Author: Nahapetian Lilit

POINT OF VIEW

How To End A Genocide Debate

The frozen relations between Armenia and Turkey are now showing some
signs of melting.

By Grenville Byford | NEWSWEEK

Published Feb 28, 2009

>From the magazine issue dated Mar 9, 2009

It’s almost April, so Washington is gearing up for another performance
of the "Armenian Genocide Resolution Spectacular," a regular event
since 1984. Here’s the historical plotline: the Armenian-American
lobby gets a few U.S. congressmen to sponsor a resolution recognizing
the 1915 massacre of Armenians in what is now Eastern Turkey as a
"genocide." Then other members of the House are induced to support it.
(Members of the House may not be history buffs, but they understand
the importance of stroking a powerful domestic lobby.) Next, the
Turkish government says Turkey is too important to be insulted like
this. In response, the American administration, recognizing that
Turkey is indeed a critical NATO ally whose Incirlik Air Base is vital
to the Iraq mission, starts twisting congressional arms to abandon the
resolution. Offstage, the Israeli lobby, generally keen to boost
Turkish-Israeli relations (though less so this year), works against
the resolution. Finally, the House leadership reluctantly shelves the
whole thing and the curtain falls.

Before staging this year’s performance, however, Congress should note
that hitherto frozen relations between Armenia and Turkey are now
showing signs of melting, and that this may be the first step toward
reconciling the Turkish and Armenian peoples. In September, Turkish
President Abdullah Gül attended a Turkey-Armenia football match in
Yerevan at the invitation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who
recently met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in
Davos. The two foreign ministers, Turkey’s Ali Babacan and Armenia’s
Eduard Nalbandian have also been meeting. Both have made optimistic
noises.

Progress has been possible because the Armenians have focused on the
concrete issue of opening the Armenian-Turkish border?a vital matter
to them since none of their other neighbors (Azerbaijan, Georgia and
Iran) can offer a viable trade route to the West. Both sides have
wisely avoided the genocide dispute, surely recognizing it will have
to be dealt with eventually but that developing economic ties will
make it easier to do so. Lingering in the background, however, is the
Armenian diaspora’s passionate insistence that there was a
genocide?and its mirror image in the fury of the Turkish people
denying it. Right or wrong is not the point. No Turkish government
could contemplate opening the Armenian border with this issue front
and center, and Congress should recognize that a genocide resolution
would put it there.

In all probability, Turkey and Armenia can only resolve the genocide
dispute if they recognize that "was it a genocide?" may be the
ultimate question, but it is not the most important one today. To
those aiming for reconciliation, two questions outrank it: what common
facts can Turks and Armenians be brought to accept, and is the common
ground sufficient for both sides to start binding up the wounds? To
this end, Erdogan’s proposal to establish a joint historical
commission should be pursued. Though Armenia has rejected the idea so
far?largely because it is winning its argument on the world stage?the
government has softened its stance recently. If the aim is
reconciliation, persuading the Turks to abandon the blanket denial
they are taught as schoolchildren is what counts.

Progress is not as implausible as it sounds. In the early days of the
Republic, Kemal Atatürk, who was not personally implicated, described
the Armenian massacres as "shameful acts." No ex-Ottoman officials
were investigated, however, as Turkey needed the newly minted heroes
of its War of Independence to have no stain on their characters.
Today, Erdogan will accept an investigation. In return, Armenia must
accept a reciprocal investigation into the Ottoman Armenians, who
fought with the sultan’s Russian enemy, and their responsibility for
massacres of Turks and Kurds. Weaving together these two violently
opposed historical perspectives will take time and patience. As
important as the final answer, however, is the development of empathy
across the divide.

Congress can help keep the path to reconciliation open if it is
willing to deny the Armenian-American lobby the instant gratification
of a genocide resolution. Surely doing so would be far better than
repeating the exercises of the last 25 years over and over again until
a resolution finally passes and all the House’s leverage over Turkey
evaporates, along with most of the good will in the Turkish-American
alliance, and maybe even the alliance itself. For its part, the
Armenian diaspora might even support reconciliation if only as its
second choice. Finally, good relations between Turkey and Armenia
would further U.S. objectives in the Caucasus. The proposed
hydrocarbon corridor through the Caucasus from Central Asia looks much
more secure in the context of Turkish-Armenian friendship, and it
might give Armenia the confidence to break with the status quo in the
longstanding Nagorno-Karabakh dispute with neighboring Azerbaijan.
Congress and others should recognize that this year holds real promise
for the beginning of reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian
peoples. If nothing comes of it, Congress can always return to a
resolution.

Byford writes frequently on Turkish affairs and is a regular
contributor to Newsweek.com.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Vladimir Vardanov: Azeri soldiers shot their civilians in Khojalu
28.02.2009 16:20 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azeri TV reports on Khojalu ` dead bodies of Azeris
lying in a small field, are nothing more but an obvious lie, said
Vladimir Vardanov, founder and commander of special-purpose force.

`I can prove it. These were corpses of people who died long before
it. As an observer, I was sitting right there, and these corpses
appeared on the site after the end of the battle, some 7-8 hours
later,’ he told Bakour Karapetian, who provided PanARMENIAN.Net with
the script of the interview.

`I don’t think that the Azerbaijan authorities could be so mean as to
shoot their escaping population. It was dark, I couldn’t see. I saw an
exchange of fire with the position of Nakhijevanik, which lasted some
1-2 minutes, not more. After it, the refugees, understanding that it
was a wrong direction, didn’t go to the positions of Nakhijevanik. I
don’t exclude that some refugees died during the exchange of fire.
When Azeri refugees went to Nakhijevanik, they were forced back from
the position. Some 15-20 minutes after it, a very fierce fire was
opened from the Azerbaijan positions. I don’t exclude that Azeri, who
were in front of the position of Nakhijevanik, while seeing the
numerous group approaching them, thought that Armenians were attacking,
because before that they had an exchange of fire with Armenians. When
refugees appeared in front of Azeri, a very fierce firing started. It
is possible that the soldier, who watching over the position, was
sleeping, but during that firing, he opened his eyes and `started’ to
fire uninterruptedly. A very strong firing continued. I believe that
soldiers in the Azerbaijan position killed the civilians,’ Vardanov
said.

`If we objectively approach the situation, I think that the governing
body cannot punish those soldiers: it was their position, they were
keeping it safe and they didn’t have any information. If those people
died in Khodgalou, they wouldn’t appear on the territory under the
inspection of Azerbaijan, Azeri would not come to take photographs,
the highly esteemed governing body wouldn’t cry over the dead
population. Me, who was fighting against them, felt bad seeing it, but
when they showed the place, it became clear for me. After a very
fierce firing, Azeri soldiers, who were among the refugees, started to
fire back and it became a real battle. I don’t exclude that the
corpses were gathered from the Turkish firing point and shifted to a
medium size clearing to blame Armenians and to take photographs of the
corpses. There were no corpses there. When the fire ceased, I was
informed by Soviet portable radio transmitters: `You can come back’.
Next midday we returned and there was no exchange of fire there,’ he
said.

Azerbaijan claims that on February 26, 1992 Khojalu was attacked by
Armenian forces. The Azeri authorities accuse Armenians of `killing
civilians and taking some 2000 people hostage.’

Panorama.am
14:36 28/02/2009

WREATH TO COMMEMORATE SUMGAIT VICTIMS

21 years ago, in 26-28 February, 1988 Azeri perpetrators conducted a
massacre over the local peaceful Armenians. Today, in the morning the
members of Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun,
representative of the ARF, National Assembly Deputy Armen Rustamyan,
writer Zori Balayan, eye witnessed gathered at the moment
commemorating the memory of Sumgait victims and put wreaths on it.

Armen Rustamyan said that it is already 21 years Azerbaijan remains
unpunished and currently it is obvious that `lying in the
international organizations is easier than telling the truth.’

`Azerbaijan has turned over the events. Sumgait events are the
evidence to the fact where those crimes started, and that people of
Nagorno Karabakh have right of self determination in their own
territories,’ said Armen Rustamyan. Roman Ghambaryan, who is the head
of the group defending the rights of Sumgait Armenians and an eye
witnessed of those events, tells about the day when they lost their
father.

‘There were 20 thousand Armenians. Many died in `third micro’
region. When they started to break into houses, they invaded into
ours. On 28 February at 6 o’clock the crowd attacked our building. My
father, mother, brother and me were keeping the door but they broke it
and entered. We were fighting but we could not save our father, he was
seriously injured. The next day when they came we found a shelter at
our neighbor’s house,’ he told.

The real facts of Sumgait massacre should be presented in many
international organizations as the Azeri try to distort the facts.

Source: Panorama.am

February 27, 2009

PRESS RELEASE
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

PRELATE TO PRESIDE OVER DIVINE LITURGY
AT ST. MARY’S CHURCH

On Sunday, March 1st, H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian,
Prelate, will preside over Divine Liturgy at St. Mary’s Church in Glendale
and deliver the sermon.
Following Divine Liturgy the Prelate will preside over the requiem
service. Requiem will be offered for founding director of the Research on
Armenian Architecture Armen Hakhnazaryan who passed away in Germany on
February 19th.

PRELATE INVITED TO RE-ELECTION RECEPTION IN HONOR OF MAYOR ANTONIO
VILLARAIGOSA

The Prelate has received an invitation for a re-election reception
in honor of Los Angeles Mayor the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa which will
take place on the evening of Sunday, March 1st.
The reception has been organized by the ANC PAC and will take place
at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. Mr. and Mrs. Sahag and Suzy Majarian
are hosting the event.

WOMEN’S WORLD DAY OF PRAYER

Friday, March 6th, is Women’s World Day of Prayer, which is
commemorated each year with a special program. This year the prayer service
and program will take place at St. Mary’s Church in Glendale at 11:00 a.m.
The Prelate will attend and convey his blessings.

ARMENIAN JUDOISTS TO PARTICIPATE WORLD CUP SECOND ROUND IN WARSAW

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.02.2009 22:14 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian judoists will participate in the World
Cup second round due in Warsaw from February 28 to March 1.

The Armenian team headed by chief coach Arthur Gevorgyan will leave
for the Polish capital tonight.

"The World Cup is held in 10 rounds. Our team will participate in 3
of them. The current tournament is a preparation for the European
Championship to be held in Tbilisi on April 23-26. We will also
participate in the team tournament in Russia on May 25-29 and in UK
on September 19-20," Gevorgyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

In Warsaw, Armenia will be represented by 5 sportsmen: Hovhannes
Davtyan (European silver medalist), Arthur Srapyan, Armen Nazaryan
(2003 European champion), Hambardzum Tonoyan and Artem Baghdasaryan.

As PanARMENIAN.Net came to know from the Judo Association of Armenia,
a junior judo tournament will be held in Istanbul on March 21-22.

PRESIDENT SERZH SARGSYAN CONDUCTED A WORKING MEETING AT THE YEREVAN CITY HALL

armradio.am
25.02.2009 10:32

President Serzh Sargsyan conducted a working meeting at the City
Hall. At the meeting discussed were issues related to the activities
of the community and municipal authorities in the social and economic
area in 2008 and programs for the capital’s development in 2009,
President’s Press Office reported.

Before launching the discussions, the President of Armenia invited
the participants to the meeting to consider two important matters.

Noting, that very soon, only three months after the adoption of the
law on the "Local self-governance in the city of Yerevan" the logic,
principles and the methods of governing the capital would change,
President Sargsyan said that in that period of time his demands toward
the work of the City Hall and the communities would increase. "You
and us should be able to properly carry out our duties, insuring at
the same time a smooth transition to the new system of governance,"
– the President of Armenia stressed.

According to Serzh Sargsyan, it would apparently require doubled
efforts since in the process the normal life in Yerevan must not be
interrupted for even one minute. "On the one hand it will be necessary
to maintain business as usual in Yerevan, on the other hand – to
work to preserve the continuity," he underline d in his remarks. The
President directed the Mayor and the Heads of the communities to
prepare the total inventory of the city’s problems, property, debts,
and liabilities to insure the unremitting and continual work on
all directions.

The instructions of the President of Armenia were strict and clear –
the forthcoming changes must not create an additional hurdle for the
residents of Yerevan.

Speaking about the second matter, President Sargsyan said, "As I
have said before, during this global financial and economic crisis
the state structures and officials must assist the businesses and
support any business initiative. To assist with comprehension and,
which is probably even more important, not to hold back on one hand,
and on the other hand to monitor the implementation of the assumed
responsibilities. With this regard, taking into consideration the
peculiarities of the municipal and community administration it would
appropriate to focus attention on the programs and implementation
of the obligations assumed by the developers at the state priority
areas. This is very important."

Mayor Zakharian presented the report on the results of the social
and economic activities of the City Hall and Yerevan communities for
2008. He spoke in particular about the programs implemented in the
areas of transportation, construction and trimming, urban development,
trade and services, education, culture, social and health affairs as
well as the existing problems. He also presented the capital’s social
and economic development plan for 2009.

Ervand Zakharian spoke also about the fulfillment of the tasks
assigned by President Sargsyan during the July 9, 2008 working
meeting at the City Hall, noting that the construction works for
the underground parking spaces were in progress and according to
the preliminary agreement the works were to be completed in 2012. In
addition, relevant programs have been developed to relieve the center
of heavy traffic and to plant more greenery in Yerevan.

The President of Armenia inquired also about the process of the
re-installment of the property rights for the citizens who miss the
documents on the legal possession of the apartments built before
May 15, 2001 and, noting that it was one of his pre-election pledges
said that it would be "quite interesting to know what has been done,
what the problems are, and what’s to be done so that the promise can
be fulfilled as soon as possible." Regarding this issue the Mayor of
Yerevan said that since the adoption of the law on the "Status of the
individual private homes in Yerevan with missing legal documents on
possession" up to now over two thousand two hundred units of property
have been given the proper legal status. Serzh Sargsyan directed to
speed up the process.

The problems of administration of the multiapartment buil dings
in Yerevan were also discussed in detail at the meeting. Regarding
this matter the President of Armenia assigned with concrete tasks
the Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Territorial Administration,
Armen Gevorkian.

The Minister of Economy Nerses Yeritsian presented the program of
waste management in Yerevan noting that with the assistance of the
World Bank, the German Fichtner company provides consulting aimed at
the comprehensive study of the entire package of Yerevan’s sanitary
cleaning, garbage removal, waste sites, and ecological problems.

Concluding the meeting, President Sargsyan stressed once again that
in 2009 the utmost attention must be paid to the projects implemented
by the developers in the state priority areas and to the fulfillment
of their obligations.

COALITION LEFT "MASS DISORDER" NOTION UNDEFINED

Panorama.am
19:39 24/02/2009

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly on State and Legal
Affairs discussed on 20 February during the committee session and
defined to include the draft of the law on "making changes and
supplements in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia" in the
agenda of four-day session of the NA. According to the law, amendments
should be prepared for the articles 225 and 300 of the Criminal Code.

In this regard the Chairman of the State and Legal Affairs Committee,
the head of the Armenian Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of
Council of Europe (PACE) David Harutyunyan made some clarifications
to Panorama.am.

It is important to remind that on 23 January the Chairman of the
National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan signed a decree to establish a
working group to draft amendments to the Criminal Code. By the order of
the NA Chairman, the working group consists of David Harutyunyan, the
Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee of the NA Armen Roustamyan,
the Chairman of the European Integration Committee Avet Adonts,
the member of the Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Committee
Artsruni Aghadjanyan.

To the question whether there was a necessity to make amendments
to the articles 225 and 300 of the Criminal Code, Mr. Harutyunyan
notified that the mission was to make them correspond to some definite
legal principles. According to him it was the Commissioner of Human
Rights of the Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg who spoke about
the incomprehensibility of those articles.

In the spring of the previous year after his visit to Armenia the
Commissioner made a report that in the frames of "March 1" case people
were arrested based on the articles 225, 300 and 316 of the Criminal
Code. He wrote that the Articles 225 and 300 of Criminal Code allowed
for a very broad interpretation by the prosecution. In particular,
the formulation of usurping the power "can have a broad interpretation
and does not guide how to differentiate legal expression of opinion
from violence." Hence, it is remarkable that the problem to make
changes in those articles has risen in the previous year, and it
would be a delusion to consider them as the background of the case
of seven arrested.

Moreover, criminal right, according to David Harutyunyan, is the most
difficult branch of human right, regarding that it is difficult to
make such formulations and definitions to avoid misunderstandings
and broad interpretations.

