Author: Emil Lazarian

ARMENIAN DIASPORA HEAD KILLED IN MURMANSK, RUSSIA
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 18 2006
Artur Arutunyan, President of Armenian Association in Murmansk,
Russia, was found dead outside his house, APA reports.
Murmansk Interior Affairs Office deputy chief Viktor Pesterev said
the killing is not linked to his nationality but business activities.
He was engaged in banking, restaurant and real estate business.
Police still failed to find the killer.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIANS HELD MILITARY DRILL IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
Today, Azerbaijan
Nov 18 2006
Armenian armed forces held military trainings in occupied territories
of Azerbaijan.
According to Karabakh bureau of ANS, Armenian militants used
helicopters, artilleries in Uzundere, Khidirli, Giyasli settlements
of Azerbaijan at military maneuvers.
Meanwhile, the Armenians held in late October in occupied Agdam region
of Azerbaijan.
Safar Abiyev, the Defense minister of Azerbaijan commenting on the
issue stated that the trainings held by the state in war situation
is comprehensive.
According to him Azerbaijani Armed Forces also run military trainings
near front line between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
URL:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOSCOW EVENT HONORS TAL
By David R. Sands
Washington Times, DC
Nov 18 2006
In a tournament honoring the great Soviet world champion Mikhail Tal,
two of Tal’s foremost modern disciples did not exactly shine.
Spanish GM Alexei Shirov and Russian GM Alexander Morozevich finished
at the bottom of the cross table in the Category 20 (average rating:
2727) tournament, which wrapped up Thursday in Moscow. That is ironic,
as Shirov and Morozevich are among the most tactically imaginative and
adventurous players on the elite scene, as was Tal, who died in 1992
at age 55. Those qualities made him one of the most popular players
of all time.
Shirov, who was born in Latvia, even studied under the Wizard of Riga
as a junior star in the 1980s.
Hungary’s Peter Leko, Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov and Levon Aronian
of Armenia shared top honors in the 10-player round-robin event,
one of the strongest of the year, all finishing at 51/2-31/2.
Aronian took a full point from both Morozevich and Shirov in Moscow,
with both games doing full honor to the fighting spirit of the
tournament honoree. In both cases, Aronian benefited when his opponent
pushed for more than the position had to offer.
Against Morozevich in the very first round, Aronian found himself
under pressure in a Queen’s Gambit after Black launched a promising
piece sacrifice. However, cool defense and a missed opportunity by
Morozevich allowed the Armenian to turn the tables.
With White’s major pieces clustered on the other flank, Black plays
for a king-side mate with 23. Qc2 Nxg2!? 24. Kxg2 (interesting was
24. Nxe4 Nxe4 25. Qxe4 Bxh3 26. Bd3! g6 27. Rg1, but Aronian picks
up the gauntlet thrown down by Black) h4 25. Bxf7+! (clearing the
c-file for the rook and exposing the Black king as 25…Rxf7?
loses to 26. Rxc8+ Rxc8 27. Qxc8+ Rf8 [Kh7 28. Qf5+] 28. Qxf8+! Kxf8
29. Ne6+) Kxf7 26. Rc5!.
Black again offers a piece to keep his attack alive, but a nice finesse
solidifies the White defenses and hands the initiative back to Aronian:
26…Bxh3+! 27. Kxh3 Qg4+ 28. Kg2 hxg3? (English IM Malcolm Pein
recommended trading rooks first with 28…Rfc8! 29. Rc1 [Rc7+ Kg6 is
fine] Rxc5 30. Qxc5 hxg3 31. Qc7+ Kg8 32. Qxg3, with rough equality,
as White’s next move defangs the Black attack) 29.
f3! exf3+ 30. Nxf3, and Black’s g-pawn is his own worst enemy, as it
blocks the lines to the White king.
The open h-file also forces Black to take extraordinary pains not
to be mated, a key reason Morozevich should have traded a pair of
rooks when he had the chance. The pressure finally forces Black’s
own defenses to falter: 34. Rh4 Nh5 35. Rd5 Rf5 36. e4! (a highly
annoying move that knocks the props out of Black’s alignment) Nf4+
37. Kxg3 Rh4 38. Rxf4, and Black is losing a piece.
White efficiently snuffs out any hopes of counterplay along the h-file
with the killing 39. Kg4 (it was not too late to lose with 39.
Kf2?? Rh2+! 40. Nxh2 Qxh2+, picking off the queen) Re8 40. Rdf5
Rg8 41. Qxg8+! Qxg8 (Kxg8 42. Rf8 mate) 42. Rf8, and Black resigns,
as the ending is hopeless.
Three rounds later, Shirov and Aronian went at it hammer and
tongs in a Ruy Lopez Marshall, perhaps the most richly analyzed and
intricate opening variation in chess. We will not commit journalistic
malpractice by trying to evaluate who wins the theoretical battle
here, but White’s thematic exchange sacrifice on Move 19 appears to
give him perhaps a slight endgame edge by 42. f4 Rbg8 43. Bd6 Ke6,
today’s diagrammed position.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES VOW TO BOOST CLOSER COOPERATION
People’s Daily, China
Nov 18 2006
Four Turkish-speaking countries concluded its 8th summit meeting in
Turkey’s southern Mediterranean city Antalya on Friday, vowing to
boost a closer cooperation among them.
Presidents of the four countries, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
and Kyrgyzstan, attended the summit and signed a final statement on
closer cooperation.
“Turkish-speaking countries should work hard to boost cooperation
in the areas of economy, industry, agriculture, transportation,
communication and tourism,” the statement said.
It added that the countries should fully support activities and
initiatives that aimed to strengthen historic and cultural ties
among themselves.
“Improvement in international transportation between Turkey and
Turkish-speaking countries will create new opportunities and contribute
to economy of regional countries,” the statement noted.
Highlighting the importance of Turkey’s accession process with the
European Union (EU), the statement stressed that it would contribute
to political, economic and social development in the region and
strengthen ties between the region and the EU.
On the Upper Karabakh issue, the statement indicated that the issue,
which is an obstruction to southern Caucasus’ stability and regional
cooperation, should be solved through peaceful means in conformity
with Azerbaijan’s independence and its territorial integrity.
The statement also underlined the importance of joint fight against
terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as
drug, weapon and human smuggling and other organized crimes.
A global response must be given to the fight against terrorism which
has become a global threat, it said, adding that any kind of terrorism
could not be justified.
The summit, initiated in 1992, focuses on consolidating friendly
relations and cooperation among participating countries, and
strengthening peace and stability in the region.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE VICTORY OF DEMOCRATS WILL ENABLE TO PROMOTE ARMENIAN ISSUES
Public Radio, Armenia
Nov 17 2006
The victory of the Democrats in the US Congressional elections will
simplify the accomplishment of Armenian Issues, Chairman of the
National Assembly of Armenia, Vice-President of the Republican Party
Tigran Torosyan told ArmInfo correspondent.
In general, the shift of balance of power in the US Congress will
not impact the spectrum of Armenian-American relations, he mentioned.
To note, leader of the Democratic Party leader, who will most probably
become House Speaker Nanci Palosi stands for the Armenian Genocide
recognition.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BEFRIENDING HIV CARRIERS IS NOT DANGEROUS
A1+
[07:51 pm] 15 November, 2006
“Due to the lack of information HIV/AIDS has become the plague of
not only the 20th but also the 21st century”, said Elena Strizhak,
expert of the “HIV carriers network in Ukraine” who has arrived in
Armenia for cooperation and exchange of experience.
Elena Strizhak herself has been a HIV carrier for the last six
years. In Ukraine she fights vigorously against discrimination against
virus carriers.
She does not hide the fact that she is a virus carrier and speaks about
it quite calmly, saying that it is a form of work for her. According
to her, there is no difference in the attitude towards the carriers
in Armenia and in Ukraine.
“All those people have the same feelings in all the parts of the
world. I have passed through that myself.
But those who were to support me were next to me. As for those who
upon learning the news left me, I’m not very much sorry for that. Now
I do everything in order to support the virus carriers who have the
same problem”, said Elena Strizhak.
According to her, the reason that HIV carriers become social outcast
is the low level of public awareness.
In Ukraine Elena Strizhak’s organization has created information
centers in all the cities and regions in order to raise public
awareness about the ways of catching AIDS; for example, making friends
with a HIV carrier is not dangerous for catching the virus.
In Armenia NGO “Real world, real people” tries to soothe the public
discrimination against HIV carriers with the help of the UNDP.
The NGO has realized a number of programs against discrimination. They
have made posters with the photos of Armenian singers. The posters
contain a warning to be careful not to get infected and a message to
be tolerant towards those who have done it.
By the way, according to 2006 October statistics, there are 443 HIV
carriers in Armenia. The majority has got infected via drug usage.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY ENDS FRENCH MILITARY TIES
BBC News, UK
Nov 16 2006
The French move led to street protests in Turkey The commander of
the Turkish army says his country has suspended all military ties
with France.
General Ilker Basbug said this was in protest at a bill passed by
the French National Assembly to make it a crime to deny the Armenian
“genocide”.
Armenia says Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people systematically
in 1915 – a claim strongly denied by Turkey.
Both France and Turkey are members of the Nato military alliance,
and Turkey is a market for French-made weapons.
The dispute comes in the midst of worsening relations between Turkey
and the European Union – of which France is also a key member.
Some European leaders say Turkey is not making sufficient progress
in membership talks to join the Union.
The new French bill, tabled by the opposition but opposed by the French
government, needs approval from the Senate and president before it
becomes law.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNER PAMUK RECEIVES INAUGURAL HUMANIST MEDAL
By Liam Otten
Washington University Record, Washington
Nov 16 2006
The Turkish novelist will speak at ‘Celebrating Our Books’ colloquium
Nov. 27
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in
Literature, will receive the University’s inaugural Distinguished
Humanist Medal.
The award – which includes a cash prize of $15,000 – is supported by
the Center for the Humanities and International and Area Studies, both
in Arts & Sciences. It will be given biannually to a distinguished
scholar, writer or artist whose career merits special recognition
for excellence and courage.
Orhan Pamuk Pamuk will receive the medal and make a formal address
during the fifth annual faculty book colloquium at 4 p.m. Nov. 27 in
Graham Chapel. Titled “Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors,”
the colloquium honors the work of scholars from across the arts and
sciences disciplines.
Pamuk’s speech will be published in the University’s literary
journal, Belles Lettres. Pamuk also will conduct a question-and-answer
session before a select audience at Hurst Lounge the afternoon of his
visit. Text from the session is scheduled to be published in 2007 in
the new graduate student online publication, Arch.
“Pamuk was chosen for the award late last spring in consultation
with other faculty, well before he won the Nobel Prize,” said Gerald
Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the
Department of English in Arts & Sciences and director of the Center
for the Humanities.
“James Wertsch (the Marshall S. Snow Professor in Arts & Sciences and
director of International and Area Studies) and David Lawton (professor
and chair of English in Arts & Sciences) were especially helpful,
as they both know Pamuk’s books very well,” Early noted. “It was felt
that Pamuk was not only a brilliant writer whose works provide us with
fresh, important perspectives on the divide between East and West,
but that his support of free speech in Turkey was a notable act. He
was an ideal selection for the prize, and he was happy to accept.”
In addition to Pamuk’s talk, “Celebrating Our Books” will include
presentations by John R. Bowen, Ph.D., the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor
in Arts & Sciences and author of Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves:
Islam, the State and Public Space (2006), and Lingchei Letty Chen,
Ph.D., assistant professor of modern Chinese language & literature
in Arts & Sciences and author of Writing Chinese: Reshaping Chinese
Cultural Identity (2006).
“We bring Orhan Pamuk here not only to honor him for his achievements,
but to show how much regard we have for Washington University
faculty authors by having them share the stage with a writer of such
international eminence,” Early said. “We very much want to showcase
our writers and scholars.”
Born in 1952, Pamuk graduated from American Robert College in Istanbul
and studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University before
earning a degree in journalism from Istanbul University.
At 23, he decided to become a novelist and published his first book,
Cevdet Bey and His Sons, seven years later. Now one of Turkey’s most
prominent writers, his books have been translated into more than
40 languages.
Pamuk made international headlines in 2005 when criminal charges were
brought against him in Istanbul following his statement that Turkey
killed a million people in the Armenian Genocide of 1915-17 and
massacred 30,000 Kurds in the late 20th century. Pamuk was indicted
on charges the remark amounted to a “public denigration” of Turkish
identity, a crime in Turkey. Authors from around the world, including
Salman Rushdie and John Updike, spoke out on Pamuk’s behalf. Charges
were dropped in January 2006.
In addition to Cevdet Bey, Pamuk wrote The Silent House (1983), The
White Castle (1985) and The Black Book (1990). The New Life (1994),
about university students influenced by a mysterious book, is one of
the most widely read novels in Turkish literature.
His most recent books include My Name Is Red (1998) – his most popular
work in English – about Ottoman and Persian artists, the political
novel Snow (2002) and the memoir Istanbul (2005).
Bowen’s research focuses on the role of cultural forms in processes
of social change. His first three books – Muslims Through Discourse:
Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society (1993), Critical Comparisons in
Politics and Culture (1999) and Islam, Law and Equality in Indonesia:
An Anthropology of Public Reasoning (2003) – examine issues of
religion, culture and politics in Indonesia. In Why the French Don’t
Like Headscarves, he explores the French government’s 2004 decision to
ban Islamic headscarves and other religious signs from public schools.
Chen’s Writing Chinese addresses complex issues surrounding the claim
of “Chinese-ness” in our increasingly borderless world. Cutting across
geographical boundaries, the work challenges current discussions
of hybridity and nationalism by examining the politics of Chinese
cultural identity facing writers in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and
the United States. In the end, Writing Chinese proposes that the
aesthetics of hybridization are key to developing a more open,
creative and individualized notion of Chinese cultural identity.
The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited
and RSVPs are strongly encouraged. A reception and book-signing
will follow in Holmes Lounge. The reception will include a display
of all faculty books published in the past five years. In addition,
the Campus Store will display books by all three speakers, all of
which will be available for purchase.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY’S TIES WITH FRANCE UNRAVEL OVER ARMENIA DISPUTE
International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
Nov 16 2006
Ankara lashes back over law on Armenia
Turkey has suspended military relations with France in a dispute over
whether the mass killings of Armenians in the last century amounted
to genocide, the land forces commander said Wednesday.
The move was the latest backlash against French legislation that, if
approved by the French Senate and president, would criminalize denial
that the World War I-era killings of Armenians in Turkey were genocide.
France and Turkey, both NATO members, have previously had close
military ties, and Turkey has been a buyer of French-made weaponry.
But the Turkish military has also blacklisted several French companies
in the past in similar disputes over the mass killings of Armenians.
Today in Europe
Efforts to integrate Russians in Latvia stoke tensions French
Socialists to pick presidential candidate Germany criticized for its
training of Afghan police The Turkish commander, General Ilker Basbug,
announced the suspension to reporters at a reception in Ankara,
according to the state-owned Anatolia news agency. The lower house
of the French Parliament approved the genocide-denial legislation
in October.
“Relations with France in the military field have been suspended,”
Anatolia quoted Basbug as saying. Asked whether there had been any
cancellation of military visits, Basbug said: “There are no high-level
visits between the two countries.”
Turkey sees the French bill as a hostile, anti-Turkish move, and has
said that the lawmakers’ vote has already deeply harmed Turkish-French
relations. The French bill still needs the approval of the upper
house and the signature of President Jacques Chirac to become law.
Turkey vehemently denies that it committed genocide against Armenians,
though many nations have classified the killings as such.
Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died in mass
expulsions and fighting, but says the number of dead is exaggerated
and that most were killed in ethnic conflicts as the Ottoman Empire
collapsed.
Armenians and many nations say about 1.5 million Armenians were killed
in a genocidal campaign devised and carried out by Turkish leaders.
The European Union and the European media have criticized the French
bill, saying it is not in line with the principle of free expression
and does not promote dialogue with Turkey, which wants to join the
EU. The United States also criticized the bill, saying that it got
in the way of Turkish-Armenian dialogue.
The Armenian issue is one of the most divisive and emotional in
Turkey. Those who classify the killings as genocide are often accused
of treason.
EU rebuffed over Cyprus
Turkey will not succumb to European Union “blackmail” in the dispute
over the divided island of Cyprus and its bearing on Ankara’s prospects
of joining the bloc, the Turkish foreign minister said Wednesday,
according to The Associated Press and Reuters in Nicosia.
The EU has told Turkey it must open its seaports and airports to ships
and planes from Cyprus to avoid a breakdown in EU membership talks,
but Ankara does not recognize the government of Cyprus.
“We won’t bow to blackmail, in the same way that we did not bow to
blackmail in the past,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul of Turkey said in
a speech on the Turkish Cypriot side of the island’s capital, Nicosia.
Cyprus has been split between the Greek Cypriot south – whose
government is recognized by the international community – and the
Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkish forces invaded in
response to an attempted coup by military officers who were trying to
unite the island with Greece. Only Ankara recognizes the Turkish-run
north.
On another issue that has clouded Turkey’s ties to the EU, meanwhile,
officials said Wednesday in Ankara that it planned to amend a law
that the EU asserts curbs freedom of expression in time for an EU
summit meeting in December.
The law, Article 301, which makes it a crime to insult “Turkishness,”
has been used by nationalists to prosecute writers and intellectuals,
although most cases have ended in acquittals. The Justice Ministry
is exploring new forms of wording that would make it more difficult
for politically motivated lawyers to open cases.
Turkey has warned the EU not to try to arbitrate in the dispute,
saying the 25- nation bloc could not help secure a balanced solution
because Cyprus is already one of its members.
Gul said that the United Nations should play the role of mediator.
“To expect concessions from Turkey by moving the question from the
United Nations to the EU is a dead-end road,” Gul said.

GENERAL BASBUG: TURKISH-FRENCH MILITARY RELATIONS ARE SHELVED FOR NOW
Hurriyet, Turkey
Nov 16 2006
The top commanding officer of the Turkish Land Forces, General Ilker
Basbug, has said that following the French Parliament’s decision to
approve a bill calling for jail time and monetary fines for people
publicly denying Armenian genocide allegations, that high level visits
between his officers and French land forces officers are no longer
on the docket.
Basbug commented yesterday that relations between Turkish and
French military officials are currently “shelved” in the wake of the
controversial French parliamentary decision. Basbug’s comments came
during a reception in honor of the founding of the Northern Cypriot
republic.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress