Armenia and the information war

[Federate]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Silly Armenians, how do we expect foreign parliaments to pass pro-Armenian bills when we can't even pass one in our own country?
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Dashnak Genocide Bill Stalls In Armenian Parliament


A key committee of the National Assembly effectively rejected on Friday a proposal by the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) to criminalize public statements denying that the 1915 massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey constituted genocide.

Armenia’s Criminal Code already carries heavy fines and up to four years’ imprisonment for public denial of genocides and “other crimes against humanity.” An amendment tabled by Dashnaktsutyun last month would extend the maximum punishment to five years and apply it to anyone “denying, playing down, approving or justifying the genocide of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”

Dashnaktsutyun leaders acknowledge that the bill is directly connected with the recent agreements to normalize Armenia’s relations with Turkey that have been strongly condemned by the nationalist party. They say it is specifically directed against a Turkish-Armenian “subcommission” of historians envisaged by one of the agreements.

It would be tasked with studying the extermination of the Ottoman Empire’s sizable Armenian population. Dashnaktsutyun and other critics of the deal say the very existence of such a body would call into question the fact of the genocide, a claim denied by the Yerevan government.

In a written opinion submitted to the Armenian parliament committee on legal affairs this week, the Ministry of Justice objected to the Dashnaktsutyun bill and essentially upheld the existing Criminal Code clause relating to genocide denial. The committee on Friday postponed the bill’s consideration by at least two months, meaning that the proposed amendment will not reach the parliament floor before February.

The committee chairman, David Harutiunian, made no secret of his strong opposition to the measure, saying that it would create “extremely serious problems” in the ongoing Turkish-Armenian negotiations. He said its passage would lead the Turkish authorities to resume heavy enforcement of a controversial law makes it a crime to “insult the Turkish nation.” The law, watered down last year, has been used in the prosecution of prominent Turks who have questioned the official Turkish version of the events of 1915.

Harutiunian also argued that by adopting the amendment drafted by Dashnaktsutyun the National Assembly would give the impression that there is now a “serious movement” within Armenian that denies the genocidal character of those events. “Besides, I believe Armenia’s position on this issue is so strong that we don’t need any additional tools of defense in the shape of criminal liability,” the former justice minister said at a committee meeting. “The stronger party doesn’t need such tools.”

“I don’t see that confidence about our strength,” Vahan Hovannisian, the leader of the Dashnaktsutyun faction in the parliament, countered, referring to President Serzh Sarkisian’s conciliatory policy towards Turkey. He said the October 10 signing of the Turkish-Armenian protocols in Zurich was “a sign of weakness” on the part of Yerevan.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/1877726.html

[hipeter924]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Well to be honest, criminalising doesn't solve the problem and education does. People still deny the Holocaust, and the Armenian Holocaust in Europe despite bans and charges.

[Haykakan]

Re: Armenia and the information war

The bill the dashnaks are trying to pass is basicly aimed at hurting or stoping the reconciliation between turckey and armenia. There are already laws against genocide denial in armenia. I agree about the education part, they need to do a better job in armenia to when it comes to teaching about the genocide. The dashnaks display their nerrow mindedness at every turn, like how about doing something new and constructive for a change. Lets see we been doing the same thing for 50 plus years in usa and it did not work so um lets do it in armenia now. Like do something useful for a change, go build, make, create something instead of running around chasing your own tail in endless circles. Dashnaks have a great opportunity to be a constructive part of armenia and to be a big part of its future but they always blow it by being nerrow minded and only thinking about very few issues when they should be looking at nation building instead.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Azerbaijani propaganda machine faces another failure

The signing of protocols between Turkey and Armenia is a historic process that will benefit both sides immensely. The linking of ratification in the Turkish Parliament to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be dismissed, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State Philip Gordon said as he paid a visit to Ankara, Zaman says.

“We think that normalization is important. It should not be linked to anything else,” he said.

The US official’s statement, evidently, says nothing new. Washington has claimed this disposition for many times, both President Obama and State secretary Clinton have done this.

That is to say, the re-affirmation of the disposition should not sound odd. However, the surprise came earlier as the Azerbaijani media one after the other started circulating the news as if Philip Gordon has announced that “Turkey’s parliament will hardly ratify the protocols providing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not settled.”

As we can see another attempt by the Azerbaijani propaganda machine to distort the reality faced a failure. What comes to be capturing here, the Turkish media, including Zaman, reject the disinformation spread by their Azeri brothers.

As far as Philip Gordon’s statements are concerned (surely they are more precisely introduced in Zaman rather than Day.az or 1News.az), these cannot contradict to the official views sounded by Obama or Clinton, stating that the Armenian-Turkish normalization cannot be linked to other processes.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenia and the information war

i found this article very funny. they call what they claim real facts
Today.Az » Politics » Real facts vs specific nature of Armenia’s warlike statements

16 November 2009 [10:25] - Today.Az



Akbar Hasanov
Day.Az writer

Each of us always has a choice and an opportunity to realize it.

There's always a need to differentiate between things even when they are messed together. However, it can heavily harm health, and besides can be pretty unhygienic. Likewise, one can believe in real actions, facts that somehow influence an inevitable process of returning all Armenia- occupied territories of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. One can also believe in warlike statements by the Armenian government. In this case, the latter is simply unhygienic. But, let’s talk about everything one after another.

Signal is given - signal is accepted

In its Thursday meeting the Armenian government provided a negative conclusion on the Bill on Recognition of the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" submitted by the opposition parliamentary faction "Heritage". “The Government believes it is inappropriate to adopt the bill at current stage,” Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said.

Is it accidental? I am confident that it is not. This is just a loud statement by the Armenian government, whereas the reality is completely different.

Here are some facts.

Firstly, no country in the world has recognized the self-declared “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” for all the years of occupation, through Armenian propaganda machine worked unsuccessfully and still works aimlessly inventing a false version of the causes and consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Secondly, Azerbaijan’s position in the conflict has constantly consolidated since the ceasefire agreement signed in 1994. However, the position of Armenia, which has never been considered a respected subject of geopolitics (for instance, many statements which portrayed Armenia as an "outpost" and a story with of a note of order from a foreign minister of another county that happened during the signing of Turkish-Armenian protocols which is humiliating to foreign minister of any country claiming to be called independent) is constantly weakening.

On this backdrop, Azerbaijan with its increased economic and political potential is a full-right entity in geopolitics, whose position is reckoned with by world's centers of power.

The third and final fact is that the United States has sent more and more demonstrative messages to the Armenian leadership in recent years. Suffice it to recall that the U.S. State Department in its annual report on religious freedom called "NKR" "a separatist regime" and included its data in a report on Azerbaijan, as well as statements that the Armenian-occupied territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that belongs to Azerbaijan are currently uncontrolled and international cooperation is needed in order to prevent the spread of terrorism on these territories.

So, the facts suggest that the Turkish leadership demands the U.S. to facilitate swift and fair resolution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. During a visit to Washington, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is going to ask President Barack Obama to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by late 2010. Apparently, the U.S., given Turkey’s tough stance on this issue, has decided to move from conflict strategies to legal resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict with all the ensuing consequences, of which Armenia authorities are perfectly aware.

Thus, the Armenian government’s negative conclusion on the Bill on Recognition of the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” is not surprising.

Now I would like to believe in increase of the number of people capable of differentiating between things, the people who will not any more embarrass their neighbors by their specific political-gastronomic predilections in Armenia.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/57493.html

[hipeter924]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Straight from the dictators mouth, the Azeri self declared god is at it again....

Good article ninetoyadome.

[Federate]

Re: Armenia and the information war

Baku's feeble attempt at finding an equivalent to the Nakhichevan khachkar destruction.
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Armenians destroy Azerbaijani cemetery in Agdam – PHOTOS
16 November 2009 [15:54] - Today.Az
Armenian are destroying Garaji cemetery in Azerbaijan’s occupied Agdam region.

200-year old cemetery is located 6-7 kilometers outside the center of the Agdam region.

Various media outlets have repeatedly reported that the Armenians destroy Azerbaijani cemeteries in the occupied territories, take away tombstones and iron bars from the cemeteries to use them as building materials.

Apparently, the cemetery in Agdam suffered the same fate.

As is seen from the photographs, cemetery is purposefully destroyed. It has suffered extensive damage. The graves of Azerbaijanis are desecrated.

The cemetery can be completely destroyed and disappear in future.

After forcing inhabitants of Azerbaijan’s Agdam region to flee, the Armenian occupation forces are now trying to destroy the past of these people.

http://www.today.az/news/politics/57512.html

[ArmSurvival]

Re: Armenia and the information war

This is hilarious... they are claiming Armenians destroyed their cemetary, and as "proof" they have a bunch of photos of standing tombstones. Has Day.az hired comedy writers?

There are only 2 pictures which show fallen tombstones (still not destroyed btw), but they are obviously zoomed in. In the very first picture they zoomed in on a fallen tombstone, but you can still see a bunch of them standing in the background.

Various media outlets have repeatedly reported that the Armenians destroy Azerbaijani cemeteries

Various media outlets= Other Azeri government news agencies which shall remain forever unnamed.

And if its already been "repeatedly reported" by "various outlets", then how is this "news"?

Such mickey mouse journalism... great find, Fed.

[ninetoyadome]

Re: Armenia and the information war

I dont get it. If Armenia was destroying the cemetery, wouldnt we have destroyed all the tombstones and not just some? they dont think before talking do they. I guess we have a lot to learn from the azeris in destroying cemeteries.

[levon]

Re: Armenia and the information war

It's just so obvious that some of these images have been photoshopped (by an amateur).
Take the fourth image for example, aside from the fact that on the row third from last (start right when the small yellow flowers end) on can clearly see the Armenian letters M T A, some of the letters appear to have depth while others look like they've been drawn with black chalk.

On the third image, the area under the star looks like has been cleaned up and the star copied and pasted from another image. There are a few other cases where one wonders if the image has been played around with.

Aside from these inconsistencies, how's one to know that's not a cemetery in Azerbaijan?