Author: Chalian Meline

GORAN LENMARKER VISITS THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

ArmRadio.am
05.02.2007 15:49

Armenian Parliament Speaker Tigran Torosyan received today the
delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly headed by Goran
Lenmarker.

Tigran Torosyan concisely presented the political life in Armenia,
turning to the works accomplished after the Constitutional
amendments. He laid special emphasis on conducting the parliamentary
elections in compliance with European standards, since these are of
particular importance for the further progress of the county.

The OSCE PA President also turned to the parliamentary elections,
stressing their importance. In his opinion, Armenia has all
prerequisites to hold free and fair elections. He expressed
gratitude for the active work of the Armenian delegation in the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly and expressed hope that the delegation will
play a significant role also in the upcoming discussion of the energy
security issues.

NA Chairman highly appreciated the OSCE Minsk Group activity,
noting that a good formula has been found, which can lie in the
basis of settlement. It is the combination of two principles of the
Helsinki Final Act – territorial integrity and the self-determination
of peoples. He noted that Armenia is ready for cooperation, but
anticipates loyalty to European standards in all countries and
considers that the Karabakh issue is a very sensitive one and the
principles of European structures should not be sacrificed for the
sake of some objectives.

NY Times Book Review
Feb. 4, 2007
The Terminated
by Christopher De Bellaigue

SKYLARK FARM
by Antonia Arslan
(translated by Geoffrey Brock, 275 pp., Alfred A. Knopf)

After a silence dictated by shame, pain and politics that lasted the
better part of a century, the suffering of Armenians massacred by the
Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies during World War I has recently
become an urgent issue. The parliaments of several countries in the
European Union,
( mestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.htm l?inline=3Dnyt-org)
a club Turkey wants to join, have labeled the massacres genocide. The
Turks refuse to do so. Of all those involved in this slow, bitter
process of remembering, it is writers and journalists, not
politicians, who have touched the rawest nerves. On Jan. 19, Hrant Dink,
( estopics/people/d/hrant_dink/index.html?inline=3Dn yt-per)
a prominent Turkish-Armenian who had promoted both reconciliation and
an honest appraisal of the past, was murdered, apparently by a Turkish
nationalist. Earlier, Orhan Pamuk’s
( /books/authors/index.html?inline=3Dnyt-per)
refere nce to the massacres in an interview and an allusion to the
Armenian `genocide’ in a novel by Elif Shafak led to the prosecution
of both on charges of `insulting Turkishness.’ Neither was convicted
(unlike Dink, who received a suspended sentence on the same charge)
but the country’s reputation has suffered.

The Italian writer Antonia Arslan’s first novel, `Skylark Farm,’ is
based – how closely, we are not told – on the experiences of her
Armenian grandfather ‘s family during those massacres. The farm of the
title is, in fact, a country house that Sempad, a well-to-do Armenian
pharmacist living in a town somewhere in Anatolia, is trying to
complete in time for the visit of his brother, Yerwant, who emigrated
years earlier to make his fortune in Italy. Absorbed in their domestic
affairs, Sempad and his family are oblivious to the signs,
unmistakable in hindsight, that Turkey’s government is preparing toget
rid of a minority population it suspects of abetting the empire’s
Russian enemies.

May 1915 comes around and what follows is, for any Armenian, a
dismally familiar story. Out at the farm, Sempad and his male
relations are murderedby Turkish soldiers. His wife, their daughters
and hundreds more women from the same town are then forced to walk
many miles through hostile country to Syria, where death camps
await. The marchers are `escorted’ by guards who connive with
marauding Kurdish tribesmen to take first the women’s possessions,
then their honor and finally – in many cases – their lives. It’s a
despicable story, and one that has been told, in Armenian and other
languages, in countless memoirs and histories.

In Arslan’s hands, the gruesome details of this tragedy are palliated
by an old-fashioned story of redemption. After the marchers set off,
Nazim, a Muslim beggar who used to inform on the Armenians for the
authorities, joins forces with a Greek woman to shadow them, slipping
them food and dressing their wounds at night, before finally using
guile and gems to buy the survivors’ release in Aleppo. As it happens,
the unappealing Turkish suitor of one ofthe family’s young women has
been posted to Syria. Once he regarded most Armenians as worthy of
elimination, but by the end of the book, even though his sweetheart
has died, he undergoes a conversion of his own, using connections to
secure passports for the surviving members of the family so they can
join Yerwant in Italy.

Although history keeps wrenching her back into shocking events, Arslan
seems instinctively a writer of magic and intuition. Premonitions,
dreams and religious faith provide her characters with respite from
the horror. A bereaved mother dies by allowing her heart to break; a
decent German official becomes an angel; and there is a delightful
image of those medieval knights-errant`for whom hospitable Anatolia,
with its small courts rich in flowing water and lovely maidens, proved
more pleasing than their gloomy, distant northern lands.’

Arslan reports dialogues involving the architects of the deportations,
including the interior minister, Talat Pasha, who writes in a
telegram: `No mercy for women, old men or children. If even one
Armenian were to survive, he would later want revenge.’ This is a
prophetic reference to Talat’s murder in exile at the hands of an
Armenian who chanced upon him in a Berlin street.

`Skylark Farm,’ is an affecting book, and sensitively translated by
Geoffrey Brock, but it is marred by uneven writing. Arslan’s habit of
flashing forward at moments of happiness to the wretched times that
lie ahead detracts from the novel’s intensity without adding to its
resonance. And some ofher deadpan descriptions of hideous events –
`This was sufficient time for the young bride Hripsime to recover from
her delivery and to see her baby die, skewered on a bayonet and held
aloft’ – slue into bathos.

Putting down this book, it’s worth trying to separate Arslan the
promising novelist from Arslan the iffy historian. She describes the
Armenians as a ` gentle, daydreaming people’ who would like nothing
more than to share their ancestral homeland, a platitude that ignores
the existence of Armenian political groups seeking independence from
the Turks. And in a novel containing footnotes to explain historical
events, readers might mistakenly assume Arslan’s Talat telegram is
irreproachably historical. The lack of a universally authenticated
document implicating the Ottoman leadership in a plan to kill the
Armenians is a central part of the Turks’ argument that the massacres
were not a premeditated genocide but a tragic and unintended
consequence of war.

Christopher de Bellaigue is the author of `In the Rose Garden of the
Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran.’ He is currently writing a book on eastern
Turkey.

Los Angeles seeks Sister-City journalists for fellowship program

ArmRadio.am
02.02.2007 17:30

The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau is seeking applications
from qualified journalists from countries in which Los Angeles has a
Sister City for a weeklong, all-expense-paid professional fellowship
program to learn first hand about the city’s culture, commerce and
communities.

Through a competitive selection process, up to six journalists from
media outlets serving LA’s Sister Cities will be chosen to participate
in the program, which will be held in Los Angeles from May 12-21,
2007.

The fellowship will consist of professional presentations on Los
Angeles history and current challenges, tours of landmarks and
neighborhoods, performances and exhibitions and meetings with experts
on various aspects of the city.

Worldwide Faith News (press release), NY
Feb 2 2007

United Methodists join Christian Unity conference

Feb. 2, 2007

NOTE: Photos are available at

By Neill Caldwell*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) – While waiting for worship to begin at the
National Cathedral, United Methodist Bishop Charlene Kammerer
surprised Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of the Armenian Church in
America by showing him the Armenian cross around her neck.

Kammerer, bishop of the Richmond, Va., Episcopal Area, also dazzled
the archbishop with her knowledge of Armenian geography. She had
visited Armenia a few years ago to get a first-hand experience of
Project Agape, a partnership of United Methodists in the North
Carolina Conference and the Western North Carolina Conference and the
Armenian Apostolic Church.

Such informal ecumenical exchanges were commonplace during the
National Workshop for Christian Unity, held Jan. 29-Feb. 1 in
Rosslyn, Va., and the nation’s capital.

