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EAFJD: EU DENIES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO PLEASE TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.04.2008 15:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Armenian Federation issued a petition
on the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide to be sent to the
European Union.

The petition says,

"Would you accept the EU to support Genocide denial?

No, of course. And would you accept the funding of an ultranationalist
State? No again, obviously.

However, for now more than ten years, the European Union regularly
denies, grossly negates or fails to deal justly with the Armenian
Genocide.

It makes it in your name, without your consent and it is thus
conniving against the will of EU citizens with the worst of crimes
against Humanity.

It makes it to please Turkey and to ease the stubborn accession
process of this country despite the lucid opposition of Europeans.

Yet, Turkey is a racist, militaristic and xenophobic State where
superiority of the Turkish "race" is taught, where ethnic and
cultural diversity is repressed and where the heritage of minorities
is destroyed. This very same Turkey committed the Armenian Genocide,
keeps on denying it and is absolutely failing to comply with the
European values.

Because of the nature of this absolute crime, because of its 1 500
000 victims and because of the pledges for protection and reparation
made by Europe to the survivors – the Union would have to demand
to Turkey the recognition of this Genocide in the framework of the
accession process.

However, facing the intransigence of Turkish diplomacy, it is far
easier to cover it, to cover its denial – as well as the other breaches
of Turkey to Human Rights.

As it fails to compel Turkey to its values, the Union actively attempts
to "counteract the negative perceptions of the Turkish EU-accession
process that exists in certain segments of public opinion": On this
year, as on the former ones, 40 to 60 million Euros from our taxes
will grant a program of "dialog between European and Turkish civil
societies" intending to turn acceptable the unacceptable. This amount
is part of the half billion Euros granted yearly by the Commission
to Turkey’s criminal regime.

On this Thursday 24 April 2008, we commemorate the 93rd anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide. This commemoration gives us the opportunity
to reaffirm our solidarity with the victims of all genocides:
the Armenians, the Jews, the Tutsi and now, sadly, the Darfuri; as
Genocides performed today stem from the same ideology that currently
denies the first Genocide. As denying the Armenian Genocide also
allows to hush present mass crimes.

If, as us, you believe that genocide is both a severe moral failure and
an actual political threat; if, as us, you don’t accept to be made an
accomplice of such a policy which ruins European values; then please
sign up to this petition that will be forwarded to the European Union."

PRESIDENT: "SCIENTIFIC FIELD REASONABLE FOR EVERYONE"

Panorama.am
17:42 25/04/2008

The notion of scientific titles is under serious danger in Armenia. The
number of scientific candidates is too big in the country, said the
president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan during the annual summit of the
Academy of National Sciences.

"Today very often we hear complains on the inappropriate level of
the scientific specialties.

First country itself has not paid much attention on this issue, and
second, some so-called scientists have ignored their mission and were
lost," said the president.

According to the president appropriate staff strategy should be drafted
to solve the problem. He also mentioned that for many male students
doing PhD has become a way to escape from army service and he notified
that this current question is ignored by the scientists themselves.

Serzh Sargsyan said that the most important reform to be held is to
create such educational system which is available not only for our
compatriots but for foreigners, also.

WITH THE PURPOSE OF DISTRACTING ATTENTION

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 24, 2008
Armenia

Some people notice positive accentuations in Turkish Foreign Minister
Ali Babacan’s congratulatory message addressed to Mr. Ed. Nalbandyan.

However, political scientist ARMEN AYVAZYAN believes that all this
is the successive deception. "Every year before April 24, the Turkish
state officials make similar positive statements, saying the relations
with Armenia are about to improve.

All this is done with the purpose of distracting the attention of the
international community; just in order to say ‘we are already having
a dialogue with Armenia, and there’s no need to use pressure against
us.’ "

STUDENT GROUPS REMEMBER GENOCIDE
Silva Sevlian

Daily Trojan Online, CA
Univ. of Southern California
April 25 2008

Students remember Armenian genocide victims with music and speeches.

Naritsa Kazanjian cannot trace back her family linage more than two
generations, a fate common among Armenians because of the Armenian
genocide, which left 1.5 million people dead.

"My grandfather doesn’t know who his parents are," said Kazanjian,
a junior majoring in accounting.

"Kazanjian is not even my last name – it is the name he took from
his adopted family."

Members of the Armenian Students’ Association and the Armenian Graduate
Students’ Association hosted a one-hour ceremony Thursday honoring
the genocide victims, and demonstrated the vitality of the Armenian
culture both on campus and post-genocide.

"Remembering the Past, Celebrating the Future" featured students,
scholars and musicians and was the culmination of a week-long effort
to raise awareness about the culture’s past.

Father Vazken Movsesian, executive director of the St. Peter Armenian
Church, spoke about his visit to Rwanda and said the political climate
felt familiar.

"I had one foot in the first genocide of the 20th century and one
foot in the last," Movsesian said. "I saw what my grandparents told
me about, and that same evil continues in Darfur."

Movsesian said that the genocides that have taken place in Armenia and
in other countries such as Darfur are in the hands of the government.

"Let it be clear in your heads that it was not a couple of Turkish men
that got up and killed Armenians – it was a government," Movessian
said.

Although the event attracted many members of the USC community, others
came from outside the university to be part of the commemoration and
share their family’s story of genocide.

"When he was sixteen, my grandfather saw a Turkish solider smash the
face of a 2-month-old baby with his rifle because she was Armenian,"
Maraslian said.

Students from the USC Turkish Student Association were at the event
claiming the Armenian deaths arose from fighting during World War I
and not a deliberate campaign to wipe out the Armenian population.

Kanakara Navasartian, a graduate student studying strategic public
relations and president of the Armenian Graduate Students’ Association
said, "The students were inappropriate and their reactive tactic was
disrespectful on a day where California’s governor and the state has
recognized [April 24] as a day of remembrance."

Turkish students held up signs facing the stage in front of Tommy
Trojan and argued with members of the Armenian group who encouraged
both the Turkish students and the current Turkish government to
recognize the Armenian Genocide as a part of its history.

Caroline Cha, a junior majoring in international relations, said her
only knowledge about the Armenian genocide comes from literature she
has read in her international relations courses.

"The more I read about the flagrant human rights abuses and the
systematic killing of people, the more I sympathize for the Armenians
who have come here to honor their heritage," Cha said.

Magdiel Ledesma, a student visiting from Mira Costa Community College,
said the event is his first exposure to information about the Armenian
Genocide.

"The tone of the instruments gets inside of your heart and makes you
feel the sadness of genocide," Ledesma said.

Non-profit organizations such as the "Never Again" campaign, lead by
Armenian fraternity Alpha Epsilon Omega, are raising funds to create
educational projects to disseminate to students at junior and senior
high school schools.

The event on USC’s campus is one of many that occurred in the Los
Angeles County Thursday to commemorate the lives that were lost and
to protest the denial of the genocide.

Members of the Armenian community marched the streets of Little
Armenia, protested in front of the Turkish Embassy and children in
Glendale participated in a 30-hour fast.

A TURKEY-ARMENIA RECONCILIATION?

Los Angeles Times, CA
April 25 2008

Not quite, but recent niceties stir faint hope.

History can comfort or afflict us, and affliction was the order of the
day Thursday as Armenians around the world commemorating the genocide
of their people by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917 were met by
Turks protesting that the genocide never took place.

The argument over remembrance and denial of the Armenian genocide
has in recent years moved from France to the U.S. Congress and
now to Israel, which faces its own moral and political dilemmas
in deciding whether to debate the issue in the Knesset. Turkey is
strongly lobbying to prevent such a debate. Like the United States,
Israel is now torn between its commitment to confront genocide deniers
of all kinds and its geopolitical interest in maintaining relations
with its only Muslim ally.

It’s a lose-lose proposition for any nation involved in the dispute,
and for the millions of Turks and Armenians alive today who will
have to continue to live next to each other. It’s a winner, however,
for Russia, which has been competing with the United States for
influence in Armenia and which has leverage over the former Soviet
republic’s economy.

Given their rock-hard positions, there is little chance that the
genocide issue will soon be resolved to the satisfaction of either
side, but there is, for the first time, a faint hope for a thaw in
relations between modern Turkey and Armenia. In Yerevan, President
Serge Sargsyan took office this month after a deeply flawed election
in which he promised to improve ties with Ankara. And although the two
countries have no diplomatic relations, Turkish President Abdullah
Gul was among the first to congratulate him — and to express his
desire to normalize relations.

These meager niceties between longtime foes should be
extended. Turkey’s offer to create a panel of historians to investigate
the atrocities of 1915 remains objectionable as long as it continues
to deny that the slaughter of Armenians constituted genocide. Still,
there are areas for cooperation. Turkey could temporarily reopen its
closed frontier with Armenia — with the caveat that it could shut
the border again if relations sour.

A friendly, democratic government in Ankara could help Yerevan
rebuild its frayed ties with the West, improve its economy and,
eventually, negotiate peace with Azerbaijan over the disputed enclave
of Nagorno-Karabakh. Demonstrating the political maturity to pursue
rapprochement with Armenia could bring Turkey closer to its goal of
joining the European Union. History need not be destiny.

GABRIEL SARGSYAN: 100% RESULT

Panorama.am
18:32 23/04/2008

After the second round of the Europe Chess Championship Armenian GM
Gabriel Sargsyan showed 100% result. The chess player has 2 scores
on his account and occupies 1-14 horizontals of. Sargsyan played with
Russian GM Boris Savchenko.

The round was successful for other Armenian GM-s as Vladimir Hakobyan,
Karen Asryan, and Tigran Kotajyan finished their games with successful
results. The above mentioned chess players have 1,5 scores each and
occupy middle horizontals of the championship.

Armenian GM-s Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Tigran Kotajyan and Artashes
Minasyan have 1 scores on their accounts.

Dmitry Harutyunyan has half score. The championship is taking place
in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It started on 22 April and will last till 3 May.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBERED IN THESSALONIKI

Noyan Tapan
April 24, 2008

THESSALONIKI, APRIL 24, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. Events
marking the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide were held in
the northern port city of Thessaloniki, Greece, on April 20. The event
was organised by the Armenian National Committee and the Thessaloniki
Prefecture. The keynote speaker at the event was former parliament
president Apostolos Kaklamanis.

Greetings were also addressed by the representatives of the Armenian
Ambassador in Greece and the Tessaloniki Prefect, Thessaloniki Mayor
Vassilis Papageorgopoulos and representatives of the Armenian Youth
of Greece.

ARMENIAN HACKERS ATTACK CIBC WEBSITE

Azeri Press Agency
April 24 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku-APA. Telman Aliev, The president and chief executive of CIBC
stated that Armenian hackers attacked on April 24,
APA reports.

Leading IT-specialists of Azerbaijan offered their free-of-charge
help in troubleshooting and soonest restart of the webpage.

Telman Aliev stated that Armenian hackers’ attack is linked with
activity of Caspian Telman Aliyev also suggested the said attack is
linked to activities of the CIBC (brings together 500 companies and
organizations from 30 countries around the globe) and Caspian Energy
International Publishing House, which propagate and promote, at the
information scale, Azerbaijan’s economic and petroleum strategy to
the international energy and economy-related forums in 30 countries
worldwide.

CYPRUS HOUSE PRESIDENT CALLS ON TURKEY FOR RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.04.2008 16:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ President of the House of Representatives Marios
Karoyan has reiterated the support of the House to the demand of the
Armenian people for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

In an address, read by the Director of his Office, at an event on
Wednesday evening organized by the Committee in Memory of the Armenian
Genocide, to mark the 93rd anniversary of the genocide, Karoyan noted
that "tonight we recall the huge crime, we honor the victims of the
Armenian Genocide and we condemn once again the atrocious crime and
the criminals."

Karoyan called on Turkey to recognize and admit its crime and to
apologize to the Armenian people and humanity as a whole.

The House President pointed out that the House, along with the Greek
parliament, was among the first to condemn the Armenian genocide and
support the demand for its recognition by the international community.

"We do not beg, we do not implore. We demand justice from the
contemporary democratic humanity, the entire international community,
all the nations and all the peoples. Nothing more, nothing less,"
he stated.

In his remarks at the commemoration ceremony, former Greek Minister
of Defense Akis Tsohatzopoulos said that recognition of the Armenian
genocide is a duty to history.

The Armenian and the Pontian Genocide is a historical fact and cannot
be dismissed, he said, adding that Turkey does not show any resolve
to accept its responsibilities.

Referring to the continuing occupation of Cyprus’ northern part by
Turkey, he said Ankara must realize that its European perspective
passes through its relationship with Greece and Cyprus.

"We support President Christofias’ efforts at all levels and we are by
side of the Greek Cypriots for a fair and viable solution," he added.

The Representative of the Armenians in Cyprus Vartkes Mahdessian said,
in his address, that the Cyprus House of Representatives was the
first parliament which was the first parliament to have recognized
the Genocide and condemned Turkey for this heinous crime.

He described the genocide as one of the biggest tragedies with global
ramifications and called on Ankara to find the courage to recognize the
crimes committed by past governments to many people around the globe.

Mahdessian said Turkey refuses to establish diplomatic ties with
Armenia and imposes an embargo on the country, Financial Mirror
reports.

RA FM URGED UNESCO TO CONDEMN DESTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN MONUMENTS IN NAKHIJEVAN BY AZERBAIJAN

DeFacto Agency
April 23 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 23.04.08. DE FACTO. The RA FM Edvard Nalbandian urged the
UNESCO to undertake measures on condemnation of cultural terror
committed by Azerbaijan against Armenian monuments of Jugha.

April 22, in the course of a meeting with Koichiro Matsuura, the
Director-General of UNESCO, Edvard Nalbandian expressed deep concern
over intentional destruction of Armenian khachkars (cross-stones)
in Nakhijevan by Azeri authorities. The RA FM again drew Koichiro
Matsuura’s attention to the necessity of UNESCO’s interfering and
promoting protection of Armenian cultural and historic values situated
outside the borders of the Republic of Armenia.