FEATURE: The deal that never was – Cyprus limps into Europe
By Masis der Parthogh, dpa =

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 20, 2005, Wednesday
05:12:23 Central European Time

Nicosia (dpa) – Many Cypriots saw their life-long ambition of belonging
to Europe finally realised on May 1, 2004, when the tiny Mediterranean
island joined the 25-strong enlarged family that comprised the new
European Union.

Despite the pomp and cheer, however, Cyprus has remained isolated
from the rest of the Union, not least because large bodies of sea
water separate it from the Old Continent.

The date of accession came and went with little if any significant
change in the day-to-day lives of the 800,000 souls “stranded” on
the island. Being the easternmost fort among the ten new members,
Cyprus should have kick-started a celebration, but the mood was muted.

A week earlier, the island’s two main communities – the Greek Cypriots
majority living in the south and the Turkish Cypriots in the north –
had failed to agree to a United Nations reunification plan to end
the 30-year divide caused by Turkey’s invasion and occupation.

A successful outcome would have seen both communities signing the
accession agreement in Athens, evolving into a federal state with equal
political rights, under one flag, two languages and two religions.

Instead, activity on both sides has now reached a standstill, where the
economy was expected to boom and part of the occupied land should have
been returned to the Greek Cypriot refugees, with other humanitarian
issues on their way to a resolve.

As a result, trucks with goods have not rolled to either side,
services have not boomed and structural aid remains tied in accounts
in Brussels due to stubbornness from both sides to give in a little.

The Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos, who urged his people
to outright reject the U.N. agreement in a tear-jerk public appearance,
has shown little enthusiasm to resume talks on the basis of the Annan
plan that has been modified five times in as many years.

The new status of the unrecognised statelet in the north, however,
has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from Cyprus as well
as foreign tourists, who have so far pumped some 150 million dollars
to the Turkish Cypriot economy.

The north’s vague legal status has not prevented German and British
vacationers from spending half as much as they would in the south for
fish and ‘meze tavernas’ while spending their reserves in the many
casinos and gambling houses, mostly operating with Ankara’s blessing.

This is where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots sit together around
a roulette table or black jack, as if no conflict had ever divided
their people.

Serving them are waitresses from eastern Europe seeking a better
fortune who have strayed and are often abused by pimps in what amounts
to white slavery.

Turkish Cypriot Dervis (pronounced Dair Veesh) and his Armenian friend
George, both resident in the south and classmates from the century-old
English School decades before division, want all these to disappear.

“We want our children and our grandchildren to move freely and become
friends, as we were some 60 years ago,” say the old gentlemen, in
the old market of the Turkish part of the capital Nicosia.

Despite all the changes on the Turkish side, however, there is little
hope of any progress towards reviving the stalled talks, with die-hard
veterans such as pro-Ankara Rauf Denktash still clinging to power.

Even U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, whose name adorns the ill-
fated peace plan, wants a firm commitment from both sides in order
to return and offer his kind offices for negotiation.

Elections in the north have seen major upheavals, but they turned
out to be nothing more than cosmetic.

The real decision lies in Ankara, where a power struggle between the
secular generals and Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist society must
first be fought to see how genuine Turkey is in its wishes to join
the E.U. in a decade or so from now.

The nationalists on the Greek Cypriot side, fearful of sharing power
with whom they call their “Turkish Cypriot brothers”, are willing
to stand this one out, waiting on the sidelines, blaming Turkey’s
intransigence.

They have convinced their people that Brussels will solve their
problems from them.

Whatever the outcome, Dervis and George are patient and happy to have
finally gained the partial freedom to cross over to each other’s side
and see old friends and revive old memories.

But their grandchildren do not know if they will live in a unified
country based on European values. At least not very soon. dpa mdp
emc ct

WCC Stresses Need for Public Recognition of Armenian Genocide

Christian Post, CA
April 20 2005

Wednesday, Apr. 20, 2005 Posted: 6:21:19PM EST

The World Council of Churches will join millions around the world
in remembering the victims of the Armenian Genocide on Sunday, April
24, 2005.

“I am personally in communion with you in prayers and in solidarity
with the cause of your people,” wrote the WCC general secretary Rev.
Dr Samuel Kobia in an 11 April letter addressed to the Catholicos of
All Armenians, Supreme Patriarch Karekin II.

The Armenian Genocide has largely been recognized as the first genocide
of the 20th century. According to numerous historians, some 1.5 million
mostly Christian Armenians perished through a policy of deportation,
torture, starvation, and massacre led by the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey, however, denies that there was a planned campaign to eliminate
Armenians but says both Turks and Armenians lost their lives. Turkey
also says no more than 300,000 Armenians lost their lives through
the clashes.

In recent years, the French, Swiss and Danish government as well
as the Italian Parliament and the Vatican acknowledged the Armenian
genocide as a historical fact.

According to the WCC, there is a growing “need for public recognition
of the Armenian genocide and the necessity of Turkey to deal with
this dark part of its history.”

For more information on the Armenian Genocide, visit:

Indymedia Ireland, Ireland
April 20 2005

Re-Emergence of Discredited Ilisu Dam Project

forwarded by the Global Women’s Strike Thursday, Apr 21 2005, 1:31am

Turkish Dams Violate EU Standards and Human Rights

From the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Kurdish
Human Rights Project, London:

Plans for large dams in southeast Turkey including the discredited
Ilisu dam project may yet go ahead in spite of adverse impacts on
cultural and environmental rights, according to a new report by the
National University of Ireland, Galway and the Kurdish Human Rights
Project.

The report provides new evidence from hydroelectric dam projects
planned for the Munzur, Tigris and Greater Zap rivers.

The study, a report of a fact-finding mission to the region carried out
by Maggie Ronayne, Lecturer in Archaeology at the National University
of Ireland, Galway, demonstrates how archaeology in particular
supports the case of thousands of villagers adversely affected by
these projects, most of whom do not appear to have been consulted at
all about the dams and many of whom want to return to reservoir areas,
having already been displaced by the recent conflict in the region….

The overwhelming response in particular from women and their
organisations is one of opposition to the negative impact on them and
those in their care; yet women have been the least consulted sector.

The reservoirs would submerge evidence for hundreds and potentially
thousands of ancient sites of international importance, including
evidence of our earliest origins as a species, the beginnings of
agriculture, and the remains of empires including those of Rome
and Assyria.

The heritage of Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians and others from the last
few hundred years and holy places from several traditions within the
Muslim and Christian faiths, many still used in religious practices
today and some dating from over 1000 years ago, will go under the
reservoir waters.

According to report author Maggie Ronayne: ‘The GAP development project
of which these dams are part is destroying a heritage which belongs
to the whole of humanity and contravenes the most basic professional
standards. Governments and companies involved with these projects are
ignoring its serious implications: the destruction of such diverse
cultural and religious heritage in a State with a history of severe
cultural repression. Turkey’s progress on cultural rights for the
Kurds and others has been an object of scrutiny in recent years; the
EU must consider cultural destruction on this scale in that context.’

One of the major findings of the report is that there is a new
consortium of companies coming together to build the discredited Ilisu
Dam which would displace up to 78,000 mostly Kurdish people, and would
also potentially cut off downstream flows of water to Syria and Iraq.

The ancient town of Hasankeyf, culturally important to many Kurdish
people and of international archaeological significance, will not
be saved by new plans to build the dam despite the promises of the
Turkish prime minister and the would-be dam builders.

In any case, the cultural impacts of Ilisu are much greater than this
one very important town.

>>From 2000 to 2002, campaigners, human rights and environmental groups
and affected communities successfully exposed fundamental flaws in
project documents and plans for Ilisu, which contributed to the
collapse of the last consortium of companies planning to build it.
But the basis for the project this time remains essentially the same.

Kerim Yildiz, Executive Director of the Kurdish Human Rights Project
commented: ‘It seems that the Turkish State has not learned the
lessons of Ilisu: the report finds that a range of international laws
and standards are not being adhered to. EU standards in particular
are met by none of the projects. The study also shows that while
there have been some improvements and legal reforms, torture remains
an administrative practice of the State. If this is the climate in
which people are to be consulted about the dams, then we can only
conclude that any fair outcome for the public appears most unlikely.
The GAP development project examined in this study raises serious
questions regarding Turkey’s process of accession to the EU.’

Contact:

Maggie Ronayne, Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland,
Galway, Ireland. Tel: 00 353 91 512298 or 00 353 (0) 87 7838688 (mobile)
Email: [email protected]

Kerim Yildiz / Rochelle Harris, Kurdish Human Rights Project, London,
Tel: +44 (0)207 287-2772. Email: [email protected]
*** Please note our email addresses have changed ***

;type=feature

College board shifts positions

Glendale News Press
April 19 2005

Gabrielian is named president, and new vice president says replacing Najarian, Davitt will be tough.
By Rima Shah, News-Press and Leader

GLENDALE — There were no surprises at Glendale Community College’s
reorganization of the board Monday night when Anita Gabrielian was
unanimously appointed president.

Gabrielian, SBC’s executive director of external affairs, public
policy and community affairs, was the third-highest vote-getter in
the April 5 municipal election.

She replaces Victor King, the outgoing president who was also reelected
to the board.

Board Clerk Kathleen Burke-Kelly was appointed as vice president
and Armine Hacopian, reelected to the board with the most votes,
was named the new clerk.

“The challenges that lie ahead for the board are replacing [Ara]
Najarian and [John] Davitt,” Burke-Kelley said. “I am happy to be in
a position to be able to do that.”

Gabrielian has many challenges ahead as president, Hacopian said.

“The biggest challenge is to appoint a consulting team and to interview
for the post of the superintendent,” Hacopian said.

The consulting team will help conduct a nationwide search and
interviews to replace Davitt, the superintendent president who will
retire in 2006.

The new board must also select a replacement for Najarian, who won
a seat on the City Council in the April 5 election.

“We will be conducting interviews within the next 60 days,” Hacopian
said. “We have a choice of having an election, but we probably are
going to appoint someone.”

Academically, Hacopian said she hopes the board will look into ways
to increase the transfer rate to four-year colleges.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

“FAMILY CARPETS OF ARTSAKH”

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
19 April 05

Artsakh has always been famous for a high level of development of
folk arts and crafts. Carpet weaving has been especially popular.
However, during 70 years of the Soviet rule thousands of carpets
created by Artsakh women were taken to the museums of Azerbaijan. The
restoration of statehood was a chance to preserve our culture. Lately
the presentation of the book “Family Carpets of Artsakh” by Vahram
Tatikian took place in Stepanakert. The book has a scientific value
and is an important step in our science of history. Vahram Tatikian
presents the tradition of carpet weaving in Artsakh in the continuity
of the historical tradition of Armenian carpet weaving. We had a talk
with the author of the book. Nvard Soghomonian: “How did it happen that
the poet and composer Vahram Tatikian became interested in carpets,
and particularly Artsakh carpets?” Vahram Tatikian: “I was a student,
from Gandzassar I descended to the village of Vank on the mountain
side; I saw a carpet in some house which surprised me the student of
archaeology by its composition, the ornaments of vishap (i.e. snake)
coiled round the swastika. I was delighted with the Christian temple
of Gandzassar and the work of pagan art side by side. I had been
studying monuments of architecture by then; after that I began taking
photos of old Armenian carpets. Lori, Siunik, again Artsakh; going
from village to village I discovered the wonderful world of carpets
for me. My temptation of carpet art began in the ancient Armenian
region of Artsakh. N.S.: “Mr. Tatikian, your book is the result of
long years of study and work. Who helped you?” V.T.: “First of all,
it is my mother, writer, publicist, specialist of Diaspora studies,
Shakeh Varsian. Without her motherly devotion I could not come to this
result. I was helped by sculptor Youri Hovhannissian, my lecturer at
the university Zaven Arzumanian, the two workers of the shop buying
and exchanging carpets Robert Danielian and Armen Knorenian who
allowed me to photograph the carpets brought to them, the director
of Yerevan Museum of Art Hovhannes Sharambeyan, the director of the
museum of Parajanov Zaven Sarghissian. By the way, in the period
between 1960 and 1990 about 100 thousand carpets were exported from
Armenia. To compare, the number of carpets kept in all the museums
of Armenia is not more than 5000. Visiting Karabakh in those years,
I understood what lost homeland is, and I believed that it would not
share the fate of Kars, Mush. Going from village to village, I came to
understand Makar Barkhudarian, Bagrat Ulubabian. Look at the photos in
the book, how proudly the women of Artsakh are standing beside their
creation ~@” the carpet. By the way, foreign artists also notice the
bearing, the nature of the Armenian woman. The Azeris present hundreds
of carpets of Armenian villages as theirs. By the way, a great part
of carpets in the book do not exist any more, only their photos have
been preserved. It was difficult to combine love, history and politics
in one book, but owing to the assistance of the government everything
was done to create this collection of facts.” N.S.: “What other plans
connected with publishing books do you have?” V.T.: “My studies devoted
to the carpets and “vishap” carpets of Lori, Utik, Artsakh are going
to be published. It happened so that the book about the carpets of
Artsakh came out the first. By the way, what is included in “Family
Carpets of Artsakh” is only the third part of my studies.” N.S.:
“What would you like to tell your readers?” V.T. “The book is the
result of 35 years of work, the result of great love and devotion of
the Artsakh woman. I return to you what I took from you.”

NVARD SOGHOMONIAN.
19-04-2005

Armenia’s Jewish Hero

The Jewish Week, NY
April 20 2005

Jewish ambassador to the Ottoman Empire urged the U.S. government to
stop the Genocide.
Steve Lipman – Staff Writer

The recent $20 million settlement between a major American insurance
firm and the heirs of Armenian policyholders killed in the Armenian
Genocide had its genesis, indirectly, in the memoirs written nearly
90 years ago by a Jewish-American diplomat.

Henry Morgenthau Sr., the German native who served as U.S. ambassador
to the Ottoman Empire during World War I, wrote in 1918 in “Ambassador
Morgenthau’s Story” about an exchange with Talaat Pasha, Turkey’s
Interior Minister and an architect of the Genocide.

“The New York Life Insurance Company and the Equitable Life of New
York had for years done considerable business among the Armenians,”
Morgenthau wrote. “One day Talaat made what was perhaps the most
astonishing request I had ever heard. ‘I wish,’ Talaat now said,
‘that you would get the American life insurance companies to send us
a complete list of their Armenian policyholders.’

“They are practically all dead now,” victims of the Genocide,
the Turkish official told the ambassador, “and have left no heirs
to collect the money. It of course all escheats to the State. The
government is the beneficiary now.”

Morgenthau lost his temper.

” ‘You will get no such list from me,’ I said, and I got up and
left him.”

Vartkes Yeghiayan, an Armenian-American attorney in California,
read this story in Morgenthau’s book in 1988 and decided to bring a
class-action suit against New York Life.

The result was the settlement, announced earlier this year at the
New York office of the Armenian General Benevolent Union.

New York Life, acknowledging some 2,400 unpaid policies sold to
Armenians before the Genocide, agreed on a $20 million payment to
nine Armenian organizations, including the AGBU, and descendants of
policyholders who filed claims by last month’s deadline.

Participants in the AGBU ceremony said the settlement, the first known
one to kin of people who were killed in the Genocide, was inspired by
the reparations and insurance payments received over the last several
decades by survivors of the Holocaust.

Morgenthau was given due credit at the event.

The ambassador, who died in 1946, is considered a hero in Armenia,
where a tree in his honor stands on the Walk of Righteous
Non-Armenians. His grandson, Manhattan District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau, was granted honorary Armenian citizenship.

“I was very aware of his involvement,” Morgenthau said of his
grandfather. “He had a lot of friends in the Armenian community.”

After returning to the United States from his posting in
Constantinople, Morgenthau Sr., who was active in Jewish affairs and
was a founder of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,
took up the cause of the Armenians.

While in Turkey, he had helped rescue an unknown number of Armenians.

“I’ve had people walk up to me and say, ‘Your grandfather saved my
life,’ ” Morgenthau said. “He did a lot of things he never talked
about.”

In a 1915 dispatch to the State Department, the ambassador wrote that
“a campaign of race extermination is in progress.” He continued
to press the then-neutral United States to take actions against
the Genocide.

“When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations
[that constituted the main form of the Genocide], they were merely
giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well,”
Morgenthau Sr. wrote in his memoirs. “Perhaps the one event in history
that most resembles the Armenian deportations was the expulsion of
the Jews from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella.”

One time a prominent member of the German Jewish community –
Germany and Turkey were wartime allies – approached Morgenthau Sr.,
appealing to the envoy “as one Jew to another” to stop lobbying for the
Armenians. Turkey and Germany might seek to have Morgenthau recalled,
jeopardizing his career, the visitor said.

“Then you go back to the German Embassy, and … say … go ahead
and have me recalled,” Morgenthau Sr. answered. “If I am to suffer
martyrdom, I can think of no better cause in which to be sacrificed.
In fact, I would welcome it, for I can think of no greater honor than
to be recalled because I, a Jew, have been exerting all my powers to
save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Christians.”

Morgenthau said he heard such stories about his grandfather over
the years.

“He certainly had an influence on me and my father,” he said.

Morgenthau has been active in the pro-Armenian cause. And his father,
Henry Morgenthau Jr., secretary of the Treasury under President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, used his influence with the president to
establish the War Refugee Board, which late in World War II saved
more than 200,000 Jews from the Holocaust.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
TOP STORIES
04/21/2005
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP://

1) Berlin Urges Turkey to Take Responsibility for Massacres
2) Turkish Army Criticizes US over Kurdish Rebels, Warns about Kirkuk
3) 178 US Representatives Urge President to Properly Characterize the Armenian Genocide
4) Poland’s Walesa Condemns ‘First Genocide of 20th Century’

1) Berlin Urges Turkey to Take Responsibility for Massacres

BERLIN (DPA)–All parties in the German parliament have agreed on key
points of
a resolution which will tell Turkey to “take historic responsibility” for the
1915 Armenian genocide, a senior member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s
Social Democrats said on Thursday.
Gernot Erler, the Social Democratic (SPD) deputy foreign affairs spokesman in
the Bundestag, said the resolution due to win final approval in the coming
months would have three ‘goals.’
First, Germany’s parliament will recognize a limited German role in the
massacre of 1.2 million to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during
World War One, said Erler in a statement. “Germany was Ottoman Turkey’s main
ally in document…and partly through approval and through failure to take
effective preventive measures there was a German co-responsibility for this
genocide.” “The (Bundestag) asks the Armenian people for their forgiveness,”
said Erler’s statement.
Second, the Berlin parliament will call on Turkey “to halt its up until now
overwhelming suppression, to take historic responsibility for the massacre of
the Armenians by the Young Turk regime and to ask for forgiveness from the
descendants of the victims.”
Turkey’s government has always insisted that there was no Armenian genocide
and says a far smaller number of Armenians died during Ottoman deportations
which it argues took place under war conditions and were due to an Armenian
rebellion.
Turkey’s ambassador to Germany, Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, denounced the planned
Bundestag resolution as containing “countless factual errors” and being
written
“in agreement with propaganda efforts of fanatic Armenians.”
“Its goal is to defame Turkish history…and poison ties between Turkey and
the European Union,” said the ambassador.
Finally, the German parliament’s resolution will underline Berlin’s
efforts to
help normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia.
Germany, which has about 2.5 million resident Turks, has–up until now– been
wary about addressing the Armenian genocide.
A member of the opposition Christian Democratic alliance (CDU/CSU), Erwin
Marschewski, said in a statement that the value system of the European Union
insisted that countries “shine a spotlight on the dark pages of their
history.”

“Recognition by Turkey of the Armenian genocide of 1915 and 1916 is
important,”
said Marschewski.
Turkey is due to start membership negotiations with the EU in October but EU
leaders say accession talks–if successful–will take up to 15 years.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is a staunch backer of Turkish EU membership and
will visit Ankara and Istanbul for talks with Turkish political and business
leaders on May 3 and 4.
The draft resolution being debated in Germany’s parliament does not use the
word ‘genocide’ but rather refers to the “expulsion and massacres” of
Armenians
under the Ottoman Turks in 1915 as part of ceremonies marking the 90th
anniversary of the killings.
“We purposely left out the term genocide,” said Christoph Bergner, an
opposition Christian Democrat, in a speech to parliament.
The declaration says between 1.2 and 1.5 million Christian Armenians died or
were killed by the Moslem Turks during “planned” deportations during the First
World War.
Armenians all over the world will on April 24 mark the 90th anniversary of
the
start of what most international historians describe as a genocide lasting
from
1915 to 1923 which left up to 1.5 million people dead.

2) Turkish Army Criticizes US over Kurdish Rebels, Warns about Kirkuk

ISTANBUL (AFP)–The head of the Turkish army criticized the United States
Wednesday for failing to curb Turkish Kurdish rebels hiding in northern Iraq
and warned that Iraqi Kurdish attempts to take control of the oil-rich city of
Kirkuk could throw the entire region into turmoil.
General Hilmi Ozkok, the chief of general staff, complained in a yearly
evaluation speech that Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was
gaining influence in northern Iraq and stepping up attacks across the
border on
Turkey because of US failure to take action against the rebels.
“The terror group has been included in the list of terrorist organizations by
the United States and the European Union, but that does not carry a meaning in
practice,” Ozkok said.
“It is thought-provoking that no action has been taken yet against the
organization. The PKK must at any rate be deprived of foreign support and have
its hope of success crushed,” he said.
Turkey says about 5,000 PKK militants have found refuge in the mountains of
neighboring northern Iraq since 1999, when the group declared a unilateral
ceasefire with Ankara in its armed campaign for self-rule in the country’s
mainly Kurdish southeast.
The group called off the truce last year, raising tensions in the region.
Ozkok also expressed concern over attempts by Iraqi Kurds to seize the
ethnically volatile city of Kirkuk, which, he said, with its large oil
resources, should belong to all Iraqis and not just one ethnic group.
“That is why it is important for Kirkuk to have a special status,” Ozkok
said.
“We have said several times that Kirkuk is a problem area ready to explode
..and that it would affect the entire region if it explodes.” .
Turkey suspects Iraqi Kurds of planning to capitalize on their post-war gains
to make Kirkuk the capital of an independent Kurdish state.
Such a state, Ankara fears, would fuel separatism among the restive Kurds of
adjoining southeastern Turkey, sparking regional turmoil.

3) 178 US Representatives Urge President to Properly Characterize the Armenian
Genocide

–Record Level of Support for Congressional Letter Sends Strong Message to
White House

WASHINGTON, DC–A record number of US Representatives sent a Congressional
letter to President Bush on Wednesday, urging him to reaffirm the US record on
the Armenian genocide by properly characterizing the atrocities as “genocide.”
The letter comes days after a similar Senate initiative, which garnered the
support of an unprecedented 32 Senators–a 45% increase over the previous
year.
The April 20 letter, spearheaded by Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairmen
Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), stresses that “by properly
recognizing the terrible atrocities committed against the Armenian people as
‘genocide’ in your statement, you will honor the many Americans who helped
launch the unprecedented US diplomatic, political, and humanitarian
campaign to
end the carnage and protect the survivors.”
“We were very gratified by the announcement this evening by the
Co-Chairman of
the Armenian Caucus that a record total of one hundred and seventy-eight US
Representatives have joined together in calling on the President to properly
recognize the Armenian Genocide in his April 24th remarks,” said Aram
Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA, following a special 90th
anniversary
Armenian genocide observance on Capitol Hill.
“Along with the thirty-two Senators who sent a similar letter earlier this
week to the White House, this brings to two hundred and ten the total
number of
US legislators formally calling for the President to speak with historical
accuracy and moral clarity about this crime against humanity. We welcome this
unprecedented level of Congressional leadership and urge the President to heed
their call and honor the pledge he made in February of 2000 to properly
recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
Representatives Pallone and Knollenberg, in a March 3 letter to their House
colleagues, encouraged them to lend their voice to the effort noting, that “by
properly affirming the Armenian Genocide, we can help ensure the legacy of the
Genocide is remembered so this human tragedy will not be repeated.” Over the
past several weeks, Armenian Americans from across the US have been sending
ANCA WebFaxes to their Representatives urging them to co-sign the letter to
the
President.
On April 7, Representative Knollenberg joined with Republican House Members
George Radanovich (R-CA), Michael Bilirakis (R-FL), Mark Souder (R-IN) and
Mark
Foley (R-FL) in urging their party colleagues to encourage Pres. Bush to
follow
Senator Dole’s lead and “simply tell the truth.”
Members of Congress joining Reps. Pallone and Knollenberg in co-signing the
letter included: Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Tom Allen
(D-ME), Robert Andrews (D-NJ), Joe Baca (D-CA), Brian Baird (D-WA), Tammy
Baldwin (D-WI), Charles Bass (R-NH), Melissa Bean (D-IL), Bob Beauprez (R-CO),
Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Shelley Berkley (D-NV), Howard Berman (D-CA), Michael
Bilirakis (R-FL), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Tim Bishop (D-NY), Earl Blumenauer
(D-OR), Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), Mary Bono (R-CA), Jeb Bradley (R-NH),
Sherrod
Brown (D-OH), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Lois Capps (D-CA), Michael Capuano (D-MA),
Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), John
Conyers (D-MI), Jim Costa (D-CA), Jerry Costello (D-IL), Christopher Cox
(R-CA), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Duke Cunningham (R-CA), Danny Davis (D-IL),
Susan Davis (D-CA), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), William Delahunt (D-MA), Rosa
DeLauro
(D-CT), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), John Dingell (D-MI), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX),
John Doolittle (R-CA), Mike Doyle (D-PA), David Dreier (R-CA), Vernon Ehlers
(R-MI), Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Lane Evans
(D-IL), Sam Farr (D-CA), Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Tom Feeney (R-FL), Mike Ferguson
(R-NJ), Bob Filner (D-CA), Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mark Foley (R-FL), Vito
Fossella (R-NY), Barney Frank (D-MA), Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Scott
Garrett (R-NJ), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Mark Green (R-WI), Gene Green (D-TX), Raul
Grijalva (D-AZ), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Tim Holden
(D-PA), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Michael Honda (D-CA), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Steve
Israel (D-NY), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Jesse Jackson (D-IL), Sheila Jackson Lee
(D-TX), Nancy Johnson (R-CT), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH), Marcy Kaptur
(D-OH), Sue Kelly (R-NY), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Dale Kildee (D-MI), Carolyn
Kilpatrick (D-MI), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), James Langevin
(D-RI), John Larson (D-CT), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Barbara Lee (D-CA),
Sander Levin (D-MI), John Lewis (D-GA), Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), Frank LoBiondo
(R-NJ), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Stephen
Lynch (D-MA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Edward Markey (D-MA), Jim Matheson
(D-UT), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Betty McCollum (D-MN),
Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Jim McDermott (D-WA), James McGovern (D-MA), John
McHugh (R-NY), Mike McIntyre (D-NC), Buck McKeon (R-CA), Michael McNulty
(D-NY), Martin Meehan (D-MA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Michael Michaud (D-ME),
George Miller (D-CA), Candice Miller (R-MI), Gwen Moore (D-WI), James Moran
(D-VA), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Richard Neal (D-MA),
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Devin Nunes (R-CA), John Olver (D-MA), C. L.
“Butch” Otter (R-ID), William Pascrell (D-NJ), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Richard Pombo (R-CA), Jon Porter
(R-NV),
George Radanovich (R-CA), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Mike Rogers (R-MI), Mike Ross
(D-AR), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Edward Royce
(R-CA), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Paul Ryan (R-WI), John Salazar (D-CO), Loretta
Sanchez (D-CA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), H. James Saxton
(R-NJ), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Allyson Schwartz (D-PA),
Joe Schwarz (R-MI), E. Clay Shaw (R-FL), Christopher Shays (R-CT), Brad
Sherman
(D-CA), John Shimkus (R-IL), Rob Simmons (R-CT), Christopher Smith (R-NJ),
Hilda Solis (D-CA), Mark Souder (R-IN), Pete Stark (D-CA), John Sweeney
(R-NY),
Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), Mike Thompson (D-CA), John Tierney (D-MA), Edolphus
Towns (D-NY), Mark Udall (D-CO), Christopher Van Hollen (D-MD), Nydia
Velazquez
(D-NY), Peter Visclosky (D-IN), James Walsh (R-NY), Maxine Waters (D-CA),
Diane
Watson (D-CA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Anthony Weiner (D-NY), Curt Weldon (R-PA),
Gerald Weller (R-IL), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Lynn Woolsey
(D-CA), David Wu (D-OR), and Albert Wynn (D-MD).

4) Poland’s Walesa Condemns ‘First Genocide of 20th Century’

(RFE/RL)–Lech Walesa, Poland’s former president and a Nobel Peace Prize
winner, made on Thursday an emotional case for the recognition by Turkey of
the
1915 genocide of Armenians, saying it should be a precondition for Ankara’s
accession to the European Union. Walesa was addressing an international
conference devoted the upcoming 90th anniversary of the start of the mass
killings and deportations of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. His visit came just
two days after Poland became the ninth EU country to officially describe the
slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide.
“The massacres of Armenians in Turkey were the first genocide of the 20th
century,” Walesa declared in a speech in Yerevan. “Armenia is justly demanding
that the recognition of the Armenian genocide be a precondition for Turkey’s
membership in the European Union,” he said. “Without a universal acceptance of
historical justice, we can not meet the challenges of the contemporary
world.”
“The massacres of Armenians were started by the bloodthirsty [Ottoman] Sultan
Abdul Hamid II,” Walesa said in his speech. “In 1915, the Turkish government
ordered the slaughter of Armenian intellectuals and the deportation of
hundreds
of thousands of Armenians that either starved to death or were brutally killed
by Turkish soldiers and Kurdish bandits.”
“If I or anyone else forget that crime, then let God forget us,” he added.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Times Square Rally to Mark 90th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

PR Newswire (press release)
April 21 2005

NEW YORK, April 21 /PRNewswire/ — On Sunday, April 24, 2005,
thousands of Armenian Americans from throughout the nation will
converge on New York City to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the
1915 Armenian Genocide — in which 1.5 million Armenians perished
at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish empire. Historians consider
the attempt to exterminate the Armenians as the first instance
of genocide in the 20th century: a precursor to mass killings
throughout the century, and an explicit model for Hitler’s own
“final solution.” Still, 90 years after the catastrophe that scattered
surviving Armenians across the globe, the Republic of Turkey continues
to deny the facts of the Genocide.

The day will start with church services at 9:00 a.m., in
Manhattan’s two Armenian cathedrals: St. Vartan Cathedral (Second
Ave. at 34th St.) and St. Illuminator’s Cathedral (27th St. between
Second and Third Avenues).

At 12:00 noon, a large memorial gathering at Times Square
(Broadway at 43rd St.) will bring together several thousand Armenian
Americans throughout North America. Finally, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.,
a solemn ecumenical requiem service will be held at St. Patrick’s Roman
Catholic Cathedral (Fifth Ave. at 50th St.), where dignitaries from
the religious, political, diplomatic, and media arenas will be present.

WHAT: Rally at Times Square to commemorate the 90th
Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

WHO: Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Governor George Pataki (R-NY) (Invited)
Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
Michael Osanian – Senior Editor, Forbes Magazine

WHEN: April 24, 2005
12 Noon – 2:00pm

WHERE: Times Square
Broadway and 43rd Street
New York, NY

VISUALS: 3,000 – 5,000 from the Armenian Diaspora in Times Square
honoring the victims and survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide
and calling for the United States, Turkey, and the United
Nations to officially recognize the Genocide and end future
genocides

The Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee is coordinating events
on April 24th, 2005 to commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. The committee is comprised of the Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America, the Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of
America, the Armenian National Committee of America, The Armenian
Catholic Church of the United States and Canada, Armenian General
Benevolent Union, the Armenian Relief Society of Eastern United
States, the Armenian Assembly, Armenian Democratic Liberal Party,
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Armenian Missionary
Association of America, the Social Democratic Hunchakian Party,
and the Knights of Vartan.

Azerbaijan Demands Turkey Write Off $150 Million in Electricity Debts; Says Amount Too Big

Associated Press
Thursday April 21, 2005

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Azerbaijan said Thursday it would not pay
off US$150 million in electricity debts owed to Turkey, saying the
amount was too big for the Caspian Sea nation.

Vice Premier Abid Sharifov also told reporters that the debts for
electricity supplied to the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan since
1992, is small change for Turkey. He said Azerbaijan’s service on
the debt is growing by US$11 million to $12 million annually.

“We aren’t interested in returning this debt,” he said. “That is why
we suggest writing it off as technical losses.”

Sharifov said the demand was unlikely to damage relations between
the two countries. There was no immediate reaction from Turkey to
the demand.

The enclave of Nakhichevan is legally part of Azerbaijan but is cut
off from Azerbaijan proper by its enemy, Armenia.

Turkey, which border Nakhichevan to the east, is Azerbaijan’s
closest ally in the region. It maintains a border blockade against
Armenia, the result of the six-year war fought between Azerbaijan
and Armenian-supported forces over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan’s economy is growing due to major investment by
international oil companies looking to exploit some of the largest
fields in the former Soviet Union, but much of the country has yet
to reap the benefits of the growth.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 21, 2005, Thursday
13:59:42 Central European Time

Berlin to tell Turkey “take responsibility” for Armenian massacres

Berlin

All parties in the German parliament have agreed key points of a
resolution which will tell Turkey to “take historic responsibility”
for the 1915 Armenian genocide, a senior member of Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder’s Social Democrats said Thursday.

Gernot Erler, the Social Democratic (SPD) deputy foreign affairs
spokesman in the Bundestag, said the resolution due to win final
approval in the coming months would have three “goals.”

First, Germany’s parliament will recognise a limited German role in
massacre of 1.2 million to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks
during the First World War, said Erler in a statement.

Germany was Ottoman Turkey’s main ally in the War and “partly through
approval and through failure to take effective preventive measures
there was a German co-responsibility for this genocide.”

“The (Bundestag) asks the Armenian people for their forgiveness,”
said Erler’s statement.

Second, the Berlin parliament will call on Turkey “to halt its up
until now overwhelming suppression, to take historic responsibility
for the massacre of the Armenians by the Young Turk regime and to ask
for forgiveness from the descendants of the victims.”

Turkey’s government has always insisted that there was no Armenian
genocide and says a far smaller number of Armenians died during
Ottoman deportations which it argues took place under war conditions
and were due to an Armenian rebellion.

Turkey’s ambassador to Germany, Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik, has denounced
the planned Bundestag resolution as containing “countless factual
errors” and being written “in agreement with propaganda efforts of
fanatic Armenians….”

“Its goal is to defame Turkish history… and poison ties between
Turkey and the European Union,” said the ambassador.

Finally, the German parliament’s resolution will underline Berlin’s
efforts to help normalise relations between Turkey and Armenia.

Germany, which has about 2.5 million resident Turks, has up until now
been wary about addressing the Armenian genocide.

A member of the opposition Christian Democratic alliance (CDU/CSU),
Erwin Marschewski, said in a statement that the value system of the
European Union (E.U.) insisted that countries “shine a spotlight on
the dark pages of their history.”

“Recognition by Turkey to the Armenian genocide of 1915 and 1916 is
important,” said Marschewski.

Turkey is due to start membership negotiations with the E.U. in
October but E.U. leaders say accession talks – if successful – will
take up to 15 years.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is a staunch backer of Turkish E.U.
membership and will visit Ankara and Istanbul for talks with Turkish
political and business leaders on May 3 and 4.

The draft resolution being debated in Germany’s parliament does not
use the word “genocide” but rather refers to the “expulsion and
massacres” of Armenians under the Ottoman Turks in 1915 as part of
ceremonies marking the 90th anniversary of the killings.

“We purposely left out the … term genocide,” said Christoph
Bergner, an opposition Christian Democrat, in a speech to parliament.

The declaration says between 1.2 and 1.5 million Christian Armenians
died or were killed by the Moslem Turks during “planned” deportations
during the First World War.

Armenians all over the world will on April 24 mark the 90th
anniversary of the start of what most international historians
describe as a genocide lasting from 1915 to 1923 which left up to 1.5
million people dead. dpa lm sc