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06/02/2005
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1) Time Magazine European Subscribers Get Turkish Take on Armenian Issue
2) Influential Senator Praises Armenia Reforms
3) Russia Reassures Azerbaijan on Weapons Transfer to Armenia
4) Hai Tahd Council to Convene in Armenia
5) Dynamic Exhibit of Armin Wegner’s Works Kicks-off in Moscow
1) Time Magazine European Subscribers Get Turkish Take on Armenian Issue
ANKARA (Marmara)–According to the Turkish press, Time Magazine, one of the
leading US news magazines, has distributed a Turkish documentary CD on
Turkish-Armenian relations to its 494 thousand subscribers in Europe.
“The project’s target is not to respond to allegations of Armenians, but to
give appropriate information about both the history of Turkish-Armenian
relations and the Armenian issue. We aim to prevent distortion of historical
events,” the chairman of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), Sinan Aygun,
told a news conference.
The documentary, titled “Blonde Bride,” is reportedly sponsored by the ATO.
According to Aygun, the 210 minute documentary has been prepared in Turkish,
Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic. He also revealed that
the ATO has been working five months to pitch the “ad” to Time Magazine.
“This documentary CD is proof of Turkish pride, and we were able to secure
funding for the approximately 1 million dollar venture purely through
donations,” Aygun said.
ATO said that Time Magazine has an additional 116 thousand copies of the CD
for distribution.
2) Influential Senator Praises Armenia Reforms
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–An influential US senator praised on Thursday political and
economic reforms carried out in Armenia but said more needs to be done to
democratize its political system.
Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, visited Yerevan at the head of a US
government delegation of senior military officials.
“I have been very impressed with the democratic reforms that have taken place
in Armenia, the economic development, the rate of economic growth, the
prosperity that’s developing,” Hagel told a news conference after talks with
President Robert Kocharian and Defense Minister Serge Sarkisian. “I think it’s
very good news for Armenia and the region.”
Hagel, the second member of the Senate to visit Armenia this week, singled
out
the country’s robust economic growth. “I have seen and heard about the
significant progress made in Armenia since 1998,” he said. “It’s important for
Armenia to continue democratic reforms that always anchor democracy, enhance
freedom and therefore enhance growth and development.”
“That means fair, free and open elections,” he added.
Norm Coleman, another Republican senator, in Yerevan on Tuesday said that
Washington is trying to foster democratic elections in Armenia through an
“aggressive” support for economic reforms. He argued that economic development
will create a “better atmosphere for a free and democratic process.”
Hagel’s delegation arrived in Armenia from Azerbaijan as part of its tour of
Turkey, the South Caucasus and other regions which the senator said are
“critical” for the US It includes the deputy commander of the US troops in
Europe, General Charles Wald, and senior officials from the Pentagon and
Congress. Wald paid a separate visit to Yerevan last April.
Kocharian, according to his press service, discussed with the visiting US
officials ways of “expanding US-Armenian relations.” He was reported to have
welcomed their “dynamic development.”
The US delegation also visited the Yerevan headquarters of a special
peace-keeping battalion of the Armenian armed forces. Dozens of its servicemen
are currently involved in the US-led missions in Kosovo and Iraq.
Hagel, who sits on four Senate committees and chairs two of their
subcommittees, was also asked to comment on the transfer of Russian military
hardware from Georgia to Armenia which has prompted protests from Azerbaijan.
“This is an issue between the governments of Russia and Armenia,” he said. “I
have always believed that sovereign nations not only must act but will act in
their own self-interests.”
But Hagel went on to indicate that the US government, which pushed for the
closure of Russian military bases in Georgia, has serious misgivings about
continued Russian military presence in Armenia. “I think it has always been
the
policy of the United States–and I think it’s good policy–that military
presence of other nations in sovereign nations isn’t helpful in the regions of
the world that we are trying to bring peace and prosperity and settle very
serious conflicts like Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.
3) Russia Reassures Azerbaijan on Weapons Transfer to Armenia
(AP)–A Russian diplomat sought to assuage Azerbaijani concerns about the
relocation of weapons from Georgia to Armenia, saying Thursday that the arms
and equipment would remain under Russian military control and would not
destabilize the region.
Azerbaijan has voiced fears about Russia’s plan to move weaponry from Georgia
to Armenia, which has been locked in a conflict with Azerbaijan over the
disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia is a staunch ally of Russia.
Pyotr Burdykin, Russia’s acting ambassador to Azerbaijan said Thursday that
the weaponry was being relocated under pressure to speed up the Russian
military withdrawal from Georgia. “We initially talked about returning all
these weapons to
Russia in normal conditions, but Georgia and other nations have insisted on
speeding it up and applied very strong pressure,” Burdykin told reporters in
Baku.
Russia agreed to begin withdrawing from two Soviet-era bases in Georgia by
the
end of the year and complete the pullout over the course of 2008.
“This transfer isn’t directed against any third country, and it’s not
going to
affect the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement,” Burdykin said. “There is no sense in
blowing it out of proportion.”
But Tahir Tagizade, a spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, said
moving
the weapons to Armenia would compromise Russia’s role as one of the
international
mediators to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. “We will insist that Russia listen
to our concerns,” he said.
Mountainous Karabagh Republic’s (MKR) military on Thursday denied Azerbaijani
reports that an Azerbaijani soldier was killed Wednesday in a skirmish on the
border. Also, the head of the MKR election commission, Sergei Nasibian,
defended plans to hold parliamentary elections on June 19.
“Azerbaijani’s concerns that the parliamentary elections would be an obstacle
to peaceful settlement of the Mountainous Karabagh conflict are unfounded,”
Nasibian said.
4) Hai Tahd Council to Convene in Armenia
YEREVAN (Yerkir)The Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s (ARF) Hai Tahd
Council,
which is involved in promoting Armenian issues worldwide is scheduled to hold
its meeting in Yerevan, Armenia on June 3 and 4, reported the ARF Bureau’s
press service.
The meeting will bring together members of the ARF Bureau in charge of
related
activities, heads of the European and US Hai Tahd committees, directors of Hai
Tahd offices in Washington, DC, Brussels, Moscow, and Beirut, and the Yerevan
central office, as well as representatives of the ARF Supreme Body of Armenia,
and ARF Artsakh Central Committee.
The Council will discuss formulating strategy in the light of recent
international and regional developments, and will develop an action plan for
Hai Tahd offices worldwide.
Council representatives on Tuesday met with Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian to review emerging issues.
5) Dynamic Exhibit of Armin Wegner’s Works Kicks-off in Moscow
MOSCOW (ANI/PanArmenian.net)–The exhibit “Armin Wegner and the Armenian
Genocide” opened in Moscow on Tuesday at the Russian Cultural Institution, in
commemoration of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
The exhibit is based on the book by Italian historian Giovanni Guaita, “A Cry
form Ararat: Armin Wegner and the Armenian Genocide,” which was recently
republished in Moscow.
Russian State Duma Deputies, prominent scholars, representatives of the
Serbian, Kurdish, Assyrian, and Tatar communities of Moscow were all on
hand at
the opening ceremony.
Senator Nikolay Ryzhkov noted the importance of denouncing the massive crime
that has been silenced by world powers, and urged non-Armenians to join the
fair struggle of the Armenian people.
International law specialist Professor Yuri Barsegov said recognition of the
Armenian genocide should be achieved via International Law, and must follow
with reparations.
A Cry form Ararat: Armin Wegner and the Armenian Genocide,” is Guaita’s third
work on Armenian issues.
He said that he undertook the project of presenting eyewitness Wegner’s rich
archive in order to remind humanity of history’s cruel pages. Guaita is now
working on his fourth project on Armenians.
The Russian-Armenian Cooperation Organization, which sponsored the exhibit,
said that the exhibition will travel to various Russian regions.
Armin T. Wegner, whose photographic collection documents conditions in
Armenian deportation camps in 1915-1916, was born in Germany in 1886. At the
outbreak of World War I, he enrolled as a volunteer nurse in Poland during the
winter of 1914-1915, and was decorated with the Iron Cross for assisting the
wounded under fire. In April 1915, following the military alliance of Germany
and Turkey, he was sent to the Middle East as a member of the German Sanitary
Corps. Between July and August, he used his leave to investigate the rumors
about the Armenian massacres that had reached him from several sources. In the
autumn of the same year, with the rank of second-lieutenant in the retinue of
Field Marshal Von der Goltz, commander of the 6th Ottoman army in Turkey, he
traveled through Asia Minor.
Eluding the strict orders of the Turkish and German authorities (intended to
prevent the spread of news, information, correspondence, visual evidence),
Wegner collected notes, annotations, documents, and letters and took hundreds
of photographs in the Armenian deportation camps. With the help of foreign
consulates and embassies of other countries, he was able to send some of this
material to Germany and the United States. His clandestine mail routes were
discovered and Wegner was arrested by the Germans at the request of the
Turkish
Command-and was put to serve in the cholera wards. Having fallen seriously
ill,
he left Baghdad for Constantinople in November 1916. Hidden in his belt were
his photographic plates and those of other German officers with images of the
Armenian Genocide to which he had been a witness. In December of the same year
he was recalled to Germany.
Wegner was deeply moved by the tragedy of the Armenian people to which he had
been eyewitness in Ottoman Turkey. Between 1918 and 1921, he became an active
member of pacifist and anti-military movements while dedicating his literary
and poetic output to the search for the truth about himself and his fellow
man.
On February 23, 1919, Wegner’s “Open Letter to President Wilson” appealing for
the creation of an independent Armenian state was published in Berliner
Tageblatt.
A man of conscience who protested his country’s responsibilities in the
Armenian Genocide, Wegner was also one of the earliest voices to protest
Hitler’s treatment of the Jews in Germany. He dedicated a great part of his
life to the fight for Armenian and Jewish human rights.
In 1968 he received an invitation to Armenia from the Catholicos of All
Armenians and was awarded with the Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator.
Armin Wegner died in Rome at the age of 92 on May 17, 1978.
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