Author: Kanayan Tamar

TURKEY TRYING TO BLACKMAIL INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR THEIR STANCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

YEREVAN, April 17. /ARKA/. Turkey is trying to blackmail international
organizations and many countries and put pressure upon them, Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan, said in a statement posted on
the foreign ministry’s website as response to Ankara’s reaction to
the European Parliament’s resolution on Armenian Genocide.

he said.

The minister said in his statement that the resolution was adopted
by a parliament that represents 28 countries, but Ankara didn’t
recall ambassadors from these 28 countries. he added.

In his opinion, Turkish authorities are like a chess player in
zugzwang, whose every next step only worsens his position. Nalbandyan
also said citing the resolution: —0—-

GUNMACHINE FROM THE GIUMRY FAMILY MURDER SCENE HAD NO SUPPRESSOR – BALLISTIC EVIDENCE

YEREVAN, April 17. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Investigative Committee has
released the results of ballistic, forensic, chemical and trace tests
in the Giumry family murder case.

The tests found that no suppressor was used on the machine gun found
at the crime scene, the website of the Investigative Committee says.

Russian soldier Valery Permyakov, who pleaded guilty is charged
with killing seven members of the Avetisyan family, including a
two-year-old girl and a six-month-old boy, in a January 12 shooting
rampage in Gyumri.

The tests also showed the casings and the bullets were released from
AKS-74 machine gun owned by Permyakov.

Metallization was found on the military uniform, as well as on the
clothing and bed linen of the victims, according to the report.

Cotton fiber and chemical microfiber found on the stabber were
identical to the ones on six-month-old Serezha Avetisyan’s vest. -0–

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SHARPLY CONDEMNS VERDICT AGAINST AZERBAIJANI HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER RASUL JAFAROV

17:02 17/04/2015 ” LAW

OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja MijatoviÄ~G condemned
the sentencing of Rasul Jafarov, a free expression and free media
advocate and human rights defender in Azerbaijan, to six and a half
years in a penal colony, the OSCE website reports.

“Jafarov’s sentencing is nothing short of an act of injustice and it
adds to the growing number of journalists and free expression advocates
serving time in Azerbaijani prisons for their work. This systematic
and wide-scale persecution of independent voices in Azerbaijan is a
clear violation of the fundamental and basic human right of freedom
of expression,” MijatoviÄ~G said pointing to the various reports
indicating that both the investigation and the judicial process
involving Jafarov were flawed because of serious violations.

According to the statement of the official representative of the US
Department of State, Marie Harf, published on Department of State
website, the US is deeply troubled by the decision of the Azerbaijani
court, which is widely considered to be politically motivated.

“His conviction is a further setback to Azerbaijan’s democratic
development. We urge the Government of Azerbaijan to abide by its
international commitments and respect the rights of its citizens. As a
first step, we urge the authorities to release Mr. Jafarov and others
incarcerated in connection with exercising their fundamental freedoms,”
the statement reads.

In her microblog in Twitter, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE), Anne Brasseur, wrote that the reprisals
against human rights defenders in Azerbaijan reflect persistent
degradation of human rights and deplored the 6.5 years sentence
against Rasul Jafarov.

International human rights organizations also turned to Jafarov’s
sentencing. In its statement, Human Rights Watch calls on Azerbaijan’s
international partners to make clear they will not be sending
high-level delegations to the opening of the European Games in Baku
unless Rasul Jafarov and other political prisoners are freed and the
government’s crackdown on civil society is brought to an end.

“Jafarov was one of the most authoritative and outspoken critics of
politically motivated prosecutions in Azerbaijan, and now he has become
a victim of one,” said Giorgi Gogia, senior South Caucasus researcher
at Human Rights Watch, and added that Jafarov’s conviction should be
a jarring wake-up call to Azerbaijan’s international partners to send
a clear message to Baku that business as usual is impossible until
Jafarov and his colleagues are freed.

On March, 30 the authorities of Azerbaijan did not allow Giorgi Gogia
to enter the country. He was planning to take part in the court
hearings of the Azerbaijani human rights defenders, Rasul Jafarov
and Intigam Aliyev.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint
program of the FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) and
the OMCT (World Organisation Against Torture) – whose representative
was present at Rasul Jafarov’s trial and said that it was clear that
the trial was based on trumped-up charges – declared that the court
was unacceptable, FIDH website reports.

“We must not allow the glitz of the Baku 2015 European Games to
whitewash President Ilham Aliyev’s abysmal record on human rights,”
said Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg, as the website of the
organization reports.

According to RFE/RL, Jafarov’s lawyer, Fariz Namazly, said after the
ruling that they would appeal the “illegal and politically motivated
verdict.” The Sun Daily adds that oil-rich ex-Soviet Azerbaijan
often responds to dissent with tough measures. The American news
media company BuzzFeed reminds that Jafarov’s “Sing For Democracy”
campaign used Azerbaijan’s hosting of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest
to draw attention to his country’s poor human rights record. When he
was arrested in 2014, he was planning a campaign “Sport for Rights”
to coincide with Azerbaijan hosting the European Games in June 2015.

Rasul Jafarov, a well-known human rights defender, “Art for Democracy”
campaign organizer, was sentenced to 6.5 years’ imprisonment in
Azerbaijan. The verdict was brought in by the judge Eldar Ismayilov in
the Baku court of grave crimes on April 16. Jafarov is banned taking
up any post for three years after his release.

After the verdict was handed down, Jafarov said he considered it to be
trumped up and politically motivated. The court did not prove any of
the allegations brought against the human rights defender. All of the
prosecution witnesses testified in favor of the human rights defender,
and the process actually proved his complete innocence.

Related:

Azerbaijani human rights defender Rasul Jafarov sentenced to 6.5
years’ imprisonment

MATTEO RENZI SUPPORTS POPE FRANCIS’ ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STATEMENT

16:17, 17 April, 2015

YEREVAN, APRIL 17, ARMENPRESS. Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi
urges official Ankara to respect the European values. As reports
“Armenpress” citing La Stampa, at the course of the meeting with
the students in the Georgetown University held within the framework
of the visit to the United States, the Italian PM reflected on the
process of the EU expansion and the reforms for the next 20 years.

Among other things, Matteo Renzi called on Turkey to respect the
European values. “The Pope made a distinct address regarding the
events, which took place 100 years ago. In my opinion, the goal is
the European integration (this refers to everyone, not Turkey alone)
showing respect towards the common values.”

Previously it was reported that in his sermon during the Divine
Liturgy dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
offered in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis called the mass killings
and massacres of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Turkey in 1915 a
Genocide. He said that the slaughter of the Armenians was the first
genocide of the 20th century.

Among other things, Pope Francis said the Armenian killings were
the first of three “massive and unprecedented” genocides that was
followed by the Holocaust and Stalinism. He said others had followed,
including in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.

The Pope welcomed the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh
Sargsyan, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians His
Holiness Karekin II, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia
Aram I and the Catholicos Patriarch of the House of Cilicia Nerses
Petros XIX, who attended the liturgy.

Pope Francis also honored the Armenian community at the start of
the Mass by pronouncing a 10th-century Armenian mystic, St. Gregory
of Narek, a doctor of the church. Only 35 people have been given the
title, which is reserved for those whose writings have greatly served
the universal church.

DAVUTOGLU: POPE FRANCIS WAS CAUGHT IN A TRAP OF PLOTTERS

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
April 15 2015

15 April 2015 – 8:12pm

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Pope Francis was
caught in a trap of conspirators plotting against the ruling Justice
and Development Party. The PM called the conspirators a front of evil
of which the Pope was part, together with the Republican People’s
Party and the Democratic People’s Party, RIA Novosti reports.

Davutoglu reminded that the Ottoman Empire had given asylum to Jewish
refugees fleeing from the Catholic inquisition in Spain.

Pope Francis said at a liturgy on Sunday that the Armenian genocide,
Nazism and Stalinism were the three biggest tragedies of the 20th
century.

TURKEY SAYS THE POPE IS PART OF AN ‘EVIL FRONT’ BECAUSE HE USED THE WORD ‘GENOCIDE’

Washington Post
April 15 2015

By Ishaan Tharoor

Turkey’s outrage over comments made by Pope Francis this past weekend,
deeming the massacre of Armenians a century ago a “genocide,” continues
to smolder. Next week marks the centennial of the beginning of what
the pope called “the first genocide of the 20th century” at Sunday
Mass in commemoration of the killings.

Ankara reacted furiously, recalling its ambassador to the Vatican and
issuing a barrage of strong condemnations. On Wednesday, Turkish Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu made some even tougher remarks: “Currently,
an evil front is being formed against us,” he said. “Now the pope
has joined this conspiracy.”

Davutoglu was speaking at an event announcing the manifesto of Turkey’s
ruling Justice and Development Party, ahead of general elections in
June. The spat with the pope most likely offered good nationalistic
fodder for local consumption. The prime minister went on, hailing
the Ottoman Empire’s long history of providing sanctuary to the Jews
expelled by Spain in the 15th century:

I am addressing the pope: Those who escaped from the Catholic
inquisition in Spain found peace in our just order in Istanbul and
Ä°zmir. We are ready to discuss historical issues, but we will not
let people insult our nation through history.

The issue of the Armenian genocide is one of profound sensitivity in
Turkey — and awkwardness for Turkey’s NATO allies, including the
United States. The traumas and upheavals triggered by these events
directly shaped the far-flung Armenian diaspora, which plays a leading
role in global advocacy around how to remember and commemorate the
slaughters.

On Wednesday, the European parliament in Brussels called on Turkey to
recognize what happened as a “genocide.” The motion was dismissed by
Davutoglu’s boss, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the appeal
“went in one ear and out from the other.”

The massacres took place amid the wider conflict of World War I, which
led to the unraveling and demise of the Ottoman Empire. Successive
Turkish governments have insisted the scale of the slaughter has been
distorted, and that many Turks were killed amid the chaos. As many as
1.5 million Armenians, by some accounts, were systematically killed
or disappeared.

“In 1913, there were up to 2 million [ethnic Armenians] in the Ottoman
Empire. When World War I broke out, the Ottoman government ordered
their mass deportation. A few years later, there was barely one-tenth
that number in Turkey, the rest having been exiled or killed,” details
Thomas de Waal, in his new book “Great Catastrophe: Armenians and
Turks in the Shadow of Genocide.”

Armenian suffering at the time was well-documented, particularly by
American observers. Former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt wrote in
May 1918 that his country’s entrance into World War I against Germany
and its allies was justified “because the Armenian massacre was the
greatest crime of the war, and failure to act against Turkey is to
condone it.”

The very term “genocide,” attributed to the Polish-born Jewish lawyer
Raphael Lemkin, was invoked precisely with what befell the Armenians
in mind. But, as de Waal’s book charts, the question of remembering
it has become a political hot potato in the decades since, shrouded
by Cold War squeamishness and stubborn Turkish nationalism.

In some ways, Erdogan’s government has attempted to soften or reform
the conversation surrounding the massacres. Ankara has invested
significantly in the restoration of old Armenian churches in eastern
Turkey.

Last year, in what was considered an unprecedented act, Erdogan
offered condolences to Armenian victims of the “inhumane” deportations
in 1915. But he stopped short of calling it genocide and condemned
the government of Armenia for using it as “an excuse for hostility”
toward Turkey.

“Millions of people of all religions and ethnicities lost their lives
in the First World War,” said Erdogan.

Like Davutoglu, Erdogan was less than pleased this week with the Pope’s
intervention into the matter. He warned the pope not to “repeat this
mistake” and reiterated his government’s insistence that its archives
were “open” and that a “joint commission” of historians should be
established to reckon with the past. (The historical consensus,
though, is that the genocide happened.)

“Whenever politicians … assume the duties of historians, then
delirium comes out, not fact,” said Erdogan. It’s a curious statement,
not only in this context but in others.

Erdogan has been known to pronounce repeatedly upon matters of history,
including his somewhat perplexing insistence on the arrival of Muslim
seafarers to the New World ahead of Christopher Columbus, which has
led even to the construction of a proposed mosque in Cuba.

In the case of the events of 1915, history very much remains the
subject of politics.

LOS ANGELES PRAYER SERVICE COMMEMORATES ARMENIAN KILLINGS

Paradise Post
April 15 2015

Posted: 04/14/15, 6:44 AM PDT | Updated: 11 hrs ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than 3,000 people were in attendance at
a multi-denominational prayer service in Los Angeles hosted by the
archdiocese to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the killings of
an estimated 1.5 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez hosted the Tuesday night service
at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels that included church
leaders from around the state.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti served as keynote speaker.

The event comes days after Pope Francis described the killings a
century ago as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

Turkey denies the killings were genocide and contends those who died
were victims of civil war and unrest. Turkey also insists the death
toll has been inflated.

ERDOGAN VOWS TO IGNORE EUROPEAN VOTE ON ARMENIAN KILLINGS

Voice of America
April 15 2015

Reuters

April 15, 2015 5:42 AM

ANKARA–President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would disregard
the European Parliament’s vote later on Wednesday on the 1915 mass
killings of Armenians, which the pope this week described as genocide.

The European Parliament is due to debate a resolution to mark the
100th anniversary of the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians
under Turkish Ottoman rule.

“Whatever decision the European Parliament takes on Armenian genocide
claims, it would go in one ear and out the other,” Erdogan told a
news conference at Ankara airport before departing on an official
visit to Kazakhstan.

“It is out of the question for there to a stain, a shadow called
‘genocide’ on Turkey,” he said.

Pope Francis became the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to
publicly call the killing of Armenians “genocide” on Sunday, prompting
Turkey to summon the Vatican’s ambassador to the Holy See and recall
its own.

Armenia, some Western historians and foreign parliaments refer to
the mass killings as genocide.

Muslim Turkey agrees Christian Armenians were killed in clashes
with Ottoman soldiers that began on April 15, 1915, when Armenians
lived in the empire ruled by Istanbul, but denies that this amounted
to genocide.

Around 100,000 Armenians still reside in Turkey including those who are
Turkish citizens and those who are not and they are never mistreated,
Erdogan said.

“Both citizens and non-citizen Armenians are enjoying the opportunities
of our country. We could have deported them, but we didn’t,”
Erdogan said.

HOW I’LL KEEP UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS WHEN I VISIT ARMENIA

Yahoo Travel
April 15 2015

Greg Keraghosian, Associate Travel Editor

I never thought the Kardashians would inspire me to make a ham
sandwich, let alone explore a foreign country — I’ve willfully
ignored them for years and intend to keep ignoring them until their
inexplicable flame of celebrity finally burns out. I can barely
force a half-smile whenever someone hears my last name and jokes,
“Hey, Greg Kardashian!” (Seriously, it’s not that funny.)

Yet there I was last week, actually thinking of the Killer Curve
Sisters. There’s a whole lot I don’t have in common with the
Kardashians, but we do share these two facts: I am, like them, an
American-born Armenian. Also, as they just did, I’m about to visit
my ancestral homeland of Armenia for the first time. In case you’re
wondering, I planned this months before I knew they were going.

Kim Kardashian West and sister Khloe Kardashian spent five days
touring Armenia on a trip that ended this past weekend (Kourtney
stayed home). Riding shotgun was a certain musician named Kanye West.

While I wasn’t exactly riveted to their Twitter feeds during the
visit, I couldn’t help but click on a few Kardashian links for the
first time in my life, out of curiosity for where they were going
and whether I might see the same things.

The following are some ways I can follow in their footsteps during my
three and a half weeks in this small, ancient, overlooked, landlocked
country. Some of these things will definitely happen, while others
are less certain:

Visit the Armenian Genocide memorial

The Kardashians’ visit was timed with the 100-year anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide suffered at the hands of Ottoman Turkey. The
official commemoration date is April 24, and I’ll be arriving just
in time for it. I will definitely do as they did and pay my respects
to the estimated 1.5 million victims, who include my own ancestors,
at the memorial’s eternal flame in the nation’s capital of Yerevan.

EU URGES TURKEY, ARMENIA TO NORMALIZE TIES AMID MASSACRE ROW

Associated Press International
April 13, 2015 Monday 1:22 PM GMT

BRUSSELS

BRUSSELS (AP) – The European Union is urging Turkey and Armenia to
normalize ties after remarks by Pope Francis fueled their long-running
row over the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 100 years ago.

EU foreign affairs spokesperson Maja Kocijancic said Monday that the
EU encourages the countries “to consider additional, meaningful steps
that would pave the way toward full reconciliation.”

Pope Francis on Sunday marked the 100th anniversary of the massacres
by calling them “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

Turkey denies the killings were genocide. Ankara recalled its
ambassador and accused Francis of spreading hatred.

Turkey and Armenia signed an agreement in 2009 to open their borders
and establish diplomatic ties but it has not been implemented.

The European Parliament will mark the massacre centenary in Brussels
on Wednesday.