Month: April 2007

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE
By Dan Sanchez – Epoch Times Los Angeles Staff

Epoch Times, NY
April 27 2007

LOS ANGELES¯The Armenian genocide of 1915 is remembered annually on
April 24 in many cities of the United States and worldwide. Many
commemoration events were held here locally, including Glendale,
Hollywood, and Burbank where many American-Armenians live.

On the eve of April 24, a commemoration event was held in Montebello
at the site of the Armenian Martyrs Memorial Monument at Bicknell Park
next to the Montebello golf course. The tall, esthetically pleasing
monument was erected almost 40 years ago in 1968. A plaque inside
the monument states that it was "dedicated to the 1,500,000 Armenian
victims of the Genocide perpetrated by the Turkish government from
1915-1921 and to men of all nations who have fallen victim to crimes
against humanity."

April 24 marks the 92nd anniversary when orders were given by the
Turkish government to begin the first modern-day genocide of the
twentieth century.

A protest was conducted on this day beginning at 4:00 p.m. in front
of the Turkish Consulate at 6300 Wilshire Boulevard, one block west
of Fairfax Avenue. It was a vocal but peaceful crowd marching with
banners and placards.

Ani Garibyan, a media representative of the Armenian Youth Federation
(AYF), Glendale chapter, said, "The Turkish Consulate does not care
about this demonstration and says that the Genocide did not take
place. But it is important for us to continue doing this year by year
so that our youth can remember what happened 92 years ago."

"Well, as usual the Turkish government denies everything and says
that it never happened, which is what angers us the most at this
point. Our ancestors were slaughtered at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire which is now the Turkish government," said Mary Ashdjian,
an advisor on the Executive Board of the AYF.

"They have also been involved in recent human rights violations such
as the three writers that were killed for just writing a bible and
publishing it. A couple of months ago, Hrant Dink was assassinated
in front of his own newspaper building for speaking the truth about
the Armenian Genocide. So obviously, Turkey has serious human rights
issues. We are trying to educate as many people about this as possible,
because if you don’t accept your past, it is bound to repeat itself. It
is still happening today in Darfur as well as in Turkey. And we want
it to stop," said Ashdjian.

"Currently there are 191 co-sponsors of House Resolution 106 which
calls upon the President and U.S. foreign policy to recognize issues
related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented
in U.S. records as well as the record of the U.S. relief efforts and
humanitarian aid during the Armenian Genocide," said Andrew Kazurian,
representing the Armenian National Committee, Western Region.

"We are very confident that the Speaker in due course will call it
for a vote. The democrats have a majority and Speaker Pelosi has been
a friend to the Armenian community for a very long time. And we are
very confident in our relationship with the Speaker," said Kazurian.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued a statement in support of the
commemoration and said, "As Mayor of America’s preeminent Armenian
community, I urge all Angelenos to reflect not only on the vast scale
and ruthlessness of the genocide, but on the horror of the global
silence under which it took place. Today I urge Angelenos to simply
never forget."

For photos:

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WEXLER FOE SLAMS INCUMBENT FOR SUPPORT OF TURKEY
by By Dale M. King

Boca Raton News, FL
April 27 2007

Ben Graber, Democratic candidate for Congress challenging incumbent
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, has slammed his foe for
currying favor with Turkey at the expense of the Jewish community.

Wexler voted against a proclamation marking the anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide of 1915, "which is widely recognized as the world’s
first true genocide." Graber said Adolph Hitler used it as the model
for the Jewish Holocaust.

Co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Turkey, Wexler led
a campaign to block the U.S. House resolution commemorating the
massacre. Supporters of the resolution included Senators Hillary
Clinton, D-N.Y., Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Barak Obama, D-Ill.

"Mr. Graber fails to understand that passage of this resolution would
significantly damage U.S. and Israeli foreign policy interests," said
Josh Rogin, deputy chief of staff for Wexler. "Mr. Graber supports
a policy that would severely alienate Turkey, a critical Muslim ally
of both the United States and Israel."

"In fact, 74 percent of supplies, resources and assets for American
troops in Iraq come through Turkish airbases and across Turkey’s
Southeast border with Iraq."

But it didn’t placate Graber, who said, "It is irresponsible for a
member of the U.S. House and the Jewish community to deny the genocide
of another group. It gives credence to those who try to deny the
Holocaust by the Nazis."

Rogin shot back: "Congressman Wexler deeply sympathizes with the
families of those Armenians killed between 1915 and 1923, and believes
that it is essential that the United States and international community
pay tribute to these individuals, to ensure that this historic tragedy
is not forgotten."

"We regret that Mr. Graber has seized on this sensitive and painful
issue to score cheap political points. I sincerely hope that he does
not continue his efforts to divide the Jewish community throughout
this campaign," Rogin added.

Marta Batmasian of Boca Raton, a local businesswoman whose family
was affected by the Armenian massacre, confirmed that, in fact, it
did happen. She said she has been trying get Wexler to acknowledge
the situation and move off his close alliance with Turkey — even to
the point of writing him a seven-page letter.

Graber, the son of Holocaust survivors, was born in a displaced
persons camp in Kassel, Germany.

RACIAL BUT NOT RELIGIOUS HATRED BECOMES A CRIME IN EU
By staff writers

Ekklesia, UK
April 27 2007

Incitement to racial hatred and xenophobia is to become a crime across
the European Union. But after a fraught debate involving significant
national differences, attempts to single out religious aggravation
and holocaust denial were rejected.

In Britain the EU law will not mean any changes to domestic law
because the 2006 Racial and Religious Hatred Act is tougher.

Last week six years of negotiations concluded in Luxembourg with a
compromise that struggled to balance freedom of expression with a
tough stance on anti-semitism and other forms of racism and prejudice.

Justice ministers from all 27 European Union countries agreed that
incitement to hatred or violence against a group or a person that is
based on colour, race, national or ethnic origin, would be punishable
by a sentence of between one and three years’ jail.

Anti-racism campaigners, Jewish groups and Germany, which holds the
EU presidency, are concerned that the law neither bans holocaust
denial as such, nor Nazi symbols. But free speech and secular groups
say that this is appropriate, though they are politically strongly
opposed to such things.

"Europe has a special historic responsibility to combat anti-semitism
and it is a shame that the final version did not include this
[provision]," the European Jewish Congress declared after the decision.

Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Spain and several eastern European
countries have laws banning holocaust denial. These laws will still
apply. Britain, Ireland and the Nordic countries have always resisted
such a law so as not to compromise academic or artistic freedom unless
it specifically incites racial hatred.

There is no reference either to the mass killings of Armenians by the
Ottoman Turks in 1915, which Armenians insist should be recognised
as genocide. Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, had made clear it
would object strongly to this – indeed it is an imprisonable offence
to raise the issue.

The new EU legislation will need to be ratified by some national
parliaments. It criminalises "publicly condoning, denying or grossly
trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war
crimes … when the conduct is carried out in a manner likely to
incite to violence or hatred against a group or [group] member".

EUROPE: A DEAD HORSE WORTH BEATING

Expatica France, France
April 27 2007

The European Union is about to celebrate 50 years since the signing
of the Treaty of Rome. But it embarks on its second 50 years with a
distinctly moribund air. Here’s why this once-upon-a-time Euro-sceptic
hopes Europe doesn’t turn its back on the EU.

On March 25, the European Union will celebrate the 50th anniversary
of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the document that established
the institution.

Will it make it another 50 years? Or will the institutions, leadership
and vision for a united Europe decline from ‘moribund’, as the papers
have it recently, to just plain dead?

The 1957 signing ceremony of the Treaty of Rome (Source: official
EU photo) It’s hard to tell from this side of the upcoming French
election; with Germany in place as the President of the Council of
the European Union until June, Chancellor Angela Merkel is doing her
best to cheerlead for a new, spruced-up vision of Europe.

But Europe’s political leaders openly acknowledge there’s not much
real work to be done until we see who will be representing France
for the next five years.

"(German Chancellor) Angela Merkel is well-placed and well-oriented,
but with the French elections, nothing is possible," Italian President
Romano Prodi told France 24 television earlier this month.

So it will actually fall to Portugal, which takes over the EU
presidency on July 1 and Slovenia, lined up for January 1, 2008,
to get the now 27 ducks in a row for the European parliamentary
elections in 2009.

Frankly, if I were Slovenia, I’d feel pretty tired before I even
got started.

But here’s why I hope it rallies to the occasion to save an
institution, an ideal, whose beauty is still apparent and whose future
is still important.

The dead horse

There’s no denying that united Europe’s present is looking grim,
at least from a French point of view.

Turkey is still fuming over France’s slap in the form of a law
forbidding anyone to deny that the Turks practiced genocide of the
Armenians during WWI. Presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has
outright rejected the possibility of Turkey’s entry into the Union.

I’d bet much of France would have liked to shut out Bulgaria and
Romania too, but it was too late. President Jacques Chirac was forced
to welcome them on January 1 as "fellow European citizens", returned
to the bosom of their historical "family".

But if they are part of the family, they are the cousins that no one
really wants to invite to Christmas dinner. France has opened only 62
types of jobs in seven economic categories to workers from these two
new EU members, as well as the eight other former Communist countries
that joined the EU in 2004.

Sarkozy wants to pass some kind of "mini-treaty" in place of the
rejected Constitution and Socialist candidate Segolène Royal wants
another referendum on a revised treaty in 2009. Both options are
annoying to France’s neighbors who thought the first try was good
enough.

And, while all this nothing is happening, who makes their move? The
far right, which launched its own pan-Europe bloc in the European
parliament under the motto "Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty"; the
bloc is headed by Mussolini’s granddaughter and Bruno Gollnisch, who
has recently been convicted of denying the Holocaust by a French court.

I’ve looked around pretty hard for good news to counter all this.

I’ve come up short.

The fanatical convert

But I hope that Europe gets it together again soon, if not to actually
pass the current constitutional treaty than to move onto some other
big, enthusiastic Plan B. And I say this as a long-time Euro-sceptic.

I first met the man now my husband in 1992, the year the Treaty of
Maastricht passed to create the current EU institutional structure.

It was also the first appearance of wide-scale euroscepticism, and
not just from visiting American students, but from member-states:
France approved the Treaty with but 51.4 percent ‘Yes’ voters.

My husband was a gung-ho believer in a united Europe. He still is
– he’s out there today in the rain under a blue umbrella with 13
yellow stars.

I myself could never see past the logistical problems: all those
languages, British intransigence over the euro, French intransigence
over agricultural subsidies, the lack of a real, unifying raison
d’etre other than economic protectionism. A Common Market, I could
understand, but aspiring for anything more from this collection of
feuding, fussing, factions always seemed to me a doomed exercise.

Advocates like my husband will say they share a common culture, but
I still don’t see it. Do Bulgaria and France really have any more in
common than the United States and Canada? And no one is arguing for
anything nobler from NAFTA than reduced duty taxes.

But then, last year, I went to visit Alsace, a region of France
that has changed hands from France to Germany and back again. To get
there, I had to cross the Lorraine, the site of so much Franco-German
slaughter.

And, all of a sudden, passing bunker after bunker after cemetery
after cemetery, I got it: these two people have spent much of their
histories trying to kill each off in increasingly gruesome ways. And
now they are united behind the one, binding sentiment of "Never again."

Unquestioned peace forever among peoples who once sought hard for
reasons to hurt each other. That’s what the European Union is about.

When I visited the Parliament buildings in Strasbourg, inspired by a
painting of the Tower of Babel and now decorated with welcome message
in all of Europe’s languages, I could see the beauty that captivates
my husband.

Angela Merkel said it better this week in a speech to the EU Parliament
in Strasbourg (click here for the speech in English in its entirety):

"Europe’s soul is tolerance. Europe is the continent of tolerance.

We have taken centuries to learn this. On the way to tolerance we
had to endure cataclysms. We persecuted and destroyed one another. We
ravaged our homeland. We jeopardized the things we revered.

Not even one generation has passed since the worst period of hate,
devastation and destruction. That was perpetrated in the name of
my people.

Our history over the centuries certainly gives us in Europe absolutely
no right to look down on the people and regions of the world who
have problems practising tolerance today. Yet our history over the
centuries obliges us in Europe to promote tolerance throughout Europe
and across the globe and to help everyone practise it."

Expat pilgrims

If Europe’s soul is tolerance, than its pilgrims are all of those
European citizens who have seized the opportunity to cross a border and
overcome the still considerable linguistic, cultural and administrative
hurdles involved in becoming real citizens of Europe.

Every British reader of Expatica now living in France – and every
French expat who has decamped for London or Ireland – is part of this
phenomenon; you are all the living beating heart of "Tolerant Europe",
unburdened by old prejudices, invigorated by new challenges, and,
hopefully, undaunted by mere politics.

All you Britons who have arrived in France over the past 15 years
are not a symptom of Europe or a side-effect, you’re the whole point.

And in another 50 years, your children and grandchildren will
have lived their whole lives not only secure in the knowledge that
European nations will not start killing each other again, but with
a true multinational, multilingual heritage unknown to any previous
generation.

So if the European constitution – and the forward momentum it
represents – is a dead horse, I hope you keep it on life support
until a new treatment is found.

?subchannel_id=25&story_id=35682

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AAC EXTENDS ITS APPRECIATION TO U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT FOR THE CORRECTIONS MADE TO ITS REPORT

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
April 27 2007

On behalf of Azerbaijani-American community of California, the AAC
thanks the U.S. State Department for the correction made to the 2006
Report on Human Rights Practices in Armenia.

The earlier change in the wording of the report, omitting the fact
of Armenia’s continuing occupation of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
region of Azerbaijan, also caused concern among Azerbaijani-Americans.

AAC would like to highlight that the indication of Nagorno-Karabakh
as the territory of Azerbaijan occupied by the Armenian forces is
the reflection of reality according to international legal norms.

Understanding of these legal norms will only help both sides of the
conflict, currently engaged in the process of mediated negotiations
for a peaceful settlement. Achieving consensus within the framework
of international law also requires an impartial stance of mediating
parties, and the correction introduced by the U.S. State Department
only reinforces the position of the United States as an impartial
co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group.

AAC appreciates the sincere efforts made by the U.S. State Department
in addressing these concerns and calls for further deepening of the
beneficial strategic partnership between the United States and the
Republic of Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

O’SHEA MEMO ON THE ARMENIAN ISSUE
Kevin Roderick

LA Observed, CA
April 27 2007

Editor Jim O’Shea has emailed the L.A. Times staff a response to
all the hubbub about Mark Arax and whether or not a story was killed
because of concerns that he was biased in favored of Armenian views.

O’Shea’s position is that the story was not killed, merely sent back
for more reporting. He also vows that a reporter’s ethnicity would not
be reason for being taken off a story. After O’Shea’s memo below is a
response from assistant managing editor Simon Li detailing how managing
editor Doug Frantz came to be moderating a panel in Turkey next month.

From: OShea, James Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 5:09 PM

To the Staff:

In recent days, many members of the Armenian community have registered
their concern that Managing Editor Doug Frantz killed a news story
about the Armenian genocide resolution because the writer, Mark Arax,
is of Armenian descent. I recognize the gravity of this issue and
I have taken these complaints seriously. Many staffers and readers
have written me on this issue and I felt a need to respond.

An independent internal investigation by a Los Angeles Times lawyer
from the paper’s Human Resources Department and Leo Wolinsky, a
managing editor who reports directly to me, is being completed. This is
standard practice on complaints of this nature. All of the parties
involved are being interviewed and consulted. As with any such
action involving employees, this is a confidential investigation
being conducted in complete compliance with employment laws.

However, I need to set the record straight because much of the
publicity surrounding this issue is inaccurate.

First of all, the allegation that the story was killed is not true.

Doug Frantz did place a hold on the story about a pending congressional
resolution in which the Congress would recognize as genocide the
massive deaths of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks. The
editorial policy of this paper is to recognize the Armenian genocide
as a historical fact, although the Turkish government does not.

The story in question was sent back to the department from which it
emanated for additional reporting and because of concerns by Doug that
the story, as written, might be in violation of the ethics policy
of the Los Angeles Times. This was not because of the ethnicity of
the reporter but because the policy prohibits reporters from covering
stories if they have taken a position or some action that could appear
to compromise their objectivity. There is no implication here that
Armenians can’t cover the Armenian community or that other ethnic
groups can’t do likewise. In this case, the question arose over a
particular letter signed by Mark and others about the paper’s policy
on writing about the genocide.

Doug made me aware of his concerns, which is the appropriate thing
for a managing editor to do.

I agreed that we needed to resolve the conflict issue and that the
story needed further reporting on the legislative prospects for the
resolution’s success or failure, which I considered to be highly
relevant. The supervising editors then assigned a reporter who covers
Capitol Hill to report on that aspect.

In subsequent days, the Capitol Hill reporter uncovered additional
material involving the position on the resolution of House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, reporting that elevated the story for California
readers. The story, with the new developments and the legislative
prospects for the resolution, ran on page one of the Los Angeles Times
about a week after the original was placed on hold. The original story
focused heavily on the problems that the resolution was causing for
the supporters of Israel, which was included in the revised story.

Editors showed Mark the new story with the additional reporting and he
was given the opportunity to add material or suggest changes. He did
suggest changes that were made, but he nonetheless insisted that his
by-line be removed unless the story ran as written. In the interest
of transparency, a credit line was attached noting that he contributed.

I made my decision with the best interests of the readers in mind.

The story that appeared in the newspaper was the best one.

Over the past two years, the Los Angeles Times has run 67 stories
on Armenia or Armenians, including 26 on the Armenian genocide
resolution and 13 that dealt specifically with the political fate of
the resolution. This does not include editorials, op-ed pieces and
letters to the editor. No one is trying to censor anyone. The issue
has been fully aired in the pages of this newspaper, including in
last week’s front page story reported in part by Mark.

There were problems with the ways and means by which the decisions
on this story were communicated. And while I am not going to make
public the results of any internal investigation, I can say that no
one has concluded anyone was biased in their personnel decisions.

Also, while I appreciate the strong feeling this episode has
engendered, an email campaign against any reporter or editor at
this paper will not move me to make any decisions that are unfair or
unjust. I am working diligently to resolve the issues raised by this
incident and to make sure they are clear to everyone. I will do what
I think is right.

As the editor of the newspaper, I accept responsibility for our
decisions, fully and completely.

Let me make one thing clear. I would never tolerate anyone on the
staff making decisions on a story out of a bias or because of the
ethnicity of the writer. In this case, that did not happen.

James O’Shea Editor The Los Angeles Times

Simon Li’s response, sent to LA Weekly writer Daniel Hernandez:

Daniel: May I please set the record straight on one portion of your
article about The Times, the repetition of a nasty innuendo from
Harut Sassounian’s piece urging that Managing Editor Doug Frantz be
fired over Mark Arax’s accusations.

I refer to this passage: "As Sassounian noted, Frantz is scheduled
to be back in Istanbul next month to moderate a panel for the
International Press Institute’s World Congress that is titled, "Turkey:
Sharing the Democratic Experience." Among the panelists is Andrew
Mango, who Sassounian describes as a "notorious genocide denialist."

In repeating that part of Sassounian’s unfounded implication, you
gave it credence; the more it is repeated, the more it will seem like
factual evidence of Doug’s alleged prejudice to biased, unthinking,
credulous readers.

The facts are these: As one of three vice chairmen of the International
Press Institute, I put Doug’s name forward last spring as a journalist
who might help us by taking part in the program of the organization’s
annual world congress, precisely because of his knowledge of Turkey. I
specifically suggested that we invite novelist Orhan Pamuk, who
was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and ask Doug to
interview him one-on-one.

The IPI host committee in Turkey, at the strong urging of the IPI
Secretariat in Vienna, accepted the basic idea, adding another
Turkish writer Elif Shafak for the congress’ opening session. Doug
duly received an invitation to act as interviewer of these two
writers. Both of them, it’s relevant to note, have been subject to
legal action and personal threats precisely because they have written
or spoken urging their countrymen to change the majority view about
the Armenian genocide. Doug graciously agreed.

But then that panel failed to materialize, for what reasons I don’t
know. Doug agreed to moderate the opening session with a different
panel, consisting of Shafak, a Lebanese broadcaster and Shirin Ebadi,
the Iranian lawyer who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

Then that idea fell apart, too. I was later told that after the murder
of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January, both Pamuk and Shafak
had safety concerns about returning to Turkey from their temporary
domiciles abroad.

IPI then asked Doug, somewhat apologetically, whether he was still
game to moderate a panel. I believe they offered him the title of
the session in question and a description of it, without specifying
the participants. The description, incidentally, does not mention
the Armenian question.

Thus, Doug came to be moderator of this panel through a series of
accidents of the sort that any convention program planner would be
familiar with. He did not choose the topic, nor the speakers. His
role will be to facilitate the discussion. Discussion is what IPI, as
an international organization that defends and promotes journalistic
freedom, implicitly seeks to promote.

I don’t know whether Sassounian’s description of Mango is fair
or widely accepted, any more than I know anything about the three
others on the panel–the director of the Topkapi museum, a Turkish
newspaper editor and a Syrian political scientist working at a
German university. What I do know is that any innuendo that Doug is
scheduled to moderate this panel because he shares the views of any
of its participants–or the particular views of one that Sassounian
condemns-is at best reckless and at worse maliciously prejudicial.

Sincerely,

Simon K.C. Li Assistant Managing Editor Los Angeles Times

shea_memo_on_the_armenia_1.php

ROHNERT PARK: MEMORIAL AND EXHIBIT PLANNED FOR HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE

CBS 5, Bay City CA
April 27 2007

Photographs of local Holocaust survivors will be displayed at Sonoma
State University from May 1 to 28, and a memorial grove honoring
survivors of genocide is expected to be dedicated in early 2008,
the university reported.

Ilka Hartman’s photographs of survivors will be part of an exhibit
called "A Second Gift of Life" and will be on display in the gallery
of the Center for Culture, Gender and Sexuality on the first floor
of the Sonoma State University student union.

The university reported that the concept of a memorial for Holocaust
and genocide survivors was conceived of at a special event in September
honoring more than 50 Holocaust survivors in Sonoma County.

According to the university, Hartman’s photos of survivors were also
displayed at this event.

The new memorial will feature an original symbolic sculpture and will
be built on the east side of the campus adjacent to the alumni grove
and near the lakes area. The memorial grove will be a collaboration
between the community group "Alliance for the Study of the Holocaust,"
the university’s Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
and the School of Social Sciences.

Dr. Elaine Leeder, dean of social sciences at the university, lost
her grandmother, aunt, uncle and dozens of cousins in the Holocaust.

"The special memorial is an important addition to SSU’s landscape,"
she said. "It makes tangible all the work that the Center for the Study
of Holocaust and Genocide and the Alliance have done at the campus
for almost 25 years and honors those who were lost in atrocities
committed throughout the world."

Myrna Goodman, director of the SSU’s Center for the Study of the
Holocaust and Genocide said that while the Holocaust marked a crucial
point in history, the first genocide of the 20th century was actually
the Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1917. Since the second half of the
20th century, the world has witnessed approximately one genocide per
decade, according to the university.

The memorial will be made of two 40-foot-long railroad tracks embedded
in the lawn with an illuminated glass column. Rows of ivory colored
memorial blocks will be available for purchase to be inscribed with
names and memorial expressions.

Information about purchasing memorial bricks is available
by contacting Kate McClintock at (707) 664-2693 or online at

ARMENIAN CHURCH VANDALIZED IN KIEV

Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, DC
April 27 2007

A just constructed bell tower of an Armenian Apostolic church was
vandalized in Kiev, according to an April 23, 2007 report from UCSJ’s
Lviv monitor. The previous day someone painted a swastika on the
building. Some local residents had protested against the church’s
construction, even going so far as to file a law suit; it is not
clear if those protests had anything to do with the vandalism, nor
if police are investigating the incident.

JEWISH GROUPS LOBBY AGAINST ‘ARMENIAN RESOLUTION’ IN US CONGRESS

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
April 27 2007

In a letter addressing influential members of the U.S. Congress,
including head of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Relations
Committee Tom Lantos, the US-based Jewish groups demanded that
voting on congressional resolutions urging the U.S. administration
to recognize an alleged genocide of Armenians be delayed.

The letter was jointly signed by B’nai B’rith International, the
Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA).

The letter included an annex — a letter signed by the Turkish Jewish
Community — which said maintenance of good relations between Turkey
and Israel and among Turkey, the US and Israel were crucial at a time
when the US faces troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two separate resolutions are pending at the US Senate and the House
of Representatives, urging the administration to recognize the World
war I era killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide.

Turkey has warned that passage of the resolutions in the US Congress
would seriously harm relations with Washington and impair cooperation
in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US administration has said it was opposed
to the resolution, yet the congressional process is an independent one.

In his message for April 24, which Armenians claim marks the
anniversary of the beginning of a so-called systematic genocide
campaign at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire, US President George
W. Bush remained adhered to the administration policy of not referring
to the incidents as genocide.

"Each year on this day, we pause to remember the victims of one of the
greatest tragedies of the 20th century, when as many as 1.5 million
Armenians lost their lives in the final years of the Ottoman Empire,
many of them victims of mass killings and forced exile," Bush said.

Turkey categorically rejects the Armenian claims and says as many
Turks were killed when the Armenians took up arms against the Ottoman
Empire in collaboration with the invading Russian army.

Bush, in his message, also called for the normalization of ties
between Turkey and Armenia:

"Today, we remember the past and also look forward to a brighter
future. We commend the individuals in Armenia and Turkey who are
working to normalize the relationship between their two countries. A
sincere and open examination of the historic events of the late-Ottoman
period is an essential part of this process. The United States
supports and encourages those in both countries who are working to
build a shared understanding of history as a basis for a more hopeful
future," he said.

The Bush administration dismissed its former ambassador in Yerevan last
year after he violated the US policy and called the events "genocide."

Ambassador John Evans was insistent on his stance when he spoke at
the National Press Club in Washington and said Turkey should accept
"historical facts." He also claimed that Turkey’s efforts had played
a role in the abrupt termination of his duty as the US ambassador
in Yerevan.

ARMENIA: NUCLEAR ENERGY, IRAN’S RIGHT

PRESS TV, Iran
April 27 2007

Armenian President, Robert Kocharian says Iran like other countries
in the world has the right to benefit from nuclear technology.

Kocharian told a gathering of university students in the Armenian
capital Yerevan on Friday that boosting relations with Iran had great
significance to Armenia.

"Iran is Armenia’s link to the outside world and energy."

Elsewhere in his speech, Kocharian expressed dissatisfaction with the
outcome of meetings between Armenian and Azeri prime ministers. He
added that he would be holding direct talks with Azerbaijan’s president
on the sidelines of the Karabakh peace talks scheduled to take place
on June 10, 2007.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian met with his Azeri
counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in Belgrade last week to discuss the
draft resolution proposed to settle the conflict.

The withdrawal of Armenian forces from occupied Azeri territories,
the refugee situation of the displaced from the Karabakh war, and
the referendum due to decide the faith of the region are parts of
the Karabakh draft resolution aimed at settling the situation in
the region.