Turkey confirms contacts with ‘unwilling’ Armenia

Agence France Presse — English
April 22, 2005 Friday

ISTANBUL April 22 — Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Friday
urged him his Armenian counterpart Vardan Oskanian to respond to
good will gestures he made at unofficial meetings between the two
countries that have no diplomatic relations.

“I’ve met the Armenian foreign minister six times, it’s no secret. We
have no diplomatic relations but we do have contacts,” said Gul.

Turkish daily Milliyet Friday said meetings had been held over the
past three years in neutral locations with the aim of establishing
a raft of ten confidence-building measures between the two.

Relations between Turkey and Armenia have been dogged by, among other
events, the mass killings of Armenians during the fall of the Ottoman
Empire (the predecessor of modern Turkey) 90 years ago.

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 when the Armenians rose
against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

“We have made one gesture after another, but they have not
reciprocated. They too (the Armenians) have to take steps,” said Gul.

Gul pointed to the opening of air routes between the two countries
as one gesture made by Turkey, and a regional trade initiative for
Black Sea cooperation as another.

“In Turkey there are 40,000 Armenians working and saving money to
send home,” said Gul.

Turkey wants Armenia to hand back the Nagorny Karabakh enclave to
Azerbaijan. Armenia seized the Armenian majority territory in 1994
after a regional conflict with Azerbaijan.

Turkey recognised Armenia on its 1991 independence but has never
established diplomatic relations with it. Ankara closed its frontier
with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan.

US Fed News
April 21, 2005 Thursday 5:52 AM EST

REP. WEINER COMMEMORATES 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

WASHINGTON

Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, D-N.Y. (9th CD), issued the following Press
release:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens & Brooklyn), a member of the House
Armenian Caucus, entered the following statement into the
Congressional Record to remember those lost in the Armenian genocide
90 years ago. Rep. Weiner recalled the Armenian men, women, and
children killed by the Ottoman – Turkish Empire, and urged official
United States recognition of the genocide.

“April 24th marks the 90th commemoration of the Armenian genocide. On
that day, Ottoman Turkish leader Talaat Paskha uttered the
frightening directive to ‘Kill every Armenian man, woman, and child
without concern.’ And between 1915 and 1921, more than 1.5 million
Armenians were slaughtered, approximately 80% of the population.

“Some mistakenly believe that recent events make the Armenian tragedy
seem long ago. To the contrary, its relevance has a heightened
importance today. One week before Hitler invaded Poland in the fall
of 1939, he ordered his generals ‘to kill without pity or mercy all
men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a
way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks
nowadays about the Armenians?’

“That is precisely why we must still talk about the Armenians today.
And we must still talk about the Jews, and the Poles, and the
Russians, and the Catholics, and the Tutsis, and the moderate Hutus,
and the Sudanese whose lives have been lost to genocide.

“As we gather today to pay tribute, it is time for the U.S. Congress
to finally designate what we all know to be a case of genocide. While
tragically it may not be the last, it is time to correct history in
the minds of many and finally declare the Armenian genocide the
holocaust that it was.”

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman – Turkish Empire executed hundreds of
Armenian leaders and intellectuals, initiating an eight year reign of
terror during which 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children
were killed. The United States Government has never officially
recognized the Armenian genocide.

Ninety years after fleeing, Armenians return to Turkey
by Mariam Haroutiounian

Agence France Presse — English
April 22, 2005 Friday 2:33 AM GMT

YEREVAN April 22 — Ninety years after massacres in Ottoman Turkey
caused an Armenian exodus from eastern Anatolia, Armenians are
returning to Turkey by the thousands.

This time the Armenians travel as tourists to a nation which still
holds no diplomatic relations with their homeland.

Armenia will mark on Sunday the mass killings by Ottoman Turks, a
slaughter that is among the most painful episodes of the country’s
ages-old history and that continues to strain ties between it and
its neighbour.

Though Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen perished in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire
fell, they are now drawn by sunny beaches and low prices, travel
agencies say.

At home and abroad, Armenians have spent the better part of the last
century fighting for international recognition of the massacres as
genocide and for an apology from Turkey.

But Ankara refuses. Instead Turkish officials say 300,000 Armenians
and thousands of Turks were killed in “civil strife” during World War
I when the Armenians rose against their Ottoman rulers and sided with
invading Russian troops.

Turkey has frozen diplomatic relations with Armenia over the issue
and crippled its economy by shutting its land border with the country
when it occupied the territory of its close ally Azerbaijan.

None of this has stopped visitors from land-locked Armenia pouring
onto Turkey’s sun kissed beaches.

“There is a noticeable tendency for more people to spend their holidays
in this neighboring country and it’s not just because of the cheap
travel packages. Unlike the United States and Europe it’s easy to
get a visa,” said Artak Kagramanyan, a manager for the Yerevan-based
Armentur agency.

Like visitors from almost any other former Soviet republic, Armenians
can purchase Turkish visas for 10 dollars upon arrival. A weeklong
holiday including airfare costs an average of 1,200 dollars (920 euros)
while bus trips to Turkey through Georgia are even cheaper.

Still, the bad blood between Armenia and Turkey means many Armenians
are often uncomfortable with visiting at first.

“In the beginning we were worried,” said Sofia Davdyan who recently
spent her vacation in Turkey with her brother.

“We were going to a country with which we have so many unresolved
problems, but then when we got to the resort in Alania and saw the
conditions and services we calmed down,” she said.

Davdyan said ordinary Turks were not concerned with the ethnicity of
their visitors because “business is business and they make a lot of
money on tourism.”

Many Armenians, however, consider it to be disrespectful to the
victims of the Turkish massacres to spend money in a state that has
not acknowledged them as genocide.

Ayk, 20, a student in Yerevan State University said visiting Turkey
was simply wrong.

“Turkey needs to admit to the genocide and apologize to our people,
we can talk about better relations, mutual visits only after that,”
Ayk said.

When it comes to visiting the parts of Eastern Anatolia from which
Armenians were expelled during World War I, things are not so simple
with the Turkish authorities either.

“The Turks have no problem with tourists from Armenia who spend
piles of cash on shopping, holidays and sightseeing, but when it
comes to visiting the historic homeland politics comes into play,”
said a travel agent who asked not to be named.

According to Anitur, one of the only agencies in Armenia that sells
tours to Eastern Anatolia, known as Western Armenia to Armenians,
visitors are required to get a special pass from Turkish authorities.

“Not everyone is ready to overcome these difficulties,” the agency’s
director Vladimir Arushanyan said, adding that only 100 Armenian’s
make the emotionally difficult trip every year.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: YEREVAN, ANKARA STILL LOCKED IN DISPUTE

ANSA English Media Service
April 22, 2005

MOSCOW

(ANSA) – MOSCOW, April 22 – Relations between Turkey and
Armenia are still strained even 90 years after the so-called
Armenian genocide in which some 1.5 people were killed between
1915 and 1923 by Ottoman Turks, showing that the old wounds are
still open.

Recently Turkey proposed a new effort to shed light on the
tragic events of 1915 by setting up a joint commission to study
the claims of genocide. The categorical stance of Armenia, as
always backed by Russia, was expressed by Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan and Defence Minister Serzh Sarksyan.

“We have nothing to prove. Genocide did take place. It is an
indisputable fact,” said Margaryan.

“Turkey has to absolutely recognise the genocide and repent,”
Sarksyan said echoing the premier’s words.

At the opening of an international conference on the history
of the massacre on Thursday Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
underlined the importance of Turkey’s recognition of the
genocide for improving Turkish-Armenian relations adding that
this would allow the two countries to finally start looking
ahead.

So far the two countries have failed to give an inch as
regards their stance on the 1915-1923 massacres, seen as the
first large-scale genocide of the 20th century. The two
neighbouring countries even have no diplomatic relations today
because of the terrible events which happened at a time when
Armenia was part of the Ottoman Empire.
The border between the neighbours is closed as it was during the
time of the USSR.

Harbouring an undying animosity towards Turkey, Armenians are
gearing up to remember the 90th anniversary of the massacre on
24 April and in the capital Yerevan tens of thousands of people
will gather at the memorial complex at Tsitsernakaberd (Fortress
of Swallows) to honour the memory of the victims. On the day of
commemoration all shops will be closed and prayers will be held
in the local cathedrals.

The government in Yerevan, at the helm of a country of about
three million people living in poverty and making ends meet
mainly thanks to remittances of emigrants, has allocated three
million dollars for the commemoration cedremonies promoting a
series of round tables and symposia on the occasion in a bid to
keep the memory alive.

Prime Minister Margaryan defined Turkey’s idea of setting up
a joint commission as “senseless” as people in Armenia knew
about the genocide not from a textbook but from personal
experience, from their parents and grandparents. The genocide is
part of everyone’s life, no family has been spared from losing
close relatives and people during the events ninety years ago
when the Ottoman empire undertook the systematic extermination
of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, he said.

Regardless of the stalemate on Turkey’s initiative, the
premier said he was ready to discuss with Ankara a possible
renewal of diplomatic ties and an eventual opening of the border.

Margaryan did not venture any guesses as to whether Turkey
could recognise the genocide in the next 50 years but he seemed
optimistic enough saying Turkey should change its stance at once
under the moutning pressure of global public opinion and the
process of Turkey’s European Union accession.

The prime minister concluded saying Armenia should boost its
efforts in a bid to convince more countries to officially
recognise the Armenian genocide in addition to the current
sixteen, among which Russia, France, Canada and Switzerland.
(ANSA) krc

Duma issues statement on 90th anniversary of Armenian genocide
By Ivan Novikov

ITAR-TASS News Agency
April 22, 2005 Friday

MOSCOW, April 22 — Russia’s State Duma has issued a statement in
connection with the 90th anniversary of the genocide of Armenians in
Ottoman Turkey.

The draft statement proposed by the Duma’s CIS affairs and Russian
diaspora relations committee was backed by all of the 310 legislators
present in the conference hall.

In part, the statement says that “in connection with the 90th
anniversary of Armenian genocide, which was one of the most tragic
and cruel events in the history of the 20th century, the State Duma
expresses its deep sympathy to the Armenian people.”

The State Duma “strongly condemns this act of genocide and believes
that the 90th anniversary of this event must be properly marked by
the entire international community.”

ARKA News Agency
April 22 2005

RA President discusses programs on Armenian -French economic
cooperation in France

RF State Duma adopts statement on 90th anniversary of Armenian
Genocide

Armenian President, French Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group discuss
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement

Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin the Second received the
ex-president of Poland

Presentation of a collection “Three Attempts of European Integration”
takes place in Yerevan

Vice-speaker of RF State Duma Georgi Boos awarded memorable cross of
Russian-Armenian University

*********************************************************************

RA PRESIDENT DISCUSSES PROGRAMS ON ARMENIAN -FRENCH ECONOMIC
COOPERATION IN FRANCE

YEREVAN, April 22. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan discussed
programs on Armenian -French economic cooperation in France.
According to RA President’s Press Service Department, Kocharyan met
French Prime Minister and Presidents of Credit Agricole Bank and
Alcatel Company. In the course of the meeting, in particular, they
discussed issues of activation of the work of the above-mentioned
companies in Armenia. Also perspectives of cooperation in tourism
industry were considered, in regard with which it was noted that
French experts were ready to make specific offers.
To note, a meeting of Kocharyan with the President of France Jaques
Shirak is planned for this evening. After the meting the Presidents
will visit the memorial to Komitas in the center of Paris and will
put wreaths in memory to the victims of the Armenian Genocide in
Ottoman Turkey. A.H. –0–

*********************************************************************

RF STATE DUMA ADOPTS STATEMENT ON 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE

YEREVAN, April 22. /ARKA/. The RF State Duma adopted a statement on
the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The
official website of the RF State Duma reports that the text of the
resolution has been put on the agenda of the RF State Duma at the
proposal of the Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Ties with
Compatriots. Three hundred and ten parliamentarians voted for the
statement, with no cons or abstentions. According to the document,
“the State Duma expresses its profound condolence to the fraternal
Armenian people.” The statement proposes that the international
community commemorate this sad date.
On April 14, 1995, the RF State Duma adopted a statement condemning
the Armenian Genocide in 1915-1922. In the statement the RA State
Duma condemned the organizers of the Armenian massacre and expressed
its condolences to the Armenian people, considering April 24 as a Day
in memory of the Genocide victims. P.T. -0–

*********************************************************************

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, FRENCH CO-CHAIR OF OSCE MINSK GROUP DISCUSS
NAGORNO-KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

YEREVAN, April 22. /ARKA/. RA President Robert Kocharyan held a
meeting with French Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard
Facet. The RA presidential press service reports that the sides
discussed the current stage of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement
process.
President Robert Kocharyan is on a three-day working visit to Rome.
P.T. -0–

*********************************************************************

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS GAREGIN THE SECOND RECEIVED THE
EX-PRESIDENT OF POLAND

YEREVAN, April 22. /ARKA/. Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin the
Second received the ex-President of Poland, Laureate of Nobel Prize
M. Lech Valensa. According to Holly See of Etchmiadzin, in the course
of the meeting Catholicos emphasized that the friendship between the
Polish and Armenian nations formed already in the Middle Ages, when
the first Armenian colony was founded in Poland. The Saint Patriarch
expressed his gratitude to the people of Poland and the authorities
of the country for recognition and condemning the genocide by the
Polish Seim on the threshold of the 90th anniversary of the tragedy.
“By your presence you confirm that genocide has no limitation in
time, territory and nationality and that it’s a crime against
humanity and is worth condemning all the time”, he emphasized.
A.H.-0–

*********************************************************************

PRESENTATION OF A COLLECTION “THREE ATTEMPTS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION”
TAKES PLACE IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, April 22. /ARKA/. Presentation of a collection “Three
Attempts of European Integration” took place in Yerevan. The
collection is compiled by the Investigative Journalists’ Research
Center “Region” under the project “Caucasus Way to Europe: Three
Attempts of European Integration” with the support of the Delegation
of European Commission in Georgia and Armenia. The book is published
in Russian and English and includes series of interviews with leaders
of political parties of the three countries of South Caucasus
countries (10 interviewed figures from each country), fragments from
discussions during online conferences devoted to the issue of
integration, and analytical articles of three experts from Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Georgia. The Director of the Center Laura Baghdasaryan
noted that in the course of the project an attempt was made to
collect various opinions in the region regarding the European
integration of the South Caucasus countries. According to her, the
choice of the way, though with various accents, unites the three
Transcaucasian countries.
According to the Head of the Yerevan Office of the Delegation of
European Commission in Georgia and Armenia Alexis Loeber, this is the
second project of the European Commission, and “we adhere to
cooperation between the representatives of the three countries”.
“Since closing of the roads between the countries hinders the
immediate communication, then Internet becomes an important link”, he
said. A.H. –0–

*********************************************************************

VICE-SPEAKER OF RF STATE DUMA GEORGI BOOS AWARDED MEMORABLE CROSS OF
RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN UNIVERSITY

YEREVAN, April 22. /ARKA/. Co-chairman of the Board of Trustees of
Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University (RAU), Vice-Speaker of RF
State Duma Georgi Boos was today awarded Memorable Cross of RAU. As
Armen Darbinyan, the rector of RAU stated at the awarding ceremony,
just thanks to efforts of Boos, the construction of the new sports
complex of the University and large-scale construction and repair
work became possible. He also noted that the idea of creation of
Russian-Armenian University itself could have remained undecided
without the support of Georgi Boos.
In his turn, Boos thanked Darbinyan for the trust and expressed hope
that he will be able to contribute to “scientific and cultural center
of Armenia”- RAU in future as well. L.V.–0–

*********************************************************************

Edmonton Sun (Alberta)
April 22, 2005 Friday
FINAL EDITION

A PARTNER TO MAKE MUSIC COME ALIVE

BY JOHN CHARLES, EDMONTON SUN FREELANCE

It seemed like an innocent question.

Toronto soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, who sings tonight and tomorrow
with the Edmonton Symphony, has a new CD of French songs, and with a
rather hunky accompanist whom I didn’t know.

“Have you worked with that pianist before?” I ask on the phone to
Toronto.

“That pianist – (pause) – is my husband,” the singer answers in a
slightly chilly tone. Who knew? Seems Serouj Kradjian is a proud
Armenian-Canadian like our soprano. He’s currently professor of piano
and chamber music in Madrid, so both live there much of the year, and
they’ve been married nearly a year.

At the Winspear Centre, under Yves Abel, Bayrakdarian will sing opera
arias by Mozart, Rossini and others, and the University of Alberta
Madrigal Singers will sing opera choruses. There’ll also be
orchestral opera overtures.

Bayrakdarian is having a richly blossoming international career. She
just won her second Juno Award for an exquisite CD of arias for
Cleopatra by Handel and lesser-known 18th-century composers, an
imaginative disc that provides much beautiful and seldom-heard music.

And her French-language CD, Viardot-Garcia, gives us 23 songs by
Pauline Viardot-Garcia, a major French singer and intellectual who
also composed dozens of songs and two operas.

Italian superstar Cecilia Bartoli was the first modern singer to take
her up, but Bayrakdarian’s recital is much more extensive, and makes
a strong case for the vivacious, playful and haunting songs. Kradjian
makes a splendid case for the elegant and demanding piano parts, and
it’s a beguiling disc.

“It’s wonderful to work with someone who can be a full partner in the
music, and there must be a lot of trust for the music to really come
alive.

“This autumn I’ll sing the role at London’s Royal Opera House with
Sir Colin Davis, which I’m looking forward to very much. And I’m busy
with research and new projects.”

A lot of research was involved in putting together the Cleopatra and
Viardot-Garcia CDs, ferreting out unusual music, determining its
worth. She likes rediscovering neglected music that has real value.

She’s sung many 18th-century operas that have delighted today’s
audiences once they’ve been dusted off and presented with passion.
From: Baghdasarian

Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
April 22, 2005 Friday
Final Edition

Award-winning opera diva thrives on diversity of work

Bill Rankin, The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON

EDMONTON SYMPHONY MASTERS SERIES

Guest conductor: Yves Abel

Guest artist: Isabel Bayrakdarian

with the U of A Madrigal Singers

When: Tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m.

Where: Winspear Centre

Tickets: Winspear box office, 428-1414

– – –

EDMONTON – Juno one, Juno two, now what’s she going to do?

Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian has been busy, busy, busy after
taking home back-to-back Juno Awards in 2003 and 2004. She finished
her third role at the Metropolitan Opera last weekend, this time as
Zerlina in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. She also has plenty of
variety in her engagements: some opera, some recitals, some concerts,
like tonight’s with the Edmonton Symphony and the University Madrigal
Singers. She has operas on the horizon at Toronto’s new opera house,
opening in September, and the Met has teamed her up with superstars
Susan Graham and Bryn Terfel to perform a big part in its opening
gala in September. The Madrid-based artist could have been developing
a better prosthesis at this point in her life if she hadn’t decided
on a singing career.

Asked if she has any regrets about passing on a career in biomedical
engineering, which she trained for at the University of Toronto while
she was simultaneously getting a degree in singing, her answer is
really no surprise.

“A big no! No regrets.”

In an interview, Bayrakdarian talks about “following your heart” as
she tries to explain how she is where she is today. Then she shares a
little joke.

“If you want to give God a laugh, start planning. You can plan as
much as you want, for or against something, but life inevitably
throws you a curve and you just go one day at a time. That’s the best
way.”

Bayrakdarian hasn’t just been building up treasures in this world.
Her well-known devotion to her Armenian Christian faith has led to
perhaps more surprising honours as well. Bayrakdarian’s Junos for her
CBC Records discs Azul–o in 2003 and Cleopatra in 2004 recognized
her musical accomplishment, but she also received the highest
recognition the Armenian Church can bestow on an artist. In February,
she was given the Pontifical Encyclical of His Holiness Karekin II.

“It’s one of the highest honours that the equivalent of our Pope
could give. As a matter of fact, I got two in the same year because
we have two patriarchs, so to speak … the eastern and western. So
in the same year I got both the highest medals for artistic
achievement and I wasn’t even 30. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I still have
a lot to do.’

“I think it’s more to do with my general service to the church, which
I still continue to do today. One never does these things expecting
reward, ever. But when it does come, it humbles me. It doesn’t make
me boast about it.”

Her first CD, Joyous Light, is dedicated to Armenian liturgical
music, which was the first music she sang as a girl. Bayrakdarian
doesn’t want to do just opera or just recitals, but admits that
working at the Metropolitan Opera has its special compensations. At
the Met, she’s treated like royalty, but despite her relative
inexperience as a diva, she says she moves about the place with the
same confidence better-known artists in the opera world do. “The Met
is the shrine, the mecca, whatever you want to call it, but the plain
truth is you’re prepared. You are 120 per cent ready for it. You know
what you’re doing. Like any other place, as soon as you have any kind
of insecurity about what you’re doing, it shows in your singing and
you start overcompensating, which they detect. Everybody can detect
that, even the audience can detect it.”

Even rubbing shoulders with the world’s elite singers soon loses its
glamour because the Met is first and foremost a job site.

“It’s a beautiful workplace because all your colleagues are of
excellent quality, so there’s no insecurity. In smaller houses,
sometimes the tendency of other singers is tinged with envy or with
rivalry. There’s none of that (at the Met) because we’re all here
because we’re all good and we’re all doing our own parts. Nobody’s
taking anybody else’s part. It’s a healthy place if you have a
healthy disposition.”

Her summer schedule includes mainly recitals with her new husband and
accompanist Serouj Kradjian, with whom she recorded an Analekta disc
of songs by 19th-century French composer-singer Pauline
Viardot-Garcia. CBC Records’ Randy Barnard says Bayrakdarian will
record a disc of Mozart arias in June with with Michael Schade and
Russell Braun to help celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday next year.

Bayrakdarian will sing arias by Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi and Rossini
with the ESO tonight.

[email protected]

HEAR A CLIP

Listen to soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian sing an excerpt from Rossini’s
Bel raggio lusinghier.

and click on Online Extras

Key stages of the Armenian ‘genocide’

Agence France Presse — English
April 22, 2005 Friday 2:35 AM GMT

YEREVAN April 22 — On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Turk government
arrested hundreds of Armenian community leaders and intellectuals in
eastern Anatolia.

Over the course of the following two years, according to Armenian
authorities, some 1.5 million Armenians were killed and many others
deported by the Ottoman Turkish authorities in what Armenia views as
an act of genocide.

Here are some key stages in the mass killing which Turkey denies was
a genocide.

– July, 1914: The Ottoman authorities create a task force comprised
of violent criminals released from prisons around Anatolia who will
escort hundreds of thousands of Armenians along their brutal forced
marches through the Der El Zor desert.

– August 1, 1914: World War I breaks out pitting the Ottoman and
Austrian empires against Europe’s great powers; almost immediately
Turkish forces suffer a great defeat at the hands of Russia and turn
their efforts to the “internal enemy.”

– April 24, 1915: Hundreds of Armenians arrested, many later killed.
Date is viewed by Armenia as start of systematic effort by Ottoman
Turks to eradicate Armenian people. Orders are soon drafted to
deport the Armenian population of eastern Anatolia through the Der
El Zor desert.

– 1916: By this time most of the Ottoman empire’s Armenian population
of 3.2 million had either died or fled to Mesopotamia or present-day
Armenia, where they fortified and were later to declare independence.
Today, only 40,000 Armenians continue to reside in Turkey.

– May 28, 1918: Incorporating territories granted to it by Russian
conquest, Armenia declares independence.

– November, 1918: World War I Armistice signed; as Western powers vie
to dismember the Ottoman empire it is reorganized by Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk into the modern Turkish state.

– September – December, 1920: Armenia resists fresh Turkish attacks
commanded by Ataturk in the Turkish-Armenian war; losing much territory
Armenia signs a peace treaty but is immediately incorporated into
the Soviet state.

– October 13, 1921: Armenia’s present day borders are confirmed
as a Soviet republic by the treaty of Kars, signed by the Soviets
and Turkey.

– 1975: The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia,
a guerrilla group responsible for the death of a number of Turkish
diplomats, is formed. Now defunct, ASALA sought to force the Turkish
government to admit to the Genocide.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

New California Media, CA
April 22 2005

Colombia vs. Venezuela: Big Oil Turns Up Heat in Border Region

Pacific News Service, News Analysis,
Bill Weinberg, Apr 22, 2005

Editor’s Note: Longtime U.S. involvement in Colombia may be
transforming and expanding from a “war on drugs” into a Washington-led,
oil-company fueled destabilization campaign against Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez.

“Oilmen are like cats; you can never tell from the sound of them
whether they are fighting or making love,” said the famous Armenian
entrepreneur Calouste Gulbenkian, as oil companies and Western
governments at a post-World War I summit in Ostend, Belgium, carved
up oil rights in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

Now, even as world attention is riveted on Iraq, military and oil
company agendas seem to be converging in South America’s Orinoco
Basin, which holds the greatest proven reserves outside the Persian
Gulf. The region is split by the border between Colombia, Washington’s
closest South American ally, and Venezuela, ruled by a left-populist
government sharply at odds with the White House.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez would do well to heed Gulbenkian’s
warning. Chavez has just entered into an agreement with ChevronTexaco
for a natural gas project that will span the Colombian border.

The Colombian oil heartland of Arauca is one the country’s most
violent regions. It lies just across the Rio Arauca from Venezuela’s
own Orinoco Basin oil heartland.

Arauca’s main oil field is Caño-Limon, run by California-based
Occidental Petroleum. Many of the 800 U.S. military advisers in
Colombia are assigned to Arauca, where they oversee a new Colombian
anti-guerilla army unit especially created to police Caño-Limon. This
project, for which Occidental lobbied heavily, markedly departs from
the U.S. policy of only assisting “narcotics enforcement” in Colombia.

Some fear the oil field could become a base for aggression against
Venezuela. Oscar Cañas, adviser to Colombia’s Central Workers Union,
told Venezuelan journalist Alfredo Carquez, “They are transforming
the Caño-Limon facilities into a small military fort.” Claiming U.S.
advisers and surveillance planes are now based there, Cañas notes
Caño-Limon’s proximity to the border and reports of Colombian
paramilitary attacks on the Venezuelan side. “Who is to guarantee
that all this is not being used against Venezuela?” he asks.

Colombia is the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid, after
Israel and Egypt, and U.S. training of Colombian military personnel
is rapidly escalating. Meanwhile, Washington is launching a major
propaganda push against Venezuela.

A March statement from the Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs (JINSA), “South America — the Next Swamp?” warns that even as
the United States is “draining the swamp” in Afghanistan, “ideological
killers are regrouping with the aid of leftist governments and drug
lords” in the western hemisphere. The principal “leftist government”
in question is that of Chavez.

JINSA, a top advocate of the Iraq adventure, cites a London Times
report (actually based on Colombian government allegations) that mortar
experts from the Irish Republican Army have set up a training camp for
Colombian guerillas on Venezuelan territory in the Sierra de Perija,
a mountain chain that forms the border north of Arauca.

Another salvo comes from Otto Reich, who was Bush’s assistant secretary
of state for hemispheric affairs, a former ambassador to Venezuela
and a key figure in the Reagan-era covert destabilization campaign
against Nicaragua. Reich, in the April 11 National Review, writes:
“The first task of the U.S., and whatever coalition of the willing
it can muster in the region, is to confront the dangerous alliance
posed by Cuba and Venezuela.”

Chavez is inviting new multinational investment for the oil zone. In
August 2001, Venezuela, Colombia and Texaco agreed to sponsor a
study on a new pipeline linking natural gas fields in La Guajira,
on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, to Maracaibo, Venezuela’s main export
terminal.

In May 2003, Venezuela announced new oil finds of up to 2.4 billion
barrels in the Orinoco. Texaco (which merged with Chevron in 2001)
proposed another pipeline to pump the crude to the coast. On April 1,
2005, ChevronTexaco announced a multibillion-dollar investment in
the new oil field.

But oil companies have a sweeter deal in Colombia, where Uribe is
moving to free the industry from public oversight. Chavez, in contrast,
has boosted royalties companies must pay to fund his ambitious social
programs.

La Guajira is another of Colombia’s most violent regions, with a string
of assassinations of indigenous leaders, presumably by paramilitary
forces, already reported this year. The new cross-border pipeline
may bring human rights abuses to Venezuela as well as gas.

This pipeline would cross the Sierra de Perija, where Uribe and
JINSA now claim Colombian guerillas are based. On April 4, hundreds
of indigenous peoples’ representatives from the Venezuelan side of
the mountains marched in Caracas, demanding a halt to coal mining on
their traditional lands by such companies as ChevronTexaco and Shell.
The new pipeline would add to the military and ecological pressures
they face.

Chavez is in a difficult position. He needs oil and gas revenues
to fund the populist programs that guarantee his popularity. But
cooperating with the multinational agenda in the border zone may
cost him support among indigenous peoples. And, some critics warn,
he may be welcoming the very oil companies that are complicit in the
destabilization drive against him.

PNS contributor Bill Weinberg is editor of World War 4 Report. He is
working on a book about Colombia for Verso Books.

–Boundary_(ID_QhXs2sp4OpqAqLKPwoE1Iw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress