Pan Armenian ews
NATO-ARMENIA INDIVIDUAL PARTNERSHIP ACTION PLAN TO BE ASSESSED BY PENTAGON
27.04.2005 07:25
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Early May Pentagon will give an official estimate to the
Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan, Armenian Defense Minister
Serge Sargsian stated during a briefing today. In his words, Armenia is
ready to take part in the project.
Arab News, Saudi Arabia
April 27 2005
Turkey Protests Polish Legislative Vote
Agencies
ANKARA, 28 April 2005 ‘ Turkey’s Parliament protested yesterday
over a decision by the Polish National Assembly to recognize the
killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks 90 years ago as `genocide’.
Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said Turkey was canceling several
meetings between Turkish and Polish lawmakers in protest.
Turkey strongly denies the claims that some 1.5 million Armenians
perished in what is called a systematic genocide orchestrated by the
Ottoman government in 1915-1923. It says the Armenians were victims
of a war, which claimed even more Turkish lives.
Last week, Poland’s Parliament became the latest in a string of
national assemblies, including those of France and Canada, to
recognize the killings as genocide. Russia’s State Duma also
reaffirmed its long-standing support for the Armenian claims.
Armenians and their backers marked the 90th anniversary of the
killings on April 24 in ceremonies around the world. `Our nation
feels deep sorrow over a friendly Parliament’s biased
interpretation of the tragic incidents that occurred between Turks
and Armenians in the circumstances of World War One,’ Arinc said in
a message to the Polish assembly.
`We can’t accept use of those times as a tool for political
intentions, which would cause prejudice against Turkey and the
Turkish people… National parliaments are not an appropriate forum
to reach a judgment about disputed historical periods.’ Turkey’s
Foreign Ministry said it would shortly send a protest note to Russia
over its stance on the issue.
The genocide claims have acquired greater political urgency for
Turkey as it prepares for European Union entry talks in October. Some
EU politicians ‘ notably in France, home to Europe’s biggest
Armenian diaspora ‘ say Turkey should accept the genocide claims
before being able to start EU entry talks.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan repeated his challenge yesterday to
Armenia to open up its archives from the period and to allow its
historians to work alongside Turkish historians to establish the
historic facts. But he reacted coolly to a proposal from Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan that the two countries, which share a
border but have no diplomatic relations, first work to improve ties.
`Before we make a political decision (on improving ties), there is
a very important issue (of the genocide claims) to be resolved,’
the Anatolian state news agency quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, Turkey has invited experts from Australia and New Zealand
to join a construction project at the Gallipoli Peninsula following
criticism that road works there had disturbed the remains of Anzac
troops and spoiled the natural character of a major World War I
battlefield. Erdogan said he had asked his Australian and New Zealand
counterparts, John Howard and Helen Clark, to send historians,
architects and engineers to work on the project to ensure that the
views of the two countries are taken into account.
`Both of them responded positively and I will now give the
necessary instructions to my colleagues and we will carry out this
project together,’ he told reporters after talks with Clark.
Erdogan had met with Howard in Istanbul on Tuesday. Clark and Howard
were in Turkey for the 90th anniversary commemorations of the
ill-fated landing on Gallipoli by the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps (Anzac) on April 25, 1915.
The landing marked the start of a bloody nine-month Allied campaign
to wrest the strategic Dardanelles Strait from the Ottoman Empire. It
ended in the defeat of the Allies and the deaths of some 86,000 Turks
along with more than 35,000 Allied troops, including 11,410 Anzacs.
Turkish Press
April 27 2005
Press Scan:
”WE CAN CONFRONT THE HISTORY”
RADIKAL- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on
Armenia and all other third countries to open their archives to
reveal the historical facts, stressing, ”we have opened our
archives. If we have to face up to our history, we will do so. But
other countries must also face up to the same history,” Speaking at
a conference hosted by the Economist Group, Prime Minister Erdogan
said, ”no one has the right to defame our country with such baseless
allegations.”
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 27 2005
Erdogan calls for end to genocide claims
The Turkish Prime Minister said the history of the Turks has never
made them bow down.
April 27 – Turkey’s Prime Minister has called on the Armenian head
of the state Robert Kocharyan to end the claims of genocide before
the two counties could start diplomatic relations.
