AZG Armenian Daily #073, 23/04/2005

Armenian Genocide

90TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MARKED IN GERMANY

The Central Board of Germany’s Armenians and the Armenian diocese of Germany
will hold the main commemorative ceremony dedicated to the 90th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide at Paulskirche in Frankfurt, April 24.
Representatives of Germany’s politics, culture and science are invited to
the ceremony. Writer and publicist Ralf Giordano is the main reporter of the
day. RA ambassador to Berlin, Karine Ghazinian, president of the Central
Board of Germany’s Armenians, Shavarsh Hovasapian, and few others will make
reports as well. The speech of Archbishop Karekin Bekjanian will close the
ceremony. Actress Anita Iseli, violinist Sergey Khachatrian and pianist
Irina Hovhannisian will perform at the ceremony.

The Central Board together with the Armenian clergy of Germany and Armenian
community representatives will keep a vigil at downtown Berlin from 12 a.m.
to 2.40 p.m., April 23. Another commemorative arrangement will be held in
German capital at 6 a.m. Dr Michael Jeismann will deliver a speech at the
sitting’s hall of Berlin Chamber of Deputies, the chairman of the Chamber as
well as Walter Momper from SPD and the representative of the Armenian
community of Berlin, Vardges Aljanaq. At 4 p.m. April 24, Grigor Pehlivan, a
Cologne Armenian, will stage his “Axis of Memories: Flowers and Names”
performance in front of the Cologne Cathedral. He will throw 90 tulips into
the Rhine River.

Wolfgang Huber, president of the Council of Evangelical Church of Germany,
will serve a requiem mass at the Berlin Cathedral at 3 p.m. April 23 and a
Brandenburg deputy Stefan Reische will make a speech at the St. Sahak Mesrop
Armenian church of Cologne.

Turks’ resentment this year is visibly rampant this year. One example: the
April 20 issue of Die Welt informed that the Initiative of Turkish
Organizations made an appeal to compatriots to express their complaint via
emails for the commemoration of the 90th anniversary at the Chamber of
Deputies on April 23. Such provocations breach the peace of the city and
spur polarization, speaker of the Initiative, Jatkin, said and labeled
tragic the readiness of Walter Momper to hold forth at the arrangement of
the Armenians.

By Anahit Hovsepian in Germany

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress