Author: Emil Lazarian

Patrick’s $ man irks Armenians
By Kevin Rothstein

Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 – Updated: 06:14 AM EST

A Washington lobbyist who works with a firm that is pushing the Turkish
government’s contention that the Armenian genocide never occurred
co-hosted a fund-raiser for gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick
last night, angering members of the Massachusetts Armenian-American
community.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s link to the Livingston Group
raised red flags with Armenians, who despise the Turkish effort to
erase the heartbreaking chapter in their history.

Experts estimate 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and
the 1923.

“It upsets us,” said Stephen Dulgarian of Chelmsford, whose mother
survived the genocide but lost two children; one to a Turkish bayonet
and one to starvation. “He probably doesn’t know anything about the
Armenian genocide.”

Massachusetts has a large Armenian community, centered largely in
suburbs west of Boston.

Lobbyist Bernie Robinson, one of 39 Beltway bigs who hosted last
night’s fund-raiser, is a consultant to the Livingston Group, according
to the company Web site. He is a former chief of staff for Patrick
supporter U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D-Worcester) and a former Phillip
Morris executive.

Patrick spokeswoman Libby DeVecchi said Patrick was “comfortable” with
Robinson’s role, saying he was only an independent contractor working
“under the umbrella” of the Livingston Group. “He does not, nor has
he ever, worked with the government of Turkey,” she said. “Deval does
acknowledge the Armenian genocide and he’s saddened by the event.”

Robinson, who donated $1,000 to Patrick over the past two years,
did not return a phone call.

The Turkish government has paid the Livingston Group more than $9
million to represent it. Key issues include battling a congressional
amendment recognizing the Armenian genocide and helping steer $1
billion in U.S. aid to Turkey, even though American troops are barred
from using Turkish soil as a staging area for Iraq, the watchdog
group Public Citizen says.

“We’re concerned,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the
lobbying group Armenian National Committee of America. “This would be
a great opportunity for Patrick to be very clear with our community
with what he thinks about and where he stands on Livingston’s efforts
to defeat recognition of the Armenian genocide.”

The bill, which would call on Turkey to recognize the slaughter as
a genocide, passed a House committee and is awaiting a full vote on
the House floor.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GEORGIA TO DEPLOY MILITARY POLICE IN AKHALKALAKI

Armenpress
Apr 19 2006

AKHALKALAKI, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS: The defense ministry of Georgia
said it will establish a military police department in the mostly
Armenian-populated town of Akhalkalaki in Samtskhe-Javakheti region,
saying the department is necessary to ensure security in the course
of Russian military base’s pullout, which is expected to leave Georgia
by the end of this year.

The A-Info news agency operating in the region, said the Georgian
authorities intend to deploy a Georgian military contingent in the
base after it is freed by Russians.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NKR HAS PROBLEMS WITH THE ISSUE OF MISSING PERSONS

A1+
[02:50 pm] 19 April, 2006

NKR has no official date about missing persons. During the event
organized recently in connection with the International Day of missing
persons the representatives of the RA Defense Ministry and the NGOs
which are engaged in the issue mentioned that according to the data
they possess there are about 300 missing soldiers who are currently
in Azerbaijan.

Commenting on the issue at the request of the “A1+” correspondent
in Stepanakert, the Commander of the NKR Defense Army Seyran Ohanyan
said, “We do not have such data officially. I have been head of the
“Union of missing persons of Artsakh” and carried out work in that
direction. It’s a pity that we do not have relations with Azerbaijan
on the state level and cannot reach any results in this sphere”.

Proceeding from the situation, Seyran Ohanyan applied to the NKR
President Arkadi Ghoukasyan and asked him to resign him from the post
of the head of the “Union of missing persons of Artsakh” and to charge
the NKR National Security Service with it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

IT’S NONSENSE WHEN A CONFLICT SIDE DOESN’T TURN INTO A NEGOTIATION SIDE

Panorama.am
14:25 19/04/06

Co-chair of the Committee of EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Armen
Roustamyan thinks the process of Karabakh conflict is not favorable
and constructive for us. One of the results is that Nagorno Karabakh
doesn’t participate in the negotiations.

“Karabakh conflict is recognized as an ethno-political one,”
A. Roustamyan mentioned at the session of the Committee of EU-Armenia
Parliamentary Cooperation in the NA today. He also stated that the
conflict is not going to be solved unless the main reason is not
removed. Thus, as he said, the question of Karabakh status shouldn’t
be omitted, otherwise the expectations of the regulation will be
exaggerated.

“First, the situation when a conflict side doesn’t become a
negotiation side is rather illogical if not absurd.” The co-chair
calls to make the negotiation process full and not yield to Azeri
rough and non-constructive negotiation position as a result of which
NK is being forced out of negotiation process.

Moreover, Armen Roustamyan also stated that it was NK who concluded
a truce in Bishkek. “The situation that we call a situation of
neither war nor peace or simply an incomplete ceasefire has in its
basis two agreements, and there is the signature of NK under those
two agreements,” the chairman of NA Permanent Committee of Foreign
Relations.

“The hostile announcements of Azerbaijan are going on as the
international community gives Azerbaijan the opportunity to continue
the process by the script they like.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

YERAZGAVORS AND BAYANDOUR COMMUNITIES WITHOUT WATER

A1+
13:48 19/04/06

On April 18 it has been informed that at about 12.00 as a result of
overflow of Akhuryan reiver the waters of the river have driven away
the territory of 30 meters next to the water pipe of Poultry factory
in Bayandour community. As we have been informed in press department of
Armenian Rescue Service Gharibjanyan and Getkh villages have partially
remained without water, and Yerazgavors and Bayandour communities
became fully “waterless”. The workers of “Shirak water-sewerage”
are carrying out restoration works after the incident.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MOBILIZATION WAS HIGHLY ORGANIZED

Azat Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
18 April 2006

The April 12 a planned mobilization was carried out. According
to Arthur Tavaratsyan, Deputy Military Commissar, the head of the
Department for Mobilization, it was intended to check the preparation
of reserve officers and the rank and file, as well as the coordinated
activity of military commissars. The latter were instructed to
mobilize the reserve and direct them to military units in an appointed
period of time. Deputy Military Commissar Arthur Tavaratsyan said the
mobilization was highly organized and well planned. “We fulfilled the
task 11 hours before the deadline, which once again proves that the
society and staffs of companies are highly responsible. Besides it is
patriotism when everyone is conscious of the importance of the problem
and appears in the required place on time,” said Arthur Tavaratsyan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PAPER REPORTS ELECTORAL FRAUD IN ARMENIA

Aravot, Yerevan
18 Apr 06

Text of Aram Abramyan’s report in Armenian newspaper Aravot on 18
April headlined “Dynamics of impudence”.

According to the head of a local polling station [name withheld],
[Armenian President] Robert Kocharyan gained 12 per cent of votes at
his polling station during the first round of the 2003 presidential
election. But on orders from above they changed the result to 60 per
cent. Only 60 people participated in the constitutional referendum
of 2005 at the same polling station, but they reported that 1,649
people said “yes” to the reform. In some other country this would be
considered to be a sensation, but not in Armenia. Here from Robert
Kocharyan to a street cleaner nobody doubts that this is true and
not only at this polling station.

Here the dynamics of the authorities’ impudence are interesting. I
think that 12 per cent gained by the president in 2003 is not a bad
sign. In a country like Armenia, where 80 per cent of the population
are displeased with their social status, a president who is elected
for the second term could not gain more than 12 per cent of the vote.

But in this case the difference between the real and invented figures
is fivefold. But in the case of the constitutional referendum it is
27.5 times. First, if only 60 people out of 2,000 turned out to vote,
this means that people are absolutely indifferent to the constitutional
reform. In this case the authorities do what they want. Second, our
opposition should have found the person who rigged the polls instead
of recalling its representatives from polling stations.

Today, if our prosecutor’s office is clever enough, it should
immediately report to the Council of Europe that it has finally
punished the person who committed electoral fraud. It should also
punish [name withheld] so that others do not dare to tell what they
did when rigging elections.

But certainly, this is not so much important. What is important is
that US ambassador to Armenia John Evans liked the constitutional
referendum in Armenia and he considered it to be almost democratic.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

MARK THOMAS REFUSES TO IGNORE THE PROBLEM OF TURKEY

Columnists
Mark Thomas
Monday 24th April 2006

New Statesman, UK
April 19 2006

There is one EU problem that is resolutely not going away and will
only get worse: that is, Turkey’s membership, writes Mark Thomas

For some in Britain, slagging off the European Union (something I am
about to do for the next 900 words) is an instinctive act of patriotic
faith, akin to not knowing the second verse of the National Anthem. For
many of us, the EU remains a quasi-democratic institution in search of
an electorate. Quite tellingly, we tend to see the EU not so much as a
vehicle for change as a means of registering a protest vote. Remember
Robert Kilroy-Silk? Who can forget a tan like that? Britons loved him
so much that we voted for him to leave the country five days a week,
to spend that time in a place he says he despises.

The EU has become adept at dealing with its many problems and crises.

By which I mean it ignores them and hopes they will go away. The EU
constitution is a case in point. However, there is one problem that
is resolutely not going away and is going to get worse: that is,
Turkey’s membership. The patrician consensus is that Turkey joining
would be a jolly good thing as having a Muslim state in the EU would
bring all sorts of benefits. However, Turkey’s membership is dependent
on the country introducing significant reforms – including many in
the area of minorities’ rights, eradicating the role of the military
in the running of the state and bringing democratic procedures into
the institutions of the country.

So far, Turkey has failed to come up to scratch, but more importantly
the EU has allowed this situation to continue. The deal was this:
Turkey is allowed into the EU but the EU gets to monitor and
investigate human-rights abuses and pressurise Turkey to reform.

Neither side has kept to the deal.

The Kurdish region of Turkey has suffered a steep rise in violence
over the past weeks, with a huge deployment of troops against the
civilian population. The Turkish police and military have attacked
demonstrators using tear gas, batons, tanks and other lethal weapons.

The Kurdish cities have seen a de facto return to state-of-emergency
rule. Significant numbers of Kurdish trade unionists, human-rights
defenders and political activists have been imprisoned, many of them
shot and wounded by troops. Across the Kurdish region, at least 15
people have died, including three children, aged three, six and nine.

Reports from human-rights defenders state that some of those killed
were shot in the head at close range, suggesting execution.

The mayor of Diyarbakir, who tried to mediate between the authorities
and protesters, has been physically attacked by the military, which
has called for his suspension. And democratic Kurdish parties are
being raided and their members imprisoned. How did it return to this
so quickly?

The events that led to this escalation started with the funeral,
on 28 March, of four PKK guerrillas, attended by a crowd of between
20,000 and 30,000 Kurds. After provocation from the local police,
mourners clashed with the authorities and troops were called in.

However, the real motor at work has been the failure of the Turkish
state to work with the Kurds to take advantage of the PKK ceasefire.

Ankara has refused to negotiate. “We will not talk to terrorists,”
the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, declares. And he has done
so with the backing of the EU. Instead of urging dialogue, the EU has
followed the UK and the United States in proscribing the PKK, even
though it announced a ceasefire and formally renounced violence. Just
about every attempt by grass-roots Kurdish groups to form inclusive
democratic movements has been regarded by the EU and the UK as merely
another group to add to the list of terrorist organisations. At the
same time, unemployment, poverty and political stagnation have fuelled
the clashes between Kurds and the Turkish state.

