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01/21/2005
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1) US Assistant Secretary of State Apologizes for Statement About Karabagh
2) ANCA Congratulates President Bush on His Second Inauguration
3) Turkey Begins Self Reflection over Armenia
4) Community Honors California State Senator Charles Poochigian
1) US Assistant Secretary of State Apologizes for Statement About Karabagh
YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian told the Armenian
public on Friday that US Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones has
conveyed her apologies for a recent statement on Mountainous Karabagh.
In an interview on Armenian Public Television, Oskanian said that Jones
assured him that she was not referring to Mountainous Karabagh and its
authorities when saying “criminal secessionists” must be removed from power.
During a January 13 video conference with journalists in US Embassies in
Moscow, Rome and Bratislava, Jones, in discussing US bi-lateral relations with
Russia, called for increased engagement in resolving regional conflicts in the
former Soviet Union, stating:
“It is in Russia’s interest for these areas, for Transnistria, Abkhazia,
South
Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, for these areas to be stable, for corruption to end
there, for the criminal secessionists who rule there to be removed. It is not
appropriate for this kind of instability and criminality to exist right in the
middle of Europe.”
The statement caused a wave of protests in Armenia and in Armenian
communities
abroad.
Azbarez has also learned that the US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans also
appeared on TV in Armenia to clarify the US position on this matter. The exact
nature, however, were not yet known as we were going to press.
2) ANCA Congratulates President Bush on His Second Inauguration
Calls for stronger ties, constructive dialogue between White House and
Armenian American Community
WASHINGTON, DC–The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
congratulated President George W. Bush on his inauguration to his second term
as President of the United States, wishing him well as he prepares to lead the
nation for the coming four years.
The ANCA, in a letter to the President, welcomed his second Administration as
an opportunity to build strong ties between the White House and America’s one
and a half million citizens of Armenian heritage, to strengthen US-Armenia
relations, constructively address outstanding issues of concern to the
Armenian
American community, and to reinforce the longstanding friendship of the
American and Armenian peoples.
During the course of the hard-fought and closely contested 2004 Presidential
election campaign, Armenian Americans demonstrated an unprecedented level of
activism – as voters, party activists, policy advocates, and financial
contributors. Armenian American contributions to federal-level Republican
candidates and committees totaled well over $1,500,000 during the 2004
election
cycle, with more than $350,000 going directly to the Bush-Cheney re-election
effort. An additional $430,000 was raised for the Republican National
Committee; $140,000 for the National Republican Congressional Committee, and;
$24,000 for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In addition to these
figures, Armenian Americans contributed over $550,000 directly to the
campaigns
of Congressional Republicans.
3) Turkey Begins Self Reflection over Armenia
ISTANBUL (AFP)–While an exhibition in Istanbul devoted to the daily life of
the Armenians in Anatolia at the start of the 20th century is breaking
attendance records, Turkish society is beginning to reflect on the Armenian
question, erased from official history for the past 90 years.
According to organizers, The exhibition “My Dear Brother,” which opened on
January 8, has attracted 6,000 visitors in 12 days–a record for local
galleries.
Through 500 postcards from the period, the exhibition seeks to portray, city
by city and with supporting figures, how omnipresent Armenian communities were
across the Ottoman territory and their role in society.
“In Turkey, history has always been taught about one people–the Turks, as if
there had never been any other people on the territory. When we speak of
Armenians, they are not described as an integral group of society, but as a
source of problems,” explains exhibit director Osman Koker.
“It’s to fill this void, because I have an 11-year-old daughter who is
getting
this kind of education at school, that I have decided to publish a book and
put
on this exhibition,” said Koker, a historian turned editor.
“Without this realization, it will remain impossible to discuss the events of
1915,” he said, referring to the Armenian massacres committed between 1915 and
1917 by the Ottoman armies.
Convinced of Turkish society’s growing curiosity about its past, Koker,
nonetheless acknowledges that any change in mentality will take time.
“A majority of the public, especially in the rural areas, consider the simple
word ‘Armenian’ an insult,” he said.
Even if a handful of academics and amateur historians have attempted to
re-examine Turkish history, it is not easy to break the deep taboo which has
been deeply ingrained in the general consciousness by official history.
“Until 1980, Turkish school textbooks quite simply didn’t mention the
Armenian
massacre,” explained Fabio Salomoni, author of a book on the Turkish education
system.
“With the first acknowledgments of ‘genocide’ by Western governments and the
increasing number of attacks by Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of
Armenia (ASALA), a paragraph was then added excluding all Turkish
responsibility for the deaths of Armenians, explaining [their deaths] in the
context of a war…” he said.
Even if Turkey acknowledges the massacres, it objects to the term ‘genocide’
and the figures of 1.2 to 1.3 million killed, and estimates the numbers to be
between 250,000 to 300,000.
Even though Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently opened an
Armenian museum in Istanbul–just before the European summit in Brussels which
gave a date to Ankara to start negotiations for joining the European
Union–there is no question of overturning the existing orthodoxy concerning
the Armenians.
Several [Turkish] state-subsidized organizations continue to conduct research
aimed at showing that if there was a genocide, it was more likely committed by
Armenians against the Turks.
“We can’t talk of a major change at the level of the state,” said Tarin
Karakasli, of the Armenian newspaper Agos. Even though “an evolution has
occurred amongst the elite intellectuals who are starting to openly discuss
the
subject and to encourage the publication of alternative books”.
Karakasli congratulated the EU and the role it has played in “breaking the
Armenian taboo” by encouraging the democratization of Turkey–but criticized
the position of France, which has sought to make acknowledgment of the
genocide
a precondition for joining the EU.
“These pressures will achieve nothing, the question can only be resolved by
internal dynamics,” she said.
“The Turkish population has still not fully acknowledged the problem; in this
context, imposing a solution can only provoke hostile reactions,” said Etyen
Mahcupyan, an Armenian from Istanbul and writer for the daily newspaper
Zaman.
4) Community Honors California State Senator Charles Poochigian
On January 13, 2005, Armenian-American community leaders, activists and
philanthropists from all over Southern California gathered at the Universal
Sheraton to honor one of California’s favorite Armenians sons, State Senator
Charles Poochigian. Over 600 people gathered to thank the Senator for his
years
of service in two Governors’ administrations and as a prominent and highly
respected State Senator. Boardmembers of the Armenian National Committee of
America–Western Region, ARF Central Committee members, as well as the
Armenian
Cultural Foundation and a number of other civic and philanthropic
organizations
turned out to support the Senator who is a candidate for state wide office.
The
evenings guest speakers were former Congressman Kuykendallband former Governor
George Deukmejian.
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