Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIA: POLICE SCRAP PROPOSED ANTI-“GAY-PROPAGANDA” BILL

EurasiaNet.org
Aug 8 2013

August 8, 2013 – 11:12am, by Giorgi Lomsadze

Apparently taking a cue from Armenia’s closest ally, Russia, the
Armenian police seem to be thinking that it is time to do something
to defend traditional Armenian family values from the onslaught of
what they see as growing “gay propaganda.”

A draft bill, now scrapped, would have required anyone caught promoting
“non-traditional sexual relationships,” as RFE/RL reported, to pay a
fine equivalent in drams to $4,000. The bill took its line of argument
— and, it appears, its inspiration — from a recent Russian bill
that established a similar ban last month.

Armenia’s LGBT community remains largely closeted and often becomes
a target of violence and abuse.But often in the region, as in Russia,
interest in sexual matters increases when a government (or religious
institution) is confronted by controversy and criticism. Yerevan, in
recent weeks, met with a wide-scale boycott of public transportation
over increased fares and a protest for Mayor Taron Margarian’s
resignation.

In a published statement, police, however, confined their perceived
“problem” to “preserving the traditional Armenian family, as
traditional values represent the pillar of national survival,” the
Russian-language Armenia Today news site reported.

Armenia is moving toward embracing a European way of life, the
statement says, but with it come certain “extraneous phenomena,”
homosexuality chief among them, the police continued.

Armenia Today pointed out that views may diverge on what constitutes
traditional Armenian sexual relations and suggested that the police
should indicate what sex positions are warranted by the country’s
interior ministry.

But before gay bars in the West could start boycotting Armenian brandy,
along with Russian vodka, in response, the police suddenly pulled
back the draft bill. They say that they need time to pore over some
details. Or maybe they just decided to work on that pictogram.

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
– AUGUST 6, 2013

Andrew Demirdjian

A Commentary by Z. S. Andrew Demirdjian, Ph.D.

Last week I read an interesting article in the USA Armenian Life
Magazine in which Mr. Aghvan Hovsepyan, the Armenian Prosecutor
General, had stated at a conference of lawyers that the Republic of
Armenia should have its lost territories returned and the victims of
the Armenian Genocide should receive restitution.

Mr. Harut Sassounian, the publisher of The California Courier, had
his weekly column devoted to the same topic. The title of his column,
“In Major Policy Shift, Armenia Demands Lands from Turkey”, made
me think ruefully as to why we have lost so much valuable time to
“demand” now our “stolen” homeland and properties from Turkey.

Why have we waited so long after the crime of the century was
committed? We have wailed and waited almost a hundred painful years
to demand restitution for the crime perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks.

Mr. Appo Jabarian, the Executive Publisher and Managing Editor of
the USA Armenian Life Magazine, have on many occasions reminded our
young Armenians of our national loss by putting President Woodrow
Wilson’s picture on the cover of his magazine, pointing to a map of
Western Armenia and proclaiming “These lands belong to Armenia.” Our
self-appointed leaders, however, paid no heed to rally the Armenians
to officially, legally demand Western Armenia and Cilicia from Turkey.

Since the First World War, there has been a number of international
courts established with the purpose of adjudicating cases such as
the crime against the Armenians. We have miserably failed to take
advantage of those opportunities when the world media, including
that of the USA, were hypercritical of the Ottoman Turks’ crime and
destruction of the Armenian nation.

As you know, a crime is a forbidden act, punished by law because it
naturally harms a society or injures its members.

The type of act that constitutes a crime varies from culture to
culture, changing as societies and attitudes develop.

Sometimes, there is a cultural divergence in regards to crime. For
example, in some parts of the Middle East, it is a crime to drink
alcohol, but a man may have more than one wife. In the United States,
on the other hand, alcohol consumption is not illegal, but having
more than one wife is against the law.

Often there is also a cultural convergence when it comes to certain
acts of crime. For instance, in killing cats, the ancient Egyptians
honored cats as sacred animals, depicting them in paintings and
sculptures. As a result, killing a cat was considered a serious crime.

The punishment was usually instant execution.

In the Western World, however, killing a cat would not constitute
a serious crime, but it would be cruelty to animals, which would be
punishable with a prison term.

Of the types of crimes, some acts such as murder and theft, have been
crimes in all civilized societies around the world for thousands
of years and are known as “malum in se” (the Latin phrase for bad
in themselves).

Other crimes, such as driving a car without license plates, are
“malum prohibitum” (bad because the law says they are).

As you well know, crimes are not limited to killing a person. There is
also crime against property. Various laws exist to protect people’s
right to own property. It is a criminal act to take or damage the
property of another against the owner’s wishes. Examples of such
crimes include theft, usurpation, forgery, arson, and vandalism.

The Ottoman Turks have killed Armenians. It is a crime by international
code of ethics and law. The Ottoman Turks have usurped the properties
of many Armenians. This, too, is a criminal act. The Ottoman Turks
have “stolen”(a gentle euphemism for captured) Western Armenia and
Cilicia. This is by definition another act of crime.

Crime and punishment are the two sides of the same coin. One cannot
exist without the other.

Armenians have followed the either or strategy instead of
multidimensional approach to restitution. In hind sight, we should
have multi-tasked on both fronts: recognition and restitution.

Instead, the question of restitution have been put on a back burner
for so long despite the fact that we have so many highly educated,
highly trained attorneys to take Turkey to international courts for
restitution for our lost or captured lands and properties.

Armenians have been consumed with the pursuit of making their Genocide
recognized by the international community. It is understandable
since they have suffered death and destruction the likes of which
the civilized world had not seen. For almost a century of relentless
and arduous campaigning, we have now 21 states that have officially
recognized the events of 1915 as genocide. The Armenians should
feel proud of their Diaspora political parties for their great
accomplishments. We wish them Godspeed.

Our activists and especially our attorneys have focused their efforts
on proving that a crime had been committed to the magnitude of
genocide. To garner support, they had to appeal to the parliaments
of many nations for the recognition of the Genocide-to the neglect
of seeking “punishment” as well for the crime of the century.

Through the usual tactics of laying economic sanctions by threatening
to sever business and political ties, Turks have succeeded in
intimidating many governments not to recognize the crime as genocide.

A great example is the United States, while 42 States have recognized
the Genocide, the US Congress has repeatedly denied the recognition
of the crime as genocide.

Turks even have made countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and
many others who had been once under the yoke of the Ottoman Turks
to abstain, to remain silent about the Armenian Genocide -despite
the fact that these countries once have experienced atrocities and
massacres at the hand of the Ottoman Turks.

Why have we not followed a multidimensional approach to the Armenian
Cause right after the emergence of international courts? Perhaps the
following opinions will attempt to explain some of the reasons behind
the failure:

1. Eastern Armenia was in the sphere of influence of the Soviet
Union which chose to remain on good terms with Turkey. Therefore,
they stopped Soviet Armenia from claiming our lands and restitution
from Turkey.

2. After the Genocide, survivors were dispersed in many foreign
counties, which forced them to work for a living under difficult
conditions such as dealing with different languages and customs. The
survivors’ descendants had also to work hard to pursue a career
for advancement.

3. Another reason could be apathy, anomie, or hopelessness that
Turkey has been a major force and Armenians don’t stand a ghost of
a chance to get an inch from the super nationalist Ankara. Anything
short of resorting to military force would be next to impossible. So,
let the bygones be bygones.

4. The Diaspora lacked a worldwide organization to mobilize the
Armenian activists and attorneys to demand our lands and properties
through the international courts. Concerted efforts spell synergy
and without political clout a crime goes unpunished.

Focusing almost exclusively on recognition of the Genocide has been
the gravest mistake of our self-appointed leaders who failed to have
the presence of mind to see power in numbers by getting organized
worldwide.

It is by no means water over the dam, though. It is better late than
never as the old adage goes. There is a light at the end of the tunnel
for when it comes to a crime against humanity it is not subject to
any statute of limitation. The passage of time of almost a century
should not discourage us from demanding our lands and properties.

We need to venture in order to regain at least part of what was
“stolen” from the Armenian nation. With unity, we can rise to the
challenge and sooner or later our new generation will prevail over
the odds.

3 ROMANIANS INCLUDED IN AZERBAIJANI “PERSONA NON GRATA” LIST

15:22, 8 August, 2013

BUCHAREST, AUGUST 8, ARMENPRESS. The Romanians have also been included
in the “persona non grata” list publicized by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Azerbaijan. The “Armenpress” reporter in Romania stated that
the Romanian media reports that Romanian journalist È~Xtefan Candea,
photographer PetruÈ~[ CÄ~Clinescu, and poet Marius Chelaru have been
declared persona non grata in Azerbaijan for “illegally visiting the
occupied territories”.

Journalist È~Xtefan Candea and photographer PetruÈ~[ CÄ~Clinescu paid
a visit to Artsakh in 2010. Poet Marius Chelaru visited Stepanakert
in 2012 to attend an international poetry festival.

È~Xtefan Candea is a freelance journalist and co-founder of the
Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism in Bucharest, Romania,
and is currently working with ICIJ on an upcoming investigation.

Candea is a co-founder of the Romanian Centre for Investigative
Journalism, and worked for the first investigative TV show in Romania,
Reporteri Incognito. Candea has worked for Deutsche Welle, in print,
radio, TV and online, and he did freelance research and production
work for several foreign media outlets, including the BBC, Channel 4,
ITN, ZDF and Canal Plus.

Since March 2001, he has been a correspondent for Reporters sans
Frontieres in Romania.

Candea is a member of the International Consortium for Investigative
Journalists and has won several awards including the IRE Tom Renner
Award and the Overseas Press Club of America Award for online
journalism.

PetruÈ~[ CÄ~Clinescu, born 1976, is a freelance photojournalist based
in Bucharest, Romania. Covering documentaries and social issues, his
reportages has been published in National Geographic and Esquire. He
was also a contributor for New York Times, Courrier International,
The Times, Business Week, Paris Match, and various international
magazines and newspapers. He won 2 times the title of the Best Romanian
Photojournalist and recently in 2007 an Award of Excellence, for a
sport feature, in POYi – Picture of the Year International.

The aforesaid funny list of “persona non grata” contains 14 deputies of
Russian Parliament, 5 reporters of German ZDF TV channel, president
of Berlin academy, deputies of Iranian, Slovakian, Argentinean
parliaments, famous Russian economist Victor Sheinis, Baroness Cox,
President of military academy of Denmark, Russian political scientist
Sergey Marcedonov, 14 deputies of French parliament, Italian singer
Al Bano, 8 deputies of European Parliament, reporter of Washington
Post in Moscow Will Englund, reporter of New York Times Anastasia
Taylor Wint, Phillip Kirkorov’s father – Bedros Kirkorov, famous
opera singer Montserrat Caballe, a deputy of Canadian Parliament.

The list also includes 6 American doctors, 7 British deputies, a
Greek deputy, 3 deputies of Swiss Parliament, editor in chief of EU
foreign policy magazine, former EU special representative in South
Caucasus Peter Samnabi, 5 deputies of Uruguayan parliament, famous
Swiss cosmonaut Claudi Nikolia, 6 Australian deputies, a deputy of
German Bundestag and other famous people.

THERE ARE PEOPLE IN ARMENIA THAT STILL TRY TO MAKE ILLEGAL MONEY – PM SARGSYAN

August 08, 2013 | 14:39

YEREVAN. – Although the Government of Armenia has made radical changes
in the method for the payment of pensions, an internal resistance is
still observed toward the introduction of this new system.

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan stated the aforementioned during
Thursday’s Cabinet session.

“There were problems with receiving pensions, since the [pensioners’]
lists had not come in on time; I have instructed to look into it.

“For the first time, the pensions were paid on the basis of electronic
database, but many people do not like this and they try to show that
the pensions need to be paid simultaneously with the paper version,”
Sargsyan said.

In the PM’s words, the corruption risks were arising during the
processing of the paper versions, when oversight becomes extremely
difficult.

“There are people that still try to make illegal money by certain
methods. All [respective] reports will be prepared and, in September,
we will publicize the kinds of misuse that existed,” Tigran Sargsyan
stressed.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am

NAREK SARGSYAN APPOINTED HEAD OF STATE COMMITTEE OF ARCHITECTURE

13:20 08/08/2013 ” SOCIETY

By decision of Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Narek Sargsyan
was appointed head of the State Committee of Architecture under the
RA government, Armenian government’s press service reported.

Yesterday, by order of Yerevan mayor Taron Margaryan, Narek Sargsyan
was relieved of his position as Yerevan’s chief architect.

Source: Panorama.am

DIVERS DISCOVER AN UNEXPLORED WORLD AT THE BOTTOM OF LAKE SEVAN – PHOTOS
Narek Aleksanyan

20:45, August 7, 2013
A research team has returned to Sevan this summer to study the basin
of the huge mountain lake, called the blue jewel of Armenia.

It’s an initiative spearheaded by French-Armenians Claude Tuloumjian
and Stepan Kojoyan, who are ably assisted by local emergency services
rescuer Vahe Melkonyan and diver Mamikon Hakobyan.

This year, they have been joined by Anna Tutunjyan, a specialist in
ecological chemistry and hydrology.

“We wanted to do some diving in Armenia, not only for pleasure but
do do something of benefit,” says Stepan.

On their first trip to Armenia, they found out that researchers
interested in Sevan didn’t have diving capabilities.

Stepan says they removed silt and mud from the lake bottom, an
operation that might not seem all that important to the casual
observer, but valuable nevertheless given the hundreds of chemical
elements contained in the lake mud. It’s great research material
for scientists.

The expeditions are organized by the recently established Armenian
Center for Underwater Research and Dives. Claude Tuloumjian is the
president of the center.

The goal of the team is to collect as many samples of the lake’s
flora and fauna for eventual study by scientists interested in the
lake’s geology and eco-system.

The team has also brought various objects to the surface of interest
to archaeologists.

“The first time we collected artefacts from the lake bottom, taking
photos and videos, it was of great interest to scientists. They had
never seen such things,” said Stepan.

The French-Armenians divers say they also want to develop the sport
in Armenia.

Anna, the new scientist on the team, has already become a proficient
diver. She plumbs the murky depths with a trained eye, spotting new
and interesting things the regular divers miss.

WHAT WAS U.S. AMBASSADOR TRYING TO FIGURE OUT?

The U.S. Ambassador Heffern has met with the minister of finance of
Armenia Davit Sargsyan to discuss issues of mutual interest.

Interestingly, the meeting of the ambassador with Davit Sargsyan takes
place after the ministry of finance published the list of companies
which will not be eligible for state procurement due to negative
report of the financial audit. The list includes companies owned by
odious oligarchs of Armenia.

Other companies of the same oligarchs will still be eligible, of
course. And it is not ruled out that the disqualified companies will
fix their issues and next year be eligible for state procurement. It
is also possible that the government puts the companies in a queue,
and oligarchs will be rotated in “fairness”.

Most probably, the ambassador met with the minister of finance to
understand this issue and find out the intention of the government,
whether it is fight on oligopoly and monopoly or an internal scramble,
which means that everything will end up in “fairness”.

The U.S. ambassador has reasons not to trust the Armenian government’s
sincerity to fight monopolies and oligopolies. At least, after
the case of Carrefour. The U.S. ambassador is apparently tired of
inquiring about Carrefour. He asked this questions on Twitter several
times. Perhaps the ambassador asked the question during the meeting
with Davit Sargsyan because earlier the junior government officials
answered to this question that Carrefour is coming to Armenia.

Careefour is important because it is an importer and if it appears
in the Armenian market, it will be able to crush the monopolized and
quota-based sector of importers including a lot of ministers and other
high-ranking officials. Consequently, the later the Carrefour arrives,
the longer the system lives. There are no guarantees that the system
will fall to parts if Carrefour comes but it is beyond doubt that
Carrefour’s arrival is a big opportunity for at least small effects.

Although, there may be some doubt already. It is known that Majid
al Futtaim, the joint venture based in the UAE, will open Carrefour
in Armenia. Recently the French share has been sold to the Arabs,
which makes a difference because the Arab owners with their Asian
system may adjust themselves to Armenia and play according to the
rules of the Armenian system.

This might be the reason why the U.S. ambassador has stopped his public
inquiries about Carrefour, trying to understand what is happening in
the company which is going to make investments in Armenia. After all,
the appearance of Carrefour will not make a difference unless the
rules of the game change.

Global brands may make a difference because they are able to change
the rules of the game in the Armenian business.

Hence, Carrefour is important not only as a worldwide brand but also
as a precedent. And the stance of the government is important not as
a stance on one economic operator but as a miniature model of state
policy. Most probably, the U.S. ambassador is trying to understand
if he is dealing with a model or a card castle. But the answer to
this question is not needed to continue or to interrupt actions but
to choose further tactics because dealing with a model is one thing,
and dealing with a card castle is another thing.

Hakob Badalyan 12:34 08/08/2013 Story from Lragir.am News:

REVUE DE PRESSE N2 – 07/08/13 – COLLECTIF VAN

Publie le : 07-08-2013

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN [Vigilance
Armenienne contre le Negationnisme] vous propose une revue de presse
des informations parues dans la presse francophone, sur les thèmes
concernant la Turquie, le genocide armenien, la Shoah, le genocide
des Tutsi, le Darfour, le negationnisme, l’Union europeenne, Chypre,
etc… Nous vous suggerons egalement de prendre le temps de lire ou
de relire les informations et traductions mises en ligne dans notre
rubrique

Par ailleurs, certains articles en anglais, allemand, turc, etc,
ne sont disponibles que dans la newsletter Word que nous generons
chaque jour. Pour la recevoir, abonnez-vous a la Veille-Media : c’est
gratuit ! Vous recevrez le document du lundi au vendredi dans votre
boîte email. Bonne lecture.

Collectif VAN : l’ephemeride du 7 août Info Collectif VAN –
– La rubrique Ephemeride est a retrouver
quotidiennement sur le site du Collectif VAN. Elle recense la
liste d’evenements survenus a une date donnee, a differentes
epoques de l’Histoire, sur les thematiques que l’association suit au
quotidien. L’ephemeride du Collectif VAN repose sur des informations
en ligne sur de nombreux sites (les sources sont specifiees sous
chaque entree). “7 août 1943 — Allemagne : le dernier transport de
juifs quitte le camp de regroupement du quartier de Hirsch. Ce camp
est le camp de detention de la police de Thessalonique (Macedoine,
Grèce). Les derniers 1 200 juifs de la ville sont deportes au camp
d’extermination d’Auschwitz”.

Article du journal franco-turc Zaman – 07/08/2013 – 3 Le Collectif
VAN relaye ici les articles du journal franco-turc Zaman (equivalent
du Today’s Zaman en langue anglaise, diffuse en Turquie).

Attention : ces articles ne sont pas commentes de notre part. Il s’agit
pour l’essentiel de traductions des versions turque et anglaise du
Zaman, journal proche du parti au pouvoir (AKP). “D’après nos confrères
de l’agence Anatolie, 2000 personnes etaient rassemblees devant la
basilique Sainte-Sophie a Istanbul pour soutenir les manifestants de
la place Adawiya, en Egypte”.

Darfour : Quand Washington gronde le Soudan Le gouvernement americain
a exhorte mardi le Soudan a renouveler immediatement les permis de
travail de 20 employes du Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies pour
les refugies (HCR) au Darfour.

Turquie : la derive autoritaire d’Erdogan inquiète De lourdes
peines ont ete prononcees lundi contre les “putschistes” du reseau
Ergenekon, dans un procès très politique, denonce par les opposants
du gouvernement islamo-conservateur de l’AKP. C’est une nouvelle
demonstration de la derive autoritaire qui s’est jouee en Turquie,
sous l’egide du desormais conteste Recep Tayyip Erdogan, fondateur
du Parti de la justice et du developpement (AKP), et Premier ministre
depuis 2003.

Article du journal franco-turc Zaman – 07/08/2013 – 2 Le Collectif
VAN relaye ici les articles du journal franco-turc Zaman (equivalent
du Today’s Zaman en langue anglaise, diffuse en Turquie).

Attention : ces articles ne sont pas commentes de notre part. Il
s’agit pour l’essentiel de traductions des versions turque et
anglaise du Zaman, journal proche du parti au pouvoir (AKP). “Le
Premier ministre turc Erdogan s’est entretenu jeudi au telephone
avec son homologue grec, Antonis Samaras, afin de le remercier pour
l’operation menee cette semaine contre le Parti-Front de liberation
du peuple revolutionnaire (DHKP-C)”.

Affaire Ergenekon: Epilogue douloureux pour l’armee turque La
justice turque a rendu lundi son verdict dans l’affaire Ergenekon,
une affaire complexe et controversee dont la procedure aura dure cinq
ans. Le tribunal de Silivri a prononce de lourdes peines. Au moins
16 prevenus ont ete condamnes a la prison a vie.

James Warlick : nomme co-president du groupe de Minsk Le diplomate,
James Warlick, vient d’etre nomme par le secretaire d’Etat americain,
John Kerry, co-president du groupe de Minsk de l’OSCE. Il etait jusqu’a
recemment l’un des representants de Washington pour l’Afghanistan
et le Pakistan. Warlick a ete precedemment ambassadeur americain en
Bulgarie et vice-secretaire d’Etat.

Voici le tableau de l’embargo international contre les Kurdes Le
Programme alimentaire mondial de l’ONU (PAM) affirme avoir distribue
des vivres a 2,4 millions de personnes a travers la Syrie au mois
de juillet, au lieu des 3 millions prevus. Sauf la region kurde qui
n’a recu aucune aide humanitaire de l’ONU. Le tableau du PAM en est
la preuve.

L’economie turque montre des signes d’essoufflement Dans le Grand
Bazar d’Istanbul, les commercants ne cachent pas leur amertume. Leurs
affaires ont chute d’un seul coup, il y a deux mois, quand un projet
d’urbanisme menacant les arbres du parc Gezi, proche de la place
Taksim, s’est transforme en vaste fronde contre le premier ministre
islamo-conservateur, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Les touristes ont pris peur
avec tout ce qu’ont raconte les medias… Ils ne viennent plus. Et
pourtant, tout est calme ici, vous le voyez bien !”, grommelle le
proprietaire d’une echoppe de vestes de cuir.

Retour a la rubrique

CENTURY-OLD OTTOMAN COMPANIES SERVE GENERATIONS OF TODAY WITH PRIDE

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 7 2013

7 August 2013 /GAMZE GUL, Ä°STANBUL

Century-old companies established during the late-Ottoman era that
still survive to this day continue to serve the country’s economy while
carrying on traditional brands for future generations to embrace,
according to the book “Age-Old Companies of Turkey and Ä°stanbul”
released by the Ä°stanbul Chamber of Commerce (Ä°TO).

Research shows that contrary to the common belief that Turkish
companies fail to survive for long, 99 companies that are at least
90 years old were found to still be operating in Turkey to this day.

These companies were established sometime between 1777 and 1923,
operating mostly in the food sector.

The oldest company, a confectionary, was established back in 1777
and was originally called “Bekir Efendi.” Back then, confectionary
businesses were mostly carried out by families who came from the
province of Kastamonu, like Bekir Efendi (Sir Bekir) himself. His
business, which distinguished itself from its competitors by offering
different varieties and ingredients from what was typical, had won the
hearts of Ottoman Ä°stanbulites, and he was also appointed the “chief
confectioner” of the Ottoman palace by the sultan of the time due to
his well-deserved fame. The company changed its name to “Hacı Bekir”
(Pilgrim Bekir) after Bekir Efendi went to Mecca on pilgrimage. The
company has continued to pass on its Ottoman tastes to new generations.

Another age-old company called Hamidiye (which now sells bottled water)
was established in 1902 to bring an end to Ä°stanbul’s water crises
as the city was constantly challenged by dried-up fountains. At the
time, water for use in daily life was not only scarce but drinking
water was limited, too. A commission appointed by Sultan Abdulhamid
II searched all over Ä°stanbul looking for water and they discovered
about 60 springs in the Kagıthane district. With expenses covered
by the sultan, the company began serving people. It was operated by
the Ä°stanbul Municipality, which still runs the company.

At the time when another entrepreneur, Hacı Sadık, moved to İstanbul
from Albania, boza was a very popular winter drink. The boza-making
business was mainly run by Armenian immigrants, and so Hacı Sadık
started working as an apprentice to one of them. However, not too long
after, Hacı Sadık believed the taste of boza had room for improvement
and started his own boza-making business, “Vefa Boza,” in 1876. The
company, which he expanded with his son, is now 137 years old and
still operates from the same location in Ä°stanbul’s Vefa neighborhood.

Yıldız Entegre, which puts Turkey’s medium density fiberboard
(MDF) production at second place in the world, is also a decades-old
company, as it was established in 1890 by Hasan Efendi, who was a
timber trader. The business of Hasan Efendi — who would take such
care as to only cut down trees he manually selected to avoid cutting
ones that were too young — took a turn for the better in 1930 when
he moved to Samsun from Trabzon and expanded his trade. Yıldız
Entegre, which became a corporation in 1972, is now the world’s
biggest integrated MDF company and is operating from Kocaeli.

In 1893, another entrepreneur, Ahmet Aga would bring salt from Tuz
Gölu (Salt Lake) in central Turkey to Konya on his carriage. However,
when World War I broke out, he moved from Konya to Ä°zmir, where he
started transporting goods such as tobacco, cotton, fig and grapes,
and his family expanded the business. Eventually theirs became the
first company to use trucks in Ä°zmir’s transportation sector. The
company has carried on its business to this day under the name of
Tuzcuoglu Nakliyat and has been operating for about 120 years.

Other old companies that are still serving today’s generations
include: Ziraat Bankası, which was established in 1863 by Mithat
PaÅ~_a; Hafız Mustafa, a confectionary founded in 1864; Kurukahveci
Mehmet Efendi, a famous Turkish coffee-maker that started in 1871;
and Hacı Å~^akir, originally a soap maker in 1889 that now offers
a variety of bath products.

EUROPEAN SOCCER BODY SUSPENDS TWO OFFICIALS IN MATCH-FIXING CASE

Bloomberg / Business Week
Aug 7 2013

By Peter-Joseph Hegarty

European soccer’s ruling body UEFA said it suspended two Armenian
game officials in a Europa League match-fixing case.

In a hearing at the Football Federation of Armenia, referee Andranik
Arsenyan and assistant Hovhannes Avagyan admitted trying to fix a
first qualifying round game last month between Finland’s FC Inter
Turku and Vikingur of the Faroe Islands, UEFA said.

UEFA’s betting fraud detection system, which monitors more than 32,000
matches across Europe, detected suspicious betting patterns around the
game, prompting an investigation by UEFA and the Armenian federation.

UEFA’s control and disciplinary body will hear the case at its Nyon,
Switzerland, headquarters on Aug. 22. Vikingur won the second-leg
match in Finland 1-0 for a 2-1 victory over two games.