Author: Hambardsumian Paul

RAFAEL DE NOGALES MENDES AND WE
By Yuri Khachatrian

AZG Armenian Daily
19/04/2007

Moscow publishing-house ‘Russki vestnik’ has recently published
a new book concerning our biggest national tragedy -The Armenian
Genocide. The book called ‘Four years under the crescent’ is written
by a Venezuelan writer, service man and political figure Rafael de
Nogales Mendes. This book is one of the first worldwide echoes of
the Armenian Genocide, which has had a hard and peculiar destiny.

Rafael de Nogales Mendes was born in 1879, in San Christobal,
Tachira state, Venezuela. He got higher education in Europe –
studying at High Military Colleges of Germany, Belgium and Spain. He
was fluent not only in Arabic and Chinese, but also in Spanish,
English, French and German. He took part in many military actions and
had a stormy life full of events: in 1898 he struggled with Spanish
against USA in Cuba, in 1902 he took part in the next Latin-American
revolution in Venezuela, in 1904 he appeared in China and took part
in Chinese-Japanese war, in 1908 he returned to his motherland but
because of the new dictator Chuan Vicente Gomes he had to leave for
Europe. Soon he became an officer of the Turkish expeditionary forces
in Iran, and after this took part in the evacuation and genocide
of the Armenian people of West Armenia as an officer of the Ottoman
Empery military forces. So he became one of the eyewitnesses of the
First Genocide in the world.

He is a bearer of the Iron Cross Order, which he received at the
hands of Wilhelm 2nd for the services in the World War I.

Then he took part in the revolution of Nicaragua.

After that he was a military leader of the Palestinian right-bank
region. After the war he appeared in Alaska as a gold searcher and
soon he became a cowboy in Arizona.

Rafael de Nogales took part also in the Mexican revolution being with
Madero side-by-side after the revolution.

He wrote several books about his stormy and rough life – ‘Memories
of General Rafael de Nogales’, ‘The plundering of Nicaragua’, ‘Four
years under the crescent’, etc.

The book ‘Four years under the crescent’ (‘Cuatro anos bajo la Media
luna’) is very important and significant for Armenian people as it is
about the Armenian Genocide. The acknowledgement of his guilt and the
pangs of conscience made him to speak and tell the world about the
first genocide and the most nasty and horrible tragedy in the world.

The book was published in 1920, in Venezuela. The writer was pursued
and even an attempt was made upon him, and all the print run of the
book was bought and destroyed. The second edition published in the
Caracas City by the ‘Casa de Especialidades’ publishing-house had
the same fate. At that time Nogales lived in Panama. He died in 1936
from tuberculosis.

Even today its very difficult and even impossible to find this book
in the libraries of the world. Only an example of this edition was
preserved by an eyewitness of the Armenian Genocide, our compatriot
Mihran Kehyan, who had been evacuated from the West Armenia and
settled in Venezuela. The mentioned example has been placed at the
disposal of the publishing-house in Moscow.

The book has a nice preface. The parts about Armenia and Armenians
have detailed footnotes. The book has also a wonderful design and two
maps – one is the map of the historical Armenia and the second one is
the map of the regions where the genocide has been committed. There
are also several photographs in the book that have historical and
documentary value. The print run of the book is ten thousand.

Our people must know about Rafael de Nogales and his life. This book
is translated and published into English and French languages. It
would be great if the book was translated into Armenian and presented
to the Armenian reader.

TAMAZYAN FAILED, DALUZYAN WON

A1+
[04:07 pm] 19 April, 2007

Today, RA weight lifters competed at Euro-Championship for the first
time in Strasbourg. Arsen Tamazyan (w. 62kg) was not a success at
the competition. At double-event Arsen appeared at the 14th point.

Meline Daluzyan showed her best and became a champion among champions
weighing 63kg. Meline was able to lift the 108kg weight thus getting
the first point as a result of 243kg double-event and putting the
135kg shot.

Today Nazik Avdalyan w.69, Hripsime Khurshudyan w.75, as well as
Tigran Martirosyan will compete today.

EX-SPEAKER URGES VOTERS TO SPURN BRIBES
By Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 18 2007

Former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian urged impoverished
voters not to sell their votes to pro-government parties as he took
his opposition Orinats Yerkir Party’s election campaign to the central
Aragatsotn province on Wednesday.

Visiting the economically depressed regional town of Talin,
Baghdasarian claimed that residents of nearby villages are being
offered vote bribes worth up to 10,000 drams ($27) en masse. "By
selling your votes you would sell the future of your children," he
told about 200 people attending an Orinats Yerkir campaign gathering
in Talin.

"I have just been told in villages that [people there are offered]
5,000 drams, 10,000 drams per vote," he said. "A question arises. If
you divide [the figure] by 2,000 days [remaining before next elections]
it will make 50 lumas (0.5 dram). Is it worth selling the honor of
your family for 50 lumas a day?"

"Make a choice accordance with your conscience. Make a choice that
will let your children live in a normal country," added Baghdasarian.

Vote buying by governing parties has increasingly characterized
various-level elections held in Armenia over the past decade. Many fear
that the illegal practice will reach a new height during the May 12
parliamentary election. The governing Republican Party (HHK) and the
Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) of pro-presidential businessman Gagik
Tsarukian have already been accused by their opponents of planning
to hand out cash. But both parties deny the allegations.

Baghdasarian and his associates visited Talin and nearby villages
the day after campaign rallies held there by the HHK’s top leader,
Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. Sarkisian gathered senior government
officials in Yerevan on Wednesday to discuss numerous socioeconomic
grievances voiced by local residents.

"I’m sure there are many problems which you can solve quickly," he
said, according to the Armenian government’s press office. "People
must know when a particular problem will be solved. This is the only
way we can enjoy [their] trust."

Some of the disgruntled Talin voters claimed that they were too
scared to confront Sarkisian with demand for the government’s
resignation. "Many people here are kind of scared and call themselves
Republicans to avoid getting into trouble," said one man.

"If I criticize the party its activists will beat me up," said another.

Other people were frustrated with the abundance of opposition parties
running for parliament on their own. "If the opposition had joined
forces for regime change, we might have had some expectations from
these elections," said one of them. "But nothing will change in
this situation."

EU DIPLOMATS: BAN ON HOLOCAUST DENIAL WON’T CURB CIVIL LIBERTIES
By DPA

Ha’aretz, Israel
April 17 2007

BRUSSELS – Planned new rules to criminalize racism and xenophobia,
including Holocaust denial, in the European Union will not force
member states to change standards on freedom of expression, European
Union diplomats said Tuesday.

Under the new proposals, hate declarations referring to religion such
as "Kill the Jews" or "Kill the Christians" would remain unpunished
in EU countries where such statements are not criminalized, the
diplomats said.

They indicated that Britain and the Nordic countries had blocked
attempts by current EU president Germany to push through tougher
rules on inciting violence against a specific group or person.

EU justice and interior ministers are expected to discuss the
controversial plans at a meeting in Luxembourg later this week.

Germany, which currently runs the agenda-setting EU presidency, wants
to use its term at the bloc’s helm to harmonize EU-wide differences
on combating racism and xenophobia in the 27-member bloc.

However, EU diplomats said that the planned rules only aimed to
achieve a "minimum level of harmonization" as the differences in
national legal systems had to be respected.

Germany views a common EU law as a moral obligation, but countries
like Britain, Ireland and the Scandinavian states resist unified
legislation as a violation of civil liberties.

Under the text being debated, EU countries would set jail terms of
at least one to three years for "publicly inciting to violence or
hatred… directed against a group of persons or a member of such
a group defined by reference to race, color, religion, descent or
national or ethnic origin."

EU diplomats also said that a German proposal to push through new
rules which would make denying the Holocaust – the mass killing of
Jews by Nazis and Nazi supporters – a crime in the EU, would not
cover denying the massacre of Armenians in World War I.

Turkey denies that the killing of up to one million Armenians
constituted genocide, putting their deaths down to ethnic strife,
disease and famine, and has prosecuted historians and journalists
for calling it genocide.

In addition, the proposed EU rules would not make denying crimes
against humanity under the Stalin regime punishable, diplomats said.

The Baltic states want the EU to make it a crime to deny the abuses
of the Stalinist regime in the former Soviet Union.

The proposed rules would also apply to people "publicly condoning,
denying, or grossly trivializing crimes of genocide, crimes against
humanity and war crimes" as defined by international crime courts.

Citing its "particular historic responsibility" due to its Nazi past,
Germany has said it wants EU member states to adopt the proposed
legislation before it ends its term at the EU helm at the end of June.

Two years ago, Luxembourg tried to use its EU presidency to push
through legislation to unify legal standards for Holocaust denial,
but was blocked by Italy on the grounds that the proposed rules
breached freedom of speech.

Laws against denying the Holocaust already exist in Austria, Belgium,
France, Germany and Spain.

NUMBER OF COMMERCIAL LEGAL ENTITIES REGISTERED IN ARMENIA GROWS BY 3.11%, NUMBER OF PRIVATE BUSINESSMEN DECLINES BY 40.41% IN ONE YEAR

Noyan Tapan
Apr 16 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 16, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the data of the RA Justice
Ministry’s State Register of Legal Entities and Private Businessmen,
in January-February 2007, 533 commercial legal entities and 1,086
private businessmen got registered, and their total number made
54,206 and 43,164 respectively as of March 1, 2007. According to the
RA National Statistical Service, as of March 1, 2006, the number of
legal entities registered made 52,572, that of private businessmen –
72,429: in one year, the number of legal entities increased by 3.11%,
whereas the number of private businessmen declined by 40.41%.

In January-February 2007, 173 legal entities and 211 private
businessmen were liquidated.

Investments of 712.65 mln drams (over 1 mln 980 USD) were made by 533
legal entities registered in the indicated period of 2007. Investments
of 504.6 mln drams were made in 32 enterprises founded only by foreign
legal entities and citizens, investments of 94.25 mln drams were made
in 9 joint ventures.

"SCREAMERS" TO BE SCREENED IN YEREVAN

ArmRadio.am
17.04.2007 17:15

The first screening of the "Screamers" documentary telling about
genocides and the Armenian Genocide, in particular, will take place
in Yerevan today.

During the week preceding April 24 it will be screened in "Moscow"
cinema.

Director Carla Garapedian has arrived in Yerevan to present the film
to Armenian viewers.

The "Screamers" is starred by Grammy-award winning band "System of
a Down."

The film tells about the trips of four members of the band, during
which they propagate the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and
call to recognize the genocide which is still being denied by Turkey
and the US.

The heroes of the film are trying to find out why genocides continue
nowadays. They participate in meetings held in different parts of
the country, organize rallies, including to the White House, share
information with their supporters and politicians. The film includes
episodes of their live concerts and stories about the private life
of the singers.

The "Screamers" are those who can never be silenced, who will continue
screaming against injustice.

During the stay in Yerevan the American Armenian director will have
meetings with different youth groups and NGOs. The evening of April 23
Carla Garapedian is expected to participate in a march to the memorial
to the Armenian Genocide victims: on that day she will lead all the
"screamers."

GINA OUT OF ARMENIA, AS QUESTIONS LOOM
David Vella

Malta Star, Malta
April 16 2007

Gina Khachatryan, the asylum seeker who was deported from England
to Armenia via Malta last week, has managed to once again leave her
homeland and is now "in a place of safety", according to her friends
in the UK.

But while human rights groups are relieved that she is not in danger
of persecution, journalists in Armenia are casting doubts on whether
or not Gina’s story of her hardships before leaving the country are
actually true.

Khachatryan made headlines in numerous British and Maltese newspapers,
including this e-newspaper, when she appealed for help to prevent her
deportation, since this would have put her, her husband, and their
five year old daughter at risk of political persecution.

The family had been living in the UK as asylum seekers since 2003.

But the British Home Office never granted them refugee status, and
last week the family was taken to a detention centre to be deported.

But human rights groups in the UK, along with a number of
journalists and journalist associations, started rallying against
the deportation. Gina had fled her country after exposing a case
of electoral fraud in 2003. She even spent 40 days in prison before
managing to escape Armenia, or so she claimed.

maltastar.com had talked to Gina herself, hours before she boarded an
Air Malta plane from London to Malta last Friday. She had explained
that she is afraid of going back to her country "because they will
arrest us immediately".

Unable to track down Gina’s story

But during the weekend, at least two journalists working in Armenia,
confirmed that they did not manage to find any details on Gina’s
experience back in 2003. On a blog hosted on the website of ‘The
Guardian’ newspaper, where Gina’s case was first mentioned, Roy
Greenslade wrote that a friend of his in Armenia "was unable to find
anyone at the Yerevan press club or the Investigative Journalists of
Armenia who knew of her or the incident she described. Furthermore,
[he] asked people in the newsroom of Armenia’s public TV company,
where Gina claims to have worked, and no-one there remembered her".

At the same time, in response to these doubts, the editor of
an Armenian newspaper wrote "we, too, have tried to validate Ms
Khachatryan’s claims, but so far found them unsubstantiated".

But, as Greenslade wrote in his blog, this does not necessarily mean
that her story was not true. "None of this is, of course, conclusive
proof that Gina has lied, but Armenian journalists – and journalists
everywhere – will be unhappy if she has pretended to be a journalist
in order to stay illegally in Britain… The truth is that there was
so little time to act after hearing about Gina’s detention that none
of us had time to check her story. On the other hand, we still don’t
know the truth. The whole thing remains a mystery".

Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 14 2006

"LAW-GOVERNED COUNTRY" PARTY INFORMS CEC OF INACCURACIES IN VPOTERS’
LISTS

YEREVAN, April 13. /ARKA/. The "Law-Governed Country" party has
informed the RA Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of inaccuracies in
voter’s lists, Chairman of the party Arttur Baghdasaryan told
reporters.
"The matter is that in monitoring the lists we discovered a number of
inaccuracies – deceased people, people outside Armenia and so on," he
said. Baghdasaryan said that the party addressed two letters to the
CEC, which are currently under consideration. We will be consistent
in monitoring voters’ lists and informing the CEC and the relevant
police departments of the inaccuracies," Baghdasaryan said.
The "Law-Governed Country" party was founded in 1997 and has about
100,000 members. The party has chapters in all Armenian regions. The
party’s slate includes 120 names.
The parliamentary elections are to be held in Armenia on May 12,
2007. P.T. -0–

IN 2006 ARTSAKH GOT HUMANITARIAN AID OF 66 MILLION DRAMS

KarabakhOpen
13-04-2007 17:21:14

The head of the department of humanitarian aid of the NKR Ministry
of Social Security M. Dadayan told the Azat Artsakh that in 2006
NKR received humanitarian aid of about 66 million 151 thousand
drams. Organizations and individuals from the United States, France,
Germany, Russia and Armenia provided second hand medical equipment
and medicine of 13 million 810 thousand drams, food of 46 million
900 thousand drams, secondhand clothes of 83 060 drams, different
appliances of 55 million 355 thousand drams. Humanitarian aid comes
through the programs of the Stepanakert office of the Red Cross, The
HALO Trust (U.K.), Shen (France) the Armenian Evangelical Association
and Agape (U.S.).

According to M. Dadayan, in 2006 humanitarian aid to Karabakh went
down by 10 million 727 thousand.

DAVOUDI FELICITATES NEW ARMENIAN PREMIER

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
April 12 2007

Iran-Armenia-Felicitations

First Vice-President Parviz Davoudi on Thursday felicitated new
Armenian Premier Serzh Sarkissian on taking the office.

He also extended felicitations to the Armenian government and Armenian
nation on the new appointment.

Davoudi said that it is expected that through collective cooperation
of Iran and Armenia, the current level of cooperation would further
broaden in all grounds.

Former Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, leader of the
ruling Republican party died of a heart attack last month.