Author: Jagharian Tania

PanARMENIAN.Net

Baku’s militaristic statements don’t divert Armenia from chosen path
31.01.2007 17:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan proceeds with its militaristic statements
which have a negative impact on the situation. However, these do not
frighten Armenia or divert our republic from the chosen path, RA
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said in the Netherlands. In the
Minister’s words, the Armenian army that marked its 15th anniversary
January 28 is strong enough and well trained. `Our defense positions
are solid and we do not think that Azerbaijan will dare to encroach on
Nagorno Karabakh or Armenia during next ten years,’ Minister Oskanian
said, reported the Armenian Public Television.

Armenian National Committee of Canada
130 Albert St., Suite 1007
Ottawa, ON KIP 5G4
Tel: 613-235-2622
Fax: 613-238-2622
E-mail: [email protected]

OTTAWA-The Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) today, January
30, participated in a press conference organized by the Canadian Jewish
Congress (CJC) to discuss issues related to the punishment of war
criminals. In addition to the CJC and the ANCC, conference participants
included the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies,
PAGE-Rwanda, and the Roma Community Centre.

Due to a last-minute emergency, the representative of Darfur Association
of Canada could not participate in the press conference. His remarks
were distributed to the attendees.

The press conference was held in Lord Elgin Hotel.

Below are the ANCC representative’s remarks:

Accountability and Responsibility

Remarks by
Aris Babikian
Executive Director, Armenian National Committee of Canada

January 30, 2007

It is ironic that at the dawn of a new century and after 92 years of the
Armenian Genocide, we are gathered, as victim nations of Genocide and
Holocaust to remind the international community of its responsibility
and obligation to bring to justice the perpetrators and their
accomplices.

Canada and the international community can not sit idly and watch as a
new genocide unfolds in front of our eyes and on our TV screens. The
pledge "never again" should not be a hollow echo of the past, but it
should be our moral and ethical compass to prevent future Holocausts,
Genocides, and ethnic cleansing.

By bringing to justice the architects of such heinous crimes and by
recognizing, commemorating, and banning the denial of these despicable
acts, Canada and the international community can send a clear and
unequivocal message to the despots of the world that that the
international community will not tolerate such vile and inhuman
treatment of our fellow human beings.

To cover up their responsibility and to escape justice the first act of
the perpetrators of any Genocide is to deny its occurrence. We have
witnessed this again and again.

As scholars have demonstrated, the last act of any Genocide is the
denial of the horrendous act.

Once the denial machine is set into motion, the planners and executors
of the Holocaust or Genocide get emboldened and feel that they have
gotten away with their original plan of wiping out a whole race. They
then proceed to blame the victims and the survivors for their misfortune
and plight.

It is true that while each genocide has its own unique circumstances,
planning and implementation, the concept of genocide and the denial are
universal and integral for each other. In all genocides the survivors
are subjected to the denial machine one way or another. The denial can
originate in individuals, organizations or states.

Unlike the historical revisionism and the denial of the Armenian
Genocide by the Turkish Government, Holocaust deniers, such as Ernst
Zundle and Jim Keegstra, constituted the lunatic fringe of society. But
recently-learning from the Turkish Government’s tactics-certain
countries have started implementing the Turkish Government’s denial
strategy to rewrite the Holocaust.

Denial of any mass killing is to deflect justice and to perpetuate the
hatred cycle against the victims. Denial has another catastrophic impact
on nations and civil societies: Once the guilty part covers up its crime
and gets away with it, it spreads falsehoods in its educational system,
to indoctrinate future generations with hatred and animosity towards the
victim nation. The denialist portrays the victims as the enemy of the
state and of the nation. It injects the US against THEM concept into the
mentality of its own society. The recent assassination of
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink is quintessential expression of
this concept.

Here’s the full cycle–from genocide to genocide denial:

· For 92 years the Turkish state denied its responsibility for
the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians

· The Turkish state then proceeded to arouse hostility among
its citizens against Armenians. It did this through the educational
system and trough broad propaganda.

· The Turkish state supported ultra nationalists to incite the
masses against the Armenians.

· The result? A teenage assassin, goaded and armed by
ultranationalists, assassinated an Armenian journalist whose sole
"crime" was writing about the truth of the Armenian Genocide and
promoting friendship between Turks and Armenians.

By suppressing the truth the perpetrators discharges its responsibility.
It also justifies its action as a "righteous crusade" for the welfare of
its own people. With incredible chutzpah Turkey turned the story of the
Armenian Genocide upside down and depicted itself as the victim! It was
the Armenians who had committed genocide against the Turks, blithely
said.

Armenians all over the world believe in accountability and
responsibility. The punishment of the guilty is imperative because it
will help the civil society of the perpetrator to atone for the crimes
of its leaders and to reconcile with the victim nation. As we have seen,
without recognition of the crime and punishment of the guilty there can
be no reconciliation.

The denial of the Holocaust or any other genocide is an encouragement
for its repetition, as it eventually did happen in Turkey against the
Kurds, in Germany against the Romas, in Cambodia and in Rwanda against
the Tutsis and today in Darfur.

We should not allow Hitler’s contemptuous remark:" Who remembers
nowadays the Armenians?" haunt us forever.

We call on the Canadian Government to take the lead and ask the UN to
amend its UN Charter on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of the Genocide by adding an article on denial of the

GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE TOURISM COMPANIES STRIVE TO ESTABLISH CLOSER
COOPERATION

YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. No success is
guaranteed in the tourism sector without a serious cooperation and
unity between the state and private sectors. The RA Deputy Minister of
Trade and Economic Development Ara Petrosian stated this at the first
event on cooperation of tourism represenatives on January 29. In his
words, such events whose purpose is to present the newly created
unions in the tourism sector and to find new ways of cooperation will
become annual.

Suzanna Azoyan, Marketing Director of the Armenian Tourism Development
Agency (ATDA) – the event’s organizer, told NT correspondent that
previously the state torism sector, particularly ATDA, was cooperating
with hotels and tourism agencies separately. According to her,
shifting to the "official" cooperation level will make the work most
efficient.

"All tourism associations in Armenia – incoming tour operators, the
Armenian Airways Office, the unions of Armenian hotels and Armenian
restaurants, and the Guild of Tour Guides of Armenia will now receive
cerificates allowing them to have a "decisive voice" of their sector
in this sphere," S. Azoyan said.

HEATING OF 30 SCHOOLS TO BE RESTORED THIS YEAR

YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, NOYAN TAPAN. The Board of Trustees of the
Renewable Energy and Energy Saving Fund of Armenia approved the list
of 30 schools whose heating shall be restored in 2007, the tender
package of the agreement on installation of individual heating devices
for poor citizens in the cities of Hrazdan and Ijevan, as well as the
results of the tender for audit of the fund’s programs in
2006-2007. NT correspondent was informed from the RA Government
Information and PR Department that the report on the 2006 activities
of the fund was also presented at the January 30 sitting of the board
of trustees. By the report, heating of 45 city schools was restored
and heating of over 800 families’ apartments was improved last year.

In 2007, the fund will continue implementing measures initiated last
year. Under the program on renewable energy, the work on attraction
of investments in renewable energy subprograms and working out
mechanisms for extra financing attraction, etc. will be done.

TIGRAN TOROSIAN: ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT ISSUES NOT DISCUSSED DURING
ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI DELEGATIONS’ MEETING TAKEN PLACE IN
STRASBOURG RECENTLY

YEREVAN, JANUARY 30, NOYAN TAPAN. "Especially important issues were
not discussed" during the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegations’
meeting taken place recently in Strasbourg within the framework of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Ad-hoc Committee on
Nagorno Karabakh. Tigran Torosian, the head of the Armenian delegation
at the Assembly, RA NA Speaker stated about it at the January 29 press
conference, responding the Noyan Tapan correspondent’s question. In
his words, representatives of the two delegations expressed their
viewpoints about the work done before and their notions connected with
the future deeds.

Committee Chairman Lord Russell Johnston again spoke during the
meeting about the visit to be paid to the region, including Nagorno
Karabakh. "But, saying sincerely, I am not very optimistic in that
sense," T.Torosian said, mentioning that concrete terms of the visit
were appointed still in the autumn of 2006, but it did not take place.

In the speaker’s words, during the mentioned meeting the delegation
members’ speeches were "much more correct" compared with those
happening usually at the Assembly. "But it is not a basis for a great
optimism for me, either, as I am sure that no serious steps were taken
to stop those aspersions, accusations which the Azerbaijani deputies
are used to present," T.Torosian said.

REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE HELD IN YSU ON OCCASION OF 15th ANNIVERSARY OF
FORMATION OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL ARMY

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. A republican conference dedicated to
15th anniversary of formation of Armenian national army took place on
January 26 at Yerevan State University (YSU). The conference was
organized by YSU and Vazgen Sargsian Military Institute of RA Defence
Ministry. "The fact of holding such a conference is evidence that
issues of army building and further perfection of our armed forces are
in the focus of attention of not only officials immediately responsible
for armed forces, but also of representatives of science and creative
intelligentsia, public and whole people," Colonel-General Mikael
Haroutiunian, Head of RA Armed Forces General Headquarters, first
Deputy Defence Minister, said. He presented the main stages of national
army building over the past years. In connection with future problems
he said that when solving them we should take into account the
experience of developed countries, national peculiarities, geopolitical
situation in the world and in the region. Before the beginning of the
conference the participants visited Yerablur pantheon, got familiarized
with books on Armenian army displayed in the lobby. Film under the
title "Tigran the Great: Ruler Adoring His Homeland" was shown during
the break of the conference. According to the organizers of the
conference, events didicated to the 15th anniversary of formation of
Armenian army will be also held at YSU Ijevan branch: the students will
visit the military unit dislocated in Ijevan where they will meet with
veterans of Great Patriotic War and Artsakh liberation fight.

Washington Post, DC
Jan 26 2007

Making Their Voices Heard
Friday, January 26, 2007; Page WE34

Rife with rotting corpses, severed heads and massacred children,
"Screamers" is one of the most horrifying movies I’ve ever seen.
Sadly, it’s a documentary, not a slasher flick. A strident reckoning
on a century of genocide, the film exhumes a Turkish campaign to
exterminate Armenians in 1915, then casts a baleful eye on
preventable slaughters up to the current ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
But sadly, too, its call to action is somewhat undermined by unsubtle
artistry.

"Screamers" isn’t easy to watch, and not entirely because of its
content. There is much ear-hammering heavy metal music and
full-throated screaming, courtesy of the band System of a Down, whose
members are Armenian American. The film is mainly their story — part
history lesson, part political broadside, part concert travelogue —
with unwieldy results. Oral accounts from now-frail Armenian
survivors and witnesses don’t quite mix with strobe lights,
headbanging fans and tour-bus antics.

Teamed with filmmaker Carla Garapedian (also Armenian American), the
band is out to make the Turkish government own up to a "wild orgy of
blood" (as one witness wrote to President Woodrow Wilson) after
decades of denial. Most engaging in its second half, the documentary
also indicts U.S. and British political leadership for failing to
officially use the word "genocide" in connection with the deaths of
as many as 1.5 million Armenians. Persistent vows of "never again"
ring shamefully hollow in the abattoirs of Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

The film paraphrases a quote from Hitler before he invaded Poland in
1939 (a quote still in hot dispute): "Who still speaks nowadays of
the extermination of the Armenians?"

This documentary does. Whatever its flaws, that alone makes it worth
seeing.

— Richard Leiby

Screamers R, 91 minutes Contains graphic gore, disturbing images and
profanity. At AMC Hoffman Center.

Panorama.am

18:48 23/01/2007

FOUNDATION DENIES BEING PAID FOR EACH TREE

Armenia Tree Planting Project benevolent foundation
and Synopsis Company planted 400 trees in Victory Park
last November. Bella Avetisyan, public relations
coordinator of the foundation, says the foundation
also plants trees at the suggestion of non-commercial
organization and closely works with them.

According to our sources, Synopsis paid the foundation
for tree planting. Avetisyan said the company acted as
a local donor and did not pay for the trees or
rendered services. The foundation assures such cases
are very rare.

However, Gayane Markosyan, public relations
responsible of Synopsis, assures they have paid $15
per each tree and have also ensured that the trees
will be later taken care of. Markosyan refused to
announce the total sum paid referring to company
policy.

Strangely enough, the foundation also refused to
publish its annual financial report saying it is a
commercial secret. According to the law on Freedom of
Information, non-commercial organizations must publish
their annual financial reports. Mher Sadoyan,
foundation vice director said, they submit the
financial report only to their headquarters in Boston.

The foundation operates on the funds donated by our
co-nationals living abroad. For example, in 2004-2005
Gafestchyan, Hovhnanyan families, Charles G. Talanyan
family foundation, and Michael Ohanyan donated more
than $100,000 each to the foundation. The number of
donors does not limit to that.

Source: Panorama.am

Russian president warns potential for conflict in South Caucasus still high
The Associated PressPublished: January 24, 2007

International Herald Tribune, France
Jan 24 2007

SOCHI, Russia: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned that
the potential for a new outbreak of fighting in the strategic South
Caucasus remained high and pledged that Moscow would work to resolve
the region’s most dangerous, outstanding conflicts – including the
dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Putin and his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian, met one day
after Armenia’s foreign minister and his Azerbaijani counterpart held
inconclusive talks in Moscow on the status of the mountainous territory
inside Azerbaijan that is controlled by ethnic Armenian forces.

"The potential for conflict is still very high," Putin said at a
joint news conference with Kocharian in the Black Sea port of Sochi.

A shaky cease-fire in 1994 ended six years of fighting that left
30,000 people killed and about 1 million driven from their homes and
left Karabakh and Armenian forces in control of the territory.

Gunfire breaks out regularly along the border between the two ex-Soviet
countries and in the regions near Nagorno-Karabakh.

Repeated efforts by international mediators, including Russia, France,
the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, to resolve the dispute have failed, and the lack of resolution
has tied up development in the energy-rich South Caucasus.

"We have problems with Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

We are conducting active negotiations," Kocharian said. "The most
important factor is that the cease-fire introduced in the region in
1994 remains effective until now. This proves the intentions of the
parties to adhere to the peaceful process within the framework of
the OSCE."

Armenia is Russia’s closest ally in the South Caucasus, and Yerevan
in recent years has turned over a substantial part of its energy
infrastructure and network to Russia companies.

Among the other South Caucasus nations, Azerbaijan is increasingly
asserting its substantial energy reserves and its independence from
Russia while Georgia is actively seeking tighter ties with NATO,
the European Union and the West.

Azerbaijan, flush with oil and gas revenues, has also markedly
increased its defense spending and warned that it has the potential
to retake Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic Armenian forces – raising
fears of a new outbreak of fighting if no final resolution for the
territory is found.

In Baku, U.S. diplomat Matthew J. Bryza, who is helping OSCE efforts
to resolve the conflict, suggested that an agreement could be reached
this year.

"There is a possibility to reach an agreement. I don’t know when.

It’s possible this year. Everything depends on the presidents,"
Bryza told reporters at Baku airport after meeting with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliev and other officials.

"The meetings were constructive. I have the impression that your
president and foreign minister are demonstrating a constructive
position, said Bryza, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state.

In Sochi, Putin and Kocharian praised bilateral relations.

"We’ve tackled everything in energy and now focus on transport and
industry," Putin was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying. "Our bilateral
trade is growing and direct contacts between our people are on the
ascent."

"Last year was very successful in bilateral relations. We reached
agreements on very serious projects in economics and I very much
hope that this year will be that of their practical realization,"
Kocharian told Putin in televised comments.

___

Associated Press writer Aida Sultanova contributed to this report
from Baku, Azerbaijan.

ARMENIA LOST TO TURKEY

A1+
[12:28 pm] 22 January, 2007

In the last round of the qualifying phase of the futsal European
championship Armenia lost the match to Turkey 2:5. Before that
the Armenian players had lost the first to matches to Albania and
Finland. Both matches had ended 3:5.

Armenia occupied the third place in group A and disqualified from
the championship.