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ISRAELI CABINET MINISTER URGES FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

PanARMENIAN.Net

June 14, 2012 - 21:32 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - An Israeli cabinet minister said that the Jewish

state ought to change its policy and recognize the 1915 mass killings

of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as an act of Genocide, Reuters reported.

Gilad Erdan, a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

answered a motion in parliament by opposition lawmakers marking the

massacre's anniversary.

"I think it is definitely fitting that the Israeli government formally

recognize the Holocaust perpetrated against the Armenian people,"

Erdan, Israel's environmental affairs minister said.

Israel has long avoided acknowledging the mass killings of Armenians

as Genocide, in deference to already strained ties with Turkey which

rejects that view.

Relations with Turkey have been tense since the 2010 killings of nine

Turkish activists in a commando raid on a Gaza-bound ship. Turkey

withdrew its ambassador to Israel after that incident and suspended

military cooperation.

Erdan said the Israeli government had not formally changed its

policy on the Armenian's past tragedy, adding: "we should definitely

support holding an open and in depth discussion that analyses the

data and facts."

ISRAEL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALLY CALLS ON KNESSET TO

RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN

GENOCIDE

Issue 10, Spring 2012

G P N   O R I G I N A L

B R E AK I N G  N E W S

This is the first time a government of Israel has endorsed recognition

An in-depth report and analysis of the political process by GPN

Prepared by Israel W. Charny

Israel's Knesset, Jerusalem

Jerusalem, June 12, 2012

In an historic session of the Israeli Knesset, a wide ranging spectrum of

members of the Knesset, from 7 different political parties, overwhelmingly

endorsed recognition of the Armenian Genocide.  The session was led firmly

and inspiringly by the Chair of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin , who himself

spoke with profound feeling of both a Jewish and an Israeli imperative to

extend a long overdue recognition.  The issue is a moral one, he emphasized

over and over again.

"We must make our voices heard when other nations are targeted for

destruction," Rivlin stated.  "Those who drafted the Final Solution for the

Jews figured the world would be silent as they were when the Armenians were

murdered.  The Knesset cannot ignore this episode that is factual.  We

cannot forgive nations who ignore our disaster and we cannot ignore the

disaster of other," the Knesset Speaker added.

Although several speakers also reconstructed briefly familiar parts of the

traditional Israeli rhetoric of past years of realpolitik -- e.g., a

chorus line that the government of Turkey in our time is not the Ottoman

Empire that perpetrated the genocide -- the old excuses were as if album

memories of the language that prevailed in the past to explain and justify

Israel's failure, and in all cases but one soon gave way to clear-cut

affirmations of the validity of the Armenian Genocide and support for its

recognition by the current government of Israel.

This reporter had to hold his breath during the beginning of the remarks by

the official spokesman of the government before it became clear how

positive the official position had become for Israel to recognize the

Armenian Genocide at long last.

There was only one notable effort at a counter-proposal by a member of the

Knesset, Robert Tiviaev, who made a disingenuous effort to call for a

commission of historians to research 'what really happened,' and he pledged

that if the commission then concluded that there had  been a genocide, "I

will be the first to call for recognition."   Knesset Chair Rivlin made

short shrift of the speaker and ruled that there was no point in generating

a formal counter proposal and voting on it because it was obvious from all

the earlier speakers that an overwhelming majority of the Knesset adamantly

confirmed the historical authenticity of the Armenian Genocide.

Rivlin also concluded there was no point in calling for a vote on the

resolution to recognize the genocide since the Knesset already had voted

last year, unanimously, in favor of recognition.  It was on the basis of

that vote that the measure had been referred to the Knesset's Education

Committee that held a several hour session in December 2011.

Knesset Chair Rivlin also said that today's session was a confirmation and

extension of the original full Knesset resolution to recognize the

genocide, and he then added forcefully that he now expected a continuation

of deliberations in the Education Committee and a vote on the resolution.

The government was officially represented at the hearing by MK Gilad Erdan,

a member of the National Union Party and currently Minister of

Environmental Affairs, who is described by some press as a close friend of

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  It was Erdan's role to present the

government's position (that will be described shortly) and to answer

officially on behalf of the government proposed  parliamentary motion not

to recognize the genocide.

Erdan said clearly that the government had decided to recognize the

Armenian Genocide, and even used what is normally the code word 'holocaust'

in his remarks to describe what was done to the Armenian people. "I think

it is definitely fitting that the Israeli government formally recognize the

holocaust perpetrated against the Armenian people," Erdan, Israel's

environmental affairs minister said.

For this reporter, Erdan's remarks also reflected the struggles of the

long-since denialist Israeli government that is now coming around

dramatically in a welcome move to recognize the Armenian Genocide.  At

first, Erdan made at least one totally inaccurate remark in defense of the

State of Israel when he said, "The State of Israel has never denied the

[Armenian Genocide].  On the contrary, we deplore the genocide."  Erdan

also temporized briefly about the meaning of the word 'genocide' when he

noted that, "Not everyone uses the same dictionary when they refer to

'genocide'=85"  Yet in the end - though this reporter thought somewhat

nervously and hurriedly - Erdan announced unambiguously that he was

conveying the government's official position. First of all, he said on

behalf of the government that, "One must support full open discussion of

the issue." He also went on to refer to a deeper meaning of the Armenian

Genocide for mankind and to link the meaning of the Armenian Genocide to

the Holocaust of the Jewish people:  "The government notes that mankind has

not learned the full meanings of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust."

