France: Marlene Mourier “Bourg-Les-Valence will sign the Charter friendship with Shushi in Nagorno Karabakh

June 4, 2014 By administrator

By Krikor Amirzayan, interview and pictures

Marlene Mourier (52), substitute member Patrick Labaune (UMP) with its list of “The Force of engagement” had created a stir in the municipal last March by taking the city of Bourg-Les-Valence, held for several decades by the Socialists. Marlene Mourier, the new Mayor of Bourg-Les-Valence, Drôme Common nearly 20,000 inhabitants, nearly 3,000 citizens of Armenian origin. While Bourg-Les-Valence is twinned with Talin (Armenia), Marlene Mourier announced during the Monday, May 26 City Council his desire to sign a charter of friendship with the city of Shushi (Nagorno-Karabakh). After the signing of the charter of friendship between the French city of Pennes-Mirabeau (Bouches-du-Rhône) and the city of Martuni in Nagorno-Karabakh and the city of Vienna with Hadrout (Nagorno-Karabakh) Bourg-Les-Valence would be the third French town to be bound by a friendship with a charter city of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. A strong signal of the mayors of the three cities and strengthen the links between France and Artsakh. Marlene Mourier has also integrated the Friendship Circle France-Karabakh.

Marlene Mourier, Mayor of Bourg-Les-Valence in his office in City Hall

Armenian News Magazine interviewed the new mayor of Bourg-Les-Valence.

Armenian News Magazine: Ms. Marlene Mourier, you’re elected head of a city nearly 15% of its population is of Armenian origin. What is your perspective on this community?

Marlene Mourier: I meet this Armenian community for many years. Very well built, warm and generous, this community is a true example of successful integration. It is a real cultural wealth for our common Bourg-Les-Valence Valencia but also where it is large. Long since I take part in the various manifestations of this Armenian community to which I remain very attached and close. I am also very proud of my very dynamic and enterprising Armenian community in many areas.

Armenian News Magazine; when the City Council Monday 26 May you said you joined the Friendship Circle France-Karabakh and especially the forthcoming signing of the Charter of friendship between Bourg-Les-Valence and Shushi in Nagorno Karabakh. Could you give us some details on these items?

Marlene Mourier: I met the representative of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh in France, Hovhannes Guevorguian affirmed and told him I wanted to join the Friendship Circle France-Karabakh as well as my desire to support the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh by signing a charter of friendship with the city of Shushi. A charter that will support the development of actions to schools, education, culture, Francophonie and many aspects of relations between Bourg-Les-Valence and Shushi. There a few years ago when I was in opposition, I asked our city is committed to the Nagorno-Karabakh by a declaration of friendship and support. But my request remained unanswered. And today I realize my wish to support this wonderful people of Nagorno Karabakh hooked on their ancestral lands and heroically against its invaders.

Armenian News Magazine: specifically how you intend to formalize this Charter friendship between Bourg-Les-Valence and Shushi?

Marlene Mourier: In October we go to our sister city of Talin in Armenia. Then we drive to Talin Shushi in Nagorno Karabakh to sign with my counterpart Shushi this friendship Charter. We thus establish the basis of our discussions that go in many areas related to assistance to schools, medical and humanitarian, not to mention the development of the Francophonie.

Armenian News Magazine: You’ve been in Armenia, Armenian regularly at events you denounce the non-recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey. Are you in favor of the bill penalizing denial of the Armenian genocide?

Marlene Mourier: you know, through my many speeches, and I especially did during the recent European campaigns, Turkey will join the EU without recognizing the Armenian genocide. This is one of the essential conditions of this entry. Of course I am in favor of a law criminalizing France in all deniers of the Armenian genocide. Because the memory is one of the qualities of the Armenian people. Genocide and especially respect for the memory of millions of Armenians who were victims of this inhuman barbarism in the early nineteenth century by Turkey is an integral part of the Armenian memory forever marked by this crime against humanity. I found in Armenia, at the ceremony on April 24 at the genocide memorial in Yerevan, where thousands of Armenians, young and old, marched silently in the greatest dignity to bow before the eternal flame Remember the 1.5 million Armenian victims of 1915. I was impressed by what people marked forever in the depths of his memory and continues a century after the events to claim justice.

Krikor Amirzayan, interview and pictures

Big wins for French far right, Britain’s UKIP rock EU elections

May 26, 2014 By administrator

May 26, 2014, Monday/ 10:05:20/ REUTERS / BRUSSELS

Eurosceptic nationalists scored stunning victories in European Parliament elections in France and Britain on Sunday as critics of the European Union more than doubled their seats in a continent-wide protest vote against austerity and unemployment.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the breakthrough by Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, anti-euro National Front in one of the EU’s founding nations a political “earthquake”.

Anti-establishment parties of the far right and hard left, their scores amplified by a low turnout, made gains in many countries although in Germany, the EU’s biggest member state with the largest number of seats, and Italy, the pro-European centre ground held firm.

In a vote that raised more doubts about Britain’s long-term future in the EU, Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party, which advocates immediate withdrawal, led the opposition Labour party and Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives comfortably with almost half the results declared.

A jubilant Le Pen, whose party beat President Francois Hollande’s ruling Socialists into third place, told supporters: “The people have spoken loud and clear … they no longer want to be led by those outside our borders, by EU commissioners and technocrats who are unelected.

“They want to be protected from globalisation and take back the reins of their destiny.”

With 80 percent of votes counted, the National Front had won 26 percent of the vote, comfortably ahead of the conservative opposition UMP on 20.6 percent, with the Socialists on 13.8, their second heavy defeat in two months after losing dozens of town halls in March.

First official results from around the 28-nation bloc showed the pro-European centre-left and centre-right parties will keep control of around 70 percent of the 751-seat EU legislature, but the number of Eurosceptic members will more than double.

The centre-right European People’s Party, led by former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, was set to win 212 seats, preliminary results issued by the parliament showed.

“As the EPP has a strong lead … I am ready to accept the mandate of the European Commission president,” Juncker told reporters in parliament. “We will have a clear pro-European majority in this house.”

The centre-left Socialists, led by outgoing European Parliament President Martin Schulz of Germany, were in second place with 186 seats followed by the centrist liberals on 70 and the Greens on 55. Eurosceptic groups were expected to win about 141 seats, according to a Reuters estimate, the far left 43 and conservatives 44.

A glum looking Schulz would not concede defeat, telling reporters he would negotiate with other parties.

“It is a bad day for the European Union when a party with such a racist, xenophobic and anti-Semite programme gets 24-25 percent of the vote in France,” he said. “But these voters aren’t extremists, they have lost trust, they have lost hope.”

UKIP make big gains

The political fallout may be felt more strongly in national politics than at EU level, pulling mainstream conservative parties further to the right and raising pressure to crack down on immigration.

In Britain, where voting took place last Thursday, UKIP won 27.5 percent of the vote, with the Labour opposition on 25.4 percent and the Conservatives on 24 percent, although results from Scotland were still to be factored in.

That will pile pressure on Cameron, who has promised Britons an in/out referendum on EU membership in 2017 if he is re-elected next year, to take an even tougher line in Europe. His pro-European Liberal Democrat coalition partners were set to hold just one seat, a loss of nine seats.

“The whole European project has been a lie,” Farage said on a television link-up with Brussels. “I don’t just want Britain to leave the European Union, I want Europe to leave the European Union.”

In Italy, pro-European Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s centre-left Democratic Party was on course for a resounding win, building a huge lead over the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of former comic Beppe Grillo, near complete results showed.

The anti-immigration far right People’s Party topped the poll in Denmark and the extreme-right Jobbik, widely accused of racism and anti-Semitism, finished second in Hungary.

In the Netherlands, the anti-Islam, Eurosceptic Dutch Freedom Party of Geert Wilders – which plans an alliance with Le Pen – underperformed but still finished joint second in terms of seats behind a pro-European centrist opposition party.

Although 388 million Europeans were eligible to vote, fewer than half cast ballots. The turnout was officially 43.1 percent, barely higher than the 2009 nadir of 43 percent, despite efforts to personalise the election with the main political families putting forward a leading candidate, or “Spitzenkandidat”.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats secured 35.3 percent of the vote, down from a 23-year-high of 41.5 percent in last year’s federal election but still a clear victory. The centre-left Social Democrats, her coalition partners, took 27.3 percent.

The anti-euro Alternative for Germany won seats for the first time with 7 percent, the best result so far for a conservative party created only last year to oppose bailouts and call for weaker states to be ejected from the single currency.

Greek far right gains

In Greece, epicentre of the euro zone’s debt crisis, the radical left anti-austerity Syriza movement of Alexis Tsipras won the vote but failed to deliver a knockout blow to the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

An official projection gave Syriza 26.7 percent, ahead of Samaras’s conservative New Democracy on 22.8 percent, reflecting popular anger at harsh spending cuts adopted in recent years to meet the terms of Athens’s EU/IMF bailout programme.

“Europeans are celebrating the defeat of the bailout and austerity in the country the European leadership turned into the guinea pig of the crisis,” Tsipras said.

The two parties in the coalition, New Democracy and PASOK, won a combined vote larger than that of Syriza, and political analyst Theodore Couloumbis said the government’s survival was not at stake despite its narrow two-seat majority.

Sunday was the fourth and final day of voting in elections to the European Parliament, which is an equal co-legislator with member states on most EU laws.

Far-right and radical left groups will have roughly a quarter of the seats, enough to gain a much louder voice but probably not to block EU legislation.

Officials said final results and seat allotments would probably be finalised later on Monday.

The record low turnout was in Slovakia, with just 13 percent. The highest was 90 percent in Belgium, where voting is compulsory and there was a general election the same day.

Sweden appeared to have elected the only feminist party member of the EU assembly.

France: New evidence in the case of three murdered Kurds

May 23, 2014 By administrator

A TRIPLE MURDER political right in Paris sponsored by the Turkish secret services? The scenario worthy of a spy movie, takes shape. Omer Güney, a Turkish speaking 31 years, is the only suspect in the shooting of three execution militant Kurdish separatists in a local association in January 2013. The survey, remained at a virtual standstill since his incarceration few days after the facts, coming off a boost. An anonymous sound recording reached in February at the anti-terrorism judge Jeanne Duye has been appraised. According to the conclusions of the experts, the voice of the man who describes in detail the murders to come is very likely that the indicted.

This document nine minutes, appeared on German and recovered by the Criminal Brigade Wharf Goldsmiths blog presents a conversation between two unidentified men but make no secret of their membership at MIT, the Turkish intelligence services. The first explains the second his “plan” to eliminate the three activists, including Sakine Cansiz, rising figure of the PKK, the Kurdish separatist party in war against the Turkish state. Problem of authenticity According to experts, the comparison between the voice of the man and the suspect detained “has led to far more likely outcome in the event of an identity of the voice […] rather than the assuming a difference of voice “. This progress is not synonymous investigation closed. “A large probability is not a certainty, besides current technologies make it easy to handle voice,” My retort Anne-Sophie Laguens and Xavier Nogueras, the Omer lawyers Güney. The two boards do not hesitate to question the “authenticity of this recording appeared at a key moment in the proceedings or just one year after the facts.” Order through CCTV footage showing the incoming and outgoing local at the time of the crime, Omer Güney, with a serious brain tumor has always protested his innocence and denied any link with the Turkish secret services. He is suspected of plotting an escape attempt in early May and has since been placed in an isolation of the Fresnes prison cell. Detention conditions “incompatible with his condition that is getting worse”, claim his lawyers have filed an appeal against this investment.

Friday, May 23, 2014,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Tensions between the Council of Europe and Azerbaijan

May 23, 2014 By administrator

Strasbourg, May 22, 2014 (AFP) – New tensions emerged between the Council of Europe and Azerbaijan on Thursday, after the cancellation of a visa issued to a French Socialist MP René Rouquet.

Azerbaijan yet exercised since mid-May the rotating presidency for six months, the executive body of the European organization uniting 47 countries, the “Committee of Ministers” Foreign Affairs.

“Following the decision of the official Baku to cancel at the last minute visa issued” Mr. Rouquet, member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), thus preventing him from attending PACE meetings scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Baku, the Bureau of the Assembly decided retaliation.

“The Assembly committees not hold meetings in Azerbaijan from 1 June for a period of two years,” except for election observation missions, according to a statement. Mr. Rouquet is Vice President of PACE, and president of the French delegation to the meeting, which has 318 parliamentarians from member countries.

The PACE Bureau invoked the “violation of the General Agreement and the Paris Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the Council of Europe, which enshrines the dual principle of irresponsibility and parliamentary inviolability and that of free movement “of its members.

States of the Council of Europe must respect “their commitments regarding freedom of movement of members of the Assembly on official mission, particularly with regard to visas,” he has said.

The measure “may be waived if the authorities (Baku) guarantee freedom of movement of members of PACE in Azerbaijan when traveling on behalf of the Assembly,” he has said.

Also Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights, judicial arm of the Council of Europe, ruled that Azerbaijan had violated the fundamental rights to have wanted to silence the opponent Ilgar Mammadov, was recently sentenced to seven years prison.

Visit to Baku, the Secretary General of the pan-European organization, Thorbjorn Jagland, called for the release of Mr. Mammadov. The Council of Europe was established in 1949 and joined in the 1990s by almost all the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, is responsible for the promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

Azerbaijan, one of the last countries to have joined in 2001, is regularly criticized for violations of these principles.

Jagland had already said “worried” last week reports that two French journalists following the official visit of President François Hollande in this country had their equipment confiscated before being deported.

Friday, May 23, 2014,
Ara © armenews.com

ECONOMY Creation of the Franco Armenian Institute of Construction in Armenia (IFA-BTP)

May 21, 2014 By administrator

After the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding Premier in May 2013, the birth of this institute was signed Tuesday, May 13, 2014 in the premises of the Institute in Yerevan, attended by representatives of French Schools partners * representatives of ASIFA-BTP, and the Armenian Branch of the Institute.
The Armenian press and television covered the event.

This ambitious project initiated in 2011 by the Association of Support for IFA-BTP for its creation and sustainability (ASIFA-BTP), chaired by Michel Kevorkian, a professional construction now retired, aims however strong and mingled with humility:

• to participate in the modernization of Armenia’s education system, particularly in the specific construction,

• to train skilled workers, technicians and senior engineers who will address the growing shortage of professionals in Armenia.

In short, to modernize the industry creates jobs and wealth that the Republic of Armenia much needed now. Like any country that aspires to modernize its infrastructure, Armenia can not ignore any longer the absolute necessity.

This institute will be as Regional International train for careers in the construction of Armenian students from all backgrounds: Armenia, neighboring countries (Iran, Georgia, Russia), Europe, America … but also host non-Armenian students who wish to s’ form there.

Diplomas discerned at IFA-BTP affect all levels of education: Master of the CAP Engineers (Bac +5). They cover all sectors of the construction industry.

This first year will begin with the opening of two Prep classes in September 2014. Hopefully success and long life to the Institute.
* Higher Studies Engineering (HEI)
Establishment of Higher Education Associative
13 rue de Toul, 59046 Lille, France
Lycée Claude-Nicolas Ledoux / School of Building and Construction (EBTP)

Establishment of Vocational Education under contract with the State Association
18, 18bis Rue de Belfort-30 rue de la Paix, 94307 VINCENNES Cedex, France

Lycée Maximilien Perret Etablissement Public Education and Professional Versatile Place San Benedetto del Tronto BP 56, 94142 Alfortville, FRANCE

France: The Armenian genocide from 1915 to 2015. Speeches and performances (conference)

May 21, 2014 By administrator

The Armenian Genocide 1915-2015

Speeches and performances

International symposium will be held at the University Paul Valery,

5 and 6 February 2015.

Event co-organized by the RIRRA 21 and EA CRISES

Montpellier

To mark the centennial commemoration of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated in 1915 under the government of the Young Turks, the RIRRA 21 and CRISES laboratory organized a symposium entitled “The Armenian Genocide 1915-2015. Discourse and representations. “

The aim of this conference is to consider the Armenian Genocide in its relation to the texts and images he produced and have perpetuated their news and memory, resistance to the will of annihilation of the executioner.

One of the peculiarities of the Armenian genocide is a hundred years after the fact, it is still not recognized by Turkey, heir to the Ottoman Empire. Become in history a political issue, the genocide in the Armenian case, not only history but also a politicized object object, which influences the forms of its representations and historiographical discourse.

If in a famous passage of his Poetics, Aristotle distinguished poet historian, the latter faithfully related the past when the poet, he was at a higher level of generality, so philosophy, since the twentieth century, which opened the era of genocide, this distinction is made to be rethought. Indeed, the boundaries between work and historiographical literary creation tend increasingly to blur: novelists and artists to trigger this controversy too when fictionalizes history. We think and controversies raised by Life is Beautiful Roberto Benigni and The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Little. Document, testimony, archive and often serve underbody creative writing while at the same time, the historiography offer more and more like writing.

As part of this conference, it will identify the relationship between the historical event and the text and images that are as such.

In line with work on sites of memory, it will explore places of memory of the Armenian Genocide. How museums do they put on stage the event? What about memorials or, conversely, their absence?

On the other hand, it will establish the subjectivity or ideology in the historical discourse on the Armenian genocide. The discourse of historians may indeed be dictated by the official of a State or influenced by more personal sensitivities within the religious or political persuasion speech. Similarly, the representation (or lack of performance) of the Armenian Genocide in textbooks of different states can be questioned: do we teach the Armenian genocide in the same way in France, the United States , Russia, Turkey and Armenia, and why?

Finally, the conference will explore literary and artistic representations of the event. He will bring to question the status of the document and on the part of fictionalization, emotional and traumatic load works. A confrontation between literary and artistic works Armenian and Turkey also seems to win. How the event is perceived on one side and the other of the border? How the Armenian diasporas they perpetuate the memory in Armenian literature and art? What gaps remain in terms of writing and creating?

This meeting is mainly based on the intersection and dialogue between different disciplinary fields. It will result in a publication: the participants’ contributions will be made to the Scientific Committee in the weeks following the conference.

Proposals for papers should be sent to the Scientific Committee organizing the event 15 September 2014 at the latest.

Contact: montpelliercolloque2015@yahoo.fr

Organization: Patrick Louvier, Annick Asso, Helena Dermichian.

Scientific Committee: Gérard Dedeyan, Frédéric Rousseau, Vincent Duclert Patrick Louvier, Corinne Saminadayar, Annick Asso, Marie-Eve Thérenty, Marie-Christine Rochmann, Helena Dermichian.

Responsible: Annick Asso Helena Dermichian Patrick Louvier

reference url

http://rirra21.upv.univ-montp3.fr/ adresseMontpellier

French journalists expelled from Azerbaijan “They were 15, they threw us on the plane”

May 18, 2014 By administrator

Richard Lawrence Editor of the magazine investigation Cash on France 2

“Sunday, Emmanuel Bach (JRI) and I were part of the delegation of President Hollande during his visit to Azerbaijan. Us to investigate a number of “Cash investigation” which will be released in the fall on France 2.

Azerbaijan is a country that welcomes rarely journalists. Many are denied the right to enter. There are three weeks Elena Voloshin, a sister i> TELE, was banned from entering the territory. Us, we had all the necessary permits, including a 7 day visa. In addition, the Elysee was accredited us. Also, we could follow all movements. François Hollande was surrounded by many business leaders. All French industry was there: Total, GDF-Suez, Areva, etc..

Off camera, Holland with opponents

Azerbaijan is known, is an extremely repressive regime, poorly noted by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Amnesty International. We practice torture against journalists, against opponents, against human rights. In our survey, on economic relations between France and Azerbaijan, we also wanted to show this reality.

France: Valencia has 4 elected Armenian origin behind the Mayor Nicolas Daragon (UDI-UMP) Annie Koulaksezian-Romy and Franck Diratzonian-Daumas are Deputy Mayor, and Nathalie Georges Rastklan Ilozer are councilors delegated

May 17, 2014 By administrator

Valence (Drôme), directed by Alain Maurice, a socialist mayor since 2008, is ironed straight in March with Nicolas Daragon candidate (UDI-UMP), which took over the mayor with 53.54% of votes in the second round, face Alain Maurice (40.35%). Four elected Armenian origin who were in the list of Nicolas Daragon entered the City Council of Valencia. Annie Koulaksezian-Romy is an Assistant Early Childhood Centre and the Armenian Heritage Valencia. Franck Diratzonian-Daumas is Deputy socio-cultural and community life. Georges Rastklan (Rastkélénian) is delegated councilor for culture, as Nathalie Iliozer. Note Annie Koulaksezian-Romy was under the mandate of Mayor Patrick Labaune (UMP) in the company of a team responsible for the creation of the Armenian Heritage Centre of Valencia.

Krikor Amirzayan

France will adopt law criminalizing Genocide denial – Manoyan

May 15, 2014 By administrator

In view of the Ukraine events, the French President’s visit to the region and especially to Armenia was an important event, Giro Manoyan, Director of the ARF bureau’s Hay Dat and political affairs office, told a press conference in Yerevan.

Manoyan stressed the importance of Francois Hollande’s statement that Armenian-French economic ties do not correspond to the level of relations between the two states and peoples and there is a need to develop them. He also attached importance to the French leader’s statement about the Armenian Genocide recognition and Karabakh people’s self-determination.

Speaking about expected developments in Armenian-French relations, Manoyan said that it is very important that France will participate in events marking the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in Yerevan. According to him, France will nevertheless adopt a law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

Source: Panorama.am

France will never forget Armenians contribution to resistance movement in France – François Hollande (Video)

May 13, 2014 By administrator

A park in Yerevan’s Mashtots Avenue has been renamed after Missak Manouchian (a French-Armenian poet, a militant communist in the MOI [Main-d’œuvre immigrée or Immigrant Workforce Movement], and military commissioner of the FTP-MOI [Partisan irregulars of the MOI] in the Paris region).

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and French President François Hollande attended the renaming ceremony.

Missak Manouchian fled a horrible massacre. He survived the Armenian Genocide and arrived in France to find the blue skies of freedom. But when barbarity attacked France he took up arms to defend the country where he received asylum. France will never forget Armenians contribution to resistance movement in France. There is a monument to Missak Manouchian in Paris as well, President Hollande said.