Author: nina hovnanian

NORTHERN IRISH POLITICIAN: NEW WAR IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH NOT TO RESOLVE DIFFERENCES OF PARTIES

arminfo
Friday, November 25, 19:47

A new war in Nagorno-Karabakh will not resolve the differences of
the parties, Jeffrey Donaldson, Northern Irish politician and Member
of Parliament for Lagan Valley belonging to the Democratic Unionist
Party, told an ArmInfo correspondent.

“I do not think that in a divided region that conflict is the way to
resolve differences, because in the end it does not change the way the
people think. It does not give them a sense that their views are taken
into account. So you can try and force someone else but you won’t
succeed”, he said. In fact, the more you try to force your will on
people, the more determined people will be to resist that enforcement.

So in the end a dialogue and negotiations and an agreement are better
than the conflict and enforced settlement, Donaldson said.

DARCHINYAN: I’M GOING TO BE TOO STRONG FOR MORENO

PanARMENIAN.Net
November 26, 2011 – 13:08 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Vic Darchinyan (37-3-1, 27 KO) still doesn’t think
there’s anything special about Panama’s Anselmo Moreno (31-1-1, 11
KO), the WBA’s super champion at 118 pounds. The confident Armenian
slugger sees Moreno, a fellow southpaw, as a minor obstacle in his
path toward rematches against Abner Mares or Joseph Agbeko, both of
whom out-pointed Darchinyan in closely contested bantamweight title
fights, BoxingScene.com reports.

“He’s a good fighter,” Darchinyan said of Moreno, who has won four
of his last seven bouts by 12-round split decisions.

“He’s not a warrior. He’s not coming to win the fight. He’s kind of
a defensive fighter. He’s looking to win every round. He just wants
to win the fight. I don’t think he’s a very exciting fighter because
he just goes round-by-round. I’m just going to be too strong for him.

He’s bigger than me, maybe body-wise. He’s taller. But we will see.

I’m very prepared for this fight and he’s not going to be [better]
than me. I’m going to be too strong for him.”

The Darchinyan-Moreno match will be the co-featured fight of a
“Showtime Championship Boxing” card Dec. 3 from Honda Center in
Anaheim, Calif. A rematch between Mares (22-0-1, 13 KO), of Montebello,
Calif., and Ghana’s Agbeko (28-3, 22 KO) will be the main event
that night.

AUSTRALIAN MPS CALL TO RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

armradio.am
26.11.2011 13:03

In an unprecedented development, seven Federal Members rose in the
House of Representatives of Australia on November 21, 22 and 23 to
affirm the historical reality of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian
Genocides and call for Australian recognition of these crimes against
humanity, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia
(ANC Australia).

MPs Craig Kelly, Malcolm Turnbull, Michael Danby and Joel Fitzgibbon –
new supporters of this fundamental issue of humanity – added their
voices to long-time friends of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian
communities in MPs John Alexander, Joe Hockey and Paul Fletcher and
paid tribute to the victims of the first genocide of the 20th century.

The speeches coincided with the visit of a delegation of ANC Australia,
the Australian Hellenic Council (AHC) and the Assyrian Universal
Alliance of Australia (AUA) to Canberra to further the cause of
genocide recognition as part of ANC Australia’s Advocacy Week 2011.

In his first parliamentary speech on this issue, the Member for Hughes,
Craig Kelly, spoke in detail about the genocidal policies of the
Ottoman Empire against its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian populations.

“The Armenian Genocide and the related Assyrian and Greek Genocides
were the result of a deliberate and systematic campaign against the
Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923,”
Kelly said.

“Aside from the deaths, Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire had
their wealth and property confiscated without compensation. Businesses
and farms were lost, and schools, churches, hospitals and monasteries
became the property of the Ottoman Empire.”

The Member for Hughes underlined the importance for Australia to
recognize this crime against humanity.

“It is now time for our parliament to join other parliaments around the
world and recognise these genocides for what they were,” Kelly stated.

The Member for Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull, also delivering his first
parliamentary speech on this issue, welcomed the representatives of
ANC Australia, AHC and AUA in the public gallery of the Chamber of
the House of Representatives.

“They are assembled here, as we are, to lament what was one of the
great crimes against humanity, not simply a crime against the Greeks,
the Assyrians and the Armenians but a crime against humanity-the
elimination, the execution, the murder of hundreds of thousands of
millions of people for no reason other than that they were different.

This type of crime, this sort of genocidal crime, is something that
sadly is not unique in our experience,” Turnbull said.

The Member for Wentworth reflected on the Ottoman Empire’s record
of multiculturalism of which these genocidal crimes constituted
an aberration.

“We lament today great crimes but also the loss of diversity and the
loss of tolerance,” Turnbull said.

The Member for Melbourne Ports and Chairman of the Joint Standing
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Michael Danby,
affirmed the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide during a
debate in the House of Representatives on a motion related to the
1995 genocide in Srebrenica.

“… Adolf Hitler, said on 22 August 1939, on the eve of perpetrating
another genocide, ‘Who remembers the Armenians?’, referring to
the failure of anyone to react to Turkey’s genocide of two million
Armenians. It is because he was able to say that in Europe in the
1930s that further tragedies engulfed Europe,” said the Member for
Melbourne Ports.

Danby emphasised the need to acknowledge and remember past genocides
in Armenia, Rwanda, Darfur and Srebrenica to prevent such horrible
crimes from recurring.

The Member for Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon voiced similar sentiments in
his first public statement on this issue.

“We should collectively spend more time recognising that between 1915
and 1923 hundreds of thousands of Armenians had their lives cut short
for no other reason than for their ethnicity,” said Fitzgibbon.

“The best and most effective way to heal the wounds carried still by
Armenians today is to recognise and acknowledge both the events of
the past and the motivations behind them. Only then will the global
community collectively be able to offer the Armenian people and others
sufficient empathy. And only then will the international community
be able to genuinely claim an unqualified determination to identify
and eradicate genocide in any and every corner of the globe.”

The Member for Bennelong, John Alexander, reaffirmed his support for
the recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides during
an adjournment speech on November 21.

Recalling the 1948 United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Alexander said: “From the
eyewitness accounts of ANZAC soldiers and survivors there is little
doubt that the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians, one
million Greeks and 750,000 Assyrians fits this definition.”

Alexander called upon the Australian government to join the wave of
international recognition of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocide.

“I urge the government to follow in the footsteps of so many nations
in formally recognising these genocides. The actions of members of
this parliament will help to solidify the global movement to identify
these atrocities for what they are.”

The Member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey emphasised the strong
connections between Australian history and the genocide that began
in 1915 during an adjournment speech on November 21.

“Our country has a strong association with the events beginning in
1915. The Ottomans began their genocide of the Armenian people on
24 April 1915-the day before the first Australian soldiers landed at
Anzac Cove-and many Australian soldiers witnessed the tragic events
the Armenian race suffered at the hands of the Ottomans.”

Hockey firmly called for an official Australian recognition of this
crime against humanity.

“We as a nation should no longer fail to recognize the truth of
history-truth that was recorded even by the Australian media as
it was occurring, at the beginning of the 20th century-and so I
officially call on our parliament again to recognize the genocide of
the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians that occurred in Ottoman Turkey
between 1915 and 1923.”

The Member for Bradfield, Paul Fletcher once again affirmed the
historical reality of the Armenian Genocide and called for its official
recognition by the Australian government during a constituency speech
on November 22.

“Consistent with the definition of genocide, these deaths took place
with the clear intent of destroying Armenians as an ethnic group.”

“Some 20 countries around the world have declared these events as
genocide. These countries include Canada, France and Germany. It is
time that the Australian government also recognised what happened in
the early decades of the last century as genocide,” stated Fletcher.

ARMENIAN PROPAGANDA AIMS TO WEAKEN TURKEY-AZERBAIJAN UNITY – EXPERT

news.az
Nov 25 2011
Azerbaijan

Turkey-Armenia relations will not be normalized unless first step
made in resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and lands are
de-occupied.

The statement came from Head of Atlas Research Center, political
expert Elkhan Shahinoglu while commenting on latest remarks by Turkish
President Abdullah Gul that “there are still hopes for improving
Armenia-Turkey relations.”

“Ankara is committed to a promise it has given to Azerbaijan on
this matter. The ball is in Armenia’s side. Yerevan should make the
first step. As to reports about meetings between Turkish and Armenian
businessmen, this is exaggerated news,” Shahinoglu said.

“The news is about a few businessmen of Armenian origin who live in
border areas in Turkey. They describe the meetings with their Armenian
counterparts as “Union of Turkey-Armenia businessmen.” Armenian
propaganda is aimed at weakening Turkey-Azerbaijan unity,” the
expert added.

ARMENIA’S OBSESSIVE LOVE FOR AZERBAIJANI TRADITIONS AND ASHUG CREATIVITY LED TO BREACH OF INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

Azerbaijan Business Center
Nov 25 2011

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Bali hosts VI session of UNESCO’s
Intergovernmental Committee on intangible heritage protection.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan has reported that nominations
were discussed to be urgently included in the list of intangible
heritage. Armenia presented 2 nominations- Armenian tradition of
Ashug love romance and Armenian Water Festival Vardavar.

While discussing nominations First Secretary of Permanent
Representation under UNESCO Anar Kerimov, expert-musiologist Sanubar
Bagirova and Culture and Tourism Ministry employee Gunay Aliyeva
told the Committee members that nominations presented by Armenia
do not meet existing convention’s criteria. Thus representative of
Azerbaijani delegation noted that along with non-compliance with
the convention Armenia laid hands on Ashug creativity and presented
provocative references connected with Nagorno Garabagh in its
nomination. Bearing in mind Azerbaijani side’s arguments concerning
inconsistency of the nomination’s above mentioned criteria and their
non-compliance with intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding
which is UNESCO’s major priority , most of the Committee members
argued against inclusion of Armenia’s nominations in the list of
intangible cultural heritage needing urgent protection. As a result
the nominations were not accepted.

TÄ°BPROVIDES COURT WITH RECORDINGS FROM SCENE OF DINK MURDER

Today’s Zaman
Nov 25 2011
Turkey

The Telecommunications Directorate (TÄ°B) has finally forwarded
recordings of telephone conversations had around the scene of the
murder of a Turkish Armenian journalist in 2007 pursuant to an order
issued by the Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court, which is hearing
the Dink case.

Arzu Becerik, a lawyer for the Dink family, said the TÄ°B’s eventual
compliance with the court order was largely due to a campaign by the
Dink family’s lawyers to inform the public about the TÄ°B’s wrongdoing.

“The TÄ°B has been dragging its feet for a long time. It acted largely
because we publicly announced that those recordings were essential
to the case,” Becerik said.

On Nov. 14, at the 21st hearing of the murder trial, the Dink family’s
lawyers emphasized that the TÄ°B had been requested by the court
several times to provide the phone recordings, which would be important
for the identification of other perpetrators belonging to the criminal
organization that allegedly played an important role in Dink’s murder.

Until Nov. 21, the TÄ°B had not yet provided any of the information
requested by the court which, according to the plaintiff’s lawyers,
was an obstruction of justice. “Those phone records could be crucial
to the case, especially since there were conversations right after
the murder,” Becerik said. “We are in communication with the court
over how to proceed with reviewing those records at the moment.”

Asked by Today’s Zaman if this action by the TÄ°B came too late,
as the opinion of the prosecutor regarding the case was announced in
September, Becerik noted that that was one of their concerns but the
court has allowed some flexibility. TÄ°B President Fethi Å~^imÅ~_ek
told the Agos weekly, the Turkish-Armenian newspaper that Dink had
founded, that the recordings will not be deleted even though the time
limit to keep them is only five years thanks to a circular from the
Justice Ministry that asked the TÄ°B to keep the recordings until
the case is finalized.

The prosecution indicated in September that the murder was committed
by an Ergenekon cell — part of an illegal organization accused
of plotting to overthrow the government — in Trabzon. Dink family
lawyers were furious and asked why then the Trabzon gendarmerie and
police are not being prosecuted.

The Dink family’s lawyers made many requests to broaden the scope of
the investigation beyond the small circle of nationalist youngsters
from Trabzon on trial in order to reach those they believe were the
masterminds behind the murder. Ogun Samast, the young man who pulled
the trigger, and his friends were under the control and surveillance
of Trabzon state officials long before Dink’s assassination.

Becerik said that links with the local police and gendarmerie have
been uncovered but these officials have not been investigated.

“It is obvious that they are trying to close the case, but it is
incomplete,” she said. “The prosecution knows this, too.” She said
that at the most recent hearing, the prosecutor told the court that
“truth will be revealed one day.”

“Who is supposed to reveal the truth?” Becerik asked. “This falls
under the responsibility of the prosecution. He spoke as if there
are obstacles to revealing the truth.”

The next hearing of the trial will be on Dec. 5.

VIC DARCHINYAN: I HAVE TO BE PATIENT AGAINST MORENO
By Keith Idec

BoxingScene.com

Nov 25 2011

Anselmo Moreno has lost just once in his nine years as a professional
boxer.

That defeat came in his eighth fight, a four-rounder in October 2002
against an opponent Moreno stopped in their rematch and beat again
by unanimous decision.

Vic Darchinyan still doesn’t think there’s anything special about
Panama’s Moreno, the WBA’s super champion at 118 pounds. The confident
Armenian slugger sees Moreno, a fellow southpaw, as a minor obstacle
in his path toward rematches against Abner Mares or Joseph Agbeko,
both of whom out-pointed Darchinyan in closely contested bantamweight
title fights.

“He’s a good fighter,” Darchinyan said of Moreno, who has won four of
his last seven bouts by 12-round split decisions. “He’s not a warrior.

He’s not coming to win the fight. He’s kind of a defensive fighter.

He’s looking to win every round. He just wants to win the fight.

“I don’t think he’s a very exciting fighter because he just goes
round-by-round. I’m just going to be too strong for him. He’s bigger
than me, maybe body-wise. He’s taller. But we will see. I’m very
prepared for this fight and he’s not going to be [better] than me. I’m
going to be too strong for him.”

The Darchinyan-Moreno match will be the co-featured fight of a
“Showtime Championship Boxing” card Dec. 3 from Honda Center in
Anaheim, Calif. A rematch between Mares (22-0-1, 13 KO), of Montebello,
Calif., and Ghana’s Agbeko (28-3, 22 KO) will be the main event
that night.

The 35-year-old Darchinyan (37-3-1, 27 KO) really wants another shot
at Mares, but he wouldn’t predict a winner of Mares-Agbeko II. The
Australia-based former 112-pound and 115-pound world champion can
see the first televised fight of the night going only one way, but
he knows he must be more tactical against the 26-year-old Moreno
(31-1-1, 11 KO), who’ll try to out-box the rugged Darchinyan.

“I have to be patient,” Darchinyan said. “I’m not going to rush. We
saw that already [in my fight] with Agbeko. I just wanted to knock
him out in the first round. I was very, very impatient. I was not
controlling myself, because I wanted to knock him out. It’s not going
to happen anymore.”

$ 12.2 M PLEDGED AT ALL-ARMENIAN FUND’S TELETHON

AZG DAILY
26-11-2011

A sum of USD 12,286,478 was pledged at Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s
14th telethon aired on November 24 on Thanksgiving Day. The show
simulcast across the globe through cable, satellite and the Internet
finished at 8:00 am Yerevan time. The fund-raising events held in
Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and the Diaspora in the past
year were announced. The proceeds from this year’s telethon will be
directed to the renovation of the water supply networks of Armenia
and Artsakh, tert.am reports.

According to the source, a gala dinner with the participation of
Russia based Armenian businessmen is due in Moscow in mid-December.

The Fund’s Executive Board is scheduled to convene a news conference
in the same period to cover the show. The 2011 Telethon was aired
from Los Angeles, California. For the audience in Armenia, it was
carried live on the major local television channels H1 (Public TV),
Armenia, Shant and Yerkir Media.

“ERDOGAN’S APOLOGY WAS NOTHING BUT HYPOCRISY”

04:52 pm | Today | Politics

On November 23, 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
gave an official apology for the massacre in Dersim, describing it as
“one of the most tragic events of our recent history.”

Anush Hovhannisyan, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Oriental
Studies, says Erdogan was not sincere in his speech.

“It is a mere hypocrisy. While Erdogan was apologizing for the Dersim
Massacre, the Turkish army was realizing punitive actions in the same
area, trying to find the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters,”
she said.

A total of 15 000 people were killed in operations carried out
against the Kurdish people of Dersim between 1936 and 1939. It was
the outcome of a Turkish military campaign against Dersim Rebellion by
local ethnic minority groups against Turkey’s Resettlement Law of 1934.

Thousands of Alevi Zazas died and many others were internally displaced
due to the conflict. The killings have been defended by some as
a legitimate military act and condemned by others as a massacre
or genocide.

Anush Hovhannisyan says that there were disguised Armenians among
the victims and adds that the Turkish Government is attempting to
“kill a few birds with one stone.”

“First, the step aims to degrade the main rival of Erdogan and his
Justice and Development Party (AKP) -the Kemalist CHP (Republican
People’s Party),” she said.

Second, the AKP is trying to drive a wedge between Alevis of Dersim
and Kurds living in other parts of Turkey.

“After the tragic events of 1936-39, a large number of Dersim Alevis
were involved in anti-government actions organized by the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party and with his apology Erdogan hopes to separate them from
the Kurds and talk them out of the struggle,” said the Turkologist.

She reminded that before Erdogan’s official apology, a group of
human rights organizations announced their intention to apply to the
International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“Erdogan also sent a message to the international community trying
to persuade them that democratic reforms are underway in Turkey,”
she said.

Anush Hovhannisyan does not believe that Turkey will demonstrate
a political will to address the dark chapters of its history and
recognize the Armenian Genocide.

“The Turkish people are not ready to accept the historic fact today.

They need time to get familiarized with the issue and give an adequate
estimation,” she concluded.

NORTH AVENUE BUILDINGS SUBSIDING?
Ruzan Vardanyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 16:40:53 – 25/11/2011

Ex-residents of North Avenue launch “heated war”

The ex-residents of North Avenue who did not get appropriate
compensation for their expropriated apartments are going to write
an open letter to the RA president, National Assembly and other
competent bodies to protect their rights, Vachagan Hakobyan, one of
the ex-residents of North Avenue, the chairman of the NGO protecting
the right to property, told Lragir.am.

The Armenian courts reject the applications of the ex-residents,
referring to the statute of limitation. This has sent the persons
deprived of their property into fury.

“Our lawyers are currently drafting the letter to justify legally
that we have the right to go to court. We know that they get top down
orders to reject the applications,” Vachagan Hakobyan says.

According to him, after the publication of the open letter they will
launch a new stage of struggle, “entering into a heated war with the
government”. The ex-residents of North Avenue were indignant that
every Thursday they hold a picket in front of the house of government
and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan would not meet with them.

“The prime minister will not meet us, they dismissed these cases a
long time ago,” he said.

According to Vachagan Hakobyan, 38 families of the former residents of
North Avenue have left Armenia forever. “Another family left Armenia
2 days ago,” he said. He reminded that they were forced out of their
apartments, making them sign the necessary documents.

The ex-residents of North Avenue are going to sue the State Committee
of the Immovable Property Cadastre. Vachagan Hakobyan informed that
they have a list which makes it clear that people who do not live
in this area were made the owners and misappropriated huge sums on
their behalf.

As to the quality of construction on North Avenue, Vachagan
Hovhannisyan who is an architect says the buildings are subsiding,
already cracks have appeared on the walls.

“The government wants to cover it up. It is clear that it was a
business plan, no high-rise buildings can be built at the center of
Yerevan underneath which an underground river flows. They ignored the
architect Tamanyan’s project. Now people are afraid of buying houses
there. These buildings will be razed to the ground by a magnitude
five earthquake, forming a cemetery. I am saying this as an ex-senior
expert of the Institute of Seismology,” he noted.