LOUSSAPATZ - 33-ՐԴ ՏԱՐԻ, ԹԻՒ 1029 ՇԱԲԱԹ, 19 ԱՊՐԻԼ 2014

19

HOVIK ABRAHAMIAN APPOINTED NEW ARMENIAN PM

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — President Serzh Sarkisian announced on Sunday his decision to appoint the influential parliament speaker Hovik Abrahamian as Armenia’s new prime minister. He acknowledged that he had serious misgivings about Abrahamian’s candidacy.

Sarkisian made the announcement at an extraordinary meeting of the governing body of his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), the third such encounter held since the unexpected resignation on April 3 of Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian.

Under the Armenian constitution, Abrahamian has three weeks to form his cabi- net and seek a vote of confidence from the Na- tional Assembly controlled by the HHK.

Addressing senior members of the ruling party, Sarkisian spoke of widespread “skepticisms” about Abra- hamian’s candidacy. He said he has discussed it with the speaker “at length” in the last few days. Those misgivings, he explained, revolve around “relations with other political forces” and Abrahamian’s “perceptions by various so- cial strata.”

“We spoke about all issues frankly and openly, and I received clear assurances from Mr. Abrahamian,” Sarkisian said in televised remarks publicized by his press office. “Mr. Abrahamian promised to very quickly dispel possible concerns within our ranks with his active steps, clear political messages ... and, most importantly, tangible results of his work.”

“I am confident that everyone will very soon realize that the Republic of Armenia has a really effective prime minister,” he added.

The president appeared to allude to Abrahamian’s reputed ties to the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the se- cond largest parliamentary force increasingly challenging Sarkisian. The HHK-affiliated speaker is thought to have a close personal rapport with the BHK’s millionaire leader Gagik Tsarukian not least because of the fact that his son is married to one of the tycoon’s daughters. Observers have suggested that Sarkisian hopes Abrahamian’s ap- pointment will put the brakes on the BHK’s growing cooperation with Armenia’s three main established opposition parties.

Tigran Sarkisian stepped down two days after the BHK and those parties agreed to stage three-day joint rallies later this month in support of their joint vote of no confidence in the government, which was due to be put forward in the parliament.

ARMENIA DEPUTY SPEAKER SAYS HE IS NOT DREAMING ABOUT NEW JOB

YEREVAN/NEWS.am -- Deputy speaker of Armenian parliament Ed- uard Sharmazanov commented on the rumors about his possible nomination to the post of a speaker to replace Hovik Abrahamyan.

“I work in my office as usual,” he told Armenian News-NEWS.am. “I am performing my duties. I do not have either plans, wishes or dreams about leaving my job”.

Hovik Abrahamyan was appointed a prime minister on Sunday follow- ing resignation of Tigran Sargsyan. Eduard Sharmazanov temporarily per- forms the duties of Abrahamyan. He will chair the next session of the par- liament scheduled for April 28 when new speaker will be elected.

20

OHANYAN IS REINSTALLED AS ARMENIA DEFENSE MINISTER

YEREVAN/NEWS.am -- Guided by the Constitution of the Republic of Ar- menia, President Serzh Sargsyan on Tuesday appointed Acting Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan as the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.

Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned the above-said from the Press Office of the President of the Republic of Armenia.

ORINATS YERKIR WILL NOT BE PART OF COALITION GOVERNMENT

YEREVAN/NEWS.am -- Orinats Yerkir will not be a part of coalition in the government. The decision was made during the party's political council held on Wednesday, the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent reports.

“After long discussions on the recent developments, Orinats Yerkir decided to leave the coalition,” Heghine Bisharyan told reporters after the meeting.

WHO WANTED FOR ABRAHAMYAN TO BECOME ARMENIA PM?

YEREV AN/NEWS.am – National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan is appointed Prime Minister so as to “tie” Prosperous Ar- menia Party (PAP) leader Gagik Tsarukyan’s “hands and feet.”

Opposition Heritage Party Board Vice-Chairman Armen Martirosyan stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Mon- day.

“In a certain sense [, however,] it is good that it is Hovik Abrahamyan. Personally, I feared that it could have been someone [who is] not from Armenia. The system is complemented with Hovik Abrahamyan’s appointment,” he said

In Martirosyan’s words, however, now no one should any longer expect positive changes in Armenia.

“If [ex-PM] Tigran Sargsyan was at least publicly speaking about reforms, such a thing should not be expected from Abrahamyan,” he added.

Commenting on Abrahamyan’s appointment, Boris Navasardyan, Yerevan Press Club President and Eastern Partnership Civil Society Assembly Coordinator for Armenia, for his part first recalled President Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that Armenia’s next PM “will be someone who will be to everyone’s liking.”

“If by saying ‘everyone’ he meant the opposition, Hovik Abrahamyan was not to the opposition’s liking. If the [Armenian] body politic and the European Union enter into [this] ‘everyone,’ they likewise do not enter into [this] ‘everyone.’

“[But] Russia fits in the ‘everyone’ because Russia has such leverage on us that the person is unimportant; whoever he was to be, it was to be at Russia’s desire.

“The ‘everyone’ [also] comprises the alternative [political] force [in Armenia] in which enters not solely the PAP, but the forces that voice the government’s resignation, or even demand a complete change in power.

“The ‘everyone’ [also] comprises the [country’s] oligarchic system, which doesn’t like jolts and wants to keep the decision-making in its hands,” Navasardyan specifically noted.

President Serzh Sargsyan on Sunday appointed National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan as Prime Min- ister of Armenia.

21

DIASPORA ARMENIANS DON’T WISH TO IDENTIFY SELVES WITH ARMENIA’S SHAMEFUL AUTHORITIES – PUBLIC AND POLITICAL FIGURE

YEREVAN/NEWS.am -- After the genocide in 1915, the Armenians are ex- periencing the second colossal tragedy in their history; they are being displaced from everywhere.

Former Karabakh Committee member, public and political activist Ashot Manucharyan stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Wednesday.

According to him, the Armenians are losing their identity. He stressed that the other factor is that the Armenians are leaving Armenia separately and are cutting off their ties with the country.

“In the diaspora, the loss of the Armenians’ identity takes place in their souls. They don’t want to identify themselves and their homeland with a country where the looting and shameful authorities, an obscure life reign,”

ARMENIA NUCLEAR ENERGY INSPECTIONS TO BE COMPLIED WITH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

YEREVAN/NEWS.am – At Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, the Armenian Government approved the package of drafts on making amendments to the Laws “On Safe Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes” and “On Or- ganizing and Holding Inspections in Armenia,” the “EcoLur” NGO reported.

The adoption of this package will enable the inspections, which are carried out in Armenia in the domain of nuclear energy use, comply with the standards specified in Armenia’s international agreements, thus ensure the per- formance of the obligations the country has.

ARMENIA ECONOMY FACES NEW CRISIS – NEWSPAPER

YEREVAN/NEWS.am – The collection of Armenia’s state budget has become a serious problem, and this means that the country’s economy faces a new crisis, Zhoghovurd daily reported.

“According to the NSS [Armenian National Statistical Service] data, the state budget revenues have increased by 2.3 percent in January-February 2014, as compared to the same period last year. But when we analyze the sources of the state budget revenue, a disturbing picture comes about.

“The taxes and fees make up 96.2 percent of the Armenian state budget, and the taxes and fees were collected 0.1 percent less, as compared to the previous year.

“The point is that the 2014 state budget is 100 billion drams [approx. $242,210,825] more, as compared to 2013, and this means that 9 percent more money had to be collected within the two months of this year than the year past. In the meantime, the collection of taxes and duties has dropped.

“But that’s not all; the profit tax, excise tax, and customs duties likewise were collected less this year,” Zhoghovurd wrote.

6 ARMENIANS IN FORBES LIST OFRUSSIA’S RICHEST BUSINESMEN

NEWS.am -- Six businessmen of Armenian origin appeared in the ranking of 200 richest people of Russia published by Forbes.

According to the ranking, the owner of Tashir Group Samvel Karaptyan is ranked 26th with his business estimated at $4.3 billion.

Director General of Rosgosstrakh company Daniil Khachaturov is ranked 40th with $2.6 billion.

Vice President of RESO- Garantia Nikolay Sarkisov is 98th with $1.1 billion. His younger brother Sergey Sarkisov, who is chairman of the same company's board, is 99th.

Co-Head of Sberbank CIB Ruben Vardanyan is 124th with $0.85 billion. Director of the Supervisory Board of Wooden Fish Agency is 133th with $0.75 billion.

22

RUSSIAN OFFICIAL: ARMENIA SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTS ROAD MAP ON CUSTOMS UNION ACCESSION

NEWS.am -- Armenia is extremely successful in implementing road map on joining Customs Union and Common Economic Space, Russian Deputy Minister Vasily Nebenzya said.

Completion of the road map will serve as the basis for drafting a treaty on Ar- menia's joining Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, and then to join the Eurasian Economic Union.

EurAsEC will cease to exist approximately from January 2015 and will be re- placed by the Eurasian Economic Union.

“We are finalizing preparation for the agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union. A meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council with the participation of the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will take place on April 29. They have a task to finalize the agreement on the Eurasian Economic Union by May,” Nebenzya said.

TWO ARMENIAN CITIZENS HIT BY LANDMINE

YEREVAN/NEWS.am -- Two citizens of Armenia were hit by a landmine on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan on Tuesday.

Rafik Mukhsudyan (born in 1958), a resident of Berdavan village, and Gabriel Babikyan, a resident of Haghtanak village, were gathering grass and accidentally reached a mined area.

Mukhsudyan died of wounds, while Babikyan was taken to hospital, Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry called on residents of bordering villages be attentive during agricultural works and follow the warning signs.

YOUNG ARMENIAN KILLED IN EASTERN UKRAINE

A young man of Armenian origin was killed in the Ukrainian city of Slavyansk on Sunday.

According to preliminary reports, Ruben Avanesyan died of a gunshot wound, Father Husik Nurijanyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

He said the reports suggest that 29-year-old Ruben Avanesyan was driving a car when unknown people tried to stop him. Ruben did not stop, and the gunmen opened fire.

“This is one of the versions of his death. The law enforcers are investigating the case, and forensic examina- tion will reveal the reasons for his death,” he explained.

Ruben Hovhannisyana citizen of Ukraine, lived in Donetsk. His relatives have no idea why he was heading to Slavyansk.

“His relatives said Ruben had no interest in politics and did not represent any of the opposing sides in Slavyansk,” Father Nurijanyan added.

THERE WILL BE NO RETURN TO 1988 BORDERS – KARABAKH PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON

NEWS.am -- There will be no return to the situation in 1988, or in 1991, in connection with the borders, or the status.

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) President’s press secretary Davit Babayan stated the aforesaid commenting, at Armenian News-NEWS.am’s request, about US Ambassador Richard Morningstar’s statements publicized in the Azerbaijani press.

“I’m more than sure that the words assigned to the ambassador are spurious. The American diplomat might have spoken about the chance for an overall settle- ment [to the Karabakh conflict] for the establishment of peace and stability.

23

“But first and foremost, the full format of the NK-included [peace] talks needs to be restored.

“What was portrayed in the Azerbaijani media expresses [official] Baku’s position, but in no way [that] of an intermediary state,” Babayan stressed.

According to him, the possible options for settlement may or may not contain some territorial changes. “But there will be no return to the situation in 1988, or in 1991, in connection with the borders, or the status. The world has changed a lot. The security issues are in first place,” the NKR presidential spokesperson concluded.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH IS ESTABLISHED STATE – NKR PARLIAMENT

NEWS.am -- The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is an es- tablished state with all its attributes and state institutions, its own Constitution, active civil society, and dynamically developing econ- omy.

NKR National Assembly Speaker Ashot Ghulyan told the aforesaid to EurActiv of Germany.

According to Ghulyan, by strengthening the democratic institu- tions and the statehood in the NKR, the initiatives expand toward supporting its independence.

“I am confident that this process will have its logical continua- tion and receive a new impulse in the future, too,” the Karabakh parliament leader stated.

US AMBASSADOR TO AZERBAIJAN ON RUSSIA'S POSSIBLE ROLE IN KARABAKH CONFLICT

NEWS.am -- U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar made a few notable statements in connection with settlement of Karabakh conflict.

As quoted by Interfax-Azerbaijan, the American diplomat said “solution to Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts has always been of great importance, but today is of special significance”.

He said “we are witnessing the steps taken by Russia” and want this destabilizing conflict to find its solution as soon as possible so as none of the neighbors could try to use the situa- tion under different pretexts.

The diplomat said political will of the parties is needed for finding solution to Karabakh conflict, adding that lack of movement and peace process continuing for already 20 years is connected to the complicated character of the conflict.

“The presidents of both countries must take precise steps for finding final settlement of the conflict, must come to an agreement within the framework of which is liberation of seven occupied regions around Nagorno-Karabakh,” Interfax-Azerbaijan quotes Morningstar.

At the same time the Ambassador noted importance of working with Russia on finding peace in Karabakh. He promised to be very active and do their best within the OSCE Minsk Group.

said.

We are putting forward different ideas for moving talks forward and finding the way out of the deadlock, he

24

AZERBAIJANI MEDIA DISTORTS STATEMENT BY US AMBASSADOR RICHARD MORNINGSTAR

NEWS.am -- Azerbaijani media distorted the statement made by Richard Morningstar, the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan.

As reported earlier, Morningstar made a few notable statements in connection with settlement of Karabakh conflict.

The Armenian News-NEWS.am corresondent addressed the Embassy of U.S. in Baku and received an answr with the exact quote in English.

As interpreted by Interfax-Azerbaijan, one of the “quotes” was the following: “The presidents of both coun- tries must take precise steps for finding final settlement of the conflict, must come to an agreement within the framework of which is liberation of seven occupied regions around Nagorno-Karabakh” [ the quote was translated from Russian – ed. Президенты обеих стран должны предпринять совместно конкретные шаги для окончательного решения конфликта, должны прийти к соглашению, в рамки которого входит освобождение от оккупации семи районов вокруг Нагорного Карабаха ].

In fact Ambassador said: “It is going to take the two presidents, I believe, to sit down and once and for all come up with concrete steps to resolve the situation, including, the return, of course, of the seven territories to Azerbaijan”.

It is obvious that the phrase “occupied regions” was not used. Besides, the colouring of the statement was changed.

The mentioned seven regions are the territories of the security zone around Nagorno-Karabakh, which are one of the factors that ensure physical safety of the population.

TARAZUPAR.AM PRESENTING ARMENIAN CULTURE, DANCES AND FOLK COSTUMES HAS THRICE BEEN ATTACKED BY TURKISH HACKERS

Panorama.am -- In April 2014, Turkish hackers have tried to hack the Armenian Tarazupar.am site thrice. The site presents the Armenian culture, dances and folk costumes, David Harutyunyan, administrator of the site told Panorama.am.

He also has noted that, traditionally, in April the Turkish and Azerbai- jani hackers are trying to break the sites containing information about Arme- nia.

According to David Harutyunyan, in April three attempts of illegal ac- cess to Tarazupar.am site were recorded in the name of the administrator. All of the three attacks were carried out from Turkish IP addresses: 95.5.86.111 (User hostname: 95.5.86.111.dynamic.ttnet.com.tr), 78.172.54.239 (User hostname: 78.172.54.239. dynamic.ttnet.com.tr), 78.172.57.167 (User host- name: 78.172.57.167.dynamic.ttnet. com.tr).

The site administrator noted that the Azerbaijani and Turkish hackers who carry out such kind of illegal activities, attack not only Internet re- sources of political nature, but also completely neutral sites - cultural, scien- tific, etc., which are not directly related to the policy and regional conflicts.

David Harutyunyan stressed that the site Tarazupar.am is a cultural project. It is not involved in politics, and is not engaged in covering conflicts. In this regard, the attempt of the Turkish hackers of hacking the Armenian cul- tural website is puzzling. "The site presents materials only about the dances and traditional costumes of Armenia," he said.

"Perhaps the Turkish nationalists do not like the fact that we gather and popularize Armenian culture in one place. However, we will pay no attention to these excesses and will continue our work," the site administrator con- cluded.

25

AZERBAIJANI CITIZEN TRIED TO CROSS ARMENIA BORDER WITH WHITE FLAG

NEWS.am -- The resident of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (Azerbaijan) Nazim Mamedov was detained in an attempt to cross a border with Armenia carrying a white flag, haqqin.az reported quoting RFE/RL and human rights advo- cate Khakimeldostu Aliyev.

The reason for Mamedov's failed escape was that his complaint against police officer was not considered.

A year ago police officer threatened Nazim's wife and took away her money. Then he blackmailed her urging to date. Nazim's son saw them together, and the scuffle broke out.

Due to rumors, the marriage of his son and daughter, as well as his marriage were ruined. Mamedov threatened to go to Armenians unless his complaint is considered.

The man took a white flag and tried to cross the border with Armenia, but was detained by the servicemen. Now he is in the local office of national security agency.

In January resident of Baku Javid Orujev (born in 1976), his wife and three children sought asylum for his family.

DEFENSE MINISTRY OF AZERBAIJAN IN 5 DAYS HAS ACKNOWLEDGED DEATH OF EIGHT SOLDIERS: ANOTHER SOLDIER KILLS HIS COLLEAGUE

Panorama.am -- An emergency situation with fatal result again took place in the armed forces of Azerbaijan: a soldier killed his colleague with a knife. The killed soldier became already the 8th Azerbaijani servicemen whose death has been acknowledged by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan in last 5 days.

As the Azerbaijani news agency APA reports, in the military unit of Azerbaijani Defense Ministry stationed in Nakhijevan a soldier Nural Bunyadli stabbed his colleague Tariel Mamedov. The latter died.

The fact is confirmed by the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan. It is also reported that the soldier killed his colleague with a knife “due to carelessness, coincidelntly”.

Note that the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan in 5 days has acknowledged death of eight soldiers. On April 7 in Baku officer of air forces of Azerbaijan lieutenant-colonel Natig Maliev committed a suicide. On the same day a soldier of Azerbaijani armed forces Gyaryakmiazli Seymour Rustamoglu shot his colleague Intigam Ismailov and deputy commander of the military unit Ramin Aliyev. As a result Ismailov died and officer Aliyev was taken to hospital, his condition was estimated as serious. Already on April 8 the Ministry of Azerbaijan acknowledged that 3 soldiers died and 6 were wounded. It was reported that on April 7 they were blown up by a mine in contact line in the direction of Fizuli. The soldiers of the Azerbaijani army Novruz Abdullayev Seyfaddin Kerimov and captain Dzheyhun Orudzhaliev died.

On April 10 in Nakhijevan the ensign of Azerbaijani army Alekberov Samir Sarhanoglu committed a suicide, while in another military unit a soldier Elvin Ryuskhatoglu Bazirli shot himself.

From the beginning of 2014 the Azerbaijani government agencies have acknowledged death of already 25 sol- diers, 15 out of whom died out of combat zone, 8 of whom committed a suicide, 2 died from disease , 3 died in ac- cidents and at least 2 were killed by their colleagues.

32 soldiers were wounded, 8 out of whom as a result of accidents, 2 as a result of suicide attempts, 7 as a result of carless handling of weapons etc.

26

PRESIDENT SARKISIAN DEMANDS ARMENIAN NEUTRALITY ON SYRIA

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Armenians living in and outside Syria must avoid taking sides in the con- tinuing bloody conflict in the Arab state, President Serzh Sarkisian said over the weekend.

In that regard, Sarkisian ridiculed calls for the dispatch of Armenian armed units to Syria with the aim of fighting Islamist rebels that seized the Arme- nian-populated town of Kessab and displaced its almost entire population late last month. “That would be the biggest stupidity, that would be the easiest way to endanger our country,” he told mem- bers of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) in Yerevan.

“Even some very distinguished people buy into that adventurism from time to time. We have not finished our own fight. He who wants to fight should join our 18-year-old soldiers and fight with them,” he said in reference to the unresolved Karabakh conflict.

“Even the Armenians in Syria must stay neutral. The Armenians cannot become a [conflicting] party,” Sarkisian added in remarks reported by his press office.

Islamist militants, among them members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, caused bout 2,000 ethnic Arme- nian residents of Kessab to flee their homes when they drove Syrian government troops out of the town on March 23. The displacement caused an uproar in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora, with political activists and media commentators there accusing the rebels of ethnic cleansing. Some in Armenia and Karabakh went further, calling for Armenian military support for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces fighting in the Kessab area.

An estimated 80,000 ethnic Armenians, most of the descendants of survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey, lived in Syria before the outbreak of the conflict two years ago. Tens of thousands of them have fled the country since then. About 10,000 Syrian Armenians have taken refuge in Armenia.

KESSAB YOUTH UNION FORMS IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN/NEWS.am -- A group of Kessab Ar- menians have established the Kessab Youth Union in Armenia, initiative group member Hagop Kortmosyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The objective of the union is to assist in the revival of Syria’s predominantly Armenian-populated town of Kessab, and for the Kessab Armenians’ return to their native land.

In this respect, the union issued an appeal to all Armenians, calling on to join efforts and carry out joint actions.

On March 21, armed militants from the Jabhat al- Nusra Islamic terrorist group infiltrated into northern Syria’s Latakia Governorate, which is predominantly inhabited by Armenians and Alawites, from four direc- tions. Two large groups of terrorists had launched the attack from Turkey. About 600 Kessab-Armenian families were initially sheltered in Latakia city. A group of Armenia parliament members had visited Syria to assess the sit- uation in the region.

27

REPORTS ABOUT KILLING OF YOUNG KESSAB ARMENIAN NOT CONFIRMED YET

Panorama.am -- The reports about the killing of 23-year-old Kessab Armenian Kevork Jourian by rebels have not been officially confirmed.

Our source in Latakia said that they have heard such news. “We have heard about it, but we have no exact in- formation. The young man, Kevork Jourian, is missing and his parents are in Turkey,” the source said.

Deputy chairman of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) Armenia office, Syrian Armenian Vazgen Mesropyan also said that the news is still unconfirmed.

ARMENIANS WOUNDED IN DAMASCUS ATTACK WERE IDENTIFIED

NEWS.am -- Armenians affected by a rocket attack on the Armenian Catholic school of Damascus have been identified, Gandzasar newspaper reported.

Two school children and two teachers – Narek Marshalyan, Hakob Khtrlaryan, Silva Lulechyan and Frasu Teshoghlanyan – have been wounded.

The reports spread by Armenian Foreign Ministry saying an Armenian was killed were not confirmed. Accord- ing to Armenian News-NEWS.am sources, a pupil of the school, a Christian Arab, was killed.

One person was killed and 41 people were wounded in a rocket attack launched by the terrorists in the Syrian capital, state-run SANA agency reported.

SYRIAN-ARMENIAN SOLDIER KILLED IN ALEPPO

NEWS.am -- A Syrian-Armenian serviceman was killed as a result of hos- tilities on Wednesday morning in Aleppo.

Koko Ashnaglyan, 19, was killed in Ramusei district, press service of the Armenian community of Aleppo told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Earlier this week five children, Armenian by origin, were wounded in a rocket attack on Armenian Catholic school in Damascus.

TURKEY SLAMS US CONGRESS OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

ANKARA — The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned an Armenian Genocide resolution, which passed at the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee on April 10 by bipartisan vote.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the commit- tee had acted beyond its position, competence and responsibility by adopting a “hastily and ineptly prepared” draft resolution. The ministry warned the U.S. Congress not to “harm bilateral ties” between the two countries through further carrying the reso- lution to the legislative agenda, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“It’s important that the U.S. Congress does not carry this resolution or similar ones in the legisla- tive agenda, but rather make efforts to reinforce our historical alliance and partnership that have importance more

28

than ever in the current conjuncture, instead of harming bilateral relations with non-constructive initiatives,” the ministry said in a written statement on April 11.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday passed a senate resolution commemorating the Ar- menian Genocide, clearing the way for the resolution to be voted for in the Senate.

“We condemn the pioneers of this initiative, which is biased and lacking in legal basis,” the ministry said, add- ing it refutes this “effort of political misuse that warps history and law.”

The U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee “exceeded its authority and responsibility” by passing an “un- serious resolution prepared hastily and unskillfully,” read the statement.

The ministry cited Turkey’s proposal to establish a joint history committee in order to research the 1915 inci- dents.

PKK LEADER TO BE NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

NEWS.am -- Abdullah Ocalan, who is leader of the militant organization the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Heval Kwêstanî, a member of the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament, had peti- tioned to nominate Ocalan—who is serving a life sentence in Turkey—for the Nobel Peace Prize, the Kurdish Firat news agency reported.

And it became apparent that the Nobel Committee has approved the Kurdish MP’s petition.

Kwêstanî had noted that Ocalan is a lot like Nelson Mandela, and he has a good chance to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

FROM ZEYNEP TOZDUMAN - IZMIR,TURKEY Chairperson of Izmir Council of Piece April 24, 2013

MY APOLOGY FROM ALL THE PEOPLES OF ANATOLIA SUBJECTED TO GENOCIDE

I apologize for every single day that we have remained silent since the days of genocide. I apologize for our grandfathers who cooperated with the murderers carrying out the brutal massacre of 1.5 million

people in Anatolia.

I apologize from your young girls for permanently burying their hopes into their dowry chests.

I apologize from all your people left dead without a proper burial, shroud or cemeteries.

I apologize for causing you to add the word 'converted - Donme' to your vocabulary.

I apologize from all your girls and women abused and raped, forcefully converted to Kurd, Turk, Alevi or Islam.

I apologize for forcing you to become the Diaspora and scatter like pomegranate seeds to all corners of the world.

I apologize for forcing you to long for your homeland with broken hearts from the faraway deportation points.

I apologize for preventing you from giving your children proper names and education in your mother tongue, a basic human right.

I apologize for confiscating your houses, properties, lands, farms, orchards, and shops to create our national econ- omy, based on adisease of racism in this country.

I apologize for denying even the very existence of the original peoples of these lands after subjecting them to eco- nomic, cultural and political genocide.

I apologize for confiscating your places of worship (monastery, church, synagogue, Jem house, etc.) and convert- ing them to mosques, museums, community centres or stables.

29

I apologize from the survivors of the genocide for even forbidding them from dreaming in their own language. I apologize for forcing racism on you by making you repeat every morning 'So happy to be a Turk'. I apologize for presenting your properties as gifts to your own murderers. I apologize for transforming the Anatolian garden of different peoples to a cemetery of different peoples.

I apologize for realizing too late that the sorrow expressed in the song 'Sari Gelin' was in reality the sorrow of the genocide.

I apologize for wiping out the various original peoples of Anatolia, living on these lands long before the arrival of the Turks, and for tryingto create a single nation state.

I apologize for creating a hell of murders in this country, instead of a heaven of humanity. I apologize for burying all the named Agop, Kiriakos, Samuel, Ani, Maria or Sarkis in my city Smyrna as well as

the rest of the country, burying our humanity in the process.

I apologize for committing crimes against humanity for one thousand and four hundred years in these lands.

I apologize for not realizing that fascism would eventually arrive and start killing us as well in these lands.

I apologize for not being able to put a stop to the denial and assimilation policies for one hundred years.

I apologize especially for our inhumane behaviour during the genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, Pontic Greeks, Yezidisand Alevis.

And I apologize once again on this April 24 genocide commemoration day, for our inability to protect you and pre- serve our humanity.

ERDOGAN WAVES FINGER AT OBAMA

DURING HEATED WHITE HOUSE TALK

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

Pulitzer-prize winning American journalist Seymour Hersh, in a sensational article “The Red Line and the Rat

Line,” published in the London Review of Books, discloses that the Turkish government had secretly orchestrated

the August 21, 2013 sarin gas attack in Syria, killing hundreds of civilians. Prime Minister Recep Erdogan had

hoped that the Syrian regime would be blamed for that chemical attack, leading to a retaliatory US strike on Syria,

since Pres. Obama had warned Syrian leaders that using chemical weapons against rebel fighters would cross a ‘red

line.’

Erdogan’s plot almost worked! In the aftermath of the sarin attack, Pres. Obama began planning a massive US

strike on dozens of Syrian targets, even though British intelligence had informed the US joint chiefs of staff that

samples of the sarin gas obtained from the site of the attack did not match the chemical weapons in Syria’s posses-

sion. A former US intelligence official told Hersh that “Erdogan was known to be supporting the al-Nusra Front, a

jihadist faction among the rebel opposition, as well as other Islamist rebel groups.” Hirsh revealed that the US De-

fense Intelligence Agency had issued “a highly classified” document on June 20, 2013, confirming that “Turkey

and Saudi-based chemical facilitators were attempting to obtain sarin precursors in bulk, tens of kilograms, likely

for the anticipated large scale production effort in Syria.”

Last May, several members of the al-Nusra Front were arrested in Turkey with two kilograms of sarin. A

Turkish court accused the group of planning to acquire other related materials to launch a chemical attack in Syria.

Five of the arrestees were freed shortly, while the rest were released pending trial. They were not seen again!

After a special UN mission went to Syria to investigate two earlier chemical attacks in Spring 2013, a person

with close knowledge of UN’s activity told Hersh that “there was evidence linking the Syrian opposition to the first

gas attack, on March 19 in Khan al-Assal, a village near Aleppo.... It was clear that the rebels used the gas.”

Just before launching the joint US, British, and French attack on Syria in September 2013, Pres. Obama sud-

denly decided to postpone the strike, using the excuse that he needed congressional approval. The real reason for

the delay was the President’s discovery that he was being set up by Turkey for an ‘unjustified’ attack on Syria, but

did not want to publicly acknowledge his near blunder with potentially catastrophic consequences for the entire

30

Middle East. Ironically, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was the one who rescued Pres. Obama from em-

barrassment by securing Syria’s agreement to hand over its chemical stockpile, thus providing the President a cover

for canceling his threatened attack.

Investigative journalist Hersh further revealed that the chemical weapons had reached the Syrian rebels

through a CIA operation code named ‘rat line’ -- a secret Turkish-US agreement in 2012 to funnel weapons and

ammunition from Libya to Syria through Turkey. After the terrorist attack on its consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the

hub of this clandestine activity, the US pulled out of this covert arrangement, yet Turkey continued to supply Liby-

an weapons to the Syrian rebels.

By the end of 2012, as the rebels were losing the battle against the Assad regime, a former US intelligence of-

ficial told Hersh that “Erdogan was pissed,” leading him to concoct a scheme to have the rebels use sarin gas and

falsely blame the Syrian government, thus instigating an attack by the United States on Syria.

To personally plead his case for a US attack on Syria to save the rebels from defeat, Turkey’s Prime Minister

flew to Washington. On May 16, 2013, Erdogan, along with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and head of intel-

ligence Hakan Fidan, had a working dinner at the White House, with Pres. Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry,

and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. Infuriated by Obama’s unwillingness to take military action against

Syria, Erdogan “fucking waved his finger at the president inside the White House,” Donilon recounted the shocking

episode to a foreign policy expert who reported it to Hersh. “The American decision to end CIA support of the

weapons shipments into Syria left Erdogan exposed politically and militarily,” Hersh explained. “Without US mili-

tary support for the rebels, the former intelligence official said, ‘Erdogan’s dream of having a client state in Syria is

evaporating and he thinks we’re the reason why. When Syria wins the war, he knows the rebels are just as likely to

turn on him -- where else can they go? So now he will have thousands of radicals in his backyard.’”

After the August 2013 sarin attack near Damascus, a former intelligence official told Hersh: “We now know it

was a covert action planned by Erdogan’s people to push Obama over the red line.... The deal was to do something

spectacular.... The sarin was supplied through Turkey.” Another indication of Turkish officials’ complicity was

Hersh’s report that phone calls intercepted by the US revealed their joy with the success of their orchestrated chem-

ical attack!

Hersh concludes his exposé by relaying a most worrisome observation from a former US intelligence official:

“I asked my colleagues if there was any way to stop Erdogan’s continued support for the rebels, especially now that

it’s going so wrong, the answer was: ‘We’re screwed.’ We could go public if it was somebody other than Erdogan,

but Turkey is a special case. They are a NATO ally. The Turks don’t trust the West. They can’t live with us if we

take any active role against Turkish interests. If we went public with what we know about Erdogan’s role with the

gas, it’d be disastrous. The Turks would say: ‘We hate you for telling us what we can and can’t do.’”

For almost a century, successive US governments have failed to understand a fundamental geostrategic truth --

Turkey needs the US much more than the United States will ever need Turkey. There is indeed something terribly

wrong when the tail wags the dog!

[Part 2 of last week’s article on the Turkish deportation of Jewish settlers from Palestine will be published at a

later date]

ONLY A HANDFUL OF SURVIVORS LEFT AS 100TH ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES By Taleen Babayan

Azniv Guiragossian sat quietly in a wheelchair between her daughter Arpi and son Shahen in the living room of the New York Armenian Home on a recent warm spring afternoon in Flushing, Queens. Dressed in a patterned blouse and a long black skirt, her tinsel colored hair tied back in a braid, Azniv turned to her son and graced his cheek with her red painted nails as she whispered, “How lucky you are that you were raised by your mother.”

Although the words, spoken in Armenian, were made as an impromptu remark from a mother to a son, that simple phrase portrayed the ache still felt by Armenian Genocide survivor Guiragossian, a pain that has lasted al- most a century.

Only one year old when she lost both her parents, her father’s death resulting from the shock of a death sen- tence and her mother’s demise on the marches through Der Zor, Guiragossian was kidnapped by a Turkish family

31

until her relatives were able to find her. Unable to care for her, however, they placed her and her sister in an orphanage in Aleppo.

“She never had her mother’s love,” said Nardone. “She was starving for her love.”

“She would always say how hungry and cold she was,” added Shahen.

Through an arranged marriage, Guiragossian married an Armenian choral director and teacher who later became a priest. Following a move to Beirut, the family of six settled in New York City in 1950.

“My life was very bad,” said Azniv, 99, who was born in Urfa. “I was on the streets. But I stayed strong.”

Perouz Kalousdian is another Armenian Genocide sur- vivor who was robbed of a childhood and saw the destruction of her family at a young age when Turkish soldiers tied all the males in her family two by two and threw them over the Euphrates River.

“They took my family,” said Kalousdian, born in 1909 in Harput. “They separated us and took them away. I never saw them again.”

Kalousdian, six years old at the time, recalls being carried on her mother’s back during the death marches. Surviving the atrocities on the deportations, she and her mother arrived in Aleppo, Syria, where they stayed before leaving for the United States where they reunited with her father, who had fled the Genocide.

A third survivor who resides at the Armenian Home is Arsalos Dadir, who was born in 1913 in Shabin Karahisar. Her father and uncle were killed by the Young Turks, along with others in their village who were all tied up and shot. She remembers seeing hundreds of bodies piled on top of one another. Her family lost all of their wealth and land, but was able to settle in Constantinople where Dadir married and raised two children, moving to the U.S. later in life.

The New York Armenian Home, founded by Sarah Sanossian in 1948, has long served as a residence for sur- vivors of the Armenian Genocide. An Armenian-only, private, non-funded home for the elderly, led by Executive Director Aggie Ellian, provide around-the-clock care for residents in a culturally rich setting. The Armenian Home is the annual setting for the Armenian Genocide Media Day, organized by the Knights of Vartan, where local Ar- menian and non-Armenian media interview and record survivors accounts and testimonies from the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

The 99th anniversary commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, sponsored by the Knights and Daughters of Vartan, will be held in Times Square (43rd St. and Broadway) on Sunday, April 27, from 2-4 p.m.

SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY:

PARTNER IN ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL?

By Heidi Boghosian Executive Director of the National Lawyer’s Guild (NLG)

Students at Suffolk University Law School have launched an online petition urging the school’s president to withdraw its invitation to Armenian genocide denier Abraham Foxman to speak at their commencement and receive an honorary degree. Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League director, drew harsh public criticism in 2007 for oppos- ing a congressional resolution acknowledging the 1915 extermination of approximately 1.5 million Armenians. Since the 15th century, Armenians had been treated as second-class citizens under Ottoman rule. In honoring Foxman, Suffolk University sends a message that politics are more important than acknowledging crimes against humanity.

The denial of genocide is an integral, and final, part of the genocidal process, as Genocide Watch founder Gregory Stanton has written. Despite a well-documented body of eyewitness accounts and other evidence chroni-

Photo: Armenian Genocide survivors Perouz

Kalousdian and Azniv Guiragossian, holding copies of “The National Geographic Magazine on Armenia and Armenians 1915-1919,” and Hasan Cemal’s book “1915: Armenian Genocide.”

32

cling the 20th century’s very first genocide (scholar and lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the word genocide in 1943 with the extermi- nation of the Armenians in mind), the Turk- ish government continues to mount a cam- paign of denial through inaccurate scholar- ship, propaganda, aggressive lobbying, and even a law which forbids mention of the word genocide. In 2005, Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for “insulting Turkishness,” as was Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink who was subsequently assassinated in 2007 by a young Turkish na- tionalist. U.S. political and partisan alle- giances with Turkey enable a range of re- pugnant human rights transgressions, old and new.

My grandmother Baidzar was born in Giresun, a village on the Black Sea, to par- ents who owned almond and filbert orchards and were active in working for protection of the Armenian minority. Baidzar remembered that men would come to their house in the middle of the night and have secret, whispered meetings upstairs, because it was against the law for minorities to assemble. The father of the poet Silva Gaboudegian was one of those men. Many years and many worlds later, an older cousin would tell my grandmother that those men were members of the Armenian Revolu- tionary Federation. Baidzar remembered her mother falling to her knees crying before two officers, a Turk and a German, who came to their home on horseback, begging them to spare her family. Baidzar later watched her par- ents and siblings being slaughtered before escaping to an orphanage and making a treacherous passage to the Unit- ed States as a mail order bride.

Around the world, on April 15, just weeks before Suffolk’s commencement, and 99 years after the mass mur- ders, families with stories just like my grandmother’s will mark the day of observance of the genocide. April 15 is widely considered to be the starting date of a systematic and well-documented plan to eliminate the Armenians. On that day in 1915, the Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire, Talaat Pasha, ordered the arrest and hangings of Ar- menian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. The killings were gruesome and included behead- ings of groups of babies, dismemberments, mass burnings and drownings, use of toxic gas, lethal injections of mor- phine or with the blood of typhoid fever patients.

Although there has been much academic recognition of the Armenian genocide, this has rarely been followed by governmental recognition. Turkey swiftly condemned a U.S. Senate committee resolution adopted on April 10, 2014 by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations labeling as genocide the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces and warned Congress against taking steps that would tarnish Turkish-American ties. Similar resolutions un- der past presidential administrations have also failed.

The Turkish people have been taught for decades that there was no genocide, with the result that most believe their country is being treated unfairly when genocide resolutions are raised. Continued failure to acknowledge the genocide in our history books is a disservice not only to survivors of the genocide, but also to those Turks who tried to stop it then and who face imprisonment today for publicly acknowledging the genocide.

Suffolk University should listen to its students. It has the chance to take a step forward in rectifying decades of injustice by reversing its decision to honor Abraham Foxman with an honorary law degree at its 2014 commence- ment. Tolerance of those who deny the Armenian genocide may be politically expedient, but it is nonetheless mor- ally indefensible.

The NLG’s syndicated radio program, Law & Disorder, will address this issue on the air Monday, April 21, 2015. To find out which stations near you will air the segment, visit: http://lawanddisorder.org/stations/

To access the petition and/or letter to Suffolk University President McCarthy, visit:

https://www.change.org/petitions/president-james-mccarthy-remove-adl-director-abe-foxman-as-suffolk-laws- 2014-commencement-speaker

Photo: “Staged footage from ‘Ravished Armenia,’ Aurora Mardiganian’s book/film about the Armenian Genocide.’

33

ARMENIA’S GAME OF THRONES

By Richard Giragosian, Director of Regional Studies Center

For much of the last year, Armenian politics and foreign policy have been infused with an unusual degree of dynamic change and dramatic choices. In for- eign policy, Armenia has faced a shift in alliance and strategic orientation, most evident in the surprise decision by the Armenian president to sacrifice nearly four years of negotiations with the European Union over a new Association Agree- ment. That unilateral decision firmly committed Armenia to pursue membership in the Russian-dominated Customs Union instead.

But it has been Armenian domestic politics that has been marked by an even more significant degree of change. In many ways, politics in Armenia has always

been about power and wealth, based on a form of governance driven by self-interest over national interests.

Armenia’s “Game of Thrones”

Yet most recently, Armenian politics has become a new “game of thrones,” as various political parties and powerful interests compete for power and position. And for each “kingdom” of power, the stakes are high, as a new government is soon to be formed and the president seems intent on pushing through a number of structural changes to the constitution.

This new version of Armenia’s “game of thrones” has now fully emerged in the wake of the resignation of Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian and the recent selection of parliamentary speaker Hovik Abrahamian as the nomi- nee for the country’s next premier.

And with no successor to incumbent President Sarkisian, now in his final second term, there is a clear transi- tion now underway, complete with competing factions, preparing and positioning themselves as a new political elite is quickly emerging in Armenia.

The move also reflects the degradation and decay of Armenian politics, reflecting the destructive dominance of individual politicians over institutional policies.

Politics as Literature

At the same time, to better understand and decipher the intricacies of Armenian politics, it is necessary to ap- ply an analysis based on literature.

Starting at the top of the political pyramid, President Serzh Sarkisian stands as the “last of the Mohicans,” per- sonifying the last remnant of a powerful political elite, with its origins from Nagorno Karabakh. The rise of this specific political elite was due to more than its shared Karabakh origins, however. More significantly, the Karabakh elite was able to exploit the time and context of the Karabakh war to come to power, cemented by a politics of na- tionalism that forced out the moderates in favor of the militants.

But now, there is no successor, and despite its power and position, the political standing of the Karabakh elite is clearly waning.

Moreover, the earlier period of politics of nationalism and militant political posturing has lost its appeal, and no longer resonates as it once did. Combined with the deepening of entrenched corruption within the state, unful- filled policy promises for reform, and all too obvious disparities of wealth and income, Armenian politics has de- volved an degraded into an “arrogance of power” marked by a public “crisis of confidence.”

Modern Armenian politics has also become little more than a tired drama, or at best, an operatic farce. While politics has always been a superstitious endeavor, the naming of Hovik Abrahamian as Armenia’s 13th prime min- ister is an especially ominous sign. Abrahamian, formerly parliamentary chairman, brings a dangerous record of ignorance and arrogance to the post, and represents one of the more visible examples of the incestuous mix of busi- ness and politics in Armenia, with little real understanding or appreciation of reform or democratization.

And even more telling, he has now been placed in a position that has been the traditional avenue toward presi- dential power in the country.

Thus, as Armenia’s “game of thrones” evolves, the future of Armenia is even more at stake, and the coming few years will mark a crucial point in the development or demise of the modern Armenian state.

Richard Giragosian is the director of Yerevan based Regional Studies Center (RSC).

34

Kiva.org is a non-profit online lending organization. It helps to alleviate poverty in developing world. It allows individuals like YOU to make $25 or more loans directly to low income entrepreneur/farmers, through relia- ble micro- financing institutions. It has a repayment rate of 98.87%. It op- erates in more than 60 countries (including Armenia)

For more information, please visit Kiva.org, do your due diligence, and

make $25 or more Loan (s) and join many other Armenians (and many more non- Armenians) to help reduce poverty in Armenia, and help keep Armenians in Armenia.

YOU CAN

For further information you can contact: Seta Ghougassian seta_gu@yahoo.ca (416)694-6142

35