As I wrote on 24 February 2006, Netherland’s Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science was inquired about the destruction of Jugha cemetery by the Azerbaijani government.

Dutch authorities have responded to Dutch MP C. G. van der Staaij of the SGP (Reformed Political Party) , Holandahay Forum informs.

Below are the politically correct (I should say, boringly ignorant) and uninformative answers.

Answers of Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, also on behalf of Secretary of State for Education, Culture and Science Van der Laan, on written questions of Dutch MP Kees van der Staaij (SGP ) on the destruction of Armenian Khachkars of Old Jougha.

[…]

Question 1
Is the report correct that by the order of the Azerbaijani authorities in December 2005 graves of particular historic and cultural significance were destroyed and desecrated at the Armenian cemetery in Djulfa in Nakhichevan? Could you inform us of the precise state of affairs?

Answer
The factual correctness of the reporting can not yet be assessed. The issue has been raised by the Armenian authorities on 22 December 2005 at the OSCE Permanent Council. Azerbaijani authorities reject the accusations.

Question 2
Could the government confirm whether the destruction is related to the dormant conflict of Nagorno Karabagh?

Answer
As long as the actual facts of the case are not clarified, one is also not sure about the cause. The parties have not yet found a solution to the conflict and tensions can continue to occur.

Question 3
To what extend has Azerbaijan been sensitive to international criticism to similar destruction in past years?

Answer
In reaction to international criticism of this kind Azerbaijan usually points the finger accusingly towards Armenia. Armenia would have, in the eyes of Azerbaijani authorities, deliberately neglected or destroyed the Azerbaijani cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabagh and nearby provinces.

Question 4
Is the Dutch government prepared to back the EU statement by condemning the events and reminding Azerbaijan over her obligations vis-à-vis her membership of the Council of Europe and participation in the European Neighbourhood policy.

Answer
The Netherlands has already, on 1 February 2006. spoken out at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europa, in favour of an international investigation on the destructions. In the Action Plan of the Council of Europe and in the Action Plan of the EU, which is set up within the Neighbourhood Policy, attention is paid to the preservation of cultural heritage on basis of Azerbaijani obligations with regard to her membership of the Council of Europe and the European Neighbourhood Policy.

U.S. senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) have introduced a major bill (S. 2461) in the U.S. Senate that would bar assistance for a proposed $800 million railway that would connect Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey while bypassing Armenia, an Armenian Assembly of America 28 March 2006 press-release informs.

(photo from www.zhamanak.com)

he legislation, known as the South Caucasus Integration and Open Railroads Act, was introduced shortly after participants of the Assembly’s National Conference met with senior staff representing Senators Santorum and Menendez – both longtime supporters of Armenian issues. The three-day National Conference was co-hosted by the AGBU and Eastern and Western Dioceses of the Armenian Church.

“United States policy in the South Caucasus seeks to foster regional stability and enhanced cooperation, and includes open borders and transport corridors,” Santorum told the Assembly. “The proposed rail link would not only undermine U.S. long-term goals for the region, but serves to isolate Armenia. Efforts to foster economic integration and reduce the risk of further tensions are in the best interests of the United States and the South Caucasus.”

Menendez, echoing Santorum, added that “the sole aim of this costly project is to further isolate Armenia by enhancing the ongoing Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate and members of the Armenian-American community to block U.S. financial support of this rail project.”

“We commend the leadership of Senators Santorum and Menendez for this Senate initiative to prohibit funding for this ill-conceived route, which not only thwarts U.S. policy goals, but is also a continuation of Azerbaijan’s blockade plus strategy to marginalize Armenia, which we cannot allow,” said Assembly Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian. “The realization of this legislation is a testament to the grassroots activism exemplified throughout this National Conference.”

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told an Azeri news agency last summer that, “We are currently working on a new project – a new rail road Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku..If we succeed with this project, the Armenians will end in complete isolation, which would create an additional problem for their future, their already bleak future…”

For those of you in Germany there is a good opportunity to see Turkish author Osman Koker's exhibit, Sireli Yeghpayrs (My Dear Brother), on Turkey’s Armenian past.

He has recently published a book that has hundreds of archival photographs (mainly postcards) showing the Armenian life and heritage 100 years ago.

The event will take place in Köln/Cologne Germany with accompanying German, Armenian and Turkish texts. Sponsored by the Turkish German organization Kulturforum Turkei-Deutschland, the exhibit will be open during 31 March – 25 April 2006.

via ArmWorkShop@UMich

New cartoon from www.bendib.com:

Andrew Goldberg, the executive producer of “The Armenian Genocide,” has requested volunteers for the 17 April 2006 screening in Los Angeles, California. As I informed before, he will be showing his “The Armenian Genocide” film for free in Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre on 17 April 2006.

I don’t live in California otherwise I would volunteer for screening the movie!

For those who want to help out.

When? Monday, 17 April 2006, from 4:00pm-12:00am (midnight)
Where? Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood, California (6712 Hollywood Blvd.,
Hollywood, CA).
Requirements? Must be 17 and over; respectful and ready to work hard!
Responsibilities? A few on front door, a few for information, a few to help man the tables etc.
Benefits? VIP seats for friends of the volunteers.
Contact (more information)? [email protected] (Andrew Goldberg’s associate) as soon as possible! Please explain in your message why you decided to volunteer.
Number of volunteers needed? NOT THAT MANY. So if you really want to help them, hurry up!

Secretary of State Rice speaks at the signing of the Millennium Challenge Compact between the United States and the Republic of Armenia at the State Department in Washington, Monday March 27, 2006. Behind her are Armenian Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan, delegation member Artashes Emin, and Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Ambassador John Danilovich, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, right, shakes hands with Armenian Minister of Finance and Economy Vardan Khachatryan after signing the Millennium Challenge Compact between the United States and the Republic of Armenia at the State Department in Washington, Monday, March 27, 2006. Behind them are Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, center, and members of the Armenian delegation. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Though many and many researches have been done about genocide, the cultural aspect of the crime has been ignored. The ignorance is particularly noticeable in the Armenian case, whereas the Armenian genocide’s cultural aspect may well be the precedent for “cultural genocide.”

Robert Bevan, in his recent “The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War” seems to revolt against the precedent of ignorance. According to The Age “Barbarians through the gate” March 25 2006 review, “In the first chapter only, Bevan brings together the former Yugoslavia, the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide of 1915 to make a powerful case for the phenomenon of cultural cleansing – the destruction of people, their collective memory and identity with architecture as its medium.”

Bevan is either unaware of Old Jugha’s recent destruction or did not learn about it before the book’s completion.

According to Amazon.com, the book will be out on 15 April 2006 in the US.

Armenian-Canadian Alice Panikian, 20, from Toronto, as ArmenianAffairs informs, is Miss Universe® Canada 2006.

I was in Toronto last summer and thought the Persian-Canadian chicks were the hottest. Sorry for underestimating the Armenian beauties!

There had been some developments on Azerbaijan’s denial of the recent destruction of the Jugha cemetery that I missed. I encountered those by browsing the forum of VirtualAni.org at http://www.network54.com/Forum/146256/.

Here is the summary. It turns out that Azerbaijan has officially declared that there is no way they would let international groups check what had really happened in the Armenian cemetery of Jugha (which is now a rifle range).

As Azerbaijani news agency Assa-Irada reported on 3 March 2006, “Azeri officials have ruled out the possibility of a visit by an international mission to the country's
exclave of Nakhchivan following the recent adoption of the unfair
resolution by the European Parliament concerning the alleged
destruction of ancient graves.”

If these people swear to death that Armenians are lying, why the hell they wouldn’t let the world to see their “reality”? If they are saying the Armenian photographs are fabrications, why they hell they wouldn’t take photographs of their own or let international organizations visit and see with their eyes?

According to the same agency, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry had stated “video-materials submitted to the legislative body by certain radical pro-Armenian forces were biased.” Can somebody help me to understand what a biased video-material is? When you tape somebody destroying a medieval monument you are being biased?

Another important thing that I had missed was that, as the Azerbaijani ANS TV from Baku reported on 16 February 2006, “Azerbaijani embassies in foreign countries have finally been instructed to… deny Armenian allegations that their historical monuments were destroyed in Culfa [in Azeri exclave Naxcivan].”

The medieval Armenian cemetery of Hin Jugha (Old Julfa) was completely destroyed in December of 2005 by Azerbaijani soldiers and converted to a rifle range by March of 2006.

Protestors waving a U.S. and Armenian flags demonstrate against Turkey during the Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul's visit at a meeting of the World Affairs Council at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, March 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

From an ANCA press release:

Among the thousands of participants in today’s protest were Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-27) and Burbank Board of Education President Paul Krekorian.

“It is not only those with Armenian heritage who demand that the truth be recognized. Friends of Turkey should demonstrate that Turkey accept the Armenian Genocide,” said Congressman Sherman in his remarks to the crowd. “Where will Turkey be among the family of nations if it does not recognize the truth? I will work in Congress every day until the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide is recognized,” he concluded.

The Defense Minister’s speech was repeatedly interrupted by chants coming from protesters demonstrating along Sunset Boulevard. Armenian Americans attending the luncheon, including Glendale Unified School District Board Member Greg Krikorian, called on the Defense Minister to acknowledge Turkey’s past.

However, Defense Minister Gönül said that “these are Armenian claims, and there is nothing to acknowledge.”