Author: Kalantarian Kevo

RA GOVERNMENT MAKES AMENDMENTS IN REGULATIONS OF RA NATIONAL ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES

YEREVAN, APRIL 28, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Government made amendments in
the regulations of the RA National Academy of Sciences at the April 27
sitting. Noyan Tapan was informed about it by the RA Government’s
Information and Public Relations Department. By the Government’s
decision, it was particularly fixed that the RA NAS Chairman’s
election is held by close (secret) votion, with clear majority of
votes of members involved in the list of the staff, for 5 years, not
more than 2 for electoral periods. In the case of vacancy of the RA
NAS Chairman’s post, the RA Government appoints acting RA NAS
Chairman, before electing a new Chairman. Position for RA NAS Deputy
Chairman was also defined, who is elected at the general meeting of
the academy from the RA NAS academicians, with the RA NAS Chairman’s
proposal.

YOUNG FILM DIRECTORS FROM 12 COUNTRIES TO GATHER IN YEREVAN

Armenpress
Apr 26 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS: Young film directors and critics from
Germany, Cuba, Holland, USA, Russia and other countries, all in all
from 12, will present their fiction, cartoon and documentary films
to a May 3-8 film festival in Yerevan.

Awards will be given in nine nominations, in addition to the Grand
Prix and a special award of Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the
Armenian Church.

OPPOSING RUSSIA TO EU UNACCEPTABLE TO ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.04.2006 21:30 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia’s urge to expand relations with the EU and
NATO is not aimed against Russia, Armenian Speaker Artur Baghdassaryan
said. “I am for us developing our relations with the EU intensively
and purposefully integrate in various European structures, including
the Council of Europe,” Baghdassaryan told journalists in Saint
Petersburg. At the same time, he emphasized, “this does not meeting
Armenia’s cooperation with the EU should worsen relations with Russia.”

“Opposing Russia, who is our best reliable partner, to the EU
is unacceptable to us,” he remarked. Touching upon NATO-Armenia
relations, he said, “we have the Individual Partnership Action Plan
(IPAP), however the matter concerns not only cooperation. The issue of
possibility of Armenia’s accession to the NATO is not on the foreign
policy agenda,” Artur Baghdassaryan said, reports Interfax.

COE: TURKEY, ARMENIA CAN NORMALIZE RELATIONS ONLY AFTER NAGORNO SETTLEMENT

ABHaber, Belgium
April 27 2006

The secretary-general of the Council of Europe (CoE), Terry
Davis, stated yesterday that Turkey and Armenia cannnot normalize
relations without first finding a solution to the dispute over the
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

Davis called on all parties of the dispute, especially Armenia and
Azerbaijan, to make the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue
a top priority. He said that other disputes are important, but not
as important as the divided enclave, reported the Armenian Mediamax
news agency.

“We are all aware of the real problem, which is the future of
Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said. “Therefore, we should all exert effort to
solve the real issue. There is no need to spend time on other issues.”

Asked whether the CoE will play a more active role in the resolution
process, the secretary-general replied that the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk group is responsible
for facilitating a resolution to the problem, and he expressed hope
that the organization’s co-chairpersons would succeed despite various
difficulties.

ARMENIAN ARMY 45,000-PEOPLE STRONG

AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
April 27 2006

Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian has said his country’s
troops are 45,000 people strong, explaining this by the current
situation in the South Caucasus region.

Touching upon the plight and structure of the three-million nation’s
forces, Sarkisian said it is common knowledge that the Armenian
military consists of infantry regiment units and the air force. The
troops are not centralized in any way and have no local headquarters.

“There is only one chief HQ overseeing all of the armed forces. This
involves commanding separate corps, artillery units and air defense
forces,” said the minister, who also serves as secretary of the
Armenian National Security Council. Sarkisian, who attended military
training in the occupied Azeri territories last week, maintained that
despite his country’s adherence to peace talks, it should improve
its military in the meantime. Sarkisian’s statements at a time of
intensifying international efforts to accelerate the peace process
once again prove that the root-cause of the long-standing dispute
is not the aspiration of Garabagh Armenians to self-determination,
but Yerevan’s occupation plans. The Armenian minister trying to cover
up his country’s policy of aggression explained his participation in
the illegal training activities by what he called Yerevan’s acting
as guarantor for the security of the self-proclaimed republic until
the Garabagh conflict is settled.

VALDAS ADAMKUS: THE TIME HAS COME TO SPEAK ABOUT ONE COMMON FUTURE OF SOUTH CAUCASIAN AND BALTIC STATES

Noyan Tapan
Apr 25 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The time has come to speak about one
common future of the South Caucasian and Baltic states. The Lithuanian
President Valdas Adamkus stated this at a press conference following a
meeting with the Armenian President and the negotiations between the
two countries’ delegations on April 25. He expressed confidence that
the so-called “3+3” format will become a reality after this meeting. In
response to a Lithuanian reporter’s question about what Lithuania can
do regarding the Karabakh conflict settlement issue, the Armenian
President Robert Kocharian in his turn pointed out the importance
of promoting the regional cooperation. “We believe that it is much
easier to reach a settlement by means of cooperation, because regional
cooperation may help create an atmosphere of mutual trust, in which
the sides may easily find solutions. In this respect, Lithuania can
make its contribution,” the Armenian President noted. Robert Kocharian
denied the idea (expressed in a Lithuanian reporter’s quesion) of an
increased pressure on Armenia concerning the establishment of closer
relations between the US and Azerbaijan and the possible military
operations against Iran. He explained that “there is no additional
pressure in connection with the regulation of the issue”, there is
a negotiation process, and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs – the US,
France and Russia are working in a coordinated way. “The mandate
of the mediators presupposes not pressure in the settlement issue
but some steps aimed at facilitating the negotiation process,” the
Armenian President underlined. In his opinion, quaite active contacts
and process are underway, and he did not notice any connection between
the negotiation process and the problem of Iran. President Kocharian
does not take the view that an essential thing can be added to the
negotiation process, since each new initiative can in essence open
an extra way for the negotiation process and the sides to avoid many
possible solutions and not to find solutions.

UTAHNS DETERMINED TO TEACH ABOUT HOLOCAUST
By Deborah Bulkeley

Deseret Morning News , UTAH
April 25 2006

Litvack says some students not aware that it occurred.

Pat Drussel sees Holocaust awareness as a critical part of her language
arts curriculum at Dixon Middle School in Provo.

Jason Olson, Deseret Morning NewsMembers of the Armenian community
protest outside the federal building in Salt Lake City Monday, seeking
recognition of another genocide – the slaughter of more than a million
Armenians in 1915. She hopes her students get the message when she
tells them, “You have to learn acceptance and tolerance. …”

“It doesn’t matter what color people are or what religion they are,”
Drussel said. “We are just people.”

Today marks national Holocaust Remembrance Day. Utah’s official
remembrance ceremony will be held on Friday.

On Monday, about 50 Utah Armenians protested outside the
federal building in Salt Lake City seeking recognition of another
genocide. Monday was the 90th anniversary of the start of an Ottoman
Empire genocide that killed more than a million people. It has yet
to be acknowledged as a genocide by the either the United States
or Turkey.

“It definitely hurts to be forgotten,” said Yelena Ayrapetova of
Salt Lake.

Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, said there are students in Utah’s
schools who aren’t aware of the Holocaust or other genocides.

“It is definitely a problem, in my perspective, that we have a
population growing up that doesn’t know about the Holocaust,” Litvack
said. “It’s important that we are aware, that we are raising educated
citizens who are aware of what has happened.”

While Utah has no explicit requirement to raise awareness of the
Holocaust or other genocides, the state Office of Education encourages
teachers to incorporate the lessons learned from the Nazi systematic
extermination of 6 million Jews, along with other targeted groups.

Drussel is one of a handful of teachers nationwide finishing up
a yearlong educator fellowship with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum. As part of that fellowship, she recently held a training for
about 55 teachers.

Peter Fredlake, coordinator of the Memorial Museum’s teacher fellowship
program, said up to 15 teachers a year are selected to participate
in the fellowship. So far, 210 teachers have participated since its
inception, including three from Utah.

“People who apply for this program are the cream of the crop,”
Fredlake said. “They are dedicated and know what it means to work
hard. They’re not going to stop teaching at the end of the year.”

Fredlake said Utah is one of 24 states that don’t explicitly mention
Holocaust awareness as part of the curriculum. However, he said it is
implicit in other areas, such as a mention of national socialists. Only
seven states require Holocaust awareness training, he said.

It’s critical for any education program to include context, Fredlake
said.

“One of the most common mistakes is not having a clear rationale for
why you’re teaching it,” Fredlake said. “In a U.S. government class,
part of the rationale could be, ‘I want students to understand that
democracy is a fragile thing.'” Fredlake said one of the biggest
challenges he runs into through nationwide outreach is helping teachers
understand Holocaust awareness can be included in curriculum that
meets guidelines for No Child Left Behind.

“There’s almost no language arts standard that you can’t meet and
still talk about the Holocaust,” he said.

In Utah, Robert Austin, social studies specialist at the Office of
Education, recently attended a meeting hosted by the Memorial Museum
in Denver.

Austin said his office is working to ensure teachers have the
resources they need to teach the topic of the Holocaust and genocide
appropriately.

“It’s such a horrific event in history and such an important event,
it’s absolutely vital that teachers, when they teach on topics like
this, do it using best resources,” he said.

And many Utah educators are incorporating it. Drussel has been crafting
her own Holocaust awareness curri- culum for the past decade.

In addition to her fellowship, she has toured former concentration
camps in the Czech Republic and Poland with a Holocaust survivor.

“Hearing the words of a survivor explain to me what happened when
nobody helped,” she said. “It made it more clear to me to tell kids,
‘You have to be tolerant, you have to be accepting.'”

BALANCED PORTRAYAL AN EXTREMIST’S WORST NIGHTMARE: PBS DOCUMENTARY “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”
Elizabeth Frierson

Cincinnati Enquirer, OH
April 24 2006

A remarkable new documentary, “The Armenian Genocide,” was broadcast
nationwide on PBS last Monday – except in Los Angeles. This controversy
is at heart, behind all the bloviating rhetoric, over freedom of
speech and freedom of inquiry, basic human rights that KCET quashed –
in the United States of America – by suppressing this documentary. Our
local affiliates did not buckle under the pressure.

Why did this documentary upset extremists on both sides of this
history?

Emmy Award-winning producer Andrew Goldberg tells as big a story
as possible, showing not just what happened, but why, not just two
sides with their own versions of events, but multiple victims and
perpetrators with differing points of view. In other words, this
balanced portrayal is an extremist’s worst nightmare.

Viewers see starving Muslim refugees from Christian atrocities in
the Balkans before WWI. This complicates the idea that Muslims were
always the aggressors and Christians always the victims in ethnic
conflict. The documentary also shows Armenian guerrilla fighters
attacking Turks. Neither Christian atrocities nor Armenian resistance
justified genocide. Still, these stories are often downplayed, as
if people today couldn’t make those distinctions, and need to be fed
simple lies in order to be horrified by atrocities.

Second, the film shows ordinary Turkish citizens telling family
stories of atrocities against Armenians, expressing their grief and
disgust over what happened. This shows that ordinary Turks – despite
the government’s denials of genocide – today are ready to acknowledge
and mourn this tragedy. This upsets extremists on both sides.

Third, we meet scholars and writers who are, even as you read this
paper, on trial in Turkey just for using the term “genocide” to
describe what happened. These courageous Turks do research and publish
results knowing that they put their lives and livelihoods at risk by
doing so. They are actively supported by Armenian colleagues who are
equally sickened by easy answers to messy questions on the Armenian
side. This kind of cooperation across boundaries is what frightens
extremists on both sides most of all, precisely because it threatens
to break boundaries of hatred that make life simpler than truth and
reconciliation would require. It is ironic that Turkish journalists on
trial were rendered invisible by intimidated broadcasters in the U.S.

Rwanda, Sudan, Iraq, Bosnia, WWII Europe – it’s a long and filthy list,
and to many an incomprehensible, and therefore unstoppable, part of
“human nature.” It is neither incomprehensible nor unstoppable, as
long as we are free to see the whole picture, including its shades
of grey. Messy truth may be hard to take, but that’s precisely why,
in this country, censorship is illegal. Except, apparently, in L.A.

Elizabeth B. Frierson, Ph.D., is Associate Professor, History of the
Middle East and North Africa, University of Cincinnati, and editor
of The Turkish Studies Association Journal. She was among the experts
interviewed for “The Armenian Genocide.”

/article?AID=/20060424/EDIT02/604240341/1090

AZG Armenian Daily #074, 22/04/2006

Armenian Genocide

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER DECLARES APRIL 23-27 A WEEK OF REMEMBRANCE OF
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS

Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared April 23-27
a week of remembrance of Armenian genocide victims, Lisa Galustian,
governor’s Los Angeles office deputy head, told RFE/RL. Underscoring
that California has the second largest Armenian population after
Armenia he stated that the descendants of Genocide survivors play an
important role in such spheres as state economy, culture, education
and governance. Mr. Schwarzenegger made an appeal to recognize the
Genocide. “The path to a more hopeful future lies through recognizing
the past. With this hope I stand beside our friends from the Armenian
community and urge the freedom loving Americans and other nations of
the world to recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

The Genocide remembrance week has aroused the indignation of Turkish
and Azerbaijani communities of America, and they are going to hold
protests during the week.

By Karine Danielian

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From: [email protected]
Subject: One Already Refused Dashnaktsutiun
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ONE ALREADY REFUSED DASHNAKTSUTIUN

Lragir.am
22 April 06

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun) calls the
political forces for solidarity guarantee a fair election in
2007. Several leaders of the ARF have already voiced it. They are
already receiving responses from other leaders. On April 22 at the
Azdak Club, in answer to the question of the reporter of Lragir.am,
the leader of the People’e Party of Armenia Stepan
Demirchyan responded to the initiative of the ARF. “We hear
the same thing every time. If this election is not fair, it will have
a ruining effect for the country. Every time. Aren’t you
tired of this demagogy? You know, one may cooperate with those forces
which give a real assessment of what happens. In other words, the
forces which think that the conduct of the election in 2003 passed
normally, should we control the election together with them? The
standards are different if they think the referendum was compliant
with standards, there was no fraud, or there was very little fraud. If
they punished two or three people instead of so much talking, the
results would be more significant,” stated Stepan
Demirchyan. He says signing memorandums or changing the Electoral Code
is not enough for a fair and free election. It is necessary to have
political will, thinks the leader of the People’s Party of
Armenia and the Ardarutiun Alliance, believing that the present
leadership is not capable of conducting a fair election.

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