Author: Badalian Vardan

ARMENIA HALTS RATIFICATION OF PROTOCOLS ON DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH TURKEY

ITAR-TASS, Russia
February 16, 2015 Monday 08:17 PM GMT+4

YEREVAN February 16.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Monday asked the country’s
parliament speaker to withdraw from the parliament’s agenda accords
meant to restore diplomatic ties with Turkey

In a letter to Parliament Speaker Galust Sahakyan, Sargsyan said
that Armenia would not ratify the protocols on the establishment of
diplomatic relations and development of bilateral relations, earlier
submitted to Armenia’s National Assembly for ratification, because of
the “preconditions” that Turkey was putting in place before ratifying
its part of the deal.

“About six years have passed since the protocols between Armenia and
Turkey were signed,” the president said, noting Armenia’s “consistent”
efforts to bring the accords into being.

“But we must point to a lack of political will among Turkish
authorities, distortion of the letter and spirit of the protocols and
continuous attempts to lay down preconditions,” he said, adding that
ahead of the 2015 centennial commemoration of the Armenian genocide,
a policy of genocide denial and editing history “was gaining a new
momentum”.

“Therefore, I have made a decision to recall from the National
Assembly the protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations
and development of relations between Armenia and Turkey, signed in
Zurich on October 10, 2009,” Sargsyan said.

The protocols aim to establish diplomatic ties between the countries
and re-open their common border, which has been closed since 1993.

Even though Armenia and Turkey share a 330-kilometre-long border,
the neighbours have no diplomatic ties.

Relations between the countries have been overshadowed by the mass
killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One. Armenians
have campaigned for the killings to be recognised internationally as
an act of genocide – and more than 20 countries have done so. Turkey
admits that many Armenians were killed but says the deaths were part
of the widespread fighting that took place in World War One.

In another sign of tensions, relations have been complicated by
Turkish support for Azerbaijan in its armed conflict with Armenia
over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

As preconditions for normalising bilateral relations, Ankara
urged Yerevan to stop pressing for the international recognition
of the Armenian genocide as well as to pull out its forces from
Nagorno-Karabakh.

February 17, 2015

USC INSTITUTE OF ARMENIAN STUDIES
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact: Salpi Ghazarian, Director
[email protected]
213.821.3943

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER GENOCIDE?

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Ottoman
government’s systematic annihilation of its Armenian population. This
state violence came to be characterized as ‘genocide’ when the term
was coined several decades later, and the Armenian experience was used
as a justification for the need for such a term.

Both the event itself, as well as the ways in which it is depicted and
named, are the topic of many conferences, books, exhibits and other
events around the world this year. Among them, there is the just-
published book, Great Catastrophe: Armenians And Turks In The Shadow
Of Genocide. The author, Tom de Waal, will be the guest of the USC
Institute of Armenian Studies at a lunchtime conversation to be held
on Monday, February 23, 2015, at 12 noon at the USC Ground Zero
Coffeehouse.

The book documents the troubled and deteriorating relationship between
Armenians and Turks in the decades following the genocide, especially
focusing on the last half century as Armenians became more vocal in
demanding that the Turkish government acknowledge the crime of its
predecessors, even as the Turkish government became more strategic and
persistent in its denial of the historical events and culpability. The
unresolved issues continue to affect relations between the two
countries which share a (closed) border, and have a broader impact on
relations in what is already a problematic region.

De Waal will be in conversation on the topics covered in his book and
beyond with Professor Robert English, Director of the USC School of
International Relations and an expert on the politics of Russia and
the former USSR. English was in the region, including Armenia, in the
years marking the collapse of the Soviet Union. He is the author of
five books, including Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev,
Intellectuals and the End of the Cold War.

De Waal is a senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specializing primarily in
the countries and conflicts of the South Caucasus region, as well as
in the wider Black Sea region. He has worked extensively as a
journalist and writer, including for the BBC World Service in London,
and continues to make documentaries for BBC Radio. He is the author of
the authoritative book on the Karabakh conflict, Black Garden: Armenia
and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War which has been translated into
Armenian, Azeri, Russian and Turkish, and of The Caucasus: An
Introduction, 2010.

Salpi Ghazarian, the director of the USC Institute of Armenian
Studies, says, “We invite the community to the USC campus for this
program. This, like our previous lunchtime programs, is not a
lecture. It’s a conversation between two people who have spent many
years studying the region and its challenges and concerns. It’s an
especially important conversation to be having on the anniversary of
the Genocide, as the term itself continues to be a serious political
conflict.

Lunch will be served. The event will be live streamed at:

Directions and parking information:

We advise guests to park in Parking Structure D, which is located on
the corner of Jefferson and Figueroa (across from the Shrine). See
attached map for the location of the event (USC Ground Zero
Coffeehouse.)

Please call 213.821.3943 if you have any questions regarding the
event, including parking and directions.

About the Institute
Established in 2005, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies supports
multidisciplinary scholarship to re-define, explore and study the
complex issues that make up the contemporary Armenian experience –
from post-Genocide to the developing Republic of Armenia to the
evolving Diaspora. The institute encourages research, publications and
public service, and benefits from communication technologies that link
together the global academic and Armenian communities.

###

ARMENIA WITHDRAWS PEACE ACCORDS WITH TURKEY FROM PARLIAMENT

BGN News, Turkey
Feb 17 2015

Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan decided to withdraw from the
country’s Parliament protocols aimed at establishing diplomatic ties
with Turkey.

Addressing Armenian Speaker of Parliament Galust Sahakyan, Sarksyan
said he was recalling Armenia-Turkey protocols from the Parliament.

Regretting the Turkish authorities’ turning a deaf ear to Armenia’s
call; Sarksyan said “I have decided to recall from the National
Assembly of Armenia the protocols.”

In 2009, the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers had signed
the agreement in the Swiss city of Zurich. The agreement aimed at
restoring diplomatic ties between the countries. In addition the
agreement aimed at re-open the common border between Armenia and
Turkey, which has been closed since 1993.

FOUR MORE MPS OF PROSPEROUS ARMENIA LOSE SEATS, MEDIA REPORT

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Feb 17 2015

17 February 2015 – 1:20pm

Four more PAP MPs will be stripped of their parliamentary seats in
the future on the grounds that they missed more than half of the
sessions in the National Assembly. One of them is Karapet Guloyan,
who is Tsarukyan’s father in-law.

“When the inquiries are completed, we will discuss and we will speak
about it at that time,” the National Assembly Speaker, Galust Sahakyan,
said regarding the non-pro-government Prosperous Armenia Party Chairman
Gagik Tsarukyan’s absences from the NA sessions.

“According to our information, the NA staff have already completed
their inquiries, and the NA chairman will submit a respective report
to the Central Electoral Commission within a week, News.am reports
with reference to the Zhamanak daily.

TURKEY MOVES TO IMPROVE MINORITY RIGHTS

Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Feb 17 2015

Return of over 1,000 pieces of property to non-Muslim minorities
described as ‘biggest restitution in history.’

ISTANBUL

The Turkish government has returned more than 1,000 proprieties
which once belonged to nonMuslim minorities in what it describes
“the biggest restitution in (Turkish) history.”

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with around 40 non-Muslim religious
minority leaders in Ankara on Wednesday. During the meeting Davutoglu
said that times whenminorities experienced discrimination were to be
left behind.

“I am sure you have seen that a new approach has been built in Turkey
in the last 12 years,” he added.

The number of Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities – such as Christians
and Jews – fell after republican-era “Turkification” policies.

The 1923 population exchange between Turkey and Greece, the 1942
“wealth tax” which hit non-Muslim communities and the 1955 attacks
– also known as the ‘Events of 6-7 September’ – saw many minority
citizens leave the country.

In 2008, under new legislation passed by the ruling AK Party, reforms
allowed minority groups to buy and renovate their properties, such
as religious buildings.

When then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a
“democratization package” back in 2013, the new regulations paved the
way for one Syriac Orthodox monastery in the southeastern province
of Mardin, to have 244,000 square meters of land returned.

Turkey’s prime ministry described the return to Mor Gabriel Monastery
as “the biggest land to be returned.”

In June 2014, President Erdogan said the AK Party government had
returned confiscated assets worth $2 billion to Turkey’s ethnic and
religious minorities.

After Wednesday’s meeting Turkish-Armenian journalist Markar Esayan
spoke to media, saying: “There is an unprecedented mentality change
in Turkey towards non-Muslims.” Esayan said that Davutoglu’s messages
were inclusive rather than marginalizing as previous governments.

He added that the change in the last decade was of critical importance:
“There is a considerable overlap inminorities’ quality of life,
corporate problems, individual rights and freedoms.”

Solving problems for Turkey’s non-Muslim citizens is one of the most
important parts of the country’s democratization process and for this
reason Erdogan and Davutoglu held 12 meetings with community leaders
between 2009 and 2014, said the prime ministry.

There are 165 community foundations in Turkey: 76 Greek community;
53 Armenian; 19 Jewish; 10 Syriac; three Chaldean; two Bulgarian;
and one Georgian and Maronite each.

Earlier this year Davutoglu announced that a new church for Turkey’s
around 20,000 Assyrian Christian community will be constructed –
the first to be erected in Turkey for decades – in Istanbul.

At the same meeting Davutoglu said: “The principle of equal
citizenship, which has been concretized with the return of foundation
assets recently, will be our basic motto from now on.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Davutoglu said that there had been dark chapters
in Turkish history, adding: “We should not refrain from facing this
history, these experiences.”

” It is not possible to forget September 6-7 events’ sorrow,” he said
referring to attacks which mainly targeted Istanbul’s Greek minority
in 1955.

Davutoglu said that after the suffering in the 19th century and the
first quarter of the 20th century, the world had been impoverished.

He said that Balkan cities lost their Muslim and Turkish inhabitants
while Anatolian cities lost their Greeks, Armenians and Jews.

“It is time to re-coalescence,” Davutoglu said.

According to the prime ministry, there is now an ongoing reconstruction
process. Eleven Catholic and Orthodox churches as well as synagogues
have already been reconstructed across Turkey.

One Armenian Church on the northwestern Aegean coast and another
Orthodox church in Istanbul as well as one synagogue in the eastern
province of Edirne are under construction.

There are several religious buildings awaiting construction: one
synagogue in south-central province of Kilis as well as one Orthodox
church and two Armenian churches in the southern province of Hatay.

Located in Turkey’s Black Sea province of Trabzon, the historic Sumela
Monastery and, in Van, the Armenian Cathedral of The Holy Cross were
opened for religious ceremonies by Turkey after the new legislation.

In 2010 prime ministry published a communique “for the protection of
people belonging to different faith groups.”

Turkey’s ministry of education also prepared Armenian textbooks and
distributed them to Armenian schools for free during the 2010-2011
school year.

The country’s Press Advertisement Agency has been also supporting
six minority newspapers since 2011, said the prime ministry.

The Turkish premier said that a common culture should be formed
in which people share all the pain and joy instead of remembering
“painful sorrows.”

He also said: “It is in our hands to build a beautiful future all
together.”

ARMENIA’S CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX FELL BY 3 PERCENTAGE POINT IN QUARTER 4 OF 2014

YEREVAN, February 17. / ARKA /. In the 4th quarter of 2014 Armenia’s
consumer confidence index was down 3 percentage point from the previous
one standing at 41.2 after a period of protracted growth since the
beginning of the year, the Central Bank said. Compared to the 4th
quarter of 2013 it was down by 0.8 percentage points, it said.

The indicator used to assess current conditions in the 4th quarter
fell by 4.3 percentage points from the previous quarter to 30.5,
largely due to a 7.5 percentage points decrease in the index used
to assess households’ current financial status and by a 5 percentage
point drop in the indicator that assesses households in the context
of common economic conditions of the country. The index used to assess
large purchases did not change noticeably standing at 50.

According to the Central Bank, the index used to assess future
conditions fell by 1.9 percentage points from the previous quarter,
but when compared to the same quarter of 2013 it was higher by 1.8
percentage points, standing at 51.8.

The only indicator that rose was the one used to assess employment
expectations. It grew by 0.8 percentage points to 55.5. After showing
a growth in the previous quarter, the indicator that evaluates the
financial condition fell by 3.6 percentage points to 44.3. The index
assessing expectations in large household purchases decreased by 2.9
percentage points to 55.6.

The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is an indicator designed to measure
consumer confidence, which is defined as the degree of optimism on
the state of the economy that consumers are expressing through their
activities of savings and spending.

Since early 2005 the Central Bank of Armenia has been conducting
quarterly surveys of non-financial, financial institutions and
households to assess changes in current economic conditions compared
to the previous period, to assess the economic expectations of the
subjects under study and based on survey data to calculate and publish
composite economic indexes.

The surveys are conducted over the Internet, telephone, letter and
fax. Based on the survey results indices of business environment,
economic activity and consumer confidence are calculated on a 100-point
scale. The score above 50 shows high activity and below 50 a low
activity, and 50 a steady-state condition. -0- –

TURKISH INSTITUTE FOR PROGRESS ASKS ARMENIAN PRESIDENT TO RECONSIDER 2009 AGREEMENT

Virtual Press Office
Feb 17 2015

Turkish American Group Expresses Disappointment at Armenia Thwarting
Efforts to Restore Diplomatic Ties

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Following reports
that Armenian president Serge Sarkisian is refusing to ratify a 2009
Agreement brokered by the United States, the Turkish Institute for
Progress is calling on him to reconsider the decision that will cause
further roadblocks to much needed diplomatic ties in the region.

Members of the Turkish Institute for Progress suggest that by
participating in a formal dialogue and exploring more partnership
with Turkey, Armenia can reclaim its national sovereignty and prevent
alienating itself from the global community.

“This Agreement is an important part of the process,” stated Derya
Berk, President of the Turkish Institute for Progress. “It demonstrates
a spirit of cooperation that the region needs to heal old wounds and
look to the future for mutually beneficial partnerships. We welcome an
opportunity to work together with the Armenian community to explore
ways to work in the spirit of cooperation and for the greater good
of Turks and Armenians across the globe.”

“We hope President Sarkisian will reconsider his position on this
matter and that the Armenian community globally will join us in
advocating for solutions moving forward,” Berk continued. “Simply
refusing these continued overtures, especially those advocated and
negotiated by the United States, will cause division where progress
toward healing is well underway.”

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

Also at

GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER EMBRACES ARMENIA VISIT

Agenda, Georgia
Feb 17 2015

The Speaker of Georgia’s Parliament is in Armenia on an official visit.

David Usupashvili met Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan
yesterday.

The meeting was held within the two-day official visit of a Georgian
Parliamentary delegation to Armenia.

The sides discussed bilateral relations and cooperation prospects,
as well as historical-cultural links and prospects of enhancing
friendly relations.

Usupashvili and Abrahamyan underlined that intensive communication
at legislative and executive level will be improved.

The Armenian Prime Minister hailed the visit of the Georgian delegation
to Armenia and positively evaluated the state of relations between
the two countries.

Abrahamyan, as the former Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, said
he placed high importance on cooperation between the Parliaments of
Armenia and Georgia.

The Armenian official also stressed Georgia was a strategic partner and
a friend of Armenia, and both leaders should enhance this relationship.

In return, Usupashvili thanked his host for the friendly reception
and stressed the importance of strengthening bilateral relations.

Within the Armenia visit Usupashvili also met Armenian Foreign Minister
Eduard Nalbandyan yesterday. The parties spoke about Armenia-Georgia
bilateral relations and the different foreign aspirations of both
countries.

Despite the differences, it was noted the two countries’ friendly
relations should be enhanced and the differences in future vision
could be used to benefit the other nation.

Today, on the second day of the visit, the Georgian delegation is
scheduled to meet the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the
Catholic-Patriarch of Armenia, His Holiness Garegin II.

The Georgian delegation will end their visit later this evening.

HOLLYWOOD SHOOTS MOVIE BASED ON WILLIAM SAROYAN’S NOVEL

ARTS AND CULTURE | 17.02.15 | 11:27

A new Hollywood movie based on Armenian American writer William
Saroyan’s Human Comedy novel is due to be presented this year.

Enlarge Photo

According to IMDB.com, the United States premiere of the movie shot
in the genre of drama with a budget of $5 million will take place
on December 31. The director of the movie is Hollywood star Meg Ryan
and producer is an equally meritorious actor Tom Hanks.

Armenpress says that the Hollywood Reporter included the movie in
the most expected hundred list. According to the Magazine, a great
role in it was played not only by the work of William Saroyan, but
also the cast. Besides directing, Meg Ryan will play the role of the
hero’s mother. Among other actors involved in the movie are Melanie
Griffith, Sam Shepard and Lois Robbins.

BEATEN PAP BOARD MEMBER: KHACHATARYAN URGES CLEAN INVESTIGATION, SAYS HE WON’T LEAVE PARTY

HUMAN RIGHTS | 17.02.15 | 14:28

Alina Nikoghosyan
ArmeniaNow intern

The Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) civil board member Artak Khachatryan
who was kidnapped and beaten last week, hopes that the investigation
of the case will be objective.

According to Khachatryan, he was kidnapped by three armed men dressed
in black and masks, five hours after which he was found unconscious
and beaten in front of his house.

“As a law-abiding and lawful citizen, I expect quick disclosure of
the case by law enforcement bodies, I do not want to put anything
under suspicion,” the PAP activist told reporters Tuesday.

This incident appears to have caused tensions in the PAP and the
Republican Party (RPA) relations, while some media circulate the
version of some law enforcement bodies that Khachatryan was kidnapped
and beaten as a PAP scheme.

Khachatryan urged against looking for a political context in the
criminal case and said that he will not leave the PAP.

“I have been a PAP member for years and I am the bearer of the ideology
of that party. I announce that as before, nothing has changed in my
life; I remain a member of that party. If need be I am ready to do the
hardest job in favor of that party and the interests of that party,
I am standing behind (PAP leader) Gagik Tsarukyan.”