Author: Nalbandian Eduard

Meeting between presidents needed to settle Karabakh – Azeri foreign minister

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
23 Apr 05

[Presenter] There is a need for a meeting between the Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents to settle the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. There are
also grounds for this, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov
has said. Mammadyarov added that after several meetings, the
settlement process can enter a new stage where the dialogue will be
held by experts.

[Correspondent] The format of the [London] meeting between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers was changed at the request
by the OSCE co-chairs, Mammadyarov said. The co-chairs believe that
this format will help speed up the talks, he added.

[Mammadyarov speaking to reporters] I did not meet the Armenian
foreign minister at the request of the co-chairs. They think that the
talks could be stepped up and developed in this way. They met Vardan
Oskanyan on 14 April and me on 15 April. We are waiting to see what
results this will produce on 27 April. The co-chairs say that they
were inspired by the results of our talks in Prague. So they proposed
this format.

[Correspondent] The minister also said that the discussions are
expected to be continued by experts. However, the foreign ministers
have to meet several times before that and prepare the details that
will be discussed.

[Mammadyarov] In general, we discussed when we should hand over the
discussions to experts. But I think we need to hold several more
meetings, after which the experts will join in to discuss the
details. We also have to decide how we are going to do this and
where. We had good talks in London. We will continue the talks in
Frankfurt.

[Correspondent] Mr Mammadyarov says there are already grounds for a
meeting between the presidents. The heads of state last met in Astana
several months ago, he said, adding that if progress is made at the
meetings between the ministers, the issue will be discussed at a
higher level.

The minister said that the co-chairs did not come up with new
proposals, but put forward certain elements during the London
talks. It would not be right to say whose interests these elements
meet, he said, adding that Azerbaijan’s position remains unchanged.

[Mammadyarov] Every president and everybody agrees that one cannot
change the borders using a Kalashnikov assault rifle. No-one will
allow this to happen. Of course, they [Armenians] must withdraw from
the occupied territories and internally displaced persons should
return to their homes. If we speak about integration into Europe, the
three South Caucasus countries should work on this. In this regard,
it is impossible to pursue a policy of occupation.

[Correspondent] Mammadyarov said that the compromise official Baku can
make is granting a high degree of autonomy to Nagornyy Karabakh. We
accept the Karabakh Armenians as Azerbaijani citizens. So Nagornyy
Karabakh’s Azerbaijani community should also return to its land, end
quote.

PRIME MINISTER ANDRANIK MARGARIAN’S SPEECH AT ULTIMATE CRIME, ULTIMATE
CHALLENGES: GENOCIDE AND HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

Armenpress

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS: Distinguished participants of the
international conference,

Dear guests,

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Armenia as well as
on behalf of the State Commission for Organization of Commemoration
of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide I welcome all
the participants and guests who responded to the State Commission’s
invitation and participated at the conference. This once again proves
that today more than ever the Genocide, as the ultimate crime against
humanity and as a universal challenge to humankind preoccupies the
whole progressive world community.

This conference, entitled “An Ultimate Crime, An Ultimate Challenge:
The Genocide and the Human Rights” is actually the continuation of the
international information campaign aimed at foreseeing, preventing,
stopping and punishing for Genocide. I am happy to see here people
from different parts of the world, who have raised their voices of
condemnation at different forums against the heaviest crime against
humanity: Genocide. In this sense it seems appropriate for me to
mention the following statement by the distinguished participant of the
conference Yehuda Bauer, made in the German Bundestag during the 53rd
commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1998: “The Armenian
Genocide was conducted with the technological and bureaucratic means
available at that time. The same means were used by the Nazis against
Poles and Jews.”

It is not a coincidence that today’s conference in Yerevan is being
conducted under the ‘Recognition, Condemnation, Prevention’ motto,
which means that had there been early recognition and condemnation of
the Armenian Genocide of the early 20th century, then mankind might
have been spared similar tragedies.

The Armenian Genocide, which was planned and conducted at the state
level in the Ottoman empire, ninety years ago, is the most cruel
and tragic page of the history of Armenian nation, and the horrible
aftermath we still feel today.

The Genocide, which was conducted in 1915-1923 took the lives of 1.5
million innocent victims, the spiritual and material assets created by
the Armenian nation during millennia were destroyed, those who escaped
death were dispersed all over the world, suffering the heaviest of
refugee hardships.

Decades later, let me once again on behalf of the Armenian nation and
the Government of the Republic of Armenia express our deep gratitude
to all those countries and nations, who gave shelter to thousands of
Armenians, who supported them in undergoing heavy deprivations and who
helped to begin their lives and create a new future in these countries.

The Armenian Genocide with its heavy consequences also caused horrible
damage first to the Armenian identity, when a huge part of our nation
was denied the right to live together in their historical homes. As
a result, our Diaspora compatriots have made huge efforts to preserve
their national identity.

In general the issues included in the agenda of the conference have
one common feature: the condemnation of the Genocide as a crime,
and a deep preoccupation with the preservation of the common values
of human rights, freedom and justice.

It is not a secret that the recognition and condemnation of
the Armenian Genocide has been the test of the Armenian-Turkish
relationship. This is aptly described in the agenda of the conference
as ‘divided by history, unified by geography’.

The Government of the Republic of Armenia has announced and
still confirms its readiness to establish normal relationships
with Turkey without any preconditions. Meanwhile any initiative
of establishing diplomatic ties with Turkey ends up with various
unacceptable preconditions put ahead by the latter. In fact the gradual
rehabilitation of the trust that has been shaken between Armenia and
Turkey, would enforce the further development of regional security
and cooperation, the resolution of current conflicts in South Caucasus
and the establishment of peaceful coexistence.

Armenia fully agrees with those opinions by the political circles
in Europe, according to which a country seeking a full membership in
the European Union at least is obliged to be able to reconcile with
its own past by recognizing the own crime.

It is important for us to see Turkey freed from the heavy burden of
the past, freed from its policy of denial. But contemporary Turkey as
the successor state of the Ottoman empire by denying the fact of the
Armenian Genocide pushed itself out from the process of self-redemption
and coming to terms with own history, choosing instead to remain a
state with the psychology of denial as state policy, and also remaining
the only country to seek membership in the EU, without ridding itself
of the ethnic intolerance and the feeling of ethnic incompatibility.

While consistently trying to achieve the recognition and condemnation
of the Armenian Genocide we push ahead not only the violated rights
of our nation, rehabilitation of dignity and justice, but we also
make a significant input to the struggle of the whole civilized
world against this crime, thus supporting the establishment of a
comprehensive regime of international law and morality.

We are sure that the struggle against this crime is the duty of every
state, international institution and the whole world community.

History is an integrated dynamic process, where the past, the present
and the future are inseparably linked with each other.

Occasionally proposals are made to forget the past and to move
ahead. We answer: moving ahead with whom? Are we to move ahead with
a Genocide perpetrator? Are we to move ahead with the successor-state
of a country, which conducted Genocide against its own citizens? Are
we to move ahead with the country, which intentionally conceals the
historical truth? During the last nine decades there has not been
a political force, media organization or public movement in Turkey
to express regret for a Genocide conducted against a whole nation,
to treat the destruction of Armenians as disrespectful and a shame
for the name and reputation of the Turkish nation. And the truth and
attempts to label historical realities by their appropriate names,
made by individual representatives of intelligentsia have been publicly
criticized by the state.

We call upon Turkey: restore historical justice and the damaged rights
of our nation, and let us, indeed, move ahead securely and without
mutual distrust and without complexes.

As the descendant of a Genocide survivor from Mush, I have often
experienced the feelings of the rare survivor of our huge family. Even
after this, I am ready to begin a dialogue with any Turkish politician
or any representative of Turkish public, if they will have enough
courage to honestly consider their own history. The upcoming
generations need this more than we do.

Even after living through such a disaster, the Armenian nation
found the capacity to once again rise, to establish statehood in one
of the corners of its historical motherland, and to strengthen an
independent state, to contribute to the creation of cultural values
of humanity. This has been the response of the survivors to the
perpetrators of the Genocide.

Distinguished conference participants,

I am hopeful that this international conference will become another
important step to coordinate our efforts against the crime of Genocide,
to unify the potential and the resources of the international community
and to go through the 21st Century with the realization of our desire
to live without this formidable crime.

In conclusion let me once again state the following: nations of the
world, be alert, because a Genocide always can reoccur if we do not
unify our efforts and if we do not struggle together against similar
challenges. Thank you.

THE WHOLE POLITICAL SPECTOR MEETS

A1plus
| 14:03:58 | 22-04-2005 | Politics |

Yesterday in the hotel Yerevan for the first time all the main
political powers of Armenia met except the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation the absence of which was purely technical and the National
Unity. From the coalition Vahan Hovhannisyan, Tigran Torosyan, Mher
Shahgeldyan were present, and Grigor Ghonjeyan from the United Labor
Party. From the opposition the «Republican Party of Armenia», «New
Times», «Union for National Self-Determination», «People’s Party
of Armenia», «National Democratic Party», «National Democratic
Union», and «Constitutional Right» were present.

The aim of the meeting was to come to an agreement about a problem
of who will control the political life of Armenia – political powers
or others?

Paruyr Hayrikyan, leader of the Union for National Self-Determination,
informed about it during today’s press conference. The initiative
belongs to Ashot Manoucharyan; and the reason is the incident during
the meeting of the “New Times” Party in Sevan two days ago. It is
already known that the police have tries to give criminal coloring
to Aram Karapetyan’s actions.

The political powers have come to an agreement that the apolitical
powers must be removed from the political field, especially criminal
powers. Almost all the speakers claimed that the political powers
must be united in this matter.

According to Paruyr Hayrikyan, Vahan Hovhannisyan has offered a
asymmetric solution mentioning that maybe it is high time the 100$
proportional electoral system were announced about. “This is the way
to prevent the entrance of the apolitical powers into the political
field”, this was the conclusion of the powers gathered in the hotel
Yerevan.

They have signed two documents, in which it is said that they condemn
the incident in Sevan and the violation towards Aram Karapetyan and
the members of his party and they demand the state structure to find
and punish those responsible immediately.

On April 28 the political powers will meet once again to see what
measures are taken.

–Boundary_(ID_M6+gZvIqT15I6xmyqsZbeg)–

Lebanon Is on the Brink

Syria Begins Arming its Supporters

DEBKAfile Special Report (Tel Aviv)
February 19, 2005

Lebanon’s climate has been charged with latent violence since the
assassination Monday, February 14, of Lebanese former prime minister
Rafiq Hariri, and his funeral two days later. Sparks began flying
when the opposition unveiled their “peaceful democratic uprising for
independence” Friday, February 18, and, as revealed by DEBKAfile’s
intelligence sources, Syrian forces began distributing weapons to
groups supporting Damascus and the 1.4 million expatriate laborers
in the country.

The resignations of president Emil Lahoude and the Karame government
were forcefully demanded by the opposition leader, Walid Jumblatt,
head of the Lebanese Druses who speaks for a rare multiethnic coalition
made up of his own community, Christian factions endorsed by Maronite
Catholic Archbishop Nasrallah Sfeir, and Sunni Muslims led by the
dead billionaire’s oldest son, Bahaa Hariri, with the blessing of
the Sunni Muslim Mufti of Lebanon.

Saturday, February 19, Omar Karame, who succeeded Rafiq Hariri as
prime minister, accused this group of attempting a coup d’etat.

The belligerent Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned (or
threatened) that “popular agitation against Syria’s grip on the country
following the killing of Rafiq Hariri could plunge Lebanon into civil
war again. Backed solidly from Damascus and Tehran, he exhorted the
100,000 Shiites massed in Beirut to mark the Ashura festival not to
forget the real enemy. “Death to Israel!” they roared after him.

All three uprisings launched in the Middle East in five years were
steeped in violence. In 1991, after the first Gulf War, Iraq’s Shiites
rose up against the Saddam regime. Thousands were savagely mowed down
by his tanks. Syria’s Kurdish community challenged Assad in 2003,
only to lose thousands of dead and many more thrown into Syria’s
prisons. The Palestinian confrontation with Israel has left 5,000
Palestinian and 1,300 Israelis dead since 2000.

The sparks will fly in earnest when government and Syrians move into
aggressive mode to crush the opposition, which will become increasingly
inflamed by multiplying leads to Syria and its Lebanese minions as
Hariri’s assassins.

Our sources report that US, French and Israeli intelligence have
already gathered solid evidence that General Rostum Ghazallah of
Syrian military intelligence orchestrated the murder on orders from
Damascus with the aid of Lebanese general intelligence and its chief
General Jamil al-Sayad.

The Damascus-backed government in Beirut and its masters has no
intention of going quietly. Bashar Assad desperately needs the
political and economic benefits he extorts from Lebanon to prop up
his regime.

Monday, February 21, presidents George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac
meet in Paris. With Lebanon at the forefront of their agenda, they
will have to look hard at some tough questions. How to handle the
situation if Assad orders his Syrian troops in Lebanon to march on
Beirut in defense of his puppet government? And worse still, what
if the full weight of the Syrian army is sent across the border to
squash the uprising? Will the two Western leaders dispatch a joint
US-French force to repulse the Syrian onslaught?

If they did, it would be the most drastic event to hit the Middle
East since the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The second American
invasion of an Arab land might this time be partnered or endorsed by
a European power.

To force the hands of the American and French presidents, the leaders
of the Lebanese uprising are preparing a spectacular event to coincide
with their summit. One proposal is for a hundreds of thousands of
protesters to march through Beirut’s streets and seize the parliament
building.

Other “intifada” events in the planning:

1. Giant rallies to strangle normal life in the capital.

2. A human chain from Hariri’s tomb to government headquarters on
the seam-line dividing the Hizballah-dominated southern district from
the Christian-controlled West that would aim to paralyze government
activity

Opposition leaders have notified Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,
head of the Shiite Amal, that the only session they will allow to
be held is an open debate on the murder of the former prime minister
that produces the formation of a state inquiry commission.

3. This commission’s mandatory guideline must be to call General
Rostum Ghazallah as its first witness.

4. The mobilization of Lebanese expatriate communities in the United
States and Europe for synchronized street rallies to generate broad
international popular sympathy on the same lines as Ukraine’s Orange
Revolution.

5. Armenian Christians in Lebanon and Western countries will be asked
to join the struggle.

The campaign waged by this anti-Syrian coalition faces three major
challenges:

First, to keep a tight rein on the uprising so that it does not run out
of control and degenerate into a bloodbath and all-out civil strife.

Second, to divide the hitherto pro-Syrian Shiite community against
itself. If parliament speaker Berri can be won over to the opposition
side against the government, the Shiites will be split between Amal and
Hizballah. This will sunder the entire pro-Syrian front and seriously
shake the government.

DEBKAfile’s Lebanese sources report that most Karame cabinet ministers
have departed Beirut to avoid the sound and fury following the
assassination; the tourism minister has resigned. President Lahoud
has not so far uttered a word on the crisis, no doubt waiting for
his script to be written in Damascus.

Third, The opposition must prove it can get the masses out on the
streets for long, sustained rallies. Its failure to muster sizeable
popular backing would foredoom the intifada to failure. If the struggle
peters out, Syria will tighten its grip on Lebanon and go from strength
to strength, with adverse effect on America’s strategic position in
the region and a setback for Israel too.

With the old Levant under their jackboots, the Syrians will quickly
expand their role as main crossroads for international terrorists
moving back and forth among their targeted arenas – whether into Iraq
or over to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATED IN TEHRAN

Armenpress

TEHRAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS: Some twenty members of the Iranian
parliament, Iranian journalists, as well as 200 representatives of
the Iranian intellectual community, government officials and members
of the local Armenian community were present at an April 19 event at
Tehran’s Armenian Club, convened by the Iranian Center for Studying
of Armenian issues and the local branch of Armenian national Committee
to mark the 90-th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Gevork Vardanian, the Armenian member of the Iranian parliament,
welcomed the present. Following this Aida Hovhanesian, a local
Armenian lawyer, spoke about the political and legal aspects of
the genocide. The present also viewed “Germany and Secret Genocide”
documentary. Also booklets on genocide in Iranian and English were
distributed to participants of the event.

Addressing earlier in the day the Iranian parliament’ Gevork Vardanian
said: “The Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire is a
crime that if remained unpunished could be repeated in any other part
of the world. I am calling on the parliament and the government to
assist us in having the international community, world governments
and parliaments to condemn this crime.”

Armenpress

ARMENIA OFFERS TURKMENISTAN TO COOPERATE IN OIL AND GAS

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS: In a message to his Turkmen counterpart
Saparmurad Niyazov Armenian president Robert Kocharian proposed a bilateral
cooperation in crude oil and natural gas sector, which Kocharian said should
become a priority in Armenian-Turkmen cooperation.
The message was conveyed to Turkmen president on Monday by Armenian
ambassador to Turkmenistan Aram Grigorian.
“Armenian president has appointed Karen Karapetian, the chairman of
Hayrusgazard company as the operator for conducting talks with the Turkmen
side,” Grigorian told Itar-Tass after handing the letter to Niyazov.
He also said the economic relations between the two countries were
restricted to Armenia’s repayment of a debt accumulated in early 90-s for
supplies of Turkmen gas to Armenia. The overall $13 million debt was repaid
fully in 2002 by shipment of Armenian commodities.

Turkey Says 523,000 Were Killed by Armenians Between 1910 and 1922
BY SEBNEM ARSU

The New York Times
April 17, 2005

IZMIR, Turkey, April 17 – The Turkish State Archive issued today a
list of more than 523,000 Turks whom it said were killed by Armenians
in Turkey between 1910 and 1922.

The move appeared intended to counter longstanding Armenian contentions
that Turkish Ottoman officials committed genocide during a period of
mass deportations of Armenians that began in 1915.

Turkey fears that the 90th anniversary of the start of the violence,
which Armenians and their supporters plan to mark on April 24, will
cause widespread anti-Turkish feeling. It is also concerned that the
issue could interfere with its plans to start talks with the European
Union in October for possible membership. There have been growing
calls from other countries for Turkey to acknowledge its role with
regard to the Armenians.

Last week, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish Parliament
called for an international study of the events of that period,
but senior Armenia officials turned down the proposal.

Turkey flatly denies that there was any systematic effort at killing or
forcing the Armenians out of eastern Anatolia, where the Armenians were
trying to establish a separate state. with support from the French,
British and Russians. Turkey contends that, instead, hundreds of
thousands of Turks were killed by Armenians as they tried to establish
themselves as the majority population in that region. Prof. Yusuf
Sarinay said.

The list issued today was compiled based on reports by the regional
authorities sent to Ottoman officials in Istanbul, as well as the
written accounts of international observers, said Mr. Sarinay, the
director of the Office of State Archives.

“Europe has used Armenians as a tool in extension of their policies
over Turkey, for which Turks and Armenians suffered,” Mr. Sarinay
was quoted as saying by the Anatolian news agency. “Europe should
also face her own history.”

Hirant Dink, a leading figure among Armenians in Turkey called
the list an official attempt to create an alternate version of an
internationally recognized reality. He said that such documentary
analysis and confirmation of its accuracy should be left in the hands
of international academics.

“Figures and documents should be researched and analyzed,” Mr. Dink
said, “However, talking merely in figures means that Turkey doesn’t
understand the pain of the other side; what is undermined here is
the conscience and human factor behind all.”

;en=2c94174fccdc5cf5&ei=5070

Yerevan urges Minsk group to condemn ceasefire violations

Apr 18 2005 3:08PM

YEREVAN. April 18 (Interfax) – The Armenian Foreign Ministry has
called on the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk group, which is composed
of representatives from Russia, the United States and France,
to step up criticism of ceasefire violators in the zone of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The call followed the recent statement by the group’s co-chairmen,
in which they urged the conflicting parties to refrain from skirmishes
and ceasefire violations.

“Cautious criticism from international mediators following repeated
ceasefire violations will do no good,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s
press spokesman Hamlet Gasparian said in a statement circulated
on Monday.

FIRST GRAPHIC EDITION ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ISSUED

Pan Armenian News
18.04.2005 08:27

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Silence. Order to Constantinople”, the first
graphic edition depicting the Armenian Genocide has been published
in Armenia. As the author of the illustrations Tigran Mangasarian
said at the presentation of the book, no thing of the kind has
been issued in Armenia so far. The present edition tells the young
population of Armenia about the real amount of losses during the
period of 1915-1923. The idea of creation of the book occurred to
Tigran Mangasarian 2 years ago and then he appealed to script writer
Ruben Tsaturian, who in his turn noted that it was rather difficult to
work with the material which served a basis for the book. The history
of the Armenian Genocide is represented in the book through the story
of Harutyun Partashian’s family.

SOAD ON SNL

93X.COM, MN
April 18 2005

SYSTEM OF A DOWN have been confirmed as the musical guest on
“Saturday Night Live” on Saturday, May 7. This will be the band’s
first-ever appearance on the show, where they will perform two songs
– “B.Y.O.B.” and “Chop Suey”. Johnny Knoxville (“Jackass”) will be
hosting the program, which airs on NBC.

In other news, SYSTEM OF A DOWN have announced the following U.S.
dates:

Apr. 25 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Apr. 30 – Austin, TX – Austin Music Hall

As previously reported, SYSTEM OF A DOWN held an exclusive preview of
“Mezmerize”, the first half of their new double-CD set, Wednesday night
(April 13) in New York City. The listening session for the record were
held at a hotel in the city’s downtown Soho district. The second half
of the “Mezmerize/Hypnotize” project, titled “Hypnotize”, is due out
sometime this fall.

“Mezmerize” arrives in stores on May 17.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN will stage its annual Souls benefit, in memory of
Armenian genocide victims, on April 24 at the Universal Amphitheatre
in Los Angeles. A full North American tour is tentatively slated for
August and September.

Source: Blabbermouth