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Archives for January 2013

Armenians do not consider any nation, including Azerbaijan, an enemy – President Sargsyan

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January 22, 2013 | 16:42

YEREVAN.- Armenians do not consider any nation, including Azerbaijan, their enemy, President Serzh Sargsyan said during a campaign event in Goris, Syunik Region. Such assertion can be made looking back at Armenia’s thousand-year history.

“However, if someone calls us an enemy, we are ready to resist,” he said, adding that the Syunik Region located in Armenia’s south witnessed hardship and losses of war.

“Blockade and arms race is one of the main challenges to form future political agenda. Neighbors’ attempts to solve problems using force and threats are a real challenge to peaceful future of the regional nations and we will reject this. Programs aimed at Armenia’s isolation cannot contribute to regional development. We will continue our considerable contribution to ensuring mutual confidence in the region,” Sargsyan noted.

Armenia will also exert effort to maintain combat readiness of the armed forces.

Karabakh declared independence on same grounds as Kosovo – Armenian MP

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January 22, 2013 | 14:52

The people of Nagorno-Karabakh declared their independence in accordance with all international norms, Armenian National Assembly (NA) MP and Prosperous Armenia Party NA Faction Secretary Naira Zohrabyan stated at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) winter session.

“By making use of the key international norm of the right of self-determination of nations, Kosovo declared its independence, and today 34 [Council of Europe] CoE member and 22 EU member states recognize Kosovo’s independence,” Zohrabyan noted, and added:

“This notwithstanding, Mr. Von Sidov’s report compels me to draw parallels between [Kosovo and] Nagorno Karabakh, another European yet still unrecognized state, which declared independence on the same grounds as Kosovo. Furthermore, not being a CoE member, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has assumed numerous CoE commitments on its own volition.

I am hopeful that the time is not too far away when the Council of Europe will recognize that an unresolved conflict cannot justify any violation of human rights, and that there are people in Nagorno-Karabakh who have the same rights as each and every one of us who sit here.

I want to believe that the authorities and people of Kosovo will attempt to build a truly democratic state. A state which still-unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic builds today.”

BDP seeks inquiry into Dink’s murder

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The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has submitted a proposal to open a parliamentary inquiry into the murder of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin, only days after the sixth anniversary of his assassination.

The proposal, submitted to the Parliamentary Speaker’s Office on Jan. 21 by a group of BDP deputies led by deputy parliamentary group chair İdris Baluken, said public servants who neglected their duties deliberately or unintentionally were not investigated at all.

The ideological discrimination observed along the judicial process following the assassination has opened a deep wound in society’s conscience, BDP deputies said. They asked for a parliamentary inquiry to be opened to fulfill justice, to overcome the problems in the judicial approach and for the investigation of the murder along with its deep connections. Dink was murdered on Jan. 19, 2007, in broad daylight in front of the offices of Agos, the paper where he worked, by Ogün Samast, a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist. After a two-year trial, Samast was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to 22 years and 10 months of prison.

‘Not organized crime’

The court also ruled that Dink’s murder was not an organized crime despite serious claims that some civil servants linked to the “deep state” were “indirectly” involved, to the dismay of Dink’s family.

However, this court decision was recently challenged in an appeal. The prosecutor’s office of the Supreme Court of Appeals asked the top court to overturn the rulings in Dink’s murder case Jan. 10, arguing that there were enough elements to conclude that the assassination had been organized.

More lawyers arrested in crackdown on leftists in Turkey

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Only in Turkey Lawyers and Journalists get arrested and put in Jill,  

ISTANBUL /  Hürriyet Daily News

Hüseyin Hayatsever huseyin.hayatsever@hdn.com.tr

Opposition parties have expressed their fury at the arrests of nine lawyers, including Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) head Selçuk Kozağaçlı, yesterday for their alleged links with the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).

Along with Kozağaçlı, ÇHD Istanbul department head Taylan Tanay, ÇHD members Avni Güçlü Sevimli, Ebru Timtik, Barkın Timtik, Naciye Demir, Şükriye Erdem, Nazan Betül Vangölü Kozağaçlı and Günay Dağ were also arrested yesterday “for being members of terrorist organization.” All nine are members of the ÇHD and were handling cases related to human rights breaches. The court decided to release lawyer Efkan Bolaç.

Protests against arrests

On Jan. 20, lawyers Dağ and Gülvin Aydın had been released after being taken to Istanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse. ÇHD members held protests against the arrests yesterday, while opposition parties described them as “intimidation both for lawyers dealing with human rights breaches and for citizens.”
The lawyers and other were taken into custody after anti-terror police raided dozens of apartments and offices on the morning of Jan. 18 in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, detaining 63 individuals suspected of “terrorism,” including activist lawyers and musicians. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Mahmut Tanal said the detained lawyers worked on some of Turkey’s most controversial human rights abuse incidents, including the case of Engin Çeber, who died due to the torture in prison in 2008, and Festus Okey, a Nigerian citizen shot dead while in custody in 2007.

“This is an attempt to put lawyers on trial for artificial links with terror organizations. This is intimidation for all lawyers and citizens. Accusations and questions addressed to the lawyers show that there’s no legal protection for citizens in Turkey,” Tanal told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

“The first message given to lawyers is that lawyers defending the suspects of [alleged terrorist] organizations could be put on trial for links with the same organizations. The
second message is that participation in public demonstrations could be considered evidence of being a member of an illegal organization. They intend to spread fear among society with these detentions.”
Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) lawmaker Hasip Kaplan said the lawyers had been ill-treated during the custody period. “Those lawyers were detained just because of their professional activities. There’s no convincing evidence for their detention,” Kaplan told the Daily News. Another CHP lawmaker, İlhan Cihaner, said the ÇHD lawyers particularly focused on defending helpless people.

Romanian Armenians remember and condemn the massacres in Baku

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10:16, 21 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARAY 21, ARMENPRESS: Romanian Armenians remember  1990 massacres, persecution and escape of Armenians in Baku. Out of 250 thousand Armenians only some has reached Baku. ”First my family got shelter in Leninakan, then headed to Koslovodsk, it was only in 1992 that we settled in Bucharest ” Baku former resident Maya Oganezova stated. Currently she has a family in Bucharest and fluently speaks Romanian, Armenpress reports. ”Besides me there is also another Baku survivor habiting in Bucharest” .

Armenian Church in Bucharest assures to  establish communication with the Homeland. On the eve she attended Sunday’s memorial service ceremony dedicated to Baku massacres.” There were other persecutions as well before those dark days” our compatriot told Armenpress  journalist in Romania.

”It is regretful yet even in those days Armenians cannot feel themselves safe in any part of the world ” Romanian Diocese Bishop Tatev Hakobyan announced in his sermon. “Twenty-three years ago the flashpoint was Baku, Iraq followed then, currently Syria is endangered, then God knows. If in one country the physical existence of Armenians is endangered, in other country we face the danger of white massacre” Bishop Tatev Hakobyan continues and calls on  Romanian Armenians be constantly alert and united.

The Bishop noted, we should not satisfy ourselves by millennium dating Romanian Armenian glorious past; instead urges to get united over national identity and consciousness, over the Motherland, in order strengthened by those immense heritage would be able to confront challenges and threats Armenians are facing.

Aram Bakoyan, Armenian from Kurdistan Region, fought many years shoulder to shoulder with the Kurdish freedom fighters.

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Aram Bakoyan, Armenian from Kurdistan Region, fought many years shoulder to shoulder with the Kurdish freedom fighters to free Kurdistan from Saddam. Today he seats in the Kurdistan National Parliament side by side with the Kurdish politicians to build the Kurdistan Region.

Armenian rock in the Kurdistan mountains
Anahit Khatchikian and Roni Alasor, Erbil-Kurdistan – The life of Aram Shahin Davud Bakoyan, an Armenian born in Federal Kurdistan Region in Iraq, truly reflects the historical path of Kurdistan in the last 40 years. Aram was only 14 years old in 1968 when he started fighting as Peshmerga (Kurdish Freedom Fighter) in the Kurdish mountains against the Baath regime of Saddam Hussein. He was tortured in prison and his left arm became immobilized after Iraqi Army cannon blast. Today the 57-years old Aram represents the Armenian community in Kurdistan Region as independent Member of the Kurdistan National Parliament.
Aram was born in Avzrog Miri, in the north of Kurdistan Region. Six generations ago a young man called Bakoz (Bohos) from the clan Geznakh in Hakari, today’s North Kurdistan (Turkey), came with his mother to Avzrog Miri and married an Armenian girl from Sarkissian family which was already settled there. They became the founders of family Bakoyan. Four more generations followed them with the fathers Revo, Gulan, Davud and Shahin and today Aram and his three sons and one daughter are the 6th generation living in Federal Kurdistan Region. 
The family Bakoyan witnessed the arrival of many other Armenians fleeing the massacres and the mass deportations in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of XX century. Today Aram Bakoyan says that there are about 80 Armenian families in Avzuruk, 170 families in Zaho city, 60 families in Dohuk, 100 families in Havresk. Aram also mentions 160 families arrived in the last years from different parts of Iraq to find safer life and better protection in the Christian suburb Ainkawa, in the capital Erbil.

 

Indeed, several attacks of Christian churches in different Iraqi cities, including the bombing of the Armenian church in Mosul in 2004, pushed many Iraqi Christians to come to Federal Kurdistan. The village Havresk for example was established in 2005 with the financial support of Sarkis Aghajan, Minister of Finance of the Kurdistan Region who initiated the building of 115 homes for the Armenians fleeing Baghdad and Mosul due to the lack of security.

 

Today the parliamentarian Aram Bakoyan estimates at about 450 families (3600-3800 individuals) the number of all the Armenians in Kurdistan. Armenians in Kurdistan, as well as the Kurds, were deprived from their fundamental human rights during the Saddam’s regime. The situation of the minorities in Kurdistan gradually has been improving since the establishment of Kurdish authorities in the 1990s. Today the Armenians have 2 Armenian schools (in Erbil and Dohuk), 3 churches (in Dohuk, Avzuruk, Zakho) and two new churches are expected to be built in Havresk and in Ainkawa (Erbil). Many Armenians from Kurdistan don’t speak Armenian language, but they have preserved the Armenian traditions and culture in a relatively closed and united community with Armenian identity. 

 

Since 2009 for the first time in the history of Iraq the Armenians have been politically represented in the Kurdish parliament. At the last parliamentarian elections in 2009, following the appeal of President Massoud Barzani, three Armenians participated as independent candidates. The Armenians in Kurdistan who had right to vote at that time were about 800, but Aram Bakoyan got 4200 votes! His rivals Aertex Morses Sargisyan and Eshkhan Melkon Sargisyan won respectively 2900 and 880 votes. It is evident that apart the votes of the Armenians, many Kurds voted for the Armenian candidates.
One important reason for the Kurdish support for the Armenian candidates and particularly for Aram Bakoyan, is the fact that he was already well known for his Peshmerga (Kurdish Freedom Fighter) past. Aram was only 14 years old when in 1968 he and 6 other Armenians from Zakho started fighting as Peshmerga, shoulder to shoulder with the Kurds from Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) against the Baath regime of Saddam Hussein. In 1974 Aram has been injured by a cannon blast on the left shoulder and stayed three months in a hospital in Mahabad, in Kurdistan in Iran. Unfortunately, his left arm remained immobilised. After coming back home, in 1977 the Armenian was sentenced to five years in prison for his political activities. In the prison Aram was tortured brutally as many other Kurdish political prisoners at that time. In 1979 he was released and he continued to participate actively in the political and social life. Aram was elected two times as leader of the Armenian community in Zakho in 1982-1990.
For the 2009 parliament elections in Federal Kurdistan Region, eleven of the 111 seats were reserved for minorities, including Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turkmen and Armenians. Aram Bakoyan was one of the three Armenian candidates who run in the election campaign and he got elected. Today Aram is member of 2 committees in the Parliament – the committee for Municipalities and the committee for Housing and Reconstruction.
The parliamentarian Aram contributes to the new developments in Kurdistan Region, but he also works to preserve the Armenian cultural heritage and to help the Armenian community. Some of his future initiatives will be construction of a wall round the Armenian graves in Avzuruk and providing a salon for celebrations. Aram counts on the support of the Kurdish authorities for these projects, but he and the Armenian community also hope that the Armenian government in Erevan will not forget the Armenian children who live in Kurdistan Region and could help with sending teachers and priests who are not enough for the moment. Aram also believes that even a simple visit by Armenians from Armenia or from the Diaspora – artists, writers or just ordinary people, could be very stimulating for this small, but dynamic Armenian community in Federal Kurdistan Region in Iraq.

Best minds of Armenia proved they are more intelligent than Turks. Ilyumzhinov

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16:49, 19 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS: Security of Armenian chess players during 2016 Chess Olympics in Azerbaijan must be ensured by Baku. This is dictated by FIDE Statutes.  Armenpress quoted Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as saying on January 19, in Tsakhkadzor. The main principal of FIDE is that all we are a big family having nothing to do with economic or political issues.

“I am well aware of Armenian relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan, therefore they must not become an obstacle for Armenian chess players for proving for one more time they are the best,” FIDE President said.

Ilyumzhinov reminded the victory of Armenian chess players in Istanbul which proved best minds of Armenia are more intelligent than Turks or others.

“If other Armenian sportsmen may participate in championships in Baku, why Armenian grandmasters cannot?” Kirsan Ilyumzhinov noted.

First FIDE Vice President George Macropolus underlined that Baku had to create an atmosphere in which Armenian chess players will have all conditions needed to win gold medal. “Gold medals of Baku are missing in the collection of medals of Armenian chess players and they must be ready for it,” Macropolus said.

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 23 FIDE members and representatives of chess federation of more than 20 countries are currently in Armenia in order to participate in the Presidential Board Meeting of World Chess Federation taking place in Tsakhkadzor.

Crowd is paying tribute to the memory of Hrant Dink in front of “Agos” editorial office

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17:49, 19 January, 2013

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, ARMENPRESS: Rally have been organizing in Istanbul dedicated to the 6th anniversary of assassination of prominent Armenian journalist from Istanbul, chief editor of “Agos” weekly Hrant Dink. As reports Armenpress, as during previous years, this year as well a big crowd has gathered at Shishli square of Istanbul to rally to editorial office of “Agos”. People are hanging posters with “We all are Armenians, we all are Dink” notes.

Those gathered in front of “Agos” are singing Armenian and Turkish songs, waiting for the murder hour to pay tribute to the memory of Hrant Dink. People are expecting the final investigation of the case when the real responsible of the crime will be found and sentenced.

6 years have passed after the assassination of prominent Armenian journalist from Istanbul, chief editor of “Agos” weekly Hrant Dink. Hrant Dink was shot dead in Shishli district of Istanbul on January 19, 2007. After leaving the murder shouted “giaour” giving basis for suspicion that the murder was committed based on nationalist hatred. Dink was one of those intellectuals, famous for their fearless speeches being numerously persecuted for that.

Armenian Assembly of America called on Obama to meet Armenian community till April 24 and recognize Armenian Genocide

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Today the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) has sent a congratulatory address to Barak Obama on the latter’s second inauguration and has called on resuming the relations with the American – Armenians and to meet the heads of the community till the end of April 24, the official site of AAA reports.

“We congratulate you on being re-elected on position of the US President and welcome your inauguration and restate on behalf of 2 million US Armenians our interest in cooperating with your administration,” the congratulatory address states.

AAA has also launched a campaign of electronic letters referring to the question posed to US president Obama which said, “When the promise on recognition of Armenian Genocide will be fulfilled?”

Participants of the campaign also reminded the US president that he had confirmed the necessity of recognizing the historical truth about the Armenian Genocide while he was a senator.

“There is time, and you can keep your promise on April 24,” the letter said.

Armenia urges UN against moving regional center to Turkey

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January 19, 2013 – 13:27 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenian civil society representatives addressed a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing deep concerns over the plan to move UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre for Europe to Istanbul, head of For Sustainable Human Development NGO and UNEP National Committee said.

As Karine Danielyan told a press conference, Armenia’s 15 NGOs joined the initiative, with the decision on the move taken once the information was released.

“Armenian Foreign Ministry has already issued an official statement; however, we found it appropriate to take relevant steps on the issue,” she said.

Ms Danielyan further noted that Armenia finds it inappropriate to move a regional center to a country that failed to recognize the Armenian Genocide and establish diplomatic relations both with RA and other states in the region.

“Moreover, Turkey is not an EU member. It is still guided by Article 301 of Constitution, which restricts freedom of speech, hampers the free development of national minorities, the latter, in turn, bringing about internal conflicts and deaths of prominent public figures (Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink’s murder),” she said.

“We hope that the UN will be committed to its principles and won’t prioritize the funding Turkey offers,” Ms Danielyan said, urging the international community to focus on the problem that may adversely affect the implementation of the programs of the UNDP Regional Center both on regional and country level.

According to her, Cyprus and Slovenia have already joined the call, with Russia also having expressed concerns over the plan.