Author: Karabekian Emil

Armenian defence minister outlines key priorities of Karabakh settlement

Regnum, Moscow
12 Apr 05

Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan has said that Armenia is
not planning to vacate Azerbaijan’s occupied territories without a
scrupulous consideration of the security interests of the Karabakh
people. In his address to the Armenian parliament during the
recent hearings on ways of solving the Karabakh conflict, Sarkisyan
said that Yerevan is ready for certain compromises provided that
Azerbaijan guarantees the physical security of the Nagornyy Karabakh
population. At the same time, he called on the country’s relevant
bodies for closer cooperation at the international level to protect
Karabakh’s independence and outlined Armenia’s key priorities in
solving the conflict. The following is an excerpt from the report by
Russian news agency Regnum. Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

The Armenian parliament held hearings on the Nagornyy Karabakh problem
and ways of solving the conflict on 29-30 March. The hearings were
organized by the standing foreign relations commission of the Armenian
National Assembly.

Regnum news agency released detailed reports on the hearings. However,
taking account of the importance of the issue, the agency decided
to publish the full text of the report of the Armenian National
Security Council secretary and defence minister, Serzh Sarkisyan,
in the Armenian parliament on 30 March 2005.

Sarkisyan calls on relevant bodies for closer cooperation on Karabakh

“First, I consider it necessary to note that drawing up the list
of issues, which the commission sent to the participants in today’s
hearings in advance, is a useful initiative. However, I do not think
that there is a point in following this list accurately because
this would turn my report into an interview. I shall try to give my
answers in the form of a military-political analysis of the roots
of the Karabakh armed conflict and the key factors that define the
process of its dynamics.

1) A brief assessment of the state of affairs in our foreign policy:
In my opinion, in the sphere of advancing the interests of the Karabakh
settlement, we can note both certain success and difficulties which
are well-known to us. However, on the whole, there are no grounds for
panic. It is another matter that noting remarkable achievements, it
is more useful to pay more attention to the problems and the lessons
we have learnt as a correct understanding of them can help us advance
the Karabakh settlement better, proceeding from the security interests
of Armenia, Karabakh and the Armenians as a whole.

I think that at this stage of the Karabakh settlement, we have to
concentrate on the systematization of our resources in counteracting
the sly and cynical enemy who resorts to the most despicable methods
and tricks in order to discredit the international image of Armenia and
Nagornyy Karabakh. We must proceed from the realities that specialized
departments of Turkey and other allies are helping Azerbaijan in the
political attack on Armenia.

Therefore, it is extremely important in the Karabakh process to
join the efforts of Armenian government institutions, including
the National Assembly, government, ministries and departments and
foreign representative offices. This requires the correct selection and
professional training of representatives of state organizations which
should represent our highest national interests in the world community.

They must receive professionally-prepared information about our
national interests and priorities in the most important issues, how
to defend them by political and diplomatic means during the forums
of international organizations and visits or receptions by foreign
delegations.

Roots of the modern phase of the Karabakh problem

At the same time, we must periodically “synchronize watches” on
the Karabakh settlement. Today’s session of the commission is a
good example of the clarification of assessments, principles and
approaches taking into account the dynamics of the Karabakh foreign
policy process.

2) On the correlation between “history” and “politics” in
substantiating Armenia’s position as one of the principles of
protecting our national interests.

The roots of the modern phase of the Karabakh problem lie at the turn
of the catastrophic change in Karabakh’s state status as a constituent
part of Russia and the USSR.

[Passage omitted: historical background]

3) On current approaches and principles of solving the Karabakh
problem and substantiating them.

In the process of the 13-year talks under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk
Group, four major approaches to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict
were discussed:

Nagornyy Karabakh’s reunification with Armenia;

The recognition of the independence of the legally self-determined
Nagornyy Karabakh Republic [NKR];

The establishment of a common state on the basis of Azerbaijan and
the NKR;

The granting of the highest degree of autonomy to Nagornyy Karabakh
within the Azerbaijani Republic.

Accordingly, the basis of these approaches on the Armenian side
is the concept of the self-determination of the Nagornyy Karabakh
people. Azerbaijan’s approach is invariably based on the principle
of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and inviolability of borders.

Nevertheless, as a member of the Minsk negotiating process, Armenia
is building its relations on these models and proceeding from the
principles of ensuring the physical security of the Karabakh Armenians,
as well as conditions for its stable and democratic development.

You are aware of these principles. However, in my opinion, the modern
development of the Karabakh process says that it is expedient to
include in these formulations the fact that Nagornyy Karabakh orients
itself to the world processes of progressive development.

Sarkisyan’s three major principles

These three fundamental principles can be formulated in the following
way:

– The impossibility of Karabakh’s subordination to Azerbaijan;

– The impossibility of Nagornyy Karabakh’s existence as an enclave, the
need to have a land border with Armenia and international guarantees
that conditions will be created for Karabakh’s participation in world
progressive processes;

– The need to have clear international guarantees that the war will
not resume and the security of the Nagornyy Karabakh population will
be guaranteed.

[Passage omitted: historical background]

Finally, a cogent argument of the impossibility of Nagornyy Karabakh
forming part of Azerbaijan is the real threat of its complete
de-Armenianization.

The total ethnic cleansing of the Naxcivan Autonomous Soviet Socialist
Republic from the indigenous Armenian population without the right
to return to their land, which was carried out by official Baku even
when Azerbaijan was part of the USSR, serve as a dreadful lesson and
warning for the Karabakh Armenians.

– On the principle of guaranteeing the impossibility of Karabakh’s
existence as an enclave, the need to have a land border with Armenia
and the NKR’s participation in world progressive processes.

The explanation of the impossibility of the NKR’s existence as an
enclave is based on the fact that in the absence of a land border
with Armenia and in conditions of an overall blockade, the Karabakh
population will be deprived of possibilities to survive. At the same
time, the guarantee that Karabakh will not exist as an enclave is the
necessary condition for fulfilling the will of the NKR to participate
in world progressive processes.

– On the need for the international community to guarantee that the
war will not resume and the security of the Karabakh Armenians will
be ensured.

In this respect, it is extremely important to skilfully bring to
the notice of the international community the basic argument that
Azerbaijan had resorted to aggression against the NKR.

The self-defence of the NKR people was organized in conformity with
Article 51 of the UN Charter in response to the military aggression
of the Azerbaijani Republic against the legally-established Nagornyy
Karabakh Republic. The violation of the principle of “territorial
integrity” with regard to the Azerbaijani Republic occurred following
a forced response to its aggression against the NKR, including the
military construction of a security zone on Azerbaijani territory
regained from the aggressor in the process of eliminating its gun
emplacements.

If we speak about the essence of the issue, we are not planning to
return the territories from the “security belt” without a scrupulous
consideration of the security interests of the Karabakh people. We
are ready to make certain compromises in a negotiated way provided
that we acquire firm guarantees from Azerbaijan that the physical
security of the Karabakh people will be ensured with the backing of
influential international organizations. In fact, Armenia is ready
to discuss the possibility of mutual compromises precisely within
this pragmatic framework.

Peaceful means and mutual compromises key to Karabakh solution

4) The prospects for Nagornyy Karabakh’s status: It is obvious to
me that the resolution of the Karabakh conflict is possible only
by peaceful means on the basis of mutual compromises. What are the
compromises that, in my opinion, the Armenian only side might agree to?

We see as a fundamental compromise the fact that Armenia is refraining
from recognizing the NKR although Karabakh has been legally established
and has been functioning as a democratic independent state for many
years. This is a demonstration of good will with the aim of backing
the peaceful settlement process within the framework of the [OSCE]
Minsk Group.

[Passage omitted: reference to international documents]

In our view, we can base the second fundamental compromise on this
proposal: Although the NKR has been legally established and has been
functioning as a democratic independent state for many years, Armenia
can agree to conduct an additional referendum among the residents
of the former Nagornyy Karabakh Autonomous Region in their current
places of residence if the referendum is organized under the aegis of
the OSCE and the UN. In this case, we are obliged to professionally
study the constructive experience of the UN mission for the affairs
of the provisional administration in Kosovo, as well as the OSCE
mission in Kosovo.

Speaking about Karabakh’s future status, I want to underline the
logic of the process of establishing the NKR and Armenian statehood
as a whole. The vital interests of maintaining the national and
international security of the Armenians imply the importance
of the parallel membership and fruitful cooperation of the two
fraternal Armenian states – the Republic of Armenia and the NKR – in
international organizations. Along with this, based on the fact that
the NKR has been established legally and is an independent state, this
approach can soften the protests of the Council of Europe to Armenia
regarding “the wish to annex” Nagornyy Karabakh. In other words,
the model “one Armenian people, two Armenian states” is definitely
of benefit to all Armenians on a strategic scale.

[Passage omitted: historical background]

Foreign Ministry positively assesses peace talks in London

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 19 2005

Baku, April 18, AssA-Irada — Foreign Ministry official Huseyn
Huseynov has positively assessed the results of the recent meetings
held by Azeri and Armenian foreign ministers with the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs.

“It became clear during the discussions that the parties truly support
a peace settlement and are trying to state their position on the
conflict resolution”, he told a news briefing held jointly with the
Foreign Ministry spokesman Matin Mirza.

Huseynov, who attended the last round of talks on the Upper Garabagh
conflict, said the meetings held by the two ministers separately with
the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in London on April 15 are a continuation
of ‘Prague talks’ and that discussions were held in the same format
as before.

Speaking of the fact that the two countries’ ministers did not meet
in private, Mirza said no agreement on such a meeting was reached
earlier. Separate meetings with the two ministers were held on the
proposal of the OSCE MG co-chairs, he said.

The spokesman said that holding separate meetings or those attended
by the co-chairs is not of great importance for Azerbaijan.

“The key issue here is for the talks to continue and for favorable
environment to form for future negotiations.”

The parties have already agreed to hold the next meeting of Azeri and
Armenian foreign ministers in Frankfurt on April 27, to be attended
by the MG co-chairs. Its key goal is to make preparations for the
meeting of the two countries’ Presidents due in May.*

Armenia, Georgia agree to speed up border delimitation

Mediamax news agency
19 Apr 05

Yerevan, 19 April: A meeting of the co-chairmen of the
Armenian-Georgian state commission on border delimitation,
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Gegam Garibdzhanyan and Georgian
ambassador-at-large Malkhaz Mikeladze, was held in Yerevan on 18 April.

The sides agreed to speed up the process of border delimitation and
discussed a schedule of the forthcoming meetings, the press service
of the Armenian Foreign Ministry has told Mediamax.

ARMENIA DOES NOT YIELD TO NEIGHBORS IN PARTICIPATION IN NATO PROGRAMS

Pan Armenian News
18.04.2005 04:11

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia is ready for many-sided cooperation with
NATO College, Armenain Ambassador to Italy Ruben Shugariansaid
during the meeting with Director of the NATO College, Lt. General
Vankeirsbilck, RA MFA press service reported. The Armenian Ambassador
expressed gratitude for the engagement of the Armenian diplomats and
military in this institute of higher education. The parties discussed
the establishment of contacts between the college and the military
institutions of Armenia. According to General Vankeirsbilck, the
college closely cooperates with the NATO partner-states. He gave a high
estimation to the participation of Armenia’s representatives in the
events organized by the college. The Armenian Ambassador in his turn
familiarized the Lt. General with the present level of the Armenia-NATO
relations and noted that Armenia does not yield to its neighbors as
regards to the participation in various NATO programs. During the
meeting the parties agreed on the further deepening of ties.

April 11, 2005 Los Angeles Times
< ailed.front>

‘Komitas’ garners four Horton awards

By Diane Haithman, Times Staff Writer

Choreographer Anna Djanbazian’s revival of her 1980 ballet “Komitas,
Kroong Bnaver” (Komitas, Banished but Not Forgotten) – which her
Djanbazian Dance Company premiered in September at Glendale Community
College – was the big winner at the 14th annual Lester Horton Dance
Awards, receiving nods in four categories.

The awards, presented Sunday at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre by
the Dance Resource Center of Greater Los Angeles, recognize excellence
in concert dance in the area for 2004.

Djanbazian’s two-act ballet honors iconic Armenian figure Komitas, who
preserved thousands of traditional songs and composed numerous
instrumental works before suffering a mental breakdown as a result of
the Armenian genocide in 1915.

The work netted awards for Djanbazian in the category of revival,
reconstruction, staging, and outstanding achievement in choreography –
long form. Awards for outstanding achievement in performance in the male
and female categories went to “Komitas” dancers Arsen Serobian and
Narineh Gazarians, respectively.

Also receiving multiple awards was “Sitting on January,” performed by
Backhausdance as part of the 2004 Celebration of Dance festival at
Glendale’s Alex Theatre last spring. The piece earned awards for
choreography – short form for Jennifer Backhaus McIvor , costume design
for Rhonda Earick and lighting design for Monique L’Heureux . Jill
Sanzo/Ballet of the Foothills also received an award for producing the
festival.

Special awards were given to postmodern dance pioneer Rudy Perez, ballet
master Stefan Wenta, composer Michael Roberts and The Times’ dance
critic Lewis Segal.

Other recipients included:

Music for dance: Rev. Tom Kurai & Satori Daiko, “Creation,” Rei Aoo’s
Dance Planet.

Performance, small ensemble: Rei Aoo, Erin Dwyer, Carrie Green, Carin
Noland, “Rain,” Rei Aoo’s Dance Planet.

Set design: Nina Kaufman and Bradley Shimada, “Found” and “What
Remains.”

Performance, company: Tongue, “Tertium Quid,” artistic director
Stephanie Gilliland.

Mail & Guardian, South Africa
April 15 2005

-Guinea denies reports of starving prisoners

Malabo

Equatorial Guinea on Thursday flatly denied charges by Amnesty
International that scores of prisoners at a jail in the capital
Malabo, including alleged mercenaries, were at risk of dying of
starvation.

Jailers at Black Beach prison have stopped providing at least 70
prisoners with meals and blocked all contact with their families,
lawyers and consular officials over the past six weeks, the group
said, calling on the authorities to provide immediate food and
medical care.

A large number of the prisoners, including at least 15 foreign
nationals, are already weak from torture, untreated illnesses and
general lack of care, the London-based human rights group claimed.

In November a court in Equatorial Guinea gave stiff jail sentences to
five alleged South African and six Armenian mercenaries, including 34
years for South African Nick du Toit, for their involvement in a coup
plot.

“The information provided by Amnesty, which for us is a faceless
organisation made up of people with unstated aims, is false and
unfounded,” said Miguel Oyono Ndong Mifumu, a special adviser to
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

“All prisoners receive daily food rations and the mercenaries, who do
not have the same eating habits as us, have an adequate diet and a
special budget to this end,” he said.

“Amnesty is trying to put pressure on the governmment to free the
hostages,” he said.

“It is serving the interests of the mercenaries’ families. But we
think what it ought to do is to come and check in situ, as the
International Red Cross has done, to back up its claims.”

In addition to the food problem, Amnesty painted a grim picture of
the prisoners’ daily routine, describing how they are kept in their
cells 24 hours a day, with the foreign inmates handcuffed and
shackled at all times.

“Amnesty International is calling on the Equatorial Guinea
authorities to immediately provide regular and adequate food, medical
care to all who need it,” it said.

The organisation also demanded that hand and leg cuffs be removed and
prisoners be allowed contact with the outside world.

“Such near starvation, lack of medical attention and appalling prison
conditions represent a scandalous failure by the Equatorial Guinea
authorities to fulfil their most basic responsibilities under
international law,” said the director of Amnesty’s Africa programme,
Kolawole Olaniyan.

“The Equatorial Guinea government is using this as a political tool
to keep undesirable dissidents at bay,” said Olanyian.

“Unless immediate action is taken, many of those detained at Black
Beach prison will die.”

Last December, food rations were reportedly cut from a daily cup of
rice to one or two bread rolls, and since February, provision of any
prison meals has been sporadic.

Detainees with family in Malabo rely on supplies handed to guards by
their relatives, according to Amnesty.

But six Armenians, five South Africans and four Nigerian nationals in
the prison are at a particular risk of starvation as they lack the
support of their family’s. – Sapa-AFP

AZG Armenian Daily #065, 13/04/2005

Home

OPTIMALIZATION’S PLEASANT SIDES

The program of optimalization in the health care institutions of the capital
has passed into a more pleasant stage — the stage of financial investments.
Separate unions that became medical centers and now financial investments
are being made in them, according to the optimalization program. A
trilateral treaty has been signed already between the World Bank, Yerevan
Municipality and RA Healthcare Ministry.

According to the treaty, the investments’ program envisaged to allocate $2,8
million to “Holy Virgin” medical center.

“Gregory Illuminator” medical center will be the next to be financed by the
World Bank.

By Karine Danielian

Agence France Presse
11 avril 2005 lundi 9:49 PM GMT

Profanation à Marseille d’une stèle commémorative du génocide arménien

MARSEILLE 11 avr 2005

Une stèle à la mémoire des victimes du génocide arménien a été
profanée à Marseille, a-t-on appris lundi soir auprès des
représentants de la communauté arménienne et de la police.

L’inscription “PD”, taguée en noir, a été découverte lundi après-midi
sur cette stèle de pierre blanche installée sur la voie publique dans
un quartier est de la ville.

Cette “khatchkar” (pierre tombale en arménien) est fleurie chaque
année au 15 avril, en réference au 24 avril 1915 qui marque
symboliquement le début du génocide arménien.

“A quelques jours de la commémoration du 90e anniversaire du
génocide, cet acte est très symbolique et ne peut passer inaperçu”, a
déclaré à l’AFP Vartan Arzoumanian, président du Comité de défense de
la cause arménienne Marseille Provence (CDCA). Le président de cette
organisation qui milite notamment pour la reconnaissance du génocide
arménien par la Turquie s’est dit “indigné”.

La communauté arménienne de la région marseillaise est la seconde de
France, après Paris, avec environ 80.000 personnes.

Les massacres et les déportations d’Arméniens, de 1915 à 1917, ont
fait entre 1,2 et 1,3 million de morts selon les Arméniens.

PHOTO-EXHIBITION “CULTURAL GENOCIDE” OPENS IN YEREVAN

YEREVAN, APRIL 12. ARMINFO. A photo-exhibition “Cultural Genocide” has
opened in Yerevan today on the initiative of the Students Council of
the Historical Faculty of YSU and the Youth Wing of ARFD party.

A member of the Youth Wing of ARFD Tadevos Charchyan says that the
photos show the cultural values of Western Armenia, which suffered
changes due to many wars. The photos tell about the destroyed temples,
castles, historical Armenians towns of Van, Kars, Bagrevan and
Mush. Cultural genocide is a too dangerous phenomenon as it leads to
annihilation of the whole history, national culture. The young
generation of Armenia should know and transfer the spiritual values of
the past to other generations, he says.

The photos are provided by RAA. The photo-exhibition was to be held
also in the regions and at many higher educational establishments of
Armenia.

Armenian National Committee of Australia Inc.
The Peak Public Affairs Committee of the Armenian-Australian Community
259 Penshurst Street, P.O. Box 768, Willoughby NSW 2068
Tel: (02) 9419 8264 Fax: (02) 9411 8898
Email:[email protected]

PRESS RELEASE 12 April 2005
Contact: Dr Tro Kortian
(mob) 0412 197364

Ryde City Council unanimously passes Motion marking
90th Anniversary of Armenian Genocide

SYDNEY On April 24 of this year, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of
the ANZAC landings, Armenians the world over, including the many
thousands of Armenian-Australians living in Sydney, will commemorate
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. They will recall that,
in 1915, the Ottoman Empire set in motion a plan to exterminate the
entire Christian Armenian population living on their ancestral lands
of Eastern Anatolia, part of what is today the Republic of
Turkey. This state-sponsored program resulted in the brutal
extermination of some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children.

This evening Ryde City Council unanimously passed the following Motion
commemorating the Armenian Genocide, moved by Clr Yedelian, the first
Australian Councillor of Armenian ancestry:

That this Council:

(1) acknowledges this year as marking the occasion of the 90th
anniversary commemoration of the Genocide of the Armenians
perpetrated by the then Ottoman Government between the years
1915-1922;

(2) joins with the Armenian community of Ryde in honouring the memory
of the 1.5 million men, women and children who died in the
first genocide of the twentieth century;

(3) recognises 24 April every year as a day of remembrance of the
Armenian genocide;

(4) condemns the genocide of the Armenians and all other acts of>
genocide committed as the ultimate act of racial, religious and
cultural intolerance;

(5) calls on the Commonwealth Government to officially condemn:

(i) the genocide of the Armenians

(ii) any attempt to deny such crimes against humanity.

In stark contrast to post-Nazi Germany which has acknowledged and
sought to atone for the crimes of the Nazi regime, successive Turkish
governments have refused to come to terms with their own history.
Instead they have maintained a morally bankrupt campaign of genocide
denial, and have benefited from all the fruits of that crime with
impunity. Modern day Turkey today, which is seeking admission into
the European Union, has recently legislated that it is a crime to
state that there was a genocide of the Armenians during World War I.

In her statement in support of the Motion, Ms Taline Soghomonian of
the Armenian National Committee of Australia (`ANCA’) said;- `There is
perhaps no more poignant evidence of the consequences of such
impunity, and the importance of commemorative motions such as the one
before this Council tonight, than the chilling statement by Hitler in
1939 as he embarked on his genocidal deeds in Europe during World War
II ` “Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?”‘ (The full
statement is attached below).

In a resounding, albeit belated, response to this cynical statement by
Hitler, a growing number of countries around the world and
multinational organisations, such as the European Parliament, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the French and
Canadian Parliaments and the NSW Parliament, have commemorated and
reaffirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.

Dr Tro Kortian, President of the ANCA said `It is fitting tonight that
a city such as Ryde, which has such a large and growing constituency
of Armenian-Australians, will add its voice to this call and help to
ensure that the Armenian Genocide is never allowed to be denied or
forgotten. This is the highest tribute we can pay to the victims of
the Armenian Genocide and all other acts of genocide. I commend
Councillor Yedelian for moving this Motion and all the Ryde City
Councillors who have supported its passage. We trust that the Prime
Minister, who has his own electorate office in the City of Ryde, takes
heed of the call made to the Federal Parliament in that Motion.

Statement by the

Armenian National Committee of Australia, Inc

Dear Mayor and Councillors

As a resident of the City of Ryde, and as a member of the leading
Armenian-Australian grass-roots public affairs organisation, the
Armenian National Committee of Australia, I greatly appreciate this
opportunity to speak in support of this important Motion.

On April 24 of this year, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the
ANZAC landings, Armenians the world over, including the many thousands
of Armenian-Australians living in the City of Ryde, will commemorate
the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. They will recall that,
in 1915, the Ottoman Empire set in motion a plan to exterminate the
entire Christian Armenian population living on their ancestral lands
of Eastern Anatolia, part of what is today the Republic of
Turkey. This state-sponsored program resulted in the brutal
extermination of some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children.

Using the cover of the First World War, the ultra-nationalist Young
Turk regime that ruled the Ottoman Empire unleashed a campaign to
uproot and destroy the Armenian population which stood in the way of
their plans to set up a `Pan-Turkic’ empire. Observers and the press
throughout the world, including here in Australia, were shocked at the
horrific stories of entire towns, villages and cities emptied of their
Armenian inhabitants. Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to
Turkey at the time, termed the Turkish crime against the Armenians
“race murder.” It was the destruction of an entire ancient
civilisation.

In addition to the eye-witness testimonies of the genocide survivors
and other witnesses, the national archives of the United States of
America as well as all major European states, whether friend or foe of
the then Ottoman Empire during World War I, hold substantial documents
attesting to this crime against humanity.

The Polish-Jewish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term
`genocide’ and was instrumental in establishing the UN Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, cited the
Armenian Genocide together with the Jewish Holocaust as prototypes of
this newly defined crime against humanity.

Despite this overwhelming and irrefutable evidence, and in stark
contrast to post-Nazi Germany which has acknowledged and sought to
atone for the crimes of the Nazi regime, successive Turkish
governments have refused to come to terms with their own history.
Instead they have maintained a morally bankrupt campaign of genocide
denial, and have benefited from all the fruits of that crime with
impunity.

Modern day Turkey today, which is seeking admission into the European
Union, has recently legislated that it is a crime to state that there
was a genocide of the Armenians during World War I. Those brave
Turkish citizens who have dared to speak out have faced persecution,
threats and imprisonment. In recent months, the admission in a press
interview by the famous Turkish writer Orhan Parmuk that 1 million
Armenians had in fact been killed, led to disturbing reactions such as
attacks on the writer and calls by government officials for the mass
burning of his books.

As Baroness Caroline Cox, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords stated
in a speech in the House of Lords in 1999 ` If nations are allowed to
commit genocide with impunity, to hide their guilt in a camouflage of
lies and denials, there is a real danger that other brutal regimes
will be encouraged to attempt genocides. Unless we speak today of the
Armenian genocide and unless the Government recognises this historical
fact, we shall leave this century of unprecedented genocides with this
blot on our consciences.”

There is perhaps no more poignant evidence of the consequences of such
impunity, and the importance of commemorative motions such as the one
before this Council tonight, than the chilling statement by Hitler in
1939 as he embarked on his genocidal deeds in Europe during World War
II ` “Who remembers now the destruction of the Armenians?”

In a resounding, albeit belated, response to this cynical statement by
Hitler, a growing number of countries around the world and
multinational organisations, such as the European Parliament and the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, have commemorated and
reaffirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.

I am proud to say that the New South Wales Parliament in 1997 joined
its voice to this international chorus by multinational, national,
state or provincial and municipal legislative bodies. It is fitting
tonight that a city such as Ryde, which has such a large and growing
constituency of Armenian-Australians, will add its voice to this call
and help to ensure that the Armenian Genocide is never allowed to be
denied or forgotten. This is the highest tribute we can pay to the
victims of the Armenian Genocide and all other acts of genocide.

I commend Councillor Yedelian for moving this Motion and all the
Councillors who have supported its passage. Finally, we trust that the
Prime Minister, who has his own electorate office in the City of Ryde,
takes heed of the call made to the Federal Parliament in that Motion.

Thank you.