ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF CANADA
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Contact: Shant Karabajak 514-334-1299

PRESS RELEASE
April 24, 2005

THE SOLIDARITY OF SORROW
Gerald Kaplan at 90th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in Toronto

The Armenian National Committe of Canada would like inform you of the speech
delivered by Gerry Kaplan, keynote speeker at the 90thanniversary
commemoration event in Toronto, on April 17, 2005.
The following is a transcript

Keynote Address to the Toronto Armenian Community on the 90th Anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide

April 17, 2005.
Gerald Caplan

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots in the spring rain.

T. S. Eliot wrote these haunting, unforgettable words in his epic poem The
Waste Land. This was 7 years before the Armenian genocide, which we
commemorate on April 24 and which we have no evidence Eliot was touched by.
It was 21 years before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during the 2nd World War,
during the black heart of the Holocaust, which we commemorate on April 19
and which Eliot could hardly have conceived only 2 decades later. And it was
72 years before the genocide in Rwanda, the great genocide of the late 20th
century, occurring almost exactly half a century after the world, emerging
from the nightmare of Hitler, vowed Never Again. April, when the lilacs
bloom again.

The 20th century has gone down in historical infamy as the Century of
Genocide. I’m sorry I don’t know whether the 1904 genocide by the German
army of the Herero people of south-west Africa (now Namibia), the first
genocide of the last century, also took place in April. But we do know that
the near-genocide of the Fur people of western Sudan has now entered its 3rd
April with little respite and no adequate international intervention. We
also know from Rwanda and Darfur that Never Again has been trivialized as so
much rhetorical bombast by public figures on public occasions, sound and
fury signifying little. We now know that unless major strategic or economic
interests are at play, if nothing is at stake beyond mere human life, on
however massive a scale, then the accurate description of the state of our
times is Again and Again and Again.

What we also know, I’m afraid-and this is an equally dismaying
observation—is that for a very large number of those descended from
victims and survivors of the genocides of our time, the precise concept is
in any event NOT Never Again. It’s that never again will OUR people be the
victims of such a calamity.

I am honored and humbled to have been asked to give the keynote address on
this historic occasion. But I also feel outraged and almost morally
defeated-as you all must surely be— that the central message of this 90th
anniversary remains the relentless effort to persuade our own government in
Ottawa, the Government of the United States, and-I single it out for reasons
that I’ll try to make clear—the government of Israel, to perform a simple
act of justice. We must continue to insist that each of them officially
recognizes that in 1915, a classic genocide, wholly consistent with the
definition set down 35 years later in the United Nations Convention for the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, was deliberately
inflicted upon the Armenian people living in Turkey by the Turkish
government and army and their proxies.

It happens to be among the several terrible ironies of this humiliating
situation that Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-born Jewish lawyer who coined the
word genocide and almost single-handedly pressured the United Nations into
adopting the Convention in 1948, cited the annihilation of the Armenians as
a seminal example of genocide.

I have asked myself why I was selected for this role today. I assume my good
friend Aris Babikian, well-known to you all, played a key role in this
decision. I’m very sorry family matters have prevented Aris from being here
today. For those who may not know, I want to tell you that in my view, Aris
Babikian is the best single ambassador that the Canadian Armenian community
has. NOT because he never stops lobbying anyone with the slightest power and
influence about the injustice of non-recognition, although that is true. But
because he is THIS community’s link to OTHER communities who have shared
comparable tragedies. In fact, I regret to say frankly, in my experience
Aris is one of only few Armenian Canadians who have shown a genuine interest
and who has reached out to such other communities.

And that’s why I believe I’m here. Because like Aris, I believe in the
solidarity of sorrow and the solidarity of victims.

My own special focus is Rwanda. For various reasons, I came to write a long
report, a history, in effect, of the Rwanda genocide. Called “Rwanda: The
Preventable Genocide,” it documents the organized slaughter in 1994 of
perhaps 800,000, perhaps a million—no one yet knows for sure– Rwandan
Tutsi and thousands of pro-democracy Rwanda Hutu, and the complicity in or
indifference to this genocide by members of the international community.
When the report was published, I found myself unable simply to walk away and
begin new and unrelated pursuits. I feared that the memory of the genocide,
only 6 years after the tragedy, had already almost vanished, assuming any
but a bare minority ever knew the truth about it in the first place beyond a
few horrific TV images.

Working from my home, I founded an international voluntary movement called
Remembering Rwanda, dedicated to commemorating in 2004 the 10th anniversary
of the genocide. (The 11th anniversary, on April 7, passed with barely a
murmur; I doubt many outside Rwanda knew of it at all.) From the start, I
particularly sought out the support and cooperation of Jewish and Armenian
organizations.

I had 2 reasons. I instinctively believed that the solidarity of victims
would be obvious to these 2 communities above all, so that the simple fact
of shared victimhood would lead their survivors and descendants to rush to
support each other. And I believed (as someone who has always been involved
in political action for social change) that for good practical reasons of
increased influence, the more of us that we could unite in a common cause,
the better for us all.

Despite my long years in the political trenches, I seem to have been
stunningly naïve. Of course we found some support. A number of prominent
Jews in North America, Europe and Israel lent us their names. A few
prominent Armenians did the same. Aris managed to get the agreement of
several international Armenian organizations to use their names as well, but
I believe that I only ever spoke to a couple of their members in total.
During last year’s 3-day commemoration in Toronto for the 10th anniversary
of the Rwanda genocide, Aris alone showed up on behalf of the Armenian
community. I can tell you how gratified the Rwandans were by his presence.
In the dozens of other cities throughout North America and western Europe
where commemorations took place, sometimes a few known Armenians were
involved, sometimes none at all. Why should this be? I asked a number of
people. The bottom line always seemed to be a preoccupation with the
Armenian genocide to the exclusion of any other.

This is of course understandable. We naturally all feel most strongly the
loss of our own family and kin. But beyond that, the Armenian people, like
the Rwandans in certain ways, still must cope with the special burden of
official denial. They are assaulted by the harsh reality that the Turkish
government to this day refuses to acknowledge the crime that was committed
and lobbies incessantly against recognition of the genocide by other
governments. I know that this insult continues to drive the Armenian
community.

Nevertheless, I must tell you frankly that I found the general disinterest
of Armenians in the Rwandan genocide to be not only morally disappointing
but from your own point of view, politically short-sighted.

As for the Jewish communities of the western world and the government of
Israel, with notable honorable exceptions they failed to respond in a
positive manner. I believe that most of the western Jewish and Israeli
establishments were more or less indifferent to the Rwandan genocide.

In regard to the Armenian genocide, I must report that these same elements
were in the vanguard of denial.

I fully understand that these are very sensitive and delicate matters, and
it’s much easier not to raise them at all. But that would be running away
from uncomfortable truths carrying important lessons. I want instead to try
to talk about them as carefully as possible. I’m sure the fact that I’m
Jewish-wholly non-religious, even anti-religious, but yet Jewish to my
core—complicates the issue considerably. These are thoughts I have tried
to work out for several years. Today seems to be an appropriate forum for
articulating them.

On the walls of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington,
DC, are inscribed one of Hitler’s more intriguing statements. In 1939, just
before he launched his aggression against Poland, triggering the Second
World war, Hitler explained that he was dispatching special death squads to
Poland that would deliberately slaughter large numbers of Polish men, women
and children. But he wasn’t remotely concerned about the reaction. “Who,
after all,” he asked, “speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
In other words, he was saying, with sufficient shamelessness, you could
literally get away with murder, even murder of the ultimate kind. For the
past 8 decades, a series of Turkish governments and their supporters have
largely confirmed Hitler’s cynical insight, as they have denied the very
existence of the genocide and attempted to undermine all attempts to have it
recognized.

As it happens, in recent years their bullying and intimidation tactics have
increasingly failed, as a growing number of countries have officially
recognized the genocide. But to our shame, Canada has not, the United States
has not, and Israel has not.

One year ago, the House of Commons in Ottawa voted to recognize the genocide
by a large margin, 153 votes to 68. But the entire cabinet voted against the
resolution, citing the need to maintain good relations with Turkey. So the
bizarre situation in our own country is that the Canadian House of Commons
recognizes the genocide of the Armenians, but the government of Canada
officially does not.

In the United States, although George Bush promised recognition in his first
presidential campaign, he soon enough reneged in the face of joint pressure
from both Turkish officials and significant Jewish-American organizations,
such as the highly influential American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.
This is not often widely discussed publicly. But it’s perfectly familiar in
American political circles since Congress too has been convinced by this
same tenacious lobby to reject resolutions calling for recognition. This
lobbying effort was hardly unknown, having been documented last year by the
Israeli daily Haaretz among other sources.

I should also stress that on the other hand, and as one would have hoped and
expected, prominent among those publicly calling for American government
recognition of the genocide were a significant number of Jewish Americans.
They included Holocaust scholars, rabbis and community leaders, all of whom
had concluded from the evidence that there was absolutely no question that a
classic genocide had been inflicted on Turkey’s Armenians.

The cooperation between Turkish officials and these Jewish American
organizations naturally reflects Israel’s own position on the question. That
position is an adamant refusal to acknowledge the 1915 genocide, regardless
of the evidence. In fact so strongly has this policy been maintained by a
series of Israeli governments that it is, unfortunately, fair to say that
rather than indifference, rather than the passivity of the bystander,
Israelis, with a few notably courageous exceptions, have taken active
measures to undermine attempts to safeguard the memory of the Armenian
genocide. One of these, I’m afraid, has been to deny that a genocide ever
occurred. Here we have the most appalling irony of them all: that those who
consider that denial of the Holocaust is tantamount almost to a 2nd
Holocaust, have now become deniers of the genocide of the Armenians.

The motives of this almost Orwellian stance are, however, clear enough.
There are two.

The first, and the better-known, is based on Israel’s determination to
maintain a strategic alliance between itself and Turkey in the Middle East.
Israel’s vital interests are deemed to be at stake here, not to say it’s
very survival. This is an understandable and easily defended position. But
it’s a position that places realpolitik and national strategic interests
ahead of ethics, ahead of the solidarity of genocide victims, and ahead of
Israel’s self-declared claim to be a different kind of nation, indeed a
“light unto the nations”. This is a position that says that even the common
fate of genocide cannot take priority over Israel’s perceived self-interest.

But this leads to the 2nd reason for Israel’s refusal to recognize the
genocide, one that I find far more difficult to understand or to share. It
is precisely the refusal to accept that the Holocaust and the Armenian
genocide, or the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, or the Holocaust and
any other human catastrophe, can be equated in any way.

As the Jerusalem Post editorialized a decade ago: “There is nothing in
history like the Holocaust. It was not even JUST a genocide.” The Holocaust
must be seen as transcendent, as being in a separate category, from all
other presumably “ordinary” genocides like the Armenians’. In fact it’s not
a genocide at all. It’s THE Holocaust, and it’s always with a capital “H”.

I want to say again that these are remarkably sensitive issues, frankly
uncomfortable and difficult to discuss. They are felt passionately and
unforgivingly by many. For many Jews, both in Israel and the western world,
recognizing other genocides somehow diminishes the singularity, the
uniqueness, of what Hitler did to the Jews of Europe, and on this uniqueness
they are uncompromising. Nothing, they declare, can compare to the
Holocaust. It is incomparable. It is unprecedented. It is unique. It is
even, in the actual words of two scholars determined to end any possibility
of further debate, “uniquely unique”.

The significance of this debate has been described by one Israeli scholar
this way: “From Auschwitz came 2 people: a minority that insists it will
never happen again, and a majority that insists it will never happen to US
again.”

This is a helpful way to frame the debate. It points out that the lesson of
the Holocaust, or at least the implication, can be seen as either
particularistic or universalistic, as either a unique episode in human
history applicable only to the Jewish people or a grotesque reflection of
the potential capacity of human nature for depravity. Of course every event
in history is unique and unprecedented in certain ways, and beyond question
some aspects of the Holocaust are literally unique, that is to say, nothing
else like them had ever happened before or indeed since. But the same, alas,
can be said of aspects of both the Armenian and Rwandan genocides.

I believe that what the Armenian, Jewish and Rwandan genocides have in
common transcend their differences.

For what all 3 have in common is that in each case, a cabal of conspirators
set out explicitly and deliberately to exterminate all the members of the
target group for the simple reason of WHO they were, not what they did. What
all have in common is a demonstration that whether Turks in the
circumstances prevailing in 1915, or Germans in the context of Nazi Germany
and World War 2, or Rwandan Hutu in the ambience of the 100 days after April
7, 1994-in each of these circumstances, ordinary Turks and ordinary Germans
and ordinary Rwandans perpetrated crimes that no one would have thought
them-or any other human being—capable of. I believe that in advance, few
of them would have believed themselves capable of such a descent into
barbarism.

For that reason, I consider that I too am capable-under unfathomable but
feasible circumstances-of perpetrating similar crimes. For that reason, I
see in the Holocaust a universal and not a particular lesson.

I see that any people anywhere may suddenly become the victims of
unspeakable atrocities.

I see the solidarity of sorrow, not the competition of victims.

I see that all racism, all bigotry, all hatred, all anti-democratic
behaviour must be opposed without compromise.

I see the need to fight for the rights of the oppressed and the victimized
wherever in the world they may be.

Let me conclude with a quote from an article written in 1918 by a man named
Shmuel Tolkowsky. Tolkowsky mattered. He was secretary to Chaim Weizmann,
then the leader of the world Zionist movement and later the 1st president of
the State of Israel. The article, written only 3 years after the genocide of
the Armenians, was called “The Armenian Question from the Zionist Point of
View”. It is reproduced in a recent book given to me by Aris Babikian called
The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide, written by an
Israeli, Yair Auron.

“We Zionists look upon the fate of the Armenian people with a deep and
sincere sympathy,” Tolkowsky wrote. “We do so as men [he meant humans], as
Jews, and as Zionists. As men our motto is.’I am a human being. Whatever
affects another human being affects me.’ As Jews, our exile from our
ancestral home and our centuries of suffering in all parts of the globe have
made us, I would fain to say, specialists in martyrdom; our humanitarian
feelings have been refined to an incomparable degree, so much so that the
sufferings of other people-even alien to us in blood and remote from us in
distance-cannot but strike the deeper chords of our soul and weave between
us and our fellow sufferers that deep bond of sympathy which one might call
the solidarity of sorrow. And among all those who suffer around us, is there
a people whose record of martyrdom is more akin to ours than that of the
Armenians?”

Today I would add: “Or that of the Rwandans?”

So I hope that Armenians, Rwandans and Jews, and all women and men who
believe in justice and a better, more equitable world, will work together
for genocide prevention, will work together to end the terrible calamity in
Darfur, and will work together to ensure that when we meet again 10 years
from now, we will commemorate together the 100th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide, mildly comforted that, at long last, the entire world will finally
have come to acknowledge the terrible, indisputable reality of your history.

-30-

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenians ask Turkey to recognise genocide 90 years on

The Independent – United Kingdom
Apr 25, 2005

Anne Penketh Diplomatic Editor

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through the Armenian
capital, Yerevan, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.

As Armenians across the world marked the grim anniversary, a British
genocide prevention charity urged the Government to recognise the
genocide, and to encourage Turkey to do likewise.

Up to 1.5 million Christian Armenians were slaughtered during the
First World War by the Ottoman government in what was then Turkish
Armenia.

Although France, which is home to 400,000 Armenians, and eight other
European states have officially recognised the massacre as genocide,
Turkey has refused to do so.

The German parliament is to consider a resolution which calls on
Turkey to recognise the genocide and which admits to German
co-responsibility, as Turkey’s ally in the war.

‘Partly through approval and through failure to take effective
preventive measures, there was a German co-responsibility for this
genocide,’ said Chancellor Gerhard Schrýder’s spokesman, Gernot
Erler. ‘The Bundestag asks the Armenian people for their forgiveness.’

James Smith, the chief executive of Aegis Trust, a British charity,
said: ‘We understand that Turkey is an important ally within
Nato. However, the time is long overdue for the British Government to
encourage Turkey to come to terms with its past, and to join other
European states in giving the Armenian genocide the recognition it
deserves.’

The Turkish government, which is pressing to join the European Union,
refuses to recognise the figure of 1.5 million dead and says Armenians
were among many victims of a partisan war that also claimed many
Muslim lives from April 1915.

The commemorations in Yerevan began on Saturday night when thousands
of people held a torchlight vigil at a granite obelisk on a hilltop
where a flame has burned since 1965.

Armenia and its neighbour, Turkey, do not have diplomatic relations.

Armenian in Kuwait mark anniversary of genocide

Kuwait Times
Apr 25, 2005

KUWAIT: Hundreds of Armenians flocked at their Prelacy compound in
Salmiya yesterday to mark 90th anniversary of the mass killings of
Armenians, which happened during the reign of Ottoman Empire. To make
this anniversary more ideal, hundreds of their nationals voluntarily
donated blood to representative of Kuwait’s Central Blood Bank, while
others attended high mass celebrated by Orthodox Archbishop Dr Goriun
Babian. From early morning, Armanian filed into the circular burning
memorial flame erected in front of the Prelacy compound bringing with
them special flowers to remember millions of people perished during
the massacre. Ottoman authorities began rounding up intellectuals,
diplomats and other influential Armenians in Istanbul on April 24,
1915, particularly in the eastern parts of the country. Armenia
claimed up to 1.5 million Armenians ultimately died or were killed
over several years as part of a genocidal campaign to force them out
of eastern Turkey. Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians
died, but says the overall figure is inflated and that the deaths
occurred in the civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire.

Speaking to Kuwait Times, Archbishop Babian said, “We remember and
pray for our martyrs today, thanks God for the generosity and
hospitality of the Arab people including Kuwait, some of us have
survived the genocide. But we still seek justice for the deaths of our
fathers. We want Turks to recognise the genocide and confess for their
sins they committed. During the genocide, they have driven us out of
our territory and now we want to claim our territorial rights.”
According to Babian France, Russia and many other countries have
already declared the killings were genocide, but he was disappointed
to note that superpower, [United States], and United Kingdom failed to
label this atrocities as genocide. “These countries are just calling
this a tragic event in our history as massacre. Everyone in the world
recognised this as genocide and we want them condemn this act. We
don’t want this thing happen to others as well. Some other criminals
were punished, but the Turks were not,” he said.

Armenian communities around the world marked the deaths of millions in
the genocide, just like here in Kuwait. Armenians started to remember
the genocide from the first week of April.

Archbishop Babian thanked His Highness the Amir, HH the Crown Prince
and other cabinet officials for granting them full freedom they were
enjoying here. “We enjoy all kinds of freedom, education, religion and
promotion of our culture. We want to keep this relationship strong and
intact,” he said.

World War One gave the Young Turk government the cover and the excuse
to carry out their plan. The plan was simple and its goal was
clear. On April 24, 1915, commemorated worldwide by Armenians as
Genocide Memorial Day, hundreds of Armenian leaders were murdered in
Istanbul after being summoned and gathered. The now leaderless
Armenian people were to follow across the Ottoman Empire (with the
exception of Constantinople, presumably due to a large foreign
presence), the same events transpired from village to village, from
province to province.

Die Welt, Deutschland
24 April 2005

Armenien gedenkt des Völkermordes
(Armenians remember the genocide)

Im Kaukasusstaat Armenien haben mehr als eine Million Menschen – ein
Drittel der Bevölkerung – des Massenmords und der Vertreibung der
Armenier durch die Türken vor 90 Jahren gedacht

Foto: An der Gedenkstätte Zizernakaberd in Eriwan drängten sich die
Trauernden

Eriwan/Berlin – In der Hauptstadt Eriwan legten die Trauernden am
Sonntag Blumen an der Gedenkstätte Zizernakaberd (Schwalbennest)
nieder, die den 1,5 Millionen Opfern des Völkermords im Osmanischen
Reich gewidmet ist. Sie starben bei den Deportationen oder wurden
getötet. Heute leben noch etwa 80.000 Armenier in der Türkei. Der
armenische Präsident Robert Kotscharjan verlangte eine strikte
Verurteilung des Massakers durch die internationale Gemeinschaft.

Symbolisch sollte in Eriwan für jedes Opfer ein Trauergast aus
Armenien oder dem Ausland zu dem Denkmal kommen. Nach Berichten von
Augenzeugen türmten sich die Blumen meterhoch. Der Mord an den
Armeniern war „eine der schlimmsten Katastrophen, die die Welt je
erlebt hat`, sagte der Philosoph Alexander Manasjan. „Der heutige Tag
ist ein Zeichen, das sich so etwas nie wiederholen darf.`

Die evangelische Kirche bat das armenische Volk für die deutsche
Beteiligung um Verzeihung. Der Ratsvorsitzende der Evangelischen
Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), Wolfgang Huber, rief die Bundesregierung
dazu auf, „sich zur deutschen Mitschuld zu bekennen, den deutschen
Anteil an den Ereignissen aufzuarbeiten und im eigenen politischen
Handeln daraus Konsequenzen zu ziehen`.

„Ich sehe mit Beschämung die Verstrickung unseres Volkes in diese
Vorgänge`, sagte Bischof Huber am Samstag bei einem ökumenischen
Gottesdienst im Berliner Dom. „Ich sehe zugleich den Genozid am
armenischen Volk vor dem Hintergrund unserer eigenen deutschen
Vergangenheit, die in den schrecklichsten Völkermord der Geschichte
mündete, und vor dem Hintergrund der Erfahrungen, die wir mit der
Aufarbeitung dieser Ereignisse gemacht haben.`

Im Osmanischen Reich begann vor 90 Jahren, am 24. April 1915, die
massenhafte Vertreibung und Zwangsumsiedlung, die nach Ansicht vieler
Historiker auf Auslöschung der christlichen Armenier abzielte. Die
Türkei bestreitet den planmäßigen Mord bis heute und schätzt die Zahl
der Opfer auf nur 200.000.

Das Auswärtige Amt wollte am Sonntag zu dem Aufruf Hubers vorerst
keine Stellung nehmen. Das Deutsche Reich war in der damaligen Zeit
Verbündeter des Osmanischen Reiches und schwieg zu dem brutalen
Vorgehen. Der Bundestag hatte in der vergangenen Woche über die
Parteigrenzen hinweg an die Türkei appelliert, die Massaker an den
Armeniern als Teil ihrer Geschichte zu akzeptieren.

Die UN-Menschenrechtskommission hat die Greueltaten an den Armeniern
als Völkermord gewertet. Mindestens 15 Staaten schlossen sich diesem
Urteil an, darunter Frankreich. Deutschland vertritt bislang eine
zurückhaltendere Linie.

„Die Armenier hassen nicht`, sagte Präsident Kotscharjan. „Armenien
ist auch heute bereit, normale Beziehungen zur Türkei zu
unterhalten.` Bei den Kundgebungen wurden erstmals keine türkischen
Flaggen verbrannt. Die Türkei, die der Europäischen Union beitreten
möchte, und Armenien unterhalten keine diplomatischen Beziehungen.

The Jerusalem Post
Apr. 24, 2005 18:59
Armenians mark 90th anniversary of genocide
By SARA FISCHER

;cid=111 4322082590
Armenian demonstration in front of Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem
Photo: Sara Fischer

While many gathered with family and friends to celebrate freedom from
tyranny this Pessah, Israel’s small Armenian community remembered the
fateful years of the Armenian genocide.
Armenians gathered outside the Turkish Consulate in the Sheikh Jarrah
neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sunday to demonstrate against Turkey and
remember the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians, which took
place 90 years ago. The demonstrators urged Ankara to acknowledge the
violent events under Ottoman rule.
Officially, Turkey today says that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks
died during civil strife. Ankara earlier this month called for the two
countries to jointly research the killings.
Turkey, which has no diplomatic ties with Armenia, is facing increasing
pressure to fully acknowledge the event, particularly as it seeks membership
in the European Union. France, Russia and many other countries have already
declared the killings were genocide; Israel and the United States both have
not.
The issue is extremely sensitive in Turkey, and Turks have faced prosecution
for saying the killings were genocide.
In Jerusalem, young and old congregated, jointly singing the Armenian
national anthem, waving the Armenian flag, holding signs admonishing the
Turkish government and pictures depicting the atrocities. “The struggle will
continue on until we get the recognition and justice,” community leader
Abraham Shemmessin said.
On Monday, hundreds of Armenians will gather in Jerusalem’s Old City for a
memorial service in St. James Cathedral followed by a parade and a
candlelighting ceremony at the Armenian memorial on Mount Zion. Other events
are scheduled throughout the day.
“The genocide is a sign of memory and resurrection and an important ritual
which has been denied, what we want is recognition,” Armenian historian
Albert Aghazarian told The Jerusalem Post.
Nearly every Armenian here has a story of his own connected with the
killings, despite being the second, third or fourth generation of survivors.
Garo Sandrouni, owner of the Jerusalem Armenian Art Center, lost his
grandfather in the massacre. He was survived only by Sandrouni’s grandmother
and father who fled to Lebanon and then to Jaffa. Growing up, he said, his
father never spoke about the genocide.
“He never talked about that… it was very hard to accept… he never wanted
to share his sadness with us, he never wanted to remember those years,”
Sandrouni said.
However, Sandrouni and his children think differently when it comes to
speaking about the genocide. Sandrouni said, “we should remember that and
never forget so that other countries will not make the same mistake with
other people. This is the way and so I always talk about it.”
In Armenia yesterday, hundreds of thousands marked the anniversary of the
mass killings with candles and a moment of silence, vowing to press their
case to have the killings recognized by Turkey, and the world, as genocide.
Turkey began arresting Armenian intellectuals, diplomats and other
influential leaders in Constantinople on April 24, 1915, as violence and
unrest grew, particularly in the eastern parts of the country. Armenia
claims the Young Turk administration attempted to ethnically exterminate the
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Michael Stone, a professor of Armenian Studies at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, said the Armenian people must preserve their language and culture
and remember what happened so that the world would know. “We need to learn,
understand, love and remember,” he told a gathering in Bat Yam Thursday
evening.
For now, the Armenian community in Jerusalem stands united in its struggle,
as the back of T-shirts Armenians are wearing around the Old City state: “90
years on, the march for recognition still continues.”

BBCNews
Sunday, 24 April, 2005, 15:22 GMT 16:22 UK

Armenians remember mass killings
By Natalia Antelava
BBC News, Yerevan

Armenia wants Turkey to admit the mass killings amounted to genocide
Armenians around the world have commemorated the 90th anniversary of the
killings of hundreds of thousands of people by the Ottoman Empire.
Hundreds of thousands of Armenians took to the streets of Yerevan to pay
their respects to the victims.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian is leading an effort for recognition of
the killings as genocide.
But Turkey is resisting the effort, saying the killings were merely
casualties of war.
The crowds marched in mourning and remembrance, in a seemingly endless human
chain moving slowly up the hill towards the monument to Armenia’s most
painful memory.
Foreign delegates and politicians were the first to come and go.
Then, it was just people, hundreds of thousands of women, men and children,
only a very few of them old enough to remember what Armenians call the first
genocide the 20th Century.
It took hours in the unbearable heat to get up to the memorial that honours
victims of the massacres that began in 1915.
Ninety years ago, on the night of 24 April, the government of Ottoman Turkey
rounded up about 250 leaders of the empire’s Armenian community.
Some were deported, others executed.
Over the next two years nearly 1.5 million Armenians were reportedly killed
or died during deportations from Turkey.
Open door to genocide
To this day, many Armenians believe it was the killing of their people that
paved the way to the Holocaust.
We can’t let our children forget what happened – the world does not pay
attention to Armenia as it is, so we should do our best to keep reminding
them

Borseb Gevorkian, an Armenian from Lebanon
“After all, who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians,” Hitler has
been quoted as saying.
Armenians around the world say it is essential for them to remember.
“We can’t let our children forget what happened. The world does not pay
attention to Armenia as it is, so we should do our best to keep reminding
them,” said Borseb Gevorkian, who came from Lebanon to join the march.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Mr Gevorkian’s grandparents fled
Turkey for Lebanon, a country which is now home to a large part of Armenia’s
huge Diaspora.
It is believed that there are three times the number of ethnic Armenians in
Lebanon than in Armenia itself, which has a population of three million.
“This is an important occasion. After all, it’s us – the members of the
diaspora whose parents were deported and killed. I think that’s why it was
important for us to be here.” he said.
Demands for recognition
But many will argue that it is the people who live today in the impoverished
Armenia that are most haunted by the past.
Ninety years later, Armenia has no diplomatic relations with Turkey and its
borders are sealed, hampering much-needed development of Armenia’s
struggling, post-Soviet economy.

Armenia want Turkey to admit the mass killings amounted to genocide
Armenian President Robert Kocharian says the country does not want financial
compensation from Turkey.
What Armenians want is for Turkey, and the world, to recognise what happened
as genocide.
An increasing number of governments are already doing so.
France, Russia, Poland and Germany are among 15 nations that say that the
genocide did take place. They are calling on Turkey to follow the suit.
But Turkey says the numbers of those killed are grossly inflated and that
the Armenians were casualties of World War I, not genocide.
As Ankara prepares to start its EU membership talks in October, Armenia
hopes for Europe will push Turkey to change its stance as did the thousands
of those who marched on Sunday.
They marched not only in commemoration but also in demand for the world to
recognise what everyone in Armenia believes, that they suffered the first
genocide of the 20th Century.

FresnoBee.com
Sunday, April 24, 2005

Much pride, remembrance at Armenian genocide event
By Louis Galvan / The Fresno Bee

Vertaim Krikorian, 78, holds the U.S. and Armenian flags Saturday at City
Hall. Her grandparents died in the genocide.
John Walker / The Fresno Bee

With hundreds of misty eyes watching, the Armenian flag was unfurled
Saturday in front of Fresno City Hall during a ceremony commemorating the
Armenian genocide in which 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the
Ottoman Turkish government between 1915 and 1923.
The program, the second annual ceremonial raising of the Armenian banner at
City Hall, drew a crowd of about 600 men, women and children, most of them
of Armenian descent whose families suffered during the genocide.
Fresno City Council Member Tom Boyajian, whose grandparents on both sides of
his family were among those killed, served as master of ceremonies. He
joined numerous speakers in reminding the crowd not to forget their heritage
and to continue to seek justice for their slain loved ones.
Said Fresno Mayor Alan Autry: “We are here to mourn, we are here to
remember, and we are here to hope.”
Autry pointed out that in addition to the 1.5 million deaths, many other
Armenians were victims of rape, torture and other forms of violence during
the genocide.
“If you don’t remember, you are doomed to repeat it,” said Autry, sending a
message to young people to “make sure your generation never forgets.”
And, he told the crowd, it’s important to keep alive the hope that the
Turkish government — even after 90 years of denial — will finally accept
responsibility for what happened.
“It’s difficult to be forgiven if you don’t step up and accept
responsibility,” Autry said.
Autry and other speakers challenged the federal government and the Bush
administration to officially recognize the Armenian genocide and to put
pressure on the Turkish government to stop denying the genocide happened.
State Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, said justice can be served only when
the truth is known.
“It hurts when this country, at the highest level — Congress and the White
House — falls victim to their [Turkish] lies,” Poochigian said.
Poochigian, whose grandparents lost family members during the genocide, was
in Sacramento on Thursday where about 1,200 people gathered at the state
Capitol to thank the state Legislature for supporting his bill to
permanently recognize the Armenian genocide on April 24 of each year.
The bill was signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, who said in his signing message:
“We must recognize crimes against humanity if we are to prevent them.
Silence in the face of genocide effectively encourages those who would
commit such atrocities in the future.”
Other speakers Saturday included Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno; Rep. George
Radanovich, R-Mariposa; and Raffi Hamparian, representing the Armenian
National Committee of America, Western Region Board in Los Angeles.
The program opened with the raising of the American flag by a color guard
from Fresno High School’s ROTC program while trumpet player Danny Pena
played the national anthem.
Pena then played the Armenian national anthem while an Armenian Boy Scout
troop, the Fresno Sassoon Ho Menet Men Chapter, raised the Armenian colors.
In the parking lot after the program, Natasha Azarian, 27, and her brother,
Vasken Azarian, 20, former Fresno residents now living in Berkeley, said
they liked what they saw and heard.
With more and more older Armenians — sons and daughters of the victims of
the genocide — dying each year, they agreed it’s up to the young people to
make sure future generations are not allowed to forget the genocide.
“Right now, you are not going to read it in our history books,” said Nathash
Azarian.
Vasken Azarian, looking at the huge crowd, said: “I’ve never been prouder to
be an Armenian than today.”
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559) 441-6139.

Shant Atikian, 19, right, carries the flag of Armenia during a ceremony
Saturday outside City Hall in Fresno that commemorated the Armenian
genocide. Atikian is escorted by other members of an Armenian Boy Scout
troop, the Fresno Sassoon Ho Menet Men Chapter.
John Walker / The Fresno Bee

Fresno City Council Member Tom Boyajian, whose grandparents on both sides of
his family were among those killed in the Armenian genocide, served as
master of ceremonies Saturday.
John Walker / The Fresno Bee

Glendale News Press
April 23, 2005
Only the truth can set us free
PATRICK AZADIAN

Years ago, one of my dear friends, Valerie, called me up and asked me to
write down a number. As she is also my client, I did not question her and
obliged. After giving me the number, she said: “Her name is Afsan, she is
beautiful, she’s got two PhDs, and she is very, very nice. Call her!”
I could not help but wonder what type of a name Afsan was. I asked Valerie
where she was from.
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She had not anticipated any further questions after giving me such a
glorious description of Afsan. But she responded that Afsan was from the
same place both our grandparents were from. Valerie is of Greek ancestry,
and like my paternal grandparents, they were forced to flee their homes in
Asia Minor during World War I.
My suspicions were true. Afsan was Turkish. A few days later, Valerie called
me up again and insisted I contact the girl. Afsan was at Valerie’s studio
in Beverly Hills, getting a makeover.
I was hesitant. After all, dating a Turkish girl would not be too different
from Margaret Thatcher meeting Che Guevara at the local Irish pub, or
Chairman Mao taking Mother Teresa out to a romantic, candlelight dinner. I
could not visualize a common ground, and if she had been brought up with the
Turkish government’s policy of denial, then there was probably a basic
difference in our core values.
Somehow, I was persuaded to call Afsan. I figured, if two human beings
cannot meet and have a civilized conversation in good faith, then we live in
a nasty world. I decided, for one day, I could be a world citizen, or better
yet, a person with no roots whatsoever.
I picked up Afsan at Valerie’s studio. Before any part of her anatomy had
actually touched the passenger seat, she said: “You look Turkish.”
I was tongue-tied for more reasons than one. Valerie had not been
exaggerating.
It was now official: I was going to be a world citizen for the next few
hours. Turkish-Armenian dialogue had been on ice for more than eight
decades; it could wait one more day.
As we sat on the rooftop of the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, sipping
afternoon tea and munching on biscuits, we covered all the basics in the
first 10 minutes. My membership to the world citizenship did not last long.
Afsan asked me what I had tried to avoid as we first met: “What happened to
your people?”
I had taken a bite off the biscuit, and it had reached the halfway point in
my throat. Her question caught me off guard, and I started coughing and
choking on the biscuit. Tears started flowing down my cheeks. Afsan was
concerned, she put her hand on my back, leaned forward and said: “You are
crying. I am so sorry if I asked the wrong question.”
“No, no,” I answered. “I have biscuit stuck in my throat.”
“Oh!” she said and handed me the teacup; I was back to normal after a few
minutes.
Afsan insisted: “We don’t learn about this part of ‘our’ history in Turkey.
I want to know.”
I looked at her deep blue eyes and responded defensively: “If you want me to
say my great-grandmother and grandparents were not forced to flee their
homes in Van (southeast Asia Minor), and in the process lost at least eight
members of their family, I cannot.”
I was going to get this off my chest now and see if our friendship could
flourish.
I encouraged Afsan to do her own research if she really was interested in
the truth. With her academic background, it should not have been very
difficult for her to decipher between historical revisionism and reliable
historical records.
I left her with a few thoughts, before we went back to lighter topics.
“Ask yourself, as you already have, what happened to those people? How could
over 2,000 years of presence on those lands be terminated in a few years
without a systematic plan of action?
“But most importantly, ask yourself, what kind of a world would we have if
parents could abuse their children without any consequences and later blame
it on unruliness? What type of society would we nourish if every time when a
woman is raped, we claim there are two sides to a story? What sort of family
structures would we build if husbands could murder their wives and then
blame it on the fact that she was chatting with the grocer? And what are the
consequences of rewarding state genocidal policies by blaming the victims
and revising the past?”
To her credit, Afsan listened carefully. Last I heard, she had gone back to
help her homeland recover from a disastrous earthquake. I hope we were able
to agree on some core values as human beings. As cliché as it may sound,
truth can set us free, and that applies to all of us.
* PATRICK AZADIAN works and lives in Glendale. He may be reached at
[email protected]

Armenian National Committee of America
888 17th St. NW Suite 904
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: (202) 775-1918
Fax: (202) 775-5648
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet:

PRESS RELEASE
April 24, 2005
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918

PRESIDENT BUSH AGAIN FAILS TO HONOR HIS
PROMISE TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

WASHINGTON, DC – Ignoring calls from a record two hundred and ten
U.S. legislators, President Bush failed, once again, to honor his
pledge to properly characterize the Armenian Genocide as a
“genocide” in his annual April 24th remarks, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).

In a statement issued today, on April 24th, the annual day of
remembrance for the Armenian Genocide, the President again resorted
to the use of evasive and euphemistic terminology to obscure the
reality of Turkey’s genocide against the Armenian people between
1915-1923. In retreating from his promise, the President ignored
the counsel of the one hundred and seventy-eight Representatives
and thirty-two Senators who had written letters urging him to
properly characterize the Armenian Genocide.

“While we appreciate the President’s willingness to join with
Armenians around the world by issuing a statement on this occasion,
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 ANCA. “This statement,
sadly, once again, represents a form of complicity in the Turkish
government’s shameful campaign to deny a crime against humanity.”

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.

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. 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.

The text of the President’s remarks is provided below.

#####

The White House

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary

April 24, 2005

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

On Armenian Remembrance Day, we remember the forced exile and
mass killings of as many as 1.5 million Armenians during the last
days of the Ottoman Empire. This terrible event is what many
Armenian people have come to call the “Great Calamity.” I join my
fellow Americans and Armenian people around the world in
expressing my deepest condolences for this horrible loss of life.
Today, as we commemorate the 90th anniversary of this human
tragedy and reflect on the suffering of the Armenian people, we
also look toward a promising future for an independent Armenian
state.

The United States is grateful for Armenia’s contributions to the
war on terror and to efforts to build a democratic and peaceful
Iraq. 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. We remain committed to a
lasting and peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
We also seek a deeper partnership with Armenia that includes
security cooperation and is rooted in the shared values of
democratic and market economic freedoms.

I applaud individuals in Armenia and Turkey who have sought to
examine the historical events of the early 20th century with
honesty and sensitivity. The recent analysis by the International
Center for Transitional Justice did not provide the final word, yet
marked a significant step toward reconciliation and restoration of
the spirit of tolerance and cultural richness that has connected
the people of the Caucasus and Anatolia for centuries. We look to a
future of freedom, peace, and prosperity in Armenia and Turkey and
hope that Prime Minister Erdogan’s recent proposal for a joint
Turkish-Armenian commission can help advance these processes.

Millions of Americans proudly trace their ancestry to Armenia.
Their faith, traditions, and patriotism enrich the cultural,
political, and economic life of the United States. I appreciate all
individuals who work to promote peace, tolerance, and
reconciliation. On this solemn day of remembrance, I send my best
wishes and expressions of solidarity to Armenian people around the
world.

A1plus

| 16:34:37 | 24-04-2005 | Politics |

COMMEMORATION OF GENOCIDE VICTIMS

Today Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II and Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan visited Tsitsernakaberd to commemorate the Armenian Genocide
victims.

RA NA Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan, Prime Minister Addranik Margaryan,
Constitutional Court Chairman Gagik Harutyunyan, state and spiritual
figures, high rank clergymen, delegations and diplomats were present at the
ceremony.

Bishop Paren Avetikyan chanted a liturgy in Holy Echmiadzin.