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04/26/2006
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1) Two Swedish MPs Honor The Victims of The Armenian Genocide
2) Rice Warns Turkey to Keep Out of Iraq
3) Armenians in Georgia Mark Genocide
4) Azeri Troops Breach Ceasefire, Wound Armenian Servicemen
5) Western Prelacy Organizes Book Presentation Event

1) Two Swedish MPs Honor The Victims of The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian community in Sweden held several commemorative events throughout
the country to mark the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide, during
which
several Members of Parliament (MP) honored the victims and pledged to raise
the
issue in the Swedish Parliament (Riksdag).
In Uppsala, several Swedish MPs attended an event organized by Armenian
organizations including Raffi Cultural Association, Armenian Relief Society,
Homenetmen Sweden, and the Armenian Church.
Michael Oscarson, a Christian Democrat MP who participated in the Genocide
commemoration, said that people are not aware of the terrible suffering and
loss of life Armenians experienced 91 years ago.
“We need to work together so that this very important humanitarian tragedy is
captured by the public,” he said.
“Together with my colleagues I will raise the question of Armenian
genocide in
the Riksdag,” said Oscarson, promising to “address the Foreign Minister and
demand an explanation on what the Swedish government is doing concerning the
denial by Turkey.”
“My party and I supported those resolutions, and continue to recognize them
today,” he added.
Oscarson also spoke of a visit to Turkey last year, saying: “Every time I met
my colleagues in the Turkish Parliament I took up the issue of the Armenian
genocide, but I was shocked to be met by a wall of silence. And I was even
more
shocked when one of them replied, ‘We the Turks are the victims, we were the
ones who were submitted to genocide.”
Another Swedish MP, Rezene Tesfazion, spoke on behalf of the Social Democrats
and said that we must never forget the lessons of history, because “this is
our
duty as human beings.”
“I join with you today in remembering the past I encourage you to continue
honoring your forefathers,” he said.
Tesfazion also made a pledge to the Armenian people, saying, “Together
with my
colleague Miss Tone Tingsgaard I will try to raise the issue in the Riksdag.”
In March 2000 the Swedish Parliament adopted a motion acknowledging the
Armenian genocide. The motion reads: “An official statement and recognition of
the Genocide of the Armenians is important and necessary. In 1985 the UN and
the European Parliament established the fact that the Ottoman Empire had
committed genocide against the Armenian people in the beginning of the 20th
century. The Standing Committee [on Foreign Affairs] is of the opinion that
the
greater openness Turkey demonstrates, the stronger Turkey’s democratic
identity
will be. It is therefore important that unbiased independent and international
research on the genocide committed against the Armenian people be carried out.
It is of great importance that an increasing openness and historical
understanding of the events of 1915 and thereafter be developed. An
improvement
in this respect would also be of importance for the stability and the
development in the whole Caucasus region.”

2) Rice Warns Turkey to Keep Out of Iraq

ANKARA (International Herald Tribune)–Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
assured Turkish leaders on Tuesday that the United States would step up
efforts
to stop the infiltration of Kurdish insurgents from Iraq into Turkey, but she
warned the Turkish government not to send troops into Iraq to do the job.
Addressing what has become a new irritant in relations with Turkey, Rice
acknowledged that the problem of infiltration by Kurdish rebels into Turkey
from Kurdish regions in northern Iraq had been allowed to grow.
The Turkish foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said there had been a surge in
such infiltration in recent weeks.
The country’s press has been filled with reports of thousands of Turkish
troops massing on the border of Iraq, and there has been speculation that
Turkey might intervene in Iraq.
Rice, without speaking directly to that threat, clearly sought to discourage
the Turks from doing anything on their own.
“Of course we want anything that we do to contribute to stability in Iraq,
not
to threaten that stability or to make a difficult situation worse,” Rice said,
referring to the presence of Turkish troops. “That is why a cooperative
approach on this problem–cooperation between Iraq and Turkey and the
coalition
forces–is very important.”
Gul spoke of the Kurdish rebel situation in blunt terms, saying that the
Kurdish Workers Party, which is known as the PKK, had turned Iraq into “a
training ground” and that “like every country, Turkey will take her own
precautions” to deal with the problem.
He said, however, that Turkey had “no claim on anybody’s soil or any
neighborly country’s soil.”
Rice spoke during her trip through the region, starting in the morning with
meetings in Athens, where a few thousand anti-American protesters thronged the
streets downtown.
A couple of dozen protesters turned violent, throwing Molotov cocktails and
burning storefronts and bus stops.

3) Armenians in Georgia Mark Genocide

(A-Info/Civil Georgia)–The southern Georgian region of Javakhk
commemorated on
April 23 and 24 the 91st anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Members of the community marched on Sunday through the streets of Akhaltsikhe
and Ninotsminda, in an event organized by the Zori Zoryan youth association.
The next morning, on April 24, Javakhk’s churches held a requiem mass for the
1.5 million victims of the Genocide. Representatives of the community, local
officials, and several organizations placed wreaths in honors of the
victims at
a memorial dedicated to the Armenian genocide.
Representatives of the Armenian community in Georgia also gathered outside
the
Turkish Embassy in Tbilisi on April 24 to demand recognition of the Genocide.

4) Azeri Troops Breach Ceasefire, Wound Armenian Servicemen

YEREVAN (RFE/RL/Armenpress)The Armenian Defense Ministry reported Wednesday
new
ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan along their border, which have left at
least
three Armenian soldiers seriously wounded.
According to the Defense Ministry in Yerevan, one of the soldiers came under
automatic gunfire from Azeri army positions in Nakhichevan, bordering
Armenia’s
southeastern Syunik province on Wednesday. The two other servicemen were shot
and hospitalized late Tuesday along the westernmost section of the
Armenian-Azeri border, in Ijevan.
“The condition of the servicemen is satisfactory,” said a statement released
by the Ministry. “In both instances, the Armenian side did not return fire.”
Seyran Shahsuvarian, a spokesman for the Ministry, said that Armenians did
not
violate the ceasefire. He said the Armenian party did not return fire and
added
that Azeri media reports claiming that Armenians violated the truce were a
lie.
The mountainous area adjacent to Georgia as well as the main Armenian-Azeri
line of contact east of Karabagh has seen an upsurge in ceasefire violations
starting in February.

5) Western Prelacy Organizes Book Presentation Event

The Western Prelacy Public Relations Committee, under the auspices of His
Eminence Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate, has organized a book
presentation event to be held at 6:00 PM on Sunday, April 30, at the Armenak
Der Bedrossian Hall of St. Mary’s Church in Glendale. The book, “From the Book
of One Thousand Tales: Stories of Armenia and its People, 1892-1922,” was a
lost manuscript of Diana Apcar, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Japan
during the first Armenian Republic (1918-1920).
Besides her diplomatic career, Diana Apcar was a renowned writer and
author of
several books. In the 1920’s, the building she lived in collapsed in an
earthquake and the manuscript for the aforementioned book was lost in the
rubble. Many years later, the manuscript was found and published by her
granddaughter Lucille Apcar.
The Western Prelacy Public Relations Committee has invited Lucille Apcar to
Los Angeles to present her grandmother’s recovered manuscript and to tell the
public more about her grandmother’s role in and service to the Armenian
community from the far away land of Japan.
Following the official program there will be a reception and book signing.

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