Author: Torgomian Varazdat

CANADA FACES TURKISH IRE
Daniel Proussalidis

580 CFRA Radio
;nid=64659
April 22 2009

Foreign Affairs is out with the statement that Canada’s position
calling the mass deaths of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 a genocide is
"not an indictment of modern Turkey."

But that’s doing little to cool tempers in Turkey’s capital.

Ankara’s ambassador to Canada has gone back to Turkey for
"consultations" to protest Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s
attendance at a genocide memorial in Ottawa Tuesday.

Kenney is standing firm, despite the criticism.

"The government’s position remains unchanged since the prime minister’s
statement of April, 2006 which is consistent with the motions that
passed through both the Senate and the House of Commons," says Kenney.

In 2006, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognized the mass
killings of Armenians as genocide, Turkey briefly withdrew its
ambassador and pulled out of a military exercise in Canada in protest.

Twenty other countries, including France, Italy, and Russia recognize
the deaths of 1.5-million Armenians in Turkey more than 90 years ago
as a genocide organized by the government of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey officially denies genocide, saying the Armenian death toll is
inflated and was the result of civil war.

Accusing the Ottoman Empire of the Armenian genocide in Turkey is
punishable as "disparaging the nation."

RESPECT TO MUTUAL PAST

Abadolu Agency
April 22 2009
Turkey

PRESS SCAN
MILLIYET

Villagers of Gevas town of the eastern province of Van opposed to
construction of school on former Armenian cemetery. The villagers
reacted by saying, "it is disrespect to construct school on a cemetery
whatever its religion and sect is."

AZERBAIJANI FM: INFORMATION ABOUT PREPARED TRIP OF TURKISH JOURNALISTS TO OCCUPIED AZERBAIJANI LANDS IS ONE MORE HOAX OF THE ARMENIAN SIDE

Today.Az
1614.html
April 17 2009
Azerbaijan

The attempts of the Armenian side to spread false information do not
cause astonishment in anyone, said spokesman for the Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministry Elkhan Polukhov commenting on the information
spread by PanARMENIAN.Net about the prepared one-day visit of Turkish
journalists to the occupied Azerbaijani lands on April 18.

"The Foreign Ministry empowers the Azerbaijani embassy to Turkey to
investigate this issue. Representatives of our diplomatic mission
in Turkey have contacted for the purpose with the leadership of the
state TRT TV channel, where they were said told that the information
spread by Armenian mass medias is false", said he.

According to Polukhov, sources in the TV channel told representatives
of the Azerbaijani diplomatic mission that the TRT officials and
journalists from other Turkish mass medias, covering the work of
the session of the BSEC foreign ministers council did not receive
proposals to visit the occupied lands of Azerbaijan.

"According to the TRT administration, even if the Turkish journalists
receive such proposals from the Armenian side, they will never be
accepted", said Polukhov.

TURKISH JOURNALISTS’ VISIT TO NKR IS CANCELLED

PanArmenian
Armenia
April 17 2009

Turkish Journalists’ visit to NKR is cancelled, well-informed circles
told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

The journalists were reluctant to understand they need a visa to
leave for another country. To visit Stepanakert, Turkish journalists
were offered to address a letter to NKR Foreign Minister Georgi
Petrosyan. The journalists thought a simple address, "Mr. Petrosyan"
would suffice. When told for the second time about correct form of
address, they wrote "Dear Mr. Georgi Petrosyan" without specifying his
position. After such "misunderstanding" RA MFA refused to sanction
the visit. Later, the journalists themselves declared they changed
their mind about a trip to Stepanakert.

To enter NKR territory, foreign citizens need to receive NKR visa in
NKR Permanent Representation in Yerevan.

A group of Turkish journalists who arrived in Armenia to participate
in BSEC Foreign Ministers Summit on Apr. 18, was supposed to pay a
1-day visit to NKR.

ICG: TURKEY AND ARMENIA SHOULD FINALISE THEIR AGREEMENT

armradio.am
15.04.2009 17:12

Turkey and Armenia should seize their best opportunity yet to normalise
relations, work on a new approach to shared history and open a European
border that for nearly a century has been hostage to conflict.

Turkey and Armenia: Opening Minds, Opening Borders: the latest report
from the International Crisis Group, examines how a decade of academic
and civil society outreach laid the foundations for what is now intense
official engagement between the governments. The two sides are now
close to agreement on a package deal that will establish diplomatic
relations, open the border and set up bilateral commissions to address
a range of issues.

"Turks’ and Armenians’ once uncompromising views of history are
significantly converging, showing that the deep traumas can be healed",
says Hugh Pope, Director of Crisis Group’s Turkey/Cyprus Project.

"At this sensitive time, third parties should avoid statements or
resolutions in the politicised debate over genocide recognition or
denial that could inflame opinion on either side".

"Turkey and Armenia should finalise their agreement and thus create
new momentum for peace and cooperation in the South Caucasus", says
Sabine Freizer, Crisis Group’s Europe Program Director. "They should
not wait until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is settled. But out side
powers such as the U.S., EU, Russia and others should build on their
rare common interest to move both Turkish-Armenian normalisation and
the Nagorno-Karabakh process forward".

PanARMENIAN.Net

Will Russia recognize Kosovo’s independence?
11.04.2009 19:12 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Former UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari is optimistic
Moscow will recognize Kosovo’s independence, now relations between the
US and Russia are thawing. The man who devised the blueprint for
Kosovo’s supervised independence told Voice of America that it may
take "some time in order for this to happen".

"I hope that the recognition will come," he added. "This is not a big
issue and shouldn’t be exaggerated."

He said the recognition issue was not mentioned in recent meetings
between USA and Russia because the countries do not want to waste time
talking about Kosovo, adding that "this is a good sign".

The Nobel Prize for Peace winner said he was disappointed some EU
countries have not recognized Kosovo yet but was optimistic they will
do it sooner or later.

Ahtisaari was appointed in 2005 as the United Nations special envoy
for talks on the final status of Kosovo, seven years after he played a
key role in bringing an end to hostilities.

After no results in the talks between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian
officials, he recommended "supervised independence" for Kosovo.

The Ahtisaari plan served as the basis for Kosovo’s declaration of
independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, and the reforms it
prescribed were pursued in the following months by Kosovo’s
government, BalkanInsight reported.

ARMENIA WILL NOT SACRIFICE INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2009 18:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ We repeatedly stated that Armenia speaks for
normalization of Armenian-Turkish ties without preconditions, RA
President Serzh Sargsyan told a news conference in Yerevan.

"Though difficult, the process of negotiations with Ankara is going on.

I see nothing strange that Ankara might be willing to change its
viewpoint. Still, I believe opening of border will serve the interests
of Turkey.

Some are concerned that Armenian market will be flooded with Turkish
goods upon opening of border. Yet, goods are still being imported in
Armenia through Georgia.

Fear of competition might bring us to the wrong inference that all
the borders to Armenia should be closed, so local manufacturers could
avoid competition. The inference is fundamentally wrong.

Turkey sets a number of preconditions including abandoning demands for
in international recognition of the Armenian genocide and NKR conflict
settlement on Azerbaijan-stipulated terms. This is what we’ll never
sacrifice for normalization of ties. Both Turkey and Azerbaijan are
aware of it," RA president stated.

Turkey closed the border with Armenian in 1993, in support to Azeri’s
aggression against Nagorno Karabakh.

TURKISH MASS MEDIA REPORTS ABOUT ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS

Panorama.am
15:20 09/04/2009

The Turkish mass media publish analytical stories regarding the
Armenian-Turkish issues, the opening of the closed border and more
over, they mark the end of 2009 as the date of signing a certain
contract between the countries. Turkish Today’s Zaman referring to
its official sources reports that the border will be opened in October
when the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan visits Turkey. It is also
written that Turkey makes efforts to ease the social and political
panic in Azerbaijan. According to some media repost the President
of Turkey Abdullah Gul is going to visit Azerbaijan to attend the
National Security Council meeting, where, most probably, Nagorno
Karabakh conflict will be discussed.

SERJ TANKIAN TO LAUNCH A CAMPAIGN FOR RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.04.2009 00:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Known as one of the most outspoken activists in the
music community, Serj Tankian, along with the help of Tom Morello and
the Axis of Justice, is launching a campaign for the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide to commemorate the annual global day of remembrance
for victims of the human rights atrocity on April 24th. Tankian,
a solo artist and visionary frontman for multi-platinum rock band
System Of A Down, has posted a video on YouTube in which he and other
activists urge President Obama to affirm his pledge and officially
recognize the Armenian Genocide, which took place in 1915, just after
the start of World War I.

A powerful indictment of the Turkish government’s denials, the video,
which also features comments from Morello, The Coup’s Boots Riley,
and Congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), asks viewers to call the White
House to implore President Obama to put an end to Turkey’s well-funded
whitewash and officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. The video
was directed by Ara Soudjian, who also directed Tankian’s "Money" clip.

"Last year, Barack Obama noted that many of the same brutal tactics
employed today in Darfur are the same as those used by the Ottoman
authorities against defenseless Armenians back in 1915," Tankian
says. "As we approach the global day of remembrance on April 24th, we
look to both the President and Congress to stand up for what’s right;
to speak against the Armenian Genocide and all genocides at the level
of American values, and to never again allow the United States to be
dragged down to the level of Turkey’s threats. President Obama is the
best-positioned American president in generations to help bring about
real change to how America and the international community confront
mass inhumanity, and our best hope to bring the peoples of the world
together to end the cycle of genocide."

Tankian has also written an accompanying editorial that outlines
the history of the Armenian Genocide and passionately explains his
personal connection to it.

All four of Tankian’s grandparents survived the brutal massacre.

US AND AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS DISCUSSED KARABAKH ISSUE

AZG DAILY
09-04-2009

Karabakh issue

US and Azerbaijani Presidents Barack Obama and Ilham Aliyev discussed
Karabakh issue, US White House official website reported.

On Tuesday, Barack Obama had a telephone conversation with the
Azerbaijani president. The main subject of the conversation was the
issue of Karabakh conflict settlement.

The leader of the White House expressed his support for the solution
of the issue and contribution to improvement in relations between
the two countries.

Obama also attached importance to re-establishment of relations
between Turkey and Armenia that will contribute to strengthening of
the regional peace and security.