A1plus
| 20:15:41 | 26-04-2005 | Politics |
SHAVARSH KOCHARYAN COMMISSIONED
Armenian National Assembly deputy Shavarsh Kocharyan was elected Vice
Chairman of the PACE sub-commission for protection of cultural heritage in
Strasbourg today, FRE/RL reported.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
A1plus
| 19:20:00 | 26-04-2005 | Politics |
MAMEDYAROV TO MEET OSCE MINSK GROUP CO-CHAIRS
Tomorrow Azerbaijani Foreign Minister will depart for Frankfurt to meet with
the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. The meeting will be held within the frames
of the Prague process. To note, The Azeri FM will leave for Frankfurt
together with OSCE MG US Co-Chair Steven Mann, who is in Baku at present.
According to the Armenian FM’s Press Secretary, Vardan Oskanain will not
depart for Frankfurt due to the absence of preliminary agreement.
As reported by Day.az, in his interview with ARA Azeri news agency OSCE
Minsk Group Russian Co-Chair Yuri Marzlyakov stated that the separate
meetings with the Foreign Ministers give better opportunity to become
familiarized with the positions of the parties in detail.
Pan Armenian News
ROMANIAN JOURNALIST – ETHNIC ARMENIAN LIFE ENDANGERED
26.04.2005 06:44
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The League of Arabic States has called Iraqi separatists
to release 3 Romanian journalists taken captive March 28, one of them being
ethnic Armenian, reported RFE/RL. Iraqi separatists threatened killing
journalists if Romania does not withdraw peacekeeping forces from Iraq.
Pan Armenian News
INCLUSION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN INTERNATIONAL AGENDA SHOOK TURKEY
POSITIONS
26.04.2005 05:09
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A procession was held in Jerusalem marking the 90-th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey. About a thousand
Armenians took part in it. Before that a liturgy was offered at St. Jacob
church in the memory of the innocent victims, the Yerkir newspaper reported.
Dressed in black the rally participants carried Armenian flags and posters
inscribed: «Armenians demand justice,» «Turkey guilty in Genocide,» «Turkey,
the past will chase you.». Participants of the procession laid wreaths and
flowers to the Monument to Victims of the Armenian Genocide. Jerusalem
Patriarch archbishop Torgom Manukian offered up a prayer. In his statement
Jerusalem Armenian community head Serob Sahakian noted that «after the 90
years of denial the Armenian Genocide issue is included in the international
agenda, which shook Turkey’s positions.»
Pan Armenian News
WASHINGTON NOT ACKNOWLEDGING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – ASSISTANCE TO TURKISH
DISHONORABLE POLICY
26.04.2005 04:54
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “While we appreciate the President George Bush’s
willingness to join with Armenians around the world, we remain deeply
troubled by his continued use of evasive and euphemistic terminology to
obscure the moral, historical, and legal meaning of Turkey’s genocide
against the Armenian people,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the Yerkir newspaper
reported. “This statement, sadly, once again, represents a form of
complicity in the Turkish government’s shameful campaign to deny a crime
against humanity,” he added. The ANCA has also expressed concern that the
Administration’s refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide reflects a
broader unwillingness to confront genocide – as evidenced by the White
House’s failure to take decisive steps to bring an end to the genocide in
the Darfur region of Sudan. The ANCA is working with a broad coalition of
organizations to pressure the Administration to respond in a timely and
meaningful way to the worsening crisis in Darfur. “If we are to end the
cycle of genocide, we must, as a nation, generate the resolve to forcefully
intervene to stop genocide when it takes place, to unequivocally reject its
denial, to hold the guilty accountable, and to secure for the victims the
justice they deserve,” added Hamparian. It should be noted that in February
of 2000, then presidential candidate George W. Bush, campaigning for votes
among Armenian voters in the Michigan Republican primary, pledged to
properly characterize the genocidal campaign against the Armenian people.
However, in his statements as President, he has consistently avoided any
clear reference to the Armenian Genocide, and his Administration has
consistently opposed legislation marking this crime against humanity.
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 26 2005
Armenia says it is ready to establish ties with Turkey
The Armenian Head of State Robert Kocharyan has responded to a letter
from the Turkish Prime Minister calling for a joint committee to
study the issue of the so-called genocide.
April 26 – Ankara says it is wary of the wording of the offer,
which leaves many issues not addressed.
The letter said that Armenia was ready to establish relations with
Ankara without any conditions.
`Let us firstly set up relations, Kocharyan’s letter read. `We
can later take into account various matters in an inter-governmental
committee.’
However, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the letter of
the Armenian Head of State was full of tricks of terminology and that
Ankara was cautious over establishing relations without having
settling the issue of the alleged genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Pan Armenian News
MERZLYAKOV: ARMENIAN AND AZERI PRESIDENTS ALWAYS HAVE DISCUSSION SUBJECT
26.04.2005 03:44
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «Getting to know the details of the situation is more
successful during private conversations between Armenian and Azeri Foreign
Ministers. At the current stage it is important to us to clear out the
stands of the parties in detail for us to be able to present those to the
parties to conflict and to find common points,» Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE
Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov stated, APA reported. In his words, after
Frankfurt the Co-Chairs will meet with Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian in one of
the European cities. Answering the question «Can the London and Frankfurt
meetings lead to a personal meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert
Kocharian?», the diplomat answered: «The Presidents always have subject for
discussion, and we – the Co-Chairs – have what to tell them. Yuri Merzlyakov
also clarified the issue of return of three Azeri captives to the Azeri
party. It should be reminded that during his latest visit to Yerevan OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Dimitrij Rupel spoke of the final solution of the problem
of return of captives, however the boys are still held captive. In Mr.
Merzlyakov’s opinion, the return of the captives is complicated by the
situation on the cease-fire line. Answering the question «why the OSCE
monitoring is not held at the part of the contact line, where the cease-fire
is being broken?» Merzlyakov said: «Monitoring is held after arrangements
with the parties. Fire at the contact line from both parties stops as soon
as field assistants of Personal Representatives of the OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk appear.»
Pan Armenian News
ARMENIAN FM WILL NOT MEET OSCE MG CO-CHAIR IN FRANKFURT
26.04.2005 06:35
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian will not got to
Frankfurt to meet with OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs, as there was no such
arrangement, stated Press Secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Hamlet
Gasparian. As of Oskanian’s possible meeting with the mediators after their
trip to Frankfurt, Gasparian noted that there is no concrete agreement on
further meetings either. It should be reminded that OSCE MG Co-Chairs will
meet with Azeri FM Elmar Mamedyarov within «the Prague process» April 27.
Mamedyarov will leave for Germany along with the OSCE MG Co-Chair, American
Ambassador Steven Mann, who is in Baku at present, reported Armenpress.
Czech News Agency (CTK)
CTK National News Wire
April 24, 2005
STETINA TO PROPOSE BILL ON CZECH RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PRAGUE, April 24 ; (RTJ)
Senator Jaromir Stetina wants to initiate a bill by which the Czech
Republic would recognise the violence inflicted upon Armenians in the
then Osman Empire in 1915 as genocide, he told CTK today.
“It is a shame that the Czech Republic does not have such a law yet,”
said Stetina, who attended a service organised by the local Armenian
community in Prague’s St Saviour’s Church in commemoration of the
genocide victims, whose number the Armenians put at 1.5 million.
“I’d like to beg the Armenian community in Prague to help me prepare
such a bill, and I’ll try to submit in the Senate as a bill for Czech
parliament to discuss,” said Stetina, unaffiliated senator who is a
member of the upper house’s Open Democracy group.
Stetina said his initiative has been motivated by the recent passing
of such a law in neighbouring Poland.
By passing its own, the Czech Republic would joint about twenty
countries which have passed one, including France, Russia, Italy,
Switzerland, Canada and Slovakia.
The EP labelled the 1915 transport and massacre of Armenians as
genocide in 1987.
Turkey refuses to call the 90-year old events genocide. It puts the
number of victims at 300,000 to 500,000.
Stetina said that Turkey, the successor state to the Osman Empire,
wants to enter the EU, and therefore it is important for it to cope
with its past.
Apart from the commemorative mass, Prague Armenians marked the bloody
events anniversary at a rally at Prague’s Old Town Square today. Two
hundred of Armenians and other people sympathising with them paid
tribute to the victims by a one- minute silence.
Pan Armenian News
ARMENIAN SPEAKER MET GEORGIAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA
26.04.2005 06:10
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Artur Baghdasarian
met with Georgian Ambassador to Armenia , the Press Service of the National
Assembly of Armenia reported. IN the course of the meeting the interlocutors
discussed the details of Artur Baghdasarian’s coming visit to Tbilisi.
Besides, the parties discussed questions of bilateral relations,
highlighting the activities of the Armenian-Georgian Interparliamentary
Commission. The importance of development of the economic,
scientific-educational, cultural cooperation and implementation of joint
programs was also noted.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress