Author: admin

news.az, Azerbaijan
March 6 2010

Azerbaijan supports Turkey and we call on the Congress to reject
illusory demand
Sat 06 March 2010 | 13:15 GMT Text size:

Elnur Aslanov, head of the political analysis and information
department at Azerbaijan’s presidential administration.

Chief of department of political analysis and information under
Azerbaijan’s presidential administration has commented to journalists
on adoption of the resolution on the so-called `Armenian genocide’ in
the US Congressional Committee on Foreign Relations.

`The adoption of decision on the so-called `Armenian genocide’ in the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the US Congress is a vivid
demonstration of `double standards’. First, the difference of one vote
after the recalculation is embarrassing. Secondly, the guardians of
democracy and human rights in the face of US lawmakers come out with
tendentious positions by raising the issues that have not been proven
by any historical facts. Discussion of issues related to the events
that occurred more than 95 years ago in the US lawmaking body does not
promote peace and stability in the South Caucasus region.

Moreover, the legislators who are so actively seeking to establish the
truth must have known that the Armenian side committed the genocide in
Khojaly on 26 February 1992 which can be compared to the worst
examples of killing people. If truth is important for congressmen, why
does the Committee on Foreign Relations not raise the issue of Khojaly
or demand punishment of the responsible persons?

Or why is the US Congress silent on the genocide of Azerbaijanis in
March 1918 by Armenian gangs in Baku, Guba, Lankaran, Salyan and
Shamakhy? Why does the US Congress accept for truth the "assurances"
of the party that declared Amazasp, Andronicus, and Nzhdeh Droz the
national heroes despite their hands are in the blood of thousands of
innocent people? Why did the Committee on Foreign Relations turn a
blind eye to the fact that the rights of more than one million
Azerbaijanis have been violated by Armenia for already 22 years? The
question is whether the activity of some congressmen serves the
interest of the whole US public or just personal mercantile interests.
All this calls into question the sincerity of the US intentions to
stabilize the situation in the South Caucasus.

Azerbaijan and Turkey are not only geostrategic allies but also the
states linked with history, language and religion. Azerbaijan supports
Turkey and we call the Congress to reject the illusory demands of
Armenians.

Elnur AslanovEach step of this kind is a blow to the US ideals of
democracy. How can a superpower striving to export democratic values
and ideas blindly protect the interests of a handful of Armenian
Diaspora organizations and their lobbyists in the legislative body of
the United States? Such actions are contradictory to the spirit and
logics of the US intention to establish peace and stability in
different parts of the world.

Why does Mr. Howard Berman, head of the Committee on Foreign
Relations, ignore the proposal of the Turkish side made to Armenia
regarding joint study of the historical facts while saying that he has
already been for 27 years in the Congress and raising the issue of
genocide?

However, the Armenian diaspora and the Armenian leadership raised in
the spirit of hatred to anything related to Turks and Azerbaijanis
reject the rational and constructive view on the historical realities.
The trump of `genocide’ has become a kind of a bargaining chip in the
hands of those who are trying to put pressure on Turkey. Adoption of
the resolution on `genocide’ of Armenians in the US Committee was a
historical mistake. The people of Turkey remember that the Great
Powers deliberately encouraged the Armenians in Turkey to betrayal of
the country of their residence in 1915. And now they want to use the
"Armenian trump" in their ambitious interests. But it won’t work. The
world has changed. Those who create instability in the South Caucasus
will lose. We should hope that common sense would prevail in the US
Conress.

Today, the picture of what the Armenian leadership is trying to do by
delaying the negotiation process around the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict seems clearer to us.

Azerbaijan and Turkey are not only geostrategic allies but also the
states linked with history, language and religion. Azerbaijan supports
Turkey and we call the Congress to reject the illusory demands of
Armenians.

In conditions when the economic situation in Armenia is worsening, the
political situation contradicts to norms of democracy and journalists,
deputies and other public figures are held in prison, the US Congress
along with the Armenian lobby should rather discuss the issues
connected with the reason of such a situation and give a just
assessment to this. Meanwhile, the Armenian diaspora should realize
that by financing the adoption of the resolutions which refer to the
past and have no real grounds, they do not take into account the
future of Armenia. Baseless resolutions cannot raise the economy that
collapsed in period of crisis or create conditions for regional
cooperation. Instead, they will further worsen the poor state of
Armenia. In other words, people cannot be fed with resolutions.

Third, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian who actively refers
to human rights and issues of prevention of crimes against humanity
should be reminded that it were Armenian band formations that
committed genocide of peaceful Azerbaijanis in 1905, 1918, 1992.
Armenian extremists supported by the Armenian leadership killed tens
of Turkish and Azerbaijani political and public figures. Therefore,
before speaking of human rights and crimes against humanity, Armenian
officials should first look into the history of their state¦’

E.E.
News.Az

APA, Azerbaijan
March 2 2010

Azerbaijan denies involvement in lethal front-line shooting

Baku, 2 March: The Azerbaijani Defence Ministry has dismissed Armenian
claims of a cease-fire violation and of an Armenian serviceman’s death
after being shot from the Azerbaijani army positions. Teymur
Abdullayev, deputy head of the ministry’s press service, told APA that
the Armenian Defence Ministry’s press release in this regard is wide
of the mark.

"According to information that we have obtained, Sarkis Hasratyan died
after being shot as a result of an exchange of fire between Armenian
servicemen in trenches. Another Armenian serviceman was severely
wounded during the event. A group of doctors from the Yerevan central
clinic was dispatched to the scene to help the wounded man. The
military prosecutor’s office of Armenia has launched a criminal case
and three people have been arrested," he said.

Interfax, Russia
March 2 2010

Armenia blames Azerbaijan for death of its serviceman

YEREVAN March 2

The Armenian Defense Ministry has blamed Azerbaijan for the death of
Sgt. Sarkis Voskanian, who was killed at the contact line between the
Armenian and Azeri armed forces on Tuesday.

Voskanian died as a result of "a shot from the enemy side," the
Armenian Defense Ministry told Interfax on Tuesday.

"Sarkis Voskanian, born in 1981, a machine-gun section commander,
suffered a fatal wound to his head after a shot from the enemy side
near the village of Chinar," it said.

An investigation has been opened into the serviceman’s death.

Novinite.com, Bulgaria
March 6 2010

US White House Set to Block Armenian Genocide Resolution
World | March 6, 2010, Saturday

The Obama US administration will seek to block a controversial bill
that describes as genocide the 1915 killing of Armenians by Turks.

The US Congress Committee had narrowly approved the resolution on
March 4, by 23 to 22 votes. This had paved the way for a possible vote
by the House, something that the administration would seek to prevent.

Turkey reacted strongly to the vote, recalling its Ambassador from
Washignton, and threatening further diplomatic protest. Turkish
citizens took to the streets to voice their anger at the decision.

"We are against this decision. Now we believe that the US Congress
will not take any decision on this subject," Hillary Clinton, the US
Secretary of State, stated on Friday.

During his campaign for the 2008 election, Barack Obama had promised
to brand the mass killings genocide.

However, Clinton has acknowledged his administration’s change of
opinion on the issue, saying that circumstances had "changed in very
significant ways".

Turkey is a major partner in US efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and
Iraq, and lies on a key route taking oil and natural gas to Western
markets.

In October 2009, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord
normalising relations between them after a century of hostility, but
successive Turkish governments have refused to accept responsibility
for any suggestion of genocide.

Turkey Urges Obama To Block Armenian Genocide Bill

05.03.2010
article/1975539.html

Just hours after recalling its ambassador to Washington, Turkey urged
the U.S. government on Friday to thwart further progress of a draft
congressional resolution that describes the mass killings and
deportations of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also warned President Barack
Obama against using the word `genocide’ in a statement on the issue
expected next month. `We expect Obama not to perpetuate or exaggerate
this crisis in April,’ Davutoglu was reported to say, reiterating
Ankara’s strong condemnation of the resolution’s approval by the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, indicated that the
Obama administration will try to block the resolution’s passage by the
full House. In that regard, she downplayed its endorsement by the
House panel.
`The committee … has voted out such a resolution, I think, three times
in the past,’ Clinton said on Thursday shortly before the committee
vote. `They’re likely to vote it out again. But we do not believe that
the full Congress will or should act upon that resolution, and we have
made that clear to all the parties involved.’

Clinton made the comments at a news conference held during a visit to
Costa Rica. A reporter reminded her that both she and Obama have
strongly advocated U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide in the
past, wondering why they are opposed to it now.

`Well, I think circumstances have changed in very significant ways,’
Clinton replied, pointing to the signing last October of two
U.S.-brokered protocols envisaging the normalization relations between
Armenia and Turkey.

`Within the protocols, there was an agreed-upon approach to
establishing a historical commission to look at events in the past’
she said. `I do not think it is for any other country to determine how
two countries resolve matters between them, to the extent that actions
that the United States might take could disrupt this process.’

`Therefore, both President Obama and I have made clear, both last year
and again this year, that we do not believe any action by the Congress
is appropriate, and we oppose it,’ added Clinton.

The chief U.S. diplomat reportedly telephoned the Foreign Affairs
Committee chairman, Howard Berman, on Wednesday to urge him to drop
the proposed legislation. However, Berman went ahead with the vote and
played a decisive role in its outcome.

Davutoglu complained that the Obama administration did not lobby hard
enough against a bill which he said `seriously disturbed’ the Turkish
government. `We expect the US administration to make more efficient
efforts from now on’ to stop the resolution from advancing to a vote
at the full House of Representatives, he told a news conference in
Ankara, reported AFP news agency.

`We don’t want to go through this crisis every spring,’ Davutoglu
said, according to `Hurriyet Daily News.’ `That is why we embarked on
the normalization of the relationship with Armenia. We thought that
this would begin to settle things, and we really did not expect this
kind of backlash.’

The House committee vote put Turkish ratification of the agreements
with Armenia into jeopardy, added the Turkish minister.

Ankara dragged its feet over the ratification even months before the
latest development. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other
Turkish leaders have repeatedly made that conditional on a resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.

`We are determined to press ahead with normalization of relations with
Armenia,’ said Davutoglu. But he said his government will not be
`pressured’ into doing so.

Liberty Maven
March 5 2010

Ron Paul showcases his foreign policy philosophy during Armenian
Genocide markup

March 5th, 2010 11:52 am | by Marc Gallagher |

Ron Paul used his five minutes during yesterday’s markup of a bill to
recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to showcase his foreign policy
philosophy of neutrality and non-intervention.

Paul shines when he has more than a couple minutes to represent his
position, especially on foreign policy. He makes a point to emphasize
his philosophy is not one of isolation from the world, but one where
we don’t stick our nose where it doesn’t belong.

ul-showcases-his-foreign-policy-philosophy-during- armenian-genocide-markup/9212/

New York Times
March 5 2010

Turkey Criticizes House Committee Vote on Armenian Killings

By SEBNEM ARSU and SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: March 5, 2010

ISTANBUL ‘ Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that the vote by the
House Foreign Affairs Committee condemning the mass killing of
Armenians early in the last century as genocide would damage ties with
the Obama administration and set back reconciliation efforts between
Turkey and Armenia.

At least twice before, the House committee has passed similar
resolutions, but that was before Turkey and Armenia were in the midst
of an internationally mediated reconciliation process.

`Each interference by a third party will make this normalization
impossible,’ Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a televised news
conference. `If an adviser had whispered `no’ instead of `yes’ in the
ear of a member of the House of Representatives, the vote would have
come out differently. Can history be treated in such an unserious
manner?’

The vote on the nonbinding resolution was 23 to 22.

In recent years, Turkey has sought to play a bigger regional role,
re-establishing ties with nearby Arab countries and reaching out to
Armenia, whose border with Turkey has been closed since the 1990s,
when Armenia was at war with its neighbor, Azerbaijan, a Turkish ally.
In 2008, Turkey’s president paid the first visit by a Turkish leader
to Armenia in the two nations’ history.

The attempts at normalization began last October with a series of
agreements, whose signing was blessed by the Obama administration and
attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hard-line
Turkish nationalists strongly oppose the rapprochement, and analysts
in Turkey said the additional pressure from the United Sates in the
form of Thursday’s vote will make proceeding more difficult for the
Turkish government.

`It’s a big blow to the process,’ said Yavuz Baidar, a columnist with
the English language daily, Today’s Zaman. `This means it will drag on
for at least another year.’

At the same time, he said, Turkey had been slow to move forward in the
agreements with Armenia, causing the process to idle even before the
committee vote.

The resolution is less likely to hurt relations with the United States
unless it is brought to the floor and passed by the full House ‘ an
unlikely possibility, analysts say.

In 2007, the Bush administration, fearful of losing Turkish
cooperation over Iraq, lobbied forcefully to keep the resolution from
reaching the House floor.

The Obama administration had urged the committee to forgo a vote.

After the vote Thursday, Turkey reacted sharply, recalling its
ambassador, Namik Tan, from Washington for consultations.

Turkey’s newspapers featured the news of the vote ‘ and of Turkey’s
diplomatic response ‘ on their front pages.

`We called the ambassador back,’ proclaimed Hurriyet, the largest
circulation newspaper. `A vote crisis with the United States,’
Milliyet, another daily, said. `A vote like a comedy,’ read the
headline in the newspaper Sabah.

Historians say as many as 1.5 million Armenians died in a forced
migration by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey denies that
this was a planned genocide, and the topic had long been taboo in
Turkey, with no mention of it in history books. Writers and
intellectuals, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced
criminal charges for airing the debate.

But in recent years, Turkish intellectuals had made some progress at
pushing it out into the public debate, and ethnic Armenians in Turkey
fear that passage by the full House ‘ which would be unprecedented ‘
would seriously harm those efforts.

Mr. Davutoglu, the foreign minister, criticized the Obama
administration’s efforts to halt Thursday’s vote, saying it had not
adequately explained the strength of cooperation between Turkey and
the United States, NATO partners. He said that in absence of more
effective efforts, `the picture ahead will not be a positive one.’

Some Turkish analysts said Ankara might put up diplomatic obstacles
for Washington’s broader regional policies, but it seemed unlikely
Turkey would respond strongly unless the resolution won broader House
support.

`On one side of the scale, there is the Congress under the influence
of ethnic lobby groups, and on the other, there are the greater United
States’ interests in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Caucasus,’ said Sedat
Ergin, a foreign policy analyst at the Hurriyet newspaper. `It is up
to the American administration to come up with the best choice between
the two.’

Sebnem Arsu reported from Istanbul, and Sabrina Tavernise from Washington.

US HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CONTINUES VOTING ON ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’ DRAFT

APA
March 4 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku – APA. A US House Foreign Affairs Committee is debating a
resolution to label Armenian ‘genocide, APA reports.

During the debate over Armenian "genocide" Republicans Mike Pence and
Michael T. McCaul and Democrats Michael McMahon, Eni Faleomavaega
opposed this draft, emphasizing that Turkey is important ally for
the US.

However, US committee chairman Howard Berman and Republican’s group
leader Ileana Ros-Lehtinen stressed the importance of adopting the
draft on "genocide".

The voting on Armenian ‘genocide’ has already begun at 23.15 local
time. Currently opponents of the ‘genocide’ draft are in majority.

ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY WELCOMES ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION 252

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2010 01:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We highly appreciate the decision by the Committee
on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representatives to
adopt Resolution 252 on the recognition of the Armenian genocide,
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said.

This is another proof of the devotion of the American people to
universal human values and is an important step toward the prevention
of the crimes against humanity.

US House Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted Armenian Genocide
resolution (H.Res.252) (23 for; 23 against). After it was put to the
vote in Profile Committee, the Resolution will be submitted to the
House of Representatives for final vote.

SERBIAN FILMMAKER EMIR KUSTURICA WILL MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2010 19:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica plans to make a
movie about Armenia and participate in Golden Apricot film festival.

"I was invited to participate in Golden Apricot film festival this
year, but didn’t make it. In near future I will catch up on it,"
Serbian filmmaker told a news conference in Yerevan.

Emir Kusturica is currently working on 2 films; in near future,
a collection of 12 autobiographical stories will be ready.

"Visit of Emir Kusturica and "The No Smoking Orchestra" is an important
event in the cultural life of our country. Acclaimed Belgium-based
violinist Khachatur Almazyan is the one we should thank for causing
Emir Kusturica’s visit to Armenia," RA Minister of Culture Hasmik
Poghosyan said at news conference.

Today, Emir Kusturica commemorated Armenian Genocide victims in
Tsistsernakabed.

Saturday, March 6 Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and His Holiness
Catholicos Karekin II will meet with the filmmaker. The meeting will
be followed by visit to the memorial to perished Yugoslavian pilots.

In the evening Emir Kusturica will meet Armenian university students.