Month: March 2007

THE G-WORD
Benjamin Bright

The Brown Daily Herald, RI
March 20 2007

Whether it’s "Save Darfur" posters in the New York City subway,
front-page revelations of Saddam Hussein’s massacre of the Kurds or the
never-ending controversy over the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians
90 years ago, escaping genocide-talk is an impossible task these days.

While it may seem that we are living in an age of unparalleled cruelty
and slaughter, frequent accusations of genocide and the outlawing of
genocide-denial in the international arena show that the term has
been politicized, cheapened into the most cynical of weapons for
attacking political opponents and mobilizing grassroots support.

For the most part, humanitarian intervention is only justified by
the international community when the conflict is defined as genocide.

Otherwise, it would just be imperialism. So perhaps we shouldn’t be
surprised when Western activists label virtually every conflict in
Africa as genocide.

Everyone agrees that the massacres in Rwanda in 1994 qualified as
genocide. Interestingly, the United Nations, European Union, Human
Rights Watch and Amnesty International tend to avoid the G-word in
reference to the conflict in Darfur, although that hasn’t stopped
anyone else. Many talk about the ongoing genocide in Uganda.

Similarly, the war in Liberia and the spreading of conflict from Darfur
to Chad have produced talk of "potential" genocides, introducing a
nifty hierarchical classification system for the G-word.

Genocide-mongering has had disastrous effects on civil conflicts
around the world. Johnathan Steele explains in the Guardian how the
Save Darfur campaign has replaced a complex regional issue with a
good versus evil scenario: "The complex grievances that set farmers
against nomads was covered with a simplistic template of Arab vs.

African, even though the region was crisscrossed with tribal and local
rivalries that put some villages on the government’s side and others
against it."

While it is true that the Sudanese government severely overreacted
to rebel attacks by arming the Janjaweed militias, most Western
activists have forgotten that rebel soldiers also committed grievous
atrocities. And so the conflict in Darfur has been simplified into a
black-and-white moral paradigm in order to drum up support for the
Save Darfur campaign, with the victims becoming celebrated martyrs
and the perpetrators ruthless villains.

Consequently, those victims are much less willing to resolve the
conflict or make compromises, thinking Western support will result
in a sweeter deal, while the "evil-doers" become embittered against
a torrent of Western criticism.

And that’s exactly what we see in Sudan, where "the rebels, much
weaker than the government, would logically have sued for peace long
ago. Because of the Save Darfur movement, however, the rebels believe
that the longer they provoke genocidal reaction, the more the West
will pressure Sudan to hand them control of the region," wrote Alan
Kuperman in the New York Times.

Indeed, rebel factions in Darfur initially rejected a peace treaty
last May in order to extract further concessions from the Sudanese
government and increase their dominion over tribal lands, needlessly
prolonging a brutal civil war. This gravely embarrassed both the
international community and the Save Darfur movement, who had
romanticized the rebels as noble freedom fighters.

It’s all part of the strategic logic of victimhood, which is repeated
over and over again when the West sticks its nose in civil conflicts
where it doesn’t belong. As Brendan O’Neill convincingly explains in
spiked, "By treating certain groups as worthy victims who deserve our
protection, Western campaigners encourage them to advertise and even
prostitute their victimhood in order to win that protection."

Charges have been leveled that Bosnian Muslim rebel groups massacred
their own people and blamed it on the Serbs in order to win more
Western support and sympathy. Violence in Bosnia was extended for
several months when the Clinton administration urged the rebels to hold
out for a better deal. The Israelis and Palestinians are constantly
one-upping each other over who is the "real" victim of genocide,
hoping to win over the hearts and minds of na’ve Westerner activists.

Throwing around the G-word as a political tool has become increasingly
popular in the international community, by states, activists and the
supposed victims of genocide, all of whom seek to lend their cause
some legitimacy in terms of hollow moral absolutes.

Not only does this denigrate the very concept of genocide, but it
also inflames civil conflicts around the world.

If the G-word is to serve any meaningful purpose in the modern world,
then steps must be taken to ensure that it serves as a failsafe
mechanism for alerting the world to the most egregious crimes against
humanity – and more than just a weapon to manipulate the international
arena by the most cynical of political actors.

Benjamin Bright ’07 holds office hours at Haven Bros.

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THE BAHA’IS OF THE CAUCASUS: AN INDEPENDENT AZERBAIJAN
By Bayram BALCI (Director of the French Institute for Central Asian Studies IFEAC, Tashkent) and Azer JAFAROV (Baku)
Translated by Kathryn GAYLORD-MILES

Caucaz, Georgia
March 20 2007

As for other religions, the end of the Soviet era is for the Baha’is
a synonym for a rediscovered religious liberty. However, the campaign
against religion during the Soviet period was such that the number
of Baha’is at the beginning of the decade was barely two thousand.

Fifteen years later, their number is essentially the same. Like other
religions, the Baha’i faith is seeing a rejuvenation that comes from
a combination of internal and external influences.

In the interior of the country, residents more easily express their
faith and their religious practices, all the more reason because the
power and the authorities seem to encourage this phenomenon-the public
expression of religious sentiment. As for the exterior influence,
it has come essentially from Turkey. One could expect that it would
come from Russia and Iran, where important, long-established Baha’i
communities live but it is actually the Turkish influences what were
the most rapid and the most efficient, doubtless because of the good
relations between Ankara and Baku, united around the discourse on
Turkishness and a re-found brotherhood.

The phenomenon of conversion occupies a considerable place in this
revival. It is estimated that more than 80% of Baku’s Baha’is are
converts, often Shiite Muslims in quest for spirituality at the
moment of the break-up of the Soviet Union. The arrival of foreign
missionaries, Turkish missionaries especially, facilitated the
conversion of certain people, Muslim or Christian by culture, to the
Baha’i faith. Ethnically, the majority of Baha’is from Azerbaijan
are Azeri, but there are also Russians and Northern Caucasians,
especially Lezgins {1}.

On the same model, in other Caucasian regions, where communities
exist, notably in Batumi and in Dagestan, a certain revival has also
taken place. As for the Baha’is in Armenia, most of them have left
the country since the beginning of the confrontation with Azerbaijan
over Nagorno-Karabakh.

One of the traditions of the Baha’i faith is the assembly of the
community of each city every year on 21 April to choose its nine
leaders. An impossible practice during the Soviet period, it was
revived starting in 1991. At that time, nine people were chosen
democratically by the faithful hold the decision-making power for
the community in Baku. The groups in Ganja, Sumqayit and Salyan each
have their own nine representatives charged with administering the
life of the community. In other cities, the reduced number of Baha’is
does not allow the election of representatives that can always go to
Baku for the important Baha’i holidays.

In contrast to other religions, the Baha’i faith doesn’t place
a central importance on the place of worship. Most of the time,
meetings and religious ceremonies take place in family houses.

Nevertheless, in Baku there is a seat of the association that serves
as the conference center, the school and the meeting room. Religious
education there is assured by the leaders of the community. Religious
literature is often imported from Russia, where paper is less
expensive. Every 19 days, the community meets in a plenary session
for collective prayers, often readings of sacred texts, especially
the works of Baha’ullah and of Abdu’l-Baha.

The community of Baku is accepted world-wide by Muslims and perfectly
integrated into the country and society. In accordance with the law,
its two religious associations are registered with the State Committee
for Religious Affairs. It also has two members who are part of a forum
created by the state, the Union of Religious Organizations for Peace.

This official recognition of its status permits the community to
freely practice its religion and to peacefully live its religious
live. On the other hand, in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic where,
in principle, the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan should apply,
the small Baha’i minority is constantly harassed by the authorities,
who don’t give it any freedom of association.

However, the Baha’is aren’t the only ones to be bothered for the
religious beliefs. Followers of Christian denominations, especially
Adventists, Pentecostals, and Baptists, are also constantly bothered
by the authorities of the Autonomous Republic.

{1} See

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AHMADINEJAD TO OPEN FIRST STRETCH OF ARMENIAN GAS PIPELINE FROM IRAN

The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 20 2007

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart
on Monday formally open the first stretch in Armenia of a natural
gas pipeline.

Ahmadinejad and Armenian President Robert Kocharian will inaugurate
the 40-kilometer (25-mile) section in the town of Meghri, just over
the border from Iran.

Under the first stage of the project, Iran is to deliver up to 400
million cubic meters (14 billion cubic feet) of gas a year; when the
pipeline is completed and extends to the capital, Yerevan, the volume
could rise to 2.5 billion cubic meters (88 billion cubic feet) a year.

Rain and fog prevented a helicopter flight that was to transport
Ahmadinejad, and he was expected to arrive later by road.

The project was launched in 2004 after more than a decade of
negotiations.

Russia, which supplies most of Armenia’s gas, had objected to the
project. Armenian officials said last year they were discussing the
prospect of Russia’s natural-gas monopoly Gazprom purchasing the
Armenian section of the pipeline from Iran.

Landlocked Armenia has developed its relations with Iran amid
economic troubles caused by the closing of its borders with Turkey
and Azerbaijan in the wake of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh,
a region of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenian and ethnic Armenian
Karabakhi forces.

Iran also has sought projects and influence in other parts of the
former Soviet Union, mostly in Central Asia.

Last year, Ahmadinejad opened an Iranian-financed tunnel improving
connections between impoverished Tajikistan’s north and the capital
region. Tehran has focused mostly on transport and infrastructure
projects and restoring historically close cultural ties.

ARMY ON ALERT AMID TENSIONS

The New Anatolian, Turkey
The New Anatolian / Washington
March 20 2007

Turkey has put its army on alert to stave off any attacks by Kurdish
terrorists during Nevruz, a spring festival, amid unprecedented
political problems, reported The Washington Times yesterday.

Andrew Borowiec, in an article in Monday’s edition of the right-wing
daily, stated that the crisis includes a widening rift between military
commanders and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warnings of more
attacks by Kurdish extremists and a rising nationalist fervor that
is worrying Turkey’s European partners.

The daily stated that Erdogan’s government is facing the possibility
of strained relations with Washington over the prospect of a separate
Kurdish state in northern Iraq and the threat that U.S. Congress
might brand the World War I deaths of Armenians under Turkey’s Ottoman
rulers as genocide.

The Times said military leaders have warned that regardless of Turkey’s
application for membership in the European Union, the army will remain
the ultimate guardian of the republic.

The daily cited Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) Gen. Ilker Basbug’s remarks
stressing Turkey’s right to send its troops to Iraq in pursuit of
Kurdish terrorists waging a 32-year war for independence.

Underlining that while Kurds have prepared to celebrate Nevruz, the
daily added that terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants
have threatened terrorist attacks over the holiday, particularly
against the country’s thriving tourist resorts.

"A number of Kurdish politicians, including members of the legally
recognized Democratic Society Party (DTP), have been rounded up for
interrogation," wrote Borowiec. "In the predominantly Kurdish area of
Diyarbakir in southwestern Turkey, the authorities refused to grant
permission for festivals."

The daily stated, "The Turkish political scene was marred by
growing tension between the senior military cadres and Mr. Erdogan,
increasingly accused by the army of Islamic tendencies."

The Times cited the 1997 "postmodern coup," in which the army was
instrumental in removing from power Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan,
who was known for his political commitment to militant Islam.

"Although Mr. Erdogan has never indicated any intention of abandoning
Turkey’s secular system, the military and secularist circles resent
his appointments of Islamic politicians to government posts as well
as the fact that his wife wears a headscarf in public buildings,
which is banned by law," the daily added.

YERVAND ZAKHARYAN TO VISIT MOSCOW AND SAINT PETERSBURG

ArmRadio.am
20.03.2007 17:47

On March 24 the delegation headed by the Mayor of Yerevan Yervand
Zakharyan will leave for Moscow, Information and Public Relations
Department of Yerevan City Hall informs. The same day the two Mayors
will attend the opening ceremony of the "Yerevan" trade centre
in Moscow.

At the invitation of the Governor of Saint Petersburg Valentina
Matvienko, on March 25 the delegation headed by the Mayor of Yerevan
will leave for Saint Petersburg on an official visit. Bilateral
meetings, discussion of a number of issues of cooperation between
Yerevan and Saint Petersburg are expected in the framework of the
visit.

During the visit it is expected to sign a 2007-2007 cooperation plan
between Yerevan and Saint Petersburg, a preliminary agreement on
which was reached during Yervand Zakharyan’s meeting with Valentina
Matvienko in September 2005.

MOSCOW MAYOR TO VISIT ARMENIA

ArmRadio.am
20.03.2007 17:17

According to an earlier agreement between the Mayors of Yerevan and
Moscow, on March 23 the delegation headed by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov
will arrive in Yerevan, Information and Public Relations Department
of Yerevan City Hall informs. The same day issues related to the
process of accomplishment of the works envisaged by the 2005-2007
cooperation plan between the two capitals will be discussed during
a meeting at the Yerevan City Hall. Later the Mayors of Yerevan and
Moscow will attend the festive ceremony of opening of the Moscow
House in Yerevan. The Moscow House in Yerevan is one of the largest
cooperation projects between the two capital cities. Its construction
started on October 8, 2005.

The same day the delegation will return for Moscow.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY PRODS U.S. AGAINST ‘GENOCIDE’
By Jason Motlagh

Washington Times, DC
March 20 2007

YEREVAN, Armenia — Inside the tomblike confines of the Armenian
Genocide Museum, a haunting narrative of images and words unfolds. A
list is posted at tour’s end of nations that have officially recognized
the tragedy, minus one major endorsement: the United States.

