Author: Nahapetian Boris

Turkish Press
April 25 2005

Irtemcelik: Armenians Know That There Was No Genocide

BY FIKRET BILA

MILLIYET- A bill on the Armenian `genocide’ issue will be voted on
Germany’s Parliament after Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder’s visit
to Ankara next week. German parties have already agreed to replace
the word `genocide’ mentioned in the bill with `emigration and mass
murder.’ The bill is expected to pass after these changes have been
made.

Turkish Ambassador to Germany Mehmet Ali Irtemcelik has long been
working to inform the German Parliament and the public on what really
happened. `The Armenians know there was no genocide,’ said
Irtemcelik. `But they have ruined our ability to make our voice heard
in the international arena. Since their claims are untrue, they
reject our offer to assemble a group of historians from both sides to
investigate the issue. Their first aim is to make Turkey apologize
for the `genocide,’ and next they will demand money and land from us.
The Ottoman archives are open to everyone, whereas the Armenians keep
theirs closed. That’s part of their strategy. Before Turkish-Armenian
relations can be normalized, the Armenians must recognize Turkey’s
territorial unity.’

Irtemcelik noted that the Armenian `genocide’ bill is full of
intentional mistakes, and added, `It’d be sad to see that this bill
passed by such a serious institution as the Bundestag.’

Irtemcelik stressed that Turkey isn’t trying to escape the truths of
the past, because there’s nothing in its past Turkey is afraid to
face. `But no one should think that we will recognize the Armenian
`genocide’ claims just because some people want us to,’ he added.
`The Armenians must come to see that their designs on Turkey are both
illegitimate and utterly futile’.

Fresno Bee, CA
April 24 2005

It’s time for Turkey to acknowledge Armenian genocide

JIM BOREN

In the close-knit Armenian families of California’s San Joaquin
Valley, the stories of the first genocide of the 20th century are
passed along to each generation at dinner tables and family
gatherings. It’s a ritual to ensure that this scar on world history
won’t be forgotten.

But this isn’t just a history lesson about nameless victims of the
Armenian genocide of 90 years ago. These stories are very personal.
They trace how family members made their way to the Valley and the
tragic circumstances of those who died in a calculated slaughter that
meets every definition of genocide.

They talk about the great-grandmother whose children were murdered by
the Turks and only escaped the genocide by being hidden in a basement
by a friendly doctor and his wife. Or the 8-year-old girl whose
brother was killed and whose only hope was to find a way to survive a
Turkish death march through the desert.

They talk about how 1.5 million Armenians were killed during a
massacre that the Turkish government still won’t acknowledge.

The Turks’ intransigent attitude about those events still angers many
Armenian Americans. There’s also disappointment because the United
States government has buckled under threats from Turkey if our nation
dares call this tragic chapter what it is – a genocide.

Because Turkey sits in a strategic spot in the world, the U.S. State
Department, several presidents and Congress have refused to
officially declare that a genocide occurred.

The U.S. doesn’t want to offend the Turkish government. Never mind
that our leaders are offending the survivors of those 1.5 million
Armenians slaughtered during World War I. This wasn’t the collateral
damage of war. The Armenians were rounded up by the Turks and
executed.

But the politics of this issue could change thanks to Turkey’s desire
to become part of the European Union. French President Jacques Chirac
says Turkey must admit to the genocide as one of the conditions of
entry into the EU.

That says a lot about Turkey standing on principle. Its leaders won’t
acknowledge the genocide because it’s the right thing to do, but they
may admit to it occurring if the Turks get an economic benefit. That
tells you all you need to know about this ally of the United States.

Sunday is a special day for the Armenian community. It’s the 90th
anniversary of the genocide and a series of commemorative events have
been held the past week across the Valley. One of those was a dinner
by the Armenian Community School of Fresno (Calif.) that honored
survivors of the genocide.

In a north Fresno banquet room last week, family members told moving
stories about how their relatives were killed in the genocide and
what it took for some of them to survive. They all know these family
stories very well, and they will not shield their children from this
awful history.

It’s something that must be passed on.

The Armenian Community School honored genocide survivors from four
families. All but one has since died, but Oghda Boghosian, at age 98,
was there to receive her honor surrounded by family members. Also
honored were Mourad and Elizabeth Bedrosian, Anna Boyajian Koligian
and Dertad and Siroun Tookolan.

Oghda Boghosian was 8 when the Turks came for her family. Her oldest
brother was killed and her mother thought her best chance at survival
was to send Oghda on a march with her brother’s wife.

Going on a march usually meant death to participants, either through
the sheer torture of the procession without adequate food and water
or being shot when Turkish soldiers tired of marching along with
their victims. But it also could be a chance to flee.

Oghda was taken from the march by two Turkish boys and given to a
Turkish family that wanted an Armenian girl to keep. She ultimately
got away, and then finally arrived at Ellis Island in 1920. She
married Nigholas Boghosian, and after several years they went into
the farming business.

Oghda Boghosian’s story is not unusual and this 98-year-old woman
knows all too personally that there was a genocide that claimed
family members and so many others. It only compounds the tragedy for
this genocide to be officially ignored.

The Turkish government knows the truth. The American government knows
the truth. It’s time for both to speak it publicly.

Zaman, Turkey
April 24 2005

Making so-called Genocide ‘Official History’, Paris Forgets Algeria

Published: Sunday 24, 2005
zaman.com

While we were preparing this story, the powerful Armenian lobby of
France rejected all our requests for interviews. Some even hung up
the phone on us when we said we were Turks.

Didier Billion, on the other hand, does not doubt the Armenian
genocide allegations at issue in the European Union (EU). Billion
notes that he could not be convinced that the Ottomans had committed
genocide and it would be more accurate to define the incident as a
massacre. He thinks the genocide law approved by theFrench Parliament
is “a big mistake”. Pointing out the lack of necessary historical
information to describe the 1915 happenings as genocide, Billion
notes that what happened can be solely characterized as a massacre;
but in the case that historians reveal information showing that a
genocide occured, his thoughts will change. ” The duty of the
deputies’ is to make law, not history. With such a decision, France
has made an ‘official history’. I am adverse to any ‘official
history’, whether in France or somewhere else. This law is
problematic in the operation of French democracy and in
French-Turkish relations. If we want deputies to give forth their
attitude about Algeria or the China-India Border War, it is
impossible to discuss these. We will not be free. Because there will
be an ‘official’ history line” says Billion. Stating that France has
not apologized to Algeria yet, Didier Billon said that the ambassador
in Algeria has made a handsome gesture of that kind a few weeks
before but no French president has apologized officially. To the
question “Why?” he has a clear answer; “Because Algeria is our
taboo.”

EL GENOCIDIO QUE TURQUIA AUN NO RECONOCE OCURRIO EN 1915

Armenia evoca a su millón y medio de hijos asesinados por los turcos

Homenajes en Erevan, en el 90ø aniversario del primer holocausto del
siglo XX.

Clarin.com
Domingo | 24.04.2005

Marcelo Cantelmi. EREVAN. ENVIADO ESPECIAL
[email protected]

Este es un viaje a lo hondo de una pesadilla. No se trata sólo de llegar
al Cáucaso o a un país en ese laberinto, Armenia, reducido hoy a apenas
un retazo de sus fronteras anteriores. Es un viaje a la historia de una
de las peores masacres de la aventura humana pero cubierta aún de
tinieblas y amenazada recurrentemente por el olvido.

Hará hoy 90 a±os, en la noche del 24 al 25 de abril de 1915, una primera
parte de 235 intelectuales armenios de Constantinopla era detenida,
deportada y asesinada por orden del gobierno de los Jóvenes Turcos. Fue
el primer asalto de una operación que no se detuvo hasta eliminar en los
a±os siguientes a la mitad de la población de esa minoría cristiana, más
de 1,5 millón de personas.

Este holocausto, el primero del siglo XX, fue efectuado sin mayores
ocultamientos, como lo indican el testimonio conmovedor del entonces
embajador de Estados Unidos, Henry Morgenthau, y hasta la prensa: “Lo
que se busca es el exterminio de los armenios”, tituló en 1915
L’Illustration. Pero está negado por Turquía y aún hay potencias que no
lo reconocen, entre ellas EE.UU. o Israel.

No fue el único genocidio marcado por la presión del olvido en la
historia de la humanidad. Hoy es Darfour y en 1994, Ruanda. Pero el
armenio fue el antecesor inmediato del holocausto judío. Incluso Hitler
vio en el silencio que rodeó a esa masacre un seguro de impunidad para
sus cámaras de gas.

Erevan es una ciudad peque±a, capital de un Estado que perteneció a la
Unión Soviética hasta la caída del comunismo en el umbral de la década
del 90, en cuya primera mitad Armenia también libró una guerra
sangrienta con la vecina Azerbaijan por el dominio del enclave de
Nagorno Karabaj.

