Author: Frangulian Shushan

RETRAINING COURSES OF ARMENIAN TEACHERS FROM DIASPORA HELD IN ARMENIA
ON AUGUST 2-30
YEREVAN, August 2 (Noyan Tapan). On August 2-30, retraining courses
for the Armenian teachers from the Diaspora are organized in
Armenia. 46 Armenian teachers from a number of CIS countries, Canada,
Syria, Lebanon, Turkmenistan and Iraq have arrived in Armenia for
rising their qualification. The courses are held by the best
specialists on Western Armenian language and literature, such as
Vladimir Barkhudarian, Levon Zekiyan, academicians of the RA National
Academy of Sciences, Hilda Galfayan, a Doctor of the Sorbone
University, Karo Arakelian from Beirut, professors Vazgen
Hambartsumian and Vazgen Poghosian, Manvel Adamian, a poet from
London, and others. Sergo Yeritsian, RA Minister of Science and
Education, said that on August 27-29 the first Pan-Armenian conference
on issues of education will take place in Tsakhkadzor. More than 100
representatives from 20 countries will participate in the
conference. According to him, issues existing not only in Armenia, but
also in the educational system of the Armenian Diaspora will be
discussed at the conference.

American Daily, OH
Aug 3 2004
A Just War
By David Huntwork (08/15/2003)
The justifications of the Iraq War should be old news by now but
still the shrill cry of `Where’s the WMD’s?’ continues to reverberate
across the political landscape. Presidential hopeful Howard Dean
threatens to lead the Democratic Party to the brink of political
oblivion by attacking the war and advocates the `cut and run’ policy
if he were to be elected.
The rest of the nine democratic lemmings, as well as many in the
media, have desperately joined the scramble to disavow the war in
spite of the fact that many supported it. While the rest of the
nation has moved on, the Democratic Party is preparing to make the
Iraq war their major issue in the coming presidential election. It is
embarrassing to watch a major political party seek the sissy vote.
In spite of the the buried centrifuges, banned missiles, mobile
biological weapons labs, the testimonies of defectors and captured
officials, captured documents and thousands of gassed Kurds and
Iranians moldering in the grave the there are still those who
question whether Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction in the months
and years leading up to the Coalition invasion and the inclination to
use such weapons. I suspect that most are really asking whether the
destruction of the Baath regime and the ousting of Saddam Hussein was
the right thing to do.
It is indisputable that the Iraqi’s developed, possessed, used and
coveted WMD’s , and were planning to develop the nuclear form of them
as soon as United Nations sanctions were lifted. As to whether they
were an undefinable `imminent’ threat is irrelevant and a red herring
argument at best. The real question is whether the Iraq War was a
just war. Was liberating the Iraqi people the moral and right thing
to do and will history regard this as a suitable, just and deserved
ending of the despotic Saddam regime?
History has recorded in stark black and white the tyrants and mass
murder of the last century. The slaughter of Armenians by the Turks,
the insanity of Idi Amin, the apocalyptic terror of Pol Pot, the
ethnic orgy of death in Rwanda, the horrific war against Christians
in the Sudan, and the countless lives sacrificed by Lenin, Stalin,
and Mao on the Red altar of Communism. These are just a few on the
list that reads as a nightmarish record of mans’ inhumanity to man.
Only rarely do tyrants meet the end that they deserve. The world
defeated and destroyed the triple evils of Nazism, fascism and
Japanese militarism but only after the organized slaughter of tens of
millions had run its course.
Saddam and his sons have served as just the latest Middle Eastern
incarnation of such terror, war and death. The thirty years of
Baathist rule in Iraq produced wars, invasions, and attacks on three
neighboring countries, the direct deaths of over a million people,
and ethnic and religious civil wars with the obligatory torture
chambers, execution squads, rape rooms, and chemical attacks on
civilian populations. The laundry list would not be complete without
mentioning the funding, arming and training of terrorist groups of
all political and ideological stripes and the attempted assassination
of a former president of the United States.
Perhaps the most premeditated diabolical act was what occurred after
the imposition of UN sanctions. The Saddam regime embarked upon the
deliberate starvation and medical neglect of the Iraqi people for
political purposes. Tens of billions of illegal petro dollars funded
WMD programs and was hoarded or spent on lavish lifestyles for the
elite as the children of Iraq died from neglect, malnutrition, and
lack of medicine. All played out for the eager lenses of the world
press and the benefit of the pacifists here at home.
In the end it should be a moral outrage that it took this long for a
`coalition of the willing’ to finally end the reign of yet another of
histories monstrosities. When the Iraq War first started what was
heard from the average American was not `why are we doing this?’ but
`what took us so long?’ and `we should have taken him out the first
time’. The blood soaked sand of Iraq deserves better.
The name Saddam will become just another one word term symbolizing
the utter cruelty humanity is capable of inflicting on itself. His
shadow will always be with us and be remembered for its own
particular horrors and the unique terror he brought his victims.
The members of the Axis of Evil, Al-Queda, and their allies have
shown no mercy to their victims and should be shown none in return.
With a little luck some native Kurd will mete out some true justice
and display the head of Saddam on a pole in a village square
somewhere. It would certainly simplify the worries of providing a
`proper Muslim’ burial for a mass murderer and spare the ever so
sensitive sensibilities of the Arab street.
Those that bemoan the use of force against the Saddam regime or mourn
the killing of the `Hussein boys’ share a portion of guilt for the
horrific crimes committed by such criminals. To prevent rape,
mutilation, torture and the shedding of innocent blood, to civilize a
people, to kill a sadist, to liberate a country, to bring peace to a
region wracked by war and help heal an ancient land is a cause that
is noble and worthy of respect. Civilized and free people have a duty
to do what we can to make the world a better, safer and more merciful
place. It is certainly reasonable to prevent rogue ideologies and
psychotic personalities from unleashing their holocaust of terror and
vision of destruction on the rest of us.
When you add it all together; a vicious tyrant, nuclear ambitions,
torture, genocide, sponsorship of terror, user of WMD’s, combined
with a vicious hatred of Israel, America and Western Civilization,
there can be no other conclusion than that the Iraq war was a just
war. Untold thousand of future Saddam victims have President George
Bush and the iron resolve of the American people to thank for their
lives. In the course of history few nations have destroyed tyranny
instead of imposing it and liberated nations instead of enslaving
them. A nation founded in Liberty has given that blessed gift to the
Iraqi people.

David Huntwork is a long time conservative activist and occasional
columnist in Ft. Collins, Colorado where he lives with his wife and
two (soon to be three) young daughters. He strongly believes in the
importance of Faith, Family, and Freedom as the formula of success
for a good life and a healthy nation.

Los Angeles Times
August 2, 2004 Monday
Home Edition
The World;
11 Killed in Coordinated Attacks on Iraqi Christians
by Henry Chu, Times Staff Writer
In a wave of coordinated attacks aimed at Iraq’s Christian minority,
a series of bombs exploded Sunday outside five churches thronged with
worshipers here and in the northern city of Mosul, killing 11 people
and injuring dozens more.
It was the first time in this nation’s 15-month insurgency that Iraqi
Christians were targeted, further fraying the country’s delicate
religious fabric and raising fears of increased sectarian conflict.
Attackers timed some of the blasts for maximum effect, during evening
services that attracted hundreds of faithful. Bloodied and dazed,
churchgoers spilled onto streets littered with shards of stained
glass and splinters of wood as smoke billowed above them.
“I was praying inside the church with all these people when all the
windows shattered,” said Father Rafael Kutaimi of an Assyrian
Catholic church in Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood, where a car packed
with explosives blew up during the 6 p.m. service. At least a dozen
worshipers were wounded.
“They came into a holy place,” Kutaimi said of the attackers, as
bystanders scurried away from U.S. armored vehicles that had rolled
to the scene. “If they’re against the Americans, let them kill the
Americans. We’re all Iraqis, innocent people. I don’t know what their
goal is.”
