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36% of Armenia’s population indifferent to upcoming parliamentary elections – expert

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Thirty-six percent of Armenia’s population are not at all interested in the upcoming parliamentary elections, 43% have decided in favor of a particular political force, 24% have not yet made up their minds sociologist Aharon Adibekyan told reporters on Friday as he summed up preliminary survey results.

Mr Adibekyan plans to report the final results after March 20.

“As a result, the election campaign will be conducted at two levels, with the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the Prosperous Armenia party rivaling for a parliamentary majority. The RPA will seek to retain its positions, while the Prosperous Armenia has to persuade the rats that once fled it to come back and bring communities’ votes to it. That is, its goal is 50% of votes plus one vote,” Mr Adibekyan said.

At the second level are the political forces seeking to retain their positions – the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D), Armenian National Congress (ANC) Rule of Law-turned-Armenian Renaissance, as well as other political groups that are just gaining ground.

“The alliance formed by Vartan Oskanian, Raffi Hovannisian and Seyran Ohanyan needs 7%, which is a serious figure. However, Raffi Hovannisian’s rating is 8%.”

Little Armenian boy shocked the jury members of «The Voice» Russia. Dima Bilan could not hide his emotions (video)

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Yesterday was aired the second part of Russian «The Voice Kids», during which Armenian boy Artyom Seyranyan performed the song «Highway to hell» by AC/DC and shocked the jury members-Dima Bilan, Nyusha and Valeriy Meladze with his huge energy during the performance.

Dima Bilan and Nyusha could not hide their emotions and turned to see the little performer. Only Valeriy Meladze didn’t turn during the boy’s entry, but he explained his step as following.

“I just wanted to do a favor to Nyusha and Dima Bilan”.

So, the boy should have to make a decision between Dima and Nyusha. Finally, he decided to be in Bilan’s team.

How did you like Armenian boy’s performance? Share with your comments.

Elton John to Introduce #ArmenianGenocide film ‘The Promise’ at Oscar Viewing Party

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Elton-john

Elton John to introduce Armenian Genocide film ‘The Promise’ at his 25th annual Academy Awards Viewing Party on Feb. 26, 2017

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—At the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF)’s 25th annual Academy Awards Viewing Party to be held on Sunday, February 26, at West Hollywood Park, Sir Elton John and David Furnish will introduce Open Road and Survival Pictures new film – The Promise – which tells the story of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey at the outset of World War I. Written by Terry George and Robin Swicord and directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), The Promise stars Oscar Issac, Christian Bale, and Charlotte Le Bon.

“We have only to look at the horrific HIV/AIDS outbreak that followed in the wake of the Rwandan genocide in the mid-1990s to understand the direct connection between human rights atrocities and public health crises like the AIDS epidemic,” said EJAF Founder Elton John. “Through our friendships with the Manoukian family and producer Dr. Eric Esrailian from UCLA, David and I became more personally aware of the Armenian Genocide and its timely relevance to social issues today. The film’s theme #KeepThePromise can be interpreted as keeping the promise to remember and learn from the atrocities of the past, as well as keeping the promise to end AIDS. At EJAF, we are committed to #KeepThePromise and raise awareness about this powerful film that uses classic storytelling to inspire people to take action today. We are honored to share the important timing of our Oscar-night event to introduce people to The Promise.”

In addition to sharing EJAF’s vision for championing human rights, The Promise team at Survival Pictures has taken the unprecedented step of making the commitment to donate all proceeds from the film to nonprofit organizations including EJAF and other human rights and humanitarian groups. As part of this commitment and to inspire Party guests to give generously, Survival Pictures will match the pledges guests make to EJAF via text and live auction purchases made during EJAF’s Academy Awards Viewing Party with the goal of making this a record-setting evening.

“Such giving has never happened with a film of this scale, we wanted the world to know about it, and we are incredibly grateful,” said EJAF Chairman David Furnish. “We are honored to announce this generosity, thanks to the late philanthropist and humanitarian Kirk Kerkorian, on the eve of EJAF’s 25th annual Academy Awards Viewing Party. Not only is The Promise committing to support EJAF’s work, but matching funds will be provided to inspire donors even more throughout the event and live auction.”

