Films on Armenian Genocide to Be Screened in California April 17 and

Films on Armenian Genocide to Be Screened in California April 17 and 24

PanARMENIAN.Net
18.03.2006 20:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ KCET TV station of South California has planned
screening of French film director Lorence Jourdan’s Armenian Genocide,
the English version of which will be shown on the American TV for the
first time. Canadian film director Hagop Goudsouzian’s My Son Will Be
Armenian will be shown on April 24. “We got many positive evaluations
over the first film and decided to screen it at 9 p.m. instead of 10,
so as more people can see that important film,” said Mary Masur, KCET
Executive Vice President of programming and production. The second
film tells about the visit of 6 Canadian Armenians paid to Western
Armenia. KCET is one of PBS branches of KCET Public TV Service,
reports Azg newspaper.

Kocharyan & Bordyuzha have negotiations

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
March 17, 2006 Friday

ROBERT KOCHARYAN AND NIKOLAY BORDYUZHA HAVE NOGOTIATIONS

Yesterday Armenia President Robert Kocharyan had a meeting with
Collective Security Agreement Organization General Secretary Nikolay
Bordyuzha, where he discussed missions and perspectives of the
Agreement named, as well as the agenda for the coming session of
Collective Security Council in June in Minsk, the Collective Security
Agreement countries, including Zakavkazye. Mister Bordyuzha is paying
a business call in Armenia’s capital. He had negotiations with
Republic’s Ministry of Internal Affairs Head Vartan Oskanyan,
discussed with Minister of Defense and Security Council Serzh
Sarkisyan the questions for the session Secutiry Council Committee of
Collective Security Agreement Organization member-countries, which
will be opened on March 22. Nikolay Bordyuzha’s visit to Erevan is
done to proceed his business trip, meant for gathering information
for the countries about Collective Security Agreement Organization
activities. In February Bordyuzha visited Kirgiziya, and Byelorussia
and Tadzhikistan at the beginning of March.

Source: Kommersant, March 15, 2006, p. 9

BAKU: Peter Semneby: “I believe in settlement of Karabakh conflict”

Today, Azerbaijan
March 17 2006

Peter Semneby: “I believe in settlement of Karabakh conflict”

17 March 2006 [09:59] – Today.Az

He thinks there is much likelihood that the conflict will be settled
in 2006.

“I will regularly get in touch with the OSCE Mink Group co-chairs to
be sure that initiatives for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict are coordinated in a right way,” European Union special
representative for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby reported.

“Taking into account the high hopes that failed in the latest meeting
between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents, it is difficult to say
how realistic these hopes were,” Mr. Semneby said.

“I have to visit Azerbaijan and Armenia and exchange of views with
the co-chairs to get full idea of the situation. However, I must
admit that if I had not believed the settlement of the conflict I
would not have agreed to my appointment to this position,” the EU
representative added.

According to him, the basic priority of his activities will be
promoting settlement of frozen conflicts in the region. He said that
there are expectations that the EU will play an important role after
attaining agreements over settlement of conflicts, APA informs.

URL:

http://www.today.az/news/politics/24229.html

Nationalism Real Threat To CIS

NATIONALISM REAL THREAT TO CIS

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 16, 2006

YEREVAN, March 16. /ARKA/. Manifestations of nationalism are
the most serious problems and a real threat to the CIS countries,
Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, RF Academy
of Sciences, Chairman of the Commission for Tolerance and Freedom of
Conscience Valery Tishkov told journalists in Moscow. According to
him, nationalism has been and will be manifested in many of the CIS
countries, particularly in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. “Twenty-nine
people were killed for racial reasons in Russia alone in 2005. Racism
has an ethnic basis in our country,” Tishkov said.

He also pointed out the serious problem of migration. Many
citizens see only negative in this process, without speaking of its
contribution to the development of construction, trade and service,
population growth. “Migrants used to go to remote regions to carry out
construction work before, whereas we can observe labor and business
migration now,” Tishkov said. He stressed that Russia “was, is and
will be a multinational country.”

Geographical Map Unchangeable – Armenians And Azeris Doomed To BeNei

GEOGRAPHICAL MAP UNCHANGEABLE – ARMENIANS AND AZERIS DOOMED TO BE NEIGHBORS

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.03.2006 19:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Permanent political instability in Azerbaijan was
an important factor in the Karabakh war, author of “Black Garden”
book dedicated to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict Thomas de Waal said
in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net. In his words, during the
critical battles for Shushi and Lachin the Azeri troops left for
Baku to meddle in the internal political disorders. “The greatest
territorial surrenders were Aghdam and Fizuli and they occurred in
1994,” de Waal noted.

At the same time he noted that anyone knows that the geographical
map cannot be changed. “Armenians and Azeris will always have to live
as neighbors and it’s painful to see that the two societies abide by
the slogan “Karabakh is ours and it’s inseparable”.

Neither of the parties is ready for compromise that is why it’s
hard to achieve complete peace,” the journalist said. Thomas de
Waal says the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan is responsible
for it. “The peaceful plan is generally outlined. Karabakh will
de-facto maintain the present status with the corridor to Armenia;
Azerbaijan will receive its lands back and refugees will be allowed
to return… However the settlement process cannot be started without
dialogue and mutual trust,” he underscored.

Thousands Of People Participate In Funeral Of Young Man Killed InTsa

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE PARTICIPATE IN FUNERAL OF YOUNG MAN KILLED IN TSALKA

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 16 2006

AKHALKALAK, MARCH 16, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The funeral of
23-years old Gevorg Gevorgian took place on March 14, in the Ghunchi
village of the region of Tsalka. The young man was fiercely killed in
the regional center few days ago. According to the “A-Info” agency,
about 3 thousand people participated in the funeral. In spite of
the difficult road conditions, about 500 people came from Akhalkalak
and Ninotsminda.

Public figures, intellectuals, citizens who demand of the judicial
system of Georgia a just sentence towards the murderers, spoke during
the mourning ceremony.

Three suspects were arrested on the case of falling on Gevorg Gevorgian
and his friends, though the number of criminals was about 1.5 dozen
according to eye witnesses and those suffered.

A Storyteller’s Quest

A STORYTELLER’S QUEST
by Khatchig Mouradian

.cfm?SectionID=74&ItemID=9906
March 14, 2006

A Great Turkish Author

“Anatolia has always been a mosaic of flowers, filling the world with
flowers and light.

I want it to be the same today”
Yasar Kemal

The Anatolia Yasar Kemal, arguably the greatest Turkish author of
the 20th century, wants to see and the Anatolia he can actually see
today cannot possibly be considered the same region of Turkey. What
was a century ago a mosaic of ethnic and religious groups (Armenians,
Assyrians, Greeks, Turks, Kurds, etc.) is now almost homogenized
through blood and destruction, and the memory of many of the peoples
that once dwelled in the region of Eastern Turkey is being negligently
allowed to pass into oblivion.

A number of Turkish intellectuals are striving to push Turkey to face
its past and recognize the “mosaic of flowers” that Anatolia once
was. Will their vision one day become reality? Much depends on the
changes currently taking place in Turkey. Novelist Elif Shafak, one
of the courageous intellectuals struggling today for the preservation
of memory and recognition of cultural diversity, spoke to me of Turkey
today and the Turkey she would like to see tomorrow.

The Two Faces of Turkey

“I feel connected to so many things in Turkey, especially in
Istanbul. The city, the people, the customs of women, the enchanting
world of superstitions, my grandmother’s almost magical cosmos,
my mother’s humanism, and the warmth, the sincerity of the people,”
Shafak tells me, speaking of her native country. “At the same time
I feel no connection whatsoever to its main ideology, its state
structure and army,” she notes.

Turkey is the country of opposites which oftentimes, defying the
laws of physics, repel one another. Eastern and Western, Islamic
and secular at the same time, the country is torn between democracy
and dictatorship, memory and amnesia. These dualities, bordering on
schizophrenia, are unsettling for Shafak, an author of five published
novels. “I think there are two undercurrents in Turkey, both very
old. One is nationalist, exclusivist, xenophobic and reactionary. The
other is cosmopolitan, Sufi, humanist, embracing. It is the second
tide that I feel connected to,” she says.

Not surprisingly, the first tide she mentions is not at all happy with
her line of conduct. Hate-mail and accusations of being a traitor to
her country have become commonplace for the young writer.

“The nationalist discourse in Turkey– just like the Republicans in the
USA– is that if you are criticizing your government, you do not like
your nation. This is a lie. Only and only if you care about something
you will reflect upon it, give it further thought. I care about
Turkey. It hurts me to be accused of hating my country,” she explains.

However, Elif Shafak, who spent most of her childhood and adolescence
in Europe and later moved to Turkey to pursue her studies, is anything
but wrong when she points out that her country has come a long way
in the last few years. “There are very important changes underway
in Turkey. Sometimes, in the West, Turkey looks more black-and-white
than it really is, but the fact remains that Turkey’s civil society
is multifaceted and very dynamic. Especially over the past two decades
there have been fundamental transformations,” she says.

“The bigger the change, the deeper the panic of those who want to
preserve the status quo,” she adds.

A cornered tiger is the fiercest, however, as an Eastern proverb
says. This is why the prospect of membership to the European Union
(EU) is deemed necessary by the country’s cosmopolitan undercurrent,
which is struggling against the status quo. For decades, those, who
have dared to challenge the official rhetoric on a wide spectrum
of issues, have faced oppression, persecution, and imprisonment,
and they know well that the only way not to take the country back in
time is to keep it going in the direction of the EU.

Shafak herself believes that Turkey’s bid to join the EU “is an
important process for progressive forces both within and outside the
country”. She adds: “Definitely the whole process will reinforce
democracy, human rights and minority rights. It will diminish the
role of the state apparatuses, and most importantly the shadow of
the military in the political arena.”

Dealing with the Turkish Society’s ‘Underbelly’

“For me, the recognition of 1915 is connected to my love for democracy
and human rights,” says Shafak. 1915 is the year when the Turkish
government embarked on a genocidal campaign to exterminate the Armenian
population of the Ottoman Empire. This topic remained the greatest
of all taboos in Turkey until very recently.

Although the Armenian genocide is acknowledged by most genocide
scholars and many parliaments around the world, the Turkish
government’s official stand maintains that the Armenians were not
subjected to a state sponsored annihilation process that killed more
than a million and a half people in 1915-16. The Armenians were,
the Turkish official viewpoint argues, the victims of ethnic strife
or war and starvation, just like many Muslims living in the Ottoman
Empire during WWI. Moreover, according to the official historiography
in Turkey, the number of the Armenians that died due to these
“unfortunate events” is exaggerated.

Like a growing number of fellow Turkish intellectuals, it is against
this policy of denial that Elif Shafak rages. “If we had been able
to face the atrocities committed against the Armenians in Anatolia,
it would have been more difficult for the Turkish state to commit
atrocities against the Kurds,” she argues.

“A society based on amnesia cannot have a mature democracy,” she adds.

Why did she choose to tackle this very sensitive issue, knowing well
that harassment and threats were inevitable? “I am a storyteller. If I
cannot “feel” other people’s pain and grief, I better quit what I am
doing. So there is an emotional aspect for me in that I have always
felt connected to those pushed to the margins and silenced rather
than those at the center”, she notes. “This is the pattern in each
and every one of my novels; I deal with Turkish society’s underbelly.”

Her upcoming novel, “The Bastard of Istanbul”, is no exception. The
Turkish translation of the novel, titled “Baba ve Pic” was released in
Turkey on March 8, 2006. The original novel in English will be released
in the U.S. in January 2007 out of Penguin/Viking press. “The novel
is highly critical of the sexist and nationalist fabric of Turkish
society. It is the story of four generations of women in Istanbul. At
some point their stories converge with the story of an Armenian woman
and, thereby, an Armenian-American family.

I have used this family in San Francisco and the family in Istanbul
as mirrors,” she explains. “Basically, the novel testifies to the
struggle of amnesia and memory. It deals with painful pasts both at
the individual and collective level,” she adds.

The Turkey she would like to see in 2015, a century after the Armenian
genocide, stands in deep contrast to the Turkey the world has known
for the better part of the past century. It is “a Turkey that is
part of EU, a Turkey where women do not get killed on the basis of
“family honor”, a Turkey where there is no gender discrimination,
no violations against minorities; a Turkey which is not xenophobic,
homophobic, where each and every individual is treated as valuably
as the reflection of the Jamal side of God, its beauty.”

It would be hard to disagree with Shafak that only in the Turkey she
envisions can cosmopolitism overshadow nationalism and remembrance
emerge victorious over denial.

Khatchig Mouradian is a Lebanese-Armenian writer and journalist.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle

Safarov Guilty

SAFAROV GUILTY

A1+
07:40 pm 07 March, 2006

Budapest court brought in a verdict of guilty to Azeri officer Ramil
Safarov accused with the murder of Armenian officer Gourgen Margaryan.

Nazeli Vardanyan pleading for Margaryan’s family informed “Freedom”
radio station that the testimony of two Hungarian witnesses and
teh conclusion of fourth expert the judge refused today all the
petitions of Safarov’s barristers on calling new witnesses and on the
background of the first expert’s conclusion (about Safarov’s being
guilty at the moment of committing the crime) decided that there was
enough information for the final conclusion of the prosecution and
the defence.

Accusatory and defending speeches, as well as the final plea of the
accused will be heard at the next sitting, appointed on April 4.

The decision of the court will be sounded on April 13.

By the way, according to the criminal code of Hungary and the
brought in accusation Ramil Safarov will be sentenced to 8-15 or
life imprisonment.

Armenian Farmers Started Killing Chicken

ARMENIAN FARMERS STARTED KILLING CHICKEN

YEREVAN, MARCH 7. ARMINFO. According to the information received,
some Armenian farmers started killing their chicken so as to prevent
spreading of bird flu. Levon Rukhkian, Deputy Minister for Agriculture,
in an interview to ARMINFO correspondent said that no such order was
given to the farmers by the Ministry. He stated that the panic among
the country peasants is senseless. The telephone hot lines receives
about 8 reports about dead bird daily. The experts of the Ministry
made clear that the birds die from worm diseases.

Experts advice the farmers to keep the domestic birds in isolated
hen-coops, so as to prevent the m from contacting from wild birds.

This becomes more actual as from February the spring migration of
wild birds has started.

BAKU: Kosovo May Set Precedent, Armenian Minister Says

KOSOVO MAY SET PRECEDENT, ARMENIAN MINISTER SAYS

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 14 2006

Baku, March 13, AssA-Irada
If the people of Kosovo make the best of their right to
self-determination, this can set a precedent for the solution of
ethnic conflicts in other countries, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanian has said in an interview with Yerevan’s Shant TV channel.

Oskanian believes that if Kosovo fully secures independence, the
position of ethnic Armenians living in Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh will
be further boosted. He noted that all conflicts are different from
each other, but they should all be treated in the historical and
legal context.

The foreign minister went on to say that if his country capitalizes
on the current situation and if the parties to the conflict make
compromises in negotiations, it will be possible to speed up a
settlement.

“Otherwise, Azerbaijan will stick to its current position and no
progress will be made in the Garabagh talks,” Oskanian said. He
indicated that Armenia had already made some concessions, adding that
it wasn’t known how the Armenian people would react to them.