Author: Chalian Meline

TURKEY’S MILITANT MUSLIMS SHOULD WORRY WEST
By Con Coughlin

The Daily Telegraph/UK
04/05/2007

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, was no friend
of Islam.

Late at night, and in his cups, Turkey’s iconic leader would often
refer to the nation’s Islamic past as "a necklace of corpses" that
defiled the new state he was trying to create from the ruins of the
Ottoman empire.

The 15 years he governed the country is most remembered for the almost
obsessive purge he undertook of the country’s Muslim identity as he
sought to create a society more attuned to the ways of modern Europe.

The Caliphate, the body that had governed the Muslim world for four
centuries under the Ottomans, was unceremoniously abolished within
months of the creation of the modern Turkish state.

The minarets of the country’s mosques were silenced by a ban on
the muezzin broadcasting their daily prayers, and the more radical
madrassas were closed.

Anyone who turned up at Ankara’s city walls in dress deemed to
be too Islamic in nature was unceremoniously sent back to the
provinces. Sharia law was replaced by a penal code modelled on that
of Switzerland and the emancipation of women was encouraged by laws
that banned the wearing of veils. Arabic script was replaced by the
Latin alphabet, and the centuries-old ban on alcohol was lifted.

It is hardly surprising, then, that the crowds of demonstrators who
have been protesting at the country’s creeping Islamisation should
carry banners bearing Ataturk’s intimidating features.

The crude attempt by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s crypto-Islamic
prime minister, to secure the presidency for a practising Muslim,
Abdullah Gul, the current foreign minister, has provoked such
outrage that the nation’s military elite, who regard themselves as
standard-bearers of Ataturk’s legacy, threatened to stage yet another
military coup.

That deeply disturbing prospect has – for the moment, at least –
been averted by Erdogan’s decision to call an early election this
summer to decide the issue by democratic means. But with Erdogan’s
Justice and Development party, which is deeply rooted in the country’s
burgeoning Islamic constituency, riding high in the polls, a return
to the kind of military dictatorship that plagued Turkey’s political
development throughout the 20th century cannot be ruled out.

Turkey’s military establishment is Kemalist to the core, and the mere
suggestion that the country might appoint a president whose wife
insists on covering herself with a veil for public functions would
be enough to have them taking to their tanks.

Despite Erdogan’s insistence that he has no desire to dilute the
country’s distinctive secular character, the hawkish generals have
viewed him as an Islamist in disguise in the three years since he
came to power. They, together with the millions of Turks who are at
ease with the country’s secular outlook, are concerned at the growing
influence Islam is having on Turkish society.

Ten years ago it was normal to see groups of young girls in school
uniforms on the streets of Istanbul. Today they have virtually
disappeared, to be replaced by women wearing headscarves. During the
holy Islamic month of Ramadan it is not uncommon for street fights
to break out between religious Muslims objecting to their secular
compatriots lighting a cigarette during the daytime fast.

Turn on any television or radio debate in Turkey these days and the
main subject of discussion most likely concerns the threat Islam poses
to the country’s future. "Do you want us to become another Iran or
another Afghanistan?"

one frustrated secularist demanded of an Islamic supporter during a
Turkish radio station phone-in earlier this week.

Given Turkey’s geographical location, it is hardly surprising that it
is susceptible to the threat of radical Islam being imported across
its south-eastern borders. And even though Justice and Development’s
Islamic agenda is mild compared with that on offer in neighbouring
Iran, Erdogan’s failed attempt to criminalise adultery – it was vetoed
by the current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer – has done nothing to
allay the suspicions of those determined to maintain the Kemalist
settlement.

The mounting polarisation between Turkey’s devout Muslims and its
secular, mainly urban, elite should be a matter of grave concern for
the West, which has often sent Ankara conflicting signals about its
value as an ally.

In military and strategic terms, Turkey has long been regarded as
a key asset, particularly after the September 11 attacks put it on
the front line of Washington’s various campaigns to root out Islamic
terrorists and confront rogue states.

Yet Turkey’s enthusiastic attempt to join the European Union has
received a decidedly lukewarm response, with many member states
expressing strong reservations about welcoming 70 million Muslims
into an alliance whose population is more familiar with the tenets
and traditions of Christianity.

The various delaying tactics Brussels has employed to postpone
Turkey’s entry, from doubts over its economic viability to Ankara’s
obstinacy about opening its ports to Greek Cypriot vessels, has not
only succeeded in dampening the Turks’ excitement about the whole
venture, but has encouraged an upsurge in nationalistic fervour that
underlies the country’s current travails.

Accusations that the West’s Islamophobia is responsible for blocking
Turkey’s entry to the EU have, perversely, increased support for
Islamic groups that seek to accentuate the country’s historic Muslim
character.

Brussels’ procrastination has also seen a revival of the
ultra-nationalist groups that regard Cyprus as their cause celèbre,
and are not afraid to use violence against anyone accused of "insulting
Turkishness".

January’s murder of Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian journalist who
accused the Turks of committing genocide against the Armenians during
the First World War, is symptomatic of the paranoia and isolationism
that is sweeping the country, and now threatens the long-term stability
of a key Nato ally.

The EU’s patronising treatment of Turkey’s membership application has
certainly not helped to placate this siege mentality, and explains
why so many Turks now seek to invoke the spirit of Turkish nationalism
espoused by Ataturk.

But these are dangerous currents.

The generals, not the politicians, are the true keepers of the Ataturk
flame and, like the country’s founding father, they will not stand
idly by if the Turks attempt a return to their old Islamic ways.

–Boundary_(ID_qA2j1bECOJQpOQyeQnuv+w)–

ABOUT 14 THOUSAND DOLLARS TO BE ALLOCATED TO SOCIALLY NEEDY FAMILIES OF REGION FROM NINOTSMINDA LOCAL BUDGET

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 02 2007

NINOTSMINDA, MAY 2, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. It was decided
as a result of discussion of the agenda of the Ninotsminda Regional
Council to allocate 24 thousand laris (about 14.118 U.S. dollars)
to socially needy families of the region from the 2007 local budget
what makes 1.398 thousand laris (about 823 thousand U.S. dollars).

In the words of Deputy Gamgebeli of the region Samvel Iritsian, from
that money 5500 laris (about 3235 U.S. dollars) will be given on May
9 to 50 participants of the Great Patriotic War and families of four
victims on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the victory in the
war. Besides, the war participants will be set free from the phone
payments 100%, those subjected to repression will be set free 50%.

According to Javakhk-Info, 1500 laris (about 882 U.S. dollars) must
be given to patients and invalids as a social protection, 1000 laris
(about 588 U.S. dollars) will be given to grown ups. 4700 laris (about
2765 U.S. dollars) will be given to children born after September,
2006, and 3000 laris (about 1765 U.S. dollars) will be given to
children from needy families.

ARF’S APPROACHES AND SOLUTIONS ARE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT OTHER PARTIES SUGGEST
Editorial

Yerkir.am
April 27, 2007

ARF has a more clearcut approach to the solution of the problems
Armenia is facing. None of the parties present their approaches in
a holistic manner.

We tell where we should start from, which is the primary solution,
what follow-up actions should be taken, and what the final results
of the policies should be.

We say that we should start with fighting against the shadow economy
and ensuring free economic competition after which industrial policies
should be implemented.

This will result in a drastic improvement of the demographic situation
in Armenia. We believe that Armenia can be revitalized and pursue
its goals as a state only if it has adequate human resources.

Balanced development in terms of fair territorial distribution of
development is also very important. We are saying that job creation and
inward migration should not be concentrated only in the capital. All
cities should be developed. We need to develop and strengthen the
villages in the border territories ensuring that they find their
niches in the overall economy.

We are offering realistic solutions that will definitely carry
positive results.

LOS ANGELES TIMES MANAGING EDITOR BLOCKS ARTICLE ON SO CALLED ‘ARMENIAN GENOCIDE’

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
May 1 2007

A publication of article on so called "Armenian genocide" erupted
scandal over the issue. Los Angeles Times managing editor Doug Frantz
blocked the publication of an article on the Armenian genocide
by senior staff writer Mark Arax, who is of Armenian origin, APA
US bureau reports. Frantz said Arax is biased on Armenian issues
expressing personal views about the topic in a public manner and
therefore was not a disinterested party.

Frantz said late in 2005 four Los Angels Times’ contributors of
Armenian descent sent a letter to the chief editor of the paper
demanding the events of 1915-1923 to be presented as genocide in the
papers editing policy. He also told Arax that he "went around [the]
system" in a bid to land the story assignment, by dealing with an
editor in the Times Washington bureau, Robert Ourlian, who is Armenian
American. That is why Doug Frantz reassigned the story to Washington
writer Rich Simon. The revised Times article ran under the headline,
"Genocide Resolution Still Far From Certain" on Saturday, April 21,
four days before Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day in L.A. Arax was
given a consolation tagline at the end of the article for having
"contributed" some reporting.

In protest against Mark Arax sent a written application to Jim O’Shea,
the top editor of the Los Angeles Times presenting himself the victim
of national discrimination.

‘Never again’ for Armenians too
Several American Jewish groups abandon their anti-genocide zeal when it
comes to Turkey’s massacre of Armenians.
By Daniel Sokatch and David N. Myers, DANIEL SOKATCH is executive director
of the Progressive Jewish Alliance. DAVID N. MYERS teaches Jewish history at
UCLA.
Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2007

THIS YEAR, Congress established April 15 as Holocaust Memorial Day,
commemorating the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. Just nine days later, on
April 24, Armenians throughout the world observed the commemoration of their
great tragedy: the massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians at the hands
of the Turks that began in 1915.

In many ways, it was the 20th century’s first genocide that helped set the
stage for its largest, including Rwanda and now Darfur. Adolf Hitler
reportedly said, on the eve of his invasion of Poland in 1939, "Who, after
all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

For the last 60 years, the Jewish community has labored to avoid granting
Hitler, in the words of philosopher Emil Fackenheim, "a posthumous victory."
Jews have taken as their motto "never again," and most tend to understand
that this charge refers to all of humanity, not only to fellow Jews. One of
the last surviving leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Simha "Kazik"
Rotem, once said that the central lesson of the Holocaust to him was that
the Jewish people should stand vigilant against genocidal acts directed at
any people.

This is why it is troubling that some major Jewish organizations have lined
up in support of Turkey’s efforts to keep the U.S. Congress from recognizing
the Armenian massacres as an act of genocide. The Anti-Defamation League
(ADL), the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Jewish Institute for
National Security Affairs (JINSA) and B’nai B’rith International recently
conveyed a letter from the Turkish Jewish community opposing a resolution
recognizing the genocide.

The ADL and the JINSA also added their own statements of opposition,
suggesting that the massacre of Armenians was a matter for historians, not
legislators, to decide.

The American Jewish community has insisted, and rightly so, that the U.S.
Congress, the United Nations and other governmental bodies formally
commemorate the Holocaust. Why should Jews not insist on the same in this
case, especially given the widespread scholarly consensus that what happened
to the Armenians from 1915 to 1923 was genocide? After all, the man who
coined the term "genocide" to refer to the Holocaust – the Polish-Jewish
lawyer Raphael Lemkin – cited the Armenian massacres as a precedent.

The unfortunate and well-known answer to the question is that Turkey has
fiercely opposed efforts to call the Armenian massacres "genocide."
Moreover, it has asked its friends to help beat back the attempts at
historical recognition.

Jewish opposition to recognizing the Armenian genocide comes mainly from a
desire to safeguard the important strategic relationship between Turkey and
Israel. Alone among the world’s Muslim nations, Turkey has forged close
military, political and economic ties with Israel. In addition, Jews
remember with a deep sense of gratitude that Turkey served as an important
haven for their forebears fleeing persecution, from the time of the Spanish
Expulsion in 1492 to the dark days of Nazism and beyond. And it is not just
that Turkey has been kind to Israel and the Jews. It is a critically
important U.S. ally in a dangerous region racked by religious extremism.

Nobody is suggesting that Jews forget Turkey’s historic friendship. But it
is a mistake for Jews – or, for that matter, anyone – to surrender the moral
imperative of condemning genocide in the hopes of avoiding a perceived, but
by no means necessary, strategic loss. Similarly, it would be a mistake for
Turkey to hinge its own strategic interests on the denial of past criminal
acts. Coming to terms with the past, as democratic Germany has done in the
aftermath of the Holocaust and South Africa in the wake of apartheid, is the
best path to political legitimacy.

Turkey, a trusted ally and friend of the Jews and the United States, must
come to terms with its past for its own sake. It is that battle that leading
Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and martyred
Armenian activist Hrant Dink, have been waging so nobly. We should do all in
our power to strengthen the hands of these figures and avoid the abyss of
historical revisionism.

Sixty years (and millions of historical documents) later, the world still
has to contend with those who deny the Holocaust. We need only recall the
shocking words and deeds of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on this
score.

In response to such denials, all decent-minded people, and Jews in
particular, must continue to declare loudly "never again" – not only to
future genocides but also to the attempted denial of past genocides,
regardless of who the perpetrators or victims are.

KOCHARIAN SAYS ARMENIA EAGER TO REPLACE OLD NUCLEAR POWER PLANT WITH MODERN ONE

ARMENPRESS

YEREVAN, APRIL 27, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
told the students and faculty of the Yerevan State University today
that Armenia ‘should certainly have a nuclear power production
facility.’ He said the government is considering this option and
practical steps are expected to come in 2008-2009.

Kocharian said the best option for the country would be to build a
new modern plant with advanced technologies on the infrastructures of
the Metzamor power plant built in 1970-s, but added that the question
is to calculate its exact cost and the extent of impact a new plant
may have on electricity tariff policies.

Kocharian said specific actions with regard to construction of a new
power plant or a major reconstruction of the current one may come
in 2012-2013.

Armenia’s Soviet-era Metzamor nuclear power plant, similar in design
to Chernobyl’s nuclear power station, is scheduled to close in 2016
in line with Armenia’s commitments before the European Union.

It generates nearly half of the electricity consumed in the
country. The station consists of two VVER-440 reactors and was shut
down shortly after the 1988 earthquake, but this provoked a severe
energy crisis and the government restarted one of the power units in
November 1995 with a 407.5 MWe capacity.

In 2003, the nuclear power station was handed over to Russian Unified
Energy Systems (RAO UES) to manage for a five-year term to help pay
off Armenia’s debts.

Last year Armenian government pushed through the parliament a legal
amendment allowing it to seek for foreign investors who would be
willing to provide an estimated $1 billion needed for construction
of a new power plant.

Also earlier this month the Russian and Armenian governments agreed
to jointly develop Armenia’s uranium reserves. A relevant agreement
was signed in Yerevan by prime minister Serzh Sarkisian and Sergey
Kirienko, the head of Russia’s Federal Agency on Atomic Energy
(Rosatom).

Under the agreement Armenia and Russia will set up a joint venture
to explore areas in the southeastern Syunik region, where uranium
reserves were estimated by Soviet geologists at 30,000 metric tons.

STIMULATION OF BIRTHRATE IS A STRATEGIC ISSUE

Azat Artsakh Daily, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]
28 April 07

Over the past five years the Good Samaritan NGO and Maternity NGO have
been implementing a few programs in Artsakh, including a program of
stimulation of birthrate and prevention of abortion in NKR. On April
21 these NGOs held a round-table meeting at the City Hall and invited
representatives of NGOs, officials and reporters. Hasmik Michaelian
presented statistics on the rate of birth and the rate of abortion
for the past few years. She compared these rates to the rate of child
death in pointing to the strategic importance of the demographic
state for the nation. Marianna Hakobian, the head of the department
of youth of the NKR ministry of education, presented the number of
young people who are reluctant to get married, especially in rural
areas. The reasons are clear: poverty, unemployment. The head of Good
Samaritan Arthur Balayan said the organization is preparing booklets
to distribute to people. Leaflets on the dangers of abortion have been
distributed to people. The participants of the round-table meeting
came up with proposals, which will be extended to the NKR government.

LAURA GRIGORIAN.

28-04-2007

KHACHATRYAN, VIOLONISTE PRODIGIEUX

Le Monde, France
27 avril 2007 vendredi

Le 27 avril, le jeune soliste armenien donnera un recital avec sa
soeur Lusine, au Theâtre des Champs-Elysees

Pas le moindre trouble sur le visage concentre du jeune violoniste
qui entre sur la scène du fameux Konzerthaus de Vienne, ce mercredi
18 avril. Sobre d’allure jusqu’a l’ascetisme – continuum de chemise
noire sur pantalon noir. Sergey Khachatryan a 22 ans. Il est ne en
1985 a Erevan, en Armenie, avant d’emigrer six ans plus tard avec sa
famille musicienne a Francfort. Il joue pour la première fois dans
la capitale autrichienne, où fut cree le Concerto pour violon de
Beethoven, son prefere avec ceux de Chostakovitch, qu’il interprète
ce soir avec l’Orchestre philharmonique de la BBC sous l’excellente
direction de l’Italien Gianandrea Noseda. Le 27 avril, il sera a Paris,
au Theâtre des Champs-Elysees.

" Je suis hante. L’Azur, l’Azur, l’Azur, l’Azur ! " Ce vers seul de
Mallarme vient a l’esprit, qui donne l’idee du vertige que produit
le violon de Sergey Khachatryan. Vertige du son : une perfection de
timbre, de couleur, de justesse, qui est un miracle en soi. Vertige
d’une musicalite proprement inouïe – c’est la terrible sagesse de
l’Enfant devant les docteurs du Temple. Sergey Khachatryan joue yeux
mi-clos, la tete penchee au-dessus d’un mysterieux miroir d’eau. La
musique sourd de lui comme le sang des grandes blessures d’amour
mystique. Elle est pure, elle est fraîche, elle est puissante.

Khachatryan n’est pas de ces violonistes diables qui incendient les
corps et transforment les salles en lupanars, de ces violonistes
polaires qui glacent les corps pour mieux rechauffer l’intelligence.

Il joue dans un total abandon de soi et des autres, ne cherche ni
a donner ni a prendre. Quasi immobile jusque sous l’assaut virtuose
qui lui barre la joue d’une balafre maxillaire, tandis qu’au plisse
du front et des sourcils semble defiler une invisible partition.

CONCERTO NOUVEAU-NE

Il joue l’ancestral Concerto de Beethoven vieux de deux cents ans,
cheval de bataille des violonistes, tellement entendu, caresse,
aime, tellement contusionne, parfois magistralement aime, parfois
magistralement contusionne. Il joue un concerto nouveau-ne, sans
cheval ni bataille. Le garcon aime la suspension entre ciel et terre,
c’est la qu’il se tient, dans les courants funambules de la musique.

La delicatesse, Khachatryan la pousse parfois jusqu’a la souffrance,
phrase retenu a l’ultime du souffle, archet au bord du rien. Son
violon est d’une onction extreme. Jamais entendu un deuxième mouvement
aussi beau et lumineux, l’orchestre deployant un choral fervent, que
le violon ornemente de traits d’anges enlumines. Les poètes encore
sont convoques. Le dernier sera Nerval. Le violon de Khachatryan est
aussi celui d’El Desdichado, tenebreux, veuf, inconsole. " Il n’a
besoin de personne en Harley Davidson " – le Huggins 1708 (c’est le
nom du stradivarius que lui a prete la Fondation japonaise pour la
musique après qu’il a remporte en 2005 le Concours Reine Elisabeth
de Belgique).

L’Orchestre philharmonique de la BBC dirige par l’excellent Gianandrea
Noseda semble stupefie du resultat, tout comme le public reuni dans le
Konzerthaus. Ce dernier aura, en revanche, bien du mal a " s’enquiller
" en deuxième partie la roborative mais definitivement trop bruyante
Faust Symphonie de Liszt. Ensuite, il ira retrouver, dans le hall
d’entree, le violoniste descendu sur terre pour signer ses disques –
un recital Brahms, Bach, Chausson (EMI), les concertos de Sibelius
et de Khachaturian (Naïve Classique) et les Concertos nos 1 et 2 de
Chostakovitch, avec l’Orchestre national de France sous la direction
de Kurt Masur (Naïve Classique).

De quoi tenir en attendant la Chaconne de Bach et les sonates de Franck
et de Chostakovitch que Sergey Khachatryan donnera en compagnie de sa
soeur la pianiste Lusine, au Theâtre des Champs-Elysees, le 27 avril.

Marie-Aude Roux

Sergey Khachatryan (violon),avec le BBC Philharmonic Orchestra,
Gianandrea Noseda (dir.), le 18 avril a 19 h 30 au Konzerthaus de
Vienne.Prochains concerts a Paris, le 27 avril a 20 heures au Theâtre
des Champs-Elysees, 15, avenue Montaigne, Paris-8e. M° Alma-Marceau.

Tel. : 01-49-52-50-50. De 5 ¤ a 62 ¤. Le 11 juin a 20 heures, Concerto
de Beethoven, avec l’Orchestre du Gewandhaus de Leipzig, Riccardo
Chailly (dir.), a la Salle Pleyel, 252, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honore,
Paris-8e. Tel. : 01-42-56-13-13. De 10 ¤ a 85 ¤.

–Boundary_(ID_H3GDZvnktODPMUDQEzYWxg)–

AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENTS LIKELY TO VIEW WAYS OF RESOLUTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICTS IN ST. PETERSBURG

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
April 27 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku/ Trend , corr. E. Huseynov/ Yuriy Merzlyakov, the
OSCE Minsk Group Russian Co-Chairman, has told Trend by the telephone
that the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Robert
Kocharian, are likely to a next round of negotiations on peaceful
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in St. Petersburg on June,
10, 2007.

The non-formal summit of CIS Member-States is expected to be held in
the Russian Northern capital of Saint-Petersburg on June 10, 2007.

According to Mr. Merzlyakov, the OSCE mediators have proposed the both
disputing parties to hold a meeting between the both Presidents just
this day, since it will be the first opportunity to hold a meeting
between the two leaders of the conflict countries after Armenia
holds its parliamentary elections in May, 2007. "It is very rarely
when so many leaders of different states can be gathered. This is
the first opportunity for it," said the diplomat by adding that the
Azerbaijani party has not officially confirmed its readiness to meet
in St. Petersburg on June 10. According to the Russian Co-Chairman,
the statement being made by the Armenian President today can be viewed
as the consent of the Armenian party to hold such a meeting.

At the same time, he added that another possibility for holding a
meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders would be the
forthcoming summit of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, which was
appointed to the end of June, 2007.

Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani lands including
Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven Districts of the country surrounding
it. Since 1992 to the present time, these territories have been
under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan
and Armenia signed a cease-fire agreement at which time the active
hostilities ended. Since then, the co-chairs of the OSCE have been
holding peaceful negotiations. The final meeting of the Presidents
of Azerbaijan and Armenia took place at the end of October in Minsk.

AMBASSADOR ANNE DERSE: US POLICY ON AZERBAIJAN AND NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT HAS NOT CHANGED

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 26 2007

"The United States’ policy which respects Azerbaijan, respects status
of Nagorno Karabakh has not changed," US Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary to Azerbaijan Anne Derse said when commenting on
the State Department’s restoring the first version of initial 2006
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, APA reports.

The Ambassador said the language of the country report on Azerbaijan
has been changed back, it can be seen in the website of the State
Department.

Ms. Derse said the US is negotiating with Azerbaijan to restore the
high-level visit of Azerbaijani delegation to the US for bilateral
security talks.