Author: Antonian Lara

CO-CHAIRS NOT TO VISIT THE REGION BY AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS’ MEETING

Today, Azerbaijan
April 3 2007

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating in the settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will not visit the region by the meeting
of Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and
Vartan Oskanian scheduled for April this year.

Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov told the APA that the mediators will
possibly visit the region by summer.

Yuri Merzlyakov had a meeting with OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
president Goran Lennmarker, who was visiting Moscow along with the
delegation from Swedish parliament.

Swedish parliament told the APA that Lennmarker does his best to
discuss the Nagorno Karabakh.

Merzlyakov informed Goran Lennmarker about the meeting of Azerbaijani
and Armenian Foreign Ministers and previous two meetings of the
co-chairs. Lennmarker expressed hope that the conflict will soon
be settled.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists that
the co-chairs phoned him and offered him to meet with his Armenian
counterpart in one of European cities in late April or early in May.

Elmar Mammadyarov said that date of the meeting depends on the
ministers’ schedule and will be specified soon.

The minister noted that both Azerbaijan and Armenia expressed their
positions in Geneva. "As parliamentary elections will be held in
Armenia in mid May, the co-chairs are trying to arrange the meeting
by the elections," he said.

URL:

TURKISH EDUCATIONISTS SEEK REFORM TO CURB ‘BLIND’ NATIONALISM
Emma Ross-Thomas

The Brunei Times, Brunei Darussalam
April 3 2007

HAPPY is he who says he is a Turk, pipe hundreds of uniformed children
in unison, lined up in the playground before a golden statue of
Turkey’s revered father Ataturk, for a daily pledge of hard work
and sacrifice.

The enthusiastic chanting ends and the children file into school,
past an inscription saying their first duty is to defend Turkey
and another of the national anthem texts which appear again on the
classroom walls and preface of all their textbooks.

When they move up to high school, they will take a weekly class
from army officers about the military’s exploits. Their school books
will tell them European powers have their sights set on Anatolia and
Turkey’s geography makes it vulnerable "to all kinds of internal and
external threats".

Textbooks are peppered with the sayings of Kemal Ataturk, who founded
modern Turkey in 1923 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

"Homeland … we are all a sacrifice for you!" comes particularly
recommended by one textbook’s authors.

These are just some of the features of Turkey’s education system that
reformist teachers and activists want changed. They say it encourages
blind nationalism something Turkey is looking at more seriously since
the ultranationalist-inspired murder in January of Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink. Political rows with the European Union, which
Ankara hopes to join, have also fanned nationalism especially in an
election year but many experts say the seeds are first sown at school.

This government has reformed the curriculum in a way teachers say
makes students more active and reduces traditional rote learning,
but the emphasis on nationalism remains.

"There’s still some emphasis on militarism, the importance of being
martyred, the importance of going to war, dying in war and so on," said
Batuhan Aydagul, deputy coordinator of the Education Reform Initiative.

Teachers also say they feel pressure not to stray from the official
line or curriculum in class.

"If you present some arguments which are the opposite of the
established arguments … you might get reaction, absolutely, from
students, from other teachers, from directors negative reactions of
course," said one teacher who declined to be named.

His colleague, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, laughed at
the idea of criticising Ataturk in a history lesson, saying to do so
would spark investigation by prosecutors. "They think … if you do
such a thing you confuse their minds and confusion is not good for
young people," the first teacher said.

But the textbooks could be confusing for some: while foreign historians
say Ottoman forces massacred Armenians in 1915, high school history
books here say it was the other way around.

"It must not be forgotten that in eastern Anatolia the Armenians
carried out genocide," one 2005-dated book reads.

In its latest progress report the EU also criticised the portrayal
of minorities such as Armenians, saying further work was needed to
remove discriminatory language from textbooks.

Nationalism is not the only problem with schools in Turkey, which,
hemmed in by the budget restraints of an International Monetary Fund
accord, spends little on education.

