Author: Yeghisabet Arthur

April 29, 2008
Contact: Adrin Nazarian

PRESS RELEASE
Office of Assemblymember Paul Krekorian
Adrin Nazarian, Chief of Staff
620 N. Brand Blvd. Suite 403
Glendale, CA 91203
(818) 818/240-6330, 818/512-4045
[email protected]

FILMFEST 43 Attracts 103 Entries from

Assemblymember Krekorian’s District

Glendale, CA – Hailing an "unprecedented and welcome outpouring of
interest and local talent" Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank)
announced that 103 short films, from a dozen schools throughout his
district, have been formally entered into the first FILMFEST 43, an
artistic and creative event set for 6:30 pm, Friday, May 16, at
Glendale’s historic Alex Theatre.

"I am absolutely thrilled that, in the entertainment capitol of the
world, in the flagship city of California’s signature industry, over 100
aspiring filmmakers have submitted their short films to our Festival,"
said Assemblymember Krekorian, who will host the event. "These artists
form part of the next wave of local movie talent."

As chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Preservation of
California’s Entertainment Industry, Assemblymember Krekorian has
conducted hearings aimed at keeping filmmaking jobs and projects in
California. "These young movie makers have displayed great imagination
and talent in producing narrative, documentary, animation and
experimental films, he noted. "This bodes well for the future of
California’s film industry and the tens of thousands of jobs that it
creates and supports."

Students from high schools throughout my district have responded
enthusiastically to FILMFEST 43, Assemblymember Krekorian said. "We
have had excellent submissions from Burbank High School Burbank ROP
Program, Clark Magnet High School, Crescenta Valley High School,
Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Glendale High School, Grant Senior High
School, Hoover High School, John Burroughs High School, Marshall Senior
High School, Oakwood Secondary School, and Providence High School,"
Assemblymember Krekorian said. "It has been an amazing and highly
satisfying turnout of talent and ambition."

FILMFEST 43 is sponsored by several major film studios, including
Disney, NBC-Universal, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. Film selections
will qualify for awards, prizes and recognition at the festival.

For additional information, contact Assemblymember Krekorian’s District
Office at (818) 240-6330 or log onto

# # #

BUSH AGAIN FAILS TO USE TERM ‘GENOCIDE’ IN HIS ANNUAL APRIL 24 STATEMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.04.2008 21:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. President George W. Bush issued annual April
24 statement on the Armenian Remembrance Day.

The statement reads,

"On this day of remembrance, we honor the memory of the victims of one
of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, the mass killings and
forced exile of as many as 1.5 million Armenians at the end of the
Ottoman Empire. I join the Armenian community in America and around
the world in commemorating this tragedy and mourning the loss of so
many innocent lives.

As we reflect on this epic human tragedy, we must resolve to redouble
our efforts to promote peace, tolerance, and respect for the dignity
of human life.

The Armenian people’s unalterable determination to triumph over
tragedy and flourish is a testament to their strength of character
and spirit. We are grateful for the many contributions Americans of
Armenian heritage have made to our Nation.

We welcome the efforts by individuals in Armenia and Turkey to
foster reconciliation and peace, and support joint efforts for an
open examination of the past in search of a shared understanding of
these tragic events. We look forward to the realization of a fully
normalized Armenia-Turkey relationship.

The United States is committed to a strong relationship with Armenia
based on shared values. We call on the Government of Armenia to
take decisive steps to promote democracy, and will continue our
support for Armenia to this end. We remain committed to serving as
an honest broker in pursuit of a lasting and peaceful settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

On this solemn day of remembrance, Laura and I express our deepest
condolences to Armenian people around the world."

STUDIES CONDUCTED BY SWEDISH UNIVERSITY CONFIRM FACT OF ARMENIAN GENOIDE

Noyan Tapan
April 24, 2008

STOCKHOLM, APRIL 24, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. A recently
conducted study at the Uppsala University has revealed highly
interesting information in the Swedish Archives, which once again
confirm the researchers’ view of the events in the Ottoman Turkey
during the First World War: the Christian minorities, the Armenians in
particular, were subjected to genocide. As the Swedish press writes,
the massacres in Ottoman Turkey during the First World War claimed
the lives of approximately 1.5 million out of a world population of
four million Armenians, while over 250,000 Assyrians and equal number
of Pontic Greeks. In 1923, for the first time in over 2,500 years,
Armenians no longer lived on 85 % of their fatherland.

AZERBAIJANI SOLDIER YAGUB MUKHTAROV RETURNED TO MOTHERLAND

arminfo
2008-04-23 14:45:00

ArmInfo: Ceremony of transfer of the Azerbaijani captive, common
soldier of AR AF Yagub Mukhtarov was held on the contact line of
Armenian and Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

As ArmInfo correspondent reports, the ceremony was held in Kayanavan,
on the former Ijevan-Gazakh road. Y. Mukhtarov was transferred under
mediation of the International Committee of Red Cross. To note,
there was no violation of security guarantees by both parties.

To recall, during the previous two cases of return of captives,
the Azerbaijani party violated these guarantees.

LINCY FOUNDATION’S PROGRAMS TO BE IN FOCUS OF RA PRESIDENT’S ATTENTION

Noyan Tapan
April 22, 2008

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, NOYAN TAPAN. RA President Serge Sargsian
attaching importance to cooperation with the Lincy Foundation at the
Foundation’s Management Board’s April 22 sitting, said that successful
implementation of the programs will give a possibility to continue
and deepen cooperation in the future as well. He said that Deputy
Prime Minister Armen Gevorgian will continue heading the Foundation’s
Management Board already from the government.

S. Sargsian said that the Lincy’s programs will be in the focus of
his attention. He attached a special importance to two circumstances:
first, that the work should be done at a high quality level and in
that respect partners should have complete confidence to the quality
of the work done and second, the programs, structures should correspond
to modern standards and requirements.

According to the report provided to Noyan Tapan by the RA President’s
Press Office, current issues related to the Foundation’s activity
were also discussed at the sitting of the Management Board of the
Lincy Foundation.

KEMAL ATATURK AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN TURKEY

Socialist Worker
=14721
April 22 2008
UK

Jamie Allison concludes our series by looking at the end of the
Ottoman Empire

The roots of the Turkish revolution from above lie in the crisis of
the Ottoman Empire that occured before the First World War.

The Ottoman Empire was the last great Islamic empire. Its heartland
was Anatolia, which is modern Turkey, but it also included the Balkans
and most of the Arab world.

The Ottoman rulers were Turkish speaking Sunni Muslims but the empire
included many religious and linguistic groups.

Different communities had different laws, enforced by religious courts.

Ottoman society was overwhelmingly rural. Peasants worked the land
but not under the control of landlords.

All agricultural land technically belonged to the state. Officers
were allowed to collect taxes from the peasants and agreed in return
to do military service.

Over time this system turned into "tax farming", where the right to
exploit the peasants was traded among wealthy families.

Tax farming produced powerful local rulers and military revolts but
no general crisis. In the 16th century the Ottoman Empire produced
far more revenue than any European state.

The rise of European capitalism, however, combined with the internal
dynamic of Ottoman society to create a crisis.

European imperialist powers seized Ottoman lands in the 19th century.

Imposed treaties reduced the empire to a supplier of agricultural
products to Europe.

Nationalist movements created independent states in the Balkans.

The Ottomans responded by trying to reform the land tax system,
and create a modern military and bureaucracy.

Each of these attempts failed in the face of opposition by local tax
farmers and religious officials. The crisis provoked the "Young Turk
Revolution" of 1908 and a coup by nationalist reformers in 1913.

The Ottoman Empire joined the First World War on the side of Germany,
suffering a catastrophic defeat.

Britain and France carved up the Middle East, while Greece, with
British and French support, invaded the Turkish rump of the empire.

Kemal Ataturk was an army officer who fought a successful campaign
against Greece and the Allies. Having won Turkey’s independence,
he sought to transform society to compete with the West.

A new republic was founded. All citizens were made legally equal,
land tax was abolished and the state broke the power of religious
institutions and confiscated their lands.

Ataturk sought to develop Turkey by following the example of Russian
dictator Joseph Stalin.

The first Turkish five year plan, beginning in 1931, created banks
to control all industry.

Mines and factories were built in the country’s underdeveloped east.

The enterprises built by the state were later given to private
capitalists.

Ataturk died in 1938 but the system of military controlled
industrialisation long outlived him. It was a cruel
dictatorship. Ataturk ruled without effective opposition. People were
forced to be non-religious.

When workers in the new industries established the Communist Party
Ataturk set up a fake Turkish Communist Party.

Turkey has more recently been a loyal US ally and the site of vicious
repression against workers and national minorities, such as the Kurds
and Armenians.

Ataturk’s revolution from above has one crucial difference to the
ones in Japan and Germany that I analysed in previous columns.

It happened after the Russian Revolution of 1917 – a socialist
revolution from below.

The Stalinist counter-revolution that followed created a state
capitalist society in Russia. This was Ataturk’s model and
ally. Turkey’s example was followed by regimes in the Middle East
and beyond.

These states, such as Cuba and China, having freed themselves from
colonial powers, often called themselves socialist. But these regimes
were attempts at capitalist revolution from above.

One of the leaders of Ataturk’s fake communist party summed this
up well, saying, "Only Turks can produce Bolshevism [revolutionary
socialism], and Bolshevism can only be introduced from above."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

This series has looked at how revolutions from above established
independent capitalist states.

The world created by this process can only be transformed when working
people take control of the economic decisions that shape their lives –
that is, by socialism from below.

SPEAKER OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT: "UNLIKE AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA HAS NO CLAIMS REGARDING THE RIGHT OF NAGORNO KARABAKH PEOPLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION"

Today.Az
y.az/news/politics/44411.html
April 21 2008
Azerbaijan

According to speaker of Armenian Parliament Tigran Torosyan, who
visited unrecognized "Nagorno Karabakh Republic", execution of the
right for self-determination of "the people of Nagorno Karabakh"
was blameless.

The declaration of main principles of international law fixes that
the self-determining people may choose between three options of
self-determination by its own will, not by the will of Azerbaijan
or any other state: separation and annexation with another country,
separation and declaration of independence or any other political
status, the people wills to choose", said Torosyan upon completion
of the commission on inter-parliamentary cooperation of the so-called
"Nagorno Karabakh Republic" and Armenia.

"In this context one of the concessions made to Azerbaijan by the
people of Nagorno Karanakh, is declaration of independence and we
respect this concession", said Torosyan.

He said, execution of right for self-determination by "the people
of Nagorno Karabakh" was blameless and "there is hardly a similar
example in the world history, or in the period, when the right for
self-determination was declared a norm of international law, which
has a supreme status".

Touching upon the recognition of the so-called "Nagorno Karabakh
Republic" by Armenia, Torosyan noted: "Armenia’s recognition of Nagorno
Karabakh is not a problem. This can be made any time. Yet this should
not be a single action. We will do the due step when time comes".

According to the speaker, the current opportunities of the Armenian
side "are not compared with opportunities, which existed in the late
1980 and early 1990s". "We are able to protect our two states and
our people", said Torosyan.

ICONS IN THE BEGINNING
by Chris Sheedy

The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia)
April 20, 2008 Sunday

For 120 years it’s been the preferred lodging for film stars, writers,
royalty and politicians but Raffles Hotel Singapore began life as a
10-bedroom bungalow.

When Tigran Sarkies migrated to Malaysia from Armenia in the early
1880s, he hoped to prosper from the business opportunities the Orient
had to offer. The 23-year-old bought a large home in Georgetown,
Penang, in north-west Malaysia and by 1884, he had turned it into
the Eastern Hotel.

Tigran’s brother Martin, 33, joined him in buying a second site,
also in Georgetown, and in 1885, the Oriental Hotel opened for
business. Younger brothers Aviet and Arshak joined the venture and
the Sarkies became renowned as successful hoteliers with ambitions
to expand. But Penang was too small a market, so they began casting
an eye further afield in Singapore.

The brothers knew they’d struck gold when they found a large bungalow
on the corner of Beach and Bras Basah roads. The property had been a
boarding house for the Raffles Institution (a boys’ school named after
Sir Stamford Raffles, a British colonial official who founded modern
Singapore in 1819). It needed minor alterations and in December 1887,
the Raffles Hotel was opened. It had only 10 rooms but in six years
two new wings were added.

Demand for luxury hotels was growing, however, so in 1897, Tigran
announced plans for extensive and elaborate additions to create "one of
the handsomest hotels in the East". Renowned architect Regent Alfred
John Bidwell replaced the old central block with a grand three-storey
building in the Renaissance style, which opened in 1899. It featured
a Carrara marble floor, a 500-seat dining room, 100 suites, and the
huge veranda so closely associated with the hotel today.

Fast facts

1910-1915 Raffles bartender Ngiam Tong Boon invents the Singapore
Sling cocktail (the exact year is unknown).

1942 Japan occupies Singapore during World War II and Raffles is
renamed Syonan Ryokan (Singapore Inn). When Allied forces liberate the
nation, more than 300 Japanese troops commit suicide inside the hotel.

1987 The Singapore Government declares the hotel a national monument.

2008 Eight Raffles hotels and resorts operate internationally – in
Singapore, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Beijing, Dubai, LA, The Grenadines
and Paris – and 13 more are in development.

AWARDS FOR CONTRIBUTION TO THE RECOGNITION OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

armradio.am
22.04.2008 13:56

President Serzh Sargsyan today signed a decree on awarding prizes
to persons who had a considerable contribution to the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide.

In compliance with the decree, the 2007 Prizes were awarded to Yuri
Barseghov (Russia) for the two-volume work titled "The Genocide of
Armenians: Turley’s Responsibility and the Duties of the International
Community" and Ives Ternon (France) for considerable scientific
contribution to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Acording to another presidential decree, Roger V. Smith (USA) was
awarded a "Movses Khorenatsi" medal for considerable contribution to
the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Turkish parliamentary commission debates proposal to soften law limiting free speech

Associated Press Worldstream
April 18, 2008 Friday 8:06 AM GMT

ANKARA Turkey — A parliamentary commission on Friday began debating
the government’s proposal to soften a law that restricts freedom of
speech and has been used to prosecute intellectuals.

Turkish lawmakers will vote next week on the amendment to Article
301 of Turkey’s penal code, and parliament as a whole could vote as
early as April 22.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing Justice and Development
Party commands a comfortable majority that is expected to approve
the changes.

The law, which currently makes denigrating Turkish identity or
insulting the country’s institutions punishable by up to three years
in prison, has drawn criticism from the European Union, which Turkey
wants to join.

It was used to prosecute Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk and
ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink for comments they made about
the mass killings of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.

In 2007, Dink, then editor of the minority Agos newspaper, was shot
outside his office, allegedly by a hardline nationalist teenager. His
killing led to international condemnation and debate within Turkey
about free speech.

Under the government’s proposal, the president would have to approve
any prosecution under Article 301. Also, the crime of denigrating
Turkish identity would be replaced with denigrating the "Turkish
nation" an effort to eliminate the hard-to-define "Turkishness"
now in the law.

The proposal also would decrease the maximum punishment to two years,
meaning it could be completely suspended. In Turkey, if a sentence does
not exceed two years, courts are allowed to postpone any punishment
indefinitely, unless the offender commits the same crime again.

Erdogan’s government has been criticized lately for slowing progress
on reforms required for Turkey’s EU membership goal, while focusing
on lifting a ban on Islamic-style head scarves at universities.

But the government appears to be focusing on EU reforms again since
Turkey’s top court recently agreed to hear a case on whether to ban
his Islamic-oriented party for violating the secular principles of
this predominantly Muslim country.