Month: April 2007

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
March 31 2007

OSCE Chairman’s Special Envoy Expresses Hope for Continued Progress
in Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Talks

Josep Borrell, Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairman, Spanish Foreign
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, expressed hope on 30 March that the
parties in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would sustain the momentum
reached so far in negotiations supported by the OSCE Minsk Group
Co-Chairs.

"The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs have contributed to reducing tensions
and bringing the positions of the parties to the conflict closer,"
Borell said after a meeting with the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group, Ambassador Bernard Fassier of France, Ambassador Yuri
Merzlyakov of the Russian Federation and, representing Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza of the United States,
Elizabeth Rood, Director of the Office of Caucasus Affairs and
Regional Conflicts at the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

Borrell said he hoped that the parties would sustain the momentum
reached so far in the negotiations.

"I call on the parties involved to ensure that the situation along
the Line of Contact and the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan
continues to be calm and stable, as cease-fire violations can lead to
regretful loss of life," Borell added.

The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 31 2007

April emerges as crucial period in Turkish politics

Ilnur Cevik
31 March 2007
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[email protected]
After months of tension over the presidential election, April will
see most of the mysteries unfold and the "political war" start in
earnest.

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party with its commanding
majority in Parliament will move to name the new president and have
him elected as President Ahmet Necdet Sezer retires. The opposition
led by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) will do its best to
prevent this from happening. It will be backed by the opposition
forces in Turkey and probably by the military …

April will be the month when the candidates will be named, and by the
end of the month the first rounds of balloting for the new president
will be held in Parliament. It is expected that the president will be
elected through the AK Party votes on May 9 …

Of course this will not be a politically tranquil period. The AK
Party will push for its own candidate and the opposition will fight
"on all fronts" to prevent this in what may turn out to be a war of
attrition.

Judging from the gossip and the political controversies that have
already been created by the opposition, we feel especially the second
half of April will be a period of turmoil. Let us hope Turkey sails
through this period with minor losses.

Besides all this, April is an important month when Turkey has to
attend to an international offensive created by the Armenians to push
for the recognition of their claims that they were subjected to a
so-called genocide by the Ottoman Turks at the turn of the last
century… The Armenians have been lobbying for this in many
parliaments across the globe, and their latest target is Capitol
Hill. The Armenians are not only trying to score big on Capitol Hill
but they also aim to ruin the strategic relationship between the
United States and Turkey. Turkey has already declared that such a
recognition by the U.S. Congress of genocide claims by the Armenians
is unacceptable and will cause irreparable damage to relations with
the U.S.

Turkey also has to tend to the developments in Iraq, especially as
work is in progress to organize a census in Kirkuk this summer so
that a referendum can be held in November to decide the future of the
city. It is a forgone conclusion that a majority in Kirkuk will vote
to join the Iraqi Kurdish federation in the north, while Turkey says
the referendum should be delayed.

Meanwhile, Turkey is also busy organizing a concerted effort by the
neighboring countries of Iraq as well as leading powers to meet in
Istanbul where it will bring together the Iranians, Syrians and the
Americans as well as others. The aim is to find ways in the
international area to help Iraq stay together and prevent a collapse
of Baghdad …

So we will be hard-pressed on all political fronts as April becomes a
crucial month for Turks. With all the political heat, summer will
arrive in Turkey in April …

The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 31 2007

NYT: Turkish-US ties tense over Armenian measure

The New Anatolian / Washington

31 March 2007

The New York Times reported yesterday that a so-called Armenian
genocide resolution set for a vote in the lower house of the U.S.
Congress is threatening to make bilateral relations unusually tense.

The paper said that the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, backs the
resolution and at first wanted a vote in April, but that under
Turkish pressure, Bush administration figures have lobbied for the
Democrats in charge of Congress to drop the measure.

The paper stressed that a vote in Congress would be purely symbolic,
as the resolution is non-binding, but added, "Turks have warned that
it would be felt as a bitter slap, and could cause enormous public
pressure on the government in Ankara to chill its cooperation with
Washington, which has strong military ties to Turkey, a NATO member."

The paper underlined that in an effort to highlight Turkey’s
opposition to a congressional resolution, many high-ranking Turkish
officials have visited Washington in recent months. The paper quoted
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as saying that the damage would
be very deep if the resolution passed.

"It is only natural that the Turkish public who closely follow the
issue would also react to this strongly," Gul told the Times in a
telephone interview. "As the elected government of democratic Turkey,
we would not be able to remain indifferent. However, I am confident
that common sense would prevail at the Congress."

The paper recalled that Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of
state for European and Eurasian affairs, warned in testimony to
Congress this month that Turkish wrath could be so strong that Turkey
might bar American access to Incirlik Airbase, in eastern Turkey,
through which 74 percent of United States military air cargo destined
for Iraq passes.

The paper stated, "Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also chided the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday for supporting a resolution
that would condemn the killing in January of Hrant Dink, an editor
who was a voice for ethnic Armenians in Turkey."

"Similar congressional votes have been deferred in the past after
intense lobbying," the paper said. "But with strong support for the
resolution from Ms. Pelosi, and lingering resentment in Congress over
Turkey’s refusal to let United States forces use Turkish soil for the
invasion of Iraq, the bill’s prospects may have grown."

Turkey strongly opposes the claims that its predecessor state, the
Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide.
The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that
Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the
empire’s collapse and conditions of World War I. Ankara’s proposal to
Yerevan to set up a joint commission of historians to study the
disputed events is still awaiting a positive response from the
Armenian side. After French lawmakers voted last October to make it a
crime to deny that the claims were genocide, Turkey said it would
suspend military relations with France.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 31 2007

Turkish punk song evokes popular frustration, but angers the state

Last year, a Turkish teenager made a home video of himself
lip-synching a punk rock song that blasted Turkey’s tough system of
university enrollment, and slapped the recording on YouTube.

To some, it was a harmless act of adolescent rebellion. For the
state, it was a threat in a country with strict limits on expression.

Now the band that released the song faces charges of insulting state
employees and will go on trial May 2 in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
If convicted, the five musicians, along with their manager and a
former band member, face up to 18 months in jail, although they could
get off with a fine or a warning.

The quandary of the band "Deli," or "Crazy" in Turkish, reveals
Turkey’s contradiction in seeking European standards — and EU
membership — while tolerating little criticism of state institutions
and national identity. The conflict has been a part of Turkish
society since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of the
modern nation, took power after the Ottoman Empire fell in the early
20th century.

Several intellectuals, notably Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk
and slain ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, were prosecuted on
charges of "insulting Turkishness" for comments on mass killings of
Armenians a century ago. In early March, YouTube was banned for two
days in Turkey because of videos that allegedly insulted Atatürk.
Deli might have eluded state scrutiny if not for the posting on
YouTube. The clip shows a teenager bopping around and making obscene
gestures against a blank backdrop while lip-synching the song. The
minor, identified in media reports only by his first name, Hakan,
will take the exam this year.

Hakan’s video logged hundreds of thousands of hits and elevated the
song to prominence among young Turks who dread the university exam,
and many older Turks who viewed the experience as a trauma.

"It seems we have put our finger on the right point," Cengiz Sarý,
the wiry, bearded vocalist of the band, said in a cramped recording
studio in Ýstanbul. "This is clear in the reaction we got."

The song is called "ÖSYM," the Turkish acronym for The Student
Selection and Placement Center, the state institution that decides
which students go to university, based on a three-hour exam every
June on subjects including language, biology and mathematics. The
process is highly competitive, reflecting a relative dearth of
opportunities in higher education; a complex scoring system
contributes to frustrations. In 2006, there were university spots for
less than one-third of the 1.5 million students who took the test.
Some students pay for private tuition to boost chances of passing,
and those who fail try again the following year, or seek jobs in a
nation of more than 70 million with 10 percent unemployment.

The pressure is so intense that a newspaper columnist once described
students who took the exam as "war veterans."

"In Turkey, as in most other countries, the demand for higher
education far exceeds the places available,» the university placement
center said in a 2006 booklet. It said it aimed to select students
«in a fair and economical manner while meeting the necessary
deadlines," and noted efforts to impose objective, centralized
testing over the decades.

The lyrics of "ÖSYM," a maelstrom of manic drumming and grinding
guitar riffs, are a classic ode against the establishment:

"It has always been like this but it needs to be stopped,

Life should not be a prison because of an exam,

Three hours, a hundred and eighty questions,

May God protect my mind."

It goes on:

"I have got lost,

You have ruined my future,

I am going to tell you one thing,

Shove that exam…"

Mild stuff, by the standards of Western popular culture. Turkey,
although democratic, has a history of violent conflict and military
involvement in politics, and the state retains robust powers to ward
off perceived threats. A popular attack on a pillar of the state, the
education system, was too much to bear. Turkish media reported Prof.
Ünal Yarýmaðan, chairman of the university placement system, as
saying he enjoyed the YouTube video, but asked lawyers to investigate
anyway.

"We opened the case and now it is in the hands of justice," state
prosecutor Kürþat Kayral said.

The Deli musicians, in their early 20s, don’t look like stereotypical
punks. No spiked hair, lip or nose studs, drug addictions or taste
for vandalism. Instead, they are polite, mild-mannered and
irreverent. All passed the university exam, and some are still in
school. Vocalist Sarý, who is studying to become an art teacher, says
they come from a tradition of satirical songcraft, citing Cem Karaca,
a Turkish rocker whose anthems in the 1970s earned him an arrest
warrant. He was in West Germany at the time, and only returned home
after charges were dropped. Karaca died in 2004.

Deli will release its first album in April, and didn’t include the
song "ÖSYM" to avoid controversy.

"We are not EMI or Sony, with big lawyers to defend us," said Bahadýr
Dikeçligil, a director of the alternative label, Kadýkoy Müzik Yapým,
that is releasing the album online and as a compact disc.

Base guitarist Enis Çoban, who studied textile manufacturing, said
there was more censorship in Turkey than in Europe or the United
States, but less than in China or Iran.

"Compared to dictatorships, Turkey is like heaven," Çoban said.
"Turkey still has a lot missing, but we believe that it is on the
right track to improve itself."

31.03.2007

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, The Associated Press ÝSTANBUL

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 31 2007

Refutation of the Armenian resolution, article by article-5

by
Prof. Dr. KEMAL ÇÝÇEK*

(Article 21) President Ronald Reagan in proclamation number 4838,
dated April 22, 1981, stated in part `like the genocide of the
Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians, which
followed it — and like too many other persecutions of too many other
people –the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.’

If the fact that the speechwriter of President Ronald Reagan was
Kenneth L. Khachigian is taken into account, one can understand why
the president used this terminology as opposed to that of his
predecessors.

(Article 22) House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on Sept. 10, 1984,
resolved: `[t]hat April 24, 1985, is hereby designated as `National
Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man,’ and the President of
the United States is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation
calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day as a
day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, especially the
one and one-half million people of Armenian ancestry.’

Even after such a decision, it is important to note that US
presidents have since then not recognized April 24 as `Armenian
Genocide Day.’ The resolution of the House of Representatives was
certainly a political one; few of undersigned persons cared about its
truthfulness.

(Article 23) In August 1985, after extensive study and deliberation,
the United Nations SubCommission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities voted 14-1 to accept a report entitled
`Study of the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide,’ which stated `[t]he Nazi aberration has unfortunately
not been the only case of genocide in the 20th century. Among other
examples, which can be cited as qualifying, are….the Ottoman massacre
of Armenians in 1915-1916.’

This is one of the untrue articles of the resolution. The UN has
never accepted the report of Mr. Whitaker and as we have shown below,
the Subcommittee did not receive the report in question, but only
`took note of.’ (File E/CN.4/1986/5-E/CN.4/Feb.2/1985/57; Para.57)
and instead of that, it is added to the special report as `noted’
(E/CN.4/1986/5 E/CN.4/Feb.2/1985/57 page 99. Para 1). Unfortunately,
we have encountered that big lie even in scientific meetings.

(Article 24) This report also explained that `[a]t least 1,000,000,
and possibly well over half of the Armenian population, are reliably
estimated to have been killed or death marched by independent
authorities and eye-witnesses. This is corroborated by reports in
United States, German and British archives and of contemporary
diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, including those of its ally
Germany….’

It is obvious that Mr. Whitaker’s report was prepared with the
direction of Armenian historians. As a matter of fact, in the meeting
of the subcommittee, US representative Mr. Carey said: `All the
existing sources have not been taken into account and the matter has
not been elaborated sufficiently in depth. The question of genocide
has not been elucidated sufficiently.’ Carey added, `He was not in a
position to approve any resolution on this issue.’ In the same
meeting of the committee, French representative Mr. Joinet said, `The
debate on Mr. Whitaker’s report is in fact a debate on history.’

(Article 25) The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, an
independent federal agency, unanimously resolved on April 30, 1981,
that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum would include the
Armenian Genocide in the Museum and has since done so.

This resolution cannot be taken as a proof of the international
acceptance of the so-called Armenian genocide, nor does it strengthen
the false Armenian thesis.

(Article 26) Reviewing an aberrant 1982 expression (later retracted)
by the United States Department of State asserting that the facts of
the Armenian Genocide may be ambiguous, the United States Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1993, after a review of
documents pertaining to the policy record of the United States, noted
that the assertion on ambiguity in the United States record about the
Armenian Genocide `contradicted longstanding United States policy and
was eventually retracted.’

Like other decisions that were taken without consulting the Turkish
side, this resolution also is not obligatory.

(Article 27) On June 5, 1996, the House of Representatives adopted an
amendment to House Bill 3540 (the Foreign Operations, Export
Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1997) to reduce
aid to Turkey by $3 million (an estimate of its payment of lobbying
fees in the United States) until the Turkish government acknowledged
the Armenian Genocide and took steps to honor the memory of its
victims.
Again this decision was taken under the pressure of the effective
Armenian lobbying in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, the
politicians are not very interested in reality. In fact, Turkey has a
very strict policy concerning US aid, and will not accept any
stipulation of this kind in order to benefit from US aid.
(Article 28) President William Jefferson Clinton, on April 24, 1998,
stated: `This year, as in the past, we join with Armenian-Americans
throughout the nation in commemorating one of the saddest chapters in
the history of this century, the deportations and massacres of a
million and a half Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the years
1915-1923.’
As it is seen, President Clinton talked about massacres and
deportations but did not define that tragedy as `genocide.’ Genocide
is a crime against humanity as defined by the UN Convention of 1948.
Moreover, `massacre’ and `genocide’ are very different terms from the
perspective of law. No need to say that massacres may occur anywhere
and anytime during wars.
(Article 29) President George W. Bush, on April 24, 2004, stated: `On
this day, we pause in remembrance of one of the most horrible
tragedies of the 20th century, the annihilation of as many as 1.5
million Armenians through forced exile and murder at the end of the
Ottoman Empire.’
Again the events that took place in Anatolia between 1915 and 1923
were defined as tragedy in the speech of President Bush. A moment of
silence for the victims of war is a duty for all human beings.
(Article 30) Despite the international recognition and affirmation of
the Armenian Genocide, the failure of the domestic and international
authorities to punish those responsible for the Armenian Genocide is
a reason why similar genocides have recurred and may recur in the
future, and that a just resolution will help prevent future
genocides.
Unfortunately those who are saying this carried out a massacre in
Hocalý in Feb. 26, 1992, deported 180,000 Azeris from the Karabag
enclave and occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory. Today
there are more than 1 million refugees in the city of Baku from the
occupied areas and these people live in deplorable conditions.

