Author: Chaltikian Arsine

TEMPORARY "INVESTIGATION" IN PROCESS
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 09, 2008
Armenia

NA Temporary Committee, investigating March 1 events, convened its
regular working session, headed by the Secretary of RA Faction Samvel
Nikoyan to "sum up" the information obtained and to plan their future
activity.

The committee came to a decision to appeal to the former Presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan to "help" the committee reveal the event
that took place in the Theatrical Square in the morning of March 1.

And despite the latter’s disregard they have exhorted him to represent
his attitude towards certain issues.

For example was the organizer of the "pan-national" movement informed
that the massive events that took place for around 10 days were
illegal? Or was he informed that the participants of the meeting were
armed and how many people were in the square when the law enforcers
came there.

Who was the initiator of the clash between the "peaceful demonstrators"
and the law enforcers, etc?

To make the "chain" clear the committee came to a decision to appeal
to the law enforcers to get the explanations of the police regarding
these issues, to clarify what type of arms have they used, how many
policemen participated in the process of "dispersing" the demonstration
and many other issues linked with the clash between the police and
the activists, regarding which there is lots of misinformation.

The working groups have already managed to visit the detainees to
listen to the allegedly "artificially detained".

Secretary of ARFD faction Artashes Shahbazyan said together with
vice-chair of the National Union, Sargis Muradkhanyan and independent
expert Sargis Hakobyan they have visited "Nubarashen" penitentiary
and met with Armen Sargsyan charged for his participation in the
mass disorder.

"The leadership of the isolation cell didn’t hinder the meeting.

They gave us an opportunity to have half an hour meeting with the
detainee, to listen to his remarks. He said he participated in the
demonstration out of interest. At first he joint the participants
near the Municipality later the crowd in front of the fish market. His
foot was accidentally injured.

But he didn’t have any idea how it happened. After which he went to
"Erebuny" medical center, but they refused to help him, later he
appealed to another hospital, but on his way the police took him
and forcibly brought to the police. Sarsgyan didn’t have complaints
against the employees of the isolation cell."

Taking into account what has been said the committee came to a decision
not to make haste, to familiarize themselves with the details of the
criminal case and to listen to the decision of the court and only after
that to come to a conclusion whether or not the testimony is grounded.

Leader of the United Labor Party Gurgen Arsenyan was the next reporter,
who together with MP Naira Zohrabyan and former Presidential Candidate
Aram Harutyunyan visited "Kentron" penitentiary and met with the
former employees of the National Security, Tigran Melkonyan and
Levon Khachatryan.

The latter have been detained for revealing state secret and handing
two of the National Security employees over to the participants of
the demonstration. Based on the testimony of the detainees Gurgen
Arsenyan in essence gave assessments to the court procedure.

He said there are certain strange points in the case, that give
ground to disbelief towards the decision of the court. Particularly he
considered it strange that the court has been based on the testimony
of the "aggrieved" (the revealed National Security employees) and
one policeman, with no testimony given by the civilians.

Arsenyan said other members of the Committee also agreed that the
"proof base" is not satisfactory. Anyhow in this case as well the
committee decided not to make haste and to wait for the end of the
case investigation in the Court of Appeals.

The committee noticed that Human Rights Defender Armen Harutyunyan
was not present in the working session. Hermine Naghdalyan said the
reason was "technical".

But because he came out with an announcement asking to provide the
security of his family members, the committee considered it necessary
to ask the defender what was the reason of appearing with similar
announcement and whether or not it was linked with his announcement
regarding March 1 developments.

RA FM: AZERBAIJAN’S ATTEMPTS TO PRESENT ITS STAND AS OPINION RECOGNIZED BY INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY SERIOUSLY HAMPER NEGOTIATION PROCESS

DE FACTO
08.07.08

"Azerbaijan’s attempts to present its stand as an opinion recognized
by the world community via various international organizations
and a number of countries seriously hamper and threaten negotiation
process", RA FM Edvard Nalbandian stated commenting Azerbaijan party’s
speculations on supremacy of principle of territorial integrity in
the Karabakh settlement context, on Armenpress Agency’s request.

According to RA MFA Press Office, the RA FM noted that real stand of
OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs and international community on the issue
had found its reflection on March 14 at the U. N. General Assembly,
in the course of a vote on a draft resolution presented by Azerbaijan:
OSCE MG Co-chair countries voted against, while the overwhelming
majority of states, including EU member countries, refused to support
the resolution, that is to say they had refrained.

"The talks are currently proceeding on the basis of OSCE documents
and basic principles: Article 2 of Helsinki conclusive act on
non-use of violence or threat to use violence, Article 4, where

BRITAIN’S ROLE REVEALED
Roger Owen

Al-Arabiya, United Arab Emirates
Monday, 07 July 2008

In the vast — and largely ideological — literature produced by the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Britain’s responsibility for the events
of 1948 is not often directly discussed, neither polemically nor from
a more academic point of view. It was thus something of a novelty
to attend a whole conference devoted to the subject of "Palestine,
Britain and Empire" at King’s College, London, in mid-May. It was
also a great pleasure to observe how much dispassionate, archive-
based research is being conducted by young scholars whose commitment
to old passions and the rehearsal of stale arguments is much less
pressing than that of many of their older colleagues.

Three new lines of argument seemed to me of particular interest. One
was the role played by the international mandate for Palestine
itself, a subject often dismissed as being of trivial significance
compared with the more obvious importance of Palestine as a quasi
colony. However, as a paper on "The powers and uses of the mandate
system" amply demonstrated, the fact that the Balfour Declaration was
written into the mandate document itself enormously reduced Britain’s
power of manoeuvre, particularly in the mid- 1930s when it was becoming
clear that Palestine contained two irreconcilable communities unable
to agree on almost anything.

Here is a clear example of imperial hubris at work, with Britain
starting off in the 1920s imaging that it could manipulate both the
Palestine mandate and the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League
of Nations to its own advantage, only to find them becoming something
of a millstone round its neck, the more so when key members of the
commission became strongly identified with the Zionist position in
the next decade.

Britain’s complicity in the division of Palestine was also made
obvious in a second paper on "The Peel Commission’s inquiry and
partition proposal, 1936- 1938" when the members of this high level
body sent out to investigate the causes of the 1936 Palestinian revolt
found how little had been done to try to create a sense of a common
Palestinian-ness among Palestinians and Jews, leaving partition —
they believed — as the only realistic option. It did not help that,
in the language of that time, the Palestinians were always referred
to as "Arabs", and assumed a loyalty not to the state of Palestine
but the larger Arab community beyond its borders and so, in the
commission’s proposal, not to be given their own mini-state but one
shared with that of Trans-Jordan.

Third, three papers on the Palestine police and the methods used
to put down the 1936-39 revolt showed not only the importance of
the often brutal counter- insurgency methods imported from imperial
experience in Ireland in 1922 and elsewhere, but also the extent to
which armed Jewish auxiliaries were employed on the British side,
some 18,000 in all, a process which contributed substantially to the
development of the not-so-secret underground army, the Hagannah.

A key figure in all this was the commander of the northern of two
British divisions that were brought in to put down the revolt, General
Bernard Montgomery, who used the occasion to elaborate some of the
methods he had first seen at work in Southern Ireland, including the
encouragement of so-called "night squads", often containing both
British soldiers and Jewish auxiliaries, whose role was to set up
ambushes, to engage in hot pursuit of Palestinian irregulars, to take
hostages and, on occasions, to launch pre-emptive attacks on villages
deemed dangerous and disloyal.

No doubt academic research of this kind has been much stimulated by a
more general interest in imperial policing stemming from the present
war in Iraq. Moreover, in Palestine, as in Iraq, every effort was
made to prevent knowledge of the more unpleasant aspects of what was
going on filtering back to the public at home. Not only did Montgomery
effectively ban the media from entering the field of his military
operations, but also journalists were specifically forbidden from
taking photographs of the houses of Palestinian militants, or alleged
militants, blown up as a warning to others.

Only by returning to the subject 60 or so years later, and by combining
use of British archives with the records of the soldiers and police
involved, it is possible to understand such tactics in their proper
imperial context. Only in this way, too, can one explode the still
powerful myth surrounding the supposed originator of the night squads,
Major Orde Wingate, which in Zionist discourse at least makes him
the one British officer who was on the Jewish as opposed to the
Palestinian side.

The conference papers, if and when published, will add greatly
to general understanding of the British role in the Palestine
Mandate. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of work still to do to
provide a full explanation of what a recent historian of empire in
the Middle East, David Fieldhouse, has described as Britain’s "most
ignominious [Imperial] failure". One highly relevant question which
I raised myself was what efforts were made between the UN partition
resolution of November 1947 and the final scuttle of British troops in
May 1948 to hand over the various assets of the Palestine government
to representatives of one or other of the two warring sides. While
it is clear that Israel inherited the vast bulk of these assets, most
notably government ministries and all their records, the processes by
which this took place remain more or less unknown, and its consequences
rarely spelled out.

Could the outcome have been different, particularly after the rise of
the Nazis to power in Germany in 1933? Not insofar as I could judge
the opinions of the majority of those present at the conference,
which were that either the simple proclamation of the Balfour
Declaration in 1917 or its incorporation in the League of Nations
Mandate in 1922 made a division of the new Palestine more or less
inevitable. As for the origins of the Balfour Declaration itself,
one interesting paper suggested that it be put in the context not
just of straight imperial interest, but also of the emerging consensus
among soon-to-be victorious great powers at the end of 1914-18 war on
a world containing groups of unified peoples with unitary goals — the
Poles, the Armenians, the Irish and the Jews — whose aspirations could
only be satisfied by a process of national self-determination. Given
this larger international obsession, the Palestinians, known to the
British and other great powers only as Arabs, were not going to have
a much of a chance.

A LOOK AT LEGENDARY FRENCH SINGER CHARLES AZNAVOUR
JUle4, 2008

The Canadian Press

Legendary French singer Charles Aznavour is being named an honorary
officer of the Order of Canada. A look:

Born: May 22, 1924, Paris

Birth Name: Chahnour Varinag Aznavourian

Heritage: Parents were Armenian immigrants who fled to France after
the Turkish massacre.

Catalogue: More than 60 movies, and 1,000 songs including recordings
in French, English, Spanish and German; more than 100 million
records sold.

Charity: Dedicated to humanitarian causes, he shares his artistic
talents in support of charitable organizations in Armenia, where he
was appointed UNESCO’s Permanent Ambassador.

Quote: "There are some people who grow old and others who just add
years. I have added years, but I am not yet old." – New York Times,
2006

INSTIGATORS’ MOVE AND FURTHER HOOLIGAN ACTIONS MADE IT CLEAR THAT INCIDENT HAD BEEN ORGANIZED IN ADVANCE, EYE-WITNESSES OF INCIDENT IN NORTHERN AVENUE ASSERT

NOYAN TAPAN

Ju ly 3

A number of citizens – participants of the walk in Northern Avenue
sent a letter to A. Mehrabian, the Head of the Police Yerevan
Kentron Department, on July 2, stating in detail what had happened
in Northern Avenue the same evening, classing it as a provocation:
"We ask you to accept it as a report on a committed crime, to carry
out proper investigation, and to disclose those guilty," the citizens’
letter read.

According to that letter, "40-45 young people aged nearly 20-30,
with a sports figure, invaded into Northern Avenue on July 2, at
about 19:00. They had obviously aggressive moods. They came up in two
directions to the participants of the political walk in the Avenue,
voiced insulting expressions addressed to the members of the National
Movement and its leaders. Their actions made it clear that they were
trying to instigate a brawl. The walk participants at once applied to
the policemen keeping the public order, but they did not undertake
any quick action. The swearings were followed by a sudden attack,
hooligan actions, and beating of those in Northern Avenue. A number of
citizens, including women and girls, were cruelly beaten, some received
bodily injuries. The Ambulance service provided first aid to some of
them and a woman was hospitalized. Unless the citizens were reserved,
the provocation would obviously have graver consequences.

We know the following circumstances:

– starting 18:00 the number of policemen obviously exceeded their
number usually keeping public order in Northern Avenue

– from 18:00 rumors went in Northern Avenue that there are dubious
accumulations of young people near the Foreign Ministry building,
House of the Deaf and Dumb, Liberty Square

– citizens noticed policemen and those groups communicating with
each other

– the instigators’ move and hooligan actions done later made it clear
that the incident had been organized in advance

– the instigators’ fugures were evidence that all of them had sports
figures and were recruited especially for committing acts of violence

– it was also obvious that besides committing violence towards
citizens, the instigators had a goal to attack upon the trade centers
in Northern Avenue and to break their windows

– many of citizens – participants of the walk recognized the following
people among them: members of the guards of Mher Sedrakian, Erebuni
prefect, sportsmen of the Boxing School headed by Israyel Hakobkokhian,
and residents of the Erebuni (Tokhmakh) district.

The instigators were drunk.

It was noticeable that the Police obviously did not intend to
immediately prevent the provocation, the policemen, in spite of
citizens’ requests, did not do any quick preventive action.

The policemen intervened only 10-15 minutes after the brawl had started
and then instead of just bringing the hooligans and instigators to
the Police saw them beyond Northern Avenue and set them free.

Nevertheless, the citizens noticed the policemen bring two instigators
to the Police."

"VARDAN MALKHASSIAN HASN’T IMPROVED"

A1+
02 July, 2008

On July 2 the administration of the "Vardashen" Penitentiary
Institution studied the cases of the detainees put on probation. The
administration also considered the case of Vardan Malkhassian.

"Malkhassian found the process senseless and did not attend the
sitting. The authorities have decided not to forward the case to the
"independent commission" on the grounds that "Malkhassian has not
improved," runs the statement of the Committee supporting Vardan
Malkhassian.

Reminder, Vardan Malkhassian was sentenced to a two-year
imprisonment. He was to be released on December 9, 2008.

GROUP OF NKR DEFENSE ARMY OFFICERS RECEIVED NEW FLATS IN SHOUSHI

DeFacto Agency
2008-07-02 14:47:00
Armenia

A dwelling house for servicemen of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Defense Army has been put into operation in the town of Shoushi.

According to the Central Department of Information under the NKR
President, on July 1 the NKR President Bako Sahakian visited the town
of Shoushi, where he participated in a solemn ceremony of presenting
orders to a group of officers. The state’s head personally delivered
the keys from new flats and TV sets to the servicemen’s families.

RUSSIA PLAYS A SERIOUS ROLE IN THE SETTLEMENT OF THE KARABAKH CONFLICT, AZERI AMBASSADOR SAYS

armradio.am
02.07.2008 17:08

"There is partnership dialogue on the level of governments and
presidents between Azerbaijan and Russia. It is always possible to
solve the problems arising in the process of dialogue," Azerbaijani
Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloghlu said in his interview to
RIA Novosti agency, APA reports. The Ambassador approved Russian
president’s taking CIS as the main priority of his activity.

"If organizations like GUAM, Collective Security Treaty Organization,
Eurasia Economic Union are established in the region, then it shows
that CIS is an organization in the format of negotiations", he said.

Polad Bulbuloghlu said Russia plays a serious role in the settlement
of Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

"Russia plays a serious role in the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict.

I am from Shushi, and my parents are from Karabakh, that’s why
I understand the details of the conflict better. This is a very
important point", he said.

DUBAI PRISON BOSS SENTENCED TO JAIL FOR INMATE BEATINGS

Agence France Presse
June 30 2008

The former director of a Dubai jail and 24 wardens and police officers
have been sentenced to prison terms for beating up inmates during a
check for drugs, Gulf newspapers reported on Monday.

The trial of such officials and subsequent publicity is extremely rare
in the Gulf, and most newspapers carried the story on their front page.

Official newspaper Al-Ittihad said the men were all accused of "abuse
of power and ill-treatment of detainees under their guard."

The former director and six wardens and anti-riot police were
sentenced to six months in prison while the 18 others received
three-month sentences.

According to statements from the men who were attacked, the accused
formed a double row outside the cells and ordered the men to come
out. As they moved between the two lines, the wardens and police
kicked and beat them.

One convict, an Armenian, suffered blows to his spine, and the trial
judge declared "it was clear that the detainees have been beaten."

Around a dozen convicts had complained about being assualted.

Defence counsel questioned the reliability of the detainees’ statements
and a recording taken from one of the prison surveillance cameras. They
said they would appeal against the verdict.

ISLAMIC PROCESSES IN AZERBAIJAN
Araqs Pashayan

s&nid=1254
26 June 2008

Religious processes in post-Soviet Islamic secular republics,
including Azerbaijan, have their specificity. They considerably
differ from analogical processes occurring in other regions where
Islam is traditionally spread and where Islamic institutionalism has
deep historical roots.

In the Soviet period, being deprived of social-political role, Islam
in Azerbaijan was reduced to traditional and everyday functions. After
independence was gained the role of Islam was overestimated: it became
one of the component parts of Azerbaijani identity. Great number of
old and new mosques and religious schools (madrasah) were opened,
was formed a strata of people who got education in well known foreign
Islamic centers. Were restored Islamic holidays, the propaganda of
Islam was raised to the governmental level. Islam was considered to
be a most important value by the state and was underlined unique,
national character of Azerbaijani Islam.

State-religion relations were regulated by certain laws, and
a regulation about the freedom of religion was adopted in the
constitution. Pilgrimage of the president Heydar Aliyev to Mecca in
1994 grew the importance of religion in the country.

However, these realities did not further institutionalization of Islam,
specification of its role in social life. Although in Azerbaijan
there are structures regulating both religious (Administration of
Caucasian Muslims) and state (State Committee in Charge of Religious
Organizations) structures, however, separate social structures don’t
trust traditional religious institutions and little by little get
involved in non-traditional ones.

Religious radicalism is also spread, which makes a ground for Islam
to be politicized. In the reports of human right organizations and
different international organization relating to Azerbaijan the state
authorities are advised to organize public discussions on Islam and
Islamic institutions involving independent and official clergymen,
representatives of social organizations and intellectuals in them.

In comparison with Christian churches trying to centralize
religious issues to regulate them, there is not such a structure
in Islam. In Azerbaijan most of the religious groups collaborate
with the government and recognizes spiritual authority of the state
supported Administration of Caucasian Muslims. However, there are
separate spiritual groups, which don’t obey the Administration, and
such groups don’t have that much authority in society. In separate
cases independent imams are more influential which represent both
traditional and non-traditional branches of Islam in Azerbaijan. For
example, the Imam of Abu Baqr mosque imam Hamet and the former imam of
Juma mosque, human rights advocate Ilghar Ibrahimoghlu. The religious
elite make no attempts to have any dialogue with them apprehending
the fact of religious dissidence in the country quite painfully.

Although Azerbaijan is a Shiite state, from the standpoint of religious
institutionalization it is different from the biggest Shiite state,
Iran.

There is no Shiah spiritual hierarchy, no marja’ al-taklid – religious
firstprimary source – the faithful should follow. Sheikh ul-Islam
of Azerbaijan is not considered to be the absolute interpreter of
dogmata and holly laws.

According to the survey carried out in 2006, 7.2% of population is
profound believers, 49.7% believe in God but don’t use the principles
of Islam in practice. 2/3 of the Muslim population is Shiites, 1/3
– Sunnis.

In its turn the state avoids of spreading the influence of Islam in the
country’s social-political life and aspires to restrain religion and
preserve secular principles in the country. Azerbaijani authorities
periodically exerted pressure and used violence to religious and
political parties, pro-Islam figures and non-traditional Islamic
directions and religious activists in Azerbaijan. These realities have
considerably hampered progressing of Islamic discourse, specifying
the role of Islam and its social-political life.

>From the beginning of 2006 the Islamic factor acquired more important
role in Azerbaijan’s social-political life, which was conditioned both
by outward and inward factors. As a result of the usual falsification
of parliamentary elections of 2005 caused disappointment to western
values and the west in general. Gradually advocates of the Islamic
way of development appeared in the political field.

The Azerbaijani community also became more sensible to the realities
relating to Iran in geopolitical developments, which revealed
anti-American moods. Azerbaijan also responded to the war waged by the
Prophet Mohammed’s caricature in 2005. In the beginning of February
Baku, later on also in Nardaran (religious district not far from Baku)
were held protest action. Were burnt the flags of the US, Israel,
Denmark as well as Armenia and Switzerland. On February 11 not that
well-known Azerbaijani newspaper "Yeni Khabar" printed caricature
of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. In April Jewish organizations
were threatened by some unknown "Muslim brothers." In summer 2006,
during Israeli-Lebanon war, were held crowded anti-Israeli rallies
in Baku and a few other places, which were unprecedented.

According to the data of survey carried out in April-May of spring
2006 by the Center for Religious Studies in Baku and Sumgait, 9% out
of 600 young Azerbaijani responders was for the creation of Islamic
state in Azerbaijan.

It is also noteworthy the survey carried out in April-May of 2006 by
the Center for Economic and Political Studies among 1000 responders
all over the country. In this case for the creation of Islamic
republic was 19% of responders, 30% were for partially. If we put it
in another way, for about half of the responders was for Islamic moral
values. 40% of responders are ready to support any Islamic republic
in international relations if the latter one has a problem with any
of the Islamic countries.

The number of people wearing Islamic kerchief in Azerbaijan has been
increased recently causing many social problems. In 1999 a law was
adopted on not wearing kerchiefs while photographing for official
documents. In 2007 the Azerbaijani parliament was going to discuss a
bill "on education" prohibiting to wear kerchief in the educational
institutions.

However, the problem got a wide public resonance and was taken out
of legislative plane.

Today there are religious circles in Azerbaijan which put forward
the ideas of declaring Islam as a state religion, including the
Islamic laws into legislation, increasing Islam’s influence in social
life. For example, in Azerbaijan was risen the questions of polygamy
and temporarily marriages.

It was required for women not to be prohibited to wear kerchief in
photos for official documents.

One can notice certain religiosity in separate circles of youth
and intellectuals as well as in Baku. It goes without saying that
activity of the Islamic structures is more effective in needy stratum
if population, which in the context of the state’s inaction see their
support in Islam.

In this sense Islam has a considerable potential to become the
ideological basis of social-political movements.

According to separate Azerbaijani researchers, the problems one
can witness in the religious field hinder formation of democracy
and civil society, pose threat to the existence of secular state
and it is necessary to work out corresponding conception to overcome
them. According to an arabologist Nariman Gasimoglu, suchlike problems
occur only because the state hasn’t determined the place and role
of Islam in the civil society, which is of strategic importance. It
is mentioned that the authorities are not able to settle religious
problems only through administrative-legal mechanisms.

The Institute for Islam and Democracy headed by Gasimoglu, has
worked out "Conception of determining the place and role of Islam in
Azerbaijani society" the key element of which is religious-enlightening
activity of the state. The state, in spite of its secular character,
should lead it.

Islam is to be the monopoly of the nation and not of separate people,
religious figures or the community. In education programs are to be
included the lessons of the Koran and to avoid of discords the Islamic
principles should be interpreted only from the standpoint of the
Karan but not at all of other Islamic firstprimary sources. Religious
rites, ceremonies and preaches are to be held only in the Azerbaijani
language for Islam to be understandable to all. This very course may
unite the society around common religious-ethnical values, overcome
religious dissociation and radicalism and avoid of threats directed
against secular principles.

It should be mentioned that growth in religiosity is furthered by
polarization in the Azerbaijani society, devaluation of moral criteria
and lack of democracy resulting disappointment in traditional religious
institutions and secular values.

However, at present the society demands preserving secularity. The
surveys regularly carried out have come to prove it. In the visible
future traditional and non-traditional religious directions have
no chance to be risen to the political level. A few groups, which
publicly speak about creation of the Islamic state, have insufficient
strategic conceptions and mechanisms of influence. In their turn,
the authorities exaggerate the threats coming from Islam to ground
violent acts and control the religious field.

Other issues of author ANTI-IRANIAN MOODS IN ARABIC CIRCLES
[09.06.2008] THE INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP REPORT ON ISLAM IN
AZERBAIJAN [19.05.2008] ISLAMIC CONFERENCE ON THE WAY OF MODERNIZATION
[15.04.2008] On the issue of co-existence of the Western democracy
and Islam [22.12.2005]