CoE SEC. GEN. COMMENDED INITIATORS OF ARMENIAN ISSUE CONFERENCE FOR COURAGE AND RESOLUTENESS
Pan Armenian News
26.09.2005 07:46
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Council of Europe Secretary General Mr.Terry Davis
commended the initiators of the conference of the Armenian issue for
courage and resoluteness. He also noted that the “people believing in
modern, democratic and tolerant Turkey do not fear of nationalists
in the Istanbul streets any longer.” “I confirm my endorsement to
the position of Prime Minister Erdogan, who came to support freedom
of speech in Turkey. I hope that such attitude will affect the legal
proceedings against well known Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, who is
accused of making public statements on the Armenian Genocide”,
Mr. Davis said. “I understand the sensitivity of the Turkish
authorities on this issue, however such delicate issues should be
solved via dialogue and truth but not by means of prosecution and
propaganda. Being a member of the Council if Europe Turkey is obliged
to respect the European Convention on Human Rights. I am convinced
that the Turkish leadership will not abandon the way of democratic
reform in the time epochal for the Turkey-Europe relations,” CoE
Secretary General stated, Mediamax reports.

MINISTER OSKANIAN RECEIVES “GROSSO D’ORO VENEZIANO” AWARD IN VENETO
Pan Armenian News
26.09.2005 06:31
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Grosso d’Oro Veneziano award was bestowed on
Armenia¹s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian by the Masi Foundation of
Italy’s Veneto Region, on September 24. The prize is a special award
on an international level for individuals who have contributed to
the cause of peace and brotherhood among nations. It was conferred on
Minister Oskanian for his contribution to Armenia¹s integration into
European structures, to the deepening of Armenia-Italy ties, and for
his active involvement in peace talks. In the 8th century St. George
Cathedral in Verona, before several hundred Italian intellectuals,
artists and businessmen, the Masi Foundation held its 25th awards
ceremony. After receiving the award ­ a sculpture in silver, decorated
with grapes as well as designs from ancient khachkars, and topped
with a gold medal­ the Minister spoke about Armenia’s determination
to pursue the path of European integration. He also spoke about
traditional Armenian-Italian ties and the upcoming Italian-Armenian
Days in Yerevan.
During the ceremony, other awards were also given to those who protect
and promote Veneto’s historic legacy and cultural values. The Masi
Foundation, in line with its guiding philosophy and with an original
policy for recognizing subtle changes in the world, awarded prizes
for excellence in education, medicine, theater, fashion, as well as
in the area of vinoculture. The Masi Foundation was created and is
run by the descendants of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.The only
other recipient of the Grosso d’Oro Veneziano has been Slovenia’s
former President, Milan Kucan.
–Boundary_(ID_ti+1EpZktdiPktVYp+A3bQ)–

NATO PA ROSE-ROTH SEMINAR TO START IN YEREVAN OCTOBER 6
Pan Armenian News
26.09.2005 04:13
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ October 6-9 NATO PA Rose-Roth seminar with the
participation of 60 parliamentarians from 22 states will be held
in Yerevan.
The agenda includes the issues referring to the Karabakh conflict
settlement, regional cooperation, and reformation of defense and police
systems. The Armenian party expressed readiness to host participants
from Azerbaijan and guarantee their security. An invitation for
the seminar was sent to PACE Rapporteur on Nagorno Karabakh Goran
Lennmarker. By the RA government’s decree 32 million 549 thousand
AMD was allocated to the National Assembly for the conduction of
the seminar.

IRAQI MILITANTS DEMAND $1M FOR ARMENIAN CAPTIVE
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 27 2005
Baku, September 26, AssA-Irada
Iraqi militants demand $1 million for the ethnically-Armenian
businessman they recently captured, Russian ITAR-TASS news agency
reported.
The deadline on the ransom for the release of Karapet Zhan
Jeckerdzhian, a 40-year old citizen of Cyprus and Lebanon engaged in
selling drinks and food in Iraq to order of Jetco company, expires
Monday.
The company suspended its activity in Iraq a week ago on a demand of
the kidnappers.
Reports released last week suggested that the militants demanded $2
million for Jeckerdzhian’s release but lowered the figure to $500,000
later. According to latest reports, the kidnappers are demanding a
$1 million ransom,. *

GEORGIAN PRIME MINISTER TO VISIT ARMENIA
Pan Armenian News
26.09.2005 09:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ September 29 Georgian delegation headed by
Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli will arrive in Armenia on a 2-day
visit to participate in the 4-th sitting of the Armenian-Georgian
intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. Energy Minister
Nikoloz Gilauri, Deputy Foreign Minister Georgi Gugunishvili, Deputy
Minister of Finance Dmitry Gvindadze, Deputies to the Minister
of Economic development David Tsiklauri and Genrikh Muradian,
Deputy Minister of Labor, Health and Social Protection Levan Judeli,
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Mirian Dekonoidze, Deputy Minister of
Environment and Natural Resources Jaal Lomtadze, Deputy Minister of
Education and Science Teymuraz Samadashvili, Head of Customs Department
Zurab Antelidze, Commercial Director of Georgian Railways Ramaz
Giorgadze, Head of the Transport Department Alexander Chkhikvadze,
Advisors to the Georgian Prime Minister and other officials will
serve on the delegation.
Before the opening of the meeting the Prime Ministers of Georgia
and Armenia will hold a tete-a-tete meeting. Separate meetings
of the working commissions will be also held. The agenda includes
issues referring to the contractual-legal basis, trade and economic
relations, tourism, etc. After the final sitting the participants will
sign documents and render a joint press conference. During the visit
Zurab Nogaideli will attend the depository of ancient manuscripts
of Matenadaran and meet with Armenian President Robert Kocharian and
Chairman of the National Assembly Artur Baghdassaryan.

V. OSKANIAN: EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY BRINGS ARMENIA BACK HOME
Pan Armenian News
26.09.2005 08:19
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian-Italian connections are based on rich
and ancient traditions, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian
stated when receiving the Grosso d’Oro Veneziano award. “It was in
Italy in 1512, that Hakob Meghapart published the first book ever in
Armenian. The Urbatagirk (or Book of Days) was followed in 1513 with
the first published Armenian calendar.
The renowned Briton, Lord Byron, referred to the Venetian island of
San Lazaro as a fortress of Armenian independence, since the Armenian
monks of the Order of Mekhitar had found refuge there in the early
1700s. For the last three centuries, that haven has turned into a
scientific and cultural locus. Today, if you ask the Mekhitarist
fathers whether they are Venetian, they will say yes. If you ask
them whether they are Armenian, they will say yes. One can say that
they were pioneers in establishing a common European identity,
about which we speak proudly, yet with some apprehension. If it
used to be religion that bound Europe together a millennium ago, it
certainly isn’t any longer. Nor is it the economic advancement that
was specific to Europe two centuries ago. It isn’t ideology either,
which was both adhesive and encumbrance for decades in the last
century. Europe is more than its common history, more than geography,
more than a club for members. All those who’ve said Europe is an
idea are right. It is the idea of a Europe that is the common, if
unattainable ideal. Even those living outside this space have imagined
and desired a Europe which can be addressed collectively, a partner
which can be enlisted conveniently, a Europe to which they yearn to
belong. Armenia is Europe. This is a fact, it’s not a response to a
question. The collapse of the USSR brought us to a point of economic
and political crisis. I remember our discussions in Armenia, before
our entry into the Council of Europe. There were many questions about
the choice of path to take. Dante once said that the hottest places in
hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain
their neutrality. I’m happy to say I won’t be going there because I
was among the loudest advocates of the European path. The choice was
clear. Armenians believe in the values of the European enlightenment,
of European civilization. The moral, ethical and existential choices
that bring individuals and societies to select democracy over other
forms of government, rule of law over rule of man, human rights over
selective rights ­ those choices have been made. A people who have
lived under subjugation, have seen ethnic cleansing and genocide even
before the terms existed, have lived as a minority without rights,
now belong to a world where warring neighbors have found that they
can accept new borders based on realities on the ground and move
on. Europe’s nation-states have found that they can transcend borders,
without diminishing or ignoring cultural spaces, without expecting
historical identities to vanish. The European Neighborhood Policy
brings Armenia back home since Armenia’s foreign policy priority is
the gradual integration of Armenia into European institutions. The
double digit GDP growth, which Armenia achieved each of the last five
years, the successful admission into the WTO, the spirit of the free
enterprise, the changing political system and society are promising
signs that we are on the right track. However, it is too early to say
that the European standard is round the corner. It is not as close
yet as Europe itself, as Venice, as Verona, as the shared cultural
and religious values of the past and present.
To highlight and share those values, we will be launching a two-month
long Days of Italy in Armenia, beginning in early October. This project
has received the blessing and patronage of President Ciampi, President
Kocharian and Governor Galan. The centerpiece of these important events
will be an exhibition of the riches from the Isla Armena. In light of
all this, then, the Fondazione Masi has, in bestowing upon me this
award, put a great stamp of approval on Armenia, its foreign policy
directions, its European orientation, its future. I am privileged
to receive this prestigious award, il Grosso d’Oro Veneziano. This
is a special day for me. And this is, of course, a special place,
a special foundation and a special family with a glorious history of
650 years stretching all the way back to one of the greatest poets of
all times, Dante Alighieri. Dante’s descendants valued their heritage
and helped pass on his legacy. This legacy clearly manifests itself
in modern Italy and the Region of Veneto. Italy and Veneto also share
a legacy with Armenians. There is much symbolism in the fact that
Armenia’s coming back to Europe is being noted and celebrated here,
in Italy,” the Minister said.
–Boundary_(ID_x4pzqllqlg/RQ0Y4brxNlg)–

SYSTEM OF A DOWN FIGHT FOR THE FORE-FATHERS
by Eve Jenkin
Undercover Music News, Australia
Sept 27 2005
Armenian American band System Of A Down are proud of their heritage,
and have always fought to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide
of 1915-1923, in which approximately 1.5 Armenians were destroyed
by Turkey.
In a bid to gain official acknowledgement of this injustice, SOAD –
along with their fans, the Armenian National Committee of America,
Axis of Justice and the Armenian Youth Federation – will attempt to
sway the pending Armenian Genocide legislation.
By visiting the Batavia office of Representative Dennis Hastert, the
convoy will proceed to ask him to keep his word and hold a vote on
the upcoming legislation. As a member of the House of International
Relations Committee, Hastert has twice prevented the Armenian Genocide
legislation from coming to a full vote in the House despite have
expressed great enthusiasm for the measure since 2000.
If successful and the Speaker votes “Yes” to the Armenian Genocide
Resolution, he will allow the House’s 435 US members to cast their
ballots on the human rights movement. Ultimately, this will repay
for injustices victims of the genocide have suffered.
Serj Tankian, who along with his fellow SOAD members lost family to
the genocide, had this to say on the matter:
“Dennis, do the right thing…I just visited my 97- year-old
grandfather, my only link to the far past, and promised him that I
would go and try to talk to Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House,
and make sure that he takes this opportunity to bring up the Armenian
Genocide Resolution to the floor of the House of Representatives.
This is a personal issue to me and System.”

OSCE MEDIATORS TO MEET IN VIENNA
Baku Today
Sept 27 2005
The next meeting of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs mediating the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict is due in Vienna on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov was informed of the date for the meeting during the UN
General Assembly’s 60th session held in New York.
Mammadyarov said the venue and format of the next round of talks on
the conflict settlement should be determined at the meeting.
“Then it will become clear whether we will meet on the level of
foreign ministers or the co-chairs will visit Baku and Yerevan.”
Touching on prospects for the peace talks, Mammadyarov said there are
still opportunities to continue the negotiating process. Azerbaijan
should continue the talks while strengthening its military power,
he said.
“The stronger Azerbaijan’s economy, policy and army are, the more
beneficial it is for the country.”
Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers
agreed to keep the proposals that were not approved in the previous
Moscow and Kazan meetings confidential.
“Baku’s position of principle is to grant the highest status of
autonomy to Karabakh provided that Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity
is protected,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DEPUTY FM CLARIFIES RUSSIAN MEDIATOR’S STATEMENTS
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 27 2005
Baku, September 26, AssA-Irada
Deputy foreign minister Araz Azimov told journalists on Monday that
there are no grounds for Yuri Merzlyakov, Russian co-chair of the OSCE
Minsk Group mediating the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper Garabagh conflict,
to be concerned over the increase in Azerbaijan’s military expenses.
Such statements mean interference in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs,
Azimov said. “The increase in the budget is normal. The budget will
be raised as much as needed.”
The deputy foreign minister said the move is based on Azerbaijan’s
national interests.
“This is Azerbaijan’s internal affair. The decision was made by the
country’s leadership and government agencies and no one is allowed
to meddle in this”, he said.*

HISTORY CAN NOT BE FOOLED AROUND WITH, BECAUSE IT MIGHT COME BACK TO HAUNT US
VHeadline.com, IL
Sept 27 2005
“History can be always be distorted or manipulated to suit the ends
of those who want to put forward their erroneous viewpoints”
Oscar Heck’s story of the conversation with an Haitian Taxi-driver
and his call for reparations by the White or European colonial powers
needs a rebuttal, which will at at the very least brings to the fore
all of the issues concerned.
That story of President Hugo Rafael Chavez of Venezuela being in real
danger and the overthrow of President Bertrand Aristide of Haiti,
got me thinking enough to do my research and point out the many facets
of the issue.
If we go back in biblical times and even before that, slavery has
been the normal attitude of conquerors. If we go back to beginning
of the Islamic period, we will note that slavery began in earnest
after 632 A.D. When an Arabian Caliph sent an agent named Mohammed
Ali to Africa to capture and bring back slaves to Arabia soon after
the 7th century. The Arabs did not consider Africans as humans,
but only as chattel
The beginnings of slavery date back to the period of the Muslim
conquest and forced conversion of Assyrian Christian Mesopotamia,
Zoroastrian Persia, the Christian Kingdoms in Aram (Lebanon and Syria),
Asia Minor, Jewish Palestine, Coptic Christian Egypt, Christian Nubia
(Sudan), Algeria, Morocco, Christian Carthage (Tunisia) and Libya,
and reached into the heart of darkest Africa, through the lands of
the Tauregs and into Timbuktu, Nigeria, Musabenbeque (Mozambique),
Zanzibar (which came under the Al-Busaid dynasty of Oman till January
1964), Somaliland, Cote d’Ivoire and into Uganda.
If we go even further, the countless Muslim invasions of Hindustan
(India), the first by Mahmud of Ghazni from Afghanistan into the
territory of Raja Dahir, followed by the Moghal (Mongol) invader
Taimur-the-Lame into Hindustan where they forced the conversion to
Islam of thousands upon thousands of Hindus there, does not speak
well of Islam.
It was in Africa that all the big Arab slave markets began, and they
traded with Portugal, Spain, Holland, France and Britain. On the
South-East African coast the biggest slave trader was a Principe
Henri of Pondoland, an African Christian who traded in slaves with
the Portuguese. The U.S. came into the slave trade much later after
its independence in 1783. Even in the case of New France, the Governor
Louis de Buade, sieur de Frontenac, comte de Palluau et Forest was the
first to bring African slaves to far North America in November 1689,
which was considered a great triumph of France. In most of Africa
Tribal Chiefs did big business by capturing neighboring tribes and
selling them as slaves to Arabs or Europeans.
This has been the bugbear of the unknown Africa, and has been denied by
many of today’s Africans themselves, but there is historical data that
can prove all of this to be true. Arab Dhows can still be found hugging
the East African coast in search of slaves in this very day and age.
There never has been any doubt that Spain created the Amerindian
slaves in the Americas, and later brought in African slaves to work
in the gold mines of the Spanish colonies in America.
Nor is there any doubt that the British and other colonial powers
brought African slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean, having
bought them from Muslim (Arab) slave-traders on the West African coast,
but the British also brought in indentured slaves from India.
These were people who were kidnapped and brought to Demarara (later
British Guiana) and Trinidad & Tobago. Go to Java, and other parts of
Indonesia and see the many Buddhist Temples, which are now derelict
because of the Islamic conquests and forced conversion to Islam. It
should be noted that no history book on Asia and Africa blames the
Arabs outright for their enslavement of the African people. The
reasons are evident. Many of the African and Asian countries are
Muslim, or have alliances with Islamic states and it would not serve
their interests to expose it.
Thus the blame for slavery is conveniently laid at the feet of the
European colonial powers.
It was Islamic conquests after the 7th century that brought about a
great influx of slavery. Of course it was Salau-ud-Din (Saladin) the
Kurd who captured 20,000 Christian men, women and children pilgrims
on their way to the Holy Land and sold them into slavery.
Salau-ud-Din also invaded Nubia and forced Christian monks to convert
to Islam or die. While most converted, one named Maurice would not,
and he was skinned alive on orders of Salau-ud-Din that is the Black
St. Maurice whose statue graces the Cologne Cathedral. Is this not
the great Salau-ud-Din who Muslims think of as an Islamic warrior?
Remember along the coasts of the Maghreb (North Africa) the Corsairs
did a thriving slave trade by attacking European and American shipping,
capturing the crews, which they then sold as slaves. But it was
Stephen Decatur of the U.S. Navy that foiled the Corsair raiders
and soundly defeated them. Then there is the Othman Turks whose
fleets attacking the Mediterranean coast of Europe captured and sold
thousands of Europeans into slavery. There was a big slave markets
in Tripoli, Libya, in Meknes, Morocco, in Tunis, Tunisia (Carthage),
Algiers, Algeria, all countries conquered and colonized by Arab from
the Islamic invasion of the 7th century. Also the capture by Muslim
pirates of the niece of the Empress Josephine (Beauharnois) of France,
who was returning from a convent in Martinique who later sold her to
the Sultan of Othman Turkey. Slavery was part and parcel of Islamic
society and we cannot get away from it. A perfect example of this,
is the Holy City of Meknes in Morocco, within whose walls were buried
alive some 20,000 white Christian slaves.
Neither Islamic society nor those who support them want these truths
to be known.
There are still slave markets in Arab countries, where one can bid
and buy a slave of any nationality. The present forced conversion
Christians to Islam in the Sudan by the Arab regime in Khartoum is
an on-going affair. In Marseilles, France alone every year almost
4,000 girls disappear. This is where there are gangs operating the
slave markets from Arab and African countries. To talk of European
colonialism of the past and forget the slavery of the present is to
be duplicitous.
We can only deal with the present, because there is not much of the
past that we can really remember.
We see no cry for justice and reparations asking Muslim countries
to make reparations for their enslavement of Europeans and others,
from those that now expect the former European colonial powers to
pay for their past sins. Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia,
Morocco, Algeria and other Islamic states are just as guilty of the
enslavement of millions of people, if not more so than all the European
colonial powers put together. Are we to overlook Arab slavery, while
we only make it a point to remember the sins of Europe? No country
conquered by an Islamic force can ever remember its history beyond
the Islamic period. This is the religious brainwashing that has gone
on for centuries in the Middle East, Maghreb (North Africa), darkest
Africa and the Balkans.
Perhaps it is worth remembering that even the Othman Turks were past
masters at religious brainwashing, more so than all the communists
in Europe.
It is time to take serious overview of past history to get an honest
judgment of its reality vis-a-vis the Moors in Spain, the Arabs in
all of the present day Middle East and Africa, the Othman Turks in the
Balkans. Of course the Turks were in occupation of Bulgaria, Rumania,
Albania, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary for centuries and forced people to
convert to Islam or die. Why do think there is a Muslim Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina today, but by Turkish Islamic conquest centuries ago.
Do not forget the Turks still occupy Constantinople, which is part
of the Greek nation. Let’s not forget the Armenian genocide of 1915
-21 by Othman Turkey in which 1,500,000 people died. There is also
the Abyssinian genocide carried out by Italy in the mid1930s, both
of which have been conveniently forgotten by historians.
We cannot therefore judge the European colonial powers, if we do not
include Islamic invasions and slavery.
If we do not, then we cannot arrive at an honest judgment of all the
issues involved. We can deliberately pretend forgetfulness or omit
the facts that expose the reality of our time by selective amnesia,
but sooner or later it will catch up with us.
History can not be fooled around with, because it might come back to
haunt us.