Author: Toganian Liana

Dünya online, Turkey
April 28 2006

Ombudsmen of BSEC gather in Istanbul

27/04/2006 16:26:05 Geri dön gönder yazýcý

Ombudsmen of the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation
(BSEC) have gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss role of
ombudsman institution in strengthening democracy.
The two-day conference organized with the assistance of the
Parliamentary Assembly of BSEC started on April 26. Addressing the
meeting, former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel expressed hope
that ombudsmen would contribute to bring peace and stability to the
region.

Human rights commissioner of Azerbaijan Mrs. Elmira Suleymanova spoke
of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

She said over one million Azerbaijani nationals were forced to flee
their homelands and became refugees or internally displaced persons
(IDP) in result of 18-years long Armenian aggression.

Mrs. Suleymanova also called on all the human rights defenders to
step up their efforts to help Azerbaijani refugees return to their
homes.

The conference will last until April 27.

MONITORING OF CONTACT LINE OF NKR AND AZERI ARMED FORCES REGISTERED NO INCIDENTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.04.2006 00:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ No cease-fire violations were registered during the
OSCE recurrent planned monitoring at the contact line between the
Azerbaijani and Karabakh Armed Forces, held north-west of Gulistan
village of NKR Shahumyan district.

Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador
Andrzej Kasprzyk of Poland led the group observing the positions
of the NKR Defense Army. The group included Harry Eronen (Finland)
and Peter Key (UK).

The monitoring was held in compliance with the planned schedule,
no cease-fire violations were registered.

The Azeri party, as different from the Karabakh party, did not take
the observation mission to its frontline.

>From the Karabakh side the observation mission was accompanied by
representatives of the Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) of Nagorno Karabakh, reports the Information and Analysis
Department of the NKR MFA.

EMIGRATION
By Turker Alkan

Turkish Press
April 26 2006

RADIKAL- Almost everybody I met in Armenia has a relation with
Anatolia. I heard such words from many Armenians: ‘My grandfather
was from Kayseri’ or ‘My mother was from Sivas.’ Another April 24 has
come and gone. Armenians held demonstrations which showed that they
hadn’t forgotten their sorrow and which were against Turks. Nothing
has changed. They insist that we confess and accept that we committed
a genocide against them. The Turkish side is suspicious and asks,
‘If we were to accept the genocide now, would there be other demands
tomorrow?’ When the issue is brought up, we discuss the legal meaning
of the term ‘genocide’ and say, ‘No, this wasn’t genocide.’ Even if
we don’t justify ourselves, we have certain explanations to excuse
ourselves: ‘A mutual massacre happened in 1915, and the Armenians
started it as supported by Russians.’ All this is true to a great
extent, but Turks suffered greatly during the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire as well. Millions of Turks who had to escape from Crete, Western
Thrace, Pristina, Greece and Bulgaria were killed and they suffered
pain and hunger. The world looked on and did nothing. After all, we
were Muslims. We even forgot it. Almost everybody who is close to me
(including my family) has emigration stories, which carry the traces
of blood and tears. However, we forgot them a long time ago. We’re
forgetting them rapidly as well.

However, all these things neither justify, nor excuse the sad incidents
which were experienced with the Armenian emigration. Even if calling
this ’emigration’ instead of ‘genocide’ has a legal meaning, it
doesn’t change anything in terms of conscience.

Journalist Murat Bardakci has been writing for a few days about the
sad incidents that the Armenians suffered. Whatever you call them,
these incidents are shameful. Some 141,000 Armenians were living in
Sivas in 1914, but after 1915 there were only 8,100. Nearly 472,000
Armenians in Erzurum, Bitlis, Van, Diyarbakir, Trabzon and Elaizg
were exiled to other places. Even if those who took this decision to
exile them had no intention of killing or destroying the Armenians,
the result which emerged was this.

It’s very natural for states to develop a thesis and determine
a stance to benefit themselves. It seems Turkey and Armenia won’t
change their ideas anytime soon. However, the important thing was the
people who suffered and who were killed. Not the states, but academics,
historians and artists can put forth this dimension of the issue. They
have great duties, and individual efforts can create an atmosphere
which can change the stance of states. Fortunately, Mr. Bardakci
tried to do this.

1000S OF IRANIAN ARMENIANS MARCH IN TEHERAN ON MONDAY TO EXPRESS CONDEMNATION OF 1915 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN OTTOMAN TURKEY

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006

YEREVAN, April 26. /ARKA/. 20 thousand Iranian Armenians took to the
streets in Teheran on Monday holding banners with words of the 1915
Armenian Genocide condemnation on them, Armenian Foreign Ministry
press service reports.

On the same day, Haykazun Alvrtsyan, lecturer at Yerevan State
University, spoke in Ararat culture center as well as Armenian
Ambassador to Iran Karen Nazaryan and Armenian Apostolic Church
Teheran Diocese Archbishop Sepuh Sargsyan.

A memorial service was held in St. Sargis church in Teheran and floral
tribute was paid to the genocide victims.

Iranian media outlets paid attention to Armenian Genocide. In
particular, Iran News daily published an interview of Armenian
Ambassador to Iran.

EUROPEAN TOP OFFICIAL URGES ARMENIANS, AZERIS TO COMPROMISE OVER KARABAKH

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan
25 Apr 06

Both Armenians and Azerbaijanis will benefit from the resolution of
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, Council of Europe Secretary-General
Terry Davis has said. In an interview with Armenian Mediamax news
agency, he said that the parties’ “biggest motive” for compromise
should be the welfare of the people in Armenia and Azerbaijan. He
added that the Council of Europe would send a fact-finding mission
to the region to verify reports about destroyed historical monuments.

The following is the text of interview of Council of Europe
Secretary-General Terry Davis to Armenian Mediamax news agency;
subheadings as published:

The biggest motive for compromise should be the welfare of the people
of Armenia and Azerbaijan

[Correspondent] Are you following the Nagornyy Karabakh peace talks?

[Terry Davis] Of course, I take close interest in what is happening
over the problem of Nagornyy Karabakh. Whenever I meet the foreign
ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan I discuss it with them. I regret
that it is taking such a long time to settle this issue because I
am sure that it is in the interests of the people in Armenia and
Azerbaijan and especially people in Nagornyy Karabakh for this issue
to be settled.

[Correspondent] Do you think regional cooperation in the South Caucasus
is possible before the resolution of existing conflicts?

[Davis] Well, unfortunately there are many conflicts in the South
Caucasus and I regret all of them – the conflicts in Abkhazia, South
Ossetia and Nagornyy Karabakh. My view is that cooperation is always
possible, but there is a limit to how much cooperation you may have
when you have these very serious conflicts.

[Correspondent] Do you think the Council of Europe could play a more
active role in the Nagornyy Karabakh peace process?

[Davis] Of course, the OSCE Minsk Group plays a leading role. I truly
wish luck to Russian, US and French co-chairmen with this difficult
work that they are trying to do. It is in the interest not only of
the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan, but in the interest of the
people everywhere in the world. But the OSCE is leading on it, not
the Council of Europe.

And, what I am always trying to do in both Armenia and Azerbaijan is
to persuade people that there are men and women in the other country
who also suffer, who have very similar feelings. And anything that can
get this across, the people in both Armenia and Azerbaijan, I think is
bound to help to the resolution of this conflict. And that is what I am
interested to encourage. But in the end of the day the responsibility
to resolve the conflict is with the Armenians and the Azerbaijanis.

[Correspondent] Do you think is it still possible to resolve the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict this year?

[Davis] I do not know. I think you will have to ask the foreign
ministers or perhaps, even more important, the presidents of Armenia
and Azerbaijan. They are the people who have the responsibility talking
to each other. How optimistic or pessimistic they are, I do not know.

[Correspondent] Can the process of European integration secure a
stronger motive for compromise for Armenia and Azerbaijan?

[Davis] To my mind, the biggest motive for compromise should be the
welfare of the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

No big problems between the Council of Europe and Armenia

[Correspondent] Do you see any big problems in relations between
Armenia and the Council of Europe?

[Davis] Well, I do not see any problems. Sometimes, I am surprised that
we are constantly searching for problems. Of course, there are some
things in Armenia that we would like to see changed. We certainly
encourage Armenia to do all sorts of things to catch up with the
rest of Europe. From time to time we have to say to our friends in
Armenia that we are still waiting for you to do this or that which
you promised to do. That is intended to be helpful. So, I do not see
any big problems between the Council of Europe and Armenia.

I think Armenia is making a contribution to European discussions on
the whole, but I must tell you frankly – I believe Armenia could make
a bigger contribution, and the reason Armenia does not make as bigger
contributions as I would like is because you do have this problem
with Nagornyy Karabakh.

And as soon as you get that settled, it is going to affect the
contribution made by Armenia and Azerbaijan to the rest of Europe. I
think you could make a very valuable contribution – from particular
point of view, the Armenian point of view – based on the history,
traditions and culture of the Armenian people.

Fact finding mission

[Correspondent] What steps may the Council of Europe take regarding the
destruction of Armenian monuments in Azerbaijani territory of Naxcivan?

[Davis] We are trying to organize a fact-finding mission to visit not
only the places you have mentioned but other places too, where there
are allegations about memorials or monuments or religious things
having been damaged. It does not matter whether these are Armenian
or Azerbaijani. As civilized people, we should be concerned about
anybody’s memorials or monuments being damaged. So, the important thing
is to get people to work together on this. The fact finding mission,
we hope, will have Armenians and Azerbaijanis working together to
find a better way to improve general cooperation for the people to
realize that we all have to respect each other’s believes, each other’s
culture and to protect other peoples’ religious believes and culture.

Let’s go to the heart of the problem, not doing things around it

[Correspondent] The closed border between Armenia and Turkey remains
one of the most complicated problems in the region. Don’t you think
the Council of Europe could play a role in improving Turkish-Armenian
relations?

[Davis] This is really a very important issue. But it is peripheral,
it is only edge. The important thing is to deal with the central
problem, and we all know what the central problem is. It is the future
of Nagornyy Karabakh.

Upcoming elections

[Correspondent] Will the Council of Europe observe parliamentary
elections in Armenia next year?

[Davis] I will expect the Council of Europe to be invited to observe
the elections in Armenia. The Council of Europe has been invited and
has observed recent elections in Armenia. And I shall be surprised
if the Council of Europe is not invited next year.

What do I expect from them? What I expect of better elections [than]
that have been held before. I expect real progress to be made in
making sure that these elections are free and fair elections.

Everyone has opportunity to be a candidate and not to be harassed,
to have no suppression, to have freedom of expression, freedom to
explain one’s point of view, to try to persuade other people to vote
for your point of view. In other words, what I expect is a better
democracy in Armenia.

Genocide as History, Legal Flashpoint

A lawsuit questions how Massachusetts schools portray
the Armenian tragedy. But for victims on the 91st
anniversary, there can be no doubt.

By Elizabeth Mehren
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 25, 2006

BOSTON – She was only 3 when her family fled their Turkish homeland 91
years ago. Alice Shnorhokian and her brother were too small to walk
the long road to safety in the Syrian desert, so their parents
strapped them in boxes on the sides of a donkey that carried the
family possessions.

On the eve of what came to be called the Armenian genocide,
Shnorhokian saw fellow Armenians trying to escape from every village
she passed. There was no food, water or shelter, she said. Babies and
old people were dying along the way. Eventually, about 1.2 million
Armenians would perish.

“In Turkey, in genocide times, we Christian Armenians had three
options,” Shnorhokian said. “We paid a heavy tax, became Muslim or
died.”

The retired nurse-midwife offered her recollections as this region’s
large Armenian community gathered at the Massachusetts statehouse
Monday on the anniversary of the 1915-1918 massacres. The observance
this year took on new weight in the wake of a lawsuit pending in
federal court here that addresses how the Armenian genocide should be
portrayed in Massachusetts public schools.

Griswold vs. Driscoll was filed last fall by high school senior Ted
Griswold, two of his teachers and a Turkish-American advocacy
organization. The plaintiffs contend that Department of Education
Commissioner David P. Driscoll and other state officials violated the
1st Amendment by removing material from a human rights curriculum that
questioned whether the mass killings nearly a century ago constituted
genocide.

“It’s a case of academic freedom,” said Griswold, who lent his name to
the suit to show his support for freedom of speech, and who admitted
he knows little about Armenia or the genocide.

“A greater perspective makes the truth easier to find,” he said,
adding: “This is nothing personal about the Armenians. I realize it is
an emotional issue for them.”

Six years ago, the Massachusetts Legislature mandated that high
schools offer a curriculum on genocide and human rights. Topics
included the Holocaust, the Irish potato famine, the trans-Atlantic
slave trade and the genocide in Armenia.

At first, the syllabus about the Armenian genocide included opposing
views from several Turkish scholars and organizations – many of whom
dispute whether genocide took place. As recently as this month, when a
public television show on the subject was aired, Turkish Ambassador
Nab Ensoy called the events of 1915 “an unresolved period of world
history.”

In a statement from his embassy in Washington, Ensoy said: “Armenian
allegations of genocide have never been historically or legally
substantiated.”

Several months after the curriculum was introduced, the Turkish
interpretation was removed when a state legislator said the dissent
opened the door to denial of a historical tragedy.

Harvey A. Silverglate, the Boston lawyer who brought the suit, said
the case is about allowing all sides to be heard, not genocide denial.

“Whether there was or was not a genocide is of no importance in this
case,” he said. “Each of my clients has their own personal points of
view. But this is not about their viewpoint. It’s about the right to
have other viewpoints expressed.”

He said the case has special significance in an era of culture wars,
“where each side would like to shut the other side up.”

But UCLA historian Richard Hovannisian said the freedom-of-speech
argument permits “rationalizing or relativizing of what happened.”
Hovannisian, author of many volumes on modern Armenian history, said
the Armenian genocide had become an embarrassment to many Turks.

“They went through a long period of amnesia,” he said.

He dismissed the suggestion that opposing camps are entitled to equal
time in historical analysis. “This is about politics, and the
geopolitical importance of Turkey,” he said. “It is revisionism,
state-sponsored and state-organized.”

The case has drawn attention, especially in California, with the
world’s largest concentration of Armenians. Massachusetts has this
country’s second-largest Armenian population, with at least 25,000
residents claiming Armenian descent in the most recent U.S. census.

Shnorhokian remembered that as her family set off on its involuntary
exodus, her mother hid money in her children’s clothing. In case they
became separated from the family, they would thus have the means to
pay for food or shelter. Along the route of their journey, Shnorhokian
related, her father prayed and sang, asking God’s help.

Ultimately, Shnorhokian landed in Beirut, where she was educated and
married. With her husband and children, she immigrated to
Massachusetts, where her husband was a pastor.

The Armenian experience must be remembered, she said, “so it will not
be repeated. That was the call, that we should remember always, and we
should teach our children. And everybody should know. The whole world
should know. Well, how can you forget?

COMMEMORATION OF 1915 GENOCIDE OF ARMENIANS
by Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 24, 2006 Monday

Armenians all over the world are commemorating on Monday their
fellow-countrymen, who were massacred during the 1915 Genocide in
the Osman Turkish Empire.

According to tradition, thousands of people gather at the Memorial
to the Genocide Martyrs in the Yerevan park of “Tsitsernakaberd”. An
eternal fire is burning there in memory of the 1.5 million Armenians
who were massacred in 1915. Similar ceremonies are being held in
several other countries because an Armenian diaspora had appeared on
all the continents of the world after the genocide.

Efforts to get the genocide internationally affirmed and recognised
are among the priority tasks of Armenia’s foreign policy. The first
genocide of the 20th century was affirmed by several countries of the
world and by the European Parliament. It is worth noting that Greece
and France had adopted corresponding laws in this connection. The
Russian State Duma issued a statement in 1995, condemning the Genocide
of the Armenian People.

The Armenian President decreed to award special prizes to people,
known for their outstanding contributions to the cause of getting
the Armenian Genocide affirmed and recognised. The first to get such
prizes were historian Verjine Svaznyan for his book “Armenian Genocide
and Historical Memory of People” and German writer Edgar Hilszenrat
for his novel “The Death Tale”.

WEST HOLLYWOOD REMEMBERS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

CBS2 TV, CA
April 24 2006

(CBS) WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Flags will fly at half-staff in West
Hollywood Monday to honor Armenian victims of genocide.

Monday is the 91st anniversary of what many Armenians consider the
start of the genocide, when Turkish authorities arrested 200 Armenian
community leaders.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died between 1915 and 1923 in the
waning days of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire.

The Turkish government maintains allegations of genocide have never
been proven.

“Armenian allegations of genocide have never been historically or
legally substantiated,” Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy said in response
to the Public Broadcasting Service’s “Armenian Genocide” documentary.

The West Hollywood City Council has passed a resolution “condemning
the human rights violations of the Turkish government,” according to
City Councilman Jeffrey Prang’s office. The resolution was introduced
by Prang and Councilwoman Abbe Land.

Report: Ethnic Armenian stabbed to death in Moscow

AP Worldstream; Apr 22, 2006

An attacker fatally stabbed an ethnic Armenian man on a Moscow subway
platform Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported amid a wave of
racially-motivated attacks that has plagued Russia.

A man with a shaven head and black clothing stabbed the victim several
times before fleeing, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified
transit police official. The victim, an ethnic Armenian living in
Moscow, died at the scene of the early-evening attack, the report said.

Several attacks on foreigners and ethnic minorities have occurred in
Russia in the past few weeks, and the country has seen a marked rise
in xenophobia and racism in recent years, with rights groups accusing
the government of inaction.

Assailants, often young skinheads or other nationalists, have committed
hundreds of attacks on foreigners from Africa, Asia and Latin America,
dark-skinned immigrants from former Soviet Central Asia and the
Caucasus Mountains region, and Jews. Dozens have died.

Four Chinese students were beaten in what investigators said was a
racially motivated attack in the city of Kostroma, Interfax reported
earlier Saturday.

Police arrested two vocational school students and an unemployed
man on suspicion of attacking the Chinese students from Kostroma
State University, who were given medical aid but apparently were not
hospitalized, the report said, citing an unidentified law enforcement
official.

Police in the city 320 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of Moscow
declined to comment and prosecutors could not immediately be reached
for comment.

The suspects could be charged with inciting ethnic, racial or religious
hatred, the report said. It said one of the suspects has also been
charged in an attack on an ethnic Azerbaijani schoolgirl and accused
of shouting nationalist slogans near the city’s World War II memorial
on April 20, Adolf Hitler’s birthday.

GEORGIAN NGO RESPONSES ST. ETCHMIADZIN

AZG Armenian Daily
20/04/2006

Georgiy Andreadze, head of “National Lobby” Georgian NGO, believes
that Georgia has both the moral and the legal rights to demand
back the so-called “Georgian” churches in the territory of Armenia
and Israel. He thinks this step will be a deserved response to the
equivalent demand of the Armenian side.

“Regnum” agency informed that Andreadze believes that the so-called
Georgian churches are situated mainly in the territory of the current
Northern Armenia.

According to him these territories belonged to Kvemo Karteli long
ago. We hope that these suppositions are no territorial claims and
do not reflect the official position of Georgia.