Author: Nahapetian Boris

ARMENIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF CANADA
COMITÉ NATIONAL ARMÉNIEN DU CANADA
3401 Olivar-Asselin
Montréal, Québec
H4J 1L5
Tél. (514) 334-1299 Fax (514) 334-6853

Contacts: Shant Karabajak 514-334-1299
Roupen Kouyoumdjian 514-336-7095

Communiqué de Presse – Press Release
1 mai, 2005

Talaat se souvient du Génocide Arménien

Des révélations qui bouleversent l’opinion publique et qui pulvérisent la
théorie de la “négation”

Montréal – Le quotidien turc Hürriyet en date de 25 et 26 avril 2005, vient
de dévoiler les registres et les statistiques partielles extraits du “livre
noir de la déportation” appartenant à nul autre que Talaat, architecte du
Génocide Arménien de 1915. Gardé en secret depuis des années, c’est la
petite-fille de Talaat qui aurait voulu que ces informations soient
publiées. Bien qu’il s’agit d’une liste partielle, qui concerne uniquement
les déportations et qui ne tient pas compte des executions et des massacres
locaux, le nombre des déportés serait 924 158 pour seulement 18 villes.
Selon ces mêmes statistiques, le nombre d’orphelins se chiffrerait à 10 314
pour l’ensemble des 16 villes considérées.

Rejoint au téléphone, le Dr. Girair Basmadjian, président du Comité National
Arménien du Canada a déclaré; “bien qu’il s’agit d’une liste partielle qui
touche uniquement les déportations, il s’agit d’un début très prometteur.
D’ailleurs les chiffres importent très peu, la reconnaissance du Génocide
Arménien par la Turquie facilitera sa progression vers la démocratie”.

Talaat remembers Armenian Genocide

Revealing book upsets public opinion and destroys the theory of “denial”

Montréal – The Turkish daily, Hürriyet, dated April 25 and 26 2005, reveals
a ledger of statistics called “the black book of the deportations”,
belonging to none other than Talaat, principal architect of the Armenian
Genocide of 1915. Kept in secret for years, it is Talaat’s granddaughter who
wanted to publish this crucial information. Despite the fact that it is an
incomplete list, dealing only with deportations, and not discussing local
executions and massacres, it states the number of deportees from only 18
towns at 924 158. According to these same statistics, the number of orphans
reaches 10 314 for 16 towns.

Reached by telephone, Dr Girair Basmadjian, President of the Armenian
National Committee of Canada stated; “although it is a partial list
discussing only the deportations, it is a promising start. Besides, the
numbers aren’t really important, what’s important is that the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide by Turkey would help that country progress more easily
toward democratic society.”

-30-

Embassy of The United States
Yerevan, Armenia
05.html

Ambassador Evans Celebrates Earth Day and Arbor Day at Tree Planting
On April 27, U.S. Ambassador John Evans, and Mrs. Donna Evans celebrated
Earth Day and Arbor Day with a ceremonial tree planting in the village of
Karin, hosted by the Armenian Tree Project (ATP.) The U.S. Embassy is proud
to support ATP’s important work, for as President Bush recently reiterated,
it is a duty and an obligation to protect our environment.
This is the fourth year that the U.S. Embassy is celebrating Earth Day and
Arbor Day with ATP at one of the refugee sites where ATP has been developing
programs over the last 11 years.
This year the event took place at one of ATP’s largest nurseries the village
of Karin outside of Ashtarak. Last year the nursery provided 70,000 trees
for ATP’s rural re-forestation program. Over the last 11 years ATP has
planted and rejuvenated approximately 600,000 trees at over 500 sites from
Gurmi to Goris.
Participants included the Minister of Nature Protection of the RA, the
Minister of Agriculture of the RA, representatives from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of RA, representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Armenia
including from the United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) and Peace
Corps, and representatives from the World Bank and World Food Program.

The New Anatolian
April 30 2005

Turks: Lost and Humiliated?
Huseyin Bagci
The New Anatolian

Yes, accepted. The Armenian diaspora and Armenian state policy has
been very successful in sowing great confusion among Turkish minds
and Turkish politics. Yes, the discussion has already reached a point
where it is very difficult to ignore it. Yes, the Turkish political,
diplomatic and academic world failed in this because all of them were
caught unprepared and what’s more, there is an intellectual and
political environment in the world which is very suitable for
Armenian claims and unsuitable for Turkish politics and political
developments. At least, the Turks seem to be the losers for the
moment.

The Armenian diaspora worked very hard and paid whatever price was
necessary for the international public diplomacy. There are enough
people also among the Turks who put their “intellect” up for rent,
not to mention for sale. Indeed, no one in Turkey is showing
“intellectual aggression” but rather they are on “intellectual
defense” and it means on the international level that those who
defend something also have something to hide! Take how the Turkish
prime minister’s statement which said that Turkey is ready to
“confront its history” led to more debate. What does this mean then?
The word confrontation has a negative connotation in the Turkish
case. It contains the suggestion that you have done something but not
accepted it. It seems again that he has been badly advised. His
statement shows the typical “Turkish mentality” which preaches PR
only to the Turks. The Ottoman Empire was divided and every nation of
this empire — be it Arabs, Albanians, Bulgarians, Turks etc. — got
its part of this dissolution process, some more, some less. The fact
is however that Turks were victims then and victims again now. Never
ever in the entire modern history of Turkey since 1923 have Turks
been treated in the international arena so badly and in such a
prejudiced way as it is the case now. Turkey is at the bottom of its
“intellectual defeat.” Yes, the way Turkey argues, it is damned to
loose. In a few years Turks will even have to explain why they
established modern Turkey and Ataturk will be held responsible for
this!

Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) member of Parliament and
former Ambassador Sukru Elekdag spoke to the students of Gazi
University recently and made similar statement with one difference.
He was accusing academics of being responsible for the Armenian
issue! Interestingly enough, the academics are once again responsible
for everything! It seems that the academics are the only scapegoats
for the miserable politics of Turkish politicians! Concerning the
writer Orhan Pamuk he was much more tolerable! It’s a pity that such
an enlightened ambassador also falls into the same intellectual
fallacy.

The main point is however not that because the Armenians have such
historic claims and they want to get some land, compensation and the
“historic revanch” because they rose up again the Ottoman state and
had to pay a very high price for this (not like the Arabs or some
Balkan nations who had better supporters), but rather that the Turks
are now in such a state of affairs that they do not know what they
want. Again, never ever before have Turks and Turkey been under such
political and intellectual pressure. This does not mean however that
the Armenians or European countries from France to Poland from there
to Russia or Switzerland are “defenders of truth.” The political fact
is that the Turks are now the most “unwanted nation” in Europe. It
would be enough just to see which countries do apply visa
requirements for the Turks and which don’t! Unfortunately, the image
of Turkey abroad is getting worse the more Turkey deals with issues
like headscarves or other Islamic symbols. How otherwise to explain
the statements of Gen. Ozkok and Constitutional Court Chief Justice
Bumin which created great domestic political tension in Turkey. Yes,
the image of the government is an Islamic one, as one of the prime
ministers of the EU countries said to me recently that Turkey has an
Islamic government.

One should be also fair enough to accept the fact that Turkey is
gaining more of a character of an Islamic state. Right or wrong, this
is the image. Yes, Turkey is not wanted because Europe is facing many
challenges and Turkey will not be wanted exactly in this decade. It
is all politics. Nothing has to do with the criteria of that or this
country. The fact is that never ever has Turkey been so weak,
unprepared and unwanted. An article published in German daily Die
Welt just on Tuesday said that the Turks neither in 1915 nor now keep
their reform promises. The European enlargement process is a
political one, not an academic one! I do see that the “intellectual
confusion and turbulence” in Turkey will continue for a long time.
Turkey has lost its common sense, creativity and national identity.
The Turks are the real losers of the post-Cold War era and
globalization. No other nation has been so humiliated in the last 15
years as the Turks. Many then wonder why the Turks are getting
nationalistic. Look what Greek Prime Minister Karamanlis said last
week in Ankara: “Turkey cannot become European overnight.” Is it not
the biggest political insult ever made by an EU politician to the
Turks, who presumably will start negotiations in October? In Turkish
one would say: Edep yahu!

Yes, Turkey seems to have lost already the battle at the moment, but
not the war. The intellectual and political war has already started
among the Turkish elite. It will be different in its character and
dimension. No nation can accept such humiliations as it is now the
case. The world is unjust, but the Turks should not become the only
nation which gets the biggest portion of this injustice!

Civil Georgia
April 29 2005

Tbilisi Hints it may Soften Stance over Abkhaz Railway

The Georgian daily Rezonansi (Resonance) quotes Georgian
Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze as saying after talks with
her Armenian counterpart Artur Bagdasarian, which was held on April
28, that Tbilisi `has changed its position over restoration of a
railway link via Abkhazia and is ready to discuss this issue if a
concrete progress is made in resolving of the [Abkhaz] conflict.’

`This [restoration of a railway via Abkhazia] is very complicated
issue and of course in case of a political will of all the sides
involved, it can be positively solved; hence it will also be a
positive contribution to a resolution of the Abkhaz problem,’ Nino
Burjanadze added.

She also said that, unlike previous years, now Georgia is ready to
consider restoration of a railway link in parallel to resolving of
problems related to the political issues as well as to return of
internally displaced persons in Abkhazia.

Nino Burjanadze’s this statement was perceived as softening of stance
by Tbilisi over the issue of restoration of a railway communication
between Georgia and Russia via breakaway Abkhazia, which has been
halted decade ago as a result of conflict in Abkhazia.

The Georgian authorities were pushing forward return of displaced
Georgians to Abkhazia as a pre-condition to restoration of the
railway.

Restoration of railway via Abkhazia is of vital importance for
Armenia, which can get a rail access to its strategic partner –
Russia if Georgia agrees to rehabilitate this railway connection.

Pan Armenian News

2 MILLION EUROS ASSIGNED TO ARMENIA TO STUDY YEREVAN-TBILISI RAILWAY

28.04.2005 03:10

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The TRACECA program provides for repairs of the
12-kilometer stretch of the Ayrum-Sadakhlo railway – 2 million euros will be
assigned to that end, Chief of the Foreign Relations Department of the
Ministry of Transport and Communication of Armenia Gagik Grigorian told
journalists. Within the framework of the same program 2 million euros are
already allocated to Armenia for technical and economic study of the
Yerevan-Tbilisi railway and changing its most dangerous parts. The TACIS, of
which TRACECA is part, will be replaced by New Neighbors Program. At that
the repairs of the railway will be continued within the New Neighbors
Program. Turkey is expected to communicate with Armenia via the Caucasus,
and the three South Caucasian states will be linked with the European
corridors via Black Sea ports. In G. Grigorian’s words, Armenia already
words with the European Commission to specify the corridors and the route of
the roads. It should be reminded that the TRACECA project (Transport
Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) was worked out by the EU within the TACIS
program and was to join European and the Central Asian region by means of a
transport communication corridor, thus reviving one of the routes of the
Great Silk Route, reported the Caucasian Knot.

Anatolian Times, Turkey
April 27 2005

Kocharian suggests Turkish-Armenian intergovernmental commission

Armenian president replies to letter from Prime Minister Erdogan.
Despite Erdogan’s suggestion of forming a commission of historians
from both Armenia and Turkey to study the so-called Armenian
genocide, Kocharian put a very different choice on the table. ‘The
political atmosphere should be prepared for dialogue,’ says Kocharian
in his letter. And he proposes the formation of an intergovernmental
commission to study all the problems between two countries.

Armenian President Robert Kocharian last week sent a reply to the
recent letter of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
suggesting the formation of a commission by Armenian and Turkish
historians to study the so-called Armenian genocide.

But Kocharian, in his letter which arrived in Ankara on Tuesday,
proposed a very different kind of commission. Underlining that it was
politicians’ responsibility to foster an atmosphere for dialogue, the
Armenian president suggested the formation of an `intergovernmental
commission’ between Armenia and Turkey.

`From the very beginning of the establishment of Armenia, we
extended our hands to open the border, to establish relations and to
start a dialogue with Turkey,’ he wrote in his letter.

Citing the example of European countries employing dialogue to solve
their mutual problems after World War II, Kocharian said that Turkey
and Armenia could also take similar steps. `A very difficult period
was experienced on the European continent,’ he wrote. `But this
did not prevent the opening of the borders between countries. They
continued to talk about the events that separated them.’

After these opening remarks, Kocharian touched on the recent letter
of Erdogan. `Your suggestion of discussing the past cannot be
effective if it does not include a discussion of the current
situation and the future of relations between our countries,’
Kocharian wrote. `The political atmosphere should be prepared for
the dialogue. To move mutual relations forward is the duty of the
politicians. We cannot leave this responsibility to the historians.”

The specific proposal of Kocharian came at the end of his letter.
`We can establish an intergovernmental commission to study every
problem between our countries and begin the discussions without any
precondition,’ Kocharian wrote.

The letter of the Armenian president fell short of the expectations
of Ankara, according to a Turkish diplomatic source. `We’re talking
about very different things,’ the source said. `We’re talking
about studying the past, Kocharian is talking about the present and
the future. And he didn’t mention anything about leaving the genocide
claims aside.’

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week sent a letter to
Kocharian saying the two countries should investigate the Armenian
genocide claims together. Erdogan proposed the establishment of a
common commission to investigate the Armenian genocide claims which
he said would also serve to bring the two countries closer together
in the future.

Pan Armmenian News

LUFTHANSA TO EXERCISE FLIGHTS TO YEREVAN

27.04.2005 04:12

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Starting with June 2, 2005 Lufthansa German Airlines will
exercise regular flights Munich-Yerevan three times a week `We are happy to
come forward to our future passengers in Armenia and Georgia’, Lufthansa
Director General for Russia and CIS Gunther Ott stated.

L’Express , France
25 avril 2005

“Le mur du silence autour du génocide se fissure”;
Interview

par Backer Sophie; Louyot Alain

Ara Toranian, président du Conseil de coordination des organisations
arméniennes de France

Que pensez-vous de la création d’une commission de vérité que vient
d’annoncer le gouvernement turc? Je crains, malheureusement, qu’il ne
s’agisse d’une manipulation, d’une manoeuvre dilatoire. Elle vise,
tout d’abord, à répondre aux pressions européennes, qui sont de plus
en plus fortes sur la Turquie. Elle essaie de trouver une solution,
et je ne vois pas, dans cette proposition, la moindre trace de
sincérité. J’en veux pour preuve la déclaration du ministre des
Affaires étrangères turc où il dit combien son pays est fier de son
passé et que, de toute manière, la Turquie n’a jamais décidé
l’extermination des Arméniens. Elle n’a pas besoin d’une commission
d’historiens pour savoir ce qui est arrivé en 1915, tout est dans ses
archives. Et je dirais même qu’il y a quelque chose d’un peu indécent
à demander aux victimes de côtoyer les héritiers des bourreaux pour
observer ce qui s’est passé.

Pourquoi le gouvernement turc s’obstine-t-il à nier? Faut-il remonter
à la fondation de la république par Atatürk? Je crois en effet que la
Turquie s’est construite en tant qu’Etat sur le cadavre du peuple
arménien et sur un nationalisme exacerbé qui est apparu à partir de
la chute de l’Empire ottoman, considéré comme “l’homme malade de
l’Europe” à l’époque. Mustafa Kemal, pour donner un regain de vie à
ce nationalisme, a voulu faire l’impasse sur le passé.

Et aujourd’hui, tout Turc évoquant le génocide encourt une peine de
prison… Effectivement, selon l’article 305 du nouveau Code pénal
turc, on risque de trois à dix ans de prison. Voilà le pays qu’on
prétend vouloir faire entrer dans l’Europe.

N’y a-t-il pas une différence entre le négationnisme qui vise les
juifs et le négationnisme envers les Arméniens, puisque, dans le
premier cas, il est commis par des individus et, dans le second, par
un Etat? C’est une forme très particulière de négationnisme, car il
s’agit d’un négationnisme d’Etat qui s’établit et s’organise avec
tous les moyens dont peut disposer un Etat, que ce soit
financièrement ou en exerçant des pressions internationales. Cela
fait peur lorsqu’on considère cela dans la perspective de l’entrée de
ce pays dans l’Union européenne.

Si Ankara fait son mea culpa à propos du génocide, acceptez-vous que
la Turquie entre dans l’Union européenne? Je refuse, aujourd’hui,
d’envisager cette hypothèse. Il est pour moi quelque peu aberrant
que, face à un Etat comme la Turquie, qui a commis le génocide des
Arméniens, mais aussi massacré des milliers de Kurdes, de Grecs,
d’Assyro-Chaldéens, qui occupe Chypre et qui met des journalistes en
prison, on demande à cet Etat-là d’entrer dans l’Europe!

Que peuvent faire encore les Arméniens pour obtenir cette
reconnaissance du génocide? Nous défendons une cause qui est juste et
avons les moyens de nous faire entendre. Le mur du silence autour du
génocide est en train de se fissurer. Notre cause, notre discours
participent de la défense des droits de l’homme, de la défense de la
démocratie. Pour nous, comme pour vous, la démocratie, c’est aussi la
protection des minorités. Et celle que nous représentons a été
bafouée comme peu l’ont été. La Turquie, si elle veut entrer dans
l’Europe, devrait commencer par reconnaître le droit des autres à la
différence. Et notamment à l’Arménie, à ces 2,5 millions de chrétiens
arméniens qui vivent avec 70 millions de Turcs, d’un côté, et 10
millions d’Azéris, de l’autre, et qui ne représentent aucune menace,
réclamant seulement le droit pour leur Etat d’exister, le droit de
perpétuer leur culture.

Le terrorisme arménien appartient-il définitivement au passé? Il y a
eu une phase dans l’histoire du peuple arménien, après 1975, où il
avait épuisé tous les recours politiques, diplomatiques, pacifiques
pour se faire entendre. Une partie a alors décidé de changer de
vitesse et de se livrer à ce qu’on a appelé un “terrorisme
publicitaire”, essentiellement dirigé, hormis certains débordements,
vers un Etat turc qui, à l’époque, était un pays fasciste, mené d’une
main de fer par une junte militaire. Cette période a duré sept ans.
La communauté arménienne a balayé devant sa porte et a abandonné
cette forme de lutte.

Après la France en 2001, il semble que les Etats-Unis se préparent à
reconnaître le génocide arménien: c’est encourageant… Aujourd’hui,
38 des 50 Etats américains reconnaissent le génocide, mais cela ne
fait pas pour autant une majorité au Congrès, car il y a toujours des
interventions très fortes des présidents américains pour éviter de
froisser l’allié turc. Au nom de la raison d’Etat et d’intérêts
stratégiques ou économiques, on revient toujours, hélas! sur les
grands principes affirmés. C’est bien dommage, parce que ce n’est pas
comme cela qu’on construit un avenir de paix, en particulier pour les
peuples de cette région qui en ont bien besoin.

Zaman, Turkey
April 26 2005

Where Should we Begin on the Armenian Question?

SELCUK GULTASLI

Just as the Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan Plan without suffering
harm after guaranteeing their membership in the European Union (EU),
the Armenians also have taken important positions on the so-called
“genocide” issue and are cool to the offer of discussing the issue
with Turkey, expecting many gestures from Turkey nowadays to solve
the problem, having received implicit support from the EU on the
issue. Turkey, which was late over Cyprus, is now facing a similar
situation over the Armenian issue.

Let’s take a look at the vote in the Belgian Parliament last week,
envisaging prison sentences and a fine for those who deny the
Armenian “genocide.” A total of 129 people participated in the vote.
108 said, “yes,” while 21 abstained. Nobody voted “no.” No one in the
parliament in Belgium, where 150,000 Turks live and many people of
Turkish origin, ranging from ministers to senators work, had said:
“Let’s not hurt the Turks. The Turks have called for a joint and
independent commission to investigate the allegations.” Coming to
those who abstained, they were deputies of the fascist-racist party,
Vlaams Belang, who strongly oppose Turkey’s EU membership. The reason
for their opposing the draft was not because of their love for
Turkey, but because of their opposition perception of “genocide”
sentences, according to their mentality. We will see whether or not
the draft will be approved by the senate.

Watching official TV channels in Turkey, one might think there is a
draft in the Turkish Parliament aimed at accepting the Armenian
“genocide” claim. A retired military official said,” If a genocide
occurred, it was the Armenians who did it to Turks.” An Azerbaijani
woman and Prof. Mumtaz Soysal, support a French lawyer who defends
Turkey over the Orly massacre, however, there is no historian among
them.

You may also look at the websites claiming that the Armenian
“genocide” was a reality. All of them are prepared more
professionally than each other and one another. Some of them include
dirges. Websites that deny the “genocide” are erroneous with many
punctuation and spelling mistakes. Their English versions are even
worse. The brains who had been very efficient in “making Turkish
propaganda for Turks,” seem “as if Turks do not even believe what
they say,” while explaining the issue to the world.

It is nice while expressing displeasure over European news programs
that only pay attention to the Armenian thesis and rightfully blaming
the West for being selective; however, why couldn’t we, through
official and unofficial means, direct our anger to the right places,
when we sought and could not find someone advocating the Turkish
thesis? Those who had been glued to their screens for “Turkish
propaganda for Turks” are absent when it is time to explain the issue
to Europe.

It is true that France did not apologize to Algeria. It is obvious
that Belgium looks indifferently at those who accuse it of “genocide”
in the Congo in the 19th century, that resulted in the deaths of
millions of people. We certainly can give more examples. It would be
naive to think that the demands of the furious Armenian Diaspora will
end after the Turks’ recognition of the “genocide” allegations. It is
also clear that the Anatolian Armenians are not “innocent Berlin
Jews,” as Prof. Ilber Ortayli put it.

Furthermore, look at what the architect of the expel and transfer
bill, Talat Pasha, at the last convention of the Progress and Union
Party on November 1, 1918, said: “Enemies, who came and gathered
around in many places for a long time, committed abuses with
impunity, that forced us against our wish, to implement policies that
led to forced emigration. Many civil servants resorted to excessive
violence and tyranny. Some innocent became wrong victims in many
places. Let us make this confession.”

We should begin the job by accepting that Armenians who lived on
these lands experienced severe pains during a period of time. It is
only then we will have the opportunity of convincing the world that
the incidents were not genocide and had no similarity whatsoever with
what the Jews experienced.

April 25, 2005
Brussels

A1plus

| 20:05:39 | 25-04-2005 | Politics |

CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM IN AUGUST?

The RA Constitutional amendments issue will not be discussed in the PACE
spring session. According to the radio station «Azatutyun» the issue was not
included into the agenda with the following correlation of votes – 78 for,
47 against and 9 abstaining from voting. Let us remind you that for being
included into the agenda 2/3 og votes was necessary.

George Columbier, the French co-reporter of Armenian affairs was especially
against the discussion of the RA Constitution. He said that the Armenian
delegates have told him that the Constitutional referendum will take place
in July-August.

By the way, this has never been announced in Armenia officially. Mr.
Columbier together with his colleague Erji Jaskernia will visit Armenia in
May to examine the course of the Constitutional amendments. In May the
Venice experts will visit Armenia about the same issue.