YEREVAN. – There is a hope that Armenia will celebrate May 28 holiday [Republic Day] without political prisoners, thus, demands of every Armenian citizen, every political leader will be fulfilled, said leader of Heritage Party Raffi Hovannisian.
Speaking at a civil forum organized by Heritage Party, Hovannisian said there are many other problems in Armenia, apart of issue on political prisoners.
He said the power should be returned to people who will form a new government by means of snap election.
Hovannisian also commented on Armenia’s foreign policy problems. According to him, Armenia should withdraw its signature from Armenian-Turkish protocols “which accepts directly all preconditions of Bolshevik-Kemalist treaty signed back in 1921”.
“We must reject the Madrid Principles. We should decide how to do it ourselves,” he added on Karabakh peace process.
via Armenia should withdraw signature from Armenia-Turkey protocols – opposition | Armenia News – NEWS.am.
Armenian Church will become a cultural house in Istanbul
By Times.am at 20 May, 2011, 3:47 pm
“This is a project of peace,” Gevorg Ozqaragyoz, head of the reconstruction project of the Armenian St. Vordvots Church in Istanbul said. According to Turkish “Taraf”, Armenian Church St. Vordvots, which is situated near the church St. Astvatsatsin will be restored finally. It will be opened as the cultural center on June 15.
The reconstructions cost 1.5 million dollars and have been started six months ago. The agreement was signed between the fond of St. Mariam Astvatsatsin and the agency “Istanbul 2010”.
Note, the church St. Vordvots was built on 1828 by architect Grigor Balyan.
/Times.am/
via Armenian Church will become a cultural house in Istanbul | Times.am.
Are Turkish-Armenians Diaspora?: Istanbul journalist says Turkey’s Armenians live in their historical lands
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Prominent Istanbul-Armenian journalist Vercihan Ziflioglu’s article posted in the Turkish Hurrieyet daily raising the issue of Istanbul Armenians not viewing themselves as Diaspora and criticizing the Armenian Diaspora minister’s visit and attitude, has been qualified as false and “a cheap means of Turkey’s regular propaganda” aimed at “creating an artificial watershed between Armenia and its Diaspora”.
Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan shaking hands with Istanbul-Armenian journalist Vercihan Ziflioglu during the minister’s meeting with the Armenian community in Turkey.
Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan shaking hands with Istanbul-Armenian journalist Vercihan Ziflioglu during the minister’s meeting with the Armenian community in Turkey.
Minister Hranush Hakobyan’s visit to Istanbul earlier in May sparked a debate over the question: who are Istanbul Armenians – Diaspora or not?
In the article, , Istanbul-Armenian intellectuals called the visit a mockery.
In an interview to Vercihan, a famous Istanbul-Armenian writer said, despite the fact that she had received a medal from the minister:
“It could have been any minister from Armenia, but I would not have preferred a Diaspora minister to have come to Turkey. Where I live now is where I have lived for thousands of years; I am no Diaspora. This is a terrible irony,” said Mıgırdiç Margosyan.
However, rather than discussing this issue in Armenia, it was sharply criticised: expert in Turkish studies Ruben Melkonyan said regarding the article by the native Armenian journalist who has been covering minority issues for one of Turkey’s biggest newspapers that “putting it mildly, it does not match the reality”.
Vercihan, 35, who has international recognition for her professionalism and who won the Swedish academy’s Euro-Med Journalist prize for Cultural Dialogue in 2008 and Turkey’s well-known Successful Journalists of 2008 awards by the Contemporary Journalists Association in 2009, believes that many in Armenia do not understand neither do they really know Istanbul-Armenians.
“I prepared that article through interviews – from America to Aleppo, from Istanbul to Canada (prominent people living in different countries share their opinions); I have the audio records, how can they call it a lie?! The article expresses the thoughts of Armenians, and I believe that it came as news to them (Armenia-based Armenians, the Ministry of the Diaspora) whether Istanbul-Armenians are Diaspora or not,” Vercihan told ArmeniaNow and stresses again:
“Constantinople or Polis (as Armenians usually refer to Istanbul) is not Diaspora, and Armenia has to understand that. Moreover, even Armenia can be called Diaspora and the Armenians spread around the world, but never Constantinople Armenians. How can they call Diaspora a land that has nurtured and felt the breath of Charents, Metsarents, Durian?” she says with frustration.
