Category: News

On May 13, visiting scholars from the 2015 Tavitian Scholarship Program will host an academic discussion entitled, “100 Years: Before and After,” to be held at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the Armenian Weekly reports.

The event will commemorate the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, pay tribute to the international academic circles that deal with genocide issues, express solidarity with the efforts of the international community in condemning and preventing genocide, and honor the collective memory of all nations that have suffered from acts against humanity.

The head of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations, H.E. Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanian, will deliver the keynote speech, which will discuss Armenian-Turkish diplomatic relations. The dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Admiral James Stavridis, will offer the opening remarks.

The event will bring together distinguished scholars, including Dr. Alan K. Henrikson; Lee E. Dirks, Professor of Diplomatic History and the director of Diplomatic Studies at the Fletcher School; Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou, visiting associate professor at the Fletcher School; and Mr. Armen Baibourtian, Visiting Professor of Practice at the Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference at Baku on the Caspian Sea in 2013 for 10 members of Congress and 32 staff members, according to a confidential ethics report obtained by The Washington Post. Three former top aides to President Obama appeared as speakers at the conference, The reports.

Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses cost $112,899, travel invoices show.

The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, allegedly funneled $750,000 through nonprofit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet nation, according to the 70-page report by the , an independent investigative arm of the House.

The report reflects the most extensive investigation undertaken by the ethics office, which was created seven years ago in response to a number of scandals on Capitol Hill, including lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s illegal funding of lawmakers’ trips.

The conference, titled U.S.-Azerbaijan Convention: Vision for the Future, took place on May 28 and 29, 2013. During the previous year, SOCAR and several large energy companies sought exemptions for a $28 billion natural gas pipeline project in the Caspian Sea from U.S. economic sanctions being imposed on Iran.

The congressional investigators could not determine whether lawmakers used their official positions to benefit SOCAR or the pipeline project. They also found no evidence that the lawmakers or their staffers knew that the conference was being funded by a foreign government.

The investigators noted that the lawmakers relied on representations made to them by two Houston-based nonprofit corporations, theTurquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE) and the Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ). The lawmakers told investigators that they had obtained approval for the trip from the ethics committee.

The report said members of the House Ethics Committee wrote to the Office of Congressional Ethics requesting a halt to their investigation so that the matter could be taken up by their own committee. OCE officials declined the request.

The lawmakers who took the trip were Reps. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.), Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), Rubén Hinojosa (D-Tex.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.), Ted Poe (R-Tex.) and then-Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.).

Clarke is a member of the Ethics Committee.

Another lawmaker, Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), attended as part of a separate congressional delegation and his expenses were not paid by the conference, according to the report.

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

On the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, Turkish reporters insistently inquired about Armenia’s territorial claims from Turkey.

In an interview published on April 25, 2015, in the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper, a reporter asked Pres. Serzh Sargsyan if Armenia had territorial demands from Turkey. Below is my translation of Hurriyet’s Turkish text of Pres. Sargsyan’s response:

“Since its independence, the Republic of Armenia has not had any territorial claims from Turkey or any other country. Our government’s foreign policy agenda has not had such an issue, and does not have it today. This is clear. We are a full and responsible member of the international community. As a UN member state, we understand our role in the international community; we respect the principles of international law.… If you pay close attention, Armenia’s demands for land from Turkey are discussed in Turkey, not in Armenia! As to why this is so, I let everyone draw their own conclusions.”

During a meeting with representatives of the Armenian-American community on May 7 in Washington, DC, I asked Pres. Sargsyan to clarify his comments to Hurriyet which were misunderstood or misinterpreted by some Armenians and Turks. The President explained that he had not said that Armenia did not have territorial demands from Turkey. He had simply stated that Armenia did not present such demands, and added: “We have no right to say that we have no territorial demands from Turkey. We also have no right to say that we have such demands.” The President went on to say that “Armenian political parties in the Diaspora are free to present such demands.”

Pres. Sargsyan is clearly indicating that as a head of state, demanding land from Turkey — a powerful and menacing neighbor — could have serious consequences on Armenia’s national security, which is not the case when such claims are made by individuals or organizations.

Earlier that same day, the morning of May 7, during Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, another Turkish journalist asked the same question about Armenian territorial claims from Turkey. Nalbandian gave the same answer as the President: “Armenia has not made territorial claims from Turkey.” He also wondered why is this issue raised in Ankara rather than Yerevan?

Four years ago, on July 23, 2011, Pres. Sargsyan gave a firmer answer when an Armenian student asked him about the eventual return of Mount Ararat and Western Armenia:

“It all depends on you and your generation. I believe my generation fulfilled its task when it was necessary in the early 1990’s to defend a part of our homeland — Karabagh — from enemies. We were able to do that…. My point is that each generation has its own task, and it must be able to carry it out, and carry it out well.”

The Armenian President’s answer created a huge storm of controversy in Turkey and Azerbaijan. Journalists and officials in both countries mounted hysterical attacks on Armenia, accusing Pres. Sargsyan of “urging Armenian youth to occupy Mt. Ararat and Eastern Turkey.” Insulting adjectives were hurled at Pres. Sargsyan by Turkey’s then Prime Minister Erdogan, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, Minister Egemen Bagis, Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, and the Foreign Ministries of both countries. Erdogan even demanded an apology from Armenia’s President. To incite the masses, protests were organized in Turkish cities where photographs of Pres. Sargsyan were burned!

It is understandable why Turkish leaders are so apprehensive when the issue of Armenian territorial demands is raised. Knowing full well that their ancestors eliminated the Armenian population from their native lands, Turkish officials are haunted by the fear that Armenians would reclaim their historic homeland of Western Armenia, today’s Eastern Turkey!

In order to unite Armenians around the same set of demands, I believe we should adopt the slogan — “seeking justice” — which includes all Armenian claims from Turkey as expressed in the Pan-Armenian Declaration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial adopted in Yerevan on January 29, 2015, by the governments of Armenia and Artsakh, and leaders of major Diasporan organizations. Paragraph 6 of that Declaration calls for “restoring individual, communal and pan-Armenian rights and legitimate interests.” Furthermore, the Declaration’s preamble specifically mentions “the dispossession of the Homeland,” the Treaty of Sevres of August 10, 1920, and Pres. Woodrow Wilson’s Arbitral Award of Nov. 22, 1920, which granted Armenia a territory several times larger than today’s Armenian Republic.

A modest and civilized behavior is dominant in the Chinese culture. The silence in the streets makes one wonder where the 1.5 billion people have hidden. Alisa Gevorgyan of shares the impressions from the week-long visit to China at the initiative of the Chinese Embassy in Armenia.

Even when walking in the company of two other men, I am bound to be able to learn from them. The good points of the one I copy; the bad points of the other I correct in myself.

Confucius

The enlightenment and development of Chinese culture started from Confucius. I was in his homeland last week. Following his advice, I tried to find what I can learn from this ancient and wise nation.

The most impressive was, perhaps, the attitude of Chinese people towards nature. They use the nature without damaging it. This is probably the reason why we saw fewer cars in the streets of 20-million Beijing than in Armenian capital Yerevan. Bicycles and e-bikes are the main means of transportation in China.

Besides capital Beijing, the group of journalists visited several cities in the stage of construction, which will turn into huge megalopolises in just 4-5 years. What’s surprising to us, Armenians, is that there was no noise and dust at construction sites. The impression was that the huge constructions grow themselves – silently, quietly and quickly.

Let’s move to a Chinese village in the south of the country. A young mistress of a newly-built house says:

“We have been living in this village for 20 years, but have built the house two years ago. We have built it ourselves, like everyone in the village. Such a house costs about $30 thousand today,” she said.

“Before I working in the field,  growing rice and vegetables. But now after the reforms we have given the land to an agricultural organization, where I work myself. The annual revenue of our family makes 100 thousand yuans. That’s enough.”

The agricultural organization the woman talks about is mainly engaged in greenhouse industry, where solar batteries are used. It’s worth mentioning that solar heating systems are installed on the roofs of all houses in the village. The energy-saving systems are widely used in the country.

In the village we see beautiful and well maintained flower gardens and modest fences; no one thinks of building giant walls here. In general, the modest and civilized behavior is dominant in Chinese culture. The silence in the streets makes one wonder where the 1.5 billion people have hidden.

Armenia could be the Switzerland of the Caucusus, a tranquil alpine retreat enclosed by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Turkey, the writes.

The heart of this, the first country to adopt Christianity, lies in its monastic tradition. Of more than three thousand monasteries none is more appealing or more remote than Noravank, sited at the head of a pass in the southern mountains.

A handful of monks convene for the sacred liturgy, afterwards welcoming the few guests under the watchful eyes of a pair of boot eagles circling above. Leopard, lynx and porcupine live hereabouts, and the monastery even has its own ‘holy bear’ residing in a nearby cave, drawn by the odour of sanctity – or possibly the monastic recycling bin.

“Enjoy a lunch of barbecued chicken and plum wine in a carpeted cave restaurant lower down the pass, an indication of growing visitor numbers. With much of the Middle East in flames adventurous travellers are beginning to divert to Armenia, so rich in folklore, topography and cultural treasure,” the Magazine suggests.

Departures is a Luxury Magazine, covering travel, shopping, fashion, design, arts and culture.

On May 6-7 a scientific-practical conference dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide was held at the Mackenzie Presbyterian University of São Paulo, during which many issues related to the subject matter were discussed.

In his remarks, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Brazil Ashot Galoyan praised the outcomes of the carried out work and highlighted that the presented reports, and the questions and statements that followed expressed great sympathy towards Armenia and condemned the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

On May 8, a liturgy dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide was held by Cardinal Dom Odilio Pedro Sherer at the Mother Cathedral of São Paulo. Heads of the Armenian churches, representatives of the Armenian and Jewish communities, high-ranking officials, regional deputies and heads of diplomatic representations were in attendance.

Ambassador Galoyan delivered a speech at the end of the liturgy, expressing his gratitude for the adoption by the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo of the resolution recognising the Armenian Genocide on the eve of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

The issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide has created internal tension in Germany. The discussions before and after April 24 seem to be frozen now. Last week the Lefts addressed a letter to the ruling coalition, requesting an answer as to when the discussions on the issue will continue.

Three bills on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide are pending at the Bundestag. It’s not yet clear whether the final document will describe the historic facts as ‘genocide’ or not.

Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan, Turkish German lawmaker Hasan Burgucuoglu, member of Hamburg’s regional parliament confessed that “discussions on the bill drag out because of the efforts of Turkey.”

“A day before the discussions at the Bundestag, Davutoglu called Chancellor Angela Merkel several times to ask not to utter the word genocide,” he said.

The three bills at the Bundestag have been submitted by the Lefts, the Green Party and the ruling coalition.

Representative of the Party of Lefts Hasan Burgucuoglu did not say exactly when the bills will be finalized and put on a vote, but noted that “if it’s left to the Government, they will drag it out for years.” He added, however, that both the Lefts and the Greens have a clear position on the issue and will pursue the consideration and adoption of the resolution.

“We’ll not allow the German authorities to throw dust in the eyes of people and undertake steps only on April 24 to flatter the Armenians,” the lawmaker said.

Hasan Burgucuoglu is a former political prisoner, who fled Turkey to escape persecution because of his clear stance on the Armenian Genocide. Despite this, he considers himself a descendant of the ancestors with a dirty biography.

The Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Isabel Santos (MP, Portugal), today expressed deep concern over continuing restrictions placed on freedom of media and freedom of speech in Turkey and urged the country’s leaders to immediately abide by their commitment to upholding these liberties.
“Turkey’s stated goal is to be a modern, European state, but its record on freedom of expression remains incompatible with that goal,” Santos said.

The OSCE PA’s democracy and human rights Chair noted that Turkey continues to have one of the highest numbers of imprisoned journalists among OSCE participating States, despite notable releases last year, and makes more requests to Twitter to remove content than any other country. She also referenced other forms of pressure on and intimidation of journalists, which often result in self-censorship, as causes for concern.

“To cite alleged insults to the president or state as justification for punishing reporters or restricting social media is to openly admit political motivation. Citing problematic anti-terrorism and telecommunications legislation to clamp down on journalism and free speech does not make these actions any more acceptable.

“During the current election campaign period and beyond, the Turkish government and courts must demonstrate respect for dissenting views, whether spoken, printed or posted online. Doing so is essential if Turkey wants to take democracy seriously,” Santos said.

Santos indicated her openness to engaging with Turkish colleagues in the OSCE PA and with Turkish authorities on the topic of freedom of expression and other civil liberties- and democracy-related issues in the country.

On the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial, the parliament of the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on Tuesday adopted a joint resolution condemning the genocide, 

In the Rhineland-Palatinate capital city of Mainz, all parliament factions used the term “genocide” to describe what occurred in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Our common goal must be to contribute to reconciliation, understanding and awareness,” the speakers said.

“This is not solely about remembering the victims, but the need to look ahead. Our joint objective is to achieve reconciliation, mutual understanding, and recognition. That is why we support the development of Armenian-Turkish relations.”

Factions call on the Rhineland-Palatinate state government to promote initiatives and projects to address the events of 1915-16 and the German co-responsibility.

The resolution calls to remember the Armenian Genocide that occurred 100 years ago. The [Rhineland-Palatinate] parliament factions condemn the Ottoman Empire’s actions that led to the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was one of the key topics NATO official, James Appathurai commented on in his interview with AzerNews.

Appathurai, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, put a broad focus on efforts towards ending the Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute.

NATO has repeatedly voiced its preference for a peaceful settlement over an armed intervention when it comes to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s genuine resolution. The military alliance sees no direct involvement in the negotiation process seeking to find a peace-based end to the conflict.

“NATO has no direct role in the political process to find a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Instead, we support the Minsk process,” he said.

“We are concerned about the deterioring situation on the ground. There is no military solution to the conflict, and I hope that the political process will yield results. The NATO framework can only play a supplementary role – allows for contacts between politicians, diplomats and military from Armenia and Azerbaijan in the margins of multilateral meetings. I hope such contacts can have a positive impact, and I was pleased to see that President Serzh Sargsyan and President Ilham Aliyev met in the margins of last year’s NATO Summit in Wales,” he said.