Author: Chakhmakhchian Vatche

ISRAEL PLANS LIGHT METRO LINKING THE TWO PARTS OF OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

Jordan News Agency
April 21, 2010 Wednesday

Occupied Jerusalem, April 21(Petra) -Israeli occupation authorities
will set up a light metro line to link the two parts of the occupied
holy city of Jerusalem in order to transfer a huge number of Jewish
families from western part of the city to the surrounding areas of
Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Arab-dominated Eastern Jerusalem.

Head of Jerusalem file in the Palestinian Authority, Hatem Abdel Qader
told Petra reporter in Ramallah on Wednesday that Marshal Engineering
Corporation (MEC), an American firm, will implement the project and
has already reached an advanced stage in the planning and engineering
designs of project.

"According to the designs of which PA has obtained a copy, a tunnel for
the metro will be excavated from Al Sabea building at West Jerusalem
to al Aqsa Compound" Abdel Qader added.

He pointed out that part of the tunnel will be dug under the Armenian
cemetery leading to Prophet David’s Gate. He warned against the
dangerous consequences of the Israeli project which jeopardize the
Arab and Islamic identity of the holy city and urged Arab states
to take immediate action to an end to Israeli violation and prevent
American company from completing the project.

ARMENOCIDE: HISTORICAL PRECEDENT OF THE CLASH OF THE CIVILIZATIONS
Levon Shirinyan

cs&nid=2450
22 April 2010

"Armenia is a vanguard of Europe in Asia" formula, which was offered
long ago, correctly defines the place of the Armenian people in
our world.

The historical mission of the Armenian nation, prompted by the whole
course of its development, is to seek and find the synthesis of the
East and West".

Valeriy Brusov

In this article the Armenocide is presented against the background
of the clash of the civilizations. The reference to the assessments
of the Armenian Genocide as a grave crime against "the humanity
and civilization" (24 May, 1915), as Holocost (1918), are made. The
essence of the Turkish (Ottoman, Kemalist) strategy of carrying out
and denial of the Genocide is defined.

In our days it is popular to speak about the dialogue of the
civilizations but one should not forget about the incompatibility
of the cultures and civilizations which often causes conflicts with
tragic consequences.

One of such facts is the Armenocide among many causes of which the
cultural factor was also present. In fact it was a consequence of
the long-term ethnic conflict between Christian Armenians and Sunni
Turks from the Balkans to Anatolia and the Caucasus. Being unable to
absorb the alien culture, the nationalist Turkish top headed for its
annihilation and eradication.

So, on April 24, 1915 in Western Armenia, Armenian Cilicia and the
other regions of the Ottoman Empire, by the decision of the government
of the country and on the will of the Turkish people the events took
place which were aimed to the final solution of the Armenian Question,
i.e. the total extermination of the disarmed and defenceless people,
the events which were characterized in the May 24, 1915 Declaration
of the ally powers – Russia, Great Britain and France, as a crime
"before humanity and civilization".

The actions of the Turks were premeditated and planned in details,
their aim was clear: "to exterminate the entire nation" fully, once
and forever and to put an end to the very name of "Armenia", to wipe
its civilization from the face of the earth, to turn Western Armenia
in logical absurdity – "Eastern Anatolia", to appropriate its culture
[1], to cease through the pillage and violence huge material wealth
of the Armenians of the Empire1.

The perverted Turkish mind had nurtured that evil deed for decades
and began from the deliberate change of the place names of the
country and the distortion of the demography. In 1862 the fundamental
re-organization of the provinces was carried out. Consequently, the
province "Ermenistan eyalet" was divided into Erzurum, Bitlis and Van
provinces and to each of them, in order to change the demography; the
districts with Muslim population were added "by crooked, artificially
drawn boundaries". Then, in 1878, two years after the Berlin congress,
in order to reduce the specific weight of the native population,
in Western Armenia new administrative and territorial divisions were
made. And in 1880s the usage of word "Hayastan" (Armenia) was banned.

Until a certain time such actions were aimed to dissolve the Armenians
living on their native land in the alien environment, among the rabble
of different tribes called "the Muslims".

