Month: October 2006

BRITISH "THE HALO TRUST" ORGANIZATION DEMINED OVER 43 THOUSAND MINES IN KARABAKH

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 6 2006

October 5 the Nagorno Karabakh Republic President Arkady Ghoukasyan
received British "The Halo Trust" NGO’s Karabakh program director
Wallon Kumnov and the organization’s responsible representative for the
Balkan and Caucasus region Matthew Gowell. To note, "The Halo Trust"
humanitarian organization deals with territories’ demining.

According to the information DE FACTO got at the NKR President’s Press
Service, during the meeting the guests had informed Arkady Ghoukasyan
of the course and outcomes of the implementation of the Halo Trust’s
activity in Karabakh. In part, they noted due to the organization’s
efforts over 43 000 mines and projectiles had been rendered harmless.

In his turn, the NKR President stated "The Halo Trust" organization
had been respected in Karabakh. Arkady Ghoukasyan expressed his
gratitude to the organization’s employees and assured them of the NKR
leadership’s readiness to promote the implementation of the programs
in Karabakh.

AZERI PARTY HAMPERS PACE MISSION’S VISIT TO THE REGION

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 6 2006

October 5 the sitting of the Subcommittee on cultural heritage was
held within the frames of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe fall session. In the course of the sitting the time of
the PACE fact-finding group’s dispatch to the South Caucasus region
was discussed.

To remind, a decision on the organization of the PACE fact-finding
group’s visit to the region to estimate the cultural and historical
monuments’ condition was rendered earlier. Armenia has repeatedly
engaged the European structures’ attention to the barbarian
destruction of the Armenian monuments in Nakhijevan and other
territories controlled by Azerbaijan.

According to the information DE FACTO got at the RA NA Press Service,
the Azeri delegation’s representatives were absent from the sitting,
which caused the indignation of the Commission’s members. A member
of the Armenian delegation in PACE, RA NA deputy Stepan Demirchyan
noted Armenia was ready to receive the PACE mission. Stepan Demirchyan
expressed his indignation on the behavior of the Azeri party hampering
the mission’s organization.

The Subcommittee has decided to give a month to Azerbaijan, and,
unless the issue is set in motion, the Azeri party will be sent a
letter with the appropriate assessment of such behavior.

TREND, Azerbaijan
Oct 6 2006

Armenia Should Change its Attitude if it wants to Present Itself as a
Worthy Partner of International Community – Azeri FM Dep. Chief

Source: Trend
Author: A.Ismaylova

06.10.2006

If Armenia wants to present itself as a worthy partner of the
international community, then it should change its attitude, the Head
of the Press & Information Department of the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry Tahir Tagizade told Trend, commenting on Armenia’s efforts
to put up obstacles in the monitoring of Azerbaijan’s fire-affected
territories by the OSCE Expert Group.

He stressed that the statement of the Armenian side that these
territories are under their jurisdiction is senseless. These
territories belong to Azerbaijan. Armenia is attempting to legalize
Azerbaijan’s territories which have been captured by force, Tagizade
added.

"The Azerbaijani Government has its regional approach to the fires.
Armenia should refrain from this attitude otherwise it will be proof
of what Armenia holds in the region," Tagizade stressed.

TREND, Azerbaijan
Oct 6 2006

Meeting of Azeri & Armenian Foreign Ministers Held in Moscow

Source: Trend
Author: E.Huseynov

06.10.2006

The meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov
and Armenia Vardan Oskanyan began on October 6 in Moscow, Trend
reports from Russian Foreign Ministry Group for Nagorno-Karabakh.

The consultations are held at the Russian Foreign Ministry with the
participation of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Yuri Merzlyakov
(Russia), Bernar Face (France) and Mathew Bryza (USA).

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also held negotiations
with the Azerbaijani and Armenian Ministers separately.

