Author: Antonian Lara

CU EXPERTS WATCH U.S.-TURKISH RELATIONS
By Paula Pant Colorado Daily Staff Writer

Colorado Daily, CO
Oct 12 2007

International affairs experts at CU are keeping close tabs on
U.S.-Turkey relations, which were threatened Wednesday when the
U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bill recognizing
the Ottoman Turkish government’s treatment of Armenians in 1915 as
"genocide."

Turkey, which borders Iraq to its north and is the easternmost flank
of NATO, is a key ally in the U.S. conflict in Iraq. The U.S. depends
on Turkish ground and airspace as it maneuvers around the Middle East,
and it lauds Turkey – a secular Islamic state – as a beacon for the
rest of the region.

But that relationship has come into question with the Congressional
committee’s vote, which has infuriated Turks.

On Thursday the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. responded to the House
declaration by returning to Turkey for at least seven to ten days.

"It’s an issue of nationalism," said CU professor of history and
international affairs Robert Schulzinger. "For the Turks, this is
an absolutely forbidden subject, and people suffer very seriously if
they’re charged with genocide."

It is illegal to "insult Turkishness" in Turkey, and many scholars and
journalists have been jailed for even posing the academic question
as to whether or not the Ottoman government – the precursor to the
modern-day Turkish republic – committed genocide against ethnic
Armenians living in eastern Anatolia in 1915.

Earlier this year Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor
openly critical of Turkey’s genocide denial, was assassinated in
broad daylight in Istanbul by a 17-year-old Turkish nationalist.

CU scholars say factual evidence leaves no question that 1915’s
tragedy was, indeed, genocide, and not – as Turks argue – an act of
civil war pitted against a World War I backdrop.

"As a matter of historical fact, it was genocide," Schulzinger said.

But Turkey’s "genocide denial is not uncommon," said CU anthropology
professor Paul Shankman. "You even have Holocaust deniers today who
have large audiences in parts of the world."

U.S. politicians "on both sides of the aisle ~J recognize that this
event ~J wasn’t a civil war, it was a genocide," Shankman said. The
House Foreign Affairs Committee has considered non-binding resolutions
to declare it a genocide for more than 20 years, but pressure from the
Clinton and the first George Bush White Houses, which were worried
about straining relations with Turkey, has historically kept the
"genocide" label at bay – until now.

CU scholars say the committee’s decision to recognize it as genocide
wasn’t partisan and wasn’t intended to undermine President George
W. Bush, who strongly urged Congress not to pass it.

"This is just a straight moral issue," Shankman said.

But it could have broad current-events implications – particularly
considering that Turkish military and warplanes have recently been
situated along the Turkey-Iraq border. The Turks have grown weary of
Iraq’s Kurdish rebels, who Turks claim have been crossing the border
to attack Turkish troops.

"There are people who are arguing that if this resolution goes all
the way through [Congress], it will alienate Turkey from the United
States and allow them to pursue a unilateral move against the Kurds,"
Shankman said. "But I’m not convinced."

Turkey severed military and economic ties with France last year
after it declared the 1915 tragedy a "genocide." The two nations
re-established economic ties after six months.

A spokesperson for Mark Udall, the congressman who represents
Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District which includes Boulder and
Eldorado Springs, could not reach Udall by the Daily’s deadline to
report his stance on the issue.

/10/11/news/c_u_and_boulder/news1.txt

Trial unnerves Turkey’s Armenians

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul
2007/10/12

A court in Istanbul has found two Turkish-Armenian journalists guilty
of "insulting Turkishness" for reprinting an interview that referred
to the mass killing of Ottoman Armenians by Turks in 1915 as genocide.

The ruling came one day after the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US
Congress approved a resolution that recognises the killings as
genocide, infuriating Ankara, which denies any such thing.

"I think this is the retaliation of the judiciary to that decision of
Congress," says Ozlem Dalkiran, who followed the trial for the
Helsinki Citizens Assembly, a European human rights group.

"It’s a judicial scandal," she says.

The newspaper journalists were prosecuted under the now notorious
Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code for publishing comments made by
their then-editor, Hrant Dink, in an interview with the Reuters news
agency last summer.

Hrant Dink was an outspoken critic of state policy here on the events
of 1915, a rare voice in Turkey’s small ethnic Armenian community.

In January he was shot and killed outside the office of his newspaper,
Agos. A teenage nationalist gunman is on trial for murder along with
his alleged accomplices.

‘Dangerous decision’

One of the journalists convicted of insult on Thursday is Hrant Dink’s
son, Arat. The other is Agos newspaper colleague Sarkis Seropyan.

Hrant Dink himself had been tried and convicted of insulting
Turkishness in another article on the Armenian issue before he was
killed.

"The fact Hrant was prosecuted under Article 301 was an important
factor in his assassination. That way, the prosecution singled him out
as a target," Agos journalist Markar Esayan underlined shortly after
the latest court ruling on Thursday.

"This latest verdict of insulting Turkishness is a very serious
accusation which may have very serious consequences. This court
decision puts lives in danger."

The European Union has long called for the controversial insult law to
be changed or repealed.

Article 301 shot to international attention when it was used to bring
charges against the author and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, again for
his comments on the fate of the Armenians.

"This new conviction is a particularly distressing and alarming
verdict. It demonstrates once again the serious nature of Article
301," says Emma Sinclair-Webb of Amnesty International.

"It shows its implementation is still very problematic," she says.

She argues the law must be abolished.

"There also seems to be a pattern that this law is used against
particular groups, Armenian or Kurdish. If so, that is extremely
alarming," she says.

Frightened into silence

Other newspapers in Turkey reprinted Hrant Dink’s comments. Only
Turkish-Armenian Agos was prosecuted.

Just last week, President Abdullah Gul suggested changes to A301 were
a possibility. But the Turkish government has shown no sign it is in
any hurry.

A nationalist backlash against the US Congress resolution on genocide
is likely to stall things even longer.

That debate in America has also affected Turkey’s ethnic Armenian community.

Many people were frightened into silence by the murder of Hrant Dink.
Now they are even more withdrawn.

"If this bill passes it will have an impact on us. But we are already
facing problems," says one ethnic Armenian.

"Someone threw a sound bomb into a schoolyard recently. People in all
neighbourhoods here are now courageous enough to do such things."

Published: 2007/10/12 09:47:15 GMT

(c) BBC MMVII

Source:

FILM IS AN OBSTINATE ART

A1+
[03:45 pm] 11 October, 2007

"So many interesting things happen in Yerevan, there is so much life
in Yerevan that should make filmmakers look around more attentively
and find a lot of topics to touch", said Gohar Danielyan-Dubost,
co-chairman of "Kino+" magazine and the head of "DG Contact"
organization. She ensured that the aim of the magazine was to arouse
love and interest toward film art. "We want to stimulate this field
and smooth the path of talented youth", said Danielyan-Dubost. This
is why the young initiators should have free ideas and feel it in
their activities.

"It is very important that they would express their ideas freely,
although all new is difficult to express. That should not frighten
them. The material that is worth to pay attention to may not be ignored
or rejected by our great masters" mentioned Gohar Danielyan. She
called on the young generation to work hard and with love since
"some day they will be noticed and appreciated".

The co-chairman of "Kino+" magazine is going to organize competitions
and to publish booklets which will promote the young generation
to create and be the best. One of those initiatives would be the
competition of the best scenario. "One of the standards for the
best scenario will be the presentation of Armenian daily reality,
which we sometimes pass by indifferently. We are tired of old,
historical subjects. And in my opinion, here the material prize is
not as important as being the best".

The "Kino+" magazine works with film producers, journalists, art
critics and analysts.

By the way, Gohar Danielyan mentioned that she would pay a great
attention to critical materials; they must be serious analysis,
discussions and debates. "We will give chance to opponents to express
their ideas and argue. We will not evade of criticism. I hope that
will be done in a civilized manner since the role of the magazine
will be neutral. We should not raise only the negative side of things,
we should touch the positive as well", she said.

According to her, there is always a truth in criticism: "If I were
in the place of the criticized producers, we would make use of the
expressed ideas.

Cinematography costs much, especially feature films.

>>From this point of view, producers need financing. But not everything
may be concealed behind finances. There are films on which great
amount of money was spent but they did not have success. Film is
an obstinate art and the advertisement of films if very important",
added Gohar Danielyan-Dyubost.

OSKANIAN: EU COMMISSION SHOULD FORCE TURKEY TO OPEN ITS BORDERS WITH ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.10.2007 18:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The European Commission should force Turkey to
open its borders with Armenia immediately, since the current border
closure is a violation of the Copenhagen criteria," Armenian Foreign
Minister Vartan Oskanian said when addressing the European Parliament
Committee on Foreign Affairs in Brussels.