How much does the implemented work correspond to those original
principles put before the working group? David Harutyunyan assured
that the group made all the efforts to clarify the incomprehensibility
and the broad interpretation of those articles.

Regarding the Article 300, David Harutyunyan said that it was highly
recommended to split the article into three articles, the 300th –
"usurping the power", the 300.1st – "breaking constitutional order",
and the 300.2nd – "breaking territorial integrity".

The head of the working group stressed that there are serious
shortcomings and incomprehensibilities in the formulations and
the definitions of the current article. The notion of "usurping
the power" has been made more comprehensible defining to assume,
to take and to own the power of the President, National Assembly,
Government and Constitutional Court.

The working group has recommended amendments to the Article 225
either. It was recommended to define "mass disorder" notion, and "the
performer", that is to say who has done the act. David Harutyunyan
mentioned that the political coalition decided to leave the 1st,
2nd and 4th parts of the article unchanged.

In the end we would like to mention David Harutyunyan’s response to
the member of ARF fraction Artsvik Minasyan’s opinion made by media
in these days that "though David Harutyunyan has been trying to get
maximum consensus to solve the problem, it is obvious that there are
disagreements. I guess that the mission of establishing the group is
unfulfilled." (Note that Artsvik Minasyan was given an opportunity
to participate in the activities of the working group by the decree
of the NA Chairman). David Harutyunyan agreed with the first part
of Minasyan’s concern saying that he has tried to guarantee maximum
consensus. Mr. Harutyunyan added that those who were not members of
the group but were present at the sessions were given opportunity to
vote. The head of the working group did not agree with the statement
that the problem remained unsolved. He said that the working group
was ready and open to hear any solution from those who wished to. But
if there are no recommendations, then Mr. Harutyunyan notified that
perfect comprehensibility in the criminal right is not possible.

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS: ANCA MAY FACE INVESTIGATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.02.2009 00:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Washington based ethics monitor, Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, has filed complaints
with federal agencies against the Armenian National Committee of
America, or ANCA, for various lobbying and campaign violations,
Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Accordiong to Turkish newspaper "CREW submitted voluminous materials
to the U.S. Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, Secretary
of the Senate and Clerk of the House on Thursday that complained ANCA,
the largest U.S. Armenian group had engaged in prohibited activity as
a charitable organization, violated the Foreign Agents Registration
Act and also skirted the Lobbying Disclosure Act."

As it is mentioned in the article "the letters of complaint said
ANCA had violated restrictions on charitable organizations "by
participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of
(or in opposition to) any candidate for public office." It said the
organization illegally participated in the endorsement of Barack Obama
for U.S. President and Joseph Biden for Vice-President, as well as
some 15 U.S. Senate candidates and 211 U.S. House candidates."

Moreover ANCA executives "have lobbied Congress and the executive
branch heavily with regard to perennial congressional Armenian
genocide resolutions and other legislation bearing on U.S.-Armenia,
U.S.-Turkey or U.S.-Azerbaijani relations without even registering
with the Secretary of the Senate or Clerk of the House."

RUSSIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS NOT DANGEROUS FOR ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.02.2009 17:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia never welcomed close relations between
Russia and Turkey, an Armenian expert said.

"What is happening now in the Russian-Turkish relations can be called
a palpation of possibilities," Alexander Iskandaryan, director of
Caucasus Institute, told a news conference today.

The Caucasus platform initiative and the visit of Turkish President
to Moscow mean nothing. These relations are not dangerous for Armenia
yet, according to him.

At that, he emphasized that Yerevan should closely watch the
developments between Moscow and Ankara.

"CLOSING "BJNI" HUNDREDS REMAINED JOBLESS"

Panorama.am
15:46 18/02/2009

Advocate Tigran Ter-Yesayan says he is informed about the recent
developments round "Bjni" Mineral Water Company and thinks that "there
is some hidden text with closing it". According to him the law is
violated when the company is put up to the auction because there are
several claims in the courts. "If there are 7-8 claims in the courts,
why have they organized the auction?" said Tigran Ter-Yesayan in a
press conference today.

According to the advocate even if the company had bills unpaid,
the state should not close it leaving hundreds of employees jobless.