Month: April 2007

"SCREAMERS" SERJ TANKIAN AND CARLA GARAPEDIAN DENOUNCE CANCELLATION OF UN GENOCIDE EXHIBITION MENTIONING ARMENIANS

Business Wire
Published: Apr 10, 2007

GS Entertainment Marketing Group Steven Zeller, 323-860-0270

Following the UN Secretary General’s request to remove a sentence
referring to a million Armenians being murdered during the Ottoman
Empire from the Aegis Trust exhibition "Lessons from Rwanda," and
the exhibition’s subsequent cancellation, Serj Tankian and Carla
Garapedian have issued the following statement:

"We are very shocked by this decision by the Secretary General
to remove mention of a historical event which is well-documented
by thousands of official records of the United States and nations
around the world, including Turkey’s wartime allies, Germany, Austria
and Hungary; by Ottoman court martial records; and by eyewitness
accounts of missionaries, diplomats and survivors; as well as decades
of historical scholarship. In the U.S., President Bush has called
the events the ‘forced exile and annihilation of approximately 1.5
million Armenians.’

"Elie Wiesel says denial is the last stage of genocide – this act
of censorship by the Secretary General is effectively an act of
appeasement to the very forces in Turkey that led to the recent
death of Hrant Dink and the prosecution of Nobel Prize winner Orhan
Pamuk. Other writers and artists in Turkey are facing prison sentences
today under Article 301 for wanting to speak openly about this
issue. What message does this send to them? The reason why genocides
have continued in the last century – from the Armenian genocide, to
the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, to the genocide going
on now in Darfur – is because the international community has not
intervened to stop them.

Sadly, the Secretary General’s decision to stop any mention of the
antecedents to the Rwanda genocide is a blow to those who want to
stop genocide now."

Serj Tankian, songwriter, singer, poet, activist and lead singer of
System of a Down, appears in the film "Screamers," which traces the
history of genocide in the last century, from the Armenian genocide,
to the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. He was invited
by the Aegis Trust to meet the Secretary General on Monday, along with
"Screamers" director, Carla Garapedian.

Aegis is co-sponsoring a screening of "Screamers" in the British
Parliament, following its theatrical run in the U.S. and screening
in the U.S. Library of Congress.

James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust, wrote to Tankian and
Garapedian explaining why Aegis wouldn’t submit to the Secretary
General’s request, which followed a protest from the Turkish
government. The sentence in dispute: "Following World War 1, during
which one million Armenians were murdered in Turkey, Polish lawyer
Raphael Lemkin urged the League of Nations to recognize crimes of
barbarity as international crimes."

"Had we been asked to remove reference of atrocities to Jews because
Germany objected, we would have been equally resistant," said
Smith. "We can’t apply one rule to some and not to others because
the political wind in the UN is blowing against the Armenians," he
said. Removing the sentence would amount to a "denial of elementary
facts."

Garapedian added, "Perhaps the Secretary General should visit the
Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, where another sentence is engraved
on the wall – ‘Who remembers the Armenians?’ That was Hitler’s
answer to why he could get away with murdering the Jews. Hitler
used the Armenian genocide as a blueprint for the Holocaust. The
Secretary General should also visit the Kigali Memorial Centre in
Rwanda, which has become the focal point for national remembrance and
education about the 1994 genocide. There, too, the Armenian genocide
is commemorated. No one there is trying to bury the truth."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN POWER GRID TO INVEST 75M DOLLARS IN RECONSTRUCTION

Arminfo
10 Apr 07

Yerevan, 10 April: Armenia’s Commission on Public Services approved
today [10 April] the investment plan worth 26.961bn drams (about 75m
dollars) for the Armenian power grid (an affiliate of the Unified
Energy System of Russia, RAO UES) for the period of 2007-2009.

The company specialists said at the commission’s meeting that according
to the plan, 12.2bn drams (about 34m dollars) will be invested in
the Armenian power grid in 2007; 7.405bn drams (about 20.5m dollars)
in 2008; and 7.349bn drams (about 20.4m dollars) in 2009.

The most of the fund will be channelled into the reconstruction,
modernization and expansion of the distribution networks.

[Passage omitted: details of the plan].

The general director of the Armenian power grid, Yevgeniy Gladunchik,
said that the investment plan will be funded with the company’s own
funds (about 60 per cent), as well as with loans from foreign banks,
including Russian banks.

Robert Nazaryan, the chairman of the Commission on Public Services,
said that the investment plan will increase the burden on the margin
by only 0.5 per cent.

In 2006, the Armenian power grid invested 6.5bn drams in the network
against the 3.7bn drams in 2005.

The company is a monopoly in the sale of electricity to all the
users in Armenia and services 922,000 customers. It was privatized
in 2002. In 2005, the 100 per cent of its shares was bought for 70m
dollars by Inter RAO UES, an affiliate of RAO UES.

AKCAM: ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS CULMINATION OF ETHNIC CLEANSING PERPETRATED BY TURKS

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2007 12:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On March 29, over 300 students, faculty, and
community members gathered at Ramapo College to hear Taner Akcam speak
out on the first genocide of the twentieth century. For over an hour,
Akcam linked the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917 to Ottoman Turkey’s
population policy implemented on the eve of World War I to maintain
Turkish hegemony over a diminished and endangered empire. The event was
sponsored by Ramapo College’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
and the Armenian National Committee of New Jersey, the ANCA reports.

One of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and discuss openly
the Armenian Genocide, Akcam based his talk was on his book A Shameful
Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility.

Acclaimed by Nobel Laureate in Literature Orhan Pamuk as "…the
definitive account of the organized destruction of the Ottoman
Armenians written by a brave Turkish scholar who has devoted his life
to chronicling the events," it was published by Metropolitan Books last
November. Making extensive use of Ottoman and other sources previously
unused by historians of any nationality, Akcam placed the genocide
within the context of Turkish nationalism. He showed an empire in a
state of collapse that is plagued by dissension and contradiction. In
its dying breath, as Akcam’s research bears out, it lashed out against
and attempted to constrain its ethnic and religious minorities.

The Turkish government adopted a policy of "ethnic cleansing" Greeks
and Albanians were deported from southwestern Turkey, while Moslem
Kurds, Central Asians and Arabs were moved from their domiciles in
the eastern Turkey and subject to Turkification. The culmination of
this process was the first of the 20th Century’s genocides in which
over a million Armenian men, women and children lost their lives and
livelihoods through organized killing, rape, and deportation.

Taner Akcam was born in the province of Ardahan, Turkey, in 1953. He
became interested in Turkish politics at an early age. As the editor
in chief of a student political journal, he was arrested in 1976 and
sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Amnesty International adopted
him as one of their first prisoners of conscience, and a year
later he escaped by digging a tunnel with a stove leg and fled to
Germany, where he received political asylum. In 1988, Akcam began
work as a research scientist at the Hamburg Institute for Social
Research. While researching the late Ottoman Empire and early Republic,
especially the history of political violence and torture in Turkey,
he became interested in the Armenian genocide. In 1996 he received
his doctorate from the University of Hanover with a dissertation
entitled "The Turkish National Movement and the Armenian Genocide
Against the Background of the Military Tribunals in Istanbul Between
1919 and 1922."

Since 2002 he has been a visiting associate professor of history at
the University of Minnesota.

SUPPORT GROWS FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION AMONG CONGRESSMEN

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2007 12:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In letters circulated today to Members of the
House of Representatives, the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) highlighted the growing support for the Armenian Genocide
Resolution among members serving on Congressional committees dealing
with America’s defense capabilities, intelligence community, foreign
policy, and homeland security.

"We are deeply gratified by the strong, bipartisan support for the
Armenian Genocide Resolution among Members of Congress responsible
for our nation’s defense and foreign policies," said Aram Hamparian,
Executive Director of the ANCA. "Beyond the clear moral issues at
stake in America’s principled stand against all genocides, these
Members realize that Turkey, by coming to terms with this crime,
will lower regional tensions, open the door to improved relations
with Armenia, and ultimately contribute to its own acceptance by the
European family of nations."

RA MFA: CYNICAL NEGLECT OF WORLD HISTORY INADMISSIBLE FOR ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2007 12:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "It’s not enough for the Turkish government to
conceal the truth from its own people.

The denial campaign has run up to blocking an exhibition on the Rwanda
Genocide," Armenian Acting Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said when
commenting on postponement of UN exhibit on the Rwanda Genocide by
Turkey’s demand.

The exhibit on the 13th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide has been
delayed after Turkish objections to a mention of the killing of
Armenians in Turkey during World War I. Turkey objected to a sentence
in which lawyer Rafael Lemkin states that such mass killings are
described as genocide.

Vartan Oskanian said Rafael Lemkin’s work is a part of international
protocols and world history. "It’s inadmissible for a UN member state,
which undertook to maintain world peace, to demonstrate intolerance
in the United Nations Organizations. Armenia cannot resign to the fact
that the world history, sufferings of the people of Rwanda and Darfur,
the memory of the Armenian people are subjected to cold-blooded and
cynical neglect. It’s shameful that the postponement refers to an event
aiming at protection of human rights and genocide prevention. We can
witness complete absence of respect for history and historical memory
instead," Oskanian said, the RA MFA press office reports.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA-RUSSIA PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPS DUE CONSTANT INCREASE OF RUSSIAN INVESTMENTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2007 14:13 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met
with Russia’s First Vice Premier Sergey Ivanov, the RA leader’s press
office reports. The parties discussed the Armenian-Russian cooperation,
specifically in the economic sector. Dynamic development of bilateral
cooperation resulted in constant increase of Russian investments
and growth of commodity turnover, they said. Robert Kocharian and
Sergey Ivanov also referred to exploitation of enterprises conveyed
to Russia within Property for Debt treaty, transport communications
and regional cooperation.

SERGEY IVANOV: ARMENIA AND RUSSIA SOLVE PROBLEMS SUCCESSFULLY

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2007 14:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We witness positive dynamics in the Armenian-Russian
economic relations, Russia’s First Vice Premier Sergey Ivanov told
a news conference today. This can be proved by the 70-80% growth of
commodity turnover between our states, he said. "The point is that
along with ethnic investments the increase of Russian capital is also
observed," he noted.

Mr Ivanov marked out energy, transport, communications as the priority
fields for Russia. "These are the sectors of economy which offer
the biggest increase of Russian investments in Armenia. There are
problems and we discussed them today. Nevertheless, I should mention
that despite the complexity of transport communication these problems
are being solved," he underscored.

For his part, RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan noted that the first
Poti-Caucasus ferry voyage was a success. This gives hope that a part
of the transport problem will be resolved.

"This ferry can admit 50 carriages and if everything goes well
their arrival in Armenia will not be a problem any more," Sergey
Ivanov added.

ARMENIA REMAINS RUSSIA’S STRATEGIC PARTNER IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.04.2007 15:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia remains Russia’s strategic partner in the
South Caucasus, Russia’s First Vice Premier Sergey Ivanov said at a
joint news conference with Armenian Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan.

Armenia-NATO cooperation program within IPAP is not an alternative to
the Armenian-Russian partnership, he said. "Our strategic partnership
rests not only on the presence of Russian military bases but also
on the commonness of cultures and whole scope of relations," Ivanov
underscored.

For his part, RA PM Serge Sargsyan noted that creation of extra
dividing lines in the region will not do good to Armenia’s security
structure. "It’s true, Russia reduces its presence in the region but it
doesn’t mean that other states should expand their presence instead,"
he said.

PROSECUTORS END INQUIRY INTO HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASE

ARMENPRESS
Apr 11 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS: Armenian prosecutors announced yesterday
the end of an inquiry into a trafficking case involving an Armenian
citizen, identified as S.S. who they said was forced into prostitution
in the Turkish town of Nazeli.

Prosecutors said they collected ample evidence proving that an
Armenian citizen K. Panosian and another Armenian citizen N. Nikolian,
who lived in Nazeli, recruited S.S, as a babysitter, promising her
high wages. But when she arrived at Nazeli they forced her into
prostitution.

Prosecutors said Panosian was arrested and is pending trial while
the other men is on the run.

MINISTER OSKANIAN REACTS TO UN RWANDAN GENOCIDE POSTPONEMENT

ARMENPRESS
Apr 11 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 11, ARMENPRESS: "It is not enough that the Government
of Turkey thinks it can hide its history from its own people. Now,
they have taken their campaign of cover-up and distortion to such
lengths that they will prevent an exhibition on Genocide entitled
"Lessons from Rwanda, " Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian said
in retaliation to a postponement of a UN exhibition on Rwanda Genocide.

This UK-based AEGIS Trust NGO-sponsored exhibition on the horrors of
Rwanda, at the United Nations in New York, was postponed because the
Turks object to a sentence that refers to Armenians being killed and
to Raphael Lemkin’s conclusion that such large-scale and pre-meditated
slaughter amounted to Genocide.

"Raphael Lemkin’s work is part of the international record, and of
world history. It is unacceptable that a UN member-state, committed
to world peace, dares to export such intolerance to the United
Nations. Armenia cannot accept that the history of the world, the
current experiences of suffering of the people of Rwanda, of Darfur,
and Armenians’ memories of injustice are subjected to such callous,
cynical dismissal.

It is ironic and shameful that this Turkish-led postponement should
befall an event which was to provide lessons on how to respect human
rights and prevent genocides. Instead, the lesson here is one of
total disrespect for history and memory," Oskanian’s statement said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress