Author: Virabian Jhanna

AZG Armenian Daily #082, 06/05/2005

Armenia-Turkey

WASHINGTON TO DEMAND TURKEY TO OPEN BORDER WITH ARMENIA

White House Pleased with Erdogan-Kocharian Correspondence

According to Turkish Zaman newspaper, the US Undersecretary of the State
Department responsible for European and Eurasian affairs Laura Kennedy
demanded during a press conference in Ankara that Turkey opens its border
with Armenia. Kennedy labeled the process between Turkey and Armenia
“hopeful” and evaluated the possible meeting of Erdogan and Kocharian in
Warsaw as a “wonderful thing”.

“The US considers promising that Armenian and Turkish authorities exchange
opinions and supports reconstruction of friendly relations”, Kennedy stated
during a meeting with Turkish officials.

During her two-day stay, Laura Kennedy met with the secretary general of
National Security Council of Turkey, vice-spokesperson of Foreign Ministry
and other officials.

Referring to Associated Press, Radio Liberty quoted Kennedy as saying, “The
White House is pleased with the fact of recent exchange of correspondence
between Turkish Prime Minister and Armenian President on genocide-related
issues and called on unifying their suggestions”.

In his letter Robert Kocharian on April 10, Erdogan suggested setting a
group of historians “that would study archives not only of Armenia and
Turkey but those of related third states and will inform the international
community about the results”. Armenian President said in his reply letter
that “we have no right to authorize historians with the task” and suggested
“to establish natural relations between the two state without
preconditions”.

“Why won’t they do both things simultaneously? We are hopeful that this
process will continue. The White House is interested in intergovernmental
relations between Armenia and Turkey and in the issue of reconciliation”,
Laura Kennedy said in Ankara.

Referring to diplomatic sources, Zaman and Radikal notified earlier that
Kocharian and Erdogan are likely to meet in Warsaw during EC Summit on May
16-17. Official Yerevan states that “there is no such meeting scheduled so
far”.

By Tatoul Hakobian

ARMENIAN FM AND CO-CHAIRS OF OSCE MINSK GROUP TO MEET A DAY OF
TWO BEFORE POSSIBLE MEETING OF ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS
IN WARSAW

YEREVAN, MAY 5. ARMINFO. The meeting of Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan with the Co-Chairs of OSCE Minsk Group on settlement
of Karabakh conflict will take place a day of two days before possible
meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Warsaw within the
frameworks of the CE Summit. Armenian Foreign Minister made this
statement at a press conference today.

In response to the question why he did not leave for a meeting in
Frankfurt, wherein the meeting of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister and
the Co-Chairs took place, Vardan Oskanyan said that his participation
was not planned beforehand. He said that the Co-Chairs were also
informed that the date of Frankfurt meetings were not convenient for
me, the minister said. At the same time, he said that the meetings
of the foreign ministers with the co-chairs were to be separate,
so there was no need for them to take place the same day in the
same place. Minister Oskanyan pointed out that there is no need in
a meeting of the foreign ministers as the next step rests upon the
presidents. He said that the minister have already reached the moment
when their powers are exhausted sop the Co-Chairs started separate
meetings with them trying to deepen several issues. As regards the
meeting of presidents, the minister said that there is a preliminary
mutual desire, but there is no specific agreement.

SELF-CENSURE AS ACHIEVEMENT OF ARMENIAN JOURNALISM

A1plus
| 17:36:03 | 03-05-2005 | Politics |

The World Press Freedom Day was marked today in the UN Yerevan
Office together with the Yerevan Press Club. According to YPC
head Boris Navasardyan, today people gathered not only to mark the
achievements but also to discuss the failures of the press. In his
words, the investigations say that press in Armenia concentrates on
the political events and pays too little attention to social needs,
thus arousing the society’s discontent.

Besides, according to B. Navasardyan if a journalist does not
write about something, it testifies of the pressure exerted on
him. Editor-in-chief of Azg newspaper Hakob Avetikyan also states that
the self-censure is developed in our country. If we want to make the
world tolerant we should start with journalists, he says.

Head of the department for public relations of the department of
Emergency Situations Nikolay Grigoryan noted, «No development will
be observed without freedom of press».

The UN representatives delivered congratulations speeches and
announced of the contest dedicated to the 60-th anniversary of the
UN and objectives of the Millennium Developments. The outcomes of
the contest will be summed up in July. The winners will be granted
an opportunity to visit the UN Office in Geneva.

–Boundary_(ID_cqlC3NWDlIWdcZJEv3AV/w)–

Switzerland Confirms Opening Of A Legal Procedure Against Halacoglu

Turkish Press
April 3 2005

ANKARA – Switzerland has confirmed opening of a legal procedure against
Turkish Institute of History (TTK) Chairman Prof. Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu
about his statement on allegations of so-called Armenian genocide.

Releasing a statement on Monday, the Swiss Embassy in Ankara said,
“it is true that a complaint against Prof. Halacoglu was deposited
by a third party, but not by an official state prosecutor with the
competent local legal authorities of Winterthur after Prof. Halacoglu
has delivered there in spring of the last year a speech on the
Armenian issue.”

“According to Swiss legal procedures, an investigation has to be
opened after the deposition of any complaint to clarify the facts.
This investigation against Prof. Halacoglu is still pending. In
the context of this investigation, the local legal authorities of
Winterthur have forwarded in a normal and ordinary procedure an
information request regarding the personal data of Prof. Halacoglu
via Interpol to the competent Turkish authorities,” it said.

The Swiss Embassy denied allegations that Prof. Halacoglu was
condemned, formally accused or searched by the Swiss authorities.

Noting that local legal authorities in Winterthur had not yet decided
whether the complaint was acceptable or not, the Embassy said,
“but they need further necessary information before they can take
any decision in this case.”

“The Swiss government shares the opinion of the Turkish government that
the alleged Armenian genocide should be investigated by historians. The
Swiss government welcomes the proposal of the Turkish government that
a joint commission by Turkish and Armenian historians is looking into
this issue,” the Embassy added.

SO-CALLED GENOCIDE OVERSHADOWS TURKEY-SWITZERLAND RELATIONS

Allegations of so-called Armenian genocide have overshadowed
Turkey-Switzerland relations from time to time.

The most important development affecting the relations negatively was
approval of several resolutions by the Swiss authorities to recognize
the so-called genocide.

Tension escalated in bilateral relations after Vaud canton of
Switzerland approved a resolution recognizing the so-called Armenian
genocide on September 23rd, 2003 and after Swiss Foreign Minister
Calmy-Rey delayed her scheduled visit to Ankara in October 2003.

Ankara told Swiss authorities that postponement of Calmy-Rey’s
visit to Ankara would be appropriate. However, Calmy-Rey described
Turkey’s uneasiness as “exaggerated” and said that they conveyed
their uneasiness to Turkish officials and the event would do nothing
to ease the bilateral relations.

Later, the Swiss parliament approved a resolution about the so-called
genocide, and Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs harshly condemned it.

In the meantime, the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper in Zurich claimed that
a Turkish intelligence officer saw Calmy-Rey speaking to a supporter
of the terrorist organization of PKK more than a minute during a
reception, and Calmy-Rey’s scheduled visit to Ankara was delayed
after this development.

Noting that the Turkish intelligence informed Swiss police on this
brief conversation, the newspaper also advocated that the Turkey’s note
to Swiss police was later conveyed to Swiss President Pascal Couchepin.

Swiss Chief Prosecutor’s Office described those allegations of the
newspaper as “amazing”.

Calmy-Rey paid a visit to Turkey in March.

Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that tragic events in 1915
could not be classified as genocide, and that the issue should be
investigated by historians.

Stressing that the resolutions, which were approved earlier, were
not state policy of Switzerland, Swiss sources pointed out that the
government could not have influence over parliament and cantonal
administrations under federal system.

The Daily Texan, TX
May 3 2005

Fighting the heathens

System of a Down passes through Austin, spouts poetic propaganda
By Austin Powell

There was no opening band. There were no real props or backgrounds.
An Armenian flag was held proudly by audience members as they chanted
the band’s name before it took the stage. At 9:17 p.m., the lights
went black.

The anticipation built. It was one of only 10 tour stops in the
United States for System of a Down and its first in Austin since
February 2002. Only a selected few have had the privilege to preview
tracks from their upcoming release, “Mesmerize.” The band has kept
the release of details regarding the album to a minimum in hopes of
avoiding another disaster like the one that led to the release of
the mockingly clever “Steal This Album.”

For months now, guitarist Daron Malakian has been in hiding. He
enslaves himself to the music he creates. In his solitary state, he
breeds insanity. Last Saturday night, it seemed as if he came out of
seclusion for the first time. The sold-out crowd lunged forward as
he launched into the Euro-death metal guitar intro for their latest
single, “BYOB.” As if he couldn’t remain silent for another second
longer, he let out a piercing high scream with “Why do they always
send the poor?”

This one song can sum up their entire performance. It is, in itself,
a contradiction. Juxtaposed with the wackiness of Serj Tankian’s
poetic propaganda is Malakian’s redundancy of half-truths conveyed
with the simplicity of sound bites. The thrashing snare drums are met
with a hard double bass that sounds like the soundtrack to guerilla
warfare movement.

Then it breaks; it shifts gears; it smiles at you. It makes you forget
your troubles with a dance-club hook that screams of commercialism. The
song bounces back again from relaxed to insane, driving home how easy
it is to get caught in ethnocentrism and consumerism before drilling
sounds of brutality and harsh, uncensored truths.

This same purposeful contradiction riddled System of a Down’s entire
show. While they played prophetic past hits such as “War?” and
“Suggestions,” the crowd danced to the self-explanatory pogo hit
“Bounce.” Between the social commentary of “Prison Song” and “Toxicity”
were moments of peace and tranquility in “Streamline” and “Roulette”
that had bassist Shavo Odajian on the ground smoking and singing along.

Adding to the many contradictions in performance was the appearance of
the band. Tankian and Malakian both were clean-shaven. Tankian donned
a pin-striped, button-down, long-sleeved shirt tucked into black jeans
that were held up with a large silver belt buckle. Malakian began
the night wearing a black vintage suit top. Not as noticeable was the
person who occasionally helped comb John Dolmayan’s hair from behind
his drum kit.

The songs, nevertheless, remained the same, if not louder and more
schizophrenic than ever. New tracks such as “Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll” and
“Holy Mountains” had the crowd so riled up that the band actually
had to turn on the house lights to ask people to stop pushing so hard
for fear they were going to break the barricades.

“Back off, back off! We don’t want people to get hurt. We want them
to get smart,” Malakian remarked during “Mr. Jack.” One song later,
during “Needles,” Malakian was on his back, crowd-surfing and playing
guitar, causing an onslaught of fans to push toward him.

A crazed fan actually managed to get on stage during “Suite-Pee” and
proceeded to bear-hug Tankian until he was pulled off by security. By
the end of the night, even the discotheque intro to “Sugar” seemed
normal.

By utilizing various elements that contradicted one another,
System of a Down created a unity of diversity, both of sound
and presentation. Watching the mouths of everyone around me
simultaneously repeat the band’s political views – seeing them move
as if controlled by their music in the same way Malakian does with
his own guitar – I realized why their upcoming albums are entitled
“Mesmerize” and “Hypnotize.” System of a Down is more in control of
its life, its performances and its music than ever before. Psycho.
Groupie. Cocaine. Crazy.

Pan Armenian News

ARMENIA TO BUILD RELATIONS WITH ALL FRIENDLY BLOCS AND UNIONS

30.04.2005 07:50

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia will build relations with all the friendly
blocs and unions, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Armen Smbatian stated
in his interview on OpenArmenia.com when responding to PanARMENIAN.Net
reporter’s question. When commenting on the possibility of Armenia’s
joining NATO Armen Smbatian said that Armenia’s foreign policy is
based exclusively on the national interests. “I find it difficult
to judge what will happen in 10-15 years, but I can say for certain
that complementarity is the main principle for building relations”,
the Ambassador noted. As for the CSTO prospects for next 5-10 years
from the standpoint of reduction of the Russian military presence in
the South Caucasus, Armen Smbatian noted that Armenia attaches great
importance to the CSTO and preservation of the Russian military bases
in the republic.

Civil Georgia
April 29 2005

PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV RECEIVES DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE UN FAO
[April 29, 2005, 15:58:41]

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received today
Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization Jacques Diouf and accompanying delegation.

He expressed satisfaction with FAO’s expanding activities in
Azerbaijan, and confidence that the visit by the organization’s
delegation to Baku would serve enhancing of bilateral cooperation.

Touching on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, the Azerbaijani leader
highly appreciated the aid provided by the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization to over a million refugees and IDPs from the conflict
with Armenia.

UN FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf has confirmed that the
organization has expanded its activities in Azerbaijan taking
concrete steps towards rendering aid to the refugees and IDPs. He let
the President know that his organization is preparing a plan of
actions to assist Azerbaijan in development of other spheres
including agriculture and farming. Mr. Diouf finally expressed
confidence in further deepening of cooperation between Azerbaijan and
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

AZG Armenian Daily #077, 29/04/2005

Concern

CAMPAIGN AGAINST ARMENIAN CHURCHES CONTINUES IN GEORGIA

New Target: Surp Nshan of Akhaltskha

Georgian Orthodox Church continues appropriation of Armenian cultural
monuments in Tbilisi and other regions of the country. Tombstones with
Georgian inscriptions were conveyed to the churchyard of Surp Nshan Armenian
church in Akhaltskha a few days ago. Appropriators follow their old logic:
if there are gravestones with Georgian inscriptions in the churchyard then
there are Georgians resting beneath, therefore the church has to be
Georgian.

Surp Nshan church became a point at issue in recent years. As the Armenian
and Georgian Churches could not settle the dispute, it was decided to leave
the church open for both Armenians and Georgians. It should be mentioned
that 30 Armenian churches have already been appropriated and consecrated in
accordance with Georgian ritual.

Daily Azg was informed that a delegation of Holy See of Etchmiadzin headed
by the head of Artsakh diocese, Archbishop Pargev Martirosian, left for
Tbilisi on April 20 and met high-ranking Georgian clergy.

While the delegation was negotiating with the Georgian side particularly
over several Armenian churches in Tbilisi, infamous clergyman named Tariel
continued appropriation of Surp Astvatsatsin church of Norashen. Those very
days Armenian tombstones of Surp Astvatsatsin were replaced by Georgian
ones.

The Roman Catholic Church also suffers at the hands of appropriators. But as
opposed to the Armenian clerical and secular authorities, which can raise
concern at high-level meetings at best, Vatican has taken a strong line. In
particular, the court in Strasburg is now studying the issue of a Catholic
church in Kutaisi, which was appropriated and consecrated several years ago.
Having lost two actions in Georgian court, Pope’s envoy Claudio Gugerotti
had to apply to European court.

When last year a Georgian fresco was damaged in one of Greek churches of
Jerusalem, officially Tbilisi and mass media raised a clamor saying that
Georgian legacy is being eliminated in the Holy City.

By Tatoul Hakobian

MOURNING RALLIES HELD IN SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI TO COMMEMORATE 90TH
ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

AKHALKALAKI, APRIL 26. ARMINFO. Mourning rallies have been held in the
mostly Armenian Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia on the occasion
of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Javakhk-Info reports that the rallies were held in 90 towns and
villages of the region as well as in Batumi and Tbilisi with torches
lit in memory of the Genocide victims.

PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: [email protected]
April 27, 2005

Priests from Holy Etchmiadzin Depart for Jerusalem and the United States

With the blessings of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians, four members of the Brotherhood of Holy
Etchmiadzin departed on April 27 for Jerusalem to participate in the
celebrations of Holy Easter, which this year falls on May 1 according to the
Old Calendar (which is followed by the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem).

His Eminence Archbishop Barkev Martirosian, Primate of the Diocese of
Artsakh; Rev. Fr. Sahak Shakarian, Rev. Fr. Kyuregh Vardanian and Rev. Fr.
Norayr Simonian will participate in the celebration of the Divine Liturgies
and the various other services in the Holy Land as guests of the Armenian
Patriarchate, and will extend the blessings and message of His Holiness.

The Catholicosate of All Armenians has also sent four clergymen to North
America to participate in the annual diocesan assemblies of the Eastern and
Western United States which are taking place this week. Rev. Fr. Hovakim
Manukian and Rev. Fr. Yessai Artenian will be in Bayside, New York, to
participate in the clergy conference and diocesan meetings of the Diocese of
the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), and Rev. Fr. Adam Makarian and
Rev. Fr. Andreas Isakhanian will be in Fresno, California, attending the
assembly events of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North
America.