Author: Hunanian Jack

ArmenPress
April 23 2004

ARMENIA WELCOMES CANADIAN PARLIAMENT’S GENOCIDE DECISION

YEREVAN, APRIL 23, ARMENPRESS: Armenia welcomed Thursday a
decision by Canada’s parliament to formally recognize the Armenian
genocide. A spokesman for Armenian foreign ministry, Hamlet
Gasparian, told Reuters that “we welcome the April 21 motion of
Canada’s parliament which came to finalize the complete and legal
acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide after the upper chamber of
Commons, Senate, recognized it on June 13 of 2002.”
He said that by that decision Canada has paid tribute to the
memory of the 1915 genocide that claimed the lives of 1.5 million
Armenians.
The spokesman also said that the decision is another evidence that
crimes against humanity are not subject to oblivion, a contribution
to the struggle against the policy of denial adopted by Turkish
government. He said the decision was also the result of a many-year
long campaign of the Canadian Armenian community for the genocide
recognition.

US citizen arrested in Armenia for participating in opposition rallies

Noyan Tapan news agency
23 Apr 04

YEREVAN

US citizen Artur Vardanyan was arrested on 22 April on suspicion of
committing crimes under Article 300 (misappropriation of state power)
and Article 329 (illegal crossing of the state border) of the Armenian
Criminal Code.

According to a report received from the press service of the Armenian
Prosecutor-General’s Office on 23 April, “the active participant in
rallies, Vardanyan” was summoned to the Prosecutor-General’s Office on
22 April as a witness to testify about insults against representatives
of the authorities, as well as about public calls and actions directed
at the forcible seizure of state and constitutional power.

During the interrogation, it was discovered that Vardanyan, who has
been living in the USA since 1991 and has been a citizen of that
country since 2002, illegally crossed the state border several times,
using an Armenian passport. On 11 April, he arrived in Yerevan again,
“actively participated in opposition rallies and actions directed at
the forcible seizure of state power”. The Prosecutor-General’s Office
has informed the Armenian Foreign Ministry about these facts.

NBC 10.com, PA
April 21 2004

Five-Legged Calf Born In Armenia
Cow Is Center Of Attention In Town

A farmer couldn’t believe his eyes recently when his milk cow gave
birth in Yerevan, Armenia.

Slideshow: Images Of Five-Legged Calf

The new calf arrived with five legs instead of four.

The fifth leg and a fully formed hoof hang from the calf’s left
shoulder.

The calf has become the center of attention in the Armenian village
where it was born.

Veterinarians have examined the calf.

They say it is still too early to tell if the extra leg or any other
unseen deformities will affect the calf’s life span.

Eurasianet Organization
April 21 2004

AZERBAIJAN: PHONE PRANKS RAISE TERROR CONCERNS
4/20/04

A recent string of anonymous bomb threats in Baku has set Azerbaijan
on edge. Though the threats proved to be hoaxes, they have prompted
officials to express concern that Azerbaijan could be at risk of a
terrorist attack because of Baku’s participation in the US-led
occupation of Iraq. Some independent analysts, however, are skeptical
of the government’s analysis.

The series of threats began April 1, when an anonymous caller told
Azerbaijani authorities that a bomb had been planted in the Turkish
Embassy. That call was followed by a threat against the Heidar Aliyev
Palace, a large concert hall, at the time of an April 10 performance
by the American rapper Coolio. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archive]. Subsequent calls targeted the city’s subway system
and, finally, on April 13, the US embassy. Other calls have warned
about bomb explosions at Baku’s Opera and Ballet Theater and Space
TV, a privately owned television company. No explosives were found at
any of the locations, but the US embassy has issued a warning to
Americans in Baku to avoid using the city’s subway system.

The telephone threats in Baku began immediately after militant
attacks in Uzbekistan left at least 47 people dead. [For additional
information see the Eurasia Insight archive] Uzbek authorities insist
that an international radical Islamic terrorist network carried out
the attacks in Tashkent and Baku. [For additional information see the
Eurasia Insight archive].

So far, four people have been arrested in connection with the pranks.
No connection between suspected terrorist groups and the detainees
has been firmly established. But that hasn’t stopped Azerbaijani
officials and many analysts from playing up the radical Islamic
terrorist threat. They suggest that Islamic militants may be
targeting Azerbaijan in order to punish the country for its strategic
cooperation with the United States

Sitting on the border of Iran and the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan has
developed into a key US ally in the Caspian Basin. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The late president Heidar Aliyev
granted the US military over-flight rights following the September 11
terrorist attacks, and the country has since deployed about 150
troops to assist US operations in Iraq. Azerbaijani troops are also
deployed in Afghanistan and Kosovo in similar peacekeeping
capacities.

Security Minister Namig Abbasov suggested that the presence of
Azerbaijani troops in Iraq had played a role in the Baku terror
threats. One military analyst agreed. “Azerbaijan is face to face
with terror,” the expert, Khagani Huseinli, said. “The recent events
in Spain and Uzbekistan show that terrorists are targeting not only
the United States, but also its allies.”

Other analysts downplay the notion that Azerbaijan is in imminent
danger of a terrorist attack. Although concern is warranted about the
possibility of terrorist acts in the energy-rich state, political
analyst Rasim Musabeyov told EurasiaNet, it is unlikely that the
Azerbaijani troop deployment in Iraq alone would spur Islamic
radicals to target Baku. Madat Quliyev, head of Azerbaijan’s Interpol
National Central Bureau, also voiced doubts about radical Islamic
involvement. In an interview with the Ekho newspaper, he indicated
that if radical Islamic terrorists had been involved, they would not
have issued telephone warnings about the potential bombings.

Those detained in connection with the telephone threats don’t have
readily evident ties to each other, or to any known radical
organization. In connection with the April 13 threat against the US
embassy, police have taken into custody Cavansir Sadikhov, the Turan
news agency reported. Authorities suspect that Sadikhov was also
responsible for making a threat against the US embassy in January.

Others arrested include a 15-year-old high school student from Baku,
Nadir Aydinoglu Babayev, who is accused of threatening Space TV.
Madina Mehdiyeva, a reportedly mentally ill woman from Baku, is the
third alleged phone caller, while a fourth suspect, Ramiz Muradov, an
ex-convict, has been charged with prank calling the police in Imisli
District about an explosion in a railway hospital.

Authorities in Azerbaijan are taking no chances. The Baku subway
system, as well as strategic facilities such as oil pipelines, oil
refineries, water supply systems and Baku’s electricity grid have all
been placed under “special guard,” Interior Ministry Deputy Security
Chief Atas Masimov told Ekho. Reinforced police patrols have also
started to monitor Baku’s streets, the newspaper reported.

The possible terror connection appears to have resonated with many
Baku residents, who retain vivid memories of a 1994 bombing in the
Baku subway system. Rasmiyya Aliyeva, a secondary school teacher in
Baku, said that the latest warning of a bomb attack stopped her from
riding the subway altogether. “We don’t want to live under the threat
of terror again,” Aliyeva said.

The bomb threats have come at a time when Azerbaijan is looking to
secure strategic assistance from the United States. Baku is slotted
to receive $12 million in security aid from the United States for
fiscal year 2005, the highest amount for any country in the Caucasus.
Georgia will receive approximately $8 million and Armenia $2 million
in security assistance. The intended security funding for Azerbaijan
is part of an overall $38 million US assistance package. That amount
is second only to Georgia’s overall aid total of $90 million.

As with Uzbekistan, human rights groups have long criticized the Bush
administration for pursuing close strategic ties with Azerbaijan
while overlooking political repression, media restrictions and
routine human rights abuses. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. Last October, some 300 Azerbaijanis were injured and more
than 1,000 opposition members arrested following a crackdown on a
protest against the controversial election of President Ilham Aliyev.
His political opponents contend that Aliyev rigged the vote. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Editor’s Note: Konul Khalilova is a freelance journalist based in
Baku.

Arutz Sheva, Israel
April 18 2004

The Holocaust is Unique
by Steven Plaut

Tomorrow is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Commemoration Day. As usual, the
Jewish Left will strive to commemorate the Holocaust by trying to
promote a second one….

It has become fashionable in certain quarters, including among some
self-hating Jews, to challenge the uniqueness of the Holocaust, to
argue that it was just another in a long list of human savagery and
mass barbarism, no different from the deaths of Armenians in WWI or
of Cambodians or of Rwandans or of Gypsies. (It is worth noting that
the Cambodian genocide was made possible in part by Noam Chomsky,
serving as promoter and apologist for the Khmer Rouge and denying
throughout that the Khmer Rouse was annihilating millions of
Cambodians. Talk about “Holocaust Denial”!) According to this
“approach”, there was nothing unique about the Holocaust, no reason
why it should be regarded as sui generis, and hence, Jews should stop
all their “yapping” about it.

What is one to make of such people? It is certainly true that there
have been other cases of large-scale mass murder. But the comparisons
with the Holocaust are absurd.

There are many reasons why this is so. But I was struck by the fact
that in today’s Haaretz, one of the worst Oslo Leftists managed to
put his finger smack accurately on what may be the most important of
these reasons. The most important difference is very simple.

When Noam Chomsky’s friends were murdering millions of Cambodians,
the world (other than the doctrinaire Stalinists) was horrified,
demanded that something be done, and denounced the atrocities. When
the Rwandans were butchering one another, the civilized world was
horrified, tried to stop the murders, tried to intervene, and
denounced the atrocities.

When the Jews of Europe were being annihilated, the “civilized world”
was indifferent, and much of it was downright supportive of the
annihilation. Large segments of the “civilized world” collaborated
with the genocide. Very few in the “civilized world” demanded serious
military efforts to end it. The “civilized world” sat in silence in
the decade leading up to the Shoah, while Hitler expounded his plans
openly. Many in the anti-Semitic West sympathized with his program.

I mention all this, because I think that one of the best litmus tests
of the extent of re-Nazification of the planet is to observe the
reactions of the world to the assassination of the Gaza Nazi, Abd
Al-Aziz Rantisi. All those denouncing Israel’s hit on Rantisi as
“state terrorism”, as a crime, as a violation of “international law”,
as violating Palestinian “rights”, as aggression, as itself “Nazism”
– all such people are today’s most visible illustration of global
re-Nazification. All of these people are, in fact, in favor of the
random mass murder of Jewish children. All of these people oppose
every form of Jewish self-defense except capitulation to Nazism and
passive Jewish marching into the gas chambers. All of these people
would cheer if the Islamofascists ever succeeded in building
concentration camps for Jews.

Thus, the Leftist Jews who will no doubt now denounce the
assassination of Rantisi, with all the usual lame “reasons” (bad
timing, it will just bring forth worse extremists, it’s a violation
of Palestinian “sovereignty”, it creates more motivation for
terrorists, etc. etc.), should be formally dubbed the Jews for a
Second Holocaust.

Right on schedule, the British government and the British
Israel-bashing press, especially the BBC, denounced Israel’s
verminating Rantisi as a “crime”. Now let me see if I have this
correct. It has been only days since the British, as part of the
Allied anti-Islamofascist coalition in Iraq, participated in the
killing of over a thousand Iraqis in Fallujah and elsewhere, many of
them innocent civilians. Now, the British declare that when Israel
recycles a Nazi mass-murdering Islamofascist – who has murdered
hundreds of Israeli civilians, many of then children – this
constitutes a crime and a violation of “international law”.

As of now, it appears that it is only a matter of days before the
chief Shi’ite terrorist in Najaf, Iraq, will be terminated by the
good guys, including the Brits. Will the BBC also regard that as a
crime? Probably, it will.

Don’t get me wrong, by the way. I endorse the Allied actions in Iraq.
But did you notice that the mowing down of a thousand Iraqis was the
Allied response to the murder of four Americans and the hanging of
their corpses on a bridge? And the greatest hush-hush secret the
media are refusing to report this week is that the killing of the
thousand resulted in near tranquility this week in most of Iraq.
Perhaps there are military solutions to the problems of terrorism,
after all?

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

Armenian version:

THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER RASHID SOLH IN ANTELIAS

Antelias, Lebanon – The former Prime Minister of Lebanon, His Excellency
Rashid Solh paid a courtesy visit to His Holiness Aram I. The discussion
included issues related to the internal situation in Lebanon, the
forthcoming municipal elections, the actual situation in Iraq and the peace
process in light of the new developments on the international scene,
particularly in the Middle East.

His Holiness and Mr. Solh stressed the need to strengthen internal coherence
among the Lebanese communities to face together the new challenges in the
region.

##

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the history and
the mission 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.

*********
View printable picture here:

Armenian opposition leader accuses president of “unprecedented crime”

Mediamax news agency
13 Apr 04

YEREVAN

The leader of the opposition Justice bloc, Stepan Demirchyan, said in
Yerevan today that the dispersal of an opposition rally last night was
“an unprecedented crime against the Armenian people”.

Mediamax news agency quoted Demirchyan as telling a briefing in
Yerevan that “both the author of the order to disperse the peaceful
rally and its direct perpetrators are criminals”. Demirchyan said that
“we witnessed the thoroughly-planned mean military operation, the
purpose of which was to smash the will of the people rising against
the illegally-elected president”.

Demirchyan dismissed as “a shameless lie” the Armenian police’s
statement that the demonstrators had behaved aggressively and provoked
the clashes. Demirchyan said that the special-purpose police forces,
which attacked the demonstrators, were hiding in the building of the
Armenian National Assembly. Demirchyan said the ruling coalition,
which has the majority in parliament, and Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan
should share responsibility for the incident.

“Our people will never forget this crime or forgive it,” Demirchyan
said.

The leader of the National Democratic Union (NDU), Vazgen Manukyan,
said that “the authorities took this step because they were fully
aware that had the demonstrators spent the night on Prospect
Bagramyana Bagramyan Avenue , the whole of Yerevan would have joined
them tomorrow, thus making Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s
resignation inevitable”.

As for the opposition’s future moves, Manukyan said that “the struggle
against the illegal regime will continue”. According to him,
opposition leaders will hold consultations on future moves. In
addition, Manukyan said, it is not ruled out that they might “change
their fighting methods”.

ARMENIA’S DEFENCE MINISTER MEETS WITH U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA

YEREVAN, APRIL 12. ARMINFO. Secretary of Security Council attached to the
president of Armenia, Defence Minister Serge Sargsian today met with
U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Armenia John
Ordway. Seyran Shahsouvarian, the Spokesman of defence minister of
Armenia, told ARMINFO, during the meeting the participants have
discussed the current level and prospects of the development of
Armenian-American relations in the military sphere. At the end of the
meeting the American diplomat has invited the defence minister of
Armenia to take part in April 14 opening ceremony of a hospital in
Talin district of Shirak region of Armenia. The hospital has been
restored through the financial support of U.S. Command in Europe.

Itar-Tass news digest of April 10:4

MOSCOW – The death toll from the accident at the Taizhina mine in
Osinniki town, the Kemerovo region, has reached 20, a regional
administration source told Itar-Tass.

MOSCOW – Rescuers are trying to reach places where they supposedly can
find miners blocked after the accident in the Taizhina coalmine. The
rescuers are working at two possible escape ways, an officer on duty
at the headquarters dealing with the accident consequences told
Itar-Tass. The nearest way is blocked by rock that caved in, and work
to remove the obstruction is going on. Sixteen people have been
evacuated from the mine by rescuers or got onto the surface
themselves. Two of the miners are hospitalised.

YEREVAN – Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty
Organisation (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha has discussed with the Armenian
leadership an agenda of the CSTO’s June session, which is to be held
in Astana, Kazakhstan. During his talks with President Robert
Kocharyan of Armenia he “exchanged views on ways of upgrading
cooperation within the CSTO framework and matters of raising its
efficiency,” a source at the presidential press service told Tass on
Saturday.

YEREVAN – Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty
Organisation (CSTO) Nikolai Bordyuzha believes that “the CSTO should
be adapted to the security problems which the CSTO countries are
facing.” “Nowadays our key problems are terrorism, organized crime and
drug trafficking, but not a military threat,” Bordyuzha told a news
conference here on Saturday.

MOSCOW – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak told Itar-Tass
on Saturday that the provisions of the Proliferation Security
Initiative (PSI) that U.S. President George W. Bush launched in
Krakow, Poland, last May were getting closer to the Russian
approach. “We are very pleased to note that this plan is generally
developing in a direction corresponding to our views,” the Russian
diplomat said commenting on the U.S. initiative designed to halt the
WMD proliferation. Kislyak said that the PSI authors regarded the
initiative as an attempt to give a collective answer to a global
threat that can be posed by “black markets” in the context of the WMD
proliferation.

CAIRO – A delegation of the Iraqi leadership has arrived in the city
of Al-Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, for negotiations to
stop the fighting between armed residents and the U.S. military. The
delegation consists of representatives of the Iraqi Islamic Party and
one of the Interim Governing Council’s members.

MOSCOW – Ella Pamfilova, the head of the Russian president’s
Commission for Human Rights, believes that Iraq is facing a new
humanitarian catastrophe that calls for immediate and active
U.N. interference. “It is absolutely clear that Iraq is facing a new
humanitarian tragedy, this time on a larger scale, while the United
States is not meeting its commitments of an occupying power under
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1483,” Pamfilova told reporters on
Saturday.

YEREVAN – The Armenian opposition demands resignation of incumbent
President Robert Kocharyan. Albert Bazeyan, an opposition leader and
chairman of the Republic party, said the question of holding a
referendum on no-confidence vote for the Armenian president had nearly
been exhausted. The ruling pro-presidential coalition has refused to
include the referendum issue in the agenda of a regular three-day
session of the Armenian parliament. “Robert Kocharyan should go. The
sooner he does, the better,” Bazeyan told a meeting in front of the
Yerevan Opera House on Saturday.

Armenian minister resigns over son’s arrest

Mediamax news agency
9 Apr 04

YEREVAN

Minister of Town Planning Ara Aramyan announced his resignation in
Yerevan today.

The minister said that the reason for his decision was the arrest of
his son, Hayk Aramyan, Mediamax news agency reports.

Hayk Aramyan was arrested several days ago on the case of shooting in
Triumf [Triumph] cafe in Yerevan on 12 March, in which five people
were wounded. The minister’s son is being accused under three articles
of the Criminal Code of Armenia – an attempted murder, hooliganism and
illegal possession of weapons.

The minister read out his statement which, in particular, said that
“recently there have been various speculation about the incident
connected with my son”.

“The preliminary investigation has not been completed yet, and I
believe that a just verdict will be passed. At the same time,
considering the artificially created fuss which could discredit my
name, the good reputation of my party and the image of the country’s
leadership, I believe that I am morally obliged to resign,” Ara
Aramyan’s statement said.

Aramyan is a member of the Orinats Yerkir [Law-Governed Country]
Party, which makes up the coalition together with the Republic Party
and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD].