CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS VISITS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MEMORIAL
Yerevan, April 24. ArmInfo. Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II
visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial Titsernakaberd today, reports
the press service of the Holy See of Echmiadzin.
Together with Armenian President Robert Kocharyan His Holiness laid
flowers to the Memorial and gave a liturgy in the memory of the
Genocide victims.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
RUSSIAN TEEN DETAINED FOR RACE MURDER
TVNZ, New Zealand
April 24, 2006
Police have arrested a schoolboy for the murder of a young Armenian in
what was widely seen as a racist killing, prosecutors said on Monday.
Witnesses to the Saturday murder said Vagan Abramyants, a 17-year-old,
was part of a group on its way to an Easter service when young men
with black jackets, boots and shaved heads jumped off a metro train
and attacked them.
The attackers, described by Russian media as skinheads, fled the scene,
leaving Abramyants dead with a knife wound to the chest.
“A young man who was born in 1989 has been detained, and has
already confessed,” a spokesman for the prosecutors told Russian
news agencies. Interfax said the arrested teenager was studying at
a Moscow school.
Racist assaults have become common in Russia, where young men are
increasingly prone to neo-fascist beliefs despite the country being
proud of its role defeating Nazi Germany.
African and Asian students are frequently targeted, along with
darker-skinned immigrants from Russia’s former colonies in the South
Caucasus and Central Asia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
U.S. MUST DEMAND TURKEY ADMIT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Vahe Tazian
Detroit News, MI
April 24, 2006
A rmenians worldwide today will commemorate the 91st anniversary of
the Armenian genocide. This year’s remembrance of the massacre of
more than 1 million Armenians by the Young Turk government of the
Ottoman Empire carries particular significance.
With Turkey’s desire for European Union membership looming,
international pressure has never been stronger on Turkey to address
its own history. And Ankara’s political elites have never been so
steadfast in furthering the myths used to explain the crime.
There is no better opportunity than now to hold Turkey accountable
for the crimes of its culture’s past. In December 2005, the ghost of
the 1915 Armenian genocide appeared on the European Union scene when
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier announced that Turkey would
be expected to recognize the event during EU accession negotiations.
“This is an issue that we will raise during the negotiation process,”
he said. “We will have about 10 years to do so and the Turks will
have about 10 years to ponder their answer.”
Perhaps Turkey already has its answer: Blame the victim and employ
tactics to confuse and divert attention from the truth.
Turkey has accused Armenians of rebelling during the war, helping
the Russians and killing Turks. But no credible evidence supports
this contention, and historians, academics and survivors agree what
happened to the Armenians in 1915 amounts to genocide.
Recently, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said the accusations
of genocide are baseless and “upset and hurt the feelings of the
Turkish nation,” adding, “It is wrong for our European friends to
press Turkey on this issue.”
Efforts to silence those who speak of the atrocity indicate Turkey’s
denial campaign. The best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was
prosecuted last year for “insulting Turkish identity” by referring
to the Armenian genocide in a Swiss newspaper interview.
“One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands
and nobody but me dares talk about it,” Pamuk said.
The charges against Pamuk — for a crime punishable by up to three
years in prison — were dropped in February after considerable
international protest.
Any event relating to the genocide — film, conference, memorial,
publication — is fought by Turkish embassies, including, in some
instances, by mobilizing Turkish immigrant communities.
Such determined efforts by the Turkish government are partly the
reason why the Armenian genocide is barely known and has not been
formally recognized by so many countries, including the United States.
For too long, the United States has caved to politics, failing to
pressure Turkey for fear of upsetting an ally. Yet, its National
Archives are filled with thousands of pages documenting the
premeditated extermination of Armenians.
Thirty-six states, including California, New York and Michigan,
have formally recognized the genocide and more than 170 members of
Congress are co-sponsors of the Armenian Genocide Resolution.
Continuing to ignore the occurrence of this human tragedy is
acquiescing in Turkey’s denial. U.S. lawmakers and the international
community should join members of the European Union, demanding Turkey
finally recognize the murder of the Armenians as genocide.
The silence that has greeted calls for Armenian Genocide remembrance
must be replaced with a global outcry, as was echoed by Henry
Morgenthau, U.S. ambassador to Turkey during the genocide.
“My failure to stop the destruction of the Armenians made Turkey for
me a place of horror,” he said, “and I found intolerable my further
daily association with men who … were still reeking with the blood
of nearly a million human beings.”
Vahe Tazian is a lawyer who resides in Beverly Hills. Fax letters to
(313) 222-6417 and send e-mail to [email protected].
photo: The Armenian community in France and elsewhere held masses,
marches and memorials last year to mark the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide in Turkey during the Ottoman Empire.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
CONSULTATIONS WITH AZERI, ARMENIAN FMS IN MOSCOW WERE SUBSTANTIAL – US AMB AT OSCE MG
Author: E.Huseynov
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 24, 2006
The consultations held with the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign
ministers in Moscow were very substantial, Russian Ambassador Yuriy
Merzlyakov, the OSCE Minsk Group told Trend. He was commenting on a
meeting held last week between the Foreign Ministers of Armenian and
Azerbaijan, Vardan Oskanian and Elmar Mammadyarov within the framework
of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers.
“We mulled the details of further discussions (under the negotiation
process – Trend). So, the next round of talks will start shortly,”
Merzlyakov announced, hinting at the next round of talks on the level
of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers.
According to Merzlyakov, the meeting is to be held in May, while the
term and place of talks are still to be defined. Upon the completion of
the meeting of the ministers the diplomats will mull the opportunities
for organization of a dialogue of the Presidents.
Merzlyakov noted that in the beginning of May the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs will set up consultations in Moscow, and after tour the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region.
ARMENIAN ARMED FORCES VIOLATE CEASE-FIRE IN GAZAKH FRONT
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 24, 2006
Armenian side keeps on breaking the cease-fire. Azerbaijan’s Defense
Ministry informed APA that the companies of the Armenian armed forces
from their positions in 0.8 km south of Mazam village of Azerbaijan’s
region of Gazakh fired on the opposite positions of the Azerbaijani
armed forces from 20.25 till 20.30 on 23 April.
The enemy forces from their positions in Vozkevan and Shavarshavan
villages of Noyemberyan region, Armenia, again fired on the opposite
positions of Azerbaijani forces and Gushchu Ayrim village from 22.30
till 22.45. Armenian forces from their positions located in the
north-east of Aznakar mountain, Noyemberyan, fired on the positions
of the Azerbaijani forces in Gushchu Ayrim, Gazakh, with submachine
and machine guns from 23.35 till 23.45.
The enemy was silenced by response fire. No casualties were
reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DEBATE CONTINUES
By: Matthew Watkins
Texas A&M The Battalion, TX
April 24, 2006
Adan Peña, Robert Saucedo, Wade Barker – THE BATTALION. Susan Gordone
discusses photos of her relatives who experienced the Armenian genocide
that started in 1915.
Very few would doubt that Armenian-American Susan Gordone’s family
has suffered. However, what to call the cause of their suffering is
a ninety year-old debate.
In 1913, Gordone’s grandmother, Rose, was asked by her pregnant
mother to help deliver her younger sister. At the time, her whole
family lived in Turkey.
“Rose was eight years old. The baby, with its afterbirth, slipped
through her hands and died. Three days later, her mother died,” said
Gordone, who lives in College Station and is a former worker for the
Texas A&M theater arts and English departments. “A week later when
her father returned, he told the remaining members of the family that
they must leave immediately, pack into a wagon or be killed.”
Seven years after the death of her mother and sister, Rose traveled
to America to escape the danger in her home country.
“But in those seven years, she, along with my Uncle John and Aunt
Tervanda, would persevere in the death caravans, watching other family
members die along the way before arriving in Ellis Island in 1920,”
Gordone said.
On Monday, Gordone, along with the Armenian community, will observe
the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide, which some estimates
indicate took the lives of as many as 1.5 million Armenians. However,
others, including the Turkish Government, contend that the Armenian
genocide never happened.
The events of the Armenian genocide occurred when the Young Turks, who
had power over Turkey at the time, relocated or deported the country’s
Armenian population during World War I. Most of the Armenians were
relocated on foot causing many to die of exhaustion or starvation. Most
Armenians and many scholars contend that the deaths were genocide.
The Turkish government acknowledges the deaths of hundreds of thousands
of Armenians between 1915 and 1917, but says the deaths were the
result of a civil war and starvation that affected all members of
the Turkish population.
The debate about the events has become so heated that it has sometimes
prevented Armenians and Turks from becoming friends at A&M, said Yaman
Evrenoglu, a Turkish graduate student in electrical engineering. He
said he remembers at least five times when a personal friendship
between an Armenian and Turk was halted when the pair’s nationality
was revealed.
The most recent shake up in the controversy was an hour-long
documentary, “The Armenian Genocide,” which aired on PBS and told
the story of the genocide. The film featured many scholars, some
of whom were Turkish, telling the story of death marches in which
Armenians were pushed off cliffs, drowned, starved and exhausted. A
25-minute panel discussion about the Turkish involvement in these
deaths followed the documentary.
“(The documentary) provides a blatantly one-sided perspective of a
tragic and unresolved period of world history,” Turkish ambassador
to the United States Nabi ?ensoy said in a statement after the
documentary’s airing. “Its premise is rejected not only by my
government, but also by many eminent scholars who have studied the
period in question.”
Armenians and the myriad of scholars who contend that the genocide
is a historical fact said the panel legitimized a view that hatefully
refused to acknowledge the genocide.
“Turkish denials of the genocide are part of a state-sponsored policy
of propaganda that serves only the interests of Turkey. The historical
truth of the Armenian genocide has been established beyond reasonable
doubt by abundant documentary and eye-witness evidence from thousands
of sources,” Vako Nicolian said in an online petition he authored
and sent the vice president of programming at PBS.
As of Sunday, the petition has gathered 22,195 signees.
Gordone said she had no problem with the airing of the panel
discussion, which featured two scholars on each side of the issue,
because it simply revealed the lack of depth to the Turkish
government’s claims.
“If we are going to pretend that a stateless Christian minority
population, unarmed, is somehow in a capacity to kill people in an
aggressive way that is tantamount to war, or civil war, we’re living
in the realm of the absurd,” said Peter Balakian, a professor at
Colgate University in the debate.
Evrenosoglu said he was more upset about the debate than the
documentary.
“The documentary was much more moderate compared to ones that I
have witnessed,” he said. “It was too biased for us of course, but
at least they presented the Turkish government and the Turkish point
of view. The debate was a complete disaster because the theme of the
debate was not about discussion of the Armenian genocide but why the
Turkish government is rejecting it.”
7/news/2006/04/24/News/Armenian.Genocide.Debate.Co ntinues-1867136.shtml?norewrite200604241732&so urcedomain=
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
FAREWELL AMID CRY FOR JUSTICE
Calcutta Telegraph, India
April 24, 2006
A crowd looks on as the hearse with Prashant’s body heads for the
crematorium. A Telegraph picture Siliguri, April 23: The body of
Prashant Anchali, a medical student, arrived here today, three days
after his mysterious death in Armenia.
Two senior students – including one from Siliguri – of Yerevan State
University accompanied the body on its last journey. The body had
been embalmed and dressed in a spotless black suit.
Prashant died on April 20 after a fall from the sixth floor of a
building at the university. Indian embassy officials in Armenia had
said the third-year student had committed suicide.
Prashant’s family is, however, not ready to accept this. They suspect
he was murdered.
A crowd had gathered at the Anchali home soon after the coffin arrived
at 12.15 pm. An hour or so later, it was taken for cremation.
“When everything was over, the truth finally sank in and I realised
with a heavy heart that my younger brother was no more,” said a
grieving Pankaj, Prashant’s elder brother, in the evening. Family
members said a post-mortem had been conducted in Armenia. But the
report is yet to come.
The Anchalis have already written to the President, the Prime Minister
and the Lok Sabha Speaker to help them find out what exactly had
happened in Armenia.
Pankaj said the family has decided to request the university through
the embassy to investigate into the matter. “We have also planned to
go to the human rights commission for justice,” he said.
Puja Goyel, one of the two students and a resident of Siliguri, who
had accompanied the body, told The Telegraph that though she was in
class when the incident occurred, she firmly believed that Prashant
had not committed suicide. “He wasn’t that kind of person. I spoke
to him the previous evening and he was quite normal. Most probably,
it was an accident. However, the Armenian police have started an
investigation and the truth would hopefully come to light soon.”
According to Puja, except for the dean of the university, Anna
Sargsayn, all others including the non-Indian students, were very
cooperative. “The students lodged a complaint against the dean and
she has been suspended,” the fourth-year student said.
Abhishek of Patna, the other student who had accompanied the body
from Armenia, said: “Prashant was a nice and kind-hearted fellow and
also a brilliant chap. He was quite popular among the students and
also liked by the teachers. The vice-president of Armenia was present
during his farewell from the university,” he added.
Abhishek too was not ready to accept that Prashant had committed
suicide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
LITHUANIAN PRESIDENT TO PAY OFFICIAL VISIT TO ARMENIA
Baltic News Service
April 24, 2006 Monday 3:06 PM EET
Vilnius
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus is to leave for a two-day official
visit to Armenia on Tuesday.
During the visit, Adamkus is scheduled to meet with Armenian President
Robert Kocharian, Prime Minister Andranik Margarian.
According to a press release from the Lithuanian president’s press
service, the meetings are planned to focus on prospects of bilateral
relations, regional cooperation, Armenia’s reforms and determination
to achieve its Euro-Atlantic goals.
A bilateral agreement on the promotion of investments and mutual
protection will also be signed during the visit.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
BODY OF INDIAN STUDENT ARRIVES FROM ARMENIA
The Statesman (India)
April 24, 2006 Monday
Statesman News Service SILIGURI, April 23: Shell-shocked family
members received the body of Prashant Anchalia, who died on Thursday
after apparently falling from the sixth floor of the Yerevan State
Medical Universitys hostel in Armenia, at Bagdogra airport around
1.30 pm today. A pall of gloom descended on the town as Prashants
body reached his residence at Church Road here from Bagdogra airport.
A large number of people had gathered outside the residence of
the Anchalias to bid adieu to Prashant, whom they used to know as
a brilliant student, who he died in mysterious circumstances in
Armenia. Puja Goel, who too hails from Siliguri and studies at YSMU
in Armenia, and Abhishek, Prashants friend, accompanied the body as
it reached Siliguri from Armenia, via New Delhi.
The duo was so shocked with the death of their friend that they could
not even speak to the media. Later in the evening, they narrated
the entire incident, and the lackadaisical attitude of the YSMU
authorities, to the victims family members. The grief-stricken family
members of Prashant, after hearing the duo, alleged that Prashant was
murdered. We demand a high-level inquiry into the circumstances that
led to Prashants death, Mr Pankaj Anchalia, the victims elder brother,
said. Puja and Abhishek, eyewitnesses of the incident, alleged that
they wanted to give their friend first aid but policemen and the
medical department dean of YSMU, Ms Anna Sargsayn, didnt allow them,
saying that they must wait for an ambulance.
The ambulance arrived in 50 minutes without any doctor, the necessary
medicine and oxygen. The Indian students approached the YSMUs newly
appointed rector, Mr Gohar Kjalyan, but the latter insulted them,
instead of offering help. Mr Pankaj Anchalia said what they heard from
Puja and Abhishek was unfortunate. Either the CBI or the Interpol
should probe the incident, he demanded. Mr Anchalia also lashed
out at the Prime Ministers Office for not responding to their fax
message. The Government of India should have helped us bring the
body from Armenia. But they did not. Had the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr
Somnath Chatterjee, not intervened, the body would not have reached
Siliguri today, he said. Mr Somnath Chatterjee had contacted the
Indian amabassador in Armenia, Mrs Reena Pandey, and instructed her
to extend all possible help to us. He also sent his condolences to us,
Mr Anchalia added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
APRèS LES PROFANATIONS, L’INAUGURATION
par Emilie Rive
L’Humanite, France
24 avril 2006
Histoire . Le memorial dedie aux victimes du genocide armenien et
de tous les genocides et autres crimes contre l’humanite doit etre
inaugure cet après-midi a Lyon.
Un million cinq cent mille morts. Tel est le bilan de l’extermination
des Armeniens par Ataturk entre 1915 et 1917. Ce fut le premier
genocide du XXe siècle, reconnu, en France, par la loi du 29 janvier
2001 et dont le 91e anniversaire doit etre celebre ce 24 avril. Le
contentieux entre Armeniens et Turcs reste très lourd, puisque
le gouvernement d’Ankara ne reconnaît que trois cent a cinq cent
mille morts pour cette periode et refuse toujours categoriquement
la qualification de genocide. Condition pourtant essentielle afin
de pouvoir mettre le pied, comme le desire la Turquie, dans l’Union
europeenne.
Un enjeu local C’est dans ce contexte que le maire de Lyon,
le socialiste Gerard Collomb, et la communaute armenienne ont
decide l’edification d’un memorial dedie, non seulement aux
victimes armeniennes, mais a celles de tous les genocides, en
plein centre-ville, sur la place Antonin-Poncet qui jouxte la place
Bellecour. Memorial qui doit etre inaugure cet après-midi a 16 h 30,
par le maire de Lyon et le president de l’association du memorial
lyonnais des victimes du genocide armenien, Jules Mardirossian.
Mais tout ne s’est pas passe aussi simplement que prevu.
Curieusement, ce n’est pas l’extreme droite turque qui est montee la
première au creneau, mais les riverains, epaules par Marie-Chantal
Debazeille, conseillère municipale UMP et ancien maire d’un autre
arrondissement de la ville. L’histoire de Lyon n’aurait rien a voir
avec l’histoire armenienne, le monument deparerait dans un site
classe au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO… Tous les arguments ont
ete utilises, y compris les recours juridiques dont certains sont
encore en cours, pour faire de ce memorial un sujet de polemique
electorale au service du candidat UMP a la mairie de Lyon, l’actuel
ministre des Transports, Dominique Perben.
Deja profane L’extreme droite turque a pris le relais avec une
manifestation le 18 mars, curieusement autorisee par le prefet du
Rhône, et soutenue, sans ambiguïte, par le consul de Turquie. Il y a eu
egalement des profanations, le week-end dernier, dont les inscriptions
proclamaient, en francais et en turc, que le genocide n’existait pas.
Toutes actions qui ont souleve des protestations de la communaute
armenienne, des elus socialistes et communistes et, pour la dernière
en date, du ministre de l’Interieur, Nicolas Sarkozy. Guy Fischer,
vice-president communiste du Senat, et Maurice Charrier, maire de
Vaulx-en-Velin, ont, a cette occasion, precise que leur presence a
l’inauguration serait aussi une condamnation de ces profanations.
Le 18 mai prochain, le groupe parlementaire socialiste va proposer
de completer la loi du 29 janvier 2001, par un texte permettant de
sanctionner la negation du genocide armenien. La proposition emane
des deputes socialistes des Bouches-du-Rhône. Un autre memorial
est, en effet, inaugure aujourd’hui a Marseille, avec le prefet de
region, les presidents socialistes du conseil regional et du conseil
general, le maire de Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin, et le president
de l’Assemblee nationale d’Armenie.
Lire aussi en p. 18 le point de vue commun de deux communistes,
l’un d’origine turque, l’autre d’origine armenienne, sur ce genocide.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress