Author: Emil Lazarian

Is There any Strategy in Boycotting France?
By IBRAHIM OZTURK
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 20 2006
10.20.2006 Friday – ISTANBUL 22:36
As a nation, our judgment is easily clouded. It’s our Achilles heel
to win the hard way but lose easily. We still haven’t learned how
to solve possible crises by adopting long-term strategies or using
intelligence and know-how.
A fine example of this phenomenon is the French controversy, perfectly
timed just before the EU progress report on Turkey is released. It is
as if the French wanted to seek help from Turkish sentiments that can
lose control and direction easily. While France and other like-minded
countries try to provoke us, so to speak, there are “customers” who
are ready to buy this turmoil at home because their interests fit
snugly into each other. I insist that the Algerian genocide should
not be used to extract vengeance against France. This would burn
bridges, whereas our duty is to build foundations and bridges for
better dialogue and understanding.
The tension we experienced because of Italy’s stance on the PKK and
the street protests it triggered are still fresh in our memory. But
remember Italy’s full support for us to obtain an exact date for EU
full membership negotiations. International relations are determined
neither by love nor by hatred, but by national interests guided by
common sense. Can’t you see that today Japan and America are like
identical twins, despite the two atomic bombs America dropped on its
present-day ally? While discussing today’s matters, we should not ruin
future relations. In fact, France does not prefer Armenia, a country
of five million poor people, over Turkey with this action. As is well
known, Europe has had this France problem for quite some time. It is
the same country that opposed Britain’s full EU membership in the past,
and that also rejects the current EU constitution. This notorious
country is now trying to use Turkey as a scapegoat for its problems
with the EU. What Turkey has to do is try to avoid being part of the
problem, with little patience and sound strategy.
The other side of the equation is our homemade problems. Those who,
until recently, had been tormenting people in order to impose
European values on them are now pretending to be against the
European Union. Since they are in search of a strategy to change
course smoothly, they acted hastily in finding similarities between
France’s attitude and the present EU situation. Take a guess: What
is the religion of our old aunt who yelled, “Religion is becoming
lost?” As always, one of the most legal grounds is Ataturk. He said,
“We have to reach the level of contemporary civilizations, not the
European level.” He meant rationalism, didn’t he? But how can all
this be combined with economic and political unity?
Let’s not digress; I do support boycotting French products. But mine is
a well-founded embargo. If a foreign product has a Turkish equivalent
with the same quality, and if it can withstand the price competition, I
would prefer the homegrown products. A stance and preference spreading
across all parts of life with national consciousness is essential, not
feelings that are set ablaze with tensions and then burnt away. For
instance, rescuing the present volatile campaign launched against
France from its narrow bounds and turning it into a campaign using
homegrown products would be the most viable long-term strategy. On
the other hand, punishing French capital that is assisting successful
investments in our country, contributing to production and employment
by launching a boycott, will amount to sawing away at the branch
we are sitting on. Instead, not buying imported French products and
brands would be the best way to boost the boycott spirit.
France may risk losing Turkey in an economic sense because Turkey is
as good as a pill to cure an earthquake as far as French imports and
exports are concerned. That would not move a leaf in France. However,
France is our fifth-largest trading partner. More importantly,
it seems as if similar things will occur with other countries,
whether they’re EU members or non-EU members. Almost 70 percent of
Turkey’s foreign trade is with European countries. We should reduce
our dependence on Europe by expanding to new horizons, discovering
new abilities and developing new long-term strategies. Furthermore,
to increase our bargaining power we should be able to create other
power sources. Otherwise any action taken by us would seem ridiculous.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Julie Finley stresses the importance of holding elections in
compliance with democratic standards
19.10.2006 13:54
Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 19 2006
October 19 Head of the Armenian delegation to OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly, NA Vice-Speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan and member of the
delegation Samvel Nikoyan met with the US Ambassador to the OSCE
Julie Finley.
Mrs. Finley emphasized the importance of conducting the forthcoming
elections in Armenia in compliance with democratic standards,
stressing the necessity of OSCE observation mission’s long-term stay
in Armenia. In Mrs. Finley, opinion, the presence of observers in
the preelection process is as important as in the election period.
Vahan Hovhannisyan and Samvel Nikoyan also attached importance to
holding free and fair elections in Armenia, noting that soon the
amendments to the Electoral Code will be adopted.
During the meeting reference was made to the activity of the
Central Electoral Commission. The parties stressed the importance of
completeness and accuracy of voting lists. Other questions of mutual
importance were discussed as well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkish spokesman: Recalling envoy from France “out of question”
Anatolia news agency, Ankara,
19 Oct 06
Ankara, 19 October: “The Cyprus issue should not poison Turkey’s
negotiation process with the EU,” said Namik Tan, spokesman for the
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Thursday [19 October].
Speaking at the weekly press briefing, Tan said: “The negotiation
process has its own frame and parameters. It is quite wrong to
associate this issue with Turkey’s EU negotiation process. Turkey
accepts only the Copenhagen political criteria in this process.”
Upon a question about recent proposal of Finland which holds the
rotating EU presidency, Tan told reporters: “According to our point of
view, the Cyprus issue can be resolved under the auspices of the United
Nations. Finland’s proposal can be considered as a quite important
step in efforts to find a way-out to the Cyprus issue. But neither
Finland’s proposal nor any other similar initiative can replace a
comprehensive solution.”
Tan also highlighted importance of a compromise to be reached by the
two parties on the island.
Referring to adoption of the bill about so-called Armenian genocide
by the French National Assembly last week, Tan said: “It is comforting
to know that the French government is against the bill.
However, this does not solve the problem.”
“France has lost its privileged position in the sight of Turkish
people. It is not possible to correct it by making administrative
decisions. Turkey has already warned France about likely consequences
of such a decision,” he commented.
When asked whether Turkey would recall its ambassador as a reaction,
Tan said that such a move was completely out of the question. “We
are in favour of acting rationally,” he added.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Defense ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan discuss trust-building measures
Associated Press Worldstream
October 20, 2006 Friday 5:01 PM GMT
Armenian and Azerbaijani defense ministers met Friday to search for
ways to end regular skirmishes on the tense border between the two
ex-Soviet nations, which have been locked in a conflict over the
disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia’s Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani
counterpart, Safar Abiyev, met on the border to discuss ways to enforce
the cease-fire and other border-control issues, Sarkisian’s spokesman
Seiran Shakhsuvarian said.
He said the meeting was held on the initiative of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has acted as mediator
in the conflict.
Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous territory inside Azerbaijan, but
it has been controlled along with some surrounding areas by Karabakh
and Armenian forces since 1994. A shaky cease-fire in 1994 ended the
six-year conflict, in which 30,000 people were killed and about 1
million driven from their homes, but talks on the enclave’s status
has stalled.
Shooting breaks out frequently between the two sides across a
demilitarized buffer zone.

Muslims stage anti-Israeli protest in Azeri capital
Azerbaijani news agency APA, Baku
20 Oct 06
Members of the Azerbaijani religious community Cuma staged a protest
outside the Israeli embassy in Baku on 20 October to mark Al-Quds
(Jerusalem) Day, APA news agency reported.
“Zionists cannot establish a state in the Muslim land of Quds, just
like Armenians cannot establish a state in Karabakh. To commemorate
Quds is to commemorate Muslimhood,” the agency quoted the community
leader, Haci Ilqar Ibrahimoglu, as saying.
Ibrahimoglu urged all Muslims to unite.
The protesters held a slogan saying “Stop Israel” and chanted “God
is great”. The police did not intervene in the protest but detained
seven people after it ended, the agency said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azeri cleric lashes out against western policy on Islam
Yeni Musavat, Baku
20 Oct 06, p 3
“Haci Ilqar Ibrahimoglu: ‘The occupation of Quds is also the occupation
of Azerbaijan'”
Ilqar Ibrahimoglu, head of the Centre to Protect Freedom of Conscience
and Religion (DEVAMM) and imam of the Cuma mosque, has held a round
table devoted to the Quds [Jerusalem] Day. The occupation of Quds is
not only an invasion of Palestine but also of Azerbaijan, Ibrahimoglu
told the round table.
Commenting on the French National Assembly’s adoption of the bill
criminalizing denial of the “Armenian genocide”, Ibrahimoglu has
described it as a position of the West towards Muslims.
“At present the West wants to disintegrate Islam from inside. They
damage Muslims by awarding Nobel Prize to [Turkish novelist] Orhan
Pamuk. He both recognized the self-styled “Armenian genocide” and
praised Salman Rushdi’s The Satanic Verses novel that defamed Holy
Koran,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
October 20, 2006 Friday
ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN AND TURKISH JOURNALISTS INTENDING TO ESTABLISH
NETWORK OF ECOLOGICAL JOURNALISTS OF REGION
A group of Armenian, Georgian and Turkish journalists jointly with
the “Ecolur” ecological public organization, are going to establish a
network of ecological journalists. A preliminary agreement on this
has been reached within the framework of the journalists’ media-tour
of the hot ecological spots of Armenia, Georgia and Turkey. The
media-tour was financed by the World Wildlife Fund and the Critical
Ecosystem Partnership Fund.
WWF and CEPF regional representative Karen Manvelyan has promised to
support the idea. The journalists expressed willingness to regularly
monitor their countries’ environment and provide their foreign
colleagues with information for a wide coverage of the ecological
problems more or less concerning the transfrontier zones of special
protection. During the media-tour, the Armenian, Georgian and Turkish
journalists visited the valley of the Fertina river in Turkey, where
the TRACECA project, meant to connect Europe and the Central Asian
region with a transport-communication corridor, is being implemented.
Stones are uncontrollably felled along the banks of the Fertina river
for the road laid along the Black Sea’s coastline from the city of
Hop to the port of Trabzon. According to ecologists, this is a big
damage for endemic fishes in Fertina. The forests of the Kolhida
province are also being destroyed without any control. In Georgia the
participants of the media-tour visited the Borzhomi-Kharagaulini
National Park, where rare endemic species of plants are being
destroyed and the life of wild animals is threatened by new tourist
route projects. In Armenia the main problem is the pollution of
rivers with chemical waste of the mining industry.
The journalists assumed obligations to be consistent in covering hot
ecological problems in the South Caucasian region.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Armenians reportedly holding military exercises in occupied Azeri district
ITV, Azerbaijan
20 Oct 2006
Gunshots have been heard again on the contact line between the Armenian
and Azerbaijani armies. Local residents have told ITV’s Karabakh bureau
that this is linked to exercises held by Armenia in the occupied part
of Agdam [District].
[Passage omitted: Armenians fired on the village of Saricali in Agdam
last night]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Turkey Compiled “Shame List” of Massacres Committed by European Countries in Past
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.10.2006 15:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Turkish parliament took a new step in
condemnation of the French parliament’s adoption of the bill
criminalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide. It compiled a “shame
list” of massacres committed by European countries including France,
Germany and the Netherlands. The necessary study for the list was
conducted by the parliament’s justice sub-committee as part of
its debates over a bill that would recognize the Algerian genocide
committed by France. The commission is researching the massacres and
tyrannies that countries that recognize the Armenian Genocide have
committed in the past. The members of the commission decided that
‘announcing the European list to the world would be more efficient
than recognition of an Algerian genocide,’ reports zaman.com.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Ankara Decided to Freeze Political and Military Relations with Paris
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.10.2006 16:23 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Turkish government has determined “sanctions
to be applied against France” in protest of the bill penalizing the
Armenian Genocide denial. Official Ankara decided to “freeze all
bilateral relations in political and military fields.”
French companies will be deprived of the right to participate in the
tenders for Turkish defense and energy projects. The prohibition
will first of all refer to the projects of nuclear power plants
construction, each costing $5 billion. Besides, French companies
will be removed from the tenders announced by the General Staff of
the Turkish Armed Forces, reports Azeri Press.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress