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For the columns from february on please visit |
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American Jewish Congress Honors Turkish Leader Who Denies Genocide By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The American Jewish Congress (AJC) honored Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey, with its "Profiles in Courage" award during a luncheon held in New York City on January 26. The Prime Minister of Turkey arrived in New York on January 25 for a six-day visit that included a three-hour meeting with Pres. ...
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Armenia Should Not Allow TARC to Meet in Yerevan By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The members of the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) are back at their old tricks again, secretly plotting their next moves. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) revealed last week that TARC, composed of a small group of Turkish and Armenian individuals, mostly financed and directed by the U.S. government, held ...
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Gray Wolves Spoil Turkey's Publicity Ploy on 'Ararat' By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The international press published in the past two weeks dozens of articles regarding the cancellation of the screening in Turkey of Atom Egoyan's movie "Ararat." In order to understand why the showing of "Ararat" was canceled, we must first understand what prompted the Turkish authorities to take the unprecedented step of ...
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Lincy Foundation Completes $170 Million Project in Armenia By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier It is said that bad news travels fast. In the case of Armenia, there has been plenty of bad news in the past 15 years, starting with the Karabagh War, the earthquake, the blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan, emigration, and economic as well as political turmoil. The population of Armenia suffered through several very harsh ...
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Why Did Presidential Candidate Clark Switch Sides on Armenian Genocide? By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Democratic Presidential Candidate General Wesley Clark issued a statement on December 15, 2003, recognizing the Armenian Genocide. "The Ottoman authorities rounded up and executed Armenian leaders in Constantinople and other towns, they desecrated Armenian churches, and they ordered the deportation of the ...
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Internal State Dept. Memos Show Pro-Turkish, Anti-Armenian Bias By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Recently declassified confidential State Department memos reveal the extent of prevailing pro-Turkish and anti-Armenian attitudes among Washington policy makers. Even though government censors have deleted the most sensitive parts of these documents, they still reveal a definite pro-Turkish bias at the State Dept. ...
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Pentagon Values Oil Much More Than Democracy in Azerbaijan By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier It was noteworthy that U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Baku and Tbilisi last week, but not Yerevan. Armenians have to be concerned about his lack of even-handedness vis-a-vis the three countries of the Caucasus. Most European and American officials usually visit all three states during their tour of the ...
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Armenians Should Counter Pro-Turkish Guest Editorials By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Despite the impressive advances registered by Armenian-Americans in recent years in the field of political activism, one area that remains almost completely overlooked is the use of newspapers in publicizing their cause to the American public. Political messages could be disseminated through a newspaper's news items, editorials, ...
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The Causes of Terrorism in Turkey Are Repression and Anti-Semitism By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The horrible terrorist attacks in Istanbul, causing the deaths of more than 50 innocent individuals and the wounding of about 750, have deeply shaken the Turkish public. Regrettably, the leaders of Turkey and their western supporters do not seem to have learned much from this massive tragedy. Intentionally or ...
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Who Bombed the Synagogues: Al-Qaida or Turkish Terrorists? By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier More than two dozen Jews and others were killed and over 300 wounded as a result of the terrorist bombings at two synagogues in Istanbul last week. High-ranking Turkish officials immediately pointed the finger of responsibility to international terrorists, more specifically to al-Qaida, in order to divert the blame away ...
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Turkish Lawsuit in San Francisco Blames Ottomans for the Genocide By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier For many years, a lot of people -- Armenians, non-Armenians, and even some Turks -- have been puzzled as to why the leaders of today's Turkey have been trying so hard to cover up a genocide committed not by them, but by their predecessors in the Ottoman Empire -- a long defunct state. The legal responsibility of the ...
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Sheriff Condemns Turkish Consul For Insulting Letter on Genocide By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Turkish officials never miss an opportunity to counter and attack all those who make even a passing reference to the Armenian Genocide. The Turks are quick to condemn and silence journalists, writers, filmmakers, artists, or politicians around the world who dare to mention the Genocide. It is ironic that instead of ...
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CIA Confirms Armenian Ownership Of Karabagh and Lands in Turkey By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The Central Intelligence Agency publishes each year a report called "World Factbook" which contains comprehensive information on the geography, population, government, economy, communications, transportation, and the military of more than 200 countries and territories. The Factbook can also be read on CIA's web ...
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Guidelines for Letters to Editor From Newsweek and N.Y. Times By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Writing a letter to a newspaper is one of the simplest ways of publicizing one's point of view and influencing public opinion. Since the chances of getting any one letter published are slim, Armenian-American organizations often advocate mass letter-writing campaigns. Three important ...
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Armenian Scientist Robbed Of Nobel Prize in Medicine By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Dr. Raymond Damadian, the inventor of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology was robbed of a well-deserved Nobel Prize in Medicine last week when the Nobel Committee awarded the Prize to two other scientists who had merely made technological improvements based on his discovery. Dr. Damadian's machine has saved millions ...
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For the first time, a publication on the Armenian Genocide has become one of the hottest selling books in America! Peter Balakian's critically-acclaimed book, "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response," has registered a sensational sales record in the short span of two weeks since its release by HarperCollins on September 30, 2003. Based on the sales reports of various booksellers nationwide, the Wall Street Journal ranked it ...
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By Lashing Out at Switzerland, Turks Help Publicize Genocide By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The regional parliament of the canton (province) of Vaud in Switzerland adopted a resolution on September 23, in recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Given the restrained text of this resolution (it mentioned neither the Turks nor the Republic of Turkey) and the negligible influence the canton's decisions have on ...
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Sheriff to Admonish Deputy for Role in Anti-Armenian TV Show By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier During his appearance on an Armenian TV program in Glendale last Sunday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca said that he would write a letter of admonition to Reserve Deputy David Port for writing the script of an anti-Armenian episode of the TV show, Dragnet. In an earlier column, I had reported that the ABC and USA ...
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Turks Set Up National Committee To Expand Anti-Armenian Efforts By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Faced with the ever-growing recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the international arena, the Turkish government is hatching new plots to counter the Armenian efforts by resorting to massive and costly schemes. These new schemes are an indirect admission that the millions of dollars spent by the Turks on similar ...
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Why Doesn't Israel Protect Jews From Mistreatment in Turkey? By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The violations of the cultural, religious and educational rights of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Kurds in Turkey are well known. Very little, however, has been made public about the condition of the Jews in Turkey, particularly those in Anatolia, outside the limelight of Istanbul. In a recent article, the Jewish ...
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Help Advance the Armenian Cause By Ordering 'The Burning Tigris' By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Between now and the end of September, Armenian-Americans have the unique opportunity to place a very valuable book on the Armenian Genocide on the best-seller list. Peter Balakian, the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, "Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past," has written a ...
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88 Years After the Genocide, Turks Still Persecuting Armenians By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The Turkish government and its apologists often try to cover up the persecution of minorities in Turkey by pointing to flattering statements made under duress by the cowering leaders of non-Turkish communities. The fact is that minorities in Turkey, including Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Jews and Kurds, are not only ...
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L.A. County Sheriff Attorneys Reviewing "Dragnet" TV Show By Harut Sassounian Publisher, the California Courier Earlier this month, I informed the readers that the ABC and USA networks broadcast twice in recent months a particularly offensive episode of the TV show "Dragnet" which described Armenians as "savages." In that column, I urged the Armenian-American community to complain to the executives of these networks as well as to Los ...
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Turkish Minister's Words Generate Cheap Applause at Armenian Banquet By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The Armenians of Turkey live under such repressive conditions that they not only have to tolerate the intimidation that they are subjected to on a daily basis, but are forced to show gratitude and respect to the government officials who are harassing them! What happened last Friday during the ...
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Supporting Pres. Bush's Reelection Could Undermine Armenian Interests By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier Even though it is a little bit too soon to comment on the presidential election of November 2004, a press release issued last week by the National Organization of Republican Armenians (NORA) on contributions provided by Armenian Americans for the reelection of Pres. Bush leaves us no choice but to deal with this ...
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Hour-Long TV Show 'Dragnet' Depicts Armenians as Savages By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The USA Network re-broadcast on July 5, 2003, a one-hour police drama called Dragnet which portrayed all Armenians as vicious criminals. While presenting the fictionalized version of a murder allegedly committed by two Armenian individuals, it impugned the good name of all Armenians, not just the ones who committed the crime. ...
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Irish Writer Slams Israel's Stand On Armenian Genocide in Jewish Paper By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The Israeli government's shameless position of not recognizing the Armenian Genocide has had a devastating effect on its image abroad. Besides offending Armenians, Israel's denialist policy has had the regrettable effect of making people around the world less sympathetic towards Jewish suffering in the Holocaust. ...
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Armenians Should Not Help Spread Turkish Propaganda By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Ever since the Turkish Parliament's rejection of stationing American troops in Turkey for the purpose of invading Iraq, the Turkish government has lost a great deal of support in Washington. This Turkish betrayal has not only angered large segments of the American public, but also the overwhelming majority of the members of ...
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Glendale's 100,000 Armenians Should Get Fair Share of City Jobs By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier In recent years, as tens of thousands of Armenian immigrants from several Middle Eastern countries and Armenia moved to Glendale, there were unavoidable tensions from time to time between these newcomers and old-time Glendalians. Most of the misunderstandings occurred due to the immigrants not knowing any English ...
