Author: Zakarian Garnik

Calgary Herald, Alberta, Canada
April 23 2005

Genocide commemorated

Sunday is being commemorated as the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

The Ottoman Empire held most of the Middle East in the decades before
the First World War, including the ancient homeland of three million
Armenians. The Ottomans began suppressing the Armenians in the early
1890s, but April 24, 1915, is observed as the day the government
rounded up Armenian intellectuals and community leaders. The genocide
— including the use of Armenian babies for bayonet practice —
continued until 1922, by which time 1.5 million Armenians were dead
and many of the rest had fled to the West.

Today, there are three million living in independent Armenia, and
over four million more in the Armenian diaspora, including one
million in California and 100,000 in Canada.

Calgary’s Armenian community is observing the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide at St. Edmund’s Anglican Church in Bowness, 8340
34th Ave. N.W., on Sunday at 7 p.m. Call 617-3230.

US Fed News
April 21, 2005 Thursday 5:52 AM EST

REP. WEINER COMMEMORATES 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

WASHINGTON

Rep. Anthony D. Weiner, D-N.Y. (9th CD), issued the following Press
release:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – Queens & Brooklyn), a member of the House
Armenian Caucus, entered the following statement into the
Congressional Record to remember those lost in the Armenian genocide
90 years ago. Rep. Weiner recalled the Armenian men, women, and
children killed by the Ottoman – Turkish Empire, and urged official
United States recognition of the genocide.

“April 24th marks the 90th commemoration of the Armenian genocide. On
that day, Ottoman Turkish leader Talaat Paskha uttered the
frightening directive to ‘Kill every Armenian man, woman, and child
without concern.’ And between 1915 and 1921, more than 1.5 million
Armenians were slaughtered, approximately 80% of the population.

“Some mistakenly believe that recent events make the Armenian tragedy
seem long ago. To the contrary, its relevance has a heightened
importance today. One week before Hitler invaded Poland in the fall
of 1939, he ordered his generals ‘to kill without pity or mercy all
men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a
way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks
nowadays about the Armenians?’

“That is precisely why we must still talk about the Armenians today.
And we must still talk about the Jews, and the Poles, and the
Russians, and the Catholics, and the Tutsis, and the moderate Hutus,
and the Sudanese whose lives have been lost to genocide.

“As we gather today to pay tribute, it is time for the U.S. Congress
to finally designate what we all know to be a case of genocide. While
tragically it may not be the last, it is time to correct history in
the minds of many and finally declare the Armenian genocide the
holocaust that it was.”

On April 24, 1915, the Ottoman – Turkish Empire executed hundreds of
Armenian leaders and intellectuals, initiating an eight year reign of
terror during which 1.5 million Armenian men, women, and children
were killed. The United States Government has never officially
recognized the Armenian genocide.

TURKEY: FOCUS – ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’ NOW DEBATED THOUGH STILL DENIED

AKI, Italy
April 22 2005

Istanbul, 22 April (AKI) – Commemorations this Sunday marking the
90th anniversary of the Armenian ‘genocide’ will remind Turks of yet
another hurdle on their country’s tortuous path to European Union
membership. But while the “Armenian problem” has been a taboo topic
~V mere mention of it in public would often result in legal sanctions
~V there are signs that Turkish society is slowly coming to terms
with a part of its history it long chose to banish from memory.

Soon after EU leaders agreed last December to open accession talks
with Turkey, the European Parliament urged Ankara to recognise the
1915-1923 killings of Armenians as genocide. In particular France,
a leading EU member and the home for a large number of the “Armenian
Diaspora”, continues to press Turkey on the issue.

~SWe will raise all the matters, including the Armenian genocide,
to hear Turkey~Rs response in the course of accession negotiations,
which will be very long and very difficult,~T French Foreign Minister
Michel Barnier has said recently.

Most historians contend that the death of an estimated 1.5 million
Armenians, the destruction of their villages, and confiscation of their
land under Ottoman Empire and Turkish rule during the period 1915 ~V
1923 amounts to genocide, a plan to exterminate the ethnic Christian
minority – considered a threat by Istanbul’s Islamic masters ~V and
empty out its traditional lands for occupation by Turks.

The official Turkish version of the story runs something like
this: During World War I the Armenians living under Ottoman rule
collaborated with the Empire’s Russian enemies and formed military
groups who attacked and killed thousands of Turkish civilians in
the Empire’s eastern provinces. For security reasons, the Armenian
population was moved from Turkey’s Anatolia to Syria and the region
of Mesopotamia. Many Armenians died during this trek, but this was
due to diseases and natural factors not a mass extermination campaign.

Turkish politicians, academics and military officials still defend
this stance and also argue that recognising the genocide claims would
encourage Armenians, backed by the EU and the United States, to achieve
their “hidden” aims ~V state compensation for the “so-called” victims
including handing over to Armenia land now part of modern-day Turkey.

Still, it is now difficult for Turkey to ignore Armenian Genocide
Memorial Day on 24 April. In 1915, on this day, 300 Armenian leaders
and intellectuals in Istanbul were rounded up, deported and killed,
while a further 5,000 Armenians were butchered in the city’ streets and
in their homes. Over the coming days Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, will
host a series of international conferences, meetings and exhibitions
to mark the occasion.

Unlike previous governments, that never made mention of the Armenian
genocide claims, the current government of Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan
appears to be less sensitive to media and politicians discussing the
topic, even if most of the public utterances made have been to deny
the genocide ever took place.

Last month, American historian and Louisville University professor
Justin McCarthy was invited by the opposition Republican People~Rs
Party (CHP) to hold a series of conferences. McCarthy who denies the
genocide took place, argued that Armenian claims for its recognition,
are politically motivated and false.

Earlier this month, for the first time in its history, the Turkish
parliament – the General Assembly – debated the issue, first within
the EU Harmonisation and Foreign Relations Committee and then in a
general session.

On April 5, Turkish MPs and a group of prominent Turkish Armenians
discussed the claims made by both both sides. Then in a speech to
parliament, Etyen Mahcupyan, a well-known columnist of the daily Zaman,
went as far as questioning the credibility of US historian McCarthy,
enlisted to endorse the Turkish version of events.

~STurkey does not have to take into account the [Armenian] Diaspora.
It has to take into account the Armenians living in Turkey and Armenia
as a neighbour~T Mahcupyan said.

Erdogan himself has called for the opening of the Ottoman archives
and for historians to study the evidence, a statement described as
“historic” by Hrant Dinkm the editor of Agos, an Armenian daily
published in Turkey.

In what is perhaps the most significant development, on 13 April a
proposal by the government and the opposition was presented to the
Parliament calling for the appointment of a commission of Turkish
and Armenian historians to examine the national archives “without
limitations” and to make public the results of their research.

Parliamentarians said that the success of this proposal would depend
on the “co-operation” of the Armenian government.

~SUnless Turkey and Armenia look at the history from the same
perspective, they will only leave prejudices, enmity and revenge to
their children and forthcoming generations,~T the proposal, said.

However, MPs also signed a letter to the British parliament demanding
that it declare a book entitled ~QThe Treatment of Armenians in
Ottoman Empire 1915-1916~R , also known as the ~QBlue Book~R, as
“not credible~R. Many of the documented facts regarding the genocide
are contained in the book whose author, Arnold Toynbee, wrote for
the British War Propaganda Office, Turks say.

So far, what some regard as overtures by Ankara, have failed to make
much of an impression in Yerevan. “Turkey not only tries to reconsider
its history without any shame but also wants to force other countries
do the same,” Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian said at a 13
April news conference..

As for what ordinary citizens of the neighbouring countries think
of each other, studies suggest that there is still a long way to go
before a reconciliation can take place.

A recent survey conducted in the two countries jointly by two
non-governmental organisations, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies
Foundation, TESEV from Turkey, and the Social Sciences Centre, HASA,
in Armenia revealed large amounts of prejudice based on ignorance.

The 1,200 respondents in Turkey and the 1,000 respondents in Armenia
were polled over a two-year period. Some 17 percent of the respondents
from Turkey believe that Armenians are Jewish and 13.5 percent believe
Armenia is under Communist rule. While 68.7 percent of Armenians
describe Turks with derogatory adjectives, only 34 percent of Turks
think the same way about Armenians, the study showed.

Some 94.1 percent of Armenian respondents and 68 percent of the
Turkish respondents would not allow their daughters to marry a man
from the other group. The most dominant view shared by 37.4 percent of
Armenian respondents and 30.8 percent of Turkish respondents is that
“relations will remain as they are now in the near future”.

;loid=8.0.155667632&par=0

BLOCKADE OF ARMENIA BORDERS – CONSEQUENCE OF TURKEY IMPUNITY

Pan Armenian News
21.04.2005 03:50

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “How can the blockade of Turkey of the transport
communications leading to Armenia be explained if not by impunity of
the perpetration of the Armenian Genocide? However the circumstance
that the same state, which still ignores the urge of the civilized
world to immediately end the blockade of Armenia and establish
diplomatic relations with it, still claims mediator role in the Nagorno
Karabakh settlement is the most surprising, not feeling embarrassed
in supporting the position of solely the Azeri party,” Nagorno
Karabakh Republic President Arkady Ghukasian stated at the Ultimate
Crime, Ultimate Challenge: Human Rights and Genocide international
conference. The NKR President statement notes: “Such a peculiar
understanding of the mediator mission by Turkey directly issues
from its attitude to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. And
is not it the same circumstance that makes the Azeri leaders give
Turkey a special role in the solution of the Karabakh problem? And
what if not a permanent genocide policy should the Azeri leadership
attitude to the Armenian population of the republic be considered
from the day of its founding? An obvious confirmation of it is the
history of the former Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous District. Within
the years of existence of the NKAD the Baku authorities worked for a
prompt change of the demographic situation in the district in favor
of the Azeri population aiming at further abolition of the Armenian
autonomy. To fulfill this task the Azeri leaders used such mechanisms
as outrageous social, economic and cultural discrimination of the
Armenian population, falsification of the history of the Armenian
people, ban for any economic and cultural ties of Nagorno Karabakh
with Armenia, destroying of Armenian cultural monuments, churches,
forming an image of Armenians in the Azeri society as if they were
historical and irreconcilable enemies of the Azeri and all other
Turkic peoples. Azeri leaders pursued just the same policy towards
the once Armenian majority of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic,
which resulted in virtually no single Armenian remaining there in
the middle of the past century. I think that we should properly
present the grievous fate of the Armenians in Nakhichevan to the
international community as an obvious example of what would happen
in Nagorno Karabakh if it further remained part of Azerbaijan. All
the aforementioned mechanisms of discrimination policy by Baku
authorities formed favorable conditions for the future perpetration of
the next bloody genocide of the Armenians – this time in Azerbaijan,
whose political forces do not conceal they consider the “Armenian”
policy of the Ottoman and contemporary Turkey an exemplary one. Baku
authorities proved to be worthy students of their teachers. The
slaughter based on the ethnic criteria and the forced eviction of the
Armenian population from the places of their permanent residence in
Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad, the regions of Shamkhor, Khanlar, Shemakhin
and others in Azerbaijan, the unprecedented siege of the NKR, daily
artillery bombardment of Stepanakert to annihilate its peaceful
population, the butchering of women, the old and children in Maraga
Armenian village, just as the continuing blockade of Nagorno Karabakh
and other glaring crimes of the Baku authorities against Armenians
fully fit the international definition of the genocide.”

Genocide condemnation becomes international imperative

20.04.2005 13:53

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian made
opening remarks at the international conference titled “Ultimate Crime,
Ultimate Challenge,” launched in Yerevan on Wednesday.

Welcoming over 50 scholars, historians and experts from 50 countries
worldwide, Oskanian said that the objective of the conference is to
comprehend the causes of this crime, and to find means for preventing
future genocides.

Catholicos Garegin II, in turn, indicated that for the Armenian people,
it is comforting to know that the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated in
the Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th century, is in the
focus of the international community. “For Turkey too, the recognition
of the Genocide would become a real achievement in human rights and
democracy without which Turkey would have troubles to build a free
and happy life,” he added

ONLY 5-7 PANTHERS IN ARMENIA

AZG Armenian Daily #070, 20/04/2005

Ecology

The World Wildlife Fund is the only major organization of the kind
in the world. It performs a mission of saving the endangered species
in 200 countries of the world. The Fund began its cooperation with
Armenia in 2002. The cooperation was put on jural gears at the
Ministry of Ecology yesterday. The Ministry and Fund signed an
agreement of cooperation. The document means that international
organizations will join Armenia in protecting and caring for the
country’s flora and fauna.

The Fund, being involved in Caucasian region, will possibly help
solving such regional problems that cannot be solved by a separate
state. We have serious problems with both Georgia and Azerbaijan
as regards protection of forests and resorts and pollution of lakes
and rivers.

The Fund has already opened its office in Yerevan and is going to
assign 100 euros to 10 Armenian NGOs in the sphere of ecology.

Armenia’s nature needs not trainings and seminars but compassion. If
we had compassion, there would be no young whitefish in markets fro
sale. Dr. Magnus Sylvan, director of programs for Europe and Middle
East, told daily Azg that they will take up that issue in future
projects. But the office had time to study the Caucasian panther.

Dr. Sylvan says that there are only 5-7 panthers in the southern
regions of Armenia today. They managed to ban the panther hunt,
moreover they cooperate with the locals to prevent hunt. They even
think of ways to supply the panthers with food to prevent their attack
on livestock and thus minimize the chances to be killed.

The Fund plans to spend $1 million on forthcoming projects in Armenia.

By Karine Danielian

Tensions rise in Ukraine’s Crimea amid competing claims for land

NTV Mir, Moscow
16 Apr 05

[Presenter] Tension is rising in Crimea, with more and more Crimean
Tatar tent cities and so-called Slav pickets. The unresolved land
issue is driving the peninsula towards a schism. Our special
correspondent Aleksandr Yakovenko reports from Crimea.

[Correspondent] A gathering at the tent where members of the Armenian,
Greek and German communities are mounting a joint guard.

[Video shows man reading out list of names]

[Correspondent] The Slav picket, and a roll call of applicants for
plots of land and for the duty night shift. On the same field Crimean
Tatars are also protesting. They also have a wagon here, and the same
demands.

[Man of Tatar appearance to correspondent] Everything’s all right
here.

[Voice off-camera] Get out of here.

[Man] Why should I? I’m just talking to the guy.

[Voice off-camera] [Words indistinct]

[Man] I’m just trying to get my own land.

[Correspondent] The land debate in Crimea has moved on from the
newspapers and bureaucrats’ offices and is now a tactical battle. Tent
and wagon cities, pitched along national lines, can now be seen among
the hills along the winding coastal road in the east of the peninsula.

[Yelena Belousova, board member of Association of Crimean Greeks] It’s
all peaceful here, no fights or arguments, nothing like that. The
people are peaceful, they want land, not a war.

[Correspondent] The land issue arose after the Tatars returned to
Crimea from their deportation. The most prestigious and expensive land
on the southern shoreline is the main bone of contention. Here, in
Sudak District, each side, having exhausted the historical and
political arguments, has decided to advance its land claims by posting
round-the-clock guards.

[Vitaliy Sitnikov, elder of Slav Field Protest campaign group]
Residence permit, documentary evidence of family, evidence of living
conditions and that you have no land, photocopy of passport and ID
number, get all these together and keep them in your pocket so they
stay warm.

[Correspondent] How many applications have been submitted as of now?

[Sitnikov] Three thousand and fifty.

[Correspondent] Meanwhile, their opponents are staging a picket
outside the Agriculture Ministry. New columns of demonstrators march
towards the tent city in the centre of Simferopol every day. Today,
members of the Crimean Tatar community spent an hour and a half
shouting the word Freedom.

There is no sign of any increased police presence on the streets. They
have long been accustomed to protests here. But according to a number
of members of the autonomous republic’s parliament, the calm is
deceptive.

[Halyna Krzhybovska, member of Autonomous Republic of Crimea Supreme
Council] This will lead to destabilization of the situation in Crimea,
to the imposition of direct presidential rule, and to the collapse of
the Crimea Autonomous Republic.

[Correspondent] The local authorities have declined to comment. This
is a long-standing problem, and it seems they do not know how to solve
it. While those above are still thinking, those on the ground have
started to act.

The weather forecast for the peninsula is of a stormy spell ahead,
with thunder and rain. But nobody is willing to make political
forecasts. According to observers, the storm clouds are gathering over
the Crimean capital. One of the slogans of the demonstrators outside
the government building is “No land, no government”. Various
gatherings and rallies are planned to take place in the next few days
in Yalta, Alushta, Bakhchysaray, Sudak and Simferopol.

Zaman Online, Turkey
April 16 2005

Where are the Graves of So-called Murdered 1.5 Million Armenians?
By Cihan

A new argument has been put forward against the alleged Armenian
genocide by Turkish Institute of History (TTK) President Professor
Yusuf Halacoglu.

“People who still claim that 1,500,000 Armenians were killed make the
issue a political discussion. Can you imagine what kind of an area
would be needed to bury so many people? Even if you put them in graves
for 300 people each that would be 5,000 mass graves. Despite the
thousands of bombs the US dropped on Iraq during the war only 15,000
people have been killed. This is

an illogical number,” the Professor commented.

Halacoglu spoke of new books published by the TTK and new documents
discussing the Armenian Genocide allegations. The Professor said that
every single detail in Ottoman Archives is in the books about the
Ottoman Empire’s movement of Armenians and added that 12 new books on
this issue will be published soon.

Halacoglu gave information about “Deaths from Epidemics 1914-1918” by
Professor Hikmet Ozdemir, “Armenian Events in French Diplomatic
Documents, 1914-1918” by Hasan Dilan, and “The Tricolor Over Taurus
1918-1922” by Robert F. Zeidner, which is published in English.

Halacoglu said that the book titled “Deaths from Epidemics 1914-1918”
answers the claims that Armenians died of epidemics and added that it
is proven in documents that over 800,000 Muslim civilians and soldiers
also died of epidemics during the WW I. “It means that Armenians
escaped epidemics due to their emigration. Epidemics were already
there where they lived.” Halacoglu said that Armenians’ emigration has
nothing to do with the alleged genocide and added that they have the
original document sent to the governors office in the region while the
emigration was going on. Some of the sections of the document say:
“Those who want to return can do so. There will not be any pressure
over the ones who do not want to return.

Vehicles will be supplied to the ones who will return and their needs
will be met. When they return their homes and lands will be given to
them. Their goods kept under control will be given to them. All debts
of Armenians including taxes will be forgiven. The relatives of
Armenian children will be found and they will be given to them.
Armenians, who accepted Islam, may revert to their former religion if
they want.”

ARKA News Agency
April 14 2005

UNICEF approves ratification of an optional protocol to the
convention on Right of a Child by RA NA, banning use of children in
armed forces

Armenia is interested in activation of the work of European Bank of
Reconstruction and Development in the country

*********************************************************************

UNICEF APPROVES RATIFICATION OF AN OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
CONVENTION ON RIGHT OF A CHILD BY RA NA, BANNING USE OF CHILDREN IN
ARMED FORCES

YEREVAN, April 14. /ARKA/. UNICEF approves ratification of an
optional protocol to the convention on Right of a Child by RA NA,
banning use of children in armed forces and the Convention on
protection of children from worst kinds of work. According to UNICEF
Yerevan Office, in regard with the ratification, the Head of the
Office Sheldon Yett noted that adoption of the two documents
alleviates the compliance with 10-year program on protection of
rights of children by RA NA. `it’s an important step to create `safe
environment ‘ for children in Armenia’, he said.
The optional protocol to the Convention on Right of a Child,
forbidding to use children in armed forces was adopted by UN General
Assembly on May 25, 2000. The protocol bans countries, participating
in armed conflicts, to send children under 18 to conflicts and
recruit teenagers under 16. It was ratified by RA NA on March 21,
2005 and signed by RA President Robert Kocharyan on April 13, 2005.
Currently the protocol is signed by 116 countries and ratified by 83
ones. A.H. –0 –

*********************************************************************

ARMENIA IS INTERESTED IN ACTIVATION OF THE WORK OF EUROPEAN BANK OF
RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE COUNTRY

YEREVAN, April 14. /ARKA/. Armenia is interested in activation of the
work of European Bank of Reconstruction and Development in the
country, as RA President Robert Kocharyan stated during the meeting
with the Head of EBRD Board Michael Weinstein, according to RA
President’s Press Service. In his turn Weinstein noted that the bank
as never before is interested in Armenia, and a package of programs
that are planned to be implemented in the country, is already
developed. According to the program, EBRD is going to begin crediting
enterprises and to participate in mining industry and projects
connected with the infrastructures.
On April 1, 2005, EBRD appointed Michael Weinstein a new Head of
Yerevan Office. `I look forward to fruitful work in Armenia, an
ancient country with huge potential’, as he stated at his first press
-conference in Yerevan.
Armenia became the member of the European Bank of Reconstruction and
Development on December 7, 1992 with its share of capital amounting
to Euro 10 mln. As of December 31, 2004, EBRD signed an agreement on
seven investment programs in Armenia with the total worth of Euro 88
mln., which makes 0,3% of total volume of investments of the bank.
A.H. –0 –

Pan Armenian News

AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA FAR FROM SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH PROBLEM, AZERI FORMER
FM CONSIDERS

15.04.2005 04:27

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan and Armenia are far from the settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict, as the Armenian FM considered it premature to
speak about package and stepwise settlement of the conflict, ex-Foreign
Minister of Azerbaijan, to date independent political scientist Tofik
Zulfugarov said when commenting on the statement by Vardan Oskanian that the
present stage of negotiations does not allow a package variant of
settlement, Trend news agency reports. `Proceeding from the words of the
Armenian FM it becomes clear that only general parameters of the settlement
are discussed at the negotiations, while concrete definitions are absent’,
Tofik Zulfugarov stressed. In other words, in the opinion of the former
Azeri FM, Vardan Oskanian gave to understand that the negotiations have not
reached the stage of concrete definitions of the variants of the problem
solution.