90th anniversary of Armenian massacres

AP Worldstream;
Apr 15, 2005

Editors:

Ninety years ago, on April 24, 1915, Ottoman Turkish authorities
ordered the roundup of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople, today
known as Istanbul. It was the beginning of the expulsions and killings
that Armenians say left 1.5 million of their people dead. Today,
Armenians have made some headway in their demand that the world
recognize the deaths as genocide. While some Turks have begun to
confront this dark chapter of their history, the Turkish government
still denies the killings were a genocide.

Shortly, we will move three stories and a brief on the events in
Turkey during World War I for use now or in the coming days before the
anniversary. The stories are accompanied by an AP graphic and AP
photos.

The package includes:

YEREVAN, Armenia _ At 102, Gulinia Musoyan is still horrified when she
thinks of what happened to her as a child in Ottoman Turkey _ rousted
from her home in the middle of the night, forced to trudge shoeless
for days through the desert alongside thousands of others, with the
weak killed or left to die in the blazing, rocky wastelands. Ninety
years later, the suffering endured by Musoyan and hundreds of
thousands of other Armenians is gaining sympathy worldwide, but not
the judgment sought by the victims and their descendants: that the
mass slayings of up to 1.5 million Armenians be declared a genocide
carried out by Turkey, which the Turks vehemently deny. The killing
began on April 24, 1915. BC-EU-FEA-GEN–Armenia-Death in Turkey. By
Mike Eckel.

ANKARA, Turkey _ When one of Turkey’s most respected authors shattered
a deep taboo by saying that 1 million Armenians were murdered in
Turkey during World War I, the reaction was overwhelming. Three
lawsuits were filed against Orhan Pamuk, and one school collected his
books to return them. While intellectuals like Pamuk are starting to
confront this dark chapter in history, many Turks _ and the government
_ still deny the Armenian claim that the killings were
genocide. BC-EU-FEA-GEN-Turkey-Confronting History. By Louis Meixler.

ANJAR, Lebanon _ As the Ottoman Turkish army was driving Armenians
from their homes during World War I, people from six villages along
the Mediterranean coast fled to the Musa Dagh peak and _ with a few
hundred rifles and provisions they dragged up the mountain _ held off
attacks by the Turks for more than 50 days. Then some 4,000 managed to
escape Turkish troops, and today many live in Anjar in eastern
Lebanon, part of a worldwide Armenian diaspora that includes a former
California governor, French singer Charles Aznavour, painter Arshile
Gorky and singer-actress Cherylyn Sarkissian, known to the world as
Cher. BC-FEA-ME-GEN–Lebanon-Armenian Diaspora. By Joseph Panossian.

BC-ME-FEA-GEN–Armenian Diaspora-Helping Hand _ A list of major
contributions to the Republic of Armenia by well-known figures in the
Armenian diaspora.

The AP