Author: Torgomian Varazdat

ACTIVISTS PURSUE GENOCIDE PAYMENT
By Zain Shauk

Glendale News Press
September 23, 2009

Armenian activists believe they can sway a split 3-judge appellate
panel to collect insurance.

Published: Last Updated Wednesday, September 23, 2009 10:02 PM PDT
SOUTH GLENDALE — Armenian activists insisted Wednesday that a recent
federal appeals court ruling would not stop them from seeking payments
from life insurance companies on the policies of those killed in the
Armenian Genocide.

Representatives from the Armenian National Committee and Armenian Youth
Federation, among other groups, assured attendees during a town hall
meeting at St. Mary’s Apostolic Church that the lawsuit’s plaintiffs,
which number in the thousands, would win a favorable decision from
the court as the group fights a recent legal hurdle.

The group’s goal is to sway a split three-judge appellate panel,
attorney Mark Geragos said.

"We’re hoping it just takes one vote," he said of plans for an appeal.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 20 that descendants
of Armenian Genocide victims could not request payment from insurance
companies, despite a state law that allowed them to do so, because
it would interfere with U.S. foreign policy.

"The federal government has made a conscious decision not to apply
the politically charged label of ‘genocide’ to the deaths of these
Armenians during World War I," said Judge David R. Thompson, who wrote
the majority opinion in the ruling. "Whether or not California agrees
with this decision, it may not contradict it."

That logic, agreed to by two of the three judges on the appellate
panel, drew harsh criticism not only from town hall attendees, but also
from Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who has written legislation to push
for national acknowledgment of the genocide and, as an state senator,
co-wrote California’s law allowing the descendants of genocide victims
to claim insurance benefits.

"The problem with that is that there is no federal policy against
genocide recognition and there has ne s week to reconsider its ruling.

Congress has considered three resolutions in the last decade that would
have paved the way for official recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

But the White House has worked to kill each effort, fearing they
would damage relations with Turkey, which denies a genocide took place.

The U.S. government currently has no official position on the mass
killings of 1.5 million Armenians that occurred between 1915 and 1923
in Ottoman Turkey.

"I think when they examine the record more closely, they’ll realize
that the court made a poor judgment, not based on the facts or the
law," Schiff said.

Lawsuits from genocide victims have yielded a combined total of $37
million in settlements from two firms, New York Life Insurance Co. in
2004 and AXA S.A. in 2005.

Glendale priest Vazken Movsesian, of St. Peter Armenian Church, filed a
case six years ago seeking a settlement of claims under policies issued
by German insurers Victoria Versicherung and Ergo Versicherungsgruppe,
as well as parent company Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG.

Thousands of Armenians whose relatives were genocide victims also
joined in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs scored a partial victory two years ago when
U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said the law passed in 2000 by
the California Legislature gave the descendants standing to sue. But
that ruling was overturned by the appellate court.

Town hall organizers hoped their forum would give stakeholders
confidence despite the recent court ruling, said Zanku Armenian,
chairman of the Armenian National Committee Glendale chapter.

"It’s a legal matter that often times [includes] complicated matters
and so it’s important to get the community to understand both what
transpired, what the implications of the court decisions are, as well
as what the potential avenues for them are, in terms of appeals,"
Armenian said.

Representatives for Shant Student Assn. and the Armenian Bar
Assn. participated in the town hall discussion, bringing more than
100 pe ys.

An overwhelming majority of those in the audience had no direct ties
to the outcome of the case, but were interested nonetheless, they said.

The court’s ruling to block the push for a settlement on insurance
claims was unfair because a law was in place to allow similar suits,
La Crescenta resident Caroline Tashejian said.

"Taking it back, it pushes us further back, in terms of progressing
our cause," she said.

Sylvia Natalie Manoogian, of Los Angeles, had benefited from the New
York Life settlement and came to learn more about what she said was
an unfortunate appellate court ruling.

Her family, which received $20,000 in the New York Life settlement,
claims to own property within modern Turkey’s borders, but has not
been able to secure it.

She saw the battle for life insurance claims and genocide recognition
first hand, she said.

"The more information I have, the more it gives me tools and means
[for moving forward]," she said.

MASSAVETAS TRIES TO FIND WHAT’S GONE IN ‘A CITY OF ABSENCES’

Today’s Zaman
24 September 2009, Thursday

A view from Istanbul’s Tarlabasi neighborhood.

Alexandros Massavetas suggests taking a walk in Tarlabasi. Tumbling
down from just below the British Consulate in Beyoglu and landing on
the doorstep of Bilgi University’s Dolapdere campus, Tarlabai’s steep
hills and rows of narrow, three-story buildings are home to Kurds,
Roma, some Africans and enough Arabs to make it good business sense
for one shop to advertise the price of baguettes in handwritten Arabic

Many of the transvestites who work in Beyoglu also live in Tarlabai. A
woman sitting on the curb is separating wool into a plastic
bowl. Streams of men head for the mosque for Friday prayers. Stoned
huffers crowd a side street. Friendly taxi-drivers offer directions
to the Adam Mickiewicz Museum. Lots of kids play in the streets. At
the tea and börek shop, the only table is taken, but the local man
enjoying his tea clears out and insists the foreigners sit. These days,
Tarlabasi is a poor neighborhood; it has a reputation for crime and
is at risk of gentrification.

One hundred years ago, it was Greeks and Armenians who tramped
up and down the slopes of Tarlabasi. After generations of calling
Istanbul home, the 20th century saw most of them off, forced out by
politics. "Though you can’t find Jews, Greeks, Armenians or Russians
to speak to in every corner, you can, in almost every corner, find
their memories," says Massavetas. Only a few steps inside Tarlabasi,
Massavetas has already spotted a Greek engraving preserving the name
of a home’s architect. At the bottom of the hill, the facade of a
red-brick hamam is decorated with Greek, Armenian and Ottoman plaques;
each reads, in its own language: "Baths of the Constitution 1911."

Massavetas, a 33-year-old Greek journalist, is an expert on the
history of cosmopolitan Istanbul. He is the author of "Going Back
to Constantinople — Istanbul: A City of Absences." He was rrived
in Istanbul after deciding to "flee" a career in law, and though he
didn’t have sensational memories of his first visit to Istanbul as
a young tourist under the lignite fumes in the mid-1980s, Massavetas
says he was "shocked" when he returned in 2000. Since then, he says,
he’s been obsessed and in love with Istanbul. Comfortable between
cultures, Massavetas, who speaks 10 languages, says, "I’m more able
to relate to the late Ottoman time and to districts like Pera [today’s
Beyoglu], which was a Babel of people, languages and customs."

Time travel

"I wanted to talk about Istanbul and its cosmopolitan past, which
doesn’t only include the Greeks … [and] convey my sense of amazement
at the memories of Istanbul," says Massavetas, explaining why he wrote
his book. Though the old minority communities are now a fraction of
their previous numbers, "you have their heritage still dominating
over the city," he says. "I just wanted to preserve the memory of
cosmopolitanism."

The book is about "how you can reach the people who are absent." To
make contact, Massavetas studied Benjamin of Tudela’s account of his
visit to Constantinople in the 12th century; he researched medieval
Russian travelogues; he mined the mountain of 19th century travel
literature. Massavetas learned of the White Russian refugees, of the
Sabbateans and of the Bulgarians who once monopolized the milk trade.

"This is what I found most charming about late Ottoman Istanbul,
that it was such a mosaic of all these people — some of them
very integrated into their communities … and others who were in
between, with one foot here, the other there, the Levantines being
an example." The Levantines are Mediterranean Europeans who settled
in stanbul for centuries. "European historians, in a sort of very
cheesy way, [have] written about this ‘beautiful co-existence’
and tolerance — it’s a bit exaggerated," says Massavetas. "It’s
exaggerated to speak about this brotherhood and coexistence being
so idyllic, ple existed together. And I found that very interesting,
having been brought up in such a homogeneous country as Greece."

Ministry to memories

At midday, the white sun melts the discrete shapes of the Tarlabasi
skyline into shimmers. Trying to photograph the dome and vault of
St. Constantine’s church becomes futile.

An hour earlier, as if Massavetas’ Greek greeting had been a
shibboleth, the gate of St. Constantine’s was opened for us, and
we were welcomed into the courtyard. Mesmerizing and spooky, the
church is kept immaculate and airy for a congregation that doesn’t
exist. But nothing in the church suggests closure. No dust. The metals
shine. Everything is ready. It feels like everyone has either just
left moments ago, or is set to arrive. But this is not the case.

Tarlabasi’s Greeks, like Istanbul’s, like Turkey’s, are almost all
gone. In 1923, the peace treaty between Greece and the new Turkish
Republic required "population exchange." Half a million Muslims in
Greece and 1.5 million Greek Orthodox people in Turkey were forced
to emigrate. The Orthodox of stanbul were permitted to stay, but the
so-called "wealth tax" of 1942 and the pogrom of 1955 forced many
to leave.

"We are told in Greece about the September 1955 events, evictions,
and that people were subject to a constant intimidation. 1955 was
the most hysterical expression of something that was there from the
foundation of the republic until very recently. … Although nobody
would phrase it this way, I think that only a Jew would understand
the situation who had experienced being Jewish in Europe in the 1930s."

Today there are perhaps 5,000 Greeks in Istanbul. "They hang on to
the city with great determination," says Massavetas. "And they felt
when there was a community; [that] they were the real owners of the
place … A lot of people felt like that — because it’s their city
and their culture. The local community has always defined themselves
as Constantinopolitan first and foremost, and then Greek. They felt
very s eeks were so insistent in staying in Istanbul that even 1955
did not succeed in wiping the community out."

"There are different kinds of responses," he says, speaking of how
Greeks now view this history. "You can never generalize different ways
of dealing with it. [You could] become very nationalist and aggressive,
or become very open-minded and see yourself as part of all this mess
of the 20th century. … We always think in Greece of us being a
nation of refugees, coming over from Asia Minor or wherever, but it

is also true here."

REAL ESTATE RATES REDUCED BY 19% IN YEREVAN

News.am
19:13 / 09/24/2009

The average prices for real estate decreased in Riga — by 53%,
Tbilisi — 42%, Kiev — 39% in September 2008-2009. The least fall
in prices was recorded in Bishkek — 16%, Yerevan -19% and Chisinau
— 21%, the statistics on price-level changes in 15 ex-Soviet Union
capitals by GED Analytics center says.

Various price changes in these cities are conditioned by both local
political and economic factors beyond the global crisis. For instance,
price slash in Georgia last year is connected with the August 2008 war,
implicit economic blockade by north neighbor and attendant economic
and investment losses.

In Moscow and Baku price slash is conditioned by one-sided economy
of Russia and Azerbaijan, as demand for raw materials produced in
these countries has dramatically declined in the world market. These
countries had to be followed by Turkmenistan, however the real estate
market in this limited Central Asian country develops in peculiar
oriental rules.

The least price cut is registered in relatively poor and decent
Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova. Here the price "bubble" was not that
much soared at the expense of petrodollars surplus and needlessly
optimistic investors. In addition, their economy did not depress that
much. One of the main reasons for price reduction was lowered wages
of the citizens working in Russia.

As of September 2009, the lowest prices for real estate are registered
in Tashkent and Dushanbe (U.S. $ 500/m2). In Tbilisi 1 m2 totals
U.S. $ 550, having the Moscow registering the max of U.S. $4500/ m2,
followed by Kiev — U.S. $ 1750/ m2 and Almaty with U.S. $ 1550/ m2.

ARMENIA: OMBUDSMAN SAYS VIOLENCE REPORT SKEWED

/eav092309d.shtml
NEWS BRIEFS
9/23/09

A recent report by a group of legislators on the causes of the 2008
post-election violence in Yerevan is off the mark, Armenian Ombudsman
Armen Arutyunian contends.

Speaking at a September 22 news conference, Arutyunian noted that the
long-awaited report, released earlier in the month, offered only tepid
criticism of authorities’ conduct, while the opposition was spared
no blame, the Kavkazsky Uzel news service reported. Yerevan street
protests degenerated into deadly violence on March 1, 2008, as police
battled demonstrators who disputed the results of the February 19
presidential vote. An ad hoc commission was later set up to investigate
the clashes. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The report’s criticism of the prosecutor’s office and police was
limited to expressing anger over the failure of these agencies to
cooperate with the parliamentary commission, Arutyunian said. The
ombudsman, however, commended the report for pinpointing systematic
flaws of governance that contributed to the unrest, Kavkazsky Uzel
reported.

IMPORT FROM TURKEY TO ARMENIA MAY INCREASE BY NO MORE THAN 30% WITH OPENING OF BORDER

ArmInfo
2009-09-23 12:49:00

ArmInfo. Import from Turkey to Armenia may increase by no more than 30%
with opening of the border, Director of the Union of Industrialists and
Businessmen of Armenia Gagik Makaryan told ArmInfo when commenting on
the economic consequences from possible opening of the Armenian-Turkish
border.

He also said one should hardly expect long-term growth of consumption
of the Turkish goods because of their low price. ‘If too much number
of goods enter the market, part of them will remain unclaimed even
if they are cheap. It’s another matter that the Turkish goods may
displace the cheap Chinese or South-Eastern Asian goods because of
the lower transportation costs.

However, the market laws and not some advantages of the Turkish goods
will work here’, G. Makaryan said. He thinks one should hardly be
afraid for sharp competition of the Armenian and Turkish goods. ‘The
economy of Turkey is not among the modern and upgraded ones, and
its industrial production has low competitiveness. We have a similar
situation in Armenia: a great number of enterprises in our country have
a low or average upgrading level. So, extra-high competition is almost
impossible because of a similar level of the economies’, Makaryan said.

INVENTED INTERVIEW

ahos15266.html
12:21:38 – 22/09/2009

The press secretary of the Armenian president Samvel Farmanov answering
panorama.am question in connection with the exclusive "interview"
with Serge Sargsyan published today by the Moscovski Komsomolets daily
where Serge Sargsyan’s thoughts seems strange at first instance, said.

"The exclusive "interview" with Serge Sargsyan published today by
the Moscovski Komsomolets daily is nothing more that the result of
the ill imagination of the daily’s journalist Ekaterina Sazhneva. The
president of Armenia has not given any interview to this journalist
neither to his daily.

The author of the interview with another decade of representatives
participated in a meeting at the presidential residence in the
frameworks of "Days of Russian speech in Armenia" event. The questions
in the "interview" were not voiced during the meeting and Serge
Sargsyan’s words are completely mutated. Perhaps, the journalist set
hopes on her apparently bad memory. In never happened "interview",
some thoughts are taken from the context and do not reflect the
essence of what the president said.

Let me add, that the journalist did not inform the relevant service
of the president’s staff on her intention to publish the article
which is a violence of journalistic rules’.

RA PRIME MINISTER TIGRAN SARGSYAN’S CONGRATULATIONS MESSAGE ON 18TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIA’S INDEPENDENCE

Monday, 21 September 2009

RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s Congratulations Message on 18th
Anniversary of Armenia’s Independence

Dear compatriots,

I warmly congratulate all of us on our chief State holiday –
Independence Day.

For each of us the holiday of independence is an occasion for
comprehension of the way gone by the State, success and failure
stories, achievements and challenges. This retrospective view is an
opportunity to think about the problems faced and anticipate future
action.

This is likewise a day of common pride for us. We must push ahead by
fostering and strengthening our independence, by making possible and
even impossible efforts toward the fulfillment of our long-cherished
dream – our legitimate right to living independently. Each of us
should feel proud of our people’s unfailing efforts thanks to which
Motherland – Armenia has been growing stronger and stronger.

We are actually going through a historical period. The modern world
is posing ever new challenges to us. I am convinced that we will
cope with them through unity and dedication which were at the heart
of our independence.

Dear compatriots, sisters and brothers,

The age of 18 is considered to be the threshold of majority. Today
Armenia’ s sovereign nationhood is stepping over it along with
those who are coevals with our State. I am formulating separate
congratulations for our children – those teenagers called "generation
of independence," who happened to be born in the independent Republic
of Armenia.

With reiterated congratulations on the day of independence, I wish
peace, prosperity and realization of the all-national goals to our
country and people.

Armenian Second TV Channel
Sept 18 2009

Armenian opposition rally slams authorities’ foreign, economic
policies

The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) held a sanctioned
rally in central Yerevan today, the state-owned Armenian Second TV
Channel reported on 18 September.

Ararat Zurabyan, the head of the opposition Armenian Pan-National
movement, who led the rally, told the rally that all of the 15 people
who are currently in prison on charges of organizing post-election
riots in March 2008 will be soon released as a result of the
opposition’s struggle, TV said.

The leader of the opposition Republic party, Aram Sargsyan; the leader
of the opposition People’s Party of Armenia, Stepan Demirchyan; and
the ANC leader, former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, made speeches at
the rally, the Armenian Second TV Channel said. ANC coordinator Levon
Zurabyan spoke about the protocols on the normalization of
Armenian-Turkish ties, TV said.

Ter-Petrosyan criticized the authorities’ foreign, domestic and
economic policies in his about one-and-a-half-hour speech, Armenian
Public TV reported. "Exactly two and a half months have passed since
the ANC’s previous rally. And over that period almost nothing changed
in our country for the better," Armenian Public TV quoted
Ter-Petrosyan as saying.

Levon Zurabyan told the rally that former MP and businessman Khachatur
Sukiasyan, who is charged with organizing the 1 March 2008
post-election riots, was not attending the rally as he had been
summoned to the Special Investigation Service for questioning, the
Lragir.am pro-opposition website reported.

The opposition A1+ website reported on 18 September that police had
restricted access of minibuses and buses to Yerevan from a number of
Armenia’s regions ahead of the opposition rally.

ROMANIA’S TIMISHOARA SEIZES SCORES FROM AMSTERDAM

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.09.2009 10:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the first group match of European League,
Romania’s Timishoara represented by twin brothers Artavazd and Arman
Karamyans played 0:0 against Amsterdam’s Ayax, A Group favorite. This
is a successful start for Romanian team which is considered a group
outsider. Thus, Timishoara earned its first score while the Dutch
players lost their first two ones.

Of two Armenian twin brothers, only Artavazd participated in the
match since excessive number of yellow cards disqualified Arman
from competitions.

Let’s note that in the qualification match against Donestk’s Shakhter
(2:2), Romanian players scored no single goal.

In an away match against Dinamo, Belgium’s Anderlekht took the lead
in Group A, beating Zagreb’s team 0:2.

ARMENIA HAS TO INSIST ON PACKAGE RESOLUTION TO NKR ISSUE

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
18.09.2009 19:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Official Yerevan’s diplomacy must not allow for
Ankara to link NKR settlement issue with RA -Turkish rapprochement,
Head of Democracy and Collaboration Institute, New York Department
Andranik Mihranyan told a news conference in Yerevan. "Turkish FM can
say whatever he wishes, still RA-Turkish rapprochement Protocols do
not cover NKR conflict, and no breakthrough on this issue should be
expected during Protocols’ ratification period. There could be some
pressure on Armenia in this connection, yet it won’t be significant,"
the politologist emphasized, adding that ratification can’t be
postponed forever.

According to Andranik Mihranyan, Armenia will not agree to any
concessions on NKR conflict and has insist on package resolution to
NKR issue.