Author: Chmshkian Vicken

AKI, Italy
April 26 2005
TURKEY-US: AIR BASE USE EXTENDED, WARPLANE DEAL CLINCHED, AMID
ARMENIAN COMPLAINTS

Ankara, 26 April (AKI) – Turkey on Tuesday extended permission for
the United States to use a military airbase in Turkish terrirtory – a
decision that follows President George W. Bush’s recent praise for
Ankara’s proposal for a joint probe with Armenia into the 1915-23
massacre of Armenians, but his reluctance to label the massacre a
genocide carried out by Turks.
Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul announced that US war planes
would be allowed to continue operating from Incirlik Airfield Base,
which the Americans have used for the past 50 years.
The decision was taken by Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s cabinet, he
said. On Tuesday Ankara signed a 1.1 billion dollar deal with the US
for the Americans to modernise US-made 117 F-16 Turkish warplanes.
On Sunday, US President George W. Bush commemorated the deaths of an
estimated 1.5 million Armenians under Turkish Ottoman rule, praising
a call by Erdogan for a joint Turkish-Armenian commission to
investigate the allegations by Armenians, and many independent
historians, that the deaths were effectively genocide.
However Bush, in his statement on April 24, the 90th anniversary of
the carnage, did not mention the word “genocide” – a fact which has
pleased Ankara, but angered Armenian groups who link the US
president’ reluctance to do so to Washington’s interest in
maintaining use of the airbase.
Ankara said it viewed Bush’s statement on Sunday “positively”.
According to reports in the Turkish media, Ankara last week delayed a
decision on the use of Incirlik – also used for supply missions to US
forces in Iraq and Afghanistan – until after the commemoration, to
pressure Bush into not branding the massacre as a genocide.
Turkey, which denies a genocide occurred, says Armenians died but in
much smaller numbers than genocide theorists claim from disease and
other hardships, while being relocated from an areas where they had
been offering military support to Russia, an enemy of Ottoman Turkey
during World War II.
The Armenian Assembly, a US-based group, said it was “extremely
dissatisfied with the President’s [Bush] characterisation of the
attempted annihilation of our people by Ottoman Turkey,” Seembly
executive director, Bryan Ardouny, said on Tuesday.
Commenting on Bush’s use of the expression “great calamity” to
describe the Armenian deaths, Ardouny said this did not go far
enough, and was “a missed opportunity by the President to speak the
truth plainly, to once and for all avoid using evasive terminology
which only serves to support Turkey’s state-sponsored denial
campaign.”
Earlier this month 210 members of the US Senate and the House of
Representatives from across party divides had urged Bush to properly
acknowledge the Armenian genocide in his statement of remembrance.
Soon after EU leaders agreed last December to open accession talks
with Turkey, the European Parliament urged Ankara to recognise the
1915-1923 killings of Armenians as genocide.
Many in Turkey say that recognising the genocide claims would
encourage Armenians, backed by the EU and the United States, to
achieve their “hidden” agenda – state compensation for the
“so-called” victims including handing over to Armenia land now part
of modern-day Turkey.
;loid=8.0.157249306&par=0

MTV.com
April 26 2005
System Of A Down Make The Political Personal At Souls 2005
04.25.2005 7:51 PM EDT
Group marks Armenian genocide with first U.S. concert in a year.
System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian (file)
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
UNIVERSAL CITY, California – It was mesmerizing and hypnotizing even
if System of a Down’s first U.S. concert in a year didn’t feature
much from the band’s upcoming Mezmerize/Hypnotize.
At Sunday’s Souls 2005, the band’s annual benefit held on the day
Armenians recognize the Armenian genocide each year, System played
only three tracks from their new double album (see “System Of A Down
Shoot Fiery ‘B.Y.O.B.’ Clip, Find Inspiration In Fistfights”),
instead treating the sold-out Gibson Amphitheatre crowd to a flood of
familiar favorites.
The 25-song set, however, did kick off with new single “B.Y.O.B.”
(see “System Of A Down Want Your Bombs, Plan Third Souls Concert”),
which had the audience singing along to the disco chorus,
“Everybody’s going to the party/ Have a real good time,” while singer
Serj Tankian got his groove on.
After returning to more familiar territory with “Science,” the band
debuted “Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll” from Hypnotize, a roller coaster of a
tune that goes up and down a few times before ending in a crescendo
of screams from Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian.
“When I was a little boy, I talked to Superman and he told me to kill
rock and roll and f— all you sexy people,” Malakian said before
breaking into the opening guitar riff.
With his, ahem, interesting song introductions, nonstop animated
facial expressions, and occasional sprints or twirls across the
stage, the guitarist stole the crowd’s attention from the get-go and
never gave it back.
“We didn’t start this band to change the world,” he announced prior
to “Aerials.” “We didn’t start this band to change your mind. We
started this band to make you ask questions.”
Later in the show, following hits like “Chop Suey” and “Spiders,” the
band played the second and final Mezmerize tune, “Cigaro.” Judging by
how loudly fans sang along, it was apparently downloaded widely after
being leaked onto the Internet earlier this year (see “For System Of
A Down, Sometimes A ‘Cigaro’ Is Just A ‘Cigaro’ “).
As with last year’s Souls concert (see “System Of A Down Mark
Genocide By Playing, Not Preaching”), the group fittingly ended the
show with “P.L.U.C.K. (Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers),”
which includes the verse “A whole race genocide/ Taken away all of
our pride/ Revolution, the only solution/ We’ve taken all your sh–/
Now it’s time for restitution.”
Before the show began, the band played a video about the Armenian
genocide in which the Ottoman Turks killed as many as 1.5 million
Armenians between 1895 and 1915 (see “System Of A Down Plan Benefit
For Genocide Awareness”).
“It’s a better thing for me inside, because we’re doing it for a
purpose. We’re not just playing a show, we’re trying to do something
special for us and our people,” bassist Shavo Odadjian said
backstage. “We say all the time that this isn’t just a political
issue for us, it’s personal. So there’s energy when we’re doing this,
because the people watching are feeling it too.”
Proceeds from Sunday’s show benefited several organizations,
including Amnesty International, Center for the Prevention of
Genocide, and Axis of Justice, Tankian’s political action group with
Tom Morello.
While Sunday’s show featured only three new tunes, the band said its
somewhat guerrilla (shows are announced less than a week in advance)
club tour will include more new material. “It’s gonna be tough to
decide the set, because there’s so many songs from our old list we
don’t want to let go,” Malakian said. “But we might have to.”
Only four of the tour’s 10 dates have so far been announced: Monday
(April 25) at the Fillmore in San Francisco, Wednesday at Ogden
Theatre in Denver, Friday at the Granada in Dallas, and Saturday at
the Music Hall in Austin. The band recently played three similar
scaled-down club shows in Europe.
“We played a 600-seater in France that was amazing,” Odadjian said.
“I got so excited when I saw the place. Just vibewise, with the
crowd, it was amazing.”
“These venues are too big,” said drummer John Dolmayan. “I’d like to
do 200- to 300-seaters all across the country.”
Souls 2005 set list:
“B.Y.O.B.”
“Science”
“Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll”
“Suggestions”
“Psycho”
“Chop Suey”
“Mr. Jack”
“Needles”
“Deer Dance”
“Aerials”
“Holy Mountains”
“Spiders”
“Streamline”
“Bounce”
“Atwa”
“Forest”
“Cigaro”
“Highway Song”
“War?”
“Prison Song”
“Roulette”
“Toxicity”
“Suite-Pee”
“Sugar”
“P.L.U.C.K.”

STARTING FROM APRIL 26, TRAFFIC ACROSS KIEV BRIDGE IN YEREVAN WILL BE
SUSPENDED
YEREVAN, APRIL 25. ARMINFO. Starting from April 26, the traffic across
the Kiev Bridge in Yerevan will be suspended. Head of the Department
for Construction and Communal Economy of Yerevan Municipality Ashot
Sargsyan has informed journalists today.
He has stated that capital repair of the bridge will start, and the
construction works started there yet in March. 380 million AMD are to
be allocated for restoration works. In his turn, Head of the Municipal
Transport Department Tigran Ghazaryan has noted that 26 alternative
route will operate. In particular, 5 route of microbuses will operate
through Tsitsernakaberd hill (No. 3,27, 28, 40a and 90) and one
bus. The remaining microbuses will operate via Davidashen
Bridge. Microbuses No. 18 and 64 will operate via the street Orbeli.
Besides, the routes of microbuses No. 58 and 66 will not reach Hrazdan
Bridge instead of their previous last station near Underground station
“Barekamutyun.” To note, Kiev Bridge was put into exploitation in 1950
and has not undergone any capital repair so far.

Armenians in Israel remember the other ‘holocaust’
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
The Independent/UK
26 April 2005
Karekin Tchekmeyan was five years old in 1921, before his family was
deported for the second time. But the sprightly old Armenian can
remember all too vividly the day in the south-eastern Turkish city of
Marash, when, clothed by his mother in a zubun, a long dress chosen to
make him look Turkish, he saw a crowd of people beating drums and
playing flutes.
“I slipped into the crowd,” Mr Tchekmeyan, 89, said yesterday. “And I
asked them what was happening. Someone said: “They are going to hang
some Armenians. I saw the wooden gallows and the rope. I could see
three boys, 19 or 20, with black hoods over their faces.”
A fourth boy, around 14 years old, was allowed to go because even a
Turkish neighbour protested. The other three were hanged. “I didn’t
stay to see it.I was frightened and I ran home and my mother beat for
me going into the crowd.”
To this day he can remember the name of the Turkish gendarme who raped
a girl of around nine or 10, because the victim’s distraught mother
shrieked an unforgettable curse within earshot of the five-year-old
Karekin: “May God blind you, Karahbekir.”
The mother had blackened the girl’s face in the hope of preventing
just such a violation. “But this man took her off somewhere and did
dirty things to her. When she came back she couldn’t walk properly.”
An old man’s indelible memory of two scenes – by no means, of course,
the worst – in the ethnic cleansing and slaughter from 1915 to 1923 in
which 1.5 million Armenians, not to mention Assyrians and Greeks, were
eliminated. Incredibly, many modern countries – Britain included –
still find impossible formally to recognise it as genocide.
Yesterday, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of when the massacres
began, Mr Tchekmeyan joined a procession of clerics and lay Armenians
in Jerusalem which wound through the Old City from the Armenian
Orthodox convent of St James to the cemetery. Because they represent
the 3,000 Armenians in Israel and the West Bank, and because they
continue to hope for Jews to have a special affinity with their cause,
the Jerusalem Armenians have pressed Israel to recognise the genocide
– so far in vain.
Indeed a leaflet distributed in the Old City yesterday quoted recent
Turkish media reports that the Israeli Foreign Minister, Sylvan
Shalom, has appealed to Jewish US organisations to help fight against
a US Congressional resolution which would deplore the genocide. Mr
Shalom warns that it would damage the special relationship between the
US, Israel and Turkey.
Not all Israelis agree with the official position. Among those at the
commemoration was Yair Aroun, an Israel Open University professor,
whose book The Banality of Denial has just been translated into
Hebrew.
Professor Aroun says it is “incredible” that the Armenians still have
to press for recognition – including from Israel – and adds of
Turkey’s position:”It’s as if Germany still denied the Holocaust took
place.”
And Yossi Sarid, who worked for recognition as Israeli education
minister in the 1990s, has accused Israel of being “among the
Holocaust deniers” because of its refusal, under Turkish pressure, to
recognise the Armenian genocide. Most Armenians in the Old City
yesterday agreed with Mr Sarid’s view that Israel’s view stems both
from its desire to preserve relations with Turkey – and its fear of
losing the “uniqueness” of the Holocaust by recognising another
genocide. Dr Georgette Avakian of the Armenian Case Committee said she
would be writing to Mr Shalom, just as in the past she had written to
the Deputy Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, when he was PM. “I asked him
how he would feel if an Armenian denied the Jewish Holocaust,” she
said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TWO CHILDREN FELL INTO HRAZDAN RIVER APRIL 24, SEARCH STILL CONTINUES
YEREVAN, APRIL 25. ARMINFO. Yesterday two boys fell into the Hrazdan
River. The press-service of the Armenian Governmental Emergency
Situations Department informs ARMINFO that on April 24 approximately
at 14:00 near the settlement Dashtavan, Ararat region, residents of
the village of Darakert Hayk Hovhannissyan (1995) and Garnik Grigoryan
(1994) fell into the river. Rescuers arrived in the place, and the
police and local residents were involved in the search as well. To
contribute to the search, from 16:00 to 21:45 the water poured into
river from Lake Yerevan was blocked. Today in the morning the search
of the missing children has been resumed.

Turkish Press
April 25 2005
Cicek: Based On Our Archives And Confidence In Our History And
Culture, We Can Say That No Genocide Took Place

ANKARA – Turkish Minister of Justice and Government Spokesman Cemil
Cicek has indicated that, after many years of leaving the issue of
so-called genocide to historians, it is now high time for Turkey to
start disproving all allegations in various countries.
Cicek remarked that for centuries the Armenians lived in an empire
(Ottoman) happily and in a rich atmosphere. ”Armenians began
uprising against the Ottoman government with the incitement,
encouragement and promises of some countries under the conditions of
the First World War and massacred especially Muslim Turks, leading to
mutual incidents.”
”April 24 is the end of incidents perpetrated by Armenians and what
happened did happen within the context of conditions of war. This
aspect is disregarded and Turkey is unjustly blamed for something
that it never did.”
Underlining that Turkey suffered from Armenian terrorism especially
after 1965, Cicek expressed sadness for Turkish diplomats killed by
Armenian terrorists.
Cicek noted that Armenians influenced the parliaments of the
countries in which they are powerful and succeeded in obtaining
parliament decisions in their favor in 15 countries.
Noting that Turkey has always considered the incidents of 1915 as an
historical topic and that should be made clear by historians, Cicek
said, ”if we evaluate the topic from a political perspective, this
would take us to a different point. Apparently, parliaments of
certain countries can make decisions based on the incidents of the
past and can cause a chaotic atmosphere. As Turks, we wished that,
instead of turning incidents of the past into a topic of hatred and
anger, they should be brought to daylight by the historians with an
approach looking at the future. Such a Turkish approach has been
undeniably disregarded by the parliaments of certain nations due to
domestic political gains and other reasons. That is why, Turkey has
given up thinking ‘let’s look at the future, not the past. Let’s not
cause younger generations raise with hatred and anger by digging into
pains of the past’. We must have a new approach to the subject.”
”Based on our archives and confidence in our history and culture, we
can say that no genocide took place. But altogether, we have to
disprove the lies of those who claim that a genocide has taken place.
We have to do it with the help of all of the government institutions
and NGOs across the globe. Turkey must follow a new policy, quite
different than its past approach which indicated that the issue of
the so-called Armenian genocide is a matter of historians. The old
policy that so-called Armenian genocide is a historical matter and
not political does not meet Turkey’s requirements. We have to pursue
a much different policy globally as of this moment,” indicated
Cicek.
Cicek mentioned that Turkey has opened all of its archives. ”Those
who want to closely study the archives are welcome in Turkey. We can
form joint commissions comprised of historical experts. We expect the
Armenians to also open all of their archives. Turkey is confident
about the results of such commissions.”
Cicek stressed that the issue of so-called Armenian genocide has been
thoroughly evaluated in the meeting of the Council of Ministers today
(Monday). ”We are looking at the issue of so-called Armenian
genocide from legal, political and historical perspectives,”
commented Cicek. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will
coordinate all of our activities in disproving Armenian allegations,
told Cicek.
According to Cicek, many Turkish organizations, individuals,
non-governmental organizations work on disproving Armenian
allegations. We may establish a coordination center to make possible
the best battle against baseless Armenian allegations, said Cicek.

A1plus
| 15:03:06 | 25-04-2005 | Official |
ARMENIANS OF CANADA MEET THE PRESIDENT
Today Robert Kocharyan received several representatives of the Canadian
Chamber of Commons and the Armenian community in Canada.
Issues about enhancing Armenian-Canadian links have been discussed. The
sides have mentioned that in case the perspective of opening the diplomatic
representation of Canada in Armenia becomes reality the economic cooperation
will get better.
The representatives of the Armenian community claimed that the community is
ready to develop the cooperation with the mother land reaching a new level
of quality.

Civil Georgia, Georgia
April 24 2005
Armenians Marked `Genocide’ at Turkish Embassy in Tbilisi
Dozens of ethnic Armenians living in Georgia gathered on April 24
at the Turkish Embassy in Tbilisi to mark 90th anniversary of the
1915 events, what Yerevan views as genocide of about 1.5 million
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
Participants of the rally demanded from the Turkish authorities to
recognize 1915 slaughter as genocide of Armenians. But Turkey insists
that the number of those killed is inflated and Armenians were
victims of World War I and not of genocide.

Armenian foreign minister, French delegation discuss recognition of genocide
Arminfo
23 Apr 05
YEREVAN
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan today met members of the
delegation of the French parliament who are visiting Yerevan to
participate in events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide.
The delegation includes the president of the Union for French
Democracy, Francois Bayrou, the member of the party’s political
bureau, Alexis Govciyan, the member of parliament and former deputy
chairman of the National Assembly, Rudy Salles, and representatives of
France’s Armenian community, the press service of the state commission
for organizing events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide has told our correspondent.
The Armenian foreign minister thanked France and its people for
participating in issues concerning Armenia. “France is one of the key
European countries and it is of special importance for Armenia to
establish closer relations with France,” the Armenian foreign minister
stressed.
Oskanyan also stressed the importance of France’s legislative
recognition of the Armenian genocide, which stimulated the process of
discussing the issue in the contexts of international and European
processes.
The sides exchanged views on regional and international issues. They
discussed in detail the current stage of settling the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict, as well as Armenian-Turkish relations and ways of
solving them.
The French delegation visited the Tsitsernakaberd memorial to the
victims of the Armenian genocide today, according to the report.

Zaman Online, Turkey
April 22 2005
MGK Prepares for ECHR Decision on Ocalan
Published: Friday 22, 2005
zaman.com
Turkish National Security Council (MGK) Secretary-General Ambassador
Yigit Alpogan has spoken in advance of the European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) decision about the re-trial of separatist terror
organization leader Abdullah Ocalan, saying, “We are working on
possible alternatives”.
When asked about the possibility of a retrial if ordered by the ECHR,
Alpogan replied that ECHR has not taken its decision yet. Pointing to
the complexity of the issue, Alpogan said, “There is no decision yet.
When there is one, I am sure that an attitude will be determined and
what is required will be done.”
When asked about Turkey’s image abroad as a moderate Islamic country,
the Secretary answered: “We do not accept that this is a moderate
Islamic country and refute this view whenever we hear it.” As
for the alleged Armenian genocide issue, Alpogan said “these are
baseless allegations” noting there is no evidence that the Ottomans
committed the Armenian genocide. “They will regret their decision,”
said Alpogan of the Polish Parliament’s decision to recognize of the
alleged genocide.