Author: Emil Lazarian

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CALLED FOR RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY ANKARA

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 29 2005

In the course of the plenary session that took place in Strasbourg
on Wednesday European parliamentarians ratified a resolution on the
beginning of talks on Turkey’ entry into the EU. 356 deputies voted
for the resolution, 181 against, while 125 refrained.

European parliamentarians stressed Turkey should recognize the
Armenian Genocide and Republic of Cyprus. The items have been fixed
in the resolution.

To note, Turkish Prime Minister Rejep Tayip Erdogan has repeatedly
stated Turkey does not intend to recognize Cyprus and is categorically
against any terms of its membership in the CE.

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MET WITH EU SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR SOUTH CAUCASUS

Pan Armenian News
29.09.2005 04:30

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with
EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie,
reported the Press Service of the Armenian leader. In the course
of the meeting the parties discussed issues referring to the
practical program of cooperation within the European Neighborhood
Policy. Besides, the interlocutors discussed the process of settlement
of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, as well as regional issues and
development. R. Kocharian and H. Talvitie touched upon constitutional
reforms in Armenia, emphasizing their importance and considering them
a new opportunity to promote and strengthen democracy in Armenia.

PARLIAMENT POSTPONES RATIFYING TURKEY’S CUSTOMS UNION

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Sept 29 2005

FRUSTRATED over Turkey’s refusal to recognise Cyprus, the European
Parliament yesterday postponed a vote to ratify Turkey’s customs
union with the EU, a requirement of Ankara’s bid for membership in
the 25-member bloc.

Days before the scheduled start of EU membership talks, MEPs also
called on Ankara to recognise the 1915-1923 killings of Armenians as
a genocide, which Turkey vehemently denies.

The Turkish lira and stock market lost ground on the events, although
traders said they did not believe the October 3 opening of accession
talks was at risk.

The EU legislature has no say over the start or conduct of the talks
but its assent is needed before Turkey can join, which is at least
a decade away.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately dismissed the
non-binding European resolution on the killings of Armenians, saying:
“It does not matter whether they took such a decision or not. We will
continue on our way,” according to private CNN-Turk television.

MEPs said in their resolution that recognition of the 1915-1923
killings as genocide should be a prerequisite for Turkey to join the
European Union.

Armenians say that 1.5 million of their countrymen were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of the First World War, which Armenians
and several nations around the world recognise as the first genocide
of the 20th century.

Turkey denies that the massacres were genocide, saying the death toll
is inflated and Armenians were killed in civil unrest as the Ottoman
Empire collapsed.

The EU Parliament voted 311-285 to postpone the customs union
ratification vote at the request of conservative MEPs. There were
63 abstentions.

EU governments meanwhile remained deadlocked on the mandate for the
talks, with Austria seeking a more explicit mention of an alternative
to full membership.

EU foreign ministers will have to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday
in Luxembourg, hours before negotiations are to start, unless their
ambassadors clinch a deal earlier in Brussels.

The opening ceremony could slip to Monday evening because Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will not board a plane until the
EU ministers have formally endorsed a framework for negotiations,
diplomats said.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the
revolving EU presidency, said it would be “a huge betrayal of the
hopes and expectations of the Turkish people and of Prime Minister
Erdogan’s programme of reform if, at the crucial time, we turned our
back on Turkey”.

The EU legislature demanded that Turkey recognise EU member Cyprus
soon and said negotiations could be suspended unless it granted access
to Cypriot aircraft and shipping by next year.

The vote by the parliament followed an emotional debate in which many
deputies attacked Turkey’s record on human rights, religious freedom
and minorities, reflecting widespread public hostility to the poor,
populous nation ever joining the bloc.

Greens party leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit caused an uproar by accusing
some right-wing critics of Turkey of “surfing on a wave of racism”.

The ballot’s delay will have no effect on the starting date for
Turkey’s accession negotiations, scheduled for October 3. The
assembly had already postponed its vote earlier this month, when
the parliament’s foreign affairs committee argued the customs union
would not work unless Turkey agreed to allow Cyprus to use its ports
or airports.

In July, Turkey signed an agreement to widen the customs union with
the EU to include Cyprus and nine other new EU members. But Ankara
said this did not amount to recognition of Cyprus.

EU governments issued a counter-declaration last week, warning that
failure to recognise Cyprus could paralyse Turkey’s EU entry talks.

European People’s Party chairman Hans-Gert Poettering said Turkey’s
position was “logically and politically unacceptable.” “We want … a
statement from Turkey saying non-recognition of Cyprus will not be
part of the ratification process (in the Turkish parliament),” he said.

“We haven’t received such a statement.” EU expansion chief Olli Rehn
said he regrets the parliament’s decision to postpone.

During the assembly’s debate, Martin Schulz, chairman the Socialists
in the Parliament, accused the conservatives of not wanting Turkey
in the EU.

“It would be better for you to say clearly: We don’t want Turkey in
the EU. You’re skirting the message,” Schulz said.

In their resolution, MEPs also voiced concern about criminal
proceedings against Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who was charged with
insulting the country’s national character after making comments on
Turkey’s killing of Armenians and Kurds. He could face up to three
years in prison.

Some EU countries, including Germany, homeland of many of the MEPs
who sought postponement, advocate the idea of a privileged partnership
for Turkey rather than full membership.

A new draft text outlining negotiating guidelines for Turkey’s entry
talks had still not been finalised due to strong objections by Austria.

Vienna is also demanding the EU offer Turkey a privileged
partnership. An Austrian diplomat said Vienna’s demand has yet to be
met. All 25 nations must agree on the EU’s position before talks begin.

But Ankara reacted sharply, saying any deviation from full membership
would be unacceptable.

A1+

| 18:08:42 | 28-09-2005 | Social |

WHO NEEDS FINANCING?

The President of Equatorial Guinea has already made friends with the head of
the Union of Armenians of Russia Ara Abrahamyan and will soon arrive in
Moscow as his personal guest.

This is the last thing Ara Abrahamyan is doing in return to the setting free
of the Armenian pilots imprisoned in Guinea. Before that an investment of 2
million USD was made for the construction of the Guinea irrigation system.

In the margins of the program `Days of the Union of Armenians of Russia in
Armenia and Artsakh’ a delegation of 500 people has arrived in Yerevan –
writers, scientists, pupils, etc. The Union of Armenians of Russia is
celebrating its 5th anniversary this year. In the press conference rendered
today Ara Abrahamyan said that as a non-governmental organization «they did
what they could for the past 5 years».

According to him, they gave the Armenians of Russia the most important thing
– hope, alongside with financial aid and advice. And in Armenia they
realized several programs.

Asked the question of Ara Abrahamyan is going to actively participate in the
political life in Armenia he said, «I do not have the right, besides, there
are too many people involved in politics in Armenia». Nevertheless, he did
not exclude the possibility of indirect participation, that is – financing
of a political power in case of need.

Bishop to pay visit to Toronto
Armenian leader last here in ’01

20,000 in Toronto prepare welcome

Toronto Star
Sep. 29, 2005

CHRISTIAN COTRONEO
STAFF REPORTER

The spiritual leader of Armenians throughout the world is coming to Toronto.

And nowhere was it more evident yesterday than in an unlikely bastion of
Armenian pride wedged between Highway 401 and the strip malls, high-rises
and office buildings that flank Victoria Park Ave.
While a trio of women potted fresh flowers outside St. Mary Armenian
Apostolic Church, another dozen or so busied themselves inside, cleaning and
freshening up the building.

Aram I, chief bishop and supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
arrives in Toronto Friday for a six-day visit.

In a room tucked inside the church’s basement, Meghrig Parikian is holding
his excitement in his hands. The priest has prepared a book with a golden
cover to commemorate the visit.

“It’s in Armenian,” he says, opening it. “But you can get an idea with some
of the pictures.”
And so the Lebanese-born Parikian takes his time, lingering over every
picture of the holy man that was once his teacher.

As the pages turn, so does Aram’s life, from a boy on a bicycle in Lebanon,
where Aram and the church’s headquarters are based today, to student, to
leader of the Armenian Orthodox faith.

The later pages tell of a peacemaker – a man standing alongside everyone
from Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury, to world leaders
from France to Ethiopia. The Catholicos of Cilicia, as he is formally
called, serves as moderator of the central and executive committees of the
World Council of Churches, and is renowned for reaching across faiths, a
tireless builder of bridges.

In Armenia, which in the early fourth century became the first nation to
declare Christianity its official religion, there’s still a lot of peace to
be made. Years after breaking loose from the Soviet Union in 1991, the
country has yet to reconcile with its long history of oppression.

During what’s come to be known as the Genocide of 1915, millions of
Armenians were rounded up by the Turkish government, worked to death or
marched into the open-air coffin known as the Syrian Desert. Not long after,
the region fell under Soviet control.

Although the Soviet era has long ended, the people of Armenia face an
uncertain democracy under the heavy-handed regime of President Robert
Kocharian. Allegations of corruption and brutality have dogged his
presidency, spurring about a million people to leave the country, mostly for
Russia, since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Which brings one burning question to mind. Why visit Toronto – twice, even,
since 2001?

After all, the city’s Armenian community of 20,000 is tiny compared with
some in the U.S.
“Canada is considered one of the most active diasporas around the world,
with its religious activities and achievements,” explains Aris Babikian, a
volunteer at the Armenian Community Centre who is helping co-ordinate the
Catholicos’s visit. “That’s why Canada is always considered an important
stop for any Armenian religious or political leaders.”

Indeed, the community’s little patch in North York, where Aram will lead
services on Sunday, has expanded since the leader’s last visit. Most
notably, there’s a new Orthodox high school across from the church and
community centre.

A tour, Parikian said, will most certainly be in order.

But at the moment, Parikian is just finishing his picture tour of Aram’s
life. Before closing the book, he lingers on an image of his mentor offering
a candid grin to a little boy in his arms.

“He so loves kids,” Parikian says. “And I love this picture so much.”

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Turkish academics break genocide taboo

Aljazeera

Features

Turkish academics break genocide taboo

By Jonathan Gorvett in Istanbul

Tuesday 27 September 2005, 15:21 Makka Time, 12:21 GMT

The recent conference in Istanbul on the controversial killing of Ottoman
Armenians in the closing stages of first world war has been widely lauded as
a breakthrough event which could strengthen accession talks with the
European Union.

“It was a major shift in the understanding here of the importance of freedom
of expression,” Ferai Tinc, a leading columnist with the Turkish daily
Hurriyet, told Aljazeera.net. “It showed a transformation in mentality.”

Others see it as a major step too on Turkey’s rocky road to European Union
membership, with talks on this due to start in just one week’s time.

The conference – held on 24 September amid cries of treachery from hardline
Turkish nationalists and resounding applause from academics, politicians and
pundits – was the first ever in Turkey to see an open discussion on the
events of 1915.

At the turn of the 20th century, Turkey’s predecessor, the Ottoman Empire,
was allied with Germany and Austria (part of the Austro-Hungarian empire)
against Britain, France and Russia.

Genocide debate

The Ottoman government, many historians say, then organised what amounted to
genocide of its ethnic Armenian population, which was considered pro-Russian
and disloyal.

But Turkish authorities have in the past 90 years denied this version of
events, saying that both Turks and Armenians were killed in chaotic
fighting.

While Ankara does concede that the Ottoman government ordered the
deportation of its ethnic Armenian population to the southeast of the
country, it insists this did not constitute genocide.

This controversy has led to heated and often violent disputes, with the
official Turkish line fiercely defended within the country, effectively
preventing public discussion of alternative points of view.

Yet this month, academics met to do just that – and were pelted with eggs
and tomatoes by hardline Turkish nationalists, who accused the professors of
betraying the country.

The conference had already been cancelled in May after the country’s justice
minister described it as a “stab in the back” by Turkish academics who were
willing to consider claims of a genocide.
Reset for September 23, at the last minute, hardline Turkish nationalists
obtained a court injunction preventing the event from being held at its
original venue.

Yet this ban was successfully got round by another Istanbul university
offering its premises – a move also seen by many as deeply significant.

Important step

“This was Turkey’s academic community asserting its independence,” says
Razmik Panossian, a leading Armenian academic and director of programmes at
the Canadian Rights and Democracy pressure group.

“They were saying ‘We’ll go ahead with this even if people are against us’.
This was a very important step to take.”

For many then, both in Turkey and elsewhere, the significance of the
weekend’s conference, which saw mainly Turkish scholars debate the record,
was not 1915, but 2005.

“The conference was not just about the Armenian issue,” says Ekyen
Mahcupyan, the ethnic Armenian director of Turkish think-tank TESEV’s
democratisation programme. “It was about Turkey showing itself and the world
that it can discuss issues like who we are and what kind of world we want to
live in.”

The conference was also taking place at a crucial time in Turkey’s bid to
become a member of the European Union.

On 3 October, accession negotiations are scheduled to begin, with Brussels
pushing Turkey to further democratise – and taking a dim view of the
controversy over the conference.

Support received

Turkish Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan and his foreign minister,
Abdullah Gul, both gave their support for the event and reacted strongly
against the court order cancelling it.

“It is obvious that Europe will be influenced in a positive way by how
things turned out,” adds Mahcupyan. “As soon as the court halted the
conference, everyone reacted – many people came forward to condemn the court
and support the event and free speech.”

The message here, many Turks believe, is that the recent democratic reforms
the current government has introduced are taking hold.

“After the reforms were introduced, there was a lot of questioning in the EU
over whether they would be implemented,” says Tinc.

“Now, the ability to hold this conference shows how the mentality has
changed, enabling the implementation of reform.”

The issue also has wider strategic implications for Turkey’s EU accession
bid. Turkey borders Armenia, yet the frontier remains closed, with no
diplomatic relations between the two.

Frozen relations

The claims over genocide are a key factor in these frozen relations –
although there is one other major issue at stake.

“Relations are being held hostage by the Nagorno Kharabakh conflict,” says
Panossian. Since war between Armenia and Turkish ally Azerbaijan resulted in
the occupation of some Azeri territory by the Armenians, Turkey has shut off
its links with its Armenian neighbour.

“Yet, from the moment the EU accession talks start, the Armenian issue will
keep coming up,” says international relations professor Gareth Winrow of
Istanbul’s Bilgi University – where the conference was eventually held.

“All EU states must have good relations with their neighbours and Turkey
must therefore find a formula for normalising its relations with Armenia.
Perhaps the hope of some Turks in the conference was to begin that process.”

That being said, the conference’s reception has not been entirely popular in
Turkey. Some see the Europeans in particular not as pushing democratic
reform along, but as trying to use the issue against Turkey.

Pressuring Turkey

“People in France and Germany and some other countries encourage the
Armenians to attack Turkey,” says Sedat Laciner , director of the
International Strategic Research Organisation in Ankara.
“They can’t find any other reason to keep Turkey out of the EU so they use
this. Western countries always used the Armenians – in World War I they did
the same thing, encouraging them to rise up against the Ottomans.”

It is a view not too dissimilar from Panossian’s. “European capitals will
use Armenia to put pressure on Ankara,” he says.

“This has been a convenient way for them to set up hurdles for Turkey ever
since the 19th century.”

Meanwhile, ordinary Turks seem largely divided on the issue.

“I don’t think it should have been allowed,” says shop worker Mert Aslan.
“There was no such genocide – it was the Turks who suffered. Nobody ever
talks about that, and to think that Turkish professors are supporting the
Armenians is a shame for us.”

By contrast, student Dicile Atacam said: “I think it’s a very good thing.
If we can’t talk freely about the past, then how can we ever understand each
other today, in the present?”

It’s Azerbaijan’s turn

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2005

By Farhad Husseinov

ANKARA — As the threat from terrorism becomes ever more acute, the
West is caught in a strategic dilemma between stability and
democratization in the Muslim world. While the pursuit of stability
has been mostly abandoned in the Middle East, it remains operative in
the Muslim countries of the former Soviet empire – as displayed until
recent times in the West’s cooperation with autocrats like
Uzbekistan’s Islam Karimov.

Azerbaijan is the latest victim of this sacrifice of freedom in the
pursuit of stability. A country of 8.5 million people – roughly half
of whom live in poverty – on the Western shores of the energy-rich
Caspian Sea, it is preparing for parliamentary elections in early
November. Baku, the capital, is the next obvious candidate for a
democratic revolution of the kind witnessed in Georgia and Ukraine. At
stake are the multibillion-dollar investments of oil giants like BP
and Chevron.

The incumbent president, Ilham Aliyev, is a Soviet-educated autocrat
who inherited power from his late father, Geidar Aliyev, in late 2003
as a result of rigged elections followed by a ruthless police
crackdown. Opposition activists were imprisoned and tortured. Yet the
creation of the first dynastic regime in the post-Soviet space was,
incongruously, blessed by the administrationof George W. Bush.

So far, Aliyev junior has proved less adept than his ex-Communist
father at playing political cat-and-mouse with Western capitals. His
regular consultations with President Vladimir Putin of Russia have not
escaped analysts’ attention. One development that apparently
infuriated Washington was the security arrangement he made with Iran
in May. This was followed by news that Azerbaijan had been used as a
conduit for supplying Russian nuclear technology to Iran.

Now that the campaign for the November elections has officially
started, efforts by the regime to steal votes are once again under
way. The main issue is the formation of election commissions dominated
by the government. The U.S. Congress and the Council of Europe demand
that these be amended to create a balance between representatives of
the government and the opposition.

Cases of harassment by the regional authorities on behalf of regime
favorites are abundant. The media – with a few embattled exceptions in
print and on the Internet – is entirely under state control. The
latest trend on Azeri TV channels is to describe opposition leaders as
either homosexual or agents of Al Qaeda. Criticism of the president
is characterized as betrayal of the motherland.

Another sign of the regime’s contempt for fair elections is the recent
reshuffling of posts within the power ministries. Hard-liners
responsible for organizing the crackdown in 2003 were rewarded with
promotions and even state medals. In this way, the government has
perpetuated a climate of arbitrariness and arrogant lawlessness.

Despite the campaign to denigrate and destroy real political
opposition, it now poses a serious challenge to the regime. Indeed,
many in Baku predict the downfall of a bankrupt government built on
corruption, nepotism, coercion and a record of political murder.

The greatest hope is invested in the newly forged Freedom Bloc, with
the pro-Western Musavat Party as its driving force, which succeeded in
holding a series of rallies across the country that the government was
compelled to allow because of domestic and international pressure. The
last such demonstration was organized in Baku on Sept. 10 and drew
about 50,000 people, many of them wearing orange shirts and waving
orange flags in an echo of the pro-democracy rallies in Ukraine last
year.

In today’s globalized world, democracy requires support from
without. The Bush administration’s “freedom agenda” is a praiseworthy
step in this regard. It should, however, also be extended to illiberal
countries that possess oil or host a NATO military base. Democratic
turnover in the post-Soviet states is not Western imperialism by
another name, as some would like us to believe. What they represent,
rather, is a shift toward the rule of law, democracy and national
reconciliation.

Azerbaijan presents the next opportunity for Western leaders to prove
their commitment to the founding principles of their own
nation-states. With time, this moral choice will prove to be a smart
strategic choice as well.

As for Putin, instead of bemoaning his country’s imperial past, he
should be the first to desire the creation of a progressive and
liberal space around it, as this would benefit no state more than
Russia itself.

Farhad Husseinov is professor of economics at Bilkent
University in Ankara and a pro-democracy activist in Azerbaijan.

COURT COMING IN ACTION

A1+
| 18:55:13 | 26-09-2005 | Politics |

“If the court decides that the 129 ballots voted for Arayik Qotanjyan
which were considered invalid are valid, he will be elected head of
the Qanaqer-Zeytun community without second elections”, this is the
opinion of the NA independent deputy Manouk Gasparyan who supports
the candidate. He also informed that an action has been brought to
the Court of Appeal.

Let us remind you that the Local Electoral Committee had announced
the results of the September 19 election in Qanaqer-Zeytun and fixed
new elections.

After the reports of the LEC the ballot packs were torn and according
to the NA deputy 54 ballots from one area and 75 from the other were
“spoilt by hand” and considered invalid. The action by Arayik Qotanjyan
is about the “fate” is these ballots.

Manouk Gasparyan thinks that tomorrow the Court will send an order
to the LEC not to organize elections until the court makes a decision.

It is noteworthy that Arayik Qotanjyan was not recognized community
head as the number of errors exceeded that of the difference
between the votes received by Mr. Qotanjyan and his opponent Valeri
Haroutyunyan.

PRESS RELEASE
ARPA Institute
18106 Miranda St.
Tarzana, CA 91356 &
Mousa Ler Association of California
Tel: (818) 596-9660
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

ARPA Institute and Mousa Ler Association present the Lecture: “Musa
Dagh Genocide Resistance in Light of New Evidence”(In Armenian) by
Vahram Shemmassian, Ph.D. on Thursday, September 29, 2005 at 7:30 PM
in the Merdinian school auditorium.

The Address is 13330 Riverside Dr., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403.
Directions: on the 101 FWY exit on Woodman, go north and turn right on
Riverside Dr.

Abstract: `Musa Dagh’ is a household name among Armenians and `rings a
bell’ among other people. In July 1915, during the early phase of the
Genocide, about 6,000 Armenian highlanders living near the biblical
town Antioch were given deportation orders by the Ottoman
government. About one-third heeded the order and was exiled to the
Syrian town of Hama, but the majority decided to take arms and resist.
No published study exists regarding the fate of those who were
dispatched to Hama. Memoirs published in recent years and archival
materials not used before will be cited to shed new light on certain
aspects of the resistance. A replica of the cross and pictures will
also be presented.

Professor Vahram Shemmassian, professor of Armenian Studies in the
Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at the
California State University, Northridge, holds a Ph.D. in History from
UCLA. His doctoral dissertation, entitled `The Armenian Villagers of
Musa Dagh: A Historical-Ethnographic Study, 1840-1915,’ is currently
being revised for publication. Dr. Shemmassian has taught Armenian
History, Armenian Language, Sociology, and Western Civilization at the
National University, Fresno, CA; Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA;
and Los Angeles Valley College, Van Nuys, CA. In 1989-1990, he was
the Chair of the Armenology Department at the now-defunct American
Armenian International College, La Verne, CA. As such, in addition to
teaching Armenian subjects, he organized a one-day symposium on
`Armenian-Genocide Issues, 1915-1990.’

He has conducted extensive research in some thirty governmental and
non-governmental archival repositories in the United States, Europe,
and the Middle East, gathering data on such areas of interest as the
Armenians of Musa Dagh and northwestern Syria in general, as well as
Armenian Genocide survivors in the Middle East at the end of World War
I. He has published several scholarly articles, delivered lectures at
community events and in universities, and participated in symposia and
conferences.

Dr. Shemmassian’s experience is not limited to higher education and
scholarship, for he has served in the capacity of principal of three
Armenian day schools in the greater Los Angeles area, namely, Chamlian
School, A.G. Minassian School, and Merdinian School.

For Information Please call Dr. Hagop Panossian at(818)586-9660

Anatolia news agency, Ankara, in English
23 Sep 05

TURKISH MINISTER SAYS OPPONENTS OF ARMENIAN CONFERENCE HARM EU COURSE

New York, 22 September: Commenting on the decision of the Istanbul
Administrative Court to put on hold a conference titled “Ottoman
Armenians during the empire’s fall: Scientific responsibility and
problems of democracy”, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said:
“We are harming ourselves.”

“These are the last efforts of those who are trying to obstruct our
road before 3 October (when the EU is expected to launch full
membership negotiations with Turkey),” added Gul.