TBILISI: EBRD funding for Armenia’s Araratbank

The FINANCIAL, Georgia
Dec 29 2007

EBRD funding for Armenia’s Araratbank

29/12/2007 11:33
The FINANCIAL — According to EBRD, the EBRD is extending a USD 5
million credit line and a USD 1 million limit under its Trade
Facilitation Programme to Araratbank, a privately-owned Armenian bank
set up in 1991. The financial package will be complemented by a
technical cooperation grant for institution building.

The loan, which comes under the Armenian Multi-Bank Framework II,
will be provided to Araratbank for on-lending to micro, small and
medium-sized enterprises, thereby addressing a major constraint for
economic growth. Despite strong growth in recent years, Armenia’s
economic potential remains constrained by difficulties in access to
medium and long term finance.

The trade finance limit will allow Araratbank to roll out its trade
finance operations and to start offering these products to clients.
Armenian banks still have very limited access to the international
trade finance markets. The EBRD financing to Araratbank will also
allow for more competition among local banks and more choice for
local customers.

Michael Weinstein, Head of the EBRD Resident Office in Yerevan, said
the EBRD funding will allow Araratbank to significantly expand its
longer term lending activities, particularly in the country’s
regions. `This is a very important contribution to the growth of
Armenia’s enterprise sector as at present the local banking sector
does not deliver finance to micro and small enterprises on a large
and sustainable basis’, he added.

Ashot Osipyan, CEO of Araratbank, stated: `We are very glad that the
EBRD continues its cooperation with our bank, which is the most
dynamically developing bank in the country. We are confident that the
agreement will contribute to the fulfilment of our strategic plans.
Araratbank holds a stable position in Armenia’s banking system and we
are aiming to reach the leading position in the future.’

The Armenian Multi-Bank Framework, launched in March 2006, aims to
support the increase of financial intermediation of Armenian banking
system and bolster economic growth by making much needed medium-term
funding available to micro and small businesses through credit lines
to selected Armenian commercial banks. The EBRD works with most of
the leading local banks, however this is the first project with
Araratbank.

Let’s not acquiesce in undermining Iraqi Kurds

The Australian (Australia)
December 29, 2007 Saturday
1 – All-round Country Edition

Let’s not acquiesce in undermining Iraqi Kurds

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

IN the past century, the principal victims of genocide or attempted
genocide have been, or at least have prominently included, the
Armenians, the Jews and the Kurds. During most of last October,
events and politicians conspired to set these three peoples at one
another’s throats.

What is there to be learned from this fiasco for humanity?

To recapitulate, at the very suggestion that the US House of
Representatives might finally pass a long-proposed resolution
recognising the 1915 massacres in Armenia as a planned act of “race
murder” (that was US ambassador Henry Morgenthau’s term for it at a
time when the word genocide had not yet been coined), the Turkish
authorities redoubled their threat to invade the autonomous
Kurdish-run provinces of northern Iraq. And many American Jews found
themselves divided between their sympathy for the oppressed and the
slaughtered and their commitment to the state interest of Israel,
which maintains a strategic partnership with Turkey, and in
particular with Turkey’s highly politicised armed forces.

To illuminate this depressing picture, one might begin by offering a
few distinctions. In 1991, in northern Iraq, where you could still
see and smell the gassed and poisoned towns and villages of
Kurdistan, I heard Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
say that Kurds ought to apologise to the Armenians for the role they
had played as enforcers for the Ottomans during the time of the
genocide. Talabani, who has often repeated that statement, is now
President of Iraq.

(I would regard his unforced statement as evidence in itself, by the
way, in that proud peoples do not generally offer to apologise for
revolting crimes that they did not, in fact, commit.) So, of course,
it was on him, both as an Iraqi and as a Kurd, that Turkish guns and
missiles were trained in October.

And here, a further distinction: many of us who are ardent supporters
of Kurdish rights and aspirations have the gravest reservations about
the so-called Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. This is a Stalinist
cult organisation, roughly akin to a Middle Eastern Shining Path
group. (Its story, and the story of its bizarre leader Abdullah
Ocalan, are well told in Aliza Marcus’s new book Blood and Belief:
The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence.) The attempt of this
thuggish faction to exploit the new zone of freedom in Iraqi
Kurdistan is highly irresponsible and plays directly into the hands
of those forces in the Turkish military who want to resurrect
Kemalist chauvinism as a weapon against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s Government, which it sees as soft on Kurdish demands.

There’s a paradox here, in that the uniformed satraps who claim to
defend Turkish secularism are often more reactionary than the
recently re-elected and broadly Islamist Justice and Development
Party. The generals vetoed a meeting earlier this year between
Abdullah Gul — now President of Turkey and then foreign minister —
and the Kurdish regional government in Iraq. This alone shows that
they are using the border question and the PKK as a wedge issue for
domestic politics.

This is enough complexity to be going on with, but the US Congress
and the executive branch have been handling it with appalling
amateurishness. The Armenian resolution (that has been put off until
at least 2008 in the US house under pressure from Turkey and the Bush
administration) is an old story. I can remember when it was sponsored
by then senator Robert Dole and stonewalled by then president Bill
Clinton. What a shame we didn’t get it firmly on the record decades
ago.

But now a house and a White House that can barely bring themselves to
utter the word Kurdish are both acting as if nothing mattered except
Turkish amour-propre. And, as a consequence, the US and its friends
are being squeezed by Ankara instead of, to put it shortly, the other
way around. This is disgracefully undignified.

In 2003, the Turkish authorities, who had been parasitic on US and
NATO support for several decades, refused to allow US bases in Turkey
to be employed for a northern front in the removal of Saddam Hussein
unless their forces were allowed to follow into Iraqi Kurdistan. The
Bush administration quite rightly refused this bargain.

The damage done by Turkey’s subsequent fit of pique was enormous:
nobody ever mentions it, but if the coalition had come at Baghdad
from two directions, a number of Sunni areas would have got the point
(of irreversible regime change) a lot sooner than they did. The rogue
PKK presence was not then a hot issue; Turkey simply wished to
pre-empt the emergence of any form of Iraqi Kurdish self-government
that could be an incitement or encouragement to the huge Kurdish
minority in Turkey.

So, let us be clear on a few things. The European Union, to which
Turkey has applied for membership with US support, has insisted on
recognition of Kurdish language rights and political rights within
Turkey. The US can hardly ask for less.

If the Turks wish to continue lying officially about what happened to
the Armenians, then the US cannot be expected to oblige them by doing
the same (and should certainly resent and repudiate any threats
against itself or its allies that would ensue from the US Congress
affirming the truth).

Then there remains the question of Cyprus, where Turkey maintains an
occupation force that has repeatedly been condemned by a thesaurus of
UN resolutions since 1974. It is not US conduct that should be
modified by Turkey’s arrogance; the US does a favour to the
democratisation and modernisation of that country by insisting that
it get its troops out of Cyprus, pull its forces back from the border
with Iraq, face the historic truth about Armenia, and in other ways
cease to act as if the Ottoman system were still in operation.

* IN Slate recently, I mentioned that security for (author, former
Dutch MP and critic of Islam’s treatment of women) Ayaan Hirsi Ali
might have to be paid for partly by private subscription.

On the web link below are the details for all who may wish to
contribute to this eminently deserving cause. This appeal is a test
of our seriousness in the face of theocracy and its assassins.

In ancient Armenia the New Year was a royal feast

In ancient Armenia the New Year was a royal feast

armradio.am
28.12.2007 16:55

In the past there were three main holidays in Armenia ` New Year,
Christmas and Epiphany, each of which was celebrated with special
rituals, artist and ethnographer Lusik Aguletsi said during the meeting
with journalists on December 28th. From January 1 to 12 the New Year
was celebrated as a royal feast. According Lusik Aguletsi, in the past
people decorated a olive tree or a maple tree instead of a fir tree.
Often an artificial tree prepared of wheat ears served a New Year Tree.
It was decorated with different fruits having different meanings. For
example, apples symbolized fertility. Lusik Aguletsi noted that today
Armenians do not attach importance to traditional symbols.

Ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan added that in general many hopes are
associated with the New Year. That is why when visiting each other
people take fresh and dried fruits. One should avoid dropping at one’s
place with empty hands, because it’s a bad sign, according to Hranush
Kharatyan. When visiting someone on holidays it’s necessary to take
presets for the hosts, even if it is just a nut.

Armenian Population’s Incomes Grow by 24.7%, Expenses – by 21.1%

ARMENIAN POPULATION’S INCOMES GROW BY 24.7%, EXPENSES – BY 21.1% IN
JANUARY-NOVEMBER 2007 ON SAME PERIOD OF LAST YEAR

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 28, NOYAN TAPAN. In Janury-November 2007, monetary
incomes of the Armenian population made 1 trillion 772 billion 595.2
million drams (about 4 bln 985.7 mln USD), while monetary expenses – 1
trillion 673 billion 310.2 million drams. According to the RA National
Statistical Service, their growth rates made 124.7% and 121.1%
respectively as compared with January-November 2006.

Real monetary incomes of the population (incomes less compulsory
payments, taking into account the changes in consumer price indices)
grew by 18.4% in January-November 2007 on the same months of 2006.

The average monthly nominal salary of 80.641 thousand drams in October
2007 exceeded 4fold the minimum salary – against 4.4fold in 2006.

Armenia Not Going To Withdraw Peacekeepers From Iraq

ARMENIA NOT GOING TO WITHDRAW PEACEKEEPERS FROM IRAQ

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.12.2007 18:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Despite Poland’s decision, Armenia will hardly
withdraw peacekeepers from Iraq, said Artur Aghabekian, chairman of
the parliamentary committee on defense, national security and internal
affairs. "Armenia fulfills peacekeeping mission in the framework of
the Armenian-American cooperation and it has nothing to do with the
Armenian-Polish military technical cooperation.

Aghabekian reminded that Armenia has prolonged presence of its
peacekeeping contingent in Iraq but can reconsider its decision any
time. "Withdrawal of Polish troops now or in a year is not a problem,"
he said. "I do not think the multinational division will break up
after Poland secedes."

December 18, the Polish government decreed to withdraw troops from
Iraq in 2008.

December 4, the Armenian National Assembly decided to prolong the
terms of the Memorandum on command and regulations of multinational
division within coalition forces in Iraq.

Armenian peacekeepers have been serving in Iraq since January 25,
2004. Presently, the sixth shift, consisting of 2 staff officers,
3 medical officers, 10 field engineers and 31 drivers, is in Iraq.

Enemy of My Friend My Enemy? The Jewish Diaspora and Genocide Denial

The Enemy of My Friend is My Enemy? The Jewish Diaspora and Genocide
Denial

?target=home&Param_Kat=16&Param_RB=&Pa ram_Red=9034
"die jüdische" 21.12.2007 13:20

Noah’s Ark

With all due respect to the numerous Jewish-born humanists, historians,
writers, individual personalities, Chief Rabbi, Yona Metzger and many
other that have had the courage to take a stand for the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide and justice for this crime, it is none the less
obvious that the official representatives of Judaism and above all
Jewish/Israeli politicians still have a lot to catch up on.

Even though the internationally recognized and respected Jewish jurist
and human rights activist Rafael Lemkin already concerned himself with
and recognized the systematic destruction of the Armenians as a "murder
of race" at the start of the 1930s, the fact remains that justice for
the Armenian Genocide is still being aggressively denied by influential
organizations of the Jewish Diaspora as well as by the State of Israel
itself.

Genocide – extermination of a race – is a political crime. Genocides
are not committed by private individuals, but by the state itself. The
reference to historians and historical science in regard to the
Armenian Genocide is a tactical and spurious argument to relieve the
world governments from the responsibility to act while simultaneously
giving the perpetrators carte blanche. The proper reaction to political
crimes is therefore only possible through political response – from the
parliamentary houses, the politicians and the governments.

Now more than ever the denial of genocide must be responded to, for
denial is intrinsic to the methodology of genocide. Genocide is denied
even as it is practiced.

From the beginning, the perpetrator seeks pretexts and justifications
to conceal the real intentions. Thus, the extermination is referred to
as "transporting," as "deportation" or "resettlement" – "moving to
secure places" or even as the "final solution." A verbal code is used
to camouflage and thus deny the annihilation, even as it is being
committed.

Genocide without simultaneous denial is unthinkable – yes, even
impossible. The first thing that must be done is to consider what the
perpetrators want to attain through denial. Denial is not just the
simple negation of an act; it is much more the consequent continuation
of the very act itself. Genocide should not only physically destroy a
community; it should likewise dictate the prerogative of interpretation
in regard to history, culture, territory and memory. As the victims-
Armenians – "never exists".

The Turkish have not only murdered humans , destroyed an ancient
culture/civilization and rewritten history, but they continue to
legitimize the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the act.
This includes the legitimization of any and all stereotyping of the
Armenian people as a dangerous enemy, as a deadly bogeyman in the
closet.

Denial is the final step in the completion of a mass extermination –
and the first step towards the next genocide. If genocide is committed
in Ruanda or Sudan, it is done with the knowledge that the rest of the
world will only watch and then forget.

They look to Turkey and think themselves safe in the assumption that
their actions will likewise remain unpunished! Whether in Sudan or
Ruanda or any other potential hotspot of mass murder the accountable
powers-that-be rhetorically ask – as Hitler supposedly did just before
invading Poland – "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of
the Armenians?"

The Republic of Turkey has denied the Armenian Genocide for the past 84
years, and politicians in Israel and a vast majority of officials of
Jewish Diaspora are aboard their boat now. In the USA, for example, the
Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) not only denied the Armenian
Genocide in the past but also actively fought against the Congressional
Resolution for the Recognition of the Armenian Genocide. At the end of
August 2007, the ADL finally recognized the Armenian Genocide through
gritted teeth. The acknowledgment given, however, was qualified to such
an extent that one could have done without it. A similar statement of
recognition was also simultaneously supplied by the American Jewish
Committee.

Presently, the AIPAC totally denies to have ever fought against the
official recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the US government and
now presents itself as being neutral in regard to the subject. (And
apparently "neutral" is just what they are.)

Pierre Besnainou, the acting president of the European Jewish Congress
(EJC) until early 2007, stated in 2006 that the Armenian people should
stop making fools of themselves: there has been only one genocide in
modern times and as everyone knows it was that of the Jews – an
Armenian Genocide never happened. (We have yet to see what the attitude
of Moshe Kantor, the current president of the EJC, is in this regard.)

In 2001, while he was the Israeli Foreign Minister, Nobel Prize winner
and current President of Israel Shimon Peres described the Armenians as
"meaningless" ("Armenian allegations") Moreover, this year President
Shimon Peres and the current Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni did a
heroic act that in no way pales to the statements regarding the
Holocaust expressed by the President Ahmadinejad: Peres affirmed
Israel’s attitude to the "Armenian Question" and promised the Turkish
Prime Minster Erdogan to lobby against the Armenians, while Minster
Livni prevented the Knesset from officially recognizing the Armenian
Genocide.

The statement given: "Genocide never happened. There was a "tragedy"
with victims on both sides. Please reconcile yourselves now and start a
dialog." Once again, a replay of the Turkish argument of shameless
denial by a Israeli official: "There were mutual killings and No mass
Killings."

Just recently Israeli President Shimon Peres let himself be vocally
celebrated by hundreds of Genocide deniers in the Turkish Parliament,
including numerous Turkish fascists, racists, ultra-nationalists and
fundamentalists In Ankara, President Shimon Peres reiterated his
support for the denial of the Armenian Genocide and conveyed his full
acceptance of the Turkish politics of lies and denial. But it cannot
escape the notice of an experienced politician like President Shimon
Peres that the Genocide deniers in Ankara are no longer simply
satisfied with the repudiation of the Armenian Genocide.

Turkish Prime Minster Erdogan and the other Turkish nationalists have
long since joined forces to create panturanic – "Pan Turkish"-
institutions with the specific aim of try(ing) to prove the
‘illegality’ of the existence of the Armenian people to the world.

When the French Ambassador to Great Britain, Daniel Bernard, referred
to Israel as "this shitty little country" in 2001, there was a storm of
protest and he was quickly labeled an Anti-Semite. But what should an
Armenian call someone that denies the Armenian Genocide and refers to
Armenians as "meaningless"? If that were even just all that is being
done: Above and beyond this, Turkey has demanded that Israel instruct
the "Jewish Lobby" to agitate against the Armenians. Of course the
reference to the "Jewish Lobby" is an allusion to the Jewish Diaspora
and – as is the case when talking of Diasporas – carries a whiff of
world conspiracy and global domination.

Thus, the "Jewish Conspiracy" should follow Ankara’s tune and
eliminate, obliterate, purge (whatever you choose to call it) the
"Armenian Conspiracy." Under normal circumstances the concept would be
laughable, but laughter is not advisable as it could result in
asphyxiation.
Why Do Jewish Organizations and their Functionaries Deny the Armenian
Genocide as Turkey Does Deny recognition and Justice for this Crime?

How can this act of denial be harmonious with the Jewish moral concepts
and identity in light of the xenophobia, racism, Anti-Semitism,
hostility and intolerance that the sorely tested Jewish People are
themselves confronted with on a daily basis? Genocide is racism: it is
the most paramount and aggressive form of racial discrimination, and is
aimed at the obliteration of the existence and life of a people only
because they belong to a specific community or collective – a community
that is defined by the aggressors as "the others," as "the alien."

Two reasons are commonly given for the "placating" activities of the
international Jewish community in regard to Turkey’s denial policies:
Israel needs Turkey, and the Holocaust is unique. On occasion a third
reason is also offered: to do otherwise would result in repercussions
against the Jewish community in Istanbul. (Although if this were true,
the US Congress and Senate could never pass any resolutions against
Iran: as is well known, numerous Jewish people also live in Tehran,
Yazd, and Isfahan for centuries!) Statements such as those are, in the
end, nothing but hollow attempts to justify denial-
The attitude of Jewish Organizations and their functionaries in regard
to the Armenian Genocide not only results in their involvement in the
guilt of the perpetrators but also produces a culpability of their own
as well.

An attitude such as theirs supports and perpetuates the bogeyman image
of the Armenians that has long been cherished by the Turkish while
simultaneously strengthening the Turkish nationalistic self-image.
Above and beyond this, when Jewish functionaries describe the Ottoman
Turkey as a paradise of earth, they both distort history and negate the
inhumanities experienced by the Armenian People; instead, an unmerited
image of a heroic and pro-Judaic Turkey is propagated throughout Jewish
communities and private homes.

Thus, in turn, within the sphere of the Jewish Diaspora and even Israel
itself, a new generation grows that is spoon-fed the misconceptions of
the valiant Turk and perfidious Armenian. In regard to this current
situation, is oddly ironic that the modern usage of the word
"Holocaust" – used so often by international communities to describe
the Shoah – was first introduced to describe the Turkish bloodbath
suffered by the Armenians in Adana in 1909. (Ferriman, Z.D.: The Young
Turks and the Truth about the Holocaust at Adana in Asia Minor during
April 1909; London, 1913.)

The Enemy of My Friend is also My Enemy
Is the demonization of the Armenian Community within the Jewish
Diaspora done with this concept in mind? Some examples among others: In
July 2007 an article was published in the "Jüdische Zeitung" ("Jewish
Newspaper") in Germany which totally supported and serviced the
policies of genocide denial and victim-perpetrator-reversal as
practiced alla Turca.

The "Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs" published in November this
year in its webpage an article written by Ms. Aydan Kodaloglu, an
advisor to the former Turkish President Turgut Ã-zal; in her article,
Kodaoglu attempted to make the denial of the Armenian Genocide (even
more) palatable for the Jewish and Israeli population. (Ironically
enough, according to Nüzhet Kandemir, the former Turkish ambassador to
the USA, President Turgut Ozal was himself on the brink of recognizing
the Armenian Genocide.)

In turn, in the Jerusalem Post Joel J. Sprayregen (the former National
Vice-Chair of the ADL and a member of the Executive Committee of the
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)) took the
Armenian resistance during the Genocide to justify denial alla Turca –
"There was no genocide" – he was referring to history fakers – despite
the fact that he must be fully aware that one could easily reinterpret
reality and deny the Jewish Holocaust through the misrepresentation of
the Warsaw Uprising, the Theresienstadt- deportation camp, the "sale"
and departure of the Jews to Switzerland during the Holocaust and
survival of millions of Jews people …

And in the US, one could easily come to assume that Washington Times –
which often reads as a copy of the Turkish press – aims at leading a
war against the Armenian Genocide Resolution (HR 106) in the US
Congress.
Holocaust-denier, David Irving, is serving more and more as example as
a paradigm for the denial of Armenian Genocide. Mr. Lenny Ben-David,
former undersecretary at the Israeli Embassy in the US and A adviser
for five years to the Turkish embassy in Washington, until earlier this
summer, In his article published in the Oct. 5 issue of the Jerusalem
Post, titled "Turkey and Armenia: What Jews should do," Not only denied
the Armenian Genocide and creates hysteria and Armenophobe but in his
article he gives a lot of credit to the fabrication of Turkish and
Azeri nationalists and fascists. This is again not a hidden fact even
for this politician that the aim of Turkish fabrications against
Armenians in the next step includes: suggesting removing Armenia from
the maps, as a people and country which doesn’t exist…

If you assume A Armenian student from Jerusalem will be allow in an
official ceremony in Israel to refer to the Armenian Genocide, you are
mistaken. This shouldn’t come to you as a surprise either; in Istanbul
the remaining Armenian children from "Western Armenia" (After Gencode
renamed to "Eastern Anatolia") are forced to write essays how their
ancestors committed "genocide against Turks" (This is just distressful,
nauseating, sadistic and perverse.)

Denial is known as a second killing (a "bloodless-killing"). There is
an aggressive denial of Armenian Genocide on going by Turkey.
Unfortunately, a big part of officials of Jewish Diaspora and Israel
are involved in the denial of Armenian Genocide and this act – their
involvement in denial – doesn’t differ much from the involvement of
German military officer in Armenian Genocide in 1915 (This reference
should make clearer – to help to reach a better understanding- what
really the denial of Armenian Genocide by Jewish politicians means for
Armenian people and other Christian people who were subject of genocide
by Turkish!)

If politically allies do it, it’s not genocide but "Tragedy". There are
Turkish "palace historians" that aim to erase all references to
"Armenia" and "Armenian people" in the libraries of the world. This is
a fact that is easily documented. Professor Dr. Yusuf Halaçoðlu, the
racially motivated President of the Turkish Historical Society with the
assistance of Turkish fascists, extends great effort on proving the
non-existence of the Armenian People and, in turn, the state of
"Armenia." The statements of many Jewish Diaspora officials that "there
was no Armenian Genocide" play directly into the hands of the official
policy Turkey and the Turkish Nationalists and fascists.

A nation that has been the victim of genocide should not be forced to
prove the fact of genocide. For a nation to support the perpetrators of
genocide by placating the world with official statements supporting the
Turkish government’s shameless policies of denial is disgraceful and
appalling; for a nation that itself has likewise suffered an attempted
obliteration to do so is incomprehensible. The "placating" efforts by
Jewish officials and functionaries are doomed to backfire: the denial
of the Armenian Genocide in no way helps to make Israel stronger or to
increase the security of the Jewish People.

Turkey and Turkish nationalists have always used other people for the
implementation of their inhuman policies against "non-Turks" in order
to achieve their own final goals, if not their own "final solution"

Words such as dialogue, reconciliation, and rapprochement are terms
that awaken fundamentally positive associations, but they are being
used without any reflection upon or reference to historical fact or
fairness, let alone justice. It is beyond understanding that the
newspapers of the Jewish Diaspora present the Armenians as the
"irreconcilable" or "troublemaker", as the "true" disruptor in
international relations, when it is the Turkish that continually
attempt to illegalize or negate the discussion. (What dialogue would
the Jewish Nation have with Germany had Germany demanded and been
permitted to forbid the acknowledgment of the holocaust and justice?)

Is the Jewish community the "troublemaker" when the Iranian President
Ahmadinejad denies the Shoah? A crime that happened 60 years ago and
that he himself did not participate in?

The statement that the genocide happened 90 years ago or the
insinuation that the Armenian Diaspora – the "Armenian Conspiracy" –
are endangering world peace because they are motivated by self-swerving
interests serve again nothing else than to protect the perpetrator. But
is it not the purpose and duty of international criminal law to protect
the victim? Should criminal law protect the rapist or killer because
the victim supposedly "asked for it"? Is international law only a "law
for the stronger" and thus only there to protect the state and not the
individual?

Are terms such as "crimes against humanity," "genocide," "war crimes"
and "war of aggression" only there to protect the aggressors and not
the victims?
The Armenian Diaspora – the masses of people forced to disperse
throughout the world – is a result of the genocide executed by the
Turkish; the Diaspora Armenians are not pursuing an arbitrary and
unfounded interest, they have a justified demand for justice and
recognition. At the same time, this demand is also a concern of the
international community of states which created and approved the
legislation known as "public international law" or "international
criminal law."

It is not just a matter of morality to condemn genocide, it is a
premise for peaceful coexistence. It is a cornerstone of international
peace, and the looming threat of this very crime is a principal reason
behind military intervention and self-defense.

A question that might arise when reading this text is why do I only
write about the Jewish Community and Israeli politicians? Well, this is
due to the following fact: aside from the Turkish themselves, Israeli
politicians and the Jewish Diaspora are the only ones that go beyond
the "simple" denial of the Armenian Genocide (and denial of Turkish
genocides against other Christian people, e.g. The Assyrian Genocide)
to both aggressively practice a virulent policy of denial and likewise
try to inspire others to do the same.

For example, the unprecedented dedication with which Shimon Peres
supported the "fight" against the Armenian Resolution in the US
Congress while Bill Clinton was still president.

The relationship between the Jewish People and the Turkish is based on
lies and the denial of the Armenian Genocide – the denial of the 1.5
million Armenians that died by the hands of the Ottoman Turkey from
1915-1923. It is a relationship that is based on criminal complicity in
hushing up a horrific transgression against humanity and that totally
disregards all concepts of moral and justice.

Namik Tan, the Turkish Ambassador to Israel, described this
relationship in September 2007: "The Turkish People make no
differentiation between Israel and the Jews of the world. To us, you
are all one. We have no pact with Israel, but rather with the whole
Jewish world. If the Jewish lobby disappears, Israel loses its
importance to us. Therefore, Israel takes the responsibility when a
Jewish organization speaks of Genocide."

The truth will set Turkish and Jewish officials free. Implementation of
international agreed reforms for "Western Armenia/ Turkish Armenian"
and eliminating – "getting rid" – of a nation/people by Turkey are not
the same. Only the fact of genocide can keep alive disinformation
policy, the genocide denial industry and the nationally authorized and
aggressive Turkish politics of denial. Israeli/Jewish officials should
advice their "friends/allies" in Ankara to stop making fools of
themselves. Armenian Genocide was proved as Armenian Genocide was
happening.

The whole world was witness of this genocide. Besides this: Armenian
Genocide is well documented above all by Turkish war time ally Germany
(even though a part of this documents being destroyed in1919 and
1940s.)
According to Taner Akcam, a nonconformist Turkish historian, "The
denial of the Armenian Genocide is the basis of Turkey’s existence." At
the latest, Namik Tan’s statements above and the aggressive denial of
Armenian Genocide by President Shimon Peres also reveal and proves that
the relationship between Israel and Turkey is also based the denial of
the Armenian Genocide (raison d’Ã?tat instead of right to truth and
justice.)

One cannot help but wonder how long a relationship built on boundless
dishonesty, immorality, denial and lies is capable or destined to
last… Indeed, it is truly incomprehensible that the Jewish Diaspora
denies the Armenian Genocide for the "good" of Israel. What lasting
"good" has ever come from the denial of genocide, from the denial of
truth, from the denial of the justice?

Author’s Note: I am aware of the fact that my analyze of Jewish Denial
of Armenian Genocide may upset some so please feel free to write
comments on it . And, in the meantime, the author likes to let you
know: who ever denies one genocide he/she denies all genocides. Jewish
denial of Armenian Genocide kills not only the Armenian Genocide but in
the end this denial kills The Jewish Holocaust too…

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.juedische.at/TCgi/_v2/TCgi.cgi

Exhibition Dedicated To 100th Death Anniversary Of Khrimian Hayril O

EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO 100TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF KHRIMIAN HAYRIL OPENS IN NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Noyan Tapan
Dec 21, 2007

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, NOYAN TAPAN. The exhibition of documents opened
in the National Archives of Armenia on December 20 was dedicated
to the 100th death anniversary of Mkrtich Vanetsi Khrimian, that is
Khrimian Hayrik, the Catholicos of All Armenians, the torch-bearer
of the Armenian freedom, and the artist of idea and freedom. The
exhibition mainly includes the manuscripts, letters, documents of
the period, when Khrimian Hayrik was the Catholicos (1892-1907),
as well as numerous wirtings and letters addressed to him.

The scientists and clergymen gathered on the occasion of the 100th
death anniversary of patriarch Khrimian in the National Archives once
again appreciated the spiritual and public activities of Khrimian
Hayrik during that difficult period for the Armenians.

Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, the eparchical vicar of the Ararat
patriarchal diocese, expressed conviction that Catholicos Khrimian
is contemporary today as well with the activities he conducted:
"His thoughts and ideas can be used with the same rightness today
as well. Khrimian Hayrik not only led the spiritual activities the
right way, but was also after the public-political events of those
times. With an insight decent for a skilful political scientist,
he exposed the policy of the European states towards the Armenians
in the congress held in Berlin in 1878," the eparchical vicar of the
Ararat patriarchal diocese stressed.

In the conviction of Ashot Melkonian, the Head of the Institute
of History of the National Academy of Sciences, at the end of the
19th century Khrimian Hayrik made a very important revelation for
the Armenians with his skilful spiritual-political activities during
that period of vital significance for the Armenian people: "A person
should work on himself/herself in order to save himself/herself." The
participation of Khrimian Hayrik in the 1878 Congress of Berlin became
a turning point for the Armenians. The wise clergyman and political
figure clearly saw that the Armenian people can exist only "due to
its own power and thought," and that if it relies upon foreign states,
it will be drawn to its end.

Armenian-Turkish Relations: Problems And Perspectives

ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES
Haroutyun Gevorkyan

Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
Dec 20 2007

By the initiative of the NA Committee on Foreign Relations, yesterday
the Parliament started the two-day hearings devoted to the theme
"Armenian-Turkish Relations: Problems and Perspectives"

ONLY IN FRIENDLY CONDITIONS

Foreign Minister VARDAN OSKANYAN introduced Armenia’s attitudes towards
the relationship with Turkey. "The difficulty of the Armenian-Turkish
relations is on the one hand conditioned with the burden of the past
and on the other hand – with the imperative of living in the same
region together, in conditions of peace, security and stability,
and establishing friendly relations. The challenge is to synthesize
the past with the present and future.

Armenia is sure that the problems of the past are possible to solve
only in conditions of establishing friendly relations between the
two countries, when the borders are open and there are diplomatic ties.

Turkey, on the contrary, wishes to establish diplomatic ties and open
the borders only after solving all the problems of the past the way
it desires. Armenia does not advance any preconditions, while Turkey
insists on preconditions: settling the Karabakh conflict or, at least,
returning the neighboring territories to Azerbaijan, recognizing the
borders of Turkey and waiving the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

All the three preconditions do not stand any criticism from the point
of view of international law.

TURKEY -A CLASSICAL EXAMPLE OF TOTALITARIANISM

NA Vice-Speaker VAHAN HIVHANNISYAN, member of the ARFD Bureau,
viewed the Armenian Turkish relations purely from the angle national
and political interests and stated that the situation has come to
a deadlock.

"A great number of regional and geopolitical obstacles are
being mentioned in terms of introducing final clarifications in
the Armenian-Turkish conflict. Whereas it is clear that no mutual
agreement can be reached between democracy and dictatorship. Armenia
is not a country of classical democracy, while Turkey is a classical
example of dictatorship and totalitarianism.

Even if Turkey waives the preconditions it has advanced, no dialogue
will be possible as long as Kemal Ataturk, Taleat Pasha, Enver,
Nazim and Jemal are considered to be heroes and not murderers.

Changing the Turkish society is the only way out. Armenia has no
problems in terms of searching new solutions, because it has already
said what it had to say.

V. Hovhannisyan also had doubts as to the fact there might be purely
positive expectations from a neighboring country which is a member
to the European Union. "That Turkey mustn’t be allowed to become an
EU member under any circumstances is a radical opinion. As to the
opinion that Turkey’s membership to the European Union is only for
the good of Armenia, this approach is radical too. The whole question
is how Turkey will join the European Union: whether it will change
or remain in the present-day status.

If the European Union is going to admit Turkey to its family, having no
other way out as a result of a political calculation, Turkey will no
longer have any reason to change. As a result, instead of Turkey’s
adopting the European value system, Europe will have to introduce
quite a new system of values. This will, after all, lead to the
collapse of the European Union.

EU-Turkey Talks Enhanced

EU-TURKEY TALKS ENHANCED

AZG Armenian Daily
20/12/2007

Turkey made another step towards EU membership.

FrancePresse informs that 2 more topics were added to Ankara-EU talks,
which refer to infra-European structures and consumers’ health. The
government of Erdogan will have to improve Turkey’s legislations for
that spheres and bring it to one level with European standards.

"Actually, Europe is trying to save the situation by giving Turkey’s
friends the opportunity to applaud, and permitting France to oppose
Turkey’s membership," say representatives of Portugal, presently
chairing EU. France is against enhancing the talks with Turkey and
starting new discussion topics.

France insisted that the latest EU-Turkey meeting should be called an
"intergovernmental conference" instead of "membership conference",
as suggested by Sweden and Great Britain.

Prime Minister Erdogan pretends o be unconscious of all those
deliberations. "I am feeling safe about our membership," states
Erdogan, at the same time admitting that France’s stance shall have
unavoidably negative effect on the process.

Normalization Of Turkish-Armenian Relations Vital For Entire Region

NORMALIZATION OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS VITAL FOR ENTIRE REGION

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.12.2007 16:01 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations is vital
not only for the two states but also for the entire region, RA National
Assembly Speaker Tigran Torosian said during The Armenian-Turkish
Relations: Problems and Prospects extended parliamentary hearings.

"Both Armenia and Turkey are members of the Council of Europe. Turkey
is holding talks for EU accession. It means that this country should
share the values European bases on. We have numerously stated that
Turkey’s membership would be expedient for Armenia.

Any country would like to have a neighbor that doesn’t represent a
menace," he said.

"European states are interested in normalization of the
Armenian-Turkish relations and opening of the border," he
added. "Armenia doesn’t push preconditions while Turkey’s position is
quite opposite. We insist on resolution of the issue in the framework
of European integration."