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05/30/2006
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1) Armenia Celebrates Independence Day
2) Azerbaijan Blocks Armenian Participation in CIS Defense Meeting
3) Representative Pallone Condemns Firing of Ambassador Evans
4) Genocide Denial Bill to Be Introduced in Dutch Parliament
5) 21 New Members Join The Ranks of The ARF
1) Armenia Celebrates Independence Day
YEREVAN (Yerkir/Armenpress)–Armenian President Robert Kocharian, Prime
Minister Andranik Margarian, Catholicos Karekin II, Yerevan Mayor Yervand
Zakharian, and other officials and diplomats visited the Sardarabad
memorial on
May 28 to pay tribute to the soldiers who were killed during the famous battle
for independence. The event also marked the 88th anniversary of the
establishment of the Armenian Republic.
Kocharian took the opportunity to congratulate the Armenian people in a
letter, saying that May 28 marks a milestone in Armenia’s nation-building,
freedom, and democracy.
“Independence was a centuries-old goal for the Armenian people, which came
true because of the national liberation struggle and especially because of the
heroic battles in May 1918,” said the letter.
“The First Republic of Armenia inspired the people with strength. It was the
basis, on which Soviet Armenia and the current state were founded.”
Independence Day celebrations continued all day in Yerevan and ended with a
concert and salute in Victory Park.
2) Azerbaijan Blocks Armenian Participation in CIS Defense Meeting
YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Yerkir)–Armenia said on Tuesday that Azerbaijan has prevented
it from participating in this week’s meeting in Baku of high-ranking defense
officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The one-day session of the CIS Council of Defense Ministers is scheduled to
open in the Azeri capital on Wednesday. Yerevan said last week that Defense
Minister Serge Sarkisian will not attend it, because Azeri authorities failed
to guarantee the security of the Armenian delegation.
In a statement, the ministry said it has been informed by the Moscow-based
Secretariat of the CIS structure that the Azeri authorities have refused to
guarantee the security of the Armenian participants. It condemned the move,
accusing Azerbaijan of failing to honor its international obligations.
“This fact again confirms that Azerbaijan is not able to meet its commitments
to secure participants of international meetings in its territory,” said the
statement. “The Council Secretariat has to create equal conditions for all
participant states of the meeting.”
“We expect an official response from the CIS Council of Defense Ministers to
the incident,” added the statement.
A spokesman for the Azeri Defense Ministry confirmed that Baku is against
Armenian participation in the meeting.
Previously, the Azeri Government also refused to allow a group of Armenian
army officers to take part in a NATO-led military exercise that had been
due to
take place in Azerbaijan in September 2004. NATO officials responded by
canceling the multinational drills.
3) Representative Pallone Condemns Firing of Ambassador Evans
WASHINGTON, DC–The controversy surrounded the firing of US Ambassador to
Armenia John Marshall Evans continued to grow this week with a powerful
statement by the Co-chairman of the Armenian Caucus, calls for Congressional
hearings, and a series of as yet unanswered inquiries from the national media
during the State Department’s daily press briefing, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).
In a May 25 statement on the House floor, Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
forcefully condemned the Administration for forcing Ambassador Evans to vacate
his post for publicly affirming the Armenian genocide. He voiced his “fear
that the Government of Turkey may have played a role in this unfortunate
event. I strongly believe they have expressed concern to the White House over
Evans’ remarks last year. In fact, immediately following his remarks, Evan
issued a “correction,” all too seemingly at the behest of the Administration.
We must not allow a third party to interfere in US diplomacy and refrain from
declaring the truth in order to promote relations with Turkey.”
Congressman Pallone noted that he has yet to receive an explanation from the
State Department, despite having written a letter to the Secretary more than
two months ago requesting a thorough description of the reasons behind the
Ambassador’s recall. Commenting on similar unanswered letters and questions
posed during Congressional hearings regarding this controversy, he noted that,
“now, the White House has made an ‘official’ announcement but still has not
given an explanation.” He closed by expressing his “hope that the
newly-appointed US Ambassador to Armenia, Richard Hoagland, will not play the
word games of the White House, and comply with Turkey’s campaign of genocidal
denial.”
The White House made the recall of Ambassador Evans official this week with
the public announcement of his replacement, Richard Hoagland.
As he has repeated over the past several months, the State Department
spokesperson, Sean McCormack, again avoided answering a direct question last
week about the reasons for Ambassador Evans’ recall. In response to
persistent
questioning, he limited his remarks to generically praising Ambassador Evans’
service, noting his replacement, and repeating the stock-phrase that he and
other senior Administration officials “serve at the pleasure of the
President.”
The ANCA has called for Congressional hearings to investigate the firing of
Ambassador Evans. Using the ANCA website, activists can send their
legislators
a free ANCA WebFax asking them to call for hearings of both the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee. These
letters call for a full hearing, featuring testimony from all the key figures
involved in this situation, as well as a thorough examination of the role of
the Turkish Government in exporting its suppression of speech to the United
States.
The ANCA WebFaxes state, in part, that, “Ambassador Evans is, in effect,
being
punished for honoring his President’s pledge to properly recognize the
Armenian
genocide–a promise that George W. Bush made on the campaign trail in February
of 2000 but abandoned once in the White House. Ambassador Evans should be
praised, not dismissed, for rejecting ‘gag-rules’ imposed by the Turkish
Government on the discussion of the Armenian genocide by America’s leaders at
home and diplomats abroad.”
The letters close by expressing outrage that the “Administration has lacked
the courage to speak honestly–either to Congress or the American
people–about
its reasons for firing Ambassador Evans. Hopefully, these hearings will
provide the transparency that we, as citizens, have the right to expect of our
government.”
Earlier this week, sixty Members of Congress, led by Representative Ed Markey
(D-MA), sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking for
clarification of the reasons behind Ambassador Evans’ recall. Prior to this
letter, Representative Pallone, Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Representative Grace
Napolitano (D-CA) each independently called on the State Department to explain
reports that Ambassador Evans was being recalled because of his speech on the
Armenian genocide. They have yet to receive any response to their inquiries.
Following his statements last February, Ambassador Evans was forced to
issue a
clarification that his references to the Armenian genocide were his personal
views and did not represent a change in US policy. He subsequently issued a
correction to this statement, replacing a reference to the genocide with the
word “tragedy.”
The American Foreign Service Association, which had planned to honor
Ambassador Evans with the “Christian A. Herter Award,” recognizing creative
thinking and intellectual courage within the Foreign Service, reportedly
rescinded the award following pressure from the State Department a few days
before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Washington, DC
to meet with President Bush.
4) Genocide Denial Bill to Be Introduced in Dutch Parliament
The Christian Union party of The Netherlands will introduce a bill
criminalizing denial of the Armenian genocide and other crimes against
humanity
to the Dutch Parliament during a press conference on Thursday, June 1. The
bill specifically refers to the Armenian genocide as one of the crimes against
humanity covered by the law.
Christian Union parliamentarians Tineke Huizinga and Andre Rouvoet will give
the press conference along with representatives from the April 24 Committee of
the Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands (FAON), Center for
Information and Documentation of Israel (CIDI), and Dutch Anti-racism
Organization (LBR).
5) 21 New Members Join The Ranks of The ARF
At the official initiation ceremony Saturday, twenty-one youths joined the
ranks of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) by taking an oath. The
new
members took their oath at the Homenetmen Ararat Center in Glendale in
front of
about 100 ARF members.
The “Gnkahayr” of the ceremony was Professor Rubina Peroomian, who led the
oath-taking ceremony and initiated the new members.
In her message, she said that this year’s ceremony coincides with May 28, the
day on which the Armenian people established their independence in 1918. She
stressed that to be an ARF member means to struggle for the rights of the
Armenian people.
In his closing remarks, ARF Western Region Central Committee Representative
Hovig Saliba told the new members, “With your participation, our struggle will
become more powerful. Within the ranks of the ARF, you will find new
ideological allies, which you will never find anywhere else.”
He added that we should all continue the struggle until the establishment
of a
unified Armenia.
After the ceremony, an event organized by the ARF Zavarian chapter was held
for Independence Day. Karnig Sarkissian, and Harout Chekerian sang traditional
and patriotic songs, as those in attendance celebrated Armenian independence.
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