Today, Azerbaijan
April 22 2006
Brenda Shaffer: “It is highly unlikely that Iran may provide
Azerbaijan with any assistance in its conflict with Armenia”

22 April 2006 [16:49] – Today.Az

The director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University
Brenda Shaffer says there was a specific objective behind the recent
visit to Baku by Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Muhammad Najjar.

“The Iranians are interested in showing to the world that they have
good relations with neighbors because in the event of [US] sanctions
or military hostilities, the reaction of Iran’s neighbors will have
to be reckoned with. This, however, does not mean that the Iranian
minister has been putting any pressure on Azerbaijan,” Shaffer said.
With regard to the possibility that Azerbaijan may broker a
US-Iranian dialogue, Shaffer said it was possible, albeit not
necessary.
“The point is that Iran already has such relations with Russia and
Europe and there is no need for yet another mediator,” she said.
She said it was highly unlikely that Iran might provide Azerbaijan
with any assistance in its conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno
Karabakh.
“Iran has forged good ties with Armenia and Karabakh. When I was in
Karabakh, I saw a great number of Iranian cars there. Obviously, this
being the case, Iran would not be able to provide any assistance to
Azerbaijan,” Shaffer said.
As far as President Ilham Aliyev’s upcoming visit to the US is
concerned, the researcher said it was a major success of the
Azerbaijani diplomacy. She said it showed the geo-strategic
importance Azerbaijan represents to the USA, AssA-Irada informs.
“In the event of economic sanctions against Iran, Azerbaijan’s
borders will represent special importance to the West. Obviously the
issue will be discussed by Presidents Ilham Aliyev and George Bush.
Under such circumstances, Aliyev may well say to his US counterpart
that while Azerbaijan is actively cooperating with the West in such
important issues, Baku was also in need of the West’s cooperation in
resolving the Garabagh conflict. This meeting could produce tangible
results,” Shaffer said.
URL:

Today, Azerbaijan
April 22 2006
Elmar Mammdayarov: “It is difficult to expect any new offers on the
NK conflict in Washington”

22 April 2006 [16:30] – Today.Az

New proposals are unlikely to be heard during Washington’s
discussions on resolution of Armenian-Azeri conflict.

“Positions of Azerbaijan on which we were standing on last 15 years
remain the same. We always stated and keep stating that the problem
shall be resolved in compliance with the international law and
resolutions issued by UN Security Council and OSCE. There is no doubt
that if we want to resolve the conflict once and for all, the
resolution shall be based on legislation alone. Arbitrators are
trying to find contact points to get us closer,” Trend reports
quoting Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, who was speaking in
Moscow commenting the forthcoming official visit of Azeri President
to the USA.
Speaking on self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh population,
Mamedyarov said it didn’t imply any breach of territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan. “Self-determination of nation or a national minority
is performed under the territorial integrity, and Azerbaijan, in
turn, is eager to provide the highest level of autonomy to Armenian
minority within Nagorno Karabakh. This practice is well-known and is
utilized worldwide,” Foreign Minister said.
Mammadyarov said also of a broad range of issues regarding mutual
cooperation, as well as international and regional development, to be
spoken of during the forthcoming visit of Azeri president Ilham
Aliyev to the USA. The minister said one of the main topics would be
conflict resolution on Caucasus. During the visit presidents will
also speak of power security, fight against international terrorism
and Azerbaijan’s participation in anti-terrorist coalition.

