Author: Emil Lazarian

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 24 2004
Armenia’s president Robert Kocharyan to visit France
YEREVAN, April 24 (Itar-Tass) – President Robert Kocharyan of Armenia
will head for France on a working visit on Sunday. He plans to meet
his French counterpart Jacques Chirac on Monday, the presidential
press service reported on Saturday.
One of the key topics of the talks will be the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. France is a co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group on Nagorno-Karabakh alongside with Russia and the USA and takes
an active part in the conflict’s settlement.
During the talks the presidents will also discus bilateral political
dialogue and economic cooperation.
On Sunday evening, Kocharyan and his wife will attend a concert by
Charles Aznavur at the Paris Palace of Congresses that will be
devoted to the 80th birthday of the prominent French singer and
songwriter of Armenian descent.
The Armenian president also plans to meet the head of the French
company `Bouig’ Olivier Bouig.
On April 27, Kocharyan and his delegation will leave Paris for Warsaw
to attend the World Economic Forum. He will take part in a working
meeting on the Caucasus and meet with the Forum’s President Klaus
Schwab. Within the framework of the Forum Kocharyan will meet with
the Polish and Georgian presidents, Alexander Kwasniewski and Mikhail
Saakashvili.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ArmenPress
April 24 2004
PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN’S ADDRESS ON GENOCIDE VICTIMS’ REMEMBRANCE DAY
YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: Dear compatriots, today we remember
the victims of the Armenian Genocide. An entire nation with its
thousands-years-old civilization, culture and material heritage was
wiped out under the Ottoman Empire’s state program and with the use
of state institutions. Bowing our heads before the memory of millions
of innocent victims, we as a nation reiterate our determination to
achieve full and unequivocal international recognition and
condemnation of this crime against humanity.
Unpunished crimes can lead to new similar crimes. The
international community has to do everything it can to prevent such a
crime from ever happening again in any part of the world.
Like every year on April 24, today we reiterate our will to stand
above rancor and revengefulness. We are prepared to establish normal
relations with all the countries of the region, including Turkey.
Our efforts are aimed at lasting peace, stability and cooperation
in the region. To this end, we are prepared to assume an active and
constructive role. Today we are building a new, peaceful, secure and
prosperous fatherland. To build such a fatherland, we look to the
future.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec)
April 24, 2004 Saturday Final Edition
Not our place to pronounce
Tragedy is a cheater word, usually deployed to evade a charge of
guilt while recognizing the deplorable character of an event or
situation. What happened to the Armenians in 1915 was a tragedy and
more. Few independent historians disagree with this. The body count
runs as high as 1.5 million.
But must the Parliament of Canada pronounce on the subject, as they
did Wednesday? Do the votes of MPs who know nothing of the history of
Asia Minor really matter?
There is a place for parliamentary resolutions on current affairs
abroad and even on historical affairs at home. It was natural for
Japanese Canadians to seek moral and monetary redress for their
incarceration during the Second World War. Louis Riel remains a
perennial object of newspaper copy parliamentary attention. He was,
after all, a Canadian.
On the subject of the Armenian genocide, however, we believe our
lawmakers have the right, and perhaps the obligation, to remain
silent. As hideous as this episode was, it was not unique in the
annals of human conflict. If Parliament speaks on this issue, why
should it remain silent on others?
It is obvious that Armenian Canadians care deeply about their past.
Turks are no less passionate. This is an excellent reason for
Parliament to keep its distance from this and all such debates.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Agence France Presse
April 24, 2004 Saturday
US citizen arrested in Armenia over opposition protests
YEREVAN
Armenian prosecutors arrested a US citizen for taking part in
opposition rallies calling for a violent overthrowal of the existing
order, the prosecutor general’s press service said Friday.
Arthur Vardanyan, a former Armenian national who obtained US
citizenship in 2002, was also suspected of illegally crossing the
Armenian border using his Armenian passport, officials said.
According to prosecutors, Vardanyan was actively involved in
Armenia’s various political activities, particularly during last
year’s electoral period, and then took part in a massive wave of
protests demanding the resignation of President Robert Kocharyan.
The Armenian opposition says that Kocharyan rigged a run-off
presidential vote in March 2003 to secure a second term in office and
is demanding that he either organize a national referendum of
confidence in his rule or step down.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A duty to the truth
U.S. should officially commemorate the Armenian Genocide.
April 24, 2004
Today we once again commemorate the Armenian Genocide, a brutal event
that resulted in an estimated 1.5 million Armenians being killed at
the hands of the Ottoman Turkish empire and its successor regime
between 1915 and 1923.
Commemoration events have been going on all week in this community
with so many Armenian-Americans. At 10 a.m. today, a ceremony at City
Hall will feature the raising of the Armenian flag next to the flags
of the United States and California.
Rep. George Radanovich, who has been pushing to get the Armenian
genocide officially recognized by the U.S. government, will speak at
the event. His voice has been strong in support of this important
cause.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration, like administrations before
it, has stepped lightly around the issue. Our leaders, especially
those in the State Department, are afraid of offending the Turkish
government by designating the savage events of early last century as a
genocide.
Turkey, a key U.S. ally, vigorously denies that the genocide
occurred. It did, of course, and it’s time for the Turks to
acknowledge it. Radanovich has authored House Resolution 193, which
calls for official recognition of the Armenian genocide. That
resolution should be passed because it’s the right thing to do.
Turkish embarrassment at the bloody past is understandable, but that
doesn’t change the facts, and the Turkish government shouldn’t be
allowed to dictate whether the United States formally acknowledges the
genocide. The Turks’ revisionism has grown tiresome, and our
government’s willingness to be complicit in this ruse is at odds with
this nation’s founding principles.
On this day, we commemorate the Armenian genocide. It’s time that the
U.S. government officially adds its voice to this cause for justice.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A1 Plus | 15:17:09 | 23-04-2004 | Politics |
ARAMAZD ZAKARYAN TO ANNOUNCE HUNGER STRIKE
Justice Ministry Press Secretary Ara Sahgatelyan said Friday the Republic
party member Aramazd Zakaryan, who is Karabakh war veteran and disabled,
intended to start hunger strike tomorrow.
Aramazd Zakaryan was charged with insulting officials and will be kept in
detention two months while waiting his trial.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CBC Ottawa, Canada
April 23 2004
Turkey denounces Armenian genocide vote in Commons
OTTAWA – The Turkish government called in the Canadian ambassador on
Thursday to express disappointment over a House of Commons vote that
recognizes the death of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923
as a genocide.
Armenians blame the Ottoman Turks for the massacre of their people.
Turkey denies the charges.
The Turkish government says by siding with the Armenians, Canadian
MPs are rewriting history. A spokesman for the Turkish Embassy in
Ottawa says relations between Canada and Turkey will be harmed by the
vote.
Armenian Canadians hold a vigil on Parliament Hill
For decades consecutive Canadian governments have dodged the
sensitive issue by calling what happened in eastern Turkey a
“tragedy,” stopping well short of referring to the events as
“genocide.”
In 1915, during the First World War, Turkish troops put down an
Armenian uprising. Armenians say about 1.5 million people were killed
by the Ottoman Turks during a brutal eight-year campaign.
Turkey has always fought attempts by Armenians and international
human rights organizations to have the events declared a genocide.
Previously, Ankara has warned countries contemplating similar action
that there would be negative consequences. In some cases business
contracts have been held up or denied.
Prime Minister Paul Martin joined other members of his cabinet in
insisting the motion is not binding on the government.
Martin came to office promising to allow more free votes on critical
issues. It’s part of his commitment to erase the “democratic deficit”
by giving MPs more power on Parliament Hill. But some politicians are
questioning his commitment in light of the government’s decision to
ignore the results of the vote.
Martin didn’t show up for Wednesday night’s vote recognizing the
Armenian genocide, but he didn’t escape questions about whether there
is any value in allowing more free votes if his government is just
going to ignore the results.
Martin said he felt Parliament and the government could have
differing views, “And that, in fact, is one of the great benefits of
dealing with parliamentary reform and parliamentary democracy.”
The government’s view is that the events nearly a century ago in the
Ottoman Empire were a tragedy, but not genocide.
Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis says the clear majority of Parliament and
a majority of Liberal MPs see it differently. They want Martin to
live up to his promise to give MPs real clout. “The people elected
parliamentarians to come here and rule the country,” he said.
Fellow Liberal Sarkis Assadourian has the same message. “They should
stand up and take note.”
In the House of Commons, Bloc Québécois MP Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral
also questioned Martin’s commitment to democratic reform. “Is the
prime minister saying, ‘Talk, talk all you want, but we’ll do what we
like.’?”
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said the government has enormous
respect for the sentiments expressed in the motion, but he says
foreign policy must rest in the hands of the government.
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale said there was nothing about the
government’s response to the vote that undermines its commitment to
parliamentary reform.
He said there will always be a difference between the will of
Parliament and the cabinet’s job to set official government policy.
But the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa wasn’t buying the argument. Fazli
Corman, a counsellor at the embassy, told CBC News, “This move will
affect Turkish-Canadian relations negatively.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Mother Jones, CA
April 23 2004
The Unknown Genocide
On April 24th, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, President Bush will
issue a statement mourning the state-sponsored mass killing of more
than a million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 in what was then the
Ottoman Empire. Yet to the disappointment of many Armenian-Americans,
he will refrain from using the term “genocide.” Against the evidence,
Turkey — the successor state to the Ottoman Empire — officially
views the Armenian Genocide as an unfounded allegation, not the
established historical fact that it is.
History, then, is not on Turkey’s side, but realpolitik is. Aside
from being a crucial N.A.T.O. ally, Turkey is also the transit-point
for oil. U.S. companies have a large stake in the ongoing
construction of an oil pipeline running from Baku, Azerbaijan to the
Turkish port of Ceyhan. In 2000, the House of Representatives
withdrew a resolution on the Armenian Genocide after Turkey
threatened to close its airbases to U.S. planes on fly-over missions
in Iraq.
There are about 7 million people of Armenian descent word-wide: 3
million in the Republic of Armenia and 4 million in the Diaspora,
with the largest communities in North America, Europe and the Middle
East. Many are the descendants of genocide survivors and have
campaigned for decades to have Turkey recognize and apologize for the
Armenian Genocide.
One million-plus Armenian-Americans, concentrated in New York,
California, and Massachusetts, make up one of the most politically
active ethnic communities in the country. The Armenian National
Committee of America (A.N.C.A.), a grassroots political organization,
expects its Armenian Genocide Observance on Capitol Hill to be
attended by 110 legislators. The organization’s San Francisco Bay
Area chapter recently mailed 10,000 brochures to history and social
science teachers publicizing a workbook on the Armenian Genocide
developed by the San Francisco school district. The project was
funded by A.N.C.A., which also launched a companion website:
The Armenian Diaspora has made progress in discrediting the Turkish
government’s version of events in legislatures, newspapers, and
classrooms throughout the world. Several parliaments — including the
French National Assembly have passed laws recognizing the Armenian
Genocide. The U.S. Congress had passed resolutions doing the same.
The Association of Genocide Scholars of North America concluded that
the killings meet the definition of the 1948 U.N. Convention on
Genocide which includes the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Atom Egoyan’s
“Ararat” — the first major motion picture on the Armenian Genocide
— was shown worldwide and won Canada’s top movie awards in 2003. The
movie focused on the way the Diaspora has dealt, over generations,
with the memory of the genocide and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge
it.
This year, the New York Times issued guidelines to its journalists
stating that the facts of the Armenian Genocide are well-established
and that references to it “should not be qualified with phrasing like
‘what Armenians call,’ etc.” — reversing a long-standing policy of
using qualifiers.
Turkey contends that the number of Armenians killed is vastly
exaggerated; that there was no systematic effort by the government to
exterminate the Armenians; that traitorous nationalist Armenian
parties allied with the Russian Empire during World War One bear
responsibility for the suffering that befell their people; that
during this time of “international war and inter-communal struggle”
Armenians weren’t uniquely afflicted, suffering along with Muslims,
Jews, and other subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey also
refers to the deportations of the Armenians — most infamously via
marches to the Syrian deserts during which many were killed or died
from disease and starvation — as “relocations.”
The problem for Turkey is that records of the “Young Turk” government
which orchestrated the killings, dispatches from Western diplomats,
military officers, and aid workers, and testimonials of genocide
survivors all confirm a systematic effort to wipe out the Armenian
minority.
Fear of being forced to pay reparations — monetary and territorial
— is often cited as a reason for Turkey’s refusal to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. Some Armenians are still calling for “the return
of the lands” from which their ancestors were expelled, a demand that
is not going to be supported by the international community. In any
case, even if it was, mass migrations from Paris and Los Angeles to
populate Turkey’s rural areas are not realistic either — the
descendants of the survivors are well-integrated into their “host
countries.” More likely, international courts will required that
Turkey pay massive reparations.
Turkey’s refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide, is much more
than a matter of money, though — the recognition would entail a
fundamental transformation of the country’s political and educational
discourse. An honest examination of the violent dismemberment of the
multi-national empire from whose ashes modern Turkey rose would
require that the government dismantle the founding myths of the
state. As Etienne Copeaux of France’s Group for Research and Studies
on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Affairs told Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty:
“To recognize the genocide would be to recognize that a very large
number of Armenians used to live in Anatolia. Therefore, it would
mean there is a multi-cultural Anatolia. But, as we can see today
with the issue of the Kurds, the Turkish state is envisaged as a
uni-cultural state, a state with a single culture, a single language.
So [to recognize the Armenian genocide] would mean Turkey should
offer concessions not only to Kurds but also to other nationalities
that still live in Turkey.”
The few Turkish historians who are challenging the government’s
version are not to be envied: Taner Akcam, who has called the
killings of the Armenians a “genocide” left Turkey after universities
refused to hire him; he currently teaches at the University of
Minnesota. And after battling genocide denial for so long, many
Armenians are wary of scholars who urge a full reckoning with their
Turkish counterparts. As Armenian-American political scientist Ronald
Grigor Suny told the New York Times: “Many people in the diaspora
feel that if you try to understand why the Turks did it, you have
justified or legitimized it in some way.”
The Republic of Armenia said that it wants Turkey to apologize for
the Armenian Genocide but has not made it a prerequisite for
diplomatic or economic relations. Armenia is currently blockaded by
neighboring Azerbaijan — the two countries are in a “no peace, no
war” stalemate over the Armenian-populated statelet of
Nagorno-Karabakh and several Azeri regions adjacent to it. Turkey —
which shares a border with Armenia — has blockaded Armenia in
support of Azerbaijan. The World Bank estimates that the dual
blockade is costing Armenia $500 million annually. A third of the
country’s population emigrated following the U.S.S.R.’s collapse, as
the economy deteriorated and the Karabakh War escalated, its security
is highly depended on the Russian military, and is the highest
recipient of U.S. aid per capita in the former Soviet Union.
There have been press reports about the re-opening of the
Armenian-Turkish border in the last few months. The United States and
the European Union see resumed trade ties and the normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations as key to stabilizing the Caucasus.
Several Turkish officers even participated in NATO’s Partnership for
Peace program exercises held in Armenia this year — not without
generating more than its fare share of controversy in the country and
the Diaspora.
Turkey’s drive to enter the E.U. has been met with constant promises
of “tomorrow, tomorrow.” The Europeans have pointed to Turkey’s poor
human rights record, Cyprus, and lack of progress on democratization,
but unwillingness on the part of Europe to let a poor, populous
Muslim country into the club is a reason as well. The E.U. has not
made the acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide a requirement for
Turkey’s entry, but it has urged Turkey to re-examine its past in
keeping with the E.U.’s commitment to the protection of minority
rights.
Turkey’s younger generation is growing up in a world at odds with
their country’s denial of the Armenian Genocide and under a
government that has little tolerance for dissent on the subject.
Continuing the current policy is bound to backfire internationally by
isolating Turkey, in addition to undercutting its aim of becoming a
fully-fledged democracy.
The few remaining survivors of the Armenians Genocide will not, in
all likelihood, live to hear an apology. It is a shame that Turkey
has begun the new century with its continued rejection of one of the
greatest crimes of the last.
-Nonna Gorilovskaya
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 23 2004
A night to never forget
Glendale Unified School District high school clubs join to
commemorate 89th anniversary of Armenian Genocide.
By Mark R. Madler, News-Press
GLENDALE – With a message to never forget and to hope for justice for
its victims, the 89th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was
commemorated Thursday night in a student-created program at Glendale
High School attended by nearly 300 people.
Kicked off by the national anthems of both the United States and
Armenia, the program featured poetry, speeches and interpretive
dance.
“This is not a celebration, but a commemoration,” said Ani Minassian,
senior class president at Glendale High School. “We are trying to
educate the public about any type of massacre or genocide.”
The event was put together by the Armenian clubs of Glendale Unified
School District’s four high schools – Glendale, Hoover, Crescenta
Valley and Clark Magnet – with the assistance of Glendale Unified
school board President Greg Krikorian.
This was the third year the event has been held.
The Armenian Genocide began on the night of April 24, 1915. From 1915
to 1923, the Ottoman Turks and the Republic of Turkey are accused of
killing 1.5 million Armenians, in an attempt to eliminate the
Armenian people.
While many of those who performed in the event are current students,
Argishd Parsekhian, a 2003 Crescenta Valley High graduate, returned
to take part in telling the community what happened to his people.
“We want to get word out that this is what happened,” Parsekhian
said. “We want other people to recognize this is why it’s important
to us.”
Other student groups and cultures were represented in the event, as
well. For instance, the Indian Club from Clark Magnet High
participated with a student telling of a massacre in Punjab, India,
by the British in 1919.
With fewer people still living with first-hand knowledge about the
genocide, it is more important than ever for the younger generation
to know what happened, said Narbeh Sahaghian, a Glendale High senior.
“It’s like a baton being passed on from generation to generation,”
Sahaghian said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
April 23 2004
Canada parliament recognises genocide

Ottawa: The Canadian Parliament on Wednesday ignored long-standing
government policy and angered Turkey by formally declaring that
Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915.
Legislators in the House of Commons voted 153-68 to support a motion
declaring the events of 90 years ago as genocide, despite a plea from
Foreign Minister Bill Graham not to antagonise Nato ally Turkey.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were deliberately
slaughtered by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923. Turkey denies the
charges of genocide, saying the Armenians were among the many victims
of a partisan war raging during World War One as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress