Author: Chmshkian Vicken

BERNARD FASSIER DOES NOT EXCLUDE POSSIBILITY OF NAGORNO KARABAKH’S PARTICIPATION IN NEGOTIATIONS

Noyan Tapan
Mar 12 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 12, NOYAN TAPAN. "We should not only continue, but
also deepen meetings with Arkady Ghoukassian." OSCE Minsk Group
French Co-chair Bernard Fassier stated this at the March 12 press
conference held immediately after his meeting with NKR President
Arkady Ghoukassian. He reported that the whole complex of important
issues, including the issue of return of refugees to the places
of their permanent residence, was discussed during the meeting with
A. Ghoukassian. In his words, the circumstance that representatives of
Nagorno Karabakh do not take part in the negotiations process is not
the decision of OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs. "I know that formerly
Nagorno Karabakh participated in the negotiations, but before I
assumed my powers in the Minsk Group.

Now this practice has changed. Certainly, when they speak about the
status of Nagorno Karabakh, they cannot discuss this issue without
people living in Nagorno Karabakh," B. Fassier stated.

H. KHACHATRYAN: "MAXIMUM OF KINDNESS HAS NOT LAID A CLAIM"

Panorama.am
14:06 10/03/2007

"I think that the political majority is unable start debates",
Hrant Khachatryan, Chairman of "Constitutional Law Union" party,
stated during today press conference.

In his words, the political forces, which are represented to take
part in the parliamentary elections, are not an alternative to each
other. CLU as well cannot propose an alternative. As Hrant Khachatryan
informed, they have decided "to put in order" the party during coming
2-3 years. Therefore Hrant Khachatryan has not clearly decided whom
to support during these parliamentary elections. "It is necessary to
look for and elect the minimum of malice", he noted.

In his turn, Garnik Isagoulyan, who was present at the meeting,
said to Hrant Khachatryan: "Mr. Khachatryan I suggest you to seek
the maximum of kindness".

"Unfortunately the maximum of kindness has not laid a claim. Or if
you consider "Prosperous Armenia" as the maximum of kindness than I
will not elect it", in response said CLU leader.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Armenian Genocide denier Perincek to appeal against court’s verdict
10.03.2007 13:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Leader of Turkish Workers’ Party Dogu Perincek, who
was convicted for racial discrimination for denying the 1915 Armenian
Genocide, is going to appeal against Lausanne court verdict in the
Strasbourg Court of Human Rights. `I shall appeal against this
verdict. I still believe in Swiss justice. We shall go till the end,
and if necessary we will turn to the European Court of Human Rights,’
Perincek stated to an Anatolian agency.

Being in Switzerland in 2005 Perincek twice declared that the Armenian
Genocide is an `international lie’. During the process judge
Pier-Anri Winzap said those statements were `of unconcealed racist and
nationalistic character. And there are no mitigating circumstances in
defendant’s actions’. Perincek himself was characterized as an
`arrogant provocateur’ by the judge. He stressed that although the
Armenian Genocide issue is not included in the list of similar crimes
by the International Court, it is a `historical fact, which was
recognized by the Swiss society, and Perincek’s statements were of
provocative character’.

The court in Lausanne agreed with the prosecutor’s demand and handed
Perincek a suspended fine of SFr 9,000 ($7,336) as well as a one-off
financial penalty of SFr 3,000. The court also ruled that Perincek
would have to pay SFr 1,000 to the Swiss-Armenian Association as a
symbolic gesture, which appeared as civil plaintiff. Perincek has to
pay all costs, which exceed SFr 15 000. According to the Swiss law of
anti-racist discrimination the defendant also was threatened by 3
years of imprisonment, NEWSru.com reports.

Over 23 thousand mobile subscribers in Karabakh

06-03-2007 16:19:08 – KarabakhOpen

As on January 1, 2007 there are 20039 fixed-line telephone subscribers
in Karabakh, including 17209 at homes. 945 subscribers have added
compared with January 2006. The number of subscribers has increased by
4.9 percent.

The number of mobile subscribers totaled 23159. Over the past year the
number of subscribers grew by 27.4 percent. People in Karabakh prefer
mobile phones.

The users of the Internet count 773, including 670 at homes. In
January 2006 these indices were 736 and 490 respectively.

CollectifVAN.org, France
March 10 2007

Report

Missing Ottoman Archival Records on the Armenian Genocide, 1915

by Nora Vosbigian

London, 7 March 2007: Today the Gomidas Institute issued its third
statement on its proposal to work on a case study with Turkish
historians regarding the treatment of Armenians in Harput in 1915.1
The Institute’s latest statement follows a comment made by Dr. Yusuf
Halaço?lu, the head of the Turkish Historical Society, that vital
Ottoman records on the 1915 deportation of Armenians–including in
Harput–do not exist in Turkish archives today.

These "non-existent" records are directly related to two Ottoman
decrees which Turkish official historians have claimed regulated the
deportation and resettlement of Ottoman Armenians in 1915. These were
the 30 May 1915 regulations on deportations,2 and the 10 June 1915
regulations on the resettlement of deportees, the liquidation of
their properties, and their compensation in their places of exile.3

The Gomidas Institute had asked, based on these regulations, to
examine the registers showing details of Armenians who were deported
from the Harput plain, as well as the resettlement records accounting
for the fate of these deportees further a field. According to these
regulations, all deported Armenian had to be registered, person by
person (or household by household), village by village; the
properties of deportees had to be recorded and liquidated; when the
deported were resettled in their places of exile, they had to be
compensated in proportion to their original assets. According to
these regulations, Ottoman officials had to generate meticulous
deportation, resettlement and compensation records which accounted
for Armenians who were deported in 1915.

On Monday 26 February 2007 Dr. Halaço?lu appeared on CNN- Turk’s
"Manþet" programme where he stated, categorically, that the Ottoman
records the Gomidas Institute had asked to examine did not exist.
Halaço?lu stated that : "He [Sarafian] well knows about the archives.
He also knows that there are no records for each village listing
persons by name. There are no such records. If there were, they would
not pose a problem for us. It would be better to produce them."4 To
date Dr. Halaço?lu has not contacted and explained himself to the
Gomidas Institute.

It is not clear how Dr. Halaço?lu could make such a categorical
statement about the non-existence of the Ottoman records we had asked
for, given the texts of the Ottoman regulations governing
deportations in 1915, or the fact that there are many Ottoman
archives in Turkey, and not all Ottoman records in these archives are
catalogued. Until there is further clarification, Dr. Halaço?lu’s
statement only raises some fundamental questions:

1. Were Ottoman regulations on the 1915 deportations implemented
according to the letter of the law? If so, why are we told that the
registers related to this mass transfer of people are missing? Are
all records missing, for the whole Empire, in both local as well as
central archives?

2. If these regulations were not implemented, how was the movement of
Armenians, the liquidation of their properties, and the resettlement
of deportees regulated? Is it conceivable that none of these
regulations were implemented for the whole of the Ottoman Empire from
Erzeroum to Yozgat, Izmit and Kayseri? If so, where is the archival
trail in Ottoman archives associated with the actual course of
events?

3. Is it possible that no records were kept for either deportation or
resettlement? If so, was this the case for the whole of the Ottoman
Empire, and why were no records kept?

4. If records were kept and then destroyed, why and when were they
destroyed? And were they destroyed for the whole of the Ottoman
Empire, in both local as well as central archives in Turkey?

5. Is it possible that Dr. Halaço?lu might be mistaken? Might some of
the records we have asked for exist? Is it possible that there might
be deportation records, as well as records related to the liquidation
of Armenian properties, but no corresponding resettlement records?

According to Ara Sarafian (Gomidas Institute, London), "Primary
sources outside of Turkey indicate that the 1915 deportation of
Armenians and the liquidation of their properties were regulated by
Ottoman state authorities. Armenians were deported under the auspices
of Ottoman officials. And most deportees were killed through
privations and outright massacres on their way or in their places of
exile (most notably Der Zor). Our sources indicate that there never
was a resettlement programme as historians defending the official
Turkish thesis suggest."

The Gomidas Institute hopes that Dr. Halaço?lu will explain why he
thinks that the Ottoman deportation and resettlement registers the
Gomidas Institute requested do not exist–especially those on Harput
and its environs.

NOTES

1. For the first two Gomidas Institute statements see
se.htm and
se.htm For the third
statement (in Turkish) see
eTurkish.htm

2 Ottoman Ministry of Interior, Department of Settlement of Tribes
and Immigrants, "Regulations Related to Settlement and Board and
Lodging and Other Affairs of Armenians Relocated to Other Places
Because of War Conditions and Emergency Political Requirements, May
30, 1915" in Turkish Prime Ministry Directorate-General of Press and
Information, Documents on Ottoman Armenians, Vol. 2 [n.d.], Document
no. 12, pp. 91-93. See copy
.htm

3 "The Regulation Concerning the Management of the Land and
Properties Belonging to Armenians Who Have Been Sent Elsewhere as a
Result of the State of War and the Extraordinary Political Situation"
in Turkish Prime Ministry Directorate-General of Press and
Information, Documents [on Ottoman Armenians], Vol. 1 [n.d.],
Document no. 28, pp. 76-80. See copy
tions.htm

4 The Turkish transcript of what Dr. Halacoglu said is as follows:
"Ar?ivlerin nas?l oldu?unu kendisi [Sarafian] gayet iyi biliyor.
Orada her köyden tek tek, isim isim kimlerin nakledilmi? oldu?unu
bulamayaca??n? kendisi de biliyor. Öyle bir kay?t zaten yok. olmu?
olsa zaten bizim için problem olmaz, daha güzel ortaya konabilir."

Info Collectif VAN – – Info Collectif VAN –
– Le Collectif VAN vous propose le Communiqué de
Presse en anglais de l’Institut Gomidas, en date du 7 mars 2007.
L’historien Ara Sarafian avait récemment proposé au Professeur Yusuf
Halaçoglu, l’historien officiel d’Ankara, d’étudier ensemble les
déportations arméniennes de 1915, en se basant sur le cas de la ville
de Harput (un des centres intellectuels et économiques arméniens les
plus importants avant 1915). Nora Vosbigian explique ici comment Ara
Sarafian a vu, après l’acceptation initiale d’Halaçoglu, son offre
refusée pour cause d’absence d’archives turques sur le sujet…
Halaçoglu lui, s’exprime sur Atv channel et Hurriyet pour dire que
Sarafian a finalement fait machine arrière, pour cause de pressions
de la diaspora arménienne… Le Communiqué du Gomidas Institute
apporte un éclairage très intéressant sur le sérieux des propositions
turques d’ouvrir les archives ottomanes sur le génocide arménien de
1915… No comment.

; id=8488

A1+

ARMENIAN RESIDENTS OF TSALKA KEEP DECREASING
[12:30 pm] 09 March, 2007

According to the statistic data of 2006, the population of Tsalka was
22600, among them 11000 Armenians, 8000 Georgians, 1500 Greeks, 1800
Azeris and 300 representatives of other nationalities, `Bagin-Info’
News Agency reports.

Prior to the collapse of the USSR, Greeks formed 75 percent of the
population. The census of 1979 revealed that there were 31000 Greeks
in Tsalka.

In 1979 – 2006 the Georgian residents of Tsalka increased by 7000
whereas the Armenians decreased by 3000 and the Greeks – by 30 000.

The increase of the Georgian population is determined by the policy of
the Georgian authorities. The point is that the Georgian residents of
Ajaria and Svanetia have been migrating to Tsalka since 1990 to find
shelter from natural calamities.

To note, most of the immigrants are not registered. According to some
non-official sources, there are currently 12000 Georgian residents in
Tsalka.

It is noteworthy that over the past 27 years the population of Tsalka
has increased in favor of the Georgians who outnumber the local Greeks
and Armenians.

HEAD OF U.S. MOHAMMEDAN COMMUNITY SUPPORTS TURKEY IN COUNTERACTING TO ADOPTION OF ARMENIAN RESOLUTION IN CONGRESS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 07 2007

ANKARA, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Head of U.S. Mohammedan
community Uaris Din Mohammad expressed his support to Ankara in the
issue of hampering adoption of the resolution on Armenian Genocide
in U.S. Congress.

According to the Turkie Turkish daily, Mohammad declared this on March
6, at the press conference following the meeting with Egemen Baghsh,
head of Turkey-U.S. parliamentary friendship group, deputy of Justice
and Development ruling Turkish party.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN: THE STATE WILL INCREASINGLY GROW ITS INVESTMENTS IN AGRICULTURE

Noyan Tapan
Mar 07 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN. During the March 7 meeting with heads of
over 20 farms, the Armenian President Robert Kocharian said that a hot
time is coming for agriculture, and now is the right moment to discuss
existing problems and to announce what steps are envisaged by the state
for agricultural development. The RA Minister of Agriculture Davit
Lokian spoke about results of fulfilling the president’s assignments
regarding the problems raised by farmers at the meeting held last
year. Particularly, the matter concerned agricultural crediting on
concessional terms, for which 22 mln USD has been allocated.

Out of this sum, 4.2 mln USD has already been distributed at 9-11%
interest rates. This year the OPEC Fund’s 10 million dollar credit
line will be opened and invested in infrastructure development. The
implementation of the pilot program developed based on European
model of agriculture subsidizing in several Armenian marzes,
which allowed to increase the area of cultivated lands by 28%, was
discussed at the meeting. The meeting participants also addressed
two big programs on agricultural development, which will enable to
replace the import of high-quality seeds and pure-bred animals with
their domestic production. The farmers expressed their gratitude
for the problems solved and spoke about new ones. They pointed out
the problem of training qualified staff in the agricultural sector,
as lack of such experts is felt. They also underlined the necessity
to increase the number of milk processing enterprises and to set up
mixed fodder producing enterprises in marzes, as well as to use target
subsidizing of the irrigation water tariff. R. Kocharian noted that
problems related to particular farms were often raised at previous
meetings, which has not happened recently. "It is gratifying that
general problems related to the whole sector are raised now, which
means that the number of artificially created obstacles has declined
and the system is developing, and you have begun to think about
improvement of the whole sector," he said. He stated that the state
will increasingly grow its investments in agriculture and it seeks the
most efficient ways to do so, while farmers are anticipated to provide
their assistance in this issue. According to the RA President’s press
service, at the beginning of the meeting, Robert Kocharian presented
Anania Shirakatsi medals to farmer Alexan Gabrielian (Shirak marz),
director of Artsrun & Sons LLC Artak Khachatrian (Gegharkunik marz)
and director general of Multi Agro scientific and production center
Roza Tsarukian (Kotayk marz). They were awarded these medals for
their distinguished activities in the economic sphere by the March
6 decree of the RA President.

IN CASE OF MAKING MAJORITY IN FUTURE PARLIAMENT OPPOSITION WILL UNDERTAKE PROCESS OF PRESIDENT’S IMPEACHMENT, PPA SECRETARY DECLARES

Noyan Tapan
Mar 07 2007

YEREVAN, MARCH 7, NOYAN TAPAN. The issue of nominating the candidature
of PPA Chairman Stepan Demirchian for the forthcoming parliamentary
elections as opposition’s common candidate has not been discussed
during the negotiations among opposition forces. Grigor Haroutiunian,
member of PPA Political Board, Secretary of Ardarutiun (Justice)
parliamentary faction, declared at the March 7 press conference. In
his words, S. Demirchian mentioned the necessity to nominate a common
candidate for presidency in case of making alliance, but there has been
no discussion connected with any concrete person. In G. Haroutiunian’s
words, under conditions of amended Constitution presidential elections
are derivative to parliamentary elections and nomination of several
candidates for presidency by opposition forces having made alliance
would be ridiculous. He said that they accuse PPA of reaching an
agreement with the authorities and hampering unification of opposition
forces. While, in G. Haroutiunian’s words, PPA wished to preserve
and even to extend the Ardarutiun bloc and the principles being its
basis. Commenting upon PPA’s requirement of making 50% in the united
proportional list, G. Haroutiunian said that it was fair as in these
years PPA has worked and has strengthened its territorial structures
and the rest of the parties did not do this. They also blame PPA for
not joining the Impeachment bloc, while, in G. Haroutiunian’s words,
the very PPA gave consent to join that bloc provided that another
opposition forces also join the bloc. In spite of fact that the
opposition did not form a united format, it will continue cooperating
for the purpose of holding free and fair elections, G. Haroutiunian
declared. He gave assurance that the opposition will cooperate at
the future parliament, too. G. Haroutiunian declared that in case
of making majority in the future parliament the opposition will
undertake the process of impeachment of President without fail,
as the Ardarutiun faction did this after the 2003 parliamentary
elections. The Ardarutiun faction Secretary declared that PPA takes
part in the parliamentary elections not for the purpose of just taking
part but for "winning." As regards pro-governmental parties, it will
not be so easy for them to receive sufficient number of votes. G.
Haroutiunian said that according to results of surveys, only 10%
country’s population trusts these forces.

BELEAGUERED AND BESIEGED – TURKEY’S PRO-EUROPEAN ELITE IS THE TARGET OF A GROWING WAVE OF VIOLENT ULTRA-NATIONALISM
Owen Matthews
With Sami Kohen in Istanbul

Newsweek International – United Kingdom
Mar 05, 2007

The threats have been arriving daily, often via e-mail. "You traitors
to Turkey have had your day," reads one. "Stop prostituting yourself
and your country to foreigners or you will face the consequences."

Not long ago, E, a prominent Turkish writer, would have shrugged
off such missivesas did his friend Hrank Dink, the editor of Agos,
Turkey’s main Armenian-language newspaper, who for years had been a
target of nationalist hate-mail. But after Dink was shot dead last
month by a 17-year-old ultranationalist assassin, the threats suddenly
became deadly serious.

"Things are changing in Turkey, very much for the worse," says E,
asking that his name not be used for fear of reprisals. "Before
Dink’s murder, I always spoke out against nationalism and
narrow-mindedness. Now I fear for my life."

A wave of violence is sweeping Turkey, targeting its modern,
pro-European elite. Prominent liberals like Can Dundar, a columnist
at the newspaper Milliyet who supported a 100,000-strong march in
Istanbul protesting Dink’s killing, have received warnings to "be
smart" and tone down their coverage.

Nobel Prize-winning writer Orhan Pamuk, vilified by nationalists
for comments he made last year condemning the massacres of Ottoman
Armenians in 1915, canceled a reading tour in Germany and has left
Turkey for self-imposed exile in the United States. Many other
academics and journalists have been given police protection.

It’s not only intellectuals who feel beseiged. Turkey’s ruling AK
Party faces the same perila nationalist backlash that is undermining
four years of sweeping progress. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, once feared by Turkey’s pro-Western elite for his Islamist
background, finds himself fighting to protect liberal values on
everything from human rights and free expression to membership in the
European Union. Erdogan condemned Dink’s murder as "a bullet fired
at the heart of Turkish democracy." The killers, he said, were "not
nationalists but racists," bent on isolating Turkey from the modern
world. But the evidence is mounting that the tide is turning against
him and his European agenda.

The nationalists have a growing list of grievances. Chief among them:
that Erdogan, prodded by Brussels, granted more cultural rights
to the country’s 13 million Kurds. But instead of peace, the last
year has seen an upsurge in Kurdish guerrilla attacks on Turkish
soldiers. That’s given rise, in turn, to a number of anti-Kurdish
nationalist groups. The leader of one such group, the Patriotic Forces
in Mersin, an ethnically mixed town in the largely Kurdish southeast,
recently called on "Turkish patriots" to take to the streets to prevent
Kurds from "taking over." Worse, Erdogan’s entire EU project was
called into question last December when Brussels partially suspended
talks in a dispute over Cyprus. After so many sacrifices for Brussels’
sake, many Turks considered it "a slap in the face," says Naci Tunc,
an activist for the Nationalist Action Party, or MHP.

With national elections this fall, Erdogan himself is under intense
political pressure to take a more nationalist line. Recent polls in
Milliyet show that support for the MHP has risen to 14.1 percent, up
from 8.4 percent in the 2003 vote, while support for the AK Party has
slipped from 33 percent to 26. A bellwether of just how far Erodogan is
willing to go in accommodating the nationalists involves the notorious
Article 301, a provision of the national legal code that criminalizes
"denigrating Turkishness" and has been used to prosecute dozens
of journalists and writers, including Pamuk. Brussels insists that
it must go; all of Turkey’s opposition parties, chasing nationalist
votes, insist it must stay. "We want to change the article," says a
senior member of Erdogan’s cabinet. "But we are alone."

Another test comes in April, when Erdogan must decide whether or not to
run for presidenta largely symbolic post, but one which carries veto
power over all legislation. The president is elected by Parliament,
where Erdogan enjoys a comfortable majority. But as a former Islamist,
imprisoned as recently 1999 for sedition, he faces strong opposition
from conservatives in Turkey’s politically powerful and staunchly
secular military, judiciary and bureaucracycollectively known as the
"deep state." They insist on a more moderate, secular president as a
counterbalance to Erdogan, or whomever the AK Party might choose to
succeed him.

Perhaps not even Erdogan himself, as yet, knows whether he will indeed
make a play for the presidency. But if he does, Islamist-hating
nationalist radicals are sure to be inflamed. Dangerously, there’s
evidence linking many of Turkey’s ultranationalists to the Army and
security forces. A video leaked to the media earlier this month showed
Dink’s 17-year-old killer, Ogun Samast, posing with smiling police
officers and holding a Turkish flag after his arrest. An internal
investigation has also shown that warnings of plans to kill Dink
were ignored by Istanbul policethough it’s not clear whether due to
negligence or malice.

Erdogan is too canny a politician to antagonize the country’s Army
to the point that an old-style coup becomes likely. But at the same
time, he must tread carefully. Last week the chief of the military
General Staff, Yasar Buyukanit, spoke out against those who sought to
"split the state." It was a clear warning to pro-Armenian liberals and
separatist Kurds, but most of all to Erdogan as he considers the thorny
problems of reforming Article 301 and whether to run for president.

It’s a delicate balancing act. He must at once crack down on
ultranationalist thuggery, without alienating an increasingly
nationalist electorate. And he needs to continue with his government’s
program of reform, lest Turkey’s EU bid fail irrecoverably. As
resistance to his policies continues to grow more violent, that job
will become vastly more difficultif not impossible.