Author: Dabaghian Diana

DefenseNews.com
Oct 12 2007

Turkish Official: U.S.-Turkey Ties in Danger

By UMIT ENGINSOY, WASHINGTON

The U.S.-Turkish relationship is on the brink of a crisis because of
a U.S. congressional panel’s move to recognize World War I-era
killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, and because
of attacks by northern Iraq-based separatist Kurdish militants on
Turkish targets, Turkey’s prime minister said Oct. 12.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara that Turkey was ready to pay the
price of a serious worsening of ties with the U.S., implying that the
country may send its army to northern Iraq to fight the Kurdish
militants and would retaliate strongly to the congressional panel’s
Armenian genocide recognition decision.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives
Oct. 10 voted 27-21 in favor of the genocide measure despite heavy
lobbying by President George W. Bush’s Republican administration to
stop the resolution.
With the Democratic Party involved in a fight against Bush’s
policies, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Oct. 11
that she would bring the bill to a full House floor vote before
Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22. Backers of the genocide resolution have
enough votes to pass the resolution in a floor vote.
Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary
Robert Gates have warned that the measure’s passage will hurt the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Washington’s efforts in the Middle
East, where Turkey is a major player. More than 70 percent of
logistical support to U.S. forces in Iraq goes through Turkey.
Separately, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey, the
United States and the European Union view as a terrorist group, has
killed more than 30 people since late September, including Turkish
troops and civilians, in attacks from bases in neighboring northern
Iraq, prompting Turkey to raise warnings of an incursion. Washington
is against any Turkish military intervention on Iraqi territory.

Turkey recalls ambassador after US vote on Armenian ‘genocide’

The Independent
By David Barchard in Ankara

Published: 12 October 2007

Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington last night in repsonse
to a US Congressional decision to label the First World War-era
killings of Armenians as genocide.

Despite intense lobbying by Turkey and a last-gasp intervention by the
US President George Bush, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed
the bill on Wednesday by a 27-21 vote – in a move seen as an insult by
most Turks.

Turkey’s Foreign ministry said the ambassador would return to Turkey
for a stay of "a week or 10 days". "We are not withdrawing our
ambassador," said a ministry spokesman Levent Bilman. "We have asked
him to come to Turkey for some consultations."

In a statement yesterday, the Turkish government condemned the vote:
"It is not possible to accept such an accusation of a crime which was
never committed by the Turkish nation".

"27 foolish Americans," ran the front page of the Turkish daily Vatan,
in reference to legislators who voted in favour of the bill. Hurriyet
called the resolution a "Bill of hatred".

President Abdullah Gül said: "Unfortunately, some politicians in the
US have once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic
politics despite all calls to common sense."

Members of the left-wing Workers’ Party laid a black wreath in front
of the US Embassy building in Ankara and drew a crescent-and-star on
its wall in protest at the resolution.

The vote was a body-blow to attempts by politicians and diplomats
behind the scenes in Washington and Ankara to put Turkish-American
relations back on a normal footing. The two countries have been on bad
terms since March 2003 when a group of rebels in the ruling AKP
(Justice and Development Party) joined with the opposition to thwart
government attempts to get authority for Turkey to support the
invasion of Iraq from the north. A few months later, parliament
reversed its decision but by then the US was no longer interested in
support from the Turks.

Over the past three years, hard-line conservatives in the US
administration have not forgiven the Turks for not doing what the US
expects of an ally. Turkish public opinion, horrified by the nearby
violence in Iraq, has been equally uncomplimentary with TV dramas and
novels attacking the US enjoying an enthusiastic reception.

Yet in both countries, many politicians have been searching for ways
to mend the damage, believing that the two countries need each other.
Both Mr Gül, while serving as Foreign minister, and the Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made several visits to Washington.

Apart from leading to a squeeze on US use of the Incirlik base in
Turkey and air and surface transit, the resolution could open the way
for a Turkish military incursion into Iraq to halt PKK attacks on
targets in south-east Turkey creating confrontation between Turkey and
the US.

Sixteen Turkish soldiers have died in the past week in south-east
Turkey as a result of PKK attacks. Several hundred more have been
killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq which was followed by a
revival of the PKK’s fortunes.

Against this background, the resolution could be the straw which broke
the camel’s back for Turkish-US relations. There are several strands
to the Turkish refusal to tolerate even a non-binding Congressional
resolution. They include national resentment at what is seen as a
climate of institutional prejudice against Turkey in Western
societies; anger at the assassination of more than 40 Turkish
diplomats by Armenians in the 1970s and 1980s; the expulsion of
800,000 to 1 million Azerbaijani Muslims from their homes in the
Caucasus in the 1990s by Armenian nationalist forces; and suspicion
that compensation claims may follow some day. Around half of Turkey’s
population are the descendants of Muslims forced out of what are now
Christian lands and regard Western partiality for Armenians as
outrageous.

Attitudes are unlikely to soften. News of the vote coincided with
reports that two Turkish Armenians, Arat Dink and Serkis Seropian, had
been given one-year suspended jail sentences in in Istanbul for
"belittling Turkishness" in an Istanbul Armenian-language newspaper.

Mr Erdogan’s riposte to Washington has been to ask parliament for
powers to send Turkish troops into Iraq. If recent PKK attacks
continue, pressure to act will be hard to resist, not least since a
Turkish-US confrontation would be popular in parts of the Muslim world
as well as at home. Even if an incursion into Iraq can be avoided,
prospects for getting the Turkish-US partnership back into working
order look more distant than ever, a fact which will hamper Western
chances of restoring stability in the Middle East.

Source: 1.ece

SWISS NATIONAL COUNCIL PRESIDENT TO ARRIVE IN ARMENIA NOVEMBER 6

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.10.2007 17:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On 9 October the Armenian Ambassador to Switzerland,
Zohrab Mnatsakanian met with Ms. Christine Egerszegi-Obrist, the
President of the Swiss National Council, to discuss the Armenian-Swiss
relations and interparliamentary contacts, the RA MFA press office
reported.

As confirmed during the meeting, Ms. Egerszegi-Obrist will visit
Armenia by invitation of RA Parliament Speaker Tigran Torosian
November 6-8.

The visit will convey an impulse to the Armenian-Swiss relations and,
specifically, to interparliamentary ties

HOUSE PANEL OKS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
By Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell

ABC News, USA
Reuters
Oct 11 2007

Share WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. House committee approved on
Wednesday a resolution calling the 1915 massacres of Armenians
genocide, brushing aside White House warnings that it would do "great
harm" to ties with NATO ally Turkey, a key supporter in the Iraq war.

The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved the
resolution 27-21. It now goes to the House floor, where Democratic
leaders say there will be a vote by mid-November. There is a companion
bill in the Senate, but both measures are strictly symbolic and do
not require the president’s signature.

Top Politics stories Romney Surpasses Steve Forbes in Self-FundingTHE
NOTE: Rumble on Fred’s NightWant War? Check With the LawyersRelated
Topics House of Representatives Senate Turkey calls the resolution,
which was proposed by a lawmaker with many Armenian-Americans in his
district, an insult. Ankara rejects the Armenian position, backed by
many Western historians, that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered
genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One.

Turkey has warned of damage to bilateral ties and military cooperation
if Congress passes the measure. President George W. Bush and his
secretaries of state and defense warned against the step, as did a
number of former U.S. secretaries of state.

"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with
a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," Bush said at
the White House before the vote.

The bulk of supplies for troops in Iraq pass through Turkey’s Incirlik
airbase, and Turkey provides thousands of truck drivers and other
workers for U.S. operations in Iraq. Supplies also flow from that
base to troops in Afghanistan.

Advocates of the resolution said Turkey should simply acknowledge
history and stop threatening retaliation.

"I think our relationship is important enough to the United States
and Turkey to survive our recognition of the truth," California
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the chief sponsor, said in an interview
after the vote.

The committee vote followed hours of sometimes emotional debate over
whether, as the panel’s chairman Rep. Tom Lantos said, lawmakers
should "condemn this historic nightmare through the use of the word
genocide." or put military cooperation with an upset Turkey at risk.

NEED TO ‘CLEAN OUR OWN HOUSE’

Lantos, a California Democrat and Hungarian-born Jew who survived
the Nazi Holocaust, voted for the resolution.

Some lawmakers said backers were hypocrites or just plain "crazy,"
as Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, put it.

"We’re talking about stiffing the one ally that is helping us over
there (in Iraq). It just doesn’t make any sense," Burton told a
packed hearing room. The audience included Turkish officials and
elderly survivors of the massacres.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, a black Democrat from New York, said Congress
should focus on the failings of U.S. history, such as slavery or the
killings of Native Americans.

"We have failed to do what we’re asking other people to do … We
have got to clean up our own house," said Meeks, who voted against
the resolution.

Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy, told reporters
after the vote he did not want to prejudge what his government would
do. "We are disappointed at this point, but this process is going on,"
he said.

The White House was "very disappointed," but a spokesman said Bush
hoped the whole House would reject the bill.

The Armenian Assembly of America commended the move. "It is long past
time for the U.S. government to acknowledge and affirm this horrible
chapter of history," it said.

Similar resolutions have been introduced for years, with
Armenian-American groups pressing for passage. But when Republicans
ran Congress they blocked a floor vote. Now Democrats are in the
majority and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a long-time supporter of
such measures. Schiff has 225 co-sponsors, over half the House.

At the invitation of House leaders, the spiritual leader of Armenian
Apostolic Christians worldwide, His Holiness Karekin II, gave the
opening prayer in the House chamber on Wednesday morning, wearing
the black-hooded attire of his church.

LACK OF CREDITS AND SKILLED PERSONNEL MAJOR OBSTACLE TO BUSINESS EXPANSION IN ARMENIA

ARMENPRESS
Oct 10, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS: According to a report on international
business activity released by the Grand Thornton International, women
hold senior managerial positions in about 60 percent of Armenian
companies. In 22 percent they are chief managers, while the average
international index is 59 percent.

Gurgen Hakobian, an official of the Grand Thornton International
Office in Armenia, handling the survey in Armenia, said today that in
terms of rapid economic growth of companies, when a company’s economic
growth exceeds five percent, Armenia comes second after the USA. He
said the survey was conducted in 32 countries.

Armenia is followed by Ireland and Great Britain.

The majority of questioned Armenian businessmen named lack of long-term
credits and skilled personnel as the biggest obstacle to expansion
of business.

The survey also found that Armenian businessmen work 56 hours a
week. The average intentional index is 53 hours.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL CONSIDERED
Gabriel Sanders

Forward, NY
Oct 10 2007

As the House Foreign Affairs Committee sat down this week to consider
House Resolution 106, a bill that would formally recognize the Armenian
genocide, a range of Turkish officials warned that the bill’s passage
could severely damage Ankara’s ties to both the United States and
Israel.

In an October 9 letter to President Bush, Turkish President Abdullah
Gul warned of "serious troubles," should the House adopt the measure.

Earlier in the week, during a visit to Israel, Turkish Foreign Minister
Ali Babacan told the Jerusalem Post that "if something goes wrong in
Washington, D.C., it inevitably will have some influence on relations
between Turkey and the U.S., plus the relations between Turkey and
Israel as well."

The bill is expected to be approved by the committee and has enough
votes to pass should it reach the House floor.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the
bill’s passage would be "very destabilizing to our efforts in Iraq
and Afghanistan because Turkey, as an important strategic ally, is
very critical in supporting the efforts that we are making in these
crucial areas."

Last year, Turkey cut military ties with France after the French
parliament passed a bill making denial of the Armenian genocide
an offense.

On Tuesday, the American Embassy in Ankara warned Americans living
in Turkey of possible "demonstrations and other manifestations of
anti-Americanism throughout Turkey" should the bill make it to the
House floor.

A letter being circulated by the Turkish Jewish community was still
more direct.

"There have been insinuations that our security and well-being in
Turkey is linked to the fate of Resolution 106," the letter read.

VARDAN OSKANIAN ADDRESSES FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Azeri Press Agency
Oct 10 2007

Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian addressed meeting of Foreign
Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, APA reports.

Vardan Oskanian’s speech was established on thesis on foreign policy
course of the country and Armenian-European Union relations.

Armenian FM replying to the questions of the parliamentarians after
his speech responded to the questions on regional problems, present
state of the settlement to Nagorno Karabakh conflict, relations
between Armenia and Turkey.

ARMENIA OBTAINS MEMBERSHIP IN EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF SOCIAL RIGHTS

ARKA News Agency
Oct 9 2007
Armenia

YEREVAN, October 9. /ARKA/. Armenia has become a member of European
Committee of Social Rights for the first time.

Sociologist Lyudmila Harutyunyan, newly elected member of the
committee, told journalists on Tuesday that the organization keeps
its eye on how member countries fulfill their commitments.

She said the committee constitutes a CE mechanism for controlling
human rights protection.

Harutyunyans said the committee consists of 13 independent experts,
which use their knowledge and experience to control situation with
human rights protection in member countries.

She said that although Armenia had ratified 63 provisions of 63
articles of European Social Charter, it should understand how
important is "to put these easily-ratified provisions and articles
into practice".

"Social right embraces a wide range of issues – from poverty,
health, labor problems to the problem of providing pregnant women
and pensioners with proper living conditions", Harutyunyan said.

The new-elected member also said that her inauguration will take
place on September 15 at the Committee’s regular session.

She added that no matters related to Armenia will be put on the
session’s agenda, since the committee will embark on monitoring after
analyzing the report submitted by Armenia on the European charters’
and conventions’ provisions implementation.

Members of European Committee of Social Rights are elected through
secret voting.

AZERI TOLERANCE DOES NOT APPLY TO ARMENIANS

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.10.2007 GMT+04:00

Continuous pursuits and seeing the image of enemy in Armenians will
hardly help Azerbaijan to walk towards the progress and development
on its way to either the West or the East.

Lately Azerbaijan has started to speak about tolerance and respect
towards other nations, and naturally about democracy building more
frequently than before. What is said by the Azeri political figures and
journalists concerning the tolerance and "openness of the Azeri people"
applies to everyone but Armenians, because the flow of anti-Armenian
hysteria imposed on the reader and given publicity to from different
international organizations has become fiercer than ever.

Most likely, having concluded all the arguments, Baku has decided to
resort to what is most adequately accepted by the World Community.

According to the Azeri Milli Mejlis deputy chairman Valeh Aleskerov,
no discrimination on national, religious and ethnic basis has ever
existed in Azerbaijan. "Azerbaijan has always been tolerant to
different nations, religions and ethnic nations. This is applicable
for the present as well," said Aleskerov. The announcement sounds
strange even for today. Still in the Soviet Azerbaijan all the nations
except for the Azerbaijani were discriminated; they couldn’t have a
good job, they were forced to change their surnames and write letters
against their own nation. This pressure became even stronger at 80’s
of the last century in particular, when it became clear that USSR
didn’t have long to go. The truth is though that the Russians and
the Jews had nothing to fear, for Moscow stood for the Russians,
and the Jewish Diaspora together with big moneys stood for the Jews.

Yet no one stood for the Armenians and other smaller nations and so
they could easily be taunted. As a result there are no Armenians in
Azerbaijan, those few ones who still remain there are Azerbaijani
by passport.

However Baku has forgotten that in 1988 mass killings of the Armenian
people took place in Azerbaijan. On February 27 – 28 only in Sumgait
dozens of Armenians were killed in three days, the exact number of
victims is unknown, though according to official sources there were
32 of them. About 14.000 Armenians from Sumgait had to run away from
the city. The events of Sumgait were the answer to the decision of the
autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh from February 20, 1988 "about
the petition submitted to the Supreme Council of Azerbaijani SSR and
Armenian SSR about passing the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh
from the Azerbaijani SSR to the Armenian SSR." After Sumgait the
mass killings of the Armenian people took place in Kirovabad, in the
nearest Armenian villages and Baku.

The last Armenians left Baku in January 1990. However after mass
killings they started to ascribe someone else’s culture. Even the
radio channel Day.az started to launch its programs with the song
"Songs of the First Love" by Arno Babajanyan, thinking that if Rashid
Beibutov sang this song (who by the way is Armenian by his origins),
it is an Azerbaijani song.

In fact, a generation was brought up in Azerbaijan, which was taught
to hate the Armenian Nation from the very start.

Continuous pursuits and seeing the image of enemy in Armenians will
hardly help Azerbaijan to walk towards the progress and development
on its way to either the West or the East. Because of this kind of
interpretation of "tolerance" various Islamic groupings rise one after
another. The most important thing is to find the enemy and only after
that to speak nice words from the European or American platforms. The
Movement of Azerbaijani Intellectuals and the "Azeri" public community
organized a "round table" discussion on the subject "Let’s protect
our morals". The representatives of intellectuals, political, public
and religious organizations have been invited to participate in the
discussion, however nothing particular was achieved. Almost each
speaker thought necessary to criticize the USA and Israel, which, on
their opinion, implant immorality in Azerbaijan. Opening the enterprise
the Chairman of the Movement of Azerbaijani Intellectuals mentioned
that immorality became a very serious problem for the country. "Though
everybody says, that Karabakh is the most serious problem Azerbaijan
has for the present, I personally think that the main reason for
losing this region was our immorality," he said. According to the
leader of the Islamic Party of Azerbaijan (IPA) Movsum Samadov,
the Jews have established an aggressive Zionistic Republic, which
poses danger to Islam and Islamic States. Devoting some minutes to the
history of Palestine, the leader of the party pointed out that the USA
a d Israel stand behind the back of those who propagate bad morals in
Azerbaijan. "The international Zionism keeps the Azerbaijani Television
under control," said the former IPA leader Nuriev. He believes that
all the intellectuals should stand up for the protection of Islam.

And at last it is always easier to control the "dark"
masses. Unfortunately the ignorance of the population is put on stake,
which was very well described by Kultura.az; "In the genetic memory
of the Azeri people there is no such understanding as "book". We have
never had a thing for reading and those few people who had love for
reading were considered absolutely "out of mind".

DEFENSE MINISTER RECEIVES EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT HUMAN RIGHTS REPRESENTATIVE

Panorama.am
22:07 08/10/2007

Today Defense Minister Mikhael Harutyunyan received a
delegation led by European Parliament human rights representative
Mr. T. Hammarburg. During their meeting they discussed reforms in the
Armenian defense structures and the overlooking of democracy reforms.

Also discussed were issues related to military service, as well as
questions pertaining to Armenia’s relation with NATO and the protection
of soldiers’ rights.

They also talked about missing soldiers and those kept as prisoners
by the enemy.

During the meeting, Harutyunyan expressed the hope that the suggestions
made by the guests would help the Armenian side in their quest to
reform defense structures.