Month: June 2005

Journal of Turkish Weekly
June 20 2005
The way I think after Srebrenica tape
View by Baris Sanli
JTW Ankara
After the Srebrenica tape, the ghosts of the past haunted the
headlines. The tragedies, the hatreds and denials were all back
again. It was as if, some one is digging the past with a knife. It
was painful for some, heroic for the other some and unbelievable for
the rest.
In ISRO/USAK we made several discussions about the events. Instead of
blaming the Serbians, we preferred discussing the possibility of
constructive policies for the Balkans. Some of optimistic, some were
pessimistic. During last week, whatever we published about Serbia was
used as an evidence for proving the hatred between Serbs and Turks by
some foreign media. It was definitely unbelievable, whatever the
subject is, the conclusion was ready: `They said this because they
hate us’.
As an Internet media, we regularly check our inboxes, read your
messages and listen our readers. Generally the readers shape our way
of writing and dealing with issues. On the other hand, as Dr. Laciner
reminds all our writers : `The sincerity is the key’. So, after all
the emails and forums, we tried to look differently to the Balkans
and think sincerely.
Turkey’s Dilemma
Most of the people may say, `what the hell Turkey has to do with
Balkans?’. This was true until late 1980s. Bulgaria’s attitude
towards Bulgarian Turks, and forcing them to immigrate were the first
signs of Turkey’s reluctant involvement with Balkans. On one hand,
Turkish Foreign Policy is based on peace and not interfering other
nation’s internal matter. On the other hand, Turkey is inherently
multicultural society. There are lots of lobby groups like
ethnic(from Balkans and Caucasus) organizations or groups those can
affect Turkish Foreign Policy.
Bosnian war was the biggest single event that attracted Turks
attention to the Balkans. In terms of Balkan policy there is `Before
Bosnia’ and `After Bosnia’. `Before Bosnia’ period was when most of
the Turks do not have any idea about the Bosnia or Balkans. The
reflection of this event even continued during the war. For example a
Serbian football player has become the key player of one of Turkey’s
most prominent teams. The crowds were cheering his name. It was
absolutely a time of neutrality.
`After Bosnia’ period was when the Bosnian’s started immigrating to
Turkey. Their tragedies were slowly becoming part of ordinary Turks
memories. While Serbs were ethnically cleansing Muslims and
-according to them Turkish presence, they were achieving the
impossible, namely `increasing the Balkan awareness in Turkey’.
Nowadays, once in a week Turkish State Television (TRT) is
broadcasting programs in Bosnian, which is hard to imagine in 1990s.
During the Kosovo events, I perfectly remember, the reporter girl
from ATV(Turkish channel) started crying when she saw the shattered
lives of the immigrants those forced to the borders. So all these
events, forced the governments to do something about the Balkans. But
the governments and their policies have ignored this pressure on
them. If Turkey has increased its influence in the Balkans, the
Serbian nationalism will grow stronger and hence may damage the
Muslims and Albanians living there. On the other hand, the weaker
Turkey acts, the more violent Serbians become. `Where are Turks now?’
like sentences from Serbs are also etched in the memories of some
Turks.
Why Balkans?
Turkey didn’t need an immigration policy until 1980s. But first the
Bulgarian, then the Bosnia and the Kosovo events led to changes in
Turkish immigration policy. Anytime a dispute starts in the Balkans,
Turkey welcomes the immigrants and hosts them. But most of the
immigrants reject to go back to their countries even after the
disputes end. An important ratio of them tries to get a Turkish
passport for their future as a sign of distrust to their home
countries’ attitudes.
This psychology is hazardous, because it helps to the aims of the
tyrants and changes the dynamics of the Balkans.
USAK/ISRO’s attitude
USAK/ISRO is an NGO. Generally, as an NGO we try to think about
constructive policies. And during this week it was such. The
discussion subjects varied from Greater Serbia to free roaming for
Balkan countries and bursaries for students. There is one way for
peace in Balkans and it is coexistence. But this is not easy.
According to BBC, two thirds of the Serbs still thinks that Mladic
and Karadzic are heroes. And this makes things very complicated.
National Heroes and the Turks of the Fantasies
National heroes are part of a cultural identity. What kind of
cultural identity should we expect from a nation whose heroes are
Mladic and Karadzic? The answer is not easy and a positive one for
Serbs. Instead of blaming Serbs, we tried to understand them. Serbia
as a country and nation has been at the cross roads of wars and
disputes. Is Serbia traumatized by all these wars? Can we conclude
that Serbian people are not thinking the way we think?
In the orthodox world, there is this image of Turks. I have mails
from Armenian and Greek readers, those claim Turks are not as they
were described. Nearly all claims that we(Turks and Greeks, Turks and
Armenians) are so similar. In one real life story told to me by an
academician, an Armenian who promised himself to spit to every Turks’
face he meets, was stunned by the similarities between he and a Turk,
they went for a drink after an hour or so.
The Turks in the fantasies of the Serbs, Armenians and Greeks have no
relation whatsoever with Turks. They are just `the other’ puppet used
by authorities to gain ground domestically. Greeks are slowly
embracing the real Turks. The similarities between two nations
surpass the disputes between each other. When a Greek sits with a
Turk he may talk about three or four disputes, but they can talk for
days about the common points.
Now, I believe, it is time for Serbs to wake up from the
hallucinations. To achieve this, education is a must. Education is
the key to wake up people from dreams to realities. For example,
there must be a student exchange programs between two nations. Serbs
may think that they are better than Turks, but the new generation in
Turkey has a potential. Even this year, I was surprised by a Leonardo
da Vinci project from a high school student from Trabzon about
nanotechnology. They should see Turkey and judge their fantasies.
In terms of nationalism, most of the Balkans think that Turks are
like them, nationalist. We talked about it a lot, we are not
nationalist but patriotic. Turkish nationalism is very hard to
implement, because there are lots of groups and races in Turkey. It
is hard to define a race as Turkic race. Instead, as appeared in the
Economist few weeks ago, being a Turk is more or less defined with
sentences like `strong family relations, risk takers and etc.’
On the other hand, Turkish nationalism is a one of its kind. Turkish
nationalists are annoyingly relaxed people. Whenever you ask them
about their policies, they will say `We will sort it out’. Of course
what is meant by `sorting out’ is a mystery, because most of the
nationalist are silent and calm figures in Turkish society. As one
high ranking nationalist puts it, young generation of nationalists
are more interested in girls than politics.
The Future
Serbia, with Russia, is key to the peace in the Balkans and with the
crisis EU and US struggling, the region may turn to bloodbath.
Turkey, although reluctant, must calculate and consider the future of
Balkans for the sake of its stability. The peace and stability in the
region is -as always been, the priority of Turkey. To achieve this,
there had to be constructive policies. Policies those need the
cooperation of Russians, Turks, Serbs, Bosnians, Croatians, Albanians
and Macedonians. The process may be painful and may require lots of
commitments from both parties, but doesn’t it worth for our children?
[email protected]
ISRO : International Strategic Research Organization
USAK: Uluslararasi Stratejik Arastirmalar Kurumu (Turkish of ISRO)

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS HOLDS FUNERAL SERVICE BY THE GRAVE OF
SOGHOMON TEYLERYAN IN FRESNO
YEREVAN, June 20. /ARKA/. Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin II held
a funeral service by the grave of Soghomon Teyleryan in Fresno. As the
Press Chancellery of Echmiadzin Holy See told ARKA News Agency, upon
finishing the service, Garegin II gave a sermon dedicated to justice
and unbending will of the Armenian people and blessed the guests. On
March 16, 1921, Armenian student Soghomon Teyleryan shot Taliat-
pasha, Former Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs of the Young Turk
Government in Berlin. Later, he was completely acquitted by the Berlin
Court. L.V.-0-

‘Walk Two Moons’ a Family Friendly Play
By MICHAEL KUCHWARA
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) – Theatreworks/NYC has a new off-Broadway home, the
Lucille Lortel Theatre, and to inaugurate its space, this
family-friendly company will present the world premiere of “Walk Two
Moons” by Julia Jordan.
Based on the Newbery Medal-winning book by Sharon Creech, the play
opens July 13. Preview performances begin July 7. The story follows
the adventures of a girl who travels across America with her eccentric
grandparents.
Theatreworks/NYC will present four shows at the Lortel during the
2005-2006 theater season. For ticket information, call 212-627-7373.
Off-Broadway ticket availability and capsule reviews of selected shows
as of June 20. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are available at the
theaters’ box offices for the shows listed. Details about how to
obtain tickets – including by calling the box office, Telecharge or
Ticketmaster – appear at the end.
“Altar Boyz.” An exuberant, good-natured musical spoof about a
Christian boy band. Dodger Stages. Telecharge.
“Beast on the Moon.” A tale of Armenian immigrants in America after
World War I. A play by Richard Kalinoski. Century Center. Telecharge.
“Birdie Blue.” S. Epatha Merkerson stars in Cheryl L. West’s
portrait of a sassy woman looking back on her life. Second Stage.
212-246-4422.
“Blue Man Group.” They paint each other. They paint the
audience. They unroll toilet paper. Foreign tourists love this
long-running new vaudeville show. Astor Place. Ticketmaster.
“Cookin’.” Four Korean chefs prepare a banquet under deadline
pressure. A lot of slicing and dicing. Minetta Lane. Ticketmaster.
“Drumstruck.” An evening of drumming from South Africa. And the
audience gets to participate. Dodger Stages. Telecharge.
“Hurlyburly.” The New Group’s masterful production of David Rabe’s
look at LA show biz types. The cast includes Ethan Hawke, Wallace
Shawn and Josh Hamilton. 37 Arts. Ticketmaster. Closes July 2.
“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.” The mildest of musical
revues about relationships between men and women. Westside Theatre
Upstairs. Telecharge.
“Jewtopia.” A gentile wants to marry a nice Jewish girl. A comedy
written by and starring Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson. Westside
Downstairs. Telecharge.
“Lazer Vaudeville.” Vaudeville isn’t dead. Its juggling, acrobatics
and comedy have just gone high-tech. Lamb’s. Telecharge.
“Manuscript.” Three young people’s devious search for fame. A play
by Paul Grellong. The cast includes Jeffrey Carlson, Pablo Schreiber
and Marin Ireland. Daryl Roth. Telecharge.
“Menopause. The Musical.” Women and their change of life – in song.
Playhouse 91. Ticketmaster.
“Naked Boys Singing.” A musical revue. The title says it all. Plays
Fridays and Saturday. Julia Miles. Telecharge.
“Orson’s Shadow.” Laurence Olivier meets Orson Welles in this
intriguing fictional re-creation by Austin Pendleton. Barrow
Street. Telecharge.
“Slava’s Snowshow.” The Russian clown from Cirque du Soleil brings
his latest entertainment to New York. Union Square. Ticketmaster.
“Stomp.” A noisy yet effective celebration of percussion in this
long-running new vaudeville revue. Orpheum. Ticketmaster.
“The Awesome ’80s Prom.” An interactive high school prom musical set
in the 1980s. Friday and Saturday evenings. Webster
Hall. 212-352-3101.
“The Cherry Orchard.” A revival of the Chekhov classic in a new
adaptation by Tom Donaghy. Atlantic Theater Company. Telecharge.
“The Musical of Musicals.” A delightful spoof of musical-theater
songwriting styles. Among the authors tweaked are Andrew Lloyd Webber,
Rodgers and Hammerstein and, of course, Stephen Sondheim. Dodger
Stages. Telecharge.
“The Paris Letter.” Ron Rifkin stars in Jon Robin Baitz’s play about
a powerful investment counselor confronted by secrets from his past. A
Roundabout Theatre Company production. Laura Pels. 212-719-1300.
“Thom Pain (based on nothing).” James Urbaniak stars in a monologue
by Will Eno about an ordinary man and his existentialist anxieties.
DR2 Theatre. Telecharge. Engagement extended through Sept. 4.
Difficult.
The Telecharge number is 212-239-6200 unless otherwise
indicated. There is a $6 service charge per ticket, plus a $2.50
handling fee per order.
Ticketmaster is 212-307-4100. There is a $6 service charge per ticket,
plus a $3 handling fee per order.
Both Telecharge and Ticketmaster will provide information on specific
seat locations. They also have toll-free numbers for theater ticket
calls outside New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. For Telecharge
call 800-432-7250; for Ticketmaster call 800-755-4000.
The TKTS booth in Times Square at Broadway and 47th Street sells
same-day discount tickets to Broadway, off-Broadway, music and dance
productions. There is a $3 service charge per ticket. Cash or
travelers checks only. Hours of operation are Monday through Saturday
evening performances, 3 p.m.-8 p.m.; matinees Wednesday and Saturday,
10 a.m.-2 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
The downtown TKTS booth is in the South Street Seaport at the corner
of Front and John Streets. Hours of operation are Monday through
Friday 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-4
p.m. Matinee tickets must be purchased at South Street Seaport the day
before, meaning Wednesday matinee tickets are available Tuesday,
Saturday matinee tickets are available Friday and Sunday matinee
tickets are available Saturday.
Full-price tickets and information on Broadway and off-Broadway shows
are available at the Broadway Ticket Center, located on the east side
of Broadway between 46th Street and 47th Street. There is a $4.50
service charge per ticket.
For 24-hour information on theater, dance and music performances in
New York’s five boroughs, call the Theater Development Fund’s New York
City-On Stage, 212-768-1818.
06/20/05 14:42 EDT

Azerbaijan proposes restoring traffic to Armenia through disputed enclave
.c The Associated Press
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Azerbaijan has proposed restoring traffic to
Armenia through the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the
country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said Monday.
The made the proposal last week during a meeting of the two countries’
foreign ministers in Paris, Azimov said.
Azerbaijan “expects a positive response on this issue,” he told
reporters, pointing out that reopening traffic could act as a
confidence-building measure between the two adversaries.
The proposed road would pass through Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia
proper and then end in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan, which
borders Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been under control of ethnic Armenians since a
six-year war against Azerbaijani forces ended with a 1994 cease-fire.
The war killed some 30,000 people and drove a million from their
homes. The enclave of Nakhichevan is legally part of Azerbaijan, but
is cut off from Azerbaijan proper by Armenia.
06/20/05 14:57 EDT

Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
June 20 2005
Ruling Party Leads In Karabakh Vote

(RFE/RL)
20 June 2005 (RFE/RL) — Preliminary results in yesterday’s
parliamentary elections in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh
show the ruling party has a strong lead.
Election officials in the unrecognized enclave say the ruling party
and its allies have won 22 seats in the 33 seat parliament.
Independent candidates have won eight seats, and the opposition bloc
won three.
The opposition says the vote was unfair, and accuses authorities of
manipulating the ballot.
Paul Williams, a representative of the U.S. Public International Law
and Policy Group which monitored the poll, today said that the vote
met international democratic standards.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over the territory in the early
1990s in which an estimated 25,000 people were killed and hundreds of
thousands of Azerbaijanis were driven from the region.
Azerbaijan still claims the territory, which is under Armenian
control.
While Armenia today welcomed the vote, Azerbaijan says any voting in
Nagorno-Karabakh is illegal until Azerbaijanis banished from the
region are allowed to return.

The New Nation, Bangladesh
June 20 2005
Political trouble brewing
By Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah
Jun 20, 2005, 12:25

In the last two years, the world heard earful of news of political
dissensions in several of the ex-Soviet republics. Some of these
nations are located near Euro-Asian border in Caucasus region while
one is in Europe. The protesters wore different colored scarves in
different dissenting nations thus engendering new and catchy names
for each of the revolution.
Take the case of Georgia (Rose Revolution) where in late November
2003 a pro-West politician by the name Mikhail Saakashvili ousted a
tyrannical president Eduard Shevarnadze, an aging ex-communist who
was the foreign minister under Mikhail Gorbachev.
The second revolution took place in Ukraine in December 2004 to
protest a rigged election in which a pro-Russian presidential
hopeful, Viktor Yanukovych, was declared a winner by a slim margin.
For weeks, protesters jammed the central city square wearing orange
scarf. The end result was the declaration of the rigged election null
and void. Within weeks, a new election put the dissident politician,
Viktor Yushchenko, into power and christening the term the `Orange
Revolution.’
In late March 2005, trouble brewed in Kyrgyzstan, a tranquil central
Asian ex-Soviet republic, where the despotic president, Askar Akayev,
who enforced an iron clad rule since the summer of 1991 when Soviet
union imploded due to President Mikhail Gorbachev’s implementation of
perestroika and glasnost. Ordinary citizens and political dissidents
stormed the presidential palace and government offices in capital
city of Bishkek. During the tumult, the deposed president Askar
Akayev fled the country to neighboring nation of Kazakhstan. The
country is now under the control of pro-west politicians.
On May 13, 2005, a political trouble escalated in Ferghana valley,
which is politically controlled by Uzbekistan. In the eastern-most
city of Andijan (in Ferghana), the government troop fired
indiscriminately killing more than 600 protesters and bystanders.
Uzbekistan is ruled iron-fistedly by a dictator named Islam Karomov
who is supported by Kremlin and tolerated by American Administration.
Many Uzbek dissenters moved into neighboring Kyrgyzstan in the
aftermath of May 13 carnage. After the putsch, life seems to be
returning to normalcy in eastern Uzbekistan. Only time will tell if
the seed of political discontent sowed in spring 2005 will amount to
anything in the future.
A month could hardly pass when we read in the news that a new trouble
brewed up in the oil-rich nation of Azerbaijan, which is located to
the west of Caspian Sea, and which is also considered an eastern
Transcaucasian nation. The geo-political significance of Azerbaijan
cannot be underestimated. It sits at the far end of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipelines,
situated between the Black and Caspian seas, containing two, possibly
three breakaway provinces, and borders Iran, Georgia, Armenia, and
Russia.
Some background information should come handy to better appreciate
what ails this oil-rich nation inhabited by nearly 8 million people
living in a land about half the size of Bangladesh. Azerbaijanis are
essentially Turkic and Muslim whose nation regained independence
after the collapse of the Soviet Union in summer of 1991. Trouble
brewed in 1994 with the neighboring nation, Armenia, over disputed
region of Nagorno-Karabakh enclave where Armenian people live.
Despite a 1994 cease-fire, Azerbaijan has yet to resolve its conflict
with Armenia. The country has lost 16% of its territory in the
conflict and must support some 571,000 internally displaced persons
because of the conflict. The sad part of Azerbaijan story is that
corruption is ubiquitous and the promise of nation building from oil
revenues remains largely unfulfilled. One parenthetical note about
Azerbaijanis is that most of them are Shiites. Culturally, they are
similar to people who live in Azerbaijan province of Iran whose
capital city is Tabriz.
A personal anecdote about Azerbaijani people and their devotion to
religion Islam. In early 1960s when I was a high school student in
Tejgaon, Dhaka, the Soviet Union sent a soccer team to Pakistan for
friendly matches. The Soviet team happened to be the Baku Oil Mill,
which was one of the best team in the communist paradise. A couple of
my friend befriended a team member who had a Perso-Arabic name. He
told us that he is an Azeri. We wanted to give him a gift as a token
of our friendship. He asked for a prayer mat and a copy of Koran for
his elderly parents. I now gather that during Soviet rule, the
Azerbaijanis were not allowed to practice their religion in public;
however, in private people maintained their faith. The response from
the visiting team member asking for a copy of Koran and prayer mat
speaks in volume for a thriving religion in private.
Coming back to the main story, on June 4, 2005, about 10,000
opposition Azerbaijanis chanted `Freedom!’ and carried pictures of
President Bush as they marched across nation’s capital (Baku), urging
the government of this U.S. ally to step down and allow free
parliamentary elections this year.
The spontaneous rally in Baku was the largest of its kind in which
opposition demonstrators shouted `Freedom.’ The last time Azeri
people came out to demonstrate against the government was in October
2003 when one person died and nearly 200 were injured in clashes
between police and demonstrators protesting vote rigging in the
presidential election.
Tensions have been building ever since October 2003 demonstration in
this oil-rich Caspian Sea nation in the run-up to parliamentary
elections set for November 2005. Experts from the region predict that
Azerbaijan could see a massive uprising similar to the ones that
toppled unpopular and autocratic regimes in other ex-Soviet nations
of Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan during the past 18 months.
According to news report, supporters of several opposition parties
shouted `Freedom!’ and `Free Elections!’ while holding placards with
such slogans as `Down with robber government!’ Some even carried a
picture of Bush with the inscription: `We want freedom!’ Azerbaijanis
know that America has its eye fixed on this oil-rich nation.
Therefore, carrying Bush’s photo while protesting against the
repressive regime meant asking America’s help to topple the present
government.
The U.S. Department of State has given a statement in which it
welcomed granting by the Azerbaijan Government of permit to the
meeting of opposition on June 4, 2005, last Saturday in Baku. State
Department spokesperson, Mr. Sean McCormack, underlined that the
political rally ended peacefully. On behalf of the Bush
Administration, he called on the government of Azerbaijan to grant
permit to further demonstrations of opposition so that the
forthcoming fall parliament elections met international standards.
Why should America have interest in seeing a pro-West government
installed in Baku a la Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan? The answer
lies in the fact that Azerbaijan sits on a massive oil reserve. Oil
output from Azerbaijan is expected to balloon to more than 20 million
tones in 2005. Furthermore, according to President Ilham Aliyev,
Azerbaijan, which inaugurated the four-billion-dollar
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline in May 2005, is expected to see
output grow further to 50 million tons per year in 2006 Aliyev said
at an oil and gas conference.
It should be noted here that America had backed the BTC project — an
infrastructure initiative that will allow Caspian Sea producers to
get their oil to Western markets without going through Russia – that
is expected to handle the excess output from the oilfield located on
the Caspian Sea. America is hoping that the BTC pipeline when fully
functional would allow the West to depend less on OPEC nation to
fulfill their energy demand. After 2010 when Azerbaijan will produce
less oil, then Kazakhstan would commit their crude to the BTC
pipeline. These are the reasons why America and the West would like
to see a pro-West government installed in Baku. The present
president, Ilham Aliyev, while maintains good terms with both Kremlin
and Washington but fellow Azeris considers him an authoritarian ruler
because he has the virtual monopoly to power in Azerbaijan.
Some experts in Baku say that the opening of BTC marked the
unofficial start of the parliamentary election campaign. President
Aliyev and other top officials have offered assurances that the
parliamentary vote will be fair. Opposition leaders, however, voiced
their concerns about such exaggerated claims, and expressed a desire
to intensify the pressure on the government. Opposition protesters on
June 4, 2005, milled on the streets for electoral amendments designed
to dilute the Aliyev administration’s influence over election
commissions on all levels.
In summary, opposition politicians and their supporters took to the
streets in Baku to demonstrate against the present regime on June 4,
2005. The good thing is that Aliyev regime allowed the demonstration
to go through. The parliamentary election is nearing; therefore, the
restive opposition politicians are agitating on the streets of the
capital. The Aliyev Administration hailed the opening of BTC pipeline
as a monumental achievement; however, the opposition politicians are
using the same venue to tell the world that all is not well in this
oil-rich Muslim nation as far as democracy and free election is
concerned. Stay tuned for more development in the political front. My
take is that Aliyev is a seasoned politician who would be difficult
to remove in the near term. In addition, the Bush Administration is
in good term with him. Therefore, there is no urgency in toppling
Aliyev. We maybe entering a New World Order but America still calls
the shots.
-SAN-Feature Service
[Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New
Orleans, USA.]

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GENOCIDE SCHOLARS
President
Israel Charny (Israel)
First
Vice-President
Gregory H. Stanton (USA)
Second Vice-President
Linda Melvern (UK)
Secretary-Treasurer
Steven Jacobs (USA)
June 13, 2005
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
TC Easbakanlik
Bakanlikir
Ankara, Turkey
FAX: 90 312 417 0476
Dear Prime Minister Erdogan:
We are writing you this open letter in response to your call for an
`impartial study by historians’ concerning the fate ofthe Armenian
people in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
We represent the major body of scholars who study genocide in North
America and Europe. We are concerned that in calling for an impartial
study of the Armenian Genocide you may not be fully aware of the
extent of the scholarly and intellectual record on the Armenian
Genocide and how this event conforms to the definition of the United
Nations Genocide Convention. We want to underscore that it is not
just Armenians who are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is the
overwhelming opinion of scholars who study genocide: hundreds of
independent scholars, who have no affiliations with governments, and
whose work spans many countries and nationalities and the course of
decades. The scholarly evidence reveals the following:
On April 24, 1915, under cover of World War I, the Young Turk
government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its
Armenian citizens – an unarmed Christian minority population. Morethan
a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing,
starvation, torture, and forced death marches. The rest of the
Armenian population fled into permanent exile. Thus an ancient
civilization was expunged from its homeland of 2,500 years.
The Armenian Genocide was the most well-known human rights issue of
its time and was reported regularly in newspapers across the United
States and Europe. The Armenian Genocide is abundantly documented by
thousands of official records of the United States and nations around
the world including Turkey’s wartime allies Germany, Austria and
Hungary, by Ottoman court-martial records, by eyewitness accounts of
missionaries and diplomats, by the testimony of survivors, and by
decades of historical scholarship.
The Armenian Genocide is corroborated by the international scholarly,
legal, and human rights community:
1) Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, when he coined the term
genocide in 1944, cited the Turkish extermination of the Armenians and
the Nazi extermination of the Jews as defining examples of what he
meant by genocide.
2) The killings of the Armenians is genocide as defined by the 1948
United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide.
3) In 1997 the International Association of Genocide Scholars, an
organization of the world’s foremost experts on genocide, unanimously
passed a formal resolution affirming the Armenian Genocide.
4) 126 leading scholars of the Holocaust including Elie Wiesel and
Yehuda Bauer placed a statement in the New York Times in June 2000
declaring the `incontestable fact of the Armenian Genocide’ and urging
western democracies to acknowledge it.
5) The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide (Jerusalem), and the
Institute for the Study of Genocide (NYC) have affirmed the historical
fact of the Armenian Genocide. 6) Leading texts in the international
law of genocide such as William A. Schabas’s Genocide in
International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2000) cite the Armenian
Genocide as a precursor to the Holocaust and as a precedent for the
law on crimes against humanity.
We note that there may be differing interpretations of genocide-how
and why the Armenian Genocide happened, but to deny its factual and
moral reality as genocide is not to engage in scholarship but in
propaganda and efforts to absolve the perpetrator, blame the victims,
and erase the ethical meaning of this history.
We would also note that scholars who advise your government and who
are affiliated in other ways with your state-controlled institutions
are not impartial. Such so-called `scholars’work to serve the agenda
of historical and moral obfuscation when they advise you and the
Turkish Parliament on how to deny the Armenian Genocide. In preventing
a conference on the Armenian Genocide from taking place at Bogacizi
University in Istanbul on May 25, your government revealed its
aversion to academic and intellectual freedom-a fundamental condition
of democratic society.
We believe that it is clearly in the interest of the Turkish people
and their future as a proud and equal participants in international,
democratic discourse to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous
government for the genocide of the Armenian people, just as the German
government and people have done in the case of the Holocaust.
Approved Unanimously at the Sixth biennial meeting of
THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GENOCIDE SCHOLARS (IAGS)
June 7, 2005, Boca Raton, Florida
Contacts: Israel Charny, IAGS President; Executive Director, Institute
on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem, Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia
of Genocide, 972-2-672-0424; [email protected]
Gregory H. Stanton, IAGS Vice President; President, Genocide Watch,
James Farmer Visiting Professor of Human Rights, University of Mary
Washington; 703-448-0222; [email protected]

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly session, Strasbourg – 20 to 24
June 2005
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian
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Order of business approved by the Assembly
At the opening of the session on Monday 20 June, the Assembly approved
the final order of business. Accordingly, the debate under urgent
procedure on the follow-up to the Third Summit and the debate under
urgent procedure on the constitutional reform process in Armenia will
take place on Thursday, 23 June, in the morning, and the Current affairs
debate on the situation in the Republics of Central Asia on Tuesday, 21
June, at 3 p.m.
Order of business
on the web
All session news are available online
Special file <; Parliamentary Assembly website <; the session live ... Live webcast of the debates <; Live press conferences and video records 05-EN.asp

PRESS RELEASE
The Armenian Community (UK)
an occassional publication dedicated to British-Armenian Affairs
Garod House, 42 Blythe Rd., London W14 0HA
20 June 2005
————————————————————————
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATIVE EVENTS AT HEART OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT

LONDON (15th June 2005) At 10a.m. on June 15th 2005, a series of
important events commenced at the heart of the British Government.
The British-Armenian All Party Parliamentary Group, sponsored by the
AGBU, held three separate events aimed at reminding the British
government that the United Kingdom has still failed to recognise the
Armenian Genocide.

Church Service
At St. Margaret’s Church in Westminster Abbey, a Memorial Service took
place in the presence of such British dignitaries, such as Baroness
Cox, Lord Avebury, Lord Biffen, Baroness Flather, Baroness Park of
Monmouth and The Earl of Shannon alongside Members of Parliament,
Robert Wareing and Paddy Tipping. An Armenian delegation was also
present including His Excellency Vartan Oskanyan, Foreign minister of
Armenia, Sarkis Assadurian, former Canadian M.P. and French
M.P. Francois Rochebloine.

Conference on Genocide
Following the Memorial Service a Conference took place in the Moses
Room of the House of Lords. Baroness Cox opened proceedings with an
impassioned analysis of the non-recognition of the Armenian Genocide
by the British Government. Armenian Foreign Minister Oskanyan followed
in a similar vein, speaking eloquently about the denial promulgated by
the Turkish Government, and backed up by some Western powers,
including Great Britain. He also thanked Odette Bazil and the BAAPG
for organising this event given that as a result of the General
Election April 24th was not fully commemorated this year.
Both Sarkis Assadurian and Francois Rochebloine considered how they
had worked in their respective countries’ recognition of the Armenian
Genocide, and notably Rochebloine laughed off the mountain of denial
materials that were sent to him personally, in a bid to persuade him
otherwise.
Finally James Smith of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre and the Aegis
Trust spoke about how their organisations went about remembering the
Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide.
Also present were British MPs, diplomats, other politicians, Foreign
and Commonwealth Office advisers, journalists, academics, as well as
members of the British Armenian community.
The questions from the floor made for a lively session after the
presentations, with historian John Fox drawing attention to an article
in the current issue of History Today that belittled Armenian
historians, suggesting that ‘Armenian’ historiography is keen to
enforce a standard line on how the genocide is interpreted.
Foreign Minister Oskanyan was asked his opinion on Armenian-Turkish
reconciliation, whilst James Smith was asked what the Aegis Trust was
doing to combat Armenian Genocide denial, especially given his
organisations’ role on the Holocaust Memorial Day Steering Group.

British Armenian Community Ignores Friends
The Rabbi Baaden who had contributed to the Memorial Service earlier
in the day, made an extremely pertinent point. He stated that he has
been keen to involve himself in matters relating to the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide, but stated with some exasperation, that nobody
from the Armenian community had approached him despite knowledge of
his commitment within UK community organisations for at least three
years.

Petition to British Prime Minister
After lunch a delegation went to 10 Downing Street to present
thousands of petitions that the British-Armenian All Party
Parliamentary Group has been collecting in the last few months,
demanding the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
The day was a successful reminder that the Armenians of the United
Kingdom will continue to pressure their Government until the latter
ditches its subservience to Turkey in denying the truth.
Nora Vosbigian
London
————————————————————————
The Armenian Community (UK) is an occassional publication on
British-Armenian affairs.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenian troops participate in Ukraine-hosted NATO war games
Arminfo
20 Jun 05
YEREVAN
Military exercises Cooperative Best Effort-2005 under NATO’s
Partnership for Peace programme started [on the Yavoriv training
ground] in Lviv, Ukraine, yesterday.
An Armenian delegation led by Maj Mger Shirinyan is participating in
the exercises, the Defence Ministry spokesman, Col Seyran
Shakhsuvaryan, said earlier. The Armenian representatives also
attended command and staff exercises on 15-17 June.
The exercises will last till 30 June.