With the region threatening to return to the bad old days of the
mid-1990s, when 3,500 Kurdish villages were destroyed, 30,000 people
killed and over a million Kurds internally displaced, the EU simply has
to intervene. If the deal is that Turkey gets to join if it respects
minority rights and introduces democracy to the institutions of the
state, what happens if it breaks the deal? At the moment, the penalty
is . . . nothing.

The British media tend to regard Turkey through the lens of bird flu
and the occasional bomb, though in tabloid terms Turkey is strictly
sick chickens. Occasionally, the broadsheets will rally round a cause
celèbres, such as the case of the internationally renowned writer
Orhan Pamuk. When he was threatened with prison for mentioning the
Armenian genocide, the literary world rushed to his defence. But
the trouble with causes celèbres is that once the celeb has gone,
little attention remains on the cause.

It is doubtful that Eren Keskin will get the same press attention.

Keskin was the founder of the Legal Aid Office for the Victims of
Sexual Harassment and Rape in Custody. When I met her in 2001, her
Istanbul office was cramped and insalubrious. She talked about how
Kurdish women had to endure sexual harassment and rape at the hands
of the Turkish authorities. In 2002, she gave a lecture in Germany
describing her work and the horrific scale of rape in custody in
Turkey. For daring to speak about this, she was put on trial back
home. This year, she was sentenced to ten months for the crime of
“insulting the moral character of the military”.

er.php3?newTemplate=NSArticle_NS&newDisplayURN =200604240014

–Boundary_(ID_1JLMWI+pwbUls6tuUwGW nw)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA AND TURKEY SHOULD NEGOTIATE OPENLY AND FREELY, BAGDASARYAN

Anatolian Times, Turkey
April 19 2006

BERLIN – “Turkey and Armenia should talk to each other ‘openly and
freely’,” Armenian Parliament Speaker Arthur Bagdasaryan said on
Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview with German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
newspaper, Bagdasaryan reiterated allegations regarding the “so-called”
genocide, however indicated that, “nonetheless we should not waste our
future because of the past. Hopes for the future are more important
than the sorrowful memories of the past. Turkey also needs this
dialogue.”

Underscoring that he personally favored a dialogue with Turkey,
Bagdasaryan said, “we should sit around a table and resolve our
problems. Of course not all the Armenians share this view.”

The newspaper said Bagdasaryan is one of the best placed nominees
that may succeed Armenian President Robert Kocharian whose term in
office will expire in 2008.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

THE NEW YORK TIMES WHITEWASHES THE ISRAELI TAKEOVER OF EAST JERUSALEM
by Patrick O’Connor
April 18, 2006

ZNet, MA
April 19 2006

Despite a practiced guise of objectivity, the US corporate media’s
reporting on Israel/Palestine is dominated by the Israeli narrative.

An April 16, 2006 feature article by Steven
Erlanger, The New York Times’ Jerusalem Bureau Chief,
“Jerusalem, Now” in the Times’ Sunday Travel section
( vel/16jerusalem.html)
exemplifies how seemingly professional journalistic standards
can mask insidious biases and misinform readers. Erlanger, guided
around Jerusalem by Israelis, omits Israeli violence, stereotypes
Palestinians, whitewashes Israeli settlements and covers up Israeli
efforts to take over East Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Now” is among the most
political and one-sided mainstream US news articles on Israel/Palestine
published in the last year.

In “Jerusalem, Now” Erlanger repeatedly notes his effort to remain
above the fray – “I try to see it through various lenses”, “I try
to see Jerusalem as a place where both armies and souls contend”,
“I try to see the barrier from both the Palestinian and the Israeli
points of view”, etc..

However, Erlanger simultaneously provides clues that Israeli
perspectives will dominate. He notes three times that he was guided
around Jerusalem by Israelis whom he quotes and paraphrases – “Avi
Ben Hur, the American-turned-Israeli-turned-guide”, “Avner Goren,
an archeologist and guide”, “Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist.”

Israelis in Erlanger’s article are human beings holding professional
jobs. In contrast, he never even names a single Palestinian.

Erlanger’s Palestinians are an undifferentiated mass with “ramshackle”
shops on dusty, garbage-strewn streets where they play soccer,
and labor. They are enraged and “hate”, “militants” who carry out
“suicide bombings”, “riot” and open fire on an Israeli kindergarten,
and trudge “through the dust or the mud” at an Israeli checkpoint
designed to “prevent a terrorist” attack.

American journalists frequently rely on Israelis to explain
Palestinian realities. In Erlanger’s March 19 story, Israeli analyst
Yossi Alpher furnishes the article’s misguided thesis that Hamas’
election victory is comparable to the Iranian revolution. Similarly,
in Thomas Friedman’s one-sided April 12 Times column, Friedman quotes
extensively two Israelis’ opinions of Hamas’ electoral victory,
while citing no Palestinian views. Over the past five years, the
Times has published 3.4 op-eds by Israeli writers for every op-ed by
a Palestinian writer. Over the same period, the top five US newspapers
published 2.5 op-eds by Israelis for every op-ed by a Palestinian.

Erlanger’s reliance on Israeli perspectives frames his portrait
of Jerusalem. In his second paragraph Erlanger notes – “a narrow
moral precipice, running between a military checkpoint and suicide
bombing.” His disingenuous moral equation excludes Israeli violence
and seizure of Palestinian land. He follows with a misleading proverb
characterizing both sides, “We shall struggle for peace so hard that
not a tree will be left standing.” But it is Israel that has uprooted
over one million Palestinian-owned trees. He then adds another grossly
distorted parallel -“I try to see Jerusalem as a place where both
armies and souls contend.” But the only army is the well-equipped
Israeli army, the fourth largest army in the world.

Palestinians have only poorly equipped and barely functioning security
forces, and some poorly armed militias.

Erlanger claims, “Today, after a long truce with most Palestinian
militants, Jerusalem is calmer… the level of violence is down.”

Apparently “calm” refers only to reduced Palestinian attacks on Israeli
Jews, because daily Israeli violence against 200,000 Palestinian
residents of Jerusalem continues unabated.

Erlanger mentions Palestinian “suicide bombings” three times in the
first five paragraphs, and later adds Palestinian shooting at an
Israeli kindergarten, and Palestinian “rioting.” He minimizes Israeli
violence, noting only “Israeli troops reinvaded the West Bank”,
“the siege of Bethlehem”, expropriating land from Palestinians, and
“some Jews are plotting to destroy it and Al Aksa mosque.” The near
absence of Israeli violence is remarkable since the Israeli human
rights organization B’Tselem reports that during this five year
uprising Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 3466 Palestinians,
mostly civilians, and Palestinians have killed 998 Israelis. During
this uprising Israelis have killed five times more children than
those killed by Palestinian armed groups.

Israeli soldiers, settlers and police are almost invisible in the
article. “Israeli troops” are mentioned once and “Israeli police”
materialize once to separate “tussling [Christian] clerics”.

Incongruously, Erlanger associates Christian clerics in Jerusalem with
more violent words than Israelis. There are “furious intra-Christian
battles”, “the Armenians and the Greeks battle”, there is “the war
of the doormat, the battling over chairs” and “the struggle for
the rooftop.”

Readers might therefore be surprised to witness the Israeli military’s
ubiquitous presence and violence in Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers
killed sixteen year old bystander Muhammad Ziad in March, 2006 in
Jerusalem. Israeli police shot in the back and killed 31 year old Samir
Dari in October, 2005. Police frequently assault peaceful Palestinian
protesters. Near the Old City’s Damascus Gate, a major tourist
thoroughfare, Israeli police regularly detain and beat Palestinians,
as they do at other checkpoints. Israeli television viewers recently
watched police assault a Hamas parliamentary candidate near Damascus
Gate. In one of many cases B’Tselem documented, in November, 2005
police in Jerusalem severely beat taxi-driver Iyad Shamasneh, then
released him uncharged.

Erlanger recognizes that “even archaeology is used as a weapon in the
struggle over the land.” Yet when writing about archaeological digs
in Silwan, he avoids mentioning recent Israeli government efforts to
demolish 88 Palestinian homes in Silwan to build a Jewish historical
park, a plan staved off for now by diplomatic appeals. The Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions recorded the demolition of 94
Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem in 2005. Demolitions are
executed with the large-scale presence of Israeli soldiers and police
who often use violence against Palestinian civilians.

Erlanger also doesn’t prepare travelers to witness extremist,
Uzi-toting Israeli settlers violently expelling Palestinians from
their homes throughout East Jerusalem. He omits the burgeoning settler
take-over in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, with now over 40
Jewish settlements there.

In fact, Erlanger makes the massive, illegal Israeli settlements
and 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem completely vanish. The words
“settler” and “settlements” simply never appear. Instead, he names
the settlements of Gilo and Har Homa a “Jewish neighborhood”, and
“Israeli neighborhood”.

Not one government has recognized Israel’s 1967 annexation of East
Jerusalem. With East Jerusalem under Israeli military occupation,
the UN, the International Court of Justice, all major human rights
organizations, and all governments clearly state that Israeli
settlements in East Jerusalem violate international law. But Erlanger
turns illegal Israeli settlements into cozy “neighborhoods”.

Even if the Times Travel section claims to avoid politics, by calling
settlements “neighborhoods” the Times takes a political stand against
international law. The Times specifically chose the Jerusalem Bureau
Chief to write about Jerusalem, rather than a travel writer.

Covering up the obvious developments in Jerusalem at this decisive
moment is tantamount to taking a strong political position in
support of Israeli domination of East Jerusalem. Ironically, this
week “The Economist” outlines those developments in a cover story
“The Last Conquest of Jerusalem” noting that “Israel’s plans for
Jerusalem will create a large Jewish city but will have harsh
consequences for the Palestinians, on both sides of the barrier”
( ory.cfm?story_id=6795641).

The massive Israeli construction of the Wall, settlements,
checkpoints and roads transforming East Jerusalem are impossible for
any observer to miss. Yet Erlanger fails to represent their scale
or implications. Commenting on Israel’s Wall, Erlanger only notes
that it scars the landscape, and that Palestinians feel it annexes
their land and cuts off neighborhoods. He says Jerusalem is built on
“struggle and rivalry”, but refuses to state the obvious, that one
side has won the struggle.

In stark contrast, The Economist explains, “Jerusalem, centre of
pilgrimage, crucible of history and the world’s oldest international
melting-pot, is changing hands once more, but with a slow and
quiet finality.” An accompanying Economist editorial notes that,
“in Jerusalem as a whole Israel’s policy has been to entrench its
control and create facts that cannot be reversed. This has entailed
reshaping the physical and demographic geography of the city, settling
Jews on the Arab side of the pre-1967 border and creating vast Jewish
neighbourhoods to the north, east and south… Sealing in and cutting
off the Palestinians of Jerusalem will only make another descent into
violence more likely.”

In a case of “too little, too late” the Times’ Travel
section includes a token secondary article, “In the West
Bank Politics and Tourism Remain Bound Together Inextricably”
( ravel/16westbank.html) by David
Kaufman and Marisa Katz which quotes some Palestinian views on West
Bank tourism. But “Jerusalem, Now”, nearly three times longer than
Kaufman and Katz’s article, is on the front page of the Travel section
and featured on the webpage.

“Jerusalem, Now” reflects either a woeful unconscious bias, striking
ignorance, a blatant political agenda, or a combination of all three.

By again failing to tell its readers what is happening in Jerusalem,
The New York Times has abdicated its journalistic responsibility and
is effectively complicit in Israeli violations of international law.

Patrick O’Connor is an activist with the International Soldarity
Movement () and Palestine Media Watch
().

ent/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=10117

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress