Author: Nalbandian Eduard

Hundreds in Dearborn mark Armenian genocide
April 18, 2005, 6:56 AM

Detroit Free Press, MI
April 18 2005

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Hundreds of people have gathered in remembrance
of the Armenian genocide, a mass killing in Ottoman Turkey during
World War I.

Armenians say that 1.5 million people were killed between 1915 and
1919 by Turkish authorities who accused them of helping the invading
Russian army during World War I.

Remembering the victims “can help inspire us to stop modern genocides,
which still go on,” U.S. Sen. Carl Levin said Sunday before the
gathering Sunday at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in
Dearborn. “It can encourage and energize us just to remember them.”

Among the participants in the memorial was Sandra Azoian Hutchinson.
Huntchinson’s great aunt watched her two young sons killed in front of
her and for years carried locks of the boys’ hair with her, bringing
them with her to Michigan.

At her request, the locks were buried with her, the Detroit Free
Press said.

Levin and other speakers said the Turkish government should recognize
the Armenian genocide.

Turkey rejects the genocide claim and says Armenians were killed in
civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. France and
Russia are among countries that have declared the killings genocide,
but the United States has not.

Libération , France
15 avril 2005

Le génocide. Après coup.

par CHALANDON Sorj

C’est la guerre. Russes et Ottomans se battent dans le Caucase. Sur
la ligne de front, soupçonnée par les Turcs tantôt de séparatisme
tantôt de trahison, la province arménienne de l’Empire ottoman est
prise en étau. Nous sommes à Constantinople, le 22 avril 1915. “Dans
la nuit, six cents journalistes, écrivains, avocats, médecins,
architectes, députés et autres personnalités arméniennes sont accusés
de complot et emprisonnés, la plupart d’entre eux sont exécutés dans
les semaines qui suivent”, explique le commentaire. “Le coup d’envoi
des massacres et des déportations qui feront entre un million et un
million et demi de morts, est donné. Un mois jour pour jour après
cette rafle, le 24 mai 1915, la France, l’Angleterre et la Russie
adressent au gouvernement impérial une déclaration commune où
apparaît pour la première fois le terme Crime contre l’humanité.” Une
main a tracé le mot “urgent”, en français dans la marge. La frappe du
document est nerveuse et mal encrée (1).

“Depuis un mois environ, la population kurde et turque de l’Arménie
procède de connivence et souvent avec l’aide des autorités ottomanes,
à des massacres d’Arméniens. De tels massacres ont eu lieu vers la
mi-avril à Erzeroum, Dertchun, Zguine, Sitila, Nouch, Sassoun,
Zeitoun et dans toute la Cilicie. Les habitants d’une centaine de
villages aux environs de Van ont été tous massacrés dans la ville
même. Le quartier arménien est assiégé par les Kurdes. En même temps,
à Constantinople, le gouvernement ottoman sévit contre une population
inoffensive. En présence de ces nouveaux crimes de la Turquie contre
l’humanité et la civilisation, les gouvernements alliés font savoir
publiquement à la Sublime Porte qu’ils tiendront pour responsables
desdits crimes, tous les membres du gouvernement ottoman ainsi que
ses agents qui se trouveraient impliqués dans pareils massacres.” Le
pouvoir impérial répond le 4 juin suivant. “Il est complètement faux
qu’il y ait eu des massacres d’Arméniens dans l’Empire. Si certains
Arméniens ont été déplacés, c’est parce qu’ils habitaient dans les
zones de guerre où leur présence inspirait de légitimes inquiétudes.
La Sublime Porte considère d’ailleurs de son devoir d’adopter toute
mesure qu’elle juge nécessaire pour assurer la sûreté de ses
frontières et qu’elle n’a à rendre compte à aucun gouvernement
étranger.” Les Alliés protestent en réponse, mais ne menacent pas
d’intervenir. Le génocide peut commencer.

Zaman Online, Turkey
April 16 2005

Turkish Armenians Condemn American Priest
By Zaman

The Turkish Armenian Patriachate has condemned Washington Armenian
Orthodox Church Representative Father Vertanes Kalayjian, for his
insult to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in a
meeting last week in the US.

The Patriarchate issued a written statement and Press Spokespersin
Luiz Bakar said regarding the subject that they are stunned by
Kalayjian’s remark about Ataturk, “Kemal was also a butcher.” A
clergyman who utters these words cannot be the member of the Turkish
Armenian congregation and the person has no link with the
Patriarchate or the Church scolded Bakar. He concluded that these
kinds of remarks does not help for Turkish-Armenian dialogue.

Azerbaijan News Service
April 15 2005

AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FA MINISTERS MET WITH OSCE CO-CHAIRMEN IN
LONDON
2005-04-15 20:30

Armenian and Azerbaijani FA ministers met with co-chairmen of OSCE
Minsk group separately in London. Co-chairmen first met with Armenian
minister. Vardan Oskanyan, FA minister of Armenia said in his
interview to `Radio of Liberty’ he considered these talks as a next
stage of Prague process and said the sides held consultations during
negotiations. Refusing to reveal details of the meeting, Vardan
Oskanyan said the talks were about just general issues. He also
refused to answer the question about any new peace proposals from
OSCE co-chairmen during the meeting. Armenian FA minister said
information in press on new peace proposal from OSCE co-chairmen is
exaggerated. Yuri Merzlyakov, Steven Mann and Bernard Fassier, OSCE
co-chairmen made statement on April 15. They expressed their concern
over regular cease-fire breaches and increase in number of victims as
the result lately. It is said in the statement that the two sides
should follow the cease-fire and take some measures to stop
cease-fire breaches. Azerbaijan and Armenia should pursue balanced
policy and prepare their nations for compromises to achieve peace. It
is also noted in the statement that resumption of the conflict may
end in tragic result for the nations in the region. Another meeting
between FA ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia and OSCE co-chairmen
will be held at the end of April in Frankfurt. The main target of the
meeting is to prepare for meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian
presidents that will be held in May.

Armenia ready to discuss ties with Turkey – speaker

Interfax news agency, Moscow
14 Apr 05

ST PETERSBURG

Armenia is trying to establish normal partnership relations with
Turkey and to discuss jointly and find mutually acceptable solutions
to existing painful issues of bilateral relations, the speaker of the
Armenian National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan, has said.

“Today Armenia is in fact blockaded by Turkey. But a country, which is
trying to integrate into the European Union, must give up its policy
of double standards with regard to Armenia,” Artur Bagdasaryan said in
reply to questions from Interfax news agency at a news conference on
14 April on the results of the 25th plenary session of the CIS
Interparliamentary Assembly.

Artur Bagdasaryan recalled that this year marks the 90th anniversary
of the Armenian genocide. “I do not think that additional discussions
are needed. I think that we all must condemn the crimes that were
committed against humanity, because many countries and parliaments of
the world have already done so. We think that Turkey must also
recognize it,” the speaker announced.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a message to Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan on 13 April offering to set up a joint
commission to investigate the facts of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

[Passage omitted: Turkey is refusing to recognize the genocide]

Taz, die tageszeitung
13. April 2005

Genozid von 1915

Am 24. April 1915 begann mit Massakern und Todesmärschen der
Völkermord der Türkei an den Armeniern.

Er kostete zwischen 1,2 und 1,5 Millionen Menschen das Leben. Das
Deutsche Reich wusste von den Vorgängen, blieb jedoch untätig.

Im Kölner Lew-Kopelew-Forum startet heute eine Ausstellung zum Thema
(19 Uhr, Neumarkt 18a). Morgen wird dort der Film “Armenien im
Frühling” gezeigt (19 Uhr). Am Freitag gibt es im Forum eine Lesung
mit dem Publizisten Raffi Kantian (19 Uhr). Weitere Veranstaltungen
unter:

Pakistani leader vows to back Azerbaijan “at all levels”

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
12 Apr 05

The Azerbaijani and Pakistani leaders made a brief statement for the
media some time ago.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that Islamabad has always
backed Azerbaijan on the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem
and that this support will continue at all levels. Mr Musharraf
stressed that Azerbaijan had a fair position on the conflict.

He added that the meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart also
discussed boosting bilateral economic ties and joint projects.

President Ilham Aliyev highly rated the fact that Pakistan backs
Azerbaijan’s position. He regretted that the UN resolutions [on
Karabakh] had not been implemented so far and said that there were no
mechanisms for implementing them.

The president praised Pakistan’s role in the antiterror fight and said
that Azerbaijan had been subjected to Armenian terror and that the
international community should not remain indifferent to this issue.

The president said that the terms good and bad terrorists are used
sometimes, but this is wrong and unacceptable.

PRESS RELEASE
Assistant Director of Communications and Public Relations
Jason Mollica
Niagara University
PO Box 2039
Niagara University, NY 14109

Phone: 716-286-8584
Fax: 716-286-8581
Niagara University graduate Nerses Krikorian (class of 1943) will be
presented with an honorary doctor of science degree at the 2005 Niagara
University undergraduate commencement ceremony.

Krikorian was born in 1921 to Hachig and Lucia, as they began their
flight to freedom in Canada, as exiled Armenians, during the genocide by
the Turks at the decline of the Ottoman Empire. His mother and father
carried their possessions in two suitcases, walking most of the way to
Greece. The family remained in Athens for six weeks, while awaiting
passage to Marseilles, France, aboard a steamship. From there, they
traveled on to Cherbourg, then to Canada, where Krik’s father’s oldest
brother lived. The journey was complete, sort of. The family stayed in
St. Catharines, Ontario, in 1924, before finally settling in Niagara
Falls, N.Y., in 1925.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 11, 2005, Monday

Greek court rules against association describing itself as “Turkish”

Greece’s Supreme Court has ruled against the right of an association
located in the north-eastern region of Thrace to describe itself as
“Turkish”, newspaper reports said Monday.

According to reports, the country’s Supreme Court rejected a bid by
the “Cultural Association of Turkish Women in the Rhodope Prefecture”
against a ruling by a Thrace appeals court that had ordered the
group’s dissolution.

It was the second ruling of its kind by the Supreme Court this year,
after a decision in January banning a 78-year-old Moslem minority
association named the “Turkish Union of Xanthi”, a Thracian town with
a strong Moslem community.

The court said the cultural association “served the interest of a
foreign country in the attempt to present a Turkish minority as
living in Greece.”

The ruling, which was reported in the Athens daily “Kathimerini”
newspaper, said the association’s aims were illegal and went against
the Treaty of Lausanne.

The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which provided for an exchange of
populations between Greece and Turkey following the 1919-22 war,
holds that the 100,000-strong Moslem minority in Thrace is not
ethnically Turkish.

Supreme Court judges found the association “is implicitly seeking to
forward Turkish ideals, in contrast to other lawful associations in
Greece, such as Armenian or Israeli, which legitimately aim to
preserve their national customs and language.”

Traditional rivals Greece and Turkey have nearly gone to war three
times in the past 30 years, most recently over a rocky islet in the
Aegean in 1996.

While the 1974 war over Cyprus remains a serious diplomatic dispute
between the two nations, both have managed to thaw tensions in recent
years after twin earthquakes struck both capitals in 1999, resulting
in a mutual outpouring of grief and support. dpa cp pmc

A1plus

| 17:15:14 | 08-04-2005 | Politics |

THE PARLIAMENT HAS MUCH TO DO

51 issues, 7 international treaties and 16 supplementary issues have
been included in the agenda of the April 11-14 4-day session of the
NA. The Parliamentarians will possibly start to discuss the draft
Constitutions and the amendments to the Electoral Code. But according
to some sources, they will try to postpone the discussion of the last
two issues.