Author: Emil Lazarian

TURKEY’S ACCESSION WOULD DESTROY EU, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER ASSURES
Pan ARMENIAN Network, Armenia
July 15 2005
15.07.2005 07:53
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ European Parliament member Jacques Toubon harshly
criticized the speech Turkey’s chief envoy in the accession talks made
in the European Parliament. Noting he did not understand anything
from Babacan’s speech, the French Christian Democrat said Turkey
takes EU membership as granted, and that before talks could begin,
Turkey should meet certain requirements, including recognition of
Cyprus, Armenian Genocide and minority rights. Speaking to the Turkish
news agency ABHaber, Toubon said that by admitting Turkey in the EU,
the Brits would fulfill their old dream of free trade cooperation,
but it would result in European Union destruction. “Turkey has a
different concept of state and culture. Turkey does not belong in EU,”
Toubon indicated, Yerkir Online reports.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Frankfurter Rundschau
15 Juli 2005
Chief Historian denies the Armenian Genocide
Chefhistoriker leugnet Genozid an Armeniern.
Berlin · 15. Juli · epd · Der Leiter der türkischen
Historiker-Kommission zur Untersuchung des Völkermords an den Armeniern
1915/16, Hikmet Özdemir, hat den Genozid geleugnet. Das Gegenteil sei
richtig, sagte Özdemir der Zeitung Die Welt. Die Armenier hätten gegen
die Türken gekämpft und eine halbe Million Türken umgebracht. Wenn
es ein Dokument gebe, aus dem hervorgehe, dass die Regierung des
Osmanischen Reiches die Vernichtung der Armenier beabsichtigt habe,
dann werde er das akzeptieren, so der Leiter der Kommission, die die
türkische Regierung einsetzte. Özdemir sagte, die Deportationen der
Armenier seien aus militärischen Gründen notwendig gewesen. Dass viele
gestorben seien, sei Folge der Kriegswirren und der Witterung gewesen.
Für Historiker ist unumstritten, dass die damalige Regierung
die Vertreibung und Ausrottung der Armenier im Osmanischen Reich
anordnete. Mehr als eine Million Armenier wurden Opfer des Genozids
während des Ersten Weltkriegs. Dokumente belegen die Ereignisse. Der
Bundestag verurteilte kürzlich den Völkermord.
–Boundary_(ID_wW7v43iSxhsYkOOis6n9/A)–

Turkey seeks to improve relations with Armenia – spokesman
Anatolia news agency
12 Jul 05
ANKARA
The Foreign Ministry has said that Turkey wanted to establish a kind
of relationship with Armenia, which should exist between two
neighbouring countries.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said in response to a question
that Turkey was determined to create a peace, order, and stability
belt in her region in line with its traditional foreign policy
principles. In that context, he said, there was a desire to establish
a kind of relationship with Armenia that should exist between two
neighbouring states.
Tan went on saying: “Turkish and Armenian officials at various levels,
including their foreign ministers have been holding meetings on
different international platforms for a long time. Bilateral and
regional issues concerning both countries are discussed in those
meetings. Recent media reports about the meetings between Turkish and
Armenian officials actually highlighted those meetings held during the
process in question.”
Reports appearing in some dailies today said that secret talks were
being held between a Turkish delegation led by Ahmet Uzumcu, Deputy
Under Secretary in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and Ertan Tezgur,
Turkey’s Ambassador in Tbilisi, and an Armenian delegation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PanArmenian News Network
July 14 2005
GOLDEN APRICOT IS OPPORTUNITY TO RESTORE ARMENIAN CINEMA TRADITION
14.07.2005 05:36
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian President Robert Kocharian today met with
a delegation of cinema figures, who arrived in Armenia to participate
in Golden Apricot – 2005 International Festival, reported the Press
Service of the Armenian leader. In the course of the meeting the
President thanked the guests for active participation and noted that
owing to the festival participants being well-known, it has been
widely recognized and will make its contribution to development of
the cinema. R. Kocharian said he wished for the Yerevan festival to
become annual. «Organization of festivals like this is very important
to Armenia,» the President remarked, adding «it provides an
opportunity to restore the good traditions of the Armenian cinema, as
well as understand what happens in the cinema world and get involved
in it.» According to the President this will also allow reviving the
tradition of visiting cinema theaters. In his opinion, as in any
field, one has to have a competitive, actual program to succeed in
the cinematography. In his turn festival President Harutyun
Khachatryan noted that prominent cinema figures have arrived in
Armenia. In his words, this year the geographic boundaries of the
festival were much wider, and the number of famous works of film
directors increased as well. The parties discussed matters of further
fate of the festival, conveying cinema experience of their countries
for development of cinema production in Armenia.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

