Cyprus News Agency
April 23 2005

1115:CYPPRESS:01
Armenians in Cyprus mark genocide anniversary

Nicosia, Apr 23 (CNA) – To mark the 90th anniversary of the 1915
Armenian Genocide, the Armenian community’s committee in Cyprus to
preserve the memory of the genocide is organising a series of events
today and tomorrow in Nicosia.

Glendale News Press
April 23 2005

Events recalling genocide ensue

Glendale High, Alex Theatre will host weekend happenings that bring
an end to remembrance week.
By Jackson Bell, News-Press and Leader

GLENDALE — A week devoted to remembering the 1.5 million Armenians
killed in Turkey will culminate with two commemorative events Sunday,
on the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

“This is a day to remember those who have died in the genocide,” said
Alina Azizian, executive director of the Armenian National
Committee’s Glendale Chapter. “It’s also about raising awareness and
standing up against human-rights violations happening around the
world.”

More than 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks between
1915 and 1923 in what is widely considered the first genocide of the
20th century.

Two events will be held, at which the public can listen to speakers,
watch cultural performance and reflect on the Armenian Genocide and
other global inhumanities.

The 90th Anniversary Commemoration at the Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand
Blvd., will end the city-sponsored “Week of Remembrance.”

The free event, from 2 to 4 p.m., will feature a speech by poet Aram
Saroyan, and performances by the Zvartnotz Dance Group and the Winds
of Passion. The Cornerstone Theater will also perform an adaptation
of Leon Surmelian’s book, “I Ask You, Ladies and Gentleman.”

Earlier in the week, the city sponsored screenings of films about
genocides, and then presented a panel discussion about them.

“The Week of Remembrance is to promote understanding among the
community about the devastating effects of genocides,” said Zizette
Ayad, an administrative analyst for the city who helped organize the
events.

A rally commemorating the Armenian Genocide will begin at 4:30 p.m.
in the Glendale High School Auditorium, 1440 E. Broadway. The free
event will feature speakers along with musical and dance
performances, said Mihran Toumajan, one of its organizers.

“It’s going to be a solemn occasion, but it’s also meant to renew our
commitment to justice for the victims and survivors of the genocide,”
said Toumajan, a member of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, one
of 26 organizations collaborating to put on the rally.

During the Glendale City Council’s Tuesday meeting, city officials
will announce the design selected for the planned Armenian Genocide
memorial. The tribute will be built outside the Glendale Civic
Auditorium on Verdugo Road.

For more information on the Alex Theatre event, call (818) 243-2539.

For more information on the rally, call (626) 794-7942.

Calgary Herald, Alberta, Canada
April 23 2005

Genocide commemorated

Sunday is being commemorated as the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

The Ottoman Empire held most of the Middle East in the decades before
the First World War, including the ancient homeland of three million
Armenians. The Ottomans began suppressing the Armenians in the early
1890s, but April 24, 1915, is observed as the day the government
rounded up Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. The genocide
— including the use of Armenian babies for bayonet practice —
continued until 1922, by which time 1.5 million Armenians were dead
and many of the rest had fled to the West.

Today, there are three million living in independent Armenia, and
over four million more in the Armenian diaspora, including one
million in California and 100,000 in Canada.

Calgary’s Armenian community is observing the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide at St. Edmund’s Anglican Church in Bowness, 8340
34th Ave. N.W., on Sunday at 7 p.m. Call 617-3230.

London Free Press, Ontario, Canada
April 23, 2005 Saturday
FINAL EDITION

ARMENIANS REMEMBER GENOCIDE’S LOSSES

BY CHRISTINE KHACHERIAN, LONDON FREELANCE WRITER

This month marks the 90th anniversary of the first genocide of the
20th century — the Armenian genocide of 1915. Launched by the words
of Ottoman Turkish leader Mehmed Talaat Pasha (1874-1921) to “kill
every Armenian woman, child and man without concern for anything,”
the annihilation of the Armenians by the Turkish government during
the First World War represents a major tragedy of the modern age.

Nearly an entire nation was destroyed. The Armenian people were
effectively eliminated from the homeland they had occupied for nearly
3,000 years. This annihilation was premeditated and planned to be
carried out under the cover of war.

On the night of April 24, 1915, the Turkish government placed under
arrest more than 200 Armenian community leaders in Constantinople.
Hundreds more were apprehended soon after. They were all sent to
prison in Anatolia, where most were summarily executed. In a single
year, 1915, the Armenians were robbed of their millennia-old
heritage. The desecration of churches, the burning of libraries, the
ruination of towns and villages — all erased an ancient
civilization.

With the disappearance of the Armenians from their homeland, most of
the symbols of their culture — schools, monasteries, artistic
monuments, and historical sites — were destroyed by the Ottoman
government. The Armenians saved only that which formed part of their
collective memory. Their language, their songs, their poetry, and now
their tragic destiny remained as part of their culture.

Beyond the terrible loss of life 1.5 million and the severing of the
connection between the Armenian people and their historic homeland,
the Armenian genocide also resulted in the dispersion of the
survivors. Disallowed from resettling in their former homes, as well
as stateless and penniless, Armenians moved to any country that
afforded refuge. Within a matter of a few decades Armenians were
dispersed to every continent on the globe.

Slightly more than a thousand Armenians were allowed to enter Canada
during the 1920s. The majority were young women who were brought in
often as brides for those earlier sojourners who were widowed by the
genocide. They formed new families and together bought houses and
began businesses. The Armenians showed their loyalty to their new
land by being hardworking and law-abiding Canadian citizens. While
acculturating to Canadian society, they were also determined to
preserve their heritage, which had almost been destroyed.

The after-four Armenian-language schools became a vital feature of
each community. One of the most important institutions that the
Armenians transplanted to the New World was their church. Currently,
about 60,000 Canadians of Armenian origin reside in Montreal and
Toronto. There are also about 3,000 Armenians in Southwestern
Ontario. A number of Armenian schools and churches operate to help
preserve unique culture and tradition, as well as to contribute to
the cultural diversity and richness of Canadian society.

There are about 30 families of Armenian origin in the London and St.
Thomas area. In the 1970s, there were about 10 times more Armenians
in London, but most of them left London to join larger Armenian
communities in Cambridge, Toronto or Montreal.

Let today be dedicated to the remembrance of victims of all
genocides. The Armenian community in the diaspora and homeland
commemorates the victims of April 24 and reminds the international
community of 90 years of denial. If you would like to be involved in
the Fight for Recognition, you can visit to
locate events that take place in your area.

LOCALLY . . .

What: A screening of the documentary film, My Son Shall Be Armenian,
which follows filmmaker Hagop Goudsouzian and five Montrealers of
Armenian descent as they return to the land of their ancestors in
search of survivors of the genocide. The film will be followed by a
discussion with the filmmaker. A reception featuring traditional
Armenian foods will conclude the evening.

When: Tuesday, April 26, 7 p.m.

Where: Wolf Performance Hall, London Public Library, central branch.

ANSA English Media Service
April 23, 2005

ARMENIAN MASSACRE: ANKARA REFUSES TO SPEAK OF GENOCIDE

ANKARA

By Lucio Leante

(ANSA) – ANKARA, April 22 – Was the deportation and
massacre in 1915 of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the
last Ottoman governments a premeditated attempt at genocide?
This is the question asked every year with the coming of April
24, the official beginning of the deportation and massacres, to
which Turkey has always responded “no” resisting to the
insistent requests by Armenia.
Turkey admits the deaths of between 300,000 and 500,000
Armenians due to privation, diseases and attacks by Kurds,
According to Armenia the victims were 1.3 million people.
An objective answer to this question is expected from historians
or international tribunals since it seems impossible that the
two countries’ governments can agree as they do not have normal
diplomatic ties and the borders between them are closed.
Yet, despite the numerous studies of the issue historians are
deeply divided also because a documental proof for genocide has
never been found.
It is known for certain that the groups of deported Armenians
were often attacked by gangs of Kurds from East Anatolia related
to the Ottoman government. It is unknown to what extent the
attacks were premeditated and what the effect was of ancient
feud resulting from religious differences between Muslim Kurds
and Christian Armenians.
Turkish historians and politicians say that the orders for
deportation in April 1915 were result from the hostility of the
Armenians towards the Ottoman government and that Armenian gangs
had started attacks against the Turkish population since 1910.
Last week they published documents showing that between 1910 and
1922 at least 523,000 Turkish people were killed by these gangs.
The Turks recalled that many Armenian leaders had formed an
alliance at the time with the Sublime Porte’s biggest enemy,
tsarist Russia, which thanks to them managed to occupy a part of
the Ottoman territory.
According to Ankara, the deportation was then a necessity in
order to protect the Armenian population from probable
repressions on the part of the Turkish population in the area.
If historians are unable to give a clear answer international
tribunals should be able to do that on the basis of the Genocide
Convention.
However, the convention was signed in 1951 and can not be
applied backdate.
In any case international jurists completely exclude the
possibility for Armenia to claim land or compensations in case
Turkey formally recognises genocide.
Ankara has said many times that it would not trade recognition
of the genocide for Armenia’s giving up territorial and
compensation claims.
However, Ankara has to take into consideration the fact that 15
parliaments throughout the world, including the European
parliament, have already recognised the genocide.
Turkey knows that not only the European parliament but also the
European Commission and the European Council although not
relating it to the beginning of Turkey’s EU accession
negotiations might remind of the condition of normalising the
relations between Turkey and Armenia on the insistence of France
where some 250,000 Armenians live.
If Yerevan conditions the normalisation of the relations on the
recognition of the genocide the EU might press Turkey to admit
to it.
However, it seems that Ankara has neither possibility nor
willingness to do it in the near future. (ANSA)

Armenian foreign minister, French delegation discuss recognition of genocide

Arminfo
23 Apr 05

YEREVAN

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan today met members of the
delegation of the French parliament who are visiting Yerevan to
participate in events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide.

The delegation includes the president of the Union for French
Democracy, Francois Bayrou, the member of the party’s political
bureau, Alexis Govciyan, the member of parliament and former deputy
chairman of the National Assembly, Rudy Salles, and representatives of
France’s Armenian community, the press service of the state commission
for organizing events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian genocide has told our correspondent.

The Armenian foreign minister thanked France and its people for
participating in issues concerning Armenia. “France is one of the key
European countries and it is of special importance for Armenia to
establish closer relations with France,” the Armenian foreign minister
stressed.

Oskanyan also stressed the importance of France’s legislative
recognition of the Armenian genocide, which stimulated the process of
discussing the issue in the contexts of international and European
processes.

The sides exchanged views on regional and international issues. They
discussed in detail the current stage of settling the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict, as well as Armenian-Turkish relations and ways of
solving them.

The French delegation visited the Tsitsernakaberd memorial to the
victims of the Armenian genocide today, according to the report.

Armenian president wants “normal relations” with Turkey

RTR Russia TV, Moscow
23 Apr 05

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has said there are no relations
between Armenia and Turkey at the moment and blamed Turkey for
this. He added, however, that Armenia intended to build normal
relations with its neighbours, including Turkey.

In an interview on Russia TV channel on the eve of the 90th
anniversary of the genocide against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire,
Kocharyan said: “Armenia simply does not have any relations with
Turkey at the moment and that is not our fault.”

Kocharyan told the presenter of the Zerkalo current affairs programme,
Nikolay Svanidze, that it was strange that “malice has been preserved
by the side responsible for the crime and not by the victim of that
crime”. The president went on to say that the Armenians viewed the
history of relations with Turkey “with bitterness but without hatred”
and that they could not quite understand Turkey which is not simply
denying its own past, but which is blockading modern Armenia.

Kocharyan said this situation could be explained by “the state of the
modern Turkish society and evaluation by the society of that difficult
period of its own history: the fall of the Ottoman Empire and very
many processes that occurred there because of that fall”. Kocharyan
confirmed that he had recently received a letter from the Turkish
prime minister, but added that the letter did not contain much that
would help tackle the problem of relations between the two countries.

Answering a question as to what the recognition of the genocide would
mean for the Armenians, Kocharyan said that his nation wanted justice
and not in the sense of some compensation, but first of all, in moral
sense. He added that there probably were legal grounds for seeking
compensation, but the world had moved on and that it was necessary to
look into the future and not into the past.

Russian TV suspended in Azerbaijan over Armenian president’s interview

Space TV, Baku
23 Apr 05

The rebroadcasting of Russia TV in Azerbaijan will be suspended for
half an hour at 2125 Baku time [1625 gmt] today. This decision was
taken by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and
the National TV and Radio Council.

The ministry press service said that the reason for the suspension was
an interview planned by the channel with Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan on the so-called genocide of Armenians.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

EU official denies Azeri reports of South Caucasus meeting’s failure

Arminfo
23 Apr 05

YEREVAN

The chairwoman of the commission on interparliamentary cooperation
between the European Union and the South Caucasus, Marie [Anne] Isler
Beguin, has denied Azerbaijani media reports that the sitting of the
commission on interparliamentary cooperation between the European
Union and Azerbaijan failed and did not adopt a final resolution.

The sitting of the commission took place in a normal working
atmosphere and an appropriate resolution was adopted on its results,
Marie [Anne] Isler Beguin told our correspondent. The chairwoman of
the commission promised that the text of the resolution will be
submitted to Arminfo new agency so as to compare it with the
resolution on Armenia adopted by the commission in Strasbourg on 14
April.

[Passage omitted: quotes from Azerbaijani media reports]

Iran’s House of Labour to hold rally on May day

Fars News Agency web site
23 Apr 05

TEHRAN

Fars News Agency: The secretary of Article 10 of the parties committee
has said that the committee has agreed to a rally to be held on Labour
Day, 11 Ordibehesht [1 May].

Announcing the news, Morteza Arab-Ameri told Fars News Agency: At this
morning’s session of the committee held at the Interior Ministry, the
committee approved a request put forward by Iran’s House of Labour to
hold a rally.

He said: This committee has also approved a request by the Armenian
community to stage a rally to mark the anniversary of the massacre of
their ancestors by the Turkish government of the time.

He added: At today’s session of Article 10 of the parties committee,
the proposal for forming the Iranians’ Party was discussed and the
announcement of the results of the discussions was postponed to the
next session of the committee.