Author: Jabejian Elizabeth

Azeri committee calls for international help in search for captives

Assa-Irada, Baku
18 Dec 04

The state commission on captives, hostages and missing persons held its
first meeting in a new composition at the National Security Ministry
on Saturday 18 December. The commission’s chairman and minister,
Eldar Mahmudov, stated that the commission, in its new format, will
be even more active in conveying to the Azerbaijani and international
community the facts about violation of international norms by Armenia,
which perpetrated ethnic cleansing, massacre and vandalism against
Azerbaijanis and holds them in captivity.

Members of the commission said that international organizations are not
providing the necessary assistance in searching for the Azerbaijani
captives and hostages and pointed to the importance of seeking other
ways of resolving the problem.

The speakers also reaffirmed that up till 1 December 2004, 4,852
Azerbaijanis had gone missing in the conflict zone, including 54
children, 323 women, and 410 elderly people. In 1998-2004, 1,360
Azerbaijanis were released from Armenian captivity, including 166
children, 335 women and 286 elderly people.

The undisputed facts show that at least 783 Azeri citizens, including
18 children, 46 women and 69 elderly people, were taken captive and
hostage by Armenia. However, this was concealed from international
organizations, including from the International Committee of the Red
Cross. The list of these people has been compiled based on witness
testimony by the Azerbaijanis released from captivity and from other
sources.

Most of these people were killed while in Armenian captivity, died
of either torture or disease, while some of them are still being held
in Armenia and the occupied Azerbaijani territories and used as slaves.

After the discussions, the commission approved the plan of activities
for 2005.

Azerbaijan, Iran base relations on mutual respect-Aliyev
By Sevindzh Abdullayeva, Viktor Shulman

ITAR-TASS News Agency
December 17, 2004 Friday 10:15 AM Eastern Time

BAKU, December 17 — The Azerbaijani-Iranian dialogue that has improved
over recent years testifies to the fact that “when countries don’t
interfere in internal affairs of each other there is a possibility
of establishing good relations between them,” Azerbaijani President
Ilkham Aliyev said in a conversation with journalists on Friday.

The president stressed, “Azerbaijan and Iran are developing their
relations on the basis of mutual respect and understanding.”

President Aliyev stressed intensification of the two countries’
cooperation noting that the visit paid by Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami to Baku this summer and his own visit to Teheran scheduled
for early 2005 “create the grounds for concrete real affairs.”

Touching upon Iran’s relations with Armenia and implementation by the
two countries of joint projects the Azerbaijani president stressed,
“It is the internal affair of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“However, we live in a sensitive region. Territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan has been violated, our lands are occupied by Armenia and
these factors should be taken into account in mutual relations in
the region,” Aliyev pointed out.

The Economist
December 18, 2004
U.S. Edition

Faith in Europe; Turkey, the EU and religion

It’s not Turkish Islam that challenges Europe, but the
micromanagement of faith

The Turkish republic is not as secular as it seems. To become
European, it will have to change

AN EVER closer partnership between Turkey and the European Union,
culminating in full Turkish membership, can only be good for
relations between Islam and the West. It will show that western
nations have no insuperable prejudice against Islam—and it will
confirm Turkey’s role as a nation whose Muslim heritage is fully
compatible with democracy.

Those are the main reasons why European leaders were expected on
December 17th to endorse the opening of talks to make Turkey the EU’s
first mainly Muslim member. The Turks have worked hard to groom
themselves for Europe. But the negotiators from Brussels and Ankara
will be deceiving themselves, and perhaps riding for a fall, if they
underestimate the amount of ground they still need to travel. Among
the trickiest issues is the existence in Turkey of a relationship
between religion and the state that differs from the varied, and
often bizarre, arrangements of western Europe.

Paradoxically, the aspect of Turkey’s system that Europeans find
strangest is the curb it places on its own prevailing religion.
Turkey is often called a secular state, whose citizens happen to be
Muslim. In fact, Turkey is far from secular, if that implies an
arm’s-length relationship between faith and politics. The masters of
Turkey’s 81-year-old republic have always felt that religion is too
sensitive to leave to clerics alone. A vast state bureaucracy
oversees spiritual life; it hires imams, tells them what to preach,
and runs religious schools.

The effect is to steer most Turks down a narrow religious path; they
are taught to be devout Muslims, but they may not push their piety
further than the state allows. By banning headscarves in universities
as well as all government premises, the state imposes a far harsher
restriction on devout Muslim women than the ban on scarves (and other
obvious signs of faith) in French schools. As a result, some Turkish
women get no higher education. Nor is life easy for millions of Turks
who follow the liberal Alevi form of the Muslim faith, not the Sunni
Islam taught in schools. For the state, all Muslims are the same; too
bad for Alevis who want to opt out of Sunni education.

What about Turkey’s tiny non-Muslim communities? Here again, history
weighs heavily. As Turks learn at school, the avoidance of any
special status for religious minorities was a master-stroke by their
state’s founders: the western powers wanted such privileges, but the
republic resisted their wiles. Those negotiations ended in the 1923
Treaty of Lausanne, which promises limited cultural and religious
rights for the Greek Orthodox, the Armenians and Jews—with the result
that Turkish policy still distinguishes “Lausanne minorities” from
others. When some Turks argued recently that the treaty, properly
read, implied fair treatment of all minorities, this triggered a
furious row—and dark murmurings from the military.

In any case, joining the EU will oblige Turkey to be far more decent
in its treatment of religious minorities than the Lausanne treaty
ordains. As evidence for a lack of decency, witness Turkey’s de facto
ban on training for Christian clergy; and the recent Turkish-American
row over the Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul. As Turkey’s
government reaffirmed, it disputes the right not just of its own
citizens, but of Christians in America, to accord the patriarch his
“primacy of honour” in the Orthodox world: this is a curious act of
discourtesy to a religious leader who warmly backs Turkey’s European
hopes.

Whatever Turkey’s failings, do Europeans have any right to lecture
the Turks? Europe’s religious scene is full of weird anachronisms.
The British prime minister still chooses the senior prelate of the
Anglican Church. In one part of Greece, Muslim muftis exercise
judicial powers, while in Athens, Muslims cannot get official
recognition for a single mosque. Denmark is one of Europe’s most
secular societies, but its Lutheran church enjoys huge privileges.
All these arrangements are likely to be challenged as Europe grows
more diverse.

Where does that leave Turkey? It would be nice, but naive, to regard
its system as simply one small variation in a colourful religious
scene. It is one thing for a state to give privileges to a particular
church, which then governs itself; quite another for a state to
micro-manage the whole of religious life.

Given its own diversity, it would be silly for the EU to impose on
Turkey some precise model for religious affairs. But Turkey won’t be
a liberal democracy in the European sense until state interference in
the world of faith becomes the exception, not the rule—and unless all
religious communities can worship, own property and form associations
freely.

–Boundary_(ID_N2XB+RO+3/SG593ymrf0GQ)–

Barroso Expresses Belief That A Decision Will Be Made To Start Full
Membership Negotiations With Turkey

Anadolu Agency
Dec 17 2004

BRUSSELS (AA) – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on
Thursday expressed belief that EU heads of state and government would
make a decision to start full membership negotiations with Turkey.
Barroso told a press conference prior to EU summit that a
historic decision would be made for Turkey, and noted that Turkey was
a very different country with its geographical position, position as
bridge, economic power, and potential. Barroso said Turkey’s
accession would be good for the EU.
Barroso said a balanced attitude was pursued against Turkey,
noting that they were aware of the problems, but at the same time the
steps Turkey made were also taken into consideration. He said, ”time
came to start negotiations” and stressed that the target would be
full membership in negotiations.
Mentioning the concerns in several member countries and public
opinions about Turkey’s accession to the EU, Barroso called on Turkey
to take more steps toward Europe.
Barroso said Greek Cypriots would also be at the table,
”however,” he noted Turkey did not recognize the Greek Cypriot
administration.
Replying to a question about Cyprus issue, Barroso said no new
political conditions would be imposed on Turkey, noting that Turkey
needed to ”win the hearts” of the EU public opinion. He said this
can not take place through complicated negotiations, but through good
will gestures.
Barroso said Turkey would be in a position to recognize all the
member countries when it becomes the EU full member.
Replying to a question about permanent derogations proposed for
Turkey, Barroso said he thought this problem would be solved in the
summit and that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
sensitively focused on this issue.
Barroso said the European Commission brought this proposal about
free movement of Turkish workers, yet that any discrimination or
special status was not in question. He said there was much concern
about this issue in some member countries, noting that permanent
derogations were implemented on some member countries.
Barroso said European Commission said the issue of derogations
against Turkey should not be comprehensive.
Focusing on the concerns of the EU public opinion often, Barroso
said Turkey would be in a position to struggle much to convince the
public.
Replying to a question about so-called genocide on Armenians,
Barroso said bringing new political conditions in front of Turkey at
the last minute was out of question.

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
17 December 2004

‘Turkey’s EU entry to help peace among civilizations’

Parliament’s of EU countries have not been making their decisions based upon
the principles of the Bible, and the Turkish Parliament has not been making
its decisions based upon the principles of the Koran either

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News

Turkish Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II fully supports Turkey’s EU bid, and
said he believes the European Union was not a “Christian Club” and that it
would set a date for the opening of accession talks with Ankara, the
Anatolia news agency said.

Mesrob II said European and Turkish politicians often used religious culture
as a tool in politics.
“Parliament’s of EU countries have not been making their decisions based
upon the principles of the Bible, and the Turkish Parliament has not been
making its decisions based upon the principles of the Koran either.
Integration of the EU and Turkey will be useful both for our region and the
world and for peace among civilizations,” Anatolia quoted Mesrob II as
saying.
Responding to a question concerning suggestions of having Turkey’s
recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide as a precondition for its EU
membership, Mesrob II said he agreed with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan who had earlier said that historians, not politicians, should
discuss the issue. However, he added a dialogue process should be started,
adding, “Facing up to history is important for building the future on a
stronger basis. People do not hug each other without being reconciled with
each other.”

Armenians accuse Turkey of killing as many as 1.5 million of their
countrymen during a 1915 to 1923 campaign to force them from eastern Turkey.
Ankara categorically rejects the charges.

–Boundary_(ID_ZA39LsQzZWgdp7yQDb1m6w)–

Russia did not support anybody in outside elections – Gryzlov
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
December 16, 2004 Thursday 3:04 AM Eastern Time

YEREVAN, December 16 — Russia has not officially supported anybody in
the elections in Ukraine, Abkhazia and Adzharia, Russian parliament’s
lower house Speaker Boris Gryzlov said.

He is on an official visit in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

If “Russian political technologists were used there” and “if they
have not secured victory, then it was only a bad commercial project,”
Gryzlov said.

He stressed that relations of Russia and Ukraine, which are “based
on century-old friendship of our peoples, on numerous agreements
and accords that have been signed within the framework of the CIS”
would remain unchanged.

Russia will work with an elected president of Ukraine, he said,
reiterating a statement to this effect by the Russian leadership.

Gryzlov, who is finishing his three-day visit to Armenia, met National
Assembly leader Artur Bagdasaryan on Thursday.

They have discussed bilateral political cooperation, in particular
inter-parliamentary contacts and interaction of parliamentarians in
international organisations and observer groups.

Belmont Citizen-Herald, MA
Dec 16 2004

Book explores local Armenian community
Thursday, December 16, 2004

The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research, in
association with the Armenians of New England Committee, has
announced the publication by its Armenian Heritage Press of “The
Armenians of New England: Celebrating a Culture and Preserving a
Heritage,” proceedings of the 1999 conference of the same name held
at Bentley College in Waltham. The book will be available for
purchase in time for Christmas and will be formally launched in 2005.

The papers presented in the volume cover a wide range of topics
relevant to the Armenians of New England specifically, and many of
universal relevance. Religion, immigration, literature, architecture,
music, civic, political, and cultural institutions, inter-ethnic
relations – these subjects and others are illuminated by the articles
contained in the book.

The Armenians of New England conference was the first to
undertake the study of an Armenian community of North America and was
the result of the cooperation of a number of Boston-area Armenian
organizations. The organizing committee was formed from personnel
from the Armenian Cultural Foundation (Dr. Robert Mirak and Dr. Ara
Ghazarian), the Armenian International Women’s Association (Dr.
Suzanne Moranian and Dr. Barbara Merguerian), the Armenian Library
and Museum of America (Gary Lind-Sinanian), the Friends of Armenian
Culture Society (Dr. Varant Hagopian), Mayreni Publishing (Dr. Vatche
Ghazarian), the National Association for Armenian Studies and
Research (Manoog S. Young and Marc A. Mamigonian), the New England
Heritage Center (Dr. Joyce Malcolm), the office of state Sen. Steven
A. Tolman, and the New England Board of Higher Education. The
conference committee was co-chaired by Dr. Robert Mirak and Manoog S.
Young.

The conference and book were made possible by contributions from
a number of donors, including a major grant from the Knights of
Vartan Grand Council’s Fund for Armenian Studies.

The book was edited by Marc A. Mamigonian, with editorial input
from Dr. Barbara Merguerian, Dr. Suzanne Moranian, and Dr. Robert
Mirak. Mark McKertich designed the volume, which includes dozens of
photographs, many of them provided by Ruth Thomasian of Project SAVE
Armenian Photograph Archives.

Prof. Thomas O’Connor of Boston College, a noted scholar of
Boston history, provides the introduction for the book.

It is hoped that the conference and this volume of proceedings
will stimulate further research and publication on the Armenians of
New England, as well as other regions. It is likewise hoped that a
contribution has been made to the understanding of the history of
this community, both for Armenians and non-Armenians.

For more information call 617-489-1610, e-mail [email protected], or
write to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478.

BY THE TIME ARMENIANS ARRIVE, THERE WILL BE NO POLE IN IRAQ

Azg/arm
16 Dec 04

Poland is going to reduce the number of its military contingent in
Iraq from 2500 to 1700, Reuters news agency quoted Jerzy Szmajdzinski,
Polish minister of defense, as saying. Polish authorities declared
earlier that they would call few squads back only after the elections.

The group of Armenian doctors, deminers and drivers, which is supposed
to leave for Iraq, was to billet on the Polish-controlled territory
120-140 km farther from Baghdad together with servicemen from other 19
states. Poland declared earlier that it will withdraw the whole
contingent before 2005.

Agence France Presse — English
December 13, 2004 Monday 4:59 PM GMT

EU digests Turkey in pre-summit talks

BRUSSELS

The European Union Monday launched a week of furious haggling on
Turkey with the bloc’s Dutch presidency upbeat on its EU prospects
but critics raising the stakes against the Muslim-majority country.

With EU leaders set this week to decide whether to launch
long-delayed accession talks with Ankara, Turkey’s Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said its EU bid was nothing less than the
“project of the century”.

The Netherlands, Britain and Germany all reaffirmed their backing for
Turkey’s EU bid. But discord in the 25-nation bloc simmered as EU
foreign ministers held talks to set the stage for the summit Thursday
and Friday.

The heads of government are expected to give a green light for Turkey
to open accession negotiations fully five years after it was formally
endorsed as an EU candidate.

But their approval will be hedged with a raft of conditions and
accompanied by warnings that the talks could be suspended if Turkey
flagrantly violates EU principles, and that there is no guarantee of
membership at the end of the day.

According to diplomats, the foreign ministers failed to make any
headway on the most pressing question — when should the talks start?

Turkey wants the EU to abide by a promise to launch the negotiations
“without delay”.

But the latest draft summit conclusions left the date open, with
France for one pushing for it to be held back until the second half
of 2005 to avoid the Turkey question clouding a French referendum on
the EU’s constitution.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier upped the ante by calling on
Turkey to admit to the World War I massacre of Armenians by their
Ottoman rulers during its EU negotiations.

And while Austria renewed its demand for Turkey to be offered a
“privileged partnership” rather than full EU membership, Cyprus
demanded Turkey move by next March on normalising its ties with the
divided Mediterranean island.

But meeting in Berlin, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the EU would offer Turkey
nothing short of membership negotiations at this week’s summit.

“We agree on several points: first, the aim is membership and the aim
will not be watered down,” Schroeder told reporters after talks with
Balkenende, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

“Secondly, there will be a date (for the start of membership
negotiations) and thirdly, as the commission already stated, the
negotiation process will take a long time. We expect 10-15 years with
an open outcome to the talks.”

“I have the feeling that we will reach consensus at the end of the
week,” Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said here, while rebuffing talk
of a privileged partnership.

“Turkey is a candidate (for EU membership). Turkey is also aiming for
membership and that will be, let’s say, the objective of
negotiations,” he told reporters.

Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iacovou had earlier evoked the threat
of Nicosia vetoing Turkey’s EU bid unless it recognises his
internationally backed government, rather than the breakaway
Turkish-Cypriot republic.

But he later told reporters at the EU talks here: “We have not asked
for legally defined recognition but normalisation of relations in
general and in particular, in the bilateral field.”

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel meanwhile reiterated his
opposition to full Turkish membership of the EU, pointing to adhesion
costs estimated at between 25 billion and 30 billion euros a year.

“Who should pay that?” he asked the economic magazine Trend in an
interview to appear Tuesday.

Ankara, however, believes that it has earned the right to a date to
open EU accession talks by ramming through a raft of tough reforms to
its political system, judiciary, military and economy.

“Turkey has kept to its side of the bargain,” British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw said here, rejecting the imposition of new
conditions on Erdogan’s government.

As for Erdogan, nothing less than harmony between the West and Islam
is at stake.

“To have a country like Turkey, where the cultures of Islam and
democracy have merged together, taking part in such an institution as
the EU will bring harmony of civilisations,” he told Britain’s daily
The Independent.

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
Venerdì Il 10 Dicembre 2004

LEGA: GIOVANI PADANI A STRASBURGO CONTRO TURCHIA IN UE

MILANO

(ANSA) – MILANO, 10 DIC – “Per un Europa dei diritti
Umani”: sara’ questo lo slogan che accompagnera’ a Strasburgo i
Giovani Padani, la componente giovanile della Lega Nord, decisi
a “manifestare contro l’ingresso della Turchia nell’Unione
Europea”. Una protesta assolutamente pacifica – informa una
nota – quella dei giovani leghisti, che da lunedi’ 13 a
mercoledi’ 15 dicembre diranno il loro secco “no”
all’allargamento dei confini dell’Ue, davanti al Parlamento
Europeo.

“La Turchia non puo’ entrare in Europa – spiega Paolo
Grimoldi, coordinatore federale dei Giovani Padani -, non solo
per motivi religiosi, culturali, storici e geografici, ma
perche non rispetta i diritti umani. Non dimentichiamoci che il
governo turco non ha ancora riconosciuto il genocidio degli
armeni e dei curdi. Mi chiedo proprio dove siano finiti tutti
quei finti pacifisti con la bandiera arcobaleno che non perdono
occasione di manifestare contro il governo. Forse non sanno che
Cipro e’ occupata dalla Turchia da alcuni decenni?”.

“Per questo – conclude Grimoldi -, la prossima settimana
saremo in piazza a Strasburgo per dire il nostro no all’ingresso
della Turchia nell’Unione, in attesa della grande manifestazione
federale della Lega Nord, in programma domenica 19 a
Milano”.(ANSA).