Author: Hambardsumian Paul

ISRAEL’S SUPPORT TO TURKEY
Turkish Press
April 20 2005
Press Scan
CUMHURIYET- Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met important
members of the Jewish institutions in the US and asked for support to
Turkey against the US resolution on Armenian genocide claims. Israeli
diplomatic sources said that Shalom warned that the adoption of the
resolution by the US Congress would harm the ‘special relations’
among the US, Turkey and Israel.

Change comes to Syria’s Lebanon ‘home’
By Sebastian Usher
BBC News
April 20 2005
BBC News, Anjar in Lebanon — The road leading to the Syrian border in
Lebanon’s Bekaa valley is usually full of dilapidated trucks wheezing
pollution as they struggle towards Damascus.
But in the past few weeks, it has seen another, swifter kind of traffic
as Syrian army vehicles rush backwards and forwards across the border,
carrying the accumulated baggage – military and otherwise – of their
30-year presence in Lebanon.
Anjar has been the Lebanon home of Syria’s feared intelligence service
If you trace the vehicles back to their point of departure, you are
likely to arrive in the lovingly tended, palm tree-lined main avenue of
the small town of Anjar, just a few kilometres from the Syrian border.
Squeezed up against a rocky hillside – beyond which lies Syria –
Anjar’s main claim to fame is a ruin from the early Islamic Omayyad
dynasty, rising in gentle arches on the edge of town.
Armenian legacy
The other focal point is an Armenian church at the end of the main
street, from where you can look across to the other side of the Bekaa
valley, whose mountain tops are still white with snow.
Next to the church is a modernist memorial to the heroic last stand
of Armenians at Moussa Dagh in Turkish Armenia against the Ottoman
Empire in 1915.
It was from there that the town’s inhabitants were finally brought
to Anjar by French troop ships in 1939.
The transplanted Armenians turned what was then a swamp into a town –
though at a heavy cost, with many dying of malaria.
It is a history that the town’s current inhabitants are intensely
proud of, showing visitors the original plan of the town and the deed
to its ownership on the slightest pretext.
The Armenian identity of Anjar remains intact, with street signs in
three languages – Arabic, French and Armenian.
Intelligence base
But in the past 30 years, the town has had another, less
tourist-friendly face.
SYRIA IN LEBANON
Military intervention began in 1976 30,000 troops in Lebanon during
1980s, currently 14,000 Syrian forces helped end Lebanese civil war
in 1990 and maintain peace Calls for Syrian withdrawal increased
in 2000 after Israeli pull-out from southern Lebanon UN resolution
calling for foreign forces’ withdrawal in Sept 2004
Q&A: Syria in Lebanon
The Syrian army chose it as one of its main military bases in the
Bekaa and – more disturbingly in the eyes of most Lebanese – as the
headquarters of its feared intelligence services.
The people of Anjar have grown to accept and even to benefit from the
Syrian presence in the town, but their dread of Syria’s intelligence
operation has never gone away.
It provides its own sinister focal point – to match the Omayyad ruins
and the Armenian church – in a nondescript-looking house, guarded
by an unsmiling phalanx of unshaven Syrian intelligence agents –
mukhabarat in Arabic – in cheap leather jackets.
An Armenian jewellery maker in Anjar’s main restaurant, al-Shams –
still frequented by Syrian officers – was loath even to say the name
of the best-known inhabitant of the house.
But he squeezed it out in the end with a defensive laugh: Rustum
Ghazzali, Syria’s head of intelligence in Lebanon and a man who has
made the country’s political elite quail before his threats.
Deserted checkpoints
Driving around the town with a young student from Anjar and his friend,
I asked to take a photo of the house. They kept promising that I could,
but by the time they felt it was safe, the intelligence HQ was just
a dot in the distance. Anywhere closer, they were scared the Syrians
might spot us.
Like the Syrian soldiers, large numbers of Syrian workers in Anjar
have been packing up
But they did show me the Syrian troop positions speckled around Anjar,
even hard up against the Omayyad ruins.
They pointed out various houses that the Syrian top brass had
requisitioned from locals – usually without payment or compensation.
Outside one, a removal truck was loading up. The Syrian military
presence in the Bekaa has already become desultory.
Most of the checkpoints they used to man – aimed, most Lebanese
believe, simply at bullying the locals – are now deserted.
But the mukhabarat were still operating on the streets of Anjar,
watching and waiting.
The people of Anjar are ambiguous about the Syrians leaving.
At their height, there were about 2,000 Syrian troops there – about
half the town’s population.
The soldiers are poorly paid, so they have not been the greatest of
customers for the more upscale local businesses, but they have been
essential for the hundreds of small shops that line the road towards
the Syrian border. Many of those are now closing down.
Syrian labourers
Even more important for the local economy have been the thousands of
Syrian labourers, who have worked the fields and built the houses of
Anjar for a fraction of what Lebanese workers would be paid.
Many are now leaving with the troops, fearful of their future in
Lebanon.
This was brought home to me while I sat in the office of the chief
official in the town, community leader Haroutian Lakissian.
One of his Syrian workers came in to share his troubles. A friend of
his had just gone back to Syria after receiving threats, and he was
thinking about doing the same.
But in the end, he told Mr Lakissian he would rather be beaten in
Lebanon than be penniless in Syria.
Just then there was a phone call for Mr Lakissian. A Syrian
acquaintance wanted to know if it was safe to drive into Lebanon with
Damascus number plates.
Lebanese forces are starting to deploy in the town
The Mr Lakissian reassured him, then expressed his anger that Syrians
ready to spend good money in Lebanon should be scared off.
Later, in the dark, cramped room of one of his Syrian workers,
plastered with pin-ups of Lebanese female pop singers, a garage owner
told me his workforce was leaving too.
The numbers are vague, but several people in Anjar told me that about
40% of the Syrian workers had now gone. The effect, they told me,
was likely to be devastating on this year’s harvest.
The people in Anjar have one other big concern about the Syrian
troops’ departure.
Loyal as they maintain they are to Lebanese nationhood, some still feel
that the Syrians have given them an important measure of protection
over the years.
I asked the jewellery maker in al-Shams restaurant what the locals
were afraid of.
Of Anjar’s Muslim neighbours was his answer – though he delivered it
in more colourful terms.
Others told me the same story. Their almost crime-free little paradise
of pristine streets and civic pride was now at risk.
‘Need for protection’
Mr Lakissian, the community leader, conceded to me that some of
the people in the surrounding countryside accused them of being
collaborators.
He said there was also a rising tide of rhetoric questioning the
right of the Armenians of Anjar to be in Lebanon at all.
“The town needs protection,” he said.
The Lebanese army was meant to move in the day after the Syrians left,
he told me.
I’d seen some Lebanese soldiers driving through Anjar earlier.
Apparently, they were scouting out the Syrian positions in preparation
for taking them over.
As I was leaving Anjar, one of the locals who had been showing me
around – a twentysomething with a computer shop on the road to the
border and a sideline as a DJ – told me that I should come back after
the Syrians had left, as people would feel much freer to talk then.
And he echoed what others in Anjar had said to me, that they were
glad to see the Syrian troops go, but equally anxious to see the
Syrian workers return.
“Perhaps in a month or two when things have calmed down,” he told me
as we both looked down the now darkened road to Damascus, lighted
up sporadically by one or two of the little shops that had stayed
open late.

YEREVAN TO REPLY TO ERDOGAN’S LETTER
AZG Armenian Daily #070, 20/04/2005
Armenian Genocide
Press secretary of RA President, Viktor Soghomonian, informed daily Azg
that Yerevan will soon reply to Turkish prime minister’s letter. “We
received the letter on Saturday and will reply some day soon”,
Soghomonian said.
