Bill Archives

Washington: With Republicans divided, health bill collapses

July 18, 2017 by administrator

The man in the middle: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky)

A Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare has collapsed, with the party divided over the contents of a new health-care bill. President Trump had been pushing for a legislative win to call his own.

“Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (above) said in a statement Monday night.

The failure to pass the bill marks a humiliating defeat for Republicans, who have sought desperately to fulfill President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to dismantle the 2010 health-care reforms of his predecessor Barack Obama.

Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the upper chamber, giving the party a slim two-seat majority over their Democratic colleagues. McConnell had needed at least 50 of his Republican senators to support the “Trumpcare” bill.

But Republican senators Mike Lee (Utah) and Jerry Moran’s (Kansas) late Monday announcement that they would join Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) in opposing the bill effectively killed any remaining chance for the legislation to be passed. A vote had been expected as early as next week.

McConnell already had delayed the vote on the bill in the previous days due to the Senate absence of Republican John McCain (Arizona) who is recovering from surgery and whose vote would have been needed to pass the proposed repeal-and-replace legislation. After Lee and Moran’s announcements, McCain himself called for a new start on the initiative.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan federal financial analysis agency, had yet to provide the figures for the cost and the number of potentially uninsured Americans that the now-dead bill would have caused. However, the CBO’s review of an earlier draft found that the proposed changes would have caused 22 million Americans to become uninsured by 2026, with some low-income individuals priced out of being able to afford health insurance.

The reason for the CBO’s postponement was not known.

Moving fowards by going backwards?

McConnell revised the bill last week as he attempted to navigate a tricky divide within the Republican party and win support from critical senators who had been holding out on a “yes” vote either because the bill went too far or did not go far enough.

The bill’s main points included repealing the tax penalities on individuals who do not buy insurance and cuts to federal funding of Medicaid, which helps cover health-care costs for the poor and disabled. It would have kept Obamacare’s taxes on the wealthy, but eliminated them on insurers, medical device manufacturers and others.

US senator introduces bill urging Turkey to restore properties to Armenian church

March 21, 2017 by administrator

Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – La Cañada Flintridge), Chair of the Senate Select Committee on California, Armenia and Artsakh Mutual Trade, Art and Cultural Exchange, introduced Senate Resolution 29 on Monday designating the month of April for commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

The Resolution also calls on the Republic of Turkey to return confiscated church properties to their rightful congregations, Asbarez reports.
April 2017 will mark the 102nd commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, which began in 1915. More than 1.5 million Armenians were persecuted and massacred by the Ottoman Turks in the first genocide of the 20th century. California has long and proudly recognized the Armenian Genocide. This is the first legislative resolution to declare April as a month of Armenian Genocide commemoration and also call for the immediate restoration of church properties under Turkey’s control.
In addition to genocide denial, religious discrimination and intolerance remain serious issues in the current Republic of Turkey. Discriminatory laws are still used to justify the confiscation of church property and prevent free worship. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in its 2011 report that the Turkish government continues to impose serious limitations on freedom of religion or belief, thereby threatening the continued vitality and survival of minority religious communities in Turkey.

Turkey withdraws child rape amnesty bill, After woman’s outrage & U.N. warning

November 22, 2016 by administrator

Turkey’s ruling party has said it will withdraw a marriage bill that the United Nations warned could legitimize child rape. The age of consent in Turkey is 18, though many younger girls are married in Islamic ceremonies.

Turkey’s ruling AK Party is shelving a proposed bill on underage marriage for further consultations, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters Tuesday, after opposition and rights groups said it could allow men accused of sexually abusing girls to avoid punishment.

The proposed law – scheduled to undergo a final vote on Tuesday despite a public outcry – would have deferred sentencing or punishment for pending sexual assault in cases where there was no physical force and where the victim and perpetrator were married. The law would have been in force retroactively from November 16.

Rights groups and United Nations agencies criticized the legislation, which they said was akin to an amnesty for child abusers and could expose victims to further suffering at the hands of their abusers. “Any forms of sexual violence against children are crimes which should be punished as such,” the UN children’s agency UNICEF and four other UN agencies in Turkey said in a joint statement on Monday.

The legislation is not dead, however. Yildirim told reporters the government would ask an all-party commission to review the proposal, though many members of Turkey’s opposition parties have spoken out against it. The proposal also drew fire from a large swathe of the Turkish public. More than 800,000 signatures were gathered on an online petition this week urging Turkey’s parliament to drop the legislation.

Widespread purges continue

In other news, Turkey dismissed an additional 15,000 more civil servants, military officials, police and others and shut down more than 500 institutions and news outlets in investigations over a failed coup in July, authorities said in two official decrees. More than 110,000 people have been fired or suspended in the military, civil service, judiciary and elsewhere, while 36,000 people have been jailed pending trial as part of the investigation into the foiled coup attempt.

Ankara blames the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his supporters, which it calls the “Gulenist Terror Organization,” for orchestrating the coup bid, in which more than 240 people were killed and demands Washington extradite the reclusive Islamic cleric who has lived in Pennsylvania since 1999.

Turkish authorities have also cracked down on politicians and institutions they accuse of ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a 32-year insurgency against Turkey in the largely Kurdish southeast. Critics say the purges and mass arrests in Turkey are spreading to other opposition groups, including media outlets and Kurdish factions, in effect criminalizing political dissent.

jar/tj (AP, dpa, Reuters)

Author of German Bundestag Genocide Bill to be Honored by ANCA-WR

September 22, 2016 by administrator

Cem Ozdemir on the Bundestag floor wearing Armenian Genocide Centennial Forget-me-Not lapel pin (AFP photo)

LOS ANGELES—The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region announced that Cem Ozdemir, a member of the German Parliament–Bundestag–who is of Turkic descent, and the German Bundestag collectively will be honored with the 2016 ANCA-WR Freedom Award for their courage in resisting pressure from the Turkish government to introduce and pass a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide as well as Germany’s complicity in this crime against humanity.

In an historic and unprecendented show of unity, every political party faction within the German Bundestag as well as the Federal President Joachim Gauck, the President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert, and Chancellor Angela Merkel all joined together in supporting a motion spearheaded since 2015 by Green Party Chairman Cem Ozdemir under the title: “In remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire 101 years ago.”

On June 2, after a delayed vote designed to first secure a deal between Germany and Turkey on the current refugee crisis, the resolution was almost unanimously passed with all 11 Bundestag members of Turkish descent voting in favor, and only one no vote and one abstention.

In presenting the resolution, Mr. Ozdemir stated on the floor, “There is never a good time to speak of something so inconceivably barbaric as genocide. After lengthy and laborious deliberations, we are voting today on a motion that speaks of genocide, clearly refers to German complicity and establishes that this complicity virtually binds Germany to work for the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia and for rapprochement between the two countries.”

Addressing concerns expressed by some that Germany should avoid angering Turkey while they are both dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis, Ozdemir went on to state, “Ladies and gentlemen, the fact that we were accessories in the past to this dreadful crime must not mean that we aid and abet those who deny it today. Coming to terms with the Shoah has been the foundation of our democratic Germany. It is therefore time for us to come to terms now with other crimes committed by predecessor states of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

Cem Ozdemir’s personal history made his mission even more significant. Born in Germany in 1965 to Turkish-Circassian parents who had immigrated from Turkey to Germany as so-called guest workers and calling himself a “secular Muslim,“ Ozdemir has always been a true champion of human rights.

An educator by profession, Mr. Ozdemir was elected to the German Parliament in 1994, becoming its first member of Turkish descent. He served two consecutive legislative terms from 1994 to 2002, during which he held the position of Speaker on Internal Affairs for the Green Parliamentary Group. In 2003, Mr. Ozdemir became a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington DC and Brussels, during which he developed research on the ways that minority groups in the United States and Europe organize themselves politically.

From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Ozdemir was a member of the European Parliament, where he was Speaker on Foreign Affairs for his political group The Greens/European Free Alliance.

In 2011, Mr. Ozdemir was named as one of 100 Global Thinkers by the prestigious Foreign Policy journal. He is a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the advisory board of the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office.

Mr. Ozdemir is the author of two books on multicultural Germany. In 2008, he published a book titled Turkey: Politics, Religion, Culture. He regularly writes commentaries and articles for German, Turkish and international media.

In 2015, Mr. Ozdemir traveled to Armenia on the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial and formally declared recognition of the Genocide, calling upon Turkey to do the same. Shortly thereafter, he introduced a resolution in the German Bundestag not only to declare Germany’s formal recognition of the Genocide but also to acknowledge its own indirect involvement by failing to hold its Ottoman Turkish ally responsible as the atrocities were occurring.

During World War I, German Imperial Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg was quoted by Ozdemir, as stating ‘‘Our sole object is to keep Turkey on our side until the end of the war, no matter whether or not Armenians perish as a result.“ By 1918, although German military leaders knew that 90% of the entire population and 98% of the male population of Armenians had been killed in the eastern provinces with the clergy almost entirely exterminated, they did nothing to stop the atrocities.

Mr. Ozdemir drew the connection to modern times as well, by stating, “When we look at the region today, we see that Christians are once again being persecuted – in Iraq, in Syria and in Turkey too. Those displaced Armenians who survived the death marches arrived in places which are now in the middle of the Syrian war zone, such as Aleppo and Deir-el-Zor. After a number of years in which all of us in this House have had reason to rejoice at the restoration of churches in Turkey, churches are now being expropriated and closed down again. What is perhaps the bitterest pill is that, while ‘You Armenian‘ has always been used as a term of abuse in Turkey, today it is more widely used than ever. Even I am addressed as ‘You Armenian.‘ I do not regard it as an insult to be called an Armenian.“

Bundestag President Norbert Lammert, a Christian Democrat from Merkel’s ruling party, labeled the Ottoman Turkish treatment of its ancient Christian Armenian minority as genocide last year on the occasion of the Centennial. At that time, he stated that Germans know well that working through past events is the only way to achieve reconciliation and cooperation, a lesson learned by Germany’s own chapters of dark history. When the resolution was presented on the floor of the Bundestag by Cem Ozdemir, President Lammert started the debate by stating that while “the current Turkish government is not responsible for what happened 100 years ago, it does have responsibility for what becomes of this in present times.“ One after another, Members of Parliament from various political factions took the floor to express support for Armenian Genocide recognition based on Germany’s own historical lessons of taking responsibility for the Holocaust and the need to acknowledge Germany as an accomplice to the crime of genocide by its ally, Ottoman Turkey.

“Cem Ozdemir and the German Bundestag are well-deserving of our highest praise for their courage in shepherding the Armenian Genocide resolution through successful passage even in the face of unimaginable pressure from their past and current ally, the denialist Turkish government. Their honesty and transparency in accepting responsibility for their own predecessors’ complicity in this unpunished crime is truly commendable as it empowers the truth and facilitates justice. It is our sincere hope and expectation that U.S. executives and lawmakers will take the example of their German counterparts by acknowledging the noteworthy American role in rescuing hundreds of thousands of Armenian Genocide survivors rather than allowing a foreign Turkish government to dictate the policies of the United States with empty threats of retaliation for speaking the truth and demanding accountability to the victims and their descendants, just as Germany has done for the survivors of the Holocaust and now of the Genocide,” stated ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian, Esq.

After passage of the June 2, 2016 resolution, Turkey predictably declared the vote null and void and recalled its ambassador, expressing anger over Germany’s action. However, it even went one step further by refusing German lawmakers access to German NATO soldiers stationed at the Incirlik Air Base near the Syrian border unless the German government distanced itself from the Bundestag’s Armenian Genocide resolution.

The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier did not take kindly to this Turkish threat and flatly rejected Ankara’s demand, adding that if Turkey continues denying German lawmakers access to the airbase, German troops dispatched there to fight ISIS will be withdrawn. In recent weeks, this crisis was alleviated when Turkey finally granted permission to the German representatives to visit their soldiers after Steinmeier stated the obvious that the resolution passed in the Bundestag was by definition not legally binding.

In the past, despite Turkish threats against other NATO allies such as France who recognized the Armenian Genocide, the strain on bilateral relations was only temporary just as it was with Germany.

Since taking this most courageous action, Cem Ozdemir and his Turkish-German colleagues in Parliament have received death threats requiring police protection as well as threats from the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who claimed that the 11 Bundestag lawmakers of Turkish descent who voted for the resolution are probably not even true Turks, suggesting that they should have their blood tested to be sure. Yet, despite these threats, Mr. Ozdemir’s perspective was to promote democratic principles which are currently lacking in Turkey by proclaiming: “I am grateful to the President of the Bundestag for referring to the fact that Members of the Bundestag must not be subjected to threats on account of their opinions. But I find it difficult to speak of this here, ladies and gentlemen, because I know that, when I leave the Bundestag after this sitting, I shall not be arrested, that on my way home my immunity is unlikely to be lifted and I shall not be beaten up or killed. The same does not apply to our counterparts in Turkey. It does not apply to those in Turkey who are calling for the examination of these crimes. That is why our solidarity is with those people. They truly have reason to be afraid. They are paying a high price.”

Cem Ozdemir has expressed his deep gratitude to the ANCA-WR for being the recipient of the Freedom Award and will accept it via video presentation at the Banquet.

In the last month, the organization also announced that it will honor California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson with the Man of the Year Award, Varoujan Koundkajian posthumously with the Legacy Award, Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian with the Legislator of the Year Award, and Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr and the Kerr family with the Humanitarian Award.

The 2016 ANCA WR Annual Gala Banquet will be held on Sunday, October 16, 2016 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The main event will begin at 4:30p.m. with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a silent auction. A three-course dinner will follow at 6:00 p.m. with a powerful program and presentation of the awards.

Individuals interested in attending and sponsoring the Annual Gala Banquet are encouraged to purchase tickets online at www.ancawrgala.org or call (818) 839-1918. To obtain corporate sponsorship information visitwww.ancawr.org/gala/sponsorship or call (818) 500-1919. For up to the minute updates on the event follow ANCA Western Region on social media: facebook.com/ANCAWesternRegion, Twitter and Instagram: ANCA_WR

The ANCA-WR Gala Banquet represents the single largest annual gathering of Armenian American public policy leaders throughout the western United States, and is attended by over 1,000 prominent Members of Congress, state legislators and officials, community leaders, and many of the organization’s strongest activists and generous donors from California, Nevada, Arizona, and throughout the western United States.

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

Constitutional reforms in Nagorno-Karabakh propose reshaping president’s role

August 16, 2016 by administrator

Nagorno-Karabakh’s amended Constitution bill, published by the country’s National Assembly earlier today, proposes a unique model ensuring a co-existence between the parliamentary and presidential governments.

According to a concept enclosed to the basic document, the preferred model should be anchored on the key principles of a presidential government, highlighting at the same time the parliamentary counterbalances’ active role.
Such a model would raise the president’s accountability to the parliament to be formed by himself or herself. The parliamentary majority will then be vested with the mandate to impeach the president, the move potentially entailing the legislative’s dissolution. Whenever the president decides to dissolve the National Assembly, he or she will have to step down, necessitating a new presidential election.

“A fundamental advantage of such a system is that the authority to elect the cabinet will be vested in the people as opposed to political parties [whose decisions are normally made] behind the scenes. It is often the accepted practice in multi-party countries. On the other hand, it helps resolve the controversies between the cabinet and parliament, which is often one of the weakest points in a presidential system. With both being entitled to suspend one another’s authority provided they also lay down theirs, the opposing majorities’ problem will thus be resolved through a vote of no-confidence or a decision to dissolve the parliament,” reads the document.

Under the proposed draft, the president, elected directly through general elections, will head the cabinet of ministers. Presidential and parliamentary elections will be conducted on the same day.

In the event the president’s seat remains vacant (due to the expiry of his/her term in office), the National Assembly will be vested with the authorities of the latter.

The president will have the power to dissolve the National Assembly.

Presidential contenders may be proposed only by political parties running in parliamentary elections.
The president will have the power to appoint or sack ministers. He or she will also have the right to veto (which can be repealed only by the National Assembly in case of a majority of votes).

Based on a decision by the country’s Supreme Court, the National Assembly will have the right to impeach the president (with 2/3 majority of votes) for crimes such as high treasons or other serious offenses.

The amendments on agenda do not allow the president two run for office for more than two consecutive terms. The bill also proposes that the proportional representation system be the only procedure for electing the legislative.

Tigranuhi Martirosya

French parliament adopts bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial

July 2, 2016 by administrator

The National Assembly (NA) of France adopted the amendments proposed to the bill on “Equality and citizenship”, which President François Hollande had also promised to make.

The amendments propose to establish 45,000 euro penalty for denying the crimes against humanity, 20Minutes writes. In fact, the document specifically mentions about criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial.

The bill will now be directed for adoption by Senate.

The previous law criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France was blocked by the country’s Constitutional Court, following which François Hollande initiated another bill.

French government tabled Support bill penalizing denial of Genocide

June 29, 2016 by administrator

The French government tabled a text penalizing the denial of genocides and crimes against humanity under the bill Equality and Citizenship, whose examination began at the National Assembly.

The government amendment specifies that “will be punished the same way those who have denied, trivialized or minus of outrageous manner by one of the means set forth in article 23, the existence of a genocide (…) another crime against humanity, a crime of enslavement or exploitation of a disabled person in slavery or war crimes (…) “.

