Author: Kanayan Tamar

SERGEI IVANOV: RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN ARMENIA POSES NO THREAT TO A THIRD COUNTRY

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 11 2007

The operation of Russian military base in Armenia is not aggressive
and does not pose any threat to a third country. This military base
provides our effective security". First deputy Prime Minister of
Russia Sergei Ivanov said in Armenia, APA reports.

Russian senior official appreciated the 102nd military base at Gyumri
as an element of Russian-Armenia strategic cooperation.

"But strategic cooperation between Russia and Armenia is not
restricted with military base. The cooperation between the two
states covers economy, culture and Russian language. Armenian is a
strategic partner for Russia. This idea does not mean only military
cooperation. Russia and Armenia have common cultural and historical
roots," he underlined.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I RECEIVES THE AMBASSADOR OF BULGARIA

His Holiness Aram I received the Ambassador of Bulgaria to Lebanon, His
Excellency Veneline Lazarov in Antelias on April 10. The first ever visit by
the ambassador to the Catholicos lasted for over an hour.

The Bulgarian diplomat and the Pontiff talked about the current situation
in Lebanon, the mission of international forces and the peace process in the
Middle East in general.

His Holiness explained to the Ambassador the structure of the Armenian
Church with its administrative divisions, diocesan units, its work in the
area of spiritual renewal through Christian education and specially through
the reassessment of religious-moral values in the lives of the youth.

##
View the photo here: #2
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

ARMENIAN POLICE ANNOUNCES ABOUT "HOT LINE" IN CONNECTION WITH THE FORTHCOMING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION

Arminfo
2007-04-09 17:12:00

"Hot Line" will function in the Armenian police in connection with
the forthcoming parliamentary election on May 12. The first deputy
commander of the police, Gen-Col Ararat Makhtesyan told journalists
today that the "hot line" will function till May 11. Citizens will be
able to apply every day from 10 AM to 10 PM at the telephone 56-13-46
and 53-43-91.

Makhtesyan also added that albeit the police implemented enough work on
removal of slips in the voters’ lists, nevertheless observations and
the election of Armavir town mayor held recently disclosed numerous
errors in the lists. The work on removal of errors will be held in
several directions- disclosing of the "dead hearts", involving of the
people in the lists which were not involved earlier, disclosing of
"extra" names, disclosing of the names of soldiers that are serving
in the army at present. Ararat Makhtesyan called those who still have
the Soviet type passports to get the passport of the Armenian citizen
as soon as possible.

Ararat Makhtesyan also said that the police striving to ensure the
back link with the citizens of the country will inform about the
results of the "hot line" and the number of splits every week.

PRE-ELECTORAL PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN STARTS OFFICIALLY ON APRIL 8

Noyan Tapan
Apr 09 2007

YEREVAN, APRIL 9, NOYAN TAPAN. On April 8, the pre-electoral campaign
of candidates for deputacy and political forces participating by the
majoritarian and proportional electoral systems in the parliamentary
elections on May 12 started officially.

According to the Electoral Code, the pre-electoral propaganda
campaign may be conducted through the mass media, by organizing public
pre-electoral events – pre-electoral meetings and meeting with voters,
public discussions, debates, rallies, processions, demonstrations,
as well as by publishing printed materials and demonstrating recorded
programs.

Funds of pre-electoral foundations only may be used for conducting
the pre-electoral propaganda campaign. The candidate and the party
or bloc have the right to spend sums not exceeding 5 mln drams (about
14 thousand USD) and 60 mln drams respectively.

During the pre-eelctoral campaign, candidates are forbidden to give
(promise) money, food, securities, goods or provide (promise) services
to citizens by person or in some other way.

With the aim of organizing meetings with voters and other
elections-related events, halls and other facilities are provided to
candidates and parties participating in elections on equal bases –
free of charge.

The parties and the bloc participating in the elections have the right
to use paid and free public radio and TV time on equal conditions – by
the order and schedule determined by the Central Electoral Commission –
from April 10 to May 10. The candidates and political forces may also
use time of private radio and television companies on the paid basis.

By the way, according to the latest amendments to the RA Electoral
Code, "reporters, members of the editorial staff of the public radio
and public television, other radio and TV companies, who are registered
as candidates, are forbidden to cover elections and present radio
and television programs."

The deadline of the propaganda campaign is May 10, 12 pm.

Flint Journal (Michigan)
April 1, 2007 Sunday
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION

‘Istanbul’ features rich, complex characters, a little magic;
FLINT JOURNAL REVIEW

by Carol Azizian, [email protected] * 810.766.6245

If "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," as Tolstoy said,
then the families in Elif Shafak’s latest novel, "The Bastard of
Istanbul," surely have an edge on dysfunction.

Shafak weaves a complex web of characters with magic realism and
historical events but focuses on two extended families – a Turkish
one in Istanbul and an Armenian one in San Francisco and Tucson.

The Tchakhmakhchians, an Armenian family, can’t seem to forget their
tragic history of massacres and deportations. The Kazancis, a Turkish
family, live in a state of denial or ignorance – much like the
Turkish state, which has not yet acknowledged the genocide of 1.5
million Armenians in 1915.

"The Bastard of Istanbul" is Shafak’s second novel in English and
some critics contend that she’s still finding her voice in that
language.

I, too, stumbled over several sentences (for example, "sex is far
more sensual than physical"). At times, her digression into magic
realism, along with her enormous cast of characters, grow tiresome
and overwhelming.

But Shafak challenges the reader and tackles profound subjects with
wit and wisdom.

The lives of the two families intersect when Armanoush, an
intellectually curious woman who discusses Armenian/Turkish relations
in a cybercafe, travels to Turkey to visit the family of Mustafa, her
stepfather. (Her biological father is Armenian; her mother is from
Kentucky.) Mustafa is the long-lost brother of the Kazanci clan.

That clan includes Mustafa’s outrageous sisters: Zeliha, the bold,
sexy owner of a tattoo parlor; Banu, a clairvoyant who believes she’s
informed by djinns on each shoulder, one evil, one good; Feride,
whose hairstyles change as often as her mental diagnoses; and
Cevriye, a teacher of Turkish history who spouts propaganda.

Asya, a 19-year-old existentialist who loves Johnny Cash, is Zeliha’s
daughter and the "bastard" of the title. She forms a bond with
Armanoush, her American contemporary.

With the exception of Armanoush, most of the women are a bit
off-kilter or just plain zany.

Especially entertaining for anyone who comes from an ethnic
background is the section where Armanoush posts a "self-scoring test
(on an Internet forum) that measured the degree of one’s
‘Armenianness.’"

"The Bastard of Istanbul" is a book that titillates the senses, with
the sights, smells and sounds of Istanbul coming through vividly.

The secrets uncovered in the journey are intriguing and by the end,
deeply disturbing. The story ends unresolved, much like the political
stalemate between Turkey and Armenia. But its universal message is
undeniable (consider Darfur, for one).

Shafak knows all too well the consequences of discussing a taboo
subject like the genocide in her homeland. She was tried in the
Turkish courts, and later acquitted, of "insulting Turkishness"
because some of her fictional characters talk about it. In one
segment, she flashes back to the past and depicts graphic scenes from
the massacres.

Like the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, Shafak has
become a target of rightist groups and a popular figure among the
literati of Turkey.

A professor at the University of Arizona, she curtailed her American
book tour after the murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish
newspaper editor of Armenian ancestry and a friend of hers.

In Turkey, "eventually, every writer has to face the question – are
you ready to be a public intellectual?" she told The New York Times.

Give Shafak a few more years and she’ll master the English language
while turning out even more provocative novels. No doubt she’ll
become a public intellectual here, too.

Carol Azizian is a feature writer in The Journal’s Today section.

NOTES: THE BASTARD OF ISTANBUL

By Elif Shafak

Viking, 357 pages

New Anatolian, Turkey
April 7 2007

If only she says something…

Gunduz Aktan
07 April 2007

The judgment of the International Court of Justice dated February 26
once again showed that the Armenians have no legal thesis. In its
decision, the Court applied the genocide definition in the Article 2
of the Genocide Convention without broadening its scope. For the
commission of genocide, it made a condition that there should be a
"special intent to destroy" one group "as such," in other words
killing or wounding the group members for no reason other than they
belong to that group. And it excluded the crimes perpetrated within
the framework of ethnic cleansing from the scope of genocide.

Even though Turkey knew that such was the law, it advocated the
genocide thesis in 1992 in order to protect the Bosnians who were
then abandoned by the international community and to make pressure on
the Serbians. However, we soon discovered that the Serbs were killing
the Bosnians not only for ethnic cleansing. While massacring them the
Serbs were accusing the Bosnians of being "Ottomans or Turks." This
racist hatred constituted the motive behind the special intent to
destroy, necessary for genocide. In other words, the Serbs were
committing genocide. The Bosnians did not use this argument at the
Court and they lost the case.

In his article in Yeni Safak on March 7, Kursat Bumin criticizes the
information I had given in my previous columns as comments based
solely on "raison d’etat." How can a judgment of the court, whose
judges come from states, who try the states, according to the laws
made by the states be interpreted in another way?

If Mr. Bumin wants to abstract the Armenian incidents from state
affairs and approach the problem purely from the humanitarian
standpoint, then he should exclude the Ottoman State from his
comments and include the Turks who were massacred by the Armenians.
Is he ready for this?

In the book entitled "Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey" written
by the great genocide scholar Guenter Lewy and in Lieutenant Colonel
Edward J. Erickson’s research entitled "Enemies Within," it is proven
in details that the Special Organization (Teskilat-i Mahsusa) was not
involved "as a state organ" in the relocation of the Armenians. The
objection Mr. Bumin makes to this point means that he implicitly
recognizes the Armenian genocide.

In her article in Radikal Ýki newspaper on March 11, Ms Ayse Hur
claims that the parts I’ve translated from the famous book of Prof.
William Shabas on genocide and international law is inaccurate.

The legal aspect is the weak point in the Armenian allegations. Ms.
Hur is trying to bolster the morale of the genocide supporters with
the tactics of saying "something," even if not substantive.

It is good that Ms Hur included my Turkish translation from Shabas
and the original text in English in her article. Even a cursory look
at the texts reveals that there is no mistake in the translation. The
additions in brackets of course belong to me. Using brackets to this
end is a regular practice.

The Armenian genocide defenders who read Shabas for the first time
are pleased that the author qualifies the 1915 incidents as genocide.
This is natural since Shabas received all information concerning the
issue from the books by Dadrian. He has not read even one book from
the Turkish side. Ironically, the legal analyses of Shabas show that
these incidents are not genocide.

The references made by Ms Hur to Lemkin aim at defending the Armenian
genocide thesis. Lemkin also described the Armenian incidents as
genocide. However, Lemkin listed many genocide types such as
economic, cultural etc. The UN negotiating committee made a rigorous
definition on genocide. Despite all the objections by Lemkin, it
excluded the "political" groups, which struggle for political aims,
from the definition in article 2 and inserted the term "as such" to
express racist motive behind the intent to destroy a group. In order
to understand what I say, the records of the "travaux preparatoires"
should be read.

At the panel of the Turkish Bars’ Union, which was also mentioned by
Ms Hur, Shabas said in his reply to my question that neither the
prosecutors nor the lawyers used the racial hatred as the necessary
motive for special intent to destroy at the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

During the joint studies which we have conducted under the guidance
of Prof. Vamik Volkan at the Virginia University in 1991, we came to
know that racism was the force behind the special intent to destroy.
We did not need to wait for the book by Shabas.

This view on racism as motive, which we have been defending for
years, is now elaborated by philosophers such as Raimond Gaita
(Genocide and Human Rights, edited by John K. Roth, Palgrave, 2005).

Those who, like Ayse Hur, allege the Armenian incidents of 1915-16 to
be genocide according to law remain silent when it comes to the
solution through adjudication or arbitration. I wonder why?

Burbank Leader, CA
April 7 2007

POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:
Push for genocide bill

The California State Senate and Assembly will vote on Monday on
whether to approve Joint Resolution 15, which would designate April
24 as California Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of
1915-1923.

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, who represents Glendale and Burbank,
introduced the bill in February. It was co-authored by Assemblyman
Anthony Portantino and state Sen. Jack Scott, who represents Glendale
and Burbank.

In addition to designating an annual day of remembrance in
California, the bill would put pressure on the federal government to
do the same, Krekorian said.

Part of the resolution calls for Congress and the president to
recognize the Armenian genocide as a matter of policy, Krekorian
said. Once the resolution passes, the full text of it will be sent to
every member of the California Congressional delegation, as well as
the president and the Turkish ambassador to the United States.

As a matter of policy, the United States Department of State does not
officially recognize the Armenian genocide.

"As a community, we’ve been promised U.S. recognition of the Armenian
genocide so many times in the past," Krekorian said.

"Republicans and Democrats both have failed to do so once they got in
office."

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

GOOD FRIDAY IN ANTELIAS

Good Friday, a holy day for Christianity, was observed in the Saint
Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Antelias, with the participation of
hundreds of faithful including the youth. The service was presided over by
His Holiness Aram I. The Pontiff and the members of the Cilician Brotherhood
performed the burial ceremony kneeling down before Jesus Christ’s symbolic
Holy Tomb.

In his Pontifical address the Catholicos underlined the strength of Jesus
Christ’s empty Tomb and the spirit of resurrection and immortality bursting
from it. His Holiness described the Cross of Jesus Christ "as the meeting
place of life and the death. The death was concurred by the life and the
Cross became a symbol of life restored by Jesus Christ". His Holiness
emphasized the sacredness of life "which was given through the Cross to
humanity. We must preserve the sacredness of it. Therefore, His Holiness
said, the Cross of Jesus is not a symbol of death".

His Holiness then blessed the faithful with the relic from the original
Cross of our Lord. Following the tradition, faithful passed from beneath the
empty Tomb, taking with them its flowers and hopes of resurrection and
immortality.

##
View the photos here:

*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

ARF TO LAUNCH ITS CAMPAIGN ON APRIL 9

Yerkir
06.04.2007 15:22

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The Armenian Revolutionary Federation will launch
its National Assembly campaign at 19:00 on April 9 at the Charles
Aznavour Square near the Moscow Cinema.

ARF Bureau representative Hrant Margarian, ARF Bureau member and
NA deputy speaker Vahan Hovhannisian, ARF Supreme Body of Armenia
representative Armen Rustamian and ARF faction leader Hrayr Karapetian
will speak at the launching.

A concert featuring Armenian singers will follow, according to the
ARF Supreme Body press service.

DR. AKKAN SUVER: WE HAVE HIGH-LEVEL COOPERATION WITH AZERBAIJAN

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 5 2007

"Marmara Group Foundation in conjunction with the Black Sea University
Foundation is going to organize an event "Historical heritage of Black
Sea" in june this year. We will organize the 10th Eurasian Economic
Summit in Istanbul. Ex-president Ion Iliescu will represent Romania
at the meeting," Dr. Akkan Suver, president of Marmara Group told
the APA’s East Europe bureau in Romania.

He said that he had meetings with former Foreign Minister, deputy chief
of Senate Teodor Melescanu, ex-presidents of Romania Ion Iliescu and
Emil Konstantinesku.

"We have partnership relations with Black Sea University Foundation.

We are working on economic, social projects to be implemented
jointly with our Romanian partners. One of these projects is called
"Happiness of seven seas". You know that we had projects covering
five seas – Mediterranean, Caspian, Aegean, Marmara and Black seas,
Romania included two more seas. We will continue negotiations during
the Eurasian Economic Summit. We also discussed construction of a
mosque in Bucharest and Romanian church in Istanbul," he said.

Akkan Suver said that there are no serious activities concerning
Black sea region.

"Cooperation with Black Sea University Foundation will be the
first step in the sphere. Cooperation with Azerbaijan is of my first
proposals. Turkey should be everywhere wherever Azerbaijan is. Turkey
and Azerbaijan plan to hold joint activities on the theme of women
with Georgia. I consider that we can organize a lot of activities in
the framework of Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation Organization. Besides, Black Sea NGO movement can be a
splendid format. Our Bucharest visit created new opportunities for
this. Turkey and Azerbaijan can realize joint activities in economic,
cultural and social spheres," he said.

Mr.Suver also commented on the Marmara Group’s implementing projects
with Armenia.

"We put forward the initiative for clarifying Armenian Diaspora’s
claims on Armenian genocide and propagandizing facts of occupation of
Azerbaijan’s region Karabakh. "On this purpose we organized a group
of Turkish MPs, businessmen, scientific and culture figures, lawyers
and journalist women. Armenian side took the same step. Azerbaijan
Committee on Women Problems, late Zahra Guliyeva organized another
group. But Armenians delayed the meeting. We invited them to Turkey
where a debate on women contribution to peace was held. Then debates
in the peaceful atmosphere were held in Istanbul and Yerevan. Then
Austria’s Bruno Krayski Fund offered its contribution in the
organization of meetings and we accepted them. The next meeting
was to b held in Vienna but in the end Armenian party rejected to
participate. Most probably it was Armenian Diaspora’s work". Akkan
Suver emphasized Azerbaijan cooperates with Marmara Group very
actively." Azerbaijan – Turkey Businessmen Association conferred
"Gizil Charkh" award on US and Turkey former presidents Bill Klinton
and Suleyman Damirel , Azerbaijan and Georgia’ presidents Ilham
Aliyev and Mikhail Saakashvili and Turkey Prime Minister Rajab
Tayyib Ardoghangor their contribution to the construction of Baku-
Tbilisi- Ceyhan pipeline. On April 17, a meeting on this occasion
is to be held. I am pleased to say that this award was conferred on
Azerbaijan-American Trade Chamber and Turkey’s Marmara Group too. Our
organization is a member of World Azerbaijanis Forum and has good
relations with State Committee for Religious Committees. Ataturk
Baku Centre published two my books. As you know Heydar Aliyev was
honorary chairman of Marmara Group. When he died we offered this post
to Ilham Aliyev .We were very glad he accepted to hold this post. We
will continue to develop our special relations with Azerbaijan.