Author: Badalian Vardan

ARMENIA AND CHINA IMPLEMENT PROJECTS IN INDUSTRIAL COOPERATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION, AMBASSADOR

YEREVAN, April 17. / ARKA /. Armenia and China are implementing joint
projects in the fields of industrial cooperation and infrastructure
construction, China’s ambassador to Armenia Tian Erlun told ARKA.

According to him, both governments are taking additional measures to
stimulate diverse bilateral relations.

“We are discussing now a number of projects in the fields of industrial
cooperation and infrastructure construction, which means increased
cooperation,’ said Erlun.

During Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s state visit to China
on March 24-28, the sides signed more than a dozen agreements on
cooperation in various fields, including bilateral cooperation in
the legal, economic, techno-economic, customs, education, tourism
and other fields.

According to experts, Sargsyan’s visit will strengthen bilateral
economic ties, which have great potential both in terms of the
implementation of mutual investments and trade growth.

According to Armenia’s National Statistical Service, the trade
turnover between Armenia and China in 2014 increased by 29.4% from
the previous year to $588.4 million (9.9% of the total foreign trade
of Armenia). China is Armenia’s second largest trade partner.-0-

FRENCH-ARMENIAN ACTOR SAYS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS LIKE A WOUND THAT NEVER HEALS

17:28, 17 April, 2015

PARIS, 17 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. During the television program called
“Stories of French-Armenians”, French-Armenian actor Simon Abgarian
talked about the Armenian Genocide, reflected on his past, the history
of his ancestors and called on Turkey to recognize the crime that it
committed in the early 20th century and turn a new page in its history.

As “Armenpress” reports, Abgarian emphasized that the Armenian
Genocide is like a wound that never heals and doesn’t allow one to
forget what has happened. “The wound is still open. It’s impossible
to forget the pain, and it has to remind the future generations,
including the Turks about what happened 100 years ago. It has to
remind them so that such events never happen again,” Abgarian said.

Talking about Turkey, the actor placed emphasis on the future
and stressed the fact that Turkey’s modern society and generation
acknowledge what their ancestors did.

“The events taking place today show that we have to learn the lessons
from the past because only be condemning will we be able to prevent
future crimes against humanity,” the French-Armenian actor mentioned.

LEGENDARY FOOTBALL PLAYER HARUTYUN KEHEYAN PASSES AWAY AT 85

14:32 | April 17,2015 | Sports

Armenian legendary football player Harutyun Keheyan died on Friday,
April 17, at the age of 85.

Keheyan was the first football player in the Soviet Armenia who was
awarded the title of Honored Football Player.

He was also Honored Master of Sports and Honorary Citizen of Yerevan.

He was director of Hrazdan stadium for many years.

“POPE FRANCIS HAS TORN THE VEIL ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”

The Pilot
April 15 2015

On: 4/15/2015,
By Salvatore Cernuzio

Rome (ZENIT) — One hundred years are not enough to forget, especially
if it is about a massacre such as the “Great Evil” that profoundly
affected the Armenian people at the beginning of the 20thcentury,
exterminating 1.5 million men, women, children and families.

Vatican expert, Franca Giansoldati knows it well. A journalist for
the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, recently authored a new book
entitled “La Marcia Senza Ritorno: Il Genocidio Armeno (The March
without Return. The Armenian Genocide).

Giansoldati, who spent years of study and research for the new book,
even shed tears as she went deeper into the details of the cruel event
which still remains a gap in history. In an interview with ZENIT,
Giansoldati speaks on her work, which was also ‘blessed’ by the Pope,
and explains the reason for the troubled reactions of Turkey to the
Pontiff’s words last Sunday regarding what was, to all intents and
purposes, “the first genocide of the 20thcentury.”

* * *

ZENIT: The Pope said the word “genocide.” And this marks a turn in
the history of the papacy and of the Vatican, notwithstanding that St.

John Paul II already pronounced this word in the “Joint Declaration”
with Karekin II of 2001. In your opinion, how is Francis’ gesture
interpreted, as a hazard or a courageous move?

100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘MEDS YEGHERN’

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 13 2015

by Sahin Alpay

On April 24, Armenians the world over will commemorate the 100th
anniversary of “Meds Yeghern” (the Great Catastrophe) that befell
their Ottoman forefathers during World War I.

On this occasion I want to share my views on the Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation which, despite some positive steps taken in that
direction in recent years, unfortunately remains a distant prospect.

