Author: Arbi Tashjian

Agence France Presse — English
September 25, 2005 Sunday 1:33 AM GMT
Tensions high as Turkey’s EU membership talks approach
by Lorne Cook
BRUSSELS
Just a week before it is due to start long-awaited EU membership
talks, Turkey’s relations with the bloc are under new strain and
there is still no guarantee they will even go ahead.
Despite weeks of wrangling, European Union ambassadors cannot agree
on a negotiating framework for the aim and scope of the talks and
they only have one meeting before the whole process is slated to
begin on October 3.
With time fast running out, relations between Ankara and Brussels
have been characterised by increasingly hostile rhetoric and more is
likely to come this week at the European Parliament.
Britain, the current EU president, maintains that progress has been
made but diplomats say Austria refuses to cede ground until the
framework refers to a “privileged partnership” with Turkey, rather
than full membership.
“I would find it grotesque that membership negotiations are being
started with Turkey and at the same time Croatia is left waiting
outside,” Austria’s conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said
earlier this month.
Croatia’s own drive to join the EU, which hinges on its cooperation
with the UN war crimes tribunal, is gaining momentum and one EU
diplomat has said that “some sort of signal would not be a surprise”
on October 3.
Turkey’s place in Europe was again questioned three months ago after
French and Dutch voters rejected a planned EU constitution, in part
over concerns about absorbing the relatively poor mainly-Muslim,
though secular, state.
Ankara aggravated its case on July 29 when, while signing an
extension to a customs accord to include the 10 newest EU members, it
issued a declaration that its signature did not amount to recognising
member state Cyprus.
Turkey has steadfastly refused to endorse the internationally
recognised Greek-Cypriot government since its troops occupied the
island in 1974 in response to a Greek-engineered coup.
The declaration sent the EU into a diplomatic spin.
The presidency struggled to draft a counter-declaration, but the
members, including Cyprus, finally agreed that Turkey must recognise
the Nicosia government before it joins; some time after 2015,
perhaps.
As the Union debated what position to take, Ankara grew impatient and
vented its frustration in terms not found in the EU’s diplomatic
dictionary.
“After everything we have done, they are still asking whether
accession talks should begin or not,” said Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan. “To raise certain questions that have no pertinence
is not worthy of international diplomatic ethics. It is rude.”
But a Turkish court decision to ban a conference last Friday on the
massacre of the Armenians under the Ottoman Empire was met with some
of the firmest language heard at the European Commission in months.
“We strongly deplore this new attempt to prevent the Turkish society
from discussing its history,” a spokeswoman said. “We consider also
that the timing of this decision … looks like yet another
provocation.”
With October 3 closing in, the negotiating framework is the major
hurdle.
But European parliamentarians are also set to debate Ankara’s case on
Wednesday, with the EU ambassadors meeting on Thursday, before
officially adopting the customs accord.
At issue is whether the declaration means Turkey’s real intention is
not to fully implement the accord, given also that it has a standing
ban on Cypriot ships and aircraft using its ports and airports.
The power of the assembly to block Ankara is negligible but the
debate will focus wider attention in the mainly Christian bloc at a
very important time.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMINFO News Agency
September 21, 2005
ARMENIA’S INDEPENDENCE IS INDEPENDENCE OF NKR: NKR PRESIDENT
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 21. ARMINFO. Armenia’s independence is the
independence of Nagorno Karabkh Rpeublic, NKR Presidnet Arkady
Ghoukassyan said at Yerablur Memorial today.
Armenia’s independence is the pan Armenian military, political,
economic and moral victory. Without it there would be no independence
of NKR. Speaking about the Karabakh peace process Ghoukassyan said
that the process is underway. It might have been quicker but this
depends not on us only. We knew that this would be a long and hard
road, Ghoukassyan said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH POLITICIAN FACES SWISS PROBES OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL
Agence France Presse
September 19, 2005 Monday 3:53 PM GMT
Swiss justice authorities announced Monday that they are investigating
a Turkish politician who said the killings of Armenians during World
War I could not be classified as genocide.
Dogu Perincek, leader of the small leftist Turkish Workers Party,
is suspected of breaching Switzerland’s anti-racism laws, which ban
any denial of genocidal killing, Bern investigators said.
Perincek fell foul of police who recorded a speech he made at a rally
organised in Bern Sunday by his party.
Separately, justice officials in Zurich said they were set to launch an
investigation after Perincek repeated his remarks at a press conference
in the city Monday, saying the genocide claim was a “historical lie.”
The politician said he was the victim of a “witch hunt.”
Perincek is a regular visitor to Switzerland and it is not his first
brush with justice officials — his latest trip followed a summons
by investigators in Lausanne, who are looking into similar comments
he made there in the past and are due to question him Tuesday.
Perincek said he would stick to his position, and provide officials
with “historical proof” to counter genocide claims.
The politician was detained and questioned briefly in July after a
speech at a meeting near Zurich. After his release, he repeated his
denials in an interview with a Swiss newspaper and said Switzerland’s
anti-racism laws were tantamount to “medieval inquisition.”
Perincek also faces a complaint lodged in mid-July by the
Swiss-Armenian Association following a speech he gave here in May.
Perincek’s previous tussles with the Swiss sparked a spat with Turkey,
with Ankara calling off a visit by Swiss Economy Minister Joseph
Deiss in July.
Turkish authorities have pressed the Swiss government over his case
and other probes of alleged genocide denial — including one by
leading Turkish historian Yusuf Halacoglu at a conference near Zurich.
But Swiss officials have consistently responded that the country’s
justice system is independent of the government.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
Like their counterparts in France and Canada and a number of other
countries, Swiss lawmakers have accepted that the slaughter was an
act of genocide.
Turkey has acknowledged that massacres took place under the Ottoman
Empire, but contests the figures and the use of the term genocide.
Turkish authorities say that 300,000 Armenians and as many Turks
were killed in a civil war when the Armenians, backed by Russia,
rose up against the empire.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

UN REFORMS BENEFICIAL FOR ARMENIA

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The discussion which took place at
the Yerevan Office of the UN Public Information Department on
September 15, was dedicated to the UN reforms. The discussion in which
a number of Armenian governmental organizations and representatives of
mass media participated, was organized on the occasion of the UN 60th
anniverary.
As Karine Danielian, the Chairwoman of the association “For Human
Stable Development” mentioned, all issues touched upon in the reforms
related to Armenia. According to her, those principles according to
which small countries, ones having no way to sea or in transit
dependance from neighboring countries must be payed attention to, are
upmost beneficial for Armenia. According to K.Danielian, problems of
transitional countries are not separated in the reforms, what,
according to her, is a result of non-active participation of countries
at transitional stage.
Reforms being proposed relate to human social problems, anti-terrorism
struggle and freedom for honourable life.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TWO ARMENIANS IN BOMBING CASE GRANTED US CITIZENSHIP – TURKISH PAPER
Hurriyet website, Istanbul
7 Sep 05
Text of report by Turkish daily Hurriyet website on 7 September
subheadings as published
The United States has given American citizenship to two Armenians who
had plotted a bomb attack against the Turkish consulate in Philadelphia
20 years ago because of the “good character that they have demonstrated
since 1992”.
Justification good conduct
US citizenship has been granted to Viken Hovsepian and Viken Vasken
Yacoubian, who had plotted a bomb attack against the Turkish consulate
in Philadelphia, on the grounds of the “exemplary conduct” they have
demonstrated since 1992.
The American Ninth Circuit Appellate Court rejected an appeal
against the granting of US citizenship to the pair, and approved
their citizenship.
Had attacked with dynamite [as published]
Five Armenians, including Hovsepian and Yacoubian, both born in
Lebanon, had been arrested in October of 1982 on grounds of attacking
the Turkish consulate with dynamite. [as published; they had in
fact been arrested prior to any attack, on suspicion of conspiring to
conduct one, and were later convicted of transporting explosives across
a state line.] Hovsepian, who has now received his citizenship, had
been declared “the organizer of the plot, and the most culpable among
the five defendants”. In their 1984 trial, Hovsepian had received a
six-year sentence, while Yacoubian had been sentenced to three years
imprisonment and a thousand hours of community service.
The US citizenship applications of Hovsepian and Yacoubian had been
accepted a while ago, but federal attorneys had appealed by saying that
the pair had made certain false statements in order secure citizenship.
The appellate court, rejecting the appeal, approved the granting of
citizenship to Hovsepian and Yacoubian.
Impressed with background
The Los Angeles Times newspaper reported that US Federal Judge Mariana
Pfaelzer [who had presided at the defendants’ original trial], had
in handing down her [original] decision stated that she had been
“impressed” with the defendants’ backgrounds. Defence attorneys had
interpreted the statement of Pfaelzer, who had not fully specified
in what way she had been impressed, as follows: “I think the judge,
with those words, was referring to familial and sociological factors
that had pushed our defendants into becoming Armenian activists.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FREE SPEECH FOR TURKEY
Washington Post, DC
Wednesday, September 7, 2005; Page A24
Orhan Pamuk, one of Turkey’s most acclaimed writers, is facing
up to three years in prison. His offense, according to the state
prosecutor? “Public denigrating of Turkish identity.” Specifically,
Mr. Pamuk told a Swiss newspaper in February that certain topics were
off-limits for discussion in Turkey — citing the massacre of Armenians
in 1915 and the more recent conflicts between Turkish security forces
and Kurdish separatists. “Thirty-thousand Kurds were killed here,
1 million Armenians as well. And almost no one talks about it,”
he said. “Therefore, I do.”
As mild as these comments sound to American ears, they touched off a
firestorm in Turkey, where the government line is that the Armenian
deaths were the consequence of war, not genocide, and public discussion
of the issue is hazardous. The uproar over Mr. Pamuk’s remarks,
which included death threats and burnings of his books, culminated
with the filing of the criminal case under Article 301/1 of the
Turkish Penal Code, which applies criminal penalties to “a person
who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand
National Assembly.” Under Turkish law, Mr. Pamuk isn’t even permitted
to comment on the charges before his case is heard in December.
The prosecution of Mr. Pamuk is, of course, outrageous; the charges
should be dropped as soon as possible. The ill-advised use of
this ill-advised provision to punish Mr. Pamuk contravenes Turkey’s
commitment to comply with the free-speech provisions of international
agreements such as the European Convention on Human Rights. It’s
exactly the wrong signal for Turkey to be sending as Europe debates
its admission to the European Union. As Mr. Pamuk’s translator,
Maureen Freely, wrote in the British newspaper the Independent,
“There is no doubt that it will raise questions about the wisdom of
Turkey’s EU membership bid. How can it possibly claim to be a European
country if it has such laws on the books, and if public prosecutors
can bring such cases?”
This reaction, indeed, may be exactly what those pushing for a
prosecution intended; the timing of the charges, as European ministers
meet in Wales to discuss Turkey’s membership, is suspicious. That
makes it even more important for the national government, though it
doesn’t control the prosecutor who brought the case, to do what it
can to halt this case and others like it. Turkey has made important
strides in protecting freedom of expression in recent years, including
reforming its penal code. The charges against Mr. Pamuk underscore
how far it still has to go.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CONCERT REVIEW: ALL SYSTEMS WERE GO AT WORCESTER’S DCU CENTER
By CHAD BERNDTSON
For The Patriot Ledger
The Patriot Ledger, MA
Aug 31 2005
System of a Down snared its willing crowd right from the get-go,
its wacky, speed metal wares and blistering, heavily political power
rock firing on all cylinders for close to 90 minutes at Worcester’s
DCU Center.
The Armenian-descended and L.A.-raised foursome goes for the jugular
on all fronts, especially in concert: sizzling guitar entreaties,
a blinding stage display (complete with strobe lights, a distortion
mirror and trippy, faux-goth graphic elements), a frontman, Serj
Tankian, in the great tradition of flamboyant, cocksure crowd
galvanizers, and an anti-war and anti-establishment bent that they
stick to and mine for satire, comedy, drama and poignancy, often in
the same song.
Whether it was their brutal “Sad Statue,” with lines like “You and
me will all go down in history / with a sad Statue of Liberty / and a
generation that didn’t agree” slathered atop pulse-pounding rhythms,
or the ferocious “Kill Rock ‘n’ Roll” or the pointedly critical
“B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs),” or a cheeky riff on size matters
called “Cigaro,” or a brief, out-of-nowhere left turn into Neil Young’s
“My My, Hey Hey,” they kept energy high and forward moving throughout.
Ripping, mosh-inducing blast-offs like “Revenga” – whose chorus of
“My sweet revenge / will be yours for the taking / It’s in the making,
baby” – were tough to deny where outright concert excitement was
concerned, and if there’s a drawback to the whole experience, it’s
that the rapidly shifting tempo changes and throttling freakouts get
a bit repetitive when left so untethered.
It will be interesting to see how System progresses in future albums.
In previewing material from its upcoming “Hypnotize,” the companion
to this year’s “Mesmerize,” it hinted at expanding its melodic palette
without dumbing down any of the lyrics or skimping on the theater.
The Mars Volta’s proclivity toward cacophonous freakouts makes them
and System at the very least musical cousins, — but their sound makes
them quite an alternative: a space ride to psychedelic continuums
compared to System’s more down-to-earth skull-burrowing.
It’s all pretty weird, but searingly virtuosic, and the group’s core
members, the histrionic singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, brought along enough percussion instruments
and seemingly disparate noisemakers (synths, electronic flutes, MIDI
saxophones, you name it) to make their 45-minute, four-song set feel
like the ultimate in musical head trips.
SYSTEM OF A DOWN/THE MARS VOLTA Saturday night at the DCU Center,
Worcester.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA)
SDA – Basisdienst Deutsch
23. August 2005
Aussenpolitische Kommission des Staenderats (APK) Armenier-Genozid
kein Thema im Staenderat
Die Aussenpolitische Kommission des Staenderats (APK) will das
Verhaeltnis zwischen der Tuerkei und der Schweiz nicht dramatisieren.
Der Armenier-Genozid wird im Staenderat nicht diskutiert.
Die Aussenpolitische Kommission habe dieselbe Position wie der
Bundesrat, sagte Peter Briner, Praesident der Aussenpolitischen
Kommission des Staenderats am Dienstag vor den Medien. Man duerfe
nichts dramatisieren. Das Verhaeltnis zwischen der Tuerkei und der
Schweiz habe sich nicht stark veraendert.
Die APK habe die Ausladung von Joseph Deiss durch die Tuerkei an
ihrer zweitaegigen Sitzung vom Montag und Dienstag in Schaffhausen
thematisiert. Fuer die APK sei klar, dass die Ausladung von Deiss in
Zusammenhang mit der Einvernahme des tuerkischen Politikers Dogu
Perincek stehe, gegen den die Schweiz wegen seiner oeffentlichen
Leugnung des Armenier-Genozids ermittelt.
Deiss-Besuch wird nachgeholt
Deiss sei nicht offiziell ausgeladen, sondern der Besuch aus
Termingruenden verschoben worden, sagte Briner. Die Beziehungen
gingen weiter. Der Besuch des Wirtschaftsministers werde nachgeholt,
wenn genuegend Wasser den Rhein hinuntergeflossen sei.
Der Armenier-Genozid, den der Nationalrat vor zwei Jahren als
Voelkermord anerkannt hatte, wird im Staenderat nicht diskutiert
werden, sagte Briner. Die Diskussion im Nationalrat habe aufgrund
eines persoenlichen Vorstosses stattgefunden. Ein solcher liege im
Staenderat nicht vor.
Die Aussenpolitische Kommission sei nach wie vor der Meinung, dass
sich die Schweiz nicht in die Aufarbeitung der tuerkischen Geschichte
und in den Armenier-Genozid von 1915 einmischen sollte. Sie habe der
tuerkischen Regierung anlaesslich eines Besuchs im letzten Jahr
jedoch eine Aufarbeitung der Geschichte zusammen mit Armenien
empfohlen.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT RECEIVES NEWLY APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVE OF UN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
YEREVAN, AUGUST 17. ARMINFO. Newly appointed UNDP Permanent
Representative and Coordinator Consuella Vidal handed over the
credentials of UN Secretary General to Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan today.
The presidential press-service informs ARMINFO that in the course
of the meeting, Robert Kocharyan pointed out the importance of the
UN programs implemented in Armenia, at the same time expressing hope
for further effective bilateral cooperation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PKK KIDNAPS GOVERNOR IN BINGOL
AZG Armenian Daily #141, 30/07/2005

Neighbors
Milliyet informed that the members of PKK kidnapped Hashim Akyurek,
governor of Yayladere town of Bingol province, representative of
Justice and Prosperity Party. According to the newspaper, PKK
kidnapped Akyurek when he was returning to his native town after
visiting village of Calekag.
By Hakob Chakrian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress