Author: Emil Lazarian

ROBOT IS IN SOCHI
Lragir.am
15 May 06
Relying on Russian sources, ARKA News Agency reports that a underwater
apparatus PT1000 with a special manipulator will be used to lift from
the sea bottom the black boxes of the Armenian A320, which crashed
near Sochi. The apparatus was created at the Russian State Scientific
Center of Southern Sea Geology. The experts of the center said the
apparatus is an underwater robot with remote control.
Minister of Transport of Russia Igor Levitin announced several days
ago that the lifting of the black boxes will begin on May 16 and will
last for 2-3 days. “The rest depends on the weather.” The robot was
transferred to Sochi on May 15.

RUSSIAN DUMA MEMBER SUGGESTS ESTABLISHING PARTY SIMILAR TO ARF
Yerkir
15.05.2006 14:08
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Dmitry Rogozin, the former leader of the Rodina
Party and a member of the Russian State Duma, called for establishing
a party in Russia similar to the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.
As reported by Yerkramas, a newspaper published by the Armenians of
southern Russia, Rogozin, speaking of a patriotic movement’s future
in Russia with a Russian online publication, said the example of the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation could be useful.
“ARF has been the key anti-Turkish force during the genocide of the
Armenian people at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Armenians became
a ‘scattered’ nation but they had the ARF whose branches operated in
different countries.
There was an international bureau which made decisions on main issues,
there were creative, cultural and educational elites.”

TURKISH, AZERI DIASPORAS SHALL HELP TO DESTROY THE MYTH OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE – TURKISH AMB TO AZERBAIJAN
Author: R. Abdullayev
TREND Info, Azerbaijan
May 15 2006
Turkey and Azerbaijan shall use diasporas more to prevent Armenians’
efforts to achieve global recognition of so-called Armenian
genocide of 1915 in Osman Empire, reportedly said Turan Morali,
Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan, commenting French Senate discussed
law draft for prosecution of persons openly refusing to recognize
so-called Armenian genocide.
“We shall work not only at the level of governments but also among
public using our diasporas”,- Ambassador said, adding that Turkey
will do its best to prevent passing this law draft.
Morali reminded the recall of Turkish Ambassador from France and
stated his hope for stability of economic relations between the two
countries regardless of these steps taken.

THE FRENCH ATTITUDE TOWARDS ARMENIAN CLAIMS
Recep Guvelioglu
The New Anatolian, Turkey
May 15 2006
The French Parliament is set this Thursday to debate a bill to
criminalize denial of the so-called Armenian genocide. The one-article
bill aims to impose prison terms of up to one year and a 45,000 euro
fine for deniers of the so-called genocide claims. In France it’s
already an offense to deny the Holocaust of World War II.
France has been a haven for the Armenian diaspora for almost a
century. That’s why almost every French government, whether leftist
or rightist, has tried to be sympathetic to the diaspora to get
their votes. As a result, the French public has been influenced by
Armenian propaganda without questioning the case. In 1920, when Aram
Andonian published the so-called “Official Documents on the Armenian
Massacres” (Documents Officiels Concernant les Massacres Armeniens,
Imprimerie H. Turabian, Boulevard Raspall, 1920, Paris), the French
public accepted them as real evidence of an Armenian “genocide.” But
in the 1980s it was proven that the letters which are the basis of
the book’s claims were false and mere fabrication.
Even though French soldiers were eyewitnesses to the Mt. Musa incident,
exaggerations in the book “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” (Werfel
Franz; Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh, Paul Zsolnay Verlag A.G.,
1933, Berlin) were disregarded by the French. French administrations
have been proud of themselves for erecting genocide monuments. French
governments sometimes went too far, even supporting terrorists. They
supported the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia
(ASALA). But after an ASALA bomb blast in front of a Turkish Airlines
(THY) office at Orly Airport which claimed eight lives (four of them
French) and wounded 60 on July 15, 1983, and their occupation of the
Turkish Consulate General in which they murdered the security officer
and wounded the consul general, the French government realized that
supporting terrorism doesn’t help anything. There were many reasons
at the root of all this, but I would like to address four of them.
The first reason is classic Christian solidarity. The second was
quite interesting: The French government, during World War I,
like the Russians and British, provoked the Armenian quest for an
independent state just to dissolve the Ottoman Empire. But the French
didn’t help the Armenians after their revolt. To a certain extent the
French betrayed the Armenians. This isn’t my own idea; it’s found in
pro-Armenian books. Armenian villagers died not for their own cause,
but for the realization of the Alliance’s plans. They squeezed the
juice out of the orange and then threw it away. After the massive
Armenian immigration to France, the French government started
supporting them just to save face.
The third reason behind the French governments’ stance was and is to
gain leverage against Turkey. The fourth is to seek Armenian votes as
a part of domestic politics. I would like to make some comments on
the last reason. Many people think that the Armenian lobby is solid
and powerful in France. But it’s not. There are many French citizens
of Armenian origin who think that there have been falsifications in
the thesis of the “genocide” story. Because of oppression from the
diaspora’s leaders, these poor people haven’t been able to say anything
or reject some claims. Some of them think that a continuation of the
genocide claims won’t help anyone, especially the Armenian state,
where economic conditions are bad and the population is falling
rapidly. Some of them believe that the diaspora’s leaders are working
for some Armenian families which for the most part live in the U.S.,
and that their main cause is compensation from U.S. insurance companies
if Turkey accepts the “genocide.”
Now I’d like to ask the French legislators some questions. Do you
really believe that you’re going to secure all the Armenian votes if
you approve the bill?
How will you implement the bill? Are you considering creating a
sort of examination at the border gates to check at passport control
whether Turkish citizens above all believe in the Armenian “genocide”
or not? Do you believe that anti-Semitism is over because it’s a
crime to deny it in your law?
Which massacre would be the next to criminalize? That of the
Algerians? I’d like to take this opportunity to like to express my
humble gratitude to the Bulgarian Parliament for last week rejecting
a bill on “genocide” claims.

KORKMAZCAN: ALL PROPAGANDISTIC STEPS REGARDING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ARE NOTHING BUT INHUMAN ACTS FOR AIDING AND ABETTING TERROR
Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 15 2006
ANKARA – “All propagandistic steps regarding the so-called Armenian
genocide are nothing but inhuman acts for aiding and abetting terror,”
said Turkish Parliamentarians’ Union Chairman Hasan Korkmazcan
on Monday.
Holding a news conference about the draft law which will be debated by
the French parliament on May 18th and considers denial of the so-called
genocide a crime, Korkmazcan said, “Turkish-French friendly relations
will be put to test on May 18th. The Armenian lobby, which has limited
political impact in France, has launched a dirty campaign to defame
Turkey. Those who are behind this campaign, are, in fact, international
underground powers which directed the terrorist organization ASALA.”
“A number of western countries have committed such crimes against
humanity since 1974. The draft is an assassination of the humanity’s
struggle throughout the history for freedom of scientific research
and expression. We call on French parliamentarians not to ignore a
500-year history for the sake of 3-5 thousand bloody votes,” he said.
Korkmazcan added, “if our warnings are ignored, the Turkish parliament
will make several arrangements about ‘active response’ and make
several decisions.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

US AMB OF AZERBAIJAN NOMINEE AFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO PEACEFUL RESOLUTION
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
May 15 2006
Senator Sarbanes submits questions for the hearing record Washington,
DC – During her Senate confirmation hearing today, Ambassador-designate
Anne Derse reiterated U.S. policy for a peaceful, mutually acceptable
resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, stating that “a return
to violence would be a tragedy.”
Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), a senior member of the Foreign Relations
Committee, submitted a series of questions for the record, including
the government of Azerbaijan’s continuing war rhetoric and other
bellicose actions taken against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
Specifically, the Senator inquired about the impact of such acts
on the Karabakh peace process, and what steps will be taken to end
Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockade of Armenia.
Further, he addressed Azerbaijan’s attempts to isolate Armenia via a
proposed railway that would connect Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey,
but not traverse Armenia. The Senator also raised questions regarding
the decision of the Administration to provide asymmetrical military
assistance to Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as on Azerbaijan’s
human rights record. “The Assembly commends Senator Sarbanes for
his outstanding leadership on these issues of great significance,”
said Assembly Board of Trustees Executive Committee Member Annie Totah.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-IN)
asked Derse about the status of the Karabakh issue and her general
assessment of democracy in the Azerbaijan. Lugar added that Azerbaijan
will not reach its full potential if the rule of law is not improved.
Derse responded that if confirmed, she will work toward expanding and
strengthening U.S.-Azerbaijan security cooperation and help promote
democracy and governance. She said a peaceful settlement to the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict is critical to achieving this goal and expressed
hope that President of Armenia Robert Kocharian and President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will work together on this issue.
She further stated that as Co-Chair of the Minsk Group, the U.S. will
also urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to remain engaged in the process and
demonstrate political courage. Derse also expressed her commitment
to work with both countries towards a peaceful resolution.
>”We appreciate Ambassador-designate Derse’s intentions to promote
democracy in Azerbaijan and the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict,” said Totah. “But the Nagorno Karabakh problem calls
for the full commitment of the United States to require Azerbaijan
to end its threats of renewed warfare and to defend the right of the
population of Nagorno Karabakh to determine its political future
through a democratic government of their free choice. Regional
security, economic prosperity, and peace will be possible only if
these principles are followed.”
On the issue of good governance, Derse stressed the importance of
a genuine effort by Azerbaijan to respect human rights in order to
pursue democratic reform and ensure long-term political stability.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

USE OF ‘HOLOCAUST’ OFFENSIVE
by: Alex Chazen
New University, CA
University of California, Irvine
May 15 2006
The word “holocaust” stirs up emotions among people all over the
world for many different reasons. The word “genocide,” which most
people agree the Holocaust was, is defined as “the systematic and
planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political or
ethnic group.” As you are walking around campus this week, you are
going to see fliers talking about Israel as being the Fourth Reich
and there being a “Holocaust in the Holy Land.” The question becomes,
are these assertions truthful?
The Holocaust (the attempted genocide of Jews in Europe) saw 6 million
Jews murdered, and countless others displaced, many permanently. The
Armenian Genocide saw 1.5 million Armenians murdered at the hands
of the Turks, although many have (sadly) long forgotten about this
horrible period in world history. Currently, in the Darfur region
of the Sudan, over 400,000 people have been murdered, warranting the
label of “genocide” by the American government. Now that this has been
presented to you, I assume you think that the number of Palestinians
who have died since the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987
(no earlier data is available, including at the Muslim Student Union
Web site) would be at least in the hundreds of thousands. Would you
be surprised to find out that the number isn’t even in the tens of
thousands? Despite claims that there is a holocaust in the Holy Land,
not more than 6,000 Palestinians have died since the start of the
first Intifada.
Lumping the “genocide” that is occurring in “Palestine” in with the
other historical genocides is not only shameful, it is hurtful.
Writing as a Jewish person, I know that one of the major historical
narratives of American Jewry is the Holocaust. We know that it
happened. Germany is forced to teach their youth about what happened.
The United Nations has declared Jan. 27 the International
Holocaust Remembrance Day. To hear the word being used to describe
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict angered me. I went back to the
dictionary and looked up “holocaust.” Meriam-Webster defines it as
“a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life especially
through fire.” Jews were put into ovens and cremated, literally thrown
into the fire. To my knowledge, nobody, including radical Palestinian
advocates, has claimed that Israel is throwing Palestinians into ovens.
Due to my acceptance and approval of the free speech policies of the
UC Irvine campus, I can’t say that I want the MSU to change the title
of their anti-Zionism week, which is what the week truly is. I can’t
ask the president of the MSU to take down signs that compare Israelis
to Nazis, even though typing those words, in such close proximity, is
painful for me. All that I can do is appeal to the campus community
to realize what is being said and what the truth is. Please, don’t
take this the wrong way. I am not decrying the MSU’s policies
of anti-Semitism, nor am I saying that the anti-Israel argument
shouldn’t be heard on campus. I am merely asking that students at
UCI show other students a modicum of respect when it comes to the
history of the group that they belong to.
To compare the plight of the Palestinians (which is substantial)
with that of Jews in Europe, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, or the
people of Darfur is extremely hurtful to those directly involved in
those conflicts, and to cheapen the loss of life suffered in those
conflicts is nothing more than a sad plea for attention.
Alex Chazen is a second-year political science major. He can be
reached at [email protected].

THE CANCER OF ETHIOPIAN MUSIC: THE SYNTHESIZER
Ha’aretz, Israel
May 15 2006
At the Sheraton Hotel bookshop in Addis Ababa – an infuriatingly
luxurious building, which indifferently overlooks an ocean of shanties
and mud houses spread out at its feet – one’s eye is caught by the
book “Abyssinia Swing.” The book, written by French music producer
and scholar Francis Falceto, documents the development of Ethiopian
music from the late 19th century, through the initiative of Emperor
Haile Selassie in the 1920s to bring an orchestra of Armenian orphans
from Jerusalem to Addis Ababa, and up to the golden age of the 1960s,
which produced sophisticated and groovy music such as that of Mulatu
Astatke, featured in Jim Jarmusch’s film “Broken Flowers.”
The books ends in the mid-seventies, and specifically declares its
unwillingness to deal with present-day Ethiopian music. The reason for
that is brought in one clear-cut sentence: “In the year 2000 nothing
remains of the golden age of Ethiopian music, except for recordings
and photos.”
Who is to blame for the creative collapse of Ethiopian music? The
Communist regime and the synthesizer. The Communist government, which
carried out a military coup in the mid-seventies, marked American
soul music, which more than anything else had fueled the musical
blossoming in Addis Ababa, as the music of the enemy, persecuted
the musicians who continued to remain loyal to it, and directed the
entire preoccupation with music to military-patriotic channels. The
synthesizer, which captured the market in the 1990s, turned the
wind instruments, the source of the vitality of modern Ethiopian
music, into superfluous objects, and enabled untrained musicians,
who were often untalented as well, to issue discs at one-tenth the
price demanded previously. Abate Barihon calls the synthesizer “the
cancer of Ethiopian music,” thus expressing the feelings of many. “At
a certain point, a few years before I left Addis, the entire city
suddenly became filled with the cancers,” he says.
A visit to the nightclubs in Addis Ababa makes it clear that the
synthesizer continues to rule unchallenged. It is placed in the center
of every stage and fires its programmed synthetic drums into the
air of the club. All the other instruments are optional: Who needs
a bass or a saxophone or a guitar when the synthesizer can imitate
their sound and avoid the need to pay another player?
A visit to the nightclubs therefore begins with reservations about
the rule of the computerized keys, which flatten the music. But
after a few minutes in the first club, Select Pub, something strange
happens. Suddenly it turns out that a lot of interesting things are
actually happening here. The most obvious is the insane turnover of
singers on the improvised stage, which has nothing separating it from
the small dance floor. Instead of the singer being the fixed item and
the many instruments accompanying him supplying variety and interest,
the synthesizer is the fixed item and the many singers who surround
it provide the variety.
Two boys of about 18 are performing a song that sounds like reggae,
but which is still clearly rooted in Ethiopian scales. When it is
finished, they get off the stage, and immediately a man of about 40,
plump and balding, enters from the door next to the bar, and sings
in a style reminiscent of unctuous R & B songs. The plump man is
then replaced by a flirty female singer in 15-cm heels, singing in a
thin, screechy voice, reminiscent of the singers in Indian films and,
finally, a singer in an elegant beige suit gets onstage. The moment he
begins to sing, the gang at the back of the nightclub, who had looked
totally bored, jumps to its feet and begins to dance enthusiastically.
“It’s a Sudanese song, and this group comes from Sudan. That’s why
they’re so excited,” explains a 31-year-old real estate agent, who
now lives in Washington and is visiting her parents in Addis. Why
does she like the Select Pub? “Because when I come here, the last
thing I want to do is to go to a nightclub where most of the people
are Westerners, as happens in the Sheraton, for example.” The
singers, she says, are not professionals, but not total amateurs,
either. Some of them make a living from singing in the club and hope
to be discovered and to develop a successful career, and others have
ordinary jobs and moonlight in the club. The songs they sing are
“hits that every Ethiopian is familiar with. Songs of Mahmoud Ahmed,
and other great singers.”
When the plump, bald man returns to the stage, the young Sudanese
return to nap in their armchairs, and when he leaves, the lighting
gets stronger and two female dancers get onstage, dressed in gilt
tank tops and short-shorts. It would be an understatement to describe
their dance as very energetic pelvic movements. Afterwards the unending
parade of male and female singers returns.
Two days later, at the Mandigo club, Yitzhak Yedid of the Ras Deshen
ensemble is full of admiration at the level of the singers. “All of
them, without exception, sing very precisely,” he says. “But they
are not only precise, they are also very creative, and each of them
has his own style. I think that I have never seen so many outstanding
singers in one room.” (B.S.)
.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

KOSOVO, MONTENEGRO, AND THEN WHAT NEXT?
Polina Slavcheva
Sofia Echo, Bulgaria
May 15 2006
EXTENDED HANDS: Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, right, meets
Macedonian and Serbian-Montenegrin colleagues Branko Crvenovski,
centre, and Boris Tadic, left, on December 15 2005 in Ohrid, where
Mecadonia signed its Ohrid Agreement, setting relations with its
ethnic Albanian minority. Bulgaria has repeatedly stated its bid to
be a factor of stability in the region.It may be hard to notice, but
it is there: the anxiety that the future of Kosovo and Montenegro,
two slabs of land on their way to a possible chip-off from Serbia,
might affect other countries and open a Pandora’s box of separatism,
as Ukrainian prime minister Boris Tarasyuk put it.
Hungarians in Vojvodina, Moldova’s Transdniestria, Caucasus republics,
European Muslims, Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, why not,
Bulgaria’s Turks in the Rhodope Mountains are all examples of potential
provocateurs. Even if most of those are in the sphere of speculation,
however, when the ghost of separatism in Southern Europe and the
Caucasus is awake, it seems that anxiety and caution is “the game of
the rule”, to quote Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco, or helpful
to those temporary glitches in logic so terribly reminiscent of the
Balkans and the wider Eastern European region, not just of Ionesco’s
dramas about discordant families.
When the Contact Group for Kosovo issued hints in January that Kosovo
may become independent by the end of the year, too few were those
convinced that a Kosovo status solved like this would be timely or
enhance regional stability. That uncertainty was recently expressed
by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at a conference on NATO
expansion held in Sofia, the above-mentioned Tarasyuk, and Serbian
foreign minister Vuk Draskovic. Draskovic said on May 3 in an interview
with Greek news agency ANA-MPA that a change of the existing borders of
his country would be an omen of “a new Balkan catastrophe”, and Lavrov
told Bulgarian newspaper Standart that “Kosovo’s independence is a
dangerous road that could not only lead to many dangerous consequences
in the region, but set a precedent to other conflict situations”.
A quick peek at Caucasus reveals what he means. Òhe predominantly
Muslim Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, Russia’s separatist
republics, might ask for independence, and so might the
breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and the
Armenian-occupied Azerbaijan region Nagorno-Karabakh, UK-based analyst
Oksana Antonenko told the EU Observer in February. All of that makes
Russia quite sour about the prospects for independence, with China
the only other country supporting Serbia’s territorial claim to Kosovo.
Moldova’s Transdniestria and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska
have also said that they would call for independence if Kosovo gets it.
What the European Union should worry about is Nagorno-Karabakh because
a conflict there would spell trouble for the EU’s Caspian Sea gas
link and ambitions to move away from Russian gas dependency, the EU
Observer said. The EU has promised peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh
but refuses to recognise it, just as it wouldn’t recognise Abkhazia or
South Ossetia. Since it would, seemingly, recognise Kosovo, discussion
on that obvious discrepancy appears to be what the EU should have on
its to do list.
At the moment, however, a international community priority is avoiding
disunity on the issue of Kosovo before the next stage of negotiations,
as UN special envoy for Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari said in Sofia on May 8.
So, as to whether independence is a timely and inevitable move or
a United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
move out of its inability to solve the province’s problems, as
the International Crisis Group said last year, is of secondary
importance. And that makes debate on how status talks would promote
a multi-ethnic society, enhance regional stability and Serbia’s
Euro-Atlantic perspectives a bit vague.
While the EU prospect helped in the case of Romania’s Hungarian
minority in Vovodina (in 1995, Hungary renounced all territorial
claims to Vojvodina and Romania reiterated its respect for the rights
of its Hungarian minority), it would take a while to help Serbia,
especially since accession negotiations were stopped on May 3.
What’s a more serious problem, however, is that the international
community itself fails to discuss its own principles on the issue of
sovereignty. Even to some European observers, diplomats and experts,
certain dilemmas of the western Balkans look unsolvable without
a change of borders, as a Bulgarian European Community Studies
Association report said in 2004.
Still, the discourse on Kosovo seems to stop at saying that there
shouldn’t be a change of borders, period. A decision on what to
do about borders should be reached through a consensus both within
the EU and the region itself, the report says. The latter, however,
would be quite difficult.
>>From the inside, it looks like Kosovo would be a time bomb if
it remains a UN protectorate for long. From the outside, though,
an independent Kosovo looks a bit scary.
Macedonia, for one, might be a bit ruffled about its dubious border
with the province, although a visit by Kosovar prime minister Agim Ceku
to Macedonia seemed to settle the issue with a friendly handshake:
Ceku and Macedonian foreign minister Vlado Buckovski agreed that the
problem should be treated as a technical, rather than a political,
one and that its settlement should only be a matter of time and US
cartographic co-operation. Previously, Ceku had said he would push
for a renegotiation of the 2001-set and UN-approved border (then
quite porous and a route for smugglers and rebels).
As to the wider Muslim community in the Balkans, and the potential
for further country splits, the problems that seem to arise come from
the lack of deep knowledge about the Muslim community as a whole.
During a debate on the the Muslim community in Bulgaria and the global
challenges it faces, Bulgarian journalist Georgi Koritarov said that
his impressions from a study on media coverage of Muslim topics in
Bulgaria was that media coverage showed a negative approach and lack
of deep understanding of Bulgarian Muslims’ problems.
However, he also expressed concern about the conflict potential of
Muslim societies, which he said had still not been exhausted because
of the unsolved Kosovo status.
“I am not sure that things are moving toward a stable formula,”
he said. Bulgaria was, so far, successful in painting itself as an
island of stability to a backdrop of war, he said. It also did well
in promoting its Bulgarian ethnic model. What it will do from then on,
however, is another issue.
The Muslim community in Bulgaria, Koritarov said, has the potential to
become the representative of Balkan Muslims in the EU as an integral
party of a future multicultural Europe. However, at the moment
Bulgaria lacks the civil and intellectual resources to capitalise on
this potential. Moreover, whoever pronounces such an idea in Bulgaria
automatically gets shoved to the sphere of so-called corruption rings
of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, he said.
If Bulgaria can use its Muslim minority as part of a successful EU
diplomacy, choices and decisions for Serbia are much harder: it is
either Kosovo, or the EU, as former US ambassador to the UN Richard
Holbrooke told Serbian television. At least at the moment, however,
gazes seem turned toward Montenegro and its May 21 Montenegrin
referendum on independence. If Montenegro and then Kosovo become
independent, that would be the end of Balkan and Eastern European
disintegration, or would it?
–Boundary_(ID_K+1EU2GU+w4NdqkndowOhA)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GENOCIDE MONUMENT IN THESSALONICA OVERSHADOWS RELATIONS, GUL
Anatolian Times, Turkey
May 15 2006
IZMIR – The “Pontus Greek genocide” monument built in Greek city of
Thessalonica has overshadowed friendly relations between Turkey and
Greece, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Friday.
In an exclusive interview with A.A correspondent, Gul recalled that
Aegean city of Izmir and Thessalonica were planning to sign a sister
city protocol, and qualified Izmir Mayor Aziz Kocaoglu`s decision
not to sign this protocol as a right decision.
Gul underlined positive course of Turkish-Greek relations, but
said that Turkish non-governmental organizations will launch some
initiatives to protest erection of such a monument.
Pointing out that some circles in Turkey decided to erect a monument
in (northwestern town of) Kesan in the memory of those who lost their
lives during the War of Independence, Gul stressed that such mutual
initiatives will be no use to anyone.
-FRENCH RESOLUTION-
Commenting on the resolution, presented to the French parliament
which makes any denial of the so-called Armenian genocide a crime,
Gul said that they aim to warn France beforehand about the possible
outcome of this resolution.
Gul indicated that he discussed this matter with French Foreign
Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy some time ago.
“As far as I have seen, the French government is doing its best.
Sometimes such matters concerning domestic policies can harm that
country`s interests. I think that France`s interests will be given
priority,” he emphasized.
-WE WILL DO WHAT IS NECESSARY-
“We will not listen to anything when Turkey`s security is in
question. We will do what is necessary”, said Gul when commenting
on Iraqi President Jalal Talabani`s remarks that the United States
has assured them that Turkey will not stage a military operation in
north of Iraq.
-EXPO 2015-
On the other hand, Gul supported Izmir`s candidacy to host EXPO 2015.
“More than 50 million people are expected to visit EXPO ten years
later. Our preparations continue,” he said.
Gul announced that he will start travelling by plane within a week
or ten days, and added that Azerbaijani capital of Baku will be the
first place he will visit.
FM Gul underwent a successful surgery at Ankara`s Gulhane Military
Medical Academy (GATA) on March 20th for a trauma in his inner ear
stemming from upper respiratory tract infection and cabin pressure.
Gul`s scheduled visits abroad were cancelled as he was not permitted
to travel by plane.