Author: Felekian Ara

PACE TO APPOINT NEW RAPPORTEUR FOR SOUTH CAUCASUS

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.10.2007 18:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) will appoint a new rapporteur on the South Caucasus. The new
rapporteur should work for democracy and a better life for the people
of the region, said Leo Platvoet, PACE rapporteur on missing persons
in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Mr Platvoet will not act as CoE representative after the October
session. He is planning to join a European Commission program for
Eastern Europe, Balkans and South Caucasus, Trend news agency reported.

Leo Platvoet was appointed PACE rapporteur on missing persons in
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia December 5, 2005.

ARMEN HAROUTIUNIAN, OMBUDSMAN OF ARMENIA, MAKES NO STATEMENT IN POLICE OFFICE

Noyan Tapan
Oct 24, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, NOYAN TAPAN. After Nikol Pashinian, the
editor-in-chief of the "Armenian Time", and Shogher Matevosian, the
editor-in-chief of the "4th Power", as well as another 7 opposition
figures were arrested by the police, Larisa Alaverdian, the first
Ombudsman of Armenia, as well as Armen Haroutiunian, the Ombudsman
of Armenia, went to the Kentron police office early in the morning of
October 24. According to the night message of Noyan Tapan, the latters
declared that a violation of human rights has been committed, since
the police did not have enough bases for arresting the above-mentioned
people.

Grigori Grigoriants, the Spokesperson of the Ombudsman of Armenia,
claims that Armen Haroutiunian has made no statement in that
connection. Thus, the information reported beforehand should be read
the following way: "The first Ombudsmen of Armenia Larisa Alaverdian
and Armen Haroutiunian, the acting Ombudsman, went to the police
office. Larisa Alaverdian has declared that a violation of human
rights has been committed, since the police did not have enough bases
for arresting the above-mentioned people."

PRESS RELEASE
The Monte Melkonian Fund, Inc.
P.O. Box 291411
Los Angeles, California 90027

Vahe Kazandjian, President
Hagop Mkrdchian, Treasurer
Markar Melkonian, Secretary
Angela Barseghian, Member, Board of Directors

The past two years have been busy ones for the Monte Melkonian Fund
and itssister organization in Armenian, the Monte Melkonian Benevolent
Organization (the MMBO), as our ongoing projects have expanded and
we’ve taken up new projects. We’re proud of these projects, and we
would like to tell you about them.

In past letters we have described the Fund’s work on the Smbat
Tatosian Adolescent and Youth Center in the village of Karegah. You
might recall that Karegah, with its more that 250 inhabitants, is one
ofthe largest rural communities in the strategically vital region of
Kashatagh, or Lachin. * Now in its fifth year of operation, the
Tatosian Center functions thanks to the ongoing work of the MMBO and
the generous financial support of two organizations, `Aznavour pour
Arménie’ and the `Fondation Diran et Charles Philippossian’ of
Switzerland.

The Tatosian Center is home to arts and sports groups, clubs and
classes for theater, dance, photography, ceramics, painting,
computers, and piano, as well as soccer and karate teams. Young
people participate in these activities voluntarily and free of charge.
The Center organizes lectures,hosts festivities and excursions, and
organizes community and environmentalwork by young people of the
village. It has brought a new quality into the lives of the young
people of the village, who consider it their second home.

Encouraged by the results of the Tatosian Center in Karegah, the
Fund, with the financial support of `Aznavour pour Arménie’,
established a similar youth center in the village of Khachik in
Armenia. Because Khachik borders Nakhijevan, it was a hot spot during
the war years. In recent years, however, this strategically located
village has lost one-sixth of its population due to emigration caused
by plummeting standards of living. Today Khachik counts some 250
houses and less than a thousand inhabitants. As elsewhere, the young
make up most of those who have emigrated. Fortunately, the youth
center began functioning in late 2006 and it has already revitalized
the youth of Khachik and brought hope to the village.

At about the same time, the Fund established a third youth centerin
Azatavan, a border village in the Ararat region of Armenia. This
center, too, has brought new vigor to the daily lives of young people
who otherwise would have felt isolated and abandoned.

The Fund has also continued to support and oversee the very
successful Cow Pass-On Program, which benefits local farmers and their
families in Karegah. Since late 2005, we have purchased eleven more
cows (eitherpregnant or with a calf) and have provided them to nine
families under the`pass-on’ system. Under this system, each family
maintains the cow and benefits from its milk for two years, after
which time they retain the first already-mature calf, and return the
original cow plus thesecond (and sometimes a third) calf to the MMBO,
which in turn passes them on to another family under the same terms.
Over the course of several years, this simple, self-sustaining and
expanding pass-on system has provided indispensable nutrition to
families in Karegah.

The Fund has brought drinking water to the inhabitants of the
Maghavouz and Arakel communities in the Martakert and Hadrout regions
respectively. From 1992 to 1994, the village of Maghavouz witnessed
fierce fighting, changing hands several times between Armenian and
Azerbaijani forces. Since the return of its inhabitants in 1994, most
of the village haslacked running water because of damage to the
infrastructure during the war. For more than twelve years, most of
the villagers had to carry water, sometimes by hand, from a source at
one of the entrances of the village. The village of Arakel in the
Hadrut region has also faced a serious water shortage problem for
years.

After becoming aware of these problems, the MMBO took charge. Thanks
again to the financial assistance of `Aznavour pour Arménie’,as well
as the active participation of the community, the reparation work at
Maghavouz was completed in short order, and by late August 2007 more
than 90% of the work at Arakel had been completed. Now for the first
time in years, the inhabitants of these villages have running water.
Once again weare reminded how much can be achieved with limited
resources, but with an active community and cooperation among charity
organizations.

The Fund has assisted and supervised the renovation of the regional
hospital of Berdzor, the sole medical center for the northern and
centralparts of the Kashatagh region. For more than a decade, the
hospital building had not undergone any renovation or repairs. This
was a situation that threatened to create hygiene problems in that
medical center. Thanks yet again to financial support from `Aznavour
pour Arménie’, the MMBO was able to undertake and supervise the
extensive interiorrenovation work.

The Monte Melkonian Fund and the MMBO have continued to assist
destitute students and schools in Armenia. In 2007, among other
activities, we have provided assistance to needy blind students,
including digital recorders and personal computers with installed
speech synthesis software.

Thanks to a generous special donation of $8000 from our
long-timesupporter, Mr. Mark Nahabedian, we were able to provide
reconstruction and follow-up support to the Metsamor Museum near
Yerevan. This was part of a special project that the Fund has
undertaken since 2005, to help safeguard Armenia’s irreplaceable
neolithic monuments. As a result ofdramatic cutbacks of funding to
the museum starting in the early 1990s, thebuilding fell into serious
disrepair, the roof was leaking in several places, and the plumbing
and electrical systems were decrepit. This state of disrepair posed
an imminent danger to museum artifacts-some of them dating back to
5000 BC.

Since 2005 the Fund has installed a high quality roof, provided
much-neededrepairs to the museum building and grounds, conducted
extensive repairs to the water system, and replaced the substandard
electrical system. Our next step will be installation of an
air-conditioning and heating system in the museum building.

All of the donations that benefited this special project were so
designatedby the donors themselves. We invite all of our friends to
visit the museum in the town of Medzamor on their next journey to
Armenia. The museum is located fifteen kilometers west of Echmiadzin,
in the village of Taronik in the Armavir region.

In addition, MMBO has extended microcredit to several especially
needy farming families at 0% interest. With additional donations, we
could expand this promising pilot project.

The Monte Melkonian Fund has continued to provide direct aid to
families and individuals displaced by war and poverty. A telethon in
the Los Angeles area organized by local television talk show hostess
Noone Avetisyan and sponsored by the Fund, collected donations
sufficient to cover medical treatment for Mr. Hrant Tumasyan, a
seriously injured war veteran.

Assistance to the Public Awareness Campaign concerning the Situation
in Kashatagh. You might be aware that the inhabitants of the
Kashatagh region have led very difficult lives in recent years, due in
large partto corrupt governance and the lack of a clear developmental
policy for the region. As a result, the population of this
strategically important region has fallen sharply. In the past year,
the Fund has provided direct logistical help to the Association of
Investigative Journalists of Armeniaand its president Edik
Baghdasarian, and established most of the necessary contacts during
their investigation. The investigative journalists lead a public
awareness campaign, highlighting the region’s problems. This campaign
eventually resulted in the dismissal of the corrupt regional governor.

Finally, MMBO has continued to reach out to the larger public,
sharing Monte Melkonian’s moral legacy and the example of his life.
The MMBO has done this both directly, through its own archival efforts
and outreach activities, and by assisting interested journalists and
scholars.

In November 2007, the Republic of Armenia will officially commemorate
the fiftienth anniversary of Monte’s birth. We would like to honor
him by raising funds for the sort of work that was dear to Monte’s

The Monte Melkonian Fund, Inc. and our sister organization the MMBO
work tochange the reality on the ground for some of the neediest of
the needy in some of the most isolated and strategically vulnerable
areas of Armenia. The Fund works with a bare minimum of
administrative overhead, and volunteers and member of the communities
themselves accomplish much of its work. For more details about the
Fund and its work, visit: , and click on the link
entitled `Report on Projects and Activities of the Monte Melkonian
Benevolent Organization from September 2005 through August 2007.’

The more financial assistance the Monte Melkonian Fund receives, the
more we can accomplish. The Monte Melkonian Fund, Inc. is a California
502(c)(3) tax-deductible charity, Tax I.D. Number 95-4512217.

* Kashatagh is situated between the southeastern territory of the
Republic of Armenia and the territory forming the former `Autonomous
Region of Nagorno Karabagh.’

SERJ TANKIAN TO RELEASE HIS FIRST SOLO ALBUM "ELECT THE DEAD"

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.10.2007 17:17 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Serj Tankian, lead singer for System of a Down,
may be one of the most politically active figures in music – a member
of Amnesty International, an advocate of free speech, a vocal critic
of the current administration – but even he can get tired of democracy.

"With System, it’s a process where four people have to agree on what
songs to use," Tankian said, explaining his decision to release his
first solo album. "When you’re doing it by yourself, all the decisions
come and go with you."

He’s not kidding: "Elect the Dead" due Oct. 23, features almost nobody
but Tankian. Though System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan appears on
one song, and a handful of session musicians sit in on other tracks,
nearly all the instruments – piano, guitars, bass, synthesizers –
were played by Tankian. He produced it himself and is releasing it
on his own label, Serjical Strike Records.

In some ways, the album is a natural sequel to "Mezmerize" and
"Hypnotize," the two wildly ambitious albums System of a Down released
in 2005. Once again, there are plenty of hard-rock rhythms, operatic
arias and the melismatic vocal lines that reflect Tankian’s Armenian
heritage (which he shares with all the members of System). There
are also some tough issues at hand. The song "Unthinking Majority"
asserts, "I believe that you’re wrong, insinuating they hold the bomb,"
a reference to Iraq or Iran or "perhaps both," Tankian suggested. And
the album’s overall lyrics reflect a deep dissatisfaction with
current events.

But the disc is also fairly introspective, often conflating the
personal with the political. When Tankian sings, "Why do we sit around
and break each other’s hearts tonight?" (on the song "Saving Us")
it’s hard to tell whether he’s addressing a lover or all humankind.

Speaking by phone from his home in Los Angeles, Tankian described
this album as "more philosophical than political." His thoughts,
he said, tended toward larger ideas of civilization, history and
the sustainability of life on the planet, though he tried to avoid
preaching. "I never use the words ‘global warming,’" Tankian said. "Any
time you use cliches or key words, it raises thoughts and feelings
that you think or don’t think. I’d rather have you come in with a
clean palette."

So what about the title track, "Elect the Dead?"

Despite its title, it sounds almost like a love song.

"Death we know comes for us alive," Tankian sings, "but all I want
is you."

"I’ve heard a lot of interpretations on what `Elect the Dead’ might
mean," Tankian said. And though he didn’t offer his own, he cited
one of his favorites: "Maybe the people who are the victims of the
epitome of civilization should be the ones who elect our next leaders,"
Popmatters reports.

TURKEY TENSIONS LIFT OIL PRICES

BBC News, UK
Oct 15 2007

Oil traders fear that exports from northern Iraq could be hit Global
oil prices have surged to fresh highs after increased tensions
between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and concerns
over production.

US light, sweet crude was trading at $85.85, having touched $86 for
the first time, while Brent rose $1.96 to a record $82.51.

Analysts said the rises followed reports that Turkish forces had
shelled an Iraqi border village overnight.

And an Opec report said that non-member nations were set to cut
production.

About 110,000 fewer barrels of oil would be produced each day by
those who weren’t part of the cartel, Opec said in a report.

Last month Opec said that it would be boosting its production by
500,000 barrels per day from the beginning of next month to cope
with demand.

‘Perceived risk’

The Turkish government is now preparing a motion seeking parliamentary
approval for a military incursion into northern Iraq after 13 Turkish
soldiers were killed close to the Iraqi border.

Ankara estimates that 3,500 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (KWP) rebels
are based across the border in Iraq.

The KWP wants to see the establishment of an independent Kurdish
homeland, incorporating territory in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq.

Oil analyst Robert Montefusco at the Sucden brokerage in London said
traders were closely monitoring the situation.

"There’s no lost production at the moment, so it’s only perceived that
we could lose some production if any of the pipelines are affected
in that region from Iraq," he said.

"That is the main concern at the moment."

The US has urged the Turkish government to show restraint.

However, relations between Washington and Ankara are currently strained
after a recent US congressional vote branding the mass killing of
Armenians in 1915-17 by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

H.RES.106 TO BE BROUGHT TO HOUSE FLOOR BEFORE NOVEMBER 16

PanARMENIAN.Net
15.10.2007 13:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader,
Steny Hoyer said he expects the House to pass the Armenian Genocide
Resolution, H.Res.106 before Nov. 16, when Congress is slated to
recess for the year.

Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing today on separate news shows,
said the threat of Turkish reprisals would not stop the vote. "I
said if it passed the Committee that we would bring it to the floor,"
Pelosi said on ABC’s This Week program.

Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said on Fox News Sunday that he raised
the issue repeatedly with Turkish leaders during his 26 years in
Congress and "never once" did they say "this is the right time."

He said that he and Pelosi met with the Turkish ambassador to remind
him that the two countries are allies.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she has had no appeal from
President George W. Bush to block the vote. "We’ve never had a
conversation about it," she said. "I’ve heard from the Secretary of
State and others in the administration, but I’ve never heard from
the President."

"This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government
has always said about what has happened – what happened at that
time," Pelosi said. "It is non-binding. It is a statement made by
23 other countries. We would be the 24th," she said, Bloomberg news
agency reports.

Should the United States formally recognize the World War I-era
killing of Armenians as genocide? * 194061 responses

37% Yes. Many scholars agree that the Ottoman Turks systematically
killed up to 1.5 million Armenians. Other countries have
recognized this as genocide. The U.S. should do the same.

61% No. Historians continue to debate whether the deaths were
genocide. Besides, Turkey is too important an ally to alienate
when the U.S. has troops in the Middle East.

2% I’m not sure.

Malta Independent Online, Malta
Oct 13 2007

Football – Euro 2008 qualifier: Malta faces Hungary in Budapest

Briffa and Sammut or Pullicino expected to fill Agius and Pace roles
in midfield

Malta will be playing the first of two Euro 2008 qualifiers in the
space of five days this afternoon in Budapest where Hungary will be
aiming to taste revenge for their humiliating defeat against Dusan
Fitzel’s boys a year ago.

This time, apart from Hungary playing at home in front of their own
crowd, Fitzel also has a big problem in midfield as he has to
reshuffle this department due to the forced absence of captain
Gilbert Agius through injury and Jamie Pace, who is suspended.

These two players are obviously key players in Fitzel’s set-up, but
it is a well known fact that all the other players in the coach’s
squad are capable of filling those vacancies honourably.

In the past few days, it seemed evident that the favourite to take
Gilbert Agius’s role in midfield could be Roderick Briffa of Sliema
while Kevin `Viper’ Sammut of Marsaxlokk could well be Jamie Pace’s
substitute, given that he has more or less the same characteristics
as his Marsaxlokk team-mate – fighting qualities and packing a good
shot, even in set-pieces. However, I would not be surprised if Peter
Pullicino, also of Marsaxlokk, is given the job of starting the
match, instead. He was also being seriously considered by Fitzel
during the past few days.

If that is so, it means that Fitzel start with Birkirkara’s George
Mallia on the left flank of midfield with Ivan Woods, having
recovered from injury, taking his place on the right.

Last month, in the match against Turkey, Fitzel had made use of the
following formation: J. Haber, K. Scicluna, I. Azzopardi, B. Said, L.
Dimech, G. Agius, R. Briffa, M. Mifsud, I. Woods, A. Schembri and J.
Pace.

Today, it seems as if Fitzel will keep the same four men at the back
(Luke Dimech, who plays for English League Two side Macclesfield,
joined the squad in Budapest on Thursday evening) while also
retaining Michael Mifsud and Andre Schembri up front.

His starting line-up should not differ much from the following:

J. Haber, K. Scicluna, B. Said, L. Dimech, I. Azzopardi; I. Woods, R.
Briffa, K. Sammut (P. Pullicino), G. Mallia, M. Mifsud, A. Schembri.

This match could also produce more problems for Fitzel in the light
of next Wednesday’s home clash – perhaps even more important –
against Moldova.

In fact, several players in the Malta squad are aware of the fact
that if they receive a yellow card today, they will become
unavailable for the Moldova match as they will be automatically
suspended.

Today’s match, at the Ferenc Puskaas Stadium, formerly known as Nep
Stadion, is to kick off at 4.20pm. It is being screened live by Smash
TV.

The referee will be Karen Nalbandyan of Armenia. His assistants are
Armenians Gegham Vardanyan and Arshak Knyazyan. The fourth official,
also from Armenia, is Arman Amirkhanyan.

=58918

Hot Air, MD
Oct 12 2007

The Armenian genocide: You say you want a resolution?

posted at 9:54 am on October 12, 2007

The world eagerly awaits the Democrat-controlled US Congress passing
a resolution condemning the French for framing the Knights Templar.
After all, nearly 700 years after Jacques DeMolay was burned at the
stake in Paris, documents come to light that rehabilitate the once
powerful order. They weren’t heretics, they were just rivals to King
Philip’s power, and he owed them a lot of money, so he conspired with
the pope to have the order accused of heresies and suppressed. And he
just happened to inherit the Templars’ considerable property
throughout France. Philip lied, Templars died.
So come on, Democrats, where’s that resolution denouncing the current
French government for the sins of King Philip in the 14th century?
We’re only 7 years away from the 700th anniversary of DeMolay’s
execution, chop chop. Might as well throw in the Catholic Church
while we’re at it, since Pope Clement was more than complicit in the
crime.
While we’re at it, let’s pass a resolution condeming Italy for the
Roman sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD. I’m sure there are dozens of
other historic crimes that the Democrats can busy themselves with
while today’s actual crimes and threats go uncondemned.
Passing these resolutions would make about as much sense as the one
the House has actually passed, which states US condemnation of the
Armenian genocide, a horrific event that took place 90 years ago when
Turkey was known as the Ottoman Empire.
This isn’t to minimize the Armenian genocide, but for heaven’s sake
it’s been 90 years. Turkey wasn’t even Turkey. But the Turkey of
today is much aggrieved at the resolution, has been warning that the
resolution would harm the already tottering US-Ankara relationship,
and after the House passed it, Turkey noted its displeasure by
recalling its ambassador to the US. That’s a symbolic gesture, but
Turkey could respond in more concrete ways including increasing its
military operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish independence being
another major sore spot with the Turks. The Turks are over-reacting,
but it’s not like they didn’t telegraph their annoyance with this
condemnation.
Lest we all get a kick out of annoying Turkey, a country that has
done its part to annoy us over the past few years to be sure, most
materiel that gets used in Iraq passes through Turkey on its way. The
troops don’t; they pass through Kuwait. But much of the munitions and
weapons they use pass through Turkey. Do we really need to go back 90
years and pass a resolution that is sure to annoy them? Is there a
point to this exercise?
Well, yes there is. With the Democrats, it comes down to identity
politics as usual.
Pelosi, whose congressional district has a large Armenian population,
has brushed aside such concerns and said she supports bringing the
resolution, for the first time, to a full vote in the House, where
more than half of the members have signed on as co-sponsors. The
House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has passed such a resolution
before, is set to vote on it today.
House Resolution 106, officially the Affirmation of the United States
Record on the Armenian Genocide, has been pushed doggedly by a
congressman whose Southern California district contains the largest
concentration of Armenian Americans in the country. Rep. Adam B.
Schiff (D) won his seat in 2000 after his Republican predecessor was
sandbagged when then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert reneged on a
pledge and pulled the bill from the floor after a last-minute plea
from President Bill Clinton.
Again, none of this should be misconstrued as minimizing the brutal
treatment of the Armenians by the Ottomans. In fact, it would be
instructive for Congress to spend some time boning up on the history
that they’re passing resolutions on. What motivated the genocide?
They would also do well to read up on the Barbary wars of 1802-1805
or so, the first war that the US fought against its first
self-declared enemies, who just happened to be a band of
state-sponsored piratical jihadists. Congress would do well in fact
to study up on a lot of history, so that the heads of various
relevant committees might finally know the difference between a Sunni
and a Shia. But what Congress ought not do, and all 8 living
Secretaries of State agree with this humble blogger’s take on this,
is reach back into history and selectively condemn this or that
extinct regime for this or that crime when it can have serious
consequences in the here and now.
It’s been 90 years, Congress. What is the point?
More: I’m taking some criticism in email over this post, and from
people whom I respect and admire. That’s fine, friends can disagree
and remain friends. Where I come down on this is that the Democrats
are in denial, right now, about the threats we face right now. A
sizable chunk of the Dem base believes 9-11 was an inside job.
Another sizable chunk believes that even if 9-11 was an actual
attack, we had it coming and jihadist ideology has little or nothing
to do with anything. Most of the rest of the Dems may privately
believe that the jihadist threat is real, but the evangelical
Christian threat is more real and more pressing. They’re all but
useless on the war. And it’s this party that’s passing this
resolution, knowing full well that it’s going to damage our relations
with Turkey, a country with which we have rocky but mostly, even now,
useful relations. I’m not for coddling Turkey by any means, and the
fact is that Turkey’s refusal to let us enter Iraq from Turkish soil
in 2003 greatly hurt the war from the start. If we’re going to
condemn them for something, how about that, since the present
government and people actually did it?
I want us to win the war, period. If this resolution, condemning
Turkey without any underlying understanding expressed of why it
committed the Armenian genocide, helps us win the war and prevent
future genocides like that promised by Iran’s poisonous president, I
don’t see how. I do see how it hurts our war effort, and I do see how
that in turn may spawn future genocide, and therefore I think this
resolution is a bad idea. At this point in time, it doesn’t advance
our interests.
I could be wrong, but that’s how I see it.
More: Jules Crittenden weighs in. The airbase that’s at stake,
referred to by the 8 US secretaries of state, is probably Incirlik, a
US Air Force base in Turkey that has played a critical role in the
war against the jihad. We don’t need to lose that base. The Turks
ought not be stupid enough to force us out of that base over this
issue, and as Jules says, they ought to grow up and admit past
mistakes like the nations of the West have. Germany would be a prime
example for them to follow. But we really don’t need to lose
Incirlik.

0/12/the-armenian-genocide-you-say-you-want-a-reso lution/

International Falls Daily Journal, MN
Oct 12 2007

Turkey should do what’s right

Submitted by Journal Staff on October 12, 2007 – 1:00pm.
Filed under: Editorials
What’s in a word?

A lot, apparently, when that word is genocide.

Genocide is defined as the deliberate and systematic destruction of a
racial, political, or cultural group, according to Merriam-Webster
Online Search.

A U.S. House panel approved a bill describing the World War I-era
mass killings of Armenians as genocide.

The measure was approved despite warnings by President George Bush
that its passage could do harm to U.S. relations with a key ally in
NATO and in the global war on terror. Bush said he will try to
pressure Democratic leaders not to schedule a full House vote on the
bill.

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul criticized the decision to move
toward a full House vote. Later, Turkey ordered its ambassador in
Washington to return to Turkey for consultation over the bill.
Earlier, the country ended military ties with France after a French
panel voted to make it a crime to deny the killings were genocide.

Up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the
time of World War I, historians estimate. Scholars view the event as
the first genocide of the 20th century. But Turkey officials deny the
deaths were genocide. Instead, they say the death toll has been
inflated and those killed died as a result of civil war and unrest.

It’s understandable that Bush would want to ease tensions over the
bill. He views the country as a necessary tool of the Iraq war, as
our military planes, and the fuel used by the military in the war,
travels through Turkey.

However, Turkey has considered a military offensive into Iraq against
Kurdish rebels. That move is strongly opposed by the U.S. because it
could destabilize one of the few relatively peaceful areas in Iraq.

Calling Armenian deaths in WWI genocide has been brought to the table
by Armenian Americans who have lobbied Congress for decades to pass a
resolution that recognizes a part of history we should never forget.

Resolutions about historical events like this shouldn’t play a role
in the world’s current political situation. Instead, Bush and Turkey
should learn from the tragedies of the past and focus on resolving
the challenges in the war we’re fighting today.