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Pan Armenian News

ARMENIAN SPEAKER: HISTORY CANNOT BE BURIED

24.04.2005 08:09

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «I think in the 21-st century all civilized humanity will
denounce the Armenian Genocide,» Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Artur
Baghdasarian stated in Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to Victims of the Armenian
Genocide today. In his words, interesting changes referring to the process
of recognition of the Genocide take place in the world today: the Polish
Sejm denounced the Genocide lately, as well as the Armenian and French
Presidents commemorated the Genocide victims. «I am sure progress will take
place and we will fight along with the whole of the civilized world against
repetition of genocide,» he added. Speaking of the Turkey’s possible
accession to the EU without recognition of the Genocide, A. Baghdasarian
noted that though Turkey seeks after EU membership, application of double
standards is inadmissible. Armenia works for the entire region, including
Turkey, to be integrated into European structures. «It is an exclusively
good opportunity to recognize a crime against humanity. I believe Turkey
will have to give political evaluations, as the history cannot be buried,»
the Speaker summed up.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Press
April 24 2005

Erdogan: I Have The Chief Negotiator’s Name In My Heart

ANKARA – Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the
Kardak incident in the Aegean is nothing new. ”Let us not pay much
attention to the Kardak issue,” said Erdogan.

Erdogan attended a reception held by the Turkish parliament’s speaker
Bulent Arinc to celebrate the National Sovereignty and Children’s
Day.

Erdogan talked with the diplomats of several countries one of which
was the Dutch ambassador Sjoerd Izaak Hendrik Gosses. Erdogan told
Gosses that the end of economic isolation in the Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus would bring a lasting solution in the island. ”We
expect the assistance of all friends on this matter. I will make
certain contacts after the new government is established in the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” told Erdogan.

Ambassador of Iraq in Ankara Sabah Cemil Umran has informed Erdogan
that efforts are being made to form the cabinet in Iraq. ”Iraqi
prime minister Ibrahim Caferi will soon visit Turkey,” mentioned
Umran. Erdogan said no specific date had been set for the arrival of
the Iraqi prime minister.

Erdogan met the Polish ambassador Grzegorz Michalski at the
reception. Erdogan conveyed his administration’s disappointment with
the decision of the Polish parliament that recognized the so-called
Armenian genocide. ”Our Polish friends should not have taken such a
decision. The Polish people have been tricked by certain groups. A
very small group of people made Poland take such a decision,”
stressed Erdogan.

Asked by journalists about who will become Turkey’s chief negotiator
in the European Union process, Erdogan replied that he has the chief
negotiator’s name in his heart.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

South Bend Tribune, IN
April 24 2005

World has moral duty to stand against genocide
DIALOGUE: MICHIANA POINT OF VIEW

By MAKROUHI OXIAN

An eternal flame burns at the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial in
Yerevan, Armenia. It is surrounded by a sea of flowers that visitors
carry to the site.

Courtesy of Oneworld.net

Ninety years ago, the first genocide of the 20th century began on
April 24, the Armenian Genocide. Throughout the world, Armenians
today will honor the memory of their loved ones who perished at the
bloody hands of the Ottoman Turkish government.

On April 24, 1915, approximately 200 prominent Armenians —
intellectuals and religious and political leaders — were arrested in
Constantinople (Istanbul) where 21 were hanged. The others were
murdered in the interior regions of Turkey.

The ethnic cleansing of the Armenians then began in all the provinces
of Turkey. No town or city was spared, including my parents’
hometown, the city of Rodosto (Tekirdag) near Constantinople.

Thousands of families, including my parents’ families and my mother,
were removed from their homes and deported into the deserts of Syria.
Along the way, thousands were murdered, tortured and raped. Many died
of exhaustion, starvation, exposure or thirst. From 1915 through
1923, a total of 1.5 million men, women and children perished.

The United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948 defined genocide as
“acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” In addition to the
Armenians, other ethnic groups experienced such atrocities during the
20th century, including the Bosnians, Jews, Biafrans, Cambodians,
Tutsis, Kurds, Ukrainians the Russians.

Unfortunately, humankind still continues to commit this horrendous
crime. Presently, thousands are being massacred in the African
country of Sudan.

When the tsunami disaster occurred in Asia, the United Nations and
the international community quickly responded to help the survivors.
The relief effort was morally correct.

