Author: Badalian Vardan

US RESOLUTION SEEKS TO RESOLVE TURKEY-ARMENIA RELATIONS VOID OF GENOCIDE CLAIMS

Daily Sabah, Turkey
April 3 2015

AYÃ…~^E Ã…~^AHIN
ISTANBUL

A U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill asking the administration
of President Barack Obama to designate a task force to pursue the
amelioration of sour relations between Turkey and Armenia based on
the common interests of the two countries. The proposed bill was
mentioned by its sponsor, Republican Congressman Carl Clawson, on
Thursday. It represents a landmark step since it signifies the first
concrete move that is not detrimental to Turkey regarding the 1915
incidents, ahead of its centennial commemoration.

It is the first time such a draft bill, which aims to be constructive
for Turkish-Armenian relations, has been proposed. It is significant
since it differs in language to the bill currently in committee, which
“Call[s] on the president to work toward equitable, constructive,
stable and durable Armenian-Turkish relations based upon the Republic
of Turkey’s full acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences
of the Armenian Genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive
international resolution of this crime against humanity.” The new
bill, which has yet to be introduced, has been prepared in deference
to Turkey and its definition of the 1915 incidents, which has long
been used as a means for the Armenian diaspora to generate political
tension against Turkey. The proposed bill has been stripped of any
mention of the Armenian genocide, highlighting its restraint from
taking sides in a matter that has become overly politicized.

Turkish-Armenian relations have remained strained for decades due to
Armenia’s constant demand for Turkey, as well as other countries,
to officially accept the mass forced deportations of Armenians to
Anatolia during World War I as genocide. The latest in a series of
such demands from the U.S government came when a bipartisan group
of congressmen introduced an Armenian-lobby-backed Armenian Genocide
Truth and Justice Resolution in mid-March. Republican Adam Schiff said
that the draft resolution, if passed by Congress, would officially
recognize the Armenian genocide and call upon Obama to work with the
Turkish and Armenian governments to bring about reconciliation based
on full acknowledgment of the historic fact of the Armenian genocide.

However, the Obama administration, which had pledged to acknowledge
the incidents as genocide before he was elected, refrained from doing
so during his term for fear of falling out with Turkey, a close ally
of the U.S.

Clawson, in a letter he wrote to garner the support of congressmen,
recalled that Turkey, a NATO member, had supported the West in its
victory in the Cold War by allowing use of its military bases.

“Turkey and Armenia are very important to American interests,”
Clawson wrote in a letter to House colleagues in a bid to muster
support for his resolution that seeks to find a settlement between
the two countries. “U.S interests [in the region] can be enhanced by
both countries acting to cultivate peace and understanding.”

Clawson also said that the U.S has been attempting to enhance ties
between the two countries since 2009, but has thus far failed to do
so. He also added that Turkey, given its geographical location, is
a significant partner in the fight against extremism, a partnership
that is growing particularly valuable given deepening relations of the
countries in the region with Iran and Russia, which are diminishing
U.S power there.

Derya TaÅ~_kın, president of the New York-based Turkish Institute
for Progress, has said the move is historic for being unprecedented,
adding that the Turkish Institute for Progress is also working to help
thaw Turkish-Armenian relations. She also said Clawson has underscored
the necessity of pondering the next hundred years instead of the past
to mend Turkey-Armenia relations.

Turkish officials have been exerting considerable efforts to improve
relations with Armenia by reinstating rights and confiscated property
that had been taken from them since the founding of the Republic,
after decades of apathy. Steps have also been taken to provide them
with representation in Parliament.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also made an attempt to thaw tensions
between the two countries by issuing a message ahead of the 99th year
commemoration of the 1915 incidents last year. In an unprecedented
move, while he was prime minister, Erdogan extended condolences to
the grandchildren of Armenians who lost their lives in the 1915 events.

However Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, in a purported refusal to
reconcile with Turkey, said he had withdrawn the peace accords with
Turkey from parliament.

The two countries’ then foreign ministers, Ahmet Davutoglu and Eduard
Nalbandyan, had signed protocols to establish diplomatic ties between
their respective countries in 2009 in Switzerland. Mediated by the
U.S., the protocol had presupposed the opening of the border between
Turkey and Armenia, but it was failed to be ratified.

Following the incident, Erdogan complained that Armenia had failed to
reciprocate Turkish peace efforts, but said that Ankara will still
pursue a settlement with Armenia. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju
Bilgic also said: “Turkey will remain committed to the normalization
process it pursues as the main purpose of the protocols.”

The official Turkish government stance on the claims of genocide is
that it acknowledges that a tragedy occurred with great suffering on
the part of the Armenians, but that Muslim Turks also suffered during
the event. They have repeatedly called on Armenia to check unbiased
historical sources to bring the matter to light.

PROPOSED BILL CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND ARMENIA

Wall Street Journal
April 3 2015

By Byron Tau

WASHINGTON–Bringing a new approach to a long-running Capitol Hill
standoff, a Turkish-American coalition is pushing a new bill in
Congress that will call for reconciliation and dialogue between Turkey
and Armenia while sidestepping the question of whether the 1915 mass
killing of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire was genocide.

Armenian and Armenian-American advocacy groups have long pressed the
U.S. government to officially call the killings genocide, while the
Turks have fought hard against such proposals in the U.S. and abroad.

The issue has been debated in Congress for years, without a resolution,
and the new bill may run into similar difficulties.

The new proposal, to be introduced by Rep. Curt Clawson (R., Fla.),
will call on President Barack Obama to “work toward equitable,
constructive, stable, and durable Armenian-Turkish relations” by
establishing a new presidential task force aimed at rapprochement.

This year marks the 100th year anniversary of the massacres–giving
advocates and lobbyists renewed ammunition in the battle between
the two countries over how the mass killings are remembered and
commemorated by historians and governments.

The historical consensus is that as many as 1.5 million Armenians
were killed by the Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey. Turkey says
the issue of whether the killings were genocide isn’t for modern-day
governments to decide, contests the number of deaths and argues those
killed were casualties of a larger armed conflict.

The bill, which is being pushed by a new advocacy group called the
Turkish Institute for Progress, aims to be a counterweight and a
potential alternative to another controversial piece of legislation
that would call the 1915 killings a genocide. The proposal has existed
in some form for years.

The Turkish-American coalition has retained the lobbying firm Levick
Strategic Communications to push the reconciliation proposal as a
possible alternative to the genocide bill.

“What we’ve seen year after year for over a decade is Armenia focused
on a resolution that is divisive and causes rancor,” said Connie Mack,
a former Republican member of Congress and a lobbyist for Levick.

This new effort is “about moving forward. It’s about the next 100
years,” said Mr. Mack. The institute isn’t lobbying for or against the
separate genocide resolution and doesn’t have an official position
on it. The rapprochement bill and the genocide bill aren’t mutually
exclusive and members could, in theory, sponsor both, he said.

The reconciliation proposal is already drawing a furious reaction
from Armenian-American groups, who are a powerful and well-organized
lobbying force across the country.

“Congressman Clawson’s measure is Orwellian. He strips out any
mention of the Armenian genocide from a resolution that deals
with Turkish-Armenian relations — which is both unprincipled and
impractical,” said Aram Hamparian, the executive director Armenian
National Committee of America. “The genocide issue stands at the very
center of Turkish-Armenian relations.”

“U.S. interests can be advanced by both countries acting to cultivate
peace and understanding,” said Mr. Clawson, the bill’s sponsor,
in a letter to fellow members of Congress seeking support.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and one of the most
vocal members of Congress on the issue, likened the proposal for
a reconciliation commission to setting up a presidential panel to
debate whether the Holocaust occurred.

“That might be something that Holocaust deniers would applaud, but it
suggests that there’s a credible case to be made that the Holocaust
didn’t happen. There is no credible case that to be made that the
Holocaust didn’t happen and there’s no credible case to be made that
the Armenian genocide didn’t happen,” Mr. Schiff said.

Mr. Schiff and a bipartisan slate of lawmakers reintroduced their
genocide resolution last month with about 40 sponsors. That is down
sharply from the more than 200 lawmakers who signed on to the bill
in 2007.

In 2007, with Democrats in control of Congress, the genocide
bill cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee before falling
victim to a lobbying campaign by both Turkey and the George W. Bush
administration. The Bush administration and lawmakers of both parties
at the time feared the diplomatic repercussions of alienating Turkey,
a strategic U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Those concerns persist today about the proposal labeling the massacres
a genocide.

“Undertaking this course of action would not only be morally
shortsighted but it would alienate one of our last allies in the
region who is working hand-in-hand with U.S. soldiers and our allies
to combat ISIS and give refuge to hundreds of thousands of innocent
refugees from the Syrian Civil War,” wrote Rep. Bill Shuster in a
letter to colleagues this year.

The Turkish Institute for Progress was formed earlier this year. The
Institute says it has no connection to the Turkish government and
its lobbyists at Levick aren’t registered under provisions governing
representatives of foreign governments.

“TIP is currently supported by a number of American businesses
and independent donors seeking a more progressive solution to mend
Armenian and Turkish relations,” Derya Taskin, the group’s president,
said in a statement. The group declined to name the business or donors
supporting it, citing fear of retaliation.

The Turkish government–which couldn’t not be reached for comment
through the embassy–has a number of prominent Washington lobbyists
on its payroll. The country has the firms of both former Democratic
House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt and former Republican House Speaker
Dennis Hastert on retainer. Turkey last month re-signed another $1.7
million contract with Mr. Gephardt’s firm.

The White House declined to take a position on legislation that is
still being drafted and has yet to be officially introduced.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to use the word “genocide” as
president to describe the mass killings and said the evidence was
“undeniable.” But since he took office, he’s avoided the term,
calling the events “atrocities.”

ZHOGHOVURD: US DECIDES TO ALTER TACTIC IN ARMENIA

10:29 * 03.04.15

US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills stated on Thursday that the
United States intends to deepen its involvement in Armenia’s economy.

The USA is the fifth largest trade partner of Armenia, and this fact
can be welcomed. However, the USA likes being leader, and it must do
it if it can, Mr Mills said at a business forum organized by the HSBC
Bank Armenia.

The newspaper has repeatedly raised the issue of the USA’s intention
to alter its tactic in Armenia. The USA had provided financial aid
to Armenia to strengthen its influence on the region.

After Armenia decided in favor of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU),
the USA realized that after investing dozens of millions in Armenia
it did not actually get any means of business influence. Russia,
however, has control of considerable part of Armenia’s economy along
with dozens of millions taken out of the country.

So the USA decided to stop allocating money for ineffective projects.

Rather, it will make investments. The US ambassador’s statement is
actually an official notification of the new tactic.

The “first swallow” was the purchase of the Vorotan coordinated
hydroelectric system by a US company.

ARMENIA CONDEMNS THE ILLEGAL, BARBARIC AND PROVOCATIVE ACTIONS OF TURKEY IN CYPRUS’ EEZ

CYPRUS – FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE*
Friday, 03 April, 2015

Armenia condemns the illegal, barbaric and provocative actions of
Turkey within Cyprus` Exclusive Economic Zone and will never accept any
effort for the division of the island, Chairman of National Assembly of
the Republic of Armenia Galoust Sahakyan said on Thursday, addressing
the Cyprus House plenary.

Sahakyan noted that Armenia appreciates the constructive approach of
the Republic of Cyprus for the settlement of the Cyprus problem and
expressed regret for the fact that Turkey responds to the sensible
policy of the leadership of the Republic of Cyprus by adopting a
non constructive approach, and “undermining the latest stage of the
process for a Cyprus settlement with its provocative actions.”

ARMENIA’S DEFENSE MINISTER HIGHLIGHTS MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX DEVELOPMENT

20:07, 3 April, 2015

YEREVAN, 3 APRIL, ARMENPRESS: A consultation was held on April 3 at
the administrative complex of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic
of Armenia, attended by the representatives of themilitary-industrial
complex of the Ministry of Defense and the leading enterprises of
the field, to discuss issues related to the development, production
and supply of military output for the Armed Forces of the Republic
of Armenia, as well as cooperation between the Ministry of Defense
and the military-industrial complex.

The press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of
Armenia informed Armenpress that during the consultation, held
with such a format for the first time, the Minister of Defense
Seyran Ohanyan stressed that in the framework of the new bill, the
realistic assessment of the current state, manufacturing capabilities,
achievements and shortcomings of the military-industrial companies
and the discussion of the proposals and works, carried out to create
joint enterprises, open a new page for the development of the sector
and the implementation of new programs.

CYPRUS CRIMINALIZES DENIAL OF 1915 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Big News Network, Australia
April 3 2015

VoA – News Thursday 2nd April, 2015

NICOSIA – Cyprus on Thursday made it a crime to deny that Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenian Turks a century ago, a move
likely to rile its old rival Turkey as peace talks on the ethnically
split island remain stalled.

The Cypriot parliament passed a resolution penalizing denial of
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, modifying existing
legislation, which required prior conviction by an international
court to make denial a crime.

“Today is a historic day,” said Yiannakis Omirou, parliament speaker.

“It allows parliament to restore, with unanimous decisions and
resolutions, historical truths.”

The east Mediterranean island, split in a Turkish invasion in 1974
after a brief Greek-inspired coup, was one of the first countries
worldwide in 1975 to recognize the Armenian killings as genocide. It
is commemorated on April 24.

The nature and scale of the killings remain highly contentious. Turkey
accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in
1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this
constituted an act of genocide, a term used by many Western historians
and foreign parliaments.

In a statement, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic
said the Cypriot resolution was “null and void to us and not worthy
of comment.”

“Those who have tried to exploit the events of 1915 at every
opportunity by using base political calculations have not been able to
achieve any result until now and won’t do so in the future,” he added.

Armenia accuses the Ottoman authorities at the time of systematically
massacring large numbers of Armenians and deporting many more,
including women, children, the elderly and infirm, in terrible
conditions on so-called death marches.

The issue has long been a source of tension between Turkey and
several Western countries, especially the United States and France,
both home to large ethnic Armenian diasporas. Cyprus, too, has an
Armenian population.

Cyprus has been at loggerheads with Turkey for decades. Its ethnic
Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations have lived estranged in the
south and north respectively since 1974. Seeds of division were sown
earlier when a power-sharing government crumbled amid violence in 1963.

Thursday’s resolution was passed by Greek Cypriot lawmakers, who now
make up the island’s only internationally recognized parliament.

‘ORHAN’S INHERITANCE’ DIGS THROUGH HISTORY TO REVEAL FAMILY SECRETS

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 3 2015

By Elfrieda Abbe

As a taxi takes Orhan Turkoglu through the barren Anatolian countryside
where the “land is heavy, the atmosphere so pressed it makes it hard
to breathe,” his mind wanders. He’s on his way to Karod, his childhood
home, to pay his last respects to his beloved grandfather Kemal.

A Turkish businessman living in Istanbul, he’s not eager to return
to this provincial outpost where “every person, object, and stone has
some sort of covering, a layer of protection made from cloth, brick,
or dust.”

“Men and women cover their heads with skullcaps and head scarves.”

They also apply this protection to their speech and ideas, he surmises.

Much has been covered up in Aline Ohanesian’s impressive debut
novel,”Orhan’s Inheritance.” She scrapes away the dusty layers with
the skill of an archaeologist on a dig to reveal family secrets and
shames set against a backdrop of historical atrocities.

The family is stunned when Kemal leaves their home to an Armenian
woman, Seda Melkonian, who lives in Los Angeles. Orhan goes on a
mission to persuade her to sell the house back to him for his father
and aunt.

A modern man who is distanced from historical events, he’s unprepared
for the disdain with which he is treated at the Armenian retirement
home where Seda lives.

In her late 80s, Seda doesn’t want the house that once belonged to
her happy family or the painful memories that come with it. She agrees
to sign the papers, if he will leave her alone. But Orhan insists on
finding out her connection to his dede.

“The woman before him is like an ancient tapestry whose tightly woven
threads could tell quite a tale, if only he knew how to unravel them.”

He realizes the loose thread that will free the story is his
grandfather’s sketchbook. When she see’s Kamel’s drawing of the
mulberry tree that stood in her family’s yard, she cannot stop the
words from pouring out.

It’s 1915. The Ottoman Empire has Germany in World War I, and Armenians
are viewed as an internal threat. One day her uncle is taken away,
then her father.

Soon all Armenians are “deported,” ordered to leave their homes with
only a few possessions. Seda’s childhood friend Kemal, a talented
Muslim teenager who worked for her father, tries to save the headstrong
15-year-old, but she refuses to leave her family. What happens on
that deadly march is Seda’s story.

A melancholy past hangs over the characters. Seda survives, but not
without great loss and the pain of guilt.

Kemal becomes a sharpshooter in the military and returns a hero. He
builds a multinational textile company on what the Melkonians left
behind, but takes no pleasure in money and is haunted by the memory
of Seda. It’s for the reader to find out what happens when he meets
Seda again.

Through his photography and education, Orhan escapes the brutality
of his father’s beatings. But the very thing he loves leads to his
arrest and torture when one of his photos raises suspicion that he
is a communist.

Auntie Fatma, the rock of the family, who raised both Orhan and his
father, has a shadowy past.

Such sorrow in Ohanesian’s hands is not a heavy burden for the reader.

Through the beauty and humanity of her central characters, the story
transcends suffering. While Orhan inherited his family’s business,
he learns his real inheritance is his grandfather’s compassion,
acts of kindness and generosity.

“A white day sheds light; a dark day sheds darkness,” Orhan tells
Seda on his first visit. Ohanesian’s novel is that “white day.”

Bankruptcy supervisor demands a bribe of 12 thousand US dollars

12:58 | April 4,2015 | Official

During the preliminary investigation of a criminal case examined in RA
Special Investigation Service the director of LL Company Seyran K.
informed that the bankruptcy supervisor of the LLC on October 7, 2014
demanded from him a bribe in the amount of 10 thousand US dollars to
prolong the process of alienation of the reals estates by auction,
mortgaged in the bank with the purpose of securing the fulfilment of
the credit liabilities of LL Company, and thus to grant him an
opportunity to acquire the mortgaged property. Besides, conditioned by
a problem in the bookkeeping documents of LL Company, the bankruptcy
supervisor also demanded from him a bribe of 2 thousand US dollars.

A new criminal case has been instituted in RA Special Investigation
Service on materials of the criminal case instituted against an
official carrying out special state service – the judge of Lori Marz
(region) General Jurisdiction Court Khachatur Khachatryan and the
accomplished preliminary investigation thereof pursuant to part 3,
Article 200 of RA Criminal Code.

Preliminary investigation is underway.

SIS

ARMENIE
L’Arménie construit un parc solaire de 30 MW

L’Arménie a annoncé le lancement de la construction d’un parc solaire
de 30 MW dès 2016.

Pour rappel, la centrale nucléaire de Metsamor couvre environ 30% des
besoins énergétiques du pays. 41,9% de l’électricité est également
fournie par une centrale thermique, et 29,2% par une centrale
hydroélectrique. Le pays a tendance à privilégier la construction de
petites centrales hydroélectriques pour préparer sa transition
énergétique mais il fait des efforts notables pour se diversifier
notamment dans la géothermie et l’éolien (0,03% de l’électricité
produite).

samedi 4 avril 2015,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

Analyst: Armenia can play major role in transfer of Iran energy resources

12:52, 04.04.2015
Region:World News, Armenia, Iran
Theme: Politics, Analytics

YEREVAN. – The international agreement that was reached on Thursday,
and with respect to Iran’s nuclear program, has a great importance for
Armenia, Iranian Studies specialist Rudik Yaralyan told Armenian
News-NEWS.am.

In his view, Armenia, which maintains neighborly relations with Iran,
now will get the opportunity to collaborate with this country, and in
the energy sector, first and foremost.

“Once the sanctions [on Iran] are lifted, Iran will attempt to draw a
roadmap, whereby its energy resources shall be exported to Europe,”
Yaralyan said, and added: “And in this sense, Armenia, being on its
path, may play an unprecedented role.”

The analyst did not consider the option of exporting the Iranian
energy resources via Azerbaijan to be feasible.

“Azerbaijan has traditionally been under Turkey’s political pressure,
and therefore Turkey itself will obstruct that, first of all,” the
Iranian studies specialist noted, and added; “In the case of
Azerbaijan, its interests will be disregarded, and that country will
stay out of the game.”

Armenia News – NEWS.am