Month: October 2006

SWISS JUSTICE MINISTER’S COMMENTS DURING VISIT TO TURKEY CAUSE OUTCRY AT HOME

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
Oct 5 2006

GENEVA The Swiss justice minister’s comments during an official trip
to Turkey have caused an outcry at home after he appeared to criticize
the Alpine country’s anti-racism laws.

According to Turkey’s state-owned Anatolia news agency, Christoph
Blocher told his counterpart, Cemil Cicek, on Wednesday that a law
under which a Turkish historian is being prosecuted in Switzerland
for saying "the Armenian genocide did not take place" was "a headache."

Blocher then went on to say that he had invited Cicek to visit
Switzerland. When Cicek asked whether he would get into trouble if
he repeated the historian’s comments, Blocher replied: "Nothing will
happen. But if it does, I’ll go to prison with him."

A billionaire industrialist, Blocher has regularly rocked the boat
of unity in the coalition government with his outspoken positions
since he joined the seven-member Cabinet in 2003 after years on the
outside. As a leader of the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, he
has taken strong positions against asylum seekers and Switzerland’s
membership in the U.N. and other international bodies.

President Moritz Leuenberger, a Social Democrat, expressed surprised at
Blocher’s remarks Thursday, while Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin, a
center-right Radical Democrat, said it was wrong for a justice minister
to complain about his own country’s laws while on a foreign visit.

Blocher, who was in Ankara to mark the 80th anniversary of Turkey
adopting Swiss laws as a basis for its own penal code, said he would
hold a news conference on his arrival at Zurich airport Friday morning.

Anatolia reported that Blocher had expressed support for a Turkish
proposal to draw up a commission made up of historians to research
the Armenian issue.

"In countries like Switzerland … freedom of expression is necessary
for democracy to exist. No matter how much we say that freedom of
expression is important, the legislation which was adopted in 1994,
unfortunately, is an obstacle to this," Anatolia quoted the minister
as saying.

"This law was in fact one that was passed with the punishment of
those who deny the World War II genocide against Jews in mind. No one
thought at the time that it would be used against a professor from
Turkey for remarks he made during a speech to Turks in Switzerland."

"But this law does exist and it is a headache for us."

"My ministry will examine what can be done independently of the case
against Halacoglu and Perincek."

Turkish historian Yusuf Halacoglu is being investigated by Swiss
prosecutors for comments he made during a speech in Winterthur, near
Zurich, in 2004. Prosecutors said this week that they have not been
able to interview Halacoglu in person. Another case, brought against
the Turkish left-wing politician Dogu Perincek, will be decided in
March 2007.

Perincek had made similar comments about Armenians during a speaking
tour of Switzerland in 2005.

Under Switzerland’s 1994 anti-racism law, which was originally
intended to prevent Holocaust denial, it is to illegal to "deny,
minimize or justify genocide or other crimes against humanity." At
the time, Blocher voted for the legislation.

Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed in 1915-1923 in an organized campaign and have pushed for
recognition around the world of the killings as genocide. Turkey
rejects the claim that a mass evacuation and related deaths of
Armenians was genocide and says the death toll is inflated.

GENEVA The Swiss justice minister’s comments during an official trip
to Turkey have caused an outcry at home after he appeared to criticize
the Alpine country’s anti-racism laws.

According to Turkey’s state-owned Anatolia news agency, Christoph
Blocher told his counterpart, Cemil Cicek, on Wednesday that a law
under which a Turkish historian is being prosecuted in Switzerland
for saying "the Armenian genocide did not take place" was "a headache."

Blocher then went on to say that he had invited Cicek to visit
Switzerland. When Cicek asked whether he would get into trouble if
he repeated the historian’s comments, Blocher replied: "Nothing will
happen. But if it does, I’ll go to prison with him."

A billionaire industrialist, Blocher has regularly rocked the boat
of unity in the coalition government with his outspoken positions
since he joined the seven-member Cabinet in 2003 after years on the
outside. As a leader of the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, he
has taken strong positions against asylum seekers and Switzerland’s
membership in the U.N. and other international bodies.

President Moritz Leuenberger, a Social Democrat, expressed surprised at
Blocher’s remarks Thursday, while Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin, a
center-right Radical Democrat, said it was wrong for a justice minister
to complain about his own country’s laws while on a foreign visit.

Blocher, who was in Ankara to mark the 80th anniversary of Turkey
adopting Swiss laws as a basis for its own penal code, said he would
hold a news conference on his arrival at Zurich airport Friday morning.

Anatolia reported that Blocher had expressed support for a Turkish
proposal to draw up a commission made up of historians to research
the Armenian issue.

"In countries like Switzerland … freedom of expression is necessary
for democracy to exist. No matter how much we say that freedom of
expression is important, the legislation which was adopted in 1994,
unfortunately, is an obstacle to this," Anatolia quoted the minister
as saying.

"This law was in fact one that was passed with the punishment of
those who deny the World War II genocide against Jews in mind. No one
thought at the time that it would be used against a professor from
Turkey for remarks he made during a speech to Turks in Switzerland."

"But this law does exist and it is a headache for us."

"My ministry will examine what can be done independently of the case
against Halacoglu and Perincek."

Turkish historian Yusuf Halacoglu is being investigated by Swiss
prosecutors for comments he made during a speech in Winterthur, near
Zurich, in 2004. Prosecutors said this week that they have not been
able to interview Halacoglu in person. Another case, brought against
the Turkish left-wing politician Dogu Perincek, will be decided in
March 2007.

Perincek had made similar comments about Armenians during a speaking
tour of Switzerland in 2005.

Under Switzerland’s 1994 anti-racism law, which was originally
intended to prevent Holocaust denial, it is to illegal to "deny,
minimize or justify genocide or other crimes against humanity." At
the time, Blocher voted for the legislation.

Armenians say that as many as 1.5 million of their ancestors were
killed in 1915-1923 in an organized campaign and have pushed for
recognition around the world of the killings as genocide. Turkey
rejects the claim that a mass evacuation and related deaths of
Armenians was genocide and says the death toll is inflated.

ANOTHER TURKISH AUTHOR TRIED FOR INSULTING NATIONAL IDENTITY
Katerina Ossenova

JURIST, Univ. of Pittsburgh, School of Law
Oct 5 2006

[JURIST] Another Turkish author went on trial Thursday on charges
[AP report] that he "insulted the Turkish identity" in violation of
Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder] of the country’s penal code. Ipek
Calislar wrote that the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, once left his palace disguised as a woman to evade an
assassination attempt. Calislar faces 4.5 years in prison if convicted.

Turkey [JURIST news archive; CIA backgrounder] is seeking membership
to the European Union (EU) [official website], which has urged that
Article 301 be abolished [JURIST report] because it infringes upon the
freedom of expression. Despite revising portions of the penal code
[JURIST report] last year, Turkish leaders have no immediate plans
to make further changes to the law. Turkish novelists Elif Shafak
[personal website], Hrant Dink and Orhan Pamuk [JURIST news archive]
have all been charged under Article 301 for discussing the alleged
Armenian genocide. Shafak was acquitted and Pamuk’s charges were
dismissed [JURIST reports], while Dink faces a retrial [JURIST report].

THESE BOOKS ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST
By Holly E. Newton

Columbia Daily Tribune, MO
Oct 5 2006

September began my eighth year of reviewing children’s books –
including seven years for the Tribune. I thought it would be
appropriate to go back over my many reviews and select my favorites.

This was difficult, as I only pick the best books to review anyway.

However, after much deliberation, I came up with a good mix of genres.

"Dolphin Adventure" by Wayne Grover is a small chapter book about
an exciting adventure that actually happened to the author. After
deep-sea diving, Grover encounters a family of dolphins. What awaits
him will take your breath away.

"Lincoln – A Photobiography" by Jim Murphy takes you through President
Abrham Lincoln’s life, especially during his presidency.

The photos throughout are amazing, especially the pictures showing
the stress on the president’s face during the Civil War.

All of the "Harry Potter" books by J.K. Rowling. Rarely have I come
across a writer better able to weave a mystery inside a fantasy that
is also rich in language for all to enjoy.

"Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman begins with one child planting a seed
in an overgrown and dumpy area in a city. What you soon discover
is that each chapter, even though they are about different tenants,
become intertwined, like the seeds they plant.

"Holes" by Louis Sacchar is such an outstanding mystery. Too bad they
made a movie based on it because now many won’t want to read it.

"Insectlopedia," written and illustrated by Douglas Florian, is an
ingenious poetry book where many of the poems become the shape of
the insect.

"A Picnic in October" by Eve Bunting is a beautiful picture book
about a family coming to Ellis Island each October to commemorate
their ancestors’ arrival to America.

"Forgotten Fire" by Adam Bagdasarian is about the author’s relatives
and his struggle with a little-known chapter of history, the
extermination of the Armenians in Turkey during World War II.

"Guts" by Gary Paulsen is an autobiographical account of this famous
adventurer/author and his incredible experiences, of which he wrote
about in many of his books.

"Shipwreck At the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong is
a non-fiction account of Ernest Shackleton in 1914, and the ship
Endurance, and how he and his crew barely survived while trying to
be the first to circumnavigate the South Pole.

"Inkheart" by Cornelia Funk is another mystery fantasy by an author
comparable with Rowling. This story not only celebrates reading, but
it also has the characters come to life as well as main characters
falling inside the pages.

"The Water Hole" by Graeme Base is an extraordinary picture book that
begins with a large African pool of water that’s cut out in the book.

Each page has animals from different environments drinking, and the
hole becomes smaller and smaller as you read the book.

"Rocks in His Head" by Carol Ois Hurst is based on her father’s life.

This is an inspiring picture book about how a man who lost
everything during the Great Depression rose above and beyond anyone’s
expectations.

"Hachiko Waits" by Leslea Newman tells the true story of a dog who
waits for seven years in a train station for his owner to return –
even after the owner dies.

"Dinosaur – Encyclopedia Prehistorica" by Robert Sabuda and Matthew
Reinhart is one of the best pop-out books ever published. There are
more pop-outs and information on every page than you can imagine.

Holly E. Newton, M.A., has taught kindergarten through seventh
grades. She has five children and is working on reading every great
book for kids. See her Web site at

ARMENIAN PRISON CONDITIONS AGAIN DEEMED INADEQUATE
By Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 5 2006

Conditions in most Armenian prisons remain harsh and in some cases
"inhumane" despite having somewhat improved since Armenia’s accession
to the Council of Europe, civil society representatives that regularly
inspect them said on Thursday.

Presenting its latest report, a monitoring team comprising
representatives of a dozen non-governmental organizations and the
Armenian Apostolic Church said the country’s four largest prisons
do not meet international standards and must be relocated to new
buildings. The detailed report, based on the team’s annual inspection
of the Armenian penitentiary facilities also concludes that most
inmates are poorly fed and not provided with adequate healthcare.

Officials from Armenian Justice Ministry department running the
prisons disagreed with that assertion, insisting that the prison
population has free access to doctors and medicine and does not suffer
from malnutrition.

Members of the monitoring team painted a similarly bleak picture
in their previous report released last year. It urged the Armenian
authorities to do more to improve the plight of the convicts. Justice
Ministry officials accepted much of the criticism at the time, but
blamed the problem on a lack of funds.

Armenia’s penitentiary system was transferred from the police to
the Justice Ministry jurisdiction in 2002 under pressure from the
Council of Europe. The measure was followed by the passage of a new,
more lenient Armenian Criminal Code that led to the early release of
most of the country’s 3,600-strong prison population.

In a July 2004 report, the European Committee for the Prevention of
Torture (CPT), a Council of Europe watchdog agency, said that although
the Armenian prison conditions have since improved they still fall
short of European standards.

According to the Armenian prison monitors, mistreatment of prisoners
is another serious problem. "While the police resort to violence to
extract confessions from suspects [kept in pre-trial detention], in
prisons violence is used as a punishment for disobedience and escape
attempts," said Avetik Ishkhanian, a human rights campaigner and
member of the monitoring group. "Sometimes beatings are very brutal."

The group’s latest report refers in particular to the alleged beating
of five inmates of a maximum-security jail in the southern town of
Goris where a riot broke out last April. Citing eyewitness accounts,
the report says the riot was quashed by a special police unit sent from
Yerevan. Security forces are also said to have also demonstratively
burned the belongings of all prisoners’ in retaliation for the protest.

Also, recent reports in the Armenian press said that four men serving
life sentences at Yerevan’s Nubarashen prison were tortured and held
in inhuman conditions following their unsuccessful attempt to break
free last July. The men reportedly tried to kill themselves after
being caught by prison guards. The prison chief denied the reports.

"I’m not saying that such cases are numerous," Ishkhanian told
reporters. "But they do happen and seem to have been frequent of late."

Vaghinak Kocharian, deputy head of the Justice Ministry’s prison
department, admitted that prison guards "use force" against inmates,
but said they do so only "in cases of emergency." "We have legally
defined sanctions against unruly convicts," he said. "So have to use
and will use force if necessary."

ROMANIAN LEADER RULES OUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
Irina Hovannisian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 5 2006

Romania will not join France and other Western states in officially
accepting the massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide,
Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Tuesday.

He explained that his country does not want to risk spoiling its
relations with Turkey, which strongly denies that the 1915-1918 mass
killings and deportations constituted a genocide.

Basescu made the comments at a meeting with Yerevan State University
students on the second day of his official visit to Armenia. Asked
by a student whether he is ready to follow French President Jacques
Chirac’s example and urge Ankara to recognize the genocide, he said,
"We will not do anything affecting our neutrality in our relations
with all the countries of the Black Sea region."

Visiting Yerevan last week, Chirac indicated that genocide recognition
should be a precondition for Turkey’s membership in the European
Union. "Each country grows by acknowledging its dramas and errors of
the past," he said.

Basescu claimed, however, that it is Armenia that complicates its
integration into European structures by raising the genocide issue on
the international stage. "Keep history on the history books and in the
memory of the peoples, and rebuild the future," he said. "If history
constantly stands in the way of the future as a bone of contention,
you won’t achieve success in European integration."

Basescu argued that Romania laid to rest its historical disputes with
neighbors for the sake of membership in NATO and the EU. "Romania
is one of the countries which at any moment can have disputes with
neighbors regarding the border, history and so on. So is Armenia and
so is Turkey," he said.

The Armenian genocide has been officially recognized by the governments
and parliaments of about two dozen nations, including France, Italy,
Canada and Russia.

EU ENVOY SAYS AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA "PLAYING FOR TIME"
By Ahto Lobjakas in Brussels

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 5 2006

Both Azerbaijan and Armenia appear to be "playing for time" in
their conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, the European Union’s special
representative for the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, said on Thursday.

Semneby told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee that
Azerbaijan in particular appears to be hoping that income from energy
exports will make it progressively ‘richer and militarily stronger.’
"The rearmament is a serious issue, or concern, and I think it has
contributed to a lack of urgency, if I may formulate it that way,
on the part of Azerbaijan to seek a solution to the conflict," he said.

But, Semneby said, Armenia is similarly playing for time. He
said Yerevan is waiting to see "what the Kosovo settlement could
contribute," and "hoping the situation on the ground would cement
itself."

However, the EU envoy said the situation of the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace talks is "not completely hopeless," adding the Armenian and
Azerbaijani foreign ministers will meet this week in a fresh attempt
to break the deadlock.

Agreement on the meeting was reached during the American, French and
Russian mediators’ visit to Baku and Yerevan earlier this week. The
envoys said they still hope to broker a framework peace agreement in
the coming months.

TURKEY TO STAR AT BOOK FAIR DESPITE WRITERS’ ROWS
By Jeffrey Goldfarb

Reuters, UK
Oct 5 2006

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Turkey will be the featured country at the
Frankfurt Book Fair in 2008, a choice that could invite controversy
after two recent court cases raised questions about freedom of
expression in the European Union candidate.

The fair could stir up even more debate as it courts China as a
potential guest for 2009, with fair officials suggesting that the
sensitive topics of Taiwan and Tibet would have to be part of the
programme’s focus in such an eventuality.

Turkish publishers consider the honour a chance to shift the spotlight
from the 2006 court cases to its cultural heritage and the 20,000
books published each year in the country.

"We hope this transition phase will be faster and maybe by 2008,
we will not talk about these issues any more," said Hayati Bayrak,
president of the Turkish publishers association, in an interview on
Thursday translated by a deputy, Mustafa Dogru.

"We are in favour of freedom of expression," Bayrak added. "Those
authors who were in court, you can find their books and their pictures
here at our stand now."

A judge last month cleared prominent novelist Elif Shafak of insulting
Turkish identity in a passage from her book about the massacres of
Armenians during Ottoman rule.

She had faced up to three years in jail if convicted for comments
made in her novel "The Bastard of Istanbul".

Earlier in the year Turkey’s most famous novelist Orhan Pamuk also
went on trial for insulting "Turkishness" after he told a Swiss
newspaper that nobody in Turkey dared mention the Armenian slaughter.

The case was dropped on a technicality.

Turkey denies claims that 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
systematic "genocide" in World War One. But it is under pressure
from the European Union to change an article in the penal code that
forbids insulting the Turkish identity.

"I have seen Turkey’s booth this year, and there are some historical
falsifications in the books they published, but we don’t mind that
they will be the honoured guest because the historical truths will
be proved," said Vahram Avagyan, head of publicity for Zangak, one
of Armenia’s largest publishers.

When asked if the book fair wanted to send a signal to Turkey about
freedom of speech, Juergen Boos, the fair’s director, said: "Yes,
of course."

Pamuk welcomed what he hoped would be a fresh wave of attention from
the global publishing community.

"After so many years of Turkey attending the Frankfurt Book Fair it
is very good news, because Turkish literature is trying, with hesitant
steps, to walk in the international arena," he told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Osman Senkul in Ankara and Joern Poltz
in Frankfurt)

TURKISH TO BOYCOTT ELECTION OVER ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’

Expatica, Netherlands
Oct 5 2006

AMSTERDAM – A large section of the Turkish community in the Netherlands
is planning to boycott voting at the 22 November national elections.

The director of Turkish lobby group IOT, Ahmet Azdural, said primarily
young Turkish immigrants feel that the nation’s political parties
don’t listen to other opinions.

Turkish voters are reacting to decisions from Labour PvdA and
the Christian Democrat CDA to dump Turkish politicians from their
candidate lists.

The decision was taken after they refused to accept that genocide
was committed in the mass murder of Armenians by Turkey in 1915.

The controversy will cost the left-wing opposition parties PvdA,
green-left GroenLinks and Socialist PS a lot of votes.

A poll of immigrant voters indicated two weeks ago that the three
parties could count on 60 percent of immigrant votes.

The poll was conducted when the Turkish candidates Ayhan Tonca and
Osman Elmaci (CDA) and Erdinc Sacan (PvdA) were still listed as
candidates for the Lower House of Parliament elections.

National Turkish organisations and politicians will now meet on Sunday
in Capelle aan den Ijssel to decide on a joint course of action to
prevent the Armenian issue damaging the relatively large voter turnout
rate for the Turkish community.

Turkish student groups protested in Amsterdam, The Hague and Groningen
and in front of the PvdA office in Amsterdam on Thursday.

PvdA MP Nebahat Albayrak said on Wednesday it was right to discuss
genocide and that Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands and Europe
must be prepared to enter debate about the mass murder of the Armenian
population.

Despite Turkey’s denials, Albayrak said it was right to describe the
mass killings as genocide. But she also said Turkey has the right to
dispute the use of the international legal term ‘genocide’.

PACE POLITICAL COMMITTEE ADOPTED A PACT ON STABILITY IN SOUTH CAUCASUS

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 5 2006

PACE Political Committee adopted a pact on the stability in South
Caucasus after a long discussions, Samad Seyidov, the head of
Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation in PACE told the APA.

The aim of the document is to establish stability and cooperation
among South Caucasus states.

"We think application of the stability pact used in Baltic States is
impossible in South Caucasus. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia want
to cooperate in the frame of EU New Neighborhood Policy. Armenians
realize that stability pact is nonsense," he said.

Seyidov also said "frozen" conflicts in CIS countries will be discussed
in PACE soon.

MP PASHAYEVA: PACE MONITORING COMMITTEE TO DISCUSS "LINGERING CONFLICTS" IN ARMENIA
Author: E. Javadova

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 5 2006

The Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) is expected to discuss "lingering conflicts" on
the territory of FSU during aw meeting to be held in Armenia. The
decision on this issue was made during the meeting of the PACE
Monitoring Committee held in Strasburg today (October 5), Trend
reports referring to the MP.

According to Ganira Pashayeva, the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh which
is a part of Azerbaijan is also referred to "lingering conflicts",
therefore, they will focused their attention on this issue as well.

"In addition, the forthcoming visit of Russell Johnston, Head of the
PACE Subcommittee for Nagorno-Karabakh was discussed. Mr. Johnston is
expected to pay his visit to Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia
very soon. During the meeting, the visit of PACE Co-Rapporteurs on
Azerbaijan Andreas Herkel and Tony Lloyd to the region which was
scheduled for the end of October was discussed as well. During the
discussions, the particular attention was paid to the laws "On Freedom
of Gatherings" and "On Election Code", pointed out the MP.

According to Ganira Pashayeva, during the meeting held, one of the
issues put forward to discussion was devoted to the sitting of the
Media Subcommission scheduled for November, as well as the sitting
of the Political Committee to be held in Baku on December 11.