When ethnic groups experience genocide at the hands of vicious
butchers, the world community does not respond as quickly, if at all.
Due to political reasons, nations do not want to get involved in the
internal affairs of the countries committing such atrocities. Is it
morally correct to ignore such heinous crimes against humanity and
allow thousands to die?

The Armenian Genocide is slowly being recognized by numerous
countries that will not succumb to pressure from the Turkish
government. Some of them include Canada, Italy, France, Switzerland,
Greece, Lebanon, Russia, Slovakia, Argentina, Uruguay and the
Vatican.

For 90 years, Turkey has adamantly denied that it committed genocide
against the Armenians during World War I. The Turkish government not
only dismisses the evidence but is attempting to rewrite history by
paying historical revisionists to write false accounts. How would
people throughout the world react if Germany would attempt to deny
historical truth regarding the Holocaust?

To date, the U.S. Congress has not passed a resolution recognizing
the genocide. Turkey is a strong U.S. ally and NATO partner. The
government of Turkey and its highly paid lobby groups in Washington
have pressured many members of Congress to vote against any
resolution that would recognize the genocide.

Nevertheless, cities such as Galveston, Texas, Fresno, Calif., and
Boston, as well as 27 states, have officially recognized the
genocide. A few of the states are Alaska, California, Colorado,
Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Utah and
Wisconsin. Unfortunately, our great state of Indiana has not taken
the initiative to join the other enlightened states.

To honor the memory of those who perished during the genocide,
numerous events will place in large as well as smaller communities
throughout the world.

The largest commemoration in the United States will take place in New
York City where the events will center around the themes of
remembrance, justice and prevention. Thousands of Armenian Americans
from throughout the Northeast will attend church services April 24
followed by a memorial gathering at noon at Times Square. Those in
attendance will hear noted speakers and honor elderly genocide
survivors. Then a solemn ecumenical requiem service will be held at
St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral with many religious, diplomatic and
political dignitaries in attendance.

In Providence, R.I., an art gallery will have an exhibit honoring the
90th anniversary of the genocide. All types of media will be on
display such as photographs, sculptures and paintings. Young people
in California will participate in a March for Humanity to make the
public aware of the genocide.

In Poland, a demonstration will take place near the Turkish Embassy
in Warsaw. A monument dedicated to the genocide will be placed in one
of the squares in Varna, Bulgaria. Twelve tribal leaders from Syria
went to Armenia to honor the memory of thousands of innocent
individuals who perished during the genocide.

The largest gathering in Armenia will be at the genocide memorial at
the top of Tsitsernakaberd Hill near Yerevan, the capitol. Thousands
will climb up to the monument to lay flowers near the eternal flame
that is encircled by 12 slabs representing the 12 lost provinces in
Turkey — the ancestral homeland of Armenians for some 3,000 years.
The complex also consists of a museum and a 100-meter wall that
displays the names of towns and villages where massacres took place.

I am dedicating this article in memory of the innocent victims of the
Armenian genocide — including family members who perished. They must
not be forgotten.

Makrouhi Oxian lives in South Bend.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Amersfoortse Courant (Dutch regional paper)
Utrechts Nieuwsblad,
April 22, 2005

Almost 1.5 million Christian Armenians were killed in Turkey between 1915
and 1923. Turkey has always systematically denied the genocide. If the
country wants to have a chance at becoming an EU member, Ankara will have to
come to terms with this dark chapter. This weekend, it is the ninetieth
anniversary. Time to admit mistakes.

VAKIFLI
By Fidan Ekiz

The Armenians of Vakifli, in the province of Hatay on the south coast of
Turkey, knew how to escape from the Turks by hiding themselves for 40 days
on Mount Musa (Moses) in Antakya. “Without food and drinks they waited
there, in the cold,” says Havadis Demirci.

The 90-year-old Armenian was born during the “dark days” on the mountain. In
Vakifli, the last Armenian village in Turkey, no more than a miserable 130
Armenians live there.

Of the 5000 Armenians from seven villages, who found their refuge on Musa,
many died of hunger and cold. The survivors were saved by French seamen who
were sailing across the Ak Sea. Among them was Havadis Demirci. “We were
taken to Egypt. When I was four, I returned to Vakifli with my parents and
other inhabitants.” They were received by those who stayed behind and
astonishingly survived the massacre.

For centuries the Orthodox Christian Armenian minority lived harmoniously
with the Muslim Turks. When the Ottoman Empire began to crumble at the
beginning of the twentieth century, Turkish tolerance also came to an end.
During World War I, instigated by strong nationalistic sentiments, the Turks
turned against the Armenians, whom they accused of rebellion. The Armenians,
according to Turks, wanted to abuse the chaotic war situation to create an
independent Armenia that would need parts of Turkey and the Russian Empire.

The anti-Armenian pogroms began with the execution of Armenian leaders who
were hanged from the Galata bridge in Istanbul, followed by genocide on
hundreds of thousands of Armenians in other parts of the country.

The small Vakifli is now mostly inhabited by old Armenians, who live there
undisturbed. Most of the youth has left the village. But in the summer it is
dominated by a happy crowd. Armenians from the diaspora smell the sea air
and visit the local church.

The people here have little to complain about and some are therefore not
pleased with the heated debate that is now taking place concerning the
Armenian genocide. “Why now? The massacres took place 90 years ago. A
Turkish recognition will not bring back my murdered grandfather,” says the
head of village Berc Kartun. “By bringing back the memories, our minority
position is accentuated even more, which is painful.” The fear, even after
so many years, still seems very great. Many Armenians do not dare to be
among Turks now, according to the head of the village. “It is hypocritical
that countries like England and France now, much too late, take our side.
While they are themselves guilty of causing enmity between Armenians and
Turks.” The Western countries realized at the time that there was only way
to force the Ottoman Empire onto its knees, he claims. The minorities were
called to rebel. The nationalistic Turkish sentiments were therefore
instigated because of British and French meddling.

The son of the old Havadis thinks it is good that, after years of silence,
the issue of the genocide is becoming debatable in Turkey. “For years
already the word “Armenian” in Turkey has been synonymous with a
swear-word,” says Artin Demirci. “That we find the Turkish recognition
important has nothing to do with revenge. Turkey has to admit its mistakes
in order to become a fully fledged democracy.” For the commemoration of the
genocide next Sunday nothing special is planned in Vakifli. In previous
years Armenians gathered in the church, but that has not been in use for a
while now. “People will pray at home,” Artin thinks.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA
April 24 2005

2,000 Armenians march for genocide recognition

By Press-Telegram wire reports

LOS ANGELES – About 2,000 Armenians marched to the Turkish Consulate
in Los Angeles Saturday to demand that Turkey recognize the killing
of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide,
police said.
The march, organized by the Armenian Youth Federation, began in
Hollywood at 3 p.m. and arrived at the Turkish Consulate at 4801
Wilshire Blvd. about an hour later, said Sgt. David Brown of the Los
Angeles Police Department.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Montreal Gazette, Canada
April 24 2005

Armenians gather to remember
Open wounds. After 90 years there is still no closure

ROBERTO ROCHA
The Gazette

Kartine Divanian was 4 when Ottoman soldiers burst into her home,
chained up the men and took them away to be shot. The soldiers then
came back to burn her house and everything else in the Turkish
village of Marzevan.

Her mother, fearing for her life, sent her to Greece with 16,000
other Armenian orphans. They never saw each other again.

Divanian’s wounds haven’t healed over the past 90 years, wounds she
passed on to her children and grandchildren now living in Canada.

And none of the 60,000 Armenians in the country will feel healed
until they get the closure they seek: for the Turkish government to
recognize what many historians and governments agree was a genocide
in which 1.5 million Armenians were killed or disappeared.

Last night, Montreal Armenians filled St. Joseph’s Oratory to
capacity to observe the 90th anniversary of the alleged genocide.

But they were also observing 90 years of denial by the Turkish
government.

“It’s time for closure. We still have to fight the fight,” said Taro
Alepian, president of the Congress of Canadian Armenians.

Last night’s event was a deeply devotional, multi-denominational
service exalting martyrdom and denouncing indifference.

“Our ancestors fell knowing that 90 years later we would be meeting
in churches,” said Azad Chichmanian, an Armenian community leader who
began the service.

“They knew that kind of life could not be taken away, no matter how
organized the killing or how much the Turkish government denies it.”

A choir ushered in the handful of survivors from that era, most of
whom rely on wheelchairs and are at a loss for words when

describing what they witnessed.

“Your wounds are my wounds,” said Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim of the
Malkite Greek Catholic Church of Montreal to the survivors. “The
blood of your martyrs is immortal.”

Officials from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths followed
with their own sympathies and condemnations.

Last year, Canada became the 17th government to recognize the
genocide, and other countries followed.

Alepian said that’s a good start.

“We want Canada to join Europe to pressure the Turkish government to
recognize the genocide,” he said.

“They need to face the truth like Germany did, and it’s a better
country for it,” he added. “Just like today’s Germans aren’t Nazis,
today’s Turks aren’t the killers. Why can’t they see this?”

For Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay, last night’s service transcended
politics.

“I’m here to pray for our future, to recognize that tragic things
happen,” Tremblay said.

“If every leader in our society took the time to do the same, they
would adhere to our true job, which is to respect the values of the
people who vote for us.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
April 24 2005

Edelman: President Bush will not Say ‘Genocide’
By Omer Sahin
Published: Sunday 24, 2005
zaman.com

US Ambassador to Ankara Eric Edelman announced that contrary to
Armenians’ expectations, US President George W. Bush would not use
the word “genocide” for what happened in 1915 in today’s annual April
24th speech on the Armenian issue.

Attending the Turkish Parliament’s 85th anniversary reception,
Edelman said: “The speech will be similar to the one last year.”

Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Bulent Arinc, meeting with Edelman,
said that he would make his first official visit to the US on May
28th and 29th.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
April 24 2005

Erdogan: Ups and Downs usual in Kardak, do not Exaggerate
By Erdal Sen
Published: Sunday 24, 2005
zaman.com

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made calming
statements about the tension taking place yesterday with Greece over
the Kardak reef.

Answering a question about the Kardak crisis in the 85th anniversary
reception of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM), Erdogan
said: “These kinds of things might occur. We do not care about them.
Ups and downs always occur.” Erdogan conveyed his reaction to Poland,
which passed the so-called Armenian genocide law in parliament via
the Polish ambassador Grzegorz Michalski.

To the Polish Ambassador: You upset me

Erdogan reflected his first reaction to Michalski saying, ‘you upset
me’. Reminding him of the support that Turkey gave to Warsaw in the
past, to which the ambassador said, ‘I know’, Erdogan said: ” Poland
was one of the members that gave us the biggest support in the EU but
you were deceived. A very small group made the alleged genocide
accepted. You should not have done this to us.” Upon this, Michalski
settled for telling: “We know your support to us against the Russian
occupation during the war. Our children learn how you supported us.”
while he was telling about the sympathy of the Polish public.

Boston Globe
April 24 2005

Armenians remember the horror
By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff | April 24, 2005

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the mass
killings and deportations by Ottoman Turks that led to the deaths of
as many as 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. Few survivors
of those attacks — which the Turkish government says were part of a
civil conflict, not a genocide — remain. Some settled here in
Massachusetts, where Armenian-Americans now number about 30,000.

In the excerpts below, they share some of their memories.

Yeghsa Giragosian, 105, North Andover (native of Harput)
‘You don’t know who’s coming. And you don’t know what’s going to
happen. But you’re young and you take it.’

”I was 14. Everything was going good, then the genocide started one
morning. In every village, Armenian people, everybody has to go to
the cemetery. We are in the cemetery and the soldiers right away
start to take the girls. Turkish men took my two sisters [and married
them]. A Turkish man, a friend of my grandfather’s, he held my hand
and took me to his home. I lived with them. He had a wife and
children, and I didn’t know so much of what was happening. I was
young. And I didn’t know life. The wife was so good to me. She never
says, ‘You are Armenian girl,’ or this and that. They didn’t use me.
She wash me, she cook for me, she was good just like a mother. They
had two boys and a girl, and she talk Armenian and she was my age,
and we became two sisters. About three years later, my aunt, she come
back. And she told me my mother died. She told me, ‘If you can, run
away, because the war is stopped and the Turks can do nothing.’ I
did, right away. . . . My mind grew up and now I know the difference.
I run away. I didn’t say nothing . . . even [to] the girl I was with.
My second sister ran away too. I went to [an] Armenian orphanage. Two
years I stay over there. We come to Aleppo . . . and Marseilles. Then
we are here [in America], then a couple of years later, my sister
says she finally found out where [our older sister] is. She was still
in Turkey. My second sister, she went to her house [in Turkey] and
she says ‘Sister, run away, come on.’ She says, ‘I can’t, I have five
children.’ Last time I saw [my eldest sister] was in that cemetery. I
don’t know if she died. . . . She’s going to be 108. It must be she
died.”

Peter Bilezikian, 92, Newton (native of Marash)
”The dream I used to have, a Turk would cut my ears off, cut my
nose, pull my teeth, gouge my eye out.’

”All I remember is, we were hungry, and I thought that was a normal
thing. . . . There were so many people dying. . . . I remember
children dying with the big stomachs . . . dropping dead right in the
middle of the street. And a cart would come along, pick them up as if
they were nothing, and throw them up on the cart and keep going.
There’d be a big hole somewhere, they’d just dump it in there. During
the 1919 war, when the . . . Turks rebelled against the French . . .
there was a war in the city. We were in one place and it was fenced.
A lady was baking bread. I was hungry and I went over there and asked
for a piece of bread. She wouldn’t give it to me: ‘This is for my
children. If I give it to you, then my children won’t have any.’ So I
waited, I was hoping she would take her eyes off the bread, I could
steal. She never took her eyes off it, but they were shooting from a
minaret . . . I had a cowlick, like an Irish boy, you know . . . [the
bullet] singed my hair and hit her between the eyes. She died. I
grabbed all the bread that she had baked, ran under a stairway and
ate it all up. I didn’t care what anybody [thought]. It wasn’t a nice
thing to do, looking back. Poor woman died, and do you know, I never
thought anything of her dying? These are all dreams to me today. When
I came to this country I lived in Newtonville. At night I used to
find myself under the bed in a cold sweat. The dream I used to have
was, a Turk would cut my ears off, cut my nose, pull my teeth, gouge
my eye out. I would wake up all wet. . . . I never had these dreams
in the old country.”

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Arminé Dedkian, 92, Watertown (native of Tekirdag)
‘I didn’t know so much of what was happending. I was young. And I
didn’t know life.’

”I was just born when they killed my father. Everybody had to keep
going. We were walking towards the desert . . . to Syria. My mother
got a job in a hospital over there. Then this young man, he was
Armenian, he was working there too. They got married. He was ashamed
to say he had married a widow . . . you know, 17, 18 years old, she
had a child. They [left me with my grandmother]. They told her,
‘After we settle, we are going to come and get her.’ But then, again
things happened. The Turks chased us three times, we had to abandon
everything. We didn’t know where [my mother] was. . . . We didn’t
know who had died, who hadn’t. We found a way of finding each other
by writing in the Armenian papers. [We placed an ad, looking for my
mother.] My mother’s cousin saw the ad and he knew my mother was in
America. I was seven days on the boat by myself. I was 15. Whoever
had sponsored you had to be there to pick you up. My mother wasn’t
there. She had made a mistake. So they took me to Ellis Island. Six
or seven days there. You just sit there and your ears are wide open
and you hope that you are going to hear your name. You don’t know
who’s coming. And you don’t know what’s going to happen. But you’re
young and you take it. When my mother opened the door I just had a
feeling it was her, she was a very pretty woman. But because we never
knew each other, like two strangers we stood together, you know, no
hugging, no kissing, no nothing. That’s why my family always tell me,
‘We’re not a kissing family.’ I made something out of my life, but I
feel cheated that I didn’t have a childhood. I should have talked to
her: ‘What happened? Why did you leave me?'”

John D. Kasparian, 98, Worcester (native of Van)
”There was nothing to be eaten. I ate grass for days. That’s the way
we live. …It was a hell life to live.’

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”All I know, I was 7 years old, and I seen this fighting . . . all
the time. You get kind of sick of it, you get used to it in a way.
But things got so much worse, that Turks in 1915 start to go from
house to house, take the people out — father, mother, children, they
don’t care. One night . . . a Turkish friend of my father . . . woke
my house . . . and took my father and says ‘You know this is the
section they coming after tonight, you get out right away. If not
then you won’t be living to see the light tomorrow.’ We run away for
life. . . . By early morning the [same] man came and says . . .
‘After you left, they gathered 200 men, women, and children and put
in the armory. They closed the door and put kerosene, and lit up that
place.’ Men, women, children, they perished that particular night. If
we didn’t get out we would have been gone, for sure thing. We would
have been dead. We couldn’t eat nothing [on the road]. There was
nothing to be eaten. I ate grass for days. That’s the way we live,
till we came to Yerevan. It was a hell life to live. My brother got
lost . . . on the road to Yerevan. Somebody [found him] and brought
[him to Yerevan]. Now we were looking for our brother and we went
every place. Finally we went to this park, he was all by himself
sitting on a huge stone, so everybody could see and recognize him. He
was crying. ‘Where’s my parents? Where’s my folks?’ My father
naturally grabbed him and broke down and we got all together. But
unfortunately he didn’t last long. He died because of starvation and
no water. . . . Thank God we find him. That was a sad day for me
really. I don’t look back. I forget about it, just looking forward.
Thank goodness, I live in such a heavenly country.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Deutsche Welle, Germany
April 24 2005

Armenian Massacre Clouds Turkey’s EU Bid

Photo: Honoring the dead at Armenia’s national memorial on Sunday

Tens of thousands of Armenians including the president and top
officials filed through the towering Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on
Sunday to commemorate the 90th anniversary of mass killings by
Ottoman Turks.

A silent procession headed by President Robert Kocharian laid flowers
at an eternal flame as Armenia’s chief clergymen sang an emotional
Gregorian Apostolic requiem service beneath the baking sun.

The long line and pounding sunshine were too much for many ordinary
Armenians who came to pay their respects.

Women could be seen as they were carried out of the line leading to
the memorial half-conscious from sunstroke after having made the long
climb to the hilltop where it is situated above the capital.

Armenia wants Turkish acknowledgment

In the run-up to the anniversary, Armenia has pulled out all the
stops in an effort to make Turkey acknowledge the massacres as
genocide and officials have estimated that 1.5 million people will
visit the memorial through Sunday.

The events being commemorated are the mass expulsion and mass deaths
of Christian Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire during
World War I.

“For 30 years now on this day, I’ve come to this memorial early in
the morning. Here I lay six tulips, the number of deaths in my family
at the time of the genocide,” said Mikhitar Haroutounian, 74.

April 24 marks beginning of massacre

On April 24, 1915 the Ottoman Turkish authorities arrested some 200
Armenian community leaders in the start of what Armenia and many
other countries contend was an organized genocidal campaign to
eliminate ethnic Armenians from the Ottoman Empire.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire,
the predecessor of modern Turkey, was falling apart.

Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in “civil strife” during World War I when the Armenians rose
against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

Ninety years ago “a crime was committed that had no equals in the
history of Armenia or all of humanity, it did not even have a name,”
Kocharian said according to the presidential administration.

Apology, not compensation sought

He called on Turkey and the international community to condemn the
killings as genocide, adding that the former Soviet republic was
ready to build “natural” relations with its larger neighbor if it
faced up to its history.

A mass was to be celebrated later on Sunday in Yerevan’s Saint
Gregory cathedral, as well as in churches all over Armenia, and a
minute’s silence was to be observed throughout the country at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, Kocharian (photo) made a conciliatory gesture towards
Ankara, saying his government would not ask for financial
compensation for the killings if Turkey recognized them as genocidal.

“We are not talking about compensation, this is only about a moral
issue,” Kocharian told Russia’s Rossiya television, which is also
broadcast in Armenia.

Pressure on Turkey ahead of EU talks

The row over whether or not to call the killings genocide has
embarrassed Turkey as it readies for the start of European Union
accession talks later this year.

On Friday, French President Jacques Chirac accompanied Kocharian to a
Paris monument for victims of the massacre, and in Germany members of
parliament from across the political spectrum appealed to Turkey to
accept the massacre of Armenians as part of its history, saying this
would help its EU aspirations.

On Tuesday, Poland joined a list of 15 countries that have officially
acknowledged the killings as genocide.

The decision has drawn protest from Ankara, where officials called it
“irresponsible,” and said it would hurt relations.

However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (photo) recently
proposed the creation of a joint Armenian-Turkish commission to
review the issue, though officials expressed confidence that the
study would confirm Turkey’s current position.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress