Pasadena Star-News, CA
April 24 2004
Armenians speak out against genocide Armenians mark anniversary of
genocide
By Jason Newell @Staff writer:Staff Writer
:Garbis Der Yeghian wants the so-called “forgotten genocide’ to have
its place in history.
Eighty-nine years ago this week, a group of Young Turks forcibly
escorted Der Yeghian’s great-grandfather – a senior clergyman in the
Armenian Church – to the banks of the Euphrates river, stripped him
naked and beheaded him in front of 41 members of his family.
“They asked him to deny his Christian faith, and he said, ‘I will
never do that,” Der Yeghian said.
Der Yeghian, an Armenian activist and college president who lives in
La Verne, is one of thousands who will speak out during today’s
Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day.
Ottoman Turks are accused of killing 1.5 million Armenians between
1915 and 1923, in a systematic effort to destroy the entire Armenian
population.
Armenian-Americans will mark the 89th anniversary of the genocide’s
start with several memorials and events across Southern California.
Organizers of a 10 a.m. march through the Little Armenian
neighborhood of Hollywood expect 100,000 people to participate.
Others will attend a commemoration event at the Armenian Martyrs
Memorial in Montebello at 1 p.m.
A protest is planned in front of the Turkish Consulate on Wilshire
Boulevard in Los Angeles at 4 p.m. The Turkish government denies the
genocide, saying far fewer people died amid multiparty conflicts.
Der Yeghian, 53, past district governor for Rotary International and
current president of Mashdots College in Glendale, said the events
are important because they help bring attention to a tragedy many
young people haven’t heard about.
Der Yeghian, who is in Canada for three separate speeches today,
rarely passes up speaking engagements to talk about genocide and the
need for peace; he accepted 18 this week alone.
“Educating Armenian youth is not enough,’ he said. “We need to
educate all youth, because such genocide should never happen again.’
The Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century, was
the forerunner for subsequent genocides that claimed the lives of 170
million people, he said.

Diario La Capital de Mar Del Plata, Argentina
4/23/2004
A 89 años de una tragedia que marcó a fuego el perfil de una
nacionalidad
Los armenios recordarán el genocidio que sufrió su pueblo
La comunidad armenia de Mar del Plata organizará actos conmemorativos
del genocidio que sufrió su pueblo a manos del Estado turco hace 89
años.
La Asociación de Residentes Armenios en Mar del Plata convocó a los
actos recordatorios al cumplirse el 89° aniversario del genocidio que
sufrió el pueblo armenio a manos del Estado turco.
Mañana, a partir de las 18, se presentará el coro femenino Shnorhalí
en el teatro Colón, ubicado en Hipólito Yrigoyen 1665, con el
auspicio de la Unión General Armenia de Beneficencia de Buenos Aires.
Esta actuación se repetirá a las 20 en la Iglesia “Nuestra Señora de
Fátima”, ubicada en Alberti entre Olavarría y Güemes.
Al día siguiente, a las 11, se llevará a cabo un acto recordatorio al
pie del monumento al general San Martín, con la colocación de una
ofrenda floral, un discurso conmemorativo, y el Sagrado Responso por
los mártires de tan luctuoso genocidio. Luego, a partir de las 13, se
organizará un almuerzo ritual (Madagh) en la sede de la Asociación de
Residentes Armenios de Mar del Plata, que está ubicada en 11 de
Septiembre 3680.
Genocidio
“Hasta la Primera Guerra Mundial, el Imperio Otomano gobernaba la
Armenia Occidental y Cilicia, donde desde el siglo XI y como
resultado de la diáspora por la irrupción de las tribus turcas en los
territorios históricos, se había asentado un Reino Armenio que
también terminó por sucumbir en el siglo XIV”, explicaron los
referentes de la entidad representativa de la comunidad armenia en
Mar del Plata respecto al contexto histórico de la masacre sufrida
por su pueblo.
“Entre 1894 y 1923, el gobierno otomano emprendió un sistemático plan
genocida que culminaría con una república turca expurgada de armenios
y otras minorías”, añadieron.
“A partir de 1915, el Estado turco deportó, expropió y masacró a más
de 1.500.000 armenios, sobre un total de 2.100.000. Los
procedimientos fueron variados: detención y ejecución o desaparición
de intelectuales y notables; allanamientos y matanza de familias
enteras; incendio de iglesias atestadas de fieles; formación de
caravanas de la muerte con destino al desierto, que fueron marchas de
mortificación y exterminio”, explicaron los referentes armenios de la
ciudad.
“Se produjo una gran diáspora y sólo se pudo salvar del cataclismo
parte de la Armenia Oriental, dominada antes por los zares. Allí se
estableció una república independiente, que se refundó en 1991. Está
ubicada en el Cáucaso del Sur y ocupa una décima parte de los
territorios históricos armenios. Incluso, el monte Ararat, símbolo
ancestral de la nacionalidad, quedó separado de Ereván. Está del lado
turco, junto a la frontera”, señalaron ante la inminencia de un nuevo
aniversario de la masacre.
“Turquía se niega sistemáticamente a reconocer el genocidio
perpetrado, que fue señalado como el primero del siglo XX. Como el
problema del genocidio toca a toda la armenidad, su reconocimiento
está incluido en la agenda de la política exterior de la República de
Armenia. Paulatinamente aumentan los países y organismos
internacionales que lo reconocen”, informaron.

Goergian Times
April 23 2004
Karabagh armed forces – an example for Abkhazia
N. Alyev E. Alekperove. Azeri newspaper `Echo’. Baku
Media outlets again report that the separatist republics in South
Caucasus are going to establish close military cooperation with one
another.
`Strong Abkhaz state guarantees security and human right protection
for Armenian population. This position is shared in Armenia as well.
I think Armenian political circles in Abkhazia see a geopolitical
ally in South Caucasus. I would like to underline the fact that the
outlines of cooperation and mutual understanding has been established
with the mountainous Karabkha republic,’ said Prime Minister of
breakaway Abkhazia Raul Khajimba at the session of Armenian
community.
Abkhaz separatists have been holding close relations with the
Karabagh administration. As Afsni-press news agency reports, `the
government uses the military experience of the Karabagh military
forces.’ That manifests that the mutual cooperation would serve as a
steady basis for Armenian-Abkhaz cooperation,’ said Khajimba.
Azerbaijani does not take the similar statements at face value. Mirza
Metini, head of press-service of Azeri Foreign Ministry, said that he
had heard similar rhetoric many times before.
`The unrecognized separatist republic endeavor to draw attention of
the world community. Let’s just recall the case of Dnetre coastal
when Armenian and Dnetr separatists claimed they would assist one
another in the fight for independence. But all that is just
statements and nothing more.’
Mirza admits he can `hardly imagine how Armenian and Abkhaz
separatists can assist one another while none of them have military
potential’. He says neither Georgia nor Azerbaijan recognize the
self-proclaimed republics.
When given a similar question Ramiz Melikov, spokesman for the
Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan, replied that the statements by the
so-called Prime Minister should not be taken serious. The mountainous
Karabagh and Abkhazia are separatist regions. International community
does not usually respond to actions of unrecognized republics.’
Azeri newspaper Eko has connected the Georgian embassy to Azerbaijan
to get comments. The embassy official stressed that neither he is
going to comment on the statements of the so-called Prime Minister
who is not recognized by a single country.
Military expert Ezeri Japarov remarked: `Lately separatist republics
have intensified relations and consultations at the level of the so
called `ministries of foreign affairs’. They continue meeting one
another and try to draw attention of international community.
The expert says their efforts are vain as none of the state
recognizes their existence. Japarov said that there cannot be any
kind of military cooperation between the breakaway regions.
Abkhazia’s and Karabgh’s armed forces are nothing but a formation of
beoviks.

Salt Lake Tribune, UT
April 25 2004
Manookian’s kinder, gentler Requiem
Composer Jeff Manookian rehearses with soloists Julie Wright-Costa,
left, and Aubrey Adams McMillan. (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake
Tribune)
By Catherine Reese Newton
The Salt Lake Tribune
No fire and brimstone for Jeff Manookian, thanks. His new
Requiem, which the Oratorio Society of Utah will premiere tonight as
part of the Madeleine Festival, focuses on a compassionate God and
the promise of resurrection.
“In going through the [Requiem] literature, I was taken aback by
all the references to hellfire and brimstone and God as this awful,
vengeful creature,” Manookian said. So rather than write a thundering
composition in the tradition of Verdi or Berlioz, he set only the
more peaceful and joyous movements of the traditional Mass for the
dead.
The gentler approach puts the Salt Lake composer in good company,
said tonight’s soprano soloist, Julie Wright-Costa. Faure, Durufle
and Brahms also eschewed the darker movements. “The Brahms has a
message specifically for the living,” Wright-Costa said. Likewise,
“[Manookian] wanted a more compassionate and benevolent spirit — a
loving image of Christ and God, rather than wrath, rage and
judgment,” she said.
Manookian considered setting poetry of Walt Whitman rather than
the traditional liturgical text, but decided “if I kept strictly to
the Latin, the focus would be on the music,” he said. “I didn’t want
the audience to be tethered to the text.”
The movements he used are “Requiem Aeternum (eternal rest),” for
choir, soprano and alto; “Offertorium,” a soprano solo; “Tuba Mirum
(the trumpet shall sound),” for choir alone; “Pie Jesu (blessed
Jesus),” duet for soprano and alto; “Te Deum (we praise thee),” choir
alone; “Lux Aeternum (eternal light),” alto solo; and “In Paradisum
(in paradise),” choir and soloists.
The symmetrical structure “just happened,” Manookian said, adding
his music tends to write itself: “When I have to force something,
that’s when I rip it up, until it flows naturally.” He wrote the
Requiem in 44 days. “I was living like Howard Hughes, going for days
on end in my bathrobe and letting my beard grow,” he said. “The piece
came very fast; it surprised even me. — It’s amazing what you can do
on a deadline.”
Manookian’s last venture with the Oratorio Society was in 2000
with “Symphony of Tears,” commemorating the Armenian genocide of
1915.
“This one is more upbeat,” said Oratorio Society president
Richard Grossen, who sings tenor in the chorus and also performed in
“Symphony of Tears.” The earlier work “had to grow on you more.”
Manookian agreed that the Requiem is more readily accessible, the
aural equivalent of “sinking into the most comfortable, warm
bathtub.” He added that he intended the Requiem, unlike the more
programmatic “Symphony of Tears,” to be “generic in the best sense —
[so] every person can identify with it on his or her own terms. It’s
a much more universal piece.” The music is in a “blatantly
post-Romantic style.”
Manookian said he wrote the Requiem “during the period of a broken
heart, a down period in my life. — It represents the end or death of
a major section of my life.”
Also on the program are Manookian’s 1991 composition “Endless Are
the Clouds” and the 2002 work “Khachkar” for alto flute, harp and
strings. Manookian explained that “Khachkar” is Armenian for
“Christ’s cross.” The 10-minute piece, based on two Armenian folk
songs, is “an orchestral prayer, an invocation to the Requiem.”

Manookian at the Madeleine

* The Oratorio Society of Utah, with the Intermountain Chamber
Orchestra, flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, soprano Julie Wright-Costa and
alto Aubrey Adams McMillan, will perform the Requiem and other works
of Jeff Manookian tonight at 8 in the Cathedral of the Madeleine, 331
E. South Temple, Salt Lake City. The composer will conduct.

* Admission is free.

Moscow Times, Russia
April 26 2004
Armenians Remember 1915
Alexandra Kocho-Schellenberg / MT
Armenians lighting candles Saturday at a chapel at the Armenian
Cemetery.

YEREVAN, Armenia — Hundreds of thousands of Armenians, many of them
emigrants returning from abroad, converged Saturday on a hilltop
memorial in Yerevan to commemorate the 89th anniversary of mass
killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
The annual gathering at the vast Genocide Victims Memorial
overlooking the capital is a significant day in the country’s
emotional life, drawing huge crowds to lay flowers.
In Moscow, the Armenians lighted candles at churches and laid flowers
at the Armenian Cemetery.
Armenia accuses Turkey of the genocide of up to 1.5 million Armenians
between 1915 and 1919, when Armenia was under the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey rejects the claim and says Armenians were killed in civil
unrest during the collapse of the empire.
Although the deaths began before April 24, memorial services are held
on this date because it is the anniversary of the day in 1915 when
Turkish authorities executed a large group of Armenian intellectuals
and political leaders, accusing them of helping the invading Russian
Army during World War I.
Armenia has pushed for the United States and other nations to declare
the killings a genocide. Many countries, including Russia and France,
have officially recognized the event as genocide, along with some
U.S. states.
Canada’s Parliament last week backed a resolution recognizing the
deaths to be genocide, a move that was praised Saturday by Armenia’s
parliamentary speaker, Artur Bagdasaryan.
“Only through the condemnation of this kind of crime can its
occurrence be avoided,” he said.

Tehran Times, Iran
April 26 2004
Iran to Launch 3 LNG Projects
TEHRAN (PIN) — Iran is determined to launch three big liquefied
natural gas (LNG) projects, Minister of Oil Bijan Namdar Zanganeh
said Sunday. “One project will be handled by French Total and
Malaysian Petronas to produce 10 million tons of LNG. The second
project goes to British Shell while the third one will be implemented
inside the country,” Zanganeh told reporters on the sidelines of a
conference on gas exports being held in Tehran.
“At moment, we can allow up to 49 percent of foreign investment and
welcome foreign companies to help us launch LNG projects,” the
minister said.
Deputy Oil Minister Mehdi Mirmoezi said Iran has decided to award
French oil giant Total a 1.2 billion dollar contract to develop phase
11 of the massive South Pars offshore gas field. “Total has been
chosen to develop phase 11 of South Pars,” he said. “The final
negotiations are in progress, and unless there is a problem, the
contract will be signed in one or two months.” Zanganeh also said
that Iran has already signed an oil exports deal with a company from
the United Arab Emirates. “We are negotiating with Kuwait and our
talks are going on with Armenia for gas exports.”
Regarding oil prices, he said that he believed an oil price hovering
around 28 dollars per barrel would be a “good price” for the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
“I consider that 28 dollars a barrel is a good price for OPEC, or one
or two dollars more or less,” the minister told reporters.
“The objective should be to maintain the price of a barrel in the
upper part of the 22 to 28 dollar bracket,” said the minister.
Iran is OPEC’s second exporter. OPEC ministers agreed in March to
press ahead with an output cut of four percent from April 1,
dismaying importers such as the United States. But Zanganeh blamed
the high prices on “refining problems in the United States and the
political tensions in the Middle East, and OPEC can do nothing to
solve these two problems.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

New Kerala, India
April 25 2004
A lady entrepreneur who made replica of Golden Temple
>From Ravinder Singh Robin, Amritsar Apr 25 (ANI):
Jaspreet Kaur the entrepreneur took a lead
in making a memorable gift for notable public figures, who visit the
Golden Temple. Gold polished, lacquer finished, framed and encased in
a velvet jewellery box, the new creation immediately became a hit
when it was selected over the traditional model of the Golden Temple
encased in glass.
This woman found instant acceptance for her ‘first-of its-kind’
creation of “embossed plaque of the holy Golden Temple. Handier and
easy to handle, it was readily acknowledged as an apt gift for
visiting dignitaries to the holiest Sikh shrine.
Jaspreet’s joy knew no bounds when her very first creation was gifted
to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak
Committee (SGPC) in March last year (2003).
The tremendous response to her creation propelled an assignment for
‘a special piece’ for the Canadian Prime Minister’s visit to the
Golden Temple. She created a dazzling plaque with a smattering of
cultured diamonds as the haloed sun rays and framed with an inlay of
real pearls and blue sapphires. Even the velvet jewellery box for
this plaque was encrusted with ‘traditional kundan work’. The gift
drew profuse appreciation by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretian on
his visit to Golden Temple on Diwali day on October 25 last year.”
Queries flew in from the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s office for
another piece that could be presented to the Armenian President on
his visit. However, it could not be readied in the short duration,
she claimed.
A dual polish (gold-silver) plaque was presented subsequently to
British Columbian Premier Gordon Campbell recently. ” The plaque is
not only handier as a memento but can be conveniently carried home by
visiting dignitaries compared to the bulkier counterpart of the model
of Golden Temple. Besides this, it has an added advantage of multiple
display choices. A sturdy back-stand holds it as a photo frame, it
can be displayed on a plate stand or could be simply hung on a wall.”
Many of the large mock models of the Golden Temple became cause for
baggage rationalisation, but these plaques have the immediate and
sleek advantage over that, says the young artist.
33-year old Jaspreet started out with an input of Rs four lakh which
she earned from a lecturer’s job. A gold medallist in MA, M.Phil.
history, she is proud to have created hitherto a product that
commemorates history. Her destiny automatically connected her with
Sikh history after she married Manbir Singh, the grandson of Master
Tara Singh, the seven- time president of SGPC.
Armed with a degree in electrical engineering and a keen artistic
taste, Manbir became the inspiration and guide for Jaspreet when she
came up with an idea of the European-style embossment to be
replicated for the Golden Temple on a brass plate.
Countless computer designs and six months of tireless effort to make
a master-layout of the Golden Temple with near perfect angles of its
varied architectural marvels proved fruitful, she says.
“Later, the finished plaque is given pure gold polish and
electrophoratic lacquer treatment to retain finish and negate
oxidation visible in blackening,” says Jaspreet.
However, Jaspreet wants to retain the exclusivity of her product. The
success of her creation has boosted her to innovate and use her
skills to create plaques of other shrines like Gurdwara Khadoor Sahib
for their 500 anniversary celebrations of Guru Angad Dev next year.
She is already in the crafting stage for other shrines including
Gurdwara Hazoor Sahib, Mata Vaishno Devi and Gurdwara Hemkund Sahib.

Manila Times, Philippines
April 26 2004

DOUBLETAKE
Ignoring genocide
By Eric F. Mallonga

SUPERPOWER America possesses vast information on world events before
they even happen. Its government either makes world events happen or
wait for events to happen to it or to other countries before it even
react. Often, America ignores the world event, especially when it
has no bearing or consequence to America’s security and economy. As
the only superpower nation today, it claims the moral authority to
direct world events and shepherd other interest in shepherding are
those that possess vast natural resources, the destruction of which
would substantially affect the American economy, such as Iraq and the
other oil-producing Middle East countries.
Former President Bill Clinton knew about the fierce rivalry between
the Hutus and Tusis of Rwanda. He had been informed about the
genocidal assaults by one tribe against the other even as they were
still on the planning table. He took no action – nothing remedial nor
preemptive. Obviously, America has no economic or security interest
in the Dark Continent, or in any of its countries, except for one
phase in its historical past when its people engaged in the
shamelessness of African slavery in America. In many African
countries, genocide takes place on a daily occurrence albeit on a
lesser scale than the Rwandese bloodbath or the Kurdish massacre by
the Hussein regime in Iraq. I was shocked when one Congolese social
worker informed participants at a Monte-Carlo symposium last year
that children as young as eight years or even younger, were recruited
by both government and insurgency forces into their respective armies
for as long as they could carry a gun. These child combatants would
commit massacres, rapes, torture and other atrocities as directed or
allowed by their military commanders. Sometimes, the comparison with
the Philippine situation is surprisingly similar as we now witness on
our television screen the participation of teenagers or children in
their pre-teens, as young as eight years, in armed conflict, having
been recruited into the communist or extremist Islamic insurgency
groups. It is a legacy of bloodbath and violence that Marxist rebels
and Muslim jihadists wish to pass on to the younger generations of
Filipinos, or to the world.
Today, nobody seems to be aware or even outraged by the genocide
taking place in Sudan. Dubya Bush is not interested. Neither is Kofi
Annan raising a voice against the bloody purges. In Darfur, Sudan,
thousands of people have already been massacred, with one million
black Africans driven from their homes by lighter skinned Arabs in
the Janjaweed. The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof points
out that Darfur, a region which is the size of France, has been
burned and emptied as the Arab Janjaweed militia, armed by the
Sudanese government, have destroyed the water wells, or fouled them
up by dumping corpses into them, to prevent the villagers from ever
returning to their ancestral lands. When tribal African men and
teenage boys show up at the wells to gather water for their families,
they are shot. When it is African women and girls, they are raped.
One thousand people are dying weekly and the world is not paying any
attention.
The United Nations Security Council was not established for the
parochial interest of its five most powerful council-member nations.
As hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees are escaping into the
Chad border, hundreds of thousands of fresh graves are being dug up
for Sudanese children. In the Darfur villages, isolated and
unschooled tribal peasants are suddenly confronted with modern
helicopters opening fire with their machine guns and missiles on
their innocent children. The United Nations was created to respond to
the evils of genocide as it had never been able to respond
appropriately to past genocidal events – in Armenia, in Germany, in
Cambodia, in Vietnam, in Bosnia. But Kofi Annan should not rely on
Bush for any support as the world knows that America’s interests are
delimited to its own national security and economy. American
companies might even be earning billions from the purchase by the
Sudanese government of war equipment, vehicles, helicopters and
armaments used in the Sudanese genocide so that maintaining political
instability in that side of the world remains beneficial to American
economy.
How many more children have to be massacred, tortured, burned to
death, raped, branded like animals, recruited into the army and
transformed into killing and raping machines before the world finally
demands accountability from the participants to this genocide,
including those countries which supply armaments that make genocide
possible?

Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia)
April 25, 2004 Sunday Final Edition
Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down
THUMBS UP – To MPs who passed a motion condemning “the Armenian
genocide of 1915.” It may have ruffled a few Turkish feathers and
gone against official Canadian policy, but our elected
representatives must be able to express popular outrage, even if they
can’t change history.
THUMBS UP – To Puretracks.com for allowing Canadians to download the
theme song from Hockey Night in Canada. The playoffs have been pushed
off the Saturday night slot into the afternoon by U.S. television
moguls, but we can still pretend — it’s our game, after all.
THUMBS DOWN – To CBS television for broadcasting photos of Princess
Diana slumped in the car in which she died moments later, after
crashing in a Paris tunnel in 1997. The broadcasting of the pictures
“sickened” her family and outraged people around the world.
THUMBS UP – To German Defence Minister Peter Struck for announcing
German soldiers, male and female, heterosexual and homosexual, will
be able to sleep together in barracks on foreign missions. It’s silly
that armies, like ours, say that even married couples can’t cuddle on
missions — as if that would sap their will to fight.
THUMBS DOWN – To Monrovia Nursery in Azusa, Calif., for exporting
camellias to B.C. nurseries that are suspected of carrying a disease
which is fatal to our precious Garry oaks. And please don’t say that
when they’re all gone there’ll be no more Garry oak meadows to stand
in the way of developments.
THUMBS DOWN – To Tokyo University scientists who have found a way for
female mice to reproduce without the need for male mates. We won’t go
into the revolting details, but as a blow to the ego of males
everywhere, this takes the cheese.

Agence France Presse
April 25, 2004 Sunday
White House mourns “most horrible tragedy” of Armenian killings
WASHINGTON, April 24
US President George W. Bush on Saturday mourned events in which up to
1.5 million Armenians died in orchestrated killings and during
deportations by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917.
“On this day, we pause in remembrance of one of the most horrible
tragedies of the 20th century, the annihilation of as many as 1.5
million Armenians through forced exile and murder at the end of the
Ottoman Empire,” Bush said a statement released by the White House.
“This terrible event remains a source of pain for people in Armenia
and Turkey and for all those who believe in freedom, tolerance, and
the dignity of every human life,” he said.
“I join with my fellow Americans and the Armenian community in the
United States and around the world in mourning this loss of life.”
Turkey categorically rejects claims of genocide and says that between
250,000 and 500,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks were killed in
civil strife during World War I, when the Armenians rose up against
their Ottoman rulers.
The United Nations, the European Parliament, Belgium, France, Greece
and Russia have recognised the Armenian genocide. Canadian lawmakers
voted a few days ago to recognise the massacre, calling it a “crime
against humanity”.
Bush said the United States “is proud of the strong ties we share
with Armenia. From the end of World War I and again since the
reemergence of an independent Armenian state in 1991, our country has
sought a partnership with Armenia that promotes democracy, security
cooperation, and free markets.”