Author: Parkev Tvankchian

Some Armenians in Turkey see new patriarch as Erdoğan puppet

Parkev Tvankchian
AHVAL News
Jan 31 2020
– Eurasianet

  • Jan 31 2020 03:24 Gmt+3
  • Last Updated On: Jan 31 2020 03:26 Gmt+3

Some Armenians in Turkey, unhappy with what they see as government meddling in the election of a new Armenian patriarch, view the community’s newly elected religious leader as someone serving the interests of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Eurasianet said. 

Bishop Sahak Maşalyan was elected with an overwhelming majority as the new Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul in December, after the Turkish government effectively eliminated 10 of the 12 possible candidates by introducing a new rule that blocked the candidacy of those born abroad. 

“Many Armenians saw the residency requirement as a cynical ploy by Ankara to install its favoured candidate,” Eurasianet said.

“The patriarch is a puppet of Tayyip Erdoğan,” the news site quoted a 53-year-old Armenian beautician as saying. 

“The state didn’t want candidates that could speak freely about the 1915 events. It wanted someone who would adopt its discourse,” said Murad Mıhçı, the head of Nor Zartonk, an Armenian rights group.

But the editor-in-chief of Jamanak, Turkey’s only daily still printed in the Armenian language, disagreed. The lack of a unified position amongst Armenians on how to conduct the elections led to the authorities meddling in their affairs, said Ara Koçunyan. 

He told Eurasianet that a patriarch close to the government was best positioned to benefit the community, and called objections to the election demagoguery.

Successive Turkish governments have intervened in the elections of non-Muslim minority religious officials in a variety of ways since 1923, the foundation of the Turkish republic. 

When the last patriarch, Mesrob Mutafyan, became unable to carry out his duties 12 years ago due to dementia, the government prevented the Armenian community electing a new religious leader on the grounds that Mutafyan was still alive. 

The Spiritual Council of the Armenian Apostolic Church elected an interim leader in 2017, but the Turkish government declared the election void saying that the result might cause disturbance and divisions in society. 

Seyran Ohanyan: The issue of surrendering territories to Azerbaijan has never been discussed with me

Parkev Tvankchian
Arminfo, Armenia
Jan 29 2020

ArmInfo.Former Minister of Defense Seyran Ohanyan stated that the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, did not discuss the issue of surrendering territories  with him.  Ohanyan said this on January 29 in an interview with  reporters.

He said: “I have repeatedly noted that we must fight for every inch  of the land, and today the issue of concessions is not the subject of  negotiations. If we are talking about some of the documents that were  discussed, then they were exclusively negotiations on some document.  And no one ever discussed with me the issue handling surrendering  territories, “the former defense minister emphasized.

It should be noted that at a press conference, Nikol Pashinyan  criticized the “heritage” of Serzh Sargsyan, which remained on the  Karabakh issue. Pashinyan, in particular, said that the previous  authorities were negotiating the surrender of seven regions to  Azerbaijan – Agdam, Fizuli, Dzhabrail, Zangelan, Kubatly, Kelbajar  and Lachin, with the condition of providing direct ground  communication between Artsakh and Armenia.

ANC France Director: Emmanuel Macron to attend Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations banquet

Parkev Tvankchian
News.am, Armenia
Jan 23 2020

23:27, 23.01.2020
                  

President of France Emmanuel Macron will be attending the banquet organized by the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France and has confirmed his participation. This is what Armenian National Committee France Director Hratch Varjabedian told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“The banquet will be held on January 29 and will be attended by not only the President of France, but also the mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon, several ministers, MPs, Armenia’s ambassador and several renowned French and Armenian figures. Turkish historian Taner Akcam is also invited to the banquet during which he will be awarded for his contributions to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. This is the fourth year that the President of France is attending the banquet,” he stated.

According to Varjabedian, this banquet is important from the perspective of advancement of Armenian lobbying and in terms of the unity of the Armenian community. “We will also raise the issue of selling products and weapons to Azerbaijan, just like we raised it last year,” he said.

Absence of Armenia-Turkey relations challenge for Armenia’s security: Armenia’s FM

Parkev Tvankchian
Aysor, Armenia
Jan 22 2020

Absence of Armenia-Turkey relations is a challenge for Armenia’s security, Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said today at the Government-NA Q&A.

