Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

PanArmenian News
March 21 2005

BAKU CONTENT WITH REPORT OF OSCE FACT-FINDING MISSION TO TERRITORIES
SURROUNDING NAGORNO KARABAKH

21.03.2005 04:27

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Baku is content with the report of the OSCE
Fact-Finding Mission to the territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh,
Echo Azeri daily writes. Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Araz
Azimov stated that “on the whole Azerbaijan has achieved its goal.”
He reminded that by initiating the discussion of the issue at the 59-th
session of the UN General Assembly Azerbaijan was aspired to attract
the attention of the international community to “the policy of illegal
settling of these territories pursued by Armenia”. “Azerbaijan never
insisted on possessing absolutely precise data regarding the settling
of these territories. But the facts established by the Mission are
close to those Azerbaijan possesses”, he said. “I would like to note
that the Armenian Foreign Ministry gives rather one-sided assessment
to the outcomes of the Mission”, Araz Azimov added. In his words, the
report and recommendations of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs allow the
Azeri party to appeal to the corresponding UN Agencies for assistance
in their realization. This, in his opinion, can become a theme for
a new UN draft resolution. Azimov also stated that Azerbaijan will
press for inclusion of the issue in the agenda of the 60-th session of
the UN General Assembly. According to him, “Armenia’s responsibility
for the settling of the occupied territories is obvious”. Touching
upon the continuation of the dialogue with Armenia, Azimov said that
the recurrent meeting of the FMs is scheduled for mid-April.

EX CHAIRMAN OF PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION FOR FOREIGN RELATIONS PLEADS
NOT GUILTY OF NEGATIVE CONTENT OF PACE REPORT ON NAGORNY KARABAKH

YEREVAN, MARCH 19. ARMINFO. The former chairman of the commission for
foreign relations of the Armenian parliament Hovhannes Hovhannissyan
pleads not guilty of the negative content of Terry Davis’ report on
Nagorny Karabakh.

He says that it is not he but the dull and passive foreign policy of
the Armenian government that is to blame for the anti-Armenian
report. “I am on friendly terms with Terry Davis, but having no oil
Armenia might offer democratic society to the West while today the
country is facing totalitarian rule, corruption, censure, misery and
lack of any propaganda work,” says Hovhannissyan.

AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone 212.319.6383 x.118
Fax 212.319.6507
Email [email protected]
Website

PRESS RELEASE

Thursday, March 17, 2005

AGBU HONORS ANTRANIG DANCE ENSEMBLE AND FOUNDING MEMBER ARMENINE
SAPAH-GULIAN

New York, NY – On Friday, April 1st, 2005, AGBU is honoring AGBU
Antranig Armenian Dance Ensemble and one of its founding members,
Armenine Sapah-Gulian, with a dinner dance reception at the Rockleigh
Country Club (26 Paris Avenue, Rockleigh, NJ).

Under the Artistic Directorship of Joyce Tamesian-Shenloogian and
Choreographer Gagik Karapetian, Antranig Dance Ensemble commemorated
its 35th anniversary in June 2004 with a sold-out performance of its
current production, “Journey Through Dance,” at New York’s Alice Tully
Hall, Lincoln Center. Attracting an audience of over 1000, admirers
continue to be dazzled by Antranig’s variety of regional dances,
vibrant folk costumes, and traditional choreography. The New York
debut of “Journey Through Dance” was the first of several planned
performances in New Jersey, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, and around
the country.

In recognition of three-and-a-half decades of artistic excellence, the
upcoming AGBU function will serve to honor past Antranig dancers,
committee members, and supporters, and kick off its 2005 tour of
“Journey Through Dance.”

In particular, AGBU will pay tribute to Armenine Sapah-Gulian for her
long-standing service to Antranig and her pivotal role in establishing
the dance group in 1969. Over the years, Sapah-Gulian has assumed key
leadership responsibilities with AGBU and the Ensemble as its longtime
advisor and tour manager.

For more information on the reception to honor Antranig and Armenine
Sapah-Gulian, please contact AGBU at (212) 319-6383, Ext. 128 ($70,
Begins at 7 p.m., RSVP by March 23rd).

