Author: Frangulian Shushan

PRESS RELEASE
Jennifer Karch Cannata
Press Secretary
Office of U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr.
420 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-4671 office
(202) 225-9665 fax
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2004
PALLONE SAYS ALIYEV’S WILLINGNESS TO RESORT TO FORCE IS REASON ENOUGH
TO MAINTAIN AID PARITY
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), cochairman
of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, today expressed
concern regarding Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s recent statements
that Azerbaijan is willing to use military force to resolve the
Nagorno Karabagh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Such statements are unsettling and send a message to Armenia, as well
as to all those involved in working toward a peaceful resolution, that
Azerbaijan is prepared to undertake a military approach to addressing
the conflict should recommendations by the Minsk Group not align with
Azerbaijan’s position,” the New Jersey congressman said earlier this
week during a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
During an interview with the BBC last week, President Aliyev said
that while he would continue to try to resolve the Nagorno Karabagh
conflict by peaceful means, the Azeri army is able at any moment
to free, what President Aliyev called, “our territory.” President
Aliyev also stated, “We have every right to do that, to restore our
territorial integrity.”
“President Aliyev’s actions and statements do not signal a willingness
to negotiate and in fact, I think they illustrate the opposite,”
Pallone said. “If there is any chance that the parties can move
in the direction of a peaceful resolve, President Aliyev must show
that he is willing to consider options developed by the Minsk Group
without threatening military actions.”
During the speech, Pallone also called on President Bush and Congress
to not support a military resolution to the Nagorno Karabagh conflict
and to restore military aid parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“I strongly believe we must do everything in our power here in Congress
to signal that we will not support the use of military power to address
this conflict,” Pallone continued in his speech on the House floor.
“Amid rising tension and animosity in the region, with two new leaders
in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is more important today than ever
for the United States to be sure that no signal is sent suggesting
that one side is being provided a military advantage over the other.”
Pallone cited President Aliyev’s statement during the BBC interview
that the Azeri government’s military spending has increased over the
last couple of years and “will keep increasing in the future.”
“At this time, the U.S. should not be providing resources to
Azerbaijan that can, in any measure, be turned into military
efforts against Armenia to reclaim Nagorno Karabagh,” Pallone said.
“President Aliyev’s comment regarding current and future increases in
Azerbaijan’s military funding does not put me at ease that funding
from the U.S., either directly or indirectly, will not be used to
unleash a military campaign against the people of Nagorno Karabagh,”
Earlier this year, President Bush’s budget proposal included
unequal military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. This request
dismissed a unilateral policy agreement between the Congress and
the Administration that there be military parity between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. However, language included in the waiver states that any
assistance to Azerbaijan should not be used to “undermine or hamper”
the Karabagh peace process or “be used for offensive purposes against
Armenia or the Armenian communities in the South Caucuses.”
-30-

Khamushi Called For Signing Free Trade Agreements
Tehran Times
May 20 2004
TEHRAN (MNA) — Chairman of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Ali Naqi
Khamushi attended the monthly session of the chamber on Wednesday in
which the organization’s budget was ratified, news reports said here
on Wednesday. Discussing the issue of free trade with neighboring and
Muslim countries, Khamushi said, “Bosnia is the entry gate to Europe,
Saudi Arabia has petrochemical products and, the republics of Armenia
and Azerbaijan are open markets for all types of goods. By signing
free trade agreements with these countries, the export of Iranian
merchandise would become more convenient.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Khamushi called for the Ministry of Commerce
to seriously follow up and facilitate the inking of free trade
agreements with these countries or delegate authority to the Iranian
Chamber of Commerce to sign free trade agreements on their behalf.
Government representatives, economic bodies, and chambers of commerce
from townships all over the country participate in the monthly session
of the Iranian Chamber of commerce.

Azeri leader says Karabakh problem threat to major economic projects
Trend news agency
19 May 04
Baku, 19 May, Trend correspondent E. Huseynov: Armenia’s position
regarding the occupation of the Nagornyy Karabakh region of Azerbaijan
and seven districts around it is nothing other than support for
aggressive separatism, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told a
press conference at Brussels’ Conrad Hotel on 19 May.
The persistence of the situation, when 20 per cent of Azerbaijani
territories are under occupation, is seriously threatening the whole
of the region, Aliyev said. He regretted that the peace talks within
the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group had yielded no results and
hoped that a just settlement would be found which would be based on
international legal norms and would ensure Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity. The president urged the international community to boost
their effort to find a peaceful settlement to the problem.
Aliyev highlighted that a big question mark was hanging over
all major economic projects in the South Caucasus, including the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas
pipeline, until stability was ensured. He positively evaluated
the European Union’s fresh initiative New Neighbourhood Policy and
noted that the programme was opening new cooperation opportunities.
Speaking about freedom of the media in Azerbaijan, the president
said that there was no censorship and no problem in this sphere in
the country.
[Passage omitted: Aliyev’s next meeting]

Armenian National Committee of America
Eastern Region
80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown, MA 02472
Tel: 617-923-1918
Fax: 617-926-5525
[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
May 17, 2004
For Immediate Release
Contact: Arin Gregorian
617-923-1918; [email protected]
GRANIAN BENEFIT CONCERT A SUCCESS
— New York City Show Held in Support of Armenian Genocide Recognition
Efforts
WATERTOWN, MA–On Friday, April 16, Granian performed a concert in New
York City at CB’s 313 Gallery to support continued efforts to raise
awareness and gain recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Proceeds of
the show were donated to the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) Eastern Region.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff of the ANCA Eastern
Region, I would like to thank Granian–and all of its fans–for this
special benefit concert,” remarked ANCA Eastern Region Chairman Dikran
Kaligian. “As we continue to work towards gaining international
recognition for the Armenian Genocide, we will utilize all avenues
to raise public awareness of this great crime against humanity,”
continued Kaligian.
During the concert, Armenian National Committee activists had an
opportunity to distribute background information on the Armenian
Genocide. Individuals also had an opportunity to participate in the
ANCA nationwide postcard campaign. The postcards urge legislators to
“help end the cycle of genocide” by taking swift action in support
of the Congressional Genocide Resolutions, H.Res.193 and S.Res.164.
Specifically, they call on House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to schedule a vote on the
measures in their respective chambers.
“I’ve wanted to put together a concert to promote the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide for a long time,” stated Garen Gueyikian of
Granian. “The benefit was to highlight the importance of recognizing
past crimes against humanity in an effort to avoid future atrocities.
It was also held to support the Armenian National Committee of
America, an organization whose tireless work cannot be overstated,”
continued Gueyikian.
“I urge all Granian fans to contact the Armenian National Committee
of America or visit to see what each one of us can do
to help bring an end to genocide,” concluded Gueyikian.
The Armenian National Committee of America is the largest
and most influential Armenian American grassroots political
organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices,
chapters, and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated
organizations around the world, the ANCA actively advances the concerns
of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.
####

Small Wonder
by Emily Bearn
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
May 16, 2004, Sunday
When Charles Aznavour started singing, no one thought he’d last long.
At 5 ft 3 in, he seemed an unlikely pop idol, and one of his vocal
chords was rumoured to have been paralysed. As one critic wrote: “To
put oneself before the public with such a voice and such a physique is
pure folly.” It has proven to be one of the most magnificent follies
of all time. Sixty years down the line, Aznavour’s melancholy love
ballads have spawned sales of more than 100 million records. He
has houses in Geneva and St Tropez, he has had relationships with
Edith Piaf and Liza Minnelli, and it takes him 52 days a year to sift
through his fan mail. His devouringly raspish voice has made him one
of the world’s greatest music-hall troubadors and few quibbled when,
in 1998, Time magazine pronounced him “The Entertainer of the Century”.
He has frequently expressed his indifference to fame (“I am not a star,
I am just the man next door”), and his dressing-room at the Palais des
Congres in Paris betrays few trappings of it. The room is furnished
with a couple of hard chairs and an antiquated television, while his
dressing-table is bare save for a photograph of his grandchildren.
He says he does not wear make-up on stage, as it makes him look like
“a Peking duck”. As it is, he is dressed in a brown tweed suit and
his shortness is striking, but less so when he is standing against
his manager, who comes up to his shoulder: “He is shorter than me,
but don’t write that!” he pleads, hissing with delight. “I don’t want
him going craz-eee!” Aznavour himself appears to have no qualms about
his height: “I tried elevator shoes once, in America,” he recalls.
“But they were stupid. I felt like an idiot. A taller idiot.”
Aznavour claims to be unsure of his English, yet he appears to be as
fluent as the melancholy prose of his lyrics – as he muses in one song,
“You’ve got to leave the table when love’s no longer being served”,
and his conversation is strikingly practical. It gallops between
the iniquities of French taxation – he is furious that he is not
allowed to offset the cost of the handkerchiefs he drops on stage
during his signature song, La Boheme – with the career prospects of
his grand-children.
Oh, come on Charles! Parlez-moi d’amour! But as he politely explains,
that is not his wont: “People believe that in life I am somebody who
talks like I write, but it’s not true. I talk like anybody else.”
In France he is known as the “love pixie”, but he doesn’t entirely
act the part. He is effortlessly charming – his face animated with
what at times looks like a suppressed giggle – but his immediate
concerns seem to be less with love than with survival. He tells me
he would like to be remembered as “the oldest man in the world” and
enthusiastically outlines his dietary regime. Breakfast is a 10in
baguette, cheese on one side, jam on the other. Lunch is cooked,
dinner is cold, and occasionally taken with one-and-a-half glasses
of wine. “I’ve been a good drinker,” he explains. “I used to go out
every night; and I used to smoke four packets of cigarettes a day,
but now I tread water in the pool for 30 minutes every morning.”
His boulevardier days may be over, but he still appears as vital as
a cheetah. At times he seems so resonant with energy that I marvel he
can endure our 58 minutes sitting still. He still performs regularly,
and is about to give one of a series of 24 concerts held to mark his
80th birthday next Saturday (he looks nearer 60). It is only 90 minutes
before the curtain rises on an audience of 3,800, which Aznavour,
accompanied by a 20-piece orchestra, will entertain for two hours.
It is a prospect that does not appear to unnerve him: “I shave,
I change my suit, and then I am ready,” he says. “One of the good
things about getting old is that the critics run out of things to
criticise. What can they say any more? All my concerts are sold out.
I have become a sacred cow.”
The pandemonium outside suggests that this is so. A dozen or so
young Frenchwomen are at the stage door, clamouring for an autograph;
at the entrance a queue snakes around the block, hoping for ticket
returns. When the doors finally open, there is a further stampede for
the concert-hall shop, which swiftly sells out of T-shirts and posters.
I later watched the show, in which Aznavour left little doubt that he
is still worth queueing for. He performed 21 songs without a hint of
flagging, his voice so forceful that his three back-up singers were
rendered virtually inaudible. For his more doleful songs, he simply
cradled his microphone; during the faster ones he cavorted around
the stage like a tap-dancer.
He has a strong female following, but the audience was at least
half-male and, for the most part, fairly venerable. The woman on my
left looked about 50; the man on my right was nearer 90. Either way,
he was greeted with youthful fervour. He bowed out to a six-minute
standing ovation and a shower of red roses.
Since the passing of Piaf, it is Aznavour who has probably done most
to keep the tradition of the French chanson alive. His songs range
from cliched evocations of lost love to more off-beat themes, such
as a husband lamenting that his wife is fat. One of his most famous
songs is She, which reached number one in Britain in 1974 and, more
recently, was used in a cover version by Elvis Costello as the theme
to Notting Hill. His songs are wistful, but he rebuts the suggestion
that they are sad: “They are realistic. But they can be a little
melancholic. I was a visionary in that I believed that the chanson
had to change and be more personal. I came up with things nobody had
written before. Nobody had the guts to do so, and I’m proud of that.”
Until 1960, several of his songs were considered sufficiently risque to
be banned by French radio. The biggest rumpus came in the 1950s when,
years before gay liberation, he scandalised France with a lament about
a struggling homosexual. “Every time people wrote about homosexuality,
they were making fun,” he says. “It was a form of segregation and
I hate segregation. I’m not a homosexual, but someone had to defend
them.”
He says that he has not lived through all the anguish conveyed in his
lyrics (“If I had, I’d be mad”) although he has certainly weathered
the odd romantic gale. He has had three wives, and his relationships
include an affair with Liza Minnelli when she was 17. “Of course I
had some love affairs with known or unknown people,” he concedes. His
eyes suddenly light with mischief: “But I am a man who will never
talk about that. Some of my girlfriends might have children, or maybe
husbands, so it’s not nice to talk about it. I am a very discreet
man.” He is clearly also a playful one. At times he looks as naive
as a choirboy, but he appears to remain fairly confident of his adult
appeal. When I allude to his womanising days he dismisses the subject
with a nonchalant shrug, as though I were enquiring after something
as mundane as his latest cold.
The actress and singer Juliette Greco once commented that he was also
“a man of extremely stormy and unhappy love affairs. Women adore
Charles, and it’s perfectly natural”. What does he think they see in
him? “I’m not fresh enough to know,” he says, adding that he might
have been more forthcoming had I asked him 20 years earlier. Today,
he is disarmingly modest as to his selling points: “What is love?
Beauty is not the only thing in life – money, power, intelligence,
humour – those are forms of beauty, too. I am known, and that appeals
to people.”
Among those to whom he appealed before he became famous was his
mentor, Edith Piaf, with whom he lived in the 1950s for several
years. He served as her chauffeur, handyman and bottle-washer but
not, as he has repeatedly stressed, her lover. “We were very close.
We had less than love, but more than friendship.
“I learned everything from her. I learned that you must do your work
with love, not because you have to do it. I learned how you have to be
humble on stage, too. I am not a star, I’m a craftsman. And I learned
that from Piaf.” She also persuaded him to have his nose fixed. “It
had been broken when I was a child and I trusted her that this might
improve it.”
He gets upset at some of the rumours fanned about Piaf. She was not
a drug addict (“only things to help her sleep”), and she never peed
on the floor, but he admits that she wasn’t deft with a duster. “She
was terrible with housework. Terrible. She couldn’t cook an egg. But
she had nothing, so there wasn’t much mess. She just had a piano and
a bed.” And an awful lot of clothes: “She used to buy lots of hats,
which she never wore. And when she was in love she’d buy new dresses.
She didn’t wear those, either.”
Like Piaf, who called herself his “sister of the pavement”, Aznavour
was poor. His parents were Armenian actor-singers who fled to Paris
shortly before his birth to escape massacre by the Turks. He made
his stage debut at the Theatre du Petit Monde, at the age of nine.
“People say that they put me on the stage, but I put myself there. It
was natural. It was what I wanted to do.”
At 10 years old he was singing in nightclubs, but it was not until
he started touring with Piaf in his thirties that he discovered the
sort of popularity he now enjoys. He had his first solo success in
Casablanca, which was swiftly followed by top billing at the Moulin
Rouge. “When I started, my height was a disadvantage,” he concedes.
“Everything was. But I proved that even with my kind of voice, with
my kind of look, and as the son of an immigrant, I could make it.
That’s the lesson I give to people.”
He tells me twice that he is “a happy man”, and he certainly looks
it. He attributes this less to his commercial success than to his
third wife, Ulla, a former Swedish toothpaste model who is 17 years
his junior. They married in Las Vegas in 1967 with Petula Clark as
matron-of-honour. Nearly four decades on, they are living “quietly,
and perhaps a little boringly” in Switzerland. For one of her recent
birthdays, he gave her a vacuum cleaner: “She likes to have one in
every room, so I thought it would please her.”
How does she please him? “Because she sees me as Charles Aznavour,
the family man, not Aznavour, the singer. We store my music trophies
in the basement.”
By now it is after 7pm, and fans are converging on the Palais des
Congres to hear the family man sing. Perhaps after 750 songs and
the sale of his 100 millionth record, Aznavour might have started
making plans for his retirement. “Not yet,” he says, bustling down
the corridor in search of his toy-sized manager. “I used to work 24
hours a day, but now I work only 12, so I’m on half-time. But if I
worked any less, I’d die of inactivity.”
Charles Aznavour is in concert at the Palais des Congres, Paris,
until Saturday

Azeri daily says cease-fire plays into Armenia’s hands
Yeni Musavat, Baku
17 May 04
Text of Elsad Pasa report by Azerbaijani newspaper Yeni Musavat on
17 May headlined “Protracted cease-fire” and sub-headed “Why are the
authorities speaking out against Heydar Aliyev’s ‘heritage’?”
The news that the question “Is there an alternative to the
cease-fire?” has finally been answered affirmatively by a number of
people representing the circles close to the incumbent authorities
for the first time in the last 10 years continues to reverberate.
Members of the [ruling] New Azerbaijan Party and those patronizing them
have been eulogizing about the cease-fire since 12 May 1994, heaping
praise on [former Azerbaijani President] Heydar Aliyev for signing
the accords equivalent to acknowledging defeat. They even ignored
the death of thousands of their compatriots who fell victim to enemy
sniper shots already after the agreement and continued describing
the cease-fire as something extraordinary. They kept saying in all
election campaigns that “there are no more war victims, mothers are
no longer shedding tears for their killed sons”, trying to convince
the nation that the cease-fire was the best available option.
Eventually, the fact that several opposition candidates standing in
the latest [presidential] elections voiced their intention to start
war if they come to power won considerable support in society. It is
the result of Heydar Aliyev’s unsuccessful “peace-loving” policy that
Azerbaijani society now believes in the inevitability of war in order
to regain control over our lands. Moreover, many see [Azerbaijani
President] Ilham Aliyev’s suggestion to start the Karabakh talks
from scratch as a conclusive proof of the collapse of his father’s
“wise policy”.
And finally, the deputies known for their dedication and intimacy
to the tribal leader are clearly expressing their concern with the
fact that the cease-fire has become so protracted. It is noteworthy
that even MP Qudrat Hasanquliyev voiced his protest at calls to view
the cease-fire as a victory, suggested that military expenditure
from the state budget be increased, stressed that the cease-fire was
playing into the hands of the Armenians and that the enemy should be
given one year to vacate our lands or face war. His colleague Elman
Mammadov also acknowledged that the cease-fire was more in Armenia’s
interests than in Azerbaijan’s. In any case, the fact that calls for
war are being made by the people close to the authorities, especially
members of the parliament, makes the issue quite serious. Those who
earlier accused us of impeding Heydar Aliyev’s peace negotiations
and vehemently blamed us for condemning the cease-fire regime are
now making exactly the same statements.
According to political analyst Rasim Musabayov, there are people in
the parliament who seem to understand that the cease-fire is not in
Azerbaijan’s interests.
“On the other hand, the Azerbaijani authorities want to reinforce their
positions by using the military tone in the negotiations. However,
they don’t realize that it is no longer possible to intimidate anyone
in the modern world by such methods. Everyone knows only too well
the real strength of the parties to the conflict. They should try
to appear more flexible in the talks and in the meantime change the
balance of forces in their favour.”
Musabayov thinks the Azerbaijani authorities are unlikely to decide
to start military action in the foreseeable future.
“To make the decision to go to war, the Azerbaijani army has got to
be adequately prepared. I cannot say how prepared the army is now,”
he said.

Regional coop should promote to implement Russo-Armenian agts
By Lyudmila Yermakova
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 14, 2004 Friday
SAMARA, May 14 — Cooperation between regions must help implement
agreements reached by Russian and Armenian presidents, believe the
participants in a conference on the interregional Russian-Armenian
cooperation that opened in the Russian city of Samara on Friday.
The conducting of Samara interregional conference simultaneously with
the meeting of the two presidents in Moscow has a particular meaning,
Sergei Mironov, the Speaker of the Federation Council, or the upper
house of Russian parliament, told reporters.
“The fact that President Robert Kocharyan went to Moscow at the same
time as Armenian parliament speaker, Artur Bagdasarian, went to Samara,
one of Russia’s 89 constituent territories, testifies to the stability
of our relations,” Mironov said.
He is sure that the Armenian president’s visit to Moscow and his
dialogue with Vladimir Putin would promote a solution of the problems
witnessed by regions of the Caucasus.
Armenia is “our strategic partner, and our countries have a traditional
special relationship,” Mironov said.
During the conference, Russian and Armenian parliamentarians signed
a number of documents on inter-parliamentary cooperation, as well
as on interaction between the Samara Region and some regions of the
Republic of Armenia.
“We’ve agreed in principle on building up friendship between our
regions,” Artur Bagdasarian said.
He stressed Armenia’s position of the most stable partner that Russia
has in the Caucasus.
Bagdasarian said it was important to augment mutual understanding
at the high level with specific actions and contacts between regions
and with cooperation between regional populations.
Governor of the Samara Region, Konstantin Titov, shared that opinion,
saying that the partnership between the regions “is the most effective
form of cooperation between states”.
The framework agreements that the sides signed Friday “are a serious
basis of the multifaceted Russian-Armenian cooperation,” Titov said.
“The authorities should set up conditions for economy and business
development, essential for implementation of political accords.”

Azerbaijani officer confesses to premeditated murder of Armenian classmate
by PABLO GORONDI; Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
May 13, 2004 Thursday
BUDAPEST, Hungary — An Azerbaijani officer who hacked to death an
Armenian classmate during a NATO course has confessed to the murder
and said he planned it as revenge for a 1992 Armenian assault of
Azerbaijanis, police said Thursday.
Lt. Ramil Safarov of Azerbaijan on Feb. 19 used an ax to hack Lt.
Gurgen Markarian of Armenia to death in a dormitory that was being
used by participants of a NATO Partnership for Peace English language
course in Budapest.
At the time, police said the murder had been committed with “unusual
cruelty” and that Safarov had tried, unsuccessfully, to enter the
room of another Armenian with the intention of killing him.
A police statement released Thursday said Safarov had confessed to
committing the murder and claimed that the long-standing conflict
between Azerbaijan and Armenia was at the root of his act.
“There was no concrete grievance between the killer and the victim
before the (murder),” the Budapest police said.
Safarov initially had planned to kill an Armenian on Feb. 26 –
the anniversary of a 1992 Armenian assault which killed dozens of
Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan – even
before coming to Hungary for the NATO course, police said.
He told police he later decided to commit the crime ahead of the
anniversary date because “the presence of the Armenians was getting
on my nerves.”
Police investigators have recommended that the Budapest Attorney
General’s office charge Safarov with premeditated murder carried out
with unusual cruelty and with vile motives and aims.
The NATO program attended by the two men is aimed at increasing
cooperation between neutral and former Soviet bloc nations and NATO
in peacekeeping and other areas.
Relations between the two former Soviet Republics remain tense after
Armenian-backed forces drove Azerbaijan’s army out of the ethnic
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s.
Despite a 1994 cease-fire ending the war that killed 30,000 people
and left about 1 million homeless, no agreement has been reached on
the territory’s final status.

A1 Plus | 16:04:01 | 12-05-2004 | Politics |
SHUSHI IS THE 7TH OCCUPIED TERRITORY
“Karabakhi conflict issue has transformed into the one of
Armenian-Azerbaijani bilateral relations, which is already
considered as a territorial demand”, Babken Ararqtcyan, Chair of
“Armat” /”Root”/ social organization and ex Parliament Speaker,
said during the conference on the 10th anniversary of truce. He is
sure the armistice arranged 10 years ago is uneasy so that it can be
violated just because of that “transformation”.
“Since the time that NKR status turned into a territorial conflict
we don’t master the truce. Azerbaijan owns it since it can say Azeri
territories have been occupied”, Ararqtcyan says.
He drew the attention of journalists to the recent statements by
Azerbaijani diplomats saying 7 occupied territories must be returned
while 6 districts are under control of Armenian forces.
“They consider Shushi the 7th. Shushi was a separate district in
Sovereign Territory of Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan turned 6 into 7
within a year”, Mr. Ararqtcyan said. He called this policy line of
Azerbaijan “document occupation”.
He assured no progress in the negotiations over Karabakhi conflict
has been registered since the suggestions in 1997.
Yesterday Mr. Ararqtcyan read a publication in “New York Times”,
under which peace is needed in our region or else it will be doomed:
“In other words, we aren’t the ones to settle the conflict. And the
worst is that we well may not to partake in solution”.
As to prospects of meetings between two presidents, Mr. Ararqtcyan
said: “Just those meetings led to that Karabakh was left out of the
negotiations. In 1994 Levon Ter-Petrosyan took Karabakhi President
wherever he went. In 1994 September Kocharyan and Aliev even had a
private talk”, Ararqtcyan reminded.
He is sure phase version is the only possible settlement to the
conflict.

Massachusetts Daily Collegian
University Wire
May 5, 2004 Wednesday
Genocide victims deserve respect
By Dan O’Brien, Massachusetts Daily Collegian; SOURCE: U.
Massachusetts-Amherst
AMHERST, Mass.
I grew up in the small town of Watertown, Mass. Despite being nestled
between the boarders of the large cities of Cambridge and Boston, the
town is not very well-known to those who live outside the area. But
there is something unique about my town that warrants inspection.
Many people from my town have taught me a valuable lesson: What it
means to fight for one’s beliefs. It’s a lesson from history that
should be explained more thoroughly in the history books than it is,
if it is ever explained at all.
The story comes not from my hometown, but from the people who live
there, particularly my Armenian friends and neighbors. Armenians make
up approximately 20 percent of the town’s population. This is a
considerable percentage because they represent less than 1 percent of
the American population. Watertown has the second largest community
of Armenians in the country. This community, located in Watertown’s
east end, is known to locals as “Little Armenia.” It is surrounded by
five Armenian churches and an array of Armenian specialty shops and
restaurants.
Last month I returned home to Watertown for a weekend visit. Without
fail, I saw the giant billboard on Mount Auburn Street that goes up
around this time every year. The billboard said, “Never Forget,” in
bold print, followed by, “The Armenian Genocide: April 24, 1915.”
This year, April 24, 2004, was the 89th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. Being a non-Armenian, these billboards brought me back to
my high school days when a handful of Armenian classmates would stay
home from school. I remember speaking with some of these students,
who complained that this event was never taught in their high school
history classes. A valid point, considering that the public school
system would deny the third largest ethnic group in town a chance for
their children to learn about a significant part of their personal
history.
The genocide began in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire — present-day
republic of Turkey — with the eradication of the Christian Armenians
and lasted until 1918. The Ottoman Empire, which was ruled by Muslim
Turks, carried out the genocide due to a policy of eliminating the
Christian minority. Countless numbers of people were savagely
brutalized and women were often raped. By 1922, the Armenians had
been eradicated from their historic homeland.
The genocide only began after the massacres of 1894 to 1896 under
Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, 19 years before the actual genocide would be
committed by the Turkish government. The sultan was alarmed by
increasing activity in a number of Armenian political groups, many of
which spoke out for civil rights and autonomy. Historians guess that
the massacres killed somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 people.
The sultan began the systematic brutalization as a way to undermine
Armenian nationalism.
The night of April 24, 1915, was when the Armenian Genocide truly
began to unfold: the Turkish government arrested over 200 Armenian
community leaders in Constantinople and hundreds more were
apprehended soon after. They were all sent to prison; most were
executed. These acts occurred under the cover of a news blackout; a
time when there was no communication between the Eastern nations and
the Western world because of the ongoing World War I. The news
blackout had been happening for some time before April 24, 1915, and
as a result many Armenians had died at the hands of the Turks before
foreign nations had time to react. It is estimated that between 1915
and 1923, over 1.5 million Armenians died in the genocide.
Today, several nations including Russia, Argentina, France and Greece
have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide. However, the United
States has never officially recognized the events as a genocide.
President Bush in 2001 called it, “the forced exile and annihilation
of approximately 1.5 million Armenians,” which has angered many
Armenian-American interest groups, including the lobby group the
Armenian National Committee. ANC is asking 100 members of Congress to
sign a letter to the President asking for the use of the word
“genocide.” And rightly so. I can’t imagine how a descendant of a
genocide victim would react if President Bush were to walk up to that
person and say, “You’re loved one was murdered at the hands of a
government that was systematically arresting, torturing, and
murdering people solely due to their racial background. But, it
wasn’t a genocide.”
Despite not being fully recognized by our government or in our
history textbooks, there have been several memorials built to honor
the victims of the genocide. These memorials are located around the
world, including several in the Boston area. Meanwhile, as the United
States fails to give those who suffered through one of the worst
human atrocities their proper respect, we join the ranks of countries
such as Turkey, which denies all knowledge of the genocide as a
matter of policy. The Turks blame the deaths as part of World War I
warfare. What is even worse is that Turkey dismisses the atrocities
as mere allegations. The country’s leaders have also allegedly
obstructed efforts for acknowledgment.
If you ever happen to be driving to Boston on the Mass Pike, take a
detour. Get off the highway at exit 17, be sure to drive up Mount
Auburn St. and read the billboards that say “Never Forget.” The
message isn’t asking you to donate your money or join some sort of
animal rights campaign or anything like that. The people of Watertown
and Armenians around the world are simply asking our government to,
at the very least, give their ancestors the proper respect they
deserve. It is imperative to remember atrocities such as these in
order to not repeat mistakes of the past.
Information from the Armenian Museum of America (Watertown, MA), the
Armenian National Institute () and KFWB-AM
(Los Angeles) was used in this column.
(C) 2003 Massachusetts Daily Collegian via U-WIRE