Author: Liana Toganian

Human rights activist: Taron Chakhoyan must be brought to disciplinary liability

Liana Toganian
Panorama, Armenia
March 24 2021

Taron Chakhoyan, the deputy chief of the Armenian prime minister's staff, must be subjected to disciplinary liability, Armenia’s former Deputy Minister of Justice, human rights activist Ruben Melikyan said late on Tuesday.

His comments came after Chakhoyan shared on Facebook a photo of a street full of rubbish, writing, “This is a symbolic photo. Baghramyan Avenue today.” However, it has turned out that the photo actually shows a street in a Ukrainian city after a holiday in September 2017.

Armenia’s opposition on Tuesday decided to unblock the avenue in downtown Yerevan that it had been blocking since late February.

“Taron Chakhoyan used to be just a trader of the falsifications and lies of [PM] Nikol [Pashinyan]. Today he is already a senior official – a deputy chief of staff of the government.

“Thus, the spread of a fake photo by this man with a clear implication of discrediting the opposition is not just a mean act (not punishable by law), but a clear disciplinary violation for which he must be subjected to disciplinary liability,” Melikyan wrote on Facebook, adding the official later removed the photo and apologized for it. 

Why did this church disappear?

Liana Toganian
Yahoo! News
March 25 2021
Thu, March 25, 2021, 1:33 AM

BBC correspondent Jonah Fisher investigates the disappearance of an Armenian church that changed hands in the recent Nagorno-Karabakh war. An online video shows the church was intact when Azerbaijan took back the disputed territory. Azerbaijan has said ethnic Armenians are welcome to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh but Armenia has accused it of damaging and destroying Armenian cultural heritage left behind in the region, including churches and monuments. Both sides accuse the other of war crimes. Video journalist: Abdujalil Abdurasulov

– What does the map say?

JONAH FISHER: Well, the map says it should be on the top of here.

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

– I think you show him the map.

JONAH FISHER: Yeah, a little bit further. OK, look. Just a little bit further on, there.

Well, the map says it should be on the top of here. Which seems rather unlikely. OK, so this looks to me like it could have been where that church was. OK, look here. It was definitely here. So we can see from the trees here, they're a very definite shape. You can see them over there, they match.

What happened to the church?

– What happened was the– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

– During the war it was destroyed.

JONAH FISHER: It can't have been destroyed during the war, because there are videos of the Azeris here.

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

– No, it wouldn't happen.

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

– They destroyed it themselves.

JONAH FISHER: Can I show you something from when we went there? You can see it's been totally destroyed.

HIKMET HAJIYEV: Because it's a proper geolocation, I don't know. It needs to be checked. A policy of occupation was committed by Armenia against Azerbaijani people. And you have seen the level of destruction in Jabrayil, Fuzuli. More than eight cities of Azerbaijan have been destroyed. It's like a Hiroshima, or nuclear bomb, massive, has been used.

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

JONAH FISHER: Perhaps you'd like to apologize for what Armenia did in those occupied territories?

ARA AIVAZIAN: During the war, there were, you know, wrongdoings on every side. If there was any case, it was, let's say, an individual approach. It was not a state policy about that.

JONAH FISHER: Having been there, can I just say, it looks very systematic.

ARA AIVAZIAN: The same happens now in the territories that fall under control of Azerbaijan, particularly in the villages and cities of Hadrut region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

– [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

Watch the BBC video at link below

Turkish ex-police chiefs jailed for 2007 murder of journalist Hrant Dink

Liana Toganian
France 24

Issued on: 26/03/2021 – 14:52

Turkish judges on Friday handed life sentences to two former police chiefs and two top ex-security officers over the 2007 killing of a Turkish-Armenian journalist, local media reported.

Seventy-six suspects were facing charges including failing to uncover the plot to kill Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of Agos, a Turkish-Armenian bilingual newspaper.

Dink, a leading promoter of reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian communities, was shot twice in the head outside his office in central Istanbul.

His murder plunged Turkey's Armenian community into mourning and sparked a sprawling trial that lasted over a decade and involved senior security officers who were accused of being aware of the murder plot but failing to act.

Istanbul's main court sentenced the city's former police intelligence chief Ramazan Akyurek and his former deputy Ali Fuat Yilmazer to life in prison for "premeditated murder", according to Agos.

Former top Istanbul interior ministry officers Yavuz Karakaya and Muharrem Demirkale were also jailed for life while charges against another top city police chief were dropped due to the statute of limitation.

Ali Oz, a former interior ministry commander of the Black Sea region of Trabzon where the gunman came from, was sentenced to 28 years in jail on Friday.

'Bitter taste'

Dink's supporters and human rights activists still believe that the most senior police officials have gone unpunished and want the investigation and trials to run on.

"Some of those responsible for this assassination, including the sponsors, have still not been prosecuted," said Erol Onderoglu, Turkey representative for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who has closely followed the trial.

For years, prosecutors have looked into alleged links between the suspects and US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016."This partial justice rendered after 14 years leaves a bitter taste and should not mark the end of the search for the truth."

The Istanbul court on Friday ruled that Dink's murder was committed "in line with the objectives of Feto" — an acronym Ankara uses for Gulen's banned movement, NTV reported.

Dink's wife Rakel had said in January that blaming Gulen's movement for her husband's death nearly a decade before the failed coup was like saying, "I didn't kill him, but my hand did".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

 

Defense Army battalion commander arrested on charges of insubordination, desertion

Liana Toganian

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 12:37,

YEREVAN, MARCH 18, ARMENPRESS. A commander of a training battalion of the Defense Army is under arrest on charges of insubordination and desertion, the Committee of Investigations said.

According to the investigators, Commander I. Vahanyan disobeyed his superior’s orders during combat operations in the 2020 Artsakh War and deserted the battlefield. According to investigators the commander’s actions led to casualties in his battalion, with some troops getting killed, others getting wounded or taken captive.

Vahanyan is in pre-trial detention.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Ombudsman publicizes new evidence from Azerbaijan president’s speech as manifestation of Armenophobia

Liana Toganian
News.am, Armenia
March 9 2021
08:30, 09.03.2021

The Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia has published new evidence from the speech of the president of Azerbaijan as a manifestation of Armenophobia.

The ombudsman's respective statement reads:

“These are segments from the speech of the 7th Congress of the ‘New Azerbaijan’ party of the President of Azerbaijan. This presentation simply begs these questions: who, after all, is speaking in fascism language; and, how will there be peace under these conditions when the President of the country (Azerbaijan) proudly emphasizes that an entire generation has grown up with hatred towards Armenia and its population.

‘The younger generation has grown up with (…) hatred for the enemy, and this young generation has liberated our lands from the invaders.’

‘Armenia is in an isolated state today, while we are building relations with all our neighbors very effectively, based on friendship and good neighborliness. This was also a kind of preparation. I want to say frankly that if preparatory work had not been done in this area, then we could have faced difficulties in the second Karabakh [(Artsakh)] war. Armenia has isolated itself. In other words, we isolated it from regional projects, from oil and gas projects, ruined their economy, and we can say with a sense of pride that we are the main factor here, as any independent economic expert can confirm. We exposed Armenia as an ambivalent and unstable country with no future. Demographic problems arose, which in itself led to shrinking of the economy.’

‘Today Armenia shies away from cooperation, attempts to hamper the implementation of the Zangazur corridor. But they will fail. We will make them. We will force them. We will achieve our goals, just as we drove them out of our lands.’

Armenia’s Human Rights Defender expresses their thankfulness to Mr. Ruben Melkonyan, the Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies and to Ms. Mariam Melkonyan, a lecturer at the same faculty for their highly professional assistance in analyses and interpretation of relevant materials.”

Armenian President once again refused to sign General Staff appointment motion –

Liana Toganian
TASS, Russia
The head of state will also not challenge this motion in the Constitutional Court

YEREVAN, March 12. /TASS/. Armenian President Armen Sarkisyan once again refused to sign Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s motion to appoint Artak Davryan as the new Armed Forces General Staff head. According to the presidential press service, the head of state will also not challenge this motion in the Constitutional Court.

"The president of the republic will not sign the draft order and will not turn to the Constitutional Court. We remind that, on , the president has already contacted the Constitutional Court, asking to decide on whether the law ‘on military service and the status of serviceman’ complies with the norms of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court’s ruling and adoption of necessary measures may have a significant effect on legal procedures of dismissal and appointment of a General Staff head," the press service said.

Earlier, Pashinyan filed the motion to appoint Davtyan as the new General Staff head for the second time. Once such motion is filed, the president must either sign it within three days of challenge it in the Constitutional Court.

Davtyan already served as the head of the General Staff between 2018 and June 2020, but was dismissed by the Prime Minister’s motion. Later, Pashinyan appointed Onik Gasparyan to this position. This Wednesday, Pashinyan stated that Gasparyan was dismissed, because the president failed to sign the motion or challenge it in the court within three days. Gasparyan said his resignation is unconstitutional and announced his intention to challenge it in the court. In the meantime, Sarkisyan asked the Constitutional Court to review the law "on military service" for compliance with the constitution. The opposition demands that Gasparyan keeps his position.

This political crisis in Armenia started on February 25, when Gasparyan and other senior military staff called for resignation of Pashinyan. The Prime Minister viewed such move as an armed coup attempt, and has already filed two motions to the president to dismiss the General Staff head.

Turkish press: Turkey urges for rapid implementation of ECO regional trade deal

Liana Toganian
 ISTANBUL ECONOMY 
MAR 04, 2021 4:00 PM GMT+3
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) 14th Leaders Summit, March 4, 2021. (AA Photo)

Turkey on Thursday urged for the trade deal between member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) to be put into action as soon as possible.

Addressing ECO’s virtual 14th Leaders Summit, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also called for the members to develop their ties with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and urged for the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

“Putting into action the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement (ECOTA), which has not been put into force for 17 years, without wasting time will be beneficial,” Erdoğan noted.

Turkey is one of the founding members of the Eurasian political and economic intergovernmental organization, which was established in 1985, along with Iran and Pakistan.

In 1992, the organization expanded to include seven new members including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

ECO covers an area of approximately 8 million square kilometers (3 million square miles) with a population of 400 million.

Erdoğan said they find important China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), coined by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, and acknowledged that they support the initiative on the basis of the “win-win” principle.

Inspired by the historical Silk Road, BRI is an ambitious program to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks along six corridors to improve regional integration, increase trade and stimulate economic growth.

The president also noted the importance of Ecobank, an Istanbul-based regional financing body for trade projects, calling for countries that have not yet become members to join.

Erdoğan stressed they have gained major ground with infrastructure projects in the transportation field.

The president also called for stronger solidarity amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Only through strong solidarity and regional and international cooperation can we win the fight against this global catastrophe,” Erdoğan noted.

“Tourism and travel sectors have been one of the sectors where the effects of the pandemic have been felt the most around the world.”

He said a number of measures were enacted to minimize the effects of the outbreak.

“We have already begun preparations for 2021 to be a year in which losses in terms of the tourism sector are more than compensated,” Erdoğan added.

On the other hand, the president also called on ECO member countries to strengthen their relations with the TRNC in every area.

“I called on all our members to develop their relations with TRNC and help it overcome the injustices it has been experiencing,” Erdoğan said.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island was followed by violence against the island’s Turks and Ankara’s intervention as a guarantor power.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K. The TRNC was founded in 1983.

Erdoğan also touched upon the Karabakh region, saying that their primary aim as of now would be to help ensure security and stability in the region.

“Our priority is to repair the damage left by the 30-year occupation,” the president noted.

The two former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan and Armenia, experienced tense relations for three decades after the Armenian military started occupying Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions in 1991.

When new clashes erupted last September, the Armenian army launched attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violated several humanitarian cease-fire agreements.

During the six weeks of conflict, Azerbaijan liberated several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages from the Armenian occupation.

The two countries signed a Russian-brokered agreement on Nov. 10, 2020, to end the fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.

“We believe that Armenia would support regional stability with peaceful steps,” Erdoğan said.

In his address, the president also said that lifting U.S. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear work and returning to a 2015 nuclear deal will contribute to regional stability and economic prosperity.

Tehran and Washington have said they want the other side to move first to hold talks to salvage the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), under which Tehran secured an easing of sanctions by limiting its nuclear work.

Last month, Erdoğan told Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone call that he saw a window of opportunity for Iran and the United States, adding he wanted U.S. sanctions on Tehran to be lifted.

Greek, Armenian Genocide Recognized by the Netherlands

Liana Toganian
Greek Reporter
March 4 2021

By Tasos Kokkinidis
March 4, 2021

Greek, Armenian and Syriac genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century were recognized by the Netherlands earlier in the week.

The move follows the overwhelming adoption by the Dutch parliament of a resolution noting that the government “still does not recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915 [perpetrated] by the Ottoman Empire (in which also the Arameans, Assyrians, and the Pontic Greeks were victims).”

The resolution stated that “there is more urgency than ever for countries to clearly speak out about the past in order to advance reconciliation and prevent repetition in the future.”

The genocide of 1915 was committed by the Ottoman Turks and Kurds against the Syriac people and occurred parallel to the genocides of Armenians and Greeks, which was not only reduced to the region of Pontus, but all Greeks in the Ottoman Empire.

The resolution said that 1.5 million Armenians, more than 300,000 Pontic Greeks, and up to another 700,000 other Greeks, as well as 300,000 of the region’s estimated 700,000 Syriacs (Assyrians-Chaldeans-Arameans) were massacred.

Turkey condemned the decision of the Dutch parliament calling it null and void.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hami Aksoy said the decision is a null attempt to rewrite history with political motives.

“Councils are not venues to write history and trial it. Those who agree with this decision, instead of looking for what actually happened in 1915, are after votes as a populist,” Aksoy said.

He said the Dutch House of Representatives is detached from reality as it has frequently been in recent years.

Aksoy invited the Dutch government to wage a struggle against racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia rather than taking decisions against Turkey.

Every year on May 19 Pontic Greeks commemorate one of the darkest pages in Hellenic history, as the date will forever be connected to the genocide of their ancestors at the hands of the Turks.

The Pontic Genocide cost 353,000 lives, while even more lost their homes and generations of wealth in the Pontus (Black Sea) region, and then were forced to emigrate to other places to begin their lives all over again.

Pontian Greeks had an ancient history in the area, going as far back as 800 BC.

The very first colonists in the Black Sea area were merchants from the Ionian Greek city-state of Miletus. They flourished during the time of the Byzantine Empire.

The persecution of the Pontic population, along with other Christian Greeks living n Ottoman lands, began in 1908.

The Turks, on the pretext of “national security,” displaced most of the Greek population by burning entire villages, either slaying those who resisted or chasing them off their ancestral lands.

Greek civilians from Pontus flee their homes during the genocide. Public domain

EU and Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement enters into force

Liana Toganian
Modern Diplomacy
March 3 2021

On 1 March 2021, the European Union-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will enter into force. It has now been ratified by the Republic of Armenia, all EU Member States and the European Parliament. This represents an important milestone for EU-Armenia relations.

This Agreement provides a framework for the EU and Armenia to work together in a wide range of areas: strengthening democracy, the rule of law and human rights; creating more jobs and business opportunities, improving legislation, public safety, a cleaner environment, as well as better education and opportunities for research. This bilateral agenda also contributes to overall aim of the EU to deepen and strengthen its relations with the countries of its Eastern neighbourhood through the Eastern Partnership framework.

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, said: “The entry into force of our Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement comes at a moment when Armenia faces significant challenges. It sends a strong signal that the EU and Armenia are committed to democratic principles and the rule of law, as well as to a wider reform agenda. Across political, economic, trade, and other sectoral areas, our Agreement aims to bring positive change to people’s lives, to overcome challenges to Armenia’s reforms agenda.”

Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, underlined that: “While these are trying times for Armenia, the European Union continues to stand by the Armenian people. The entry into force of the bilateral EU-Armenia agreement on 1 March will allow us to strengthen our work on the economy, connectivity, digitalisation and the green transformation as priority areas. These will have concrete benefits for the people and are key for socio-economic recovery and the longer-term resilience of the country. In the current turbulent days, maintaining calm and respect for democracy and constitutional order are key.”

The Agreement was signed in November 2017 and substantial parts of have been provisionally applied since 1 June 2018. Since then, the breadth and depth of the bilateral cooperation between Armenia and the European Union have advanced steadily. At the 3rd EU-Armenia Partnership Council held on 17 December 2020, the European Union and Armenia reiterated their full commitment to implementing the CEPA.

The Agreement plays an important role for the modernisation of Armenia, in particular through legislative approximation to EU norms in many sectors. This includes reforms in the rule of law and respect of human rights, particularly an independent, efficient and accountable justice system, as well as reforms aimed at enhancing the responsiveness and effectiveness of public institutions and at favouring the conditions for sustainable and inclusive development.

From the entry into force of the Agreement on 1 March, cooperation will be strengthened in those areas which to date were not subject to the provisional application of the Agreement. The European Union stands ready and looks forward to working even more closely with Armenia on the full and effective implementation of the Agreement, in our mutual interest and to the benefit of our societies and citizens.

Mikayel Minasyan: Armenia’s economy on the brink of default

Liana Toganian
Panorama, Armenia
Feb 23 2021

"There is a real risk that the Armenian economy may occur on the brink of default," Armenia's former Ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on the current state of affairs in economy. "The service of foreign debt is increasing day by day with higher loan repayment rates. This means, Armenia will be unable to not only borrow new debt, but international financial institutions may also request direct control of the country's economy," according to Minasyan.  

"A month ago, the government issued new Eurobond worth $750 million, thus increasing the public debt by 10%. These funds were envisaged to spend on economic activity and growth, increase the GDP, but as it turned out, the funds were envisaged to pay salaries and  bonuses to officials. After the change of the power in Armenia, the country's national debt rose by 2.3 billion USD. By the end of the year, the state debt will exceed the established ceiling and reach 70% percent of GDP," Minasyan wrote.

The former Ambassador reminded that the Armenian legislation establishes debt ceiling of 60% of GDP, while at present the state debt is around 65-66% of GDP. In his words, the national debt has thus crossed the established upper level of the debt.

Minasyan also reminded that 70% of the total debt is in foreign currency which poses another risk as the exchange rates are fluctuating. "At present, every citizen of the Republic of Armenia has a real debt of 2,960 USD. The citizens of Armenia pay a high price for  Nikol's mistakes, including financially. They pay high price in place of their children, leaving huge debts and a country with uncompetitive economy to future generations," Minasyan concluded.