ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 24, 2005 Sunday

Genocide must be on agenda of EU-Turkey talks – federation

By Vitaly Makarchev

PARIS

The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy called on
the European Union on Sunday to put on the agenda of future accession
negotiations with Turkey the Turkish recognition of Armenian genocide
in the Ottoman Empire.

The EU and Turkey will start the accession negotiations this October.
The negotiations may make Turkey a EU member country within the next
10-15 years.

The denial of genocide endangers such fundamental European values as
justice and peace, the Federation said.

Nine of 25 member countries – France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, the
Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia and Cyprus – have called for
discussing the genocide question at the negotiations with Turkey.

China Daily
April 25 2005

Armenia marks 90th anniversary of Ottoman Empire massacres

Bill Gasperini

Tens-of-thousands of Armenians, including top officials, led a series
of events to mark the 90th anniversary of mass killings by Ottoman
Turks that began in 1915. The small Caucasus Mountain nation says the
killings constitute genocide, a claim that Turkey has long disputed.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian led a silent march, and laid
flowers at a monument to victims of the killings in the country’s
capital, Yerevan.

The commemoration follows a candlelight procession Saturday, as
Armenians remember those killed beginning in 1915.

Armenia says 1.5 million people were killed or starved to death in
what they say was a systematic extermination campaign at a time when
Christian Armenians constituted a sizable minority in the Muslim
Ottoman Empire.

But Turkey has long maintained that up to 300,000 Armenians and
thousands of Turks died in civil strife that accompanied the chaotic
collapse of the empire.

The Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with
Russian troops when they invaded Turkey as World War I raged
throughout Europe.

Bitterness over the issue has long strained relations between the two
neighbors, which do not maintain formal diplomatic relations.

Armenian Justice Minister David Arutionian insists that the killings
constituted the first genocide of the 20th century, and that Turkey
has to admit to this.

In recent weeks, there have been signs of a possible thaw between the
two nations.

Turkey has offered to establish a joint commission to study the facts
about what happened, while Armenia says it would not demand financial
compensation, if Turkey acknowledged the killings as genocidal.

Ankara has come under increasing pressure from the international
community, especially as it will soon start talks about joining the
European Union.

15 nations including Russia, France and Poland have said the killings
were genocide. The United States has not.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 24, 2005, Sunday
16:55:16 Central European Time

NEWS FEATURE: Armenians in Lebanon mark anniversary of killings

Anjar, Lebanon

Armenians living in eastern Lebanon commemorated the 90th anniversary
of the Armenian massacre Sunday, while welcoming a happier event, the
expected pullout of the last remaining Syrian intelligence units in
the country.

The eastern town of Anjar, where some 2,600 Armenians live, has
served as the Syrian Intelligence Unit’s Lebanese headquarters since
the first Syrian soldiers arrived in 1976.

Famous for its Moslem Ummayed historic ruins and its scenery, people
began to stay away from Anjar due to the Syrians’ presence.

Today, despite the anniversary of the massacre of up to 1.5 million
ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, the people of Anjar
appear hopeful and happy.

News travels fast across Lebanon and the Armenians in Anjar have
heard that the Syrians are due to complete their withdrawal from
Lebanon “by the end of the day”.

Lebanese military sources confirmed to Deutsche Presse Agentur, dpa
that most of the intelligence units have already left the
headquarters in Anjar, with only the head of the Syrian intelligence
units general Rustom Ghazali and around ten soldiers remaining, but
“they will be leaving Lebanon for good after the official ceremony on
April 26”, the sources said.

Lebanese pro-Syrian loyalists and officials as well as military
figures will bid an official farewell to the last remaining Syrian
soldiers.

Syria has pledged to the United Nations to withdraw all its troops
from Lebanon by April 30. Following the assassination of former prime
minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, Lebanon’s anti-Syrian
opposition and the international community intensified pressure on
Syria to withdraw.

The opposition has blamed the Lebanese pro-Syrian regime and their
backers in Damascus for Hariri’s murder.

Anjar which was famous for its restaurants near the waterfalls and it
fresh spring trout is already wiping out any reminder of the Syrian
presence.

“We want Anjar to be famous again for its historical ruins and good
Armenian-Lebanese cuisine…we do not want our town to be a town of
ghosts where people stayed away from because of the Syrian
presence…we want tourists and investors to come here,” Sebouh
Sekayan, Anjar’s Armenian mayor, told dpa.

The area near the waterfalls where most of the town’s restaurants are
located was busy Sunday, not with customers, but with construction
workers refurbishing in the hope of attracting large numbers of
tourists and Lebanese back to the town.

“We have been hired by the owner of Casino of Anjar to start working
on the outside gardens of the casino to prepare it for a hopeful
touristic season,” a worker at the site told dpa.

In this all-Armenian village in eastern Lebanon, residents who live
amid apple orchards, vineyards and Islamic ruins, were still cautious
about speaking to journalists.

“We are still afraid, few (Syrians) are still here and they will be
leaving for good in few days, today we are commemorating a massacre
which took the lives of our ancestors, we do not want any harm to
happen to our children,” an elderly Armenian lady said.

Holding white roses and white candles the old woman walked towards
the nearby church to remember those who died in the massacre.

The Armenians in Anjar are among the largest Armenian community in
Lebanon. They are the descendents of the survivors of the 1915-1917
massacre and are now leading a global campaign to declare the mass
killing a genocide.

>From 250,00 at the end of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, during which
thousands emigrated, only 120,000 Armenians now remain in Lebanon,
according to religious figures in the community.

Most of Lebanon’s Armenians hail from the region of Cilicia, today in
Turkey, and not in the present-day state of Armenia.

Armenians in Lebanon have gained the respect of all Lebanese, because
they proved to be hard workers, good businessmen, jewellers,
musicians, artists and good craftsmen.

They also gained respect because they stayed neutral during the
1975-1990 civil war in Lebanon.

The community is today represented by a government minister, six MPs
and three main political parties. dpa wh sr

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 24, 2005, Sunday
13:41:06 Central European Time

ROUNDUP: Millions mark 90th anniversary of Armenian massacres

Yerevan, Armenia

More than a million people gathered in the Armenian capital Sunday to
mark the 90th anniversary of the murder of up to 1.5 million ethnic
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, a crime often labelled genocide.

As Armenians around the world paid their respects, authorities in the
Caucasus republic wanted 1.5 million people to visit a memorial in
Yerevan – one for each victim – as they seek international
recognition of the fact of genocide of its people under Turkish rule.

“Recognition and condemnation is not just an issue for Armenia today
but one of international politics,” President Robert Kocharyan told
his people as mourners filed in bright sunshine to the giant hilltop
memorial.

“This is one of the most horrific tragedies mankind has ever
endured,” philosopher Alexander Manasyan said as he paid his
respects. “Today is a a sign that this must never happen again.”

Many members of the Armenian diaspora worldwide also converged on
Yerevan for commemorative ceremonies and to join the republic’s 3.8
million inhabitants in a minute of silence at 7 p.m. local time.

“For many years I have travelled to Armenia on this day,” said Rubina
Kirakosyan from California. “I must honour the memory of my ancestors
who were murdered and tormented.”

Turkey acknowledges the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of deaths in
“civil strife” during 1915-1917 but denies there was a
state-sponsored extermination plan – a stance that has complicated
its efforts to join the European Union. Accession talks are due to
start later this year.

France, one of between 15 and 18 countries to officially recognize
the 1915-17 Armenian Genocide, has called upon Turkey to follow suit
before it can join the union.

In a letter received before the anniversary, Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan upheld Ankara’s former position, Kocharyan said
on Russian television.

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Turkish government arrested hundreds
of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders, most of whom were
quickly executed. This was followed by the mass relocation of
Christian 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. Most Western sources
maintain that at least one million deaths took place.

The event has been widely referred to as the first genocide of the
20th century. dpa na pmc

The Gazette (Montreal)
April 24, 2005 Sunday
Final Edition

Armenians gather to remember: Open wounds. After 90 years there is
still no closure

ROBERTO ROCHA, The Gazette

Kartine Divanian was 4 when Ottoman soldiers burst into her home,
chained up the men and took them away to be shot. The soldiers then
came back to burn her house and everything else in the Turkish
village of Marzevan.

