Author: Khondkarian Raffi

ARMENIA THIS WEEK
Friday, March 19, 2004

PRESIDENT PROMISES CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION
President Robert Kocharian this week criticized Armenia’s law-enforcement
bodies for not being “active and resolute” enough in fighting crime and
corruption. The criticism came as Kocharian appointed his close ally Aghvan
Hovsepian as Prosecutor-General, the position he held between 1998-99 before
being forced to resign by Kocharian’s political opponents. Kocharian said
that he expects the law-enforcement bodies to follow through in
investigating corrupt practice revealed by the Presidential Oversight
Service.

Earlier in the week, head of the Service Vahram Barseghian publicized
results of 2003 inspections, revealing abuse of office and misappropriations
of public property by the customs, transportation, justice and local
government officials. Barseghian particularly singled out the Mayor of
Gyumri Vartan Ghoukasian, who is accused of misappropriating apartments
built for earthquake victims. Ghoukasian, who was one of Kocharian’s key
backers in the last elections, is now facing potential criminal charges and,
if convicted, would be removed from the post. Already dismissed is head of
Armenia’s forest administration, also accused of corruption.

Last November, Armenia’s three-party coalition government adopted an
anti-corruption program and the officials have repeatedly pledged to fight
the problem. While organizations such as Transparency International have
noted some headway against corruption in Armenia during Kocharian’s first
term, much of the Armenian public remains skeptical.

According to a recent poll conducted by the U.S.-funded International
Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a full 44 percent of 600 people
contacted in Yerevan, Vanadzor, Ararat and Goris never heard of the
government’s anti-corruption plan, while 74 percent were unaware of its
content. Half of those polled did not view the plan as confirmation of the
government’s intention to fight corruption. (Sources: Armenia This Week
10-25, 11-22-02; 6-27, 10-10, 11-7; Arminfo 3-3, 18; RFE/RL Armenia Report
3-12, 18; Noyan Tapan 3-19)

GEORGIA, AJARIA STEP BACK FROM BRINK
The central government of Georgia and authoritarian leadership of the
Ajarian autonomous republic this week came to the brink of armed conflict
before striking a new power-sharing deal. The standoff had immediate
repercussions throughout the region, with Ajaria’s Batumi port virtually
shut down for days and traffic rerouted through Georgia’s only other port of
Poti. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered a blockade of Ajaria
and both sides mobilized forces after Saakashvili and his security retinue
were barred from entering the republic by local police loyal to Ajarian
leader Aslan Abashidze. Saakashvili and Abashidze have been at loggerheads
for some time, and pro-Saakashvili forces in Ajaria have in recent months
intensified campaigning for Abashidze’s ouster.

While Armenian companies mostly use the port of Poti for their import and
export operations, Batumi’s long-term closure could have potentially
overloaded Poti leading to delays and price increases, especially on
gasoline. The Armenian government publicly urged both sides to settle their
differences peacefully earlier this week. In the meantime, Armenian
companies rerouted shipments of diesel fuel from Ukraine, while another ship
with Armenia-bound sugar was stranded in the port of Batumi.

In a deal described as a “temporary truce” by most observers, Abashidze
reportedly promised Saakashvili to stop pressuring opponents in the run-up
to parliamentary elections next week and share more of the profits from the
Batumi port and border crossing with Turkey. The deal came following intense
diplomatic pressure from Russia, Turkey and the United States to avoid an
armed confrontation.

Abashidze, who has ruled the ethnically Georgian and traditionally Muslim
Ajaria as his fiefdom for over a decade, has close relationships in both
Russia and Turkey. There is a Russian base in Ajaria and Turkish officials
have claimed that under Soviet-Turkish treaties Turkey has a right to
intervene in Ajaria (as well as Nakhichevan). But both Georgian officials
and most legal scholars deny that Turkey has any such right. (Sources:
; RFE/RL 3-15, 16; Interfax 3-15, 17; Arminfo 3-15, 17;
RFE/RL Armenia Report 3-16, 17; Eurasia.net 3-18; Ekho 3-19)

KARABAKH HOSTS CHESS TOURNAMENT
A first major international sporting event concluded this week in
Stepanakert amid largely unsuccessful efforts by Azerbaijan to undermine it.
The Tigran Petrosian memorial tournament brought together some of the
strongest chess players from Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Iran, Poland, Russia
and Switzerland. Petrosian, an Armenia native, was the world champion for
much of the 1960s, before being defeated by Boris Spassky. Spassky, now a
French national and retired from the game, was the guest of honor at the
Stepanakert tournament.

Chairman of the International Chess Federation, FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
sent a letter welcoming the competition as contributing to the “unique
Armenian chess culture.” One of the world’s strongest chess players, Garry
Kasparov, welcomed the selection of Stepanakert as the site for the
tournament as another confirmation that Karabakh has overcome the difficult
post-war legacy. Kasparov, who is an ethnic Armenian on his mother’s side,
was forced to flee anti-Armenian violence in his native Baku in 1990.

The Azerbaijani government put pressure on chess federations of
participating nationals to recall their players and judges, claiming that
their participation was “illegal.” Two players, a Georgian and Iranian were
forced to withdraw towards the end of the tournament, which Spassky
described as a “real chess holiday.”

In the end, Armenia’s Karen Asriyan narrowly won the hard-fought series with
six out of nine possible points. Bartlomiej Macieja of Poland was a close
second with 5.5 points and Gabriel Sargsian of Armenia was third with 5
points. (Sources: ; Azat Artsakh 3-8, 10; RFE/RL Armenia
Report 3-9; Turan 3-10; Day.az 3-12; Artsakh TV 3-18; Ekho 3-19; Noyan Tapan
3-19)

A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA
122 C Street, N.W., Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 393-3434 FAX
(202) 638-4904
E-Mail [email protected] WEB

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 19, 2004, Friday

NATO MONTHS IN THE CAUCASUS

SOURCE: Russky Kurier, March 15, 2004, p. 6

by Rada Guseinova, Marina Kalashnikova

VISITS OF AMERICAN DELEGATIONS TO BAKU: THE UNITED STATES HOPES TO
DRAW AZERBAIJAN INTO THE ORBIT OF INTERACTION WITH NATO AS SOON AS
POSSIBLE

American military and diplomatic delegation was met in Baku,
Azerbaijan, on March 12. The delegation includes a group of the
Supreme Consultative Council of the US Army European Command under
General Charles Wald. The delegation comprises Admiral Gregory
Johnson, US Navy Commander in Europe and NATO Commander in South
Europe, and numerous ambassadors.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with the Americans on
Saturday. In his speech, Aliyev ascribed rapid rapprochement with
official Washington and NATO in general to the necessity of
“reinforcing regional stability and security.” General Wald in his
turn added that terrorist acts in Spain testifying to activeness of
international terrorism only served to made Western aid in security
matters all the more assured. Efforts of the international community
should be concentrated on settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, protection of Caspian energy resources, and elimination of
terrorist groups in the southern part of the Caucasus. That is why an
emphasis is made on military cooperation, not economy. Military
cooperation and interaction was the talk of the week in Baku. In
fact, the whole week became “American” for official Baku because of
the delegations from across the ocean coming one after another.

The capital of Azerbaijan was visited by a group of the US AF
College, Undersecretary Lynn Pasco, a delegation under Eric Schultz
of the US Department of State and Bruce Rogers, assistant political
adviser to the US mission to NATO. Washington’s plans are simple. It
is out to draw countries of the southern part of the Caucasus – first
and foremost Azerbaijan and Georgia – into the orbit of close
cooperation with NATO within the next two or three years. And to
bring their national armies closer to NATO standards. The latter
objective is inseparable from settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict. All these issues were discussed at length by Defense
Minister of Azerbaijan Safar Abiyev and Schultz and Rogers. A more
detailed discussion is to follow during Abiyev’s upcoming visit to
Washington in the near future.

For the time being, General Wald in Baku continues discussion of the
mobile groups, the idea he first came up with three months ago. A
well-informed and trustworthy source in military circles of
Azerbaijan says that the Americans came with specific suggestions.
Issues of the European ballistic missile defense are being discussed
among other things. An accord with Baku on the use of the Gabala
radar may be of particular interest from this point of view. For the
time being, the radar is a subject of the Russian-Azerbaijani
agreement in accordance with which the signatories share the
information obtained by the radar. Meanwhile, Baku signed several
information exchange accords with advanced countries including the
United States. According to the source, Wold is trying to convince
official Baku that “Azerbaijan should share the information obtained
by the radar with the United States as its military partner” since
“there are no legal obstacles to it, actually.” Details of military
cooperation will be discussed at the meetings with heads of the
Defense Ministry, State Border Service, and National Security
Ministry.

Inspired by the new stimuli of rapprochement with the European Union
and NATO, Aliyev with his Georgian counterpart is about to visit the
countries that have already been drafted into the NATO orbit. He will
meet with leaders of the Vilnius Ten in Bratislava within the
framework of an international conference on the “expanded Europe” and
“new neighbors” on March 18 and 19. Premiers of Ireland, Turkey,
Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovine were invited to the
forum too. NATO General Secretary Jaan de Hoop Sheffer and European
Union Expansion Commissar Gunther Verheugen will also be present.

US State Undersecretary Richard Armitage will tour capitals of the
Caucasus in late March. This visit may speed up the sharp turn of
countries of the southern part of the Caucasus to the West. Armitage
is known as a prominent specialist in matters of security and war on
terrorism. He intends to discuss pressing problems of the war on
terrorism with three presidents of the Caucasus. It was Armitage who
said in his time that establishment of US military bases in
Azerbaijan was but a matter of time. Neither is Armitage exactly
ignorant of Azerbaijani affairs. It is Armitage who knows everything
there is to know about the Aliyevs and their affairs and explains
their interests to the US Administration – both in the spheres of
politics and oil. When in the Caucasus, he will apparently discuss
Caspian oil, security of the Baku – Tbilisi – Dzheikhan pipeline,
location of mobile groups, and roles of the three countries of the
Caucasus in the war on international terrorism.

Translated by A. Ignatkin

The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)
March 8, 2004 Monday Final Edition

Canada a haven for terrorists, new book claims: National Post
reporter says the country is a renowned hub of global terrorism

by Mary Vallis

TORONTO — An Armenian immigrant who participated in Canada’s first
major terrorist incident 22 years ago still lives in Toronto and
plays guitar in a band, according to a new book probing the country’s
terrorist ties.

Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Around the
World explores how Canada has evolved into an internationally
renowned hub of global terrorism. Written by National Post reporter
Stewart Bell, the book contains exclusive interviews with victims of
terrorist attacks, senior intelligence officials and terrorists
themselves.

In September 2003, at a nondescript coffee shop in Little Italy, Bell
met with Haig Gharakhanian, one of three Armenians convicted of
plotting to kill a Turkish diplomat in Ottawa. The man was nervous
because his band’s CD was about to be released and he had just met
with CSIS to get clearance for his Canadian citizenship, but spoke
with Bell anyway.

“As we were speaking, the lead singer of his band comes in and sits
down,” Bell recalled. “You could just see this guy’s eyes widening as
he listens to the guy who’s been his guitar player and roommate for
years explaining his involvement in terrorism.”

Gharakhanian, who was just 17 years old when he participated in the
attack, spent nine months in prison for his role in the 1982 shooting
of Kani Gungor. The diplomat was left paralyzed. Gharakhanian, who
had Iranian citizenship, helped scout out the target and delivered a
letter to the United Press International’s Los Angeles office, in
which the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA)
claimed responsibility for the attack.

After he was released on parole, Gharakhanian applied for refugee
status and successfully fought a deportation order. Bell uses his
case as one example that illustrates how Canada’s immigration policy
has fuelled the country’s links to terrorism.

“He got a very light sentence. He was not deported because the
immigration judges felt sorry for him, and now he’s about to become a
citizen,” Bell said of Gharakhanian. “That was our beginning. We
treated a guy who was basically a terrorist sympathetically, and that
set the stage for everything that’s followed ….”

Bell’s book, released today, chronicles how Canada became a haven for
some of the world’s most powerful terrorist organizations. It also
features newly uncovered pieces of an internal CSIS report written in
the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The report shows that as Jean Chretien stood up in the House of
Commons and proclaimed Canada free of terrorists planning attacks,
CSIS had concluded al-Qaida had operatives in Canada and could list
them by name.

Bell argues Canadian politicians do not pay enough attention to
warnings from security intelligence officials. Politicians have not
taken a strong stand against terrorism in part because they fear they
will alienate some of their core voter support — namely interest
groups who promise to deliver ethnic voting blocks.

“Canadians like to think of themselves as benevolent world citizens,
peacekeepers in blue berets who bring kindness and calm to troubled
lands,” Bell writes.

“The cold truth is that, since the early 1980s, Canada has become a
source country of international terrorism. Former prime minister Jean
Chretien used to boast that the United Nations Human Development
Index showed Canada was the best country in the world in which to
live. In the past two decades, it also became the best country in the
world for terrorists to make their home.”

ARKA News Agency
March 10 2004

RA Foreign Minister to take part in 60th session of UN Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva on March 15-16

Armenian Agency of Tourism Development to take part in the exhibition
`International Tourist Bourse’ in Berlin on March 12-16

The Azerbaijani chess federation expresses its anxiety about holding
the International Chess Tournament in Nagorno-Karabakh

The RA President receives the Georgian Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary in Armenia

Online weekly `Parliament’ to be placed on web since 9 March

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

RA FOREIGN MINISTER TO TAKE PART IN 60TH SESSION OF UN COMMISSION ON
HUMAN RIGHTS IN GENEVA ON MARCH 15-16

YEREVAN, March 10. /ARKA/. RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian will
take part in 60th session of UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
on March 15-16, RA MFA told ARKA. The session includes bilateral
meetings with Foreign Ministers of Switzerland, Italy, Luxembourg,
and Estonia. L.D. –0–

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

ARMENIAN AGENCY OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT TO TAKE PART IN THE EXHIBITION
`INTERNATIONAL TOURIST BOURSE’ IN BERLIN ON MARCH 12-16

YEREVAN, March 10. /ARKA/. Armenian Agency of Tourism Development
will take part in the exhibition `International Tourist Bourse’ in
Berlin on March 12-16, 2004, AATD told ARKA. AATD will represent the
program and marketing strategy of tourism development to represent
Armenia as an attractive center of year-round tourism at
international arena. `Participation of Armenia in similar activities
has fundamental importance for maximal protection and economic
efficiency of developing tourism industry’, press release notes.
ITB exhibition will include 10 thousand participants from 180
countries and regions that will represent tourism services of all
levels. The participants are all structures of world tourism
industry. L.D. –0–

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

THE AZERBAIJANI CHESS FEDERATION EXPRESSES ITS ANXIETY ABOUT HOLDING
THE INTERNATIONAL CHESS TOURNAMENT IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

YEREVAN, March 10. /ARKA/. The Azerbaijani chess federation expressed
its anxiety about holding the International Chess Tournament in
Nagorno-Karabakh, as the President of the Armenian Chess Association,
Grand Master Smbat Lputyan stated in Stepanakert. `It is very pity
that the Azerbaijani party so badly reacted at holding the
International Chess Tournament in Nagorno-Karabakh. It shouldn’t’ be
so, since such arrangement is the basis for chess development’, he
said.
According to the Academy’s President, `there is a great basis for
chess developing in Nagorno-Karabakh, and it would be good if such
competitions became traditional’.
The idea of holding the International Chess Tournament in
Nagorno-Karabakh occurred to the Armenian Chess Academy and the NKR
Government five months ago.
The International Chess Tournament is devoted to the 75th anniversary
since the birth of the 9th World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosyan.
A.H. -0–

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

THE RA PRESIDENT RECEIVES THE GEORGIAN AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY AND
PLENIPOTENTIARY IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, March 10. /ARKA/. The RA President Robert Kocharian received
the Georgian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Armenia
Nikoloz Nikolozishvili , whose term of office expires. According to
the RA President’s Press Service, Nikoloz Nikolozishvili is assigned
as plenipotentiary of the Georgian President in Samtskhe-Dzhavakhetii
region. The RA President highly estimated the 6-year work of the
Georgian Ambassador in Armenia and noted that significant progress in
the relations between two countries is observed.
In the course of the meeting the parties attached great importance to
the coming visit of the Georgian President Michael Saakashvili to
Armenia. At their estimates, it will be an additional push for
developing Armenia-Georgian relations. During the meeting the parties
discussed the situation in Dzhavakhq. The Ambassador noted that he
happened to be in Samtskhe-Dzhavakhetii , and his primary duty he
considers settling social and economic problems in the region. The RA
President attached great importance to improving the road connecting
Dzhavakhq with Armenia. A.H.–0–

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

ONLINE WEEKLY `PARLIAMENT’ TO BE PLACED ON WEB SINCE 9 MARCH

YEREVAN. March 10. /ARKA/. Online weekly `Parliament’ will be placed
on the Armenian Parliament’s web (), as
ARKA News Agency was told in the Armenian Parliament Public Relations
Department. The weekly will include the following headings: main
topic, official reference, legislation, politics, and international
activity of the Armenian Parliament for the next week.
It should be reminded that the first number of print monthly
reference `National Assembly’ was printed on 16 December 2003. As
reported by the Head of Public Relations Department of the Armenian
Parliament Anahit Adamyan, the reference is not for sale and will be
distributed free of charge as inside of the Parliament as well as for
outer use. The circulation of the first number of the reference is
500 copies. T.M. -0–

Ottawa Citizen
March 11, 2004 Thursday Final Edition

Fiddling and fencing with Thirteen Strings

by Steven Mazey

How often do you get to see a prodigiously talented violin soloist
and a fencing demonstration in period costume, all in one evening?

That’s what audiences will be treated to tomorrow night when
violinist Jessica Linnebach joins chamber orchestra Thirteen Strings
and conductor Jean-Francois Rivest for pieces by Tartini and Armenian
composer Alexander Arutiunian.

The orchestra will also perform 17th-century composer Heinrich
Biber’s Battalia, which was inspired by a swordfight. That’s where
the fencing comes in. Rivest will give a free pre-concert talk about
the piece at 7 p.m., with demonstrations by members of the University
of Ottawa Excalibur Fencing Club, in costume.

Linnebach, a native of Edmonton, performed as a soloist with the
National Arts Centre Orchestra when she was 17, on the tour of Israel
and Europe in 2000. Tomorrow, she will perform Arutiunian’s Concerto
for Violin and String Orchestra and Tartini’s Sonata in G minor for
Violin and Strings, “Devil’s Trill.”

It’s Linnebach’s first performance of the Arutunian piece, which she
describes as “very melodious and rich.”

She first performed the Tartini when she was 11, and says “it is very
exciting and dramatic, and it really is like a Devil’s Trill. The
most difficult aspect of the piece is endurance and being able to
keep the energy all the way through. I’m excited to have the
opportunity to play it again.”

Linnebach was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia at the age of 10, and is one of the youngest bachelor of
music graduates in the 75-year history of the school. Last September,
the Canada Council for the Arts’ Instrument Bank awarded her a
three-year loan of a Bell Giovanni Tononi violin from about 1700.

“I have fallen in love with it. It has a rich and full sound and it
has been an absolute joy for me to play,” says Linnebach, who has
been performing as a member of the NACO this season.

The concert starts at 8 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church, Kent Street at
Wellington. Tickets, at $25 general, $20 seniors, and $5 for
students, will be at the door.

Thirteen Strings will also perform Sunday as part of the Concerts
Cumberland series, joined by two talented Ottawa students.

Violinist Yolanda Bruno, 14, and pianist Nina He, 16, won the fourth
annual Capital Concerto Competition, organized by Concerts Cumberland
to give students the chance to work with a professional orchestra.

At Orleans United Church, 1111 Orleans Blvd., Bruno will perform an
excerpt from a Locatelli concerto and Nina He will perform an excerpt
from Bach’s Concerto in F minor. The students receive prizes of $500
and $300 from sponsor RBC Investments.

The concert includes music by Haydn and a repeat of the Biber piece.
The talk and the fencing demonstration start at 7:10 p.m., followed
by the concert at 7:30 p.m. Tickets, $20 for adults, $16 for seniors,
$5 for students, will be at the door.

Azg, Yerevan, in Armenian
10 Mar 04 p 5

Armenian paper condemns British envoy for denying genocide

The British ambassador’s recent remarks on the 1915 Armenian genocide
are false and offensive, says an article reprinted by the Armenian
newspaper Azg from California Courier. The paper interviewed
Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt who said that “the British government
had condemned the massacres as an atrocity at the time, and still
did, but the evidence was not sufficiently unequivocal that what took
place could be categorized as genocide under the 1948 United Nations
Convention on Genocide”. At the same time, the paper criticized the
Armenian government for not reacting to the ambassador’s statement.
It urged Armenian organizations to condemn the British government’s
position and stage demonstrations outside the embassy. The following
is a text of Harut Sassounian report by Armenian newspaper Azg on 10
March headlined “One should not keep silent in this case”.
Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

On 20 January, during an interview to the Regnum agency in connection
with the first anniversary of her diplomatic posting in Armenia, the
British ambassador to Armenia made a false and offensive statement on
the Armenian genocide. Ambassador Thorda Abbott-Watt was reported by
Azg newspaper as saying: “Great Britain accepts that the events of
1915 were mass killings (of the Armenian population), the responsible
for which are the Turks. I see no problem calling it brutality. It
shouldn’t have taken place even in the course of war. But, I do not
think that recognizing the events as genocide would be of much use.”

British envoy’s comment

Before writing this column, I sent an e-mail to the British
ambassador to confirm that she was accurately quoted. She responded
by saying: “On the events of 1915, I said words to the effect quoted,
but the translation has come out slightly clumsily. What I said was
that I understood the strength of feeling in Armenia about what
happened and that I knew that this was an issue which still touched
people very deeply nearly ninety years on. The British government had
condemned the massacres as an atrocity at the time, and still did.
But the evidence was not sufficiently unequivocal that what took
place could be categorized as genocide under the 1948 United Nations
Convention on Genocide and that while the debate continued among
historians and lawyers, we believed that there was a role for us in
encouraging countries in the region to look to the future and to work
actively for better relations and a lessening of tension.”

In my response to her, I pointed out that I had no quarrel with her
personally, since as ambassador, she was merely expressing the
position of her government. Nevertheless, I inquired if she could
explain why the British government would take the highly offensive
and incorrect position that the Armenian genocide did not fit the UN
definition of genocide. I told her that I was quite familiar with the
UN definition, as I had spent 10 years lobbying at the UN for the
acceptance of the Armenian genocide. In 1985, the UN Subcommission on
the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities finally
recognized the Armenian genocide as a genocide, and included it as
such in its report on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide. I found it absurd that the British government would
question the compatibility of the Armenian genocide with the UN
definition, since the UN itself had taken the position that the
Armenian Genocide perfectly fit its definition of genocide! It is
quite upsetting that any ambassador sitting in Yerevan would have the
audacity to dispute that what happened to the Armenians in 1915 was
genocide!

No Armenian reaction so far

It is even more upsetting that in the past six weeks, not a single
Armenian government official, nor the representative of any political
organization, indeed not a single Armenian has bothered to respond to
the ambassador’s insulting words on the Armenian genocide! By now,
there should have been dozens of statements issued by various
Armenian entities, both in Armenia and the diaspora, condemning both
the British ambassador and her government. There should have been
daily demonstrations in front of the British embassy in Yerevan. The
Armenian Foreign Ministry should have delivered a diplomatic note of
protest to the ambassador and put her on notice that the Armenian
government would not tolerate such offensive statements. In a recent
interview she gave to a journalist in Armenia, Ambassador Abott-Watt
said: “I like a good khorovads [kebab]. By the time I leave Armenia,
I hope I’ll be able to make good khorovads.” If the Armenians would
react strongly to her deeply injurious statement on the genocide,
before she returns to London, she may also learn that distorting the
facts of the Armenian genocide is highly offensive to Armenians and a
sin against all victims of crimes against humanity. By their silence,
Armenians are simply encouraging the British and others to continue
questioning the facts of the Armenian genocide.

Imagine what would have happened if some ambassador would have been
foolish enough to give a press conference in the middle of Tel Aviv,
saying that the Holocaust was simply “an atrocity” or “a brutality”
and did not fit the UN definition of genocide! That ambassador would
have been kicked out of Israel within 24 hours. Armenians not only
should raise their voices in protest against the British ambassador,
more importantly, they should urge Armenian government officials and
political organizations not to remain silent in the face of such
denials!