Author: Kalantarian Kevo

THE INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE FESTIVAL BERLIN (ILB) AND THE LEPSIUSHAUS POTSDAM

Feb 23 2015

The international literature festival berlin (ilb) and the Lepsiushaus
Potsdam are organising a worldwide reading on the 100th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide and we are calling on cultural institutions,
radio broadcasters and universities as well as schools to take part
in the initiative and to organise their own readings on April 21, 2015.

The text selected for the reading has been taken from
chapters seven and eight from The Book of Whispers by Varujan
Vosganian. You can access the text in 15 languages on our website
at Shortly you will also find
information there about where readings will be taking place.

More than 300 authors from more than 65 countries are supporting
this initiative, among them Nobel Prize for Literature laureates
Mario Vargas Llosa, Herta Muller, Elfriede Jelinek, Orhan Pamuk,
Gunter Grass and John M. Coetzee.

If you would like to organise a reading, please send
us the relevant information by the 30th of March 2015 to
[email protected], including details of the
exact location and time of your event as well as the name of the
participants.

Thank you for your support and for passing on this appeal.

My very best regards,

Jessica Araya

[email protected]

THE US REITERATES CALL TO RETURN AZERI SABOTEURS AS A “HUMANITARIAN GESTURE”

14:05, 24 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

The United States reiterates call to release two Azeri nationals
Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz Quliyev, who were convicted last year on
charges that include the murder of a teenager.

“We have previously advocated through Ambassador Warlick and others
the release of these two prisoners to the Government of Azerbaijan,”
Spokesperson for the Department of State Jen Psaki told a daily
briefing.

She reminded that during the recent visit to the region, US Assistant
Secretary of State Victoria Nuland also urged relevant authorities
to return the two prisoners to the Government of Azerbaijan.

“The sides have generally found a way in the past to return prisoners
as a humanitarian gesture, and such humanitarian gestures have been
shown to reduce tensions and build trust between the sides. So that’s
what she was referring to,”

Speaking to Public Radio of Armenia last week, Spokesman for the NKR
President David Babayan ruled out the return of the Azeri nationals.

TURKEY’S MISSILES TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH NATO SYSTEMS

Daily Sabah, Turkey
Feb 23 2015

DAILY SABAH WITH WIRES

Turkey will make its newly planned long-range missiles compatible
with NATO systems, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Monday.

“As one of the most important countries in NATO’s security line, we
will definitely ensure this integration and harmony,” Kalin stressed.

A proposal evaluation process regarding Turkey’s long-awaited,
billion-dollar, long-range missile defense system has not been fully
finalized, according to an official for Turkey’s Defense Industries
Undersecretariat. Media reports have recently said that Turkey will
wait until April 24, which is the anniversary of the 1915 incidents to
select a winner for the missile defense system. Rumors in political
circles in Ankara said that no decision will be made on the missile
defense system winner before the date since Turkey wants to first see
France and the U.S.’s position on the 1915 incidents. An agreement
may be made with China if the U.S. and French administrations take a
“pro-Armenian” stance.

The Turkish Long-Range Missile Defense System Project is one of the
defense industry’s biggest projects in which Chinese, American and
Italian-French companies are vying for contracts.

ANALYST: SLUMP IN EXPORTS IN JANUARY CONDITIONED BY RUSSIAN CRISIS, UNCERTAINTY IN TRADE REGULATIONS

ECONOMY | 24.02.15 | 11:16

By SARA KHOJOYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter

While the Armenian government says it is taking all measures to
activate the country’s economy and to disprove negative predictions
of international institutions, economic indexes registered in last
month are already considered alarming by experts.

According to the data published by the National Statistical Service
(NSS), in January this year, compared to January 2014, economic
activity increased by 1.3 percent, and the largest positive progress
was registered in the field of services – 3.8 percent, construction
volume grew by 2.2 percent, agricultural gross production – by 1.8
percent.

Other indexes, however, are negative – a 4.3-percent inflation,
electricity production fell by almost 20 percent, a 7.4-percent
decrease was registered in sales, a 6.3-percent decline of volume of
industrial production.

“Compared to last January, this January’s indices are upsetting,
and this is a process that started still last October-December,
it is conditioned by the Russian crisis and the vulnerability
of our economy,” Hayk Gevorgyan, an economic analyst writing for
the pro-opposition Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Time) daily, told
ArmeniaNow.

Another negative index is more than 30 percent decline of foreign
trade turnover, as well as almost 22 percent decline of export,
which Gevorgyan again explains by the problems in the Russian economy.

“Since the NSS indices are preliminary, and in their report it does
not specify export to which countries declined and for which goods,
it is impossible to say more now. But the main reasons I think
is the Armenian dram’s devaluation to a lesser degree than the
Russian ruble’s, besides exporters are still waiting for new export
regulations.”

According to Gevorgyan, although in any country the national currency’s
devaluation gives an extra trigger to exporters, however, the Russian
market, which our government saw as a potential market for increasing
the export, does not look appealing for businessmen.

“As the dram lost its value by 18 percent, and in Russia the ruble
devaluation was by 100 percent, in Russia the selling price for our
products will be higher than of the products produced locally and,
hence, we cannot export our products to Russia.”

“The Russian market is becoming less and less appealing for us;
that is first of all conditioned by the exchange rate, as I wrote,
the other factor is the decline of the purchasing power [of the
population] in Russia,” the economic analyst added.

At the same time he said that it is not clear how the NSS presents
foreign trade, whether the export to the Eurasian Economic Union
(EEU) states is registered as internal sales or not.

“Maybe such a decline is explained by the fact that after becoming a
member of the EEU, foreign trade with the other EEU-member states is
not registered as foreign trade. That will become clear in one week
when the NSS publishes a more complete report,” Gevorgyan said.

Armenia joined the EEU that also includes Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan on January 2.

WHY IS SULEYMAN SHAH’S TOMB SO IMPORTANT?

22 February 2015 Last updated at 14:36 GMT

The tomb of Suleyman Shah has now been evacuated and destroyed by
the Turkish military

Scores of Turkish troops and vehicles have entered Syria to evacuate
and destroy a mausoleum where a forefather of the Ottoman empire
was buried. The BBC’s Matthew Davis considers why the site was so
important.

The now ruined tomb of Suleyman Shah stands on a football pitch-sized
spit of Turkish land inside Syria, but its historical and political
significance belie this humble geography.

Shah was a Turkic tribal leader who lived from about 1178 until 1236,
when according to an epigraph in his mausoleum he “drowned in the
Euphrates along with two of his men, in search for a home for himself
and his people”.

Official accounts are questioned by some, but the story goes that
Shah’s followers headed north into modern-day Turkey.

It was there that his grandson, Osman I, founded the Ottoman Empire,
which at the height of its powers centuries later controlled swathes
of territory across south-west Europe, the Middle East and North
Africa from its capital in Constantinople (now Istanbul).

The Ottoman empire had disintegrated by the early 20th Century, and
the new state of Turkey emerged – but such was the national importance
of Shah’s burial complex that the site was protected under a 1921
agreement with France, which then occupied the area now located in
Syria’s Aleppo province.

The now-destroyed complex was on a spit of land by the Euphrates river

Since then, Turkey has invoked its right to station troops there and
fly its flag over the site, which was relocated some 80km (50 miles)
to the north when the original area was flooded by the creation of
the reservoir Lake Assad in 1974.

Turkey’s only foreign enclave has retained immense emotional value
for its people, but the chaos engulfing Syria in recent years has
seen it assume a growing political significance.

In August 2012 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – then prime minister –
warned all parties in the Syrian conflict that an action against the
tomb would be considered an attack on Turkish territory “as well an
attack on Nato land”.

And amid reports that the soldiers stationed there had been besieged
for months by Islamic State militants, last year the Turkish parliament
authorised the use of force against the jihadists.

However despite recently joining the US in training some rebels
fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, Turkey has resisted playing
a full role in the US-led campaign against Islamic State.

Correspondents say that if the historic Suleyman Shah tomb had come
under attack, the effect on public opinion would have made it harder
for Turkey to avoid a full-scale military campaign against the group.

So the fact that the tomb is now moved and the Turkish soldiers
evacuated is a great relief for the nation and its leaders, local
commentators say.

“We had given the Turkish armed forces a directive to protect our
spiritual values and the safety of our armed forces personnel,”
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after Saturday’s operation.

Turkish media later showed images of three soldiers raising the flag at
a new site closer to the Turkish border, which is likely to host a new
tomb that authorities hope will provide a final home for Suleyman Shah.

This is the new resting place for the remains of Suleyman Shah

>, >, >

ARMENIE

Tels sont les principaux titres de la presse, qui rend compte de
la reponse de Gaguik Tsaroukian, president d’Armenie prospère, a
un discours > de Serge Sarkissian a son encontre . Prenant
la parole lors d’une reunion de son parti, M. Tsaroukian a denonce
comme > le discours de Serge Sarkissian, celui-ci
ayant outrepasse les ,
M. Tsaroukian a neanmoins note qu’il a toujours ete sincère dans son
souhait d’aider son peuple. Il a denonce l’etat social dans lequel se
trouve l’Armenie, deplorant que >, n’ait rien dit sur la decroissance economique,
sur le taux de la pauvrete, sur la diminution des investissements,
sur l’enrichissement de son plus proche entourage et sur la terreur
qui règnerait dans le monde des affaires etc. M. Tsaroukian a en
outre dit qu’il n’etait point panique de la perspective d’etre prive
de son mandat parlementaire et des inspections fiscales au sein
de ses societes. Selon lui, au cours des sept annees de presidence
de Serge Sarkissian, les societes appartenant a sa famille ont ete
scrupuleusement inspectees par les organes competents. Par ailleurs,
le President d’Armenie prospère a voulu ouvrir les >,
en indiquant notamment que plusieurs propositions >
lui avaient ete faites de la part des autorites contre son soutien a la
reforme constitutionnelle. Selon lui, on lui a meme propose le poste
de President de la Republique, a condition que le parti Republicain
maintienne, une fois la constitution changee, tous les postes cles
du Gouvernement. M. Tsaroukian a dit avoir rejete categoriquement
cette proposition antietatique, >. Il a rappele que durant la presidence
de Serge Sarkissian, la dette exterieure de l’Etat a augmente de
3 milliards de dollars. >,
a-t-il lance. qu’aurait commis Gaguik Tsaroukian et de n’avoir rien entrepris en
tant que President de la Republique, en s’en faisant complice : >.

Selon le CNA, les accusations de Serge Sarkissian contre G. Tsaroukian
sont valables pour 90% des membres de son parti Republicain.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 16 fevrier 2015

lundi 23 fevrier 2015, Stephane (c)armenews.com

SEVERAL ALEPPO ARMENIANS KILLED AND INJURED

Lragir.am
Country – 23 February 2015, 11:02

Mortar fire by armed militants at different districts of Aleppo killed
and injured several, the Facebook page of the Gandzasar informed. Sago
Karakyulean and Haroot Aksanean were killed, Jacques Aksanean, Hovsep
Chaloghlean, Avo Zarminean, Levon Barseghean and Nazo Aksanean were
injured.

Historian about recall of protocols. “The Turkish side can go for
provocations.”

February 21 2015

Aravot.am asked the Head of the Department of the Armenian Cause and
History of the Armenian Genocide, Institute of History at the Armenian
National Academy of Sciences Armen Marukyan about how he assesses, as
a historian, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to
recall the Armenia-Turkey protocols. “This move is logical and
completely fits in the spirit and letter of the Pan-Armenian
Declaration, because there was already some discrepancy between the
Declaration and the Protocols, because whenever we refer to Woodrow
Wilson’s arbiter decision and the Treaty of Sevres, and we knew what
territories and boundaries were included in this document, it is
obvious that the covert reference here towards the Treaty of Kars,
i.e. the existing border document, reaffirms this provision of the
countries, somewhat opposes to it, and it is no more logical to
continue the process of overcoming the consequences of the Armenian
genocide, given these protocols at the legislative body,” said the
historian.

In his words, this is the first move that needs to be reinforced by
the second move, also by recall of the signature. “Unless the
signature of the Republic of Armenia is underneath this document, it
is not ruled out that the Turkish side can go for provocations and
ratify the protocols after we remove it from the agenda to show to the
international community, look, how more law-abiding country I am than
the neighboring Armenia, while everyone knows that the Turkish side
was the one to violate it. Hence, after the recall, all possible
Turkish provocations will become null and void. These are the correct
and sequential moves by which the Republic of Armenia and all
Armenians should move ahead to the centennial of the Armenian
Genocide,” opines Head of the Department of the Armenian Cause and
History of the Armenian Genocide, Institute of History at the Armenian
National Academy of Sciences Armen Marukyan.

Gohar HAKOBYAN
Read more at:

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 21 2015

Gallipoli commemorations cancelled due to lack of international interest

February 21, 2015, Saturday/ 17:00:00/ LAMÄ°YA ADÄ°LGIZI / ISTANBUL

Centennial commemorations of the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I
initiated by the Turkish government and to be celebrated on April 24
of this year — the same date as the centennial commemorations of what
is called the `Armenian genocide’ — have been cancelled due to the
unwillingness of international leaders to visit Ankara and overshadow
the genocide ceremonies in Yerevan.

`The Gallipoli celebrations have been cancelled. All preparations have
been suspended as the number of RSVPs to the invitation is not
positive. Only five countries have accepted the invitation and they
will not be represented by high-level officials,’ an official from the
government, who asked to remain anonymous, said in a talk with
Sunday’s Zaman.

The suspension of the Gallipoli commemorations, which were being
organized by the Turkish Ministry of Youth and Sport, is part of
longstanding war of words between the Turkish and Armenian leaders
following an exchange of invitations by both sides urging each other
to accept the request and honor their victims of the World War I in
their respective countries. However, neither side appears to be
compromising.

The tense ties between Armenians and Turks became particularly
strained after Ankara decided to commemorate the Gallipoli Campaign on
the same date as the 100th anniversary of the 1915 events that led to
the killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during WWI. The Turkish
government sent invitations to more than 100 leaders around the world,
including Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, to attend the event. The
campaign was one of the most famous battles of WWI when Ottoman troops
resisted the invading Allied forces who sought to control the
Gallipoli peninsula on the Dardanelles strait.

“We fought together as one of a kind. That’s why we invited Sarksyan,”
a government official was quoted by local media as saying, referring
to the participation of Armenian minorities alongside Turks in the
Ottoman army.

Yerevan rejected the invitation and in an open letter to President
Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an, Sarksyan said the invitation itself showed
Turkey’s continuing policy of denying the Armenian genocide and
emphasized that Turkey needs to recognize the 1915 killings as a
genocide.

A couple of months earlier Sarksyan had first invited ErdoÄ?an — after
he was elected president in August of last year — to join Armenians
in commemorating the victims of the Armenian `genocide’ in Yerevan on
April 24. The invitation was presented by Armenian Foreign Minister
Eduard Nalbandyan during the first official visit of an Armenian
minister to Ankara.

Armenians claim that 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed
in the final years of the Ottoman Empire in a way that constitutes
genocide, a claim categorically denied by Turkey. Ankara says the
death toll is inflated and denies that the events of 1915 amounted to
genocide, arguing instead that both Turks and Armenians were killed
when Armenians revolted against the Ottoman Empire during WWI in
collaboration with the Russian army, which was then invading Eastern
Anatolia. Every year on April 24, Armenians around the world
commemorate the Armenian victims who died at the end of WWI.

The latest debacle in the already heated relations between Turkey and
Armenia was Sarksyan’s withdrawal of the Zurich protocols from the
Armenian Parliament. “The Turkish government has no political will,
distorts the spirit of the protocols and continues its policy of
setting preconditions,” Sarksyan said in a statement issued on Monday,
adding that Turkey’s “policy of denial and rewriting of history” on
the eve of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 killings is being revived
in Ankara.

The Zurich protocols, intended to normalize ties between Turkey and
Armenia, were signed in Zurich on Oct. 10, 2009 with the aim of
establishing diplomatic relations and opening the two countries’ land
border, which was closed in solidarity with Azerbaijan after
Armenia-backed armed forces seized Azerbaijani territories as part of
the Nagorno-Karabakh war. The normalization process had been
deadlocked ever since as neither Parliament approved the deal. Both
Ankara and Yerevan have accused each other of setting new conditions
on the deal agreed to in Zurich years ago. Turkey has many times
stated that any development, such as reconciliation or opening the
border between the two estranged nations, could not be expected until
Armenia settles the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan,
Turkey’s ally in the region.

Instead, Ankara extended its commitment to the peace protocols.
Calling Armenia’s decision `inconsistent and insincere,’ Turkish
Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgiç said on Tuesday that Armenia
wanted further reasons to criticize Turkey ahead of the 100th
anniversary of the 1915 events.

`The real test will be in April,’ said Richard Giragosian, the
director of the Yerevan-based Regional Studies Center (RSC), adding
that although the current developments seem to taint relations, they
do not necessarily signal the death of the normalization process
although the process itself has reached its lowest point.

Relating the tense political atmosphere on the Armenian-Turkish
normalization to the domestic issues in both countries — the upcoming
June general election for which ErdoÄ?an is trying to secure votes and
Sarksyan using the protocols to deal with his own domestic political
troubles — Giragosian says the test will depend more on what Turkish
leaders say and do on April 24.

Last April ErdoÄ?an extended his condolences to Armenians over what
happened in 1915, although the act did not meet the expectations of
Yerevan or the Armenian diaspora.

In Ankara, Güner Ã-zkan, an expert on the Caucasus at the International
Strategic Research Organization (USAK), is not positive about any new
developments in the Turkish-Armenian ties at least until the upcoming
general election in Turkey on June 7.

Calling Sarksyan’s latest step a “unilaterial decision,” Ã-zkan doesn’t
seem convinced as to the continuation of the precedent established by
ErdoÄ?an a year ago: “I don’t expect any sudden move [from Turkish
leaders including ErdoÄ?an] especially under the increasing pressure on
Ankara on the eve of the approaching 100th anniversary of the
so-called genocide and the upcoming election.”

FOOTBALL
L’international arménien Youra Movsissian gagnera 3,5 millions d’euros
par an au Spartak Moscou

D’après le journal russe « Ð`звеÑ?Ñ?иÑ? », le salaire de l’international
arménien et attaquant du Spartak Moscou, Youra Movsissian (27 ans) est
revu à la hausse. Désormais, Youra Movsissian percevra un salaire
annuel de 3,5 millions d’euros jusqu’en 2019 date de son fin de
contrat avec Spartak Moscou. Si d’ici la fin de saison l’international
arménienne arrive à exceller dans les buts et « dernière-passe de but
» et remportant un minimum de 20 points au Spartak Moscou, son salaire
serait complété d’une somme de 1,5 million d’euros.

Krikor Amirzayan

samedi 21 février 2015,
Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com