Month: November 2006

KREMLIN CONTROL OF NATURAL GAS ROUTES TO EUROPE STOKES WESTERN UNEASE
By George Jahn, Associated Press Writer

The Associated Press
November 27, 2006 Monday 8:14 PM GMT

For the West, the threat from Moscow was supposed to end with the
collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years ago. But Russia’s growing energy
clout is generating renewed cause for anxiety.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, set up in the early days of
the Cold War to keep Soviet-led forces in check, has begun speaking
out about the potent new energy lever being wielded by the Kremlin
in the international struggle for influence.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said last week that
energy security would be high on the agenda at its summit starting
Tuesday in Riga, Latvia. He noted that there was "added value to NATO
discussing energy and security policies."

The main issue is natural gas. Russia is an oil giant, second only
to the Saudis in exports, and Europe depends on it for a quarter of
the crude it consumes. But oil supplies can be diversified because
shipping is easy, while the most efficient way of distributing gas
is through pipelines. With Russia the world’s largest gas exporter
and Europe’s neighbor, European dependency has grown to the point
that the EU now counts on Moscow for nearly half of its gas needs.

And Moscow’s control of pipelines that deliver not only gas from
Russia but from much of central Asia is stoking Western unease.

"With gas, control over pipelines is crucial," says energy expert
Michael Klare. "Once you put oil on a tanker you cannot control it, but
gas is different; whoever controls the pipelines controls the flow."

Like NATO, U.S. officials also are warning of the dangers of allowing
Russia a free hand in monopolizing gas shipments. And the European
Union is trying without success so far to pry open the Russian grasp
on gas and gas pipelines supplying EU member countries.

Just last month, Russian energy giant OAO Gazprom announced it would
develop the huge Shtokman gas field without foreign partners, in a
fresh setback to western oil companies looking to exploit the nation’s
vast hydrocarbon riches.

At the same time, companies like BP PLC, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and
Total SA are fighting back-tax bills or threatened license annulments
apparently another reflection of the Kremlin’s push to ensure that
the state has a major role in all key energy projects.

The two sides appeared to come no closer at an EU-Russia summit in
Helsinki last week. Speaking to reporters Friday, Russian President
Vladimir Putin restated his opposition to giving foreign companies
easy access to his country’s energy sources, or breaking up oil and
gas state monopolies.

Western concerns reflect a growing understanding that in the 21st
century control of energy has become more than ever before a weapon
of geopolitical advantage.

Klare, author of "Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of
America’s Growing Petroleum Dependency," says the world already has
entered "a new era, where energy has replaced nuclear weapons as the
medium of superpower rivalry."

"Vladimir Putin believes that," says Klare. "And he is moving to
accumulate as much energy power as he can."

A study conducted earlier this year for the Swedish Defense Research
Agency concludes that Russia uses its growing energy punch to "extend
influence, avert geopolitical and macroeconomic threats and to reduce
the risk of being blackmailed."

As in the Cold War, Europe is the most vulnerable. It now imports just
over half of its energy needs but will depend on outside suppliers
for 90 percent of its oil and 80 percent of its gas within 20 years.

Moscow insists market forces are driving its price policy. But its
allies, like Armenia, pay much less than its critics, like Georgia.

The Swedish study notes more than 50 cases since 1991 where the
Russian "energy lever has been used for putting political or economic
pressure on Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova
(and) Georgia."

Other surveys also draw worrying conclusions.

A recently leaked confidential study by NATO economic experts warned
Russia may be seeking to build a gas cartel including Algeria, Qatar,
Libya, the countries of central Asia and perhaps Iran and cautioned
that kind of OPEC-like near monopoly would strengthen Moscow’s leverage
over Europe.

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin this month denied that Russia
was planning on building a cartel, however.

Washington is also concerned.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew J. Bryza warned this
month that a prospective natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea
could further increase Europe’s energy dependence drawing an angry
retort from Moscow, which has cast the project as a key contribution
to the EU’s energy security. And U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney
accused Russia earlier this year of using its energy resources as
"tools of intimidation or blackmail."

Such comments reflect a recognition of the key role of energy and
frustration on the part of "have-nots" like the United States and
most other NATO countries.

"Possessing a rich accumulation of energy is the equivalent of
a nuclear arsenal in the 20th Century," says Klare. "And being a
‘have-not’ creates a strategic vulnerability."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SEPARATISTS MANIFEST MILITARY ACTIVENESS
by R. Manafly

Source: Echo (Baku), November 22, 2006, p. EV
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 27, 2006 Monday

Azerbaijani experts explain this by the visit of Arkady Gukasyan to
the US and increase of military expenditures of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani Experts Point At Growing Military Activeness In
Nagorno-Karabakh; Lately, Armenian separatists started taking active
military measures.

Azerbaijan should express decisive protest about actions of Armenian
separatists on the occupied territories. Well-known military expert
Uzeir Dzhafarov said this in a conversation with Echo.

Lately, Armenian separatists started taking active military measures.

For instance, on November 20, units of the armed forces of Armenia
started large-scale military exercises on the occupied territories of
the Agdam District of Azerbaijan. The exercises are conducted mostly
in Uzunder village. Explosions are heard on the territories where
the armed forces of Armenia are having military exercises.

In the framework of the combat training plan of the armed forces of
the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for 2006, competition of commanders of
mechanized infantry and tank companies was conducted in one of the
training military units. For five days commanders demonstrated their
skills in use of armament and improved their field skills. Regnum
reports that such events are organized in the armed forces of
Armenian separatists regularly with participation of commanders of
various levels.

Really, Dzhafarov points out that now the separatist armed forces
manifest excessive military activeness on the occupied territories of
Azerbaijan. Along with this, the military expert does not rule out
that this time rattling sabers is connected with trip of leader of
Armenian separatists Arkady Gukasyan to the US. Dzhafarov stresses,
"It is possible that the exercises about which we hear today are a
part of a military plan developed by Armenian separatists."

According to Dzhafarov, military exercises are conducted on the
occupied Azerbaijani territories that incur serious damage on
environment of the region. Dzhafarov warns that this damage is much
bigger than the damage from the summer arsons.

The expert says that he is amazed by the indifference of the Foreign
Ministry and Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan. Official stance of the
ministries remains unknown still.

In turn, Ilgar Mamedov, another military expert, presumes that growing
activeness of Armenian separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
is connected primarily with statements of Azerbaijani authorities
about regaining the occupied territories in a military way that have
grown more frequent. The expert presumes, "Such statements of state
officials have sounded very often lately and it is possible to say
that this scares Armenia."

According to Mamedov, the growing Armenian military activeness is
also a result of the statements of Azerbaijani authorities regarding
an intention to spend up to $1 billion on military needs of the
country. Mamedov points out, "How can Armenian military stay quiet
if their budget, according to the most optimistic forecasts, will not
exceed $300 million? That is why Armenian separatists try to manifest
activeness in the military field."

STRENGTH OF THE COMMONWEALTH
by: Yury Gavrilov

Source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta, November 24, 2006, p. 6
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 27, 2006 Monday

Defense ministers of the CIS countries broaden collective security
in Brest

Heads Of Defense Ministries Of The Cis Countries And Collective
Security Treaty Organization Gathered In Brest; Yesterday, Belarusian
city of Brest gathered a big military council. Heads of defense
ministries of the CIS countries and Collective Security Treaty
Organization met there.

Yesterday, Belarusian city of Brest gathered a big military council.

Heads of defense ministries of the CIS countries and Collective
Security Treaty Organization met there.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, chair of the council of
defense ministers of the CIS, outlined the key topics for discussion:
– We will talk about peacekeeping activities, about establishment of
a unified communication system and about improvement of the united
air defense system of the commonwealth. As to the Collective Security
Treaty Organization, we will talk about the military technological
assistance, namely armament and combat hardware supplies and training
specialists in Russian military higher educational institutions free
of charge.

It was expected that agreement on the regional air defense system of
Russia and Belarus would be signed in Brest. This document passed all
approvals. Theoretically, defense ministers and even commanders of the
air force and air defense forces can sign it according to instructions
of the presidents of the two countries. However, this procedure was
postponed again. In any case, Ivanov said that the agreement would
come into effect by the end of the year for sure.

Meanwhile, obvious and hidden contradictions among the former Soviet
republics are sometimes manifested in the most unexpected way.

For instance, Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan did not arrive
at the meeting of the council of defense ministers of the CIS countries
in Baku in May. The drawn-out Nagorno-Karabakh conflict makes Sarkisyan
persona non grata for Azerbaijan. At any rate, the Azerbaijani and
Armenian ministers did not refuse to meet on a neutral territory,
for example, in Belarus.

The most paradoxical situation is related to Uzbekistan. Recently,
this country announced restoration of its membership in the
Collective Security Treaty Organization. However, the Uzbek Defense
Minister somehow did not arrive at the meeting of the council of the
defense ministries in Brest where it was planned to discuss return
of Uzbekistan to the treaty separately. Instead of him he sent his
deputy for international cooperation with a rank of colonel.

This action does not contradict the bylaws of the organization but
when defense ministers ignore such meetings under various pretexts
this looks ambiguous. Meanwhile, Tashkent limited its representation
by a deputy defense minister at the meeting of the committee of chiefs
of general staff of the CIS countries in October.

One participant of the negotiations in Brest commented: – Uzbekistan
is interested not as much in cooperation via the CIS and Collective
Security Treaty Organization as in bilateral military and military
technological relations with Russia. Tashkent has very ambiguous
relations with other members of the commonwealth and the treaty in
the form of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Sometimes the matter comes
to firing exchange on their borders. That is why we cannot expect
friendly hugs from the ministers.

Of course, this is only a partial opinion and it is disputable but
it is clear that Russia remains the only real force that can unite
interests of various CIS member states now.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CRUMBLING CHURCHES A SIGN OF TURKEY’S DISREGARD FOR ITS RICH RELIGIOUS TAPESTRY

The Irish Times
November 27, 2006 Monday

Rite and Reason As the pope begins a four-day visit to Turkey tomorrow,
attention is likely to focus more on his attitude to Islam and the
country’s application to join the EU than on the plight of Christian
minorities there, writes Sarah MacDonald

A few weeks ago, employees of Diyanet, the Turkish state body for
Muslim worship, called for the pontiff to be arrested on his arrival in
the country, accusing him of violating Turkish laws upholding freedom
of belief and thought and of "insulting" Islam and the Prophet Mohammed
in his Regensburg address last September.

Some Turkish newspapers have suggested that the state has downgraded
its welcome, while the authorities have underlined that protests
against the pontiff will be permitted.

No doubt the Vatican is relieved to hear that security has been
stepped up.

The stabbing of Fr Pierre Brunissen in Istanbul last July was the
third attack on a Catholic cleric in the country this year. There
are just 32,000 Roman Catholics in Turkey.

Sadly, coverage of this historic visit – the first of Pope Benedict’s
pontificate to a Muslim country – looks likely to focus on his
purported "bias" against Islam and Turkey. As a result, the issue of
Turkey’s discrimination against its non-Muslim minorities, specifically
Christians (who comprise roughly 1 per cent of the population),
is likely to be ignored, though it warranted criticism in the EU’s
recent progress report on this country of almost 70 million.

