FEBRUARY 18, 2012 THE ARMENIAN Mirror -Spe ctatIn Ouor Mirror -Spe ctator r 80th Year Volume LXXXII, NO. 32, Issue 4226 $ 2.00 NEWS IN BRIEF The First English Language Armenian Weekly in the United States Since 1932 Armenian Driver Helps Arrested Georgian Police Disarm Bomb Publisher TBILISI (PanARMENIAN.Net) — Police in Georgia disarmed a bomb concealed in a vehicle used by Israeli embassy staff, local media reported Monday, February 13. Applies The personal driver of Itzahk Gernberg, Israel’s ambassador to Georgia, Roman Khachaturyan dis - covered the hand grenade taped to the bottom of To ECHR the vehicle during a morning check. Georgian bomb squads were called to the scene and safely disarmed the device, M&C reported, cit - ISTANBUL (Hürriyet Daily News) — ing DPA. Arrested publisher Ragip Zarakolu’s lawyers have filed a suit at the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the Armenian Killed in Syria prosecutor’s orders that led to his arrest on ALEPPO (news.am) — Two explosions took place November 1, Elmas Boyajian (Joyce Van Dyke’s grandmother, called Victoria in the play) with her husband Harry (Haroutoun), who is the playwright’s grandfather, and daughter Rose, here on Friday and as a result, an Armenian man 2011, as part of Providence. All three are characters in the play. died, the spokesperson of the Armenian Ministry of the Kurdistan Foreign Affairs, Tigran Balayan, said. Communities “As the Armenian Consulate in Aleppo has been Union (KCK) tri - informed, Armenian Vigen Hayrapetyan died in an als. ‘Deported/a dream play’ explosion in Aleppo,” he said. “[The KCK Two explosions occurred on Friday, resulting in probe] is a politi - Is Culmination of Long Creative Process the deaths of 28 and injuring 175. cally [motivated] The target was a the military investigation office, case filed by the BOSTON — When “Deported/ a dream play” by Joyce Van Dyke opens on March but civilians also died, including children, who were AKP [Justice and 8 at the Modern Theatre in Boston, it will mark the culmination of a five-year cre - playing in a nearby park. Development ative process for the playwright. The opposition Syrian Free Army took the Party] govern - Ragip Zarakolu Said Van Dyke in a recent interview, “It’s very intense. I started working on the responsibility for the explosions. ment, and the material in 2007. The first thing I did was to go combination of to ALMA [the Armenian Library and Museum of the prosecutors’ and judges’ lack of inde - Next Hearing on America] and listen to interviews done with sur - pendence and impartiality makes it difficult By Daphne Abeel vivors of the Genocide. Many of them were done Soldier Death for a just and lawful verdict to be reached,” Special to the Mirror-Spectator by Bethel Bilezikian Charkoudian.” Zarakolu’s lawyer Özcan Kiliç said. The play is the story of two women, Van Dyke’s Scheduled for April 6 The suit filed at the European court per - grandmother, Elmas Sarajian Boyajian, and her close friend, Varter Deranian. Both tains to such matters as treatment in deten - DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (PanARMENIAN.Net) — A women lived through the Genocide and lost their first families but managed to come tion, the legal and material basis for the military court here has ruled to take the testi - to the United States to start new lives and to have new families. In the play, Van Dyke arrest and access to case files and evidence, monies of 19 village guards who presumably wit - explores her own history as a descendant of Genocide survivors and interweaves the rather than the trial process itself, in accor - nessed the murder of a Turkish soldier of Armenian memories and dreams of the two women, whose friendship and history binds them. dance with the requirements prescribed in origin under dubious circumstances while he was “I had to do a lot of research,” said Van Dyke, “because my grandmother never the fifth article of the European performing his military service in 2011. talked about what had happened to her.” Convention on Human Rights, which estab - In the fifth hearing of the Sevag Sahin Balikçi see DEPORTED, page 15 lished the court, according to Kiliç. case, a lieutenant commander and a forensic sci - “The KCK trial is going to be the case ence expert were appointed as experts,. with the largest number of suspects in The military judge overseeing the case is report - Istanbul since the military coup of 1980. It ed to have said that it is “his duty to make sure the is still too early to comment on the course Turkish Court Acquits Another case is completed in the fairest way.” of the trial,” Kiliç said. Meanwhile, Ismail Cem Halavurt, Balikçi’s Tuncay Özkan, another suspect in the lawyer, said he has also demanded taped records of ongoing Ergenekon trials, had already Defendant in Dink Murder Case the incident. applied to the European court last week on The next hearing of the case is scheduled for see ZARAKOLU, page 4 ANKARA (PanARMENIAN.Net) — A punished because they neglected their April 6, Hürriyet Daily News reported. court has acquitted Coskun Igci, one of 19 duties. Those people are Col. Ali Öz, Capt. Balikçi was shot on April 24, 2011, in a gen - defendants in the murder case of Hrant Metin Yildiz, non-commissioned officer darmerie station of Batman province by another Dink, the founder and former editor-in-chief Orhan Simsek and Sgt. Veysel Sahin,” he soldier, Kivanç Agaoglu. Administration Reduces of the Armenian-Turkish Agos weekly who said. was assassinated in 2007 in front of his When a judge at the court asked Igci if Aid for Armenia, Region office in Istanbul, after forgetting to include he had been in contact with those four peo - him in the final verdict in January, Today’s ple, Igci replied that he had contacted WASHINGTON (RFE/RL) — The adminis - INSI DE Zaman reported. Simsek and Sahin. tration of President Barack Obama has called Igci, who presumably called on Yasin The Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court for a nearly 18 percent reduction in annual US Hayal to buy a gun with which to shoot issued its ruling on January 17 in the 25th government assistance to Armenia, which has Dink, was accidentally left out of the final hearing of the case. Hayal and Erhan steadily decreased over the past decade. Muradian verdict and the judge issued a ruling sepa - Tuncel, the main suspects, who were The administration’s draft budget for the rately for him on Monday, February 13. accused of being instigators, and all other fiscal year 2013 unveiled on Monday would On September 19, 2011, the prosecution suspects, were cleared of charges of mem - allocate $32.5 million in economic aid and Memories recommended his acquittal on the grounds bership in a terrorist organization. $3.3 million in separate military funding to that “there was no substantial evidence to The prosecutor and the Dink family’s the country, down from a total of $43.5 mil - Story on page 14 suggest he took part in the crime.” lawyers accused them of acting under the lion that was approved by the US Congress Igci’s lawyer said at the court on Monday orders of a clandestine criminal network for this year. that his client has no ties to the murder suspected of having ties with senior state The proposed reduction seems to stem except for being the uncle of Hayal, one of officials and military and police officers. from a further cut in overall US aid to the main suspects. The court handed down a life sentence to Europe, the South Caucasus and Central INDEX Igci said to the court that he had Hayal, while Tuncel was given 10 years and Asia sought by the administration. The bud - Arts and Living . 12 informed gendarmerie intelligence officers six months in prison for his involvement in get proposal attributes that to the “achieve - Armenia . .2,3 in Trabzon that a plan to assassinate Dink the bombing of a McDonald’s restaurant in ment of a number of assistance goals” in Community News. 5 was in place four months prior to the mur - 2004. Gunman Ogün Samast was sen - the region. Editorial . 17 der. tenced last July to nearly 23 years in prison International . 4 Nevertheless, the two main Armenian- “I am not guilty. The people I reported by a separate juvenile court. Tuncel was American advocacy groups criticized the about were tried in Trabzon and they were released. see BUDGET, page 20 Benefit for the Armenian Mirror-Spectator Celebrating 80 Years and Beyond Thursday, May 24, 2012 2 S ATURDAY , F EBRUARY 18, 2012 T HE A RMENIAN M IRROR -S PECTATOR ARMENIA News From Armenia US Envoy Content with Armenian Local Poll Official vote results showed tions would take that information to By Naira Bulghadarian Hrazdan’s incumbent pro-government the authorities and I would expect that Belarus Parliamentary mayor, Aram Danielian, narrowly defeat - the authorities would follow up on any ing his sole challenger, Sasun Mikaelian of those reports,” he said. Delegates Pay Tribute to YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — John Heffern, of the opposition Armenian National The diplomat also reiterated that the the US ambassador to Armenia, on Congress (HAK). Mikaelian refused to United States will do “whatever we can Genocide Victims Tuesday expressed his overall satisfac - concede defeat, however, saying that to contribute” to the freedom and fair - tion with the Armenian authorities’ the election outcome was essentially ness of the Armenian parliamentary YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Deputy chairman of the handling of a weekend local election in decided by widespread vote buying by elections.