488) Media Scanner Dec 2005

• Labor Party Proves Lie Of So-called Armenian Genocide On Basis Of Armenian Documents
• Retired Professor Slams Armenian Claims Of Genocide
• Court To Look At Mitterand's "Operation Turquoise" In 1994 Genocide
• Rwanda Genocide Probe Eyes French Army
• Leaflets Depicting Turkish Symbol Of Crescent And Star Were Posted In Georgian Armenian Region

Labor Party Proves Lie Of So-called Armenian Genocide On Basis Of Armenian Documents

ANKARA - Labor Party (IP) leader Dogu Perincek said, ''with a project we prepare, we will prove with Armenian resources and documents that so-called Armenian genocide is a lie.''

Giving information about their project, Perincek said, ''China, India as well as African and Middle Eastern countries do not recognize so-called Armenian genocide. Imperialist countries take so-called Armenian genocide decisions.''
''After the World War I, first Premier of Armenia Hovhannes Katchaznouni as well as Armenian commanders and historians wrote that they became tool of imperialists in their reports and books. We have initiated the Big Project 2006. We will prepare 7 books within that scope and distribute them abroad. We will prove with Armenian resources and documents to the world that so-called Armenian genocide is a lie.''

Perincek said, ''5 million Turks are living abroad. The victory we won in Switzerland will continue in Germany, France and Belgium as well. We will march in Washington D.C. on April 24th.''

12/19/2005

AFP

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Retired professor slams Armenian claims of genocide

Speaking at a conference in Mugla called "Turks, Armenians, and the Truth in History," Professor Turkkaya Ataov, noting that many Turkish intellectuals have been killed for their stance on the so-called Armenian genocide, said "We have put on our grave shrouds. We are determined to go down this path, and whatever happens doesn't matter, since we'll die anyway. We might as well fall as fighters for our country." . . . "1,000 years of peace with Armenians"

Grabbing the microphone out of turn during the symposium to speak to the audience, retired Professor Ataov also said the following: "I want to bring the end point to the beginning in what I say: The Turks did not commit genocide against the Armenians either before or after World War I. The truth is that Turks, beginning from the time of the Selcuks, have had peaceful relations with the Armenians for one thousand years. The reason for the tension in 1915 was that the Armenians, despite promises that had been made, joined in the Russian army in attacks on Muslim villages."

Comments greeted by applause from audience members

Speaking further, Professor Ataov said "We continue our struggle against these allegations. In 40 years, we have published 137 books on this subject; only a madman would attempt this. We are determined to go down this path." Noting that Turkey had only recently awoken to the severity and seriousness of the Armenian claims of genocide, Professor Ataov's comments were applauded at length by the approximately 700 audience members filling the salon.

AFP

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Court to look at Mitterand's "Operation Turquoise" in 1994 genocide

Kim Willsher in Paris

The Guardian


The French army has been put under official investigation on charges of having taken part in the Rwandan genocide.


Despite official attempts to block the move, a military court is to look into claims that soldiers serving as part of Operation Turquoise in Rwanda not only failed to stop the killing but participated in the slaughter of about 800,000 people. . . .
Six Rwandans who survived the 1994 genocide have brought the claim of "complicity to genocide and/or crimes against humanity" against French forces. The military court dismissed four of them but is focusing on the cases of two Rwandans. The Rwandans' lawyer, William Bourdon, described it as a "half measure". "This investigation remains at the moment incomplete because of the incomprehensible resistance of the prosecutor to unlimited inquiries," he said. "But it is an important step and the extension of the inquiry into the facts charged by the other four plaintiffs is inevitable," he told AFP.

Article continues
The majority of those killed in the violence sparked by the death of Juvenal Habyarimana, the then president, in a plane crash were Tutsis massacred by Hutus.

Auréa Mukakalisa, aged 27 at the time, has testified that she was raped by Hutu militia at the Murambi refugee camp while it was controlled by French soldiers. "Hutu militiamen came into the camp and pointed out the Tutsis who the French soldiers then forced to leave," she told the French investigating magistrate, Brigitte Raymaud.

"I saw the militiamen kill them - I saw French soldiers themselves kill Tutsis using gleaming big knives."

The second plaintiff, Innocent Gisanura, aged 14 at the time, was among thousands of Tutsis who fled to escape the violence. "We were attacked and chased by militiamen and I affirm that the French soldiers watched what was happening in their vehicles without doing anything," he told Ms Raymaud.

Kim Willsher in Paris
December 27, 2005
The Guardian

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Rwanda genocide probe eyes French army
KIGALI, Rwanda (UPI) -- A Rwandan prosecutor has opened a formal inquiry to determine if French troops conspired, or assisted in the 1994 massacre of some 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis.

A lawsuit was filed by six survivors who said they witnessed atrocities committed with the complicity of the French Army, but military investigator Jacques Baillet rejected four of the plaintiffs on grounds they had not suffered personally. . . .
The unrest and massacres began after Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana was killed in a plane crash, and France deployed a force of about 2,500 soldiers to its former colony.

One of the two survivors said in a statement she watched French soldiers use knives to kill fellow Tutsis while another said French soldiers watched and did nothing as Hutus chased and killed Tutsis from a jungle camp.

French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie described the claims as outlandish, The Times of London said Monday.

In 1998, a French parliamentary committee attempted to investigate France`s role in the genocide, but most of the evidence it examined was classified as a state secret.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International
Dec 26, 2005,

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Leaflets Depicting Turkish Symbol Of Crescent And Star Were Posted In Georgian Armenian Region

It is reported that anonymous people posted leaflets in Russian on the buildings of Akhalkalaki in Georgian Javakheti region, depicting Turkish Symbol of crescent and star and signed by Brigade of Akhaltsikhe Liberation.

The leaflets urged local Armenian people to immediately move from the region and said that “otherwise you will face with genocide like your ancestors in 1915”. . .
The Council of Samtskhe-Javakh Social Organizations issued a statement and said that “those responsible for these activities play with fire and inciting local people is no benefit for both Georgians and Armenians”.

David Rstakyan, the leader of VIRK, a party of Javakh Armenians said that these leaflets are likely posted by Georgian secret service. According to Rstakyan, Georgia is not ready for accepting Ahiska Turks and tried to create a belief that those responsible for this are Armenians by inciting anti-Turkish feelings among Armenians.

We remembered Rstakyan with his past remarks that “Ahiska Turks will capture Javakheti and thus, Turkish threat will escalate”. It is waited curiously for reaction of Georgian government to Rstakyan’s claims. Since political observers agreed that Georgia will not take the risk to make Turkey anger.

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