Month: October 2008

WILL FRANKFURT OPEN TURKEY’S CENSORED BOOKS?

guardian.co.uk
Thursday October 16 2008

Some see the book fair’s spotlight as a sign that censorship’s power
is waning.

Dark and light … Turkish president Abdullah Gul addresses the
Frankfurt Book Fair. Photograph: Arne Dedert/AP

"Turkey in all its colours" is a prominent slogan at this week’s
Frankfurt Book Fair, where the country is guest of honour. But
this was never going to be entirely true after July, when a group
of high-profile authors announced a boycott of the fair over their
unwillingness to be represented at the fair by Turkey’s AKP government
and its cultural minister. And though there are bright displays from
100 of its many publishers around the halls, you don’t have to look
too closely to see the shades of censorship over writers whose freedom
of expression has long been heavily restricted.

Despite this there are more than 300 Turkish writers in Frankfurt
this week, including some who have been prosecuted under 2005’s
notorious Article 301 law which criminalised "insulting Turkishness"
– most prominently Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, fellow novelist Elif
Shafak and poet and commentator Perihan Magden.

Magden, a self-described "traitor" to Turkey, wasn’t actually invited
by the organising committee to attend the fair. But she’s here because
her publisher invited her, and because she believes it’s a chance=2
0for the world to hear about Turkish literature for reasons other
than the prosecution of its writers.

"It’s a good thing in general for us, because only Orhan Pamuk is
known abroad," she says, taking a short break from an hectic interview
schedule which, she notes, has not been affected by her "unofficial"
status here.

"Being the guest of honour will help us a lot, especially with our
relationship with Europe. Anglo Saxon countries have a different way of
looking at Turks, but the way France and Germany look [at us] is very
negative – they really don’t want us to be part of the European Union.

She’s also hoping that it may promote a better understanding of the
many Turks living as "strangers in the night" in Europe. "This gives a
chance for Germans to see that Turks are not one-dimensional peasants
who are frozen in time … They can see through our literature – we
have such a vast variety in our literature – so this helps developing
our relationship with Europe, definitely."

There’s certainly potential for a much wider presence for Turkish
writing in translation. English readers get few opportunities to
read a literature that here in Frankfurt is being shown to run the
gamut from crime fiction via feminist critique to comic writing and
discussions of epic poetry.

"Frankfurt tends to pick those who’ve not been in the spotlight [as
guest of honour] and Turkey for sure has not been in the spotlight for
its culture and literature, but for political reasons," says publisher
Muge Gursoy Sökmen, one of the fair’s organisers who has also
chaired a PEN committee on Turkish writers in prison. "We want Turkey
to be remembered for its culture. Of course it has other problems –
censorship, that’s our struggle, but people do not censor themselves,"
she says, adding that there are 1,700 independent publishers in Turkey.

According to PEN, more than 1,000 people, including writers, publishers
and journalists, have been brought to the courts for "insulting the
Turkish republic" since 2005. Magden is just one of them: she was
tried and later acquitted for a magazine column criticising military
conscription in Turkey.

Publisher Ragip Zarakolu was not so lucky; after he published a book
acknowledging the Armenian genocide, The Truth Will Set Us Free,
he was convicted in June of having transgressed Article 301.

Zarakolu is at the fair nonetheless, and hopes it will provide a
"platform [to discuss] our problem of freedom of expression". He’s on a
panel on Friday tackling this very issue, and the fair’s programme says
the topic will be "approached free from conservative and reactionary
approaches".

"We’re not brushing it under the carpet, on the contrary," insists
Sökmen.

"We’re not trying to have a diplomatic presence, this is a publishing
fair…We are publishers who think about these issues all 0Athe time."

Zarakolu is unbowed by his conviction, which was reduced from five
months in prison to a fine, and says he’d publish again if he needed
to. "I’m always against auto censorship, and I’m also one of the
promoters of freedom of expression in Turkey," he says.

Turkey’s AKP government has created "huge problems", he says, by
obstructing free speech in recent years despite its much-trumpeted
"transition to democracy". He says that he was singled out by a
nationalist judiciary riled by his addressing discrimination against
Turkey’s Kurdish population.

Zarakolu will be speaking his mind during his panel debate, as has
the equally undaunted Magden, exhausted but revelling in the press
attention.

"Because my book is published in Germany they interview me, and because
I’m a columnist they ask me political stuff. I always tell them that
Turkey’s main issue is not the fundamentalists or the Kurdish threat
but the omnipotent position of the army." She says she is very glad
of this opportunity to talk about her country, but is not optimistic
the fair will help open up public debate at home.

"I am not making even one speech for the culture ministry, and my book
sells more than other books, but it doesn’t matter, I’m a blacklisted
name". Her agent Barbaros Altug is no less critical of the fair. "If
you’re saying ‘Turkey in all its colours’ then you have to include
all, but they didn’t," he says. "A w hole generation of writers is
missing, between 55 and 75 years old. Latife Tekin is one of the most
translated writers, considered a perennial Nobel contender. Leyla
Erbil is not here. Some have some conflicts with the cultural policy
of the government, some have boycotted the fair, some were not invited
at all – and this is an important group."

Despite all this, English PEN is hopeful that Turkey’s presence
as guest of honour could prove a real turning point for freedom of
expression in the country.

"At PEN we feel that if authors like Pamuk and Shafak and Magden,
who’ve all been the victims of Turkey’s anti-free speech culture
are prepared to be here, that suggests to us that perhaps this is a
really important moment and a positive moment," says director Jonathan
Heawood, pointing to Pamuk’s willingness to appear next to Turkish
president Abdullah Gul at Tuesday’s opening ceremony.

Pamuk himself used that opportunity to hit out at the "oppression"
of Turkey’s writers, but also hailed "Istanbul’s vibrant book trade
[which] at last represents its rich and layered history".

Heawood adds: "The world’s press knows what has been going on in Turkey
for the last few years, and hopefully we can get some momentum out of
this in particular with reference to laws in Turkey, especially 301."

