Author: Hovhannisian John

Baku Today, Azerbaijan
May 8 2004
Marchers Reach Frontline, Are Stopped By Azerbaijani Army
Nearly 220 marchers, 120 of the from the Karabakh Liberation
Organization (KLO) and 100 from local residents, have already reached
the frontline, a KLO official told the Baku Today in a telephone
interview from Susanli village of Aghdam District.
Kazim Salimi, deputy head of KLO, said after the police prevented
them from starting the march in Baku early the day, the KLO members
left the capital in cars and reached Barda District.
Then they marched to the frontline form Barda, but stopped there by
the Azerbaijani army and were not allowed to cross to the territories
occupied by Armenians, Salimi said.
`We are not going to resist our army,’ Salimi said, adding that the
marchers are going to dissemble after reading their statement.
Police cordoned off Martyrs’ Alley around 12 a.m. today and prevented
the KLO members to start the unauthorized march from Baku.
`This once again displays the attitude of the Azerbaijani authorities
to the Karabakh problem,’ the KLO leader Akif Naghi told reporters,
adding that those trying to prevent them from marching to their
occupied territories would feel sorry for their move in the future.
The KLO leader said the peace negotiations mediated by OSCE’s Minsk
group since 1992 are aimed at making the Azerbaijani people gradually
forget Nagorno-Karabakh.
He said Shusha and Karabakh mean `the fate’ of the Azerbaijani and
that without Karabakh no Azeri statehood could be imagined.

RIA Novosti, Russia
May 6 2004
NO SEPARATISM BEHIND ADZHAR CRISIS: GEORGIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER
MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – There was no separatist undercurrent to
the Adzhar crisis-it was a clash between democratic and
non-democratic forces, said Salome Zurabishvili, Georgia’s Foreign
Minister, as she was commenting stormy developments in the autonomy
to a Moscow news conference.
“Democracy has won with democratic methods,” she summed up the
situation.
Updated Georgia is recurring to peaceful democratic means to settle
its problems. The rulers of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia-self-proclaimed republics in Georgia – may find that of major
interest, she assumes.
Georgia is willing to re-appraise the Abkhaz situation with
settlement prospects, added the minister.
“Georgia’s new leaders are self-reliant. That does not mean that they
are aggressive. We are taking a more pragmatic view of things than
before,” she reassured.
Miss Zurabishvili thanked Georgia’s partners in Europe and the USA
for promoting Adzhar settlement: “They helped us to get a dialogue
going. When the dialogue exhausted its opportunities, and the
situation demanded democratic progress, our partners offered us
support.” A reporter asked her what was to become of Aslan Abashidze,
recent Adzhar president. He will not be harassed and persecuted,
reassured the minister. Same about his family. Georgia’s President
Mikhail Saakashvili has pledged it.
“Russia has shifted the burden on its own shoulders. Thank you,” said
Salome Zurabishvili.
“Georgia has not entitled us to chase him,” Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s
Foreign Minister, retorted to that.
Reconciliation is the core of current Georgian policies. It concerns
all-whether they cherish the memory of President Zurab Gamsakhurdia
or side with ex-President Aslan Abashidze, stressed Salome
Zurabishvili.
She highly appreciated Igor Ivanov’s visit to Batumi, Adzhar capital,
as extremely important and endowed with a symbolism. Igor Ivanov,
preceding Foreign Minister, is now Russia’s federal Security Council
Secretary.
“The Adzhar situation would have been settled in whatever case-the
people determined that it would be so. But Mr. Ivanov arrived in an
important symbolical move. Russia was proffering us a helping hand at
the last instant. Mutual confidence is being established, which is
necessary for our relations to take the right road. Now, we no longer
have any difficulties trying to understand each other.” Lengthy local
conflicts are spoking the wheels of Caucasian progress, the minister
went on.
“What we refer to as ‘frozen conflicts’ are actually freezing our
development-I mean Georgia, Abkhazia and the entire region. We must
realise the point, and Georgia has realised it.” The same pertains to
Karabakh, over which another two Transcaucasian countries-Armenia and
Azerbaijan-have been clashing for many years now.
The whole world is making progress. Whether the Caucasian nations are
to join it depends on the settlement of those and similar conflicts.
The Commonwealth of Independent States is among Georgia’s foreign
political priorities.
“The CIS is prominent in Georgian policies, with an emphasis on
Armenia, Ukraine and the post-Soviet Central Asia.” Georgia greatly
values its partnership with CIS countries, and will carry it on,
reassured the minister.
Her country is determined to combine its partnership with NATO with
Russo-Georgian cooperation. Georgia’s road to Europe, and to
partnership with NATO, does not rule out close neighbourly contacts
with Russia-the two trends can go together.
“The time of a choice from among the principal players is past. There
was a time when Georgia was gambling on antagonisms. It gained
nothing,” Salome Zurabishvili emphatically remarked.

BBC News
Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 April, 2004, 10:05 GMT 11:05 UK
Timeline: Armenia
A chronology of key events:
1915 – 1917 – Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians are massacred or
deported from their homeland in Anatolia to present-day Syria. The Ottoman
government had suspected them of harbouring pro-Russian sympathies.
1916 – Armenia is conquered by tsarist Russia. Joins alliance with Georgia
and Azerbaijan. YEREVAN
Capital’s history stretches back more than 2,500 years
1920: Became capital of Armenian republic
Population: 1.2 million
1918 – Armenia becomes an independent republic.
1920 – Armenia is invaded by Turkey and Bolshevik Russia. An agreement with
the Bolsheviks leads to Armenia proclaiming itself a socialist republic.
1922 – Armenia is incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
USSR.
1930s – Armenians suffer under Stalin’s purges, but the country also
experiences industrial development.
The modern period
1988 – Encouraged by the new policy of openness (“glasnost”), Armenians
begin to campaign for Nagorno-Karabakh, a region with a predominantly
Armenian population in the neighbouring Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, to be
united with Armenia.
1988 December – Earthquake in northern Armenia kills 25,000 and leaves
hundreds of thousands homeless. The relief effort is slow and chaotic.
Armenians say 1.5 million died in last years of Ottoman Empire
2001: Bitter history of Armenian genocide row
Correspondent: Armenians say US failed them
1989 – Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh begins. It lasts intermittently for
five years. Many Azeri citizens are forced to flee their homes.
1990 – Armenian nationalists win parliamentary elections. Independence is
declared, but ignored by Moscow.
1991 September – A referendum sees 94% vote for secession from the Soviet
Union.
1991 October – Levon Ter-Petrossian elected president.
1991 December – Armenia joins the Commonwealth of Independent States, the
successor to the Soviet Union. Armenia recognised as independent by the US.
Internal unrest
1992 – Armenia joins the United Nations. A trade and energy embargo is
imposed by Azerbaijan. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh continues.
1994 – Demonstrations in Yerevan over shortages of food and energy. A
Russian-brokered ceasefire ends the Nagorno-Karabakh fighting. The region is
left a self-proclaimed republic, with ethnic Armenian forces in control of
Azerbaijani territory surrounding Karabakh. NAGORNO-KARABAKH
Feuding over enclave has claimed thousands of lives
2001: Age-old enmity in the Caucasus
2000: Tug-of-war for Nagorno-Karabakh
1995 – The government launches privatisation and price liberalisation
programme. Parliamentary elections return the ruling party. The powers of
the president are widened.
1996 – Ter-Petrossian is re-elected president. Tanks are deployed on the
streets of Yerevan to quell protests over alleged electoral fraud.
1998 – Ter-Petrossian resigns over opposition to his efforts to find a
compromise with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Nationalist Robert
Kocharyan is elected president.
1999 – Gunmen, led by a local journalist Nairi Hunanyan, open fire in the
Armenian parliament. The prime minister, parliamentary speaker and six other
officials are killed. The gunmen accuse the government of leading Armenia
into political and economic ruin. They say the desperate plight of the
people is the reason for the killings.
2000 – Prime Minister Andranik Markarian admits that – 12 years on – those
affected by the 1988 earthquake are still living in a disaster zone.
PARLIAMENT STORMED
Prime minister and speaker were amongst those killed by gunmen
1999: In pictures – Armenia’s grief
2003: Armenia parliament killers jailed
BBC’s Tigran Hizmalyan describes storming
2001 January – Becomes full member of Council of Europe.
France ignores Turkish objections and introduces a law stating that Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915.
Armenia celebrates the 1,700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity.
2001 September – Vladimir Putin becomes first Russian president to visit
Armenia since independence.
Pope John Paul II pays his first visit; most Armenians pledge allegiance to
Armenian Apostolic Church which broke away from Vatican in sixth century.
Kocharyan re-elected
2003 March – President Robert Kocharyan wins further term in second round of
presidential elections. Election monitors complain of ballot-stuffing.
2003 May – European observers find parliamentary elections in which
pro-presidential candidates win majority of seats fall short of
international standards.
Referendum rejects constitutional amendments concerning role of parliament.
2003 August – Death penalty abolished; President Kocharyan commutes
sentences of 42 death row prisoners to life.
2003 December – Six sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles in 1999
parliament shootings in which prime minister, speaker and other officials
were killed.
2004 April – Thousands of opposition supporters march against president.

A1 Plus | 18:23:43 | 30-04-2004 | Social |
SEVAN WANTING WATER
“During 70 years Sevan Lake water level reduced by 41%”, Boris Gabrielyan,
Vice-Director of Hydro-Ecology Institute of National Academy of Sciences,
said during the seminar on ecology held be OSCE Yerevan Office. {BR}
According to him, water decrease influenced on ecosystem of Sevan Lake. In
particular, the aboriginal fish – koghak, ishkhan and beghlu face the danger
to disappear completely. He says the water quality and level are the reason
of it.
Armenian Authorities announce they are going to raise Sevan water level by 2
meters whereas the ecologists demand to increase it by 6 meters at least.
Karine Danielyan, “For Stable Development” Association Chair, thinks one
must give ‘the oligarchs possessing establishments’ on Sevan beach to
understand that they will suffer in both cases if hindering increase of
water level. “If they worry that their properties might appear under water,
they must realize that Sevan eutrophication will continue”, she explained.

UNITED ARMENIAN FUND
1101 N. Pacific Avenue # 301
Glendale, CA 91202
Tel: 818.241.8900
Fax: 818.241.6900
For Immediate Release
3 May 2004
Contact: 818.241.8900
UAF’s 128th Airlift Delivers $3.3 Million of Aid to Armenia
Glendale, CA – The United Armenian Fund’s 128th airlift arrived in Yerevan
on May 1, delivering $3.3 million of humanitarian assistance.
The UAF itself collected $2.9 million of medicines and medical supplies for
this flight, most of which were donated by the Catholic Medical Mission
Board
($2.5 million); Health Partners ($150,000); MAP International ($108,000);
and AmeriCares ($103,000).
Other organizations which contributed goods for this airlift were: Dr.
Stephen Kashian of Illinois ($57,000); Armenian Canadian Medical Association
($52,000); Dr. Viken Garabedian of California ($52,000); Chene France
($39,000); and Shoebox Sharing ($31,000).
Also contributing to this airlift were: Armenian General Benevolent Union
($17,000); Harut Chantikian of New Jersey ($15,000); Armenian Eyecare
Project ($14,000); Prof. Ernst Leumann of Switzerland ($13,000); and U.S.
Department of Agriculture ($12,000).
Since its inception in 1989, the UAF has sent $383 million of humanitarian
assistance to Armenia on board 128 airlifts and 1,043 sea containers.
The UAF is the collective effort of the Armenian Assembly of America, the
Armenian General Benevolent Union, the Armenian Missionary Association of
America, the Armenian Relief Society, the Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America, the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America and the
Lincy Foundation.
For more information, contact the UAF office at 1101 North Pacific Avenue,
Suite 301, Glendale, CA 91202 or call (818) 241-8900.
###

World Music: Omaggio: Berio Djivan Gasparyan / Tenores di Bitti / Kamkars
Queen Elizabeth Hall London
The Independent – United Kingdom;
May 04, 2004
Michael Church

THE TITLE indicated homage to the recently deceased Luciano Berio, but
the event reflected the homage he had paid to the folk music of North
America, France, Iran, Azerbaijan and the islands of the
Mediterranean.
We began with the folk songs he recomposed for his wife, Cathy
Berberian. Here they were sung by the mezzo Katalin Karolyi, who
handled two American ballads with sweet allure, swung jauntily south
to Armenia, hardened her voice to match the rough edges of a Sicilian
lament, and rang timbral changes for pungent songs from Sardinia and
the Auvergne. Did it matter that the words of the Aze rbaijani love
song which Berberian had originally collected were still
untranslatable? Of course not. Karolyi may not have Berberian’s
raunchiness, but this was a tour de force all the same, beautifully
abetted by musicians from the London Sinfonietta.
One thing Karolyi superbly demonstrated – for those who had forgotten
– was that a proper singer needs no amplification in the acoustically
excellent QEH. Nor do reed instruments, and when Djivan Gasparyan and
his two fellow-dudukists joined in via the stage mics we lost the
sonic intimacy Karolyi had built up. But their magic was still
irresistible: after a slow and meditative improvisation over his
friends’ drone, this Armenian master led them through dances and
laments. With its single-octave range, the apricot-wood duduk might
not be thought one of the world’s most expressive instruments, but
they gave the lie to this. Their slightly flattened harmonies set up
the yearning atmosphere we always associate with Armenia: the land
whose defining tragedy sent half its population into exile.
If this was music to dream to, what followed had us on the edge of our
seats: Berio’s “Naturale”, where viola and vestigial percussion
suffered plangent interruptions from the taped voice of a Sicilian
folk singer. Then we were in Sardinia, courtesy of four middle-aged
gents in matching brown outfits, who gave vent to the most
penetratingly nasal close-harmony I’ve ever heard. Once again,
unnecessary miking removed some of the poignancy, but these Tenores di
Bitti showed what drama could be extracted from minimal gear-changes
in key and intonation. It was a shame we weren’t told what their songs
were about.
Then it was playtime with that most congenial of Kurdish groups, the
Kamkars. Hassan Kamkar and his six children have made it their
mission to preserve the village music of Kurdish Iran, and their
hoof-drumming rhythms got the whole hall clapping along. And that
meant more than just the world-music fraternity, because the audience
was drawn from every kind of musical persuasion. This concert really
was what Radio 3 voguishly terms “boundary-crossing”.

Russian envoy hails Armenian authorities’ measures to end protests
Arminfo
21 Apr 04

YEREVAN
Both the Armenian authorities and protesters should be mutually
polite,” the Russian ambassador to Armenia, Anatoliy Dryukov, told
Arminfo, while commenting on the political situation in the country.
He said that it is the authorities’ constitutional duty to maintain
law and order, but the protesters should observe order as well. I can
comment on the situation in Armenia only as a representative of a
foreign country – without any attempt to interfere in the country’s
internal affairs,” the Russian diplomat said.
The current situation is a blow to the Armenian state, Armenian
statehood and to the economic and social development plans that the
Armenian government has announced, the ambassador said.
The political struggle is a usual and normal occurrence in a
democratic state. However, it is normal if the struggle is being
conducted within the framework of the law and the constitution. He
said that no-one is allowed to interpret the laws and the constitution
in their own manner,” the ambassador noted.
“I think the current situation has developed because some people are
trying to interpret the laws and the constitution in their own
manner,” the ambassador said. All this and the fact that people are
suffering are grave consequences. Dryukov believes that the work the
Prosecutor-General’s Office is doing now is an absolutely correct
reaction by the authorities and it is necessary to wait for the
results of the investigation.

Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia)
April 24, 2004 Saturday Final Edition
Armenian vote marks a turning point: MPs acknowledge the genocide
despite the prime minister’s wishes
by: Adrian Dix
April 24, 1915, 89 years ago today, was one of the most significant
and tragic days of the 20th century. On that date, the Ottoman Empire
arrested and murdered hundreds of Armenian community leaders and
intellectuals. It was the beginning of the Armenian genocide — the
first genocide of the 20th century.
On Wednesday, the House of Commons voted 153-68 in favor of a motion
to “acknowledge the Armenian genocide and to condemn it as a crime
against humanity.” The motion passed in spite of the opposition of
Prime Minister Paul Martin and his cabinet and exposes not only the
difficulty in defending human rights against crass self-interest, but
the emptiness of the federal Liberal rhetoric about the “democracy
deficit.”
The scope of the horror perpetrated against Armenians by the
government of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1918, atrocities
that were renewed by the post-First World War Turkish state between
1920 and 1923, is virtually impossible to comprehend. An estimated
1.5 million Armenians died between 1915 and 1923 as the result of
systematic state policies of starvation, deportation, torture and
massacre.
Genocide is defined as “the organized killing of a people for the
express purpose of putting an end to their collective existence.”
Before the First World War, there were two million Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire. By 1923, the entire Armenian population of the region
had been expunged either through death or deportation.
Armenak Deragopian, an Armenian-Canadian living in Vancouver,
testifies to his family’s experience: “My father’s family was
massacred — about 16 people. My father survived because he was
working in Egypt at the time of World War One and was unable to
return to his home region. My mother managed to escape but much of
her family was massacred as well.”
In the wake of the First World War, recognition of the Armenian
genocide was pushed aside by political considerations as the
victorious powers carved up Europe and the Middle East and dealt with
the emerging Turkish state and the Soviet Union.
An avalanche of evidence demonstrates the scope of the Armenian
genocide — from eyewitness reports to comprehensive inquiries. And
many governments including Sweden, France, Switzerland, Holland and
Belgium have formally recognized the Armenian genocide and have
joined in the April 24 commemoration. Several leading NATO powers
have not — including the United States, Great Britain and Canada.
These countries have refused to recognize genocide for fear of
offending Turkey — a strategic NATO ally.
Turkey has fought hard to deny international recognition of the
Armenian genocide, using both its strategic position in the Western
Alliance and its growing economic power to block recognition efforts.
In 2000, the U.S. House of Representatives withdrew a motion on the
genocide under pressure from the Clinton administration after Turkey
threatened to deny access to its airspace for missions to Iraq.
When the French National Assembly passed a motion in 2000 to
recognize the genocide, the Turkish government cancelled a number of
important contracts for French companies.
The effort by the federal Liberal cabinet to block the Canadian
motion this week was motivated by similar concerns. Bombardier and
SNC-Lavalin are bidding on a major contract to extend the subway
system in Ankara. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce lobbied on their
behalf to oppose the passing of the Armenian motion, fearing
retaliation against Canadian economic interests.
Once the motion was passed, in the absence of the prime minister,
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham issued a statement stating that
Canada’s position “had not changed.”
He added: “Canada has had friendly and co-operative relations with
Turkey and Armenia for many years. The Canadian government is
committed to make these relationships even stronger in the future.”
If nothing else, the vote recognizing the Armenian genocide
illustrates the hollowness of the prime minister’s commitment to end
the “democracy deficit.” Reacting to the vote, Martin suggested that
“Parliament and the government could have different views. And that,
in fact, is one of the great benefits of dealing with parliamentary
reform and parliamentary democracy.”
What is the point of having more “free votes” if they are
pre-determined as meaningless in terms of government policy by the
prime minister himself? This is not parliamentary reform. Martin is
furthering the democracy deficit by debasing our democratic
institutions.
After all, the government of Canada is a reflection of a majority in
Parliament, not a benign dictatorship that can accept or reject the
view of elected members of Parliament. Martin is prime minister
because a majority of members of Parliament elected by the voters are
Liberals. It is not because “he knows better.”
Canada’s MPs are to be praised for standing up against the prime
minister in recognizing the Armenian genocide. This is a victory for
the value of historical memory over self-interest. This April 24, the
memory of those who lost their lives in the genocide will not have
been forgotten.
Perhaps too, this vote can represent a turning point in the revaluing
of Canadian democratic institutions. Given the reaction of the prime
minister, however, the goal of erasing the democracy deficit seems
far away.
Adrian Dix was an adviser to the New Democratic Party government.

The Associated Press
April 22, 2004, Thursday
Mass killings of the past century
Background and resources on genocides and mass killings in the past
century:
-Armenian Genocide (1915-16): Ottoman Turks kill about 1.5 million
ethnic Armenians during World War I.
-Ukraine (1932-33): An artificial famine caused by Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin’s agricultural policies kills 7 million to 10 million
people.
-Nazi Holocaust (1933-1945): German leader Adolf Hitler leads attack
on Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe in which 6 million Jews die. The
Nazis also kill about 5 million other civilians, including Gypsies,
Poles, political opponents, gays, and others.
-Chinese Great Leap Forward (1959-61): About 30 million Chinese die
in famine that followed Mao Zedong’s effort at rapid rural
industrialization.
-Cambodia (1975-79): Khmer Rouge government kills about 1.7 million
Cambodians in a drive to purge western influence and start an
agrarian communist state.
-Rwanda (1994): Ethnic Hutu rebels lead attacks on ethnic Tutsis and
moderate Hutus, killing an estimated 800,000 people.
Resources for further study:
-Genocide links:

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian National Committee of Pasadena
740 East Washington Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91104-5007
Telephone: 626.798-0751
Fax: 626.798-7872
Thursday, April 15, 2004

Contact: Peter Tashjian
Telephone: (626) 255-4658
PASADENA ARMENIANS TO COMMEMORATE 89th ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Congressman Adam Schiff to be the Keynote Speaker at April 16th Event
PASADENA, CA (April 15, 2004) – The Armenian National Committee of
Pasadena (ANC-Pasadena) and its affiliated organizations will
commemorate the 89th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with keynote
speaker Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA 29) on Friday, April 16 at 7:30
p.m. at the Pasadena Armenian Center,740 East Washington Boulevard.
Congressman Adam Schiff will give attendees an update on the status of
House Resolution 193, which would commemorate the 15th Anniversary of
the U.S. ratification the U.N. Convention on the Punishment and
Prevention of Genocides. H.Res. 193 which was co-authored by
Congressman Adam Schiff, specifically mentions the Armenian Genocide
as an example of genocide in the 20th century.
The honorable Consul General of the Republic of Armenia, Gagig
Giragossyan, will also speak at the event. Hundreds of Armenian
Americans, along with community leaders and public officials are
expected to be present to attendthis special event and show solidarity
in the quest for justice for the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
Although historians and eyewitnesses have unequivocally described the
events of 1915-1923 as a state sponsored genocide, the Republic of
Turkey continues to deny the claims through public relations campaigns
and paid lobbyists.
`Congressman Schiff has always been a strong advocate of issues of
concern to our community since his days in the California State
Senate. As one of the principal co-authors of House Resolution 193,
he is the ideal person to provide insight on the status of the
resolution. We are very grateful that he accepted our invitation,’
stated Shahan Stepanian, ANC-Pasadena Chair. `This will be a unique
evening with all federal, state and city officials paying respect to
the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide,’ added Stepanian.
The ANC-Pasadena works to raise awareness and educate the general
public about issues of concern to the Armenian-American community.
To find out more about this event, call (626) 798-7872.