TURKEY CRITICIZES CANADA’S PM HARPER
Edmonton Sun, Canada
April 25 2006
PM backs recognition of Armenian genocide
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey on Tuesday criticized Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper for remarks he made in support of recognizing the
mass killings of Armenians during the First World War as genocide,
and warned that such statements threatened to harm Turkish-Canadian
relations.
In a statement on April 21, Harper recalled that Canada’s Senate and
House of Commons had adopted resolutions recognizing the killings as
genocide and said, “I and my party supported those resolutions and
continue to recognize them today.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a stern statement saying it
“regretted” Harper’s remarks over the killings that occurred more
than eight decades ago.
“Statements concerning disputed historic events by foreign parliaments
or governments nearly a century later will not change the nature of
what happened in reality,” the statement said.
“Such statements do not contribute to the environment of
dialogue between Turkey and Armenia, and have a negative effect on
Turkish-Canadian relations,” it added. “The stagnation of relations
between the two countries after the Canadian Parliament’s decision
is the clearest example of this.”
Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported Tuesday that Turkey would bar
Canadian companies from bidding for the construction of a nuclear
power plant that Turkey hopes to build in the Black Sea coastal town
of Sinop.
In 2001, Turkey cancelled millions of dollars’ worth of defence
deals with French companies after legislators in France recognized
the genocide.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923
in a deliberate campaign of genocide.
Turkey denies it was genocide, saying the death count is inflated
and insisting that Armenians were killed or displaced as the Ottoman
Empire tried to secure its border with Russia and stop attacks by
Armenian militants.
Several other countries, including Argentina, Poland, France and
Russia, have declared the killings a genocide, and there is strong
pressure from Armenians worldwide for the U.S. Congress to recognize
the killings as genocide as well.

FEDS CRACK $20 MILLION LA MEDICARE FRAUD RING
NBC4 TV, CA
April 25 2006
Investigators Say Defendants Had Organized Crime Ties
LOS ANGELES — Five members of a Russian-Armenian organized crime ring
have been indicted in connection with a $20 million Medicare fraud
conspiracy that operated out of clinics and labs in Los Angeles,
Glendale, Van Nuys and Pasadena.
They have been charged with conspiracy, health care fraud, Medicare
kickbacks, making false statements to Medicare and money laundering,
the Daily News reported.
“This case shows how criminal organizations seek to adapt over time
to Medicare’s fraud-prevention efforts,” Assistant U.S. Attorney
Bruce Searby said in remarks reported by the newspaper. “Here, the
defendants were able to outrun the government for a while, but they
did not count on the perseverance of Medicare administrators and
federal agents whose job it is to protect this important program.”
The group allegedly was led by Konstantin Grigoryan, 56, of Altadena,
a former colonel in the Soviet army; his wife, Mayya Leonidovna
Grigoryan, 54; the Grigoryans’ son-in-law, Eduard Gershelis, 34, of
Los Angeles; Mayya Grigoryan’s brother-in-law, Aleksandr Treynker,
48, of Canoga Park; and Haroutyun Gulderyan, 36, of Tujunga, the
Daily News reported.
The Grigoryans and Gershelis have been in federal custody since their
March 21 arrests. Gulderyan and Treynker have been released on bond.
The five suspects are scheduled to appear in court June 13. They were
indicted Thursday.
In court documents, Searby wrote that the case is connected to
Russian-Armenian organized crime that gutted Medicare of more than $20
million using a network of clinics, paid kickbacks to marketers for
patient referrals and billed Medicare for tests that were unnecessary
or went undelivered, the Daily News reported.

GEORGIA-ARMENIAN AGREEMENT TO FOCUS ON TRAFFIC
Author: Mammadov
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 25 2006
A new Geo-Armenian agreement on traffic communications will be inked
April 25.
The Armenian delegation led by the Minister of Transportation Andranik
Manukian arrives in Tbilisi Tuesday morning.
The Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia reported to
InterpressNews that the new project is meant to increase the rate of
cargo transportation between the two republics and strengthen the
tendencies of economic cooperation. Irakli Chogovadze, Minister of
Economic Development of Georgia and the Minister of Transportation
of Armenia, Andranik Manukian will sign the draft agreement.
According to the new agreement the permission quotas set for cargo
transportation will be lifted and the taxes for the Road Fund of
Armenia will be abolished. This will make the transportation process
much more convenient not only for truck owners but also for the owners
of passenger vehicles.
The Road Fund Taxes have been abolished in Georgia since year 2005.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BUSH SAYS ‘TRAGEDY’ NOT ‘GENOCIDE’ FOR 1915 EVENTS
By Cihan News Agency, Washington
Zaman Online, Turkey
April 25 2006
US President George W. Bush has describe the incidents that took
place in 1915 as “a tragedy”, in the message he prepared for the 91st
anniversary of the so-called Armenian genocide allegations.
The White House announcement reads that the events were a tragedy for
mankind and should never be forgotten. Bush, overlooking the demands
of the Armenian Diaspora, did not term the incidents as “genocide.”
The event is a source of pain for all Armenians, the. President
acknowledged, and Americans feel deeply for this page in history.
Bush invited all parties to take part in dialogue and determine
common understanding, and he praised the parties in both Turkey and
Armenia who examine the happenings of 1915 impartially, accurately
and sensitively.
The Armenian Diaspora alleges a genocide occurred, Armenians were
forced to leave their home in 1915; Turkey, on the contrary, refutes
these allegations and advocates the deaths were caused by difficult
road and weather conditions during the migration.

KOCHARIAN THANKS LITHUANIA FOR GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep
April 25 2006
President Robert Kocharian thanked Lithuania for its parliament’s
recent recognition of the Armenian genocide as he received his visiting
Lithuanian counterpart, Valdas Adamkus, on Tuesday.
In a resolution overwhelmingly approved last December, the Baltic
state’s legislature, Sejmas, urged Turkey to “recognize historical
facts” and drop its insistence that the 1915 mass killings of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire did not constitute a genocide. The
Turkish government denounced the move.
“The issue is very important for us and it is not just historical
in nature as today our relations with Turkey are burdened by
this historical reality,” Kocharian told reporters after talks
with Adamkus. “I think that recognizing the genocide and coming
to terms with history is extremely important for normalizing our
[Turkish-Armenian] relations.”
He said Yerevan will continue to seek worldwide recognition of
the genocide in collaboration with leaders of Armenian Diaspora
communities.
Adamkus arrived in Yerevan on a official visit which appears to
have focused on ways of restoring economic ties that used to exist
between the two former Soviet republics. They announced plans to hold
a Lithuanian-Armenian business forum in the near future.
A statement by Kocharian’s office said Armenia’s relations with the
European Union, which Lithuania joined two years ago, were also on
the agenda of the talks. Kocharian again stated that his country is
interested in learning from Lithuania’s as well as neighboring Latvia’s
and Estonia’s successful transition to democracy and the free market.
The Lithuanian president, for his part, made a case for political and
economic integration in the South Caucasus. “We have discussed common
regional policies,” he said. “I think it is about time our regions —
the South Caucasus and the Baltic states — joined forces to build a
better future. This is what we call a three-plus-three formula which
I think will become reality after this meeting.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MEMORIAL TO VICTIMS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OPENED IN MARSEILLES
Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 25 2006
YEREVAN, April 25. /ARKA/. A memorial to the victims of the Armenian
Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 has been unveiled in Marseilles,
France. Attending the ceremony were Speaker of the RA Parliament
Artur Baghdasaryan and RA Ambassador to France Eduard Nalbandyan.
A monument to the victims of the Armenian Genocide was also unveiled
in Lyons on April 24. The ceremony was attended by Mayor of Lyons,
Senator Gerar Colomb and RA Ambassador to France Eduard Nalbandyan.
In his speech, the RA Ambassador pointed out that the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide by France and existence of 50 monuments to
the victims throughout the country are perceived as manifestation of
solidarity by the Armenian people.
The Armenian Genocide, first genocide of the 20th century, was
organized and committed by the Government of Young Turks in the Ottoman
Empire in 1915. Over 1.5mln Armenians were slaughtered. The Armenian
Genocide has been officially recognized by many countries.

HONOR ARMENIAN SURVIVAL
By Shamoneh Ayazjoo
Michael Nicolayeff / Daily Nexus
Daily Nexus, CA
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
April 25 2006
Genocide Victims Should Be Recognized With Adoration
This article is dedicated to the memory of the 1,500,000 Armenians
who were martyred during the Turkish massacres, which culminated on
April 24, 1915.
“Fear not Them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:
But rather fear Him which is able to destroy both body and soul in
hell,” Matthew X, 28.
The Armenian Genocide was a crime that exterminated an entire nation
from infants up through elders; a crime whose criminals starved and
burned children; brutally raped pure, angelic women; beheaded young
men and forced a Christian people to abandon their faith.
Such a horrible and barbaric crime was committed by the genocidal
government of Turkish emperors against the Armenian people during the
span of three terrible years – the bloodiest day of which occurred
on April 24, 1915 when more than half of the Armenian population was
massacred. But history has yet to report this crime, and this world,
which is so accustomed to atrocity, has yet to recognize what is known
to those that suffered as the first genocide of the 20th century. How
can it be that such a violent crime committed against the nation
of Armenia – a nation so vital to the history of mankind – has gone
unpunished and unrecognized? After all, Armenia was the first nation
to adopt Christianity in 301 A.D., and it is the country that bears the
historical Mount Ararat, which is where the biblical Noah’s Ark landed.
Perhaps it is due to the Turkish government’s blatant refusal to
acknowledge and take responsibility for the crime of massacring more
than one and a half million people, their intellectuals, clergymen,
scholars, musicians and other men of art, without mercy even for
those Armenian architects who had built and decorated the mosques
for their religious worship.
This year marks the 91st anniversary of the inhuman mass-murder which
was perpetrated against the Armenian people during the bitter and
disastrous days of World War I. Ninety-one years after the great
massacre, the Armenian people, both in Armenia and throughout the
world, reverently bow before the unknown graves of the valiant victims
and pray in remembrance of that dark and awful day when death and
destruction filled their eyes.
In fact, an entire nation was martyred but the Armenians did not die
forever. Against this deadly attempt, the Armenian people rose up
with all the might and instinct necessary for survival. And today,
the pages of history testify that the nation itself was the conqueror,
and that the enemy had devoured only the body of the Armenian, but he
had never been able to consume the Armenian soul which is invincible
and imperishable. This is the reason why, on the occasion of the 91st
anniversary, the Armenian people must take a new stand. April 24 is
no longer a day of tears and mourning. For the sake of the glorious
victims Armenians must proclaim April 24 as a day of victory and dispel
once and forever from the hearts and minds of the Armenian people the
sense of defeat and lamentation. The victims of the Armenian Genocide
died with the hope of living; therefore, April 24 is no longer a
day stained with a sense of defeat, but rather a day overcome with
exaltation for survival.
Shamoneh Ayazjoo is a junior English major.
From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIANS SEEK LANDS, RECOGNITION
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News
April 25 2006
Thousands of Armenian-Americans protested in front of the Turkish
Consulate on Monday, demanding that the country recognize the 1915
genocide of their people.
But the protesters, marching on the day when Armenians commemorate the
genocide every year, also had other demands beyond Turkey’s recognition
of the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the former Ottoman Empire.
Alleging that historically Armenian lands were stolen during the
genocide, protesters chanted, “Eastern Turkey is Western Armenia”
and “Get your hands off my lands.”
Police estimated that up to 3,000 demonstrators took part in Monday’s
protest at the Turkish Consulate.
“They want recognition first of all,” said Ani Garibyan, spokeswoman
for the Armenian Youth Federation, which organized the demonstration.
“They also want the land that they lost and the houses they lost. And
Turkey needs to pay up as well, just like Germany has been doing to
the Jewish (Holocaust) survivors and their families.”
Turkey contends there was no genocide of Armenians and they are not
willing to pay reparations or hand over land.
“Can anybody give any land to anybody today? In today’s world it’s not
possible,” said Engin Ansay, consul general of Turkey in Los Angeles.
Turkey’s position does not sit well with protesters like Lida
Zohrabyan, 47, of Glendale.
But she could not say how much of the land should be returned.
“That’s our politicians’ matter,” she said. “But we want justice.”

TURKEY BLASTS PM FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMARKS
Canadian Press
April 25 2006
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey on Tuesday criticized Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper for remarks he made in support of recognizing the
mass killings of Armenians during the First World War as genocide,
and warned that such statements threatened to harm Turkish-Canadian
relations.
In a statement on April 21, Harper recalled that Canada’s Senate and
House of Commons had adopted resolutions recognizing the killings as
genocide and said, “I and my party supported those resolutions and
continue to recognize them today.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a stern statement saying it
“regretted” Harper’s remarks over the killings that occurred more
than eight decades ago.
“Statements concerning disputed historic events by foreign parliaments
or governments nearly a century later will not change the nature of
what happened in reality,” the statement said.
“Such statements do not contribute to the environment of
dialogue between Turkey and Armenia, and have a negative effect on
Turkish-Canadian relations,” it added. “The stagnation of relations
between the two countries after the Canadian Parliament’s decision
… is the clearest example of this.”
Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported Tuesday that Turkey would bar
Canadian companies from bidding for the construction of a nuclear
power plant that Turkey hopes to build in the Black Sea coastal town
of Sinop.
In 2001, Turkey cancelled millions of dollars’ worth of defence
deals with French companies after legislators in France recognized
the genocide.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923
in a deliberate campaign of genocide.
Turkey denies it was genocide, saying the death count is inflated
and insisting that Armenians were killed or displaced as the Ottoman
Empire tried to secure its border with Russia and stop attacks by
Armenian militants.
Several other countries, including Argentina, Poland, France and
Russia, have declared the killings a genocide, and there is strong
pressure from Armenians worldwide for the U.S. Congress to recognize
the killings as genocide as well.

WE RALLIED IN WASHINGTON AGAINST ARMENIAN CLAIMS – TOMRIS AZERI
Author: S. Ilhamgizi
TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 25 2006
A joint Azerbaijani- Turkish rally has been organized in USA to protest
against the so-called Armenian genocide, the head of the America-
Azerbaijan organization in US, Tomris Azeri told Trend.
The Azerbaijani and Turkish diasporas organized a rally in the
Times-Square park in Washington, she said. A lot of people took part in
the action, several speeches have been held and photographic materials
of the Hojali tragedy have been presented, Azeri told.
Another action with motto- Lets put an end to the propaganda of the
so-called Armenian genocide, was held beside the Turkish embassy in
US. 250 people took part in the rally.
Similar Armenian action was taking place nearby. As a result of
coordinated activities of police it was possible to avoid any
incidents.