Author: nina hovnanian

RollingStone: bloody history behind System of a Down’s tour

January 9, 2015 – 18:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Between their spasmodic rhythms and jagged melodies,
System of a Down have always been committed to a sobering cause:
raising recognition for the Armenian genocide of 1915. The group’s
self-titled debut LP contained a song called “P.L.U.C.K.,” in which
frontman Serj Tankian sang “A whole race, genocide/Taken away all of
our pride,” and over the years the band has held several one-off
“Souls” concerts to help raise awareness of the tragedy, a Rolling
Stone report says.

Now the group, whose members are all children of survivors, is
commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Genocide ` in which Ottoman
Turks began arresting and executing some 1.5 million Armenians,
something that Turkey and several countries still refuse to recognize
officially ` with an international tour named “Wake Up the Souls.”
This will end on April 23, the day before Armenia commemorates the
anniversary, with the group’s very first performance in the country of
their ancestors. The band plans on livestreaming the concert so people
all over the world can watch, the article says.

System of a Down have also set up an interactive “heat map” on their
website, allowing fans to learn about how different parts of the world
have reacted to the genocide, including which countries have
officially recognized it. Elsewhere, they host a call to action
motivating fans to ask the Turkish president and parliament for
recognition.

“Part of it is bringing attention to the fact that genocides are still
happening, whether you use the word ‘genocide,’ ‘holocaust’ or
‘humanitarian catastrophe,'” Tankian says. “None of that is changing.
We want to be part of that change. We want the recognition of the
first genocide of the 20th century to be a renewal of confidence that
humanity can stop killing itself.”

`This is a recommitment and expansion of some of the work that we’ve
been doing with the Armenian genocide for years. The whole “Souls”
concept became a tour, and it’s something that we all believe in
because we’re all children of survivors of the genocide. It’s
important for the recognition of the genocide as an end result, as
well as attaining justice,’ Tankian says when asked why they decided
to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with a
tour.

`I think for us it’s important for Turkey to know its own history in a
truthful manner. It’s not just about the genocide of the Armenians,
Greeks and Assyrians, but what’s going on now. There are no executable
international agreements that have to do with stopping the genocide.
Irrespective of a number of great U.N. bodies and even U.S.-based
bodies in terms of genocide prevention, there’s no binding resolution
on any genocide or holocaust occurring. We still see them happening. I
read in today’s press that they discovered a mass grave in Deir Ezzor
in Syria of ISIS massacres of this one tribe there, and it reminded me
of all the bones that are under those sands in Deir Ezzor from the
first genocide of the 20th century in the exact same place. If that’s
not symbolism, I don’t know what is.’

`My grandparents had these incredible, haunting stories of their
survival. They were both toddlers, small children. My grandmother and
her grandmother were saved by a Turkish mayor in a small city, as they
were being marched through Turkey toward Syria, toward Deir Ezzor, the
desert. They were saved in that way. My grandfather lost the majority
of his family on the pogrom. He ended up in a number of different
orphanages and ended up in Lebanon, in terms of finding a home there
and growing up there. Just really heart-wrenching stories,’ Tankian
says.

`When my grandfather was still alive, we had them on camera for this
film that we were part of called Screamers. It was a nice partial
telling of his story, which was very fulfilling for me. We got a
camera crew to tape 16 hours of these important stories that are
disappearing because the survivors are almost all gone,’ he adds.

As to a possibility of performing in Turkey, Tankian said: `We were
looking into Turkey as one of the dates of this Wake Up the Souls
tour. We needed to get permission from the government, based on our
outspokenness about the genocide and against the actions of
[then-Turkish Prime Minister Recep] ErdoÄ?an’s government in
particular. At the time, the new prime minister had just stepped in,
which was the old foreign minister, and of course ErdoÄ?an became
president and left the prime minister’s post. We waited a while, but
we never got a response, so we planned the rest of the tour.’

CINEMA
> triomphe à Marseille

Présenté au cinéma Le César, en préambule de la 7e édition d’Amnésie
Internationale, l’avant-première du film de Fatih Akin a été un
succès.

Le nombreux public présent dans les trois salles où était projeté le
film, les attendait avec impatience. Et quand ils sont arrivés, les
spectateurs se sont levés pour les applaudir longuement. Autour de
Fatih Akin, Simon Abkarian et l’équipe du film ont rencontré les
Marseillais après la projection. Joie, fierté et émotion étaient les
sentiments dominants mercredi soir à Marseille.

>

Acteur avec Tahar Rahim qui joue le rôle de Nazaret Manoogian, Simon
Abkarian souligne : et de donner rendez-vous > Président
de la JAF, Julien Harounyan présentait le film >

Co-président du CCAF-Sud, Simon Azilazian précisait que la projection
de > s’inscrivait dans le cadre des événements du
centenaire du Génocide des Arméniens à Marseille, ville cosmopolite
qui a accueilli beaucoup de familles rescapées. >>

Gilbert DULAC *The Cut signifie la coupe, la coupure, l’entaille en anglais

vendredi 9 janvier 2015,
Ara (c)armenews.com

Armenian church in Dhubri (India) to be renovated

January 9, 2015

The Telegraph – The Armenian church in Dhubri, built in the 19th
century, will be renovated by Ladies Club, Dhubri, soon.

The church is located on PM Datta Bahadur Road of the town and is
close to a life-size statue of Queen Victoria and the historic
Gurdwara of Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib Ji.

At present, the church houses the club and its members have been
collecting donations through gift coupons to raise funds to renovate
the old church and construct a separate building on its premises.

The church, which is one of the 33 heritage sites dotted across the
town, and Ladies Club are keen to preserve this heritage Armenian-type
church building as part of history.

“Any building which is over 100-year-old becomes antique and tagged
with heritage status. But now new guidelines are being drawn freshly
by the archaeological department,” an official source said.

Secretary of the club Lilly Chanda said after services in the church
was closed, some European residents of Dhubri town founded the Ladies
Club in 1935.

“Women belonging to the European community as well as benevolent local
women were members who used to render social service,” Chanda said.

“This church is not only a heritage site but also a precious
possession of the town and the club wants it to be preserved at any
cost,” said the club’s president Chandana Paul Choudhury.

“We are finding it tough to raise funds, but we will try our best to
collect necessary funds needed for renovation of the church’s
structure and construction of a new building which is urgently
required for various kinds of training to empower poor girls and women
living. ”

Talking to this correspondent, Sankar Kumar Bose – a renowned
numismatist who originally hails from Dhubri but is now based in
Calcutta – said over phone today that this was built probably between
the end of East India Company’s rule and beginning of the British Raj.

“In my childhood I saw this church illuminated. People of the European
community visited there. It is now in a dilapidated condition and
should be renovated and preserved,” Bose said.

Residents of Dhubri town demand that the state government come forward
to preserve this site and other sites too. Otherwise, the glorious
history of the district and the town would be lost in the passage of
time.

Dhubri town and the district as a whole are dotted with many important
sites that evoke tourist interest. Sri Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib Ji,
Panch Peer dargah, Mahamaya Dham, Mahamaya Snan Ghat, Kamakhya Dham,
Bura-Buri Than, Jinkata Satra and Ramrai Kutir are some of the
pilgrimage sites in Dhubri. Gauripur palace, too, is one of the
precious heritage sites.

Intermountain Jewish News
Jan 8 2015

Turkey, meet Japan

Thursday, 08 January 2015 08:42 IJN Editorial Staff

It is now the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. In 1915 and
for a few years afterwards, Ottoman Turks mercilessly cut down
Armenians with the intent to annihilate the race; and from 1915 until
today, a full century later, the Ottoman Turks and after them the
leaders of modern Turkey have tried to deny this genocide.

The Ottoman Turks murdered some one-and-a-half million human beings,
but not then, and not now, have they owned up to it. To the extent
that contemporary Turks deny the genocide, they are in a sense
complicit in it, though of course they did not walk and starve the
Armenians to death — the favored method of inhumanity practiced in
1915 and for a few years afterwards.

We do not claim to understand the mentality of the genocide deniers,
especially when these deniers were not the actual perpetrators. We
merely observe that, for whatever psychological reason, genocide
denial seems to be as deeply rooted as the hate itself.

On the same scale is the psychological disfigurement within the denial
of instances of national brutality that do not rise to the level of
genocide. Just as genocide denial spread beyond the Turks to the
heinous fans of Hitler and their denial of the Holocaust, so, too, the
denial of national brutality spreads.

Case in point, Japan.

The movie, “Unbroken,” raises the curtain on the massive Japanese
atrocities before and during WW II. Nine out of ten American POWs who
died during WW II died at the hands of the Japanese, writes James
Gibney, citing historian Daqing Yang. That sounds unfortunate. It was
far worse.

* The Japanese, like the Nazis, engaged in medical “experiments” on
the people they captured.

* The Japanese vivisected their prisoners.

* The Japanese beheaded their prisoners and ate some of the body parts.

The Japanese now condemn “Unbroken.” Don’t expect it to be shown in
Japan. The truth hurts. Members of the current Japanese government
would have us believe that the Japanese never forced women during WW
II into prostitution; and did not commit the Nanjing Massacre of
Chinese civilians in 1937; and, just like the Turkish government all
the way up to today, threaten journalists who write the truth. Turkey,
meet Japan.

What strikes us as particularly impenetrable is the mentality that
denies genocide even by people who were born afterward, who never
murdered anyone. In the case of Turkey, even the entire country was
born afterwards — modern Turkey emerged after the Armenian genocide,
committed by the Ottoman Turks. Likewise, few if any perpetrators of
the Japanese atrocities of WW II are alive. Yet, their descendants
feel the need to deny the facts of their past, and even to threaten
those who would do nothing but recite these facts.

Holocaust denial is to be expected not just by Germans or members of
the many nationalities that willingly collaborated with Germany’s
Nazis — the Lithuanians, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Ukrainians,
French and Dutch of WW II, for example. Holocaust denial is expected
from anti-Semites who had nothing directly to do with the Holocaust.
Their hatred, if also impenetrable, is all too familiar.

As to the actual perpetrators of genocide and their descendants — to
us their denial is opaque, beyond understanding. Which is no reason
not to shine the spotlight on them. If they can deny genocide once,
they can commit it again.

Music Times
Jan 9 2015

System of a Down May Be Working on a New Album: Serj Tankian Talks
Solo Work and Upcoming Tour

It has been 10 years since System of a Down dropped Mezmerize and
Hypnotize. The group went on hiatus in 2006, but it got back together
five years later, much to the delight of fans. Now, in an interview
with Rolling Stone, frontman Serj Tankian is giving System followers
some hope of a new album.

The group is gearing up for their international Wake Up the Souls
tour. Once that wraps in April, the boys might be hitting the studio.

“There has been talk, and we are going to play this tour, come back
and we’re going to see where we are. If we have songs that work for
System, if I have them and [guitarist] Daron [Malakian] has them. The
openness is there to work together, but we haven’t made any particular
plans that we can announce,” Tankian said.

As per usual, the band is hitting the road to spread awareness of the
100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide that occurred in 1915.
Every member of the group comes from survivors of the genocide, and
they will play Armenia for the first time to close out April. It turns
out Tankian’s solo efforts also involve the massacre.

“Right now, I’m actually focusing on a film score. It’s actually a
really cool score, and it’s for a film based on, again, the genocide,”
he said. “That’s all I’m dealing with right now. It’s called 1915.
It’s a very interesting drama that’s actually shot in Los Angeles at
the Los Angeles Theater, a very old and distinguished theater. It’s a
really, really interesting, psychological thriller, modern story. It
deals with denial and the psychological impacts of a genocide rather
than the physical aspects of it.”

Tankian went on to promise that fans will know about a new System
album well before the press.

Vestnil=k Kavkaza, Russia
Jan 9 2015

Armenia: Economic Results and Pessimistic Expectations

8 January 2015 – 10:34am

Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Specially for Vestnik Kavkaza

2014 was a disaster for the Armenian economy. Financial problems have
been added to many unresolved socio-economic ones. At the end of last
year, in just a few days the national currency devalued by 10%, its
ratio to the US dollar before was 410 drams. Although the Central Bank
managed to stop the fall of the dram, due to currency interventions,
the tendency of a rising price of the US dollar started to be observed
already in early January.

According to official statistics, the economy grew by 3-3.5% over 11
months of 2014, instead of the planned 5.2%. According to the former
chairman of the Central Bank, Bagrat Asatryan, this figure is quite
acceptable for countries with a normal level of economic development,
but in Armenia, with its numerous problems, growth of 3-3.5% will be
felt only by very limited stratum of people. “In the economies of
countries like Armenia, six percent is the limit after which broad
social strata begin to feel the economic growth,” says Asatryan.

Moreover, after assessing the economic growth it turns out that the
largest share is represented not by the industry, but by services and
trade. This correlation perfectly reflects the current situation in
the Armenian economy, where production plays an undistinguished role,
while imports exceed exports threefold.

Low rates of exports have become one of the most serious problems of
the Armenian economy, which some experts already call “sick”. The
negative trade balance has an important place in the overall number of
characteristics of a “sick” economy, such as lack of a competitive
business environment, development of big business at the expense of
small and medium-sized business, a once-and-for-all established
monopoly setup, and a reduction of the volume of transfers from
Russia, so important for Armenia.

According to a National Assembly deputy from the “Prosperous Armenia”
faction, Mikael Melkumyan, the presence of serious domestic production
could have become the most significant element in ensuring economic
security and, consequently, the ability to resist the influence of
external factors.

Another central problem of the economy, which, as well as the low
level of exports, makes Armenia vulnerable to external challenges, has
been a sharp reduction of investments, in fact, their absence. Zero
capital inflow suggests problems will not only appear today but also
in the future.

According to some experts, the 2014 economic year has been the most
difficult in comparison with all the years of independence. Meanwhile,
the problems of the past year created a base for a more complicated
2015. Since, in parallel to the slowdown of economic growth, the
social situation of the population is also becoming worse. “The
situation does not inspire any optimism for 2015 and 2016, as there
will not be any growth of transfers from Russia, the situation with
investments is deplorable, one can say, they almost do not exist, one
may even observe an outflow of capital,” said Bagrat Asatryan.

According to the ex-prime minister Hrant Bagratyan, the standard of
people’s living has fallen sharply, and the country will be able to
reach the level of 2013-2014 only by 2017. “Today Armenia lives 30%
worse than it lived yesterday, and, from this point of view, already
2015 will be difficult. It seems to everyone that the ratio of the US
dollar to the dram will return to 410 drams, but it will not,”
forecasts Bagratyan.

According to specialists, the rise of the price for the US dollar will
lead to an increase of services for gas. For instance, since
calculations of “Gazprom-Armenia” are based on the US dollar, which
the company uses for purchases of gas abroad, in the case of a rise in
price for the US dollar, the gas shall rise in price as well,
respectively.

Summing up the results of this year, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan
assured that the government has the capacity and experience to ensure
that the search for solutions to the problems faced by the country and
the people are to be continued in 2015. He also expressed the hope
that the government will be able to solve the problem of poverty and
to create jobs. However, will the authorities have enough power to
change the existing economic situation with monopolies, investment
climate and to create real competition in business, to overcome
unequal treatment of business representatives by officials and to
reduce the so-called “shadow” economy? Since, indeed, the current
model, based not on market rules, but on deals and on mutual agreement
between businessmen and, in the first place, importers and government
officials, has exhausted itself.

Artsakh Soldier and Cancer Patient Mayis: “Thank God, I welcomed the
New Year with two legs”

Zaruhi Mejlumyan
16:38, January 9, 2015

Hetq readers will be pleased to know that 19 year-old Mayis
Geghamyan’smedical condition has taken a turn for the positive over
the New Year.

Geghamyan, who had been serving as a conscript soldier in Artsakh
until he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma that has metastasized into
his lungs, had his right leg amputated above the knee and was
receiving chemotherapy at the Nayri Medical Center in Yerevan.

Geghamyan’s physician Levon Badalyan now reports that after five
rounds of therapy a portion of the metastases in the young man’s lungs
have disappeared and that the others have shrunk considerably.

“We are hopeful that all the metastases will soon disappear.
Nevertheless, the treatment must continue and several chemotherapy
rounds are still needed, even after all the metastases have vanished,”
Dr. Badalyan told Hetq, noting that he as yet doesn’t see the need for
Mayis Geghamyan to be treated overseas given the positive results
achieved in Armenia.

This reporter also had a chance to talk to Mayis, who told me that he
was pleased to have welcomed the New Year with two legs.

“Mkrtich Ginosyan fashioned a prosthetic for me at the German
Prosthetics Lab in Yerevan. Thus, thank God, I welcomed the New Year
with two legs,” Mayis Geghamyan said. “So many kind-heartened people
have come to my aid. I can’t recite all their names. I thank them from
the bottom of my heart. When I get better, I will follow my dream and
enroll at the radio-physics faculty at Yerevan State University.”

I also spoke to Mayis’ mother Gayaneh, who said that the “Donate Life”
foundation has expressed a willingness to assist the young man if he
needs to continue his medical treatment overseas.

I also got in touch with Artzroun Hovhannisyan, press secretary at the
Armenian Ministry of Defense, who reaffirmed the ministry’s pledge to
assist the Geghamyan family while Mayis is undergoing chemotherapy.

The following accounts, in the name of Petros Geghamyan (Mayis’
father), have been opened at VTB-Armenia for those who wish to make
donations:

AMD-16004103765804
USD- 16004103765805
EUR- 16004103765806
RUR- 16004103765807

Impediments to regional development in the South Caucasus
By Jason Katz
Jan. 8, 2015

[Katz is the principal of TSG, LLC, a consultancy that advises foreign
governments, NGOs and corporations in the realms of strategic
communications, politics and policy. He is also the former head of
Public Affairs and Public Relations for the American Jewish Committee,
based in Los Angeles.]

Few regions of the world are, in general, as prosperous, stable and
reliably Western-oriented as the South Caucasus. The South Caucasus,
situated on the southern frontier of what was the Soviet Union, has
become, with one exception, one of the most cohesively prosperous
regions in the world and amongst the most influential and affluent in
the former Soviet Union.

Comprised of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and peripherally Turkey, the
South Caucasus region is, mostly, energy rich and stands as a much
needed and viable alternative for European natural gas supplies in the
near-term and well into the future. Read that as an alternative to the
chaotic, military and foreign policy driven natural gas from Moscow.

Recently, the foreign ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia met
in Turkey’s northeastern province of Kars to discuss regional
cooperation. This fourth trilateral summit included meetings between
Azerbaijan’s Elmar Mammadyarov, Georgia’s Tamar Beruchashvili and
Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Conspicuously absent from this meeting and, indeed, from all
discussions on regional development, energy and general regional
prosperity was Armenia. Armenia, another former Soviet Republic, has
oddly chosen to excuse itself from the growing prosperity of the
region.

Why, you ask? Armenia has taken a decidedly different path, a path
that has necessitated all but the complete surrender of Armenia’s
sovereignty. As the other nations of the South Caucasus have embarked
upon and continue to navigate independent foreign and economic
policies leading to prosperity for their people, Armenia has
increasingly become a vassal state of the Russian Federation in direct
contradiction to the best interests of their people.

Armenia’s borders and airspace are patrolled by Moscow. In fact,
Armenia is the last of the former Soviet Republics to host Russian
military bases, even recently signing agreements to keep them there
well into the coming decades – 2044. Recently, Russia’s FSB, a
successor to KGB, issued a press statement about its operation in
Armenia, nominally a foreign state! As the South Caucasus region and
surrounding regions seek closer links with the European Union, Armenia
has opted to join Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal attempt
to usurp the EU, the Eurasian Customs Union suddenly interrupting its
half-hearted talks with EU. Armenia even joined nations like North
Korea, Syria, Sudan and a couple of other rogues, voting against
Ukraine’s territorial integrity at UN in 2014.

This is all done against the backdrop of an increasingly poor nation
in Armenia and a severely dwindling population as a result of mass
exoduses of Armenians to other nations due to the dire economic
situation there.

The answer to Armenian prosperity is sadly quite simple. Leave behind
the shackles imposed by the Russians, past wars with Azerbaijan and
embrace the future, again in the best interest of the Armenian people.

At the twilight of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a
war over the Azerbaijani lands of Nagorno Karabakh and its surrounding
districts. The Azerbaijanis lost the war as a result of the
significant help rendered by the Red Army and Iran. Following ethnic
cleansing of Azerbaijanis in Nagorno Karabakh and surrounding regions,
Azerbaijan possesses nearly a million refugees, designated as
internally displaced peoples. In their place is an unrecognized area,
even by Armenia, seeking to be the second failed Armenian state.
During the fighting, Turkey closed its border with Armenia in
solidarity with Azerbaijan.

Fast forward more than 20 years and the entire region is fabulously
prosperous while Armenia stubbornly holds on to Azerbaijani lands and
is thus left in the cold. It would seem to make sense to the Armenian
leadership and Armenian diaspora, but to few else on the global stage.

Speaking at a joint press conference following the meeting, Cavusoglu
of Turkey eluded to the real players, the afore mentioned nations,
hold out hope for Armenia’s involvement, as Turkey’s Cavusoglu
pronounced that Turkey supports respect for Azerbaijani and Georgian
territories, adding that he hopes Armenia will also cooperate.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mammadyarov added that problems between
Azerbaijan and Armenia have yet to be solved. “International
agreements should be the basis for a solution,” said Mammadyarov.

Armenian leadership must do itself a favor and in doing so save the
sovereignty and viability of their nation.

Return the occupied lands of Azerbaijan with an ironclad agreement
that Azerbaijanis will return to their homes and lands and that ethnic
Armenians will be protected and given the same rights as any other
citizen of Azerbaijan.

Based on this gesture, work with Turkey to reopen their mutual border.
If events of WWI are an impediment to these negotiations, agree to a
tribunal of scholars to explore exactly what happened in WWI and what
to do about it all these years later.

Work to repair ties and relationships with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Force the Armenian Diaspora to use the considerable money spent on
lobbying related to the issues of events in WWI and Nagorno Karabakh
to invest in Armenia’s economic survival.

Following these steps, engage in talks on regional development and be
a player in existing and future projects.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey are open to solving this frozen
conflict, furthering and expanding regional development and
integration and most of all Armenia will be better off and stronger
for it.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 8 2015

Je suis Charlie

GÃ`NAL KURÅ?UN
January 08, 2015, Thursday

It is not the time to say, `This is not real Islam’ or `You can not
generalize and judge 2 billion Muslims in the world because of the
actions of a few extremists.’ It is not a time to think about how `It
is not fair to link terror with Islam, Islam is a religion of peace.’
Terror can not be linked with Islam indeed, but it can be linked with
Islamists. And at the least, some of the Islamists see this attack as
being legitimate.

President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an said after the attack on the office of
the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that `terror doesn’t have a nation
or religion.’ I understood this explanation as a kind of defense,
saying, `Please do not put the responsibility on us.’ In my opinion,
it is not a time for defensive statements by way of all these
political clichés.

Firstly, Muslims must be the most active group in condemning the
Charlie Hebdo attack. Not only in the field of foreign policy, but
also in the daily life of Muslims living in the Western world, this
attack will have an effect, similar to that of Sept. 11. That is one
reason why we have to oppose and condemn all these attacks, but first
let us feel the pain and suffer for a minute in our hearts that
France’s most popular caricaturists, who visited Turkey many times,
have been violently killed. We have to be the most active group not
because we are in the position to defend the positions of Muslims
living in the Western world, but because we are humans, and humans
including Muslims are now suffering over this event. For those who
didn’t have this empathy before, let’s really suffer for the first
time after the events including the 1915 genocide of the Armenians,
the 1938 Thrace pogroms, the Sept. 6-7, 1955 events against Greeks in
Turkey and after Sept. 11 in the US.

After this, we have to confront our reality and we have to rethink
Islam. We have to think about why such extremists defend the most
violent ideas, including crashing planes into buildings that cost
thousands of innocent people their lives, beheading Christian
journalists or killing caricaturists who publish Muhammad caricatures.
Is this only a matter of misinterpretation of Islam, or is there
something else behind this `misinterpretation.’ Is it just a matter of
fiqh, i.e., Islamic jurisprudence, or is it time to think in another
revolutionary way about the reform of Islam. I’m not talking about
conspiracy theories which we will read in the coming days like
`CIA-organized/backed groups did this in order to legitimize a
possible war against Islam.’ This silly explanation does not help
anyone, as it didn’t help in Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria. We have to
start to look to the issue outside of Islam. Whatever we say inside
Islam will not explain the truth. If you are willing to say,
`Mainstream Islam is not this and mainstream Islam opposes these kind
of attacks,’ I may ask you what is mainstream Islam. The attackers see
themselves as part of mainstream Islam and they can behead me too just
because I don’t practice `good’ Islam. No matter that they represent
the minority, they see themselves as the mainstream, real Muslims, and
see their actions legitimate and in accordance with their
interpretation of fiqh. Since we did not close the doors of ijtihad,
meaning `independent reasoning’ in the 11th century, we have to find
another way to answer contemporary needs and build a new balance
between taqlid (following authority) and ijtihad. A reform not within
Islam but in Islamic thinking is needed, and Muslims must confront
their problems without any inferiority complex.

The great Pakistani poet Muahmmad Iqbal said, `A wrong concept
misleads [the people’s] understanding; a wrong deed degrades the whole
man, and may eventually destroy the structure of the human ego.’ Let
us feel again the pain of France and pray for the destroyed souls.

Sécurité
Une entreprise de défense polonaise veut étendre son activité

Lubawa, une entreprise de défense polonaise, espère étendre sa filiale
récemment établie en Arménie et exporter ses équipements de protection
aux forces armées d’autres anciens Etats soviétiques.

L’entreprise a été implantée par Lubawa et le ministère arménien de la
Défense dans la ville arménienne centrale de Charentsavan début 2013.
Le ministre de la Défense, Seyran Ohanian, et son ancien homologue
polonais, Bogdan Klich, l’ont inauguré en octobre dernier.

Grce à la technologie et l’expertise de Lubawa, l’usine de
Charentsavan produit une gamme d’équipements de protection tels que
des casques de l’armée, des gilets pare-balles, des tentes gonflables,
des filets de camouflage et des leurres. Ohanian a déclaré lors de la
cérémonie d’inauguration que ces articles seront fournis aux forces
armées de l’Arménie, mais aussi à d’autres nations.

Le chef de la direction de Lubawa, Marcin Kubica, a discuté de la
question avec Ohanian et d’autres responsables militaires arméniens
lors de sa visite à Erevan à la mi-décembre.

“Les marchés d’exportation que Lubawa Arménie va tenter de gagner en
premier lieu seront ceux de la Géorgie, du Kazakhstan, du
Turkménistan, du Kirghizistan et d’Ouzbékistan”, avait déclaré le
ministre de la Défense arménien.

Lubawa a également annoncé que l’usine de Charentsavan est prête à
fabriquer des bateaux gonflables, combinaisons de protection et autres
équipements individuels pour les sauveteurs. Il a dit que le ministère
arménien des Services gouvernementaux est > pour acheter
de tels équipements pour son service de sauvetage.

jeudi 8 janvier 2015,
Claire (c)armenews.com