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03/09/2006
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1) US Official to Meet Armenian, Azeri Leaders about Karabagh
2) Armenian Army Prepared to Defend Itself as Azerbaijan Continues to Violate
Cease Fire
3) ANCA Asks Secretary Rice to Explain Reports of Ambassador Evans’ Recall
4) Turkish Organizations to Work against Genocide Law in France
1) US Official to Meet Armenian, Azeri Leaders about Karabagh
YEREVAN (Armenpress/RFE/RL)–Dan Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for
European and Eurasian Affairs, will visit Azerbaijan and Armenia next week to
discuss the results of internationally sponsored peace talks on Karabagh.
Fried
will be accompanied by Steven Mann, Washington’s top Karabagh negotiator.
Mann and senior French and Russian diplomats co-chairing the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group ended a meeting in Washington
this week in an attempt to salvage the Karabagh peace process after the
unsuccessful meeting of Armenian and Azeri presidents in Rambouillet near
Paris
last month.
The co-chairs were reported to have determined their future steps for
resolution of the dispute. Mann said he will give detailed information to the
Presidents of the two countries during his visit to Azerbaijan and Armenia
later this month with Fried.
Fried mentioned the Karabagh conflict on Wednesday as he addressed
hearings on
US foreign policy organized by a key House of Representatives committee. “We
urge the Armenian and Azeri leaderships to seize the moment and help bring the
Nagorno-Karabagh conflict to a close,” he told the House International
Relations Committee.
Fried’s deputy Matthew Bryza was in Yerevan earlier this week, saying after
talks with President Robert Kocharian and other Armenian leaders that the
conflicting parties remain “very close” to hammering out a framework peace
accord. Bryza said Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart have to make
“very
tough decisions” to reach a peaceful settlement.
The US ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish also remains optimistic about
negotiations mediated by the Minsk Group, saying that they will lead to
positive results in 2006.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, however, continues to make statements
demonstrating Baku’s reluctance to compromise. He stated yesterday in Tokyo
that Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is not a topic for discussion at the
negotiations over the Karabagh conflict regulation, reported the Azertag news
agency.
According to him, the topics of discussions are the liberation of the
occupied
territories, ethnic separation, return of refugees, and granting Karabagh a
higher degree of autonomy.
“All this should be done in compliance with international right and
principles. We hope that the conflict will be solved in a peaceful way,” said
he adding that the international community should play a greater role in the
conflict regulation process as the existence of the conflict is the main
obstacle for the development of the region.
2) Armenian Army Prepared to Defend Itself as Azerbaijan Continues to Violate
Cease Fire
YEREVAN (Armenpress/RFE/RL)–Amid cease fire violations by Azerbaijan, Vice
Minister of Defense General Artur Aghabegian said that the Armenian Armed
Forces are prepared to suppress Azeri attacks.
He added that at this point there is no serious need to talk about the danger
of war, but every single soldier knows that Armenia is ready to resist both
local skirmishes and if need be, full scale military operations.
Aghabegian said that both Armenia and Azerbaijan know that any unforeseen
movement along the front line could lead to casualties. He said that Azeri
forces may be firing on Armenian positions to disrupt the restructing of
trenches.
According to him, such incidents have occasionally occured since the 1994
cease fire.
The Armenian military reported more frequent cease fire violations in recent
days. The defense ministry said Azeri forces on Wednesday continued to open
fire on the westernmost sections of the border in the Ijevan and Shorzha
regions.
On Thursday, Azeri troops shelled Armenian military units in the northeastern
Tavush province and in Vayots Dzor on the border with Azerbaijan’s enclave
Nakhichevan.
The Armenian defense ministry denied allegations by Azerbaijan that its
positions in Kazah region were shelled by Armenians.
A message released by the US embassy in Yerevan on Thursday advised American
citizens residing in Armenia to stay away from the section of a highway in the
northeastern Tavush region that runs close to the border with Azerbaijan. “The
US Embassy has designated this portion of the road off-limits to all US
government personnel because it lies too close to the cease fire line between
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, a line which has seen numerous cease fire
violations over the years,” read the message.
3) ANCA Asks Secretary Rice to Explain Reports of Ambassador Evans’ Recall
–Representative Napolitano Questions Assistant Secretary Fried about Evans
WASHINGTON, DCArmenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Chairman Ken
Hachikian called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday to address
reports that the US Ambassador to Armenia, John Marshall Evans, is being
forced
from office based on truthful and forthright statements he made last April
about the Armenian genocide.
In a March 8 letter, Hachikian asked Secretary Rice to comment on published
accounts (California Courier, March 9, 2006) that the Ambassador is being
recalled, well before the normal end of his term of office, due to his remarks
during a series of presentations to Armenian American communities across the
country.
Speaking last year to an Armenian American gathering at the University of
California at Berkeley, Evans said, “I will today call it the Armenian
genocide… I informed myself in depth about it. I think we, the US government,
owe you, our fellow citizens, a more frank and honest way of discussing this
problem.
“Today, as someone who has studied it… there’s no doubt in my mind [as to]
what happened . . . I think it is unbecoming of us, as Americans, to play word
games here. I believe in calling things by their name.” Referring to the
Armenian genocide as “the first genocide of the 20th century,” he said: “I
pledge to you, we are going to do a better job at addressing this issue.”
Evans
also disclosed that he had consulted with a legal advisor at the State
Department who had confirmed that the events of 1915 were “genocide by
definition.”
Within days after his remarks and the conclusion of a speaking tour of
Armenian American communities, Ambassador Evans was apparently forced to issue
a statement clarifying that his references to the Armenian genocide were his
personal views and did not represent a change in US policy. He subsequently
issued a correction to this statement, replacing a reference to the Genocide
with the word “tragedy.”
Later last year, the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), in
recognition of his honesty and commitment to principle, decided to honor
Ambassador Evans with the “Christian A. Herter Award,” recognizing creative
thinking and intellectual courage within the Foreign Service. Sadly, as
Washington Post staff writer Glenn Kessler revealed on June 9, AFSA withdrew
its award following pressure from “very serious people from the State
Department.”
In his letter, Hachikian wrote that, “the prospect that a US envoy’s
posting–and possibly his career–has been cut short due to his honest and
accurate description of a genocide is profoundly offensive to American values
and US standing abroad–particularly in light of President Bush’s call for
moral clarity in the conduct of our international affairs.”
He added that, “if, in fact, punitive measures are being taken against
Ambassador Evans, this would represent a tragic retreat from our nation’s core
values. It would also represent a new low in our government’s shameful
complicity in the Turkish government’s campaign of denial. Not only does the
State Department continue to be publicly silent as Turkey criminally
prosecutes
its writers and citizens for speaking about the Armenian Genocide, it appears
the State Department is following Turkey’s lead by muzzling and punishing an
American diplomat for his speech and his acknowledgment of a genocide that is
extensively documented in the State Department’s own archives.”
The ANCA letter also urged Secretary Rice to respond in a timely manner to
the
series of written questions on this matter submitted on February 16 by
Congressman Adam Schiff during her testimony before the House International
Relations Committee. Among these questions was a specific request that the
Secretary assure the Committee that the Department of State has not taken–and
will not take–any punitive action against Ambassador Evans for speaking out
about the Armenian genocide.
Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (D-CA) also submitted a series of questions
about the reported recall of Ambassador Evans to a senior State Department
official during his testimony before the US House International Relations
Committee.
As a follow up question, addressed to Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried,
the California Congresswoman asked for a clarification of any restrictions
placed on State Department officials concerning the use of the word “genocide”
when discussing the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians starting in 1915.
She also inquired about US policy on the Turkish blockade of Armenia and the
proposed Caucasus railroad line circumventing Armenia.
Responding to a reporter’s question at the State Department briefing,
spokesperson Sean McCormack said, “I’m not aware that we have recalled
anybody… I believe that he’s still serving as ambassador in Armenia.”
4) Turkish Organizations to Work against Genocide Law in France
(Marmara)–Several Turkish organizations in France are preparing a commission
to work against the French Parliament’s decisions about the Armenian
genocide.
The president of the Paris Anadolu Cultural Center said that the over 300
Turkish organizations operating in France, despite differing views, can unite
on this one issue. He added that the organizers have nothing against the
Armenian people, they are simply trying to “refute Armenian lies.”
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress