Author: Virabian Jhanna

VLADIMIR RUSHAYLO: I THINK IT MY DUTY TO VISIT MEMORIAL FOR VICTIMS OF
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

YEREVAN, MARCH 3. ARMINFO. Today, Head of the CIS Executive
Committee, Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushaylo has visited the
memorial for the Victims of the Armenian Genocide in ottoman Turkey at
the beginning of the last century “Tsiternakaberd.” Vladimir Rushaylo
laid a wreath on the memorial and bowed to the perpetual fire, and
poured water on the tree planted earlier. “Each people has its sacred
places. This Memorial is a sacred place of the Armenian people and I
think it my duty to visit it when I am in Yerevan,” Rushaylo said. It
should be noted that it is Vladimir Rushaylo’s fifth visit to the
Memorial.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 3 2005

OSCE fact-finding mission’s report to be released mid-March

Baku, March 2, AssA-Irada

The OSCE fact-finding mission has submitted its final report on the
one-week monitoring it conducted in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan
to Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
Mammadyarov said that he has fully studied the report, which will be
made public by March 16.
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov has told Radio Liberty that the
report confirms the facts relating to the illegal settlement of
Armenians in Upper Garabagh and other occupied Azerbaijani
territories. The document is due to be submitted to the OSCE
Permanent Council in Vienna on March 17.*

Hucknall Today.co.uk
03 February 2005

Hucknall Parish Church is jewel in town’s tourism crown

HUCKNALL
people should celebrate the fact that the poet Lord Byron is buried in the
Parish Church, claims Brian Hinsley, chairman of a newly-formed Friends Of
St Mary Magdalene group.

“A lot of people don’t like Byron because of his reputation,” said Mr
Hinsley, speaking at a cheese-and-wine evening held last Saturday to launch
the group.
“But I’m sure Westminster Abbey would love to have him. However it has not
got him ~V he is here.”
“In any case, it is not a Christian attitude to cast people out for
imperfections. Let’s celebrate having Byron at this church and the fact that
people come from all over the world to visit his tomb.”
Mr Hinsley said former rector, the late Canon Fred Green, had ‘kicked
around’ the idea of the Friends group and it had since grown bit by bit.
He stressed that the church building itself was important to people, perhaps
because they wanted to be married there or have their child baptised there.
“If you look at the visitors’ book, it shows that people are visiting the
church from the four corners of the world ~V and not only because of the
Byron connection,” said Mr Hinsley. “Perhaps they are people who emigrated
from Hucknall and have returned to find their roots.”
An international dimension had been added because of Hucknall links with
Armenia and Greece, he pointed out.
Art historian Neil Marchant described the church as a ‘jewel’ that reflected
not just local history but also national history and national art history.
He went on “The first time I came into the church a couple of years ago, I
was struck by how beautiful it is. The Kempe stained-glass windows and other
historical decorations are particularly important because there is now a
return to the medieval idea of using pictures, signs and symbols to
encourage worship of God.”
Group vice-chairman Lawrence Church said its aim was to promote the church’s
historical and educational opportunities, encourage community involvement
and foster friendships.
He added: “The church has influenced the lives of so many people over the
years, while they in turn have influenced the life of this building.”
Special displays in the church included memorabilia of the Rev John Edward
Phillips, who was vicar at the Parish Church from 1879 until his death in
1904.
Sent by a grandson, now living in Norfolk, the items included sympathy
cards, some bearing seals, which were received by Mr Phillips’s widow.
Senders of the cards included Winifred, Duchess of Portland, John Henry
Beardsmore, who wrote a definitive history of Hucknall, and church stalwart
the Rev John Godber.
03 February 2005

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION EVENT HELD IN LOS ANGELES

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28. ARMINFO. An event to commemorate the 90th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was held in Los Angeles Feb 24
by Armenian Assembly of American, Armenian General Benevolent Union
and Western Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church of North America.

Attending the event were local officials, Armenian community
representatives, consul generals of California-based diplomatic
missions of countries having acknowledged the Armenian Genocide or
given asylum to its victims as well as journalists. Armenia’s
Consul. General to Los Angeles Gagik Kirakosyan made a
speech. Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger greeted the event
participants. Present there was also ex governor of California George
Deukmejian.

Deutschland
Associated Press Worldstream – German
Sonntag, 27. Februar 2005

Union macht türkische Massaker an Armeniern zum Thema;
Antrag im Bundestag – Türkei soll sich ihrer Geschichte stellen

Berlin

90 Jahre nach Beginn der Massaker an der armenischen Minderheit im
osmanischen Reich hat die CDU/CSU-Bundestagsfraktion die Türkei
aufgefordert, sich diesem düsteren Kapitel ihrer Geschichte zu
stellen. Sie brachte einen Antrag in den Bundestag ein, der die
Bundesregierung auffordert, sich dafür einzusetzen, dass sich die
Türkei mit ihrer Rolle gegenüber den armenischen Christen »in
Geschichte und Gegenwart vorbehaltlos auseinander setzt«. Darüber
hinaus solle Ankara die Strafbarkeit von Berichten über die Massaker
aufheben.

Der außenpolitische CDU/CSU-Sprecher Friedbert Pflüger sagte der
Nachrichtenagentur AP am Sonntag, der Antrag solle keine Anklage
gegen die Türkei bedeuten. Er solle vielmehr erreichen, dass sich die
Türkei »mit Offenheit ihrer Geschichte stellt«. Daher sei in dem Text
auch bewusst auf den Begriff des Völkermordes verzichtet worden. Es
sei vielmehr von Massakern und Vertreibungen die Rede.

Damit blieb die Unionsfraktion in der Formulierung hinter einem
Beschluss des Europäischen Parlaments vom Dezember 2004 zurück. Das
hatte die Türkei bei seiner Zustimmung zur Aufnahme von
EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen ausdrücklich aufgefordert, den Völkermord
an den Armeniern als solchen anzuerkennen. Dagegen wehrt sich die
türkische Regierung vehement.

In dem Antrag wird darauf verwiesen, dass den Massakern und
Vertreibungen zwischen 1,2 und 1,5 Millionen Armenier zum Opfer
gefallen seien. Die Türkei als Rechtsnachfolgerin des Osmanischen
Reiches bestreite bis heute, dass diese Vorgänge planmäßig erfolgt
und von der osmanischen Regierung beabsichtigt gewesen seien. Mit
Bedauern wird unter Berufung auf Archiv-Akten des Auswärtigen Amtes
auch darauf verwiesen, dass die politische und militärische Führung
des Deutschen Reiches »von Anfang an über die Verfolgung und
Ermordung der Armenier genauestens informiert« gewesen und untätig
geblieben sei.

Berlin soll sich für Versöhnung einsetzen

Nach dem Willen der Union soll die Bundesregierung mit dem Antrag
auch aufgefordert werden, darauf hinzuwirken, dass die Türkei die
zwischenstaatlichen Beziehungen zu Armenien umgehend normalisiert.
Berlin solle zudem einen eigenen Beitrag leisten, dass zwischen
Türken und Armeniern ein Ausgleich durch Versöhnen und Verzeihen
historischer Schuld erreicht werde und die Aufarbeitung der Vorgänge
als Teil der Aufarbeitung der Geschichte ethnischer Konflikte im 20.
Jahrhundert auch in Deutschland erfolge.

Ankara setzt immer wieder alle Hebel in Bewegung, um die damaligen
Massenmorde nicht als planmäßig und regierungsamtlich gewollt
erscheinen zu lassen, was ihre Einstufung als Völkermord bedeuten
würde. So war im Januar bekannt geworden, dass das Brandenburger
Bildungsministerium den Völkermord an den Armeniern nach
diplomatischem Druck aus Ankara aus den Geschichtsbüchern der neunten
und zehnten Klasse gestrichen hat.

Das Verbrechen hatte als alleiniges Beispiel gedient, um den Schülern
den Begriff Völkermord nahe zu bringen. In einer revidierten Fassung
soll nach Ankündigungen von Ministerpräsident Matthias Platzeck (SPD)
der Völkermord an den Armeniern zwar wieder aufgenommen, aber mit
weiteren Beispielen für diese Art des Massenmordes angereichert
werden. In der Türkei stehen Berichte über die Verbrechen an den
Armeniern unter Strafe.

–Boundary_(ID_aqpzUzM0H2VWn2SZEBIxJw)–

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
February 28, 2005, Monday

THE NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL’S ENVOY HOLDING NEGOTIATIONS IN ARMENIA

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Robert Simmons, NATO
secretary general’s envoy for the Southern Caucasus, discussed the
prospects of relations between the republic and NATO. Kocharyan’s
press service said that the parties raised regional problems and the
Karabakh conflict. (…)

On the program of individual partnership between Armenia and NATO,
Simmons noted that the timing of signing of this document depends on
the Armenian government. Simmons noted that relations between the
South-Caucasian nations and NATO do not contravene their relations
with other nations. Simmons noted that Armenia’s membership in the
Organization of the collective security treaty does not hinder the
development of relations with the alliance.

Translated by Alexander Dubovoi

Karabakh officially announce capture of three Azeri soldiers

Mediamax news agency
18 Feb 05

Yerevan, 18 February: The state commission of the Nagornyy Karabakh
Republic (NKR) for prisoners of war and missing persons today
officially announced the capture of three Azerbaijani soldiers.

The commission says in its statement that the three soldiers of
the Azerbaijan army were detained on 15 February while crossing the
demarcation line in the northwestern sector of the contact line of
the NKR and Azerbaijani armed forces.

[Passage omitted: names of the Azerbaijani POWs]

The NKR state commission for prisoners of war and missing persons has
notified the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) and the OSCE accredited in Stepanakert about the incident.

The appropriate bodies of the NKR are carrying out investigative
measures to find out how and why the Azerbaijani soldiers crossed
the positions of the NKR defence army.

The republic’s authorities have granted ICRC representatives the
right of free access to the Azerbaijani prisoners of war.

Azeri MP, spokesman scoff at Armenian minister’s remarks on military might

Ekho, Baku
16 Feb 05

Azerbaijan has not resorted to force to resolve the dispute over
Nagornyy Karabakh since it has assumed committments to the Council
of Europe to settle conflicts peacefully, Azerbaijani MP retired
Lt-Gen Vladimir Timosenko has said. But Azerbaijanis are not going
to reconcile themselves to the occupation of their lands, the MP said
commenting on Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan’s statement
that the Azerbaijani army is not combat-capable. In his comment, the
Azerbaijani Defence Ministry spokesman argued that Armenia was lagging
behind Azerbaijan both in military and economic terms. Ramiz Malikov
also accused Armenia of undermining peace efforts. The following is
the text of R. Orucov’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on
16 February headlined “The Armenian defence minister believes his
army is stronger than Azerbaijan’s” and subheaded “Serzh Sarkisyan’s
statements are called a lie in our country”; subheadings have been
inserted editorially:

Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan gave an on-line press
conference posted on the site of the Dashnak newspaper Yerkir
yesterday. Some of his answers to the questions require separate
comments.

“Wrong policy”

Commenting on the Council of Europe’s stance on the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem, Sarkisyan acknowledged that “the resolution of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] on Nagornyy
Karabakh does not take into account the interests of Armenia”, but
added that he does not see any tragedy in it.

The Armenian minister believes that Karabakh was subjected to
aggression from Azerbaijan. “The principles in [PACE rapporteur on
Nagornyy Karabakh David] Atkinson’s report are correct. Our task is to
convince the European entities that these principles are acceptable to
us and harmful to Azerbaijan. At the start of the Karabakh movement we
proved to the world that our movement is democratic and fair. The new
generation of European politicians either do not remember or do not
know the history and origin of the Karabakh conflict. We are facing
the challenge of explaining the gist of the issue to them.”

The head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, Samad Seyidov, told
Ekho that Sarkisyan’s statements show that he perceives the resolution
in a totally wrong way.

“Sarkisyan acknowledges that this resolution meets objective
parameters. But he is wrong to say that it is not in Armenia’s
interests. The resolution is in the interests of Armenia, because it is
in the interests of Armenia to liberate the occupied territories and
admit that it is an aggressor and has invaded another country. The
sooner Armenia realizes this, the better for the Armenian people,
who, like any other nation, want to live in peace.

“Unfortunately, Sarkisyan’s statement again illustrates that Armenian
leaders cannot accept the objective reality. It is impossible to
overturn those values that have been accepted in Europe for quite a
long time. In other words, one cannot occupy the territory of another
state and pretend to be a victim, one cannot keep on saying that
nothing happened after conducting ethnic cleansing and one cannot
annex the territory of a neighbouring country and try to look for
legal grounds to justify this step. This illustrates that the Council
of Europe resolution has not been fully understood in Armenia so
far. Because the main idea of the resolution resides not in the lapses
of Armenian diplomacy (there are, by the way, quite a few of them),
but in the fact that Armenia as a state has a wrong policy.”

Armenia undermines peace efforts

Sarkisyan told the press conference that “calls for a military solution
to the conflict have been heard in Azerbaijan since [late Azerbaijani
President Heydar] Aliyev rejected the Key West principles”. The
minister believes that such militarist statements by the Azerbaijani
side “are meant both for internal and external use: internally in
order to raise the spirit and externally as a blackmailing tool. Such
statements have made some people in Azerbaijan believe that their
army is really capable of resolving the Karabakh issue militarily.
However, I strongly believe that the Azerbaijani army is not in a
position to do so. Otherwise, I can assure you, they would not be
asking for permission.”

“These are the statements of the enemy,” the head of the press
service of the Azerbaijani Defence Ministry, Ramiz Malikov, told Ekho
commenting on this part of the press conference.

“But Sarkisyan is profoundly mistaken. Not only the armed forces of
Armenia, but also the country itself is now losing to Azerbaijan and
its armed forces on all parameters. Actually, the Armenian economy is
really in a bad state and is being ruled from outside. This country
has been marginalized from all regional economic projects, while the
Azerbaijani economy is developing rapidly. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
[main oil export pipeline] will be built this year and the
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas project will start working soon. Azerbaijan
fares better than Armenia in other economic areas, too. Since the
strengthening and developing of the armed forces of any country
depend on the economy, we can say that the Azerbaijani army is twice
as strong as the Armenian army.

“As for the situation back in 1992, the armed forces were not at
the right level unlike the Armenian armed forces. They had been
preparing for this war, but Azerbaijan got enmeshed in it. Azerbaijan
had failed to respond appropriately at the time also due to internal
political dissent.

“But all these problems have now been left behind. We would like
to reiterate that Sarkisyan should not deceive himself with any
grand ideas. Any occupation is doomed to end, as the examples of
Napoleon and Hitler show. Sarkisyan is distorting facts by saying
that Azerbaijan is calling for war. It is Azerbaijan that calls for
a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Our leadership is faithful to
this idea today, while Armenia, which was recognized by the Council of
Europe as an occupying country, undermines efforts to find a peaceful
solution and takes a destructive position.”

Committed not to use force

A member of the parliamentary commission for defence and security,
air defence Lt-Gen Vladimir Timosenko, also commented on Sarkisyan’s
statements.

“By offering alternative ways of resolving the conflict to the world,
we proceed from the reality of the state of our combat readiness. Both
Azerbaijan and Armenia assumed commitments not to use force in
resolving conflicts when they joined the Council of Europe. This is
the first factor that deters us.

“Secondly, diplomatic means have not been fully exhausted so
far. Moreover, European entities have now joined in the process. They
have called Armenia an aggressor for the first time in many years. And
we are making it clear for the world to understand that our patience
is about to end and we have the right to start military operations on
our territory in order to liberate it without violating international
law and the UN resolution in particular. We are making it clear to
our own people and enemy that we will never accept the status quo.”

Rus, US presidents to discuss whole gamut of Russo-American relat
By Ksenia Kaminskaya, Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
February 17, 2005 Thursday

YEREVAN, February 17 — “The whole gamut of Russo-American relations”
will be on the agenda of the meeting of the presidents of Russia
and the United States in Bratislava, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov, who wound up his visit to Armenia, said here on Thursday.

“The agenda will encompass the security area, the fight against
terrorism and illegal arms-and-drugs trafficking, and the prevention
of terrorists getting hold of arms”, the minister said. “There will
be on the agenda also the energy dialogue, matters of commercial,
economic, investment interaction between Russia and the United States,
and all the regional conflicts, particularly those that are connected
one way or another with the need to strengthen the non-proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction”, Lavrov said.

“We expect the summit in Bratislava to sum up the results of the
present stage of the work being done on the instruction of the two
presidents in virtually every direction of bilateral relations, on
many regional and international questions”, the foreign minister said.

“We also expect the presidents, summing up the results of the work
done, to decide on the new agenda and set additional tasks to speed
up the work in the areas, in which they will find it not prompt and
efficient enough, and also to spread the dialogue to new areas”, Lavrov
said. He expects “specific arrangements of the two presidents”. “They
got used to working in such a spirit, and it is in this spirit that
they conduct their summits”, Lavrov said.

NKR OFFICIAL DELEGATION TAKES PART IN CEREMONY OF INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT
OF ABKHAZIA

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14. ARMINFO. Official delegation of Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic took part in the ceremony of inauguration of President of
Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh, Saturday.

ARMINFO was informed in the representative office of NKR in
Yerevan, Speaker of NKR National Assembly Oleg Yesayan headed the
delegation. NKR Foreign Minister Arman Melikian was in the delegation
staff, as well.