February 5, 2014 – 16:00 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – Stepanakert hosted an international conference Artsakh Liberation Struggle: From Gulistan Till Our Days October 4-5.
The event, held in the framework of the 25th anniversary of Karabakh national liberation struggle, welcomed acclaimed scientists from Arsakh, Armenia, Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, among other countries.
Former German ambassador to Armenia, Hans-Jochen Schmidt, addressed the conference, reminding that that in 1920s Armenians made up 90% of the population of the Nagorno Karabakh; however, in the 80s, it was reduced to 72% as a result of Soviet leadership’s demographic policies.
The German diplomat also emphasized that Baku uses the refugees as a tool of pressure, while preventing their integration into the society.
Dwelling on current conflicts, the diplomat noted that those in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdniestria are not similar. “To cope with the conflicts, EU developed unified policies of the Eastern Partnership and Associated Membership, trying to use the same approach in dealing with different issues.” As he further noted, Azerbaijan’s consul general in Stuttgart invited Germans to participate in the monitoring mission during the presidential elections; however, some observers spent most of their time at a Baku yacht club.
Half a year later, on February 2, Vestnik Kavkaza published an interview with Otto Hauser, German ex-Secretary of State, currently Honorary Consul of Azerbaijan in Stuttgart, the very same person mentioned by Schmidt.
“A few months ago, PanARMENIAN.Net referred to you as well. The agency, quoting German ex-Ambassador Hans Johan Schmidt, says that you invited German observers for last year’s presidential elections in Azerbaijan and they spent most of their time in the country having fun,” the news source noted during the interview.
Says Houser: “I was horrified reading that article. I am not acquainted with the German ex-ambassador to Yerevan. This is why such reports are absolute fiction and lies. I demanded that ex-Ambassador Schmidt write a note taking his words back. In his response, he assured me that those words were made up and he had never said them. The ex-ambassador expressed regret over the publication. Which makes it clear that there are people and propagandists who feel no shame about obvious lies. It is sad to see what childish methods they use.”
Some diplomats have a steady habit of going back on their words. There’s no telling whether this is a case in the interview, or Azeri journalists, as usual, “added” to the interviewee’s remarks. Luckily, in the 21th century, events get recorded and archived.
PanARMENIAN.Net has a video of the Schmidt’s address, where everyone with a little command of English can hear what he has to say about the consul and yachts, with no further comments necessary.
European Court of Human Rights Intervenes in Artsakh Conflict
BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
It is noteworthy that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is holding simultaneous hearings on two rival lawsuits filed by Armenians and Azerbaijanis. Is this a mere coincidence or an attempt by the Court to intervene in a thorny dispute that political leaders have failed to resolve for over 25 years?
This week, ECHR is hearing the case of “Sargsyan vs. Azerbaijan,” dealing with Minas Sargsyan’s complaint against the Republic of Azerbaijan, claiming that he was forced to flee his Gulistan home in the Shahumyan region, after his property was destroyed by Azeri armed forces in June 1992. The Sargsyan case was first filed with ECHR on August 11, 2006. Interestingly, the Court held hearings on both the Armenian and Azerbaijani complaints on the same day: it heard the “Chiragov and Others vs. Armenia” case in the morning of September 15, 2010, and later that afternoon, the “Sargsyan vs. Azerbaijan” case.
In a preliminary decision on December 14, 2011, ECHR found Sargsyan’s complaint to be partly admissible. The Court rejected Azerbaijan’s contention that the case should be dismissed because it covered events prior to Azerbaijan’s ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights in 2002. Unfortunately, applicant Minas Sargsyan passed away in 2009, but his two children are continuing the complaint. ECHR will further probe the merits of the Sargsyan case during its February 5, 2014 hearing.
Two weeks earlier, ECHR heard the rival case of “Chiragov and Others vs. Armenia,” in which six Azerbaijani Kurds had filed a complaint against the Republic of Armenia. They claimed to be unable to return to their homes and properties in the Lachin district since May 17, 1992, having been forced to flee because of the Karabagh (Artsakh) war.
The Azeri complaint against Armenia was first filed with ECHR on April 6, 2005. In a preliminary decision on December 14, 2011, ECHR agreed to take up the case, finding that the ongoing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan did not preclude the Court from dealing with this contentious situation. ECHR held a subsequent hearing on January 22, 2014, to consider the following questions:
1) does Armenia exercise effective control over the territory of Artsakh?
2) do the six Azeri citizens possess sufficient documentation proving their identity and ownership of the claimed properties?
3) should the Azeri applicants have exhausted all domestic remedies (ECHR requirement) by applying first to Artsakh courts prior to filing a complaint with ECHR, considering the further complication that Artsakh is not a recognized state?
Here are some thoughts about ECHR’s crucial role in these two conflicting cases:
1. Both complaints were filed with ECHR almost 10 years ago and cover alleged human rights violations that had occurred over two decades earlier. Since the Armenian applicant and one of the six Azeris had died in the intervening years, neither one will ever see the justice that they had sought from the European Court. As the popular saying goes, “justice delayed is justice denied!”
2. ECHR’s obvious effort to take simultaneous action on these two separate yet opposing cases indicates that the Court might be trying to resolve not only these two complaints, but also lay the groundwork for the resolution of the Artsakh conflict, at least the refugees’ right to return to their homes.
ECHR’s even-handed treatment of Armenian and Azerbaijani applicants thus far would lead one to believe that the Court would eventually rule in favor of both cases opening the door to thousands of additional complaints from refugees on both sides who suffered a similar fate during the Artsakh war. Since all member countries of the European Council are obliged to comply with ECHR’s decisions, the Court may order that these refugees be allowed to return to their native homes, thereby imposing a partial humanitarian solution on an intractable conflict that the leaders of both countries and international mediators have been unable to resolve for over 25 years!
School of Humanities, UC Irvine with Professor George Bournoutian Wednesday February 19, 2014
HISTORY-DISCOVERY: The unique photograph Heghine, wife of Kevork Armenian fedayi Tchavouche, found a century after the events
The site of the Armenian Weekly Canada, “Horizon”, horizonweekly.ca indicates that in a house in the Ayintap region (Turkey), was found photography Heghine, widow of timeliness in fedayi (Armenian fighter) Kevork Tchavouche . This photograph discovered in 2005 during the renovation of a house is the only one known to date wife Kevork Tchavouche. The Turks, who laid hands on this photograph has not grasped the meaning of Armenian characters entered
by Krikor Amirzayan / Radiolur
GERMANY 1915 Genocide – Armenian show in Hamburg
GERMANY: Lufthansa breaks his code-sharing agreement with Turkish Airlines
German airline Lufthansa will terminate its codeshare flights with Turkish Turkish Airlines, considering this partnership too unattractive, said one of his spokesman told AFP Tuesday.
“We find that our cooperation with Turkish Airlines in the frequent flyer program (FFP Program) and the sharing of code is no longer economically profitable for us,” said the spokesman.
“That’s why .
Turkish-Syrian border A hundred years later the same prayer: Now get peace (how history repaid itself)
Syria’s northern city of Raqqa Tel Abyad district of Urfa in the war-affected refugee families living in one of them. Sense of hundreds of thousands of refugees separated from his family roots reserved. Nearly 100 years ago, ‘Great Disaster’ during migration from Mardin they still carries the memories of my grandmother. One request was injured by sniper fire while restoring the health of their son …
February 4, 2014 Tuesday
SERDAR GUARDS
My serdarkorucu@hotmail.com
Syria’s northern city of Raqqa Tel Abyad district of Urfa in the war-affected refugee families living in one of them. Sense of hundreds of thousands of refugees separated from his family roots reserved. Nearly 100 years ago, ‘Great Disaster’ during migration from Mardin they still carries the memories of my grandmother. One request was injured by sniper fire while restoring the health of their son …
Known as the Auschwitz of Armenians in Der Zor family coming. Other Sunni them at first sight – apart from Arab families do not have any properties. Women cover their heads, as they’re obviously apart from their piety with prayer.
11 Fazi mother is not afraid to tell the Christian roots. When asked about the city’s history begins they came to tell her grandmother’s history. That the relocation of hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Armenians say that one of the first. Come from Mardin know. But there is a life that has no idea how. Grandparents become acquainted with “love” as the story describes. “They love each other so much,” he says, adding if after “Maybe I felt safe with him, who knows?” Today was a hundred years ago to the land of her grandmother took refuge in case of relocation to escape the war. The mind of the 11 children in the future, especially in the past.
Mazin middle child of the family, Raqqa, in June of the year 2012 goes to get the family’s belongings in October of the same year he returned to Der Zor. Turkey now aim to conduct their lives when they have to provide the money. But when you hear the conflicts that come out on the balcony, exposed to sniper fire. The other brother in the city has tried to take her to the hospital. However, difficulties in finding a place to treat him in battle.
Regime forces detained due to take to the hospital … Search for 7 hours at a field hospital at the end of their doctors have found. However, referral for treatment were asked to Gaziantep, because keeping shoulders down. Following this decision before Mazin and his brother was on his way to Turkey, then the entire family.
Last stop Urfa
They met at the hospital opened their homes to the family of a Turkish family. They have been guests of 20 days. If the disconnect from the hospital after their son moved to the town of Urfa and Harran. Most recent stops in the neighborhood of Urfa became the Ayyubid dynasty. Today, only requests in the battle of their lives healing of the past. Every week from home with Life Support Association physiotherapist Abdurrahim laughing faces. With each passing power weakened muscles, re-melting of the sons are praying to God to stand up together. In 1915, my grandmother today, perhaps in the removal of the soil spilled from his mouth, they’re the same prayer: Now Let there be peace!
PHOTO: Kerem Yucel
Turkish MHP leader says Erdoğan will either face prosecution or flee country
4 February 2014 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL
Leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli has said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will either face prosecution or flee the country as he is struggling to cover up a recent corruption scandal that has shaken the nation for more than a month.
“If things continue at this pace, there will be only two options facing the prime minister in the short run: He will either face prosecution in the courts, or he will leave for [a country that is] beyond the ocean,” Bahçeli said. “Beyond the Ocean” is an oft-cited phrase used by officials to refer to the US, where Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen resides.
“The Turkish nation is being robbed directly the prime minister,” Bahçeli said, adding that the state’s treasury is under the control of “thieves.”
He said the reason why the prime minister is rushing to change the structure of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and his “war against the judiciary” is because corruption allegations directed at him are included in an ongoing corruption investigation. He said it is impossible not to be “shocked” when listening to phone conversations of businessmen allegedly involved in corruption and bribery.
He slammed those businessmen close to the prime minister who are “stealing the hard-won money of the nation.” “Are these the plot of the parallel structure, conspiracy of foreign forces, slander of pro-coup forces?” Bahçeli asked rhetorically, referring to Erdoğan’s similar frequent accusations.
US Base Turkish Imam Fethullah Gülen sues Turkish PM for libel
ISTANBUL – Agence France-Presse
U.S.-based Islamic scholar has sued Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for allegedly “denigrating and insulting” remarks.
Lawyers representing Gülen filed a complaint on Feb. 3 demanding 100,000 Turkish Liras in damages from Erdogan.
The prime minister has repeatedly accused Gülen’s Hizmet (Service) movement of orchestrating the deeply damaging graft corruption probes, which led to the resignation of three ministers whose sons were detained in raids carried out on Dec. 17.
The government has responded to the graft investigations by sacking or reassigning hundreds of police officers and prosecutors, which has been harshly denounced by the Gülen movement.
Media outlets close to the movement have also slammed Erdoğan for using “hate speech” and converting them into a target.
The Gülen-affiliated Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) urged President Abdullah Gül to intervene in order to prevent “an important part of society from being subjected to political and social lynching” on Feb. 3.
A former ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Gülen movement entered into open conflict with the government following the latter’s move to shut down test prep schools (dershanes) on November.
February/04/2014
Turkey fined 55,000 euros over explosion that killed children
STRASBOURG
The European Court of Human Rights has fined Turkey 55,000 euros over the death of a child in 1993 in the southeastern Turkey after a Turkish army mortar rocket exploded.
Five children died in Kahramanmaraş on Oct. 29, 1993, when a mortar rocket exploded near the army’s Bölükçam firing range. Fatma Oruk, currently living in Basel, Switzerland, applied to the ECHR complaining that the deaths of her son and four other children had been caused by the conduct of the armed forces, which had put people’s lives in danger.
The ECHR concluded that there was a violation of Article 2 of the right to life and fined Turkey 50,000 euros for non-pecuniary damage and 5,000 euros for the costs and expenses.
In December 1993, considering that the accident had been the result of military negligence on the part of the army, the public prosecutor declined jurisdiction and transmitted the case file to the Adana military prosecutor’s office. In December 1995, the military prosecutor discontinued the proceedings. Oruk lodged an appeal against that decision, but in January 2004 the Gaziantep military tribunal dismissed her appeal.
February/04/2014