Author: Kanayan Tamar

TURKEY WILL OPEN THE BORDER AND ESTABLISH RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA, JEWISH POLITICAL ANALYST SAYS
Gita Elibekyan

“Radiolur”
18.06.2012 16:59

“Turkey will open the border and will normalize relations with
Armenia,” famous Jewish political analyst Alexander Murinson
says. He currently teaches “Turkey’s Foreign Policy” at Tbilisi’s
Ilya Chavchavadze State University. “Turkey is just waiting for a
proper moment for that,” he said.

Relations with the countries of the South Caucasus play an important
role in Turkey’s foreign policy, Alexander Murinson is confident.

Noting that the Turkish principle of “zero problem with neighbors” does
not exist at all, he says Turkey has problems not only with Armenia.

“The protocols on establishment of relations between Armenia and Turkey
were not implemented, because the reaction of Azerbaijan affected
the political circles of Turkey,” Murinson says, adding, however,
that Turkey will pursue the opening of the border and normalization
of relations.

“Among other things it’s connected with domestic problems. Turkish
territories close to the border simply suffer because of undeveloped
economy. In this regard, the residents of Kars and other regions
stand for trade with Armenia.”

The processes taking place in the Middle East are in the focus of
attention of the world powers today, and being a neighbor of Iran and
Syria Turkey could not have stayed apart from the developments. “The
establishment of relations with Armenia is not a priority today in
the light of these developments,” Alexander Murinson says.

At the same time the expert emphasizes that Turkey will not do that
without preconditions. “Turkey will not refuse from its claims. They
expect the Armenian side to take concrete steps connected with the
Karabakh issue, after which they will normalize the relations.”

As for the Armenian Genocide issue, the analyst says Erdogan
understands the essence of the issue and has taken some minor steps in
that direction. “The Turkish press often refers to the question today.

This means the intellectuals are trying to make the Genocide issue a
topic of open discussions and research. There are political forces,
which attach importance to the issue. However, there are some
nationalist forces beside them, and it’s hard to say whether there
will be any progress on the issue before the balance changes in a
more liberal direction,” Murinson says.

HEAVYWEIGHT SUPPORT: OSKANIAN ENLISTS TSARUKYAN BACKING IN CONTINUING THINK TANK ROW

Politics | 18.06.12 | 11:04

Photolure

Gagik Tsarukyan (left), Vartan Oskanian

Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Chairman Gagik Tsarukyan met with
senior figure of his party Vartan Oskanian immediately after returning
to Armenia at the end of last week, Tsarukyan’s press office said,
adding that the meeting focused on the latest developments around a
think tank formerly headed by Oskanian.

Ex-foreign minister Oskanian, who founded the Civilitas Foundation
after leaving his state post in 2008 and led it until February this
year before joining the PAP, reportedly briefed Tsarukyan on the
situation involving money laundering charges against the foundation.

A spokeswoman said the PAP leader stressed that he will take “all the
steps prescribed by law in order to protect the rights and interests
of his fellow party members.”

The PAP chairman also reportedly appreciated the Civilitas Foundation’s
“activities toward establishing democratic values and pluralism
in Armenia.”

“And, if necessary, Gagik Tsarukyan expressed a readiness to also
invite a team of internationally-renowned lawyers and attorneys to
Armenia,” the statement said.

Oskanian insists that the current criminal proceedings on money
laundering charges are a retribution for his hard-hitting criticism
of the government in the lead-up to the May 6 parliamentary elections.

Some political observers also view it as a warning to Oskanian,
who has not ruled out the possibility of making a presidential bid
in 2013 in several media interviews.

Government representatives deny any political implications behind
the criminal investigation.

Meanwhile, Civilitas Foundation Director Salpi Ghazarian last Friday
was summoned to the National Security Service (NSS) to testify as
a witness.

Ghazarian, however, refused to give testimony, claiming that given
the nature of the NSS statement that refers to “committed violations”,
she was in a de-facto state of being a suspect rather than a witness
and, therefore, could refuse to testify.

Oskanian, too, had refused to testify after being twice summoned to
the NSS last week.

In her comments to media, Ghazarian insisted that the charges against
Civilitas, which she described as the most transparent foundation in
Armenia, were a “political order”. But the foundation’s representative
stopped short of naming names. In this regard, she brought up the
issue of CivilNet TV launched by Civilitas last September, implying
it could as well be a case of restricting freedom of speech. “But it
won’t work,” she concluded.

ARMENIA MUST STRIVE TO IMPROVE DISTORTED PERCEPTION OF KARABAKH CONFLICT – EXPERT

PanARMENIAN.Net
June 18, 2012 – 15:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia must strive to improve international
community’s distorted perception of Karabakh conflict, according to
the head of Political Research Academy NGO.

As Alexander Manasyan told a news conference in Yerevan, “over the
last 20 years, Azerbaijan has been instilling the notion of having a
legal right to reclaim liberated territories of Artsakh, with Armenia
not taking enough effort to refute Baku’s rhetoric.”

“Armenia must make the world aware that not an inch of Azerbaijan’s
legal territory was seized,” the expert said. “Back in 1921, when by
the illegal decision of Caucasus Bureau Nagorno Karabakh was passed
under Azeri control, the separate territories of Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Oblast were not stipulated. Only in 1923, Azerbaijan
separated Armenian-populated territories, with Nagorno Karabakh
Autonomous Oblast formed solely of the latters,” the expert explained.

Shakira, Rihanna to sing in Baku

tert.am
13:03 – 13.06.12

The world-renowned songs stars, Shakira and Rihanna. are going to
perform songs at the 2012 FIFA Women’s U17 World Championship in Baku.

Citing the Azerbaijani Football Federation’s association, 1news.az
sport reported that Rihanna is set to perform at the quarter matches
on October 5. Shakira’s will sing at the finals.

Jennifer Lopez was earlier reported to be selected as a guest singer
for the opening event.

The championship will run from September 22 through October 13. The
tickets will be available for sale beginning July 6.

Why Does the ARF Support Bako Sahakyan?

Saturday, 16 June 2012 22:13

Spokesman of the ARF Central Committee of Artsakh Davit Ishkhanyan
clarified the party’s decision of supporting Bako Sahakyan in the
upcoming presidential elections in the Central Committee’s official
website. The statements made, however, can hardly be perceived as
valid answers as they arouse many more questions. According to him the
CC has earlier convoked an extended conference participated by all the
party members holding different posts in the state system, members of
the NA ARF faction to discuss the issue of the party’s participation
in the elections. At its June 6 session the Central Committee together
with the ARF Bureau adopted a joint resolution to support NKR
incumbent President Bako Sahakyan’ s candidacy without taking part in
his pre-election headquarters, however, and to expel Vitali Balasanyan
from the NKR NA ARF faction.

To the question `Does the ARF office of Artsakh unconditionally trust
the current president?’ Davit Ishkhanyan answered, `The ARF office of
Artsakh is surely discontented with NKR President Bako Sahakyan’s
interior policy. Moreover, we consider highly unacceptable such
manifestations of his policy as the disregard of the role of the
political parties functioning in Artsakh in the state government
system, cadres policy, the activities aimed at resettlement and
finally the social atmosphere created in Artsakh where any possibility
of dissidence is ignored. The ARF CC of Artsakh has many times
addressed these concerns to the authorities at different levels.
Proceeding from the mentioned anxieties our support for Bako
Sahakyan’s candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections lies on a
conditional basis,’ Davit Ishkhanyan noted.

It is not clear why the ARF-Dashnaktsutsyun supports the incumbent
president if it is dissatisfied with the authorities’ activities in
the mentioned directions. Does this mean that the ARF office of
Artsakh does not attach so much significance to these directions some
which are of strategic importance for the country while the others may
carry fateful consequences?
The ARF spokesman made another announcement again during the interview
according to which the ARF will not constitute a part of election
headquarters explaining that `the officials who caused perversion of
the social atmosphere are active participants of Bako Sahakyan’s
pre-election headquarters. Out of this circumstance the CC has
determined to have no participation in Bako Sahakyan’s election
campaigns and his headquarters and challenged the ARF members not to.
We will set up our own headquarters through which we will systematize
our activities,’ Davit Ishkhanyan added.
I wonder what officials the CC spokesman means: those who supported
Bako Sahakyan during the previous presidential elections or those who
are still going to support him. Apparently Bako Sahakyan’s supporting
team will mostly remain the same; he will be surrounded by the Prime
Minister, the present day Mayor of Stepanakert who was the head of his
pre-election headquarters during the previous elections, a number of
ministers and other officials. If the ARF does not agree with the
policy carried out by these officials why has it decided to support
the same candidate who after the elections will be surrounded by the
same officials carrying out the same policy? Maybe the reason is the
personal sympathy towards the current president or maybe the aim of
the ARF members to save their businesses and posts they hold that is
why they make an unsuccessful attempt to conceal all these
considerations under the veil of having no participation in the
pre-election headquarters.
The ARF-Dashnaktsutsyun had better not express any dissatisfaction or
after such announcements it should have called on its members to free
ballot. The fact is that after the elections they will have to work
with the same team and bear responsibility for each step of this team.

Hetq Breaks Story: Police Promise to Investigate Missing Art from
National Gallery

hetq
11:03, June 1, 2012

Ararat Davtyan, Edik Baghdasaryan

After Hetq first broke the story about art going missing from the
National Gallery, the police promised to tell us why no one has ever
been arrested or charged with the theft.

The Police Department’s Public Affairs Unit contacted us today,
stating that an investigation into the matter and that it was likely
that criminal charges would be forthcoming.

We had also sent inquiries to the General Prosecutor’s Office, the
Ministry of Culture, the Prime Minister and Paravon Mirzoyan, who
heads the National Gallery. All responded except Mirzoyan.

The General Prosecutor replied by saying that the theft are registered
with the police and that we should direct our questions to them.
Deputy Minister of Culture Artour Poghosyan told us that it was true
that certain items had gone missing from the National Gallery and that
the administration had reported the cases to law enforcement.

Sargis Grigoryan, who heads the Prime Minister’s Control Service, told
us that his unit had not carried out any inspections of the National
Gallery during the period 2010-2011.

In his reply, Grigoryan wrote that the Control Service had taken color
photos of 29,906 objects at the National Gallery in July, 2009. He
went on to say that as of last month, some 16,000 of these had been
inputted into the digital data base.

Hetq had also written about a flood that took place in the National
Gallery’s 9th floor cafe that destroyed several paintings below.

And the reason for the water damage in the first place? The answer,
sadly, is typically Armenian.

The day of the flood, a film crew had been shooting in the Gallery.
Afterwards, there was a party upstairs in the cafe. Somebody forgot to
turn off the water faucet.

In October of 2011 a Hetq reporter conducted an interview with Paravon
Mirzoyan about a case involving two works by the artist Khachatur
Yesayan. The reporter also wanted to verify the news about the fold
and subsequent water damage.

Mirzoyan confirmed that a work entitled `Destroyers of Birds Nests’,
in the French exhibition hall had sustained water damage but refused
to go into details.

He did reject any allegation that a film had been shot at the National Gallery.

The following video is the trailer for the film “Here”. The scenes
shown from the 32-38 second are of the 9th floor cafe in the National
Gallery.

Hrant Dink’s assassin speaks about details of murder, his feelings

tert.am
12:30 – 17.06.12

Representatives of Turkish opposition the Republican People’s Party
visited Ogun Samast, the murderer of chief editor of Agos newspaper
Hrant Dink, in jail. Speaking with them, the latter revealed the
details of the murder and his feelings before and after.

He again insisted on being incited to murder Hrant Dink and to tell
negative things about Armenians. `Yasin Hayal told me to kill Dink six
months before the murder. I managed to flee for five months but they
finally found me and were `injecting’ for 5-6 days,’ he told them.

According to Turkish Vatan, Samast, who is in jail for 5.5 years, has
neither health nor financial issues and shares the cell with other two
convicts.

He said he spends his time reading. After the sentence he is not
praying any more.

