Author: Hunanian Jack

Tawdry genocide tale
By Bruce Fein

The Washington Times
September 2, 2007

On Tuesday, Aug. 21, the national director of the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL), Abraham H. Foxman, somersaulted from a longstanding ADL
policy. The ADL had declined to characterize as genocide the killings
of Armenians during World War I by Ottoman Muslims. In Mr. Foxman’s
change of position hangs a tawdry tale of intellectual dishonor.

On the Friday before, the national director had fired ADL’s New
England regional director, Andrew H. Tarsy, for defying the national
policy of nonendorsement of the genocide. Yet four days later, Mr.
Foxman was parroting the regional director whom he had just fired.

Four days is not much time to study an issue as complex as the
Armenian genocide narrative – especially when proper deductions are
made for the ordinary inclination to devote the lion’s share of
weekends more to leisure than to lucubration.

Mr. Foxman, moreover, did not claim to have perused the works of
impressive scholars who dispute the Armenian genocide claim. The list
would include Bernard Lewis and Heath Lowry of Princeton, Guenther
Lewy of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Justin McCarthy of
the University of Louisville, and Professor Norman Stone, who taught
at Cambridge and Oxford in Great Britain for 30 years before retiring
early from the chair of modern history.

Mr. Foxman also did not assert even a passing acquaintance with the
meaning of genocide as recently expounded by the International Court
of Justice in Bosnia and Herzogovina v. Serbia and Montenegro (Feb.
26, 2007). There the court declared: "It is not enough to establish…
that deliberate unlawful killings of members of a group have
occurred…. It is not enough that the members of the group are
targeted because they belong to that group, that is because the
perpetrator has a discriminatory intent. The acts listed in [the
Genocide Convention] must be done with intent to destroy the group in
whole or in part."

Mr. Foxman voiced no rebuttal to the credible evidence undermining an
Armenian genocide. During World War I, many Armenians were killed
because they had defected to the enemy and were slaughtering Ottoman
Muslims. Others were suspected of treason or disloyalty. The vast
majority of Armenian casualties were occasioned by wretchedly executed
deportations undertaken by the Ottoman government for war purposes. In
1916, the Ottomans themselves prosecuted about 1,300 soldiers and
civilians for crimes against the Armenian deportees. One governor was
executed. Tens of thousands of Armenians in Istanbul, Izmir and Aleppo
were left undisturbed.

As Bernard Lewis has observed, an analogy would have been if Adolf
Hitler had left Jews in Berlin, Frankfurt and Vienna exempt from the
Final Solution. For more than three centuries, under the Ottoman
millet system, Armenians enjoyed religious, cultural and social
harmony. Conflict with the Ottoman Empire was largely provoked by
Armenian terrorism and plotting secession comparable to the
Confederate States of America, not by a late-blooming desire to
destroy Armenians as a group.

It seems self-evident something other than the truth about the
Armenian genocide claim was at work with Mr. Foxman. That suspicion
was reinforced in an Aug. 22 interview with the Boston Globe. He
unconvincingly asserted that for an unstated time he had held a
private conviction that Armenians had suffered genocide, but thought
characterizing their mass killings by the Ottoman Empire as atrocities
or massacres was a sufficient description.

But he was provoked to go public with his true belief because the
Jewish community was fracturing over endorsing the Armenian genocide.
As reported in the Globe, he elaborated: "So if that word [genocide]
brings the community together, that’s fine…. In this time, for us to
be split apart on an issue, which, as important as it is, is not
foremost on the agenda of our safety and security, I found very
troubling. I therefore did what I did to bring the community
together."

Mr. Foxman’s explanation is dubious. He is to ADL what Moses was to
the Jews. It strains credulity to believe ADL would have balked at any
time over his desire to officially acknowledge an Armenian genocide.
Indeed, when Mr. Foxman did so on Aug. 21, there was no audible ADL
protest.

The national director declared he had suppressed his opinion over the
Armenian genocide because he believed an open ADL endorsement would
anger Turkey and jeopardize both Jews living there and Israeli-Turkish
relations. But when nonendorsement began to divide the Jewish
community, Mr. Foxman believed its splintering was more dangerous to
Jewish safety or security than any rift with Turkey. Accordingly, the
ADL altered its longstanding position.

This gets to the crux of the matter. The Armenian genocide question
should be settled by truth, not by the political calculations of Mr.
Foxman or any other influential figure. The strength of the Armenian
lobby or the geostrategic importance of Turkey to the United States
should also be irrelevant.

The government of Turkey has opened its archives for more research and
has supported further examination of the genocide question through
debate and evaluation before an impartial body. Armenians have not
reciprocated with either archival openness or willingness to debate as
opposed to denigrate or intimidate scholars who question the genocide.
Mr. Foxman should be exerting his energies to convince the Armenians
to join the debate in lieu of jumping on their bandwagon and endorsing
their conclusion for ulterior motives.

Bruce Fein is a resident scholar at the Turkish Coalition of America.

Source: TARY02/109020014/1012/COMMENTARY

ECOLOGICAL ISSUES HARD TO SOLVE IN ARMENIA BECAUSE OF IT SYSTEM

AZG Armenian Daily #158
01/09/2007

Ecology

The ecological issues are hard to solve in Armenia, because of the
system, and not because of the lack of financial sources. A number
of representatives of the Armenian ecological NGOs expressed this
opinion at yesterday’s press conference. They touched upon three
issues in the course of the press conference.

Firstly, the informed that about 40 NGOs sent an open letter to the
USA, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to RA Government and to a number of
international ortganizations. In the letter they stated that they are
against the spreading of nuclear weapon. At the same time, they said
that Armenia can carry out a mediator’s mission in anti-nuclear issues
between the two countries. They expressed the hope that unanimously
they will be able to solve the probable global disatser.

Karine Danielian, chairwoman of "For Stable Human Development," said
that the initiative was welcomed at the embassies of the USA and Iran.

NO NEED TO COMMENT OF RUMORS ABOUT SALE OF VIVACELL ARMENIAN TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANY

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 30 2007

YEREVAN, August 30. /ARKA/. No need to comment of rumors about sale
of Vivacell Armenian telecommunication company, Armenian Minister
of Transport and Communication Andranik Manukian told a briefing
Thursday. "I have got no documents on the possible deal," he said.

Vivacell does not comment on the possible purchase of the company by
Russian MTS either.

Earlier, "Vedomosti" Russian newspaper reported that MTS purchased
the Armenian mobile communication operator Vivacell. The Press
Secretary of MTS told "Vedomosti" that the company is interested in
the Armenian market.

The President of AFK "Sistema" and the owner of MTS Alexander
Goncharuk reported that currently negotiations are held on purchase
of the Armenian company, but it is not clear yet "when the deal can
be closed".

According to the analysts of "Aton" Russian investment group the value
of the transaction will total $480mln. According to "Renaissance
Capital", the purchase may cost $400-500mln, whereas the analysts
of "Troyka Dialogue" believe the cost to reach $500-600mln as "the
Armenian market ahs room for growth and the company should be sold
at a premium".

It is the second attempt of MNTS to get to the Armenian market. In
2006 when Hellenic Communications Organization put on sale 90% of
ArmenTel’s shares, MTS participated in the bid, but was left behind
by Vimpelcom who suggested EUR 382mln ($488.1mln).

"K-Telecom" company (Vivacell trademark) has been on the Armenian
mobile market since July 1 2005. Currently it has 1mln subscribers.

The principle owner of the company is Lebanese Fattouch Group
investment structure owned by Pierre Fattouch. Today the company holds
67% of the mobile market and covers 98.5% of the country’s territory.

About 33% of the mobile communication market falls at share of the
second mobile communication operator – ArmenTel. 100% of the company’s
shares are owned by Russian Vimpelkom (Bee Line trademark).

By the end of 2006, the company had 608,500 users of stationary
communication and 452,000 mobile subscribers. Under the decision of
the Public Services Regulating Commission of Armenia ArmenTel was
deprived of all the monopoly rights Friday.

TURKISH PRESS CRITICIZES BRYZA FOR ANTI-TURKISH TENDENCIES
By Hakob Chakrian

AZG Armenian Daily
30/08/2007

The wedding ceremony of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair Matthew Bryza
and Zeyno Baran took place in Istanbul, on August 23.

Some of the Armenian newspapers and TVs raised a clamor for that
marriage regarding Zeyno Baran as Turkish and Matthew Bryza as –
Turkish-centric.

In response to it, on August 27, "Zaman" daily published an article
titled "Armenians worry at Bryza’s marriage".

It is worth to mention that Turkish media does not regard M. Bryza
as Turkish-centric and reminds about the March 1, 2003 sitting of
the Mejlis, where USA’s demand to allocate its armed forces in the
territory of Turkey was rejected. In response to it, Bryza made a
suggestion about the strict punishment for Turkey.

What about Zeyno Baran, she was born on January 31, 1972. Her father
was the reporter Ahmed Uran Baran.

After the death of her father, her mother Fyusun Muthlu married the
chief editor of "Vatan" daily Zafar Muthlu.

After graduating from the Austrian Girls’ College in Istanbul in 1991
she continued her education at Stanford University (USA) and graduated
from the University as a specialist of international relations.

She worked in the World Bank (Washington) from 1996.

>From 2003, Baran directed the International Security and Energy
Programs at the Nixon Center.

She is the Head of the Turkish Department at Hudson Institute from
2006.

Recently we have written about the probable origin of Zeyno Baran:
she is Kurd by origin, but not Turkish, though some Turkish central
newspapers regard her as Turkish. On the other hand, the nationalist
press of Turkey mentions, "Baran is one of those, who prefer to live
in Washington, but to have a Turkish name".

In spite of the above-mentioned, the antiulusul.com regards Zeyno as
Alevi by origin, taking into consideration the fact that her father
was an Alevi by origin.

Moreover, the Kurdish Vellatparez website mentions that Baran is a
Kurd from Dersim (Tungalin).

Apparently, her mother Fyusu Muthlu is a Jew by origin, and that is
why the turkishamericanjournal.com regards Zeyno as "shabathian",
which means an apostate Jew.

In addition to it, the haber7.com underlines, "Like our Foreign
Ministry, the US Department of State is also under the hegemony of
the Jews by origin. Bryza is also a Jew. It’s evident that Zeyno
Baran is an apostate Jew, as it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to marry
a non-Jew".

By the way, the Turkish press spoke about Zeyno Baran with these
kind of titles: "The trouble maker for Turkey Baran married", "The
conspiratorial plans of the traitors", etc.

Meanwhile, the Confederation of the Public Workers’ Trade Unions
brought an action against Zeyno Baran taking into account the organized
measure at Hudson Institute on June 13, where they discussed two
scenarios of terrors in Istanbul (50 people were to die according to
the plan of Zeyno). In response to those terrors, Turkey could invade
North Iraq.

Moreover, in the "Newsweek" Zeyno Baran had predicted a revolution
by the armed forces of Turkey and fall of the Erdogan’s government
in 2007.

The Turkish press had strictly criticized Zeyno Baran for those
predictions. Consequently, we cannot regard Zeyno Baran as
Turkish-centric.

OF GENOCIDE AND MORALITY

Forward, NY

Aug 29 2007

History usually passes from one era to another in a slow, glacial
process, too gradual to be discernible until the change is complete.

There are times, though, when the change happens in an instant, like
a flash of lightning splitting a summer night. Such was the birth of
the atomic age at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 62 years ago this month.

Such was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of communism,
when Boris Yeltsin stood on a tank in Moscow and defied the tyrants,
16 years ago last week. And such, we may learn to our sorrow, is the
end of the post-Holocaust era in Jewish history. That age may have
evaporated last week in a haze of wrenching moral contradictions,
as the imperatives of remembering and resisting genocide collided
with the needs of Israeli security.

If the collision had happened once, it would be merely a crisis. But
it happened twice in one week, in two dramatic and unrelated crises.

One was a confrontation between Israel and American Jews over
recognition of the 1915 genocide of Armenians at the hands of the
Turks, which Israel fears would alienate an essential Muslim ally.

The other was the agonizing sight of Israeli troops expelling a
group of Darfuri refugees who had crossed vast deserts, fleeing the
genocide in their homeland, to seek refuge in the Jewish state. Two
crises, unrelated yet reflecting the same moral dilemma, suggest
that something larger is under way – perhaps something as large as
a tectonic shift in the ground under our feet.

Since the end of World War II, the accepted narrative of Jewish history
has been a simple, linear one: from Holocaust to redemption; Israel
as the retort to Auschwitz. In a deeper sense, the post-Holocaust
era brought with it a new mission for the chosen people – to bear
witness to the horrors of genocide, to see to it that memory would be
preserved and that never again would such horrors be permitted. For
the past 60 years, Jews everywhere have seen the rise from the ashes
of a reborn Jewish state as the symbolic and physical embodiment
of that mission. For most of us, remembering the Holocaust and
cherishing Israel have been the two interlocking pillars of modern
Jewish identity.

Last week those two pillars collided, in the most literal and dramatic
way possible, shaken loose from their moorings by the shockwaves
of genocide in two of the world’s hot spots. Israel found itself –
or placed itself – on the side of the deniers, and Jews around the
world were left standing in numb disbelief.

One incident began in Watertown, Mass., a small town with a large
population of Armenian Americans. The good people of Watertown know,
as many Jewish activists know, that the murder of Armenians by Turkey
on the eve of World War I was one of the first mass atrocities of the
20th century and helped inspire Hitler. Yet Armenians have struggled
for almost a century to wrest even the barest acknowledgement from
Turkey of their tragedy. Turkey denies it, and much of the world
stays silent, fearing Turkish wrath.

Earlier this month, Watertown decided to drop its participation in
an anti-prejudice program of the Anti-Defamation League, because
the league has refused to acknowledge the Armenian genocide or to
endorse an upcoming congressional resolution on the subject. The ADL,
like most Jewish organizations, fears – correctly – that speaking on
Armenia’s tragedy will create tension between Israel and Turkey.

However, after an ugly confrontation between the ADL’s national
office and its Boston chapter, the league finally issued a statement
acknowledging that the Armenian massacres were "tantamount to
genocide." The statement promptly touched off the feared diplomatic
crisis between Turkey and Israel. The crisis has yet to be resolved.

The other crisis, involving Darfur, erupted just days after the first
one. On August 17, Israeli police arrested a group of 50 Africans,
most of them from Darfur, who were trying to enter Israel from Egypt.

They had fled their homeland and trekked across the Sinai Desert,
hoping to find refuge in the Jewish state as some 1,500 other Africans
have done in recent months. Two days later, Israel announced that it
would no longer grant refuge to African refugees – including those
from Darfur – and would henceforth return all future migrants to
Egypt, starting with the 50 arrested on the 17th. The expulsions
raised a chorus of protests from a broad cross-section of Israelis,
spanning the political spectrum. It drew criticism, too, from human
rights groups around the world. Ironically, some of the American Jews
who had led the Save Darfur campaign from the outset were quick to
spring to Israel’s defense, citing its unique security concerns.

There’s no doubt that collisions between fighting genocide and
defending Israel cut the heart of Jewish identity in the post-Holocaust
era. What, we may ask, is the point of fighting for a Jewish state
if it will not act in a Jewish manner – that is, serve as a beacon
to us and the world? Wasn’t that supposed to be the promise of Israel?

Well, no, it wasn’t. The promise of Zionism, from Herzl to Ben-Gurion
to today’s Israel, was to normalize the Jewish condition – to
remove the Jewish people from its rootless, luftmentsh status as a
scattered nation with no ground to stand on and no responsibility for
the implications of its beliefs. It was to bring the Jews back into
the rough-and-tumble of history, of real-life struggles as lived by
sovereign nations. The idea of Israel as somehow exempt from the rules
of realpolitik, from the tough moral choices faced by other nations,
was an invention to make the Zionist revolution comprehensible to
those of us who did not undergo the revolution. It was an Israel we
invented for ourselves.

Still, while it’s tempting to portray these crises as reflecting the
differences between Israel and the Diaspora – or between ordinary
American Jews and the organizations that have become slaves to Israeli
policy – that conclusion is unfair to Israelis, to the organizations
and to ourselves. For all the demands of realpolitik, many Israelis –
including 63 members of Knesset, a majority – demanded in vain that
their government not expel the Darfuris. As for the Armenian tragedy,
as real as we know it to be, the fact is that Israel desperately needs
the friendship of Turkey, its most important ally, and that friendship
comes with a painful price tag. Remembering genocide is important,
but not as important as saving lives today.

If anything, the genocide collisions of August should make us
re-examine the moral principles we have created for ourselves in
the wake of the Holocaust, and consider whether they reflect the
realities of today’s cold, hard world. In the end, political ethics
based on slogans and theories, with no recognition of the ugly choices
required in navigating this hard world, are no ethics at all.

The task of the post-post-Holocaust era is to forge a new ethic for
our new world.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 24 2007

Armenian Fm to visit Slovenia, Belgium

YEREVAN, August 24. /ARKA/. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
is to leave for Slovenia on August 26 to take part in the annual
forum `EU 2020: expansion and integration’ in the city of Bled.

The press and information department, RA Foreign Office, reports that
among the prospective participants in the forum are Georgian
President Mikhail Sahakashvili, the Premiers of Croatia, Lithuania,
Macedonia, Iwo Sanader, Gedeminas Kirkilas and Nikola Grusevski, UN
Special Envoy for the Kosovo problem Marti Akhtisaari, Foreign
Ministers of a number of countries, political figures, EU officials,
representatives of analytical centers and NGOs.

The forum participants are to discuss the challenges facing Europe
and issue of European integration.
The Armenian FM is expected to make a speech during the discussions
`Economic and political directions of the South Caucasus and Central
Asia. The Role of EU and OSCE.’

Among the participants in the discussion will be Georgian
Vice-Premier, State Minister for European and Euroatlantic
integration Georgy Baramidze, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister
Vagif Sadykov, EU Special Representative in the South Caucasus Peter
Semneby.

The Armenian Foreign Minister is also to hold bilateral meeting in
Bled.

On September 3, Minister Oskanyan is to leave for Brussels, at the
invitation of the EU Commissioner for Foreign Relations and European
Neighborhood policy Benita Ferero-Valdner, take part in a meeting of
Foreign Ministers of the countries participating in the EU New
Neighborhood Policy.

Attending at the meeting whose motto is `Cooperating in consolidating
the European neighborhood policy’ will be the Foreign Ministers of
the 16 countries participating in the New Neighborhood Policy. The
participants will discuss issues of cooperation in trade
liberalization, energy security, as well as the challenges resultant
from climatic changes.

In Brussels, the Armenian Foreign Minister is also to meet with NATO
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Schefer. P.T. -0–

Panorama.am

17:07 24/08/2007

STICKY SMS: OR RECEIVE WHAT WE GIVE AND…

The mobile operators in Armenia have been sending different
promotional SMS messages to their customers very often
recently. Panorama.am asked `Consumer Rights Protection’ NGO Chairman
Abgar Yeghoyan how much that violates the rights of consumers.

`It is undoubtedly a violation of consumer right since customers must
consent to it by an agreement that they are willing to receive such
promotional information,’ Yeghoyan told Panorama.am. In his words,
customers have two basic rights – to receive and choose
information. `Both rights are violated in this case because you are
not in a position to choose – to receive or not,’ the chairman said
also saying his organization has developed amendments to the draft Law
on Promotion which will also regulate this problem. `This issue has
not been regulated yet but the companies must develop procedures at
least for themselves. In some cases, customers are children. He/she
may follow the messages and create financial problems in the family or
inadequate information may be sent to underage children,’ NGO chairman
said.

Panorama.am tried to find out the answer from mobile operators, as
well. They assure that there is one solution: customers may require
switching off delivery of messages at all.

Source: Panorama.am

Last update – 16:11 24/08/2007
Turkey angered by new ADL stance on Armenian ‘genocide’
By Barak Ravid <[email protected]>, Haaretz Correspondent

The Turkish government is pressuring Israel in an effort to reverse an
American Jewish organization’s decision to recognize Turkey’s massacre of
Armenians during World War I as genocide.

A meeting between Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Israel’s
ambassador to Ankara, Pinhas Avivi, became "shrill," according to Foreign
Ministry sources in Jerusalem. Gul expressed Ankara’s "anger and
disappointment" over the matter.

On Tuesday, the Anti-Defamation League announced that it recognizes the
events in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred as
"genocide." ADL’s national director Abraham Foxman, said he made the
decision after discussing the matter with historians and with Nobel Peace
Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
According to an Israeli ministry source, Gul told the Israeli ambassador
that "Turkey knows Israel was not responsible for the Anti-Defamation
League’s announcement, but is disappointed because Israel could have done
something to prevent it."

Avivi replied that Jerusalem was not involved in the ADL’s decision and that
"there is no change in Israel’s position. We are not taking sides, and
believe that the parties must hold a dialogue to clarify and investigate the
matter and determine what really happened."

A senior Foreign Ministry official told Haaretz Thursday that the main focus
now is on calming the situation.

"This is a highly sensitive issue for Turkey, and we have signaled to them
that there is no change in our position and that we do not wish to harm the
friendly ties between our countries. We believe that they have understood
our message," the official said.

The question of the Armenian genocide is being handled at the highest levels
of the Turkish leadership, and Foreign Ministry sources noted that President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are planning to
discuss the matter with their Israeli counterparts, Shimon Peres and Ehud
Olmert.

Israel is concerned that the matter may lead to a genuine diplomatic crisis
between the two countries, and it has sent quiet signals to American Jewish
organizations in an effort to lower the tone. The Foreign Ministry is
concerned that the strategic relationship between the two countries could be
harmed and that the Jewish community in Turkey could be affected.

Source:

The Daily Foxman
Joey Kurtzman

A ugust 24, 2007
TAGS: Abraham Foxman
< n>
Activism< z_categories/activism>
anti-defamation
league < ue> Armenian
Genocide< enian_genocide> The
Daily Foxman <;
*Daily commentary on the ADL/Armenian Genocide uproar
*

*HA’ARETZ OP-ED CALLS FOR FOXMAN’S RESIGNATION*: Today Ha’aretz published "The
Politics of Hypocrisy < l>" an
op-ed by Friend of *Jewcy* Evan Goldstein in which Evan calls for Abraham
Foxman’s resignation.

Goldstein laments Foxman’s decline from an "ardent champion of civil rights"
to a "morally obtuse and ethically challenged" embarrassment. He’s also
exasperated by Foxman’s explanation that his "reversal" on the Armenian
Genocide issue was motivated by his "concern for the unity of the Jewish
community." Asks Evan, "What does the unity or disunity of the Jewish people
have to do with distinguishing between historical fact and malicious
fabrication?"

"Morally obtuse" is a pitch-perfect description of the following Foxman
comments: "This is not a time for Jews to be attacking each other over an
issue that is really not central." "Now, they’ve insisted on the g-word.
Fine." "I still don’t think it’s our issue, but so many people believe it is
our issue=85 I said okay."

Unbelievable. But okay, so Foxman didn’t quite summon the moral fervor of
the Jewish prophets when he made these comments to reporters. Let’s put
aside the moral issues for a moment. I’m also blown away by the jaw-dropping
political incompetence here.

There was an uproar over Foxman’s denial of genocide because people consider
this a morally salient issue, and one that should transcend politics.
Foxman’s underlings at the national ADL must be mortified that Foxman would
tell every reporter within earshot that he only revisited it because he
didn’t want Jews wasting their energy arguing about something this
unimportant. How can a man who spent four decades engaged in public debate
on sensitive issues be so profoundly tone-deaf to sensibilities about
genocide? It gobsmacks.

So when one member of the ADL frets to the Boston Globe over the question,
"Are we an organization of principle?" Um=85 how about, "no." Not so long as
the guy responsible for the above comments is calling the shots.

*WILL THE ADL LOBBY AGAINST THE CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTIONS?*: When Foxman
issued his statement declaring that that "the consequences of [Turkish]
actions were indeed tantamount to genocide," this was, as I’ve said
previously, not at all a recognition of the genocide but rather a
restatement of a typical trope of the denialists: No one tried to obliterate
the Armenian people, and whatever happened was simply an ugly and unplanned
outcome of war.

However, most Armenian-Americans seem willing to accept that the ADL has
reversed its position, because they want to move on to the more important
issue. Before Foxman issued his statement, David Boyajian, the
Armenian-American from Newton, Massachusetts who did so much to get events
in his home state rolling, sent me this comment in e-mail:

Joey, something is up: damage control. They want the issue to die, with ADL
making some half-baked acknowledgment and then promptly continuing to lobby
against us as before. It’s a very sneaky game.

And that’s exactly what seems to have come to pass. Ultimately, most
Armenian-Americans don’t just want the recognition of the ADL, they want the
ADL and other Jewish organizations to stop lobbying against the
congressional resolutions recognizing the genocide. And that, now, is the
big question before those of us who care about either the Armenian Genocide
or the moral integrity of "justice-seeking" Jewish organizations such as the
ADL.

Thomas Lifson of American Thinker put
it< /08/adls_curious_indifference_ends.html>this
wa y:

A genocide is still a genocide, where or not it is politically convenient to
speak the truth. I always thought the ADL was supposed to be in the moral
truth-telling business. After all, it expects to be taken seriously as a
moral force, it needs to be."

So I believe the organization needs to clarify why it now believes the
Armenian genocide was a genocide, and why it doesn’t want Congress calling
it that.

Source: daily_foxman

LEVON TER-PETROSYAN’S CONSENT WILL COME IN LATE SEPTEMBER

Lragir.am
23-08-2007 16:26:36

Aram Manukyan, member of the board of the All-Armenian Movement,
who held a news conference at the Friday Club today, spoke about
the upcoming presidential election and the nomination of Levon
Ter-Petrosyan. He said the society wants to change the government,
wants to "rid of the Karabakh clan" but none of the opposition leaders
has a sufficient reputation in the country and in the world. In this
context, he separated Levon Ter-Petrosyan who is better than all the
others, he said.

"Levon Ter-Petrosyan will not be the leader of the All-Armenian
Movement. He will be endorsed by a number of political forces and
will be the president of Armenia," Aram Manukyan believes.

In answer to the question of the reporter whether the first president
agrees to be nominated, Aram Manukyan said he will give his consent
in the second half of September, and now consultations with different
political forces are underway.