Author: Chatinian Lara

RIGHT TO HONOUR GALLIPOLI HEROES

Irish Independent
March 25 2010

I am so glad that the President is laying a wreath in Gallipoli for
the 3,000 Irish dead, of whom about 1,000 were from Co Limerick.

Critics of this high-risk, badly managed campaign summed it up as
follows: "They fought for King and country and died for nothing."

They were fighting, in the words of Woodrow Wilson, to make the
world a safe place for democracy. Pearse referred to the Turks as
our "gallant allies", the Turks at this stage had massacred over one
million Armenian Catholics.

The 10th Irish Division were both Catholics and Protestants fighting
side by side, many recruited in a mass rally in Lansdowne Road. Had
Gallipoli succeeded and had the allies got supplies up to Russia,
the history of Russia and Ireland might have been different.

Stephen Fallon co Limerick

Irish Independent

ters/right-to-honour-gallipoli-heroes-2110749.html

TURKISH AMBASSADOR TO RETURN TO SWEDEN SOON:

CCTV, China
March 25 2010

ANKARA, March 24 (Xinhua) — Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
said on Wednesday that Turkey’s Ambassador in Stockholm Zergun
Koruturk, will return to Sweden at the beginning of next week.

Speaking in a program on CNN Turk TV channel, Davutoglu said that
Koruturk, who was recalled after the Swedish Parliament adopted a bill
on the incidents of 1915 on March 11, will go back to Stockholm soon.

"The cases in the United States and Sweden are not the same. The
Swedish government clearly opposed the adoption of a bill on the
incidents of 1915 at the Swedish Parliament. The Swedish government
clearly demonstrated its stand on the bill regarding the incidents
of 1915," Davutoglu stressed.

Within this frame, statements from Sweden were satisfactory,
Davutoglu added.

On March 4, Turkey temporarily recalled its ambassador to the United
States following a U.S. congressional panel approved a resolution
labeling the incidents of 1915 as "genocide."

Turkey strongly rejects the genocide allegations and regards the
events as civil strife in wartime which claimed lives of many Turks
and Armenians.

8.shtml

NALBANDIAN BEATS KUBOT AT 2010 SONY ERICSSON OPEN

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.03.2010 11:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Men’s singles main draw action kicked off at the
Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Wednesday, with several former Top 10
players in action in the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.

Argentinean wild card David Nalbandian, on the comeback trail after
undergoing hip surgery last year, cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 in over
Poland’s Lukasz Kubot. The former World No. 3 and 2002 Wimbledon
runner-up won 82 per cent of points on his first serve, advancing to
the second round where he’ll play No. 30-seeded Serbian Viktor Troicki.

The 2010 Sony Ericsson Open (played March 22 – April 4) is one of nine
ATP Masters Series events on the ATP calendar, a Premier Mandatory
event on the Sony Ericsson WTA TOUR calendar, and features the top
men’s and women’s tennis players in the world. In 2009 British standout
Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic for his first Sony Ericsson Open
title, while rising Belarusian star Victoria Azarenka knocked off
Serena Williams to capture her first title in Miami.

SARGSYAN: SYRIA HAS PIVOTAL ROLE IN PEACEMAKING

SANA – Syrian Arab News Agency
.htm
March 23 2010

Aleppo, (SANA) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Wednesday said
Syria has pivotal role in peacemaking in the region.

Meeting Syria’s Grand Mufti Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun, Sargsyan hoped
Syria would be a peace gate for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The Armenian president called upon peoples of the world to see the
real image of Syria and the peaceful co-existence among its people.

For his part, Hassoun said Syria and Armenia have worked to rebuild
Man intellectually and spiritually, adding that what the Arab region
suffers from is caused by foreign interventions.

The Armenian President is on a three-day state visit to Syria.

R. Raslan/ al-Ibrahim

BRITISH GOVERNMENT ‘SHOULD RECOGNISE’ ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

23/03/10

Baroness Cox writes for ePolitix.com ahead of her oral question on
the Armenian Genocide

I am asking HMG whether it will reconsider its position on the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide sadly, without any hope of a
change in the British government’s consistent policy of refusal to
acknowledge the truth.

However, the question is timely for three reasons:

1. The recent recognition by the Swedish Parliament of the
state-organised massacres of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkish
authorities, beginning in 1915, as genocide the latest in a long
line of Parliaments and other official bodies, such as the Vatican,
to do so.

2. The publication last October of ‘Was there an Armenian Genocide?

Geoffrey Robertson QC’s opinion with reference to Foreign and
Commonwealth Office documents which show how British ministers,
Parliament and people have been misled’.

3. This year marks the 95th anniversary of the beginning of the
genocide and recognition is long overdue. Every genocide which remains
unrecognised is, in effect, condoned and can serve as an encouragement
to other potential perpetrators of subsequent genocides. This was most
infamously illustrated by Hitler’s reference to the Armenian Genocide
before he embarked on the extension of the Holocaust in Poland:
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Whenever initiatives are taken to encourage recognition of the
systematic slaughter and deportation of between one and two million
Armenians as genocide, the Turkish government becomes extremely active
in attempting to prevent this, through intimidating political pressure
and threats of economic boycott.

This response is tragic for at least three reasons:

1. Refusal to acknowledge the truth inevitably prevents any possibility
of healing for the Armenian people, and of genuine reconciliation
between Armenia and Turkey.

2. It would be healing for the Turkish people themselves for the truth
of their history to be acknowledged. When I was in Turkey, talking to
professional Turkish colleagues, many said they wished their government
would acknowledge the genocide. They knew the reality and felt deeply
unhappy at being forced to hide the truth and to live a lie.

3. As already stated, refusal to recognise historical reality of any
genocide can serve as an encouragement to other potential perpetrators,
who will believe that they can get away with similar genocides with
impunity.

Geoffrey Robertson QC’s concluding paragraph claims:

‘HMG’s real and only policy has been to evade truthful answers
to questions about the Armenian Genocide, because the truth would
discomfort the Turkish government. It can be predicted that any future
question on the subject will be met with the same meaningless formula
about "insufficiently unequivocal evidence", disguising the simple
fact that HMG will not now come to terms with an issue on which it
was once so volubly certain, namely that the Armenian massacres were a
"crime against humanity" which should never be forgiven or forgotten.

Times change, but as other civilised nations recognise, the universal
crimes of genocide and torture have no statute of limitations.’

This debate offers HMG an opportunity to join other civilised nations.

I greatly fear that it will fail to do so, and perpetuate Britain’s
dishonour. But at least it will provide an opportunity for the truth to
be recorded once again in the British Parliament, for British citizens
to make up their own minds and, as the Welsh Assembly has already done,
to its great credit, to acknowledge and proclaim the historic truth.

OLIGARCHY ISSUE MUST BE SOLVED

17270.html
12:13:40 – 24/03/2010

The Armenian national Congress released its "100 steps" economic
program which points out concrete steps to overcome the socio-economic
hard situation of the country. Author of the program, Chair of
Azatutyun Party, former Armenian Prime Minister Hrant Bagratyan,
answering a question of our correspondent on the possibility of
fulfillment of the project said: "There is no unrealizable step there,
just political will is needed. With "100 steps" we showed there are
concrete steps able to bring the country out of the crisis. Hence, we
once again proved that our problem is in political changes. If this
government is going to make a good step, let it. The pre-electoral
program of Serge Sargsyan and the governmental program remind a fairy
tale, while "100 steps" contains concrete actions. It is noteworthy
that the authorities praise this program too saying that they knew
about all this and it corresponds to their program. In private talks,
the representatives of the power also agree that the only solution to
the current situation is this one. The main problems are oligopolies
and monopolies", says Bagratyan.

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, dwelling on "100 steps" expressed
positively, though stating it contains some provisions, which are
unacceptable. "I do not know these provisions. He had better mention
clearly which steps are unacceptable. Perhaps, he means the fight
against oligopolies and monopolies. This is why I am saying that he
is not to be the prime minister but a person who is able to implement
this program.

The Economy Minister Nerses Yeritsyan stated lately that the economic
crisis in Armenia is over. A quarrel between the RP and Bargavach
Hayastan parties followed this statement as a result, the BHK advised
the RP minister to resign. In answer to the question whether according
to him these contradictions are serious, Hrant Bagratyan said, "I
would not like to assess their internal problems. But it is evident
there is some disagreement. The longer the economic and political
issues are not solved, the more the disagreement will deepen, and
one day we will see the coalition disappeared.

In the recent period, rumors about Robert Kocharyan’s return
activated. There is an opinion that Robert Kocharyan is trying to
become prime minister at the cost of Tigran Sargsyan’s economic
failures. Is Kocharyan possible to attempt to return through BHK
and ARF Dashnaktsutyun? "Internal revolution inside the power is not
possible. Only the HAK is able to carry out a revolution in Armenia.

BHK and ARF "eat from the governmental plate". So, they will never do
that step. When Serge Sargsyan says "silent", all of them, including
Robert Kocharyan, stop emitting a sound.

In response to the question whether the economic situation of Armenia
and the expected social tension are possible to bring about a social
riot and whether it will affect the political situation leading to a
change of power, Hrant Bagratyan said, "Of course it will, it will
bring the change of power closer. We need to note that economic
issues are only a part of the Armenian governmental agenda. The
government, using the genocide, the NKR and Armenia-Turkey issues,
does not let people concentrate on the main problems. Of course, these
are important issues, but they seize all the energy of people. If we
want changes, we need to use our energy for the sake of not only the
genocide recognition but also solution of social-economic issues".

ARMAN GALOYAN

ARMENIA DOESN’T ACCEPT STYLE OF REFERENCES TO ARMENIA-TURKEY DIALOGUE IN ATTEMPTS TO AVOID GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.03.2010 17:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "I am here today since I could not but be here. It
is the greatest grief of my nation that has brought me here, the grief
of the first genocide of the 20th century and the greatest disgrace of
the civilized humanity. Up to this moment, in the 21st century, the
stigma of that disgrace still remains on the foreheads of all those
who have turned the denial of the evident facts into their policy,
turned it into their bargaining chip and into their lifestyle and
norm of behavior," Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in the
chapel of Deir ez Zor desert.

"In the desert of Deir ez Zor the most monstrous acts of the
tragedy had taken place, and it is neither possible to articulate
the particulars of that tragedy in the language of human beings,
nor am I going do that since these particulars are well-known even
to those who publicly deny the veracity of the Genocide. Bereft of
home and property, bereft of children and parents, bereft of health
and the last hope, and finally bereft of the most important – their
homeland, these people were doomed to lose the last thing they had –
their life in accordance with the state orchestrated and meticulously
developed plan of extermination.

Quite often historians and journalists soundly compare Deir ez Zor
with Auschwitz saying that "Deir ez Zor is the Auschwitz of the
Armenians". I think that the chronology forces us to formulate the
facts in a reverse way: "Auschwitz is the Deir ez Zor of the Jews".

Only a generation later the humanity witnessed the Deir ez Zor of
the Jews. Today, as the President of the Republic of Armenia, the
homeland of all Armenians, I am here to ask: "Where and when will be
held our Nuremberg?"

I’m here to commemorate and to pray for the vast majority of my
slaughtered nation that had suffered both physical and cultural
extermination. I will elaborate neither on the quality, nor on the
quantity of the loss. Let me recall a single fact: as a result of
the Genocide the greatest share of the dialects of one of the most
ancient Indo-European languages – the Armenian – had been irreversibly
eradicated along with its speakers.

In spite of all that happened, we say that we are ready to establish
normal diplomatic relations with the modern Turkey, we are ready to
have open borders and economic relations, we are ready to make efforts
towards building confidence between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey,
we are ready to bring closer the two societies by breaking stereotypes
and myths that have nothing to do with the reality and developed in
decades of dearth of any sensible contacts.

We do this sincerely since we believe that there is no alternative to
the living and development between the neighbors through implementation
of what is proposed and still at the table, at least to start it
up. The signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols presented us with
an historic opportunity that should have a logical destine.

We, however, do not accept the style of references to the
Armenian-Turkish dialogue in attempts to avoid the recognition
of the Genocide. I do not think it helps the process. Moreover,
it is irrelevant to cite some Commission of Historians, since
the Armenian-Turkish protocols provide for merely a governmental
sub-commission on historic dimension. I assume everyone understands
what it means and what the difference is. I ask all those who will
have an occasion to elaborate or express themselves on the topic of
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide: remember of this dessert,
millions of ruined human fortunes and this ancient people deprived
of their motherland and with pain in their hearts, before you make
up your minds.

In 1915 the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century – 35 years old
Daniel Varuzhan and 37 years old Atom Yarjanian (Siamanto) had also
been slaughtered. Before being tortured to death, they were undressed,
because they wore European clothes. In those times and places European
clothes were quite expensive. The executioners dressed up into the
European clothes – stolen from the Armenian geniuses encompassing
millennia old civilization, stolen from ordinary Armenians.

I would not interpret symbols signified in these images but I am
unequivocally convinced: while preaching European apparel, manners
or values no one has a right to cast these images in oblivion.

I am here to remind of the well-known words: "It is impossible to kill
a nation that does not want to die". We mean to live and to grow. It
is no more possible to intimidate or blackmail us since we have seen
the most horrible. We shall continue to live and create with double
vigor for us and for our innocent victims. We look forward since we
have a lot to say and to share with each other, a lot to say and to
share with the world: the brightness and glow that Daniel Varuzhan
and Atom Yarjanian had no chance to share.

And here, in Deir ez Zor, we firmly and loudly say over and over
again that we are, shall exist and will flourish," Armenian President
emphasized.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr.Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Director
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Watch our latest videos on YouTube here:

"KHATCHIK BABIKIAN" FOUNDATION SONG CONTEST BEGINS IN ANTELIAS

On Sunday 21 March 2010, the screening of candidates participating in the
annual song contest began in the Cilicia Hall of the Museum in Antelias. The
Song Contest is the third event organized by this Foundation of the
Catholicosate, along with competitions for Tertiary and Secondary School
students in Armenian Language and Literature, Armenian History and Religious
Education.

35 young candidates ages 16-30 presented themselves to the Jury. Those
selected will go through a second screening process. At the end of
screenings of all three competitions, around 15 young adults from both sexes
will receive financial awards at a special Awards Ceremony.

##
Photos here:
tos/Photos454.htm#3
*****
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the publication
funds of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of the
Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

NO SPECIAL IMPLICATION IN NEW STATE POSITIONS: SAGHATELYAN

Tert.am
16:14 23.03.10

"I consider that a regular process; those people are my colleagues. I
praise both of them very highly. I don’t see any special implication
in that," said RA Presidential Staff Public Relations and Information
Department Chair Ara Saghatelyan at a press conference today,
commenting on replacing Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s press
spokesperson Samvel Farmanyan (pictured left) with Armen Arzumanyan
(pictured right).

Saghatelyan said he was confident that this change will bring only
growth in productivity in and take to a new level both Armenian Public
TV and the president’s office, where Farmanyan and Arzumanyan work,
respectively.

TURKEY STILL CAN UNFREEZE ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROCESS

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.03.2010 15:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "I think Azerbaijan’s reaction is not adequate
response to the call of the Armenian President to sign an agreement on
nonuse of force," Artak Zakaryan , member of the Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA) told a news conference jointly held with expert Anush
Setrakyan in Yerevan.

According to him, Baku has once again demonstrated its unconstructive
position on the Karabakh conflict settlement issue.

According to Zakaryan, whether Turkey will ratify the Armenian-Turkish
protocols or not, Armenia will win. Zakaryan did not rule out that
Ankara will ratify the Protocols and try to unfreeze the process. "But
this does not mean that we should not expect unpredictable steps from
Turkey," Artak Zakaryan said.

However, according to him, it is wrong to specify any terms for
Protocols’ ratification because it is rather a complex process.

According to Anush Sedrakyan, Armenia has become the source of tension
in the region, while Azerbaijan and Turkey have adopted pro-Russian
position.

The threat of war has always existed and the only culprit of this is
Azerbaijan, Mr. Zakaryan said.

The armed conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke
out in 1998, as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched
in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought
from 1991 (when the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was proclaimed) to 1994
(when a ceasefire was sealed by Armenia, NKR and Azerbaijan). Most
of Nagorno Karabakh and a security zone consisting of 7 regions is
now under control of NKR defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are
holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group up till now.

The Protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks
held through Swiss mediation. On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional
Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to
the country’s Organic Law.