Zaman, Turkey
April 24 2004
Kerry Plays Politics: Recognizes ‘So-Called Armenian Genocide’
November inches ever nearer, which means election year politics have
come into full swing. The Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate,
Senator John Kerry, claimed that 1.5 million Armenians were the
victims of genocide during the Ottoman Era.
Kerry issued a statement for April 24, which is the day Armenians
accept as a remembrance day for ‘so-called genocide’. Kerry said:
“April 24 marks the 89th anniversary of the start of the Armenian
genocide. The Former Ottoman Empire’s rulers killed or exiled 1.5
million Armenian women, men and children with a systematic cleansing
policy. Americans of Armenian origin keep this tragedy alive in our
minds and they remind us to undertake the responsibility to guarantee
such dreadful events never take place again.”
Kerry also pointed out that he has been an important supporter of
Armenian issues for a long time. He said that he was among the
senators who requested that U.S. President George W. Bush push Turkey
to lift its embargo on Armenia.
04.24.2004
aa
Washington, D.C.

PRAVDA, Russia
April 24 2004
Memory day of genocide against Armenians
14:42 2004-04-24
Armenia and the Armenian community abroad mark the Day of Memory of
the victims of genocide against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Yerevan hosts today a “torch procession” to the Memorial to the
victims of genocide against Armenians of 1915.
The statement of the procession organizers – youth department of the
Dashnaktsutyun party, received by RIA Novosti, notes that in the late
19th – early 20th centuries, the Turkish state carried out genocide
against the Armenian people, which was “continued in 1988 by
Azerbaijani Turks.” From the second half of the nineteenth century to
1920, Ottoman Turkey carried out regular persecutions of Armenians,
whose peak fell on 1915, when over 1.5 million Armenians were killed
in different regions of Western Armenia, making part of the Ottoman
Empire.
In historians’ opinion, the roots of the tragic events of the
beginning of the twentieth century lie in the antagonism of great
powers in the south of Europe.
By 1914, when WWI started, great powers had not reached consent on
“the Armenian issue.” As during warfare on the Caucasian front in
1915 Russian troops were successful, Turks took the decision to make
an ethnic cleansing in Western Armenia, believing that the Armenian
population will sympathize with Russia seeing the country as the
liberator of Armenian lands.
European powers were unable to stop mass crimes against Armenians
committed by Turks. Moreover, Germany and Austro-Hungary helped Turks
“cleanse” Western Armenia an a number of other territories of the
Ottoman Empire of Armenian population.
In the opinion of Dashnaktsutyun party members, the last act of
genocide was the murder in Budapest in 2004 of an Armenian officer by
an Azerbaijani serviceman.
The fact of the genocide against the Armenian people has been
recognized by many countries – Russia, France, Argentina, Greece,
Italy, Cyprus, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Uruguay etc.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 24 2004
US citizen detained in Yerevan, accused of subversive actions
YEREVAN, April 24 (Itar-Tass) — The Armenian Prosecutor General’s
Office has questioned and detained a former resident of Yerevan,
currently U.S. citizen Artur Vartanian, who `took an active part in
opposition rallies in Yerevan and actions aimed at the forcible
seizure of power,’ the Prosecutor-General’s Office public relations
office chief Gurgen Ambarian has said.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office the investigators have
found that Artur Vartanian has been permanently resident in the
United States since 1991 and has had U.S. citizenship since 2002.
Although he is a citizen of a different country, Vartanian retained
his Armenian passport and used the rights of an Armenian citizen and
repeatedly crossed Armenia’s state border and participated in
political and electoral processes.
His latest arrival was registered on April 11. Vartanian has since
participated in opposition rallies and actions aimed at the forcible
seizure of power.
Last Thursday Vartanian was detained and charged under two articles
of the criminal code – actions aimed at the forcible seizure of power
and illegal crossing of the state border.
The Armenian Prosecutor-General’s Office has briefed the Foreign
Ministry on the incident. Under the Constitution Armenian citizens
cannot have the citizenship of another country.
`The investigation department of the Prosecutor-General’s Office is
continuing a preliminary probe into the criminal case opened over the
instances of public calls and actions aimed at changing the
constitutional and state system and also public insults against the
authorities,’ the Prosecutor-General’s Office said.
There has been no response from the U.S. embassy to the arrest of
Vartanian yet.
The Opposition says the police has searched the flat of Vartanian’s
friend in Yerevan where the man was staying as a guest.
Nothing illegal was found.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Big News Network.com, Australia
April 25 2004
Iran bans Armenian protest
Iranian authorities Saturday banned Iran’s Armenian community from
demonstrating in front of the Turkish embassy.
The Iranian News Agency said the interior ministry refused to grant
Iranian Armenians a permission to organize the protest to mark the
89th anniversary of Turkey’s 1915 massacre of Armenians.
The ministry, instead, permitted the march be staged in the north of
Tehran away from the Turkish embassy’s building, but the Armenian
community insisted on staging the protest in front of the mission.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 24 2004
Armenia’s president Robert Kocharyan to visit France
YEREVAN, April 24 (Itar-Tass) – President Robert Kocharyan of Armenia
will head for France on a working visit on Sunday. He plans to meet
his French counterpart Jacques Chirac on Monday, the presidential
press service reported on Saturday.
One of the key topics of the talks will be the settlement of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. France is a co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk
Group on Nagorno-Karabakh alongside with Russia and the USA and takes
an active part in the conflict’s settlement.
During the talks the presidents will also discus bilateral political
dialogue and economic cooperation.
On Sunday evening, Kocharyan and his wife will attend a concert by
Charles Aznavur at the Paris Palace of Congresses that will be
devoted to the 80th birthday of the prominent French singer and
songwriter of Armenian descent.
The Armenian president also plans to meet the head of the French
company `Bouig’ Olivier Bouig.
On April 27, Kocharyan and his delegation will leave Paris for Warsaw
to attend the World Economic Forum. He will take part in a working
meeting on the Caucasus and meet with the Forum’s President Klaus
Schwab. Within the framework of the Forum Kocharyan will meet with
the Polish and Georgian presidents, Alexander Kwasniewski and Mikhail
Saakashvili.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Washington Times, DC
April 24 2004
Armenia’s head to visit France’s Chirac
Yerevan, , Apr. 24 (UPI) — The president of Armenia was to travel
Sunday to France for a meeting with French president Jacques Chirac,
the Itar-Tass news agency reported Saturday.
President Robert Kocharyan will reportedly be discussing efforts to
settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
France is a co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh,
along with Russia and the United States.
On April 27, Kocharyan and his delegation will leave Paris for Warsaw
to attend the World Economic Forum. He will take part in a working
meeting on the Caucasus and meet with the Forum’s President Klaus
Schwab.
Kocharyan also will meet with the Polish and Georgian presidents,
Alexander Kwasniewski and Mikhail Saakashvili.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Tehran Times, Iran
April 24 2004
Armenia Veteran Protests British Refusal to Recognize ‘Genocide’
YEREVAN (AFP) — An Armenian veteran of World War II decided to
return the medals he earned as a British pilot after Britain’s
ambassador denied that “genocide” was committed when the Ottoman
Empire killed up to 1.5 million Armenians, according to Armenia’s
count, at the end of World War I.
“I was deeply insulted by the British ambassador qualifying these
events as an atrocity, not genocide. I decided to return the medals I
received from Britain’s government, in protest,” Harutun Shiklanian
told reporters Friday.
Shiklanian’s parents fled their homeland after the massacre, which
had killed his grandparents, he said.
Shiklanian, who served as a pilot and photographer in the British air
force during the World War II, was awarded Britain’s Defense Medal
and War Medal last year.
“During the war I fought for human rights, but now I am disappointed.
I know you were not voicing your own opinion, but that of the British
government, and I feel it necessary to return my medals,” the
81-year-old veteran said in a letter to Ambassador Thorda
Abbott-Watt.
The issue of whether various nations recognize the “genocide” is one
of the most sensitive in Armenia.
The episode also remains one of the most controversial in Turkish
history. Turkey recognizes that 300,000 Armenians had died along with
a large number of Turks at the end of the war.
Abbott-Watt recently told the ***California Courier***, an
English-language weekly run by the Armenian diaspora in the United
States, that “the British government had condemned the massacre as an
(atrocity) at the time.

ArmenPress
April 23 2004
GEORGIAN POLICE PULL OUT STONE CROSS IN COMMEMORATION OF GENOCIDE
VICTIMS
AKHALKALAKI, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS : Georgian police officers have
pulled out a stone cross erected on a hill on the outskirts of
Akhaltsikha down in western Georgia in commemoration of the Armenian
genocide that was to be opened officially on April 24.
A local A-Info news agency reported that police officers detained
Ludwig Petrosian, who was steering the work, who was released after
spending 4 hours in custody. Petrosian later said that the cross
stone was pulled out at the order of local governor Nikoloz
Nikolozishvili ( a former ambassador to Armenia) on grounds that the
erection was not sanctioned by local authorities, however, Petrosian
said the permission was given by Akhaltsikha municipality.
Local Armenians were expected to organize a protest rally today
morning.

ArmenPress
April 23 2004
ARMENIA WELCOMES CANADIAN PARLIAMENT’S GENOCIDE DECISION
YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS: Armenia welcomed Thursday a
decision by Canada’s parliament to formally recognize the Armenian
genocide. A spokesman for Armenian foreign ministry, Hamlet
Gasparian, told Reuters that “we welcome the April 21 motion of
Canada’s parliament which came to finalize the complete and legal
acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide after the upper chamber of
Commons, Senate, recognized it on June 13 of 2002.”
He said that by that decision Canada has paid tribute to the
memory of the 1915 genocide that claimed the lives of 1.5 million
Armenians.
The spokesman also said that the decision is another evidence that
crimes against humanity are not subject to oblivion, a contribution
to the struggle against the policy of denial adopted by Turkish
government. He said the decision was also the result of a many-year
long campaign of the Canadian Armenian community for the genocide
recognition.

ArmenPress
April 23 2004
PRIME MINISTER ADDRESSES NATION ON OCCASION OF 89-TH ANNIVERSARY OF
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS: In a message to the nation on the
occasion of the 89-th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Armenian
prime minister Andranik Margarian said the massacres of Armenians in
1915, planned and carried out by the government of the Ottoman Turkey
was a crime against the civilized humanity, which was not prevented,
recognized and condemned at that time, serving as a precedent of
impunity for repetition of future such crimes.
The message says that Armenia hails the united efforts of the
international community aimed to prevent repetition of new genocides
regarding it as one of its foreign policy priorities. “The geography
of nations and parliaments which have officially acknowledged the
Armenian genocide is expanding, which is a key prerequisite for
preventing future such crimes, for strengthening the international
security system and promoting dialogue among civilizations,” the
message says.
It runs further that the protracted policy of denial or distortion
of the historical truth, adopted by heirs of perpetrators of the 1915
genocide who are trying to send it to oblivion is an evidence of
their failure to surmount the feeling of inferiority which cannot
help establish the environment of co-existence and meet the demands
of the modern world. “The climate of impunity is fraught with new
repetitions of such crimes at any moment at any corner of the globe,”
the message says.
“Today when Armenians throughout the world pay tribute to the
memory of thousands of innocent victims of 1915 massacres we once
again underline that Armenia wants to see Turkey a nation free of its
past burden, wants it to give up its policy of denial to become a
country truly coveting to integrate with the family of civilized
European nations,” the message runs.
The prime minister says then that next year will mark the 90-th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide and the 6-th anniversary of the
end of one of the bloodiest wars, WW II, suggesting that the year of
2005 be declared A Year of Commemoration of and Struggle Against
Wars, Genocides, Deportations and Abuse of Human Rights.
The message also says that the issue of the international
recognition of the Armenian genocide and its condemnation will remain
on Armenia’s foreign policy agenda. It says that concurrently Armenia
reaffirms its desire to have natural relations with all its neighbors
and its resolution to build a strong and prosperous country.
“I am confident that Armenia will make its contribution to global
efforts together with other nations for building a just and safe
world,” the message concludes.