The United Methodist Church was well represented at the gathering,
which brought together hundreds of pastors and laypersons from many
Protestant denominations, Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

In his sermon during the opening worship service, Aykazian noted that
the loud and the powerful seem to get the most attention in today’s
world.

"We must give voice to the needs and suffering of those who have no
voice," said Aykazian, president-elect of the National Council of
Churches. "Our Lord and Savior has shown us the way, but there are
too many distractions in this information-overloaded world that draw
us away from Christ’s teachings."

Participants in the four-day conference attended workshops,
participated in a variety of worship styles and celebrated with a
concert at the U.S. Senate office building.

Linda Bales, an executive with the United Methodist Board of Church
and Society, participated in a panel discussion on advocacy with
representatives from the Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran churches.
She explained to non-Methodists that her agency bases its advocacy
positions on the denomination’s Social Principles, which outline the
church’s position on social and economic concerns and other human
issues based on a "sound biblical and theological foundation."

"We’re not lobbyists," said Bales, "but we do mobilize people to be a
prophetic voice. We play the United Methodist card whenever we can,
reminding politicians that there are 8 million United Methodists in
the U.S. Of course, not all agree with every position we take. Our
General Secretary, Jim Winkler, regularly speaks out against the war
in Iraq and gets numerous pieces of hate mail because of that."

The Rev. Larry Pickens, chief executive of the United Methodist
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, said such
ecumenical gatherings are a great opportunity to network with
Christians from other faith traditions.

"The National Workshop on Christian Unity is unique because it brings
together Catholics, Episcopalians and other communions around issues
we don’t always get an opportunity to talk about," he said. "It gives
United Methodists exposure to what issues are important to the other
faith communities."

Pickens cited ecumenical concerns such as poverty, evangelism, global
health issues and leadership training. "I’d include ‘how to live in
an interfaith world,’ because these are not just United Methodist
issues," he said. "We are a really key point in the lives of our
churches, and this kind of discussion helps provide vision and hope
as to how we go forward in ministry."

Bishop Ted Schneider, of the Metropolitan Washington Synod of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, presented the ecumenical idea
in physical terms: "Like the human body – where if one part is not
working ‘up to code’ then the entire body suffers – we must work
together smoothly or the entire church body will suffer. We have to
catch the vision of wholeness for Christ’s church."

As Aykazian reminded participants, Scripture does not say "blessed
are the peaceful, but ‘blessed are the peacemakers.’ Our faith should
not be passive, but instead a call to action to respond to a
suffering world."

*Caldwell is the editor of The Virginia United Methodist Advocate
magazine.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
[email protected].

********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at:

Kosovo ‘should split from Serbia’

Story from BBC NEWS:
europe/6321147.stm

2007/02/02 00:11:52 GMT

Kosovo will be allowed to separate from Serbia and use its own national
symbols under proposals to end its limbo status drawn up by the UN’s
special envoy.
Martti Ahtisaari’s plan does not mention the word "independence", but
that is virtually what is on offer, Western diplomats told the BBC.

Mr Ahtisaari will present his plan in Serbia later on Friday.

The UN has administered Kosovo since a Nato bombing campaign forced
Serbian troops to withdraw in 1999.

Talks to determine Kosovo’s final status have been continuing for years
without the two sides coming to agreement.

To be honest, I am a bit scared of what we are coming to
Hasan Bytyqi
Kosovo Albanian

Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90% of the province’s two million people,
overwhelmingly want to break away from Serbia.

But Serbs regard the province – which is still officially part of
Serbia – as the cradle of their culture, and oppose any solution that
would lead to its independence.

Mr Ahtisaari’s plan, however, amounts to "independence, subject to
international supervision", said one Western diplomat, who wished to
remain unnamed.

Kosovo would be allowed its own national symbols, including a flag and
anthem, and to apply for membership of international organisations like
the United Nations.

Serb rights

It would not be unconditional independence, however.

An "international community representative" would be appointed, with
powers to intervene if Kosovo tries to go further than the plan allows,
while Nato and EU forces would remain in military and policing roles.

Kosovo could not be partitioned between Serbian and ethnic Albanian
areas, nor would Kosovo be allowed to join any other state – implicitly
ruling out the creation of a "greater Albania".

Serbia would have to accept the loss of Kosovo. Kosovo would have to
accept… limits on its sovereignty
Western diplomat

The interests of Kosovo’s Serbs, including the Serbian Orthodox Church
and the language, would be explicitly protected, and there would be
guaranteed Serb representation in parliament, the police and civil
service.

Mr Ahtisaari will present his plan first to Serbian officials in
Belgrade and then to ethnic-Albanian leaders in Kosovo itself.

The UN Security Council will have the final say on whether to adopt the
plan.

Serbia has said repeatedly that it would not accept any loss of
sovereignty over Kosovo, and Slobodan Samardzic, a Serbian negotiator,
rejected Mr Ahtisaari’s expected conclusions.

"Anything that… violates Serbia’s internal laws, cannot be a subject
to negotiation," he told state-run Serbian TV.

Kosovo Albanians expressed nervousness ahead of the formal
announcement.

Saime Maliqi, 47, who lives in Kosovo’s capital Pristina, said: "All of
us are waiting desperately for Friday to improve our lives."

Hasan Bytyqi, an ethnic-Albanian merchant, told Associated Press: "To
be honest, I am a bit scared of what we are coming to."

Aleksandar Spasic, a 76-year-old Kosovan Serb, said: "I don’t believe
that Ahtisaari will help Kosovo Serbs a lot. But I will never leave
Kosovo… I was born here and this is where I want to die."

New York Sun, NY
Feb 1 2007

Elizabeth Tashjian, 94, Founded Nut Museum
By STEPHEN MILLER
Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 1, 2007

Elizabeth Tashjian, who died Sunday at 94, was proprietor of the Nut
Museum, a quirky collection of nuts, nutcrackers, and nut art that
she dared visitors to take seriously.

Situated in a couple of rooms of Tashjian’s Old Lyme, Conn., mansion,
the museum garnered the attention of compilers of books on wacky
museums (focusing Lawrence Welk, Tupperware, nuts) as well as
late-night schmoozers from Carson to Letterman. The Nut Museum even
caught the prurient eye of Howard Stern, who thought he was being
shocking when making anatomical comparisons.

But like so many who tried to simplify its message, Mr. Stern missed
the place’s serious whimsy. In the mold of Salvador Dalí, Tashjian
used nuts as the centerpiece of a surreal world in which she was the
star performer.

Opened in 1972, the Nut Museum was a showcase for her nut paintings,
a nut crèche in a coconut shell, and the prize of her collection, a
kind of double coconut weighing 35 pounds from the Maldives, known as
a "coco de mer." Tashjian liked to point out that it resembled a
female pelvis, and used it to illustrate her theory that humans were
descended from nuts. Darwin, she told Mr. Letterman, was "bunk."

An 8-foot nutcracker hung out front of the place. Admission
originally cost one nut, and when this proved financially
impractical, $2 and a nut. The arch-mannered Tashjian, whose naiveté
seemed mainly of the faux variety, claimed never to have heard of
"nut" as a term of disparagement until a visitor offered his wife in
lieu of a nut for admission.

Thereafter, she resolved to remove any stigma from nuttiness. "I’m
releasing 20 million people who are called `nuts,’" she told the
Boston Globe in 2003. "It isn’t a joke, too."

It was a sad irony, then, that she ended up being declared
incompetent and having her Nut Museum shuttered and sold off in lieu
of back taxes. "How cruel, how merciless to have the state kidnap the
Nut Lady," she wailed to the Hartford Courant in 2003.

Tashjian grew up in New York, the cosseted daughter of Armenian
immigrants. Her father, a carpet dealer, supported the family in a
lush Riverside Drive apartment complete with a chauffeur, but her
parents were divorced when Tashjian was young.

She claimed that she and her mother were poor after that, though took
violin lessons, attended private schools, and went on to study art.
She exhibited at galleries in the 1930s and won a prize from the Art
Students League. One of Tashjian’s early paintings, "Cracker Chase,"
was of an eagle-headed nutcracker preying on hazelnuts.

Following her mother, she became a devout Christian Scientist,
serving for a time as a healer. A sense of faith and an awareness of
the numinous suffused much of her art, and nuts, in her hands, became
tokens of a higher reality.

In 1950, Tashjian and her mother left the city and moved to the
13-room home in Old Lyme. Her mother died in 1959. Tashjian never
married, and seems to have become progressively more interested in
nuts. By 1972, a small item in the Courant about the opening of the
Nut Museum described her as having "spent much of her life amassing a
collection of art works based on the theme nuts."

Tashjian told the Courant she wanted to build a walnut-shaped
outbuilding for the collection. The outbuilding was never to be, but
more than 30 years later, her ambition still burned. "I am trying to
do for nuts what Cezanne did for apples," she told a new generation
of Courant interviewers in 2005.

Alas, her last years were spent in bitter decline. After decades of
maintaining the Nut Museum on a shoestring, she began to falter and
her home fell into disrepair. The bicycle that was her only transport
to the grocery story broke down and was not repaired. Squirrels came
down the chimney and began nibbling at the collections.

In 2002, after she refused entry to a social worker, she was declared
incompetent and later fell into a coma. She miraculously recovered,
but her home was sold for back taxes.

A 2005 documentary, "In a Nutshell," brought attention to her plight,
and a Connecticut College professor of art history, Christopher
Steiner, saved her collections. In 2004, he mounted an exhibition of
her collection at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, Conn. To
emphasize that she, as much as the nuts, was a part of the show, Mr.
Steiner included a mannequin of Tashjian. He is writing a book about
her, to be called "Performing the Nut Museum."

Moscow Times, Russia
Feb 2 2007

Court Sanctions Ex-Senator’s Arrest
By Natalya Krainova
Staff Writer

Levon Chakhmakhchyan arriving at Basmanny District Court on Thursday.

The Basmanny District Court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for
former Federation Council member Levon Chakhmakhchyan, who was
detained Thursday morning on suspicion of accepting a $300,000 bribe
while in office.

Chakhmakhchyan was expelled from the upper house and stripped of
immunity from prosecution last June after security agents claimed to
have caught him with the bribe during a sting operation.

The former senator from Kalmykia has consistently maintained his
innocence.

Under the ruling, Chakhmakhchyan can be held in police custody for up
to two months. "Chakhmakhchyan’s health and family situation do not
prohibit his confinement in a pretrial detention facility," the judge
said, Interfax reported.

The judge further motivated his decision by saying that if
Chakhmakhchyan remained at liberty, he "could influence witnesses and
incline them to testify in his favor."

The law states that if charges are not filed against Chakhmakhchyan
within 10 days, he should walk free.

Police took Chakhmakhchyan into custody at a Moscow hospital where he
had been undergoing treatment, his lawyer, Boris Kuznetsov, said
Thursday.

The judge agreed with prosecutors’ contention that Chakhmakhchyan had
extended his medical treatment in order to avoid facing prosecution,
Interfax reported.

The ex-senator called his lawyer at around 8:30 a.m. and passed the
telephone to Rafail Kmet, a major case investigator from the
Prosecutor General’s Office. Kmet announced that Chakhmakhchyan had
been detained, Kuznetsov said.

The lawyer maintained that both the detention of his client and the
arrest warrant were illegal, and said he would appeal the judge’s
ruling.

"A person … against whom a criminal investigation has not been
opened cannot be detained. It’s not that the court should not have
issued this ruling; it had no right to consider the case," Kuznetsov
told Interfax.

Chakhmakhchyan was first detained along with two other suspects at a
Transaero office in early June 2006, but was released because he then
enjoyed immunity from prosecution.

Prosecutors claimed that his two associates — Igor Arushanov, chief
accountant of the Association of Russian-Armenian Business
Partnership, and Armen Oganesyan, an Audit Chamber official —
received the $300,000 from a businessman in exchange for the promise
of quashing a negative Audit Chamber report on his company’s
activities.

Chakhmakhchyan was the president of the association. Oganesyan is his
son-in-law. Chakhmakhchyan said the incident was a set up.

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Jan 31 2007

Relations With Yerevan

BY SAMI KOHEN

MILLIYET- How will the atmosphere created by the murder of Hrant Dink
influence Turkey’s foreign relations in terms of Yerevan? Will this
incident cause a rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan and the
Armenian diaspora? How will it be reflected in certain countries’
tendency to enact pro-Armenian legislation? Firstly, the shock
created by Dink’s murder created hope after certain positive signals
coming mostly from Turkey. The Turkish nation’s criticism, the
government’s sensitivity, the capture of the gunman and other
suspects and the participation of important people from Armenia and
the diaspora in the funeral created surprise and sympathy in foreign
circles. Certain European newspapers even claimed that this tragic
incident could be an opportunity to melt the ice between Turks and
Armenians and defuse the so-called Armenian genocide as a source of
tension. Repercussions of this hateful attack reminded people of the
rapprochement between Turkey and Greece following our devastating
1999 Marmara earthquake. Of course, these two incidents are very
different, but the similarity is that civil society gave an immediate
and sincere response and took a step for mutual understanding and
sympathy.

The basic thought in the rapprochement between Turkey and Greece was
that the leaders of the two sides knew that they could have solved
the problem between them quickly and easily. However, they also
thought that dialogue must certainly be established so the two
neighboring countries can live peacefully. Likewise, an atmosphere of
softening initiated by civil society dominated thanks to this policy.
Actually, the political disagreements are still unsolved, but the two
sides learned how to live with their problems. Can such a model be
applied in normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia?
Diplomatic relations don’t exist, the borders are closed and there
are no official contacts between the two countries. Ankara stipulates
certain preconditions to establish normal relations. For example, it
wants Armenia to end its occupation of Karabagh and reconcile with
Azerbaijan. Turkey also wants joint commission set up to examine the
genocide claims. Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian,
who came to Istanbul to attend Dink’s funeral, suggested that
relations be established unconditionally. However, the two sides only
repeated their usual positions.

Actually, it’s not so easy to normalize relations between Ankara and
Yerevan. There are certain complications for the two sides. However,
these difficulties can and should be overcome with political will and
courage. Ankara’s establishing relations with Yerevan can ensure a
better understanding with the diaspora and even prevent certain
countries supporting the genocide claims. Of course, there’s no
guaranteed such an opening would prevent the US Congress from passing
an Armenian resolution or stop the campaigns of diaspora militants.
However, the policies we’ve followed up to now haven’t been very
effective, and Turkey’s relations with many countries have been
harmed for this reason. The atmosphere which emerged after Dink’s
murder can create an opportunity to try new strategies. Now it’s time
for the two sides to take steps in this direction.

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Jan 31 2007

ANAVATAN targets Interior Minister Aksu with censure

The New Anatolian / Ankara
31 January 2007

Font Size: default medium large

The interior minister will be held accountable for his failures over
the last five years through the censure motion filed by the
Motherland Party (ANAVATAN), said party leader Erkan Mumcu yesterday.

Mumcu, speaking at a party group meeting, reiterated his claim that
the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party doesn’t protect people
who are not close to it, and added that Interior Minister Abdulkadir
Aksu will be called to account for favoritism.

"He will also be held accountable for the lack of protection for a
man, despite a tip-off 11 months before the murder," said Mumcu,
citing recent media reports that a university student detained in
relation to the killing of Armenian origin Turkish journalist Hrant
Dink was actually a police informer and told the police that Dink
would be gunned down almost a year ago.

