Author: Talalian Arpi

“Going after recognition”

Schiff asks Bush to call deaths of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman
Turksa genocide.

By Gary Moskowitz, Glendale News-Press
April 24, 2004

,0,7785375.story?coll=3Dla-tcn-glendale-news

GLENDALE – To Sarkis Asatryan, remembering the Armenian Genocide today
is not enough.

Asatryan, a Hoover High School senior of Armenian descent, believes
people need to work hard to make sure that the 1.5 million Armenians
killed between 1915 and 1923 did not die in vain.

Since the Armenian Genocide began on the night of April 24, 1915,
today marks its 89th anniversary.

“My grandfather’s brother was killed because he wanted to buy bread
and the government would not let him, and he was beheaded,” said
Asatryan, 18. “I think the first step is to educate people not just
about the Armenian Genocide, but the genocide of Native Americans,
Cambodians, Serbs and Jews, and what an inhumane thing genocide is.

“I think we are truly making an effort to make the Armenian Genocide
known to the world. To me, we have to remember where we’ve been to
know where we are now. I think Armenians consider themselves a race
born to survive no matter what,” Asatryan said.

Armenians say the Ottoman Turks deliberately slaughtered some 1.5
million of their people between 1915 and 1923. Turkey denies the
charges of genocide, saying the Armenians were among the many victims
of a partisan war raging during World War I as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Glendale) sent a letter to President George
W. Bush this week, calling on the president to recognize the
atrocities committed against the Armenian people by actually using the
term “genocide” in his annual statement commemorating the events of
1915.

Schiff was joined by Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa), Rep. Frank
Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.) and more than 165
members of the bipartisan Armenian Caucus in asking the president for
formal recognition of the genocide.

“It’s enormously important for us to recognize the first genocide of
the 20th century,” Schiff said Friday. “I think it does further injury
to the survivors and doesn’t set the right tone for our commitment to
avoiding future genocides. We will keep working on it until we get the
job done, and I hopethe president lives up to recognizing it.

“I think Glendale feels this most keenly because a great many Armenian
families here have direct experience with the genocide. Imagine going
through a tragedy like that in your family and have your own country
fail to recognize that. Denial of genocide is a second injury,”
Schiff said.

The Canadian Parliament on Wednesday formally declared that Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915, according to news
reports.

The Parliament’s House of Commons voted 153-68 to support a motion
declaring the events of 89 years ago as genocide, despite a plea from
Foreign Minister Bill Graham not to aggravate NATO ally Turkey.

Razmik and Frida Aghourian, owners of Oven Fresh Bakery in Montrose,
normally would be open for business from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. today,
but decided to close in commemoration of the genocide.

The Aghourian family will attend an Armenian Apostolic Mass today
instead of working, Frida Aghourian said. The Aghourians are among
many local business owners who opt to close their doors every April 24
in commemoration of the genocide.

“It’s to respect all the people who suffered and died,” Frida
Aghourian said. “It’s to recognize and let everybody know something
horrible happened.”

PRESS RELEASE
ref: pr/04/04/009

Assembly of Armenians of Europe
Rue de Treves 10, 1050 Brussels
Tel: +32 2 647 08 01
Fax: +32 2 647 02 00

The Assembly of Armenians of Europe expresses its solidarity and its
support to the survivors of the Genocide of Rwanda

Brussels, April 22, 2004 – On April 7th, 2004 the symbolic day of the
10th anniversary of the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda, the Assembly of
Armenians of Europe participated in the commemoration soiree organized
by the Association IBUKA – Memory and Justice (Belgium) in order to
express its solidarity and support with the survivors and parents of
victims.

H.E. the Ambassador of Rwanda in the Kingdom of Belgium, representatives
of international and local organizations, survivors of the genocide and
their parents attended the commemoration ceremony, which took place in
the cultural centre of Auderghem (Brussels).

On December 23, 2003 the General Assembly of UN declared 7 April 2004
“Mediation Day on the Genocide in Rwanda”. Koffi Annan UN’s secretary
general asked “the population of the world everywhere” whether in a
large city or a faraway rural area, to stop to observe 1 minute silence
at noon.

The genocide of 1994 in Rwanda was not committed only against the people
of Rwanda, but against humanity. Therefore, humanity should mobilize
their efforts and power for the purpose of eradicating the impunity by
supporting the International Criminal Court for Rwanda sitting in
Arusha.

Ms. Irene Shaboyan, the representative of the Assembly of Armenians of
Europe reminded the audience of the fact that in 1940 the impunity of
the massacres of Armenians encouraged Adolph Hitler and his army to
proceed with the annihilation of “enemy” population.

“History comes to prove that the commemoration and contrition that
followed the second world war unfortunately were not enough to prevent
further genocides and in particular the indifference and cynics.

The monster that was released in 1915 will demand other victims to be
sacrificed at the altar unless it is pushed back into its cage again.

Obviously the criminals of the genocide of Rwanda, like Adolph Hitler,
were encouraged by the probable impunity, knowing in advance that the
genocide is not necessarily condemned or the executors punished. Strange
things happen even in Europe. The country which perpetrated the genocide
of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians and continues the intimidations
against 15 million Kurdish population in Trukey, claims the EU
membership and will become a candidate to the EU accession”, added Ms.
Shaboyan.

H.E. the Ambassador of Rwanda asked the audience to think about all
those nations “that passed through the same horror: the genocide of
Armenians, of Jews and other genocides not recognized yet will always
remind us of the imminent danger”. H.E. the Ambassador clearly pointed
out the inability and unwillingness of the international community,
which had failed to fulfill its duty ‘by abandoning the people of
Rwanda”. According to the H.E. the Ambassador the international
community should at least join its efforts at the second phase in order
to give back to the survivors their lost dignity and respect.

“Could we hope that this time, after the genocide of Tutsi in April 1994
in Rwanda, such a shame will not happen in future? Alas, there are
already negative signs predicting the existence of the Nazi spirit in
Europe! Today, the events in the Balkans reveal the germs of genocide”,
said he in his speech.

The Jewish chorus “Shoresh” was also present at the commemoration soiree
expressing its solidarity to the people of Rwanda through the songs of
morning and hope.

A1 Plus | 15:11:46 | 22-04-2004 | Politics |

ASHOT MANUCHARYAN BEATEN

Ashot Manucharyan was taken to hospital. He was beaten at “Grand Holding”
side street in Tumanyan Street.

Witnesses tell those beating were skin-head young men. We phoned Manucharyan
‘s house and found his family members don’t yet know the accident.

At 3:00 PM data, Manucharyan is in Rehabilitation Department. His face and
chin were operated on. Doctor informs he has recovered consciousness.
Neither the representatives of defense organizations nor Media were allowed
to meet him.

Zaman, Turkey
April 20 2004

Turkey-Armenia Border to Remain Closed

Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul on Sunday
dispelled rumors that Turkey would reopen its border with Armenia
without first ensuring that the Nargorno-Karabag (Karabakh) conflict
was resolved. “Such a thing is not the issue. For some reason, this
is spoken about a great deal in Azerbaijan. Whenever we come across
Azeri reporters they ask us this question,” defended Gul. The
Karabakh issue remains deeply divisive for the countries of Armenia
and Azerbaijan. Gul disclosed that in the upcoming months a
tripartite meeting between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey would be
held to discuss the issue. Gul said that this meeting would happen
prior to the June North Atlantic Treat Organization (NATO) summit in
Istanbul. He added that Armenia would participate in the Summit
within the context of Caucasian countries that have relations with
NATO.

04.20.2004
Foreign News Services
Istanbul

Simon Panek, a Czech who loves freedom
By JAN MARCHAL

Agence France Presse
April 20, 2004

PRAGUE, April 20 — A dissident student under communism, Czech Simon
Panek has remained an unconditional militant for liberty, running
the largest humanitarian organization in central Europe.

“For me, freedom is essential. It is the right of the individual to
feel part of the state. This is in my view the most important European
value,” Panek told AFP in a recent interview.

Panek is an example of the sort of “new Europeans” in the 10 countries
set to join the European Union on May 1.

The 37-year-old sees himself as an inheritor of the values
the dissident playwright Vaclav Havel fought for in freeing
then-Czechoslovakia from the yoke of Soviet domination.

Panek worked with Havel in the heady days before the Iron Curtain
fell in 1989, organizing strikes in Prague universities.

“We have traveled a long road. We freed ourselves from an extremely
dangerous ideology and now this is irreversible. In short, we won,”
he said.

Panek is still fighting however against other dictatorships, such as
in Cuba.

In March, he put on a striped prisoners uniform and sat for an hour
in a symbolic cell in the middle of Prague in a demonstration with
74 other people, including the president of the Czech senate Petr
Pithart, to alert public opinion to the fate of opponents of Cuban
leader Fidel Castro.

Panek’s main work is heading the humanitarian organization People in
Need, which he and several friends founded in 1992.

The organization was a follow-up on work he had done under communism
in order to help people in Armenia who were by the 1988 earthquake.

People in Need has grown into “the largest non-governmental
organization in the region,” Panek said.

It has been involved in some 30 countries, including Afghanistan,
Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Myanmar and Bosnia, and has an annual
budget of over 15 million euros (18.6 million dollars).

“Our action in crisis areas is not only for classic humanitarian aid
but also to get testimony and give information in order to defend
human rights,” Panek said.

Panek said his father showed him the way to fight for human rights.

“Expelled from his school shortly after the communist putsch in 1948,
my father helped Czechs to emigrate to the West, across the border
with Germany,” Panek said.

His father was arrested while doing this and then in 1953 escaped
from a uranium mine where he was doing forced labor.

He was caught and finally left prison in 1960, in an amnesty.

Panek said his family read clandestine political tracts in the 1970s
and 1980s. “I knew why it was necessary to be a militant,” he said.

Panek was named European of the Year in 2002 by the Reader’s Digest
magazine but he said he does not see himself as a hero of democracy.

“Quite the opposite, since I tend to be authoritarian. I am too blunt
with people and lack patience. I like to give orders and that’s why
I’m a manager,” he said.

jma/msa/rl

EU-enlarge-May1-Czech-profile

Pasadena Star-News, CA
April 20 2004

Armenian genocide designation urged
By Lisa Friedman , Washington Bureau

Armenian Americans from Southern California met Monday in Washington,
D.C., to urge increased foreign assistance for their homeland, better
trade relations and an official U.S. recognition, once and for all,
of the Armenian genocide.

Meeting as part of the Armenian National Assembly’s two- day
conference, members were buoyed by a State Department official who
announced the Bush administration’s support of permanent normal trade
relations with Armenia.

At the same time, members acknowledged that with Turkey on the front
lines of the war on terror, they have little expectation of seeing
the term “Armenian genocide’ in official U.S. statements any time
soon.

“I’m sure President Bush will issue a statement on the anniversary
about ‘those dark days’ or ‘those massacres,” said Osheen Keshishian
of Van Nuys, who publishes the Armenian Observer, an English language
weekly based in Hollywood.

But Keshishian, who also teaches at Glendale Community College, said
despite political realities, the issue remains a burning one for
Armenians in the United States. “The point is, justice has to
prevail. Truth has to prevail.’

Armenian Americans say 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.
Turkish officials say far fewer people died amid a multiparty
conflict.

Tuluy Tanc, the minister-consular at the Turkish embassy in
Washington, D.C., called the term genocide “unfair and untrue.’

“We do not think or believe a genocide occurred in Turkey,’ Tanc
said. “Events in Turkey were, during the course of a world war,
tremendously unhappy. Events took place affecting Armenians, Muslims,
Turks and all components of the Ottoman Empire.’

About 350 people attended the two-day conference also sponsored by
the Armenian General Benevolent Union and the Diocese of the Armenian
Church of America. Several of the attendees traveled from Southern
California, which is home to about 400,000 Armenian Americans, the
largest community in the nation.

Azat Artsakh – Republic of Nagorno Karabakh (NKR)
April 19 2004

IS THE FIRE SERVICE READY TO WORK?

During the April 14 meeting of the National Assembly Alyosha
Abrahamian informed that during the recent fire in Askeran he
witnessed that both the local and central fire services are poorly
equipped. According to him, although the engine arrived in time, the
pipes were so worn that they were unable to extinguish the fire.
Prime minister Anoushavan Danielian said they had not received any
application from the fire service for new equipment. He promised to
attend to the problem and to take measures.

AA.

Glendale News-Press | 2004 April 17

FROM THE MARGINS

Armen can neither forgive nor forget

In memory of the perished segment of my family

Armen has his days. His latest episode with gloom coincided with the
anniversary of a dark tragedy.

On a typical April night, surfing the tube, he comes across the
local news. There was a mass killing of a family on the 1994 block of
Rwanda Street; the murderers successfully fled the scene. Some
neighbors had witnessed the killings, but refused to intervene.

Armen grabs his humongous black remote, points it toward the
television set and clicks to end the calamity. He is surprisingly
calm, yet feels the need for a late-night drink. He walks toward the
bar, pours himself half an inch of Knob Creek Straight Bourbon (neat),
picks up his latest paperback, on the early Malcolm X, and walks over
to the bedroom in the absolute dark. He is finally positioned in
bed. His reading on Malcolm lasts no more than half an hour.

Armen is obsessed with how the psychology of hate takes root in
ordinary people. His last sip is followed by the final sentence for
the night: “If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it
out three inches, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the
way out, that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound . . .”

Armen is wide awake at 7 a.m., to the sound of his television
alarm. The mountebank on the screen is making wild claims about how to
become a millionaire by selling vitamins.

Armen pulls the covers over his head to shield himself from the spring
light; the salesman continues. He twists from one side to another. His
legs feel immobile. One short nap follows the next, concluding with
him lying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Armen’s feelings of
disgust for the vitamin salesman take over his self-inflicted
paralysis; the remote is nowhere to be found. He gets up to put an end
to the vitamin pusher.

He walks to the bathroom. Once the grand deed is taken care of, he
hops into the shower. It is on days like this that the shower is a
blessing. As the water strikes Armen’s head, it finds its way to the
surface of his forehead. His dark eyebrows momentarily block the flow,
but the transparent liquid wins the tussle. His unprompted tears await
the drops of water right below; together, they pass through a familiar
corporal landscape. He can cry silently in the wet cube.

He can always judge his own mood by how long he is in the shower. The
longer the shower, the less willing he is to face the world. The
coffee grind is the first order of the day. While the water comes to a
boil, he calls his secretary and cancels appointments with his
psychotherapy patients for the entire day. His secretary knows the
routine; if there is an emergency, she knows where to reach him.

Armen takes a sip of the coffee, lights up a Marlboro Red, and points
his silver-colored remote at the entertainment center. The agonizing
sounds of duduk (an Armenian wind instrument with sounds similar to
the clarinet) fill the room. He positions himself by the window. He
takes a deep puff and turns to the family portrait resting on the
television set. Everyone is present in the picture: his children,
Cecilia, Daron, Karen, Michelle, Tamara and Vanna, as well as his
wife, Ani.

It was not long ago that Armen lived with his family on the 1915 block
of Armenia Road. He still carries the unwarranted shame of being the
only survivor from that horrific April night, when he lost every
single member of his household to murder and rape. Armen is a man with
deep wounds.

The conspirators of the crime not only successfully avoided
prosecution, but they also managed to take over Armen’s ancestral home
and attach it to their existing living quarters. The road has been
renamed Wasneverarmenia.

Armen now lives alone in the plush neighborhood of West Hills. Just a
few days ago, he had a chat with one of his well-intentioned
neighbors, Joanne.

“Armen, you need to forget and forgive.”

“Hmmm . . .”

“Some neighbors even say you are blowing this whole thing out of
proportion.”

“Ahhhh . . .”

“You know, Armen, we all have tragedies in our lives. Just the other
day, my poodle was run over by a drunk driver. I cried for a few days,
but look at me now. I am dealing with it.”

“I am sorry about your dog, Joanne.”

“Yeah, so am I. The whole neighborhood is tired of you dwelling
. . . It is time for you to forgive . . .”

“Joanne, let’s say you stick a knife nine inches into my back and
twist it from time to time, and claim it’s my imagination. How am I
supposed to forgive? Even if you pull it out all the way, how can I
forgive? Forgiving begins with the acknowledgment of the wound, and if
you are not willing to admit that the knife and the wound ever
existed, how can you ever expect me to forgive or forget?”

Patrick Azadian lives and works in Glendale.
He is an identity and branding consultant for the retail industry.
Reach him at [email protected]
Reach the Glendale News-Press at [email protected]

OSCE CONCERNED OVER HIGH POLITICAL TENSION IN ARMENIA

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
received today Vladimir Pryakhin, the head of the OSCE Yerevan office,
to discuss, as the presidential press office said, “some issues
pertaining to a set of projects implemented by the office in Armenia.”
The press office said both men underlined the practical implementation
of the government-designed plan of actions to fight against corruption
and the necessity to improve Armenia’s election law. Also a special
importance was attached to the fulfillment of the poverty reduction
program.

Kocharian’s press office also said the two men spoke about the
latest political developments. Ambassador Pryakhin was quoted as
saying that the OSCE Yerevan office is concerned over the high
political tension, stressing concurrently “the unacceptability of
exploiting the names of international organizations, including also
the OSCE, by different political forces.”

He emphasized that the OSCE is called to promote establishment of
civil society and stands for maintenance of constitutional order and
legality in Armenia.

AUTHORITIES FIRM TO STAVE OFF NEW MANIFESTATIONS OF EXTREMISM, PRESIDENTIAL
SPOKESMAN SAYS

YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS: Ashot Kocharian, a spokesman for
president Kocharian (no relation) said today the demeanor of the
“opposition minority,” its calls for change of power and violence,
unsanctioned rallies and marches developed into political extremism,
which he said were jeopardizing Armenia’s stability and damaging its
international image, of a country that has chosen the path of
democracy and radical reforming of its economy.

The spokesman argued that the law-enforcement bodies had to
interfere to maintain public order, and that their actions did not go
beyond the frameworks, set by laws. “The police interfered after the
anti-government rally had disrupted the work of the president and the
parliament, endangering the county’s constitutional order,” he said.

He said the police intervened after the demonstrators refused to
obey their orders. “The capital is under the full control of the
authorities andall government agencies are functioning normally. The
authorities are firm in their resolution to apply all measures,
envisaged by laws, to preserve stability and stave off manifestations
of extremism,” he said.