He is less hopeful about next year’s guest of honour, China, where
according to PEN there are currently 42 writers and=2 0journalists
held in Chinese prisons.

"In a sense we have seen that Turkey does have the capacity to
change. In response to the pressure from outside and inside they
have changed 301 slightly – not quite enough. Whereas China – we all
thought the Olympics would give the opportunity for the government to
gracefully allow more freedom of speech, but the opposite happened. I
don’t have enormous hope that for China, western engagement is
an answer. [Plus] for publishers China represents such an enormous
market that there will be very little will on the part of the western
publishing industry to use Frankfurt as a human rights standpoint."

It is to be hoped that 2010’s guest of honour Argentina proves less
problematic.

–Boundary_(ID_jhjeOrrKA8raGOEI Z1eZmQ)–

TOO SOON TO KISS AND MAKE UP

The Economist
Oct 16th 2008

Russia and Europe

The European Union should not give Russia a new partnership deal
until it genuinely withdraws from Georgia

RUSSIA announced this week that, just as it promised, it had pulled
all its troops in Georgia back to the two disputed territories of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Many European Union leaders were swift to
praise the Kremlin for meeting the conditions it agreed with France’s
Nicolas Sarkozy some six weeks ago–and almost as quick to suggest
a return to business as usual.

A majority now want to start talks in November on a new "partnership
and co-operation agreement". Their none-so-subtle message is:
forget about the pesky Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili,
who was anyway responsible for starting the war on August 7th, and
attend instead to the more urgent task of repairing relations with
our biggest energy supplier.

The West needs to keep talking to Russia about many things, notably
efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and further
reductions in Russia’s and America’s own nuclear arsenals. Yet it
would be wrong to heed calls from the likes of Germany, Italy and
their allies to start talks now on a new partnership agreement, as if
the Georgian war had never happened. The main reason for this is that
the troop withdrawal is largely bogus. The Russians=2 0have stationed
almost 8,000 troops in the two enclaves. Villages in South Ossetia and
beyond have been brutally cleansed of their Georgian inhabitants. And
Abkhaz forces have retaken the Kodori Gorge, previously controlled by
the Georgians. This does not come close to a pull-back to pre-August
7th positions, which is what the EU originally stipulated before
embarking on a new partnership agreement. Moreover, the Russians
still refuse to allow any of the 200-odd ceasefire monitors deployed
by the EU into the two disputed territories.

Some regard Georgia and the Caucasus as small, faraway and so
unimportant.

They are, on the contrary, a strategically vital region that could play
a critical role in the EU’s future energy security (see article). And,
as Mr Saakashvili has often said, if the Russians think they can
escape unpunished for the invasion and occupation of parts of his
country, that could embolden further adventurism. The war was popular
with ordinary Russians: the popularity of President Dmitry Medvedev
and the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has risen even as financial
markets have tanked.

There are plenty of Russian citizens and passport-holders in such
neighbours as Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics whom the Kremlin
might easily find a sudden need to "protect", just as it did in
South Ossetia.

Besides, this is not just about the Caucasus. Both Mr Medvedev and
his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, have muttered belligerent things
about Russia’s neighbours and the West in general. Its short war with
Georgia seems to have confirmed Russia’s prejudice that it can cow its
neighbours–including some members of the EU–by threatening or even
using force. The Russians continue to treat the supply of energy as
another weapon in their armoury. There can be no genuine partnership
with the EU while Russia thinks this way.

Neighbourhood watch The EU should be urgently seeking to put more
substance into the neighbourhood policy that defines its dealings with
Russia’s near-abroad. For all his annoying arrogance, Mr Saakashvili
is a democratically elected president who has liberalised Georgia’s
economy and cracked down on corruption. Ukraine’s democracy may
sometimes resemble a tragicomedy (it is currently preparing for
its third parliamentary election in the space of three years),
but it is vigorous for all that. Even the autocratic Armenia and
Azerbaijan may now look more to the West than they did before the
war in Georgia. Belarus, widely known as Europe’s last dictatorship,
is shifting its ground a little–as the EU recognised this week when
it decided to relax its visa ban on the country’s leaders.

The EU could help these countries by offering financial aid, more open
trade deals and easier visa conditions. It should also hold out to
them prospect of eventual membership. This is less provocative than the
notion of letting any of them into NATO, which has surely receded into
the future after the Georgian war. But as experience in the Balkans
has shown, the lure of eventual EU membership is a good way to foster
liberal, market-based democracy and to defuse territorial and ethnic
disputes. As for Russia, its help is still needed on some vital global
issues. But for the EU to go ahead with new "partnership" talks now
would send a message of astounding pusillanimity. At the very least,
Russia needs first to live up to its promises to withdraw properly
from Georgia and to let the EU’s monitors into the disputed enclaves.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

LEBANON: TORN BETWEEN WAR & PEACE!
Harry Hagopian

nt/view/8599/1/
Thursday, 16 October 2008

It was not so very long ago that the majority of the Lebanese people
celebrated joyfully the brokering of the Doha Agreement that promised
to put an end to the interminable chapters of political and physical
violence.

One of the more unusual ways in which they tasted this hopeful sense
of coming together was the introduction by Häagen Daz of the ‘Doha
Agreement Ice Cream Cone’. For just LL 10,400, the Lebanese could buy
a cone that was the result of a joint venture between the American ice
cream giant in Lebanon and Qatar Airways. The promotion was expected to
last so long as the mood in the country remained one of reconciliation
– or at least until the politicians "started fighting again."

However, I did not see those cones being sold at any of the outlets
when I visited Beirut recently. Did I not look hard enough, or was
it likely due to the fact that reconciliation had weakened as a
marketable currency in the country?

Over the past three months, much has happened in Lebanon. The Lebanese
got a new president at long last, and a national unity cabinet was put
together that also amended the previous electoral law of 1960. Mind
you, it did not grant Lebanese expatriates the right to vote in the
next parliamentary elect ions, nor did it lower the voting age from
21 to 18 although the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child defines
anyone over 18 as an adult.

Moreover, Presidents Assad and Suleiman also importantly agreed – at
least in principle – to establish formal diplomatic relations, with
Damascus and Beirut opening embassies in their respective countries
for the first time in 64 years since independence from French mandate.

But in addition to those developments relating to the Doha Agreement,
and even though ice cream cones are not easy to find in the market,
there are a few hopeful efforts at reconciliation underway, all the
way from the national all-factions dialogue under the aegis of the
president, to the parallel efforts aimed at bridging the yawning
gaps between bickering Christian political parties to the one-on-one
meetings of bellicose political leaders such as those of Al-Mustaqbal
and Hizbullah.

Yet, whilst all those sanguine efforts are trying to contribute toward
the stabilisation of the country, tensions remain quite dangerously
high. There are murderous attacks and inter-confessional spurts of
violence occurring for instance across the northern town of Tripoli
that is largely a Sunni bastion. An oft-quoted example is the recurrent
violence between the Baal Mohsen district (that is pro-opposition)
and Bab al Tabbaneh neighbourhood (that is pro-majority). There
have also been bloody attacks against Lebanese soldiers as well a s
civilians on buses or in streets. Those examples exacerbate the fears
of many Lebanese that darker clouds could easily re-appear on the
horizon again After all, Tripoli is geographically close to Syria,
and some pundits harbour the suspicion that an unsettled Tripoli
could be used by Syria as justification to extend its influence over
Lebanon or even send its army back into the country. Indeed, it is
no mere detail that the highest-ranking Salafi Authority in Lebanon,
Dai al-Islam Shahhal, warned against an incursion by the Syrian Army
into north Lebanon saying it would open "the gates of hell and lead
to what is similar to Iraq and its misery."

Meanwhile, in the midst of this ominous rumble of developments,
the issue of the arms in possession of Hizbullah is also casting a
dark shadow over any genuine reconciliation. Given that one man’s
meat is another’s poison, literally half the Lebanese population
consider that Hizbullah should disarm with its weapons coming under
the control of the Lebanese army. The other half believes that they
should stay with Hizbullah and its Shi’i Amal allies since they would
be used in resisting Israeli aggression and occupation. And the major –
though not exclusive – justification for resistance by those factions
insisting on keeping their arms is that Israel detains the Shaba’a
Farms as well as the Lebanese part of the village of Ghajar (with
recent reports th at Israel might return it to Lebanon next month)
and Kfar Shouba hills that were meant to be returned to Lebanon –
either directly or through an initial UN trusteeship – also in
accordance with UNSC Resolution 1701.

But what are those Shaba’a Farms anyway?

The tiny sliver of lush land 25 square kilometres across is located
at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern
Israel. Israel seized those Farms from Syria in 1967 when it occupied
the nearby Golan Heights. Ever since then, those Farms have been
caught in a tug-of-war over ownership. Lebanon claims them, with the
backing of Damascus, while Israel insists they are part of Syria.

The confusion over the borders actually dates back to 1923 when Britain
and France, who held the mandates of the League of Nations over the
territories now comprising Israel, Lebanon and Syria, failed to outline
their borders clearly. Lebanon has accused Israel of refusing to return
the Farms in order to benefit from the bountiful natural resources of
the region, particularly its water resources. According to officials,
the Farms hold 23 natural water sources and also strategic or military
importance due to their altitude.

When UNSC Resolution 1701 brought an end to the 33-day war between
Israel and Hizbullah in the summer of 2006, it called upon the UN
secretary-general to propose a border demarcation for those Farms. The
UN ruled that the withdr awal from Lebanon was complete and that the
Farms were Syrian.

Nevertheless, in March 2008, the Lebanese geographer Issam Khalifeh
published a book full of documents claiming the Farms were indeed
Lebanese, including a 1946 deal in which Damascus recognised Lebanon’s
sovereignty over the territory. Attached to the report was a map
with 48 border markers, but Syria has refused to let this paperwork
be sent to the UN, perhaps because it did not wish to go down road
of recognition and delineation of an international border.

All these are issues that are clearly weighing upon the Lebanese
mindset, and in the process retarding any progress from a state of
brittle uncertainty to one of relative stability. However, what is
also clear to me is that the major objective of all the parties above
all else are the parliamentary elections of spring of 2009 that might
well decide which parties enjoy the majority of votes – and therefore
of seats and of power.

So whilst there is a government in place for running day-to-day
affairs, everyone understands that the political focus today revolves
truly around those elections.

But here is another hitch! In some sense, it is almost predictable
what percentages, districts and seats the Sunni, Shi’i and Druze
candidates would get in the parliamentary elections next year. The
real guesstimate is the future number of Christian seats that will be
obtained by the different Christian20coalitions since their future is
very much in play now – particularly given their divisions in an almost
irredeemable – roughly 50:50 – ratio. Only last week, the Maronite
patriarch, HE Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, expressed the hope that
Christians would respond to the initiatives of the Maronite League and
"would sit together because other sects have achieved reconciliation",
adding that "agreement among all the Lebanese is impossible."

A straw poll conducted by Now Lebanon explored the reason hampering
inter-Christian reconciliation. The results revealed that 38% thought
it was due to electoral interests and the requirements of electoral
mobilisation, whilst 14% thought that it was due to a lack of serious
efforts to respond favourably to reconciliation endeavours, and a
large percentage of 49% attributed it to lingering personal feuds
among Christian leaders.

Those polls notwithstanding, I am convinced that the Lebanese
Christians could play a central role in the forthcoming elections
and that in the process would also hold the balance of power between
the other political parties so they could then perhaps advance those
community demands that have been ignored for long. Broadly put, there
are now two competing Christian camps. On one side, Samir Geagea’s
Lebanese Forces and Amin Gemayel’s Phalanges are still struggling for
an end of Syrian influence and attempting to mobilise support for the
need20to restore a fully sovereign Lebanese state. They would claim to
pursue this strategic choice by pressing Hizbullah to disarm and also
by setting up an international tribunal charged with investigating
Rafiq Hariri’s murder. On the other side of the Christian political
divide, General Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement has challenged
the inert political system as a whole and broken its isolation by
forging a controversial "understanding" with Hizbullah and by allying
himself indirectly with the Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh.

The divisions between the two Christian camps are fundamental and
stretch back decades in some instances. Today, the leadership of this
community is at stake. General Michel Aoun wants to be that undisputed
leader, which is why he is attacking the other leaders relentlessly,
undermining the role of the Maronite patriarch and even sniping at the
president. However, his position is becoming increasingly untenable. He
is gradually losing the support of key allies in the form of the
Metn leader Michel Murr and of the Armenian Tashnaq party, and as
a consequence is trying to compensate his losses in Mount Lebanon
by winning over some areas in the South (that he visited recently),
as well as in Ba’albek and Hermel.

A third option to this bipolar configuration still remains
unclear. What are President Michel Suleiman’s own plans? In his
inaugural speech, he emphasised demands=2 0and concerns that are
significant to the Christian community in Lebanon.

Other than rejecting the naturalisation of the Palestinians and
facilitating the return of the displaced, he highlighted administrative
reform, decentralisation, empowering the presidency and ensuring
better Christian representation in high-ranking civil positions. If
he were to field his own parliamentary list, or support such a list,
it would weaken Aoun considerably and lead toward the re-formation of
the Christian camp. In fact, with his stewardship of intra-Christian
reconciliation, the President holds a few cards and his influence
could grow considerably and make significant differences in the
forthcoming elections.

In fact, what is remarkable to me is that Christians and Muslims
are seemingly reconciling more easily in Lebanon than the Christians
themselves – a fact that not only underlines the virile tussle for
power and control, but also that their continued bickering would
run the risk of leading even further to their gradual erosion. After
all, the political landscape keeps changing with the almost cyclical
re-balancing of outside powers that are playing the Lebanese card of
pitting the Lebanese against each other. In fact, the recent difficult
hopes for conciliatory moves between the Lebanese Forces and Marada
can only benefit the whole country politically even thought there is
a lot of bloody history between both sides.

I am being cautiously optimistic that20things will not change too
dramatically in the country this side of the 2009 parliamentary
spring elections. Barring any major eruptions of terror and mayhem,
and with the parties using their networks to consolidate their own
positions, I would argue that Syria is also waiting for the results
of the 2009 parliamentary elections to see what leverage it will have
internally. While internationally, it is also awaiting the results
of the US presidential elections, as it knows that the US alone can
determine Syria’s position as a regional player, its role in Lebanon,
the advancement of its negotiations with Israel, and of course,
its position vis-a-vis the international tribunal. I also suspect
that Syria will probably make no concrete moves for now on diplomatic
relations, and on most sensitive issues, including border demarcation,
the Shaba’a Farms and Lebanese detainees. But one key concern for
me is the fact that Iran might still prove to be the wild card that
would interfere and upset the political applecart.

Ever since 11 November 2006, when a number of ministers resigned from
the cabinet, Lebanon has witnessed assassinations, demonstrations,
sit-ins, internal and external threats, a temporary military takeover
of west Beirut, exacerbated tensions in the north of the country,
attempts at re-enforcing the mechanisms of government and many
internecine feuds that have been followed by attempts at dialogue
and reconcil iation. So what is all this doing to the whole country?

Lebanon is simply being weakened in major dribs and minor drabs,
cleaving parts of the country from each other whereby different
politicians claim to work for the one nation but pledge their
allegiances to their own factions.

Confessionalism, always a Lebanese misfortune, is increasingly
overwhelming the political apparatuses, and in the process widening
the chasm between different politicians and the ordinary people and
altering facts on the ground. My constant dread is that a combination
of internal divergences and external threats would lead to new rounds
of bloody fighting.

After all, has this not happened before? It often saddens me that
Lebanese politicians are so gifted in splitting hair and believing in
the absolute truths of their own arguments let alone those of their
regional or international supporters that they act as clan leaders
rather than global politicians and in so doing turn deaf ears to
a vox populi that aspires for peace, coexistence and harmony in the
country. A divisive blend of religious myopia, political self-interest
and nefarious outside interferences from all sides are together rending
the country apart and stymieing the creative gifts of a people that
talks about the oneness of Lebanon but ends up shaking that oneness
at the seams. Does anyone pause to think of the whole picture?

Last week, following an agreement between Al-Moustaqbal and20Hizbullah
parties, the Lebanese have taken down the provocative posters. This
is a move in the right direction, but will it augment the chances for
peace? Or is it simply that the Lebanese sagas will continue until
such time as there is a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement? Has
Lebanon lost all control over its own geopolitics and is now a fallible
pawn on the chessboard of international politics? The Arab World
(no matter how one defines this amorphous term) is too divided in
its interests to buttress up Lebanon, and the West is too greedy to
care much about it either. So this small country is paying the price
of international politics and local power plays.

Given such realities on the ground, is it surprising that the song
Khalas (Enough) by the Lebanese musician and singer Nicholas Sa’adeh
Nakhleh has become a chart-topper? After all, ordinary people are
saying khalas, and I suspect they will also rally round his next
song Unity once it comes out since it too will speak volubly to the
majority of Lebanese instincts.

Torn between war and peace for so long, will Lebanon finally find
peace?

More to the point, will it be allowed to find it?

Dr Harry Hagopian International Lawyer & Political Analyst London – UK

–Boundary_(ID_I81uiKvH2VW7DFC6SGZ4aA)–

WHEELS HAVE HOLES ON OPPOSITION RALLY DAYS

A1+
[02:58 pm] 17 October, 2008

Opposition rallies continue to frighten Armenian authorities and proof
of that are the closed roads coming from the Marzes to Yerevan. Early
in the morning there were lines of people waiting at the bus stops
in Abovian. The authorities have given the order to not let any bus
pass. "A1+" tried to find out from the drivers coming from Abovian
to Yerevan why they are not working today. They said that they had
received an order to not take passengers from Abovian to Yerevan.

"It makes no sense. We’re used to it. We know that we have nothing
to do come rally day. But the bad thing is that we don’t even get
money out of it," says driver Yervand. One of the other drivers said
that the drivers of the other Marzes have been told the same. "It
doesn’t matter; those who wish to go will go. In the end, we are the
losers. So, they are basically making us lose money."

The situation was heavy in every stop. Citizens of Abovian who had
to get to Yerevan for class, work or an exam had to get to Yerevan
by going from "taxi to taxi" or they asked their friends to drive
them to Yerevan.

"You know better than us why there is no transportation," told
"A1 one of the dispatchers of the buses. The others said jokingly:
"All of the wheels have holes in them. We’ll fix them and they will
be out on the road by tomorrow." In addition, the roads coming from
Byureghavan to Yerevan are also closed down.

MUBARIZ AHMEDOGHLU: "WE SHOULD NOT BE SURPRISED WITH THE VISIT OF DMITRI MEDVEDEV TO ARMENIA AND WE ALSO SHOULD NOT EXPECT ANY IMPORTANT DECISIONS FROM IT"

Today.Az
17 October 2008 [16:24]
Azerbaijan

"No special hopes or crucial decisions should be expected from
President of Russia Dmitri Medvedev’s visit to Armenia", said famous
political scientist Mubariz Ahmedoghlu.

He said the nature of established relations between Armenia and
Russia does not allow suggesting any progress in them in the result
of either a visit of Russian President to Armenia or the visit of
Armenian President to Russia.

"During the recent meeting between the presidents of this countries,
the sides negotiated both price of Russian gas for Armenia and the
list of enterprises, which Armenia has transferred to Russia in
exchange for gas. Armenia agreed to transfer all its uranium fields,
as well as such enterprises as Mika-cement and Armavia, belonging to
Baku native Mikael Bagdasarov, close friend of former president of
Armenia Robert Kocharyan, to Russia in exchange to price on Russian
gas, which is lowed than European.

But finally Mikael Bagdasarov refused to transfer his enterprises
top Russia in exchange for a cheap gas for Armenia and this issue
has not been settled yet", reminded Ahmedoghlu.

He said Armenia will soon get large financial aid from the United
States. "And here the information that NATO trainings in Armenia are
completing on the day of arrival of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev
to Yerevan should be reassessed.

The fact of training proves that Armenia tries to quickly redirect
towards the west.

Kremlin is worried about it. Therefore, we should not be surprised
with the visit of Dmitri Medvedev to Armenia and we also should not
expect any important decisions from it", concluded Ahmedoghlu.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GROUP SET TO HEAR SAFETY CONCERNS
By Veronica Rocha

Glendale News Press
October 16, 2008 10:31 PM PDT
CA

Police committee will hold monthly meetings to record residents’
issues, sergeant says.

GLENDALE — The first meeting for a Police Department committee
created as an outlet for residents to discuss public safety issues
will be Nov. 17 in the City Council chambers.

The Glendale Police Advisory Committee — run by the Glendale Police
Department — will hold meetings at 6 p.m. the third Monday of each
month, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

The committee’s monthly agenda will be based on topics residents bring
up during the public comment portion of the previous meeting, he said.

"We are trying to make sure everything is open to the public and
transparent," Lorenz said.

Committee members, who will be selected from various organizations,
will be chosen at the Community Police Partnership Advisory Committee’s
Oct. 28 meeting, officials said.

Police Chief Randy Adams created the committee after residents
expressed a need for a public forum to address the department.

"There are still some who feel they have to have more access,"
Adams said.

But Mayor John Drayman said the committee will represent a "people’s
commission" in which residents can talk about quality-of-life issues
and parking and traffic concerns.

"I don’t view this as being a forum for the department to be dealing
with accusations," he said.

But discussion over whether a police advisory board was needed came
to the forefront when a flier that a Police Department employee
made several years ago, with an image of a patrol car and the word
"Vostikan" — which means "police" in Armenian — placed over it was
made public at an August City Council meeting.

The flier prompted an internal investigation when it was created,
and the employee was disciplined, city officials said.

But Drayman said talks about the feasibility of a police advisory
board weren’t "driven by accusations of corruption" from some members
of the community, but rather came from residents’ desire for an open
forum to talk to police about their neighborhoods.

"It’s something that everyday, ordinary citizens asked for,"
Drayman said.

The Glendale Police Advisory Committee is the second major group the
Police Department has created in recent years.

The first group, the 25-member Community Police Partnership Advisory
Committee, was created in 2004 and represents the school district and
several community organizations. Members serve a voluntary three-year
term after passing a background check.

The advisory committee generally meets quarterly, but its meetings
have not been open to the public.

During a Sept. 30 City Council special meeting, Adams addressed
concerns about the department’s transparency by offering to expand the
advisory committee’s role. Some residents said the advisory committee
lacked accessibility.

"The chief is determined to be responsive," Lorenz said.

Adams decided to maintain the advisory committee’s role, which is
to advise the chief and police management but open its meetings to
residents and allow comments at the end of each meeting.

At its quarterly meeting this month, the group will select five to
seven people to be on the new committee, Lorenz said.

Lorenz has received requests from current advisory committee members
to be on the new committee, he said.

The new committee will listen to comments from residents, but the
residents will be asked not to provide the names of individuals they
have complaints about, he said.

"By law, we cannot discuss personnel matters," Lorenz said.

Police Capt. Kirk Palmer will be at the first meeting to record
residents’ concerns, Lorenz said.

Committee members will review residents’ complaints, comments or
suggestions after each meeting and relay the information to the
advisory committee.

The new committee will hold public meetings for six months. After six
months, the City Council and Adams will review its effectiveness and
public attendance.

SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH ORHAN PAMUK

Http:// 0,1518,584586,00.Html
10/16/2008

‘I’M For Europe, Democracy And Freedom Of Opinion’

Turkish novelist and Noble laureate Orhan Pamuk speaks with SPIEGEL
about his new novel "The Museum of Innocence," memory, Turkey’s
longing to be part of Europe and the price he pays for championing
Europe and democracy in his country.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Pamuk, in your most recent work, you describe the joys and
sorrows of the son of a businessman in the 1970s. While describing the
love that your protagonist, Kemal, has for a young relative, you are
also drawing a critical portrait of Turkey. With more than 500 pages,
"The Museum of Innocence" is by far your largest work. Do you also
consider it your most important work, your magnum opus?

Orhan Pamuk: My ex-wife, with whom I’m very friendly, had also read
the book. She made a comment I agree with. She said: "Oh, you wrote
everything you knew about." She’s right.

SPIEGEL: You describe the milieu in which you grew up, the upper
class of Istanbul.

Pamuk: The book covers 50 years of a portrait of the upper
classes. There are also the lower classes, but it is prominently a
portrait of Turkey’s ruling bourgeoisie. There is a sort of broken,
hesitating, strange bourgeoisie in Turkey — half suppressed, half
victim, half aggressively arrogant. It’s a very little group of people;
it’s their =0 D portrait. Through them, I had a glimpse of the spirit
of the nation, so to speak, of the big cultural problems of Turkey.

SPIEGEL: Is the character of the protagonist, Kemal, based on you?

FROM THE MAGAZINE Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL
article in your publication.

Pamuk: If you’re a leftist or a politically motivated guy, you just
want to forget that you had this kind of life. Well, I’m a novelist, so
why shouldn’t I? I wrote about it and enjoyed the glitzy details. What
Kemal and his friends experience was my life, too — and my family’s,
and especially my father’s. Then, there is also a new generation of
my character Kemal’s friends. Some of them are based on my bourgeois
friends at Robert College in Istanbul. They have their father’s cars
and go to strange places and night clubs.

SPIEGEL: How much Orhan Pamuk is in Kemal?

Pamuk: There is a lot as far as social background goes. But, then
again, Kemal comes from a richer family. The Pamuks are a bit shy
because they lost their money, while the Kemals are extravagant and
enjoy life. I’ve been to all the places Kemal has been, but only as
a member of a family that lost its money two or three generations
ago. I identify with Kemal especially in his childhood, in his
relationship with his mom and maids or cooks. That was more or less
my family. When it comes to Kemal’s business relationship — having
onl y been a writer, I don’t know anything about business — some of
it is based on my father’s business ventures and friends. That’s when
I stop being Kemal.

SPIEGEL: Your writing is striking for its love of detail, your
sensibility for everyday things and occurrences.

ABOUT ORHAN PAMUK Orhan Pamuk, born in Istanbul in 1952, is Turkey’s
best- known writer. His books have been translated into over 50
languages. Because he criticized Turkey’s handling of the Armenian
genocide issue in a 2005 interview, he was charged with "insulting
Turkishness." The case was later dropped, but he has been forced to
live under police protection ever since. He was awarded the Nobel
Prize for literature in 2006. His most recent novel is "The Museum of
Innocence." Pamuk: The book contains many of these kinds of details:
going to shops, the rumor that a new shop is opening, where you can
buy imitation Western items. But more deeply in Kemal is crime and
punishment, guilt and responsibility. These are the issues that are
at stake in this novel — but not as directly and openly as I am
now describing them. Kemal’s relations with his family are fragile
and problematic, like mine. But do I want to reveal more about my
spirit? No. I do that through books and by wearing masks. That’s
more fun.

SPIEGEL: Were you plagued by the same sorts of self doubts that
trouble Kemal?

Pamuk: Kemal has problems in life, and he20falls away from the normal
bourgeois life that he had expected. Again, he resembles me in that. My
whole family was expecting me to be bourgeois, to go into business, to
be rich. But, suddenly, I ended up being a writer. There is that kind
of parallel between me and Kemal, too, as well as a feeling of guilt
for having left the bourgeois community. Thomas Mann also mentions
the guilt for not being bourgeois enough — the Tonio Kröger problem.

SPIEGEL: You seem to share with Kemal a passion for museums.

Pamuk: I’m a museum person. There is a lot of me in Kemal when,
toward the end of the book, he visits all these museums. I share
his sentiments of going to small museums, where you can explore your
passions, most preferably in a sleepy museum garden. The whole world
and the present are left behind.

We are in a different atmosphere, a different time; we are almost
wrapped in a radically different aura of almost being outside of
time. I like that. I don’t know why I like it. But it’s so crucial
for the making of this book.

SPIEGEL: Can literature itself become a museum of sorts for a
particular group?

Pamuk: When I say museum, I don’t use the word museum as, say, André
Malraux does, as a metaphor. André Malraux says "imaginary museum" —
there’s no museum, just papers. When I say museum, I mean museum. I
mean that I actually hope to build a museum here in Istanbul.=2 0The
intention is that, one day, two or three years from now, the reader
of this book will come to my museum and that every object mentioned
in the book will be on display there. I already bought a piece of
property several years ago, and I’ve already had the construction
plans drawn up. I’ve even spoken with some potential curators.

SPIEGEL: Kemal’s passion for collecting things seems to have already
developed into a type of fetish.

Pamuk: The book argues that we are attached to objects because of the
experiences, joys or feelings of security, of happiness, of friendship
— whatever we may enjoy in life — because we relate these emotions
to corresponding objects. My protagonist is deeply in love — I would
say infatuated — with Fusun; he had enjoyed immense happiness. Now,
in order to preserve this — or relive this — he gets close to her
and collects objects that remind him of those moments. I strongly
believe that we collect objects because they make us remember our good
moments. This is not the first time I’ve said this. I described it in
"The New Life" and "The Black Book," too.

SPIEGEL: Your most recent novel tells the story of Kemal’s life and
his love for Fusun. At the same time, though, it’s also a story about
the history of Turkey, your homeland.

Pamuk: The book has ambitions of looking at the country, the spirit
of the nation, Turkey’s history and problems and identity. The book
is doing this through a depiction of the upper, bourgeois classes,
and not the bureaucracy and political relations. I’m trying to show
the societal and moral constitution of the country.

SPIEGEL: Is that why you don’t shy away from sex scenes?

Pamuk: They are explicit, but they’re not there to be sexy. The sex
here is an expression of the authentic feelings between Kemal and
Fusun. That the hardest thing: to be explicit but not provocative and
sexy, but to write about the sexual scene as a spiritual scene. It’s
part of my examination of sexual morals, which is why I also discuss
the cult of virginity and innocence.

SPIEGEL: That’s already a political statement in an Islamic country
like Turkey, isn’t it?

Pamuk:. My book is political — but in a deeper and cultural way. It’s
political mostly in its discussion of the repression of women in
subtle ways, even if it’s done by the so-called "Westernizers" or
the so-called "modernized" or "civilized" ruling upper classes.

SPIEGEL: Based on the way you discuss the repression of women, a
reader might just get the impression that you’ve become something of
a feminist.

Pamuk: It’s not really my place to make that decision, but it’s a
designation I wouldn’t refuse. My protagonist, Kemal, is a man who
realizes right around when he’s 30 years old what men really do to
women. Even my male friends agree that my depicti on was objective
and balanced and not exaggerated. They agree that I described what
really happened to women in the streets of Turkey at that time. I
also look at those years now from a different point of view. At that
time, I wouldn’t have seen woman as having been as repressed as the
book describes. But, then, I strongly believe that I’m representing
the truth about the repression of the woman in Turkey — and in an
honest way.

SPIEGEL: Has the situation for women in Turkey gotten any better?

Pamuk: I’m not sure. When I was writing the book, I was thinking
that this might have been more of a subject in the ’70s, and that
maybe the nation had overcome it. But when I talked to my friends and
students, who are 30 years younger, they said that it is, in fact,
still around, that there’s still a problem with machismo. And most
of the students still care about it. It is still important, as is
the issue of virginity as well. These are not things that modernity
or economic development have been able to overcome.

Part 2: Turkey, Europe and Class Anxieties

SPIEGEL: In several places, the book touches upon the issue of Turkey’s
unfulfilled longing for Europe.

Pamuk: The talk about Turkey and Europe isn’t as old as Turkey;
it’s older.

The same thing was already there during the Ottoman Empire. It is part
of Turkish identity. The first great Westernizer was Mustafa Kemal
At aturk, who founded the Turkish republic. He said to the nation:
Please, change your clothes; please, remove your headscarves; please,
change your calendar; please, change your alphabet. All this, so that
we could look more Westernized.

SPIEGEL: Without this forced modernization, there’s no way that Turkey
would be holding accession talks with the European Union.

Pamuk: Yes, but the ruling elite thought that was all they had
to do. It legitimizes itself in this country using the signs and
symbols of Western culture. A lot of Turkey’s ruling elite say to
their nation: "I deserve this power, you shut up. I rule over you
because I’m Westernized, more European."

This is a subject of great interest to me: how the ruling classes
in the non-Western world maneuver, both with the language, idiom and
culture of modernity — you may call this Western culture or Europe —
to accomplish their goals.

SPIEGEL: Despite all the exuberance, Kemal’s party group doesn’t
really give off the impression of being all that happy.

FROM THE MAGAZINE Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL
article in your publication.

Pamuk: No. They are all afraid. In the end, the Turkish bourgeois is
not such a strong class after all. They’re all scared of the army;
they’re all scared of bureaucracy. A little bit of befriending
bureaucracy gives you this possibility, and you cheat this, and you
do this. You have some lump of money, you pocket it — and that’s it.

SPIEGEL: That seems like a lot of social criticism for a love story.

Pamuk: Yeah, sure. I always write critical books. (Laughs)
There’s no anxiety about being political here. I’m not afraid of
that. But my book is also my attempt to use literature to get beyond
politics. Corruption, military coups, politics — both Islamist and
secularist — Turkey has more than enough of that. I like my book so
much; I don’t want it in that trash.

SPIEGEL: Are you worried when you see how your country has almost
allowed the the court case about possibly banningthe ruling AKP party
to drive it into isolation? Do you really see Turkey as proceeding
along a path to Europe?

Pamuk: When I hear you saying it like that, I must confess that I feel
national pride. People are talking about us like that? Fifty years
ago, no one was talking about us. So, that’s a great improvement;
I’m very happy to be a part of it.

SPIEGEL: On a general level, are you more or less happy with the
direction of current developments in Turkey?

Pamuk: I think Turkey is economically doing well, but there are lots
of political problems. Most of them are, unfortunately, also related
to the narrow-mindedness of the ruling classes, who are lacking in
terms of liberality and are always fighting with each other.

SPIEGEL: You are referring to the confrontation between the old =0
AKemalist elite and the up-and-coming conservative-religious middle
class led by Prime Minister Erdogan.

Pamuk: In the long run, these classes are more or less similar
when it comes to authoritarianism, when it comes to their
intolerance. Unfortunately, the real values that both of these
groups do not understand are the joys of free speech and an open
society. That is our tragedy: that they are so upset with the rise
of democracy and the flourishing of new classes.

SPIEGEL: So, you don’t see Erdogan and his supporters as Islamists
in disguise?

Pamuk: That’s what some of the hard-core Kemalists think. They
don’t know what to do with the newly emerging Anatolian conservative
classes. They run back into the arms of the military and put their
faith in more force and more authoritarianism. And because of that,
some of them — not all the ruling classes — are even refusing
to join the European Union. They don’t want Europe because they
are afraid of the emergence of the modern, conservative Anatolian
bourgeoisie. Kemal Ataturk would be proud to be part of European
Union. And now the ruling elites, his most faithful supporters,
are betraying him because they are afraid of losing power.

SPIEGEL: Do you hope that the two parties can arrive at some sort
of reconciliation?

Pamuk: I am a writer. Writers are considered demonic, maniacal,
radical.

But, in this case, I’m looking for harmony. I’m hoping that these
various classes in Turkey can harmoniously come together and produce
a new culture. Therein lies Turkey’s future.

SPIEGEL: In 1995, you wrote an essay for SPIEGEL about the "poisoned"
atmosphere in Turkey. It would appear that not a whole lot has changed
since then.

Pamuk: There’s no doubt that some progress has been made. But we can,
should and must go even farther. The fact that the Kurdish problem
hasn’t been resolved makes the ruling elite nervous and fragile. They
— the sons and daughters of these people I describe in my novel —
have lost their self-confidence, despite the fact that they have
made a lot of money. In their anxiety, they play cutthroat politics,
and everyone tries to imprison everybody else. Cutthroat, intolerant
politics is poisoning the atmosphere here.

NEWSLETTER Sign up for Spiegel Online’s daily newsletter and get the
best of Der Spiegel’s and Spiegel Online’s international coverage in
your In- Box everyday.

SPIEGEL: You’ve stirred up a lot of hostility toward yourself in your
home country for your frank words, including those about the Armenian
genocide during World War I. You are apparently also on the hit list
of the ultranationalist secret society Ergenekon.

Pamuk: I have a clear position: I’m for Europe, for democracy and
for freedom of opinion. That’s why they want to kill me. I have
bodyguards. I’m not out in the streets of Istanbul as I=2 0used to be,
and my bodyguards are my best friends. That’s the price I have to pay.

SPIEGEL: Will these dark sides of your country also have a place in
your planned and very concrete "Museum of Innocence"?

Pamuk: The book puts life on display, and happiness is central to
life. That is the theme of the book, and that should also be what is
central in my future museum here in Istanbul.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Pamuk, we thank you for this interview.

Interview conducted by Dieter Bednarz and Dietmar Pieper.

–Boundary_(ID_8+pvy2vFiVtLW+rsTGCgFQ)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A LA UNE – ARMENIE – ETATS-UNIS : ENTREVUE SARKISSIAN – RICE

CollectifVAN.org
17-10-2008
France

Info Collectif VAN – – Le Collectif VAN vous
livre la traduction de cet article en anglais du journal arménien
Armenialiberty publiée sur le site de la Fédération Euro-Arménienne
pour la Justice et la Démocratie du 16 octobre 2008. "Le Etats-Unis
et l’Arménie ont, bien ur, de bonnes relations", a répondu Rice
aux journalistes juste avant la rencontre. "Nous discuterons sur un
certain nombre de questions. Nous avons été très heureux de voir
que la visite du Président Gul en l’Arménie s’est très bien passée,
et nous sommes impatients de continuer a travailler sur des questions
d’intérêt commun".

Rice a également déclaré que Sarkisian et elle aborderons
"certainement" le problème du Haut-Karabakh et les efforts
internationaux visant a résoudre le conflit, avec l’espoir de voir
une avancée avant la fin de cette année. Le conflit du Karabakh
avec le récent dégel des relations turco-arméniennes, ont été
a l’ordre du jour de la réunion de vendredi entre Sarkissian et le
Vice-Président Dick Cheney. Les deux hommes ont également examiné
les relations Etats-Unis-Arménie ainsi que l’agenda des réformes
ambitieuses de Sarkissian.

–Boundary_(ID_FslbIqvLFq1wq24VvjmZYg )–

BERLUSCONI FAVORS RUSSIA JOINING EU

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.10.2008 16:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said
Wednesday that he is in favor of Russia becoming a member of the
European Union, a "vision" he has held for several years.

"I consider Russia to be a Western country and my plan is for the
Russian Federation to be able to become a member of the European
Union in the coming years," Berlusconi told reporters in Brussels.

He said that first of all the European Union should resume talks with
Moscow on a partnership agreement that was suspended following a war
between Russia and Georgia in August.

"I want to go further. I have had this vision for years," Berlusconi
said as he arrived in Brussels for an EU summit, AFP reports.

The European Union earlier this week deferred a decision on when
to restart talks with Moscow, saying it wanted to see more evidence
Russia would stick to a ceasefire deal with Georgia.

BBC WORLD SERVICE TRUST PRESENTS A REPORT ON ARMENIAN PUBLIC TV

armradio.am
17.10.2008 15:02

Defining clear editorial lines, improving mechanisms to
measure audience needs, ceasing aggressive commercial policies
and strengthening current affairs programming are some of the
recommendations for Armenian public television in a report by the
BBC World Service Trust presented today in Yerevan.

The report, which was commissioned by the OSCE Office in Yerevan
with the aim of supporting further development of Armenia’s public
service broadcaster (PTV), is the result of a five-day needs assessment
conducted by the BBC World Service Trust in July.

"Public television should raise its ambitions in providing programming
of a broadly educational nature that would serve to the interests
of different groups of the community. It should end the practice
of airing programmes made by the government," said Michael Randall,
Projects Manager for Europe and CIS at the BBC World Service Trust.

"We believe there is vast potential for making PTV a leader in
its field and establish a blueprint for public service broadcasting
which could be replicated in countries across the region. However, we
also acknowledge that PTV’s ability to strengthen its public service
ethos relies heavily on political will and change in attitude at the
government level."

The report recommended a long-term consultancy programme, whereby
c onsultants will work with producers to support the development
of new programmes and with senior managers to reorganize working
methods. The BBC experts also emphasized the importance of identifying
clear objectives and measurable outcomes, with local civil society
organizations monitoring the impact of the training programme, based
upon agreed performance indicators.