Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

MANOYAN: ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES DECIDED AGAINST BROADCASTING THE GENOCIDE VOTE LIVE

oyan-armenian-authorities-decided-against-broadcas ting-the-house-genocide-vote-live/
March 8, 2010

YEREVAN (A.W.)-On March 4, while the U.S. House Foreign Affairs
Committee held a hearing on the Armenian Genocide Resolution,
H.Res.252, the ARF Bureau political affairs director in Yerevan,
Giro Manoyan, spoke with Yergir Media TV and voiced his criticism
over the lack of live coverage by Armenia’s public TV stations.

Giro Manoyan

"It is my understanding that, all in all, Yerkir Media is the only
[station] that is providing live coverage [of the hearings]. [L]ast
time, public TV stations also covered it… It’s true that some are
following through the internet, etc. … But, here in Armenia, the
public TV’s approach is truly baffling," Manoyan said.

When asked whether the lack coverage reflected a lack of interest on
the part of the public, Manoyan responded, "No…it’s the government,
since decisions that concern the public [media] comes from the
government. And there is the fact-a simple example-that a delegation
from the National Assembly has been invited [to Washington], and
that a delegation from the National Assembly has gone to Washington,
and there isn’t an official report of it. For example, there isn’t
a report on the National Assembly’s website."

World Jewish Congress
March 5 2010

Tensions between Turkey and US over Congress resolution on Armenian `genocide’
05 March 2010

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has warned of a breakdown
in ties with Washington after a committee of the US House of
Representatives approved a resolution labeling the World War I-era
mass killings of Armenians a `genocide.’ Davutoglu said the Obama
administration had not sufficiently put its weight behind efforts to
block the vote. He called on the administration to prevent the measure
from coming to the full House. Immediately after the vote on Thursday
night, Ankara recalled its ambassador to the US for consultations.

Davutoglu said the issue was a matter of "honor" and said the country
would assess what other measures to take. Some historians estimate up
to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the 1915/16 conflict, most of
them at hands of Ottoman forces. Turkey, the successor state of the
Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of
the events.

The resolution will now go to the full House of Representatives, where
its prospects are uncertain.

Earlier this week, the Jewish community of Turkey reiterated its
opposition to the resolution tabled in Congress. In a statement, it
said that `the assessment of historic events by parliaments is an
unrealistic undertaking that does not serve to the interests of the
parties involved, and that such matters can only be resolved by
historians.’

However, a key Jewish Congressman urged passage of the resolution.
Howard Berman, a Democrat from California and chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, said: "Turkey is a vital and, in most
respects, a loyal ally of the United States in a volatile region. We
have also been a loyal ally to Turkey, and should continue to be so.
Be that as it may, nothing justifies Turkey’s turning a blind eye to
the reality of the Armenian genocide."

According to the ‘Jerusalem Post’, Ankara has not – unlike in previous
years – sought to enlist the support of Israel and Jewish groups to
combat the resolution.

ndex.php/en/main/showNews/id/9090

`It is high time Turkey recognized Armenian Genocide’

lyudmila-harutyunyan
02:33 pm | March 05, 2010 | Politics

"With its decision to adopt Resolution 252, U.S. House Committee on
Foreign Affairs was able to put aside political interests and be
guided by human values," says Lyudmila Harutyunyan, member of the
European Committee of Social Rights and Professor of the Chair of
Sociology at Yerevan State University (YSU).

"Turkey is gradually beginning to realize that it is time to recognize
the Armenian Genocide," she added.

Mrs. Harutyunyan is sure that in his yesterday’s speech Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s was speaking about the necessity of democracy
and she believes Turkey will finally take the path of democracy.

Asked whether Erdogan is not playing a double game by raising the
issue of democracy on the one hand and threatening the USA not to
spoil Turkish-American relations on the other hand, Mrs. Harutyunyan
said: "Armenians had better establish democracy in Armenia instead of
criticizing Turkey’s demeanour."

Lyudmila Harutyunyan is ready to forgive Turks if they recognize the
Armenian Genocide and apologize to Armenians "since one cannot
normalize relations neglecting "collective memory."

Her opponent, historian and researcher Samvel Karapetyan says he will
never forgive Turks even if they recognize the Genocide.

SERBIAN FILMMAKER EMIR KUSTURICA WILL MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2010 19:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica plans to make a
movie about Armenia and participate in Golden Apricot film festival.

"I was invited to participate in Golden Apricot film festival this
year, but didn’t make it. In near future I will catch up on it,"
Serbian filmmaker told a news conference in Yerevan.

Emir Kusturica is currently working on 2 films; in near future,
a collection of 12 autobiographical stories will be ready.

"Visit of Emir Kusturica and "The No Smoking Orchestra" is an important
event in the cultural life of our country. Acclaimed Belgium-based
violinist Khachatur Almazyan is the one we should thank for causing
Emir Kusturica’s visit to Armenia," RA Minister of Culture Hasmik
Poghosyan said at news conference.

Today, Emir Kusturica commemorated Armenian Genocide victims in
Tsistsernakabed.

Saturday, March 6 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and His Holiness
Catholicos Karekin II will meet with the filmmaker. The meeting will
be followed by visit to the memorial to perished Yugoslavian pilots.

In the evening Emir Kusturica will meet Armenian university students.

US ADMINISTRATION URGES CONGRESS TO WAIT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

PanARMENIAN.Net
04.03.2010 20:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Obama administration is urging Congress to hold
off on a resolution declaring the Ottoman era killing of Armenians as
genocide. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee was
scheduled to vote on the resolution Thursday, and appeared likely to
endorse it, AP reported.

But White House spokesman Mike Hammer said Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton had spoken with the committee’s chairman, Democratic
Rep. Howard Berman, on Wednesday and indicated that such a vote would
jeopardize reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia.

US TO VOTE ON ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS

WorldBulletin.net
March 4 2010
Turkey

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs will
vote a draft resolution on Armenian allegations on Thursday.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs will
vote a draft resolution on Armenian allegations on Thursday, outcome
of which is critical for not only Turkey-U.S. relations but also the
recent rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia.

The draft which will be voted at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
with 46 members chaired by Californian legislator Howard Berman calls
on U.S. President Barack Obama to recognise the tragic events of 1915
–which took place shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Sate– as
"genocide".

The draft resolution was proposed by Democrats Adam Schiff and Frank
Pallone and Republicans George Radanovich and Mark Kirk, all important
figures for the Armenian lobby in the U.S.

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide allegations and regards the
events as civil strife in wartime which claimed lives of many Turks
and Armenians.

Every year between March 4 and April 24 alarm bells ring for relations
between Turkey and U.S., two close allies for decades.

The Armenian lobbies in the U.S. pressure the U.S. legislators to
pass a resolution urging the President to recognise the events as
"genocide".

Turkish legislators and officials pay visits to U.S. House and hold
meetings with senior U.S. officials and businessmen to prevent the
resolution from being adopted.

If the resolution is adopted then it is sent to the House of
Representatives.

A similar resolution was adopted with 27 seven votes against 21 in
2007 but as a result of former President George W. Bush’s intervention,
the resolution was not brought to the House floor.

Even if the resolution is adopted both in the Committee on Foreign
Affairs and the House floor, it is not binding for the Obama
administration, however it will show that legislators are sensitive
about the issue.

Delegation of Turkish legislators who are lobbying against the
resolution say it will be a close call. They say the resolution will
be adopted or rejected with only a few votes.

With only a couple of hours left before the voting, the Obama
administration has not taken a clear stance regarding the resolution.

U.S. Department of State spokesman, Philip Crowley, urged the two
countries to look forward to the future rather than dwelling in the
past while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Turkey and Armenia
should review their own history together as part of their efforts to
normalise relations.

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan drew attention to the promising
process of normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia which
began with the signing of two protocols in Switzerland, warning that
adoption of the resolution on March 4, or a statement by U.S.

President Obama on April 24 that will please the Armenian lobby would
cast a serious blow to the normalisation process.

Murat Mercan, chair of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Relations
Committee, who has been lobbying in the U.S. Congress against the
resolution, said neither Turkey, the U.S. nor Armenia would benefit
from adoption of the resolution, noting that it would only satisfy
the ego of the Armenian lobby.

OBAMA LAWYER RECOGNIZED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: RA COUNCIL OF BAR ASSOCIATION

news.am
March 4 2010
Armenia

The Council of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia in
view of the U.S. President Barack Obama’s Statement on April 24,
2009 and the forthcoming voting on Armenian Genocide Resolution in
the U.S. Congress states as follows:

In the conclusive paragraph of his Statement, right after using the
term "Meds Yeghern" for the second time, President Obama clearly
stated that there was an attempt to destroy the Armenian people:

"Nothing can bring back those who were lost in the Meds Yeghern. But
the contributions that Armenians have made over the last ninety-four
years stand as a testament to the talent, dynamism and resilience of
the Armenian people, and as the ultimate rebuke to those who tried
to destroy them."

It is necessary to utterly obliterate the international public
misconceptions that President Obama has not acknowledged the Armenian
Genocide because the term "genocide" was not spelled out. The
Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia hereby gives its legal
assessment to the Statement of President Obama.

1. The term "genocide" is relatively new. It was coined in 1944 by
Raphael Lemkin, a Polish legal scholar of Jewish descent. Prior to
that, each people subjected to genocide, had its own way of referring
to it. The Jewish people called it "Holocaust," and we, Armenian,
called it "Meds Yeghern."

2. Article 2 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was adopted in 1948 and
came into effect in 1951, defines genocide as "… acts committed
with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group…"

President Obama used the historical Armenian term "Meds Yeghern", which
is synonymous to "genocide", a more contemporary term. The term "Meds
Yeghern" was used by President Obama twice, and was clearly described
as an attempt to destroy the Armenian people. It is obvious that "Meds
Yeghern" term was referred to by President Obama in exactly the same
meaning, as we, Armenians, refer to it. The terms "Meds Yeghern,"
"Hayots Tseghaspanutiun," and "Armenian Genocide" have been always
absolutely identical. From the legal point of view President Obama
has described a genocide, because an attempt to destroy a people is,
by definition, a genocide.

Even though Obama the politician did not use the term "genocide,"
Obama the lawyer, the graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law
School, has already clearly acknowledged the events of the Armenian
Genocide. On behalf of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia
we would like to express our gratitude to President Obama for his
historic Statement.

Taking into account the significance of international recognition
of genocide for purposes of preventing of the crime of genocide in
the future, we believe that it is the time to call things by their
proper names and to condemn the Meds Yeghern defining it as genocide
in unequivocal terms. In this respect we should greatly appreciate
the initiative of the US Congress and call upon it to approve the
Resolution.

US TO VOTE ON ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’

BBC NEWS
s/8549117.stm
2010/03/04 11:29:02 GMT

A US Congressional committee is set to vote later on a resolution to
label as genocide the killing of Armenians by Turkish forces during
World War I.

The resolution is not binding, but if it is passed, it can go forward
for a vote in the House of Representatives.

In 2007, a similar resolution passed the committee stage, but
was shelved before a House vote after pressure from the Bush
administration.

Turkey has warned of consequences for US-Turkey ties if it is passed.

A Turkish parliamentary delegation has gone to Washington to try to
persuade members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee not to vote for
a resolution calling for the recognition of "the Armenian genocide".

The non-binding resolution calls on US President Barack Obama to ensure
that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide"
and to label the World War I killings as such in his annual statement
on the issue.

In 2007, the same committee passed a similar resolution on the issue,
and even though the Bush administration had lobbied hard against it,
Turkey was still furious, says the BBC’s Kim Ghattas in Washington.

Tukey, a key Nato ally, recalled its ambassador from Washington and
threatened to withdraw its support for the war in Iraq.

This time, the government in Ankara is even more worried because
the Obama administration has not publicly come out against the move,
our correspondent says.

Both Mr Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have in the
past supported the resolution as senators.

Nationalist sentiment is intense in Turkey, and if the resolution
passes, there will be an emotional reaction, even by those who have
been arguing for reconciliation with Armenia, says the BBC’s Jonathan
Head in Istanbul.

There will certainly be a gesture of disapproval by the Turkish
government, or maybe something stronger – a worrying possibility for
the Obama administration, which sees Turkey as a vital moderate Muslim
ally, our correspondent adds.

Historic deal

In October last year, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord
normalising relations between them after a century of hostility.

Armenia wants Turkey to recognise the killings as an act of genocide,
but successive Turkish governments have refused to do so.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, when they were
deported en masse from eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire. They
were killed by troops or died from starvation and disease.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised
internationally as genocide – and more than 20 countries have done so.

Turkish officials accept that atrocities were committed but argue
they were part of the war and that there was no systematic attempt
to destroy the Christian Armenian people.

STABILITY POSSIBLE ONLY AFTER WITHDRAWAL OF ARMENIAN TROOPS FROM KARABAKH

news.az
March 3 2010
Azerbaijan

Wilfried Martens Azerbaijan develops intensive relations with EU.

Azerbaijan develops intensive relations with EU and the Eastern
Partnership initiative play a special role here, Azerbaijani FM Elmar
Mammadyarov told a meeting with head of the European popular party
Wilfrid Martens.

According to the news service for the foreign ministry, at the
meeting in Baku on Tuesday the minister informed the visitor about the
processes in Azerbaijan and the region including of the negotiation
process on the Karabakh conflict.

Mammadyarov noted that the basic provisions of the conflict settlement
and ensuring of peace and stability in the region includes the
withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijan, return of the citizens
driven away from these lands and restoration of the territorial
integrity of Azerbaijan.

130-YEAR OLD HOUSE COLLAPSED

2/house
01:16 pm | March 02, 2010 | Social

On March 1 at 11:30 the roof of the house on 29 Rustaveli Street of
Gyumri collapsed.

A rescue team left for the scene. It turned out that the house had been
constructed in 1881, was prone to damage, the walls of the entrance
were destroyed and a part of the ground cover and the remaining sector
had collapsed the night before.

Rescuers explained to residents the rules of security and informed
the Gyumri municipality of the incident.