Fresno Bee, CA
April 24 2005

It’s time for Turkey to acknowledge Armenian genocide

JIM BOREN

In the close-knit Armenian families of California’s San Joaquin
Valley, the stories of the first genocide of the 20th century are
passed along to each generation at dinner tables and family
gatherings. It’s a ritual to ensure that this scar on world history
won’t be forgotten.

But this isn’t just a history lesson about nameless victims of the
Armenian genocide of 90 years ago. These stories are very personal.
They trace how family members made their way to the Valley and the
tragic circumstances of those who died in a calculated slaughter that
meets every definition of genocide.

They talk about the great-grandmother whose children were murdered by
the Turks and only escaped the genocide by being hidden in a basement
by a friendly doctor and his wife. Or the 8-year-old girl whose
brother was killed and whose only hope was to find a way to survive a
Turkish death march through the desert.

They talk about how 1.5 million Armenians were killed during a
massacre that the Turkish government still won’t acknowledge.

The Turks’ intransigent attitude about those events still angers many
Armenian Americans. There’s also disappointment because the United
States government has buckled under threats from Turkey if our nation
dares call this tragic chapter what it is – a genocide.

Because Turkey sits in a strategic spot in the world, the U.S. State
Department, several presidents and Congress have refused to
officially declare that a genocide occurred.

The U.S. doesn’t want to offend the Turkish government. Never mind
that our leaders are offending the survivors of those 1.5 million
Armenians slaughtered during World War I. This wasn’t the collateral
damage of war. The Armenians were rounded up by the Turks and
executed.

But the politics of this issue could change thanks to Turkey’s desire
to become part of the European Union. French President Jacques Chirac
says Turkey must admit to the genocide as one of the conditions of
entry into the EU.

That says a lot about Turkey standing on principle. Its leaders won’t
acknowledge the genocide because it’s the right thing to do, but they
may admit to it occurring if the Turks get an economic benefit. That
tells you all you need to know about this ally of the United States.

Sunday is a special day for the Armenian community. It’s the 90th
anniversary of the genocide and a series of commemorative events have
been held the past week across the Valley. One of those was a dinner
by the Armenian Community School of Fresno (Calif.) that honored
survivors of the genocide.

In a north Fresno banquet room last week, family members told moving
stories about how their relatives were killed in the genocide and
what it took for some of them to survive. They all know these family
stories very well, and they will not shield their children from this
awful history.

It’s something that must be passed on.

The Armenian Community School honored genocide survivors from four
families. All but one has since died, but Oghda Boghosian, at age 98,
was there to receive her honor surrounded by family members. Also
honored were Mourad and Elizabeth Bedrosian, Anna Boyajian Koligian
and Dertad and Siroun Tookolan.

Oghda Boghosian was 8 when the Turks came for her family. Her oldest
brother was killed and her mother thought her best chance at survival
was to send Oghda on a march with her brother’s wife.

Going on a march usually meant death to participants, either through
the sheer torture of the procession without adequate food and water
or being shot when Turkish soldiers tired of marching along with
their victims. But it also could be a chance to flee.

Oghda was taken from the march by two Turkish boys and given to a
Turkish family that wanted an Armenian girl to keep. She ultimately
got away, and then finally arrived at Ellis Island in 1920. She
married Nigholas Boghosian, and after several years they went into
the farming business.

Oghda Boghosian’s story is not unusual and this 98-year-old woman
knows all too personally that there was a genocide that claimed
family members and so many others. It only compounds the tragedy for
this genocide to be officially ignored.

The Turkish government knows the truth. The American government knows
the truth. It’s time for both to speak it publicly.

Tampa Tribune, FL
April 24 2005

90 Years Later, Armenian Deaths An Open Wound

By JULIE PACE [email protected]
Published: Apr 25, 2005

TAMPA – Every April 24, Peter Zakarian pauses to remember a family he
never knew and a homeland he has never seen.
Zakarian spends the day commemorating the Armenian genocide, often
called the first Holocaust of the 20th century. Sunday marked the
90th anniversary of the genocide, an event still unknown to many
Americans and still unrecognized by the U.S. government.

The Armenian genocide was carried out by the “Young Turk”
government of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Muslim Turks
killed 1.5 million Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Christians, more than
half the Christian population living in the Ottoman Empire.

Five of Zakarian’s great- grandparents were killed by Turkish
soldiers.

“They were rounded up, lined up and shot,” Zakarian said.

Those members of Zakarian’s family that did survive endured bullets
and torture. Zakarian recalled the story of a great-uncle who
survived an execution-style attack.

“He stayed under a pile of bodies and hid for three days,” Zakarian
said. “In the middle of the night, he got up and ran away.”

Zakarian’s uncle and three surviving great-grandparents escaped their
hometown of Diyarbakir with few belongings. They made it to Europe,
where they boarded ships bound for New York harbor.

Zakarian knows he owes his own life in the United States to the
struggles of his family.

“I say to myself I’m living in Carrollwood in a nice house, but it’s
sad my family had to go to hell and back for it,” he said.

While Zakarian mourns his family’s struggles, he is outraged that the
Armenian genocide receives little attention. The Turks have never
admitted to the killings, and even though several European nations
have recognized the genocide, the United States has not.

Bills seeking to recognize the Armenian genocide have been brought
before the U.S. Congress, the most recent in January 2004. Historians
argue the U.S. government’s $1 billion in foreign aid to Turkey
influences the decision not to recognize the genocide.

“It always seems to have a lot of momentum, but they never actually
pass it,” Zakarian said.

Although the U.S. government doesn’t recognize the genocide, Father
Nersess Jebejian does, holding a Mass each year at St. Hagop Armenian
Church in Pinellas Park.

“We still fight to be recognized,” Jebejian said.

About 120 people gathered for Sunday’s 90th anniversary Mass, a large
number considering Jebejian estimates fewer than 1,000 people of
Armenian decent live in the Bay area.

“We want to remember this terrible tragedy because it wasn’t just a
matter of killing people,” Father Jebejian said. “It was deporting
them, forcing them from their towns.”

Zakarian said he recalls his family’s stories of the Armenian
genocide when he reads about recent conflicts in Rwanda and Sudan.

“It really should come to an end,” Zakarian said. “But if you
don’t know your past, you’re going to keep repeating it.”

Researcher Christine Perry contributed to this story. Reporter Julie
Pace can be reached at (813) 865-1505.

Armenians refuse to let genocide be forgotten

By Nick Allen in Moscow and Amberin Zaman in Ankara

The Daily Telegraph/UK
(Filed: 25/04/2005)

Hundreds of thousands gathered in Yerevan yesterday to mark 90 years
since the murder of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman empire
and to add their voices to an international campaign to press Turkey
to admit genocide.

Authorities led by President Robert Kocharyan hoped for 1.5 million
people to visit a giant hilltop memorial in the capital of Armenia as
the former Soviet republic seeks international recognition of the
genocide of its people under Turkish rule.

“Recognition and condemnation is not just an issue for Armenia today
but one of international politics,” Mr Kocharyan said, as streams of
people filed to the site.

Many members of the Armenian diaspora worldwide converged on Yerevan
for remembrance ceremonies and to join the Christian republic’s 3.8
million inhabitants in a minute of silence at 7pm.

While Turkey acknowledges the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of
deaths, it denies that there was a state-sponsored extermination plan,
a stance that has complicated its hopes of joining the European
Union. Accession talks are due to start this year.

France, one of 15 countries to recognise the Armenian genocide, has
called on Turkey to make an effort to set the record straight before
it can join the union.

Faced with growing pressure from the EU, Turkey has for the first time
invited international scrutiny of its past.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, wrote to the Armenian leader
this month proposing a joint commission to investigate the claims of
genocide. He said: “Teams of historians from both sides should conduct
studies in [Turkey’s] archives.

“We do not want future generations to live under the shadow of
continued hatred and resentment.”

Western diplomats welcomed the move as a breakthrough while critics
have shrugged it off as a ploy, saying that incriminating documents
have been purged from the Ottoman archives.

Mr Kocharyan, who has not officially responded to Mr Erdogan’s letter,
told a Russian television channel that its contents did not “offer
hope that our problems will be solved any time soon”.

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Turkish government arrested hundreds of
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, most of whom were
quickly executed. That was followed by the mass relocation of ethnic
Armenians from Anatolia through desert to Mesopotamia and what is
today Syria.

Starvation, disease, attacks by bandits and the brutality of the
escorting troops resulted in mass fatalities over the next two years.

Western sources estimate there were at least one million deaths in
what has been widely referred to as the first genocide of the 20th
century, though Armenians put the figure at 1.5 million.

Ankara maintains that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were
killed in “civil strife” when the Armenians rose against their Ottoman
rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

In one key change, EU-inspired laws have enabled a small and vocal
group of Turkish academics and intellectuals to challenge the official
version of what happened in 1915.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 24, 2005 Sunday

Abramian makes statement on Armenian genocide anniversary

MOSCOW

World Armenian Congress President Ara Abramian has called for a sober
political assessment of the situation with the international
recognition of Turkey’s responsibility for Armenian genocide in the
Ottoman Empire.

Abramian made a statement on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of
the beginning of the large-scale elimination of Armenian residents in
the Ottoman Empire, which lasted through the year 1923.

“Armenian genocide remains an acute political and international legal
problem. Hence, it has again become an issue of world politics,” the
statement runs. “The anniversary prompts a sober political assessment
of the situation with the international recognition of Turkey’s
responsibility with due account of modern political realities.”

Abramian thinks that this responsibility must be recognized on the
basis of “the international law and with the use of peaceful methods
of settlement of such disputes the international law is offering.”

“It can and must be a matter of the political responsibility of the
Turkish state for the committed crime in line with the international
law,” he said.

The statement criticized certain western partners of Turkey and NATO
for double standards in their approach to the recognition of Turkey’s
responsibility for Armenian genocide. “These politicians must
remember about ruinous consequences of double standards,” the
statement says.

“It is up to parties to the conflict to choose acceptable procedures
and possible compromises,” he noted.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 24, 2005 Sunday

Armenia ready to normalize relations with Turkey-president

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Armenia is ready even now to establish normal relations with Turkey,
said republican President Robert Kocharyan in his address on the
occasion of the 90th anniversary of the 1915 genocide of Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire.

“A crime had been committed, and it had no analogues in the history
of Armenian people and mankind and even had no name,” says the
address, circulated by the presidential press service. “We lost
million-strong victims as well as a huge waste of cultural, spiritual
and material heritage,” the Armenian president emphasized.

“The year 1915 became a water-divide in destinies of all parts of the
Armenian people. It drastically changed and distorted the normal way
of their development,” Kocharyan noted. The heavy consequences of the
genocide are felt up to this time in the life of both people of
Armenia and the Armenian diaspora, he added.

In the president’s opinion, the international recognition and
condemnation of Armenians’ genocide is “a problem which concerns not
only Armenia: it should be regarded now in the context of regional
and international policies”. Turkey’s negative stand on recognition
of the genocide “provokes puzzlement not only among us, but among the
international community as well,” the president stated.

Thousands of people are streaming on Sunday to the memorial in
Yerevan on the Tsitsernakaberd Hill, piled up in memory of genocide
victims. Representatives of political parties, the general public and
the diaspora lay flowers at the Eternal Flames.

The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II,
performed an office for the dead at the Eternal Flames. In the
evening, the Supreme Patriarch will conduct an ecumenical ceremony of
memory at Yerevan’s St. George the Illuminator Cathedral. It will be
attended by representatives of the Russian Orthodox, Assyrian
Orthodox, Georgian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox,
Anglican churches and the European Conference of Churches.
Delegations of dozens of countries stay in Yerevan. Russia is
represented by vice-speaker of the Russian State Duma lower house
Georgy Boos.

A statement by president of the World Armenian Congress Ara Abramyan
calls for a sober political appraisal of the situation on
international recognition of Turkey’s responsibility for the genocide
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, taking into account present-day
realities.

“The genocide of Armenians continues to be a pressing political as
well as international and legal problem. That is why it reached again
the level of world politics,” the statement says. “This date prompts
us to make a sober political appraisal of the situation on
international recognition of Turkey’s responsibility, taking into
account realities of the present-day world.”

In Abramyan’s opinion, recognition of this responsibility should take
place “on the grounds of international law and with assistance from
peaceful means (established in international law) for settling such
disputes”.

The congress president claimed that “we can and must speak now of
political responsibility of the Turkish state under the international
law for the crime committed by it”.

Blogger News Network
April 24 2005

Vichy France 2000

Analysis by Mark Radulich

France is playing with fire which may ultimately end up burning both
Europe and America. I’ve been saying in the last couple of posts that
the US needs to understand that world is slouching toward
multi-polarity whether we like it or not and it would be advantageous
to start strategizing with that in mind. I think we have begun to
pass the “Unipolar moment” and now the US needs to configure its new
role in the world. However, that goes doubly so for France, which has
a different problem. Their collective approach to world affairs is to
do what strictly benefits the French surpassing the US as global
leaders. Chirac and company are no more multi-polarist than the
neo-cons in Washington. Unfortunately, as I’ve stated above, their
Napoleonic quest to return to great at the cost of the US will most
likely result in tragedy for both our countries.

First there’s this from an April 13th Reuters story: “French
President Jacques Chirac has been pushing the EU to drop its refusal
to consider letting Iran enrich uranium, despite U.S. and European
fears Iran could use enrichment technology for weapons, EU diplomats
say…the talks took a new turn last month when negotiators from the
EU’s “big three” (EU3) and the office of EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana agreed in Paris to consider an Iranian proposal that it
keep a small-scale enrichment programme that would be closely
monitored by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Several diplomats said this shift — which came just after Washington
bolstered the EU position by offering its own incentives if Tehran
scrapped enrichment — was mainly the result of pressure by Chirac,
who pushed the French Foreign Ministry to drop its refusal to
consider Iran’s plan.

“Jacques Chirac … is the one who’s taking the Iranian proposal
under consideration,” said an EU3 diplomat, adding the French
president had the final say on foreign policy matters.”

So while Chirac is apparently attempting to play the Iranians against
us as a check, the French as a whole are showing their true racist
yet globally inept colors by voting “no” on the EU constitution
citing Turkey as the problem.

This from Zaman.com: “While the French have been intensively
discussing the constitution, which they want to be in line with their
traditions, one of the most important matters of debate is Turkey’s
possible future EU membership. Several French politicians from right
to left on the political spectrum link Turkey’s membership with the
constitution and are calling on the French public to vote “no” on May
29th. It is an exaggeration to say that French people will vote “no”
on the constitution only because of Turkey. As a matter of fact,
French people also complain about the EU’s moving away from the
concept of enlargement and the understanding of a social state. One
of the most controversial issues, however, is Turkey. Some French
citizens, despite the fact that they would probably vote “yes” to
Turkey’s membership in a referendum that will be held after 10 or 15
years if Turkey completes EU negotiations with success, are asking
“Why do we wait for 15 years? Let’s say “no” to Turkey as of now.”
Turning the so-called Armenian “genocide” allegations into a
principle in the world for the first time, France has a public, which
has the deepest objection to Turkey’s EU membership. Th?s attitude in
France is hypocritical. As a matter of fact, Turkey’s “tough”
secularism, administrative system and linguistic borrowings when it
encountered with the modern West are all from France. ?n short,
France has parallels with Turkey. Despite this fact, Turks are
anxious this time that their march towards Europe will be blocked in
Paris. It is rumored that French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier
said: “Forget about negotiations on October 3rd.” if the French would
vote “no” on the Constitution in the referendum on May 29th.”

Just so we all understand, then French are stroking the Iranians
while attempting to alienate Turkey. While I continue to believe the
French are not our enemy per se, I do believe their rather acute way
of dealing with international politics is an accident waiting to
happen.

Mark Radulich blogs at Progressive Conservatism.

Agence France Presse — English
April 24, 2005 Sunday 10:15 PM GMT

Bush marks 90th anniversary of Armenian massacre

CRAWFORD, Texas

US President George W. Bush on Sunday expressed sorrow on the 90th
anniversary of the forced exile and mass killings of as many as 1.5
million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

“I join my fellow Americans and Armenian people around the world in
expressing my deepest condolences for this horrible loss of life,”
Bush said in a statement that stopped short of calling the killings
genocide.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was
falling apart. Ankara counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands
of Turks were killed in “civil strife” during World War I.

Bush said the anniversary was also an opportunity to “look toward a
promising future for an independent Armenian state,” and thanked
Armenia for helping to fight global terrorism and to build a
democratic Iraq.

He also said he hoped for “a lasting and peaceful settlement” to the
dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave and said the United States seeks “a deeper partnership” with
Armenia.

“We remain committed to supporting the historic reforms Armenia has
pursued for over a decade. We call on the Government of Armenia to
advance democratic freedoms that will further advance the aspirations
of the Armenian people,” he added.

RIA Novosti, Russia
April 24, 2005

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT ADDRESSES PEOPLE ON THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

YEREVAN, April 24 (RIA Novosti’s Gamlet Matevosyan) Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan addressed Armenian people on the occasion
of the 90th anniversary of genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire.

Press service of the Armenian president told RIA Novosti that
Kocharyan’s address mentioned, in particular, that “1915 was a
watershed year in the Armenian history. It fundamentally changed the
natural evolution of Armenian history. The consequences of the
tragedy are still reflected in the lifestyle of all Armenians.”
According to Kocharyan, the condemnation of Armenian genocide on the
part of international community is an issue of general concern. “This
problem must be regarded in the context of regional and international
politics today,” the Armenian president stressed.

Kocharyan also noted that Armenian leadership had stated on numerous
occasions and continues to insist on development of normal relations
with Turkey. However, the policy of denial conducted by Turkish
authorities raises questions not only among Armenian people, but also
among global community.

According to the Armenian president, the genocide occurred due to
various reasons, but the major cause was the absence of Armenian
statehood.

>From the second half of the 19th century to 1920, the Ottoman Empire
conducted a planned persecution campaign against Armenians, which saw
its height in 1915-1916, when more than 1.5 mln Armenians were killed
in various regions of Western Armenia, which was part of the Ottoman
Empire at the time. About 600,000 Armenians became refugees and
dispersed among many countries. The Armenian Diaspora was formed.

Many countries, including Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece,
Italy, Canada, Cyprus, Lebanon, Russia, Slovakia, Uruguay (the first
country to do so officially in 1965), France and Switzerland have
recognized the genocide against Armenians.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 24, 2005 Sunday

French Armenians commemorate genocide anniversary

By Nikolai Morozov

PARIS

The French Armenian community, which is the largest in Europe,
commemorated the 90th anniversary of the beginning of Armenian
genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

There are meetings and marches throughout France. French Armenians
are demanding the Turkish recognition of the large-scale killings.

Churches prayed for the slaughtered Armenians, and a stone was laid
in the foundation of a memorial marking the genocide anniversary in
Marseilles, where about 80,000 French Armenians live.

On Friday French President Jacques Chirac and visiting Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan laid wreaths to the monument to Armenian
genocide victims in Paris.

According to Yerevan, the large-scale killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire in 1915-1917 claimed 1.5 million lives. France
recognized Armenian genocide by the then imperial authorities in
2001. The French Armenian community has about 500,000 members.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 24, 2005 Sunday

Crimea commemorating Armenian genocide victims

By Lev Ryabchikov

SIMFEROPOL

The Crimea is commemorating Armenian genocide victims.

A service for genocide victims was ministered in the St. Akop Church
in Simferopol on Sunday.

Armenian historians told a mourning rally that large-scale killings
of Armenians began in West Armenia in April 1915 by a classified
instruction of the Turkish government. They remembered with gratitude
Russian Emperor Nicholas II, who ordered to open the Russian-Turkish
border for 375,000 Armenian refugees. Some of them found refuge in
the Crimea, where many Armenians lived at that time.

11,000 Armenians were deported from the Crimea in 1944 together with
Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians and Greeks. Nowadays the Armenian
community of the Crimea has 9,000 members.