Author: nina hovnanian

TWO POLICE OFFICERS ARRESTED IN DINK MURDER CASE

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 13 2015

Two police officers for whom arrest warrants were issued on Monday on
charges of negligence and misconduct in the murder of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink, were placed under arrest by the court on
Tuesday.

Dink, editor-in-chief of the Agos newspaper, was assassinated in
broad daylight outside his office on Jan. 19, 2007.

A criminal judge of peace in Ä°stanbul issued arrest warrants for
Trabzon Police Department Assistant Commissioner Ozkan Mumcu and
another police officer, Muhittin Zenit, on Monday.

Zenit and Mumcu, who were detained on Monday following the arrest
warrants, were then arrested on Tuesday and they were sent to prison.

Mumcu and Zenit had earlier testified to Prosecutor Gökalp Kökcu as
part of the investigation of Dink’s murder. The prosecutor referred
them to the court for arrest; however, they were later released by
the Ä°stanbul 5th Criminal Judge of Peace.

After Kökcu filed an appeal protesting the court decision to release
the two police officers, the Ä°stanbul 6th Criminal Judge of Peace
decided to issue arrest warrants for the two officers.

The officers are being accused of negligence and engaging in misconduct
in relation to the Dink murder. Tape recordings of a phone conversation
between Zenit and Erhan Tuncel, who worked as an informant for the
Trabzon Police Department at the time and was accused of initiating
the effort to have Dink murdered, were leaked to the media. The
conversation suggests that Zenit knew about the plot to murder Dink.

Dink was shot and killed by an ultra-nationalist teenager. The hit
man, Ogun Samast, and 18 others were brought to trial. Since then,
the lawyers for the Dink family and the co-plaintiffs in the case have
presented evidence indicating that Samast did not act alone. Another
suspect, Yasin Hayal, was given life in prison for inciting Samast
to commit murder.

THE KARDASHIAN SISTERS PLAN TO VISIT THEIR ANCESTRAL HOME IN ARMENIA WITH THEIR KIDS

International Business Times AU, Australia
Jan 13 2015

By nidhi tewari | January 13, 2015 6:46 PM EST

The Kardashian sisters are planning a trip to their ancestral home
in Armenia. Kim Kardashian, who has always been spreading awareness
about the Armenian Genocide, will make her trip to Armenia with
her baby North West. It is not sure if her husband Kanye West will
accompany them or not but Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian
will accompany Kim to the land of their late father Robert Kardashian,
various websites are suggesting. Kourtney will reportedly take her
three kids Penelope, Mason and Reign too on the upcoming trip, E Online
is saying. Robert Kardashian, the father of the Kardashian sisters,
was born to parents who were Armenian and American. According to the
website, Robert’s great-grandparents were ethnic Armenian immigrants
from a part of Turkey that came under the Russian Empire back then. The
Russian Empire, however, was destroyed in 1917.

The Kardashian sisters will be joined by their cousins in Armenia. The
family is very excited to learn about their roots. “Visiting Armenia
has been on Kim’s bucket list forever. They are all so excited! They
want to learn about their heritage,” an insider source is quoted
as saying by E Online. Kim is quite proud of her Armenian roots and
has also been spreading awareness about the Armenian Genocide. Her
efforts were recently applauded by band System of a Down. “For all
the flak people give Kim Kardashian, I could say that with her yearly
commemorations of the Armenian genocide and spreading that word,
she’s been valuable. She’s been great,” System of a Down frontman
Serj Tankian is quoted as saying by Rolling Stone magazine.

In March 2014, the 34-year-old reality television star also tweeted
her thoughts about the then ongoing civil war in Kessab town of Syria.

Kim said that everyone should put in efforts to make “#SaveKessab
#ArmenianGenocide” trending on social media as the history of genocide
should not “repeat itself.” She pleaded with her fans to google about
the plight of people in Kessab as it is “very heartbreaking.” Kim also
told her fans that she grew up listening to “so many painful stories”
about Armenia.

AMAL CLOONEY TO CHALLENGE APPEAL OF DOGU PERINCEK, TURKISH POLITICIAN WHO CLAIMS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE NEVER TOOK PLACE

KpopStarz
Jan 13 2015

Amal Clooney, humanitarian lawyer and wife of George Clooney, is
about to become part of another high profile case. According to
The Telegraph, Clooney will be part of a legal team representing
Armenia in a case involving denial of the Armenian genocide by a
Turkish politician.

For those who do not know much about the genocide itself, ArmenPress
reports that it occurred in 1915 during World War I, and that up
to 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered by Ottoman Turks. On the
other hand, The Daily Sabah reports that Turkey accepts mass deaths of
Armenians during their forced deportation during the war, but claims
the death toll was much lower and attributes mass deaths to diseases
and isolated cases of attacks.

The politician in question is Dogu Perincek, a member of the Left-wing
Turkish Workers’ Party. In 2008, Perincek called the genocide “an
international lie,” and was found guilty by a Swiss court of denying
that it ever took place.

He then appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
which ruled in December 2013 that Switzerland had violated his right
to free expression.

Armenia is challenging the appeal, and argues that denying the
genocide should be a crime, just as negating the Holocaust of six
million Jews is a punishable offence in many countries. The case
will be heard by the Strasbourg court’s 17-member Grand Chamber,
with the first hearing scheduled for January 28.

A strong legal team will be on Armenia’s side this time, consisting
of Clooney and her associate, Geoffrey Robertson. Robertson is
especially important to this case, as he is the author of the book,
“An Inconvenient Genocide: Who Now Remembers the Armenians?”

The Huffington Post reports that two Armenian government
representatives – Gevorg Kostanyan and Emil Babayan – will also be
joining them.

ARREST ORDER ISSUED FOR TWO POLICEMEN IN DINK MURDER CASE

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Jan 12 2015

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court has issued an arrest order for two policemen involved
in the inquiry into the killing of Hrant Dink, the Turkish Armenian
journalist, as the case deepens.

The court accepted on Jan. 12 the prosecutor’s demand to cancel the
release of Ozkan Mumcu and Muhittin Zenit, two police officers who
were on duty at the police department in the Black Sea province of
Trabzon when Dink was killed in Istanbul.

The two suspects testified to the court and were released immediately
on Dec. 26, 2014.

The prosecutor said both officers were guilty of negligence in the
crime that resulted in Dink’s death and misused their authority.

Dink was assassinated by Ogun Samast, who is serving a sentence of
22 years and 10 months in a high-security prison, on a busy street
outside the office of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in
Istanbul’s Ã…~^iÃ…~_li district.

Yusuf Hayal and Erhan Tuncel are accused of convincing Samast in the
Black Sea province of Trabzon to shoot Dink.

Civil servants and institutions allegedly implicated in the murder
of Dink should be investigated, the Constitutional Court ruled on
July 17, 2014. The ruling became a milestone in the case that has
been lingering since the killing in 2007.

Since then, former Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah, former
Trabzon police chief ReÃ…~_at Altay, former Trabzon police intelligence
branch chief Faruk Sarı, former Istanbul deputy governor Ergun
Gungör and former Istanbul police intelligence chief Ahmet İlhan
Guler have testified as suspects in the case.

January/12/2015

AZERBAIJAN ENTITLED TO USE ANY MILITARY EQUIPMENT ON CONTACT LINE: DEFENSE MINISTRY

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Jan 13 2015

13 January 2015, 15:14 (GMT+04:00)
By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The Azerbaijani armed forces are entitled to use any military
equipment, including the unmanned aerial vehicles, helicopters,
aircraft, space satellites on the contact line, the Defense Ministry
said on January 12.

The Ministry commented on the recent Armenian media’s reports on the
flight of Azerbaijani drones over the contact line of the Azerbaijani
and Armenian troops.

“The planes and other aircraft of the Azerbaijani armed forces make
regular flights over the line of contact and this is not something new
for Armenia, occupant of Azerbaijani territories,” the ministry said.

The Ministry added that Azerbaijan does not need any permission
from the aggressive Armenia or puppet regime in the separatist
Nagorno-Karabakh region to use any kind of equipment in Azerbaijan’s
lands.

“The Azerbaijani armed forces use and will use all available military
equipment to control the actions of the occupiers,” the ministry said.

The Armenian Defense Ministry has once again spread illogical
misinformation about the situation on the frontline on January 11-12,
the Defense Ministry noted.

“This information is part of Armenia’s next attempt to blame the
opposite side for its failures,” the ministry said.

“Armenia lies to its people and world community by spreading
misinformation. The Armenian Defense Ministry conducts a proxy
war against Azerbaijani “saboteurs”. Then it allegedly creates some
conditions to take “corpses remaining in the neutral zone” on the basis
of “compliance with international humanitarian law”. It is now trying
to accuse the Azerbaijani side of the death of an Armenian shepherd,”
the Ministry added.

The Defense Ministry once more said the country’s armed forces are
in full control of the situation on the contact line and has suffered
no losses.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

– – –

Azerbaijan Spends 8% of Reserves as Ruble Rout Lashes Currencies
By Zulfugar Agayev
Jan 13, 2015

Azerbaijan’s central bank spent about 8 percent of its international
reserves to defend its currency last month as the crisis in Russia and
slumping oil prices forced devaluations in other former Soviet states.

The central bank used $1.13 billion from its currency holdings to
support the manat in December after buying $1.27 billion in the first
11 months to keep it from strengthening, the regulator in Baku said in
an e-mailed statement. The manat appreciated 0.1 percent against the
dollar last month.

`As a result of the quick regulatory measures, stability was ensured
fully in the currency market,’ the central bank said, adding that it’s
already returned to purchasing foreign currency after last month’s
sales.

Contagion from the Russian ruble’s decline of more than 40 percent
last year has rippled through the former Soviet Union, putting
pressure on currencies from Belarus to Armenia. Azerbaijan’s central
bank has vowed to keep the manat stable even as economic growth slowed
to 3 percent last year from 5.8 percent in 2013 because of a slump in
oil prices and production. Azerbaijan, the third-biggest crude
producer among ex-Soviet republics, relies on hydrocarbons for more
than 90 percent of exports and 45 percent of gross domestic product,
according to the International Monetary Fund.

The central bank said the manat’s stability is key to steadying the
broader economy and promised to use `all means’ at its disposal to
keep the currency stable through 2015. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
said last month that his country will continue to support the manat’s
value for `social’ reasons.

The manat gained 0.1 percent today to 0.7844 against the dollar,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

`Of all the regional currencies, I would expect the Azeri central bank
to value FX stability,’ Timothy Ash, the London-based chief economist
for emerging markets at Standard Bank Group Ltd., said by e-mail.
`Remember they held the manat even through the Lehman crisis.’

WHAT INFORMATION ARE ARMENIAN LAW ENFORCEMENT BODIES HIDING?

Lragir.am
Country – 13 January 2015, 22:55

Discrepancies are so many in the murder of Gyumri that the Armenian
society has doubts about the professionalism or willingness of the
Armenian law enforcement bodies. The expert of the Armenian Center
for National and International Studies Saro Saroyan thinks so.

“There are so many discrepancies in data and we can say dark sides and
uncertainties that are so many that they cause doubts. The motives
of the crime are not revealed, nothing is said as to why the crime
was committed. Now aren’t our law enforcement bodies professionals or
are they covering up some details out of certain circumstances?” Saro
Saroyan asks in an interview with Lragir.am.

According to him, subordination of interrelations relating to the
investigation of the case is not observed. Even statements by officials
demonstrate the lack of subordination.

“No crime has been committed in the territory of the Republic of
Armenia but today the deputy chief of police announces they are prone
that we investigate. He is not saying that there is a requirement
by the state. In other words, in political terms the law enforcement
bodies and the top government are looking out. Then it is seen from
their attitude that they do not want to provide facts, avoid because
the facts will reveal vagueness, discrepancies,” he says.

Saro Saroyan says the Armenian legislation defines that the law
enforcement bodies must follow it irrespective of which country the
person is a citizen of.

“However, it is obvious that they are waiting to see what the
Russians will say, what the relevant bodies of Russia will say. Let
them do what the Armenian legislation requires. This is not a matter
of individual human attitude, they are officials, they represent the
state, don’t they? They have a subjective attitude to the one before
them, they are servants, those standing before them are their lords,
they are waiting to listen to what they will say. They are waiting
until Russia will decide whether to let us investigate the case or
not,” Saro Saroyan said.

INITIALLY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS MUST HAVE DEMANDED PERMYAKOV

18:57 | January 13,2015 | Politics

Murder in Gyumri was the most sobering after happy events of New Year:
Russian soldier left his military unit and entered the Avetisyan
family, fired and killed six members of the family with his gun and
was even crueler with 6 months’ child.

But the child survived, he was found 6 hours after the incident in
critical condition. From the beginning, it was clear that the suspect
on the murder is Russian soldier Valeri Permyakov, as his military
shoes with his name and surname, his military uniform and gun were
found on the scene. He managed to leave the scene in civilian clothes.

Permyakov was searched everywhere, even in Yerevan, in transport,
under the bridges. Russian soldiery intervened the case, Armenian and
Russian officials sent condolences, but the society wanted to know-
why the Avetisyan family?

>From the 102nd military base to the Avetisyan family it is 3 km. He
passed that road in about two hours. The neighbors heard the shootings
but they thought that it was firework at 6 o’clock in the morning. It
was also supposed that Permyakov entered the Avetisyan family as
the gate of their house was open. After the incident Permyakov was
detected near Armenian-Turkish border.

Permyakov is under the control of Russian soldiery and Armenian and
Russian law enforcement officers have instituted a criminal case
against him with regard to the articles of murder and desertion. We
mustn’t politicize it,- says Seyran Ohanyan. But there will be also
other sinners.

After being detained during the night Permyakov gave explanations-
I wanted to drink water, so I fired, I stabbed 6 months’ old child,
as the gun didn’t fire any more. Our Prosecutor General’s Office has
already announced that the issue of handing Russian soldier over to
Armenian law enforcement officers isn’t discussed as he is under
the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. By the way, Armenian
citizen Hrachya Harutyunyan, who caused the death of 18 people in
the territory of Russia, was judged in the territory of Russia,
though he was under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia.

SUSPECT IN GYUMRI MURDER CASE MAY FACE TRIAL IN ARMENIA

12:03 * 13.01.15

The Russian serviceman held as a main suspect in yesterday’s brutal
murder in Gyumri may be tried in Armenia.

Speaking to Tert.am, an advisor at the General Prosecutor’s Office,
Christine Melkonyan, said that Russian and Armenian law enforcers
are now considering the possibility of conducting the prosecution in
the country.

The serviceman, Valery Permyakov, is in Gyumri’s 102nd military base
after being caught on the border, said Sona Truzyan, a spokesperson.

“Representatives of the Russian Investigative Committee are in
Armenia. They have carried out initial investigative operations with
the suspect’s involvement; he was interrogated, and joint investigative
procedures followed. A deputy head of the investigative committee,
Vahagn Harutyunyan, was present during the interrogation.

The suspect gave a testimony on the incident that followed his
desertion of post,” she told our correspondent.

The deadly incident left six family members killed; a six month-old
infant, who was the only survivor, is now reported to be in hospital
in a critical condition.

Permyakpov, who is a Russian citizen, faces a criminal proceeding
over desertion and murder in accordance with the Russian legislation.

KARDASHIAN SISTERS ANNOUNCE FIRST-EVER TRIP TO ARMENIA

10:23, 13 Jan 2015

The Kardashian sisters have taken over half the globe to date. Next
stop: Armenia.

Khloe Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian are planning
to travel to their paternal ancestral homeland in April, E! News has
exclusively learned.

The specifics are still being worked out for their family milestone
journey, but Kim is set to take daughterNorth West with her, while
Kourtney will be traveling with kids Mason,Penelope and Reign as well.

Several cousins are also expected to be along for the
continent-crossing ride.

Kim’s hubby, Kanye West, will make the trip if his upcoming touring
schedule allows.

“Visiting Armenia has been on Kim’s list forever,” a family insider
tells. “They are all so excited! They want to learn about their
heritage.”

The Kardashian sisters’ late father, Robert Kardashian, was born
to Armenian-American parents and his great-grandparents were ethnic
Armenian immigrants from a part of Turkey that at the time belonged
to the Russian Empire (which toppled in 1917).

The sisters have always culturally identified with their Armenian
roots, annually paying tribute to victims of the Armenian Genocide,
which occurred in what is now modern-day Turkey, and otherwise proudly
recognizing their heritage. Kim has also spoken out about the plight
of Syrian Armenians caught up in the ongoing civil war in Syria.

In 2011, when Kim landed on the cover of Turkish Cosmopolitan, she
was upset that the magazine put out the issue at a time that coincided
with the global Genocide Remembrance Day, April 24, reusing the same
cover shot that had been used for the inaugural issue of Armenian
Cosmopolitan the previous month.

“Cosmopolitan Magazine has a number of international editions all
around the world that run in various territories, and when I did
this shoot for the international covers I had no idea that Turkey
was planning to run my story on their cover THIS month, considering
Genocide Remembrance Day is this month,” Kim said at the time.

“My Armenian heritage means a lot to me and I’ve been brought up to
be incredibly proud of my family’s background and culture so as an
Armenian-American woman it is a huge honor for me to be on the first
ever Armenian Cosmopolitan cover.”