Author: Kafian Jirair

ALIYEV: LACHIN REGION STATUS IMPEDES KARABAKH PROBLEM SETTLEMENT

Pan Armenian News
18.05.2005 05:51

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Upon completion of the meeting with Robert Kocharian
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev immediately reported on the outcomes of
the negotiations to his “elder brother” Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Noting
that no progress was achieved during the Kocharian-Aliyev meeting
Radical Turkish newspaper whites that, according to Aliyev, this was
caused by the discrepancy between Armenia and Azerbaijan on conducting
a referendum in Nagorno Karabakh and the status of the Lachin region,
Yerkir Online reports.

FOR 4 MONTHS OF 2005 THE TRANSPORT PARK OF YEREVAN RECEIVES 67 MORE
TRANSPORTATION MEANS

YEREVAN, May 16. /ARKA/. For 4 months of 2005 the transport park of
Yerevan received 67 more transportation means, as stated the Head of
Transport Department of Yerevan Municipality Office Tigran Kazaryan.
According to him, 17 “Reno” and “Fiat” buses were sent to the capital
of Armenia as well as “Honda”50 buses. According to Kazaryan, the
buses have already passed maintenance control and been registered and
the next month they will work on 7 lines of public transportation.
“According to the decision of the Mayor, the transport park will
receive new units regularly”, Kazaryan said, adding that the Mayor’s
Office doesn’t consider the possibility of reducing the quantity of
micro-buses working on 125 routes.

In 2005, the bus park of Yerevan is going to receive 150 more
transportation means. In 2004, because of the lack of necessary funds
only 41 buses were sent to the capital of Armenia instead of the
planned 100 units. According to the municipality office, currently
3160 buses and microbuses operate in Yerevan. In Q1, 2005, the volume
of transportation compared to the same period of 2003 increased by
10,5 mln. passengers. A.H.–0–

WE FEEL OURSELVES PART OF EUROPE, KOCHARIAN SAYS

Armenpress

WARSAW, MAY 16, ARMENPRESS: Addressing today the Council of Europe
Summit in Warsaw, Poland, Armenian president Robert Kocharian said
Europe is witnessing fundamental changes and the word “Europe” has
ceased to stand for a continent name only having transformed into
a political term, perceived largely as a new and unique model of a
commonwealth of states and nations.

According to him, the institutionalization of that process and the
psychological adaptation of Europeans to it go hand in hand, likely due
to the progress in information technologies. This process, according to
Kocharian, gives rise to a set questions, such as whether the European
integration process has geographic and cultural boundaries, and if
‘yes” where they are and in what way Europe is going to build its
relations with the rest of the world that has different ideologies and
traditions. Kocharian said answers to these and some other questions
depend largely on leaders of the states, present at the summit.

Referring to developments in Armenia, Kocharian said it is still at the
beginning of a complicated path of the European integration. According
to him, Armenia is set to meet all its Council of Europe membership
commitments by the end of this year. He said this process was difficult
but fruitful, backed by various segments of population.

Kocharian also said his government intends to deepen interaction with
the European Union as part of New Neighborhood Policy (ENP), which
he said opens new broad avenues to continue political and economic
reforms under the guidance of the EU.

“We feel ourselves as part of Europe and our cultural heritage is
part of the European common heritage and we are pursuing the path
of reforms not to win the praise of Europe but because we feel it is
the inner need of our country,” he said.

Kocharian also said Armenia believes in Europe with open borders,
without violence, blockades and refugees, a Europe where human rights
and the people’s right to free choice are respected, where “the present
is built on an objective evaluation of the past.” He said Armenia looks
at the prospect of Karabagh conflict resolution in this context. “Our
attempts for international recognition of the Armenian genocide are
also anchored on our belief in European values,” Kocharian said.

dradio.de
URL: 28/

Das deutsche Reich und der Genozid an den Armeniern
Wolfgang Gust (Hg.): Der Völkermord an den Armeniern 1915/16
Vorgestellt von Andreas Baum

Dieses Buch dokumentiert ausführlich die diplomatische Korrespondenz
zwischen der Deutschen Reichsregierung in Berlin und ihren Botschaftern
und Konsuln im Osmanischen Reich zwischen 1913 und 1921. Es sind die
Jahre des Völkermordes an den Armeniern: Man schätzt, dass bis 1,5
Millionen Menschen sterben mussten.

Die Armenier haben über Jahrhunderte an den Grenzen der Großmächte
Russland, Persien und des Osmanischen Reichs gesiedelt, ohne eigenen
Staat. Bei jedem Konflikt saßen sie zwischen allen Stühlen. So auch
im Ersten Weltkrieg: Der Vorwand für den Massenmord an den Armeniern
Anatoliens war und ist bis heute deren angebliche Kollaboration mit
Russland.

Eines der Anliegen des Buches ist es zweifellos, diese Legende zu
widerlegen. Die Armenier gehörten zu den loyalsten Völkern im
Osmanischen Reich, die sich mit den Türken quasi symbiotisch verbunden
fühlten. Dass es auch zu Kämpfen zwischen bewaffneten Armeniern und
der türkischen Armee gekommen ist, kann man getrost als
Selbstverteidigung werten.

Darüber hinaus soll hier der Beweis geführt werden, dass die
jungtürkische Regierung in Konstantinopel den Völkermord gezielt
geplant hat und dass nicht, wie bisweilen bis heute behauptet wird,
diese Menschen in den Wirren des Krieges ums Leben gekommen sind.

Die Rolle der Deutschen

Auf gut 100 Seiten Einführung von Wolfgang Gust, die den Ablauf des
Genozids mit all seinen grässlichen Einzelheiten noch einmal
dokumentiert, folgen mehr als 500 Seiten Akten aus dem politischen
Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes in Berlin. Das Deutsche Reich verfügte
damals über exzellente Verbindungen zur Türkei. Dies nicht erst,
seit man im Ersten Weltkrieg Seite an Seite kämpfte, auch vorher
wurden gute Geschäfte mit den Osmanen gemacht.

Berlin konnte sich also auf ein Netz von Diplomaten und Kaufleuten
stützen, die regelmäßig über die Untaten an den Armeniern
Bericht erstatteten. Ein großer Teil der Briefe und Noten kann man
auch als Aufforderung, manchmal als flehentliche Bitte lesen, dem
Bündnispartner am Bosporus in den Arm zu fallen und das Morden zu
beenden. Ohne Erfolg: Das Zitat des Reichskanzlers, Theobald von
Bethmann-Hollweg: “Unser einziges Ziel ist, die Türkei bis zum Ende
des Krieges an unserer Seite zu halten, gleichgültig, ob darüber die
Armenier zugrunde gehen oder nicht,” beschreibt am treffendsten die
Haltung der Deutschen.

Ein Plädoyer für den unverstellten Blick auf die Fakten

Das Buch versucht auch zu klären, welche Mitverantwortung Deutschland
für diesen Völkermord trägt. Es entsteht ein differenziertes Bild.
Einerseits muss man einige Deutsche, etwa die Verbindungsoffiziere im
Türkischen Heer, wohl als Mittäter bezeichnen. Die Reichsregierung
hat sich durch Unterlassen schuldig gemacht.

Andererseits gibt es aber auch Deutsche, die vehement gegen das
Verbrechen vorgegangen sind. An erster Stelle ist der Potsdamer Pfarrer
Johannes Lepsius zu nennen, der schon seit der Jahrhundertwende ein
Hilfswerk für die Armenier betrieb und während des Krieges bei der
Regierung in Konstantinopel selbst versuchte, ein milderes Vorgehen
gegen die Armenier zu erwirken.

Aber auch die Diplomaten selbst, deren Korrespondenz hier dokumentiert
ist, haben damit etwas für die Armenier getan. Denn heute kann anhand
dieser Quellen einwandfrei belegt werden, welchen mörderischen
Charakter die Deportationsbefehle hatten.

Wichtig ist dies deshalb, weil Ankara bis heute bestreitet, dass es sich
hier um einen geplanten Völkermord gehandelt hat. Nicht nur die
Armenier, die heute über die ganze Welt verstreut sind, fordern, dass
sich die moderne Türkei ihrer Vergangenheit und ihrer Verantwortung zu
stellen hat.

Auch unter den Europäern gibt es nicht wenige, die sagen, dass dies
die Bedingung für den Beitritt der Türkei zur Europäischen Union
ist. Dazu ist es nötig, mutig und ohne ideologische Brille auf die
Fakten zu schauen. Dieses Buch kann dazu profunde Hilfestellung leisten.

Wolfgang Gust (Hg.): Der Völkermord an den Armeniern 1915/16
Zu Klampen Verlag, Springe 2005
675 Seiten, 39,80 Euro

© 2005 Deutschlandradio

BOOK BY WOLFGANG GUST “GENOCIDE AT THE ARMENIANS IN 1915-16” ISSUED IN
GERMANY

YEREVAN, MAY 13. ARMINFO. A 675 page book by the famous German
publicist, the former editor of the popular German magazine “Der
Spiegel,” Wolfgang Gust “Genocide at the Armenians in 1915-16” (“Der
Volkermord an den Armeniern 1915/16.”) was issued in Hamburg.
According to dradio.de, the book covers documents lined up from 1913
to 1921 of the German Government, Ambassador and Consul of Germany to
Ottoman Turkey. Gust wants to support its thesis of German
co-operation for the genocide, it writes that Germans not only ought
side by side with Ottomans, but also carried out operations
together. The author also tries to find out the level of
responsibility of Germany for the Armenian genocide.

To note, Wolfgang Gust is the author of many works and articles of the
Armenian Cause. In 2002 in Yerevan his book “Armenian Genocide:
tragedy of the most ancient Christian people in the world” was issued
in Yerevan in 2002. Within the frameworks of the 1700th anniversary of
Christianity Proclamation in Armenia as state religion, W.Gust was
awarded with “Surb Sahak and Surb Mashtots” order of Mother See of
Holy Etchmiadzin.

Turkish Press
May 11 2005

Press Review

Milliyet

ARMENIAN-SPONSORED BOOK FAIR TO INVITE TURKISH AUTHORS

The Armenian diaspora has taken an important step toward compromise
by deciding to organize a book fair in Paris to which it will invite
Turkish, Armenian and Greek Cypriot authors. Under the project, which
is supported by the French government, the title of the fair will be
`Books and Authors From and On Turkey,’ and it is set to be held next
January at Paris’ FIAP Foyer Jean Monet International Cultural
Center. /Milliyet/

ARKA News Agency
May 11 2005

Robert Kocharyan: Armenia has sound bank system, but extremely small
for the country economy

`Night Lights’ museum event to be organized in Armenia on May 14-15

Russia denies its special services alleged part in the terrorist act
committed in Armenian Parliament on October 27, 1999

Armenian CB must give up policy of floating exchange rate: Martin
Sargsyan

Armenian Businesswoman 2005 exhibition to be held on May 27, 28 in
Armenia

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s President Arkady Ghukasyan receives Chief
Military Inspector of Armenia

Conference on modern approaches to education management to be held in
Armenia

Robert Kocharyan: Trade-Industrial Chamber of Armenia plays the key
part in cooperation between the government and businessmen

RA Parliament assumes the variant of ruling coalition as a basis for
constitutional reforms draft

*********************************************************************

ROBERT KOCHARYAN: ARMENIA HAS SOUND BANK SYSTEM, BUT EXTREMELY SMALL
FOR THE COUNTRY ECONOMY

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. Armenia has a sound bank system, but
extremely small for the country economy, Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan said Wednesday in his meeting with Armenian bankers. He
said `it is necessary to find the right way to develop our banking
system keeping existing sound environment intact’. Kocharyan also
paid attention to USD fluctuating exchange rate and Armenian dram
revaluation. He finds it necessary to analyze the issue to see causes
of volatile situation in currency market. `Many of you have already
expressed their opinions about that, but I would like to hear
directly from you how this process can be run without affecting the
country’s economy and without people’s unnecessary negative
expectations triggering panic in market’, the President said. M.V.
-0–

*********************************************************************

`NIGHT LIGHTS’ MUSEUM EVENT TO BE ORGANIZED IN ARMENIA ON MAY 14-15

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. A `Night Lights’ museum event is to be
organized in Armenia on May 14-15. The press service of the RA
Ministry of Culture reports that 48 Armenian museums are to take part
in the arrangement. May 14 to 1:00 a.m. on May 15, excursions and
surprise programs will be organized for visitors. Admission to the
museums will be free.
It is the fourth year since the Museum Spring, which is the
initiative of French museums, has been marked in Armenia. On May 14,
2005, 4,000 European museums, united under the motto Museum Night,
will receive thousands of visitors until late at night. P.T. -0–

*********************************************************************

RUSSIA DENIES ITS SPECIAL SERVICES ALLEGED PART IN THE TERRORIST ACT
COMMITTED IN ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ON OCTOBER 27, 1999

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. Russia denies its alleged part in the
terrorist act committed in Armenian Parliament on October 27, 1999,
Russian Embassy in Armenia says. In connection with the allegations
that recently appeared in media outlets such as Real Azerbaijan
internet newspaper about Russian special services complicity in
tragic events happened Oct 27, 1999, in Armenian National Assembly,
Russian Federation Embassy in Armenia stated following: `Such a sort
of inventions having nothing in common with reality are intensively
being spread by persons known for their hatred toward the democratic
reforms being implemented in Russia who pursue provocative goal of
creating negative image of a new Russia in the eyes of the
international community’, the Embassy’s press release said.
It is also said in the press-release that `in spite of the well-known
decision of Armenian court on the group of terrorists headed by Nairi
Hunanyan, a destined-to-failure attempt is seen to undermine
centuries-long friendly relationship between Armenian and Russian
nations’. `Following the instructions given by his `master’,
Litvienko, a former officer of Russian Federal Security Service, who
is charged by Russian Federation Prosecutor General Office with
funneling a state secret and now harbored by the well-known tycoon in
the Great Britain, released another absurd statement. Any case,
Litvienko and Litvienko-like persons will fail in their apparent
attempts to undermine fraternal relations between Armenia and Russia
and the two countries’ peoples’, the statement says.
It is known that no evidence of complicity of any outside forces in
the 1999 terrorist act in Armenian National Assembly was found
throughout the trial ended in delivering verdicts to Hunanyan and his
group on Dec 2, 2003. Isolated case on possible masterminds was
closed in November 2004, because all possible means for finding
evidence were exhausted.
Five perpetrators of the assassination of Karen Demirchyan, the then
Speaker of Armenian National Assembly, Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan
and other six officials were sentenced to life imprisonment in Dec
2003. M.V. -0–

*********************************************************************

ARMENIAN CB MUST GIVE UP POLICY OF FLOATING EXCHANGE RATE: MARTIN
SARGSYAN

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. The RA Central Bank must give up the policy
of floating exchange rate, Chairman of the RA Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (CCI) Martin Sargsyan told reporters. According to him, the
exchange rate fluctuations and USD devaluation in Armenia seriously
affect the rare businessmen engaged in exporting Armenian products.
The RA Central Bank must make this step to meeting the domestic
consumers’ interests, Sargsyan said. P.T.–0–

*********************************************************************

ARMENIAN BUSINESSWOMAN 2005 EXHIBITION TO BE HELD ON MAY 27, 28 IN
ARMENIA

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. Armenian Businesswoman 2005 exhibition is to
be held on May 27, 28 in Armenia. According to Anahit Bobikyan,
Coordinator at a businesswomen-supporting project of the Program for
Small and Medium Businesses Markets Development in Armenia, the main
aim of the exhibition is to get familiar with Armneian businesswomen
and their activity. `Besides, we intend to attract attention of
tourists and offshore businessmen to products manufactured by women
entrepreneurs’, she said. In her words, only Armenian companies
representing various sectors of economy such as dairy, cakes, dried
fruits as well as carpets, textile commodities design and souvenirs
industries will take part in the event. Among key participants of the
exhibition are Wordy Armen (dairy production), Mariam Grigoryan
(carpet production), Tamar Tatik (dried fruits) and Aragrina
(souvenirs). Logos Expo Center, USAID and ASME program organized the
exhibition in association with DAI. M.V. -0 –

*********************************************************************

NAGORNO-KARABAKH REPUBLIC’S PRESIDENT ARKADY GHUKASYAN RECEIVES CHIEF
MILITARY INSPECTOR OF ARMENIA

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s President Arkady
Ghukasyan received Chief Military Inspector of Armenia
colonel-general Gurgen Dalibaltayan. According to NKR Presidential
Press Service issues related to military construction in Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh as well as prospects of cooperation between two
Armenian republics’ armies were discussed at the meeting, where the
NKR Defence Minister lieutenant-general Seyran Ohanyan was present.
M.V. -0–

*********************************************************************

CONFERENCE ON MODERN APPROACHES TO EDUCATION MANAGEMENT TO BE HELD IN
ARMENIA

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. A scientific conference `Modern Approaches
to Management and Control of Education’ is to be held in Yerevan on
May 14-15. The US International Research Exchange (IREX) organization
reports the conference will be held under a program of retraining of
school headmasters and administrative staff for 2002-2005. The
conference participants are to discuss issues of practical
application of curricula, as well as new types of supervision over
school activities. The conference is to be attended by
representatives of the RA Ministry of Science and Education, National
Institute of Education, Education Department of the Yerevan
Municipality, US Advisor for Scientific Affairs, headmasters and
teachers of Armenia’s schools. P.T. -0–

*********************************************************************

ROBERT KOCHARYAN: TRADE-INDUSTRIAL CHAMBER OF ARMENIA PLAYS THE KEY
PART IN COOPERATION BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESSMEN

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. Trade-Industrial Chamber of Armenia plays
the key part in cooperation between the government and businessmen,
as said in the message addressed by Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan to participants of the Chamber’s conference. The President
said in his message that Armenia had managed to carry out
considerable work also by taking active part in the process of the
country’s tax and customs legislation improvement. `We welcome your
initiatives and steps focused on establishing mutually beneficial
ties between Armenia’s and other countries’ businessmen. The
government has great expectations for establishing cooperation with
business area. The role of chambers as structures representing common
interests of entrepreneurship is important either in this connection
or as key pivot’, Kocharyan said in his message. In his words,
political and legislative environment favorable for entrepreneurship
development and investments is now created in Armenia that paves way
for more effective activity. The President wished the conference
participants fruitful work and said he waited from them proposals
that will `make actual contribution to widening
government-entrepreneurship ties and improving business atmosphere in
the countr’. M.V. -0–

*********************************************************************

RA PARLIAMENT ASSUMES THE VARIANT OF RULING COALITION AS A BASIS FOR
CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS DRAFT

YEREVAN, May 11. /ARKA/. RA Parliament has assumes the variant of
ruling coalition as a basis for constitutional reforms draft. The
document was supported by 77 parliamentarians, instead of 66 needed.
8 MPs voted against the draft. At the same time, the other two
drafts, submitted by the United Labor Parties and deputy Arshak
Sadoyan, were advocated by 19 and 13 deputies. The draft submitted by
the coalition contains 25 new and 97 amended articles. In addition,
article 78 was withdrawn the draft, which supposed the right of the
republic’s government to take decisions having the validity of the
law. The first chapter of the Constitution now includes a new
provision which fixes the basic rights and freedoms of a person as an
inherent and supreme value. In addition, the new edition of the Basic
Law recognizes the priority of rights and domination of law, as well
as ideological pluralism. The Constitution includes a new article, in
accordance with which, the Republic of Armenia recognizes the
Armenian Apostolic Church as the national church, which has an
exceptional significance in spiritual life of the Armenian people.
Another important provision of the new edition, submitted by the
coalition, is the withdrawal of the article banning double
citizenship. The amendments also ban capital punishment.
In accordance with the amendments, the term of Parliament activities
is also extended from 4 to 5 and the term of local self-government
bodies is extended from 3 up to 4 years. At that, the RA President
can appoint the Premier of the country after consultations with
fractions represented in the Parliament.
According to Ra NA Speaker Arthur Baghdasaryan, the coalition has
adopted 100% of Venice Commission and OSCE suggestions on human
rights and freedoms upon the working out the constitutional reforms
draft.
In his turn, Vice- Speaker Tigrsn Sargsyan, the head of Ad-hoc
Committee on Matters of Integration in European Structures noted that
the provisions concerning the principles of power division, creation
of restrictions and counterbalances , local self-government bodies
and judicial system are to be improved till the second reading.
L.V.-0–

Bloomberg
May 10 2005

Bush Vows to Help Georgia Join NATO, Solve Conflicts (Update3)

May 10 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush promised the U.S. will
help the former Soviet republic of Georgia gain entry to NATO,
negotiate the withdrawal of Russian troops and resolve a separatist
conflict that threatens the emerging democracy.

In a speech today in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, Bush told thousands
of Georgians their peaceful democratic revolution in 2003 ignited a
“freedom movement” in the region and inspired the spread of
democracy elsewhere in the world.

“As you build a free and democratic Georgia, the American people
will stand with you,” Bush, the first U.S. president to visit the
country, said in Tbilisi’s Freedom Square. “By extending freedom to
those who have not known it, we will advance the cause of freedom and
we will advance the cause of peace.”

Bush was making his final stop on a five-day European trip centered
on helping Russian President Vladimir Putin commemorate the 60th
anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. He also
used the journey — which included stops in Georgia and Latvia, two
republics of the old Soviet empire — to reinforce the pledge he made
at the beginning of the year of uncompromising U.S. support for
democratic movements.

The itinerary illustrated the diplomatic balance Bush faces in the
region in pushing for greater democracy and freedom in the region
while bolstering relations with Putin, who Bush and members of his
administration have chided for taking backward steps on reforms.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent a letter of complaint
regarding the Latvia and Georgia stops when Bush’s schedule was set.

Inspiration

Bush held up Georgia as an example of how freedom inspires people the
world over.

“Now, across the Caucasas, in Central Asia and the broader Middle
East, we see the same desire for liberty burning in the hearts of
young people,” Bush told the crowd in Tbilisi. “They are demanding
their freedom, and they will have it.”

Bush used the same theme at his May 7 stop in Riga, Latvia, where he
also noted that the end of World War II brought the Baltic states a
new form of oppression under the Soviet Union. The speeches follow
Bush’s challenge to Putin at a February summit in Bratislava,
Slovakia, on press freedoms and allowing political opposition.

`In Reverse’

Democratic progress in Russian has “not only slowed down I think its
moving in reverse,” aid Marshall Goldman of the Davis Center for
Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

Although Bush made no speeches while in Moscow, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said the president raised his concerns about Putin’s
steps to centralize power and restrict opposition during a private
meeting with Putin May 8.

Putin responded to U.S. criticism by giving an interview for the
CBS’s “60 Minutes” program in which he cited the disputed vote
count in Bush’s 2000 election to say the U.S. shouldn’t be lecturing
Russia on the subject.

The stops in Latvia and Georgia helped Bush accomplished some of his
objectives, said Ariel Cohen, a Russia expert at the Heritage
Foundation in Washington.

“The message to Mr. Putin that the geopolitical reality of the
former Soviet empire has changed irreversibly was sent loud and
clear,” said Ariel Cohen, a Russia expert at the Heritage Foundation
in Washington.

Still, there’s no evidence Bush made headway with Putin on Russian
democratic reforms, an issue that has become a central source of
tension between the two.

Words and Deeds

“Bush has raised his concerns, but there is no sign that Putin is
intending to do anything,” said James Goldgeier, a Russia expert at
the Council on Foreign Relations who worked at the State Department
and National Security Council under former President Bill Clinton.

U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, briefing reporters in
Moscow May 8, praised a Putin speech last week in which the Russian
president extolled the virtues of democracy while saying “obviously,
those words have to be translated into deeds.”

Goldgeier said the mutual interest of the United States and Russia
will prevent the relationship between the two nations from devolving
into conflict.

Among other things, America needs Russia’s help with stymieing the
nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea and with nudging Israel and
the Palestinians toward a peace accord. Russia, for its part, is
counting on U.S. assistance in gaining acceptance to the World Trade
Organization.

James Collins, U.S. ambassador to Russia from 1997-2001, said Bush
probably didn’t smooth relations with Putin by making stops in Latvia
and Georgia.

No Confrontation

“I don’t think the environment or the atmosphere was probably
improved by the way it was done, but I also don’t over- dramatize the
effect of that,” Collins said. “Putin has made it pretty clear he’s
not going to engage in a confrontation with the United States.”

Dimitri Simes, a Russian affairs scholar and president of the Nixon
Center, a foreign policy research institution in Washington, said the
trip may end up putting a strain on U.S.- Russian relations.

“The administration is clearly taking the position that they may
have their cake and eat it too, meaning that they would successfully
pursue a strategic partnership with Russia while being fairly
dismissive of Russian concerns,” Simes said.

Bush’s pledge of support for the Baltic states and Georgia comes amid
disputes those countries have with Russia.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and Putin have disagreed over
the treatment of Russians in Latvia, where they make up 30 percent of
Latvia’s population. Putin has an ongoing border dispute with Latvia
and Georgia, and in Georgia, Russia still has two military bases in
Georgia comprising about 3,500 troops that Georgia’s President
Mikhail Saakashvili wants removed. Russia also has supported
separatist movements in two regions of Georgia.

Vike-Freiberga attended Monday’s ceremonies in Moscow’s Red Square
marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Lithuanian
President Valdas Adamkus, Ukraine President Viktor Yuschenko and
Saakashvili did not.

Bush told Saakashvili that he brought up the dispute over the Russian
troops with Putin during their meeting.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve had this conversation with President
Putin on this issue,” Bush said at a news conference in Tbilisi with
Saakashvili at his side.

Georgia’s location between the Black Sea, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Turkey gives it “strategic importance far beyond its size”
according the State Department’s Web site. It serves as “a gateway”
from the Black Sea to the Caucasus and the larger Caspian region and
a “buffer” between Russia and Turkey, the State Department said.

Saakashvili’s government is seeking membership in the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization within three years as it moves to build closer
ties to the U.S. and the European Union.

Washington Times, DC
May 8 2005

Forum: Bitter remembrances of Armenia

Last Tuesday’s Commentary contribution by Turkish Ambassador O. Faruk
Logoglu was a vivid reminder the Turkish government still rigidly
clings to its unseemly denial of the Armenian massacres of 1915, the
first genocide of the 20th century, even as it seeks admission to the
European Union.
Moreover, the ambassador seeks sympathy for Turks as if they were
equally wronged. It was all a result of wartime diseases and famine
and “the Armenian revolt in the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman
Empire, in which hundreds of thousands of Turks and Armenians died.”
And then this, an astonishingly mendacious thing to write: “We should
.. acknowledge the grief and sadness felt by present generations of.
Armenians over the terrible losses suffered by their parents and
grandparents. The same compassion must be extended to the Turkish
people.”

Mr. Logoglu certainly knows better. Even the Turkish government
archives show how the Ottoman Turkish government planned and carried
out the massacres of the Armenians because of their race and
Christian religion, “ethnically cleansing” the heavily Armenian
provinces in the East and other parts of Turkey, including Istanbul,
with the loss of an estimated 1.5 million Armenian lives.
The ambassador mentions some Armenian revenge assassinations of
Turkish officials in the 1970s and ’80s — abominable events, to be
sure. He does not mention assassinations of guilty Turkish officials
more than a half-century earlier. The story of Soghomon Tehlirian
suggests why.
He shot and killed the former interior minister and planner of
the genocide, Talaat Pasha, in Berlin in 1921. Tehlirian’s sisters
had been raped and his brother beheaded; his parents had died on a
death march that killed tens of thousands of Armenians. Before
shooting Talaat, he shouted: “This is to avenge the death of my
family.”
He was exonerated by a German jury that found “the official
Turkish documents… proved beyond question that Talaat Pasha and
other officials had ordered the wholesale extermination of the
Armenians.” I wrote about Tehlirian in my California weekly newspaper
almost 40 years later. I found him still careful to be as invisible
as possible for fear of Turkish reprisal (justified or not), and my
story said nothing of where and how he lived. He was buried by the
Armenians as a hero. We might have done something similar if an
American had assassinated Adolf Hitler.
Hitler, by the way, told his top generals as they prepared to
invade Poland and the Nazis pressed on with the Holocaust: “Who
today, after all, speaks of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Many Americans knew what was happening in 1915 and thereabouts
and tried to help, but too late. They included Theodore Roosevelt,
who criticized Woodrow Wilson for not sending troops into Turkey to
fight to save the Armenians. “The Armenian massacre was the greatest
crime of the war,” he said, “and failure to act against Turkey is to
condone it.”
That failure, he said, “means that all talk of guaranteeing the
future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.” America’s
failure, he said, showed “our announcement that we meant ‘to make the
world safe for democracy’ was insincere claptrap.”
Others who spoke out and raised funds for rescue of the Armenians
over the next few years included John D. Rockefeller, William
Jennings Bryan, Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd Garrison
Jr., Stephen Crane, H.L. Mencken, Ezra Pound and (despite Roosevelt’s
words) Woodrow Wilson. They all knew this was genocide.
Henry Morgenthau, ambassador to Turkey during the massacres,
confronted the Turkish government about its treatment of the
Armenians and led our diplomats’ valiant efforts to help Armenians
escape. He wrote when he left in 1916: “My failure to stop the
destruction of the Armenians had made Turkey for me a place of
horror.”
Religious organizations speaking out included the Central
Conference of American Rabbis (which earlier appealed to Europe in
1909 to protect the Armenians from barbarism in Turkey), Protestant
missionaries (numerous in Turkish Armenia, witnesses to the
atrocities and sometimes rescuers and victims) and leading American
Catholics.
In due time, I hope, Turkey will be a member of the EU and by
then will have firmly emplaced democratic government and First
Amendment freedoms. But it would be another atrocity if that happens
before Turkey accepts, as any European nation should, its
responsibility for the massacres. Can we imagine Germany as a EU
member if it denied the Holocaust and asked equal sympathy for
Germans and Jews because of what happened?
America once stood tall in response to the Armenian massacres.
The pursuit of oil and influence in the Middle East changed that soon
after World War I. It was easier to end the humanitarian clamor.
Today some politicians even refuse (though not President Bush) to use
the word “genocide” lest they offend Turkey. Americans in general do
not even know of these atrocities, although in one of their finest
hours Americans had cried out for the Armenians and for holding
nations accountable for genocide.
Maybe Hitler was right. But I have many Armenian and Turkish
friends who do know (the latter silent just now, because of Turkish
suppression of the truth). I believe young people in Turkey may
change this some day if they have a chance, if they even learn what
happened.
Ambassador Logoglu believes this stain will just go away. We must
make sure lies do not corrupt history as they now corrupt the Turkish
government.

REESE CLEGHORN
Washington, D.C.

SHUSHA….13th ANNIVERSARY OF FALL
2005-05-07 20:34

Azerbaijan News Service
May 7 2005

Thirteen years pass since occupation of historical Shusha city of
Azerbaijan by armed forces of Armenia As a result of invasion on May
8 in 1992, 125 people were slaughtered, 40 missed or taken prisoners
and 25 thousand Azerbaijanis forced to flee and became internally
displaced including elders, women and children. During occupation
Armenian armed forces destroyed 17 mosques and many other historical
monuments in Shusha city. Armenians living in Sisyan, Gafan and in
occupied Daqliq Qarabaq of Azerbaijan are celebrating the date as
anniversary of their victory. At present peaceful negotiations on
settlement of Daqliq Qarabaq conflict is ongoing between conflicting
sides mediated by OSCE Minsk group. However majority of Azerbaijani
nation hardly believe on release of Shusha by Armenian occupants
at their own will. Armenian occupants should be overthrown by using
force rather than by power of peaceful policy as they entered Shusha
by using force.