Category: News

Russian police say skinheads not involved in Kostroma incident
Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow
24 Apr 04

[Presenter] Skinheads have nothing to do with the incident involving
an Armenian boy in Kostroma. Let us recall that several media reports
earlier this week [22 April] said that the boy had been allegedly
attacked by skinheads. An investigation carried out by the Kostroma
police has shown that this was not the case. So the police say. Yuliya
Kosilova has the details.
[Correspondent] The boy sustained injury over a routine prank and
street roughs have nothing to do with that, the Kostroma police said
following the investigation. In reality this is what has
happened. Several teenagers, the Armenian boy among them, decided to
make a bonfire right in the street. Having done so, one of them poured
gasoline onto the fire. Burning splashes hit the Armenian boy’s
clothes and, as a result, he was slightly burnt.
The teenagers obviously got frightened and decided not to tell
grownups about this. That is why they invented the story about the
attack. The deceit was uncovered few days later, after the parents of
the victim went to doctors. Doctors, in their turn, reported the
accident to police. The police started the investigation. The victim
became nervous and came clean.
[Presenter] Earlier, the boy explained his burns by skinheads
splashing some petrol over him and setting him on fire.

US mediator urges Azerbaijan to make concessions on Karabakh
Turan news agency
24 Apr 04

BAKU
The situation requires Azerbaijan to make concessions on a peaceful
settlement to the Karabakh conflict, the US co-chairman of the OSCE
Minsk Group, Steven Mann, said at a meeting with Azerbaijani Defence
Minister Safar Abiyev yesterday.
“If the settlement is delayed for many years, the situation of Armenia
and Azerbaijan will become serious. That’s why the sides should
establish a dialogue and maintain it,” Mann said.
In turn, Abiyev said that the use of double standards in this issue
was inadmissible. Armenia is an aggressor and must be punished. He
cited the examples of Yugoslavia and Iraq where military forces had
been applied. Why are similar things not being done with regard to
Armenia, although there is a relevant legal base for this, Abiyev
added.
Mann recalled that Armenia and Azerbaijan had made a commitment to
peacefully settle the Karabakh conflict. The US position on this issue
is that “the sides should make concessions to each other, which are
acceptable to both sides,” he said.
In turn, Abiyev said that “Azerbaijan will not make any concessions,”
the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry press service reported.

PRESS OFFICE
Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese
Contact; Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate
615 Stuart Avenue, Outremont Quebec H2V 3H2
Tel; 514-276-9479, Fax; 514-276-9960
Email; [email protected] Website;
MARTYRS’ PRAYER AND ECUMENICAL SERVICE IN COMMEMORATION OF VICTIMS OF
THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
On Friday night, 23 April 2004, a Martyrs’ Prayer and Ecumenical
service was held at St. Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral of the
Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Church in the presence and with the
participation of leaders of Canadian Churches, interfaith
representatives as well as politicians at both Federal and Provincial
levels. Thousands of Montreal Armenians paid tribute to the victims of
the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
The procession was headed by the Primate of the Armenian community of
Canada His Grace Bishop Bagrat Galstanian accompanied with the Primate
and the Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada His
Eminence Archbishop Andrew Hutchison. Present from the Armenian
Apostolic Church were His Eminence Archbishop Barkev Mardirossian
(Primate of the Diocese of Nagorno Karabakh on a visit to Montreal),
Very Reverend Father Ararat Kaltakjian (Vicar General), Rev Father
Hayrig Hovhannisyan, Rev Father Vazgen Boyadjian and Deacon Hagop
Arslanian. From sister churches attending the services were Mgr Joseph
Khoury (Maronite Archbishop and Primate of Montreal), Fr Charbel
Ibrahim (representing Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim), Mgr Dimidar Shumov
(Bishop of the Bulgarian Church), Very Rev Fr Peter Shportun,
(Antiochian Orthodox Church), Mgr Andre Desroches (representing
Cardinal J. C Turcotte), Mr. Cedric Gordon (Moderator, Baptist
Church), Fr Berry Mac (Montreal Presbyterian Church), Father Michel
Fawaz (St Mary Orthodox Antioch), Father Kamil Ishak (Syriac Church),
Rev Fr Raphael Bishara (Coptic Church), Rev Fr Arsanios Serry (Coptic
Church), Rev Fr George Zabarian, (Vicar Armenian Catholic Church), Rev
Mher Khatchikian (Armenian Evangelical Church), Rev Fr Lucien Coutu
(Centre Emmaus), Deacon Antoine Malek, (Coptic Church). Also attending
the ecumenical services were representatives of the Montreal Muslim
community Sayyed Nabil Abbas and Haj Hassan Hamieh.
Bishop Galstanian greeted the present guests, church leaders and
ecumenical representatives as well as politicians and the faithful of
the Armenian Apostolic Church. In his opening remarks, referring to
his feelings in the Canadian Parliament on the day of voting on the
Genocide resolution, the Primate said, “The voice of justice came loud
and clear from the heavens and the earth. The voice of the blood of
our martyrs sounded from heavenly abodes. And I believed, I felt and I
saw in a tangible manner through the tearful eyes around me that the
entire martyred population in Der Zor was there, led by Jesus Christ,
in the parliament of this distant land, Canada. They were each
affirming YES with every positive vote.”
Diocesan Youth council member, Chahe Tanashian read the Message of
Commendation of His Holiness Karekin II Catholicos of All Armenians,
addressed to the Speaker of the House of Commons Hon. Peter
Milliken. The Armenian Pontiff said in His message, “Human suffering
can be stopped through the actions of great men and women such as you,
who help justice to prevail.”
Mr. Diran Avedian addressed the congregation on behalf of the
community organizations and commended the Canadian parliament for
recognizing the Armenian Genocide. He said, “The genocide of the
Armenian people is the only one which has not been acknowledged by the
successor of the government which perpetrated it, and by a number of
well established democracies in the world.” He concluded that Canada
stood up to her reputation of respect to human rights and social
justice, as an example to other countries.
A special ceremony including prayers and hymns of the Armenian
Apostolic Church rituals was assembled for this commemoration day. The
Men’s Choir of St Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Cathedral and Ms
Ani Keropian (soloist) performed heart rendering liturgical songs
conducted by Mr. Varoujan Markarian.
The keynote speaker of the ecumenical service was the Primate and the
Metropolitan of Ecclesiastical Province of Canada His Eminence Abp
Andrew Hutchison. His Eminence lauded the Armenian Church as the most
ancient one in Christendom, and presented an overview of the
historical events of the Armenian Genocide. He then said, “It is
important to remember, because there can be no real hope without
memory; and it is clear that we have not sufficiently remembered, nor
learnt from those dreadful events, nor from the failure of the
community of nations to respond to them appropriately. There can be no
healing, reconciliation and justice for Armenians, if the genocide is
not fully acknowledged, and responsibility for it accepted. Without it
there is no basis for the rebuilding of trust and a more secure future
in the community of nations.”
Ms Aida Karibian then introduced Mr. Yvan Bordeleau, Member of the
National Assembly of Quebec. Mr. Bordeleau has been the moving force
for two decades behind the recognition and eventual legislation by the
Quebec National Assembly of the affirmation of the Armenian
Genocide. The Quebec MNA then addressed the gathering and formally
presented a copy of Law 194 to Bishop Galstanian. This law was
recently passed unanimously by the National Assembly of Quebec.
Among other politicians who addressed the gathering were Members of
Parliament Madeleine Dalfond-Guiral (who had moved the Genocide
resolution M-380 in the Canadian Parliament), Stephan Dion, Eleni
Bakopanos, Sarkis Assadourian, Gilles Duceppe and Senator Shirly
Maheu. Also present at the gathering were Quebec Minister of Justice
Michelle Courchesne, Federal MP Raymonde Folco, Quebec MNA Jaques
Dupuis and many city councilors.
Following an impressive candle light prayer in memory of the 1.5
million victims of the Armenian Genocide, participants to the
commemoration services were hosted to a reception in the Church’s
Marie Manoogian Hall, then everybody was asked to congregate around
the Genocide Memorial in Parc Marcelin Wilson, where a candle light
ceremony for the repose of the souls of the martyrs of the Genocide
was conducted and wreaths and flowers were laid by community
organizations and individuals to respect the memory of victims of
genocide. In a brief addresses, the Primate, Bishop Bagrat Galstanian,
thanked all those who organized the whole event, and praised the
efforts of Hasmig Belleli, Mary Deros and Jack Tchaderdjian, who
several years ago played an instrumental role as members of the
Municipal Council of Montreal in the realization of the Genocide
Memorial. Brief addresses were also delivered by MP’s Bakopanos and
Assadourian, and the closing blessing was delivered by Abp. Barkev
Mardirossian.

DIVAN OF THE DIOCESE

Daily Star, Lebanon
April 24 2004
Students unite to remember the 20th century’s first genocide
Armenian groups mount program to shine light on Atrocity
By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
Daily Star staff

On April 24, 1915, the Turkish government placed some 200 Armenian
community leaders under arrest in what was known at the time as the
city of Constantinople. According to the Armenian National Institute,
many arrests would follow, as would many forced expulsions and
summary executions.
Eighty-nine years later, Armenians all over the world solemnly
commemorate April 24 as the start of the Armenian genocide, when the
Young Turks killed 1.5 million Armenians. By 1923, the Turks had
succeeded in pushing the rest of the community out of eastern Turkey.
It is a tragedy that has, for decades, fought for the most basic
reaction – the simple act of recognition.
The Armenian genocide is considered the first such atrocity of the
20th century, but since it occurred a good 30 years before the UN
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, getting the
event acknowledged as such has been difficult. Such countries as
Lebanon, France, Greece, Cyprus, Russia, and Argentina have
recognized the genocide, while Turkey has steadfastly refused. As a
result, the commemorations on April 24 tend to carry an activist
cast, part of a longstanding effort to force Turkey’s hand in coming
clean about its history.
This year, for the first time, students from five major Lebanese
universities have joined forces to assemble a two-week program of
events marking April 24. “The Armenian Genocide: 89 Years of Unfolded
Truth” started last week and continues through April 30. It includes
an intelligent mix, from photography exhibitions and slide
projections to academic lectures and several film screenings.
The centerpiece of the program is Atom Egoyan’s critically acclaimed
feature film “Ararat,” which will be shown at the American University
of Beirut (AUB) on Monday and at the Saint Joseph University (USJ) on
Friday.
“‘Ararat’ is very modern,” says Aram Kradjian, a 21-year-old student
at AUB who heads up the Lebanese-Armenian Heritage Club. “It’s not a
typical black-and-white documentary. Going to see it is like going to
the movies normally.”
As such, Kradjian hopes to attract a wider audience to the screenings
than that which might otherwise attend. But balancing the popular
appeal of going to the movies is the academic specificity of
attending a lecture at AUB on Wednesday by philosopher Henry
Theriault.
A professor at Worcester State College in western Massachusetts and
the coordinator of the Center for Human Rights there, Theriault will
deliver a talk on social theory and the denial of genocide. He has
long studied the after effects of genocides, especially on diaspora
populations and in the Armenian case.
The Lebanese-Armenian Heritage Club invited Theriault specifically,
but his lecture fits in well with the week’s events. All told, the
student-run commemoration took almost three months to coordinate. “It
was a big achievement,” says Kradjian. “There are so many different
political parties that Armenians living in Lebanon belong to. Getting
five clubs together is a big deal. And from every club, there are
three representatives who all have different opinions.”
Still, students from AUB, USJ, Haigazian University, Notre Dame
University (NDU), and the Lebanese American University (LAU) managed
to find common ground.
Because AUB has a fairly established network of student clubs and a
method for allocating resources to them, the Lebanese-Armenian
Heritage Club was able to finance about three-quarters of the budget.
NDU, by contrast, established its Armenian Student Association only
quite recently, while LAU just has a loose federation of Armenian
students. Still, the groups pooled their resources and came up with a
diverse program. They also put a strong effort into public relations,
printing 15,000 copies of their well-designed brochures and stickers
and distributing them both through official university channels as
well as by hand.
“Each university has its program and its budget,” says Armig
Vartanian, 20, a law student at USJ who serves as secretary of the
school’s Armenian student association. “Each year when we do this,
students ask about the case. Some students are still indifferent. But
all the clubs help each other out.”
Vartanain points to the strength of the BBC documentary, “Armenia –
The Betrayed,” as a particular highlight of this year’s commemoration
and as an effective means of bringing contemporary relevance to the
nearly 90-year-old tragedy. “That the BBC has given its time to this
issue means a lot to us. Sometimes people say that it has been a long
time, and Turkey still denies it. But this documentary proves” that
the issue still matters.
“Armenia – The Betrayed” first screened on the BBC last January.
Correspondent Fergal Keane looks at how relations between the US and
Turkey, especially in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, have
politicized the issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide. Turkey
has always maintained that the Armenian population that was killed
between 1915 and 1923 died in the context of a civil war and not a
genocide.
But the documentary gives an eye-opening account of both historical
documents supporting systematic extermination as well as insight into
current events, in which Presidents Clinton and Bush were both
apparently pressured to withdraw bills from Congress seeking to
recognize the Armenian genocide because the US did not want to
disrupt diplomatic relations with Turkey at critical moments.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CBC Canada
April 23 2004
Martin criticized for missing genocide vote in Commons

OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham is defending the prime
minister’s decision to skip a controversial vote in the House of
Commons this week. Paul Martin was absent when MPs passed a motion
recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915.
Armenians blame the Turks for killing 1.5 million of their people
between 1915 and 1923.
Armenian Canadians hold a vigil on Parliament Hill
For decades consecutive Canadian governments have dodged the
sensitive issue by calling what happened in eastern Turkey a
“tragedy,” stopping well short of referring to the events as
“genocide.”
In 1915, during the First World War, Turkish troops put down an
Armenian uprising. Armenians say about 1.5 million people were killed
by the Ottoman Turks, during a brutal eight year campaign.
Turkey has always fought attempts by Armenians and international
human rights organizations to have the events declared a genocide.
Previously, Ankara has warned countries contemplating similar action
that there would be negative consequences. In some cases business
contracts have been held up or denied.
Wednesday night’s vote has put a strain on diplomatic relations
between Canada and Turkey and divided the Liberal caucus.
Martin allowed Liberal backbenchers a free vote on the motion
recognizing the Armenian genocide. But Martin ordered his cabinet to
vote against it.
The government had warned beforehand that if the motion passed it
would anger Canada’s NATO ally.
The motion said: “That this House acknowledges the Armenian genocide
of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.”
When it came time for MPs to vote Martin wasn’t in the House. The
vote passed easily, 153-68.
NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough accused the prime minister
of ducking a tough issue. “I think it’s the same gutlessness. I think
it’s a screaming absence of leadership,” she said.
But Graham came to Martin’s defence. “It quite often happens that the
prime minister can’t be present in the House for votes. He was
otherwise occupied that night,” he said.
Martin wasn’t the only minister to miss the vote.
In spite of the order that cabinet oppose the motion Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler and International Trade Minister Jim Peterson left the
House before the vote. Public Works Minister Stephen Owen was there,
but abstained.
“I was not comfortable with the Bloc (Quebecois) resolution. I
certainly wasn’t going to vote for it but I was uncomfortable voting
against it,” said Owen.
The Turkish government has already expressed its anger over the
outcome of the vote. Graham says he wants to speak to Turkey’s
foreign minister to explain that Canada’s official position hasn’t
changed.

Guardian, UK
April 24 2004
Greek Cypriot voters set to derail UN plan for island’s reunification
President and church accused of whipping up bitterness ahead of
today’s referendum
Helena Smith in Nicosia
Greek Cypriots are today expected to resoundingly reject a UN peace
plan that presents a historic opportunity to reunite their divided
island. After 30 years of conflict the bitterness whipped up by the
president and the Greek Orthodox church shows no signs of ebbing –
nor do the accusations of intimidation sponsored by the government in
Nicosia.
The Greek choice looked set last night to mar Cyprus’s May 1 entry to
the EU, entrenching the partition of the island, and barring entry to
the bloc of its ethnic Turkish minority. Mounting anger in Brussels
at the prospect of the union’s borders ending at the heavily
militarised “green line”, rather than the waters of the
Mediterranean, was reflected in a rare outburst by the EU’s
enlargement commissioner, Günter Verheugen.
Mr Verheugen blasted the Nicosia government for “cheating” its way
into the union by reneging on promises to do its utmost to bring
about a solution.
Despite the public dressing down – and the obvious disappointment of
the minority Turkish Cypriots who have enthusiastically endorsed the
UN plan – President Tassos Papadopoulos stuck firmly to his guns. He
described the UN’s 9,000-page plan for a power-sharing arrangement,
envisaging a federated bizonal, bicommunal country, as “neither
workable nor viable”.
Hogging the airwaves as the campaign ended on Thursday night, the
hardline leader rejected suggestions that today’s referendum was the
last chance to solve the Cyprus conundrum. The US secretary of state,
Colin Powell, had joined the UN in describing the vote as a “golden
opportunity” that will not be repeated.
But in a two-hour interview broadcast by all four of the island’s
television channels, Mr Papadopoulos told the nation: “From my
experience, such proposals or plans do not disappear, they are
revived and reproduced.”
As the Greek Cypriot president spoke, tens of thousands of Turkish
Cypriots took to the streets in their part of the island. Most shared
the view of Mustapha Cirakli, who sees reunification as the key that
will unlock decades of international isolation and crippling economic
deprivation. “Say yes and you connect Cyprus to the world,” he said.
“We’re really upset with the Greek Cypriots, we were expecting
different things from them. After all, a dove of peace can’t fly with
one wing.”
Although around 1,000 Turkish nationalists arrived in the
impoverished north from the Turkish mainland to try to scupper a yes
vote, the referendum has been met with relief by most Turkish
Cypriots.
The scenes of optimism in the self-declared mini-state contrasted
deeply with the climate of fear that has taken hold of the much
wealthier Greek south.
The vehemence of Mr Papadopoulos’s opposition to the plan has been
matched only by the heavy handedness of the tactics to which the
authorities have allegedly resorted in the run-up to the poll.
Media manipulation and outright bullying by government-appointed
campaigners determined to see civil servants vote oxi (no) have
reportedly been rife. On the orders of the education minister,
schoolchildren were told to abandon the classroom on Thursday to
distribute as many oxi leaflets and stickers as they could. In the
process those bold enough to say nai (yes) were branded “traitors” or
“Turk lovers”. Many yes supporters have been heckled or reprimanded
by police for defacing no signs.
EU diplomats said the way the campaign had been conducted would sour
the island’s EU entry and raise questions about the nature of its
democratic values.
“Its embarrassing and absolutely shameful,” said the former president
George Vassiliou. “What we have seen is an industry of misinformation
at work – a special kind of police state where people have been told
what to vote and indirectly threatened.”
Until last April, when the veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf
Denktash opened the “green line” under domestic popular pressure,
most Greek Cypriots had no memory of “the other side”.
Since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded in the wake of an
Athens-backed coup to unite the island with Greece, cross-ethnic
contact has been kept to a minimum. On either side of the
UN-patrolled “dead zone” the two communities have led different
lives: Greeks performing an economic miracle to make up for the loss
of territory and 180,000 refugees, and the Turks proclaiming
independence in an enclave that is recognised by Turkey but no one
else.
History
For decades Greek history books have been fixated with Turkey’s
crimes: the genocide of the Armenians, the Asia Minor catastrophe,
the sacking of Constantinople, the “cleansing” of the Greeks, the
Cyprus invasion and the killing of the Kurds.
Confronted with a solution for the first time – and the reality of
its attendant compromises – insidious nationalist fever, nurtured in
classrooms, has erupted with a vengeance.
This week, for the first time since the 70s, the motto “A good Turk
is a dead Turk” appeared daubed across the walls of Nicosia’s English
school, founded when Cyprus was a British crown colony.
Mr Vassiliou, who negotiated the island’s EU accession, apologised
profusely to a top aide of Mr Verheugen.
“I am very upset for my country,” he told her. “No one expected such
a virulent no campaign from Papadopoulos. He has deliberately played
on peoples’ fears by talking about the plan’s negative rather than
positive aspects. Even if it’s late we still hope to salvage the
situation.”
Unlike the no camp, which has been able to rent giant billboards and
print leaflets thanks to donations from banks and business, the yes
supporters have been largely self-funded. Some have resorted to using
bed sheets as banners.
But while the latest polls have shown at least 70% of Greeks oppose
the UN plan, many in the silent yes camp hope they could yet reduce
their lead at the polls.
The undecided vote is said to have increased lately, not least since
Bishop Pavlos of Kyrenia warned Greek Cypriots that they would face
damnation if they approved the accord. If those favouring a
settlement exceed 35%, senior local EU diplomats and political
figures told the Guardian that they hoped a second referendum could
be held soon, possibly in the autumn.

Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY
April 24 2004
Guest Viewpoint: Armenians have not forgotten
BY HAROUT KERJILIAN
“If our children forget this much evil
Let the whole world condemn the Armenian people.”
— Avidis Aharonian
It has been 89 years since the first genocide of the 20th century
took place. The Ottoman Turks and the Young Turks took it upon
themselves to resolve the Armenian question by massacres,
deportations and mass killings of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and
children, including my grandparents, aunts and uncles.
My parents were survivors of this genocide. Arab Bedouins and
Christian missionaries took them in as orphans.
These crimes by humanity against humanity are recorded in archives of
governments around the world and the news media. To this day the
Turkish government denies that the genocide and atrocities took
place. It spends millions of our tax dollars in an attempt to rewrite
its history, by establishing Turkish Studies programs in U.S.
universities under the guise of cultural and educational cooperation.
These programs are nothing more than propaganda tools to try to
change history and discredit the victims and survivors of this
horrendous period.
Hitler used this genocide as a “text book” for the Holocaust. He
said, “After all, who remembers the Armenians?” (This quote appears
on the wall of the American Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.)
Every year on April 24, Armenians around the globe commemorate and
remember the victims of this genocide and wonder why the world,
including the U.S. government, has kept quiet for so long.
The U.S. government refuses to acknowledge this genocide under the
guise of national interest and being an ally with Turkey. Last year
Congress was ready to pass House Resolution 193 to recognize the
genocide but it was taken off the agenda under pressure from the
White House and State Department.
President George W. Bush promised during his campaign that if he were
elected he would support this resolutions and work on getting it
passed. This day we call on the president to keep his word, and call
on Congress to pass the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide
of 1915.
Unless we acknowledge the past and learn from it, history will repeat
itself. We have seen this happening in the Holocaust and in other
ethnic cleansings in places around the world.
This day, April 24, 2004, we not only remember and commemorate the
victims of this genocide, but we celebrate the survival of the
Armenian people and their accomplishments.
“Go ahead, destroy this race.
Let us say that it is again 1915;
There is war in the world.
Destroy Armenia.
See if you can do it.
Send them from their homes into
the desert.
Let them have neither bread nor
water.
Burn their houses and their
churches.
See if they will not live again.
See if they will not laugh again.
See if you can stop them from
mocking the big ideas of the
world. ”
— William Saroyan
Today, the Armenian community invites all people to a commemoration
service at the memorial park on Conklin Ave. in Binghamton, near the
South Washington Street Bridge. The service begins at 11 a.m.
Kerjilian is a Binghamton resident

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 24 2004
Cable shows debate merits of Americana

Armenian-language TV hosts said to be claiming project will drive
Armenians out of Glendale.
By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press
GLENDALE – Viewers of local Armenian-language television programs
said that several hosts, including Vrej Agajanian of ABC TV Live,
have argued that the proposed Americana at Brand development will
drive Armenian Americans out of Glendale and will not provide jobs
for them.
Agajanian denied bringing the ethnicity issue into the Americana
debate.
“On my program, people were raising that,” Agajanian said. “On the
program, it’s a call-in show. Those were the people who were saying
that.”
Viewers said Agajanian told his audience that the project will drive
up land values in southern Glendale, raising rents and forcing
Armenian Americans to leave the city.
Agajanian said his criticism of the Americana focuses on the harm to
existing business owners.
“I’m hearing from small businesses that they’re worried,” Agajanian
said. “I’m very close to people, and they convey their message to me.
They are worried.”
The project’s proponents, including City Councilmen Rafi Manoukian
and Bob Yousefian – both of whom are Armenian American – called the
ethnicity argument nothing more than fear tactics.
“I had heard this thing,” Yousefian said. “He said, ‘If they’re going
to be charging so much rent, isn’t it going to be pushing up rents in
all of Glendale?’ No, it’s not. Just because high luxury items and
houses are selling for several million dollars, that doesn’t mean a
house built in the ’20s is going to sell for the same price.”
At a March 30 City Council meeting, developer Rick Caruso questioned
Agajanian’s objectivity, claiming that Agajanian said he could
deliver the Armenian vote if Caruso put him on his payroll.
“I told him, you have to change the project,” Agajanian said at the
time. “I’m willing to help you change the project to work. We didn’t
discuss payment or money. Now, it becomes a personal matter. I will
fight.”
The council on Tuesday approved the business terms and environmental
impact report for the 15.5-acre commercial and residential campus in
downtown Glendale. It will vote Tuesday on necessary zoning changes
to allow for the residential component.
Caruso disputed the claim that the project will drive Armenian
Americans out of Glendale, saying that his project adds 338 housing
units to the city.
“The value of rental units is dependent on supply and demand,” Caruso
said. “What we’re doing, we’re adding more units to the market. If
anything, we’re creating more opportunities for people to live in
Glendale, not less.
“Wouldn’t it be great if the land values do rise, and everybody in
Glendale who owns homes, including the Armenian community, benefits
from this project? And that will happen. That doesn’t mean people are
going to be driven out of town. People are going to be wealthier.”
Agajanian’s show appears on Charter Communications Channel 26 at 10
a.m. Sundays.

El Paso Times, TX
April 24 2004
Armenian lights star to honor slain family
Darren Meritz
El Paso Times

Linda Stelter / El Paso Times
Photo: Greg Yakoobian has extensively studied the history of Armenia
and the killings in 1915 of some of his mother’s family. He has
lighted the Star on the Franklin Mountains in their memory and the
others killed. The family picture shows his mother Rose, right, with
her mother and father and her sisters.

A century-old dispute between the Turks and the Armenians is bringing
some attention to El Paso’s Star on the Franklin Mountains.
Though only small populations of either ethnicity live here, El
Pasoan Gregory Yakoobian has sponsored lighting the Star on the
Franklin Mountain today in remembrance of the Armenians who were
killed at the hand of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Yakoobian, who spent 20 years in the U.S. military, contends that the
Turks killed as many as 1.5 million Armenians during ethnic cleansing
in what some have called the first Holocaust.
Though questions abound about the accuracy of describing the deaths
of Armenians in the then Ottoman Empire as a genocide, Yakoobian
stands firm.
“My parents were there, and their parents and other relatives were
killed,” he said. “My father did not like to talk about the subject
at all. It was almost like post-traumatic stress disorder.”
He recounted the oral history that has been passed down through his
family. He said that Armenian women during that time were often given
three choices — convert to Islam, be sold into slavery or be killed
— and that men were summarily executed during a march of the
displaced.
Other perspectives on treatment of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
are also widely believed.
Emriye Ormanci, vice consul at the Consulate General of Turkey in
Houston, said that while few clues point toward ethnic cleansing or
genocide of the Armenians during World War I, the Turks made the
decision to displace the Armenians because of their allegiance to the
Russians.
“Feelings are on the one hand, but the truth is something really
different,” she said. “Yes, the Ottoman Empire had to make some
regulations to change the place of the Armenian population because
they were sided with the Russians, but of course you should also take
into consideration that it was a time of war.”
She also said, “We admit that there was loss on the Armenian side and
we are really sorry, but they should also understand that there was
loss on the Turkish side. This is something that should be left to
the historians.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
April 24 2004
Genocide victims will be honored
Greek Theatre concert set
By Alex Dobuzinskis
Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES — For the rock band System of a Down, tonight’s sold-out
benefit at the Greek Theatre will be a different kind of concert —
one dedicated to raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide.
The band’s members, all of Armenian descent, are performing on the
day on which Armenians commemorate the genocide, which occurred in
the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. Lead singer Serj Tankian
said the title of the concert “Souls, 2004,” will honor the 1.5
million Armenians who were killed in the massacre.
“The reason I’m here is because of the survivors that have survived
the Armenian Genocide,” Tankian said.
The singer’s grandfather saw his own brother killed, and he and his
mother were the only members of his family to survived the genocide.
Armenians during the period suffered deportation, torture, starvation
and numerous massacres, according to the Armenian National Institute.
It set the stage for other atrocities that followed, Tankian said.
“Look at the 20th century. It’s the century where the most number of
people have been killed by (other) people. And we call ourselves a
civilization?”
Turkish officials have denied that the deaths of Armenians in the
former Ottoman Empire during World War I and the following years was
a genocide, saying the deaths occurred during a multiparty conflict
and were due to war and disease. But Armenian groups have asked the
Turkish government to recognize the deaths as a genocide.
Tonight’s concert will benefit the Armenian National Committee of
America and other groups, including organizations that teach about
the genocide, such as Facing History and Ourselves.
Tankian, 36, and two of his fellow members of the band grew up in the
San Fernando Valley, and the fourth member is from Glendale. All four
now live in the Los Angeles area.
Those attending tonight’s concert, which sold out in less than 20
minutes on March 12, will find booths with materials about the
Armenian Genocide, and will get an informational CD booklet-size
handout.
“We don’t want to be preachy. We have an eight-minute documentary
explaining the genocide and its cover-up by Turkey, and geopolitical
realities in the West,” Tankian said.
Tankian expressed support for a Canadian House of Commons vote on
Wednesday night to declare the deaths of the 1.5 million Armenians an
act of genocide. The vote could affect trade relations between Canada
and Turkey.
Armenian groups are urging the U.S. government to take a similar
stance.
“Unless we want to continue being a hypocritical democracy, it’s
going to have to be. The ball is rolling and people are starting to
become aware of it,” Tankian said.
In support of two resolutions that mention the Armenian Genocide,
along with the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, System
of a Down has mobilized tens of thousands of fans and supporters to
send postcards and e-mails to congressional leaders urging passage of
the resolutions in the House and Senate.
The resolutions state that the U.S. government and its people should
rededicate themselves to the cause of ending the crime of genocide.
But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, one of the co-signors of House
Resolution 193, said although it would win approval if put before the
full House, the House majority leadership is blocking the vote.
Armenians observe April 24 as the day to commemorate the genocide
because it was on that day in 1915 that hundreds of Armenian leaders
were arrested in Constantinople in one of the first acts of the
genocide.
State Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, has authored a resolution which
designates this day as the “California Day of Remembrance for the
Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.”
“It’s one of the great tragic events of the 20th century, and it’s
the first genocide of the 20th century,” Scott said.
Alex Dobuzinskis, (818) 546-3304 [email protected]