Author: Chalian Meline

Bloomberg
Oct 14 2007

Hoyer Says House to Pass Armenian Genocide Resolution (Update1)

By Nadine Elsibai

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he expects
the House to pass a non-binding resolution that labels the World War
I-era killing of Armenians by Turks as genocide before Nov. 16, when
Congress is slated to recess for the year.

Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing today on separate news
shows, said the threat of Turkish reprisals would not stop the vote.
“I said if it passed the committee that we would bring it to the
floor,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week” program.

Turkey recalled its ambassador after the resolution was passed Oct.
10 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Turkish government
warned the vote threatens its strategic partnership with the U.S.

Turkey, the only Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, is home to an air base the U.S. uses to re-supply
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also is one of the few
predominantly Muslim nations to have close ties with Israel as well
as Arab countries.

Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said today on “Fox News Sunday” that he
raised the issue repeatedly with Turkish leaders during his 26 years
in Congress and “never once” did they say “this is the right
time.”

He said that he and Pelosi met with the Turkish ambassador to remind
him that the two countries are allies.

Hoyer said they told the Ambassador Nabi Sensoy that the resolution
was “a historical observation” that’s “not about your government.
It is not about the Turkish people. It is about a historical event
that happened that we need to remember to preclude its happening
again.”

U.S. officials called their Turkish counterparts after the panel’s
vote to stress that the administration will do all it can to block
the bill’s passage by the full House. Turkey denies Ottoman Turks
killed 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915.

No Appeal From Bush

Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she has had no appeal from
President George W. Bush to block the vote. “We’ve never had a
conversation about it,” she said. “I’ve heard from the secretary of
state and others in the administration, but I’ve never heard from the
president.”

“This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government
has always said about what has happened — what happened at that
time,” Pelosi said. “It is nonbinding. It is a statement made by 23
other countries. We would be the 24th.”

`Subject for Historians’

House Minority Leader John Boehner, who appeared on Fox, urged Pelosi
not to bring the resolution to a floor vote.

“What happened 90 years ago ought to be a subject for historians to
sort out, not politicians here in Washington,” Boehner, an Ohio
Republican, said. “Bringing this bill to the floor may be the most
irresponsible thing I’ve seen this new Congress do this year.”

The head of Turkey’s armed forces told the newspaper Milliyet he
called the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and told him
the U.S. has “shot itself in the foot.”

No legislative assembly in an ally of Turkey would pass such a
measure, Yasar Buyukanit said, adding he hopes the full House would
defeat the resolution, according to Milliyet.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the resolution a
“really bad idea.”

“We all know” the killings occurred, McConnell, a Kentucky
Republican, said on ABC. “I don’t think the Congress passing this
resolution is a good idea at any point. But particularly not a good
idea when Turkey is cooperating with us in many ways, which ensures
greater safety for our soldiers.”

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s national
security adviser, said on Cable News Network, “I never realized the
House of Representatives was some sort of an academy of learning that
passes judgment on historical events.” As for the House passing
resolutions on whether the Armenian killings “should be classified
as genocide or a huge massacre is I don’t think any of its
business,” he said.

Reuters
Oct 13 2007

Serbia held to 0-0 draw at Armenia in Euro qualifier

YEREVAN, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Serbia’s hopes of reaching the Euro 2008
finals suffered a setback when they were held to a 0-0 draw at
Armenia in their Group A qualifier on Saturday.
The result left Serbia fourth with 17 points from 11 matches, level
with third-placed Portugal who were playing at Azerbaijan later on
Saturday.
Poland, who were at home to Kazakhstan in another evening kickoff,
lead the group with 21 points from 11 matches, two more than Finland
who were away to fifth-placed Belgium.
Needing a win to close in on a berth at next year’s tournament, the
Serbs started with an attacking 4-4-2 formation but it was the
Armenians who created the better chances and only poor finishing on a
bumpy pitch denied them a win.
Levon Pachachjan and Samvel Melkonyan tormented the Serbian defence
with darting runs on either flank, the former missing the best chance
in the first half when his volley from eight metres hit goalkeeper
Vladimir Stojkovic in the head.
Armenia keeper Roman Berezovsky did well to keep out shots from Marko
Pantelic and Zdravko Kuzmanovic before the home side’s Artavazd
Karamyan and Aram Hakobyan missed sitters with the goal at their
mercy in the closing stages.

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 12 2007

There is no real threat to physical existence of the Armenian
community of Turkey, Russian political expert thinks

ArmInfo. There is no real threat to physical existence of the
Armenian community of Turkey, chief expert of Committee on CIS
affairs of Russian State Duma, known Russian political expert
Andranik Migranyan told ArmInfo correspondent when commenting on
possible threat to the Armenian community of Turkey, if US Congress
recognizes the Armenian genocide.

He also added that separate cases may happen, but they used to happen
before adoption of this initiative as well. , the political expert
said. Migranyan said that being in Turkey within the frames of the
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation commission, he assured that several
generation of the Turkish society grew up knowing nothing about the
events of the years when the genocide happened. , – A.Migranyan
concluded.

Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2007 Thursday

Turkish court gives suspended jail term to son of assassinated
journalist

A Turkish court on Thursday found the son of assassinated ethnic
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink guilty of insulting the Turkish
identity but spared him jail, Anatolia news agency reported.

Arat Dink and a colleague, Serkis Seropyan, were given a one-year
suspended prison term after reproducing an interview in their
newspaper in which Hrant Dink, who was killed by an ultranationalist
youth in January, said that the massacre of Armenians in 1915-17 in
Ottoman Turkey was a genocide.

The judges at the court in Istanbul ruled that Dink and Seropyan,
respectively the chief editor and a top writer for Agos magazine, a
Turkish-Armenian language review, should not go to prison because
they had no criminal record, Anatolia reported.

The two journalists were charged under article 301 of the Turkish
penal code which calls for the punishment of those who "insult
Turkish national identity", the agency said.

The interview with Hrant Dink was published in July, 2006, when he
was editor of Agos.

Hrant Dink’s comments often outraged Turkish nationalists and he was
also found guilty of insulting Turkish identity and given a six month
suspended jail term. He was gunned down outside the magazine’s
offices in January.

A teenager who has confessed to the murder and a number of alleged
accomplices went on trial in July.

Stratfor
Oct 12 2007

Turkey: U.S. Ambassador Recalled
October 11, 2007 23 26 GMT

Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy was recalled from the United States on
Oct. 11 after a U.S. House of Representatives committee passed a
resolution that classifies the 1915 massacre of Armenians as
genocide, Turkish NTV television company reported. Sensoy was
recalled "for consultations," a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman
said. The Turkish naval commander also has canceled his U.S. visit.

TURKEY’S CONSUMERS’ UNION CALLS FOR BOYCOTT OF U.S.-MADE PRODUCTS
Editor: Yan Liang

Xinhua, China

Oct 11 2007

ANKARA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) — Turkey’s Consumers’ Union Thursday called
on Turkish people to boycott U.S.-made products after the U.S. House
of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution
calling 1915 Armenian incident a genocide.

On behalf of the Consumers’ Union, Bulent Deniz said in a written
statement that "we decided not to use U.S.-made products to protest
the approval of the resolution by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs
Committee."

Meanwhile, a group of members of the Workers’ Party (IP) laid a
black wraith in front of the U.S. Embassy building in Ankara and
draw a crescent-and-star on its wall to protest the approval of
the resolution.

Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs
Committee approved the resolution by 27 votes to 21. The bill declares
the killings of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 a genocide.

The resolution drew immediately Turkish government’s condemnation,
though it would have no binding effect on the U.S. foreign policy.

Armenians say more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
systematic genocide under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

But Turkey insists the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos
and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in
the years before 1923 when the modern Turkey was founded.

Although the U.S. leadership has warned against the pass of the
resolution, the U.S. lawmakers gave their nod to the bill.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged Congress not to pass
the bill, saying that it would do "great harm" to U.S. relations with
Turkey, which in Bush’s word as "a key ally in NATO and in the global
war on terror."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert
Gates had also denounced the measure, saying "The passage of this
resolution at this time would be very problematic for everything we
are trying to do in the Middle East."

Some 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey’s
airspace, as does about a third of the fuel used by the U.S. military
in Iraq, according to Gates.

HARMAN’S FLIP-FLOP ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION ATTACKED
By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau

Los Angeles Daily News

Oct 10 2007
CA

Jane Harman confronts critics over her alleged flip-flopping on the
Armenian Genocide resolution

WASHINGTON – With the House Committee on Foreign Affairs voting today
on declaring the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey genocide,
a Southland congresswoman is coming under fire for flip-flopping on
the emotionally charged resolution.

Although she co-sponsored it, Rep. Jane Harman last week wrote to
the chairman of the committee urging him not to bring the resolution
to a vote and declaring that she will vote against it if it reaches
the floor.

Amid shouts of "genocide denier" and "You are a hypocrite and liar,"
the El Segundo Democrat defended her letter Saturday to about 70
Armenian students who confronted her at a political rally in Lakewood.

"I am not denying it," Harman said of the World War I-era killings
that Armenians and many historians estimate at more than 1.5 million
and declare were part of a planned genocide campaign.

"I come from a community where there was genocide against my people,
too," Harman, who is Jewish, told the students. But, she said,
Turkey at the moment is "exercising a role in the Middle East that
is very important" and she didn’t want to risk creating a rift with
the U.S. ally.

In the letter, she told Rep. Tom Lantos, the San Mateo Democrat who
chairs the foreign-affairs panel, that, although she sympathizes
with the sentiments in the resolution she co-sponsored, she would
vote against it because of "the timing."

The controversy comes as today’s committee vote marks the first time
in recent memory that the genocide resolution stands a significant
chance of making it to the House floor. While the bill passed the
same committee when it was under Republican control two years ago,
then-speaker Dennis Hastert blocked it from going to a full House vote.

This time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, is a co-sponsor
and she has vowed to bring it to the floor, possibly by Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Abdullah Gul warned the U.S. on Tuesday
that relations between the two countries will suffer if Congress
declares the events a genocide. The Bush administration also is urging
Republican lawmakers to reject the resolution.

Turkey maintains that there was no plan for systematic extermination,
and that Armenians were killed when they joined forces with the French
and Russians to attack Turks in the chaotic aftermath of the war.

Zanku Armenian, a board member of the Armenian National Committee of
America’s Western Region in Glendale, called Harman’s new position
"the height of deception and hypocrisy."

Vahram Shemmassian, director of the Armenian Studies Department at
Cal State Northridge, said today’s vote will be a test for how the
U.S. and its leaders stand on human rights.

"The Armenian genocide was a crime against humanity and if the
United States of America is fighting for human rights, this is a good
example of defending human rights and standing for American values,"
said Shemmassian.

BUSH DENIES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by Pamela Geller

Atlas Shrugs
October 8, 2007 Monday 9:25 AM EST

Oct. 8, 2007 (Atlas Shrugs delivered by Newstex) — Another huge
capitulation …… this one to the Turksand their new Islamist
President Gul ("there is no ‘moderate Islam’"). Bush refuses to
term the murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire – a genocide. If the President won’t call genocide
genocide and he won’t utter the name of the mortal enemy we face,
Islamism, we are in for a world of pain. I can smell the Condarasha
…………….BUSH REJECTS TURKEY ‘GENOCIDE’ TAGNew Age.Au THE US
President has opposed moves to legally term the deaths of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire a "genocide", backing
Turkey’s stand on the issue. "The President has described the events
of 1915 as ‘one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century’, but
believes the determination of whether or not the events constitute a
genocide should be a matter for historical inquiry, not legislation,"
said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. The comments came after
George Bush talked with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and discussed legislation before the US Congress, which describes the
deaths of Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as genocide. "The President
reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the passage of which
would be harmful to US relations with Turkey," Mr Johndroe

OUR ARGUMENTS WERE SPELLED OUT IN MOSCOW

Lragir
Oct 9 2007
Armenia

What are the thoughts of Armen Ashotyan, young Republican, on the
statement by a younger Republican but more experienced activist
Serge Sargsyan in Moscow that Armenia must recognize Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity, and Azerbaijan must recognize the right of NKR
for self-determination. The reporters stood a chance to learn Armen
Ashotyan’s opinion on October 9 at the Tesaket press club.

"I am sorry but I think turning the statement about the territorial
integrity into a political show is at least political illiteracy,
let alone ill-mindedness, because according to the international
law and regulations by which Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are guided
through the process of international recognition of NKR, the issue
of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has nothing to do with the
right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh for self-determination,"
Armen Ashotyan says.

Does this issue have anything to do with the territories which are
referred to as liberated or occupied, or are viewed as a security area,
the reporters asked Armen Ashotyan?

"Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was proclaimed in the Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous Region of the former Soviet Union and the region of
Shahumyan. If you remember the provision of the NKR Constitution,
NKR was proclaimed in the territory which it controls. Here the
opinions of Azerbaijani, the UN and international lawyers are placed
inferior to the right of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for
self-determination. Azerbaijan says it cannot hold a referendum in one
territory because according to its Constitution, a referendum must
be held all over the republic. The government of Nagorno-Karabakh
can make legal decisions regarding its society.

Maybe the problem of a new referendum is there, the problems may
solve but not fully, but the minimum space will be maintained which
is essential to national security," Armen Ashotyan says.

According to him, the issue cannot be manipulated. Ashotyan says Serge
Sargsyan spelled out our arguments of the de jure formulation of the
de facto problem.

DAVIT HARUTYUNYAN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MONITORING COMMITTEE MEMBER

Panorama.am
20:23 08/10/2007

Today Davit Harutyunyan, leader of the Armenian delegation to the
European Paraliament, was invited for an interview at the National
Assembly to tell the work accomplished by the delegation at the fourth
session of the parliament.

The opinion already exists that the participation by the Armenian
delegation was active. Delegation members participated in both
committees and political groups, including the following: Davit
Harutyunyan, European Democracy; Raffi Hovhannisian, European
People’s Party; Armen Rustamyan, socialist group; Grigor Margaryan,
Liberal Democratic; Hermine Naghdalyan, Liberal Democratic; and Avet
Adonts, YJK.

Besides this, Harutyunyan was nominated a member of the monitoring
committee, and was approved by the executive committee. Armenian
delegation members gave four speeches during the course of the session.

We note that the delegation was made up of new members, including
Davit Harutyunyan (leader), Armen Rustamyan, Hermine Naghdalyan,
Aved Adonts, Grigor Margaryan, V. Hovhannisyan, Raffi Hovhannisian,
and Mher Shahgeldyan.