Thursday, October 05, 2006
********************************************
GET A LOAD OF THIS!
***********************************
Bosses, bishops, and benefactors are Yervant Odian’s favorite targets too, and he is much tougher on them than I am, perhaps because concentrated as they were in Istanbul, the way beasts of prey are in a zoo, they could be observed and studied closely and at leisure.
When Ghougas effendi, the main character of FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY (a wealthy merchant and one of the most repellent characters in all of Armenian literature), when Ghougas effendi dies a horribly slow death of a knife-wound sustained in a bordello scuffle, his funeral service is conducted “by the Patriarch, six bishops, fourteen vartabeds, and thirty-two kahanas.” In his eulogy, Odian writes, the Patriarch speaks of him as one “who enjoyed the affection and respect of the entire community…. His rectitude and unassuming nature were legendary and made of him an exemplary husband and father. His family was an altar whose sanctity he defended until his last breath. He dedicated his entire life to three principles – family, honor, and morality. Even in his generosity, which was boundless, he did his utmost to uphold these principles and consistently refused to help anyone who did not share his unwavering dedication to family, honor, and morality. To his friends and acquaintances he was a wise mentor, and to the perplexed, a lighthouse. Even a glancing acquaintance with him was enough to make the confused and lost to return onto the right path…” and so on and so forth. The Patriarch unload this verbal crap with the expertise of someone who has done it all his life; so much so that even those in the congregation, who know better, burst into tears. Who says you can’t fool all the people all the time?
#
Friday, October 06, 2006
********************************************
THE USES AND ABUSES OF THE PAST
***************************************************
Guenter Grass (contemporary German author and winner of the Nobel Prize): “History is a clogged toilet. We flush and flush, but the shit keeps rising.” Why is it that we Armenians are incapable of producing such a sentence?
*
By ignoring the dark side of our history, we sink deeper into filth. Is it conceivable that we will wake up from this nightmare only on the day we drown?
*
To pretend that we had nothing to do in shaping our destiny as a nation and by extension our identity, or to pretend the Genocide was engineered by the doubletalk of the West and the savagery of the Turks, is to admit that adopting a passive stance has become an integral part of our identity, and so far we have done nothing to expose this scandal and to combat against it.
*
The average Armenian thinks all he has to do to discharge his patriotic duty is to make periodic contributions to our Panchoonies.
*
The average Greek today brags about Socrates but ignores the fact that it was average Greeks like him who condemned him to death. This is true not only of Greeks but also patriots of all nations. Patriotism is unthinkable without propaganda. No one who knows and understands history says, “My country, right or wrong!”
*
When Jesus said “They know not what they do,” he was talking about the average citizen who is capable of committing the most unspeakable crimes with a clear conscience on the grounds that his conduct is motivated by such selfless and noble principles as obedience to established laws and love of country. Even as he sinks deeper and deeper into filth, he pleads not guilty by reason of unawareness and ignorance.
#
Saturday, October 07, 2006
*****************************************
WHO LOVES ARMENIANS?
*************************************
Let us not speculate about others and the rest of the world, most of which may not even be aware of our existence, and if it is, may not give a damn whether we live or die. Let us begin with ourselves. Do Armenians love Armenians? Is an Armenian capable of loving himself? Gregory of Narek or Naregatsi (our Dante and Shakespeare combined) was not particularly fond of himself; and very much like Yervant Odian, most of our ablest writers had no illusions about their fellow countrymen. As for our partisans: the less said about them the better. You may now draw your own conclusions.
*
ATHEISTS
**********************
My guess is there are as many atheists and agnostics in the Muslim Middle East as there are in the Christian West. If they refuse to stand up and be counted, it may be because martyrdom is incompatible with negation. It is easier to die for something you believe in than for something you don’t believe in.
*
ON TRUST
*************************
On the day Muslims see a connection between religion and progress or capacity to inflict pain on others without committing suicide, they will be tempted to convert to Christianity because their need to live and to win must be greater than their trust in their mullahs.
*
ON FOLLOWING ORDERS
**********************************
When the Lord ordered Abraham to butcher his own son, Abraham did not object or ask any questions. Ever since then absolute and blind obedience has been the source of some of the most unspeakable crimes against humanity.
*
ON PROPAGANDA
********************************
Everybody engages in it, why shouldn’t we? One tentative answer: It hasn’t been working for us.
*
THE REALITY OF WORDS
*************************************
Truth is only a word, like god and infinity. We have no way of knowing if it exists; and if it exists, whether or not our mind can grasp it.
*
BOOMERANG
*****************************************
By making me a charlatan, my education provided me with the means to recognize charlatanism when I see it.
*
NEGATIVE ROLE MODELS
***************************************
Great men of wisdom have said many foolish things. We who are neither great nor wise must be careful to speak only words of wisdom.
*
ON HAPPINESS
************************
It is possible to experience brief intervals of happiness, or the illusion of it, provided one forgets yesterday’s blunders and to ignore tomorrow’s hardships.
*
ON STYLE
**************************
Even when one is brief, clear, and impossible to misunderstand, one will be misunderstood. It comes with the territory. You may choose your style but you cannot choose your readers.
#

A Farewell Concert

By Z.T.

The Armenian Weekly

September 30, 2006

"When in his early 20s, a singer performing on the stage stops for a
few minutes, it is to solve the mistakes that just happened. When in
his 30s the singer stops for few minutes, it is just to check whether
the public is happy. And when an old veteran singer stops for a few
minutes, it is just to take a breath," said a singer called Charles
Aznavour in the late 1960s, when he was almost 45, during a concert
in the famous Olympia Hall in Paris.

Well! On September 21, at the Opera House in Boston, Aznavour
performed nonstop at the age of 82 for more than two hours. No
need for proof-singing, proof-performing, stopping or even taking a
breath. The intermission would have probably made him more tired. Once
he was done with a song, he thought of another song, and kept singing,
never looking back.

