Author: nina hovnanian

TURKEY WARNS FRANCE OF REPRISAL
by NADYA MASIDLOVER

The Australian
January 25, 2012 Wednesday
1 – All-round Country Edition

TURKEY yesterday vowed to take reprisals against France after
the French Senate approved a bill making it a crime to deny that
the massacre of Armenians in 1915 was genocide, further straining
relations between Paris and Ankara and raising the prospect of a
significant diplomatic rift between the two North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation allies.

The bill, which France’s lower house of parliament overwhelmingly
approved last month, was passed yesterday by a vote of 127 to 86. It
will require President Nicolas Sarkozy’s signature in the next 15
days in order to become law.

The proposal is set to make the denial of genocide, crimes against
humanity and war crimes that are recognised by French law punishable
by up to a year in prison and a E45,000 ($55,700) fine. The only two
mass killings recognised by French law as genocide are the killing of
Armenians during World War I and the Holocaust. Denying the Holocaust
is already illegal in France.

The news fuelled outrage in Turkey, which accused France of flouting
international law and pledged to “take every step”

to counter the “irresponsible” decision.

“In case of the completion of the finalisation process for the law,
we will not hesitate to implement, as we deem appropriate, the measures
that we have considered in advance,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was expected to address
his ruling AK Party early today in Ankara, where he is expected to
detail his government’s response.

Ankara reacted furiously when the lower house passed the bill last
month, withdrawing its ambassador from Paris and freezing political
and military relations.

Armenia praised the move, stressing that the day would “be written
in gold in the history of friendship between the Armenian and French
peoples, but also in the annals of the history of the protection of
human rights world-wide.”

While many countries recognise the killing of as many as 1.5 million
Armenians in 1915 as genocide, Turkey contests the scale of the
losses and says they were casualties of war. It argues the genocide
issue should be left to historians to decide, rather than legislated
by governments.

Relations between the two countries were already frosty, in large part
due to Mr Sarkozy’s vocal opposition to Turkey’s bid to join the EU.

Turkey’s government has repeatedly insisted that the bill is
politically motivated, alleging Mr Sarkozy was trying to win the
votes of 500,000 ethnic Armenians in France ahead of presidential
elections in three months.

Mr Erdogan vowed to never visit France again if the bill was passed,
while Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the government was ready
to take new measures against France. Before Mr Sarkozy signs the
bill into law, it can be challenged if his MPs request a review by
France’s constitutional council. Some MPs argue that the text could
be regarded as unconstitutional as the Armenian genocide has never
been recognised by an international or French court. That means the
law could be considered tantamount to legislating on history.

Armenians maintain that 1.5 million citizens were systematically killed
during World War I in today’s eastern Turkey, then part of the Ottoman
Empire. Turkey denies this, saying hundreds of thousands died in war
and famine, and many Turks were also killed by Armenians.

URAL AIRLINES WILL SOON BEGIN FLYING FROM NIZHNY NOVGOROD TO ARMENIA

RusBusinessNews
Jan 26 2012
Russia

Beginning March 7, 2012, Ural Airlines will offer a direct connection
between Nizhny Novgorod and Yerevan.

The airline’s press office told RusBusinessNews that flights to the
Armenian capital will operate on Wednesdays. The minimum one-way fare
will be 155 euros, excluding fuel surcharges.

Currently, Ural Airlines offers regular flights from Nizhny Novgorod
to Moscow, Dubai, and cities in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Ural Airlines is one of the top ten major Russian airlines for safety
and volume of traffic. In 2011, the air carrier served over 2.5 million
passengers. The airline’s primary fleet consists of 22 Airbus aircraft.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: DANGEROUS PITY

Huffington Post

Jan 26 2012

BY Robert Badinter.Ancien senateur et Garde des sceaux

The law punishing the denial or outrageous minimization of the Armenian
genocide of 1915 has been adopted by the French parliament.

In this pre-electoral period, the Senate has decided to reconsider
its earlier rejection of a text whose purpose was identical. Let us
hope that the passage of this law by the French parliament will soothe
the moral wounds that the Turkish authorities’ obstinate refusal to
recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915 has caused the victims. I
know, from my own personal experience, how cruel negationism is for
the descendants of the victims of a genocide. But apart from this
therapeutic function, I believe this law will bring only difficulties,
including those that will afflict the Armenian community itself.

Let us suppose, for example, that a Turkish high official or specialist
of public law questioned, in France, about the Armenian genocide
should offer the official Turkish version of events. The Armenian
associations will file suit in the French courts. The individual
prosecuted will not fail to point out that the law is unconstitutional
as it conflicts with his liberty of opinion and expression, as based
upon the QPC (Priority Question of Constitutionality). In the debate,
the Constitutional Council will necessarily be obliged to consider
the question of the constitutionality of the memorial law of 2001
recognizing the Armenian genocide, as it has never been compelled
to do so before. If, as a number of jurists, particularly the doyen
Vedel, who expressed his viewpoint in 2002, believe this law of
2001 is tainted with unconstitutionality, both the memorial law of
2001 and the current repressive law will disappear from our legal
statutes at the same time. This judicial boomerang will turn against
its authors. Law will prevail and take vengeance on politics.

II.

Parliament does not have the competence to dictate history, as was
excellently expressed by Pierre Nora and the members of the Liberte
pour l’histoire association. Only totalitarian regimes accept
an official line of history, determined by the powers that be and
imposed by the judge. French justice offers others means of condemning
those who would forge history, who fail in their scientific duty to
intellectual honesty, rigor, and objectivity in their work. But it
is not up to French legislators to put themselves in the place of
historians and judges by proclaiming, in a French law, that a crime
of genocide was committed in Asia Minor a century ago.

Judicial authority is the only one competent to declare if a crime
has been committed and who its perpetrators are. Thus the Jewish
genocide by the Nazis was established by the International Military
Tribunal at Nuremberg. This tribunal, in which French magistrates
participated, was the result of the London Accords, signed by France
in 1944. The judgments of Nuremberg were considered res judicata,
hence authoritative, in France. The same is true of crimes against
humanity that occurred in ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda and were judged by
international criminal courts. No such thing exists for the Armenian
genocide of 1915, committed before the international community became
conscious of the moral imperative that butchers of humanity should
not go unpunished. But this mission is the duty of international
jurisdictions, first of all the International Criminal Court. The
French parliament has no competence whatsoever in this respect and
cannot set itself up as a universal judge, capable of proclaiming
by French law the existence of crimes that, since they are historic,
are in no way within the realm of their competence.

III.

This hubris on the part of the French parliament shall not fail to
inspire reactions against France. First of all, in the international
domain. The Turks are a great people who play a great role,
particularly in the Middle East. They are proud of their history,
even though it bears the stains of crimes and exactions of all kinds,
just like that of all conquering peoples. We can call upon the Turkish
authorities to go back over their history, as other European states
have done. But to condemn (for that is the implicit meaning of the
law of 2001) the Ottoman predecessors of a Turkish state that is
our friend, to register this condemnation in our laws, this measure
intended to soothe the pain of one will inevitably cause the furor of
others. Since we’re talking especially about Franco-Turk cooperation
that currently flourishes in university and cultural spheres, we are
bound to feel the weight of Turkish resentment against this legislative
intrusion into an already long ago past.

I do not know if the Turkish constitution allows the parliament to
vote on laws concerning history, including that of foreign nations. If
such is the case, we should prepare ourselves for a rejoinder on
the part of Turkish nationalist legislators proclaiming that France
is the author of crimes against humanity committed in its former
colonies, especially in Algeria during the war of independence. Will
we protest that these tragic events do not concern Turkey? But what
did the French parliament do with regard to her yesterday? Our long
and tragic history should place us today on the side of international
justice. It does not qualify us to appoint ourselves the judge of
universal history and the moral conscience of the world.

SILENT PROTEST AGAINST TURKEY’S ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL CAMPAIGN TO HAPPEN TOMORROW AT UC IRVINE
By Gustavo Arellano

OC Weekly (Orange County)

Jan 26 2012
CA

Earlier this week, the French Senate passed a resolution making it a
crime in France to deny the Armenian genocide, a historical reality
accepted by everyone except the Republic of Turkey and many of its
citizens. As a result, many Turkish-American organizations in this
country are already blasting the French government for kowtowing
to what they claim is whiny Armenian propaganda, a vile stance if
ever there was one. For instance, the Assembly of Turkish American
Associations, headed by Coto de Caza resident Ergun Kirlikovali,
just issued this press release that stated, in part, “Genocide is a
criminal charge, which a legislature must defer to the judiciary and
executive in foreign affairs”–and then accuses France of committing
genocide against Algerians. Um, yeah…

Because of idiots like Kirlikovali, the Confederation of All-Armenian
Students Associations will hold silent protests at campuses across
California in protest of such denialists. “On the heels of the
passage of legislation criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial in the
French Senate, we demand that the government of the United States,
like France, can stand up to empty political bullying from Turkey and
properly condemn the Armenian Genocide,” reads a press release. “The
United States, following the French example, should continue the
fight against genocide denial and reject Turkey’s gag rule.”

The local protest will happen at the flagpoles at UC Irvine,
near Langson Library, and go from 9 in the morning until 4 in the
afternoon. I do believe UCI has more Turkish than Armenian students,
so it should be a blast. See you there!

ISRAEL HAS NO RIGHT TO BE APATHETIC OR DENY TRAGEDIES: KNESSET SPEAKER ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

epress.am
01.25.2012

In a special Knesset plenum session marking the International Holocaust
Day, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Israel cannot deny tragedies
that take place in other nations, whether they are “Armenian, Syrian
or others.”

“Israel does not have the right to engage in Machiavellian politics
and deny the tragedies or genocides of other nations like the Syrians
or Armenians.

“We do not have the right to be apathetic towards attempts at
genocide in Africa, Asia or the Middle East, just as we do not have
the privilege to be apathetic towards those who threaten us,” he said,
as reported by the Israeli press.

JUDGE, PROSECUTOR IN DINK CASE FACE PROBE AFTER CLASH OVER VERDICT

armradio.am
25.01.2012 18:05

Turkey’s top judicial council ordered an investigation of the judge
and prosecutor in the recently concluded Hrant Dink murder case on
Wednesday after they publicly clashed over the verdict.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Supreme Board of Judges and
Prosecutors (HSYK) said an investigation has been launched into
Eryılmaz and Usta after publication in the media of several news
articles concerning their statements about the Dink case. It was
not immediately clear whether they face any legal sanctions, Today’s
Zaman reports.

Ending the five-year trial, the Istanbul 14th High Criminal
Court sentenced suspect Yasin Hayal to life imprisonment for his
role in the 2007 killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Dink, but
acquitted 19 defendants charged with being part of a terrorist group,
sparking outrage among the family’s lawyers as well as politicians
and intellectuals who say the murder was part of a bigger conspiracy
that involved state bureaucrats.

In remarks published soon after the ruling, the presiding judge of
the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court, Rustem Eryılmaz, said while
he personally cannot deny the murder was well-organized, the evidence
submitted to the court was not sufficient to issue a ruling that it
was an organized crime.

Prosecutor Hikmet Usta swiftly responded to the judge’s statement,
saying in a two-page long petition as part of his appeal of the Jan.

17 verdict that there was plenty of evidence to establish the murder
was the result of efforts by an organized criminal group.

VIOLINIST ROMAN SIMOVIC WANTS TO CONTINUE COOPERATING WITH ARMENIAN MUSICIANS

Panorama.am
25/01/2012

London Symphony Orchestra soloist, violinist Roman Simovic is in
Armenia. He will perform a concert with the State Youth Orchestra of
Armenia at Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall on January 26, orchestra~Rs
artistic director and principal conductor Sergey Smbatyan told a news
conference in Yerevan.

Roman Simovic is in Armenia for the first time but he hopes this visit
will not be his last one. The violinist wants to continue cooperating
with Armenian musicians. He will also hold master classes for Armenian
students.

The concert at Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall will feature the Armenian
premiere of Chausson~Rs Symphony, said Sergey Smbatyan.

The first album by the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, Music is the
Answer, will be presented on the sidelines of the concert, he added.

ARMENIAN EXPERT DOES NOT THINK DECISION OF FRENCH SENATE TO IMPACT KARABAKH SETTLEMENT CONFLICT

news.am
January 25, 2012 | 14:56

YEREVAN-France’s decision on the bill criminalizing denial of genocides
will not have any significant impact on the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict. The director of the Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan
said during the Moscow-Yerevan teleconference on Wednesday.

The expert mentioned that ‘not so friendly relations of Armenia
and Turkey is not news’. Talking about the meeting of the Russian,
Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Sochi on Monday he announced
that the meeting was already the 10th in that format. No progress
was expected during the meeting and was not achieved.

At the same time Iskandaryan stressed that Azerbaijan behaved sharply
on the adoption of the bill criminalizing genocide denials by making
statements on issues that do not concern Baku at all.

FRENCH SENATE’S DECISION TO RISE WAVE OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION-RUSSIAN EXPERT

news.am
January 25, 2012 | 15:44

MOSCOW. – French Senate’s decision is really historical, director of
the Institute of Political and Social Researches of the Black Sea and
Caspian Region Vladimir Zakharov said during a Yerevan-Moscow space
bridge on Wednesday.

“Now it is impossible to say that the Armenian Genocide did not occur,
as Turkey and Azerbaijan used to claim,” the expert said adding that
the adoption of the bill by such an influential state would inevitably
rise a wave of recognition of the Armenian Genocide. He recollected
the Holocaust Museum head’s words that the Holocaust was a repetition
of the Armenian Genocide.

“I do not doubt that other states will also take certain moves.

However, time is needed,” he said.

In his turn, another Russian political analyst Andrey Areshev speaking
on emotional reaction of Turkey towards French MPs, said the situation
will become stable in a while, taken into account that it is not the
first case in the history of French-Turkish relation.

According to him, the current ‘Turkey’s measures against France’ is
a declaration intended for domestic policy. If Turkey really wishes
to set up normal relations with its neighbors, it should show more
balanced approach and review its own history. Besides, such processes
are already running in Turkey, the expert stated.

FRANCE SAYS GENOCIDE BILL TO BECOME LAW IN TWO WEEKS

01/24/2012 18:49

PARIS – A French law making it illegal to deny the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago will come into effect within
the next fortnight, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said on Tuesday.

Lawmakers in the upper house of parliament (Senate) voted in favor
of the draft bill outlawing genocide on Monday, after heated debate,
prompting angry retaliation from Turkey which threatened to cut
diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Sarkozy now has to ratify the law before it can come into force. “The
President of the Republic will promulgate the law withing the usual
time-frame, that is two weeks,” a source at the presidential office
told Reuters.

In a letter sent to Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
January 18 and made public on Tuesday, Sarkozy said the law did not
target a particular state, and urged Ankara to take into account its
“common interests” with France.