Month: June 2009

, Turkey
May 31 2009

Voting under way for mayor of Armenian capital

The results are expected on Monday.

Sunday, 31 May 2009 13:39

Voting was under way on Sunday for the mayor of the Armenian capital.

The opposition Armenian National Congress hopes a victory for its
leader, former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, would challenge the
authority of his successor, Serzh Sarksyan. The city accounts for 1.1
million of Armenia’s 3.2 million people.

"I voted for Levon Ter-Petrosyan as this is just the beginning. We
will make (him) the president," Ler Grigoryan, a 35-year-old former
soldier, told Reuters.

The opposition hopes to capitalise on discontent over the economy,
which has shrunk in line with the global economic crisis and the slide
into recession of strategic ally Russia.

The landlocked country’s GDP is forecast to contract by 5.8 percent in
2009 and prices have crept up since the central bank floated the Dram
currency in March.

Sarksyan’s Republican Party is backing the incumbent, Gagik
Beglaryan. Pollsters predict a close race but say Beglaryan is
favourite to win and some early voters said they backed him.

"I voted for Gagik Beglaryan as he has shown himself to be a good
mayor who really serves Yerevan’s interests," said Susanna Minasyan, a
26-year-old student.

Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s first president after independence from the
Soviet Union in 1991, lost to Sarksyan in presidential elections in
February 2008. Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters cried foul, prompting
clashes in which 10 people died, including two policemen.

Some 770,000 Yerevan citizens are eligible to vote and results are
expected on Monday.

Reuters

Ha’aretz, Israel
May 31 2009

A Middle East democracy

By Zvi Bar’el

It’s hard to understand why the Israeli left fears the right wing’s
proposed legislation. Surely, these proposals are a grand step toward
integrating Israel into the Middle East. The legislators must have
been guided by Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iran and Sudan, and perhaps some
states as advanced as Malawi and Ukraine, and seem to have borrowed
from their most enlightened laws.

MK Zevulun Orlev, for instance, has proposed a bill stating that
denying Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state should be
punishable by a year in prison. This is only slightly different from
the Turkish law that states that the massacre of the Armenians cannot
be called genocide. The sole difference is the penalty. In 2005,
renowned novelist Orhan Pamuk was indicted for saying, "Some 30,000
Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed on this land." He was
accused of "hurting Turkish national identity." Pamuk is the
best-known figure accused of violating this law, but he is not the
only one.

Turkey happens to be a rigidly secular state. Anyone who defies this
will find himself on trial for damaging the national identity or,
worse, acting in a manner that can bring about an act of hatred,
contempt or disloyalty toward the state. The exact wording of the
Orlev draft. Advertisement

Turkey is not the only state to emulate. In 2007, Egyptian blogger
Abdel Kareem Nabil was convicted of offending Islam and the president,
both of them key components of Egyptian identity. Al Jazeera reporter
Howaida Taha was sentenced to six months of hard labor after being
convicted of "damaging the state’s image."

Similar clauses exist in Syrian law, and have resulted in the
imprisonment of intellectuals and journalists who "offended the image
and identity of the state."

MK David Rotem’s proposal conditioning citizenship on a declaration of
loyalty to the state’s character is reminiscent of the Egyptian law
denying ID cards to anyone not belonging to one of the three
monotheistic religions. This law meant that for many years, members of
Egypt’s Bahai community could not obtain ID cards, and therefore could
not open bank accounts, register their children for school or receive
state benefits. This year, a court declared they could overcome this
problem by not listing their religion on their identification papers.

Incidentally, the enlightened Israeli legislators’ phrasing of their
bills resembles many Arab nations’ constitutions in its deliberate
vagueness, which allows for a wide range of interpretations.

In Arab countries, these laws acquired a variety of derogatory
nicknames and are known as "fear laws" and "laws of shame," used by
the regime to protect itself rather than its state. These countries
use such laws to neutralize political opponents or help the ruling
party stay in power. Enemies are dealt with through criminal law or
administrative orders.

Some people in Israel say the new bills target Arabs, and that good
Israeli Jews will be immune. How very wrong. The radical right is set
on taking its regional integration all the way. Fascism fears "enemies
from within" even more than it fears minorities. So it’s perfectly
right to be very much afraid that these laws will be used against
journalists, writers, poets, and of course, politicians who dare say
anything that could cause contempt for the state. The sole consolation
is that even the authors of the new laws could be tried for tarnishing
the national image.

The solution to the "movement for Judaizing legislation" is not
denouncing attacks on minorities or racism. Here, too, Turkey and
Egypt are useful examples. The EU is conditioning Turkey’s joining the
union on more liberal legislation, and the U.S. is conditioning part
of its aid to Egypt on a changed approach to civil rights. They must
treat Israel the same way. And one more thing – all this is being
offered before the bills become law. Once they pass, their authors
themselves might face trial for bringing hatred and contempt on the
state.

PlayBill
May 31 2009

Couples Test Limits in Ayvazian’s Make Me, Opening in NYC May 31

By Kenneth Jones
31 May 2009

Atlantic Theater Company’s world-premiere production of Leslie
Ayvazian’s relationships play, Make Me, with Anthony Arkin, Candy
Buckley, Jessica Hecht, J.R. Horne, Richard Masur and Ellen Parker,
opens May 31 after previews from May 20.

The production, directed by Atlantic associate artistic director
Christian Parker, plays to June 14 at Atlantic Stage 2 at 330 West
16th Street.

According to ATC, "In Make Me, six pent-up Americans in three
different relationships have reached the end of their ropes. In this
naughty comic fugue, Leslie Ayvazian explores what happens when the
rules are changed just at the moment when people think they are
perfectly comfortable and the lengths to which some will go to be
seen, heard and obeyed."

*

With this play, Ayvazian makes her Atlantic Theater Company debut. Her
acclaimed Off-Broadway play, Nine Armenians, won the John Gassner
Outer Critics Award, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Kennedy
Center’s Roger L. Stevens Award. Her film credits include Showtime’s
"Every Three Minutes" starring Olympia Dukakis.

Parker most recently staged the New York premiere of Tina Howe’s play
Birth And After Birth. Other Atlantic credits include Jeff Whitty’s
The Hiding Place and 10X20, a festival of newly commissioned
ten-minute plays by writers previously produced at Atlantic for which
he directed plays by Tina Howe, Keith Reddin and Rolin Jones.

Make Me features scenic design by Anna Louizos, costume design by
Theresa Squire, lighting design by Josh Bradford and sound design by
Jill BC DuBoff.

Arkin appeared in Broadway’s I’m Not Rappaport and Off-Broadway’s The
Waverly Gallery; Buckley appeared in Broadway’s After the Fall,
Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cabaret and Ring Round the Moon and
Off-Broadway’s Shockheaded Peter, Valhalla and Communicating Doors;
Hecht most recently appeared in Julius Caesar on Broadway and in
Howard Katz; Horne returns to Atlantic following starring in the world
premiere of Ethan Coen’s Almost an Evening at Atlantic Stage 2 and The
Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street; Masur appeared in Broadway’s Democracy
and The Changing Room and Off-Broadway’s Dust, A Feminine Ending, The
Ruby Sunrise and Sarah, Sarah; and Parker’s New York City work
includes House/Garden, Plenty, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Fen, The Heidi
Chronicles and more.

Ayvazian’s other plays include High Dive, her one-woman show about
turning 50; Rosemary and I, which was named a Susan Smith Blackburn
Prize finalist; Lovely Day, which premiered at City Theatre in
Pittsburgh; Footlights, a one-woman show about shoes; and one-act
plays Practice; Hi There, Mr. Machine; Twenty Four Years; Deaf Day and
Plan Day.

Make Me received workshop productions by the Cape Cod Theatre Festival
and the Adirondack Theatre Festival, both directed by Martha Banta.

Make Me will play Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 PM and Saturday and
Sunday matinees at 2:30 PM. All tickets are $45 and are available by
calling Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or by visiting

Visit

news/article/129698-Couples_Test_Limits_in_Ayvazia n’s_Make_Me_Opening_in_NYC_May_31

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 31 2009

Controversy

by DOGU ERGIL

Once again a spurious agenda item occupied the public debate when
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an said: `For years those who
had different ethnic identities have been expelled from our
country. This was the result of a fascist policy. Even we have
committed this mistake from time to time. When one thinks rationally
one tends to admit we have really committed grave mistakes.’ This
statement was made following the debate over the probable demining of
a vast area of arable land lying along the Turkish-Syrian border by
foreign firms who would receive the right of cultivating the land for
more than 40 years in return for their services. The nationalist and
xenophobic reflex surged again, becoming agitated by the putative sale
of the motherland to ill-willed `enemies’ who would eventually snatch
it away from us. The prime minister complained about this
shortsightedness that has cost the country so much in the
past. Needless to say, the opposition parties who think their role is
to oppose anything and everything the ruling party and its leader does
and says retorted by claiming that no minority has been expelled from
Turkey.

The problem of our beloved nation is that it is subjected to the
teaching of a fabricated history in which we Turks are always right
and often the victim of foreign and domestic `enemies.’ The end result
of this ideology-laden history teaching is ignorance of the historical
facts and the truth about what we have done. That is why an average
Turk believes that the 1915 deportation of over a million Armenians is
only a just measure for punishing them for committing treason. The
1923 population exchange with Greece that forced two-and-a-half
million people of Greek origin to migrate was a successful ethnic
purification that was necessary to build a nation-state. The 1934
intimidation that forced the Jewish citizens out of Thrace (European
Turkey) was a measure to secure the western lands from minorities in
preparation for the world war that was approaching. In 1941 and 1942,
non-Muslim males were drafted on short notice to work as laborers in
what were called `labor battalions.’ They were also subjected to
exorbitant taxes in order to force them to sell their property and
abandon businesses. This was a measure to Turkify the entrepreneurial
class, which was thought to be the right thing to do under the shadow
of Fascism and Nazism, then the fashion of the day. The (officially
organized and provoked) events of Sept. 6-7, 1955 saw the destruction
and looting of non-Muslim businesses and shrines in Ä°stanbul
and Ä°zmir with a number of casualties. This formidable threat
drove the point home that they were not welcome in this country. Greek
citizens mainly left for Greece and Jewish citizens, by and large,
went to Israel. These things were all done against the principles of
the constitutive Treaty of Lausanne (1923) that gave birth to the
Turkish Republic.

Then came the forced evacuation of thousands of Kurdish villages in
the ’80s and ’90s; a part of their population saw no future in the
country and left for a better life elsewhere where they would not be
oppressed and persecuted. Additionally, 15,000 leftists had either
been expatriated or forced to leave during the military regime
following the 1980 coup. In the last decade many young women wearing
headscarves were deprived of the right to higher education and had to
leave the country to receive professional education abroad. These are
all minorities of some kind whose rights have been denied for the sake
of `state security.’ One is tempted to ask `What kind of security is
this that works against the basic rights, freedom and welfare of its
citizens?’ We have not really produced a plausible answer to this
fundamental question yet. Failure to do so has left our democracy
immature and force of law has not been replaced by rule of law. Laws
continue to protect the state rather than its citizens.

In short, the prime minister was telling the truth. However, telling
the truth and being consistent with it indeed are two different
things. In the formation of the new Cabinet Mr. ErdoÄ?an has
left in place the minister of defense, who is on record as declaring
publicly how wonderful it has been to eliminate all the ethnic and
religious minorities to create our nation-state. Obviously, the
military establishment was not unhappy with this unfortunate public
statement, either; otherwise, the minister would not have been
reappointed. Additionally, all the institutions of the state have
taken part in the discrimination against minorities, limiting their
property rights through systematic confiscation to force a change of
proprietorship. The judiciary (e.g., Council of State) deems
non-Muslim minorities as `domestic aliens’ and treats their endowments
as foreign institutions in order to limit their rights to
property. Both the bureaucracy and the judiciary have been
instrumental in implementing the two principles that have been in
effect since the last decade of the Ottoman Empire: 1) to get rid of
the minorities, and 2) to transfer their properties to Muslim
citizens.

However, the usurpation of property has not made this nation any
richer. Entrepreneurship is not the same as proprietorship, and ethnic
or religious purity does not create problem-free and cohesive
nations. These truths have been realized after so much human suffering
and loss. What a pity.

31.05.2009

Gulf News, UAE
May 31 2009

Switzerland seriously considering UAE’s candidature for Irena headquarters

By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
Published: May 30, 2009, 23:15

Abu Dhabi: Switzerland is seriously considering the UAE’s candidacy in
the race to host the headquarters of the International Renewable
Energy Agency (Irena), Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss President, told Gulf
News in an interview during his official visit to the UAE.

"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the country –
as the world’s sixth largest oil exporting country – on its visionary
thinking in promoting new energy technologies and for supporting the
sustainable development with the Masdar project [proposed zero carbon
city in Abu Dhabi]," he said.

Switzerland welcomes the UAE’s commitment to become a global centre
for renewable energy research, development and innovation, Merz said.

Several Swiss companies, which have earned a sound reputation
worldwide for their sustainable business solutions, and some Swiss
world-class universities have expressed their interest in becoming
actively involved in the development of the Masdar initiative, the
president said.

"Irena is a very future oriented and important project which I fully
support. Concerning the headquarters, Switzerland is considering
seriously the candidature of the UAE," Merz said.

Meanwhile Armenia, a founding member of Irena, has decided to vote for
the UAE in its bid to home the Irena headquarters in Abu Dhabi, the
Armenian Ambassador to the UAE told Gulf News.

The Armenian government has taken the decision to support the UAE,
Vahagan Melikian said. Irena will have detailed plans to support the
countries to develop renewable energy sources and the UAE can do a lot
by hosting its headquarters, he said.

"We are seeking active cooperation with the UAE in the renewable
energy sector as the country is a frontrunner in the sector," Melikian
said.

The Masdar initiative and The UAE’s Irena bid prove that the
leadership is psychologically and philosophically ready to face the
future challenges in the energy sector, according to Melikian.

ent/10318480.html

The Australian
June 1 2009

World’s most wanted living in Australia

By Kara Lawrence
June 01, 2009 12:00am

THEY are 16 of the world’s most wanted killers, sex predators, and
fraudsters – and police suspect they are hiding out in Australia.

Crime Stoppers International has provided The Daily Telegraph
exclusive access to the fugitive list as it begins its month-long
Internationally Wanted Fugitives Round-Up and Arrest campaign.

Gallery: World’s most wanted

The unprecedented global campaign is targeting half a billion people
as the "eyes and ears" of the police in Australia, the US, the UK,
South Africa, Canada, the Netherlands and the Caribbean.

International law enforcement agencies believe the 16 – who are among
almost 120 internationally-sought criminals – have entered Australia
and may still be here.

Countries with arrest warrants out range from Armenia to the US,
China, Indonesia, New Zealand and Canada.

Despite its isolation and tight border controls, Australia rates high
on the list of countries believed to have attracted international
fugitives, who have either already visited or may be in the country.

Of the wanted criminals on the international list, the US had 60
believed to be within its borders, Canada about 20, the UK 20, and
Australia close behind.

"I think that’s because the country’s sort of isolated geographically;
I think that people think they may be able to hide here without being
noticed," said Crime Stoppers Australia corporate affairs director
Peter Price.

"These guys are hardened criminals and they may have come in under
false passports or false pretences."

Topping the list is former South African lawyer George Prinsloo, 39,
whose deceptively bland and urbane looks mask his sexual predator’s
nature.

He is wanted for luring underage girls away from orphanages, drugging
them and paying them to engage in sex acts and child pornography.

Prinsloo had taunted police in his former homeland for the past three
years, as he has toured the world, including Australia and New
Zealand.

Also suspected of being in Australia is senior Canadian Hells Angel
bikie David Macdonald Carrol, 57, wanted for questioning over the
deaths of 13 people as well as for attempted murder, conspiracy to
commit murder, and gang and drugs offences, between 1995 and 2001.

Carrol remains on the run despite a major police operation conducted
by Canadian authorities in 2001 that resulted in the arrest and
incarceration of members of the Hells Angels and members of an
affiliated group, called the Rockers.

Also wanted are seven alleged Indonesian money launderers including
Adelin Lis, 51.

Lis, whose network of logging companies were accused of illegally
logging $30 billion worth of Sumatran timber between 1995 and 2008,
was acquitted of

illegal logging charges in late 2007. Indonesian authorities are still
pursuing him for money-laundering charges. The Australian wanted-list
includes Russian-speaking Armenian Arakel Sargsyan, sought for crimes
involving weapons or explosives.

Mr Price said he believed they were likely to be continuing their
crimes while living under assumed identities.

"These people are serious criminals. We’re talking about people
dealing with weapons, explosives and money laundering so it’s
reasonably safe to say a leopard doesn’t change its spots overnight,"
Mr Price said.

"If these guys are here, they’re not going to church every Sunday."

He said those who knew the fugitives might be in for a shock when they
discovered their true identities, but urged them not to confront them
as some might be armed and prone to extreme violence.

Know anything about the fugitives? Pass on your tip anonymously by
calling 1800 333 000 or logging on to crimestoppers.com.au

telegraph/story/0,22049,25567050-5001021,00.html

Interfax, Russia
May 30 2009

Azerbaijan determined to isolate Armenia from international projects

BAKU May 30

Azerbaijan will continue pursuing a policy of Armenia’s isolation from
regional and global projects until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is
resolved, Fuad Ahundov of the Azeri presidential secretariat told
Interfax in commenting on Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s speech on
Republic Day on May 28.

"One of the key aspects of President Ilham Aliyev’s speech is his
warning that Azerbaijan will continue to pursue its policy of
Armenia’s isolation from all regional and global projects until it
stops its annexationist policy and until territories of our country
are freed," Ahundov said.

"In the conclusive part of his speech, the president emphasized once
again that, without Azerbaijan’s participation and without respect for
its national interests, not a single project in the region, not a
single issue, and not a single initiative can be implemented, whoever
stands behind them," Ahundov said.

"Our head of state deliberately pinpointed the issue this way to show
that society and the leadership are about to lose patience. Another
important message is that any attempts to include Yerevan in regional
projects actively being lobbied by some Western countries and
organizations are doomed to failure unless there is progress in
settling the conflict. This message from the head of state is
addressed primarily to the EU, which believes naively that it could
involve Armenia in multilateral regional projects under the Eastern
Partnership program," Ahundov said.

va

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Day.Az, Azerbaijan
May 28 2009

Azeri official comments on president’s "harsh" statement on Karabakh

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s latest "harsh and at the same
time frank" statement on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement was
a message both to Armenia and the international mediators whose
activity satisfies neither the Baku government nor the Azerbaijani
public, a senior official from the Azerbaijani presidential
administration, Fuad Axundov, has said.

In an interview with Russian Interfax news agency, published on the
Baku-based Day.az website on 30 May, Axundov said that the president’s
statement made it clear that it was impossible to make Baku agree to
concessions in the issue of Nagornyy Karabakh’s status by putting
pressure on it.

Axundov said that President Aliyev had also sent a message to the EU
when he said that "not a single project, or a question, or an
initiative – no matter who stands behind it – can be implemented in
the region without Azerbaijan’s involvement or without considering its
national interests".

"The president purposefully raises the issue in such a forthright and
blunt manner in order to show that the patience of the public and the
country’s leadership has been stretched," Day.az quoted Axundov as
saying. "There is another important signal – all the attempts to
involve Yerevan into regional projects, which are actively lobbied by
some western countries and organizations, are doomed to failure unless
there is progress in the settlement of the conflict. This point made
by the head of state is first of all meant for the EU which naively
believes that it can involve Armenia into multilateral regional
projects within the framework of the Eastern Partnership programme."

In an address made on the occasion of Republic Day on 27 May,
President Ilham Aliyev said that the agenda of the talks with Armenia
included "the return of all occupied lands to Azerbaijan and the
return of all displaced persons to their native lands", Baku-based APA
news agency reported on 28 May. "There are no mechanisms to separate
Nagornyy Karabakh from Azerbaijan on the negotiating table and there
can be none," APA quoted Aliyev as saying. The Azerbaijani president
also said that the only reason the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict has not
been resolved yet is "Armenia’s unconstructive position and its
tactics aimed at artificially delaying the negotiations process", APA
said.

Interfax, Russia
May 29 2009

Karabakh mediators expect progress from next Armenian-Azeri meeting

Baku, 29 May: The co-chairmen of the OSCE (Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe) Minsk Group hope significant progress will
be reached in the Karabakh settlement process at the upcoming talks
between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan in St Petersburg on 4 June.

"The goal of our visit is to continue preparations for the presidents’
meeting in St Petersburg on 4 June," French co-chairman Bernard
Fassier told journalists in Baku. Fassier said he was attaching
particular importance to the St Petersburg meeting.

"One should understand that the St Petersburg meeting will be this
year’s fifth, which already means something. There is some
progress. Not everything is being solved in one meeting," the diplomat
said.

The two countries’ leaders acted constructively, said US co-chairman
Matthew Bryza, commenting on the recent meeting between the
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents in Prague [on 7 May].

The presidents took the negotiations very seriously, he said.

>From the diplomatic point of view, the Azerbaijani president is
waging a cultural war, and we hope to see a turning point in St
Petersburg, Bryza said. As for Novruz Mammadov, head of foreign
relations in the Azeri presidential administration, who said that no
progress was reached in Prague, this person did not attend the Prague
meeting, plus he is allowed to have his own opinion, Bryza said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Public Television of Armenia
May 30 2009

OSCE mediators, Armenian top diplomat discuss Karabakh talks

[Presenter-read report over video of the meeting] Foreign Minister
Edvard Nalbandyan has received the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs – Yuriy
Merzlyakov [Russia], Bernard Fassier [France] and Matthew Bryza [the
USA] – and the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office,
Andrzej Kasprzyk, who are on a visit to the region.

The co-chairs presented the results of their meetings in Baku to the
Armenian foreign minister. Issues connected with the process of the
Artsakh [Karabakh] talks, held based on the Madrid principles, were
discussed.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress