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09/12/2005
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1) Major Conference at European Parliament Targets Turkey’s Record
2) Thousands Rally in Baku against President
3) Group Threatens to Kill Lebanese Armenian Hostage in Iraq
4) Trial of Novelist ‘Shows Turkey Not Ready for EU’
1) Major Conference at European Parliament Targets Turkey’s Record
BRUSSELS–A large-scale public conference scheduled for September 22 will
address Turkey’s violations of basic rights as it prepares to begin accession
talks with the European Union (EU) on October 3.
Organized by the European Armenian Federation, the conference, “December
2004–October 2005: Has Turkey Changed?” is supported by the largest political
group in the European Parliament, the EPP-ED–the Group of the European
People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats in the European
Parliament. Specifically, Dr. Ingo Friedrich, vice-president of the
Parliament,
has conveyed his commitment to fully reviewing Turkey’s position prior to the
start of accession talks.
The conference will feature lectures by executive members of several Human
Rights NGOs, as well as leadership of various European political parties. They
will review Turkey’s violation of human rights and political norms in the
country, as they relate to freedom of expression, minority rights, the role of
army, the Cyprus issue, its policy of denial of the Armenian genocide, and
freedom of worship.
Beside Friedrich, scheduled speakers include: Jacques Toubon,
vice-chairman of
the EU-Turkey parliamentary delegation; Panagiotis Beglitis, member of the
EU-Turkey parliamentary delegation; Francesco Enrico Speroni, Member of the
European Parliament; Pierre Mirel, European Commission, Director for the
Candidate Countries in the DG Enlargement; Philippe Kalfayan, General
Secretary
of the International Federation of Human Rights; Dogan Özgüden, President of
Info-Türk foundation; Hilda Tchoboian, President of the European Armenian
Federation; Irnerio Seminatore, President of the European Institute for
International Relations; Oliver Money-Kyrle, Director of Projects Division,
International Federation of Journalists; Franck Biancheri, President of
Newropeans.
A Consultative Meeting of European Armenians scheduled for September 23, just
one year after their first ever convention, will allow members of Armenian
associations and organizations from more than twenty EU countries to respond
towards Turkey’s new neighborhood policy toward Armenia, the role of Armenian
culture and remembrance in Europe, and current affairs such as Time Magazine
and AXA issues.
“A few days before October 3, this conference will provide a unique
opportunity for European civil society to take action on the political fate of
the Union,” said Laurent Leylekian, Executive Director of the European
Armenian
Federation.
Information and registration for the two public events are available on the
European Armenian Federation’s website:
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2) Thousands Rally in Baku against President
BAKU (AP)–More than 2,000 orange-clad opposition members rallied in the
Azerbaijani capital Saturday, demanding that President Ilhan Aliyev resign and
that authorities ensure that parliamentary elections in November are free and
fair.
Mounting pressure on authorities has led some observers to predict the
oil-rich Caspian nation could see a popular uprising similar to those that
have
taken place in the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Yelling “Resign!” and carrying orange flags and banners in Russian and
English, the government opponents railed against Aliyev.
“We have shown our strength and this is only the beginning,” said Sardar
Jalaloglu, a top leader with the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, which is one
of three parties making up the opposition Azadlig bloc alliance.
The crowds responded, yelling “Tents on the Square” a reference to the tent
camp that sprang up in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev during the mass
demonstrations last year that came to be known as the Orange Revolution.
Azadlig has borrowed its campaign color from Ukraine.
Azerbaijan formally launched the election campaign Wednesday after
authorities
registered more than 2,000 candidates running for 125 parliament seats in the
November 6 vote. Of 2,059 candidates registered, 432 belong to the ruling Yeni
Azerbaijan party that controls parliament. Azadlig and the Yeni Siyaset party
are seen as the leading challengers.
Opposition parties have rallied almost weekly amid fears that Aliyev’s
government could try to rig the vote. The October 2003 presidential vote, in
which Aliyev succeeded his late father, Heydar Aliyev, was widely alleged to
have been fraudulent, triggering clashes between police and demonstrators.
3) Group Threatens to Kill Lebanese Armenian Hostage in Iraq
DUBAI (AFP)–A previously unheard of group in Iraq threatened to kill a
Lebanese
hostage it accused of working with a liquor distribution firm that “deals with
the occupiers,” according to a video posted on the Internet.
“The Group for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” said it had
“captured an importer of food and liquor in Baghdad who works for a company
that deals directly with the crusader occupiers of Iraq.”
It demanded the company’s “withdrawal from Iraq as soon as possible in order
to free the Lebanese hostageotherwise woe on him and you.”
The hostage, who, speaking in Arabic, gave the Armenian name of Garabet Jean
Chekerjian, said he held dual Lebanese and Cypriot nationality. He was
shown in
the footage sitting on the floor with his hands and feet tied.
A hooded gunman pointed an automatic weapon at his head.
The captive exhorted Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and the Lebanese embassy
in Baghdad to put pressure on his employers to pull out of Iraq.
“I hold dual Lebanese and Cypriot nationality and I work with the branches of
the ‘Jetco Trading’ (phonetic) company in Lebanon, Cyprus and Iraq. The
company
supplies foodstuffs and alcoholic beverages to the occupation forces and the
Iraqi army,” he said.
“I urge the company to leave Iraq and I ask the Lebanese embassy to put
pressure on the company and its owner to sever links with the occupation
forces
and the Iraqi army.”
Addressing unspecified people he named as “Gebran, Avo and Rita,” as well as
Lahoud, the captive called on all Lebanese companies to quit Iraq, which he
said was occupied “as Lebanon had been 15 years ago.”
Dozens of foreigners have been kidnapped by anti-US insurgents in Iraq and
some have been executed by their captors.
About 30 Lebanese working for private companies in Iraq have been kidnapped
and later freed, most of them in exchange for a ransom. But in September 2004,
one Lebanese national was killed by his captors and three others died
during an
attempted kidnap.
4) Trial of Novelist ‘Shows Turkey Not Ready for EU’
By Amberin Zaman in Ankara and Tony Paterson in Berlin
An internationally acclaimed Turkish novelist who faces prosecution for
speaking out about the mass slaughter of Armenians during the 20th Century,
has
said the case against him shows his country may not be ready to join the
European Union.
Orhan Pamuk, who faces up to three years in jail if convicted of “denigrating
Turkey,” said reforms promised by the Turkish government in return for a
guarantee of talks on EU membership had not materialized. His trial is
scheduled for December 2005.
Orhan Pamuk: ‘Not much tolerance’
Prosecutors provoked a furor across Europe last month by announcing the
action
against him under the country’s recently adopted penal code, which is supposed
to bring Turkish criminal law more closely in line with that of EU countries.
In his first interview since the prosecution was announced, Pamuk declared:
“Unfortunately I do not believe that Turkey has come very far in this respect.
Nothing has happened over the past year. Turkey has sat on the promises that
Europe has given and taken it easy.”
Although forbidden to comment directly on his own case, the best-selling
author added: “Turkey has not changed so much. Laws have been changed, but the
thought processes, our culture and our way of seeing things… that has not
changed much.
“There have been legal and political changes in the hope of EU membership.
But
the trial opened against me shows… that the state prosecutors have not
changed very much. It shows that there is not much tolerance in society.”
Pamuk’s comments, in an interview with a German newspaper, come as several
countries, including France, have stepped up their effort to block Turkey’s
entry to the EU after public opposition to the inclusion of such a large,
predominantly Muslim, country. The EU has long cited Turkey’s checkered record
on human rights as an obstacle to membership, and its government–led by Recep
Erdogan, Turkey’s mildly Islamist prime minister – has enacted a series of new
laws in an attempt to overcome the objection. Talks on membership are due to
start next month.
Critics maintain that Turkey’s new penal code falls short of EU standards by
proscribing free debate of the Armenian tragedy and criticism of Turkey’s 1974
invasion of Cyprus.
Last week Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, singled out the Pamuk
prosecution
for criticism in a speech in which he nonetheless argued for Turkish
membership
of the EU. “There is still some way to go with implementation, as the recent
charges against the distinguished Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk show, in the
context of freedom of speech,” he said.
Pamuk drew nationalist fury in Turkey and received anonymous death threats
after telling a Swiss newspaper in February that “30,000 Kurds and 1 million
Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about
it”.
One Turkish official in the western town of Sutluce ordered citizens to
destroy
all of his books.
Several of Pamuk’s novels, including the acclaimed My Name is Red, have been
translated into English. His most recent bestseller, Snow, explores tensions
between Turkey’s secular elite and religious conservatives.
Turkey has long denied that more than one million members of its once
thriving
Armenian community were the victims of systematic annihilation between 1915
and
1923. Armenians and many others label the campaign genocide–a description of
the events which is proscribed in Turkish law.
Prosecutors are still deciding whether to bring further charges against Pamuk
for referring to the more recent killing of Kurds–whose sometimes violent
separatist movements in the east of the country have been brutally suppressed
by successive Turkish governments.
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