YEREVAN (ARF Press Office)—The Council of the Socialist International met in San José, Costa Rica from January 23 to 24 hosted by the National Liberation Party (PLN), bringing together more than 170 leaders and delegates from 60 social democratic, labor and socialist parties from around the world. Among them was Mario Nalbandian, Armenian Revolutionary Federation Bureau Member and Co-chair of the Socialist International Committee for the CIS, the Caucasus and the Black Sea countries.
The Council’s agenda included the current financial crisis and climate change, key questions in the concerns of the global social democratic movement today as well as the strengthening of the Socialist International, as the organization approaches its XXIV Congress this year.
As stated in the SI’s press release “following the conclusion of a constructive debate on the global economy, a resolution of the Council was adopted unanimously, outlining the priorities of the organization at this juncture and in the medium to long-term, to redress the world economy in line with the objectives of recovering real growth, increasing employment, achieving stability and overcoming the sovereign debt crisis and its harmful effects in the rest of the economy. The document argues in favor of the redesign of global financial institutions, the effective regulation of the financial sector, new instruments for development and sustainable growth, addressing the eurozone crisis beyond austerity, and increasing competitiveness while defending social protection and investment in green growth”.
Furthermore, the Council approved a statement on the freedom of speech and independence of the judiciary in Turkey, supporting the SI member parties in that country and condemning the arrests of the BDP members and the suit against the leader of the country’s main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP).
The ARF representative addressed the audience and held various meetings with delegates discussing issues of concern for the Armenian people.
ARF is the only one among the CIS countries to hold a full SI membership status. Its youth and women branches are also full members in IUSY and SIW respectively. ARF Bureau member Mario Nalbandian serves as Co-chair of the Socialist International Committee for the CIS, the Caucasus and the Black Sea countries and ARF member Maria Titizian as Vice President of the organization.
Statement On Freedom Of Speech And Independence Of The Judiciary In Turkey
The Turkish judiciary has taken the deplorable decision to launch a probe against Mr. Kemal Kılıcdaroğlu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP). The public prosecutor asked for the revocation of Mr. Kılıcdaroğlu’s parliamentary immunity in order to charge him with ‘attempting to influence a fair trial’ and ‘insulting public servants on duty’ following remarks Mr. Kılıcdaroğlu made after a visit to two elected CHP MPs, Mr. Mustafa Balbay and Mr. Mehmet Haberal, who have been held in pre-trial detention for several years as suspects in the Ergenekon case.
This move by the public prosecutor is the last part of a long term of oppression on any dissenting voice since 2007. The list comprises students demanding free education to environmental activists struggling against hydroelectric power plants in the Black Sea region. In Turkey there are currently over 3500 web sites banned by court ruling. According to the Progressive Journalists’ Association there are currently over 60 journalists in prison. In addition tens of elected officials of the BDP are being detained as part of the notorious KCK trial that has been going on since 2009. Following the referendum of 12 September 2010, supported by many in Europe, which claimed to make the judiciary more independent and its composition more representative, the judiciary only became more linked to the government. Regrettably, the separation of powers is no more in Turkey: the judiciary branch has been seized by the executive branch.
Freedom of expression is a basic value in democratic societies and any act against this freedom is unacceptable for the socialist, social democrats and progressive forces around the world.
The Turkish government should respect freedom of speech and the independence of the judiciary and protect democratic values and human rights in Turkey.
Yes,this is what armenians need-after decades of terror against all people who dont lick socialists` boots after the murder,forced exile abroad and in Siberia of hundreds of thousands honest armenians,including all Dashnag leaders after giving large parts of Armenia to its neighbours turkey azeristan georgia now our greatest political party based in good old capitalis tUS of A is fighting for what????For socialism!!! The Hugo Chavezes,the Castros,and the North Coreans of this world will be very very happy to have the Dashnags as allies in the fight against only they know what-and now we may rest assured the armenian question will be solved quickly and justly!!! Partsratsir,Partsratsur!!!
haik youre the biggest dkhmar armenians have ever known! the ARF has been socialist/nationalist from day one! the are based in armenia, lebanon, europe and the americas but mostly in lebanon. the soviets exiled tashnags for being nationalist. something you know jack about. armenians secured karapagh and were the first ones from abroad to volunteer. they formed the fighting groups of local karpaghtsis LONG BEFORE the armenian army decided to help.
you should be kissing the zinanshan you idiot! and just becuase some other nation is socialist doesnt mean we have good relations with them, although we need to strenghten our ties with china, vietnam and cuba. theres a lot we could learn from them too. with fidel we could see how a nation benifits by putting health care and education as priorities. we could also learn a thing or two from the vietnamese, one of the best guerillas, along with armenians.
Dear Bzdigbrained Bigmoustache-thanks for your socialist rhetoric-of course we should learn from the vietnamese,north coreans cubans-these are the model demockracies for people who can never outgrow their Partsratsir Partsratsur scout mentality.You are living in the 19th c. with your `national` “ socialism“which brought the genocide among many other evils.The other word for it is Nazism and it was condemned as far as I can remember in Nurenberg some 70 years ago.You may blah blah blah about socialism as you have never lived in a `socialist` country,so put your money where your mouth is and become a North Korean,Chinese,Vietnamese or Cuban citizen before you preach your half-baked leftist crap on people whose national character has nothing to do with the left-wing lunacies you subscribe to.Amot !!!
Armenia needs democracy-free market enterprise-equal opportunity and the rule of law. Socialism has failed in every instance-robbing economies of vibrance-robbing people of freedom and dooming countries to failure.
No party advocating such a failed ideology should have any support in Armenia or anywhere else.
are you retarded? your government in the west pays for your health care, education, police, ambulance and fire services, roads, utilities, mail.. need i go on? in a better society armenia could be giving free health care and education. i never advocated communism nor did i mention north korea. i specifically said there are things to learn from cuba, china and vietnam and in different fields. read it again haivan
and to blame armenians for their own genocide, you must be lower than the lowest tavajan in operation nemesis.
thank your lucky stars for the ARF, if it wasnt for them there would be no armenia today. thats why the ranks of the ARF and pro-ARF arnt only the most famous fedayis of our culture, but also the biggest intellectuals, poets, scientists and teachers. youre standing on the wrong side of the line tavajan.
and dont ever compare nazis to the ARF, we are nationalists in that we love our people and culture, and free democratic socialist society is what we envision. the ARF is the only armenian group that has any experience working with other groups, the iranian revolution, armenian kurdish alliances, armenian lebanese/palestinian. not like the right wing nutjobs like you who are real the xenophobic nazis and war mongers