AGBU Antranig Dance Ensemble is the foremost Armenian dance group in
the United States comprised of over 30 young men and women. Antranig
performs full-length dance productions worldwide, and has played on
some of the premier stages of the world. For more information on AGBU
Antranig Dance Ensemble and its upcoming shows, please visit

AGBU is the largest Armenian non-profit organization in the world and
annually touches the lives of 400,000 Armenians. For more information
on AGBU and its programs, please visit

THREE ARMENIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES DEMAND FROM ARMENIAN AND
GEORGIAN AUTHORITIES TO TAKE URGENT MEASURES ON SOLVING PROBLEMS
ACTUAL FOR ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF GEORGIA

YEREVAN, MARCH 16. ARMINFO. Three Armenian opposition parties –
“Ramkavar Azatakan”, “Mighty Fatherland” and “Liberal-Democratic
Union” call upon to the Armenian and Georgian authorities to take
urgent measures on solving problems actual for the Armenian community
of Georgia, says a statement of these parties received today by
ARMINFO.

The statement notes that no problems should be in solving of the
problems taking into consideration the upcoming Armenian-Georgian
inter-state cooperation and centuries-old neighborly relation of the
two countries. Authors of statement note that the Churches of the two
countries may play a significant part in this matter. The parties
consider that demands of the Armenian community of Georgia,
particularly, of Samtskhe-Javakhq region, are quite fair taking into
account the resent events in Georgia and the hard social and economic
condition of the Armenian community. -r-

South China Morning Post
March 16, 2005

Old lady’s secret puts Armenian massacre in focus

Nicholas Birch in Istanbul

Fethiye Cetin was a student when she discovered her grandmother’s
secret. Until then, she’d always known the woman who brought her up
as Seher, the pillar of what seemed a typical Anatolian family.

The bombshell came while the two were talking one day in Ankara.
Seher’s real name was Heranush, and she was Armenian. Nine years old
when the little-known massacre of Armenians started in 1915, she had
cowered in a churchyard as the village men were murdered and thrown
in the river. Forced with the women and children onto the road to
Syria, she was abducted and handed over to a police corporal who
brought her up as his own child.

Such tales are common in Turkey’s eastern provinces. What makes
Heranush’s story unusual is that her granddaughter decided to turn it
into a book.

“She had hidden the things she told me for over 60 years,” explains
Ms Cetin, now a lawyer based in Istanbul. “I felt they needed to be
given a voice.”

But Ms Cetin also wanted to help move the debate away from barren
disputes over statistics and terminology: 300,000 killed? No, 1
million. Genocide? No, ethnic cleansing.

Such arguments, she says, “hide the lives and deaths of individuals
and do nothing to encourage people to listen”.

Turks have certainly been listening to her. Published last November,
My Grandmother is already in its fifth edition.

Ms Cetin attributes the success to the growing impatience Turks feel
for the official discourses on Turkish identity that have
traditionally held sway in the country.

“When books like this come out, even people with very different
family histories begin to realise they aren’t the only ones to
question what they have been taught,” she says.

And nowhere is this more evident than on the Armenian issue. Five
years ago, the taboo was almost total. An account of Seher’s life,
published in an Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper in 2000, was
ignored. Now, there are Armenian cookery books and novels.

In January, an Istanbul gallery hit the headlines with an exhibition
of 500 postcards showing Turkish Armenians between 1900 and 1914.

Much of the credit for breaking the silence must go to historian
Halil Berktay, who in October 2000 became the first intellectual in
Turkey publicly to describe the events of 1915 as genocide. Today, he
is convinced the space for intelligent debate on the past is growing
rapidly.

“Beneath the bluster,” he says, referring to a recent hate campaign
against novelist Orhan Pamuk, “the Turkish establishment position is
crumbling.” He notes that unlike its nationalist predecessor, the
country’s present government has refrained from statements of denial
about Turkey’s actions in 1915.

At different stages in the past half century, Turkish diplomats were
instructed either to leave international conferences when genocide
was mentioned in connection with Armenia, to describe the
deportations as a necessary measure against Armenian treachery or to
argue that the debate should be left to historians.

Last week, senior politicians from Turkey’s main parties called for
the events of 1915 to be “researched under United Nations
arbitration. If there is a need to settle accounts with history, we
are ready”, they said.

PanArmenian News
March 14 2005

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER MET WITH LEBANON’S AMBASSADOR TO RA

14.03.2005 07:42

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Defense Minister Serge Sargsian met with
Lebanon’s Ambassador to Armenia Zhebrail Butros Zhaar, RA Defense
Ministry press service reports. The Minister condoled on the
assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri. `We
have experienced the consequences of terrorism and perceive the
gravity of your loss. I am convinced that the life of the people will
return to the course of nature’, Serge Sargsian noted. The Lebanese
diplomat thanked the Armenian Minister for the condolences expressed
and noted that the Armenian people lost a big friend in the person of
Rafik Al-Hariri. When commenting on the situation in Lebanon Zhebrail
Butros Zhaar asked Serge Sargsian to discuss the issue of sending a
group of combat engineers to Lebanon. The parties also considered the
issues of regional security.

POSITION OF OSCE MG IN SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT DOES
NOT MEET INTERESTS OF AZERBAIJAN: CO-CHAIRMAN OF AZERBAIJANI SOCIAL
DEMOCRATIC PARTY

BAKU, MARCH 11. ARMINFO. The position of OSCE Minsk Group in
settlement of Karabakh conflict does not meet the interests of
Azerbaijan, Co-Chairman of the Azerbaijani Social Democratic Party
(SDPA) Araz Alizade says in his interview to Day.Az.

In his words, OSCE admits that none of the mediators can solve the
Karabakh issue, which is the most vulnerable for Azerbaijani people.
Unfortunately, there is no progress in the settlement process, SDPA
co-chair states calling the authorities of that country to refuse
from mediation of OSCE from now and on. “The most acceptable version
is return of the mediation mission to the UN. I have always been
against raising the Karabakh issue to the international level. It is
our own issue and we must solve it without international mediators,”
Alizade says. He is indignant at the fact that USA allocates material
assistance of 10 million USD to Azerbaijan and Armenia and to Nagorny
Karabakh without taking into account the interests of Azerbaijan.
“Why does Azerbaijan give its oil to the USA which does not take into
account our opinion? It turns out that we are secondary people whose
interests do not concern the USA, meanwhile, Armenia does not allow
such attitude to itself,” Araz Alizade says.

Miss Germany is Miss Europe 2005

Agence France Presse — English
March 12, 2005 Saturday 11:38 PM GMT

PARIS March 13 — Dark-haired Miss Germany, Shahrivar Shermine,
a 22-year-old of Iranian origin won the title of Miss Europe 2005
late Saturday in Paris.

The 1.74 metre (5ft 10 inch) beauty queen, who has just finished her
university studies, speaks German, Farsi, English and French. Her
hobbies are horse-riding and swimming.

Among the judges of the contest, beamed live to more than 50 countries,
were singer Charles Aznavour and couturier Paco Rabanne.

The other finalists were Miss Armenia, Miss France, Miss Slovakia
and Miss England.

Tbilisi Denies Visa to Transcaucasia Troops Commander

by 
Russian Article as of Mar. 11, 2005

New Commander of Russiaâ~@~Ys Troops in Transcaucasia, Major General
Alexander Bespalov has been denied an entry visa to Georgia and is
unable to arrive in Tbilisi, notwithstanding that the RF Ministry of
Foreign Affairs notified in advance the Georgian Foreign Ministry
about forthcoming change in the troopsâ~@~Y commander.

Major General Bespalov has replaced Lieutenant General Alexander
Studenikin, who was appointed to command the 2nd Guards All-Arms Army
(Samara). Bespalov, who arrived from Moscow after finishing the
General Staffâ~@~Ys Military Academy, had to take over the office not
in the staff of the Transcaucasiaâ~@~Ys troops in Tbilisi, but in the
territory of the 102nd Russiaâ~@~Ys military base in Gyumri, Armenia.
According to Vladimir Kuparadze, Deputy Commander of the
Transcaucasiaâ~@~Ys troops, Georgia has given no reasons for
visaâ~@~Ys denial to Bespalov.

–Boundary_(ID_tFAMU1Aj97E1c+7UB6jSaA)–

Exchange of Fire on Front Line Becomes Regular

Baku Today
11/03/2005 10:31

Today at 8.55 a.m. Armenian army’s subdivisions fired Azeri
army’s positions in Gapanly village, Terter region on northeast of
Karabakh. Fire has been opened from Seysulan village in the same
region earlier occupied by Armenians.

Azerbaijan Defense Ministry press office reports that yesterday
Armenians violated cease-fire three times. On March 9 at 11.10
a.m. Gapanly village has been fired from the same positions.

On the same day from 12.20 to 12.30 p.m. Armenian forces fired Azeri
army’s positions in Gyzyl Hajyly village, Gazakh region. Fire has
been opened from Berkaber village, Armenian Ijevan region.

>>From 1.45 to 2.00 p.m. Armenians were firing Azeri positions
from occupied villages Shikhlar and Bag Garvend, Aghdam region,
using firearms.

In all cases the Azeri side opened a return fire, casualties are not
reported by Azeri Defense Ministry.