Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

Akkan Suver: “Armenia should withdraw from the territories it occupied”

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006

[ 17 Mar. 2006 17:55 ]

Director-general of Turkey Marmara Strategic and Social Researches
Foundation Akkan Suver held news conference today (APA). Suver said
that he visited Baku to attend the 2nd Congress of World Azerbaijanis.

Highly appreciating the Congress, Suver called it not only the congress
of world Azerbaijanis but also all Turks worldwide. “Turkey needs to
learn much from Azerbaijan regarding lobbying activity. The problem
is we lack lobbying. Azerbaijan is a good example for Turkish world
for lobbying. Turkey should develop lobbying in order to be powerful,”
the Turkish visitor said.

Referring to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, the director-general
said Armenia is pursuing a wrong policy. “It is imposable to develop
as a terrorist country in the civilized Turkish world. Armenia should
bear it in mind and withdraw from the territories it has occupied,”
Suver concluded./APA/

Armenian Defense Minister criticized for statements regarding Karabakh settlement

15:0 9 03/17/2006

Armenian volunteers, who participated in Karabakh war called
“treacherous and immoral” statements of Armenian National Security
Secretary and Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan. He said that
“during the war, Armenia destroyed the enemy, and not liberated the
territories,” and used the term “security zone” instead of “liberated
territories.” Position of Armenian veterans was announce on March
16, during a round table conference in Yerevan, informed Assistant
coordinator of the public initiative “In defense of liberated
technologies” Armen Yegyan.

He said that Sarkisyan’s statements made at a meeting with army command
“demoralize officers, and presume return of liberated territories to
Azerbaijan.” According to ex-commander of Special Forces battalion
Girar Sefilyan “Sarkisyan must be dismissed by political means, using
opposition forces,” because “with such government, Armenia will not
be capable to conduct warfare,” thinks Sefilyan.

According to ex-Prime Minister MP Vazgen Manukyan, Sarkisyan “had no
authority to make such statements”. He said that the statements are
“directed to the West, and aims only to preserve power”, and noted,
that “return of liberated territories is impossible, because it can
happen only after the recognition of Nagorno Karabakh independence,
that is unacceptable to Azerbaijan”. He said that warfare can
recommence only if Azerbaijan feels stronger, and Armenia – weaker,
but in next 3-4 years it will not take place. “Armenian authorities
simply threaten the people with possibility of warfare recommence,
to prevent it we must compromise”, said Manukyan.

According to ex-Minister of Defense Vagarshak Arutyunyan, “if the
return of occupied territories is Armenian concession, than Azerbaijan
must return Artsvashen to Armenia and several occupied regions
to Nagorno Karabakh, and because of this, the question was never
raised at the negotiations on Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement,”
said Arutyunyan.

AZERBAIJAN READY FOR STABLE RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA – ALIYEV

Central Asia General Newswire
March 15, 2006 Wednesday 8:59 PM MSK

Yerevan’s pullout from occupied Azeri territories would help a return
to good neighborly relations with Armenia, Azeri President Ilham
Aliyev said.

“We don’t need anything extraordinary. We only want our land to be
freed from occupation and Armenian troops to leave, after which we
could live like good neighbors,” Aliyev told a Turkish delegation
attending the 2nd world congress of Azeris in Baku.

“If the Armenian leadership drops its claims against Turkey and
attempts to get the genocide of Armenians recognized, Armenian-Turkish
relations would return to normal, as well,” he said, “We live in this
region, we are neighbors and we are bound to live on together, but on
condition that separatism would be done away with, the aftermath of the
ethnic purges cleared, Azeri citizens would return to their historical
homeland and an end would be put to all territorial claims,” he said.

GEORGIA: ETHNIC ARMENIAN MP, NGO CONCERNED ABOUT TENSION IN SOUTHERN PROVINCE

Imedi TV, Tbilisi
15 Mar 06

Hamlet Movsesyan, an ethnic Armenian member of the Georgian parliament,
has expressed concern about recent tension in ethnic Armenian populated
areas of the Samtskhe-Javakheti province in southern Georgia. He said
that local people were worried about ethnic Armenian officials who do
not speak Georgian being replaced by ethnic Georgians. The head of the
Multiethnic Georgia non-governmental organization, Arnold Stepanyan,
also an ethnic Armenian, has said that the teaching of Georgian has not
been mandatory in ethnic Armenian areas for the past 15 years and it
is “unreasonable” to require local people to speak the language. The
following is the text of a report by Georgian Imedi TV on 15 March:

[Presenter] Complaints by MPs in Armenia and ethnic Armenian MPs in
the Georgian parliament are starting to resemble each other. Some
want political autonomy while others want cultural autonomy for
Samtskhe-Javakheti.

What did the MP for Akhalkalaki [town in Samtskhe-Javakheti, scene
of recent protests and riots] want to say to the president, why do
Armenians not speak Georgian, and is the national minority being
discriminated against because of that?

[Uncaptioned ethnic Armenian protester in Akhalkalaki, in Russian]
This happened before. You probably know that this already happened
in 1991. Do they want a repetition of that? We can do that, no problem.

[Correspondent] In 1991 [as heard] separatist statements were first
made in public in Tskhinvali and Sukhumi. The conflicts in South
Ossetia and Abkhazia have still not been resolved. The Javakhk
organization does not rule out the possibility of history repeating
itself in Samtskhe-Javakheti.

Noyan Tapan news agency reported a statement by someone called
Madoyan [Razdan Madoyan, member of the Javakhk council]. There
are two ways events could develop: this could either become another
Nagornyy-Karabakh or another Naxcivan, Madoyan says. Javakhk believes
that, if necessary, Armenia should send troops to Javakheti.

[Beso Jugheli, Georgian MP addressing parliament speaker Nino
Burjanadze] Kalbatono [polite way of addressing a woman] Nino, have
you spoken to Akhalkalaki constituency MP Hamlet Movsesyan? Hamlet
Movsesyan is asking for a meeting with the president.

[Correspondent] What did Hamlet Movsesyan want to say to the
president? The Akhalkalaki MP feels that many problems have
accumulated, the most important of which is that knowledge of the
Georgian language is a requirement for appointment to official
posts. The Akhalkalaki MP himself does not speak Georgian.

Another thing that concerns people there is the appointment of
Georgians in the region who do not speak Armenian. The local Armenians
are angry not so much at not being able to communicate with them as
the restriction of their rights.

[Hamlet Movsesyan, in Russian] The local people still do not speak the
state language, unfortunately. For that to happen needs time. Local
people are, of course, worried about Armenians being dismissed and
replaced with Georgians.

[Correspondent] Today Armenian MP Albert Bazeyan told journalists in
Yerevan that Javakheti should have cultural autonomy.

Van Baiburt, [an ethnic Armenian] member of the Georgian parliamentary
majority, says that Bazeyan’s call for cultural autonomy is a
mistake. He believes that Armenians in Georgia have had an unwritten
cultural autonomy in Georgia for a long time.

He has already apologized on behalf of Armenians for the riots
in Javakheti [on 11 March]. He does not like the analogy between
Nagornyy-Karabakh and Javakheti.

[Baiburt] Comparisons between Javakheti and Nagornyy-Karabakh are
completely without foundation. It is such a crude, crazy thing to
say. These are not so much anti-Georgian statements as they are
anti-Armenian and against Armenia.

[Correspondent] The situation in Javakheti reminds the head of
Multiethnic Georgia [NGO] of the American film Home Alone. That is how,
in his opinion, Samtskhe-Javakheti was abandoned 15 years ago.

[Arnold Stepanyan, captioned as head of Multiethnic Georgia] Fifteen
years ago we forgot about one of our regions at home. Now we have
suddenly realized that this child is there. We have forgotten,
however, that this child has grown since then. Samtskhe-Javakheti
has effectively been developing in autonomous mode.

What did we expect when we were sacking judges in Samtskhe-Javakheti,
what did we expect when we were sacking customs officials?

[Correspondent] The main problem appears to be that they do not speak
Georgian. The head of the NGO believes that it is unreasonable and
illogical now to require the knowledge of something that has not been
mandatory in education over the past 15 years.

Movsesyan, Baiburt and Stepanyan today agree that it is not so
much separatism as social problems that are behind the conflict
in Javakheti.

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St., NW Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE
March 8, 2006
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

ANCA CALLS ON SECRETARY RICE TO
EXPLAIN REPORTS OF AMB. EVANS’ RECALL

— National Chairman Asks Secretary to Confirm or
Deny that the U.S. Ambassador is being Punished
for his Acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide

“If, in fact, the State Department has taken
punitive steps against Ambassador Evans, you
should fully and openly explain your policies
and actions to the American people. If, on the
other hand, the Department has not taken any
such steps, you owe it to the American people
to affirm that it is not the policy of the
United States of America to punish its diplomats
for speaking the truth about the Armenian
Genocide.” — ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian

WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Chairman Ken Hachikian today called upon Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to address reports that the U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia, John Marshall Evans, is being forced from office based
upon truthful and forthright statements last April about the
Armenian Genocide.

In a March 8th letter, Hachikian asked Secretary Rice to comment on
published accounts (California Courier, March 9,2006) that the
Ambassador is being recalled, well before the normal end of his
term of office, due to remarks during a series of presentations to
Armenian American communities across the country.

Speaking last year to an Armenian American gathering at the
University of California at Berkeley, Amb. Evans said, “I will
today call it the Armenian Genocide… I informed myself in depth
about it. I think we, the U.S. government, owe you, our fellow
citizens, a more frank and honest way of discussing this problem.
Today, as someone who has studied it . . . there’s no doubt in my mind
[as to] what happened . . . I think it is unbecoming of us, as
Americans, to play word games here. I believe in calling things by
their name.” Referring to the Armenian Genocide as “the first
genocide of the 20th century,” he said: “I pledge to you, we are
going to do a better job at addressing this issue.” Amb. Evans also
disclosed that he had consulted with a legal advisor at the State
Department who had confirmed that the events of 1915 were “genocide
by definition.”

Within days after his remarks and the conclusion of a speaking tour
of Armenian American communities, Ambassador Evans was apparently
forced to issue a statement clarifying that his references to the
Armenian Genocide were his personal views and did not represent a
change in U.S. policy. He subsequently issued a correction to this
statement, replacing a reference to the Genocide with the word
“tragedy.”

Later last year, the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA),
in recognition of his honesty and commitment to principle, decided
to honor Ambassador Evans with the “Christian A. Herter Award,”
recognizing creative thinking and intellectual courage within the
Foreign Service. Sadly, as Washington Post staff writer Glenn
Kessler revealed on June 9th, AFSA withdrew its award following
pressure from “very serious people from the State Department.”

In his letter, Hachikian wrote that, “the prospect that a U.S.
envoy’s posting – and possibly his career – has been cut short due
to his honest and accurate description of a genocide is profoundly
offensive to American values and U.S. standing abroad –
particularly in light of President Bush’s call for moral clarity in
the conduct of our international affairs.”

He added that, “if, in fact, punitive measures are being taken
against Ambassador Evans, this would represent a tragic retreat
from our nation’s core values. It would also represent a new low
in our government’s shameful complicity in the Turkish government’s
campaign of denial. Not only does the State Department continue to
be publicly silent as Turkey criminally prosecutes its writers and
citizens for speaking about the Armenian Genocide, it appears the
State Department is following Turkey’s lead by muzzling and
punishing an American diplomat for his speech and his
acknowledgement of a genocide that is extensively documented in the
State Department’s own archives.”

The ANCA letter also urged Secretary Rice to respond in a timely
manner to the series of written questions on this matter submitted
on February 16th by Congressman Adam Schiff during her testimony
before the House International Relations Committee. Among these
questions was a specific request that the Secretary assure the
Committee that the Department of State has not taken – and will not
take – any punitive action against Ambassador Evans for speaking
out about the Armenian Genocide.

The full text of the ANCA letter is provided below.

#####

March 8, 2006

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice:

I am writing with respect to extremely troubling reports regarding
punitive actions by the State Department against our country’s
Ambassador to Armenia, John Marshall Evans, based upon his truthful
and forthright statements about the Armenian Genocide.

The most recent edition of the California Courier (March 9, 2006),
a respected Armenian American newspaper, has reported, based on
well-placed sources in the Armenian government, that Ambassador
Evans is being recalled, well before the normal end of his term of
office, due to his speech on the Armenian Genocide. The prospect
that a U.S. envoy’s posting – and possibly his career – has been
cut short due to his honest and accurate description of a genocide
is profoundly offensive to American values and U.S. standing abroad
– particularly in light of President Bush’s call for moral clarity
in the conduct of our international affairs.

If, in fact, punitive measures are being taken against Ambassador
Evans, this would represent a tragic retreat from our nation’s core
values. It would also represent a new low in our government’s
shameful complicity in the Turkish government’s campaign of denial.
Not only does the State Department continue to be publicly silent
as Turkey criminally prosecutes its writers and citizens for
speaking about the Armenian Genocide, it appears the State
Department is following Turkey’s lead by muzzling and punishing an
American diplomat for his speech and his acknowledgment of a
genocide that is extensively documented in the State Department’s
own archives.

As you recall, earlier this year, on February 16th, Congressman
Adam Schiff submitted a series of written questions regarding this
matter to you during your testimony before the House International
Relations Committee. Among these was a specific request that you
assure the Committee that the Department of State has not taken –
and will not take – any punitive action against Ambassador Evans
for speaking out about the Armenian Genocide. As of today, I
understand that he has yet to receive a response to this inquiry.

In the interest of ensuring that the Congress has the information
it needs to perform its constitutionally mandated oversight
function, I urge you to respond fully and in a timely manner to
Congressman Schiff’s questions. More broadly, I call upon you to
clarify the State Department’s actions regarding this matter. If,
in fact, the State Department has taken punitive steps against
Ambassador Evans, you should fully and openly explain your policies
and actions to the American people. If, on the other hand, the
Department has not taken any such steps, you owe it to the American
people to affirm that it is not the policy of the United States of
America to punish its diplomats for speaking the truth about the
Armenian Genocide.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Along with over one
and a half million Armenian Americans across the country, I look
forward to your response to this issue.

Sincerely,

Kenneth V. Hachikian
Chairman

ARMENIA, AZERBAIJANI FORCES EXCHANGE GUNFIRE, MORTARS NEAR DISPUTED ENCLAVE
Aida Sultanova

AP Worldstream
Mar 07, 2006

Azerbaijani and Armenian forces exchanged heavy gunfire and mortars
along several border points, military officials said Tuesday, in the
most serious outbreak of violence to hit the region in months.

Azerbaijani officials said one of its soldiers was killed and one
seriously wounded in the firing that took place late Monday and early
Tuesday in at least three separate locations. Armenian forces said
several of their troops were wounded.

Tensions are high between the two countries, which remain at odds over
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within
Azerbaijan. A cease-fire agreement was reached in 1994 after six
years of fighting, and the enclave is now under the control of ethnic
Armenians, whose troops face Azerbaijani forces across a kilometer-wide
(half-mile-wide) no man’s land.

Sporadic clashes, however, break out along the Nagorno-Karabakh
border and land mines continue to kill people every year. The lack of
resolution for the enclave has held up the development of the entire
Caucasus region.

Since the breakdown of talks last month aimed at resolving
Nagorno-Karabakh’s status, the two countries’ presidents have traded
increasingly bellicose statements, and the region has seen a spike
in gunfire and violence in the past week.

Both sides blamed the other for setting off the latest exchanges of
fire, which first broke out late last week.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian vowed in a television interview
last week to defend Nagorno-Karabakh and recognize its independence
if Azerbaijan resorts to force: “This is a scenario for which Armenia
must be ready.”

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev earlier visited troops near
Nagorno-Karabakh and called for liberating it from ethnic Armenian
forces “no matter what it takes.”

CONFUSION AS POLICE CONFRONT ARMENIAN

Daily Nation , Kenya
March 15 2006

One of the Armenian brothers at the centre of claims and counter
claims by the Government and Orange politicians yesterday refused
to allow police into his rented home and rebuffed their attempts to
persuade him to record a statement.

Mr Artur Margaryan addresses the press outside his house in Nairobi’s
Runda estate yesterday where he lives. Photo by Fredrick Omondi Mr
Artur Margaryan told the squad of eight police officers who went
to his home in Runda, an upmarket Nairobi estate, that they should
either arrest him or produce a search warrant before he could cooperate
with them.

The police, headed by Runda police station boss Jeremiah Langat,
left the house after receiving a telephone call from a senior officer
ordering them to return to their base.

The eight had gone to House 977 on Glory Road, off Runda Grove, as
an advance team to provide security for detectives investigating the
activities of Mr Margaryan and his brother, Mr Artur Sargsyan.

Mr Margaryan was to have been interviewed by Nairobi deputy
provincial CID chief Isaiah Osugo, who was appointed last week by
police commissioner Mohamed Hussein Ali to investigate claims by
Lang’ata MP Raila Odinga that the brothers were mercenaries.

Mr Osugo did not go to the house after his advance team was denied
entry.

However, Mr Margaryan later emerged from the compound and chatted with
journalists as Mr Langat, his deputy and three armed police officers
in uniform returned to the house. When Mr Margaryan saw the officers,
he cut short his impromptu Press conference and called someone on
the mobile phone who rushed to open the compound gate.

During his brief talk to the journalists outside his gate, Mr Margaryan
confirmed the police had gone to his house in the morning and that
he would neither leave nor allow the police into the house unless
they had either an arrest warrant for him or a search warrant.

Mr Margaryan repeated his claims that he had in the past met Mr
Odinga. He said it was between December 13 and 15, last year in Dubai,
when he allegedly gave him the equivalent of Sh100,000 in UAE currency
(dirham), to spend as he wished.

He said his brother would be returning to Kenya next week.

He went on: “I will go to court as well as demand protection from
the Government because it was my right to ask for protection.”

Mr Margaryan acknowledged that his company Brotherlink International
Ltd had entered into a contract in January this year to rent the
house. His company was involved in various businesses including car
imports, electronics and real estate.

He further denied having ever visited State House or having met any
senior police officers.

Meanwhile, State House last night warned Mr Odinga against dragging
the presidency into the mercenary claims.

It said in a statement that allegations that the two men alleged
to be mercenaries had visited State House on two occasions in the
recent past were part of a “propaganda war” by Mr Odinga and other
politicians in the ODM .

Asked who allowed him and his brother to hold a Press conference at the
VIP lounge at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Mr Margaryan
claimed it was the journalists themselves who had diverted them to
the lounge as they were walking to the first class lounge.

But when journalists, some of whom were at the Press conference
protested they did not have such powers, he contradicted himself,
saying it was his lawyers Mr Antony Macharia and Mr Fred Ngatia who
had arranged the Press conference.

Mr Macharia, who had arrived earlier, declined to comment. He
also refused to say where or when a Press conference promised by
Mr Margaryan would take place saying he could do that only after
receiving instructions from him.

Asked to explain why his brother’s particulars were missing from the
passenger manifest on the flight he claimed he had taken from Dubai to
Kenya, he said all passengers from Arab countries used their mothers’
names and not their own or their fathers’.

He promised to avail the manifest during the forthcoming Press
conference.

After his brief chat with the journalists, Mr Margaryan returned to
his compound and later drove off in a dark blue Subaru whose number
plates were hidden behind strips of cardboard. He was accompanied by
a woman who on Monday he claimed was his bodyguard.

NO PLANS TO RECALL US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA: STATE DEPARTMENT REP

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 8 2006

YEREVAN, March 8. /ARKA/. There are no plans to recall the US
Ambassador to Armenia, Deputy Assistant of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza told reporters.

“He is a bright ambassador, and he serves to the US President as well
as all we do,” Bryza stated and pointed out that “Ambassador Evans
gathered an excellent team, and we are glad that he is here”.

He pointed out that he does not want to comment possible decisions
of the President, as well as concerning human resources In his turn,
US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans pointed out that he had not sent
in his resignation.

“One cannot expect that the post of the ambassador is everlasting. I
do not know when my authorities will expire, but I will remain the
leader of this mission until the day I leave this country,” Evans said.

“I hope that this occurs as late as possible,” he said.

The day before, some Armenian mass media outlets disseminated the
information, referring to the publication of “The California Courier”,
that the US Ambassador was recalled to Washington. The reason for
the recall, according to the press, was his declaration about the
Armenian Genocide.

US ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EUROPE AND EURASIAN AFFAIRS DANIEL
FRIED TO VISIT AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA

YEREVAN, MARCH 9. ARMINFO. US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe
and Eurasia Daniel Fried is to visit Azerbaijan and Armenia. Us
Department of State Official Representative Sean McCormack told
journalists in Washington, Russian Mass Media report. He said D. Fried
is to arrive in the region next week. One of the goals of his visit is
discussion of the recent meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents in Rambouillet.

PRESS RELEASE
HOMENETMEN SWEDEN
Hagop Khatcherian
Secretary
Tel: +46707461495
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

The opening ceremony of Homenetmen Sweden Center in Södertälje.

Sunday 26 Feb. 2006 was the official opening day of Homenetmen Sweden
Center in Södertälje at the presence of about 150 Armenians gathered
in the club along with The Homenetmen Sweden Committee members,
Homenetmen Södertälje Chapter,

Homenetmen Västerås Chapter and Homenetmen Stockholm Chapter, Father
Sarkis Melkonian and other community members.

The opening ceremony started with Father Sarkis blessings and then
after the Homenetmen anthem, Brother Varoujan Kehyayian chairman of
the Södertälje Chapter welcomed the guests with the opening words of
the program which followed by Brother Hagop Khatcherian(Secretary of
Homenetmen Sweden) who congratulated all those brothers and sisters
who gave there outmost energy on creating Homenetmen Sweden Center
inorder to educate the Armenian youth by the correct system where
Homenetmen has in its global program by introducing mutual respect to
our fellow countrymen by teaching our Armenian culture, language and
religion to our youth. Homenetmen can never forget our youth and is
our task to do our outmost in order to educate and prepare a typical
Armenian citizen.

Brother Fedi Tajra representative of Homenetmen Scout section followed
next by giving his Homenetmen scouts duties to our community by
teaching the Armenian scout how to help his fellowman through scouting
and proudly present the Homenetmen flag in sport activities along with
scout parades and other activities. How a scout should be loyal to his
community with a pride by becoming the ambassadors and leaders in
order to create a purified Armenian Community.

The final words were given to Brother Varoujan who proudly presented
the club by naming it Brother Garo Tutunjian (Secretary of Homenetmen
Central committee) as a memory of a Brother who had passed away lately
who had given all his life for Homenetmen.

The public was very much enthusiastic about Homenetmen and promised to
give there full support for the sake of there children.