“We view this as one of the prior challenges. Turkey’s factor is more than visible in our foreign policy. We need a more thorough calculation,” the minister said.

  

Armenpress: Serzh Sargsyan’s complaint against asset freezing denied – prosecution

Parkev Tvankchian

Serzh Sargsyan’s complaint against asset freezing denied – prosecution

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 11:45,

YEREVAN, JANUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. The General Prosecution has denied ex-president Serzh Sargsyan’s appeal against a freezing injunction imposed on some of his assets as part of an indictment on alleged embezzlement.

The General Prosecution said Sargsyan’s lawyer Amram Makinyan had filed the complaint.

Sargsyan is suspected in abuse of power and embezzlement of nearly half a billion drams during his tenure as president through a businessman Barsegh Beglaryan, who in turn is also facing criminal charges.  

The assets of Barsegh Beglaryan, the head of FLASH, a petroleum company based in Armenia, were also frozen earlier in December.

Authorities said they had frozen the assets equal to the amount of the suspected damages inflicted.

On January 10, the Special Investigations Service had announced it completed investigating the alleged misconduct and embezzlement by third President Serzh Sargsyan. The indictment was sent to court pending proceedings.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Action film-like murder occurs in Armenia village

Parkev Tvankchian
news.am, Armenia
Nov 2 2019
Action film-like murder occurs in Armenia village (PHOTOS) Action film-like murder occurs in Armenia village (PHOTOS)

16:16, 02.11.2019
                  

A murder reminiscent of action films took place today in Gegharkunik Province of Armenia.

Around 9:15am, police received a call from Gavar town hospital that two persons were brought there with gunshot wounds, and one of whom had died without regaining consciousness.

According to shamshyan.com, police and investigators found out that the deceased was 40-year-old Gagik Hakobyan, a resident of Noratus village, and the injured was his fellow villager, 56-year-old Arevshat Ghazaryan.

Police also found out that these men had sustained these gunshot wounds at the Noratus village section of the Yerevan-Sevan-Martuni highway.

Investigators at the scene have found a vehicle with multiple traces of shooting. Five automatic weapon bullet shells were also found there.

According to preliminary information, more than 20 shots were fired at the scene.

A criminal case has been initiated.

Those assembled at the scene said that a few years ago, the man who was killed had fired shots near the court of general jurisdiction of the Gegharkunik Province toward the people who there to attend the hearing of the case on the murder of the son of former Gegharkunik governor Hakobyan, when he was informed that his father had been beaten there. 

Those gathered also said that today’s shooting may be revenge.

ANCA: U.S. House Votes Overwhelmingly To Lock In Armenian Genocide Recognition, Rejecting Turkey’s Denial Of This Crime

Parkev Tvankchian
PR Newswire
Oct 29 2019

– Armenian National Committee of America Supported Bipartisan Measure (H.Res.296) Integral to Establishing Principled U.S. Policy on the Armenian Genocide

News provided by

Armenian National Committee of America

Oct 29, 2019, 17:38 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — In a major blow to Ankara’s obstruction of justice for the Armenian Genocide, the U.S. House today voted overwhelmingly to pass H.Res.296, an Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) backed measure locking in ongoing U.S. recognition of this crime and officially rejecting Turkey’s denial of the genocide it committed against Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Maronites and other Christian nations. The Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.296) was adopted by a vote of 405 to 11.

Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian stated, “The ANCA welcomes the U.S. House of Representatives vote overriding the longest-lasting foreign veto in American history – Ankara’s gag-rule against honest American remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. We must now move forcefully toward a truthful, just and comprehensive resolution of Turkey’s crime against humanity that killed over 1.5 million innocent Armenians.”

Hamparian continued, “While much can be said of today’s vote – this is crystal clear. First, this vote exposed – in powerful ways – Ankara’s attempts to enlist America in its obstruction of justice for the Armenian Genocide. Second, this vote places America on the side of justice, which has, for far too long, been denied to the victims and surviving generations of the Armenian Genocide.”

The Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.296) establishes, as a matter of U.S. policy, 1) the rejection of Armenian Genocide denial, 2) ongoing official U.S. government recognition and remembrance of this crime, and 3) support for education about the Armenian Genocide in order to help prevent modern-day atrocities.  Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) led the House effort, while Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) are spearheading the Senate measure (S.Res.150). 

The ANCA has consistently pushed back against Turkey’s denials, striving to put America on the right side of the Armenian Genocide. Thousands of letters and phone calls have already been sent to Congress by Armenian American advocates through the ANCA online portal – anca.org/genocide.

For more information on the Armenian Genocide: www.anca.org/endthegagrule.

SOURCE Armenian National Committee of America

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anca-us-house-votes-overwhelmingly-to-lock-in-armenian-genocide-recognition-rejecting-turkeys-denial-of-this-crime-300947655.html





Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan to participate in Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

Parkev Tvankchian

Deputy PM Tigran Avinyan to participate in Tbilisi Silk Road Forum

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 20:00,

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan will travel to Georgia October 21-23 to participate in the Tbilisi Silk Road Forum.

PM Nikol Pashinyan signed the decision on dispatching Avinyan’s delegation to the event.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan

ECHR constitutes Grand Chamber to provide advisory opinion over Kocharyan case

Parkev Tvankchian
Panorama, Armenia
Oct 14 2019

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has accepted a request for an advisory opinion from Armenia’s Constitutional Court over the criminal case involving Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan.

The petition was filed to the court based on the applications of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction and Robert Kocharyan himself.

The court has constituted a Grand Chamber of 17 judges to consider the petition, ECHR said.

The president of the Grand Chamber has also established a time-frame for submissions from the parties to the domestic proceedings or other interested parties, including the Armenian government and the commissioner for human rights.

The court reminds that the request for an advisory opinion was introduced on 2 September this year and on 2 October it was accepted by the Panel of the Grand Chamber.

The advisory opinion requested by Armenia’s top court relates to proceedings pending before it in which it is asked to review the constitutionality of Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code, which penalizes the overthrowing of the constitutional order.

The president of the Grand Chamber has invited the parties to the domestic proceedings before the Armenian Constitutional Court, namely the National Assembly and Robert Kocharyan, to submit written observations by 19 November.

Armenia is the second country to seek such an opinion under Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights. France made the first request in October 2018.

Protocol No. 16 allows the highest courts and tribunals, as specified by member states which have ratified it, to request advisory opinions on questions of principle relating to the interpretation or application of the rights and freedoms defined in the European Convention or its protocols.



Armenia’s PM condemns distortion of history by Azerbaijani president, describes it as disrespect toward Armenia and heads of CIS countries

Parkev Tvankchian
Aysor, Armenia
Oct 11 2019

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan strictly condemned the speech of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in Ashkhabad at the summit of the council of CIS heads of states, describing it as disrespect toward the CIS heads of states.

“We are against biased interpretation of historic developments but unfortunately we have seen such attempts in the speech of Ilham Heydarovich,” Pashinyan said, in response to Aliyev’s claims that Armenian public, political and military figure Garegin Nzhdeh was a fascist.

“An impression from Ilham Aliyev’s speech is that Hitler had a secondary role in the Great Patriotic War and Garegin Nzhdeh was the leader of fascist movement,” the PM stressed, adding that Nzhdeh was fighting against Turkish occupation of Armenia, against Armenian Genocide organized and conducted by Turkey.

The Armenia PM also stressed that in 1918 with many Russian officers Nzhdeh was heading one of the important sectors of the front during the Armenian-Turkish war.

“The knowledge of objective assessment of the history is very important. It is said that Nzhed died in Vladimir jail. Many soviet figures died there. Do we consider all those convicted from 1937-1950 people’s enemies? If so many outstanding figures were convicted during that period and died in jails, but it does not mean that what they did is a fact,” Pashinyan said, adding that he considers improper to use this format for distortion of history to bring tension to the summit.

“The words of the Azerbaijani president is a manifestation of disrespect first of all toward Armenian people, heads of states and peoples present here. I am sorry for such tension, I am not the author of it,” Pashinyan said.

In his speech Aliyev said that Armenia glorifies fascism and the proof of it is the monument to “fascist Garegin Nzhdeh in the downtown Yerevan.”