ASBAREZ Online [04-26-2006]

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04/26/2006
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WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ. COM 1) Two Swedish MPs Honor The Victims of The Armenian Genocide 2) Rice Warns Turkey to Keep Out of Iraq 3) Armenians in Georgia Mark Genocide 4) Azeri Troops Breach Ceasefire, Wound Armenian Servicemen 5) Western Prelacy Organizes Book Presentation Event 1) Two Swedish MPs Honor The Victims of The Armenian Genocide The Armenian community in Sweden held several commemorative events throughout the country to mark the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide, during which several Members of Parliament (MP) honored the victims and pledged to raise the issue in the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag). In Uppsala, several Swedish MPs attended an event organized by Armenian organizations including Raffi Cultural Association, Armenian Relief Society, Homenetmen Sweden, and the Armenian Church. Michael Oscarson, a Christian Democrat MP who participated in the Genocide commemoration, said that people are not aware of the terrible suffering and loss of life Armenians experienced 91 years ago. "We need to work together so that this very important humanitarian tragedy is captured by the public," he said. "Together with my colleagues I will raise the question of Armenian genocide in the Riksdag," said Oscarson, promising to "address the Foreign Minister and demand an explanation on what the Swedish government is doing concerning the denial by Turkey." "My party and I supported those resolutions, and continue to recognize them today," he added. Oscarson also spoke of a visit to Turkey last year, saying: "Every time I met my colleagues in the Turkish Parliament I took up the issue of the Armenian genocide, but I was shocked to be met by a wall of silence. And I was even more shocked when one of them replied, 'We the Turks are the victims, we were the ones who were submitted to genocide." Another Swedish MP, Rezene Tesfazion, spoke on behalf of the Social Democrats and said that we must never forget the lessons of history, because "this is our duty as human beings." "I join with you today in remembering the past I encourage you to continue honoring your forefathers," he said. Tesfazion also made a pledge to the Armenian people, saying, "Together with my colleague Miss Tone Tingsgaard I will try to raise the issue in the Riksdag." In March 2000 the Swedish Parliament adopted a motion acknowledging the Armenian genocide. The motion reads: "An official statement and recognition of the Genocide of the Armenians is important and necessary. In 1985 the UN and the European Parliament established the fact that the Ottoman Empire had committed genocide against the Armenian people in the beginning of the 20th century. The Standing Committee [on Foreign Affairs] is of the opinion that the greater openness Turkey demonstrates, the stronger Turkey's democratic identity will be. It is therefore important that unbiased independent and international research on the genocide committed against the Armenian people be carried out. It is of great importance that an increasing openness and historical understanding of the events of 1915 and thereafter be developed. An improvement in this respect would also be of importance for the stability and the development in the whole Caucasus region." 2) Rice Warns Turkey to Keep Out of Iraq ANKARA (International Herald Tribune)--Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured Turkish leaders on Tuesday that the United States would step up efforts to stop the infiltration of Kurdish insurgents from Iraq into Turkey, but she warned the Turkish government not to send troops into Iraq to do the job. Addressing what has become a new irritant in relations with Turkey, Rice acknowledged that the problem of infiltration by Kurdish rebels into Turkey from Kurdish regions in northern Iraq had been allowed to grow. The Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said there had been a surge in such infiltration in recent weeks. The country's press has been filled with reports of thousands of Turkish troops massing on the border of Iraq, and there has been speculation that Turkey might intervene in Iraq. Rice, without speaking directly to that threat, clearly sought to discourage the Turks from doing anything on their own. "Of course we want anything that we do to contribute to stability in Iraq, not to threaten that stability or to make a difficult situation worse," Rice said, referring to the presence of Turkish troops. "That is why a cooperative approach on this problem--cooperation between Iraq and Turkey and the coalition forces--is very important." Gul spoke of the Kurdish rebel situation in blunt terms, saying that the Kurdish Workers Party, which is known as the PKK, had turned Iraq into "a training ground" and that "like every country, Turkey will take her own precautions" to deal with the problem. He said, however, that Turkey had "no claim on anybody's soil or any neighborly country's soil." Rice spoke during her trip through the region, starting in the morning with meetings in Athens, where a few thousand anti-American protesters thronged the streets downtown. A couple of dozen protesters turned violent, throwing Molotov cocktails and burning storefronts and bus stops. 3) Armenians in Georgia Mark Genocide (A-Info/Civil Georgia)--The southern Georgian region of Javakhk commemorated on April 23 and 24 the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Members of the community marched on Sunday through the streets of Akhaltsikhe and Ninotsminda, in an event organized by the Zori Zoryan youth association. The next morning, on April 24, Javakhk's churches held a requiem mass for the 1.5 million victims of the Genocide. Representatives of the community, local officials, and several organizations placed wreaths in honors of the victims at a memorial dedicated to the Armenian genocide. Representatives of the Armenian community in Georgia also gathered outside the Turkish Embassy in Tbilisi on April 24 to demand recognition of the Genocide. 4) Azeri Troops Breach Ceasefire, Wound Armenian Servicemen YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Armenpress)The Armenian Defense Ministry reported Wednesday new ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan along their border, which have left at least three Armenian soldiers seriously wounded. According to the Defense Ministry in Yerevan, one of the soldiers came under automatic gunfire from Azeri army positions in Nakhichevan, bordering Armenia's southeastern Syunik province on Wednesday. The two other servicemen were shot and hospitalized late Tuesday along the westernmost section of the Armenian-Azeri border, in Ijevan. "The condition of the servicemen is satisfactory," said a statement released by the Ministry. "In both instances, the Armenian side did not return fire." Seyran Shahsuvarian, a spokesman for the Ministry, said that Armenians did not violate the ceasefire. He said the Armenian party did not return fire and added that Azeri media reports claiming that Armenians violated the truce were a lie. The mountainous area adjacent to Georgia as well as the main Armenian-Azeri line of contact east of Karabagh has seen an upsurge in ceasefire violations starting in February. 5) Western Prelacy Organizes Book Presentation Event The Western Prelacy Public Relations Committee, under the auspices of His Eminence Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, has organized a book presentation event to be held at 6:00 PM on Sunday, April 30, at the Armenak Der Bedrossian Hall of St. Mary's Church in Glendale. The book, "From the Book of One Thousand Tales: Stories of Armenia and its People, 1892-1922," was a lost manuscript of Diana Apcar, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Japan during the first Armenian Republic (1918-1920). Besides her diplomatic career, Diana Apcar was a renowned writer and author of several books. In the 1920's, the building she lived in collapsed in an earthquake and the manuscript for the aforementioned book was lost in the rubble. Many years later, the manuscript was found and published by her granddaughter Lucille Apcar. The Western Prelacy Public Relations Committee has invited Lucille Apcar to Los Angeles to present her grandmother's recovered manuscript and to tell the public more about her grandmother's role in and service to the Armenian community from the far away land of Japan. Following the official program there will be a reception and book signing. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2006 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.