Author: Torgomian Varazdat

A1plus
| 16:39:09 | 26-04-2005 | Official |
ROBERT KOCHARYAN MET MAYOR OF YEREVAN
Today Robert Kocharyan held a working meeting with Mayor of Yerevan
Yervand Zakharyan.
The interlocutors considered a wide range of problems available in the
capital city. In part, they touched upon the general plan of Yerevan
and the works carried out on the Northern Avenue, the repair works on
the city and community roads to be finished within next 2-3
months. Robert Kocharyan ordered the Mayor to supply Yerevan with 200
buses and later increase their number for proper conveyance of
passengers.
They also considered the major repairs of the Hrazdan Bridge,
legalization of unauthorized constructions and planning of city
programs within the state budget for 2006.

La Croix
26 avril 2005
Arménie. Le souvenir du génocide a mobilisé les Arméniens. MÉMOIRE.
Les commémorations du génocide des Arméniens il y a 90 ans ont donné
lieu à des rassemblements impressionnants.
par COCHEZ Pierre
Une foule sans fin d’Arméniens, dont le nombre n’a pu être évalué
avec précision, s’est recueillie avant-hier à Erevan, capitale de
l’Arménie, devant le monument aux victimes du génocide de 1915, pour
le 90e anniversaire des massacres perpétrés par les Turcs. En pleurs
ou en silence, ils ont déposé des fleurs devant le monument aux
victimes – le “Dzidzernagapert” – situé sur une colline de la
capitale arménienne. En présence du président Robert Kotcharian, une
prière était récitée par le catholicos Karékine II, chef de l’Église
apostolique arménienne.
“Cette foule était impressionnante. Depuis la chute de l’empire
soviétique, les gens n’avaient pas témoigné une telle ferveur
populaire. La hauteur de la montagne des fleurs déposées autour de la
flamme du monument du génocide dépassait les deux mètres”, raconte
Mérie, responsable d’une organisation de jeunes, jointe hier au
téléphone par La Croix.
Ce monument avait été construit après la manifestation populaire du
24 avril 1965 qui brisait le silence imposé par le régime soviétique
sur le génocide du peuple arménien. Achevé en 1967, il comporte une
vaste rotonde entourant une flamme éternelle. Douze pans figurent les
provinces de l’Arménie historique. On y accède par une esplanade
bordée de stèles mentionnant les localités martyres du génocide.
Dimanche, une minute de silence a été observée à travers tout le
pays, après une messe oecuménique célébrée dans la cathédrale
Saint-Grégoire d’Erevan, avec des prières récitées par des
représentants des Églises catholique, anglicane, grecque et russe
orthodoxe. Le 24 avril 1915, les autorités turques avaient arrêté 200
leaders de la communauté arménienne, donnant le signal de ce que
l’Arménie considère comme le début d’un génocide planifié qui a fait
au moins 1,5 million de morts.
Des milliers de membres de l’importante diaspora arménienne étaient
venus à Erevan pour cette commémoration, tandis que 350 000 personnes
ont manifesté en France. “Les survivants du génocide ont essaimé un
peu partout dans le monde. De Marseille à Beyrouth, de Moscou à New
York, leurs descendants entendent que la Turquie reconnaisse ce
génocide. C’est un problème moral, psychologique”, commente Mérie.
À Moscou, des centaines de personnes ont participé à un service
religieux sur le futur site d’une église arménienne. Dans le nord-est
de la Syrie, 4 000 personnes se sont rassemblées à Marqada où
reposent plusieurs milliers de victimes.
Les autorités turques, qui n’entretiennent pas de relations
diplomatiques avec Erevan et qui maintiennent fermée leur frontière
commune à cause du conflit du Haut-Karabakh qui oppose l’Arménie à
l’Azerbaïdjan, ont proposé ce mois-ci une enquête conjointe des
historiens des deux pays. Le ministre arménien des affaires
étrangères avait déjà indiqué en février qu’Erevan n’avait nullement
l’intention de conduire de nouvelles recherches sur un événement qui
est, à ses yeux, un fait historique avéré.

Back from Armenia
Haaretz
27 April 05

By Yossi Sarid

We returned from Jerevan, Armenia, after taking part in the
international conference marking the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide. We were four Israelis there – Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Prof. Yair
Oron, Dr. Israel Charny and I. Most of those invited were researchers
and academics. Only a few were statesmen. The Israeli presence was
very important for the organizers, so they changed the schedule to
suit our needs: We all wanted to be home for the Pesach seder.
The Israeli-Jewish position on their genocide is a matter of great
worry for the Armenians, and also a source of hope. Worry, over the
ongoing alienation by official Israel toward their terrible disaster,
from which they have yet to recover; and hope, because of the signs
being shown by the international Jewish community – and even among us
– indicating strong reservations with the infamous statement made by
Shimon Peres, in effect denying there had been any genocide of the
Armenian people.
That entire debate about whether there was or wasn’t genocide is
foolish and ugly. Nobody disputes the fact that more than one million
Armenians were murdered during a two-year period, and a million people
are not murdered without planning and without organization. The Turks
can invent a thousand reasons to explain what happened, but of what
importance will that be when the important thing is that people,
women, men, children, died strange and ruthless and unnatural deaths?
After 90 years, one can of course ask what is the point of digging at
history and wounds. A bad question. Genocide has not passed from this
world, it still takes its victims and not only in Darfur in
Sudan. Dealing with the past is therefore dealing with the present and
the future, so it is forbidden to leave it only to the historians, as
Peres suggested in his day. It won’t be the historians who prevent
more cases of genocide now lurking at the doorsteps of various nations
in more than 60 different places around the world, according to the
researchers’ diagnosis. Only the politicians can prevent it, if they
want – but they don’t really want.
Those same researchers point to another horrifying fact: In the 20th
century, some 160 million civilians were murdered in gases of genocide
and “politicide,” compared to “only” some 40 million
soldiers. Fighting apparently is less dangerous than living in the
zones of abandonment, where nationalist hatred and racist incitement
are the opium for the masses.
The genocide yet to come can be prevented, if the previous cases are
not whitewashed, on condition that those responsible don’t get away
with it. The Turkish position is grave and outrageous: The murderers
themselves are long since dead. Contemporary Turks are not guilty, so
it is not entirely clear why they insist on their great denial instead
of accepting the moral and historic responsibility. They are only
harming themselves, their stature and image, just as they knock on the
doors of the international community and want to be accepted to the
European Union. They should be accepted, but not before they recognize
their responsibility.
It’s not always remembered that the Armenian genocide was the first
case of genocide in the 20th century, characterized more than previous
ones by monstrosity, reaching its satanic climax in the Holocaust of
the Jews (though Prof. Bauer always steps in with the correction that
the first genocide of the last century was conducted by the Germans in
Namibia, but it has been forgotten completely).
If already then, in the early part of the century, the international
community had dealt the way it should have with the Armenian genocide,
it is very possible that it would have been possible to prevent all
that came after it, maybe even the Holocaust. But the eyes closed to
the Armenian victims were what made it possible for all the murderers
of the world to come out of their holes and slaughter, knowing there
was no shield to protect small and weak nations, which are such easy
prey.
The alliance between the victims is very important for the Armenians,
and important for us; the main importance is meant for the entire
human race. Knowing our species, its impulses and talent for
destruction, we cannot accept victims without murderers, genocide
without the responsible. An orphaned genocide is the father of the
next genocide.

A1plus
| 18:14:20 | 25-04-2005 | Regions |
VAIN QUEST
At present goes on the quest of the dead bodies of the two residents of the
Ararat region village Darakert who fell into the river Hrazdan yesterday.
According to the Emergency Administration, the two-day quest has so far
resulted fruitless. 10-year-old Hayk Hovhannisyan and 11-year0old Garnik
Grigoryan fell into the river on April 24, at about 2 p.m. near the village
Dashtavan of Ararat region.

PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: [email protected]
26 April 2005
LEST WE FORGET
        
Sydney, Australia – As Armenian communities around the world observed solemn
commemorations on this 90th anniversary year of the Armenian Genocide,
Armenian-Australians have united also to mark not only the memorial of its
Armenian martyrs but also the ANZAC.
The Primate of the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand, His Eminence
Archbishop Aghan Baliozian presided over and attended a number of
commemorative events over the course of the weekend.
On Saturday, 23 April, the Primate accompanied by parish priests and deacons
held a prayer service at the Cenotaph (war memorial) at Martin Place, Sydney
during a wreath-laying ceremony for the undying memories of the victims of
the Armenian Genocide and the ANZAC soldiers who fought in WWI. A large
contingent of faithful Armenian community members flocked the memorial to
pay their personal respects.
On Sunday, 24 April, a Divine Liturgy and Requiem Service was offered by
Reverend Father Norayr Patanian at the Altar of the Armenian Genocide
Monument at Macquarie Park Cemetery in the northern suburbs. On the same
morning, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Reverend Father Bartev
Karakashian at St Benedict’s Catholic Church for the Armenian congregation
of western suburbs. The Primate delivered the day’s sermon at the northern
suburbs’ service and soon after attended a dedication ceremony to install a
commemorative plaque in Memorial Park, Meadowbank in the city of Ryde
following the Council’s unanimous passing of a motion officially recognising
the Armenian Genocide on 12 April, 2005 – the first local government of
Australia to do so. Archbishop Aghan Baliozian was invited by Ryde City
Council to open the dedication ceremony with his prayer and blessing.
Mid-afternoon the Primate accompanied by parish priests and deacons attended
a Requiem Service at the Armenian Genocide Memorial at Rookwood Cemetery
where the faithful of the area gathered to partake in the solemn service
offering prayers for the repose of the souls of the Armenian martyrs.
In the evening, the 90th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide
under the primateship of His Eminence Archbishop Aghan Baliozian was held at
Willoughby Town Hall, Sydney. Guest speaker for the evening was Mrs Hilda
Tchoboian, Chairperson of the Armenian European Federation. The
commemoration evening gathered a capacity crowd of over 800. The Primate
delivered the closing address recalling on an account given by Ambassador
Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador at Constantinople from 1913 to 1916,
likening the resilient Armenian spirit to the following episode with Talaat
Pasha. At a dinner party when the Ambassador appealed to Talaat on the
mistreatment of the Armenians, Talaat angrily grabbed a bunch of grapes from
the table, squeezed the grapes to a pulp extracting every ounce of juice,
throwing it to the ground and asserted this was how he was going to quash
the Armenians. To which the American Ambassador replied yes, he had indeed
succeeded in extracting the juice from the grapes and pulverising the fruit
but was unable to crush its seeds.
Early Monday dawn on 25 April, the Primate accompanied by Diocesan Council
Chairman, Mr Armen Baghdasarayan, attended the Chatswood-Willoughby ANZAC
Dawn Service, a service of remembrance and homage. ANZAC Day is a national
day of remembrance and marks the anniversary of the first major military
action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World
War. When forces landed at Gallipoli in Turkey on 25 April, 1915 they met
fierce resistance from Turkish defenders and over 8,000 Australian soldiers
were killed with a multitude of heavy casualties. 25 April has become the
day on which Australians remember the sacrifice of those who died in war.
Early morning on 25 April, His Eminence Archbishop Aghan Baliozian travelled
to Auckland, New Zealand and met with the small Armenian community to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide that same evening.
The Archbishop celebrated the Divine Liturgy and Requiem Service at St
Peter’s Anglican Church, Takapuna that was followed by a commemoration
evening where the Primate gave the keynote address.

Zaman, Turkey
April 25 2005
No Word on ‘Genocide’, Bush Warns Yerevan for Democracy
By Foreign News Desk
While commemoration activities for the so-called Armenian Genocide
were held at various locations, a group of 500 people attending a
rally burned Turkish flags.
The group was diffused after shouting slogans opposing Turkey’s
European Union (EU) membership. Armenian President Robert Kocharian
who made a speech at the ceremony that was held in front of the
“genocide monument” in Yerevan advocated that recognition of the
“genocide” at an international level was significant in terms of
international politics. Reportedly, diplomats and parliamentary
members from 15 countries participated in the rallies and activities
in Yerevan. Discussions over a law draft to punish participants in
the so-called Armenian genocide also became an issue in France,
following Belgium. Socialist Party (PS) Secretary-General Francois
Hollande, which is the main opposition party in France, said they
decided to submit the bill to prohibit the denial of the so-called
Armenian genocide. There were four separate drafts on the issue
submitted by the ruling party Union for Popular Movement (UMP) and SP
in France.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush did not use the word
“genocide” this year, despite expectations. Expressing his deep
condolences to Armenian society due to the loses that occurred in the
past, Bush also warned the Armenian administration by calling on them
to develop democracy and freedoms. Armenians living in Russia,
Lebanon, Greece, Iran, Israel, Germany, and US also commemorated the
so-called genocide.

Local servants of foreign theses
Yerkir/arm
April 22, 2005

Armenians all over the world are commemorating the 90th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide.
Today, many governments, politicians, scholars and regular people
share our pain with us. In Turkey, another round of denial is underway
on the highest governmental level, the same level which executed the
ultimate crime against the humanity. The theses of that campaign have
not changed in the past 90 years: they are not guilty, and if someone
is to blame, it is the victim that is to blame.
Sadly, in Armenia too, this viewpoint is endorsed by those who do not
dismiss any means, including the Turkish propaganda machine, in their
fight against individuals and political forces that advocate national
values. Some political circles pursue concrete political goals: to try
to prove that the current national course of our state is wrong and
that we should give up the key issues of the present foreign policy —
recognition of the Genocide and Artsakh.
What’s more, those circles believe that the key to solving our
problems is the relinquishing of our rights and demands as well as the
reconciliation with the executioner to guarantee our security and
development. It isn’t hard to notice that these views are the
reproduction of the policies conducted in 1991-1998.
As a reminder: it was due to those views that the period encompassing
the Armenian Cause was removed from our history textbooks, and Sevak’s
“Unsilenceable Bell-house” was removed from the literature textbooks
as “provoking enmity towards the neighbors,” open policies of
establishing new relations with Turkey and secret agreements were
being conducted.
What was the answer of the “civilized” Turkey? It shut down the
border, demanded that we give up the process for the Genocide
recognition, and conditioned the establishment of diplomatic relations
with Armenia to withdrawal from Artsakh. Of course, Turkey has been
acting according to its national interests. This was Turkey’s response
to the people who were ready to forget their own dignity.
But these people are pursuing their views again; they have found
undereducated clowns to sing in harmony, and they think that the
position they had bought with money gives them enough right to preach
Turkish views when judging their own people and history, and by
publicly displaying their empty brains and souls they gain an image of
“modern and broad-thinking” politicians.
Their brains are unable to comprehend that security is not begged, it
can be only attained via guarantees such as the recognition of the
Genocide and its condemnation. Looks like that for such people, not
only are the national ideology and national dignity false categories
but also elementary nobility is such.

Turkish Press
April 25 2005
TURKS SEND A LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH
RADIKAL- The Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA) sent a
letter to US President George W. Bush on April 24th, which was
considered the anniversary of so-called Armenian genocide. ATAA
called on President Bush to commemorate not only Armenians, but all
innocent people who lost their lives in those days because of armed
attacks, relocation, starvation and epidemics.
”We appreciate your efforts to maintain impartiality about such a
tragedy in the Ottoman Empire. Armenians collaborated with Russia and
France in order to found their own states in eastern part of Turkey.
They massacred tens of thousands of Turkish, Kurdish, Arab and Jewish
people. In return, the Ottoman government adopted the Relocation Law
to take Armenians away from the war zone,” ATAA said in the letter.

Scotsman, UK
April 24 2005
Armenians Mark Ottoman Empire ‘Genocide’ Date
Hundreds of thousands of Armenians marked the 90th anniversary of the
mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, vowing to press
their case to have the killings recognised by Turkey and the world as
genocide.
Waving flags and carrying flowers, people streamed through the
Armenian capital Yerevan yesterday and marched up to a massive
hilltop granite memorial to hear speeches and prayers.
Weeping mourners filed into the circular block memorial, laying
carnations on a flat surface surrounding a burning flame. A choir in
black sang hymns as the crowd filed past, some carrying umbrellas
against the sun.
The country observed a minute of silence at 7pm (3pm BST) and Yerevan
residents placed candles on window sills in memory of the victims.
Ottoman authorities began rounding up intellectuals, diplomats and
other influential Armenians in Istanbul on April 24 1915, as violence
and unrest grew, particularly in the eastern parts of the country.
Armenia says up to 1.5 million Armenians ultimately died or were
killed over several years as part of a genocidal campaign to force
them out of eastern Turkey.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died, but says
the overall figure is inflated and that the deaths occurred in the
civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
`The year 1915 was the frontier for the fate of the Armenians,
fundamentally changing the course of the development of the Armenian
people,’ President Robert Kocharian said.
`Today we bow our heads with deep sorrow but with conviction that the
state of Armenia serves as the guarantor of the security of all
Armenians,’ Kocharian said – a reference to the conflict with
Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh enclave, which ethnic Armenians
took control of following a six-year war.
Azerbaijan is Turkey’s traditional ally and Turkey has maintained a
border blockade with Armenia since the 1990s in support of
Azerbaijan.
France, Russia and many other countries have already declared the
killings were genocide; the US, which has a large Armenian diaspora
community, has not.
US president George Bush issued a statement of solidarity with the
Armenian people from his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
`I join my fellow Americans and Armenian people around the world in
expressing my deepest condolences for this horrible loss of life,’
Bush said.
Turkey, which has no diplomatic ties with Armenia, is facing
increasing pressure to fully acknowledge the event, particularly as
it seeks membership in the European Union. The issue is extremely
sensitive in Turkey and Turks have faced prosecution for saying the
killings were genocide.
Ankara earlier this month called for the two countries to jointly
research the killings. Bush said he hoped the proposal could aid `a
future of freedom, peace and prosperity in Armenia and Turkey’.
Armenian communities around the world also marked the anniversary
with church services and demonstrations. In Moscow, hundreds attended
a memorial service at the construction site for an Armenian church,
while more than a hundred others waved flags and shouted outside the
Turkish Embassy.
In north-eastern Syria, 4,000 people flocked to the city of Marqada,
where thousands of Armenians are buried.

Turkish Press
April 25 2005
Igdir Mayor Aras: Turks Forced To Evacuate Their Homes And Land In
Yerevan Will Be Determined Soon

IGDIR – Igdir Mayor Nurettin Aras has indicated that his office has
started working on finding out the Turks that were forced to evacuate
their homes and land in Yerevan during the First World War and the
1930s.
”Some of the Turks moved to Igdir. We are now closely working with
local administrations in Igdir to find out the names and number of
Turks who were forced to evacuate their homes in Yerevan,” said
Aras.
Aras added that the Armenians massacred hundreds of Turks. ”We will
firstly find out which Turks were forced to flee Yerevan. Once we
know the names of Turks forced to leave Yerevan, we will be filing
legal action against the Armenians,” told Aras.