Author: Maghakian Mike

Hungary warns against politicizing Armenian officer killing
Arminfo
20 Apr 04
YEREVAN
At a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan in Yerevan
today, the deputy state secretary of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry,
(?Enio Borosh), said that the investigation into the killing of an
Armenian officer in Budapest is continuing strictly in line with
Hungary’s legislation, Armenian Foreign Ministry press service told
Arminfo.
The diplomat added that Hungary understands the need for not
politicizing the process and behaving responsibly.
[Passage omitted: reported details]

The Times (London)
April 22, 2004, Thursday
Here we go again: It’s sale time
IT IS NOT known why Kirk Kerkorian is selling his stake in MGM
studios. The billionaire, who holds the stake through his investment
firm Tracinda Corp, also owns the MGM Grand casino and resort in Las
Vegas, as well as other properties.
Mr Kerkorian, the son of Armenian immigrants, who left home at the
age of nine to sell newspapers on street corners, has bought and sold
MGM and its various parts several times over the past few decades. He
first bought the studio in 1969, later selling it to Ted Turner, the
media mogul. He last bought it in 1996.
Mr Kerkorian has said in the past that he prefers stock to cash so it
is not known whether he will be willing to accept an all-cash offer.

LA PRESSE (Montréal)
Le mercredi 21 avril 2004
Ottawa reconnaît l’existence du génocide arménien
Presse Canadienne
Ottawa
Le Canada est devenu mercredi l’un des rares pays à reconnaître
officiellement l’existence du génocide des Arméniens en Turquie pendant
la Première Guerre mondiale. Les députés ont voté par 153 voix contre 68
en faveur de cette reconnaissance officielle.
Les libéraux avaient été enjoints de voter contre la motion pour ne pas
choquer davantage le gouvernement turc, qui n’a jamais admis son rôle
dans le massacre de 1,5 million d’Arméniens, en 1915.
Toutefois, les députés libéraux d’arrière-banc ont voté massivement en
faveur de la motion présentée par le Bloc québécois, après un débat à
huis clos chargé d’émotion. Tous les membres du cabinet de Paul Martin
ont voté contre.
Quant au premier ministre, il n’était pas présent pour le vote et c’est
au ministre des Affaires étrangères Bill Graham qu’est revenu la tâche
de défendre la position gouvernementale.
La Turquie avait déjà fait savoir avant le vote que l’adoption de la
motion pourrait avoir des répercussions sur les relations économiques
entre les deux pays. Pour sa part, M. Graham a déclaré que le Canada
voulait maintenir les meilleures relations possibles avec le
gouvernement d’Ankara.
«La Turquie est une alliée importante de l’OTAN dans cette région et son
gouvernement musulman est modéré», a-t-il dit.
«Notre position en matière de relations étrangères est de promouvoir une
vision d’avenir. Nous préférerions que nos amis arméniens et nos amis
turcs collaborent et ne retournent pas en arrière.»
La Turquie n’a jamais reconnu l’existence du génocide arménien.
L’histoire officielle est que les désordres civils survenus à l’époque
ont coûté la vie à 600 000 Arméniens et 2,5 millions de musulmans.
Plus d’une vingtaine de pays ainsi que les Nations unies ont reconnu
jusqu’ici la véracité historique du génocide arménien.
Les députés d’opposition, incluant le chef conservateur Stephen Harper,
ont voté en faveur de la motion.
Parmi les députés d’arrière-banc libéraux qui ont voté en faveur de la
motion, on note plusieurs anciens ministres, dont Martin Cauchon,
Stéphane Dion, Lyle Vanclief, Lawrence MacAulay et Herb Dhaliwal.

Remember the others
The Armenians apparently also suffered genocide. It would be especially
appropriate for representatives of the Jewish people to express their
pain and empathy, despite Israel’s close relationship with Turkey, which
is accused of the crime.
Maariv International (Israel)
2004-04-20
Op-eds
By Yaakov Ahimeir ([email protected])
This Saturday, another nation will mark its own genocide. Some of them
live here, in Jerusalem and the Galilee. The Armenians will mourn the
destruction of one or one and half million members of their people at
the hands of the Ottomans, during World War I. To be fair, there are
some historians who claim that there was no genocide. They claim that
many Armenians died while being exiled to remote sections of the Ottoman
Empire, as the Turkish Ambassador once told me dismissively, `It was a
matter of very bad weather, a natural result of the war’.
Anyone who reads The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel or the many
articles that were written during and shortly after the events, would
find it hard not to believe that a genocide did in fact take place. Even
without concentration camps, there was genocide. A telegram sent by the
American ambassador in Istanbul at the time, Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
confirms this.
Although the Armenian genocide cannot be compared to the Jewish
Holocaust, the question remains: Can we as Jews find within ourselves a
modicum of understanding and empathy for what the Armenians often call
`our holocaust’? The Armenians also quote Hitler. In the 1930s, when
justifying his murderous ideology against the Jews, when he said, `Who,
after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians’?
The issue of empathy for the murdered Armenians is an exceptionally
sensitive issue for the Israeli government. We do not want to anger the
Turks. In order to please them, we buy water from them, renovate their
tanks and hold joint naval and air training exercises. Indeed,
maintaining a strategic relationship with a Moslem government is no
small accomplishment in its own right. Internationally, no fewer than 15
parliaments have recognized that the Armenian genocide did indeed
happen. When France recognized it, Turkey cancelled a large government
transaction because Turkey, as the heir to the Ottoman Empire, does not
accept responsibility for the genocide. Israel is not France. Chirac can
be angry with the Turks, but Mr. Sharon cannot express empathy for the
genocide of a small nation, whose sufferings often resemble our own.
The question is, if not the government, who can express empathy for
genocide? Perhaps the Ministry of Education could increase the awareness
of genocide by augmenting the world history curriculum with special
lessons and seminars, which need not negate the uniqueness of the
Holocaust or belittle the Rwandan genocide ten years ago. Perhaps some
students with a wreath could join the march through the Armenian Quarter
of Jerusalem on Saturday, April 24. Maybe next year, on the 90th
anniversary of the genocide, a special Jewish delegation could travel to
Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to the ceremony that will be held in
the Memorial Hall dedicated to the victims, as if to say, `Never again.
As Jews, we understand and empathize with your suffering’. It seems to
me that these are not unreasonable demands to make of a people whose
memories are as long as the exile.
;articleID=6234

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
April 20 2004
Local Armenians lobby in D.C.
By Lisa Friedman
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — San Fernando Valley-area Armenian-Americans met Monday
in Washington, D.C., to urge increased foreign assistance for their
homeland, better trade relations and an official U.S. recognition,
once and for all, of the Armenian genocide.
Meeting as part of the Armenian National Assembly’s two-day
conference, members were buoyed by a State Department official who
announced the Bush administration’s support of permanent normal trade
relations with Armenia.
At the same time, members acknowledged that with Turkey on the front
lines of the war on terror, they have little expectation of seeing
the term “Armenian genocide” in official U.S. statements anytime
soon.
“I’m sure President Bush will issue a statement on the anniversary
about ‘those dark days’ or ‘those massacres,”‘ said Osheen Keshishian
of Van Nuys, who publishes the Armenian Observer, an English-language
weekly based in Hollywood.
But Keshishian, who also teaches at Glendale Community College, said
despite political realities, the issue remains a burning one for
Armenians in the United States. “The point is, justice has to
prevail. Truth has to prevail.”
Armenian-Americans say 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.
Turkish officials say far fewer people died amid a multi-party
conflict.
Tuluy Tanc, the minister-consular at the Turkish embassy in
Washington, D.C., called the term genocide “unfair and untrue.”
“We do not think or believe a genocide occurred in Turkey,” Tanc
said. “Events in Turkey were, during the course of a world war,
tremendously unhappy. Events took place affecting Armenians, Muslims,
Turks and all components of the Ottoman Empire.”
About 350 people attended the two-day conference also sponsored by
the Armenian General Benevolent Union and the Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America. Several of the attendees traveled from Southern
California, which is home to about 400,000 Armenian-Americans, the
largest community in the nation.

INTERNAL POLITICAL CRISIS IN ARMENIA PROVOKED BY SUPER POWERS
YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. The leader of the Armenian Aryan party Armen
Avetissyan says that Armenia’s President Robert Kocharyan will have to
answer before the international court for its tough actions against
the Apr 13 opposition rally. Avetissyan is convinced that a video
recording of the incident filed by the US embassy cameras is already
on Kocharyan’s table and he has already been told to answer for what
he did. But even if he makes certain concessions they will be of
territorial rather than economic or moral nature. “The blood of
Armenians was shed according to the scenario of super powers. They
seek to pressure the president into retreating in the Karabakh issue.”

ARMENIA AND ARMENIAN ARMY GUARANTOR OF SECURITY KARABAKH PEOPLE
YEREVAN, APRIL 15. ARMINFO. Armenia and in particular our army is a
guarantor of Nagornyy Karabakh people’s security, nobody has and must
not have illusions in this, Armenia’s DM Serzh Sargsyan says in an
interview to Golos Armenii asked if Armenia’s Defence Ministry is
going to re-consider its military doctrine and in case of resumption
of combat actions to transfer the NKR army to direct subordination of
the Armenian armed forces. We have a military doctrine. It is a part
of the whole security system. May be we need one general document, the
composing part of which will be our military doctrine. But as a rule
such tactical problems are not touched on in the military doctrines.
A doctrine changes – does not change, there is a doctrine – there is
no doctrine. Armenia is a security guarantor of Nagornyy Karabakh.

Armenia’s opposition protests to demand president’s resignation
BY CHRISTIAN LOWE
AFP YEREVAN, April 16
An estimated 6,000 protesters gathered in Armenia’s capital on Friday
to call for the resignation of President Robert Kocharian, defying a
government ban on opposition protests in the poverty-stricken former
Soviet republic.
The protest was a show of strength by Kocharian’s opponents, after
police used water cannon and stun grenades to break up the last mass
demonstration earlier this week.
Opposition parties in Armenia, a nation of three million people in the
Caucasus mountains, have been staging a wave of protests, drawing
comparisons with last year’s “rose revolution” which ousted the
leadership in neighbouring Georgia.
There is widespread discontent in Armenia over low living standards
and flawed elections, but analysts say Kocharian is too strong, and
the opposition too weak, for the Georgian scenario to be repeated
there.
The atmposphere in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, was tense on Friday,
with many people fearing a repeat of the clashes with police earlier
this week which left dozens of people injured.
There was only a handful of police in evidence at the protest, in a
park at the end of Mashtots Avenue, Yerevan’s main thoroughfare.
But outside the nearby government compound, which houses the
parliament building and Kocharian’s office, there were busloads of
interior ministry troops, military ambulances and trucks carrying
rolls of razor wire.
The compound was the scene of this week’s clashes with police and
Kocharian has warned the area is strictly off limits to protesters.
Protesters at Friday’s rain-soaked rally chanted “Kocharian out!” and
waved placards claiming the 50-year-old Armenian president was at the
head of a military junta.
“There is no place for Robert Kocharian any more in Armenia’s
political life,” said opposition party leader Artashes
Geghamian. “What sort of leader is he if he can only talk to his own
people from behind police barricades?”
The wave of protests has been fuelled in part by opposition claims
that Kocharian rigged a presidential election last year to secure a
second term in office.
“I came here to defend my rights and to help remove this illegitimate
leader,” said Ayk Mkhrtchian, a 23-year-old unemployed man. He had
come to the protest with a European Union flag, because, he said:
“Europe stands for humam rights and so they are on our side.”
The protests’ leaders said they would not be calling on their
supporters to march on the government compound this time but they
promised another mass demonstration for next Wednesday.
Kocharian has called the opposition protests “extremist” and vowed to
take firm action. But he has been chided by the US State Department,
which has said the police’s strong-arm tactics are “not conducive to
dialogue”.
Armenia’s economy is almost crippled by an economic blockade imposed
by two of its neighbours, Turkey and Azerbaijan, because of historical
disagreements.
Although Kocharian has won plaudits for some economic improvements
during his time in office, critics say he has trampled on democratic
freedoms and surrounded himself by corrupt cronies while ordinary
people struggle in poverty.
Kocharian’s supporters meanwhile, say the opposition is recklessly
trying to provoke a confrontation to revive its flagging popularity.
“Of course there are problems and people are not living as well as we
would like,” Tigran Torosian, the pro-government deputy speaker of
Armenia’s parliament, told AFP. “But… holding protests is not going
to improve peoples’ lives.”
Armenia, the world’s first state to adopt Christianity, has a history
of political violence. The speaker of parliament and prime minister
were killed in 1999 when gunmen burst into the parliament chamber.
Western governments are anxious to see stability in the region. The
Caucasus is becoming a strategic crossroads for oil exports from the
landlocked Caspian Sea to western markets.

Armenian minister criticizes Azerbaijan’s stance on Turkish border opening

Arminfo
9 Apr 04
YEREVAN
“The Azerbaijani side looks at the issue of opening the
Armenian-Turkish border not from the point of view of prospects, but
exclusively from the point of view of the internal political
situation,” Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan has told an
Arminfo correspondent commenting on statements by Azerbaijani
politicians on the inadmissibility of opening the border.
“We are confident that the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will
help develop regional cooperation and settle the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict. I think that Azerbaijan approaches the issue incorrectly,”
Oskanyan said.

ARMENIA IS AT CROSSROADS: OPPOSITION MP
YEREVAN, APRIL 10. ARMINFO. Armenia is at the crossroads today – either to
return to the middle age or to go ahead to the European values, says
opposition MP Shavarsh Kocharyan. The incumbent Armenian authorities
are trespassing all moral norms up to presenting the prey as the
predator like they did with opposition MP Viktor Dallakyan or
opposition member Aramais Barsegyan. If this continues Armenia will
soon be expelled from the Council of Europe. The country is in an
economic stalemate. It is ruled by shadow and clan economy. The
Karabakh problem has been transformed into a territorial dispute,
which is not acceptable for Armenia. Pres. Kocharyan has “driven a
hedge” between Armenians of Armenia and Karabakh.
The way out of the situation is Kocharyan’s resignation and the change
of the whole system of state administration, the conduct of new, free
and fair elections. The people will no longer allow fraud. Kocharyan
has a chance to either go voluntarily or give his consent to the
opposition-proposed confidence referendum. Otherwise, the popular
indignation will be growing, the military agencies will stop obeying
to criminal orders and Kocharyan will be forced to resign.
Commenting on Kocharyan’s TV interview where he said called
treacherous critical articles in the foreign press Shavarsh Kocharyan
said that having joined the CE Armenia should comply with the European
values and has no right to hide its dirty linen. Unfortunately,
Kocharyan does not understand this and lies when saying that he does
not want to set one part of his people against the other. “He has long
sent against us his electorate – the police, the prosecutor’s office,
the egg-throwers and other skin-head criminals.”