Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Agreement over Iran’s nuclear program might lead to serious geopolitical changes

12:16, 4 April, 2015

YEREVAN, 4 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. The agreement over Iran’s nuclear
program might serve as ground for serious changes in the region. This
is what Iranologist Rubik Danielian said during an April 4 press
conference. “It’s not just about changes in the region, but
geopolitical changes in general. A very important factor here is that
the agreement over Iran’s nuclear program became the point on which
Russia and the West reached mutual understanding in this tense
atmosphere,” Danielian mentioned, as “Armenpress” reports.

Danielian emphasized that the agreement over Iran’s nuclear program
goes to show that the West, Russia and China are ready to adapt to
Iran’s new role in the region. “We can’t say the same for certain
countries in the Near East, particularly Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the
Persian Gulf countries. Brilliant evidence of that is the fact that
two days ago, Turkey’s President made a very coarse anti-Iranian
statement that was like a message to the “six countries” that Turkey
isn’t ready to see Iran play a more active role in the region,” the
Iranologist mentioned.

Aravot: ARFD to nominate its candidate in Abovyan mayoral elections

12:04 04/04/2015 >> DAILY PRESS

ARF Dashnaktsutyun intends to nominate its candidate in the mayoral
elections in Abovyan city (Kotayk province), Aravot reports citing
sources.

Abovyan mayor Karapet Guloyan was appointed as governor of Kotayk on Thursday.

According to the newspaper, ARFD’s candidate is a participant of
Karabakh war, and a well-known public and political figure.

Source: Panorama.am

Large protest “1915-2015: 100 Years of Denial: It’s Enough” to be held in Bern

13:05, 4 April, 2015

BERN, 4 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. On April 24, the Swiss city of Bern will
hold a large protest against denial of the Armenian Genocide. As
“Armenpress” reports, citing Nouvelles d’Armenie, the protest will be
held with the title “1915-2015: 100 Years of Denial: It’s Enough”.

The protest will be dedicated to the recognition of the genocides of
the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks and the commemoration of
the victims.

Armen Martirosyan appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to India

15:44, 4 April, 2015

YEREVAN, 4 APRIL, ARMENPRESS. By the decree of President of the
Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Armen Martirosyan has been
appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic
of Armenia to India.

As the Public Relations and Mass Media Department of the Structure to
the Office of the President of the Republic of Armenia reports to
“Armenpress”, the decree reads as follows:

“Guided by Article 55 (8) of the Constitution of the Republic of
Armenia,I decide:

To appoint Armen Martirosyan Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Republic of India
(residence in New Delhi)”.

FLASH MOBS IN MEMORY OF ARMENIAN HERO SOGHOMON TEHLIRIAN IN GERMANY

by Marianna Lazarian

Friday, April 3, 13:39

A flash mob timed to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in
Ottoman Turkey was organized in Hamburg on April 2, on the birthday of
Soghomon Tehlirian – an Armenian Genocide survivor who assassinated
the former Ottoman Interior Minister Talaat Pasha in the presence of
many witnesses on March 15, 1921 in Berlin as revenge for his role
in orchestrating the Armenian Genocide during World War I.

The flash mob participants opened a 100-meter-long Armenian tricolor
flag in Hamburg, Tigran Mets Charity Fund told ArmInfo. A similar
action is scheduled also for today in Berlin on the very place where
Tehlirian assassinated Talaat Pasha.

Tehlirian’s family was killed during the Genocide of Armenians. He
survived and escaped to Constantinople and then migrated to the United
States in 1920.

Talaat Pasha had been convicted and sentenced to death in absentia in
the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-1920 for his crimes against the
Armenians of the Empire (among other things). After a two-day trial
Tehlirian was found not guilty by the German court and freed.

Tehlirian is considered a national hero by Armenians.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL IMPACTS LOCAL RESIDENT: THE PLAINVILLE CITIZEN

14:13, 3 April, 2015

YEREVAN, APRIL 3, ARMENPRESS: The American electronic weekly The
Plainville Citizen published an article on the Armenian Genocide,
presenting how this crime against the humanity of the 20th century
impacted the plain citizens. The 100th year anniversary of the Armenian
genocide, which took the lives of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire between 1915 and 1923, is being celebrated this month with a
ceremony at the state capitol on April 25. One of the attendees will
be Harry Terdjanian, a New Britain resident whose family survived
the genocide and immigrated to the area in 1975.

Terdjanian, who owns AutoMaster in Southington, spoke with the Citizen
about the genocide and his family’s experience. Armenpress presents
the interview as follows: Citizen: Give us a history lesson on the
Armenian genocide.

Terdjanian: It’s a tragic story that most people are unfamiliar with,
although there are large Armenian communities that teach it in their
school systems and four Armenian churches in Connecticut and two in
New Britain, including the Armenian Apostolic Church where I worship.

In 1915-1923 the Turkish government decided to eliminate Armenians.

Half of Armenia was controlled by communist Russia and half by the
Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Turks were losing their grip and through
genocide tried to eliminate the Armenians. It was the first genocide
of the 20th century and the Holocaust was a blueprint of the Armenian
genocide. 1.5 million Armenians were killed over an eight year period.

The genocide was sponsored by the Turkish government. The Turkish
Army slaughtered women, children, the elderly and innocent unarmed
citizens. Victims were drowned and marched into the Syrian desert
without food and water. Their property was confiscated and they were
stripped of their rights. The government renamed towns and villages
with Turkish names.

Citizen: Turkey doesn’t admit it was responsible for genocide.

Terdjanian: Not many criminals are willing to admit to their doings,
you have to bring them to justice. There was overwhelming evidence
that genocide had taken place as it was unfolding. Henry Morgenthau,
the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire was an eye witness who wrote
books about the genocide and with his help money was sent for relief
efforts. It was the first large scale relief effort by the U.S.

Citizen: Tell us about your family’s experience during the genocide
period.

Terdjanian: I was born in Turkish occupied Armenia. We lived with the
consequences of the genocide. We were the minority with little rights
and were not allowed to have our own Christian name. Every Armenian
name ends with “ian” and we weren’t allowed to have that. I was born
in 1968 but things hadn’t changed since the genocide with unfair
conditions. We survived the genocide but we were treated as infidels
like they wanted to finish the job. We were clearly a minority and
they made us feel humiliated, the government and the people at the
local and state level. We looked in 20 countries to find a home and
found one in the U.S. with fortune and luck. We settled in Connecticut
in 1975 and became citizens. We’re thankful for the country we can
call home. I came with my parents, brother, sister and grandmother.

All still live in the area except my grandmother. I wanted to secure
justice for her but she didn’t see it. The perpetrators were never
brought to justice although the three leaders of the genocide were
convicted by a world court.

The event at the state capitol begins at 11 a.m. on April 25. The
Armenian flag will be flown outside the capitol on April 24, which is
the 100th anniversary of the genocide which began on April 24, 1915
when the Turkish government placed 200 Armenian community leaders
under arrest in Constantinople. A reception will follow the program
with Chris Bohjalian, the acclaimed author who wrote “The Sandcastle
Girls,” a novel about the Armenian genocide, as the keynote speaker.

ARMEN MARTIROSYAN: ARMENIA CAN BENEFIT FROM IRAN NUKE DEAL IF AUTHORITIES TAKE CORRECT STEPS

13:26 | April 3,2015 | Politics

Armenia can benefit from the extended round of talks on Iranian nuclear
program, if, of course, the country’s authorities take correct steps,
Vice-Chairman of the Heritage Party Armen Martirosyan said on Friday.

He says the framework agreement reached between Iran and the six
world powers can benefit us in terms of security and economic issues.

“Armenia has a good opportunity to be involved in these major economic
programs, even a small participation can ensure bid dividends. We
can pursue multi-vector foreign policy and develop the economy from
the economic, military, social, and cultural points of view,” Mr
Martitrosyan told A1+.

He says the opposition is not entitled to take practical steps and
everything depends on the government. The Heritage representative says
Armenia’s Ambassador to Iran Artashes Tumanyan is an experienced and
competent person but cannot do anything either.

On April 2, Iran and world powers reached a framework agreement on
Thursday on curbing Iran’s nuclear program for at least a decade,
after eight days of marathon talks in Switzerland. Iran will now
work with the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany to continue
talks and reach a final agreement by June 30. Under the deal Tehran
is obliged to refrain from creating nuclear weapons. All sanctions
on Iran remain in place until a final deal is reached.

CYPRUS: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL PENALISED, DESPITE OBJECTIONS

03 April, 2015

The House of Representatives amended a 2011 bill on genocide denial
and crimes against humanity on Thursday, by penalising such acts
without prior conviction by an international court, making Cyprus
the fourth European country after Switzerland, Slovakia and Greece
to criminalise denial of the Armenian Genocide by the Turks in 1915.

________________________________

The European Parliament also passed a relevant resolution on March 12.

During an early-day session, House President Yiannakis Omirou, who
was hosting the Armenian National Assembly Speaker Galoust Sahakyan,
called it a historic day, noting that this legislation “allows the
parliament to restore, with unanimous decisions and resolutions,
historical truths.”

While on an official trip to Armenia last November, Omirou promised
his Armenian counterpart that Cyprus would criminalise the denial of
the Armenian Genocide.

He also took the extraordinary decision to chair the House Legal
Affairs committee meeting on Monday, where the amendment was approved
and forward to the plenary session for a vote, after what seemed to
be lobbying against the bill by some diplomatic circles.

Daily Simerini had reported a week ago that the Presidency wanted
to block the amendment, citing conflict with the Republic’s foreign
policy affairs. But reports suggested that the pressure had actually
come from some western diplomatic missions in Nicosia, in an effort
not to upset Turkey.

Omirou’s intervention helped allay fears from the two leading political
parties, ruling DISY and communist AKEL, that criminalising genocide
denial could hamper peace talks with the Turkish Cypriots, that may
resume after a six-month break. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades
pulled out of the UN-sponsored talks when Turkey sent its exploration
vessel, the Barbaros, into the Republic’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Now
that the vessel has left Cyprus waters, the government in Nicosia
expects UN mediators to help in the resumption of talks, but after
a new Turkish Cypriot leadership has been elected in elections on
April 27.

The Representative of the Armenian Community in the House of
Representatives, Vartkes Mahdessian, welcomed the resolution and
said that on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the massacres
by Ottoman Turks, the Cyprus parliament made a historic decision
unanimously passing a Law making the denial of the Armenian Genocide
a criminal offence.

He remarked that in 1975 the Cyprus House of Representatives became the
first parliament in Europe and the second in the world, to recognise
the Armenian Genocide.

Cyprus recognised the Armenian Genocide in 1975 with a resolution
adopted by the Parliament, which was repeated in 1982, whereas in 1990
the Parliament unanimously adopted another resolution which set the
24th of April as the national day to commemorate the Armenian Genocide.

On January 26, 1965, then Foreign Minister and later Speaker of the
House and Republic President Spyros Kyprianou, raised the issue of
recognition of the Genocide at the UN General Assembly Meanwhile,
DISY sources dismissed the notion, as reported by Simerini, that
Omirou and the presidency were at odds over amending the law.

The only reservations the President had was that the government was
not consulted on the matter, which pertains to foreign policy.

The Cyprus Mail quoted DISY sources as refuting media reports that
MPs had argued in the committee against criminalising denial because
it might anger the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey, particularly at this
juncture when peace talks may resume.

Under the law, the denial or “flagrant downgrading” of recognised
war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, provided the crime
has been recognised by an international court, is punishable by up
to five years imprisonment and/or a fine of EURO 10,000.

International organisations officially recognising the Armenian
Genocide include the European Parliament, the Council of Europe,
and the World Council of Churches.

ARMENIAN AND TURKISH MUSICIANS TO PERFORM TOGETHER IN SWEDEN

11:02, 03.04.2015

The PEN Club of Sweden will hold an event on the occasion of the
centenary of the genocide of the Armenians and other national
minorities in the Ottoman Empire.

At the event, which will be held on April 21 in the Swedish capital
city of Stockholm, passages will be read from Romanian Armenian writer
and politician Varujan Vosganian’s work entitled Book of Whispers,
the club website informed.

And before and after the reading, Armenian and Turkish musicians Hayk
Hakobyan and Hakan Vreskala will perform together.

The program will run within the framework of the “Global Reading”
campaign of the Berlin International Literature Festival.

TURKEY REJECTS CYPRIOT BAN ON DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

13:19, 03 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic has said Cypriot law
on banning denial of Armenian Genocide is “not worth of commenting,”
Anadolu Agency reports.

Turkey has rejected the Cypriot law on banning the denial of Armenian
Genocide.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said in a statement
late Thursday that “the decision is null and void for Turkey and not
worthy of comment.”

“It is without doubt that those who try to exploit the 1915 incidents
at every opportunity by using simple political ambitions cannot get
any result,” Bilgic added.

Earlier Thursday, the Cypriot Parliament unanimously adopted a law,
making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide.

The bill, which was jointly submitted by all political parties to
the Greek Cypriot parliament, can impose a five-year imprisonment
and fine of EURO 10,000 to those who deny the Genocide.