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06/02/2005
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) Time Magazine European Subscribers Get Turkish Take on Armenian Issue 2) Influential Senator Praises Armenia Reforms 3) Russia Reassures Azerbaijan on Weapons Transfer to Armenia 4) Hai Tahd Council to Convene in Armenia 5) Dynamic Exhibit of Armin Wegner's Works Kicks-off in Moscow 1) Time Magazine European Subscribers Get Turkish Take on Armenian Issue ANKARA (Marmara)--According to the Turkish press, Time Magazine, one of the leading US news magazines, has distributed a Turkish documentary CD on Turkish-Armenian relations to its 494 thousand subscribers in Europe. "The project's target is not to respond to allegations of Armenians, but to give appropriate information about both the history of Turkish-Armenian relations and the Armenian issue. We aim to prevent distortion of historical events,'' the chairman of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), Sinan Aygun, told a news conference. The documentary, titled "Blonde Bride," is reportedly sponsored by the ATO. According to Aygun, the 210 minute documentary has been prepared in Turkish, Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic. He also revealed that the ATO has been working five months to pitch the "ad" to Time Magazine. "This documentary CD is proof of Turkish pride, and we were able to secure funding for the approximately 1 million dollar venture purely through donations," Aygun said. ATO said that Time Magazine has an additional 116 thousand copies of the CD for distribution. 2) Influential Senator Praises Armenia Reforms YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--An influential US senator praised on Thursday political and economic reforms carried out in Armenia but said more needs to be done to democratize its political system. Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, visited Yerevan at the head of a US government delegation of senior military officials. "I have been very impressed with the democratic reforms that have taken place in Armenia, the economic development, the rate of economic growth, the prosperity that's developing," Hagel told a news conference after talks with President Robert Kocharian and Defense Minister Serge Sarkisian. "I think it's very good news for Armenia and the region." Hagel, the second member of the Senate to visit Armenia this week, singled out the country's robust economic growth. "I have seen and heard about the significant progress made in Armenia since 1998," he said. "It's important for Armenia to continue democratic reforms that always anchor democracy, enhance freedom and therefore enhance growth and development." "That means fair, free and open elections," he added. Norm Coleman, another Republican senator, in Yerevan on Tuesday said that Washington is trying to foster democratic elections in Armenia through an "aggressive" support for economic reforms. He argued that economic development will create a "better atmosphere for a free and democratic process." Hagel's delegation arrived in Armenia from Azerbaijan as part of its tour of Turkey, the South Caucasus and other regions which the senator said are "critical" for the US It includes the deputy commander of the US troops in Europe, General Charles Wald, and senior officials from the Pentagon and Congress. Wald paid a separate visit to Yerevan last April. Kocharian, according to his press service, discussed with the visiting US officials ways of "expanding US-Armenian relations." He was reported to have welcomed their "dynamic development." The US delegation also visited the Yerevan headquarters of a special peace-keeping battalion of the Armenian armed forces. Dozens of its servicemen are currently involved in the US-led missions in Kosovo and Iraq. Hagel, who sits on four Senate committees and chairs two of their subcommittees, was also asked to comment on the transfer of Russian military hardware from Georgia to Armenia which has prompted protests from Azerbaijan. "This is an issue between the governments of Russia and Armenia," he said. "I have always believed that sovereign nations not only must act but will act in their own self-interests." But Hagel went on to indicate that the US government, which pushed for the closure of Russian military bases in Georgia, has serious misgivings about continued Russian military presence in Armenia. "I think it has always been the policy of the United States--and I think it's good policy--that military presence of other nations in sovereign nations isn't helpful in the regions of the world that we are trying to bring peace and prosperity and settle very serious conflicts like Nagorno-Karabakh," he said. 3) Russia Reassures Azerbaijan on Weapons Transfer to Armenia (AP)--A Russian diplomat sought to assuage Azerbaijani concerns about the relocation of weapons from Georgia to Armenia, saying Thursday that the arms and equipment would remain under Russian military control and would not destabilize the region. Azerbaijan has voiced fears about Russia's plan to move weaponry from Georgia to Armenia, which has been locked in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia is a staunch ally of Russia. Pyotr Burdykin, Russia's acting ambassador to Azerbaijan said Thursday that the weaponry was being relocated under pressure to speed up the Russian military withdrawal from Georgia. "We initially talked about returning all these weapons to Russia in normal conditions, but Georgia and other nations have insisted on speeding it up and applied very strong pressure," Burdykin told reporters in Baku. Russia agreed to begin withdrawing from two Soviet-era bases in Georgia by the end of the year and complete the pullout over the course of 2008. "This transfer isn't directed against any third country, and it's not going to affect the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement," Burdykin said. "There is no sense in blowing it out of proportion." But Tahir Tagizade, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, said moving the weapons to Armenia would compromise Russia's role as one of the international mediators to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "We will insist that Russia listen to our concerns," he said. Mountainous Karabagh Republic's (MKR) military on Thursday denied Azerbaijani reports that an Azerbaijani soldier was killed Wednesday in a skirmish on the border. Also, the head of the MKR election commission, Sergei Nasibian, defended plans to hold parliamentary elections on June 19. "Azerbaijani's concerns that the parliamentary elections would be an obstacle to peaceful settlement of the Mountainous Karabagh conflict are unfounded," Nasibian said. 4) Hai Tahd Council to Convene in Armenia YEREVAN (Yerkir)The Armenian Revolutionary Federation's (ARF) Hai Tahd Council, which is involved in promoting Armenian issues worldwide is scheduled to hold its meeting in Yerevan, Armenia on June 3 and 4, reported the ARF Bureau's press service. The meeting will bring together members of the ARF Bureau in charge of related activities, heads of the European and US Hai Tahd committees, directors of Hai Tahd offices in Washington, DC, Brussels, Moscow, and Beirut, and the Yerevan central office, as well as representatives of the ARF Supreme Body of Armenia, and ARF Artsakh Central Committee. The Council will discuss formulating strategy in the light of recent international and regional developments, and will develop an action plan for Hai Tahd offices worldwide. Council representatives on Tuesday met with Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian to review emerging issues. 5) Dynamic Exhibit of Armin Wegner's Works Kicks-off in Moscow MOSCOW (ANI/PanArmenian.net)--The exhibit "Armin Wegner and the Armenian Genocide" opened in Moscow on Tuesday at the Russian Cultural Institution, in commemoration of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian genocide. The exhibit is based on the book by Italian historian Giovanni Guaita, "A Cry form Ararat: Armin Wegner and the Armenian Genocide," which was recently republished in Moscow. Russian State Duma Deputies, prominent scholars, representatives of the Serbian, Kurdish, Assyrian, and Tatar communities of Moscow were all on hand at the opening ceremony. Senator Nikolay Ryzhkov noted the importance of denouncing the massive crime that has been silenced by world powers, and urged non-Armenians to join the fair struggle of the Armenian people. International law specialist Professor Yuri Barsegov said recognition of the Armenian genocide should be achieved via International Law, and must follow with reparations. A Cry form Ararat: Armin Wegner and the Armenian Genocide," is Guaita's third work on Armenian issues. He said that he undertook the project of presenting eyewitness Wegner's rich archive in order to remind humanity of history's cruel pages. Guaita is now working on his fourth project on Armenians. The Russian-Armenian Cooperation Organization, which sponsored the exhibit, said that the exhibition will travel to various Russian regions. Armin T. Wegner, whose photographic collection documents conditions in Armenian deportation camps in 1915-1916, was born in Germany in 1886. At the outbreak of World War I, he enrolled as a volunteer nurse in Poland during the winter of 1914-1915, and was decorated with the Iron Cross for assisting the wounded under fire. In April 1915, following the military alliance of Germany and Turkey, he was sent to the Middle East as a member of the German Sanitary Corps. Between July and August, he used his leave to investigate the rumors about the Armenian massacres that had reached him from several sources. In the autumn of the same year, with the rank of second-lieutenant in the retinue of Field Marshal Von der Goltz, commander of the 6th Ottoman army in Turkey, he traveled through Asia Minor. Eluding the strict orders of the Turkish and German authorities (intended to prevent the spread of news, information, correspondence, visual evidence), Wegner collected notes, annotations, documents, and letters and took hundreds of photographs in the Armenian deportation camps. With the help of foreign consulates and embassies of other countries, he was able to send some of this material to Germany and the United States. His clandestine mail routes were discovered and Wegner was arrested by the Germans at the request of the Turkish Command-and was put to serve in the cholera wards. Having fallen seriously ill, he left Baghdad for Constantinople in November 1916. Hidden in his belt were his photographic plates and those of other German officers with images of the Armenian Genocide to which he had been a witness. In December of the same year he was recalled to Germany. Wegner was deeply moved by the tragedy of the Armenian people to which he had been eyewitness in Ottoman Turkey. Between 1918 and 1921, he became an active member of pacifist and anti-military movements while dedicating his literary and poetic output to the search for the truth about himself and his fellow man. On February 23, 1919, Wegner's "Open Letter to President Wilson" appealing for the creation of an independent Armenian state was published in Berliner Tageblatt. A man of conscience who protested his country's responsibilities in the Armenian Genocide, Wegner was also one of the earliest voices to protest Hitler's treatment of the Jews in Germany. He dedicated a great part of his life to the fight for Armenian and Jewish human rights. In 1968 he received an invitation to Armenia from the Catholicos of All Armenians and was awarded with the Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator. Armin Wegner died in Rome at the age of 92 on May 17, 1978. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. 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