Month: November 2006

MILLIYET STARTS SERIES OF ARTICLES CONCERNING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Nov 17 2006
ISTANBUL, NOVEMBER 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Turkish
Milliyet newspaper started publishing a series of articles the goal of
what is to get to know the Diasporan Armenians’ opinion concerning the
Armenian Genocide. Ece Temelkuran, an author of articles, started the
series with a volumnious interview with Patrick Devedjian, a French
Armenian politician.
The author of the article explains the goal of the newly prepared
series, saying that everybody knows that people living on those
lands in the summer of 1915 saw very dark days. It has been spoken
continuously for ninety years about the issue who is guilty or who is
stronger. “The matter is that we are not ones speaking, we are simply
children of few people who tell much or little. We just confidently
know that unpleasant things happened that summer and can not find a
name for the happened. Sadness ruled over East: elderly people show
stony buildings and say that those buildings were built by Armenian
stonemasons, such a building has never been built after them. We
know in general what happened. What we do not know is the following
“we do not speak, souls speak. That’s why we decided to speak about
the Armenian Diaspora. That’s, with children of the souls.”
In the article author’s words, when it was decided to speak with
Patrick Devedjian, many people warned the author that he is very
strict, and that Devedjian himself composed the French law making
denial of the Genocide criminal. He was also the attorney defending
the ASALA. But just the opposite of the expected, the meeting was
held in a very polite and emotive atmosphere. Even more, the article
author and the latter’s companion were very astonished seeing that
Devedjian was crying speaking about the Genocide.
Responding the question concerning the law adopted by the French
parliament, Devedjian mentioned that he was not a supporter of a
similar law, either, but when Turks (“Grey Wolves”) attacked Armenian
monuments in Lyon, he understood that a similar law was necessary.
Turk diplomates stated that the Turk people supports those attacks.
“So, our safety became a problem. A law must be adopted which will
defend Armenians living in France,” Devedjian said.
P.Devedjian reminded that he wanted that the law did not relate to
scientists. Though it was not adopted, but he would continue working
for exceptions are made. Then a difference will be between Turkey
and France as article 301 exists in Turkey as well.
In Devedjian’s opinion, Turkey may be changed only under heavy
pressures. He mentioned that Armenians have been waited for
continuously 90 years. This is a pain that one can not have every day.”

NOT DEAD YET; ARMENIANS IN TURKEY
The Economist
U.S. Edition
November 18, 2006
A diaspora survives
Turkey’s Armenian population is growing
IN THE grimy alleys of Istanbul’s Kumkapi district the air is thick
with a rarely heard language: Armenian. Marina Martossian, who has
been working illegally for five months as a cleaner, is typical of
40,000 compatriots there. She is delighted with her $300 monthly pay
and calls her Turkish bosses “the kindest people in the world”.
That’s a big change. Bitter debate over the fate of the Ottoman
Armenians-did the mass killings of 1915 constitute genocide?-has
fuelled decades of enmity. A survey by TESEV, a think-tank in
Istanbul, showed some 70% of Armenians had a negative view of the
Turks: a tenth called them “enemies”; a similar chunk “barbarians”.
Among Turks, 34% thought poorly of Armenians (17%, bizarrely, believed
the Armenians were Jews).
Turkey’s Armenian minority dwindled to 80,000. In 1993 Turkey
sealed the border with Armenia, after it seized the province of
Nagorno-Karabakh from the Turks’ Azeri cousins. The issue poisons other
ties too: this week Turkey broke off military relations with France,
after parliament there voted to criminalise denial of the genocide.
Now Turkish officials go easy on the Armenians-in contrast to other
illegal workers. They also welcome changing attitudes among diaspora
Armenians, especially among those who actually visit Turkey. In an
e-mail widely circulated among emigres this month, Kardash Onnig, an
Armenian-American artist, who recently returned from an arts festival
in the eastern province of Kars, says he “never imagined that an
Armenian artist singing Armenian songs could elicit a response of
such brotherly humanity. I was in a sea of Turks dancing to Armenian
tunes. What joy! My eyes were full of tears.”

THE ART OF LEVITATION; THE CAUCASUS
The Economist
U.S. Edition
November 18, 2006
How Armenia copes with its isolation in the combustible Caucasus
NOWHERE is living next to big countries trickier than in the
Caucasus. Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were for centuries swallowed
by rival empires; when the last of them, the Soviet Union, collapsed,
three territorial wars broke out, all of which may yet re-erupt. Now
Georgia is in a cold war with Russia.
Next-door Armenia’s geographical plight might seem the worst in the
Caucasus-or anywhere. It is landlocked and poor; of its four borders,
those with Turkey and Azerbaijan are closed following its bloody
but successful struggle for Nagorno-Karabakh, a province of Soviet
Azerbaijan mostly populated by Armenians. Its other neighbours are
Georgia (under an economic blockade by Russia) and Iran. Yet despite
the war, the economic collapse that went with it and a terrible
earthquake that preceded it, Armenia seems to have levitated out
of trouble.
It benefits from an indulgence not afforded to pro-Western Georgia.
Per person, Armenia is one of the biggest recipients of American aid
(thanks to the powerful diaspora there, which remembers vividly the
massacres of 1915). Yet that American help does not trouble Russia,
which has a military base in Armenia. GDP is growing-though still
pitifully low: monthly wages are around $150. Towns and villages in
the beautiful, barren countryside are still poor and dilapidated,
but Yerevan is full of construction cranes and posh cafes.
But levitation has its limits. After some progress in the late 1990s,
reforms have stalled. The famed cognac aside, exports are puny.
Armenia relies on foreign aid and remittances from the huge diaspora;
emigration (see box) has put the population well below the official
2.9m figure. The international balance is also precarious. Some in
Russia want the Armenians to take sides against the Georgians, perhaps
by stirring up the Armenian minority there. “We refuse to choose,”
says Vartan Oskanian, the foreign minister. Indeed: alienating Georgia
would be suicidal.
But the Kremlin’s leverage is growing. Russian firms already control
the energy sector and want a greater stake elsewhere. Mr Oskanian says
“our needs today are too dire” to worry about future risks.
Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbons windfall makes it sound confident, even
bellicose, stoking Armenian reliance on Russia.
American interest in the pipelines that link the Caspian to the
Mediterranean, doglegging round Armenia, mean that renewed fighting
would echo far beyond the Caucasus. Internationally sponsored talks
about Karabakh limp on-Mr Oskanian met his Azerbaijani counterpart
this week-and Western diplomats try to sound upbeat. But a deal,
or even a fudge that would at least allow normal trade relations,
looks all but impossible. Sporadic shooting continues.
One reason is that bad governments in both countries bang the
nationalist drum for want of wider legitimacy. Armenia’s Robert
Kocharian has emulated his sponsors in the Kremlin, squeezing the
media and rigging elections. Corruption flourishes. It is hard to
find an Armenian politician who does not want to succeed Mr Kocharian
when his presidential term expires in 2008; it is harder still to find
one who thinks the vote will be fair. Like Ilham Aliev, who inherited
power in Azerbaijan from his father, Mr Kocharian promises just enough
change to pacify America. Unsurprisingly, considering their history,
most Armenians are too cynical to expect much better from their rulers.
Like acrobats in a human pyramid, the Caucasus countries are inevitably
affected by their neighbours’ behaviour. Russia’s closure of its border
with Georgia, for example, hurts Armenian traders. Such outsiders’
jostling would be much easier to bear if the three (relative) tiddlers
had a common line. But they are all, as Raffi Hovannisian, a former
Armenian foreign minister, says of his country, “long on civilisation,
short on statecraft.”

ARMENIANS HOLDING WAR GAMES IN OCCUPIED AZERI DISTRICT
ANS TV, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
[Presenter] The Armenian armed forces started military exercises in
the occupied Agdam District at 1100 [0700 gmt] today. Sahin Rzayev
from ANS TV’s Karabakh bureau has details.
[Rzayev] The Armenian armed forces again started military exercises in
the occupied Agdam District today. Residents of the district villages
of Hacimammadli, Camanli and Ciraqli, which are close to the front
line, observed the movement of military hardware in the occupied
villages of Uzundara, Qiyasli and Xidirli. Later, the military
hardware began to open artillery fire. About 15 minutes later,
helicopter gunships of the Armenian army appeared in the sky.
The residents said that four helicopter gunships which took off from
the area of Uzun Dara [Long Valley] manoeuvred along the border for
about 10 km and fired at different targets.
Later, the residents also saw a fighter taking off from Xocali
airport. The military exercises lasted about one hour. The situation
is now relatively calm in Karabakh and the surrounding areas under
the occupation.

JIHLAVA IS FIRST CZECH TOWN TO HAVE ARMENIAN CROSS-STONE
Czech News Agency (CTK)
November 17, 2006 Friday 7:55 PM (Central European Time)
Jihlava became today the first Czech town in which an Armenian
memorial Cross-stone, a gift from the Jihlava-based Armenian-Czech
society Urartu, has been unveiled.
Mayor Jaroslav Vymazal said Armenian crosses that are a symbol of
Christianity, freedom and friendship, have only been put up in capital
cities in Europe to date.
The Armenian community in Jihlava dates back to 1992. “It exists in
a few other Czech towns as well, but I think that in Jihlava it is
the firmest. That is why we have decided to locate the memorial in
Jihlava,” Urartu chairman Alexandr Sargesyan said.
The society has 92 members. Besides Armenians they are Czechs,
Ukrainians and Belarussians.
“We are grateful to the town, we have been given a chance to adapt
ourselves to the European society. Jihlava is our home, children
attend school here, have their friends here, there have already been
several Armenian-Czech weddings, children have been born from them,”
Sargesyan said.
The memorial is made of rose-coloured Armenian tuf. It bears an
Armenian inscription reading “In memory of people who died without
any reason.”
It was unveiled by Armenian ambassador seated in Vienna Ashot
Hovakimyan and by Vymazal, and it was consecrated by Mesrop Sarpazan
Grigoryan and Barsek Pilavchyan, from the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Sargesyan said that the cross-stone is also to remind that Armenia was
the first country in the world in which Christianity was accepted as
an official state religion during the reign of King Trdat III in 301.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE AREAS WHERE ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI NATIONAL ARMIES FACE EACH OTHER
R. Orujev
Translated by A. Ignatkin
Source: Ekho (Baku), November 11, 2006, EV
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 17, 2006 Friday
Situation In The Areas Where The Armenian And Azerbaijani Armies Face
Each Other As Seen From Baku; A Look At The Azerbaijani-Armenian
Conflict From Baku.
The situation on the front line is somewhat unclear nowadays. The
OSCE Caucasus mission arranged a meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian
defense ministers not long ago. It was compelled to do so because of
the frequent violations of the cease-fire accord that caused numerous
casualties on both sides.
Reports on casualties did become less frequent after the meeting.
Does it indicate an improvement in the areas where the two armies
face each other? Opinions of official structures and independent
experts differ.
Ilgar Verdiyev of the Press Center of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry
couldn’t say anything conclusive yesterday. “The Armenians must
observe the cease-fire regime,” was all he said.
Yashar Jafarov, the head of the Union of Retired Officers, refuses to
call what is happening at the front line a lull. “It will pass. As
soon as negotiations are reactivated and the terms of the conflict
resolution are brought up, the situation will immediately deteriorate
and violations of the cease-fire regime will become more frequent
again,” he said.
“I was surprised to hear the recent statement of Andrzei Kasprsic,
OSCE Chairman’s Personal Envoy, on a visit to Yerevan concerning
what he called a relative tranquility.,” independent military expert
Uzeir Jafarov said. “It seems that few bother to watch our independent
TV-stations that always begin their daily news bulletins with reports
from their Karabakh correspondents on how the Armenians fire at us.
When the situation in the Fizuli district was monitored not long ago,
Kasprsic’s aides met with Muhtarov, the head of the executive power
structures there, and he informed them of daily violations of the
cease-fire regime on the Armenians’ part. As I see it, it’s just that
Azerbaijani Defense Ministry is simply happy that it does not have
to report casualties now. In the meantime, our people involved in
the sowing campaign in the border areas are not happy at all. They
are forced to work nights. I’m convinced therefore that whenever
official Baku or Yerevan find it convenient, they have their media
outlets reporting on skirmishes on the hour. When they do not need it,
on the other hand, they report no skirmishes. There must be some sort
of pact in action.”

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SERZH SARKISYAN IS ON A THREE-DAY VISIT TO IRAQ
Source: Krasnaya Zvezda, November 15, 2006, p. 3
Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
November 17, 2006 Friday
The visit of Sarkisyan is dedicated to meeting with the Defense
Minister of Iraq, as well as acquaintance with conditions of service
of Armenian servicemen being in this country within the coalition
forces. There are 46 Armenian servicemen in Iraq including 30 drivers,
10 combat engineers, three doctors and three liaison officers.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA’S OCCUPATION OF AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIES TOPS AGENDA-PRESS
by Kirill Zharov
ITAR-TASS News Agency
November 17, 2006 Friday 08:00 AM EST
Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev has described as the country’s
most pressing problem Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories.
“This is a huge problem for us and the whole region. Baku supports
peaceful settlement of this issue on the basis of the international law
and the UN requirements,” he told the eighth summit of Turkish-speaking
countries.
“If this problem remains unresolved, the two countries’ relations
may worsen,” Aliyev said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HUNGARIAN COURT SENTENCES AZERI OFFICER FOR RESISTING PRISON WARDENS
ANS TV, Azerbaijan
Nov 17 2006
Azerbaijani officer Senior Lt Ramil Safarov, who has been sentenced
to life imprisonment by a Budapest court on charges of killing an
Armenian officer, stood trial again today. This time the Budapest
court examined a law suit filed by prison wardens against Safarov.
After witnesses and the sides testified at the trial, the sentence
was announced. According to the Azerbaijani embassy in Hungary,
Safarov was sentenced to eight months’ suspended imprisonment.
To recap, when prison wardens demanded that Safarov return a telephone
card on 19 June 2004, Safarov who does not speak Hungarian did not
understand what they wanted, which led to a conflict between them.

QUI VEUT TORPILLER LA TURQUIE?
Par Alexandre Adler
Le Figaro, France
18 novembre 2006
L’opinion publique europeenne, francaise en particulier, l’ignore
parfaitement, mais nous assistons en direct a la mise en oeuvre d’une
veritable conspiration dont l’aboutissement devrait etre le torpillage
pur et simple de la candidature turque a l’Union europeenne. Il y a
toujours eu de nombreux adversaires de cette candidature, quelles
que soient les precautions que ses partisans ont pu prendre pour
la faire accepter (longs delais des negociations, eventualite de’un
referendum si la negociation devait aboutir), mais cela ne suffit pas
aux adversaires europeens de la Turquie, qui considèrent, peut-etre
a juste titre, que la negociation, une fois engagee, ne peut aboutir,
a terme, qu’a un accord. Ils ont donc decide d’agir beaucoup plus vite
et de multiplier les obstacles juridiques et culturels a l’adhesion
turque de manière a provoquer, d’abord en Turquie, une reaction de
rejet de l’Europe qui leur evitera d’avoir a assumer un non franc et
argumente. Mais qui sont ces adversaires ? Les Armeniens ?
À n’en pas douter, la diaspora armenienne, qui vit toujours dans la
souffrance des souvenirs de 1915, est facilement mobilisable pour peu
que l’on vienne reveiller ses cauchemars comme l’ont fait les deputes
socialistes francais, secondes, il est vrai, par un bon nombre de leurs
collègues conservateurs, en votant l’absurde loi sur le genocide. Mais,
il faut le souligner, il y a des intellectuels armeniens d’Istanbul,
de citoyennete turque, qui luttent pour la reconnaissance de l’histoire
par l’Etat turc et qui ne souhaitaient en rien ce vote qui bloque
les esprits et demolit les chances de dialogue que la Turquie avait
permis en acceptant une serie de tables rondes d’historiens. Il
faut aussi savoir que le president Kotcharian, qui n’est pas un
nationaliste tiède, avait pourtant evoque devant des emissaires turcs
la possibilite pour l’Armenie de s’inserer dans l’Union europeenne,
au côte de la Georgie et peut-etre de l’Azerbaïdjan, a la faveur
d’une adhesion turque. Les Grecs ? Mais l’avènement d’une nouvelle
generation politique a Athènes a bien change la donne. Aujourd’hui,
les elites politiques et patronales grecques, beaucoup plus sûres de
leur avenir et bien mieux integrees au processus de decision europeen,
notamment a Francfort avec leur grand banquier central Papademos,
considèrent l’adhesion de la Turquie comme un processus inevitable
dont la Grèce pourrait tirer avantage dans tous les domaines. Restent
les Chypriotes grecs qui, gouvernes par une coalition de la gauche et
des nationalistes intransigeants, ont, eux, refuse par referendum le
plan de reunification de l’île elabore par Kofi Annan, au moment meme
où les Chypriotes turcs l’approuvaient massivement par conviction
veritablement europeenne. Que croyez-vous qu’il arrivât ? Ce n’est
pas le gouvernement Papadopoulos, a Nicosie, que l’on sanctionne
de son intransigeance, mais les Turcs auxquels on demande a present
une genuflexion sans contrepartie, dans le seul but evident de leur
tendre un piège. Mais les vrais lobbies, on l’aura compris, ne sont ni
armeniens ni grecs. Les veritables adversaires de l’adhesion turque,
il faut les rechercher en Europe meme parmi les chretiens integristes a
tendance raciste et, a l’autre bout de la chaîne, chez les amis d’une
alliance etroite de l’Europe et du monde arabe. Les uns, en Allemagne
et en Autriche particulièrement, refusent l’entree d’un pays musulman
dans l’Europe, comme ils refusaient naguère le droit de citoyennete
pour les immigres turcs de la seconde generation. Les autres, en
harmonie avec les courants nationalistes et islamistes du monde arabe,
qu’ils courtisent, ne veulent pas non plus d’un pays musulman qui
pratique aujourd’hui une democratie exemplaire dont les succès sont
profondement destabilisants pour les dictatures voisines. Si l’on
ajoute que cette grande democratie musulmane, tolerante et dynamique,
est aussi l’alliee strategique d’Israël dans la region, sans pour
autant s’aligner en toutes circonstances sur l’Etat hebreu, on a
l’expose complet des raisons pour lesquelles on constate aujourd’hui
un tel acharnement contre la Turquie. La-dessus, le Prix Nobel de
litterature, – qui est venu recompenser l’oeuvre d’Orhan Pamuk, qui
incarne la modernite turque -, est tombe comme une paire de claques
sonores adressees a tous ces philistins qui ont, de surcroît, la betise
d’imaginer que personne ne voit et ne comprend leurs machinations. Au
stade où nous en sommes, rien ne dit qu’ils ne touchent pas au but,
malgre les efforts de la diplomatie finlandaise, des gouvernements
anglais et scandinaves, espagnol et italien, pour eviter la rupture
programmee. Mais dans l’opinion publique turque, le mal est fait. La
gauche laïque commence a se detacher de la perspective europeenne, les
islamistes non reconcilies avec le cours modere de leur parti veulent
avancer leur projet alternatif de califat socio-economique, modernise
sous la forme d’une conference islamique. Ce jour-la, les democrates
turcs, mais aussi l’opinion europeenne, devront demander des comptes a
ces mauvais bergers qui veulent, aujourd’hui, saborder un grand projet
de civilisation. Ajoutons ce dernier codicille : comment la France
a-t-elle pu trouver le moindre avantage a cette fuite en avant qui
n’est pas seulement en train de lui faire perdre les marches turcs,
mais aussi l’estime de ce grand peuple qui, jusqu’alors, s’etait
toujours tourne vers Paris a chaque grand moment de son histoire. ”
Il faut chercher les vrais adversaires de l’adhesion d’Ankara en
Europe, parmi les chretiens integristes a tendance raciste”
–Boundary_(ID_7tdbtbUtI1mAMCSfOiXa uQ)–
From: Baghdasarian