Author: Taslakhchian Andranik

ARMENIAN COLLEGE & PHILANTHROPIC ACADEMY
56B Mirza Ghalib St. Kolkata 700 016, WB, INDIA
Tel: (91-33) 4010-9051 / 2229-9051
Fax: (91-33) 2227-5869
E-mail: [email protected]
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INFORMATION SERVICE
PRESS RELEASE
24th April, 2010

APRIL 24th in INDIA

On 24th April, 2010 Armenians in India gathered at the Armenian Genocide
memorial in the premises of the Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth,
Kolkata to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
with a special Requiem service.

Later in the evening, with the performance of the students of the
Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy, a cultural programme in the
memory of the Armenian Genocide victims started with `Ave
Maria’ by an Armenian renowned singer in India, Shayne Hyrapiet.

During the commemoration, Very Rev. Fr. Khoren Hovhannisyan, Pastor of
Armenians in India and His Excellency Ara Hakobyan, Ambassador of the
Republic of Armenians to India addressed the gathered. `The
whole nation was nailed on the cross only because they were
Armenians… the wound left behind from the Armenian Genocide is
not recovering, it is still bleeding because of Turkish denial
…Dear friends, young and old, specially the students of the
Armenian College let us make a promise now to our 1.5 million victims
that we will do our utmost to bring justice for them. Let us make a
promise that we will never forget the first Genocide of the 20th century
and will fight to crush Turkish denial in every possible way’
concluded Fr. Khoren.

During the commemoration, Most Rev. Lucas Sirkar, the Catholic
Archbishop of Kolkata concluded the evening with his words of comfort
`No one can delete the Armenian Genocide from history as long as
there is even a single person living on earth.’

Trend, Azerbaijan
April 23 2010

Russian FM considers Azerbaijani proposal on including Turkey in OSCE
Minsk Group

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 23 / Trend E. Tariverdiyeva /

The Russian Foreign Ministry is considering Azerbaijan’s proposal to
include Turkey among OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries mediating the
settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as
saying on the ministry’s website.

"A certain number of proposals have been made. We are studying them.
We need to get in contact with all those involved in the negotiation
process, and assess their attitude on these issues to make the
appropriate assessments," Nesterenko said.

He said Russia is actively involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

"Later, after making contacts with our colleagues, we will be able to
give detailed explanations," Nesterenko said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the United
States – are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the
occupied territories.

HULIQ.com, SC
April 23 2010

Obama marks Armenian holocaust, declines again to call it genocide

For the second year in a row, President Barack Obama has issued a
statement commemorating the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks on the anniversary of the day it began. And for the
second year in a row, one word ` a word the President had pledged to
use ` was conspicuously absent from the statement: genocide.

In his statement, issued from Asheville, N.C., where the President and
First Lady Michelle Obama are vacationing for the weekend, Obama
called the massacre `one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century’
and `a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people.’ He
also said that the world must keep the memory of the event alive `so
that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past.’

Obama’s refusal to use the word `genocide’ in his statements marking
the Armenian massacre stands in sharp contrast to his pledge to use it
on the campaign trail, a promise he first made on Jan. 19, 2008, when
he told a campaign crowd, `I will recognize the Armenian genocide.’ As
a U.S. senator from Illinois, Obama had consistently stood with
Armenian-Americans who called on the Turkish government to acknowledge
the massacre ` the first effort to exterminate an entire people in the
modern era — as an act of genocide.

U.S.-Turkish relations loom large in the President’s ignoring of his
pledge. Turkey has long been a key military ally of the U.S. in a
sensitive region, and Turkish cooperation has been valuable in
America’s efforts to combat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and pursue the war
in Iraq. Despite calls even from within Turkey for the government to
acknowledge the genocide as a step towards healing, the Turkish
government remains sensitive to the charge of genocide; its official
view is that the murder of the Armenians took place in the context of
widespread ethnic violence, a view most scholars who have studied the
events of the period do not share.

Turkey has also warned of dire consequences if the President fails to
block a resolution making its way through the House that would put the
United States on record as recognizing the Armenian massacre as an act
of genocide. When the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to send
the resolution to the full House last year, Turkey recalled its
ambassador to Washington. The ambassador, Namik Tan, has since
returned, but the Turkish government remains opposed to any American
move to officially recognize the genocide.

In an effort to finesse the issue, Obama also said in his statement
that his views on the events of 1915 remain unchanged and added, "It
is in all of our interest to see the achievement a full, frank and
just acknowledgment of the facts."

Written by Sandy Smith
For HULIQ.com

Marie Yovanovitch: `The USA sympathizes with world Armenians’

YEREVAN, APRIL 24, ARMENPRESS: US Ambassador to Armenia Marie
Yovanovitch put today flowers at the memorial complex of the victims
of the Armenian Genocide. `We – the Americans and the Government of
the United States – remember what happened in 1915. On this day
America stands by Armenians, it sympathizes with Armenia and all
Armenians of America and the world,’ the ambassador noted. According
to her, this year too US President Barack Obama will come forth with
April 24 annual statement.

More than 20 countries, different international organizations,
including the European Parliament have recognized and condemned the
Armenian Genocide.

Uruguay, Argentina, Cyprus, Russia, Greece, Lebanon, Belgium, Sweden,
Italy, France, Switzerland, Canada, Slovakia, Germany, Netherlands,
Poland, Lithuania, Venezuela, Chile, Vatican and Unrecognized
Catalonian Republic are the ones who condemned the greatest crime of
the 20th century.

About 40 states of America, municipalities of different towns
recognized the crime. The issue on involving resolution condemning the
Armenian Genocide on the agenda of the Israeli Knesset is being
discussed. The number of supporters of the resolution presented in the
US House of Representatives and Senate is increasing.

Agence France Presse
April 24, 2010 Saturday 6:21 PM GMT

Turks, in first, commemorate massacre of Armenians

istanbul, April 24 2010

Hundreds of rights activists and artists in Istanbul commemorated the
1915-17 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks for the first time
Saturday, breaking a near century-old Turkish taboo.

The biggest rally was in Taksim Square, in the heart of modern
Istanbul, where several hundred people staged a sit-in, holding red
carnations and candles and listening to recordings of Armenian music.

Police in riot gear guarded the event and kept at bay a group of
counter-demonstrators, AFP journalists saw.

Earlier the Istanbul branch of the IHD human rights association
organised a rally attended by about 100 people on the steps of the
Haydarpasa train station from where the first convoy of 220 deported
Armenians left on April 24, 1915.

Under the slogan "Never Again" and, again, the watchful eye of the
police, demonstrators carried black and white photos of some of the
deportees, most of whom never returned.

Counter-protesters also gathered near the IHD demo, including former
diplomats waving the Turkish flag. Forty-two Turkish diplomats were
killed by the extremist Armenian Asala organisation in the 1970s and
1980s.

Turkish intellectuals and artists signed a petition calling on "those
who feel the great pain" to show their sorrow.

Avoiding an open confrontation over the term genocide — which the
Turkish government fiercely rejects — the petition speaks of the
"Great Catastrophe" of the massacres.

"The genie is out of the bottle," Cengiz Aktar, an Istanbul academic
who backs the petition, told AFP.

"These broken taboos concern not just Armenia, but also other hidden
subjects" such as the rights of minority Kurds, he added.

He said that despite the police presence, organisers feared a backlash
from people opposed to the demonstration.

The Istanbul rallies came as tens of thousands of Armenians marked the
95th anniversary of the mass killings in the Armenian capital Yerevan,
amid fresh tensions with Turkey over the collapse of reconciliation
efforts.

The dispute about the genocide label has poisoned relations between
the two neighbours for decades.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed a statement by US
President Barack Obama on Saturday which avoided the use of the term
and instead referred to "one of the worst atrocities of the 20th
century".

"President Obama has made a statement which takes into account the
sensibilities of Turkey," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia
news agency.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern Turkey, was falling apart.

ba-ms/dk/ach

SCHIFF URGES OBAMA TO PROPERLY RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 23, 2010 – 11:54 AMT 06:54 GMT

In a forcefully worded letter, Armenian Genocide Resolution lead
sponsor, Congressman Adam Schiff, urged U.S. President Barack Obama
to stand by his record as a Senator and his pledges as a Presidential
candidate to properly recognize the Armenian Genocide, reported the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

"We join with Armenian Americans from across the country in thanking
Congressman Schiff for his leadership in calling upon President Obama
to keep his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide," said ANCA
Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

"As we approach April 24th, in the wake of the collapse of the
Protocols process, it’s clear that President Obama faces a stark
choice: He can honor his commitments and his conscience by properly
recognizing the Armenian Genocide, or he can remain an accomplice to
the Turkish government’s campaign to deny this crime against humanity,"
added Hamparian.

Noting that President Obama did not properly recognize the Armenian
Genocide in his 2009 April 24th statement because of "possible
reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey," Rep. Schiff pointed out
that "this misapprehended the nature of reconciliation, which can
never find a sound basis in the denial of genocide, or silence when
confronted by denial."

He went on to argue that "Linking the process of the protocols to
the Armenian Genocide resolution actually encourages Turkey to not
ratify them, since the Turks know that prolonging the process serves
to provide opponents of the resolution with a continuing excuse to
delay recognition of the Armenian Genocide."

AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION ENVOY: BY PUSHING TURKEY TO ABANDON AZERBAIJAN, U.S. RISKS ALIENATING ONE OF ITS MOST IMPORTANT AND RELIABLE PARTNERS IN REGION

Trend
April 21 2010
Azerbaijan

By pushing Turkey to abandon Azerbaijan, the United States risks
alienating one of its most important and reliable partners in a
critical region of the world, Novruz Mammadov, the Head of the Foreign
Relations Department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan,
told English version of Radio Liberty in his commentary on the current
situation in U.S.-Azerbaijan relations.

"Azerbaijan and Turkey are strategic allies with deep historical ties.

Turkey has played an important role in Azerbaijan’s partnership with
the West on key security and energy projects. Azerbaijan spearheaded
the opening of Caspian energy resources to the West and insisted that
major oil and gas pipelines be routed through Georgia and Turkey. Baku
has also wholeheartedly supported U.S. security initiatives by sending
troops to Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Azerbaijan also provides
supply-transit support for the NATO effort in Afghanistan. Those who
know the region understand the significant risks Azerbaijan took and
the pressure it overcame in order to pursue close cooperation with
the West on energy and security issues," Mammadov said.

According to Mammadov, long-term peace and normalization of relations
in the South Caucasus cannot be achieved by rewarding aggression and
by excluding the region’s strategically most important country.

Mammadov said that Armenia’s closed borders are the main form
of leverage that might compel Yerevan to engage seriously in the
resolution of the conflict.

"Washington believes that a Turkish-Armenian rapprochement could
kill two birds with one stone. First, it might smooth over — at
least temporarily — one of the major trouble spots in U.S.-Turkish
relations: the issue of Armenian genocide claims. Second, some U.S.

officials argue that improving ties between Armenia and Turkey
will ultimately contribute to a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. They appear to believe improved relations will lead to a
moderation of Armenian policies and open the way to new initiatives on
Karabakh. However, we must disagree. Armenia continues to occupy almost
20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory. It
is ironic that while claiming to be the first victim of genocide in
the 20th century, Armenia itself carried out one of the century’s
major ethnic-cleansing campaigns in Europe — a campaign that
resulted in thousands of deaths and the displacement of nearly 1
million Azerbaijanis. There is no reason to believe that opening the
borders will make Armenia more willing to compromise; on the contrary,
removing this sole punishment will only increase Armenia’s interest
in further entrenching the status quo," Mammadov said.

According to representative of the Azerbaijani Presidential
Administration, many members of the Armenian political elite —
including President Serge Sarkisian — rose through the ranks because
of their personal involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh war. "They
have used the war as a pretext for strengthening their own hold over
Armenian politics, so it is not surprising that they have not been
constructive in settlement talks," said Mammadov.

YOUTH DIVISION OF HAYASTAN ALL ARMENIAN FUND OF MONTREAL DURING ITS FIRST FUNDRAISER RAISED $2,500

NOYAN TAPAN-ARMENIANS TODAY
APRIL 21, 2010
MONTREAL

On April 11 the Youth Division of Hayastan All Armenian Fund Canada
organized its first fundraiser event during which that $2,500 will be
send to renovate the community center of the village Artsni, located
on the Northern periphery of the marz of Lori. The total cost of the
program is$25 ,000. goal.

According to the press release of Hayastan All Armenian Fund, the
Youth Division intends to supply the community center with a modern
computer room.

ARMENIAN NATIONAL UNITY CAN NOT BE QUESTIONED ANY MORE
Aram Araratyan

ArmInfo
2010-04-20 16:21:00

Interview with Hilda Tchoboian, Chairwoman of the European Armenian
Federation for Justice and Democracy

Mrs.Thoboian, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan meetings in Washington
finished. What, in your opinion, are their main results?

In the course of Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Washington was that he
clarified to Turkey and the USA the norms of negotiations between
Armenia and Turkey. From now on, the negotiations should be defined by
the norms fixed by Armenia. The international forces and particularly
Turkey noted that the Armenian national unity can not be questioned
any more.

During in his Washington’s speech Armenian leader stressed that
time has proved that Armenian-Turkish process would slow down or
temporarily freeze international steps aimed at the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide. Do you, as a representative of the Armenian
Diaspora, share this opinion?

No, during the early period of processing the protocols, the diplomatic
confusion gave a blow to the cause of the internationalization of
genocide recognition. But we already have passed this stage.

Before Serzh Sargsyan’s Pan-Armenian tour you mentioned that there
is a split between the Diaspora and Armenia. Have you changed your
position since that time, given that the main concern of the Diaspora
in the issue of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, namely
the "freezing" of the international process of Genocide recognition,
proved to be groundless?

I didn’t speak about dissension, but I said there was now a gap
between Armenia and the Diaspora. No, I do not think that the fears
of the Diaspora proved unfounded. But after the pronouncements of
Der Zor and Washington it is clear that a unity is currently set up,
and my hope is that it persists. I had also suggested that Diaspora’s
preoccupations and interests be integrated in a global Armenian
strategy to be implemented in the field of relations with Turkey. I
still insist on the necessity of considering Diaspora as a political
subject to insure the viability of the Armenian nation.

How sincere are the statements of Turkish leaders about their desire
to establish contacts with the Armenian Diaspora? Is the Diaspora
ready to a dialogue?

To judge, we have to look for signs of a change of attitude from the
Turkish government. So far, I see no signs that are needed to create
an atmosphere conducive to dialogue with Diaspora. They even don’t
have that favourable atmosphere to discuss with their own people,
because channels of a genuine dialogue are legally blocked in Turkey.

Is Diaspora ready to a dialogue? In the genocide issue, the Diaspora is
the injured party. Consequently, Turkey has to make special efforts to
convince the Diasporan organisations to believe its sincerity mainly
because until now we only experienced attempts by Turkish leaders to
mask their real intention to bury the issue of genocide by a process
of biased dialogue.

What do you think about the prospects that Barack Obama, in his annual
speech on April 24 will outline the events of 1915 as "Genocide"?

We shouldn’t make predictions in this area, because currently
Turkish-American relations are in an instable stage. Barack Obama, as
a Democrat leader has made a clear promise to recognize the Armenian
genocide that he has not fulfilled. And November 2010 elections
should make Democrats and President Obama think seriously about the
consequences of that failure.

How do you assess the possibility of adopting a resolution on the
Armenian Genocide in countries such as Spain, Serbia and Bulgaria?

Genocide recognitions have generally not been easy to accomplish
because of the huge pressure put by Turkey on the governments. We
have always succeeded in the countries to obtain recognitions by
facing that pressure. I’m convinced that Spain, Serbia and Bulgaria
will recognize the Armenian genocide too. Having said that our main
objective should be to make possible the recognition by Turkey.

Rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey and reopening of the border
has never been a key issue in the process of Turkey’s joining the EU.

Yet, don’t you think the EU should clearly put such a precondition
in its own negotiation?

That precondition exists: One of the membership criteria Turkey
should fulfill is to establish good neighborly relations with all its
surrounding countries. So, even now, Turkey has already violated the
European conditions for its membership. It has the same problem with
a European Union member country – Cyprus that it refuses to recognize.

Actually, Turkey is not interested in the normalization of its
relations with Armenia, but rather pretends to act for it. All its
efforts are directed to convince the European Union that Turkey is
committed to make peace with Armenia, while in reality it sabotages
the peace process.

ARMENIAN GDP GROWS BY 5.5 PERCENT IN Q1

/ARKA/
April 20, 2010
YEREVAN

Armenian economy grew by 5.5% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to
the same time span last year, the National Statistical Service said. It
said also the GDP amounted, in terms of money, to 568.1 billion Drams.

The GDP in March grew by 43.1% from February.

Armenian economy contracted last year by 14.4%. The government projects
a 1.2% GDP growth this year. ($1 – 394.24 Drams).