Month: April 2007

What else is needed to see the real face of Turkey?

Kurdish Aspect, CO
April 21 2007

Kurdishaspect.com – By Sosun Welat

Is the brutal murder of priest in Trabzon is not enough to see this
society’s and the Turkish state’s in tolerance to other religions? Is
the barbaric murder of Hrant Dink is not enough to see the fascist
and racist face of this state?

The murder of innocent Christians in the city of Malatya just two days
ago is not enough to bring some doubts that we have about this regime
that is being pampered and appeased for more than half a century?

When these questions are asked, some would say that these are isolated
incidents. When in fact these are not isolated incidents.

Since the establishment of this Turkish regime it is been its official
ideology to purify the county’s soul and mind to Turkishness through
different methods. First it began with Armenian Genocide by the young
Turks during the last years of Ottoman Empire. After The Young Turks
ideology came to power with the establishment of Republic of Turkey it
continued up to our times. From 1920 to our times many Kurdish regions
went through massacres, internal exiles, evictions, destruction of
hamplets, villages etc. The most recent ones in Sivas 32 Kurdish
Alevis were burnt in hotel while they were honoring an Alevi saint
Pir Sultan Abdal. Through 1970 to 1980 in Sivas, Malatya, Corum,
Maras, Erzincan and many other towns Alevi Kurds were massacred by
hundreds just because they did not fit into TURKISH identity.

Just few years ago, A book store was bombed in Semdinli to stir
up unrest so that military can have a reason to start military
operations. But the operation went awry the perpetuators got caught
by the people and they were from intelligence wing of Turkish army.

After ward the current chief of staff of Turkish army Mr. Buyukanit
went further and praised his soldiers for burning the Kurdish book
store.

Just recently a Kurdish father and his five year old son were replacing
a flat tire on their truck, so that he could go to work and earn bread
money for the family, they were murdered while doing their work their
buddies riddled with bullets. The policemen that did this horrific
crime were acquitted.

Because of being an ally of the west against the old Soviet Union up
until the collapse of USSR the west turned blind eye to this regime.

In fact Islamic and nationalistic organizations that were teaching
intolerance were supported by the state and indirectly by the west.

With the fall of Berlin wall a new world order started to emerge. By
the end of first Gulf War it was explicitly brought to our attention
by the elder President Bush.

With this new world order came globalization, more freedom and
opportunities for the under served and oppressed. Democracy seemed
to flourish in Africa; Nelson Mandela came to Presidential palace
from prison. States, people and minds changed.

It seems that Turkey is stuck in the past. They are still teaching in
their school that the TURKISH race is the best on this earth. Through
their official and unofficial KURAN-KURSU (religious seminary) the
Whabi Islam does not tolerate any other religion. At the same time
through their official or semi official organizations they are opening
up mega mosques through out Europe and US.

When Kurds fight either by force or non-violence we are labeled as
terrorists. It is the state of Turkey that can not stand an idea
of Kurdishness. As just few years back an official from the Turkish
government stated that even if Kurdistan was established as far away
as Argentina they will oppose it.

If today there is a PKK and it is fighting Turkey it is the product
of intolerance of TURKISH state of mind and its policies. Now they
want to use PKK presence in Qandil Mountains as pretext to attack
South Kurdistan.

They are well aware that dislodging PKK from Qandil does not put an
end to PKK. Their aim is not PKK. They are not afraid of PKK. They
are afraid of Southern Kurdistan; they want to get rid of Kurdistan
Regional Government no matter what it takes because they can not
stand it.

The west can not afford by keeping status quo with Turkey. They will
not change. Their agenda is to conquer Europe through becoming a
member of it. Not the way Ottomans did it.

They are good at one thing, conquer, destroy originality, and rule.

Look at Anatolia, it belongs to 3, 4 civilizations from Summerians,
Hitits, Arartu, Greeks to Romans and many others. Structures
changed to mosques, name of towns, cities, regions changed to hide
true identities. As recently supposedly Ax(Ah) Tamar Church in the
middle of Van Lake was restored to its originality but its name from
Ah Tamar changed to Ak damar. This highlights their intolerance.

As with US there are some circles and especially well paid lobbyists in

Washington sees Turkey as a giant pillar of the region which needs to
be kept as any ally at all costs. Unfortunately they have not seeing
the real face of Turkey yet, even though Turkey has acted against US
interests for some time.

In time we will see more prevailing acts from Turkish State and U.S
decision makers would come to the right conclusion that there is no
need for an ally such as TURKEY.

Let’s hope it will be soon.

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The New Anatolian, Turkey
April 21 2007

Is there any cause to fear Christians?

Ilnur Cevik
21 April 2007
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[email protected]
If we have a mission to spread the good word of Islam and promote our
beloved religion throughout the world then we should be ready to
allow others to promote their own religion in our country.

It is no secret that Christian groups are active in Turkey and some
are trying hard to aggressively promote their religion. There are
Christian missionaries active in the heart of Anatolia. This is very
normal as they are active throughout the but it is nothing to be
feared. It is clear that Christianity is hardly making any headway in
the world today. While Islam is spreading and going strong Christians
are deeply concerned that they are on the decline and have to make a
great effort to cut down their losses. Thus missionaries have doubled
their efforts…

But Islam is so strong in Turkey and our people follow the Turkish
version of the Muslim faith which is based on realities, science and
pragmatism. Turks are never herded to mosques. There are no religious
pressures on our people to fulfill their religious duties. Everything
is voluntary in Turkey. Yet, Turks flock to Friday prayers and are
proud of their religious beliefs. So why fear Christianity or the
actions of the missionaries. Our beliefs are too strong for their
propaganda.

Turkey is a country where the population is predominantly Muslim. It
is a secular country but a majority of its citizens are devout
Muslims. Tolerance and goodwill is a part of our traditions. Our
Jewish and Christian citizens are as valuable as our Muslim brothers
in Turkey.

Turks have been tolerant to all religious and ethnic minorities. This
has been our strong point for centuries. Today the same traditions
should live yet we see with sadness that either zealots or
ultranationalist are misguiding our young people and are manipulating
them. The authorities should be alert and should not allow this.

However, let us not forget that Turkey has been facing systematic
provocations and plots as it moves close to the European Union. There
is a concerted effort by people who want to stall us who are
targeting our democracy and our stability. Is it a coincidence that
very ugly killings of a Christian priest, a journalist of Armenian
origin and three people working in a printing house publishing the
Bible have taken place one after another just as we head for the
presidential elections where some power circles are trying to create
the image that Islamists are trying to grab the seat of the head of
state?

Turkey is one of the bastions of early Christianity. Look at the
southeastern Mardin area, look at Midyat and then at various places
in eastern Turkey. Look at Cappadocia and some places like Selcuk
near Ephesus where Mother Mary is believed to be buried. These are
all holy places sacred to the Christian world and should be the bonds
between us and Christian Europe.

Turkey is a part of Europe and should remain so. But recent
developments show that we all need to put an extra effort into it.

Washington Times, DC
April 21 2007

Embassy Row

Who’s losing Turkey?

By James Morrison
April 20, 2007

With Iranian nukes, Iraqi chaos, Kurdish separatism, vast pipeline
projects, a stalled European Union application, Cyprus and the
global rise of militant Islam, Turkish officials should have plenty
to talk about.

But a delegation of top Turkish lawmakers in Washington this week
devoted an hourlong interview with our correspondent David R. Sands to
an entirely separate topic: a pending U.S. congressional resolution
condemning the treatment of Armenians nearly a century ago by the
Ottoman Empire as "genocide."

"It is already a difficult time, but I can safely predict there
would be very serious effects [to U.S.-Turkish relations] if this
resolution passes," warned Mehmet Dulger, a member of the ruling
Justice and Development Party and chairman of the Grand National
Assembly’s foreign affairs committee.

Onur Oymen, a former top Foreign Ministry official now serving as an
opposition lawmaker, noted that favorable attitudes in Turkey toward
the United States have plummeted to single digits since the start of
the Iraq war in 2003.

"The political situation for good relations with the United States is
really close to untenable," he said. "If there is another blow, such
as this resolution, it will be so much more difficult to recuperate."

In a long-running, bitter diplomatic war, Armenians have pressed
countries to condemn as genocide the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians in the former Ottoman-Turkish Empire in 1915. Rival studies
put the death toll at anywhere from 200,000 to 1.8 million, and basic
events and documents from the time are still bitterly contested.

The Democratic takeover of the U.S. Congress has given hopes to
Armenian-American groups that a new, nonbinding genocide resolution
could pass this session, despite sharp opposition from the Bush
administration.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, is on record in
support of the motion.

Erol Aslan Cebeci, a lawmaker with the governing Justice and
Development Party, noted that Turkey faces a presidential vote
next month and new parliamentary elections in November. He said
Turkish politicians will be forced by voter outrage to respond
"disproportionately" to a U.S. resolution, even if the reaction harms
both countries’ long-term interests.

"Let’s be frank: If Senegal or Bolivia were doing this, we could live
with it," Mr. Cebeci said. "But this is supposedly our best and most
important ally. If, God forbid, this passes, the next big debate you
will be having in Washington is, ‘Who lost Turkey?’ "

NYC Independent Media Center, NY
April 21 2007

Turkish Denial of Armenian Genocide (IndyKids)

The May/June 2007 IndyKids is Out!

By Lucine Kasbarian

April 24 symbolizes the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, which
destroyed 1.5 million Armenians, as well as hundreds of thousands
of Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. On that date in 1915, hundreds of
Armenian leaders were rounded up by the Turkish authorities and
murdered in what was the start of a planned, organized attempt to
eliminate native, non-Turkish populations from the Turkish Empire.

Today, Turkey denies that it committed genocide, and even rewards
authors, teachers, politicians, and governments for saying that this
was not genocide but a civil war or an attempt to put down uprisings.

Armenians worldwide observe April 24 as a day of tragedy, but also as
a day of survival. They attend religious services, cultural programs,
and political demonstrations calling for justice.

"Armenians are also working to halt the current genocide in Darfur,
Sudan, in an effort to make certain that all peoples can be free from
the terror of genocide," says Tony Vartanian, Chair of the Armenian
Genocide Commemoration Committee of N.Y.

Each year, a resolution is introduced in U.S. Congress to mark April
24 as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. Turkey spent more than one
million dollars to try to prevent this year’s Genocide resolution
from passing. According to U.S. congressmen Frank Pallone and Joe
Knollenberg, Turkey has even threatened to close supply pipelines
that aid U.S. soldiers in Iraq if the U.S. government does not defeat
this resolution.

Turkish officials believe that admitting the Genocide occurred would
harm their nation’s public image, and require that Turkey return lands
and properties to the victims. However, Turkey’s acknowledgment of
its past crimes against humanity might be an important step in the
direction of earning the respect of the world. It would also relieve
much pain still felt by genocide survivors, their families and their
communities.

CBS 2, CA
April 21 2007

Armenians Remember Genocide At Hands Of Turks
VIDEO: Watch The Latest News
SLIDESHOWS: View The Day’s Top Photos

(CBS) LOS ANGELES Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles City
Council and Armenian leaders gathered Friday to commemorate the 92nd
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turks, which
resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million people in 1915.

"Today’s remembrance … will not only keep us all united in our
remembrance of the 1.5 million lost souls, it will also help us teach
the new generation to prevent injustice and intolerance and will
renew our respect for all of humanity," said Archbishop Honvan
Derderian, primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that about 300,000
Armenians, and at least as many Turks, died during civil strife in
1915.

The deaths occurred when Armenians in eastern Anatolia fought for
independence and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbing
Ottoman Empire during World War I.

"It is important that the next generation of truth tellers is here
with us today," Villaraigosa said. "Denial of the genocide is an
attempt to instill fear in the hearts of all those who treasure
truth. The first condition of justice is recognition of the gravity
of the evil done."

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, introduced a resolution in January that
asked President Bush to recognize the killings.

In February, the City Council designated the Armenian capital of
Yerevan as a sister city to Los Angeles, under a plan spearheaded by
Councilman Eric Garcetti.

"Today it may feel long ago, but to think of the 3,000 years of
culture and history … that (the Armenian genocide) tried to wipe
from the earth makes us realize that it is part of our present,"
Garcetti said.

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Turkish Daily News, Turkey
April 21 2007

Tear down these walls of fear and bigotry

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Whenever, I see a church or synagogue, behind high walls or behind
buildings that have no historical or architectural value, I dream of
demolishing everything that surrounds it just so that they can stand
there proudly

Barcýn Yinanc

After having worked in Ankara for 15 years as a diplomatic reporter,
I decided to move to Istanbul three years ago. One of the things that
struck me in this city was the "timid" existence of the churches
and synagogues. It took me some time to realize that they existed,
even the ones next door, in my own neighborhood. Some are behind high
walls. Ugly buildings surround others; you can hardly see them. Without
doubt, one of the reasons for this situation is unplanned urbanization,
in this rapidly growing city. Some of the most beautiful architectural
legacies of the Ottoman rule, namely the fountains suffer the same
faith. But as far as the non-Muslim sacred places go, I have always
felt as if they were trying to hide themselves.

Whenever, I see a church or synagogue, behind high walls or behind
buildings that have no historical or architectural value, I dream of
demolishing everything that surrounds it just so that they can stand
there proudly. Then this city could really become another Jerusalem
in the region. Unfortunately, I realize that as the Turkish society,
we have not yet matured enough. How can we tell them to stop hiding,
without guaranteeing that they will not be targets of hostile attacks?

A country of contradiction:

Turkey is a country of contradiction. Some believe that the biggest
threat Turkey is facing today is Islamic fundamentalism. Recently,
Turkish President Sezer voiced his concerns, stating a few days ago
that the threat Islamic fundamentalism poses to the country’s secular
establishment has reached its highest level. It is no secret that
some among the security authorities share this view.

Isn’t it odd that, these same circles also see Christian missionaries
as a big threat? The National Security Council as well as the Interior
Ministry devotes a considerable amount of time to the activities of
missionaries in Turkey. Their archives are full of reports on the
dangerous increase in the activities of Christian minorities and the
measures that need to be taken to curb these activities. It usually
falls on the shoulders of the Foreign Ministry to answer criticism
on the international stage about the harassment to the missionaries
in Turkey, triggered by those reports.

How can a country be under the threat of both Islamic fundamentalism
and Christian missionaries at the same time? How can one imagine that
Christianity can easily take root in a society that is believed to
be sliding toward Muslim fundamentalism?

The hegemony of fear:

Actually the answer to these questions is a simple one: fear. There is
a group within the state mechanism that sees non-Muslims as a threat;
be it the minorities that have lived on this land for centuries or
those who recently arrived to propagate their religion.

This fear is based on what some Turks call the "Sevres syndrome." A
post World War I pact between the victorious Allied powers and the
Ottomans, the Sevres Treaty, abolished the Ottoman Empire and provided
for an independent Armenia, for an autonomous Kurdish region, and for
a Greek presence in eastern Thrace. The cooperation of non-Muslim
minorities with the Allied powers, as well as certain activities
by Christian minorities in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire,
laid the necessary ground for the Sevres Treaty. Hence the fear of
"foreign powers trying to divide Turkish land with the help of
non-Muslim minorities keeps haunting Turks even today.

An American diplomat once told me he kept a map of the Sevres Treaty in
his house to show the sensitivity of Turks to his non-Turkish guests.

I can understand the Sevres paranoia by the older generation. I feel
but sad and frightened when I see younger generations fed by this
same paranoia. What Turkey needs is to get rid of this fear of the
past and gain a little bit of self-confidence.

–Boundary_(ID_hyFu8cAyNtdtLR4zc XVAkg)–

Author: Encourage Congress to pass Armenian Genocide resolution

Community Press, KY
April 21 2007

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has declared Tuesday, April 24, an Ohio Day
of Remembrance on the occasion of the 92nd anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide of 1915-1923.

The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman
Turks during World War I and resulted in the murder of 1.5 million
Christian Armenians in a brutal form of mass murder that served as
Hitler’s model for the Holocaust.

The Turkish government to this day absurdly denies the Armenian
Genocide occurred, despite the overwhelming body of evidence,
international recognition and independent scholarly research to
the contrary.

This continued denial of the truth by modern Turkey is deeply insulting
and is the foundation for the cycle of genocide that leads to the
current genocide in Darfur.

Armenian-Americans have a rich history in Ohio, first settling in
the Cleveland area during the early 1900s.

Today, vibrant communities exist in Columbus, Cincinnati and
Cleveland. Ohio becomes the 40th state to recognize the Armenian
Genocide.

We salute Gov. Strickland for his courage in giving voice to this
awful truth.

I went to Washington in late March along with activists from around
the country to lobby support for Armenian Genocide resolutions in
both the House and Senate.

I visited the offices of all 16 Ohio representatives over a two-day
span meeting with foreign affairs staffers and several lawmakers
including Congresswoman Jeanne Schmidt; Steve Chabot met with our
group last week in his local office.

The House resolution has 190 bipartisan Co-sponsors. That is an
incredibly high number given that a resolution only needs 218 votes
to pass.

Co-sponsors in effect are voting yes in advance, before the vote.

The Turkish government is brazenly threatening the U.S. to not let
these resolutions come up for vote.

Previous resolutions failed despite broad bi-partisan support because
the leadership lacked the courage to call for a vote.

This time things are different as both Speaker Pelosi and Senate
leader Reid are co-sponsors.

America has a choice to make. On the one hand we can side with a
"fair-weather" ally in Turkey who would not let us use its assets to
assist in the invasion of Iraq…which we know cost American lives
or side with Armenian Americans who serve in the U.S. military and
Armenia which is a member of the Coalition of the Willing with forces
in Iraq today and free use or Armenian airspace and bases.

Currently six Ohio lawmakers from both sides have the courage to
co-sponsor this legislation along with our governor setting an example
of moral leadership.

Unfortunately, Congressman Chabot and Congresswoman Schmidt are not
yet on board.

Please give them a call and urge them to co-sponsor these long
overdue resolutions.

David Krikorian lives on Camargo Woods Court in Madeira.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 21 2007

How many Turkeys are there?

by
MUMTAZ’ER TURKONE

The comment that "there are now two Turkeys," made by The New York
Times after the "Republic Rally" held in Ankara on April 14, is
misleading as it implies that the enthusiastic people who gathered in
Tandoðan Square and those in power have two different visions of
Turkey.

The misleading element of the commentary stems from the fact that
there are more than two Turkeys. In fact, there are a great number of
Turkeys in Turkey. Without mentioning a number, it is not right to
reduce them merely to two. One should be able to portray different
visions of Turkey as vivid paintings. However, the existence of many
countries in a single country is not something peculiar only to us.

There are different visions of America in America and different
visions of France in France as well. Democracy and pluralism unify
these different perspectives, resolving them into different visions
of a single country. There is a working democracy and a culture of
democracy that sustain democracy in Turkey. For this reason, there is
ultimately only one Turkey.

The horrendous murders committed on Wednesday in Malatya are, sadly,
a part of this vision. The political competition that came to notice
in Ankara’s Tandoðan Square and that erupted into a regime debate
between the government and the opposition, along with the killings of
Hrant Dink and three people in Malatya, the unemployment and poverty
despite the record-high export rates in March, all belong to this
same world. This world is negatively affected by the Iraq fire
burning right next to it and is disturbed by being subjected to
disgraceful behavior in the EU process.

Multicultural traditions

It is understood that the horrific murders of the three people
engaged in missionary activities in Malatya, one of whom was German,
as well as the previous murders of priest Santoro in Trabzon and
Hrant Dink, are all fed from the same dreadful climate. There is a
great number of Turkish youth who are like mines adrift at sea,
looking for places to hit and explode. These young people, who are
unable to attach a simple cause-and-effect reasoning to the events
they see in the country or to the developments in the world, commit
murders that send cold shudders down our spine. Those who infer by
looking at these murders that Turks have a savage and barbaric nature
and who attribute the dark and gloomy world behind the murders to the
society as a whole don’t understand anything. Turkish society has a
very rich tradition, rarely seen in history, of living together with
respect for differences. And these murders are the results of the
pains brought on by modernization, not of the exemplary traditions
that were recorded by history.

A French traveler who traversed Anatolia from one end to the other at
the beginning of the 19th century recorded in astonishment how
harmoniously members of different religions live together. And he
even notes an example of jokes commonly made by Turks and Christians:
A Muslim Turk jokingly tells his Christian neighbor, "What if I
participate in the Easter service and you fast for 10 days in the
month of Ramadan, so that we’d do away with the differences between
us?" The Ottoman Empire had Christian communities that made up 40
percent of its population. The state had formed very sound
administrative and judicial structures in order to allow different
religions and faiths to live together in peace and granted large
autonomy to non-Muslims. The existence of different faiths was based
on the integration of the Roman tradition with Islamic rules. Every
religious community was totally independent in its internal affairs.

The church courts would settle disagreements within the Christian
community. The representative of the state, namely the governor, was
obliged to implement the verdicts reached by those church courts.

Similarly, every Christian congregation had the right to open schools
and orphanages and to run them independently. The Church would even
collect taxes with direct support from the state. The legitimacy of
this tradition, which existed for centuries, among the Muslims was
strengthened by religious rules. A non-Muslim living under Muslim
rule was accordingly under the protection of each and every Muslim
citizen. The word used to refer to non-Muslims, dhimmi,
etymologically and socially meant that the protection of the lives,
properties and honor of non-Muslims was incumbent on Muslims. If a
non-Muslim resident was also the citizen of another country, he would
be called mustemin, that is, "a person entrusted to Muslims." Such a
delicate tradition doesn’t create savagery. In fact, it was nearly
unknown during the six centuries of Ottoman rule.

Growing pains from modernization

Examples of brutality which are sometimes encountered in today’s
Turkey are the results of modernization and the pains suffered
through the process of modernization, not of our tradition, which
had, so to say, worked itself into the tissues of society and the
history shaped by such a tradition.

We know very well today that the racist brutality that developed and
settled in Germany in the 1930s was not the return of humanity to its
primitive and wild era. Brutality brought along by naturalness could
never be as scary and devastating as modern brutality. Assessing the
cases encountered in Turkey as symptoms peculiar to this society is
tantamount to playing down the side-effects of modernization.

Turkey is undergoing change very quickly, which in turn makes it
extremely difficult for youths who are feeling the pressure of change
to find ways to keep with their traditions. On one hand, a seductive
social life is offered through the artificial glare of the mass
media, which alters even the limits of dreams. And meanwhile the gap
between this false life which mocks their dreams and the difficulties
of their daily lives is widening. Young people struggle to surmount
this gap by wrestling with the ghosts created in a schizophrenic
world and by foaming at and directing their hatred at the "enemies."

While modernization fails to meet the increasingly high standard of
these young people’s needs, the traditional also fails to help them
re-establish their balances since they are crushed under its
devastation.

And the result is blood-curdling scenes of brutality that this
country and this society don’t deserve. The ferocity perpetrated in
Malatya should be seen as the latest example of this psychological
aberration. It should certainly be taken into account that it is the
expression not of murderous feelings but of a state of frenzy of
insanity. Malatya had previously produced Mehmet Ali Aðca, the
would-be assassin of Pope John Paul II. But the same Malatya was also
the birthplace of Hrant Dink. The same Malatya also gave Turkey two
presidents who directed the Turkish Republic. Hence what we must
focus on is the change continuing deep down inside and the growing
pains caused by this change instead of putting forward that there are
two or more than two Turkeys.

A unitary Turkey

In this case, it would be more proper to see the crowd that gathered
on April 14 in Tandoðan Square not as one of the two Turkeys but as
an indicator of a working democracy and an asset of the single-piece
Turkey, as this demonstration provides us with the democratic
reaction of a civilized and mature society, just the opposite of what
happened in Malatya. Turkey is now giving up its long-time habit of
resolving problems with extra-democratic methods. People are now able
to express their objections democratically, without necessarily
giving in to their anger. The opposition has proven to be weak
because of the AK Party’s dominance in Parliament. The weakness of
the opposition was making it more attractive to resort to
anti-democratic methods since it was the sharing of the power that
was in question. With the post of the presidency, those legally
elected in power want a bigger share of the state’s power, which is
always superior to political power, and the dynamics of the market
economy were legitimizing this demand.

The opposition, for the first time, preferred to make its opposition
felt through a democratic mass demonstration rather than going in
search of a coup d’etat. And they succeeded in doing so. Even though
Prime Minister Erdoðan underestimated the crowd that gathered in the
square, he seems affected by the current scene. Now the president of
Turkey will have to take into account the people’s democratic
reactions, along with the balances within the state. From moment he
is elected, the president will be representing the whole of the
Turkish nation. Tandoðan will turn this constitutional obligation
into a de facto situation. The president will also be representing
those crowds who, through their democratic reactions, demonstrated
that they did not want him.

The recent brutality is the work of an extreme modernism. A mature
democracy is the work of modernism fed by tradition. Hooliganism,
xenophobia and cultural racism, which are also on an upward trend in
Europe, are all generated in the dark corners of modernism and easily
find proponents. In the same way, a sense of responsibility, devotion
to human values and the instinct to protect the future world are also
fed by the same source. Everywhere in the world, every country has
more than one face. Hrant Dink’s murder upset all of Turkey. And
likewise, the society is evincing a very harsh reaction to the
ferocity in Malatya. And on the other hand, the demonstration in
Tandoðan Square was the democratic face of Turkey. But describing
that demonstration as a different Turkey would be an injustice to
Turkish democracy and the democratic culture.

–Boundary_(ID_XRXm3lujUhwX0Jd3nk6HKg)–

HEAD OF ROSATOM TO ARRIVE IN YEREVAN ON APRIL 23

Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 20 2007

YEREVAN, April 20. /ARKA/. The Russian delegation headed by the
Director of Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom) Sergey
Kiriyenko is to arrive in Yerevan on April 23 for a day visit invited
by Armenia’s Minister of Nature Protection Vardan Ayvazian.

The press service of the Armenian Ministry of Nature Protection
reported that during the visit a Memorandum of intentions is to be
signed between Rosatom and Armenian Ministry of Nature Protection
based on the reviewed draft of the joint actions on geological and
exploratory works and operation of uranium deposits in Armenia.

Kirienko is to meet with V. Ayvazian, Armenia’s Erergy Minister Armen
Movsisian, Prime-Minister Serge Sargsian and the country’s President
Robert Kocharian in Yerevan.

In the beginning of 2007, Rosatom submitted to Armenia a project of
joint actions on geological and exploratory works and operation of
uranium deposits in Armenia. In the last months, the Armenian side
elaborated and prepared the final version of the project together
with the Russian Federation. N.V. –

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

"GRANT THORNTON AMYOT" (ARMENIA) CELEBRATES ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY

Arka News Agency, Armenia
April 20 2007

YEREVAN, April 20. /ARKA/. The Company "Grant Thornton Amyot"
will celebrate its tenth anniversary in Armenia. The Company’s
administration reported that Grant Thornton France’s Chairman of the
Board Daniel Kukdjian will arrive to Yerevan for the celebration.

The Company has been operating in Armenia since 1991. In 1994,
Grant Thornton France established its branch in Armenia. Later it
was reorganized into audit-consulting company "Grant Thornton Amyot".

According to the press-release, over 10 years "Grant Thornton Amyot"
has been specializing in audit and professional consulting services
provided to managing corporations, big and medium enterprises, central
and commercial banks in the CIS – Armenia, Georgia, the Ukraine,
Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

The company unites specialists from different spheres – accountants,
auditors, financier, specialists in enterprise and management sector,
as well as legal and tax consultants. "Only the Yerevan office includes
over 100 international and local specialists," the press-release said.

The Company "Grant Thornton Amyot" is a full member of "Grant Thornton
International", which is one of the biggest world organizations in
the sphere of audit and consulting, and it unites 521 auditing and
consulting companies in 113 countries. L.M. -0–