The cause for "adjustment" of the Turkish stance on that issue was
the evident economic and civilizational upturn of the Armenians
which had begun since the middle of the 19th century. English priest
B. Barail mentioned that the adoption of the National Constitution
of the Western Armenians (1860) "marked the revolution in the habits
and customs of the East". That is why, "soon Armenians turned into
a suspicious element both for Turkey and for Russia, and since that
day they have had no restful life".

Indeed the well-known Turkish envy and bile played an exceptional role
in the preparation of ethno-psychological ground for the Armenocide
[3]. The "main argument" was the irrepressible desire of the Turks to
"appropriate" the motherland of the Armenians – Armenia, to take it
away from its legal proprietors. The general extermination of the
Armenian population was clearly shown: in Turkey sultans and rulers,
their political affiliation, sex, religion or nationality may change
but their main aim was the annihilation of Armenia.

And during the collaboration of Lenin and Ataturk the prospects of the
real annihilation of Armenia were clearly outlined and the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Kemalist Turkey Ahmed Mukhtar "explained" to
the commander of the east front Kazim Karabekir (now they spoke about
Eastern Armenia): "Armenia is situated at the vast Muslim territories
(can you imagine that?) and, that’s why, it should be exterminated
both politically and physically. It should be taken into consideration
that the general political situation and our power favour to the
realization of that plan [4]".

It should be mentioned that the plan of extermination of Armenia was
formulated and began to be implemented by Abdul Hamid. His associates
and followers, up to Kemal, simply continued the things he started.

The process of stabilization and integration of the Empire, which
was bulging at the seams under the pressure of the European powers
(the policy of the great powers, the national-liberating movements),
was "directed" by Hamid to the east. His aim was to gain access to
Western Arabia, Muslim shrines and Armenia [5]. The Balkan wars made
his intentions firmer. "I will not regret about losing the Balkans
which suck our powers dry", said Abdul Hamid. "We want to stay in
Anatolia and live separately", stated the "the bloody sultan" [6].

Hamid’s idea was welcomed in Europe. In this aspect the address of
Baron Hans von Wangenheim, to the central committee of "Ittihata"
(at the eve of the 1914 war), the "proclaimer" of German
national-socialism, is rather conspicuous: "The alliance with
Bulgaria is advantageous for you. It is necessary to get access
to Berlin-Istanbul line, to arm the Straits, deprive Russia of the
help from abroad and to crush it with joint efforts. Giving to you
the Caucasus we want to open to you the access to Turan. You have to
destroy the element which is in the way of Turkey’s unity (Armenians –
L. Sh.), and then to seize Persia…" [7].

Thus, in 1914 the German ambassador spoke about the things which two
years before had been foreseen by the great Armenian poet Hovhannes
Tumanyan (…Armenian Question is one of Turkey’s headaches and
with the apse of time it will get even stronger till the Turks are
retreating to this lands"). And the European powers all together
squeezed out from the Old World civilizationaly alien element –
the Medieval Turkish janissary. They directed him to the East. And
on that way Armenia lay. And that was the reason why the help of the
Christian Europe to the biblical country, the "cradle of civilization"
(David Leng) – Armenia, was temperate.

Meanwhile, the Turk who was out for blood obtained appropriate tactics
and carried it out in three stages:

1. 1876-1915 – the local but tending to broadening and development
policy of the deportation of the Armenians, their forcible Islamization
and killings.

2. 1915-1918 – the comprehensive process of the final solution of
the Armenian Question. The Turks did not succeed partially due to
the resistance of the rest of the Armenians (solders and officers
of the voluntary regiments tried and tasted in many battles;
almost eight-month-long fights of the Armenian detachments from
Erznka (Erzindjan) to Sardarapat and Baku, the breakthrough of the
Syrian-Palestine front by the "Armenian Legion" on September 19,
1918), and partially due to the international situation.

3. 1919-1923 – on the one hand the Kemalist policy of annihilation
of the Greeks, continuation of the unfinished Armenocide in Eastern
Armenian and Transcaucasia and seizing of the new lands, and on the
other hand the denial of the fault and responsibility of the Turkish
state and nation.

