Category: 2018

Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Friday
Adoption of two Armenian Genocide bills by Parliament of Netherlands
further escalates that country's relations with Turkey
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The adoption of two bills on the
Armenian Genocide by the Parliament of the Netherlands on February 22
further escalated that country’s relations with Turkey, reports
Armenpress.
After the discussion in the Parliament, Turkey’s foreign ministry
summoned theDutch charge d‘affaires ErikWeststrate on February 17
during which official Ankara said the “politicization of historical
events is unacceptable”.
Nevertheless, the Parliament of the Netherlands adopted the two
Armenian Genocide bills with absolute majority of votes.
The Turkish foreign ministry, immediately after the adoption of the
bills, issued a statement “strictly condemning the adopted bills”.
Official Ankara said the bills “are not legally binding”.
The relations between Turkey and the Netherlands escalated in 2017
when the Dutch government banned the Turkish politicians to hold
campaigns in the Netherlands ahead of the constitutional referendum in
Turkey.
The Turkish leadership was making tough statements addressed to the
Netherlands, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly blamed that
country on showing Fascism and Nazi behavior.
The complete failure of talks on normalizing the relations was
announced on February 5, 2018 when the Netherlands announced
officially recalling its ambassador in Turkey. The ambassador left
Ankara in March 2017, but the Dutch foreign ministry announced its
decision on not sending the ambassador back to Turkey. Moreover, the
ministry said it will not accept appointment of new Turkish ambassador
to the Netherlands.
English – translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Friday
Etchmiatsin expects Turkish government to accept Armenian community's
'fair demand' of holding patriarchal elections
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The latest developments around the
patriarchal elections at the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul were
discussed, among other issues, at the February 20-23 Supreme Spiritual
Council Assembly in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiatsin.
Catholicos Garegin II chaired the assembly.
“The Supreme Spiritual Council once again expresses concern over the
undesirable developments in the Patriarchate and the life of the
Istanbul-Armenians during the last 10 years due to the illness of
Patriarch Archbishop Mesrop Mutafyan,” the Assembly said in a
statement.
Mentioning that the situation over the patriarchal seat has caused
distress, the Assembly noted that the election of the patriarchal
locum tenens “inspired new hope in terms of enthroning the historic
seat and restoring the normal life of the Istanbul-Armenians”.
The statement notes that the reckless steps of individuals and church
bodies resulted in a situation which causedexternal interferences and
the intervention of the Turkish government, which led to failure of
the efforts for organizing patriarchal elections.
“The Mother See of Holy Etchmiatsin has always welcomed the expression
of will of the Istanbul-Armenians and has supported the decisions of
historic structures of the See. Taking into account the February 9,
2018 decision of the Spiritual Assembly of the Armenian Patriarchate
of Istanbul, we address a call to sober up to Archbishop Garegin
Bekchyan, Archbishop Aram Ateshyan, Bishop Sahak Mashalyan and the
other clergy to rank the interest of the Patriarchate above personal
aspirations and interpersonal relations and consider it as priority,
to correct the wrong processes with wisdom and commitment and to
restore peace, unity and solidarity in the life of the Istanbul
Armenians”, the statement says.
Etchmiatsin called on members of the Spiritual Assembly and
influential individuals in the Armenian community to pursue
acknowledging Patriarch Mesrop Mutafyan, who has been severely ill for
a long time, as incapacitated and organization of patriarchal
elections in accordance to the procedure with the state, by
maintaining Armenian Church rules and lawful demands.
“We expect from the Turkish authorities to accept the Armenian
community’s fair demand of organizing Patriarchal elections”, the
Mother See said.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration,
encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of
love and peace will be with you” - 2 Corinthians 13:11.
English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan

Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Friday
Armenian herbal teas to be exported to Germany
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. Mountain Tea and Antaram, two
Armenian herbal tea producers, have signed an export deal with German
TeeGschwendner on the sidelines of the BIOFACH 2018 agricultural food
expo in Nuremberg, Germany.
LukasParobij, an executive of the German tea company, said they found
out about the Armenian producers through the organic agriculture
project of NABU and ACBA Credit Agricole Bank. “I think the project
created very good opportunities and prospects both for Armenian
organic tea producers and for us”, he said.
In addition to the exports deal, the agreement also implies staff training.
“This is TeeGschwendner’s first regional project, and I can say that
we found what we were looking for in Armenia”, he added.
The German company operates more than 130 specialized stores in 7
countries across 4 continents.
English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan

Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Friday
Madagascar FM 'impressed' with Armenia visit, calls for deeper co-op
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. At a joint press conference in
Yerevan with FM Edward Nalbandian, foreign minister of Madagascar
Henry Rabary Njaka talked about the expansion of cooperation between
the two countries. Henry Rabary Njaka says great potential exists for
enhancing cooperation.
“The hospitality of Madagascar is mentioned often, but I can say that
Armenian hospitality is truly unique. All what we’ve done in the past
days was very impressive and even extremely touching at certain
moments. I can say this is just the beginning, our contacts must be
continuous in both Yerevan and Antananarivo. Madagascar and Armenia
are members of that big family, Francophonie, we share important
values and in this family we must certainly also protect values of
humanism and brotherhood. All that’s important, like human rights,
fundamental freedoms, respects of one people towards the other, all
these values unite us. I am stunned on how much similarities these two
peoples have,” the Madagascar FM said, stressing that both sides have
relevant will for advancing bilateral relations.
He mentioned that during the meeting with his Armenian counterpart
they addressed several issues including the upcoming visit of the
President of Madagascar to Armenia.
“I believe this visit will be a great honor for the people of
Madagascar. Our teams will begin permanent contacts starting today to
prepare that state visit. We expect success from that visit”, he said.
Henry Rabary Njaka expressed admiration for Armenia’s economic growth,
mentioning that Madagascar can only benefit from it.
“You were recording double-digit economic growth even five years after
declaring independence”, he said, adding that Madagascar needs a
friendly country like Armenia, which is rather experiences in several
sectors.
English –translator/editor: Stepan Kocharyan

Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Friday
"Never Again" should not be just a slogan: Madagascar's foreign
minister visits Armenian Genocide Memorial
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. As people full of respect towards
humanity we have a constant obligation to the memory of the innocent
victims who just wanted to live, Henry Rabary-Njaka - minister of
foreign affairs of Madagascar, wrote in the Honorary Guest Book of the
Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, reports Armenpress.
The minister arrived in Armenia over the organization issues of the
visit of the President of Madagascar to the upcoming Francophonie
summit which will be held in Yerevan in autumn.
“As people, who respect humanity, we also have a constant memory
obligation to the memory of the innocent victims, to the children,
adolescents, youth, women and men who were just asking for allowing
them to live. The whole humanity should learn lessons from these
terrible events so that the history will no longer be repeated in this
direction. “Never Again” should not be just a slogan, we should live
like that. We pay tribute to the memory of all Armenian victims”,
Henry Rabary-Njaka said.
The delegation members of Madagascar’s foreign ministry laid flowers
at the Eternal Flame in the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial, then toured the
Museum-Institute and got acquainted with the history of the Armenian
Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.
The foreign minister told reporters that before visiting Armenia he
got acquainted with these events and said with regret that today as
well similar terrible events repeat throughout the world.
In response to the question of ARMENPRESS according to which “Armenia
assumed the leader’s role in prevention of genocides, how can
Madagascar assist our country in this regard”, the foreign minister
said: “The current leadership of Madagascar shows a great respect to
human rights, humanity, of course, the fact that now we are in our
friendly country already means that we share the same values with
Armenia”.
English – translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan

Armenpress News Agency, Armenia
 Friday
Delegation of Georgia's ministry of internal affairs visits Armenian
Genocide memorial complex
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The delegation of Georgia’s ministry
of internal affairsvisited the Armenian Genocide memorial complex. As
ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Police of
Armenia, deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Internal
Affairs Giorgi Gakharia put a wreath at the eternal fire, got
acquainted with the materials of the Armenian Genocide
Institute-Museum, and planted a fir tree at the Memorial Alley.
The delegation of the ministry of internal affairs of Georgia led by
deputy Prime Minister of Georgia, Minister of Internal Affairs Giorgi
Gakharia arrived in Armenia on an official visit on February 23, the
Armenian Police told Armenpress.
The delegation included deputy minister Levan Kakava, director of the
Georgian MIA Central Criminal Police Department Tornike Mushukudia and
other officials.
Chief of Police of Armenia, Colonel-General Vladimir Gasparyan and
high-ranking police officers welcomed the guests at "Zvartnots"
airport.
To welcome the Georgian counterparts the Armenian Police held a solemn
ceremony during which the honor guard held a demonstration
performance.
Thereafter, Police Chief of Armenia Vladimir Gasparyan had a working
meeting with the delegation of the Georgian Internal Ministry.
Welcoming the guests, Vladimir Gasparyan highly appreciated the
traditional partnership between the police structures of Armenia and
Georgia and underlined the tangible results that have already been
achieved by the joint efforts of law enforcement officials of the two
friendly countries.
Expressing his gratitude for the warm reception, Giorgi Gakharia
expressed a conviction that the close cooperation of the police
structures in fighting against crime would deepen, being conditioned
by the necessity of counteracting the challenges together.
Vladimir Gasparyan reiterated the determination of the leadership of
Armenian Police to further strengthen the well-established
partnership; the Police Chief highlighted the importance of the direct
and daily interaction between the relevant departments of the two law
enforcement structures is the best way for that.
During the meeting, the two sides also discussed other questions of
mutual interest. Vladimir Gasparyan awarded Minister of Internal
Affairs of Georgia Giorgi Gakharia with a medal "For strengthening
cooperation”.
English – translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
 Friday 8:42 AM EST
Turkey summons Dutch envoy, 'firecely' condenms Armenia genocide vote
 Istanbul
DPA POLITICS Turkey diplomacy Netherlands  Turkey summons Dutch
envoy, 'firecely' condenms Armenia genocide vote Istanbul
The top Dutch diplomat in Ankara was summoned to the
Turkish Foreign Ministry Friday, a day after the Dutch parliament
voted to recognize the mass killing of Armenians during World War I
as genocide, state-run news agency Anadolu reported.
Turkey "fiercely" condemned the resolution - which received
overwhelming support, with only three lawmakers voting against -
saying it has "no legal binding character or validity."
The Dutch government said it would continue to discuss "the question
of the Armenian genocide" but was not planning official recognition.
Turkey vehemently rejects any assertion that the killing of up to 1.5
million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire constitutes
genocide. However, Turkey, the Ottoman Empire's successor state,
accepts that many Armenians were killed during the war.
This is the second time in a week that the top Dutch envoy to Ankara
has been summoned. He was called into the ministry last week too, as
it became clear Dutch lawmakers planned to move ahead with the
recognition.
Relations between the Netherlands and Turkey are rocky. The two NATO
allies and key trading partners do not have ambassadors posted to
each other's capitals.
The Dutch government banned Turkish politicians from entering the
country to conduct election rallies aimed at Turkish expatriates in
the Netherlands in March last year, ahead of a controversial
referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers.

The Independent - Daily Edition
 Friday
There's a good reason why anti-Muslim ideology hasn't found a home in Portugal
by ROBERT FISK
The ramparts of the Portuguese Castle of the Moors - "Castelo dos
Mouros" - fell to the Christians of the Second Crusade in 1147, a
bunch of thieves and drunkards, according to local reports, which
included a fair number of Brits. There's a story that a huge fortune
in gold and coins still lies beneath the castle's broken and
much-restored walls, hidden there by the Moors when Afonso Henriques'
thugs were climbing the hills above Sintra. My guess is there's none.
Our relations with the Muslims have always revolved, it seems to me,
around money and jealousy. Besides, the Crusaders looted their way
across Lisbon - after a solemn agreement with the King that they could
do so - and then massacred and raped their way through the
panic-stricken Muslim population.
It was the only victory the Second Crusade achieved - things went
badly wrong for it in the real Middle East. After that - and the
15th-century expulsion of the Muslims - Portugal's conflict with the
region was economic rather than military, trying to grab the Indian
trade routes from Yemeni Arabs. When Vasco da Gama "discovered" India
and reached Calicut (Calcutta) on 20 May 1498 - this story comes from
Warwick Ball's Out of Arabia - he was greeted by an Arab from Tunisia
with the words "May the devil take you! What brought you here?"
But that was about it. Only well over four hundred years later do we
find the Christian nationalist dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar -
who kept Portugal neutral in the Second World War and thus preserved
its "oldest ally" relationship with Britain - declaring that in the
15th and 16th centuries, his country had defended "Christian
civilisation against Islam", a remark that might have come from Viktor
Orban of Hungary today. It was historical rubbish, and may be the
reason why there is no anti-Muslim ideology in Portugal. If you visit
the enormous tomb of Da Gama in the Jeronimos Monastery church at
Belem, the catafalque carries two magnificent sculptures of medieval
merchant ships but no reference to Muslims. Da Gama's sword is
sheathed under stone drapery. The Manueline monastery cloisters which
I walked through next door, however, are dripping with Arab-style
archways and Arabesque tiles (which you might find today in Algeria
and Tunisia).
The Department of Home Truths, a Fiskian institution I have found it
necessary to deploy around the Middle East, would point out, of
course, that Portugal visited its violence and ethnic cleansing and
racism and slavery not upon the Middle East but upon the peoples of
Africa, where later wars in its very own colonial possessions -
especially Angola and Mozambique - helped to bring down the
pseudo-fascist regime of Marcelo Caetano, Salazar's successor, in
1975.
The Arabs, however, were regarded as exotic and educated peoples whose
own culture was never erased from the streets of Portugal's cities.
The museum commemorating prisoners of 20th-century dictatorship is
located in an original Moorish building in Lisbon called Aljube, which
in Arabic means, "Street of the Watercourse". It can also mean
"prison" - which is what it was under Salazar. Iberian languages, I
should add, are equally strewn with Arabic. The warrior El Campeador,
Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (of Charlton Heston fame), is best known to us
by his Arabic nom-de-guerre, "Sayyid" - El Cid ("the Lord").
Nowhere can present day connections between the Muslim and European
past be more perfectly illustrated than in Lisbon's Calouste
Gulbenkian Museum in the northern suburbs of Lisbon. Old Gulbenkian,
the richest Armenian of his time, the original "Mr Five Per Cent" of
oil earnings, was an extraordinary philanthropist of his time, his
foundation even trying to bridge the insurmountable gap between the
Armenian peoples and their genocider Turkish fellow citizens after
1915. This may be why the short biography of the man available at the
Lisbon institution refers to the Armenian genocide - disgracefully -
as merely "the tragic events".
But the museum displays Muslim/Arab art scarcely a couple of rooms
from Dutch old masters, Thomas Gainsborough's Mrs Lowndes-Stone and a
couple of Turners. A Syrian Mamluk mosque lamp and an Armenian
illuminated bible stand only a few metres from Renoir's Portrait of
Madame Monet. A new exhibition looks at botanical knowledge shared by
Europe with the Mughal empire of Shah Jahan.
But there is one majestic volume among the Muslim books, a
16th-century Iranian copy of the 14th-century poetry of Hafiz, the
400-year-old Safavid scholar's handwriting swooping delicately across
an open page of the volume - but a text, alas, untranslated, and thus
rendered as art rather than literature. But here, abbreviated and
forced into English, is what some of the words say: "If, by good
fortune, I can obtain the dust from my beloved's foot, above my eyes I
will inscribe a line. If her moth searched for my soul like a candle,
I would give up my soul at that very moment ??? After death, even the
wind will not be able to take my dust away from your door."
The lines are not unlike the more ascetic, broken, almost negative
verse of that undeniably finest of modern Portuguese poets, Fernando
Pessoa, who reminds his devotees of both Joyce and Samuel Beckett:
"In the dead afternoon's gold more - The no-place gold dust of late
day Which is sauntering past my door And will not stay -
In the silence, still touched with gold, Of the woods' green ending, I
see The memory. You were fair of old And are in me???
Though you're not there, your memory is And, you not anyone, your
look. I shake as you come like a breeze And I mourn some good..."
This is Jonathan Griffin's translation from the Portuguese, but
Pessoa's work immediately prompted a Muslim visitor to Lisbon to
remark to me how similar it was to the 11th-century Persian poetry of
Omar Khayyam, whose Rubaiyat was itself translated (though not very
well) by the English poet Edward FitzGerald. Pessoa spoke fluent
English.
It comes as no surprise, therefore, to discover that Pessoa not only
read and took copious notes on the Rubaiyat all over the title page of
his copy of FitzGerald's work, but became almost obsessed by Arab
philosophers, including the 11th-century Arab-Andalusian poet
al-Mu'tamid. And he condemned the Middle Ages Arab expulsion from the
Iberian peninsula. Thanks to the work of Italian scholar Fabrizio
Boscaglia and Brazilian researcher Marcia Feitosa, we find Pessoa
espousing "our [Portuguese] great Arab tradition - of tolerance and
free civilisation. It is in the manner in which we are the keepers of
the Arab spirit in Europe that we will have a distinct
individuality??? Let us revenge the defeat inflicted by those from the
North to our Arab ancestors. Let us redeem the crime we committed when
we expelled from the peninsula the Arabs that civilised it."
Perhaps it's no wonder that less than two years ago, Portugal's Prime
Minister Antonio Costa said that his country would receive 10,000
Syrian refugees - double the number it might have taken under the EU's
relocation programme. Compare that to the "protectors" of our
Christian "civilisation" further east.

Azeri-Press news agency (APA)
 Friday
Azerbaijan calls Dutch parliament's decision 'biased'
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry considers the decision of the House of
Representatives of the Dutch Parliament on the so-called Armenian
genocide tendentious and biased, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, told APA.
It is inadmissible to manipulate distorted historical facts for biased
political ambitions, Hajiyev noted.
He said that the Armenian side, pursuing dirty political goals,
continues to refuse the opening of archives and the joint study of
'Armenian genocide' by historians.
'Because during World War I, Armenians committed atrocities against
people on ethnic grounds in Anatolia, in the historical Azerbaijani
lands of Zangazur and Goycha, and in Karabakh. They also carried out
genocide against the Azerbaijani people in Baku and other Azerbaijani
cities in March 1918,' the spokesman said. 'Since the late 1980s,
Armenia committed numerous acts of military and inhumane crime and
genocide against Azerbaijan. More than a million Azerbaijanis were
subjected to bloody ethnic cleansing in Armenia and occupied
territories. The worst happened in Khojaly in Azerbaijan's
Nagorno-Karabakh region, where an act of genocide was committed
against Azerbaijanis with the participation of current Armenian
political and military leaders on 26 February 1992.'
Hajiyev urged the Dutch House of Representatives to avoid double
standards and to assess the Khojaly genocide on the eve of its
anniversary, upon the principles of justice and objectivity.

Anadolu Agency (AA)
 Friday
Dutch parliament motion 'null and void' for Turkey
Dutch charge d'affairs has been summoned to Turkish Foreign Ministry
in capital Ankara
ANKARA
Turkey's European Union Affairs Minister Omer Celik on Friday slammed
Dutch parliament's motion recognizing Armenian allegations over the
events of 1915 under the Ottoman Empire as "genocide".
"What we expected from Dutch officials...is that they be more careful
about these issues. This motion is null and void for us," Celik told
reporters in capital Ankara.
On Thursday, the Dutch parliament passed the motion backing the
Armenian viewpoint over the 1915 events with 142 votes in favor;
Turkish-founded Denk Party opposed it with its three votes.
Joel Voordewind, member of parliament from the coalition party
Christian Union (CU), had put forward the motion.
Dutch charge d'affaires was also summoned to the Turkish Foreign
Ministry Friday.
Earlier, the Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Dutch
parliament's move Thursday night.
"We strongly condemn the decision of the Netherlands' House of
Representatives today to recognize the 1915 events as 'genocide'," the
Turkish ministry said in its statement.
Describing the Dutch parliament's decision as "baseless", the ministry
said the decision had no place in either history or justice.
"Therefore, it has no legal binding or validity," it added.
It further said "Turkey's position regarding 1915 events is based on
historical facts and principle of law."
Turkey's position on the events of 1915 is that deaths of Armenians in
eastern Anatolia in 1915 occurred after some sided with invading
Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation
of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties.
Ankara does not accept the alleged "genocide", but acknowledges there
were casualties on both sides during the World War I.
Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but
describes the 1915 events as a tragedy for both sides.
Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of
historians from Turkey and Armenia plus international experts to
tackle the issue.
Reporting by Baris Gundogan:Writing by Satuk Bugra Kutlugun