Author: Anna Tamamian

DIE WELT
20. Juni 2005
Türken demonstrieren gegen Bundestagsresolution
Rund 1500 Vertreter der türkischen Gemeinde in Berlin haben gestern
gegen die Bundestagsresolution zum Völkermord an den Armeniern
demonstriert. Der Bundestag hatte Donnerstag in einem gemeinsamen
Antrag aller Fraktionen die Türkei zur offenen Aufarbeitung der
Vertreibung und der Massaker an den Armeniern vor 90 Jahren im
Osmanischen Reich aufgefordert. Türkische Politiker reagierten mit
Verärgerung und drohten mit der Verschlechterung der
deutsch-türkischen Beziehung. Die Demonstranten forderten die
Überprüfung der Resolution. Es dürfe nicht sein, daß der Antrag einen
EU-Beitritt der Türkei verhindere, sagte ein Sprecher. Die
Bundestagsentscheidung habe auch großen Einfluß auf die Gefühle der
in Deutschland lebenden Türken. Die CDU verteidigte die Resolution.
Sie sei “in Stil und Inhalt vom Gefühl der Freundschaft zur Türkei
getragen und verzichtet im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Parlamenten
darauf, ausdrücklich den Völkermordvorwurf zu erheben”, sagte
CDU-Außenpolitiker Friedbert Pflüger. dpa
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM OF ARMPOST TO BE APPROVED SHORTLY
YEREVAN, JUNE 16. ARMINFO. The Armenian Government is expected to
approve the development program of the CJSC ArmPost within the nearest
future, ArmPost Director for Investments and Development Alexander
Petrossyan informed ARMINFO today speaking on the fulfillment of a
governmental decision on transfer of the CJSC ArmPost’s shares to
trust of the company Converse Invest.
He says that his statement made at a press-conference yesterday on a
“theoretical possibility” of canceling the agreement with Converse
Invest if the government does not approve the program, was incorrectly
perceived by ARMINFO’s correspondent. Petrossyan added that within
the first months of the current year, the employees of Converse
Invest had carefully studied the activity of ArmPost together with
the specialists of the French La Poste. It was on the bases of the
study results that the program of the enterprise’s development for
the coming 5 years was elaborated.
Meanwhile Armenia’s Transport and Communication Minister Andranik
Manukyan says that the government approved the draft agreement on
transfer of the shares of CJSC ArmPost to Converse Invest for five
years Dec 23 2004. It says that Converse Invest will get 20% of
ArmPost profits, with 80% to be given to the state. Converse Invest
has also pledged to cover all the losses of ArmPost – some $300,000
owed to Aeroflot and almost as much to the state budget.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenians’ Union in Russia marks 5th anniversary
ITAR-TASS, Russia
June 16 2005
MOSCOW, June 16 (Itar-Tass) – The Armenians’ Union in Russia observes
its fifth anniversary this Thursday. The union absorbed several hundred
small national organizations that exerted efforts to preserve national
Armenian culture in Russia.
Ara Abramyan, the president of the Armenians’ Union in Russia,
told a news conference at Itar-Tass, “A new stage set in in the
life of Armenians in Russia from the moment the All-Russian national
public organization of Armenians formed, the stage linked with the
consolidation of the age-old national traditions.”
Abramyan said, “The union faces a difficult task of promoting the
integration of hundreds of thousands of Armenians who came from
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia into the linguistic, social, economic
and cultural medium of Russia.”
“We also aim for the further consolidation of relations between Russia
and Armenia,” Abramyan said.
The highlight of the celebration will be a concert of the Armenian
song and dance ensemble at the International House of Music in Moscow
on Thursday evening.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #094, 25/05/2005
Exhibition
SHUSHI IS WAITING…
Representatives of Armenian intelligentsia with roots in Shushi and
participants of Shushi liberation gathered recently at Aram Khachatrian Home
Museum to take part in opening of an exhibition titled “Pride, Sorrow, Hope
Originating From Shushi History”. Paintings and photos of 19th and early
20th centuries represented Shushi’s beauty, town’s unique coloring and its
people. The organizer of the exhibition, “Zard” Cultural Union, borrowed the
photos from diverse albums and personal collections. Aram Khachatrian’s
music accompanying the display made it more interesting. Members of “Zard”
Union and co-chair of “Shushi” Fund writer Bakur Karapetian told about the
town-fortress of Shushi. Mr. Karapetian shared as well with the projects of
studying Shushi’s cultural legacy. Specialists have already completed
registering, gauging and computer imaging of 525 monuments of Shushi and
surrounding territories. At the same time, specialists are collecting
archive documents dealing with Shushi. The Fund is going to hold an
international contest for layouts of the town’s two zones.
By Lusine Khachatrian

OSCE postpones frontline monitoring
Baku, May 17, AssA-Irada
The OSCE has postponed the monitoring on the Armenia-Azerbaijan
frontline.
The monitoring was to be held in the Chamanli village of Aghdam
district on Tuesday but was put off on an insistence of OSCE
representatives, the Ministry of Defense told AssA-Irada.
The village is located a kilometer away from Armenian positions.
Armenian military units frequently subject Chamanli to shooting, mainly
from the Kangarli, Seyidli and Goytapa occupied villages of Aghdam.*
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

French foreign ministers to discuss Uzbekistan
May 15 2005 2:12PM
VIENNA. May 15 (Interfax) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he
will discuss the situation in Uzbekistan and the Middle East with his French
counterpart Michel Barnier in Vienna on Sunday.
Lavrov and Barnier are attending events marking the 50th anniversary of the
treaty on the restoration of independent democratic Austria.
The Russian minister told the press on Sunday that the goal of his meeting
with Barnier is “to check positions” on pressing international and bilateral
issues, including the situation in Uzbekistan and the Middle East.
Moscow and Paris “are cooperating in a number of areas, including in efforts
to settle the Karabakh problem,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Problem Solving
BY GUNDUZ AKTAN
Turkish Press
May 5 2005
RADIKAL – Our failure to solve the Armenian issue is considered as the
failure of our foreign policy. People made the same comment about the
Cyprus issue as well. Actually our Iraq policy, our relations with
the US, our EU bid and Aegean issues can be mentioned in the same
context. It’s true that our foreign policy’s problem-solving capacity
isn’t high. However, we can’t separate this issue from our failure to
solve problems, because we were the last to bring down our inflation,
and such problems as traffic, taxes, roads and utilities, etc. still
haven’t been solved. Obviously, the fact that we entered democracy
early had a role in the failure to solve these problems. Political
parties chose not to deal with such problems which cannot be solved
without disturbing the public. They were afraid of losing support in
elections. As a result, almost all of the public made unlawfulness
a normal way of life and the problems became permanent.
Political powers, not used to solving problems in domestic politics,
started to wait for the problems in foreign policy to solve
themselves. What’s more, foreign policy has its own problems. As
each problem is a conflict with two sides, a solution doesn’t
only depend on us. If our rival resists solving the problem in our
favor, then the conflict continues for a long period of time. In
other words, a ‘win-win’ solution becomes impossible. In addition,
economic interests don’t prevent political conflicts. Maybe it’s sad,
but politics supercedes the economy in foreign policy. In conflicts
with countries having one problem, it’s more difficult for countries
having multiple problems to protect their interests. For example,
Turkey has a number of vital strategic problems, whereas Greek
Cypriots only think of swallowing the island and Armenians think of
making us accept the so-called genocide. It can’t be denied that the
most important weakness of our foreign policy comes from ourselves.
Turkish foreign policy of the last 50 years always belittled its own
power and considered others superior. We couldn’t understand that
we can accomplish nothing in foreign policy without taking risks,
and it was difficult for us to seek help from others. Our foreign
policy also has two other obstacles. Following World War II, Turkey
was in the Western world, but the West couldn’t overcome historical
prejudices and didn’t consider Turkey a Western country. Following
the Cold War and during our EU membership process, this situation
became clearer. If the West had been fair, would the Armenian issue
be treated this way? Meanwhile, many ‘liberal intellectuals’ in Turkey
claim that Turkey should do everything requested by the West in order
to become Western. Western countries use these intellectuals’ lack
of identity. The number of academics dealing with foreign policy
problems was very small. In addition, the number of lawyers and
historians in the fields of genocide, terrorism and the rules of war
is insufficient. As a nation, we also want conflicts to be solved
immediately. We can’t feel enmity over long periods. We shouldn’t
forget that solving conflicts in a short period of time requires
making concessions.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish Press
April 27 2005
Press Scan:
KOCHARIAN: ”YES, WE CAN MEET”
ZAMAN- Armenian President Robert Kocharian has informed the Turkish
Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he accepts Erdogan’s proposal to
form a committee comprised of historians and other experts to study
the incidents of early 20th century. Kocharian implied that the past
could not be discussed without taking into consideration today and
tomorrow. In his letter, Kocharian did not use the term ”genocide.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Ha’aretz, Israel
April 25 2005
90 years on, Armenian recalls the ordeal

By Amiram Barkat

Events were held around the world and in Israel on Sunday and
yesterday to commemorate the Armenian genocide 90 years ago. Between
1 million and 1.5 million Armenians perished in 1915-1916, around a
third of the Armenian people. Some died of hunger, thirst and disease
during the expulsion from their communities in Turkey to Aleppo in
Syria. Others were murdered by Turkish soldiers or bandits.
The last of the genocide survivors in Israel says she forgives the
Turks and does not bear a grudge.

Beatrice Kaplanian recalls the summer day in 1915 when an official
poster appeared in her hometown of Nevshehir, in the Cappadocia
region in central Turkey. The poster announced that all Armenians
must leave their homes immediately. Along with her parents, little
sister, and thousands of Armenian residents, Kaplanian set out on
foot for the long journey to the Syrian city of Aleppo. Her father,
an elderly and sick man, died of exhaustion en route. Shortly after
reaching Aleppo with her mother and sister, Kaplanian was adopted by
a Turkish couple. After the war she was removed from her new home
and, like other adopted Armenian children, moved between several
orphanages in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, eventually ending up in the
1930s in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, where she
still lives.
Kaplanian is close to 100, though she cannot recall her year of
birth, or her original surname. She remembers that her given name was
Filomena, and that her father was redheaded and freckled, just like
her. Some experiences from the journey to Aleppo remain profoundly
etched in her memory. She remembers the terrible thirst and fear at
night. “We would hear horrible screams by girls. When we walked in
the daytime, the men walked on the outside columns to conceal the
girls from the guards, who lusted after them.”
In the 1920s and 1930s, the small Armenian community in Palestine
took in thousands of refugees, many of them orphaned children like
Kaplanian. George Hintilian, an Armenian historian, says genocide
survivors had no special standing in Armenian society. “The general
feeling was that everyone had gone through this calamity, and
nobody’s special. I remember being surprised when I saw Israelis
treat Holocaust survivors reverently.”
Professor Yair Oron, a historian who researches the Armenian
genocide, says there are generational differences in Armenians’
attitudes toward the genocide: “Members of the first generation were
preoccupied with existential struggle. They didn’t recount their
experiences much to the second generation. Members of the third
generation made the issue a public priority, but before that happened
we lost valuable time.”
Academic research on the genocide only began in the 1960s. In the
1970s, the Armenians sought attention through terrorist attacks on
Turkish targets in Western countries. Countries such as the United
States and Israel still refuse to ascribe the term “genocide” to the
Armenian disaster. “What characterizes the second and third
generations is the profound sense of humiliation and frustration, to
an obsessive degree, at the world’s ignoring their people’s
calamity,” says Oron.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
April 21, 2005
Armenian Church Delegation to Depart for Inauguration of Pope
On April 23, a high-ranking delegation of the Armenian Church
representing the Catholicosate of All Armenians will depart for Vatican
City to participate in the inauguration festivities of His Holiness
Pope Benedict XVI, scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 24.
The delegation will consist of His Beatitude Archbishop Mesrob
Mutafian, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople; His Eminence
Archbishop Nerses Bozabalian from the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin;
and Rev. Fr. Drtad Ouzounian, Staff-Bearer for the Patriarch.
##
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress