Author: Ekmekjian Janet

DigitalJournal.com
March 5 2010

Angry Turkish PM recalls ambassador over genocide classification

By R. C. Camphausen.

Minutes after US lawmakers voted to define the mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 as genocide, the angry Turkish PM
recalled his ambassador and warned this could potentially harm
relations between the two NATO allies.
"Denial is the final stage of genocide" is a quote by Gregory Stenton,
president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. The
quote has been published in an excellent article called State of
Denial from 2008, to be found on the association’s website. Then as
now, Turkey perceived a classification as genocide for what happened
in Armenia as a threat to its identity. In 2008, the country lobbied
extensively in order to influence the outcome, and it succeeded. The
committee then, and president Bush as well, hid their thoughts behind
public statements saying that one could not correctly judge the
situation as it was then.
Turkey was appeased. Yet this time around, in 2010, Turkey is angry
because a similar committee of US lawmakers has voted 23 to 22 for a
classification as genocide, saying that Turkey has to live up to its
history just as Germany has done.
According to France 24 quoting Reuters, what has happened now is this:
NATO member Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States for
consultations after a vote in a U.S. congressional committee on
Thursday branded the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
genocide.
In a statement, Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan also said he
was seriously concerned that the non-binding resolution would harm
Turkish-U.S. ties.
This although the vote is more or less symbolic, as it is non-binding,
but Turkey does fear that president Obama may make good on his
campaign promise: "As President I will recognize the Armenian
Genocide." As candidate he said this on Jan. 19, 2008, and the waiting
is now for what he will say in 2010 as the president.
The above cited article State of Denial makes for very good reading,
as it exposes that Turkey has spent significant amounts of money on
lobbyists and dissident scholars to promote his own version of the
events, which denies that the 1915 massacres and deportations were
genocidal ethnic cleansing. In the Turkish view, it simply a war in
which errors were sometimes made.
However, most scholars and historians are in full agreement that more
than a million Armenians were exterminated, others forced to flee into
permanent exile. And that is exactly what the recent committee agreed
with.
At present, there are a mere 20 nations in the world who also
recognize the Armenian genocide. Israel is not one of these, yet it
seems that public and official opinion are presently changing on the
question.

E. NALBANDIAN: WE HIGHLY APPRECIATE THE ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION 252

Panorama.am
01:43 05/03/2010

Politics

We highly appreciate the decision by the Committee on Foreign Affairs
of the United States House of Representatives to adopt Resolution 252
regarding the recognition of the Armenian genocide, said minister of
foreign affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian.

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.

KIRO MANOYAN: TURKEY IS CONCERNED ABOUT THE DECISION OF HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2010 13:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Adoption of the resolution 252 on the Armenian
Genocide by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign
Affairs has not solved all our questions, Giro Manoyan , head of the
"Hay Dat" Central Office told a news conference in Yerevan.

"This vote on the Armenian Genocide resolution was the most difficult
among all before. It was a struggle of the Armenian and Turkish
political forces in the United States, resulted in a victory of the
Armenian side," Giro Manoyan said. The possibility of debating the
resolution in the House of Representatives is quite high, he said.

According to him, the first reaction of Armenia should be a letter
of gratitude of the Armenian Parliament Speaker to the House of
Representatives Speaker.

The decision of the congressmen is yet another lever to exert pressure
on Turkey to treat more seriously the Armenian-Turkish normalization,
and on the White House not preclude the Armenian Genocide recognition
by the U.S. Congress. "It is clear that Turkey is concerned, since
it has recalled its ambassador," Kiro Manoyan said, stressing that
further developments are largely depend on the White House and the
Armenian community of the United States.

On April 24 the U.S. President, on the pretext of Armenian-Turkish
normalization again, can avoid the "Genocide" term in his speech. "The
Committee’s decision has no legal effect and does not obligate the
U.S. president to anything," Manoyan said.

On March 4 the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign
Affairs adopted Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res.252) by 23 votes
"in favour" and with 22 votes "against". After the vote in the
appropriate committee, the resolution will be sent to the House of
Representatives for a final vote.

JEWISH-ARMENIAN COALITION LAUNCHES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION EFFORT
By Laura Boghosian and Howard Jaffe, Guest Commentary

Watertown TAB & Press
76893655/Jewish-Armenian-coalition-launches-Armeni an-Genocide-recognition-effort
March 4 2010
MA

WATERTOWN — In 2007, Massachusetts residents learned that the
Anti-Defamation League was denying the Armenian Genocide and lobbying
for the Turkish government to prevent Congressional recognition of
this crime against humanity. Fourteen communities, led by Watertown,
as well as the Massachusetts Municipal Association, subsequently
withdrew from the ADL’s No Place for Hate program in protest.

Many in the Jewish community were shocked that the ADL and other
national Jewish organizations would actively work to deny another
people’s genocide. Members of Lexington’s Temple Isaiah and Boston’s
Temple Israel decided to act, and with Boston-area Armenians, formed
the Coalition to Recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Coalition members cite the double standard of the Holocaust being
universally recognized, while affirmation of the Armenian Genocide
is subordinated to politics. To combat this injustice, the coalition
has launched an online petition urging Congress and President Obama
to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama proclaimed "a principled
commitment to commemorating and ending genocide" that "starts with
acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history,"
pledging, "As President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide." He
reiterated the Armenian Genocide is "a widely documented fact
supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts
are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort
the historical facts is an untenable policy."

Yet President Obama, like those before him, acquiesced to Turkish
threats and refused to employ the word "genocide" in his remarks
last April 24, the day on which Armenians worldwide commemorate the
victims. By appeasing the Turkish government, which orchestrates
a multimillion-dollar campaign of denial, the United States makes
itself complicit in this last stage of genocide.

Some may view the Armenian Genocide as ancient history and wonder
why it is so vital to affirm the historical record. Genocide denial
endangers all humanity, as it fuels ongoing genocide and emboldens
those who would commit future mass murders. The International
Association of Genocide Scholars considers the Armenian Genocide the
template for all the 20th-century genocides that followed. Indeed,
on the eve of the Holocaust, Adolph Hitler observed, "Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, under indictment by the
International Criminal Court for atrocities in Darfur, has allied
himself with Turkey, which, in turn, supplies him with weapons and
denies Sudan is committing genocide. This cycle of genocide must
be stopped!

The House Foreign Affairs Committee will vote on a bill to recognize
the Armenian Genocide in early March; if passed, it will advance to
the full House. Turkey and its apologists are hard at work to prevent
this resolution from passing. Sadly, the ADL is still speaking out
against Congressional acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide, and
is, instead, advocating Turkey’s call for a historical commission to
study the events. Seven former IAGS presidents, including Helen Fein,
Israel Charny and Gregory Stanton, have condemned this proposal as
"a political sleight of hand designed to deny" the Armenian Genocide.

As citizens, we must ensure that universal human rights and historical
truth guide American foreign policy. How we act defines us as a
people. If we insist that other nations uphold human rights, we must
do so as well. And we must be consistent and not sacrifice the rights
of some for political expediency.

Forty-three U.S. states and numerous countries and international bodies
have affirmed the Armenian Genocide. The time is long overdue for
the United States government to join them. Please sign our petition
calling for U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and ask your
family and friends to do so as well.

To sign, go to:
ss_to_recognize_the_armenian_genocide

Laura Boghosian is a resident of Lexington. Howard L. Jaffe is rabbi
of Temple Isaiah, Lexington. They are co-founders of the Coalition
to Recognize the Armenian Genocide.

SHOULD THE UNITED STATES RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?

Politics Daily
ld-the-united-states-recognize-armenian-genocide/
March 3 2010

Despite bipartisanship being so elusive in Washington these days,
one hot button issue obliterates traditional partisan alignments on
Capitol Hill: The contentious debate over how — and whether — the
United States government should recognize the Turkish deportation and
slaughter of Armenians during and immediately after the First World War

At issue is House Resolution 232, which would officially recognize
the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottomans as
genocide. The resolution’s supporters include a diverse and bipartisan
group of more than one hundred members, including Reps. Adam Schiff
(D-Calif.), Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Frank Pallone
(D-N.J.) and Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.).

The vote is expected to take place Thursday at 10 a.m. in the House
Foreign Affairs Committee (in 2007, a similar resolution passed that
committee but failed on the floor due to heavy lobbying from the Bush
administration and because Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not bring it to
the floor for fear of losing the vote.)

Should the resolution pass the committee, its advocates would then
push for an April floor vote, hoping to coincide with the vote with
"Armenian Genocide Recognition Day" on April 24. But the resolution
also has significant — and bipartisan — opposition. A letter
urging congressional colleagues to reject it on the grounds it will
complicate sensitive relations with a NATO ally was recently sent to
the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.),
Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Kay Granger (R-Texas). "A vote on this
resolution will do nothing to rectify the tragedies of the past,"
they wrote, "but it will most certainly have significant negative
consequences on current and future relations with Turkey."

Efforts to pass the resolution probably got a boost this past
Sunday when CBS’ "60 Minutes" aired a segment heavily sympathetic
to the Armenian case. The "60 Minutes" segment also included an
embarrassing interview with former Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy, who,
in references to "death marches," said: "Well, I don’t think that it
was anything comparable to Auschwitz. This was only deportation. And
things happened on the road."

That is quite an understatement, and official U.S. concern that
something truly terrible took place in Turkey go back to 1915 when
Henry Morganthau, the United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
sent a cable to the State Department describing "a campaign of race
extermination." Additionally, we know that on May 24, 1915, the Allied
Powers of England, France, and Russia issued a statement, accusing,
for the first time ever, a recognized government of committing a
"crime against humanity."

Yet, the question over whether or not the U.S. should pass a resolution
now is complex.

First, there is a dispute over the legal definition of "genocide"
— a word that did not even exist until 1944. Today, the use of that
word in diplomacy carries legal implications: namely, that it was the
intent of the Ottoman Empire to impose racial, ethnic, or religious
extermination. It is clear that the Ottoman Empire engaged in the
mass killing and deportation of Christian Armenians. But Turks argue
that focusing solely on the suffering of Armenians risks ignoring
the millions of Muslims who also died during World War I — some at
the hands of Armenians. Moreover, they assert that Armenians were in
open rebellion and were supporting Turkey’s enemies during the First
World War.

Today, it is a jailable offense to utter the word, "genocide" in
Turkey, a fact that does little to reassure the world about Turkey’s
commitment to diverse opinions and political dissent. Because of their
sensitivity to this issue, recent U.S. presidents have been careful
not to use the word genocide to describe the atrocities. President
Bill Clinton talked of the "deportations and massacres" of Armenians,
and George W. Bush referred to the "forced exile and murder." Last
year, I attended a cultural tour of Istanbul sponsored by the Turkish
Cultural Foundation, and during our initial briefing, it was flippantly
described by one of the speakers as "The ‘g’ word."

The Armenian diaspora in America is large, and so it is no surprise
that the Armenian lobby in America is bigger and better organized
than the Turkish lobby. In addition, there are many more Americans
of Armenian than Turkish descent. Many of the most vocal members
of Congress in support of the resolution hail from three states,
California, New York, and Massachusetts, with large Armenian-American
populations. To make up for their perceived disadvantage, Turkey
has hired some of the most prominent K Street lobbying and public
relations firms to make their case.

As unlikely as it may seem, they have a case to make: One bone
of contention for the Turks is that the congressional resolution
specifically says the genocide was "conceived and carried out by the
Ottoman Empire from 1915-1923." This is an important sticking point
because the new Turkish republic (founded by Ataturk) was officially
proclaimed on October 29, 1923. Turks maintain that by including the
date 1923 in the resolution, their critics are covertly seeking to
establish officially that atrocities weren’t just committed by the
defunct Ottoman Empire, but also by the modern Turkish Republic. They
believe that passage of a resolution worded in this way would begin
to lay the groundwork for Armenia to go to an international court
and sue for reparations, possibly in the form of a land transfer.

There are other reasons to take a closer look at such a resolution. As
America’s only Muslim member of Congress, Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)
said, "And you know, we have not acknowledged yet the genocide that
was committed against the Native American tribes." This statement is
not altogether true — that pronoun "we" is obviously overbroad, but
it’s a fair point to wonder at the reaction among Americans if Turkey’s
parliament felt obliged to condemn Americans for "The Trail of Tears."

So why should America take a stand? For one thing, many scholars
believe the Armenian genocide inspired Adolph Hitler, who noted
in 1939 that the world seemed to have forgotten the fate of the
Armenians. Silence, in other words, became complicity — and helped
set the stage for the Holocaust.

President Ronald Reagan sought such moral clarity. Just as he pointedly
called the Soviet Union an "evil empire," Reagan did not mince words on
this issue. Upon his death, the Armenian National Committee of America
noted: "We will remember President Reagan as the last U.S. President
to properly commemorate the Armenian genocide."

Those opposing the resolution cite realpolitik — the diplomatic
rationale — to overlook past transgressions. They say that with two
wars taking place in that part of the world, a secular democracy,
a $12 billion trading partner, and America’s strongest NATO ally in
the region should not be insulted in such a manner. Approximately 70
percent of supplies to our soldiers in Iraq go through Turkey, and
most exit strategies for withdrawing troops from Iraq involve going
through Turkey. Partly for this reason, when this issue came up in
2007, the Bush Administration — along with eight former secretaries
of state – weighed in against the resolution.

The fate of this resolution may now hinge on President Obama. While
campaigning for president, Obama promised to use the word "genocide,"
but in his first trip to Turkey, he did not utter the ‘g’ word. Still,
he has been ambiguous regarding the upcoming vote, and the Turkish
lobby is worried.

"If by its lack of forceful opposition to the resolution, the Obama
Administration is trying to send a message to Turkey, it’s very
unclear what that message is," says David Saltzman, counsel to
the Turkish Coalition of America. "The United States has invested
heavily in the reconciliation process, so frankly, I’m confused why
the administration hasn’t come out against Resolution 232."

TURKISH LAWMAKER SAYS RESOLUTION MAY HARM TURKISH-ARMENIAN DIALOGUE PROCESS

Today’s Zaman
March 3 2010
Turkey

A Turkish lawmaker said that the US House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee’s debating a resolution on Armenian allegations
related to the incidents of 1915 could harm normalization process
between Turkey and Armenia.

The Turkish lawmakers, led by Murat Mercan, chairman of the Turkish
parliament’s foreign relations committee, gave a conference at Center
for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.

Turkish-American relations are at top level and the two countries
have been jointly working on several regional and strategic issues,
Mercan said.

Turkish foreign policy aimed at contributing to solution of regional
issues, peace and stability, he said.

Mercan said Turkey signed two protocols with Armenia. "Turkey-Armenia
rapprochement is of great importance for the region," he said.

Not politicians, but historians, experts and intellectuals should
study the 1915 incidents, he said.

Mercan said Turkey and Armenia signed protocols and agreed that
history commission should deal with the allegations on 1915 incidents.

"I don’t understand why the US House of Representatives Foreign
Affairs Committee decided to debate the resolution," he said. This
would really harm the process (between Turkey and Armenia), he added.

Å~^ukru Elekdag from the main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) said if the resolution was approved by the committee, it would
really damage relations between Turkey and the United States.

03 March 2010, Wednesday

THE ANATOLIA NEWS AGENCY WASHINGTON

US COMMITTEE VOTE ON ‘GENOCIDE’ ONLY START OF A TROUBLED PERIOD

Today’s Zaman
March 3 2010
Turkey

Ankara does not expect US President Barack Obama to intervene to block
a vote on a "genocide" resolution at the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Neither Thursday’s planned vote at a US House of Representatives
committee on a resolution that would recognize the World War I-era
killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, nor April 24,
the "genocide" commemoration day, are particular thresholds to be
overcome for Ankara.

Yet, this doesn’t meant to say that Ankara has not been exerting
intense efforts on all fronts for the rejection of the resolution,
believing that its approval would bring ongoing normalization efforts
between Ankara and Yerevan to a "standstill." This is not the first
time that the issue of official recognition of the Armenian genocide
allegations has poisoned ties between NATO member Turkey and the
United States. In 2007, Ankara recalled its ambassador to Washington
for consultations after a US panel approved a similar bill.

"Our efforts are not aimed at doing away with another April 24; they
are dedicated to salvaging the normalization process with Armenia,
which we started with strong determination. That will stands firm.

Doing away with April 24 would be a short-term goal that is not part
of our vision," a Turkish diplomat has stated.

Leading up to the possible approval of the resolution, which would
call on US President Barack Obama to ensure that US policy formally
refers to the events as "genocide" and to use that term when he
delivers his annual message on the issue in April — something Obama
avoided doing last year, highly tense weeks are ahead for Ankara and
Washington since the pressure on Obama will gradually mount.

In the meantime, Ankara apparently doesn’t have high hopes of Obama
intervening in the issue to block the committee vote since the US
president has had to deal with numerous "bread and butter domestic
issues," so that he would not tolerate having an attack by powerful
US-based Armenian diaspora.

"The antidote to long-term effects is regional normalization in
the South Caucasus. It is the eventual success of the normalization
efforts which will strengthen Obama’s hand," the same diplomat said,
speaking on condition of anonymity, when asked whether Turkey might
consider a hasty parliamentary ratification of the two protocols
signed by Armenia and Turkey to give Obama the upper hand ahead
of April 24. In Zurich on Oct. 10, the two countries signed the
"Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations" and the
"Protocol on the Development of Bilateral Relations."

Ankara has been constantly explaining to Washington that the
normalization process with Armenia didn’t start due to US pressure.

Turkish officials also told US officials that applying pressure to
Turkey has never yielded positive outcomes, the diplomat explained.

While making its point, Ankara cited as an example the Turkish
Parliament’s rejection of a government motion on March 1, 2003 to
allow US troops to open up a northern front against Iraq from Turkey,
thus leading to the references to "March 1 syndrome" when talking
about the bilateral relationship of the two NATO allies.

Despite being prepared for long weeks of "diplomatic gymnastics," the
Turkish capital, nevertheless, asserts that common sense will prevail
at the end of the day and Obama will have a moment of contemplation
after which he will decide to intervene at "the last minute" if
a strong signal for having the resolution on the agenda of the US
House floor emerges, taking into consideration his country’s high
national interests which include Turkey’s vital cooperation in Iraq
and Afghanistan.

Pressure on ties with US There may be certain circles who want to up
the pressure on Turkey through the approval of the resolution, stated
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, while speaking to a small group of
journalists on Monday on a flight to Egypt for an official visit.

"But the nature of Turkey-US relations cannot tolerate such pressure,"
Davutoglu added.

Back in the fall of 2007, a House proposal, which would label as
genocide the killing of Armenians nearly a century ago by Ottoman
Turks, had inflamed US tension with Turkey, which says the death toll
has been inflated and that the Armenians died during civil unrest,
not organized genocide. However, support for the nonbinding resolution
gradually declined after Turkey summoned its Washington ambassador
back to Ankara and several lawmakers spoke out against it.

At the time, there were no normalization efforts between estranged
neighbors Armenia and Turkey. The current ongoing process hit a rocky
patch in January after the Armenian constitutional court upheld the
legality of the protocols but underlined that they could not contradict
Yerevan’s official position that the alleged Armenian genocide must
be internationally recognized.

Apart from deep concerns over the US move, Ankara, however, doesn’t
sound pessimistic for the future of Armenia-Turkey contact. An example
is the "open-minded" bilateral meeting between Davutoglu and Armenian
President Serzh Sarksyan that took place in Kiev last week when the
two attended the inauguration of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

On his way to Egypt, Foreign Minister Davutoglu recalled that the
opposition parties have been criticizing the absence of a clear
reference to the Nagorno-Karabakh territorial conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, and the Armenian recognition of the Gumru and Kars
Agreements that established the Turkish-Armenian border in 1920 and
1921, respectively, within the protocols signed with Armenia.

"You cannot make progress if you lay down conditions. If we attempt to
write down those elements, then [Armenia] will ask for recognition
of ‘genocide’," Davutoglu said, adding that the protocol on the
establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey
actually "confirms the mutual recognition of the existing border
between the two countries as defined by the relevant treaties of
international law."

On the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Davutoglu said that there is an
expression saying "regional peace and stability." "What we wean with
this ‘region’ is obviously not Somalia," he added.

INTERNET ACCESSIBILITY LEVEL IN ARMENIA TO BE CONDITINED BY MARKET

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.03.2010 15:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The accessibility of Internet services for the
Armenian citizens will depend on the development of the proper
infrastructure and emerging market demand, Vache Kirakosyan head
of the high tech and IT department at RA Ministry of Economy told a
conference on electronic governance in Yerevan on March 3.

Speaking about the increasing availability of Internet in Armenia,
he particularly stressed that the primary task of the Armenian
government in the framework of IT development is to ensure the
bandwidth communications at 100 megabits.

JEWISH GROUP JOINS FIGHT AGAINST ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION

oup-joins-fight-against-armenian-genocide-resoluti on/
Mar 2nd, 2010
Washington

WASHINGTON (Hurriyet)-Turkey’s ambassador to the US, Namik Tan,
has enlisted the support of a Jewish organization in opposing the
Armenian Genocide Resolution. The Jewish Institute for National
Security Affairs (JINSA) released on Tuesday a position paper titled,
"The Armenian Resolution Should be Opposed and Defeated."

Ambassador Namik Tan met with "the representatives of almost all
Jewish lobbies and organizations in Washington" over the weekend,
according to sources in the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

According to the same sources, Tan met with the representatives of
"eight or 10 Jewish organizations," including the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL); American Jewish Community (AJC) and B’nai B’rith
International. They said the meetings were not only focused on the
Armenian Genocide bill.

JINSA, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that addresses the
security requirements of both the U.S. and Israel, released its report
a day after Tan’s meetings.

The report said that: "to the extent that either side believed
opposition to the resolution was a test of loyalty, or tied it to
extraneous issues, they made a mistake. The Armenian resolution -driven
largely by the Armenian-American community- should be opposed and
defeated. But the reasons stand without regard to the [increasingly
difficult] behavior of the Turkish government and without regard
to [increasingly difficult] Turkish-Israeli or Turkish-American
relations."

"As the Turkish government began to slide – and then rush – away from
its relationship with Israel and slide – and then rush – toward new
accommodations with Syria and Iran, the Jewish community has become
less inclined to use its organizational skill on behalf of the agenda
of a country that is less inclined toward the Western side of the great
divide. It doesn’t help that the Turkish ‘request’ for ‘help’ has begun
to sound more like a threat of damage yet to come," the report added.

Tan already met with the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, Howard Berman last week as well as several key members of
the House, the embassy source confirmed. He also met with the Turkish
associations working in the United States last week.

AZERI VIOLENCE CONDEMNED AT WASHINGTON DC PROTEST

ce-condemned-at-washington-dc-protest/
Mar 1st, 2010
Washington

WASHINGTON-On Feb. 26, Greater Washington, D.C. area Armenian Americans
remembered victims of Azerbaijani violence during an annual protest
in support of self-determination for the people of Nagorno-Karabagh
and against Azerbaijani aggression.

The demonstration, organized by the Greater Washington Armenian Youth
Federation (AYF) "Ani" Chapter and the St. Mary’s Armenian Church
Youth Organization (ACYO), coincided with the 22nd anniversary of
the Azerbaijani pogroms against the Armenian population of Sumgait,
which set the stage for similar attacks in Baku in 1990 and a cycle of
violence that continues to this day. Similar protests will be taking
place during the next few days in countries around the world.

"It was a very important event to remember and honor the victims
that died, whose only crime was being Armenian," said ACYO chairwoman
Megan Karanfil. "We cannot allow the Azerbaijani government to forget
these crimes against innocent people. We hope our efforts will bring
to light past events so that no other race or religion will have to
endure such atrocities in the future."

Azerbaijani threats against neighboring Armenia and Karabagh have
stepped up in recent weeks, with the Azeri Foreign Minister Safar
Abiyev warning of a "great war." Slamming the ongoing Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) peacetalks as ineffective,
Abiyev told French Ambassador to Baku Gabriel Keller, "Now it’s the
military’s turn and the threat is growing every day."

"Abiyev’s call for renewed violence, this week, is the shining example
why we must all stand in support of Nagorno-Karabagh’s independence,"
said AYF Ani Chapter chairman Hagop Simonian. "Since 1991, the
Nagorno Karabagh Republic has worked tireless to build a democratic
and peaceful society, in the shadow of Azerbaijan’s threats. We will
continue to work hand-in-hand with the people Artsakh to preserve
and build on that legacy."

At the end of the protest, Soorp Khatch Armenian Church pastor, Father
Sarkis Aktavoukian, and St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church pastor,
Father Hovsep Karapetyan, led participants in prayer in memory of
the Armenian victims of Azerbaijani atrocities.