Survival Pictures has also developed a social impact campaign for The Promise to help educate the global public about the genocides and mass atrocities of the 20th and 21st centuries, the discussion about the legal definition of genocide, and historical denialism. The impact campaign will inform and inspire people to take action so they become part of the anti-genocide movement led by human rights organizations like EJAF as well as change-makers dedicated to ending crimes against humanity and bringing perpetrators to justice.

The film sets a love story in the midst of the growing unrest in 1914 Turkey leading up to the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. As the Great War looms, the mighty Ottoman Empire is crumbling. Constantinople, the once vibrant, multicultural capital on the shores of the Bosporus, is about to be consumed by chaos. Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac) arrives in the cosmopolitan hub as a medical student determined to bring modern medicine back to Siroun, his ancestral village in Southern Turkey where Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians have lived side by side for centuries. Photo-journalist Chris Myers (Christian Bale) has come here only partly to cover geo-politics. He is mesmerized by his love for Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), an Armenian artist he has accompanied from Paris after the sudden death of her father. When Michael meets Ana, their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between the two men. As the Turks form an alliance with Germany and the Empire turns violently against its own ethnic minorities, their conflicting passions must be deferred while they join forces to survive even as events threaten to overwhelm them. Promises are made and promises are broken. The one promise that must be kept is to live on and tell the story.

“The Armenian Genocide must, of course, never be forgotten and should be recognized, but our current headlines show that the same patterns of human rights violations are being replicated in too many parts of the world today,” said producer Dr. Eric Esrailian. “We are honored to have the support of Elton, David, and the entire EJAF family, and by joining forces, we can help the people in the world who need assistance right now.”

OSCE/ODIHR observers to monitor parliamentary election in Armenia

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The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on Monday launched an observation mission in Armenia to monitor the upcoming parliamentary election.
Twenty-eight long-term and 250 short-term observers will join the 14 experts of the group to organize a proper surveillance over the voting processes on April 2, Ambassador Peter Jesen, the head of the mission, told a news conference in Yerevan.
He said they have met with representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the Central Electoral Commission to agree over organizational issues.
Mr Jesen said he is hopeful that their election observation mission (which is the 11th in Armenia) will allow for an effective collaboration with the authorities, political parties and the civil society.
He added that a final report, covering the mission’s key findings, will be published two month after the elections, to propose further measures towards improving electoral processes in Armenia.

 

Founding editor of HyeTert dies in Turkey

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The founding editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper HyeTert has died in Turkey, the Turkish-language publication Luys reports.
A prominent Turkish-Armenian intellectual, Murat Berberoglu was best known for his articles on the Armenian Genocide, Armenian history and culture, and the big heritage left behind by the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. He also initiated a range of project which were later published in Turkish.

LA-bound Armenian Christians held up in travel ban’s wake

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When President Donald Trump signed his executive order halting refugee admissions last month citing national security, he made it a point to say that religious minorities, especially Christians, would be given priority.

But some Christian refugees have been unable to enter the U.S. in the aftermath of the presidential order, even though the travel ban has been suspended for now by federal courts.

One family bound for Los Angeles is among the refugees held up in Iran, Southern California Public Radio reports.

George Haratoonian, a business owner who lives in Glendale and arrived himself as a refugee nearly three decades ago, was expecting his brother’s family to fly into Los Angeles on February 4. They were planning to live with him until they got settled.

But just as the president’s order took effect in late January, the family received disappointing news: their visas to Austria, the first leg of their journey, had been canceled. Haratoonian was with them in Tehran when they got the news.

“We had hoped that this thing was a rumor,” he said. It wasn’t.

The Haratoonians are Armenian Christians, a religious minority in Iran. The family was traveling to the U.S. through what is known as the Lautenberg program, which benefits religious minorities. The program was originally enacted in 1990 to assist refugees from the former Soviet Union. Today, the program mostly benefits Christian, Jewish, Baha’i and other religious minority refugees from Iran.

Under the program, refugees transit from Iran to Austria, then on to the United States. Because the U.S. has no embassy in Iran, they must complete their paperwork in Austria before they continue on to the U.S. In order to get to Austria, they receive what’s known as a “D visa” from the Austrian government.

An Austrian government official confirmed in an email to KPCC that the visas of Iranian refugees in the program were canceled “following a procedural modification on the part of the United States.” The action occurred just ahead of the ban taking place. Refugee agencies believe that the Austrian government anticipated a policy change and didn’t want refugees stuck in transit.

The U.S. State Department had no comment on the refugees’ status.

The president’s executive order issued on January 27 temporarily halted travel from seven predominantly Muslim nations and suspended refugee arrivals. The ban created chaos at airports around the country, including at Los Angeles International Airport. Those arriving from the affected countries were detained for hours and at least two people at LAX were put back on planes.

A federal district judge in the state of Washington placed a temporary stay on the president’s ban and the suspension was upheld by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week.

Administration officials are now weighing their options, which could include a revision of the travel ban to address legal issues and a request for the full Ninth Circuit to review the stay of the ban.

Related links:

SCPR. LA-bound Armenian Christians held up in Iran as travel ban effects linger

Turkey: The Last Armenian Woman in a Once-Christian Town

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Prior to the Armenian genocide of 1915, the Turkish southeastern town of Derik used to be an important center for Armenian and Assyrian/Syriac Christians.  Today, only one Armenian woman remains: Yursalin Demirci.

The Kurdish news site Şûjin recently covered her story. The Armenians of Derik were first subject to massacres and deportations in 1915. The remnant Armenians emigrated from Derik in later years due to various pressures. Because of these reasons, there is no longer an Armenian community in the town. The doors of the Surp (Saint) Kevrok Armenian Church were not opened at Christmas this year. And the church bell no longer rings.

“I miss the old days,” said Yursalin. “But I have got used to the fact that there is no one left. We were born here, we grew up here and we do not want to leave our lands. Fifty years ago, when the church bell rang, the church became filled with people. I hope these days will return.”

Yursalin and her husband are the only remaining Christian couple in the town. “In Christianity, couples marry at church. But as there was no Christian priest left in the town back then, I had to marry at home.

“I am proud of being an Armenian. I have never given up on my religious faith. Our neighbors sometimes tell me to do Salah [five times daily Islamic prayers]. I do not know how to do it. … The Muslim religion is beautiful. So is Christianity. If you do not leave your faith, we don’t leave ours either.”

The city of Mardin, where Derik is also located, was for centuries a part of the Kingdom of Assyria.  In the Roman period, the city itself was known as Marida (Merida), from a Syriac/Neo-Aramaic name meaning “fortress”. Marida, the center for Episcopal Sees of several Armenian, Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean churches, fell to the Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan after the Battle of Manzikert in the 11th century.

Professor Peter Fraser Purton writes in his book, “A History of the Early Medieval Siege, C. 450-1220”:

“In 1064, the Armenian city of Ani [in the present-day Turkish city of Kars on the Turkey-Armenia border]  situated on a step hill, fell to the Turks of Alp Arslan. [Historian]Aristakes tells [us] that this was after a section of the wall had been demolished with a catapult… A sudden collapse of a stretch of wall permitted the Turks to storm Ani.

“Following the Battle of Manzikert, Turkish forces took numerous towns: Erzerum (formerly Theodosiopolis), Diyarbakir (Amida), Mardin (Marida), Malatya (Melitene) and many others.”

The process of annihilation of indigenous Christian civilization in the region took centuries. Today, some Turkish authorities proudly declare that Turkey is 99 % Muslim. Before the 1915 genocide, however, Ottoman Turkey still had sizable Christian communities.

“Derik had in 1914 an Armenian population of 1782,” wrote Professor Raymond Kevorkian in his book “The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History”.

“The presiding judge of the court-martial in Diyarbekir, Tevfik Bey, who had just finished dealing with the Armenians of Viransehir, applied the usual procedures. From 20 to 30 June, 1915, he first eliminated the men in small groups, then turned to the women and children, who were deported and massacred a short distance from the town.”

According to the French Dominican monk, Jacques Rhétoré, in Mardin province, there were nearly 75,000 Christians of all denominations. During the massacres, nearly 48,000—or 64 percent—disappeared.

Mass murders were followed by the plunder of the Armenians’ property. Professor Kevorkian writes that the plundering of Armenians’ houses in Mardin was so widespread that it “left the city looking like a construction site. Many people were hard at work digging up the grounds around or inside the Armenians’ houses in a quest for hidden treasure. The myth of the Armenians’ gold, which is still alive and well today, excited people’s lust for gain.”

Just like the Islamic State (ISIS) is doing today in Iraq and Syria, trafficking and raping women were also commonplace:  “On 15 August 1915, for the first time in Mardin, a public sale of young Armenian women was organized. Buyers had to pay from one to three Turkish pounds per head, depending on the beauty and age of the female on offer.”

On June 10, 1915, Ottoman forces began a reign of terror over Armenians and other Christians in Mardin.David Gaunt, a professor of history, describes, in a comprehensive article in the Armenian Weekly, the night of June 10, which saw  the first wave of the death march of a group of 400 leading Christian figures in the city – Armenians, [Catholic] Syriacs, Chaldeans, and Protestants, who had been imprisoned during the previous week on trumped-up charges.

“At the fall of darkness, the soldiers… called out the names of the prisoners one by one, and they tied them with ropes so that they could not flee… Then those who were thought to be Armenians were taken from the others. Rings were pressed around their necks and chains around their wrists. In this way they were bound, drawn, and chained for several hours… After having arranged the men in rows, they forced them out through the prison gates. Above them weapons and swords shined. The prisoners were kept totally silent. And a town crier cried out, ‘The Christian residents who leave their houses will be amputated and put together with their co-religionists.’

“When they passed the Muslim quarter, the women came out and joked. They insulted the prisoners. Children threw stones. When the prisoners came to the Christian quarter, the residents could not go out to talk or say farewell. Many stood by the railings on their roofs and wept, praying to God. … The Christians shuffled in silence like pupils on their way to school. They made no sound.

Source: https://pjmedia.com/blog/turkey-the-last-armenian-woman-in-a-once-christian-town/

Germany’s Constitutional Court not to accept claim for cancelling bill about recognition of Armenian Genocide

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Germany’s Constitutional Court refused to accept the appeal for cancelling the bill that recognized the events of 1915 as the Armenian Genocide.

As the Turkish BirGun reports, the German Constitutional Court did not accept the appeal, stating that there are not sufficient evidences that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide violates any laws. The Turkish representative, Ramazan Akbash, announced that they will submit the appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in two days.

Three local NGOs accredited to observe Armenian parliamentary elections

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Three local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have accredited as of February 14 to engage in election monitoring processes during Armenia’s parliamentary elections set on April 2.

As Panorama.am learnt from the Central Electoral Commission of Armenia (CEC), Democracy Law International Center (133 observers), Chamber of United Leaders (137 observers), and Pan-Armenian Youth Association (189 observers) NGOs have been registered thus far to oversight the forthcoming elections.
According to the CEC approved timetable for preparing and conducting parliamentary elections, the application period for registration observer groups or making changes in the submitted lists runs from December 30 through March 18.

Earlier, the Head of the Public Relations Department at the National Assembly of Armenia Arsen Babayan told Panorama.am that invitations to observe the elections had been sent to number of international organizations, such as CoE, PACE, OSCE, and CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.

To remind, recently published OSCE/ODIHR Needs Assessment Mission Report recommended an election observation mission for the 2 April parliamentary elections, contingent upon the receipt of an official invitation from the Armenian authorities.

In its recommendation the authors of the report had suggested apart from the core team of experts the secondment of 24 long-term observers from OSCE participating states to follow the electoral process countrywide, and 250 short-term observers to follow election day proceedings.

 

Source Panorama.am

Genocide and “déjà vu!” Zoryan Institute’s response Turkish PM Çavuşoğlu

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Zoryan Institute issued a response to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu who suggested “a joint commission” after the decisions that have been made in France and Denmark concerning 1915.

Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu assessed the decisions that French and Danish parliaments have made concerning 1915. As may be remembered, French Constitutional Council overturned the Armenian Genocide denial law and Danish parliament defined what happened in 1915 as tragic and “bloody events”. Claiming that French parliament’s decision was overturned because it “contradicts with freedom of expression”, Çavuşoğlu stated that politicians are doing this for the sake of “populism” and it is wrong. 

Claiming that central politicians in Europe started to engage in populism too much, Çavuşoğlu said: “They are losing votes and weak. They have no solution for their countries. The decision of the Danish parliament means a lot to us. It says, ‘Politicians shouldn’t be involved in historical events. Historians should assess them.’ Indeed, this is a good response to the ones who want to abuse history. Thus, we thank the Danish parliament.”

Çavuşoğlu once again said that a joint history commission should be formed and added: “We have been saying to Armenia, ‘If you are confident, let’s form a joint commission. Scientists from other countries would join it. Every one opens their archives and we are ready to accept any revelation.’ However, Armenia hasn’t approved it so far.” He also said that Armenian lobbies in abroad are cooperating with the ones who are against Turkey and claimed that they are working with “Gulenists” and other enemies of Turkey. Çavuşoğlu repeatedly accused Armenians of distorting the history.

After these statements, Canada-based Zoryan Institute issued a response to Çavuşoğlu, titled “déjà vu all over again”.

Here is the full text of Zoryan Institute’s response:

“As they say, “This is déjà vu all over again.”

Calls for Armenia to set up a joint commission to study the events of 1915 have become the modus operandi for the Turkish government for years. Mr. Çavuşoğlu’s recent statement merely echoes that of his predecessors, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in 2014 when he was the Prime Minister. Every year, a few months before April 24, when resolutions appear before government bodies around the world, especially the US Congress, the high-ranking officials of Turkey make the same call. They claim to want to study those events to find out what really happened. This is nothing but a public relations stratagem to make it appear that Turkey is open-minded and willing to normalize relations with Armenia.

Such calls ignore the fact that in 2003, the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (“TARC”) at the time requested The International Center for Transitional Justice to examine the events of 1915 as a case of genocide. The ICTJ issued its finding that “the Events, viewed collectively, can thus be said to include all of the elements of the crime of genocide as defined in the Convention, and legal scholars as well as historians, politicians, journalists and other people would be justified in continuing to so describe them.” The Turkish members of the Commission rejected this finding and broke TARC apart.

In 2010, the United States, Switzerland, and other countries tried to broker the signing of protocols between Turkey and Armenia, whose border between them is closed, and who do not have diplomatic relations with one another. Despite the signing with much fanfare in Switzerland, the Turkish government has refused to ratify the agreement to this day.

Renowned Turkish scholar, Prof. Taner Akçam of Clark University, published in the preface to his award-winning book, The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, after years of studying official documents from the German, Ottoman, and other archives, the following statement:

Far from conflicting with one another, the sources are in fact complementary: they tell the same story but from different points of view… Taken in their entirety, Ottoman and Western archives jointly confirm that the ruling party CUP did deliberately implement a policy of ethnoreligious homogenization of Anatolia that aimed to destroy the Armenian population.

On June 2, 2016, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, voted to declare the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. The resolution was introduced by Cem Özdemir, a German parliamentarian of Turkish origin. There were at least one dozen other German deputies of Turkish origin who co-signed the Resolution with all parliamentarians voting in favor except one. The Turkish president, Mr. Erdogan, quickly denounced the resolution and recalled his Ambassador from Berlin. Part of the resolution reads as follows:

“By order of the Young Turk regime, the planned expulsion and extermination of over a million ethnic Armenians began in the Ottoman city of Constantinople on April 24, 1915. Their fate exemplifies the history of mass extermination, ethnic cleansing, expulsions, and yes, of genocides, which marked the 20th century in such a horrific way. We are aware of the uniqueness of the Holocaust, for which Germany bears guilt and responsibility.

The Bundestag regrets the inglorious role of the German Empire, which, as a principal ally of the Ottoman Empire, did not try to stop these crimes against humanity, despite explicit information regarding the organized expulsion and extermination of Armenians, including also from German diplomats and missionaries…. The German Empire bears partial complicity in the events.”

Turkey has already rejected the finding of the ICTJ, an internationally respected organization headed by the renowned Elie Wiesel. It has harassed and persecuted Prof. Taner Akçam. Now, given Germany’s acceptance and admission of its own complicity in the Armenian Genocide in collaboration with its political and military ally, the Ottoman Empire, why propose another joint commission? President Erdogan, himself, has publicly stated that he will never accept that Turkey committed genocide.

Under the circumstances, it is hard to believe Mr. Çavuşoğlu’s claim that “…we will accept any revelation.”

Rather than go through the sham of a joint commission, it would be more practical and constructive for Turkey to open its border with Armenia, establish normal diplomatic relations with its neighbor, stop harassing its scholars and writers and jailing its journalists, and accept the very well established historical record, and admit its guilt in the Armenian Genocide, as its own ally, Germany, has done.”