Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

OBAMA BROKE PROMISE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Angie Drobnic Holan

Tampabay.com
rticle990230.ece
April 8 2009
Florida

Campaign promise No. 511: "As president I will recognize the Armenian
genocide."

The ruling

President Barack Obama said during the presidential campaign that he
would recognize the Armenian genocide. But on a recent overseas trip,
he avoided uttering the word itself.

Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million people were killed at the hands of
the Ottoman Empire, according to a proposed resolution considered by
the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007. That resolution failed in
the face of Bush administration concerns that it would alienate Turkey,
which borders Iraq. The issue has long been controversial in Turkey,
where leaders have resisted the label "genocide."

On Monday, a reporter asked Obama about his position on the matter
during a joint press conference in Ankara with President Abdullah
Gul of Turkey. Obama said his views hadn’t changed, but then wouldn’t
use the word "genocide." He said Turkish and Armenian officials are
meeting now to discuss a range of issues.

"I don’t want to, as the president of the United States, pre-empt any
possible arrangements or announcements that might be made in the near
future. …"

Later, in a speech to the Turkish Parliament, Obama brought up the
historical events and referred to his position, but again he did not
declare the events genocide.

Some might argue that Obama used wise diplomacy here, that as a guest
in Turkey he was right not to upset his host. But the argument that
it would be undiplomatic to antagonize Turkey is the same one the
Bush administration used, which Obama criticized in making his promise.

We think Obama is trying to have it both ways. He said his views
haven’t changed, but he wouldn’t use the term "genocide," which is
what his campaign promise was all about.

Obama will have other opportunities to address this issue, if he
chooses to do so. April 24, for example, is a day of memorial for
the Armenian genocide. But based on what we’ve seen so far, Obama
won’t say the word "genocide," even when discussing the events in
question. During the campaign, he said he would. We rate that a
Promise Broken.

CASTLE OR VILLAGE? GENERALS WILL CHOOSE WHAT THE GOVERNMENT WILL SAY

LRAGIR.AM
16:23:30 – 07/04/2009

On April 7, at the Urbat press club, the "Miacum" national initiative
expressed worry about the policy of the Armenian government, qualifying
it as "ruining the Armenian and Karabakhi fundamentals". The "Miacum"
came to this conclusion analyzing the political developments within
January and March of 2009.

The "Miacum" considers that although the government received a "huge"
response form the conscious spheres of the public in connection with
governmental policy of ceding the territories, nevertheless it goes
on leading the "absurd" policy adopted since 1991 in regard with the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Condemning every step in direction of ceding the territories and
registering an increase of the Armenian public’s perception of
state values and current threats, the "Miacum" considers important
the inhabitation of the liberated areas. "The promotion of the
immigration towards the liberated areas is one of the most important
obligations of the state, as well as the defense of the rights of the
immigrated people is one of the most essential problems of the National
security. Such phenomenon as abuse of powers, massive illegalities,
plunder and corruption in the zones of the repopulation should
be prevented by the whole force of the law", thinks the "Miacum"
enterprise.

The member of the enterprise Alex Kananyan, who is a resident of
the liberated zones, considers that the global crisis is a good
time to launch capital constructional works in the repopulation
zones. Kananyan notes that there are not only historical monuments
in that area, but also new cemeteries and the residents will never
leave those territories.

And the widow of another member of the enterprise Rafael Ghazaryan
Grizelda Ghazaryan appeals to the generals saying that instead of
constructing castles in Yerevan, they had better reconstruct the
villages of the liberated territories.

The member of the "Miacum" enterprise director Tigran Khzmalyan noted
that everything should be done not to let the Nagorno-Karabakh issue be
touched in the framework of the Armenian and Turkish frontier opening.

FRANCE OPPOSES TO ENTRY OF TURKEY IN EU

ArmInfo
2009-04-06 13:05:00

ArmInfo. President of the United States Barack Obama said at an EU-
US summit in the Czech capital that he declared for entry of Turkey
in the European Union. This statement was sharply criticized by French
leader Nicolas Sarkozy and well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

As Euobserver reported, B. Obama said, in particular: ‘The United
States and Europe must approach Muslims as our friends, neighbours
and partners in fighting injustice, intolerance and violence’. He
added that Moving forward toward Turkish membership in the EU would
be an important signal of your commitment to this agenda and ensure
that we continue to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe.

The remarks drew criticism for interference in EU affairs from French
leader Nicolas Sarkozy, who reiterated his long-standing opposition
to Turkish accession. ‘I have been working hand-in-hand with President
Obama but when it comes to the European Union it’s up to member states
of the European Union to decide. I have always been opposed to this
entry and I still am. I think I can say the immense majority of member
states shares the position of France’, the French president said.

Turkey began EU accession talks in 2004. But the process is being
held up by historic enmity between Turkey and EU member Cyprus and
broader EU worries over Turkish respect for Western values such as
freedom of the press.

Armenia’s Human Rights Defender will visit the University of Michigan

armradio.am
04.04.2009 15:12

Mr. Armen Harutyunyan, the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of
Armenia since 2007, will be visiting the City of Ann Arbor and the
University of Michigan Armenian Studies Program on April 9 and 10. Mr.
Harutyunyan is on a US State Department sponsored tour of the United
States and will be having meetings related to human rights on the
international, national, and local level in three other cities as well.

Mr. Harutyunyan has extensive experience in the development of human
rights laws in Armenia and intensive training in European universities
on the subject.

While in Michigan, Mr. Harutyunyan will be hosted by the International
Center of the University of Michigan. The program for his first day in
Ann Arbor has been set by the Armenian Studies Program of the
University.

On April 9 Mr. Harutyunyan will first meet the Armenian Studies
faculty, followed by a luncheon meeting with faculty from the Center
for International and Comparative Studies, which has a strong program
in human rights; the Center for Russian and East European Studies; the
Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies; the Center for
European Studies; the Ford School of Public Policy, and the Michigan
Law School.

Mr. Harutyunyan will deliver a public lecture in the Koessler Room of
the Michigan League on human rights20issues in Armenia and the South
Caucasus.

`This is a rare opportunity,’ stated Prof. Gerard Libaridian, Director
of the Armenian Studies Program at the University of Michigan, `to hear
directly from the Human Rights Defender of Armenia regarding the human
rights situation in Armenia and develop a constructive dialog with him
worldwide.’

ARMENIAN-SWEDISH BUSINESS FORUM KICKS OFF IN YEREVAN
Hasmik Dilanyan

"Radiolur"
02.04.2009 14:36

A two-day Armenian-Swedish business forum kicked off in Yerevan
today. A number of issues related to the economic cooperation between
the two countries will be discussed within the framework of the
forum. Armenian Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsyan said Sweden’s
economy has a strong basis and is considered in the world to be an
economy grounded on knowledge.

Participants of the business forum discussed the ways of jointly
resisting to the global economic crisis.

"The main objective of this forum is to promote the investments in
Armenia. Cooperation in the field of information technologies and
telecommunication is possible," Nerses Yeritsyan said.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: FILMMAKER APO TOROSYAN TO PRESENT "THE MORGENTHAU STORY"

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.04.2009 01:06 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Descended from survivors of the Armenian Genocide,
filmmaker Apo Torosyan hopes his art transforms prejudice and hate
into tolerance and compassion.

Growing up in Turkey, he learned his father’s parents had both starved
to death after the genocidal massacres of 1915.

Yet when Torosyan screens his newest film Wednesday in the Framingham
Library in Massachusetts, it will honor a man who fought oppression at
great personal risk while refusing to preach hate, Daily News reports.

His hour-long film, "The Morgenthau Story," was shown on Wednesday,
April 1 in the Costin Room of the library in Framingham (US). "I’m
trying to reach out and warn people genocide is still with us today,"
said Torosyan. "Too often we don’t see it. But when you say ‘us’ and
‘them,’ you’re already prejudging people."

A shorter version of his film will be shown on April 23 in Peabody
City Hall.

The son of a Greek mother and Armenian father, Torosyan earned his
bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts
in the 1960s.

He has exhibited his rich, moody paintings in more than 40 solo and
20 group shows in Europe and North America. His paintings are in the
permanent collections of several museums, including the Museum of
Modern Art in Bordeaux, France, the Armenian Library and Museum of
America in Watertown, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, and the
Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg.

Now 67, Torosyan has made seven documentaries, including four
dealing with aspects of the genocide and three others he describes as
philosophic "meditations." Since immigrating to the United States in
1986, he fears he can’t return to Turkey because on an earlier visit
he expressed his opinion about the Armenian Genocide, which puts him
in danger of imprisonment.

Torosyan’s documentary incorporates interviews with the three
descendants of Henry Morgenthau Sr., ambassador to Constantinople
from 1913 to 1916, and archival footage about Turkish oppression of
the Armenian minority.

He credits Morgenthau for trying to alert the world to the Ottoman
massacres of Armenians and other Christians and later, as chairman
of the Greek Resettlement Commission, saving thousands after the 1922
Smyrna massacre.

Torosyan said his films present history objectively so future
generations can recognize the symptoms of ethnic, religious and racial
prejudice before they take effect. "I believe history should be known
so we don’t forget the past," he said. "I’m trying to reach out to
youth in high school and college. They should know what happened."

TSOLAK ANANIKIAN TAKES 2ND PLACE IN INTERNATIONAL BOXING TOURNAMENT

Noyan Tapan
March 31, 2009

WARSAW, MARCH 31, NOYAN TAPAN. Member of the Armenian boxing
national team Tsolak Ananikian (91 kg) took the second place in the
International Boxing Tournament held in Warsaw. His four team-mates
took no prize places.

ARMENIAN PSYCHIC ARRESTED IN AZERBAIJAN’S SUMGAYIT CITY

APA

March 30 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku. Hafiz Heydarov-APA. Armenian psychic, who promised to cure
the ill boy and swindled a great amount of money from his parents,
was arrested in Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit City.

Raya Vanya Mammadova, 48, is accused under article 178 (swindle)
of the Criminal Code, Sumgayit City Police Office told APA.

Raya Mammadova introduced herself as a psychic and treated Eltac
Elman Osmanli, 19, resident of Sumgayit. She has received 5500 AZN
from his parents since starting the treatment. Seeing that health
of their child is not normalized despite one-year treatment, the
parents complained to police. Raya Mammadova was detained as a result
of operational measures and brought to the justice. A criminal case
was launched against her under article 178 (swindle) of the Criminal
Code and investigation is going on.

Raya Mammadova is reportedly an Armenian national, residing in Baku.

VICTIMS’ RELATIVES VS. POLICEMEN

A1+
06:44 pm | March 30, 2009

Politics

The mother of Tigran Khachatryan, one of the ten victims of last March
deadly clashes, believes the relevant bodies know who shot her son
from a Cheryomukha-7 gas weapon. Khachatryan’s relatives are going
to bring the policeman using Cheryomukha-7 to trial.

"The names of the four policemen using Cheryomukha-7 on March
1 are already known to the public- Atabekyan and Hakobyan,
officers of military unit 1032, Sahakyan and Ghairbyan, warrant
officers of military unit 1033. The orders to shoot were given by
lieutenant-colonel Antonyan and Grigoryan," says Tigran’s mother,
Alla Hovhannisyan.

During a recent sitting of the parliamentary committee looking into
the March 1-2 events, Alla Hovhannisyan demanded the committee to
invite the four policemen to a cross-examination.

"The committee is well aware where the dead bodies were found. They
promised to invite a number of top officials but I doubt their
words. I fly into a rage when I think that those policemen continue
to work and new people may fall victim to their "incorrect use"
of weapons. I think we should file a new action entitled "Victims’
Relatives vs. Policemen".

WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM REPAIRED IN BERDASHEN

Panorama.am
11:38 30/03/2009

The Hayastan All Armenian Fund announced that reconstruction of the
water-supply system in Berdashen, a village in Nagorno Karabakh’s
Martuni Region, continues on schedule.

The project, worth 210 million drams (U.S. $555,000), is financed
jointly by the Hayastan All Armenian Fund’s Argentinean affiliate
and the government of Artsakh. Major support for the initiative,
which was launched in late 2008, was provided by Argentinean-Armenian
benefactors Alicia Vosgerichian de Magarian, Hovsep Magarian, and
Varujan Panossian, in honor of Takvor Magarian and Nvart Terzian
Magarian.

Berdashen’s water-supply system, which was built in the 1960s,
has long been in a state of disrepair. Through the Hayastan
All Armenian Fund project, the pump station has been renovated,
cancer-causing asbestos pipes have been replaced with plastic ones, and
a 3.6-kilometer pipeline has been built, already supplying Berdashen
with water. Currently the next phase of the initiative, the building
of the internal water-distribution network, is underway. When this
leg of the project is completed by autumn 2009, all 1,500 residents
of Berdashen will receive a regular supply of water.

To date, the Hayastan All Armenian Fund’s Argentinean affiliate
has sponsored some 20 vital projects in Artsakh, mainly in the
educational sphere. The affiliate’s most recent initiatives include
the construction, in 2008, of an eight-kilometer water pipeline for
Spitakashen, another village in the Martuni Region.