Author: Chalian Meline

Explosive potential of Turkish raid

As Turkey’s parliament considers military action against Kurdish
guerrillas in northern Iraq, BBC world affairs correspondent Nick
Childs looks at the tensions the move is causing and the possible
regional implications of military action.

Already, ahead of time, the move in the Turkish parliament is
prompting a new flurry of diplomacy – and maybe that is the main
intention.

But Ankara knows Iraq’s central government has little clout in the
largely autonomous Kurdish north of the country.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has played down the
prospect of any imminent action. Western military sources also say
there are no obvious preparations under way for anything big.

But such action would be popular in Turkey. Any major incursion would
clearly have significant implications.

The Turkish military might limit itself to small raids, even possibly
just air strikes, which might have limited repercussions.

American anxiety

Yet they too would carry risks. Anything which looked like presenting
a threat to the city of Kirkuk and its nearby oilfields could provoke
a major crisis, which could suck in Iraqi forces, the Americans, maybe
even the Iranians.

Clearly, Washington is worried. It does not have the resources to take
on further military challenges in Iraq. It is also hugely dependent on
Turkish support for its presence there anyway.

And Turkish-US relations are already going through a very difficult
phase, complicated by a vote in a US congressional committee
condemning the mass killing of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as
genocide.

Perhaps conscious of the risk of a rupture in relations between
Washington and Ankara, support for the motion in Congress now seems to
be waning.

It is a complicated set of calculations for the authorities in Ankara,
too, as they try to position themselves in what is a region in flux.

Published: 2007/10/17 11:27:46 GMT

(c) BBC MMVII

Source: 30.stm

STUNG BY ARMENIAN RESOLUTION, TURKEY MULLS OPTIONS
By Gareth Jenkins

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Oct 16 2007

Stung by the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s October 10 approval
of a resolution characterizing the massacres and deportations of
Armenians by the Ottoman authorities during World War I as a genocide,
Turkish politicians and journalists are unanimous that Turkey needs
to react. But there is no consensus on how it should respond. Indeed,
since the motion was approved, newspaper commentators have spent
considerably more column inches criticizing the decision or trying
to analyze why it happened rather than thinking through specific
responses and their possible repercussions.

The only substantive measure that has been widely discussed is the
possibility of Turkey abrogating the agreement whereby the United
States currently uses the airbase at Incirlik in southeast Turkey
to provide its forces in Iraq with non-lethal supplies. However,
most of the advocates of abrogating the agreement appear to be more
interested in punishing Washington for the motion than changing U.S.

attitudes and policies (Radikal, October 12). Nevertheless, there
is little doubt that the closure would have the support of the
overwhelming majority of the Turkish people, including, according to
a survey conducted by CNNTurk, of both Turkish employees at Incirlik
and the local tradesmen who are dependent on the US presence at the
base for their livelihood (CNNTurk, October 15).

On October 14, in an interview with the daily Milliyet, Turkish Chief
of Staff General Yasar Buyukanit described the approval of the motion
as the United States "shooting itself in the foot," and warned that
it would harm bilateral military ties (Milliyet, October 14).

However, on October 15, in his column in the same newspaper, Semih
Idiz, who had recently returned from U.S., reported that the many
people in Washington believed that the Turkish threats were mere
bluff. Idiz called on the Turkish authorities to take concrete
measures to prove the doubters wrong, although he did not specify
what the measures should be (Milliyet, October 15).

Turkish school textbooks teach children to identify themselves not only
with the present, but also with the past. The Turkish authorities have
long suppressed open debate about what happened to the Armenians. As
a result, few Turks are aware of the extensive evidence and eyewitness
reports of the killings and deportations, but they are bombarded with
photographs and accounts of the relatively small number of revenge
massacres by Armenians against Muslims.

Consequently, given the majority of Turks’ limited knowledge of what
actually happened, from the Turkish perspective the resolution was
regarded not just as a distortion of history but as a gratuitous
insult.

The Turkish-U.S. Business Council has already announced that it has
cancelled a planned conference in the United States. Turkish Foreign
Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen has declared that he has indefinitely
postponed a scheduled trip to the U.S. (Turkish Daily News, October
15).

However, several columnists have noted that even if the Turkish
authorities add substantive sanctions to such gestures of disapproval,
the most long-lasting impact of the October 10 resolution is likely
to be on the Turkish public’s perceptions of the United States (Ferai
Tinc, Hurriyet, October 12). Sami Kohen, the doyen of Turkish foreign
policy commentators, entitled his column in Milliyet on October 15 "How
the U.S. lost Turkey." He predicted that, regardless of any specific
measures taken by the Turkish government, the greatest damage to the
U.S. would be that Washington would no longer be able to count on
Turkey as a reliable ally. Meanwhile, the ultranationalist Yeni Cag
has announced that it will run a serialized analysis entitled "The
U.S.: The Enemy that Appears to be a Friend" (Yeni Cag, October 15).

However, other journalists have concentrated more on trying to
understand why they believe the U.S. has now turned against Turkey.

Tufan Turenc in Hurriyet noted that even long-time supporters of Turkey
had begun to have second thoughts about the country’s reliability after
the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) hosted Hamas leaders in
Ankara in 2006 (Hurriyet, October 15). Umit Enginsoy commented that
Jewish Americans, who were once among Turkey’s leading supporters
in Washington, had now turned against Ankara and that seven of the
eight Jewish members of the Foreign Affairs Committee had voted for
the October 10 resolution. While Milliyet observed that, with the
exception of a statement by 460 Azeri NGOs condemning the resolution,
none of what Turkey used to describe as its "sibling nations" in the
Caucasus and Central Asia had reacted publicly and that the Azeri
response was hardly surprising, seeing that 20% of the country’s
territory is currently occupied by Armenia (October 15).

But, amid the outrage and fury, some members of the Turkish media
are prepared to admit that those in the United States who believe
that all Washington has to do is ride out the storm may have a point.

Radikal newspaper observed that there was widespread public outrage
when the French parliament passed a similar resolution in 2000,
including a consumer boycott of French goods and the exclusion of
French companies from Turkish military tenders. However, not only
did the anger rapidly fade, it had little long-term impact on French
interests. In 2000, when the resolution was passed, annual Turkish
imports from France stood at $3.5 billion, dropping to $2.3 billion
in 2001 before rising to $3.1 billion in 2002, $6.2 billion in 2004,
and $7.2 billion in 2006 (Radikal, October 12).

However, even if the measures do not have any long-term impact,
public feeling in Turkey is so strong at the moment that the AKP
government will have to do something. The only question is whether
it will implement substantive sanctions or whether it will restrict
itself to symbolic gestures in the hope that the resolution can be
prevented from ever coming before the full House.

DEBATE OVER WORD OBSCURES TURKEY’S NEED TO FACE TRUTH
By Richard Cohen

San Jose Mercury News, CA
Oct 16 2007

It goes without saying that the House resolution condemning Turkey
for the "genocide" of Armenians in 1915 will serve no earthly purpose
and that it will, to say the least, complicate if not severely strain
U.S.-Turkey relations. It goes without saying, also, that the Turks
are extremely sensitive on the topic and since they are helpful in the
war in Iraq and a friend to Israel, that their feelings ought to be
taken into account. All of this is true, but I would feel a lot better
about killing this resolution if the argument wasn’t so much about
how we need Turkey and not at all about the truthfulness of the matter.

Of even that, I have some doubt. The congressional resolution
repeatedly employs the word "genocide," a term used by many scholars.

But Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish emigre who coined the term in
1943, clearly had what the Nazis were doing to the Jews in mind. If
that is the standard – and it need not be – then what happened in the
collapsing Ottoman Empire in 1915 was something short of genocide. It
was plenty bad – maybe as many as 1.5 million Armenians perished,
many of them outright murdered – but not all Armenians everywhere in
what was then Turkey were as calamitously affected. The substantial
Armenian communities in Constantinople, Smyrna and Aleppo were largely
spared. No German city could make that statement about its Jews.

Still, by any name, what was done in 1915 is unforgivable and, one
hopes, unforgettable. Yet it was done by a government that no longer
exists – the so-called Sublime Porte of the Ottomans, with its sultan,
concubines, eunuchs and the rest. Even in 1915, it was an anachronism,
no longer able to administer its vast territory – much of the Middle
East and the Balkans. The empire was crumbling. The so-called Sick
Man of Europe was breathing its last. Its troops were starving
and both in Europe and the Middle East, indigenous peoples were
declaring their independence and rising in rebellion. Among them were
the Armenians, an ancient people who had been among the very first to
adopt Christianity. By the end of the 19th century, they were engaged
in guerrilla activity. By World War I, they were aiding Turkey’s enemy,
Russia. Within Turkey, Armenians were feared as a fifth column.

So contemporary Turkey is entitled to insist that things are not so
simple. If you use the word "genocide," it suggests the Holocaust –
and that is not what happened in the Ottoman Empire. But Turkey has
gone beyond mere quibbling with a word. It has taken issue with the
facts and in ways that cannot be condoned. Its most famous writer,
the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, was arrested in 2005
for acknowledging the mass killing of Armenians. The charges were
subsequently dropped and although Turkish law has been in some ways
modified, it nevertheless remains dangerous business for a Turk to
talk openly and candidly about what happened in 1915.

It just so happens that I am an admirer of Turkey. Its modern leaders,
beginning with the truly remarkable Ataturk, have done a Herculean
job of bringing the country from medievalism to modernity without,
it should be noted, the usual blood bath. (The Russians, for instance,
never managed that feat.)

Furthermore, I can appreciate Turkey’s palpable desire to embrace
both modernity and Islam and to show that such a feat is not
oxymoronic. (Ironically, having a dose of genocide in your past –
the U.S. and the Indians, Germany and the Jews, etc. – is hardly not
"Western.") And I think, furthermore, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
should have spiked the House resolution in deference to Turkey’s
immense strategic importance to the United States. She’s the speaker
now, for crying out loud, and not just another House member.

But for too long the Turks have been accustomed to muscling the truth,
insisting either through threats or punishment that they and they alone
will write the history of what happened in 1915. They are continuing
along this path now, with much of official Ankara threatening this
or that – crossing into Iraqi Kurdistan, for instance – if the
House resolution is not killed. But, it may yet occur to someone
in the government that Turkey’s tantrums have turned an obscure –
non-binding! – congressional resolution into yet another round of
tutorials on the Armenian tragedy of 1915. Call it genocide or call it
something else, but there is only one thing to call Turkey’s insistence
that it and its power will determine the truth: unacceptable.

RICHARD COHEN is a Washington Post columnist.

ci_7191011

New York Times
October 16, 2007

Key Democrats Oppose Armenian Bill

By REUTERS

Filed at 6:39 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Key Democrats in the U.S. House of
Representatives on Tuesday joined Republicans to warn that a
resolution calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks
genocide could harm U.S. strategic interests.

But despite the rebuff, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California
Democrat, did not back away from plans to hold a full House vote
sometime this year.

Pelosi also came under more pressure from President George W. Bush,
who had publicly criticized the resolution last week before it passed
a House committee. Bush telephoned Pelosi on Tuesday and asked her not
to bring the resolution to the House floor, her office said.

"The president and the speaker exchanged candid views on the subject
and the speaker explained the strong bipartisan support in the House
for the resolution," a Pelosi spokesman said.

The nonbinding, largely symbolic resolution passed the House Foreign
Affairs Committee on Thursday despite opposition from the White House,
Pentagon and former secretaries of state from both parties. It
infuriated NATO ally Turkey, which hinted it might halt logistic
support to U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan if the bill
passes.

Turkey calls the resolution insulting and rejects the Armenian
position, backed by many Western historians, that up to 1.5 million
Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World
War One. Turkey has recalled its ambassador for consultations over the
matter.

Democrats, including Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a longtime
member of Pelosi’s inner circle, urged her not to bring the proposal
to the floor and Republicans called the resolution another
"irresponsible" foray into foreign policy.

When she traveled to Syria in April, Pelosi drew withering criticism
for visiting a country the State Department accuses of sponsoring
terrorism. The Armenian resolution prompted criticism from analysts
and editorial writers, too.

"I’ve known about their position for a long time," Pelosi said when
asked whether the resistance from Murtha and another leading Democrat
on defense matters, Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, would cause her to
reconsider.

The resolution was introduced earlier this year by Democratic Rep.
Adam Schiff, a Californian with a strong Armenian-American presence in
his district.

SIMILAR PROPOSALS

Armenian-Americans have been pushing for passage of similar proposals
for years. Ronald Reagan, a Californian, was the only president to
publicly call the killings genocide. Others have avoided the term out
of concern for Turkey’s sensitivities.

Murtha’s office announced he would join other Democrats at a news
conference on Wednesday to explain why they opposed a vote on the
resolution. Through a spokesman, Murtha stressed the importance of
Turkey’s role in U.S. Middle East efforts.

"From my discussions with our military commanders and foreign policy
experts, I believe that this resolution could harm our relations with
Turkey and therefore our strategic interests in the region," Murtha
said.

The United States is highly dependent on Turkey’s Incirlik air base.
About 70 percent of the U.S. military air cargo into Iraq transits
that base, according to the Defense Department.

House aides said Murtha had written to Pelosi in February arguing
against bringing the resolution to the floor.

Skelton, Armed Services Committee chairman, last week added another
concern — that the resolution could hinder a U.S. pullout from Iraq,
a goal of many Democrats including Pelosi.

The Pentagon said on Tuesday it was drafting plans to bring supplies
into Iraq and Afghanistan from other locations, but it would be more
costly than supplying through Turkey.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, reacted
angrily to suggestions that the resolution was part of a Democratic
plan to pressure Bush on Iraq by sowing tensions with Turkey, saying
there was "zero truth in that."

The Wall Street Journal editorial page suggested Pelosi might be
seeking to "take down" U.S. policy in Iraq with the Armenian genocide
resolution. Some analysts said Congress was shooting itself in the
foot with the bill.

(Additional reporting by Kristin Roberts and Randall Mikkelsen)

Source: -turkey-usa-armenia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

BUSH, PELOSI, AND CONGRESS: DUMB AND DUMBER
William Cormier

opednews, PA

Oct 15 2007

If you support the Democrats and are a Liberal or Progressive, I
suppose that many people are giving Nancy Pelosi some breathing room
in the hopes that she will see the light and put impeachment "back on
the table", but after reading this story and the subsequent fallout
from Turkey, a NATO ally and a country that plays an important role
in Bush’s War in Iraq – I’m convinced Pelosi is an abject failure
as the Speaker of The House, and because of her decision to "take
impeachment off the table", many of "we the people" believe she has
taken it upon herself to make a decision that is contrary to the
will of the people that voted the Democrats into power. To state
that Turkey played an important role in the logistics of supplying
our troops and a host of other activities beneficial to the United
States would be an understatement. The loss of Turkey as an ally,
the use of their air space, the intricate and important aid they
provide to resupply our troops in Iraq, if lost, will be extremely
expensive as the U.S. scrambles to make other arrangements.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that she
intends to move ahead with a vote on a resolution that labels the
deaths of more than a million Armenians during World War I as genocide.

The resolution has strained U.S. relations with Turkey and drawn
criticism from the Bush administration.

"This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government
has always said about … what happened at that time," Pelosi said
on ABC’s "This Week."

When asked about criticism that it could harm relations with Turkey – a
key ally in the war in Iraq and a fellow member of NATO – Pelosi said,
"There’s never been a good time," adding that it is important to pass
the resolution now "because many of the survivors are very old."

When asked about criticism that it could harm relations with Turkey – a
key ally in the war in Iraq and a fellow member of NATO – Pelosi said,
"There’s never been a good time," adding that it is important to pass
the resolution now "because many of the survivors are very old."

"When I came to Congress 20 years ago, it wasn’t the right time
because of the Soviet Union. Then that fell, and then it wasn’t the
right time because of the Gulf War One. And then it wasn’t the right
time because of overflights of Iraq. And now it’s not the right time
because of Gulf War Two.

At this point it probably appears that I’m backing Bush’s stance on
the issue, and to a large degree, on this one narrow issue I am, but
not for Bush’s stated reasons. I stand as one of Bush and Cheney’s most
out-spoken critics, however, when we have thousands of U.S. troops in
harms way and we’re engaged in a war on two fronts – supporting Bush
isn’t the issue; the issue is timing, strategy, the safety and welfare
of our troops and common-sense, something Pelosi and the rest of the
numskull Congress whom support this measure are severely lacking!

My argument is that the Bill should have never been allowed to be
introduced at this particular time in history. I understand this
will not go over well in the Armenian community, and especially
those that support this Bill – however, the timing is awful, no
one evidently thought about the consequences of pushing through a
Bill like this while Middle-East tensions are rising by the day, and
whether we agree with Bush or not, common-sense issues demand answers
that are appropriate, not irresponsible and hamper our efforts to
soothe temperaments throughout a region that is volatile and ready
into explode into chaos. Throwing fuel on the fire is irresponsible
and contrary to our best interests; No, I’m not giving Turkey a pass
because we desperately need their continued help and assistance –
I’m simply stating that this is a matter that can be dealt with at a
later date, and the introduction of this Bill when Congress is aware
of Turkey’s importance in a two-front war smacks of rank incompetence
on the part of Pelosi and those that introduced the Bill.

Ask yourselves this: Speaker Pelosi stated that "There’s never been
a good time," – "and it wasn’t the right time because of the Soviet
Union. Then that fell, and then it wasn’t the right time because of the
Gulf War One. And then it wasn’t the right time because of overflights
of Iraq." Is it the right time when we’re in the middle of a conflict
in Iraq and Afghanistan, and war with Iran is a real possibility in
the very near future? As we lose allies that once supported us in
Iraq, is it time to lose another ally, this time one as important as
Turkey? Just because we needed to make a statement – and then chose
the worst possible time to even allow it to be brought-up on the
House Floor!

There are serious matters that this Congress should be concerned
with, and halting our rapid decent into fascism and reigning-in a
rogue President should trump any agenda that is not specifically
geared toward the peoples effort to halt the Iraq War and return
our country to its Constitutional requirements and beliefs. This is
legislation that is ill-timed, and if anything, is designed to cause
Bush even more trouble as we mobilize as a nation to rid ourselves
of the tyrants that have squatted in the White House.

Democrats in Congress, instead of listening to the lobbyists and
special interest groups, should listen to those few courageous
Democrats that are attempting to represent the people, not the wealthy
and corporate America. Look at what Dennis Kucinich said on Oct 12,
2007, in a speech to Congresso:

Now the people in the Administration of George Bush better remember
their Miranda rights, because when I’m elected President I’m going
to see that they are arrested. I’m not kidding here! I want to let
you to know something; how I feel about what’s happened to our country.

We have been led into a war based upon lies – an unjust a war. We’ve
seen our civil liberties taken away because of lies. The President,
the Vice President, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of
Defense are all part of this. They’re going to be held accountable
under the law. If someone runs a traffic light, they’ll get a ticket
here. There are a million dead Iraqis and almost 4,000 dead American
soldiers as a result of this war. Where is the accountability? What’s
happened is that our constitution is being torn up. MORE

It’s refreshing to know there are a few Democrats with a sense of what
needs to be done to clean-up Washington and attempt to salvage our
good name, bring home our troops, and work to reinvigorate America
from within and rebuild our shattered economy.

Even the Turkish military are stating we "shot ourselves in the foot"
– and I imagine the rest of the world is viewing our Congress with
the same disdain they do President Bush:

Turkey Lashes Out at U.S. Lawmakers for Armenian ‘Genocide’ Measure

Turkey criticized U.S. lawmakers and recalled its ambassador after a
House panel voted to approve a measure that recognizes the killings
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I as "genocide." A
congressman and a former U.S. diplomat explain the issues at hand.

KWAME HOLMAN: In Turkey today, there were street protests decrying
a vote by a committee of the U.S. Congress. That vote labeled as
"genocide" the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in the
early 20th century.

Turkish politicians joined demonstrators in Istanbul, denouncing
the vote of American politicians. Erkan Onsel is vice president of
Turkey’s Labor Party.

ERKAN ONSEL, Vice President, Turkish Labor Party (through translator):
The United States of America legitimized the Armenian genocide claim,
which has swung over Turkey’s head like a stick and which has posed
a threat to Turkey for years. The U.S. has made it clear once again
that it targets Turkey. MORE

It’s time to shed the partisanship and see our Congress work together
to solve the many important issues that face our country. I have never
stated that the issue of what happened in World War I should be off
the agenda forever, but to push for legislation that is detrimental
to our war effort, whether it’s legal or we like it or not has to
be transcended by the need to insure that our troops receive their
supplies, ammo, and necessities in a timely manner, and it’s not the
time to make other arrangements that will be costlier to the US,
and quite literally, the added expense will eventually be another
burden passed-on to the American taxpayer, notwithstanding the danger
to the troops if a conflict arises in Iran.

Bloomberg
Oct 14 2007

Hoyer Says House to Pass Armenian Genocide Resolution (Update1)

By Nadine Elsibai

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he expects
the House to pass a non-binding resolution that labels the World War
I-era killing of Armenians by Turks as genocide before Nov. 16, when
Congress is slated to recess for the year.

Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appearing today on separate news
shows, said the threat of Turkish reprisals would not stop the vote.
“I said if it passed the committee that we would bring it to the
floor,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week” program.

Turkey recalled its ambassador after the resolution was passed Oct.
10 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Turkish government
warned the vote threatens its strategic partnership with the U.S.

Turkey, the only Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, is home to an air base the U.S. uses to re-supply
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also is one of the few
predominantly Muslim nations to have close ties with Israel as well
as Arab countries.

Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said today on “Fox News Sunday” that he
raised the issue repeatedly with Turkish leaders during his 26 years
in Congress and “never once” did they say “this is the right
time.”

He said that he and Pelosi met with the Turkish ambassador to remind
him that the two countries are allies.

Hoyer said they told the Ambassador Nabi Sensoy that the resolution
was “a historical observation” that’s “not about your government.
It is not about the Turkish people. It is about a historical event
that happened that we need to remember to preclude its happening
again.”

U.S. officials called their Turkish counterparts after the panel’s
vote to stress that the administration will do all it can to block
the bill’s passage by the full House. Turkey denies Ottoman Turks
killed 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915.

No Appeal From Bush

Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she has had no appeal from
President George W. Bush to block the vote. “We’ve never had a
conversation about it,” she said. “I’ve heard from the secretary of
state and others in the administration, but I’ve never heard from the
president.”

“This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government
has always said about what has happened — what happened at that
time,” Pelosi said. “It is nonbinding. It is a statement made by 23
other countries. We would be the 24th.”

`Subject for Historians’

House Minority Leader John Boehner, who appeared on Fox, urged Pelosi
not to bring the resolution to a floor vote.

“What happened 90 years ago ought to be a subject for historians to
sort out, not politicians here in Washington,” Boehner, an Ohio
Republican, said. “Bringing this bill to the floor may be the most
irresponsible thing I’ve seen this new Congress do this year.”

The head of Turkey’s armed forces told the newspaper Milliyet he
called the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and told him
the U.S. has “shot itself in the foot.”

No legislative assembly in an ally of Turkey would pass such a
measure, Yasar Buyukanit said, adding he hopes the full House would
defeat the resolution, according to Milliyet.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the resolution a
“really bad idea.”

“We all know” the killings occurred, McConnell, a Kentucky
Republican, said on ABC. “I don’t think the Congress passing this
resolution is a good idea at any point. But particularly not a good
idea when Turkey is cooperating with us in many ways, which ensures
greater safety for our soldiers.”

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s national
security adviser, said on Cable News Network, “I never realized the
House of Representatives was some sort of an academy of learning that
passes judgment on historical events.” As for the House passing
resolutions on whether the Armenian killings “should be classified
as genocide or a huge massacre is I don’t think any of its
business,” he said.

Reuters
Oct 13 2007

Serbia held to 0-0 draw at Armenia in Euro qualifier

YEREVAN, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Serbia’s hopes of reaching the Euro 2008
finals suffered a setback when they were held to a 0-0 draw at
Armenia in their Group A qualifier on Saturday.
The result left Serbia fourth with 17 points from 11 matches, level
with third-placed Portugal who were playing at Azerbaijan later on
Saturday.
Poland, who were at home to Kazakhstan in another evening kickoff,
lead the group with 21 points from 11 matches, two more than Finland
who were away to fifth-placed Belgium.
Needing a win to close in on a berth at next year’s tournament, the
Serbs started with an attacking 4-4-2 formation but it was the
Armenians who created the better chances and only poor finishing on a
bumpy pitch denied them a win.
Levon Pachachjan and Samvel Melkonyan tormented the Serbian defence
with darting runs on either flank, the former missing the best chance
in the first half when his volley from eight metres hit goalkeeper
Vladimir Stojkovic in the head.
Armenia keeper Roman Berezovsky did well to keep out shots from Marko
Pantelic and Zdravko Kuzmanovic before the home side’s Artavazd
Karamyan and Aram Hakobyan missed sitters with the goal at their
mercy in the closing stages.

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 12 2007

There is no real threat to physical existence of the Armenian
community of Turkey, Russian political expert thinks

ArmInfo. There is no real threat to physical existence of the
Armenian community of Turkey, chief expert of Committee on CIS
affairs of Russian State Duma, known Russian political expert
Andranik Migranyan told ArmInfo correspondent when commenting on
possible threat to the Armenian community of Turkey, if US Congress
recognizes the Armenian genocide.

He also added that separate cases may happen, but they used to happen
before adoption of this initiative as well. , the political expert
said. Migranyan said that being in Turkey within the frames of the
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation commission, he assured that several
generation of the Turkish society grew up knowing nothing about the
events of the years when the genocide happened. , – A.Migranyan
concluded.

Agence France Presse — English
October 11, 2007 Thursday

Turkish court gives suspended jail term to son of assassinated
journalist

A Turkish court on Thursday found the son of assassinated ethnic
Armenian journalist Hrant Dink guilty of insulting the Turkish
identity but spared him jail, Anatolia news agency reported.

Arat Dink and a colleague, Serkis Seropyan, were given a one-year
suspended prison term after reproducing an interview in their
newspaper in which Hrant Dink, who was killed by an ultranationalist
youth in January, said that the massacre of Armenians in 1915-17 in
Ottoman Turkey was a genocide.

The judges at the court in Istanbul ruled that Dink and Seropyan,
respectively the chief editor and a top writer for Agos magazine, a
Turkish-Armenian language review, should not go to prison because
they had no criminal record, Anatolia reported.

The two journalists were charged under article 301 of the Turkish
penal code which calls for the punishment of those who "insult
Turkish national identity", the agency said.

The interview with Hrant Dink was published in July, 2006, when he
was editor of Agos.

Hrant Dink’s comments often outraged Turkish nationalists and he was
also found guilty of insulting Turkish identity and given a six month
suspended jail term. He was gunned down outside the magazine’s
offices in January.

A teenager who has confessed to the murder and a number of alleged
accomplices went on trial in July.

Stratfor
Oct 12 2007

Turkey: U.S. Ambassador Recalled
October 11, 2007 23 26 GMT

Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy was recalled from the United States on
Oct. 11 after a U.S. House of Representatives committee passed a
resolution that classifies the 1915 massacre of Armenians as
genocide, Turkish NTV television company reported. Sensoy was
recalled "for consultations," a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman
said. The Turkish naval commander also has canceled his U.S. visit.