Author: nina hovnanian

NORWEGIAN PM SOLBERG NOT ATTENDING ARMENIAN COMMEMORATIONS, CITING IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

Daily Sabah, Turkey
March 16 2015

NURBANU KIZIL
ISTANBUL

DIPLOMACY Finnish envoy: Turkey’s accession would enrich the EU
culturally, economically, politically

The Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has announced that she will
not be attending the commemorations in Armenia organized for the
100th anniversary of the so-called Armenian Genocide, highlighting
that Norway puts value on relations with Turkey.

Solber stated that Norwegian executives, including herself and members
of the Foreign Ministry, will not be represented at the commemoration
ceremonies and only the ambassador will be able to participate.

According to a statement by the Foreign Ministry, it was highlighted
that the “Genocide allegations which were supposedly committed by
the Ottoman Empire in 1915 are internationally disputed” and that
the ministry would state their opinion on the matter later on.

Baard Glad Pedersen, the Undersecretary of the Norwegian Prime
Minister’s Office, said that conclusions regarding historical incidents
should be left for the discretion of historians, while noting that UN
resolutions outline what can be considered as genocide or not. “This
issue has been hotly debated in the recent years” Pedersen said.

Mertefe Bertinlioglu, a deputy from the Høyre – Norway’s Conservative
Party – in Oslo’s Provincial Legislature, stated that Prime Minister
Solberg’s decision must be respected, adding that Turkey has called
for the opening of archives numerous times to enable historians study
and analyze the issue, but noted that Armenia never accepted this. “I
also agree that this issue should only be handled by historians and
should not be exploited for political interests,” Bertinlioglu added.

The 1915 events took place during World War I when a group of
Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire supported a Russian invasion and
revolted against the empire, resulting in their relocation to eastern
Anatolia. Turkey refuses to use the term “genocide” to refer to the
incident, as many Turks also lost their lives due to attacks carried
out by Armenians in Anatolia. Meanwhile, Armenia and the Armenian
diaspora continue to campaign for the incidents to be recognized
as genocide.

In 2014, President Erdogan issued a letter expressing condolences
for the 1915 events, in an unprecedented move. Turkish officials
consistently urge for the establishment of a joint historical
commission to investigate the events and call on Armenia to open
their archives as Turkey has done.

ARMENIA PLANS ON BUILDING 30-70 MEGAWATT SOLAR POWER STATIONS

21:16, 16 March, 2015

YEREVAN, 16 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. In the next two to three years,
Armenia will be building 30-70 megawatt solar power stations. This
is what Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the
Republic of Armenia Areg Galstyan informed during the session of the
Committee on Energy of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. “To this
day, Armenia has not enhanced the solar energy sector. Of course,
Armenia has carried out several pilot projects because before 2014,
the tariffs for energy produced at photovoltage stations were quite
high for Armenia, and that would have a huge impact on the final
tariff for energy provided to consumers. In 2014, we held quite a lot
of discussions with the top experts from different parts of the world.

Understanding the trends, we are trying to open a small door for these
technologies. We plan on building the first large, 30-70 megawatt
stations in the next two to three years ,” the deputy minister said,
as “Armenpress” reports.

The subsidy mechanism is being applied so that the cost of solar
energy doesn’t have a huge impact on the price of electricity.

PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian
Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Avenue
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel.: 617-489-1610
E-mail: [email protected]

COMMEMORATION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT TUFTS
TO FEATURE LECTURE BY CLAIRE MOURADIAN

Tufts University, the Darakjian-Jafarian Chair in Armenian History,
the Department of History, the Armenian Club at Tufts University, and
the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research will
sponsor the Commemoration of the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide
at Tufts on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. The Tufts event
will feature a lecture by Dr. Claire Mouradian of Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France, entitled “A Century of
Oblivion: The Time Has Come to Listen to the Voices of the Victims.”
The evening will be hosted by Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, Professor of
History and Darakjian-Jafarian Chair of Armenian History at Tufts
University.

The commemoration and lecture will take place in Goddard Chapel on
Tufts’ Medford, MA, campus. A reception will follow in the Coolidge
Room in nearby Ballou Hall.

For the first time Claire Mouradian explores a collection of private
letters written in 1915-1919 by survivors in the Ottoman Empire to
their relatives in the USA. This correspondence is a first-hand
account of events and uncovers an intimate record of their lives. The
necessity for scholars to confront the continuing denial of the
Turkish state has led historians to give priority to archival
research, external diplomatic testimonies, and eye-witness accounts
over the voices of the victims. These letters highlight the
consequences of the Armenian Genocide on families and individuals and
will be read as a tribute to their memory.

Dr. Claire Mouradian is a director of research at the CNRS, Paris, and
is in charge of the section on the Caucasus within the Centre d’études
des Mondes russe, caucasien et centre-européen (CERCEC) at the École
des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). She is the author and
editor of numerous books and articles including Caucase, terres
d’empire, (2005), L’Arménie, (2002), and De Staline à Gorbatchev :
histoire d’une république soviétique, l’Arménie, éd. (1990).

She has organized many exhibits, seminars, and conferences and has
given lectures on Armenian history and on the Armenian Genocide in
numerous universities across the globe. She is also the official
translator to François Hollande during his trips to Armenia.

More information about the lecture is available by calling
617-489-1610, e-mailing [email protected], or writing to NAASR, 395 Concord
Ave., Belmont, MA 02478; or by contacting Prof. McCabe at
[email protected].

# # # # #
Belmont, MA
March 16, 2015

ARMENIA-RUSSIA RELATIONS UNDER STRAIN

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
March 16 2015

16 March 2015, 17:49 (GMT+04:00)
By Laman Sadigova

Previous expectations that Armenia’s economy would benefit from its
accession to the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union have not become
a reality, leaving Yerevan reeling.

Armenia which has suffered economically from quite some time, now,
pinned much of its hopes on the new economic alliance, anticipating
its membership would boost trade and power its economic recovery. Only
it did not happen.

Foreign Minister, Edward Nalbandyan was too optimistic when it came
to his country’s future in the union. And indeed, it appears his
predictions completely missed the mark.

Fully dependent on its giant neighbor – Russia, both financially
and economically, Armenia has crashed under the weight of Moscow’s
economic unraveling.

Armenia was one of the first countries to be largely affected by
western-sanctions against Russia.

The country’s export operations tremendously failed as deals with
cheapened ruble hit investors significantly. Now manufacturers have
seen their export decline, plagued by devaluation.

Ultimately, January saw the sharpest fall of export yet.

Armenia, being the most loyal ally of Russia, incidentally pinned
its every hope on the northern giant, but to avail.

This small country of the South Caucasus will likely strain under
great financial stress. With no energy resources to speak of and an
economy solely reliant on Russia, Armenia is a walking, breathing
catastrophe in the making.

And these Russian investments are unlikely to materialize in view of
the economic downturn; Yerevan finds itself in a pickle.

Russia has its own problems — shrinking economy, ruble devaluation
and sanctions — Nobody wants to invest in Armenia, especially Russia
as it needs to wisely utilize its resources to save its economy.

The negotiations on the gas price cut between Armenia and Russia
have not given any result. On the background of current processes,
Armenia could seek to distance itself from Russia.

And although Russia has proven unwilling to “release” Armenia from
its sphere of influence, Yerevan is trying to expand its borders of
cooperation. Armenia strives to revive the Association Agreement with
the European Union that was previously frozen.

The Armenian-Russian alliance is melting before the eyes. On the
background of the latest geopolitical events Yerevan is trying to
play a double game – just as it did while Russia was deprived of a
voting right at the PACE by simply abstaining.

Armenia’s dependence on Russia appears more visible than ever. But
as Armenia finds itself in an economic impasse Yerevan will attempt
to claim its political freedom in the hope to extract itself from
under Moscow’s gravitational pull.

What will Yerevan do now? Will it remain a satellite of Russia or
open its arms to the European Union?

TURKEY SLAMS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CALL FOR RECOGNITION OF ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Breitbart.com
March 16 2015

The Turkish Foreign Ministry denounced on Saturday a recent report
adopted by theEuropean Parliament that called on European Union member
states to recognizeArmenian claims of genocide at the hands of the
late Ottoman Empire.

In a statement, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic called
the European Parliament’s annual human rights and democracy report’s
reference to the Armenian claims as “devoid of historical reality
and legal basis.”

“We find these expressions extremely problematic and regret them,”
Bilgic said in the statement.

The European Parliament adopted the Annual Report on Human Rights and
Democracy in the World 2013 on March 12. Article 77 of the report
“calls, ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide,
on all the Member States legally to acknowledge it, and encourages
the Member States and the EU institutions to contribute further to
its recognition.”

Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed during the First World
War years in eastern Anatolia as part of a systematic genocide campaign
against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey disputes
that claim, saying both that the death toll is inflated and that the
Armenians were killed while the Ottoman Empire was trying to quell
unrest caused by Armenian attacks on the Turkish population while
they were trying to establish an Armenian state in eastern Anatolia.

SERZH SARGSYAN MEETS EIB VICE-PRESIDENT

16:46, 16 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

President Serzh Sargsyan today received Wilhelm Molterer,
Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), President’s
Press Office reported.

The President welcomed the guest to our country and expressed the
hope that Mr. Molterer’s visit will give a new impulse to Armenia’s
cooperation with the EIB which is directed at ensuring stable economic
growth in Armenia. Serzh Sargsyan praised the bank’s mission and its
current activity in our country, expressing satisfaction with the
fact that the cooperation with the EIB has been marked by activeness
and effectiveness. The Armenian President also stressed that taking
into account the economic importance of the sectors financed by the
bank and its current portfolio, the bank may be deemed as a strategic
partner for our country.

The EIB vice-president too expressed satisfaction with the cooperation
the bank has carried out with Armenia since 2007, emphasizing that
it could set a good example for other working partners.

Wilhelm Molterer noted that at present, the bank is working towards
the preparation of the next phase of collaboration with Armenia which
will be grounded on Armenia’s economic policy priorities.

At the meeting, the interlocutors attached great importance to the
bank’s support for infrastructure development projects, agreeing
that presently, it is the only way for Armenia to develop through
ensuring long-term stable economic growth by means of boosting economic
competitiveness. However, the parties agreed that it is meaningless
to speak about competitiveness and stable economic growth in default
of developed infrastructure.

The RA President and the EIB vice-president also touched upon the
prospects for promotion of cooperation between Armenia and the European
Union and upon the upcoming steps and in that context, placed great
weight on pushing forward the agenda for EU-funded reforms in Armenia.

WHAT HAVE RUSSIA AND TURKEY PREPARED THIS TIME?

Lragir.am
Politics – 16 March 2015, 13:10

In 1921, on March 16 Russia and Turkey signed a treaty in Moscow.

Nakhijevan and part of Yerevan province were given to Azerbaijan,
Kars and Surmalu were given to Turkey. The treaty was called a treaty
of friendship and brotherhood.

With this treaty Russia and Turkey divided Armenia between them,
with full and demonstrative neglect for the interests of Armenia. In
addition, Russia was the side which initiated and surrendered.

Earlier, the Russian forces had come to Turkey’s rescue and prevented
the fragmentation and collapse of this country. Afterwards, the Russian
and Turkish troops set to ravage Armenia, which was the continuation
of the genocide and was intended to eliminate the resistance of the
Armenian people altogether.

According to the first clause of the treaty, the sides assume to
deny any international agreement or act which will be imposed on any
of the sides by force. This clause was aimed against the Treaty of
Sevres which recognized the sovereignty of Armenia in its historical
territories. Hence, Russia and Turkey signed this treaty to eliminate
the independent Armenian state, dividing the territories of Armenia.

They committed to help each other to overcome any international
obligation.

Recently Russia and Turkey have reiterated their loyalty to this
treaty. And the Russian president Putin announced that the years
of Ataturk were the best years of the history of relations between
Russia and Turkey. In other words, the period when the independent
state of Armenia was destroyed and its territories were divided.

Now Russia and Turkey have appeared in a situation which is similar to
that of the twenties of the past century, i.e. international isolation
and risk of collapse. At that time, these two countries jointly got
over this situation through the 16 March 1921 treaty. Now they are
preparing for the establishment of the Russian-Turkish alliance.

RUSSIA COMMITS TO NEUTRALIZATION OF ARMENIA

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 16 March 2015, 15:54

March 16 is one of the most shameful and outrageous pages of the
Armenian history the reason of which is the Russian-Turkish treaty
signed on that day. In 1921 Russia and Turkey actually divided the
Caucasus by this treaty in prejudice of Armenia. Kars, Surmalu and
Nakhijevan were annexed by Turkey and Azerbaijan. This treaty is
still in force.

Moreover, the sides reaffirmed their commitment to the treaty in
2011, and the Turkish President Erdogan, then prime minister, passed
to the Russian prime minister Medvedev, then the Russian president,
a copy of the treaty in a solemn ceremony.

Later last year Putin commented on the relations with Turkey, noting
that the period of Ataturk, despite minor problems, had a positive
development for the Russian-Turkish relations. Now too, Russia
and Turkey continue this positive development, building a strategic
relationship. They are doing it in accordance with the Russian-Turkish
treaty, which is still in force, at least it has not been cancelled
so far. In addition, Russia’s actions, particularly towards Armenia,
indicate Moscow’s loyalty to the treaty.

Evidence to this is the similarity of the Russian state policy to
Article 8 of the Russian-Turkish treaty of 1921 which states that
the parties commit to banish in their countries the occurrence and
existence of organizations and groups which aspire to assuming the
role of government over the other country or a part of it, as well
as the existence of such groups which intend to fight against the
other country. In addition, the parties assume a similar obligation
towards the soviet republics of the Caucasus.

Armenia is not a soviet republic any more but it is a “Eurasian”
republic which is stripped of its sovereignty by Russia, with the
connivance of the Armenian government and the majority of the political
forces. And the abovementioned article of the Russian-Turkish treaty
is but a commitment to elimination of Armenia as an undesirable
“organization” for Turkey because, obviously, Armenia has a problem
with Turkey.

Hence, under the Russian-Turkish agreement Russia has committed to
depriving Armenia of an independent state policy and is currently
implementing its obligation. The most essential and reliable form is
to deprive Armenia of its sovereignty, which Moscow is up for.

This situation is especially dramatic ahead of the centenary of the
genocide, particularly in the context of the Pan-Armenian Declaration
which refers to Wilson’s arbitral award. Of course, this reference
is declarative and does not suppose any obligation in terms of the
state policy of Armenia. In other words, the arbitral award is not
referred to by official Yerevan which would thereby assume a state
responsibility for it. It is mentioned in a pan-Armenian wrapping,
acquiring a moral importance rather.

However, this importance is also doubted if the declaration mentions
Wilson’s arbitral award but there is no word about the Russian-Turkish
treaty. Meanwhile, the rejection of this treaty would be evidence
to the state and national dignity of the Armenian people and an
indicator of Armenia’s sovereignty. Armenia cannot be considered a
sovereign state unless it rejects the Russian-Turkish treaty of 1921,
at least at the political level, if it is not going to challenge this
agreement in terms of international law.

By way of its silence Armenia actually recognizes this shameful and
outrageous treaty which covers not only the Armenian-Turkish issue
but also the conflict in Artsakh and the regional developments in
general because currently the Russian-Turkish relationship covers a
broader range of issues.

The political prisoner Shant Harutiunyan announced in court that
Moscow is the representative of Turkey to the OSCE Minsk Group as long
as the Russian-Turkish treaty has not been declared null and void,
and Moscow and Ankara solemnly celebrate anniversaries.

Article 1 of the Russian-Turkish treaty states that the Russian
government agrees not to recognize any international act that
concerns Turkey and is not recognized by its new national government
representing the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. In fact,
according to the treaty, Russia shall not recognize what Turkey does
not recognize. As to what Turkey will not recognize, particularly in
terms of the benefit and security of Armenia, it is not hard to guess.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO BE COMMEMORATED IN A CANYON IN DERSIM

10:41, 16 March, 2015

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, ARMENPRESS. It becomes more and more difficult
for Turkey to continue its denialist policy advancing the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Dersim-Armenian Miran Prkich
stated this in a conversation with â~@~Armenpressâ~@~].

Among other things, Miran Prkich stated that the Union of Dersim
Armenians and Alawites will commemorate the Armenian Genocide
victimsâ~@~Y memory on April 24 this year in the KayıÅ~_oÄ~_lu
Canyon. In addition, Miran Prkich underscored that the canyon has
not been chosen as the site for the commemoration accidentally. The
Armenians were thrown into that very canyon and murdered in 1915.

The fact of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman government has
been documented, recognized, and affirmed in the form of media
and eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions, and statements by many
states and international organizations. The complete catalogue
of all documents categorizing the 1915 wholesale massacre of the
Armenian population in Ottoman Empire as a premeditated and thoroughly
executed act of genocide, is extensive. Uruguay was the first country
to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1965. The massacres
of the Armenian people were officially condemned and recognized as
genocide in accordance with the international law by France, Germany,
Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland,
Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Uruguay, Argentina,
Venezuela, Chile, Canada, Vatican and Australia.

ARMENIAN BOXERS WILL PARTICIPATE IN BAKU GAMES

15:38, 16 Mar 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Armenian boxers will participate in the inaugural European Games in
Baku. The decision was adopted at the 7th session of Boxing Federation
with a vote of 70 to 2.

President of the Boxing Federation Arthur Gevorgyan said the sportsmen
to represent Armenia at the European Games will be picked after the
Armenian Championship.

He further stressed the growing interest towards boxing in Armenia.