FIRST ARMENIAN OMBUDSPERSON PRESENTS 2005 ANNUAL REPORT
Noyan Tapan
Apr 27 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The first Armenian ombudsperson
Larisa Alaverdian on April 26 presented the 2005 Annual Report
on the Activities of Ombudsman and Violations of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms in the Country to the public. To recap,
the new ombudsman Armen Harutyunian presented the 2005 report in
the National Assembly, while the former ombudsperson was invited
to participate in the report’s discussion “with the right to make
a speech”. “Taking into account that the public has the right to
know what avtivities were carried out by the Ombudsperson in 2005,
how she contributed to the protection of human rights and freedoms,
how much a person is protected from arbitrariness of public bodies
and officials and from abuse of official position, to what extent
the state policy in the field of human rights corresponds to the RA
Constitution and the principles and norms of international law, the
2005 Annual Report on the Activities of the First RA Ombudsman and
Violations of Human Rights and Freedoms in the Country is presented
to the public,” the preface of L. Alaverdian’s report reads. The
report was a message of the first RA Ombudsperson to large sections
of the society, which are committed to the idea of establishing a
democratic, social and legal state and which do everything possible so
as to reach, through a dialog and cooperation with the authorities,
a civil consensus on the fundamental principles and goals, the most
important of which is protection of human rights. The report was based
on the analysis of written and oral complaints, visits to marzes and
settlements, studies conducted on the Ombudsman’s own initiative and
by various NGOs, mass media publications, as well as the reports,
which were submitted by Armenia to the appropriate bodies of the UN
and international organizations on human rights and the responses to
these reports. According to Larisa Alaverdian, “for the highest bodies
of power, both human rights as an absolute value and the notion of
“ombudsman” still remain equally not comprehended, and the solution
of this problem is still on the agenda.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN MP SAYS CO-EXISTENCE WITH AZERIS IN KARABAKH IMPOSSIBLE
Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan
26 Apr 06
Excerpt from report by Vaan Vardanyan in the Armenian newspaper Ayots
Ashkar on 26 April headlined ” We may become good neighbours but each
of us should live at our own territories ”
On 21 April the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh republic] parliament conducted
hearings on prospects of resolving the Karabakh conflict. Armenian
MP and leader of the union of political scientists Mayak Ovanesyan
has commented on the hearings.
[Ayots Ashkar correspondent] Mr Ovanesyan, what are your impressions
of the NKR parliamentary hearings?
[Mayak Ovanesyan] Such hearings have been organized by the NKR
parliament for the first time. Even though the OSCE Minsk Group is
mainly dealing with the Karabakh talks, it is no secret that certain
processes are simultaneously going on. That is the Dortmund conference,
the International Crisis Group and others are expressing opinions
which are not in favour of us at all. Despite the fact that Armenia
takes part in the talks, we [Armenia and Karabakh] should take a
single position.
[Passage omitted: Asked about new options of settling the conflict,
Ovanesyan said that co-existence of two nations practising different
religions was impossible and that it would lead to new killings]
We may become good neighbours, but each of us should live at our
own territories. The settlement model, which the media have been
speaking about so far, is unacceptable. The point is not that we are
better than Azerbaijanis or Jews are better than Arabs. We are simply
different and our co-existence is impossible.
Those who say that the Karabakh conflict will be resolved, the
Armenians will return to Baku and the Azerbaijanis to Shushi [Susa],
and they will all live in peace are absolutely wrong, although they
have good intentions. This will lead to a new war.
Many of my counterparts in Karabakh supported me. They also think that
the separation of the two nations which took place in past years should
be formalized and each of them should live on their own territories. We
may become good neighbours in the future. I think that Armenia should
suggest and support this idea at the talks. The Armenians of Karabakh
have determined themselves on the territories that belong to them
and the international community should respect this self-determination.
[Correspondent] How do Karabakh’s political forces imagine the limits
on possible compromises?
[Ovanesyan] They very much care about ensuring security of the
NKR in a global sense, rather than status for certain liberated
territories. Learning from bitter experience, they watch the problem
more closely and think that, whatever option for a settlement is
proposed, the NKR’s security should be protected no less well than
it is today. This is their pivotal claim.

ARMENIAN SPEAKER SAYS JOINING NATO NOT ON AGENDA
Interfax-AVN military news agency website, Moscow
27 April 06
St Petersburg, 27 April: Armenia’s attempts to broaden relations
with the EU and NATO are not directed against Russia, Chairman of
the Armenian National Assembly Artur Bagdasaryan has said.
“I support intensive development of relations with the EU and targeted
integration into various European structures including the Council
of Europe,” Bagadasaryan told journalists in St Petersburg.
At the same time, he emphasized, “this does not mean that our
cooperation with the EU should worsen relations between Russia,
our most reliable partner, and the EU”.
On relations between Armenia and NATO, Bagdasaryan said: “We have
an individual partnership plan, but we are only talking about
cooperation. Armenia’s joining NATO is not on the foreign policy
agenda.”

ALLEGED MEDICARE FRAUD RING BUSTED IN LA AREA
San Francisco Chronicle, CA
April 25 2006
Five members of a Russian-Armenian organized crime ring have been
indicted for allegedly bilking Medicare of more than $20 million,
authorities said.
The group operated medical clinics and laboratories in Los Angeles,
Glendale and Pasadena that paid marketers for patient referrals and
billed Medicare for tests that were unnecessary or were not done,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Searby wrote in court papers. The
alleged fraud took place between 1997 and 2005.
The defendants, who were indicted Thursday, have been charged with
conspiracy, health care fraud, Medicare kickbacks, making false
statements to Medicare and money laundering.
The group allegedly was led by Konstantin Grigoryan, 56, of Altadena,
a former colonel in the Soviet army; his wife, Mayya Leonidovna
Grigoryan, 54; the Grigoryans’ son-in-law, Eduard Gershelis, 34, of
Los Angeles; Mayya Grigoryan’s brother-in-law, Aleksandr Treynker,
48, of Canoga Park; and Haroutyun Gulderyan, 36, of Tujunga.
The Grigoryans and Gershelis have been in federal custody since their
March 21 arrests. Gulderyan and Treynker have been released on bond.
The five are scheduled to appear in court June 13.
Gershelis’ attorney, Jerome Mooney, described the episode as “a very
unfortunate circumstance.” Attorneys for the other defendants did
not return phone calls from the Los Angeles Daily News seeking comment.
Last December, three operators of an Orange County clinic pleaded
guilty to charges they bilked insurers out of nearly $15 million by
operating on healthy people, authorities said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASGAROV: “ARMENIANS DEMOLISH THE RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES”
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 27 2006
The issue on demolition of the railway infrastructure of Azerbaijan
in the territories under Armenia’s occupation will also be raised at
the XXI conference of the heads of the railway administrations of the
Organization for Cooperation of Railways held in Baku. Journalists
were told by the chief of the Azerbaijan State Railway Office (ASRO)
Arif Asgarov.
According to Mr.Asgarov, 240 km of the railway are under occupation
of Armenia: “Armenians demolish the railway infrastructure in the
occupied territories. We have already become uninformed about the
situation of the infrastructure in those territories. This question
is raised at meetings every time and will be raised at today’s meeting
as well”.

ETHNIC ARMENIANS IN GEORGIA WANT RUSSIAN BASE AS PROTECTION “FROM THE TURKS”
RTR Russia TV, Moscow
27 Apr 06
[Presenter] The accords between Moscow and Tbilisi on the closure
of Russian military bases in Georgia have encountered an unexpected
obstacle. It appears that officials forgot to consult the residents of
Akhalkalaki District, on whose territory a Russian base is located. If
it closes, their life will be stripped of its most important element
– the stability that the Georgian authorities are incapable of
guaranteeing them. This report by Ia Bersenadze explains how the
inhabitants of Akhalkalaki are trying to defend their rights.
[Correspondent] These military vehicles leaving the 62nd Russian
military base in Akhalkalaki for a routine manoeuvre were obliged
to turn back. Several hundred local inhabitants, protesting at the
planned closure of the base next year, blocked the road and stopped
them passing.
[Villager Garik Manukyan, speaking vernacular, with Russian
translation] The Russian military must not leave Akhalkalaki. They
must defend us from the Turks, because Georgia is incapable of
protecting us.
[Correspondent] Akhalkalaki has always been regarded as a special
area of Georgia. Almost 90 per cent of the population here are ethnic
Armenians. An absolute majority of them do not speak Georgian. For
this reason, they have not been accepted for jobs with state
institutions. The problem of unemployment has always been one of the
main ones.
The Akhalkalaki area is called Georgia’s Siberia because of its harsh
climate. Even at the end of April, when the air temperature in the
rest of Georgia reaches plus 20 degrees, it is still below freezing
here. In this town there are neither plants nor factories. The only
place where, until recently, local inhabitants could find work is
the 62nd Russian military base in the town of Akhalkalaki.
For the last four years (?Musheg Donoyan) has been living in a
well-appointed flat on the military estate. He and his wife work as
teachers at the school located within the base. His children also
study there. They have no complaints about their life. But they are
apprehensive about the future.
[Musheg Donoyan, teacher] If you come back here in a year or two’s
time, you will find us using a little cooking stove to heat this flat.
[Correspondent] The border with Turkey, a country which belongs to
NATO, is only 40 km from here. For this reason, the military base was
a most important link in the Soviet defence system. Local Armenians
still regard it as a guarantee of their security.
[David Rstakyan, resident of Akhalkalaki, speaking Russian] What
we are doing is dictated by our own security. This is not a circus
performance, as the powers that be say. This is simply dictated by
the Armenian population’s instinct for self-preservation.
[Correspondent] It is the Georgian minister of internal affairs
who calls the protests in Akhalkalaki a circus performance and
a charade. Vano Merabishvili claims there is no justification
whatsoever for mass protests and popular unrest in this region
and that the situation is completely under control. However, local
residents do not share the optimism of the Tbilisi authorities. If
the base closes, they say, we will lose a guarantee of peaceful life,
as well as our livelihoods.
[Video, captioned “Akhalkalaki, Georgia”, shows a crowd of people
surrounding an armoured vehicle on a snowy track. An officer
aboard a command and control vehicle addresses the people. Camera
shows the vehicle reversing, then a battered road sign saying
“Akhalkalaki”. Correspondent delivers her piece from in front of
the main entrance to the base, which is guarded by two soldiers at a
barrier. Another sequence shows a squad of troops marching at the base
and the same armoured vehicle seen before, as well as a land rover-type
vehicle. Snow-covered mountains are visible in the background. Another
shot shows news conference by Georgian ministers. There is a final
glimpse of a slogan about military reform at the base.]

HEARING “RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE” HELD IN LOS ANGELES
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 27 2006
Yerevan, April 27. /ARKA/. At its meeting, the Los Angeles Municipality
Council held a hearing “Recognition of the Armenian Genocide” on the
occasion of the 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
The hearting, which was organized on the initiative of the Municipality
Council and the USA-base Hay Dat Commission, was attended by members
of the Los Angeles Municipality Council, RA Consul General in Los
Angeles Gagik Kirakosyan and representatives of the Hay Dat office.
On April 24, services were held at all Armenian churches in Los
Angeles.
On April 23, in Montebello, California, USA, members of the US Senate
and of the Senate of California, officials, the RA Consul General
in Los Angeles and the leaders of the Armenian Church took part in
the arrangements.
The arrangement was conducted by Senator G. Speers and Director of
the Department of Armenian Studies, University of South California,
P. County.

SEN. TOLMAN: NO DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Sen. Steven Tolman/ Guest Column
Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
April 27 2006
For Armenian-Americans, April 24 is an important day: It was on that
date in 1915 that the Ottoman Turkish Empire began its slaughter
of Armenians. Over the next several years, more than a million
Armenians were murdered in a calculated campaign to rid Turkey of
all Armenians. In other words, the so-called Young Turk government
committed genocide against the Armenian people.
Among scholars and genocide experts, there is no doubt about this
issue. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (the
definitive group of scholars on the subject), the Institute on the
Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, and the Institute for the Study
of Genocide have repeatedly affirmed the historical facts of the
Armenian genocide, as has Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and Pulitzer
Prize winner Samantha Power.
For those who are relatives of survivors, there can be no doubt about
this crime. Yet, sometime in the next several weeks, a federal judge
in Boston will hear arguments in a suit brought by the Association
of Turkish American Assemblies and others that seeks introduce
materials into Massachusetts classrooms denying that the Armenian
genocide occurred.
How, after all these years, can this still be open to debate?
Because the Turkish government and its American affiliate continue
to deny that the Young Turks committed this grave crime. And they
continue to seek forums to push their denialist point of view.
Now they’re bringing this campaign to Massachusetts, home to one of
the largest Armenian populations in the nation. They claim that the
Massachusetts Department of Education trampled on the First Amendment
when it decided not to teach “the other side” of the Armenian genocide,
i.e., that the slaughter was just the unfortunate byproduct of civil
war between the Turks and the Armenians.
This claim, refuted by reputable genocide scholars, is an affront to
thousands of Armenian-Americans living here in Massachusetts whose
families were victims of the Turkish government’s murderous campaign.
And it is particularly offensive for people like 99-year-old John
Kasparian of Worcester and 93-year-old Armine Dedikian of Watertown,
two survivors of the slaughter.
For anyone interested in ascertaining the truth about this genocide,
they need merely to hear stories like Mr. Kasparian’s, whose family
left its home the night before the Turkish attack that took 200 of
their fellow villagers and whose brother died of starvation while the
family fled. Or that of Mrs. Dedikian, whose father was killed just
before she was born and who was separated from her mother soon after.
(Mother and daughter were eventually re-united when 15-year-old Armine
arrived alone at Ellis Island to meet her mother, whom she had tracked
down in the U.S., using newspaper ads and family connections.)
Unfortunately, the U.S. government, afraid to offend Turkey, its
military ally, has not taken a stand on this issue. But all 12 members
of our state’s congressional delegation – Senators Kennedy and Kerry
and the 10 representatives in the House – have signed a resolution
calling on the President to recognize the atrocity.
Now we in Massachusetts find ourselves being pulled backwards into this
debilitating debate over whether a genocide, long confirmed by victims
and historians, ever existed. It is even more than ironic that this
court case was filed in a year when genocide has once again reared
its ugly head in Darfur, where thousands have died at the hands of
the Sudanese army, and in a year when the Iranian president has once
again put Holocaust denials on the front page. As unfathomable as the
crime of genocide is, it continues to occur in all its savagery. And
as offensive as the official denials are, they also continue, not
only when the crimes occur but for years afterward.
In 1939, when announcing his decision to begin killing Polish men,
women and children, Hitler infamously uttered: “Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” He was counting
on the world to forget his atrocities, as he believed the world had
already forgotten the Turkish murders.
Fortunately, the world has not forgotten either the Nazi crimes or
the Turkish slaughter. But denialists continue to try to spread their
peculiar amnesia. We in Massachusetts, home to a significant Jewish
population and one of the largest Armenian-American populations in
the country, must never forget.
Submitted by state Sen. Steven Tolman, Rep. Rachel Kaprielian and
Rep. Peter Koutoujian.

WINCHESTER TEACHER AMONG THOSE URGING SEARCH FOR TRUTH
By Melody Hanatani/ Staff Writer
Lexington Winchester Star, MA
April 27 2006
A new coalition of diverse local ethnic groups kicked off an
anti-genocide campaign with a rally at the State House last Friday,
following the annual Armenian genocide anniversary commemoration.
The group, called kNOw Genocide, includes 10 organizations such as
Rwanda Outlook, the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, and the
Jewish Community Relations Council.
On his way from the ceremony to the rally, state Sen. Steven Tolman
talked about why the coalition was formed.
“Today is a reaction of a diverse group to the lawsuit about the
denial of the Turks that this [genocide] even happened,” he said,
referring to a lawsuit seeking to introduce materials denying the
genocide into the statewide curriculum.
In listing the genocides that have occurred over the past 100 years,
such as Armenia, Bosnia and Cambodia, U.S. Rep Edward Markey called
on President George W. Bush to recognize the genocides in Armenia
and Darfur.
“Don’t forget Palestine, Markey,” said one protester. “It’s been too
long for them too.”
The protester was later escorted farther down Beacon Street, where
he continued to yell at the speakers.
Attorney General Tom Reilly, a Watertown resident and gubernatorial
hopeful, said the pending case in Boston is not about limiting free
speech. He said the only way to find a more just and peaceful future
is to face the “ugly truth of our past.”
State Rep. Peter Koutoujian, D-Waltham, announced new “landmark”
legislation would be filed this week to force the state to divest from
any country where genocide occurs. He said the legislation would be
the first of its kind in the country, and hopes it will be a model
for other states.
Markey said earlier that the legislation would “ratchet up pressure
on the Bush administration to take a firmer stand in Darfur.”
According to some humanitarian groups, about 400,000 people have died
in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Belmont resident Heather Krafian, a teacher at Muraco Elementary School
in Winchester, is a granddaughter of Armenian genocide survivors. She
spoke about the importance of teaching about the genocide in the
schools.
She spoke out against the denial of the genocide, and said it has
become the modus operandi of the Turkish government. She said there
is no doubt among scholars and experts that the Armenian genocide
occurred.
“The thread of lies Turkey has woven for 91 years is slowly beginning
to unravel,” said Krafian. “The fabric of denial has become torn and
tattered. The truth will not be killed, but will prevail.”

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MARKED IN MONTEVIDEO
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
April 26 2006
Yerevan, April 26. /ARKA/. An arrangement marking the 91st anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide was held in Armenia Square, Montevideo,
Uruguay, on April 24, 2006.
The participants laid wreaths to the memorial “Armenian Genocide”.
Participating in the arrangement were Speaker of the country’s
Parliament Walter Kordeson, Minister of Territorial Administration
Mariano Aravan, and the Parliament member Lilian Keshishyan,
representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholic Church,
Evangelical Church, intellectuals and journalists.
Uruguay was the first country to recognize the Armenian Genocide in
1965.