BUSH DECLARES ARMENIAN MASSACRE ‘TRAGEDY’
ISN, Switzerland
April 26 2006
ISN SECURITY WATCH (Wednesday, 26 April 2006: 02.50 CET) – In a White
House announcement for the 91st anniversary of the 1915 massacre
of Armenians under Ottoman rule, US President George W. Bush has
described the event as a “tragedy” rather than “genocide”.
The Armenian diaspora in the US, which had demanded that Washington
declare the event a “genocide”, expressed severe disappointment over
Bush’s message.
More than one million Armenians died in massacres, camps, and death
marches through the Syrian Desert during 1915 when they were forced
to leave their homes. Turkey refutes these allegations and advocates
the deaths were caused by difficult road and weather conditions during
the migration.
Armenians say at least 1 million of their ethnic kin died between
1915-17 as a result of a deliberate policy of extermination. Ankara
claims the death toll is grossly inflated and that 300’000 Armenians
died during these years.

KURDS CULTURE ON VERGE OF EXTINCTION IN DEMOCRATIC TURKEY
By Hozan Kapri
Kurdish Media, UK
April 26 2006
Turkey, the only democracy in the Middle East, is the topic of this
paper. It has been said that “Ataturk secularized and modernized
Turkey”. The Attaturk’s so-called modernization and secularization has
caused the Kurdish people great suffering. Secularization, however,
does not mean democracy.
It has become a tradition for many people, especially in the Middle
East, to view secularism as democracy. Even Saddam Hussein viewed
his country as a social democratic country. So did the Shah of Iran.
Although these leaders were good for their own ethnic group, especially
Ataturk, their hands are stained red by Kurdish blood.
Ataturk modernized the Turkish language and switched it to the Latin
based alphabet. Yet he banned the Kurdish language and forced the
Kurds to speak Turkish.
Today many Turks as well as the Turkish government try to justify such
acts by saying things such as “We simple made the Turkish language
the official language of Turkey.” That’s hardly surprising.
Turks try to find a justification for everything, even if it is the
genocide and elimination of other cultures. While it’s a well-known
fact that the indigenous Armenians underwent a genocide and mass
exodus in the 1915, yet Turkey and Turks try to twist the story
and come up with whatever it can to try and present it to divert
attention from the genocide. Nothing change the historical fact that
Turks genocide Armenians.
The Turkish government has no shame in forcing Kurdish children
everyday to say “Happy is he who calls himself a Turk.” Turks love
to champion behind other Turkish-speaking people around the world,
such as Turkmen’s in Iraq and Turks in the Greek Thrace, such as
Kamran Inan, a Turkish sheikh.
One Turkish Internet site claims how Turks in the western Greek Thrace
are being discriminated against and that they can’t even study their
mother language. Well, if that is true, it’s unfortunate.
Nobody should be deprived of studying in their mother language. But
why are Turks and the Turkish government so sensitive when the more
than millions of Kurds of Northern Kurdistan (Turkey) demand for
the same right that Turks are demanding in Greece? Or you believe
that Kurds are less than Turks. Has any Turk ever stopped and asked
themselves why are the Kurds being deprived of the same right that
Turks are asking for themselves in other parts of the world? Or are
they going to stand by the famous Turkish saying “Herºey Turkiye icin”
which means everything only for Turkey or Turks.
What I have been seen over the years is many international cultural
festivals in Turkey. Cultural festival in Turkey! – That really
is an oxy moron. Turkey deprives Kurdish people of basic cultural
rights and yet host international cultural festivals. Turks speak of
“democratic rights for Turks”, but the only democratic rights that
Kurds get is the burning of their villages and internal displacement,
and banning Kurdish language and Kurdish history from schools.
Beautiful Kurdish folk songs are banned and have been since Ataturk
founded the ‘modern’ state of Turkey.
Yes, this is Turkish democracy.
Unfortunately democracy has been the most used and abused word in
the modern era. People kick it around like a soccer ball. It has a
different meaning everywhere you go. It is a word where people have
used it to gain more rights. It also has been a word which has been
used to trample the rights of many nations. The ill fortune Kurdish
nation has been one of them. They have been gassed and buried alive
by tens of thousands in Iraq under what Saddam called “Socialist
democracy.”
Kurds have been tortured and forced to assimilate in ‘democratic’
Turkey, and their culture and language almost on the verge of
extinction.
The Turks will gain a lot by meetings Kurdish demands. It will surely
decrease the violence that has plagued the Northern Kurdistan. Let’s
hope that the 21st century will give birth to a federal entity where
both Turks as well as Kurds live side by side, yet both free and
prosperous. No one can loose in such a peaceful environment. There
are many gains to be made.
–Boundary_(ID_5WSPvVaZat1wxix186mEEA)–

ARMENIAN NATIONAL HOCKEY TEAM PARTICIPATES IN EUROPEAN HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP

April 26 2006
The Armenian national hockey team is participating in the qualifying
phase of the European hockey championship. The participants of the
division III are Armenia, Iceland, Ireland, Luxemburg and Turkey.
The championship’s division III games are taking place from
24th to 29th of April 2006 in Reykjavík Iceland. Games are played on
the ice rink “Skautahollin í Laugardal”.
Armenian national team lost its first match to Turkey 3:8 and beat
the national team of Island 6:0 in the second match.
–Boundary_(ID_2bfmMMogQ3k5zBmTfTySgQ)–
From: Baghdasarian

LITHUANIA INTERESTED IN USING POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH ARMENIA BETTER – PRESIDENT
Baltic News Service
April 26, 2006 Wednesday 3:06 PM EET
VILNIUS Apr 26
During a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian
in Yerevan on Wednesday, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said
Lithuania was interested in using the possibilities of economic
cooperation with Armenia better.
According to a press release from the Lithuanian president’s press
service, it was noted at the meeting that bilateral political dialogue
between the countries was quite intensive and was taking place at
the highest level, but the potential of both countries in the field
of economic cooperation was not used.
The president said that Lithuania was ready to share its reform and
Euro-integration experience with Armenia. Adamkus invited Armenian
institutions and business representatives to cooperate with their
colleagues and experts from Lithuania more actively.
Adamkus expressed hope that the Lithuanian-Armenian intergovernmental
agreement on the promotion and protection of investments signed
during his visit would be one more factor that would facilitate
economic cooperation.

ZHIRINOVSKY RECRUITS PATRIOTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES
by Viktoria Sokolova
Translated by Elena Leonova
Source: Izvestia, April 26, 2006, p. 4
Agency WPS
What the Papers Say Part A (Russia)
April 26, 2006 Wednesday
Patriots from Armenia, Malaysia, Syria and other countries meet in
Moscow; LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky has hosted “the world’s
freest congress of free political parties.” The World Congress of
Patriotic Parties was a gathering of nationalist parties from Europe
and Asia. They condemned globalization and came up with a new slogan:
“Patriots of the world, unite!”
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of
Russia (LDPR), has marked his birthday by convening “the world’s
freest congress of free political parties.” The 3rd World Congress
of Patriotic Parties proved to be a gathering of nationalist parties
from Europe and Asia. They unanimously condemned globalization and
came up with a new slogan: “Patriots of the world, unite!”
“American-stlye globalization means the destruction of national ways
of life, languages, cultures, and history.” The congress resolution
was signed by patriots representing the National Mandate Party of
Indonesia, the Chinese Communist Party, the Progressive Socialist
Party of Lebanon, and the Syrian Social-Nationalist Party. The
congress proposed to establish a World Union of Patriotic Parties,
in which Russia, with its special geostrategic status, would play an
important role.
The patriots agreed that Yugoslavia has suffered most of all due to
globalization. Delegates listened with interest to a speech by the
guest of honor: Borislav Milosevic, brother of the former president.
Representatives of the Serbian Radical Party spoke out in defense of
the “murdered” Slobodan Milosevic and their party leader, Vojislav
Seselj, who has been detained in The Hague for some time. The Serbs
wore “Free Seselj” buttons and spoke out in defense of the election
in Belarus. Gordana Pop-Lazic, deputy party leader and deputy speaker
of the Serbian parliament, said: “The election of Lukashenko is the
first serious blow to globalization.”
Sergei Gaidukevich, one of Lukashenko’s opponents in the recent
election, shared his experience of surviving under pressure from
the United States: “Practically all the countries around our borders
joined forces… Huge sums of money were poured into dwarf political
parties.” Gaidukevich talked about techniques of battling for power
with the help of “drunk, drugged-out” young people, and exposed the
plans of the Americans: “Lithuania at the top, Belarus in the center,
Ukraine at the bottom, and the border is closed: Russia will share
a border with NATO.”
All the same, political asylum in Russia – a country that is “still
resisting global dominance,” according to Borislav Milosevic – was
requested by Daniel Fere from Belgium. Fere, leader of the Belgian
National Front, has been found guilty in Belgium of making xenophobic
statements and sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Participants in 3rd World Congress of Patriotic Parties
– Liberal Democratic Party of Azerbaijan
– Armenian Revolutionary Federation
– Republican Party of Armenia
– Liberal Democratic Party of Armenia
– National Democratic Union (Armenia)
– Liberal Democratic Party (Belarus)
– Belgian National Front
– National Mandate Party (Indonesia)
– Communist Party of China
– Progressive Socialist Party (Lebanon)
– United Malay National Organization (Malaysia)
– Civic Courage Republican Party (Mongolia)
– Fatherland Party (Mongolia)
– Serbian Radical Party
– Syrian Social-Nationalist Party
– Progressive Socialist Party (Ukraine)
– Constitutional Party (Estonia)
– Russian Party of Estonia
– Issuikai Party (Japan)

AZERBAIJAN RULES OUT HELP FOR US MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN
Agence France Presse — English
April 26, 2006 Wednesday 4:23 PM GMT
WASHINGTON, April 26 2006
Visiting Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday ruled out
his country taking part in any possible military operations against
neighboring Iran and said resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
with Armenia was a top priority for his government.
“Azerbajian will not be engaged in any kind of potential operation
against Iran and our officials in the past, including myself, have
made (this) very clear,” Aliyev told an audience at the Council on
Foreign Relations in Washington. “Therefore I think it is time to
stop speculating on this issue.”
Aliyev, whose official visit here is his first since his election to
succeed his father in October 2003, said his country has a bilateral
agreement with Tehran that clearly forbids either country from staging
aggression against the other from their respective territories.
His comments came ahead of a meeting with US President George W. Bush
on Friday during which the nuclear stand-off with Iran is expected
to be raised.
There has been speculation that Azerbaijan, which is strategically
located between Iran and Russia and which has troops alongside US
forces in Iraq as well as Afghanistan and Kosovo, could be asked by
Washington to back any potential military action against Iran should
diplomacy on the nuclear issue fail.
Aliyev, whose White House meeting with Bush has long been sought
by his government as a way to boost his stature, said he planned to
discuss a wide range of topics with US officials, including bilateral
relations, energy and security issues as well as the conflict in the
Nagorno-Karabakh region.
He said he hoped Washington would help revive the peace process in
Nagorno-Karabakh, which is a disputed part of Azerbaijani territory
that has been controlled since the early 1990s by its majority
ethnic-Armenian population.
Aliyev made clear that his country would not relinquish the territory
and said any settlement would have to guarantee the return of
Azerbaijani refugees to the region while protecting the rights of
the local ethnic Armenian population.
“I think it’s time for the Armenian leadership to behave like
statesemen, to think what will happen in five or 10 years if the
conflict is not resolved,” he said. “The patience of the Azerbaijani
people has a limit.
“We are demanding Armenia return peacefully the land that belongs
to us.”
The 44-year-old leader also brushed aside criticism concerning his
autocratic rule and flawed parliamentary elections in November saying
that he saw no chance of any “colour” revolution in Azerbaijan.
“For that to happen, people have to be unhappy with the government,”
he said, pointing to the country’s economic prosperity.
US officials, who have been criticised for inviting Aliyev to
Washington in light of the administration’s much-touted democracy
agenda, said democratic reforms would top the agenda during the visit.
“We have said, and we mean it, that to elevate our relationship
with Azerbaijan to a qualitatively new level (…) there needs to
be sustained progress on democracy,” Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said.
The US administration is keenly interested in energy-rich Azerbaijan
as a way to offset dependence on Russia by European markets. The
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which is expected to become
operational soon, is designed to avoid shipping oil through congested
Turkish straits while also bypassing Russia’s pipeline network.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT MAIN PROBLEM FOR AZERBAIJAN -ALIYEV
by Andrei Sitov
ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 26, 2006 Wednesday 03:45 PM EST
Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said the conflict with Armenia
in Nagorno-Karabakh was the main problem for his country.
Speaking at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations during
his first official visit to the United States on Wednesday, Aliyev said
the current talks on Nagorno-Karabakh would “create opportunities for
just and lasting peace based on the principles of international law.”
“We hope that the United States, as a super power and a co-chairman
of the OSCE Minsk Group, will help to resolve the conflict,” he said.
He believes it should be a peaceful settlement achieved through
negotiations and based on international law.
“Territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has been recognised by the U.N.
and all countries of the world, except Armenia,” Aliyev said.
U.S. co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Steve Mann told Itar-Tass
that he would travel to Moscow next week for a new meeting with
his colleagues.
He appears to be quite optimistic and thinks that an effective basis
for a compromise has been found.
Mann believes it important to give up attempts to try to solve all
problems once and for all. Instead the opposite approach has been
chosen: moving gradually step by step and leaving some of the complex
issues to be addressed in the future.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMEMBERED THROUGH ART
Gabriela Gonzalez
Daily Sundial, CA
California State University at Northridge
April 26 2006
Photo: Levon Parian, CSUN art instructor and student, is part of
a project to record the remembrances of survivors of the Armenian
Genocide.
A documentary exhibition of the film “i witness” which shows portraits
and oral stories of survivors from the Armenian Genocide from 1915
to 1923, is a photographic project directed to provide programs that
will show educators and teachers how to teach facts about the Armenian
Genocide in schools.
The exhibit is part of the Armenian Genocide Project, which was
designed to give the public an idea of what the genocide was like
and an idea about the lifestyles of many Armenians back then, said
CSUN art Professor Levon Parian, who worked in collaboration with
Ara Oshagan, a freelance photographer.
Oshagan started the project in 1995 after being inspired by a
commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, organized by 80 genocide
survivors who brought it to their community.
“I was very moved to see (the event),” Oshagan said. “There were the
last set of survivors. This is the time to take photos, I have to do
the project right now.”
Oshagan started the project first, and in 1996 he met Parian who also
had similar ideas. This was the beginning of the project when they
started to combine their ideas, Parian said.
There were other reasons to do this project, Parian said. He said
they wanted to record the survivors’ information for history because
the Turkish government keeps the Armenian genocide was genocide,
and said it was a war.
“We lost family members, we carried the memory of the genocide but
it still very much really (affects) our lives,” Oshagan said.
He felt needed to tell their story with art.
“Armenians never had their story told,” Oshagan said. “We realized
that there were witnesses (still able) to tell their history.”
They witnessed the genocide with their own eyes, Parian said.
Parian said he always wanted to use his photographic experience to
show that the Armenian Genocide did happen.
Organizing the project was Oshagan’s responsibility. Parian’s
responsibility was visual interpretation.
Oshagan said about 100 survivors have participated in the project
since 1995.
Parian said the witnesses had mixed reviews after seeing portraits
of themselves. The witnesses had hoped to look good but the photos
focused on the their faces and hands to show their aging and stress
they had gone through.
“The hands say as much about a person as a face,” Parian said. “The
identity of a person is revealed by their eyes and their hands. You
can tell a lot about a person by their hands, especially the gestures
of their hands.”
The Armenian Genocide was part of him, Parian said. He grew up
listening to family stories about how they had survived the genocide.
“My father lived in Urfa, a community in Armenia and he helped 4,000
Armenians to cross the desert to get away from the genocide,” Parian
said. “Then he went back and found orphans and brought hundreds to
orphanages to (what) at that time was Syria,”
Parian’s wife’s grandmother, Kristine Hagopian, was the only family
member who participated in the project.
Hagopian was 9 years old when she witnessed many atrocities: her
friend was raped by Turks after being raped in the bushes and later
shot in front of her. Maro Parian said her father was raped by Turk
soldiers in front of her and her family.
“For many years she would tell her story, (but) every time she would
come to a point where she would (have to) stop and not go any further,”
Maro Parian said.
Hagopian was happy with the genocide project, although it was hard
to tell her story. She was happy that the stories were not going to
be lost and their stories were going to be told, Maro Parian said. It
was a sense of satisfaction for Hagopian.
“She would see pictures and turned her face away” Maro said. “(She)
experienced her pain (all over again).”
“The stories are shocking,” Parian said, as he told of how Sam Kadorian
survived the genocide.
Kadorian survived by pretending he was dead when he was thrown on the
floor in a pile of death bodies of boys between the ages of five to 10.
As they began with the first exhibition in 1996, more witnesses kept
coming to the exhibitions, more survivors wanted to tell their stories,
Parian said.
The exhibition has been showed at UCLA, and a few parts have been
showed at CSUN.
But there is a possibility to exhibit the whole project at CSUN,
Parian said.
Some survivors had blocked out their memories about the genocide
while others spoke freely, he said.
“i witness” was first displayed to the public Los Angeles city hall in
1997 at the Del Rio Bridge Gallery. Since then, it has been exhibited
in major state capital buildings and museums and the Capitol building
in Washington, D.C.
The exhibition is on display for the second time in Los Angeles City
Hall. It is on display through the month of April in Los Angeles City
Hall as part of the Armenian Genocide Project.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EMIGRATION
By Turker Alkan
Turkish Press
April 26 2006
RADIKAL- Almost everybody I met in Armenia has a relation with
Anatolia. I heard such words from many Armenians: ‘My grandfather
was from Kayseri’ or ‘My mother was from Sivas.’ Another April 24 has
come and gone. Armenians held demonstrations which showed that they
hadn’t forgotten their sorrow and which were against Turks. Nothing
has changed. They insist that we confess and accept that we committed
a genocide against them. The Turkish side is suspicious and asks,
‘If we were to accept the genocide now, would there be other demands
tomorrow?’ When the issue is brought up, we discuss the legal meaning
of the term ‘genocide’ and say, ‘No, this wasn’t genocide.’ Even if
we don’t justify ourselves, we have certain explanations to excuse
ourselves: ‘A mutual massacre happened in 1915, and the Armenians
started it as supported by Russians.’ All this is true to a great
extent, but Turks suffered greatly during the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire as well. Millions of Turks who had to escape from Crete, Western
Thrace, Pristina, Greece and Bulgaria were killed and they suffered
pain and hunger. The world looked on and did nothing. After all, we
were Muslims. We even forgot it. Almost everybody who is close to me
(including my family) has emigration stories, which carry the traces
of blood and tears. However, we forgot them a long time ago. We’re
forgetting them rapidly as well.
However, all these things neither justify, nor excuse the sad incidents
which were experienced with the Armenian emigration. Even if calling
this ’emigration’ instead of ‘genocide’ has a legal meaning, it
doesn’t change anything in terms of conscience.
Journalist Murat Bardakci has been writing for a few days about the
sad incidents that the Armenians suffered. Whatever you call them,
these incidents are shameful. Some 141,000 Armenians were living in
Sivas in 1914, but after 1915 there were only 8,100. Nearly 472,000
Armenians in Erzurum, Bitlis, Van, Diyarbakir, Trabzon and Elaizg
were exiled to other places. Even if those who took this decision to
exile them had no intention of killing or destroying the Armenians,
the result which emerged was this.
It’s very natural for states to develop a thesis and determine
a stance to benefit themselves. It seems Turkey and Armenia won’t
change their ideas anytime soon. However, the important thing was the
people who suffered and who were killed. Not the states, but academics,
historians and artists can put forth this dimension of the issue. They
have great duties, and individual efforts can create an atmosphere
which can change the stance of states. Fortunately, Mr. Bardakci
tried to do this.

SOME IN GEORGIA PROTEST AGAINST CLOSURE OF RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS Military Newswire
April 26, 2006 Wednesday 4:50 PM MSK
Several dozen ethnic Armenians living in Georgia’s Akhalkalaki district
blocked off a road on Wednesday, holding up Russian military vehicles
heading for neighboring Armenia, in protest against the planned closure
of the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki, Georgian media said.
Many of the local people work at the base and fear that its closure
will leave them jobless.