Referring to Dink’s murder, Samast said if he was told to do it now,
he would have never agree. `…when I reached the Agos editorial office
I had changed my mind. I have entered the nearby café and spend 2-3
hours there. Afterwards I called Yasin saying there are security
officers there and I cannot do it. He ordered me to kill them too. But
in reality I lied there were no security officers. I was sitting on
stairs when Hrant passed. Everything happened in a second. I do not
remember the rest. I took the bus. I did not want to kill but when I
saw him in front of me…’ he said.

Samast said he was extremely touched with Raquel Dink’s speech about
him who said Samast was a child and until disclosing the darkness
making murderer from a child, nothing can be done.

REVUE DE PRESSE
Une bête sur la lune interroge le drame du génocide arménien

Le thétre de l’Albatros propose sa nouvelle création, Une bête sur la
lune, de Richard Kalinoski, mise en scène par Katia Arslanian. Cette
pièce parle de la mémoire douloureuse d’un couple d’Arméniens rescapés
du génocide de 1915-16.

Torturé entre un passé qu’il veut taire et l’espoir d’un présent, où
les enfants à naître viendraient combler les trous laissés dans la
photo de famille par le massacre de ses parents, frères et s`urs,
Aram, le mari, garde la tête haute. Mais Seta, sa jeune femme, est
stérile.

Les années passent, Vincent, un jeune immigré italien vient à
fréquenter la maison. C’est lui, devenu vieux, qui rapporte
aujourd’hui le récit d’Aram et Seta Tomasian.

Cette pièce parle de la première génération d’Arméniens qui ont gommé
leurs souvenirs pour pouvoir survivre. Elle évoque la transmission,
l’héritage et la survivance de celui-ci par des voies nouvelles.
Imprévues.

Une `uvre magnifique qui, au-delà de la question arménienne, nous fait
l’invitation d’en passer par l’autre pour découvrir ce que nous
sommes. À cette occasion, la librairie Gulliver (librairie spécialisée
dans la BD à Carpentras) présentera dans la cour – avant et après la
représentation – une sélection d’ouvrages liés à l’Arménie et aux
Arméniens.

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dimanche 17 juin 2012,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

TURQUIE
Leyla Zana, la « pasionaria kurde », de retour en prison

Surnommée la pasionaria kurde, la politicienne Leyla Zana a été
condamnée le 29 mai dernier à 10 ans de prison par un tribunal turc
pour appartenance au mouvement rebelle et diffusion de propagande.
Portrait de l’une des plus célèbres avocates des revendications
kurdes. Nous sommes en 1991, au parlement turc. Leyla Zana est la
première femme kurde jamais élue. Vêtue d’un foulard aux couleurs
kurdes, elle prête serment en turc, puis en kurde : « J’accepte cette
cérémonie constitutionnelle au nom de la fraternité des peuples turc
et kurde. » Son premier mandat démarre sous les huées, et s’achève,
trois ans plus tard, après la perte de son immunité parlementaire, par
la prison. Elle n’en sort qu’en 2004.

Née en 1961 dans un hameau près de Diyarbakir, région kurde dans le
sud-est de la Turquie, Leyla Zana a d’abord été une jeune fille mariée
de force, peu éduquée, avant de devenir l’une des plus célèbres
avocates de l’indépendance des Kurdes. Elle n’est allée à l’école
qu’un an et demi, avant que son père ne la marie de force, en 1975, à
un cousin, Mehdi Zana.

Militant kurde, Mehdi Zana a été maire de Diyarbakir, avant d’être
emprisonné, peu après le coup d’État militaire de 1980.
L’emprisonnement de son mari pousse Leyla Zana à s’engager en
politique. Mère de deux jeunes enfants, elle prend la cause de son
mari à bras le corps et le suit, pendant plusieurs années, de prison
en prison. Elle suit aussi des cours et obtient un diplôme
préuniversitaire grce à des cours à distance. Elle devient
journaliste, et écrit pour l’un des journaux prokurdes de sa région.

Pendant les années de captivité de son mari, elle apprend le turc,
puis participe à des activités politiques. Son premier séjour en
prison date de 1988, où elle a été détenue pendant sept jours, et
torturée.

Mais cela ne l’empêche pas de devenir, en 1991, candidate sur une
liste sociale-démocrate (le SHP). Elle remporte son premier siège de
députée. Sa prestation de serment cause un scandale. Mais pendant
trois années, elle se fait l’avocate des Kurdes. Le Parti du travail
du Kurdistan (PKK) mène alors une lutte armée. Plusieurs dizaines de
milliers de personnes sont déjà mortes. Ankara se fait de plus en plus
menaçant à son égard.

Contrainte de quitter le SHP, elle se joint à un parti prokurde, le
Parti démocratique. Ankara l’accuse d’entretenir des liens avec le PKK
et son leader. Privée de son immunité parlementaire, Leyla Zana est
arrêtée en mars 1994 et condamnée, quelques mois plus tard, à 15 ans
de prison.

Loin de tomber dans l’oubli, elle devient l’objet de pressions des
organisations non gouvernementales et de l’Union européenne. Elle sera
en nomination deux fois pour le prix Nobel de la paix. En 1996, le
Parlement lui décerne le prix Sakharov. Mais ce n’est qu’au début des
années 2000, dans le cadre des discussions autour des réformes
démocratiques pour entamer les négociations de l’adhésion à l’Union
qu’Ankara consent à faire une révision du procès de Leyla Zana. Elle
est finalement libérée en 2004.

Partisane de l’adhésion à l’Union européenne, elle se montre aussi
très critique envers les changements qui sont faits par le pouvoir
turc : ces améliorations sont « cosmétiques », dit-elle alors aux élus
européens.

Elle ne se présente pas aux élections de 2007, mais à celles de 2011,
qu’elle remporte. Elle bénéficie depuis de l’immunité parlementaire.
Mais le 29 mai dernier, un tribunal turc a confirmé la condamnation à
10 ans de prison dont elle a été l’objet en 2008, pour appartenance au
mouvement rebelle kurde et diffusion de propagande. Ses avocats ont
d’ores et déjà annoncé un appel de cette décision.

Anabelle Nicoud

La Presse

dimanche 17 juin 2012,
Stéphane ©armenews.com

SPECTACLES-VALENCE
L’école Maestris de Valence en soirée où l’Arménie était présente
avec Hervé Tane et Christian Terzian interprétant Aznavour

Avec plus de 400 invités pour clôturer en beauté la saison, l’école
Maestris de Valence, co-dirigée par Hervé Tane (d’origine arménienne)
et Philippe Cartier complétée par la dynamique secrétaire communicante
Elodie Sarkissian, organisait une soirée au restaurant le Pélican de
Valence (Drôme). Une soirée placée sous le signe de la rencontre
professionnelle d’une école dynamique, mais également sous celui de la
soirée franco-arménienne. Elodie Sarkissian présenta les invités de la
soirée laissant aussitôt la parole à l’architecte André Solnais et à
Philippe Cartier qui présentèrent les plans des nouveaux locaux de
l’école Maestris à Latour Maubourg en plein centre de Valence avec une
capacité de 500 élèves.

Maestris avait invité l’an dernier pour un concert Chico et les
Gypsies avec Charles Aznavour. Cette année, si Aznavour était
également présent avec Hervé Tane qui interpréta Charles Aznavour. Un
concert de très grande qualité avec une merveilleuse interprétation
par Hervé Tane des grands succès d’Aznavour tels que « Toi et moi », «
Hier encore », « la bohème », « Je m’voyais déjà » ou « Emmenez-moi ».
A la fin du concert Hervé Tane fut rejoint par Christian Terzian un
auteur compositeur et interprète valentinois d’origine arménienne. En
grand professionnel -il a composé pour Véronique Sanson- Christian
Terzian a parfaitement accompagné Hervé Tane sur les chansons
d’Aznavour.

En fin de concert, après les applaudissements nourris du public, Hervé
Tane remercia les artistes, les musiciens et le chaleureux public qui
comptait de nombreux membres de la communauté arménienne. Un album
d’Hervé Tane interprétant 17 chansons de Charles Aznavour imprimé pour
les amis était également disponible sur les stands.

Le public fut ensuite invité à finir la soirée autour de buffets généreux.

Contact : Maestrus Valence, 19, avenue Victor Hugo-26000 Valence. 04
75 81 72 50.

Krikor Amirzayan texte et reportage-photo à Valence

dimanche 17 juin 2012,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com