Month: June 2005

Clarin, Argentina
Sabado 18/06/2005
EL PARLAMENTO DE ALEMANIA
Presión a Turquía por el genocidio armenio
BERLIN. LA VANGUARDIA. ESPECIAL
El Parlamento alemán aprobó el viernes una resolución que condena “la
matanza masiva de armenios” hace 90 años por parte de turcos otomanos.
La resolución insta a Ankara a examinar el papel que desempeñó Turquía
en el asesinato de casi un millón y medio de personas de esa etnia,
en lo que es conocido como el primer genocidio del siglo XX.
La presión de los legisladores tiene una fuerte carga política. En este
sentido advirtieron al gobierno turco que el asunto, de no resolverse,
podría afectar la esperanza de Ankara de iniciar negociaciones
para ingresar en la Unión Europea. La resolución eludió calificar
el crimen de genocidio, para no exacerbar los ánimos en Turquía,
donde se rechaza este término.
El tema de la masacre de los armenios, cuyo 90 aniversario se cumplió
el pasado 24 de abril, crece en Alemania donde Gobierno y oposición
se enfrentan por el ingreso de Turquía en la UE. Ese paso es resistido
por diversos partidos políticos, en particular la oposición de derecha
de la Unión Cristiana Democrática de Angela Merkel.
La discusión sobreviene además en momentos que hay una crisis profunda
en la Unión Europea por el rechazo al proyecto de Constitución y la
posibilidad del ingreso de más estados, en especial la gigantesca
Turquía.
El ministro turco de Exteriores, Abdullah Gül, recalcó en un
comunicado, tras conocer la decisión del Bundestag, que “esta
resolución es lamentable y la condenamos fuertemente” y la calificó
de una “provocación” que herirá los sentimientos de sus compatriotas.
Ankara no acepta las denuncias de que en el fin del imperio otomano
se perpetró un genocidio ordenado por la jerarquía gubernamental
contra los armenios y sostiene que las muertes fueron consecuencia
del conflicto con los partisanos ya que los armenios apoyaban al
invasor ruso.
–Boundary_(ID_3qjGgy5Mtw2iBwVznRd+JA)–

ELECTORAL CODE WILL NOT HELP
A1plus
| 10:52:08 | 18-06-2005 | Politics |
Will elections in Armenia one day rated as fair, free and
transparent? If yes, the event will be inscribed with gold letters
in the history of the third Republic of Armenia or probably included
in the Guinness Record Book. Though for civilized countries free
and fairs elections is quite a natural phenomenon. What condition is
essential to make elections in Armenia correspond to international
standards” We addressed 100 Yerevan residents with the question.
In the opinion of 30% of the respondents the good will of the
authorities is essential. 25% consider that a proper Electoral Code
should guarantee free and fair elections. Though some of them said that
in the current situation conduction of fair elections is impossible
even with the availability of good Electoral Code.
One of those surveyed offered to form separate, politically
independent groups to take control over the polling stations. 15%
think that opposition is capable to press for conduction of elections
corresponding to international standards. 8% found difficulty in
answering.

Erdogan: German decision ‘wrong and ugly’
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Jule 18 2005
ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has labelled as
“very wrong and very ugly” the decision announced yesterday by the
German Federal Parliament to officially recognize and accept the
so-called Armenian genocide. “History will embarass them,” said
PM Erdogan.
Recalling how German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder had shown great
support for the Turkish stance and efforts towards solutions to the
Armenian claims, PM Erdogan said bitterly, “I admire politics with
bones, politics with a backbone.”
‘Massacre,’ not ‘genocide’
At a press conference held at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport on his return
from a trip to Lebanon, PM Erdogan reminded reporters that the German
parliamentary decision used the word “massacre” and not “genocide”
to describe the events of 1915. A brief summary of the PM’s other
comments on the matter follows:
“We find this decision by the German lobby, which was done without
adequate discussion, and at the bidding of some basic lobbies, very
wrong….. and beyond wrong, just ugly. We spoke with them about
this. We opened our archives. We invited them to have historians,
politicians, judges look at our archives and decide for themselves.
But they never came. And now, history will embarass them. The future
will embarass them.”
Erdogan was particularly sharp in his words about the contrast
between German PM Schroeder’s attitude towards the matter while in
Turkey last month, and yesterday’s decision in Berlin: “…Didn’t
you hear Schroeder while he was here? He said ‘I support to what
PM Erdogan is doing and saying on the matter.’ We thought that this
would continue back in Germany. Maybe he tried and wasn’t successful,
I just don’t know.”
During the Armenian Riot many Armenians died due to ethnic clashes,
epidemic diseases and famine. More than 500,000 Turkish people were
masscred by the Armenian armed groups.

Turkish PM Erdogan rebukes Germans over Armenian decision
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Jule 18 2005
ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday
criticized the German Parliament’s decision this week urging Ankara
to examine its role in the so-called Armenian ‘genocide’.
Accusing the German Parliament of “sacrificing” this serious issue to
“simple lobbyists,” without making any meaningful investigation of it,
Erdogan called the decision “politically wrong and ugly.”
The German Parliament on Thursday urged Turkey to examine its role in
the so-called Armenian genocide, an issue that could thwart Ankara’s
hopes of joining the European Union. German lawmakers adopted a
cross-party resolution asking the Berlin government to press Turkey
to reexamine the so-called Armenian genocide.
“The word ‘genocide’ was not used in their decision,” Erdogan said,
speaking to reporters about the German Parliament’s decision on his
arrival to Turkey from Lebanon late Thursday. “They chose to use the
word massacre. But still, I think that it’s politically wrong and
ugly to make this decision without investigating or negotiating on
it. We opened our archives, but they showed no interest.”
Erdogan said that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s “attitude is
opposite to this decision.” He continued, “We expected the chancellor
to move on this and try to persuade some deputies to voice their
reservations about the decision.”
During the Armenian Riot, more than 520,000 Turks were masscred by
the Armenian armed groups. The Armenian Tashnaks aimed to establish
a separate state while the Ottoman Empire was struggling the Russians
during the First World War.

Soviet WWII vet saw enough death, devoted his life to diplomacy
By Ivonne D’Amato
Centre Daily Times, PA
June 18 2005
[email protected]
It was a warm July day in 1941 when Victor Israelyan, newly arrived at
the front lines of the Soviet-German conflict, heard the sirens blast.
He gathered a young nurse in his arms and they ran through the ruin
and death of a small town in the Soviet Union.
“I had her in my arms,” Israelyan said, his eyes wide. “I heard the
German planes come over us with automatic guns firing.”
He paused, somberly staring into the past.
“I felt her fall from my arms,” Israelyan said. “Can you imagine the
young nurse had three wounds in her back, and I was safe? She was
only 20 years old.”
Israelyan was 25 at the time, a physician. The day after he graduated
from First Moscow Medical Institute, he and 800 classmates were sent
to the front lines of World War II.
His experiences there would shape the rest of his life, prompting him
to abandon the practice of medicine to become a diplomat. He went on
to negotiate missile treaties, befriend a president and author more
than 10 books on diplomacy and the Cold War.
Eventually, it brought him to Penn State, and State College, where
he lives today with his wife.
Throughout Israelyan’s home are mementos from his life. Pictures
of grandchildren share space with a picture and mounted letter from
President George H.W. Bush, a small Soviet flag astronaut Alan Shepard
took to the moon and a photo of himself in his Soviet army uniform,
his chest covered in medals.
At age 85, he moves in a slow shuffle across the room. He is of
Armenian descent, he says, but considers himself Russian because his
mother tongue is Russian.
“I want to salute the veterans of World War II. Soon, we will all pass
away,” Israelyan says in a voice slightly slurred by the effects of
four strokes, but still thick with an accent.
He throws himself into his office chair and gestures with his hands:
“What do you want to know?”
Israelyan didn’t become a physician to serve the military, he said.
“My father was a physician. … I wanted to be a doctor like my
father.”
But as he was attending medical school, Adolf Hitler’s military was
invading the Soviet Union. The war, Israelyan said, was “unexpected.”
Before it ended, the Soviet Army would lose 9 million soldiers and
another 19 million in civilian deaths, more than any of the Allied
armies.
“It is difficult to say how many battles I was in,” Israelyn said,
“but it was terrible.”
He still is haunted by one particular incident.
“In my regiment, there was a group of 18-year-old Kazakhs. They did
not even speak Russian, so they could not communicate with the rest
of us,” said Israelyan, noting that the Soviet army consisted not only
of Russians but also ethnic groups such as Jews, Kazakhs and Armenians.
“They (the Kazakhs) were from a small village, so they did not
understand what the war was for.”
Two Kazakhs were sent to scout ahead of Israelyan’s regiment, he said.
“Two hours later, one of the two returns crying, shot in the arm, and
he says, ‘The Germans shot us and killed my brother, my colleague.’ ”
Officers were suspicious of the young Kazakh’s story. Israelyan was
ordered to investigate.
It turned out the two Kazakhs made a “secret deal,” Israelyan said, to
shoot each other in the arm in hopes of gaining medical discharges. The
one who returned accidentally killed his friend.
“I had to report what happened to the colonel,” Israelyan said.
The injured Kazakh was executed for treason.
“I felt quite guilty because he told me the truth,” Israelyan said
apologetically. “I had to report it. I had tears.”
The turning point of the war came when the Soviet forces
counterattacked near Stalingrad, now Volgograd, in November 1942.
Thousands of German troops and their allies were cut off. Shortly
after the Nazis’ surrender at Stalingrad, Israelyan said he stood in
what had once been a thriving city.
“You cannot imagine,” he said. “It was a horrible situation.
Everything was destroyed. Stalingrad was more destroyed than Berlin.
There was no living thing left.”
Of the almost 800 people who graduated from medical school with
Israelyan, fewer than half returned from the war, he said.
“One of my closest friends, who was my roommate in medical school,
committed suicide because he was captured by the Germans,” Israelyan
said. He was released, “and when he returned to Russia he was accused
of being a traitor.”
Israelyan said the idea of being branded a traitor was too much for
his former roommate to handle.
But Israelyan said the war gave him a new purpose in life. “I was a
disappointed physician. I saw people my age killed so I had to become
a keeper of peace — a diplomat.”
Israelyan attended the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow from 1944 to
’46, later attended Cambridge University and, in 1960, earned a
doctorate in historical science from the Moscow State Institute of
International Relations.
“The war was five years, but the rest of my very long life was in
diplomacy, teaching, writing and lecturing,” he said.
For 20 years, Israelyan lectured at the academy and the State
University in Erevan, Armenia. Another 20 were spent as a diplomat
to the United Nations.
In 1968, Israelyan was appointed ambassador and first deputy permanent
representative of the Soviet Union to the U.N.
>>From 1975 to ’86, he headed the Soviet delegation to the U.N. and
worked on several treaties, including the Seabed and the Biological
Weapons and Non-Proliferation treaties in Geneva.
He was, he said, “regretfully, a cold warrior.”
“You have to be grateful there was no World War III,” he said. “And
that was a great success as a cold warrior.”
It was while working on the non-proliferation of nuclear arms during
the 1980s that he met George H.W. Bush, who would later become
president. Over the years, they became friends, Israelyan said.
“He is a hero, not because he was the former president, because he
was my brethren and colleague,” he said. “He was of the West and I
was of the East.”
In 1987, Israelyan retired from the foreign ministry. He later became
a visiting lecturer at Stanford and Harvard universities. In 1991, he
was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to teach topics such as diplomacy,
political science and arms reduction at Penn State.
He has been a State College resident ever since. Although retired,
Israelyan is working on his 12th book.
Israelyan said he still thinks of Russia as his motherland, but said
he loves the United States.
And he said he hopes to see a stabilized, democratic Russia. “It is
not for me and not for my children, but for my grandchildren.”
The 25-year-old physician who walked straight into the trenches of
war in 1941 saw many lives slip through his hands, but his was spared.
“God saved me.”

Armenia holds scholar from Duke over books
News & Observer, NC
June 18 2005
YEREVAN, ARMENIA — A Duke University researcher was detained at
Yerevan airport Friday on suspicion of smuggling antique books out
of Armenia, the National Security Service said.
An official for the security agency, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Turkish citizen Yektan Turkyilmaz had been arrested
in possession of books dating from the 17th to 20th centuries and
was suspected of seeking to take them secretly on a flight to Turkey.
Turkyilmaz, of Duke University in Durham, is likely to be fined
although the offense he is accused of carries a maximum five-year
jail term, the official said.
Books older than 50 years cannot be taken out of Armenia without
special permission. Turkyilmaz was in Armenia to carry out research in
the Armenian national archives, the first Turk to be allowed to do so.
Turkyilmaz is a doctoral student in Duke’s cultural anthropology
department, according to the department’s Web site. His dissertation
is on the effects of geography and nationhood on Turkey’s society.
Turkyilmaz, a Duke student for five years, is researching the early
part of the 20th century in Turkey and Armenia, said Orin Starn, a
professor in Duke’s cultural anthropology department who is a friend
and adviser to Turkyilmaz.
Starn cast doubt on the accusations that Turkyilmaz, a Turkish citizen
of Kurdish heritage, tried to smuggle books out of Armenia.
Turkyilmaz’s work includes research on the killings of Armenians,
a delicate subject in both countries, Starn said. The first Turk
to gain access to the Armenian national archives, Turkyilmaz had
approached his work on the tense period of history as a scholar.
“He’s been a bridge builder,” Starn said.
No one at Duke or in Turkyilmaz’s family in Turkey has made contact
with him, causing concern.
“My fear is that he has been caught in the middle of an explosive,
long-running conflict,” Starn said.
Armenia and Turkey do not have diplomatic relations because of a
dispute over the killings of Armenians during World War I, which
Armenians say was genocide.
Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923
in a deliberate campaign of genocide.
Turkey says the death count is inflated and insists that Armenians
were killed or displaced in the civil unrest during the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 18 2005
AZERBAIJAN’S MP LEFT FOR STRASBURG
[June 18, 2005, 11:03:32]
On June 18, members of the Azerbaijan parliament led by head of the
permanent parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe Samad Seyidov have left for Strasburg to participate
in the PACE summer session. An assessment of Russia’s honouring of
its Council of Europe obligations and commitments and a report on
the media and terrorism which calls on journalists to refrain from
disseminating shocking terrorist images are among highlights of the
summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE), which takes place in Strasbourg from 20 to 24 June 2005.
Among the questions in agenda are highlights include a debate on the
current situation in Kosovo, a joint debate on the functioning of
democratic institutions in Azerbaijan , as well as a possible urgent
debate on the constitutional reform process in Armenia . A second
urgent debate has been proposed on follow-up to the Third Summit
of the Council of Europe, with a statement by the Organisation’s
Secretary General Terry Davis.
Following the recent proposal to create an “Asian Parliamentary
Assembly” on the model of PACE, Pakistan National Assembly Speaker
Chaudhry Amir Hussain and Philippines Congress Speaker Jose de Venecia
– representing the 40-member Association of Asian Parliaments for
Peace – will take the floor to elaborate on the initiative.
Other invited guest speakers include the Prime Minister of Bosnia
and Herzegovina Adnan Terzic, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer and EBRD President Jean Lemierre, who will take part in a
debate on the Bank’s contribution to economic development in central
and eastern Europe.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

‘Armenians do not Open Archives as They Avoid Realty’
By Cihan
Zaman, Turkey
June 18 2005
Published: Saturday 18, 2005
zaman.com
Professor Justin McCarthy of the Louisville University, US, said,
Armenians do not open their historical archives because they are
afraid of facing realities.
McCarthy remarked that the Turkish government and non-government
organizations (NGOs) should act immediately to express themselves
openly to the world regarding the so-called Armenian genocide
allegations.
Noting that Armenians have been conducting studies on this issue for 80
years, the Professor criticized Turks, saying that they have only been
conducting serious studies for the past 10 years. McCarthy emphasized
the Armenian issue would be a long-term study and said Turks need to
make this study not for themselves but for their children. He continued
that if Turks want their children to be comfortable in the future,
they had to work accordingly. McCarthy reminded, Armenians act as
a unified body around the world and they have many studies on this
issue to the contrary of Turks that the country’s archives are kept
at the General Staff office do not work because they were written
by military terminology in Turkish. The US historian underlined
the necessity that the history professors’ studies in Turkey should
immediately be translated into English, German, and French.

TURKISH AUTHORITIES SELECTIVE AMNESIA PREVENT ESTABLISHMENT OF RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA
Pan Armenian News
18.06.2005 04:19
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ This year Armenia marked the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. British political circles did not allow marking the
anniversary in UK, however this conference reminds that commemoration
and censuring are not merely limited to the anniversary. As reported
by the Press Service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Armenian FM
Vartan Oskanian stated it when addressing an international conference
on genocide in UK. He appreciated the commemoration event being held
in the fatherland of Arnold Toynbee and James Brice, a historian and
a diplomat, who researched documents on the treatment of Armenians
in Ottoman Turkey. “Today’s Turkish authorities wish to review
their works. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote about it in a
letter to the British Parliament at the beginning of this year,”
Oskanian said. “Moreover, they lived most part of the past century
having reshaped their history, and now they want to remake yours,” the
Minister emphasized. It is disappointing that the contemporary Turkish
Government, held up as an example of democracy, can cynically deny its
own and the Armenian history, V. Oskanian said. “We wish to normalize
relations of our countries. However we consider Turkey’s attitude to
the matter is diametrically opposite,” Oskanian noted. “There is no
normal atmosphere in Turkey for discussing these issues. Turkey has
passed a Criminal Code, which considers any mentioning of the word
genocide as a penal act.” He also reminded that under the pressure
of Turkish authorities a scientific conference on the Armenian
Genocide was canceled. “One cannot knock at Europe’s door, closing
at that the eyes of historians and writers. Under the conditions of
absence of relations and in a situation of vacuum the commissioning
of solving complex problems to a few historians and experts is an
insincere attempt to start a dialogue. The involvement of the Turkish
State is necessary to start a dialogue,” the Armenian FM said. In his
words, Armenia and Turkey are not the only neighbors, whose relations
were undermined. This was the response of Armenian President Robert
Kocharian to the Turkish Premier. In the FM’s words, R. Kocharian
also remarked Armenia is ready to political dialogue, which may
include issues of today’s borders and the past history. “Contemporary
Turks are not guilty of the crimes of the past, of course if they do
not want to defend these,” the Minister emphasized. In his words,
Armenians and Turks, along with the rest of the world, can censure
these actions and denounce the Ottoman Empire crime. Each country
edits its past just in the way it does its expectations of the
future. “The selective amnesia of the Turkish authorities hampers
our efforts aimed at overcoming the common past,” he underscored.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Milli Majlis adopted appeal to Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe
Today, Azerbaijan
June 18 2005
18 June 2005 [10:37] – Today.Az
The members of Milli Majlis (Azeri Parliament) adopted an appeal to
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
The objective position of the Council of Europe based on the
international law principles and norms in the question of regulating
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in peaceful way is highly valued in
the appeal.
Adoption of the order # 1416 reflecting the position of PACE on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the sitting of the
winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
held on January 25 this year was a weighty gift to the international
efforts being made for regulating the conflict.
Occupation of the Azerbaijani territories by the Armed Forces of
Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh region’s being under the surveillance of
the separatist forces and ethnic cleaning held in those territories
are reflected in the order. On the other hand, it was declared that
occupation of the foreign territories by the country being the member
of the Council of Europe was serious violation of the commitments
undertaken by that country before the organization, effort of
annexing by means of force was seriously criticized, certain orders
of the Security Council of UNO requiring the occupied Azerbaijani
territories to be released were quoted, importance of withdrawing
the armed forces from the whole occupied territories was noted,
the right of the displaced persons from their native lands to return
back to their lands was asserted”. Milli Majlis informed that Armenia
was continuing keeping the Azerbaijani lands under its occupation
ignoring the demands of the international union and this country tried
to legalize the separatist regime formed in the occupied territories.
The members of Milli Majlis remembered that “elections” to the
“parliament of the fake Republic of Nagorno Karabakh” was intended
to be held in mountainous part of occupied Nagorno Karabakh region on
June 19 and informed that such step was contrary to the international
law principles and norms, demands of the documents of the international
organizations including the order $ 1416 of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe, the Constitution and laws of the Republic
of Azerbaijan. It is noted with the feeling of regret in the appeal
that the delegations, parliamentarians and other political figures
from some countries were preparing to participate in this illegal
political measure as the observers.
“The international union including the Council of Europe should not be
inattentive to this action of political diversion intended to be held
in the mountainous part of occupied Garabagh region of the Republic
of Azerbaijan. Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan requires
holding “elections” to the “parliament of the fake Republic of Nagorno
Karabakh” to be severely criticized, and to consider participation
of the official representatives of the countries included in the
Council of Europe to be impossible because of being contrary to the
principles of the Council of Europe”.
/APA/
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