Author: Mary Lazarian

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office hit back Monday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a blistering row over a German parliamentary vote declaring the Ottoman Empire committed genocide against Armenians, Agence France Presse reports.

Erdogan has angrily condemned last week’s vote on the World War I massacres, charging that the 11 German MPs with Turkish roots who backed it supported “terrorism” by the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), and demanding “blood tests” to see “what kind of Turks they are.”

Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert Monday said that while Berlin also considers the PKK a terrorist group, “to associate individual members of parliament with terrorism is utterly incomprehensible to us.”

“The resolution was a political initiative that emerged from the midst of the Bundestag, which is a democratically elected, independent organ under our constitution,” Seibert told a regular press conference.

“The Bundestag reached a sovereign decision. That must be respected,” Seibert said, adding that this was the message Merkel had given to the Turkish president.

Erdogan – in a bitter reaction to the vote to recognize the 1915-1916 killings as genocide – singled out German Greens party co-leader Cem Ozdemir, one of the instigators of the resolution passed on June 2.

Ozdemir has been placed under police protection after receiving anonymous death threats.

The Turkish community in Germany – which broadly opposes the genocide vote – nonetheless criticized Erdogan Monday for the pressure his government and its supporters had placed on German lawmakers of Turkish origin.

“We find death threats and demands for blood tests abhorrent,” its chairman Gokay Sofuoglu told national news agency DPA.

“I think the era when people were defined by their blood ended in 1945. This is absolutely out of place.”

John Fisher, the musical director of one of the leading opera theatres in the world – the Metropolitan Opera House, will arrive in Yerevan on June 4 at the invitation of the “Aram Khachaturian Competition” Cultural Foundation. The musical director of one of the most prestigious opera stages is the special guest of the 12^th Aram Khachaturian International Conducting Competition held in June 6.

The event will be attended by a number of outstanding musicians, art-managers, who will get an opportunity to discover young talented people in the framework of the contest.

The international competition will kick off on June 6, Aram Khachaturian’s birthday. Fifty-seven conductors from dozens of countries applied for participation in the contest. Only 14 of them have been selected to fight for a trophy from June 6 to June 14.

The Aram Khachaturian International Competition is the member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions. The Khachaturian Competition has is conducted thanks to joint efforts of the Ministry of Culture of RA, “Aram Khachaturian – Competition” Cultural Foundation and the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan and is held under the high patronage of the spouse of the President of RA Mrs. Rita Sargsyan – the honorary president of the Board of Trustees of the competition.

Photo: Reuters

 

Barack Obama has become the first serving US president to visit Hiroshima since the World War Two nuclear attack, the BBC reports.

Mr Obama said the memory of 6 August 1945 must never fade, but did not apologise for the US attack – the world’s first and only nuclear bombing.

Mr Obama spoke to a number of survivors and in an address called on nations to pursue a world without nuclear weapons.

At least 140,000 people died in Hiroshima and another 74,000 two days later in a second bombing in Nagasaki.

Mr Obama first visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum before walking to the Peace Memorial Park, accompanied by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents earlier this week is the first good signal for launching further dialogue on settling the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia’s upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday, TASS reports.

“This is the first such a good signal – the meeting of presidents of the two countries (Azerbaijan and Armenia). This has already laid the foundation of a dialogue,” Matviyenko said at the meeting with Speaker of Azerbaijan’s National Assembly Ogtay Asadov.

Matviyenko said it is now most important “to build trust and move towards solving the problem” in the Nagorno-Karabakh. She stressed that the conflict can be resolved only through resuming dialogue and talks.

The Russian side understands its responsibility as a member of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), she added. “We will provide every assistance both on bilateral basis and as part of the Minsk Group of the OSCE,” Matviyenko stressed.

Pope Francis will arrive in Armenia on June 24. After the official welcome ceremony at Zvartnots Airport the Pontiff will leave for the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

The same day Pope Francis will meet with President Serzh Sargsyan at the Presidential Palace. His Holiness is also expected to meet with representatives of the Armenian authorities, civil society and diplomatic corps.

The first day of the visit will be concluded with a meeting with His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

In the morning of June 25 Pope Francis will visit the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial and the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute. He will later leave for Gyumri together with the Catholicos of All Armenians to serve a Holy Mass at Vardanants Square. In the evening of June 25 an ecumenical service and a Prayer for Peace will take place at the Republic Square in Yerevan.

On June 26 the Pope will meet with Armenian Catholic Bishops and will participate in a Holy Liturgy and an ecumenical dinner at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Pope Francis and the Catholicos of all Armenians will sign a joint statement and will hold a prayer at Khor Virap Monastery.

Prior to the approval by a Turkish parliamentary committee of a bill stripping parliamentarians of their immunity, a physical fight broke out on May 2 between members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party. , both physically and through hate speech. Paylan called the attack a premeditated “lynching” campaign in a press statement on May 3. This was the second fight in parliament in the past five days.

In a statement following the attack, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) said it had repeatedly and unsuccessfully called on the U.S. government to condemn the political prosecution, persecution, and threats directed against Agos Editor Hrant Dink prior to his 2007 murder. The statement reads:

“Prior to his 2007 murder on the streets of Istanbul, the ANCA repeatedly – but, ultimately, unsuccessfully – called on the U.S. government to condemn the political prosecution, persecution and threats directed against this courageous Armenian journalist for his “crime” of speaking honestly about the Armenian Genocide

American presidents like calling for a “full, frank and just acknowledgement of the facts,” as long as they’re not the ones doing the acknowledging. Brave talk, but no action, a sad surrender to foreign pressure.

It was Hrant – living under Erdogan’s dagger – who demonstrated the courage that U.S. leaders lacked.

Despite all our efforts and the clear facts on the ground, the U.S. Department of State and The White House could not find their way to utter even one public word in his defense. One expression of concern. One word on his behalf. That is, until his death.

It was only after Hrant Dink was murdered in cold blood that the U.S. government found its voice, condemning a murder it did nothing to prevent.

Let us work to ensure that the same fate does not befall Garo Paylan – a truth teller and peace maker who deserves the support, not the silence, of the elected representatives of the American people.”

The European Ombudsman Institute (EOI) has published on its official website () the NKR Human Rights Defender’s Interim Report () on Atrocities Committed by Azerbaijani Military Forces against the Civilian Population of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Servicemen of the Nagorno Karabakh Defence Army on 2-5 April 2016.

The EOI has also officially condemned the Azerbaijani atrocities against Armenian civilian settlements and peaceful civilians. The EOI expressed its concern that the NKR civilians had been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.

The EOI has addressed the attacks initiated on civilian settlements, especially, schools and kindergartens and also intolerable inroads against children and old people, by noting that these actions are violating the European high values of human rights and principles of international humanitarian law.

The EOI is one of the most important institutions in the field of human rights protection in Europe. The NKR Human Rights Defender’s Office is a member of the EOI since 2009.

Romania has been expelled from the Eurovision Song Contest after its national broadcaster failed to pay outstanding debts dating back to 2007, the BBC reports.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) claimed the Romanian public service broadcaster Televiziunea Romana (TVR) owes 16 million Swiss francs.

The EBU described the action to exclude Romania from next month’s contest in Sweden as “regrettable”.

Romania has never won the contest, but came third in 2005 and 2010.

The EBU had called on the Romanian government to make satisfactory arrangements to repay the debt by Wednesday (20 April). The organisation regards the Romanian State as legally obliged to underwrite TVR’s debt.

Ahead of the debate on Nagorno-Karabakh in the European Parliament (EP) this evening, several European politicians have already expressed their views on the worrisome situation in the region, calling for different measures of support to Karabakh.

One of them is the Vice-President of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, MEP Josep-Maria Terricabras. He has already taken the floor during the European Parliament plenary opening yesterday, demanding the inclusion of Nagorno Karabakh in the peace negotiations and calling for its full international recognition based on the democratic referendum of 1991, as well as Karabakh’s working democratic institutions, low corruption levels, and well respected judiciary.

Likewise, MEP Françoise Grossetête, who is Vice-President of the EPP group in the European Parliament has also referred to this matter. She has tabled a written question, deploring civilian victims and asking the EU High Representative/Vice-President, Federica Mogherini, for measures to enforce and respect the cease-fire.
Lastly, MEP Jordi Sebastia has sent an inquiry to the EU High Representative/Vice-President, underlining atrocities committed by Azerbaijan on Karabakhi civilians and asking the EU to stop “calls on both sides” in situations where there is clearly one culprit. MEP Sebastia has recently travelled to both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh accompanied by EuFoA.

European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA) welcomes these important voices. “We are very proud that our awareness-raising activities are bearing fruit”, comments EuFoA Director, Mr Eduardo Lorenzo Ochoa. “In our opinion, all our European friends have a constructive message that could help to bring a sustainable solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict”.

Presidents of Armenia and Russia Serzh Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation today at the initiative of the Russian party.

The Presidents of the two countries discussed the latest developments in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone. The interlocutors attached importance to the resumption of  negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group with a view of searching for further avenues of Karabakh conflict settlement.

President Putin expressed deep concern over the large-scale clashes, which resulted in a number of casualties.

The Russian President urged the parties to observe the ceasefire regime. He noted that “Russia has not spared and will not spare any effort to contribute to the settlement of the situation.”

The parties agreed to maintain contacts in different formats.