Month: November 2006

ANKARA GèLE SES RELATIONS MILITAIRES AVEC LA FRANCE
Laurent Zecchini
Le Monde, France
18 novembre 2006 samedi
LA FRANCE s’est efforcee, jeudi 16 novembre, de minimiser la
decision de geler les relations militaires franco-turques, annoncee
la veille par le general Ilker Basbug, chef d’etat-major de l’armee
de terre. A l’occasion d’une reception marquant le 23e anniversaire
de la Republique (autoproclamee) de Chypre du Nord, le ” numero deux
” des forces armees turques avait indique : ” Les relations dans le
domaine militaire avec la France ont ete suspendues. ”
Si elle se confirmait (ni le Quai d’Orsay, ni le ministère de la
defense n’ont recu d’avis officiel), cette decision constituerait la
première mesure de represailles contre la France après l’adoption,
le 12 octobre, par l’Assemblee nationale, d’une proposition de loi
reprimant la negation du genocide armenien de 1915.
Mehmet Dulger (AKP), president de la commission des affaires etrangères
du Parlement turc, a explique que la Turquie n’avait pas d’autre
choix, le vote de l’Assemblee nationale etant considere comme ”
un acte d’hostilite contre la Turquie “. ” Nous devions agir, on ne
s’attend pas a un tel geste de la part d’un ami “, a-t-il ajoute,
dans une declaration rapportee par l’International Herald Tribune.
Les diplomates francais ont rappele a leurs homologues turcs que
le vote d’une proposition de loi (d’initiative parlementaire) ne se
traduit pas forcement par une loi, le Senat n’ayant d’ailleurs pas
inscrit ce texte a son ordre du jour.
” Les Turcs ont voulu marquer le coup sur le plan interieur. Après le
vote de 2001 – la loi reconnaissant le genocide armenien – , il y avait
eu une periode de refroidissement, pendant dix-huit mois, puis tout
est rentre dans l’ordre “, assure-t-on au ministère de la defense,
où l’on confirme cependant qu’une reunion franco-turque destinee a
adopter un ” plan de cooperation ” militaire, prevue en decembre,
a ete annulee par Ankara.
Cette decision pourrait cependant avoir des consequences, dans la
mesure où la France et la Turquie ont d’etroits liens militaires
(notamment via l’OTAN), au travers d’operations exterieures
(Afghanistan, Bosnie, Kosovo, Liban et Centrafrique).
Eurocopter est, d’autre part, en competition pour un marche d’environ
1,5 milliard d’euros portant sur la vente de quelque 52 helicoptères
Cougar et NH90 a l’armee turque.
–Boundary_(ID_iXqCWbi3XdgvAm4jyrdLhw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE PRICE OF SURVIVAL
A1+
[04:42 pm] 16 November, 2006
Under the RA Government’s decision, the survivors of 1915 Armenian
Genocide in West Armenia and within the boundaries of Turkey will be
given 25 thousand AMD as additional pension.
FOR THE RESORATION OF THE FORESTS
The RA Government allotted 15 million AMD to the fund engaged in the
restoration and development of the RA forests. Under the same decision,
19 million 800 thousand AMD was allocated for the purification of
the 1.2 km river-bed of Gegharqouniq.

THE ECONOMIST: FRANCE’S ARMENIAN BILL RESTRICTS FREE SPEECH
Journal of Turksih Weekly, Turkey
Nov 17 2006
London-based The Economist reported that the main reason of the
Armenian bill in France was growing hostility towards Turkey and its
EU membership. ‘Free speech under threat’ titled article says that
the Armenian bill restricts freedom of speech in France.
The Economist reports:
“The most vivid example of the creeping extension of Holocaust-denial
laws has come in the French National Assembly, which last week voted
for a bill to make denial of the genocide of Armenians in Turkey during
the first world war a criminal offence. The political context for
this was not just vociferous lobbying by Armenians in France but also
growing hostility among voters to the idea of Turkish membership of
the European Union. To appeal to such voters, the assembly proved ready
to place restrictions on one of the most fundamental of all freedoms,
that of speech (though in fact the bill is unlikely to become law).”
“This is a perfectly logical extension of a slew of laws imposing
free-speech restrictions to suppress racial, ethnic and religious
hatred. Indeed, it may be an offence to deny the Armenian genocide
in France already, because its Holocaust-denial law was extended in
1990 to cover all crimes against humanity. Bernard Lewis, an American
historian, was condemned by a French court in 1995 under this law.
Britain also has laws against incitement to racial hatred; last January
it tried but failed to extend them to religious hatred. On the face
of it, then, it does not seem outlandish for Muslims to demand that
Islam be equally “protected” under speech-restricting laws.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA: ANOTHER ANTI-RACISM PROTEST IN YEREVAN
UN Observer
Nov 17 2006
Narek Kocharyan, 15, was beaten and stabbed to death in the settlement
of Ivanteyevka in the Moscow region last Saturday (November 11).
“We believe this is an offense of special severity, doubtlessly,
a group crime racially motivated,” said Simon Tsaturyan, the lawyer
representing the Union of Armenians of Russia in an interview to Radio
Liberty. Tsaturyan said a scarf “with fascist symbols” was found at
the crime scene.
The teenager’s death brings to at least 14 race-related deaths,
of which 6 were Armenian.

PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV MEETS WITH HIS TURKISH COUNTERPART
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev today met with his Turkish
counterpart Ahmet Necdet Sezer in Antalya on the sidelines of the
eighth Summit of the Heads of Turkish-speaking States.
Both leaders stressed the importance of the global energy projects
including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas
pipelines.
Ilham Aliyev and Ahmet Necdet Sezer said the bilateral relations
between their countries are rapidly developing.
They described the Antalya Summit as a success, and stressed its
importance in terms of enhancement of the bilateral ties between the
two countries’ people.
The Turkish President congratulated his Azerbaijani counterpart on
signing the action plan of neighborhood policy with the European Union.
The Azerbaijani leader informed Mr. Sezer on his country’s policy
towards integration into Europe.
Ilham Aliyev also touched upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Ahmet Necdet Sezer reiterated his country’s stance on the dispute,
adding it should be peacefully solved in accordance with the principle
of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
The two presidents also discussed a range of other issues of mutual
concern including the latest developments in the region.

KAZAKHSTAN RECOGNIZES AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY, NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
Kazakhstan recognizes territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev said today at the eighth Summit of
the Heads of Turkish-speaking States in Antalya, Turkey.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be peacefully solved in
accordance with international norms. We will further continue our
cooperation with Azerbaijan within international organizations”.
Mr. Nazarbayev also added his country condemns all terrorist acts
in various regions of the world, and is against the international
terrorism and separatism.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT SHOULD BE SOLVED IN ACCORDANCE WITH PRINCIPLE OF TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF AZERBAIJAN, AHMET NECDET SEZER
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
Establishing peace and security as well as increasing cooperation
in Eurasia is Turkey’s foreign policy priority, Turkish President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer said today at the eighth Summit of the Heads of
Turkish-speaking States in Antalya, Turkey.
He noted the processes taking place in the region pose threat to
the regional security and create huge obstacles for development
of cooperation.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be solved as soon as possible
for the peace be established and cooperation enhanced in the
South Caucasus. We declare that we support peaceful solution to
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in accordance with the principle of
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and that we will further support
fraternal Azerbaijan in this dispute”.

JAZZ ETC.: A GIFT OF MODERN MUSIC FROM THE “CELLO GODDESS”
By Paul de Barros
Seattle Times, WA
Nov 17 2006
Maya Beiser discovered Belgian surrealist poet Henri Michaux when
she was a teenager, playing cello in an Israeli army string quartet
during the Lebanon war.
For years, she wanted to do something with Michaux’s strange and
compelling “I Am Writing To You From A Far-Off Country,” which
describes with deadpan naivete the conditions in a strange place –
another country? another planet? an imaginary world?
Last year, Beiser invited composer Eve Beglarian and video artist
Shirin Neshat to collaborate with her on Michaux’s poem.
The glorious result is on offer at 8 p.m. today and Saturday at On
the Boards, part of Beiser’s “Almost Human” program ($24; 206-217-9888
or ).
Though neither Michaux nor Beglarian was inspired directly by war or
by terrorism, the work’s solitary, post-apocalyptic atmosphere feels
terribly right for this moment.
“It feels more relevant than ever,” agreed Beiser from her home in
New York, where she premiered the piece earlier this year, at Zankel
Hall. “One way I understand it is as this woman desperately trying to
describe her world to this person that she loves. But there’s another
layer, too – as a solo performer, this ability to open yourself up
and say, ‘Look, see, this is where my world is.’ It’s very powerful
for me, performing that piece.”
Beglarian’s music, inspired by Armenian melodies, ranges through rich,
forlorn landscapes with achingly slow vibrato; strident electric
guitar samples; icy high notes; voluptuous, pastoral overlays;
industrial repetitions; and a bit of thrumming and plucking, too.
Neshat’s video is screened on nine monitors. It features desert
landscapes from the Sinai, rippling images of Beiser performing and
“lots of images of water and the sea.” (One beguiling line in the poem:
“Does water flow in your country, too?”)
As you may have surmised, Beiser is not your garden-variety cellist.
Nicknamed “the cello goddess” by the New Yorker magazine, she is a
sort of one-woman Kronos String Quartet, having commissioned and/or
performed pieces by Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Arvo Part and a
host of other contemporary composers.
Beiser also has been compared to Laurie Anderson, which makes a
certain amount of sense in the context of the Michaux piece.
entertainment/2003435696_jazz17.html

AZERI FM SIGNALS ‘BETTER UNDERSTANDING’ AFTER BRUSSELS TALKS
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 17 2006
Azerbaijan’s foreign minister, who met his Armenian counterpart this
week, announced that the Brussels meeting had helped the Armenian and
Azeri sides ‘to start to understand more clearly’ the principles on
which they didn’t reach agreement.
“The meeting was pretty constructive, because we started to understand
more clearly the basic elements on which we cannot find the common
ground,” Elmar Mamedyarov told the RFE/RL Azeri Service.
“It is important for to understand the vision of Armenia for the
future. I am really glad that Armenia also signed the Action Plan
of the European Neighborhood Policy. This means they [Armenians]
share the same European values, which definitely brings forward the
idea that if you want to be a member of the European community, you
cannot occupy the territory of another state, cannot conduct ethnic
cleansings, because this is not the way Europe lives,” the Azeri
foreign minister said.
“If we move in this direction it will become clear that there is
no chance that using the Kalashnikov machine-gun you can change the
border or it can be a means for expelling the people from the homes
of their region and deciding the future of the territory. This is not
the way the international world is living now,” Mamedyarov concluded.

PARLIAMENT SPLIT ON CONTINUED DEPLOYMENT IN IRAQ
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 17 2006
Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian is likely to ask the National Assembly
to extend the stay of Armenia’s small peacekeeping contingent in Iraq
at the last four-day session of parliament this year.
Meanwhile, parliamentary forces appear to have differences on this
issue.
Armenia’s two major parties making up the ruling coalition are likely
to vote differently on the issue when it comes up in early December.
The Republican Party (HHK) has signaled that it will support the
government proposal to extend the stay of Armenia’s 46 troops serving
with U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
HHK parliamentary faction leader Galust Sahakian said it is important
for Armenia to continue its participation in the “world security
process.”
“We cannot remain outside the systems ensuring world security. We
must continue to carry out these functions as well,” he told RFE/RL.
The senior HHK member claimed that the defense minister’s proposal
enjoys the support of most political forces represented in the Armenian
parliament, as they, according to him, understand the importance of
the mission.
Meanwhile, the Republicans’ junior coalition partner, Dashnaktsutyun,
has not changed its position that Armenian deployment in Iraq threatens
the security of thousands of ethnic Armenians living there.
“Our position has always been known to you,” the leader of the party’s
faction in parliament, Hrair Karapetian, said. “We explained our
position to our coalition partners.”
Dashnaktsutyun was one of the two parliamentary factions along with
the opposition Artarutyun alliance that voted against the decision
on the controversial deployment of a small Armenian army unit of
peacekeepers in Iraq when it was voted on in 2004.
Artarutyun leader Stepan Demirchian says they will oppose the extension
of the mission’s term.
“Attaching importance to [Armenia’s] relations with the U.S., we are
against the prolongation of the mission when the UK already decided
to withdraw its troops and when it is apparently only a matter of
time for the U.S. to withdraw its military from Iraq,” Demirchian said.
The opposition National Unity party, which voted for the decision in
2004, is still undecided, according to its leader Artashes Geghamian.
Speaking in Yerevan on Wednesday after returning from a visit to Iraq,
where he met with the troops, Iraqi defense officials and officials of
the U.S.-led coalition, Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian expressed a
hope that the parliament would approve an extension of the deployment.
From: Baghdasarian