American Thinker, AZ
July 14 2005
Lines: Time to scribble new ones
July 14th, 2005
Maps and globes can be fascinating. Interesting to study while
engaging one’s imagination to form images of persons and places. To
visit where one has never been, to venture where one might not dare
go, or to encounter those one will never meet – all this can be yours
with little risk to life or limb. But those colored spaces within
those lines only represent one reality – and not necessarily the
reality of greatest import.

In a rather dystopian view pf the future, Robert D. Kaplan questions
the deceptive simplicity of lines on maps in his soberingly-titled
essay `The Coming Anarchy.’ Writing in the February, 1994 issue of
the Atlantic Monthly (sub. req.), he anticipates the dissolution of
those cartographic scribblings along with the political and social
structures that they ostensibly enclosed. As the world dissolves into
chaos, so too will those tortuously drawn boundaries fade into
meaninglessness.

Kaplan wrote this article at least partly as a result of his visit to
West Africa.. There he found his anarchy hypothesis in an advanced
state of confirmation and the political map of coastal Africa, from
Sierra Leone to Nigeria, to be totally at odds with the reality of
geography and human activity. The boundaries dividing the political
entities are all perpendicular to the coast. The climatological,
religious, ethnic and economic fault lines are all parallel to land’s
end. In reality, those greatly considered and colonially drawn lines
do not exist. The map of West Africa is a fiction that is a reality
only in the map maker’s mind – and ours.

The same, as Kaplan discusses and any map of `Kurdistan’ will show,
is true of the region bordering northern Iraq. Kurdistan, not a
political entity but a term of self-description, is formed by Kurdish
Iraq and the contiguous parts of eastern Turkey, eastern Syria and
Northwestern Iran where the Kurds constitute a substantial majority
of the population. Our political maps show us no more than how the
British and French decided to slice-up the Ottoman Empire at the end
of WW I. I don’t know, but would not be surprised to learn that
splitting up the Kurds politically was done as a means of avoiding
having them organize themselves into a substantial thorn in the
colonial side. And so, what we have here, is a failure of the Kurds
to consolidate. And that is something the Turks have absolutely no
intention of letting them do.

I also assume the same resistance would be forthcoming from the
Iranians and Syrians should the Kurds be so bold as to attempt
secession from their respective countries for the purpose of forming
their own. But the Turks would be the biggest obstacle. They have the
second-largest standing army in NATO and aren’t afraid to use it to
keep the Kurds in line as they currently and eagerly do. There has
been a low-grade insurgency in Turkish Kurdistan for quite some time.
The refusal by Turkey to permit the 4th U.S. Infantry Division to
traverse their territory so that we could simultaneously invade Iraq
from two directions may have very well been prompted by fears that
doing so might ignite an uprising by Turkish Kurds.

More likely would be their fear that once in Turkish Kurdistan we
would actively support such an uprising. This same paranoid fear is
reflected in the novel Metal Storm that sold 100,000 copies in less
than three months after it came out in December of 2004 and is thus
one of the fastest selling books in Turkish publishing history. The
story is about an invasion of Turkey by the U.S. from its bases in
Iraq after we create a pretext that they fired first. We want their
borax for its boron content. Metal Storm Ltd, (MTSX for those of you
interested in weapons systems investments) is also the name of an
Australian company that has just successfully test fired its “area
denial weapon system capability demonstrator” near Adelaide,
Australia. Just coincidence, but somehow this all seems just too
strange.

But even stranger is that this sort of conspiracy theorizing is
standard fare in the Middle East. In this case it may not even be all
that theoretical. With the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) giving the
Turks fits and Kurds in Kirkuk being accused by the U.S. and the
Turks of a power-for-oil grab at the expense of Sunni and Turkmen,
anything seems possible. U.S. diplomats are pushing the Kurds to
acquiesce to the Shia majority in Iraq, something they seem highly
unlikely to do. In the background are the Saudis who support the
Sunni Turks and are actively promoting the Wahhabi brand of Islam as
they seem eager to do the world over. Remember the November, 2003
bombings in Turkey? An oppressed Shia minority occupy the eastern
coastal regions of Saudi Arabia where the oil is to be found. All the
while we’re more worried about the Islamabaddy Jihad primarily manned
by Saudi expatriates and financed by $60 per barrel oil.

Meanwhile, Chalabi freely moves back and forth across the Iraq-Iran
frontier as do the Kurds on either side of their section of the
non-existent political line dividing Saddam’s former principality
from that of the former Shah’s. Now the Iraqis have six weeks to
complete their constitution prior to holding elections later in the
year. In the meantime, the Kurds, Sunni and Shia are all going to
bury the hatchet and remain within the old colonial map lines so as
to not obsolete all those lovely cartographic coffee table weights.
Right.

Now I don’t want to sound too awfully pessimistic, do I? But
political stability in the region would probably be better served if
we started out with a map showing the ethnic and religious groupings
rather than political fantasies. Carve up the area after drawing
boundaries around these entities as political units while being
careful to consider economic viability and such things as not leaving
the Kurds land-locked. Give the Saudi oil fields to the Saudi Shia
and join them with the Iraqi Shia. Have the Iraqi Sunnis join their
religious brethren the Wahhabi Saudis in the desert and encourage
them to revert to their nomadic Bedouin past – as they will probably
be forced into doing without all those petro-dollars.

The people not happy with this arrangement would be the Saudis, Turks
and Sunni Iraqis. Which is probably as it should be, as the Saudis
are not really our friends, the Turks are not really our allies, and
the Iraqi Sunnis really are our enemy – as well as the enemy of
democracy in Iraq. We would simultaneously dry up Saudi financing of
world terrorism; pull the teeth of the Turks who are increasingly
hostile to the U.S. while becoming increasingly fond of Islamic
fundamentalism and looking to upgrade their military; and screw
Iraq’s Sunnis, who have it coming for their thirty-years screwing of
the Kurds and Shias. This would, of course, make fast enemies of some
who already are not our true friends. But we’d really score points
with the Kurds and Shia.

Downside considerations? Well, Sunnis do constitute eighty-five to
ninety percent of the Muslim population. Would this plan really sour
things with the rest of the Islamic world? The Saudis have thrown
their monetary weight around in the Balkans, but not without creating
some resentment along with the influence they have purchased. Stephen
Schwartz once again points out that their financial lubrication is
behind most of the world’s Islamic terrorism. But with the Saudis
broke and reduced to the income level of the rest of the Arabs, how
many would still love them? What an opportunity for those same Arabs
to relish a little schadenfreude!

And the Turks? You tell me how many peoples love and cherish the
Turks. That’s almost an oxymoron. The Greeks don’t love the Turks.
The Kurds certainly don’t. The Armenians are still demanding that the
Turks own up to the genocide they began in 1914. Are there any in the
former Ottoman territories who do? Call it empire hangover.

And the Iranians? The Iraqi and Iranian Shia are going to work it out
on their own no matter what we do.

The Syrians are probably not worth mentioning, but then, I just have.

What about the doomsday oil field destruction devices rumored to have
been put in place by the Saudis? Well, if they exist, they didn’t put
them in. They don’t know how. Westerners built and run the oil
production infrastructure. So it must have been a foreign outfit that
installed the system. Maybe even an American company. And I don’t see
how it could be done without someone on our side knowing about it.
Would just have to be part of the planning. Even if we couldn’t
prevent all destruction of the fields, at least the Wahhabis would
lose their funding. Nothing worthwhile comes without risk nor without
cost.

In any case, we cannot be real imperialists without redrawing maps.
Perhaps we are being unrealistic regarding Iraq and the Middle East
if we do not even consider doing so. After all, the lines are on the
maps and not on the ground. They were not divinely drawn nor
scribbled by us.

Time for a new regional atlas. I’m calling Condi, and then Rand
McNally!
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CRIMINAL CONFESSION OF THE CHIEF ARCHITECT
A1+
13-07-2005
«In which street do you live, Mr. Architect?» asked the
correspondent of `Haylur’ to the guest of the National Press Club
Yerevan chief Architect Samvel Danielyan. `I do not live in a street,
I live in a yard near the school N71′, informed the latter.
He informed that construction work is also being done in the yard
where he lives, but the yard of the school N 71 will be preserved. The
correspondent of `Armenian Times’ asked what is the aim of building
18-storeyed building in the center of Yerevan. The answer was
sensational, `Maybe from the architectural point of view they are not
justified, but there is the issue of efficient investments’.
Does it mean that if you have money you can do whatever you want?
«You can do whatever you want if it corresponds to the urban
development normative acts».
And as far as the city mayor Yervand Zakharyan is the chief official
recommending the construction of buildings, we asked if he has an
understanding of architecture. `He is one of the unique mayors who
takes part in all the sessions of the urban development council and is
aware of all the issued’, concluded Samvel Danielyan.

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
July 13 2005

Mediators’ visit raises hopes

Baku, July 12, AssA-Irada
Another visit by the OSCE mediators to Baku raised hopes for settling
the long-standing Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper Garabagh.
The co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group did not cite an exact
timeframe for the conflict resolution but said a peace accord between
the conflicting sides may be signed soon.
Russian co-chair Yuri Merzlyakov told a news conference on the
results of the mediators’ two-day visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday that
the talks held over the past year have been more beneficial than
before. He said that developing the wording of a peace agreement may
take several months.
`We would certainly like for this to happen sooner. As you know, the
Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents will meet in Kazan [Russia] in
August. But developing a draft peace agreement in the same timeframe
is not feasible.’
Radio Liberty quoted a high-ranking diplomatic source as saying that
most issues on the conflict settlement `have already been agreed
upon’ and the parties are working `on several remaining provisions’
of the peace accord. The Garabagh conflict may be settled as early as
this year or early in 2006 and the parties are likely to reach an
agreement at the Presidents’ meeting in Kazan.
US co-chair Steven Mann said the timing for the conflict resolution
is uncertain and will depend `on the will of the sides’.
`The peace accord may be signed in the coming months or in 100 years.
The issue depends on the heads of state as well as the two peoples. I
believe that both presidents deserve the international community’s
assistance in solving the problem.’
The co-chair said no new proposals were discussed in Baku. `We held
broader discussions and received more comprehensive explanations this
time’, he said.
Touching upon the possibility of restoring the road connecting
Azerbaijan with Armenia through Upper Garabagh, Mann said he
discussed this with the head of the Azerbaijani community of Garabagh
Nizami Bahmanov as well as Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. He
noted, however, that it is inappropriate `to add the issue to the
range of matters being discussed at this point’.
Commenting on some assumptions that Russia may apply pressure on
Armenia, the Russian co-chair said this contradicts reality.
`Russia cannot rule Armenia. In general, I do not consider this
wording appropriate as Armenians may be offended by it. Russian State
Duma (parliament) chairman Boris Gryzlov did call Armenia a forepost
of Russia a while ago. But we should keep in mind that everyone makes
mistakes and Gryzlov is not an exception.’
Merzlyakov noted that Russia has no `separatist peace plans’ on the
Garabagh conflict resolution. `Moscow has shown its unequivocal
approach on this issue. President Putin laid out these principles
several years ago’, he said.
French co-chair Bernard Fassier said the mediators support continuing
the peace process, recalling the Warsaw meeting of Azerbaijani and
Armenian Presidents.
`They realize that an end should be put to war, the occupied land
liberated and refugees returned home. The two Presidents said in our
meetings that the primary goals are to ensure the prosperity of the
two peoples. They understand that this is possible only after peace
is restored in the region.’
`If we take major steps in this direction, the people will start
understanding the benefit of regional peace prospects. We hope the
cities will be restored and lands returned. The people will see the
importance of this and contribute to the process.’
In reply to a statement that a referendum is scheduled in Upper
Garabagh in 10-15 years to determine its status at a news briefing,
Russian co-chair Merzlyakov declined to comment, citing the
confidentiality of the talks. He somewhat clarified the issue
currently being discussed, saying that the parties continue working
to establish framework for the agreements reached during the Paris
talks.
`These elements may be vital for the conflict resolution and envision
the demands of the sides. There is no need to disclose them.’
The French co-chair Fassier disagreed with the statements accusing
the Minsk Group of the lack of activity, saying that the co-chairs
have carried out extensive work on the conflict resolution.
`If no progress has been achieved, we are not to blame. We will be
able to revitalize the process. But we cannot ensure that the parties
will show political will [to resolve the problem].
With regard to some statements that the democratic processes in the
region will greatly affect the conflict resolution, Fassier said this
`will have a certain impact’ on the negotiations. He also voiced a
hope that the November parliamentary election in Azerbaijan will be
democratic.
As for the involvement of neighboring states in the negotiations, the
French co-chair said he does object to this `in principle’. He did
not rule out that Iran, Turkey and Georgia may join the process.
The US co-chair generally approved of the suggestion but came out
against Iran’s involvement in the talks. `As an American, I do not
want to be involved in discussions with Iran’, he said.
The MG co-chairs will leave for Yerevan on Wednesday. They are
further expected to visit Upper Garabagh.*

PanArmenian News
July 13 2005
WB URGES TO CLARIFY SITUATION WITH ARMENIAN DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS
13.07.2005 04:45
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The World Bank is still demanding precise
information on the new owner of the Armenian Distribution Networks,
Mediamax agency reported. Armenia Country Manager Roger Robinson
noted that according to the data available the State Committee
regulating the public services in Armenia requested Midland Resources
Company, the owner of the Distribution Networks, to clarify the
situation. `If the issue is not clarified within several days I am
going to meet with the members of the Armenian government’, Roger
Robinson stated. To remind, June 30 RAO UES of Russia announced of
the intention to purchase the Armenian Distribution Networks via its
branch with $73 million. Meanwhile the Press Secretary of the
Distribution Networks assures that the company was conveyed to the
trust management of the RAO UES.

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V.Rev.Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version:
THE “KHATCHER KALOUSTIAN”
CENTER FOR PEDAGOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
COMPLETES ITS ACADEMIC YEAR
The “Khatcher Kaloustian” Center for Pedagogical Development, which
functions under the patronage of the Catholicosate of Cilicia, concluded its
academic year under the leadership of the Center’s director, Krikor
Shahinian.
The Center had 21 students during the last academic year. 10 of these
students followed the BT program and 11 followed the TS program. Six of the
students sat for their corresponding exams.
The pedagogical school plans to introduce distance learning (LT) next year.
The extracurricular socio-cultural life in the institute is in itself a
pedagogy project and is carried out to its fullest by the director of the
Center and his assistants.
Established in 1986, the Center functions under the patronage of His
Holiness Aram I. The Center has its unique role in the context of
pan-Diaspora educational projects initiated by His Holiness Aram I. The
Center has a special committee that works hand in hand with the Center’s
director.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about “Khatcher
Kalousdian” Center for Pedagogical Development, you may refer to the web
page of the Catholicosate, The Cilician
Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is located in
Antelias, Lebanon.

TO CONDUCT REFERENDUM IN KARABAKH MEANS ITS LOSS
BAKU, JULY 12. ARMINFO-TURAN. The statement of high-ranking
diplomatic source in Yerevan of radio “Liberty” on the possibility of
conducting a referendum in Nagorno Karabakh within the coming 15
years would means its loss for Azerbaijan.
This is the opinion of most of politicians and independent political
experts in Baku. According to the Armenian sources, referendum in
Karabakh is one of the elements
Of the future peaceful agreement which can be signed this year.
According to some information, the Protocol on Intentions can be
signed during the meeting of the president of Armenia and Azerbaijan
in Kazan, on August 27 of this year. Official Baku understands quite
well all negative perspectives of referendum, but the West wants
peaceful agreement. If I. Aliyev contrary to the national interests
makes such step he will get support by the West on the eve of
parliamentary elections. Then, the West will again close eyes to the
violation of human rights, jusT like in October 2003. In this case I.
Aliyev will have the parliament controlled by him and the threat
against his regime will weaken. However, explosion of indignation may
take place and then nothing will save the ruling regime.
Commenting on the situation to Turan agency Vafa Guluzade, political
expert, said that the government of Azerbaijan should not agree to
referendum. “The Armenian made it in Yerevan and there is no doubt
that they will again vote for independence,” he said.
It is difficult to believe that the authorities of Azerbaijan can
agree to such proposal, said former Ambassador of Azerbaijan to
Russia Hikmet Hacizade stated.
Conducting of referendum runs counter the international law, as the
referendum must be held in the whole country, and not in some of its
regions. If Baku agrees to such variant it will mean betrayal of
national interests and explosion of indignation. “It will be
impossible to realize such agreements,” he said.
Political expert Eldar Namazov noted that such variant of settlement
is lobbied by the Armenians for many years ands ruins counter the
interests of Azerbaijan and health sense. “To conduct a referendum in
the occupied territories is impossible and the attempts to make this
variant are doomed to failure,” Namazov said.