Author: Jalatian Sonya

Albany Times Union, NY
April 21 2007

Events mark somber anniversary

Memorials worldwide to pay tribute to the nearly 1.5 million
Armenians killed in Turkey during World War I

By JENNIFER PATTERSON, Staff writer

WATERVLIET — The Rev. Bedros Kadehjian is somber and reflective when
he talks about the Armenian genocide.

Nearing the end of his first month at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic
Church, the assistant pastor is anticipating the annual commemoration
of Armenian Genocide Day, which marks the 92nd anniversary of the
beginning of what has come to be known as the first genocide of the
20th century.

Memorials worldwide will pay tribute to the nearly 1.5 million
Armenians killed in Turkey during World War I, when the Young Turk
political faction sought to create a new Turkish state extending into
Central Asia.

The ideology of Pan Turkism viewed the Armenian minority as an
obstacle to be removed by any means necessary, Kadehjian said.

"The Armenian genocide was a holocaust in itself, a premeditated,
systematic plan to eliminate the male Armenian population and deport
women and children out of Turkey," Kadehjian said. "The fact that
Turkish authors are now coming out and admitting the country’s role"
after nearly a century is significant, even though many have been
punished.

One such writer was Hrant Dink, former editor in chief of the
bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos and a prominent member of
the Armenian minority in Turkey.

Dink was best known for his work on Turkish-Armenian reconciliation,
and human and minority rights in Turkey. On Jan. 19, he was
assassinated in Istanbul allegedly by an ultra-nationalist Turk.
Almost 100,000 mourners walked in protest at his funeral.

"He was killed for his beliefs, and for discussing the Armenian
genocide, which is forbidden under article 301 in Turkey," said
Lucille Sarkissian of Guilderland, whose mother was a survivor. "I,
like all the other people waiting for acknowledgment by the Turkish
government, am hoping that it will come soon to resolve this issue
and allow us to move on."

The massacre began on April 24, 1915, when several hundred Armenian
community leaders and intellectuals in Constantinople (modern-day
Istanbul) were arrested, sent east and put to death.

For years, adult and teenage men were separated from deportation
caravans and killed. Women and children were driven for months over
mountains and desert, raped, tortured and left for dead, Kadehjian
said. By 1923, most of the Armenian population in Turkey had been
uprooted from its homeland.

"It’s important to remember what happened and those that were lost,
especially since Turkey continues to deny what happened to this day,"
Kadehjian said. "Our commemoration is open to anyone wanting to
reflect on the past and look toward a better future."

Patterson can be reached at 454-5340 or by e-mail at
[email protected].

Paying tribute

Armenian Genocide Day Observance What: Film "The Trail of Soghomon
Tehlirian" and panel discussion

When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Troy City Hall

Info: 331-8559

Commemoration in Words and Music

Speakers: Revs. Stepanos Doudoukjian and Bedros Shetilian, Mayors
Harry Tutunjian of Troy and Robert Carlson of Watervliet

Performers: Armenian Men’s Choral Ensemble and Armenian students.
When: 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 29

Where: St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church, 100 Troy-Schenectady Road

Information: 274-3673

RA PRIME MINISTER RECEIVED THE FOREIGN MINISTER OF LATVIA

ArmRadio.am
20.04.2007 14:22

RA Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan received the Foreign Minister of
Latvia Artis Pabriks.

The Foreign Minister of Latvia expressed hope that the newly appointed
Prime Minister of Armenia will continue developing the economic
cooperation in the same spirit as the effective cooperation in the
defense sphere between the two countries.

Considering the volume of commodity turnover between Armenia
and Latvia as small and insufficient, Artis Pabriks noted that
through implementation of joint programs, improvement of transport
communication and deepening of cooperation in other fields it is
possible to considerably change the situation.

Emphasizing the issue of transport communication as the most painful
one, Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan suggested to develop the cooperation
in perspective and mutually beneficial spheres like information
technologies, the finance and banking sectors.

The interlocutors attached importance to the cooperation in the
framework of European integration. They stressed the role of the
Armenian community in reinforcing the relations between Armenia
and Latvia.

Mr. Pabriks showed interest in the pre-election situation in Armenia
and wished success, expressing hope that the elections will succeed.

GERMAN-TURKISH RACISM

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.04.2007 GMT+04:00

Traditionally the victims of the Holocaust are considered to be the
6 million Jews from Europe.

However no victim name-list exists.

Whether or not Hitler’s phrase on "the forgotten Armenian Genocide"
really existed has now become a question of paramount importance. If in
due time the Nation’s League condemned slaughter and the deportation
of the Armenians from the Ottoman Empire, perhaps the world wouldn’t
witness the Holocaust.

Particularly unclear is the position of the Israeli State, persistently
denying the Armenian Genocide and recognizing only the Holocaust.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Of course, the political consequences of recognizing
the Armenian Genocide for Israel are much more serious than the
moral ones.

Today Turkey is Israel’s almost the only ally in the Middle East.

The persecutions were initiated by the boycott of Jews and their firms,
functioning in Germany on April 1, 1933, which was later followed
by a powerful wave of racial laws against Jews working at State
Institutions or working by certain professions. The "Nuremberg Law"
put an end to the Jewish equality in Germany and identified Jewry
as racial term since September 15, 1935. The anti-Jewish hysteria
in Germany led to massacre in 1938 (night, November 9) recorded
in history as "Crystal night" (because of the fragments of glass,
covering the streets of country’s cities).

Traditionally the victims of the Holocaust are considered to be the
6 million Jews from Europe.

However, no victim name-list exists. The basic source of the statistic
data of the Holocaust is the comparison of prewar and postwar
census. By the end of the war the Nazis covered up all the tracks of
the concentration camps; only testimonies are alive to this day. In
the Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem personal documents about 3
million victims are kept. The lack of data is explained with the fact
that often Jewish Communities were exterminated to the last person,
so that no relatives, friends, or family members were left alive to
give the names of the dead.

The US Senate called to make the secret archives available, containing
documental data on lives and deaths of millions of people who were kept
at Nazi concentration camps during World War II. In the Resolution
the Senate called the international commission having control over
the access to the archive to accelerate the consideration of this
issue in its next session, which is to be held in Amsterdam in May.

Till recently the archives in Germany were kept top secret. The
significance of the documents became particularly great over the
last several months after the representative of the Associate Press
gained a noticeable access to Nazi materials, with the condition of
not disclosing the names of the victims.

"The archives contain from 30 to 50 million pages of documentations
telling about individual fates of more than 17 million victims of
Nazi persecutions," the Resolution states.

Will the Ottoman archives be available? According to Turkish officials,
"their archives are open to any kind of investigations". However
according to a number of historians, including Armenian historians
the archives are thoroughly mopped. But there are documents, which
became historical facts with thanks to the diplomats working during
the years of World War I in Istanbul. Among such historical facts the
telegrams of the Turkish Minister of Home Affairs can be found. "The
Armenians’ rights to live and work in Turkey are completely out of
question. The government taking up the whole responsibility orders to
let no child alive and does not let anyone protect them – September 9,
1915. Turkish Minister of Home Affairs."

It’s worth mentioning that the Armenian Genocide was committed with the
unspoken agreement of Germany which was one of Turkey’s closest allies.

"PanARMENIAN.Net" analytical department

POPULAR FRENCH ACTOR THIERRY LHERMITTE VISITING ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
20.04.2007 16:22

At the invitation of the Armenian Equestrian Federation and the
Public Television of Armenia, famous French actor Thierry Lhermitte
is visiting Armenia.

Tomorrow he will meet with Armenian journalists.

It’s worth mentioning that Thierry Lhermitte is a great fan of
equestrian sport and has a personal horse. According to "Radiolur"
information, the Armenian Equestrian Federation intends to honor
him the title of the honorable member of the Armenian Equestrian
Federation.

‘FOR OUR RELIGION’

7DAYS, United Arab Emirates
April 20 2007

Police detained five more people yesterday in connection with an
attack on a Christian publishing house that killed three employees,
doubling the number of suspects in custody, a Turkish official said.

One group of suspects detained in the slayings at the Zirve publishing
house that distributes Bibles told investigators they carried out the
killings to protect Islam, a Turkish newspaper reported. The three
victims – a German and two Turkish citizens – were found with their
hands and legs bound and their throats slit.

The victims had bruises on their faces and cuts on their wrists
from where they had been tied up, but there was no sign that they
had been tortured, a morgue official said. The attack added to
concerns in Europe about whether this predominantly Muslim country
– which is bidding for European Union membership – can protect its
religious minorities. It also underlined concerns about rising Turkish
nationalism and hostility toward non-Muslims.

"We didn’t do this for ourselves, but for our religion," Hurriyet
newspaper quoted an unnamed suspect as saying. "Our religion is being
destroyed. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion."

Local media said the suspects, all students, were staying at a hostel
of an Islamic foundation. On Wednesday, police detained four youths,
aged 19-20, as well as a fifth who underwent surgery for head injuries
after he apparently tried to escape by jumping from a window in the
central city of Malatya. Five other suspects, detained on Thursday,
were of the same age as those taking into custody on the day of the
attack, Govenor Halil Ibrahim Dasoz said. It was not clear if they
had been at the scene of the attack. The five suspects detained on
Wednesday had each been carrying copies of a letter that read: "We
five are brothers. We are going to our deaths. We may not return,"
the state-run Anatolia news agency said. "Nothing can excuse such an
attack that comes at a time of great need for peace, brotherhood and
tolerance," outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the attack as "savagery."

Presidential elections will be held next month, a contest that
highlights fears among Turkey’s secular establishment that a candidate
from Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party, or even Erdogan himself, could
win the job and strengthen Islamic influence on the government. Last
weekend, hundreds of thousands of pro-secular protesters demonstrated
in the capital, Ankara. Erdogan has rejected the label of "Islamist,"
citing his commitment to the EU bid. A large Turkish flag hung from
one of the windows of the four-story students’ residence where five of
the suspects lived. The curtains were drawn and the door was locked. A
man came out of the building and told journalists to go away, saying
the students were stressed and needed to study.

The German and one of the Turkish victims were found dead, and
the third victim died in a hospital. The German man, identified as
46-year-old Tilman Ekkehart Geske, had been living in Malatya since
2003. His family wanted to bury him in Malatya.

It was the latest in a string of attacks on Turkey’s Christian
community _ which comprises less than 1 percent of the 70-million
population.

In February 2006, a Turkish teenager shot a Catholic priest dead as
he prayed in his church, and two other Catholic priests were attacked
later that year. A November visit by Pope Benedict XVI was greeted by
several peaceful protests. Earlier this year, a suspected nationalist
killed Armenian Christian editor Hrant Dink. Authorities had vowed
to deal with extremist attacks after Dink’s murder, but Wednesday’s
assault showed the violence was not slowing down. "The killing is a
result of provocations in Turkey against minorities," said Orhan Kemal
Cengiz, a lawyer for one of the victims, Necati Aydin. C engiz said
he defended Aydin seven years ago, when he was arrested for selling
Bibles and accused of insulting Islam. Aydin spent a month in police
custody and took his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Vatican’s envoy to Turkey, Monsignor Antonio Lucibello,
told Italian daily Il Messaggero that he thought the attack was a
"sporadic event." "We will keep up our work the way we always have,
with confidence in the authorities and in the society. We are not
afraid, I’m not afraid," he said. Italian Premier Romano Prodi,
speaking from South Korea during a state visit, told the ANSA news
agency that while the attack "certainly does not help" Turkey’s EU bid,
"tragedies like this should not influence" the decision as there are
"political guidelines that are looking at long-term prospects."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat Party _ which
opposes Turkey’s bid to join the EU _ said the attacks showed the
country’s shortcomings in protecting religious freedoms. Turkey which
opened EU membership negotiations in 2005 is under intense pressure to
improve human rights and to expand religious freedoms and free speech.

TURKEY’S PRESIDENCY – A TURKISH TANGLE

The Economist, UK
April 19 2007

The argument over the presidency of Turkey turns even nastier

WAS it another provocation by the "deep state"-the shadowy alliance
of rogue security forces and ultra-nationalist thugs-aimed at
stopping Turkey’s Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
from becoming the country’s new president? Or the work of Islamist
extremists? Speculation raged after yet another attack, on April 18th,
on Christian targets, this time a publishing house that distributes
Bibles in the city of Malatya. The killers bound the hands and legs
of three men and then slit their throats. Two of the victims, one of
them German, died immediately; the third died in hospital.

Turkey’s Christians are saying they no longer feel safe. The interior
minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, declared that the real target was the
country’s stability. Last year an Italian priest was shot by a
nationalist teenager in the Black Sea city of Trabzon. In January
another teenager shot dead an Armenian news editor, Hrant Dink.

The latest attack took place as Mr Erdogan was meeting fellow leaders
of his ruling AK Party to decide if he should replace President Ahmet
Necdet Sezer, a fiercely secular former judge, when his seven-year
term ends in May. They urged Mr Erdogan not to run, but instead to
lead the party into November’s parliamentary election.

Some aides reckon that Mr Erdogan may not declare his intentions
until just before the April 25th registration deadline.

Yet the longer he waits, the greater secular opposition becomes. In
the past two weeks, the chief of the general staff, General Yasar
Buyukanit, has said that the new president should be pro-secular not
only "in words" but also "in spirit". Days later Mr Sezer repeated an
assertion by the general that secularism "faces its gravest threat"
since Ataturk founded the republic 84 years ago. The main opposition
party is threatening to boycott the parliamentary vote for president
if Mr Erdogan runs.

On April 14th over 300,000 Turks, chanting anti-government slogans
and waving Turkish flags, marched on Ataturk’s mausoleum in Ankara.

It was one of the biggest public rallies in recent history. Citing
"public sensitivities", Arzuhan Yalcindag, president of TUSIAD,
Turkey’s big industrialists’ lobby, said she did not believe Mr Erdogan
would become president. "It was a polite way of advising him not to,"
said a fellow businesswoman.

Yet contrary to claims by the hotchpotch of retired generals,
nationalists and anti-European Union activists who organised
the rally, many attendees seemed less concerned by Mr Erdogan’s
supposedly Islamist agenda than by a general malaise over their
future. This reflects several things: worries over globalisation,
violence in neighbouring Iraq, renewed Kurdish separatism, a feeling
of being slighted by the EU. Many are also disgruntled by the rampant
corruption of some AK officials that Mr Erdogan has failed to curb.

The bigger worry among Turkey’s Western friends is Mr Erdogan’s waning
interest in human rights. Neither he nor anybody in his cabinet uttered
a peep when 50 policemen recently stormed the offices of a liberal
weekly, Nokta. Acting on orders from a military prosecutor, they copied
the contents of every single computer, including journalists’ personal
e-mails, on the ground that they might contain "official secrets". The
order came after Nokta had published an internal military document
blacklisting selected journalists.

The magazine is also under investigation for running excerpts from a
retired admiral’s diary. In it he describes two planned coups against
Mr Erdogan in 2004 cooked up by four top military commanders.

Codenamed "Moonlight" and "Blonde Girl", the plots failed to gather
support from fellow officers, the admiral wrote, "because the
Turkish people don’t want coups anymore." Nokta’s managing editor,
Alper Gormus, says the only sympathy he has had is a bouquet of
chrysanthemums from a local AK official. Yet the government could
have prevented the raid if it wanted to, he says, "because it was
the justice minister who gave the final nod."

SHUSHA’S OCCUPATION TO BE PROTESTED IN STRASBURG

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 17 2007

Protest actions will be organized in Strasbourg on the 15th anniversary
of the occupation of Azerbaijani town of Shusha (Karabakh) by Armenian
forces, World Azerbaijani Congress’s chief Javad Derakhti told the APA.

He said he visited France to attend the protests and different events
organized by Talat Pasha Committee against the so called "Armenian
genocide" on April 14-15.

"On discussions, the Talat Pasha Committee decided to establish a
branch in Europe. The head of Azerbaijani House in Strasburg Mustafa
Alinja and me have been elected to the Committee. We – Talat Pasha
Committee and World Azerbaijani Congress (WAC) decided to jointly
mark May 8 – occupation of Shusha", he said.

Derakhti is in Strasbourg now in connection with preparation for
the demonstrations.

"We will have to mark this day on May 7, as the anniversary of victory
on fascism in France will be held on May 8. We intend to introduce
the French people and world community Armenians’ fraud policy at the
conference. We also intend to hold demonstration in one of Strasburg
squares on May 5", he said.

Derakhti called for all Azerbaijanis living in Europe and France to
actively participate in these events.

DARCHINYAN DISAPPOINTED WITH ARCE

East Side Boxing
April 17 2007

TOTOWA, NJ (April 17, 2007) — "Jorge Farce should have been arrested
for indecent exposure after the performance he put on Saturday
night." spat out a disgusted and disappointed VIC DARCHINYAN, after
watching Jorge Arce lose a lopsided unanimous decision to WBC super
flyweight champion Cristian Mijares. "I knew he was a fraud from
day one which is why I wanted to be the one to beat him. To expose
him to the world as a farce of a fighter. But he was so busy looking
over his shoulder running away from me, he didn’t see the brick wall
ahead of him and he ran smack into it in Cristian Mijares."

Darchinyan (28-0, 22 KOs), from Australia, by way of Armenia, has
reigned as IBF/IBO flyweight champion since 2004. He was hoping to
land a monster fight against Arce inasmuch as both HBO and Showtime
had offered the fighters career-high purses.

"Bob Arum was so busy reading his own clippings he actually began to
believe the pulp fiction he was selling on Farce," said Gary Shaw,
Darchinyan’s promoter. "Bob claims Vic can’t put asses in one hundred
seats. That may be true, but I guarantee you that Vic can win more
rounds against any opponent Farce has ever lost to. And by the way,
Vic has lost to no one."

"Farce is a bigger sucker than the lollipops he sucks on," continued
Darchinyan. "In fact, I’d like to get those lollipops tested for
substances that have clouded his judgement. After the way he fought
on Saturday night, I suggest Farce make all his future ring entrances
on a jackass…that is if the jackasses don’t mind slumming with him.

He’s a fraud and a complete disappointment to the Mexican boxing fans."

PRESENTATION OF G. KHRLOPIAN’S BOOK "GENOCIDE" TO BE HELD IN LOS ANGELES

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 17 2007

LOS ANGELES, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The presentation
of Gevorg Khrlopian’s study "Genocide" will take place on April 18
in Galayjian Hall of the primacy of the US Western Diocese of the
Armenian Apostolic Church.

The event is sponsored by the primate of the US Western Diocese
Archbishop Hovnan Terterian with the participation of University of
California Los Angeles (UCLA), the Armenian Educational Fund, the
Modern Armenian History Department, and the Armenology Program of
Northridge University. The union of Armenian writers of California
was the initiator.

G. Khrlopian’s book is a study that opens a new page from the
viewpoint of history, definiton and comprehensive analysis of the
Armenian Genocide.

GEORGE BUSH CONGRATULATES SERGE SARGSYAN ON APPOINTMENT

ArmRadio.am
17.04.2007 16:32

US President George Bush sent a congratulating message to RA Prime
Minister Serge Sargsyan, which says, in part: "I congratulate you on
assuming the position of RA Prime Minister.

We share your grief for the untimely death of ex-Prime Minister,
your good friend and colleague Andranik Margaryan.

We are waiting for the May 12 parliamentary elections and expecting
that you will bring your contribution to the conduct of free and
fair elections corresponding to international standards, which will
become a serious impetus for the development of relations between
our two countries.

Once again I congratulate you and wish courage and resoluteness in
your new position."