GERMANY Armenian Genocide: A funny handshake Bundestag

February 28, 2016 By administrator

arton122603-480x271 The debate in the Bundestag on the proposal of the Greens on the Armenian genocide did take place Thursday afternoon, however, because the future EU-Turkey summit on refugees no vote was taken but the governing parties have promised that a vote will take place shortly.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung spoke yesterday the episode in an article entitled “a hard handshake in difficult times.”

The newspaper says “see a handshake between the opposition and the government is very rare in a plenary session of the Bundestag. Sometimes these handshakes represent a change of power – as was the case when Chancellor Helmut Schmidt SPD was ousted by a vote of no confidence and approached the winner Helmut Kohl and he silently shook hands firmly . This happened once in Bonn. Now, in Berlin, there was a special moment between Volker Kauder, head of the group of the Union in power, and Cem Özdemir, head of the Green Party in opposition. The handshake of the two did not take place as part of a transfer of power – it appeared a promising future. “

To log all stakeholders in the debate in the Bundestag have qualified the massacre of Armenians in 1915 as genocide and an agreement was reached for a joint resolution to be adopted “before the summer”.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said “during the debate in plenary on Thursday experienced parliamentarians later said they felt a mixture of pride and enthusiasm, something they had not seen in twenty years as deputy”.

Summarizing the trade paper said “Cem Özdemir finally got up, walked to Kauder, expressed its conditions, Kauder nodded several times, then the two men while looking seriously exchanged a long handshake. The resolution was withdrawn. A small sensation, this debate is not ritualized brawl, but in a struggle to find the best solution. “

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung concludes that a person was “amused” by this gesture of brotherhood and Kauders Özdemir. “Angela Merkel fears a harsh reaction of the Turks.”

Sunday, February 28, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Erdoğan says he ‘does not respect, will not obey’ top court ruling on arrested journalists

February 28, 2016 By administrator

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized the recent Constitutional Court ruling that paved the way for the release of two arrested journalists, saying he “does not accept or respect” the decision and vowing not to “obey” it, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“This incident has nothing to do with freedom of expression, it is a case of spying,” Erdoğan said on Feb. 28 regarding the top court’s ruling on Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül.

Dündar and Gül were released early on Feb. 26 after 92 days in jail on terrorism charges, hours after the country’s top court’s ruled that their arrest had violated their rights.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Feb. 25 that their pre-trial detention had violated the fundamental rights of Dündar and Gül. Following the decision, Istanbul 14th Court of Serious Crimes ordered their release but subjected them to an overseas travel ban.

“The media cannot have limitless freedom … These stories have included all kinds of attacks against this country’s president,” Erdoğan also said.

Dündar and Gül stand accused of “espionage threatening state security” and “supporting an armed terrorist organization” over stories published in Cumhuriyet about National Intelligence Agency (MİT) trucks allegedly sending weapons to unknown groups in Syria.

The two men were arrested by an Istanbul court on Nov. 26 last year, triggering reactions from press organizations, NGOs and many Western countries.

The indictment, which was completed on Jan. 27, demands the penalty of life in prison, penal servitude for life.

From Peace to Hit-Piece: Turkey’s New Lobbying Strategy Against Armenian Americans

February 27, 2016 By administrator

Illustration by gagrulenet

By Taniel Koushakjian

Armenian Agenda Editor

Hit Piece

On February 22, the Turkish Institute of Progress retained Mercury Public Affairs, LLC to lobby on its behalf in Washington, D.C. According to the filing, Mercury will lobby specifically on “Turkish-US relations.” Two days later, Mercury’s Vice Chairman, Adam Ereli, a former U.S. Ambassador and Deputy Spokesperson at the State Department, penned a hit-piece on Armenia entitled “Putin’s Newest Satellite State,” on Forbes’ opinion page. However, Forbes neglects to mention the fact that Ereli’s firm is under contract with the anti-Armenian lobby group. It is not yet clear whether or not Ereli disclosed to Forbes his business relationship behind the story.

It appears that either the Turkish lobby planted this story with the full knowledge and support of Forbes , or that Mercury’s connection with Forbes was used as a pawn in the Turkish lobby’s anti-Armenian campaign.

This is not the first time a high-priced Washington lobbyist has used the stroke of the pen to attack Armenian Americans. In 2014, Brenda Shaffer wrote a piece in the New York Times opinion page entitled “Russia’s next land grab.” The title sounds familiar. The story’s byline for Shaffer states that she “is a professor of political science at the University of Haifa and a visiting researcher at Georgetown.” However, Shaffer did not disclose her role as a paid consultant to Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company SOCAR. After the Times realized they had been duped, the editor’s rightly appended the story with the following statement: “This Op-Ed, about tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, did not disclose that the writer has been an adviser to Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company. Like other Op-Ed contributors, the writer, Brenda Shaffer, signed a contract obliging her to disclose conflicts of interest, actual or potential. Had editors been aware of her ties to the company, they would have insisted on disclosure.”

Peace?

The Turkish Institute of Progress (TIP), a New York based Turkish lobby group is the latest player trying to prop up Turkey by putting down Armenian Americans. The group was established months prior the centennial anniversary of the Armenian Genocide to “provide a forum for dialogue in pursuit of peace and cooperation between Turkey and the international community,” according to its website.

Instead of outright opposing Armenian Genocide recognition efforts by American human rights activists, the Turkish lobby’s genocide denial strategy shifted its approach to the issue on the centennial anniversary. TIP’s other hired public relations firm, Levick, tried to get a counter genocide resolution introduced that “focused on the next 100 years” by Rep. Curt Clawson (R-FL) who had been recruited to introduce the bill by Clawson’s predecessor, Congressman Connie Mack (R-FL), now a lobbyist for Levick.

A pushback from Clawson’s own constituency thwarted the TIP’s efforts, and the resolution, H. Res. 226, was instead introduced by Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-TX). The bill currently has two cosponsors.

I am personally aware of the Turkish government’s coordinated anti-Armenian effort with TIP, Levick, and now Mercury, as I was in Clawson’s district on April 12, 2015. I was invited to give a presentation on the Armenian Genocide at the Holocaust Museum and Education Center of Southwest Florida in Naples. Upon my arrival to the Holocaust Museum, I was shown an intimidating letter by Ozgur Kivanc Altan, Consul General of the Republic of Turkey in Miami addressed to the Holocaust Museum demanding that they cancel my presentation.

From Peace to Hit-Piece

The Turkish lobby’s strategy of genocide denial cloaked as peace has now turned to attacking the Republic of Armenia itself in order to mask Azerbaijan’s $4 billion dollar arms purchase from Russia, not to mention Azerbaijan’s gross abuse of human rights, corruption scandals, jailing of journalists, and drift away from democracy and towards authoritarian rule.

Mr. Ereli’s anti-Armenian hit-piece in Forbes should be appended, as the New York Times did, so that its readership is fully aware of his firm’s financial benefit from the published story. Their readers deserve no less.

*UPDATE: As of 4:00 PM on 2/26/16, Forbes corrected Ereli’s byline, stating he is “the vice chairman of Mercury, a public affairs and strategy firm whose clients include the Turkish Institute for Progress.”

Source: MassisPost

Scottish Independent MP McGarry reveals ‘terrifying’ Turkish detention

February 27, 2016 By administrator

PANews BT_P-db476c14-c8f4-4d5f-a475-140c96454ac9_I1 A Scottish MP who was detained by security forces in Turkey has described the experience as “terrifying”.

Natalie McGarry, who represents the Glasgow East constituency, was briefly held by authorities near a security checkpoint in the south-east of the country on Thursday.

Her lawyer later confirmed she was questioned after using her mobile phone to “record the sound of bombs” falling on the Kurdish area of Sur in the city of Diyarbakir, a flashpoint in the conflict between the Turkish government and the country’s Kurdish population.

Ms McGarry, who was visiting Turkey as part of a delegation to the country, revealed she was “very pleased” to have landed at Heathrow airport.

Writing on Twitter on Saturday, she said: ” I was forcibly removed from the street by a man who pushed me repeatedly and would’ve hit me but for intervention of younger colleagues.

“I was denied access to an interpreter and taken into a shack behind the demarcation line which was filled with guns.”

She said she was “relieved” after an interpreter was allowed in after 45 minutes.

“My absolute admiration to fellow delegates who stayed to support me & were increasingly worried by the shouting & swearing,” she continued.

“Thank you also to the British Embassy who acted so swiftly to help secure my release. And everyone locally who was contacted & put pressure.

“Thanks also to the Kurdish population of Sur who came to welcome me out and hugged me when I cried. And they brought me chai and thanks.”

Ms McGarry added: ” I freely admit to crying when I was released. It was a terrifying experience albeit it only lasted a couple of hours.

“I cannot imagine if life was a constant struggle of fear like that everyday which is why Turkey’s Nato partners need to demand it stop.”

Ms McGarry sits as an independent MP after resigning the SNP whip in the wake of an ongoing police investigation into missing donations from Women for Independence, the pro-Scottish independence group she founded. She denies any wrongdoing.

Source: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/independent-mp-mcgarry-reveals-terrifying-turkish-detention-34492564.html

Azerbaijan Crime Against Humanity: Events, dedicated to the 28th anniversary of Sumgait pogrom, launched in Hague

February 27, 2016 By administrator

39159 Events, dedicated to the 28th anniversary of Sumgait pogrom, were launched on February 26 in Hague’s Het Plein square.

STEPANAKERT, FEBRUARY 27, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: As the Press, Information and Public Relations Department of the Armenian MFA informed, Armenian organizations in Netherlands, including ARF-D Hay Dat Committee of the Netherlands, submitted a requirement to the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Bert Koenders. In the requirement they urged to condemn massacres against Armenians 28 years ago in Azerbaijan and make efforts to stop the latter’s ongoing aggression against Artsakh, as well as the ceasefire violations and subversive actions.

Paying tribute to the memory of the innocent victims of the massacres against Armenians, organized by the Azerbaijani authorities in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, and Maragha as an answer for the Nagorno Karabakh people’s demands to self-determination, the protesters, with calls ‘Stop the Azerbaijani aggression’, marched to the Azerbaijani Embassy in the Netherlands. The protesters condemned Azerbaijani authorities’ anti-Armenian policy and urged the Azerbaijani young people to stand up for changing aggressive behavior of Azerbaijan and demanded to stop the ongoing aggression against Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia.

Artsakhpress.am

The wife of Turkish President Erdogan Like Husband do not think that the Armenian & Kurdish question in Turkey exist

February 27, 2016 By administrator

122657-383x286 The wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke at a public meeting on the issues of national minorities in Turkey. According Haber.sol, Emine Erdogan during a meeting in the lounge of the Sheraton to Atashehir (Turkey), became involved in politics, surprising the audience present at the meeting. “In Turkey region fight with all these problems is determined. In this country we went to war for those who do not want to move forward and as a nation we won. Currently international forces wish to advance their interests and achieve their goals on our land, “said the First Lady Emine Erdogan of Turkey, adding that Turkey does not believe that the Armenian question and the Kurdish question exist …

Krikor Amirzayan

Made in Armenia, and proud of it! By Hovel Chenorhokian

February 27, 2016 By administrator

arton122662-480x331 In 2015, while I was looking animation designers and web designers for watches that I designed, I had the opportunity to meet many talents of Armenia, some lines.

I first met Tamara (https://www.facebook.com/Tamara.Kaghzvantyan), a young girl of 21, well educated and pleasant, a student in animation design in Gyumri; Tamara was initially created Claire, the animated character. Then she designed the animation for Night and Day, the latest creation of Moog Paris to women moving.

The Laetitia advice (https://www.facebook.com/laetitia.aidinian? Fref = ts), very young Parisienne Armenian, was essential in terms of artistic direction, including choreography, outfits and accessories represented in animation.

Syrian Army hunting terrorists in Hama Province

February 27, 2016 By administrator

The Syrian Army announced on Saturday that its troops’ anti terrorism offensives in the Northern parts of Hama province have inflicted large casualties on the militants.
“The Syrian army soldiers stormed the militant groups’ defense lines and strongholds on the axis of Tal Hawir, Dhahrat Aliyeh, Tal al- Bazaq, Morek, Souran, Jeleen and Lataminah, which claimed the lives of many terrorists,” the army said, according to the Fars News Agency .

“The militant groups’ military hardware also sustained major damage in the attacks,” the army added.

Battlefield sources said on Friday that the Syrian Air Force bombed the gathering centers of the ISIL terrorists in a desert-like region at the border of Hama and Homs provinces.

“The ISIL concentration centers in Wadi al-Azib region in the Southeastern part of Hama province and near the Northern part of Homs province came under the heavy bombardments of the Syrian army’s aircraft, which claimed the lives of dozens of the terrorists,” the sources said.

Armenians elected to Iran’s parliament named

February 27, 2016 By administrator

Two of the four Armenian candidates running as for Iran’s parliament have won seats in the legislature.
According to preliminary election results, Karen Khanlarian and Jorge Abrahamian are the elected representatives from the north and south, respectively.
Speaking to Tert.am, Khanlarian said that he received 74% votes in the northern constituency.
Abrahamian remained the only Armenian candidate in the south after all the other contenders withdrew from the campaign.
“The Armenian community had a very active turnout, about 12,000 Iranian Armenians headed to the polls,” Khanlarian told our correspondent.
Initially, nine Armenians joined the electoral campaign, but five later withdrew from the race.
Khanlarian added that the total turnout in the country was high, with 31 million out of the 55 million voting age population participating in the polls.
“It is now a bit difficult for me to describe the general situation, but interesting changes are expected in the Majilis in terms of the [political] forces’ arrangement. No accurate estimates are available at the moment, but I think the election outcomes will become clear this night,” he said.

US House Rep Adam Schiff commemorates Sumgait pogroms

February 27, 2016 By administrator

Re-published from Asbarez
Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Friday entered the following statement into the Congressional Record:
“Mr Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the pogrom against the Armenian residents of the town of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. On this day in 1988, and for three days following, Azerbaijani mobs assaulted and killed Armenians. When the violence finally subsided, hundreds of Armenian civilians had been brutally murdered and injured, women and young girls were raped, and victims were tortured and burned alive. Those that survived the carnage fled their homes and businesses, leaving behind everything they had in their desperation.

“The pogroms were not an accident. They were the culmination of years of vicious anti-Armenian propaganda, spread by the Azerbaijani authorities. The Azerbaijani authorities made little effort to punish those responsible, instead attempting to cover up the atrocities in Sumgait to this day, as well as denying the role of senior government officials in instigating the violence. Unsurprisingly, it was not the end of the violence, and was followed by additional attacks, including the 1990 pogrom in Baku.
“The Sumgait massacre and the subsequent attacks on ethnic Armenians, resulted in the virtual disappearance of a once thriving population of 450,000 Armenians living in Azerbaijan, and culminating in the war launched against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted in thousands dead on both sides and created over one million refugees in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Time has not healed the wounds of those murdered in the pogroms in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku. To the contrary, hatred of Armenians is celebrated in in Azerbaijan, a situation most vividly exemplified by the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army captain who savagely murdered an Armenian army lieutenant, Gurgen Margaryan with an axe while he slept. The two were participating in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise at the time in Hungary. In 2012, Safarov was sent home to Azerbaijan, purportedly to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Instead, he was pardoned, promoted, and paraded through the streets of Baku as a returning hero.
“The assault on ethnic Armenian civilians in Sumgait helped touch off what would become a direct conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karbakh. And today, Azerbaijan’s dangerous behavior on the Line of Contact threatens peace and stability in the region. Artillery and sniper fire across the Line of Contact has become a fact of daily life for civilians in the Nagorno Karbakh Republic, causing numerous casualties. I have urged the OSCE Minsk Group to deescalate the situation by ending a policy that equates unprovoked attacks by the Azerbaijan with the defensive responses of Karbakh and Armenian troops, and by pressuring Azerbaijan to

accept the installation of technological monitoring devices along the border. The anniversary of Sumgait is a reminder of the consequences when aggression and hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.
“Mr Speaker, this April we will mark the 101st Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, an event the Turkish government, Azerbaijan’s closest ally, goes to great lengths to deny. We must not let such crimes against humanity go unrecognized, whether they occurred yesterday or 28 years ago or 100 years ago. Today, let us pause to remember the victims of the atrocities of the Sumgait pogroms. Mr. Speaker, it is our moral obligation to condemn crimes of hatred and to remember the victims, in hope that history will not be repeated.”