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AAA: Armenia This Week - 03/21/2005

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  • AAA: Armenia This Week - 03/21/2005

    ARMENIA THIS WEEK

    Monday, March 21, 2005



    In this issue:



    Senate hearing highlights demand for Genocide affirmation

    U.S. praises Armenia for assistance on attempted smuggling case

    New Armenian ambassador to the U.S. appointed

    Oskanian speaks on human rights, Genocide and Karabakh



    SENATE HEARING HIGHLIGHTS DEMANDS FOR U.S. AFFIRMATION OF ARMENIAN
    GENOCIDE

    Senator George Allen (R-VA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
    Subcommittee for Europe, has dismissed claims that U.S. affirmation
    of the Armenian Genocide should be avoided due to Turkish
    "sensitivity" towards the subject. Speaking during the hearings on
    "The Future of Democracy in the Black Sea Area" held on March 8,
    Allen said that while the U.S. wants good relations with Turkey, that
    does not mean that Washington is "willing to sweep history under the
    rug." "The basis of a truly enduring and reliable U.S.-Turkey
    relationship is the truth... It is past time for America to affirm
    the historical record and recognize the Armenian Genocide," he
    stressed.



    Former Department of Defense official Bruce Jackson who, as President
    of the Project on Transitional Democracies, works closely with the
    newly independent states of Eurasia, testified at the same hearing
    and declared in a statement for the record: "Just because Turkish
    officials become indignant at the mention of a genocide campaign
    conducted by Ottoman authorities against Armenian civilians in the
    early years of the last century does not mean that coming to terms
    with history should not be discussed between democratic allies. If
    we are to succeed where democracy is at risk, we must be clear in
    what we say and do."



    Senior U.S. officials, including the late President Ronald Reagan,
    have affirmed the Armenian Genocide, and President George W. Bush has
    used a textbook definition of the crime in his annual commemorative
    statements, but under pressure from Turkey, the U.S. does not
    officially refer to the deaths of over a million Armenians in Ottoman
    Turkey as genocide. While denying the Armenian Genocide, senior
    Turkish officials have accused the U.S. and Israel of "genocide" in
    Iraq and Palestine, respectively. Last week, in what is seen as a
    sign of continued difficulties in relations, the U.S. Ambassador to
    Turkey Eric Edelman resigned from his post. (Sources: AAA Press
    Release 3-11; Agence France Presse 3-18)



    ARMENIA ASSISTS U.S. IN ATTEMPTED ARMS SMUGGLING CASE

    U.S. officials have praised the Armenian government for its help in
    investigation of attempted arms smuggling from one or more former
    Soviet republics. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]
    appreciates the professionalism and active cooperation of the
    Armenian authorities," FBI's legal attaché to the Caucasus Bryan
    Paarmann was quoted as saying in a U.S. Embassy to Armenia statement
    last Friday.



    The FBI last week arrested 18 people, including citizens of Armenia,
    Georgia and South Africa on suspicion of seeking to import
    Soviet-made weapons, including missile and grenade launchers, into
    the United States. The individuals reportedly approached a South
    African businessman and explosives expert with offers to obtain the
    weapons, while the individual in turn informed the FBI, leading to a
    year-long investigation. One of the Armenian citizens arrested,
    26-year-old Artur Solomonyan, was in the U.S. illegally and is also
    wanted in Armenia on charges of draft evasion. He is now facing up to
    30 years in a U.S. prison.



    Both the U.S. and Armenian officials stressed that no weapons
    actually entered the United States from Armenia. But Solomonyan was
    able to obtain pictures of the weapons he claimed he could smuggle to
    the U.S. Armenia's Deputy National Security Director Hrachya
    Harutiunian reported last Friday that three individuals were detained
    in Armenia on suspicion of involvement in the case. The detained
    include an individual who allegedly acquired pictures of the weapons
    on Solomonyan's request, but did not have access to weapons
    themselves. FBI's Paarmann told local reporters that Armenia "takes
    the [attempted smuggling] seriously" and is not a country from where
    arms can be easily smuggled. (Sources: AP 3-15; Regnum.ru 3-17;
    Arminfo 3-21; Mediamax 3-21)



    NEW ARMENIAN ENVOY TO U.S. APPOINTED

    President Robert Kocharian has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister
    Tatul Margarian to be Armenia's new Ambassador to the United States,
    the Foreign Ministry reported over the weekend. Margarian replaces
    Ambassador Arman Kirakossian who has completed his five-year tour. In
    a farewell message issued two weeks ago, Kirakossian noted that
    "U.S.-Armenia relations have strengthened and expanded greatly within
    the last five years." Highlighting the growing security and
    commercial ties, Kirakossian added that "in part, the quality of our
    bilateral relations today reflects an Armenia that is more stable,
    economically dynamic, and confident domestically than it was five
    years ago."



    Margarian will be Armenia's third Ambassador to the United States
    since independence in 1991. Since 2000 Margarian served as Deputy
    Foreign Minister in charge of international security issues and from
    2002-2003, he was also the President's special envoy for Karabakh.
    Born in 1964 in Kapan in Armenia's southern Syunik province,
    Margarian previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission in the United
    States (1994-98) and as advisor to the Foreign Minister (1999-2000).
    He holds a Master's Degree in International Relations from the Johns
    Hopkins University in Washington, DC and PhD in Economics from the
    Yerevan Institute of National Economy. (Sources: Armenian Embassy in
    U.S. Press Release 3-7; Mediamax 3-19)



    A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY THE ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA

    122 C Street, N.W., Suite 350, Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 393-3434
    FAX (202) 638-4904

    E-Mail [email protected] WEB http://www.aaainc.org



    http://www.armeniaforeignministry.am/speeches/050315_un_vo.html



    Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan's speech

    at the UN Commission on Human Rights [excerpts]

    March 15, 2005

    Geneva



    Mr. Chairman, [...]



    For Armenians, the human rights principle, the concept of man's
    inalienable rights touches a raw nerve. We lived the greatest part of
    the last century under a regime that endured solely because of the
    absence of human rights, civil liberties and freedoms. [...]



    After living, as I said, under an ideologically different helmet only
    fourteen years ago, our domestic experience has been difficult and
    sometimes bumpy. We have learned to believe less in snap changes, we
    have our reasons to be skeptical of revolutions, we know that smooth
    public relations do not last as long as decent human relations.
    Therefore, as last year, so next year, we will continue to build on
    our successes, through evolutionary, incremental ways: poverty
    reduction, protecting the rights of conscientious objectors and
    religious sects, reforming the judicial system, strengthening
    political diversity and free expression, protecting and promoting the
    rights of women and children, fighting human traffickers.



    As for Genocide, Mr. Chairman, it is the ultimate manifestation of
    the violation of human rights. This year marks the 90th anniversary
    of the Armenian Genocide. Two-thirds of the Armenian population
    perished between 1915 and 1918. As a minority, living in the Ottoman
    Empire, their call for the application of the lofty principles of
    liberty, equality and fraternity, led to their death sentence. Today,
    their survivors, living within and outside the Republic of Armenia
    expect that the world¹s avowal of the universality of those same
    noble principles will lead to recognition that Genocide was committed
    against Armenians.



    Ninety years after the event, we still live with the memory of
    suffering unrelieved by strong condemnation and unequivocal
    recognition. In this we are not alone. The catharsis that victims
    deserve and societies require in order to heal and move forward
    together, obliges me to appeal to the international community to call
    things by their name, to remove the veil of obfuscation, of double
    standards, of political expediency.



    Very recently, at the highest levels, the Turkish leadership called
    for a historical debate. They suggested that historians from Turkey
    and Armenia go thru archives and sort out this issue. My immediate
    response that Armenia would not participate in a historical debate
    was interpreted as rejection of dialogue.



    Let's not confuse the two kinds of dialogue. One is a debate about
    history. The other is a political discussion. Periodic calls by
    various Turkish administrations for historical debate simply delay
    the process of reconciling with the truth. The facts are clear. The
    historical record is clear. We know well what happened to our
    forebears. Even in the first days of the Turkish Republic, the local
    Turkish authorities who had actually carried out the genocidal acts
    were tried and found guilty by their own Turkish courts. The Turks
    themselves, for their own reasons, put aside that historical record
    and moved away from that honest, dignified approach to one of denial
    and rejection. Turkey owes the world's generation that recognition so
    we move forward. [...]



    A financially bankrupt government is turned over to international
    organizations until it reforms and renounces its wrongs. Can we
    tolerate any less of a government which is morally bankrupt? Do we
    want successive generations to believe that genocide is inevitable in
    each generation, on each continent? Can we allow governments to
    commit such massive violence against their own people? How can we
    explain why a report on Threats Challenges and Change must consider
    genocide a threat, even at the beginning of the 21st century?



    Finally, the third human rights issue is that of the
    self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh. Ironically,
    Mr. Chairman, even as societies have learned to support the victims
    of domestic violence, we have not yet graduated to offering the same
    support to victims of international or government violence. At best,
    the world watches silently as the victims attempt to defend
    themselves, and if somehow, against great odds, they succeed, then
    the world quickly pulls back, as the state loudly cries foul and
    claims sovereignty and territorial integrity.



    Just as the perpetrator of domestic violence loses the moral right to
    custody, so does a government that commits and promotes violence
    against its own citizens lose its rights. It is in such instances
    that the notion of self-determination is significant and legitimate.



    This is exactly what happened to the people of Nagorno Karabakh
    during the days of the collapse of the USSR when they opted,
    peacefully, for self-determination. The government of Azerbaijan
    immediately not only rejected the peaceful dialogue but resorted
    immediately to forceful suppression of those aspirations. Azerbaijan
    continued to militarily respond. At one point, the people of Nagorno
    Karabakh were on the verge of annihilation had there not been the
    last minute mobilization and their determination to fight for their
    lives, homes and their homeland. Today the government of Azerbaijan
    has lost the moral right to even suggest providing for their security
    and their future, let alone to talk of custody of the people of
    Nagorno Karabakh.



    Mr. Chairman, for us, defense and protection of human rights is not
    an abstract principle. It is the difference between survival and
    annihilation. We believe it is the same for many in the world. Yet,
    our individual and collective tendency is to ignore or neglect
    problems for which we have no immediate answer or prospect for
    solution. This is even more true in situations which defy belief,
    surpass common norms, and shake our very assumptions and values. For
    these very reasons, in our ever-shrinking world, what is required is
    resolve on the part of the committed in order to expand the
    engagement of those still hesitant.

    --Boundary_(ID_hMVsBzpD9wcl2mdMaQwzbg)--

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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