CBC Canada
April 23 2004

Martin criticized for missing genocide vote in Commons

OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham is defending the prime
minister’s decision to skip a controversial vote in the House of
Commons this week. Paul Martin was absent when MPs passed a motion
recognizing the Armenian genocide of 1915.

Armenians blame the Turks for killing 1.5 million of their people
between 1915 and 1923.

Armenian Canadians hold a vigil on Parliament Hill

For decades consecutive Canadian governments have dodged the
sensitive issue by calling what happened in eastern Turkey a
“tragedy,” stopping well short of referring to the events as
“genocide.”

In 1915, during the First World War, Turkish troops put down an
Armenian uprising. Armenians say about 1.5 million people were killed
by the Ottoman Turks, during a brutal eight year campaign.

Turkey has always fought attempts by Armenians and international
human rights organizations to have the events declared a genocide.
Previously, Ankara has warned countries contemplating similar action
that there would be negative consequences. In some cases business
contracts have been held up or denied.

Wednesday night’s vote has put a strain on diplomatic relations
between Canada and Turkey and divided the Liberal caucus.

Martin allowed Liberal backbenchers a free vote on the motion
recognizing the Armenian genocide. But Martin ordered his cabinet to
vote against it.

The government had warned beforehand that if the motion passed it
would anger Canada’s NATO ally.

The motion said: “That this House acknowledges the Armenian genocide
of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity.”

When it came time for MPs to vote Martin wasn’t in the House. The
vote passed easily, 153-68.

NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough accused the prime minister
of ducking a tough issue. “I think it’s the same gutlessness. I think
it’s a screaming absence of leadership,” she said.

But Graham came to Martin’s defence. “It quite often happens that the
prime minister can’t be present in the House for votes. He was
otherwise occupied that night,” he said.

Martin wasn’t the only minister to miss the vote.

In spite of the order that cabinet oppose the motion Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler and International Trade Minister Jim Peterson left the
House before the vote. Public Works Minister Stephen Owen was there,
but abstained.

“I was not comfortable with the Bloc (Quebecois) resolution. I
certainly wasn’t going to vote for it but I was uncomfortable voting
against it,” said Owen.

The Turkish government has already expressed its anger over the
outcome of the vote. Graham says he wants to speak to Turkey’s
foreign minister to explain that Canada’s official position hasn’t
changed.

Guardian, UK
April 24 2004

Greek Cypriot voters set to derail UN plan for island’s reunification

President and church accused of whipping up bitterness ahead of
today’s referendum

Helena Smith in Nicosia

Greek Cypriots are today expected to resoundingly reject a UN peace
plan that presents a historic opportunity to reunite their divided
island. After 30 years of conflict the bitterness whipped up by the
president and the Greek Orthodox church shows no signs of ebbing –
nor do the accusations of intimidation sponsored by the government in
Nicosia.
The Greek choice looked set last night to mar Cyprus’s May 1 entry to
the EU, entrenching the partition of the island, and barring entry to
the bloc of its ethnic Turkish minority. Mounting anger in Brussels
at the prospect of the union’s borders ending at the heavily
militarised “green line”, rather than the waters of the
Mediterranean, was reflected in a rare outburst by the EU’s
enlargement commissioner, Günter Verheugen.

Mr Verheugen blasted the Nicosia government for “cheating” its way
into the union by reneging on promises to do its utmost to bring
about a solution.

Despite the public dressing down – and the obvious disappointment of
the minority Turkish Cypriots who have enthusiastically endorsed the
UN plan – President Tassos Papadopoulos stuck firmly to his guns. He
described the UN’s 9,000-page plan for a power-sharing arrangement,
envisaging a federated bizonal, bicommunal country, as “neither
workable nor viable”.

Hogging the airwaves as the campaign ended on Thursday night, the
hardline leader rejected suggestions that today’s referendum was the
last chance to solve the Cyprus conundrum. The US secretary of state,
Colin Powell, had joined the UN in describing the vote as a “golden
opportunity” that will not be repeated.

But in a two-hour interview broadcast by all four of the island’s
television channels, Mr Papadopoulos told the nation: “From my
experience, such proposals or plans do not disappear, they are
revived and reproduced.”

As the Greek Cypriot president spoke, tens of thousands of Turkish
Cypriots took to the streets in their part of the island. Most shared
the view of Mustapha Cirakli, who sees reunification as the key that
will unlock decades of international isolation and crippling economic
deprivation. “Say yes and you connect Cyprus to the world,” he said.

“We’re really upset with the Greek Cypriots, we were expecting
different things from them. After all, a dove of peace can’t fly with
one wing.”

Although around 1,000 Turkish nationalists arrived in the
impoverished north from the Turkish mainland to try to scupper a yes
vote, the referendum has been met with relief by most Turkish
Cypriots.

The scenes of optimism in the self-declared mini-state contrasted
deeply with the climate of fear that has taken hold of the much
wealthier Greek south.

The vehemence of Mr Papadopoulos’s opposition to the plan has been
matched only by the heavy handedness of the tactics to which the
authorities have allegedly resorted in the run-up to the poll.

Media manipulation and outright bullying by government-appointed
campaigners determined to see civil servants vote oxi (no) have
reportedly been rife. On the orders of the education minister,
schoolchildren were told to abandon the classroom on Thursday to
distribute as many oxi leaflets and stickers as they could. In the
process those bold enough to say nai (yes) were branded “traitors” or
“Turk lovers”. Many yes supporters have been heckled or reprimanded
by police for defacing no signs.

EU diplomats said the way the campaign had been conducted would sour
the island’s EU entry and raise questions about the nature of its
democratic values.

“Its embarrassing and absolutely shameful,” said the former president
George Vassiliou. “What we have seen is an industry of misinformation
at work – a special kind of police state where people have been told
what to vote and indirectly threatened.”

Until last April, when the veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf
Denktash opened the “green line” under domestic popular pressure,
most Greek Cypriots had no memory of “the other side”.

Since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded in the wake of an
Athens-backed coup to unite the island with Greece, cross-ethnic
contact has been kept to a minimum. On either side of the
UN-patrolled “dead zone” the two communities have led different
lives: Greeks performing an economic miracle to make up for the loss
of territory and 180,000 refugees, and the Turks proclaiming
independence in an enclave that is recognised by Turkey but no one
else.

History

For decades Greek history books have been fixated with Turkey’s
crimes: the genocide of the Armenians, the Asia Minor catastrophe,
the sacking of Constantinople, the “cleansing” of the Greeks, the
Cyprus invasion and the killing of the Kurds.

Confronted with a solution for the first time – and the reality of
its attendant compromises – insidious nationalist fever, nurtured in
classrooms, has erupted with a vengeance.

This week, for the first time since the 70s, the motto “A good Turk
is a dead Turk” appeared daubed across the walls of Nicosia’s English
school, founded when Cyprus was a British crown colony.

Mr Vassiliou, who negotiated the island’s EU accession, apologised
profusely to a top aide of Mr Verheugen.

“I am very upset for my country,” he told her. “No one expected such
a virulent no campaign from Papadopoulos. He has deliberately played
on peoples’ fears by talking about the plan’s negative rather than
positive aspects. Even if it’s late we still hope to salvage the
situation.”

Unlike the no camp, which has been able to rent giant billboards and
print leaflets thanks to donations from banks and business, the yes
supporters have been largely self-funded. Some have resorted to using
bed sheets as banners.

But while the latest polls have shown at least 70% of Greeks oppose
the UN plan, many in the silent yes camp hope they could yet reduce
their lead at the polls.

The undecided vote is said to have increased lately, not least since
Bishop Pavlos of Kyrenia warned Greek Cypriots that they would face
damnation if they approved the accord. If those favouring a
settlement exceed 35%, senior local EU diplomats and political
figures told the Guardian that they hoped a second referendum could
be held soon, possibly in the autumn.

Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY
April 24 2004

Guest Viewpoint: Armenians have not forgotten
BY HAROUT KERJILIAN

“If our children forget this much evil
Let the whole world condemn the Armenian people.”

— Avidis Aharonian

It has been 89 years since the first genocide of the 20th century
took place. The Ottoman Turks and the Young Turks took it upon
themselves to resolve the Armenian question by massacres,
deportations and mass killings of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and
children, including my grandparents, aunts and uncles.

My parents were survivors of this genocide. Arab Bedouins and
Christian missionaries took them in as orphans.

These crimes by humanity against humanity are recorded in archives of
governments around the world and the news media. To this day the
Turkish government denies that the genocide and atrocities took
place. It spends millions of our tax dollars in an attempt to rewrite
its history, by establishing Turkish Studies programs in U.S.
universities under the guise of cultural and educational cooperation.

These programs are nothing more than propaganda tools to try to
change history and discredit the victims and survivors of this
horrendous period.

Hitler used this genocide as a “text book” for the Holocaust. He
said, “After all, who remembers the Armenians?” (This quote appears
on the wall of the American Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.)

Every year on April 24, Armenians around the globe commemorate and
remember the victims of this genocide and wonder why the world,
including the U.S. government, has kept quiet for so long.

The U.S. government refuses to acknowledge this genocide under the
guise of national interest and being an ally with Turkey. Last year
Congress was ready to pass House Resolution 193 to recognize the
genocide but it was taken off the agenda under pressure from the
White House and State Department.

President George W. Bush promised during his campaign that if he were
elected he would support this resolutions and work on getting it
passed. This day we call on the president to keep his word, and call
on Congress to pass the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide
of 1915.

Unless we acknowledge the past and learn from it, history will repeat
itself. We have seen this happening in the Holocaust and in other
ethnic cleansings in places around the world.

This day, April 24, 2004, we not only remember and commemorate the
victims of this genocide, but we celebrate the survival of the
Armenian people and their accomplishments.

“Go ahead, destroy this race.
Let us say that it is again 1915;
There is war in the world.
Destroy Armenia.
See if you can do it.
Send them from their homes into
the desert.
Let them have neither bread nor
water.
Burn their houses and their
churches.
See if they will not live again.
See if they will not laugh again.
See if you can stop them from
mocking the big ideas of the
world. ”
— William Saroyan

Today, the Armenian community invites all people to a commemoration
service at the memorial park on Conklin Ave. in Binghamton, near the
South Washington Street Bridge. The service begins at 11 a.m.

Kerjilian is a Binghamton resident

Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 24 2004

Cable shows debate merits of Americana

Armenian-language TV hosts said to be claiming project will drive
Armenians out of Glendale.

By Josh Kleinbaum, News-Press

GLENDALE – Viewers of local Armenian-language television programs
said that several hosts, including Vrej Agajanian of ABC TV Live,
have argued that the proposed Americana at Brand development will
drive Armenian Americans out of Glendale and will not provide jobs
for them.

Agajanian denied bringing the ethnicity issue into the Americana
debate.

“On my program, people were raising that,” Agajanian said. “On the
program, it’s a call-in show. Those were the people who were saying
that.”

Viewers said Agajanian told his audience that the project will drive
up land values in southern Glendale, raising rents and forcing
Armenian Americans to leave the city.

Agajanian said his criticism of the Americana focuses on the harm to
existing business owners.

“I’m hearing from small businesses that they’re worried,” Agajanian
said. “I’m very close to people, and they convey their message to me.
They are worried.”

The project’s proponents, including City Councilmen Rafi Manoukian
and Bob Yousefian – both of whom are Armenian American – called the
ethnicity argument nothing more than fear tactics.

“I had heard this thing,” Yousefian said. “He said, ‘If they’re going
to be charging so much rent, isn’t it going to be pushing up rents in
all of Glendale?’ No, it’s not. Just because high luxury items and
houses are selling for several million dollars, that doesn’t mean a
house built in the ’20s is going to sell for the same price.”

At a March 30 City Council meeting, developer Rick Caruso questioned
Agajanian’s objectivity, claiming that Agajanian said he could
deliver the Armenian vote if Caruso put him on his payroll.

“I told him, you have to change the project,” Agajanian said at the
time. “I’m willing to help you change the project to work. We didn’t
discuss payment or money. Now, it becomes a personal matter. I will
fight.”

The council on Tuesday approved the business terms and environmental
impact report for the 15.5-acre commercial and residential campus in
downtown Glendale. It will vote Tuesday on necessary zoning changes
to allow for the residential component.

Caruso disputed the claim that the project will drive Armenian
Americans out of Glendale, saying that his project adds 338 housing
units to the city.

“The value of rental units is dependent on supply and demand,” Caruso
said. “What we’re doing, we’re adding more units to the market. If
anything, we’re creating more opportunities for people to live in
Glendale, not less.

“Wouldn’t it be great if the land values do rise, and everybody in
Glendale who owns homes, including the Armenian community, benefits
from this project? And that will happen. That doesn’t mean people are
going to be driven out of town. People are going to be wealthier.”

Agajanian’s show appears on Charter Communications Channel 26 at 10
a.m. Sundays.

El Paso Times, TX
April 24 2004

Armenian lights star to honor slain family

Darren Meritz
El Paso Times

Linda Stelter / El Paso Times

Photo: Greg Yakoobian has extensively studied the history of Armenia
and the killings in 1915 of some of his mother’s family. He has
lighted the Star on the Franklin Mountains in their memory and the
others killed. The family picture shows his mother Rose, right, with
her mother and father and her sisters.

A century-old dispute between the Turks and the Armenians is bringing
some attention to El Paso’s Star on the Franklin Mountains.

Though only small populations of either ethnicity live here, El
Pasoan Gregory Yakoobian has sponsored lighting the Star on the
Franklin Mountain today in remembrance of the Armenians who were
killed at the hand of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Yakoobian, who spent 20 years in the U.S. military, contends that the
Turks killed as many as 1.5 million Armenians during ethnic cleansing
in what some have called the first Holocaust.

Though questions abound about the accuracy of describing the deaths
of Armenians in the then Ottoman Empire as a genocide, Yakoobian
stands firm.

“My parents were there, and their parents and other relatives were
killed,” he said. “My father did not like to talk about the subject
at all. It was almost like post-traumatic stress disorder.”

He recounted the oral history that has been passed down through his
family. He said that Armenian women during that time were often given
three choices — convert to Islam, be sold into slavery or be killed
— and that men were summarily executed during a march of the
displaced.

Other perspectives on treatment of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
are also widely believed.

Emriye Ormanci, vice consul at the Consulate General of Turkey in
Houston, said that while few clues point toward ethnic cleansing or
genocide of the Armenians during World War I, the Turks made the
decision to displace the Armenians because of their allegiance to the
Russians.

“Feelings are on the one hand, but the truth is something really
different,” she said. “Yes, the Ottoman Empire had to make some
regulations to change the place of the Armenian population because
they were sided with the Russians, but of course you should also take
into consideration that it was a time of war.”

She also said, “We admit that there was loss on the Armenian side and
we are really sorry, but they should also understand that there was
loss on the Turkish side. This is something that should be left to
the historians.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
April 24 2004

Genocide victims will be honored
Greek Theatre concert set

By Alex Dobuzinskis
Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES — For the rock band System of a Down, tonight’s sold-out
benefit at the Greek Theatre will be a different kind of concert —
one dedicated to raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide.

The band’s members, all of Armenian descent, are performing on the
day on which Armenians commemorate the genocide, which occurred in
the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. Lead singer Serj Tankian
said the title of the concert “Souls, 2004,” will honor the 1.5
million Armenians who were killed in the massacre.

“The reason I’m here is because of the survivors that have survived
the Armenian Genocide,” Tankian said.

The singer’s grandfather saw his own brother killed, and he and his
mother were the only members of his family to survived the genocide.

Armenians during the period suffered deportation, torture, starvation
and numerous massacres, according to the Armenian National Institute.

It set the stage for other atrocities that followed, Tankian said.

“Look at the 20th century. It’s the century where the most number of
people have been killed by (other) people. And we call ourselves a
civilization?”

Turkish officials have denied that the deaths of Armenians in the
former Ottoman Empire during World War I and the following years was
a genocide, saying the deaths occurred during a multiparty conflict
and were due to war and disease. But Armenian groups have asked the
Turkish government to recognize the deaths as a genocide.

Tonight’s concert will benefit the Armenian National Committee of
America and other groups, including organizations that teach about
the genocide, such as Facing History and Ourselves.

Tankian, 36, and two of his fellow members of the band grew up in the
San Fernando Valley, and the fourth member is from Glendale. All four
now live in the Los Angeles area.

Those attending tonight’s concert, which sold out in less than 20
minutes on March 12, will find booths with materials about the
Armenian Genocide, and will get an informational CD booklet-size
handout.

“We don’t want to be preachy. We have an eight-minute documentary
explaining the genocide and its cover-up by Turkey, and geopolitical
realities in the West,” Tankian said.

Tankian expressed support for a Canadian House of Commons vote on
Wednesday night to declare the deaths of the 1.5 million Armenians an
act of genocide. The vote could affect trade relations between Canada
and Turkey.

Armenian groups are urging the U.S. government to take a similar
stance.

“Unless we want to continue being a hypocritical democracy, it’s
going to have to be. The ball is rolling and people are starting to
become aware of it,” Tankian said.

In support of two resolutions that mention the Armenian Genocide,
along with the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda, System
of a Down has mobilized tens of thousands of fans and supporters to
send postcards and e-mails to congressional leaders urging passage of
the resolutions in the House and Senate.

The resolutions state that the U.S. government and its people should
rededicate themselves to the cause of ending the crime of genocide.

But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, one of the co-signors of House
Resolution 193, said although it would win approval if put before the
full House, the House majority leadership is blocking the vote.

Armenians observe April 24 as the day to commemorate the genocide
because it was on that day in 1915 that hundreds of Armenian leaders
were arrested in Constantinople in one of the first acts of the
genocide.

State Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, has authored a resolution which
designates this day as the “California Day of Remembrance for the
Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.”

“It’s one of the great tragic events of the 20th century, and it’s
the first genocide of the 20th century,” Scott said.

Alex Dobuzinskis, (818) 546-3304 [email protected]

Burbank Leader , CA
LATimes.com
April 24 2004

Twelve groups to get a piece of CDBG money

City expects to receive about $1.6 million in federal grants for
2004-05 fiscal year.

By Jackson Bell, The Leader

BURBANK – The federal pie was up for its yearly slicing as City
Council portioned more than $1.6 million in grant money among several
community groups and city programs.

“This is the most difficult night of the year,” Councilman Dave
Golonski said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “It’s nice to be able to
provide support to a lot of worthy organizations, but hard to make
the tough choices between how much they get.”

The annual grants, given by the federal government to be doled out by
the city, will bring about $250,000 to a dozen community groups. The
city will use remaining funds for public services and capital
projects, including street improvements along Olive Avenue and Third
Street and code enforcement.

The Burbank Unified School District received $70,000 – the largest
amount – to run its summer youth-employment program. Other recipients
of significant grants include the Burbank Temporary Aid Center,
Burbank Family YMCA and Boys and Girls Club.

“We’re grateful for the continued support,” BTAC staffer Wendy Bocci
said Friday. “It’s very much needed and very well used.”

Bocci said the money will be used to help cover such expenses as
utility assistance, shelter and gasoline vouchers.

But not every organization will receive money. The Armenian Relief
Society, an agency that serves the needs of local Armenian Americans,
was not offered funding.

“I think they’re doing great stuff and I support their efforts,”
Golonski said. “I just don’t think it is as inclusive as it needs to
be to qualify for public funding.”

Burbank expects to receive the money granted by the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development later this year.

In addition, the city could receive nearly $900,000 from the HOME
Investment Partnership Program, and city projects to benefit will be
approved by the council at a later date.

The Globe and Mail, Canada
April 24 2004

Liberal Party workers worry about pink Paul

By JANE TABER

Prime Minister Paul Martin’s team, in an effort to showcase the new
leader, has put his picture on their campaign lawn signs, causing
concern among some party workers who say his face is too “pink” and
he looks like he’s had a “rough night.”

There is worry, too, that political opponents will take marker pens
to deface his image, drawing horns on his head or adding funny
glasses. Putting a candidate’s face on signs breaks a cardinal rule
of political sign design. This, according to the party’s own campaign
manual: “Don’t use a slogan ever. Don’t use a photograph of the
candidate.” A campaign worker, who attended last weekend’s event,
said participants were told that if they are concerned about the
pinkness they may opt to include black in the sign, which will
apparently mute the pink in the PM’s face.

Scrumming on

the campaign plane

In leasing their campaign plane, members of Mr. Martin’s team had
some specific requests. First, they wanted a plane with “integrated
air stairs.”

This is a plane with its own stairs. It does not have to dock against
an airport bridge or have stairs wheeled out from the tarmac. It
allows the Liberals to land anywhere in the country. The Liberals,
sources say, have leased a three-engine 727.

Team Martin’s other request was that the plane be configured to allow
a “scrum area” for the press. This will make the optics much better.

Gone will be the inside-the-airplane shots of the Prime Minister
crouching to avoid the overhead bins or leaning over seats.

The Conservatives, who have leased an A319 Airbus, are also
configuring a scrum area.

Elsie Wayne:

‘I am not a bitch.’

After the Prime Minister accused the opposition this week of baying
“like hounds in heat” during a particularly passionate exchange over
the awarding of government contracts, Conservative New Brunswick MP
Elsie Wayne took offence: “Mr. Speaker, during Question Period the
Prime Minister referred to some female members of this chamber as
baying like hounds in heat. I do not bay like a hound. A baying hound
is a bitch, and I am not a bitch.” Mrs. Wayne is not running in the
next election.

Lama-mania

The Dalai Lama was treated like a rock star when he came to
Parliament Hill Thursday. Here is a breathless e-mail sent around by
an MP’s staffer to all Hill staff: “I had an incredible opportunity
to meet the Dalai Lama outside of Room 160-S and I was just wondering
to all those who were there with a camera if anyone would have
happened to catch that experience on film? I was wearing a black
dress, black shoes and I had a big yellow flower in my hair. If
anyone would happen to have a picture with me in it, would I please
be able to get a copy? (I don’t mind paying for it.)”

Hot and not

Hot: Commons deputy Speaker Bob Kilger. The Liberal MP from Cornwall
replaced his speaker’s robes with a Maple Leafs jersey this week to
watch his son Chad score the first goal and then an assist in the
Leafs’ romp against the Ottawa Senators.

Not: Treasury Board President Reg Alcock. Once the great defender in
Question Period of Paul Martin and Liberal ethics, Mr. Alcock appears
to have been sidelined — coincidentally just after admitting he
mistakenly said the sponsorship scandal only cost $13-million.
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale and Public Works Minister Stephen Owen
are doing the talking. And opposition MPs are now making fun of Mr.
Alcock, referring to him as a “wookie,” which is the tall, hairy
creature from Star Wars.

Hot: Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. Prime Minister Martin can’t
stop talking about him and his so-called scary right-wing policies.
What is he worried about?

Hot: Scarborough Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis for his persistence in
lobbying on behalf of Armenian Canadians. This week MPs recognized as
genocide the mass killing of Armenians during the First World War.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
April 24 2004

Kerry Plays Politics: Recognizes ‘So-Called Armenian Genocide’

November inches ever nearer, which means election year politics have
come into full swing. The Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate,
Senator John Kerry, claimed that 1.5 million Armenians were the
victims of genocide during the Ottoman Era.

Kerry issued a statement for April 24, which is the day Armenians
accept as a remembrance day for ‘so-called genocide’. Kerry said:
“April 24 marks the 89th anniversary of the start of the Armenian
genocide. The Former Ottoman Empire’s rulers killed or exiled 1.5
million Armenian women, men and children with a systematic cleansing
policy. Americans of Armenian origin keep this tragedy alive in our
minds and they remind us to undertake the responsibility to guarantee
such dreadful events never take place again.”

Kerry also pointed out that he has been an important supporter of
Armenian issues for a long time. He said that he was among the
senators who requested that U.S. President George W. Bush push Turkey
to lift its embargo on Armenia.

04.24.2004
aa
Washington, D.C.

PRAVDA, Russia
April 24 2004

Memory day of genocide against Armenians

14:42 2004-04-24
Armenia and the Armenian community abroad mark the Day of Memory of
the victims of genocide against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Yerevan hosts today a “torch procession” to the Memorial to the
victims of genocide against Armenians of 1915.

The statement of the procession organizers – youth department of the
Dashnaktsutyun party, received by RIA Novosti, notes that in the late
19th – early 20th centuries, the Turkish state carried out genocide
against the Armenian people, which was “continued in 1988 by
Azerbaijani Turks.” From the second half of the nineteenth century to
1920, Ottoman Turkey carried out regular persecutions of Armenians,
whose peak fell on 1915, when over 1.5 million Armenians were killed
in different regions of Western Armenia, making part of the Ottoman
Empire.

In historians’ opinion, the roots of the tragic events of the
beginning of the twentieth century lie in the antagonism of great
powers in the south of Europe.

By 1914, when WWI started, great powers had not reached consent on
“the Armenian issue.” As during warfare on the Caucasian front in
1915 Russian troops were successful, Turks took the decision to make
an ethnic cleansing in Western Armenia, believing that the Armenian
population will sympathize with Russia seeing the country as the
liberator of Armenian lands.

European powers were unable to stop mass crimes against Armenians
committed by Turks. Moreover, Germany and Austro-Hungary helped Turks
“cleanse” Western Armenia an a number of other territories of the
Ottoman Empire of Armenian population.

In the opinion of Dashnaktsutyun party members, the last act of
genocide was the murder in Budapest in 2004 of an Armenian officer by
an Azerbaijani serviceman.

The fact of the genocide against the Armenian people has been
recognized by many countries – Russia, France, Argentina, Greece,
Italy, Cyprus, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Uruguay etc.