Armenian National Committee of Idaho
2414 Brumback Street
Boise, Idaho 83702
Tel. (208) 484-4363
Email: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
April 21, 2004
Contact: Rafael Saakyan
Tel: (208) 484-4363
IDAHO GOVERNOR ISSUES PROCLAMATION COMMEMORATING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
BOISE, ID – Idaho became the 33rd U.S. state to recognize the Armenian
Genocide this week, as Republican Governor Dirk Kempthorne, Chairman
of National Governors Association, issued a proclamation citing April
24th “Idaho Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923,”
reported the Armenian National Committee of Idaho (ANC-Idaho).
The proclamation begins noting that “one and one-half-million
Christian Armenian men, women, and children were the victims of a
brutal genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turkish Government from
1915-1923.” It goes on to cite the importance of commemorating this
crime against humanity as a way of “guarding against the repetition of
future genocides and educating people about the atrocities connected
to these horrific crimes.” The complete text of the Governor’s
proclamation is provided below.
The gubernatorial proclamation closely follows a resolution
unanimously adopted by the Senate of the Associated Students of Boise
State University (ASBSU) recognizing the Armenian Genocide and
condemning efforts to rewrite history. Senate Resolution 13 states
that the genocide “has resulted in the elimination of the Armenian
people from their historic homeland of over 3000 years through the
criminal loss of property and life.” The resolution “commemorates the
Armenian Genocide and condemns those attempts made by governments as
well as other entities, both public and private, to distort the
historical reality and legal relevance of the Armenian Genocide to the
descendants of its survivors and humanity as a whole.”
Upon hearing the news of the Governor’s proclamation, David Morriss,
President of the ASBSU, commented: “I think it’s fantastic that the
Governor not only recognizes the importance of bringing this
information to light, but also stands behind efforts to educate the
public about the Armenian Genocide”.
Chairman of ANC-Idaho, Rafael Saakyan, commended Governor Kempthorne
on his “commitment to advancing human rights issues in the state of
Idaho and for joining the Armenian community across this great state
in sustaining the flame of remembrance for the victims of the Armenian
Genocide.” Saakyan then urged the Idaho Congressional delegation to
“ensure that their state’s views are well represented through their
support for the adoption of the Genocide resolution in the House and
Senate.”
Rebecca Kun, communications director for ANC-Idaho, worked closely
with the ANC-Idaho team to collect close to 600 signatures for the
proclamation request. “This was a marathon process — we collected 594
signatures in 2 1/2 weeks in order to get our proclamation request
submitted in time to meet the April 24th deadline we set for
ourselves. With this proclamation and the Boise State initiative it
is clear that the Armenian community, working together, can make a
real difference.” Ms. Kun continued, stating “as a first generation
holocaust survivor, I understand the importance of bringing these
events to light. Having this proclamation signed by both the State of
Idaho and Boise State University is the first step to correct the
dissemination of lies that has been perpetuated for the last 89
years.”
Massachusetts State Republican Committee man Bob Semonian of
Watertown, MA helped the ANC-Idaho bring their concerns to the
attention of the Governor’s office. Semonian discussed the importance
of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide with Gov. Kempthorne
directly at the recent National Governor’s Association (NGA) meeting
in Washington, DC.
The Idaho proclamation follows an earlier letter of recognition issued
by Montana’s Republican Governor Judith Martz in late March.
Jamestown North Dakota Mayor Charles Kourajian issued a city
proclamation honoring the victims of the Armenian Genocide last week.
#####
——————————————————————-
Text of the Idaho Proclamation Commemorating the Armenian Genocide
———————————————- ———————
The Office of the Governor
Proclamation
Executive Department
State of Idaho
State Capitol
Boise
WHEREAS, one and one-half-million Christian Armenian men, women, and
children were victims of a brutal genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman
Turkish Government from 1915-1923; and
WHEREAS, the Armenian genocide and massacres of Armenian people have
been recognized as an attempt to eliminate all traces of a thriving
and noble civilization over 3,000 years old; and
WHEREAS, recognition of the eighty-ninth anniversary of this genocide
is crucial to guarding against the repetition of future genocide and
educating people about the atrocities connected to these horrific
events; and
WHEREAS, Armenian-Americans living in Idaho have greatly enriched our
state through their leadership in business, agriculture, academia,
government and the arts;
NOW, THEREFORE I, DIRK KEMPTHORNE, Governor of the State of Idaho, do
hereby proclaim April 24, 2004, to be
IDAHO DAY OF REMEMBRANCE OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915-1923
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be
affixed the Great Seal of the State of Idaho at the Capitol in Boise
on this twentieth day of April in the year of our Lord two- thousand
and four and of the Independence of the United States of America the
two hundred twenty-eighth and of the Statehood of Idaho the one
hundred fourteenth.
[signature]
DIRK KEMPTHORNE
GOVERNOR
[signature]
BEN YSURSA
SECRETARY OF STATE

Apr. 22, 2004. 01:00 AM
Armenia genocide did happen: MPs
Toronto Star
GRAHAM FRASER NATIONAL AFFAIRS WRITER
OTTAWA-Parliament rejected a plea by Foreign Affairs Minister Bill
Graham, and voted to acknowledge the Armenian genocide of 1915 and
condemn it as a crime against humanity.
Dozens of Liberal MPs yesterday broke with the government and
supported the motion, which passed 153 to 68 despite a personal
request by Graham to the Liberal caucus to consider the consequences
of the vote.
“Fantastic!” said Liberal MP Sarkis Assadourian (Brampton Centre), who
co-sponsored the motion with Bloc MP Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral (Laval
Centre), Conservative MP Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast) and NDP MP
Alexa McDonough (Halifax).
Assadourian stressed the vote was not aimed at Turkey, which has
always rejected the label of genocide for the killings of Armenians in
1915.
“This is establishing a historical fact that happened in the Ottoman
Empire,” he said. “We have to work together and build
bridges. … After 89 years, justice has been done. It’s very, very
important that we acknowledge the past, that we condemn it so that we
don’t repeat it.”
Graham issued a statement saying the government was not bound by the
vote, and that its position had not changed.
“We certainly understand the will of the House, but the government’s
position remains that, in respect of Turkey and Armenia, we are
working with them for reconciliation … to try and ensure good
neighbourly relations,” he told reporters.
Liberal MP Stéphane Dion (Saint-Laurent-Cartierville) said very few
MPs did not think a genocide had taken place.
“Why are we afraid of calling a spade a spade?” he asked, arguing that
by issuing the statement, the government was undermining the
importance of Parliament.
“Canada’s position is very confused,” he said.
Aris Babikian of the Armenian National Committee of Canada said he was
elated by the vote, which Armenians in Canada had spent 25 years
waiting for.
“This victory is not only for the victims of the Armenian genocide and
the Armenian people, it is a victory for justice, truth,
reconciliation and healing,” he said. Canada joins a small number of
other countries, including France, Russia, Argentina, Greece and
Uruguay, in describing the events that occurred in Eastern Anatolia
under the Ottoman Empire in 1915-23 as genocide. Turkeyhas furiously
rejected the idea that the deaths and deportation of Armenians at that
time can be described as such.The result followed an appeal by Graham
to Liberal MPs to consider the consequences of the vote.
“I am deeply concerned that it could have far-reaching negative
consequences,” Graham said in a letter to Liberal MPs. “Sensitive
negotiations have begun between the governments of Armenia and Turkey
which will hopefully lead to the normalization of relations and the
opening of the border between the two countries.”
Canadian officials are concerned the vote might have an effect on
several major Canadian contracts in Turkey.
Bombardier has a $335 million contract for work on the Ankara metro,
and there is an additional contract being negotiated worth $1 billion
-with 70 per cent of the work being done in Canada. SNC-Lavalin is
also a contender for another project near Istanbul.
Turkish embassy counsellor Fazli Corman told Reuters that “relations
with Canada will suffer as the result of adopting such a motion.”
In the past, the Liberal government has insisted Liberal MPs vote
against similar motions. But the Martin government, while requiring
members of the cabinet to support the government’s position, allowed a
free vote on the motion.
Additional articles by Graham Fraser

CIS remains most dynamically developing region in world
22.04.2004, 00.39

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Itar-Tass) – The Commonwealth of Independent
States including Russia remains one of the most dynamically developing
regions in the world, said a new report of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) on the condition and shortest prospects of the world
economy that has been prepared by the spring session of leading bodies
of the IMF and the World Bank.
Under the document the real GDP growth of six percent is expected in
Russia this year and 5.2 percent next year. Azerbaijan (8.1 percent
and 13.2 percent respectively) and Kazakhstan (8.0 percent and 7.5
percent retrospectively) are leading in this figure in the
CIS. According to IMF forecasts Ukraine will have the GDP growth of
six percent this year and four percent in the next few years, Belarus
– 4.8 and 3.5 percent respectively. The lowest growth rate is expected
in Uzbekistan – two percent in 2004 and 2005.
The IMF determines another key macroeconomic index, inflation rate
according to a special method – on average for a year. Under this
method the growth of prices in Russia is expected by approximately
11.2 percent this year and about 9.9 percent next year. The Russian
authorities that use the evaluation method from December to December
promise to keep inflation at the level of 8-10 percent this year.
The highest inflation rate in the CIS is expected in Belarus – 22.7
percent this year and 13.6 percent next year and the lowest rate in
Armenia – three percent a year.
According to IMF specialists, the world economic growth will reach 4.6
percent this year. A more moderate figure of 4.0 percent was named in
the previous report just half a year ago. It shows that the IMF is now
more optimistic about the condition of world economy. A new forecast
for 2005 that was also reviewed for increase envisages 4.4 percent of
global economic growth.

Metro Detroit Armenians remember genocide victims
Weekend events to commemorate 89th anniversary of massacre in Turkey
By Christopher M. Singer / The Detroit News
April 22, 2004
DEARBORN – Metro Detroit’s 40,000-member Armenian communityon Friday
will launch a series of events marking the 89th anniversary of the
20th century’s first genocide.
This year, the commemoration follows news that New York Life Insurance
Co.
last month agreed to place $1.7 million in a fund for what the company
called ` unclaimed or heirless’ life insurance policies from which
Armenian religious groups in the United States will benefit.
Descendants of Armenian genocide victims in 1999 brought a
class-action lawsuit against New York Life to pay on 2,186 policies
purchased by victims. But the lack of Armenian birth certificates or
Turkish death records made it virtually impossible for descendants to
prove victims ever existed.
Lawmakers, including Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, are pushing
for a commemoration of the genocide. Levin has signed a letter to
President Bush urging him to officially call the deaths from 1915-23
of 1.5 million Armenians a genocide, a press aide said.
Before April 24, 1915, an estimated 3 million Armenians lived in
Armenia and Turkey. By the time Turkey stopped the killing in 1923,
about 1.5 million Armenians still were alive but scattered in places
like the United States, Palestine, Lebanon, France and Brazil, along
with Armenia and Turkey.
The exact number of victims will never be known because Armenian birth
records were destroyed and Turkey kept no records of what Armenians
label`the massacre.’ The Rev. Daron Stepanian, pastor of St. Sarkis
Armenian Apostolic Church in Dearborn recalled the story of what Talat
Pashah had declared when the killing started.
Pashah was the leader of the Young Turks, a group of military officers
who in 1908 staged a coup to overthrow the sultan who ruled the
Ottoman Empire.
`He said they would keep one Armenian in a museum so future
generations would know what an Armenian looked like,’ Stepanian said.
April 24 is marked as `Martyr’s Day’ because 400 Armenian
intellectuals were rounded up and murdered in Istanbul on April 24,
1915.
Turkey, an ally of Germany and an enemy of czarist Russia in World War
I, announced during the war that Armenians had been, for their own
safety, evacuated to strategic hamlets so they wouldn’t be caught
between Turkey and Russia.
In reality, Armenians forcibly were marched into the Syrian
desert. Those who didn’t die of thirst or exposure, starved or died of
disease.
Even today, the modern secular nation of Turkey rigidly denies that a
genocide occurred.
`The world should care,’ an agitated Stepanian demanded.`Hitler
himself said, `Who remembers the Armenians?’ Acknowledgement must
come.’ On Saturday night, Armenians from three different churches
will gather at St. Sarkis to worship and to remember at the khach kar,
or `cross of the stones,’ a peculiarly Armenian art form dating to 301
A.D., when the nation was converted to Christianity.
Worshippers will wear white carnations. Genocide survivors will be
given red carnations. Stepanian fears there soon will be no one to
give red carnations to.
Bruce Russel, professor and chairman of the philosophy department of
Wayne State University, sees meaning and value when attention is
given, whether it’s remembering the genocide during the gathering at
St. Sarkis or a pilgrimageto Auschwitz in his native Poland by Pope
John Paul II.
`There’s some value in acknowledging these things,’Russell said. `You
want to acknowledge that human beings can do awful things. We need to
acknowledge evil because it keeps it in the forefront of our minds,
and we can’t push it to the back.’ Acknowledgement won’t be easy.
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned his
country’s border with Armenia – closed following the fall of the
Soviet Union’ will not be reopened `unless the Armenian lobby in
the U.S. drops its false claims about the alleged Armenian genocide.’
The issue of Turkey’s denial bothers some Turks.
Fatma Muge Gocek is an associate professor of sociology at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Born in Turkey, Gocek came to the
United States in 1981 to earn her doctorate in sociology at Princeton.
Gocek is on a sabbatical to write a book on a topic she calls
`Deciphering Denial.’ `I try to understand why the denial occurred,’
she said.`They admit that there were massacres, but they reject the
charge of genocide.’ Gocek said her motivation was simple: As a Turk
herself, she got worn out answering questions about the genocide.
You can reach Christopher M. Singer at (734) 462-2093 or
[email protected].

Students commemorate Genocide
By Van-Anh Tran
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
April 22, 2004
[email protected]
About 50 students marched in silence around the UCLA campus Wednesday
in commemoration of the 89th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by
the Turkish government – which some countries, including the United
States, do not officially recognize.
Starting on April 24,1915, the Turkish government of the Ottoman
Empire started an ethnic cleansing policy by relocating its Armenian
population toSyria.
Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians are believed to have been
killed, and no consensus number is agreed upon by historians.
There is also debate on whether the killing of Armenians during World
War I by the Turkish government can be called a genocide, but most
Armenian students on campus don’t see it as a debatable issue.
“The Armenian genocide is not a political issue, but a historical
fact,” said Raffi Kassabian, treasurer of the Armenian Student
Association and a third-year political science student. “As a great
civilization, we must learn from the past so we will not repeat what
happened in the future.”
Participants in the silent march were dressed in black and carried
posters with slogans like “Recognition ends repetition” and “We seek
justice.”
One poster bore an American eagle with the message “United We Stand,”
despite the fact the U.S. government has not officially acknowledged
the genocide. The silent march ended with a presentation, including
speeches, poetry readings and music performances at Bruin Plaza.
“We do these events to increase the awareness about the genocide,
because there have been denial in the past on campus about it,” said
Christina Ohanian, cultural director of the Armenian Student
Association and a second-year political science student.
The association sponsored the event with the help of Alpha Epsilon
Omega and Alpha Omega Alpha, UCLA’s Armenian fraternity and sorority,
respectively.
“It is important that Armenian students organize such events, because
one unrecognized genocide tells us it’s OK that it happened and that
we do not need to recognize it,” said Lory Bedikian, a 1994 alumna who
read poetry at the presentation.
Sion Abajian, Bedikian’s grandmother, is an Armenian genocide survivor
who still has nightmares about her experiences crossing the Syrian
desert, Bedikian said. Abajian used to talk a lot about her
experiences and has burning sensations on her feet that doctors
speculate are caused psychologically from her memories, Bedikian said.
Posters and information were displayed on Bruin Plaza throughout the
day to attract students and offer more information about the genocide.
“I believe that if we would have recognized the genocide of 1915, then
it wouldn’t have been repeated in Rwanda and Bosnia,” said Tamar
Nazerin, member of Alpha Omega Alpha and a third-year physical science
student.
The only U.S. president to recognize the killings as a genocide was
Ronald Reagan.
Concerns for U.S.-Turkish relations have often been cited as the main
reason for the United States not formally acknowledging the
genocide. Many nations, including France, Israel, Russia and Canada,
have recognized that the genocide was a crime against humanity.
UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council passed a resolution
Tuesday night acknowledging all the atrocities perpetuated against
humanity, including the Armenian killings.

Los Angeles Daily News
Armand Arabia puts award in focus
Noted jurist to get Ellis Island medal
By Dennis McCarthy
Thursday, April 22, 2004 – It was their first family portrait together
in America, and they’re posed like the Rockefellers like they’ve got a
million bucks in the bank.
But they have nothing, really just each other. When this picture was
taken in December 1934, the family had been in this country only a few
years, survivors of the Armenian Genocide.
They were living in a tenement on New York City’s Lower East Side not
too far from Ellis Island, where they and tens of thousands of other
immigrant families entered this country, seeking a better life.
At Ellis Island next month, the man shown in an old photo as a baby
sitting on his grandmother’s lap will receive a coveted award the
Ellis Island Medal of Honor given to U.S. citizens who “preserve and
reinforce the value of their heritage, and contribute extraordinary
service to humanity in any field, profession or occupation.”
Former California Supreme Court Justice Armand Arabian of Van Nuys
will have his name added to the Ellis Island honor roll with those of
presidents, political leaders, sports and entertainment legends, and
successful businessmen and artists from every walk of life.
It’s pretty heady company for the first-born son of immigrants who
lived in a New York City tenement. But he won’t be thinking about any
of that when they put the medal around his neck next month.
He’ll be thinking of the faces in this family portrait and those
missing from the picture.
Judge Arabian has a harrowing family history. His grandfather had been
a leader in the village of Chengeller, Turkey, not far from
Constantinople, now Istanbul. One morning in 1915 the village was
attacked by Turkish soldiers, and the nightmare began, he says.
His grandfather was taken to the center of town, placed against a wall
and executed by a firing squad. His crime? He was Armenian.
“My grandmother was driven from her home with nothing but the dress on
her back,” Arabian says. “Along with others, she and two of her sons
were marched for days until they reached the banks of a swift river.
“A mounted gendarme with bandoleers of ammunition crossing his chest
ordered her to swim across the river or be shot on the spot. Some
soldiers were already killing those who couldn’t make it.
“Holding the hands of her two sons, she faced an impossible dilemma:
She could save the life of one son by swimming across the river with
him, but she would have to leave the other son behind.
“She chose the eldest, 11-year-old Ovanes, my father,” Arabian
said. “Helping each other, they swam across. Left on the riverbank was
4-year-old Oskian standing with his arms outstretched, crying for his
mother and brother.
“He never saw them again. Not a day went by in my grandmother’s life
that she didn’t relive the heartbreak and pain from leaving her
4-year-old son standing on that riverbank crying,” Arabian said.
“Years later, her daughter, Araxi, was rescued from an orphanage in
France.
One of her beautiful orphan playmates, Aghavnie, later became my
mother,” he says, for Ovanes married her.
Aunt Araxi stands over her mother’s right shoulder in the
picture. Arabian’s mother stands alongside his father, a tailor. And,
of course, in the middle sits the matriarch of the family his
grandmother, Soultana, who relived that swim across the river every
day of her life until she died in 1982.
It is in their memory, their honor, that he will lower his head and
accept the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Arabian says. Not for himself
or anything he did but for what they did.
“My father used to say the only country club Armenians belong to is
the one at Ellis Island. It was the only one that accepted them.”
Arabian will visit his ancestors’ graves before he returns home. He
knows it will be an emotional moment as he kneels before their graves
with that medal of honor hanging from his neck.
It says a lot about the greatness and heart of this country that
immigrant families, like his, were invited into the country club at
Ellis Island after fleeing so much heartbreak, poverty, and violence,
Arabian says.
And that, after only a few years in America, they faced the camera
like they were the Rockefellers like they had a million bucks in the
bank.
Dennis McCarthy’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 [email protected]

Smuggler Caught with Over 2 Kilos of Diamonds
Created: 22.04.2004 11:00 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:33 MSK
MosNews
Police in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport detained an Armenian citizen
who was trying to smuggle over 2.6 kg of uncut diamonds into Russia,
ITAR-TASS reported, citing the airport police press service.
The suspect, 39, was detained at about 10:30 p.m. Moscow time
Wednesday. During a passenger security check on a flight from
Yerevan, guards discovered that the suspect was wearing a fabric belt
under his jumper. The belt contained 12 plastic bags filled with
precious stones – each diamond’s value was up to two carats. The
overall weight of the stones was 2.65 kilograms.
Specialists are currently establishing the value of the confiscated
diamonds, ITAR-TASS reported.
A criminal investigation has been launched into the illegal
circulation of precious stones and smuggling.

Michigan Armenians mark genocide by Turks
The Associated Press
4/22/04 2:02 AM
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Armenian Americans are preparing to mark the
89th anniversary of a mass murder that helped mark the the 1900s as
the century of genocide.
Before the Nazi slaughtered 6 million Jews, before the Khmer Rouge
killed 1.7 million of their fellow Cambodians, before Rwandan Hutus
killed 800,000 ethnic Tutsis, the Armenians of Turkey endured mass
slaughter at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
Armenians say they lost 1.5 million people in 1915-23, during and
after World War I, as Turkish authorities forced them out of eastern
Turkey. Turkey says the death count is inflated and that the deaths
were a result of civil unrest.
But Adolf Hitler cited the killing of the Armenians as a precedent for
his own slaughter of the Jews two decades later.
“Kill without mercy!” the Nazi leader told his military on the eve of
the Holocaust. “Who today remembers the annihilation of the
Armenians?” Southeastern Michigan is home to about 40,000
Armenian-Americans. On Friday, they start a series of events marking
the 89th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., are pushing for a
commemoration of the genocide. He Levin has signed a letter to
President Bush urging him to officially call the deaths a genocide.
The Rev. Daron Stepanian of St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church in
Dearborn recalled the story of what Talat Pashah had declared when the
killing started.
Pashah was the leader of the Young Turks, a group of military officers
who in 1908 staged a coup to overthrow the sultan who ruled the
Ottoman Empire.
“He said they would keep one Armenian in a museum so future
generations would know what an Armenian looked like,” Stepanian told
The Detroit News.
Each year, April 24 is marked as “Martyrs Day” because 400 Armenian
intellectuals were rounded up and killed in Istanbul on April 24,
1915.
Turkey, an ally of Germany and an enemy of czarist Russia in World War
I, announced during the war that Armenians had been, for their own
safety, evacuated to strategic hamlets so they would not be caught
between Turkey and Russia.
In reality, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were marched into the
Syrian desert to die of thirst, exposure, starvation and disease.
“The world should care,” Stepanian said. “Hitler himself said, `Who
remembers the Armenians?’ Acknowledgement must come.”
“Righteous people have a moral imperative not to let the (Armenian)
Genocide or the Holocaust go unremembered and unmourned,” University
of Michigan-Dearborn historian Dennis R. Papazian wrote in an opinion
column in the Detroit Free Press. “To do so would be to make us less
human and to encourage the repetition of evil.”

Canada Lawmakers Recognize Armenian Genocide
RFE/RL Feature Article
22 April 2004 — Canada’s parliament yesterday backed a motion declaring
that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War I.
Yesterday’s vote in the House of Commons was 153 “for” and 68 “against.”
Armenians say a 1915-23 campaign to drive them out of eastern Turkey
amounted to genocide and some 1.5 million Armenians were killed. Turks
officially deny this, saying the Armenians were among the many victims
of a partisan war during World War I.
Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham had urged legislators not to
aggravate NATO ally Turkey by voting in favor of the motion.
After the vote, Graham issued a statement saying the motion will not
alter the official Canadian government position that while the events in
question at the start of the 20th century were a tragedy, they did not
constitute genocide.
A backer of the motion and a member of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party,
Sarkis Assadourian, dismissed Foreign Ministry warnings of a possible
Turkish backlash.
A counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa, Fazli Corman, had told the
Reuters news agency that bilateral relations would “suffer” if the
motion were adopted.
The French parliament passed a similar motion in 2001.
(RFE/RL and wire reports)

Bloomberg
April 22 2004
Sony, Two Buyout Firms May Acquire MGM for $5 Bln, People Say
April 21 (Bloomberg) — Sony Corp., the world’s second- biggest
consumer-electronics maker, and two buyout firms may buy film studio
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for $5 billion, people familiar with the
matter said.
Sony, Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners would invest
$1.5 billion cash and finance the rest of the transaction with debt,
the people said. Tokyo-based Sony already owns Sony Pictures
Entertainment, which includes the Columbia Pictures studio.
A sale would double the size of Sony’s film library to about 8,000
films, adding MGM titles including James Bond films. Sony would
augment its 85,000 hour-archive of television programs with 10,000
MGM TV episodes including “The Outer Limits.” By gaining those
assets, Sony also would acquire MGM’s cash flow, which an analyst
said may reach $150 million to $200 million this year.
“This is a good thing for Sony,” said Mark Greenberg, manager of
the $938 million Invesco Leisure Fund, which holds more than 750,000
MGM shares. “The value of MGM is it’s the largest post-World War II
library in Hollywood. It’s logical.”
MGM issued a statement saying it’s still proposing that its board
approve plans for a one-time dividend of $8 per share.
A purchase would mark the third time billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who
controls 74 percent of MGM, has sold the studio. Kerkorian tried
unsuccessfully to merge his studio with Sony Pictures in 2001.
Price Tag
A $5 billion price tag implies a cost per share of $21, Lehman
Brothers analyst Anthony DiClemente said in an interview. They closed
at $17.65 on Tuesday, the day before news of the talks became public.
“Our view is that fair value is $19 a share, said DiClemente, who
rates the shares “equal weight” and doesn’t own them. “If Kirk
gets $21, in our view, that would be a Hollywood ending for MGM.”
MGM shares rose $2.10, or 12 percent, to a 52-week high of $19.75 in
New York Stock Exchange composite trading today after Reuters
reported that MGM was in talks with Sony. The shares have gained 16
percent this year.
Andrew Cole, a Providence spokesman, and Owen Blicksilver, a Texas
Pacific Group spokesman, declined to comment. MGM spokesman David
Bloom also declined to comment.
“It’s our policy not to comment on rumors,” said Kei Sakaguchi, a
spokesman for Sony in Tokyo.
Media
Large media companies are acquiring assets to gain content such as
films, and the means to distribute them. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
in December paid $6.6 billion for a controlling interest in the
DirecTV satellite television service to gain a share of the U.S.
pay-television market.
General Electric Co.’s NBC said yesterday that the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission approved its planned $14 billion purchase of Vivendi
Universal SA’s U.S. entertainment assets.
MGM last year had a loss of $161.8 million on sales of $1.88 billion.
MGM will announce first-quarter financial results next week on April
29.
For the year ended March 31, Sony earned $813 million (88 billion
yen) from sales of $68.5 billion. Operating income at Sony’s film
business dropped 82 percent to 5.6 billion yen in the quarter ended
Dec. 31, the most recent period for which figures are available,
because of a lack of hit titles.
Sony Pictures, in Culver City, California, already owns the former
Columbia and TriStar studios. Led by Chairman and Chief Executive
Michael Lynton, it has produced movies “Hellboy” and “50 First
Dates” this year, putting it in second place in box- office sales
with $372.5 million.
Newmarket Films, the distributor of “The Passion of the Christ,” is
No. 1 with ticket sales of $394.6 million.
MGM, founded in 1924, owns the “Rocky” and “Pink Panther” films,
19 Woody Allen films, as well as “West Side Story” and “Rain
Man.”
“There’s not much else out there that has a positive free cash flow
like MGM does,” DiClemente said.
Leveraged Buyout
Kerkorian’s company doesn’t own a traditional Hollywood studio lot,
and instead rents studio space and sound stages. The company has a
long-term lease for the MGM Tower in Century City, about 10 miles
west of downtown Los Angeles. The company has a facility in Santa
Monica where it houses the home entertainment unit.
In a leveraged buyout, a firm acquires a company using investor cash
in combination with debt taken out on the acquired company’s books.
The buyout firm then tries to pay down the debt and sell the company
at a profit in three to five years.
Texas Pacific, started in 1993 by David Bonderman, a former aide to
the billionaire Bass family of Texas, raised a $5.3 billion takeover
fund last year, TPG Partners IV LP.
The firm has a history of investing in brand names in need of
resuscitation, including loss-ridden airlines such as Continental
Airlines Inc. and burger chain Burger King.
Providence
Providence Equity, named for the Rhode Island city where it is based,
invests in communications and media companies and was started in
1991. The firm is currently investing its $2.8 billion Providence
Equity Partners IV.
Providence almost doubled its money on a stake in Irish telephone
company Eircom Ltd. after an initial public offering this year. Other
stakes include cable channel Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network
LLC.
Buyout firms increased their purchases 25 percent to a record $127
billion worldwide in 2003 as they used more than $100 billion of
uninvested capital in combination with the lowest interest rates in
40 years to make purchases from corporations shedding divisions.
Such purchases have continued this year, with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
& Co. yesterday announcing plans to buy satellite broadcast company
PanAmSat Corp. for $4.3 billion from Murdoch’s DirecTV Group Inc.
Kerkorian
Kerkorian is the president and chief executive of closely held Las
Vegas-based Tracinda Corp. and is ranked as the 65th wealthiest
person with $6 billion in net worth, according to Forbes magazine.
The son of an Armenian immigrant rancher in California’s San Joaquin
Valley, Kerkorian has owned the MGM film studio three times since he
first bought it in 1970. Under Kerkorian, the company built the MGM
Grand Hotel in Las Vegas in 1973. The casino unit was spun off into a
separate company in 1980.
Kerkorian sold the studio to Ted Turner in 1986 and then bought it
back, leaving the pre-1948 library with Turner. Kerkorian later sold
the part of the studio he retained to Italian financier Giancarlo
Parretti, who lost it to Credit Lyonnais after defaulting on bank
loans.
Kerkorian bought it a third time in 1996 with MGM Inc. Chairman Frank
Mancuso for $1.3 billion in cash, outbidding the Dutch entertainment
company PolyGram NV.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Dan Lonkevich in New York at [email protected]; Michael White
in Los Angeles at [email protected].
To contact the editor of this story:
Greg Baumann at [email protected].