Obama commemorates Armenian deaths; Turkey is critical

se times
25/04/2011

The issue remains highly sensitive, with Turkey refusing allegations of genocide.
(Zaman, The Gulf Today, Aysor.am - 25/04/11; The White House, Hurriyet, World Bulletin, RFE/RL, VOA, The Washington Times, Deutsche Welle - 24/04/11)
US President Barack Obama marked Armenian Remembrance Day at the weekend, describing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians 96 years ago as "one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century", although he stopped short of using the term genocide. ...more...
read more: se times
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2011/04/25/feature-01

Flowers laid in honour of Armenian victims

the independent
Associated Press

Monday, 25 April 2011
Hundreds of thousands of Armenians laid flowers yesterday at a monument to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks....more...
read more: the independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/flowers-laid-in-honour-of-armenian-victims-2274451.html

Statue tells tale of Turkey-Armenian ties

se times

13/01/2011
The "lifespan" of a monument intended to foster friendship with Armenia underscores Turkey's conflicted attitude.
By Alexander Christie-Miller for Southeast European Times -- 13/01/11

The sculpture of a divided human figure overlooking the city of Kars in eastern Turkey was supposed to symbolise the century-long estrangement of Turks and Armenians, and their yearning for renewed friendship.
But the fate of the 35m-high Statue of Humanity has become symbolic of the conflicting attitudes in Turkey towards reconciliation with its eastern neighbour.
Work began on the monument in 2006. Only, half-completed, it has been earmarked for demolition. On a visit to the city last weekend, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned its fate into an international news story when he labeled the statue an "abomination".
"We wanted to build something that would bring people together," Naif Alibeyoglu, who commissioned the monument while he was mayor of Kars, told SETimes.
The bitterest source of division between the two countries is the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Turks during World War I. Armenians insist the murders were genocide -- a label Turkey rejects.
Alibeyoglu said the sculpture is a riposte not only to genocide memorials in Armenia, but also to one in the neighbouring Turkish city of Igdir, home of the Genocide Monument and Museum. The 43m-high monument was built in 1997 to commemorate Turks killed by Armenians in the same conflict.
"It was supposed to be an alternative to the genocide monuments, which promote a bad relationship and are designed to divide the two people," he said.
Amid staunch opposition from local nationalists, who view the sculpture as a capitulation to Armenia, construction stopped in 2008. Opponents flagged a supposed planning violation, which has led to the demolition order.
Diplomatic relations have been blocked since 1993, when Armenia went to war with Azerbaijan. Since then, the border on which the monument stands has remained closed.
Protocols aimed at normalising relations signed by both countries' leaders in 2009 have yet to be ratified by either parliament.
But in Kars, which would stand to reap the economic benefits of an open border, the desire for reconciliation is strong.
Kaan Soyan, co-chairman of the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council, said that while the current national trade volume between the countries wavers between $200m-300m dollars a year, this could rise to more than $1 billion if the border opened, half of which would come through cities such as Kars.
The closure stifled the city's natural role as a regional transportation hub, and better relations could prompt an influx of Armenian tourists visiting their historic sites, such as the ruined city of Ani, Soyan said.
"Kars has always been a centre for interrelations between different countries and ethnic groups," he told SETimes. "There needs to be a revival of that old attitude. Ethnic separation never helped any region."

Rober Koptas, editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, says the decision to build the monument, and now to destroy it, had more to do with domestic Turkish politics than the stalled rapprochement with Armenia.
"This was a political statue," he said.
Cengiz Aktar, an international relations professor at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University, says the decision to scrap the monument is telling.
"It gives a clear picture how low in the list of prioritie\s Armenia is for the government," he told SETimes.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com

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http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2011/01/13/feature-01

Kosovo Ruling Applicable To Karabakh, Insists Armenia

11.10.2010
Ruzanna Stepanian
A recent UN court ruling that upheld the legality of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia set an important precedent for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, President Serzh Sarkisian insisted on Monday.

“For us, the Kosovo precedent is important in the sense that the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) clearly answered one question,” he said. “The question was: does a unilateral declaration of independence contradict international law or not? The answer was no, it doesn’t.”

Speaking after talks with Slovenia’s visiting President Danilo Turk, Sarkisian said although ethnic disputes around the world have their own specificities, solutions to them must be based on “the same principles.” He said the only major difference between the conflicts over Kosovo and Karabakh is that the Karabakh Armenians won de facto independence “without NATO’s support.”

“Nagorno-Karabakh is now patiently awaiting the moment when the international community will recognize its unilaterally declared independence,” Sarkisian told a joint news conference with Turk.

Turk, whose country has recognized Kosovo as an independent state, was more cautious in commenting on the ICJ ruling’s relevance to other disputes. “I think that one of the characteristics of that non-binding decision is that the court did not express itself on the issue of self-determination,” he said.

Despite repeatedly welcoming the ICJ judgment, Armenia has so far refrained from recognizing Kosovo’s independence, not least because Russia, its closest ally, is strongly opposed to that. Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian gave no indication that Yerevan may soon reconsider that stance when he met with his Kosovar counterpart, Skender Hyseni, in New York late last month.

Sarkisian also said on Monday that the Karabakh Armenians’ direct involvement in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, strongly opposed by Baku, is essential for Karabakh peace. “The conflict should be resolved by solely peaceful means, without use of force or threat of use of force, in the existing negotiating format and in strict compliance with international law,” he said. “And the sooner Karabakh fully joins negotiations, the more easily we could achieve the conflict’s resolution.”

radio free europe

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/2187477.html