Author: Chmshkian Vicken

Agence France Presse
13 avril 2006 jeudi 6:04 PM GMT

Une proposition de loi pour punir la négation du génocide arménien

MARSEILLE 13 avr 2006

Le groupe socialiste à l’Assemblée nationale va proposer une loi
sanctionnant la négation du génocide arménien lors de la séance
d’initiative parlementaire le 18 mai, a-t-on appris auprès jeudi du
Conseil de coordination des organisations arméniennes de France
(CCAF) à Marseille.

Cette proposition de loi, si elle est adoptée, viendra compléter la
loi du 29 janvier 2001 dans laquelle l’Etat français reconnaissait le
génocide arménien, a expliqué le président du CCAF Marseille-Provence
Pascal Chamassian.

Le président du conseil général des Bouches-du-Rhône, Jean-Noël
Guérini, a annoncé officiellement jeudi soir que le groupe PS allait
proposer cette loi, rédigée à l’initiative de députés du département
et qui a été appuyée par l’ensemble des élus socialistes à
l’assemblée.

“Pour nous c’est une grande nouvelle car la loi de 2001, magnifique
pour nous, était tronquée à la base: tous les négationnistes
pouvaient continuer à oeuvrer tranquillement”, a expliqué à la presse
M. Chamassian.

La communauté arménienne de Marseille et de France se prépare à
commémorer le 91ème anniversaire du génocide arménien, le 24 avril.
Un mémorial, le premier financé par l’Etat, doit notamment être
inauguré à Marseille en présence du préfet de région Christian
Frémont, du président du Conseil régional Michel Vauzelle, du maire
de la ville Jean-Claude Gaudin, de M. Guérini et du président de
l’Assemblée nationale d’Arménie Arthur Baghdassarian.

Les Arméniens affirment que jusqu’à 1,5 million des leurs ont péri
dans un génocide orchestré par l’empire ottoman (1915-1917). Ankara
soutient que 300.000 Arméniens et au moins autant de Turcs ont été
tués au cours de troubles suscités par des soulèvements d’Arméniens
et leur ralliement aux armées russes en guerre contre l’empire
ottoman, et lors des déportations qui ont suivi.

Andrew Goldberg’s `The Armenian Genocide” to be screened in Canada

ArmRadio.am
14.04.2006 17:49

April 17 and 24 Andrew Goldberg’s `The Armenian Genocide’ will be
screened by Canadian TVO-2, Press Service of RA Ministry of Foreign
Affairs informed. The Turkish organizations of Canada demanded to hold
a discussion featuring Turkish historians, but it did not go beyond a
5-7-minute talk with reporters. `The Armenian Genocide’ will be shown
April 16 and April 24 by TVO-2. April 17 and 24 the film will be
screened by WNED Buffalo.

PUSHING TURKEY TO THE EAST
Zeynep Gurcanli

New Anatolian, Turkey
April 13 2006

The location of Turkey at the crossroads of Europe and Asia has had
a huge effect on the political issues and direction of the country.

Depending on how international winds are blowing, Ankara is driven
sometimes to the West, and sometimes to the East.

Two years ago, due to the critical decision of the European Union
about whether or not to start membership negotiations with Turkey,
Ankara’s main overarching issue was how to harmonize the country with
the West. But when the talks were granted and Turkey felt secure over
the continuation of its relations with the EU, the Turkish public
immediately shifted its attention to other issues, like the future
of Iraq or a possible American attack against Iran or Syria. During
the latest get-together of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul with
the Turkish press last week, the main focus of the journalists was a
concrete example of this trend: None of the reporters present used
the opportunity of an open floor to ask questions about relations
between the EU and Turkey. The only EU question came at the very end
of the meeting, as the last issue of interest to ask the country’s
top diplomat, after covering all the other foreign policy and domestic
issues like the future relations of Ankara with Teheran, the rise in
the terrorist activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the
possible effects on Turkey of the failure to establish a government
in Iraq, etc.

The statements and activities of Cabinet members of the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) also helped this shift of
attention. Despite his busy schedule full of visits to European
countries during the early years of his premiership, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan seems to have changed his focus to the Eastern hemisphere,
mostly the Muslim part of the globe. When you look at the recent
foreign contact “balance sheet” of the Turkish prime minister, you
can’t help but notice the predominance of meetings with Muslim leaders,
both at home and abroad.

But this fact of lost public interest in EU relations can’t be
explained only by the Turkish government’s policies. The Europeans
also had a big effect in the change of focus of the Turkish people
with their attitudes.

Both Turkish and European politicians “sold” EU membership to the
Turkish public by saying that Turkey is a “civilized society.” All
the legal reforms carried through on the way to this were strictly
related to this aim. And the Turkish public accepted this painful
transformation to attain the goal already put by the founder of
modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, to reach the level of modern
civilization.

But while trying to transform themselves for the sake of EU membership,
the signals coming from the West created confusion in the minds of
the Turkish people. The main condition for being included at the
“European Club” was the democratization of the existing regime,
especially the legal system of the country.

But while Turkey shortened its custody period for suspects, Great
Britain changed its law to extend it after last summer’s terror
attacks against the London subway.

One of the main conditions of starting accession talks with the EU
was changing the Turkish Anti-Terror Law. But steps taken by the
Turkish government to democratize its anti-terror law coincided with
the resurgence of terrorist activities of the PKK. The terrorists,
openly getting directives from a TV channel, Roj-TV, broadcasting from
Denmark, an EU country, extended their sphere of activities from the
mountains and rural areas to the boulevards of big cities like Mersin
or Istanbul.

To fulfill another EU condition, Turkey opened the way for television
broadcasts in languages other than Turkish, namely in Kurdish. While
Ankara took this painful step, an interesting debate began in the
Netherlands about banning the use of foreign languages in the public
sphere – and one of the main foreign languages used in the Netherlands
is Turkish, due to the huge Turkish minority at this country.

To please the Europeans on the freedom of expression issue, Turkey
used every legal trick to free famous Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk from
charges about his words on the so-called Armenian genocide. But while
the Justice Ministry bent over backwards to get the suit dropped,
some European countries, like France, attempted to try an offense
against the Turkish consul general in Paris due to texts posted on
the official website of the Turkish Consulate General denying the
genocide accusations of the Armenians against the Ottoman Empire.

All the signals coming from the public clearly show that Turkey is
sliding towards the East. To change this tendency, the Europeans
should help their Turkish friends to take necessary steps to revive
membership enthusiasm within the Turkish public.

FESTIVE EVENTS DEDICATED TO 100th ANNIVERSARY OF AGBU START IN EGYPT

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 13 2006

CAIRO, APRIL 13, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Festive events
dedicated to the 100th anniversary of foundation of the Armenian
General Benevolent Union (AGBU) started on April 12 in Egypt. In
this connection RA Embassy in Cairo organized a reception with
participation of about 400 invitees from numerous countries of
the world. The greeting messages of RA Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanian and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheyd were
read at the ceremony. The Egyptian Foreign Minister in his message
especially emphasized the important role of Armenians in the history
of Egypt and attached importance to development of Armenian-Egyptian
relations. As Noyan Tapan was informed from RA Foreign Ministry Press
and Information Department, AGBU Chairman Perch Sedrakian, AGBU Cairo
branch Chairman Onik Blektanian, Armenian Ambassador to Egypt Ruben
Karapetian, Deputy Foreign Minister of Egypt, Ambassador Fatma Zahra
made greeting speeches.

THE NUMBER OF ALAVERDI BENEFIT RECEIVERS WAS REDUCED

“Ankjun+3” TV channel of Alaverdi
[03:27 pm] 13 April, 2006

The document ascertaining procedure of families included in the
list of socially vulnerable layer in Alaverdi already finished. As
it turned out the number of benefit receivers reduced from 2205 to
1806 in comparison with the previous year data.

According to the Social Services Regional Agency Chief Armen Gevorgyan
the document ascertaining does not fully reveal the social state of
the region; a part of benefit receivers left the region, the family
members of others found jobs whereas certain vulnerable families are
not ascertained at all as they couldn’t get a certificate from their
district in time.

PACE CALLED UPON YEREVAN, TBILISI AND BAKU TO GRANT LEGAL STATUS TO REFUGEES

PanARMENIAN.Net
13.04.2006 21:36 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
called upon Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to find a legal status
for the refugees on the basis of international humanitarian law. “The
situation of refugees and displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia continues to be an obstacle for the development of these
countries in economic, socio-political and health terms. Efforts
to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict have not as yet
produced results. Border incidents still occur, the fate of missing
persons has yet to be solved and landmines continue to cause injury and
death. There remain urgent humanitarian needs which are becoming ever
more difficult to satisfy as donor fatigue sets in. Urgent humanitarian
needs, however, must be increasingly supplemented by international
development aid to provide a future for the refugees and internally
displaced persons in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. There are,
however, some positive signs that the three countries are moving
forward with the local integration of their refugees and displaced
persons, thus allowing these people to regain their dignity and
prepare for the future,” says the Report of Committee on Migration,
Refugees and Population Rapporteur Mr. Boriss Cilevics, Latvia.

The document also maintains the UN data on the number of refugees
and displaced persons in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Thus, up to
1999/2000, the number of refugees opting for Armenian citizenship was
relatively small. This changed with the enactment in 2000 of a law
on persons forcibly displaced from Azerbaijan between 1988 and 1992
who have been naturalised; the legislation grants these persons the
right to protection and assistance. As a result, over 15,000 refugees
in 2000 and over 16,000 in 2001 acquired citizenship; since 2002,
this wave of naturalisation has decreased in intensity. In Georgia,
the figures are also vague and legislation has been slow to adapt. The
number of displaced persons is put at 237,069 a figure, which shows
little variation.

According to statistics gathered during the visit to Georgia, this
figure includes 224,938 persons from Abkhazia alone, who are unevenly
distributed between the regions of Georgia, with a very strong presence
in the Tbilisi and Samegrelo (Mingrelia) areas. The number of persons
displaced from the former autonomous oblast of South Ossetia is
put at 12,131; the same remark may be made about their distribution
between the regions of Georgia, with very high densities in Tbilisi
and Kartli. In Azerbaijan the statistics provided by UNHCR (for the
end of 2004) indicate a figure of 578,545 internally displaced persons
and 8,606 refugees.

AZERI LEADER PRAISES “NEW FORMAT” OF NAGORNYY KARABAKH TALKS

ANS TV, Baku
12 Apr 06

The Nagornyy Karabakh talks are now conducted in a new format which
suits Azerbaijan’s national interests, President Ilham Aliyev has said.

“The talks are conducted in a new format and this format is just
and suits Azerbaijan’s interests. The format creates the necessary
foundation for the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,”
Aliyev said during a trip to the northern Balakan and Zaqatala
districts on 12 April. “Azerbaijan must restore its territorial
integrity. We want to achieve this through peaceful means,
negotiations,” he added.

Speaking about ethnic conflicts in other countries, he said that
Azerbaijan is tolerant toward ethnic minorities. “Regardless of their
ethnic origins, each Azerbaijani citizen is dear to us. In this sense,
Azerbaijan can set an example for the world,” Ilham Aliyev said.

ANS TV reported that the president spent most of his time inspecting
outposts of the State Border Service in Zaqatala District. It showed
servicemen demonstrating their skills to the president.

ANS correspondent quoted Ilham Aliyev as saying that the Azerbaijani
borders were weakened during the Nagornyy Karabakh war and Armenians
took advantage of the opportunity and “attempted to carry out terrorist
attacks”. The president described the role of the State Border Service
in ensuring the country’s security as very important.

WITHOUT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 3 MAJOR ASPECTS THERE CAN BE NO DEVELOPMENT IN THE TURKISH – ARMENIAN RELATIONS – MURAT MERDJAN
Author: R. Abdullayev

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
April 11 2006

Without the implementation of the 3 major aspects there can be no
development in the Turkish – Armenian relations, the head of Turkish
parliamentary delegation to PACE, Murat Merjan told in interview to
the Trend correspondent.

These 3 major aspects include; resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict on acceptable for both sides’ conditions, resolution of
so-called Armenian genocide issue in the Ottoman times, and acceptation
by Armenia of existing borders according to the Karsk agreement.

“Without implementation of the given conditions, we can not speak
about the normalization of Turkish – Armenian relations,” he said,
adding opening of the Turkish – Armenian border also depends on these
3 aspects.

MP HITS OUT AT US DESCRIPTION OF ARMENIAN OPPOSITION AS “WEAK AND CAPRICIOUS”

Arminfo
7 Apr 06

Yerevan, 7 April: The description of the Armenian opposition as “weak
and capricious” by the US State Department report has deeply irritated
MP Agasi Arshakyan, deputy chairman of the National Unity Party.

“And I am not of a good opinion about them, the application of double
standards by the US Department of State is well-known,” Arshakyan told
our correspondent. The opposition and the authorities have equal power,
he said.

“The Armenian authorities are discredited and try to discredit the
opposition as well. We have no opportunity to prove our righteousness
before the people,” Arshakyan said. The Armenian people chose Western
values in the early 1990s, but later, they were disappointed because
of double standards of the West, he said.

“You turned a blind eye to demonstrations with involvement of thousands
of people in Armenia where 3m people live and kicked off a furore over
4,000-5,000 protesters in Belarus with 20m population,” Arshakyan
said in an address to US diplomats and described actions of the US
State Department as a manifestation of political corruption by the
West and encouraging weak governments in exchange of concessions.

He also said that the US criteria for freedom of conscience do
not coincide with Armenian criteria. “Favourable attitude towards
totalitarian and destructive cults is a trivial issue for us. We know
that Europe has values which are more proper to our people rather
than encouraging destructive sects and homosexuals,” the opposition
MP said. He also said that sects, which were banned in a number of
democratic countries, operate freely in Armenia.

ARMENIA: EX-SOVIET STATE IS FINDING ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD
By Richard Plunkett

Miami Herald, FL
April 9 2006

Lonely Planet
Visiting Armenia

Armenians are rediscovering their traditional enjoyment of life —
they share a passion for culture, food and family not unlike Greeks
and Italians.

For an unfair first impression of a country, try arriving at an
unrenovated Soviet airport in the middle of the night. Armenia’s
Zvartnots airport looked like a space station from the outside and
a disused factory on the inside. Mercifully, this ancient country
revealed its authentic — and attractive — nature very quickly.

Along the stately boulevards of the capital Yerevan, cafes were still
doing business at 3 a.m., and the hosts at my B&B (a modern apartment
decked out with traditional Armenian carpets) were waiting up to
embrace me, literally, and feed me until I dropped. The next few days
were a never-ending feast of fruit, cured ham, lavash (flat bread),
salads, brandy, wine and divinely rich Armenian soorch (coffee).

Mountainous Armenia is a compelling mix of European elegance, Middle
Eastern exuberance, ex-Soviet mundanity and modern economic miracle.

The first country to convert to Christianity, it has countless legacies
from 1,700 years of faith — from ancient churches and monasteries to
the uniquely Armenian khatchkars, literally “crucifix stones,” upright
blocks of basalt deftly carved with crosses and interweaving patterns.

Though 20th century wars almost destroyed the country, the new century
is seeing a gratifying upsurge in fortunes. Armenia has one of the
fastest-growing economies in the world. It still has a long way to go,
but prosperity is beginning to spread. Smart new hotels and guesthouses
are sweeping away the gloomy old Soviet hotels.

The three million or so Armenians are rediscovering their traditional
enjoyment of life — they share a passion for culture, food and family
not unlike Greeks and Italians, even though their landlocked country
is tucked between Turkey, Georgia and Iran.

Armenia is the size of Maryland, and almost every corner of the
country can be reached in a day’s drive from Yerevan. The highlight
for Diasporan Armenians is the Vatican of Armenia, Holy Echmiadzin.

The 1,700-year-old Mayr Tachar (Mother Church) is an exotic mix of
Persian-style murals, monks in black cowls and richly gilded holy
relics. Armenia’s holiest treasure, the lance that pierced Christ’s
side, lies in the treasure room at the rear of the cathedral. The
casing around the spearhead is a riot of finely wrought silver, but
the relic itself is a brutal, crude shard of iron — exactly what a
provincial Roman soldier might have wielded 2,000 years ago.

Echmiadzin is only 30 minutes away from Yerevan through the
vineyard-studded Araks Valley.

North from Yerevan lies the vast blue mirror of Lake Sevan. The
richly forested northern province of Lori has two gorgeous World
Heritage-listed monasteries.

Heading south you skirt past the awesome bulk of Mount Ararat and
wind through jagged ranges and knotted valleys on the way to the
spectacular fortress of Tatev. Numerous tour companies run day trips
and overnight stays to the provinces.

Back in Yerevan the cafes stay open late into the night on warm summer
evenings; the Opera House offers high culture at bargain prices;
and the national museum on Republic Square has a magnificent art
collection, regarded as the third best in the former USSR.

The Museum of the Armenian Genocide at Tsitsernakaberd just outside
the city center commemorates the victims of the Ottoman and Turkish
massacres of 1915-23. There is a solemn procession here every year
on April 24 to honor the fallen.

Best of all, there are the Armenians themselves. The language is
something of a challenge (it has a unique 38-letter alphabet), but
many people, especially the young, speak English.

Armenians are an expressive, cultured, hospitable people who love
barbecues, boxing and homemade liqueurs as much as the latest opera
production. Visit someone’s house, and within minutes a table of food
and drinks is set.

As one host said, it is his duty to keep everyone’s glasses full,
but the next step is up to the guest.