Author: Jagharian Tania

Zenit News Agency, Italy
April 26 2008

Mass in Rome Marks Armenian Massacre

Monsignor Hopes World Comes to Recognize Genocide

By Robert Cheaib

ROME, APRIL 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A Mass in Rome celebrated by the
rector of the Pontifical Armenian College was among many events
marking the 93rd anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of
Armenians.

Monsignor Hovsep Kelekian celebrated the Mass in the Armenian church
of St. Nicholas of Tolentine.

He lamented the lack of an official international recognition of the
"’metz yeghern (great calamity) of the genocide" and expressed his
hope that "the genocide of the Armenian people be recognized by the
whole world" because "it is a fact."

In 1915 and the following years, vast numbers of Armenians were killed
within the Ottoman Empire as it broke apart. April 24, the day the
massacre began, is marked as Genocide Day in Armenia. The massacre
began that day when hundreds of intellectuals, doctors, lawyers,
journalists, priests and other representatives of the Armenian culture
and politics were arrested and eventually killed.

"We have gathered today to honor our martyrs and give thanks to our
relatives who gave us this life we live today," Monsignor Kelekian
said. "We hope that we can faithfully transmit to our descendants what
we have inherited — our faith and our Armenian culture."

After the Mass, prayers were said before the Khatc’kar memorial
erected in 2006 in memory of the victims.

The memorial Mass for the some 1.5 million victims was one of the
events of the awareness campaign led by the council of the Armenian
community of Rome.

L’Osservatore Romano today noted a petition from recently elected
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian that the international community
recognize the massacre. He said Thursday that such recognition is a
priority of his presidency.

Armenia’s goal is not revenge, Sarkisian added. "We are willing to
establish normal relations with Turkey even tomorrow, without
preconditions, but the denial of the genocide has no future, above all
now that many countries around the world have united their voices to
the chorus of the truth."

L’Osservatore Romano noted that 22 countries recognize the massacre as
genocide. Turkey denies that the killings were a systematic "genocide"
and considers it a crime to use that term to refer to the event.

[Marta Lago contributed to this article]

KAROYAN CALLS FOR TURKISH RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915.

Famagusta Gazette, Cyprus
April 24 2008

House President Marios Karoyan has reiterated the support of the
House to the demand of the Armenian people for the recognition of
the Armenian genocide of 1915.

In an address, at an event organised by the Committee in Memory of
the Armenian Genocide, Karoyan noted that "We recall the huge crime,
we honour the victims of the Armenian genocide and we condemn once
again the atrocious crime and the criminals."

Karoyan called on Turkey to recognise and admit its crime and to
apologise to the Armenian people and humanity as a whole.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MARKED IN A NUMBER OF GERMAN CITIES

ARMENPRESS
April 24, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: On the initiative of the Armenian
Central Council and with the support of German Diocese of the Armenian
church a service was conducted today in Frankfurt church to commemorate
the victims of the Armenian genocide.

An official from the Armenian Central Council told Armenpress that
at the event present were political, cultural and scientific figures.

Professor from Leipzig university Georg Megle, official of the
Evangelic Church Council of Germany and the EU Stefan Reimer,
Archbishop Garegin Bekchian delivered speeches.

"Time will come when the denial of the Armenian genocide will at
last be punished in Germany and time will come when the genocide and
violence of the 20th century will be included in the education system,"
the chairman of the Armenian Central Council Shavarsh Hovasapian said.

"It is necessary to break the silence which is being displayed by a
number of European and other countries. Those who keep silence become
participants of the crime. It is a historic mistake that time may
clear the issue. Just the opposite, the developments of recent years
show that history does not forget anything," he said.

The council also urged the Turkish organizations of Germany come to
terms with history and recognize the Armenian genocide.

Commemorating services were also held in Berlin, K?ln, Stuttgart and
other German cities.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBEREDMEREDITH BLAKE

Greenwich Time, CT
April 24 2008

When Hermon Hosvepian was forced by Ottoman Turkish soldiers to
march through the Syrian desert without food or clothing with her
two daughters, all she could do was focus on staying alive.

Her husband had been taken from their home and killed. And during
the grueling march across the desert, one of her daughters died and
one night, while she slept, the other one was taken.

