Author: nina hovnanian

HAYKAKAN ZHAMANAK: GAS STATIONS INCREASE PRICES

10:41 11/12/2014 >> DAILY PRESS

Armenia’s gas filling stations have considerably raised the prices,
Haykakan Zhamanak writes, adding that the price of filling gas into
vehicles is predicted to go up further.

The matter is that unlike residents and other small subscribers, gas
stations buy gas from Gazprom Armenia on the basis of the US dollar.

The nearly 10 percent depreciation of the Armenian dram caused an
increase in the gas filling cost price, the newspaper notes.

Source: Panorama.am

BAKU MASSACRES OF 1905

Excerpt from history

A short excerpt from British historian-journalist Simon Sabag
Montefiore’s “Young Stalin”.–Editor.

Nineteen-hundred-and-five began and ended with slaughter. It was the
year of revolution in which young Stalin, for the first time, commanded
armed men, tasted power, and embraced terror and gangsterism. On 6
February, he was in Baku when some Armenians shot a Tartar in the
centre of the city. Azeri Turks–or “Tartars” as they were often
called–retaliated. The news spread. The authorities who had long
resented Armenian wealth and success, encouraged the Muslim Azeri
mobs to pour into the city.

For five long days, Azeri gangs killed every Armenian they could find,
with the frenzied hatred that comes from religious tension, economic
jealousy and neighborly proximity. Baku descended into an orgy of
ethnic killing, burning, raping, shooting and throat-cutting. The
Governor Prince Nakashidze and his police chief did nothing. Cossacks
handed over Orthodox Armenians to be slaughtered by Azeri mobs, armed
by the police. One Armenian oil baron was besieged in his palace by
an Azeri mob, whom he picked off with a Winchester rifle until he ran
out of ammunition and was torn to pieces. Eventually, the Armenians,
wealthier and better armed, started to fight back and massacre Azeris.

“They don’t even know why they’re killing each other,” said the mayor
as thousands of dead lay in the streets…everywhere women with mad
eyes sought their children, husbands were moving heaps of rotting
flesh. At least 2,000 died.

Stalin was there to see infernal and apocalyptic sights. He had
led a small Bolshevik Battle Squad in Baku. Now he gathered this
mainly Muslim gang and ordered them to divide the two communities
wherever possible while simultaneously taking the opportunity to
steal any useful printing equipment–and raise money for the Party
by protection-rackets.

Stalin, who according to his first biographer, Essad Bey, who grew up
in Baku, ‘presented himself to the head of the [Armenian] household
and gravely informed him that the time was near when the household
would fall beneath the knives of the Muslims, but after a donation
to Bolshevik funds, Stalin conveyed the Armenian merchants to the
countryside.

Afterwards Stalin hurried back to Tiflis, where there was every danger
of an ethnic bloodbath between Georgians and Armenians or Christians
and Muslims. The city was paralyzed by strikes; the police arrested
revolutionaries and Cossacks charged demonstrators on Golovinsky
Prospect.

Stalin helped organize a demonstration of reconciliation to prevent a
massacre and wrote a passionate pamphlet which, printed and distributed
by Kamo, warned that the Tsar was using “pogroms against Jews and
Armenians to buttress his despicable throne on the blood, the innocent
blood of honest citizens, the groans of dying Armenians and Tartars.”

DEFINING POLITICAL PRISONER: GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SAY NO ONE IN ARMENIA IN JAIL FOR VIEWS, OPPOSITION DISAGREES

HUMAN RIGHTS | 11.12.14 | 10:56

Photo:

By GAYANE MKRTCHYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights Defense and
Public Affairs held Parliamentary hearings regarding the implementation
by Armenia of the PACE’s Resolution 1900 ‘Defining Political Prisoner’,
during which the opposition criticized the government.

Opposition lawmaker, Committee member Alexander Arzumanyan claimed that
under the rule of all three presidents in Armenia – since 1994 – there
have always been political prisoners in the country. Addressing the
resolution’s definitions and subsections, the problems of human rights
violations, trial procedures and sentences in Armenia, Arzumanyan
said it was unacceptable to have people being persecuted for their
political views in the 21st century.

“Currently there are political prisoners in Armenia. There are
people who give different evaluations, but there are no criteria to
be measured as a rule, and if they do match them, we could say that
the person is a political prisoner,” he said.

Opposition members consider Volodya Avetisyan, a retired colonel and
Karabakh war veteran, who was convicted for fraud and sentenced to six
years in prison earlier this year, to be a political prisoner. In 2013
Avetisyan initiated a protest raising social problems of war veterans.

Opposition activist Shant Harutyunyan and his friends, who took to
the streets with political demands on November 5, 2013, were also
sentenced to imprisonment in October.

On December 8 during a live Facebook conference on Azatutyun TV
Minister of Justice Hovhannes Manukyan answered questions about
Volodya Harutyunyan, Shant Harutyunyan and his friends, stating that
there are no political prisoners in Armenia.

“I must say I do not agree with the author of the question. There
are no political prisoners in Armenia now,” the minister said, adding
that he studied that question and in his evaluations he is guided by
‘objective criteria’.

“I do not mean to say that it is the final truth, but still I want
to say that no case that would speak about the presence of political
prisoners can be found in such reports and estimations,” the minister
said.

Nevertheless, while inside the Parliament building the hearings went
on, outside a group of citizens and human rights defense organizations
held a protest with posters of photos of 17 citizens who, according
to them, hold the status of political prisoners.

Rights and Support Fund President Gagik Sarukhanyan said that those
people are in prison for their political views. According to him,
during the trials their guilt was not proved.

“We want those in prison for their political views now to be recognized
as political prisoners and to be freed immediately. Holding a person in
a prison for a long time the government kills two birds with one stone
– silencing politically active people on a long-term and depriving them
of the opportunity of extenuating circumstances,” Sarukhanyan said.

AGCC BEGINS POROCESS TO SELECT ARCHITECT FOR ARMENIAN AMERICAN MUSEUM

15:34, 11 Dec 2014

The Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of the Western US (AGCC)
on Wednesday announced its process for the selection of an architect
for the Armenian American Museum proposed for construction in Glendale,
California, Asbarez reports.

Interested architects can obtain a complete request for qualifications
(RFQ) packet by writing to [email protected].

Responses to the RFQ are due by Jan. 14, 2015.

AGCC’s Screening Committee will review the responses to the RFQ and
invite up to 5 architects or their firms to submit proposals with
design concepts. The AGCC plans to select the Architect for the
Armenian American Museum project prior to April 24, 2015.

The preliminary program of the project envisions the construction of
an approximately 30,000 square foot building to include a museum with
2 or more exhibit halls, a theater/auditorium, classrooms, a research
library and support spaces. The project will also include subterranean
parking, site work and landscaping. Space will be provided for the
construction of a memorial/monument in the open space outside of the
Museum building. The request for qualifications or proposals related
to the memorial/monument will be issued at a later date.

Responses to the RFQ should demonstrate familiarity and experience
in the design of civic, cultural and educational spaces.

On Nov. 4, the Glendale City Council decided to enter into an Exclusive
Negotiating Agreement with the AGCC for the ground lease of a 1.7
acre property located to the south of the Glendale Civic Auditorium
and across the street from Glendale Community College. This site is
being considered for the construction of a world class museum and
cultural/educational center.

The submission of conceptual design plans and a narrative description
of the project are two of the requirements stipulated in the Exclusive
Negotiating Agreement between the City and the AGCC.

The Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee of Western US helps oversee,
coordinate and organize events and activities in observance of the
100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the region.

SHARMAZANOV MET EN GARDE CONTRE L’EXPLOITATION DE LA QUESTION DU KARABAGH DANS LES DISCUSSIONS SUR LE TRAITE DE L’UEE

ARMENIE

Le vice-president du Parlement Eduard Sharmazanov a appele les deputes
a ne pas soulever inutilement la question du Haut-Karabagh dans le
contexte des discussions sur l’integration eurasienne de l’Armenie.

Eduard Sharmazanov, qui est egalement porte-parole du Parti Republicain
d’Armenie, a reitere au parlement que le Haut-Karabagh n’est pas
une partie de la Republique d’Armenie du point de vue juridique,
et qu’il n’a pas presente une demande d’adhesion a l’UEE.

Par consequent, selon lui, il est inapproprie de poser des questions
sur ce qui se passera au Karabagh avec l’UEE.

“Il est de notre devoir d’accomplir la volonte du peuple de l’Artsakh
et de realiser sa reconnaissance internationale, sur la base des
interets economiques et politiques des deux etats armeniens >>,
a souligne Eduard Sharmazanov.

La question de savoir si des points de contrôle douaniers devront etre
installes a la frontière entre l’Armenie et le Karabagh après que
l’Armenie soit devenu officiellement membre de l’UEE a ete un sujet
de debat dans le pays au cours de cette annee. Mais les responsables
du gouvernement a Erevan ont nie a plusieurs reprises qu’il y aura
des douanes entre les deux republiques armeniennes.

jeudi 11 decembre 2014, Stephane (c)armenews.com

HRANT DINK’S GUNMAN ACCUSES TWO FORMER POLICE CHIEFS OF MURDER

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Dec 10 2014

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

Ogun Samast, the triggerman who shot Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink dead almost eight years ago, has claimed that two former police
chiefs are responsible for Dink’s murder.

Samast, who had sent a letter to the prosecutor in charge of the
investigation of Dink’s murder saying he wanted to “speak up” on Nov.

17, testified on Dec. 5 as a “witness.”

He accused Ramazan Akyurek, then-police chief of Trabzon, and Ali
Fuat Yılmazer, then-Istanbul police intelligence chief, of being
behind the murder.

“They made me do the assassination. Yasin [Hayal] is taking the blame
and saying, ‘I did it,’ but he isn’t saying the names behind it. If my
words are investigated, the people behind [the murder] will be found.

The truth will be found if the relations between the policemen,
whose registration numbers I gave, Akyurek, Yılmazer and other
individuals whose names are in the court file, are investigated”
Samast said in his testimony to Istanbul prosecutor Yusuf Dogan.

Dink was assassinated by Samast in broad daylight on a busy street
outside the office of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in
Istanbul’s Ã…~^iÃ…~_li district on Jan. 19, 2007. The assassination
caused outrage across the country, sending hundreds of thousands to
the streets in mass rallies.

Samast, who is serving 22 years and 10 months in the high-security
F-type prison in Kandıra, Kocaeli, said he met Hayal, who is serving
an aggravated life sentence, in the Black Sea province of Trabzon. He
said he met Erhan Tuncel, a former police informant who was released
pending trial, through Hayal.

“Hayal brought me to Tuncel’s house [before the murder] and I overheard
them speaking. Erhan and Yasin were talking about the incident. I
started listening when Erhan said ‘Ramazan Akyurek and Fuat the
manager.’ Yasin said ‘then our backs are safe.’ When we left the
house, I told Yasin ‘I know Ramazan Akyurek, he administered here in
Trabzon, but who is Fuat?’ Yasin answered by saying ‘they are Erhan’s
acquaintances,'” said Samast.

He added that Hayal had said Akyurek and even the Istanbul chief of
police at the time knew about the incident and were all behind it.

“Think, the job is big, you will be a hero. I will put you into a
lot of trouble if you bail out,” Samast quoted Hayal as saying.

The investigation into Dink’s murder case took a different path after
the government launched a fight against the so-called “parallel
structure,” which the government uses to refer to the movement of
U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen. The Justice Ministry
cleared the way for investigations into nine civil servants accused
of negligence in Dink’s murder.

The government started the fight against the “parallel structure”
after two graft probes into around 100 people – including four former
ministers, their sons, Azeri-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, former
manager of state-run Halkbank and a construction tycoon – was launched
in December 2013, marking Turkey’s biggest ever corruption case.

December/10/2014

ROMANIAN ENVOY TO ARMENIA RECALLED OVER JOKE DEEMED ANTI-SEMITIC

12/10/2014 04:19

(JTA) – Romania’s ambassador to Armenia was recalled to Bucharest for
consultations after he expressed what critics said were anti-Semitic
and homophobic statements.

Sorin Vasile made the controversial statements last month during
a speech at the American University of Armenia, according to MCA
Romania, the Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism. He
was recalled Friday, according to a report on romaniatv.net.

“He dismissed the Armenian genocide by a phrase, adopted homophobic
attitudes and made jokes about Jews being greedy” and “ready to break
any law in order to make a profit, a clear anti-Semitic stereotype,”
MCA Romania founders Maximillian Marco Katz and Marius Draghici wrote
in a statement Friday.

Vasile apologized for making the remarks, according to romaniatv.net.

‘CONVENIENT’ MURDERER

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 10 2014

by EMRE USLU

The murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink is the most
scandalous, mysterious murder; it was committed during the term of
the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and the assailants
were apprehended. However, these assailants were being used at the
time they committed the murder and are still being used.

Those who used them in the past to kill Dink, whom they saw as their
enemy, are now using them to attack new enemies. One of the assailants
hurled accusations at police officers as soon as he was released from
prison. Those who gave him the gun to slay Dink have apparently given
him a petition of complaint against several police officers and have
sent him to the prosecutor.

There are odd details in the statement that the murderer gave to the
prosecutor. For instance, he gave the prosecutor the badge numbers of
five police officers, claiming that these police officers had looked
up the telephone number of Yasin Hayal, who was allegedly involved in
the murder of Dink, in the police department’s computer system five
minutes after the murder. How he got these numbers is questionable,
because he was in prison for the last few years.

Apparently his masters who sent him to attack Christian missionaries
and Armenians — whom they stigmatized as enemies — are preparing
to send him to attack their new enemy, the Hizmet movement. Or do
you believe that a murderer who has been silent out of fear for many
years in prison learned the badge numbers of five police officers in
his dreams and decided to be an informant?

Let me tell you why this “convenient” murderer has been ordered
to talk: The government seeks to curry favor with the leftists and
liberals in the fight it has been waging against the Hizmet movement.

If it can manage to put the blame for Dink’s murder on those police
officers whom it portrays as being affiliated with the movement,
the government will be able to criminalize the movement and alienate
the liberals who support the movement…

I have reiterated this countless times. The ruling AKP, prosecutors
and Nedim Ã…~^ener, who wrote a book about Dink’s murder, were all
unwilling to investigate the murder in depth and with the intention
of finding out the mastermind behind the murder. Everything was being
done to cover up the connection of the murder to the state.

If you really want to find the real perpetrators of Dink’s murder,
you must focus on the powers that are behind the murderers and not on
the murderers themselves. But you won’t do this because those powers
don’t want you to do so. There is a single document the court must
investigate if it is really willing to investigate Dink’s murder and
the killing of several Christian missionaries in Malatya: the decisions
taken during the National Security Council (MGK) meetings held in 2004
about the activities of Christian missionaries and the Armenian issue.

Why did the Religious Affairs Directorate decide to take action
against the missionary activities and sponsor a book about them? Why
did certain media outlets start to churn out news stories and TV
programs as though Turkey was snowed under with Christian minorities?

I know you won’t search for the answer because you have always been
the state’s prosecutor or judge. But let me write it down: 2005 was
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian tragedy. The state took certain
measures at home and abroad in connection with it.

The sponsorship of a book about Christian missionaries by the Religious
Affairs Directorate was one of these measures. Under the same project,
media outlets kicked off campaigns to engineer public opinion and
several experts on the Armenian issue mushroomed out of nowhere to
make appearances on several TV channels.

Ã…~^ener’s book about Dink’s murder is also part of those measures,
as it serves to cover up the mastermind behind the murder. One day,
the truth will come out…

Dink was sacrificed as a result of those measures. An independent
court would not waste time on the claims made by a convenient murderer,
but instead investigate who gave the order to that murderer.

Some may say “Dink was murdered in 2006,” but I would like to draw
attention to the killing of three Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
members in Paris in 2013. The state made a decision in 2012 to act
against the PKK leaders. In the wake of the Uludere tragedy — in
which 34 civilians were mistaken for terrorists and killed by military
airstrikes in Ã…~^ırnak’s Uludere district in 2011 due to false
intelligence — the state adopted a new concept, but old “measures”
were kept in force. The state initiated peace talks with the PKK,
but at the same time, it also killed off the PKK leaders. This is
what we get from the media reports that appeared in the wake of the
Paris killings.

As a result of such measures, Murat Karayılan, the PKK military wing’s
number one, was captured in Iran. A very high-ranking intelligence
officer had said: “We cannot go and capture Karayılan using the
intelligence from the US while the state was negotiating with the PKK.

Therefore, we gave the information to the Iranians, who caught him.”

This is the way the state operates. It worked in the same manner in
Dink’s murder and with the Paris killings. My intention is not to
protect the police or military officers who should be held responsible
for the murder. My suggestion is that all police and military officers
who were in office at that time, politicians and those who took those
decisions at the MGK should be tried by a real and independent court
and not with fake investigations, fake indictments and fake courts.

This could be the Constitutional Court or an international court, but
it must be a real court to punish the real perpetrators. But Turkey
cannot do this because everyone knows the real perpetrators. This
murder cannot be resolved but is instead covered up by fake courts,
fake indictments, expedient murderers and fake books.

Dink’s murder was one of the results of the measures the state took
in 2005, i.e., on the 90th anniversary of the Armenian issue. 2015 is
the 100th anniversary of this issue and Turkey is taking new measures.

Perhaps, the first of these measures is to make that convenient
murderer talk…

ARMENIANS MUST CALL FOR REPARATIONS IN 2015, SAYS GIRO MANOYAN

Wednesday, December 10th, 2014

ARF Political Affairs Director Giro Manoyan

YEREVAN–Armenia’s greatest achievement ahead of the Genocide
centennial would be a pan-national call for reparations, says Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Political Affairs Director Giro Manoyan.

“Both Turkey and other countries understand this, but it is important
to fix that we have demands from Turkey. We have already launched
active measures towards the Genocide centennial to shape a political
mindset. And steps by Turkey to counteract to that are the proof of
that,” Manoyan said at a news conference.

Asked whether Armenia has the necessary resources to make 2015
unprecedented, the politician said that he has really seen progress.

“We have made such progress in the past decades that it isn’t right to
anticipate achieving everything in one year. It is common knowledge
today that Turkey committed genocide and now experiences hatred for
the Armenians,” he noted.

Asked to comment on continuing calls to gathering Armenians in
Istanbul in 2015 to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian
Genocide, Manoyan said he knows that events of the kind will be held
everywhere. “Istanbul always hosted commemoration ceremonies. But
conducting ceremonies in Turkey next year will be of special
importance; it is important, however, to convey the right message to
Turkey’s society,” Manoyan said.

He added that the ARF asked a commission of specialists to elaborate
Armenia’s demands back in 2007. “They published the first draft
in 2010, outlining five key demands: recognition, reparation and
legislative changes in Turkey to eliminate the anti-Armenian policies
and raise the problem of collective damage and territorial questions.

To resolve territorial issues it is necessary to recall the
Armenia-Turkey protocols,” he added.

Manoyan says the year 2014 stood out for three important events:
Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union, the frequent
ceasefire violations at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and the acts
of sabotage, the events in Syria and the problems of the Armenian
community.

Giro Manoyan says in 2015 we should start speaking about the
consequences of the Armenian Genocide and reparation rather than
recognition. “This will be the greatest achievement of the 100th
anniversary,” he said.

As for the commemoration to be held in Istanbul, he said “this is
not the first time such events will be held in Istanbul.”

“Commemoration of the 100th anniversary in Istanbul will be of special
importance, but what’s more important is to send a special message
to the Turkish society. The Turkish public should know not only what
happened in the past, but also what the Armenian people demand today,”
Manoyan said.

He also attached importance to the refusal from the Armenian-Turkish
protocols. “These protocols need to be killed legally,” he said.

Referring to the invitation to the Turkish President to visit Armenia
on April 24, Giro Manoyan said, “It’s a challenge rather than an
invitation.”

“I’m not sure about how this invitation will be accepted. I don’t
rule out Turkey will take certain counter-steps, and Armenia should
be ready for it.”

Manoyan also advised Armenians not to concentrate on what the US
President will say on April 24. “Uttering the word ‘genocide’ will
put pressure on Turkey, that’s why Obama has refrained from using
the word,” he concluded.

JEWS AS A ‘BRIDGE OF PEACE’ BETWEEN ARMENIANS, TURKS AND AZERIS

European Jewish Press
Dec 10 2014

Written by EJP

YEREVAN (EJP)—The European Jewish Parliament, which is composed
of 120 members from 47 countries including Azerbaidjan and Turkey,
can surely be a bridge of peace between the Armenians and these two
countries, said Vadim Rabinovich, Co-Chairman of the Jewish body,
in Yerevan, capital of the Republic of Armenia, where he led Tuesday
a parliament delegation on a two-day visit in the country.

“In our organization, Armenians, Azeris and Turks sit together. So why
not using it to help these countries meet peacefully ?,” he asked,
stressing that the European Parliament Jewish Parliament hosted a
delegation from Azerbaijan in Brussels last year.

“I think that we could help Armenians, and especially the World
Armenian Congress,which we met here, to sit together with Azeris in
Brussels where we are based,” Rabinovich, who is from Ukraine where
he was elected to the Ukrainian parliament following the elections
in October.

Described as “historic” and “successful by the participants’, the visit
in yerevan was marked by a public hearing in the Armenianparliament on
the issue of genocides, a joint session with the World Armenian General
Council members on future cooperation between the two organizations
and a meeting with the President of Armenia, Sezh Sargsyan.

During all the meetings, the Armenians sought the cooperation of
the Jewish communities on the issue of recognition of the Armenian
genocide in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire. “Jews and Armenians have both
suffered from persecutions and we can join forces and work together to
make the word free of genocides. Both Jewish and Armenian diasporas
in the world are important and they can help each other,” said Ara
Abrahamyan, President of the World Armenian Congress (WAC).

In particular, in his talks with the Jewish Parliament delegation,
President Sargsyan appeared to be upset by Israel’s attitude on this
matter. Israel has so far avoided formally recognizing the Armenian
genocide in the political arena for fear of further straining already
deteriorated diplomatic relations with Turkey.

The president assured that despite this disagreement, Armenia will
support Israel in the international organizations, including the UN,
as well as the Jewish people in fighting anti-Semitism.

As Armenia will officially commemorate the centennial of the genocideon
24 April 2015,Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has reporttedly been
invited to attend the ceremonies in Yerevan.

Following their session, the World Armenian Congress and the European
Jewish Parliament issued a joint statement launching a cooperation
on topics of mutual interest, including fighting Holocaust denial
and the denial of the Armenian genocide.

A working group is expected to meet in May 2015 in France where large
Jewish and Armenian communities live and an international conference
will be organized in Brussels.

“We can help the Armenians but we hope that it won’tbe one way because
Jews have also their concerns in the world,” said Vadim Rabinovich.

During the visit, the Jewish delegation together with the World
Armenian Congress laid wreaths at the Tsitsernakabend memorial for
the victims of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey.