Month: May 2008

OPPOSITION, GOVT RUNNING LOW-KEY CAMPAIGN IN MARNEULI AND JAVAKHETI

Daily Georgian Times
May 12 2008
Georgia

"An opposition that intends to cooperate with ethnic minorities
always faces a dilemma. It may endanger the votes gained from the
Georgian electorate."

Nearly 60% of ethnic minorities living in Georgia claim not to be
involved whatsoever in the Georgian political process. Although many
(particularly in Khakheti) expressed an interest in local and national
politics, for the Armenian, Greek, Azeri, Russian, Ukrainian, Kurdish
and other ethnic groups residing in Georgia its difficult to know
how to get involved.

With financial support from the EU, the Horizon Foundation conducted
a survey in Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions of
Georgia and found that many minority groups feel they are prevented
from expressing their political will due to various reasons:
age, lack of time, information, lack of trust in the authorities,
etc. Additionally, they do not know Georgian language and only a small
portion are involved in election campaigns as observers, coordinators,
or election commission members. This is mainly due to the lack of
Georgian language knowledge and the low education levels.

The project "integration of ethnic minorities and freedom
of expression" carried out the survey and published it in the
#9-information ballot in 2007. Representatives of ethnic minorities
like S. Khubaev, M. Mamedov underlined the fact that activists of
political parties remember them only in the run-up to the elections
and they give promises to gain votes. It is better to be acquainted
with their programs and action plans than listen to recriminations
and offensive statements.

M. Balabanov, 28, is Greek by origin. He does not participate in
elections because he is apolitical, as he says. He told The Georgian
Times that several years ago, he took part in voting but he was
disappointed. According to him, participation in elections is just
"a bad habit." When asked whether a passive position in election
process is a bad habit or not, he answered "no." He says it does not
really matter whether he will go to the polls or not, because the
authorities will receive they results they like anyway.

The results of elections conducted over the past 10 years show a
stunningly high turnout of voters from the primarily ethnic minority
regions. These regions tend to vote in favor of the candidates of the
ruling party- regardless of who is in power at the time. This trend
continued in the presidential elections on January 5, 2008.

In 2008, during the snap presidential elections, Mikheil Saakashvili
gained the highest percentage of votes in Kvemo Kartli and
Samtskhe-Javakheti. In Gardabani district M.Saakashvili got 70.72%
of votes, in Marneuli 88.36%, in Bolnisi 93.79%, in Dmanisi 81.04%; in
Tsalka 70.14%, in Akhaltsikhe 81.39%, in Adigeni 79.04%, in Aspindza
71.9%, in Akhalkalaki 83.04%. The highest percentage of ruling party
votes came from Ninotsminda (90.18%), while the number of Saakashvili’s
supporters ranged between 27.07% and 66.97% in other regions (except
Samegrelo, Shuakhevi, Tsageri and territories surrounding Liakhvi
and Upper Abkhazia).

The Georgian Times focused on Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti,
regions settled by national minorities. The turnover in these regions
is always high. Why did the majority of local population vote for
Saakashvili?

"Generally it happens this way throughout the whole world. Ethnic
minorities and small groups always support those who are already in
power. It does not matter whether this government will solve all their
problems or not," Marina Elbakidze, psychologist, expert in conflict
issues, and a representative of Institute for Peace, Democracy and
Development told The Georgian Times. She works on election issues
for national minorities.

The expert notes that the majority of people in Samtskhe-Javakheti
and Kvemo Kartli region do not think that either the authorities or
opposition can solve their problems but given the choice, they prefer
to vote for those who they already know. "There is the factor of fear
as well. Some of them think that they may be punished if the ruling
party candidate does not win," states Marina Elbakidze.

Agit Mirzoev, executive director of the civil movement Multi-Ethnic
Georgia, believes that votes gathered from such regions are used to
manipulate election results. That is, data from those regions goes
to the CEC only after the Commission collects results from all the
other provinces.

"Nowadays Adjara is back undre Tbilisi’s control, but the tactics
remained the same. The government changes but the catalyst remains,"
Agit Mirzoev said.

Marina Elbakidze declares that another reason concerns the passive
pre-election campaigning by the opposition in Kvemo Kartli and
Samtskhe-Javakheti. She says that especially in Javakheti, the
opposition had no representative to work with local population
and present their program. Unlike them, Mikheil Saakashvili’s
representatives worked hard in this region. "It is another issue
whether the methods were acceptable or not. It is necessary to have
more contact with the population and more influence respectively,"
Elbakidze says.

According to Agit Mirzoev another reason for the voting track of ethnic
minorities in Georgia is their clannish policy. "Clannish policy always
played a significant role especially in Javakheti region. It is enough
to only negotiate with several leading members of the clan and you
will gain many votes," says Mirzoev, who adds that the opposition did
not hold such negotiations or offer anything interesting to this group.

"The authorities as well as opposition know the psychology of voters
quite well. The opposition that intends to cooperate with ethnic
minorities always faces dilemma. It may endanger the votes gained from
the Georgian electorate. It is an unpleasant reality of our society,"
Mirzoev noted.

According to him, Multi-Ethnic Georgia placed nearly 200 observers
in Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti during the presidential
elections. They covered 80% of election precincts in these two
regions. The observers identified that the government as well as
opposition representatives fully ignored the interests of ethnic
minorities. They did not try to find a common ground with minorities
at all.

"As you know the language barrier still exists. Despite that, neither
information segments was represented in a language understandable
for ethnic minorities," says Mirzoev.

Experts say that the attitude towards ethnic minorities will not change
without relevant political will and approach, because politicians
only care about these two regions when it is time for elections.

WEST ‘IN A SLOUGH IGNORANCE OF ISLAM’

Alalam News Network
sp?newsid=039180120080512145553
May 12 2008
Iran

Once again the CIA and MI6 are publishing dire warnings of the vitality
of Al-Qaeda. Once again the Islamic world as a whole is being tarnished
by association.

US presidential contender John McCain is saying that America needs
a leadership to confront the transcendent challenge of our time:
The threat of radical Islamic terrorism.

And the words still ring in our ears from Samuel Huntington’s treatise,
"The Clash of Civilizations", the book that in many ways triggered
this paranoia that infects the politicians, the press and the public
discourse. "The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic
fundamentalism, it is Islam", he wrote.

Few, if any, in the Western leadership seem to make the point
that Al-Qaeda is a deviant phenomenon within the Islamic world,
just as Hitler was a deviant phenomenon within the Christian world
(commentators seems to overlook Hitler’s early speeches calling
on Catholic principles). But Islam has a much better record
over the ages of dealing with its deviants who take violence to
excess. Islamic culture has never been tolerant of Nazism, fascism
or communism. Christianity has spawned all three. Buddhism failed to
resist Japanese militarism and Confucianism provided hospitable to
Maoism. Yes, there was Saddam Hussein but he was an atheistic brute
without an ideology.

Of course, there have been many incidents in the long history of
Islam when there have been large-scale losses of life. The massacres
and starvation of the Armenians in 1915 still stirs the waters of
contemporary debate. But Islam has never spawned anything comparable
with Hitler’s systematic genocide of the Jews – indeed throughout
its history Islam has been protective of the Jews, regarding them as
"people of the book" to whom it had a special responsibility. Nor has
it settled other parts of the world and systematically obliterated
other civilizations as did Christian Spain with the Aztecs and
Incas. Nor have Islamic societies created anything equivalent to
South Africa’s apartheid or the racist culture of the old American
South. Unlike many Christian churches, the mosque has never separated
people by race. Even today Americans confess that nowhere is there
more segregation in their society than at the Sunday noon hour.

Western memories are highly selective. When at Easter time the Greek
peasants of the Peloponnese began to kill all the Muslims in the
land there was silence. But fifty years later when there were mass
killings of Christians in Bulgaria there was a great outpouring of
moral outrage. Delacroix immortalized the massacre in his painting,
"Massacre of Chaos", with Christian women pursued by Turkish lancers
and Gladstone wrote a best-selling pamphlet in which he described the
Ottomans as leaving "a broad line of blood marking the track behind
them, and as far as their domination reached civilization vanished
from view".

Almost forgotten today is that it was the Ottomans who gave refuge to
the Jews when they were expelled from Iberia, as were fleeing German,
French and Czech Protestants, but every cultivated Westerner knows
Voltaire’s "Fanaticism or Muhammad the Prophet" or Dante’s portrayal
of Muhammad in hell.

Christianity has always been led or dominated by people of European
descent. But the leadership of the Muslim world has been much
more fragmented – between AD 661 and 750 it was the Arab Umayyad
dynasty. Between 750 and 1258 it was the multiethnic Abbasid
dynasty. And from 1453 to 1922, the Turkish-dominated Ottoman
Empire. In India there was the separate Moguls and in Persia the
Safavids. In sub-Saharan Africa there were the Muslim empires of Mali
and Songhai.

Despite their relative poverty today, with great teaming cities like
Cairo, Dakha and Jakarta, criminal violence is much, much lower than
in Christian-influenced societies.

Muslim countries, according to the UN’s annual Human Development
report, have the world’s lowest murder and rape rates. In Tehran,
the capital of Iran, and according to the CIA (allegations) the
most important single source of terrorism today, you can go out at
11 or 12 pm at night and find families with children picnicing in
city parks. When my daughters’ friends ask me where can they safely
travel alone in an interesting Third World city I say Cairo. Certainly
not Catholic Rio or Protestant Cape Town. Not only are murders and
muggings comparatively rarer, there is much less prostitution and
hard drug use. Neither is there that much AIDS.

The Western debate about Islam is frankly infantile. Even Barack
Obama, with his own personal experience to go off, either is ignorant
or just scared of going into battle on these issues. I have not read
one speech by one Western politician who seriously attempts to educate
public opinion. We live in a slough of ignorance.

COOPERATION AGREEMENT SIGNED BETWEEN STEPANAKERT AND KOLCHUGINO, RUSSIA

DeFacto Agency
May 12 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 12.05.08. DE FACTO. Cooperation agreements were signed
between Stepanakert and Kolchugino, as well as between Artsakh and
Vladimir State Universities. The documents were signed in the course
of the visit of a delegation of the Vladimir region, Russia, headed
by academician Victor Katushev, the head of the Kolchugino regional
administration, to the Nagorno-Karabakh.

Academician Vladimir Kechin, pro Rector of Vladimir State University,
leader of the regional innovation centre, Hrachja Avakian, the
President of the Adamand Union, and Kamo Gasparian, the head of the
Vladimir region’s Armenian community, were within the delegation.

In the course of a meeting with the NKR President Bako Sahakian the
interlocutors discussed perspectives of cooperation between Artsakh
and Vladimir region in economic, cultural and educational spheres.

MAY 9 CELEBRATED IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH

DeFacto Agency
May 12 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 12.05.08. DE FACTO. May 9 the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
and the Republic of Armenia celebrated a triple holiday – the Day
of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Shoushi’s Liberation Day and
the Day of the NKR Defense Army. Solemn measures were held on the
occasion in both states.

In the morning of March 9 the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic leadership
headed by the NKR President Bako Sahakian, the delegation of the
Republic of Armenia headed by the RA President Serge Sargsian visited
the Stepanakert Memorial Complex and honored the memory of warriors
fallen in the Great Patriotic and Karabakh wars.

The representatives of commanding officers of the NKR Defense Army,
Archbishop Pargev Martirosian, the leader of the Artsakh Eparchy
of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the NKR second President Arkady
Ghoukassian, the representatives of NGOs and the Republic’s ordinary
citizens also came to pay homage to the memory of the fallen warriors.

"May 9 is a very important, crucial page in our history. We bend
our heads before those who did not spare their lives for our dream
to come true. A strong and independent state is the best evidence
of maintaining their memory", the NKR President Bako Sahakian
stated. "Shoushi is the cradle of Armenian nation’s spiritual
nourishment, and we must do our best for the revival of Shoushi,
for restoration of its glory", the state’s President underscored.

BAKU AND YEREVAN TO DISCUSS WAYS FOR RESOLUTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Trend News Agency
May 12 2008
Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 May / corr Trend News S.Agayeva / The Presidents
of Azerbaijan and Armenia will hold a meeting in June. The relevant
agreement was achieved during the talks between the foreign ministers
of the two countries in Strasbourg, within the framework of a meeting
of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers on 6 May, Elmar
Mammadyraov, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, told journalists on
12 May.

It will come as the first meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev with the new Armenian leader Serzh Sarkisian, who was elected
to this position in February.

"The meeting with the new Armenian authorities will clarify their
readiness for the peaceful settlement of conflict," the minister said.

During the forthcoming meeting, the heads of the conflicting countries
are expected to discuss the written proposals on Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, given to the Azerbaijan and Armenian foreign ministers
by the OSCE Minsk Group in Madrid on 29 November. The content of
proposals is not disclosed due to confidentiality of the principles.

So far the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs have presented to conflict
sides three different proposals, two of which were not accepted by
Armenia. In its turn, Baku did not agree upon the mediators’; proposals
on the establishment of a confederative state with Nagorno-Karabakh.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began
in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since
1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including
the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In
1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which
time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful
negotiations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN’S PRESIDENT TO HAVE FIRST MEETING WITH NEW ARMENIAN PRESIDENT IN JUNE

Azeri Press Agency
May 12 2008
Azerbaijan

Baku. Lachin Sultanova-APA. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev is
likely to meet with new Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in June,
said Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov at the press conference after
meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister, APA reports.

Speaking about the results of the meeting with his Armenian counterpart
Edvard Nalbandyan in Strasbourg the minister said it was the first
meeting.

"We decided that we should continue the negotiations. The meeting will
possibly take place in June. It is very important for Azerbaijani
side to meet with new government of Armenia. We should know whether
they are ready for peace negotiations, or not…" the minister said.

The 12th International Energy Forum and informal summit of CIS will
be held in St. Petersburg on June 6-8. The first meeting between
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents is also expected to take place
within the framework of these events.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO DR. STEPHEN FEINSTEIN

UMN News
=409318
May 12 2008
MN

Monday, May 12, 2008, 7:30 p.m. in the Cowles Auditorium, Humphrey
Institute, 301 19th Ave S, Minneapolis; University of Minnesota west
bank campus.

A memorial tribute celebrating the life and accomplishments of
Dr. Stephen Feinstein, founding director of the University of Minnesota
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, will take place at the
University of Minnesota on Monday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Cowles
Auditorium, Humphrey Institute, west bank campus. Stephen Feinstein
died of an aneurysm on March 4, 2008. The event will feature music,
videos, and speakers who worked closely with Feinstein during his 10
years as director of CHGS and in his many other public activities. A
dessert reception will follow the program.

>From its founding in 1997 Feinstein built the University of Minnesota’s
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies into an educational, research
and outreach institution of international renown. He was known around
the world as an advocate for survivors of the Holocaust and other
genocides and for genocide education. Feinstein was particularly known
for his expertise on artistic expression of genocides. He possessed
an almost encyclopedic knowledge about anything Holocaust- and
genocide-related. Feinstein worked to raise awareness of all genocides
using any and all possible outlets; he was especially dedicated to
raising awareness of the Armenian genocide and was even nominated for
a regional Emmy award for a documentary on the 90th Anniversary that
he helped produce for public television. In recent years he dedicated
many CHGS events to the ongoing crisis in Darfur and to remembrance
of the Rwanda genocide. His most recent accomplishment was securing
the funding for and creating programming around the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibition "Deadly Medicine: Creating the
Master Race," currently showing at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

MIKHAIL LEONTYEV: "EFFICIENCY OF RUSSIAN-AZERBAIJANI RELATIONS WILL DEPEND ON THE WAY OF NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT SETTLEMENT"

Today.Az
s/politics/44891.html
May 12 2008
Azerbaijan

Day.Az interview with Odnako TV program presenter Mikhail Leontiev.

– How will Dmitri Medvedev lead Russia?

-Dmitri Medvedev is a worthy member of Vladimir Putin’s team.

His main task is to continue his work in the framework of presidency
this time. The plan of state development already exists. Currently,
it is important to develop different state institutions. Dmitri
Medvedev is quite a competent lawyer. At the same time, he is even
more competent lawyer than Vladimir Putin. The newly elected president
is a real career lawyer.

I think, the powers of the president will include state institutional
issues, while the issues of external policy and accelerated
modernization is a task of the government.

-Anyway, who will rule over Russia, Dmitri Medvedev or Vladimir Putin?

-What does it mean "rule"? The power is normal if it is not
a dictatorship and if it is not controlled by one person. It is
obvious that today our political leader is Vladimir Putin, while the
head of state, with all resulting issues, is Dmitri Medvedev. Yet,
considering the current tasks, the political course is a work of the
government, as, if you remember, the political course of Vladimir Putin
is accelerated modernization, of which he has frequently spoken about.

I would repeat that accelerated modernization is a task of the
government. The government previously had no such tasks. In the
principle, policy was inert, which means ineffective. The main sign
of the restoration of the country became provision of stability.

The newly elected president should continue ensuring stability on a
new level. On the whole, this was the main priority of his election
campaign-development of institutes, which is right, as institutional
development in Russia is a problematic issue. If serious achievements
are attained in this issue, everything will be alright. It is clear
that the task of economic modernization is also the task of the
government. And it deserves being dealt with by the political leader.

Vladimir Putin is a factual and formal political leader of the
country. He leads the major political party of Russia. Why not divide
powers between the President and the Prime Minister? This means that
the working institutions of the Russian executive powers and the
executive powers themselves will become real authorities.

-How will Azerbaijani-Russian relations develop under Dmitri Medvedev’s
presidency?

-Definite subjective and perspective aspects are observed in the
relations between Azerbaijan and Russia. The subjective aspect is
the unsettled Nagorno Karabakh conflict, considering that Russia
maintains particular relations with Armenia and quite good relations
with Azerbaijan. But in order to improve Russian-Azerbaijan relations,
the talent and abilities of Heydar Aliyev are needed, as he did not
ignore this problem. I hope, this will not last long.

The problem can be settled in fact, by the only simple reason-it
should be settled. For example, the Palestine-Israel problem, is a
problem, which may have not been settled, if not for external forces,
which are interested in the protraction of this problem settlement,
while the Azerbaijani-Armenian problem should be settled, as this is
of particular concern for not only Azerbaijan, which is an aggrieved
party, but also Armenia.

It is impossible to continue preservation of the quo-status. Armenia
is being defeated both in the political and economic plan, as the
conflict settlement attracts attention of the world community. And
the protracted settlement of the conflict is bad for Armenia. The
efficiency of Russian-Azerbaijani relations will depend on the way
of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement and they might enter a new
stage or they might not. This may occur as Russia’s counteraction
with the West is consolidating. Sooner or later Azerbaijan will have
to choose. We hope that Baku will choose the Kremlin.

-Analysts state that upon completion of Dmitri Medvedev’s presidency,
Vladimir Putin will become President of Russia again…

-I do not see any obstacles for such constitutional and political
developments. First of all, Vladimir Putin has not left the
government. His return is possible. Perhaps, not. Everything may
change in the present day rapidly changing world.

AZERBAIJAN HAS TO TAKE REACT OVER STRENGTHENING RUSSIAN-ARMENIA MILITARY COOPERATION – MINISTER

Interfax News Agency
May 11 2008
Russia

There is no unity among CIS member countries, while strengthening
military cooperation between Russia and Armenia forces Baku to react,
Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev said.

"Today, one can say that there is no unity among CIS member states,"
Abiyev said in an interview with Azerbaijan’s ANS TV company.

"That is right, the main country that forms the policy in the CIS
space is Russia. You know well what relations Russian has with Armenia.

This undoubtedly forces us to make certain measures as to this tandem,"
the minister said.

The Azeri Armed Forces cooperate with 50 countries of the world,
primarily Turkey, the United States, Pakistan, the United Kingdom,
and Germany, while bilateral military cooperation agreements, which
provide for mutual assistance on a number of issues, have been signed
with 24 countries of the world," Abiyev said.

‘WE ARE NOT ROOTED IN RELIGION’

Newsweek, NY
May 12, 2008
International Edition

Because of our good relations with Syria and Israel, we were asked
by both of them to effect better communication.

By Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Despite a landslide election win last summer, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Turkey’s prime minister, is fighting for his political life. Turkey’s
Constitutional Court is considering an indictment accusing Erdogan and
70 other figures from his party, the AKP, of "seeking to undermine
the secular state." Prosecutors demand that the accused be banned
from politics for five years and the AKP closed down. The morning
that the party submitted its defense to the court, Erdogan spoke to
NEWSWEEK’s Owen Matthews in Ankara. Excerpts:

Matthews: Can Islam and modernity coexist?

Erdogan:Turkey has achieved what people said could never be achieved–a
balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity. [Our
government] demonstrates that a religious person can protect the
idea of secularism. In the West the AKP is always portrayed as being
"rooted in religion." This is not true. The AKP is not a party just for
religiously observant people–we are the party of the average Turk. We
are absolutely against ethnic nationalism, regional nationalism and
religious chauvinism. Turkey, with its democracy, is a source of
inspiration to the rest of the Islamic world.

You have made speeches calling for new thinking in Islam.

We as politicians cannot enter into debates about modernizing Islam. As
politicians we do not have the right. Nor do Islamic scholars. But
we can speak about the place of Muslims in modern society and their
contribution to a modern way of life. We can speak about the place
of women. For example, in Turkey today the AKP is the best way for
women to take an active part in political life. We have the largest
number of female M.P.s.

If you have such a liberal vision, why is it that you are being
prosecuted for allegedly being too Islamist?

I cannot comment while the case is still being considered by the court.

How have religious attitudes changed in Turkey during your lifetime?

The rules of religion stay the same, but people’s attitudes
towards religion have changed. The urbanization of the country has
brought increased wealth and a different understanding of life. In
the past, people had no alternatives. Now we have given people
freedom of choice. We have also enhanced the rights and freedoms of
non-Muslims. For instance we have made changes to the building codes
so that they do not refer to "mosque" but to "place of religious
worship." We put government money into restoring the Armenian church
on Lake Van. And we have changed the law to help religious foundations
[regain property confiscated by the state].

But you haven’t reopened the Orthodox seminary on Halki island
[near Istanbul].

That is an educational problem, not a religious problem. We have to
overcome some mutual problems with Greece, such as questions about
the education of ethnic Turks in western Thrace. We hope to overcome
these issues soon.

What is Turkey’s role in facilitating recent negotiations between
Israel and Syria?

For 40 years Turkey had no diplomatic relations with Syria. When
[the AKP] came to power we decided to normalize these relations. Our
policy is to win friends, and not to make enemies. Because of our good
relations with both Syria and Israel we were asked by both of them to
effect better communications. We’ve been speaking to the leaders of
both countries. It’s important for us to try to gain some ground–if
we can help achieve peace in the Middle East, that will have a major
positive impact on the region.

Is it your belief that Israel wishes to attack Iran?

For a politician to speak about other countries’ intentions is a
big mistake. But I don’t want to see anything like that happen. If
it did, I cannot comprehend what will happen in the Middle East. We
shouldn’t even think about this. My biggest hope [for peace] is that
Israel stops its excessive use of force in the West Bank. Civilians
are being killed in Gaza; children and old people. We have to be
just–we cannot say that it’s right if one side [uses force] but
condemn the other side for doing the same.