As Vercihan says, although there are lots of specialists in Turkish studies, they have not researched Istanbul-Armenians well enough and fail to present them correctly – for years they, all alone, had to go through many hardships in order to preserve Armenian schools and their identity living in isolation.
“In Armenia wherever you look you can find Turkish studies specialists, but which of them has ever come to Turkey, for how long has lived here, how much communication they have had with Istanbul-Armenians, how well do they know Turkish policies?” asks the journalist and answers her own question with confidence that there are no proper specialists.
People in Armenia often blame Istanbul-Armenians for not acting in favor of Armenians; Hrant Dink was criticised for that reason, when he first came to Armenia.
“It pains me greatly. Once after interviewing a politician from Armenia, I asked him personally what name he uses when talking about Istanbul-Armenians, he looked straight in my eyes and said “we call you Turks”, yes Turks, or Germans; any nationality is fine, but how can they call so 50,000 Armenians who have managed to preserve their identity throughout so much pain and grief and who are still suffering,” says Vercihan, her voice trembling from humiliation.
She feels offended also when even high-ranking officials in Armenia ask why her surname has –oglu ending.
“Now I want to ask! Where is it that you live, Armenia [why are you so isolated from the world], that you ask such a question and haven’t understood until now why -oglu stuck to our surnames, what sense is behind it? I can ask then what sense does Parajanov [outstanding Soviet Armenian film-director] make – why did Parajanyan become Parajanov [-yan is Armenian, whereas –ov is a Russian surname ending]? There are plenty of examples like that,” she says.
Despite all her frustration, Vercihan, unlike many, every year spends her holiday in Armenia, rather than going to one of Turkey’s popular seaside resorts.
“Armenia is my love, perhaps, my only one, but still, what we expect from Armenia is democracy. I wish Armenia were my future, my children’s future – it was my dream, but after witnessing the events of 2008 [March 1-2 post-election clashes], after I saw with my own eyes the blood that was spilt, who is going to return my dreams? That day killed my dream,” says the young reporter, still filled with anxious anticipation of her next visit to Armenia (in September) and a hope to find at least some progress.
A well-respected think thank in the U.S., the EastWest Institute (EWI), gave a 2011 Peace Prize to Fethullah Gulen.
Mustafa Yesil, Chairman of the Reporters and Authors Foundation accepted the prize on behalf of Fethullah Gulen. In a message which Gulen sent to be read at the prize ceremony, he says he is accepting the prize not for himself but for the volunteers from different nations, different religions who are doing tehir best for the humanity.
National Security Advisor General James Jones and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were among the Board Members of EWI.
gazetevatan.com, 12.05.2011
Vice-Chairman, Board of Directors of the EastWest Institute is Armen Sarkissian
Dr. Armen Sarkissian was Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia (1996-1997), now serves as founding president of Eurasia House International.
Dr. Armen Sarkissian was Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia (1996-1997), now serves as founding president of Eurasia House International.
Dr. Sarkissian formerly served as Ambassador of Armenia (1991-1999) to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and The Vatican, as well as Head of Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the EU and NATO (1995-96).
Since 1999 he is Director of the Eurasia Programme at the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University’s Business School, with expertise in state-building structures and free market transition processes in CIS countries. He is Co-founder of Eurasia House International in London.
Dr. Sarkissian has published numerous articles on economic transition in the former Soviet Union and is the author of three books and over 50 articles on computer modelling of complex system and theoretical physics. He has been a Professor of Physics at Yerevan State University, the School of Mathematical Sciences, University of London, and Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, as well as Head of the Department of Computer Modelling of Complex Systems at YSU.
Dr. Sarkissian holds honorary and executive positions in numerous international organisations, including Member of the Board of Directors of East West Institute, Member of Editorial Board of Russia In Global Politics (foreign affairs journal), and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary & Westfield College, London University. Most recently he was invited by the World Economic Forum in Davos to speak in various panels.
Turkish university to offer Armenian language course
Using a $23,500 grant from the German Marshall Fund’s Black Sea Trust, Kadir Has University in Istanbul plans to begin offering Armenian language lessons this month.
Serdar Dinler, director of the university’s Center for Lifelong Learning, said by telephone that the course would be taught by a doctoral candidate from Armenia as part of a cultural exchange between countries whose ties have been fraught for a century.
“Turkey is becoming an energy-transit corridor and a center for diplomacy in the region,” Mr. Dinler said. “Also the Turkish government has a new ‘zero problems’ policy with its neighbors, so we believe that the new generation in Turkey needs to have more dialogue with neighboring countries, including Armenia, Russia, Iran, Greece, etc. Knowing the language can only help.”
Kadir Has is a private university established along the Golden Horn in 1997 and named after its founder, a Turkish automotive magnate.
— SUSANNE FOWLER
via Turkish University to Offer Armenian Language Course – NYTimes.com.
The Washington Post published an article headlined “Lawmakers hope to force Iran’s hand on nuclear program with new set of sanctions.” It says that Iran could face a new array of U.S. sanctions under proposed House legislation, meant to force Tehran into international talks on its nuclear program. Last week, an expert panel assembled by the United Nations said Iran was continuing to use “front companies, concealment methods in shipping, financial transactions and the transfer of conventional arms and related material” to circumvent U.N. sanctions. But the panel also said the penalties have succeeded in slowing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The other article published by the agency was devoted to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks on criticism of appointments and dismissals from his Cabinet without parliamentary approval. Ahmadinejad decided to streamline his Cabinet by combining eight ministries into four. The parliament insisted it must approve the appointments of the new ministers, but Ahmadinejad refused. Instead, he appointed caretaker ministers, including himself as caretaker oil minister. In his TV speech on Sunday he said “Merging is obligatory, under the law.” He dismissed the parliament’s claims as mere debate.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escalated an unusually public confrontation within the country’s leadership on Saturday by firing three Cabinet ministers, defying Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his loyalists, who had warned him the move would be unconstitutional. Ahmadinejad accepted the resignation of the ministers of oil, welfare, and mines and industries as part of a plan to reshape the government by eventually merging eight of the country’s ministries into four, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency and letters posted on his own website.
“Internet Filters Set Off Protests Around Turkey” is an article published by the New York Times. It says that thousands of people in more than 30 cities around Turkey took to the streets on Sunday to protest against a new system of filtering the Internet, which opponents consider to be censorship. The Information and Communications Technologies Authority, known by its Turkish initials B.T.K., is going to require Internet Service Providers to offer consumers four choices for filtering the Internet, which would limit access to many sites, beginning in August. Protesters in Taksim Square in Istanbul called the action, which regulators say is intended to protect minors, an assault on personal freedom and liberty.
The Turkish Agency Hurriyet reported that international nuclear safety experts started to monitor an ex-Soviet reactor in earthquake-prone Armenia on Monday after concerns raised by the recent disaster in Japan, officials said. The experts from the International Atomic Energy Authority’s Operational Safety Team will report on their findings at the end of the month. Last week Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said that safety rules at the nuclear plant had been revised after the catastrophe in Japan.
“Iran, Pakistan discuss security” is an article published by the Iranian information agency Press TV. It says that, during a meeting on Sunday, an Iranian official stressed “the precise and complete implementation” of security pacts between the two countries. The two sides also discussed issues including campaigns against terrorism, narcotics, human trafficking, organized crime, and border control. Abdullahi and Malik also decided on the formation of a Tehran-Islamabad security commission to be chaired by the security deputies of the interior ministers of Iran and Pakistan.
“Azerbaijan wins first-ever Eurovision triumph” Hurriyet reported Azerbaijan scoring a spectacular first-ever win on Saturday in the 56th Eurovision Song Contest, Europe’s annual pop extravaganza. Nigar Jamal and Eldar Gasimov, who were on the stage by the name Ell/Nikki, won 220 points for their classic pop ballad with a catchy refrain “Running Scared”, meaning next year’s songfest will be hosted in Baku. While Turkey gave 12 points to Azerbaijan, the country was also given high points from European countries where there are dense Turkish populations. When the result was announced, Jamal appeared on the stage with a Turkish flag in her hand.
via World Press on Iran, Turkey and the Caucasus (May 14-16, 2011) | Vestnik Kavkaza.
YEREVAN. – There is a hope that Armenia will celebrate May 28 holiday [Republic Day] without political prisoners, thus, demands of every Armenian citizen, every political leader will be fulfilled, said leader of Heritage Party Raffi Hovannisian.
