Author: Badalian Vardan

TURKISH INSTITUTE FOR PROGRESS CALLS ON ARMENIAN DIASPORA TO JOIN MOVEMENT SEEKING RECONCILIATION INSTEAD OF FURTHER DIVISION

Virtual Press Office
March 18 2015

-Organization Decries Divisive Tactics against Members of Congress,
Diplomats, and Businesses-

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Turkish
Institute for Progress (TIP) today decried the divisive tactics
implemented by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) as
they attempt to convince American policymakers and business owners
into supporting a resolution that undermines U.S. interests and
jeopardizes chances for peace and reconciliation between the Turkish
and Armenian communities. In recent months, Armenian advocates have
attacked a Turkish ambassador, bullied members of Congress, and sent
threatening letters to U.S. businesses.

“These types of divisive tactics have to stop,” said former U.S.

Representative Solomon P. Ortiz, who now serves as an advisor to TIP.

“The Turkish Institute for Progress was created to serve as a positive
example of how two communities can reconcile their differences and
work together in the interest of peace and prosperity. We welcome
the Armenian Diaspora and the powerful lobbying groups behind them
to cease the tactics that create further conflict and join us in our
mission to look toward the next hundred years.”

Solomon P. Ortiz was first elected to the United States House of
Representatives in 1982 and was reelected to represent his South
Texas district 13 times. During his tenure, he served on the House
Committee on Armed Services and as the Chairman of the Committee’s
Subcommittee on Readiness.

About the Turkish Institute for Progress:

The Turkish Institute for Progress was formed recently to
demonstrate areas of international cooperation with Turkey and
establish additional avenues to achieve global progress on economic,
social, and security issues, including: breaking down barriers to
trade, addressing regional energy dependence, and deterring the
continued spread of radicalism. For more information please visit:

To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:

SOURCE Turkish Institute for Progress

AZAD PHARMACEUTICALS INGREDIENTS AG PLEDGES 10 MILLION EURO INVESTMENT IN PRODUCTION OF RAW MATERIAL FOR MEDICINES

YEREVAN, March 18. / ARKA /. Swiss company AZAD Pharmaceuticals
Ingredients AG has pledged a 10 million euro investment in the next
five years into a pilot program on production of raw materials for
medicines in Armenia.

As part of that program a laboratory for the synthesis of medicinal
raw materials opened today in Yerevan. It was established under
a tripartite memorandum of cooperation signed last year by the
Yerevan-based Institute of Fine Organic Chemistry, Azad Pharmaceuticals
Ingredients AG and the Armenian Development Agency (ADA).

“Pharmacology is one of the most important sectors, which the
government has designated as a priority. With this laboratory Armenia,
famous for its research capacity, will receive a platform for using
knowledge and experience to develop pharmacology “, deputy economy
minister Emil Tarasyan said at the opening ceremony.

According to him, this is one of the best platforms where Armenian
researchers will be able to put together all the scientific potential
to conquer world markets.

In 2013, Azad Pharmaceuticals Ingredients AG had presented a
three-stage program for the production of medicinal raw material,
including creation of a research laboratory, implementation of
scientific research and organization of production.

At the moment, the Swiss company has implemented the first part of
the program by renovating and equipping five laboratories in the
Research Center for Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry. -0-

JOHANNES HAHN: EU IS CONTRIBUTING TO NAGORNO-KARABAKH NEGOTIATIONS UNDERWAY WITHIN OSCE MG

APA, Azerbaijan
March 18 2015

[ 18 March 2015 16:58 ]

Baku – APA. “European Union is contributing to the negotiations on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement conducted within the OSCE
Minsk Group,” EU’s Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy
and Enlargement, Johannes Hahn said at a joint press conference with
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in Yerevan.

The diplomat said status quo is unacceptable and main objective of
the negotiations is to achieve a peaceful settlement of the problem,
adding that EU encourages the continuation of the dialogue between
Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents.

Hahn urged the parties to observe the ceasefire and create an
atmosphere for the resolution of the conflict.

LA REFORME CONSTITUTIONNELLE : L’AVIS DE LA FRA

Opposition

La Federation revolutionnaire armenienne (FRA) accepte de soutenir la
reforme constitutionnelle controversee du president Serge Sarkissian
que si elle prevoit la transformation de l’Armenie en une republique
parlementaire.

Artsvik Minasian (FRA) a deja soumis une liste de 28 propositions
concrètes qui, selon lui, devraient etre integrees dans un ensemble
de projets d’amendements constitutionnels soumis l’annee prochaine
a un referendum.

Serge Sarkissian a officiellement approuve la semaine dernière un > de reforme propose par une commission presidentielle ad hoc.

Il s’agirait de transformer l’Armenie en une Republique parlementaire
avec un Premier ministre puissant et un president au titre surtout
honorifique.

Sarkissian a declare en meme temps qu’il a encore des doutes sur
la necessite d’une telle transition en raison de considerations de
securite nationale. Il a dit a la commission d’examiner la question
plus en detail avant de rediger des amendements concrets.

“Les dernières pensees du president sont source de preoccupation”,
a declare Minassian. “Tout en comprenant les reticences du president
liees a deux questions tr̬s importantes Рla securite interne et
externe -, nous croyons que les changements constitutionnels peuvent
y repondre.”

La FRA a ete jusqu’a present le seul parti d’opposition parlementaire
a soutenir l’idee de la reforme constitutionnelle.

Minassian a insiste pour dire que le changement radical prevu
minimiserait le risque de fraude electorale en Armenie.

mercredi 18 mars 2015, Claire (c)armenews.com

PANEL AT HARVARD ON ‘ARMENIA 1915-AUSCHWITZ 1945′

11:52, 18 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

A special program commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide
and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, entitled
“Armenia 1915-Auschwitz 1945: Small Nations and Great Powers,” will
take place on March 25 at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of
Government, the Armenian Weeklyreports.

The event is co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School European
Club, the Harvard College Armenian Students Association, the Mashtots
Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard, and the National Association
for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). It is free and open to
the public.

Participating in the program will be Dr. Simon Payaslian, Charles K.

and Elisabeth M. Kenosian Professor of Modern Armenian History and
Literature, Department of History, Boston University; Marc A.

Mamigonian, director of Academic Affairs, NAASR; and Dr. James R.

Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies, Department of Near
Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. Hovhannes
Ghazaryan, a graduate student in the Mid-Career Master in Public
Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, will serve
as the moderator. Fr. Arsen Barsamian of St. James Armenian Church
of Watertown will offer an opening prayer in Armenian, and Russell
will give a concluding prayer in Hebrew.

The panelists will explore interrelationships between the Armenian
Genocide and the Holocaust, with particular attention paid to the
direct ties between the two genocides, some of the similarities and
differences in the genocidal processes as well as the denial of both
genocides, the role of self-defense on the part of Armenians and
Jews against the Ottomans and Nazis, respectively, and the role of
the Great Powers in the genocides and their aftermath. Following the
panelists’ presentations, there will be a discussion period followed
by a reception.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT CHINA IN A FEW DAYS AND ITALY IN APRIL

YEREVAN, March 18. / ARKA /. Addressing an international media forum
in the Armenian capital entitled ‘At the Foot of Mount Ararat,’
dedicated to the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, President Serzh
Sargsyan said he will visit China in the coming days.

“In a few days I will be in China on a state visit. We expect it to
give a new push to the development of our relations in various fields,”
said Sargsyan.

The president also said he will travel to Italy in the first half of
April on an official visit. During the meetings with Italian leadership
he will specify the position of that country on participation in the
commemoration of the centenary of the Armenian genocide.

‘I am delighted that presidents of France and Russia will arrive in
Armenia on April 24 to remember the victims of the genocide. I hope
that Italy will also be represented by a high- level delegation,’
he said.

The president will also visit Naples to attend an event dedicated to
the Armenian Genocide and Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the first
head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

He said Armenian-Italian relations are developing actively.

‘In 2-3 weeks we will open a new Italian enterprise in Armenia that
will produce only export-oriented products, and another Italian
company will open a new hotel in Yerevan in late April,’ he said.-0-

IF TURKEY FELT IT WAS A STRONG STATE, IT WOULD HAVE COURAGE TO ACKNOWLEDGE TRUTH – GREEK JOURNALIST

13:46 18/03/2015 >> SOCIETY

Turkey’s denialist position in the Armenian Genocide issue demonstrates
the weakness of the Turkish state, Dimitris Konstantakopoulos, a
Greek journalist and expert, told Panorama.am on the sidelines of the
“At the Foot of Mount Ararat” media forum in Yerevan.

Commenting on the coverage of the Armenian Genocide in Greece, Mr
Konstantakopoulos said that the issue of Armenian Genocide is very
important for the Greek people for several reasons.

First of all, he said, the Greek people know very well what genocide
is as the Pontic Greeks have also experienced genocide.

Referring to Turkey’s policy of denial, the Greek expert noted that
this demonstrates the weakness of Turkey.

“If Turkey felt that it was a strong state, it would have the courage
to acknowledge the truth,” Mr Konstantakopoulos concluded.

TURKS HONOR GALLIPOLI DEAD AS PASSION FOR OTTOMAN PAST GROWS

Voice of America
March 18 2015

Reuters
March 18, 2015 2:08 PM

GALLIPOLI PENINSULA, TURKEY–

Turkish jets flew overhead and warships cut through rough waters in
the Dardanelles Straits on Wednesday to mark the centenary of one of
the Ottoman Empire’s final victories, as fascination with the imperial
past flourishes under President Tayyip Erdogan.

Record numbers of Turks have flocked to these headlands in recent
years to pay homage to the defense of the Dardanelles during the
Gallipoli campaign of World War I.

The area has long drawn visitors from Australia and New Zealand, whose
ANZAC forces fought here under their own flags for the first time,
and who honor their nations’ fallen in graveyards halfway around the
world every April 25.

Turks mark what they call the Canakkale war on March 18, when Ottoman
forces repelled an Allied assault on the Dardanelles — the sole
maritime outlet for arch foe Russia — sinking a French battleship
and destroying British warships.

“The fates of many peoples were determined in this strait, on this
soil, but none more so than our fate as an empire collapsed,” Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a crowd of officials, soldiers and
veterans from later Turkish conflicts as winds whipped the tip of
the peninsula.

“Our people fought shoulder to shoulder on these sacred lands to
protect the heart of the people and the state. A hundred years later
the Turkish state stands against those who seek to divide our people.”

The victory was once part of the Turkish Republic’s secular founding
myth. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, now evokes the “Canakkale spirit” of
an Islamic army beating back a superior military force from Turkish
soil in his podium speeches.

“The gradual shift towards a more Islamic, more Ottoman perception of
the real identity of the Turkish nation … is why Gallipoli becomes
part of the political agenda, as it has now,” said Edhem Eldem,
a historian at Istanbul’s Bogazici University.

National Identity

Gallipoli was long a defining moment in Turkey’s national
consciousness. Young colonel Mustafa Kemal – later known as Ataturk
– was its great hero, going on to found the secular republic on the
ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

The victory stopped the Allies from entering the straits and taking
Istanbul, but resulted in an eight-month standoff. Some 130,000
soldiers perished, 87,000 of them from the Ottoman side, before the
Turks, under German command, repulsed the enemy.

The Allied campaign was hampered by poor planning. Military strategists
still visit the battlefields to draw lessons.

“All sides fought courageously at Canakkale but it was Turks who won
a much-deserved victory. Canakkale is impassable,” British Ambassador
Richard Moore said in Turkish on Twitter.

Yet it would prove to be one of the Turks’ few successes in the war.

In November 1918, the Allied fleet sailed through the Dardanelles
and took Istanbul without a single casualty.

“Elsewhere you lose a battle, but win the war. In Turkey, we lose wars,
but talk about winning the battle,” Edhem said.

Pilgrimage

“The spirit of this place is with us always,” said Sadegul Asal, 35,
who traveled from Istanbul with her husband and three sons to visit
monuments on the 100th anniversary.

“If it were not for the martyrs lying here, our nation would not
exist, and without our nation, neither would we,” she said, dressed
in a dark head scarf and a long black coat.

The renewed interest in Canakkale has spawned new memorials and
tourism centers to lure Turks, whose visitor numbers have climbed
six-fold since the AK Party founded by Erdogan took office in 2002,
according to Bill Sellars, an Australian writer who has lived on the
Gallipoli peninsula for more than a decade.

Turkish war veterans attend a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary
of Battle of Canakkale, in Gallipoli, March 18, 2015.

Visitors pray at the monuments and tour guides talk of the “hand of
God” intervening on the Ottoman side.

“This was the first time the Ottoman Empire recorded a major military
victory against world powers for 150-odd years,” Sellars said. “The
empire was in decline. The 18th of March marked a point where that
tide at least briefly was stemmed.”

Gallipoli is generally considered to possess the best-preserved
World War I battlefields, but Sellars feared construction work that
has destroyed trenches and disturbed human remains may jeopardize
that status.

The site where Ataturk entreated his men to fight on in the “Canakkale
spirit” is now a car park, he said.

Focusing on the success of the March 18 battle may also distract from
a shameful side of the war: the deportation and deaths of up to 1.5
million Armenians beginning in April 1915.

Armenians say that was a government-orchestrated genocide which wiped
out a civilization. Turkey denies a systematic campaign, arguing
as many Muslims died in internecine warfare amid the collapse of
the empire.

Erdogan angered his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan when
he invited him and other world leaders to attend international
centenary commemorations of the Gallipoli campaign on April 24,
the date Armenians consider the start of the genocide.

WOMAN IN COMA FOR 22 MONTHS AFTER GIVING BIRTH: HUSBAND FIGHTS FOR HER RIGHTS

03.18.2015 18:06 epress.am

On May 19, 2013, Shirakamut village, Lori Province, resident Lilit
Nalbandyan fell into a coma after giving birth at the Vanadzor
Medical Center and her situation has not changed to date. Criminal
investigation in connection with the case has been underway for nearly
20 months; Nalbandyan’s husband and lawyer claim that the woman fell
into a coma as a result of not receiving proper medical care from
hospital staff and demand those guilty be held responsible.

Lilit Nalbandyan’s representative, lawyer Arayik Papikyan told
Epress.am that in December 2014, the investigative body (investigator
H. Hovsepyan) decided to terminate the criminal investigation of the
case. The decision was appealed to the Lori Province Prosecutor’s
Office, where prosecutor V. Dolmazyan rejected the lawyer’s motion.

Nevertheless, the decision was appealed to the Lori Province Court
of First Instance, where on March 17, 2015, the presiding Judge
Suren Baghdasaryan also rejected the lawyer’s suit. Currently, the
plaintiff’s side is preparing to appeal to the Court of Appeals.

According to Papikyan, the rejection of the motions and appeals is
not surprising; its a defective work style and a sad tradition. The
lawyer stressed that the forensic examination has proved that Lilit
did not receive proper medical care, but, nevertheless, the criminal
investigation was still terminated.

“Neither the prosecutor, nor the court noticed that the main
parttakers, the medical staff, gave different and contradictory
testimonies during the preliminary investigation, while some of them
“privileged” or “immune” and were not questioned at all. For example,
when the court asked the investigator why the Erebuni Medical Center’s
Head Health Practitioner was not questioned, the investigator answered
that he went to question him, but the practitioner was not there that
day. This answer was sufficient for the court, despite the fact the
preliminary investigation did not last one day but about 570 days,”
said Arayik Papikyan.

The lawyer noted that a civil suit demanding financial compensation
for Lilit Nalbandyan’s case is still in process and currently at the
Court of Cassation. Nalbandyan’s side had won in the first two courts.

Epress.am was told by Nalbandyan’s husband Artak Barseghyan (pictured)
that his rights are being limited by different officials “mixing in”
in the case.

“It feels like everyone has one objective, to hurt Lilit, me and our
child. I’ve been recognized as Lilit’s caretaker. When the civil suit
began, the Lori Governor, the doctor’s lawyer, a few workers from
the Governor’s office forced the Shirakamut village mayor to overturn
the decision and he did out of fear. Then I was recognized guardian
again and once again the Lori Governor forced the village mayor to
overturn the decision, because if a guardian doesn’t exist then no
one would be able to defend Lilit’s rights in court, and my wife is
in a coma, so naturally she can’t go to court. Now I’m fighting again
to be recognized as guardian. The governor’s office tells me that
they can’t let me receive compensation from the hospital. I also
know that the Ministry of Health is putting pressure. For a long
time, I didn’t want to speak to the media with the hope that the
investigator, prosecutor, the court, hospital, governor’s office or
another parttaker would take that fact into consideration and show the
appropriate attitude. But now I feel that they are either interested
in the money or their position,” said Barseghyan.

TURKEY WILL NEVER MATURE AS NATION IF IT REFUSES TO ADMIT TO EVIL: NUSAN PORTER IN BOSTON GLOBE

14:25, 17 March, 2015

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. It would take a psychiatrist schooled
in political psychology to understand Turkey’s motives. As reports
“Armenpress”, Jack Nusan Porter stated this in his recent article
published in The Boston Globe.

Nusan Porter is a writer, a research associate at the Davis Center
for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, is former
treasurer and vice president of the International Association of
Genocide Scholars and the author of a number of books, including
“Genocide and Human Rights” and “The Genocidal Mind.”

Among other things, the author stated: “Sadly, Turkey has a deep
inferiority complex, especially its leaders, who have brainwashed
their people into believing all this. Germany is a strong country
that knows that you first have to admit an evil to yourself in order
for you to mature as a nation.

Turkey, in short, needs to grow up. Sadly, as it becomes more and more
fundamentally Islamic, it will be less likely to recognize someone
else’s pain.

Worse, the United States and Israel also do not recognize the genocide
because of Turkish pressure. So, in a way, those nations also have
to mature.”

“America and Israel do not need Turkey. They must stand up to Turkey
and put pressure on the country to recognize the genocide. But first
and foremost, they must recognize it themselves.

I feel that, in time, the Turkish people, who I love dearly, will rise
up and get the leaders they deserve, as will all Muslim countries,”
the author concluded.