PERINCEK: SWITZERLAND IS BIASED ON ARMENIAN ISSUE
The Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 20 2005
SWISS POLICE WARNS PERINCEK NOT TO SPEAK ON ARMENIAN ISSUE
LAUSANNE – “Switzerland accused Turkey of committing genocide without
verifying historical facts and in a biased way,” Labor Party (IP)
leader Dogu Perincek said on Sunday.
Perincek took the floor at a conference on the issue of the so-called
Armenian genocide in Switzerland, where he arrived to give evidence
to Lausanne Prosecutor.
It was learned that prior to his arrival to the hall to address the
conference, Swiss Police warned Perincek not to deny the “so-called”
Armenian genocide. They told Perincek not to speak on so-called
Armenian genocide. The police also warned that in case Perincek speaks
on Armenian problem and in case this includes an element of crime,
this would be added to the ongoing investigation .
In July, Perincek was interrogated as he said that the so-called
Armenian genocide had never been happened. Lausanne Prosecutor’s
Office called on Perincek to come to the office on September 20th,
to interrogate him for a second time.
At the conference, Perincek called on Switzerland to make a serious
investigation about the Armenian issue. He said it was unjust to
declare a nation “committing genocide” without thoroughly examining
the events that had happened 90 years ago.
Perincek said Turks never committed genocide, on the contrary Armenians
–under the command of Russians– had committed genocide on Turks
who were trying to defend their country.
Swiss police covered Perincek’s speech and videotaped it to add it
to prosecutor’s investigation.
Perincek will hold a press conference in Zurich on Tuesday and give
his testimony in Lausanne Prosecutor’s Office on September 20th.
Perincek earlier had been detained in Winterthur city of Switzerland
as he said, “Armenian genocide is nothing but an international lie”
at a news conference, but he was released after being interrogated.
A legal procedure was also opened in Switzerland against Prof. Dr.
Yusuf Halacoglu, the Chairman of the Turkish Historical Society,
because of his statement refuting the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT DECORATES SHEIKH SULTAN WITH SAINT MESROB ORDER
WAM – Emirates News Agency, United Arab Emirates
Sep 19, 2005 – 10:45
Yerevan, 19 September 2005(WAM)–Armenian President Robert Kocharian
conferred the Order of Saint Mesrob Mashtots on H.H Dr. Sheikh Sultan
bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah,
who is currently on an official visit to Armenia.
Saint Mesrob order is the highest order in Armenia and was conferred on
Sheikh Sultan in recognition of his contribution to the UAE Armenian
relations in addition to his role in the fields of education and
culture.
During a meeting with President Kocharian, Sheikh Sultan conveyed to
him the greetings of President H.H Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
They also conferred on ways of promoting cultural and economic
relations between the UAE and Armenia.

ARMENIAN ACADEMY EIGHTH-GRADERS WEATHER THE STORM
By: Kira Chappelle
Wayne Suburban Newspapers, PA
Sept 19 2005
Joyce Faccenda’s eighth grade science class from the Armenian Sisters
Academy sailed out onto the Delaware River on the Northwind, a 38-foot
schooner, to learn about the river and its water.
The late spring day, however, was dark, cold, and rainy, and the
trash bags protecting the students eventually left them soaked.
“We were wet and soaked but they really enjoyed being out on water,
and they felt like they learned a lot… They got an understanding of
being on water, of learning about the content of the water, and how
healthy the Delaware River is,” Faccenda, who is the science teacher
for grades 5-8 at the Armenian Sisters Academy on Upper Gulph Road,
said.
Faccenda learned about the program, operated by Philadelphia City Sail,
at a teachers’ workshop, and had originally planned the field trip for
last October. However, due to the pregnancy of the City Sail director,
bad weather, and illnesses, the trip was repeatedly postponed until
June 3.
“[At first] it was hard for the kids to get excited because the day
was bad, and it was canceled so many times,” said Faccenda. “But we
went and they left really, really excited.”
The 17 students learned about sailing, map reading. They tested the
water for microorganisms and oxygen content.
“The captain said they withstood so much that day that they could
have been true sailors,” Faccenda said.
Kira Chappelle has headed back to Bowdoin College after her summer
internship at The Suburban and Wayne Times.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN, PLANT ROCK EDMONTON
Edmonton Journal, Canada
Sept 19 2005
They’re being hailed as the most relevant rock group today.
Los Angeles-based thrash rockers System of a Down mix Armenian
folk music with heavy metal to produce a political and irreverent
combination of mesmerising rhythms and, surprisingly, operatic vocals.
The quartet, all of whom are originally form Armenia, rock Edmonton’s
Rexall Place Tuesday night. Tickets are still available.
Journal rock music writer Sandra Sperounes says their last two albums
propelled them from underground status to the mainstream.
Sperounes: “To me they are the most important band in rock music
today. They are not afraid to be political. They are not afraid
to be irreverent. They are like no one else out there. They don’t
follow trends.”
As with many of today’s angry young artists, George W. Bush’s war in
Iraq has provided them a receptive audience for their message.
Sperounes: “Their first single asks the question: Why do the poor
always go to war?”
Her interview with drummer John Dollmayan, a former Canadian, will
run in Tuesday’s Journal.
They are the second big act in the city this week.
Former Led Zeppelin shrieker Robert Plant is at Rexall Place tonight.
Ticket sales have been lagging.
Sperounes: “He’s a tremendous live performer.”
Watch for her reviews of Plant and System of a Down in Tuesday’s and
Wednesday’s Journal.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CANADA: ARMENIA JOINS INTERNATIONAL DAIRY FEDERATION
just-food.com, UK
Sept 20 2005
The International Dairy Federation has announced the accession of
Armenia, its 42nd member, at its General Assembly in Vancouver.
Armenia is a country with a very ancient dairying history, the IDF
said. The famous tradition of dairying in the Caucasus region began
some 2000 years ago with the preparation of fermented milk mainly on
the basis of ewes’ milk.
Armenia, as a former Soviet republic, participated in the activities
of IDF for many decades. The country suffered from a major earthquake
that destroyed large parts of the infrastructure, including the dairy
sector, almost completely in 1988. It took several years to rebuild
infrastructure and electricity supply.
The newly formed Armenian National Committee comprises members
representing dairy production, processors, education, consumers and
government. Ashot Apoyan, has been appointed to take the lead and will
occupy the position of the first president of the Armenian National
Committee IDF.
Armenia also gains access to IDF’s worldwide network of 1200 leading
experts in all aspects of dairying.

LABOR PARTY LAUNCHES A DO NOT PURCHASE SWISS GOODS CAMPAIGN
The Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 20 2005
ANKARA – Turkish Labor Party (IP) deputy leader Mehmet Bedri Gultekin
has indicated today that his party has launched a campaign titled
“Do Not Purchase Swiss Goods” that will be effective until the Swiss
Parliament revokes a decision it adopted earlier on the so-called
Armenian genocide.
Members of the IP convened in capital Ankara’s main square Kizilay and
carried banners and shouted slogans encouraging Turks not to purchase
Swiss made goods due to the decision of the Swiss parliament vis-a-vis
the so-called genocide of Armenians.
Gultekin pointed out that IP leader Dogu Perincek was called by the
Lausanne Prosecutor’s Office. Perincek was warned by the Swiss police
officers before he gave a speech on the so-called Armenian genocide.
“The acts of the Swiss police have hurt the democratic image of
Switzerland. Despite the warnings, Perincek delivered his speech,”
told Gultekin.
Gultekin said Perincek will be questioned tomorrow by the Lausanne
Prosecutor.

MUCH ADO ABOUT TURKEY
By Tulin Daloglu
Washington Times, DC
Sept 20 2005
TODAY’S COLUMNIST
Last Thursday in the House International Relations Committee, Rep.
Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, opposed two resolutions dealing with
the alleged Armenian genocide. “This thing happened almost 100 years
ago, and we’re still beating on it 20 some years after I first got
involved in the debate on the floor of the House,” he said. “We ought
to get on with problems facing this country and the world today:
terrorism, Katrina, and other things, instead of rehashing this
thing over and over and over again at every anniversary of it.” Yet
both resolutions passed, and once again, Turkey’s present and past
“image problem” in the United States resurfaced.
In New York the next day, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
called the bills “completely political,” and Rep. Tom Lantos –
California Democrat, the ranking Democrat at the committee – admitted
as much. Mr. Lantos voted against a similar bill five years ago. This
time, although he explained in detail that what had happened to
the Armenian people is not technically genocide, he said he changed
his position because Turkey refused to open its northern front to
U.S. troops going into Iraq.
While committee Chairman Henry Hyde, Illinois Republican, said the
alleged genocide was the work of the Ottoman Empire, which was and is
distinct from the Republic of Turkey, Rep. Adam Schiff, Californian
Democrat, the sponsor of both measures, wrote, “The resolution urges
Turkey to go beyond recognition of genocide and reach a just resolution
with the Armenian people.”
The efforts on behalf of these congressional resolutions are not
solely about a duty to the past, but about demands from the present
and the future of Turkey. The question, then, is what exactly makes a
“just solution.” Armenian activists have over the years made their
three goals clear: recognition of the genocide, reparations for the
victims and return of the land.
If so, Gunay Evinch, a Turkish-American lawyer and Fulbright scholar,
compares the matter of compensation and return of property to the
Japanese-American relocations during World War II. In Korematsu
vs. United States, the Supreme Court held that treating all Japanese
Americans as a security threat and interning them was constitutional
for national security purposes. Fifty years later, however, the
Supreme Court reversed Korematsu (in Korematsu II), and held that
U.S. authorities did not have sufficient information to justify such a
relocation. But not only did the United States not return property to
the wrongfully relocated and dispossessed, it also did not compensate
them at the properties’ real value.
In the meantime, Mr. Schiff discussed the case of Turkey’s most popular
novelist in the West, Orhan Pamuk. Mr. Pamuk has been charged with
insulting Turkey’s national character and could be imprisoned for his
comments on Turkey’s killing of Armenians and Kurds. “Thirty thousand
Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody
but me dares to talk about it,” Mr. Pamuk was quoted as saying in an
interview with a Swiss newspaper in February. Yet, Mr.
Schiff forgot to mention that Mr. Pamuk is neither a historian nor
an expert on the matter.
But in June, a Swiss prosecutor started investigating comments made
by Yusuf Halacoglu, president of the Turkish Historical Society,
who in a speech in the Swiss city of Winterthur last year denied the
“genocide.” As denial of “Armenian genocide” is a crime according
to Swiss law, Mr. Halacoglu also faces possible imprisonment. Both
cases look equally disturbing and absurd.
Stanford Shaw, a lecturer at Ankara’s Bilkent University, called the
accusation against Mr. Halacoglu a “violation of academic freedom
and freedom of expression.” Mr. Shaw learned first-hand about the
consequences of denying the “Armenian genocide” when a bomb exploded
in front of his house in Los Angeles in 1977, and an Armenian terrorist
group called for his assassination.
Congress forgets in these bills that the Secret Army for the Liberation
of Armenia (ASALA) has killed more than 50 Turkish diplomats, and
makes no mention of the Muslims killed during the Armenian revolt.
Clearly, Mr. Lantos made a bad judgment call last Thursday if his
priority is the U.S. national interests. No one should forget the
challenge of history to the Turkish Republic in the region and its
geostrategic location in this very rough neighborhood. Iran is a
serious matter in terms of world peace, and no country would be happy
about a neighbor’s emerging nuclear power. The United States should
also realize that this is not the time to send the message that
Congress may allow Armenians to use the Diaspora to get what they want.
The people who believe that genocide occurred will believe it no
matter what. This is not about recognizing whether there was an
Armenian genocide; but this is about whether to seek compensation
and land from Turkey.
One should no wonder why every U.S. administration opposes similar
bills. But now, when the future of Iraq’s territorial integrity is
unprecedented, does Congress really want to send Turks the message
that it’s willing to divide up their country?
Tulin Daloglu is the Washington correspondent and columnist for
Turkey’s Star TV and newspaper. A former BBC reporter, she writes
occasionally for The Washington Times.

SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CONFERENCE DENOUNCED
The Anatolian Times, Turkey
Sept 20 2005
ISTANBUL – A denouncement has been filed against several Armenian
scholars who organized a conference on the so-called Armenian genocide
and used Ataturk’s picture on a poster at the University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA).
The denouncement was filed at the Uskudar Republican Prosecutor’s
Office and had the signatures of Dr. Ibrahim Oztek, Dr. Zihni Papakci
and owner of Iktidar Magazine Metin Hacimustafaoglu.
A conference on the so-called Armenian genocide was organized at
UCLA which was attended by Armenian scholars Vahram Shemmassian,
Ardashes Kassakhian and Levon Marashlian last April. The conference
posters had Ataturk’s picture in front of puppies.
Dr. Oztek stressed that Turks and the founder of Turkey Ataturk were
insulted by the posters and conference organized at UCLA. “We will
sue those responsible for the insult against the Turks,” noted Oztek.

MAMMADYAROV: “ONLY RETURN OF ALL OCCUPIED TERRITORIES WILL HELP RESTORE OUR TRUST IN ARMENIA”
Today, Azerbaijan
Sept 20 2005
Only the return of all the occupied territories back to Azerbaijan
will help restore our trust and confidence in Armenia and its declared
intentions on the establishment of good neighborly relations with
Azerbaijan.
There should be no place for illusions: Azerbaijan will never
compromise its territorial integrity, Elmar Mammadyarov Minister of
Foreign Affairs, said in his statement to the General Debate of the
60th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York on 18 September
2005. Since accession of Azerbaijan to the United Nations, this
Organization has been closely associated in our society with the hopes
for liberation of the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia.
Although the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is
strongly involved in the settlement process, prompt reaction of the
United Nations Security Council in response to the occupation of the
territories of Azerbaijan and adoption of four resolutions 822, 853,
874 and 884 still generates optimism for peaceful settlement of the
conflict in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of
Azerbaijan. The principles unanimously adopted by the Security Council
in those resolutions continue to be the basis for the settlement
of the conflict. Last year consideration by the General Assembly of
the agenda item entitled “The situation in the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan” played a crucial role in attracting attention to the
dangerous practices carried out by Armenia in the occupied territories
of Azerbaijan.
“As for the negotiation process itself, I must admit that we are now at
a critical juncture where the chances for resolution of the conflict
are cautiously optimistic. The Government of Azerbaijan remains
committed to the peaceful settlement of this protracted conflict,
based on the respect for the norms and principles of international
law,the implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions
and the OSCE documents and decisions. We expect that the Armenian
side will proceed from the similar constructive approach and will
not miss this window of opportunity,” he stressed.
“Such a step will relieve the Government of Armenia from a label of
aggressor inherited after occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan
and will provide for both parties the opportunities to be brought
by the settlement of the conflict,” he underlined. He reiterated
Azerbaijan’s readiness for providing the security assurances for the
Armenian population of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
“As for the status of the region, it is necessary to create favorable
conditions for the secure and dignified return of the expelled
Azerbaijani population to the Nagomo-Karabakh region and other
occupied territories, to establish there normal living conditions
and to provide opportunities for economic development for both
communities,” the Minister emphasized.
Once the agreement is achieved, both for political and legal guarantees
of its implementation we will need the support of the international
community for the deployment of the multinational peacekeeping
forces, demining, restoration of communications, rehabilitation
of lands, as well as the provision of security guarantees for the
population in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, including
the creation of local police forces in the region for both Armenian
and Azerbaijani communities. Last, but not least point on the conflict
resolution. It is the issue of communication of the Armenians living
in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan with Armenia and thatof
the Azerbaijanis living in the Nakhchivan region of Azerbaijan with
the rest of thecountry.
“From this high rostrum, after the recent meeting of the Presidents
of Azerbaijan and Armenia held in Kazan on August 26 2005, I urge
the Armenian not to loose this chance and to advance the negotiation
process with the assistance of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairmen
in accordance with the mutual understandings reached with in the
Prague process,” Mammadyarov underscored. Mammadyarov is to be back
on Tuesday.
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ARMENIA’S AMBASSADOR TO ITALY RUBEN SHUGARYAN MEETS WITH DEPUTY FM OF ITALIA MARGERITA BONIVER
ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Sept 19 2005
YEREVAN, September 19. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Ambassador to Italy Ruben
Shugaryan met with Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy Margerita
Boniver, press-service of the RA Foreign Ministry reported ARKA
News Agency. They discussed issues of Armenia’s Eurointegration
within the program of new neighborhood, possible development of the
Armenian-Turkish relations in the context of the European processes
and the negotiations on Turkey’s entrance to the European Union.
According to the press-release, the sides discussed in details the
issues related to the organization of Italian-Armenian Friendship
Days in October, 2005 in Armenia. This initiative is sponsored by
the President of Italia Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and the President of
Armenia Robert Kocharyan. Boniver expressed her satisfaction with
the development of Armenian-Italian relations. A.A. -0–