Convincing the public was and still is Aznavour’s pursuit. He starts
by building the mood, which in fact lasts for two hours. However,
already from his first and second songs, and within minutes, the
public is convinced and enjoys his unique world.

The stage is a primary need for him and he is still in love
with it. Every issue, even secondary details, is important for
Aznavour. Each show is a workshop for him. Before starting the USA
farewell tour, he insisted that during this tour he would sing in
Shakespeare’s language. Though some of the songs went very smoothly,
some others, like the overwhelming song "Emmenez Moi" ("Take Me"),
could have been better sung in its original language, without crossing
the English Channel. It would have been better to have taken the
public to the land of Hugo and Molière.

On the other hand, the not so well-known "Qui" ("Who") crossed the
Pyrennees smoothly and was performed in Cervantes’ language-becoming
"Quien" with two guitars performing on a flamenco beat and making a
novelty in the field of world music. This was a preview for especially
Latin beat style music lovers. After the North American Tour, Aznavour
will fly to Havana to make his next record with the Cuban musician
Chucho Valdez, star of the film "Calle 54" dedicated to Latin jazz.

Nevertheless, the "cream of the cream" was another forgotten piece
called "Isabelle," which hasn’t been sung by him for more than
25 years.

With a dark stage and his theatrical voice dominating the 13 musicians
with their instruments, for a few minutes Aznavour recreated on the
stage scenes from the ’60s new wave movies by Jean Luc Goddard and
Francois Truffaut.

Very free on stage, he showed that he was the same person in
life. Another masterpiece was "Mon Emouvant Amour," ("My Moving Love"),
a love story with a deaf woman.

He is not a novelist, nor does he invent situations or stories. He
gives us simple phrases, which audiovisually can be smoothly described
and bring language to existing facts and events. He follows the news
and writes about life, from social problems to ecological issues to
hatred, danger, freedom, dedication etc.

These are the real subjects that he translates into song.

Far from the profound world of the late Leo Ferer’s world (also
different from another late singer, Jacques Brel’s world of
binary oppositions) Aznavour is considered first and foremost a
songwriter. The words come first, while the melody and rhythm are
added later, written by him or a different composer.

This short, wiry son of Armenian immigrants, the son of Misha and Knar
Aznavourian, didn’t perform any songs related to his origin-"Ils Sont
Tombes" ("They Fell") or "Pour Toi Armenie" ("For You, Armenia")-nor
did he make any related comments.

This attitude doesn’t mean, however, that he has forgotten the land
of his ancestors.

Aznavour has already paid his dues; he even did more. He is still
remembered for organizing help after the devastating earthquake that
killed almost 50,000 people in Armenia in 1988.

His farewell concert will continue for a while, but after the U.S.,
it is back to his roots: He’ll perform in Armenia, and then China and
Latin America. "The show must go on" after all, with the evergreen
"Yesterday, When I Was Young" man.

–Boundary_(ID_H/JQoBJYiEr11pXaUmCY2Q)–

Keghi: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

By Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill
The Armenian Weekly

September 30, 2006

Ever since I was a child, I had heard about Garin from my mother: the
Russian cannons bombarding in the distance; my grandfather pounding his
brass and copper vessels; my pious grandmother stirring the congregation of
Sourp Astvatsatsin with her ethereal voice. But it was Keghi that had fired
my imagination: my father mesmerizing us with stories of village life,
slapping his knee, clapping his hands and triumphantly exclaiming, "Hassoin
hashiva makrivav," as he described how he and his friends chased off the
Kurdish bandit Haso and his gang of cut-throat sheep thieves. My father told
us about the fragility of life in Keghi at the hands of outlaws, tribal
warlords and corrupt government officials, and the valiant efforts of
Armenian villagers to defend their families and their properties. And
always, the life-giving mountains figured in his stories: the waters gushing
from the mountainsides in spring and the high verdant pastures offering
sustenance to the villagers’ sheep in summer.

I had long hoped to visit these places, to throw a kiss to the mountains
that had formed so much of my childhood lore, and to shed a tear in the Kyle
River as its waters rushed to replenish the great Euphrates. So in 2004, my
husband and I embarked on a pilgrimage to Garin, my mother’s birthplace,
and to Jerman village in Keghi, my father’s birthplace. Luckily they are
not far apart, as Keghi is a county in the Garin province.

We traveled to Garin first and found it a relatively modern industrial city
with paved roads, automobiles, public transit, busy streets, billboard
signs, apartment dwellings, factories, pollution-all the hustle and bustle
of modern urban life.

By contrast, Keghi was still shambling along in the early 20th century.
Here, time had all but stood still since my father had left his beloved
mountains for Canada in 1912 as a migrant worker to earn money to improve
his family’s properties in Jerman.

Today, Keghi is still a rural place, strewn with many villages and one
small-very small-town, the county capital of Keghi-Kasaba (Kgi). The
principal economic base of the region is still agriculture-primitive
agriculture at that. Peasants still live in stone and mud-brick hovels, farm
small plots of land, and care for their goats. As in the days of the
Armenians, there is some business activity in a few of the bigger villages:
small coffee shops, little stores selling food, tobacco, clothing and
hardware supplies, and a few shoemakers, barbers, lawyers, doctors, and some
schools. But we saw no major industry, no tractors or harvesters. And
everywhere we went, our van caused a big commotion-a novelty among the
local inhabitants.

We also observed anachronisms in this glorious Shangri-la. A massive dam
spanning the Kyle or Wolf River (now the Peri Su) that cuts through Keghi
has brought a stroke of modernity to this slow-moving part of the world.
Here, a man harvested his grain with a scythe, then stopped to telephone his
son on his cell phone. There, women baked bread in a tonir, dug into the
open earth, next to a house with an indoor toilet, running water and a TV.
People drove automobiles and trucks on roads that were still mostly dirt and
gravel, still dangerous and often impassable with potholes and bumps at
every twist and turn. The area seemed in transition-somewhat
disjointed-perhaps struggling to retain its old ways and customs, and
stepping ever so carefully into the modern era. A place, I thought, that was
suspicious of innovation and change.

Since my teenage years, I have been proud of my mountain stock; and like my
ancestors, I have valued my independence. As if to prove a point, I used to
sing the Dalvorig song, to my father’s unmistakable delight and my
mother’s feigned disapproval. When I finally saw the awesome mountains of
Keghi, a supernatural force seemed to take hold of me. My spirits soared to
the summits. I wanted to embrace the mountains.

Since ancient times, an aura of sanctity has hung over the mountain of Sourp
Luis ("St. Light"). When I saw the mountain, etched against a cloudless
blue sky, I felt that its rocks were part of me and that I was part of the
mountain. As if aware of my turbulent emotions, the mountain thundered in
response: "Come to me and I will shelter you and give you peace. Use my
stones to rebuild your churches and monasteries in my lofty heights and I
will defend them against your enemies. As steadfast as I stand here, so
steadfast will be your resistance to tyranny and murder."

For centuries, the mountains of Keghi protected the Armenians: the Bingol
Mountains to the east, the Der Sim to the West, and the Sheitan mountains to
the north. The Sheitans hid the villages from the lame but wily destroyer,
Ta­mer­lane (Lengtemur), and for that reason, the villages of Jerman,
Melikan, Shen, Amarij and Arins are known as andress, or unseen. But
Tamer­lane ravaged and pillaged the rest of Keghi, looting, burning,
killing. The Persian Shah Abbas II also wreaked his vengeance on the area.
Villagers fled to the Der Sim Mountains. Here they remained until reason and
calm ruled the land once again. Then they descended to the valley below and
reconstructed their villages and repaired their churches.

According to Keghi legend, Der Sim was named after the Armenian priest Der
Simon. The Kurds of Der Sim, so the story goes, invited two Armenian
builders to construct houses for them. During their work, the Armenians
discovered a gravestone marked "Der Simon, Vartabed." Immediately the
Armenians asked the Kurds for the precious stone, saying it should be placed
in the St. Kevork church in the village of Hertif. The Kurds, however,
refused, on the grounds that in times past, they too were Armenians and had
escaped to the mountains during the Arab invasions. Der Simon, they
emphasized, had been loved by all the inhabitants.

The language of the Der Simtsis was a mixture of Armenian and Kurdish, and
their religion combined Christianity and Islam. During the Genocide, these
same mountain clans helped Armenians find refuge in the Der Sim Mountains,
safe from Turkish rampage.

As we drove along the main Keghi road, I gazed at the Peri Su and marveled
at its beauty. All the while, another vision kept haunting me-the same
river almost 100 years ago. Was it here that my father’s first wife,
running away from a Kurdish pursuer, panic-stricken, threw her young self
into the raging water? Was it there that my aunt’s mother, bereft at the
murder of her husband and brother, tried to drown herself and her four young
children? Their screams and those of their terrified people surely rose up
to the mountain tops and the mountains, outraged, and echoed their cries
over and over and over again. It is eerie how stories from our past lurch
forth, and how, unsummoned, they jostle to the front of our forehead and
stand firmly next to our own djagadakeer [destiny].

Along our way, we visited many villages. We were hospitably received by the
Kurds who now dominate the region. They offered us tan and madzoon, tea,
bread, and even Keghetsi beorag. In village after village, we saw ruined
churches and monasteries. Some had been converted to mosques; others,
partially standing, served as stables or garbage dumps. Still others were
totally laid waste, their stones littered about as if being reclaimed by the
mountains.

Some stones were reused for other buildings. Where the lovely St. Giragos
monastery once stood, we found only rubble, overgrown with weeds. The abbey
had been pillaged in the 1890s and much of its lands confiscated. The year
1915 saw the completion of the plunder. As I looked at the stones of the
nearby house, I noticed one with a number of crosses carved in it by
pilgrims. How much faith and devotion had gone into that stone! How many
sharagans and prayers it had heard! How much joy and pain, how much laughter
and tears it had witnessed over the centuries! I comforted myself by saying
that at least this stone had not been shattered by Turkish artillery nor
defaced by a wild, angry mob. At least it still remained as evidence of my
father’s world. So intensely was I staring at the stone that the little
crosses seemed to turn into tears. The stone was weeping. "I am still
here," it sobbed, "All alone, forsaken. When will you return to restore me
to my rightful place in your sanctuary?" With tears welling, I said a
little prayer and slipped away carrying with me the spirit of the stone.

Keghi seemed peaceful enough. Men farmed, goat­herds tended their flock,
wo­men sewed their vermags [blankets], washed their laundry in the mountain
springs. All seemed idyllic in this radiant valley. All appeared
normal-normal as in the past, for if we stripped away the layers we would
find a region still marked by violence, insecurity and fear. Here, the
military is every­where, kee­ping constant vigilance on travelers and on the
Kurdish population. Were Kurdish insurgents roaming the mountains, carrying
on their clandestine struggle for autonomy? Did the peasants own the land
they so assiduously tilled or were they sharecroppers exploited by large
absentee landlords? What was the relationship between these rural settlers
and their husbands and fathers working in western European cities? Would the
Turkish government deport these villagers as it had done with the Der
Simtsis, or destroy them as it had tried to do with the Armenians?

As we waved goodbye to the children of Jerman, renamed Yedisu, who had
gathered to see us off, devouring the chocolates and clutching the little
toys we had given them, I felt neither disheartened nor depressed. I was
thinking only of history. I recalled the many old churches, abbeys, castles
and medieval towns I had visited in Europe, and thought how wonderful it was
that 10th and 11th century structures were still standing. But if we read
their history, every single one of them has been destroyed or decayed and
rebuilt again and again. Caen in Normandy, for example, the seat of William
the Conqueror, suffered during the Hundred Years War and again during the
wars of religion, when the Huguenots went so far as to scatter William’s
old bones to the winds. The city was again ravaged during the French
Revolution and yet again during World War II when Allied bombs leveled 85
percent of the city. Each time, Caen has been resurrected and today it
stands resplendent, worthy of the powerful conqueror and his prestigious
queen.

I thought of how the Republic of Armenia is conserving and renovating a
precious heritage. And I thought of the current political and religious
conditions that thwart all efforts at restoration and preservation in our
ancient homeland in present-day Turkey. But, if anything, history reveals,
time and time again, that regimes change, priorities change, empires rise
and fall.

How many times have Armenians been driven from their homeland and how many
times have they returned? How many times have they reconstructed their
castles and their fortresses, restored their churches and monasteries and
made them even more beautiful than before? Some day, the stones will find
their rightful place in St. Giragos, Aghtamar and Ani. Once again the
villages and towns will repossess their Armenian names. Once again Sourp
Luis will stand as the sacred symbol of Keghi. And once again the mountains
will yield their stones to build our sanctuaries, which will rise like peaks
to the heavens, extensions of the mountains themselves.

–Boundary_(ID_49r6ZFFP3UAZa9bSAYfZhQ )–

For verse junkies – your weekly fix of poetry

The Armenian Weekly

September 30, 2006

R E D T H O R N S

It was morning when she left,
leaving me with an entire night.
There was no yearning~Wwhen she
left me with memories in the bud.
Was she soft, coarse~Wornament, or a rose?
She was still dewy, as she took off,
leaving me with red thorns~E

* * *
A single seed planted by love
can cool down entire infernos,
One single drop of a lover~Rs tear
can turn a desert to ocean.
Eons may come, eons may go,
Varand, your songs carry on,
imparting fire to frozen hearts,
and cooling seared ones~E

* * *
A drop of wine imbibed when injured in love
is a flame shot up the arm, a bribe
To silence a lover~Rs suicide~Wa gory blade.
It is tears of sobs caused by love~Rs pain,
Or, when it reaches the tip of the pen,
it is~Wif you will~Wink,
a quatrain~E

* * *
As you know, a burn on living flesh smarts
and hurts with agonizing pain~W
Intolerant, sensitive even to the caress
of a soothing, gentle breeze~E
Imagine then the pain of a heart scorched
by the flames of searing love~W
as the victim sighs: Burn me!
Burn me again!

Varand
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

R E J E C T I O N

Mediterranean blue eyes,
Sunshine in her hair, like resurgent
Phoenix…
My own hands that rebuffed the nude
maiden of Lebanon ~W
What makes them feel so upright…?

They should have set her bare breast alight,
Infused breath into her coral fingers… yet
With their haughty Armenian hubris,
They merely unbuttoned her garment…

Soaring Mediterranean moment ~W
Wings of Phoenix roasted by a reborn sun…
Silent words of disdain to a maiden
of Lebanon
What makes them sound so proper…?

They should have been a sweet whisper
at her silken ear.
Soft caresses on her satin brow… yet,
With the arrogance of an ultimate oath
They asked her to leave~E to forget…

* * *
A mere Mediterranean morning…
And a nagging yearning for the
paternal roof.

Varand
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

NZZ OnlineNeue Zurcher Zeitung

4. Oktober 2006, 22:49, NZZ Online

Wirbel um Ã~Dusserungen Blochers in der Turkei

J3G-12.html

Anti-Rassismus-Strafnorm kritisiert
Bundesrat Christoph Blocher hat am Mittwoch in der Turkei Vorbehalte zur
Schweizer Rassismusstrafnorm geäussert. Seine Aussagen lösten in der Schweiz
zum Teil heftige Kritik aus. Hintergrund sind die Verfahren in der Schweiz
gegen zwei Turken wegen Leugnung des Völkermords an den Armeniern.
(ap) Die Turkei sei seines Erachtens zu Recht uber das Strafverfahren in der
Schweiz gegen den Historiker Yusuf Halacoglu wegen Verletzung der
Rassismusstrafnorm erbost, sagte Blocher in einem in Ankara aufgezeichneten
Interview von Schweizer Radio DRS. Gegen den Professor und Präsidenten der
Turkischen Historischen Gesellschaft wurde ein Strafverfahren eröffnet, weil
er am 2. Mai 2004 in einem Vortrag in Winterthur den Völkermord an den
Armeniern geleugnet haben soll.
Hinweis auf Meinungsfreiheit
Blocher machte einen grossen Konflikt zur Meinungsäusserungsfreiheit aus.
Unabhängig von diesem Verfahren werde in seinem Departement intern
untersucht, was man bezuglich der Rassismusstrafnorm tun könne. Vor
turkischen Medien soll Blocher laut dem Radio-Korrespondenten gesagt haben,
die Rassismusstrafnorm bereite ihm Bauchschmerzen.
Kein guter Stil
Der Präsident der Eidgenössischen Kommission gegen Rassismus, Georg Kreis,
bezeichnete es als problematisch, wenn ein Mitglied der Exekutive sich zu
einem laufenden Verfahren einer richterlichen Behörde öffentlich äussere.
Zudem entspreche es nicht gerade gutem Stil, wenn man eine beabsichtigte
Gesetzesrevision im Ausland ankundige.
SP-Präsident spricht von Â"SkandalÂ"
Es sei inakzeptabel, wenn ein Justizminister die eigene Rechtsordnung im
Ausland kritisiere, sagte CVP-Vizepräsident Dominique de Buman im Radio.
SP-Präsident Hans-Jurg Fehr sprach in der Â"TagesschauÂ" des Schweizer
Fernsehens von einem Skandal und von einem unglaublichen Vorgang. Er
erinnerte daran, dass die Strafnorm in einer Referendumsabstimmung vom Volk
gutgeheissen worden war. Fur die FDP stehe die Strafnorm nicht zur
Disposition, sagte Fraktionschef Felix Gutzwiller. Man sollte auch davon
ausgehen, dass Ã~Dusserungen im Ausland mit dem Aussenministerium abgesprochen
wurden. Â"Diese Wiederholungstat macht offenkundig, dass Blocher in der
Landesregierung fehl am Platz istÂ", teilten die Grunen mit.
Kein direkter Kommentar Calmy-Reys
Bundesrätin Calmy-Rey wollte die Aussagen ihres Bundesratskollegen zur
Rassismusstrafnorm in der Turkei nicht kommentieren. In der Fernsehsendung
Â"Galerie des AlpesÂ" des Schweizer Fernsehens verteidigte sie jedoch das
Antirassismusgesetz. Der Präsident der Aussenpolitischen Kommission des
Ständerates, der Thurgauer Ständerat Philipp Stähelin (cvp.), ärgerte sich
daruber, dass sieben Bundesräte Aussenpolitik betreiben. Er forderte eine
Â"Aussenpolitik in einem Guss.Â"
Langjährige Belastung der Beziehungen
Die Armenienfrage belastet das Verhältnis zwischen den beiden Ländern seit
Jahren. Besuche von Micheline Calmy-Rey und Joseph Deiss waren zuvor
gescheitert, so dass mit Blocher erstmals wieder ein Schweizer
Regierungsmitglied die Turkei offiziell besuchte. Der EJPD-Chef nahm am
Mittwoch auf Einladung des turkischen Justizministers an einem Symposium zum
80-jährigen Bestehen des turkischen Zivilgesetzbuches teil, fur das das
schweizerische ZGB Vorbildcharakter hatte.

Mehr zum Thema:
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Schweiz-Turkei: Verbale Annäherung

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PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Center for National and International Studies
75 Yerznkian Street
Yerevan 0033, Armenia
Tel: (+374 – 10) 52.87.80 or 27.48.18
Fax: (+374 – 10) 52.48.46
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Website:

October 5, 2006

ACNIS at Twelve: A Public Accounting by the Center’s Director of Research Stepan Safarian

Dear colleagues, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

It is with great pride and among your pleasant company that today we
celebrate the twelfth anniversary of the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies (ACNIS). For me personally, concurrently celebrating
two anniversaries is an inexplicable emotion. Even though I have been
working at ACNIS only since 2002, in the institutional sense I likewise feel
twelve years old–just as old as my colleagues who have been working at the
Center ever since its establishment. Hence, my accounting cannot avoid those
twelve, or encompass a mere few, years.

The Center’s track record since 1994 is marked by the work product of its
analytical and investigative insight, multi-disciplinary and intensive
research, and other valuable initiatives supporting the quest for a
strategic model of true statecraft.

In my deep conviction the founding of ACNIS, which engendered a
comprehensive geopolitical approach in the early years of Armenia’s
independence and its liberalization, was a bold yet justified move. When
looking back over the years, we can only guess as to the emotions felt by
ACNIS’s founder, Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K.
Hovannisian, and his fellow believers. Maybe there was concern that this
institution–which had proved on numerous occasions its effectiveness in
developed countries and had assisted state and society to a great
extent–would not succeed in newly independent Armenia and, as has been the
case many times, a patriotic concept would become distorted and devalued.
Prior to that, however, Raffi Hovannisian had had the distinct honor of
heading Armenia’s diplomacy, which likewise was charted from scratch. And
the experience and accomplishment which he gained from this domain became
beneficial for the surmounting of all apprehension and, together with a
group of common idea bearers, his founding of the first-ever strategic
research center in Yerevan. Subsequently, seasoned analysts and political
scientists, as well as still young but promising talents would join the
Center, and thus everything fell into its place.

It is beyond any doubt that the Center’s founder, owing to his distinction
and the prominence of his reputation, could have turned ACNIS into a one-man
show, a phenomenon which we see around us very often. In his absence today,
I, as an Armenian citizen and as an ACNIS analyst and director of research,
would like to thank Mr. Hovannisian for not doing that. Instead, he built
this institution from the bottom up, refusing to interfere with or put
limitations on the independence and individuality of the human mind, and by
his own example encouraging comprehensive, cutting-edge thinking and a free
competition of concepts and options. I can openly point out without
exaggeration that ACNIS, true to the precepts and the spirit of democracy,
has humbly served the highest interests of Armenia, its liberty and
political culture, and every good idea that has arisen from the depths of
society. Many of those present today can corroborate that they were the
authors of various initiatives and public roundtables. We simply provided
assistance so that they could be brought to life. Lastly, I want to express
hope and confidence that not only such institutions, but also all other
systems–to the establishment of which we, together with Raffi Hovannisian,
will contribute–that distinguish a democratic country will likewise become
successful. We know how Mr. Hovannisian always takes the pioneering first
step, how he inspires his colleagues, and how he creates all the conditions
necessary for advancement and success. And the vivid illustration, the
telling proof, and the secure pledge of this is ACNIS at twelve.

The matter at hand, both in the past and now at the Center, was to examine
and consider, in professional fashion and without any predisposition, the
horizons of regional developments and their strategic challenges; to shed
light on Armenia’s import against the background of geopolitical events; to
outline the probabilities and prospects; and to sound an alarm against the
perils that threaten the country’s sovereignty. The following years really
became a turning point for the shaping and the strengthening of ACNIS; its
voice became more incisive, and its word more mature. Individual and team
work, coupled with the determined work of its staff members, made it
possible for the Center to tackle contemporary topics, to broaden the reach
of its research, to combine theoretical and practical advantages, and to
develop a unique hallmark in applied studies.

ACNIS’s founding demonstrated that the notion of democratic institutions is
not alien to the great majority of the Armenian people. Many correctly
perceive such establishments as a progressive power and a building block for
civil society. All this makes us optimistic, and also determined, to work
together to deepen democratic values in our country.

Unfortunately, we still have individual politicians who need further
explanation as to the purpose and the activity of such centers, what their
objectives are, and why they publish books, analytical works, and reviews.
We are obligated to remind them that these institutions are platforms for
healthy debate and robust exchanges of view. They provide alternative
avenues with respect to the country’s development and the priorities of
current policy. They are neither tractor factories nor candy production
facilities, nor even benevolent organizations. Moreover, to the chagrin of a
few unconscientious individuals who have made slanderous accusations of
late, these centers are also not intelligence agencies that serve foreign
interests.

Now please allow me to present some statistics on the activities carried out
by ACNIS. Throughout the past twelve years, hundreds of our brothers and
sisters living in Armenia and in approximately twenty other countries–US,
United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, Australia, Greece, Switzerland, Spain,
Belgium, Thailand, Cyprus, South Korea, France, Lebanon, Egypt, Iceland,
Argentina, etc.–have supported our Center in their own way and to their own
capacity. They all carry but one standard: The strategy for Armenia’s
development must be planned in Armenia, and this must be done, with their
support and partnership, by those people who live in their homeland and know
the realities of the latter full well. Those who plan strategies must always
be in tune with global developments and concepts. And this is why ACNIS’s
strategic partners assist us; they do so in order that our specialists can
attend the most diverse and the most prestigious gatherings and conferences
around the world.

We extend our profound gratitude and appreciation to all those who are
helpful in making the voices, the concerns, and the aspirations of Armenia
and Mountainous Karabagh reach different international arenas. We are
thankful to all the embassies–US, Great Britain, Romania, Greece, Iran,
Germany, and Italy–and international organizations–OSCE, UN, USAID, UNDP,
etc.–functioning in Armenia, because very often these foreign missions
resolve certain matters such as prompt issuance of entrance visas and
facilitation of travel.

Thanks to Raffi Hovannisian and the Armenian specialists who have worked and
continue to work at our Center, ACNIS enjoys the status of an invited guest
to countless policy meetings and conventions. The latest illustration of
this profile is the global leaders’ call for action "Towards a Comprehensive
Settlement of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," which was disseminated yesterday,
on October 4, by the renowned New York Times and Financial Times. Those who
signed under this petition include 135 of the world’s foremost
statesmen–former presidents, prime ministers, ministers of foreign affairs
and defense, MPs, and heads of international organizations. In this
worldwide initiative, Armenia is represented by its first Minister of
Foreign Affairs and ACNIS founder Raffi K. Hovannisian; and this comes to
prove yet again that our often passive foreign policy is frequently
complemented by an active public diplomacy.

The addressees of our appreciation are numerous. Nonetheless, I would
especially like to express gratitude to those civic, public, and national
figures who, recognizing the importance of such a trailblazing institution,
have taken part and continue to take part–in varying degrees and
formats–in our activities.

A hearty word of thanks also goes out to the public, which follows our
undertakings and initiatives. Its analytical mind, curiosity, as well as
helpful advice and suggestions allow us always to be in touch with everyday
developments, and this is of utmost value to us. In the meantime, the
signals coming from deep within society have recalled the importance of
working more closely with the public as well as a broad array of social and
political currents. An outcome of this realization was the founding, in
2003, of the National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) in the programs of which
partake well-known public, political, and cultural personalities,
academicians, and countless citizens. It is through NCI that ACNIS very
often gets the results of its research across to the body politic.

The following year, 2004, saw the next vital achievement: the establishment
at the Center of the National Public Opinion Service. To date, this body has
already conducted 13 public and 9 expert surveys throughout Armenia. Despite
the fact that the mindset of a limited circle within Armenia suspects and
tries to mar everything good, the clear evidence of our work is the high
level of public trust in those queries which has been attested to on
numerous occasions. The Armenian citizen is proud to know that his or her
opinion counts. In light of this, we are also indebted to those journalists
and media outlets that cover ACNIS and NCI events impartially, and inform
the people about the results of our public and expert opinion polls and
other relevant findings.

We were the first, but not the only, research center in Armenia.
Subsequently, many others were established. Currently, we collaborate with a
lot of them directly and complement one another. Among such organizations
are the International Center for Human Development, Transparency
International, European Integration, Cooperation for Democracy, the
Institute of Civil Society, the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, the Helsinki
Association of Armenia, and several others.

Our policy deliberations and analyses, whose key attribute is their
transparency, have treated a vast range of realms and topics including
global and regional developments; environmental and educational policy; the
rights of the former residents of Yerevan’s Northern Avenue and Biuzand
Street; conflict management and the Mountainous Karabagh process; the
macroeconomic reality of Armenia and the family business; the nation’s
minorities; and other societal imperatives.

Those who keep track of our work, or visit our website, must have become
aware of our multi-faceted and all-inclusive activities. These comprise
meetings with statesmen, diplomats, and experts from numerous countries;
active association with a diverse range of local and international events;
publication of countless monographs which reflect on urgent policy issues,
as well as books and almanacs; and dissemination of regular communiques with
respect to ACNIS projects.

Dear compatriots:

I do not want to take undue advantage of your time, but
the presentation of this modest public accounting was our
obligation. Please share with us today’s joy, since ACNIS is not
just ours, it belongs to us all. Its doors have always been and will
continue to stand open before all initiatives and proposals that
benefit the nation. Our dignified mission is to pave the way toward
the freedom of thought and speech, the expression of different views,
and the holding of open debate and dialogue–all of which constitute
fundamental benchmarks of democracy. Our endeavor is to ensure that
all of society becomes the bearer of such values. I wish a long,
productive path to ACNIS, and success to all of you. Let us enjoy
together the great pleasure of this little celebration.

Yerevan
October 5, 2006