Author: nina hovnanian

FRIENDS OF HRANT DINK TO HOLD COMMEMORATIVE MARCH

asbarez
Thursday, January 12th, 2012

ISTANBUL (Combined Sources)-Friends of Hrant Dink, the assassinated
editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, will hold a
march to the Agos editorial office on January 19 to commemorate the
fifth anniversary of his death.

In a statement, the group called for a fair punishment of those who
plotted and committed Dink’s murder.|

“Hrant Dink was killed on January 19, 2007. Five years have passed
since then, yet the fact that two people actually plotted and
perpetrated his assassination will never convince us. Those who
threatened Dink and ordered his murder, and set a trap against him
ridding themselves of the affair are making a mock of our grief. We
do not want a predetermined trial that would punish only those who
shoot a bullet at Dink … We still have a lot to do. People who
have conscience have been suffering from an aggravating pain for
five years. If we forget all this we’ll once again kill our friend,
leaving a handle to new murders,” reads the statement.

PERPETRATORS OF MASSACRES IN BAKU SHOULD BE PUNISHED

NEWS.am
January 13, 2012 | 16:01

YEREVAN. – The 1990 slaughter of the Armenians in Baku was implemented
under the agreement and improvement of the then Azerbaijani
authorities, head of the Assembly of Azerbaijani Armenians Grigory
Ayvazyan said at a press conference on Friday.

“At first it was planned to annihilate or deport all the Armenians in
Baku and other Azerbaijani cities and then in Nagorno-Karabakh. Moscow
was aware of it, but they did not hurry to interfere. According o
their plan, after extermination of the Armenians in Baku, wave of
massacres would have spread in Nagorno-Karabakh. But the situation
went off control and the authorities had to quit genocide of the
Armenian population,” Ayvazyan said.

Asked what kind of punishment should receive those responsible for the
tragedy, Ayvazyan pointed out three variants. The first is to hold
“Nuremberg Trials”, the second to turn to the Hague Court and the
third, the Operation Nemesis.

BLAZING REACTION: LATEST FIRE AT ARMENIAN CHURCH IN GEORGIA RAISES MORE QUESTIONS IN OLD DISPUTE
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow
13.01.12

The collapse of another Armenian church in Tbilisi has raised more
questions regarding the state of conservation of Armenian cultural
legacy in Georgia.

A major fire reportedly broke out at Surb Nshan Church in Tbilisi on
Monday, with firefighting resulting in the collapse of the church’s
southeastern part.

Enlarge Photo

The church built in the early 18th century is one of the six churches
in Tbilisi that are a subject of dispute between the Armenian Apostolic
and Georgian Orthodox churches. A fire in this church also occurred
in 2002.

The Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin on Thursday issued a statement with a
strong reaction. The Supreme Spiritual Council, the highest executive
body of the Armenian Church, said it had discussed the issue at its
meeting and stated its ‘deep concern’ considering ‘the precedents of
the collapses of the Shamkhoretsots Karmir Avetaran and Moghnetsots
Surb Gevorg churches’.

The Supreme Spiritual Council reminded that during the visit last June
of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of
All Armenians, to Georgia, at the meetings with Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili and Georgian Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II the
Armenian side got assurances that proper care and attitude would be
shown towards the remaining Armenian churches in Georgia – whether
collapsed ones or those standing but on the verge of collapse.

“In spite of the alarms sounded by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
and the Armenian diocese of Georgia, the Georgian side’s neglect and
delay in solving the urgent problems has, unfortunately, confronted
us with this sad situation,” it said.

The Supreme Spiritual Council called upon the Georgian authorities “to
take immediate steps to save the Surb Nshan Church from destruction,
to pursue the cause of preserving and taking good care of the Armenian
sacred places that are part of the cultural heritage of Georgia,
and to grant the request of the Georgian Armenians for the return of
the demanded Armenian churches.”

On January 11, Armenia’s Ministry of Culture dispatched a group
of experts led by the head of the Cultural-Historical Monuments
Protection Agency Serzhik Arakelyan, to Tbilisi to learn more details
about the fire and discuss plans of further joint work with Georgian
counterparts on the spot.

In an interview with ArmeniaNow, Ministry of Culture spokesperson
Gayane Durgaryan said that the Armenian group would return to Yerevan
later on Friday.

“We will make a conclusion based on the study report presented by the
group after its return, but according to the preliminary information,
an arrangement has been made with the Georgian Ministry of Culture
that, if necessary, urgent work will be done to reinforce the
southeastern pillar of the church,” said Durgaryan.

Meanwhile, Samvel Karapetyan, a leading Armenian researcher of
monuments, says he has little expectations of action from the
Georgian side.

Talking to ArmeniaNow, Karapetyan, who heads the Research on Armenian
Architecture NGO, said a friend of his who lives in Tbilisi and
keeps him updated on the state of the churches by regularly sending
information and photographs told him a fire occurred in the same church
also on January 2. The source suggested, based on inquiries from people
living near the church, that the fire could have been started by drug
addicts, who have used the inactive church’s premises for shelter,
and later could have gotten out of control.

“But it [the source] also writes that the altar of the church that saw
archeological examinations only a few months ago was damaged by the
fire, which raises our friend’s suspicions [about possible arson],”
said Karapetyan.

The Armenian expert cited the example of the 2009 fire at the
Mughnetsots Surb Gevorg Church when the Georgian media wrote that
the blaze was started because of a cigarette thrown by a drunken
Russian [anti-Russian sentiments were still considerably strong in
Georgia then, in the wake of an armed conflict in South Ossetia in
August 2008].

Karapetyan also suggested that the Georgian side had not lived up to
its promises for the church to be restored at least by the following
year.

“Three years have passed since then and today suggestions are being
made in the Georgian press that the three remaining walls of the
Mughnetsots Surb Gevorg Church be pulled down because they pose a
risk to passers-by,” said Karapetyan. “I view this within the general
context of the Georgian program to cleanse the Armenian monuments.”

GRIGORY AYVAZYAN NAMES THE ORGANIZERS OF BAKU POGROMS
Alisa Gevorgyan

“Radiolur”
13.01.2012 16:53

Today marks the recurrent anniversary of the Armenian pogroms in Baku.

The exact number of the massacres organized 22 years ago is not
yet known. It’s obvious, however, that the real number exceeds the
official data.

According to the data of the Armenian Migration Agency and the UN, 418
thousand Armenians migrated to Armenian from Azerbaijan. The passive
position of the international community has left the organizers of
the Armenian massacres in the Azerbaijani capital, whose names were
made public today by the President of the Assembly of Azerbaijani
Armenians Grigory Ayvazyan.

Armenians of Baku were the only link between Artsakh and Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan cut this link, thus depriving itself of any rights to
lay claims on Artsakh. It was on this day 21 years ago that the mass
killing of Armenians started in the capital of a Societ country in
broad daylight, before the eyes of the world and lasted for a week.

According to Grigory Ayvazyan, the massacres were the result of joint
program of the Soviet leadership and the Azerbaijani Popular Front,
a program aimed at exiling Armenians from all over Azerbaijan and
later from Atsakh.

For the first time Grigory Ayvazyan mentioned the names of those, who
carry the main responsibility for the Armenian massacres of 1990 –
Khalil Reza, Mohammed Khatami, Neymad Panakhov and others. Instead
of being punished, these people were treated like heroes and were
appointed to high positions. According to Ayvazyan, their punishment
seems unrealistic today. The restoration of property rights of
Azerbaijani Armenians seems more probable today, he said.

CURRENT AUTHORITIES WILL BE ‘SWALLOWED’ JUST AS TER-PETROSSIAN ‘SWALLOWED’ KOCHARIAN, SARGSYAN: OPINION

epress.am
01.13.2012

The Armenian people are standing on the edge of a crash and as
things stand today it’s not possible to point out anything good. Each
political party or group pursues its own interests and not those of
the people’s – they say one thing, but in reality do something else,
said People’s Party leader Tigran Karapetyan, speaking to journalists
in Yerevan today.

“As proof I have to cite the Republican Party of Armenia [HHK]. The
HHK presents itself as a democratic party and stresses that they
have the people’s trust as a force that will lead to prosperity. The
mayor should have been elected and been an independent subject, but
he receives instructions from above. A self-governing territorial
body that operates independently doesn’t exist. All wear the HHK
badge and fulfill commands,” he said.

Karapetyan added, the economy is monopolized and the “chamber of
intelligentsia,” students, with the help of student councils, aspire
to become HHK’s soldiers.

“President of the same student council were [HHK spokesperson Eduard]
Sharmazanov, [Education Minister Armen] Ashotyan and many others,”
he recalled.

The People’s Party leader asserted that people today run after power,
by having strength striving to seek revenge from the weak.

“The main purpose of political parties today is to rule, to hoard
money; that’s why by being just an [average] official they all become
billionaires, acquiring real estate in various countries,” he said.

Karapetyan noted that it pains me that the state of Armenian politics
is so sad and there is no one who will seek justice and think about
the people.

“Today, power births power. At one time, [first president of the
Republic of Armenia] Levon Ter-Petrossian brought [ex-president]
Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan and became a victim. Tomorrow
too will come another power that will ‘swallow’ these authorities,”
he concluded.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SECRETARY MEETS CSTO SECRETARY GENERAL

armradio.am
13.01.2012 14:03

Wrapping up the visit to the Republic of Belarus, the delegation
headed by Arthur Baghdasaryan, Secretary of the National Security
Council of Armenia, arrived in Moscow.

Arthur Naghdasaryan had a meeting with Nikolay Bordyuzha, Secretary
General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. A broad range
of issues related to Armenia-CSTO cooperation was discussed. Reference
was made to the plan and schedule of joint programs in the fields of
information security, fighting illegal migration and drug trafficking.

The details of organization of the military exercises of special rapid
reaction forces of the CSTO in Armenia were discussed. The delegation
headed by CSTO Secretary General will visit Armenia in February to
discuss this and other issues.

TURQUIE : LES PARENTS DES KURDES TUES PAR L’ARMEE CRIENT AU MASSACRE
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 13 janvier 2012

“Ils nous ont deliberement massacres. Pourquoi tout ce sang a ete
verse ? Ils doivent nous repondre” : les larmes aux yeux, Kitan Encu,
qui a perdu onze parents dans le bombardement près de son village
kurde par l’aviation turque, ne cache pas sa revolte.

Le raid aerien dans la nuit de mercredi a jeudi près du village
d’Ortasu, proche de la frontière avec l’Irak, visait officiellement
des rebelles separatistes kurdes du Parti des travailleurs du Kurdistan
(PKK, interdit) qui tentaient de s’infiltrer en Turquie.

Le bombardement a fait au total 35 morts et le parti au pouvoir a
Ankara n’a pas exclu “une bavure de l’armee”.

Selon les autorites locales, les victimes, des jeunes pour la plupart,
faisaient de la contrebande de cigarettes entre l’Irak et la Turquie,
pays voisins, avec des mules et des ânes.

“J’ai vu les corps pour les identifier. Ils etaient tous complètement
brûles, en morceaux”, raconte Kitan Encu, au chevet de sa mère de
75 ans a l’hôpital de la ville d’Uludere, a 20 km de la frontière
irakienne.

“Le plus vieux avait la vingtaine”, dit cette jeune femme de 33 ans :
“ils etaient tous etudiants”.

Dans le sous-sol de l’hôpital, où les corps des victimes ont ete
amenes pour etre autopsies et identifies, les familles se pressent, a
la recherche de nouvelles, ou dans l’attente de recuperer la depouille
d’un des leurs.

“Je suis le père d’un martyr. Mehmet Ali Tosun etait son nom. Il avait
23 ans”, dit un homme de 50 ans, qui refuse de decliner son identite :
“il etait au chômage. Comme on est pauvres, on fait du commerce”,
ajoute-t-il, en reference a la contrebande de cigarettes, de gaz,
ou de sucre entre la Turquie et l’Irak.

“Ici, la vie vaut 60 livres”

“Ici, la vie vaut 60 livres” turques (moins de 30 euros), soit
le salaire d’une très bonne journee de trafic, explique un jeune
contrebandier de 19 ans, originaire du village voisin de Yemisli. Il
a participe aux recherches des cadavres et, selon lui, les victimes
“ont ete tuees volontairement”.

Un autre jeune contrabandier de Yemisli assure qu’il faisait partie
du groupe qui a traverse la frontière irakienne mercredi soir avec
principalement du gaz et des cigarettes.

“On a commence a rebrousser chemin, on a marche ensemble environ 10 km,
après on a pris la direction de notre village et eux celle” d’Ortasu.

“Plus tard, les soldats ont telephone au chef du village et lui
ont dit que tous les contrebandiers etaient morts. Ils lui ont dit
de venir et de prendre les cadavres. Comment pouvaient-ils savoir
que les morts etaient des contrebandiers s’il s’agit d’une erreur”,
s’interroge le jeune homme, qui souhaite garder l’anonymat.

L’armee turque, qui bombarde regulièrement les repaires du PKK dans
le Kurdistan irakien, fait face depuis l’ete a une flambee de violence
des rebelles qui utilisent leur bases arrières en Irak pour lancer des
attaques contre des objectifs en territoire turc, près de la frontière.

Le PKK, considere comme une organisation terroriste par de nombreux
pays, a pris les armes en 1984 et le conflit a fait au moins 45.000
morts.

Russie : deces a 87 ans de Gevork Vartanian, celebre agent sovietique
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 13 janvier 2012

MOSCOU, 11 jan 2012 – Gevork Vartanian, l’un des plus celèbres agents
secrets sovietiques, qui avait entre autres assure la securite a la
conference de Teheran durant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, est decede
a l’âge de 87 ans, a indique mercredi le Service de renseignement
exterieur russe.

“Il est mort le 10 janvier 2012”, a precise le SVR sur son site
internet.

Selon une source citee par l’agence Ria Novosti, M. Vartanian est
decede dans un hôpital de Moscou.

Ne le 17 fevrier 1924 a Rostov-sur-le Don (sud-ouest), Gevork
Andreevitch Vartanian demenagea dès l’âge de six ans en Iran,
où son père, lui aussi un agent sovietique, d’origine armenienne,
avait ete envoye.

Selon le SVR, Gevork Vartanian “lia son destin au renseignement
sovietique” dès l’âge de 16 ans. En 1940, il dirigea un groupe special
ayant pour but de demasquer les agents nazis en Iran.

En 1942, celui qui travaillait sous le pseudonyme “Amir” parvint meme
a suivre une formation des services secrets britanniques a Teheran,
destines a des agents devant par la suite etre deployes un peu partout
en URSS.

En 1943, il participa a la securite du Premier ministre britannique,
Winston Churchill, du president americain Franklin D. Roosevelt et
du dirigeant sovietique Joseph Staline, reunis pour la conference de
Teheran sur l’après-guerre.

M. Vartanian travailla sous couverture durant près de trente ans dans
de nombreux pays, en tandem avec sa femme Goar, egalement un agent
sovietique, a precise le SVR, sans autres details.

Il a recu la distinction de heros de l’Union sovietique pour ses
merites dans le renseignement.

Mercredi, le president russe, Dmitri Medvedev, a presente ses
condoleances aux proches de l’ancien agent.

“Gevork Andreevitch Vartanian, un agent secret legendaire, un veritable
patriote pour son pays, une personnalite brillante et peu ordinaire,
nous a quittes”, a declare M. Medvedev, selon un communique du Kremlin.

C’EST UN MYTHE , COMME IL Y AURAIT UN VOTE JUIF, UN VOTE ARMENIEN
Stephane

armenews.com
vendredi 13 janvier 2012

Francois Hollande aux Antilles et en Guyane, où Nicolas Sarkozy se
rendra une semaine plus tard : le ballet des candidats declares ou
potentiels a la presidentielle debute dans les outre-mer, un passage
oblige de la campagne.

“C’est strategique, la population d’outre-mer represente environ 5%
et avec la diaspora implantee en metropole, cela fait 7 ou 7,5%,
un vivier de voix important a ne pas negliger”, explique a l’AFP
Ferdinand Melin-Soucramanien, juriste a l’universite de Bordeaux IV,
specialiste du droit de l’outre-mer.

Selon les chiffres d’inscrits sur les listes electorales en 2009,
les 11 territoires ultramarins representent plus de 1,6 million
d’electeurs potentiels. Avec des poids variables : la Reunion compte
près de 540.000 electeurs, la Guadeloupe et la Martinique près de
300.000 chacune, la Polynesie 177.000, la Nouvelle-Caledonie 154.000,
Saint-Pierre et Miquelon 4.800.

Sans compter le million d’ultramarins dans l’Hexagone, essentiellement
originaires des Antilles ou de la Reunion.

“La Reunion est donc incontournable, les Antilles aussi – et on ne
peut pas aller en Guadeloupe sans aller en Martinique -, la Guyane,
ils y poussent leur voyage s’ils ont le temps et s’ils sont vaccines
contre la fièvre jaune”, detaille Frederic Regent, historien a Paris
IV Pantheon-Sorbonne.

En 2002, rappelle M. Regent, “la difference entre Jospin et Jean-Marie
Le Pen etait 200.000 voix, on s’est rendu compte que chaque voix
compte et celles des outre-mer aussi”.

Il faut toutefois se garder de croire au vote d’outre-mer
monolithique. “C’est un mythe , comme il y aurait un vote juif, un vote
armenien ou pied-noir. Il n’y a pas un mais des votes de l’outre-mer”,
analyse pour l’AFP Semir Al Wardi, maître de conference en sciences
politique a l’universite de Polynesie francaise.

Ainsi certains thèmes de campagne vont etre scrutes a la loupe. “La
diaspora regarde de très près ce qui touche a la continuite
territoriale”, relève Ferdinand Melin-Soucramanien, “l’emploi des
jeunes et la cherte de la vie” sont aussi des sujets sensibles
particulièrement dans les DOM (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane,
Reunion, Mayotte), où cette dernière question a declenche de graves
crises sociales en 2009 dans les quatre premiers et a l’automne 2011
dans le dernier.

En revanche, souligne M. Al Wardi, “quand les candidats arrivent en
Polynesie ou en Nouvelle-Caledonie, ils doivent prendre position par
rapport a la vie locale : pour ou contre l’independance ? l’autonomie
? l’inscription dans la liste des pays a decoloniser de l’ONU ?”

“Le debat sur la TVA sociale, par exemple, ne concerne pas les
Polynesiens qui n’ont pas la meme fiscalite”, rappelle le politologue.

En terme d’image, ces deplacements peuvent “conduire a briser le
carcan”, estime M. Melin-Soucramanien, estimant que “l’enjeu crucial
pour Francois Hollande est de se faire connaître au-dela des etats
majors socialistes, et pour Sarkozy de parvenir a se renouveler”.

“Ils cherchent a se donner un petite couleur de societe multiculturelle
alors que la France l’est depuis longtemps. On traite cet enjeu par
la petite porte”, regrette Dominique Wolton, directeur de l’Institut
des sciences de la communication du CNRS.

“On a une chance folle d’avoir autant de racines mondiales et au
lieu de cela on est dans un repli identitaire”, ajoute M. Wolton,
qui trouve que “règnent autour de cela un racisme ambiant en metropole
et une mauvaise conscience du colonialisme dans les outre-mer”.

A l’instar de M. Wolton, l’historienne Francoise Vergès souligne
aussi la responsabilites des elites ultramarines, deplorant “le peu de
contributions intellectuelles aux debats nationaux et internationaux :
où sont les voix de Fanon ou de Cesaire ?”

FRENCH LEFTISTS TO REJECT ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL

Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 14 2012
Turkey

French Parliament approve the bill which will be voted in French
Senate Jan 23.

Radical leftist senators in France announced plans Jan. 13 to vote
against a resolution criminalizing denials of the 1915 events as
genocide when the bill goes before their chamber Jan. 23.

Following in the footsteps of the Green group in the French Senate,
the European Democratic and Social Rally (RDSE), which has 16 senators,
officially announced that they would oppose the resolution.

A RDSE statement said the group respected the memories of nations who
had suffered but added that the resolution would not help normalize
relations between Turkey and Armenia, Anatolia news agency reported.

The statement also said parliaments should not pass laws regarding
historical incidents. The Green Group also said they would vote against
the resolution. There are also senators from the Socialists and the
ruling party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), who object
to the resolution. Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek urged
the head of the French Senate for a “timely intervention” to prevent
the adoption of a bill outlawing the denial of Armenian “genocide,”
warning bilateral ties are on the brink of deep crisis. “I do not want
to believe a great institution such as the Senate would ignore the
universal values held by France and support attempts to limit freedom
of expression,” Cicek said in a letter to Senate President Jean-Pierre
Bel. He stressed a rejection of the bill could provide an opportunity
to revive reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia.