Author: Emil Lazarian

PanARMENIAN.Net
Kocharian: Armenia Not Going to Join NATO
22.04.2006 19:52 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Armenia is not going to join the
NATO,” Armenian President Robert Kocharian said, when
answering a question of the Golos Armenii. He stated
it in response to the newspaper’s request to comment
on Armenian Speaker Artur Baghdassaryan’s statement to
the Frankfurter Allgemaine that “EU and NATO are the
future of Armenia” and “Russia should not be on the
way to the Europe.” Commenting on the statement
Kocharian said, “Armenia’s foreign policy line remains
unchanged. Within the NATO-Armenia Individual
Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) our country is
expanding the cooperation with the North-Atlantic
Alliance, as a key European security organization. We
expect effective cooperation, especially in reform of
the Armed Forces and peacekeeping. However, Armenia is
not going to join the NATO. Participation in the
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the
high level of military and technical cooperation with
Russia properly solve security issues.” In the words
of the Armenian leader, today Armenia prepares to
closer cooperation with the EU within the European
Neighborhood Policy (ENP), however does not formulate
the question of accession to the EU. “Euro-Atlantic
ambitions of Armenia are balanced, realistic, are
positively taken by European structures and do not
form problems in relations with Russia. We declare the
same position in Moscow, Brussels and Washington,” the
Armenian President said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“CLEAN AND GREEN CENTRE”
Panorama.am
13:32 22/04/06
Today is a holiday in Yerevan centre – a subbotnik. It cannot be called
otherwise as we cannot see garbage cars decorated with colored balls
and blue ties with the words “Clean and green Centre”, shining ash
cans all over the city every day.
Workers of Center’s local administration went out to clean their
community armed with brooms, shovels and other necessary accessories.
The Republic Square was cleaned from early morning.
What a lovely sight! The work is in full swing and there is hope that
the Centre will be clean at least for a day. Strange people we are
littering the city for a whole year and cleaning it only a day.
It is worth mentioning that the action was held under the motto:
“Clean and green Centre”. The specific Armenian characteristic feature
cannot be omitted either. We Armenian are fond of producing work for
ourselves. /Panorama.am/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Glendale News Press
April 22, 2006
Genocide commemoration
Local events gather community members to observe the 91st anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide.
By Tania Chatila, News-Press and Leader
NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Celine Mackerdichian doesn’t want to just
slap an Armenian flag on her car and miss out on school on Monday in
recognition of the 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
The senior at Clark Magnet High School — like many other students
in the Glendale Unified School District — wants to do more.
She wants to educate her fellow Armenian and non-Armenian peers on
the events of 1915 to 1918, when 1.5 million Armenians died at the
hands of the Ottoman Turks.
Mackerdichian was one of more than 75 students from the Armenian
clubs from all four high schools in the district who helped put on
the fifth annual genocide commemoration event at Glendale High School
Friday night.
advertisement More than 800 people, including city and school board
officials, residents and students, packed the school’s auditorium to
attend the event. Many of them wore black T-shirts emblazoned with
the words “Stop the Denial.”
The Turkish government denies the genocide ever happened and the
United States Congress does not recognize it as a genocide.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these kids for taking on this social
responsibility, learning the history and organizing this event,”
school board member Greg Krikorian said.
Krikorian first encouraged the idea of a collaborative commemoration
event among the Armenian clubs from Glendale’s four high schools
five years ago, as a way to provide something that all students
could attend.
The students from Glendale, Hoover, Clark Magnet and Crescenta Valley
high schools have been planning the event since September.
“It’s my Armenian community and I feel like they have given me so
much, so I want to give back by teaching about the genocide,” said
Ateena Pirverdian, a senior at Crescenta Valley High School.
Like Mackerdichian, Pirverdian wants to spread awareness about the
Armenian Genocide.
“Especially even in Glendale, where there is a large Armenian
population, it’s important to let people know why half of the student
body is not there [on Armenian Genocide remembrance day, April 24],”
she said.
At Friday’s event, all four of the district’s high schools put on
performances, including a poetry reading, skit and video.
Several dance groups also performed traditional Armenian dances,
the singer Arax performed and students from R.D. White Elementary
School sang traditional Armenian songs.
“They have done an effort here to reactivate the memory, in fact,
and to ask for the stopping of the denial,” said Vatiter Mandjikian,
a La Crescenta resident who attended the event.
Friday’s event was one way to recognize the historical event that
has affected and continues to affect millions of lives, district
superintendent Michael Escalante said.
“The Armenian Genocide is a tragedy in history that needs to be
recognized,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Georgia readies to tackle return of Meskhetian Turks
TDN
Sunday, April 23, 2006
‘We’re aware of Turkey’s positive approach toward the people who were
deported from the Caucasus. Today people of Caucasian origin are the
most loyal citizens of Turkey, enjoying all the rights. We have no
doubt that Turkey will help us,’ says Khaindrava
FULYA OZERKAN [blackdot.gif] ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
The Georgian government is taking important steps to facilitate the
resettlement of displaced Meskhetian Turks, a lesser known group of
victimized people who were deported en masse in 1944 by the Soviet
regime.
“A bill on the return of the Meskhetians is almost ready and is
currently being reviewed by experts in Strasbourg. We’ll pass it
along to Parliament as soon as we get the experts’ report … and
resolve this dispute,” Giorgi Khaindrava, Georgian state minister for
conflict settlement, said during a conference at Ankara’s Middle East
Technical University (ODTU).
Khaindrava, who is also head of a Georgian committee on the issue of
the return of Meskhetian Turks, was in Turkey last week for an official
visit. The Georgian minister held talks with Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul as well as with other Turkish officials during his five-day stay
in Ankara, where discussion of the Meskhetian Turks issue was among
the topics.
Meskhetian Turks are the former Muslim inhabitants of Meskheti (now
Georgia) in an area bordering Turkey. Approximately 90,000 Meskhetian
Turks were deported to other parts of Central Asia in 1944 by former
Soviet ruler Josef Stalin and resettled within Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
and Uzbekistan.
Today, many members of Meskhetian families live in various countries
and hold citizenship of the countries in which they live. Dispersed
over a number of nations including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan,
Ukraine and the United States, many Meskhetian Turks aspire to
return to their ancestral homeland in Georgia. Only a relative
handful of displaced Meskhetian Turks have so far been permitted to
return. Approximately 2,000 Meskhetian Turks out of around 450,000
worldwide have returned to Georgia, according to official figures.
“The Soviet regime, not Georgia, exiled the Meskhetians, but the
Georgian government will resolve this problem,” Khaindrava said. The
Georgian government prefers to use the term “Meskhetians” instead of
“Meskhetian Turks.”
“We have already launched the process for the return of the
Meskhetians,” he added. “That’s what matters. It’s time to take
concrete steps, not to make rhetoric.”
Georgian officials have traveled to the countries where the Meskhetian
Turks now live, except for the United States, to work together with
the governments of those countries, searching their archives about
the tragedy in 1944. Having detailed information about Meskhetian
Turks living in various countries, Georgian officials also drew up
a roadmap on minority issues in cooperation with the European Court
of Human Rights to ensure an organized return.
“We want these people to regain rights that they lost over history;
we’ll grant them their rights,” Khaindrava said.
Despite various steps taken by the Georgian government to resolve
the decades-old dispute, many Meskhetian Turks are still not
satisfied. They say Georgia pledged to open its doors to the Meskhetian
Turks in 1999 when the country became a member of the Council of
Europe, but many claim the government has dragged its feet for years
and has not come up with a solution until the second half of 2005.
Georgian minister says resettlement process is problematic:
Khaindrava described the repatriation process of the Meskhetian Turks
as challenging and said the issue had two dimensions: the physical
return process — which he said was voluntary — and its financial
aspect.
“The Meskhetians who want to return will be able to do so as it is
strictly voluntary, but the return of around 450,000 people, which
amounts to 10 percent of the current Georgian population, is not
an easy matter,” Khaindrava said, drawing attention to demographic
changes in the southwestern part of Georgia, which was home to the
Meskhetian Turks.
Today the area’s population comprises 90 percent Armenians and a small
number of Greeks where the Meskhetian Turks used to live. As Georgia
is a mountainous country, there is also a scarcity of inhabitable
land in the southwestern part for the repatriates.
“Our main principle is that if you [the Meskhetian Turks] accept
Georgia as a home, the entire country is your home and the organized
process for their return will comprise resettlement in all of the
regions of Georgia,” Khaindrava said and reassured that the Meskethian
Turks would enjoy equal rights as any citizen of Georgia, including
the right to purchase property.
Khaindrava stressed that Georgia considered the presence of different
ethnic origins in the country as an indication of a rich “diversity”
rather than posing a problem.
The settlement process of hundreds of thousands of people requires
ample financial sources as well, and Georgia needs to prepare its
infrastructure and organize its resources so as not to encounter
problems when those people return.
The Georgian minister called on the international community and
neighboring Turkey to extend their helping hands in sorting out
the matter.
“We are aware of Turkey’s approach toward the people who were deported
from the Caucasus. This is a positive approach. Today people of
Caucasian origin are the most loyal citizens of Turkey, enjoying all
the rights of citizenship. We have no doubt that Turkey will help us,”
he said.
It is not possible for all the displaced Meskhetian Turks to leave the
countries in which they currently live. Most of them have established
their lives and integrated with the societies in those countries. Some
live in countries that are more prosperous than Georgia, and it is
unlikely they will return.
“I want to say that it is not an easy process. The issue on the
number of people who want to return home will become clear within
one-and-a-half years, but we’ll not close the process, and they’ll
be able to return whenever they want,” said Khaindrava.

INDIAN STUDENTS CONTINUE THEIR PROTEST ACTION IN CONNECTION WITH
TRAGICAL DEATH OF THEIR COMRADE
Yerevan, April 22. ArmInfo. Today the Indian students of Armenia
continued the protest action they started Apr 20 following the tragic
death of their comrade, 20-year-old student Prashant Anchalia. They
reiterated their demand for the resignation of the rector of Yerevan
State Medical University Gohar Kyalyan.
This time the students are indignant at Kyalyan’s interview to the
Haykakan Zhamanak daily, in which she called the Indians “a lying Gypsy
nation.” They are also indignant at the interview of the university
administration, who said that during a meeting with the university
rector Indian students gave her the finger. They insist that it was
Kyalyan who gave them the finger in response to their demand for
her resignation.
To be reminded, the protests of Indian students were caused by the
tragic death of their 20 year-old fellow. He died of falling down
from the 6-th floor of the Zeytun dormitory. The Indian students
were irritated with the fact that the ambulance car arrived too late
and was not properly equipped to show first aid. Meanwhile head of
‘Ambulance’ CJSC Artem Petrosian assures that the car arrived in
14 minutes after receiving the emergency call. The Indians were
also irritated with the indifference of the police and head of the
international department of their university, who took mo measures to
save the life of the student. Most of all the Indians were offended
of the behavior of G. Kyalyan, rector of the Medical University. In
connection with the death of the student a criminal case is roused
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Racist motives suspected in Armenian student murder in Moscow
NTV, Moscow
23 Apr 06
[Presenter] The holiday ended tragically for Vagan Abramyants,
student of the Moscow University of Public Administration. Abramyants
and his friends were on their way to mark Easter when he was attacked
by several people with knives. The attack took place at the
Pushkinskaya underground station. Abramyants died before the
ambulance arrived. The main crime theory put forward by investigators
is racism-motivated murder. Georgiy Grivinov reports details.
[Correspondent] Late at night [on 22 April] everything was as usual
at one of the most crowded stations of the Moscow underground:
passengers were getting on trains, trains were arriving on time. Only
in the centre of the hall, where dates usually meet, there was a
police cordon. Forensic experts were working at the scene. Vagan
Abramyants, 17-year-old student of the Moscow University of Public
Administration, was killed here.
[Sergey Marchenko, spokesman for Moscow prosecutor’s office,
captioned] A group of about 12 people gathered on the platform at the
Pushkinskaya underground station. They were planning to go celebrate
the holiday together. At that moment a train arrived. Six or seven
people came out, they looked Slavic. They attacked the
above-mentioned group of people for no reason.
[Correspondent] The attackers used knives. Vagan Abramyants was
stabbed in the chest. An ambulance was called quickly, but the victim
died before doctors arrived.
[Marchenko] A criminal case under Article 105, murder, has been
opened. At present all possible crime theories are being considered,
including that of the crime being motivated by ethnic hatred.
[Correspondent] Ethnic hatred was included in possible crime motives
after witnesses described what one of the attackers looked like. His
head was shaved, he was dressed in black and knee high boots.
According to information that has not yet been confirmed officially,
all policemen in Moscow have already been sent details of the
appearance of two suspects in the murder at the Pushkinskaya station.
[Video shows people at murder scene inside underground station,
ambulance, Marchenko speaking to reporters; 0605-0758]

Regnum, Russia
April 23 2006
Is Azerbaijan getting ready to attack Armenia? Nagorno Karabakh press
digest
Is Azerbaijan getting ready to attack Armenia?
“The Azeri army will attack Armenia in a few days,” reports Media
Forum (Azerbaijan), with reference to (Turkey). The
web-site says that “this information has been provided by diplomatic
sources.” “The Azeri authorities have been seriously preparing for
liberating Karabakh and have already decided to start a war.” The
intensive contacts between the US and Azerbaijan are also due to the
forthcoming military operation in Karabakh. Referring to diplomatic
sources, says that US President George Bush will
receive Azeri representatives on April 20 and notes that Bush
approves of Azerbaijan’s plans to start a war in Karabakh. The
web-site also says that the military operation in Karabakh may impact
the world oil prices. (PanARMENIAN.Net)
“The vanguard of our army, our officers are fully prepared for war.
But we still continue training them to make them even more
professional,” says the director of the Training Center of the Azeri
Defense Ministry, Maj. Gen. Lankaran Aliyev. He says that “the
Armenian army is far behind the Azeri one in both psychological and
physical training.” “The Armenians rely on the Russian base in their
country. That’s why their army is much weaker than ours,” says
Aliyev. He notes that the Azeri youth have shown increasing interest
in military service in the last years. They come to the army
prepared. “We have a normal base for training our soldiers in line
with the NATO standards. Our officers are much better trained than
the Armenian ones. But I don’t think that this is enough. We have yet
much to do to make our officers even more efficient,” says Aliyev.
(APA)
The director of the “Peace, Democracy and Culture”
Research-Analytical Center, military and conflict expert, veteran of
the Afghani and Karabakh wars Rauf Rajabov gives an interview to
Day.Az (abridged).
“In early 2006 the Azeri Government set up the Defense Industry
Ministry and budgeted $600 mln for the army. Is the army having
plenty of problems – from bullying and corruption to lack of military
doctrine – ready to ‘digest’ such big money?
The analysis of the Azeri army’s non-combat losses of the last few
months has shown that no real reforms are being held in our defense
ministry. But this is a kind of taboo in Azerbaijan. The same is for
the use of budgetary assignments. I would like to note from the very
beginning that I am talking about ordinary military units rather than
a few elite and well trained groups.
What enemy will our army face if the war resumes?
The Armenian army has almost 61,000 servicemen (and 300,000-strong
mobilization reserve). Jan 1 2001 Yerevan declared to have 102 tanks,
204 infantry fighting vehicles, including 677 units not subject to
the TCAFE restrictions (Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
– REGNUM), 225 122-mm and more guns, 8 planes and 12 helicopters, 32
‘Scad’ surface-to-surface ballistic missile units. As of today, the
land forces of Armenia have 4 motorized brigades, 10 infantry
regiments, 1 artillery brigade, 2 anti-aircraft brigades. The period
of deployment of the uniquely strong Russian base in Gyumri is 25
years, but can be prolonged for an indefinite time. The duty of the
Russians is to guard the borders with Turkey and Iran and to act
within the CIS United Air Defense System. Besides ordinary motorized
infantry, 90 tanks, 200 armored vehicles and 100 guns, the base has
25 MiG-29 fighters, 20 troop carriers and 4 S-300V anti-aircraft
missile systems. No other Russian division this kind of equipment.
The personnel is 3,500 people, with many of them ethnic Armenians
with Russian citizenship. The headquarters of the 102nd base are in
the Big Fortress, built by Cossacks in 1828.
And what armed forces does the so-called ‘NKR’ have?
Nagorno Karabakh is not a subject of the international law and,
consequently, is not a member of the Treaty on Conventional Armed
Forces in Europe. Hence, the territory of the Karabakh region is not
inspected by international experts. Some analysts say that Nagorno
Karabakh has 20,000 men in active troops, 60,000 men in reserve and
4,000 men in various security services. It also has 316 tanks (300
more ‘hidden’), 324 infantry fighting vehicles, 322 122-mm and more
caliber guns, 44 multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and modernized
S-123 and S-75 anti aircraft units. The whole 250-km contact line is
a two-echelon field work. Also there, are 30,000 Armenian servicemen.
The hardware and arms deployed in Karabakh is by no means subject to
the TCAFE. This does not mean, however, that we should tremble before
the enemy. No, we simply should know about it as much as possible and
think in real categories: facile optimism has not yet given anybody
any good…” (Day.Az)
PanARMENIAN.Net has interviewed First Vice President of the Academy
of Geopolitical Studies, Colonel General, Doctor of Historical
Sciences Leonid Ivashov.
How serious are Azerbaijan’s statements on readiness to resumption of
hostilities on the Karabakh front?
Security issues should always be treated seriously. Given the
complexity of the Nagorno Karabakh problem, security is the main task
of the state and the major responsibility of the President and the
Government. Only via military balance it’s possible to preserve
political settlement. The threat of an armed conflict and resumption
of hostilities is quite real. Keeping the situation within a
political settlement is possible only via balance of military
potentials. Domination of military force of one of the parties can
result in a new bloodshed.
Which is Russia’s policy towards settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict?
The present Russian leadership lacks a precise strategy on the South
Caucasus. In relations with Azerbaijan and Armenia, Russia tries to
keep the balance of friendly interaction. This line has helped to
maintain peace in Karabakh for many years already.
It seems lately that Russia is trying to strengthen its position in
the South Caucasus by resorting to not very popular means. Is this
true?
The reasonable part of the Russian leadership is trying to maintain
its presence and influence in the Caucasus. It’s important for Russia
to prevent destabilization in the North Caucasus, deployment of NATO
military bases and projection of military force inland. In my
opinion, Armenia is Russia’s foothold in the South Caucasus. At the
same time, it is vitally important for Armenia to have allied
relations with Russia. If Armenia relies on promises made by the
West, it will lose its state system and independence.
Won’t Georgia’s and Azerbaijan’s possible escape from Russia’s
influence leave Armenia isolated in its hope for the good will of
Russia, who may well act the same way it did in 1921 by concluding an
alliance with Ataturk?
Armenia has the right to establish relations with whoever it wants.
But if it conflicts with Russia’s interests, Moscow can transform
cooperation into the level of mutually beneficial relations without
any political or economic preferences. However, such situation will
conflict with Armenia’s national interests and will result in the
isolation of the republic and even in its collapse. A large Armenian
Diaspora lives in Russia. I think it could make a great contribution
to the development of the Russian-Armenian allied relations.”
(PanARMENIAN.Net)
If one cocks an ear to what the Kremlin has been saying recently, one
will see that new war is not the worst way for Russia: war is better
for that country than the peace proposed by the West, says 525th
Daily in response to General Ivashov’s interview. It should also be
noted that, unlike his US and French colleagues, the Russian co-chair
of the OSCE MG Yuri Merzlyakov makes no demonstrative calls for
reconciliation. “In this light, the statements of General Ivashov,
who was the chief of Russia’s general staff before 2001, may well be
taken as Moscow’s attitude to this problem. Besides, the organization
Ivashov heads now is one of the leading security studies centers in
Russia.”
The most acceptable way for Azerbaijan to solve the Karabakh problem
is war, say 83% of the visitors of the web-site of Times.az
independent daily. Apr 14 the daily summed up the results of its
one-month on-line voting. 14.7% of the visitors hope for diplomatic
solution and only 2.2% don’t care at all. (Noyan Tapan)
The mediators’ efforts
“War will be the worst scenario for the parties to the Karabakh
conflict. War is new deaths, new refugees, money spent in vain
instead of being spent on development. War will solve nothing.
However it ends, the sides will find themselves in pre-war situation
again,” De Facto reports the French co-chair of the OSCE MG Bernard
Fassier as saying in Yerevan on April 14.
“Under no circumstances can war be a solution. That’s why we
officially call on the sides to look to the future, to build peace
despite past tragedies. One can’t drive a car by constantly looking
into the backward mirror. He will certainly get into accident. You
should not keep remembering who was the first who started the war,
who was the first in history who settled down in Karabakh…,” says
Fassier. “After Rambouillet the negotiating process has not died. It
is alive.” Speaking metaphorically, the sides and the mediators came
to Rambouillet with a half-full glass and just failed to fill it a
bit more. Of course, the mediators understood that they would not be
able to fill the glass at once, but they hoped to add a bit to its
content. They failed. But the half-full glass was not overturned. And
so, the negotiating process is continued,” says Fassier. He says that
the OSCE MG US co-chair Steven Mann will visit the region after the
Easter and he too may visit Yerevan and Baku in late Apr-early May.
“All these visits are not private but are coordinated with the
capitals of the co-chair states. On April 15, I will go to Moscow to
meet not only with my Russian colleague Yuri Merzlyakov but also with
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Karasin, who deals with the Karabakh
problem,” says Fassier. Besides, in early May the OSCE MG co-chairs
will hold a consultation in Moscow, after which they will visit the
region all together. This may well be followed by new meetings. The
objective of these visits is to pave the way for a new meeting of the
Armenian and Azeri presidents. “I can’t give the date and venue of
that meeting. Nothing is clear yet. We hope that we will be able to
organize it in June-July. Everything depends on what the presidents
will agree to. The presidents of the co-chair countries believe that
– the sooner the better,” says Fassier.
“I would like to say that if we hope to organize a new meeting of the
presidents, this means that we are ready to present additional ideas
for them to enrich, enlarge and develop the principles we have
already worked on. I also mean some new ideas, but not new talks or a
new format. The format of the talks is and will be the OSCE MG,
represented by the US, France and Russia. But, at the same time, this
format is being adapted. That is, we are no longer satisfied with
joint visits and mission. We are firmly resolved to use any occasion
for resolving the conflict. For example, we used the visits of
Oskanyan and Mamedyarov (Armenian and Azeri FMs – REGNUM) to Moscow
and Washington. Some people may think that we have changed the
format. No. We have just adapted of the content of the format,” says
Fassier.
Commenting on Fassier’s speech, the expert of the Armenian Center for
National and International Studies Stepan Safaryan says to A1+ that
in this format the Karabakh peace process is doomed to failure, and
the co-chairs perfectly know that. “Simply, they want to present the
final picture of failure so the world community apply serious
measures against the presidents. The world community sees that the
presidents are not willing to resolve the conflict and are just
making empty statements, while the co-chairs are trying to give them
one more chance,” says Safaryan. He is sure that 2006 will be the
last such chance.
Radio Liberty reports the Russian and US co-chairs of the OSCE MG
Yuri Merzlyakov and Steven Mann to meet in Moscow on April 19. “He
(Mann) is going to the region firmly resolved and expecting serious
and fruitful meetings,” Merzlyakov says in an interview to RL. In
early May the OSCE MG co-chairs are visiting the region. If they
agree on a new meeting of the Armenian and Azeri presidents, will
this mean that the presidents have accepted the MG’s new proposals?
To this question Merzlyakov said: “No. Perhaps, after the meeting
part of the proposals will be accepted, and the rest left for
revision. All these issues should be discussed during the president’s
meeting.” RL reports that the MG has already told the presidents
about their new proposals. And whether they are acceptable or not
will become known after the co-chairs’ visit to the region. While the
Armenian and Azeri FMs will be in Moscow to attend the April 20
meeting of the CIS FMs, Merzlyakov will meet with Azeri FM Elmar
Mamedryarov and, probably, with Armenian FM Vardan Oskanyan. The
latter meeting is not certain as Oskanyan will stay in Moscow for a
very short time.
“It is early yet to speak about the MG’s new proposals for the
Karabakh conflict settlement. The proposals should first be grouped
and formulated so we can say something about them. We will express
our opinion only if a specific proposal is made,” the director of the
foreign relations department of the Azeri president’s staff Novruz
Mamedov says to APA. He believes that decisive are the positions of
the sides rather than of the co-chairs: “The sides should make some
changes in their positions, should take constructive stance and
serious steps for solving the problem.” Commenting on the statements
of the French co-chair Bernard Fassier that based on the last
proposals the sides can achieve 80% of what they want and of the
Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov that if the sides get 50% of what
they claim, the co-chairs will be able to consider their mission
fulfilled, Mamedov says that the co-chairs’ proposals are based on
their personal views: “Even their views do not coincide. Our key task
is to liberate our occupied territories, to repatriate displaced
people and to ensure the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in line
with the international law.”
Has Armenia changed its position on Nagorno Karabakh?
“Until recently we have said that the status of Nagorno Karabakh must
be finalized before Armenia starts discussing the elimination of the
conflict consequences: territories, refugees, security measures,”
Armenian FM Vardan Oskanyan said at the opening of the 8th meeting of
the EU-Armenia inter-parliamentary cooperation commission in Yerevan
April 18. He said that this position has changed: “If Azerbaijan
agrees that the Nagorno Karabakh people has a right to
self-determination – if not at once then, at least, in the future –
the Armenian side is ready already today to start discussing the
problems of territories, refugees and security.”
Oskanyan said that this is “a serious concession by the Armenian
side.” He said that the Azeri side has not yet reacted to this
proposal, and today it is necessary to work with the Azeris more so
“they take a step towards Armenians.” Commenting on one more serious
issue – the statements of Azerbaijan that the conflict may be
resolved by war, Oskanyan said: “If this conflict had a military
solution, it would have already been resolved. But there is no such
solution: there have already been two wars, and Armenians have won
both of them. But we do not consider themselves as victors. We have
won the battle, but the threat of war is still existent as Azerbaijan
continues making warlike declarations. We need peace.” Oskanyan urged
the Europeans to force the Azeris to stop their militarist rhetoric.
“They should be clearly told that nobody will allow them to start a
war against Armenia. This is very important, and I believe that the
European Parliament should be involved in this process. Azerbaijan
must understand that there is no other solution to the conflict than
peace.” (Azg)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Asbury Park Press, NJ
April 23 2006
This week marks the Holocaust
Events to target hatred, strife
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/23/06
BY RICHARD QUINN
STAFF WRITER
The emptiness where the Twin Towers once stood is more than an
unnerving scar from Sept. 11, 2001.
It’s a reminder of what killed more than 1 million Armenians in the
first quarter of the 20th century. Of how 6 million Jews died in the
Holocaust of World War II. Of why Rwanda, Somalia and Darfur are more
than answers to a geography quiz.
“This is deep-seated hatred,” said Susan Rosenblum, a Lakewood High
School teacher whose self-created class is titled “Holocaust and
Man’s Inhumanity to Man.”
Rosenblum is the keynote speaker at today’s New Jersey Jewish War
Veterans ceremony at Liberty State Park, in the shadow of the New
York skyline torn apart when the Twin Towers collapsed Sept. 11,
2001. The event will be held to remember the Holocaust.
Sadly, there is a lot of hatred in history to remember this week.
Monday is the day Armenians across the globe remember the April 24,
1915, arrests of more than 200 Armenian community leaders in
Constantinople. Hundreds more arrests followed and, eight years
later, the estimated death toll was 1.5 million people.
Tuesday is Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah – a Hebrew phrase that roughly
translates to Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, although most
people refer to it simply as Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
And a week from today is a national march in Washington to protest
the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan, where an estimated
200,000 to 400,000 people have died and 2.5 million people displaced
in a feud between ethnic Africans and Arabs.
The thread woven between these and future genocides is hate, said
Paul Winkler, executive director of New Jersey’s Commission on
Holocaust Education.
In fact, this year’s state-sponsored Holocaust commemorations will be
linked to the strife in Darfur to show that the sins of the Holocaust
are just as real today as they were in the 1930s and 1940s, Winkler
said.
“The importance is that the same systematic approaches have been used
in every genocide that has occurred,” he added. “It’s the same
ingredients of find someone to blame, make those people seem as
though they are lower than human, use the bias and prejudice and
bigotry to carry out the genocide.”
Holocaust recalled
At the Shore region, the Holocaust is remembered most publicly.
Across Monmouth and Ocean counties this week, schools and community
centers will host survivors and rescuers who tell firsthand accounts
of the world’s most-talked-about genocide.
Manfred Lindenbaum, 73, of Jackson is one of those survivors. He
still has trouble comprehending how such crimes against humanity
could be committed, but he speaks to schoolchildren to fuel
understanding in today’s generation.
“When a survivor speaks, the kids listen in a different way,” he
said. “We can really testify how rapidly the deterioration of
humanity came about.”
Fellow survivor Abe Chapnick also speaks.
Now 75 and living Howell, he spent more than three years as a young
man in three concentration camps in Poland and one in Germany.
“I speak because I feel that somehow I can relieve the suffering,” he
said. “I speak because I have an obligation to all the people who
didn’t make it.”
Connecting with history
Stories like those told by Lindenbaum and Chapnick only matter if
someone’s listening.
Dale Daniels, executive director of the Center for Holocaust Studies
at Brookdale Community College, said her center is working to create
more programs to connect history to today. The center now has a
traveling exhibit – featuring haunting black-and-white stills of
survivors – that will be in Monmouth and Ocean counties later this
year.
“Unfortunately, we know they won’t always be with us,” Daniels said.
“This is a way of permanently making them a part of the center.”
In her keynote address at Liberty State Park, Rosenblum will
emphasize that education can prevent genocide.
“Because they have become so sensitized to hatred and bigotry, they
look at things with much different glasses,” Rosenblum said. “That’s
the whole point.”
ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, , and click on this story
for more information on Holocaust education in New Jersey.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Las Vegas Sun
April 22 2006
Armenian left a ‘lasting legacy’
Genocide commemoration will go on, even though last survivor is gone
By Ed Koch
Las Vegas Sun
At last year’s 90th annual Armenian genocide commemoration ceremony
in Las Vegas, Malvine Papazian Handjian, a frail and ailing
92-year-old genocide survivor, passed four lighted candles to four
local youths.
It was symbolic of lighting the way so that future generations will
not forget the horror she witnessed as a 10-year-old Armenian refugee
on the streets of Izmir, Turkey, during the first genocide of the
20th century.
Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million Armenians were killed as the
Ottoman Empire tried to rid the nation of Armenians.
Handjian died a month after the ceremony.
“She left a lasting legacy,” said her son-in-law John Dadaian,
chairman of the local genocide commemoration ceremony. “She was
motivated and articulate, and she long stood as a symbol of the truth
against those who say the genocide never happened. She survived to
tell her story over and over.”
Handjian told of atrocities – an Armenian priest being pulled out of
his burning church by his long beard before he was brutalized;
teenage girls carried off by Turkish soldiers to be raped and killed.
“We must never forget – never forget,” Handjian told the Sun in an
April 24, 2004, story. “I saw these things with my own eyes. And I
will never forget.”
Commemoration services this year begin at 1 p.m. Sunday at Christ
Lutheran Church, 111 N. Torrey Pines Drive. Dadaian called for
recognition of the genocide, which has become a political hot potato.
While Armenians have pushed for such recognition, Turks have argued
against it and in many cases denied it.
Dadaian says no U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has formally
recognized the mass slayings as a genocide.
Congress has twice passed resolutions – once in 1975 and again in
1984 – recognizing the Armenian genocide, but not recently. Sen. John
Ensign, R-Nev., has introduced a resolution in the Senate that would
recognize the genocide.
Gov. Kenny Guinn issued a proclamation recognizing “the 91st
anniversary of the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.”
Among those scheduled to attend Sunday’s commemoration ceremony,
sponsored by the Armenian American Cultural Society of Las Vegas, are
Ensign, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar
Goodman, who met with local Armenian-Americans who want to build a
genocide monument on city land.
An estimated 20,000 people of Armenian descent live in Southern
Nevada .
Handjian was the last known genocide survivor in the Las Vegas
Valley. She and her late husband, Kourken, also a genocide survivor,
were the subject of the 2002 documentary film “The Handjian Story: A
Road Less Traveled,” produced and directed by their granddaughter,
Denise Gentilini. The movie, which won an award at the Moondance Film
Festival in Denver, is used in classrooms to teach about the
genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Boston Globe, MA
April 22 2006
Armine Dedekian, 93; survivor of 1915 Armenian genocide helped others
realize American dream
By Gloria Negri, Globe Staff | April 22, 2006
Armine (Kailian) Dedekian, who survived the 1915 Armenian genocide as
an infant, came to this country on a seven-day voyage from Greece in
1929. When she arrived at Ellis Island, a sick and bewildered
teenager, there was no one to meet her because of a mix-up over her
arrival time.
”I waited at Ellis Island for one week,” she told a Globe reporter
on the 90th anniversary of the genocide last year. ”Finally one day
my name came up and I went to the office.”
And she met her mother for the first time since she was a baby.
”Every time the door opened and a woman came in, I wondered if it
was my mother because I didn’t know her. That’s how I met her.”
Mrs. Dedekian, one of a handful of Boston-area survivors of the
Armenian genocide, died April 19 at Mount Auburn Hospital in
Cambridge following a massive stroke at her Watertown home. She was
93.
Her story is one of survival and hope. After she achieved her own
American dream, she spent much of her life helping other immigrants
realize theirs.
”She was an immigrant who helped other immigrants and needy people
throughout her life,” said a niece, Michele Simourian of Dover.
Mrs. Dedekian was a newborn when the Turks came to her parents’ home
in Bandirma, Turkey, and took away her father, Onnig Kailian.
”They came in and took all the young men,” Mrs. Dedekian’s daughter,
Sona Aslanian, of Belmont, said yesterday. ”They took them into the
desert and killed them.”
Armine’s mother, Kerakoun, then about 16, took her child and fled
with her parents and in-laws.
”Everyone had to keep going,” Mrs. Dedekian told the Globe. ”We
were walking towards the desert . . . to Syria. My mother got a job
in a hospital there. Then, this young man, he also was Armenian, was
working there, too.”
The young man, Levon Tufankjian, married Kerakoun. Somehow, the
family got separated.
Mrs. Dedekian told the Globe: ”The Turks chased us three times; we
had to abandon everything. We didn’t know where my mother was. We
didn’t know who had died and who hadn’t. We found a way of finding
each other by writing to the Armenian papers.”
They placed an ad seeking her mother.
”My mother’s cousin saw the ad and he knew my mother was in
America,” she said.
Mrs. Dedekian was 15 and living in Greece with her extended family
when she embarked alone on her journey to the United States. She was
on the ship seven days, feeling ill, on her mission to find her
mother and stepfather who had settled in the Boston area.
With no knowledge of English, the teenaged Armine was placed in a
kindergarten class, her daughter said, but she quickly learned the
language and was advanced, eventually graduating at the top of her
class at Roxbury Memorial High School in the 1930s.
Armine and Sarkis Dedekian met while both were singing in the choir
of the Armenian National Church. They were married in 1936.
Mr. Dedekian, who died in 1991, was an artist who made his living as
a house painter.
Mrs. Dedekian had an excellent business mind and was ”a dynamo,” her
daughter said. In addition to all her community work, her daughter
said, Mrs. Dedekian ran an electrolysis business for many years in
her home.
”My grandmother was the most remarkable woman I’ve known,” said Aram
Aslanian of Watertown. ”She lived in a traditional Armenian
household where women were expected to stay at home. She was ahead of
her time in terms of what she did with her life.”
Astor Guzelian of Dedham, a family friend, recalled how Mrs. Dedekian
”found a motel she liked on the Cape, decided to buy it, and then
told her husband.” The motel, the Gaslight Resort Motel in Dennis
Port, was successful and is still owned by the Dedekian family.
Mrs. Dedekian was just as much a dynamo in her volunteer work, both
in Watertown and in Manomet, where the family spent summers.
She and her mother were both charter members of the Armenian Relief
Society, and she was a member of the Armenian Renaissance
Association, which also assisted immigrants in settling here.
Sona Aslanian remembers many late-night calls that sent her mother to
the airport or bus terminals to meet new arrivals and her efforts to
find them homes and jobs.
Mrs. Dedekian was also involved in her church, sewing vestments for
priests and cooking Armenian delicacies for special events.
She remained active until recently, her grandson said, insisting on
living on her own as long as she could. ”She had a 93-year-old body,
but a 25-year-old mind,” he said.
Had she been here yesterday, he said, she would have made it to the
State House to attend the annual Armenian Martyrs Day ceremony in
honor of the victims of the genocide.
Though she had only been a baby at the time, she had suffered for
years afterward.
Last year, in a Globe interview, Mrs. Dedekian’s memory of her
childhood was still vivid. ”I remember coming back to Turkey when I
was 6 or 7,” she said. ”We were in a village and if we found a piece
of bread we would put some salt on it and eat it. That’s how we
survived for a few years. By 1920, we decided we had to leave Turkey
forever so we boarded a boat and went to Greece.”
In addition to her daughter and grandson Aram Aslanian, she leaves a
son, Ara of Newton; four additional grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Stephen’s
Armenian Church in Watertown. Burial will be in Mount Auburn Cemetery
in Cambridge.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress