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Armenia and the information war

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  • Re: Armenia and the information war

    Originally posted by ninetoyadome View Post
    The government was quick to respond. In a December 9 statement about the Il Foglio story, the First Lady’s protocol service expressed “extreme indignation with the slanderous insinuations published in Il Foglio, which discredit Mehriban Aliyeva’s honor and dignity.” Calling the report libelous, the service speculated that “some forces which are not interested in the growing prestige of our country and the international authority of Azerbaijan’s first lady” had planted the article. It has demanded a public apology and a full retraction by Il Foglio. Italy, it should be noted, has strong energy ties to Russia, while Moscow and Baku are backing competing energy-export pipeline projects in the Caspian Basin.
    Aliyev can buy always a new wife at the market and this is a terrible slight to the honour of Belarus dictator for life Lukashenko.

    Comment


    • Re: Armenia and the information war

      Another azeri dream...:


      theyr much stronger on internet behind the screen than on battlefield...
      Last edited by ArmeniaR1; 12-16-2010, 09:32 AM.

      Comment


      • Re: Armenia and the information war

        Originally posted by ArmeniaR1 View Post
        Another azeri dream...:


        theyr much stronger on internet behind the screen than on battlefield...
        Haha yeah, we have a nice thread about these fabrications http://forum.hyeclub.com/showthread....jani-Wikipedia

        I love how the photoshopping is so bad that they could only colour a part of the Armenian borders and not change the borders themselves
        Azerbaboon: 9.000 Google hits and counting!

        Comment


        • Re: Armenia and the information war

          'Boys and Their Toys'
          The US Befriends Azerbaijan's Corrupt Elite


          Azerbaijan is rife with corruption and comparisons to European feudalism in the Middle Ages are hardly a stretch. But with vast reserves of oil and natural gas at stake, the US is willing to risk the embarrassment that comes with courting the country.

          The women had dressed up for the special evening. The wife and two daughters of Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, were awaiting the arrival of Lynne Cheney, the wife of then-US Vice President xxxx Cheney. She had accompanied her husband on a state visit to the country in September 2008 -- and it was time for the evening meal.

          Bodyguards and diplomats from the US Embassy in the capital Baku were also waiting for the guests. They wanted to keep an eye on Aliyev's family -- particularly the influential first lady, Mehriban. But which of the three women was she?

          Mehriban and her daughters, the Americans knew, are very fashion-conscious and don't shy away from a bit of provocative evening wear. Making things more difficult, US diplomats noted, was the fact that Azerbaijan's first lady is thought to have undergone cosmetic surgery more than once. Since then, they note in a dispatch to Washington, she looks quite a bit younger, but can hardly move her face. Finally, one said: "Well, logically the mother would probably stand in the middle."

          The account of the encounter is included in a secret memo from the US Embassy in Baku -- and reads like a sarcastic description from US diplomats who feel like they are stranded in some banana republic in the middle of nowhere.

          A New Chapter in the Great Game

          But the reality is very different. Azerbaijan, which lies in the Caspian basin and has a population of 9 million, is one of the US's strategic energy partners, despite being located within Russia's sphere of influence. The country boasts proven energy reserves of roughly 7 billion barrels of oil and 1.3 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Millions of barrels of these natural resources flow to the West each year via a pipeline connecting the Azerbaijani capital with Ceyhan, a Turkish port on the Mediterranean Sea.

          The Cheneys were in Baku to befriend the Aliyevs in exactly the same way that Richard Morningstar, US special envoy for Caspian energy development, has been doing in the Obama era. Morningstar already served under former President Bill Clinton, who recognized Azerbaijan's strategic importance back in the 1990s. Morningstar helped shape the vision of the €2.5 billion ($3.4 billion) Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. The Americans even sent experts to show the Azerbaijanis how to protect, for example, the underwater sections of the expensive pipeline from saboteurs.

          The "Great Game" is what the 19th century battle between the British and the Russians over Central Asian influence was called. These days, the Americans are also on the frontlines of this battle -- and the potential rewards are much larger. Unfortunately, as the State Department's classified documents make clear, the price that American diplomats have to pay is also much greater.

          Like the other oil-producing countries around the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan is an embarrassing partner to have. The country's corrupt institutions are unable to deal with the oil boom and the billions of dollars it brings into the county, while the average annual growth rate of almost 15 percent is a much higher priority than enforcing and improving law and order. Independent media outlets are restricted, and dissidents are violently suppressed. Shortly before his death, Heydar Aliyev, the dictator who ruled Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003, naturally handed over power to his son Ilham, who does things exactly the way his father did.

          'Well-Connected Families'

          The American documents leave no doubt that the diplomats know exactly who they are courting. Cables bear titles like "Who owns what?" in which they provide portraits of the country's most powerful families. "Observers in Baku often note that today's Azerbaijan is run in a manner similar to the feudalism found in Europe during the Middle Ages," one such cable reads. "A handful of well-connected families control certain geographic areas, as well as certain sectors of the economy."

          The memo continues: "By and large, this seems to be the case, with general agreement among leading families to divide the spoils and not disturb one another's areas of business or geographic control. The families also collude ... to keep out foreign competitors."

          Naturally, the best off is the ruling Aliyev family. Although the American diplomats write that the first lady, Mehridan Aliyeva, is "poorly informed about political issues, they report that she is very powerful when it comes to providing for members of her own family. For example, her sister Nargis serves as head of the satellite campus of Lomonosov Moscow State University in Baku, her father is the director of the country's National Academy of Aviation and her uncle is the deputy foreign minister.

          Nar Mobile/Azerfon, one of the country's largest wireless communication companies, belongs to the Aliyev family's business empire. The company just happens to have received the only license to operate modern high-speed cell-phone networks in Azerbaijan -- effectively a license to print money. Its rival Azercell lost out in the bidding process. And when Azercell tried to defend itself on a separate matter, Nar Mobile/Azerfon took it to court -- where, of course, it promptly won the case.


          'Introduced by Benjamin Franklin'


          "It is often said mockingly that in Azerbaijan's judicial system, one can only win a case if one is friends with the judge," writes one American diplomat, "or if introduced by Benjamin Franklin" -- a reference to the US founding father's likeness on the $100 bill.

          Of course, the diplomats say, it is equally advantageous to be well-connected politically -- particularly when it comes to the lucrative construction industry. Western experts know that not much gets built in Azerbaijan without a "kryscha" ("roof") -- protection provided by organized crime. The company Pasha Construction, which also belongs to the Aliyevs' business empire, naturally has the best protection available. Buildings constructed by Pasha usually go up quickly and with few hindrances; their competitors, on the other hand, often face hurdles. Pasha, not surprisingly, has few concerns about its bottom line.

          But the Aliyevs are generous, and let other families rake it in as well. Take the Heydarovs, for example. The family's patriarch, Kamaladdin, was appointed head of the national customs committee -- considered extremely corrupt even by Azerbaijani standards -- "at the ripe old age of 35," as the America diplomats sarcastically note.

          Kamaladdin, though, is not short on excellent references: His father, Fattah, was a close confidant of the elder Aliyev. And when the American chargé d'affaires met the younger Heydarov for the first time, he noted how his chest was covered with metals and decorations "that would rival the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

          The Tragedy of Oil

          Heydarov's sons apparently enjoy their power and wealth to the fullest. One section about them in a secret memo on Heydarov even bears the title "His Boys and Their Toys." The Heydarov sons already own a soccer club and are supposedly trying to buy two American Gulfstream jets at €20 million each.

          To do so, according to new American anti-terror regulations, they will have to prove that they acquired their wealth by lawful means. The requirement proved unproblematic: They simply sent a long list of their family's investment holdings to Gulfstream. According to these documents, the family is involved in a wide variety of industries -- including concrete, asphalt, chemicals, textiles, dairy products, alcohol and construction -- as well as a few smaller things on the side, such as a de facto monopoly on pomegranate juice.

          While a few Azerbaijani clans are getting richer and richer, thanks to all the dollars pouring into the country, the rest of the population is barely scraping by. Over 40 percent of the country's inhabitants are living in poverty; the average monthly income is just €24. As Lala Shevkat, the leader of the Liberal Party of Azerbaijan, says: "Oil is our tragedy."

          The Americans, however, have not let such problems frighten them away. On the contrary, they are even pushing for greater cooperation on security. Following the visit of an American envoy to Baku, one diplomat noted with satisfaction that he "underscored to President Aliyev the value that the US government attached to the relationship with Azerbaijan."
          Azerbaijan is rife with corruption and comparisons to European feudalism in the Middle Ages are hardly a stretch. But with vast reserves of oil and natural gas at stake, the US is willing to risk the embarrassment that comes with courting the country.

          Comment


          • Re: Armenia and the information war

            Azerbaijani Officials Claim Ancient Armenian Monasteries As Azeri

            Armenian News Network / Groong
            December 19, 2010
            By Tamara Azarian

            MUNICH, GERMANY

            Just recently at the OSCE summit in the capital of Kazakhstan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan addressed the organization and international community about the ongoing armenophobic statements of the Azerbaijani leaders, and their calls which fuel animosity, aggression, and violence. President Sargsyan quoted Azerbaijani officials who not only claimed that Yerevan is located "on historical Azeri lands" but also that Armenian Khachkars are nothing but an example of Azeri art.


            Armenia, ca. 385AD.
            At the time when UNESCO declared Armenian Khachkars to be part of its `Intangible Cultural Heritage' in November 2010, Azerbaijani media announced that the thousands of Khachkars at the world's largest medieval Armenian cemetery in Jugha were allegedly of Azeri-Caucasian Albanian origin. In December 2005, Russia's Regnum News Agency had reported the destruction of one of the wonders of the Caucasus, the Armenian Christian heritage in Nakhichevan, being demolished by Azerbaijani servicemen. An Armenian film team in northern Iran, from where the cemetery was visible, had luckily videotaped dozens of Azerbaijani soldiers at the border demolishing the Khachkars with sledgehammers, using a crane to remove some of the larger monuments from the ground, pulverizing the stones into small pieces, loading them on large trucks, and dumping them into the River Araxes. Mr. Hayk Demoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute, has now published the illustrated book `Azerbaijan: Vandalism as usualâ' which describes Azerbaijan's vandalism in Old Jugha.

            Now one has to question oneself: if these Khachkars were truly of Azerbaijani Caucasian-Albanian origins, why would they destroy their own cultural heritage and erase it from the face of the earth?


            From 29 November until 3 December 2010, the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Berlin, the capital of Germany, organized an exhibition "Week of Science and Culture of Azerbaijanâ' in Germany at the Humboldt University, Berlin. Institutions and companies who were thanked for their generous support for this exhibition included the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the state oil company SOCAR's representative in Germany. Unfortunately, once again Azerbaijan's petrol-dollars contributed to the falsification of Armenian History and helped in spreading the fictitious saga of megalomaniac Azerbaijani History. At the official opening of the photo exhibition at this Azerbaijani science-and-cultural event, a photograph of the ancient Tatev Monastery in Syunik, among other pictures, was exhibited and the description was set up by a purely historical context of Azerbaijan, not with one word of mention to Armenia or Armenian in the description underneath. In fact, Azerbaijan was claiming that the Tatev Monastery, among other originally Armenian Monasteries, is of Azerbaijani-Caucasian-Albanian origin.


            Tatev
            In addition to the above question, another question imposes itself: to what benefit do Azerbaijani allegations regarding Tatev serve? Their answer will always remain an enigma to us, since Caucasian Albania first appeared in history as a vassal state in the empire of Tigranes the Great of Armenia 95-56 BC, and came under strong Armenian - religious and cultural - influence and was Christianized at approximately the same time as Armenia was. Being one of the vast-territorial provinces of the Greater Armenia, Syunik has never been in the composition of "Caucasian Albania", and also has never been called "the Albanian outskirts". All such newly-concocted theories and light-minded hypotheses are evidently imposed from outside, pursuing an aim to strengthen contemporary Pan-Turkic political territorial ambitions. Although this region includes the territory of present-day Azerbaijan, it does not automatically mean Caucasian Albanians are necessarily the ancestors of Azerbaijanis. The pre-Islamic population of Caucasian Albania played a role in the ethno-genesis of a number of modern ethnicities, including the Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh, the Georgians of Kakhetia, the Lazes, the Lezgins, and the Tsakhurs of Daghestan and the Azerbaijanis. After the Caucasian Albanians were Christianized in the 4th century, the western parts of the population were gradually assimilated by the ancestors of modern Armenians, and the eastern parts of Caucasian Albania were Islamized and absorbed by Iranian, and subsequently, by Turkic peoples (modern Azerbaijanis). Despite these historical facts, Azerbaijan's propagandistic falsification of history has found a new audience offered and tolerated by Germany now.


            Ghoshavank
            The Armenian Monastery of Tatev was built in the 9th century and is located in the Tatev village in Syunik Province in southern Armenia. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural site. In the past, the monastery played a vital part in the history of the region, becoming its political, spiritual and cultural center. In October of this year, the Guinness Book of World Records officially declared the 5.7km long Wings of Tatev as the world's longest ropeway, which connects the village of Halizor with the medieval Tatev Monastery. Furthermore, the ongoing Tatev Revival Project is currently working on restoring the monastery structurally, spiritually, and academically. The plan also consists of developing community-based tourism for the six villages in the vicinity of the monastery and building tourism infrastructure - a hotel across the valley from Tatev. The revival of Tatev will play a central role for Armenia's tourist industry development and will fortunately create new jobs for the villagers of Tatev and the other surrounding villages. All these positive new developments about Tatev took a gigantic interest and attention throughout the international press in the past few months, and perhaps this is exactly what is bothering oil-rich Azerbaijan and made them come up with such absurd claims.


            Ganzasar
            As the pictures prove, Azerbaijanis presented not only Tatev as their cultural heritage during their Berlin exhibition, but also a list of other Armenian monasteries including Gandzasar, Dadivank, Goshavank, and Amaras. Did Prof. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz, who has been the President of the Humboldt University in Berlin since October 2010, intentionally ignore these facts? According to the official invitation letter of the exhibition, Olbertz was present at the grand opening, together with the current ambassador of Azerbaijan to Germany.

            In 2005 and in 2008, Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Olbertz, who at the time was the Minister of Culture and Science of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, had visited the Republic of Armenia twice and was received by Armenia's Foreign Minister. In 2005, at the 90th commemorative anniversary year of the Armenian Genocide, Prof. Dr. Olbertz participated in a commemoration event in Saxony-Anhalt. The debate on German schoolbooks dealing with the Armenian Genocide was also a focal point of this event. The then-Minister of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt Prof. Olbertz said that the subject of the Armenian Genocide should be included in the guidelines in Saxony-Anhalt and emphasized that the education precisely on this topic in German schools is important and should be supported by personal meetings.


            Partnerships and exchanges between schools in Saxony-Anhalt and those in the Republic of Armenia are currently in the planning stage.
            One wonders what the aim of Azerbaijan is to present to the visitors of the exhibition in Berlin ancient Armenian monasteries as their own cultural heritage. Their ambition is clear. By exhibiting what they claim to be of Azerbaijani origin in public, Azerbaijan wishes to "prove" that not only Nagorno-Karabakh but also supposedly the Republic of Armenia is ancient Azerbaijani soil. Through these unsuccessful intentional projects of faking history, Azerbaijan hopes they can internationally demand Nagorno-Karabakh as "historic Azerbaijani soil" for themselves. It will be unsuccessful because their official theories include not only allegations that "prove" these monasteries are not of Armenian origin but also absurd historical theses that even Jesus allegedly has been portrayed as having Turkic facial features. It is doubtful at best that anyone will believe Azeri historical fables with these kind of entertaining theories. In that sense, as Charles Caleb Colton, an English cleric, writer and collector once said: "Theories are private property, but truth is common stock."

            Comment


            • Re: Armenia and the information war

              Azerbaijanis attack the film on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations
              BY TIMES.AM AT 21 DECEMBER, 2010, 4:39 PM

              The director and the producer of the film “The interrupted song” Arik Manukyan and Ashot Pogosyan made an announcement on the disinformation spread by the Azerbaijani media concerning the film, the message delivered by the press-service of the filmmaking group informs.

              The announcement especially says:

              “The shooting of the film “Interrupted song” is going on in Moscow. The film is about an Armenian and an Azerbaijani, who have appeared in the same hole. At first the both heroes will hate each other as both of them will think Armenians and Azerbaijanis are incompatible. This opinion is widely shared both in Azerbaijan and Armenia now.

              The heroes will have a conversation after some times remaining in the same hole and they will speak about the themes they are suffered by. And as a result, the Armenian and the Azerbaijani will find the answers to the questions they thought hadn’t any answer.

              The “Interrupted song” is a healthy discussion, is a civilized dialogue, which happens very rarely between these two neighbors. There are no negative images in the film, just only every hero has his truth. The unexpected finish will urge the viewer to think about the values which exist in the conditions of strained relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And the attack held by Azerbaijani mass media is really strange on this scene. Azerbaijan uses almost all the published and e-media to spot the film. If it is being continued in such a way we are going present an apply to the court against the sources of the disinformation, which are Azerbaijani 1news.az and vesti.az. ”
              We consider Azerbaijanis act in such a way as the filmmakers are Armenians.”

              Note, the premiere of the film will take place on spring of 2011, in Moscow. The slogan of the film is “Peace is the aim of every war”.

              /Times.am-Armenian news/

              Comment


              • Re: Armenia and the information war

                Originally posted by ninetoyadome View Post
                Azerbaijanis attack the film on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations
                BY TIMES.AM AT 21 DECEMBER, 2010, 4:39 PM

                The director and the producer of the film “The interrupted song” Arik Manukyan and Ashot Pogosyan made an announcement on the disinformation spread by the Azerbaijani media concerning the film, the message delivered by the press-service of the filmmaking group informs.

                The announcement especially says:

                “The shooting of the film “Interrupted song” is going on in Moscow. The film is about an Armenian and an Azerbaijani, who have appeared in the same hole. At first the both heroes will hate each other as both of them will think Armenians and Azerbaijanis are incompatible. This opinion is widely shared both in Azerbaijan and Armenia now.

                The heroes will have a conversation after some times remaining in the same hole and they will speak about the themes they are suffered by. And as a result, the Armenian and the Azerbaijani will find the answers to the questions they thought hadn’t any answer.
                Hasn't that been done before in a film? Went something like a Serb and a Croat in the same abandoned trench in no-mans land.
                Plenipotentiary meow!

                Comment


                • Re: Armenia and the information war

                  Interesting article, by an actual self-avowed Zionist regarding his experiences with Armenians:

                  Keep Dreaming: This week in Armenia
                  By DAVID BREAKSTONE
                  24/12/2010
                  We cannot right the wrongs of the past, but we can recognize them. Doing so would go a long way toward healing an open wound.

                  Fascinating. I recently took part in a conference on Diaspora relations during which worries were expressed over the next generation’s detachment from the homeland, the waning impact of the Holocaust on identity formation, the shrinking percentage of children able to speak the language of their forebears, rising rates of intermarriage, challenges involved in bringing a dispersed nation home and the blatant hypocrisy of the Turks, who speak so stridently about human rights when their own record in this regard is so horrifically flawed.

                  “More of the same,” you’re probably thinking. “Why fascinating?”

                  Because it wasn’t our Diaspora the participants were concerned with. Then whose? That’s what I asked when I got the phone call inviting me to a seminar on state-diaspora relations in Armenia.

                  “How many xxxs do we even have in Armenia?” I asked, somewhat bemused.

                  “Not our Diaspora. Theirs,” came the reply. “The invitation’s from the Armenian minister of the diaspora.”

                  Before the phone rang I’d never have imagined there was such a position. Now the person filling it wanted me as a consultant, figuring that after 10 years in the World Zionist Organization I’d developed some expertise in these matters.

                  Three weeks later, I found myself in Yerevan (yes, I also had to Google it), ready to dispense advice about something that a month earlier I didn’t even know existed. Sure, I knew there was this place called Armenia, though I admit I wasn’t even sure it was a sovereign country.

                  (It is.) I knew there were Armenians living in Jerusalem’s Old City, most of whom I imagined spent their time painting pottery. (They don’t.) I’d heard vague accounts of a Turkish-perpetrated genocide, which I’d always assumed were somewhat exaggerated. (They’re not.) But an organized diaspora? The thought had never occurred to me.

                  Unbelievable how ignorant a relatively well-educated person can be. Embarrassing, too, particularly when speaking of something so close to home. So, though it’s easiest to give advice about things one knows nothing about, I nevertheless determined to make my life more difficult and do a little research.

                  IT’S A Friday and my wife and I decide to make an outing of it. We wander into the Armenian Quarter and enter one of the few Armenian pottery shops we find. It’s beginning to dawn on me that not all the Armenians can be painting names on ceramic doorplates, but the elderly woman inside who actually does do this for a living is happy to share her story with us. She came to Jerusalem many years ago from Lebanon, where her family had fled to when the Turks had come for them nearly a century ago.

                  There are approximately 1,000 Armenians living in Jerusalem, she tells us, similar numbers in Haifa and Jaffa, and another cluster in Petah Tikva. All-inall, some 3,000 in the country. Fewer than I’d have thought, but still a sizable group I think to myself, until she tells us that there are some three million Armenians in Armenia itself, and an estimated seven million more living around the world. Almost as many of them as there are of us.

                  “How much contact do you have with another?” I ask. Lots, it turns out. There’s a very strong sense of community and regularly organized opportunities to congregate.

                  I thank her for her time, check the prices of her wares so I can compare them to the genuine article in the homeland, and move on.

                  Next stop, an Armenian café. My wife is far less inhibited than I when it comes to striking up a conversation – particularly when there’s a good-looking younger man involved – and she begins speaking with the one behind the counter.

                  An hour’s worth of talk later, our knowledge base has grown exponentially.

                  We learned that he is running the establishment, after having studied hotel management following graduation from the local Armenian school where virtually all of the Armenian kids study.

                  He talks animatedly about his homeland, which he’s visited several times over the last few years, and speaks passionately about it in terms reminiscent of the enthusiastic reactions of Birthright participants after their first trip to Israel.

                  “Any thoughts of moving there?” I ask, preparing for the conference I’ve been invited to. The response is familiar.

                  “I want to end up there,” he answers, “but I’ll probably head off to the States first. I want to get more experience, earn some money. It’s tough to make it in Armenia now.”

                  “You’ve got family there, I presume?” “No,” he says, “I just feel I belong. I didn’t expect that when my parents took me the first time, but something happened when I got there and I just have to keep going back.”

                  He’s more reticent when it comes to talking about this country.

                  “I really don’t want to make an issue of it,” he says hesitatingly, “but the truth is, it’s difficult for us here. It’s hard to get a job. The xxxs don’t really like to hire us. They prefer people who do the army.”

                  He says this not with bitterness, but as a matter of fact. And he is as friendly as can be. So are all the other wonderful Armenians I encounter over the next few weeks. I’d love to share all their stories here, but the first will have to suffice as a stand in for the rest.

                  Let’s call him Serop. After leaving the café, meandering through the alleyways of the Armenian Quarter, we happen upon him playing ball with his son.

                  This time my wife’s audacity gets us invited in for coffee. He, too, came to Jerusalem from Lebanon to study at the seminary of the Armenian Church, where he served as a monk for six years.

                  Today he’s married with kids and works as an accountant in a prestigious Israeli firm. His wife, a music teacher, greets us warmly as we intrude upon her living room unannounced, interrupting the conversation she’s having by Skype with her sister in the old country. She offers us some freshly baked cake, and, noticing the kippa I’m wearing, assures us we have nothing to worry about. “It’s this,” she smiles, holding up a Duncan Hines box.

                  These details demonstrate just how completely Westernized the Armenians here are. At the same time, they are anything but assimilated, proudly expressing at every opportunity a deep connection to their culture, people and history.

                  FIGURING PROMINENTLY in that history is the calculated attempt by the Turkish government to exterminate the Armenian people, claiming the lives of three-quarters of the two million of them living in the Ottoman Empire at the time. My visit to the genocide memorial in Yerevan dispels any doubt that this holocaust was every bit as ghastly as that experienced by the xxxs a few decades later.

                  And the questions generated by this cruel chapter in their history are the same as our own. From a booklet I pick up at the museum: “What degree of animosity could drive one group of people to slaughter another in cold blood? What level of contempt and what process of debasement could create an environment tolerant of mass murder? What reason could a government have to plan the extermination of an entire population?”

                  We cannot right the wrongs of the past, but we can recognize them. Doing so would go a long way toward healing an open wound. Unlike Germany, which has accepted full responsibility for the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis, Turkey refuses to acknowledge any culpability for the horrendous crimes that were committed, adding a century-long insult to a horrific injury. To little avail, the Armenians have long been insisting that at least the rest of the world hold Turkey accountable for its actions. All those I meet reiterate the same aching need. It is morally intolerable that Israel has not joined the list of countries to have done so.

                  In 1939, Hitler dismissed any notion that the the Third Reich would long be held responsible for its atrocities, concluding a speech on the planned extermination of the xxxs with the words, “Who now remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?” The time has come to declare that we do. Diaspora relations are important. So, too, the relations with our neighbors.

                  The writer is vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization and a member of the xxxish Agency Executive. The opinions expressed are his own.
                  Մեկ Ազգ, Մեկ Մշակույթ
                  ---
                  "Western Assimilation is the greatest threat to the Armenian nation since the Armenian Genocide."

                  Comment


                  • Re: Armenia and the information war

                    Washington sells Nagorno-Karabakh to Aliyev

                    December 23, 2010 | 00:04

                    Washington will not act to prevent a military settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Argumenti Nedeli writes, referring to its sources. The U.S. Administration gave Azerbaijani President carte-blanche to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

                    The author believes that Washington is not against a military settlement of the problem. However, it must be done “with a lightning speed” similar to how Croatia resolved the problem of Serbian Krajina and how Georgia attempted to gain victory in a conflict with South Ossetia. In exchange, the U.S. demands that Azerbaijan provide its territory as “a springboard for attack” on Iran.

                    However, Aliyev is still hesitating. He is afraid the operation may have a bad end for Azerbaijan. It may be a blow on the political situation in the country, as well as on him.



                    U.S. needs Azerbaijan as springboard for attacking Iran…

                    Comment


                    • Re: Armenia and the information war

                      Originally posted by arakeretzig View Post
                      oh come on, that originally came from a really low quality Russian tabloid - don't believe everything you read...
                      Մեկ Ազգ, Մեկ Մշակույթ
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                      "Western Assimilation is the greatest threat to the Armenian nation since the Armenian Genocide."

                      Comment

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