Author: Nalbandian Albert

PACE PRESIDENT TO VISIT ARMENIA, RUSSIA AND GEORGIA

news.am
April 27 2010
Armenia

PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu plans to discuss the activities
of sub-commission on Nagorno-Karabakh with leaders of Armenian and
Azerbaijani delegations. The meeting will be held within the framework
of PACE spring session, which started on April 26, Cavusoglu stated
at a press-conference. "When members of the subcommittee are decided,
I will lead it as a president," he said.

In June PACE President intends to visit Armenia, Russia and Georgia.

"I plan high-level meetings with presidents, parliament speakers and
representatives of leading political parties and opposition, as well
as non-governmental organizations," he said. He expressed readiness
to support the establishment of peace in the region, where currently
there are unresolved conflicts.

Earlier, Mevlut Cavusoglu arrived in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
as well as Moldova and Azerbaijan.

EURASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK OPENS REPRESENTATION IN ARMENIA

ARKA
APRIL 27, 2010
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, April 27, /ARKA/. Armenian energy and natural resources
minister Armen Movsisyan and Igor Finogenov, board chairman of the
Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), have signed today in Yerevan an
agreement on the opening of the bank’s representation in Armenia

Speaking at the ceremony prime minister Tigran Sarkisian said Armenia
pins big hopes on this agreement welcoming the bank’s stepped up
activity in the country. He said Armenia submitted a package of
investment projects to the bank, designed to promote regional and
integration trends in the region, which local commercial banks are
still unable to support and fund.

He said two of these projects were designed to give a strong boost to
Armenian chemical and energy sectors, each estimated at $100 million.

The Eurasian Development bank has signed today also memoranda with
the energy and natural resources ministry, ArmRosgazprom natural
gas operator, the International Energy Company, the South Caucasus
Railways Company and Armbusinessbank.

‘We are interested to see large investment projects to materialize in
Armenia to stimulate economic development and integration trends, both
in the frameworks of the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Cooperation,’
Tigran Sarkisian said.

Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) was founded by Russia and Kazakhstan
in 2006. Armenia joined it in 2009 and submitted a package of 8 credit
projects worth $500 million. Igor Finogenov said the bank prioritizes
projects that are designed to deepen integration processes among EDB
member states. The loans provided by the bank are repayable in 10
years. The largest possible amount of a loan is $350 million. The
bank’s credit portfolio is above $1.3 billion.

OPENING REMARKS BY LOUISE AYNEDJIAN AT THE POLITICAL GATHERING AT THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMMEMORATION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by Alexander-Michael Hadjilyra

mp;page_id=122&path=122
Saturday 24 April 2010

Nicosia – To complete the cycle of a crime, the perpetrator must
confess and be punished, and the victim must be morally remedied
and compensated.

In the case of our countries – Cyprus and Armenia – the international
community, for the sake of political interests with Turkey, wants
to circumvent this route and with diplomatic jumps erase historical
memories, national dignities and impose against our peoples, either
through protocols or other solutions, a new order of things that
have no relation whatsoever with European values, human rights,
truth and justice.

In order to promote Turkey into the salons of Europe, an attempt
is made not to close this cycle, the recognition, the acceptance,
the punishment… we would add reconciliation as well… Because the
reconciliation of peoples we all desire will never be possible if we
do not succeed in the most important element of this attempt.

95 years after the Genocide, official Turkey has not yet found the
strength to admit its crimes, and unfortunately their voices sound on
the same wavelength with their ancestors, with treats to expel 100.000
Armenians from Turkey, the murder of the voice of Turkish Armenians,
Hrant Dink, the financial blockade and closing of borders with Armenia,
the treats against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and
the denial of the Armenian Genocide reality.

– 95 years later, they ask from the descendants of the survivors, us,
to hush……… invoking protocols and good neighbouring relations.

– 35 and more years, they ask from the Republic of Cyprus to accept
a racist formation, the result of violence, invasion and occupation.

For those who want to dispute the historical truth of the Armenian
Genocide, we refer them not only to the pages of the Armenian history,
but also to the pages of the reality of Cyprus, which are a product of
the same expansionary policy, a militaristic fascistic establishment,
characterised not by civility and peaceful co-existence of peoples,
but rather by violence and barbarity.

The anniversary of the Armenian Genocide finds Armenian parties and
organisations in Cyprus and the Diaspora united to accomplish the
recognition of a history that will lead the way for a sincere and
peaceful co-existence in the region.

In this attempt, the voices in Turkey grow larger in number, by
intellectuals, columnists and politicians who bravely raise their
voice for a different tomorrow.

At the same time, the international community witnesses more and more
countries and parliaments embracing the truth of the Armenian Genocide,
by adopting relevant resolutions.

All of us together, headlong, Armenians and Cypriots, continue to
demand the rights of our people, and 95 years afterwards we decisively
declare that neither time nor any political scenery are capable of
revoking what belongs to us and those that have only temporarily
been lost.

Aspen Daily News
April 24 2010

Valley’s Armenians call for recognition of genocide

by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent
Saturday, April 24, 2010

Stephan Isberian doesn’t know what happened to his grandparents. Like
many who died when Turkey turned its guns on ethnic Armenians in 1915,
their stories, like their lives, were lost, among an estimated 1.5
million people.

His father, just 9 years old at the time, escaped thanks to orphanages
and the kindness of strangers, but he remained plagued by nightmares
that kept him awake at night for the rest of his life, Isberian said.

`There’s absolutely no family in the diaspora anywhere all over the
world that was not directly affected by the genocide,’ said Isberian,
owner of Isberian Rugs, whose family is one of about 20 Armenian
families in the Roaring Fork Valley that pushes each year to remember
the atrocity and calls on the United States to name it genocide.

For more than two decades, Isberian has penned letters to the editor
or helped fund ads in local newspapers reminding the community of the
massacre of Armenian Christians and calling on the federal government
to address it.

`End Turkey’s Gag Rule,’ said the latest ad, published in advance of
today’s 95th anniversary of the beginning of the atrocity. The ad
included an image of the Statute of Liberty’s mouth gagged by the
Turkish flag.

Whether or not the U.S. should call it genocide is a delicate
political matter. When a House committee voted in March to approve a
nonbinding resolution calling the killings genocide, Turkey removed
its ambassador for a month. The vote came despite last-minute efforts
by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to
quash the bill. President George W. Bush made a similar effort when an
earlier version of the bill passed in 2007.

As senators, both Obama and Clinton had called the killings genocide.

Many lawmakers have been reluctant to vote for the resolution out of
fear of alienating Turkey, a U.S. ally in the Muslim world.

Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., released a statement on Friday
`commemorating the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.’

`After the events of 1915, we said `never again,” Udall said. `We
haven’t kept faith with those words in the years since ‘ but we must
keep faith with them now.’

Turkey, which lobbied against the resolution, has maintained that the
killings were a planned genocide. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan released a statement that condemned the bill, which he said
`denounces the Turkish nation of a crime that it has not committed.’

The Armenian National Committee of America has pressed for the
Armenian Genocide Resolution to honor what it calls Turkey’s
`systematic and deliberate massacres and deportations of Armenians
between 1915 and 1923.’

Historians estimate as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed amid
the collapsing Ottoman Empire, what some say was the first genocide of
the 20th century.

`We were the first,’ said Isberian, who criticized Turkey for failing
to acknowledge the killings as a genocide.

His father lost his parents in the killings, he said. His mother’s
parents each lost their spouses and children. They remarried to each
other after fleeing Turkey. His mother was born on a boat bound for
Ellis Island, he said.

`They found each other and started a new family,’ he said.

Isberian has passed on his passion for preserving the memory of the
tragedy to his children. He found other Armenian families in the
Roaring Fork Valley that shared similar stories about previous
generations fleeing the bloodshed. Some fled to Iran or Lebanon or
Egypt. Some escaped bullets by hiding as children amid corpses.

Isberian said he wants those stories remembered by the United States.

`I’m just a proud American,’ he said. `We’d like America to do the
right thing.’

e/140309

States News Service, USA
April 22, 2010 Thursday

PALLONE COMMEMORATES 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

WASHINGTON

The following information was released by the office of New Jersey
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.:

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Co-Chairman of the Congressional
Caucus on Armenian Issues, issued the following statement at the
commemoration ceremony of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide.

Welcome. It is heartening to see so many familiar faces and friends
here this evening. For thousands of years, the Armenian people have
been known for their perseverance in the face of great challenges.
Tonight we will honor the victims and survivors of the Armenian
Genocide on 95th anniversary.

As we commemorate the victims, we pay homage to the Armenian people
for their strength to overcome adversity. We will also hear from
Members of Congress and leaders of the Armenian community as to how
important recognition of the Armenian Genocide is today and what the
path is forward.

I am pleased to be here tonight with my fellow Co-chair of the
Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, Congressman Mark Kirk, from
Illinois.

I also greatly appreciate the presence a Genocide Survivor who is with
us tonight, Yeretsgeen Sirarpi Khoyan, and two leaders in the
Armenian-American religious community, Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan,
and Archbishop Yeghishe Gizirian.

I appreciate the Diplomatic representatives, Armenian Ambassador to
the US, Tatoul Markarian and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Representative
Robert Avetyisian for attending.

"I want to thank the Armenian Organizations who have fought for so
long for Genocide Recognition for helping to bring the community to
this event. We have members of the Armenian National Committee of
America and the Armenian Assembly of America with us.

We also have a number of school groups that have traveled to
Washington to commemorate the genocide and I owe a special thanks to
the Hovnanian Armenian School from my home state of New Jersey.

This week is always a somber week for me as I reflect on the victims
of the Armenian Genocide, the continued denial by the Turkish
government, and our own governments inaction in using the word
genocide to describe these events.

Since I first came to Congress I have been pushing for Turkey to
acknowledge the fact of the Armenian Genocide and reconcile itself
with its own history. Our governments complacency is simply
unacceptable when it comes to taking a moral position and recognizing
genocidewherever it may occur.

The Armenian Genocide is the first genocide of the twentieth century.
Between 1915 and 1923 1.5 million Armenians were systematically and
deliberately killed by the Ottoman Turks.

The Armenian Genocide has been recognized by scholars all over the
world, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars
and has been recognized by NATO allies and the European Parliament.

The Genocide has been widely documented as historical fact. Our own
National Archives and writings from US Ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire, Henry Morgenthau, display how the Ottoman government decided
to target the Armenians, move them towards what is the modern day
Syrian Dessert, and kill them indiscriminately.

The Armenian Genocide is a dark day in history, but it must be
remembered and reaffirmed to ensure that not only are the victims and
survivors honored, and so that we can make it clear that genocide will
never be tolerated, past or present.

The House of Representatives made a strong statement this year by
passing the Armenian Genocide Resolution through the Foreign Affairs
Committee. This truly was a testament to the perseverance of all of
you here in ensuring that the genocide is reaffirmed and recognized.

I remain committed to protecting the Armenian Genocide Resolution and
ensuring that we have secured support of the majority of the entire
House of Representatives so that we can close this chapter in American
history with success.

Tonight is a time to remember. We would do well to commemorate the
bravery of those who perished in and survived the Armenian Genocide by
officially recognizing the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
for what it was, Genocide.

Thank you for being here tonight. I am always glad to see so many
individuals devoted to this cause.

Los Angeles Times
April 25 2010

ARMENIA, TURKEY: On anniversary of genocide, two peoples mourn separately
April 25, 2010 | 8:09 am

As the rain fell Saturday, a woman lay flowers at the eternal flame in
Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, in recognition of those who died in
the violence nearly a century ago.

"Every year it rains on April 24," she said. "They say the sky is crying."

This weekend, Armenians around the world commemorated the 95th
anniversary of a genocide that killed an estimated 1.5-million people.
April 24 marks the 1915 roundup of Armenian leaders and intellectuals.
Then came the able-bodied men of each village, followed by women and
children who were sent on death marches into the desert.

Saturday also marked one year since Turkey and the Republic of
Armenia, long enemies, took a step toward peace. In a diplomatic
breakthrough promoted heavily by the United States, Turkish and
Armenian governments announced they would move toward the
normalization of relations and signed protocols to that effect.

"A road map has been identified," they said back then.

These days, however, neither side seems to be on the same path.

The agreement met with immediate and vehement opposition from large
segments of the Armenian people and the Diaspora, who were insulted by
the implication that the genocide was up for debate.

Turkey’s government, under pressure from nationalists and their allies
in Azerbaijan, added a steep condition: They would not ratify the
protocols until Armenia resolved its conflict with the Azeris over the
breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabagh.

On Thursday, Armenia’s government announced that its ratification of
the protocols would be suspended — it had run out of patience with
the process.

The apparent stalled diplomacy casts an air of futility around
Turkish-Armenian reconciliation, a sense that it has been tried and
failed.

"It’s not going to be easy to return to the point we were at in the
beginning of the process," the former foreign minister of Armenia,
Vartan Oskanian, told reporters. "We have gone backward."

In Armenia, as in the diaspora, there is a sense that the process
can’t move forward until history is put to rest. "Turkey and
Azerbaijan will always be our enemies," Grigor Kafalian, 22, told
Reuters at a rally in Yerevan, calling on Turkey to recognize the
genocide.

Although the events of 1915 seem to weigh on the Turkish conscience,
as expressed in a recent wave of books and articles by Turkish
intellectuals, the government continues to deny that the organized
mass killings took place.

"Characterizing the events of 1915 as genocide is not something that
we can accept," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN
earlier this month. "This was a time of revolts … and there were
deaths, killings."

Yet in what appeared to be a softening stance, he left Turkey’s
position open to amendment: "What is important is to look into the
archives, the historical documents…if, as the result of this work,
it turns — comes out that there is such a situation, we would then
consider and question our history."

For people on both sides, exhausted by conflict and tragedy, there has
been a movement to reconcile with the past.

On Saturday, while hundreds of thousands of Armenians climbed to the
hilltop memorial in Yerevan, a Turkish human-rights group in Istanbul
held its own event, mourning with them. In another part of town, a
group of Kurdish mothers gathered in solidarity with Armenians,
calling on Turkey to recognize the genocide. Their empathy was matched
by bravery, as they could have been jailed or fined for any public
mention of the genocide, banned under Turkish law.

It is the latest and boldest step by Turks choosing to break with
their government’s silence. It followed an online petition entitled "I
Apologize," signed by nearly 30,000 people in Turkey last year. "My
conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial
of the Great Catastrophe that the Armenians were subjected to in
1915," the brief statement read. "I reject this injustice and for my
share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers
and sisters. I apologize to them."

"It’s a growing movement," said Salpi Ghazarian, a Los Angeles native
now living in Yerevan. "At the end of the day, it is essential that
recognition come from within Turkish society."

— Olivia Katrandjian in Yerevan, Armenia
ond/2010/04/armenia-turkey-on-anniversary-of-genoc ide-two-peoples-mourn-separately.html

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Karine Abalyan
Tel: (212) 686-0710; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

April 23, 2010

___________________________________

PRIMATE ORDAINS DEACON AT ST. GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR CHURCH OF CHICAGO

Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church
of America (Eastern), visited St. Gregory the Illuminator Church of Chicago,
Ill., on Sunday, April 18, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy and
ordained Dr. Vahe Caliskan to the diaconate.

In this Diocesan "Year of Vocations," the Primate said it was especially
encouraging to see a parishioner’s commitment to serving his church. "Deacon
Vahe’s service is an inspiration to younger members of this parish,"
Archbishop Barsamian said. "It is through such level of dedication that we
can preserve and pass on the rich heritage of the Armenian Church."

The Very Rev. Fr. Aren Jebejian, pastor of St. Gregory Church, served as the
sponsoring priest at the ordination. "It was inspiring to see a young,
dedicated member of the Armenian Church work so hard and finally achieve his
goal of being ordained a deacon in order to better serve the church," Fr.
Jebejian said. "Deacon Vahe is a dedicated member of St. Gregory, and I look
forward to his many years of service to our community."

A longtime member of the Chicago parish, Dr. Caliskan was ordained to the
rank of acolyte by then-Primate Archbishop Torkom Manoogian at Sts. Joachim
and Anne Church of Palos Heights, Ill., in the late 1980s. In the early
1990s, he also served at St. James Church of Evanston, Ill.

Dr. Caliskan said it was his grandmother who first helped him learn about
the Christian faith. He recalled growing up in Istanbul, Turkey, where he
would join his grandmother on Saturday evenings to light incense throughout
their home.

When he moved to the United States at the age of 12, he became more involved
in the life of the Armenian Church, which has helped him preserve his
Armenian identity in his newfound home. "Church is a part of our culture,"
he said. "It’s also a way to learn about our history and keep our language
alive."

Dr. Caliskan holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and teaches at the
University of Illinois at Chicago. He has worked in the automotive industry
for Motorola, Inc., and Continental AG. He is also a member of the Knights
of Vartan. Dr. Caliskan is married to Dr. Nooshig Salvador-Caliskan.

Every Sunday, Dr. Caliskan serves on the altar at St. Gregory the
Illuminator Church, where friends and family gathered last week to witness
his ordination. "It was a very happy, spiritual occasion," he said.

"It was a beautiful day for the parish of St. Gregory the Illuminator
Church," said parish council chair Craig Koresian. "In this year of
vocations, it was an honor to have our Primate visit and ordain Deacon
Vahe."

A luncheon and program followed services (the luncheon was sponsored by Dr.
and Mrs. Vahe Karachorglu). Parishioners gathered to celebrate Dr.
Caliskan’s ordination and to discuss the importance of fostering youth
leadership.

ACYOA Central Council members screened a short video about the
organization’s March 2010 Leadership Conference, and parishioners had the
opportunity to discuss ways young people can serve the St. Gregory
community.

Dr. Caliskan said the ACYOA’s participation helped focus the weekend on
"serving and being involved." He added, "You don’t have to wait until you’re
60 to get involved. Young people can be involved too."

###

Photos attached.

Photo 1: Archbishop Khajag Barsamian ordained Dr. Vahe Caliskan to the
diaconate at St. Gregory the Illuminator Church of Chicago, Ill., on Sunday,
April 18.

Photo 2: Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, the Very Rev. Fr. Aren Jebejian, and
altar servers at St. Gregory the Illuminator Church of Chicago, Ill.

ARMENIA PUTS HOLD ON RATIFYING ARMENIAN-TURKISH PROTOCOLS

RIA Novosti
April 22, 2010
YEREVAN

Armenian President Serzh Sargysan on Thursday signed a decree putting
a hold on ratification of Armenian-Turkish protocols, the presidential
press service reported.

"After consultations with the parties of the ruling coalition and a
National Security Council session, we have decided not to quit the
process of normalizing relations with Turkey, but just to put on
hold the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols. I am sure
it’s right what our national interests demand," Sargysan said in his
appeal to the nation.

Armenia still aims to establish full diplomatic relations with Turkey,
and will return to the issue when seeing there is an "appropriate
atmosphere" and corresponding readiness in Ankara to normalize
relations, he said.

Sargysan said he had discussed the prospects for Armenian -Turkish
relations with the French, U.S. and Russian presidents as well as
with other partners.

"I won’t hide that our partners called on me to continue the process,
not to quit it," he said.

Long strained relations between Armenia and Turkey took a major
step forward on October 10, 2009, when Armenian Foreign Minister
Eduard Nalbandyan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Devutoglu signed
protocols on establishing diplomatic relations and developing bilateral
relations.

The documents, signed in Switzerland, have to be ratified by both
countries to come into force.

The Armenian-Turkish border was closed in 1993 on Ankara’s initiative.

Bilateral relations between the countries are complicated by Turkey’s
support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over Nagorny
Karabakh and differing positions on the genocide of Armenians by the
Ottoman Empire during World War I, which Ankara consistently denies.

SERZH SARGSYAN IS ENTANGLED IN THE SPIDER’S WEB OF HIS OWN POLICY

Tert.am
23.04.10

Armenian National Congress has issued a statement in relation to
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s decision over suspending the
ratification process of the Armenia-Turkey Protocol.

"Despite the pronounced objectives the Armenia-Turkey reconciliation
turned into an Armenia-Turkey confrontation process. Taking advantage
of the current regime’s inability Turkey consistently continued linking
the ratification of the Protocols and the opening of the border to
the settlement of the Karabakh conflict," reads the statement.

It also says the result of this process was that not only the
international pressure did not decrease, but on the contrary, it
grew stronger and to such a degree that Armenia, for the first time
in its modern history, agreed to limit Karabakh’s self-determination
right within Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity (OSCE statement made
in Athens).

"Linking the Armenia-Turkey normalization and Karabakh settlement
to each other Turkey also succeeded in assuming an essential role,
though a dangerous one for Armenia, in the international talks over
the Nagorno Karabakh: the optimal format – OSCE Minsk Group – of
these talks were put at risk," reads the statement.

Further it says that President Serzh Sargsyan, entangled in the
spiders’ web of his own initiative-taking policy, is no more capable
of neutralizing the damages of his own policy.

ARMENIAN CHESS PLAYERS IN WOMEN’S GRAND PRIX

Panorama.am
23/04/2010

WGMs Lilit Mkrtchian and Elina Danielian are taking part in the
Women’s Grand Prix 3rd tournament which is being held in Nalchik,
Russia from April 26 to May 7, 2010.

Their opponents are Humpy Koneru (India), Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue (China),
Pia Cramling (Sweden), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia), Tatiana Kosintseva,
Baira Kovanova (Russia), Zhu Chen (Qatar), Munguntuul Batkhuyag
(Mongolia), Betul Yildiz (Turkey).