Within an hour, four churches were hit in three neighborhoods in the
Iraqi capital. The Iraqi Ministry of Health said early today that 11
people had died and 52 were injured.
In perhaps the deadliest of the attacks, twin blasts struck the
Chaldean Patriarchate in southern Baghdad, killing a child and at
least four other people as churchgoers began arriving for Mass around
sunset. Witnesses said they saw two men pull up in separate cars,
park them near the church, then casually walk away before the
vehicles exploded, hurling debris as far as 100 yards.
The church served as a bomb shelter during last year’s U.S. invasion,
and local residents, Muslims and Christians alike, banded together to
protect it from looters. “We have all lived here in peace for a long
time,” said Ali Abdulla, 28, who rushed from his house across the
street to help the injured.
Around the same time as the Baghdad explosions, at least one car bomb
went off outside a church in Mosul, incinerating a passing motorist
and wounding four other people. The toll could have been higher if
all the mortar shells in the car had detonated, police said.
It was not immediately clear if any of the bombings were suicide
attacks. U.S. military officials here said the bombs seemed crudely
made, casting doubt on whether fugitive militant leader Abu Musab
Zarqawi had masterminded the plan.
Still, the organized assault punctured the sense of relative immunity
that many of Iraq’s 800,000 Christians had felt, not only during the
bloodshed of the last year but stretching back to the reign of Saddam
Hussein, who actively cultivated the support of religious minorities
as a bulwark against the country’s Shiite Muslim majority. Better
educated than many Iraqis, Christians here have traditionally
exercised an influence disproportionate to their small numbers.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz, now in U.S. custody, is a
Christian who was a powerful player in Hussein’s inner circle.
Many Christian professionals and businesspeople have fled Iraq in the
last 30 years for better economic opportunities and to escape
periodic outbreaks of hostility against them. In the late 1980s,
during a campaign against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq, Hussein’s
forces destroyed scores of Christian villages, demolished ancient
monasteries and churches, and forcibly moved Christians to Baghdad.
In addition to Sunday’s bombings — which elicited a condemnation
from the Vatican — recent weeks have seen a nationwide rise in
attacks on liquor and record stores, whose owners are often
Christians and whose wares are forbidden by strict Muslims.
Although some Christians predicted that more of them would want to
flee Iraq, others pledged to stay, such as engineer Skender
Melconian, 59, a leader among Armenian Christians. “This community
has been in Baghdad since 1911,” he said. “Now is the time for Iraqis
to build their country out of the ashes. But there’s a drive from
some people to move us backward.”
In March, four American Christian missionary workers were shot to
death in Mosul, though it was unclear whether they were targeted
because of their religion or because they were foreigners. Sunday’s
attack was the first coordinated assault aimed at Iraqi Christians.
An Armenian Christian church in the Karada neighborhood was the first
to be targeted. It is a few blocks from the Assyrian Catholic church,
which was hit about half an hour later, leaving a smoking crater.
Soon after the second bombing, officials with the U.S.-led
multinational forces ordered Iraqi police to sweep other churches in
the city. Officers found an unexploded device in one, which U.S.
teams disabled.
The operation could not be mounted quickly enough to prevent two more
explosions, one outside the Chaldean Patriarchate in the southern
district of Dora and the other in New Baghdad, a working-class
neighborhood to the east.
The apparent target was St. Elya’s Chaldean Church, but an adjacent
Shiite mosque, its minaret almost nuzzling the church’s cross, bore
the brunt of the blast. Onlookers said funerals were being held at
both houses of worship when the car bomb detonated.
Maher Mahmoud Mohammed, 35, whose barbershop sits near the mosque and
the church, was outside when the bomb exploded. He said the force of
the blast knocked him down and punched out his shop’s windows. He
struggled to get up, then bolted, joining dozens of others who had
poured out of the two religious buildings.
