Author: Babajanian Karo

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN: FOREIGN POLICY CONDUCTED BY SERZH SARGSYAN IS WRONG

25/04/2013 14:24:00
Oratert News

The foreign policy as well as the internal one conducted by Serzh
Sargsyan is wrong, the leader of the opposition movement “New Armenia”,
Raffi Hovannisian, told journalists today, as ArmInfo correspondent
reported from Tsiternakaberd.

He also added that Armenia should recall its signature from under
the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. “If we do not respect our interests,
the Armenian genocide will not be recognized”, – he said.

On April 24 the Armenian people commemorates the victims of the
first genocide on the 20th century that was committed in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915. Genocide of Armenians has been recognized by most
of the United States as well as by dozens of countries, including
Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Uruguay, Russia, Belgium, France,
Poland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Vatican, Sweden,
Lithuania.. The European Parliament passed a resolution recognizing
the fact of Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Turkey on June 18 1987
and demanded the Council of Europe to exert pressure on Turkey in
order that country recognizes the Armenian Genocide. Turkey still
denies the genocide of 1,5 million Armenians in 1915-1923.

MEMBERS OF KNESSET SAY HIGH TIME FOR RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

01:11 24.04.2013

Knesset members from the left and right on Tuesday called for Israel
to recognize the Armenian genocide, a topic which has been avoided
for years for fear of hurting diplomatic relations with Turkey,
Times of Israel reports.

“I’m aware of the sensitivity, but I’m not blaming modern-day Turkey.

The government that committed these acts was overturned by Turkey
itself,” former Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said during
a special session on the topic, marking 98 years since the series of
massacres took place. This issue cannot be turned into a political one,
he emphasized.

Rivlin also addressed the efforts to mend Israel’s ties with Turkey,
which were all but severed following the deaths of nine Turkish
nationals in the 2010 IDF raid of the Mavi Marmara as it attempted
to break a naval blockade and reach the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

“I’m sure Turkey will be an ally. I think a solution needs to be
found for this crisis, but it’s unthinkable that the Knesset ignore
this tragedy,” Rivlin stated. “We demand that people don’t deny the
Holocaust, and we can’t ignore the tragedy of another nation.”

There are huge differences between the Holocaust and the murder of the
Armenians, Rivlin told Army Radio. Without blurring those differences,
Israel must find a way to “fulfill its moral obligation of remembering
wrongs done to others.”

“Reconciliation with Turkey is an important strategic move, but it
shouldn’t affect recognition [of the Armenian genocide],” said Meretz
head Zahava Gal-on, who initiated the discussion. It’s time for Israel
to join 27 other countries and acknowledge the mass murder, she added.

Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) is also of the opinion that Israel
officially recognize the genocide. “The silence of the world in face
of the [Armenian] genocide influenced Hitler when he planned the Final
Solution,” the legislator said, adding that Israel cannot afford to
encourage forgetfulness.

“When a nation is in danger, no one cares. No one cared about the
genocide in Rwanda,” Shaked said. “The fate of every nation is in
its own hands.”

Also Tuesday, Hebrew University Professor Israel Charny, a world
expert on genocide, donated his library to the Armenian Genocide Museum
Institute; the collection included hundreds of volumes on the Holocaust
and the Armenian genocide, as well as other events in history.

GEORGIA SHOWS PROGRESS IN RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – ACTIVIST

17:59 ~U 24.04.13

Vahagn Chakhalyan, the Javakhk-based Armenian political and public
figures, arrived in Armenia on Tuesday to visit the Memorial to
Armenian Genocide victims (Tsitsernakaberd) on Wednesday.

“Our NGOs applied to Georgia’s Parliament for recognition of the
Armenian Genocide. Interestingly, Georgian governmental organizations
applied even earlier, which means certain progress,” Chakhalyan
told journalists.

“Georgia’s new authorities are well aware that it is difficult for
them to recognize the Armenian Genocide, with Georgia located between
Turkey and Azerbaijan. However, refusing recognition would be a crime
as well, what the Saakashvili regime calls it,” Chakhalyan said.

“More than 300,000 Georgians were massacred in the Ottoman Empire,
but very few people dare to mention the fact. This is the reason why
we cannot accuse Georgians of not dealing with the Armenian Genocide,”
Chakhalyan said.

Still, leading Georgian intellectuals are publicly speaking of the
Armenian Genocide and Georgian massacres, which is progress.

Armenian News – Tert.am

REP. SCHIFF COMMEMORATES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, SPEAKS ARMENIAN – VIDEO

19:08 24.04.2013
Adam Schiff, Armenian Genocide

On April 24, 2013 U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) commemorated
the Armenian Genocide, in the Armenian language, on the Floor of the
U.S. House of Representatives.

ISRAELI PARLIAMENT TO PREPARE LAW RECOGNIZING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

16:49 24/04/2013 ” POLITICS

The Israeli parliament (Knesset) is going to prepare a law recognizing
the Armenian Genocide, Ermenihaber.am news website reported, citing
NTV Turkish TV channel.

The Knesset discussed the recognition of the Armenian Genocide
on Tuesday.

Meretz deputy Zehava Gal-On said during the session that the Knesset
should endorse recognizing the Armenian Genocide despite efforts to
reconcile with Turkey. Deputies accepted a proposal to prepare a law
on the Armenian Genocide.

One commission of the Knesset was tasked with drafting the law.

The Armenian Genocide has been recognized and condemned by Uruguay
(1965), the Republic of Cyprus (1982), Argentina (1993), Russia
(1995), Canada (1996), Greece (1996), Lebanon (1997), Belgium (1998),
Italy (2000), Vatican (2000), France (2001), Switzerland (2003),
Slovakia (2004), The Netherlands (2004), Poland (2005), Germany
(2005), Venezuela (2005), Lithuania (2005), Chile (2007), Sweden
(2010). The Armenian Genocide has been recognized by Vatican, the
Council of Europe and the World Council of Churches.

Source: Panorama.am

HOLOCAUST MUSEUM URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

15:22, 24 April, 2013

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS. The Director of the Holocaust Museum in
the U.S. promised to organize a vast exhibition on the occasion of the
100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. As reports “Armenpress”
citing Skokie periodical, the Director of the Museum Rick Hirschhaut
stated that in the next month they will hold a two-day conference
titled “The Ottoman Turkish Genocides of Anatolian Christians”. Among
other things Hirschhaut underscored: “We must speak for those, whose
voices were silenced and for those who survived so we may remember and
pledge never to forget. Today, at this gathering, we are reminded of
a history that must be recognized, and remembered, and calls to the
importance of lighting the torch of truth for the world community. Our
young people – our future – must be a bridge to the future, and ensure
that we realize the lessons that were set forth by us, by the Armenian
Genocide, the Holocaust, and all such terrible atrocities.”

The fact of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottoman government has
been documented, recognized, and affirmed in the form of media
and eyewitness reports, laws, resolutions, and statements by many
states and international organizations. The complete catalogue
of all documents categorizing the 1915 wholesale massacre of the
Armenian population in Ottoman Empire as a premeditated and thoroughly
executed act of genocide, is extensive. Uruguay was the first country
to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1965. The massacres
of the Armenian people were officially condemned and recognized as a
genocide in accordance with the international law by France, Germany,
Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Poland,
Lithuania, Greece, Slovakia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Uruguay, Argentina,
Venezuela, Chile, Canada, Vatican, and Australia.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

JOINT STATEMENT

His Holiness Karekin II Catholicos of All Armenians, Holy See of Etchmiadzin
His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia, Holy See of Cilicia

We demand that Turkey return our confiscated Churches and Church Properties

In 2015, Armenians living in the Republics of Armenia and Karabagh and in
the diaspora will commemorate the 1915 Genocide of the Armenian people,
planned and executed by Ottoman Turkey.

In 1915, more than one-and-a-half million Armenians were deported and
massacred. The survivors found refuge in Eastern Armenia (the current
Republic of Armenia), Syria, Lebanon, the Arab countries and all around the
world.

Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire in Western Armenia, Cilicia and
other regions of Turkey lost all their personal belongings along with
churches, monasteries, holy places, religious and educational centres,
cultural and religious artefacts of great value, cross-stones, manuscripts
and holy pictures. In addition to deportation and genocide, Turkey
appropriated all of these belongings and artefacts under the pretext that
they were “abandoned properties.”

Ninety-eight years after the Armenian Genocide, the current Turkish
authorities, the legal successors of the Ottomans, not only deny the
Genocide, but continue to hold on to the confiscated properties and
artefacts, as well as church properties and religious treasures.

We therefore, demand the following:

1. That Turkey recognize the Armenian Genocide
2. That Turkey compensate Armenians for all their losses in human lives
and human rights
3. That Turkey return the Armenian churches, monasteries, church
properties and all spiritual and cultural monuments to their rightful and
legal owners, the Armenian people.

As we pray for the memory of our victims of the Genocide, we
condemn all violent acts against God-given human lives, all assaults on
human dignity and all acts that disrupt peaceful co-existence, “for God
[who] is a God not of disorder but of peace” (I Corinthians 14:33), invites
people to love, to live together and cooperate in peace and harmony.

We are grateful to all those people and governments who have
displayed their commitment to justice by empathizing with, assisting and
sheltering the deported survivors of the Genocide.

The Armenian people will always remain grateful to all those
governments, which, because of their commitment to justice, have condemned
the inhuman acts of the Ottoman Turks and have formally recognized the
Armenian Genocide.

On the threshold of the 100th Anniversary commemoration of the
Armenian Genocide, we shall pursue together the rightful and legal demands
for justice for the Armenian people.

Karekin II Aram I
Catholicos of All Armenians Catholicos of Cilicia
Etchmidadzin, Armenia Antelias, Lebanon

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN – RAPPELEZ-VOUS

Khachik, est n� dans le village de Siareb pr�s de Mush, (province
de Bitlis, Arm�nie occidentale). Il a �t� une victime du
g�nocide arm�nien.

mercredi 24 avril 2013, St�phane �armenews.com

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO SERVE AS A LESSON TO PREVENT IT FROM REPEATING AGAIN

13:50 ~U 24.04.13

Armenian Genocide must serve as a lesson for the international
community so that it never repeats again, acting Justice Minister of
Armenia Hrayr Tovmasyan said in Tsitsernakaberd today.

“The international community still faces problem of making the Genocide
phenomena a subject for discussion,” Hrayr Tovmasyan said.

He added that different institutions of Armenia are discussing the
necessary steps for demanding compensation and voicing Armenian
Genocide issue in different international arenas.

The minister said the events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide will vary, and added that the 100th anniversary is
neither a beginning nor the end of something but it is a fight for
justice, fight not only for compensation to the Armenian people but
a fight against crimes against humanity.

Armenian News – Tert.am

IT IS TIME FOR TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE AND ACCEPT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – IRANIAN ANALYST

April 24, 2013 | 14:42

Turkey must no longer deny the historical reality, Iranian political
analyst Hassan Beheshtipour said at an event organized by the Armenian
Cause (Hay Dat) Committee of Tehran, Alik newspaper reported.

“Although once Turkey did not recognize even the existence of the
Kurds, today Ankara is holding dialogue with them. Therefore, the time
has come for Turkey to recognize and accept the Armenian Genocide,
which will lead to negotiations and mutual understanding,” he said.

Iranian parliament deputy of Armenian origin Karen Khanlarian noted
that Iranian government officials periodically addressed this question,
and paid tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide during their
visits to Armenia.

News from Armenia – NEWS.am