Author: nina hovnanian

RENCONTRE SUR LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN A ASHKELON
Jean Eckian

armenews.com
jeudi 12 janvier 2012

Le 10 janvier, a l’initiative d’Haïm Ouizemann *, fervent defenseur
de la cause armenienne et pour la reconnaissance par l’Etat d’Israël
du genocide des Armeniens, a organise a Ashkelon (au Nord de la bande
de Gaza), une rencontre debat sur le thème du genocide des Armeniens
avec la projection du film de Laurence Jourdan “Le Genocide Armenien”.

Question centrale : En quoi la cause armenienne interpelle-t-elle la
conscience humaine et plus particulièrement celle d’Israël ?

La conference sur le Genocide armenien (Aghet) dans les locaux de
l’Association des Francophones d’Israël- Ashkelon (OFI) a rassemble
une audience attentive. Le vice-president Haïm Ouizemann a presente
au cours d’un expose detaille l’historique du premier Genocide du
XXe siècle et anime le vif debat qui a suivi la projection du film
” Le Genocide armenien ” de la cineaste Laurence Jourdan (Arte).

Les nombreux denominateurs communs entre le Genocide des Armeniens,
l’une des plus vieilles communautes chretiennes, et la Shoah des
Juifs d’Europe ont suscite la surprise de nombre de participants qui
ont releve avec un interet certain que l’indifference des Nations
face au Genocide armenien, plus soucieuses de preserver leurs
interets nationaux particuliers que leur âme, contribua de manière
significative a la mise en ~uvre, vingt-cinq ans plus tard, de la
destruction systematique et premeditee du Judaïsme europeen.

Le negationnisme qui touche encore le genocide armenien n’a pas manque
de provoquer de vives reactions.

Le president de l’Association OFI Michel Orlinsky, dont les parents
survecurent a la Shoah, a honore de sa presence cette soiree au cours
de laquelle il fit part, avec beaucoup d’emotion, de sa rencontre
personnelle avec le celèbre juriste Raphaël Lemkin, père du neologisme
” Genocide “, et ce, alors qu’il etait etudiant en droit international
aux Etats-Unis.

L’Association a conclu cette emouvante soiree avec la chanson ” Ils
sont tombes ” que Charles Aznavour a chante au memorial Tsitsernakaberd
a Erevan pour rendre hommage a la memoire des victimes armeniennes.

“Que la force de la verite et de la justice l’emporte sur le mensonge
et le negationnisme.

Cordial Shalom” H.O

* Haïm Ouizemann est un universitaire Licencie de l’Institut des
langues orientales de Paris INALCO, vice-President de l’Association
francophone Ashdod-cafe

RPA PERVERTS CONSTITUTION?

January 11, 2012

Transition to 100-percent proportional electoral system proposed
by the Heritage and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun parties does not suggest
constitutional changes, says ARF-Dashnaktsutyun MP Artsvik Minasyan.

Note that the Republican Party of Armenia rejects the bill citing
this provision.

“The Constitution envisages that the National Assembly is comprised
of 131 MPs while the election procedure is defined by the Electoral
Code,” Mr. Minasyan told A1+.

“Moreover, the presence of deputies elected on the majoritarian ticket
contradicts the spirit of the Constitution since the deputy elected
from one constituency does not reflect the position of the other 40
elected on the same ticket and a non-democratic system is formed as
a result,” said the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun member.

Artsvik Minasyan thinks that the proportional system will unite
political forces.

“The struggle by the majoritarian list is not political, it is a
contest of administrative resources, during which candidates try to
bribe or threaten residents to get their votes,” he stressed.

As an alternative to 100-percent proportional electoral system, he
suggests elaborating a ‘hybrid’ electoral system where deputies are
elected from the party list by the principal of rating. This system
is used in some Eastern European countries.

Mr. Minasyan reminded that before the 2007 parliamentary elections,
the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun had reached an agreement with the Republican
Party to shift to the 100-percent proportional electoral system before
the next elections.

“Unfortunately, the parliamentary majority failed to keep its promise,”
he said.

At the same time, Atsvik Minasyan hailed the support of the Armenian
National Congress and other opposition parties.

SOLDIER WITH MENTAL DISORDER DISCHARGED FROM ARMY

Serviceman Zhora Lazarian, who was transported to the psychiatric
department of military hospital of Yerevan on September 27, 2011, with
‘acute psychos’ has been discharged from the army, reported.

Zhora Lazarian was discharged from hospital on January 9 and is
presently in his house. Mkrtchya’s father is going to take back the
complaint against his co-servicemen.

As the Investigation Service of the Defense Ministry reports a case has
been filed according to the compliant and the case will go to court.

Earlier, the boy’s father stated that his son had been beaten up and
teased in the army by his co-servicemen as a result of which Zhora
developed a mental illness.

Zhora Lazarian was serving in in “Eghnikner” (Deer) military unit
in karabakh.

“INNOCENT” PAY BACK: SACKED ARMENIAN ROAD POLICE CHIEF SAYS NOT GUILTY, BUT PAYS STATE HALF MILLION “HONOR” DOLLARS
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan

ArmeniaNow
10.01.12 | 12:02

Armenia’s former Road Police chief Margar Ohanyan has paid an
equivalent of about half a million dollars to the state budget to
compensate for missing funds that prosecutors say were embezzled
during his time in office and for what he was arrested, fired and
indicted last year.

At the start of a high-profile trial on Monday Ohanyan still pleaded
not guilty of charges of large-scale embezzlement of public funds and
abuse of office brought against him by the state. The colonel’s defense
attorney said despite not admitting his guilt his client had decided to
compensate the loss of public funds – by collecting money from family
and friends – because it was a matter of ‘honor and dignity’ for him.

In late August Ohanyan was arrested and subsequently sacked in a
criminal investigation into the alleged theft of more than 150 tons
of fuel that was allotted to road police cars. The case against him
is based on incriminating testimony given by three of his former
subordinates also standing trial. Unlike Ohanyan they are not kept
in pre-trial detention.

At they first court hearing the former Road Police chief made some
remarkable statements, in particular dropping hints that his arrest
and prosecution were because of his personal relations with leading
officials of the police system.

Ohanyan’s lawyer Mkrtich Vasakyan asked Yerevan’s Kentron and
Nork-Marash district court to release his client on bail or under a
written agreement not to leave the city while the trial is on. Before
judge Mkhitar Papoyan retired to the deliberation room to make the
decision, Ohanyan said there was something that he wanted to talk
to the judge and the prosecuting attorney Harutyun Harutyunyan. The
judge said there was no such practice in court hearings, after which,
without giving specific names, Ohanyan said that he had been turned
from a witness into a suspect following just one phone call [from a
high-ranking official]. He did not specify who the alleged caller was.

“On August 30, I was summoned to the Special Investigation Service,
I wrote that there was no such thing, nor could be, for 40 minutes
there was nothing, but after one phone call, my status of a witness
was changed into that of a suspect and I was arrested. It had its
own circumstances that I cannot speak about. I beg you to be clear to
your conscience and consider that I have been in prison already for
four months and I don’t know why. They simply needed to remove me,
arrest me so that they could complete what had been set from the
beginning,” he said.

“The matter concerns the police structure where I worked. I should
have told you straightforwardly who had come and taken whom before the
Special Investigation Service. Don’t wage someone else’s battle. Don’t
complete the case of my personal relations with corresponding senior
officials here,” added Ohanyan.

Then addressing other defendants Ara Levonyan and Samvel Makhmudyan,
Ohanyan said: “I’ll tell [the court] how it was, who was kept for
how many hours, who was the mediator, the high-ranking official —
whom I don’t want to name – who got him [Levonyan] to be released
from the sixth department at three o’clock in the morning. You think
I won’t tell, or you, who came and took you. So what that he is a
member of parliament?”

The court eventually rejected the petition from the counsel for
the defense about the defendant’s release on bail. Talking to
journalists later Ohanyan’s lawyer Vasakyan abstained from commenting
on his client’s statements in court. He said that he did not want
to elaborate proceeding from defense tactics and that answers to all
questions would be provided during the trial.

The next hearing in the trial is due to take place on January 13.

ELECTIONS OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTAL BODIES EXPECTED IN NINE PROVINCES OF ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
JANUARY 10, 2011
YEREVAN

Elections of local self-governmental bodies will take place in
the Armenian provinces of Aragatsotn, Ararat, Armavir, Gegharkunik,
Lori, Kotayk, Shirak, Syunik and Tavush February 12, an official from
Armenia’s Central Electoral Commission reported.

The CEC representative said observers may be registered till February
2. Candidates may submit necessary documents starting from January 8
till January 13. The registration will be completed January 18. The
pre-electoral propaganda will be conducted from January 25 till
February 10.

ARMENIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENT, HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION GEVORG VARDANIAN PASSED AWAY

ARMENPRESS
JANUARY 10, 2011
YEREVAN

Armenian intelligence agent, hero of the Soviet Union Gevorg Vartanian
passed away hours ago in Botkin Hospital, Moscow. Journalist Gurgen
Khazhakyan told Armenpress that the cancer was the cause of his death.

Gevorg Vartanian is the only intelligence agent of the soviet foreign
intelligence service, who has been awarded with the Hero of the Soviet
Union Medal when he was still alive. His name is listed among the best
100 intelligence agents of all times and peoples. Gevorg Vartanian was
born February 17, 1924 in Nor Nakhichevan (currently Rostov-on-Don).

His father was a Soviet intelligence agent as well and was sent
to Persia (presently Iran) on 1930, where he worked for 23 years
under a cover of a wealthy merchant. Gevork Vartanian was not even
16 when he went into intelligence. In 1955, he graduated from the
Institute of Foreign Languages, Yerevan. He is primarily responsible
for thwarting Operation Long Jump, concocted byAdolf Hitler, headed by
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and led by Otto Skorzeny, which was an attempt to
assassinate Stalin,Churchill, and Roosevelt at the Tehran conference
in 1943.

In 1942, Adolf Hitler decided to set the operation in motion. After
careful planning and deliberation under the personal supervision of
Security Police Chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Hitler sent his special
commando agent, Otto Skorzeny, along with six other men to rendezvous
at Tehran,Iran and spearhead the operation. The plan entailed the
capture and/or assassination of Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill,
and Franklin Roosevelt.

The first tip-off about the planned attempt came from Soviet
intelligence agent Nikolai Kuznetsov, under the alias of Wermacht
Oberleutnant Paul Siebert, from Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Kuznetsov got a
drunk SS officer named Ulrich von Ortel to tell him about the attempt.

Although the scheduled date of the operation was not known, the fact
that it would take place was confirmed.

According to Vartanian, he had been assigned to recruit agents
beginning in 1940. He and his seven recruits had identified Nazi
spies. However, in the autumn of 1943, they were given a different
task, security for the upcoming conference. Six German radio operators
had been sent to Tehran as an advance team for the assassination.

Eventually, Vartanian and his men managed to find where the commando
unit was hiding.

>From then on, the radio messages to Berlin were intercepted by Soviet
and British intelligence. However, one of the Germans managed to send
a coded message “we are under surveillance”. The operation was getting
off track and the main group led by Skorzeny never went to Tehran.

Gevorg Vartanian has met with Churchill’s granddaughter and been
congratulated for his great service to the Allies. It was revealed
that his identity was kept secret until the year 2000, when he finally
received full credit for putting a stop to the assassination plot.

EXPERT: SOME IN ARMENIA MISUNDERSTAND MEANING OF GENOCIDE BILL

PanARMENIAN.Net
January 10, 2012 – 14:43 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Some in Armenia misunderstand developments in
France regarding the bill criminalizing Genocide denial, the Caucasus
Institute director said.

Alexander Iskandaryan assessed French National Assembly’s decision
as the product of Armenian lobbying efforts, as well as humanitarian
problem of Genocide and its evaluation.

In addition to the aforesaid factors, the expert also conditioned
the draft law by France’s intention to use Armenian Genocide issue
as a tool of pressure on Turkey.

Iskandaryan further linked French policy regarding the issue both
with upcoming elections in France and Turkey’s plans to boost its
role in the Middle East.

Dwelling on Senate voting on the bill, the political analyst viewed
final criminalization of genocide denial as utterly possible.

On December 22, 2011, French National Assembly passed a bill
criminalizing public denial of the Armenian Genocide. If passed and
signed into law by the Senate, the bill would impose a 45,000 euro
fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime
against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

ISRAEL’S TORCH: SHEDDING LIGHT ON TURKEY’S ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by Daniel Bender

PolicyMic

Jan 10 2012

The Armenian holocaust occurred nearly a century ago, but it has been
garnering special attention lately. Israel’s Knesset recently held a
public conference on whether or not the state should honor the victims
of the genocide, which left nearly 1.5 million dead. These moves come
at the expense of Turkish leadership, who for decades has rejected
calls for acceptance of its own culpability in the Armenian holocaust.

In spite of Turkish angst, the time is ripe for Israel and the rest of
the world to fully recognize Turkey’s role in the genocide. In doing
so, Turkey can begin to get past this brutal episode in its history,
and proceed unburdened into holding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s
regime responsible for its ongoing crimes against humanity.

In fact, for Israel to have waited this long is shameful, given that
it was a state born from the carnage of the Jewish Holocaust. Israel,
though, has had sound, practical reasons to avoid the issue. After
all, Israel and Turkey were relatively-democratic allies who worked
closely together against radical Islam and terrorism in the Middle
East. Since early 2009, however, Turkish leadership has turned
against Israeli efforts to curb Palestinian terrorism. In doing so,
it has ignored its own rough history with anti-terrorism and ethnic
cleansing. Through its actions, Turkey has shown little interest in
healing the rift it has created in the once-strong alliance. In order
to respond accordingly, it is past time that Israel recognized the
plight of the Armenian people.

Currently over 20 countries around the world (and 43 U.S. states)
recognize the Armenian genocide. The U.S. government has yet to
officially acknowledge the atrocities perpetrated by the Ottomans
during World War I. Like Israel, American hesitation thus far has
stemmed from a pragmatic approach to foreign policy throughout the
Cold War and the War on Terror. Turkey proved to be an invaluable
resource to U.S. efforts in containing Soviet communism and global
terrorism. It would not serve America’s main diplomatic goals to upset
such a prominent ally in the region, but with Israel making moves
towards formal recognition of this event, the U.S. should do the same.

Acknowledging the Armenian genocide would be the moral thing to do,
but it would only be the first step. The U.S. should also use its
global influence to persuade other countries around the world to
follow suit. Of course Turkey will initially respond negatively
towards Israel and the U.S., but if enough countries follow in
their footsteps, Turkey may have no choice but to do the same and
move beyond the blemish on its otherwise proud history. If Turkey
can come to terms with the crimes of its past, much as Germany did
regarding the Holocaust and America has done regarding it’s treatment
of African slaves and American Indians, then it can progress on its
path toward modernity. If it truly wishes to play a stronger role
in the greater Middle East, it needs to remove this weight from its
shoulders. Only then can it become the credible leader in illuminating
crimes committed by the Assad regime in neighboring Syria.

VALERIE BOYER VISITED MEMORIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS AND CELEBRATED CHRISTMAS AT ARMENIAN CHURCH

Valerie Boyer, French deputy of the Unification for the people’s
movement party, author of the draft of criminalization of denial the
Armenian Genocide, visited memorial of Armenian Genocide victims in
Marcel and put garlands on January 6.

On the same day French deputy participated in the festival devoted
to the Christmas in Armenian local Church. The deputy informed about
this by her Facebook page and also put photos there.

Many Armenian users “liked” and “shared” this post, also thanked the
French deputy for her pro-Armenian activities.

Remind that on December 22 French National Assembly accepted the bill
of criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial. Now the bill will
be discussed at French Senate and will be presented to the French
President for approval.

Acceptance of the bill caused Turkish anger. Turkish Ambassador to
Paris was called back first. But then Turks decided to send him back
and he has an order now: he must prevent the acceptance of bill in
the French Senate.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey
would cut all kind of relations with France. Some analysts named this
announcement too naïve as Turkey demands on French economy mostly.

Then a Turkish company began to manufacture baby diapers, trash bags,
toilet paper and paper handkerchiefs in branded name Sarkozy, President
of French Republic, Times.am informed about this before.

Turks tried to use another strong factor against France: they call on
French side to recognize the own Genocide and apologize for it. But
Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia urged Turkey to stop trying
to make political capital out of France’s killing of thousands of
Algerians during the colonial period.

French side just asked Turkey to respect their decisions.

SAMAD SEYIDOV: “PACE’S NEW PRESIDENT WILL NOT ONLY REPRESENT FRANCE’S INTERESTS, BUT ALL MEMBER COUNTRIES”

APA
Jan 10 2012
Azerbaijan

Baku. Victoria Dementieva – APA. “New president of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe will not only represent France’s
interests, but all 47 member countries”, Head of the Azerbaijani
delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov told APA.

Asked about the effect of the PACE’s new appointment on the
organization’s work, Seyidov said that Jean-Claude Mignon of France,
who is expected to be elected as chairman, is an experienced deputy
working in the Council of Europe for a long time. He noted that the
nationality doesn’t play a role in the election of chairman to PACE,
but the Armenians repeatedly accused Mevlut Chavushoglu of being
preconceived and lobbying the Subcommittee on Nagorno Karabakh:
“The candidate to this post has no right to lobby the national or
ethnic interests. It is impossible and illegal. The Subcommittee on
Nagorno Kasrabakh was established in 2005 on the basis of resolution
No.1416 and Chavushoglu wasn’t chairing PACE at that time”.

The term of tenure of PACE’s incumbent chairman Chavushoglu, who was
elected in 2010, expires. New chairman will be elected in the January
session. Jean-Claude Mignon is the only candidate to this post.