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Pan Armenian News

EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE 90-TH ANNIVERSARY TO BE HELD IN
COPENHAGEN

15.04.2005 06:46

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On the initiative of Momik cultural center and with the
assistance of the Armenian community of Denmark an exhibition of 12 Armenian
painters will be held in Copenhagen April 21-24, Yerkir online reports. The
event is dated to the 90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. During the
period of its activities Momik has organized about 40 exhibitions in Armenia
and abroad, where the works of over 50 Armenian painters and masters of
applied art were represented. Since 2002 the center has published a magazine
titled `Armenian Art’ and spread in the Armenian communities of 15
countries. This autumn Momik is going to organize an exhibition dedicated to
the 1600-th anniversary of the invention of the Armenian alphabet.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenpress

GEORGIA RESOLUTE TO FOIL SEPARATISTS SENTIMENTS IN JAVAKHETI

TBILISI, APRIL 15, ARMENPRESS: Georgia’s defense minister Irakly
Okruashvili said in a yesterday’s interview to Georgian Times newspaper that
the government is resolute to thwart all attempts aiming to destabilize the
situation in the predominantly Armenian populated region of Javakheti.
“We shall work to ensure jobs for local population when the Russian
military base is removed. We shall not allow any separatists sentiments
there,” he said.
Okruashvili also said conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia could be
resolved with the help of “friendly nations.” “The world is changing rapidly
and Georgia’s significance in international politics is also changing.
Georgia is able now to take its voice to friendly nations and solve the
conflicts with their help,’ he said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse
15 avril 2005 vendredi 6:24 AM GMT

Arménie: des images et des mots contre l’oubli, 90 ans plus tard
(PRESENTATION)

PARIS 15 avr 2005

A l’occasion du 90e anniversaire du génocide arménien, plusieurs
livres, dans des genres différents, paraissent afin que soit “inscrit
dans l’éternité l’abîme éprouvé par tout un peuple”, selon un des
auteurs, Annick Asso.

Le photographe Bardig Kouyoumdjian est retourné à Alep, Meskéné,
Markadé ou Deir-es-Zor (qui donne au livre son titre), là où des
centaines de milliers d’Arméniens ottomans déportés se sont
retrouvés. Il signe (avec Christine Siméone pour le texte) un ouvrage
photographique, le premier du genre, sur ce sujet.

Cette zone porte “les restes des morts et la descendance des
survivants”, note-t-il, désireux de lutter contre “l’oubli” qui “a
creusé la terre plus sûrement que la sécheresse”. Quand, à son
arrivée, il cherche le quartier des déportés, personne ne peut le
renseigner.

Lui-même petit-fils de rescapé, il parvient toutefois à retrouver les
descendants des victimes, gens fiers de leur identité arménienne,
pour qui finalement “raconter le génocide est l’essence même de leur
survie”. Son périple est illustré en noir et blanc par des visages
graves.

La parole est aussi donnée aux survivants dans “Le Cantique des
larmes”. Parmi les témoignages rassemblés par Annick Asso à partir de
fonds d’archives, les histoires d’horreur se succèdent. “Leurs récits
sont des paroles de vie”, dit-elle en ajoutant: “il est temps que les
vivants puissent envisager le deuil et le pardon”.

la notion de “crimes contre l’humanité”

“Le tigre en flammes” est un livre fort, traduit en une dizaine de
langues. L’Américain de souche arménienne, Peter Balakian, revient
sur le contexte géopolitique dans lequel les massacres ont été
commis. Si le commandement interallié à Londres évoque en mai 1915 –
pour la première fois dans l’histoire – la notion de “crimes contre
l’humanité”, rien ne se passe quand vient la victoire alliée: au nom
des intérêts commerciaux de l’Occident, il s’agit alors de calmer le
jeu, explique Balakian qui parle de “l’hypocrisie” de l’Occident.

Dans “La Politique du Sultan”, document paru en 1897 et qui était
épuisé, l’helléniste Victor Bérard revient sur les massacres des
Arméniens organisés par le sultan Abdul-Hamid II (qualifié d'”Ubu
turc”) en 1894-1896, prélude aux “événements” de 1915. “L’Arménie est
unie à nous par des liens de famille, elle prolonge en Orient le
génie latin”, écrit-il en citant Anatole France.

Enfin, Jacques Der Alexanian raconte, dans la saga romanesque
“Arménies, Arménie: un nom pour héritage”, le destin des enfants
d’Arméniens arrivés en France dans les années 1920.

La date du 24 avril 1915 marque symboliquement le début du génocide
arménien. Massacres et déportations d’Arméniens ont fait, entre 1915
et 1917, plus de 1,2 million de morts, selon les Arméniens.

(“Deir-es-Zor”, Actes Sud, 128 pages, 22 euros, “Le cantique des
larmes”, La Table Ronde, 304 pages, 21 euros, “Le Tigre en flammes”,
Phébus, 512 pages, 22,50 euros, “La Politique du Sultan”, Le Félin,
160 pages, 17,95 euros, “Arménies, Arménie”, L’Harmattan, 304 pages,
22,90 euros)

A1plus

| 15:28:44 | 15-04-2005 | Official |

KOCHARYAN’S LEG IS ALL RIGHT

On April 20-23 Robert Kocharyan will leave for France on official duty where
he will meet President Jacques Chirac and the Presidents of the Senate and
the National Assembly.

Let us remind you that the visit was scheduled for 10 days ago, but it was
postponed due to leg injury of the President after the visit to Gudauri.

A Nationalist’s Global Following

Basque Leader’s Bid for Sovereignty Inspires Separatists World-Wide

WORLD NEWS

The Wall Street Journal
April 15, 2005; Page A8

By ANDRÉS CALA and KEITH JOHNSON, Staff Reporters of
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

BILBAO, SPAIN — On Sunday, voters in the Basque Country of Spain will
go to the polls to elect a new regional government. But interest in
the vote’s outcome won’t be confined to Madrid: Minority movements in
places as far away as Iraq and Indonesia also will be tuning in. The
Basque Country is a relatively small region, but it has become
influential among stateless nations around the world. The reason: Its
leader is pushing an audacious plan for effective independence from
Spain that would give the already autonomous region its own foreign
ministry, judicial system, and even sports teams to compete in
international competitions.

The plan is the brainchild of Juan José Ibarretxe, a soft-spoken
teetotaler, avid bike rider and ardent nationalist who has headed the
Basque regional government the past six years. If he wins re-election
as expected this weekend, he has pledged to defy Madrid’s rejection of
his plan and hold a referendum on it among the Basque Country’s 2.1
million people.

Mr. Ibarretxe’s proposal to unilaterally declare “co-sovereignty” with
Spain has ignited a political firestorm. One opposition-party official
calls it the “ideological triumph of ETA,” the terrorist group that
has waged a 37-year campaign for Basque independence. The Ibarretxe
plan, which Spain’s parliament already has rejected, shares some goals
with ETA, but aims to achieve those ends through peaceful means and
politicking, not terrorism.

For that reason, Mr. Ibarretxe’s plan has attracted attention around
the world. Its roots in territoriality and cultural and linguistic
differences give it broad appeal, political analysts say. Minority
groups in Iraq, Turkey, Ecuador, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and
even Chechnya have studied it as a blueprint for their own disputes.

As globalization and the creation of super-states such as the European
Union spur renewed interest in minority identities, the plan’s success
“could change the political landscape of the 21st century,” says James
Minahan, editor of the Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations.

Mr. Ibarretxe’s approach has struck a chord in Iraq’s Kurdish north,
for example. In late 2002, five months before the U.S. invasion, an
official Basque delegation traveled to Iraq to present Kurdish
strongman Masoud Barzani with a glass-encased oak branch. It came from
the old Guernica tree, which survived the Spanish Civil War-era
bombing of the town of Guernica and is an enduring symbol of Basque
nationalism.

Kurdish politicians say Mr. Ibarretxe’s plan has influenced their
thinking as they prepare to submit proposals for the new Iraqi
constitution. Later this year, a delegation of Kurdish jurists will
study the Basque model firsthand in Spain.

U.S. officials acknowledge that the Kurds have studied the Basque
model, but note they also have looked at many others.

The international interest has emboldened Mr. Ibarretxe, who says his
role model is Mohandas Gandhi. “It’s clear there is a global movement
of stateless nations, and we demand our say in this new world,” he
said in a recent interview.

Within Spain, Mr. Ibarretxe is widely disliked, with many Spaniards
worrying about his Basque Nationalist Party’s policies of ideological
and linguistic re-education and lingering ethnic politics. Even in the
Basque Country, he is a polarizing figure, with only about half the
region’s population describing itself as nationalist.

“This is not a homogenous situation like Kurdistan or Quebec,” says
Joseba Arregi, a former member of Mr. Ibarretxe’s party. “In many
respects, this is a fictional country, and the facade is starting to
come off.” Mr. Arregi gave up his party membership last year after
disagreeing with Mr. Ibarretxe’s sovereignty aims.

For now, Mr. Ibarretxe’s plan is more a bargaining chip than a
realistic template. He is evasive about when he will hold the
referendum if he is re-elected, and the plan — if ever approved in a
popular vote — would be difficult to apply without Spain’s
cooperation. Most constitutional scholars think it is illegal and not
viable. But Mr. Ibarretxe already has used it to squeeze concessions
from Madrid, which promised this week to overhaul the 1979 pact laying
the ground rules for Basque autonomy in the next two years.

Mr. Ibarretxe has made the Basque Country more visible on the
international stage. The region has its own foreign-relations office,
and Mr. Ibarretxe often meets with leaders in Latin America and
Europe. If other movements are studying the Basque model, “I suppose
it is because they find our actions rational,” he says.

Yochi Dreazen in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to Keith Johnson at ([email protected]).

,,SB111351465738807422-IFjfINklad4mpyuaYGHa6qHm4,00.html

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Chess Base, Germany
April 15 2005

Breaking news: Kasparov assaulted in Moscow

16.04.2005 We have just learnt (on Russian radio) that Garry Kasparov
was attacked after a meeting with youth activists in Moscow he was
approached by a participant with a chessboard seeking an autograph.
The young man circled Kasparov and delivered a sharp blow to the head
with the chessboard. We will update this story as news comes in.

The Russian news agency Interfax news agency quotes Kasparov’s
advisor Marina Litvinovich, who described the events as follows:
Garry Kasparov, co-chair of the Fair Elections 2008 party, was
subjected to an attack on Friday night. After a meeting with youth
activists in Moscow he was approached by one of the participants with
a chessboard. The young man asked the 13th chess world champion for
an autograph, but then suddenly went behind Kasparov and delivered a
strong blow to Kasparov’s head, yelling obscenities as he did os. The
attacker was taken out by the people present according to
Litvinovich. Kasparov suffered an acute haematoma (Russian gematoma,
hemorrhage), but declined to seek immediate medical treatment.

Litvinovich added that Kasparov was meeting with the activists of
youth movement in order to discuss tactics and strategy of creating a
united democratic front.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Financial Times – Deutschland
15. April 2005

Türkei stellt sich dem Genozid-Vorwurf widerwillig;

Premier Erdogan bietet geschichtliche Aufklärung nur bei Kooperation
Armeniens an · Türkischer Botschafter bestreitet Völkermord

AUTOR: Marina Zapf

Von Marina Zapf, Berlin

Die Türkei fordert 90 Jahre nach den Massakern an der armenischen
Minderheit im Osmanischen Reich die Regierung von Armenien auf, einer
gemeinsamen Aufarbeitung der Geschichte zuzustimmen. Premierminister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan schlug Präsident Robert Kotscharian vor, die
historischen Tatsachen durch eine gemeinsame wissenschaftliche
Untersuchung aufklären zu lassen. Die Archive beider Seiten sollten
dafür geöffnet werden.

Schon zuvor hatte die Türkei dem Nachbarn gemeinsame Forschungen
angeboten, nie aber schriftlich und mit Zustimmung des Parlaments.
Ankara reagiert damit auf wachsenden Druck aus Europa, die 1915 bis
1917 verübten Gräueltaten als Genozid anzuerkennen. Eine
entsprechende Resolution hatte das Europaparlament verabschiedet.
Kommende Woche berät der Bundestag über einen Antrag der
CDU/CSU-Fraktion, in dem der Vorwurf einer geplanten Vernichtung
enthalten ist. Der Antrag geht von 1,2 bis 1,5 Millionen Opfern von
Deportationen aus. Die Türkei weist die Zahl wie auch den Vorwurf des
Genozids zurück.

Das türkische Parlament appellierte an “ausländische Parlamente”, von
einer politischen Wertung der Geschehnisse Abstand zu nehmen. Es sei
“unpassend, sinnlos, willkürlich und ungerecht”, zu einem unter
internationalen Historikern umstrittenen Kapitel der Geschichte “aus
politischen Gründen Beschlüsse zu fassen” und “über die Richtigkeit
einer Seite zu entscheiden”. Ob Armeniens Regierung auf die
Versöhnungsgeste Erdogans reagiert, ist fraglich. Erst im Februar
hatte sie weitere Untersuchungen für unnötig erklärt. Der Botschafter
Ankaras in Berlin, Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, erklärt dies mit der Furcht
vor unbequemen Wahrheiten. “Für die Umsetzung ist die Mitarbeit der
Regierung erforderlich”, sagte er der FTD.

“Sie wollen nicht darüber diskutieren, Historiker forschen zu lassen,
was wirklich passierte, weil sie wissen, dass die Geschichte sich
nicht so abspielte, wie sie es die Welt glauben machen wollen”, sagte
er. “Sie wissen, dass es keinen Völkermord gab.” Die Türkei werde
keine verzerrte Version der Geschichte akzeptieren. “In der Natur der
Wahrheit liegt es, dass sie sich über kurz oder lang durchsetzt”,
beharrte er. “Wir haben diesbezüglich keine Scheu. Wir sind es, die
herausfordern, damit die Wahrheit ans Licht kommt.”

Erste Versuche der gemeinsamen Aufklärung durch Vertreter staatlich
geförderter Institutionen gibt es schon. Die in Wien initiierte
“Armenisch-Türkische Plattform” geriet aber wieder ins Stocken.

A1plus

| 14:30:17 | 15-04-2005 | Social |

THE COURT BLAMES THE JOURNALISTS

`The most transparent trial was that of October 27, and as for the link
Court-press, it is quite loose today; most of the journalists are completely
incompetent in order to highlight the trial processes’. This was the opinion
of the RA Economical Court head Hovhannes Manoukyan.

Today during the seminar titled «Transparentizing of the RA Economical Court
work» Mr. Manoukyan expressed the opinion that the RA Economical Court has
by now worked transparently, and he found the issue of objectively
highlighting the court activity by the Mass Media extremely important.

The aim of the seminar was to raise public awareness about the Court
activity and to achieve a more efficient cooperation of the Court and Mass
Media. According to Mr. Manoukyan, the journalists must learn and get ready
to objectively highlight the issues about the Court.

He informed that a month ago an information center was created in the RA
Economical Court which will contribute to the active cooperation of the
Court with the press.

By the way, according to Mr. Manoukyan, all the trials about «A1+» have by
now been transparent, «If there have been shortcomings in the highlighting
of the Mass Media, that is only the result of the wrong work of the press».

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian among those marking sad anniversary

THE RECORD (Bergen County, NJ)
Friday, April 15, 2005

By CATHERINE HOLAHAN, STAFF WRITER ([email protected])

ORADELL – Ninety years later, Rahan Kachian still has the nightmares.

In the daylight, she is healthy and happy. The horrors of her youth in
Turkey are memories.

But at night, she is five years old again. Burying the remains of her
beheaded father in the family vineyard. Running. Watching strangers burn
churches filled with people. Hiding between mattresses.

Seeing her 2-year-old brother, Kourken, die of starvation.

“I was 5 years old but I remember,” said Kachian, 94, of Oradell. “I
remember.”

It’s a history Kachian and fellow survivors of the 1915 Armenian
massacre are trying to bring to light. The Turkish government denies the
killings were state-sponsored genocide.

On April 24, Armenians will gather in New York to mark the 90th
anniversary of the Turkish government’s arrest of more than 200 Armenian
community leaders. That date is considered the beginning of a genocide
that took the lives of more than 1 million Armenians in three years.

There will be services held at three New York cathedrals and a
remembrance in Times Square on that day.

“The genocide is a current issue,” said Ken Sarajian, a relative through
marriage of Kachian and an organizer of the New York events. “It’s about
justice, it’s about the prevention of genocide and what happened in
Germany, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur. The threat of genocide still exists
in the world today.”

For Kachian, the genocide is current because the memories are still so
fresh.

“How could they deny it when they killed everybody?” she asks.

Kachian’s earliest memories go back to age 3, when she lived with her
father, sister and brother on a plantation in the village of Segham. Her
mother died in childbirth.

The family had vineyards, a large farm, a lake and animals. Her father,
Mardiros Delerian, was a university professor and also sold the excess
produce from the farm in the city.

“It was beautiful,” Kachian said. “We had everything we could want.”

Then, one morning, that all changed.

Turkish soldiers came to her village and began shooting her neighbors.
Kachian, her elder sister Marinos, and her brother hid. Kachian’s father
ran to woods behind the house where he was found, shot and beheaded.

Though Kachian did not know it at the time, the Turkish government had
ordered the deportation of Armenians to the Der El Zor desert, according
to Western history books. The deportations are thought, by some
scholars, to have been spurred by an Armenian movement for an
independent state.

Kachian believes the Turkish government wanted to seize the land of the
Armenians to increase its wealth.

When Turkish soldiers came, Kachian and her siblings fled to a Turkish
friend’s house in a nearby city. An aunt later made it to the same
friend’s house after being shot and left for dead by the soldiers.

Soon after their arrival, their family friend died and her sister forced
the Armenians to work the land for free in exchange for a place to hide.
At 5, Kachian had to tend the lambs and sheep. If she lost one, she was
beaten, she said. She and her siblings were given crusts of bread to
eat. Her brother eventually starved to death.

Kachian survived by eating wild vegetables as she tended the flocks.

Eventually, after the killings stopped, she escaped with her sister to
an orphanage. Her sister was married to an Armenian who had become a
U.S. citizen and soldier. He sent money to bring his wife to the United
States. The pair brought Kachian to New York to live with them when she
was about 17.

“When I came to the U.S., I wasn’t afraid to walk down the street,”
Kachian said.

She also wasn’t afraid to tell others what she remembered of the
genocide. But even now, she sometimes wakes up frightened, from the
memories.

PHOTO CAPTION: BY DANIELLE P. RICHARDS / Rahan Kachian, 94, is haunted
by painful memories of the 1915 Armenian massacre in Turkey.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMED FORCES OF ARMENIA WILL TAKE PART IN 8 MANEUVERS IN 2005: DEPUTY
DEFENSE MINISTER OF ARMENIA

YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. The Armed Forces of Armenia will take part
in 8 maneuvers in 2005. Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia, Lt.General
Artur Aghabekyan informed ARMINFO today.

He said that among the major events would be maneuvers under the
Collective Security Treaty of CIS signatories. The deputy minister
refused from specifying the place and the date of the maneuvers.