URL:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Thursday, April 20, 2006
**********************************
CHOBANIAN
**********************
When Arshak Chobanian, a foremost writer of the last century, visited Beirut, Antranik Zaroukian writes in his memoirs, one of his first questions to friends was: “Where do we stand with our struggle against the Tashnaks?”
*
DIVIDE AND RULE
****************************
Zaroukian discusses and dissects many struggles, almost all of them internecine. Another proof of the fact that we have accepted the divide-and-rule tactic of our oppressors as if it were a fait accompli imposed on us by force majeure.
*
ANSWERS AND QUESTIONS
**************************************
We either agree with someone else’s answers or we ask questions of our own. If we choose someone else’s answers, let us at least make sure that his secret agenda does not conflict with our own.
*
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
***********************************
We are better at making enemies than friends. It has happened to me more than once that in my efforts to make a friend, I have succeeded only in making an enemy.
*
A BIG LIE
**********************
In a contest between a pleasant lie and an unpleasant truth, the lie will always win. Ideology is theology is one of those pleasant lies that have poisoned and Talibanized our collective existence.
*
PHILOSOPHERS AND CAPITALISTS
********************************************
He who hires and fires knows better than he who is hired and fired. It follows a benefactor is wiser than a philosopher. All a philosopher does is deal in “philosophical gobbledygook,” whereas a benefactor deals in dollars. Only an idiot would refuse to see the uselessness of the philosopher and the necessity of the benefactor. Conclusion: philosophers are idiots, benefactors lovers of wisdom (which is what “philosopher” means in Greek – a lover of wisdom).
#
Friday, April 21, 2006
*********************************
CONTRADICTIONS
********************************
During the Soviet era, Armenians of the Diaspora were divided into those who supported the Homeland on the grounds that the regime was only an ephemeral phase, and those who declared it was our inalienable right and patriotic duty to resist tyranny. Two questions that were avoided and continue to be avoided today: Does supporting the Homeland also mean covering up or ignoring its abuses of power and crimes against humanity? Does resisting tyranny justify violating the fundamental human right of free speech of all dissenters?
*
UNSPOKEN MOTTOS
******************************
Better a dishonest somebody than an honest nobody.
*
Better a fat idiot than a hungry philosopher.
*
MORONS AND OXYMORONS
*************************************************************************
An honest politician.
A tolerant partisan.
A pious bishop.
A humble benefactor.
A selfless academic.
*
QUESTION
************************
Have I ever said anything you did not already know or suspect?
*
MAXIM
****************
The easiest way to expose one’s ignorance is by pretending to know more than one does.
*
MEMO
****************
In my formative years the man whose judgment I respected the most was a Stalinist. Moral: Trust no one so completely as to paralyze your own judgment.
#
Saturday, April 22, 2006
**************************************
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
*****************************************
A dupe is one who thinks it is his patriotic duty to believe what his elders tell him. Millions were deceived because they thought Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao knew better. Many others believed in the slogan “Mussolini ha sempre ragione” (Mussolini is always right). What is even more astonishing is that among these countless faceless and anonymous mobs were also some of the most intelligent men of the last century – H.G. Wells, Shaw, Heidegger, Knut Hamsun, Gide, Koestler, Silone, Sartre… Never say therefore for whom the bell tolls.
*
CONFESSION
***********************
I have committed my share of transgression, probably many more than I should have. But I have never felt the need to legitimize my intolerance by joining a political party. If I hate a fellow Armenian to the point of wishing him dead, I do so on purely personal grounds without feeling the need of a boss to convince me that by hating him I am discharging my patriotic duty. If I hate Ottomanized and Sovietized Armenians it’s because I see traces of both in myself.
*
MASSACRISM
***************************
A man who is obsessed with the past cannot ask himself, Where am I? Where am I going? Where will I be tomorrow or next year? Remembering our victims, yes; letting them turn us into pillars of salt, no!
#

Memories must live on for Armenian genocide victims
by ART TONOYAN, guest columnist
Baylor University The Lariat Online, Texas
April 20 2006
April 24 marks the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide in the
Ottoman Empire — the first genocide of the 20th century, which has
come to be described as the “century of genocide.”
Some 90 years ago, the ruling elites of the Ottoman Empire put into
motion a plan to homogenize their empire and thus save it from imminent
collapse due to a number of internal as well as external factors like
economic mismanagement and resurgent nationalisms among the empire’s
subject ethnic minorities.
A nationalist and a racialist ideology known as Turkism was adopted,
which while elevating the Turkish ethnos, defined the subject
nationalities as malicious and cancerous entities actively contributing
to the demise of the empire.
This ideology subsequently provided grounds for the establishment
of a distinctively Turkish national economy, effectively putting an
end to the traditional multiethnic mercantile strata of the empire
composed mainly of Armenians, Jews and Greeks.
One of the folk sayings circulating around at the time went something
like “Trust a snake before a Jew; trust a Jew before a Greek; but
never trust an Armenian.” Their stories were boycotted in a load of
cases, and in many other cases their businesses were increasingly
becoming subject to frenzied mob attacks and looting. Yet this was
only the beginning.
Armenians, who had gained prominence in the empire over the centuries,
not the least because of their fiscal competence, became increasingly
vulnerable to this kind of harassment.
It did not help them that they were religiously and geographically
in close proximity to their Russian neighbors to the north with whom
the Ottoman Empire was in a state of war.
In response to the increasing discrimination and violence against them,
the Armenian minority began agitating for the betterment of their
condition. The response from the government was swift, calculated
and cruel.
Rendering the Armenians economically defenseless was only part of
the plan.
Now they were defenseless existentially.
The European powers as well as the U.S. did not intervene on their
behalf in any significant fashion that went beyond condemnatory,
if symbolic, enjoinments.
And on April 24, 1915, nearly all Armenian intellectuals in the empire
were arrested and executed without a trial.
After the bulk of the Armenian leadership was put to death and the
viability of resistance was reduced to nil, the Ottoman government
under the guise of World War I began systematic deportations and
massacres of the Christian Armenians en masse.
Armenian villages and churches were burned down, and a large number
of women and children were killed with indescribable cruelty. Over
the course of three years, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians became
victims of indiscriminate massacres.
Their crime? Their distinct national and religious identity.
Despite the enormity of the atrocities and the cruelty wrought upon
the victims, virtually all of the perpetrators were spared punishment.
As time went on, political expediency coupled with business interests
in the newly formed Turkish Republic would make sure that the victims
and their plight would be remembered no more. But as it turned out,
not everybody was as forgetful.
In 1939, having the benefit of historical hindsight, Adolph Hitler —
while planning genocide of his own against the Jews and the Poles —
urged on his generals, who may have displayed reservation at this
plans, to carry them out nonetheless by saying: “What the weak western
European civilization thinks about me does not matter. Thus for the
time being I have sent to the East only my ‘Death Head Units’ with
the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children
of the Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the
living space we need. Who still talks nowadays of the annihilation
of the Armenians?”
Czech novelist Milan Kundera had once remarked that “the struggle
against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
It has become human, all too human, to hit the imaginary delete button
and send tragic events like the Armenian genocide, the Jewish Holocaust
and countless others into the Orwellian “memory hole.”
In the case of the victimized Armenians, Jews, Rwandans and others,
it may be too late to be our brothers’ keepers.
Yet in keeping their memories alive we may very well keep ourselves
alive in an age of insanity and endless amusement.
And let us never forget that genocide is ours to commit and ours
to prevent.
Art Tonoyan is a doctoral candidate in the J. M. Dawson Institute
for Church-State Studies.
tion=story&story=40334
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenia supports Karabakh’s right to self-determination
Interfax-Religion, Russia
April 20 2006
YEREVAN. April 20 (Interfax) – Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian said that Yerevan is ready to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh
settlement with Baku, should the Azerbaijani authorities recognize
the right of the breakaway republic to self-determination.
“Armenia is ready to discuss all issues linked to overcoming the
consequences of war with Azerbaijan, should Baku recognize Karabakh’s
right to self-determination and should Baku not impede Karabakh
residents to define the status of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the minister
said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Our stance is that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh should decide for
themselves on the status they need,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
April 20 2006
Generations after genocide
By Melody Hanatani/ Staff Writer
Thursday, April 20, 2006
When Belmont resident Lois Malconian had twins, she thought it was odd.
She asked her father, “How could this happen? It’s not in our
family.” Her father replied that his grandmother had three sets of
twins, all of whom were killed in the Armenian genocide.
As the 91st anniversary of the genocide approaches, Malconian,
a third-generation Armenian-American, is commemorating the tragedy
with her family and her community this week.
She remembers growing up in Belmont hearing stories about the genocide
from her grandparents who immigrated to the United States in the
1920s when they were still children.
She and her husband Ron, whose grandparents also came to the United
States around the 1920s, have passed on the stories to their own
three children.
Ron Malconian recalls how his grandmother refused to cut her
hair because women shaved their heads during the genocide to look
unattractive in order to avoid rape.
“To her it was something precious,” he said.
Lois recalled how her grandmother would become angry and cry when
she talked about the genocide.
“Your great-grandparents went through a lot,” Lois has told her
children.
As a 10-year-old, Lois would hear emotional stories about the genocide
from her grandmother. Lois’ children say their learning experience
was less emotional.
Vicky Tomasian, a first-generation Armenian-American whose parents
both survived the genocide, said it was difficult for the immigrants
to talk about their experiences.
Tomasian, who grew up in Watertown and now lives in Belmont, said the
younger generation of Armenian-Americans seem to be more knowledgeable
about the genocide because there are more books and articles published
about the subject.
“So much has happened in the last 30 years,” she said. “I know more
now than I did growing up.”
Staying together
Many Armenian immigrants arrived in Watertown around the early 1900s
and began working at the former Hood rubber plant, according to Marc
A. Mamigonian, director of programs and publications at the National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research, located in Belmont.
“Like any other [ethnic] community, others tend to follow,” he said.
There are numerous Armenian churches in Cambridge, Watertown and
Belmont. Though religion helps bring the community together, Mamigonian
said it also serves as a divider because of the different denominations
within the Armenian community. The main one is the Armenian Apostolic
Church, he said.
Tomasian said family and religion are important to the Armenian
community in and around Belmont.
She stays connected to her culture through her church, and through
the Armenian Women’s Educational Club, which was co-founded by her
grandmother who immigrated to the United States more than 80 years
ago. Tomasian is the president of the club today, and her mother also
once headed the organization.
The club awards about four college scholarships each year to
Armenian-American high school seniors from Metropolitan Boston.
External factors also unite the ethnic group.
According to Mamigonian, the current Turkish government’s denial of
the Armenian genocide has helped unify the local Armenian-American
community.
“That is certainly something that holds the community together,”
he said. “Whether that is a good thing or not is a different story.”
Generational divide
Lois and Ron Malconian have never been to Armenia, but their eldest
daughter, Sarah, visited in 2004 as part of the Cambridge-Yerevan
Sister City Secondary School Partnership Program, an exchange program
to promote democracy, which brings high school students from Belmont
and surrounding communities to Armenia each year.
Now a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
Sarah said she sensed a cultural rift between herself and the native
Armenians during her stay.
She said she was chastised because she could not speak Armenian.
Sarah said she definitely values her camaraderie with her fellow
Armenians and Armenian-Americans.
“A big part of being Armenian is keeping the Armenian bond alive,”
she said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Today, Azerbaijan
April 20 2006
Nagorno Karabakh issue to be discussed at PACE’s summer session
20 April 2006 [19:18] – Today.Az
Nagorno Karabakh issue may be discussed at summer session of PACE,
said MP Eldar Ibrahimov, member of Azeri delegation to PACE.
PACE’s summer session will be held in Brussels on July 3 through 7.
MP said the delegation aims at putting on agenda the issue on
recognition of Armenia as an occupier country by OSCE.
“Still, we don’t have an idea on issues to be discussed at summer
session,” Mr Ibrahimov said.
Representatives of parliaments of 2-3 states shall sign up to put
this issue on agenda of summer session of PACE.
Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Central Asian countries are
going to support Azerbaijan’s cause.
“Last year we tried to raise Nagorno Karabakh issue at session in
Washington, but failed. Goran Lenmarker, PACE~R’ speaker on Nagorno
Karabakh, was also unwilling to raise this issue. This time we will
succeed,” Mr Ibrahimov told Trend.
URL:

BÝA, Turkey
April 20 2006
Endless Trials of Publisher Zarakolu
Belge Publications House owner Ragýp Zarakolu was once again at court
this week, this time on trial for Prof. Dr. Sakayan’s book “Accounts
of an Armenian Doctor” and Jerjian’s “The Truth Will Set Us Free”.
Publisher faces 13.5 years jail if found guilty f
BIA News Center
20/04/2006 Erol ONDEROGLU
BÝA (Istanbul) – In addition to a number of cases launched against him
over the past years for his publishing activities, Belge Publications
owner and journalist Ragýp Zarakolu now faces up to 13.5 years
imprisonment if found guilty for printing and distributing the Turkish
translations of two books related to Armenians in Turkey.
Zarakolu appeared in court once again this week, this time on trial
for the Turkish language publication of Prof. Dr. Dora Sakayan’s book
“Garabed Hacheryan’s Izmir Journal: An Armenian Doctor’s Experiences
” and George Jerjian’s ” The Truth Will Set Us Free: Armenians and
Turks Reconciled”.
The prosecution demands 7.5 years imprisonment for the Turkish
translation book “The Truth Will Set Us Free” for which the court
has assigned Korkmaz Alemdar and Cafer Yenidogan of the Galatasaray
University and Prof. Dr. Emin Artuk of Marmara University as expert
witnesses. They are to read and analyse the book for an expert report.
“Garabed Hacheryan’s Izmir Journal: An Armenian Doctor’s Experiences”
promises Zarakolu up to 6 years imprisonment if he found guilty of the
charges but the court decided this week that statements taken were
fulfilling and an additional expert witness report was not required
for this publication.
Zarakolu: Court should interview author Sakaryan
Appearing before Istanbul’s number 2 Court of First Instance on
Wednesday and defended by attorney Osman Ergin, Zarakolu submitted
a petition to the bench where he explained that author Sakaryan was
a lecturer at the Mc Gill University in Canada and that his book put
on trial in Turkey had been translated into nine different languages.
Zarakolu said Sakaryan had been honours by the German Presidency for
his eminent services in recognition to 50 years of his contributions
to the German language.
He said that Sakaryan was author of the most comprehensive work on
the “Western Armenian” spoken in Turkey and requested the court to
interview the author for his views.
Judge Sevim Efendiler adjourned the case until June 21.
Charges based on controversial articles
Zarakolu faces 6 years imprisonment for the Turkish translation
publication of Sakaryan’s book on grounds that he violated the law
by publishing context that “degraded Turkisism” and “insulted and
ridiculed the Army”.
He faces 7.5 years imprisonment for Jerjian’s book on charges of
“insulting and ridiculing the State and Republic” as well as “Insulting
the memory of Ataturk”.
The two consecutive hearings on Wednesday were held in the presence
of International PEN representative Eugene Schoulgin, International
Human Rights Federation (FÝDH) deputy chairman Akýn Birdal, Pencere
publications executive Muzaffer Erdogdu, Aram publications editor
Fatih Tas and author Oner Eyuboglu who attended the court in support
of Zarakolu. (EO/II
–Boundary_(ID_wZwUYUpNtOv7wB+vaOs2iw)–

Today, Azerbaijan
April 20 2006
Tahir Tagizadeh: “Armenian FM’s statement shows commitment to
dialogue”
20 April 2006 [18:59] – Today.Az
Foreign Ministry’s reaction on Mr Oskanian’s statements.
The latest statements from Armenian Foreign Minister V.Oskanian are
constructive and show the commitment to the peaceful conversation
process, Trend reports quoting Tahir Tagizadeh, head of information
and press, Azeri Foreign Ministry.
“Armenia is ready to discuss all issues linked to overcoming the
consequences of war with Azerbaijan, should Baku recognize Karabakh’s
right to self-determination,” Mr Oskanian said on April.
And two days back he said the following: “In case Azerbaijan agrees
that Nagorno Karabakh’s people have the right for self-determination
that may be embodied not today, but in the future, Armenian side is
ready to discuss the most important war issues today – territories,
refugees and others.”
“This statement shows Armenians’ intention to actively participate
in peace conversations on resolution of Armenian-Azeri conflict,”
said Mr Tagizadeh.
“This statement is de facto the evidence of commitment to
stage-by-stage resolution. It is known that stage-by-stage process
stipulates Armenian forces withdrawal from grounds surrounding
Nagorno Karabakh. It also includes a mass of accompanying elements
like landmines clearing, communications recovery, return of IDPs
and ensuring their safety. And second issue is definition of Nagorno
Karabakh’s status.”
As to self-determination, Tagizadeh said, it is quite possible even
within the state. “This is the very highest autonomy status we are
talking about,” he concluded.
Mr Tagizadeh also shared an opinion on Oskanian’s statement regarding
Armenia’s joining Trans-Caspian gas pipeline and supposed conversations
with the USA.
“Armenia may not talk to the USA alone for a number of reasons. One of
them is that no regional project is executed without Azerbaijan either
as an exporter or a transit country. We may consider cooperation with
Armenia possible only upon completion of resolution and elimination
of its consequences,” Azeri official underlined.
URL:

TREND Info, Azerbaijan
April 20 2006
Report on Nagorno-Karabakh by Goran Lenmarker will be revised and
amended – MP Eldar Ibrahimov
Source: “Trend”
Author: J. Shakhverdiyev
20.04.2006
The report on Nagorno-Karabakh drawn by Goran Lenmarker, PACE’s
speaker, is revised and amended, trend reports quoting MP Eldar
Ibrahimov, members of Azeri delegation to PACE .
Lenmarker’s report on Nagorno-Karabakh will be revised due to its
failure to satisfy Azeri side. In this respect Lenmarker is soon
visiting Baku.
Ibrahimov said also he was unaware of meetings Lenmarker had had with
Armenian deputies during his visit to Armenia. “We also have no idea
on revisions in his report. We are going to learn that from Lenmarker
himself while in Baku”, – he said.
Ibrahimov claimed the speaker was supposed to visit Baku in October
2005. His visit was postponed due to November’s parliamentary
elections. “He gave a word he would arrive in Azerbaijan in March.
For some reason he didn’t. Then he said he would come in April but
didn’t. And now he says he will arrive in May”, – deputy said.
Lenmarker is arriving in Baku on May 5.