Author: Emil Lazarian

Agence France Presse — Spanish
April 20, 2005 Wednesday 12:39 PM GMT
Fechas del genocidio armenio
ERIVAN Abr 20
Hace 90 años comenzó en el imperio otomano el genocidio armenio, que
continuó hasta 1917, y en el que murieron un millón y medio de
personas según los armenios, y entre 250.000 y 500.000 según los
turcos.
Los enfrentamientos sangrientos entre ambos pueblos ya empezaron a
finales del siglo XIX: cansados de sufrir el yugo otomano desde el
siglo XVI, los armenios constituyeron los comités revolucionarios que
desencadenaron una represión entre 1894 y 1909 que causó 200.000
muertos, según fuentes armenias.
La derrota en la Guerra de los Balcanes (1912-1913) debilitó al
imperio otomano, y aunque Occidente lo presionó para que favoreciera
la independencia de las minorías étnicas y religiosas, en octubre de
1914 entró en la Primera Guerra Mundial del lado de Alemania y
Austria-Hungría.
El 24 de abril de 1915, miles de dirigentes armenios sospechosos de
albergar sentimientos nacionalistas hostiles al gobierno central
fueron detenidos.
El 26 de mayo de ese mismo año una ley especial autorizó las
deportaciones “por razones de seguridad interior” de todos esos
grupos sospechosos.
La población armenia de Anatolia y Cilicia (región integrada en
Turquía en 1921), conocida como “el enemigo interior”, fue exiliada
por la fuerza a los desiertos de Mesopotamia. Muchos de ellos no
regresaron jamás y murieron por el camino o en campos.
El imperio otomano fue desmantelado en 1920, dos años después de la
creación de un Estado independiente armenio en 1918.
Turquía reconoce hoy que se perpetraron masacres y que numerosos
armenios murieron durante la deportación, pero considera que se
trataba de una represión contra una población culpable de colaborar
con el enemigo ruso en la Primera Guerra Mundial.
Este genocidio fue reconocido el 29 de agosto de 1985 por la
subcomisión de Derechos Humanos de la ONU, y el 18 de junio de 1987
por el Parlamento Europeo.
–Boundary_(ID_GPlyQSZltDuptepkl0BBEw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Jewish Split Marks Armenian Genocide
by Larry Derfner, Tel Aviv Correspondent
The Jewish Journal, CA –
April 21 2005
In the cemetery of the 1,500-year-old Armenian Quarter in the Old
City of Jerusalem there rises a memorial to genocide – the Armenian
genocide. This horror set the stage for the Jewish Holocaust, but as
a human calamity, it also stands alone.
George Hintlian, a 58-year-old Armenian historian, grew up in the
quarter. He’s interviewed hundreds of exiled survivors; two are left
in the quarter, he said, the oldest, is a 100-year-old woman.
“My grandfather and uncle were killed in the genocide, and so were
many other members of my family,” Hintlian said.
His friends include Hebrew University professors who attend the
quarter’s genocide memorial ceremony each year. They’ll be hosting
a memorial conference at the university later this month, but such
attention is the exception rather than the rule.
Armenians “would expect a natural alliance [with Israelis and Jews],
or at least empathy,” Hintlian said. “But in the end, a kind of
indifference has set in.”
There’s always been a strong Jewish angle to the story of the Armenian
genocide, whose 90th anniversary is commemorated this weekend. At the
beginning, Jews numbered disproportionately among those who called
attention to the atrocities, among those who tried to provoke the
conscience of the world.
Then, in the nine decades after, Jewish intellectuals and scholars
worked to expose and commemorate this brutal episode – out of a sense
of decency, of historical accuracy and also with an understanding that
genocides are not a Jewish phenomenon alone, and that the tragedy of
a single people is a tragedy also for all humanity.
But there’s been another quite different strain of Jewish reaction
to the Armenian genocide. American and Israeli Jews also have been
prominent among those who refuse to define the slaughter of more than
1 million Armenians as genocide. They refuse to blame the Turkish
regime of old for the crime – largely out of respect for Turkey’s
long history of protecting Jews and out of deference to the current
pro-Israel Turkish government.
Turkish governments for more than 80 years have denied that
any genocide took place, claiming instead that a war was on and
Armenians weren’t its only victims. This view holds that Turks
weren’t responsible for Armenian suffering then and certainly are not
now. In its public relations battle vs. Armenians, Turkey has had no
greater ally than Israeli governments and elements of the U.S. Jewish
establishment, notably the American Jewish Committee.
The official Israeli line, stated most authoritatively in 2001 by
then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on the eve of a state visit to
Turkey, is that what happened to the Armenians “is a matter for
historians to decide.”
Peres didn’t stop there. Speaking to a Turkish newspaper, Peres said,
“We reject attempts to create a similarity between the Holocaust and
the Armenian allegations.”
Hebrew University professor emeritus Yehuda Bauer, Israel’s leading
Holocaust scholar, minces no words: “Frankly, I’m pretty disgusted. I
think that my government preferred economic and political relations
with Turkey to the truth. I can understand why they did it, but I
don’t agree with it.”
Witness to History
Henry Morganthau, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey through the first half
of World War I, was an early, crucial witnesses to the Ottoman Turks’
slaughter of 1 million-1.5 million Armenians, and the permanent exile
of approximately 1 million more from 1915 to 1916.
In a cable to the U.S. State Department, Morganthau wrote: “Deportation
of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing, and from
harrowing reports of eyewitnesses it appears that a campaign of race
extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against
rebellion.”
Morganthau, one of a few Jews then in U.S. government service, also
wrote that the “persecution of Armenians is assuming unprecedented
proportions. Reports from widely scattered districts indicate a
systematic attempt to uproot peaceful Armenian populations and …
arbitrary efforts, terrible tortures, wholesale expulsions and
deportations from one end of the empire to the other, accompanied by
frequent instances of rape, pillage and murder, turning into massacre,
to bring destruction and destitution on them.”
Years later, Prague-born Jewish author Franz Werfel immortalized
the scattered, desperate Armenian acts of resistance against Ottoman
marauders in his classic 1933 novel, “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.”
Today, numerous Jewish Holocaust scholars, including Elie Wiesel,
Deborah Lipstadt, Daniel Goldhagen, Raul Hilberg and Bauer, are among
the most prominent voices calling for recognition of the Armenian
genocide and Turkish historic responsibility for it.
The forces that carried out the killing included Kurds and Circassians,
as well as Turks, Bauer said, but the decision-making leaders behind
the onslaught were the Turkish rulers of the Ottoman Empire.
“There’s no doubt about it whatsoever – it’s absolutely clear,”
said Bauer, citing “thousands” of testimonials from U.S. consuls,
missionaries, social workers, nurses, doctors and businessmen present
at the time, as well as thousands more from Austrian and German
officials who were there. The various sources tell “the same story,
and they were completely independent of each other,” Bauer said.
Decades of Denial
A post-World War I Ottoman Turk government convicted and executed many
perpetrators of the Armenian massacre, Bauer added, but the Turkish
leadership that overthrew that post-war government, and every Turkish
regime since, has denied the genocide.
“Many of these denials say, ‘Yes, there was terrible suffering on both
sides, the Turkish vs. the Armenian, these things happen in war,'”
Bauer said. “But that’s nonsense. This was a definite, planned attack
on a civilian minority, and whatever Armenian resistance there was
came in response to the imminent danger of mass murder.”
The Turkish version has sympathizers among university historians,
including UCLA’s Stanford Shaw, University of Louisville’s Justin
McCarthy and Princeton’s Bernard Lewis, but they are a distinct
minority.
Israel’s reaction to the Armenian genocide has become an academic
focus of Israeli Open University professor Yair Auron. His books
include “The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide.”
Israel’s Education Ministry blocked his 1990s attempt to introduce
the Armenian genocide and other genocides into Israeli schools out
of concern for “objectivity.”
Auron contends that the Israeli government’s abetting of Turkey’s
denial is not only a “moral disgrace,” it also “hurts the legacy and
heritage of the Holocaust. When we help a country deny the genocide of
its predecessor, we also help the deniers of the Holocaust, because
they watch what’s happening. They see that in this cynical world,
if you invest persistent efforts in denial, then denial, to some
extent at least, succeeds.”
But Jewish and Israeli silence is about more than a misguided attempt
to preserve the Holocaust’s “uniqueness.” There’s also the pragmatic
issue of Israel’s all-important military, economic and political
relations with Turkey. Israeli Foreign Ministry sources, who insisted
on anonymity, characterized the official Israeli approach to the
Armenian genocide as “Practical, realpolitik”
Repeated requests to the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv for an interview
went unanswered. But Turkey remains a major customer of Israel’s
defense industries, and the two countries share considerable military
and anti-terrorism expertise. Turkey also stands as a bulwark of
moderate Islam in the Middle East, a vital regional site of U.S. and
NATO military bases, as well as an ally of America and an enemy of
Iran and Syria.
Then there’s Turkey’s historical treatment of Jews, beginning with
the Spanish Inquisition more than 500 years ago, when it provided a
safe haven for Jewish refugees fleeing murderous persecution.
Officially, Israel doesn’t use the word “genocide” to describe the
slaughter of the Armenians, preferring the word “tragedy.”
In contrast to some 20 other countries, the United States also has
never recognized the Armenian genocide. Congressional resolutions
to that effect have repeatedly failed to pass, despite backing from
Jewish congressmen such as Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), Barney Frank
(D-Mass.) and Stephen Rothman (D-N.J.).
Israel and Jewish lobbyists in the United States have opposed these
efforts. For its part, the American Jewish Committee has taken
no official position on a proposed congressional resolution urging
President Bush to use the term “Armenian genocide” in his own upcoming
remarks related to the genocide’s 90th anniversary.
Barry Jacobs, director of strategic studies at the American Jewish
Committee’s Washington office pointedly refused to agree or disagree
with the judgment of Holocaust and genocide scholars on who was
responsible for the slaughter of Armenians.
The L.A. Story
In Los Angeles, the Museum of Tolerance “has educated more people
about the Armenian genocide than any other institution in America,”
said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the affiliated Simon
Wiesenthal Center.
The calamity is included in a map of 20th century genocides in the
museum’s permanent exhibition, and the museum’s library has numerous
books and videos discussing it, Cooper noted. He employs the term
“Armenian genocide,” but he will not place responsibility for it on
troops of the Ottoman Empire or on Turkish leaders, past or present.
Two years ago, a handful of young Armenian activists targeted the
center in a six-day hunger strike, demanding greater representation
of their people’s victimization. Talks between the Wiesenthal Center
and Armenian community officials ended that dispute, Cooper said.
Summing up the center’s approach, Cooper said: “We try to take a
stand that is true to history, but which is also true to our friends,
and hopefully our Armenian and Turkish friends understand. That a
genocide of the Armenian people took place is a fact, and that for
hundreds of years, the Turkish people [aided Jews in danger], when
Christian and Muslim nations did not is also a fact, and that Israel
needs close relations with Turkey is also a fact. That’s not an easy
triangulation, but it’s our responsibility to make it.”
Despite Turkish and Israeli lobbying against including any mention of
the Armenian genocide, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in Washington, D.C., makes three mentions of the genocide in its
permanent exhibit. One is Hitler’s infamous exhortation urging his
invading troops to be merciless: “Who, after all, speaks today of
the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Armenian in Jerusalem
Armenian historian Hintlian takes Israeli school groups on tours
of Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter. One stop is the memorial in the
cemetery. It’s something he can do to keep the memory and lessons of
that history alive.
Hintlian appreciates the support he gets from well-known Jewish
Holocaust historians. Bauer and Auron will be among four Israelis
traveling to the Armenian capital of Yerevan to participate in an
academic conference on the genocide. Still, Hintlian is “distressed”
at the overall Jewish response. It has regressed, he said, from
Morganthau’s valiant example of 90 years ago.
“Armenians expect that Jews would have a natural sympathy for them,”
the historian said. “We are two ancient nations with the same diaspora
problems of survival. We’ve suffered the same kind of persecution. And
fate decided that our two nations would both be victims of genocide
in the last century.”

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE EXPRESSED NOT ONLY VIA MASS SLAUGHTER
Pan Armenian News
20.04.2005 07:05
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Genocide was perpetrated against Armenians not only
in 1915, but also throughout 1906-1923, and it expressed not only in
mass slaughter, Academic Advisor of the Commission for Commemoration of
Heroes and Victims of the Holocaust of Yad Vashem Yehuda Bauer stated
during an international conference in Yerevan devoted to the 90-th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915. In
his words, the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust differ from
others in the aspect that when these were perpetrated the world powers
could not or did not wish to prevent them. Specifically, Mr. Bauer
considers that the world could not prevent the Holocaust, however
it did not wish to prevent the Armenian Genocide, as at the time
Turkey was the ally of the Austrian-Hungarian Block in World War I.
The recent genocides, specifically in Rwanda and Darfur were not but
could be prevented, the Israeli scholar considers. In his opinion, to
prevent future genocides it is necessary to avoid academic discussions,
as scientists can only define this misdeed. Meanwhile, Bauer believes
that the international community needs to activate efforts to form
legal mechanisms to prevent and reduce the risk of future genocides,
as it is impossible to fully rule out their repetition. The first real
step in this respect was the creation of the international court in
Rome, which then was moved to Hague, the reporter stated. The formation
of legal mechanisms to be used by international structures in order to
reduce the risk of future genocides should be the next step. Touching
upon Turkey’s denial stance in the issue of the Armenian Genocide,
Mr. Bauer stated that it is not so important for Turkey to officially
acknowledge the misdeed. In the scholar’s opinion, it is more important
that there are many people in the Turkish society, who qualify the
occurrence as a genocide and censure the past Turkish authorities,
Arminfo news agency reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

REPUBLIC PARTY CONDEMNS
A1plus
| 17:35:09 | 21-04-2005 | Politics |
During the meetings of the opposition parties with the Armenian
citizens unknown people provoke incidents to prevent the political
forces from meeting the population. The latest incident of the kind
took place at the meeting of New Times party members with the residents
of Sevan.
Condemning the restrictions of free political activities the Republic
party assesses the instigations as an obvious demonstration of agony
of the administration, which does not enjoy the population’s support
and as desperate attempts to prevent inevitable democratization of
Armenia. “We reiterate that democratic revolution in Armenia has no
alternative and all the attempts of the authorities to impede the
process are doomed to failure”, the statement says.

PHONE CONVERSATION WITH FERDINANDO CASINI
A1plus
| 19:09:22 | 21-04-2005 | Official |
Today Armenian Parliament Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan had a phone
conversation with Pier Ferdinando Casini, the President of the Italian
Chamber of Deputies. The parties discussed the development of the
Armenian-Italian relations and political cooperation.
At the suggestion of Arthur Baghdasaryan the two parliament heads
touched upon the possibility of discussing the Armenian Genocide issue
in the Italian parliament. They also agreed on Ferdinando Casini’s
formal visit to Armenia and conduction of the festival of Italian art.

Azerbaijan Demands Turkey Write Off $150 Million in Electricity Debts; Says Amount Too Big
Associated Press
Thursday April 21, 2005
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan said Thursday it would not pay
off US$150 million in electricity debts owed to Turkey, saying the
amount was too big for the Caspian Sea nation.
Vice Premier Abid Sharifov also told reporters that the debts for
electricity supplied to the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan since
1992, is small change for Turkey. He said Azerbaijan’s service on
the debt is growing by US$11 million to $12 million annually.
“We aren’t interested in returning this debt,” he said. “That is why
we suggest writing it off as technical losses.”
Sharifov said the demand was unlikely to damage relations between
the two countries. There was no immediate reaction from Turkey to
the demand.
The enclave of Nakhichevan is legally part of Azerbaijan but is cut
off from Azerbaijan proper by its enemy, Armenia.
Turkey, which border Nakhichevan to the east, is Azerbaijan’s
closest ally in the region. It maintains a border blockade against
Armenia, the result of the six-year war fought between Azerbaijan
and Armenian-supported forces over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s economy is growing due to major investment by
international oil companies looking to exploit some of the largest
fields in the former Soviet Union, but much of the country has yet
to reap the benefits of the growth.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU-Azeri committee meetings ends in argument over double standards
ANS TV, Baku
19 Apr 05
[Presenter] Another scandal has occurred at a meeting of the
Azerbaijan-EU parliamentary cooperation committee. The statement
and proposals adopted by the EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation
committee in Strasbourg have angered some MPs.
[Correspondent over video of meeting] The sixth meeting of the
Azerbaijan-EU parliamentary cooperation committee started with
a scandal. Sirus Tabrizli, Azerbaijani co-chair of the committee,
refused to attend the meeting and walked out, pointing to the statement
and proposals adopted by the EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation
committee in Strasbourg on 13-14 April.
Clause 26 of the document says the EU wants the Karabakh problem to
be resolved in line with the norms of international law, specifically
in accordance with the right to self-determination and respect for
ethnic minorities.
Other interesting points in the document are related to
Armenian-Turkish relations. The document urges Turkey to try to open
its borders with Armenia and pay more attention to the issue of the
so-called Armenian genocide.
On seeing the unexpected development of events, Marie [Anne] Isler
Beguin, the other co-chair of the committee, tried to clarify the
issue.
[Beguin, speaking in French with Azeri voice-over] There is nothing
unusual here. These are only proposals, which may or may not be
accepted. Our position is that the conflict should be resolved with
the efforts of both sides.
[Correspondent] However, Ms Beguin’s speech did not ease the tension
at the meeting. Namiq Aliyev, head of the parliament’s international
relations department, accused the European parliamentarians of applying
double standards against Azerbaijan. He said the European MPs’ attitude
towards the conflict is against the norms of international law.
MP Gular Ahmadova said ethnic minorities were facing no problems
in Azerbaijan. She said official Baku supports the resolution of
the conflict only on the basis of the principle of Azerbaijan’s
territorial integrity.
Then the second part of the meeting, which had to draft a statement
of the committee, started behind closed doors. There were some
disagreements in this part of the meeting, too. The sides could not
agree on the fact that Azerbaijan’s territories have been occupied
by Armenia.
[MP Gular Ahmadova] We said that the aggressor must be named and that
it must be made clear which territories have been occupied. If we call
for withdrawal from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, we have to make
it clear who we urge to do so. We urge Armenia. We insisted on this,
but could not reach an agreement.
[Interrupted sentence omitted]
[Correspondent] Although the aggressor was not named in the end, the
document said the conflict should be resolved on the basis of the
principle of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, and confirmed the
resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on
this issue.

NEW POPE DOES NOT APPROVE OF TURKEY ACCESSION TO EU
Pan Armenian News
20.04.2005 05:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ New Pope Benedict XVI does not approve of the
accession of Turkey to the European Union. He stated he did not
consider Turkey a European country. «Turkey has always been another
mainland always contrasting Europe,» he said
–Boundary_(ID_Vf0ldfIdCYQF3NRh5jw0MA)–

KARABAKH CONFLICT MUST BE SETTLED TAKING INTO ACCOUNT
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL NORMS
YEREVAN, APRIL 19. ARMINFO. The Karabakh conflict must be settled
only by means of strengthening of the status of Nagorny Karabakh and
ensuring of even guarantees of security of the people of Nagorny
Karabakh and bordering territories, as well as of refugees. It is
said in the statement of the Commission on parliamentary cooperation
Armenia-EU, made on April 14 in Strasbourg.
In the document the Commission stresses the necessity of the
participation of the people of Nagorny Karabakh in the negotiation
process. The Commission also confirms its readiness to provide
assistance in the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict on the
basis of international legal norms, including the principle of rights
of peoples for self-determination. The Commission also stresses that
the uncertainty of the issue on the status of Nagorny Karabakh must
not hinder the international community to respect the main rights
and freedoms of the people of Nagorny Karabakh. The authors of the
statement also stress the necessity of the participation of the
international community in the process of peaceful settlement of
the Karabakh conflict. At the same time the commission thinks that
the final settlement of the conflict may be reached only between the
Armenian and Azerbaijani parties through the mediation of the OSCE
Minsk Group.
Taking into consideration the conclusion of the OSCE expert group
for study of the situation in the territories bordering to Nagorny
Karabakh, the commission welcomes the assistance of the authorities
of Armenia and Nagorny Karabakh to the activity of the group. The
commission calls on the conflicting parties to create conditions
for safe repatriation of the refugees. The commission calls on the
conflicting parties to abstain from allegations and actions, which may
result in additional tension in the region or resumption of military
operations. The commission considers inadmissible the settlement of
the Karabakh problem by force.
The commission calls on the conflicting parties for sooner settlement
of the problem, which is an obstacle on the way of establishment of
regional cooperation. The real pre-condition for reconciliation of the
Armenian and Azerbaijani peoples, ensuring stability in the region
of the South Caucasus is the establishment of Armenian-Azerbaijani
trade-economic cooperation. The commission calls on other countries
of the region not to create obstacles on the way of establishment
of cooperation between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides and
not to put the issue of settlement of the Karabakh conflict as
a preliminary condition for these relations. The establishment of
regional cooperation between the countries of the South Caucasus is a
pre-condition for their sooner integration into European structures,
said in the document. The commission says that the growing involvement
of EU in regional processes supposes activation of its efforts in
settlement of conflicts in the South Caucasus and implementation of
regional reforms.
As Armenian Cochairman of the Commission, Head of parliamentary
commission for foreign relations of Armenia Armen Roustamian pointed
out during the news conference at National Assembly of Armenia
Tuesday that the making of this statement required much efforts
from the Armenian side, as European parliamentarians being members
of the commission at the same time are members of the commission on
cooperation Azerbaijan-EU. Armen Roustamian informed that the sitting
of this commission is held in Baku now, and a statement regarding
Azerbaijan will be made.

Belarusian defence minister upbeat on cooperation with Russia
Belapan news agency, Minsk
20 Apr 05
Minsk, 20 April: Joint handling of defence policy issues and the
development of relations between the defence ministries lay a solid
basis for long-time mutually beneficial cooperation both within the
framework of the [Russian-Belarusian] union state and the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) [member states are Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia], and,
partially, within the CIS framework. Belarusian Defence Minister
Col-Gen Leanid Maltsaw said this on 20 April in Minsk speaking at a
joint board session of the defence ministries of Belarus and Russia.
He said that the two countries’ defence ministries made a significant
progress in some directions last year, in particular concerning the
implementation of the union state’s military doctrine, the military
organization establishment, the planning and realization of joint
military and military-technical events, as well as the unification
of the Belarusian and Russian defence legislation, social security
of the military and their family members.
Maltsaw described a joint command-post exercise of the allied command
of the regional group of forces as a major event in 2004 which was
aimed at working out single approaches to guaranteeing the union
state’s security.
Those attending the board session include the Russian ambassador to
Belarus, Aleksandr Blokhin, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha,
representatives of the union state’s permanent committee, the chief of
the Belarusian State Military-Industrial Committee, Mikalay Azamataw,
representatives of the Council of Ministers and the Belarusian
Foreign Ministry.
The session is taking place at the Central Officers’ House. Special
equipment has been switched on to make sure GSM-communications cannot
be used.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress