Author: nina hovnanian

Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)
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UNICEF vacancy notice geo/ssa/2011/008

CONSULTANT

FOR THE CENTRE OF CHILDREN AND WOMAN’S RIGHTS OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER’S
OFFICE

Terms of Reference

Position Title: Consultant for the Centre of Children and
Woman’s Rights of the Public Defender’s Office

Type of Contract: Service Contract

Starting Date: June, 2011

Duration of Initial Contract: 5 month

Background

The Child Rights Center was established within the Office of the Public
Defender (PDO) of Georgia in 2001. In 2009 Center’s mandate was broadened by
assigning a function of monitoring of woman’s rights. Since then the Center
was titled as the “Centre of Child’s and Woman’s Rights” (CCWR). The
functions of the CCWR include: promoting and monitoring children’s rights,
public awareness-raising and education on children’s rights, developing
recommendations for legislative and administrative authorities, handling
complaints of individuals and carrying out investigations about children’s
rights violations in Georgia.

In 2010 with the support of UNICEF a comprehensive strategy and three years
working plan on strengthening Child Right’s Monitoring by PDO were developed
with the support of the international consultant. The purpose of this
assignment was to ensure that the PDO had the capacity to monitor, promote
and protect children’s rights through adequate, effective and accessible
mechanisms that take into account the specific needs of children.

The strategy defines six main objectives/priorities, which are as follows:

1. Raising the productivity of the CWRC
2. Improving the visibility of the work of the CWRC and raising public
awareness about children’s rights
3. Improving the capacity of the CWRC to detect children’s rights
violations
4. capacity to influence law and policy development
5. Strengthening international relations
6. Constructing a child friendly institution.

UNICEF Georgia in partnership with the PDO seeks to recruit a consultant
based in the CCWR who will support the Center in the implementation of the
Strategy and improved monitoring of Children’s rights .

General Responsibilities of the Consultant

– Participate in daily functioning of CCWR

– Support the implementation of different components of the CCWR
strategy

Tasks

– Design and implement information campaign on children’s rights
addressed to schools, medical centers, institutions, IDP settlements etc.

– Develop training materials for schools and other institutions
about the role of the PDO on children’s rights.

– Support to the work of the NGO council focusing on Child Rights
issues at the Office of the Public Defender.

– Design and publish an annual newsletter on the activities of
CCWR.

– Update the website of CCWR incorporating child-friendly reference
inviting children to speak out.

– Support to establishing PDO-CWRC “ambassadors” (young people’s
council) and facilitate their activities during the 5 months.

– Develop a research project (Desk review) for identifying most
invisible areas of children’s rights in Georgia.

– and other tasks required by the supervisor.

Competencies and Skills

Academic Background: Graduate degree in communication, public relations and
social sciences;

Relevant work experience: Three to five years of relevant professional
experience in the area of communication/public relations and/or project
management.

Technical/Functional:

* Knowledge of current theories and practices in communication;
* professional work experience in communication/PR;
* Ability to do research, analyse, evaluate and synthesize
information;
* General ability to draft clearly and concisely ideas and concepts in
written and oral form;
* Awareness of the local and international standards of Human/child
Rights;
* Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age
sensitivity and adaptability;
* Demonstrated ability to work with civil society organizations
towards combating child rights violations in Georgia;
* Fluent (written and spoken) English and Georgian, Russian
(preferable);
* Proficient in IT skills

Behavioral

* Ability to work as a member of a team
* Excellent interpersonal communication skills, initiative and
dynamism
* Ability to work in an international and multicultural environment
* Maturity, ability to take decisions under pressure and ability to
deal with matters that are politically or culturally sensitive
* Ability to approach work with energy and a positive, constructive
attitude
* Openness to change and ability to manage complexities

Supervision:

Day-to-day work is supervised and facilitated by the Head of the Child and
Women’s Rights Centre of the PDO.

Payment method

Considering the expertise needed the candidate is equivalent to the NOA
grade and in entitled to receive the relevant remuneration.

The service payment in GEL will be effected by UNICEF on monthly bases upon
satisfactory performance and delivery of high quality service based on the
inputs provided by the PDO.

Leave

– The consultant has no entitlement for annual leave, sick leave,
maternity, adoption or paternity leave or any other kinds of special leave.
In cases of absence from duty, the Consultant’s fees will be pro-rated on
the basis of 21 work-days in a month .

– Health Insurance: UNICEF does not provide or arrange health
insurance coverage for consultants. Health Statement forms must be submitted
to UNICEF prior to signing the contract.

Termination of the Contract

1. The contract may be terminated by either party before its expiry
date by giving a 14 days notice in writing to the other party.
2. However, in the event of termination on the ground of misconduct,
UNICEF will be entitled to terminate the contract without notice. In such
case, the Contractor will be compensated on a pro-rata basis for no more
than the actual amount of work completed to the satisfaction of UNICEF.

How to apply

If you are interested in the position and have the required qualifications,
please hand-deliver your application in a sealed envelope, labelled as
“VACANCY NOTICE GEO/SSA/2011/008” by 18:00 of Thursday 16 June 2011. Your
application must be in English and must include:

(1) Cover Letter with the indication of possible start date

(2) detailed Curriculum Vitae and

(3) completed UN Personal History Form (can be downloaded from
, ,
,
, www. ungeorgia.ge
and ).

The envelope should be placed in the vacancy box with the respective label
on it, located in the Entrance Hall of the UN house, 9 Eristavi Street,
Vake, Tbilisi 0179, Georgia. Incomplete applications or applications
received after the above deadline will not be considered and only
short-listed applicants will be contacted.

DASHNAK MP: ANC LEADER’S STATEMENTS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH REALITY

Tert.am
01.06.11

Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his team have made so many false statements
that they now have begun to believe their own words, Armenian
Revolutionary Federation- Dashnaktsutyun MP Artsvik Minasyan said
when asked by Tert.am to comment on Ter-Petrosyan’s statement that
ARFD is concerned about the improvement of the political situation
in the country. Ter-Petrosyan made the statement at the Armenian
National Congress’ Tuesday rally in Yerevan.

However, Minasyan said, people clearly understand what’s going on,
and they also understand that ANC leader’s statements have nothing
to do with the reality.

Speaking of the dialogue between ANC and the regime, Minasyan said:
“They have long been engaged in a dialogue; they were playing chess,
praising each other, but people had nothing to do with that.”

On the other hand, it is good that they are engaged in a dialogue,
Minasyan added, as it makes people “get their eyes open to see that
ANC and the regime share the same views on many issues.”

“But those views are not in our nation’s interest,” he concluded.

RWANDA : HERITAGE MITIGE POUR LES TRIBUNAUX COMMUNAUTAIRES TRAITANT LES AFFAIRES DE GENOCIDE

Source/Lien : Human Rights Watch
Publie le : 02-06-2011

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
propose cette information publiee sur le site Human Rights Watch le
31 mai 2011.

Legende photo : un rescape du genocide porte des accusations contre un
prisonnier (portant une chemise rose) au cours d’une audience gacaca
en fevrier 2003 près de Gikongoro, dans le sud du Rwanda.

De graves erreurs judiciaires requièrent un examen par le système
judiciaire national

(Kigali, le 31 mai 2011) – Les tribunaux communautaires gacaca au
Rwanda ont aide les communautes a faire face au genocide de 1994 dans
le pays mais n’ont pas reussi a fournir des decisions et une justice
credibles dans un certain nombre d’affaires, a declare Human Rights
Watch dans un rapport publie aujourd’hui. Alors que les tribunaux
gacaca reduisent progressivement leurs activites, le Rwanda devrait
mettre en place des unites specialisees au sein du système judiciaire
national afin d’examiner les allegations d’erreurs judiciaires,
a ajoute Human Rights Watch.

Le rapport de 160 pages, ” Justice compromise : L’heritage des
tribunaux communautaires gacaca du Rwanda “, evalue les reussites des
tribunaux et souligne un certain nombre de graves lacunes dans leur
travail, notamment la corruption et des irregularites de procedure. Le
rapport examine egalement la decision du gouvernement de transferer
les affaires de viols liees au genocide devant les tribunaux gacaca
et d’exclure de leur competence les crimes commis par des militaires
du Front patriotique rwandais (FPR), parti au pouvoir dans le pays
depuis que le genocide a pris fin en juillet 1994.

” L’experience ambitieuse du Rwanda dans la justice transitionnelle
laissera un heritage mitige “, a declare Daniel Bekele, directeur
de la division Afrique a Human Rights Watch. ” Les tribunaux ont
aide les Rwandais a mieux comprendre ce qui s’est passe en 1994,
mais dans de nombreux cas des procès defectueux ont conduit a des
erreurs judiciaires. ”

Le rapport est base sur l’observation par Human Rights Watch de plus
de 2 000 jours de procès devant les juridictions gacaca, sur l’examen
de plus de 350 affaires, et sur des entretiens avec des centaines
de participants de toutes les parties prenantes du processus gacaca,
notamment des accuses, des rescapes du genocide, des temoins, d’autres
membres de la communaute, des juges, ainsi que des autorites locales
et nationales.

Depuis 2005, un peu plus de 12 000 tribunaux gacaca communautaires
ont juge environ 1,2 million d’affaires liees au genocide de
1994. Les violences ont fait plus d’un demi-million de morts,
appartenant principalement a la population minoritaire tutsie du
pays. Les tribunaux communautaires sont appeles gacaca – ” gazon ”
dans la langue du pays, le kinyarwanda, se referant a l’endroit où
les communautes se reunissaient traditionnellement pour regler les
differends. Il etait prevu que les tribunaux aient acheve les procès
a la mi-2010, mais leur clôture a ete reportee a octobre 2010. En
mai 2011, le ministre de la Justice aurait annonce que les tribunaux
gacaca seraient officiellement clôtures d’ici decembre 2011.

Les juridictions gacaca ont ete creees en 2001 pour repondre a la
surcharge d’affaires dans le système judiciaire classique et a une
crise carcerale. En 1998, 130 000 suspects de genocide etaient
entasses dans un espace carceral concu pour accueillir 12 000
personnes, aboutissant a des conditions inhumaines et des milliers
de morts. Entre decembre 1996 et le debut de 1998, les tribunaux
classiques avaient juge seulement 1 292 personnes soupconnees de
genocide, ce qui a conduit a l’assentiment general qu’une nouvelle
approche etait necessaire pour accelerer les procès.

La loi gacaca adoptee au Rwanda en 2001 a cherche a resoudre cet
encombrement. Les nouveaux tribunaux gacaca, sous la supervision
du gouvernement mais avec des garanties limitees d’une procedure
regulière, ont combine le droit penal moderne avec des procedures
communautaires informelles plus traditionnelles.

Le gouvernement rwandais a ete confronte a des defis enormes dans la
creation d’un système qui pourrait traiter rapidement des dizaines de
milliers d’affaires d’une manière qui serait largement acceptee par la
population, a indique Human Rights Watch. Ce système a obtenu certaines
reussites, notamment la tenue de procès rapides avec la participation
populaire, une reduction de la population carcerale, une meilleure
comprehension de ce qui s’est passe en 1994, la localisation et
l’identification des corps des victimes et un eventuel assouplissement
des tensions ethniques entre le groupe ethnique majoritaire hutu et
la minorite tutsie.

Les Rwandais ont toutefois paye un prix eleve pour les compromis faits
lors de la mise en place du nouveau système gacaca. Human Rights Watch
a constate un large eventail de violations de procès equitable. Il
s’agit notamment de restrictions sur la capacite de l’accuse a
etablir une defense efficace ; d’eventuelles erreurs judiciaires dues
a l’utilisation de juges n’ayant en grande partie pas beneficie de la
formation necessaire ; de fausses accusations, dont certaines basees
sur la volonte du gouvernement rwandais de faire taire les critiques ;
du detournement du système gacaca pour regler des comptes personnels ;
d’intimidation de temoins a decharge par des juges ou par des autorites
; et de corruption par des juges et des parties aux affaires.

” La creation des juridictions gacaca a ete une bonne chose car elle
a permis a la population de jouer un rôle important dans le processus
gacaca. Mais je deplore [s’adressant aux juges] votre parti pris “,
a declare un temoin lors d’un procès observe par Human Rights Watch.

Le gouvernement rwandais a soutenu que les droits traditionnels de
procès equitable n’etaient pas necessaires parce que les membres
de la communaute – au fait de ce qui s’est passe dans leur region
en 1994 – revèleraient les faux temoignages ou la partialite des
juges. Mais Human Rights Watch a constate dans de nombreux cas que
des temoins potentiels ne se sont pas exprimes pour la defense de
suspects du genocide parce qu’ils craignaient des poursuites pour
parjure, complicite dans le genocide ou ” ideologie genocidaire “,
delit vaguement defini interdisant les idees, les declarations ou
une conduite qui pourraient entraîner des tensions ethniques ou des
violences. D’autres craignaient de subir l’ostracisme social pour
avoir aide des suspects a se defendre.

Un rescape du genocide interroge par Human Rights Watch a fondu en
larmes, en disant qu’il avait honte d’avoir eu trop peur de temoigner
pour la defense d’un homme hutu qui avait sauve sa vie et celles de
plus d’une dizaine de membres de sa famille.

” Un certain nombre de personnes nous ont dit qu’elles avaient garde
le silence pendant les procès gacaca alors meme qu’elles croyaient
les suspects innocents “, a declare Daniel Bekele. ” Ces personnes ont
estime que l’enjeu de se presenter pour defendre les personnes accusees
a tort de crimes lies au genocide etait tout simplement trop eleve. ”

Human Rights Watch a egalement interviewe des victimes de viol
dont les affaires liees au genocide ont ete transferees en mai 2008
depuis les tribunaux classiques, dotes d’une meilleure protection
des renseignements personnels, devant les tribunaux gacaca, dont les
procedures sont connues de toute la communaute, bien que se deroulant
a huis clos. De nombreuses victimes de viol se sont senties trahies
par cette perte de confidentialite.

La decision du gouvernement d’exclure de la competence des tribunaux
gacaca les crimes commis par des militaires appartenant au parti
actuellement au pouvoir, le FPR, a laisse les victimes de leurs crimes
en attente de justice, a observe Human Rights Watch. Des militaires
du FPR, qui a mis fin au genocide en juillet 1994 et a forme ensuite
le gouvernement actuel, ont tue des dizaines de milliers de personnes
entre avril et decembre 1994. En 2004, la loi gacaca a ete modifiee
afin d’exclure de tels crimes, et le gouvernement a veille a ce que
ces crimes ne soient pas abordes devant les juridictions gacaca.

” L’une des graves lacunes du processus gacaca a ete son incapacite a
assurer une justice egale pour toutes les victimes de crimes graves
commis en 1994 “, a observe Daniel Bekele. ” En retirant les crimes
commis par le FPR de leur competence, le gouvernement a limite le
potentiel des juridictions gacaca a favoriser la reconciliation a
long terme au Rwanda. ”

Les graves erreurs judiciaires devraient etre examinees par des juges
professionnels devant des tribunaux specialises au sein du système
classique, plutôt que par les tribunaux gacaca ainsi que l’a propose le
gouvernement rwandais a la fin de 2010, a indique Human Rights Watch.

” Si les tribunaux gacaca examinent les erreurs judiciaires presumees,
il y a un risque de voir se repeter certains des memes problèmes “,
a conclu Daniel Bekele. ” Au lieu de cela, le gouvernement devrait
s’assurer que le système judiciaire formel examine ces affaires de
manière professionnelle, equitable et impartiale. Cela aiderait
a assurer l’heritage du système gacaca et a renforcer le système
judiciaire du Rwanda pour les generations a venir. ”

Quelques citations tirees du rapport :

” Je n’arrive pas a comprendre comment vous pouvez me demander de
presenter mes temoins a decharge alors que je ne connais meme pas
les accusations portees contre moi dans cette affaire ? ” -Un homme
accuse, lors de son procès dans le sud du Rwanda

” Pourquoi est-ce que toute personne qui dit la verite et defend un
homme est consideree comme traître ? ” -Un rescape du genocide lors
d’une deposition en tant que temoin a decharge dans un procès gacaca

” En temoignant pour la defense, vous risquez de voir vos declarations
qualifiees de mensonges. ” -Une autorite locale expliquant lors d’une
entrevue pourquoi davantage de temoins ne deposent pas

” Dans le processus gacaca, il y a eu beaucoup de conflits personnels
qui n’avaient rien a voir avec le genocide. ” -Un rescape du genocide

” Il faut donner de l’argent. Les juges gacaca n’ont pas ete payes
alors ils ont parfois pris des dispositions pour recevoir de l’argent
de ceux qui ont ete accuses. ” -Un homme accuse de genocide qui a
declare qu’il avait dû payer un pot-de-vin aux juges gacaca

” Le plus gros problème avec le système gacaca, ce sont les crimes
dont nous ne pouvons pas discuter. On nous dit qu’on ne peut pas
discuter de certains crimes, les meurtres commis par le FPR, devant
les juridictions gacaca, meme si les familles ont besoin de parler. On
nous dit de nous taire sur ces questions. C’est un gros problème. Ce
n’est pas de la justice. ” -Un membre de la famille d’une victime de
crimes commis par des militaires du parti actuellement au pouvoir

” Le système gacaca a ameliore la situation parce que les gens se
rapprochent lentement les uns des autres alors qu’ils ne le faisaient
pas auparavant. ” -Un juge (lui-meme un rescape du genocide) qui a
participe aux procès gacaca

” Il s’agit de reconciliation imposee par le gouvernement. Le
gouvernement a force les gens a demander et donner le pardon. Personne
ne le fait volontairement … Le gouvernement a gracie les tueurs, pas
nous. ” -Une rescapee du genocide qui a ete violee pendant le genocide

” Le processus gacaca a laisse les Hutus et les Tutsis encore plus
divises que jamais. ” -Un membre de la famille d’un homme accuse
de genocide

” Comment faire pour decider d’une politique a l’egard de la
proposition pour gacaca ?….[ I] l est clair que la proposition est
a la fois très prometteuse et très dangereuse […] Il n’y a moyen
d’etre sûr de rien : c’est un pari gigantesque pour les autorites
et la population rwandaises, comme il le serait pour tout bailleur
de fonds le soutenant (avec la difference que pour les bailleurs de
fonds, ce n’est pas une question de vie ou de mort, tandis que c’est
le cas pour les Rwandais). ”

-L’auteur d’une etude universitaire sur la question du soutien
potentiel des bailleurs de fonds internationaux pour le processus
gacaca

Retour a la rubrique

RICHARD MALLIE, LE CHEVALIER DES CAUSES POPULAIRES
Stephane

armenews.com
jeudi 2 juin 2011

Le Monde, France 26 mai 2011 jeudi

PROFIL : Richard Mallie, le chevalier des causes populaires

C’est un des hommes forts de l’Assemblee nationale. Elu depute (UMP)
des Bouches-du-Rhône en 2002 après avoir arrache la 4e circonscription
au communiste Roger Meï, Richard Mallie a connu une ascension
fulgurante. En 2005, il devient secretaire de l’Assemblee, et, depuis
2007, il en est le premier questeur, un poste cle. Les trois questeurs
gèrent les credits du Palais-Bourbon, ils disposent chacun d’un vaste
appartement dans les locaux de l’Assemblee qu’ils peuvent mettre a
disposition des elus qui en font la demande. Ils ont beaucoup d’amis…

La recette de ce chirurgien-dentiste de 62 ans, a la moustache drue
et a la faconde toute meridionale : un flair inne pour s’emparer
des sujets ” grand public “. Et une communication bien rodee. Il est
aujourd’hui un des fers de lance de la ” bataille des radars “.

Il a très vite compris comment se faire connaître. Habituellement,
les nouveaux elus siègent dans les derniers rangs, tout en haut
de l’Hemicycle, peu visibles. Lui s’est fait une place au premier
rang, multipliant les interpellations des orateurs, soigneusement
repertoriees par les redacteurs qui prennent en note les debats. Du
pain benit pour les moteurs de recherche qui comptabilisent le nombre
d’interventions en seance et pour les chasseurs de classement qui
s’en servent pour reference. Et voila Richard Mallie sacre ” depute
le plus actif de France ” !

Ce qu’il s’empresse de faire savoir. Journal, blog : avec l’aide
de l’agence Com’Publics, dirigee par Marc Teyssier d’Orfeuil, qui
s’occupe de sa communication, Richard Mallie devient rapidement
un incontournable. D’autant qu’il a ete un des premiers, parmi les
deputes de l’UMP, a choisir le bon cheval en se mettant dans les pas
de Nicolas Sarkozy quand ce dernier n’etait pas encore le candidat
designe a l’election presidentielle. ” Nation et patriotisme ”

Parmi ses grands combats, le refus de l’entree de la Turquie dans
l’Union europeenne. Elu d’une circonscription où la communaute
armenienne est importante, le depute est a l’initiative, en 2005, de
l'” appel des 43 ” deputes qui demandent au president Chirac de refuser
l’ouverture des negociations de l’Europe avec ce pays. Il met en
place et preside un groupe de parlementaires qui exerce une vigilance
constante sur tout ce qui touche aux relations avec la Turquie.

Ce n’est pas son seul fait d’armes, loin s’en faut. Ce depute qui
se reclame de ” la nation, du patriotisme et de la Republique ”
se fait fort d’enfourcher les causes ” populaires “. Defense des
buralistes quand Xavier Bertrand voulait etendre l’interdiction de
fumer dans les lieux publics, campagne pour maintenir l’inscription
du numero des departements sur les plaques d’immatriculation et,
peut-etre sa ” mère des batailles “, celle pour l’ouverture des
magasins le dimanche. Sa circonscription englobe Plan de Campagne,
une des plus vastes zones commerciales de France. Il ne desarmera
pas avant d’avoir obtenu gain de cause.

ISRAEL MAY RECOGNISE OTTOMAN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Vita Bekker

The National

June 2 2011
UAE

Members of the Jerusalem Armenian community hold placards as they march
during commemorations for the 96th anniversary of mass killings of
their ancestors under the Ottoman Empire, at Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s
Old City. Gali Tibbon / AFP Photo

TEL AVIV // A plan by Israel’s parliamentary speaker to move the
country closer to recognising the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman
forces as genocide worries foreign ministry officials because it
threatens to worsen ties with Turkey.

The decision by Reuven Rivlin, a member of prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, is a break with the years-long Israeli
policy to take no stance on the massacre.

On Monday, Mr Rivlin said that the 120-member parliament will begin
holding an annual session to mark the massacre.

“It’s my duty as a Jew and an Israeli to recognise the tragedies
of other nations,” said Mr Rivlin, in an indirect reference to the
Holocaust. “Diplomatic considerations, as considerable as they are,
will not allow us to deny the catastrophe of others.”

Israel, like the US, has never acknowledged that the massacre of up to
1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks was genocide, saying that
the historical dispute should be settled between Turkey and Armenia.
Its long-held view, however, is widely attributed to its desire to
maintain good relations with Turkey, which has vehemently denied that
genocide had taken place.

The Israeli stance has been supported for years by pro-Israel Jewish
organisations in the US, which have pressured the US Congress and
successive presidents to defeat congressional resolutions marking
the killing of the Armenians. Turkey is a key ally that has supported
the US in confrontations from Afghanistan to Iran.

Mr Rivlin’s move to conduct an event that would publicly question
Turkey’s denial is probably a result of the deteriorating ties between
Israel and Turkey.

The allies’ relations have suffered amid Turkey’s growing condemnation
of the Jewish state’s approach towards the Palestinians and after
Israeli commandos’ killing of nine Turkish activists aboard a
Gaza-bound flotilla last year.

Yossi Sarid, a former education minister, said the parliament’s
approval of Mr Rivlin’s initiative was due to Israel’s anger at
Turkey’s support of an upcoming international aid flotilla that aims
to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza’s airspace, territorial waters
and all but one of its border crossings.

“The Israelis no longer favour the Turks and are willing to give
up the charms and temptations of Antalya,” he wrote in the Haaretz
newspaper yesterday, referring to the Turkish resort city that in
the past was a major tourism destination for Israelis.

Mr Rivlin’s announcement has also stirred speculation in the Israeli
and Turkish press that Israel intended to pressure Turkey to stop
the Gaza-bound flotilla expected as soon as this month.

On Monday, a coalition of 22 activist groups aiming to take part in
the new flotilla said at a news conference aboard the Turkish-flagged
Mavi Marmara, the ship on which last year’s confrontation took place,
that 15 ships would be in the new convoy.

Their briefing came a day after Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet
Davutoglu, warned Israel against launching another raid of the aid
flotilla. “We are sending a clear message to all those concerned:
the same tragedy should not be repeated again,” he told the Reuters
news agency.

Muslim Turkey accepts that as many as 1.5 million Christian
Armenians were killed by Ottoman forces but denies the act amounted
to genocide, a term employed by many Western historians and some
foreign parliaments.

The Israeli government has expressed opposition to Mr Rivlin’s
initiative, with Danny Ayalon, deputy foreign minister and a member
of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, saying this week it was
“impossible” for Israel to officially recognise the genocide.

Mr Rivlin’s announcement comes after the parliament’s vote last week
to hold an open, public debate on the Armenians’ massacre.

IMMIGRANT NELSON COUNTY FARMER FACES RESIDENCY BATTLE
By Erin McGrath

Lynchburg News and Advance

June 1 2011
Virginia

With the hot spring sun blazing down through his wide-brimmed straw
hat, Ara Avagyan rode a bright orange tractor through the fields of
vegetables on Double H Farm in Shipman last week.

Avagyan, 41, is the farm manager at Double H and holds an agriculture
management degree.

He was tending to cabbage, kale, carrots and other produce he may
not get to harvest.

“Look at my hands,” he said, holding out his red-dirt stained fingers.

“It is not easy to play with soil.”

For more than six years, Avagyan, his wife Gayane and their two
children, Samson and Lyudmila, have called Nelson County home. The
family emigrated from Armenia on Ara’s work visa in 2003, but their
status in the U.S. is now in jeopardy.

Earlier this year, Ara Avagyan received a letter from the U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services that his application for permanent
residency status was “insufficient” and was being denied.

Since then, Avagyan and his employer, Richard Bean, the co-owner of
Double H farm, have been working to appeal the decision.

“We’re in hell,” Bean said about the process. “We’re surrounded by
red tape.”

Now, more than 400 of their neighbors have picked up the Avagyans’
cause, appealing to federal officials to approve the family’s
application for permanent residency status.

“This is not your standard case where you have an illegal immigrant
who is perhaps taking away a job that could go to someone else,”
Axel Goetz, of Shipman, said. “Ara is someone who has built up a
farm. He has hired already. He will be a further producer and not
consumer of jobs.”

Axel and his wife, Anke Goetz, met the Avagyans while browsing
through the Double H Farm stand at the Nellysford Farmers Market a
few years ago.

“They looked interesting to me,” Anke Goetz said. “I talked to them
a little bit and took their card and found out by their name that
they were Armenian and I was planning a trip to Armenia. I started
to talk to them the next farmers market. That’s how we started to
get friendly.”

Through conversations, the Goetzes learned about the Avagyans’
struggles to become permanent residents of the U.S., something they
knew about, having emigrated from Germany themselves more than 30
years ago.

“I think another thing that was interesting to them and to us was, we
came to this country also,” Anke Goetz said. “When you are somebody
who comes new and you meet somebody who had the same experience 30
years ago, that is kind of an interesting thing.”

Concern for their neighbors, who had now become friends, motivated
the Goetzes into action.

With others in the community, the Goetzes assembled a packet of
information that was passed on to Virginia Sens. Jim Webb and Mark
Warner and Rep. Robert Hurt in hopes of getting some help with the
Avagyans’ residency status. Supporters are seeking to get a private
bill passed that would help the family, but so far have gotten no
response.

The packet contained pages of information, copies of immigration forms
and a petition of more than 400 signatures from Nelson residents in
support of the Avagyans.

“They are simply people you want to have as friends and they’ve become
good friends over the years,” Axel Goetz said. “Another reason (to
help) is from what is a feeling of what is right and what is wrong.

Now it is an issue of justice. These guys did everything right. Ara
was here before, legally. He got the right kind of visa. They did
everything right.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services gave several reasons for
its denial of the family’s application. The agency said, among other
reasons, that the newspaper job advertisement Ara Avagyan replied
to did not contain information about wages and job location that the
federal office requires. It also said that Ara’s income in 2009 was
$2,433 short of the minimum income required to stay in the country
on his work visa.

But the family’s supporters say that the federal government changed
those wage regulations after the Avagyans submitted their application
for permanent residency.

The packet also contained letters of support from local residents,
like Gary and Jeanne Scott, who own Twin Springs Farm in Shipman,
a direct competitor of Double H Farm.

The Scotts are also the Avagyans’ neighbors and Jeanne drives the
school bus the children ride every day to school. Samson attends
Nelson County High School and Lyudmila attends Nelson County Middle
School. Both are honors students.

“Ara is a very kind and personable person who has a great wealth of
farming knowledge,” Gary Scott wrote. “He and I often collaborate
on growing.”

Jeanne Scott said small farmers are facing a difficult time in the
U.S. already, without the added burden of bureaucracy the Avagyans
are experiencing.

“When you’ve got somebody with the growing skills and willingness that
he has, it’s crazy they don’t want to keep him here,” she said. “The
process is so protracted. It’s such a shame because they’re great
people.”

Bean said he and the Avagyans will continue to fight the decision.

“We are continuing to operate like we’re going to win,” he said.

Meanwhile Ara will continue to harvest the plants he grows on Double
H Farm.

“I just want to grow things like lettuce and make people happy,”
he said. “When I plant a tree, it’s not one day of work. You have to
see what is going on with what you plant. I want to see what is next.”

NEW MAGAZINE TO REPRESENT ALL TURKEY’S MINORITIES

Hurriyet
May 31 2011
Turkey

Turkey’s minorities should try harder to break out of their shell,
according to the editor-in-chief of a new monthly magazine that aims
to lend a collective voice to Turkey’s Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian and
Syriac minorities. “Paros” (torch in Armenian) will be published in
Turkish to reach a broader audience.

“Turkey had no magazines aiming to shed light on minority communities.

At the moment, we are unique in this field. As Turkey is changing,
so the minorities’ world has begun to acquire new vigor. I believe
the timing for Paros’ launch is quite accurate, and precisely for
this reason, because Turkish society has grown more aware,” Mayda
Saris told Hurriyet Daily News.

The representatives of Turkey’s minorities gathered in a hall allocated
by Å~^iÅ~_li Mayor Mustafa Sarıgul at Ramada Hotel in the district
of Pangaltı to participate in the magazine’s publicity meeting on
Monday night. Mayor Sarıgul expressed his support for the enterprise
and added that minorities were an indispensable part of Turkey.

“Paros means torch; and let’s hope this torch never fades away and
keeps our paths alight. We wish for all cultures to live on and never
get lost,” Sarıgul told the Daily News.

The magazine contributes to a country’s culture when minorities knew
the language of their resident country well and launched publications
that addressed the general public, Saris said. Such publications show
people what they do not see and make them think about different things,
he added.

Agos magazine, an Armenian weekly whose editor-in-chief Hrant Dink
was assassinated in 2007, had managed to attract substantial interest
because it was published in Turkish, said Paros’ editor.

“Care needs to be taken to prevent Armenian, Greek, Syriac, Bulgarian
and all other languages from becoming obsolete, for languages are
our wealth. However, it is also a truism that our youngsters prefer
to read in Turkish,” Saris said.

The magazine will primarily cover social, cultural, educational,
economic and artistic subjects, according to Saris, who also added
that young writers showed considerable interest in the publication. A
publicity issue of Paros magazine has already been published with
its initial staff of 18.

“We are going to employ many writers from diverse ethnic backgrounds:
Turks, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians and Syriacs. While Turkey and
the world are changing, minorities should also break out of their
isolation,” Saris said.

DEAUVILLE STATEMENT IS “RIGHT”
By Aghavni Haroutyunian

AZG DAILY
02-06-2011

On May 30, Ambassador of France to Armenia Henry Renault was invited
to the Information Center on NATO in Armenia. The ambassador responded
quite curtly to nearly all journalists’ questions, particularly those
questions which refer to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and different
contexts of French Co-chairing in it. The French Ambassador replied
that there is an OSCE Minsk Group French Co-chair and he is not
competent to answer those questions. On the other side the French
diplomat said that he has to demonstrate more restraint.

Though such approach is inconvenient for the media, but it is
acceptable from the point of view of the diplomacy. This could not
be said about a notorious American diplomat – OSCE Minsk Group former
American Co-chair, US present Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza.

Though the last has changed his position, but it seems he frequently
forgets about it, as he makes comments on Karabakh conflict. According
to the Azerbaijani mass media, Matthew Bryza once again made
commentaries for the media on the statement made by the presidents
of Russia, the USA and France on NKR conflict, when he was on a visit
to Lankaran. He repeated that the time came to think about the basic
principles of the peace agreement. Bryza noted that the Deauville
statement issued by the presidents “right from the point of view of
the stability settlement in the region”.

It is noteworthy that the US ambassadors to Armenia almost never
commented any statement or event, at the best they repeated those
statements that were already issued by the US State Secretary in the
name of the Embassy.

‘FROZEN CONFLICT’ BETWEEN AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA BEGINS TO BOIL

New York Times

June 1 2011

BAKU, Azerbaijan – In a mostly empty Soviet-era building here on a
recent morning, a 29-year-old woman pressed her eye against the scope
of a sniper rifle, brown hair spilling over her shoulder, and took
aim at virtual commandos darting between virtual trees.

Gathered around her were fellow students – a decommissioned soldier,
teenage boys with whispery mustaches, a 34-year-old communications
worker in Islamic hijab. When sniper training was offered here
in April, by an organization that provides courses on military
preparation, the classes were a sensation, attracting three times as
many students as the instructors could handle.

The logic behind this can be traced to a grievance that festers below
the surface of everyday life, permeating virtually every conversation
about this country’s future.

Since the early 1990s, Azerbaijan has been trying to regain control of
Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave within its
borders, and secure the return of ethnic Azeris who were forced from
their homes by war. A cease-fire has held since 1994, and officials
remain engaged in internationally mediated negotiations with Armenia,
a process that will receive a burst of attention this month when the
two sides meet in Kazan, Russia.

But the window for a breakthrough is narrow, and people here say
their patience is gone.

“I’d rather go to war than wait another 20 years,” said Shafag
Ismailova, 34, a student in the sniper course, who fled the Zangelan
region outside Nagorno-Karabakh, one of seven adjacent territories
that are under Armenian control. Asked about war, her friend Shafag
Amrahova, a recent law school graduate, did not hesitate.

“War is bad for everyone,” she said evenly. “But sometimes the
situation demands it.”

It is tempting to forget about the “frozen conflicts.” The enclaves
of Nagorno-Karabakh, Transdniester in Moldova, and Abkhazia and South
Ossetia in Georgia are among the most headache-inducing legacies of
the Soviet Union. The Soviets granted them a sort of semi-statehood,
a status that ceased to exist just as nationalism flared in the
ideological void. But the 2008 war in Georgia serves as a reminder
of how quickly and terribly they can come unfrozen.

One of the reasons Nagorno-Karabakh has not is that neither party
has an incentive to fight. Armenia controls the territories, so it
is interested in maintaining the status quo. Azerbaijan sees little
way forward: though it could easily drive out Armenian forces, Russia
could send its army to help Armenia, its ally in a regional defense
alliance, just as it did in South Ossetia.

But conditions have been shifting, slowly but surely, in a dangerous
direction. Negotiations mediated by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe faltered last year, leaving a “basic principles
agreement” that was five years in the making unsigned by either side.

Both countries are engaged in a steep military buildup; Azerbaijan,
by far the richer of the two, has increased defense spending twentyfold
since 2003, according to the International Crisis Group.

With frustration building, threats of war have become so entwined
with negotiations that it is difficult to say where one begins and
the other ends.

“There is no guarantee that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow a
war between Azerbaijan and Armenia won’t start,” Ali M. Hasanov, a
senior presidential aide here, said in an interview. “It’s peaceful
coexistence that we need, not a war. We need peaceful development. But
nothing will replace territorial integrity and the sovereignty
of Azerbaijan. If necessary we are ready to give our lives for
territorial integrity.”

He said Baku had been bitterly disappointed by international mediation
efforts. “The United States, France and Russia do not do what they
promised,” he said. “America now thinks Afghanistan and Iraq are more
important – and North Africa, and the missile defense shield in Europe
– than such regional conflicts as Nagorno-Karabakh.”

Among the forces driving Baku are refugees who have spent nearly
two decades in limbo. The United Nations says there are 586,013 –
7 percent of Azerbaijan’s population, which is one of the highest per
capita displacement rates in the world, according to the International
Displacement Monitoring Centre.

Though conditions vary widely and some resettlement is now taking
place, a visit to a dormitory in Baku found children growing up
in squalor. Roughly 100 refugees were living along a dank, fetid
hallway, on one floor of a former office building. Three rough,
foul-smelling holes in the concrete floor served as toilets for 21
families, residents said. The hallway was open to the elements,
exposing residents to bitter cold in the winter. In the summer,
mosquitoes breed in stagnant water in the building’s basement, rising
in a cloud to the floors above them, they said.

“They cannot stand it anymore, they want war,” said Jamila, 41,
of her neighbors. “They don’t believe the promises anymore.”

Just then, a man took her aside, rebuking her for speaking to Western
journalists who could, he warned, be pro-Armenian. “Our children look
at other houses, they see that other people live well, and they are
ashamed,” she said when she returned, refusing to give her last name.

“Write that the cursed Armenians are guilty of this.”

In this charged atmosphere, Nagorno-Karabakh has become “the one
issue on which there is total social consensus,” said Tabib Huseynov,
a political analyst based in Baku. A visitor here a few years ago
would have heard “Karabakh or Death,” a rap anthem that accuses
the United States, Russia, Turkey and Iran of turning a blind eye,
exhorting the world to “either put an end to this, or stand aside.”

Cease-fire violations – every year, snipers kill roughly 30 people
on either side of the so-called line of contact – can take on huge
proportions. In March, Azerbaijan announced that an Armenian sniper
had killed a 9-year-old Azeri boy, Fariz Badalov. Though Armenia’s
president denied that his forces were responsible, Azeri television
featured the boy’s pitiful life story. One broadcast noted that the
single bullet that crossed the line of contact that day was the one
that lodged in the boy’s head.

The story inspired Valid Gardashly, a publicist for the Voluntary
Military Patriotic Sports-Technical Association, which offers military
training from a headquarters in Baku that is reminiscent of a V.F.W.

post. The organization sketched out a plan for a 45-day course
that would include sniper training, free of charge for about half
the students.

“We thought we had to do something,” he said. “We are not preparing
for war. But this was a poor boy – what did he do wrong? He was not
a soldier. He was just watching cows.”

The course touched a nerve – both in Armenia, where some expressed
outrage at the idea, and in Azerbaijan, where an overflow crowd was
winnowed down to the 32 most promising marksmen. One who made the
cut, a 15-year-old boy, offered his own reason for taking the class:
“I am getting ready to fight in Karabakh.” Ms. Ismailova, one of the
students, looked anxious as she listened to him. She, too, grew up
among Karabakh refugees. But the younger ones are much more ardent,
she said.

“These young guys, they have been waiting their whole lives,”
she said. “We had a genocide, and no one helps us. Not America,
not Russia.”

AZERBAIJAN FREES JOURNALIST AFTER YEARS OF WORLD PRESSURE
By Kathy Lally

Washington Post

May 31 2011

BAKU, Azerbaijan — On Thursday at 6 p.m., Eynulla Fatullayev lay on
his prison bunk ready for his nightly battle with despair, a young
newspaper editor growing old midway through an 8½ -year sentence
for writing articles that the Azerbaijani government disliked.

Fatullayev knew that media and human rights groups around the world
— and even the U.S. government — were fighting for him, but he had
little reason to hope for justice. When told to pick up his things
and report to the warden, he had no idea what to expect — they could
hardly move him to a prison worse than Strict Regime Penal Colony No. 1.

Moments later, the warden told him he had been pardoned by the
president, Ilham Aliyev. Unbelievably, Fatullayev was free. The warden
did not let him call his parents — no crowds should gather to cheer
him — but personally drove him home. After more than four years of
cold and deprivation, Fatullayev left prison in a Mercedes Benz.

“I only wanted to run a professional newspaper,” said Fatullayev,
who entered prison at age 29, dark-haired and youthful-looking,
and emerged at 34, balding, graying and paunchy from lack of exercise.

“It was a terrible experience,” he said, his eyes red and blinking,
still adjusting to normal light two days after his release. “I spent
a lot of time in dark rooms.”

Fatullayev said he was moved to different prisons, often held
in solitary confinement and frequently ill. In standard barracks,
100 to a room, prisoners were awakened at 6 a.m. and sent out into a
small yard where they stayed until 10 p.m., with no roof overhead and
nothing to sit on. In solitary, where he spent three, five and 10 days
at a time, a wooden frame without a mattress was pulled down from the
wall at 9 p.m. and folded up at 5 a.m. The single window had no glass.

A long list of media and human rights organizations appealed on his
behalf. The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner visited him
three times, Fatullayev said, and eventually won him the right to read
newspapers. The U.S. State Department publicly called for his release.

Both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton,
he was told, brought his case up with Aliyev.

After his editor at the Monitor newspaper was killed in 2005,
Fatullayev started two newspapers of his own, one in Russian and one
in Azerbaijani. He first got into trouble describing a police gang
of criminals, led by a deputy minister who was ultimately jailed.

Fatullayev wrote that the interior minister was responsible, as well,
because he was in charge. The minister won a defamation suit, and
Fatullayev was fined, given a suspended jail sentence and the kind
of government attention meant to keep him quiet.

He was arrested in April 2007. “The government suddenly remembered
I had visited Nagorno-Karabakh in 2005,” he said, referring to the
territory that is the subject of an unresolved dispute between
Azerbaijan and Armenia. Fatullayev’s interviews had produced an
account of a well-known massacre there in 1992 during Azerbaijan’s
six-year war with Armenia. He was jailed for 2½ years for insulting
the honor and dignity of Azerbaijani refugees from the territory.

Another article suggested that if the United States and Iran ever went
to war, Iran could attack Azerbaijan. He was charged with terrorism.

An article about the prevalence of tribalism in national politics —
many officials are from the president’s home region — brought him
ethnic hatred charges.

“Six months later, the tax inspectorate launched an investigation
into my newspapers,” he said. “I was charged with evading taxes. I
got an additional three months.” His newspapers were closed, and he
had a total of 8½ years of prison ahead of him.

In April 2010, the European Court of Human Rights ruled he had been
denied a fair trial and ordered his release. “The government was very
irritated,” Fatullayev said. Before the ruling could be acted upon,
he was accused of possessing heroin in prison and given a new sentence
of 2½ years.

>From March 2 to April 2, he was in solitary at prison No. 1. “There
were great rats,” he said. “At night I could see them on my body.”

Both his mother, 60, and his father, 61, lost their jobs because of
him. Without help from the Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty
International, the Open Society Institute and others, he said, his
family would not have survived.

He turned to the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn. “Every prisoner had a
book,” he said. “One might have the Koran, another the Bible. Mine was
‘The Gulag Archipelago.’ When I lost hope, I opened Solzhenitsyn and
I said to myself — I talked to myself every night — ‘He was in a
far worse place and kept his will. You can keep yours.’â~@~I”

Now, in freedom, he is trying to figure out how to live again.

“I am thinking, how can I continue my journalism? The first way leads
me to prison. The second may lead me to the cemetery. What do I do?

“Right now,” he added, “I can only say that I’m trying to understand
freedom. It’s a miracle for me, and I’m trying to understand it.”