Two of the four Armenian candidates running as for Iran’s parliament have won seats in the legislature.
According to preliminary election results, Karen Khanlarian and Jorge Abrahamian are the elected representatives from the north and south, respectively.
Speaking to Tert.am, Khanlarian said that he received 74% votes in the northern constituency.
Abrahamian remained the only Armenian candidate in the south after all the other contenders withdrew from the campaign.
“The Armenian community had a very active turnout, about 12,000 Iranian Armenians headed to the polls,” Khanlarian told our correspondent.
Initially, nine Armenians joined the electoral campaign, but five later withdrew from the race.
Khanlarian added that the total turnout in the country was high, with 31 million out of the 55 million voting age population participating in the polls.
“It is now a bit difficult for me to describe the general situation, but interesting changes are expected in the Majilis in terms of the [political] forces’ arrangement. No accurate estimates are available at the moment, but I think the election outcomes will become clear this night,” he said.
Eight Armenians run for Iran’s parliament
Eight Armenians will be vying for seats in the Iranian parliament at the elections on February 26.
According to Asbarez, the contenders who have fielded their candidacies are Karen Khanlarian, Ivet Danielyan, Albert Poghosian, Arbi Tahmazian, Andranik Simonian, Zhorzhik Abrahmanian, Vrezh Ter-Martirosian and Armond Baghramian.
Turkish-Belgian Parliament Member Expelled from Party for Refusing to Recognize the Armenian Genocide
Turkish member of Belgian Parliament Mahinur Ozdemir (Source: Armenpress)
YEREVAN (Armenpress)—Belgian “Humanist Democratic Centre” (CDH) has expelled a Turkish-Belgian politician Mahinur Ozdemir from the party for refusing to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
The final decision to expel the Turkish member from the party was made by the ethics committee.
CDH leader Benoit Lutgen hailed the decision to expel Mahinur Ozdemir from the party, mentioning, “Political commitment requires clarity and full faithfulness towards the values embraced by us.”
Mahinur Ozdemir, who was the first to enter the Belgian parliament with a head-scarf, boycotted the momenet of silence dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims last spring, announcing that “The resolution adopted by European Parliament is not mandatory.”
Later she refused to sign the communiqué submitted by the head of her party, Lutgen, which assessed the incidents of 1915 as genocide, for which she was dismissed from the party.
Afterwards, she appealed the decision of the party. She demanded “Humanist Democratic Centre” Party to renounce the decision of her dismissal explaining it as an illegal measure and discrimination.
French parliament to vote on criminalizing Genocide denial
The French Parliament will vote on a bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial Thursday, December 3, Nouvelles d’Arménie reports.
Introduced by MP Valerie Boyer, the bill envisages punishment for denial of the Genocide and any crimes against humanity committed in the 20th century.
The bill was discussed by the parliament’s Justice Commission on November 25.
A bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide was adopted by the French Parliament (December 22, 2011) and Senate (January 23, 2012); it was, however, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional council of the country on February 29, 2012.
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The Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.
Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.
The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.
Russian party seeks ‘accountability for Armenian genocide denial’
A Russian opposition leader, Sergei Mironov, said on Nov. 25 that his party had submitted a bill to the Russian parliament on holding to account anyone who denies that the 1915 killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire “was genocide.”
“We have just submitted a bill on responsibility for failure to acknowledge the fact of a genocide of Armenians by Turkey in 1915,” Mironov, the leader of the opposition Just Russia party, said via his Twitter account.
His statement came a day after the Turkish air forces shot down a Russian jet, escalating tensions between Ankara and Moscow.
November/25/2015
The Armenian parliament held a minute of silence in memory of those who perished in the terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut
Iraqi parliament to question Massoud Barzani for Sinjar, Mosul fall Report:
Iraqi Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani. Photo: AFP
BAGHDAD,— At least 76 signatures have been collected in the Iraqi Parliament to question Massoud Barzani on the 2014 fall of Sinjar (Shingal) and Nineveh to Islamic State (IS) fighters.
Barzani, who’s term as President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ended on August 20, was leader of the region during IS’ rampage across northern Iraq.
A member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Iraqi parliament, Bakhtiar Shaways, told Xendan and that the State of Law Coalition Deputy Awatif Nima has received the approval of 76 deputies and has delivered the demand to parliament leadership board.
Iraqi MP Bakhtiyar Shaways told NRT on Tuesday that Kurdish MPs have declined to sign the petition.
“Iraqi Parliament member from the State of Law bloc, Awatif Nima, sent the request to the Parliament’s leadership after she collected the signatures,” Shaways said.
Iraqi lawmakers claim Barzani bears responsibility for the fall of Sinjar and Nineveh and should face a hearing.
The KDP party led by Barzani was criticised for failing to protect the Yazidi minority during a major IS onslaught a year ago, while the PKK and its Syrian sister party are widely seen as the Yazidis’ saviors.
Islamic State has extended its control on most parts of Sinjar district on August 3, 2014 after Iraqi Kurdish KDP forces withdrew from Sinjar without a fight, leaving behind the Kurdish Yazidi civilians, which led thousands of Kurdish families to flee to Mount Sinjar, where they were trapped in it and suffered from significant lack of water and food, killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidis as well as rape and captivity of thousands of women.
The Yazidis beg the KDP Peshmerga to at least leave them their weapons so as to give them a chance at defending themselves against IS militants, but the Peshmergas refuse, Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan said.
Thousands of Yazidi Kurdish women and girls have been forced to marry or been sold into sexual slavery by the IS jihadists, according to Human Rights organizations and observers.
Barzani is not the only leader to be called on for questioning regarding the fall of Iraq’s Nineveh province to extremists.
Iraq’s Parliament referred a report to the judiciary on August 16, calling for former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and dozens of top officials to face a trial for their roles in the fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
Source: eKurd.com
Latin American Parliament recognizes Armenian Genocide
The Latin American Parliament(Parlatino) approved on Friday resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide, Prensa Armenia reported.
The Panama-based body that was created in 1964 with the Declaration of Lima, and is composed by the National Congresses and Legislative Assemblies of all Iberoamerica.
“ Among many other topics covered by Executive Board of the Latin American Parliament and the Caribbean Declaration, the recognition of the Armenian Genocide was supported almost unanimously (with one abstention),” wrote National Deputy of Montevideo Alfredo Asti a few minutes later. “ Uruguay was a pioneer in the world in this recognition 50 years ago and today we strongly supported this position.”
European Parliament Report Calls on Turkey to Recognize Armenian Genocide
European Parliament members vote
BRUSSELS—The Plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France) adopted the 2014 Turkey progress report on Wednesday calling on Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide, reported the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy.
The report in general records a negative review on Human Rights situation in Turkey, freedom of expression, decline in democracy, worries on minority rights, aggressive attitude against Greece, and refusal over the existence of the Republic of Cyprus.
The report greets the wide participation at the elections of 7 June 2015 in Turkey, and the presence of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the newly formed parliament. Moreover, the report welcomes the sheltering of 1,600,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The preamble of the report mentions: ‘having in regard the European Parliament resolution on the centenary of the Armenian Genocide’. After Turkey becoming a candidate country to the EU in 2005, the Armenian Genocide stopped being an issue in the reports. It should be noted, that in the above mentioned resolution there is the explicit call on Turkey to reconcile with its past and recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Article 49 repeats the call to Armenia and Turkey to establish diplomatic ties and open the border between the two countries without preconditions.
President of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy (EAFJD) Kaspar Karampetian welcomed the call to Turkey to recognize the Armenian Genocide, as well as to open the border without preconditions. Karampetian stressed the fact, that the European Parliament once again showed, that it doesn’t succumb to Turkish pressure, recalling, the threats by Volkan Bozkir, EU Minister and chief negotiator of Turkey, that Turkey will not accept the report, if there will be any reference to the Armenian Genocide. Rapporteur Kati Piri (Socialists and Democrats, the Netherlands) already reacted, saying that the European Parliament can’t deny documents which have already been adopted.
The report, leaves Turkey’s accession to the EU open; a political process that is getting harder and harder over the years.
Joy as Turkish election result puts pro-Kurdish party into parliament
Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA
Initial results from Sunday’s election reveal the Peoples’ Democratic party will take 80 of 550 seats
Thousands of jubilant Kurds flooded the streets of Diyarbakir, south east Turkey,on Sunday, setting off fireworks and waving flags as the pro-Kurdish opposition looked likely to enter parliament as a party for the first time.
The Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) said initial results from Sunday’s election showed it would take 80 of 550 seats, a stunning result for a party that pollsters had said would struggle to cross the required 10% threshold.
It also marks a major setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had hoped for a crushing victory for the AK party he founded, allowing it to change the constitution and give him broad executive powers.
Erdogan had repeatedly lashed out at the HDP and its charismatic leader Selahattin Demirtaş before the elections.
“This result shows that this country has had enough. Enough of Erdoğan and his anger,” said Seyran Demir, a 47-year-old housewife who was among the thousands who gathered in the streets around the HDP’s provincial headquarters. “I am so full of joy that I can’t speak properly.”
The crowds brought traffic to a standstill in parts of the city. Elsewhere, people drove through sidestreets hanging out of car windows and waving HDP flags. Men fired pistols into the air, a traditional sign of celebration.
Just two days earlier, bombs tore through a HDP rally in Diyarbakir, killing two and wounding at least 200.
The HDP had looked to reach beyond Turkey’s roughly 20% Kurdish population, attempting to woo centre-left and secular voters disillusioned with Erdoğan.
“The reason the HDP has won this many votes is because it has not excluded any members of this country, unlike our current rulers,” said 25-year-old Siar Senci. “It has embraced all languages, all ethnicities and members of all faiths and promised them freedom.”
The HDP’s entrance into parliament as a party – previously candidates ran as independents to skirt the 10% threshold – could also herald a step forward for the Kurdish peace process.