Author: Chmshkian Vicken

MUTAFIAN: RESOLUTION TURNS INTO TOOL FOR US DOMESTIC POLITICS

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 16 2007

Mesrob Mutafian, patriarch of Turkish Armenians, said they opposed
to the resolution regarding Armenian allegations on the incidents of
1915 which was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee
on Foreign Affairs.

Patriarch Mutafian visited the Santa Clause Church in Demre town of
the southern city of Antalya.

He told reporters during the visit that the resolution became a tool of
domestic policy in the United States, and called on people to exclude
Turkish citizens of Armenian origin from discussions over the issue.

He said that they will do everything in their power to prevent passage
of the resolution by the full House.

Recalling that Prime Minister Erdogan earlier proposed Armenia to set
up a joint commission of historians to deal with the issue, Mutafian
added that it was a significant offer.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION CAUSES OUTRAGE IN TURKEY

News Hour Extra (PBS)
Oct 16 2007

Despite opposition by Turkish leaders and President Bush, the
U.S. House of Representatives is moving forward on a resolution calling
the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a "genocide."

The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution on October
10. It will be voted on by the entire House of Representatives by
mid-November.

Turkey’s Reaction

The subject of the Armenian killings in the early 1900s is highly
political and heated in Turkey.

Citizens staged protests against the U.S. measure in the streets of
Turkey’s major cities and the country’s leaders have publicly rejected
the House panel vote.

After recalling its ambassador from the United States, the government
of Turkey issued a statement of protest.

"The United States of America legitimized the Armenian genocide
claim, which has swung over Turkey’s head like a stick," said Turkish
Vice-President Erkan Onsel.

Reading and Discussion Questions "The U.S. has made it clear once
again that it targets Turkey."

The Turkish armed forces chief went one step further, telling the
newspaper Milliyet that "we could not explain this to our public. The
U.S., in that respect, has shot itself in the foot."

The debate over ‘genocide’

The resolution refers to a period of time from 1915 to 1917 when as
many as 1.5 million Armenians were massacred in the final years of
the Turkish- run Ottoman Empire.

The overwhelming majority of historians call the event as a genocide,
which is defined as "violent crimes committed against groups with
the intent to destroy the existence of the group."

However, Turkey only acknowledges a smaller number of deaths occurred,
and denies that they constitute genocide because they occurred during a
time of unrest and fighting between populations of the Ottoman Empire.

The Turkish government has spent millions of dollars on a public
relations campaign portraying the Armenian genocide as false, including
full page ads in major U.S. newspapers saying the resolution is a
biased interpretation of the tragic events.

But according to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents
a district with a large number of Armenian Americans, a resolution
declaring the killings genocide is 90 years overdue.

"While that may have been a long time ago, genocide is taking place
now in Darfur, it did within recent memory in Rwanda, so as long as
there is genocide there is need to speak out against it," Pelosi said.

History of the killings

Starting in the fifteenth century, most of modern Armenia was part
of the vast Ottoman Empire ruled by Muslim Turks.

In 1908, a group called the Young Turks took over government of the
Ottoman Empire in a revolution supported by the Armenian population.

The Young Turk government initially promised improvements in the
treatment of ethnic minorities, but after gaining power the group
turned on the Armenians.

In 1915, during the early stages of World War I, Turkey was facing the
threat of attack by both Russia and England. Claiming the Armenian
population might instigate an internal rebellion, the government
began to round up, kill, torture and deport Armenians, according to
a U.S. Library of Congress study.

After the attacks, many of the survivors fled the area and migrated
to other countries, particularly eastward to Russia.

The Ottoman government was defeated in World War I. But by 1917,
fewer than 200,000 of the roughly three million Armenians living in
Turkey before the war remained, the study found.

Relations with the U.S.

Both President Bush and the U.S. secretary of defense made public
statements encouraging Congress not to pass the resolution because
of potential damage to diplomatic relations.

The U.S. military uses Turkey as a key supply route for troops in Iraq,
and Turkey has remained America’s strongest Muslim ally, causing the
country to lose face within the rest of the Muslim world.

At the same time, Turkey has been threatening to invade the relatively
stable northern region of Iraq, known as Kurdistan, to fight Kurdish
terrorists who have crossed into Turkey and have planned sporadic
terrorist attacks.

With emotions running high, diplomats worry that action in the
U.S. House could jeopardize American efforts to keep Turkey out of Iraq

"I don’t think that anybody who’s ever visited Turkey can be in any
doubt that Turks, at all levels, of all levels of education and all
parts of the country, view this kind of a resolution as criticism,"
Mark Parris, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey told the NewsHour.

"All of them believe this will be a major setback, because it is
perceived as a major insult to Turkish credibility, honor by a
long-standing ally."

In 1915, during the early stages of World War I, Turkey was facing the
threat of attack by both Russia and England. Claiming the Armenian
population might instigate an internal rebellion, the government
began to round up, kill, torture and deport Armenians, according to
a U.S. Library of Congress study.

After the attacks, many of the survivors fled the area and migrated
to other countries, particularly eastward to Russia.

The Ottoman government was defeated in World War I. But by 1917,
fewer than 200,000 of the roughly three million Armenians living in
Turkey before the war remained, the study found.

— Compiled by Talea Miller for NewsHour Extra

july-dec07/turkey_10-15.html

THE ARMENIAN RESOLUTION: PURE GRANDSTANDING
By Timothy R. Furnish

History News Network, WA
Oct 15 2007

Mr. Furnish, Ph.D (Islamic History), is Assistant Professor, History,
Georgia Perimeter College, Dunwoody, GA 30338. Mr. Furnish is the
author of Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, Their Jihads and Osama bin
Laden (Praeger, 2005). He is the proprietor of

House Resolution 106, first proposed when the Democrats took over
control of Congress back in January 2007, was just voted out of the
Foreign Affairs Committee last week and, according to Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer (D-MD), will pass before Congress adjourns next month.

H.R. 106 puts the government of the United States on record
as affirming that the Ottoman Empire pepetrated "genocide" on its
Armenian subjects, killing at least 1.5 million of them between
1915 and 1923; furthermore, it "calls upon the President to ensure
that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate
understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human
rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide…."1

The Republic of Turkey recalled its ambassador, Nabi Sensoy, and
"warned the vote threatens its strategic partnership with the U.S." 2
A senior Turkish general officer said that passage of this resolution
could permanently harm U.S.-Turkish military relations.3 Yet the
Democrats are plunging ahead with this legislation, willing to risk
further alienating our major ally in the Islamic world at a time when
our list of allies there has grown quite thin and just when we need
them most. Why?

For one thing, the bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Adam Schiff
(D-CA), represents the district with the highest concentration of
Armenian-Americans in the country (California’s 29th, which includes
Glendale, with the largest Armenian-American population of any city in
America: 85,000, or about 40% of the urban headcount4 ). The Speaker
of the House, Nancy Pelosi, of course hails from California herself
and knows full well the political power of the Armenian-American
lobby. (And over in the Senate, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
(D-NY) has co-sposored the resolution,5 despite the fact her own
husband, while in office, opposed it.)

No doubt the resolution, in no small measure, is aimed at further
embarrassing the Bush Administration ("See, the same folks who
brought you Gitmo and Abu Ghrayb support what the Sultan did to the
Armenians!"), even as the Democrats claims that it has primarily an
apolitical, utilitarian cast. According to Rep. Schiff, "How can we
take effective action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the
will to condemn genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?"

This logic is really quite unconvincing. Must Congress pass a
resolution retroactively condemning slavery in the Old Confederacy
before we are morally justified in opposing modern human trafficking?

But even giving Mr. Schiff and the Democratic leadership the
benefit of the doubt and not chalking up their fervent support for
H.R. 106 to anything as crass as making political hay, or raking in
Armenian-American campaign contributions, we are still left with a
major problem.

The whole basis of the bill-the "genocide" alleged-is historically
unverifiable as such.

Of course, questioning the Armenian "genocide" is a
politically-incorrect sin today, on a par with questioning global
warming. After all, we are continually told that the "consensus" of
experts-historians or scientists, respectively-supports each claim,
er, unvarnished truth. H.R. 106 has no fewer than 14 points alleging
to corroborate historically the genocidal nature of the very real
Ottoman massacres of Armenians around, and after, World War I.

But in fact there are a number of problems with the received "truth"
about what happened to Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire. There
is a scholarly consensus of about 1.2 million Armenian deaths
(although the Armenian groups claim more, and the Turks considerably
fewer). But just how and why that many Armenians were killed-and
whether it constitutes "genocide"-is still being hotly debated by
historians, contrary to what the House Democrats think. Genocide is
"the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or
cultural group." To prove that the Ottoman Turks committed genocide,
one must adduce evidence of just those points. The three legs upon
which the genocide claim usually rests are: 1) the post-WWI Ottoman
courts which tried some government officials for the massacres; 2)
the alleged depredations of the Teskilat-i Mahsusa (Ottoman "Special
Forces"); and 3) the memoirs of one Naim Bey. 6 However: the original
Ottoman legal documents no longer exist; no one has ever proved the
involvement of the Ottoman Special Forces in the killings; and the
"memoirs" of Naim Bey-who allegedly provided evidence that Ottoman
officials ordered the "genocide"-are suspect at best and may have
even been forged.

No one can deny that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed:
Western sources, and Armenian eyewitness survivors, attest to that
fact. But to this day no one has found the Ottoman "smoking gun" that
proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt-and don’t we want a rather high
bar of proof for something as serious as genocide?-that the authorities
in Istanbul ordered the "deliberate and systematic destruction" of the
Armenians in the eastern part of the Empire.7 Perhaps those records are
tucked away in some dark corner of the Basbakanlik, waiting to see the
light of day. But the few Western scholars who can read Ottoman Turkish
tend to shy away from this topic; and those who do study the Armenian
question either cannot work in Ottoman, or are not given access-all
of which tends to back up what Zbiginew Brzezenski said recently:
"I never realized the House of Representatives was some sort of
academy of learning that passes judgment on historical events….;"
and whether what happened to the Armenians "should be classified as
genocide or a huge massacre is, I don’t think, any of its business."8

Steny Hoyer tried to reassure the Turks by telling them that this
resolution is "not about your government." The Majority Leader,
unlike some in the press,9 seems to realize that it was not the
Turkish government that killed Armenians-it was the old Ottoman
imperial one. And one might reasonably wonder why the modern Turks
are so paranoid about claims of genocide being perpetrated by their
predecessor regime. However, that scimitar cuts both ways: one
might also ask why the Democrats in Congress are so eager to pass a
meaningless, toothless resolution condemning a government that hasn’t
existed for 85 years- in the process estranging us even further from
one of our few close allies in the Muslim world-when the historical
record fails to support their opportunistic legislation?

Related Links

HNN Hot Topics: Armenian Genocide 1
.106:

2
601087&sid=adlDF_4HRfqw&refer=home

3
http :// amp;categ_id=2&article_id=85961

4 ,_California

5
on/la-na-genocide3oct03,1,7196693.story?coll=la-ne ws-a_section

6 See Guenter Lewy, "Revisiting the Armenian Genocide," Middle
East Quarterly (Fall 2005), ; also
Edward Erickson, "Armenian Massacres: New Records Undercut Old Blame,"
Middle East Quarterly (Summer 2006),

7 Although Armenian researcher Ara Sarafian would disagree;
see "The Ottoman Archives Debate and the Armenian Genocide,"
ves.pdf

8
20601087&sid=adlDF_4HRfqw&refer=home

9 For example: Matt Welch, in an editorial in the "L.A. Times" this
past spring, wrongly opined that "the genocide is taboo…[because]
it occurred at the time of the founding of modern Turkey under Kemal
Ataturk…."

ws/opinion/la-op-welch22apr22,0,4862327.story?coll =la-opinion-center

tml

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 11 2007

THREAT AND BLACKMAIL TACTICS

Like the Turkish Sultans who threatened to smash the heads of the
people that dared to pronounce the word `Armenia’, their descendants
are now trying to silence any word about the Armenian Genocide,
wherever they hear it.
The only difference is that the targets of such threats have now
changed; therefore, by making futile efforts to blackmail all the
countries that have recognized the Armenian Genocide, Turkey is
threatening to do the same against the United States, the world’s
number one superpower.
During the recent years, all the influential representatives of
the Turkish state, i.e. the President, the Prime Minister, the
Speaker of Parliament, the Foreign Minister, the Defense Minister,
Head of the chief headquarters, have addressed menacing letters to
their American colleagues, promising that their country will apply
all kinds of possible and impossible punitive measures against the
United States in case the House of Representatives passes Resolution
# 106.
Whereas, there’s no conversation about the decision of organizing
an armed attack against Turkey; the matter is addressed to the
assessment of the Armenian nation’s great tragedy that occurred about
90 years ago and is well-known to the Americans.
If Turkey’s opinion about Resolution # 106 on the Armenian
Genocide and, in general – the tragedy itself was different, no one
prevented it from submitting it to the discussion of the US
legislators and move forward with it through democratic procedures.
That’s to say, to make the House of Representatives adopt another
resolution that would reflect the conceptual approaches of the
Turkish side.
However, instead of proving or persuading something, Turkey is
trying to impose a specific kind of oath upon the world, at the same
time attempting to initiate imitative discussions between the
Armenian and Turkish historians. And in case of making statements
contradicting Turkey’s official viewpoints, the first people among
them may immediately find themselves behind the bars under the
charges of insulting the Turkish nation. It turns out that the
civilized world is obliged to keep its mouth shut not to be subjected
to sanctions by Turkey. And the Turkish side claims reservations to a
universal norm which has been approved by the relevant decisions of
the United Nations and other international organizations and is
binding upon all the countries of the world. The matter is addressed
to freedom of speech, a principle which, according to the Turkish
side, cannot apply to the assessment of the events that took place in
the Ottoman Empire in 1894-1923.
The absurdity which Turkey is trying to advance by blackmailing
the world’s number 1 superpower is actually a challenge not only
against the United States but also – the whole civilized world
professing the principles of justice, truth and responsibility.
Because, if the United States gives way to such a primitive and
unreasoned blackmail, it will turn out that all the crimes against
humanity may be assessed provided the relevant political
administrations and their leaders were arrested and convicted in
time. That’s to say, the crimes that have remained unpunished should
be studied only by historians, and the issue of the holding the
perpetrators accountable should change into a `dialogue’ between the
perpetrator and the victim.
It is not accidental that considering the factor of its national
security, Turkey attaches importance to the suspension of the process
of recognizing the Armenian Genocide. It is from the standpoint of
this absolute priority that it makes absolutely no difference whether
the Armenian Genocide has been recognized by the Parliaments of small
countries like Lebanon and Cyprus or – by the US Congress. By trying
to blackmail a most powerful country like the United States, Turkey
is actually proving that it has built its state by committing the
Armenian Genocide; therefore, the denial of the fact is a
life-and-death issue for the country. Hence, it is allowed to have a
confrontation even with the United States.
We believe that that the necessity to condemn such a heinous crime
against humanity is not only the right but also the responsibility of
the United States, a superpower that has shouldered the greatest
responsibility in terms of determining the future of mankind.

VARDAN GRIGORYAN

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL HITS CLOSE TO GLENDALE HIGHEST U.S. POPULATION OF ARMENIANS
By John North

abc7.com, CA
Oct 11 2007

GLENDALE, Oct. 10, 2007 (KABC-TV) – The House of Representatives
Foreign Relations Committee has approved a resolution recognizing the
killing of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century as genocide.

President Bush is against the measure. The local Armenian community
reacts.

President Bush was defeated in the first round of an unusual attempt
to stop a congressional resolution; one the administration says would
set back progress in the Middle East.

The House Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution condemning
the World War I-era killing of Armenians by Turks as genocide.

"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings. Its passage would do great harm to our relations to a key
ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," said President Bush.

One-and-a-half million Armenians were killed. The Turks say it was
part of war. But Armenian-Americans and Armenians who watched the
hearing say it was a government attempt to slaughter Armenians.

The Glendale area is home to more Armenians than any other place in
the United States. They have been pushing for a resolution recognizing
the genocide for decades.

"They presume that it will be less headache, less work, less difficulty
for them to deal with a Turkey that is obstinately stamping their
foot at history and thumbing their nose at human rights," said Haig
Hovsepian, community relations director for the Armenian National
Committee.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates also talked to reporters. They warned that Turkey would block
logistical and other support for the Iraq war.

El Segundo Democratic Representative Jane Harman is a co-sponsor of
the resolution in the House of Representatives. Over the weekend she
reportedly backed down and said she would vote against it.

California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein is a strong supporter
of the resolution condemning what happened as genocide.

"To remember history is not to repeat it. That’s the point. And to
embroider this to be more than that is a mistake," said Feinstein.

Some historians call it the first genocide of the 20th century. But
now in the 21st century it has become intertwined with a nation’s
sensitivities, international politics, economics and the war in Iraq.

Copyright © 2007 KABC-TV. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

–Boundary_(ID_hBm5QGHXXe59kZCTi1H TrQ)–

AMERICAN EMBASSY SILENT ON APPOINTMENT OF NEW AMBASSADOR

Panorama.am
19:33 10/10/2007

Concerning the appointment of a new ambassador to Armenia, the
American embassy in Armenia has no information from the White House
or State Department.

Taguhi Jahukyan, press secretary for the American embassy in Yerevan,
relayed this news to a Panorama.am journalist.

"News about the putting forth of a candidate must come from White
House sources. If such information does not exist, word about the
nomination of a candidate doesn’t correspond with reality," she said.

Meanwhile, information agencies have reported the existence of a new
candidate for ambassador to Armenia. But, nothing has been said about
who that might be. Richard Hoagland, whom President Bush suggested
for the position, was turned down twice in the Senate, thanks to the
efforts of representative Robert Menendez. The former ambassador,
John Evans, was recalled from his position for making statements
about the Armenian Genocide.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN: "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY…"
Ruzan Amirjanyan

A1+
[04:57 pm] 10 October, 2007

"To tell the truth, if I had a lot of money, I would make investments
in Armenia and nowhere else," RA President Robert Kocharian said while
addressing the Armenian-Belgian business forum in Brussels. The forum
hosted representatives of about 80 Belgian organizations, as well as
the delegation of Armenian businessmen.

Nerses Eritsyan, the Minister of Trade and Economic Development,
presented "the dynamic state" of the Armenian economy.

Tigran Davtyan, the Director of the Armenian Development Agency
(ADA), dwelt on Armenia’s recent achievements- the increase in
economy, state budget, gross Domestic Product (GDP), revenues,
foreign investments, etc.

Arsen Ghazaryan, the Chairman of the Manufacturers and Businessmen
Union, called on foreign businessmen to make investments in Armenia as
the country is a prefect bridge between Eastern and Western countries.

"I started from nothing while today my company is one of the best in
the world."

ARMENIA-PARADISE FOR BUSINESSMEN In answer to Belgian businessmen’s
question why Armenia is profitable for launching business, Robert
Kocharian said, "Can I suffice your curiosity by saying no one will
regret if he starts a business in Armenia?"

The RA president enumerated all the advantages of the so-called
"Caucasian tiger" – "new job opportunities, favourable legislative
sphere, stability, budget and economic growth without natural
resources-oil, gas"

According to Robert Kocharian over the past ten years of his office,
none of the investors has suffered a loss in Armenia.

TO GO OR NOT TO GO?

Roger Van Baal, the Director of trading company Integra had no notion
of Armenia before to the forum.

"Our company has branches in many countries of the world including the
former Soviet Union. I phoned our CIS representative to inquire about
the Republic of Armenia. In answer to my question why the company
hasn’t got a branch in Armenia, he said. "There are no business
opportunities in Armenia." I couldn’t find any information on Armenian
chemical sphere either.

The figures on economic growth are really promising.

We shall conduct our survey. I voice hope that it won’t be a waste
of time and finances."

BUSH URGES CONGRESS TO REJECT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
By Brian Knowlton

International Herald Tribune
ope/10turkey.php
Oct 10 2007
France

WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush and two top cabinet members urged
lawmakers on Wednesday to reject a resolution describing the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of Armenians early in the last century as
genocide – a highly sensitive issue at a time of rising U.S.-Turkish
tensions over northern Iraq.

"We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people
that began in 1915," Bush said in a brief statement from the White
House. "But this resolution is not the right response to these historic
mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to relations with
a key ally in NATO, and to the war on terror."

He spoke hours before the House Foreign Affairs Committee was to vote
on the resolution. The House speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi,
is said to be prepared to forward the matter to the full House,
where more than half the 435 members are co-sponsors.

Passage would be symbolic – but the symbolism, the administration
asserts, could seriously jeopardize the delicate relationship with
Turkey.

Turkey has been a vital way-station for fuel and materiel shipments to
U.S. forces in Iraq, and the administration has spared little effort
to lobby against the resolution. The State Department secured the
signatures of the eight living former secretaries of state on a letter
opposing the resolution. And both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have been speaking out against it
for months.

Today in Europe

Putin sees lack of evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons program

Turkish military pounds Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq with
artillery fire

Police evict ex-nuns from Polish convent, arrest monk and mother
superior

Earlier, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, wrote to Bush to thank
him for his efforts opposing the resolution and to draw "attention to
the problems it would create in bilateral relations if it is accepted,"
according to a statement from Gul’s office.

Adding to the tensions are the recent Turkish preparations for
a possible invasion of northern Iraq in an effort to stop lethal
incursions by armed Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party,
or PKK.

The United States strongly opposes such Turkish action, fearing
troubles in what has been the most stable part of Iraq. But the Turkish
government is under heavy public pressure to act, and officials in
Ankara have warned that passage of the genocide resolution would make
it harder for the government to resist such pressure.

Turkey has acknowledged Armenian deaths over a period of several
years beginning in 1915, as the Ottoman Republic was falling apart,
but it vehemently rejects any effort to classify them as genocide. It
says that many Turks also were killed at the time.

Turkey has shown its willingness to react sharply to criticism on
the Armenian issue. When the French legislature called for criminal
charges against those who deny that a genocide occurred, the Turkish
military cut contacts with the French military and canceled some
defense contracts under negotiation.

When the resolution seemed likely to reach a vote last spring, Rice
and Gates joined in a strongly worded letter to Pelosi warning against
passage. They repeated their arguments Wednesday.

"The passage of this resolution at this time would be very problematic
for everything we are trying to do in the Middle East," Rice said.

The bulk of U.S. air cargo and about one-third of the fuel headed
for Iraq passes through Turkey, Gates said, including nearly all the
newly purchased mine-resistant vehicles.

"Access to air fields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very
much be put at risk if this resolution passes and Turkey reacts as
strongly as we believe they will," Gates said.

The debate has left the administration in a difficult position,
and officials have gone out of their way to emphasize that they are
not defending what happened. "The president recognizes annually the
horrendous suffering that ethnic Armenians endured during the final
years of the Ottoman Empire," Rice and Gates wrote in their March
7 letter.

Armenian-American groups have been rallying support for the
resolution. The Armenian National Committee of America e-mailed members
Wednesday to urge them to watch the Foreign Affairs Committee session
on-line and phone the offices of any "traditionally friendly member
of the committee" who is not in attendance.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Turks marched to U.S. missions in Turkey
to protest the bill, The Associated Press reported. And in Ankara,
leftist protesters chanted anti-American slogans in front of the
embassy, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

ARMENIAN RESOLUTION: DANIEL FRIED, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN AFFAIRS INTERVIEW WITH TRT TURKISH TV

US Department of State, DC

Was hington, DC
Oct 10 2007

TRT Television: Ambassador, thank you so much for accepting the
interview.

The House Foreign Relations Committee will mark up Resolution 106
tomorrow. I’m not going to ask you what may or may not happen at the
House. After all, we all have to respect the decisions of our elected
officials. But I’m going to ask you this. Can you please explain to us
the difference in the approach of the administration and the members
of the Congress who are supportive of this bill, the Armenian Genocide
Delegation, or is there any difference between the administration
and the members of the Congress who are supporting Resolution 106?

Assistant Secretary Fried: There is a huge difference. We oppose
the bill. We think it is a bad idea that will do nothing to
improve Turkish-Armenian relations, it will do nothing to advance
reconciliation between Turks and Armenians over the terrible events
of 1915, and it will not do anything to advance American interests.

We think the bill is a bad idea. We have said so. President Bush,
Secretary Rice, Under Secretary Burns, Ambassador Wilson and I have
all spoken to members of Congress about this and all former living
U.S. Secretaries of State have come out against this bill in writing
including Secretary Albright, Secretary Christopher. Former Defense
Secretaries have come out, including Bill Cohen and Bill Perry who
worked for President Clinton.

So there is bipartisan opposition to this bill among some very senior
people. So we oppose it and we will continue to.

TRT Television: And Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian say the
ones who oppose the bill have been bought into Turkish manipulation.

Have you?

Assistant Secretary Fried: No. We are perfectly capable of making
our own decisions.

I understand there are people on the other side of this question
and it is also true that there were terrible things that happened
in 1915 and after. Those are historical facts. And the United States
government doesn’t deny them and I don’t believe Turkey does either.

But the question is not whether terrible things happened. We know they
did. The question is does this bill help advance historical truth,
understanding, or better relations between Turkey and Armenia, and
it does not.

TRT Television: I know usually officials do not appreciate to be
asked hypothetical questions, but I’ll try.

Assistant Secretary Fried: Go ahead and try.

TRT Television: If Turkey were to hypothetically speaking accept the
allegations, would it have prevented the Armenian troops massacres in
Hajala 15 years ago, or would it make a difference in Darfur tomorrow?

Assistant Secretary Fried: The way you’ve put the question allows
me to say something which is it’s important for Turkey and Armenia
to talk about the terrible events that occurred. Every nation
has dark spots including the United States. What can we say about
slavery or the treatment of American Indians, or the treatment of
Japanese-Americans in World War II. These were bad things. Terrible
things. We committed them, and as an honest nation we’ve come to terms
with our history. That’s what honest nations have to do. But it wasn’t
legislation passed by a foreign parliament which got America to do the
right thing. That’s why we think that reconciliation should come from
within the society. We support this process of reconciliation. There
are Turks and Armenians who have worked on it, and that’s the way to
go. We don’t think the legislation will help.

TRT Television: I think this is the longest answer to any hypothetical
question so I’ll try one more.

If the House passes the bill, what do you think the Turkish
government’s response will be?

Assistant Secretary Fried: I have —

TRT Television: — U.S.-Turkey relations.

Assistant Secretary Fried: I can’t possibly answer that. We hope
that we defeat the bill. I know there will be people in Turkey who
will be angry but I think the Turks will recognize that they have
long term interests. I hope they will not do anything to limit their
own options for the future. But look, that’s a hypothetical. Today,
tomorrow, we’re concentrating on defeating the bill.

TRT Television: Are you going to take any security measures?

Assistant Secretary Fried: I don’t want to comment on that.

TRT Television: — the —

Assistant Secretary Fried: I don’t want to comment on any of this
except to say right now, working with Ambassador Wilson, we’re trying
to defeat this bill and explain why it’s not a good thing.

TRT Television: This comes at a time when the Kurdistan Workers Party,
PKK terrorists, increased their attacks in Turkey, just within the
last two weeks Turks have lost 27 of their citizens. There is a
general public perception about the U.S. policies in the region,
that it has a sinister plan on different ethnic groups…

Assistant Secretary Fried: Wrong.

TRT Television: which at the end targets Turkish sovereignty.

Assistant Secretary Fried: Wrong.

TRT Television: And when they look at — And they are deeply
disappointed of the U.S. inaction against the PKK. Also now this bill
coming at the Congress. Also in between the firm warnings of the U.S.

not to carry out a cross-border operation. When they all add up these
they say, the Turkish perception goes along in essence that this is
the evidence.

Assistant Secretary Fried: There is no —

TRT Television: What is your response, Ambassador?

Assistant Secretary Fried: We were outraged and disgusted by the PKK
attacks, and I first want to express that but also condolences to
the families. We have all had our losses to terrorists. Americans,
Turks, people of many other nations. So the first thing I have
to do is condemn terrorism in general and the PKK terrorists in
particular. We don’t help them, we fight them. Some Turks even remember
our cooperation. Mr. Ocalan is in a Turkish prison and it was a Turkish
operation that got him, but we’re glad he’s in custody right now.

We want to do more with Turkey but there is no truth whatsoever to
some of these fantastic allegations. We want to see a strong Turkey
with a strong economy, modernizing, joining the European Union, at
peace with itself and its neighbors, all of them. We see Turkey as
a strategic partner in the world. There’s no question about that.

There’s no question that we want to see an Iraq that is functional,
more at peace than it is today, and united. We have spoken strongly to
the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional authorities and urged
that they do more to stop the PKK from attacking their neighbor and
we will continue to push them. We will continue to work with Turkey
until Turkey does not feel threatened by the PKK.

TRT Television: Since the toppling of Saddam Hussein PKK attacks
are hurting Turkey. The Turkish public opinion has reached a point
where words really do not solve our problems. We want action. And
today the Turkish Foreign Ministry has a lengthy meeting on how to
fight this terrorism. After a three and a half hour meeting the Prime
Minister’s office announced that they are going to start preparing
for a cross-border operation. What’s your take on it, Ambassador?

Assistant Secretary Fried: We want to work with Turkey to stop PKK
attacks on Turkey. There are a number of ways we can do this. Turkey
and Iraq recently concluded a Memorandum of Understanding on
counter-terrorist cooperation. I think that’s the ticket. That’s the
way to go. Work with Iraq and work together and work with us against
the PKK.

TRT Television: It does not include the hot pursuit issue which is
something that the Turkish side wanted, and the Turkish public opinion
is saying that still the U.S. is backing the Iraqi Kurds and this is
not a good fate of NATO allies.

Assistant Secretary Fried: We do not think that the Iraqi government
or the Kurdistan regional government has done all it could and we
think they should do more. We’ve said so. This isn’t a secret. We
hope Turkey and we can work with the President, Prime Minister of
Iraq and the Kurdish regional government, Mrs. Talibani, Barzani,
to make more progress. But they’re not behind these PKK attacks. They
are allies and friends and we want to build on that partnership.

Turkish frustration is understandable. It just is. It’s understandable
that people would react in anger to terrorist attacks.

We Americans do. We need to be smart in the way we go after the
terrorists.

TRT Television: Ambassador, in a few sentences, to make it clear
in the Turkish public perception, why should Turkey not carry any
cross-border operation? How is it going to hurt Turkish interests,
or is it going to hurt U.S. interests?

Assistant Secretary Fried: The question is not what makes you feel
good today but what works. Turkey has conducted cross-border attacks
in the past and the question is, does it work? What’s the best way to
deal with the PKK? Not for tomorrow’s headlines in the newspapers,
but to deal with it in a real way. It seems to me that there are a
combination of things that can be done. We want to work with Turkey.

It involves all of our assets working together and we intend to do
our best.

TRT Television: What’s your understanding of the Turkish government’s
performance?

Assistant Secretary Fried: In general or PKK?

TRT Television: On dealing with the PKK issue.

Assistant Secretary Fried: It’s a very frustrating one. The last thing
I will do is be critical. I’m not at all. Turkey faces a dangerous,
difficult enemy and this is not easy. We want to work with Turkey. It’s
in a tough place. And Turkish frustration is understandable. We have
to be smart and we have to do more.

TRT Television: If I may close this interview with a question not
related to you, within your capacity as an officer, but just as
an American.

Assistant Secretary Fried: Sure.

TRT Television: Would you please be kind enough to convey the
approaches or the strong desire among the American public to have
the Armenian genocide allegation be accepted? When we as Turkish
citizens, not as a journalist but as an ordinary Turkish individual,
I do observe that there is no question about whether the genocide
has taken place or not. It is generally accepted in the United States.

Where in Turkey it is generally accepted that, let’s look at this
history all together. We think that massacre has taken place but it’s
not only the Armenians, but also many Muslims, Anatolia Muslims have
also been killed. And when you look at it, it is something that we
do not see here in the U.S.. That it’s not being discussed at all.

Why do you think that this side of Turkey has not find any voice among
the American people? Who is missing the dialogue or communication
link between the two nations?

Assistant Secretary Fried: Oh, that’s a hard question because it is
a fact that terrible things happened. Up to a million and a half
Armenians were killed or forced into exile. Those are facts. The
United States and the United States government do not deny anything.

It’s also true that the breakup of the Ottoman Empire in its kind of
last phase was a terrible one and terrible things happened. There were
atrocities, there were massacres, there was killing, there was a war,
and the Turkish government is right when it suggests that historians
need to look at this.

I think that the way ahead is for Turkey, like all honest governments
dealing with the dark spots of its history needs to do what we did, we
Americans did dealing with the dark spots of our history. Face up to it
and recognize that admitting bad things in your past doesn’t make you
a bad nation. It makes you an honest one. That’s an American lesson.

TRT Television: The Library of Congress has records of Armenian
massacres between 1914 and 1920 of 2.5 million Armenian Muslim
population. When we are talking about war time evidently we are really
talking about many precious lives being lost. Not only from one side,
but from both sides. Why is it not an issue for the U.S.

State Department to also talk about the losses in Anatolia or in
Azerbaijan of the Muslims?

Assistant Secretary Fried: Well, we speak about history carefully
because we’re government bureaucrats, and after all, Turkey has
made the point that governments shouldn’t try to get into history
as a matter of policy. So when you ask me to get into history as a
government bureaucrat I have to be careful.

But look, your point and the point of the Turkish government is that
historians should deal with this, but deal with it honestly. There
shouldn’t be any taboo about dealing with these issues. No one
should be hauled up on charges for having talked about history. Not
anywhere. Not in France — they have a law, as you know; not in Turkey,
Article 301; not anywhere. People have to discuss this in a way that
is open and honest and serious, and that’s painful.

Look, in my lifetime it was still painful to talk about putting
Japanese-Americans in internment camps. It was embarrassing. It was
terrible what we did. We fought World War II for freedom and yet
we did this to our own people because they were Japanese? It’s a
terrible thing. But you have to face up to your history. Everyone
does. All sides.

So an honest historical discussion is what’s needed, but honest also
means painful.

TRT Television: Thank you, Ambassador.

Assistant Secretary Fried: My pleasure.

TRT Television: It’s been a great pleasure for us, thank you.

Assistant Secretary Fried: Likewise.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian National Committee – Glendale Chapter
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 208
Glendale, CA 91206
Tel: 818-500-1918
Fax: 818-246-7353
Email: [email protected]

Forum for Parents

Glendale, CA – In an effort to further reach out to the
Armenian-American community, the Armenian National Committee –
Glendale Chapter joinedforces with the Glendale Unified School
District in hosting a Path to College Community Forum for parents and
students Wednesday evening.

The program began at 6:30pm with a welcome speech by ANC-Glendale
Chapter Executive Director, Elen Asatryan, followed by comments from
GUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Escalante, CA State Assemblymember
Paul Krekorian, and GUSD Board of Education President Greg Krikorian.

"ANC-Glendale Chapter organized the Path to College forum series to
help Armenian-American parents better understand the Glendale School
System The information provided will ultimately allow them to be
effective in guiding their student to success," stated Executive
Director of ANC Glendale, Elen Asatryan. "Our mission is to serve the
community, we hope to see more parents join us during the second
forum, which will take place on October 17th," added Asatryan.

GUSD Board Member, Nayiri Nahabedian informed parents about ELAC
(English Learner Advisory Committee), Healthy Start and CASPS
(Committee for Armenian Students in Public Schools), while PTA Council
Historian, Elizabeth Manasserian discussed the benefits of joining the
PTA (Parent Teacher Association).

The main presentation prepared and presented by GUSD Counselors,
Karine Turdjian and Arsine Hovannesian included information about high
school graduation and college/university admission requirements,
calculation of GPA, transcripts, ELD and AP classes, as well as ways
parents can effectively communicate with their students’ school. At
the end of the program, parents were given the opportunity to ask
questions to school officials present.

"It was a privilege to be one of the presenters at the educational
forum. I would like to thank the ANC for organizing this one-of-a-kind
event and giving us the opportunity to provide much needed information
to our Armenian parents pertaining to high school graduation and
college admission," stated Karine Turdjian, Counselor at Daily High
School. "Our mission will be complete if this presentation served its
purpose of increasing parents’ involvement in their students’ academic
lives which would lead to great academic success and creating safe and
caring learning environment," added Mrs. Turdjian.

The second of the two forums will take place on Wednesday, October
17thfrom 6:30pm-8:30pm at Toll Middle School’s Auditorium, located at
700 Glenwood Road, Glendale, CA. During the forum, information will be
provided about university admission requirements, university
application process and deadlines, financial aid, SAT & ACT university
admission exams as well as how to write personal statements.

Questions regarding the upcoming event can be directed to ANC –
Glendale Chapter at 818.243.3444 or [email protected]. RSVP’s for
the event are encouraged.

"We thank the organizing committee for putting together this event,
Glendale Unified School District for cosponsoring, and the parents who
attended," stated ANC Board Member, Zareh Sinanyan. "Our hope is that
this event will set a precedent for future cooperation between all
those concerned with the future of our youth," added Mr. Sinanyan.

The Armenian National Committee – Glendale Chapter advocates for the
social, economic, cultural, and political rights of the city’s
Armenian American community and promotes increased civic awareness and
participation at the grassroots and public policy levels. It is the
voice of this vibrant community, which seeks to advance and enrich
Glendale.

####

Path to Collebe Forum
Hosted by ANC-Glendale Chapter
October 17, 2007
6:30-8:30pm
Toll Middle School Auditorium
700 Glenwood Rd.
Glendale, CA 91202
(818) 243-3444