Author: Andres-Papazian

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Aug 26 2014

Ani ruins reveal hidden secrets from below

KARS ` Cihan News Agency

New underground structures have come to light in Ani, one of Turkey’s
most breathtaking ancient sites. History researcher Sezai Yazıcı says
the ancient city’s structures should be promoted

Secret water channels, undiscovered monk cells, meditation rooms, huge
corridors, intricate tunnels, traps and corners were found under the
ruins of the ancient Armenian town of Ani. AA Photo

The underground secrets of the historic Ani Ruins, an ancient,
5,000-year-old Armenian city located on the Turkish-Armenian border in
the eastern province of Kars, have been revealed.

While speaking at the recent `International Ani-Kars Symposium,’
history researcher Sezai Yazıcı said secret water channels,
undiscovered monk cells, meditation rooms, huge corridors, intricate
tunnels, unbelievable traps and corners that make one lose their sense
of direction were just some of the unknown underground structures
located at the ancient site.

Yazıcı said a number of experts, academics and researchers attended
the Kars Symposium, which was held at Kars’ Kafkas University from
Aug. 14 to 16. At the symposium, Yazıcı’s presentation titled,
`Underground Secrets of Ani,’ drew a lot of attention since no
previous publications on the underground structures had been mentioned
before.

`In 2011 while working on a United Nations project in order to promote
Kars and to reveal its historical and cultural heritage, I came across
some pretty interesting information. One of the most important names
of the first half of the 20th century, George Ivanovic Gurdjieff, who
spent most of his childhood and youth in Kars, had chosen [to stay in]
an isolated place in Ani along with his friend Pogosyan where they
worked for some time together in the 1880s. One day, while digging at
one of the underground tunnels in Ani, Gurdjieff and his friend saw
that the soil became different. They continued digging and discovered
a narrow tunnel. But the end of the tunnel was closed off with stones.
They cleaned the stones and found a room. They saw decayed furniture,
broken pots and pans in the room. They also found a scrap of parchment
in a niche. Although Gurdjieff spoke Armenian very well, he failed to
read Armenian writing in the parchment. Apparently, it was very old
Armenian. After a while, they learned that the parchments were letters
written by a monk to another monk,’ Yazıcı said, speaking about how he
became interested in the underground structures.

`Finally, [Gurdjieff and his friend] succeeded in understanding the
letters. Gurdjieff discovered that there was a famous Mesopotamian
esoteric school in the place where they found the letters. The famous
school was active between the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. and
there was a monastery there,’ he added.

Prayer room of a monastery

Yazıcı said Gurdjieff was the first person to mention the monastery
that was located under the Ani Ruins.

`Gurdjieff’s discovery, nearly 135 years ago, could not have been
confirmed until the excavation works of 1915. Years later, an Italian
excavation team confirmed that it was a monastery. Before Gurdjieff,
many travelers also observed that a significant population had lived
in caves or rock houses in Ani,’ he said.

`The tunnels are above 500 meters in Ani. Most of underground
structures and caves were used as houses. The metrical sizes of most
of the underground structures have been measured and maps have been
made for most of them,’ the researcher said, confirming that there
were currently 823 underground structures and caves in Ani today.

Yazıcı said among the most important underground structures were the
Giden Gelmez Tunnel, Yeraltı Anisi (Underground Ani) and Gizli Kapılar
(Secret Doors). `On the other hand, Ani also has four complicated
structures. It is very difficult to reach some of them. It is time to
mention these underground structures in the promotion of Ani. The
Culture and Tourism Ministry should put signs showing the places of
underground structures and build walking paths. Underground structures
draw great interest in the world,’ Yazıcı said.

August/26/2014

From: A. Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 26 2014

Armenia’s Heritage Party wants amendments to conscription laws

26 August 2014 – 2:24pm

The Heritage Party of Armenia plans to pass amendments to the law on
military service to make children of authoritative figures, oligarchs
and state authorities would serve in the Armed Forces, according to
Ruben Akopyan of the party, News.am reports.

In his words, 80% of post-graduates were male and only few of them
were actually engaged in research.

From: A. Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 26 2014

Earthquake registered on Armenian-Georgian border

26 August 2014 – 12:46pm

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.1 points (4 points at the
epicenter) was registered 17km north-east of Ashotsk at a depth of 7km
on the Armenian-Georgian border, News.am reports.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 3 points occurred in Bavra.

From: A. Papazian

The Washington Post
Aug 26 2014

A love letter from a jailed activist to her imprisoned husband

“The hardest part is not being with you.”

By Leyla Yunus, an activist in Azerbaijan.

Arrested within days of each other in late July and early August,
Leyla Yunus and her husband, Arif Yunus, have not been allowed to talk
to one another.

Leyla Yunus, one of Azerbaijan’s best-known activists and a fierce
critic of the government of President Ilham Aliyev, has also
reportedly been refused medical assistance despite suffering from
diabetes and kidney disease.

She has been charged with high treason, spying for Armenia and other
crimes. Arif Yunus has been charged with treason and fraud.

To circumvent the communications ban, Leyla Yunus has written an open
letter to her husband, reasoning that it will “somehow” reach him.

Below is a translated version:

My dear Arif,

Well, after 36 years of life together we’re in different cells in
different prisons …

My dearest, perhaps you’re unaware, I can bear it all: Terrible
physical pain (I’m already coming down with pneumonia from the cold
water), pressure from a hardened prisoner (by the way, she’s from
Ganca — our Ganca has let us down again) and even visits from those
jackals in the prosecutor’s office. I endure the lack of communication
(I know that you are completely without communication, without a
change of clothes and medicine). I am also without food and medicine.
Just imagine, these jackals, these [Interior Minister Ramil] Usubovs
and [prosecutor Ibrahim] Lemberanskys — they’re so base, that in these
airless cells they would also leave us starving and without medicine.

But most difficult of all is that you are not nearby. For 36 years we
have almost never been apart!

I can’t take being denied the right to communicate with you even
through letters, so I decided to write you through these open letters.
Somehow they will reach you.

You know, together we have read it all — [Aleksandr] Solzhenitsyn,
Varlaam Shalamov, [Vasily] Grossman and [Vasily] Aksyonov. Together,
we often discussed how spouses who had been arrested together felt.
And in 1937 there were a great many of them.

We just never would have predicted that the 21st century would bring
the repression of the 1930s. Yesterday I recalled the words of
[Vasily] Grossman in his “Life and Fate.” He writes about the
consciences of prisoners: “An awful anguish is replaced by a foolish
opium — optimism …”

How accurately he spoke about optimism in the prisons of an
authoritarian apparatus. And even then, Jews, in prison camps in 1942,
assuredly passed each other information: “Hitler has been given an
ultimatum — immediately free all of the Jews!”

And the people believed … They believed because they clung to this
foolish opium — optimism.

We are both realists. “Politics is dirty work.” We are fully conscious
of this. However life turns out — the hardest part is that I can’t see
you. And this is our 37th year together.

Hugs,

Leyla

(Translation by Glenn Kates)

From: A. Papazian

The New York Times
Aug 26 2014

Q&A: Fatih Akin Discusses His New Film ‘The Cut’

By STEPHEN HEYMANAUG. 26, 2014

The director Fatih Akin, 41, born in Germany to Turkish parents, has
mined his mixed heritage to make two complex, critically acclaimed
films –“Head-On” (2004) and “The Edge of Heaven” (2007) — which
comprise the first parts of what he calls his “Love, Death and the
Devil” trilogy. The final installment, “The Cut,” which is set to open
at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday, goes back in time to 1915 to
replay scenes from one of the most painful and contentious chapters in
Turkish history: the Armenian genocide.

The film stars the French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim (“A Prophet”) as
an Armenian blacksmith who travels around the world — from Aleppo to
Havana to North Dakota — in search of his two daughters, with whom he
lost touch after the outbreak of systematic violence that would
eventually claim the lives of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.

“The Cut” — shot on 35-millimeter film with Cinemascope lenses, with
locations in five countries and a budget of 15 million euros, or about
$20 million — is by far the most ambitious film Mr. Akin has ever
attempted, and he admits to being a bit jittery about its reception.
The film was previously expected to debut at the Cannes Film Festival,
but Mr. Akin pulled it from consideration for “personal reasons.” In
the following edited interview, he discusses why he brought “The Cut”
to Venice, how he thinks the film will be received in Turkey, and the
wide range of directors who influenced it, including Elia Kazan and
Terrence Malick.

Q. You recently told a newspaper in Turkey that the country was ripe
for a major film that dealt with the Armenian genocide. The paper has
since received death threats. Have you changed your mind?

A. No, I still believe Turkey is ready. Two friends of mine, both
producers, read the script. One of them said they will throw stones,
the other said they will throw flowers. That’s what it is — guns and
roses. But I’ve shown the film to people who deny the fact that 1915
was a genocide and to people who accept it and both groups had the
same emotional impact. I hope the film could be seen as a bridge. For
sure there are radical groups, fascist groups, who fear any kind of
reconciliation. And the smaller they are, the louder they bark. The
newspaper that I gave the interview to, Agos, is actually an
Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper where the journalist Hrant Dink
worked.

Q. He was Armenian and was murdered in 2007 by a teenage Turkish
nationalist. In 2010, you attempted to make a film about Dink’s life,
but couldn’t find an actor in Turkey to play the part.

A. I wrote down five names of Turkish actors I thought could play him.
And all of them were nervous about the script. I don’t want to hurt
anybody, I don’t live in Turkey, in a way I am safe, protected. But
these actors, maybe they’d have some problems. No film is worth that.

Q. The scenes from “The Cut” that are set in Turkey were actually
filmed in Jordan. Why?

A. Mostly because of logistical reasons. The film takes place in 1915,
in southeastern Turkey, very close to today’s Syria, actually. And I
needed a lot of old trains, historical trains, like the ones from the
Baghdad Railway that Germans were building through the Turkish Empire
in those days. You find those trains and those landscapes in Jordan.

Q. But you also filmed parts of “The Cut” in Germany, Cuba, Canada, Malta.

A. It’s a road movie. The plot is about a father looking for his lost
children. The Armenian genocide wasn’t only about violence, it was
also about forced migration, the spreading around the world of these
people, from Anatolia to Port Said, Egypt; to Havana; to Canada; to
California; to Hong Kong.

Q. To what extent was this story based on the life of a real person?

A. I did a lot of research while I was writing this and I discovered
diaries of Armenians who went to Havana in their early 20s. Oral
histories and literature about the death camps and the death marches.
I collected a lot of very rich portraits of witnesses and tried to sew
them together.

Q. You’ve described the film as a kind of western.

A. Yes. “The Cut” is not just a film about the material, it’s about my
personal journey through cinema, and the directors who I admire and
who influence my work. Elia Kazan’s “America America” is a very
important influence. So is the work of Sergio Leone, how he used
framing. It’s also an homage somehow to Scorsese. I wrote this film
with Mardik Martin, Martin Scorsese’s very early scriptwriter who
wrote “Mean Streets” and the first draft of “Raging Bull.” Because he
was Armenian, I discovered him on this project, and he helped me write
it. And we spoke a lot about obsessional characters in Scorsese films.

The film deals also a lot with my admiration for Bertolucci, and
Italian westerns and how Eastwood adapted Italian westerns. And the
way we try to catch the light, always having it behind us, is very
inspired by the work of Terrence Malick. So this film is very much in
the Atlantic ocean, somewhere near the Azores — for a European film
it’s too American, for an American film it’s too European.

Q. Why do the Turkish characters in your film speak Turkish while the
Armenians speak English?

A. The main reason is that if I wanted to control the film, I had to
control the dialogue. And I don’t speak Armenian at all. There are a
lot of examples in the history of cinema. Bertolucci shot “The Last
Emperor” with the Chinese speaking English. I used the concept that
Polanski used in “The Pianist,” where he made all the Polish
characters speak English and the Germans speak German, making English
a language of identification. It’s a clear concept, but it’s
surprising for some people because they’re used to my films in German
and Turkish. But this film is more about the whole world. It’s not set
in a minimalistic frame.

Q. How was working with Tahar Rahim?

A. “A Prophet” made a huge impact on me, it was great film — a
masterpiece. And 90 percent of the quality of the film came from Tahar
Rahim. When we met, there were a lot of things that we shared. We had
relevant backgrounds — he had grown up in France with an Arab
background, and I had grown up in Germany with a Turkish background.

Q. Are you excited or nervous about the debut of your film at Venice?

A. I’m nervous and excited. I spent too much time on it — usually you
spend two years with a film, but on this film I spent seven years, the
last four years I was working every day. Yes, I’m nervous.

Q. “The Cut” was initially headed to the Cannes Film Festival but you
pulled the movie at the last minute, citing “personal reasons.” What
happened?

A. We showed the film to Cannes and Venice at the same time. The
reaction of Venice was very enthusiastic and Cannes was a bit much
more careful, like they always are. So I was nervous, and I followed
my instincts. But I couldn’t talk about my decision in the press
because Venice asked me to wait until they made their own
announcement. The people in Cannes never rejected the film but I had
the feeling that it wasn’t what they expected from me. Because it’s
historical, because it’s in English, it’s not minimalistic, I’m not
sure. But I cannot fulfill other people’s expectations. I have to
fulfill my own.

From: A. Papazian

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Aug 25 2014

Statues and identities

by SEVGÄ° KURU AÇIKGÃ-Z

The oppressive and polarizing character of the Turkish political
system has produced identities whose realities and sacred figures
contradict with each other. Recently, a statue of a slain PKK militant
was set up at a graveyard in a town in Turkey’s Southeast.

The reaction of the Turkish people was nationalistic; many declared
the event as unacceptable and blamed the government for its lack of
authority and power on the matter. The details of how the statue could
have been set up without the acknowledgment of government authorities
is an issue that could be seen as a technical one. The important point
was that this event again emphasized how polarized the contradicting
identities of Turkey are.

Statues have always been a way to express feelings. Statues of
historic individuals or a historic event help construct or consolidate
political or ethnic identities. Statues are heroes for some
identities, while enemies for the others. The message a statue
represents has always been important in the Turkish Republic, since
the placement of a portrait sculptures of the founder of the republic,
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is obligatory in all schools and many official
buildings. It is also obligatory in schools to sing the national
anthem in front of Atatürk’s sculpture on Mondays before classes start
and on Fridays after the end of school. Although it is obligatory,
there are several political or ethnic groups that do not feel
comfortable with this practice in Turkey.

In many cities of Turkey, one can come across statues of people who
had fought in the War of Independence. For most Turkish people, the
men and women in the statues are heroes of the country. But for the
silent minorities of Turkey, some of these people have a notorious
past of which the majority is not aware of. While the statue of the
PKK militant was being hotly debated, the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos
published an article putting special emphasis on this issue. According
to the article, some of the Turkish heroes of the War of Independence
whose statues were set up in city centers committed brutal acts
against the Armenian population of that time.

The war in the Southeast of Turkey, which has endured for three
decades, constructed new opposing histories and heroes in Turkish
society. The PKK militants are regarded by the majority of Turks as
criminal, brutal terrorists who challenged the security of the country
and killed innocent people. They are accused of being murderers of
both civilians and Turkish soldiers, who are called martyrs. On the
other hand, though not for all, a significant part of the Kurdish
population see the PKK militants as fighters of independence and
equality, the courageous people who stand against the brutalities of
the state.

The opposing contradiction between the identities of Turkey is mostly
due to historical traumas. The reconstruction of history through
setting up statues does not seem good for a reciprocal, peaceful
coexistence. Indeed, these incidents seem to have paved the way for
violent confrontations and each violent clash is just deepening the
margins of the identity, while making it more inflexible toward a
reconciliation.

What Turkey needs is to concentrate on today and try to build a dream
of a peaceful tomorrow without yesterday’s feelings of revenge, loss
or pride.

From: A. Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 25 2014

Armenian and Azerbaijani products presented in Moscow

25 August 2014 – 8:24am

Azerbaijani products from the districts of Quba, Shamkir, Lankoran,
Kedabek and Ganja-Gazakh will be presented on Profsoyuznaya Street in
Moscow on August 24, mskagency.ru reports.

The ‘From Armenia With Love’ fair of Armenia demonstrated Armenian
fruits, vegetables and dried fruit. Armenia will make dance
performances, present cuisine and organize recreational activities for
children.

The Regional Fairs Festival opened on Tverskaya and Semenovskaya
Squares, continuing the Moscow Jam Festival of August 8-17, visited by
5.5 million people.

From: A. Papazian

Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
Aug 25 2014

Matthew Bryza: “The United Nations has no mechanism to enforce
Karabakh resolution”

25 August 2014 – 1:56pm

One of the most informed Western experts on the South Caucasus, a
former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan and former co-chair of the OSCE
Minsk Group, Matthew Bryza, told Vestnik Kavkaza about his views on
prospects of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

– What are the current U.S. approaches toward conflicts in the South
Caucasus? How have American views on the conflict changed? What place
do the conflicts take in U.S. foreign policy?

– In the United States government, regulation of the conflicts in the
South Caucasus region now occurs only at the bureaucratic level,
(event though those U.S. officials are highly skilled and
experienced). This marks a change from the period before 2009, when
the President of the United States and Secretary of State paid
necessary (though perhaps not sufficient) attention to the conflicts
involving the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Such attention
brought the parties close to a framework agreement for the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on the Madrid Principles, which was
undermined when the U.S. decided to press for normalization of
Armenia-Turkey relations without a breakthrough on resolving the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

A key reason for this change in the U.S. approach toward the South
Caucasus was President Obama’s “Russia Reset” policy, according to
which the United States would make a friendlier relationship with
Russia a top priority. This included a naïve and dangerous
recognition of Russia’s “special interests” in the countries of the
South Caucasus. The colossal failure of this approach is now evident
in Ukraine, where President Putin demonstrated little concern about
any potential diplomatic or economic costs for pursuing a version of
the policy of Hitler’s Germany in invading and annexing the territory
of a friendly neighbor.

– What does the United States think about Russia’s peace initiative,
which resulted in a meeting between the Russian, Azerbaijani and
Armenian presidents in Sochi? Is the U.S. ready to cooperate with
Russia in the sphere of resolution of conflicts in the South Caucasus
and the world?

– Though I am no longer a U.S. Government official, I sense that my
former colleagues in Washington do not take Russian President Putin’s
“peace initiative” with regard to Nagorno-Karabakh seriously. In my
opinion, the United States does not see any opportunities to cooperate
with Russia to regulate conflicts in the South Caucasus and elsewhere
in the world. This is primarily because of Russia’s illegal behavior
in Ukraine, where it has generated, supported, and participated in the
creation of a new frozen conflict, seizing part of its territory
despite its obligation to preserve Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Moreover, even before its invasion of Ukraine, Russia proved to be a
major obstacle to achieving the goals of the U.S. and its Allies in
Syria.

– Why were the UN resolutions on Libya and Iraq and other countries
implemented, while the UN resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
haven’t been enforced for more than 20 years? What is the U.S.
position on the issue? Why doesn’t the U.S. contribute to
implementation of the resolutions?

– The United Nations has no mechanism to enforce its resolutions,
whether of the General Assembly or Security Council. Consequently,
most Security Council resolutions are never implemented. Remember
that it took over 10 years until Security Council resolutions
pertaining to Iraq were enforced, and even then, only as the result of
an enormous diplomatic and military effort by the United States in
response to what President George W. Bush viewed as an imminent threat
to U.S. national security.

Unfortunately, the four Security Council resolutions pertaining to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict fall into the more common category of UN
resolutions that are not enforced for three reasons. First, Armenia’s
friends in Diaspora organizations like the Armenian National Congress
of America (ANCA), whose former president was convicted in the United
States of illegal possession of explosives and accused of terrorism,
launched a one-sided propaganda campaign that portrayed Azerbaijan as
the aggressor and Armenia as the victim. This propaganda undermined
the consensus in the UN Security Council demanding Armenia’s
withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory it occupies.
Second, shortly following passage of the four UN Security Council
resolutions in the early-1990’s, the OSCE launched what became the
Minsk Group process to pursue a negotiated settlement of the NK
conflict. Armenia’s withdrawal from occupied Azerbaijani territory
became a central element of that negotiated settlement. Therefore,
once the OSCE negotiations began, the search for a compromise between
Armenia and Azerbaijan overshadowed enforcement of the UN Security
Council resolutions demanding immediate withdrawal of Armenian troops.

Third, during President Putin’s second presidency, Russia has not been
serious about reaching a framework agreement to settle the NK
conflict. While then-President Medvedev helped to energize the Minsk
Group process, the progress he helped generate toward finalizing the
Madrid Principles vanished when President Putin returned to the
Kremlin. Today, Russia seems to seek to sustain rather than resolve
the NK conflict, as in Ukraine, with the recent meeting in Sochi among
the presidents serving to mask President Putin’s underlying
intentions.

With regard to the UN Security Council resolutions related to Libya
and Iraq, they were enforced because two Security Council members,
France and the United States (respectively), perceived imminent
threats to the security of themselves, their friends and allies, and
the citizens of Libya and Iraq, which required the use of military
force. In the case of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, three Security
Council members are Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group, which makes them
responsible for finding a negotiated compromise that will result in
enforcement of those four UN Security Council resolutions.

As mentioned above, the United States position regard to the four UN
Security Council resolutions is that de facto enforcement will occur
once a negotiated settlement of the NK conflict is reached through the
Minsk Group process.

In my opinion, the United States must do more at the political level
to encourage a breakthrough in the Minsk Group. Personal engagement
by President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry are required to: (1)
Provide Presidents Aliyev and Sargsyan the political support they need
to agree to compromises that will be unpopular in Azerbaijan and
Armenia (respectively); and (2) Convince Russia that a positive
relationship with the United States requires a genuine effort by
Moscow to reach a settlement of the NK conflict. Unfortunately, point
2 is impossible to achieve under current circumstances, when the
President of Russia is committed to fomenting rather than resolving
conflicts

From: A. Papazian

Armenia Yazidis to travel to Iraqi-Turkish border

13:21, 26.08.2014Region: Armenia, Middle EastTheme: Politics, Society

YEREVAN. – A group of Yazidis from Armenia on Wednesday will head for
the Yazidi villages on Iraq’s Turkish border, and to transfer to the
Iraqi Yazidis the funds that were collected in Armenia to help these
Yazidis.

Armenia’s Hayazn Party member Vahe Melkonyan will accompany these
Yazidis from Armenia.

“We don’t have Iraq entry visas at this point; there is a problem with
documents. But in any case, we will leave on Wednesday night. Even if
we can’t go to Iraq, we will reach the Yazidi villages on Turkey’s
Iraqi border; there are thousands of refugees there. We will arrange
the remaining matters on location.”

“National Union of Sinjar Yezidis” NGO Director Boris Murazi told the
above-said toArmenian News-NEWS.am.

He also informed that as a result of a week-long fundraising project,
about $10,000 was collected, wherewith they will purchase food and
clothing for the Yazidi refugees.

“We ourselves are taking the collected amount, to be accountable to
the people as to what this money was spent on. We will make the
purchases on location, [and] we will provide necessary supplies to
them.

“We have friends in Turkey, who will meet us, [and] help concerning
the roads,” Murazi added.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

From: A. Papazian

Delivery of Russian gas to Armenia to be halted temporarily

YEREVAN, August 26 / ARKA /. Delivery of Russian natural gas to
Armenia through Georgia will be temporarily suspended in the morning
of August 27 in connection with repair operation on the pipeline,
Armenia’s national gas distributor company Gazprom Armenia said today.

It said Georgia’s gas transportation company has officially informed
Gazprom Armenia that delivery of gas will be suspended from 05:00 on
August 27 in connection with repair operation on the pipeline in the
territory of Georgia.

Gazprom Armenia, owned fully by Russian Gazprom, deals with supply of
natural gas to Armenia. The company is also engaged in transportation,
storage, distribution and sale of natural gas, reconstruction and
expansion of the gas transmission system and underground gas storage
facilities.-0-

From: A. Papazian