Her mother, fearing for her life, sent her to Greece with 16,000
other Armenian orphans. They never saw each other again.

Divanian’s wounds haven’t healed over the past 90 years, wounds she
passed on to her children and grandchildren now living in Canada.

And none of the 60,000 Armenians in the country will feel healed
until they get the closure they seek: for the Turkish government to
recognize what many historians and governments agree was a genocide
in which 1.5 million Armenians were killed or disappeared.

Last night, Montreal Armenians filled St. Joseph’s Oratory to
capacity to observe the 90th anniversary of the alleged genocide.

But they were also observing 90 years of denial by the Turkish
government.

“It’s time for closure. We still have to fight the fight,” said Taro
Alepian, president of the Congress of Canadian Armenians.

Last night’s event was a deeply devotional, multi-denominational
service exalting martyrdom and denouncing indifference.

“Our ancestors fell knowing that 90 years later we would be meeting
in churches,” said Azad Chichmanian, an Armenian community leader who
began the service.

“They knew that kind of life could not be taken away, no matter how
organized the killing or how much the Turkish government denies it.”

A choir ushered in the handful of survivors from that era, most of
whom rely on wheelchairs and are at a loss for words when

describing what they witnessed.

“Your wounds are my wounds,” said Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim of the
Malkite Greek Catholic Church of Montreal to the survivors. “The
blood of your martyrs is immortal.”

Officials from Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist faiths followed
with their own sympathies and condemnations.

Last year, Canada became the 17th government to recognize the
genocide, and other countries followed.

Alepian said that’s a good start.

“We want Canada to join Europe to pressure the Turkish government to
recognize the genocide,” he said.

“They need to face the truth like Germany did, and it’s a better
country for it,” he added. “Just like today’s Germans aren’t Nazis,
today’s Turks aren’t the killers. Why can’t they see this?”

For Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay, last night’s service transcended
politics.

“I’m here to pray for our future, to recognize that tragic things
happen,” Tremblay said.

“If every leader in our society took the time to do the same, they
would adhere to our true job, which is to respect the values of the
people who vote for us.”

[email protected]

GRAPHIC:
Colour Photo: IAN BARRETT, THE GAZETTE; Aroussiag Aghazarian, 99, is
comforted by her daughter before last night’s service.

China Daily
April 25 2005

Ottoman massacre of Armenians remembered across Europe
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-25 09:24

The Armenian community in France and elsewhere in Europe held solemn
masses, marches and memorials on Sunday to mark the 90th anniversary
of mass killings by Ottoman Turks which a growing number of countries
have recognised as a genocide.

The Parisian landmark of Notre Dame cathedral hosted a requiem mass
Sunday and many other gatherings took place across the city.

Some 350,000 ethnic Armenians live in France.

The mass was followed by a meeting at an Armenian monument where on
Friday French President Jacques Chirac and Armenian President Robert
Kocharian placed a wreath.

French Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande told the gathering of
3,000, mostly Armenians, that he would propose a law in parliament to
penalize those who deny the genocide.

“The Armenian genocide was the first of the 20th century, but, alas,
not the only one. The Armenian cause is not only for Armenians, but
for all those who are committed to human rights and the recognition
of genocide,” Hollande said.

The protesters later marched to the capital’s famed Champs Elysees
avenue and the nearby Turkish embassy.

“This is a protest march against Turkey, which continues to reject it
was a genocide,” said Alain Saboundjian, a spokesman for an Armenian
group in France.

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.

Some 80,000 Armenians live in the Mediterranean port of Marseille,
where the cornerstone of an Armenian monument due to be inaugurated
next year was put in place Sunday. The stone included written
messages from some of the region’s ethnic Armenian children.

“We had to wait until 2001 for France to recognise the Armenian
genocide. How long will it be before Turkey does?,” said regional
politician Michel Vauzelles, who addressed the crowd of several
thousand gathered for the occasion.

A requiem mass and a march to a proposed site of a genocide memorial
took place in the central city of Lyon, while a wreath was placed at
a war memorial in the northeastern city of Strasbourg.

Armenian religious and community leaders headed a cortege of around
1,000 people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv carrying candles
and red carnations.

“We want Turkey and other countries who have not already recognised
the genocide to do so,” said Karapiet Bagratouni, one of 3,000
Armenians in the city.

Greece recognised the massacres as a genocide in 1997 when it named
April 24 as “The memorial day of the genocide of Armenians by the
Turkish regime” and in Athens on Sunday a crowd of 500 including
diplomats and Greek officials placed a wreath at a war memorial.

The row over whether or not to call the killings genocide has
embarrassed Turkey as it readies for the start of European Union
accession talks later this year.

In Germany this week members of parliament from across the political
spectrum appealed to Turkey to accept the massacre of Armenians as
part of its history, saying this would help its EU aspirations.

On Tuesday, Poland joined a list of 15 countries that have officially
acknowledged the killings as genocide. Russia, the UN and the
European parliament all recognise the massacres as genocide.

Photo 1: Visiting Armenian President Robert Kotcharian and his French
counterpart, Jacques Chirac, background, stand before the Armenian
Monument in Paris, after laying a wreath Friday, April 22, 2005. This
weekend Armenia marks the 90th anniversary of what it calls the
genocide perpetrated by Turkey between 1915 and 1917, killing up to
1.5 million Armenians. Turkey rejects the claim, saying the number of
deaths is inflated and that the victims were killed in civil unrest
during the collapse of the empire.[AP]

Photo 2: People attend commemorations marking the 90th anniversary of
Armenian genocide in Paris.[AFP]

Photo 3: Armenians visit the memorial to the dead to mark the 90th
anniversary of the mass killing of Armenians in Yerevan, April 24,
2005. Hundreds of thousands of people clutching tulips, carnations
and daffodils climbed a hill in Armenia’s capital on Sunday to lay
wreaths and remember the 1.5 million they say were killed 90 years
ago in Ottoman Turkey. From the top the crowds could see the heights
of Mount Ararat now in eastern Turkey, the region where Armenia says
its people were slaughtered in a deliberate genocide during the chaos
surrounding the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. The mountain is
a potent symbol for the Christian nation but it lies out of reach
across a fortified frontier.[Reuters]

Photo 4: A violinist performs in front of the Eiffel tower during the
commemorations of the national day of remembrance for the victims and
heroes of deportation, which is part of the 60th anniversary of the
liberation of the concentration camps, in Paris April 24, 2005.
[Reuters]

ONASA News Agency
April 24, 2005

ARMENIANS MARK 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF OTTOMAN MASSACRES

YEREVAN, April 24 (ONASA – AFP) – Armenians across Europe – from
their capital Yerevan to the Ukrainian city of Lviv to the southern
French port of Marseille – Sunday commemorated the 90th anniversary
of the mass killings of their forebears by Ottoman Turks. Hundreds of
thousands of Armenians live in Europe, North and South America and
the Middle East and played a major role in keeping the memory of the
massacres alive through the years of Soviet rule in Armenia when the
subject was taboo. Today they have influential communities in many
Western countries, some of which have officially acknowledged the
Armenian massacres as genocide. The issue is believed to have played
a role in the Armenians’ ability to retain their language and culture
after almost a century in exile. On April 24, 1915 the Ottoman
Turkish authorities arrested some 200 Armenian community leaders in
the start of what Armenia and many other countries contend was an
organized genocidal campaign to eliminate ethnic Armenians from the
Ottoman Empire. Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen
perished in the killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Muslim Ottoman
Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey, was falling apart. Ankara
counters that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in
“civil strife” during World War I when Armenians rose against their
Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops. In Paris, the
Notre Dame cathedral hosted a requiem mass Sunday and many other
gatherings took place across the country. Some 350,000 ethnic
Armenians live in France. Armenian religious and community leaders
headed a procession of around 1,000 people in the western Ukrainian
city of Lviv carrying candles and red carnations. Greece recognized
the massacres as a genocide in 1997 and in Athens a crowd of 500
including diplomats and Greek officials placed a wreath at a war
memorial. In Yerevan itself Sunday tens of thousands of Armenians
including the president and top officials filed through the city’s
towering Genocide Memorial to mark the anniversary. A silent
procession headed by President Robert Kocharian laid flowers at an
eternal flame as Armenia’s chief clergymen sang an emotional
Gregorian Apostolic requiem service beneath the baking sun. Armenians
observed a minute of silence at 7:00 pm (1400 GMT) in commemoration.
It was preceded by an ecumenical liturgy in St. Gregory cathedral in
which prayers were read by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Greek and
Russian Orthodox as well as Armenian Apostolic priests. In the run-up
to the anniversary, Armenia, the world’s first Christian nation, has
pulled out all the stops in an effort to make Turkey acknowledge the
massacres as genocide and officials have estimated that 1.5 million
people — the number of the victims — will visit the memorial
through Sunday. Many members of the Armenian diaspora worldwide have
converged on Yerevan for the ceremonies. “As we live on, we must show
Turkey, which tried to annihilate us, that they were wrong,” said
Vaagn Ovnanian, an American-born millionaire who has invested heavily
in the Armenian economy. Meanwhile, Kocharian made a conciliatory
gesture towards Ankara, saying his government would not ask for
financial compensation for the killings if Turkey recognized them as
genocidal. “We are not talking about compensation, this is only about
a moral issue,” Kocharian told Russia’s Rossiya television, which is
also broadcast in Armenia. The row over whether or not to call the
killings genocide has embarrassed Turkey as it readies for the start
of European Union accession talks later this year. Armenians hope
that their mass commemoration on Sunday will increase the pressure.
On Friday, French President Jacques Chirac accompanied Kocharian to a
Paris monument for victims of the massacre, and in Germany members of
parliament from across the political spectrum appealed to Turkey to
accept the massacre of Armenians as part of its history, saying this
would help its EU aspirations. On Tuesday, Poland joined a list of 15
countries that have officially acknowledged the killings as genocide.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently proposed the
creation of a joint Armenian-Turkish commission to review the issue,
though officials expressed confidence that the study would confirm
Turkey’s current position.

7Online.com, NY
April 24 2005

Huge Rally Commemorates ‘Armenian Genocide’

(Times Square-WABC, April 23, 2005) – A huge rally in Manhattan today
commemorated the 90th anniversary of the slaughter of over a million
Armenians.

Thousands of Armenians from all over the world converged in Times
Square to remember what has come to be known as the “Armenian
genocide.”

Between 1915 and 1921 an estimated 80 percent of the population of
Armenia was killed, reportedly on orders from the Ottoman Turkish
leader, Talaat Pasha.

Speakers today called on Turkey, the U.S. and the U.N to recognize
the exterminations as an act of genocide.

Centres Of Armenian Genocide

The Times/UK
22 April 05

TimesOnline – Centres of Genocide

Ha’aretz
April 25 2005

No deal between sides in church dispute

By Yuval Yoaz

Minister without Portfolio Natan Sharansky has failed to bring about
a compromise between the Armenian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox
patriarchs ahead of the Ceremony of the Holy Fire, due to take place
on Saturday.

The ceremony is one of the highlights of the liturgical year at
Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The High Court of Justice has refused to intervene in the
controversy, citing “international political implications.”

During the ceremony, which takes place annually on the Saturday
before Orthodox Easter Sunday in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it
is believed divine fire lights the oil lamps in the inner room of the
traditional tomb of Jesus in the church.

About two weeks ago, Armenian Orthodox Patriarch Torkom Manoogian
petitioned the High Court of Justice to issue an interim order
obliging Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos I not to change the status
quo in the ceremony. The issue is whether the Armenian Patriarch can
enter the structure over the tomb, together with his Greek Orthodox
counterpart, and light his lamp directly from the lamp of the holy
fire, or whether he must wait in the tomb’s anteroom to light his
lamp from the Greek Orthodox patriarch’s.

Sharansky, appointed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to deal with the
controversy, reported to the High Court that he had managed only to
get the two sides to agree not to resort to violence during the
ceremony. The Jerusalem police force has received instructions from
the government not to interfere in the ceremony, but to protect
public order.