* Head of Black Sea Technical University, Faculty of Arts & Sciences;
Turkish Historical Association, Armenian Desk

Queens College The Knight News , NY
March 31 2007

NYC Commemorates 92nd Anniversary of Armenian Genocide
Cesar Bustamante
Issue date: 3/29/07 Section: News

Annie Karakaian, 95, is an Armenian immigrant who graduated cum laude
from Queens College many years ago. She has been many things in her
life: QC student, a painter, a sculptor and a mother, but she will
always count as one of the lucky ones to survive the Armenian
Genocide in Turkey from 1917-1923, which is considered by some as the
first major genocide of the 20th century.

In the wake of World War I, the Young Turks who had significant
political power in the Ottoman Empire at the time made a premeditated
and systematic operation to kill and deport Armenians from the land
in order to create a purely Turkish empire according to the Armenian
National Institute (ANI).

Today, the Republic of Turkey does not recognize having taken part in
any act of genocide against the Armenians despite the ANI and others
arguing that there is ample documented evidence and eyewitness
testimony to prove otherwise. The U.S. has not passed a resolution
recognizing it as genocide while nations like France and Argentina
have officially recognized it as exactly that.

Some of the survivors are still alive to talk about it today. With
the advent of the 92nd Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on
April 22 in Times Square, The Knight News was invited to the New York
Home for the Armenian Aged in Flushing to hear several of the stories
of the survivors.

"The men use to hide in the house because [the Turks] wanted to take
them into the army," Karakaian said. "My father didn’t talk about his
military experience."

Her father was placed into the Ottoman military as a member of a
labor battalion with other drafted Armenians. These battalions were
assigned to do the dirty work of the military and were placed in
horrid conditions equal to slavery. It was a systematic way to reduce
the males in the Armenian population and marked the early stages of
the genocide.

The Armenian women also became endangered. Helen Hajinian, a
98-year-old survivor, said the Armenians began hiding their women
because it was known that the Turkish soldiers would take their young
girls to the mountains. There they would strip, beat or rape them
before throwing some of them over.

"You can’t tell words of the thing they did to me," Kristine
Naldjian, 99, said. "They did disgraceful things to children,
including me." Naldjian did not give details of what the soldiers did
to her.

In light of all this, Karakaian’s father, a carpenter by profession,
was able to the remove the top of their stairway and hide young men
and women there before the entire family left for the U.S. in 1920.
They came by boat during a time when immigrants still had to go
through Ellis Island.

Not everyone was able to leave their country by boat. Mini Arabian,
daughter-in-law and translator for 92-year-old Israel Arabian, said
that her grandmother, Hagi Synanian, moved by foot. While walking
away she was forced to stop every so often and dig graves for her
children who died during the trek. Out of five children, only Mini’s
father survived.

Israel Arabian said he still has panic attacks from the memory of his
youth. He hardly remembers his parents who were killed by the Turks
and his being placed in an orphanage. Inevitably, a group of
Armenians helped hide him in a basement but for three days he was
without food.

His sister was forced to marry a Turk and the siblings afterwards
were separated but were able to reconnect with each other through the
Red Cross. They only spoke through letters and never reunited face to
face before her death.

Sam Azardian, founder of the Armenian Genocide Commemoration, said
his father and mother were separated as a result of the genocide. His
father had been drafted into a labor battalion but sensed his life
was endangered after he fought back an Armenian officer who had
assaulted him. He left immediately and came to the U.S. but was not
able to get in contact with his family and did not even know the
extent the government operations against the Armenians were. Members
of his family walked in the death marches to the desert of Der Zor
(the killing fields), where four of Sam’s siblings died.

"I lost brother and sisters that I’ve never even saw and met,"
Azardian said. Sam’s parents only reunited after his father saw a
newsletter which mentioned what was happening to the Armenians and
had his wife directly ask for him.

The 92nd Annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration, which is open to the
public, will take place April 22 in Times Square between 2 p.m. and 4
p.m. to pay tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide and the
late Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, who was assassinated in
January in Turkey for writing about the genocide. This year’s theme
is "We Cannot Forget, We Will Not Forget."

"Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide sets a dangerous precedent
that makes future genocides more likely. Many of the tactics – and
denials – used by Turkey against defenseless Armenians are being used
again today in Darfur," the Armenian National Committee of America
writes.

Adolf Hitler was quoted as saying before his attack on Poland, "Go,
kill without mercy … who today remembers the annihilation of the
Armenians."

s.com/media/storage/paper564/news/2007/03/29/News/ Nyc-Commemorates.92nd.Anniversary.Of.Armenian.Geno cide-2815297.shtml

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Aztag Daily, Lebanon
March 28, 2007

EDITORIAL:
THE NEW PROPAGANDA WAR

Shahan Kandaharian
Editor in chief

(Translated from Armenian)

Without underestimating and overestimating the productivity of the
Turkish government’s policy concerning the opening ceremony of the
restored Holy Cross church in Aghtamar, it is necessary to think
about what aspects have been registered so far and what their hidden
motives are.

The priority purpose of this issue, which has been a subject of
discussion for a long time, is to invite the world’s attention to the
Turkish "reconstructive" policy. As for the aspects, the decision of
the government to restore the church is in the first place, of
course; then comes the scheduling the opening ceremony which is later
postponed; next is the tug of war to determine whether the
construction should be considered a church or a museum; and finally
there appears the problem if a cross will be placed on the dome of
the church.

These artificial debates, which are being brought forth through the
efforts of the Turkish government, seem to be productive in their
immediate purpose. Not only Turkish and Armenian circles, but also
European and international centers have been following and responding
to these debates.

However, our silence in order not to create a fundamental
contradictions between the Armenian leaders in Istanbul who have
established positions and the political circles located overseas, and
at the same time our position in not following the rules of a game
being initiated by the Turkish government have become a problem, the
discussion of which needs a discreet approach, as well as the
adoption of political prisms by the maintenance of the national
pivot.

In reality of course, the problem is political, which is disguised
under a religious-cultural veil. We have to admit that this is a new
manner of a propaganda war which is carried out by the Turkish
government. The Turkish government itself has given the proof of such
an affirmation, which has shaken the formality of protecting cultural
values, when the Turkish Ministry of Culture was not able to give an
answer to the proposal of the Armenian patriarchate of Istanbul
concerning the placing of the cross on the dome of the Holy Cross
Church, thus acknowledging that making such decisions are not within
his jurisdiction. So the problem has been transferred to the profound
government.

By just mentioning this proposal, the Armenian patriarchate of
Istanbul turned upside down the rule of the Turkish-initiated game.
The Turkish side cannot give a "cultural" answer; such questions must
be asked to the people acting from behind the screen, who are the
coordinators of the governmental policy and propaganda. The
above-mentioned confession must be emphasized in order to show to the
world the extent of the ease with which the problem is continuously
being pushed forward.

It is obvious that the problem has its complexities. Our disregard of
European and international standards, as well as our being in an
opposing position do not necessarily assist our mode of understanding
the problem. In spite of knowing exactly what the real motive and the
pursued aim are, here we must show a distinct political elasticity
and continue to withstand the weapons which are being used during the
new kind of propaganda war.

The demand that the Holy Cross church be under the supervision of the
Armenian patriarchate is obviously the second step in order to turn
the rules of the game upside down. Turkey, in its efforts to secure
sums of money in the context of tourism, has to give an explanation
for its rejection.

If Turkey wants to represent itself to Europe as a government which
respects the rights of national-religious minorities, then its
tendency to secure credits for its diplomacy are questionable due to
its rejections. Anyone who respects the rights of national-religious
minorities should deliver the church to its owner.

These are daring questions and proposals which are sounding from
Armenian centers in Istanbul, especially when we take into
consideration the conditions under which they act.

It seems that the Armenian government is also moving with expected
caution. Sending a delegation lead by the vice minister of culture
has its implications, and at the same time reverses the position of
being placed in the challenger’s corner; it also confronts the
challenge which has appeared with the new propaganda war.

All these are not limited to Aghtamar only. We have to be ready for a
new series of `restorations.’

Iraq Backs Arab Relocation for Kirkuk

Saturday March 31, 2007 9:01 PM

By STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) – Iraq’s government has endorsed plans to relocate
thousands of Arabs who were moved to Kirkuk as part of Saddam
Hussein’s campaign to force ethnic Kurds out of the oil-rich city, in
an effort to undo one of the former dictator’s most enduring and hated
policies.

The contentious decision was confirmed Saturday by Iraq’s Sunni
justice minister as he told The Associated Press he was
resigning. Almost immediately, opposition politicians said they feared
it would harden the violent divisions among Iraq’s fractious ethnic
and religious groups and possibly lead to an Iraq divided among Kurds,
Sunni Arabs and Shiites.

The plan was virtually certain to anger neighboring Turkey, which
fears a northward migration of Iraqi Kurds – and an exodus of Sunni
Arabs – will inflame its own restive Kurdish minority.

At least 36 people were killed in a series of bombings and attacks
around the country, including nine construction workers who died when
gunmen opened fire on their bus south of Kirkuk. The deaths capped a
week in which more than 500 people were killed in sectarian violence.

Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the Ottoman Empire, has
a large minority of ethnic Turks as well as Christians, Shiite and
Sunni Arabs, Armenians and Assyrians. The city is just south of the
Kurdish autonomous zone stretching across three provinces of
northeastern Iraq.

Iraq’s constitution sets an end-of-the-year deadline for a referendum
on Kirkuk’s status. Since Saddam’s fall four years ago, thousands of
Kurds who once lived in the city have resettled there. It is now
believed Kurds are a majority of the population and that a referendum
on attaching Kirkuk to the Kurdish autonomous zone would pass easily.

Justice Minister Hashim al-Shebli said the Cabinet agreed on Thursday
to a study group’s recommendation that Arabs who had moved to Kirkuk
from other parts of Iraq after July 1968 should be returned to their
original towns and paid compensation.

Al-Shebli, who had overseen the committee on Kirkuk’s status, said
relocation would be voluntary. Those who choose to leave will be paid
about $15,000 and given land in their former hometowns.

“There will be no coercion and the decision will not be implemented
by force,” al-Shebli told The Associated Press.

Tens of thousands of Kurds and non-Arabs fled Kirkuk in the 1980s and
1990s when Saddam’s government implemented its “Arabization”
policy. Kurds and non-Arabs were replaced with pro-government Arabs
from the mainly Shiite impoverished south.

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Kurds and other
non-Arabs streamed back, only to find their homes were either sold or
given to Arabs. Some of the returning Kurds found nowhere to live
except in parks and abandoned government buildings. Others drove Arabs
from the city, despite pleas from Sunni and Shiite leaders for them to
stay.

Adil Abdul-Hussein Alami, a 62-year-old Shiite who moved to Kirkuk 23
years ago in return for $1,000 and a free piece of land, said he would
find it hard to leave.

“Kirkuk is an Iraqi city and I’m Iraqi,” said the father of
nine. “We came here as one family and now we are four. Our blood is
mixed with Kurds and Turkmen.”

But Ahmed Salih Zowbaa, a 52-year-old Shiite father of six who moved
to the city from Kufa in 1987, agreed with the government’s
decision. “We gave our votes to this government and constitution and
as long as the government will compensate us, then there is no
injustice at all,” he said.

There were fears that a referendum that was likely to put Kirkuk, 180
miles north of Baghdad, under Kurdish control could open a new front
in the violence that has ravaged Iraq since shortly after the U.S.-led
invasion. On March 19, several bombs struck targets in Kirkuk and
killed at least 26 people.

Al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab, also confirmed he had offered his resignation
on the same day that the Cabinet approved the plan. He cited
differences with the government and his own political group, the
secular Iraqi List, which joined Sunni Arab lawmakers Saturday in
opposing the Kirkuk decision.

He said he would continue in office until the Cabinet approved his
resignation.

The Iraqi List is led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular
Shiite. The group holds 25 seats in the 275-seat parliament.

Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said
al-Shebli quit before he could be fired in a coming government
reshuffle. Neither al-Dabbagh nor al-Shebli would say if the minister
had resigned over the Kirkuk issue.

In late February, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
Iraq should delay the Kirkuk referendum because the city was not
secure.

Turkey fears Iraq’s Kurds want Kirkuk’s oil revenues to fund an
eventual bid for independence that could encourage separatist Kurdish
guerrillas in Turkey, who have been fighting for autonomy since
1984. That conflict has claimed the lives of 37,000 people.

Al-Shebli said local authorities in Kirkuk would begin distributing
forms soon to Arab families to determine who would participate in the
relocation program. He said he could not predict how long the process
would take.

Planning Minister Ali Baban said the relocation plan was adopted over
the opposition of Sunni Arab members of the Shiite-led government,
members of the Iraqi List and at least one Cabinet minister loyal to
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

“We demanded that the question of Kirkuk be resolved through dialogue
between the political blocs and not through the committee,” he told
the AP earlier this week. “They say the repatriation is voluntary,
but we have our doubts.”

Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni lawmaker with the Iraqi List, also denounced
the decision, saying it fails to address key issues, including how to
deal with property claims.

“There are more than 13,000 unsolved cases before the commission in
charge of this point and it just solved no more than 250 of them,” he
said of the property claims. “The other thing is the huge demographic
change in Kirkuk as more than 650,000 Kurds have been brought in
illegally over the past four yea rs. We contest these resolutions and
we will raise to the parliament to be discussed.”

e?AID=/20070331/NEWS/703310334&SearchID=732766 32053272

Mar 31, 2007

Cabbie says he was stiffed on fare from Calif. to N.C.

Chapel Hill

A taxi driver told police he was stiffed on an $8,200 cross-country
fare by a female passenger he shuttled from Beverly Hills, Calif. to
North Carolina.

The meter in Levon Mikayelyan’s taxi cab hit the staggering fare after
a 2,600-mile journey that ended at a Holiday Inn in Chapel Hill.

Mikayelyan said the rider’s family paid him only $800, Chapel Hill
police spokeswoman Jane Cousins said Friday.

"We do get reports of people who are not able to pay cab drivers, but
certainly not with this amount," Cousins said.

Mikayelyan filed a police report Tuesday but no charges have been
filed. Cousins said police were done with the case and referred
Mikayelyan to a magistrate judge.

Leo Mika, a dispatcher for West Coast Yellow Cab, said Friday that the
company has been paid another $2,000 toward the fare and plans to get
the rest through small claims court. Mikayelyan agreed to give the
woman a 25 percent discount off the metered rate, Mika said.

"She told him, ‘When we get there we’ll pay you,’ but when he got
there she didn’t pay," Mika said, adding that it was the first time
one of the company’s taxi drivers had made such a long trip.

Mikayelyan was driving back to California on Friday, Mika said.

The company is based outside Los Angeles in Van Nuys, Calif.

Karabakh authorities provide privileges to resettlers

Arminfo
29 Mar 07

Yerevan, 29 March: Under the 15 April 2003 decision passed by the NKR
[Nagornyy Karabakh republic] on providing privileges to families
resettled in the NKR, a number of privileges have been outlined.

In particular, a resettling family will be given a home or a flat, and
will receive a one-off monetary allowance – the head of the family
will get an amount equal to 20 minimum wages, others will get amounts
equal to five minimum wages. In addition, resettling families are
entitled to compensation for their expenses on moving family members
and property: 5,000 drams [about 14 dollars] for each member of
family, and 15,000 drams [about 42 dollars] to haul the property. To
satisfy their social needs, resettlers will be given long-term (10
years) loans with a 0.5-per-cent APR. Resettlers will not pay utility
bills (home maintenance payment, payments for water and sewerage) for
a period of five years. Conscripts will have their military service
delayed for two years. A number of other privileges also exist.

NKR Prime Minister Anushavan Danielyan said that appropriate
conditions are created for resettlers and "this strategic goal is of
special significance in government programmes."

In 2006, 241 families (872 people, including 395 children) moved to
the NKR for permanent residence.