Minister Oskanian said the border closure also negatively affects
the relationship between the EU and the Caucasus region. "Turkey’s
membership to the European Union may come in 10-15 years. Should
Armenia wait until then? This is unacceptable," he said.

"If Turkey does not come to terms with its past, its EU accession
prospects will face serious difficulties.

The European Union should consider this issue within the framework
of human rights," Minister Oskanian said.

CONSENSUS BARGAINING?

A1+
[06:20 pm] 10 October, 2007

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov expressed readiness
to conduct negotiations with the "Armenian Community of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" provided Armenia recognises Azerbaijan’s
territorial wholeness.

According to Mammadyarov Azerbaijan is keen on shifting the Karabakh
issue to international organisations.

US WARNS OF TURKISH REPRISALS AS ARMENIA ‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE LOOMS

Agence France Presse
Oct 10 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A bid by US lawmakers to label the Ottoman massacre
of Armenians a "genocide" will trigger Turkish reprisals and undermine
Iraq, Afghanistan and Middle East peace, the administration warned
Wednesday.

President George W. Bush and his top lieutenants were unusually
blunt in attacking what is a non-binding resolution in the House
of Representatives, highlighting anxiety over the impact on a key
diplomatic and military alliance.

Bush said the resolution would do "great harm" to ties with Turkey,
a Muslim-majority member of NATO whose territory is a crucial transit
point for US supplies bound for Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings; its passage would do great harm to our relations with a
key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," the president said
outside the White House.

In a joint appearance following talks with Bush, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates also denounced
the measure as the House Foreign Affairs Committee convened for debate
later Wednesday.

Rice said she sympathized with Armenians’ fate during World War I,
when according to the Armenians, 1.5 million of their kinsmen died
in systematic deportations and killings under the Ottoman Empire.

"But the passage of this resolution at this time would, indeed, be
very problematic for everything that we’re trying to do in the Middle
East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally
for this," she said.

The House resolution, which has a parallel measure in the Senate
pipeline, would be "very destabilizing for our efforts in Iraq and
Afghanistan," Rice added.

Rejecting the genocide label, Turkey argues that 250,000 to 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia during
World War I.

Turkey has already warned that passage of the House resolution
could force it to bar the United States from a key military base in
its south.

Gates said that about 70 percent of all Iraq-bound US air cargo,
95 percent of tough new mine-resistant vehicles and one-third of the
military’s fuel transit through Turkey.

US commanders "believe, clearly, that access to airfields and to
the roads and so on in Turkey would be very much put at risk if this
resolution passes and the Turks react as strongly as we believe they
will," he said.

In a letter Tuesday to Bush, new Turkish President Abdullah Gul
"drew attention to the serious problems that will emerge in bilateral
relations if the bill is adopted."

But the measure has strong backing in the House, where the Armenians’
wartime plight has been likened to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.

The resolution authored by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, whose
California district contains the country’s largest ethnic-Armenian
community, has won the backing of at least 226 co-sponsors in the
435-seat House.

"The United States has a compelling historical and moral reason to
recognize the Armenian genocide, which cost a million and a half
people their lives," Schiff said.

"But we also have a powerful contemporary reason as well — how can
we take effective action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack
the will to condemn genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?" he said.

The resolution says the World War I killings of Armenians was a
"genocide" that should be acknowledged fully in US foreign policy
towards Turkey, along with "the consequences of the failure to realize
a just resolution."

As the House vote has loomed, the US administration has deployed a
phalanx of top officials to cajole members into line for fear of the
impact on relations with a prickly but pivotal ally in the restive
Middle East.

Late last month, all eight former US secretaries of state still alive
wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to withdraw her support
of the genocide measure.

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian responded that it was
"quite unfortunate that eight experienced diplomats would buy into
Turkish manipulation."

GUL TELLS BUSH "DON’T DO IT" WHILE BAGIS LAMBASTS PRO-ARMENIAN BILL

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 10 2007

President Abdullah Gul has sent a letter to U.S. President George
W. Bush and indicated that "the adoption of a bill currently before the
U.S. House of Representatives on the Armenian allegations regarding
1915 incidents would create problems in relations between Turkey and
the U.S.".

In his letter, Gul thanked President Bush for his efforts regarding
the bill.

Foreign Relations Committee at the U.S. House of Representatives will
vote the bill on Wednesday.

Meanwhile in Washington, Justice & Development (AK) Party Deputy
Chairman Egemen Bagis said "the bill on the Armenian allegations
belonged to the garbage can".

Egemen Bagis travelled to Washington accompanied by Republican People’s
Party Deputy Sukru Elekdag (Istanbul and Nationalist Movement Party
Istanbul MP Gunduz Aktan, to hold talks with officials from the US
Administration and Congress.

The Turkish delegation will tell the Americans about the negative
consequences that the bill would have on Turkey-US relations.

"I am worried because we are face to face with another move by ethnic
nationalists in the US who are motivated to cast a shadow on Turkey’s
past and present," told Bagis reporters in Washington.

Bagis said he did not want to define these (ethnic nationalists) as
Armenians and stressed that they did not represent the Armenian nation.

"These are narrow minded, spiteful, racist nationalist militants or
so-called genocide merchants. They make trade over history.

Unfortunately, for some people this bill has become the way for
earning bread".

Bagis regarded the bill as a new initiative launched by "these
militants" exploiting the weak spots of the US Congress against Turkey.

"We are here for this paper (bill) to be crumpled and thrown to the
garbage can, where it belongs," said Bagis.

Bagis emphasized that the US Congress was judging Turkey in a way
that far exceeds the limits of its authority and said the bill would
cast a heavy blow to both Turkey-US and Turkish-Armenian relations.

Bagis warned that the members of congress that backed the initiative
would loose the whole Turkish nation for the sake of a few hundred
thousand votes.

"Somebody has to tell them, what they will loose in the Middle East
and Central Asia, if they lost Turkey. It is enough just to take
a glance at the map. We want common sense, logic and intellect to
triumph and we want them to step back from this grave mistake. If
this bill is adopted, it will remain as a piece of paper that is
impossible to implement. But the heart of the Turkish Nation will
be broken. Otherwise the common sense will win. Then wide areas of
collaboration will be open before us and a process that involves peace,
justice and development for everyone will begin," Bagis stressed.

TURKEY WARNS BILATERAL TIES CAN BE DAMAGED IF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL PASES IN THE US CONGRESS

ArmRadio – Public Radio
Oct 10 2007
Armenia

President Abdullah Gul has written to US President George W. Bush
warning him that bilateral ties will be damaged if Congress approves
a bill recognizing the killings of Armenians in the last years of
the Ottoman Empire as genocide, the Turkish daily News reports.

"In his letter our president thanked President Bush for his efforts
(to block the bill) and drew attention to the problems it would create
in bilateral relations if accepted," said the presidential office in
a statement.

If the bill passes, Ankara might cut logistic support to US troops
in Iraq. The bulk of supplies for US troops in Iraq pass via the
Ýncirlik air base in southern Turkey.

In the meantime a senior lawmaker from the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) said the place of the Armenian bill was
a dustbin.

The AKP’s deputy Egemen Baðýþ is lobbying in the United States against
the controversial bill together with opposition deputies.

Baðýþ is accompanied by a deputy from the Republican People’s Party
(CHP), Þukru Elekdað, and the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP)
deputy, Gunduz Aktan, according to the Turkish Daily News.

–Boundary_(ID_oxlJSInIzEu3z2HQkGCrQw)–

GEORGIAN ARMENIANS TO GATHER AT U.S. EMBASSY IN SUPPORT OF H.RES.106

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.10.2007 15:51 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The center of cooperation of Armenians will hold a
rally at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi October 10, Levon Isakhanyan,
representative of the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

"People will gather in support of the Armenian Genocide Resolution,"
he said.

"At least 100 people, not only Armenians but also Yezids and
representatives of other friendly nations as well as Armenian Genocide
heirs, will come," Isakhanyan said.

ROY EXUM: "MR. AVO" PLAYS HERE ON FRIDAY
by Roy Exum

The Chattanoogan, TN
20.asp
Oct 8 2007

About 15 years ago, on one a cold winter’s day, Phil Windham and I
decided we should see how we’d do as modern-day pirates so we went
down into the Caribbean and spent an evermore delicious week trying
very hard to lay siege to the islands.

Late one morning at the Hyatt resort outside of San Juan, we had a
breakfast caller and neither of us knew at the time our lives would
be enriched because of the portly old man in the crisp white Brioni
suit and stunning Panama hat who shared the day with us.

That same old man, now in his 80s but with eyes that still twinkle
like the stars over the West Indies, will be in Chattanooga this
Friday night. Avo Uvezian, one of the most wonderful gentlemen this
world has ever known, will play the piano and share his laughter at
a very exclusive gathering down on Cherry Street.

Sadly, the elegant new restaurant that Phil named in tribute to "Mr.

Avo" is too small to handle what would be a huge crowd and the kind of
ticket required to spend the evening with "The Ambassador to the Good
Life" is also prohibitive to those who do not fully comprehend the
curl of blue smoke off the end of arguably the world’s finest cigar.

But for the 60 people who will step forward and buy a commemorative box
of Avo’s best signature cigars, the Ambassador himself will autograph
that very box on a night that I can assure you will last long after
he’s played the last song of the evening.

His legend began when he, an Armenian, would play his piano for the
Allied troops during World War II in Syria and Lebanon, back when
"our boys" were on R&R and his gentleness, his great kindness, and
his absolute mastery of that piano even back then was so real some
men across this nation still recall it almost 70 years later.

Space prohibits the whole tale – it would take quite a book – but
fast-forward to the heady Palmas del Mar resort in the Caribbean in
the mid-1980s. By then Mr. Avo’s flair with his piano and his lifetime
of savvy had made him a very wealthy man.

But his childhood roots, his unquenchable work ethic and what can only
be described as his vow to the "good life" kept him in his piano bar
night after night. He played because he loved it, don’t you see?

For example, as an accomplished musician and composer, he wrote a rash
of songs but you’ll recognize one called "Strangers in the Night." With
all due respect to the late Mr. Sinatra, to hear Mr. Avo play it is
to hear the first birds sing on an Easter morning.

That day Phil and I spent with him in San Juan was unbelievable.

After breakfast the three of us retired to a deserted piano bar in
the Hyatt complex. Any "old standard" you can name Mr. Avo can play.

His hands move effortlessly, he can carry on an easy conversation
as he rolls from one song to the next, but it is his warmth that is
most magnetic.

Mr. Avo doesn’t need any music sheets or any of that. After just 15
minutes, there must have been a crowd of 50 jammed around that deserted
piano. The general manager of the place, having no idea who he was,
wanted to hire him right then!

Now the deal is that back when he was holding court with the swanky
in the ’80s, he used to get these handmade cigars rolled and, at night
when the fat cats would gather around his baby grand with those tanned,
long-legged women, Mr. Avo would share from his private stash.

As is the way in a blessed life, he was constantly running out. After
he was repeatedly urged to create his own brand, he did it in a way
that only adds to the legend.

He quickly learned who the best tobacco man in the world was at the
time and he sought out a genius named Henkie Kellner.

After Henkie and he cut a deal to produce the best cigar avoid of Cuban
soil, Mr. Avo immediately balked at signing the contract. "No, Henkie,
I must give you 25 percent more than we’ve agreed. You are worth it,
and probably more, but I cannot leave like this. Add 25 percent more
for you and I’ll sign."

There are some who laugh at such craziness, but they fail to understand
you never sneer at crafty. The moment Mr. Avo thus honored Mr. Kellner,
he cunningly assured his brand would have the absolute best of the
leaf, the most delicate shade wrapper, the perfect draw.

Don’t you see? A few years later, when the "cigar delight" arrived
in the United States, an Avo cigar was the benchmark, the chalk,
the best of the best. And, when he finally sold his brand to the
European Davidoffs several years ago, he did so for … well, many
millions of dollars.

Part of the deal was that the much-infatuated Davidoff dynasty could
tout Mr. Avo as its "Ambassador to the Good Life," that this beautiful
Armenian who once played for the boys in World War II would continue
to spread well over a half-century of that warmth and kindness and
exquisite piano talent all the world over.

Believe me, it is one of life’s richest stories.

When he comes here on Friday, the lucky ones will see the laugh lines
in his face are now deep enough to plant a row of Connecticut Shade.

Then, if they’ll add a dart of fresh lime juice to a neat glass of
top-shelf rum and combine the concoction with one of those Avo cigars,
they’ll hear the music, the glorious music, to which only those who
adore "the good life" can properly dance.

Trust me. When Phil Windham and I got to know Mr. Avo, we got to know
all about it, what is described in the Caribbean as a smooth sea and
a forgiving wind. This is about the good life.

For further information on Friday evening, which will include a lavish
dinner and an elegant crowd, please call Burns’ Tobacconist or the
Chattanooga Billiard Club as fast as you possibly can.