In response to a letter sent by Kocharyan responding to
Ankara’s calls to set up a joint committee of historians to use
state archive to study the genocide claims, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said it was impossible to establish formal relations
between the two countries without dealing with the so-called genocide
issue.
`If it is necessary to question our history we will do so.
We are not a nation that denies its history,’ Erdogan said during a
joint press conference with visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen
Clark.
In reaction to the allegations that the Ottoman Empire
committed genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First
World War, Turkey submitted a note of protest to Russia for its
parliament giving recognition to the genocide.
The speaker of the Turkish parliament, Bulent Arinc, also sent
a letter to his Polish counterpart condemning Poland’s recognition
of the so-called Armenian genocide.
Investment Opportunity in Armenia’s Medical Services Sector
BISNIS Trades & Tenders Lead
April 27, 2005
**************************************************
Medical Equipment and Services – Dental Equipment
Company: DPH Dental
Product: Dental Equipment & Products
Location: Armenia
The company is involved in providing dental services.
It plans to upgrade the existing dental equipment. For this, it seeks to
purchase most current computing dental radiography equipment.
Lead Link:
NOTE: These opportunities are provided solely as an informational
service and do not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Commerce. Verification of these leads is the responsibility of the reader.
**************************************************
BISNIS Programs available to you FREE OF CHARGE:
BISNIS ExpoLink Eurasia
BISNIS Trades & Tenders
BISNIS Search for Partners
fm
BISNIS FinanceLink fm
For industry-specific information, please go to Medical Equipment and
Services Industry page at
********** Provided by: *****************************
Desi Jordanoff, International Trade Specialist
BISNIS, U.S. Department of Commerce
Tel: 202/482-2709, Fax: 202/482-2293
Email: [email protected]
NEED FINANCING FOR A PROPOSED SALE TO EURASIA?
BISNIS FinanceLink helps U.S. companies find financing for export
transactions where a Eurasian buyer has already been identified. For
more information visit:
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES & DEVELOPMENTS
throughout Eurasia, visit BISNIS at For other
markets, visit
Armenian Assembly of America
122 C Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: [email protected]
SENATOR CHAFEE AFFIRMS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Congressional Record Statement Marks Senator’s First Public
Declaration
Washington, DC – Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), in his first ever
public statement acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, marked the 90th
anniversary of this crime against humanity saying that “Remembering
the victims is our duty to the past and to the future.”
The first-term Senator’s full statement commemorating the Armenian
Genocide was published in the April 25 Congressional Record that said
in part:
“Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the
Armenian Genocide. A date of great significance for many Rhode
Islanders, and growing in significance for all Americans, this day not
only commemorates the atrocities of the past, but also reminds us that
it must not happen again.”
“The Assembly welcomes Senator Chafee’s affirmation of the Armenian
Genocide,” said Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. “The
Senator’s remarks build on previous statements by President Ronald
Reagan, Members of Congress and world-renowned scholars regarding the
incontestable historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.”
In November 1999, Chafee was appointed by former Rhode Island Governor
Lincoln Almond to fill the unexpired term of his father, the late
Senator John H. Chafee. He is a member of the Committee on Foreign
Relations and serves as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Near
Eastern and South Asian Affairs.
The Senator began his political career in 1985, when he was elected a
delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention. One year
later, he was elected to the first of two successive terms on the
Warwick City Council. In November 1992, he became the first
Republican elected Mayor of the City of Warwick in 32 years.
In the 108th Congress, Chafee was a cosponsor of S. 1557, a bill to
extend permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Armenia, which was
enacted into law last year. He also sent his staff to take part in an
Assembly-sponsored fact-finding Congressional Delegation to Armenia
and Nagorno Karabakh in August of 2003.
The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.
###
NR#2005-035
A photograph of Senator Chafee is available at the following link:
Editor’s Note: The full text of Senator’s Chafee’s Congressional
Record Statement is provided below.
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE — (Senate – April 25, 2005)
[Page: S4179] GPO’s PDF
—
Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of
the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. A date of great significance
for many Rhode Islanders, and growing in significance for all
Americans, this day not only commemorates the atrocities of the past,
but also reminds us that it must not happen again. Remembering the
victims is our duty to the past and to the future.
The term “genocide” did not even exist when these atrocities
occurred from 1915 to 1923, yet the numbers are staggering. Over 1.5
million people perished. Over 500,000 people were forcibly removed
from their homes and their homeland. Armenian religious, political,
and intellectual leaders were killed. Men were removed from their
families and women and children were left vulnerable to deportation,
kidnapping, and starvation, and 132,000 Armenian orphans became foster
children in American families.
It is vital for the distinct identity of every culture to be honored
and celebrated. Over one and a half million Americans are of Armenian
heritage, and on this day we are grateful for their many contributions
to our country. Rhode Island and this entire Nation continue to
benefit from a strong and vibrant Armenian community.
-END-
Czech News Agency (CTK)
CTK National News Wire
April 24, 2005
STETINA TO PROPOSE BILL ON CZECH RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PRAGUE, April 24 ; (RTJ)
Senator Jaromir Stetina wants to initiate a bill by which the Czech
Republic would recognise the violence inflicted upon Armenians in the
then Osman Empire in 1915 as genocide, he told CTK today.
“It is a shame that the Czech Republic does not have such a law yet,”
said Stetina, who attended a service organised by the local Armenian
community in Prague’s St Saviour’s Church in commemoration of the
genocide victims, whose number the Armenians put at 1.5 million.
“I’d like to beg the Armenian community in Prague to help me prepare
such a bill, and I’ll try to submit in the Senate as a bill for Czech
parliament to discuss,” said Stetina, unaffiliated senator who is a
member of the upper house’s Open Democracy group.
Stetina said his initiative has been motivated by the recent passing
of such a law in neighbouring Poland.
By passing its own, the Czech Republic would joint about twenty
countries which have passed one, including France, Russia, Italy,
Switzerland, Canada and Slovakia.
The EP labelled the 1915 transport and massacre of Armenians as
genocide in 1987.
Turkey refuses to call the 90-year old events genocide. It puts the
number of victims at 300,000 to 500,000.
Stetina said that Turkey, the successor state to the Osman Empire,
wants to enter the EU, and therefore it is important for it to cope
with its past.
Apart from the commemorative mass, Prague Armenians marked the bloody
events anniversary at a rally at Prague’s Old Town Square today. Two
hundred of Armenians and other people sympathising with them paid
tribute to the victims by a one- minute silence.
Turkish Press
April 26 2005
Another Example Of Brutality Of The Armenians Against Turks…
ERZURUM – ”The Armenians, who are accusing Turks of massacre and
trying to convince the world with their lies, treated inhumanly
Turkish captives during the World War I and burnt most of these
captives to death”, Associate Professor Cemil Kutlu of History
Department of Ataturk University, said on Tuesday.
Kutlu said, ”behaviors of the Armenians towards Turkish captives are
embarrassing for humanity. Foreign sources include information about
brutality (of the Armenians) against Turkish captives.”
Recalling the report of Russian colonel Cologriof who visited the
captive camps in Caucasus in the winter of 1918 on behalf of the
Danish Red Cross, Kutlu said, ”this report said that Armenian
soldiers killed Turkish captives just for fun, and they carried out
mass torture most of the times.”
On the other hand, touching on confessions of an Armenian officer,
Kutlu said, ”this officer said: We took about 3,000 Turkish captives
with us after the Russians withdrew. Most of them were burnt to
death. This brutality made me sick, but I could not find the
opportunity to oppose to what was being done.”
AsiaNews.it, Italy
April 25 2005
Greek Orthodox Patriarch labelled as `Judas’ for having sold Church
properties in Jerusalem
The Orthodox community is asking for his resignation and removal.
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) When Greek Orthodox Patriarch Ireneos was
leaving the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the end of his Church’s
Palm Sunday ceremonies, on Sunday, 24 April, he was met by lay
members of his own community, and others, demonstrating against him
and calling for his resignation or removal. Some of the demonstrators
called him “Judas Iscariot”, in reference to his selling out
important properties of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
This brought even greater intensity to the wave of demonstrations and
protests against Ireneos that has been going on for weeks, ever since
the press discovered – and published – that he had sold prominent
buildings owned by the Patriarchate just inside the “Jaffa Gate” of
the Old City of Jerusalem. Official investigations have also been
launched by three governments: The Republic of Greece, the
Palestinian Authority and the Kingdom of Jordan. This scandal has
been intensified that a key person in promoting Ireneos’s election,
and introduced by him several years ago as a most trusted friend, is
a notorious criminal, wanted by the police of several countries (he
was finally captured by Italian police, in Bologna, last weekend),
and that another key aide to Ireneos has also fled, under suspicion
of corruption and embezzlement.
For his part, Ireneos refused to answer questions from Greek
Government investigators, and has insisted publicly that he had never
“sold” the properties. This is only technically correct. Technically,
like all the many other land sales by a series of Greek Patriarchs of
Jerusalem over many decades, the transactions are officially leases,
but leases for decades and even centuries (in some cases, for 999
years, in others, for 99 years) so that, for all practical purposes,
they are indeed the same as sales. In all these cases, the properties
are effectively gone, while there is no public accounting of what is
done with the payments received from them. Attempts to challenge the
Patriarchate’s practices in the Israeli courts have always failed,
with the courts ruling that the Patriarch’s right to dispose of the
property and money of the Church is absolute, and not subject to
control.
Now pressure for Ireneos’s resignation and removal is growing even
among his Greek clergy, but it is probable that the Governments
concerned – and not only Israel – will not allow his removal. A
weak, divided, scandal-plagued church is, after all, much easier for
all governments to control than a strong, united church with moral
authority, says an expert observer in Jerusalem who wishes for
anonymity.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, as a concrete
historical organisation, dates back to the first half of the
sixteenth century. Then the Ottoman Empire, which had just occupied
the Holy Land (1516), extinguished, in effect, the indigenous
Eastern-rite Patriarchate, and imported Greek monks to take over its
structures and property. These monks are organised as a religious
brotherhood, the Hagiotaphitic Fraternity, or Brotherhood of the Holy
Sepulchre, which takes care to accept only ethnic Greeks, from
Greece, and to exclude the local Christians, all of them Arabs, from
any positions of power or influence. The same situation had existed
in Syira, in the Patriarchate of Antioch, until 1899, when the local
faithful and clergy rose up and drove the foreigners out. Since then
the Patriarchate of Antioch has had an indigenous leadership.
Recently this indigenous Patriarchate has tried to establish a branch
also deep inside the Jerusalem Patriarchate’s territory, in Jordan.
In addition to questionable personnel and business decisions, Ireneos
has also distinguished himself by hostility and aggression towards
other Christians, continually provoking disputes with the Armenian
Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and violating the rules governing
relations with the Catholic Church at the Holy Sepulchre. In the most
notorious incident, on 27 September last year, he ordered his monks
to launch a physical assault on the Jerusalem police who were
protecting a handful of Franciscans inside the Holy Sepulchre. The
violent frenzy lasted a full half hour before the police managed to
subdue the Greek monks. The whole event was captured on film by an
amateur videophotographer and this evidence has been widely viewed by
authorities and journalists.
This week Jerusalem police are nervously awaiting Orthodox Holy
Saturday when Greeks and Armenians may be in violent conflict at the
Holy Sepulchre. Ireneos has announced that he will not let the
Armenian Patriarch into the Edicule to light the “holy fire” together
with him, and all efforts by the Israeli government to convince him
otherwise have – until now – failed. The Armenians have asked the
Israeli Supreme Court to intervene, and to order that the Armenian
Patriarch be allowed into the Edicule, in accordance with the special
international legal régime at the Holy Sepulchre, but the Court has
refused to intervene. Israel has an international treaty with the
Holy See – the 1993 Fundamental Agreement – that obliges the State to
enforce the legal régime governing the Holy Sepulchre, but the
Armenian Patriarchate is obviously not a party to this treaty, and is
therefore powerless to invoke it directly (although the Armenians
benefit from it indirectly, whenever both they and the Catholics are
victims of Ireneos’s aggression). As regards the Catholic Church,
however, Catholic Church sources tell AsiaNews, Israel has recently
been showing a new willingness to control Ireneos, and to prevent him
from violating the rules or attacking the personnel of the Catholic
Church at the Holy Sepulchre – although the situation needs continued
careful monitoring, especially with a view to Orthodox Easter next
Sunday. Israel’s increased attention to protecting Catholic rights
and Catholic personnel, say the same sources, is attributable to the
Catholic Church’s ability to invoke Israel’s treaty obligations in
this regard.
Catholic leaders are deeply worried by the scandals surrounding
Ireneos, since the general public does not always distinguish among
the different organisations designated as “Christian” or as
“Churches”, with the result that the Christian religion itself risks
being brought into disrepute. (AC)
;art=3135
Blogger News Network
April 24 2005
Vichy France 2000
Analysis by Mark Radulich
France is playing with fire which may ultimately end up burning both
Europe and America. I’ve been saying in the last couple of posts that
the US needs to understand that world is slouching toward
multi-polarity whether we like it or not and it would be advantageous
to start strategizing with that in mind. I think we have begun to
pass the “Unipolar moment” and now the US needs to configure its new
role in the world. However, that goes doubly so for France, which has
a different problem. Their collective approach to world affairs is to
do what strictly benefits the French surpassing the US as global
leaders. Chirac and company are no more multi-polarist than the
neo-cons in Washington. Unfortunately, as I’ve stated above, their
Napoleonic quest to return to great at the cost of the US will most
likely result in tragedy for both our countries.
First there’s this from an April 13th Reuters story: “French
President Jacques Chirac has been pushing the EU to drop its refusal
to consider letting Iran enrich uranium, despite U.S. and European
fears Iran could use enrichment technology for weapons, EU diplomats
say…the talks took a new turn last month when negotiators from the
EU’s “big three” (EU3) and the office of EU foreign policy chief
Javier Solana agreed in Paris to consider an Iranian proposal that it
keep a small-scale enrichment programme that would be closely
monitored by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Several diplomats said this shift — which came just after Washington
bolstered the EU position by offering its own incentives if Tehran
scrapped enrichment — was mainly the result of pressure by Chirac,
who pushed the French Foreign Ministry to drop its refusal to
consider Iran’s plan.
“Jacques Chirac … is the one who’s taking the Iranian proposal
under consideration,” said an EU3 diplomat, adding the French
president had the final say on foreign policy matters.”
So while Chirac is apparently attempting to play the Iranians against
us as a check, the French as a whole are showing their true racist
yet globally inept colors by voting “no” on the EU constitution
citing Turkey as the problem.
This from Zaman.com: “While the French have been intensively
discussing the constitution, which they want to be in line with their
traditions, one of the most important matters of debate is Turkey’s
possible future EU membership. Several French politicians from right
to left on the political spectrum link Turkey’s membership with the
constitution and are calling on the French public to vote “no” on May
29th. It is an exaggeration to say that French people will vote “no”
on the constitution only because of Turkey. As a matter of fact,
French people also complain about the EU’s moving away from the
concept of enlargement and the understanding of a social state. One
of the most controversial issues, however, is Turkey. Some French
citizens, despite the fact that they would probably vote “yes” to
Turkey’s membership in a referendum that will be held after 10 or 15
years if Turkey completes EU negotiations with success, are asking
“Why do we wait for 15 years? Let’s say “no” to Turkey as of now.”
Turning the so-called Armenian “genocide” allegations into a
principle in the world for the first time, France has a public, which
has the deepest objection to Turkey’s EU membership. Th?s attitude in
France is hypocritical. As a matter of fact, Turkey’s “tough”
secularism, administrative system and linguistic borrowings when it
encountered with the modern West are all from France. ?n short,
France has parallels with Turkey. Despite this fact, Turks are
anxious this time that their march towards Europe will be blocked in
Paris. It is rumored that French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier
said: “Forget about negotiations on October 3rd.” if the French would
vote “no” on the Constitution in the referendum on May 29th.”
Just so we all understand, then French are stroking the Iranians
while attempting to alienate Turkey. While I continue to believe the
French are not our enemy per se, I do believe their rather acute way
of dealing with international politics is an accident waiting to
happen.
Mark Radulich blogs at Progressive Conservatism.