BUENOS AIRES: Draft of Arrest Warrant for Argentine President Found at Dead Prosecutor’s Home

February 3, 2015 By administrator

By SIMON ROMEROFEB. 3, 2015

BUENOS AIRES — Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor whose mysterious death has gripped Argentina, had drafted a warrant for the arrest of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, accusing her of trying to shield Iranian officials from responsibility in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center here, the lead investigator into his death said Tuesday.

The 26-page document, which was found in the garbage at Mr. Nisman’s apartment, also requested the arrest of Héctor Timerman, Argentina’s foreign minister. Both Mrs. Kirchner and Mr. Timerman have repeatedly denied Mr. Nisman’s accusation that they tried to reach a secret deal with Iran to lift international arrest warrants for Iranian officials wanted in connection with the bombing. Report NYT

“It would have provoked a crisis without precedents in Argentina,” said Sergio Berensztein, a political analyst, about the impact of the warrants if they had been issued. He acknowledged that previous legal cases had shaken Argentina’s political establishment, but he emphasized that this case involved a request to arrest a sitting president.

“It would have been a scandal on a level previously unseen,” Mr. Berensztein said.

Mrs. Kirchner, who is on a visit to China, issued a stream of updates on Twitter about strengthening ties between Buenos Aires and Beijing but did not comment immediately on the confirmation that Mr. Nisman had considered seeking her arrest. She and the foreign minister have previously pointed to statements by Interpol’s former director that the Argentine government did not lobby it to lift the Iranian arrest warrants.

Viviana Fein, the prosecutor investigating Mr. Nisman’s death, confirmed on Tuesday morning that Mr. Nisman had prepared the draft of the warrant requesting the president’s arrest. Confusion about the document emerged when Ms. Fein at first denied its existence, after the newspaper Clarín published an article on Sunday about the draft.

Mrs. Kirchner’s cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, tore up the article before reporters on Monday. But then Ms. Fein corrected her earlier statement and confirmed the existence of the draft, which Clarín said was prepared in June 2014, more than six months before Mr. Nisman went public with his accusations against the president.

“The words I should have used are, ‘It’s evident that there was a draft,’ ” Ms. Fein said in comments broadcast on Argentine radio.

After the confusion, Ms. Fein insisted she was not being pressured by Mrs. Kirchner’s government over the handling of the investigation. “I do not receive pressure from the government or anyone,” she said. “I am independent.”

At the same time, Ms. Fein said Tuesday that she would be taking a vacation from Feb. 18 to March 5.

“It’s only 10 working days, and it’s not going to alter the course of the investigation,” Ricardo Sáenz, Ms Fein’s immediate superior, told local radio. Two prosecutors will replace Ms. Fein during her vacation, he said.

The draft of the arrest warrants was not included in a 289-page criminal complaint against Mrs. Kirchner, the foreign minister and prominent supporters of the president that Mr. Nisman filed. Mr. Nisman accused them of derailing his decade-long investigation into the 1994 bombing of the Argentina Israelite Mutual Association, commonly called AMIA, which left 85 people dead.

Two judges have refused to take the case made by Mr. Nisman, raising the possibility that his complaint could languish in Argentina’s legal system if another judge is not found to continue it. A federal chamber is expected to decide who should take the case.

Mrs. Kirchner and senior officials have criticized Mr. Nisman’s complaint, disputing his findings and contending that agents from Argentina’s premier intelligence services were involved in preparing it. In the uproar around the prosecutor’s death, Mrs. Kirchner announced a plan last week to overhaul the intelligence agency, after a purge of its leadership in December.

Meanwhile, the investigation into Mr. Nisman’s death is proceeding as theories swirl in Argentina about whether it was a suicide or a killing. Mrs. Kirchner has suggested that Mr. Nisman’s death is part of a plot to tarnish her government.

Underscoring the tension surrounding the death of Mr. Nisman, who was buried at a Jewish cemetery last week, anti-Semitic posters began appearing in central Buenos Aires this week. They read: “The good Jew is the dead Jew. The good Jew is Nisman.”

Julio Schlosser, the president of the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations, said, “These posters represent a current of anti-Semitism seeking to insult the prosecutor Nisman, who worked and dedicated his life to the AMIA case.” He added, “It is also a provocation to the Jewish community.”

Buenos Aires to host Armenian festival

November 29, 2014 By administrator

An Armenian festival will take place at the Plaza Barrancas de Belgrano in Buenos Aires, November 29.

Armenian music, song and dances, art shows and Armenian cuisine will feature the event.

Argentinians will take part in the event thereby showing their attitude to the Armenian people.

“This festival will show Argentine’s appreciation of centuries-old Armenian culture. Lito Vitale and Juan Carlos Barreto will take part in the festival as well. Their performances will impart a special atmosphere to the festival,” Bartolome Ketchyan, Chairman of an Armenian cultural Center, told PrensaArmenia.com. The festival is one of the vents marking the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

Ground Broken for Buenos Aires Armenian Genocide Museum

July 10, 2014 By administrator

BUENOS AIRES—On Tuesday, on the second day of his official visit to Argentina, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, accompanied by Chief of Staff of the Government of City of Buenos Aires Horacio Larreta and the representatives of local organizations and the Armenian community of Argentina, attended the groundbreaking ceremony of an Armenian Genocide museum at the neighborhood of Palermo in Buenos Aires.

“This museum is being built in order to fill up the ranks of the numerous monuments dedicated to the Armenian Genocide which extend from East to West and from North to South as a vivid testimony to the fact that no matter how much time has passed we will keep on remembering and demanding,” President Serzh Sarkisian said during a speech after the future museum’s grounds were consecrated.

“One of these bright places is Argentina, who gave a helping hand to our people in hard times, saved not only hundreds of thousands of Armenians, but also restored our people’s broken belief in the fact that man was created to resemble God,” Sarkisian said.

“Next year is the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The centennial will sum up a historical period and will herald a new phase of fighting for the restoration of justice which will be supplemented with new methods of fighting against denialism,” Sarkisian stressed. “We are going to be more powerful; powerful together with the international community, since the secret of power and the victory of justice is unity.”

Armenian Genocide museum to be built in Buenos Aires

June 12, 2014 By administrator

June 12, 2014 – 09:17 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Buenos Aires city authorities officially provided a property for the construction of an Armenian Genocide museum on Tuesday, June 10, in a ceremony attended by the City’s Chief of Staff Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, Undersecretary for Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism Claudio Avruj and various representatives of the Armenian community in the country, as well as the Armenian Ambassador Vahagn Melikian, according to Asbarez.

Rodriguez Larreta said that this museum is “a way to ensure that humanity will not commit atrocities like those committed almost 100 years ago in Armenia” and highlighted the “pride” that Armenians had to “emerge with such force” after having suffered the Genocide.

Avruj said that “the Armenian Genocide, as well as the Holocaust or the genocide in Rwanda represents absolute evil” and stated that “the recognition of those facts allow us and the next generations to have a better society.”

The property for the Armenian Genocide Museum was transferred to the Memory of the Armenian Genocide Foundation, an organization led by Professor Nelida Boulgourdjian and architect Juan Carlos Toufeksian, the same institution that organized the International Congress on Armenian Genocide in Buenos Aires last April.

Toufeksian gave some details of the project: the Museum will have a memorial on the ground floor and a screen with testimonies of the survivors. The first floor there would have the Museum of Genocide itself, while the second floor will be dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Armenians in Argentina and temporary exhibitions. The third floor will host a library.

“The laws and judgments of justice, along with the recent decisions to build museums in Montevideo and Buenos Aires are an example of the conviction to overcome the discourse and the pressures of the states that continue to deny the existence of the Armenian Genocide, like Turkey and Azerbaijan,” said Alfonso Tabakian, director of the Armenian National Committee of South America.

Armenian Genocide Museum Planned in Buenos Aires

May 9, 2014 By administrator

BUENOS AIRES (Agencia Prensa Armenia)—The City of Buenos Aires will donate a property to the Armenian community for the construction of an Armenian Genocide Museum, according to Undersecretary for Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism Claudio Avruj.

In dialogue with Prensa Armenia, Undersecretary Avruj stressed the importance of the project “that joins the efforts of both Buenos Aires and Argentina” to recognize the Armenian Genocide and added that it is an initiative that will benefit both the Armenian community and people in general.

Carolina Karagueuzian, director of the Armenian National Committee of Buenos Aires, said that “this will be a collective project that will show the struggle of the Armenian community in the country to keep the memory of the Armenian Genocide alive”, and also “a space for reflection on genocidal practices and the importance of respect for human rights.”

Last April 24 a similar project was launched in Uruguay, with the presentation of the Armenian Genocide Museum Foundation coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Culture together with Uruguayan Armenian organizations in the country.

‘Orphans of the Genocide’ Screens in Buenos Aires

April 18, 2014 By administrator

BUENO AIRES (Prensa Armenia)—With a large audience from the Armenian community of Buenos Aires, the documentary “Orphans of the Genocide” by Bared Maronian, who is currently touring South America, was screened on Tuesday. Argentine filmmaker Andres Habegger also participated in the event organized by the Armenian National Committee of South America (CNA) and attended by the Ambassador of Armenia in Argentina, Vahagn Melikian, along with the Consul of the Embassy, Estera Mkrtumyan.

“There are a lot of films about the genocide, but there is no specific film on its many thousands of orphans,” said Maronian after the screening. “I wanted to show the human factor about them; their words, their feelings….” Maronian also revealed details about his next project on Armenian women.

Bared Maronian worked on public television in the United States and has been awarded several times for his productions; four times the regional Emmy Miami and Latin Grammy nomination. He is founder of Armenoid Team, an independent production company specializing in the production of films with Armenian themes. “Orphans of the Genocide” is inspired by an article by Robert Fisk published in The Independent, titled “Living Proof of the Armenian Genocide.”

The President of the CNA Khatchik Der Ghougassian noted, “Armenians knew a lot about the genocide, but we learned to express ourselves from Holocaust studies. After two generations of scholars and activists of the Armenian cause, today we can relate to others and show mankind what happened to us.”

Buenos Aires Law Marks 99th Anniversary of Genocide

April 5, 2014 By administrator

BUENOS AIRES (Prensa Armenia)—The legislative council of Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital city, issued a statement on Thursday, written by councilmembers Virginia Gonzalez Gass and Maria Raquel Herrero, commemorating April 24 as the “Day of the First Genocide of the 20th Century,” on the “99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.”

The council also approved a proposal submitted by legislator Pablo Ferreyra asking the Ministry of Education to allocate proper attention to the Armenian Genocide on the “day of action for tolerance and respect between people,” referring to an Argentinian law that commemorates the genocide suffered by the Armenian people every April 24.

“To educate about history is to educate for the respect and protection of human rights. In this sense, it is essential to promote the inclusion of the issue of genocide in education, not only to remember but also to consider the conditions that made possible such abhorrent and savage events,” said Ferreyra in a press statement.

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