With a population of 74 million, Turkey already struggles to find
jobs for its ever-growing army of young people.

But in terms of spending per head as a proportion of the economy,
Turkey spends least among OECD countries.

Primary school teacher Ayse Panus said parents at her public school
where there are 21 teachers for 680 pupils make contributions of
about 50 lira (US$35) a year to keep it going.

Turkey is also around the bottom of the OECD league in terms of
years spent at school, the proportion of the population with tertiary
education and the maths ability of 15-year-olds.

Teachers are low-paid and spend the first years of their career in
a state-assigned posting.

This government has increased spending, but experts say more is needed
to narrow the gap in Turkey’s two-tier system between high quality
selective academies and regular schools. Enrolment has also improved,
especially for girls helped by a high-profile government and Unicef-
backed campaign to persuade conservative rural parents to send their
daughters to school.

Citing such progress, the EU says Turkey is well prepared for accession
when it comes to education, but many disagree.

"On the one hand they want to be in Europe, and on the other … they
are encouraging the feeling that there are enemies all around,"
said Panus.

The Decatur Daily, AL
April 1 2007

`Skylark Farm’ illustrates genocide of Armenians

By William S. Allen
Special to THE DAILY

This book has been compared to `Schindler’s List.’ In the sense that
both books contain descriptions of genocide, that is true. In other
ways, they are not at all alike. `Skylark Farm’ is more personal,
and, if you can believe it possible, more intense.

Antonia Arslan, an ethnic Armenian, has lived her entire life in
Italy and this novel was originally written in Italian. The
translator has done a wonderful job of capturing the melding of
Armenian and Italian word imagery and thought patterns.

Even the voice of the narrator, which at first seems overly
intrusive, soon becomes more like that of your favorite aunt telling
stories of the old days.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire was in
decline. It had become known as `The sick man of Europe.’ The
government, as is often the case, chose a scapegoat to divert
attention from its failings. Not for the first time, the scapegoats
were the Armenian citizens of Turkey. The Armenians had endured
violence and pillaging in the past, but had remained in the empire.
It was home.

In 1915, leaders of the empire began a new program, one of
`relocation.’ Armenian men and boys were rounded up and slaughtered.
Women, girls and the elderly were forced from their homes and sent on
long marches toward Syria with the false hope they would be safe
there. Thousands died on the way, many of starvation and exhaustion.

Kurdish bandits and the Turkish guards escorting the columns looted
the women’s belongings, practiced wholesale rape and killed
indiscriminately.

Story in two parts

In telling this story, Arslan has divided `Skylark Farm’ into two
main sections. In the first, the reader is introduced to Sempad, a
prosperous pharmacist, and his extended family. Sempad looks forward
to a planned visit by his brother, Yerwant, who left home forty years
earlier at the age of thirteen and has become a doctor in Italy.
Sempad spends much of his time making improvements to the family
homestead, Skylark Farm, in anticipation of this visit.

Like many Armenians of the time, Sempad chooses to downplay the
lessons of history. No one imagines the reality that they will soon
face. In vivid detail, the ending of part one reveals how wrong they
are.

The second section of the book describes the journey of the survivors
of Sempad’s family following the initial massacres.

Their goal is to escape to Italy and join Yerwant. Individual Turks,
Greeks and others assist the steadily dwindling family during their
ordeal and Arslan gives credit where it is due.

She does not engage in blanket condemnation of any group, although
the temptation to do so must surely have been great.

This is a novel, but one which is based on the real experiences of
members of the author’s family. It is well worth reading both for its
literary value and as a reminder that many peoples have suffered the
cruelties of genocide in the past. Sadly, that cruelty continues in
parts of the world today.

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 31 2007

‘Stability will continue for the next five years’

Saturday , 31 March 2007

The 2007 presidential elections will not cause instability in the
country, according to Alarko Holding board of directors Chairman
Ýshak Alaton.
Critical of rumors that the presidential elections will create chaos,
Alaton said, "There are so many rumors that the country will
experience a crisis because of the elections, and that truly tires
me," adding that people need to avoid such debates and focus on
getting the job done.

In an exclusive interview with Today’s Zaman, the chairman of one of
the leading industrial groups in Turkey, Alaton provided his personal
assessments on northern Iraq, Armenia and the economic effects of the
presidential elections. "I still believe that the minds responsible
for serving this country will provide a rational solution," he said
and noted that he does not expect a crisis to erupt after the
elections. "Stability will continue. That is what I believe, I hope
and I expect. Turkey will find a solution to maintain stability," the
chairman emphasized. Alaton expects stability to continue for another
five years because he believes a one-party government will win in the
coming elections.

Alaton described the initiatives of nongovernmental organizations to
meet with politicians as a positive step. "As members of civil
society, we will discuss with the prime minister what we can do to
improve the image of Turkey," Alaton said and added that Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan has provided sincere and valuable
support to the business world.

According to Alaton, politicians must be aware of the public’s
interest at all times. `Politicians should be able to understand
public interests without middlemen. In other words, politicians need
to meet directly with the public,’ Alaton said, describing Erdoðan’s
steps in this regard as `modern’ and `very smart.’

`Every party must be able to communicate and take responsibility for
their actions. But unfortunately, some parties do not. They just make
critiques. They try to find flaws, but then they go overboard. My
question is, what do they plan to do when and if they become the
leading party? The opposition parties have yet to answer this
question,’ Alaton said.

`Both Democrats and Republicans in America joined hand-in-hand to
overcome the Iraqi problem. Here in Turkey, we have the Southeast
problem. Why can’t we manage to cooperate?’ Critical of the lack of
concrete information regarding developments in Iraq, the businessman
said: `The formation of a Kurdistan in northern Iraq is a reality. We
all know and see this. We say there isn’t a Kurdistan, but in reality
there is. In fact, there has been a Kurdistan since 1991. Kurdistan
was born the day America told Saddam Hussein that he could not move
past the 36th parallel. Turkey should have been able to say, `Yes a
Kurdistan was formed that day.’ Turkey should have been able to
announce its own policy. But no. Those who spoke of Kurdistan were
imprisoned. Although Kurdistan has been formed, this is a reality we
still refuse to accept. We refuse to receive the president of Iraq in
Ankara. We warn the prime minister not to meet with him. So you see,
we have this odd understanding of administration and government. I
still can’t make sense of it.’ Alaton also highlighted the need to
acknowledge the economic aspect of relations with Iraq and said, `The
engine of politics is economic realities.’

Referring to the tense relations with Armenia and Turkey’s relations
with Azerbaijan, the top man from Alarko Holding said Turkey must
pursue balanced policies. `To evaluate the sincerity of Armenian
relations, Turkey should open entry points. This would foster
economic relations between the two countries. There are people on the
other side who are hopeful that entry points will open and business
relations will be developed. I think they are right. With the
policies to pressure our neighbors, our own citizens are forced to
live in poverty. We don’t have the right to do this. The bureaucracy
in Ankara does not have the right to make those people poor.’

Asked to comment on the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities
Exchanges’ (TOBB) program to bring together Israeli and Palestinian
businessmen in America for the Erez Industrial Zone, Alaton said:
`I’ve always believed that businessmen are peace leaders. I think
this is a valid conclusion. If peace is on the way, then businessmen
are the first to arrive.’ Nevertheless, Turkish businessmen have an
important role. They should develop employment opportunities for
Palestinians in the Erez region and prevent tension between Israel
and Palestine, he said.

Alaton told Today’s Zaman that he would visit Israel with a 55-member
delegation from a pro-Israeli lobby, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC). `The delegation will arrive in Istanbul
and then head to Tel Aviv. This is a visit to evaluate the
developments first hand. The delegation expects to submit a report
before April 24 to the US congress.’

The delegation will also make contact with business tycoons in
Istanbul, meetings to which Alaton has been invited. `The goal is to
eliminate the possibility of the Armenian genocide legislation
passing the Senate,’ Alaton said, explaining that the legislation,
which would accept that World War I events constituted genocide,
would benefit no one. Referring to the Hrant Dink murder, he said:
`It was a big loss, everyone knows this. The murder of Hrant Dink was
like a bullet against Turkey. Turkey lost a very important figure.
Not only did the murder imply that Turkey could not protect its
civilians, but it struck a severe blow to Turkey’s image. … Turks
took a stance because he was a different person. He was a person who
truly wanted the best for Turkey and sincerely loved Turkey. He had
announced that he would not accept the genocide, and the diaspora
took a stance against him.’

Alaton was critical of the lengthy process of the court and said the
justice system works on very limited resources. Alaton said officials
are underpaid and that that leads to corruption. The search for
reform in Turkey begins with the judicial system. The judicial system
will have to win the trust and respect of the citizens. The Turkish
businessman also said Article 301 must be removed if Turkey wants to
mend its image in foreign countries. He said `the mentality that
refuses to debate the article and that refuses to ban it must change.
They need to stop saying that similar articles can be found in just
about every country.’ Alaton believes the Constitution needs a
make-over but that Ankara’s atmosphere is dominated by fears. We need
to eliminate these fears.

Alaton also criticized policies disfavoring foreign capital flow.
`Turkey could have been today’s China 50 years ago. China does not
export manpower, it imports foreign capital. We could have been
smarter 50 years ago. If in the 1960s our bureaucracy had been more
rational, Anatolia would have been an EU member today. But
unfortunately, that fanatic style of bureaucracy has made us suffer.
… Ankara’s bureaucracy is disconnected from the public. It has a
mentality that is afraid to give anything. We have a bureaucracy that
dreams only of land. It overlooks human needs and perceives the
private sector as an advantage. However, the real goal of life is to
make people happy, not to own land. My people our poor but my land is
big.’

———————————————– —

Turkey can win the Southeast by developing it

Ýshak Alaton believes the problem in the Southeast can be resolved
through the economy. Development in Turkey is unbalanced, Alaton says
and adds: `While there are rich people in the country, Anatolia is
very poor. This is because we have encouraged people to move to Izmir
and Istanbul. We haven’t encouraged investment in the emptied
Southeast region. They say a hungry dog will break into a bakery.
People want bread. We can’t leave them hungry. These people need to
be fed.’

31.03.2007

TURHAN BOZKURT ÝSTANBUL

UN FLAG FLAG WAS FLYING AT HALF-MAST ON MARCH 28

ArmRadio.am
30.03.2007 15:29

On the day of mourning on the occasion of the death of RA Prime
Minister Andranik Margaryan on March 28 the flag of the UN was
lowered. During a briefing at the UN Central Office in New York UN
Secretary General’s Spokesman Farhan Hak said that "the flag was
lowered as a sign of mourning announced connected with the death of
Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan.

RUSSIA TO WITHDRAW FROM MILITARY BASE IN GEORGIA

Xinhua, China
March 30 2007

MOSCOW, March 30 (Xinhua) — Russia will start withdraw of military
facilities from its base in Akhakalaki, Georgia, in April12 and
conclude in late May, indicating a new step towards the full pullout
of Russian military bases from the former soviet country.

The military equipment will be transported back to Russia or to Gyumri,
Russian base in Armenia during the pullout, the Itar-Tass news agency
reported on Wednesday. The heavy machinery and armaments have been
sent to Armenia and Russia last year.

Russian servicemen will leave Akhalkalaki and the base will
be transferred to Georgia by July 1, Itar-Tass said, citing a
representative of the base command.

The withdraw from Batumi, Russia’s last military base in Georgia,
started two years ago and will resume within a month and conclude
in 2008.

Russia inherited four military bases in Georgia from the Soviet Union
and has withdrawn two of them. Nearly 3,000 Russian servicemen are
still deployed at Georgia’s Akhalkalaki and Batumi Russian bases.

The two countries signed an agreement in March, 2006, to set out
the deadline and details of the pullout of those bases. Both sides
agreed to complete the phased withdrawal of the Russian bases and
other military installations in Georgia by the end of 2008.

U.S. SENATE VOTES FOR WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS FROM IRAQ TILL MARCH 31, 2008

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.03.2007 16:03 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ In the Senate, Democrats affirm a measure setting
a timetable of next spring for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Iraq. The deadline is attached to a $122 billion spending bill funding
the war in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of the fiscal year.

By a vote of 50-48, the Senate voted to keep in the funding bill a
provision requiring that troops be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008,
with the withdrawal beginning within 4 months of the bill’s enactment.

Last week, the House approved a similar measure, which sets a timeline
of Aug. 31, 2008, for a withdrawal.

The White House is threatening to veto either bill, and it’s looking
likely that President Bush will get a chance to carry out that threat.

The key vote is over whether to strip from the Senate bill language
that sets a U.S. troop withdrawal goal of March 31, 2008, and calls for
that withdrawal to begin within four months of the bill’s enactment.

Republican critics trying to remove the deadlines from the bill
accused Democrats of micromanaging the war.

But Republicans have also decided not to filibuster the bill.

Senate Republican leaders have decided to let the process move
forward because it is likely that a negotiated compromise between the
Senate and House will result in a bill that includes a timetable for
withdrawal, and it is just as likely that the bill will ultimately
be vetoed by President Bush.

Final passage of the complete spending measure is expected later this
week, reports the NPR.

ANDRANIK MARGARYAN: BEING A PRIME MINISTER IS LIKE BEING A GLADIATOR
Alisa Gevorgyan

"Radiolur"
28.03.2007 15:08

The collection of Andranik Margaryan’s speeches and interviews
was issued in 2005 under the title "There is no Alternative
to Independence." Here Andranik Margaryan showed to the public
"without tie.

Some episodes of the book are presented below.

– In case of great will it may be possible to return something from
the past, or somehow change the reality, but what is predetermined
is undisputable.

Everyone has his share of fortune. Do you believe in destiny?

– I have prejudices in this regard: what should happen will happen,
but everything will occur in its time. Maybe omens also exist, but I
think these are restricted. I think I still have a certain store of
life, since many times I have managed to come out of most difficult
situations. God has not created people faultless. Therefore, like
everyone, I have week features, but now I’m not going to enlist all
of these since I Don’t want to give an opportunity to my political
opponents to use my weaknesses.

– What would you like to have most of all?

– Peace of mind, because there are so many problems, finding solutions
to which is very difficult, since it does not depend only on you and
your friends.

There are problems the solution of which does not depend on Armenia,
either.

That is why we must have strong statehood, we must be united to
resist all the trials, as it was the case in early 1990s. To be short,
there are many difficulties, and there will always be.

– What did the Prime Minister’s position give you and what did it take?

– It gave me great experience, patience and the capacity to listen
to others. What it took was my health, but I still have some in store.

– Do you take vacations?

– I have not taken a vacation in the past 10 years.

– Hadn’t you recovered on 1999?

– I underwent a serious operation on October 15, 1999. But today
I have no health complaints. I hope I will still live long without
applying to a doctor.

– Is there anything you are proud of?

– It’s our independence. During the years of struggle for freedom and
independence none of us could expect that we would see our independent
statehood.

But we were assured we had to continue the struggle at least for the
generations to come. Today we are alive and we see this independent
statehood and participate in its creation. There can be no greater
pride than this.

– What do you feel sorry for?

– I do not feel sorry for the past. I simply think that time could
have been used more efficiently.

– What will you wish?

– I wish everyone to be far from misfortunes, to be far from Prime
Minister’ s position, from Government and this kind of things. Being
a Prime Minister is like being a gladiator: you either fail or be
killed. When assuming the position, I knew that people would remember
what I have not done, since there are so many problems, that one cannot
resolve these all together. The glance of the people is directed at
the Prime Minister.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 26 2007

Over 100 migrants seized in central Moscow – FMS
13:11 | 26/ 03/ 2007

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – More than a hundred illegal migrant
workers have been detained in a police raid in central Moscow, the
Federal Migration Service said Monday.

"More than a hundred illegal foreigners were detained by police in a
flat in Moscow," the service said. "Most of them are from Armenia and
Kyrgyzstan, and are in breach of rules governing the stay of foreign
citizens in Russia".

This raid was part of a recent campaign to tackle illegal migration
in Russia, which is suffering from an illegal "migration boom" mainly
by those from former-Soviet republics arriving in Moscow and other
major cities in search of work.

According to the Federal Migration Service, over 20 million people
come to Russia every year and half are in the country illegally.

In January, Russia toughened its migration policy, reducing to 40% of
the total workforce the number of migrants allowed to work in
markets.

>From April 1, 2007, migrants will be banned from working in markets
entirely, a move designed to bring order to the sector and curb a
wave of ethnically motivated crimes in the country.

Some one and a half million civil cases were filed for violations of
migration laws in 2005, and approximately 57,000 illegal immigrants
were deported.

Controversy over cross grows amid church’s reopening

Arminfo
2007-03-23 20:40:00

In advance of the opening of the newly restored Armenian Akhtamar
Church on Lake Van, a new controversy has emerged in Ankara over
whether or not the church’s steeple should have a metal cross placed
on it, reports Zaman daily (Turkey).

Akhtamar Church has undergone restoration that was undertaken at the
behest of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Minister of Culture
and Tourism Atilla Koc. The church will be reopened to the public at a
special ceremony on March 29.

Meanwhile, Patriarch Mesrob II, the spiritual leader of the Armenian
Orthodox community in Turkey, has sent a written request to the
Culture and Tourism Ministry asking that a cross, prepared by the
Armenian Patriarchate itself, be placed on the steeple of the Akhtamar
Church. The sentiments in the letter from Partriarch Mesrob are echoed
in a similar letter sent by a group of Armenian intellectuals and
artists to the ministry.

With no answer yet forthcoming regarding what is to be done about the
cross, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has reportedly sent letters
to the Foreign Ministry to obtain further views on the matter. Whether
or not the cross will be placed atop Akhtamar Church in advance of the
March 29 opening appears to depend on the views on this matter
expressed by authorities at the Foreign Ministry.

While the Ministry of Culture and Tourism intends for the
1,100-year-old church on Lake Van’s Akhtamar Island to be opened to
the public as a "museum," the Armenian community is pressing for the
church to be available for religious services. On the subject of the
placement of the metal cross atop the church, Patriarch Mesrob
references past photographs of the historical church as the reason why
the ministry should allow the cross to be placed there.

"A cross can be clearly seen on the steeple of the church in all old
photographs of it." The official name of the church also arises in the
content of Mesrob’s letter, with the patriarch referring to the church
as " Lake Van’s Agtamar Island Surp Hac Armenian Church."

Within this framework, the Armenian patriarch also suggests that
annual September Sacred Cross Festival be called the Agtamar Festival,
noting that this would have the additional advantage of drawing local
and foreign tourists to the area, with choral groups from Istanbul and
folkloric dancers from Van adding to the content of the festival.

The patriarch’s letter also focuses on the possible religious services
that might take place at Akhtamar Church during the Sacred Cross
Festival, explaining, "There could be a religious service in the
church’s old nave, followed by choral groups and folklore groups."

Patriarch Mesrob’s letter ends by noting that he is "praying to dear
Allah for the continued success" of the ministry’s restoration
efforts. In a separate letter on the subject, a group of Armenian
intellectuals and artists request that Akhtamar Church, which they
refer to as "Ahdamar Church," be turned over permanently to the
Armenian community in Turkey. They also note that a cross similar to
the one found on the church must be placed there again, and that even
if the church is not to be opened for religious services, the cross
must still be placed there as a part of restoration efforts.