Author: Emil Lazarian

THE NUMBER OF VACANT POSTS INCREASES

A1+
[05:29 pm] 18 May, 2006

According to the decisions of RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan
Gagik Aslanyan, deputy minister of RA Regional Government, Artak
Sahradyan, deputy minister of RA Education and Science and Hrachya
Musayelyan, deputy minister of RA Energy were dismissed from their
posts.

According to other decisions of the RA Prime Minister Vahe Vardapetyan
was dismissed from the post of regional governor of Tavush marz and
Hrachik Khachatryan was dismissed from the post of deputy regional
governor of Aragatsotni marz.

TO RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE MEANS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT

Panorama.am
16:21 18/05/06

Discussions on the initiative of World Armenian Congress (WAC)
to apply to international judicial bodies on the Armenian genocide
continued today in closed-door session of WAC experts. Prominent
scientists from Armenia, Russia, USA, Germany, Israel and Austria
were among the commission.

At the moment, the experts work on a document which is a result of 50
scientists’ work from 17 countries. It considers different approaches
for bringing to responsibility for the Armenian genocide within the
framework of international judicial bodies.

According to Mihran Dabah, Director of the Institute of Diaspora and
Genocide at a German University, Armenians have considerable success
in recognition of the genocide. “We have reached a phase when not
only we continue work in different countries for the recognition of
the Armenian genocide but also the mere fact of denying it has become
punishable, for example in France.” According to the expert, before
applying to any international court it is advisable to know what the
consequences will be. “For me the most important thing is to stop
“hystorification” of the issue which would give Turkey time. Another
problem is that the countries to which we apply for recognition
of genocide may say they are waiting for the court ruling.” Mihran
Dabah says “to recognize genocide means to take responsibility for
it.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KAZIMIROV: WHATEVER KOCHARIAN AND ALIYEV SIGN, THEY WILL BE ACCUSED IN BETRAYAL

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.05.2006 14:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Concentration of responsibility on the matter of
settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict fully lies on Presidents
and this is not correct, as the public opinion of both parties is
not ready to the signing of any agreements now, Russian Co-Chair
of the OSCE MG for settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in
1992-1996, Ambassador Vladimir Kazimirov stated in an interview with
a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

In his words, whatever the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
sign, they will be accused in betrayal. In Kazimirov’s opinion, it
is necessary to prepare the public opinion and the MPs role comes
out here. “The Bishkek agreement on cease-fire is only a political
document without any legal basis. Based on it being exactly a
political document, it turns out that Azerbaijan has recognized
Nagorno Karabakh as a party to conflict, as the protocol is also
signed by a NK representative. However, it has no legal effect, as
it is not ratified by Parliaments of the conflicting countries,”,
the Russian diplomat said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DAMAGE DEPRIVED ALMOST ENTIRE ARMENIA OF INTERNET

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.05.2006 14:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today the principal and reserve cables, providing
Internet access to Armenia, were damaged near Charentsavan and
Ashtarak towns.

Resulting from it almost entire Armenia is deprived of Internet. As
ArmenTel company told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the damage was
caused by carelessness during construction works. Meanwhile, ArmenTel
company representatives cannot say for sure, when the Internet access
will be restored.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HUSSEYNOV: NO EXPRESSION “ARMENIANS CEMETERY DESTROY” IN NAKHCHIVAN IN O’HARA’S VISIT PROGRAM
Author: J. Shakhverdiyev

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006

The mission headed by the English deputy of the EU Parliament Assembly,
the reader of supplementary report on the South Caucasus countries
O’Hara to come to the region on May 28, the Azerbaijan delegation
member Rafael Husseynov exclusively told IAA “Trend”.

He pointed out that the goal O’Hara’s visit is to carry out
investigations connected with the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Armenia. According to him at first Mr. O`Hara will come
to Azerbaijan, then visit the Nakhchivan Region, and then leave
for Georgia. “Here he is to carry out investigations connected with
Azerbaijani and Armenian cultural heritage, and at last set off for
Erevan”, pointed out Mr. R. Husseynov.

He also added that the program of O`Hara`s visit includes the visiting
of Shusha. “The Azerbaijan Delegation introduced the list of types
of Azerbaijani heritage located on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh,
districts occupied by Armenians as well as in Armenia itself. We also
made some changes in the text of the visit’s program. For instance,
the document mentioned as if Armenian cemeteries are being destroyed
in Nakhchivan. We told O’Hara that is Armenians` fantasy. There are
still Albanian graves in Nakhchivan.

Before Islam, the most of Azerbaijanis were Christians. That is why
Armenians do their best to take for its own all Christian monuments
on the territory of Azerbaijan. It is inadmissible and wrong to
indicate that these monuments are Armenian without a on-the spot
check. On the base of our arguments this point was excluded from the
document. It is said that he is just to visit Nakhchivan”, pointed
out Mr. R. Husseynov.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS TO VISIT AZERBAIJAN FIRST

Today, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006

OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs together with their states high ranking
Foreign Ministry officials are expected to visit the South Caucasus.

Russia’s Charge d’Affaires in Azerbaijan Pyotr Burdikin told
journalists that the visit will start from Azerbaijan. Explaining the
objective of visiting together with FM officials, the diplomat said the
Minsk Group is trying to achieve the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict and added that sometimes new figures joining the negotiating
process brings new approaches to the stances of the parties.

According to APA, Mr.Burdikin also said that a number of options and
plans have been discussed during the negotiating process, the option
that was rejected before, was accepted later on. The Russian diplomat
noted that none of these options are being discussed at present. He
did not forecast what results will be in the end of the talks.

“This is a very difficult issue, but I believe there will be a
progress,” he stressed.

URL:

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIAN PUBLIC CHAMBER CONDEMNS AZERBAIJANI VANDALISM

Yerkir
18.05.2006 14:19

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – A committee of the Russian Public Chamber discussed
on May 17 the issue of the destruction of the Armenian medieval
cemetery in Djulfa in the Azerbaijani region of Nakijevan region.

As reported by the newspaper Yerkramas, published by the Armenian of
southern Russia, Chairman of the Armenian-Russian Friendship Union
Victor Krivopus kov reported on the vandalism carried out by Azerbaijan
in December 2005, when an Armenian mediaval cemetery in Djulfa with
4,000 cross stones was destroyed. He went on saying that 27,000
Armenian monuments dating to 7th-19th centuries have been destroyed
in Nakhijevan during the years of the Azerbaijani rule over the region.

The committee passed a unanimous decision condemning the Azerbaijani
vandalism in Djulfa.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TAHMAZOV: LIBERATION OF LACHIN CANNOT BE SEPARATE ISSUE IN NEGOTIATING PROCESS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006

“The liberation of Azerbaijan’s Lachin region from Armenian occupation
cannot be discussed separately during the negotiating process for the
settlement of the Nagorno Garabagh conflict,” Lachin governor Elbrus
Tahmazov told journalists.

He said that Armenians will not achieve their aims to discuss Lachin’s
liberation as a separate issue in the negotiations. Tahmazov stressed
that the region will sure to be liberated either by peaceful or
other ways.

He also gave information on the people of Lachin who have become
internally displaced persons after the occupation. The region has
67,000 people, and now they have settled in 59 regions. Nearly 20,000
IDPs from Lachin have settled in Baku, Sumgayit and Absheron regions of
Azerbaijan. 17,300 of them are now living in Aghjabedi, Takhta Korpu,
(territory of Lachin) in 84 large nomad tents.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ISRAEL W.CHARNY: I HAVE BEEN ALWAYS STRUGGLING AGAINST POSITION OF ISRAELI GOVERNMENT IN ISSUE OF RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 18 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “The Israeli society
knows about the Armenian Genocide, recognizes it, a different matter
is the attitude of the Israeli government to this fact. I consider its
position wrong, treat it critically and regret as a Jew. I have been
always struggling against such a position,” Israel W. Charny, Executive
Director of the Institute of Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem,
President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars,
declared to the journalists. According to him, there is “small success”
in the respect of recognition of the Armenian Genocide: two members
of the former Israeli government declared about the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide but this was immediately followed by an
answer from the government that these two ministers are speaking on
behalf of themselves. “The main reason of Israel’s not recognizing
the Armenian Genocide is that our government thinks just like my
father. My father was a Jew from Europe, he lost the most part of his
family during the Holocaust and he was saying that only Jews should
be taken care of. In my opinion, this attitude is understandable but
wrong,” I.Charny declared. According to him, the Israeli government
declares that Israel needs Turkey, Turkey is a mighty neighbor, with
which they should develop military cooperation, Israel needs Turkey
as an Islamic country, with which Israel is on good terms, which,
as the Israeli scholar mentioned, is a truth. In response to Noyan
Tapan correspondent’s question, whether the statement of the chief
rabbi about the recognition of the Armenian Genocide can be a step
towards progress in the issue of recognition of the Genocide in Israel,
I.Charny said: “Yes, the chief rabbi is an official person but he is
not a member of the government. If the President of Israel declared
this, it would be fine. I think the statement of the chief rabbi was
great and of cource, it is very important”. He regretted to say that
many Jews refuse to recognize the victims of Nazism who were not Jews:
“These were Gipsies, non-full-value children who were killed by Nazis
still before the Holocaust and Soviet war prisoners who were burnt
in the same crematoriums where Jews were burnt.

But the Armenians also demonstrate the same stinginess when they do
not want to mention Greeks and Assyrians among the victims of the
Genocide,” I.Charny declared. As for the position of the Turkish
society in the issue of recognition of the Genocide, I.Charny noted
that today the number of people daring to speak about the Genocide is
growing in Turkey. As he estimated, these are really brave people. In
its turn, the Turkish government is striving for showing the first
signs that it is able to hear such a position.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘GENOCIDE’ BILL, A MODERN INQUISITION
By Selcuk Gultasli, Brussels

Zaman, Turkey
May 18 2006

Olivier Corten, a professor at Belgium’s ULB University Faculty of Law,
believes bills that would criminalize denial of the Armenian Genocide
are a “modern inquisition” and said if the Armenian massacres are
defined as “genocide,” we could say that Europe’s colonial history
is full of “genocides.”

Corten, one of the experts who informed the genocide committee at
the Belgian Senate, said since he is not a historian he does now know
about the 1915 incidents in detail, but he is against the bill.

He spoke to Zaman before discussion of the denial bill begins in
France.

Speaking to Corten after he advised the Senate Commission not to accept
such a bill, Corten told Zaman he is against the bill punishing those
who deny the Armenian “Genocide” for two reasons.

Firstly, he stresses there is no court verdict about Armenian genocide,
and secondly, there is not a retrospective principle in law.

If we expand the genocide expression to cover the pre-World War II
period, many incidents could be called genocide, Corten said, “Then,
we should go back to 18th and 19th centuries, probably even to Roman
Empire period.”

Corten said it is difficult to adapt “genocide” laws to penal code
and commented, “You commit a crime, but at the time you commit the
crime the consequences are not clear; namely, you commit a crime that
is non-existing in law.”

‘Belgium’s Attitude is Unethical’

Corten, pointing out Belgium is still trying to face its past with
Congo, said it is unethical for Belgium to give lessons to Turkey
before “cleaning the front side of its own house.”

Corten does not call the acts Belgian King Leopold II committed
in Congo a “genocide,” saying instead: “This is not genocide since
the massacres were held for money. In the same way, if there is no
intention of categorically destroying, an event cannot be called
genocide no matter how many people died.”

Corten, indicating he uses very narrow criteria for the definition
of genocide, said ethnic cleansing is not genocide; genocide can
be used in reference to the massacres of the Jews and the massacres
in Rwanda where the intention of exterminating a race was obvious:
“If in war time people are killed for the security of a region,
this is not genocide according to me, but instead a war crime. Even
if you apply current conditions of genocide, this situation does not
constitute genocide.”

“Emir Kir Started the Discussion”

Emphasizing his doubt that Belgium would pass the draft bill in its
current form, in which a prison sentence and a hefty fine would be
given to those found guilty of denying the so-called genocide, Corten
believes that the discussion was started by Turkish origin minister,
Emir Kir, only for domestic political reasons.

“If this bill passes unchanged, it will be a surprise to me,” said
Corten, pointing out that thousands of Turkish Belgians and Turkish
officials coming to Brussels for EU negotiations might be imprisoned
if the bill becomes law.

Underlining that in the past Belgium had issued a similar problematic
law to judge war criminals worldwide, which was later dissolved,
Corten stated that Belgium make the same mistake again.

Belgian Minister Emir Kir was attacked when he used the term,
“so-called genocide” during an interview. Some Belgian politicians
in relation with the lobby called for Kir’s resignation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress