ARMENIAN FM: “US PLANS TO BUILD NUCLEAR PLANT IN ARMENIA”
Today, Azerbaijan
April 19 2006
Vardan Oskanyan, Foreign Minister of Armenia, reportedly said: “Today
Americans are almost eager to build a new nuclear plant in Armenia.”
As Trend reports, in his interview published today Oskanyan said “there
was a time when they (Americans) didn’t even want to hear of it.”
“The USA is concerned in this issue, the US government discusses it
and, I suggest, we have a chance to replace our old nuclear plant
with a new one,” Minister said.
“As far as I know, the USA are going to solve regional problems through
constructing this new plant and thus are seriously thinking it over,”
Oskanyan added.
URL:

ARMENIA HAS SET THE GOAL TO JOIN TRANS-CASPIAN GAS PIPELINE AND ALREADY STARTED SERIOUS CONVERSATIONS WITH THE USA (VARDAN OSKANYAN)
Caucaz, Georgia
April 19 2006
Yerevan, 19 April 2006 (Trend.az- website) – Vardan Oskanyan, Armenian
Foreign Minister, said “Armenia has set the goal to join Trans-Caspian
gas pipeline and already started serious conversations with the USA.”
Trend reports with reference to Mediamaz agency that in his interview
published today in Armenian Aykakan Zhamanak, Oskanyan said the goal
of Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is “supply of gas from Central Asian
countries and Azerbaijan to Europe through our region”. “Standard
bearers in this program are the USA and the EU”, – minister said.
“In the event of the project execution Armenia will possess three
gas supply sources – from Russia, Iran and Central Asia”,- Oskanyan
stressed.
Alongside, the minister opined that sale of 5 power block at Razdan
head power plant to Russia would not adversely influence Armenian
policy in respect of power sources diversification.
“These facilities are located in Armenia and the owner is unable to
take them away. Moreover, these facilities are privatized or handed
over at very strict terms”, – Oskanyan said.

AZERBAIJANI LEADER TO MEET BUSH ON IRAN N-CRISIS
IranMania, Iran
April 19 2006
LONDON, April 19 (IranMania) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will
hold talks next week at the White House with US President George W
Bush on the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program and other strategic
issues in the Caspian region, officials said Tuesday, according to AFP.
The Azerbaijani leader will travel to Washington on Tuesday for an
official visit Wednesday and Thursday, presidential spokesman Tair
Tagizade said.
Aliyev will also meet other US officials to discuss issues including
Iran, construction of oil and gas pipelines through Azerbaijan and
steps toward resolving Azerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia over the
enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, a diplomatic source in the president’s
office told AFP.
The oil-rich former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan sits on the northern
border of Iran and is seen as a potential staging post for a military
attack on the Islamic republic.
In addition to its interest in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas resources,
the United States has quietly provided military assistance to the
country in the form of upgrading naval vessels, training personnel
and building two powerful radar stations there.
US officials have said the assistance is not unusual and comes under
the heading of friendly bilateral US-Azerbaijani ties. Russia however
has kept a wary eye on the evolution of the US presence in Azerbaijan
and officials occasionally cite it as a source of regional tension.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani authorities announced that Iranian Defense
Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najar was scheduled to travel to Baku on
Wednesday for a three day visit.
The Iranian minister was due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani
counterpart, Safar Abiyev, and other officials, a defense ministry
spokesman said. No agreements were expected to be signed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FAREED ZAKARIA’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE PRGM: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Source: EurasiaNet.org
Foreign Exchange
April 14 2006
Show 215 Transcript – April 14, 2006
Americans are talking about immigration; we’ll get the international
perspective.
Hundreds of thousands died–was it genocide? Armenia says yes,
Turkey says no; we’ll take a look at a new film that tries to answer
the question.
And finally, will AIDS derail India’s economic future?
All this and more on Foreign Exchange…
[parts omitted]
In Focus: Genocide?
Fareed Zakaria: The word genocide did not exist until World War II
when it was used to describe Nazi atrocities toward the Jews. But
can something that took place well before the Nazis in a different
historical context still be called a genocide? For Armenia and Turkey
use of the word has been a source of deep debate. Historians have
established that hundreds of thousands of Armenians died due to
Turkey’s actions in the events during World War I; however Turkish
officials strongly reject the assertion that this was a genocide.
They argue that it was a tragedy of war in a war with many such
tragedies. A new film explores this complex history. Tune into PBS
stations this week to see more and now here’s a clip.
Speaker: As war broke out in August 1914 between Germany and Russia the
Turkish Empire had to decide what to do and [inaudible] particularly
wanted to join Germany and use the German alliance to expand the Empire
to the East. The major enemy for Turkey at that point was Russia and
their dream was to conquer the caucuses and Russia and Central Asia and
unite all the Turkey peoples of those lands in a grand Turkic Empire.
Speaker: In December 1914 led by their Minister of War, [Inaudible]
the Ottomans attacked Russia at Sarikamish along the Russian Border.
It was a strategic blunder; the Ottomans were overwhelmingly
defeated. Their hopes for a united empire were smashed. A few months
later as over 120,000 Russian troops advanced into the Empire their
ranks included a contingent of between 5,000 and 6,000 Armenian
soldiers; this Armenian contingent consisted of both Russian
Armenian conscripts and a smaller number of Ottoman Armenians who
had defected. Seeing their own Armenian subjects volunteering and
fighting for the enemy enraged the Turkish leaders; fearing that
still more of their subjects might join the enemy, they now saw the
Armenians of the Empire as a threat to the state.
Speaker: It was now in the wake of the disastrous loss at Sarikamish
that the CUP decided to disarm all the Armenian soldiers in the Ottoman
Army. They had decided that the Armenians were an unreliable group;
and Enver was blaming the Armenians for his loss at Sarikamish. And
then from disarming them they were thrown into labor battalions–that
is grunt work forces by which they were building roads, cleaning
latrines, and so forth, and were easily segregated, rounded up and
just massacred on mass.
Speaker: The massacres of the Armenian soldiers were the first stage
of the Armenian genocide but it was still just a beginning. The
International Association of Genocide Scholars affirms that over
1,000,000 Armenians died during the Armenian genocide. Other scholars
put the numbers as high as 1,500,000. The Turkish government today
denies that a genocide took place and has denied this historical fact
for nearly a century.
Speaker: In 1923 a new Turkish state, a new Turkish Republic was
created which really disconnected itself comprehensively from the
young Turks of 1915.
[Video Clip–News Clip] News Anchor: …impatient with former
methods, Anaturk banished ancient ways. Under Anaturk’s 15 year rule,
Constantinople was renamed Istanbul and became a westernized city
of modern well-planned buildings. Under his one-party government,
factories increased as the he industrialized Turkey. The social
revolution he accomplished was widespread. In everyway he emphasized
the change from the old Turkey to the new.
Speaker: What this new Turkish state then did was, it embarked on
an all-out program of westernization, adopting your western style
constitution, adopting secularism, dropping the old Arabic inspired
alphabet in favor of the Latin script, adopting western style
dress–costume, the civil code, everything; as a result Britain,
France, Germany–everybody else, they were now out to court this new
Turkey to try to become friends with it and the great powers did not
have any interest in pursuing the dirty matter of what had happened
in 1915. And all kinds of reasons like this made it undesirable for
the young republic to maintain an–an honest memory of what had been
done in 1915, and as a result you have an enormously constructed,
fabricated, manipulated national memory.
The “Dark Years” Armenians get 40% of their power from the Metsamor
nuclear power plant. The plant shut down for 8 years after a 1988
earthquake.
During this period “residents stripped the capital Yerevan of virtually
everything made of wood” to heat their homes.
;PHPSESSID=e4544675e99a6b12ad234131fef8346c
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
04/20/2006
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://WWW.ASBAREZ. COM 1) US Envoy Steven Mann Meets with Armenian Leaders 2) ARF Bureau Member Says Recognition of Karabagh Should Be on Agenda 3) Armenian Church in Baku May Be Converted to Library 4) Turkey's Definition of 'Terror' Not in Line with European Council 1) US Envoy Steven Mann Meets with Armenian Leaders YEREVAN (RFE/RL)Steven Mann, Washington's chief Karabagh negotiator, met with Armenian leaders Thursday to discuss the Karabagh peace process on yet another visit to Yerevan. During their meeting, Mann and Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian discussed "prospects for continuing negotiations" aimed at resolving the Karabagh conflict. Mann also met President Robert Kocharian later in the day. Mann will be in Baku on Friday to meet with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev about the latter's upcoming visit to Washington during which he will be received by President George W. Bush. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, including Mann, have said that the flurry of diplomatic activity is aimed at arranging another meeting between the presidents of the two South Caucasus nations. French co-chair Bernard Fassier said they hope that Aliyev and Kocharian will meet in June or July at the latest. The planned Aliyev-Kocharian meeting may take place ahead of the Group of Eight summit in the Russian city of St. Petersburg scheduled for July. The United States, France, and Russia, which is chairing G8 for the first time this year, are all members of the group of rich nations. US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said late Wednesday that Washington wants the conflicts in Karabagh and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union to be included on the summit agenda. "On the agenda we suggested today, for the first time, should be these...issues pertaining to conflicts very close to Russia's borders," Burns told a news briefing during a visit to Moscow. The formal G8 agenda proposed by Russia does not include a specific mention of the ex-Soviet conflicts. 2) ARF Bureau Member Says Recognition of Karabagh Should Be on Agenda YEREVAN (Combined Sources) - Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau member and Parliament Vice Speaker Vahan Hovannisian spoke Thursday about the Karabagh conflict, Armenia-Russia relations, and domestic political developments. Speaking about Yerevan's position on the Karabagh conflict settlement, Hovannisian said that Yerevan is not going to make more concessions other than those already spelled out for years. "The statements Armenia makes to succeed in talks and show the country in a better light should not be confused with the final goal," Hovannisian said. "If Azerbaijan admits even once it recognizes the self-determination right of Nagorno Karabagh, it would be hard for it to take its words back later." "Today, the negotiations with Azerbaijan should not be the first issue on the agenda. Instead, the first item on the agenda should be the recognition of Karabagh--in any form--by the international community. This would make Azerbaijan go for more compromise." He added that presently not only the ARF but also state officials realize this. Referring to the latest gas deals with Russia, Hovannisian said that the political side of the deal was "really very obnoxious," but in terms of economics, the deal was the best solution currently possible. Speaking of the prospects of the political developments and the possible outcome of the parliamentary election due next year, Hovannisian said he was sure the ARF will be represented in Parliament. He predicted that next year's parliamentary election in Armenia will be "unusually tense," because they will take place less than a year before the next presidential election. Those that are keen to succeed President Robert Kocharian in 2008 will spare no effort to win the 2007 vote, he said, adding that the ARF will likely field its own presidential candidate. He warned that Armenia may suffer a setback in terms of its international image if these elections are not deemed democratic. Therefore, he said, the president, the parliament, and the government must guarantee free and fair elections. Hovannisian said his party stands prepared to fight against every form of election fraud. He said law-enforcers must make it clear that those who to try to rig the polls will not be forgiven. 3) Armenian Church in Baku May Be Converted to Library BAKU (Armenpress)The Azeri culture and tourism ministry is intending to turn Baku's Armenian Church into a library. "I think that turning the Armenian Church in Baku into a library is purposeful," APA news agency cited the minister Abulfaz Garaev as saying. According to Garaev, converting the church into a library would be the right thing to do, as there are not that many Christians in Azerbaijan. 4) Turkey's Definition of 'Terror' Not in Line with European Council ANKARA (Zaman/BIA)--The definition of "terror" in Turkey's Counter-terrorism Act (CTA) was not modified by its Cabinet, even though Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek had said earlier said that it would be modified in line with the European Union Council decision. The CTA aims to boost the powers of the country's security forces in combating terrorism. Cicek said the condition of using "force and violence" was preserved in the draft that has been sent to Parliament. "In fact, it is impossible to commit terror crimes in many aspects without using force and violence. This point should be kept in mind when such acts are evaluated," said the minister. According to the information obtained, individuals chanting slogans in favor of terror organizations and carry their symbols can be sentenced to 1-3 years in prison. Cicek held a press conference after the cabinet meeting to inform that the CTA does not target ordinary citizens. The Minister explained the reason why the definition was not modified as follows: "The EU Council decision is only a suggestion. Besides, not everybody agrees on the EU's terror definition. We believe our definition contains all the necessary elements." Expectations that the CTA will bring an end to terror are wrong, he warned. Human rights activists are challenging the Anti-terror bill, which they say is "incompatible with human rights" and intends to revert to past suppression laws. They say the law restricts democratic rights in the country and punishes those who attempt to enjoy their rights in order to pursue their goals. Ayhan Bilgen, the Deputy Chairman of the Association for Human Rights and Solidarity with the Oppressed, said that he was seriously concerned about escalating violence in Turkey if the draft was passed in its present form by Parliament. "To adopt violence against violence serves no purpose but to strengthen violence" he said. "This is the kind of intervention that will stimulate the violence stemming from the Kurdish problem instead of focusing on the Kurdish issue and its reasons." Bilgen said the mentality behind the bill was "to punish activities that could be perceived as supporting armed groups in order to eradicate those groups, thus preventing that support." Bilgen added that both in the articles of the bill and its reasoning, freedom of expression, democratic struggle, and human rights activists were being held responsible and expected to pay for the failure of the security forces and intelligence organizations in conducting their duties. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2006 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.

Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Caucasus Reporting Service
Azerbaijan: Famous Medieval Cemetery Vanishes
IWPR reporter confirms that there is nothing left of the celebrated stone
crosses of Jugha.
By IWPR staff in Nakhichevan, Baku and Yerevan (CRS No. 336, 19-Apr-06)
Jugha Cemetery (13th-16th centuries)
Photographs from 1970s and 2006
View more…
It has become one of the most bitterly divisive issues in the Caucasus
– but up until now no one has been able to clear up the mystery
surrounding the fate of the famous medieval Christian cemetery of
Jugha in Azerbaijan.
The cemetery was regarded by Armenians as the biggest and most
precious repository of medieval headstones marked with crosses –
the Armenians call them “khachkars” – of which more than 2,000 were
still there in the late Eighties. Each elaborately carved tombstone
was a masterpiece of carving.
Armenians have said that the cemetery has been razed, comparing its
destruction to the demolition of two giant Buddha figures by the
Taleban in Afghanistan. Azerbaijan has hit back by accusing Armenia
of scaremongering, and of destroying Azerbaijani monuments on its
own territory.
Now an IWPR contributor has become the first journalist to visit
the site of the cemetery on Azerbaijan’s border with Iran – and has
confirmed that the graveyard has completely vanished.
The European Parliament, UNESCO and Britain’s House of Lords have
all taken an interest in the fate of the Jugha cemetery. A European
Parliament delegation is currently visiting the South Caucasus. But
so far none has been allowed to visit the site itself.
If international observers can confirm that the cemetery has been
razed, it is sure to spark a new high-voltage row between the two
countries, which have engaged in a bitter war of allegation and
counter-allegation since fighting ended in the Nagorny Karabkah
conflict in 1994.
The IWPR contributor was accompanied by two Azerbaijani security
service officers and was restricted in his movements. He was unable to
go right down to the River Araxes, the site of the former cemetery,
as it lies in a protected border zone. However, he was able to see
clearly that there was no cemetery there, merely bare ground. Nor
was there, as some Armenians have claimed, a military training ground.
He did manage to see a 20th century cemetery with Armenian tombstones
that lay untouched in a nearby village.
This is one of the most inaccessible parts of Europe, located in the
Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, which is surrounded by Armenia and
Iran and – because of the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute –
is only accessible from the rest of Azerbaijan by air.
Old Julfa, or Jugha as it is known by the Armenians, sits on the
northern bank of the River Araxes which divides Nakhichevan from Iran.
According to Armenian and other historians, Julfa was a flourishing
Armenian town in the Middle Ages. But in 1604, Shah Abbas of Persia
forcibly resettled the inhabitants to Isfahan, where to this day
there is still an Armenian quarter known as New Julfa.
The ruined town and its cemetery remained, and were visited by a
number of travellers over the years. British Orientalist Sir William
Ouseley arrived in July 1812 and found “a city now in perfect decay”,
and the remains of what had been one of the most famous stone bridges
in the world.
He wrote, “I examined the principal remains of Julfa, where 45
Armenian families, apparently of the lowest class, constituted the
entire population.
“But of its former inhabitants, the multiplicity was sufficiently
evinced by the ample and crowded cemetery, situated on a bank
sloping towards the river, and covered with numerous rows of upright
tombstones, which when viewed at a little distance, resembled a
concourse of people or rather regiments of troops drawn up in close
order.”
Historian Argam Aivazian, the principal expert on the Armenian
monuments of Nakhichevan, said that Jugha was a unique monument of
medieval art and the largest Armenian cemetery in existence. There
were unique tombstones shaped like rams, a church and the remains
of a massive stone bridge. Nowhere else in the world, he said, was
there such a big concentration of thousands of khachkars in one place.
Aivazian last visited the site in 1987, when it was still mostly
intact, despite its poor upkeep during the Soviet period.
Artist Lusik Aguletsi, a Nakhichevan-born Armenian, also last visited
the cemetery in 1987, although she was under escort.
“There is nothing like it in Armenia,” she said. “It was a thrilling
sight. Two hills completely covered in khachkars. We weren’t allowed
to draw or photograph them.”
Armenian experts now accuse Azerbaijan of a deliberate act of cultural
vandalism.
“The destruction of the khachkars of Old Jugha means the destruction
of an entire phenomenon in the history of humanity, because they are
not only proof of the culture of the people who created them, they
are also symbols that tell us about a particular cultural epoch,”
said Hranush Kharatian, head of the Armenian government’s department
for national and religious minorities.
“On the entire territory of Nakhichevan there existed 27,000
monasteries, churches, khachkars, tombstones and other Armenian
monuments,” said Aivazian. “Today they have all been destroyed.”
Although the historical provenance of the cemetery is disputed
in Azerbaijan, its cultural importance is confirmed by the 1986
Azerbaijani book “The Architecture of Ancient and Early Medieval
Azerbaijan” by Davud Akhundov, which contains several photographs of
the cross-stones of Jugha.
In Akhundov’s book, the stones are said to be of Caucasian Albanian
origin, in line with the official theory taught in Azerbaijan that
the Christian monuments there are the work not of Armenians, but of
the Albanians. The Caucasian Albanians – a people unconnected with
Albania – lived in the south-eastern Caucasus but their culture began
to die out in the Middle Ages.
Nowadays, there is a village of some 500 inhabitants known as Gulistan
near where the cemetery used to lie. The climate is harsh and dry
and the houses are mostly built of wattle and daub and stones from
the river.
The local inhabitants are tight-lipped, denying there was ever an
Armenian cemetery here
“In some parts of Julfa there are historic Christian cemeteries,
but they are monuments of Caucasian Albania and have nothing to do
with Armenians,” said political scientist Zaur Ibragimli, who lives
in Julfa.
He added that there is a large Armenian cemetery and church, still
preserved, near the village of Salkhangaya.
Husein Shukuraliev, editor of the Julfa local newspaper Voice of
Araxes said the destruction of the cemetery began as early as 1828,
when Azerbaijan became part of the Russian empire. Thousands of
tombstones were then destroyed at the turn of the 20th century when
a railway was constructed, he said.
Safar Ashurov, a scholar with Azerbaijan’s Institute of Archaeology
and Ethnography disputed that the cemetery was Armenian, calling the
ram shapes an “element of exclusively Turkish Muslim grave art”.
However, two other witnesses told IWPR that there has been more recent
destruction of the cemetery – though it may have started much further
back than Armenians allege.
A man named Intigam who works repairing tin cans in Baku said he was
posted in Julfa with the Soviet army in 1988-89. At the end of 1989,
the radical Azerbaijani nationalist politician Nemat Panahov dismantled
the border-posts on Nakhichevan’s border with Iran. Intigam said that
part of the Julfa cemetery was destroyed at that time.
Panakhov himself declined to comment when contacted by IWPR, saying,
“Journalists always deceive me, and I don’t want anything more to do
with them.”
A second witness, who asked for his name not to be given, said that
there were khachkar stones on the site up until 2002, but they were
then removed on the orders of the Nakhichevan military command.
An Armenian architect, Arpiar Petrossian, told IWPR he visited the
Iranian side of the border in 1998 with a friend in order to look
at the monuments on that side. They also viewed the remains of the
bridge. Looking across the river into Azerbaijan, he said, they
noticed a flat-bed train apparently removing the cross-stones from
the cemetery.
Armenian deputy culture minister Gagik Gyurdjian said his government
raised the alarm in 1998.
“Then we got the entire international community up in arms and stopped
the destruction,” he told IWPR. “But in 2003 the destruction started
again. Many khachkars were buried under the earth, and the rest were
destroyed and thrown into the Araxes.”
In the last few months, the propaganda war over Jugha has reached
a new intensity – just as the latest round of Karabakh peace talks
between presidents Ilham Aliev and Robert Kocharian, held in February,
ran into trouble.
Azerbaijani president Aliev angrily denied Armenian allegations
about the Jugha cemetery last week, saying the claims were “a lie
and a provocation”.
International institutions are now demanding to be allowed to visit
the site of the cemetery. The European Parliament passed a resolution
in February condemning the destruction of the cemetery.
However, Azerbaijan said it would only accept a European parliamentary
delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well. Around
one seventh of what is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani
territory has been under Armenian control since the end of the
Karabakh conflict.
“We think that if a comprehensive approach is taken to the problems
that have been raised, it will be possible to study Christian monuments
on the territory of Azerbaijan, including in the Nakhichevan Autonomous
Republic,” said Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Tagizade.
The Azerbaijani foreign ministry says old Muslim monuments have
disappeared from Armenia. In a statement, it said that at least
1,587 mosques and 23 madrassas had been destroyed in what was once
the Muslim-governed Yerevan Khanate – now part of Armenia. In the
Zangezur and Echmiadzin areas alone, more than 830 mosques have been
demolished, it said, adding that more than 500 Muslim cemeteries
have been destroyed within the territory of Armenia. The statement
did not specify when this destruction occurred.
Avetik Ishkhanian, president of Armenia’s Helsinki Committee, blames
the international community for not reacting sooner to the razing
of Jugha, contrasting the response with the outcry that followed the
Taleban’s demolition of the Buddhas of Bamian in 2001.
“Why has there not been the same reaction in this case?” asked
Ishkhanian. “At that time, world public attention was directed against
the Taleban regime, and this act of barbarism was used as a propaganda
weapon to launch military action against them.”
Reporting by Idrak Abbasov in Nakhichevan; Shahin Rzayev and Jasur
Mamedov in Baku; and Seda Muradian, Narine Avetian and Karine
Ter-Sahakian in Yerevan.

Harper affirms Cdn position on Armenian Genocide
globalnational.com
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
A member of the Armenian community reads the inscriptions written on
the memorial dedicated to the 1915 Armenian genocide and reading
“blessed thou who is turkish”, Apr. 18, 2006, barely a week after the
erection of the monument to commemorate the 91st anniversary of the
genocide. (PHILIPPE MERLE/AFP/Getty Images)
Around 2,000 people originate from Turkey with Turkish flags, protest
against a memorial on the 1915 Armenian genocide which should be
erected in Lyon, southwestern France, Saturday, March 18, 2006. The
placard reads “There have never been any Armenian genocide”. France
has recognise the 1915 Armenian genocide in 2001. (AP Photo/Patrick
Gardin)
MANITOBA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper affirmed Wednesday his
belief that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a ‘Genocide’ nearly
a century ago during the First World War.
——————————————- —————————
Global National Online Extras
» Peter Harris reports
» Back to globalnational.com
————————————————- ———————
For decades, previous Canadian governments refused to call it
‘genocide’ for fear of upsetting Turkey, which is blamed for the
massacre.
The killings allegedly took place between 1915 and 1920 when over one
million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were systematically
deported at the start of the war.
Scholars estimate that over the course of five years, nearly 1.5
million Armenians were massacred during the mass evacuations — three
quarters of the two millions Armenians living in the region at the
time — and commonly refer to the events as the ‘Armenian Genocide’
or the ‘Armenian Holocaust.’
However, the massacre, and the way they it is described, has been a
matter of ongoing dispute between parts of the international
community and modern-day Turkey.
Turkish authorities have refused to acknowledge the killings as a
‘genocide,’ citing the turmoils of life during the First World War as
the reason behind the deaths — not state-sponsored mass
exterminations. Turkey also differ on the number of casualties,
suggesting that the toll ranges between 200,000 and 600,000, not 1.5
million, and frequently raises the point that many Turks also died
during the tumultuous period.
It is a sensitive issue that, when raised by the Tory Opposition
during the previous minority government, was quickly defeated by
reigning Liberals who feared angering the Turkish government by
labeling the events as a genocide or condemn it as a crime against
humanity.
However, during a news conference Wednesday in southern Manitoba,
Harper affirmed his belief that the Armenians who died during those
years were in fact, subjects of a genocide.
Turkey’s ambassador to Canada thinks the decision goes too far.
“Your own citizens of Turkish origin, they are proud Canadians as
much as you are,” said His Excellency Aydemir Erman. “So your own
House is branding them as the grandchildren of killers.”
To date, 23 countries in the international community officially
recognize the massacre and accepted its authenticity as a ‘genocide,’
including Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France,
Germany, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland,
Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, Vatican City, and
Venezuela.
Thirty-nine of 50 U.S. states also recognize the genocide, although
there is no official federal recognition.
© Global National 2006
Click for video of full report
ory.html?id=a5f2efe0-1811-
4d1c-a6a9-
–Boundary_ (ID_rO3g0OnzVA1AWAzY8CoY2w)–

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Americans in Armenia and Friends
Yerevan, Armenia
Contact e-mail: [email protected]
19 April 2006
Yellow Ribbon Campaign to Protest
Recall of Ambassador Evans and Genocide Denial
In the end, we will remember not the words
of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Yerevan, Armenia – In response to the imminent recall of U.S.
Ambassador to Armenia John Marshall Evans for publicly acknowledging
the Armenian Genocide, a “Yellow Ribbon Campaign” has been planned
for April 24, 2006. The campaign is also in response to a number of
recent instances in which high-ranking foreign diplomats in Armenia
have denied the Armenian Genocide.
Organized by Armenian-Americans in Armenia and Friends, a newly
created, ad-hoc group based in the Armenian Republic, the grassroots
campaign will take place at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to the
Armenian Genocide in Yerevan. The monument is dedicated to the 1.5
million victims of the Genocide of the Armenians perpetrated by the
Ottoman Turkish Empire between 1915 and 1923.
On April 24, 2006, when hundreds of thousands of marchers will
converge on the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in commemoration of the
victims of the Genocide, the Yellow Ribbon Campaign will commence by
participants tying yellow ribbons on 100-meter long ropes stretched
along the walking path leading to the Genocide Monument.
“During the last number of years, we have witnessed public denials of
the Armenian Genocide by several diplomats,” said Paula Devejian, a
member of the group. “Such politically motivated actions are offensive
and insulting. By attempting to dismiss the indisputable fact of the
Armenian Genocide, those engaged in denial insult the memory of the
victims, their descendents and the Armenian nation as a whole. In
our present-day reality of a free and independent Armenian Republic,
Armenians throughout the world feel the pain of denial even more when
it’s perpetrated by representatives or leaders of countries that are
otherwise acknowledged as friends and allies of Armenia.”
According to Devejian, the Yellow Ribbon Campaign was put into motion
following what is widely regarded as the Bush Administration’s
retribution against Ambassador Evans for publicly labeling the
events in Ottoman Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century as
“genocide”. Soon after the Ambassador’s comments, (made in statements
to Armenian-American leaders in February 2005), the U.S. State
Department forced Evans to publicly retract his statements and
apologize, then coerced the American Foreign Service Association into
an unprecedented move of rescinding the prestigious “Constructive
Dissent” award he was granted, and now subsequently, the Ambassador
is being recalled from his post and forced into early “retirement”.
“It is difficult to see a great ally and friend of Armenia like the
U.S. as an objective and unbiased mediator in the Nagorno-Karabagh
peace process and Armenian-Turkish relations when our government is
subject to Turkish pressure and blackmail, and resorts to censorship.
We are amazed that the United States would allow a third country
to affect the bilateral relations between itself and Armenia.” said
Devejian.
“We believe that the American Government must be the standard bearer
of free speech and human rights, and we are concerned that its actions
against Ambassador Evans amount to less than an adequate commitment
to these principles.”
The newly formed group also cited examples of foreign diplomats
denying the Armenian Genocide while holding posts in Armenia,
including Israeli Ambassador Rivka Cohen, who in 2002 dissociated
the Armenian Genocide from the Jewish Holocaust, thereby questioning
the fact of the Genocide; and U.K. Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt, who
in 2004 denied the Genocide, causing outrage in Armenia and Armenian
communities throughout the world.
“Such disrespectful acts against the Armenian people and nation will
continue if we do not put an end to the complacent acceptance of such
politically motivated diplomatic denial by these countries. States
have an obligation to understand that the promotion of democratic
values, principles and true freedom come through their own actions
and examples,” Devejian explained. “The Yellow Ribbon Campaign is
an expression of protest against Genocide denial and punishment of
free speech. It is an impassioned, peaceful call by Armenians from
all walks of life for fairness and justice, in both political and
humanitarian terms.”
# # #

Armenia Fund USA, Inc.
152 Madison Ave, S-803
New York, NY 10016, U.S.A.
T/1-212-689-5307
F/1-212-689-5317
e-mail: [email protected]
Armenia Fund USA Aids “Children’s Home” Orphanage
Press Release 04.21.06
NEW YORK, New York – Armenia Fund USA (Fund), East Coast Affiliate
of Hayastan Himnadram All-Armenian Fund, is pleased to announce
the successful implementation of a much needed heating system
restoration project in “Children’s Home” orphanage, Yerevan,
Armenia. Having started in November of last year, the project was
brought to its successful completion in January of 2006 through
the generous contribution of Mr. Agop Giritliyan. With project
implementation support from Armenia Fund USA’s Armenian affiliate,
Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, the heating system’s restoration was
completed in January of 2006.
Constructed in 1937 and currently located in the district of Nork,
“Children’s Home” orphanage in Yerevan has been intended for
children aged 6 years and under. Today, it gives shelter to about 80
children, with an average of 150 children annually passing through
its portals. Once children reach the age of 6, they are relocated to
other orphanages (mankadoons) throughout Yerevan, Gavar, and other
towns. When necessary, the mankadoon in Gyumri, which specializes
in the care of children with various neurological illnesses and
disabilities, is accessed for those children with special needs.
Yerevan winters can be brutally cold with the winds of the surrounding
Ararat and Aragats mountains piercing Soviet-era stone structures
which house most of the city’s institutionalized children. But with
their hands tied by the socio-economic realities of a recovering
Armenia, many orphanages struggle daily with critical needs such as
overcrowding, poor plumbing/sanitation, and lack of heat.
That is why Liana Karapetian, director of the “Children’s Home”,
was so grateful when Armenia Fund USA – through the generosity of
Agop Giritliyan- was able to come alongside the “Children’s Home” in
order to address the serious need of a reliable heating system. The
outdated system from Soviet times had not been working since 1989,
and repairing it would have cost more than developing a new system
for the orphanage. Challenged to sufficiently heat the home for the
children – aged 0-6 years, Director Liana Karapetian had previously
been forced to rely on electricity- which then presented severe
budgetary challenges. But now, through Agop Giritliyan’s gift and
Armenia Fund USA’s efforts, a brand-new system utilizes natural gas-
a more economical and reliable resource for heat.
On behalf of the staff, management and children, “Children’s Home”
director Liana Karapetian expressed her gratitude to Armenia Fund
USA and the Giritliyan family, as well as to Hayastan Himnadram, for
the sincere compassion and concern for the children’s well-being in
cold winter.
Also, on the occasion of the successful completion of the project,
Naira Melkoumian, executive director/Hayastan Himnadram, visited the
orphanage. She announced Himnadram’s interest in undertaking another
project at the orphanage – this time directed toward repairing the
roof of the building.
Armenia Fund USA’s has distinguished itself by implementing
projects ranging from grassroots development projects to specific
problem-solving initiatives. With the support of its donors and
constituents, the Fund will continue in its mission of improving
Armenian lives by building foundations that will sustain the economic
growth and stability of the country and its people.
ABOUT ARMENIA FUND USA: ARMENIA FUND USA, founded in 1992, was one of
the first of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s 18 international affiliates
and serves constituents in all states east of the Mississippi.
As a non-profit, non-governmental, nonsectarian organization, the
Fund represents all Armenian constituents.
Armenia Fund USA is the largest contributor among the 18 international
affiliates – supporting strategic infrastructure projects in Armenia
and Karabakh, and having helped build 138 miles of roads, 100 miles
of waterways, 36 schools, 3 electric transmission networks, 210
residential buildings and 15 healthcare institutions.
Armenia Fund USA’s Mission is the development of strategic
socio-economic infrastructure in Armenia and Karabakh, focusing
on major projects such as major highways, schools, drinking water
to communities and humanitarian programs in education, training and
medical facilities. The Fund has adopted a policy to go “Beyond Bricks
and Mortar” to provide sustainability for projects it sponsors.

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:
MEDIA ALERT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2006
CONTACT: Karoon Panosyan
Email: [email protected]
RE: Boston Globe: “Armenians get allies in genocide teachings,” Boston
Herald: “Expert says slaughter fits bill, despite Turks’ denial”
The Armenian Assembly would like to call your attention to two articles
below: the first published by the Boston Globe entitled, “Armenians get
allies in genocide teachings, Group stands up against denial” and the
second published in the Boston Herald entitled, “Expert says slaughter
fits bill, despite Turks’ denial.” The articles include comments by
Armenian Assembly Board of Trustees Member Anthony Barsamian and
Armenian Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.
The articles can also be accessed at the following links:
Boston Globe:
tion=doc&p_docid=1111E3
678F8D3F38&p_docnu m=1
Boston Herald:
/view.bg?articleid=135744
Boston Globe
Armenians get allies in genocide teachings
Group stands up ‘against denial’
By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff
April 20, 2006
Leading politicians and groups from a range of communities are joining
with Armenians in their battle to ensure that the Armenians’
early-20th-century history be taught as genocide.
The Armenians are fighting a federal lawsuit that seeks to include
opposing views of the genocide in teaching materials for Massachusetts
high schools.
A new group, called kNOw Genocide, includes the Jewish Community
Relations Council, the Irish Immigration Center, the Massachusetts
Council of Churches, Rwanda Outlook, and the Cambodian Mutual Assistance
Association, among others. Standing with them will be Attorney General
Thomas F. Reilly, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey — both gubernatorial
candidates — and several state legislators.
A rally tomorrow at the State House is expected to draw representatives
from the diverse coalition, in a testament to the political clout that
the Armenian community has in Massachusetts.
“This allows our community, together with other communities, to stand
together against denial,” said Anthony Barsamian, a member of the
Armenian Assembly of America board, based in Washington. “And those who
try to deny genocide will be beaten back.”
The coalition is being launched at a time of considerable debate over
events in Ottoman Turkey early last century. Several PBS stations were
criticized this week for airing a documentary called “The Armenian
Genocide” and declining to air an accompanying panel discussion that
included scholars who have denied that a genocide took place.
Those who believe that both views should be heard accused PBS stations,
including Boston’s WGBH, of bowing to pressure from Armenians and their
supporters.
Armenians and many historians have long maintained that the events of
1915 in Ottoman Turkey — in which more than 1 million Armenians were
killed and many more were driven from their homes — constituted
genocide.
In Massachusetts, home to about 30,000 Armenians, legislators
established a day of remembrance for victims.
But the Turkish government, and some historians, say what happened
should not be described as genocide because the deaths were part of a
civil war that resulted in the murder of innocent people on both sides.
In the lawsuit, now pending at US District Court in Boston, a teacher
and a student from Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, and the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations, have demanded that the state
Department of Education include dissenting views on the Armenian
genocide in a curriculum guide on the topic.
A draft of that guide originally included the dissenting views, but did
not mandate that they be taught in Massachusetts schools. The plaintiffs
say the removal violates freedom of speech.
The attorney general, who is defending the state, argues that because
the curriculum guide is a government document, it is not bound by free
speech. Armenians and supporters say presenting opposing views of the
1915 events is like denying the Holocaust.
The struggle has drawn support from other groups who say they speak from
their own painful histories of oppression.
“As members of the Jewish community, we identify with the Armenian
community in terms of the Armenian genocide, and it’s important to fight
denial,” said Nancy Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Greater Boston. “We thought this was a battle that
had been won long ago.”
Harvey Silverglate, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the
Department of Education suit, said his clients are not denying that a
genocide took place. “We are not admitting it, we’re not denying it,
we’re taking no position,” he said. “We simply want to open up the
avenues for honest debate and restore the censored articles to the
Massachusetts curriculum.”
Boston Herald
Expert says slaughter fits bill, despite Turks’ denial
By Kevin Rothstein
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The Turkish government’s fierce PR campaign to cast doubt on the
Armenian genocide has spilled into the courts, Congress and even public
television – but not into Harvard genocide expert Helen Fein’s mind.
“It is a genocide by all criteria of genocide,” said Fein, director of
the Institute for the Study of Genocide. “It’s insulting and ridiculous
to argue with these deniers.”
The Republic of Turkey has paid millions of dollars to Washington-based
lobbying firm the Livingston Group, trying to battle a congressional
human rights bill that would recognize the deaths of 1.5 million
Armenians, at the hands of Turks, was genocide.
“Given the fact that Turkey continues its denial campaign, it becomes
that much more important for the U.S. and other countries to remember
and reaffirm what happened so we cannot repeat the mistakes of the
past,” said Bryan Ardouny, head of the Armenian Assembly of America.
The Turkish ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy, yesterday
blasted a PBS documentary, “The Armenian Genocide,” that aired last
night on WGBH-Boston as a “blatantly one-sided perspective of a tragic
and unresolved period of world history.” Many Turkish authorities argue
that civil war, disease and famine, not genocide, contributed to the
deaths of Armenians as well as Turks between 1915 and 1918.
As the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early 1900s, Turks embarked on a
campaign of death and destruction against Armenians. The campaigns are
substantiated, Fein said, by eyewitness accounts from Armenians,
European missionaries and desperate missives from the U.S. ambassador,
Henry Morgenthau. He cabled Washington on July 16, 1916, that only force
would dissuade the Turks.
Armenians observe the genocide each year on April 24.
NR#2006-039