U.S. lawmakers have introduced nonbinding resolutions in Congress
that would declare up to 1.5 million Armenians victims of genocide
at the hands of Turkish forces almost a century ago.

Support is reported to be strong enough in the House to pass the
measure if it goes to a vote; the Senate introduced a similar
resolution last week with 21 co-sponsors.

Historians and analysts here in the Armenian capital say recognition
from Washington is long overdue because evidence validating the case
for genocide is "clear-cut, more than factual, and very obvious."

But Turkey’s priority status as a vital strategic ally in a troublesome
region stands in the way.

"Although Turkey needs the U.S. more, the U.S also needs Turkey
right now … so it’s not realistic to think the government will
formally acknowledge [the genocide]," said Hagop Avedikian, editor
of Azg newspaper.

He noted that every April 24, a day of observance, President Bush
"highlights the genocide and explains it without using the word."

In the past month, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Chief of
the General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit and a parliamentary delegation
have met with U.S. lawmakers and Bush administration officials in an
attempt to derail the resolution.

Mr. Gul was quoted as saying the delivery of a U.S. genocide resolution
would inflict "lasting damage" on bilateral relations.

Such statements were not lost on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who last week wrote a joint
letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and other
senior members warning that the measure would hurt national security
interests.

Passage of the House resolution, they wrote, "could harm American
troops in the field, constrain our ability to supply our troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan and significantly damage our efforts to promote
reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey."

Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried has warned that Turkey
might respond by closing Incirlik air base, used for operations in
nearby Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Turkish military severed all ties with the French military and
terminated defense contracts after the French National Assembly voted
in October to criminalize the denial of genocide.

The Israeli Knesset killed a motion to discuss recognition earlier
this month, fearing a political crisis with Ankara.

Failure to pass the resolution would be "too bad because it could
be a very catalytic moment for rapid recognition by other states,"
said Hayk Demoyan, director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

Several Western countries have recognized the massacre in the waning
days of the Ottoman Empire as a genocide, some making genocide denial
a punishable offense.

An ethnic Turkish politician, Dogu Perincek, received a $2,500 fine
and a suspended prison sentence from a Swiss court on Friday for
calling Armenian genocide an "international lie" at a political rally
two years ago.

The dispute is over whether hundreds of thousands of Armenians who
died between 1915 and 1923 were part of systematic eradication campaign
by Ottoman Turkey.

Armenians contend mass killings and forced deportations amount to
genocide, while the Turkish government insists the deaths were the
result of chaos at the time.

THE SHORTEST PATH TO AN INDEPENDENT PALESTINE
Charles Jalkh

Global Politician, NY
March 20 2007

Back in the 20th century, one man, inspired hundreds of millions
to march proudly, unarmed, peacefully, and stoically, into hails of
police batons and sometimes bullets, to demand freedom. The Indian
nation rose en masse, in peaceful civil disobedience, forcing the
end of the British occupation. Mahatma Gandhi shamed the brutal
"civilized" world into withdrawal. He did not incite a revolution nor
carried arms, yet planted a seed for humanity and showed by example,
that freedom can be achieved through peaceful means.

The Palestinian people can also achieve their dreams of a dignified
life if they adopt similar peaceful means instead of blowing up humans
in buses, discotheques, and pizza parlors. In this 21st century,
the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, or perhaps, the pen is
the sword. A flower is far more effective than a Kassam rocket. The
power of conviction through peace is mightier than all armies.

Humanity today listens to a lower frequency than the one broadcasted
by the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah. Humanity is more interested in
global issues, climatic changes, planetary resource sustenance, peace,
order, neighborly civilized conduct, economic progress, social justice,
the welfare of all humans, and the enlightenment of the individual.

The people of the world would be much more sympathetic, if
Palestinians, families and children, old and young, descend to the
Gaza beaches on a cool pink summer sunset, armed with candles and
prayers, to demand liberty and offer genuine peace. The world would
then light a billion candles for peace for the tortured Palestinian
and Israeli people. Humanity would pray for the souls of all victims of
these futile wars, and to honor the living, Palestinians and Israelis
alike. For a Soul bares no nationality in the eyes of the Loving God.

Another great historical example is dramatized in the Armenian
tragedy. One and a half million Armenians were massacred at the hands
of the Ottomans in 1915, many more exiled throughout the Middle East
and the four corners of Earth, while what’s left of their homeland got
absorbed by the Soviet Union. Yet, the Armenians rose from underneath
the ashes, as a powerful cultural and economic civilization throughout
the world. The Armenians did not carry arms.

They enlightened the world with music, poetry, art, inventions,
commerce and sciences. And today, Armenia is free without firing
a single bullet. Similarly, the shortest path to an independent
Palestinian state is through peace, and the fastest way to peace,
is through the Love of all life. There is no "holy land"; only Mother
Earth and human life are precious and holy.

Twenty or thirty years into a peace, it would not matter much what
geographical boundary your state controls. Through treaties, trade,
and cultural exchanges with neighboring nations, your citizens would
feel right at home in a larger geographical human extent. Observe how
an Italian, a Lithuanian, or a French feels today in the EU, with the
freedom to travel, to engage in business, even buy property in any
of the union states. Frontiers become irrelevant between humanistic
democracies. What matters, is human freedom and dignity. This is
the essence of the western civilization. It does not mean losing
your cultural peculiarity. It means contributing uniquely to a larger
fragrant bouquet of cultures. For we are all roots to the tree of Life,
and any weak root, diminishes Mother Life for all.

The world in this 21st century is attentive to the sufferings of
people, but is much more repulsed by acts of violence committed in the
name of the "oppressed". The cruelest of all oppressions however are
ignorance, delusion, hatred, and the refusal of peace. The Palestinians
can reenter the conscience of humanity when they lay down their arms,
make true peace with Israel, and turn their attention towards healing
their nation and lifting their people into a new age, a New Palestine,
living side by side with its Semitic cousin Israel.

Charles Jalkh is a Lebanese Freedom Fighter opposed to the Hezbollah.

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OPEN SOCIETY IS OPEN TO EVERYONE
Lusine Musaelyan

KarabakhOpen
20-03-2007 16:31:41

The Open Society NGO was set up in 2005. The coordinator of the
organization Naira Hayrumyan says the goal of the NGO is contained in
the name of the society – to promote an open society. Naira Hayrumyan
thinks in Karabakh the society is not open in two aspects. "The first
is the internal political aspect.

Usually we do not discuss the problems publicly which concern the
public, although this is what democracy implies. Decisions are made,
it is not important if they are good or bad decisions, which are not
discussed with people. We would like to fill in this gap. The second
is the foreign political aspect.

As an information unit, Karabakh is closed to many. The world has very
vague idea of what Karabakh is, and continues to think that the people
who live here are fighting all the time." Naira Hayrumyan says Open
Society works towards both directions. "As to the foreign situation, we
conduct public polls on urgent topics and discuss them in round-table
meetings and electronic forums," said Naira Hayrumyan. She underlined
the debate over the Karabakh settlement organized by the NGO after
the release of the reports of the International Crisis Group. "We
conducted a poll, large-scale debates on the reports and conveyed
the opinion of the Karabakh society to the international community
on the proposals of the mediators," Naira Hayrumyan said. "In order
to open Karabakh for the world information sphere our organization
set up the website with the help of which we
present Karabakh to the world the way it is in reality," said the
coordinator of the organization.

In answer to the question how the organization is sustained, Naira
Hayrumyan said: "We do not think that public activities require
immense funds.

Moreover, the members of the organization are people who are ready
to work without pay, they follow their principles. As to financing,
last year KarabakhOpen and a few other non-governmental media got
government assistance, which was spent on the English version of
the website. I hope this year government assistance will continue,
otherwise we will have to close the English version.

We got a small grant from the International Alert to set up the column
Third Sector in the framework of the Resource Center of Stepanakert.

We do the rest of the work on a voluntary basis," According to Naira
Hayrumyan, the members of the organization are mainly related to
journalism. Although the Open Society is open to everyone.

ZOYA LAZARYAN: IF THE PRESIDENT CRITICIZES, HE HAS REASON

KarabakhOpen
20-03-2007 16:32:46

Two years ago NKR President Arkady Ghukasyan criticized in a public
meeting the Ministry of Health. He stated that the health sector is
corrupt. Minister Lazaryan was given two months to tackle this problem,
otherwise she had to resign.

KarabakhOpen asked Zoya Lazaryan if she accepts the criticism of the
president, and how she evaluates the state of corruption in the health
sector. "If the president of the country criticizes, he has reason
to. I do not reject the accusations. I do not want to justify this
phenomenon but I cannot generalize because a few unconscientious
people who are found not only in the health sector by the way,
blemish the work of the whole system," Zoya Lazaryan said.

The minister said after this meeting corresponding steps were
taken, namely checking, stricter control. A hot line was set for
complaints. At hospitals the patients fill in special forms. According
to the minister, the latter two measures were not effective because
"people are passive and are not open enough".

"There is progress, of course. But I cannot say that corruption has
been eliminated in the health sector. I think the Ministry of Health
cannot tackle this problem alone. It needs the support of the society,"
Zoya Lazaryan said.