Author: Tambiyan Samvel

ARMENPRESS

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CONGRATULATES THE WINNER PARTIES

YEREVAN, MAY 13, ARMENPRESS: Armenian President
Robert Kocharian visited today the office of the
Armenian Republican Party and congratulated its
leadership on the victory in the parliamentary
elections.
Robert Kocharian said that by giving their votes to
the Republican party people expressed their support to
the continuation of social-economic reforms taking
place in the country.
Presidential press service told Armenpress that the
Kocharian also received the leadership of the
"Prosperous Armenia" party. He congratulated them
saying that their victory is a serious success
especially taking into consideration the fact that it
is their first participation in the parliamentary
elections. Robert Kocharian expressed hope that
"Prosperous Armenia" party will start an effective
cooperation in the parliament with other political
forces.
During the phone conversation with the
representative of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation Hrant Margarian, Robert Kocharian
congratulated the party on the success in the
elections. The president also expressed hope that the
party will establish effective cooperation with other
political forces.

FIVE YOUNG ARMENIAN WRESTLERS STAND ON PEDESTAL OF HONOR IN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT HELD IN ROSTOV-ON-DON

Noyan Tapan
May 11 2007

ROSTOV-ON-DON, MAY 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Rafayel and Varderes Samurghashev
Brothers’ Greco-Roman Wrestling International Tournament finished on
May 10 in Rostov-on-Don.

Narek Khachatrian (42 kg, Yerevan), Gevorg Sahakian (63 kg, Artimed),
Andranik Khachatrian (85 kg, Apaga) out of 8 Armenian sportsmen became
winners in the competition of young wrestlers of 12 countries. Gor
Nersisian (46 kg, Yerevan) and Aslan Poghosian (50 kg, Yerevan)
took the third place.

Principal coach of Armenian youth national team of Greco-Roman
wrestling, Honored Coach Gagik Khachatrian informed Noyan Tapan
correspondent that now the team is preparing for the International
Tournament to be held on June 1-3 in Tbilisi.

TURKEY’S INITIATIVE TO SEND OBSERVERS "A LITTLE STRANGE"

Panorama.am
12:20 10/05/2007

"Turkey cannot choose what political relations it wants to have
with Armenia and what not. Political and diplomatic relations are
not subject for choosing," Vladimir Karapetyan, press secretary of
the Armenian foreign ministry, said today speaking about Armenia’s
refusal to issue visas to Turk observers. He said Turkey continues
keeping the Armenian border shut and refuses to enter into diplomatic
relations with Armenia. "Under these conditions sending observers
was a little strange," Karapetyan said.

"Armenia is sorry that Turkey did not demonstrate enough sensitivity
while sending observers to Armenia in the case when there are no
diplomatic relations between the two. We understand that OSCE is
concerned about Armenia’s commitments in front of OSCE and we reconfirm
our commitment to that. But we also expect that OSCE member state
anticipate that Turkey will keep to its commitment to established
normal, friendly relations with Armenia," press spokesman says.

ONE + ONE + ONE + ONE

A1+
[01:44 pm] 10 May, 2007

While citizens of Armenia were watching the concert
"Moscow-Yerevan-Transit" at the Republic Square, not far from the
Square the police beat those citizens who had gathered at National
Security Service building to claim justice.

The mass meeting was held by three opposition parties/the
Triple Alliance: "Impeachment" alliance and "New Times" (NT) and
"Hanrapetutyun" parties.

After the incident, the meeting participants moved to the Liberty
Square shouting "Vic-to-ry!". During the party leaders’ speeches,
there was an absolute silence at the place as the party leaders had
to make their speeches without microphones. The police did their best
to take all microphones.

"Victory is a process that is to be achieved step by step and
today we have done the major step towards our victory. We have never
supported the idea of beating our policemen though we will combat their
attacks. We do our best to hold our meetings in peaceful atmosphere",
announced Aram Karapetyan, Leader of NT.

During the incident with the police Davit Martirosyan from
"Impeachment" party was injured. "We showed who is the lion in the
country and who is the rabbit. We have always used our right for
peaceful meeting and marches however we will combat those who are
on our way and are trying to take away our childrens’ right", said
Nikol Pashinyan from "Impeachment" party.

Aram Sargsyan, "Hanrapetutyun" Party leader simply said," One plus
one plus one". It was late, already 23:00 but the participants did
not want to leave the Square. The Party leaders told the participants
to leave for their homes and inform them in case the police- the skin
headed interfere.

THE CASE FOR HEGEMONY
By Robert T. McLean

American Thinker, AZ
May 10 2007

On April 30th, the State Department released a report noting a 25%
increase in terrorist attacks around the world in 2006, ostensibly
signaling the emergence of a period of unparalleled danger. Indeed,
the end of the Cold War did not usher in an era of universal peace,
but rather unleashed both rogue regimes and non-state actors to
pursue ambitious and destabilizing goals. Today global hostilities
are covered with unprecedented scrutiny magnifying their destruction
and expanding the perception that the world has become concurrently
more perilous and exceedingly unpredictable. This has unleashed a
nostalgic desire for the simplicity of the past that has now expanded
to virtually every corner of the globe.

The bipolar international structure of the Cold War is often warmly
remembered as a time when the balance of power – aided by the commonly
understood inevitability of mutual assured destruction – ensured
a relatively peaceful world where a war between the superpowers was
largely unfeasible. By contrast, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the
threats of international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction, and the instability of the greater Middle East
draw many to the deduction that perhaps a multipolar world where no
single power maintains hegemony is the preferable path towards a more
stable and peaceful future.

Such judgments have justified, if not formed the basis for, the current
strategies of Russia and China to balance the power of the United
States. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently derided Washington’s
attempts to create a unipolar world while speaking at the Munich
Conference on Security Policy in February, as he explained that such
actions have led to an increasing number of global conflicts. Defense
Minister Sergey Ivanov clarified Putin’s remarks to Itar-Tass,
Russia’s main government news agency, when he noted the following:
"We say that a unipolar world does not lead to anything good, there
are many times more conflicts now than at the time of the Cold War."

To be sure, this line of thinking is neither new nor confined to those
outside the United States apprehensive of the unquestioned primacy
of a single foreign power. Writing in the Atlantic Monthly in August
1990, University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer wrote an essay
self-explanatorily titled "Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War." The
central supposition was simple: with the loss of order provided by
the structural compositions of the Cold War, a Hobbesian anarchy was
destined to shape the future of international relations. Of course
Mearsheimer was not alone in his views. He has been joined by not
only a growing number of "realists" weary of the costs associated
with hegemony, but also a different sort of critic represented by the
increasing number of anti-American leftists in the United States who
are inherently suspicious of American power.

With the growing level of agreement that the United States should
abandon its role as world’s lone superpower, some questions must be
asked. May Mearsheimer and his radical leftist counterparts have been
right? Is the Kremlin accurate in its assessment they we have indeed
reached a time of unprecedented conflict and global disorder?

A rather simple exploration of history illustrates that, on the
contrary to those who disparage the preservation of American hegemony,
the world has indeed become significantly more peaceful since the
end of the Cold War.

According to data compiled by the University of Maryland, an average
of 52.5 wars occurred per decade of the Cold War through 1984. As a
result of those conflicts, an average of nearly 4.6 million people died
per decade. This is hardly peaceful. By contrast, the Uppsala Conflict
Data Program in Sweden found that state-based conflicts decreased by
approximately 40% from 1992 to 2005. Battle deaths since 1990 make up
only a small fraction of those incurred through any decade during the
Cold War, and the frequency of attempted military coups has dropped
significantly; an average of 12.8 occurred per year between 1962
and 1991, while just 5.9 were attempted per year from 1992 through
2006. From 1989 to 2005 the number of genocides decreased by 90%.

A common misperception of the post-Cold War era maintains that while
conventional battles between states have decreased, globalization
and the deterioration of stability have put civilian lives at risk
as the barriers between combatant and civilian have broken down from
the growing number terror attacks and civil conflicts. However, as
the authors of the University of British Columbia’s Human Security
Brief 2006 noted in their latest annual report: "notwithstanding
the increase in terrorist attacks, the number of civilian victims of
intentional organized violence remains appreciably lower today than it
was during the Cold War years." Thus, all of the leading indicators –
number of wars, battle deaths, civilian lives lost – point to a more
peaceful and stable world under American primacy.

If the confrontation of the Cold War is not a correct paradigm for a
peaceful future, perhaps one resembling that of the Concert of Powers
and the long held mutual goal of a balance of power that prevailed in
Europe between 1815 and 1914 would provide a greater blueprint for the
21st century. Such a restructuring of the world order has been called
for from analysts and commentators as diverse as Henry Kissinger and
Noam Chomsky. But was the world after the fall of Napoleon until the
outbreak of World War I really as peaceful as some of the advocates
of balance of power would lead you to believe?

While a continent-spanning great power conflict was avoided until the
outbreak of the First World War, the peace established at the Congress
of Vienna in 1815 did not last long. By 1829, the Russo-Turkish
War had concluded leaving more than 130,000 dead. This was not the
last time these two powers would go to war as an approximate 200,000
died in further hostilities in 1877 and 1878. In the meantime, the
Russians faced the Polish Insurrection between 1830 and 1831 – they
had been granted control of much of Poland at the Congress of Vienna
– leaving at least 20,000 dead, while the First Carlist War in Spain
ended only after more than 30,000 lost their lives. The Crimean War of
1854 to1856 resulted in approximately 300,000 deaths; the Seven Weeks
War in 1866 killed 35,000; and by the time the Franco-Prussian War
concluded in 1871 more than 200,000 had lost their lives. Additional
competition between the European powers for empire and the influence
and resources that go along with it was also not without incident.

In fact, it was largely the example of the tumultuous environment
of 19th century Europe that molded America’s earliest perceptions
of a proper security environment. What was essentially conceived
by George Washington and was later refined by John Quincy Adams,
American leaders have long sought to avoid entangling the nation in
any sort of foreign policy based on balance of power. Expressing his
deep seated reluctance for any type of balance of power in the Western
Hemisphere, Adams noted in 1811 that were the United States not to
emerge as the hegemon of the Americas, "we shall have an endless
multitude of little insignificant clans and tribe at eternal war
with one another for a rock or a fish pond, the sport and fable of
European masters and oppressors." Multipolarity, in the absence of
a global congruence of interests and widespread cooperation, will
inevitably lead to such a situation the world over.

Critics of American efforts to maintain its primacy often point
to the economic, political, and military costs associated with
such ambition. These concerns are not without merit, but they
also overlook the costs incurred when a peer competitor arises as
was the case throughout much of the Cold War. The average annual
percentage of GDP spent on defense during the Cold War was roughly
7% compared to less than 4% since 1991. Thus, the so-called "peace
dividend" would be more appropriately labeled the "primacy dividend"
as the United States was not at war at until the collapse of the
Soviet Union, but rather was in a costly struggle to outlast a peer
competitor. Additional criticisms about the costs in American lives
are also unfounded. During the Cold War an average of about 18,000
American military personnel died as a result of hostile action per
decade. Even if we count the civilian lives lost on 9/11, that number
has decreased a staggering 83% since 1990. Finally, the questions of
the political consequences incurred as a result of hegemony are, at
the minimum, significantly exaggerated. It was the not so not-aligned
Non-Aligned Movement that emerged out of the Cold War, and even "Old
Europe" is returning to the acknowledgement that there is a pervasive
parallel in values and interests with the United States.

Indeed, any future deterioration of American hegemony would be
accompanied by catastrophic consequences. History reveals that tragic
violence inevitably follows newly created power vacuums. The decline
of the Ottoman Empire brought on a massacre of the Armenians, and
the end of British rule in India resulted in massive devastation in
South Asia. As was persuasively illustrated in Niall Ferguson’s War
of the World, the weakening and contraction of Western empires were
indispensable contributors to the unprecedented bloodshed of the 20th
century. Make no mistake, history will repeat itself – beginning in
Iraq – should the United States loose its nerve and retract from its
responsibilities as the world’s lone superpower.

While it has become fashionable to proclaim that the 21st Century
will emerge as the "Asian Century," the United States – and its many
allies – should do everything in their powers to insure that we are
indeed at the dawn of a new American century.

Robert T. McLean is a Research Associate at the Center for Security
Policy in Washington, D.C.

KARABAKH LEADER DEMANDS ‘FINAL SAY’ IN PEACE TALKS
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
May 9 2007

Nagorno-Karabakh’s outgoing President Arkady Ghukasian warned on
Wednesday that his self-proclaimed republic must have a "final
say" in any internationally backed settlement of the conflict with
Azerbaijan as he presided over a military parade in Stepanakert
alongside President Robert Kocharian.

The parade, broadcast live by Karabakh and Armenian state televisions,
involved hundreds of troops and dozens of tanks, armored vehicles,
and artillery systems. It was dedicated to the 15th anniversary of
the capture of the nearby town of Shusha, a key Armenian military
victory during the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan.

Kocharian’s presence at the biggest show of Karabakh’s military might
in years underscored the event’s significance for the Armenian side.

The anniversary was also officially marked in Armenia, with the
Karabakh-born Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian inaugurating a square
in Yerevan named after Shusha. Sarkisian had played a major role in
the May 1992 battle which enabled Karabakh Armenian forces to open
a vital land corridor with Armenia proper. In a decree signed on the
occasion, Kocharian awarded medals to some 1,760 participants of the
military operation.

"The liberation of Shusha strengthened our resolve to win and our
belief in the future, and spurred the birth of our military force:
the Defense Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic," Ghukasian told
troops lined up in Stepanakert’s main square. He praised them as a
"reliable guarantor" of the security of Karabakh’s predominantly
Armenian population.

"We are the masters our fate, we have the right to a final say
in the determination of our future. This is the unbending will of
our people. This is what stipulates the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s
Constitution," Ghukasian said, in an apparent reference to the ongoing
Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations that seem to have made substantial
progress of late.

French, Russian and U.S. diplomats spearheading the peace process
hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will cut a framework peace deal
before the end of this year. A senior Azerbaijani official confirmed
on Tuesday that the conflicting parties are close to doing that.

Ghukasian and other Karabakh Armenian leaders have repeatedly expressed
their frustration with the NKR’s exclusion from the ongoing peace
talks. They have also voiced serious misgivings about the mediators’
existing peace plan that calls for a gradual settlement of the conflict
culminating in a referendum of self-determination in Karabakh.

11 PARTIES EXPRESS READINESS TO COOPERATE WITH PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS IN CASE OF BEING ELECTED

Noyan Tapan
May 08 2007

YEREVAN, MAY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. According to the memorandum worked out
by the "Protection of Consumers’ Rights," "Professionals in the Name
of Civil Society," "Small and Meddium-Sized Entrepreneurial Fund"
and "Fund for Mental Health" public organizations, the political
forces participating in the elections were proposed to consistently
cooperate with the civil society, public organizations in the case
of being represented at the NA. As Abgar Yeghoyan, the Protection of
Consumers’ Rights Chairman stated at the May 8 press conference, the
memorandum was worked out, taking into consideration the possibility
given by the elections to deepen the coming five-year cooperation
of the legislative body and civil society. It was mentioned that the
political forces joined the memorandum are also obliged, in the case
of finding out electoral violations, "to organize open discussions
to reveal those guilty, motives as well as to immediately liquidate
them by taking all the measures fixed by the law."

In A. Yeghoyan’s words, 11 from the 24 political forces participating
in the elections signed the memorandum. It was at the same time
mentioned that the Impeachment alliance and the Nor Zhamanakner (New
Times) party were seriously against singning the memorandum. And the
other 11 parties, including Bargavach Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia),
did not respond at all.

A FLICKER OF LIGHT: SPARKING HOPE AND SPEAKING OUT TO END GENOCIDE
By Taressa Stovall And Mark S. Porter of The Montclair Times

Montclair Times, NJ
May 3 2007

Human rights activist Yahya Osman of Darfur at the 2d annual Rally
to Save Darfur Sunday, April 29, at the Union Congregational Church.

Staff photo by Adam Anik.

A year ago, a rally of perhaps 2,000 people gathered in Watchung
Plaza to decry the deaths occurring in Darfur.

Speakers, including influential politicians, denounced the brutal
rapes, the pillaging of villages and the undeniable genocide
perpetrated by Sudan and pro-government tribal militias against the
western region of the huge nation located in northeast Africa.

A year later, the killings have increased.

Terror has grown. Peacekeeping efforts have failed to slow methodical
raids against Darfuri towns and refugee camps. Aid workers have been
murdered, assaulted, or intimidated into departing. Sudan wields its
oil wealth to win strategic support from China – and its leader’s
promise to resist the Islamic terror group al Qaeda has won at least
acquiescence from the Bush administration.

This year’s rally, in Union Congregational Church, 176 Cooper Ave.

sought to get people to take action – from sending e-mails to the
White House to purchasing $25 solar heaters. These heaters already
enable some of the more than 400,000 Darfuri refugees to prepare food
in their destitute camps without risk of rape or murder, which often
occur when they forage outside the camps seeking wood for stoves.

"Just a year ago, only 15 percent of the American people knew anything
at all" about the situation in Darfur," Gloria Crist, a leader of
the Essex County Coalition for Darfur, which organized the rally,
told the crowd. "Now that we know what’s happening, what are we going
to do about it?"

The rally in Montclair coincided with more than 400 other gatherings
throughout the United States on behalf of the "Global Days for Darfur"
project.

Along with hundreds of adults filling Union Congregational Church,
participants included scores of college-age, teenage and younger
students energized to effect change in an area where an estimated
400,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million people have become
refugees.

"Silence is complicity," said Sen. Robert Menendez, who has actively
worked to help Darfur through his strong support of the Darfur Peace
and Accountability Act, and sponsored a $60 million appropriation to
create a United Nations peacekeeping force.

Menendez scornfully noted that this $60 million funding "sits in an
account instead of saving lives."

"The truth is that the situation in Darfur is a time bomb which could
explode at any time," Menendez said, expressing his frustration at the
lack of progress and calling for "serious sanctions" against Sudan,
including a no-fly zone over Darfur and the possibility of bringing
Sudanese leaders before the International Criminal Court.

An escalating obstacle to helping the Darfurian people is the
increasing danger to relief workers providing aid. "Several
international aid agencies announced last Monday that they are
suspending their efforts because of at-tacks," Menendez said.

Menendez said that he plans to introduce a bipartisan Senate resolution
to send a message to China, which pumps oil from Sudan while providing
arms and money to the janjaweed. With China slated to host the 2008
Summer Olympics in Beijing, "we cannot allow China to host the
Olympics with blood on their hands," he said, as an enthusiastic
audience cheered.

"Chinese investments fuel the atrocities taking place in Darfur,"
said Menendez.

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., who co-sponsored the Darfur Peace and
Accountability Act in 2006 and has supported several measures to
stop the genocide and help the victims, said he was "heartened to
see this mobilization," and "encouraged by our students. Never have
I seen our youth so engaged in an issue.

"While we love our young here, the children of Darfur are
systematically being robbed of their families, their futures, their
lives," Pascrell said. "We may be late, but we are not too late for
hope. We will not be too late unless we allow ourselves to become
silent."

Yahya Osman, a Darfurian who is a leader in the Darfur Rehabilitation
Project, a national organization based in Newark, thanked the crowd
for their presence and commitment, noting that the students in the
crowd provided "a sign of hope" for the future.

"But we need to stop the genocide before it is too late," he
emphasized. "I ask you not to forget the people who need your help."

Noting that the lack of food, water medicine and schooling "is part
of the genocide," Osman forcefully advocated reconciliation. "We
don’t want our people to grow up with hatred in a refugee camp."

Before the event commenced, Osman told The Times: "We’re asking the
world to stand up and take action. We believe in people power. People
can bring attention to the crisis by educating, by donating and by
holding their leaders’ feet to the fire."

Assemblyman William Payne, who authored New Jersey’s landmark Sudan
divestiture law, spoke to the crowd, as did his brother, Rep. Donald
M. Payne, who was one of earliest and most forceful supporters of
securing peace in Darfur. Payne was responsible for a congressional
resolution declaring that the onslaught in Darfur was genocide. Both
men have visited the refugee camps.

"There has to be a new attitude about ending the genocide," said Rep.

Payne, who was appointed chairman of the Subcommittee on African and
Global Health in February. "~TWe’re demanding that China put more
pressure on the government of Sudan." he said, adding that he is
introducing legislation to get a no-fly-zone declared around Darfur.

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES

Speakers referred to Darfur as the first – and hopefully the last –
genocide of the 21st century. During a candle-lighting ceremony,
speakers referred to other mass-murders such as the Holocaust prior
to and during World War II, the rampaging killings in Cambodia, the
slaughter in Rwanda, the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s and
widespread killings of Armenians by Turks early in the 20th century.

"I am here as a genocide survivor to call the international community
to action before it is too late," said Joseph Sebarenzi, who lost
his parents, seven siblings and numerous other relatives during the
genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

Sebarenzi commended Montclair for its leadership in raising awareness
and urging action to help the people of Darfur, adding, "I believe
that the international community should press the government of Sudan
to stop this genocide. I think the members of the United Nations
Security Council have the legal and moral responsibility to protect
the people of Darfur.

"Allow a UN force to protect the people of Darfur," urged Sebarenzi,
who said a UN force "should act without delay."

Rabbi Steven Kushner of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield and a founding
member of the Essex County Coalition for Darfur, led a remembrance and
vigil for Darfur. Survivors, descendants and representatives of 20th
century genocide victims in Armenia, the Nazi Holocaust, Cambodia,
Bosnia and Rwanda lit white candles "to return even a flicker of
light to our world," Kushner said.

Then Osman lit a green candle for Darfur, "to show us the way, how
we can stop this genocide," he said.

"Am I my brother’s keeper?" Kushner asked. "It’s a question we need
to ask ourselves as well.

"It strikes me that, if all we do is remember, we learn nothing,"
Kushner said. "If not now, when?"

The ceremony ended with Kushner sounded the shofar, a horn used in
Jewish religious ceremonies to call people together and sound warnings.

TOGETHER

The Montclair Academy Drummers played before the rally, directed by
Maya Milenovic Workman with Kevin Jones and Reggie Workman. Music for
the program was performed by members of the Christian Love Baptist
Church Youth Choir, Irvington; B’nai Keshet & Ner Tamid Choirs;
and OSAU Choir, Montclair State University, under the direction of
David Sanders.

Sara Gold, a senior at Montclair High School who has been involved in
the Darfur cause since attending the 2006 rally, brought her mother,
Judy Becker. "She is definitely raising my awareness about Darfur,
and it was just very moving to hear peoples’ experiences from all
genocide," Becker said.

Cheryl Marshall-Petricoff, a founder of the Coalition, brought her
three children, ages 9, 3, and the baby, now 8 months, she was carrying
when she spoke at last year’s rally. "I’m saddened that we’re having
a rally again and not much has changed," she said. "But my spirit is
always very lifted when I see everyone come together in the commu-nity
and work together to put more pressure to make change happen."

The Rev. Charles Ortman of the Unitarian Church of Montclair told The
Times: "We’ve allowed humanity too many opportunities to destroy itself
in the past while we just sat there. We have to be present, stand up
and raise our voices so our political leaders and our corporate leaders
can take any measures they can to secure peace and protect human life."

"Four years is enough," Sebarenzi said of the genocide in Darfur. "We
need actions, not words."

"President Bush, time is up," Menendez said. "It’s time to save
Darfur."

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U.S. DIPLOMAT SAYS USA TRIED TO AVOID CONFUSION

Panorama.am
17:50 03/05/2007

Anthony Godfrey, charge de’affairs of US embassy, said USA tried to
avoid further confusion by restoring the initial formulation of the
report. Godfrey said so speaking about US State Department Human
Rights report, which says, "Armenia keeps occupied the Azerbaijani
territories." This wording was changed after several statements by
the Armenian party.

However, later it was left as it was initially.

The American diplomat said, "The important thing is that USA did not
change its stance on Karabakh conflict settlement." "We believe that
the status of Karabakh must be decided by conflicting sides," he said.

SWEDISH PROFESSOR INSISTS THAT AS IF ARMENIAN MASS GRAVE OF VILLAGE OF KURU, NUSAYBIN, IS NOT THE ONE HE WAS SHOWN

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 25 2007

ISTANBUL, APRIL 25, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Turk and Swedish
specialists did research words on April 23 in the mass grave found out
in the village of Kuru, Nusaybin, which was pointed out as the grave of
Armenians killed in 1915. According to the Radikal newspaper, during
the researches Professor of the Sodertorn University of Sweden stated
that this is not the grave he was shown. In the Swedish specialist’s
words, "the remains which were pictured in the photos do not exist
in that grave. And the surroundings are not convenient for future
analyses." He even refused to take models of remains and ground from
the grave. And Doctor Professor Yusuf Halacoglu, the Chairman of the
Turkish Historical Society insisted that models of the remains and
ground taken from the grave must be studied at laboratories. "After
this we are ready to go and do research works in all those graves
which Armenians will show us," the Turkish historian said.

Turkish Zaman mentions that there are opinions about the fact that
this grave belongs to the Roman era.