Author: Emil Lazarian

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.

Cape Cod Times, MA
Sept 25 2005
Rock star
Mason’s elaborate stonework becomes two-year dream project
By JOHANNA CROSBY
STAFF WRITER
EAST DENNIS ”’ Only a portion of Tigran Gichunts’ ”masonry
paradise” is visible from the road in this seaside neighborhood.

Tigran Gichunts’ stone work at Fawaz and Jo-Ellen El Khoury’s home
in East Dennis began with a wall to stop erosion, and blossomed into
a “masonry paradise” that took two years to build.
—————————————————————-

Halfway up a long driveway, a rambling yellow, federal-style house
perched on a hilltop comes into full view. The sloping front lawn is
framed by two tiers of stone walls.
But Gichunts didn’t stop there. His handiwork includes 10,000 square
feet of stone walls that wrap around most of the secluded 3-acre
property. Some of the 4 1/2-foot-high walls – which run for 1,500
feet, or more than a quarter of a mile – flaunt built-in planters and
graceful columns.
Gichunts also built three patios – a large one of Turkish marble in
the backyard with an outdoor gourmet kitchen for entertaining; a
fieldstone patio in the backyard; and a side-yard rectangular patio,
made of concrete pavers that resemble bricks, that is designed with a
herringbone pattern. He combined landscape materials of different
textures and colors throughout the project. In the front yard, a
network of fieldstone pathways trimmed with cobblestone is connected
by a circular walkway of concrete pavers. The formal entranceway is
made of tumbled bluestone edged with granite.
The ambitious project took Gichunts, a masonry designer whose
business is based in South Yarmouth and Brewster, two years to
complete. He finished it last month.
His first day on the job, he walked the property and ideas began
percolating in his mind.
Gichunts did not work from a blueprint. Instead, he relied on his
mind’s eye to detail the plans.
”I’m usually a hands-on kind of person,” says owner Fawaz El Khoury
of Westborough, a real estate investor
who is also in the import/export business. But after seeing Gichunts’
work on the entranceway he was hired to build, El Khoury and his wife
Jo-Ellen had confidence in Gichunts’ talent and vision and gave him a
fairly free hand on the project. The designer would run his ideas by
them and they usually agreed.
The couple declined to say how much the project cost. But Gichunts
says he builds fieldstone walls for an average of $50 per square
foot, including material and labor.
A family trade
Gichunts, 24, was eager to showcase his stonework skills on such a
grand scale.

This gourmet kitchen built by mason Tigran Gichunts boasts a double
chimney oven made of river rocks and fire bricks, with an upper oven
for baking and a larger one below that can accommodate a whole pig or
lamb.
(Staff photos by VINCENT DeWITT)
—————————————————————-

”It’s an art,” he says, of doing masonry, a trade that apparently
runs in his genes. Gichunts is a native of Armenia and his
grandfather was a mason.
Piecing 15 truckloads of stones together artfully to build a wall is
like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle, he says. It’s also very
detailed, labor-intensive work. The rocks were secured with mortar,
but it was recessed so it wouldn’t show.
The two stone walls in the front yard are primarily decorative. But
they also help to prevent erosion of the hilly terrain. ”At first we
had a concrete wall, but it was ugly,” El Khoury says.
With an artist’s eye toward aesthetics, Gichunts came up with the
idea for two levels of stone walls. He chose attractive tan-colored
New England fieldstone, which blends in with the surrounding
landscape. Besides its natural beauty, the stone was chosen because
it’s durable and maintenance-free, Gichunts says.
But Gichunts wasn’t finished with just the two tiers of stone walls
on the hill. Instead, the walls grew longer and one of his ideas led
to another.
”I never in my wildest dreams thought it would go around the entire
yard,” El Khoury says. ”It became an addiction. Once you do a stone
wall, you want to do another.”
Besides the privacy it affords, the wrap-around stone walls are in
keeping with the historic integrity of the neighborhood and provides
a ”certain harmony” with the natural landscape, Mrs. El Khoury
adds.
Their own castle
The sprawling yard is landscaped with numerous plantings, including
100 rose bushes along one of the stone walls. Hydrangeas, flowers and
other shrubs dot the sweeping front lawn.
At night, when the landscape lights are turned on, the house looks
like a castle, Gichunts says.
The El Khourys bought the 3-acre site, which is bordered by
conservation land, four years ago. They helped design their spacious
12-room summer house, which has a view of Cape Cod Bay from the
second floor. There is also an attached guest suite.
Mrs. El Khoury has fond memories of summering on the Cape as a child
and learning how to swim at nearby Cold Storage Beach. Her parents
live in the neighborhood. The setting attracts an assortment of
wildlife, including birds and deer.
”It’s a dream to be here,” Mrs. El Khoury says.
The couple, who have four children, enjoy entertaining outdoors and
cooking for their guests. Gichunts built a gourmet kitchen at the
edge of the large backyard patio, which is made of marble slabs in a
geometric pattern and a granite border. The 37-foot-island is fully
equipped with a stainless steel bar sink and faucet, stove,
refrigerator, ice machine, and charcoal gas grills.
The double chimney oven – made of river rocks and fire bricks –
features two separate ovens, a small one for baking breads, pizza and
cake and a large one that can accommodate a whole pig, lamb or 10
chickens. The counter top consists of a mosiac of tiny tiles and
sleek granite.
A circular fieldstone walkway from the backyard patio leads to a lawn
area where the owners plan to build a swimming pool. Gichunts is
already envisioning his next project: a patio for the pool.

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 23 2005
AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO AZERBAIJAN REQUESTED THAT THE ORGANIZATION
FOR LIBERATION OF KARABAKH SHOULD PUT AN END TO THREATS TO THE
EMBASSY
Ambassador of France to Azerbaijan Roland Blatmann requested that the
Organization for Liberation of Karabakh (OLK) should put an end to
threats to the French embassy. `I request to put an end to threats to
the embassy. I am ready for the discussions; however, I cannot admit
the fact that it may be used as a tribune against my country and my
compatriots’, runs Roland Blatmann’s letter to the OLK Chair.
To note, the message sent by OLK to embassy of France contained the
protest against French companies’ cooperation with `separatist
regime’ of Nagorno Karabakh. French Ambassador’s retaliatory message
runs, `Government of France informs French companies of the situation
in the region and requests that they should not be engaged in
activity in the above – mentioned region’.

I-Newswire.com (press release)
Sept 23 2005
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 — ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
Genocide conference to be attacked
Turkish nationalists are going to attack participants of the Armenian
Genocide conference; first Genocide conference in Turkey not
organized by the Turkish government.
(I-Newswire) – On 23 September, 2005, Turkish nationalists are going
to attack participants of the Armenian Genocide conference; first
Genocide conference in Turkey not organized by the Turkish
government.
As the Turkish media report, members of Turkish Retired Officers
Association are going to attack the Conference on Armenian Genocide
organized by Turkish academicians who do not share Turkish
government’s denialist approach against the Armenian massacres. A
Turkish news website, , has
posted the `plan of attack,’ which informs that protesters are to
gather at 7:45pm in the Uskudar district, take the ferryboat over to
Dolmabahce Palace and Taksim Square, and proceed to Bosporus
University in Istanbul.
In the meanwhile, other Turkish news agencies, such as
, have published various anti-Armenian
articles on 22 September 2005, just a day before the Conference
starts.
The Conference, organized by the Bosporus University and attended by
Turkish academicians and scholars throughout the world, was postponed
early this year due to threats from Turkish nationalists and
officials.
The Armenian Genocide was organized and carried out by the Turkish
government during 1915 and 1923. The Genocide resulted in the
complete annihilation of western Armenians in their historic
motherland. Turkish government and its agents spend millions of
dollars each year to deny the Armenian Genocide. Recognition of this
Genocide in Turkey is a legalized crime.
Genocide.com regrets the plan of this sinister attack and hopes that
the academicians won’t be harmed.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

The Simon, CA
Sept 23 2005
Prosecuting Pamuk: Author and Narrator on Trial
Turkey’s foremost novelist, Orhan Pamuk, is charged with being a
national heretic. By extension, the narrator of Snow must also be
indicted.
By Alan Williams Sep 23, 2005

Two ideas usually hover closely around Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk,
author of My Name is Red, Snow, and, most recently, Istanbul, a
memoir. The first is the Nobel Prize, which he will doubtlessly
garner for the second idea, namely that his fiction is undeniably
`prescient.’ In a reversal of art imitating life that plays darkly
upon this prescience, Pamuk has been charged with insulting Turkish
national identity – a transgression that extremist characters pin on
Ka, the protagonist of Snow – and faces up to three years in prison.
When considering the nature of these charges in light of Snow
(written pre- and post-9/11 and published in Turkey in 2002, in the
U.S. last year, and in paperback this summer), Pamuk’s ability to
write politically-charged narrative whose themes haunt, and will
indefinitely plague, the globe is rendered all the more terrifyingly
sublime. The east versus the west, radical Islam versus right-wing
republican governments, belief in God versus secular atheism, poverty
versus so-called enlightenment, and national sovereignty versus
freedom of speech are a handful of dueling variegations in the novel,
in which Pamuk himself appears as a character. In certain ways, this
Orhan, revealed halfway through as the appearing and disappearing
first-person guide, will also be put on trial on December 16.
In an interview conducted with the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger
last February, Pamuk said, `Thirty-thousand Kurds and a million
Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk
about it.’ One almost senses that the last part of Pamuk’s statement
pissed off the country’s powers-that-be to condemn its greatest
writer and call him, in the language of Article 301/1 of the Turkish
Penal Code, `a person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the
Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly’ as much as the utterance
of figures and blame. Nobody but me dares to talk about it
practically explodes with an angry insistence rendered all the more
startling for its simplicity and self emphasis – a shout issued to
measure the magnitude of silence, a wake-up call whose gravity
transcends self-importance and haughtiness. Yet it is for these
qualities that Pamuk is regarded, and may be punished, by Turkey as a
national heretic.
Turkey does not deny the deaths of thousands of Armenians during
World War I. It asserts, however, that the number killed in what is
commonly known as the Armenian Genocide is grossly inflated and does
not warrant the damning genocide label, despite indictments from
Armenia and European countries that Ottoman forces systematically put
to death the Armenians living in the then Ottoman Empire.
Pamuk’s reference to 30,000 Kurdish deaths concerns those killed
since 1984 in the complicated conflict between Turkish forces and
Kurdish separatists whose main rebel terrorist group is the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party or P.K.K. The rebels called a ceasefire in 1999 even
though fighting has persisted, not surprisingly. Dialogues on Kurdish
issues and the Armenian death toll have been largely repressed
because of inflexible laws whose transgression involve interminable
lawsuits, fines, and prison sentences as penalties.
Pamuk’s remarks and trial come when Turkey has been conducting
serious introspection in order to win membership to the European
Union. Reforms to its penal code, extending rights to Kurds and their
language, and improving its human rights record by implementing
appropriate legislation have all been part and parcel of Turkey
transforming its image into a flexible, liberal, and secular country.
Clearly, as Pamuk has reminded us, there is much more work required
for it to be recognized as a player for humanism when it can hardly
acknowledge, much less thoughtfully address, the Armenian massacre,
and to be recognized as an arbiter of free speech when the governor
of Pamuk’s home province ordered the author’s books to be burned – the
very fiction that has almost single-handedly lifted the veil on the
culture, history, and social texture of today’s Turkey.
Reportedly, it is Turgay Evsen who filed the charges against Pamuk.
Evsen brought similar charges against Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrank Dink and is seen in various leftist circles as a prosecutor
attempting to make a name for himself through nationalist
showboating. Given the crucial timing of the trial, Turkey’s
diplomatic contingent and friends could not be in favor of Pamuk’s
prosecution, but, considering the internal sway of the country’s
powerful nationalist right-wing factions, saying that the situation
is delicate or even thorny puts the situation mildly.
Indeed, much of Snow concerns the Islamic backlash to Turkey’s drive
to reconcile its way of life with that of contemporary Europe and the
West at large – a layered issue in most nations with a Muslim majority
and extremist strains. Reconciliation issues, of course, have been
faced by all European nations in the past decade as the EU has
leveled and united the economic playing fields of vastly idiomatic
cultures. For Turkey, however, the question has a near-schizophrenic
complexity given its competing internal ideologies, ethnicities, and
histories at odds with one another, not to mention that it regards
itself, and has been regarded for years as, Europe’s Other. Thus, at
the heart of this struggle lies not so much a threat to the loss of
character but a sometime brutal search for what characteristics
establish Turkish identity and who gets to determine for the record
what those may be.
The political novel in capital-L Literature is out of fashion due to
a general wariness of aesthetic soapboxes, but in many ways Snow
heralds its necessary return when the world’s political actions and
reactions impinge on everyday existence more and more. The book is
mind-expanding, for example, in its ability to plumb the
fundamentalist Islamic mind, showing how religion is an incendiary
pretext for economic and ideological struggles – a point not often made
so clearly in a range of media outlets.
On its cool surface, Snow traces the journey of Ka, a Turkish poet in
exile (whose name recalls Kafka and The Trial’s K. with good reason),
who travels to the isolated city of Kars to investigate a rash of
suicides by Muslim girls and to reunite with his lost love, Ipek,
only to get swept up in a blizzard of politics between the
pseudo-totalitarian republican government and Islamic
fundamentalists. Pamuk resuscitates the political novel by
transcending the layers of political examination with an ongoing
meditation on happiness and art. It is a great mediation of sorts,
which, as it turns out, is Ka’s main action in the novel. Given his
national, if controversial, writerly stature, he attempts the
impossible task of courting both sides of the battle, and negotiating
the flawed, self-protecting, and treacherous personalities in every
camp in between, in the hopes of safely delivering himself, Ipek, and
her family out of the fray.
The book is still much more than these intrigues and, despite its
bleak-sounding premise, combines tropes from farcical comedy and the
harrowing love story. Despite the tenuous nature of his many
pursuits, he is fiercely immersed in the world, actively observing
how the city and people are reduced to their essences by the constant
snow. He often stops by a teahouse when trekking to a covert meeting
to write a poem because, when it arrives like a snippet of music, the
poem must be transmitted to page instantly or lost forever. And just
as a poem revolves around an unknown, missing center (it is revealed
that all of Ka’s poems written in Kars go literally missing and are
ultimately unknown), it is Kars’ Armenian populace that is the
missing space in Snow.
The Armenian Genocide is referenced several times, directly and
indirectly. Ka trudges through snowdrifts by old homes and shops that
had belonged to Armenians long since gone. A detective questions
Orhan if he is in town snooping about an affair known as “the
Armenian thing.” When representatives from Kars’ multitude of
political views gather to sign a document about the military’s staged
coup and its ensuing aftermath, the lack of Armenian voice becomes
noticeable because of the very impossibility of having one. The
Armenian absence and silence, like the omnipresent snow, like the
hollows within the lines of a snowflake, permeate the novel.
For reasons that would spoil the book, Orhan assembles his friend
Ka’s activities, thoughts, justifications, and poem ideas from notes
and sources to tell the true story of what happened during Kars’
political upheaval when the city was made impassable by snow. It is
this idea of constructing a history for the record, insofar as
possible, out of a need for understanding all sides that gives Orhan
an empathetic yet journalistic authority. Subsequently, the novel
feels all the more real for being once removed from the public and
private events that it details and approximates, which, like the
people, cannot truly be understood by outsiders. It is the history
that transpires beneath the surface, when no one is looking, or no
one can see, that exerts itself on the larger scale in due time.
Since Snow is offered as a record-setting tale of fictional events in
a place that is haunted by the massacre of a minority populace, would
not Orhan the narrator also be on trial? Is Pamuk being indirectly
persecuted for highlighting such truths, and, more specifically, the
whitewashing of truths, in his fiction? The answers will come in
December.
Between the Covers is a biweekly book review and publishing analysis.

BBC News
Turks to debate Armenian deaths
University scholars in Turkey plan to open a ground-breaking conference
this weekend on the mass killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule.
They were prevented by a court order from holding the controversial
event at an Istanbul university on Friday but a new venue has been found
in the city.
Barring last-minute obstacles, the forum should now begin on Saturday.
Debate of the killings has been taboo in Turkey but it is under outside
pressure for greater freedom of speech.
The country begins talks on joining the EU in two weeks’ time and the
ban slapped on the forum’s chosen venue brought protests from Brussels.
Armenians worldwide have been campaigning for decades for the deaths,
thought to have been more than a million, to be recognised universally
as genocide.
An Istanbul court banned the conference from Bosphorus University after
complaints by nationalists that the historians behind it were “traitors”.
‘In the name of freedom’
But another university, Bilgi, has now opened its doors to the event.
“Our university decided to offer its halls for the conference in the
name of freedom of expression and thought,” said its president, Aydin Ugur.
The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul that Friday saw
emotionally charged scenes on the Bosphorus campus.
Students, angry the conference was cancelled, taped their mouths while
small groups of nationalists gathered to condemn plans for the forum.
The historians challenge official accounts of the killings, which give a
much smaller death toll and link Armenian losses to civil strife in
which many Turks also died.
Government leaders have regretted the court ruling which “cast a shadow
on the process of democratisation and freedoms”, according to Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“There are few nations that can inflict such damage upon themselves,”
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul added.
EU enlargement commissioner Krisztina Nagy said Brussels strongly
deplored the court’s “attempt to prevent the Turkish society from
discussing its history”.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/09/23 23:48:17 GMT
© BBC MMV
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

International Herald Tribune
Turkish court’s ban of Armenian conference is circumvented
The Associated Press, Reuters
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2005
ISTANBUL An Istanbul court’s decision to block a conference on the World
War I massacre of Armenians has embarrassed Turkey at a sensitive moment
and angered EU states just 10 days before the planned start of EU entry
talks.
But conference organizers moved on Friday to circumvent the ruling,
which banned it from two universities. A spokeswoman for a third
Istanbul university said it would act as the host for the conference.
Turkey has always denied claims that Ottoman Turkish forces committed
genocide against Armenians during the war, but under pressure from the
European Union it has called for historians to debate the issue, not
politicians.
The Istanbul university conference aimed to give historians that chance,
but on Friday, when the conference was due to open, the debate was
political rather than academic.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the court verdict had “nothing to do
with democracy.” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Turkey had only
itself to blame. “There is no one better than us when it comes to
harming ourselves,” he said.
Late on Thursday, an Istanbul court barred two universities from playing
host to the conference pending information on the qualifications of the
speakers. The court also wanted to know who was participating and who
was paying for it.
But Justice Minister Cemil Cicek later said there was nothing to stop
the conference from moving to another location.
Aydin Ugur, president of Istanbul Bilgi University, said the conference
would be held Saturday morning at Bilgi. He said the court’s order had
been directed at two other universities, and had “nothing to do with Bilgi.”
The European Commission condemned the court’s verdict.
Krisztina Nagy, the EU executive’s spokeswoman for enlargement said that
the timing of the ruling, coming a day before the conference, and the
apparent lack of legal motivation behind it “looks like yet another
provocation.”
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn previously called a Turkish court’s
plans to prosecute a best-selling novelist, Orhan Pamuk, a provocation.
Pamuk faces as much as three years in jail on charges of “denigrating
the Turkish identity” on accusations he backed claims that Armenians
suffered genocide 90 years ago. Turkey accepts many Armenians were
killed during World War I, but says they were victims of a partisan
conflict that also claimed thousands of Turkish lives. Turkey denies any
systematic genocide.
The Armenian conference had already been postponed in May after the
justice minister accused its organizers of treason.
Turkey closed its border and cut diplomatic ties with Armenia in 1993 to
protest against Armenian occupation of the territory of Azerbaijan, a
regional Turkic-speaking ally of Ankara.
Turkish academics and European Union observers have insisted that the
conference was not only a chance for Turkey to face one of the most
sensitive issues in its history, but also a test of Turkey’s willingness
to permit open discourse.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Pan Armenian News
INDIAN VICE-PRESIDENT TO VISIT ARMENIA IN OCTOBER
23.09.2005 03:42
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Ambassador to India Ashot Kocharian met with Vice
President Bharion Singh Shekhawat to discuss the Armenian-Indian relations
and the details of Vice President’s upcoming visit to Armenia, RA MFA press
office reported. The RA Ambassador informed the interlocutor of the economic
development of Armenia, constitutional reform process and possibilities of
tourism stimulation. The parties voiced hope that the visit of Bharion Singh
Shekhawat to Armenia will contribute to the consolidation of the
Armenia-Indian relationships in various fields.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #170, 23/09/2005
IT
MICROSOFT OPENS REPRESENTATION IN ARMENIA
Microsoft Company will open its office in Armenia shortly, Microsoft
Director for Strategy in Russia and CIS Igor Hambartsoumyan informs ARMINFO.
He said the company intends to develop partner ties and channels, first of
all. Hambartsoumyan said Microsoft’s entry to new markets often intensifies
their development due to transfer of acknowledged business skills. That is
why the entry of this largest world company to Armenia and its software and
solutions on the basis of own platforms will undoubtedly have an effect on
the Armenian market. Hambartsoumyan said that in CIS the company is
represented only in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Besides, Microsoft
intends to open its representation in Azerbaijan.

AZERBAIJAN: HAS GOVERNMENT TAKEN A TROUBLING EXAMPLE FROM ANDIJON?
By Richard Giragosian
Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Sept 23 2005
As campaigning for the 6 November parliamentary elections gets
under way, the Azerbaijani authorities are directing their efforts
toward ensuring that the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party, together with
ostensibly independent but loyal candidates, retains control of the new
parliament. While such efforts are not unexpected in light of previous
tainted elections, the Azerbaijani government’s blatant disregard
for the international community’s insistence on electoral fairness
and transparency is surprising. Moreover, this apparent disdain for
world public opinion is at odds with — and signals a retreat from —
initial moves apparently aimed at reversing the country’s record of
election “illegalities.”
In mid-May, President Ilham Aliyev issued a decree warning election
officials and local councils against any voting irregularities. The
decree also tasked local election officials with compiling accurate
and updated voter lists, set forth procedures for uniform exits polls,
and made provision for all candidates to have equal access to state
run media.
Just a few weeks later, however, in late June, the parliament adopted
numerous minor amendments to the election law that failed to include
a number of the most significant recommendations of the Council of
Europe’s Venice Commission. Those changes, which opposition parties,
too, deemed indispensable to ensuring a fair and democratic election,
ranged from greater opposition representation on electoral commissions
to the use of indelible ink to mark voters’ fingers in a bid to
prevent multiple voting.
The Crackdown Begins The passage of half-hearted electoral reforms
was soon eclipsed by much more disturbing events, however. Starting
in early August, the country’s already embattled political opposition
was targeted in a new campaign of intimidation and innuendo. Ruslan
Bashirli, chairman of the opposition youth movement Yeni Fikir (New
Thinking), was arrested, charged with conspiring to overthrow the
government and, for good measure, accused of accepting money from an
unlikely combination of Armenian intelligence officers and American
nongovernmental organizations. The case also implicated Azerbaijan
Popular Front Party (AHCP) Chairman Ali Kerimli by charging that
Bashirli was acting on Kerimli’s behalf.
Perhaps fearful of the Ukrainian example of the potential power of
a youth movement, the Azerbaijani authorities arrested Yeni Fikir
deputy head Said Nuri and another of the organization’s leaders in
September on similar treason charges. Those arrests were followed
by a raid on the offices of the AHCP during which police “seized”
three grenades and an undisclosed amount of explosives in a room used
by the Yeni Fikir movement. Then, on 15 September, a special team of
security officers from the Azerbaijani Border Service and National
Security Ministry arrested Serhiy Yevtushenko — an activist of the
opposition Ukrainian youth movement Pora — at the Baku airport and
interrogated and later expelled him. Yevtushenko had been invited to
Baku by the opposition Azadlyg bloc, of which the AHCP is a member,
to attend a conference on democratization.In mid-May, President Ilham
Aliyev issued a decree warning election officials and local councils
against any voting irregularities.
In a more imaginative move, some recent Azerbaijani media reports
also “reported” that opposition Musavat party Chairman Isa Gambar
recently met with an Armenian intelligence operative to discuss plans
to disrupt the election. The most amusing aspect of that report was
the contention that Gambar was able to meet freely with the Armenian
during a visit to Turkey, not a country known for permitting Armenian
intelligence such freedom of action.
Bold Tactics Such actions on the part of the Azerbaijani government
so close to the election raise several questions as to Baku’s motives
for such outright disregard for international opinion and, even more
confusing, why the Aliyev administration assumes that it has far less
to lose by adopting such confrontational tactics. Such actions also
give grounds for serious concern over the actual conduct of the voting
and the possibility of a repeat of the postelection violence that
erupted in Baku after the flawed presidential ballot of October 2003.
One factor driving the Azerbaijani government’s disregard for
international reaction to its tactics over the past six weeks may be
its inferences from Western — specifically the U.S. — response to
two other developments.
The first test case for Azerbaijan was what Baku perceived to be the
lukewarm Western reaction to the May unrest in Uzbekistan. Not only
did Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s bloody response to the violent
events in the southeastern town of Andijon, his government’s dubious
definition of the events as an uprising by Islamic extremists, and
the repressive handling of the victims and witnesses not result in
international sanctions, most importantly, the Uzbek case was a direct
and blatant challenge to U.S. credibility.
The second key development was Washington’s praise for Egypt’s
presidential election earlier this month. That praise may have been
construed in Baku as signaling that the United States would be content
with even the most modest progress toward greater democracy.The first
test case for Azerbaijan was what Baku perceived to be the lukewarm
Western reaction to the May unrest in Uzbekistan.
Moreover, for a presidential republic like Azerbaijan, which remains
as much a one-family state as a one-party state, the test for its
November parliamentary election will be limited to the conduct,
and not the outcome, of the poll. (By contrast, the role of the
parliament in Azerbaijan is almost cosmetic.) Thus, assuming that
the Azerbaijani authorities are acting in line with a carefully
crafted strategy, they may be assuming they have wide latitude to
ensure a victory for the pro-government majority, albeit allowing
for greater opposition representation than before, perhaps in line
with the prognosis by Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
rapporteur Andreas Gross, who calculated that the opposition is capable
of winning at least 25 of the 125 seats. If the Egyptian case is any
indication, such an outcome — which would be a marked improvement
over previous Azerbaijani elections — might induce Washington to
overlook violations in the preelection campaign and deliver an overall
favorable assessment.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress