Armenian News

SARKISIAN HONORS MEMORY OF WOODROW WILSON; REJECTS

TURKEY'S PRECONDITIONS ON BILATERAL DIALOGUE
Asbarez
Apr 13th, 2010

WASHINGTON-Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian rejected Turkey's
efforts to impose preconditions on Armenia-Turkey dialogue, during
remarks delivered following a wreath laying ceremony honoring the
life and legacy of President Woodrow Wilson.

Speaking to hundreds of Armenian Americans gathered at the National
Cathedral, Sarkisian praised President Wilson's 1919 call for a united
effort to ensure that "the Armenian people never suffer again." Ninety
five years later, countries around the world and organizations,
including those in the U.S., continue to carry on Wilson's legacy,
stated Sarkisian, to prevent genocide and suffering through recognition
of the Armenian Genocide.

Noting his meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan earlier in the
day, Sarkisian reiterated opposition to Turkey-imposed preconditions
on Turkey-Armenia Protocol discussions. "Turkey cannot speak in
the language of preconditions to Armenia and the Armenian people,"
said Sarkisian, who went on to reject Turkey's efforts to question
the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide, or inject itself in
the Nagorno Karabakh negotiation process.

During his visit to President Wilson's tomb, Pres. Sarkisian greeted
Armenian Genocide survivors Rose Baboyian, Yeretsgeen Sirarpi Khoyan
and Lousadzeen Tatarian, who presented the President with a letter
urging him to continue the fight for Genocide recognition and stand
up for the rights of the Armenian people. Following the wreath-laying
ceremony, Sarkisian stood solemnly as Armenian American clergy offered
prayers in memory of President Wilson and honored the victims and
survivors of the Armenian Genocide.

Among the clergy in attendance were Eastern Prelate Archbishop Oshagan
Choloyan, Eastern Primate Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, and Archbishop
Vicken Aykazian, Legate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America (Eastern), and representatives of the Armenian Catholic and
Evangelical communities.

Armenian American reaction to Sarkisian's statements was swift. ARF
Eastern Region Central Committee Chairman Antranig Kasbarian told the
Armenian Weekly that "Pres. Sarkisian's remarks - both in timing and in
substance - are greatly encouraging. The symbolism of honoring Woodrow
Wilson - a champion of Genocide survivors and guarantor of Western
Armenia - was not lost on those assembled. Nor was the President's
assessment of current political relations, in which he clearly rejected
any preconditons by Turkey toward normalizing bilateral ties."

Kasbarian warned, however, that "the true test will come behind
closed doors, when Mr. Sarkisian encounters the inevitable pressure
from Washington and Ankara to come to terms. If he follows the path
set out today, then we can reasonably hope that Armenia will retreat
from the Protocols and the dangerous course they represent. If not,
then we may see Armenia's predicament go from bad to worse."

Kasbarian reflected the community concerns expressed in an April 9
joint letter by leading Armenian civic, religious and social service
organizations which urged President Sarkisian to call on President
Barack Obama to honor his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide and
reject Turkish government efforts to use the Turkey-Armenia Protocols
to delay international affirmation of this crime against humanity. The
signatories pressed the Armenian President to announce that the
Turkey-Armenia Protocol discussions cannot continue "given Turkey's
unconstructive and antagonistic posture" throughout the process.

To read the complete text of the letter, visit:
http://www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=1851

Obama "Commends" Sarkisian for Armenia-Turkey Normalization Efforts
Reports from Pres. Sarkisian's 45-minute meeting with President
Obama came Monday evening with a "read out" issued by the White House
stating that:

"The President commended President Sarkisian for his courageous
efforts to achieve normalization of relations between Armenia and
Turkey and encouraged him to fulfill the promise of normalization
for the benefit of the Armenian people. President Obama also
urged that both Armenia and Turkey make every effort to advance
the normalization process and achieve legislative ratification of
the protocols of normalization. President Obama also expressed his
support for Armenian democracy."

Earlier Monday, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported Armenian
government sources as stating that "the two leaders spoke about
'the course of normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey'
and 'exchanged thoughts' on the current status of the Karabakh peace
process" among other issues.

Commenting on President Obama's Washington invitation of President
Sarkisian in the days leading up to the annual April 24th Armenian
Genocide commemoration, Armenian National Committee of America
Executive Director Aram Hamparian noted: "We would consider it highly
inappropriate for the President of the United States to have invited
the President of Armenia to Washington, only days before April 24th,
if he had an intention of doing anything less than fully recognizing
the Armenian Genocide; fully honoring his commitment to recognize
this crime against humanity. We are looking forward to President
Obama keeping faith with his own words and keeping faith with the
relationship he seeks with Armenia by recognizing the Armenian
Genocide."

TURKISH PARLIAMENT WON'T RATIFY ARMENIAN PROTOCOLS,

SAYS ERDOGAN
Asbarez
Apr 13th, 2010

WASHINGTON (RFE/RL)-Turkey's parliament would not ratify the
fence-mending agreements with Armenia if they were put to a vote now,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was reported on Tuesday to
have told President Serzh Sarkisian during their talks in Washington.

Neither leader made any public statements on the results of the talks
held on the sidelines of the ongoing nuclear security summit hosted by
U.S. President Barack Obama. The official Turkish Anatolia news agency
said they agreed to assign their foreign ministers to look for ways
of implementing the two Turkish-Armenian protocols signed last October.

According to the Turkish daily "Sabah," Erdogan told Sarkisian that
the existing "political atmosphere" does not bode well for their
ratification by Turkey's Grand National Assembly. He blamed it on
recent decisions by U.S. and Swedish lawmakers to recognize the 1915
massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

"If the protocols are brought to the agenda of the parliament while
U.S. and Swedish parliaments are taking decisions on the issue, they
will be rejected," he reportedly said. "Sabah" also quoted Erdogan
as also linking protocol ratification with decisive progress in
international efforts to resolve the Karabakh conflict.

The Turkish premier similarly stressed the importance of a Karabakh
settlement for the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations before
departing to Washington. He said he made this clear in his earlier
meetings with the presidents of the United States, Russia and France.

The three nations have been co-chairing the OSCE's so-called Minsk
Group on Karabakh.

"I told [French President Nicolas] Sarkozy that opening the border
[with Armenia] is no big deal," Erdogan told journalists on Sunday,
according to "Today's Zaman" daily. "I proposed that he take a car
or train and then we pass through the border together as soon as the
Minsk Group fulfills its duty."

Addressing members of the Armenian community in the U.S. later on
Monday, Sarkisian hinted that Ankara is sticking to its preconditions
for establishing diplomatic relations with Yerevan and opening the
Turkish-Armenian border. "I met this morning with the Turkish prime
minister," he said. "Our position was and is always is very clear:
Turkey can't talk with Armenian and Armenians with the language of
preconditions. We will simply not allow that."

(please read the next two items one after the other)

ERDOGAN CONFIDENT PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL NOT USE

THE TERM GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
April 13, 2010 - 18:02 AMT 13:02 GMT

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is confident President
Barack Obama will not use the term Genocide in his Aril 24 address
to US Armenian community.

"That would be my expectation, because to this day, no American leader
has uttered that word, and I believe that President Obama will not,"
Erdogan stated.

"No nation, no people has the right to impose the way it remembers
history to another nation or people -- and Turkey does not try to do
that," CNN cited him as saying.

"Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide
of the Cambodians which followed it - and like too many other such
persecutions of too many other peoples - the lessons of the Holocaust
must never be forgotten," 40th US President Ronald Reagan said in
his April 22, 1981 proclamation in commemoration of Victims of the
Holocaust.


Turkey’s Henchmen: Mass Media Butcher The Armenian Genocide
By David Boyajian
10 April, 2010
Countercurrents.org

Most reporters and other journalists in the mass media failed to do due

diligence and misled their audiences regarding last month’s US House

Foreign Affairs Committee vote in favor of Resolution 252, which would

reaffirm the Armenian genocide of 1915 - 1923.

Nearly all media, prior to and after the vote, falsely said or implied that

the House and the Federal government had never before recognized

the Armenian genocide.

The full House, in fact, passed resolutions in 1975 and 1984 that

acknowledged the Armenian genocide as “genocide.” Proclamation

4838 by President Reagan in 1981 also affirmed the veracity of the

genocide. In 1996, the House limited economic aid to Turkey until it

recognized the genocide.

In a brief filed with the International Court of Justice (World Court) at The

Hague in 1951, the US government cited just two genocides in modern

times: the one committed by Turkey against Armenians and that committed

by Nazi Germany.

Even when told of these earlier Armenian genocide acknowledgments,

few media reported them. Significantly, after each such genocide reaffirmation,

Ankara’s threats of retaliation against Washington amounted to nothing and

were quickly forgotten. No reporter, it appears, has ever bothered to mention

this fact.

For Turkey to complain obsessively about the House committee’s vote

reaffirming the Armenian genocide makes little sense considering that the

US has already recognized that genocide at least five times. Incredibly, it

appears that no mainstream journalist has ever asked Turkish leaders for

an explanation, not that they could provide a coherent one.

At the same time, the media obligingly volunteered their ideas about how

Turkey could (or is it should?) retaliate, such as shutting down a NATO

airbase or preventing American troops exiting Iraq to transit Turkey.

Nonsensically, journalists implicitly portrayed America as having no leverage

against Turkey and as being at its mercy.

Just the opposite is true. Ankara depends heavily on Washington for advanced

weaponry, investments and economic aid by US-backed institutions such as the

World Bank and IMF, political support to join the European Union, and more.

Following the recent House committee vote, former British ambassador to

Armenia David Miller accurately observed that Turkey, like a “bully,” will “bluster

[and] threaten and in the end nothing will happen.”

Nearly all media also “forgot” to mention that Turkey’s threats had fallen flat

against the nearly twenty countries whose legislative bodies had already

acknowledged the Armenian genocide. Indeed, insofar as is known, Turkey’s

trade with such countries went up substantially, not down, after genocide

recognition.

Among the many genocide acknowledgers that the media nearly always “forget”

to mention are Canada, France, Lebanon, Switzerland, and Uruguay, as well as

a UN sub-commission, World Council of Churches, the Vatican, and the European

Union Parliament.

Most reporters have also long preferred to depict the genocide issue as a mere

he-said-she-said quarrel between Armenians and Turkey.

Yet the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the foremost organization

of its kind, has recognized the Armenian genocide several times and roundly

criticized Turkey. Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish scholar who authored the

UN Genocide Convention of 1948 and who coined the word genocide, once

declared on national television, “I became interested in genocide because it

happened to the Armenians.” Most journalists choose to “forget” these facts.
Media also dutifully reported Turkey’s opinion that academia, not the US

Congress, is the proper place to discuss and recognize genocides.

They “forgot” that one or both houses of Congress have recognized the Holocaust,

and the Bosnian, Cambodian, Darfurian, and Ukrainian “genocides.” Thus, the

public is unfairly led to believe that Armenian Americans are asking Congress to

do something unusual. Somehow the media also “forgot” to report that over 50

American human rights, ethnic, and religious organizations support Congressional

acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide.

In short, most mass media have done an abysmal, unprofessional job.

If the House, a US president, and a Federal filing with the World Court have

already affirmed and reaffirmed the Armenian genocide, does Congress really

need to pass the present genocide resolution? The current resolution, which is

non-binding, describes the genocide’s history and America’s traditional support

of Armenia in more detail than previously approved ones.

Congressional reaffirmation will help to counter Turkey’s unending, immoral denial

campaigns and send a necessary signal to the US State Department that genocide

denial harms American interests in the region.

For two decades, stability in the oil and gas-rich Caucasus/Caspian region

- undoubtedly the major flashpoint between the US and Russia - has been one of

Washington’s most cherished goals.

Stability is impossible, however, as long as Turkey refuses to face up to its crimes

against Armenians and continues to needlessly blockade Armenia. Turkey, 25 times

larger and more populous than Armenia and with 50 times the GDP, truly is a “bully.”

The US and other countries recently forced a set of “protocols” onto Armenia that would

allegedly “reconcile” it and Turkey. Contrary to Turkish claims, Armenia quite rightfully

maintains that it will not let the protocols’ proposed joint Turkish - Armenian historical

commission question the veracity of the genocide. The genocide issue cannot be

wished away by sham US-backed protocols, which, in any case, Turkey presently

refuses to ratify.

Without an unequivocal acknowledgment by Turkey of its hyper-violence against

Armenians, the region cannot be stabilized - with serious geopolitical consequences

for Washington and its allies.

The media, and the Obama adminstration, can help to avert this simply by telling the

American people the truth about the Armenian genocide. The whole truth.