Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

PAP LEADER GAVE ANKARA TIME TILL APRIL 24

news.am
March 15 2010
Armenia

Armenia-Turkey reconciliation did not achieve a stalemate, Leader of
Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan stated at March 15 briefing
with journalists.

"Turkey should ratify the Protocols within reasonable timeframe and
we give Ankara time till April 24. Thereafter, if it does not ratify
the Protocols…," Tsarukyan said meaningfully. Armenia will not make
any concession on Armenia-Turkey normalization, Karabakh conflict or
Genocide recognition.

"If they want to walk out of the process by tricks or exert pressure on
us, they will fail. The ruling coalition repeatedly stated that unless
Turkey ratifies the Protocols, we will not do so. They closed the
border and should open it themselves. If they do not want to do it, we
will not accept preconditions either. We are men of our words and are
ready for the establishment of relations without any preconditions,"
Tsarukyan emphasized, recalling his party’s stance on Armenia-Turkey
relations. "Prosperous Armenia supports the normalization of relations
with neighbors, establishment of diplomatic ties and border opening."

Aysor, Armenia
March 13 2010

The new trap freed Obama of pronouncing the word `Genocide’

The meeting of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with
the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan before April 24 is an American
trap, stated the head of the ARF Vahan Hovhannesyan touching upon the
information spread by the mass media stating that Hillary Clinton
invited the President of Armenia to a meeting with the Turkish PM in
the mid April.

`It’s a usual trap: this meeting before April 24 is aimed at giving
Obama the opportunity to get rid of the obligation of pronouncing the
word Genocide’, – he said.

According to the speaker, there are serious rivals standing in front
of Armenia at present and some of the optimistic statements of the
Armenian Foreign Ministry do not coincide with the reality.

ArabMonitor.Info
March 13 2010

Swedish and Turkish Foreign Ministers united

Helsinki, 13 March ` During an informal meeting of a group of Foreign
Ministers in Saariselka, a town in the north of Finland, the Swedish
Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet
Davutoglu condemned the vote in the Swedish Parliament defining the
killing of Armenians during First World War as a genocide. Bildt
declared he was no less concerned than the Turkish public over what he
defined as the politication of history.

The Swedish Foreign Minister said: "It’s regrettable because I think
the politicisation of history serves no useful purpose". Commentators
believe the vote was possibly inspired by the decision taken some days
earlier by a committee of the US House of Representatives to put the
Armenian-genocide issue before the legislative bodies in the US for a
binding vote.

In both cases Turkey reacted recalling its ambassadors from Washington
and Stockholm. Davutoglu said it was pointless for countries to think
they could put pressure on Turkey. Moreover, he said, it was wrong for
Parliaments to assume the attitude of wanting to define history via a
majority vote.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN ACCUSES UN

APA
March 11 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov – APA. "Though the UN knows that Azerbaijan’s
Nagorno Karabakh territory occupied by Armenia is the main transit
area for narcotic drugs, it does not want to take into account
Afghanistan-Iran-Nagorno Karabakh narcotrafficking route," chairman
of the State Commission to Combat Drug Addiction and Illicit Drug
Turnover, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Hasanov said, APA reports.

Ali Hasanov said the UN recognized three routes of narcotrafficking in
the world – Afghanistan-Azerbaijan, Afghanistan-Central Asia-Azerbaijan
and Afghanistan-Iran-Azerbaijan. Nagorno Karabakh, which is under
the control of Armenians, has become the biggest transit area for
narcotrafficking in the world.

Deputy Prime Minister said Nagorno Karabakh is one of the main places
where narcotics are grown and terrorist groups prepared. He said though
the international organizations are aware of the real facts about
the crimes that are committed there, these organizations ignore it.

"Because of their interests these organizations have not made attempts
to prevent sale of drugs and terrorism. International organizations
know very well that sale of narcotics and terrorism have increased
in Nagorno Karabakh, but they deliberately do not want to deal with
this issue. These organizations can combat illicit drug turnover in
a number of countries, includes transit routes into their reports
every year, but do not take a step when it comes to the situation in
Nagorno Karabakh. This shows that this problem serves the interests
of mafia groups in the international organizations," Hasanov said.

Chairman of the commission said the UN attempted to investigate the
situation in Nagorno Karabakh several times, but the issue remained
outside attention as a result of the acts of Armenians.

THE PARLIAMENT RECOGNIZES THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Stockholm News
March 11 2010
Sweden

The massacre of Armenians and other ethnic groups in 1915 was a
genocide. This the Swedish Parliament decided with least possible
margin on Thursday evening. By a vote of 131 to 130 the opposition’s
reservations became victorious over the committee’s proposal. For this
to be possible required four centre-right members to vote against their
own parties. This was done by two members of the Liberal Peoples party,
one from the Christian Democrats and one maverick MP who formerly
belonged to the Moderates.

The government’s line was to not classify the massacre of, among
others, Assyrians and Armenians as genocide as it should not be up
to politicians to write history.

David Jonasson

ID=4970

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION IN THE HOUSE DRAWS IRE FROM TURKEY
By Matt Palazzolo

The Heights, Boston College
ian-genocide-resolution-in-the-house-draws-ire-fro m-turkey-1.1264550
March 11 2010
MA

The U.S. House of Representatives resurrected a nearly 100-year-old
genocide controversy with a vote on Thursday.

The House Foreign Affairs committee passed, by a narrow 23-22 vote,
a non-binding resolution recognizing the mass killings of Armenians
by Turkish forces during World War I as genocide. By passing the
resolution, the committee is calling upon Congress to formally
recognize the genocide by passing its own binding law.

The Turkish government harshly condemned the committee’s actions.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed the resolution will
"damage bilateral relations between countries, their interests, and
their visions for the future." The Turkish government also recalled
its ambassador to the United States for consultations soon after the
House committee passed the resolution.

The Obama administration also denounced the resolution. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton stated that the administration "strongly
opposes the resolution … and will work very hard to make sure it
does not go to the House floor." Interestingly, President Obama,
Vice President Biden, and Clinton, all during their terms as senator,
urged the Bush administration to recognize the genocide.

The administration’s opposition to the bill is linked to American
foreign policy interests. The military has a base in Incirlik, Turkey,
which it has operated since the 1950s. The airbase has been used
as a launch point for reconnaissance flights when Saddam Hussein
ruled Iraq, as well as current military actions in Afghanistan and
the Middle East. Turkey is also a strategic partner with the United
States in the War on Terror and the present conflicts in Iraq and
Afghanistan. President Obama has recently prodded Turkey and Armenia
into signing an agreement to establish diplomatic relations and open
their respective borders to each other. Ironically, the day before the
House committee passed the resolution in question, Obama called the
Turkish prime minister and praised his efforts to normalize relations
with Armenia.

The disputed genocide occurred during World War I and in its aftermath,
when the Ottoman Empire was still in existence and Armenia was not yet
a sovereign state. The Ottomans entered the war in 1915, joining the
Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and began attacking
Russia. Armenians living in Turkey sympathized with Russia, due to
their shared Eastern Orthodox religion and Slavic culture.

Several volunteer Armenian army battalions actually fought alongside
Russian soldiers during a counter-offensive against the Ottomans in
the Caucasus region. In response, the Ottoman government arrested
Armenian political and intellectual leaders, and in May 1915, it
ordered the military to forcibly deport all Armenian citizens from
the country. More than one million Armenians were uprooted from their
homes and marched into the Arabian desert. The Armenians were treated
inhumanely by their Turkish escorts, often being denied food, shelter,
and rest. Soldiers would periodically massacre groups of Armenians
and leave their bodies behind to rot in the desert. The deportation
ended with the Central Powers’ defeat in World War I and the subsequent
collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey, the modern successor state to the Ottoman Empire, has
continuously denied that the Armenian genocide ever occurred.

According to the Turkish government, Armenian casualties can be linked
to sectarian violence between Muslim Turks and Christian Armenians,
unintentional deaths during the forced deportation process, and a
famine that occurred in Turkey during the war. The government disputes
the benchmark number of 1.5 million Armenian deaths, claiming that
roughly 500,000 Armenians reached their destination in Damascus
and the Euphrates River valley. Under current Turkish law, citizens
can be arrested and tried for "insulting Turkey" if they recognize
the genocide.

The formal definition for genocide, according to a 1948 U.N.

convention, is "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or
in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group." Turkey
alleges that the Ottoman government only intended to deport the
Armenians, while its detractors claim that their actions were actually
extermination disguised as deportation. Twenty countries, as well as
42 U.S. states, have recognized the Armenian genocide. In the academic
world, denial of the genocide is the minority view, with few historians
outside of Turkey refusing to recognize the time of absolute terror. In
politics, many countries, such as the United States and the United
Kingdom, acknowledge that atrocities took place but refuse to label
them as genocide for fear of reprisals from their Turkish allies.

The recent House committee resolution puts the Obama administration
in the awkward position of choosing between moral obligations and
political interests. As a presidential candidate, Obama stated that,
"America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian
genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides."

However, now Obama is confronted with an enraged Turkish government
on which the United States relies heavily for support in the War on
Terror. Obama’s idealism has been tested, and he has passed on the
opportunity to change the Bush administration’s official denial of
the genocide. It seems that in the world of politics, whether one is
Republican or Democrat, national interest still trumps morality.

Armenian National Committee of the San Fernando Valley-West
17328 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 418
Encino, California 91316
E-Mail: [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE
March 11, 2010
Contact: Aleen Khanjian
E-Mail: [email protected]

ENCINO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE ORGANIZES CERT CLASSES

ENCINO, CA—The Public Safety Committee of the Encino Neighborhood Council
has partnered with the Los Angeles Fire Department to sponsor Community
Emergency Response Team (CERT) classes. CERT is a disaster preparedness
program designed to help protect individuals, families, as well as
neighbors, in crisis situations when emergency services become overwhelmed
and cannot arrive in time.

Encino Neighborhood Council Public Safety Representative, Tonya Barseghian,
organized CERT, which is offered to the public free of charge. CERT teaches
emergency skills and trains for hazards including fire safety, search and
rescue team organization, and disaster medical operations. Trainees who
graduate earn a Certificate of Completion, along with an emergency survival
kit free of charge.

"The responsibility for preparedness lies within each individual. The
Public Safety Committee encourages all members of the community to take
advantage of this informative and valuable opportunity," notes Barseghian.

"We commend Tonya Barseghian on the significant work she continues to carry
out during her tenure as Public Safety Representative. It is always
encouraging to see Armenian Americans make such a positive difference in the
general welfare of their communities, such as Encino," remarked Armenian
National Committee of the San Fernando Valley-West Executive Member, Shant
Hagopian.
CERT training classes are being held on the following Tuesdays: March 9,
March 16, March 23, March 30, April 6, April 13, and April 20, from 6:30
p.m. to 9:30 pm., at the First Presbyterian Church of Encino, located at
4963 Balboa Blvd., in Encino. For registration and additional information,
please email Tonya Barseghian at [email protected] or call (818)
817-6998.

The Armenian National Committee of the San Fernando Valley-West advances the
social, economic, cultural, and political rights of the area’s Armenian
American community and promotes increased Armenian American civic
participation at the grassroots and public policy levels.

####

NEW PROSPECTS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ARMENIAN-POLISH RELATIONSHIP

gov.am
March 10 2010
Armenia

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received newly appointed ambassador
of the Republic of Poland to the Republic of Armenia Zdislav Rachinsky.

Greeting the guest, the Prime Minister congratulated the ambassador
for appointment and wished him a successful mission in our country.

Tigran Sargsyan highlighted the Polish Premier’s upcoming visit
to Armenia by stressing that it might add a momentum to bilateral
relations by promoting strategic ties of mutually beneficial
cooperation.

The Polish ambassador said to be highly appreciative of Armenia’s
contribution to the Eastern Partnership Program of the European
Union as the latter provides a solid framework for the furtherance
of interaction.

The parties have referred to the cooperation agreement to be signed
between the governments of Armenia and Poland which is expected to
boost exchanges between the two countries.

ARMENIAN PUBLIC TV REFUTES RUMORS

news.am
March 10 2010
Armenia

Armen Andreasyan, Head of Staff, TV and Radio Company of Armenia,
refuted the rumors on Armen Amiryan’s appointment as Executive Director
of the RA Public TV.

Talking to NEWS.am, Andreasyan reported that "no appointments,
dismissals or vacancies have yet been announced." The public will be
informed as soon as it happens, he said.

Andreasyan also refuted the information on the consolidation of
the RA Public Radio and RA Public TV, but the information had been
confirmed at the office of Board Chairman, RA TV and Radio Company,
Alexan Harutyunyan.

According to some information, Armen Arzumanyan will be appointed
Spokesman for RA President Serzh Sargsyan. The incumbent Spokesman
Samvel Farmanyan will be appointed Head of the editorial staff for
information and political programs.

IT’S GENOCIDE UNLESS TURKEY DOES IT…

EuropeNews
54
March 8 2010
Denmark

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is quick to accuse non-Muslim
nations of engaging in "genocide."

In January of 2009 Erdogan accused Israel of "perpetrating inhuman
actions which would bring it to self-destruction" when it retaliated
against Hamas rocket fire in Gaza, killing approximately 1,000 (mostly
combatants). He warned that "Allah will sooner or later punish those
who transgress the rights of innocents."

In July 2009, when the Chinese government repressed Muslim rioters in
their western Xinjiang province killing approximately 200, he said:
"The event taking place in China is a kind of genocide."

Yet Turkey withdrew it’s ambassador in protest when a U.S. House
committee dared to accurately describe the WWI-era Turkish slaughter
of 1.5 million Kurds as a genocide. Even the Turkish government
recognizes that at least 300,000 Armenians died.

If Xinjiang was genocide, what exactly do you call the equivalent
of 1,500 Xinjiang riots taking place against Armenians in a span of
8 years?

Not to mention the cultural (and sometimes physical) genocide of
Kurds in eastern Turkey…

Every day Turkey makes clear that it is not "moderate," no friend to
the United States, no friend to Israel or even to non-dhimmi sectors
of Europe.