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05/19/2005
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1) ARF Lebanon Pulls Candidates, Independent Candidates Follow Suit
2) Erdogan Adamant on Turkey’s ‘Innocent’ Past
3) Russian Military Equipment in Georgia ‘Could Be Moved to Armenia’
4) Rizhkov Visits Dzidzernagapert, Discusses Cooperation
5) ANCA to Hold Darfur Genocide Vigil at White House

1) ARF Lebanon Pulls Candidates, Independent Candidates Follow Suit

LEBANON–Following its calls to local Armenians to withhold from voting in the
Beirut parliamentary elections, Lebanon’s Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF) pulled its two candidates from Beirut’s third constituency race to
protest the snubbing of Beirut’s majority of Armenians.
Saad Hariri, son of the slain former premier Rafik Hariri, on Sunday announced
his electoral list for Beirut’s constituencies; though four Armenian seats are
vacant, Hariri excluded the two candidates put forth by the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (ARF), which enjoys extensive support among Beirut’s
significant Armenian minority.
On Monday, the party called on its supporters in Beirut to boycott the Beirut
elections because the Armenian candidates put forth by Hariri represent the
smallest sector of Lebanon’s Armenian community–and not the majority will.
The party called the decision to pull its two candidates Stepan Der Bedrossian
and Jacques Chookhadarian from the race, a “logical subsequent step” to
boycotting the elections–since the ARF’s candidates would have garnered
victories, considering the party’s influence in the area.
In a symbolic move, independent candidates from Beirut’s first and second
constituencies, Haigaz Yardemian and Abraham Matossian, also pulled out of the
race to show that Hariri’s four Armenian candidates will be legally elected,
but not with Armenian votes.

2) Erdogan Adamant on Turkey’s ‘Innocent’ Past

ANKARA (AA)–According to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
has never committed genocide throughout its history, making it impossible to
accept “such accusations,” he said on Wednesday.
Addressing a gathering of his governmental Justice & Development Party,
Erdogan
said that Armenian genocide “allegations” were discussed at the Council of
Europe Heads of State and Government Summit, held in Warsaw at the
beginning of
this week.
Claiming that Armenians living during Ottoman reign fell prey to the games of
foreign powers and rebelled (at this point, the prime minister resorted to
slang, saying that Armenian’s ‘got pumped-up’), Erdogan said the “Ottomans did
what they had to do. We will never succumb to the pressure to accept the
Genocide.”
”During my speech [at the summit], I said that we have opened our state
archives. We don’t have any concerns about our history, and believe that
reality should be revealed. Armenia should also open its archives and
historians, jurists, political scientists, and archivists should work on them.
Then, we make the political decision. Unfortunately, I cannot get any positive
response from [Armenian President] Kocharian so far,” Erdogan said.
Insisting that international diplomacy is contradicted because certain
countries’ parliaments have recognized “these so-called Armenian genocide
allegations,” Erdogan continued, “There is no word for assuming such an
attitude without basing on any document or information against a country with
which you are together in international institutions. In Warsaw, I told
reporters that parliaments of 15 countries made such a decision, and we will
examine these 15 countries. There are countries among these 15 which carried
out genocide in the past. We will bring them to our parliament and pass a
decision, basing on real documents and information, not with lobbying. We will
take this step because Turkey had never committed genocide throughout its
history.”
”Of course some people might have died during relocation. It is true. But,
why
were these people forced to migrate? Documents indicate that the Ottomans were
fighting in three fronts, and there was an Armenian nation which started to
rebel due to provocations of some other circles. Naturally, the administration
encouraged such a relocation under these circumstances. But it also met
traveling costs of the people forced to migrate. And it issued circulars for
the protection of these people. But the state did not carry out a genocide,”
remarked Erdogan.
”There might have been some problems for this or that reason, but it is wrong
to define it as genocide. We won’t build our future on hatred and
resentment,”
added Erdogan.

3) Russian Military Equipment in Georgia ‘Could Be Moved to Armenia’

MOSCOW (AP)–A top military officer said Thursday that some of the equipment
from Russia’s bases in Georgia could be transferred to Armenia, where Moscow
also has a military presence.
General Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of the Russian General Staff, said that would
help Russia reduce the timeframe for withdrawing the bases to four years,
Interfax news agency reported.
“The military bases will be withdrawn from Georgia to Russia. It is not ruled
out that some property and military hardware will be deployed in Armenia,” he
said. Baluyevsky stressed that Russia makes the only principal condition–that
Russian servicemen be withdrawn to some territory with developed
infrastructure.
Russia and Georgia have been in tense negotiations over the base withdrawal,
which Tbilisi insist be complete by the beginning of 2008. The two sides
are to
hold a fresh round of negotiations on the lingering dispute in Tbilisi on
Monday.

4) Rizhkov Visits Dzidzernagapert, Discusses Cooperation

YEREVAN (Armenpress)–Co-chairman of Armenian-Russian inter-parliamentary
cooperation commission and head of Armenian-Russian Business Cooperation
Association Nikolay Rizhkov visited the Dzidzernagapert Genocide Memorial on
Thursday, as well as placed a wreath on behalf of the Russian Senate.
“We [Russians] agree with Armenians in the assessment of the Armenian
genocide.
Only by passing to future generations the truth about these evil deeds can we
prevent repetition of such crimes in future.”
Rizhkov met with President Robert Kocharian, where he shared his
impressions on
the immense change that has taken place since he visited regions damaged by
the
1988 earthquake. He added that the foremost issue is to increase employment,
which will be promoted by the expansion of Armenian-Russian economic
cooperation.
Kocharian, in his turn, noted that the commission has implemented many
successful programs in the past, but should work to find new ways of
cooperation.

5) ANCA to Hold Darfur Genocide Vigil at White House

–May 25 Protest to Call for Decisive US Response to Unfolding Genocide

WASHINGTON, DC (ANCA)–Armenian Americans, the descendents of the first
genocide of the 20th century, will host a White House vigil on May 25 to help
bring an end to the first genocide of the 21st century–the systematic
massacres, mass starvation, and ethnic cleansing taking place today in the
Darfur region of Sudan.
Up to 400,000 people have already died and more than 2,000,000 dislocated in
Darfur over the past two years. Recent reports confirm that the situation on
the ground is deteriorating and the humanitarian crisis is reaching desperate
proportions.
This special Armenian American vigil, hosted by the ANCA, will take place from
5:30-6:30 pm in Lafayette Park, across from the White House on Pennsylvania
Avenue.  The gathering will be the most recent in a series of vigils,
organized
every Wednesday by Africa Action, a leading advocate for US and international
action on the Darfur genocide.  For directions or more information, contact
ANCA at (202) 775-1918 or anca@anca.org.
New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof, a leading voice for US action on
Darfur, has written to the ANCA about the situation in Sudan. In a powerfully
worded letter, he touched on the unique responsibility of Armenians, as
victims
of genocide, to help end the ongoing suffering in Darfur and to work toward
preventing future crimes against humanity. In congratulating the ANCA for
holding the vigil, he stressed, “Obviously, crimes against any part of
humanity
require a response from all the rest of humanity, but I think any group that
has suffered a systematic attack also has a particular responsibility to make
sure that doesn’t happen again to some other group.”
The ANCA has participated in previous Darfur vigils, protested outside the
Sudanese Embassy, spoken at genocide prevention conferences, and generated
support–both at the grassroots level and in Washington, DC–for Congressional
legislation aimed at ending the slaughter in the Darfur region.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress