Author: nina hovnanian

SARKOZY CAN NEVER MAKE US ANGRY

Today’s Zaman
Turkey
Jan 10 2012

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is planning to take new steps to
harm Turkey, according to the news. Realizing that the “Armenian
genocide” is a sore spot for Turkey, Sarkozy is set to propose that
all EU countries adopt the genocide denial bill — criminalizing the
denial of the Ottoman’s deportation of Armenians in 1915 as “genocide,”
which if approved by the Senate will become law.

I can only laugh at that because Sarkozy apparently does not know
that we are used to seeing that kind of stupid political plan, and we
are very much used to seeing other countries’ attempts to frustrate
Turkey or turn Turkish people against one another or cause political
polarization. Sarkozy is not the first, nor will he be the last to
do that. If Sarkozy aims to prevent Turkey from joining the EU by
depicting it as a problematic country, then we will only laugh at
that because Turkey is not a country waiting to be given a reason
for a conflict. We do not need outsiders for that. “Conflicts” and
intense debates are already a major part of Turkish politics.

TURKISH ENVOY LOBBIES AGAINST ‘GENOCIDE’ BILL

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 12 2012

PARIS – Anatolia News Agency

Turkey’s Ambassador to France Tahsin Burcuoglu yesterday addressed the
Socialist Group at the French Senate, saying approval of the Armenian
“genocide” resolution would be a big blow to Turkish-French relations.

Burcuoglu said the Armenian resolution was against freedom of
expression and freedom of thought. The Socialists at the French Senate
invited Burcuoglu so they could hear Turkey’s views more closely
before the Armenian resolution is placed on the agenda of the Senate
on Jan. 23.

Burcuoglu gave detailed information to the French Socialists on the
incidents of 1915. The Socialist group also listened to Armenia’s
ambassador to France in a separate meeting.

France recognized the 1915 killings as genocide in 2001, but the new
bill would punish anyone who denies this with a year in jail and a
fine of 45,000 euros.

AZERBAIJAN TO TRAIN 15-YEAR-OLDS AS SPIES

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia

Jan 11 2012

(AGI) Baku – Azerbaijan has decided to strengthen its secret services
by training future spies who are just fifteen years old with training
courses for military intelligence open to adolescents, so as to also
face the unsolved conflict with bordering Armenia concerning the
Nagorno Karabakh area.

“Students will acquire the capabilities needed by secret agents such
as camouflage methods, the use of weapons and close combat,” explained
major General Novruali Orujev who organizes these courses. . .

AZERBAIJAN TRAINS 15-YEAR-OLDS IN ESPIONAGE

Emirates 24/7

Jan 11 2012
UAE

Azerbaijan on Wednesday launched free military intelligence courses
for teenagers as young as 15 as the ex-Soviet state remains mired in
an unresolved conflict with neighbouring Armenia.

“Students will learn about skills necessary for an intelligence agent
as well as camouflage methods, the use of weapons and hand-to-hand
fighting,” organiser Major General Novruzali Orujev told AFP.

Orujev said he launched the training programme in response to demand
from young people who wanted to serve in military intelligence when
conscripted into the armed forces.

He said 20 young people had been selected out of more than 70 who
applied to take part in the free month-long courses.

After completing the course male participants will be eligible to
join military intelligence units when they do national service.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are at loggerheads over breakaway Nagorny
Karabakh region, where ethnic Armenian forces backed by Yerevan seized
control from Baku during a war in the early 1990s that left around
30,000 people dead.

After peace talks mediated by the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) produced little if any result, Azerbaijan
stepped up its bellicose rhetoric, threatening to use force.

A flare-up between Azerbaijan and Armenia risks escalating into
a clash of major regional powers Russia, Iran, and Turkey as well
as the West, which all have strategic interests in the energy-rich
Caspian and Caucasus regions.

Military service is compulsory in Azerbaijan for males aged between 18
to 35 who have to complete between one year and 18 months of service
depending on their level of education.

BULGARIA’S PARLIAMENT TURNS DOWN RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Sofia Echo

Jan 11 2012
Bulgaria

The latest attempt by Bulgarian ultra-nationalist party Ataka to
ask the country’s Parliament to recognise the Armenian genocide was
defeated in the House on January 11 2012.

Vehemently rejected as historically valid by Turkey, the “Armenian
genocide” refers to events during conflicts from 1915 as the Ottoman
empire neared its end.

The issue of the Armenian genocide has troubled Turkey’s bilateral
relations with Armenia for several years. Where countries recently have
formally recognised the Armenian genocide or moved towards doing so –
lately including Sweden in 2010, a US congressional committee and in
recent weeks, France – Ankara has responded with protests including
severing or limiting diplomatic and economic ties.

The municipalities of a number of Bulgarian cities, among them Plovdiv,
Varna, Bourgas and Stara Zagora, have approved resolutions recognising
the Armenian genocide but over the years, similar resolutions in
Parliament have failed.

This was the case on January 11, as the National Assembly – Bulgaria’s
unicameral legislature – resumed business for the New Year.

Volen Siderov, leader of Ataka, a party whose platform includes an
overall anti-Turkish stance against the background of the centuries
of Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, said that it was natural for a “patriotic
party” such as his to recognise the Armenian genocide.

“To hide certain aspects of history because they are not good for
you as a country is, to me, demagoguery,” Siderov said.

He said that Ataka’s resolution was not an attempt to politicise
the issue or to tread into the field of natural history, but was
a proposal based on reason, the necessity to recognise unpleasant
moments in history.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a minority party led and
supported in the main by Bulgarians of Turkish ethnicity, objected
strongly to Parliament being asked to deal with the issue.

It was not the function of Parliament to decide historical truth,
senior MRF MP Lyutvi Mestan said. The draft resolution was intended
to force a mandatory way of thinking, he said.

FIRE BREAKS OUT AT ICE CREAM STICK MANUFACTURING FACILITY IN ASHTARAK CITY

News from Armenia – NEWS.am
January 11, 2012 | 14:17

YEREVAN. – Armenia’s Rescue Service received information Tuesday that
a workshop was on fire in Ashtarak city.

A firefighting squad was dispatched to the scene, Rescue Service
informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The fire was extinguished.

As a result of the fire, roof of the ice cream stick manufacturing
facility, belonging to Grigoryan Hrach private entrepreneur, was
burned down.

GIRO MANOYAN: ARTSAKH MORE DEMOCRATIC THAN AZERBAIJAN

Panorama.am
11/01/2012

Artsakh is more democratic than Azerbaijan, head of central Hay Dat
office Giro Manoyan said in an online interview.

According to him, increasing the level of democracy in Azerbaijan
may contribute to settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“Increasing the level of democracy in Azerbaijan and in the
region in general will contribute to the peaceful settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. I am convinced that negotiated settlement
of the conflict is not the only way. International recognition of NKR
can be a basis for settling the conflict. In any case, NKR’s relations
with neighboring Azerbaijan will be normalized and democracy will be
established in our neighboring country,” said Manoyan.

FLUTIST TIGRAN ARAKELYAN TO PERFORM FREE CONCERT IN GLENDALE

PanARMENIAN.Net
January 11, 2012 – 11:56 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian-American conductor/flutist Tigran Arakelyan
will perform a free concert at Komitas Hall (Lark Conservatory)
in Glendale CA on January 21 at 6 PM.

Mr. Arakelyan was a Conducting Fellow with California Philharmonic and
Music Director of Cadence Chamber Orchestra in Seattle. Currently he
is the Assistant Conductor of California State University Orchestra,
Northridge Youth Philharmonic and Discovery Players. He is a recipient
of Nellie Cornish, Welland Jordan Scholarships, 1st place winner
of the Armenian Allied Arts Competition and Cornish College of the
Arts Grant recipient. Mr. Arakelyan studied flute with Paul Taub,
John Barcellona, Dr. Stephen Preston and Shigenori Kudo. Conducting
with Adam Stern and chamber music with Bern Herbolsheimer and Stephen
Stubbs. In 2008 he played alongside James Galway during his induction
into Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.

He will be playing with a fellow Armenian, pianist Maria Petrosyan who
is a graduate of University of Irvine and UCLA. The program includes
pieces of the 20th century, along with a premiere of Mr. Arakelyan’s
flute work “Sustain”.

PARAJANOV’S MUSEUM TO BE OPENED IN KIEV

arminfo
Wednesday, January 11, 13:44

The distinguished Ukrainian writer and politician Ivan Drach is
for opening of the filmmaker Sergey Parajanov’s museum in Kiev,
the information centre of the “Erktamas” newspaper of the Russian
Armenians reported.

“I reiterated many times that at least three big museums should be
opened in Kiev – Dovzhenko’s, Kurbas’s and Parajanov’s… They should
be of such a high level like Parajanov’s museum in Yerevan. Kiev has to
create something like that as it is under an obligation to Parajanov”,
– Ivan Drach said.

The prominent filmmaker Sergey Parajanov lived in Kiev during the
best years of his creative life.

PRESS RELEASE
Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
Governmental Buiding 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
Tel:? +(3741) 56 01 06? ext. 105
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

Yerevan, January 12, 2012

Hayastan All-Armenian Fund completes renovation of
Nephrology and Dialysis departments at Yerevan’s St. Gregory Hospital

The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund recently completed an extensive renovation of
the Nephrology and Dialysis departments of Yerevan’s St. Gregory the
Illuminator (Surb Grigor Lusavorich) Hospital. The refurbishment was made
possible by the fund’s Toronto affiliate (with sponsorship of a
Toronto-based benefactor), within the framework of 2011 projects implemented
through sponsor-specified grants.

The renovated premises, encompassing a total area of 1,120 square meters,
include eight patient rooms, a cafeteria, two offices, and all restrooms. In
addition, the power and water systems have been replaced and a
central-heating system was installed. Both upgraded departments have been
fully operational since mid-December.

Dr. Razmik Pandunts, who heads the Nephrology and Dialysis departments, had
high praise for the quality of the upgrades as he conveyed his gratitude to
the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund. “Without a doubt, our staff has been
delighted to work in such beautifully renovated facilities,” Dr. Pandunts
said. “This new environment is also having a visibly positive effect on our
patients.”

The Nephrology and Dialysis departments employ a staff of 36, including six
doctors and 30 nurses. Today some 55 patients receive treatment at the two
wings, which together have the capacity to serve up to 80 patients at a
time.

The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund is currently carrying out two other projects
sponsored by its Toronto affiliate: the complete renovation of the third and
fourth floors of the Nork Retirement Home, in Yerevan; and the refurbishment
of the Education and Cultural Centre of Shushi, Artsakh.

Commenting on the completion of the St. Gregory Hospital project and other
initiatives sponsored by the Toronto affiliate, Mkrtich Mkrtichian, its
chairman, said, “We are extremely gratified by the fact that the Armenian
community of Toronto is doing its utmost to be of assistance to our sisters
and brothers in the homeland.”