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RFE/RL Report

Israeli Minister Makes Rare Trip To Armenia

Emil Danielyan

16.04.2012

Israel's Agriculture Minister Orit Noked laid a wreath at the Armenian

Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on Monday during what was a rare visit to

Armenia by an Israeli cabinet member.

Noked arrived in Yerevan to discuss ways of promoting cooperation

between the agricultural sectors of the two countries. Prime Minister

Tigran Sarkisian and Agriculture Minister Sergo Karapetian told her

that the Armenian government would like to look into Israel's

successful experience in agricultural development.

`We are ready to share our experience,' a government statement quoted

Noked as saying at a meeting with Sarkisian. `I am confident that we

can successfully work together and implement various joint projects.'

`Your visit to Armenian can be viewed as a new step towards developing

Armenian-Israeli relations,' the Armenian premier said for his

part. `We are interested in that.'

The Israeli minister met Sarkisian after visiting the Tsitsernakabert

memorial and the adjacent Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. `As a

woman, as a Jew and as a human being, I am shocked to see pictures of

the killing of innocent Armenian people and families,' she wrote in

the museum guestbook, according to the Armenpress news agency.

`We are similar peoples in terms of history, character and the fact we

have communities around the world,' Noked told Armenpress.

Citing the strategic character of the Turkish-Israeli relationship,

successive Israeli governments have resisted calls for an official

Israeli recognition of the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in

the Ottoman Empire as genocide. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official

reaffirmed this stance during landmark hearings on the issue that were

organized by an Israeli parliament committee last December.

Support for Armenian genocide recognition appears to have grown within

the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, over the past year. Observers

link that to Israel's worsening relations with Turkey, which

vehemently denies the genocide.

Relations between Armenia and Israel are also less than cordial now

not least because of the Jewish state's growing military cooperation

with Azerbaijan. Earlier this year, Israeli defense officials

confirmed a reported deal to sell Azerbaijan unmanned military

aircraft, antiaircraft and missile defense systems for some $1.6

billion.

The Azerbaijani military is known to already possess Israeli-made

unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). One such drone was apparently shot

down by Armenian forces while flying a reconnaissance mission over

Nagorno-Karabakh last September.

ANKARA TO ACTIVATE TURKIC DIASPORA

asbarez

Monday, April 16th, 2012

ANKARA-In a campaign coordinated by Turkey's deputy prime minister,

official Ankara is pushing to organize "the million of people in its

diaspora" in a campaign aimed at countering international recognition

of the Armenian Genocide, reported the Hurriyet Daily News on Monday.

Reportedly, the plan is being penned by Turkey's Deputy Prime Minster

Bekir Bozdag. who run's a government body called the Overseas Turks

Agency, which was established in 2010.

"We are working on drafting a strategy document on the diaspora. It

will respond to our priorities, objectives and working methods. We

will also outline our messages through this document," a senior

government official told the Hurriyet Daily News over the weekend.

Hurriyet reports that in June, representatives of around 500

non-governmental organizations from mainly European countries and

elsewhere will converge in Ankara for conference "on legal ways to

confront racist and discriminatory attitudes toward Turks."

"Our objective is to provide our citizens and NGOs information on

ways to claim their rights in a conscious and organized manner,"

the official told Hurriyet. "We advise them to remain within the

boundaries of the law when they face racist attacks. We tell them to

go to the police and make written applications so that these attacks

can be addressed in a proper way using democratic means."

"However, we need to do more than this. We are encouraging them to

adopt dual citizenship and enjoy full-pledged rights," Hurriyet quoted

the official as saying.

Hurriyet also reported that some 2,000 Turks living abroad will be

invited to a meeting in Istanbul which would mark the establishment

of what the official called the "Turkish diaspora."

The plan envisions the inclusion of groups representing what the

paper called "other diasporas of like-minded countries."

The plan envisions a strong alliance with Azerbaijanis living outside

of Azerbaijan. To that end, a meeting is being planned to take place

on September 15, the when Nuri Pasha, an Ottoman general representing

Enver Pasha, one of the architects of the Armenian Genocide, commanded

Turkish troops to Baku in 1918 to fight the Russians. 

Two Faces of Turkey: Veneer of Gentility Masking Ruthlessness

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

19 April 2012

When Turkey's Foreign Minister met secretly with a group of Armenians

in Washington last month, he wooed them with his sly smile and

sugar-coated words. This was the fake facade of traditional Turkish

diplomacy.

Last week, Turkey's UN Ambassador in New York revealed the nasty and

aggressive face of his government. Upon learning that a symposium on

the Armenian Genocide was going to be held at the UN on April 12,

Turkey's Permanent Representative filed a protest with the Secretary

General's office ,trying to disrupt the event.

Organized by the Association for Trauma Outreach &Prevention (ATOP),

the event was titled: `Toward Preventing Genocide,

Nations Acknowledging their Dark History: Psychosocial, Economic and

Cultural Perspectives.' Following screening of Dr. J. Michael

Hagopian's documentary,` The River Ran Red,' the attendees heard

addresses from filmmaker Carla Garapedian, Dr. Dennis Papazian,

Prof. Ervin Staub, and Garen Nazarian, Armenia's UN Ambassador.

Encouraged by Turkey's2007 success in obstructing a reference to the

Armenian Genocide in a UN exhibit on Rwanda, the Turkish Ambassador

tried to force the UN to cancel last week's Armenian Genocide

symposium. Fortunately, Armenia's UN Mission, official sponsor of the

event, stood its ground and the symposium took place as planned, albeit

with some minor disturbances. 

At the start of the event, two Turkish diplomats entered the meeting

room without an invitation, and repeatedly attempted to disrupt

the proceedings. They kept on shouting, accusing the speakers of

defaming Turkey, and refused to comply with the organizer's request to

submit all comments and questions in writing. As the commotion

continued, UN security officers were called in, and the two

undiplomatic Turkish diplomats left the hall, inanely shouting: `we are

the security, we own the security, and we pay for the security!'

In his introductory remarks, Amb. Nazarian observed that `97years ago,

a state-devised plan unleashed a crime whose magnitude and consequences

were unparalleled not only in the history of the Armenian nation but

also in the history of the world. The plan of extermination of

the Armenians was implemented by the Ottoman Empire's state machine

through all its structures and carried out with exact instructions.'

Prof. Papazian's remarks were titled: `Sovereignty, Nationalism, Racism

vs. Humanism and Intellectual Freedom: The Causes and Cures of

Genocide.' He expressed his discontent `that the Armenian Genocide is

not recognized by the present day Turkish government as a crime

committed by its predecessor government under the dictatorship of the

Committee for Union and Progress'; `that the people of Turkey are

denied free access to accurate sources because of Article 301 of the

Turkish Criminal Code which makes it a crime to insult Turkishness';

and =80=9Cthat such [Ottoman] collections as the confiscated properties

archives and the military archives are not open to inspection by

objective scholars.'

Prof. Staub spoke about `Overcoming Evil: Preventing Genocide and

Creating Peaceful Societies.' He stated that `acknowledgement

By perpetrators, bystanders, and the world in general of a group's

suffering has great value for both healing and reconciliation.'

However, =80=9Cperpetratorsrarely, and only with great difficulty,

acknowledge their acts and show regret,' because of `their profound

devaluation of the victims, their ideology, and their unacknowledged

shame.'

Carla Garapedian explored the `Economic Consequences of Acknowledging

the Genocide.' She related that J. Michael Hagopian had recorded the

testimonies of genocide survivors so that their voices would be

heard someday at an international tribunal deciding what restitution

Turkey would have to pay to heirs of the victims.

Not counting the value of the properties, lands and other assets

confiscated from Armenian victims of the genocide perpetrated by

the Turkish government, Garapedian assessed as $15 billion the

restitution value of the 1.5 million Armenians who had perished. Her

estimate is based on Germany's$60 billion restitution payment for the

six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust since 1952. Garapedian

concluded by suggesting that no state should profit from violating the

law and unjustly enrich itself, asserting that a criminal state should

not be allowed to keep the fruits of its crime.

This week, Dr. Ani Kalayjian, President of ATOP, sent a letter to UN

Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon complaining about the

`disruptive, unprofessional, and arrogant behavior' of the two Turkish

diplomats. She wondered how the UN could bring peace to the world, when

it cannot establish order at an event held at its own headquarters!

ARMENIAN CHURCH WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST ISTANBUL CITY HALL

news.am

April 16, 2012 | 10:57

ISTANBUL. - A Turkish court ruled in favor of the claim which the

foundation of St. Nigoghayos Armenian Church of Istanbul's Beykoz

district had submitted against the City Hall. The foundation had

filed a lawsuit demanding that the City Hall return the 37,500-m2

area belonging to the Church.

The foundation's chairman Varujan Maghatyan noted they awaited this

court decision for long years, Sabah daily of Turkey informs.

"The Istanbul City Hall will appeal this court verdict, but we believe

the appellate decision will again be in our favor," Maghatyan said.

EASTER IS CELEBRATED AT ARMENIAN CHURCH IN TURKEY'S DIYARBAKIR

news.am

April 16, 2012 | 10:01

An Easter mass was celebrated for the first time in the St. Giragos

Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, Turkey, ever since its restoration.

The Divine Liturgy was served by pastor Avedis Tabashyan of the Forty

Children Church in Hatay Province, Turkish Haberfx informs.

Aside from the Diyarbakir Armenians, Mayor Abdullah Demirbas of Sur

city and other officials also attended the Holy Mass.

The St. Giragos Armenian Church, which is one the biggest churches

in the Middle East, was reopened and consecrated on October 22, 2011,

and the first mass was celebrated on the next day.

The St. Giragos Armenian Church of Diyarbakir was built in 1376 at the

city's Hancepek district, which was called the "gavur (non-Muslim;

infidel) district" by the local Muslims, since a great number of

Christians used to live there until the Armenian Genocide.

KARABAKH'S SURRENDER IS NOT A SALVATION

Naira Hayrumyan

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 15:02:11 - 16/04/2012

Why are parties avoiding the Karabakh topic during the election

campaign like the devil of incense? The last elections were almost

based on the Karabakh issue while now such silence.

Has Armenia changed, or the Karabakh issue has seized being urgent

in the world? Perhaps, both.

Armenia is really in a new reality. First, the society has changed,

which is hard to be distracted from the social-economic and civil

issues, by statements that the authorities or the opposition surrenders

Karabakh. People have a much more sober outlook on the life, realizing

that the reason for the poor state in the country, the economic and

legal crisis, is not Karabakh. The reason is the reluctance of the

authorities to respect the law and build a free economy and democracy.

Besides, we have a situation in place, when the ruling and oppositional

parties, RPA, Prosperous Armenia and the Armenian National Congress

have almost the same position on the Karabakh issue. None of them

denies the Karabakh issue will need concessions.

The RPA tries to postpone such a settlement, the Congress calls to

cut the Karabakh knot. As to the Prosperous Armenia, then it has

never issued a clear position on the Karabakh issue, and now, Vartan

Oskanian only notes that when he was Foreign Minister, their government

succeeded in setting the Karabakh's right to self-determination in

the international arena.

Only the Heritage party issued its stances on the Karabakh issue. The

party supports the recognition of the NKR within its current borders,

first of all by Armenia. The same stance holds the ARFD, true, noting

that compromises are possible only if the concessions are equal by

both sides.

Why did the Karabakh issue become lose urgency for the parties? Do

they think, in place of the ruling party, they could hardly do more

taking into account the rough international status quo on the Karabakh

issue? Or do they support the policy of the ruling party.

In Armenia, at the last elections, something changed in the society's

approach to the Karabakh issue. Earlier, the compromises were

accepted by the larger part of the society and the main parties,

as something inevitable, as a salvations, and the status quo become

inaccessible. But, during these years, the psychology of many changed

- a whole class of educated, determined people, who are aware of the

right of the Karabakh people to the status quo and the inadmissibility

of the breach of, because the new situation will definitely worse

than the status quo, appeared.

This transformation does not let many forces speculate the Karabakh

issue. The Armenian National Congress can't state already that the

authorities are robbing the country under the cover of Karabakh. The

RPA itself can't accuse Congress of being ready to sell Karabakh since

the Congress, and not only, started understanding, that Karabakh's

surrender will not be a salvation for Armenia, but a catastrophe.

ARMENIA TO PARTICIPATE IN CANNES FILM MARKET WITH 15 FILMS

ARMENPRESS

APRIL 16, 2012

YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS: May 16-27, with the support of the

Ministry of Culture, National Cinema Center of Armenia will participate

already for the fourth time in a film market held in frame of annual

Cannes International Film Festival.

"Your Grief is mine" film by Armen Ronov will be presented at the

festival. As Culture Ministry's press service told Armenpress, for

more comprehensive presentation of the Armenian film Armenia will

participate in the Cannes film market with a new format: Armenian film

production companies, on behalf of the Armenian Cinema Center, will

have a separate pavilion, where a number of events (showing of films,

reception, meetings, conduction of negotiations) will be organized.

Armenian producers will present at the film market packages of film

projects being in different stages of development, including "Bright

Period", "The Unknown Heroine", "The Little Prince", "Again That New

Year", "Forgive Me", "Anahit", "World's Peoples' Fairy Tales".

Director of National Cinema Center Gevorg Gevorgyan is the head of

the Armenian delegation of the Cannes film market.