The Armenian Organizations Coordination Council of France (CCAF) welcomes and supports this initiative which is consistent with the commitments of the President of the Republic, paid by the government.

Including the text in the bill Equality and Citizenship, denial of genocide is not registered under the memorial laws but in the corporate laws, like the fight against racism and antisemitism.

The CFC also welcomes the willingness of the government to include the defense of the truth of the Armenian Genocide in the frame, more global, the values of the French Republic. As we hope that such legislation is finally adopted this year, we welcome the commitment of all members who have accompanied us during all these years.

Today, for the first time, we have a government initiative.

We call on all parliamentary forces to rally behind this consensus text.

The text on the link below.

AMENDMENT No. 1559 presented by the Government

ARTICLE 38 TER Replace paragraphs 2-8 the following ten paragraphs:

“1. The fifth paragraph of Article 24 is amended as follows:

“A) After the word” humanity “are inserted the words” the enslavement of crime and exploitation of an enslaved person “;

“B) is supplemented by the words”, including if these crimes have not resulted in the conviction of perpetrators “;

“2. After the first paragraph of Article 24a are inserted three paragraphs as follows:” Will be punished the same way those who have denied, trivialized or minus of outrageous manner by one of the means set forth in Article 23 the existence of a genocide other than those referred to in the first paragraph of another crime against humanity, a crime of enslavement or exploitation of a disabled person in slavery or war crime, as defined by Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Statute of the international criminal Court created in Rome on 17 July 1998 and by articles 211-1 to 212- 3 224
1 A to C 224-1 and 461-1 to 461
31 of the Criminal Code when:

“1 This crime resulted in a conviction by a French or international court or,

“2. The denial, markdown or the trivialization of the crime constitutes incitement to violence or hatred against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to the alleged race, color, religion, descent or national origin. “;

“3. After Article 48-1, inserted Article 48-1-1 as follows;

1-1. – All regularly registered association for at least five years, is intended by its statutes to fight against slavery or defend the memory of slaves and the honor of their descendants may exercise the rights granted to the civil party in respect apology offenses, denial, markdown or trivialization of crimes of enslavement or exploitation of a disabled person in slavery under articles 24 and 24 bis.

“However, when the offense is committed against persons considered individually, the association will be admissible in its action if it proves it has obtained the consent of such persons or to justify that these persons do not oppose prosecution. “

SUMMARY STATEMENT

The fight against discrimination is a priority of the Government, which finds expression in this bill. It requires recognition of its more extreme forms, such as crimes against humanity, including genocide and slavery crimes.

The specificity of these crimes requires that they can be judged and recognized by the court as long as their authors remain, that is why they are imprescriptible. It also means fighting beyond, against their denial or trivialization.

The questioning of these crimes, be it genocide, trafficking and slavery or any other crime against humanity when it contradicts the facts that have been tried and found by the courts, or when it incites hatred or violence, may indeed be tolerated.

MP Victorin Lurel wanted to make a significant improvement in this respect to our legislative system when reviewing the text in committee, by broadening the scope of the repression of the protest or the trivialization of crimes against humanity, today ‘ hui limited to the denial of the Holocaust, in all these crimes, including trafficking and slavery.

The Government shares this objective and therefore fully supports this approach. He therefore wishes to ensure the highest level of legal certainty on a sensitive issue, and have shown a decision of the Constitutional Council in 2012 and a notice of the State Council in 2013.

The aim of this amendment is to improve the wording of article 38 bis adopted in committee to clarify and strengthen the legal security.

It thus provides:

• To better distinguish advocating crimes against humanity, which falls under Article 24 of the Press Law, it should be supplemented to mention there slavery, their denial. It should also be noted that for the apologies of Article 24, it is not required that the perpetrators were convicted.

• Better define the negation of crime or trivialisation of these crimes respecting both constitutional requirements and the Framework Decision 2008/913 / JHA of 28 November 2008 on the fight against certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia means of criminal law. Two hypotheses are thus provided for either the crimes were the subject of a conviction by an international court or by a French court, or the denial or trivialization of these crimes is exercised in a way that incites violence or hatred.

While only the denial of the Holocaust is repressed today, this text will punish the challenge or the trivialization of all crimes against humanity or war crimes, but not limited to, when they have been recognized by a court.

It will, for example, penalize the denial of the Rwandan genocide.

