Author: Badalian Vardan

ARMENIAN ARMY CONDUCT LARGE-SCALE MILITARY EXERCISES IN OCCUPIED AZERI LAND

Cihan News Agency, Turkey
April 4 2014

AZ_BAKU – 04.04.2014 16:28:05

Armenian armed forces are conducting large-scale military exercises
in the occupied Agdam region of Azerbaijan, on the territory of Uzun
Dere and Shahbulag massif on April 4.

Heavy artillery and armored vehicles are used according to Friday’s
Karabakh department regional S channel.

Gunshots and explosions are being heard in the said direction.

Motion of Armenian military techniques is being observed in the areas
close to the contact line.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since
1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding
districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are
currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.

RAYS OF HOPE

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 4 2014

4 April 2014, Friday /ELLE LOFTIS, Ä°STANBUL I am tired of all the bad
news. My social media feeds and everyday conversations with people
have been filled with more doom and gloom this year than any other
I can remember.

It’s exhausting but also extremely easy to be negative. Looking back
on the depression I went through postpartum, I can finally see that it
was a necessary part of my emotional transformation. Only when you are
low do you actually have real clarity on several important issues. It
also forces you to make that choice to stand up and be well again,
or stay sitting down and let life roll over you. This year might be
Turkey’s postpartum year, in a way.

Fourteen years ago, I visited Turkey for the first time. A fresh-faced
university student that had never even visited a major US city, I was
the eager, naive tourist asking every taboo question on the books. I
had just started my degree in Middle Eastern studies and arrived in
Ä°stanbul with a sophomoric attitude fed by the many books read before
my trip. On a three-week excursion, I planned to research all the hot
topics; the Armenian genocide, the Kurdish conflict and the Islamic
revival in Turkish politics. My poor Turkish hosts and friends had
no idea what they had gotten themselves into when they invited me
for a visit. At a crowded cafe, I brought up all these topics. One
person got offended. The rest kept looking left and right to see if we
were being overheard. Another immediately reprimanded me. The others
seemed uncomfortable and eager to change the topic. Thus scolded,
I saved my research on Armenians, Kurds and Islamists in Turkey for
my university library back in the US. I met a similar dead end with
all the other topics I wanted to research. What kind of a place was
this, where asking questions was forbidden? I was flabbergasted,
but learned to stay silent to keep the peace.

That was in 2000. Fast-forward to now, 2014. Conversations about these
issues are now the norm among Turks, as demonstrated by the massive
protests and outcry after the Hrant Dink assassination in 2006. I
hear Kurdish freely spoken on the streets now, without shame. These
conversations, while still uncomfortable, are now happening, something
I never thought I would see back in 2000. While I am sure lots of
people will disagree with me here and say not much has changed, I
beg to differ. The fact that we can have conversations about these
topics now in Turkey is huge. Back in 2000, most people claimed and I
actually believe did not know all that had happened surrounding these
touchy issues. The Internet has allowed people to have easier access
to information and to formulate their own opinions. This is a huge,
positive step forward for Turkey.

On that first visit and up through just a few years ago, I still heard
an oft-used phrase that would send me through the roof with anger.

When I would ask my Turkish friends about democracy in Turkey, they
would claim “Turks are not ready for democracy.” My response would
be to ask when they thought that magic day would come. Tomorrow? A
hundred years from now? So much has changed in Turkey over the past
20 years to make that phrase moot. The Gezi protests further killed
that point. It seems the people are ready now.

Generations from the village have given birth to university-educated
world travelers. I consider that a huge positive step in Turkey, and
well worth noting. For example, my husband bought lures and fishing
tackle from a shop near the Bosporus, and the proprietor begged us to
offer his wife a job cooking and cleaning for us. The reason? Their
daughter had just passed the university entrance exams and made it
into Bogazici University. They needed extra cash, and we took her on.

Elmas, the mother, could not read or write. They had moved to Ä°stanbul
from their Black Sea village so that their only daughter could attend a
better school. In a country where the rest of the world still knocks
them for women’s rights, this family risked everything for their
daughter’s education and she landed in one of the best universities
in Turkey. Scratch the surface of this society and you will find
other like stories and beacons of hope.

Better representation, better opposition

To all those who are depressed about the election and think Turkey is
going to the dogs, are you going to stand up and address it, or stay
sitting and let it roll over you? Things have not gone the way a lot
of people wanted it to. However, the old ways were not necessarily
good, either. Maybe this stall should be viewed as an opportunity
to take a hard look around and create something new, something that
embraces all of society rather than picking and choosing. The Gezi
protests and the unity that was exhibited last summer have not been
embraced by any political party. I believe all political parties have
let the Turkish people down. They, and those of us residing here,
deserve better representation and better opposition. A lot happened
last year that cannot be taken back, and no matter how many obstacles
are placed in the way to try to stem change, the momentum has already
begun. Strangely enough, I feel hopeful even though everyone else
feels gloomy. Maybe the historian in me can recall the past more
easily than others, and I can see how far Turkey has come over the
years. Social media has provided a great opportunity to exchange
views, but it can also be a way for people to barricade themselves
with only other like-minded people. We have to push ourselves outside
of our comfort zones and interact with others who offer differing
perspectives than our own, a challenge I put out there for anyone
upset about the elections. Start the conversation. Create dialogue.

Together spur change. That is what Gezi was about and I do not
believe that spirit died. It is very much alive. As an American
liberal, I struggle with this personally when dealing with friends
and acquaintances from the Tea Party. Their rhetoric can make me so
angry sometimes. However, I still continue dialogue with them, and
we actually have been able to learn from each other. I can place a
face to those who think differently than me, and it is helpful. It’s
part of freedom of speech. Part of speaking is listening.

As I struggle with this within the politics of my own troubled
country, I encourage my Turkish friends and family to do the same. I
love my adopted country and have seen many positive changes over
the years. Change starts from the bottom and works it’s way up, in
my opinion. A change in your daily conversation can and will make
a difference. Hiding behind walls of ideals leads nowhere. Open
your mind, open yourself to listen to other perspectives and share
your views as well. These months after the Gezi birth are Turkey’s
postpartum. Let’s see what transpires now, and whether people stand
or sit. It’s your choice.

*Elle Loftis is an American expat, writer and mother living in Ä°zmit.

WEST PREVENTED UN SECURITY COUNCIL FROM CONDEMNING ACTIONS OF SYRIAN MILITANTS IN KASAB

The Voice of Russia
April 4 2014

Western countries at the UN Security Council did not allow Russia
to secure a reaction to the Syrian militants’ actions in the city
of Kasab, inhabited by ethnic Armenians, as well as to the shooting
on the port of Latakia by armed groups, the shooting that led to a
suspension of the removal of chemical weapons from the country, an
official at the Russian Permanent Mission at the UN told the Russian
news agenyc TASS on Thursday.

“The Elements for the Press, suggested by us about the actions of
militants in Kasab and the shelling of Latakia, did not find support
with Western colleagues at the UN Security Council,” the Russian
Mission official said.

The Russian-prepared draft Elements for the Press condemn “the latest
attacks by Syrian opposition groups, among them those connected to
al-Qaeda, on the city of Kasab populated by Syrian Armenians”, the
official said.

Earlier on Thursday, Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s Permanent Representative
at the UN, expressed hope that it would be possible to fix the Elements
for the Press, which are not an official document of the UN Security
Council and are read out by the UN Security Council President.

In so doing, the diplomat said the Western members of the UN Security
Council had blocked the adoption of a statement for the press which
condemned the mortar shelling of the port of Latakia when containers
with chemical weapons were being loaded onto a Danish ship and a
Norwegian ship.

“They (the West) have taken up an utterly unambiguous and common
attitude on both humanitarian matters, political issues, and on
chemical demilitarization. They seek to put an additional pressure on
the government at every opportunity and take from under any pressure
those who are fighting against it, even if those are extremist and
terrorist groups,” the diplomat stated.

UN sources reported on Friday that the Kasab area, which is populated
predominantly by Syrian Armenians, “remains a zone of fighting”. UN
data have it that a large proportion of Kasab residents about 1,550
families fled to Latakia where they are being given all the necessary
aid.

Churkin said almost all residents fled Kasab, with the exception of a
large number of old people who refused to leave the city. “Luckily,
the dreadful reports about Armenians being gunned down massively
found no confirmation,” Russa’s UN Ambassador added. He said the
developmens in Kasab would be discussed without fail at a UN SC meeting
on humanitarian situation in Syria. The meeting is scheduled for April
30. “We keep monitoring this (the happenings in Kasab). However, no
separate discussion of the issue has been planned,” the diplomat said.

Meanwhile, a source at the UN Secretariat on Thursday confirmed the
receipt of a letter from Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan
who called for securing a a reaction to the actions of militants
in Kasab. The Minister also demands urgent measures from Ankara t
oprevent penetration of Syria by terrorists from Turkish territory.

Moscow calls for discussing attack on Syria’s Kesab at UN Security
Council

The Russian Foreign Ministry has called for discussing an attack on
the Armenian-populated town of Kesab in northern Syria by extremist
groups linked to al-Qaeda at the UN Security Council, Interfax reports.

“The UN Security Council should discuss the situation in Kesab and
issue its principled judgment about these events,” the ministry said
in a commentary on Tuesday.

SYRIA’S MODERATE REBELS STILL LOSING GROUND TO EXTREMISTS

Al-Monitor
April 4 2014

Author: Antoun Issa
Posted April 4, 2014

Fear of armed Islamist groups in Syria has been a major sticking point
between the United States and its regional allies in determining the
quality of arms supplied to Syrian rebels. It was again high on the
agenda on March 28 when US President Barack Obama touched down in
Riyadh for a brief visit.

According to the Washington Post, Obama was considering backing down
from his stern opposition to arming rebels with more advanced weaponry,
including anti-aircraft missiles, or MANPADs. The Saudis have long
pressed Western powers to arm rebel factions fighting to topple
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with sophisticated weapons, hoping
it would turn the tide in the opposition’s favor in the three-year,
brutal conflict.

To bolster its argument that it is taking concrete steps to limit the
actions of jihadist groups fighting in Syria, Saudi Arabia passed
unprecedented anti-terror laws that specifically targeted Saudi
nationals fighting abroad, as well as listing Jabhat al-Nusra, the
Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the Muslim Brotherhood
as terrorist organizations.

Proponents for further militarization of the Syrian war insist that
“moderate” rebel fighters can be trusted with such sophisticated
weaponry, and can be used as a counterweight to rising jihadist groups
as well as to confront a national army receiving strong support from
Iran, Russia, Iraq and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

US officials continue to remain skeptical that such trustworthy,
“moderate” rebels exist, or that arms provided to vetted, moderate
rebels would not end up in the hands of the extremists. The
distinction between “moderate” and “extremist” rebels in Syria has
been presented in word only, without any substance to corroborate such
a distinction. The Washington Post report, relying on “knowledgeable
officials,” states that Riyadh has agreed to exclude any fighters who
have worked with three jihadist groups: Ahrar al-Sham, al-Qaeda’s
official affiliate in Syria Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda splinter
group ISIS.

This mistakenly presumes that those fighting in other rebel factions
are considered reliable to be armed with sophisticated weapons, and
espouse moderate beliefs. A number of key Salafist and extremist
factions operate beyond the three listed groups, and are wrongly
touted as “moderate.”

The Islamic Front, for instance, is a nationwide coalition bringing
together a number of Salafist groups that equally hold extremist
ideologies. Ahrar al-Sham is one of the founding members of the
Islamic Front, and is mainly active in Aleppo and the north. Jaish
al-Islam, another key member of the coalition, largely operates in
the Damascus countryside and is headed by Zahran Alloush. According
to Syria expert Joshua Landis, the “difference between his ideology
and that of al-Qaeda groups is not profound.”

The Islamic Front rejects democracy, a civil state and secularism,
instead calling for a strict interpretation of Sharia and the
resurrection of the Islamic umma. Syrian opposition sources and
Western diplomats have told Al-Monitor that Islamic Front factions
in the north are largely financed and supported by Qatar and Turkey,
while Alloush’s Jaish al-Islam in Damascus enjoys Saudi support.

Saudi also touted Bashar al-Zoubi, head of the Yarmouk Brigade
operating in the country’s south, as a potential “moderate” local
partner that the West could trust. Zoubi was to head the new “Southern
Front” that would, in an ideal Saudi world, receive US weapons through
the Jordanian border. As reported in Al-Monitor, Zoubi, however, has
worked with Jabhat al-Nusra on several occasions. Does this exclude
Zoubi from receiving sophisticated weapons, as per Saudi Arabia’s
proposed criteria cited by the Washington Post?

Jaish al-Mujahedeen, a small coalition of Islamist factions in Aleppo,
has also popped up with much fanfare after it participated in attacks
against the much-reviled ISIS. Do they fit the “moderate” criterion?

In March, Mujahedeen fighters forced prominent opposition civilian
activist, Marcell Shehrawo — a Christian — to wear an Islamic veil.

Although the group later apologized, its overt Islamist leanings do
not bode confidence in Jaish al-Mujahedeen as a reliable recipient
of sophisticated weaponry.

One of the rare less-Islamist fighting forces, the Syrian
Revolutionaries’ Front, was also raised in some media outlets as
a potential reliable partner on the ground. The group is known to
be backed by Saudi Arabia, and its leader, Jamal Maarouf, has been
accused of being a warlord who has diverted resources for his own use.

Maarouf this week told The Independent that fighting al-Qaeda was
not his problem, and openly confessed to working and sharing military
supplies with its affiliate in Syria. A Qatar-leaning source in the
Syrian National Coalition told Al-Monitor privately that Saudi-backed
brigades, formerly part of the Free Syrian Army, were largely criminals
and bandits that locals despised.

More recently, the coordinated rebel attack on the Latakia countryside
and the capture of the historic Syrian Armenian village of Kassab was
celebrated by the Syrian National Coalition as a “military victory that
will have important results.” Again, misguided support was given to
what was presented as noble, moderate revolutionaries in the Latakia
offensive. One of the main factions that steered the Latakia offensive
was Sham al-Islam, a radical jihadist outfit run by former Guantanamo
Bay detainee and veteran Moroccan jihadist Ibrahim Benchekroune. His
fighters are largely other North African jihadists, who, according to
reports, removed crosses at Armenian churches in the village, sparking
an outcry from Armenians across the world, including Kim Kardashian.

Shant Kerbabian, a Syrian Armenian originally from Kassab, but based
in Beirut, told Al-Monitor that locals fled out of fear for Jabhat
al-Nusra.

“The crosses were taken down. This was confirmed, I spoke to a
senior member of the community there,” Kerbabian said, adding that no
massacres took place. Kerbabian, citing community leaders from Kassab,
said that Jabhat al-Nusra was looting houses in Kassab after locals
had left their belongings behind, transporting trucks into Turkey.

Kerbabian added this demonstrated Turkey’s direct involvement in the
invasion of Kassab.

“Jabhat al-Nusra fighters were saying that they want to bring their
‘brothers’ [residing] in tents and refugee camps and put them in
Kassab,” Kerbabian said.

Media narratives are forever looking for a “good guy” to fight the
“bad guy,” and are too quick to assign the “moderate” label to armed
groups. But Syria is no Hollywood script, and the search for a noble
rebel fighting force to combat Assad’s forces has so far yielded
few results. Having seemingly learnt from the Afghan experience,
the Obama administration has been right to take a cautious approach
to arming rebels that might one day turn their weapons on them.

Britain’s Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,
Hugh Robertson, underscored the West’s primary concern in an interview
with Al-Monitor last week.

“There is a clear [jihadist] threat to the United Kingdom. There are
jihadists there, around 400 [Britons] that are being radicalized
in Syria. This increases the importance of a political settlement
in Syria.”

The risks are too high to send weapons into a war where moderates
are too few.

The views presented here in this article are solely those of the
author and do not represent the editorial position of Al-Monitor.

IN THE WAKE OF CRIMEA ANNEXATION, AZERBAIJAN CALLS ON WASHINGTON TO SUPPORT ITS TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY

eTurbo News
April 4 2014

Apr 04, 2014

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Amid the diplomatic tough talk and sanctions
that have been imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea,
Azerbaijan has this week accused Washington of “double standards
and hypocrisy” over its annexed territories, Nagorno-Karabakh and
surrounding provinces.

These regions of Azerbaijan have been occupied by Armenia for 24 years
in clear violation of international law but, says Azerbaijan MP Elkhan
Suleymanov, the United States ignores this breach of its territorial
integrity and the suffering of one million displaced people.

In a letter to U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House
of Representatives John Boehner, Suleymanov called on the U.S. to
afford Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity the same level of diplomatic
concern it is presently giving to Ukraine.

“A law is a law and should never be interpreted differently for
different countries. Azerbaijan has almost one fifth of its territory
under occupation for 24 years by Armenian soldiers, who control and
do as they please in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Suleymanov wrote.

“Where are the sanctions against Armenia?” he asked, as the world
steps up the diplomatic pressure on Moscow.

Suleymanov pointed out that rather than punish the aggressor; it is
Azerbaijan that has been punished by the U.S. via the controversial
Section 907, which bans American support for Baku. In his letter he
called for this to be repealed.

He urged the U.S. Congress “to show the same support to Azerbaijan
as the statements and events supporting Ukraine and its territorial
integrity, to make efforts to remove the problematic Section 907,
and to respect the resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security
Council,” he wrote.

Suleymanov reminded Washington just how deeply the impact of the
Armenian occupation is being felt in his country to this day.

“Four hundred and ten thousand people of Nakhchivan, 450,000 people
of six other regions, and almost 1,000,000 Azerbaijani people –
totally 1,850,000 Azerbaijani citizens – live under difficult social
and economic conditions,” he said, due to Armenian occupation.

As an MP Suleymanov is committed to bringing the plight of his
people to the attention of the international community which, he
says, forgets that resolutions by the United Nations, the European
Parliament, the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe have all condemned Armenia’s occupation.

WHICH WAY TURKEY? A PERSONAL REFLECTION

Foreign Policy Journal
April 4 2014

by Terry Cowan | April 4, 2014

Turkey is somewhat in the news these days–and not in a good way. A
recent New York Review of Books article considers three books on the
current state of affairs, and particularly the fraying relationship
between the Gulen movement and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. I
have only the most superficial understanding of the Gulen movement
and the intricacies of this struggle for leadership among Turkey’s
Islamists. Plots and conspiracies abound within this whirlwind, aided
in large part by a complicit judiciary on one side and a police
community on the other, each willing to do the bidding of their
particular faction. And in probably the most important story that you
didn’t read in this last week’s news cycle, a video caught high-ranking
Turkish government officials planning a false flag attack on northern
Syria. Add to that the fact that the Turkish economic miracle may be
fading. And of course, many still recall the demonstrations in Taksim
Square from last summer.

A street scene in Istanbul (photo courtesy of the author)

I am a great lover of Turkey and recall my first exposure with great
fondness, stumbling into the country in 2003, almost as by accident.

On a whim, I decided to interrupt an exploration of Bulgaria and
take the Balkan Express to Istanbul for a few days. (This was also
the occasion of perhaps my personal best as a traveler-making my
reservations for a sleeper in mangled French–the only language common
to me and the clerk in Sofia.) I first set foot on Turkish soil at
Kapipule, at two o’clock in the morning, as we piled out of the train
and made our way, bleary-eyed, across the tracks to the dumpy little
border crossing. The train was about to leave by the time I figured
out that I must purchase a visa in one building before having my
passport stamped in another. In my confusion and haste, I actually
boarded the wrong train. But after a momentary panic, I retraced
my steps and found my car. The following morning, I disembarked at
Istanbul’s Sirkeci station–quite literally the end of the line in
Europe. If someone at age 48 could still be described as wide-eyed,
then that was my reaction to the city. The bustle of Sultanahmet–and
the East–beckoned me in the same way it has captivated other Western
travelers through the centuries.

I returned time and again, in and out of Turkey six or seven times
by 2011. In the course of these travels, I visited most every major
region of the country, save for the southern coastline around to
Antakya. For someone with an appreciation of history, the Anatolian
countryside yields new discoveries around every corner. And along the
way, I came to love the open hospitality of the Turks themselves. To
educate myself further, I read Orhan Pamuk, and followed the commentary
of Mustafa Akyol. Louis de Bernierres’ Birds Without Wings remains
one of my favorite novels (an incredibly powerful narrative of the
tragedy–for it is that–of modern Turkey).

Back home, I become an enthusiastic advocate, if not apologist,
for Turkey. In 2003, the atmosphere here could only be described as
feverish. The U.S. had just shocked and awed Iraq, and Turkey’s refusal
to allow its bombers to fly-over still rankled in people’s minds. At
least in my uninformed part of the country, the Turks were simply
part of the unintelligible Muslim other, no different than any other
over there. And so, I talked a lot about Turkey, even to the point of
joining the crackpots who wrote letters to the local newspaper. I would
explain–with mixed success–the all-important differences between
Turk and Arab and Kurd and Persian, and that the Sufi-influenced
Islam of Anatolia had perhaps always been more moderate than elsewhere.

I often related the anecdote from an acquaintance in Izmir. He told me
of wealthy Saudi tourists arriving at the Izmir airport, destined for
the Aegean beach resorts. The women would shed their head-coverings
in the airport lobby and toss them in the nearest trash bin as soon
as possible. So you see, I pleaded, Turkey was different. The most
common question I would receive had to do with whether I was “safe”
over there. This is, of course, laughable to anyone who has traveled
in the region. I assured them that I never once worried about safety
until my plane touched down in Texas.

My more informed acquaintances questioned the Islamist faction of the
new ruling AKP Party. I reassured them by making a comparison to our
own Republican Party. Just as the GOP contains social conservatives, or
Movement Conservatives as they are called now, as well as traditional
business interest Republicans, so the AKP contains both conservative
Islamists and the rising entrepreneurial middle class, both long
frustrated by the Kemalist stranglehold on power. In each situation,
the two factions have their own particular agendas, which may very
well conflict with the other at times.

Certainly some of my Turkish acquaintances fell into this latter
category–young, ambitious, educated, western-oriented and not
particularly religious. But Istanbul is not really Turkey in the
same way that New York City is not really America (and I write this
as someone who loves both cities). A foreign visitor to our largest
city can be forgiven for not comprehending that a more representative
sampling of this country might be found, for example, at the truck
stop I recently patronized on Interstate Highway 40 between Memphis
and Nashville. And so, even at the first, I sensed that my cool
friends in their nice cars might not be the full story of this new
Turkey. At Topkapi Palace (not my favorite Istanbul “must-see”), we
foreign visitors were probably outnumbered by Turkish tourists from
the conservative hinterlands of Anatolia. These sturdy Turkish women,
heavy and broad, identically dressed in thick, drab, monochrome gray
overcoats and scarves, quite literally elbowed and man-handled me
away from a display case in the museum. It seems I lingered too long
examining some hairs from the beard of Mohammed.

To my Orthodox Christian co-religionists, I suggested that the AKP,
in their supposed piety, might actually be loosening the noose ever
so slightly on the Greek church there. Some signs indicated that the
continuing persecution of the Church came more from the entrenched
judiciary than from the Islamist faction of the AKP. I encouraged
friends to travel to Turkey. I developed travel itineraries with tips
to make the most of their time there, while avoiding the usual scams.

Even from the first, however, some aspects of the Turkish
mindset irritated me to no end. I bristled at their pervasive
Turkocentrism–smug and unquestioning. Perhaps this is merely
their variation of the U.S.’s own equally unrealistic American
Exceptionalism. If so, it is equally unappealing. The Turks have a
mythic view of themselves, as we all do, I suppose. Theirs, however,
often seems more detached from real history. In all things, we would
do well to understand that they consider themselves Turks first,
Muslims second, and Sunnis last.

Beyond this, one often finds an indifferent attitude to their past,
dismissive and obtusely ignorant of the civilizations that preceded
them in Anatolia, or recognizing that Turkish culture itself is
greatly derivative of that which went before (my good friend Turan
being a notable exception to this). History begins with the Seljuks
(if not the Ottomans), and nothing much matters before then. I have
found Turks to be notoriously thin-skinned when it comes to criticism
of their past. This unquestioning of history is not unique to the
Turkish nation, but the skepticism which many Americans have come to
view our own past seems largely absent in Turkey. On the other hand,
they seem unusually susceptible to the wildest of conspiracy theories.

Turks can display a deft ability to ignore or deny real history. The
Armenian Genocide is, of course, the best example of this mindset. In
2006, I endured a tour of the Museum of the Turkish Genocide in Igdir.

The Turks have concocted an alternative history in which the poor
Turkish peasants were the genocidal victims of the Armenians, not
the other way around. The museum and monument is visible from the
Armenian border, replete with lurid, cartoonish murals depicting
crazed, gun-toting priests leading the Armenians against the noble
Turks. So there is that.

None of these concerns prevent me from returning to Turkey, however.

In fact, I will be in the far eastern reaches of the country in May of
2014. But my enthusiasm for all things Turkish has waned. My defense of
the AKP has come to an end. Broadly speaking, the ruling party displays
the same authoritarian bent as the former regime. The judiciary seems
no less corrupt. In countless sundry ways, the particular religiosity
of the AKP base is making its presence known.

The recent ban on the sale of alcohol after 10:00 p.m., for example,
will be noticeable to even the casual Istanbul tourist.

Hopes of resolving long-standing issues with the Greek Orthodox Church
have withered. The cat-and-mouse game between the Patriarchate and the
Turkish government regarding the return of Halki Seminary has turned
out to be just that, a game. In the 1990s, the government looked the
other way while Kurds undertook the ethnic cleansing of the Suriani
Orthodox Christians in the Tur Abdin. And there seems no outcry
within Turkey today as their judiciary completes that operation,
confiscating the 1,400 year old Mor Gabriel Monastery, one of the
last Christian enclaves in the region (visited by this writer in 2006).

For political reasons, the exquisite Hagia Sophia Church–the jewel
of the Trapezuntine kingdom–has now been converted into a mosque
though Trabzon hardly lacks for Muslim worship venues. And this
brings us to the current discussion of doing the same with the Hagia
Sophia in Istanbul. In the past, this would have been unimaginable,
and I would have dismissed such as wild conspiracy talk. In the
new political realities of Turkey, such an outcome looks more like
a distinct possibility. Robert Ousterhout, the respected Byzantine
scholar, calls this the “litmus test” of conservative members of the
ruling party. We know how such litmus tests proceed in this country,
and so the slow strangulation of any non-Turkish element in society
continues apace.

Indeed, the cosmopolitan air of old Constantinople has been largely
just a memory for a long time now. For better or worse, Istanbul will
be–must be, apparently–a thoroughly Turkish city.

One detects a strong sense of national insecurity in all this. Why
must any remembrance of the pre-Ottoman past be extinguished? Why
cannot their minorities be allowed to flourish? The new Turkey will
be a duller, sadder, and even more melancholy place.

The 100-year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide rolls
around next year. You can count on the official government’s
response/repudiation/rejection to be rather ugly in tone. One can
also depend on the unofficial reaction among Turks in general to be
even uglier.

And now we have evidence of Turkey’s messy involvement in the Syrian
Civil War, as well as their deep level of support for the insurgents.

At first, these actions seemed incomprehensible to me. Turkey
certainly managed to stay out of the Iraqi war on their border. If
so inclined, they could do the same with Syria. But by stepping back
a bit and taking the long historical view, their actions are more
understandable. By the time the U.S. gained its own independence, the
Ottoman Empire was already the “Sick Man of Europe,” and would remain
so until its death in 1919. But they were not always sick. For some
time now, Turkey has communicated its desire to take a larger–indeed,
its historical–role in the region. Perhaps the best summation of
their behavior in this matter is that they are simply Turks being
Turks once again.

In examining my own growing disaffection with the new Turkey, I
realize the problem lies more in our own expectations. We warmed
to the western-oriented Istanbul, where supposedly casual Islam
accommodated nicely with modernity. We were charmed by its exotica,
and somehow expected its religion to be of the emasculated variety
which would not jar our secular sensibilities. This now appears more
wishful thinking than reality. As realists, we should face the Turkey
that is, not the people we imagined them to be.

BUENOS AIRES LAW MARKS 99TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE

Friday, April 4th, 2014

Buenos Aires City Hall

BUENOS AIRES (Prensa Armenia)–The legislative council of Buenos
Aires, Argentina’s capital city, issued Thursday a statement, written
by councilmembers Virginia Gonzalez Gass and Maria Raquel Herrero,
commemorating April 24 as the “Day of the First Genocide of the 20th
Century,” on the “99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.”

The council also approved a proposal submitted by legislator Pablo
Ferreyra asking the Ministry of Education to allocate proper attention
to the Armenian Genocide on the “day of action for tolerance and
respect between people,” referring to an Argentinian law that
commemorates the genocide suffered by the Armenian people every
April 24.

“To educate about history is to educate for the respect and protection
of human rights. In this sense, it is essential to promote the
inclusion of the issue of genocide in education, not only to remember
but also to consider the conditions that made possible such abhorrent
and savage events,” said Ferreyra in a press statement.

EDUCATION ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE TO PUT EMPHASIS ON HEROIC AND SELF-DEFENSIVE BATTLES

20:08, 4 April, 2014

YEREVAN, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia
will launch a new program entitled “Genocide education at schools” from
this year. Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute
Suren Manukyan stated this at the course of the conference entitled
“Youth policy: from main issues to illustration”.

“The program envisages during the Armenian Genocide education at
schools to put the emphasis not on the fact that the Turks unmercifully
killed us, and we are in the status of victim, but on the heroic and
self-defensive battles,” Manukyan said as reported by Armenpress.

He underscored that an attempt is made in this way to bring up the
new generation with fighting spirit and remove the stereotype that
Armenia is always in the status of a victim.

ARMENIAN-AMERICANS BLAME TURKEY FOR KASSAB INVASION

Al-Monitor
April 3 2014

Author: Pinar TremblayPosted April 3, 2014

On March 30, Kim Kardashian, an American television personality of
Armenian descent, posted two tweets with the hashtag #SaveKessab,
which was retweeted over 6,000 times and generated dozens of articles
in the English-language press. Another Twitter user commented, “Kim
Kardashian is tweeting about #Kassab. [Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip] Erdogan is in trouble now.”

Kardashian’s Kassab tweets were followed by other celebrities such as
Armenian-American singer Cher. Regardless of how controversial these
messages are, we must acknowledge they have reached millions who would
otherwise be clueless about the historic Armenian coastal town of
Kassab. Located in the northwest of Syria’s beautiful Latakia region,
Kassab is a tourist desination situated near the Turkish border.

Kassab has seen significant immigration from other towns with large
Armenian populations, such as Aleppo and Homs, since the start of
Syrian civil war in March 2011. Though comprising only 1% of the
Syrian population, Armenians are Syria’s seventh-largest ethnic group.

The fall of Kassab could be costly for Turkey.

The Armenian diaspora has launched several protest movements all
around the world. On March 27, a protest was held in the Armenian
city of Yerevan. On March 28, hundreds gathered in front of the
Turkish consulate in Los Angeles with “Save Kassab” signs. Harut
Sassounian, publisher of the California Courier, told Al-Monitor he
was present at the protest. Sassounian added, “I hold the United
States, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar
fully responsible for the atrocities committed against Christians
and Armenians in Syria, because they are the ones training, arming
and supporting the so-called rebels. The civilized world must reject
the murderers who are masquerading under the guise of regime change
to impose their radical rule in Syria. The Syrian people deserve a
democratic government. However, I fear that the foreign fighters who
have infiltrated Syria are far more brutal than the Assad regime. I
believe that regime change should come through peaceful negotiations,
not beheadings and suicide bombings.”

Several other protests took place in front of Turkish embassies and
consulates from Moscow to Beirut. Yeni Safak covered protests in
Sydney, Australia, reporting, “Turks gave an answer to the Armenians.”

The news suggested that as the group gathered in front of the consulate
with chants of “Turkey get out of Kassab,” it was met by another
group of protesters with Turkish flags in their hands. It is a fair,
yet sad, observation that the diverse and quaint town of Kassab has
brought up centuries-old enmities thousands of miles away.

Different delegations representing the Armenian diaspora have met
with US State Department officials, urging them to “take immediate
action to end the vicious onslaught on the historically Armenian
town of Kassab, Syria, which was overrun by al-Qaeda-affiliated
terrorists in an attack launched from Turkey on March 21.” The same
day, March 28, State Department Deputy spokesperson Marie Harf spoke
on the crisis in Kassab, stating, “We are deeply troubled by recent
fighting and violence that is endangering the Armenian community
in Kassab, Syria and has forced many to flee.” Several members of
Congress have condemned the attacks in Kassab while a petition has
been launched to recognize the atrocities occurring in Kassab on the
White House website.

The concerns of Armenian-Americans are strongly shared by a small
but resilient minority of reporters and citizens, particularly
those living in the border towns of Turkey. Although rarely
reported in the mainstream media, Turkish people have protested
the government’s actions in Syria multiple times. Public-opinion
surveys have consistently shown that support by the Turkish public
for any military involvement in Syria is low. Even among Justice
and Development Party loyalists, only 32% are supportive of such
action. It would be fair to assess many Turks as not knowing what
really is happening in Kassab as the Twitter and YouTube bans continue.

The same cannot be said for many Armenian-Americans, as many of them
have relatives in Kassab and the region. Indeed, the crisis hits
close to home for thousands of Angelinos. One of my best students,
George Doctorian, happens to be one of them. He told Al-Monitor,
“My great-uncle was asleep when he was suddenly awoken at 5 a.m. by
the sound of gunshots. His son rushed into the room and told him
that their town was under attack. Their neighbor had a car and they
quickly jumped in and drove to Latakia. They left everything behind —
passports, money, pictures, etc. My great-uncle left without a shirt.

Everything they own has been left behind. They have been trying to
get new passports and documentation, but it is almost impossible due
to the ongoing conflict. My great-uncle believes that if they had
waited a little longer to get their paperwork, they surely would not
have made it out in time.”

He added, “Our family back in Kassab fears the worst. Churches have
been destroyed and there are reports that even the cemeteries have
been desecrated. Many reports show that the Turkish government has
funded these rebel groups, primarily Jabat al-Nusra, and this is
evidenced by the fact that these rebels were able to enter Kassab
through the Turkish border.”

I hope for Doctorian’s commentary to be taken seriously by all
parties. He said, “The events that are occurring in Kassab are horrific
and should not occur in the 21st century, when the international
community stresses the importance of religious freedom and basic
human rights. I would, however, caution Armenians to stop using the
word ‘genocide’ when describing the events that are taking place in
Kassab. The word ‘genocide’ entails many requirements [in regard to
what] was perpetrated by the Young Turks in the first world war. Using
the word ‘genocide’ [for] the events in Kassab is wrong and does a
disservice to our ancestors who went through the genocide.”

It is understandable that the younger generations of Armenians
fear further persecution of their relatives in Syria. It is also
understandable that Armenian youths from different parts of the world
yearn to go to Syria to fight in defense of their relatives. With
this background analysis, news about Los Angeles gang members going
to Syria to take up arms in pro-Assad militias is not surprising.

The Turkish government denies any involvement in the events of Kassab,
and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s statement that Turkey’s
door is open to Kassab’s Armenians has only further escalated tensions,
as Armenian pundits consider Davutoglu’s comments a “mockery of the
international community.”

Davutoglu has failed to answer the simple question: How did these
armed militants enter the town of Kassab, if not through the Turkish
border? The alleged leaks from a meeting between Davutoglu and
high-level intelligence, military and Foreign Ministry representatives
have been interpreted as a Turkish willingness to engage in war with
Syria. To top this all off, during his March 30 victory speech, Erdogan
declared, “We are in a state of war with Syria.” Since the Turkish
government’s pleas for a no-fly zone have not found support in NATO,
some in Turkey now ask: With an overwhelming electoral victory, would
the Turkish government establish a de facto no-fly zone on its own?

Erdogan is now well known for his recent obsession with “lobbies.”

Although I have doubts about the “robot lobby” and “interest-rate
lobby,” I know the Armenian lobby in the United States is real and
legitimate. Will Erdogan criticize the Armenian lobby, as well? Most
importantly, will the efforts of concerned Armenians and others around
the world help deter further escalation of the Syrian civil war and
save innocent lives?

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS

Itar Tass, Russia
April 3 2014

World
April 03, 21:17 UTC+4 YEREVAN

The resignation was announced at a meeting of the ruling Republican
Party leaders’ meeting in Yerevan

YEREVAN, April 03, /ITAR-TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan
resigned on Thursday, April 3. The resignation was announced at a
meeting of the ruling Republican Party leaders’ meeting in Yerevan.

He tendered resignation to President Serzh Sargsyan a month ago but
it was put away pending Armenia’s accession to the Customs Union of
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia and the Republican Party’s economic
forum on this topic.

In his letter of resignation, Sargsyan wrote that “the decision is
timely and well considered”.

“This is a balanced decision that was not made on the spur of the
moment,” Eduard Sharmazanov, the party’s spokesperson and parliament
deputy speaker, said.

Under the Constitution, a new prime minister has to be appointed within
ten days after the government’s resignation. A new government has to be
appointed within 20 days after the appointment of the prime minister.

Sargsyan was reappointed as prime minister in May 2013.