La presencia soviética aún se respira aquí en signos en los muros,
alguna estatua que no ha sido derrumbada o el estilo de las
construcciones pétreas y grises. El ingreso al capitalismo mudó
profundamente al país también con sus calamidades. Armenia crece 8%
anual, pero tiene 20% de desocupados.

Para quien ha estado aquí veinte a±os atrás, en plena era soviética,
como este enviado, los cambios impactan. Parece Berlín después de la
reunificación alemana. Hay negocios modernos, la gente viste bien, el
celular es un boom y se ve multitud de automóviles europeos. Pero hay
pobreza y desempleo en medio de una arquitectura stalinista.

A pocos kilómetros del centro se alza un monumento que evoca el
holocausto. Más de un millón de personas, 50% de la población,
peregrinará hoy hacia allí. Este funeral es la proa de un movimiento
impulsado por la diáspora mundial ‘la mayoría en EE.UU., Francia y
Argentina’ para convertir el 90ø aniversario en un potente ariete para
que Turquía y los países que aún no lo han hecho admitan, más temprano
que tarde, aquella pesadilla.

En estos días el gobierno turco planteó crear comisiones de
historiadores para revisar lo ocurrido. Es un paso, pero los armenios lo
ven como un intento para dilatar el proceso. Dicen que Turquía está
atrapada en su desafío histórico para ingresar a la Unión Europea, cuyo
Parlamen to, en 1987, reconoció el holocausto. Francia, incluso, planteó
aún no en carácter de condición que Turquía admita esa historia como
peaje para la UE. Es una corriente que crece en el Viejo Continente y
complica a Turquía.

La masacre se produjo en plena I Guerra Mundial, que enfrentó al Imperio
Otomano, el Austro Húngaro y Alemania contra Rusia, Inglaterra y
Francia. Según los turcos, los armenios eran una quintacolumna rusa en
el frente otomano y de ahí la represión. Hoy, como en 1918, Turquía
admite que algo sucedió, nada preciso, pero que fue una situación de
guerra. Y hasta plantea que fue a la inversa y que los armenios fueron
los agresores. Pero la historia lo desmiente. En 1918, tras lo peor de
la masacre, cuando Armenia obtuvo su independencia (luego garantizada
por el tratado de Sevres), los turcos lanzaron una invasión y dejaron a
los armenios la doceava parte de su territorio, que incluso perdió su
símbolo: el monte Ararat.

Esa distorsión de la historia, de convertir en culpables a las víctimas,
el “algo habrán hecho”, tiene una base “negacionista” que es dramática
en sí misma. Honra al olvido, secuestra los recuerdos e impide un dato
de crecimiento elemental: el reconocimiento es un deber hacia las
víctimas para evitar que la memoria sea destruida y así darles voz a las
sombras silenciosas del pasado.

CTV.ca

Ninety Years Later: The Armenian Genocide Continues

By Amir Hassanpour
Special to CTV.ca

Canadians scored a victory last year when our parliament recognized
the Armenian genocide. The motion approved in the House of Commons
declared: …this House acknowledges the Armenian genocide of 1915 and
condemns this act as a crime against humanity.”

However, the struggle of the Armenian people for justice, in Canada
and elsewhere, is far from ending.

Ten years ago, on the 80th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, some
citizens in Montr al decided to build a public memorial at the
Marcellin-Wilson Park in the citys north end. In order to prevent the
building of the memorial, the Turkish embassy and consulate threatened
the government of Qu bec with retaliation against two Montreal firms,
which had major operations in Turkey [1]. This was no less than
intervening in the internal affairs of Canada and at the same time,
violating the rights and freedoms of Canadian citizens.

The institution of the state is a major perpetrator of
genocide. States, including Canada, continue to ignore, deny, and
gamble on the Armenian genocide. Prime Minister Paul Martin and his
Foreign Affairs minister tried to defeat the motion in the House of
Commons, and failing to do so, rejected the decision of the highest
organ of Canadian democracy, the parliament. Canadas national
interest, i.e., its economic, political, and military ties to this
NATO ally, prevailed over the cause of justice.

In what sense is the Armenian genocide a Canadian issue? The Armenian
case, like other genocides, is an international crime. This implies
that perpetrators have committed crime against humanity, and they can
be prosecuted beyond their national borders, and under international
jurisdiction. Canada has ratified the 1948 UN Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and is also a state
party to the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes
perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Genocides do not end. Although there is an exact date, April 24, 1915,
for the beginning of the Armenian genocide, this crime was launched by
Ottoman Turkey in late nineteenth century, and led to the elimination
of the Armenian people in their ancient homeland by the time the
Turkish Republic replaced the Ottoman state in 1923.

Ninety years later, the genocide lives not only in the memory of the
few survivors, their descendants, and the rest of the Armenian people,
but also continues in its denial by the Turkish state. Its denial by
other states, including Israel [2] and the United States, also
contributes to the perpetuation of the crime.

The genocide also goes on in the policy of the Turkish state to
eliminate any trace of Armenian life in a continuing project of ethnic
cleansing of the Armenian homeland, its toponymy, monuments,
buildings, music, dance, and art, and in archives, libraries, and
museums. The genocide continues, in its harshest form, in the museums
of Turkish cities such as Van and Kars, where the victims,
i.e. Armenians, are depicted as perpetrators of a genocide of the
Turkish people [3 ].

The Turkish governments threat of retaliation against the government
of Qu bec must also be considered as the extension of the genocide
beyond the borders of Turkey and into the end of the twentieth
century.

If the Turkish Republic perpetuates the genocide in Turkey and
throughout the world, the struggle against this crime must also be
worldwide. We in Canada have a responsibility to ensure that the
cabinet endorses the decision of the House of Commons. The burden of
this struggle should not be on the shoulders of
Armenian-Canadians. All Canadians, especially those of Turkish origin,
have a special responsibility to recognize the genocide, and call for
justice.

It is known that some Kurds participated in the genocide as
accomplices of the Ottoman state. As a Canadian citizen of Kurdish
origins, I strongly denounce, without hesitation, all Kurds who
participated in this crime as well as the genocide of the Assyrians,
which happened in the same period, 1915-1923. Had the accomplices been
alive, I would have called for their trial and punishment.

Mark Levene, a historian of genocide, has noted that the Ottoman state
turned Eastern Anatolia, which comprises parts of Armenia and
Kurdistan, into a modern zone of genocide from 1878 to 1923 [4]. The
Armenian and Assyrian peoples were wiped out, and the Kurds were
deported in hundreds of thousands beginning in 1917, and then
subjected to a genocidal campaign in 1937-38.

Genocide has continued in the region and elsewhere in the world, and
appeared in its most open and brutal form in the Nazi Holocaust of
1933-45. All states and even non-state entities are capable of
committing the crime.

Here in Canada, we should not feel assured that it will never happen
again. The indigenous peoples of Canada have experienced genocide, and
Canadians of Japanese and Italian origin were rounded up during WWI
and incarcerated in camps. The charter of rights, the constitution,
and legislation against hate and advocacy of genocide are important
legal tools, but they do not guarantee the end of racism, national
chauvinism, fascism, and genocide. Only citizen awareness and their
action can prevent new disasters. Mass murders have occurred
frequently in the past, but genocide is distinguished by its ties to
nationalism, which is itself a product of modernity, its politics and
culture.

I have seen much progress, within the last decade, in the struggle
against the Armenian genocide. Some Turkish intellectuals and
political activists, in and out of Turkey, have already recognized the
genocide. The Turkish people must be seen as allies of the Armenian
people in this struggle for justice, if justice can ever be
achieved. The crime was planned by the government not by the Turkish
people.

The last phase of the genocide, 1915-23, was planned by a small group
of Turkish nationalists who shared power with the Ottoman sultan in
the wake of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. It would be a serious
error to treat all Turks, i.e. the Turkish people, as perpetrators of
the crime. In fact, many Turks and Kurds risked their lives by saving
some Armenian victims.

While we should persist in revealing the atrocities committed by
Turkeys armed forces and civilians, it is equally important to
celebrate the resistance against it by Turks and Kurds while the crime
was being committed. A world free of genocide is possible only when we
build and promote these traditions of solidarity. Twenty years ago,
Yilmaz G genocide now and in future, and take the first step in this
direction by recognizing the Armenian genocide. We should contribute
to this struggle here in Canada.

Amir Hassanpour is Associate Professor at the Department of Near and
Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto

[1] Alexander Norris, Armenians fear city bowing to pressure, The
Gazette [Montreal], March 2, 1996, pp. A1, A15

[2] Yair Auron, The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian
Genocide. New Brunswick (USA), Transaction Publishers, 2000.

[3] Azmi Suslu et al, Armenians in the History of Turks: Basic Text
Book. Kars, Rectorate of the Kafkas University. Printed in Ankara
1995.

[4] Mark Levene, Creating a modern zone of genocide: The impact of
nation- and state-formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878-1923, Holocaust
and Genocide Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1998, pp. 393-433.

[5] Retrouver notre honneur: Un interview de Ragib Zarakolu,
France-Arm nie, Mai 1998.

Zaman Online, Turkey
April 22 2005

Chirac to Visit Genocide Monument with Kocharian
By Anadolu News Agency (aa)

Upon Armenian Prime Minister Robert Kocharian’s arrival in Paris,
French President Jacques Chirac will accompany him to a monument for
the alleged Armenian genocide.

The two leaders will have a meeting at the Presidential Palace before
participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument, which was
opened by the Paris Municipality in 2003. On the base of the monument
dedicated to Armenian compositor Komitas is written: “In memory of
the 1,500,000 Armenian victims of the first genocide of the 20th
century committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.” The French
Parliament accepted a draft decision to recognize the alleged
Armenian Genocide in 2001.

Meanwhile, Armenian community members have flocked to Washington for
a rally for the 90th anniversary ceremony in Congress for the alleged
Armenian genocide. The Armenian lobby received the support of 32
senators in the Senate and 175 deputies in the House of
Representatives this year. Senator John F. Kerry, who lost the
election against President George W. Bush last November, said:
“Unfortunately we could not succeed then and our struggle still
continues. President Bush should demand Turkey changes its manner
towards the Armenian Genocide.”

TURKEY HAS NOT MATURED FOR NEGOTIATION ON MEMBERSHIP TO EU,
VARDAN OSKANIAN SAYS

YEREVAN, APRIL 20. ARMINFO. The process of negotiations of Turkey
on accession to the European Union may result in the development of
Armenian-TUrkish relations. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic
of Armenia Vardan Oskanian stated in the interview to German newspaper
“Die Welt”.

According to him, in particular, it concerns the opening of the
Armenian-Turkish border and recognition of the Armenian Genocide in
Ottoman Turkey. But in fact the EU intends to conduct negotiations
on the membership with a state, which for over ten years blockades
the border with Armenia and lays unacceptable conditions for its
releasing. “Compared with other candidates for accession to EU, Turkey
has not matured for these negotiations”, Oskanian said. Nevertheless,
the minister expressed anxiety that in the case with Turkey EU may pass
a political resolution. Speaking of the expectations of Armenia from
official Brussels, Vardan Oskanian stated: “We hope that the European
will inform Turkey of the necessity of that the first genocide of
the 20th century must be admitted officially”.

Estimating the readiness of Turkey to admit the Armenian genocide,
Oskanian mentioned that the matter concerns the factor of the Turkish
internal policy. The first sign of the public estimation of Armenian
Genocide is that the Turkish intellectuals publicly speak of it and
call on the whole Turkish society, as well as call on the authorities
of their country to undertake the responsibility for this crime. “I
respect the courage of these people, who examine the documents and try
to find a way of reconciliation between the two states”, Oskanian said.

TEST POPULATION CENSUS IN KARABAKH

AZG Armenian Daily #072, 22/04/2005

Karabakh diary

Artsakh will undergo population census on October 17-28 of the
current year. This will be the first census ever for the Republic of
Nagorno Karabakh. By a government decree, a test population census
was held on March 21-30. The test census was held in Stepanakert,
in Noragyugh prefecture of Askeran region, and in Nerqin Haratagh
village of Martakert region.

Sergey Davtian, head of NKR Statistics Service, said that the results
of the test census are being examined. He said that all organizational
works are completed and that more than 700 people are enrolled for
registering, encoding etc.

By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert

Jerusalem’s Armenians Want Israeli Recognition of Genocide
By Ezzedine Said

Agence France Presse
April 20, 2005

Jerusalem’s tiny Armenian community has seen Islamic conquests,
the Crusades, the rise and fall of the Ottoman empire, the British
mandate and most recently the Israeli occupation, but has kept its
identity throughout.

The community, present in the Holy Land since the fifth century,
is today made up largely of descendants of those who survived
Turkish massacres of Armenians between 1915 and 1917, as the Ottoman
Empire fell apart. But they are indignant at the refusal by Israel, a
country’s whose identity draws amply on the Nazis’ killing of millions
of Jews during the Second World War, to recognize their own ‘genocide’.

The massacre has already been acknowledged as genocide by a number of
countries, including France, Canada and Switzerland. Armenians will
remember the 90th anniversary of the start of the 1915-1917 slaughter
on April 24.

Some 2,000 Armenians live in the Old City’s Armenian quarter and its
vast monastery, with another 1,000 in the West Bank and 2,000 more in
Israel, says George Hintlian, historian and spokesman for the Armenian
community. “With regard to Israel and its bureaucracy, we are like
the Palestinians. We consider ourselves to be Jerusalemites born
in Palestine,” he explains, walking along the road of the Armenian
Orthodox Patriarchate.

It’s night-time, and the popular Armenian Tavern is serving lahmajun,
a thin pizza topped with minced meat, to its last clients. Israeli
cars drive slowly down the narrow street to the Jewish quarter or
towards the Wailing Wall. At the monastery’s entrance, a group of
youths stands on the ancient paving stones and chats in Armenian. This
former hospice turned monastery then home to hundreds of Armenians
is only accessible to residents and invited visitors.

Restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on the Palestinian
population are part of Armenians’ daily life since the eastern part
of the city was occupied in 1967. The Armenians of Jerusalem, as
in the rest of the world, also say that Israel’s strategic alliance
with Turkey which began in 1996 has hampered their quest for global
recognition of their genocide.

“The worst consequence of the alliance between Israel and Turkey
is the fact that the Israeli embassy in Washington and the Jewish
lobby openly intervened on two occasions in 1999 and 2001 to prevent
Congress from recognizing the Armenian genocide,” says Hintlian.

Twenty of his family members, including his grandfather and uncle, died
in the massacres, he says. “It’s difficult to understand the official
Israeli position on the Armenian genocide, coming from a country that
was a victim of its own genocide in the same century,” he says.

The presence of Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek at the
inauguration of Israel’s new Holocaust museum in Jerusalem in March, to
which no Armenian representative was invited, “shocked” the community,
says Hintlian. With a hint of bitterness, he shows the remains of
posters detailing the Armenian genocide glued to walls along the
street and torn down, he says, by passing Jews. “Sometimes they write
‘big lie’ over them,” he says.

Elise Aghazarian, 26, says she is “Armenian in her blood and
Palestinian in her soul.” “We are attached to Mount Ararat but also
to Jerusalem. I am for a bi-national Palestinian and Israeli state,
but if a division is imposed I would want to be on the Palestinian
side,” says this researcher and sociology graduate, who lives inside
the “monastery”.

While she pragmatically considers the Turkish-Israeli pact “an alliance
of interests”, she is no less irritated by the Israeli refusal to
recognize the Armenian genocide. “It boils down to saying that Jewish
blood is more sacred than other peoples’,” she says.

More than 30 percent of Armenians have emigrated from the Holy Land
since 1967, says Hintlian, adding that “if there is no solution,
in 20 or 30 years our number may have dropped by half.”

But Aghazarian is not about to leave. “I belong here and I wouldn’t
want to leave even if the difficult living conditions put us under
constant pressure,” she says.

A1plus

| 16:03:19 | 15-04-2005 | Politics |

ARSENYAN HAS PROBLEMS WITH THE ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION

Today during the Parliamentary briefings Gourgen Arsenyan, head of the
United Labor Party, brought a `historic’ charge against the nationalist side
of the present authorities. Although Arsenyan did not mention any political
power during his accusation, everyone knows that the nationalist side of the
RA authorities is the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Gourgen Arsenyan
has `revealed’ why several Armenian political powers are against forming an
Armenian-Turkish Committee to investigate the historical documents of the
Armenian Genocide.

`They fear that the investigation of the existing documents will reveal
their guilt’, says Gourgen Arsenyan meaning that is were those nationalist
powers that stimulated the Armenian Genocide.

In answer to this Levon Mkrtshyan, head of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation, also without giving names, advised the authors of the accusation
`to open the names of the family and to count how many of them were murdered
by the Turks’.

Generally the opinions of the Parliamentary fractions are almost the same
about the creation of the Armenian-Turkish Committee. According to the
Armenian Parliamentarians the idea of creating such a committee is not bad,
but the fact of the Armenian Genocide does not have the need to be proved by
documents, and thus the question is not subject to discussion.