Her daughter Catherine Papalian, who was born in the United States,
recounted this story yesterday at a flag raising held outside town
hall to memorialize the victims of the Armenian Genocide, when 1.5
million to 2 million Armenians living under Turkish rule within the
Ottoman Empire were killed or starved to death from 1915 to 1923.

This morning more than 40 people, most of Armenian descent, gathered
in front of Town Hall and shared stories about their parents and
grandparents who survived.

Sara Mushegian, who organized the event, said her grandparents were
able to escape, spending years in the protective custody of American
authorities in Constantinople. But others were not as fortunate. George
Papailian’s father’s first wife killed herself, out of fear, knowing
the fate that lay ahead, he said.

"There are so many horror stories," said Harry Nakashian, who said
his mother, at 11 or 12, remembered opening the door of her house,
and saw five children dead in a street, who out of thirst, drank some
kind of toxic fluid and died.

Nakashian’s father never could talk about the atrocities, he said.

Mushegian said that organizing the flag raising, honoring the victims
and survivors of the genocide is an important part of Armenian
heritage.

"I feel it’s my duty," she said. "It’s about raising awareness. People
know a little, but they don’t really know."

During the event, First Selectmen Peter Tesei read a proclamation
declaring April 24 Armenian Martyrs’ Day. The flag, with the colors
of red, blue and orange, was raised with the sounds of the Armenian
national anthem.

April 24, 1915, holds special significance since it was the day
that the Turkish government placed under arrest over 200 Armenian
community leaders in Constantinople. It is seen as the start of the
government-ordered genocide.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS REMEMBERED IN ARGENTINA

Noyan Tapan
April 24, 2008

BUENOS AIRES, APRIL 24, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. A minute of
silence in memory of the Armenian Genocide victims was observed in
football stadiums of Argentina.

According to the press service of the Ramkavar Azatakan Party, the
council of the Buenos Aires Province accepted the proposal of Serjio
Nahapetian, deputy of this province, and applied to the Argentine
Football Federation so that a minute of silence in memory of the
victims of the Armenian Genocide will be observed before all football
matches held in Argentina in April.

EVENT DEDICATED TO MEMORY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE HELD IN PARIS MAYOR’S OFFICE

Noyan Tapan
April 25, 2008

PARIS, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 24, RA Minister of Foreign
Affairs Eduard Nalbandian, who was in France on a working visit,
visited Paris Mayor’s Office and made a speech at the reception in
memory of the Armenian Genocide organized by the Mayor’s Office. State,
political, and public officials of France, leaders of Armenian,
Jewish, and Islamic organizations of France, intellectuals, nearly
one thousand French Armenians were present at the reception.

Thanking Mayor Bertrand Delanoe on the occasion of this civil event
which has already become a tradition, E. Nalbandian highly appreciated
wisdom and political courage of the post-war European leaders to
reconcile the peoples of Europe paralysed from wars and hatred for
the sake of peace and solidary future.

"The symbolic characters of Francois Mitterand and Helmut Kohl revive
in our memories, who hand in hand bend their heads in front of the
graves of French and German soldiers who have fallen victims to three
fatal wars from 1870 to 1945. Like their great predecessors General
Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer, they gained the benefit of
their peoples and entered the mankind’s history forever," said the RA
Minister of Foreign Affairs, adding."I hope that one day the Armenian
and Turkish leaders will together bend their heads in front of the
symbol in memory of the Armenian Genocide and our peoples together
will build a secure future free of the heavy burden of the past "

In his speech, B. Delanoe said that meeting E. Nalbandian’s suggestion,
the park near the monument to Komitas which is in the center of Paris
will be named Yerevan park.

According to the information provided to Noyan Tapan by the Press and
Information Department of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the same
day in the morning a tete-a-tete talk of E. Nalbandian and B. Delanoe
was held during which the interlocutors exchanged thoughts concerning
the deepening of the Armenian-French discentralized cooperation,
as well as possibilities of implementing a number of programs within
the framework of partnership between Paris and Yerevan.

SERZH SARGSYAN RECEIVED MIKHAIL SHVIDKOI

Panorama.am
17:32 23/04/2008

Today the president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received the chairman
of the RF culture and cinema federative agency Mikhail Shvidkoi. The
information is provided by the press and public relations department
of the president’s administration.

According to the source, the president notified that bilateral
cultural cooperation is very important for both countries and added
that cultural and art have always been key point in the relationship
of both countries’. The president stated that the relationship among
the cultural specialists and conduct of ceremonies and meeting are
very important which need to be developed more.

Mikhail Shvidkoi talked about Russian-Armenian cultural relationship
which is active and is being strengthened. He said that Armenia carries
out serious activities in the CIS humanitarian cooperation committee.

The officials notified that the decree signed between the RA Minister
of Culture and the RF Culture and Cinema Committee is very important
and the event of Russian films season in Armenia.

EVENTS DEDICATED TO 93RD ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO TAKE PLACE IN JERUSALEM

Noyan Tapan
April 24, 2008

JERUSALEM, APRIL 24, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenological
program of the Institute of Studies of Asia and Africa of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem will organize a commemoration evening
and consultation dedicated to the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide on April 29. Professor Israel Charney will be present at the
event. During the evening Armenian instrumental and vocal performances
will be sounded.

‘KUCUK WAS ERGENEKON’S NUMBER-EIGHT MAN’

Today’s Zaman
April 23 2008
Turkey

Retired Gen. Veli Kucuk was the Ergenekon criminal gang’s number-eight
man, says Tuncay Guney, a Turkish rabbi with suspected ties to the
group, according to a report in the Sabah daily yesterday.

Guney, currently serving as a rabbi at the Jacobs House Jewish
Community Center in Toronto, Canada, claimed there were seven people
within the Ergenekon gang superior to Kucuk, who has been under arrest
since late January as part of an investigation into the criminal
formation allegedly seeking to overthrow the government. "Kucuk
was serving as Ergenekon’s secretary-general," asserted Guney in an
interview with Sabah.

Guney came to prominence when the first documents related to the
Ergenekon gang were seized on his computer in a 2001 police raid. He
is also known as the person who revealed Kucuk’s ties with the gang.

"Important decisions in the gang were made by Kucuk. There were seven
people superior to him in Ergenekon till 2001. I am not aware of the
gang’s current formation. I don’t know what Kucuk’s current position
in the gang is, but I know the seven people who were superior to
Kucuk in the gang — but I cannot disclose their names due to my
personal security. Yet I can say that some of these seven names are
still active in the gang," he claimed.

So far about 50 suspects have been arrested as part of the Ergenekon
investigation, launched after the police found a house full of
guns and explosives in Ä°stanbul last June. Those arrested include
retired generals and army officials, as well as public figures such
as journalists and mafia leaders. The Ergenekon gang is believed to
be a shadowy and powerful neo-nationalist formation allegedly behind
a number of politically motivated murders, including the assassination
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

"Ergenekon’s official religion is Shamanism. Kucuk used to speak
about Shamanism in the gang’s gatherings. He used to say Turks’
main religion was Shamanism," noted Guney.

He also claimed recent operations against Ergenekon were not thorough
enough.

"The gang was discovered after the documents on my computer were
revealed. But you cannot eliminate a gang with two prosecutors and
a few police department heads. I made a deposition to police for 11
hours related to Ergenekon in 2001, but no operation was launched
against the gang despite my testimony," remarked Guney.

–Boundary_(ID_TDwaCUg1SxoEBK/XeltitA)–

RUBEZH 2008 EXERCISE FOURTH STAGE DUE IN ARMENIA AUGUST 1-5

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.04.2008 21:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On April 22, Armenia’s Defense Minister Seyran
Ohanyan met with CSTO Deputy Secretary General Valery Semerikov.

The officials exchanged views on implementation of agreements in the
framework of the CSTO, army development, CSTO peacekeeping activity,
military, economic and technical cooperation, RA Defense Minister’s
Spokesman, Colonel Seyran Shahnazaryan told PanARMENIAN.Net.

They also discussed the agenda of the forthcoming 5th session of the
SCTO Defense Ministers and noted the importance Rubezh 2008 command and
staff exercise the fourth stage of which is due in Armenia August 1-5.