ANAVATAN officials submitted a censure motion against Aksu after the
address by their leader.

Mumcu also touched on the slogan controversy, which even spread to
football matches and called upon all to put an end to the debate over
the slogan: "We’re all Hrant, we’re all Armenians."

"Can you see the current agitation surrounding the public?" asked the
ANAVATAN leader, adding the mood of "social insanity" will grow worse
due to irresponsible remarks by "two-faced, mindless politicians." He
called other leaders to stop trying to exploit the murder and the
social reaction following the killing.

‘There is no deep state, there is plain govt’

Erkan Mumcu went on to scold politicians, in particular the premier,
for his recent remark that there is a state-within-state in Turkey
and that it should be curbed.

"There is no deep state in Turkey as Erdogan sees it; there is plain
politics, a plain government. Because of your plainness you consider
gangs deep," said the opposition party leader, adding, "There are
only several minor gangs, cliques using the power of the state, and
at the same time used by it for ideological purposes."

He also added that the government is fond of creating straw men in
the dark and calling them the deep state. "The government has no
intention of changing the system but they are using it to assume the
post of president," claimed Mumcu.

The deep state remarks by the premier also opened the government to
criticism from other political parties, who scolded the government
for what they said was its inability to fight gangs using the means
of the state.

Political Islamist Felicity Party (SP) deputy leader Ertan Yulek said
that the premier, as the head of the government of the country, has
no right to complain, but instead should do whatever is needed to
eliminate the source of complaint. However the government is unable
to do so, added the deputy leader.

True Path Party (DYP) leader Mehmet Agar said the remarks by the
premier showed that the AK Party has no intention of curbing the deep
state. Social Democrat People’s Party (SHP) leader Murat Karayalcin,
emphasizing the word "curb" in the premier’s remark regarding the
deep state, said that a dysfunctional but existing deep state is
enough for the premier but that they cannot accept it.

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Jan 31 2007

301’s hidden victims: Translators

The reach of Article 301, which has been brought into the limelight
with Hrant Dink’s murder, is much wider than many would think; it
affects not only those writers who hold the pen and contemplate
`illegal opinions’ but translators as well. While names like Orhan
Pamuk and Elif Safak have suffered publicly due to this article,
translators suffer in silence.
Sertaç Canbolat is one of tens of translators who has been penalized
for `insulting Turkishness, the Turkish Republic and government
agencies’ through his translation of the book `Ma Vie Amoureuse et
Criminelle avec Martin Heidegger’ (My Life of Love and Crime with
Martin Heidegger). Canbolat was sued on grounds of the book being
`against moral values’ and `encouraging’ people to commit crime.
Canbolat says, `I would have ended up in jail unless my publishing
company hadn’t posted my bail,’ adding that, `In the end, I was
penalized twice the fee that I had made for translating the book.’
There are those who have actually been found guilty and sent to
prison as a result for their translations. Seçkin Selvi, who
translated the book `Lenin’s Death’ about Russian dictator Joseph
Stalin into Turkish served a one-year jail sentence from 1973-1974.
She was able to take advantage of the `general pardon’ periodically
granted to inmates and barely escaped an exile sentence that would
have been delivered pending completion of her regular jail term.
Selvi adds that she has been charged for every theory-based book she
has translated, however, has only been sentenced to prison once.
Atilla Tugay has had to face a judge numerous times due to books he
translated, and Article 301 has become his new nightmare. He was sued
last year due to his translation of the book `Bir Ermeni Doktorun
Yaşadıkları: Garabet Haçeryan’ın İzmir
Gündesi’ (An Armenian Doctor’s Story: Garabet Haçeryan’s Diary). The
book suggests a different perspective of certain calamities during
Turkey’s national struggle.
Tuncay Birkan, chairman of the Turkish Translators Union
(ÇEVBİR), says that prior to 1980, many translators were
sentenced to jail; however, the numbers have dropped considerably.

31.01.2007

Mehmet Rıfat Yeğen