Author: Toneyan Mark

Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial, Inc.
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-383-9009, Web:

PRESS RELEASE
October 15, 2007
CONTACT: Rouben Adalian
Phone: (202) 383-9009
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II BLESSES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL

To view photo go to:
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Washington, October 10, 2007-On an historic day for the
Armenian-American community, as the House Foreign Affairs Committee
debated the Armenian Genocide resolution, His Holiness Karekin II,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, blessed the house in
which the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial will be opened in
Washington. "May God bless your endeavor and bring the project you have
started to a happy conclusion," said His Holiness, shown with Archbishop
Khajak Barsamian of the Diocese of the Armenian Church, Hirair
Hovnanian, Chairman of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial Board
of Trustees, and Van Krikorian, Chairman of the AGMM Building and
Operations Committee.

To view photo go to:
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Washington, October 10, 2007- On a day that started with His Holiness
Karekin II delivering the opening prayer in the House of Representatives
and ended with the favorable vote in the House Foreign Affairs Committee
which referred the Armenian Genocide resolution to the floor, the
Armenian Catholicos also stopped at the landmark Washington building
which is being converted into the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial.
In remarks upon the conclusion of the blessing of the house service, His
Holiness said: "I bring my appreciation for your efforts to memorialize
the victims of the Armenian Genocide." Standing with the Catholicos are
Near East Foundation Board of Directors Chairman Shant Mardirossian,
Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial Building and Operations Committee
member Zaven Tachdjian, His Eminence Archbishop Khajak Barsamian of the
Diocese of the Armenian Church, AGMM Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair
Hovnanian, AGMM Committee Chairman Van Krikorian, former chairwoman of
the Armenian Assembly of America Board of Directors Annie Totah, and
former chairman of the Armenian Assembly of America Board of Directors
Peter Vosbikian.

Photo courtesy Naltchayan Photography

YEREVAN TO HAVE SOON ITS FIRST SKATEBOARD PARK

ARMENPRESS
Oct 15, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 15, ARMENPRESS: The first ever skateboard park,
built in Yerevan’s Nor Nork district, will be put into operation in a
few days, head of a municipality department in charge of construction
and redevelopment, said today.

He said the government released 145 million Drams to build the park
on 1,200 square meters of land.

The official, Frunze Basentsian, said visitors may bring their skates
or rent skates at the park. He said the park will have a permanently
stationed medic, sanitary facilities and instructors.

BLAMING TURKEY, DOES IT HELP?
By George Gregoriou

Greek News
me=News&file=article&sid=7485
Oct 15 2007
New York

Maybe we are doing it for our own consolation. Ankara has not changed
its policy on Cyprus for more than half-a-century, nor its claim on
the Aegean Sea and Air Space. With more violations, the Greeks become
more defensive, and the more we shout at each other and appeal to the
powers that be to put a leash on Ankara. The Turks have the military
power to carry on the occupation in Cyprus and the violations in
the Aegean. This policy has the support of Washington and London,
both powers being critical in the Aegean confrontation and a Cyprus
settlement. This support is in the form of billions of dollars
in economic aid and weapons, to make Turkey a strategic regional
power/ally to control the oil resources in the Middle East and the
Cold War (II) to encircle Russia.

Criticism is fine when dealing with a civilized people who readily
respond to criticism because the insults become more insulting when
they are repeated. The ruling circles in Ankara show no such signs.

They are not troubled by criticism nor insulted by the insults. Take
the genocide of the Armenians in 1915. The response of Ankara to
any Turkish intellectual referring to the genocide in 1915 as a
historical fact is criminal charges and imprisonment for insulting
Turkishness. In the case of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, not
only he was charged with committing a crime, he was assassinated by
a young Turk, who in his words: "I killed a non-Muslim." The new
president and foreign minister of Turkey want a new makeover for
Turkey, to improve her image for the EU. I will not hold my breath,
even if there are changes in Article 301. The silencing of critics
and threats to foreign governments will go on for a long time.

Anyway, why limit the charges of genocide against the Armenians
in 1915? For the first time The New York Times referred to the
Armenian genocide from 1915 to 1918, not just 1915, on October 4,
2007. How about from the 1870s to 1918? This genocide includes not
only Armenians, but Greeks, Assyrians, and other Christians, since
the beginning of the 19th Century. The genocide was intensified
when the Empire was on the verge of collapse, from the 1870s to the
1920s. At Lausanne, the Allies gave the Turks general amnesty for the
political and criminal crimes committed from 1914 to 1922. Why? The
Allies were interested in securing the territorial plundering of
the Ottoman Empire, have Turkey on their side against the new enemy,
the Bolsheviks, and the smell of oil in the Middle East.

A research on the genocide of the Greeks is being assembled for
publication in Europe. Why is this research important? It is part
of a larger movement to force Ankara to recognize the butchering of
these subjects and pay reparations for loss of life and property, to
the descendants, or stay out of Europe. What makes this issue even
more important is that the political winds in the European Union
are against Turkish membership, for a variety of reasons, include
the genocide of the Armenians. The genocide of Greeks, Assyrians,
and Kurds will be added to the list.

The solution to the Cyprus problem is part of this struggle. There
is only one message that needs to be conveyed to Ankara, from Nicosia
and Athens. This message has to be conveyed, loud and clear. Without
a Cyprus settlement, there will be no membership in the EU. I would
go a step further. There will be no naval bases for the United States
in Greece. Let Ankara and its enablers in Washington and Europe worry
about the effects of shutting the door to Turkey¹s membership in the
EU. Turkey will be in trouble. So would Washington, its geopolitical
strategy to control the oil in the Middle East. Turkey, with the soft
Islamists in power could easily turn on into a hard-core Islamist
country. This would be a big headache for Washington, already in
trouble in Iraq, Syria, Iran, and the Middle East. Washington can
understand where the nail pinches in the shoe.

Thirty-three years of occupation in Cyprus is more than enough. The
daily violations of the Greece¹s airspace and territorial waters in
the Aegean has to end, or at least settle it according to the existing
international legalities and practice. The denial that genocide was
committed against Christians (Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Slavs,
and other Christian groups) for over 100 years will not make it go
away. It requires recognition and closure, for the descendants of
those deported and/or massacred, 33% of the Ottoman population in
1900. Over 100,000 of these Christians are in Turkey today. Not only
the Europeans do not want Turkey in the EU, Cyprus and Greece have
the veto as a last resort.

Being nice and toeing the Washington line by holding the hand of Ankara
to the EU doorsteps at Brussels did very little for the Greeks. Even
the koumparato of Costas Karamanlis with Erdogan or changing the
history books to be more Muslim-friendly on the deportation and
massacre of Greeks at the turn of the last century and the burning
of Smyrna did not modify Turkish behavior.

Turkish government behavior is friendly until the ink on the signature
dries. It happened at Lausanne in 1923 and the rapprochement between
Venizelos and Ataturk in 1931. The 100,000 Greeks in Istanbul,
unaffected by the forced exchange of population after the defeat in
Asia Minor, are now 2,500-3,000. The tax law in 1942, the pogroms,
and the expulsions in the 1950s and 1960s forced these Greeks (plus
Armenians, and Jews) to pack up and leave with their suitcases. Enough
is enough!

–Boundary_(ID_LR0kpxGS+H/957OXwh4dmw)–

Sunday Mirror, UK
October 14, 2007 Sunday
3 Star Edition

THE MOLE – IT’S NOT UNUSUAL TO BOSS ARMENIA AT ANY TIME!

EDITED BY DAVID JAMES

EVER wonder what Tom Jones is up to at the moment?

Well, football fans from Armenia and Serbia would have been surprised
to see him sitting on the bench for their Euro 2008 qualifying tie in
Yerevan yesterday.

Closer examination would have revealed it wasn’t the Welsh crooner,
but a coach sharing his name who was last seen plying his trade in
the Hellenic Premier League at Oxfordshire minnows Shrivenham Town.

Jones has been temporarily promoted to the position of coach by
Armenia following the tragic death of Ian Porterfield last month.

Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2007

"IT IS NECESSARY TO CREATE NEW IMAGES IN LITERATURE IN ORDER TO
PRESERVE NATIONAL IDENTITY," AMERICAN ARMENIAN WRITER OSHIN
KESHISHIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN. "Nowedays, when tendencies for
globalization and global developments of culture prevail over the
spheres of politics, press, and culture, the role of the national
identity obtains a peculiar significance." This statement was made by
Levon Ananian, the Chairman of the Writers Union of Armenia, at the
conference held under the title "National identity issue in
Diaspora", which was held in the RA National Academy of Sciences on
October 11 within the frameworks of the second conference of Armenian
writers in foreign languages.

In the words of Levon Ananian, the recent researches show that under
the circumstances of a colossal leakage of information first of all
small nations and peoples, the foundation-stones of the national
identity, that is, the language and culture, suffer damages, which,
according to him, finally leads to the abolition of the national
identity.

In the words of the Chairman of the Writers’ Union of Armenia,
fortunately, Armenia keeps away from such dangers. However, according
to him, there is a problem of preserving the national identity in the
Diaspora. "We should think what we should do so as our compatriots of
the Diaspora are not gulped down by globalization," Levon Ananian
stressed.

American Armenian writer Oshin Keshishian mentioned in his report
that it is necessary to bring new images into literature in order to
preserve the national identity. "An Armenian is always presented as a
victim of the genocide in the American literature. It is our task to
create the image of a new Armenian, so as foreign readers read about
our achievements, and not only about genocide and lamentation," the
American Armenian writer mentioned.

In the opinion of translator Alexander Topchian, the fact that
certain Armenian writers consciously present works merely on the
subject of the genocide to generations is a very deplorable one, the
same can be said for the cinema and the theater. Thus, in his words,
"we make it archaistic in our national cultural consciousness."

Author: Hakobian Hasmik
Editor: Eghian Robert

Prime News Agency, Georgia
Oct 12 2007

Azerbaijani FM Issued Statement Against Resolution Adopted By U.S. On
Recognition Of Armenian Genocide

Tbilisi. October 12 (Prime-News) – Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
issued a statement against the resolution adopted by the U.S. House
of Representative’s Foreign Affairs Committee on recognition of the
Armenian genocide.

Trend news agency informs that the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
condemns this decision as wrong and biased and considers it harmful
for the developments in the region and globally, the statement said

Azerbaijan supports the Turkish call to examine the archival
documents related to the World War I tragedies in this part of the
world. It is crucial to learn all details before taking steps.

Azerbaijan suffered itself from notorious ethnic cleansing by
Armenia, vivid example of which is genocide in Azerbaijani town of
Khojaly, where hundreds of women, kids, and elderly people have been
killed. Azerbaijan, which is also a victim of numerous terrorist acts
and occupation of territories by Armenia, knows well how Armenian
Diaspora and Government hide their own misdoings through the
aggressive propaganda.

MFA of Azerbaijan strongly urges the U.S. House of Representatives to
refrain from adopting the Resolution 106 in order to demonstrate that
the United States Congress is impartial and not under the pressure of
ethnic lobbies.

The U.S. House of Representative’s Foreign Affairs Committee adopted
the draft Resolution 106, which characterizes the events of 1915 in
Ottoman Empire related to relocation of the part of the Armenian
population collaborating with invading forces, as "genocide".

16022/2007-10-12.html

Religion News Service
October 11, 2007 Thursday 4:54 PM EDT

Armenian church leader supports `genocide’ resolution

By MRINALINI REDDY

As Congress considers legislation that brands the killings of 1.5
million Armenians in 1915 "genocide," the patriarch of the worldwide
Armenian Church said Turkey’s resistance is "unacceptable."

His Holiness Karekin II, the spiritual leader of 7 million Armenian
Christians, stopped in Washington during a month-long U.S. tour and
weighed in on a hot-button diplomatic fracas that is roiling the
nation’s capital.

At issue is the massacre of Armenians on Turkish soil in the last
days of the Ottoman Empire. On Wednesday (Oct. 10), the House Foreign
Relations Committee passed a resolution that called the deaths a
"genocide."

President Bush issued a stern rebuke, saying the bill could threaten
relations with Turkey, a strategic ally and moderate Islamic nation
in the war on terrorism.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has expressed discontent and recalled
Turkey’s ambassador as a sign of protest.

Karekin, speaking Thursday (Oct. 11) on the steps of the Jefferson
Memorial in a ceremony to mark religious freedom, said, "We believe
that similar threats are unacceptable and we would desire a more
positive approach by Turkey itself."

Just hours before the House committee approved the non-binding
resolution on Wednesday, Karekin met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
offered the opening prayer in the House chamber. "With the solemn
burden of history, we remember the victims of the genocide of the
Armenians, the consequences of which are still felt by the entire
world in new manifestations of genocide," he prayed.

Edward Alexander, a former diplomat and parishioner at St. Mary
Armenian Church here, joined Karekin on his visit with Pelosi and at
the Jefferson Memorial. He said he lost members of his extended
family in the massacre.

While the resolution may appear a symbolic gesture, it means a great
deal to the Armenian community, he said. "This is the greatest
country in the world," said Alexander. "It’s a country of laws, deep
democracy and justice."

The Armenian Church holds a unique place outside of Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Armenia was the first country to
proclaim Christianity the official state religion, in 301 A.D.,
preceding Roman Emperor Constantine by 12 years.

There are about 1 million Armenian Christians in three dioceses in
the U.S. and Canada. The 1915 massacre fueled a wave of refugees to
American shores, which helped build the U.S. church into the largest
and most prosperous of the Armenian diaspora.

Karekin holds a position similar to the pope, and is the church’s
132nd catholicos, or supreme partiarch.

BBC News, UK
Oct 12 2007

Armenian sway over US lawmakers

By Laura Smith-Spark
BBC News, Washington

Despite a direct appeal by US President George W Bush, lawmakers in
the US have backed a description of the mass killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turks after 1915 as genocide.

The issue of what happened to the Armenians remains hugely divisive

While Armenia welcomed the vote by a panel in the US House of
Representatives, Turkey condemned it as "unacceptable" and has
recalled its ambassador to Washington for "consultations".

Turkey accepts there were mass killings in 1915-17 but denies it was
genocide.

Ahead of the vote, senior administration officials warned that if the
resolution passed, Turkey could cut access to military bases needed
for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Its passage "would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in
Nato and in the global war on terror", Mr Bush said from the White
House Rose Garden.

Nonetheless, the non-binding resolution passed the House Foreign
Affairs Committee by 27 to 21, a first step towards holding a full
vote in the House of Representatives.

Given that Armenians represent only about 1.5m of America’s 300m
population, what has won them such influence over the US Congress –
and perhaps the nation’s foreign policy?

Organised lobby

Part of the answer lies in the organisation and determination of the
Armenian-American lobby groups, says Dr Svante Cornell, of the
Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

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The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and the Armenian
Assembly of America (AAA) are among the most powerful.

Another factor is that the Armenian-American community is largely
concentrated in important states such as California, Michigan and
Massachusetts, Dr Cornell said.

"You have basically a number of places where the Armenian issue is
very important in local politics – especially for anybody wanting to
get elected in California," he said.

"The Turkish lobby is much less organised and much less rooted in an
electorate than the Armenian lobby."

Wednesday’s resolution was written by Democratic Representative Adam
Schiff, whose California district is home to the country’s largest
ethnic-Armenian community.

‘Sobering’ choice

Of course, the vote – both for and against – was also based on
representatives’ competing sets of principles.

Q&A: Armenian ‘genocide’
Armenia resolutions

Opening the debate, Tom Lantos, the committee’s Democrat chairman,
acknowledged that the resolution posed a "sobering" choice.

"We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the
Armenian people… against the risk that it could cause young men and
women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an
even heavier price than they are currently paying," he said.

Divisions within the committee ultimately crossed party lines, with
eight Democrats voting against the measure and eight Republicans
voting for it.

Opponents of the resolution argue it could endanger US national
security and that now is not the time to have the debate.

Supporters draw a parallel between the mass killing of Armenians and
what is happening in the Darfur region of Sudan today – and say the
US must speak now if it is to maintain credibility on human rights.

Dr Rouben Adalian, of the Armenian National Institute in Washington,
told the BBC’s World Today: "In a world where genocide continues to
occur, there is something to be said about acknowledging past
genocides as a way of preventing other."

‘Close-knit community’

For Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the AAA, the passage of the
resolution "was a historic step forward" in ending what he calls the
"denial campaign" of the Turkish government.

We have a very vibrant, passionate, educated constituency that
feels very strongly and passionately about this

Bryan Ardouny,
Armenian Assembly of America

"We very much appreciate the support of the whole Armenian community
around the country but also the members of Congress who stood their
ground and voted yes for the resolution," he said.

The AAA has worked very closely with the sponsors and co-sponsors of
the resolution, he said, as well as talking to members of Congress
from both parties about the issue.

The close-knit Armenian-American diaspora has also been at work
educating other communities and writing to politicians, Mr Ardouny
said.

"The response has been great in terms of activism throughout the
entire Armenian-American community," he said.

"One of the consequences of the genocide was that Armenians came to
the US. My grandparents were genocide survivors – they came to this
country, they got an education, they became part of the American
fabric.

"We have a very vibrant, passionate, educated constituency that feels
very strongly and passionately about this and the fact it’s still
being denied – this is something that’s painful."

‘Heavy blow’

Of course, some people argue that it is not the place of legislators
to decide history – especially on an issue as fiercely contested as
this one.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul called the US vote unacceptable

Ankara’s decision to recall its ambassador for consultations may be
just the first in a series of steps as it considers future US-Turkish
relations.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul criticised some US politicians as
having "sought to sacrifice big problems for small domestic political
games" in pursuing the resolution’s passage.

Dr Cornell saw it as a "strategic reality that this will deal a very
heavy blow to US policy in the Middle East and with regard to Iraq".

The US has already lost much support among the Turkish people in
recent years, he said.

The resolution is expected to come to the full House before the
session adjourns on 16 November.

Back in 2000, a similar resolution failed when it was withdrawn from
the floor of the Republican-controlled House at the urging of then
President Bill Clinton, who said it could put at risk American lives
and further inflame tensions in the Middle East.

Seven years later, it remains to be seen whether the
Democrat-controlled House will heed the warnings of Mr Bush.

BUSH OBJECTS TO TERM GENOCIDE FOR WWI ARMENIAN DEATHS

Radio New Zealand
Oct 11 2007
New Zealand

US President George Bush says a move by Congress to label the
massacres of Armenians during World War I as "genocide" could damage
ties with Turkey.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the resolution
could damage efforts to secure peace in the Middle East.

Turkey has always fiercely rejected claims by Armenians that up to
1.5 million people died during systematic deportations and killings
between 1915 and 1918 as the Ottoman Empire broke up.

Turkey has warned that if the resolution is passed it could bar the
United States from a key military base in its south.

About 70% of all US air cargo to Iraq goes through Turkey.

The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee is to vote on
the measure shortly.

FMS OF ARMENIA AND ROMANIA SIGNED BILATERAL MILITARY COOPERATION PLAN FOR 2008

DeFacto Agency
Oct 10 2007
Armenia

October 10 a meeting of Armenia’s Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan
and Romania’s Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu was held in Yerevan.

According to the information DE FACTO received at RA MOD Press Office,
in the course of the meeting the parties had considered the current
state of bilateral Armenian-Romanian cooperation in military and
military-technical spheres, ascertaining there are all prerequisites
for deepening the cooperation, in part, in the sphere of military
education.

In conclusion of the meeting the parties signed a Plan on bilateral
military cooperation between Armenia’s Ministry of Defense and
Romania’s Ministry of National Defense for 2008.