Month: May 2008

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 17 2008

TÃ`SÄ°AD criticizes `genocide’ resolution in US Congress

A leading and influential Turkish business group has harshly
criticized a resolution pending in the US Congress seeking official
recognition of "a systematic genocide campaign" against Anatolian
Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.

The Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association
(TÃ`SÄ°AD) earlier this week released a report on the issue
drawn up by researcher David Saltzman and titled "H. RES. 106: Legal
and Factual Deficiencies." The report, analyzing the factual and legal
deficiencies of US H. Res. 106, was shared with the public in
Washington on the occasion of a seminar held on the 10th anniversary
of TÃ`SÄ°AD opening its office there. The Armenian diaspora
continues to deal with the disappointment over the fact that the
resolution, which calls the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks genocide, has not yet been adopted by the US Congress even
though it was passed by a US congressional committee in October 2007.

"We are not historians or jurists. We are simply concerned about
seeking the truth on the Armenian issue. Equally we are interested in
fighting a libel that has been accepted as historical truth by too
many for far too long," TÃ`SÄ°AD said in a written statement,
while announcing the report’s release.

"Most organizations of the Armenian diaspora, academics as well as
some political operatives insist on calling the tragic events of that
period ‘genocide.’ Their further insistence on engaging in a serious
debate over the historical record only after admission by Turkey that
genocide had been committed makes it impossible to have an open
discussion," TÃ`SÄ°AD also said.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 17 2008

Ankara to recall ambassador from Argentina after `genocide’ rulings

The Turkish capital plans to call its ambassador from Buenos Aires
back home for "political consultations," in reaction to Buenos Aires’
insistent indifference to Ankara’s marked uneasiness over a cascade of
laws, official decisions and statements in support of the Armenian
"genocide."

"The bilateral relationship with Argentina is likely to encounter much
activity soon," Turkish diplomatic sources told Today’s Zaman on
Friday, noting that Turkey’s Ambassador to Argentina Hayri Hayret
Yalav was expected to be recalled to Ankara for "political
consultations in the near future" in order to review bilateral
relations with this country.

Yalav, who was appointed to his current post with a government decree
in December 2006, previously returned to Ankara in early 2007 after
presenting his credentials to then-Argentinean President Néstor
Kirchner — again for "political consultations." Officials at the
Argentinean Embassy in Ankara, approached by Today’s Zaman on Friday,
said that Argentinean Ambassador to Turkey Brugo Marco was currently
in Buenos Aires. Counselor Luis Susmann did not want to make a
statement on the issue in absence of the ambassador, officials also
said.

Developments generating friction in bilateral relations between
Argentina and Turkey actually date back to autumn 2006. In November of
that year the lower house of Argentina’s parliament adopted a
resolution recognizing killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
during World War I as "genocide." The resolution, which was adopted by
an overwhelming majority in the assembly, declared April 24 an
official "day of mutual tolerance and respect" among peoples around
the world. Armenians mark April 24 as the beginning of a "systematic
genocide campaign" against Ottoman Armenians.

In January 2007, in a move that brought applause from the Armenian
diaspora, former President Kirchner approved the draft law proclaiming
April 24 "the day of tolerance and respect."

Turkey categorically rejects the genocide claims and says Turks and
Armenians were killed in internal strife when Armenians revolted
against Ottoman rule in eastern Anatolia in hopes of carving out an
independent state in collaboration with the invading Russian military.

In April of this year, Argentina’s Senate approved a declaration with
reference to the law, which entered into force in January 2007
following the president’s approval. In the same month, the Turkish
Foreign Ministry announced that State Minister Mehmet Aydın had
cancelled a planned visit to Argentina in protest of the country’s
stance.

Turkish officials regard the fact that Argentina is home to the
third-largest Armenian diaspora — following the United States and
France — as a strong factor in the current political crisis on the
bilateral political agenda, although this element has no relation to
the substance of relations with the country.

Observers say the point to which bilateral relations between Argentina
and Turkey have come is particularly sad at a time when Ankara has
shown significant will to improve relations with the Latin America and
Caribbean countries.

In line with its multidimensional foreign policy, Turkey pursued a
more active policy towards these countries in the beginning of the
1990s. An "Action Plan for Latin America and the Caribbean" was put
into effect as of 1998 and has been reviewed constantly since then. In
2006 Turkey took another significant step, declaring 2006 Year of
Latin America and the Caribbean, giving a further boost to the action
plan.

Yet the same observers say that under current circumstances the
Turkish capital has been pushed into the point of taking certain
measures to show clearly its displeasure at Argentina’s attitude.

17 May 2008, Saturday
EMÄ°NE KART ANKARA

Ekklesia, UK
May 17 2008

Armenian spiritual leader decries genocide denial

By Ecumenical News International
17 May 2008

Catholicos Karekin II of the Armenian Apostolic Church, visiting Pope
Benedict XVI in Rome, has spoken of the "genocide" suffered by his
compatriots in the Ottoman empire, and said that those with power
should ensure that justice prevails – writes Luigi Sandri.

"We … appeal to all nations and lands to universally condemn all
genocides that have occurred throughout history and those that
continue through the present day," Karekin said in St Peter’s Square
on 7 May, where he had been invited by Pope Benedict to speak at the
pontiff’s general audience.

"The denial of these crimes is an injustice that equals the commission
of the same," noted Karekin, who holds the title of "Supreme Patriarch
and Catholicos of All Armenians".

Armenia says 1.5 million of its people died between 1915 and 1923 in a
systematic genocide initiated by the Young Turks’ government ruling
then in Istanbul. Turkey, however, rejects the term "Armenian
genocide" and says mass removals were intended to clear people from a
war zone. It acknowledges that people died, but holds that the number
was far less than that given by Armenia.

Karekin was accompanied by Armenian bishops from North and South
America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East for his 5-12 May visit to
Rome, which followed an earlier visit to the Vatican in 2000, when he
met Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

"Today many countries of the world condemn the genocide made by the
Ottomans against the Armenian people, as John Paul II said when I was
in Rome," noted Karekin, who received Pope John Paul in Armenia in
2001.

Two days after Karekin spoke at St Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict
received the Armenian delegation at the Vatican. At the meeting,
Benedict said, "The recent history of the Armenian Apostolic Church
has been written in the contrasting colours of persecution and
martyrdom, darkness and hope, humiliation and spiritual re-birth."

Still, noted the Agence France-Press in a report, Pope Benedict did
not employ the word "genocide" that had been used by his predecessor.

The Pope and the Catholicos underlined the achievements of the
Armenian-Catholic ecumenical dialogue during the past 12 years to seek
greater Christian unity.

Karekin II invited the pontiff to visit Armenia, and expressed the
hope that the international community would support the right to
self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated region
situated in neighbouring Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliev, suggested earlier during 2008
that his country could use force to regain control over
Nagorno-Karabakh. The area has been under ethnic Armenian control
since a 1994 cease-fire ended a six-year war.

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is
jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World
Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the
Conference of European Churches.]

Interfax News Agency, Russia
May 16 2008

SAAKASHVILI JUBILANT OVER UN MOVE ON ABKHAZIA REFUGEES

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has thanked the 14 nations that
backed a Georgian-sponsored UN General Assembly resolution calling for
everyone who has fled the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia region
to be enabled to return to Abkhazia.

The resolution, which as with all resolutions passed at General
Assembly sessions is a non-binding document, was passed on Thursday by
a vote of 14 versus 11 and recognizes the right of all refugees and
internally displaced persons and their descendants, regardless of
ethnicity, to return to Abkhazia.

It is a historic document. It is through voting like this that true
friends are found out. When we need support, we get help from our
friends despite pressure from our adversaries, Saakashvili said at the
opening ceremony for an oil terminal in Kulevi, Georgia, on Friday.

Azerbaijan was among the countries that voted for the resolution.

Those that voted against included Russia, Belarus and Armenia.

It is in situations like this that true support manifests itself.

These countries, including Azerbaijan, which are opening the oil
terminal in Kulevi today, have once again affirmed their brotherly
attitude to Georgia, Saakashvili said.

The president said he was proposing that Abkhazia join the Poti and
Samegrelo economic zone in order to open even larger terminals and
build up the ports in [the Abkhaz cities of] Ochamchira and Sukhumi.

Let them think which is better, rusty Russian tanks or the development
of an economic zone, he said.

Outsiders are taking hold of the property of the 500,000 people who
have fled Abkhazia, Saakashvili said. But an end will come to this,
and the decision of the UN General Assembly is the first omen of it,
he said.

Meanwhile, the Georgian Foreign Ministry has sent a formal letter to
the CIS Executive Committee in Minsk demanding a change in the format
of the existing peacekeeping contingent in Abkhazia.

"It consists entirely of Russian troops, whereas according to the
treaty of 1994 the joint peacekeeping forces in the Abkhaz conflict
zone must consist of servicemen from the CIS countries, and we demand
that this provision be complied with," Georgian Foreign Minister
Ekaterina Tkeshelashvili said.

According to the Georgian media, Georgia would like to see
peacekeepers from Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, which, like
Georgia, are members of the GUAM organization.

"The adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the resolution
on the return of displaced persons and refugees to Abkhazia can become
yet another recognition by this organization of the ethnic cleansing
undertaken against the Georgian population in this region,"
Tkeshelashvili also said.

"This is an important document that will secure refugees’ right to
return to Abkhazia," Tkeshelashvili said.

This resolution recognizes the rights and guarantees protection not
only to refugees but also to those ethnic Abkhaz who now live outside
the conflict zone, she said.

"There should be no legal difference between the refugees and those
who live in the conflict zone," the minister said.

Interfax News Agency, Russia
May 16 2008

Nagorno Karabakh status cannot be decided by plebiscite – Azerbaijan
Foreign Ministry

BAKU May 16

Baku has dismissed the possibility of holding a plebiscite to decide
the Nagorno Karabakh status.

"There can be no plebiscite, this process [conflict resolution] must
continue gradually," Azeri Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Khazar Ibragim
told Interfax-Azerbaijan, commenting on the statement by Armenian
Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandian that the Nagorno Karabakh status
could be decided by a plebiscite.

"The question of the Nagorno Karabakh status will not be resolved
unless Armenia shows the respect for Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity and withdraws its troops from the occupied Azeri territories
and returns these lands to Azeri refugees and displaced persons,"
Ibragim said.

Interfax News Agency, Russia
May 16 2008

Armenia: referendum needed to determine status of N.-Karabakh

YEREVAN May 16

Armenia’s foreign minister insisted on Thursday that a referendum is
needed in Nagorno-Karabakh to determine the future status of the
disputed Armenian-speaking enclave in Azerbaijan that has been the
source of a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan for 20 years.

The minister, Edvard Nalbandian, who was speaking to reporters, also
insisted on more conflict settlement talks on the basis of the
proposals of the Minsk Group, a mediating body appointed by the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The new Armenian president, Serzh Sargsyan, is due to meet for the
first time with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev during a planned informal
Commonwealth of Independent States summit in St. Petersburg on June 7.

The enclave is a de facto independent state backed by Armenia and
styling itself the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Interfax News Agency, Russia
May 16 2008

Armenian solider was shot dead on Armenian-Azeri demarcation line –
Yerevan

YEREVAN May 16

Andranik Airapetian, an Armenian soldier, was killed by a gunshot that
originated from Azeri positions on May 15, the Armenian Defense
Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"The conscript was wounded by a gunshot coming from Azeri
positions. The private was admitted to a hospital where he died," the
statement says.

The Daily Herald-Tribune (Grande Prairie, Alberta)
May 16, 2008 Friday
FINAL EDITION

Coloroso book pulled

TORONTO

A book about genocide has been pulled from the recommended reading
list of a new Toronto public school course because of objections from
the Turkish-Canadian community, the author says.

Barbara Coloroso’s ”Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide”
was originally part of a resource list for a Grade 11 history course
set to launch across the Toronto District School Board this fall.

The book examines the Holocaust, which exterminated six million Jews
in the Second World War; the Rwandan slaughter of nearly one million
Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, and the massacres of more than a
million Armenians in 1895, 1909 and 1915. But a committee struck to
review the course decided in late April to remove the book because ”a
concern was raised regarding (its) appropriateness.”

Coloroso, who will be appearing in Grande Prairie May 27 at the
Crystal Centre, said she wasn’t surprised her work was removed. given
that ”ever since the book came out, the Turks have mounted a
worldwide campaign objecting to it."

Film Farm to produce new works from Egoyan and De Palma

Screendaily
by Denis Seguin in Cannes
May 16, 2008

Toronto-based production outfit The Film Farm is set to produce Atom
Egoyan’s untitled next picture, an original screenplay, and two films from
Brian de Palma.

Headed by producing partners Simone Urdl and Jennifer Weiss, Film Farm
produced Egoyan’s Cannes competition entry Adoration as well as de Palma’s
2007 Venice title Redacted and Sarah Polley’s Oscar-nominated Away From Her.
As with Adoration, Egoyan will also produce through his Ego Arts Films
shingle.

First up from de Palma will be Print The Legend, a film that continues in
the verite vein of Redacted, exploring the process of "selling" the Iraq war
to the US home-front. It follows a story similar to that of US female
soldier Jessica Lynch, whose heroic battlefield exploits were later revealed
to be concocted by the US military. The budget will be between $5m and $10m.
The second project, also untitled, is a political thriller in the $15m-$20m
range.

Urdle and Weiss also revealed they have landed a privately-financed
development fund, a luxury rarely seen in Canada. While the duo declined to
name their benefactors, Urdl said it is a Canadian company with a long
history in the film and entertainment business.

Said Urdl, "This will allow us to jump on projects and pay for them without
going through the [public sector investment] application phase."

Added Weiss, "It gives us a lot of leeway we never had. And it’s a
tremendous endorsement from people who are interested in making their money
back."

"MAIN REASON OF SPLIT OF ARMENIAN SOCIETY ARE VICTIMS OF MARCH 1 EVENTS," LEADER OF ULP BELIEVES

Noyan Tapan

Ma y 15, 2008

YEREVAN, MAY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. According to Gurgen Arsenian,
the Leader of the United Labour Party, the Armenian society is
currently split, first of all because of the human losses of the
March 1 events. Commenting on the March 1 events, Gurgen Arsenian
reminded of the April 12, 2004 events at the press conference held
on May 15, when the mass meeting of the opposition was dispersed
with the interference of law enfocement bodies, however, no one died
then. According to him, in difference to the 2004 events, they did
not manage to avoid "irreparable human losses" on March 1, 2008.

In response to the question of who is guilty of the victims,
Gurgen Arsenian mentioned that the issue will be made clear by
the investigation of the law enforcement bodies. According to him,
law enforcement bodies "are not a charity organization" and their
activities can sometimes bring forth irreparable losses.

Gurgen Arsenian stated that the ULP has always considered the
phenomenon, when political processes are moved to "a civil plane", as
inadmissible. As an example he introduced the recent events in Lebanon,
in which the civil society was involved. "That is the most dangerous
thing," Gurgen Arsenian said, adding that the March 1 situation in
Armenia was like the current one in Lebanon, however, later they
managed to hold up the aggravation of the situation in Armenia.

The ULP, in his words, does not hurry to officialy respond to the
March 1 events as it is seeking to remain loyal, not wanting to
"pour oil on the flames."