It is noteworthy that both the Constitutional reform and the new Electoral Code have received positive feedbacks from our international partner organizations. To further strengthen the public trust in the election process the Government accepted the proposal coming from the opposition and the discussions on the draft Code were held with the involvement of all parliamentary political factions and civil society representatives.

In Armenia, we have vibrant civil society, which is an indicator of our growing democracy, and an integral part of Armenia’s public life with increasing participation in and contribution to the effective governance. The presence of our Civil Society Organizations among Summit participants, including among members of our OGP National Working Group, is the best illustration for that.

It is noteworthy that at the last global summit of Open Government Partnership, Armenia received a top award and was recognized as a leader in our region for increased efficiency in the activities of its local self-governance authorities and improved public services based on the principles of open governance. Our Civil Society Organizations awarded the Armenian government for advancing freedom of information and joining the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are cognizant that challenges remain. Our new Action Plan is aimed at exploring new tools to directly connect to the society, to mainstream the Open Government Partnership principles in all domains of governance, and to apply human-centered approaches in policymaking. With this in mind, we are looking forward to work hand in hand with all partners to achieve the objectives of Open government partnership.

Thank you.