Author: Karagyozian Lena

NKR PRESIDENT WELCOMES THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE PAN-ARMENIAN PILGRIMAGE TO SHOUSHI

armradio.am
02.05.2008 15:10

On May 2 NKR President Bako Sahakyan and the leadership of eth
republic met with participants of the Etchmiadzin-Shoushi pan-Armenian
pilgrimage.

Addressing the participants, NKR President Bako Sahakyan said:

"Dear friends, Dear compatriots,

I’m glad to welcome you on the Artsakhi land. Theparticipates of the
pilgrimage were blessed at the pan-Armenian religious centre of the
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, and continuing their rally, reached
the St. Ghazanchetsots Church of Shoushi. This includes a deep meaning
and determines the path of our future victories.

It’s pleasant to note that most of the pilgrims are Armenian young
people from different sites of the world. It is the best proof of
the fact that unity is one of the main features characteristic of
our nation.

Over the whole course of its history the Armenian nation has managed
to overcome any difficulty with honor if it has been united. This
unprecedented initiative involves the most essential components of
this unity. It symbolizes the state-society-church link.

Appreciable is the fact that the soldiers of the liberation war
and the Ministry of Defense are actively participating in this
pan-Armenian event.

I attach a huge importance to the participation of different
generations and representatives of social groups in such national
undertakings. Public and political figures and intellectuals,
soldiers of the liberation war in Artsakh, mothers of the killed
heroes, as well as representatives of the younger generation are
here today. Participants of the pilgrimage represent different parts
of the Armenian nation, once again underscoring the role of the
Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora unity in our life.

I welcome the fact representatives of different nationalities, who
are citizens of Armenia, participate in the pilgrimage.

More than ever, today our people need to unite, be united and live in
concord. The numerous challenges and issues that face our two Armenian
republics can be solved only this way. The history of out nation has
proved on many occasions that we have no other way out. It is the
imperative of the time and the main guarantee of our victories. We
should continue along this path, build our Motherland and welfare
future of our generations.

On behalf of the people and authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic, I once again welcome all the participants and organizers
of the pan-Armenian pilgrimage, all those who initiated and realized
this important mission. I wish you success and all the best.

I’m sure that this exceptional pan-Armenian event will have its
important role in consolidating the united will and spirit of
our people for the benefit of the Republic of Armenia, the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic and the strengthening and prosperity of world-spread
Armenians.

DARCHINYAN TITLE FIGHT PUT BACK
By Adrian Warren

Fox Sports, Australia
April 30 2008

April 30, 2008 VIC Darchinyan’s challenge to Russia’s IBF Super
flyweight world champion Dimitri Kirilov has been pushed back four
weeks to August 2, but the Australian will make an appearance of a
totally different kind next month.

Sydney-based Darchinyan, the current IBO super flyweight world champion
and former IBF and IBO flyweight world titleholder, was originally
scheduled to challenge Kirilov on July 5.

Their Las Vegas clash has been deferred four weeks to allow another
big super flyweight fight to appear on the card.

Filipino Glenn Donaire, the only professional to defeat Darchinyan,
is also scheduled to fight on the new date.

Darchinyan’s manager Elias Nassar revealed Donaire could challenge WBO
super flyweight world champion Fernando Montiel in the main support
bout on the card, which still has to be locked into a specific venue.

The deferral will give Montiel some extra time to recover from his
May 3 title defence against former Darchinyan victim Luis Maldonado.

Nassar revealed Darchinyan would be one of the boxers in the new
Prize Fighter Don King computer game which goes on sale next month.

He added that Darchinyan was the first Australian boxer to appear in
a computer game.

Darchinyan has spent the last month training in Armenia the country
of his birth and will return to Australia shortly.

REP. VAN HOLLEN ISSUES STATEMENT COMMEMORATING 93RD ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

US Fed News
April 29, 2008 Tuesday 8:14 AM EST

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. (8th CD), issued the following statement:

United States Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) today released
the following statement commemorating the 93rd anniversary of the
Armenian genocide:

"I rise today to commemorate the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children were
killed by Ottoman authorities during World War I.

"On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman government began its genocidal plan by
arresting and murdering over 250 Armenian intellectuals and political
figures in Istanbul. In the interior of the Ottoman Empire, where the
bulk of the Armenian population lived, the government then arrested
and killed village leaders. Meanwhile, most able-bodied Armenian men,
who had been conscripted into the Ottoman army, were separated into
labor battalions and subsequently murdered. Next, in various provinces,
gendarmes and the army massacred Armenian villagers outright, while in
other provinces the remaining Armenian population of women, children
and the elderly were forcibly deported over the mountains and into the
scorching deserts of Syria, without food and water. Many of the female
deportees were raped and killed en route, while other deportees died
of starvation and dehydration. By the end of 1915, the centuries-old
Armenian civilization of eastern Anatolia no longer existed.

"U.S. diplomats who were stationed in Anatolia at the time were
some of the main eye-witnesses and chroniclers of that horrific
period. U.S. Consul Leslie Davis, stationed in Harput in eastern
Anatolia, wrote the following in a cable to U.S. Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau, dated July 24, 1915: "It has been no secret that the
plan was to destroy the Armenian race as a race, but the methods
used have been more cold-blooded and barbarous, if not effective,
than I had first supposed." He also wrote in this same cable: "I
do not believe there has ever been a massacre in the history of the
world so general and thorough as that which is now being perpetrated
in this region or that a more fiendish, diabolical scheme has been
conceived in the mind of man."

"This cable, and many others of a similar nature, is housed in the
U.S. National Archives only a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol and
the White House. They provide unambiguous, documentary evidence
of what occurred. Yet there are those who still refuse to properly
characterize what happened to the Armenian people during World War I
as genocide. Although the word "genocide" was not invented in 1915,
what these diplomats described was indeed genocide of a people.

"I am deeply disappointed that many of our current officials avoid
characterizing what occurred as "genocide." The avoidance does a
disservice to the memory of the victims and their descendants and
hurts our moral standing in the world. I hope that one day soon, this
legislative body and the U.S. Administration will properly characterize
what happened to the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.

"Many of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide settled in the
United States. Bearing painful physical and emotional scares,
they nonetheless re-established their lives here, worked hard,
and became proud American citizens, thankful for the opportunity to
live in freedom. Many of their descendants have become leaders in the
fields of science, business, academia, and the arts, and have served
their country bravely in military uniform. They have also created a
vibrant community. Yet they also bear the pain of what their parents
and grandparents went through and are actively engaged in the effort
to seek proper recognition of what happened to the Armenian people in
1915. Today, as we recall the events of the Armenian Genocide and pay
homage to the victims, we also honor the Armenian-American community
for its unwavering commitment to this human rights struggle."

MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CONDEMNS ARMENIA’S AGGRESSIVE POLICY

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
May 1 2008

Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 April / Trend News corr S. Ilhamgizi/ On 30 April,
the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with Adrian
Severin, the Romanian member of the European Parliament, Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry reported.

The European MP noted the importance of Azerbaijan’s special position
in the European Neighbouring Policy to establish strategic cooperation
between the organization and the country and said that Azerbaijan
has the potential. He added that not only is the oil and gas policy
of Azerbaijan important for the European Union, but its geopolitical
situation as well, dynamic development of economy and the contribution
which Azerbaijan can make in cooperating between EU and Middle Asia.

Mammadyarov informed Severin that the first report on the fulfilment
of Azerbaijan’s Action Plan on EU Neighbouring Policy had already
been developed and that integration with Europe resulted in progress
in a range of fields in the country. He suggested researching the
opportunities to establish the GUAM Friendship Group at the European
Parliament.

Regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, Mammadyarov and Severin
condemned the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territory and said ethnic
cleansing carried out by Armenia on the principle of ‘determination
of its future’ are intolerable.

The Romanian representative said not national minorities but nations
may ‘determine its future’ and the Armenians have already determined
themselves within Armenia.

They noted the necessity to improve the knowledge about Azerbaijan
at the European Parliament, to organize visits of MPs to Azerbaijan
and also discussed lobby activities.

ART AS EVIDENCE

Guardian
April 29, 2008 11:45 AM
UK

Arshile Gorky’s moving double portrait is a testimony to the Armenian
suffering the Turkish government still deny

Record of a tragedy … detail from Arshile Gorky’s The Artist and
his Mother (1926 – 36)

The artist Arshile Gorky was a survivor of a genocide that officially
didn’t happen. To this day, the government of Turkey denies that in
the dying days of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 to 1918, the Armenian
population of Turkey was deliberately eradicated. Yet there is ample
evidence of what happened. There are written eyewitness accounts,
there are photographs – and there is Gorky’s painting The Artist and
his Mother (1926 – 36).

Can a painting be historical evidence? Can it "prove" something
happened?

Those who still deny the historical reality of the Armenian genocide
are capable of ignoring or explaining away photographs of emaciated
bodies in heaps, photographs that back up contemporary written
evidence that starvation was a key element in the pogrom. Armenian
men were shot dead in their tens of thousands. Women and children were
driven on forced marches towards Syria and Iraq without food or water,
in a herding intended to kill.

At least one million people were massacred.

Gorky’s family were peasants who lived beside Lake Van. In 1915,
when he was 12, the Armenian ordeal began – for him a grim adventure
of siege, flight, and hunger. His mother Shushan died of malnutrition
in March 1918 after giving every scrap of bread to her children. Gorky
reached America in 1920 and went on to become a great artist, one of
the generation that created abstract expressionism. His two versions of
his memory picture The Artist and his Mother – one is in the Whitney
Museum in New York, the other in Washington’s National Gallery –
are based on a photograph of the young Gorky with his mother.

If all other evidence of the fate of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 –
18 were to vanish, this moving image would endure as testimony to what
happened. You know, looking at it, that it records a tragedy. It is a
painting of distance and loss: the artist meditates on the distance
history has imposed between him and the place he came from, him
and the child he was. There’s a dry hardness to the figures that’s
at odds with his natural grace as a painter – it communicates his
sense of remoteness. His mother is frozen forever in his photographic
memory. You want to know the story: you find out about the painting
and discover the horrifying facts. The victims of this genocide still
haven’t been properly acknowledged. But Gorky gave at least one of
them a face. How can the government of Turkey look Gorky’s mother in
the eye and still deny the facts?

Tampa Tribune, FL
April 27 2008

Before The Holocaust

By KURT LOFT
The Tampa Tribune
Published: April 27, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG – The systematic murder of European Jews by the Nazis
forms what may be the darkest chapter in human history, but it by no
means exhausted mankind’s capacity for genocide.

>From the massacre of American Indians to the Boer War to Darfur,
governments have shown not just malevolence, but also a penchant for
evil that often escapes description, much less our ability to
understand it. This is why social historians focus on the message of
these terrible events and why each new generation must look it in the
eye.

So it is with "The Greatest Crime of the War: The Armenian Genocide
During World War I," a new exhibition at the Florida Holocaust
Museum. Often overshadowed by the Holocaust of World War II, the fate
of the Armenians at the hands of the Turkish government remains
central to man’s inhumanity to man, says Erin Blankenship, the
museum’s curator of exhibitions and collections.

"For so long, Armenians have been struggling to have this recognized,"
she says. "It’s important for an institution like ours to say, ‘Yes,
this happened before the Holocaust, and we can learn from it.’"

Human rights groups around the world each year honor the victims of
genocide on April 24, when, in 1915, more than 200 Armenian
intellectuals were arrested by the Committee of Union and Progress, a
reformist political power within the Ottoman Empire. Also known as the
Young Turks, the group labeled the Armenians a threat to the empire’s
security and began the planned expulsion of an entire people from
their 2,500-year-old homeland.

An estimated 2 million Armenians were forced to march southwest into
what is now the Syrian desert, where most succumbed to thirst, hunger
and exposure. The horrors and indignities suffered by the fleeing
population — torture and rape were common — underscore the vehemence
of the perpetrators. Many others died within their own borders,
bringing the estimated total number of deaths to about 1.5 million.

The exhibit begins with the history of the Armenian people and follows
the political and international events leading up to World War I and
tensions in the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). The exhibit makes strong
use of photos — families being deported, stoic orphans — to explain
the scale of human suffering.

It ends with panels discussing the denial and lack of justice
surrounding the mass deaths, how the event prompted an international
outcry of "crimes against humanity," and its legacy today.

Turkey does not deny that many Armenians died but says that most of
the deaths were part of the general unrest during the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire. Some countries are sympathetic to Turkey’s position.

The United States, which was aligned with Turkey during the Cold War,
has not officially recognized the events as a genocide. Last year, the
House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution labeling it a
genocide. Turkey reacted by warning that the action threatens its
strategic partnership with the United States.

By recognizing the Armenians’ plight as a planned destruction of a
nation’s people, societies can better understand similar events that
followed — and those that wait to unfold, says Carolyn Bass, the
museum’s director.

"Hitler himself said, ‘Who remembers the Armenians?’ but he was able
to build his own philosophy on it," she says. "Nothing happens in a
vacuum. You need to study all holocausts and what could have been done
to stop them."

ON VIEW

The Greatest Crime

of the War

WHEN: Through Oct. 19; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily

WHERE: Florida Holocaust Museum, 55 Fifth St. S., St. Petersburg

HOW MUCH: $12; $6 for students, free for ages 6 and younger; (727) 820-0100

/tr-before-the-holocaust/

EAFJD: EU DENIES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO PLEASE TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.04.2008 15:32 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Armenian Federation issued a petition
on the 93rd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide to be sent to the
European Union.

The petition says,

"Would you accept the EU to support Genocide denial?

No, of course. And would you accept the funding of an ultranationalist
State? No again, obviously.

However, for now more than ten years, the European Union regularly
denies, grossly negates or fails to deal justly with the Armenian
Genocide.

It makes it in your name, without your consent and it is thus
conniving against the will of EU citizens with the worst of crimes
against Humanity.

It makes it to please Turkey and to ease the stubborn accession
process of this country despite the lucid opposition of Europeans.

Yet, Turkey is a racist, militaristic and xenophobic State where
superiority of the Turkish "race" is taught, where ethnic and
cultural diversity is repressed and where the heritage of minorities
is destroyed. This very same Turkey committed the Armenian Genocide,
keeps on denying it and is absolutely failing to comply with the
European values.

Because of the nature of this absolute crime, because of its 1 500
000 victims and because of the pledges for protection and reparation
made by Europe to the survivors – the Union would have to demand
to Turkey the recognition of this Genocide in the framework of the
accession process.

However, facing the intransigence of Turkish diplomacy, it is far
easier to cover it, to cover its denial – as well as the other breaches
of Turkey to Human Rights.

As it fails to compel Turkey to its values, the Union actively attempts
to "counteract the negative perceptions of the Turkish EU-accession
process that exists in certain segments of public opinion": On this
year, as on the former ones, 40 to 60 million Euros from our taxes
will grant a program of "dialog between European and Turkish civil
societies" intending to turn acceptable the unacceptable. This amount
is part of the half billion Euros granted yearly by the Commission
to Turkey’s criminal regime.

On this Thursday 24 April 2008, we commemorate the 93rd anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide. This commemoration gives us the opportunity
to reaffirm our solidarity with the victims of all genocides:
the Armenians, the Jews, the Tutsi and now, sadly, the Darfuri; as
Genocides performed today stem from the same ideology that currently
denies the first Genocide. As denying the Armenian Genocide also
allows to hush present mass crimes.

If, as us, you believe that genocide is both a severe moral failure and
an actual political threat; if, as us, you don’t accept to be made an
accomplice of such a policy which ruins European values; then please
sign up to this petition that will be forwarded to the European Union."

ARMENIAN COMMUNITY IN CYPRUS URGES TURKEY TO ACKNOWLEDGE GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.04.2008 17:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian community in Cyprus yesterday marked
the 93rd anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, with a call to
Ankara to recognize its historical crimes.

The anniversary was marked by a series of events under the auspices
of House of Representatives President Marios Karoyan.

Yesterday’s event involved a service at the Armenian Church, and a
march in Nicosia.

Vartkes Mahdessian, Armenian Representative at the House, said that
the message the Armenian people wanted to send was one of continuous
struggle to internationalize and resolve the Armenian question,
and also to receive acknowledgement and condemnation of the genocide.

"Armenians will continue their struggle until the final justification,
a duty owed to the victims of the genocide," Mahdessian said. "It
is time that the political leadership of Turkey found the courage
to recognize the crimes the previous Turkish governments committed,
justifying the victims of not only the Armenian genocide but of the
Greeks, Cypriots, Kurds, Arabs, Pontic Greeks and other peoples,
in the hope that it will at some point join the European Union."

Karoyan, in an official statement, reiterated the support of the
House to the demand of the Armenian people for the recognition of
the genocide.

He called on Turkey to recognize and admit its crime and to apologize
to the Armenian people and humanity as a whole.

"We do not beg, we do not implore. We demand justice from the
contemporary democratic humanity, the entire international community,
all the nations and all the peoples. Nothing more, nothing less,"
he said, Cyprus Mail reports.

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA TO HONOR JCRC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NANCY KAUFMAN FOR RAISING AWARENESS OF THE GENOCIDE

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
April 25 2008

YEREVAN, 25.04.08. DE FACTO. The Armenian Assembly of America is
pleased to announce that it will honor Nancy K. Kaufman and the
Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Boston for their
continued leadership in the affirmation of the Armenian Genocide during
an award reception, May 9, at the Grand Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, MA.

Kaufman and the JCRC are being recognized for their moral leadership
in affirming the Armenian Genocide at a time when others would not
have taken such a bold step.

"This event will be a great opportunity for supporters of both
organizations to come together to celebrate their accomplishments and
the growing relationship between our two communities," said Assembly
Public Affairs Chair Anthony Barsamian.

On April 18, Kaufman, who is Executive Director of the JCRC, spoke
movingly about the shared experiences of the Jewish and Armenian
communities in the last century, during the 93rd commemoration of
the Armenian Genocide at the Massachusetts State House.

"In the history of the world, the 20th century will be remembered as
a time of some good, some real evil, and many challenges, including
tragedy and transformation," Kaufman said. "Two of the most horrendous
events were the genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Turks in
the beginning of the century, and the Holocaust at the hands of the
Nazis during the middle of the century. It is our responsibility,
as the next generation, to tell the story of our ancestors who were
the victims of these atrocities."

"As a way of not letting the Armenian Genocide be forgotten, I would
like to bear witness – to testify, if you will – to that history,"
she added. "It is particularly important for us, as Jews, to speak
out in support of your community’s efforts to fight denial."

She noted that the JCRC had been on record for many years in affirming
the Armenian Genocide and discussed why, almost 100 years after
the atrocities, it is so important for the crimes to be properly
recognized.

"The simple truth is that unless crimes like these are accepted as
reality, the perpetrators [punished]…and fair compensation for the
victims and families [are provided], then we will continue to have
future genocides without any concern by the perpetrators that they
will face prosecution and be brought to justice," Kaufman said.

The annual remembrance event was led by Massachusetts State
Representatives Rachel Kaprielian (D-Watertown) and Peter J. Koutoujian
(D-Waltham) and Senator Steven A. Tolman (D-Boston), in conjunction
with the State House Commemoration Planning Committee.

WIVES OF ARRESTED POLITICIANS HAND REGULAR LETTER-DEMAND TO PROSECUTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE

Noyan Tapan
April 25, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN. A regular action of protest of wives
and supporters of arrested oppositionists, freedom-fighters, and
activists took place on April 25 in front of the building of the RA
Prosecutor General’s Office. The demonstrants handed a letter-demand
to the Prosecutor’s Office with hundreds of signatures demanding
releasing their relatives. Zhanna Kotikian, the head of citizens’
reception department, said in her interview to the women that the
letter handed last time did not contain any address or passport data,
which would give the Prosecutor’s Office a possibility to answer
the letter. In response the women stated that they are not going to
provide their data to representatives of Prosecutor’s Office, as they
are convinced that these data will be used against them. "They will
come and arrest us, as well," they said.

Melisa Brown, the wife of Alexander Arzumanian, the head of Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s central headquarters, former Foreign Minister, said
in her interview to Noyan Tapan correspondent that though her husband
has been in prison for almost two months, he is not interrogated and
in general the investigation does not go ahead. She affirmed that
the body carrying out examination has no legal basis or proof to
isolate her husband and others from society. "It is just beneficial
for Robert Kocharian and Serge Sargsian if my husband and his friends
serve a term of imprisonment," M. Brown said.

It should be mentioned that comparatively fewer people took part in
this action. The action participants explained this by the circumstance
that many of their friends had left for the village of Hakhtanak,
the native village of Smbat Ayvazian, a member of the Board of the
Hanrapetutiun (Republic) party, who has been arrested, to take part
in the action of protest held in the same hour.