Minutes later, he sat in a hospital, the left half of his tank top
scarlet from the blood that seeped from his cuts. His anger at those
responsible was just as inflamed. “These are cowards and criminals,”
he said as victims in adjacent rooms screamed in pain. “They’re not
Muslims.”
On a nearby gurney, the mosque’s elderly spiritual leader, Sayyed
Qassim, lay naked and blackened, his body smeared with salve, his
quavering voice saying the name of Allah over and over.
His son rushed in, collapsing to the floor and clapping his hands to
his face as he cried out, “Father! Father!” The holy man’s followers
crowded into the hospital, some of them sobbing.
At the scene of the blast, Nazhat Abd was outraged.
“What are they targeting? Churches and mosques are places to give
prayers to God. It’s the same. These terrorists don’t differentiate
between anybody anymore, between innocent and guilty, Christian and
Muslim.”
*
Times staff writers Megan K. Stack, Edmund Sanders and Alissa J.
Rubin contributed to this story.
*
Bombs target Christians
Bomb blasts rocked four Christian churches during evening services in
Baghdad and one church in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday,
killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others.
Iraq’s Christian minority
Christians total about 800,000, or about 3% of Iraq’s 24 million
population, and live mainly in Baghdad.
Christians were free to worship under Saddam Hussein, who, despite
his persecution of majority Shiites, officially preached religious
tolerance.
Christians are worried that religious tolerance could suffer in
post-Hussein Iraq and have said they fear persecution from Muslims
who associate them with the U.S.-led multinational forces, who are
seen as coming from Christian nations.
There has been a string of attacks in recent weeks on liquor and
record stores throughout Iraq, whose owners are often Christians.
Explosions
1. A bomb explodes near an Armenian church in Baghdad’s Karada
neighborhood.
2. A car bomb explodes at an Assyrian Catholic church in Karada.
3. A car bomb explodes outside a Chaldean Christian church in
Baghdad’s Dora district. Five people are killed.
4. A bomb explodes between a Chaldean church and a mosque in New
Baghdad.
5. At least one car bomb explodes outside a church in Mosul. One
person is killed.
Sources: Reuters, Times staff
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Sky News, UK
Aug 1 2004
BLASTS ROCK CHURCHES

At least four car bombs have exploded in quick succession outside
churches in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul killing at least
12 people.
The attacks appear to be a targeted assault on Iraq’s influential
Christian minority, police said.
The first car was detonated by a suicide bomber near an Armenian
church in Baghdad’s upmarket district of Karada, said policeman
Haidar Abdul Hussein.
Minutes later, a second car bomb exploded near a Catholic church.
Officials at the Ibn al-Nafeez hospital said 15 people had been
admitted with injuries following the attacks.
Another police officer at the scene said there were casualties, but
was unable to specify how many.
Ambulances ferried the wounded away and firemen battled the flames
and smoke.
In Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital, two car
bombs exploded outside a church in the early evening outside the Mar
Polis church in the central Mohandessin neighbourhood, said Major
Mohammed Omar Taha.
“There are casualties, but we don’t know if anyone was killed,” he
said.

ANS TV, Baku, in Azeri
28 Jul 04
Armenian women pleased with their life in Azerbaijan

[Presenter Natavan Babayeva] The arrest of members of the Karabakh
Liberation Organization [who protested against Armenian officers’
visit to Baku] and the fact that the Armenian officers had been
invited to Baku [to attend a NATO conference] were wrong decisions by
the Azerbaijani authorities. This is the opinion of Yevgeniya
Shagenovna Abdullayeva who thanks the government for allowing her to
live in Baku in conditions of freedom and normal ethnic relations.
[Correspondent over video of Baku] More than 20,000 Armenians live in
the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, today. We decided to knock on a number
of doors which have always been open to Armenians in Azerbaijan –
just to ask how they are doing. We failed to meet a woman called
Rimma because she was at work. But we got in touch with an Armenian
woman who introduced herself as Madina. She was guarded by her
Azerbaijani husband and sons.
[Madina] Why are you filming me? How can you do things like that
without telling me?
[Man in Russian] Don’t film.
[Correspondent] What are your relations with the government? Are they
normal?
[Madina speaking in Russian] Yes. I am not complaining. Thank God, I
never complain. Everything depends on God. What can we do?
[Correspondent] We knocked on an another door. Yevgeniya Shagenovna
Abdullayeva met us with real Azerbaijani hospitality. She said that
the Azerbaijani government does not discriminate against her. Her
Armenian background has not restricted her movements or wishes.
[Yevgeniya Abdullayeva] I can say that I am personally satisfied. If
I had not obeyed, I would have never stayed here. I have brought up
two children here over the entire period of the [Nagornyy Karabakh]
conflict since 1988. My daughter was six in 1988 and another daughter
was four. Since that time, I have brought them up, they have
graduated from school and university, my daughter is married, I
travel and talk freely. No, I have no problems.
[Correspondent] Her only problem is that she is a housewife. Although
she had worked as a language and literature teacher for 19 years, she
had to quit her favourite job. Not because of the Azerbaijanis’
attitude to her, but because she was ashamed of what the Armenians
had done to the Azerbaijanis.
[Yevgeniya Abdullayeva speaking in Azeri] When I quit my job, I was
asked why are you doing this, nobody has ever reproached you, you
have an Azerbaijani family and children. I said no, why shouldn’t I?
I thought afterwards that my decision was correct. Everything needs
to be respected. Why should I wait?
[Correspondent] The Armenian woman is pleased not only with the
principal of the school, but also with the peace policy conducted by
the state in which she lives. As for [Armenian President] Robert
Kocharyan, she condemns him for his desire to unleash a war.
[Yevgeniya Abdullayeva speaking in Azeri] Who is he? Maybe someone
knows him, why should I? I do not know him and do not want to. Why
should I? Only because I am Armenian? First, I am Armenian living
here. I have not seen him, I do not meet him and I do not want to
meet him. What kind of attitude should one have to a country that
wants a war? Any country, not only Armenia. Would you have a good
attitude to a country that wants to wage a war with you?
[Correspondent] She says that the 25 years of her free life among the
Azerbaijanis should serve as a warning to Armenia. But this Armenian
woman also spoke about our officials’ position on Karabakh.
[Yevgeniya Abdullayeva speaking in Azeri] My attitude is that it is a
difficult issue. There is a mother who has lost her three sons, God
forbid. One must cope with this, right? It is difficult, they [the
Azerbaijani authorities] probably should not have given permission
and they [Armenian officers] probably should not have come here. One
should take people’s feelings into account. This is my personal
opinion. Was there any need to touch a raw nerve? Those who suffer
suffer in any case, right? But what can we do? The government should
deal with this, right?
[Correspondent] You see, even the Baku Armenians realize this.
Zamina Aliyeva and Aytan Mammadova, ANS.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE DEDICATED TO RADIATION MONITORING IN LOCATION
OF ARMENIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN
YEREVAN, July 26 (Noyan Tapan). The international conference dedicated
to issues of unification and optimization of the radiation monitoring
in the location of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will be held in
Yerevan in September.
Robert Vardanian, Chairman of the steering committee of the
conference, told NT’s correspondent that main attention will be drawn
to the problems of security of nuclear power plants, nuclear waste
products, issues connected with the environment that present great
interest for the region. Representatives of the United States, Great
Britain, France, Slovenia, Russia, Hungary, Belorussia Ukraine and
Georgia will participate in the conference besides Armenia.

Azerbaijan to make no territorial integrity compromises – president
Turan news agency, Baku
21 Jul 04

Xudat, 21 July: “The Karabakh conflict remains Azerbaijan’s most
painful problem. For many years Azerbaijan has been trying to resolve
this issue peacefully. But regrettably, the talks have yield no
results,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said today when
addressing the personnel of a military unit of the Xudat border
detachment on the Azerbaijani-Russian border.
According to him, the activities of the mediators have yielded no
results either. “As for various calls and proposals, they do not
reflect the reality,” Aliyev added.
“Azerbaijan’s cause is fair. Our lands are under
occupation. International legal norms, justice, economic opportunities
and potential are on our side,” he said.
Aliyev spoke about major work in the sphere of military
build-up. According to him, sufficient funds have been spent and will
be spent on this sphere in the future.
In several years Azerbaijan will turn into an economically strong
state and its military “superiority” will intensify even further. “In
these conditions, we cannot have a positive attitude to some calls,
particularly, with regard to compromises,” Aliyev said.
“Compromises are impossible on the issue of territorial integrity. I
have repeatedly said that we will not compromise on the issue of
territorial integrity. Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity will be
restored. The possibilities of achieving this peacefully have not been
exhausted yet. However, we have to be ready to liberate our lands
militarily at any moment. We have everything for this: the unity of
the Azerbaijani people, the people’s complete readiness for action, a
strong army and the will of the Azerbaijani leadership and people,” he
added.

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
July 19 2004
Erdogan heading to France

The Prime Minister’s visit is likely to be the target of
demonstrations by members of France’s Armenian community.

July 19 – Turkey’s Prime Minister is heading to France Monday as part
of Ankara’s campaign to boost its chances of being granted a date to
begin accession talks with the European Union.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be in France for three
days, during which he will meet with his French opposite number
Jean-Pierre Raffarin soon after his arrival Monday. On Tuesday, he
will meet with French President Jaques Chirac and deliver an address
entitled Turkey -France: New Perspective for Affective Partnership at
a conference.
Erdogan’s visit comes at a time when Paris is only lukewarm on
Ankara’s EU membership bid, having thrown out strong hints that
Turkey is not yet ready to open accession negotiations as yet.
The visit of the Turkish Prime Minister is likely to be met
with a number of protests, with Armenian groups announcing that they
would stage demonstrations against Erdogan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest
20 juillet 2004
Ankara veut convaincre Paris
La Turquie, pays musulman de près de 70 millions d’habitants,
doit-elle entrer dans l’Union européenne ? Face à une classe
politique française divisée, le Premier ministre, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan plaide, depuis hier, son dossier à Paris.
Une copieuse délégation turque est arrivée, hier, à Paris, pour
promouvoir sa candidature à l’Union européenne. A sa tête, le Premier
ministre, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, un islamiste récemment converti.
Alors que Berlin, Londres et Madrid sont plutôt favorables, Paris
reste un obstacle sur la route d’Ankara à Bruxelles, en raison de la
division de la classe politique sur le sujet.
On se souvient que l’UMP, début avril, avait pris une position très
ferme contre cette entrée. Au lendemain des résultats catastrophiques
des régionales, Alain Juppé avait alors cherché à enlever aux
souverainistes et à l’UDF un thème qui, croyait-on, serait majeur.
Quitte à se mettre en porte-à-faux avec le président de la
République, qui, lui, a toujours estimé que ce pays musulman avait
vocation à rejoindre l’Ancien Continent. Cette opposition sur la
politique étrangère, entre un Président et le principal parti qui le
soutient, n’a pas d’antécédent sous la Ve République !
Finalement, la Turquie n’est apparue dans aucun pays d’Europe comme
un enjeu lors des dernières européennes. La gauche n’a pas eu envie
de se focaliser sur un thème qui la divisait. Tout en accusant la
droite d’agiter un épouvantail, elle a semblé embarrassée. Oui, mais
pas tout de suite, car les conditions ne sont pas réunies : tel était
le sentiment du PS, rappelé par François Hollande.
« Avec l’entrée de la Turquie, l’Europe sera hétérogène et
s’affaiblira », avait affirmé François Bayrou au nom de l’Europe
chrétienne et fédérale. Le président du MPF, Philippe de Villiers,
avait sorti, au nom de l’identité de la France, un slogan « Non à la
Turquie » qu’il voulait faire breveter pour en garder l’exclusivité
sur ses affiches. Le Pen était opposé par le seul fait que 70
millions de musulmans auraient, d’un coup, accès à l’Europe.
Quant aux Verts, ils avaient été, de loin, les plus favorables. «
L’Europe, avait dit Gérard Onesta, vice-président du Parlement
européen, n’est pas un club chrétien. Elle compte d’ailleurs déjà
quinze millions de musulmans en son sein. En acceptant la Turquie, on
lui évite de sombrer dans le fondamentalisme, et on jette un pont. En
la rejetant, on revient à la politique stupide du bloc contre bloc. »
Une position réaffirmée hier par Daniel Cohn-Bendit, qui voit là une
occasion de tendre la main à un pays musulman, tout en l’obligeant à
devenir réellement démocratique.
La question turque reviendra sur le tapis d’ici quelques mois,
puisque la Commission européenne va remettre, en octobre, une
recommandation pour dire si le processus d’adhésion mérite d’être
engagé, et c’est le Conseil européen qui en décidera le 10 décembre.
Qu’on le veuille ou non, la candidature turque a été considérée comme
recevable au sommet d’Helsinki de 1999, alors qu’elle bénéficie,
depuis 1963, du statut de membre associé. Son adhésion à l’Otan ne
date pas d’hier : 1952.
Si l’on s’en tient à l’histoire, la Turquie s’est trouvée mêlée à la
nôtre. Le sultan a participé régulièrement aux renversements de
stratégies et aux partages du monde. François Ier n’a-t-il pas essayé
de s’allier avec le Soliman Ier le Magnifique pour contrarier
l’influence de Charles Quint ?
« On pourrait presque dire que l’Europe est enfant de la Turquie »,
remarque Denis Badré, dans son livre L’Attente d’Europe. « Saint Paul
nous a familiarisés avec Tarse, saint Nicolas était évêque de Myra,
en Lycie, et Thalès résidait à Milet. Nos enfants les croient
français, tant ils se sont approprié leur image. Nicée est connu
comme un concile que nous revendiquons comme nôtre. Grce à Homère,
la guerre de Troie fait partie de notre patrimoine culturel européen.
»
Pays musulman, la Turquie est devenue un État laïc quand Mustapha
Kemal a proclamé la République, le 29 octobre 1923. Il a alors aboli
le sultanat, mis fin à l’islam comme religion d’État et introduit
l’alphabet latin à la place des caractères arabes. Les femmes turques
ont eu le droit de vote en 1934, avant les Françaises !
La reconnaissance du génocidearménienen question
Pendant des dizaines d’années, la Turquie a servi de sentinelle de
l’Ouest face à l’empire soviétique. Elle a verrouillé la mer Noire.
Les États-Unis y ont installé des bases aériennes. La géographie
l’incline plutôt vers l’Asie, puisqu’elle n’a que 5 % de son
territoire en Europe. Mais c’est sur cette partie que s’est
développée Byzance, devenue, sous le nom de Constantinople, une
métropole européenne. Sainte-Sophie a été la plus grande église de la
chrétienté. Une tradition fait mourir la Vierge Marie à Éphèse.
Seulement, la Turquie soulève quelques difficultés. Forte aujourd’hui
de 70 millions d’habitants, elle pourrait en compter 85 millions en
2025, ce qui la ferait dépasser l’Allemagne. Si elle dispose d’un
système parlementaire multipartite, sa vie politique n’est pas encore
stabilisée.
En 1997, elle a eu un gouvernement islamiste qui a été démissionné
sous la pression de l’armée, considérée ici comme la gardienne d’une
laïcité qu’Atatürk lui a confiée. La répression contre les
nationalistes kurdes n’est pas encore éteinte. Et, surtout, il y a la
question de la non-reconnaissance du génocide arménien. Deux tiers de
ce peuple de l’Empire ottoman, en 1915 et 1916, ont subi un
anéantissement planifié.
« La Turquie s’en tient à un négationisme d’État », souligne
l’historien Yves Ternon, qui demande aux États de l’Union européenne
de se souvenir de cette exigence éthique. Si les Français ne sont que
39 % à être favorables à l’entrée de la Turquie dans l’Europe, ils
passeraient à 45 % s’il y avait reconnaissance de ce génocide.
Un jour viendra, peut-être, où la Turquie saura ne pas nier son passé
pour devenir un État musulman modéré, respectueux des libertés et des
droits humains. Elle répondrait alors à tous les critères et
deviendrait ce fameux pont avec l’Asie.
GRAPHIQUE: Image: Byzance, sous le nom de Constantinople, devait
devenir une métropole européenne.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

El Mundo
July 18, 2004
Rusia, en busca del Arca perdida.
Una expedicion arqueologica emprende rumbo a Turquia para intentar
encontrar la embarcacion con la que Noe escapo al Diluvio Universal.
DANIEL UTRILLA. Corresponsal
Arqueologia. Rusia. Una expedicion emprende rumbo a Turquia para
intentar encontrar la embarcacion con la que Noe escapo al Diluvio
Universal
MOSCU.- Desde la tierra que durante 74 anos presumio de ser el
paraiso del ateismo, arranco ayer una entusiasta expedicion
arqueologica rumbo a Turquia, donde pretenden encontrar los restos
del zoologico flotante con que Noe capeo el Diluvio Universal.
Bendecidos por el patriarca ortodoxo de todas las Rusias, Alexis II,
un grupo de expedicionarios rusos partio ayer hacia el monte turco de
Ararat (en el extremo este de Turquia), en cuyas estribaciones
esperan encontrar los restos de la mitica Arca de Noe.
Guiados por el afamado orientalista y periodista Andrei Poliakov, los
arqueologos rusos emprenden estas particular travesia por el desierto
con la conviccion de que no se volveran con las manos vacias.
Para Poliakov, esta sera su segunda expedicion al Ararat, de donde el
ano pasado se trajo consigo unas fotografias de inscripciones y
dibujos sobre piedra, que hallo entre las lapidas de un cementerio
armenio abandonado en la montana, informa Novaya Gazeta. Sometidas a
la lupa de los expertos, las inscripciones se revelaron algo parecido
a instrucciones de supervivencia para Noe y sus descendientes.El
grupo ha puesto toda la fe en este hallazgo que les ha permitido
poner la equis definitiva en el mapa del tesoro biblico. Ademas de
los rusos, muchos otros aventureros parten cada ano al Ararat
creyendose en posesion de la llave del misterio. Entre ellos se
encuentra un grupo formado por turcos y estadounidenses -encabezados
por el empresario Daniel McGivern- motivados en su busqueda tras el
reciente avistamiento por satelite de un gran objeto parcialmente
descubierto por los ultimos deshielos.
Segun informo la radio Eco de Moscu, los Indiana Jones rusos fueron
bendecidos ayer por el maximo representante de la Iglesia Ortodoxa,
que les despidio con reconfortantes palabras. “La subida al Ararat en
busca del Arca es tarea dificil. Rezaremos para bendecir ese trayecto
y por su exito”, dijo Alexis II, que entrego a los componentes de la
expedicion un icono de San Jorge Victorioso.
“Esta expedicion va a dar la respuesta definitiva a todas las
preguntas que rodean al Arca”, explico Poliakov antes de emprender
una aventura que se prolongara hasta primeros de agosto.
En 1916, un grupo de expedicionarios encabezados por el teniente
Roskovitski, fue enviado a Turquia por el zar Nicolas II. Pese a que
el grupo realizo algunos hallazgos, la revolucion de 1917 hizo
naufragar la busqueda.
El milagro de la television permitira retransmitir los progresos de
los arqueologos en tiempo real por medio de conexiones en directo a
cargo de periodistas integrados en la expedicion, organizada por el
canal Rambler Teleset. Seguro que al director de cine Steven
Spielberg no le importaria sustituir, aunque solo fuera por unos
dias, al camara de esta cadena rusa.
GRAPHIC: Caption: El responsable de la financiacion del proyecto,
Daniel McGivern, con el monte Ararat de fondo. / AP