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Armenia is elected UNESCO committee member

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Armenia UNESCO committee member

Armenia UNESCO committee member

YEREVAN. – Armenia has been elected member to an intergovernmental committee of the 1970 Convention of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Elections for the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (ICPRCP) to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation were conducted within the framework of the UNESCO General Conference being held at this organization’s headquarters in Paris, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

This committee is the intergovernmental body of UNESCO’s 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property

And from the Second Regional Group, which comprises Eastern European countries, Armenia was elected a member to this committee for four years.

In May 2015, Armenia was elected a member also to UNESCO’s Subsidiary Committee of the Meeting of States Parties to the 1970 Convention, and again for a four-year term.

The armed wing of the PKK assassinates Erdogan AKP politician

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By Rudaw

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) assassinated a Turkish politician from the ruling party, the third such killing in the past month.

The People’s Defense Forces (HPG) released a statement on Tuesday saying that they had “punished” Deryan Aktert, the district chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Dicle, Diyarbakir, “for his role in the massacre and killings of the AKP.”

Aktert was shot in his office Monday morning, the provincial governor’s office confirmed.

On Sunday, Aydın Muştu, the AKP’s district deputy leader in the Özalp district of Van, was shot and killed.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım denounced the killings.

“The PKK terror group has turned toward the AK Party organizations. The other day our Özalp deputy district head was slaughtered at his home, in front of his wife and children. Last night, our Dicle district head was killed at his own business,” he said during the AKP’s weekly parliamentary group meeting.

“The traitors should know this: The AK Party will not be defeated by your actions. Our government will pursue all incidents with determination to clear our country of all terror organizations.”

Figen Yüksekdag, co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, issued a statement condemning the killing “in the harshest terms.”

On September 14, Ahmet Budak, the AKP’s candidate in Hakkari in the November 2015 elections, was shot outside his home in Semdinli.

In a statement claiming responsibility, the HPG warned, “This action is a warning to all Kurds who collaborates [sic] with AKP government. All our people who do not want to be the instruments of genocidal policies should separate themselves from the AKP. Those who participate of genocidal [sic] activities will be targeted by our guerrilla forces.”

German Bundestag Members Awarded by Armenian Parliament

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Armenia’s National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan (right) met with Bundestag MP Albert Weiler on Monday, August 29. (Photo: Parliament.am)

Armenia’s National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan (right) met with Bundestag MP Albert Weiler on Monday, August 29. (Photo: Parliament.am)

YEREVAN—On Monday, August 29, Armenia’s National Assembly Speaker Galust Sahakyan received German Bundestag MP and President of the German-Armenian Forum Albert Weiler.

Welcoming the guest, Sahakyan thanked Weiler’s contribution to the furthering and development of interparliamentary and interstate relations between the two countries.

The Head of Parliament evaluated the intensification of cooperation and contacts between Armenia’s National Assembly and the Bundestag. Sahakyan welcomed the German lawmakers’ promotion of regional cooperation, sustainability of peace and stability, formation of atmosphere of confidence in the region. In this context, Sahakyan highlighted Buntestag MPs’ visits to Artsakh.

Sahakyan expressed gratitude to the German Bundestag for adopting the bill on June 2, 2016 condemning the Armenian Genocide. “I am confident that only through recognition and condemnation of these crimes it is possible to prevent them the future,” he said.

Weiler, thankful for the reception, attached importance to his visit to Armenia after the adoption of the bill condemning the Armenian Genocide. Touching upon the bilateral relations, the Bundestag MP emphasized the mutual visits and the deepening of relations between the two countries especially in the economic sphere. Referring to the regional issues, Weiler noted that Germany strives in its turn to do its best for the maintenance of regional peace.

According to the Parliamentary press, Sahakyan expressed confidence that through support by Weiler, the traditional relations between Germany and Armenia will continue and develop.

At the end of the meeting, Sahakyan awarded Weiler an honorary medal for his significant contribution to the strengthening of the Armenian – German relations and advancement of interparliamentary ties.

On the same day, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received Weiner.

Nalbandian praised the work of the German-Armenian Forum as well as the high-level cooperation established between the two countries, discussing steps to deepen ties.

During the meeting, Weiner briefed Nalbandian on the current activities and plans of the Forum.

Nalbandian then commended the German Parliament for recognizing the Armenian Genocide in June.

The meeting discussed Armenia-EU relations and the ongoing negotiations on a new legal framework with the European Union.

The Armenian Foreign Minister also briefed the German lawmakers on efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group targeted at the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue.

Top Armenian Opposition Party Member Released On Bail

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david sansaarianBy RFE/RL’s Armenian Service

August 19, 2016

YEREVAN — A Yerevan appeals court has granted bail to another leading member of the Heritage opposition party who was charged in connection with his participation at a recent rally.

The court on August 19 ordered David Sanasarian, who serves as a member of Yerevan’s municipal assembly as part of an opposition faction, to pay 1.5 million drams (about $3,150) before being freed pending his trial.

On August 17, the court released the deputy chairman of the Heritage party, Armen Martirosian, on bail.

Sansarian and Martirosian were arrested on July 29 along with another top Heritage party member and an opposition activist on charges of organizing mass disturbances during public protests on that day and remanded to pretrial detention earlier this month.

On August 16, the Heritage party announced it was pulling out of local elections scheduled for September-October because of the arrests of its leading members.

Bundestag’s Turkish Member: ‘Young Turks Are Traitors; Talat and Enver Criminals’

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Harut sassounian 740BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Cem Ozdemir, co-chair of the Green Party, delivered a passionate speech in the German Parliament (Bundestag) on June 2, 2016, in support of the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide by Ottoman Turkey, while acknowledging Germany’s complicity in this mass crime.

Ozdemir, born in Germany, is son of Turkish-Circassian (Cherkess) migrant parents. He was the first person of Turkish descent elected to the Bundestag (1994-2002). He reentered the German Parliament in 2013, after serving in the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009.

With support from all political parties in the Bundestag, the Armenian Genocide resolution, which Ozdemir had long championed, was adopted by the German Parliament almost unanimously, with one no vote and one abstention.

Below are translated excerpts from the remarkable speech Ozdemir delivered in German in the Bundestag on June 2nd, while wearing on the lapel of his suit the ‘forget-me-not’ button symbolizing the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide:

“There can be no question about the appropriateness of time when talking about unimaginable savagery like genocide. We know that after lengthy and tiresome back and forth, Germany, as an accomplice to the crime, is openly calling the event by its proper name…. This constitutes a chapter of German history.” Ozdemir recalled the callous and cruel words of German Imperial Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg: “Our whole purpose was to keep Turkey on our side during the entire course of the war. Whether Armenians were to be destroyed or not, made no difference.”

In a powerful statement, Ozdemir directly addressed the Armenian guests attending the Bundestag’s session on June 2nd: “Just because we were complicit in this horrible crime in the past does not mean that today we are going to side with the deniers.”

Ozdemir went on to urge the millions of Turkish residents of Germany to be proud of the “heroic Turks” who rescued Armenians during the Genocide, and not “criminals like Talat and Enver.”

The Turkish-German Parliamentarian then declared that the ugliest expression which causes him great pain is that ‘Armenian’ is used as a ‘swear word’ in Turkey. “They ask me if I am Armenian. I don’t view someone being an Armenian as an insult. Being a descendant of a Sunni Muslim family, Eastern Christianity does not make me uncomfortable.”

Ozdemir quoted his Turkish Armenian friend Hrant Dink who was assassinated in Istanbul by an extremist Turk: “If Armenians lived in Van today, that city would be the Paris of the Orient.” During his visit to Armenia in March 2015, Ozdemir elaborated on Dink’s statement in an interview with Civilnet: “I went to the Genocide museum and read the names and professions of the people we have lost. They were the most forward looking and brightest intellectuals of Istanbul and they were killed starting with architects, intellectuals, journalists, writers…. The Ottoman Empire exterminated the most progressive citizens in its history. The Ottoman Empire lost immensely. I think one of the reasons why Turkey isn’t among the most developed countries today is because the Young Turks were not heroes, but traitors. They harmed Armenians, Assyrians and Turks as well.”

The Turkish German Parliament member ended his nine-minute speech, which was repeatedly interrupted by thunderous applause, by stating that “members of Bundestag should not be threatened for expressing their thoughts. I am sure that I will not be arrested on my way home from the Parliament or that my parliamentary immunity will not be lifted; I will not be beaten up or killed. I cannot say the same thing about my colleagues in Turkey!”

Nevertheless, Ozdemir did not anticipate that after Bundestag’s approval of the Armenian Genocide resolution, he and ten of his Turkish colleagues in the German Parliament would be placed under police protection after receiving numerous death threats from Turkish extremists.

In an announcement reminiscent of Hitler-era racial profiling, Pres. Erdogan advocated that the 11 Turkish members of the German Parliament who had supported the Armenian Genocide resolution undergo a blood test to prove their ‘Turkishness.’ Meanwhile, officials of Tokat, Turkey, Ozdemir’s father’s hometown, stripped his name from the list of honored sons of that city.

However, after making bombastic threats of retaliation against Germany, Pres. Erdogan was forced to restrain himself, realizing that such irresponsible steps would only lead to a devastating effect on the faltering Turkish economy!

Armenia becomes full member of Eurasian Economic Union

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AEB 1YEREVAN. – From January 2 Armenia became a full member of the Eurasian Economic Union that also comprises Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Till the end of 2015 Armenia will be represented by three members sin the Eurasian Economic Commission. They will have one vote without assigning them spheres of competence.

Armenia’s share in customs duties will make 1.13 percent, while the share of Belarus will reduce from 4.7 percent to 4.65, that of Kazakhstan from 7.3 percent to 7.25, and Russia’s from 88 percent to 86.97.

As regards services, Armenia joins the agreement of members of the EEU on a common basis, while on  trade a gradual transition to the Common Customs Tariff is provided.

Up to 2022 Armenia will be able to apply different rates from the EEU customs duties on a number of products, including meat and meat products. Until 2020 a separate tariff for some types of dairy products, eggs, honey will be applied for Armenia, and for some types of fruits and nuts till 2019.

In addition Armenia will use zero customs rates for gasoline till 2018.

In connection with the accession to the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenia will begin negotiations with the World Trade Organization (WTO) members to change their obligations under the WTO.