Henceforth, according to the plan of the Genocidal Turkish state,
"the purpose was to try to achieve the acceptance of the factual
situation by the Armenians. They had to make Armenians refuse from
the territorial claims in exchange for the recognition of their
diminutive state (i.e. the 1918 Republic of Armenia- L. Sh.). Thus,
the almost full debellation and annexing could be presented as a
cession – the volunteer concession of the territory and the Genocide
of the Armenian population of those districts as regrettable events
of the past" (Yu. Barsegov) [8].

Nevertheless, the Genocide caused the issue of the responsibility of
Turkey and Turks:

a) the criminal penalty of the physical persons who elaborated and
carried out this shocking crime. They carried punishment only partly
(operation "Nemesis", Armenian Nurnberg, which was implemented under
the active resistance of the Soviet government);

b) the political responsibility of the Turkish state and the creation
of Armenia in accordance with the arbitral decision of Woodrow Wilson);

c) material responsibility in the form of restitution (the restoration
of the rights of the Armenians, the return of the forcibly taken
property and etc.) [9].

It is clear that the further struggle of the Armenians will be mostly
conditioned by the second and the third points. This will bring to
the liquidation of the effects of the first Genocide in the world –
Armenocide [10] and once and for all will avert the repetition of
such crimes.

The words of Woodrow Wilson, which sound like a precept are remarkable
"Armenia should get all it is historically eligible for. It has more
rights to live than Turkey… Sooner or later Turkey will face the
tribunal and give an account and then it will be demanded to return
all it had robbed to the real owner" [11].

1The general cost of the pillige by the Turks in the years of the
Genocide was about $5 billion in gold. A part of that wealth was
pocketed by the robbers and top, while the "lion’s share" was used
for the necessity of the Kemalist movement, particularlly, for the
war against Eastern Armenia.

PRESIDENT SARGSYAN ATTENDS OPENING OF RECONSTRUCTED YEREVAN THERMAL POWER PLANT

/ARKA/
April 22, 2010
YEREVAN

Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan attended today the opening of
reconstructed Yerevan Thermal Power plant, furnished with a new
gas-steam combined cycled turbine.

Speaking to journalists on the site, energy minister Armen Movsisyan
said the new power unit will help raise the reliability of Armenia’s
power grid, optimize energy flows and cut energy losses at energy
distribution stations.

"It is a modern plant with a 272 MW installed capacity to generate
electric power at twice-reduced consumption of gas’ the minister said.

"The modern European technologies will enable to half the consumption
of natural gas which is crucial after the price of natural gas was
raised," the minister said.

According to the minister, the plant is unique in the region, both in
terms of its quality and application of high technology and technical
capabilities.

The construction of the new power unit began on July 30 2008 on a
$247 million loan provided by the Japanese Bank of International
Cooperation (JBIC). The entire process from design to material and
equipment procurement to engineering and installation was handled by
Korean GS Engineering & Construction firm that won a US$218 million
project from Yerevan Thermal Power Plant.

The minister said all of this will allow to keep electrical power
prices on the current level this year, although Russia raised the
price of gas it supplies to Armenia form April. The minister said
the new plant is an ecologically friendly facility. The power to be
generated by the plant will be used by domestic consumers and the
surplus will be exported.

The Yerevan Thermal Power Plant was built in 1963-64. Its designed
capacity was 550 megawatt.

Before the reconstruction only one of its seven units with a 50
megawatt capacity operated.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIED BY AZEBAIJAN

The Orient Daily
April 20 2010

This week Azerbaijan has decided to pay attention to the Armenian
Genocide by attempting to re-write history in order to deny the events
of 1915. The leading government media, controlled by the Ilham Aliyev
administration prepared a series of films and programs which shows
the denial of the genocide. With film titles such as : "Armenians:
anatomy of hate.

Operation ‘Outpost’", "Armenians: anatomy of hate. Political adventure
of the century", "1915: Start to falsifications by Armenians".

The policy of denying the Armenian Genocide made by the Aliyev clan is
done as an act of self affirmation. However, the leading Turkish mass
media have often used the phrase "tragic events in 1915". It is only
a small part of the population who doesn´t acknowledge the Armenian
Genocide, which happened in 1915 during the first world war. It is
estimated that the genocide killed between 100,000 and one million
Armenian people. Many countries acknowledged the massacres during world
war one. However, still not all countries acknowledge the existence
of the Armenian Genocide, including the U.S. government. In March
2010, the U.S. Senate proposed the recognition of the genocide for
the second time. The Turkish government reacted disbelieved: "this
is a resolution which accuses the Turkish nation of a crime it has
not committed." A Turkish ambassador left its position to state it
clear that Turkey did not massacre one million Armenian people in 1915.

For Turkey, Azerbijan, and the Armenian’s the massacre of 1915 will
remain painful and contentious.

Gabrielle Davelaar

Picture credit: Armenian students cramped into crowded classrooms in
Aleppo after they flooded Syrian cities upon the Armenian Massacre
of 1915, from Wikipedia.

BLOOD DRIVE HONORS GENOCIDE VICTIMS
Zain Shauk

Glendale News Press
10/04/18/news/gnp-blood041910.txt
April 19 2010
CA

Armenian National Committee’s fifth annual event stresses importance
of giving back to the community.

SOUTH GLENDALE — The city’s week of Armenian Genocide-related
commemorative events kicked off Sunday with a blood drive in honor
of those who died during past atrocities, organizers said.

The Armenian National Committee’s fifth annual blood drive was expected
to draw more than 80 donors for collections facilitated by the American
Red Cross, said Elen Asatryan, executive director of the committee’s
Glendale chapter.

Blood collected through the event, held the Krikor & Mariam
Karamanoukian Glendale Youth Center, was expected to be used for
medical procedures at local hospitals, Asatryan said.

"We wanted to establish an event that would not only remember the
victims of the genocide but also to do something to give back to the
community," Asatryan said.

The event was the first of a series to be held in Glendale to reflect
on man’s acts of mass killings and atrocities throughout history.

The Glendale Public Library hosted a panel discussion and presentation
Sunday afternoon commemorating the 95th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide.

The library will also host an opening reception at 6:30 p.m. Monday
for the annual "Man’s Inhumanity to Man" event and will also host a
discussion as part of the event series at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Glendale Unified School District will host "Nine Decades of Denial"
at 7 p.m. Thursday at Glendale High School.

The city’s commemorative events will culminate at 6:30 p.m. Friday
with an evening of reflection at the Alex Theatre, to be attended by
area politicians and community leaders.

The blood drive Sunday was an important part of the commemorative
week because it focused on taking action, Asatryan said.

"We figured 1.5 million lives were lost in 1915, and this is our way
of saving lives for this generation and trying to incorporate a civic
responsibility for future generations to give back," she said.

Visitors at the drive agreed that the blood drive offered a simple
way to promote life.

"If I’m healthy, why not?" Glendale resident Armine Abrahamian said.

There is always a need for blood during medical procedures, so the
drive offered an opportunity to provide it, donors said.

"There may be a day that I need it too, or it could be a friend or
family that needs my blood," said Raffi Romanossian, of Sunland.

Sunday’s Zaman, Turkey
April 18 2010

Janus-faced Hürriyet daily (news)

IHSAN YILMAZ

Not only are the laws Janus-faced in this country, but several
institutions that are affiliated with the bureaucratic oligarchy are
as well. This accusation of being Janus-faced is not in any way
similar to the bureaucratic oligarchy’s century-old habit of accusing
of every single one of their economic, political, ideological and
social opponents of hiding their true intentions or of actually being
traitors or secret obscurantist reactionaries. While the bureaucratic
oligarchy has never been able to substantiate their accusations, we
have enough evidence to prove clearly that they have Janus faces.
I remember mentioning here a few times that laws are Janus-faced in
the country. This fact manifests itself in two shapes. Firstly, there
is always a secret interpretation of a law, and while an ordinary
citizen cannot see it, the bureaucratic oligarchy’s prosecutors and
judges apply this interpretation simply to suppress their ideological
enemies. The disaster at the 2007 presidential elections is a very
recent case in point. The second manifestation is related to the
judicial process rather than the black-letter law. The same law
applies differently to different people. When Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink wrote a piece and mentioned that the Armenian
diaspora should throw poisonous Turkish blood out of their veins, the
judges at the Supreme Court of Appeals (a castle of bureaucratic
oligarchy) decided that it was an insult to Turkishness, a punishable
offense under the notorious Article 301, which even the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) did not bother to repeal. Hürriyet
executed Dink metaphorically in its headlines daily, as they did
Kurdish singer Ahmet Kaya based on a faked picture, paving the way for
his exile and eventual death in France. The headline of the Hürriyet
daily read, `Ooo, You’re Dishonorable’ (Vay Å?erefsiz). No prosecutor
considered this an insult, as it was uttered against a Kurd. If you
use this word regarding any judge, you will spend several years in
jail, but it can be used for non-bureaucratic oligarchy members.
Anyway. Thanks to Hürriyet and her sister media outlets, and
columnists such as ErtuÄ?rul Ã-zkök, Dink — like Kaya — was made into
a hate figure. The ground was ready for an assassination, and when the
boy who assassinated the innocent Dink was caught, he claimed that he
was influenced by what he read in the newspapers. Every honorable
person in Turkey understood what Dink meant: He was not insulting
Turks in anyway but was warning against the danger of hatred in the
hearts of the Armenian diaspora against the Turks. But the
bureaucratic oligarchy needed to show to the outside world that, with
the rise of the AK Party to power, non-Muslims’ lives were in danger
in Turkey. While Dink was accused of insulting Turkishness, Hürriyet
columnist Bekir CoÅ?kun — an ultranationalist — could comfortably
insult the 47 percent of the Turkish people who voted for the AK Party
as `belly scratchers’ and his fellow Hürriyet columnist Yılmaz Ã-zdil
could label these people as `container-headed,’ meaning that they had
empty heads without brains. The bureaucratic oligarchy’s lawyers did
not bother to prosecute this at all. Both Ã-zdil and CoÅ?kun, on
separate occasions, made fun of the accent of Kurdish politician Ahmet
Türk, and nobody cared.

That is Janus-faced law in Turkey. What about Janus-faced Hürriyet? As
I indicated above and as also confessed by its owner, Aydın DoÄ?an, to
Nuriye Akman in a recorded interview, the Hürriyet daily secretly
belongs to the deep state or bureaucratic oligarchy. As DoÄ?an said,
you cannot simply buy the ownership of the trademark. The bureaucratic
oligarchy needs it for propaganda purposes. The daily is full of
ultranationalist, ultrasecularist columnists who abhor democratic
processes, the European Union process and liberalization of the
country. The headlines are decided by a politburo almost full of these
people. There are only a few liberal democrat names, such as giant
Hadi Uluengin.

Anyway, what about the Janus face? Well, the Turkish Hürriyet has also
an English version. DoÄ?an bought it from Ä°lnur Ã?evik, who published a
liberal democratic paper under the name `Turkish Daily News.’ DoÄ?an
first changed the content slightly and then changed the name to
Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review. But unlike its Turkish
version, Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review tries to present
itself as a liberal democratic paper and generally publishes liberal
democratic pieces of Hürriyet columnists. For instance, they would not
have Hürriyet’s headlines regarding Kaya. They would not publish the
racist or inflammatory pieces of Ã-zdil. A few days ago, Kurdish
politician Türk was beaten up by a cowardly ultranationalist while the
police simply watched. The next day, Ã-zdil, with some language games,
congratulated the cowardly attacker. The day after, his mentor Ã-zkök
— former editor-in-chief of Hürriyet — was lauding Ã-zdil on the
basis of his almost-racist piece. On Friday, Hürriyet published a
not-very-honorable ad hominem attack against social democrat lawyer
Osman Can, who the bureaucratic oligarchy hates the most nowadays
after he shattered the image of Sabih KanadoÄ?lu — the bureaucratic
oligarchy’s `law-faker’– on a TV program.

I wonder why Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review does not publish
these pieces and columns in English if they think that they are bright
and intelligent pieces. Non-Turkish readers in Turkey also need to
benefit from these insights. They would not publish them, as Hürriyet
needs a Western audience that would support DoÄ?an, the (fake)
democrat, against the so-called `dictatorial’ AK Party government.
Alas. They forget that many Westerners follow the events in Turkey in
Turkish as well. So, no need for a mask or a Janus face.

18.04.2010
ay/yazarDetay.do?haberno7711

Azg Daily, Armenia
April 15 2010

WHY IS THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STILL A TABOO?

By Erol Ozkoray

I heard about the Armenian genocide for the first time in Paris during
the 70s, and the very logical question I asked myself and also
expressed in my writing at that time (university papers, a reader’s
letter I sent to Le Monde newspaper, etc.) was the following: if the
Republic of Turkey is based on a rejection of the Ottoman Empire, then
why is the 1915 Armenian genocide not being dumped on the Ottomans?
Why is the Turkish Republic assuming responsibility for this
scandalous event, which is the 20th century’s first crime against
humanity and that century’s first genocide? Later, in my career as a
journalist, this question always remained on my agenda.

I am generally known as the journalist who explained Armenian
terrorism (ASALA) to Turkey during the years 1980 ` 1984. I was a
socialist, but I was also opposed to terrorism, and my articles even
lead to a deterioration of relations between Fran çois Mitterrand’s
socialist government (which I supported) and Turkey. Both myself and
my family and friends suffered a lot from ASALA: my friend Nazan
Erez’s father, Turkey’s Ambassador to France Ismail Erez was killed on
duty in Paris; my friend Gokberk Ergenekon was wounded in Rome; my
name was put on ASALA’s hit list and removed only after I met with
ASALA’s then lawyer Patrick Devedjian, who is now France’s Minister in
charge of the Economic Recovery Plan (in 1982, I did not see these
events as genocide, but I did not accept Turkey’s official version
either); my cousin Sitki Sencer was caught up in the shooting during
ASALA’S attack on the Ankara Esenboga airport and was shot 8 times by
Turkish policemen (miraculously, he survived) whereas my mother and
her sisters, also present, came away uninjured by the skin of their
teeth. In reality, the list is much longer, but the purpose in my
mentioning these is to indicate that I have worked a lot on the
Armenian question, I know quite a lot about it and I have suffered
because of it, and therefore I have the moral right to say the things
I’m about to say. In other words, the things I say here are the
conclusions an intellectual has reached after 35 years of engagement
with this issue and after repeated reassessments of his position.

If we go to the beginning… as the years passed, my reading
progressed and new documents and books came out, it was revealed that
the question I have been asking (to blame the genocide on the
Ottomans) was the product of sophistry and devoid of any meaning, due
to at least three reasons.

Firstly, even though Mustafa Kemal did not get along with the
triumvirate of Talat-Enver-Cemal and he did not take any part in the
Armenian genocide on account of being engaged in the fighting on the
Gallipoli front at the time (in a sense, these helped him be later
designated a leader), the genocide that had already been accomplished
served him very well structurally, because he based the Republican
regime on the Turkish race. During the years 1926 ` 1927, discourse on
the Turkish race constituted the principal nationalist ideology of the
State (Turkish race = Turkish nation), and therefore Anatolia had to
be `cleansed’ of all Christian and foreign elements (Armenians,
Greeks, Assyrians and Kurds). These policies of ethnic, cultural,
economic and social cleansing were actively implemented through seven
genocides executive during the Republican period. No Armenians, no
Greeks and no Assyrians were left in Anatolia. Only the Kurds
resisted, and despite four genocides, they could not be exterminated.
Just for this reason, every person in Turkey must respect the Kurds’
struggle for their lives and their rights. Thus, there was a
continuity inherited from the Ottomans with regards to `Massive
Annihilation’. In 95 years, 10 genocides were carried out on these
lands (see the archives at ). Among the founders of
the Republic, there were murderers who had been involved in, organized
and implemented the Armenian genocide.

Secondly, there is another line of continuity from the Ottomans to the
Republic, as money and goods confiscated from the Armenians played a
determining role in the financing of the War of Independence. Apart
from monetary and weapons help received from Lenin, the biggest
financial source for the War of Independence was money appropriated
through the Armenian genocide. With this money, weapons were
purchased, an army was set up and its logistics provided. The persons
involved in these came to form a new social class that owed its wealth
to the Armenians’ property (for instance, the porter Haci Omer Sabanci
is the ancestor of today’s Sabanci family, and grocer Vehbi Koc the
progenitor of today’s Koc family), and thus the social bases of the
movement emerged.

Thirdly, murderers involved in the Armenian genocide (here I’m talking
about people with blood on their hands) came to constitute a portion
of the new Republican regime’s political and administrative elite.
They purchased their respectability by donating some of the money they
had appropriated from the Armenians to the financing of the War of
Independence. Mustafa Kemal pretended not to know their past. Some
examples: Å?ukru Kaya (Minister of the Interior, Secretary General of
the People’s Republican Party), Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda (President of
the Turkish Grand National Assembly), Arif Fevzi(Minister), Ali Cenani
Bey (Minister of Industry), Rustu Aras (Foreign Minister). Once again,
there is continuity from the Ottoman period. Mustafa Kemal benefited
from these people; he used them, and gave these murderers prominent
positions in the Republic.

The reasons for the Armenian genocide becoming a taboo are hidden in
these three observations. Otherwise, it would have been very easy to
solve the problem by putting the blame for the genocide on the
Ottomans. The person who put these issues on the agenda by producing
major works that influenced Turkish intellectuals on the matter of the
Armenian genocide is Taner Akçam. Because of the reasons I have
enumerated, whenever the expression `Armenian genocide’ is uttered,
people lacking good sense in Turkey go berserk. What I’m saying here
is that, unlike the official history thesis, the Turkish Republic was
not founded after an anti-imperialist war (in the War of Independence,
the Army only fought against the Greeks, but not against France or
England, which were the imperialist powers of the era), rather, it was
founded on the Armenian genocide. This reappraisal means that what you
and everyone have been told and taught would be sent to the trash bin.
This is the real reason why there is a big trauma whenever anybody
says `Armenian genocide’.

Everything has been a lie since 1923. In other words, the situation is
not as simple as the state hiding the reality of the genocide, as
certain intellectuals are now saying. Today, when one talks about
recognizing the Armenian genocide, practically everything has to be
put on the table: the Republic, Kemalism, the State, the State’s
ideology, those who founded and governed the Republic, Turkey’s
regime, this country’s political system, its army, its universities,
its educational programs, its press, its elite, its businessmen (the
sources of certain capital accumulations), the courts, the political
parties, etc. It is self-evident that no one can cope with such a
gigantic confrontation. Especially in the kind of crypto-fascist and
crypto-totalitarian regime where we are living, it is very difficult `
not to say impossible ` to settle accounts with the things enumerated
above even in one’s dreams!

This traumatic situation, in its historical, political and
intellectual dimensions, goes miles and miles beyond the capacity of
our current Islamist government. Nothing can be accomplished with the
protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia. In any event, didn’t the
invisible forces in Ankara make the Armenia Protocols null and void
within 24 hours, and through the very hand of the Prime Minister? This
State, in its current structure, will repulse any solution, as there
is no solution that it could accept. The problem can be solved ` like
the other problems of the country ` only by a statesman with the
highest intellectual credentials, who has internalized the culture of
democracy, come to power through elections and formed public opinion
in this direction. It is impossible for ordinary small persons to
overcome Turkey’s gigantic problems. We need politicians and statesmen
on the level of Mitterrand, Allende and[Felipe] Gonzales in order to
resolve these gangrenous problems. In other words, we need Big Men.

hp?storyid=4140

At the site mentioned, the author has about 10 other articles (all in
Turkish), several of which partly overlap with this one, and there are
also several that are on abolishing the Turkish Armed Forces in its
current `autocephalous’ form, in favor of a professional army (in this
sense, he expresses his admiration of Felipe Gonzales, mentioned in
last paragraph, who did much the same thing in Spain. Mustafa
Abdulhalik Renda (Talat’s brother-in-law, apparently), President of
the Grand National Assembly for several terms, is covered in both
English and Turkish wikipedias.

Ared Misirliyan, Montreal

L’interview du Ministre Davutoglu à l’agence azerbaïdjanaise APA

AZERBAIDJAN

samedi17 avril 2010, par Stéphane/armenews

L’ensemble de la presse relaye l’interview du Ministre Davutoglu à
l’agence azerbaïdjanaise APA dans laquelle il a déclaré que le conflit
du HK a été la question clé de l’entretien Sarkissian-Erdogan et que «
le PM turc est intéressé à expliquer au Président arménien les nuances
sensibles du conflit de Haut Karabakh ». L’Azerbaïdjan, a-t-il ajouté,
est une partie inséparable des processus au Sud Caucase et il est
inadmissible de le mettre en hors des processus. Il a tenu à répéter
qu’« outre la normalisation des liens Turquie – Arménie, la libération
des territoires azerbaïdjanais occupés était un des objectifs des
protocoles de Zurich ». « La Turquie ne permettra pas de pressions à
son encontre. Une paix unilatérale est impossible au Sud Caucase. La
seule normalisation des relations arméno-turques ne suffit pas pour la
paix et la stabilité au Sud Caucase. Un règlement multilatéral
pourrait nous aider à créer une atmosphère de paix et de dialogue »,
a-t-il ajouté.

Réagissant à ces déclarations, le porte-parole du parti Républicain,
Edouard Charmazanov a estimé que la Turquie ferait mieux de « ne pas
mettre le nez » dans le règlement du conflit du HK. Nul ne peut, selon
lui, expliquer aux dirigeants d’Arménie et des Etats-Unis les nuances
du règlement du conflit. Cette déclaration « nerveuse » de Davutoglu
n’est non seulement pas correcte, mais constitue une « manifestation
de négligence et d’insolence », selon le porte-parole. / Hayots
Achkhar, Hayastani Hanrapetoutioun, Aravot

Ambassade de France en Arménie

Service de presse

UN OFFICE IN YEREVAN TO HOST BOOK DONATION FOR COMMUNITY LIBRARIES OF ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 16, 2010 – 12:24 AMT 07:24 GMT

On April 19, 2010, in the framework of National Library Week (from 12
to 19 April) and World Book and Copyright Day (April 23) UN Department
of Public Information together with the National Library of Armenia
are organizing a book donation for community libraries of Armenia. All
Agencies, Funds and Programs of UN Armenia Office have contributed
to this call for books. The Bibliobus of the National Library will
come to collect the donation from the UN House.

Ms. Dafina Gercheva, UN Resident Coordinator, UNDP Resident
Representative, Ms. Maria Dotsenko,UN DPI Representative, Mr. Davit
Sargsyan, Director of National Library of Armenia, President
of Armenian Library Association, heads of UN Agencies and media
representatives will be participating.

RAPPROCHEMENT STALLED AFTER SIGNING OF PROTOCOLS. CROWLEY

Tert.am
17.04.10

In a recent briefing US Assistant Secretary of State Philip J. Crowley
referred to the Armenia-Turkey normalization and the recent meetings
in Washington saying that some very important meetings were held both
with Armenian and Turkish sides.

According to the US State Department website Crowley said that the
Armenia-Turkey normalization process has been stalled after the
signature of the Armenia-Turkey Protocols.

"The process has stalled from last fall when the countries signed
the protocols on normalization. We want to see Turkey and Armenia
ratifying those protocols, normalize relations, open borders. That
has significant benefits for both countries. And we continue to work
with both to see if we can find the right formula, the right timing
to see ratification and the benefits that come with ratification,"
said Crowley

Asked whether the US works with its Azerbaijani counterparts to resolve
the disagreement with them over the Armenia-Turkey normalization, as
Baku has some objections to it, Crowley said: "We continue to work to
see how we can – I mean, there are things that both countries have
committed to do. There are difficult processes working with their
respective parliaments. We know this is a difficult process. We know
it involves emotion on both sides, risk on both sides, and we will
continue to work constructively with Armenia and Turkey to try to
see this process through."