And finally Erdan announced the Israeli government calls for formal

recognition of the Armenian Genocide which, as noted earlier, Erdan now

characterized with the word 'holocaust:'

___________________________________

GPN Explanation and Analysis

Unlike the procedure in the US Congress, the Israel legislative sequence

calls first for a vote in the plenum, and given a positive vote then the

proposed resolution is referred for a hearing in one of the Knesset

committees. Now, given a further positive vote in the committee, the

measure returns once again to the plenum for three readings and a vote on

each reading. At the successful conclusion of this process, the resolution

becomes a legal decision of the Knesset.

In the case of the bill to recognize the Armenian Genocide, it is known

that if the government maneuvers to send the bill to the secretive

Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security, the bill will most likely be

killed - and no information on who said what and 'who done it' may ever be

forthcoming.  When the present resolution was sent last Fall to the

Education Committee, whose hearings are public, it was a major step toward

a possible recognition of the Armenian Genocide.  The December hearing in

the Education Committee was widely hailed in Israel as the first-ever

extended consideration of the genocide in Israel's legislature.

However - a very big however - as reported by GPN at the time, after

several hours of a rich and quite moving session, the Chair of the

Education Committee at the time, Alex Miller, a member of Knesset for the

Yisrael Beitenu Party that is headed by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

(the Foreign Ministry continued in its traditional opposition to recognize

the genocide) as if broke the spell of the session that overall would

clearly have produced a vote for recognition, and announced pre-emptively

that the session was over.  Bang!  Miller then promised that there would be

a continuation session in the future, but in fact has never made a move to

schedule such a session, and GPN has learned privately over these months

from the leaders of the Armenian community in Israel that Miller has said

that he refuses to convene such a session.

It now remains to be seen whether the government will act on its newly

announced support of the recognition by working to have the Knesset send

the measure once again to the Education Committee for a continuation of the

hearing - there will be a new Chair of the Education Committee in the

coming weeks.

What is clear is that Knesset Chair Reuven Rivlin will do everything in his

power in the behind-the-scene decision-making process to have the bill

referred back to the Education Committee, but we do not know how to

evaluate the range of his influence.

If the government arranges for the bill to go to the secretive committee

where it is likely to be killed or in any other way stops the unfolding of

the full process, we will know that the statement made by the government's

spokesman on June 12 was still another maneuver in the history of Israeli

realpolitik - notwithstanding the fact the even this statement itself

represents a major precedent in the tortured process that has taken place

in Israel over so many years.

One puzzle for this reporter in the day following the hearing is that so

much of the press in Israel and in the U.S. too failed to report loudly and

clearly what for us is the very big news - and therefore GPN's headline.

The Government of Israel did state officially that it supports

recognition.  Wow.  As I reviewed press today, I discovered to my amazement

that most missed the point.  Haaretz in Hebrew didn't even report the story

of the hearing.  The English edition of Haaretz this morning featured the

hearing as its lead Page One story but still didn't convey the main point

of the victory.  Neither did the Jerusalem Post or the Los Angeles Times in

their fairly full stories.  One minor new service in israel, Arutz Sheva,

did publish a small statement that the Minister Erdan "spoke for the

government..." and quoted him saying in the first person (which could be

one source of the confusion that has been showing up as to who he

represented), "I believe it would be appropriate for the government to

acknowledge the Armenian Genocide."    In Istanbul, the newspaper Today's

Zaman got it more correctly than some of the major Israeli papers and

quoted the minister basically correctly, BUT added that he said Israel's

government had not changed its policy, and in general erred very badly in

saying the hearing was initiated in response to this minister's remark

rather than that the minister came as the official government

representative to the hearing initiated by the Knesset. The one source we

have found so far that got it really right was the Chicago Tribune which

clearly credited Erdan as speaking for the government.

Why so much clouding of information? At the moment GPN's analysis is that it's

a whopper of a correction for Israel to make after so many years and its

hard to believe.  As we reported, even the minister seemed nervously

unsure!

In spite of the clear risks of being very wrong, GPN's editor-reporter

now predicts that this bill to recognize the Armenian Genocide will go the

full route and will be approved by the Israeli Knesset.

 (keep our fingers crossed)

BAKU REJECTS SNIPER WITHDRAWAL

Asbarez

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

Azeri foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov (right) with OSCE chairman

Eamon Gilmore in Baku

BAKU (RFE/RL)-Azerbaijan effectively rejected on Thursday renewed

international calls for the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

to unconditionally withdraw snipers from "the line of contact" and

agree to joint investigations of growing truce violations there.

Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, the chairman-in-office of the

Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, voiced such calls

when visited Yerevan and Baku this week. He reportedly insisted on

the need for a concrete mechanism for such investigations after talks

with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov on Thursday.

News reports quoted Mammadyarov as saying that Baku agrees with the

idea, advanced by international mediators, in principle. "But that

mechanism could work only when Armenian troops start withdrawing from

Azerbaijan's occupied territories," he said, according to the APA

news agency. "Only in that case can the mechanism be put into action."

"If we start applying that mechanism now, that will only mean

reinforcing the status quo, which is unacceptable," Mammadyarov told

a joint news conference with Gilmore.

"If Armenia does not want its soldiers to die, then it must liberate

Azerbaijan's lands. If this happens, there will be no need for

snipers," added the Azerbaijani foreign minister.

The Armenian side has voiced support for both sniper withdrawal and

joint investigations. Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian reaffirmed

this stance after his meeting with Gilmore on Tuesday.

RFE/RL Report

Government Plans Heavier Use Of Armenian Lake Waters

Hovannes Shoghikian

15.06.2012

Citing the need to support a key agricultural region, the Armenian

government has announced controversial plans to nearly double the use

of water from the ecologically vital Lake Sevan for irrigation

purposes this year.

Environmentalists warned on Friday that this could reverse a

decade-long rise in Sevan's water level seen as critical for saving

its endangered ecosystem.

The Hrazdan river flowing out of the mountainous lake has for decades

supplied irrigation water to the fruit-growing Ararat Valley through a

network of canals mostly built in Soviet times. This was a key reason

for a drastic shrinkage of Armenia's main water reservoir that had

begun in the 1950s.

The lake's level has soared by at least three meters over the past

decade thanks two underground tunnels pumping water from mountain

rivers. The government's decision to cut back on the use of Sevan's

water for power generation and irrigation has also been a major

factor. An Armenian law on Sevan limits the annual volume of that

water at 170 million cubic meters.

The government approved on Thursday a package of draft amendments to

the law which would raise that ceiling to 320 million cubic

meters. Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said this is needed for

offsetting a significant drop in summer precipitation predicted by the

State Committee on Water Resources.

`If we want to ensure normal supplies of irrigation water to the

Ararat Valley we will have to receive the National Assembly's

permission and take an additional 150 million cubic meters of water

from Lake Sevan to avoid problems in agriculture,' Sarkisian told a

weekly cabinet meeting.

Environmental activists and experts dismissed that explanation. Hakob

Sanasarian of the Union of Greens, a non-governmental organization,

claimed that the government simply wants to save villas, resorts and

other expensive properties built along the Sevan coastline from being

submerged by the rising water level.

`There is politics behind the decision,' Sanasarian told RFE/RL's

Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). `They could have waited until August

or at least the end of July to see if the amount of precipitation has

drastically decreased before making the decision.'

`A drought is not anticipated,' insisted Aram Gabrielian, an expert on

climate change coordinating a United Nations project in Armenia. `They

say that [artificial] water reservoirs are now half full. But they

must always be half full.'

Some villagers in the Ararat Valley were likewise skeptical that the

government initiative is designed to support them. `They let out water

not for the villagers,' said one farmer in the village of

Dashtavan. `They just don't want their cottages to be flooded. They

are also doing that to sell more electricity.'

`Even if you pump one billion cubic meters of water from Sevan there

will be no water here without the construction of a dam,' another

villager told RFE/RL's Armenian service.

Gabrielian stressed that Sevan's continued enlargement is essential

for Armenia. The picturesque lake has a total area of almost 1,000

square kilometers.

Under the government's long-term rehabilitation program for Sevan, the

level is to rise by another 3.5 meters by 2029. It envisages that

further growth will be less drastic and average roughly 20 centimeters

per annum. Sarkisian and other officials did not specify whether the

heavier use of the lake's waters would affect these targets.

EXPLOSION ON CONSTRUCTION SITE OF COVERED MARKET IN

YEREVAN

arminfo

Thursday, June 14, 13:54

Explosion broke out on the construction site of the Covered Market

in Yerevan overnight, a Yerevan-based daily Haykakan Zhamanak writes.

The paper writes that the explosion might be connected with

construction and demolition process. "They dig a huge hole there and

there could be need for explosion as well," the paper writes. In

the meanwhile the joint commission set up by the Municipality of

Yerevan and the Culture Ministry has given a resolution on the partial

demolition of the Covered Market's arch roof on May 27. Late in the

evening on May 27 the major arcs and related structures of the covered

market collapsed following demolition of some inter-storey coverage.

Although the construction was suspended, liquidation of debris has

even deteriorated the situation.

To note, the Covered Market is included in the list of the historical

monuments of Yerevan. It was built in 1952 by Armenian architect

Grigory Aghababyan's project and has been considered one of the symbols

of the Armenian capital since then. Earlier the mass media reported

that Armenian MP Samvel Alexanyan had bought the Covered Market from

the Leader of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan and was going

to turn it into a Yerevan City supermarket.