Turkish MP Recep Tayyip Erdogan applied to President Robert Kocharian
on April 13 with a suggestion to set a commission combined of Armenian
and Turkish parliamentarians to study historic facts of the Armenian
Genocide.
“If Armenia wants normal relations with Turkey then Kocharian will
reply to Erdogan’s appeal”, Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul
said during a special session at the parliament.
The Turkish press hurried to inform the next day that Kocharian turned
Erdogan’s offer down. The New York Times informed on April 17 that
high-ranking Armenian officials rebuffed the offer.
We can expect that Armenia, in the person of Robert Kocharian or Vartan
Oskanian, will indirectly answer Ankara’s offer at the conference on
Armenian Genocide on April 20-21.

PRESS RELEASE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of Australia & New Zealand
10 Macquarie Street
Chatswood NSW 2067
AUSTRALIA
Contact: Laura Artinian
Tel: (02) 9419-8056
Fax: (02) 9904-8446
Email: [email protected]
19 April 2005
SPECIAL EVENT NOTICE –
ARMENIAN CHURCH IN SINGAPORE TO CELEBRATE 170TH ANNIVERSARY
        
It is with great pleasure and deep honour that we inform communities
around the world of an auspicious event that will take place in
Singapore from 10th to 13th November, 2005.
These dates will mark the celebration of the very first church in
Singapore, built by the Armenian Community in 1835 and dedicated to
St Gregory the Illuminator whose steadfast Christian faith influenced
the nation of Armenia to adopt Christianity as its state religion in
301 A.D.
The 170th anniversary celebration of this historic church will be
officiated by the Pontifical Visit of His Holiness Karekin II Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, accompanied by His Eminence
Archbishop Aghan Baliozian, Primate of Australia and New Zealand and
Pontifical Legate of India and the Far East.
The celebration will include a program of religious and cultural
events that are currently in the planning.
In this special year of commemoration for Armenians, on the dual
occasions of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and
the 1600th anniversary of the founding of the Armenian Alphabet,
we invite all Armenians and friends of Armenians to attend this
momentous function to share a renewal of faith and culture in a
Diasporan Community so far from our ancestral of home.
The Armenian Apostolic Church of St Gregory the Illuminator is the
oldest church in Singapore and is located at 60 Hill Street Singapore.
Further information of this event can be requested from the Armenian
Consulate in Bangkok, Thailand at e-mail: [email protected] , Tel.
662-661-8477, Fax. 662-661-8479.
Source of information from Armenian Consulate Bangkok, Thailand
–Boundary_(ID_kDpAsKh2KFfhUgp1bIokhw)–

MINSK GROUP CALLS FOR PREPARING BOTH NATIONS FOR MUTUAL CONCESSIONS
AZG Armenian Daily #069, 19/04/2005
Karabakh issue
Mediators Meet with Oskanian and Mamediarov in London
On April 15, Vartan Oskanian, RA foreign minister, met with Steven
Man, (US), Yuri Merzliakov (RF) and Bernard Fassie (France), OSCE
Minsk group co-chairs, in London. The meeting was organized at the
initiative of the co-chairs and was held at the US embassy to The Great
Britain. RA Foreign Ministry informed that a discussion was held over
the issues of the Prague agenda. “The meeting in London was aimed to
prepare the possible meeting of RA and Azeri presidents in May.”
In fact, as Yerevan used to state earlier, no direct meeting between RA
and Azeri foreign ministers was held in London. The co-chairs also had
a separate meeting with Elmar Mamediarov in London. It is already known
that the next meeting of the Minsk group with the foreign ministers
will take place in Frankfurt in late April, where they will prepare
the meeting of RA and Azeri Presidents envisaged in mid May.
On April 14, Elmar Mamediarov told the Azeri Trend agency that
“we have good opportunity to make a decisive move in the Nagorno
Karabakh issue.” Emphasizing that the Prague process yields good
results, Mamediarov said: “The achieved agreements helped to agree on
the format of the negotiations. We expect that Russia, our friend,
partner, neighbor and a country in chair will take more active efforts
for the settlement of the conflict.”
“It’s already obvious for everybody that if we keep sticking to the
past, it will be hard to think of the future. They understand this in
Moscow, in Baku and I hope that this viewpoint is shared in Yerevan,
as well,” Mamediarov said.
On April 14, the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs released a statement on
frequent cases of violation of the ceasefire regime in the areas of the
conflict, before meeting with RA and Azeri foreign ministers in London.
The French embassy to Armenia gave the statement signed by Mann,
Merzliakov and Fassie, to Mediamax agency. Particularly, the co-chairs
expressed concern about “the substantial increase of violation of
the ceasefire in the course of the last few weeks that caused the
growth of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” as well as about
“the public statements on probability of a war.”
“The statements about a war make the current efforts directed to the
peaceful settlement of the conflict more complicated, increase the
hatred between the two nations and do not prepare the people for the
thought that they should live like neighbors and not like enemies,”
the statement says.
“At this important moment when the first step between the sides in the
format can be done in the direction of the agreement elaborated though
the mediation of the co-chairs, we call for the sides to prepare the
population of their countries for the balanced agreement that will
demand mutual concessions from both sides,” the statement said.
In fact, before the call of the co-chairs, the official Yerevan
has already begun to prepare the population for the possible mutual
concessions. Serge Sargsian, RA defense minister, informed earlier
that “the settlement of the issue will be painful for both sides,
as there is no concession without pain.”
“Today, we should accept that mutual concessions are unavoidable as
a result of the conflict settlement. But, whatever is the volume
of the mutual concessions, we shouldn’t speak much about them,”
Robert Kocharian said during the meeting with students. While on
Wednesday, Vartan Oskanian openly stated during the press conference
that the territories under the control of NKR are kept for security
guarantees. Thus, if NKR’s safety is secured, the territories are
given back.
It’s worth mentioning that the statement contains a hint about
a possible crisis in the conflict settlement process. On April 5,
Merzliakov said that “a package of suggestions” will be given to
the foreign ministers in London. Oskanian noted during the press
conference that they have exaggerated by calling that “a package
of suggestions.”
By Tatoul Hakobian

Zaman, Turkey
April 17 2005
Russian Bases Obstacle for Velvet Revolutionists NATO Membership
By Mirza Cetinkaya
Published: Sunday 17, 2005
zaman.com
Russian bases in two former Soviet Republics Ukraine and Georgia,
both of which were recently marked by the ‘velvet revolutions’, are
reportedly seen as an obstacle for these countries becoming NATO
members.
Within the scope of the newly approved “open doors policy” by the
organization, an official invitation for the membership of Ukraine on
April 21 was expected. The Lithuania Foreign Affairs Minister Antanas
Valionis assigned by the organization said that the Ukraine- NATO
Commission will deal with the issues of the official invitation for
Ukraine and cooperation points. Valionis noted that any country that
wishes to enter the organization would join it within the scope of
the organization’s new policies. The greatest obstacles, however, are
the Russian bases in these countries preventing them from entering
NATO. As an unclear treaty was obtained between Moscow and Tiflis on
the subject to quit the Batum and Ahalkalaki military bases, the
Russian military fleet in the Crimean seems to hamper Ukraine’s NATO
membership for some time. According to the treaties between the two
sides, the center of the Russian Black Sea fleet will be positioned
in the Crimean until the year 2017. Those countries who want to
attend NATO must not host military bases from another country.
Ukraine Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Vladimir Ogrizko revealed that
they would allow Russia time to leave the Crimean under its own
free-will before their time is up. Observers, however, are stating
comments that Russia would do anything to hamper the Ukraine joining
NATO in order to be an obstacle to NATO settling in such a
strategically important place like the Black Sea. If they fail to
convince Russia, either the Ukraine will need to wait another year or
another solution must be found. Some argue that one solution would be
for Russia and Ukraine to become joint member of the alliance. Moscow
had voiced opinions in some not very important decisions of the
alliance through the NATO-Russia Council, which was formed in 2002.
But this situation appears difficult to develop into full membership.
The new administration of the Ukraine where a western supported soft
revolution was experienced wants to attend NATO and the EU as soon as
possible. Moreover, Prime Minister Yulya Timaasenko and President
Victor Yuescehnko who is in hurry to obtain his country’s integration
with the west are allegedly continually in discussions over these
issues. The general view in Moscow is for the idea that Ukraine’s
cooperation with the west will seriously damage the Russian benefits.
Some observers think on the other hand, Kiev’s new administration
will not be so harmful for Russia, it does not act as pro-western as
Poland and Baltic Sea countries.
Kant Military Air Base in Kyrgyzstan where the location of the last
‘velvet revolution’ is under the control of Russia. There is a US’
Manas Base 35 km away from this. The Russians also have Gebele
Observation base in Azerbaijan and the number 102 military base in
Armenia as well. It has also been suggested that Ayni Airport of
Tacikistan (Tajikistan) would be rented out to the Russians. A
top-level official from the Tajikistan Defense Secretary disclosed
that the airport would be presented for the use by the number 201
Russian base.

Guess?, Inc. Announces Nomination of Alex Yemenidjian, Former Chairman
and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., to its Board of Directors
LOS ANGELES, April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Guess?,
Inc. (NYSE:_GES_ (aol://4785:GES/) ) today announced that Alex
Yemenidjian has been nominated for election at the Company’s annual
meeting of shareholders to be held on May 10, 2005 as a director for a
three-year term. Mr. Yemenidjian, age 49, served as Chairman of the
Board and Chief Executive Officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. from
April 1999 to April 2005 and was a director of that company from
November 1997 to April 2005. Mr. Yemenidjian is currently Chairman of
the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Armenco Holdings, LLC and
also serves as a director of MGM MIRAGE (formerly MGM Grand, Inc.), a
position he has held since 1989. From July 1995 through December
1999, Mr. Yemenidjian served as President of MGM MIRAGE.
Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, distributes and licenses a lifestyle
collection of contemporary apparel, accessories and related consumer
products. At April 2, 2005 the Company owned and operated 289 retail
stores in the United States and Canada. The Company also distributes
its products through better department and specialty stores around the
world. For more information about the Company, please visit
_www.guess.com_ () .
Except for historical information contained herein, certain matters
discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that
are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements
are only expectations, and involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties, which may cause actual results in future periods and
other future events to differ materially from what is currently
anticipated. Factors which may cause actual results in future periods
to differ from current expectations include, among other things, the
continued availability of sufficient working capital, the successful
integration of new stores into existing operations, the continued
desirability and customer acceptance of existing and future product
lines (including licensed product lines), possible cancellations of
wholesale orders, the success of competitive products, and the
availability of adequate sources of capital. In addition to these
factors, the economic and other factors identified in the Company’s
most recent annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2004 including but not limited to the risk factors
discussed therein, could affect the forward-looking statements
contained herein and in the Company’s other public documents.
Contact: Carlos Alberini President & Chief Operating Officer (213)
765-3582 Frederick G. Silny SVP & Chief Financial Officer (213)
765-3289 Wendi Kopsick Kekst and Company (212) 521-4800 SOURCE Guess?,
Inc.
04/15/2005 05:00 ET

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 15, 2005 Friday
UN rights committee adopts anti-Belarus resolution
By Konstantin Pribytkov
GENEVA
Western countries rallied at the UN human rights commission on
Thursday to secure approval of an anti-Belarus resolution.
Twenty-three out of the 53 members of the Commission voted for the
document, with more than half the members either opposing or
abstaining.
However, the resolution was eventually passed, as the Commission’s
regulation allow approval by a simple majority.
Among the states objecting to the resolution were Russia, China,
Cuba, Armenia, Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt and some other
countries.
Ukraine, together with EU countries and the United States, supported
the resolution. Before the beginning of the voting, Ukraine came out
against the proposal by the Russian delegation not to consider the
resolution on Belarus. As a result, Moscow’s initiative was rejected
by a margin of one vote.
“It’s a sad day for the Commission. A heavy blow was dealt to its
reputation,” Russian permanent representative at the UN’s Geneva
office Leonid Skotnikov told Itar-Tass.
He said he was surprised at how Ukraine had voted.
Belarussian ambassador Sergei Aleinik, for his part, stated at the
session that the resolution was yet another attempt to present to the
international community a distorted view of his country and excuse
interference in its internal affairs.
“We are disappointed and bewildered by Ukraine’s vote. The neighbors
who respect each other, do not behave themselves in this manner,” the
diplomat told reporters.
The resolution on Belarus extends by one year the mandate of the
human rights rapporteur, former Romanian foreign minister Adrian
Severin.
In the report at the present session, he pointed at that the
Belarussian people lacked identity and claimed that the country poses
a threat to regional security and stability.
He also insisted on the necessity of changing the Belarus government,
as well as on radical restructuring of the Belarussian society.
Aside from the resolution on Belarus, Ukraine also supported the
West-proposed resolutions on Cuba and North Korea. Russia voted
against these documents.

EuarasiaNet Organization
April 15 2005
IRRECONCILABLE MOOD HOVERS OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT ZONE
Daniel Gerstle 4/15/05
Armenian and Azerbaijani diplomats, along with the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs, gathered in London on April 15 to probe for a breakthrough
in the stalemated Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks. A recent visit to the
conflict zone in an around Karabakh indicated that even if officials
make progress towards a negotiated settlement, selling any peace deal
to local inhabitants and soldiers on both sides could prove
difficult.
The London gathering on Karabakh sought to advance new peace
proposals prepared by the Minsk Group, which comprises
representatives from the United States, Russia and France, and is
charged with overseeing the peace process. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. Discussions reportedly focused on laying
the groundwork for a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents, envisioned for May. [For background see the Eurasia
Insight archive]. Prior to the meeting, the Minsk group co-chairs
issued a statement that urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to show greater
restraint. It specifically warned that a recent increase in armed
clashes along the “contact line” were “causing needless loss of life
and jeopardizing the cease-fire.”
The statement went on to criticize recent comments made by officials
about the possible resumption of full-scale armed operations. Both
Armenia and Azerbaijan should “recognize that a renewal of
hostilities cannot provide a lasting solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, but would be disastrous for the population of both
countries, resulting in loss of life, more destruction, additional
refugees and displaced persons, and enormous financial costs.”
The mood among those in the conflict zone remains hostile, indicating
that both Armenians and Azerbaijanis are not yet able to move on. For
many, it is as if the horrors of the conflict’s deadliest phase
occurred yesterday — and not over a decade ago.
Armin and Savash are gentle teenagers with dark innocent eyes. Had
they not worn camouflage fatigues, it would have been easy to mistake
them for high school students. In fact, they are soldiers in the
Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army — the ethnic Armenian force that
secured the enclave’s de facto independence during fighting from
1992-94.
Armin and Savash, both 19, have lived most of their lives on a
war-footing, identifying Azeris only as the enemy. During a recent
interview in Stepanakert, the Karabakh capital, both said that they
could not recall ever having had a conversation with an Azeri. And
neither seemed curious to do so. “What is there to talk about with
people like that?” said Savash, referring to Azeris.
The armed conflict displaced hundreds of thousands of Armenians and
Azeris, and finding a formula for the return of the dispossessed is a
major dilemma for peace negotiators. When asked if they could ever
envision a day when Azeris could return to territory currently
occupied by Armenian military units, both Armin and Savash seemed
skeptical. Like many soldiers and veterans interviewed on both sides
of the Karabakh front-line, Armin chose not to answer my question
about returns directly. Instead, he focused on perceived grievances
against the Azerbaijani military’s behavior during the conflict.
“The Azerbaijanis bombed the city from Shusha,” Armin urged, pointing
toward a town on a nearby hill. “They destroyed the whole town
[Stepanakert]. All of Azatamartikneri Street was leveled, but we
rebuilt it. People had to hide from the bombs in the basement without
heat or light.”
“We can’t live with them, and we can’t mix with them either because
the Armenians are at threat of disappearing,” Armin said. “We have to
protect our culture and our land.”
Karabakh is equally dear to most Azeris, so much so that an
increasing number seem to be growing tired of the prolonged stalemate
in negotiations, and appears willing to again resort to force. Those
Azeris agitating for a new military campaign tend to look past the
fact that Armenian forces routed the Azerbaijani military in the
early 1990s.
Fikrat, a mustachioed man with cool blue eyes, served in the
Azerbaijani military in 1992 when its fighting capability collapsed,
in part due to political turmoil in Baku. He recalled that an
Armenian offensive quickly drove Azerbaijani forces out of Karabakh,
adding that at one point the front line ran near his home village
Mahmudlu. As artillery shells fell on a house nearby, Fikrat’s family
fled eastward. The mental scars from the experience still seem fresh,
as Fikrat’s voice filled with bitterness as he spoke. “The Armenians
had planes and heavy weapons when we only had rifles. When the line
broke, we were told to go home to guard our villages,” he said.
Fikrat’s brother Heidar now serves as an officer in the Azerbaijani
Army in the border town of Qazakh where 2004 violence left at least
one Armenian officer dead. Declining to comment candidly while in
uniform, Heidar simply echoed the widely held view that a peaceful
resolution with Karabakh Armenian rebels would be nice, but that the
use of force could be justified in an attempt to restore Azerbaijani
authority in Karabakh. On the return of ethnic Armenians to areas of
Azerbaijan, both Fikrat and Heidar would not give a clear answer.
In and around Khojali — where Armenian forces reportedly massacred
hundreds of Azeri civilians in February, 1992 – the scene remains one
of desolation, with no buildings remaining intact. “Azerbaijanis
can’t return,” Gagik, a weary Karabakh veteran, told me. “Why do you
think they’d want to? There’s nothing here for them.”
Editor’s Note: Daniel J Gerstle was a 2004 Summer Research Fellow for
Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution
covering the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Agence France Presse — Spanish
April 13, 2005 Wednesday 1:19 PM GMT
Turquía propone crear una comisión conjunta sobre el genocidio armenio
ANKARA
El primer ministro turco Recep Tayyip Erdogan envió una carta al
presidente armenio Robert Kotcharian proponiendo la creación de una
comisión conjunta para estudiar la masacre de armenios en 1915,
declaró este miércoles el canciller turco, Abdullah Gul.
La creación de esta comisión sería un primer paso hacia la
normalización de las relaciones con Armenia, dijo el ministro de
Relaciones Exteriores.
Abdullah Gul hizo estas declaraciones durante un primer debate en el
Parlamento sobre los acontecimientos producidos entre 1915 y 1917,
durante los últimos años del imperio otomano, y que Turquía se niega
a calificar de “genocidio”.
“Les informamos que si nuestra propuesta era aceptada, estaríamos
dispuestos a negociar con Armenia la forma en que esta comisión será
instalada y cómo funcionará. Este tipo de iniciativa contribuirá a la
normalización de los lazos entre ambos países”, precisó el ministro.
Turquía reconoció la independencia de Armenia en 1991, pero sin
establecer relaciones diplomáticas debido al profundo diferendo sobre
el genocidio.