The invitation to Pope Benedict to come to Turkey was extended by
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the leader of Turkey’s Greek
Orthodox Church and spiritual leader of more than 250 million
Christians worldwide.

The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge his ecumenical authority
and bans the use of his title. His flock, which has a 1,500-year-old
presence in Istanbul, is still viewed with deep suspicion.

The French press agency AFP in July 2003 claimed Turkey was "dragging
its heels on reforms for its Christian minority", including basic
rights such as training their own clergy or providing an independent
religious education. A prime example is the state’s closure of the
Greek Orthodox seminary of Halki in 1971.

Religious communities other than Sunni Muslims cannot legally train
new clergy. The ecumenical patriarch’s requests to have the seminary
re-opened have been continually rebuffed.

A 2004 US state department report noted that the "Greek and Armenian
Orthodox communities have lost property to the government in the
past and continue to battle against more losses, because current laws
allow the state agency, Vakiflar, to assume direct administration of
expropriate properties that fall into disuse when the local non-Muslim
community dwindles".

If the number of Christians in Turkey continues to "dwindle" (down
from 207,000 in the 1965 census to 140,000 in the 1995 census), then
the fate of many historically significant churches looks increasingly
likely to be at the mercy of the state.

When I visited Anatolia’s Tur Abdin region last year, members of the
Syriac Orthodox Church complained bitterly at the crisis which these
strictures on seminary formation were imposing.

This ancient community still use a form of Aramaic dating from the
time of Jesus in their liturgy, while their monasteries are some of
the oldest in the world.

The Mar Gabriel monastery was founded in AD 397. However, with no
new priests being trained, they are unable to replace priests who die.

There were just two monks left in the monastery last year.

The conflict in the region between the Kurds and Ankara has driven
thousands of Syriac Christians abroad over the past two decades.

One of the most tragic examples of Turkey’s disregard for its rich
and diverse religious tapestry is its neglect of Armenian monuments
such as the ancient Monastery of the Seven Churches of Varagavank,
near the city of Van.

Despite offers to fund restoration work from abroad, a permit has
not been granted. And so each year its wonderful mosaics fall into
a greater state of dilapidation.

Elsewhere, the wilful destruction of Armenian material has been
documented. Harassment of academics who attempt to collate information
on Armenian material has prompted some to question whether Turkey
has a policy of cultural and historical amnesia towards the Armenians.

This time last year, writer and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was facing a
possible jail sentence under Article 301 for having allegedly "insulted
Turkishness" by his acknowledgement in an interview of the 1915-17
genocide in which up to 1.25 million Armenians lost their lives.

Perhaps the Bill passed by the lower house of the French parliament
last month, making it a crime to deny the genocide, is an attempt to
defy this policy of censorship and "forgetting".

It is a contentious move which may kindle even stronger displays
of Turkish nationalism, while undermining those in Ankara pushing a
pro-EU reform agenda. It is certainly unlikely to stem the destruction
of Anatolia’s ancient Christian churches.

For the Syriac Christians, their hope, as one of their priests
explained to me, lies in EU membership, which they believe would
force Turkey to adhere to European democratic standards of tolerance
and respect for its minorities.

Sarah MacDonald is editor of The Word magazine.

A DIFFICULT AND TURBULENT JOURNEY BUT THE POPE IS RIGHT TO EMBARK ON IT

Irish Independent
November 27, 2006 Monday

The political and religious world watches as the Pontiff prepares
for a confrontation with Islam

THERE is, we must suppose, an outside chance that Pope Benedict XVI
could be attacked, or even assassinated, during his visit to Turkey,
starting tomorrow.

Some counsellors within the Vatican tried, for this reason, to dissuade
him from carrying out the trip. But rightly, he insisted on going. A
Pope should be ready to be a martyr for his faith, and there could
be few better reasons for martyrdom than a confrontation with Islam.

It is not that Islam is always an aggressive faith, as some would
have it. But it is the rising power in the world of faith, and in the
world of values. And Benedict, as Joseph Ratzinger, has been studying
Islam and the Koran for many decades.

In the Aegean, the greatest opponent of Islam is not the Vatican –
or at least it hasn’t been since the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The
fiercest opponent of Islam are the Greek Orthodox – and other Eastern
Orthodox – churches, who are the hereditary opponents of Islamic
power in the region.

Greece versus Turkey has meant, for centuries, Orthodox Christianity
versus Ottoman Islam. The old (and by now probably offensive) joke
that a "Turkish Delight" was a Greek massacre derives from this
deep fault-line.

In the 19th century, William Gladstone was almost as exercised by the
massacres of the Bulgarians by the Turks as he was by the problems
of Ireland. He wrote screeds on this question – which was, for him,
a question of Christianity versus Islam.

A similar perspective arose over the genocide of the Armenians
during the First World War, when, it has been claimed that more than
a million and a half Armenian Christians were exterminated by the
dying Ottoman Empire.

Again, the deep cultural fissure wasn’t just race, or nation, but
religion, and again it was Christians versus an Islamic nation.

Kemal Ataturk, the modernising Turkish President from 1923 to 1938,
secularised Turkey and brought in many other reforms, including the
abolition of the caliphate – rule by a religious authority – and the
advancement of women’s rights. (A quirkey aside to Ataturk’s career
is that he is said to have been an admirer – and possibly a lover –
of the young Zsa Zsa Gabor.)

Rural Turkey was never secularised in the same way as Istanbul and
Ankara – much, perhaps, as rural Ireland retains the practice of faith
while Dublin’s churches grow empty. Yet, after Ataturk’s influence,
Turkey was, until now, easy-going and tolerant about religion, and
never imposed strict laws about liquor, for instance, in the manner
of other Islamic countries; there is even a common Turkish brandy
known as raki. Visitors to Turkey today still find it, overall,
a congenial place, without the prohibitions that now characterise
other Islamic nations.

Yet, more experienced observers note the changes occurring beneath the
surface – an Islamic revival growing apace. Lord Norwich, an expert on
the Eastern Mediterranean, writing as John Julius Norwich, recently
said that the change is profound. "Forty years ago, no politician in
Istanbul went to the Mosque. Now, no major politician dares not go."

And, like all Islamic countries, Turkey’s birth-rate is copious, with
16.62 births per 1000 of the population; whereas its old enemy, Greece,
now has one of the lowest birth-rates in Europe, with 9.72 per 1000 of
the population. If trends continue, the Greeks will be wiped out within
a few generations. And if Turkey should enter the European community,
its burgeoning population could prove a dominant factor in the future
of the Community. (Benedict is known to be opposed to Turkey’s entry.)

Pope Benedict’s mission is primarily, of course, religious, although
the Vatican, being a power in the world, cannot but help wield
political power at least indirectly.

Thus, the watching world makes much of the Holy Father’s meetings
of intentioned "rapprochement" with Islam, through the person Ali
Bardakoglu, the head of Turkey’s religious affairs directorate. The
Islamic Turks have made it plain that they expect the Pontiff to
apologise a little more grovellingly for having been critical of
Islam in his Regensburg address.

And yet, the Pope’s first loyalty must be to brother Christians in
the Orthodox traditions, who, all over the Eastern Mediterranean
are under pressure from the expansion of Islam, from Cyprus to the
Lebanon and to Palestine itself.

In Ireland, we are apt to think that the divisions within Christianity
are Catholic and Protestant: but the religious wars of western Europe
are in the past. We now need to be much more aware of that other
branch of Byzantine Christianity which is effectively in the front
line in the culture clash with Islam – and apparently losing ground.

Benedict cannot assuage the Muslims at the expense of the Orthodox
churches, and he would be a diplomatic genius if he managed to be on
equally good terms with both. However carefully he treads, this is
bound to be a difficult and turbulent journey: but he is absolutely
right to make it.

POPE VISIT LEAVES CHRISTIAN TURKISH VILLAGE COLD
by Burak Akinci

Agence France Presse — English
November 26, 2006 Sunday 2:31 AM GMT

Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to Muslim Turkey this week has
the world abuzz, but in Tokacli, the country’s only entirely Greek
Orthodox Christian village, most people couldn’t care less.

"So he’s coming, is he? What do you know…" commented an incredulous
native who said he works for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in
Istanbul, some 1,100 km (700 miles) away, but refused to give his name.

"After what he said about the Muslims, it would have been better for
him to stay away. I’m surprised he decided to come," said the owner
of the only cafe in Tokacli, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Antakya.

The thirtyish shopowner smoked up his establishment as he tried
to light the stove, explaining that he too would rather not give
his name, "because I don’t want people to think I’m against peace"
among Christians.

Turkey’s Christian community is no more than 200,000-strong in a
country of 70 million, most of them Greek Orthodox or Gregorian
Armenian.

Tokacli has a population of 350 in winter and more than 2,000 in the
summer, when native sons seeking their fortunes abroad — mostly in
Western Europe — return for the holidays.

They have restored the old homes where they come to live for one month
a year, although some of the modern rebuilding appears to have cost
the village part of its original charm.

Tokacli is attached to the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, as
Antakya used to be called, and where St. Peter founded the first
Christian church and where the word "Christian" first originated to
describe the followers of Jesus.

The Patriarch of Antioch himself, however, has been a resident of
Damascus since the 14th century and the people of Tokacli, like many
people in Hatay province, three-quarters surrounded by Syria, speak
Arabic among themselves.

Gathered at the cafe on a recent evening, most of them after a day
working their olive groves — the economic mainstay of the community
— the men of the village made favorable comparisons of the late pope
John Paul II, who visited Turkey in 1979, to Benedict XVI.

Respected community leader Josef Naseh, 53, an archaeologist who runs
a profitable real estate business in Antakya and heads an NGO to defend
community rights, brandished a photo to prove he was the first head of
an Orthodox civic organisation to have an audience with John Paul II,
back in 2003.

"The pope (Benedict XVI) is coming basically to attend mass with the
Greek Orthodox in Istanbul — it is the only reason for his visit," he
said. "If it had been John Paul II, things would have been different."

"He was different," Naseh sighed.

The mukhtar — the village headman — was more enthusiastic about
the papal visit.

"It was a good decision to come to our country — his visit will
contribute to bringing religions together," said Mikail Kar, a brawny
man in his fifties, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

Kar said he returned to his native village only last year to be elected
headman after 28 years in Norway; his "modern mukhtar" aspect shows
as he drives rather than walks the narrow alleys of his village to
meet his constituents.

"The pope is welcome," he said. "But we would have liked to see him
here on our lands as well, where Muslims, Christians and Jews have
always lived in peace, without any problems."

No one remembers the last time there was a religion-related incident
in the village, even as Christian clergymen elsewhere in Turkey
became recent targets of Muslim extremists, like Italian Catholic
priest Andrea Santoro, shot dead by a teenager in February outside
his church in Trabzon, on the Black Sea coast.

After the Santoro killing, followed by at least two more attacks
against Christian clergymen, the Turkish authorities put two bodyguards
on duty to guard Tokacli’s Priest Musa.

But it only lasted a month, because, Kar said confidently, "in any
case, no one ever expected anything to happen here."

TURKEY’S CATHOLIC COMMUNITY, TINY BUT DIVERSE, AWAITS POPE’S VISIT
by Nicolas Cheviron

Agence France Presse — English
November 26, 2006 Sunday 2:24 AM GMT

In Aramaic, Italian or Tagalog, celebrating mass in the Latin,
Byzantine or Armenian rites, Turkey’s tiny but diverse community of
some 28,000 Catholics waits to meet Pope Benedict XVI next week.

Anna Schindler, a Filipina married to a German, is in charge of the
lottery that will allow a handful of faithful to attend the only
mass the pontiff will celebrate in Istanbul, at the Cathedral of the
Holy Spirit.

Of the 1,100 tickets available for event, no more than 700 will go to
members of Istanbul parishes and only 40 to those of the Holy Spirit;
the remainder are reserved for dignitaries on the protocol list.

"I already missed one papal visit — in the Philippines in 1969,"
said Anna, a housewife in a pink dress. "I hope I won’t miss this one."

Many members of the small Filipino community here, mostly domestic
helpers, will miss the mass because Friday is a regular working day
and they will be at their jobs, she said.

Anna is proud to belong to Istanbul’s main Catholic parish and is
part of a new breed that replaced the Levantines of old.

The Levantines were descendants of Italian traders who settled in
Constantinople, as Istanbul was then known, from the 9th century
onwards, when it was still the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

They had their heyday in the 19th century before gradually disappearing
after the modern republic was proclaimed in 1923.

"There is only a tiny handful of them left," said Father Giuseppe
Giorgis, a priest at Holy Spirit. "They are those who couldn’t leave
because of their work or their marriage, or simply because they had
nowhere else to go."

As the crucial link between the eastern and western components of
the Ottoman Empire, the Levantines grew rich over the centuries,
but most left when the republic ended the special privileges they
enjoyed under the Ottomans.

In addition to the handful of old timers, the parish these days is
composed mainly of a few "neo-Levantines" — Western businessmen in
suit and tie — and a growing African community that has made its
home in the notorious neighboring district of Tarlabasi.

The cathedral choir, which for the past two months has been practicing
the papal mass’s pentecostal — hence multilingual — repertoire,
is just as cosmopolitan.

It includes Greek Orthodox, Armenian Catholic and even two Muslim
singers — former divas of the Istanbul Opera whose love of hymns
has made them regulars of the Holy Spirit choir for the past 35 years.

"The key to it all," said one of them, Isin Guven, "is that God is
love. And this is a magnificent family."

Three other choirs will join the papal mass: One Austrian, one Armenian
Catholic and one Chaldean, representing not only the 700 local faithful
but a further 3,800 recently arrived as refugees from Iraq.

The Syriac Catholic Church’s 1,200 members in this country will not
field a choir, but will be represented by its Patriarchal Exarch here.

Mystery surrounds whether the dwindling last remnants of pre-Ottoman
Istanbul, the Byzantine Catholics, will be present to greet Benedict
XVI.

"I know they exist, because I met four or five of them," said Louis
Pelatre, the Vicar Apostolic of Istanbul.

But he could not say whether they would be on the cathedral square
on December 1 to greet the pope.

ARMENIA FM REACHES OUT TO TURKEY ON GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
by Haro Chakmakjian

Agence France Presse — English
November 26, 2006 Sunday 2:00 AM GMT

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian is reaching out to historical
foe Turkey to normalise ties as the key step toward a political
settlement on the ultra-sensitive issue of genocide recognition.

"For Armenia, recognition (of the genocide) by Turkey is not
a precondition for normal, good neighbourly relations," the
Harvard-educated minister told AFP in an interview during a
presidential visit to Cyprus.

Nine decades after what the Armenians, backed by many historians,
term the genocide of some 1.5 million of their people in the Ottoman
empire, Oskanian said both countries needed to "transcend" the horrors
of their common past.

"This obstacle (of Turkish recognition) can be removed and memories
can be ameliorated by new experiences, by interaction between the
Turkish and Armenian people as neighbours," he said.

However, Oskanian scoffed at a proposal from Turkish Prime Minister
Tayyip Recep Erdogan for historians from both sides to form a
commission to study the bloody events of 1915-1917, which Ankara
refuses to classify as genocide.

"Erdogan’s suggestion was a smokescreen," he charged, asking how
any joint commission could be set up without diplomatic ties between
Ankara and Yerevan, capital of Armenia which gained independence from
the ex-Soviet Union in 1991.

"This is a political issue. You’ve got to address this issue from a
political angle."

Oskanian was also critical of what he called Turkey’s new "state
policy" of denial even as more countries join the ranks of states
that officially recognise the genocide.

"As more countries recognise, Turkey becomes — as the record shows —
more aggressive in its policy of denial … The Turks have never been
this organised at a state level to pursue a policy of denial," he said.

Oskanian pointed to an article in Turkish law which punishes those
who refer to the events of 1915 as genocide.

Dozens of intellectuals — among them 2006 Nobel literature laureate
Orhan Pamuk — have been brought to court under an amendment in the
penal law that makes it a crime to denigrate Turkish identity or
insult state institutions.

The French parliament’s adoption of a bill making public denial of
the genocide in France punishable by law was "a clear reaction to
the aggressive denialist policies of the Turkish government", he said.

Oskanian held little hope in Washington exerting pressure on its
Turkish ally on the genocide issue because of its strategic interests,
but it "must be more assertive in calling on Turkey to open the border"
and normalise ties.

The minister, who himself was born in Syria, denied any gulf between
Yerevan and Armenians of the diaspora, who outnumber their three
million compatriots in Armenia and have been at the forefront of a
worldwide recognition campaign.

"It’s the moral obligation of every Armenian in diaspora and in
Armenia to remember and to pursue recognition because we think that
will be the minimum compensation after almost 100 years," said the
51-year-old minister.

"Today we pursue recognition in different countries through their
parliaments and that can only be pursued by their countries’ citizens."

Oskanian tried to allay concerns that recognition could lead to
claims for compensation. "Armenia today has on its foreign policy
agenda only the issue of genocide recognition. That’s what we are
after as a nation," he said.

But he admitted that the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inside
neighbouring Azerbaijan, where the Armenians set up a breakaway state
in 1992, posed a major obstacle for ties with Turkey.

Ankara’s "unequivocal solidarity with Azerbaijan also works against
Turkey because it undermines their credibility and weight in the
Caucusus … and their claim to be a bridge between East and West",
he charged.

Oskanian dismissed any similarity between Karabakh and a self-declared
Turkish Cypriot statelet in north Cyprus, insisting the former emerged
from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the latter from a recognised
UN member state.

He acknowledged that Cyprus, with its division, and Armenia were
proving obstacles to Turkey’s ambition to join the European Union,
but denied the two countries were working against Ankara.

"The purpose of our visit (to Cyprus) was to activate economic ties.

We do have common issues we discussed but we never ganged up against
anyone," Oskanian said.

On Friday, Armenian President Robert Kocharian, who hails from
Karabakh, laid the foundation stone for a genocide monument to be
built on the Larnaca seafront of Cyprus, where Armenian refugees from
Ottoman Turkey landed.

In rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to
500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia
during World War I.

CAN YOU SEE THEM MARCHING AS TO WAR? NO, NEITHER CAN I
by Nigel Farndale

The Sunday Telegraph (LONDON)
November 26, 2006 Sunday

When I heard that a Church of England vicar was going on Radio 4’s
Today programme to urge people to boycott British Airways, I thought:
this is more like it, some fighting words at last. The Rev Andy Kelso
had, apparently, been provoked by the airline’s refusal to allow
a check-in worker to wear a small crucifix over her uniform. And
rightly. It is a demented policy. What does BA hope to gain from it?

Does it imagine Muslims will feel less inclined to bomb its planes
just because it cravenly bans Christian crosses?

I thought he was going to say what needs to be said: that we are
still a Christian country, culturally at least; that we still have
only one Established Church, whether BA likes it or not; that MPs
still say Anglican prayers at the start of the Parliamentary day.

I thought he might have some fire in his Anglican belly, this vicar;
that he might be a worthy heir to Bishop Winnington-Ingram who, in
1915, made a passionate demand for the men of Britain to band together
in a great crusade to kill the nation’s enemies: "To kill the good as
well as the bad; to kill the young men as well as the old; to kill
those who had shown kindness to our wounded as well as those fiends
who superintended the Armenian massacres and sank the Lusitania – to
kill them lest the civilisation of the world should itself be killed."

But no. Mr Kelso argued that we should boycott BA because it is
"discriminating" against Christians. It’s come to this: the church
that produced all those rousing, muscular hymns about marching as to
war is now complaining about being discriminated against; the last
resort of the truly impotent. In his grave, wherever that may be,
Bishop Winnington-Ingram must be spinning.

Incidentally, I’m not sure the C of E has quite as much right to feel
indignant about this crucifix policy – now under review by BA – as
has the Roman Catholic Church. Until Anglicanism as we know it today
was invented in the middle of the 19th century, Anglicans regarded the
crucifix as a wicked, heathen, Romish symbol. That was why there was
such a big stink about Elizabeth I wanting to keep one on her altar.

The Church of England prefers to worship… England. That is why its
churches go light on the crosses and heavy on the regimental colours
and roll calls of the Glorious Dead.

At the moment, while we’re looking for a house, we are renting a
farm cottage on the Hampshire-Sussex border. Our nearest neighbours,
living in a shed alongside us, are a herd of rare-breed Sussex cattle
– gorgeous, chestnut-coloured animals recently brought inside for
the winter.

They are sucklers, that is, mothers with their calves who have been
together out in the fields all summer. Now they have been weaned,
mothers in one half, calves in the other, divided by a feeding corral –
but not without much "bealing". For three days and nights the calves
and their mothers called to each other across the barn, then they
stopped abruptly. Their broken hearts had mended, it seemed.

Their emotions – if that isn’t too anthropomorphic a word – had been
cauterised. The ritual reminded me of being sent off to my (Anglican)
boarding school aged 11. New boys were not allowed to see their
parents for three weeks. We cried for most of that time, and then
never cried again. We had been successfully weaned. Three weeks.

Three days. The difference between man and beast.

It is good that attention is being drawn to the one in five patients
who are being forced into mixed-sex wards. Such indignity. While we are
about it, perhaps something can also be done about the way paramedics,
doctors and nurses routinely insult elderly patients by addressing
them by their first names, rather than by their surnames and titles.

I have a bad habit of dipping in and out of novels to read a page at
random, which is not what the author intended. Still, sometimes the dip
can be lucky. The other day, I came across this example of inflation
at work. In Evelyn Waugh’s Handful of Dust, first published in 1934,
one female character says to another: "You look a thousand pounds!" She
means it as a compliment. Today it would be considered an insult.

US MILITARY COOPERATION WITH AZERBAIJAN NOT AGAINST THIRD COUNTRIES – DIPLOMAT

Ayna, Azerbaijan
Nov 25 2006

The USA’s Caspian Security Programme does not prevent Azerbaijan
from forging other military alliances, a US embassy official in Baku
has said. The programme’s name has been changed from Caspian Guard
to Caspian Security to dispel the misconception that the programme
envisages US troops serving in Azerbaijan, Jonathan Henick told Ayna
newspaper’s military supplement. He said that the programme aims to
help Azerbaijan improve its border security. Improving Azerbaijan’s
defences is also the aim of the radar stations in Xizi and Astara
districts, built by the USA and given to Azerbaijan, Henick said. He
stressed that the radar stations were not targeted against third
countries. The following are excerpts from C. Mammadov’s interview
with Jonathan Henick published on Azerbaijani newspaper Ayna’s
website on 25 Nov 06 and headlined "`Our programme is not against
Casfor.’ US embassy representative says cooperation with Azerbaijan
very important in creating regional stability"; subheadings have been
inserted editorially:

A representative of the US embassy believes that cooperation with
Azerbaijan is very important for the maintenance of stability in
the region.

[Passage omitted: brief biography of Jonathan Henick]

Ayna-Army’s latest interviewee is the head of the public relations
department at the US embassy in Azerbaijan, Jonathan Henick. We tried
to shed light on current military-political cooperation between the
USA and Azerbaijan and similar issues.

[Correspondent] Mr Henick, what is your assessment of the level
of cooperation today in the military and security sphere between
Azerbaijan and the USA?

[Henick] I think that we have excellent relations both in the security
and military spheres. As confirmation I can cite the example of the
recent visit to Azerbaijan of a group led by Sgt-Maj Iuniasolua Savusa.

[Passage omitted: on developing the rank of sergeant-major in the
Azerbaijani army]

Before that Gen William Ward came to Azerbaijan. Ward is a four-star
general and this is a very high rank in the army. His visit also
concerned US-Azerbaijani military cooperation.

Next month high-level talks will take place in Baku between the USA and
Azerbaijan within the framework of bilateral military cooperation. A
delegation is due to come to Azerbaijan from Washington to take part
in the talks. I can tell you that these talks are held in turn in
Baku and Washington. During these talks we will look into the full
range of our current cooperation in the military sphere.

US-built radar stations in Azerbaijan not targeted against any country

[Correspondent] Two radar stations are known to have been built in
Azerbaijan’s Xizi and Astara districts with US support. It is also
known that the start-up of these stations caused some displeasure in
Russia and Iran. Overall, at what stage is the work being done within
the framework of Caspian Guard?

[Henick] I am very happy to tell you about this issue. First I would
like to draw to your attention the fact that the programme’s name
has recently been changed. The programme is now called the Caspian
Security Programme. When some people heard the name Caspian Guard they
thought that American soldiers would take direct part in defending
the Caspian littoral states. But this is in fact not the case. This
is the reason for the change in the programme’s name.

As for the radar stations, they belong to Azerbaijan. We set them up
and handed them over to Azerbaijan. It seems to me that it would be
very beneficial for the press or representatives of Russia and Iran
to come and see the radar stations for themselves. I think that if
they saw the radar stations close up, the objectives and functions
of the stations would be perfectly clear to them.

It might be asked why the US government has helped Azerbaijan in this
way. I can tell you that construction of these radar stations was done
in the first place within the framework of Azerbaijan’s individual
partnership action plan [IPAP] with NATO. One of its aims is that
Azerbaijan should guard its own borders. We think that today there is
a danger in the Caspian of illegal trade in arms and narcotics and
at the same time of illegal trafficking in people. We consider that
at present monitoring and preventing this kind of phenomenon is not
only in the interests of Azerbaijan but also of the US government.

I would like to note that these radars have not been directed against
any second or third country. These radars are being used as part of
the IPAP programme. And Azerbaijan is using its own capacities as well.

[Correspondent] The Russian press say that the radars were built
mainly with the aim of monitoring shipments of nuclear components from
Russia to Iran. Do you think it is possible that nuclear components
are being shipped from Russia to Iran via the Caspian?

[Henick] It is not a matter of goods being shipped illegally just
from Russia to Iran. That kind of shipment can use different routes –
for example, from Iran, in the opposite direction, to Russia, from
Turkmenistan to other republics. The US government’s aim is not
to monitor any route in particular. Our overall aim is to improve
Azerbaijan’s monitoring capacity.

Concerning Iran’s nuclear programme, I can tell you that the enrichment
of uranium in this country is creating a big danger. The international
community’s main aim today is to stop this process.

Caspian Security Programme aims to improve Azerbaijan’s defences

[Correspondent] Generally, what’s the main point of the Caspian
Security Programme?

[Henick] It seems to me that the main point of the programme is not
properly understood at present. The Caspian Security Programme does
not envisage military forces. To put it simply, this is the name
of a number of programmes. This programme is targeted at protecting
Azerbaijan’s borders and Caspian coast. The main aim of setting up the
radar stations and giving them to the Azerbaijani side, of military
exercises and of giving ships to the Azerbaijani navy is to increase
Azerbaijan’s capacity to protect on a higher level its own coast line,
its own borders. The Caspian Security Programme does not envisage
US soldiers serving in Azerbaijan. There is no provision for this in
the programme. At the same time, the programme does not oppose other
initiatives or the implementation of other programmes.

The new Caspian Security Programme will not prevent Azerbaijan from
carrying out military programmes or any other initiatives that it
may wish to do with any other country.

[Correspondent] It is known that Russia would like to create a united
Casfor military alliance made up of the armed forces of the Caspian
littoral states. So far only Russia and Iran of the regional states
have agreed on this. Do you think that such an alliance is necessary?

[Henick] I cannot comment on this, because I do not have detailed
information about it. But I would like to note once more that there
is no clause or other provision in our programme that opposes other
initiatives or any other programmes. Azerbaijan must make its own
choice.

[Correspondent] Recently Russia’s [military and defence weekly]
Voyenno-Promyshlennyy Kuryer published a report that the USA is
preparing to hold an international Caspian summit next year.

According to the report, the aim of the summit is to resolve the legal
status of the Caspian and to deprive the Caspian of the status of a
sea in Russia’s zone of influence. How accurate is this information?

[Henick] I have absolutely no information about this. I think that
the legal status of the Caspian is an issue for the Caspian littoral
states and that they must resolve this issue between themselves.

[Correspondent] How does the USA assess Azerbaijan’s position today
on Iran’s nuclear programme?

[Henick] Iran’s nuclear programme is an international problem. This
is at present being discussed by the UN Security Council. Of
course Azerbaijan does not take part in these discussions as it is
not one of the participating countries. The main discussions are
being conducted by the permanent members of the Security Council
plus Germany and Iran and the IAEA as well. Therefore, we have no
complaints or dissatisfaction at all with Azerbaijan’s position
on this issue. Lengthy discussions on this topic are being held at
present. We must wait to see what comes out of this and what decision
the Security Council will take. This is a very important issue.

Azerbaijan making good progress in improving army standards

[Correspondent] The USA is today supporting the Azerbaijani armed
forces in meeting NATO standards. Do you think that the Azerbaijani
government is making effective use of this military assistance from
the USA?

[Henick] This is a lengthy programme and has not yet finished. The
aim of a range of our programmes is to bring Azerbaijan’s armed forces
up to NATO standards.

Azerbaijan is today fulfilling a very positive peacekeeping mission
in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. I think that the existing effective
cooperation between the USA and Azerbaijan has given very great
assistance in bringing the country’s army to international standards.

We have done important work with the Azerbaijani peacekeeping
battalion. The Non-Commissioned Officers programme is one part of
this overall programme. Of course, other work is being done too. We
are sure that these are positive elements of the overall programme.

We believe that Azerbaijan has made very good progress. We hope that
this progress will continue.

USA does not pay Azerbaijani peacekeepers

[Correspondent] Information has circulated recently about the
misappropriation of the wages of Azerbaijani peacekeepers serving in
Iraq. A representative of the Ministry of Defence has said that the
wages of our soldiers serving in Iraq are paid by the American side.

Is this right?

[Henick] This is not correct. The USA does not directly pay the
Azerbaijani peacekeepers in Iraq. On the basis of American law we do
not pay soldiers in the peacekeeping corps directly. This is an issue
between the soldiers serving in Iraq and their military leadership.

That is to say, the question of wages is solved between the Azerbaijani
peacekeepers and their Azerbaijani leadership. I am sure that close
cooperation will continue between the Azerbaijani peacekeepers and
the US military.

[Correspondent] Are the wages of the Azerbaijani peacekeepers in Iraq
paid from the US budget?

[Henick] The Azerbaijani government itself bears responsibility
for paying wages. Generally, funds are not given from the US
government side. Peacekeepers are financed by their countries. But
the US government supports and assists peacekeepers with transport,
foodstuffs and similar issues.

[Correspondent] This might be an opportune moment to clarify
something. Azerbaijani society does not know how much our peacekeepers
there are paid. The Ministry of Defence has put a ban on this as though
it is a "military secret". Might you have any information about this?

[Henick] The US government does not know what any country pays its
peacekeepers, including Azerbaijan. I don’t know either. Countries
take their own decisions on this.

[Correspondent] Azerbaijan’s national security concept and military
doctrine have not been adopted yet. Many people link this with official
Baku’s difficulty in choosing "a friend". Who do you think Baku is
close to today, the USA, the European Union or Russia?

[Henick] I am sure that Azerbaijan does not have to choose a friend
in isolation. Azerbaijan is conducting a very careful policy and has
very good relations with its neighbours, with the European countries
and with the USA. We know that Azerbaijan has friendly relations with
European countries and the USA. I think that these relations should
exist and be extended with other countries too.

Azerbaijan’s location of key importance for USA

[Correspondent] What is Azerbaijan’s place in the USA’s
military-political strategy?

[Henick] Azerbaijan is a very important partner for us from both
the security and military points of view. Azerbaijan’s geographical
location is one of the main reasons for this. Numerous flights pass
through Azerbaijan’s air space between Europe and Afghanistan and
between the USA and Afghanistan. In fact Azerbaijan’s permission is
very important for us in carrying out operations in Afghanistan.

At the same time cooperation with Azerbaijan is very important
in creating stability in the region. It is very important to have
stability in Azerbaijan from the geographical point of view, since
Azerbaijan is located between Russia and Iran, Europe and Asia. This
need for stability comes even further to the fore in discussions on
energy issues. I can tell you that security issues are one of the
USA’s priorities with regard to Azerbaijan.

[Correspondent] Do you think Azerbaijan or Armenia is more important
in terms of geography for the USA?

[Henick] I work in Azerbaijan. I advise you to approach my colleague
in the US embassy in Armenia on these issues.

Russian radar station not a problem for Azerbaijan’s Euro-Atlantic
integration

[Correspondent] Russia is known to have just one military facility in
Azerbaijan, the Qabala radar station. Do you think that the presence of
this facility could create a problem in Azerbaijan’s future integration
in the Euro-Atlantic space?

[Henick] I do not think that this will create any obstacle to
Azerbaijan’s integration in the Euro-Atlantic space. At the same time
this is a matter for Russia and Azerbaijan.

Democracy and religious freedom can combat extremism

[Correspondent] Commentators say that religious tendencies have
increased in Azerbaijan recently. Do you think that there is a danger
of religious extremism in the country in future?

[Henick] It seems to me that there is such a danger in different
places in the world. Good cooperation between countries is the most
important way to prevent this. This cooperation must take place in
different areas at the same time military, finance, diplomacy and
territorial protection.

Strengthening democracy is another way to prevent extremism. Freedom
for sects and religions, people expressing their views freely can
also prevent this.

At the same time it is important to create strong institutions to
prevent extremism. The presence of a trustworthy parliament, free
and transparent elections can destroy extremism. Should the opposite
be the case, a dangerous situation can emerge: people think and see
that the government does not listen to their voice, does not respond
to them. Then they turn to extremism.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress