Author: Chavushian

NOVELIST TRIED FOR INSULTING ‘TURKISHNESS’

UPI
September 17, 2006 Sunday 1:04 PM EST

A Turkish female novelist who is nine months pregnant goes on trial in
Istanbul this week accused of insulting "Turkishness" in a best-selling
novel.

Elif Shafak, 34, who is expected to give birth any day, will be
tried because a character in "The Bastard of Istanbul" describes the
massacres of Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire as "genocide."

Most of the world accepts that description of the mass killings. But
the Turkish government claims the deaths of hundreds of thousands
of Armenians from 1915-1917 were a result of inter-ethnic strife,
disease and famine.

While other Turks have faced charges for referring to the massacre
as genocide, Shafak is the first to be prosecuted for words spoken
by a fictional character, The Times of London reports.

"Shafak’s novel is not a work of literature. It is Armenian
propaganda," said lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz of the ultranationalist
Union of Jurists, which initiated the case.

Shafak said she was determined to face the charges, despite her
pregnancy.

Turkish Press
09/16/2006

Turkey warns Greece over Muslim minority’s rights
Published: 9/16/2006

ISTANBUL – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned
neighbouring Greece Saturday to respect the right of its Muslim
minority to elect its own religious leader or face reciprocal measures
from Ankara.
"If Greece respects its own minority rights and has expectations from
Turkey on this issue, then its should also fulfill its own
obligations," Erdogan told an assembly of Turks from northeastern
Greece, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"This issue must be resolved. If not, there are things Turkey could do
under the principle of reciprocity," he said.

Erdogan charged that Greece’s treatment of its Muslim minority
amounted to a violation of the human rights criteria of the European
Union of which it is a member.

"Our aim is to allow our kinsmen to benefit from their rights under
bilateral and international agreements as respected and equal citizens
of Greece," the prime minister said.

Ankara has long complained that the Turkish minority in Greece,
numbering about 100,000 and living in the northeastern Thrace region
bordering Turkey, are not allowed to elect their own religious
representatives, who are nominated by the government in Athens.

The Greek government denies all charges of discrimination against the
Muslim minority and says they are treated equally.

Predominantly Muslim Turkey is home to small groups of Jews and
Christians, mainly Orthodox Greeks and Armenians, most of them
concentrated in Istanbul.

Istanbul is also home to the The Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate,
which represents the 250 million Orthodox worshippers in the world.

Ankara plays no part in the elections of the patriarch, but refuses to
recognise the patriarchate’s ecumenical title and says it represents
only Orthodox Greeks in Turkey.

09/16/2006 14:08 GMT

Azeri Press Agency

Armenian foreign minister refuses to meet with his
Azerbaijani counterpart

[ 16 Sen. 2006 15:33 ]

In the near future no meetings between Armenian and Azerbaijani
Foreign Ministers are planned, Armenian Minister Vartan Oskanian told
journalists today. Private meetings with the co-chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group will be probably held, Oskanian said.

`I have a number of bilateral meeting in New York on September 24,
including a meeting with the co-chairs,’ the Minister said, adding
that to a certain degree the cause of not holding a meeting of
Armenian and Azeri FMs lies in inclusion of the item on `frozen
conflicts’ in the UN GA agenda at the initiative of the GUAM (Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova). It was reported that Mammadyarov and
Oskanian will meet in New York on 24 or 25 September this year./APA/

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC

NGOS IN AZERBAIJAN CRITICIZED FOR CONTACTS WITH KARABAKH

By Fariz Ismailzade

Friday, September 15, 2006

Public protests have erupted in Azerbaijan after the chair of the
Azerbaijan branch of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly visited the
disputed Karabakh region and met with the leadership of the
unrecognized Karabakh republic. Arzu Abdullayeva and several young
activists from her organization went to Armenia’s Lori region as part
of their participation in the `Gugark’ youth summer camp from July 28
to July 30.

Several local NGOs, such as the pro-governmental youth movement IRELI,
the Forum of NGOs of Azerbaijan, and mass media outlets have lambasted
Abdullayeva for her `treasonous’ action and for her cooperation with
Armenians. The private TV stations ANS and ATV have even gone so far
as to accuse Abdullayeva of `mis-educating our youth and visiting an
Armenian cemetery after drinking with Armenian hosts.’

Public diplomacy, exchange visits by the media and NGO
representatives, are strongly condemned in Azerbaijan. This attitude,
mainly coming from the government and pro-government circles, is
derived from the belief that such reciprocal visits will help draw the
Karabakh republic out of its international isolation and eventually
legitimize its existence. `These visits only favor the interests of
Armenia and harm the interests of Azerbaijan,’ says Akif Nagi,
chairman of Karabakh Liberation Organization and a strong opponent of
such visits. Nagi believes that both the government and the public
must do everything possible to prevent such contacts.

The head of the Information and Press Department at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Tahir Tagizadeh, refuses to accept the
blame on the part of the authorities. He says it would be improper to
`put limits on the exchanges.’ But he suggested that the visits not
take place until after the first stage of conflict settlement is done;
that is, until the occupied territories are freed and the status of
Karabakh is being determined. Only then we will consider them as a
strong and important part of the peace process, he said.

Thus, any direct political and people-to-people contacts between
official Baku and the authorities of the unrecognized Karabakh
republic have been minimal throughout the past decade. The liberation
of the occupied territories is held up as a pre-condition for any
possible contacts between Baku and Khankendi. Contacts are allowed
for human rights activists and media representatives, who still are
branded traitors in Azerbaijan. Such individuals typically work in
collaboration with international organizations, often the donors
supporting such bilateral meetings, to allegedly aid the separatists.

Similarly, international sport and cultural events that include
participants representing Karabakh lead to protests in
Azerbaijan. Several days ago, Azerbaijani NGOs sent a protest letter
to the municipal government of the eastern Turkish city of Kars for
inviting folk groups from Karabakh to participate in the city’s
cultural festival. As a result, organizers withdrew their the
invitation to the Armenian delegation. Last year, official Baku
denounced chess tournaments and Independence Day concerts in
Khankendi. The Azerbaijan national soccer team even refuses to host
the Armenian team in Baku as part of the European qualification games
in order not to appear to be cooperating with the Armenian government.

There are, however, some politicians and activists who believe that
public diplomacy and the gradual build-up of trust between Armenians
and Azerbaijanis are vital for the peaceful resolution of the
conflict. `Visits to Armenia will produce dividends in five to ten
years,’ says Avaz Hasanov, the chairman of the Humanitarian Research
Center and a frequent visitor to Armenia.

With the peace process on Karabakh deadlocked and both sides using
bellicose rhetoric, conflict analysts around the world are once again
pushing the idea of public diplomacy. It is widely believed that the
political leadership of both Armenia and Azerbaijan understand the
benefits of the painful compromises and seek a way to settle the
conflict, but they are either unable or incapable of convincing their
respective publics. More than 15 years of war propaganda portraying
the opposite side as a mortal enemy make a peace-settlement process
based on compromise very difficult, because the Azerbaijan and
Armenian peoples do not want to accept anything less than what they
believe belongs to them. The longer this problem continues, the more
difficult it will be for the governments of both countries to open the
minds of their citizens.

(ATV, ANS TV, Musavat, Day.az, Trend, Olaylar, September 10-15)

PanARMENIAN.Net

Muslims Demand that Pope Apologize
15.09.2006 14:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Muslim figures did not like some statements,
included in theological lecture of Pope Benedict XVI at University of
Regensburg, Bavaria. Specifically, when citing a medieval Byzantine
source, the Catholic Church leader said, «Considering what new
Mohammed brought, we will see only evil and inhumanity, this is his
call to spread faith by means of a sword.»

In response to that head of the French Council on Muslim Religion
Dalil Bubaker said, «We hope that the Catholic Church will
immediately explain its position, recognizing that it does not mix us
Islam… and Islamism, which is not a religion, but a political
ideology.» In his turn, head of the Turkish Government Committee
for Religious Affairs Ali Bardakoghlu called Pope’s words full of
«hostility and malice.»

Representatives of religious organizations, governmental and public
structures of Kuwait, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and other Muslim
countries have also demanded that the Catholic Church leadership
apologize and provide explanations.

Head of Vatican Press Office Federico Lombardi responded to this
criticism, stating that Benedict XVI respects Islam, but he does not
accept violence, motivated by religion. «The Holy Father definitely
did not mean to hurt the feelings of Muslim believers,» Lombardi
said,

ANFAL AND LEADERS!
By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli
Translated by Dr Kamal Mirawdeli

KurdishMedia
Updated: 9/13/2006 5:26:05 AM GMT

By Qadir Nadir, from: Hawal, Sulaymaniyah, independent weekly newspaper
in Sorani Kurdish, 9 Sep 06. p 3.

Although Anfal was the greatest act of dishonour to our nation,
it has been reduced by Kurdish leaders to such a degree that to
criticize the Kurdish leaders for insulting [our martyrs] creates
more reaction than the issue of their dishonoring of Anfal victims.

Besides, the anniversary celebrations they organize for their parties
are much more sumptuous and spectacular than the anniversary of Anfal
and Halabja tragedies.

In our country anything you write and say passes as truth. What is
happening here is unprecedented in the history of any nation. People
with background of serving the Ba’th party have now become
theoreticians of our national security; people who participated in
Anfal operations have been put in charge of running the small towns
where Anfal survivors are living; a "writer" who sold his pen to
Ba’th and was a Ba’thist agent is now in the prominent face of the
journal of Kurdish government.

I do not believe that the leaders of any other nations who have
suffered genocide such as the Jews, the Armenians and the Rwanda
people, have ever dared even to give shelter to even one perpetrator
of genocide.

It is only in our country that it is so easy to be a traitor and
sell yourself and then find respect and position. Yes, still we can
hear from the Kurdish officials some nationalist slogans, but when
you look at what is happening in the areas which suffered Anfal,
chemical attacks and Arabisation, you can realize clearly that what
they say is all lies and deception.

I read a story told by a woman who has survived Anfal.

I could not help weeping passionately when I read what she said about
her child. She says she had a little child who was ill. She was taking
care of him and hugging him to her chest when an Arab officer came
to take the child away from him. She hugged him even more closely
to her heart. But the Arab officer kicked her and smacked her hard
then took the child away. She says: Still there is a fire burning in
my liver when I remember his last look and his last two words: Daye,
Daye (Mum, Mum).

I read this and could not stop my tears from flowing as I could vividly
imagine this mother in her night of loneliness and helplessness. And
then, thanks to our leaders, apart from tears what else can we
do? Those leaders who have been sheltering the Anfalists for fifteen
years, and think that the best projects for Anfal women is to force
them to sell bread and eggs on the streets. And the government that
so far has changed five cabinets but has worked more for the comfort
and power of Anfalists than the victims of Anfal.

Let everyone put herself or himself in the place of an Anfal woman. Can
anyone even endure thinking even for few minutes? My own child had only
a simple ailment and he called me in this way. This shattered my soul.

Then how could be the state of the mother who heard her child for
last time? How can she live on? How many terrible stories must she
imagine every day? Has a dog eaten his child after he was killed?

When I read this story I cannot help but think of all those people
who shelter Anfalists and ignore the plight of these women as
criminals too.

I am sure the survivors of Anfal have suffered a lot in the last
fifteen years under the Kurdish political rule. None of the leaders
have ever visited them to tell them: the seats of power and prosperity
we enjoy now are the result of your sacrifice. That is why we will
become the fathers for your orphans. We will have even more kindness
to them [than to our children] and we will never let them to be forced
to wear torn shoes and ragged clothes. They must be as happy as our
children. Instead of your [martyred] brothers, we will become your
brothers and friends. We will not allow anyone to look at you with
disrespect. In place of your fathers, we will make your pains and
suffering the real daily concern of all our party members!

Everyone knows that the process of Anfal and chemical attacks aimed
at the elimination of the Kurdish people. Yet during 15 years of
Kurdish rule no serious major project for serving and benefiting Anfal
victims have been established although they enjoy annual revenues of
several billion dollars. To add insult to injury, the perpetrators
of Anfal roam freely ; they have power and they have roles. Also
internationally nothing has been done to promote the cause of Anfal
and bring onto international political agenda.

Then can we say that these leaders any national honour and dignity
in relation to Anfal?

REPRESENTATIVES OF TWO POLITICAL-MILITARY BLOCKS PARTICIPATE AT A PEACEKEEPING EXERCISE IN MOLDOVA

puls.md
12.09.2006

>From September 11 to 29, a multinational peacekeeping exercise within
the Partnership for Peace Program, "Cooperative Longbow/Lancer 2006",
will take place in Moldova. The exercise will involve approx. 1
housand military men and 50 civilians from 21 countries.

Together with the representatives of 9 NATO member-states, military
men from 3 out of the 6 member-states of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization – Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and also from
the member-states of the Partnership for Peace Program. The United
Arab Emirates, Bosnia, Qatar and Serbia will participate as observers.

The main goal of the exercise is to promote the interoperability
of the military forces from various countries during peacekeeping
operations in crisis situations and humanitarian assistance operations.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded on April
4, 1949. The NATO block involves 26 member-states from Europe and
North America.

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was founded on May
15, 1992. The members of the CSTO are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Moldova is not a member of any political-military block, and its
neutrality status is stipulated in the Constitution. The Republic of
Moldova joined the "Partnership for Peace" Program in March 1994 and
participates in its

activities together with all the CIS countries, Mongolia and some
European states. In 2006, Moldova signed the Individual Action
Plan Moldova – NATO, which does not provide for its joining to the
North-Atlantic block, and the degree of cooperation is inferior to
those stipulated in similar treaties of NATO with Ukraine and Russia.

AZERIS ARE SCARED OF THEIR COMPATRIOTS WHO HAVE VISITED ARMENIA
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily
12/09/2006

Recently, Armenia and Azeri youth met in Gugark camp in Lori region,
Armenia. This meeting of the young people from two countries caused
hysterical and declarative statements in Azerbaijan, including demand
to deprive the young Azeris of their citizenship.

In fact, Azerbaijan is scared of the Azeris that have visited Armenia
and Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan is even ready to forbid its own
citizens to enter their homeland. Perhaps, one beautiful day, the
Azeri citizens deprived of their native citizenship will have to beg
for political shelter in Armenia.

PRESIDENT OF FRANCE TO VISIT ARMENIA, PRELIMINARILY, ON SEPTEMBER 29

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Sept 11 2006

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. President
of France Jacques Chirac will pay an official visit to Armenia,
preliminarily, on September 29. This was reported by the Regnum
information agency that refers to the Embassy of France in
Armenia. According to the same source, the visit will last until
October 1. Month of France in Armenia starts with Jacques Chirac’s
visit. In particular, a concert with participation of singer Charles
Aznavour will be held on September 30 and it is not excluded that
Patricia Kaas will arrive in Yerevan.

HERE THE SOCIETY DEMANDS FACTS
Hakob Badalyan

Lragir.am
06 Sept 06

The political forces were expected to fight hard to head the hot fall
race but the contrary happened. Robert Kocharyan set out the first,
however, who had an almost unexpected visit to the regions of Vayots
Dzor and Syunik. The society had not realized the aim and importance
of the visit when the president visited the region of Aragatsotn,
and several other media besides the news program of H1 Channel had the
chance to go with the president. Kocharyan’s slogan of this fall start
can be considered the idea, which sounded in the TV report on the visit
to Syunik and Vayots Dzor – the president promises that there will be
more unexpected visits and more often. These are visits when nobody
knows that the president is coming, and the president gives a surprise
to everyone not to let them take their time to hide the drawbacks.

Robert Kocharyan thought it out well. Not only for detecting drawbacks
but also for the regions in general. He wants to show that he controls
the situation, not only in Yerevan but also in the regions. In
other words, he is the president of entire Armenia. And perhaps the
unexpected visits are intended to find out whether the photo of Serge
Sargsyan is already hanging in the office of one governor or another
instead of his photo. And perhaps in this sense it was not accidental
that the first unexpected visit of the president was to the region
of Syunik. It is difficult to say that everything was alright there,
but as the governor was not dismissed, it means that Robert Kocharyan
became convinced that the picture was in its right place. But it is
interesting to know if he is convinced that his visit was a surprise.

It is possible that it was not because after Syunik the visit to
Aragatsotn was not a surprise. Why? Or did Robert Kocharyan have
suspicions over Syunik only? In Aragatsotn the governor is a Dashnak,
and perhaps the president does not even doubt that ARF Dashnaktsutyun
would never hang the picture of Serge Sargsyan. Robert Kocharyan
believes that Dashnaktsutyun would hang Serge Sargsyan rather than
his photo. Presently, however, the president should be more skeptical,
or either believe in everything or not believe anything.

The situation in Armenia is a little different from the standard,
consequently old friends may act differently, even if they leave
the old pictures on the walls. Dashnaktsutyun does not fear the old,
it fears the new. And when Dashnaktsutyun fears, they do not think
about overcoming fear, they start loving fear in themselves.

For this reason, Robert Kocharyan should pay less attention to pictures
and attend to people more often. And people expect jobs and change
of the situation rather than unexpected visits to the regions.

Moreover, they want facts. In normal countries, the government provides
facts to the society to get their votes later. Maybe Robert Kocharyan
does not need the vote of the public anymore, so he wants facts. But
in this case the president should know that the public does not need
him anymore and it becomes pointless to provide facts to him.