Author: nina hovnanian

MARTIGUES
Une ambulance pour l’Arménie

Le LION’S CLUB de Martigues, dans les Bouches-du-Rhône organise un
dîner de bienfaisance avec spectacle le 15 mars 2012 au profit de
l’ASAF (Action Santé Arménie France). Les fonds récoltés seront
consacrés à l’achat d’une ambulance équipée de matériel médical aux
normes françaises, destinée au service d’urgence de l’Hôpital de
Goris. Ce dîner de bienfaisance aura lieu à la Villa Khariessa à
Martigues. La participation est de 100 par personne. Les
participants recevront un reçu fiscal (CERFA) leur permettant de
déduire 66% de cette somme du montant des impôts. La participation
réelle est donc de 34 . Pour l’inscription, s’adresser à Jean-Joseph
Kuentz (06 10 70 50 14) ou par mail à [email protected].
dimanche 4 mars 2012,
Ara ©armenews.com

AZERBAIJANI FM: ARMENIAN POSITION PREVENTS ACHIEVING PROGRESS IN NEGOTIATIONS OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH (UPDATE-2)

Trend
March 2 2012
Azerbaijan

Armenia’s unconstructive position prevents achieving a progress in
negotiations over Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov said.

“Despite the OSCE Minsk Group’s efforts, we cannot make progress,”
Mammadyarov said addressing the Third Forum of the OIC member
countries’ “Think Tanks”.

He stressed that the co-chair countries presented new basic principles
and Azerbaijan has accepted them as a good basis to start work to
achieve a peace agreement that will lead to great stability and a
progress in the negotiation process.

“The Armenian side refused to accept the updated principles. After
all the efforts we can not achieve a progress in negotiations, and
it sometimes happens because of the unconstructive position of the
Armenian side, which tries to preserve the existing status quo in the
region and does not agree with the terms to withdraw its troops from
Azerbaijani territories,” Mammadyarov said.

He said the conditions are quite simple – all recognize that the
presence of foreign troops on the territory of another state is
absolutely unacceptable, progress should be achieved step-by-step
and the first step should be the withdrawal of Armenian troops from
the occupied territories.

“We were able to establish good relations with our neighbors, but
the unresolved conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh impedes
the region’s steady development,” Mammadyarov said.

UN resolutions call for the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from
Azerbaijan’s occupied territories and the return of refugees to their
homeland, he underlined.

“But, unfortunately, we can not achieve the fulfillment of these
resolutions. This sometimes causes questions about double standards.

Some resolutions of the UN Security Council are fulfilled next day or
within a week, however, the resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh have not
been fulfilled yet, while all recognize that Azerbaijani territory is
under occupation and population was subjected to ethnic cleansing,”
Mammadyarov said.

He stressed that it is very difficult and sensitive topic.

“We believe that we should make every effort to make progress in
the negotiations for the withdrawal of the Armenian troops from
Azerbaijani territories and the return of our IDPs back to their
homeland,” Mammadyarov underscored.

Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan recognises that the withdrawal of
Armenian troops from Azerbaijani territories is not the end of the
conflict resolution and it is necessary to determine the status of
Nagorno-Karabakh to complete the process.

“It will be possible to open communications which are now completely
destroyed, build roads and railways after the Armenian troops are
withdrawn from Azerbaijani territory,” he underlined.

Exchanges of fire are observed on the frontline periodically, but all
agree that these cases happen because Azerbaijan has foreign troops
on its territory, Mammadyarov said.

“According to the UN Charter, there are internationally recognised
legal norms in accordance with which we can use all means to liberate
our territories from the illegal presence of foreign troops and
restore Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Resolutions of the UN and other organisations including the OIC clearly
reflect the requirement to restore Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,”
Mammadyarov said.

The conflicting parties should create an opportunity, including an
economic one, so that refugees and IDPs could return to their homes,
Mammadyarov said.

“If there is no stability, then it is necessary to create at least
predictability in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he stressed.

This year is an election year in all three co-chair countries and in
addition elections are expected in Armenia and therefore a difficult
time to negotiate, Mammadyarov said.

“This year will be difficult enough, but we ask our partners to
use this situation not to slow down peace negotiations and reaching
agreement, but for greater understanding, particularly between the
Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh through
building confidence,” he underscored.

Mammadyarov said the logic of Azerbaijani is simple – no one can take
its people and run away from the neighbours.

“The history of mankind shows that building dividing walls is not
good. It is counterproductive and like it or not, one should take
its neighbours into account which clearly helps to steadily develop
not only the economy, but also society,” Mammadyarov said.

He said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict sides should make progress for
the mutual benefit of the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples.

“I believe that we will achieve this through the Islamic world
that supports our just position. I believe that the only problem in
the development of Azerbaijan is the resolution of this conflict,”
Mammadyarov said.

ARMENIA TOO MUCH FOR CANADA IN FRIENDLY

The Vancouver Sun
March 1, 2012 Thursday

Canada’s men’s soccer team is off to a disappointing start in 2012,
losing 3-1 to Armenia in a friendly in Limassol, Cyprus, on Wednesday.

Marcos Pizzelli scored two goals for Armenia, which overcame an early
1-0 deficit to hand Canada a loss in its first international match
of the year. Aras Ozbiliz added a goal on a penalty kick in the 91st
minute. Kevin McKenna, of Calgary, gave Canada a 1-0 lead in the fifth
minute, heading in a corner kick from Julian de Guzman. Canada carried
the play for the first 15 minutes, before Armenia exploited some shoddy
defensive play and ball control by the Canadians and never looked back.

SARKOZY’S POLITICAL GAME BEHIND GENOCIDE BILL – EXPERT

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 2, 2012 – 17:24 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian political analyst Sergey Shakaryants
commented on the French Constitutional Council’s ruling the bill
criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial as unconstitutional.

The expert deemed the Council’s decision on the bill inadmissible in
a democratic country like France.

As Mr. Shakaryants told a press-conference, the draft law is a mere
political game by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, helping him to
advance his ranking.

“Two days have passed since the ruling; however Sarkozy hasn’t kept his
promise namely referring the bill on Holocaust to the Constitutional
Council,” Mr. Shakaryants said, adding the decision did Armenia no
actual harm.

The French Constitutional Council on Feb 28 ruled the bill
criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial adopted earlier by the
Senate of France as unconstitutional. The Council justified it by
the fact that the law “contradicts Article 33 of the Constitution of
France and the freedom of speech”.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill with 127 votes for
and 86 against. If signed into law by the President, 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.

Turkey reacted furiously when the Senate approved the law. Ankara
halted political and military cooperation with France and was
threatening to cut off economic and cultural ties if the law took
effect.

OSCE OFFICE AND YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY SIGN A CO-OPERATION AGREEMENT

armradio.am
02.03.2012 17:55

The Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, Ambassador Andrey Sorokin and
Rector of the Yerevan State University, Aram Simonyan, signed on 2
March 2012 a Memorandum of Understanding on establishing a Sustainable
Development Centre in the Yerevan State University.

The Centre will support Armenia in the adaptation and implementation of
the UN declarations on sustainable development by raising awareness
through roundtable meetings, training sessions, and serving as a
resource hub to support researchers in their work. The aim of the
Centre is to ensure enhanced participation of civil society and the
scientific community in the promotion of principles outlined in the
UN Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.

According to the co-operation agreement free access to the
Centre’s facilities for individuals, non-governmental organizations,
associations, governmental institutions and international organizations
will be ensured. It also envisages setting up a library and a website.

NEWS ANALYSIS: NEW “GENOCIDE DENIAL” LAW IN FRANCE UNLIKELY IN NEAR FUTURE: TURKISH EXPERT

People’s Daily
March 2 2012
China

ANKARA, March 1 (Xinhua) — As France recently ruled unconstitutional
a controversial law penalizing the denial of the mass killing of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, a similar legislation is unlikely
to be put forward soon despite French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s
insistence of doing so, a Turkish expert says.

“France’s Constitutional Council decision will set a precedent,
” Kamer Kasim, deputy head of the International Strategic Research
Organization, told Xinhua on Thursday.

The French Senate adopted last month a law that might impose a
60,530-U.S.-dollar fine and a year in prison on those guilty of
denying that the World War I-era deaths of over one million Armenians
under the Ottoman rule amounted to “genocide.” The bill was passed
by the French National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament,
the previous month.

As Ankara vowed to slap Paris with harsh sanctions, political and
military, after the approval of the bill, Turkish politicians and
businessmen also intensely lobbied in Paris to convince French
lawmakers — In France, even if a bill is approved by the Senate,
the legislation can still be appealed to the Constitutional Council
if a large number of parliamentarians file for it.

Eventually, on Tuesday, the French Constitutional Council said it
“considered the law unconstitutional,” basing its verdict on the
relevant articles of the “1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen,” the fundamental document of the French Revolution.

Therefore, the law is null and void, and the entire legislative
process will have to begin from the very beginning.

The verdict was not a surprise, as the law was contradictory to the
French Constitution and freedom of expression, Kasim said. ” But,
bilateral relations between France and Turkey have got hurt in this
period. If the legislation was not carried to Constitutional Council
and if the court had given different decision, ties will be seriously
damaged.”

Although Sarkozy has pressed the government to draft a similar law
after the Constitutional Council’s rejection, his Union for a Popular
Movement Party noted Tuesday that a new bill to criminalize denial
of the Armenian genocide claims would not be put forward before June.

France has entered an election period, and it is hard for Sarkozy to
launch a new initiative and adopt that law, Kasim said, adding “They
can only take it to next parliament’s agenda.” But ” as the French
president is over engaged to this legislation,” he will “possibly try
to adopt the same law again if he is re-elected, ” Kasim pointed out.

However, according to Kasim, the Socialists, rival of Sarkozy’s
Union for a Popular Movement, are already supporting the Armenian
claims. He stressed that the Socialists are careful not to harm the
relations with Turkey, so they will probably not prefer to carrying
the law into the agenda if they are elected.

“Turkey really responded very harshly. Next French president should
think twice before attempting for this law again,” Kasim stressed.

Kasim believed that Turkey will not immediately lift measures against
France and will consider the attitude of the new French president on
the issue. This was in harmony with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu’s remarks on Tuesday that Ankara “would review the position
France would assume before lifting a series of measures.”

“If the conditions, which led to those measures, are changed, the
measures will be lifted,” Davutoglu said.

Tensions tainted relations between Paris and Ankara, which rejects
the term “genocide,” insisting that the killed Armenians were victims
of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed before modern Turkey was created.

GREEN SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT OVER IN TSAGHKADZOR

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 2, 2012 – 17:49 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Today, March 2, the Writers Creativity House in
Tsaghkadzor resort town hosted an event, during which the results of
the Winter Camp of the Green School project held from February 25-March
2 were concluded. The project was implemented by the Foundation for
the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC).

Students from 5 participating schools presented the skills acquired
for the past five days spent in the Winter Camp.

The Winter Camp is a major component of Green School project that
involves 30 most active students from participating schools.

The pilot phase of the project in Armenia was implemented successfully
in school N10 in Armenian city of Vanadzor in 2010.

Today it involves secondary school N 20 in Yerevan, secondary schools
of Urtsadzor town of Ararat Province, and secondary schools N 2 and
N 3 in Noratus village of Armenia’s Gegharkunik province.

In Armenia the project is implemented by the Foundation for the
Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets through support
of UNICEF and Swiss Embassy. The main partner of the Foundation,
Armenia’s Leading Telecommunications Operator VivaCell-MTS supported
implementation of this project.

As a corporate citizen VivaCell-MTS takes constructive approach
towards solution of such problems as protection and maintenance of
biodiversity of Armenia.

The Green School project implemented by the FPWC promotes the same
values and approaches as the international Green School implemented
in 43 countries. It involves a total of 27,000 schools, 6 million
students and 400,000 teachers internationally. Its main goal is to
teach children to treat environment and cultural assets with care
and responsibility, VivaCell-MTS press service reported.

US CONGRESSMAN: “WE MUST URGE AZERBAIJAN TO STOP ALL WARNINGS ABOUT MILITARY ACTIONS TOWARDS ARTSAKH”

02.03.12, 12:47

24th anniversary of one of the bloodiest pages of the newest era
of the history, Sumgait massacres was marked on February. During
Nagorno Karabakh war, 1988-1994, Armenian peace population in Arstakh
was attacked for many times. On February 27 Armenian population in
Azerbaijani Sumgait town became a target for the illegal actions,
tortures, violations, murders for three days. Armenians were attacked,
raped, beaten terribly, burnt and killed. US Congressman Brad Sherman
announced about this during the commemoration event dedicated to the
Sumgait victims.

During his speech Sherman noted that Sumgait police did not react to
the applications of support by Armenians in case when the Armenians
were tortured horribly, they were burnt alive and murdered.

Sherman also noted that Sumgait massacres were followed by pogroms
in Kirovabad and Baku and Armenian Community in whole was attacked.

“If we want to except such bloodsheds in future we must recognize
those terrible events and be sure that they will never be repeated. We
will never forget ethnic cleansings concerning Armenians. Moreover
we must show Azerbaijan that the USA continues supporting peace and
protection in Artsakh. We must urge Azerbaijan to stop all warnings
about military actions towards Artsakh”, Sherman said.

The Congressman underlined the necessity to settle NK issue peacefully.

MY SON DEALS WITH MY BUSINESSES – ARMENIAN MP

news.am
March 02, 2012 | 14:50

YEREVAN. – The ruling coalition’s Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)
has decided that the Football Federation of Armenia President and RPA
MP Ruben Hayrapetyan will run-in the majority election system-for the
upcoming parliamentary elections, Hayrapetyan himself informed during
a press conference on Friday. He added, however, that he still does
not know in which election district he will run.

In response to the query as to why he changed his previous decision of
not running in the elections, Hayrapetyan said he is not an independent
man, he has a political party, RPA decided that Hayrapetyan must run,
and he simply is carrying out the Party’s decisions.

Nonetheless, he believes the parliament is not his place, but he will
indulge in legislative work if reelected MP.

And with respect to his friend, businessman MP Samvel Aleksanyan’s
statement that he has left his business to his wife so he can engage
in politics, Ruben Hayrapetyan noted that he was unlucky with his
wife in this regard, but “my son deals with my businesses.”

WITH FRANCE OUT OF THE WAY, TURKEY CAN DEAL WITH IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Published 22:49 01.03.12

Israel, Turkey can take a lesson from the way Paris and Ankara returned
to normal after a French attempt to make the denial of the Armenian
genocide illegal threatened the longtime relationship.

By Zvi Bar’el Tags: Israel Turkey Iran nuclear Recep Tayyip Erdogan

After the storm of the “Armenian genocide bill” rattled Turkish-French
ties to the point of crisis, both nations could breathe a sigh of
relief on Wednesday. France’s Constitutional Council struck down the
bill, saying that it was ran counter to the country’s constitution,
to 1789’s the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and 1879’s Act of
the Freedom of the Press. The Constitutional Council did so, in the
words of the eminent pundit Mehmet Ali Birand, to prove that “France
is France,” and mainly to take France off the tree Turkey placed it on.

The aforementioned bill aimed to sentence anyone who denied the
Armenian genocide to up to one year in prison, along with a fine of
45,000 Euros. When it was passed both in the house of representative
and the Senate, Turkey saw red. It sanctioned French warships and jets
that wished to use its ports and airports, chilled its diplomatic
relations with France, and it seemed that the two countries were
headed on a full-on collision course.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) shakes hands with Turkey’s
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul May 9, 2011.

Photo by: Reuters

“France is restricting free speech,” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Recep Erdogan said, while the mayor of Ankara swore to change the
name of the capital’s Paris St. to “Algeria St.,” to commemorate
the Algerians who were killed during the French occupation of their
country.

But both countries saw that the tree they climbed on was too high,
to the point that it threatened not only both economies, but their
essential strategic relationship. On both sides, lobbying campaign
ensued advanced by industrial groups to remove the threat of boycott,
lower the critical tone and return to normal.

The bill, then, was taken down, and even though French President
Nikola Sarkozy promised the his country’s largest Armenian community,
the votes of whom he’ll need in the coming elections, that he will
draft a new law, it is nonetheless clear that the affair is over.

France and Turkey came to understand what Israel and Turkey should
have understood long ago: even prestige and honor can be reconciled
if you don’t paint argue yourself into a dead end. However, the end
of the crisis means that Turkey can afford time to its mediating
activities, something it has been engaged in full on. It aspires to
host talks on Iran’s nuclear program in April, and for that it needs
Iranian consent and that of the five permanent United Nations Security
Council members along with Germany.

In principle, Iran has already voiced its approval to hold a dialogue
with the West in Istanbul, but the western nations first want to
find out what is it that they’ll be discussing. For that reason,
Erdogan invited himself to a Tehran visit during the last week of
March in order to reach the kind of agreements that would make the
dialogue possible. According to Turkish sources, Erdogan will tell
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that time is of the essence for
“we understand that the Israeli Spring is coming, and with it the
possibility of an attack on Iran.”

But even before the meeting in Tehran, Turkey will have an opportunity
to exchange ideas with Iran when next Wednesday the foreign ministers
of Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan will meet in what is being defined
a routine meeting geared at “promoting regional peace and security.”

It will also serve as another opportunity for Iran to scold Azerbaijan
for its $1.6 billion arms deal with Israel. Following that transaction,
the Azeri envoy in Tehran was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry,
where explanations were demanded and warnings were issued against the
possibility that the next door neighbor would serve as a “terror base
against Iran.”

The Azeri envoy explained that the deal was not meant to threaten any
state but “to liberate Azerbaijan’s occupied territory,” referring
to Nagorno-Karabakh, which was taken by Armenia during their war in
the 1990s. In that way, an occupying country aides an occupied one,
earning quite a bit of cash along the way.