The forceful deportation by their own government of Ottoman Armenians
from their historic homeland in Anatolia to – then-Ottoman — Syria
resulted in one of the greatest tragedies in recent history. At least
half of an estimated 1.2 million deported Armenians perished on the
way, due to massacres, famine and epidemics. The deportation of nearly
the entire Armenian community (except for those living in Istanbul and
Izmir) in retaliation for the rebellion of a nationalist-separatist
minority among them cannot be justified on any grounds. The Republic
of Turkey, which has tried to cover up the dark pages of its history,
should face up to its past, extend a formal apology to Armenians, pay
indemnities for their confiscated properties and offer citizenship
to their descendants. The expression of condolences by then-Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the families of the victims last year
was a step taken in the right direction, but surely does not suffice.

Armenian nationalists categorically insist that Turkey recognizes the
“genocide.” It is debated whether what befell Ottoman Armenians can
be rightly designated as genocide according to the broad and ambiguous
definition adopted by the United Nations genocide convention of 1948,
which is definitely not retroactive. It also needs to be considered
that the Armenian tragedy is only one of the tragedies faced by
Ottoman peoples in the process of the dissolution of the empire,
including millions of Muslims forced to flee their Balkan homes. What
was inflicted on Ottoman Armenians was surely a “crime against
humanity,” but is not easily comparable to the Holocaust. Armenian
nationalist-separatists had staged an armed rebellion against the
Ottoman state, taking sides with Russia. Many Turks and Muslims,
including public servants, tried to save Armenian lives. Large numbers
of Armenians fled to Russia or stayed on by converting to Islam. Turks
and Kurds, too, fell victim to mass killings by Armenian nationalists.

The above reasons are why the vast majority of Turkey’s citizens may
never be prepared to accept what befell Ottoman Armenians as genocide,
although growing numbers see the need to apologize for the great
tragedy, called “Meds Yeghern” by Armenians until 1965. Categorical
insistence on the recognition of an “Armenian genocide” is the main
obstacle to Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. Recognition resolutions
and laws to criminalize the denial of the Armenian genocide passed in
Western parliaments are perceived as an affront and blackmail by the
vast majority in Turkey. It is very unfortunate that the protocols
signed between Ankara and Yerevan in 2009 for the normalization
of relations through the establishment of diplomatic ties and the
opening of borders have remained on paper. This is surely partly due
to the continued occupation by Armenia of a large part of Azerbaijan,
making close to a million Azerbaijanis refugees in their homeland.

Those who are sincerely interested in Turkish-Armenian normalization
should focus their efforts on helping Turkey confront its history
and demanding the implementation of the protocols, rather than the
recognition of genocide. Thomas de Waal, the number one expert
journalist on Turkish-Armenian affairs, rightly emphasizes the
following in his excellent analysis of where we stand today:
“Armenians need to be able to finally bury their grandparents and
receive an acknowledgment from the Turkish state of the terrible fate
they suffered. These steps toward reconciliation will surely become
more possible as a more open Turkey begins to confront its past as
a whole. If that can be made to happen, everything else will follow.”

(“The G-Word: The Armenian Massacre and the Politics of Genocide,”
Foreign Affairs, January-February 2015.)

NEW STREET PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK ON POST-GENOCIDE ERA TO BE PUBLISHED

April 16, 2015 – 14:22 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – On the occasion of the Armenian Genocide centennial
and the 40th anniversary of the start of the Lebanese Civil War,
filmmaker and documentarian Ara Madzounian is releasing a book of
original photographs that chronicles Bourj Hammoud, the Beirut suburb
which became home for Armenian Genocide survivors.

Madzounian, who was born in Bourj Hammoud to parents who survived
the Armenian Genocide, has been at the helm of scores of Armenian
and non-Armenian multimedia projects around the world. His resume
includes directing films, documentaries, producing popular music and
telethons and performing theatrical productions.

After wrapping up his feature cinematography work on the feature film
Meltdown, to be released in August, he is turning his focus on BIRD’S
NEST, a published book of talking pictures and essays by a selected
group of academicians, writers and artists, a press release says.

“I wanted to create a lasting legacy about this place,” says
Madzounian. “For more than 50 years, Bourj Hammoud served as the
cultural, intellectual and political beacon for the Armenian Diaspora.”

BIRD’S NEST is the culmination of Madzounian’s laborious and
emotion-provoking work to capture the soul and preserve the memories
of his birthplace, one of the first post-Genocide communities to
be established.

For generations, Bourj Hammoud was the safe harbor that allowed broken
families to get on their feet again after one of the most tragic
chapters in their history. In the safety of Lebanon, the community
flourished before it abruptly found itself in the middle of their
host nation’s civil war.

The survivors of the Armenian Genocide and their progeny were once
again victimized when Lebanese brothers took up arms against one
another. Many residents of the Armenian enclave of Bourj Hammoud were
killed and injured; others were forced to leave their homes as they
had during the Genocide.

“Ara’s photographs of the faces, the streets, the old buildings and the
narrow alleyways of Bourj Hammoud recall to me all of the richness of
the place, the personal histories and the grand narratives of the past
hundred years,” says cultural anthropologist at the Kevorkian Center
for Near Eastern Studies at New York University, Joanne Randa Nucho.

A Kickstarter campaign launched on April 13, the 40th anniversary of
the start of the Lebanese civil war that began in 1975 and continued
until 1990. Crowdsourcing will fund the costs of publishing BIRD’S
NEST, a book of photographs Nucho says capture “the ephemeral moments
of life in this place.”

BIRD’S NEST is the product of Madzounian’s years of meticulous and
insightful photography with the goal to capture the essence and
historic importance of his own birthplace.

After leaving his nest, Madzounian earned a master’s degree in film
at the University of California, Los Angeles. The filmmaker then
spent years working on commercial and independent productions and
directing and producing his own projects.

“These photographs are an amazing legacy to a vanishing pocket of
Armenian culture,” says Oscar nominated director Atom Egoyan. “For
those who have never visited Bourj Hammoud, the fabled Armenian
neighborhood in Beirut, this collection will be overwhelming.”

EUROPA NOSTRA AWARD FOR RENOVATION OF ARMENIAN CHURCH AND MONASTERY

APRIL 14TH, 2015 CYPRUS2 COMMENTS

The Armenian Church and Monastery in the northern part of Nicosia
has won a Europa Nostra award, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

The Commission and Europa Nostra on Tuesday revealed the winners of the
2015 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards,
considered Europe’s most prestigious prize in the heritage field.

The 28 award winners, selected from 263 applications submitted by
organisations and individuals from 29 countries, are honoured for
outstanding achievements in four categories: 1) conservation, 2)
research and digitisation, 3) dedicated service to heritage, and 4)
education, training and awareness-raising.

The European Heritage Awards Ceremony will take place on June 11 at
the Oslo City Hall and will be co-hosted by Fabian Stang, Mayor of
Oslo, Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Education, Culture,
Youth and Sport, and Plácido Domingo, the renowned opera singer and
President of Europa Nostra.

At the ceremony, seven of the selected winners will be named as Grand
Prix laureates, receiving â~B¬10,000 each, and one will receive the
Public Choice Award, chosen in an online poll conducted by Europa
Nostra.

“Cultural heritage is one of Europe’s biggest assets. It brings
countless cultural, economic, social and environmental benefits to
all of us. I would like to congratulate the winners of the 2015 EU
Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards, who are the
perfect example of what dedicated and competent Europeans can do
for heritage – but also for our European identity, contributing to
a sense of belonging. We all need to keep working together to help
communities and citizens take ownership of our heritage, make it
part of our daily lives and preserve it for the generations to come,”
said Commissioner Navracsics.

“This year’s winners are powerful examples of creativity and innovation
at work for Europe’s cultural heritage. They also demonstrate that
heritage matters to Europe and its citizens. We trust that, under
the leadership of President Juncker and Commissioner Navracsics,
the European Union’s strategy for an integrated approach to cultural
heritage will be further developed and implemented,” added Plácido
Domingo.

The Armenian monastery and church are located in the Arab Ahmet area
of northern Nicosia.

The architectural compound comprises three Armenian school buildings,
the premises of the Armenian Prelacy, an important historical mansion,
courtyards and openâ~@~Pair areas, all fenced by a boundary wall. The
restoration of the Church aimed to preserve a masterpiece of gothic
architecture that, since 1963, has suffered from misuse and neglect.

Despite several imperfect interventions over the years and its
desperate condition at the onset of the project, the Church
contained significant architectural and decorative elements
from the original 14th century construction, including frescoes,
carved bosses and capitals, tracery and metal elements belonging
to the stained-glass–some of which were only discovered during
the restoration. Using traditional materials and techniques and
appropriate landscaping methods, the ancillary buildings and courtyard
area have also been rebuilt and refurbished for appropriate use,
Europa Nostra said.

The project was begun in 2007 as part of a larger peace-building
effort in Cyprus. It was designed both to restore one of the most
noteworthy parts of the island’s cultural heritage and to provide
Armenian, Greek and Turkish Cypriots with the opportunity to work
together with international experts to preserve their common heritage.

Europa Nostra said the jury saw the project as a definite success
story, partly of conservation, with high quality research and
meticulous conservation techniques, but also as an exercise in the
even more challenging process of rebuilding a community.

The US embassy in an announcement welcomed the news.

It said that through its partnership with the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP), the United States Agency for International
Development had funded the multi-year, multi-million dollar renovation,
which Armenian Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots worked
together with international experts to accomplish.

Between 2006 and 2013, architects, engineers, planners and crafts
people restored the site to international standards, ensuring that
it is preserved for future generations, the announcement said.

“Fundamentally, there is no greater reflection of respect than
assisting others to preserve their heritage. That respect is manifest
in the work that was done at this site,” said US ambassador John
Koenig in his remarks at a March 2014 event at the site, which included
representatives of all of the island’s religious communities.

“The United States is a longstanding supporter of initiatives like
this that demonstrate in the most tangible way how conservation and
heritage can build bridges between fractured communities. Sharing the
responsibility for preserving such incredible places builds trust
and, through projects like this, Cypriots are building a better,
more peaceful, future.”

HAYKAKAN ZHAMANAK: TURKEY IS NERVOUS AFTER EP ADOPTED RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

11:07 16/04/2015 >> DAILY PRESS

Armenia welcomes the European Parliament Resolution on the Centenary of
the Armenian Genocide. As Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian
stated on Wednesday, “the Resolution contains an important message
to Turkey to use the commemoration of the Centenary of the Armenian
Genocide to come to terms with its past, to recognize the Armenian
Genocide and thus pave the way for a genuine reconciliation between
Turkish and Armenian peoples.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also reacted to the European Parliament’s
Resolution. In a statement, it said that the European Parliament
aspired once again to rewrite history. The Turkish MFA urged the
Members of the European Parliament to “encounter their own past
and remember especially their roles and responsibilities in the most
abhorrent calamities of humanity such as World War I and World War II,”
Haykakan Zhamanak writes.

Source: Panorama.am

OP-ED: HOW ERDOGAN SPINS THE NEWS AND TURKEY OUT OF CONTROL SPECIAL

Digital Journal
April 13 2015

By Lonna Lisa Williams Apr 13, 2015

Islamist Ak Party President Erdogan is spinning the news and Turkey
out of control as he grants police more powers; limits freedom of
speech, protests, and the press; and arrests those who oppose him.

Turkey has been in the news a lot lately. Strange headlines like “Is
Erdogan Losing Touch with Reality?” “Teens Targeted as Turkey Cracks
Down on Free Speech” and “Students in Turkey Petition for Jedi Temple
after Call for Mosque on Campus” appear on the Internet lately.

Almost two years ago, the Gezi Park Freedom Protests challenged
Islamist Ak Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan, like the Evil
Emperor from Star Wars, struck back — hard. Instead of Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk’s secular democracy, a police state reigned in Turkey. Anyone
who spoke against Erdogan and his ideals, including a beauty queen,
a 13-year-old boy who posted something on Facebook, teenage university
students, journalists, academics, and novelists — were accused in
court and, in many cases, faced with prison.

While Erdogan puts finishing touches on his over $600 million new
Ak Sarayı (“White Palace”), now the largest palace in the world,
working-class Turkish citizens are struggling to pay their rising
electric and water bills. While his children and in-laws run for
high posts in the government, university students struggle to find
good-paying jobs. The Turkish lira hit an all-time low in December,
and several Turkish banks are facing big problems.

Religious freedom is also at an all-time low. At Easter time this past
week, a Muslim Koran reading was held inside the Hagia Sophia, one of
the oldest Christian churches in the world. Built in the 6th Century,
it stood as the world’s tallest building for 1,000 years. In 1453,
it was conquered by Sultan Mehmet II and immediately converted into a
mosque with the Christian altar removed, intricate mosaics plastered
over, a nook cut toward Mecca, and tall minarets added. Ataturk wisely
turned it into a museum in the 1930s, but its future veers toward
being forced into a mosque again. There are over 80,000 mosques in
Turkey and over 3,000 in Istanbul, with more being built at the cost
of millions of dollars. Many of them remain almost empty while Turks
try to pay rising rent costs. Not one Christian church was allowed to
be built in the Turkish capital of Ankara, except on the foreign soil
of embassies. The idea that Turkey is only Muslim is false; there are
many Armenian Christians (who took Turkish names to survive) keeping
a low profile in Turkey, even as the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide approaches (which Erdogan denies). There are also many other
Turkish Christians with actual churches throughout Turkey, Jews,
Alevis, and, apparently, Buddhists and Jedi (as university students
recently demanded their temples be built on university grounds).

Erdogan has also been converting ancient Christian churches and
monasteries into mosques. In lifting up the Ottoman Empire and
portraying his image as a Sultan, Erdogan has denied the rich
Christian, Roman, Greek, and Mesopotamian histories and cultures
of Turkey.

Erdogan has closed Twitter and Facebook several times, only to reopen
them if “offensive” items were removed. Erdogan has allowed his
police force to attack unarmed protesters and even peaceful tourists
(including me). I spent 2.5 years working in Turkey and covering the
news first-hand. I even married into a Turkish/Armenian family and
learned the language. Turkey is a beautiful country, brimming over
with natural and historic treasures, and it should not go the way of
Syria or Iraq. New laws in Turkey threatening women’s rights. New laws
allow police to search and detain people without a search warrant or
even an official charge. They also prohibit protesters from covering
their faces with gas masks or wearing hardhats, thus making them
vulnerable to pepper spray and even the now-allowed gun bullets.

A 14-year-old boy was shot in the head with a metal tear gas canister
during the Gezi Park Protests nearly two years ago — while going
to the store to buy bread for his family. He was in a coma for nine
months and then died. When a judge would not release the name of the
policeman (and others) responsible for his death, two neighbors took
matters into their own hands. They stormed the courthouse and held the
judge at gunpoint for hours, demanding the name of the policeman who
killed the boy. When the judge refused, the neighbors shot him. Then
they were shot by Turkish police and labeled “terrorists.” This is
how Erodgan spins the news.

One Turkish man told me, “That boy’s neighbors sought justice, and
they were not given it, so they brought justice in the Turkish way. If
Erdogan’s Islamist Ak Party wins the upcoming June elections, Turkey
will face a civil war. The Ataturk people will not be patient forever.

They want secular democracy again. Turkey could become the next Syria.”

In fact, so great is Erdogan’s control over his citizens that he
determines the legal recipe of bread. There is a bill before the
Turkish Parliament to put smart chips with GPS trackers into the ID
cards of all Turkish citizens–and talk of inserting smart chips
inside Turkish citizen’s bodies so that the GPS trackers would be
even more effective. Who would have thought that what some Christians
consider the “Mark of the Beast,” mentioned in the Book of Revelation,
could first appear in Turkey?

Apparently, Europe and the U.S.A. are happy to sit and watch Turkey
fall into the darkness of dictatorship, like a Mevlana whirling dervish
gone out of control. Even the Kurds are accusing Erdogan of being
a dictator. Maybe they will help the Turks regain their government
and their human rights. Some Turks are actually trying, like the new
“Meydan” (“Defiance”) newspaper and the Republican People’s Party
(CHP), Ataturk’s secular democratic group. But time is short and much
needs to be done. If Turkey falls, how will things go with Europe
and America?

MOSCOU N’ADMET PAS L’IDEE D’UNE ESCALADE DU CONFLIT AU HK

ARMENIE

La presse du jour rend compte de la visite officielle du Ministre
des AE, Edward Nalbandian, a Moscou, et de son entretien avec son
homologue Sergueï Lavrov. Selon un communique du MAE armenien, les
deux Ministres ont evoque les preparatifs de la prochaine visite
du President Poutine en Armenie, a l’occasion de la commemoration
du centenaire du Genocide armenien. Un large eventail de questions
a figure a l’agenda de l’entretien des deux Ministres : conflit du
HK, questions regionales, cooperation militaro-technique, echanges
commerciaux, cooperation educative, culturelle, scientifique etc. Les
deux Ministres se sont felicites de la cooperation efficace des
deux pays dans de nombreux secteurs, dont l’agriculture, l’energie,
l’industrie minière, le secteur bancaire, les communications etc. M.

Lavrov a evoque les echanges commerciaux entre l’Armenie et la Russie
qui ont atteint en 2014 1,4 MD de dollars. Lors d’une conference de
presse conjointe, M. Lavrov a decrit l’Armenie comme un > de la Russie : .

Edward Nalbandian, quant a lui, a de nouveau blâme l’Azerbaïdjan pour
saper le processus de negociations et rejeter les elements cles des
principes de base proposes par les mediateurs.

Par ailleurs, a l’occasion de sa visite a Moscou, le Ministre armenien
des AE a rencontre des redacteurs en chef de nombreux medias russes,
ainsi que des experts politiques. Il a eu en outre une reunion avec
une quarantaine d’Ambassadeurs etrangers accredites en Armenie et
residents a Moscou.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 9 avril 2015

jeudi 16 avril 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com