Author: Varosian Antranik

ARMENIAN POLITICAL EXPERT: ROAD-MAP IS A DECLARATION BEING AN INTERIM STEP BETWEEN THE START OF NEGOTIATIONS AND ESTABLISHMENTOF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND TURKEY

ArmInfo
2009-04-27 19:32:00

The Road-map is nothing but a declaration being an interim step between
the start of negotiations and establishment of diplomatic relations
between Armenia and Turkey, Director of Caucasus Institute, political
expert Alexander Iskandaryan told journalists when commenting upon
the Road-map determined by Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministries.

"I think this is only another step towards establishment of diplomatic
relations between Armenia and Turkey. However, this is not the last
step in this direction, as for me, I expect continuation of the Road-
map",- he said. According to Iskandaryan, the given step, like any
other step in improving the Armenian- Turkish dialogue, is positive.

To note, Turkey and Armenia, together with Switzerland as
mediator, have been working intensively with a view to normalizing
their bilateral relations and developing them in a spirit of
good-neighborliness, and mutual respect, and thus to promoting peace,
security and stability in the whole region. The two parties have
achieved tangible progress and mutual understanding in this process and
they have agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalization
of their bilateral relations in a mutually satisfactory manner. In
this context, a road-map has been identified.

RUSSIAN ACADEMICIAN: LONG-TERM OIL STORAGE MORE ADVANTAGEOUS FOR ARMENIA THAN SEARCH FOR OIL

ARKA
Apr 24, 2009

YEREVAN, April 24. /ARKA/. It is more advantageous for Armenia to
have a long-term oil storage than to search for oil on its territory,
former USSR Minister of Geology, President of Geoservice consulting
company academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Grigory
Gabrieliants said.

"It is more advantageous for Armenia to have an oil storage for
long-term storage, purchase oil in-between the seasons when the
prices are lower. If we manage to follow correct policy, it would
provide positive results. That is why I refrain from recommending
making large expenditures for search of oil for the time being, and I
believe that global economic developments should be taken into account
when making cost calculations", Gabrieliants told a press conference
in Yerevan Thursday.

According to the academician, the search of oil is a burning issue
in Armenia and the search process itself is a long-term process.

According to his information, potential resource of hydrocarbons in
Armenia is 100mln tons of conditional fuel – oil, gas, bitumen or
other sorts of hydrocarbons.

"But the problem is that Armenian territory within its boundaries
has a complicated geological structure. The fate of the Armenian
people is like the structure of the Armenian land, and all cataclysms
experienced by the Armenian people can be seen also in the structure
of Earth crust, and on the surface where there are many major boulders,
stones, fractures and earthquake traces," Gabrieliants said.

This kind of structure makes it very difficult to search for oil,
he said.

He stressed the necessity to evaluate cost-effectiveness of creating
oil storage, searching for oil or alternate energy resources in
Armenia.

According to the ex-minister, search and development of alternate
energy sources is more promising in terms of scientific development.

The world processes should be taken into account while talking about
appropriateness of search for oil in Armenia, Gabrieliants said.

150bln tons of oil has been extracted from Earth interior so far with
160bln tons remaining; annual oil consumption is 4.7bln tons in the
world. In 2020 the consumption is expected to reach 5.5bln tons of
oil every year, Gabrieliants said.

Only when all these criteria are taken account, it would be possible
to establish cost-effectiveness of oil search in Armenia and see if
its cost is lower than in the world, the academician said.

Gabrieliants also said that over 80 kinds of mineral resources were
found in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, metallic ores, gold, mercury,
lead, zinc, raw materials for cement and brick among them.

FLAGS AT CENTER HONOR GENOCIDE VICTIMS
Dayna Straehley

The Press Enterprise (Riverside, CA.)
April 22, 2009, Wednesday

Genocide has eight stages, and Unity students from Corona high
schools are letting people know in an effort to keep something like
the Holocaust from happening again.

"My hope for this display is that it stops with Darfur," said Eliseo
Davalos, director of student services for Corona-Norco Unified School
District, who organized the event.

Students from the Unity classes at Santiago, Corona and Lee Pollard
high schools and from the leadership class at Orange Grove High School
planted 3,400 small flags Tuesday in front of the Corona Civic Center,
each one in memory of 5,000 genocide victims.

The flags were color coded for victims of the Holocaust carried out
by the Nazis from 1938 to 1945, including 6 million Jews, and for
victims of other genocides in the past 100 years.

The flag planting, on Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day,
culminates a unit of study about genocide, he said. Students will visit
the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles next week, said Orange Grove
counselor Lynda Bowie, who teaches that schools’ leadership class.

The students have learned that genocide has eight stages, Davalos said.

"It starts with classification," said Santiago senior Lesley Marin.

"When people start separating the people," such as Aryans and Jews,
added sophomore Cort Barton.

"It’s not just the Nazis," he said. "Every genocide classifies who
they are and why we’re better."

Symbolization is the next step, such as when the Nazis made the Jews
wear yellow Stars of David, Cort said. Or when the victims are given
a uniform to wear to identify them, added Santiago junior Justin Deal.

Dehumanization happens next, Cort said. In Rwanda, the genocide
victims were called cockroaches, he said.

Every genocide has to have organization, like Hitler’s S.S., Cort said.

Polarization – when the Nazis sent the Jews to ghettos, for example –
is the fifth stage, Lesley said.

Preparation, when the Nazis took the Jews to death camps and separated
those able to work from those unable, is the sixth stage, Barton said.

Extermination is the seventh stage and always is followed by denial,
the eighth.

"Basically, they say `it wasn’t our fault, they started it,’"
Deal said.

The flags will remain on the lawn until Friday afternoon, Davalos said.

Reach Dayna Straehley at 951-368-9455 or [email protected]

* * *

GENOCIDES REMEMBERED

Flags at Corona’s Civic Center honor millions of victims of genocide.

Armenian: 1.5 million people killed, 1915-18,

Holocaust: More than 6 million people killed, 1938-45

Cambodian: 2 million people killed, 1975-79

Iraqi Kurds: 182,000 people killed, 1987-88

Bosnia: 200,000 people killed, 1992-95

Rwanda: 1 million people killed, April-July 1994

Darfur: 450,000 people killed, 2.5 million displaced, 2003-present

‘A PERSON WHO CAN ACTUALLY BE TRUSTED’
by Ben Smith

POLITICO
mith/0409/A_person_who_can_actually_be_trusted.htm l
April 24 2009

OK, I promise to get off the Armenian genocide story soon, as it’s
obviously not the most important issue of the moment.

But the reason it’s a worth noting is captured in this campaign video
from Samantha Power, which made a big impression on Armenian-Americans,
and in which she made the case that would bring "hard truth-telling"
to the White House.

"What is amazing about Barack," she says, is, among other things,
"his willingness as president to commemorate [the genocide] and
certainly to call a spade a spade and to speak truth about it."

"He’s a person who can actually be trusted, which distinguishes him
from some in the Washington culture," she said.

It’s an extremely painful issue to Obama’s Armenian supporters. One
Armenian-American correspondent who often complains furiously of
anti-Obama media bias, David Muradyan, emailed me this afternoon:

Perhaps what stings more is his clever, yet deceitful way to say that
his views have "not changed." And his use of "Mets Yegern." It’s almost
like he wants to appease both sides but can’t because of political
pressures. I understand that. But I think his statement is really
deplorable. You can’t in one breath say "my views haven’t changed"
(e.g., I still consider it Genocide PERSONALLY), but then use the
word "atrocity" and not genocide. It really is a dishonest way to
talk about the genocide. Either have the balls to call it genocide,
or have the balls to not. But weaseling isn’t respected, period.

And this is all coming from one of his most fervent supporters who
not only donated, but registered voters and volunteered.

OBAMA USES ARMENIAN EQUIVALENT OF GENOCIDE TWICE IN SPEECH

HULIQ
April 24 2009
SC

It is true that president Barack Obama did not use the word Genocide
when refering to the mass killings of the Armenian population in
Eastern Anatolia (today’s Turkey), however, he used the Armenian very
respected equivalent of Genocide "The Meds Yeghern" two times in his
speech. Armenians use the phrase The Meds Yeghern when referring to
the Genocide.

In his speech president Obama writes:

"The Meds Yeghern must live on in our memories, just as it lives on
in the hearts of the Armenian people." Also, three paragraph below
the text reads "Nothing can bring back those who were lost in the
Meds Yeghern."

These two sentences can equally be translated and interpreted in
the following way. The Armenian Genocide must live in our memories,
just as it lives on in the heart of the Armenian people… Nothing
can bring back those who were lost in the Armenian Genocide.

The full text of the Statement of President Obama on Armenian
Remembrance Day is available here.

In other words Obama did a great political move: he satisfied
both Armenians and Turkey. Today the newspapers are writing "Obama
refrained from using the G word," but tomorrow all of them will write,
Obama used the G. word, but the Armenian equivalent and two times
in his speech. In my opinion "The Meds Eghern" is a stronger way of
labeling the mass attrocities It’s also a respected way of labeling
the deaths. In fact, Obama used "Mets Eghern" twice in his text.

Why is the wording Genocide important? Since to this day Turkey has
denied that what had taken place amounted to genocide Armenians are
struggling and battling for justice to have the genocide recognized
world-wide. The aim of this is to bring justice. An apology has
to take place, perpertrators tried (all of them dead) and punished
and reconciliation moved forward. In this regard, the United States
recognizing the events as "Medz Eghern" as Genocide is a milestone in
the worldwide recognition and condemnation of such an attrocity that
payved the way of the Jewish Holocaust, Rwanda and Darfur. See how many
countries have already recognized and condemned the Armenian Genocide.

Turkey, so far, is in the state of denial. It is obvious because
Turkey does not want to be labeled as a country who committed
a genocide. However, how far can this policy sustain itself no
serious historian or a statesman knows. Even there are several and
growing number of Turkish scholars who take the critical view on
own history and call on the Turkish government to recognize the
Armenian Genocide. Taner Akcam is one of them. On March 19 Turkish
genocide scholar Taner Akcam in his lecture titled "Facing History"
and delivered at the Clark University sent a powerful message
to U.S. President Barack Obama, asking him to liberate Turks and
Armenians by properly recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

Barack Obama in today called the events "Meds Eghern," saying his
views have not changed. Now where do we go from here?

As an Armenian parent my dream is to see the Southern Caucasus as it is
in Western Europe: full of prosperity, freedom and security. However,
this cannot happen if the Turkish society and the government deny to
believe deep in their hearts the suffering and the attrocities that
their past political leaders have caused to the Armenian people. Note
that I am not saying the Turkish people committed the genocide,
as no one says the German people committed the Holocaust. It is the
political leaders of Turkish past that have made this very bad decision
during the first World War thinking a genocide and the annihilation of
Armenians and deprivation of them from their homeland is a solution
to their agenda. The souls of the innocent are crying for justice
and have come to haunt today’s reality.

Turkey and Armenia are engaged in a reconciliation process. The idea of
the start is already promising. However, the road ahead i very bumpy
and requires strong political will. Only time will show how far the
parties are ready to go. If there is a strong political will to change
we may be able to leave a better world and future for our children and
grand children. In the meanwhile the souls of the Genocide victims are
waiting for justice. As the president Obama puts it "The Meds Yeghern
must live on in our memories" until justice and recognition triumph.

ARMENIA, TURKEY AGREE TO DIPLOMATIC THAW

The Moscow Times
April 24 2009

ISTANBUL — Turkey and Armenia have agreed on a road map to normalize
ties after nearly a century of hostility, a move that would boost
Turkey’s relations with the EU and the United States but could upset
its ally Azerbaijan.

The deal came on the eve of the commemoration of mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. Since last year, the two states
have held high-level talks to restore ties, which could mean reopening
a border shut in 1993.

"The two parties have achieved tangible progress and mutual
understanding in this process, and they have agreed on a comprehensive
framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations," the
foreign ministries of both countries said late Wednesday, without
elaborating.

The years of standoff isolated impoverished Armenia and obstructed
Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union. Turkey closed its border
with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan, which was fighting
Armenian-backed separatists in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan, Europe’s key hope as a supplier of gas for the proposed
Nabucco pipeline that would run through Turkey and cut Europe’s
dependence on Russia, warned against any deal that does not include
a withdrawal of troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said it was "too
early" to discuss what steps Azerbaijan might take in retaliation, but
some analysts warned that it may affect European energy security plans.

"If Azerbaijan feels that Turkey is betraying them, then why would
Azerbaijan not move in a Russian direction? And the Russians are
offering to buy all their gas at European prices," said Svante Cornell,
research director at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

However, Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst for Eurasia consultancy group,
said it was unlikely that Azerbaijan would decide to put "all its eggs
in the Russian basket," especially after the brief Russian-Georgian
war last year.

SERZH SARGSIAN HIGHLY APPRECIATED EFFORTS OF ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS AIMED AT KEEPING ARMENIAN IDENTITY

Noyan Tapan
April 23, 2009
Yerevan

The president of Armenia Serzh Sargsian welcomed the President of
the Armenian Evangelical World Council Reverend Harutyun Selimian
and Head of the Evangelical Church in Armenia Rev. Renee Levonian on
April 21. During the meeting the parties discussed the activities of
the Armenian Evangelical Church in Armenia, benevolent and development
programs carried out in different spheres of Armenia’s life.

Activities of the Armenian Evangelical Church are focused on fostering
Armenian and Christian values, the aim is to assist to Armenia’s
spiritual development and advancement, told Mr. Selimian mentioned.

According to Presidential press service, Serzh Sargsian stressed once
again the importance of combining the potential of the world-spread
Armenian Diaspora for the benefit of the Motherland and the Armenian
people. The President appreciated highly all efforts of Armenian
organizations aimed at empowering Armenia-Diaspora relationship and
preserving the Armenian identity.

APRIL 19-26, 2009, AS DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE. PROCLAMATION BY GOVERNOR OF STATE OF CALIFORNIA

States News Service
April 19, 2009 Sunday

The following information was released by the office of the Governor
of California:

On the night of April 24, 1915, more than 200 leaders in the Armenian
community, in the city known today as Istanbul, were arrested. Sent
to prison, most were executed, beginning a horrible, systemic killing
and forced relocation of the Armenian people that would last until
1923. During these years, the government of the Ottoman Empire
claimed the lives of 1.5 million Armenians and forced 500,000 more
from their homeland.

Those who escaped death had to flee, and many of them settled right
here in California. They and their descendants have become leaders
in all walks of life and have made extraordinary contributions to
our state. While their presence has been and continues to be a great
blessing to California, it also reminds us of the incredible evils
that brought them far from their ancestral homes.

Four years ago I signed a bill that permanently recognized the Days
of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. This week, we honor that
commitment as we stand with our Armenian friends and neighbors here
and across the world in remembering and acknowledging the genocide,
the families it destroyed and the history it changed. We do not like to
recall such sorrows, but we must, so that we can learn from history and
renew our efforts to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER ,Governor of the State
of California, do hereby proclaim April 19-26, 2009, as Days of
Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF , I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 13th day
of April 2009 ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Governor of California ATTEST:
DEBRA BOWEN Secretary of State

PUBLIC MARCH OF THE HERITAGE PARTY

A1+
April 21, 2009

Yerevan-Approximately seventy young members and supporters of the
Heritage Party today held a public march in Yerevan.

Despite the unsubstantiated impediments by the police force-as, in
accordance with the initial arrangement, the number of the procession’s
participants had not exceeded one hundred and, therefore, there were
no legal grounds for informing Town Hall, due to the limited nature
of the event-the event started from the park adjacent to the statue
of the renowned painter Martiros Sarian and its final destination
was the Embassy of the United States.

Throughout the march, the participants held in their hands the national
flag of Armenia, Heritage’s banners, and placards representing the
state flags of the twenty-one countries which formally have recognized
the 1915-1923 Genocide of the Armenians.

Upon arrival at the US Embassy, the young marchers delivered to Stephen
Banks, Head of the Embassy’s Political/Economic Section, their message
addressed to the newly elected US President, Barack Hussein Obama.

In the message, the participants urge the President to officially
acknowledge not only the Genocide of the Armenian people, but also
the great dispossession of their homeland. The aforesaid message is
presented below.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

CHRISTIAN-ARMENIAN VALUES
SHOULD GUIDE ARMENIAN YOUTH TODAY

On Sunday 20 April, at the end of the youth pilgrimage to Der Zor, His
Holiness Aram I addressed the faithful at St. Asdvadzadzin (Mother of God)
Church in Aleppo. He based his sermon on the Biblical verse "I am the way .
(John 14:6). He said, "the word "way" implies direction and goals and
inspires security. One should follow signs to find the correct way. Jesus is
the correct way because he is the way to God. The faith of our people in
Christ guided their journey during the dark periods of their history, and
Gospel values always enriched their lives. We should persist in our journey
founded on the values that emerged from Bethlehem and continued through the
Resurrection."

The second set of values, he said, "are our national and cultural values
that still shape our dreams and hopes. This journey began with the founders
of our nation and its heroes. Despite all upheavals our people remained
loyal to their national and cultural values. We should continue this path
with the same vision and ideals as those of our ancestors."

He then concluded: "These two "ways" are inseparable and are not
contradictory. Historically, our people held them together, received their
strength from both and affirmed their complementarities. By holding them
together, our forefathers inculturated Christianity and strengthened
Armenian identity through Christian values. Today, globalization is imposing
its own values on all peoples. The possibilities offered by globalization
and its sub-cultures are attractive and easy to follow. We should accompany
and guide our youth to choose the "way" that was founded by our ancestors,
based on Christian values and moral and ethical values acquired through our
traditions. This is the purpose and challenge of 2009, the Year of Armenian
Youth.

##
Photo: os/Photos377.htm#5
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.