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Turkish-Initiated Dialogue with Diaspora, As Expected, Reaches a Dead-End By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The Turkish diplomatic offensive launched against the Armenian Diaspora in recent weeks, under the guise of dialogue, has hit a dead-end. Two years ago, with the backing of the State Department, Turkey attempted a similar ploy by initiating the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC). When ...
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Turkish Official Dismisses Naïve Armenian Notions on Dialogue By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Ambassador Ecvet Tezcan, the Turkish Foreign Ministry's Director of Intelligence and Research, returned to Ankara last week after a whirlwind tour of the United States during which he met with several Armenian organizations and individuals in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. While Amb. Tezcan has not made any ...
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Realizing their Guilt, Turks Are Worried That Armenians Are Seeking Compensation By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Despite the repeated denials of the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish government and various segments of Turkish society, including the media, are realizing that sooner or later they will have to join the rest of the world in admitting that their ancestors have indeed attempted to annihilate an entire nation, ...
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Virulent Anti-Armenian Turkish Diplomat Invites Armenian Americans to "Dialogue" By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Turkish officials in the United States contacted various Armenian-American organizations and individuals last week inviting them to separate meetings with Ambassador Ecvet Tezcan, the Director of the Department of Intelligence and Research at the Foreign Ministry of Turkey. The invitation elicited two ...
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What a Difference a War Makes In Turkish-Jewish Relations By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier While it is widely known that Turkey antagonized the United States by its refusal to cooperate on the Iraq war, much less is known about the support it lost from influential American Jewish circles. The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) is one such powerful Washington-based group. Its objective is to ...
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How Many Times Should Congress Recognize the Armenian Genocide? By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved last week a resolution marking the 15th anniversary of the U.S. implementation of the UN Genocide Convention. House Resolution 193, which mentions the Jewish Holocaust as well as the Armenian, Cambodian and Rwandan genocides, is now forwarded to the full House for its ...
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First Global Survey of Armenian Opinion Presented at Futuristic Conclave in Athens By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier More than 70 bright young men and women of diverse backgrounds from Russia, Armenia, Europe, and North and South America gathered in Athens, Greece, during the past weekend, to take on the challenging task of developing alternative scenarios for Armenia's future until the year 2020. These Armenian ...
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Turkey's Best Friends in Washington Turn Into Its Harshest Critics By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Just when the euphoria of a quick U.S. victory over Saddam's regime in Iraq seemed to relegate Turkey's lack of cooperation into oblivion, three high-ranking Turkophile American officials made abundantly clear last week that they had neither forgiven nor forgotten the betrayal by their much touted "ally." Using ...
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Joint Effort Leads to Policy Change On Genocide at USC Daily Trojan By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Out of the countless commemorations of the 88th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide organized by Armenian communities around the world, I would like to single out just one episode for the sake of illustrating that Armenians can accomplish much more when they work together in pursuit of a common cause. A few days ...
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President Bush Once Again Issues An Insulting Statement on April 24 By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Can anyone understand why Pres. Bush keeps on issuing these offensive statements year after year on the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide? If officials in the White House or the State Department think that by issuing such statements they are scoring points with the Armenian community, they are sadly mistaken. ...
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Armenian Youth Go on Week-long Hunger Strike in Front of Museum of Tolerance By Harut Sassounian Publisher The California Courier A handful of young Armenians went on a hunger strike in Los Angeles during the past week demanding that the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance set up a permanent exhibit on the Armenian Genocide. Eating nothing at all and drinking only water, they spent the past seven chilly nights ...
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New York City Sues Turkey For Not Paying Property Tax By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier After alienating Washington by not allowing American troops to cross its territory to attack Iraq, Turkey is now antagonizing New York by refusing to pay property taxes it has owed the city during the past 20 years. The attorneys for the City of New York filed a lawsuit on April 9 against the Republic of Turkey in Manhattan ...
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Azeris Panic Long Before a Single Iraqi Armenian Sets Foot in Karabagh By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Up until a couple of weeks ago when I reported in this column that a small group in Armenia had suggested that Armenian refugees from Iraq be settled in Karabagh, the government of Azerbaijan was contentedly awaiting the outcome of the U.S. war on Iraq, hoping to get political "goodies" from the Americans in return ...
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Rumsfeld Should Dismiss Richard Perle From Pentagon's Defense Policy Board By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Richard Perle, one of the staunchest opponents of the Armenian Cause in Washington, lost a considerable amount of his political clout last week when he was forced to resign from the chairmanship of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, an influential group of experts and former government officials who have ...
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Another Example of Intolerance by the Museum of Tolerance The Los Angeles Times recently disclosed that the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles has eliminated an exhibit dedicated to the Armenian Genocide and stopped showing to visitors a documentary that described the extermination of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. The museum officials gave the lame excuse that they had simply rearranged that particular exhibit and had replaced ...
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Karabagh May Benefit From U.S. War on Iraq By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier While Armenia has cautiously backed peaceful international efforts to disarm Iraq, Azerbaijan has decided to align itself more directly with the American war effort, according to the published list of countries supporting the U.S. President Aliyev, seeing America's willingness to shell out billions of dollars to "the coalition of the willing," or ...
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Turkey Loses American Support By "Horse-Trading" Over Iraq By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Ignoring the fact that more than 90% of the Turkish public is opposed to a U.S.-led war on Iraq, the newly elected Islamic leaders of Turkey, who themselves are against an American attack on a neighboring Muslim country, were too tempted to pass up the opportunity of pocketing billions of dollars from the United States in ...
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Controversial Elections Reflect Armenian Society's Shortcomings By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Any fair-minded and concerned Armenian who has closely followed the Armenian presidential campaign and the subsequent elections must be troubled by the turmoil it has created in the fragile homeland. While the supporters of President Robert Kocharian are calling on Armenians to rally behind the re-elected head of state, ...
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Turkey's Rejection of American Troops Exposes Myth of US-Turkish Friendship By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier For decades now, successive American administrations have been singing the praises of Turkey for its alleged friendship towards the United States. During the Cold War, American officials believed that Turkey deserved full US support for supposedly serving as a first line of defense against any possible Soviet ...
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Armenia Holds Turbulent Presidential Election By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Most political observers had predicted that the incumbent President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian, would be re-elected in the first round on February 19. He was expected to easily defeat Stepan Demirjian, the son of a popular Communist-era leader, as well as Ardashes Geghamian, the former Mayor of Yerevan, and six others. Kocharian needed over 50% of the ...
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Righting a Wrong Done to Genocide Scholar, Dr. Auron By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Two weeks ago, over 100 delegates and dignitaries from 20 countries participated in the "Pro Armenia International Conference" organized by the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy in Paris, France. This unprecedented gathering of scholars and international political leaders took place at the historic Clemenceau Hall of ...
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Museum of Tolerance Officials Have An Obligation to be More Tolerant By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier A lengthy article in the Feb 3rd issue of the Los Angeles Times by Christopher Reynolds exposing the removal of an exhibit dedicated to the Armenian Genocide from the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles raised great concerns in Armenian communities worldwide. Even more ...
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By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Cong. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, has been a staunch friend and an outstanding supporter of the Armenian Cause for many years. He has visited not only Armenia, but also Karabagh, several times! He has repeatedly raised scores of Armenian concerns in the U.S. Congress. Over the years, he has held countless private and public meetings ...
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By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan are represented in Washington by some of the best public relations firms and lobbyists money can buy. Nevertheless, their human rights records are so bad that even top-notch American professionals have a hard time whitewashing their tarnished image. Rather than taking steps to improve their domestic laws and treating their citizens a little more ...
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By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The proponents of the denial of the Armenian Genocide never seem to tire or give up. Their attempts to conceal the truth come in many forms and are hidden behind various acronyms. There was a time when the only denier of the Genocide was the perpetrator itself - the Turkish government. Despite the enormous amounts of money and effort spent by the Turks to cover up the first genocide of the 20th century, ...
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By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier The Justice Department inadvertently provided a major boost to the political clout of Armenian-Americans last week when it backed down from requiring that adult male visitors from Armenia be photographed and fingerprinted. While a spokesman called the Justice Department's initial requirement "a mistake," it was clear that the U.S. officials would not have removed ...
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By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Armenians worldwide were shocked and incensed by the Justice Department's decision requiring that citizens of Armenia visiting the United States be fingerprinted and photographed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Attorney General John Ashcroft, in a notice signed on December 12, 2002, ordered that all Armenian, Pakistani and Saudi males over the age of ...
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Harut Sassounian The California Courier US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz just returned from a difficult trip to Turkey. He was trying to secure the cooperation of the reluctant Turks in a probable U.S.-led war on Iraq. The newly-elected Islamic government of Turkey, having come to power by gaining the majority of the seats in Parliament, is not willing to support a war opposed by most of the ...
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Patriarch Embarks on Lobbying Tour on Behalf of Turkey By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier 7 Dec 2002 The Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Mesrob II, has been touring various European capitals in the past couple of weeks in order to drum up support for Turkey's eventual membership in the European Union (EU). While previous Patriarchs, on certain occasions, have been asked by the Turkish government to participate in ...
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Now that "Ararat" is Finally Here, Why Have the Turks Fallen Silent? By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier During the last couple of years, as Atom Egoyan and his crew were working on "Ararat," various Turkish individuals, organizations and officials were busy trying to undermine first the production and then the distribution of this movie. Before knowing anything about this movie, except possibly its ...
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