Author: Chakrian Hovsep

THE TRUTH SHOULD BE PROCLAIMED LOUDLY
by Robert Fisk

ZNet, MA
March 21 2007

Stand by for a quotation to take your breath away. It’s from a letter
from my Istanbul publishers, who are chickening out of publishing
the Turkish-language edition of my book The Great War for Civilisation.

The reason, of course, is a chapter entitled "The First Holocaust",
which records the genocide of one and a half million Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks in 1915, a crime against humanity that even Lord
Blair of Kut al-Amara tried to hide by initially refusing to invite
Armenian survivors to his Holocaust Day in London.

It is, I hasten to add, only one chapter in my book about the Middle
East, but the fears of my Turkish friends were being expressed even
before the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was so cruelly
murdered outside his Istanbul office in January. And when you read the
following, from their message to my London publishers HarperCollins,
remember it is written by the citizen of a country that seriously
wishes to enter the European Community. Since I do not speak Turkish,
I am in no position to criticise the occasional lapses in Mr Osman’s
otherwise excellent English.

"We would like to denote that the political situation in Turkey
concerning several issues such as Armenian and Kurdish Problems,
Cyprus issue, European Union etc do not improve, conversely getting
worser and worser due to the escalating nationalist upheaval that
has reached its apex with the Nobel Prize of Orhan Pamuk and the
political disagreements with the EU. Most probably, this political
atmosphere will be effective until the coming presidency elections of
April 2007… Therefore we would like to undertake the publication
quietly, which means there will be no press campaign for Mr Fisk’s
book. Thus, our request from [for] Mr Fisk is to show his support to
us if any trial [is] … held against his book. We hope that Mr Fisk
and HarperCollins can understand our reservations."

Well indeedydoody, I can. Here is a publisher in a country negotiating
for EU membership for whom Armenian history, the Kurds, Cyprus
(unmentioned in my book) – even Turkey’s bid to join the EU, for
heaven’s sake – is reason enough to try to sneak my book out in
silence. When in the history of bookselling, I ask myself, has
any publisher tried to avoid publicity for his book? Well, I can
give you an example. When Taner Akcam’s magnificent A Shameful Act:
The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility was
first published in Turkish – it uses Ottoman Turkish state documents
and contemporary Turkish statements to prove that the genocide was
a terrifying historical fact – the Turkish historian experienced an
almost identical reaction. His work was published "quietly" in Turkey –
and without a single book review.

Now I’m not entirely unsympathetic with my Turkish publishers. It is
one thing for me to rage and roar about their pusillanimity. But I
live in Beirut, not in Istanbul. And after Hrant Dink’s foul murder,
I’m in no position to lecture my colleagues in Turkey to stand up
to the racism that killed Dink. While I’m sipping my morning coffee
on the Beirut Corniche, Mr Osman could be assaulted in the former
capital of the Ottoman empire. But there’s a problem nonetheless.

Some months earlier, my Turkish publishers said that their lawyers
thought that the notorious Law 301 would be brought against them –
it is used to punish writers for being "unTurkish" – in which case
they wanted to know if I, as a foreigner (who cannot be charged under
301), would apply to the court to stand trial with them. I wrote that
I would be honoured to stand in a Turkish court and talk about the
genocide. Now, it seems, my Turkish publishers want to bring my book
out like illicit pornography – but still have me standing with them
in the dock if right-wing lawyers bring charges under 301!

I understand, as they write in their own letter, that they do not want
to have to take political sides in the "nonsensical collision between
nationalists and neo-liberals", but I fear that the roots of this
problem go deeper than this. The sinister photograph of the Turkish
police guards standing proudly next to Dink’s alleged murderer after
his arrest shows just what we are up against here. Yet still our own
Western reporters won’t come clean about the Ottoman empire’s foul
actions in 1915. When, for example, Reuters sent a reporter, Gareth
Jones, off to the Turkish city of Trabzon – where Dink’s supposed
killer lived – he quoted the city’s governor as saying that Dink’s
murder was related to "social problems linked to fast urbanisation". A
"strong gun culture and the fiery character of the people" might be
to blame.

Ho hum. I wonder why Reuters didn’t mention a much more direct and
terrible link between Trabzon and the Armenians. For in 1915, the
Turkish authorities of the city herded thousands of Armenian women
and children on to boats, set off into the Black Sea – the details
are contained in an original Ottoman document unearthed by Akcam –
"and thrown off to drown". Historians may like to know that the man
in charge of these murder boats was called Niyazi Effendi. No doubt
he had a "fiery character".

Yet still this denial goes on. The Associated Press this week
ran a story from Ankara in which its reporter, Selcan Hacaoglu,
repeated the same old mantra about there being a "bitter dispute"
between Armenia and Turkey over the 1915 slaughter, in which Turkey
"vehemently denies that the killings were genocide". When will the
Associated Press wake up and cut this cowardly nonsense from its
reports? Would the AP insert in all its references to the equally
real and horrific murder of six million European Jews that right-wing
Holocaust negationists "vehemently deny" that there was a genocide?

No, they would not.

But real history will win. Last October, according to local newspaper
reports, villagers of Kuru in eastern Turkey were digging a grave for
one of their relatives when they came across a cave containing the
skulls and bones of around 40 people – almost certainly the remains
of 150 Armenians from the town of Oguz who were murdered in Kuru on
14 June 1915. The local Turkish gendarmerie turned up to examine the
cave last year, sealed its entrance and ordered villagers not to speak
of what they found. But there are hundreds of other Kurus in Turkey
and their bones, too, will return to haunt us all. Publishing books
"quietly" will not save us.

RICE DODGES QUESTIONS ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 21 2007

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that the
United States should not be involved in a dispute between Turkey and
Armenia over whether the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians almost
a century ago constituted genocide.

Under intense questioning from Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the sponsor
of a resolution that would declare that Turkey’s Ottoman predecessor
state committed genocide, Rice repeatedly avoided answering whether
she believed there was any basis for historical debate on the matter.

"What we’ve encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have
joint historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts
to examine their past, and in examining their past to get over it,"
she said. "I don’t think it helps that process of reconciliation for
the United States to enter this debate at that level."

The dispute involves the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
during the waning years of the Ottoman Empire. Armenian advocates,
backed by many historians, contend they died in an organized genocide;
the Turks say they were victims of widespread chaos and governmental
breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the years before
Turkey was born in 1923.

RULING PARTY REFUSES TO INVESTIGATE ‘ROGUE’ GOVERNOR
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 21 2007

The governing Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) on Wednesday refused
to investigate allegations that the controversial governor of the
southeastern Syunik region affiliated with the HHK bullied a prominent
opposition leader and obstructed his recent visit to the area.

The leader, Vazgen Manukian, toured Syunik last week together with
several other senior members of his National Democratic Union (AZhM).

He alleged on Tuesday that local authorities prevented them from
holding indoors gatherings with voters. He said they were even barred
from spending a night in the regional capital Kapan and were barely
able to check into a hotel in the nearby town of Goris.

Manukian claimed to have received a threatening phone call in his
hotel room from an unknown man who warned him to stay away from Syunik
until the May 12 parliamentary elections. He said he is confident
that the anonymous caller is connected with the Republican Governor
Surik Khachatrian, also known for his "Liska" nickname.

Goris and surrounding villages have long been considered an exclusive
zone of influence of Khachatrian and members of his extended family.

Khachatrian, who is seen as a protege of Defense Minister Serzh
Sarkisian, has tolerated little dissent both in the Goris area and
the rest of Syunik.

"The people of Syunik live under an ordinary feudal system," charged
Manukian. Branding the governor as an "uneducated criminal," the
veteran oppositionist said the HHK should bring him to account if it
is serious about its promises of turning Armenia into a democratic
and rule-of-law state.

"This is not a separate case of insults and intimidation of a single
citizen," he said. "This is a phenomenon illustrating the situation
in Armenia."

But the HHK’s parliamentary leader, Galust Sahakian, made it clear
that the ruling party, which plans to win the upcoming elections,
has no intention to censure Khachatrian or look into Manukian’s claims.

"That is not a matter of political evaluations," he told RFE/RL. "Mr.
Manukian had better ask law-enforcement bodies to conduct an
investigation."

Manukian, whose party is boycotting the vote, did not deny that
one of the aims of his trip to Syunik was to campaign against
Aleksandr Sarkisian, the defense minister’s flamboyant brother
who is running for parliament in a constituency that encompasses
the Goris area. His main challenger is Samvel Babayan, the former
military leader of Nagorno-Karabakh who claims to be in opposition
to Armenia’s leadership.

In a recent interview with RFE/RL, Manukian said that he will try to
help Babayan get elected because he believes "every ballot cast for
Aleksandr Sarkisian is an insult to the Armenian people."

The AZhM leader came up with another argument at a news conference
on Tuesday. "If Serzh Sarkisian’s brother is defeated there, that
will be a big blow to Serzh Sarkisian," he said. "And I want Serzh
Sarkisian to get a big blow."

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SIGNS LAW ON TAX PRIVILEGES FOR MEGHRI-KAJARAN GAS PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION WORK

Noyan Tapan
Mar 20 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 20, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian President Robert
Kocharian on March 15 signed the laws on tax privileges in aviation
and construction work of the Meghri-Kajaran gas pipeline, as well
as laws on making amendments and additions to to the RA Water Code,
the RA Administrative Infringements Code, the Civil Procedure Code,
the Criminal Procedure Code, and to the following laws: on the RA
Control Chamber, on organization and Conducting of Check-Ups in the RA,
on Licensing, on State Duty, on Energy, on Electronic Communication, on
Advocacy, on Court Service, on Court Composition, on Justice Council,
and on the Public Services Regulatiory Body.

According to the RA President’s press service, on March 16 the Armenian
president signed the RA law on making an amendment to the RA Criminal
Procedure Code.

IRAN SEES NO OBSTACLES TO BROADER RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
March 19, 2007 Monday

Iran does not see any obstacles to an all-round expansion of relations
with Armenia, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a joint
press conference with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on Monday.

"There are no obstacles to an expansion of ties with neighbouring
friendly Armenia," Ahmadinejad said after launching a gas pipeline
between the two countries.

The Iranian and Armenian presidents also discussed how to strengthen
relations in the fields of trade, energy, and transport.

"Today we witnessed the launch of an important project designed
to strengthen and expand relations between the two countries,"
Ahmadinejad said.

Kocharyan said the opening of a gas pipeline with Iran is a "historical
event" and "a new chapter" of Armenian-Iranian relations.

"Fifteen years ago in Megri, on the border with Iran, there were
only several rows of barbed wire on the state border of the Soviet
Union. Today the situation is totally different. Last year, 600,000
tonnes of cargoes were transported by the bridge built across the
border river Araks," the president said.

Ten years ago, the energy systems of the two countries were not
linked. Now they are planning to build a third high-voltage power
line and jointly build a hydropower plant on the Araks.

Kocharyan described the dynamics of bilateral relations as "exemplary".

"The two countries have agreed to refrain from steps that one of them
can consider unfriendly," the president said.

In his words, Armenia and Iran are trying to implement economic
projects that will establish solid links between their economies.

The total length of the gas pipeline is 141 kilometres (40 kilometres
running via Armenia) and its diameter is 700 millimetres. It will link
the two countries’ gas transportation systems. The pipeline runs from
Iranian Tebriz to the Armenian border and then from the Armenian border
settlement of Megri to the miners’ town of Kadzharan, where the pipe
will be connected to an operating line to Yerevan. Its throughput
capacity should be increased, to which end it will be necessary to
lay a new gas pipeline from southeast to central parts of the republic.

According to Armenian authorities, the gas pipeline is designed
exclusively for the republic’s internal needs and has no capacity
for transit gas supplies. "We are regarding this project as a serious
matter in enhancing Armenia’s energy security and diversifying natural
gas import routes," Kocharyan sated.

The trunk line will become an alternative to the trans-Caucasian gas
pipeline running from the North Caucasus to the Trans-Caucasus area
(Mozdok-Tbilisi-Yerevan) along which Russian natural gas is supplied
to Armenia via Georgia. Over the past 15 years, the pipeline has
been repeatedly blown up on the Georgian territory due to which gas
supplies to Armenia were interrupted, causing a crisis in the Armenian
energy system.

The intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the gas
pipeline was signed between Armenia and Iran in Yerevan on May 13,
2004 and the laying of the pipeline started simultaneously from the
two sides on November 30, 2004. The cost of the Armenian section of
the pipeline is 120 million U.S. dollars.

While at the initial stage the throughput capacity of the pipeline will
be 1.1 billion cubic metres of gas, it will grow to 2.3 billion cubic
metres of gas annually by 2019. To sustain this increase, it will be
necessary to lay 197 kilometres of a new pipeline from southeast closer
to the central part of Armenia at the Kadzharan-Sisian-Dzhemruk-Ararat
section.

Iranian gas will be supplied in exchange for Armenian electricity,
Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsesyan said.

Under the agreement, Iran will supply 36 billion cubic metres of gas
to Armenia in the next 20 years, getting electricity in exchange.

NEWS RELEASE
Armenian Bar Association
March 12, 2007:
Antranig Baronian, (610) 504-4856
[email protected]
Roger Ashodian, [email protected]
Executive Director Betty A. Jangotchian
P.O. Box 29111
Los Angeles, CA 90029
Tel: 323-666-6288
Fax: 323-666-6288
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

Raffi K. Hovannisian, First Foreign Minister of Armenia to Address
Philadelphia Community on March 21, 2007

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Armenian Bar Association announced that
Raffi K. Hovannisian, who as an Armenian American became the first
Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia when Armenia achieved
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, will address the
Philadelphia area Armenian community at Terhanian Hall, St. Gregory
the Illuminator Armenian Church, 8701 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA,
starting at 8:00 p.m. After serving as Foreign Minister,
Mr. Hovannisian founded independent Armenia’s first think tank in
1994, the Armenian Center for National and International Studies,
("ACNIS"; see ), headquartered in Yerevan, Armenia,
where he continues to serve as President. Mr. Hovannisian will
discuss the present activities of ACNIS and the challenges facing
Armenia and the Armenian people at the Terhanian Hall event, his first
public appearance in the Philadelphia area for more than a decade.
The event is free and open to the public, but tax-deductible donations
to ACNIS are welcome.

In founding ACNIS, which currently has a staff of 18 scholars
in a broad range of academic disciplines and support staff, Mr.
Hovannisian sought to provide the scholarly research to support
Armenia’s emergence as an independent nation with a viable economy and
strategic relationships in the community of nations. "Raffi
Hovannisian has been a leading light in Armenia’s struggle to make the
transition from an authoritarian Soviet regime to a truly democratic
society in which the rule of law is paramount," said Roger Ashodian,
one of the event’s organizers who first met Mr. Hovannisian in
graduate school. ACNIS, a leading independent strategic research
center in Yerevan, focuses in its research on a comprehensive agenda
of foreign and public policy issues, which are articulated
analytically in political and academic arenas around the world. The
Center also hosts conferences and other visits by scholars from
leading academic institutions around the world. In its most recent
initiative, on March 9th ACNIS convened the latest in its
international visitors series entitled "Elections and Democratic
Consolidation", a presentation and panel discussion on Armenia’s
upcoming parliamentary elections.

Mr. Hovannisian’s profession is international law. He is a
graduate of UCLA, with a major in history and near eastern studies,
has a masters degree in international relations and Soviet Affairs
from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and
obtained his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

The Armenian Bar Association was also the inspiration of
Raffi Hovannisian. The Armenian Bar Association was formed in 1989 to
provide an arena for lawyers of Armenian heritage and other interested
individuals to come together socially and professionally and to
address the legal concerns of the Armenian community. With the
creation of an independent Republic of Armenia, the Association
undertook the task of helping to build and encourage the growth of
democratic institutions in Armenia.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Chechelashvili: GUAM works at formation of peacekeeping party
16.03.2007 18:29 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The GUAM works at formation of peacekeeping party,
said Valeriy Chechelashvili, GUAM Secretary General, First Deputy
Foreign Minister of Georgia. The general staffs of the GUAM member
states are engaged in the work, he said adding that a GUAM police
contingent will be formed as well, reports Novosti Georgia.

Azeri private killed in shooting in Nagornyy Karabakh – agency

Azerbaijani news agency APA, Baku
15 Mar 07

15 March: An Azerbaijani army soldier has been killed in an Armenian
cease-fire violation, military sources have told APA.
Private Dilqam Sirinov died as a result of fire opened by Armenians from
their positions in the occupied village of Seyidli in Agdam District.
Sirinov was called up by the Ismayilli district military enlistment office in
July 2006. Attempts to get comments from the Defence Ministry have failed.

Armenia actively cooperating within CIS military treaty – official

Arminfo
15 Mar 07

Yerevan, 15 March: Armenia is an active member of the [CIS] Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and sees its security within the
activity of this organization. CSTO Secretary General Nikolay
Bordyuzha said this today during a meeting with students of Yerevan
State University.

Bordyuzha said that all government structures in Armenia have been
cooperating with the CSTO. He talked of the organization’s history and
said that the CSTO was established in a period when its member states
were only beginning to form their structures during the disintegration
of the USSR. [Passage omitted: more on history of CSTO]

The CSTO member states have also been against the proposal by the GUAM
(Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) to discuss the "frozen
conflicts" in the UN. Bordyuzha referred to Armenia’s participation in
the CSTO and said that the republic was able to purchase Russian arms
by Russian prices, and Armenian servicemen can study in Russian
military institutions for free.

"It is important for us to build a comprehensive security system. This
is why the cooperation develops in different directions," Bordyuzha
said. Joint work in the field of overcoming technical and natural
disasters will be a new direction of cooperation within the
CSTO. Peace-keeping will be another direction.

Bordyuzha said that a package of documents was being prepared within
the framework of the CSTO, on the basis of which peace-keeping forces
[presumably of the CIS] will be created. They will act with a UN
mandate, and not only in the CSTO member states, but also in other
countries.

Bordyuzha reminded that the CSTO member states have certain
responsibilities, including that they must not built bases belonging
to other countries on their own territory without consulting all the
members of the organization.

Comparing the CSTO with NATO, Bordyuzha said that the alliance was
created more than half a century ago and major efforts had been
invested to present its activity as positive. "We cannot carry out
similar awareness activity, but within our abilities we do carry out
certain awareness work about our activity," the CSTO Secretary General
said. "We do a lot to ensure common security," he added.

TWO BOOKS ON ARMENIAN THEMES AT ONCE PUBLISHED IN FRANCE

YEREVAN, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Two works on
Armenian themes, Louis Carzou’s "The Eighth Hill" ("La Huitieme
Colline") novel and Laurence Ritter’s "Long Way of Armenians, History
and Present of Armenian Diaspora" ("La Longue Marche des Armeniens,
Histoire et Devenir d’une Diapors") research on Armenian themes, were
at once published in France. Armenian presentation of the books took
place on March 15 at the Caucasus Media Institute.

The "Eighth Hill" novel is the first fiction work of French Armenian
journalist, LCI editor-in-chief Louis Carzou. The author chose a
young, progressive Turk journalist as the main hero of the novel. The
Turk journalist accidentally got to know that his ancestors became
apostate after the Armenian Genocide. In the author’s words, he made
just this individual conflict and contradictory situation a mean to
again touch upon the Armenian Genocide issue. L. Carzou is sure that
every Turkish family has for years carried the consequence of the
Armenian Genocide as a stigma.

Sociologist Laurence Ritter living in Armenia mentioned that the "Long
Way of Armenians, History and Present of Armenian Diapora" research is
the result of his 5-year work. The research consists of three
parts. In the first part the author involved his researches about
Diasporan Armenians carried out in different colonies, their life way,
similarities and differences. The author’s researches about modern
Armenia and about what meaning it has for Diasporan Armenians were
involved in the second part of the book.

"The circumstance was especially important for me that the Armenian
people, being the victim of the genocide, today seems to already leave
the victim’s status, demanding from the international community to
respect its ancestors’ memory," Mr. Laurence emphasized.