Archbishop Aram Ateshyan told about concealed Armenians in Turkey

April 30, 2013 By administrator

11:07, 30 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 30, ARMENPRESS: The General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archbishop Aram Ateshyan gave an interview to the Turkish Bugun TV channel, where he told about the concealed Armenians living in Turkey, the number of which makes about a million. As reported by Armenpress, the Archbishop Aram Ateshyan stated that those people were made to conceal their nation and become Muslims during the World War I, because of the well-known events, occurred to Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey.

“There are about a hundred thousand people in the present generation in Turkey, whose parents are Armenians and they are Muslims. They talk Armenian and wear a cross secretly. I cleared it out due to my personal contacts. They do not want to attend church, as it will reveal their identity. The liturgy held in the Saint Kirakos Church in Diyarbakir was attended by more than 400 people, half of which having Armenian roots. My family as well lives in Diyarbakir as Muslims. The sons of my elder sister also live in Diyarbakir. They accepted Islam under pressure in 1950.

My son-in-law was told if he does not accept Islam, he will be killed. I was born in 1954. When I was 4-5, my sister became a Muslim. Their children became Muslims as well. My sister wore her cross secretly and spoke Armenian. I lost them, as they did not attend our church and I could not christen them. Many of the concealed Armenians told about their being Armenians only before the death.

A 30-year-old man came to me and asked to christen him. I told him to prove his being Armenian and he could not. Then his father called me and asked to accept his son. He said that he worked in the municipality and when he retires, he will return to his roots. According to his son, 90% of the population of Tunceli are Armenians and now he is a member of our church”, – told the General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, Archbishop Aram Ateshyan.

Armenian and Iranian prosecutor general’s offices sign memorandum of cooperation

April 30, 2013 By administrator

April 30, 2013 | 11:57

YEREVAN. – The prosecutor general’s offices of Armenia and Iran signed a memorandum of cooperation.

The document was signed, on Tuesday in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan, by Armenian Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan and Iranian Attorney General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.

During the official signing ceremony, Hovsepyan noted that the parties are manifesting goodwill to deepen cooperation in the legal domain. In his view, Armenia and Iran collaborate actively, and therefore it is important to regulate relations in the aforesaid domain

“The signed document enables for direct cooperation between the prosecutor’s offices of both countries. In this way, all matters will be resolved quickly and efficiently,” Armenia’s chief prosecutor noted.

In his turn, the Iranian attorney general stated that even though relations between the two countries are friendly and their contacts are developing, these cannot be complete without the legal domain.

Author Peter Balakian speaks at Illinois Holocaust Museum

April 30, 2013 By administrator

April 30, 2013 – 09:33 AMT

Earlier this month, author Peter Balakian spoke to an audience of more than 250 people at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago, and a town that is still remembered for the controversial march of neo-Nazi groups there in 1979, Asbarez reported.

The Museum is the second largest of its kind after the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Memorial in Washington, DC.

Balakian lectured for the occasion of the 98th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide commemorated on April 24. He also commenced his work with the Museum as Senior Scholar for the Armenian Genocide exhibit it will mount in 2015 for the genocide’s 100th anniversary.

In his opening remarks, Museum Executive Director Rick Hirschhaut said: “Our young people – our future – must be a bridge to the future, and ensure that we realize the lessons that were set forth by us, by the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and all such terrible atrocities. We must speak for those whose voices were silenced and for those who survived so we may remember and pledge never to forget. Today,” Hirschhaut continued, “at this gathering, we are reminded of a history that must be recognized, and remembered, and calls to the importance of lighting the torch of truth for the world community.”

Nairee Hagopian of the ANCA then introduced Balakian and expressed her gratitude to the Museum for initiating such an important and timely project.

Balakian thanked Hirschhaut and the Illinois Holocaust Museum for their leadership in partnering with the ANCA to build an Armenian Genocide exhibit for the 2015 anniversary, “a project,” he said, “that will serve as a model for others to come.”

Balakian also noted how crucial the ongoing support and intellectual work of the Jewish community has been, and continues to be, “from Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Franz Werfel, and Raphael Lemkin to the work and support of so many superb scholars in our time including Elie Wiesel, Deborah Lipstadt, Robert Melson, Robert Jay Lifton, Andrew Goldberg, and many others, Jews who have made a decisive difference in clarifying our understanding of what happened to the Armenians in 1915.”

For the April 24 commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, Balakian then gave a lecture, “Raphael Lemkin, Cultural Destruction, and the Armenian Genocide.” He discussed Lemkin’s deep thinking about what happened to the Armenians in 1915 as a seminal case of genocide, noting how Lemkin’s intellectual commitment to what he came to call genocide was heavily influenced by his study of the Turkish mass killing of Armenians. It was Lemkin, he said, who first coined the term Armenian genocide in the 1940s, and explained the concept on a special CBS Television broadcast about the UN Genocide Convention, in February 1949. Balakian also explored how the destruction of Armenian culture (intellectuals and artists, churches, schools, libraries, forced conversions to Islam, etc.) constituted a key component of genocide.

In an extensive PowerPoint presentation, Balakian showed arresting images of magnificent, thriving Armenian churches before 1915, and those same churches, in Turkey, that are in ruins today. He concluded by observing that this kind of cultural destruction still has complex reverberations, and impacts on Armenians in Armenia, in the diaspora, and in Turkey.

Blasts in Armenian-populated Aleppo district kill two

April 30, 2013 By administrator

Four-five mines exploded in Armenian-populated Suleymaniye district of Syria’s Aleppo, Zhirayr Reyisyan, Press Secretary of the National Primacy of AleppoZhirayr Reyisyan, confirmed to Tert.am.

He said at least two people have died, others are injured. The identities of the victims have not been clarified yet.

Referring to the situation existing in Aleppo, he stressed that the clashes are far from the central districts of the city but the sounds of fights are heard there.

“The city faces economic, electricity, communication problems, inflation deepens from day to day. People are waiting for something to change,” he said.

Christian churches attacked in Turkey

April 30, 2013 By administrator

19:23, 29 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 29, ARMENPRESS: Christian churches have been attacked in Burgaz and Ataşehir islands situated in western part of Turkey. As reports Armenpress, referring to Agos newspaper, “New hope” Christian church was attacked on April 27 in Ataşehir. Band of 30-40 people attacked the church, broke the windows trying to get inside, nevertheless didn’t succeed.

Group of teenagers tried to attack Greek Church in Burgaz. They tried to grip the amount of the mercy box, though failed. It is noteworthy that Turkish press hasn’t referred to those facts.

Azerbaijani students in Turkey protest against forced participation in the celebration of the birthday of Heydar Aliyev

April 30, 2013 By administrator

Group of Azerbaijani students studying in Turkey are planning to hold a protest on May 10. According to the Azerbaijani “Turan” news agency, they are going to express their dissatisfaction by the desire of official figures of Azerbaijan to oblige the students to participate in the festivities to be held on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev.

One of the students, who asked to remain anonymous, told news agency “Turan” that young people are going to spend May 10 in different cities in Turkey protesting against the soldiers’ deaths in the Azerbaijani army.

Intensive work on making a cult of Heydar Aliyev is carried out in Azerbaijan. Thus, in this connection, Diana Kyukan writes on radio “Liberty” site: “Museum to Heydar Aliyev is being built across all Azerbaijan and his monuments are being installed. All of this is designed for making a cult of him. A large-scale work was done since 2003 after his son, Ilham Aliyev, coming to power. Baku starts from International Airport named after Heydar Aliyev, it continues by the path titled by his name and which is leading to the city, and all the way long big billboards, from where the “national leader” accompanies you, look at you. A cultural center named after Heydar Aliyev for $ 250 million was built in the center of the city. More than 50 museums of Heydar Aliyev operate throughout Azerbaijan.”

May 10, is the anniversary of former President of the Azerbaijani Republic Heydar Aliyev, who was the father of the current president, Ilham Aliyev. This day is celebrated in Azerbaijan as the “Festival of Flowers” at the state level. The 90th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev is to be celebrate this year on May 10 in Azerbaijan.

Source: Panorama.am

Operation Ring strengthened Artsakh people’s will to fight for freedom: MFA

April 30, 2013 By administrator

April 29, 2013 – 18:18 AMT

The Nagorno Karabakh Republic Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the 22nd anniversary of the Operation Ring aimed at deportation of border villages of Artsakh.

“The Operation Ring, launched by the special police detachments (OMON) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan, with the support of the USSR Interior Ministry’s troops in April-May, 1991 holds a peculiar place in the history of the conflict between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, both for its scope and consequences.

The operation, which became possible due to a criminal collusion between the Azerbaijani government and some USSR leaders, resulted in a complete devastation and destruction of more than two dozen villages of Northern Artsakh, as well as in Shahumyan, Hadrut and Shushi regions. It ended only after a month, due to wide publicity and condemnation both within the USSR and beyond.

But the wheels of the war were set in motion. The Operation Ring, which stood out by its brutality and major violations of human rights, sharply increased the tension in the region to spark military actions, becoming a prelude to the subsequent full-scale aggression of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh.

However, Azerbaijan has failed to achieve its main goal – to intimidate the population of Nagorno-Karabakh and suppress their legitimate aspirations for self-determination. On the contrary, the Operation Ring only strengthened the determination of the people of Artsakh to fight for their rights and freedoms,” the Ministry said.

5 found guilty in Kosovo human organ-trafficking case

April 30, 2013 By administrator

April 29, 2013 – 19:35 AMT

An EU-led court in Kosovo has found five people guilty in connection with a human organ-trafficking ring, BBC News said.

The five are accused of carrying out dozens of illegal transplants at the Medicus Clinic in the capital, Pristina. Meanwhile two former government officials also charged in the case have been cleared of involvement.

The trade was discovered when a Turkish man collapsed after having one of his kidneys removed at the clinic.

The case was tried by Eulex, the European Union’s law and order mission in Kosovo.

Urologist Lutfi Dervishi was sentenced to eight years in prison for organised crime and human trafficking. His son, Arban, was sentenced to seven years and three months, while three other defendants received between one and three years’ imprisonment.

Meanwhile Kosovo’s former health minister, Ilir Rrecaj, was acquitted on the charge for abusing official position or authority.

Greece is right to expose German loans hypocrisy

April 29, 2013 By administrator

As the Athens-Berlin spat intensifies, both sides must approach the eurozone crisis with humility or face dire consequences

Adolf Hitler’s military chief, Walther von Brauchitsch, front left, and colleagues at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, in 1941. Photograph: Roger Viollet/Getty Images

Greece forgets much of its history when it demands Germany repays loans made during the second world war.

The foreign minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told the parliament in Athens on Wednesday: “We will exhaust every means available to arrive at a settlement. One can’t compare the times, but also one cannot erase the memories.”

His speech, which was light on details, followed a leak this month of a finance ministry report showing that Greece wants Berlin to repay €162bn – consisting of €108bn for infrastructure damage during the occupation between 1941 and the end of the war, and €54bn as compensation for an interest-free loan Germany demanded to support its war effort.

Avramopoulos has launched the claim for damages in response to taunts by German policymakers that Athens must fork out such vast sums for the country’s recklessness before and after the banking crash. Private sector debtors have forgiven some of Greece’s debts, but loans from Berlin via Brussels must be repaid in full – and with interest – says the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Loans to Brussels and the International Monetary Fund amount to €240bn.

In one sense Athens is right to point out that Berlin is hypocritical when it accuses indebted eurozone countries of reckless behaviour. Germany was an aggressor in two world wars and failed to pay the debts it incurred. During the second world war it forced countries such as Greece to hand over huge sums in the form of 0% loans that were not repaid.

Greece was ordered to pay $528m by Adolf Hitler. It was not just a huge sum – equivalent to $7.1bn now – it weakened the currency and, according to Apostolos Vetsopoulos, in his 2002 doctoral thesis for University College London, “aggravated inflation in the Greek economy because the Bank of Greece was forced to issue inflationary notes to cover these extraordinary expenses”. Avramopoulos has applied compound interest to this sum to reach $54bn.

The trouble with the Greek stance is that by the end of the war Germany was broke and in huge debt. It was not only unable to pay outstanding loans, but also unable to pay the reparations many countries wanted to cover the cost of all the damage wreaked by the Wehrmacht.

France wanted reparations and so did the Benelux countries. So did Britain. They got their money, though not from Germany. Their recompense came from the US, which had come to the conclusion that punishing Germany, Japan and all the Axis nations would trigger a return to fascism. So it stepped in with large sums of cash from 1945 onwards, which in 1947 turned into the Marshall plan.

Like most of Europe, Greece was a beneficiary of the Marshall plan. The sums were so large they replaced the money due from Germany and more. In effect, Washington paid Berlin’s debt.

Vetsopoulos points out that much of the problem for Greece then, and it is probably true today, is that the money was wasted. First, Greece descended into civil war after 1945 when other countries were busy rebuilding. From 1947, when things settled down, the corruption in public life and schlerotic business sector meant much of the money went unspent, at least not on investment to re-tool a largely agricultural economy.

So the point is that no one extracted any money from the Germans after the war. Almost all its debts were forgiven, first at an international conference in 1953 and then in 1989, when Helmut Kohl said he could not possibly absorb East Germany and pay second world war debts.

And there is another twist. If the Greeks refuse to relinquish their 70-year-old claim, they should also approach the Italian government for unpaid loans. As Germany’s Axis partner, Rome was a beneficiary of the same deal, and Benito Mussolini’s soldiers helped destroy much of Athens.

In the end, the lesson both sides need to learn is humility, because both are wrong. But that said, Germany should revise its position on eurozone debt. It must recognise the hypocrisy of its current stance and, more importantly, the dire consequences of making it stick. The Americans were wise when it came to German debts, it is time Germany adopted the same stance.

• The picture caption of this article was amended on 29 April 2013. The original said Walther von Brauchitsch was in the centre of the picture. This has been corrected.

Yiannis Boutaris: Greece’s vision of hope

April 29, 2013 By administrator

By Alex Spillius

Thessaloniki has been described as a ‘model for all Greece’, thanks to the reforming zeal of its mayor, Yiannis Boutaris, a straight-talking maverick on a mission to clean up his city.

When Yiannis Boutaris decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1990 no one in Greece knew how to treat alcoholics. They were ignored, or sent to the asylum. So after two painful years of living in denial, he acted on the advice of a concerned American friend and attended an Alcoholics Anonymous clinic in Newport, Rhode Island. The first few months without booze were tough, particularly for a professional winemaker. But he found he had the self-discipline to resist temptation when sampling a new vintage, and hasn’t swallowed a drop for 22 years. ‘I cannot say if it was hard or not,’ he reflects. ‘The thing was, I wanted to get rid of the alcoholic behaviour and the alcoholic situation.’

Having beaten his own addiction, Boutaris is now, as the mayor of Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, trying to persuade one million fellow citizens to kick their own bad habits. He has no doubt about which is the toughest to crack. ‘The biggest problem we have in Greece is that people don’t respect the law,’ he says, as we drive through the town centre. ‘The city is a mess, and it is my duty to clean it up.’

It is hard to argue with this assessment, which is a shame, as Thessaloniki has a lot going for it. Less hectic and less arid than Athens, it is a Byzantine city, with a long, soothing waterfront that guards back lanes and alleys teeming with amiable restaurants offering a little more variety and savoir faire than in Athens. With 150,000 students, more than half of them at Aristotle University – the best in the country – the city has the youthful, arty ambience of fellow ports such as Bristol or Barcelona. But poor management, neglect and, latterly, municipal poverty have left the roads potholed, the pavements cracked and the streets generally filthy. Graffiti is everywhere.

One thing that really upsets the mayor is mass double-parking, something of a local speciality, which on this particular day is preventing municipal tree-pruners from stopping their trucks at the kerbside. ‘Look at that! People don’t give a shit about parking,’ he curses – not an irregular occurrence – as we pass a whole block of double-parked cars. ‘How can we cut the trees if people behave like that?’ he pleads, tossing his hands in frustration.

We are riding in the official mayoral vehicle, which, as it is a Fiat Panda, is a bit of a squish. On his first day in office Boutaris turned down the fancy car enjoyed by his predecessors, opting for this small eco-friendly runaround. ‘I have never used the limousine. It wasn’t for me,’ he says with a shrug of his bony frame. Sometimes he is still to be seen on a bicycle, pedalling to a favourite cafe in what is his native city.