AS IT HAPPENED: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
The Advertiser (Australia)
April 19, 2006 Wednesday
State Edition
A guarantee of rape, murder or theft. This was reality for the Armenian
population in Turkey, left, during World War I – a horror that spanned
decades as the government tried to obliterate a belief system and,
with that, millions of innocent lives.
CENTER FOR JEWISH STUDIES TO HOST FIFTH ANNUAL HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
by Angie Best, student newswriter
Baylor University, TX
April 19 2006
The Baylor University Center for Jewish Studies will host the fifth
annual Holocaust Memorial Tuesday, April 25, at various locations on
the Baylor campus.
The day’s events will start at 9:30 a.m. with a panel discussion
in Room 133 of the Marrs McLean Science Building. The discussion –
Religion and Genocide: Never Again? – will feature speakers Amie
Coomer, Dr. Chris Van Gorder and Dr. George W. Gawrych.
At 5 p.m. a music recital will be held in the Great Hall of Truett
Theological Seminary. The title of the concert is “Music for the
End of Time” and will feature “music from the death camps.” The
program will include songs such as “Quartet for the End of Time –
The Abyss of the Birds” by Olivier Messiaen and selections from “I
Never Saw Another Butterfly” with music by Lori Laitman and text by
“Children of the Holocaust.”
The memorial will conclude at 8 p.m. in Room 133 of the Marrs-McLean
Science Building with the showing of a film titled “The Armenian
Genocide.”
“The purpose of holding the event is to remember the Holocaust and
to remember the beauty of the lives of those who were affected –
not just the tragedy,” said Dr. Marc Ellis, director of the Center
for Jewish Studies. “People should come to inform themselves, to
remember and to confront our own sensibilities in the world today.”
All events are free and open to the public.
Traitors, martyrs or just brave men?
By Robert Fisk
Gulf Times, Qatar
April 19 2006
LONDON: More than 15 years ago, I travelled to the Belgian city of
Ypres with an Irish friend. She was from a good Fine Gael family which
nursed a healthy disrespect for the amount of romantic green blossom
draped around Padraig Pearse’s neck for the militarily hopeless but
politically explosive Dublin Easter Rising of 1916. But she displayed
an equally admirable suspicion of British – or “English” as she would
have put it – intentions towards Ireland, north and south. Her mother
once recalled for me a British military raid on their home in County
Carlow. “I was a little girl and one of the soldiers patted me on
the head and I told him: ‘You keep your hands off me.'”
But at Ypres one evening, beneath the great Menin Gate – upon which
are carved the names of 54,896 World War I British soldiers whose
bodies were never found – my Irish friend faced a real political
challenge. She had noted, among those thousands, the names of
hundreds of young Irishmen who had died in British uniform while their
countrymen at home were fighting and dying in battle against the same
British Army. She looked at one of the names. “Why in God’s name,”
she asked, “was a boy from the Station House, Tralee, dying here in
the mud of Flanders?” And it was at this point that an elderly man
approached us and asked my Irish friend to sign the visitors’ book.
She looked at the British Army’s insignia on the memorial volume
with distaste. There was the British crown glimmering in the evening
light. And the Belgian firemen who nightly play the Last Post beneath
the gate were already taking position. There was not much time. But
my friend remembered the young man from Tralee. She thought about
her own small Catholic nation and its centuries of suffering and
she realised that the boy from Tralee had gone to fight – or so
he thought – for little Catholic Belgium. She decided to inscribe
the British Army’s book in the Irish language. “Do thiortha beaga,”
she wrote. “For little countries.” All this happened years before an
economically powerful and self-confident Irish Republic would face
up to the sacrifice its pre-independence soldiers made in British
uniform; the estimated 35,000 Irishmen who died in the 1914-18 war
wildly outnumber the few hundred who fought in the Easter Rising. The
total of dead, wounded and missing among Irish Protestants in the 36th
(Ulster) Division on the Somme and at Ypres came to 32,180. The same
statistics among soldiers of the 10th and 16th Irish Divisions –
most of them Catholics – amounted to 37,761.
My own father was to fight alongside the Irish on the Somme in 1918
although – a fact I used to keep quiet about when I was The Times’s
correspondent in Belfast in the early 1970s – he was originally sent to
Ireland in the aftermath of the Rising. I have a faded photograph of
Bill Fisk, then in the Cheshire Regiment, kissing the Blarney Stone,
and some pictures he took of the front gate of Victoria Barracks –
now Collins Barracks – in Cork, its stonework plastered with appeals
to Irishmen to join the British Army and fight for Catholic Belgium
and France. It was only when I was invited to give the annual Bloody
Sunday memorial lecture in Derry – the first Brit to be asked to honour
the memory of the 14 Catholics who were killed by the 1st Battalion,
the Parachute Regiment in 1972 – that I talked about my Dad’s fight
against Sinn Fein (whom he always called the “Shinners”). If Padraig
Pearse had not raised the flag over the Dublin Post office in Easter
Week of 1916, I told my audience, Bill Fisk might have been sent to
die in the first Battle of the Somme three months later – and his son
Robert would not exist. So did I owe my life to Pearse? I can already
hear that most polemical, visceral, poignant, absolutely infuriating,
brilliant and doggedly insulting Irish Times columnist Kevin Myers
bursting into fits of sarcastic laughter and carefully aimed fury at
such a remark. Kevin was among the first to hammer away at Ireland’s
shameful refusal to acknowledge the vast sacrifice of its sons in
the 1914-18 cauldron. And Kevin it has been, while foolishly taking
the Turkish line of denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915, who has
repeatedly tried to hack down the reputations of martyrs Pearse and
James Connolly and John MacBride – and Eamon de Valera, who escaped
execution because of his American passport – and present the Rising as
not only a military disaster but an unnecessary sacrifice of civilian
life and the first example of “green fascism”.
I don’t like the way the “fascist” label gets stuck on anyone we
dislike. Lefties used to call policemen fascists. And now we have
“Islamofascism” which effectively binds Mussolini to one of the
world’s great religions. No wonder we could draw those outrageous
cartoons of the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.
But I’m still not at all sure how to regard the men of 1916. The
very best book on the Rising – George Dangerfield’s magnificent The
Damnable Question – proves that the “rebels” (as my father called
them) were very brave as well as very dismissive of their own and
others’ lives. They were not to know the deviant way in which their
“blood sacrifice” – which was not exactly the first in Irish history
– would be adopted by later armed groups who sought their mandate in
blood shed before those 1916 British execution parties.
Had they not been so cruelly shot down as punishment for their armed
assault on British power, would they have been so honoured in the long,
dark, stagnant Ireland of the 1920s and 30s and then in the terrible
and much later years of the civil conflict in Northern Ireland? Do
you have to be a martyr to have honour?
I was much struck by this thought five years ago when I was searching
through the British National Archives at Kew for details of the
execution of a young Australian soldier in the British Army whom
my father was ordered to shoot at the end of World War I. Bill Fisk
refused, so another officer performed the dirty deed. But there in the
documents of British military executions – routinely filed under 1916
– were the names of Pearse and Connolly and McBride. The exemplary
punishment accorded to them and their comrades in Dublin turned Irish
public scorn to sympathy and admiration. But to the Brits, it was just
another act of military law, the shooting by firing squad of traitors
to the Crown – in just the same way as deserters, army murderers and
cowards were shot at dawn behind the trenches of France. The martyrs
of the Easter Rising suffered Western Front punishment.
And now Ireland’s minister for defence tells us the military Easter
Rising pomp in Dublin last weekend symbolised the end of the war in
the North. Maybe. But who will remember the boy from the Station House,
Tralee? – The Independent.
45 CASES PRESENTED IN THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE
A1+
[05:02 pm] 18 April, 2006
The issues of shadow curtail in construction and mining industry
spheres, the quarter results as well as false customs clearance combat
were today’s roundtable discussion theme during the work meeting of RA
President Robert Kocharyan and Tax State Service Chief Felix Tsolakyan.
According to the Tax State Service Chief the budget tax entries were
equal to 43, 2 milliard AMD which outnumbers the index of the previous
year data with 8milliard AMD. A high percent was registered in income
tax and profit tax. There was also a significant increase in social
payments. 15.3 milliard AMD was collected in the first quarter which
outnumbers the previous year data by 2.4 milliard AMD.
While speaking of the future plans the Tax State Service Chief
mentioned that the Service has marked out the list of the organizations
the taxes and deals of which do not comply with their activities,
and they will take measures on this score.
As for the false customs clearance combat Felix Tsolakyan stated that
45 cases were presented in the Prosecutor’s Office and an action was
brought against 19 of them.
There was also a mention about the property and income registration
procedure. Robert Kocharyan focused on the necessity of improving it
legally and utilizing mechanisms of responsibility.
TURKS TAKE PBS TO TASK
By John Eggerton
Broadcasting & Cable, NY
April 18 2006
The Turkish ambassador is taking PBS to task for the program, The
Armenian Genocide, which aired Monday on many member stations.
Ambassador Nabi ªensoy complained Tuesday that the show was “blatantly
one-sided” and reflected “a self-serving political agenda by Armenian
American activists.” PBS has said that, while it agrees with most
historians that the genocide is estabished history, it also wanted
to explore questions surrounding the issue.
Although he praised PBS for holding a panel discussion about the
show immediately after its airing, he said the decision to hold the
panel was “in recognition of the strong bias inherent in “The Armenian
Genocide,” and said some stations did not air the panel, attibuting it
to “Armenian American partisans who embarked on a nationwide campaign
to prevent its airing by PBS affiliates.”
A PBS spokeswoman said that an “overwhelming predominance,” or more
than two thirds, of stations aired the panel, which she said is on
par with other optional shows. Stations also have a broadcast window
of a week or two in which to air PBS shows, so others could air it
later in the week.
“The reason for airing the panel,” said spokeswoman Lea Sloan,
“was to shed more light on a very complex issue. We also specifically
wanted to examine how historians have come to such radically diverging
conclusions about the alleged murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the
Turks in 1915.
6325671.html?display=Breaking+News
–Boundary_(ID _bN2heO4g6bHJmZs3vUdssw)–
SITTING OF PACE SUBCOMMITTEE ON KARABAKH TO BE HELD IN JUNE 2006
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.04.2006 00:04 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The recurrent sitting of the PACE Subcommittee
on Nagorno Karabakh will be held in June 2006, vice-speaker of the
Armenian National Assembly, head of the Armenian delegation to PACE
Tigran Torosyan stated at a press conference in Yerevan. In his words,
the most important mechanism to be discussed is the reconsideration
of the subcommittee composition. “There are preliminary agreements
on the issue. It’s supposed that people aware of the Nagorno Karabakh
settlement process will serve on it. The subcommittee will include two
representatives of the Armenian and Azeri delegations, rapporteurs
and the chairman. The subcommittee members will possibly visit the
conflict region in October,” Torosyan said.
Cyprus News Agency
April 15 2006
CYPRUS – ARMENIA – CENTRAL BANKS – MEMORANDUM
The Central Banks of Cyprus and Armenia signed a memorandum of
understanding.
The memorandum was signed by the Governors of the Central Bank of
Cyprus and Armenia, Christodoulos Christodoulou and Tigran Sargsyan,
respectively.
An official statement said the Central Bank of the Republic of
Armenia and the Central Bank of Cyprus, expressing their mutual
interest and willingness in establishing and promoting bilateral ties
in supervising credit institutions, signed today in Nicosia a
Memorandum of Understanding.
London Free Press (Ontario)
April 15, 2006 Saturday
FINAL EDITION
WHEN ‘CLEANSING’ SOUNDS A LITTLE IMPURE
BY GEORGE CLARK, LONDON FREELANCE WRITER
Holy euphemism, Batman! Robin, the caped crusader’s sidekick, came to
mind when the OPP officer in charge of the investigation into the
slaughter of eight bikers last weekend referred to the motive of the
killings as an “internal cleansing.”
The bizarre killings and dumping of the bodies near the village of
Shedden in Elgin County brought a variety of responses, once the
original shock over the discovery had faded. Both print and talk
radio included the point of view that, because it was bikers who had
been killed, perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing.
At the same time, half the letters to the editor in the London Free
Press on Tuesday expressed dismay and disapproval over a newspaper
photo on the weekend showing part of a man’s body hidden in a car
trunk.
The use of the word “cleansing” by police in their search for a
motive seemed to also put this event on a different scale. I checked
Google’s news website for the mention of “cleansing” in news stories
in the past few days. At the top was the bikers’ bodies discovered in
Elgin County. There were also stories on a charge by the UN over
ethnic cleansing in the Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, a rights
group in Bangkok accusing Myanmar troops of ethnic cleansing in Karen
villages, and a story from Great Britain in the Telegraph in which
Labour MP Jane Kennedy accused the Tony Blair government of “social
cleansing” in a program that called for the destruction of thousands
of homes — many low-income — to make way for new housing and a road
to Liverpool’s city centre.
And now we join the world’s list of “cleansing” news with the
slayings in Elgin County.
It may be nitpicking, but to me, the use of the word “cleansing” as a
euphemism for slaughter in this case, goes way beyond the Merriam
Webster definition of “getting rid of impurities by, or as if by,
washing.” That’s like referring to a fire in a slum district as urban
renewal. The previously mentioned MP Kennedy might disagree with me.
What it does, though, is verbally put these homicides or executions
(which they really were) on a different scale, as though part of a
socially understood phenomenon: “cleansing.” Does that make the
killings, if not more acceptable, then more understandable? Probably.
Does it remove some of the horror from the situation? Probably.
Is that right? I’m not sure.
The London Free Press, in its thorough, detailed coverage of the
massacre, the history of bikers in the region, and potential
implications for the future, also included descriptions of the murder
victims as quiet, unassuming neighbours and family members. Does that
become muted when police choose to describe the slaughter of eight
men as a “cleansing”?
At the same time, I feel that when we broaden meanings of words to
embrace more and more uses, we can diminish their original
definitions. In this case, I wonder if it means in any way that the
racial or ethnic cleansing that still goes on in this world is any
more acceptable or understandable because of the widespread usage of
“cleansing.” Hopefully not.
The specific use of words still sparks debate and fierce
disagreement. The president of the UN General Assembly this week, in
describing the ethnic “cleansing” in the Sudan, said he didn’t know
if it was on the scale to qualify as “genocide,” as the U.S.
government had termed it. Reference to the forced removal in the
early part of this century of an estimated two million Armenians from
Turkey, and the tens of thousands of deaths that ensued, as a
“holocaust,” can bring a swift response that “holocaust” refers only
to the treatment and killing of Jews by Germany in the Second World
War.
Words and meanings matter. Before we trivialize the word “cleansing”
in reference to Elgin County last weekend or, on the other hand,
marginalize the slaughter through the use of words suggesting an
historically understood phenomenon, let’s think twice.
And let’s do it before Robin, the sidekick of the cartoon caped
crusader, Batman, can actually fit the situation with a saying
previously attributed to him: “Holy cliche, Batman!”
NOTES: George Clark is anchor/host of First Local News and
Politically Speaking on Rogers Television.
GRAPHIC: photo by Free Press File Photo LIMITED RISK: Ontario
Provincial Police tried to reassure Elgin County citizens this week
with statements that last weekend’s slaughter of eight bikers was an
“internal cleansing,” rather than an attack by the Bandidos on others.
Historic Armenia Perks Up After Soviet Era
The Washington Times, Travel Section
Saturday, April 8, 2006
Randy Mink, Copley News Service
Yerevan, Armenia
Armenia sits poised on the brink of discovery. Blessed with historical
attractions and rugged splendor but closed to tourism for many years, this
ancient land is seeing an increasing number of well-traveled Americans.
Encouraged by improved standards of comfort, visitors are satisfying their
thirst for intrigue in this small Christian country tucked in the Caucasus
Mountains of southwestern Asia.
Armenia was the smallest of the former Soviet Union’s 15 republics. Since
gaining independence in 1991, it has been transitioning to a market-based
economy, with tourism is a key component.
“This cradle of civilization wants to rock,” said Nina Hovnanian, director
of the fledgling Armenian Tourism Development Agency.
As a travel destination, Armenia – one of the world’s oldest Christian
nations – is best known for its mountains and monasteries, but Yerevan, the
capital city, abounds with urban diversions and hums with a youth-driven
cafe and disco scene.
Images of pop star Cher, who is of Armenian ancestry, come to mind as you
watch the sidewalk parade of long-haired girls in tight jeans, spangly tops
and high heels, many of them talking on cell phones. (The singer’s family
name, Sarkisian, is typical of Armenian surnames, most of which end in
“ian.”)
One-third of Armenia’s 3 million people live in Yerevan, a logical base of
operations for visiting the major sights. After a day trip to the
countryside, it’s heartening to know an air-conditioned room awaits your
return. Most Americans choose the new Armenia Marriott Hotel. An oasis of
luxury, the country’s first internationally branded hotel overlooks Republic
Square, a grand oval in the heart of town.
On clear days, the snow-shrouded peak of Mount Ararat dominates Yerevan’s
skyline. Although it lies across the border in eastern Turkey, the mountain
is a symbol of historic Armenia, which once covered a large territory that
extended to the Black Sea. Biblical tradition says Noah’s ark rested on its
summit after the great Flood.
Through the centuries, Romans, Persians, Turks and Russians invaded and
carved up Armenia, a strategic crossroads on the land bridge connecting
Europe and Asia. Today the landlocked country is about the size of Maryland.
Armenia is also bordered by Iran and the former Soviet republics of Georgia
and Azerbaijan, but geopolitical tensions keep the Turkish and Azerbaijani
borders closed, hurting the Armenian economy. Though Armenia is politically
stable and safe to visit, one U.S. diplomat in Yerevan admits “it’s a rough
neighborhood.”
American tourists find that Armenia blends Soviet-era drabness with Middle
Eastern exotica. The Armenian alphabet throws outsiders for a loop and adds
to the otherworldly flavor.
The country is not culturally diverse because 96 percent of the people are
ethnic Armenians. Curiously, the majority of Armenians – about 4 million –
live outside their homeland. In the United States, the largest
concentrations are in metropolitan New York and Boston, and California,
especially Glendale and Fresno.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is so intertwined with Armenian life that
religion and culture are practically synonymous.
Established there some 1,700 years ago, Christianity has survived and is
being embraced by all age groups after decades of Soviet-era atheism. Gilded
icons, priests’ elaborate vestments and other Eastern flourishes invite
comparisons to the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches.
A short drive west of Yerevan is the Echmiadzin complex, the `Vatican’ of
the Armenian Church. There in a palace at the country’s holiest religious
site resides Karekin II, the catholicos, or patriarch of the worldwide
church.
Walking through the gardenlike campus, visitors see black-robed monks and
ancient khatchkars, the intricately carved stone crosses found throughout
Armenia. Burning incense permeates the main cathedral, on the site where St.
Gregory the Illuminator built the first church.
Another shrine is Khor Virap Monastery, south of Yerevan, where St. Gregory
was imprisoned in a dark pit for 13 years for preaching the Gospel. When he
miraculously cured King Tiridates III of a disease in 301, the king set him
free and converted to the faith, or so the legend goes, forever
distinguishing Armenia as the first Christian nation. Agile visitors can
climb a ladder into the dungeon where Gregory languished.
On a trip to this border area near Mount Ararat, you’ll spy guard towers at
American military bases in Turkey.
East of Yerevan, make a pilgrimage to Geghard Monastery, hewn into a
mountainside. You may witness worshippers lighting candles in cavelike
chapels dating to 1215.
By a stream, the devout tie scraps of cloth onto tree branches, an act of
faith that is said to make a wish come true and assure a return to Geghard.
In the parking lot, folk musicians and village women wearing kerchiefs hawk
round loaves of bread and jars of honey, jam and fruit, offering more
subject matter for photographers.
>From the bus window, keep your eyes peeled for boys herding sheep or donkeys
burdened with saddle baskets full of tomatoes.
Roadside stands offer everything from cucumbers and eggplants to walnuts and
sunflower seeds.
Apple, peach and plum orchards dot the rocky terrain. You’ll also see many
pomegranates. Famous for its brandy and table wines, Armenia counts grapes
as another important crop.
A longer day trip from Yerevan is the northward excursion to Lake Sevan. One
of the largest alpine lakes in the world, it occupies about 5 percent of
Armenia’s landmass. Hotels and camping resorts cater to Yerevan residents;
foreigners come for the two lakeside monasteries, both with the trademark
conical domes that crown other churches.
To truly understand the Armenian nation, it’s essential to visit the
Genocide Memorial, the No. 1 site in Yerevan.
An underground museum tells of the ethnic Armenians who suffered in Anatolia
(eastern Turkey) before, during and after World War I. Visitors pay their
respects by placing flowers around an eternal flame.
On Republic Square, formerly Lenin Square, the State Museum of Armenian
History overlooks fountains in a huge reflecting pool, and the National Art
Gallery has an impressive collection of European masters.
Both museums face the Armenia Marriott, where tables under Coca-Cola
umbrellas provide ringside seats for people-watching. Clad with the pinkish
volcanic stone common in Yerevan buildings, the 225-room hostelry opened in
2004 after a $42 million refurbishment that transformed the Hotel Armenia, a
1950s dinosaur that offered Soviet-style service.
Abovian Street, off Republic Square, has small souvenir shops. Popular items
include brandy, carpets, woodcarvings, embroidery and costumed dolls.
Ceramic pomegranates also make good mementoes.
For a night on the town, try the Old Yerevan Restaurant, a rustic place that
dishes up folk entertainment and classic Armenian cuisine. Feast on
khorovats (marinated pork or lamb barbecued on a skewer) or tolma (spiced
meat in cabbage or grape leaves). There will be greens, tomatoes, rice and
cheeses, along with yogurt to roll into thin sheets of pitalike bread called
lavash.
IF YOU GO
The following will be helpful in planning a trip to Armenia:
Lufthansa, British Airways and Austrian Airlines flights from the U.S. to
Yerevan involve a change of planes in Europe and cost an average of $1,400
round trip.
Armenia travel specialists with offices in Glendale, Calif., include Tatians
Travel, (818) 550-8790, ; Levon Travel, (818) 552-7700,
; and Sidon Travel, (818) 553-0777,
A top guidebook is `The Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and Karabagh’ sold in
select U.S. bookstores and through Amazon.com.
Tourist information: The Armenian Tourism Development Agency’s Web site is
Randy Mink is a freelance travel writer.
Visit Copley News Service at
Copyright 2006 Copley News Service
GRAPHIC:
– Armenia, the world’s oldest Christian nation, is best known for its
mountains and monasteries, but Yerevan abounds with urban diversions and
hums with a youth-driven cafe and disco scene.
– The main cathedral at Echmiadzin, a complex sometimes referred to as the
Vatican of the Armenian Apostolic Church. It stands on the site where St.
Gregory the Illuminator built the country s first Christian church 1,700
years ago.
– The Genocide Memorial in Yerevan commemorates the suffering Armenians
endured from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
– A pizza restaurant s sidewalk tables reflect the lively street life of
Yerevan, Armenia, a logical base of operations for travelers visiting the
small country.
Armenian paper speculates on reasons for Azeri president’s visit to USA
Haykakan Zhamanak website, Yerevan
2 Apr 06
Excerpt from report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak website on
2 April headlined “Aliyev to visit Washington”
The Armenian state agencies, the presidential administration, and,
especially the Foreign Ministry were in a state of paralysis
yesterday.
It became apparent that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will pay an
official visit to the USA late April. He has received an invitation
from the White House and will meet US President Gorge Bush. The
Armenian president’s press secretary, Viktor Sogomonyan, yesterday
reported that Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has never received
such an invitation from the White House. So far it has not been
forthcoming.
[Passage omitted: recap od Azerbaijani media reports about the foreign
minister Elmar Mammadyarov’s meeting with US State Secretary
Condoleezza Rice]
The Azerbaijani president received an official invitation from the US
president unlike the Armenian president, who in his eight years of
tenure, has never been honoured by the US president. This is a sign of
serious problems. However, it is strange that Aliyev received the
invitation, especially as talks on the settlement of the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict appear to be deadlocked. But the USA wishes to solve
the Karabakh conflict in 2006. The Armenian authorities, especially
the Foreign Ministry, had no information about this visit up until the
yesterday, which is indicative of the seriousness of the visit. The
Armenian authorities have found out about this at the same time as
ordinary people.
Had Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan not returned from
Washington a week ago, we would have thought that this was a result of
the inefficiency of the Armenian diplomatic corps. But unfortunately,
this happened during Oskanyan’s visit to the USA and not a single US
official had told the Armenian foreign minister about the scheduled
meeting between the US and Azerbaijani presidents.
Of course, had it not been for the Nagornyy Karabakh problem and a
threat of another war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, we would have
never raised such a question. However, there is the problem of
Karabakh and the international community wants it to be resolved in
2006. The negotiations in Rambouillet have failed. The Americans have
directly degraded Armenia by their attitude to Oskanyan.
It turns out that the US State Department had invited an Armenian
delegation to Washington only for the signing of an agreement [with
the US Millennium Challenge Corporation] on allocating 235m
dollars. After that he was sent back home. During his visit, the
Armenian foreign minister also had a chance to meet the US co-chairmen
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Steven Mann, to discuss the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict. The Azerbaijani foreign minister was offered the same chance
to meet Mann. Prior to this meeting, Oskanyan believed that the
meeting between Mammadyarov and Mann will determine the future of the
Nagornyy Karabakh peace process.
But the main goal of Mammadyarov’s visit was to prepare a visit by the
Azerbaijani president to Washington. It must be remembered that, this
is the first official visit of the Azerbaijani president to the
USA. As for Kocharyan, he only visited Washington once back in 2001
for the Key West talks.
According to US and Azerbaijani sources, Aliyev and Bush will discuss
the Karabakh settlement and anti-Iranian programmes drawn up by the
USA. Thus Armenian citizens are interested in whether the USA will put
pressure on Armenia regarding the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict.