Month: November 2006

Turkey Going to Change Policy on Armenian Genocide Issue
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.11.2006 17:22 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey considers the possibility of ‘appealing to
the international court’ on the Armenian Genocide issue, said Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. In his words, resigned diplomats and
‘reliable’ experts-lawyers are examining the issue in detail.
According to Turkish Daily News, Gul also said assured that
the government will try to settle the problem within shortest
terms. Article titled “Historical step by Turkey” published in
Milliyett daily says that the Turkish government ‘elaborates a new
policy’ as regards the statements on the Armenian Genocide. At the
same time Turkish diplomats refrain from detailed comments on the
changes to occur in the Genocide issue line, reports RFE/RL.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

VympelCom and OTE Sealed Deal on ArmenTel
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.11.2006 17:26 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russian VympelCom and Greek OTE have formally sealed
the bargain on the purchase of 90% package of ArmenTel’s stocks,
VympelCom PR officer Yekaterina Osadchaya said. The state committee on
regulation of Armenian public services approved the deal on November
14. The Armenian government is also going to offer VympelCom its 10%
package of ArmenTel stocks in exchange for refusal from monopoly
on some kinds of communication, including Internet. VympelCom
representatives assure the company has reiterated the readiness to
refuse from monopoly, reports IA Regnum.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Economist: 40 Thousand Armenian Migrants Live in Turkey
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.11.2006 18:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Economist assures that 40 thousand Armenian
migrants live in Turkey at the moment. Unlike migrants from other
states Armenians are not oppressed in Turkey, the edition says adding
that the number of Turks of Armenian origin makes 80 thousand. The
Economist also quotes American art worker of Armenian origin Kartash
Onik, who returned from a festival organized in Kars not long ago. “I
never fancied that Armenian songs in performance of an Armenian singer
can receive such a warm feedback. I was surrounded by Turks, who danced
Armenian dances. My eyes filled with tears,” he said, reports RFE/RL.

TURKEY CEASES MILITARY RELATIONS WITH FRANCE
By Petros Keshishian
AZG Armenian Daily #221, 18/11/2006
Turkey
General Ilqer Bashbug, commander of Turkish land
forces, stated that his country ahs ceased the
military relations with France , as well as bilateral
visits of high ranked military officials.
“CNN-Turk” TV informed that the given step taken by
Ankara is conditioned by the the adoption of the bill
in the France Senate, which envisages criminal
punishment for denial of the Armenian Genocide.
After the adoption of the document, Ankara threatened
Paris with economic and political sanctions.
On September 28, by special decree, the members of the
European Parliament obliged Turkey to recognize the
Armenian genocide, if the latter want to become a full
fledged EU member state. Then Turkey stated that it
considers that unacceptable to impose additional
preconditions for the membership.
Armenia demands to acknowledge that 1,5 million of
Armenians were killed in the Western Armenian
conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1917.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Idea of Appealing to International Courts Not New
PanARMENIAN.Net
17.11.2006 18:43 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The idea of appealing to the international courts
belongs to retired Turkish diplomat Gunduz Aktan, who had served
Turkish Ambassador to many European structures, Director of the
Institute of Oriental Studies at the RA Academy of Sciences Ruben
Safrastian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, there were
two variants of policy on the Armenian Genocide issue. “They were going
to proceed with the denial policy or appeal to the international court
motivating that Armenians will not be able to prove that the killings
of 1915 were Genocide. The decision was taken by the General Staff,”
he said. Safrastian reminded that Aktan is one of the rigid Turkish
politicians and when a member of the Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation
Committee always stood against the Armenian Genocide recognition.

AZG Armenian Daily #221, 18/11/2006
Meeting
RA PRESIDENT: SETTLEMENT OF CONFLICTS SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS
PRECONDITION FOR ESTABLISHING DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION
Armenia imparts great importance to the regional cooperation,
RA President Robert Kocharian said in his yesterday’s speech in
Bertelsmann Fund in Berlin.
“We believe that the resolution of conflicts itself should not
be considered as a precondition for establishing dialogue and
cooperation. Moreover, the regional cooperation should be considered
as a great trust-building measure, aimed at resolving existing
disagreements. It is obvious, that unsettled conflicts hinder the
process of natural development of the South Caucasus. That is why
we are determined to achieve the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs work hard to bring
closer our positions. Unfortunately, despite active negotiations
underway, there is little room for optimism. Our principle position
is that the people of Karabakh have implemented their right for
self-determination. It has been done in full accordance with the
international law. Many currently independent states came into
existence after former empires perished. Independence of Nagorno
Karabakh was attained during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Moreover, it was the time of the end of the grand ideological
contradictions. Nagorno Karabakh has never been a part of independent
Azerbaijan. Through a successful construction of its statehood Nagorno
Karabagh Republic has proved its right for existence. It regularly
conducts democratic presidential and parliamentary elections. We
witness the development of the civil society. A generation has
already grown up, which considers itself to be the safeguard of that
statehood. We do not recall any case of a nation willingly putting it
down independence it has been enjoying for over 15 years. No one has
intention to do it in case of Karabakh. We speak about irreversible
changes that took place in the people’s mentality,” R. Kocharian
said. “In the course of many years Armenia has been consistently
shaping its foreign policy, based on the concept of advantaging
from overlap of interests rather than exploitation of disagreements
existing in our region,” RA President Robert Kocharian said. “This
has allowed us to combine perfect relations with Russia, EU, United
States, and Iran. It is also an important part of transformation of
our country and society. For decades, living in the Soviet Union,
we were trained to watch the world as black and white, representing
enemies and friends. The policy of complementarity also applies to our
security model. Armenia is an active member of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization, and at the same time has done a substantial
progress on its cooperation with NATO. The Individual Partnership
Action Plan has been approved, setting the framework for a long-term
institutional cooperation,” he said. Besdies, he added that Armenia has
to keep on developing the sector of financial services. RA President
emphasized that Armenia has a good potential for shaping effective
banking system, which is being continuously improved. “Although we
see a considerable growth of foreign investments in Armenia, we know
there is still much to do in the near future”, R. Kocharyan said,
having expressed gratitude for the technical assistance and direct
participation of Germany in this sphere of Armenia. “The Program of
technical assistance and financial cooperation, being carried out
together with KFW and GTZ, contributes greatly in this direction”,
RA President said.
Moreover, R. Kocharyan noted that Armenia’s membership to the World
Trade Organization in 2003 contributed to the country’s integration
into the world economy and made the relations with partners more
predictable. In the recent joint investigation of Wall Street Journal
and Heritage Foundation, Armenia has taken the 27th place in the world
by the index of economy openness. “Efficiency of reforms reflects in
digits. The annual GDP growth within the last 6 years has totaled to
12,2%. The volume of foreign investments in 2005 has amounted to $500
mln”, R. Kocharyan said. He stated that the achieved progress allows
the RA Government to start solving the social problems, set before
the society. “I would like to especially mention the Program for
overcoming the poverty, having been developed in close cooperation
of the Government with international financial organizations and
Armenia’s civil society. This experience is used by the World Bank as
an example for the development of such programs in other countries”,
the President said. The processes developing in Armenia since the
proclamation of its independence can be characterized as economic,
social and political reforms, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
said. He added that no single sphere has been left unreformed after the
collapse of the USSR and Armenia’s transition to democracy and market
economy. Armenia has reformed its institutions, revised its policy,
restructured its economy. This processes were hindered by an imposed
war, severe power crisis and continuing blockade, but the Armenian
authorities responded by mobilization of resources, more active
reforms and more effective administration, Kocharyan underscored.

PRESS RELEASE
MISSION EAST – Values in Action
Saryan 6, apt. 4
Yerevan, 375002, Armenia
Tel.:(374 10) 52.15.34, 566718
Email: [email protected]
Contact: Raffi Doudaklian
November 17, 2006
For Immediate Release
Mission East Welcomes New Country Director to Armenia
Armenia – Mission East hosted a reception on November 16, 2006, in
honor of Dr. Kim Hartzner, new Country Director of its Armenia office.
More than 120 guests from local and international organizations
attended the event to welcome the new Director and get acquainted
with Mission East.
Hartzner, the organization’s Managing Director in Denmark, recently
moved to Armenia with his wife and three sons for a year, to lead
the local office’s programs.
Kim Hartzner is a medical doctor who co-founded Mission East with
his father in 1991. Since 1999, he has served as Managing Director,
overseeing the organization’s country programs, which have since
expanded to include other countries of Eastern Europe and Asia.
“You don’t know what is happening in a country until you live there
for a long time. By living here, you have the ability to understand
the problems on all levels,” Hartzner said.
Mission East, a Danish international relief and development
organization, has been active in Armenia since 1992, when it
established a hospital. It subsequently provided relief aid,
distributing thousands of tons of food to poor communities in the
Syunik region and beyond during some of the country’s most difficult
years. In 1998, Mission East began to focus on children’s institutions,
with the purpose of improving education for children with learning
difficulties.
“Thanks to Mission East and its local partner organization Bridge of
Hope, we have systematically and consistently been able to provide
equal opportunities for children with learning difficulties, both
to raise the level of their education and facilitate access to the
educational system,” stated Bagrat Yessayan, Deputy Minister of
Education and Science. He praised Mission East for the work done
in the special education sector, specifically the leading role that
Mission East and its partner organizations played in the adoption of
the Special Education Law and the national special education curricula.
Recently, Mission East also initiated a health project to promote
the rights of disabled children in Armenia, seeking to help change
social attitudes and healthcare practices.
For further information on Mission East and its programs, please
contact us at the coordinates below.
For additional information, please visit our website at
Mission East is a Danish international relief and development
organization that works to help the vulnerable through humanitarian
relief aid and development assistance, as well as support for
increasing the capacity of communities to organize and assist
themselves.

STRENGTHENING THE “EASTERN VECTOR”: ANKARA HOSTS TURKIC SUMMIT
By Igor Torbakov
Friday, November 17, 2006
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Nov 17 2006
Leaders of Turkic nations are meeting today, November 17, in
Turkey’s Mediterranean resort city of Antalya. This first summit of
Turkish-speaking peoples in five years appears to reflect Ankara’s
ongoing rethinking about its international identity. Increasingly
frustrated with the mounting hurdles on the path of its European
integration, Turkey seems to be turning its strategic gaze to the
east – the Caspian Basin and Central Asia – which is home to the
energy-rich Turkic republics of the former Soviet Union.
The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and
high-level representatives from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will be
attending the Antalya gathering. It was unclear whether the Russian
republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan will be represented.
The November 17-18 event is the eighth meeting of Turkic leaders since
the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The last such summit, however,
took place in Istanbul in 2001. The gatherings of the leaders of Turkic
countries are the brainchild of the late Turkish President Turgut Ozal,
who organized the first such meeting in 1992 in Ankara. The current
summit convened after intense lobbying by the Turkish government
following the September convention of the Turkish-speaking peoples
(see EDM, September 22).
A statement posted on Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s website says
the summit participants will sign a joint document called the Antalya
Declaration. There was no official word ahead of the gathering on
the nature of the document. Some analysts predict that the Turkish
government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will continue
its efforts to forge a Turkic Commonwealth that could significantly
enhance the Turkey-led Eurasian bloc on the world stage.
It is hard not to notice that Ankara’s Turkic initiative coincides
with Turkish opinion polls showing diminishing popular support for
European Union membership. According to a recent poll by the Pew
Research Center, Turkish support for the EU has fallen to 35%, down
from almost 80% three years ago.
Two important developments further underscore the Turks’
disillusionment with the West and their growing irritation at the
perceived snub by the Europeans.
First, five former Turkish foreign ministers, including several
staunchly pro-EU ones, have recently aired a common view on the
country’s NTV news channel, arguing that it could be best if Ankara
unilaterally suspends membership talks with the bloc to allow for
a cooling-off period in what is becoming an increasingly tense and
acrimonious relationship. “There can be no better indication of the
growing frustration with the EU and no better explanation for the
dramatic decline in support for [Turkey’s] membership in the Union,”
one Turkish commentator noted.
Second, Turkey has just suspended military relations with France in a
dispute over the controversial issue of the mass killings of Armenians
during the twilight of the Ottoman era. The move was the latest
backlash against French legislation that, if approved by the French
Senate and president, would criminalize any denial that the World War
I-era killings of Armenians in Turkey qualified as genocide. France
and Turkey, both NATO members, have had close military ties, and
Turkey has been an eager buyer of French-made military hardware. But
on November 15, Turkey’s land forces commander, General Ilker Basbug,
told reporters in Ankara that “relations with France in the military
field have been suspended.”
As Ankara’s relations with the EU become ever more problematic, a
growing number of Turkish pundits argue that Turkey needs to expand
its strategic thinking and get rid of the “unhealthy fixation”
on Europe. The contemporary world is not unipolar or centralized,
they say, adding that a group of Eurasian countries including Turkey,
China, India, as well as some Central Asian states has a “much more
viable future in the developmental terms used by economists than do
many countries in the EU today.”
The urgent task, then, according to some Turkish strategists, is to
explore the possibilities for regional integration and cooperation
among the Eurasian countries. “The need for cooperation among us and
other regional powers is obvious,” asserts Ali Kulebi, the head of
Turkey’s National Security Strategies Research Center, in a recent
policy paper.
But other analysts remain skeptical about Ankara’s eventual success
with Eurasian integration, including its efforts at building a bloc
based on a kinship with Central Asia’s Turkic peoples. There are two
main reasons for such skepticism. First, the Central Asian states
will likely be wary of Ankara’s intention to play the role of “big
brother” in the prospective commonwealth. Second, these countries
have not been terribly successful so far in resolving some crucial
regional problems – such as the delimitation of the Caspian Sea or
competition over water resources.
(Anadolu, Akipress, November 16; AP, November 15; Turkish Daily News,
November 16, 14, October 22)

The Alliance of Civilizations and the Pope’s Visit
By HUSEYIN GULERCE
11.17.2006 Friday – ISTANBUL 19:44
Zaman, Turkey
Nov 17 2006
The 4th High-level Group Meeting of the Alliance of Civilizations
held last Monday at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul also pointed out
the importance of the visit to our country 12 days from now by Pope
Benedictus XVI.
The Alliance of Civilizations initiative was begun by the efforts
of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan. Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero
and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan were named as co-chairmen of
the organization. The enterprise has a High Level Group. After the
September 11th terrorist attack in the US and the occupation of Iraq
by the Bush administration using Saddam as an excuse and the Lebanese
attacks in which Israeli massacres directed towards civilians once
again appeared on the agenda of world public opinion, hostility and
tension between the Western world and the Islamic world can only be
prevented by dialogue efforts among countries and country leaders.
We see that Turkey has become a very important country in respect
to both efforts. Turkey’s EU membership candidacy increases this
importance even more. With the reality of “Turkey as an EU member,” it
can be seen that the West hasn’t rejected Islam and doesn’t see it as
the “new enemy” and, therefore, that it is possible to have dialogue
and tolerance among members of different religions for the sake of
permanent peace. If not, it is inescapable that interpretations will
be strengthened to the effect that the Holy Crusades are continuing
with ways and means compatible with this era.
With the culture of tolerance that Turkey inherited from the Ottomans
and its republican experience that doesn’t clash democracy with Islam,
it has shown that it approves of coming together on universal human
values and of integrating with the world, and that it can succeed in
“sharing” in mankind’s common march.
In spite of voices raised on the inside by those who want polarization,
but whose voices are not proportional to their strength, the Justice
and Development Party experience displayed today in administration
is accepted both by the society and the external world, and it is
hoped that this experiment will be successful. There not yet being
any alternative political party on the horizon according to public
opinion polls emphasizes that it is.
We see acceptance of dialogue and tolerance in society. Dialogue begun
by Fethullah Gulen, a leader of this view, 10 years ago with the
Phanariot Patriarch, Head Rabbi of the Jewish community in Turkey,
and the Armenian Patriarch and later expanded with Gulen’s visit to
Pope Paul VI at the Vatican was well-received by a large mass of the
population, in spite of the protests of certain circles and their
efforts to stir up muddy water. The dialogue dinners during Ramadan
that were initially criticized were later officially stood up for. And
these dinners are spreading today as meetings that build bridges of
peace throughout the world from America to Europe and from Australia
to Africa.
When dialogue and tolerance efforts that are continuing among
peoples both by means of administrations with UN initiatives and the
exertions of voluntary organizations are remembered, the visit to
Turkey by Pope Benedictus XVI from November 28th-December 1st looks
like a milestone. Prime Minister Erdogan’s attending the NATO summit
on November 28-29 should not prevent him from seeing the Pope and
taking advantage of this opportunity. The Pope will be in Istanbul
on November 30th. There is still a possibility for this meeting to
take place. Criticized for his words directed towards out Prophet, the
Pope’s finding an opportunity for self-criticism and his doing this in
Turkey would be meaningful world-wide. An Erdogan-Pope meeting would
be an essential answer to domestic and foreign EU opponents allied
to prevent Turkey’s EU membership. There are important historical
moments that separate statesmen from politicians. The Pope’s visit
to Turkey presents Erdogan with such an opportunity…

Trial on Ramil Safarov starts in Budapest
[ 17 Nov. 2006 17:43 ]
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
The trial on the case of Ramil Safarov, sentenced to life imprisonment
for the murder of Armenian Army officer Gurgen Margaryan, for the
claim raised by jailers has started today in Budapesht.
Azeri embassy in Hungary told APA that the officers of the Embassy
will participate in the court. Hungarian lawyer Clara Fisher will
defend his rights on the case.
While being kept in Hungarian prison in 2004, jailers wanted telephone
card from Ramil. But Ramil could not understand Hungarian which led
an incident between them. Eight police officers tied his hands and
used force. Though lawyers for the Azerbaijani lieutenant appealed to
court related to this matter, the court dismissed the appeal saying
there was no evidence. Then the opposite side claimed that Ramil
resisted officials. /APA/