‘NO OBSTRUCTION TO NORMALIZATION’
Hurriyet
Feb 11 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL – There is no obstruction to the Turkish-Armenian
normalization if the current momentum in relations is sustained,
Armenian President Serge Sarkisian told MediaMax News Agency on Monday.
Relations will improve in the second half of 2009 if the current
atmosphere is preserved, Sarkisian said on the sidelines of the 45th
Munich Security Conference, where he met Turkey’s foreign minister.
ASTROPHYSICS: RESEARCH IN THE AREA OF ASTROPHYSICS REPORTED FROM E.Y. KHACHIKIAN AND COLLEAGUES
Science Letter
February 10, 2009
According to recent research published in the journal Astrophysics,
"The velocity field in the galaxy Mark 8 is studied by means of
observations with the 2.6-m telescope at the Byurakan Astrophysical
Observatory using the VAGR spectrograph. In the optical range, the
central portion of this galaxy consists of five bright condensations
which are superassociations (SA)."
"These studies were made in a wavelength range that encompasses
images of the galaxy in the H alpha and [NII] lambda lambda 6548 and
6583a" << emission lines. The radial velocity field was obtained. The
velocities of all the superassociations were measured and a rotation
curve constructed for the galaxy. The relative intensities of the
emission lines have been determined. Images are constructed in the
H alpha and [NII] lines and in the red continuum. It is concluded
that the superassociations were formed together and are, as a whole,
young," wrote E.Y. Khachikian and colleagues (see also Astrophysics).
The researchers concluded: "The shape of the rotation curve shows that
Mark 8 is an isolated galaxy with a composite multicomponent nucleus."
Khachikian and colleagues published their study in Astrophysics
(Velocity field in the galaxy Mark 8 with vigorous starburst
centres. Astrophysics, 2008;51(4):461-470).
For additional information, contact E.Y. Khachikian, VA Ambartsumyan
Byurakan Astrophysics Observ, Byurakan, Armenia.
The publisher’s contact information for the journal Astrophysics is:
Springer, Plenum Publishers, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013, USA.
TURKEY, ARMENIA DETERMINED TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS THROUGH TALKS
PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2009 16:08 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Babacan’s talks in Baku came after bilateral
talks with his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, and Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan on Friday and Saturday on the sidelines of
the 45th Munich Security Conference.
The Nagorno Karabakh conflict was in focus during the talks between the
two ministers, with Babacan highlighting the importance of resolving
disputes for stability in the region on the basis of international
law norms and principles and maintenance of territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Ozugergin told the
Anatolia news agency.
Mammadyarov lent support to the planned Caucasus stability and
cooperation platform, voicing Baku’s willingness to intensify efforts
to institutionalize the idea.
Ahead of his departure from Munich for Baku late on Sunday, Babacan
told reporters that Armenia and Turkey are targeting the "full
normalization" of ties through ongoing talks.
"I consider third countries’ contributions and observations of this
process useful while Turkey and Armenia discuss issues on a bilateral
platform. From whichever point of view, we are in the midst of a
process in which meetings between Turkey and Armenia are at their
most intense and important level since World War I," he said.
ISRAEL AS A STATE
by Ali Bulac
Feb 10 2009
Turkey
When we try to ponder Israel and its acts, we take as a reference
the common forms of about 200 states that are members of the United
Nations. In other words, we make the casual mistake of imagining
Israel as one of the members of the UN. But this is wrong. Indeed,
Israel is a different state.
The first criticism justifiably voiced about Israel is the
occupation-motivated character of this newly established state. It
is the first and only state established under a UN decision, but it
has never complied with any of the decisions made by the UN about
itself when it invaded new territories and expanded its borders,
and when it expanded its occupation of the Palestinian territories
from 56 percent to 78 percent, and when its military and political
strategy was to completely invade the Palestinian territories.
Moreover, Israel sees itself bound neither by any decision of the UN
or its Security Council nor by any international treaty or agreement.
For this reason, it can ruthlessly invade territories and kill people
unrelentingly after confiscating their properties, olive and orange
tree gardens, houses, and wealth.
Let us review the toll of its violent massacre of 1.5 million Gazans
who are living in a tiny piece of land of 360,000 square kilometers
during the three weeks between Dec. 27 and Jan. 18:
Israel killed 1,360 people, 437 of whom were children, 300 of
whom were women and 113 of whom were elderly. It shelled mosques,
hospitals, schools, the police academy, ambulances and UN buildings,
where children were staying. It used phosphorus and cluster bombs,
and it is said to have tried new weapons.
Obviously, all of these things are war crimes. As you might remember,
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said in 2008: "As Qassam
attacks intensify and the rockets’ reach broadens, they are inviting a
shoah, because we will do our best to protect ourselves." In Hebrew,
"shoah" means genocide. Like the Armenians’ Medz Yegern (Great
Disaster), the Holocaust is called "shoah" in Hebrew.
In the terminology of Israeli officials, invading and massacring
civilians falls under the "right of self defense," and resisting
invaders is "terror." This is the defensive argument of the Israeli
officials about the latest Gazan massacre: Hamas is to be blamed for
the deaths of these children because Hamas resists us.
By securing the armor of anti-Semitism, Israel does not allow anyone to
criticize its policies and actions. But the main theme of the criticism
against it is that although about 60 years have passed since it was
established, Israel refrains from being like any other state among
the world’s states. Israel cannot be like any other state for the
following reasons:
(1) Israel is the only state whose establishment cannot be completed
and whose definite borders have not been established since its
emergence as a polity. No one knows for sure where its borders start
and end. What the Promised Land refers to between the Nile and the
Euphrates is ambiguous. It may be argued that his is a long-term ideal
for a homeland. Nevertheless, new Jewish settlers arrive every day
in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the Israeli occupation continues,
and its borders are expanding.
(2) We do not have definite and clear figures about the population
of Israel. It is said that it is 6 million, including 1.5 million
Arabs. However, the number of Jews really living in Israel or those
who are also citizens of other countries is not known.
(3) Israel avoids disclosing its defense expenditures like other
states do. The black hole in the budget is this expenditure item. The
figures about the weapons and ammunition granted to it by the US and
other Western countries are not known.
(4) Israel’s income figures are not disclosed. The amount of money
granted to Israel by Jews living in other countries is not known.
ARMENIA HAILS CSTO’S DECISION TO CREATE COLLECTIVE RAPID RESPONSE FORCES
Interfax
Feb 5 2009
Russia
The decision by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
to form Collective Rapid Response Forces reflects the strategic
priorities of both Armenia and organization’s other member states,
said Maj. Gen. Aik Kotanjian, Director of the Institute of National
and Strategic Studies.
"The decision creates a strong political, legal and military basis
for collective countering of a possible aggression against any CSTO
member," Kotanjian was quoted as saying by the Armenian Defense
Ministry.
Forming a real mechanism of countering aggression is an additional
guarantee of deterring "certain individuals cherishing hopes for a
military resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the analyst
said.
Kotanjian recalled the lessons of the August events in the Caucasus and
said that such actions "could result in the violation of international
security both on the regional and extra-regional scale."
"By forming a military component, the CSTO will also be able to
raise its efficiency in fighting against international terrorism,
transnational crime, drug trafficking, and natural and man-caused
disasters," Kotanjian said.
The CSTO decision to create collective rapid response forces shows the
development dynamic of the organization that uses the best experience,
including NATO’s, he added.
RUSSIA TO PROVIDE 500 MILLION USD CREDIT TO ARMENIA
ARMENPRESS
Feb 5, 2009
YEREVAN, FEBRAURY 5, ARMENPRESS: In conditions of world financial
crisis Russia is ready to support Armenia by providing stabilizing
credit. "In difficult moments Russia never leaves its close friends
and if there is an opportunity and especially financial, of course
it will help Armenia," Russian ambassador to Armenia Nikolay Pavlov
said today at a press conference.
According to him, Russia will provide Armenia credit amounting to
500 million USD. "Russia’s policy is to support its partners which
may be witnessed with the fact that Russia is going to provide 300
million USD to Kyrgyzstan," he pointed out.
Russia’s trade representative in Armenia Alexander Zaytsev said that
in conditions of the economic crisis the main issue is to continue
the functioning programs.
The Russian ambassador also added that it is planned to implement
uranium processing project in Armenia.
ERDOGAN’S HYPOCRISY SHOULDN’T HURT ISRAEL-TURKEY TIES
By Zvi Bar’el
Ha’aretz
es/1061754.html
Feb 5 2009
Israel
Dear Miss Manners. No matter how hard I try, everyone is against
me. They accuse me of having a secret agenda, of supporting terror
organizations in the Middle East and of trying to force women to wear a
head covering. All that has a strong effect on my nerves, and sometimes
I simply want to explode. But when I explode, the accusations against
me only increase. My staff claims that my behavior is childish and
unworthy of a statesman. How can I express my emotions without being
accused repeatedly of hysterical behavior?"
This passage, from a clever piece by Turkish columnist Nazlan Ertan,
which was published in the Hurriyet Daily News, is of course directed
at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who caused an uproar
at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Ertan, as Miss Manners, suggests
to Erdogan that instead of shouting at elderly statesmen, he would
do better to learn from them. "Miss Manners believes that anyone can
learn manners, or at least pretend to have learned," wrote Ertan.
And in fact, there is a character trait that every diplomat who
arrives in Turkey is briefed about if he has to meet Erdogan: the
prime minister’s short fuse. Erdogan, who began his career selling
lemonade in the town of Rize on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, was shocked,
like other European leaders, by the pictures of destruction in Gaza
and by the numbers of dead and wounded. But as someone who believes
that "anger is an art of rhetoric," as he once said, he chose an
unconventional way of expressing his.
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This is not the first time that Erdogan has shouted at Israeli
leaders. About a year and a half ago he screamed at Shimon Peres
when he hosted him in Ankara, and before that he called former prime
minister Ariel Sharon a "terrorist," and described the deal signed
between Turkey and Israel for renovating Turkish tanks as a "disgrace."
We can only console ourselves with the fact that his close aides are
also exposed to a great deal of flak from him.
Erdogan has apparently forgotten a dark chapter in Turkish history, and
no, we are not referring to the massacre of Armenians in 1915. In the
1990s, Turkey destroyed about 3,500 Kurdish villages in the southeast
of the country as part of the long struggle against the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is classified as a terror organization.
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds were left homeless and were forced
to migrate to the large cities. Anyone visiting Istanbul or Ankara
can still today see the results of that huge migration. Thousands
of apartments that were built virtually overnight in order to house
the uprooted population decorate the approaches to those cities,
and in the area of Diyarbakir, in the southeast of the country,
there is still fear of the Turkish security forces.
In a phone conversation, a senior member of the Kurdish administration
in the Kurdistan region also compared the recent Turkish firing of
artillery on villages inside Iraqi Kurdistan to "the way you fired
into Gaza."
Incidentally, according to Turkish sources, the intelligence regarding
the location of the PKK training camps inside Kurdistan was gathered
with the help of Israeli drones that Turkey purchased – and continues
to purchase – from Israel.
As with the Armenian massacre, Israel bit its tongue when the Kurdish
villages were destroyed. The relationship formed at the time with
Turkey was more important. Only in off-the-record conversations are
Israeli officials willing to express anger and to remind Turkey that it
will soon need Israel’s help again when in about two months’ when the
Armenian issue comes up for discussion in the United States Congress.
The enigma of Turkish logic
But this accounting with Turkey is too simple. Israel needs Turkey
just as much as Turkey needs Israel. It’s not only a matter of Israel
Air Force exercises, weapons deals, flourishing tourism, Turkish
mediation between Israel and Syria and intelligence cooperation. A
unique strategic alliance has developed between the two countries,
an alliance that is no longer so dependent on the nature of the
governments or the prime ministers serving at any given time in
either country.
Turkey is being led at present by a religious party that makes sure
to present itself as a social-democratic group and is conducting a
nerve-racking dialogue with the army, which considers the party a
"fundamentalist danger," in the words of former chief of staff
Hilmi Ozkok.
And nevertheless that same "danger," which has excellent commercial
ties with Iran and good relations with Hamas and Hezbollah, is the
government that prevented the passage to Syria of Iranian transport
planes carrying weapons and whose ministers are frequent travelers
to and from Israel.
And that same "danger" that did not permit American forces to reach
Iraq through its territory in the Second Gulf War, is an ally of the
United States and a member of NATO.
Ostensibly, Turkish policy is a tangle of contradictions, but when
the country’s constitution grants the army the power to preserve the
character of the country as a secular country, while over 40 percent
of its approximately 70 million citizens vote for a religious party;
and when 1 million people demonstrate against Erdogan and the headscarf
law, but at the same time millions demonstrate against Israel after
seeing Palestinian Muslims being killed in Gaza – it is hard to
complain about the political and diplomatic zigzagging.
Israel is an important factor among Turkey’s many considerations, but
it is only one factor. A proper dialogue between the government and
its citizens, between the government and the army, and between the
government and its most important ally, the U.S., and all in light
of Turkey’s aspiration to become a member of the European Union –
mark the trail of Turkish logic.
CSTO LEADERS SIGN DRAFT DEAL TO FORM COLLECTIVE FORCE – MEDVEDEV
Itar-Tass
04.02.2009, 14.06
MOSCOW, February 4 (Itar-Tass) – The CSTO leaders coordinated and
signed a draft document to form collective reaction force, Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev said.
"We coordinated a draft document to form collective forces," Medvedev
said at a plenary session on Wednesday.
"We all agreed that it was necessary to solve this problem,"
he stressed.
The Russian president thanked his colleagues for the constructive work.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who is presiding in the CSTO, said,
"The creation of CSTO collective force is designed to strengthen CSTO
military components". "This will help us strengthen our potential,"
he added.
Earlier, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said, "Practical steps
will be considered to create a CSTO collective rapid reaction force
that might be used to rebuff military aggression, conduct special
operations against international terrorism and violent manifestations
of extremism, transnational organised crime and drugs trafficking,
and also for the elimination of effects of natural and technogenic
emergencies."
The Russian presidential aide recalled that currently each CSTO
member-state had its own rapid reaction force to be committed to
action in case of the emergence of common threats. "What will make
the proposed=2 0collective force so unique is that they will have a
permanent base in Russia, to which all other countries will delegate
their contingents," Prikhodko said, "Presumably, the force will be
created on the basis of the 98th paratroops division and the 31st
assault airborne brigade. Also, there are ideas of reinforcing them
in the final stage with Emergency Situations Ministry units and,
probably, with police. We are putting finishing touches to the draft
agreement and it is our hope we shall have it signed."
"The decisions the early CSTO summit is to make are expected to
take cooperation among CSTO allies to a new level and enhance the
organisation’ s role as a key stabilising factor in the post-Soviet
space," the Russian presidential aide said.
Before 2002 the CIS countries carried out their collective security
cooperation under a relevant treaty concluded on May 15, 1992. On May
14, 2002 the permanent signatories to the treaty transformed their
cooperation into a regional organization.
The Collective Security Council consisting of the member-countries’
heads of state is the CSTO supreme body, empowered to consider all
fundamental aspects of the organisation’s activity.
THEY NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MISS AN OPPORTUNITY: SECULAR "ANTI-ZIONIST" JEWISH GROUPS ECHO ZIONIST GROUPS
By Mary Rizzo
Palestine Think Tank
-never-miss-an-opportunity-to-miss-an-opportunity- secular-anti-zionist-jewish-groups-echo-zionist-gr oups/
Feb 2 2009
Bahrain
A very strange thing is happening at this moment within a circle of
people who like to consider themselves at the cutting edge of the
struggle for the Palestine, and we are referring to the individuals
who classify themselves as Secular Anti-Zionist Jews, and consider
themselves to be the "independent" Jewish voices, and as thus, the
avant-garde of "the Pro-Palestinian movement". Following what can
only be classified as a unique international event of major media
importance, and perhaps also of a certain historical significance, they
are protesting and stomping their feet in anger at the intervention
of Erdogan on a stage shared by the General Secretary of the UN,
the leader of the Arab League and the President of Israel.
These unhappy critics are in a few marginal sites and tiny discussion
groups to practically take up the cause of the American Jewish
Committee in criticising Erdogan. The interesting and very positive
fact that Erdogan would not allow the stream of lies uttered by
Shimon Peres to go unchallenged in the World Economic Forum (Davos)
Conference on Gaza seems to have eluded them all. They hardly seem
to notice that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan obviously had come
prepared for the sort of arguments he would be hearing, the kind
of justifications that Israel gives for its killing sprees, as he
took paper from his folder and read off of a sheet, (or tried hard
to before the moderator attempted to stifle the Prime Minister and
whisk the waiting public to their dinner) three quotes: the first,
from the Jewish Torah, the second, from Gilad Atzmon and the third
from Avi Shlaim.
Obviously, the Torah is quite authoritative, and even if some atheist
Jews don’t mind that God, someone they claim does not exist, is being
quoted, what counts is the message, after all. They have decided that
Erdogan did something terrible in quoting Gilad Atzmon. What is their
problem, with the message or the messenger?
First of all, the message: It stated pretty much the facts that
everyone who claims they are for the Palestinians should know by
now: "Israel’s barbarity exceeds ordinary cruelty." If anyone is
ready to state that Israel used anything less than the most crude
disproportionate force, may they speak now or forever hope for "peace".
It is also surprising that rather than state what Erdogan did
"right", they are bringing up Kurds, Armenia and other atrocious
aspects of Turkish affairs, past or present. This is true of the
attacks on Erdogan in the Zionist media right now, and it’s being
echoed by those who for a long time have been claiming they are
the forefront of the movement, even without the credentials for it,
unless their being Jewish so they can add their name to an appeal
is the dubious credential. It does seem odd that while the discourse
is Palestine, they are very happy to drag it to Anti-Semitism, which
obviously did not appear at all in what they are trying to destroy,
or to geo-political arenas far from Israel and Palestine. There is NO
difference between the Zionist campaign and the anti-Zionist Jewish
campaign. Both are to decide what the parameters of discourse are
and to destroy the messenger, while making the issue of how Jews feel
about themselves and how they think the world should speak about them
THE issue.
The messenger: Erdogan is being scoffed at for his belonging to an
Islamist party. Well, why should anyone be surprised that this is a
deadly sin for Jews who are Zionists and anti-Zionists alike. It is
as if it automatically means totalitarian religious regime that is
the enemy, and thus, the conditional support or the open criticism of
Hamas and Hezbollah. Whether or not that is the case of Turkey, one
has only to go there to find out. Women there are actually prohibited
from wearing hijab (how fundamentalist is that?) in public offices,
to cite but one example of the secular character of this state. Oh,
the other problem, that he’s bourgeois. Well, it seems that the
only ones acceptable are ones that are just like them, Secular
Marxists. Or Secular Liberals. Or Jewish Atheists. Or secular Jewish
Liberals… well, you get the picture.
Well, they wonder, how could Erdogan have gotten such an "obscure"
writer fall into his folder and be carried from Ankara to Davos and
directly to the stage? The critics maybe don’t know that papers by
Gilad Atzmon are widely circulated, and not only in the alternative
media, but actually they have entered the public discourse through
the front door. One of his recent papers was read aloud in full
on SkyTurk. Walking around Florence, today we found his papers in
Italian stuck under windscreen wipers, turn on your radio and you
are hearing him interviewed about Gaza. I suppose it is great to be
published in Socialist Unity, but if the argument used is that Atzmon
is fringe, margin, obscure, well, that argument once and for all has
bit the dust. It is not out of a sense of pride, and we admit, it is
indeed a matter of pride to hear your words or words of your friends
and allies used to tear down the shameful wall of lies by Peres,
while he can just sit and take it. It feels incredibly good. It is
enabling. If we can do it, not financed by anyone or doing anyone’s
business, everyone’s voice can be heard. As a matter of fact, Erdogan
made a lot of people happy. Almost across the board Palestinians and
Turks admired his bravery and determination. When he returned home,
he was welcomed "As a World Leader". Yet, some will try to undermine
that by calling it demagogy, with Turkey nearing elections.
Let’s stop to think for a moment. If it is an electoral tactic to be
as bloodthirsty as possible to win votes in Israel, and expressing
the humanitarian cries for a beleaguered people in Turkey is the
"winning choice". Which country would you rather live in?
And if it is indeed so that the people as a whole believe that Israel
is killing and killing in a way that exceeds anything necessary,
then the discourse of Atzmon is by no means marginal or fringe,
it is at the heart of the discourse. No one has to bombard people
with information or letters or campaigns to know how to call things
as they see it. They don’t need this Jewish organisation or that one
to tell them who to listen to and how to think, cornering them into
some kind of bizarre admission that identifying with these words is in
some way damaging to Jews and anti-Semitic and some of these movement
"leaders" will say, damaging to the movement or cause. In fact, the
conclusion to draw is that these writings must be touching nerves,
touching the deepest feelings of humanitarian concern and not ones
of political or personal expediency. The diffusion of these writings
has been by spontaneous proliferation, there is no press office or
political group lobbying, there’s just a person at his own computer
and the spread of information from there.
There is a rottenness of the "movement" if it does not recognise
when the moment to put aside their personal qualms or conflicts with
Atzmon and accept that something magnificent has happened, and the
humanitarians of the world feel it and know it. Persisting in the
campaign to silence Atzmon now would not only be LESS effective than
it was before, but it drops down the final mask, that these people
operate as crypto Zionists. Their agenda, and the agenda of the
American Jewish Committee is one and the same.
Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in
Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of
Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.
FRANCE TELECOM TO RENDER NUMEROUS AND INTERESTING SERVICES IN ARMENIA IN AUTUMN
ArmInfo
2009-02-02 11:48:00
ArmInfo. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan met Chairman and CEO of
"France Telecom" Company Didier Lombard in Davos.
As the Armenian presidential press service told ArmInfo, D. Lombard
thanked the president of Armenia for the meeting and personal
knowledge. He also introduced the short-term and long-term strategy
of his company in the economy of Armenia, as well as promised to act
quickly, efficiently and meet the up-to-date requirements. For his
part, S.
Sargsyan said it is of honor for every state to have a partner like
‘France Telecom’. S. Sargsyan expressed hope that entry of the company
in the field of communication may become a basis for development in
other branches of economy.
Didier Lombard emphasized that the third communication operator in
Armenia will be fully ready to render services in autumn with numerous
interesting innovations and mutually beneficial solutions.
To recall, the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia granted
a prime license to the Company in November, 2008, for operation of the
mobile communication network in GSM standard for 15-year period. Orange
SA Company (a structure of France Telekom) was recognized winner of the
tender as it offered the highest price for the license – 51,5 mln Euro.