But it will, above and more generally, to take into account the historically recognized crimes, although their seniority rules out any possibility for the court to decide when their dispute or trivializing them will be committed in conditions encouraging to hatred or violence. This second category will notably cover the case of the Armenian genocide of 1915, which France has recognized, but there is more opportunity to prosecute. •

Allow associations to fight against slavery or slaves defense memory and honor of their descendants to become a civil party in proceedings to these crimes.

Other information available: EQUALITY LAW AMENDMENT AND CITOYNNETÉ 1559

Armenia: Yerevan Sends Draft Bill To Parliament On Recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh

May 7, 2016 by administrator

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By RFE/RL

Armenia’s government has approved a bill drafted by opposition lawmakers that calls for Yerevan to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan’s breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The draft bill was sent to lawmakers on May 5 for debate.

In the past, the Armenian government has blocked previous proposals. But analysts say the government gave the green light this time mainly as a warning to Azerbaijan following a recent flare-up in fighting.

Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharian said the legislation would only be brought to a vote if Azerbaijan launched new attacks.

A parliamentary session to discuss the issue was called for May 10.

Azerbaijan condemned the Armenian initiative, which it said was aimed at scuttling international peace talks.

The Kremlin said on May 5 that it was monitoring the situation closely.

“We as before are counting on both sides of the conflict to avoid any steps that could destroy the rather fragile cease-fire and lead to an escalation of tensions in Karabakh,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a standoff over the breakaway region for more than two decades.

On April 2, Nagorno-Karabakh saw its worst violence since a shaky cease-fire was reached in 1994 between Azerbaijan and the Armenian-backed separatists.

About 75 soldiers from both sides were killed in April, along with several civilians.

A fresh Russian-brokered cease-fire deal went into effect on April 5 but has increasingly been violated since late April.

And there are fears of a possible escalation, with Turkey strongly backing Azerbaijan and Russia obliged to protect Armenia by a mutual security pact.

Armenia-backed separatists declared the region’s independence and seized the mainly ethnic-Armenian-populated region during a war in the late 1980s and early ’90s that killed about 30,000 people.

But Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence has never been recognized by any country.

Peace talks under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have dragged on for two decades without producing any tangible results.

With reporting by AP, TASS, and Interfax

ECHR ex-President completes work on bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial in France

May 4, 2016 by administrator

Former President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Jean-Paul Costa has completed the work on drawing out the bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in France, co-chairman of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), Murad Papazian, told Armenian News – NEWS.am.

“Now we are already holding working consultations. By the end of the expert work, it will become clear whether we will be able to introduce this bill in the parliament or not. We must be sure that this bill will have a constitutional power,” Papazian noted, stressing that they will complete this stage by the end of May.

French President François Hollande earlier raised the issue on adopting a law criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial.

Washington: Saudi has lobbyists to confront 9/11 bill: Report

April 20, 2016 by administrator

Saudi Arabia has an army of Washington lobbyists to deploy as it tries to stop US Congress from passing legislation that could expose the country to litigation over the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a report says.

According to The Hill newspaper, which is published by Capitol Hill Publishing and covers congressional news, the kingdom employs a total of eight American firms that perform lobbying, consulting, public relations and legal work.

Five of the firms work for the Saudi Arabia embassy, while another two have registered to represent the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court, an arm of the government, it said.

PR giant Edelman, meanwhile, is working for the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority to encourage international investment, the paper added.

If signed into law, the act would allow the families of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudi government for any role it may have had in the attacks.

Riyadh has threatened to sell off USD 750 billion in American assets held by Saudi Arabia if the bill is passed. The selling of the assets would prevent them from being frozen by US courts if American victims are enabled to sue Saudi Arabia.

The White House has, however, indicated that Obama, who is currently on a trip to Riyadh, will veto the legislation if it is passed.

According to The Hill, the hiring spree began early last year when Saudi Arabia signed six K Street firms and added BGR to its roster last month.

The K Street Project is an effort by the Republican Party to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials, an arrangement known as crony capitalism.

BGR Group is a lobbying firm based in Washington DC, three blocks from the White House, and also has an office in London.

According to disclosure records filed to the US Justice Department, Saudi Arabia spent more than $9.4 million on advocacy in Washington for all of 2015.

Separate from the legislative push, members of US Congress are discussing the declassification of 28 pages from the 2002 congressional inquiry that reportedly examined the link between forces in Saudi Arabia and 9/11.

The dispute is causing a diplomatic storm for the Obama administration. Saudi Arabia has long been an ally of the US despite the country’s history of abusing human rights.