Armenia

Armenia is a landlocked country bordering Turkey and Georgia, with a population of three million and capital city of Yerevan. It was once part of the Soviet Union.

Genocide
In 2007, a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would have the United States officially recognize the systematic killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915. Turkey denies any genocide took place, opposes any such bill, and has threatened to shut down the U.S. Air Force base in Turkey if any such bill should pass.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "the United States has been enabling Turkey's denial of the genocide, damaging our reputation and giving a junior ally the upper hand in a relationship in which we should be leading. Last year, the U.S. government went as far as dismissing our ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, for discussing the Armenian genocide. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have recently gone further, referring to the Armenian genocide as an open historical question needing more study.

"This position contradicts the vast majority of historians and Holocaust and genocide studies that recognize this event as unambiguous genocide, as well as the abundant documentation in our own national archives, including the memoirs of the U.S. ambassador to Ottoman Turkey in 1915, Henry Morgenthau, who wrote of witnessing the "extermination of a whole race." Turkey has even reached into our educational system by lobbying against inclusion of the Armenian genocide in our textbooks, and against local remembrances of the genocide, as was the case when Armenian Americans purchased San Francisco's Mount Davidson Cross in memory of their slain forefathers.

"In Turkey today, discussion of the Armenian genocide is a crime carrying as many as 10 years in prison. Scores of writers, professors and community leaders are being prosecuted under this law, legitimizing the undemocratic, nationalist fervor of the Turkish masses."

Media
The BBC says of the country's media:


 * Television is Armenia's dominant medium. There are more than 40 private TV stations, operating alongside the two public networks. The main Russian TV channels are widely available. Few Armenians rely on newspapers as their primary source of news. Print runs are small and most publications are owned by wealthy individuals or political parties.

Leaders

 * Robert Kocharyan, President
 * Serzh Sarkisyan, Prime minister

Related SourceWatch articles

 * House Committee on Foreign Affairs
 * Norm Coleman
 * RTI International

External articles

 * "Who defines Armenia killings as genocide?", BBC, October 11, 2007.
 * "Armenia welcomes 'genocide' vote", BBC, October 11, 2007.
 * "US delays Armenia 'genocide' vote", BBC, October 26, 2007.

External resources

 * Armenia, National Geographic, accessed February 2008.
 * Timeline: Armenia, BBC, accessed February 2008.