Author: Kanayan Tamar

[Congressional Record: April 22, 2005 (Extensions)]
[Page E739]
>From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr22ap05-29]

COMMEMORATING THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
______

HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY
of new york
in the house of representatives
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, as a proud member of the Congressional
Caucus on Armenian Issues, and the representative of a large and
vibrant community of Armenian Americans, I rise to join my colleagues
in the sad commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.
Today we declare to people living in every comer of our globe that
the Turkish and American governments must finally acknowledge what we
have long understood: that the unimaginable horror committed on Turkish
soil in the aftermath of World War I was, and is, an act of genocide.
I strongly believe that the tragic events that began on April 24,
1915, which are well known to all of us, should be part of the history
curriculum in every Turkish and American school. On that dark April
day, more than 200 of Armenia’s religious, political and intellectual
leaders were arrested in Constantinople and killed. Ultimately, more
than 1.5 million Armenians were systematically murdered at the hands of
the Young Turks, and more than 500,000 more were exiled from their
native land.
On this 90th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide, we lend
our voices to a chorus that grows louder with each passing year. We
simply will not allow the planned elimination of an entire people to
remain in the shadows of history. The Armenian Genocide must be
acknowledged, studied and never, ever allowed to happen again.
The parliaments of Canada, France and Switzerland have all passed
resolutions affirming that the Armenian people were indeed subjected to
genocide. The United States must do the same. I will not stop fighting
until long overdue legislation acknowledging the Armenian Genocide
finally passes.
Of course, an acknowledgment of the genocide is not our only
objective. I remain committed to ensuring that the U.S. government
continues to provide direct financial assistance to Armenia. Over the
years, this aid has played a critical role in the economic and
political advancement of the Armenian people.
Additionally, it is clearly in our national interest to foster peace
and stability in the South Caucasus region. We in Congress need to
renew our commitment to Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which
denies assistance to Azerbaijan until it ends its stranglehold on the
embattled region of Nagorno-Karabagh. We will not stand by as the
Armenian people are threatened yet again.
On this solemn day, our message is clear: the world remembers the
Armenian genocide, and the governments of Turkey and the United States
must declare–once and for all–that they do, too.

Calcutta Telegraph, India
April 23 2005
Phoenix from urban decay
SUBHRO SAHA
What stands dull and decrepit today, in the heart of Park Street,
could be busy and beautiful in another 18 months.
Heritage hotel and landscaped pedestrian plaza, boutique brands and
bookstore, open-air theatre and rooftop exhibition space, sunken
parking lot and rolling art gallery.
Shades of Leicester Square or a mini Centre Georges Pompidou is what
the 95-year-old Park Mansions promises to evoke after a restoration
and adaptive reuse initiative undertaken by the Apeejay Surrendra
Group (see box).
“We want to create a destination that will give people of all ages
and calling enough reasons to come to Park Street,” stresses Jit
Paul, adviser to the group and the brain behind the revival scheme,
which got the heritage panel nod on Thursday evening.
Constructed by Armenian jute merchant Thaddeus Mesrope Thaddeus in
1910, Park Mansions was acquired by Paul from estate managers Talbot
and Company, and housed the French cultural centre premises, Alliance
Francaise, besides Sky Room, Bombay Photo and Rajniklal.
Alliance was ravaged by a fire, Sky Room downed shutters and the
building – flanked by Park Street, Free School Street and Royd
Street, and hence, with a regal triple frontage – now lies in an
advanced state of urban decay.
“We plan to repair the crumbling edifice and restore it as a vibrant,
iconic rendezvous for residents, with a basket of activities,”
explains architect Dulal Mukherjee, anchoring the design solution.
The five entry points to Park Mansions, built in “old colonial style
with an East European aura”, will be given a facelift with grand
marble lobbies, modern elevators and stairways. A quaint heritage
hotel built across four levels and one-bedroom studio apartments will
complement exclusive brands housed in the retail quarter.
The piece de resistance of the makeover model will be the interactive
zone and pedestrian plaza, created across the 50,000 sq ft central
courtyard, now essentially used as parking space.
“It will be very contemporary and I plan to use deconstruction
architecture to create a feel of unlimited space with a strong
pedestrian axis and totally segregated vehicular traffic,” says
Mukherjee.
With a blend of hard and soft landscaping, the well of the mansion
will throb with activity, revolving around performing arts and music
and spilling onto the rooftop arena. A twin-level sunken parking lot
will hold over 100 vehicles with access along the eastern corridor.
“For two decades, we allowed Park Mansions to disintegrate. Now, we
are determined to make amends and do something positive that would
energise the region and enthuse others,” says Paul, underlining the
need for a holistic restoration drive across the city, instead of
piecemeal efforts.
The Apeejay Surrendra Group plans to retain T3 – The Tea Table at its
present location, across the new-look Flurys. While most of the
ground-level retail tenants like Rajniklal, GKB Opticals, Burlingtons
and Gupta Brothers will stay where they are, talks are on with a host
of new, high-profile new entrants like Citizen.

The Statesman, India
April 22 2005
100 years ago today
APRIL 22, 1905
(News Items)
Armenian College Prize Distribution
The annual distribution of prizes to the pupils of the Armenian
College and Philanthropic Academy was held last evening at the
Theatre Royal in the presence of a large gathering of parents,
guardians, friends. His Grace the Archbishop of Armenia, Persia, and
India presided. The proceedings included vocal and instrumental items
besides recitations in Armenian French and English, all of which were
rendered in a manner which reflected much credit on the training
of the boys. The report of the management was read by Mr W.P.S.
Milstead, Principal of the Institution.

Azeri Speaker, EU reps discuss Karabakh settlement
ANS TV, Baku
18 Apr 05
[Presenter] Azerbaijan will make no compromises in the Nagornyy
Karabakh issue, Azerbaijani Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov has told a
meeting with EU representatives.
[Correspondent over video of the meeting] The meeting between the
delegation of the EU-Azerbaijan parliamentary cooperation committee and
Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov focused on the ways of settling the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict. The speaker drew the European guests’ attention
to the fact that 20 per cent of Azerbaijani territories had been
occupied and over 1m people had became refugees as a result of Armenian
aggression. He complained about the inactivity of the OSCE Minsk Group
which had undertaken to mediate a settlement to the conflict. He said
that there had been no fair and objective approach to the conflict so
far. Alasgarov once again put forward the Baku government’s position
and ruled out any compromises on the part of Azerbaijan.
[Alasgarov, speaking to delegation members] Azerbaijan can ensure the
security of the Armenian population of Karabakh. They can be granted
higher autonomy. This is the only compromise that we can make. No
other compromises can be the subject of discussions.
[Correspondent over video] The head of the EU-Azerbaijan parliamentary
cooperation committee, (?Maria Ashler Bequin), stressed the need for
focusing permanently on the regional conflict and for electing a EU
envoy for the region.
We have familiarized ourselves with the living conditions of refugees
settled in numerous districts of Azerbaijan. We are concerned about
their difficult situation and the fruitlessness of the talks which
have been held so far, end of quote.
[Bequin, speaking in French with Azeri voice-over] We partially share
the OSCE Minsk Group’s responsibility. The Minsk Group should fully use
its potential. We hope that the conflict will be settled peacefully.
[Correspondent, over video of meeting with EU delegation] The sixth
meeting held by the EU representatives in Baku also focused on the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict.
[Azeri MP Gulcohra Mammadova] The EU should express its position
on the Karabakh conflict. The EU should not have the same attitude
towards the country subjected to aggression and the aggressor country.
[Correspondent] [Sentence indistinct] Meetings with the EU
representatives will continue tomorrow.

President Papoulias receives head of Armenian Church of Cilicia
Athens News Agency, Greece
April 18 2005
President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Monday received
the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I, head of the
Catholicosate of Cilicia based in Lebanon.
This is the fourth visit by the Armenian church leader to Athens,
where he will take part in the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy
taking place in Athens on the theme: “Nation, Religions and the new
European Reality”.
Catholicos Aram I, who is also president of the World Council of
Churches, celebrated his 10th anniversary as head of the Armenian
Church of Cilicia in Athens last Saturday, as well as the 75th
anniversary since the foundation of the Catholicosate of the Great
House of Cilicia in Antelias, Lebanon and serving the needs of the
Armenian diaspora.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Liberator: GI wants no one to forget Hersbruck’s stacks of bodies, skeletal survivors
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas Morning News , TX
April 18 2005
10:02 PM CDT on Sunday, April 17, 2005
The men of Company K skirted a small Bavarian town and crept down
a country road in April 1945, on their way to engage the retreating
German army in the last weeks of World War II.
A few hundred yards away, a set of gates opened quickly, and two
trucks gathered speed as perhaps 10 German soldiers scrambled aboard.
The Americans, most with just a few months of battle experience,
inched toward the gates, afraid of what they’d discover inside.
What they found was far beyond anything they’d imagined.”We walked
in,” said Leo Serian, “and we froze at the sight before us. There
were bodies strewn all over the ground.”
Mr. Serian, now 79 and living in North Dallas, remembers thinking of
a stormy winter day, with tree limbs scattered across the yard.
But then he looked to the right and saw a pyre of bodies stacked
eight to 10 feet high. And he realized the enormity of the cruelty
and terror they’d found in this concentration camp called Hersbruck.
“We were paralyzed there. We couldn’t move for a few minutes,” Mr.
Serian said. “Most American soldiers knew nothing of concentration
camps. And we’d walked into one.”
Finally, they looked beyond the horrors and saw movements, painful
and halting, as the camp’s few survivors struggled to greet their
liberators.
Three weeks earlier, on Easter Sunday, April 1, thousands of prisoners
filled the camp. But with American troops approaching, those well
enough to walk were forced to march to Dachau. Only 9,000 would
survive. And of those left behind, just these few remained alive
three weeks later.
“Some were still able to walk. Some came on their hands and knees,”
Mr. Serian said. “And they crawled to us and held onto us, thanking
us, I guess, in their own languages.
“You could almost see the bones protruding from their bodies.”
All the survivors seemed near starvation, Mr. Serian said, but the
soldiers, part of the 261st Regiment of the 65th Infantry Division
in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army, carried only K rations, and not
much of that.
The troops remained with the survivors for an hour or so, said Mr.
Serian, then a private first class, until other units caught up that
could supply needed help.
Then the soldiers of Company K resumed their push toward the German
lines, across Germany and into Austria, to VE Day on May 8 and home
to America and the lives they’d left behind.
Writing to survivors
The years slipped past, eroding many memories of the war, but the
image of what he and his buddies found in that concentration camp
remained fresh, Mr. Serian said.
“It was always on my mind,” he said, “and I thought for years of
trying to locate the survivors.”
He’d learned the name of the prison, a satellite of the huge
concentration camp at Flossenburg, but knew little more than that. In
January 2004, he turned to the United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washington, D.C., explaining what his unit had done almost
60 years earlier and asking for guidance.
In return, he received a list of 27 survivors and their addresses. He
wrote letters to each one, telling who he was and the role he’d played
and asking about their experiences at the camp and their lives since.
He’s heard from more than a dozen, some in the United States and
others in Bolivia, Israel, Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy.
‘Responsibility to tell’
Why launch such an effort after so many years?
As a first-generation Armenian-American, who lost his grandparents
and most of his relatives in the massacres of Armenians in the late
19th and early 20th centuries, Mr. Serian empathized with the Nazis’
victims.
But mostly, he was angry with those who denied the Holocaust had
occurred.
“A lot of memories from the war have faded,” he said, “but one thing
I know is we liberated a concentration camp, and I want the people
who deny it happened to know that.
“And I felt a responsibility to tell people about it for the sake of
those who never came back.”
In the history of the Holocaust, Hersbruck plays a minor role,
one of thousands of subcamps lost amid the horrors of Auschwitz,
Treblinka, Mauthausen.
But the memory of that pyre, and the tugs of thankful hands at the
brink of salvation, convince Mr. Serian that even this small story
is worth remembering.
“I keep thinking these poor souls went into that camp through the
gates of death,” he said, “but they came out through gates of freedom.”

Their families’ stories keep Armenia alive
Armenian-Americans in Rhode Island will mark the anniversary of the
1915 genocide with a candlelight march, a night of music and stories,
and a youth day.
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, April 17, 2005
BY ELIZABETH GUDRAIS
Journal Staff Writer
Atrocities. Great misfortune. Tragic events. To Armenians, they are
nothing more than euphemisms.
“Every time somebody denies that the genocide happened, it’s like
perpetrating the crime against the victims all over again,” says
Pauline Getzoyan, a Lincoln resident helping to organize the 90th
anniversary commemoration of the 1915 Armenian genocide.
Armenians remember their collective grief each April 24, with bigger
commemorations on 10-year anniversaries. This year will probably be
the last 10-year marker that includes firsthand survivors’ stories.
Getzoyan’s grandmother, Margaret DerManuelian, is already gone. She
died in 2002. So Getzoyan will tell her story. At the commemoration on
Saturday, Getzoyan will don her grandmother’s shawl, take up her
black-veined turquoise worry beads, and tell a story so horrific her
grandmother didn’t speak of it for years.
Getzoyan will recount how in 1915, DerManuelian, then a 6-year-old
living in the Ottoman sanjak, or district, of Palu, discovered her
father’s dead body, decapitated by Ottoman soldiers.
Next weekend’s events are about remembering, but they’re also about
getting recognition. Getzoyan, who is 43 and teaches fourth grade at
Central Elementary in Lincoln, co-organized a symposium at Rhode
Island College in March, to guide teachers in adding genocide
education to their curriculum. She is part of the Armenian National
Committee, which lobbies Congress and the president to recognize that
the word genocide applies to the Armenian killings of 1915. An
estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished at Ottoman hands.
Some countries, including France, Switzerland and Greece, have
officially recognized the Ottoman killing of Armenians in 1915 as
genocide. Turkey and the United States are not among those countries.
ARMENIANS REMEMBER April 24, 1915, as the day the genocide started. On
that day, more than 200 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders
were killed in Constantinople.
This year, April 24 falls on a Sunday. Many of Rhode Island’s
estimated 10,000 Armenian-Americans will go to New York City for
commemoration events in Times Square. Providence will have its own
event, at the North Burial Ground on North Main Street, at a monument
with the skull of an unidentified 12-year-old Armenian boy sealed
inside.
The skull, recovered from the Der-el-Zor desert in what is now Syria,
may seem a morbid symbol. But that’s the point. Ninety years later,
the genocide “still has the power to shock us,” says Adam Strom, a
scholar who will speak at the ceremony.
Strom, the principal writer and editor of Crimes Against Humanity and
Civilization: The Genocide of the Armenians, a resource book for
teachers, is on staff at Facing History and Ourselves, a Brookline,
Mass.-based organization that creates teaching aids and provides
guidance on “questions of tolerance and social responsibility,” in
Strom’s words.
Strom believes recognizing the Armenian genocide is crucial to help
Armenians and to prevent future atrocities.
Acknowledgement is the first step in learning history’s lessons, he
says.
“How can you approach history so it doesn’t become a weapon in a new
war?” Strom says. “So often, history becomes a call for revenge.”
GREGORY CHOPOORIAN’S grandfather struggled with that very question.
His grandfather survived being forcibly marched through the Der-el-Zor
desert. What haunted him most, he would later tell his family, was the
sight of a man forced to watch his pregnant wife impaled on a
stake. Chopoorian, 42, of Cumberland, said his grandfather “would,
toward the end of his life, say, ‘What are we going to do? We can’t do
the same thing to them. We’ll be just like them.’ ”
Chopoorian, who works as an administrator at the Mansion Nursing Home
in Central Falls, has published articles on Armenian costumes, rugs
and material culture. As a consultant for Ararat, a 2002 film by
Armenian-Canadian director Atom Egoyan, Chopoorian worked with the set
designer and costume designer to ensure accuracy.
For Saturday’s commemoration evening at Rhode Island College,
Chopoorian will narrate vignettes about the six provinces of historic
Armenia.
The borders of the modern Armenian state, a former Soviet republic,
were established by the USSR. While small, Armenia is larger than
Israel and Lebanon combined. But the area Armenians claim as their
historic homeland extends some 300 miles west from Mount Ararat into
modern-day Turkey.
The 16,854-foot peak was the landing site of Noah’s Ark, according to
the Christian tradition Armenians hold dear.
It grates on Armenians that Mount Ararat itself is in eastern Turkey,
close enough to the border to be visible from Armenia.
“Our sacred mountain has been stolen from us,” Chopoorian says,
holding up a calendar photo of Ararat looming white against a vivid
blue sky.
An exchange from Ararat, the movie, encapsulates the way the debate
plays out between modern-day Turks and Armenians.
“Lots of people died. It was World War I,” Elias Koteas’ character, an
actor with Turkish ancestry, tells Raffi, a young Armenian-American
man struggling to understand his heritage.
“Turkey wasn’t at war with Armenia,” Raffi replies, “just like Germany
wasn’t at war with the Jews.” Armenians “were Turkish citizens,” he
continues. “They had a right to protection.”
The film is about the Armenian genocide, but also about how we tell
history, and how each retelling is necessarily imperfect because it’s
based on one person’s understanding.
The Turkish minister of culture called the film “propaganda” and
accused Egoyan of distorting history. Miramax chairman Harvey
Weinstein, determined to distribute the film in the U.S., accused the
Turkish government of “denying history.”
A particularly venomous thread of discussion on one movie Web site
centers on an oft-quoted statement attributed to Adolf Hitler on the
eve of invading Poland: “Be merciless in exterminating Polish men,
women and children. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?”
Turks and their defenders dispute that Hitler ever said this.
Three years after Ararat’s release, postings still fly back and forth
on the Internet.
Armenians don’t hate Turks, Chopoorian insists. They understand the
Turkish government’s objection to connecting modern-day Turkey with
the deeds of the Ottoman Empire. They just want recognition.
“How can you destroy an entire nation of people and not deal with it?”
he asks.
It’s imperative that Armenians act while there are still survivors,
says Joyce Yeremian, chairwoman of the Armenian Martyrs’ Memorial
Committee of Rhode Island, which planned the commemoration events.
Once the survivors are gone, “it’s just history,” says Yeremian, 64, a
North Providence resident whose grandfather, 14 years old in 1915,
survived an attempt by Ottoman forces to drown him in the Euphrates.
NEW ENGLAND’S earliest Armenian immigrant community sprang up in
Worcester in the 1890s, when Armenians fled the persecution of Sultan
Abdul-Hamid II. They came to work in the mills and sent money home.
In 1915, many served as sponsors for relatives still in
Armenia. Providence’s Armenians settled on Smith Hill. St. Sahag &
St. Mesrob Armenian Apostolic Church was the community’s
centerpiece. Two more Armenian churches, Sts. Vartanantz on Broadway
and Euphrates Evangelical on Franklin Street, followed.
Today, the state’s 10,000 or so Armenian-Americans have spread out,
with enclaves in Cranston and North Providence. St. Sahag & St. Mesrob
“is no longer a community church,” says its pastor, the Rev. Simeon
Odabashian. “Everybody drives here. Nobody walks.”
But with its eight-sided tower, blue neon-lit cross and Armenian flag
— striped red, blue and orange — visible from Route 95, St. Sahag &
St. Mesrob is still a gathering place for Rhode Island’s Armenians.
Inside, the greeting parev, Armenian for hello, echoes as people
arrive for a meeting to plan commemoration events.
The events begin Tuesday, with Armenian Youth Day at the Egavian
Cultural Center, adjacent to St. Sahag & St. Mesrob Church at 70
Jefferson St. The 10th annual youth day will feature Armenian crafts
and cooking classes, and a chance to meet survivors of the genocide.
On Friday at 7, a candlelight march is planned from Sts. Vartanantz
Church, 402 Broadway, to the State House.
Saturday evening’s event at Rhode Island College’s Roberts Hall starts
at 7 and is free and open to the public. The Rhode Island Philharmonic
Youth Orchestra will play the music of composer Aram Khatchaturian.
Pauline Getzoyan will perform her Vignette of an Armenian
Mother. Gregory Chopoorian will tell about the six provinces,
accompanied by David Ayriyan on the kemancha, a traditional string
instrument. Armenian and English poems and a performance by the
Armenian Chorale of Rhode Island, directed by St. Sahag & St. Mesrob
Church music director Konstantin Petrossian, will round out the
evening.
The next afternoon, at 12:30 at the North Burial Ground, a civil
ceremony will include Adam Strom’s speech.
THERE IS a chilling sameness about the Armenians’ stories of genocide.
Men closed in churches and burned to death. Girls who ended up in
orphanages, or working as servants for Turkish families. Babies thrown
into the Tigris and the Euphrates rather than have them grabbed by
Ottoman soldiers.
Armenians will gather next weekend for the memory of Pauline
Getzoyan’s grandmother, and Joyce Yeremian’s grandfather, and Gregory
Chopoorian’s grandfather, and hundreds of thousands more who didn’t
survive.

Pan Armenian News
TEHERAN ARMENIAN SCHOOLS TO DEMAND THAT IRANIAN PARLIAMENT RECOGNIZE
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
15.04.2005 06:55
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Teheran Diocese of the Armenian Church is organizing a
mass demonstration with participation of pupils of Armenian schools will be
organized in the Iranian capital on 19 April. The action is dedicated to the
90-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Yerkir newspaper reported.
90 schoolchildren, representing 21 Armenian schools of Iran, will gather in
front of the parliament building. Representatives of national authorities,
members of parental committees and teachers will join them. A petition
demanding to officially acknowledge the Armenian Genocide of 1915 will be
submitted to the Iranian Parliament Presidium. The same day candles will be
lighted in front of all Armenian schools of Teheran.

ARKA News Agency
April 15 2005
The Council of Europe responsible for Education issues and RA Prime
Minister discuss programs on intercultural and inter-religious
cooperation
Armenia’s authorities have not resources to settle Karabakh problem:
Aram Sargsyan
Session of state commission on organization of events dedicated to
90th anniversary of Armenian Genocide held in RA Government
`Genocide: Reality and Denunciation’ conference to be held in RA
National Academy of Sciences April 18-19
Peace and stability very significant to Armenia
Armenia’s law enforcement bodies announce reward at $100 thousand for
information about direct perpetrators of attempt against Chairman of
State Customs Committee
*********************************************************************
THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE RESPONSIBLE FOR EDUCATION ISSUES AND RA PRIME
MINISTER DISCUSS PROGRAMS ON INTERCULTURAL AND INTER-RELIGIOUS
COOPERATION
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. The Council of Europe Responsible for
Education issues Gabrielle Matsa and RA Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan discussed programs on intercultural and inter-religious
cooperation, as stated Matsa in the course of the press-conference
devoted to the results of the visit of the CE representative to
Armenia. According to him, the sides discussed the orientation of
education programs implemented in Armenia with the support of CE, as
well as issues connected with the policy of Armenia in the area of
education.
This is the first visit of the CE Responsible for Education Issues to
Armenia. A.H. –0–
*********************************************************************
ARMENIA’S AUTHORITIES HAVE NOT RESOURCES TO SETTLE KARABAKH PROBLEM:
ARAM SARGSYAN
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. Armenia’s current authorities have not any
resources for settling the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, Aram Sargsyan, a
member of the Board of the opposition party Republic, stated at the
party’s congress today. According to him, Armenia’s foreign policy
has reached a deadlock in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process, as
`no country in the world agrees to discuss the issue of the NKR
people’s self-determination. On the contrary, all countries are
inclined to defend the principle of Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity.’
According to Sargsyan, `the current authorities are illegal, and no
agreement signed by them can be considered valid.’In this context he
pointed out that a revolution in the country may considerably change
the situation, as `a pro-Armenian settlement of the conflict is
possible provided Armenia and NKR are more democratic than
Azerbaijan.’ `It is the lack of democracy that is the reason for
Armenia’s remaining outside the regional developments and programs,’
Sargsyan said. P.T. -0–
*********************************************************************
SESSION OF STATE COMMISSION ON ORGANIZATION OF EVENTS DEDICATED TO
90TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE HELD IN RA GOVERNMENT
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. Session of state commission on
organization of events dedicated to 90th anniversary of Armenian
Genocide was held today under the chairmanship of RA Premier in RA
Government. According to the Public Relations and Press Department of
RA Government, the process of the accomplished preparatory work was
presented at the session. In particular, an international scientific
conference dedicated to Armenian Genocide and protection of human
rights will be held on April 20-21 in Armenia, a concert dedicated to
victims of Armenian Genocide will be held in the RA National Opera
and Ballet Theatre on April 23. According to the program, devoted to
the victims of the Armwnian Genocide. Aslo, conferences, exhibitions,
publication of books, dedicated to the Genocide will be held.
L.V.–0–
*********************************************************************
`GENOCIDE: REALITY AND DENUNCIATION’ CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN RA
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES APRIL 18-19
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. `Genocide: Reality and Denunciation’
conference will be held in RA National Academy of Sciences on April
18- 19. According to RA Foreign Ministry’s Press Service Department,
the conference comes as part of events, dedicated to 90th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire. Scientists from Armenia
and Armenian Diaspora will take part in the event. The conference
will be concluded with a round-table discussion focused on the issue
of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
>From the second half of 19th century to 1920, Ottoman Empire, today’s
Turkey being its successor, had carried out regular persecutions and
victimizations of Armenians. Over one and a half million Armenians
were massacred as a result of the policy of elimination of Armenians
in different regions of Western Armenia which was a part of Ottoman
Empire at the time,. April 24 is officially marked as Day of Genocide
Victims Commemoration.
Uruguay was the first country to officially recognize the Armenian
Genocide in 1965. To date, the fact of Armenian Genocide has been
recognized , in particular, by Russia, Switzerland, France,
Argentina, Greece, Lower Chamber of Italian Parliament, Canada, the
majority of U.S. States. Parliaments of Slovakia and the Netherlands,
as well as the Canadian House of Commons have voted for the
recognition of Armenian Genocide. In addition, the European
Parliament readopted its resolution of 1987 concerning the Armenian
Genocide of 1915 in the newly adopted resolution `Policy of European
Union in respect to South Caucasus’. L.V. –0 –
*********************************************************************
PEACE AND STABILITY VERY SIGNIFICANT TO ARMENIA
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. Peace and stability is very significant to
Armenia, Armenian Defence Ministry’s Spokesman Seyran Shahsuvaryan
reported quoting Armenian Deputy Defence Minister Lieutenant General
Arthur Aghabekyan as saying in his address to Armenian peacekeepers
heading to Kosovo. According to him, these words attach sense to
freedom and independence. `Carrying out the peacekeeping mission, you
help to maintain stability in your Motherland’, he said.
A unit made up of 34 Armenian peacekeepers came back from Kosovo to
Yerevan today. And a new group of Armenian peacekeepers will be sent
to Kosovo today.
The Memorandum on participation of an Armenian Armed Forces unit in
peacekeeping operation in Kosovo as part of the Greek battalion was
signed on Sep 3, 2003, in Yerevan and ratified by Armenian National
Assembly on Dec 13, 2003. M.V. -0–
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ARMENIA’S LAW ENFORCEMENT BODIES ANNOUNCE REWARD AT $100 THOUSAND FOR
INFORMATION ABOUT DIRECT PERPETRATORS OF ATTEMPT AGAINST CHAIRMAN OF
STATE CUSTOMS COMMITTEE
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. State General Prosecutor’s Office and RA
National Security Service have announced a reward at $100 thousand
for any information about the direct perpetrators of attempt against
Armen Avetisyan, the Head of RA State Customs Committee attached to
RA Government.
According to the announcement published in the press, the law
enforcement bodies of Armenia searching for a handsome man, 55 to 60,
of a medium height, looking as a clerk or retired military.
A bomb exploded on March 24, 2005, outside the State Customs
Committee’s Office right at a moment when the car of the Committee
Chairman Armen Avetisyan came close to the building doorway.
Avetisyan survived the accident, but his car vas damaged. The
Committee Administration connects the incident with the crackdown on
shady dealing it started earlier this year as well as with tightening
customs administrating. M.V. -0–

Deutsche Presse-Agentur – Europadienst
14. April 2005
Turkey should recognize the Genocide of Armenians
Giordano: Tuerkei sollte “Voelkermord an Armeniern” anerkennen
Koeln
90 Jahre nach dem “Voelkermord an den Armeniern” hat der
Schriftsteller Ralph Giordano die Tuerkei zur Anerkennung der Taten
aufgefordert. “Solange die Tuerkei bei der Politik der Verneinung
bleibt, sind die Daemonen der Vergangenheit nicht vertrieben”, sagte
Giordano am Mittwoch zum Auftakt einer Veranstaltungsreihe zum 90.
Jahrestag der Massenmorde im Koelner Lew- Kopelew-Forum. Zugleich
kritisierte der Schriftsteller, dass es in Deutschland bisher noch
keinen gemeinsamen Antrag von Regierung und Opposition zur
Verurteilung des Voelkermordes gebe. Die Tuerkei lehnt die
Bezeichnung der damaligen Geschehnisse als Voelkermord ab – im
Gegensatz etwa zu Frankreich.
Bislang hat nur die CDU/CSU einen entsprechenden Antrag im Bundestag
eingereicht. Damit habe sie zum ersten Mal seit 90 Jahren das
Schweigen ueber den “Voelkermord” gebrochen. Der Grund, dass sich die
Regierung zurueckhalte, sei ein geplanter Besuch des Kanzlers in der
Tuerkei, sagte Giordano. Eine Aussoehnung der beiden Voelker koenne
es nur auf der Grundlage politischer Aufrichtigkeit geben. “Bis heute
entbloedet sich die Tuerkei jedoch nicht, das Geschehen umzukehren”,
sagte Giordano, der 1986 fuer die ARD eine Dokumentation zu dem
Massenmord produziert hatte. Sie spreche von einem “gegenseitigen
Massaker”.
Nach Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges hatten im Jahr 1915 tuerkische
Truppen Armenier in Hungermaerschen in die Syrische Wueste getrieben.
Nach armenischen Angaben kamen 1,5 Millionen Menschen ums Leben, nach
Angaben internationaler Historiker 600 000 bis 800 000 Menschen.
Mit der Veranstaltungsreihe im Koelner Lew-Kopelew-Forum soll der
Voelkermord wieder ins Gedaechtnis gerufen werden. Zu sehen ist unter
anderem bis zum 25. Mai die Ausstellung “Lost landscapes, lost
visions – verlorene Umkehr” der armenischen Kuenstler Albert Vardayan
und Vahan Topchyan, die sich in Skulpturen, Zeichnungen und
Aquarellen mit der Vergangenheit ihres Volkes auseinandersetzen. dpa
lud zl yynwk mh