CO-CHAIRS HAVE LEFT FOR KARABAKH
A1+
[11:50 am] 25 January, 2007
On January 25, the OCSE Minsk group Co-Chairs Yuri Merzlyakov /Russia/,
Mettew Bryza /USA/ and Bernard Fassier /France/ left Yerevan for
Stepanakert with the framework of the regional visit.
The Co-Chairs are to meet with NKR President Arkadi Ghoukasyan in
the course of their visit.
Reminder: during the previous visit to the region the Co-Chairs didn’t
go to Nagorno Karabakh because of the unfavorable weather conditions.
Dink: Victim of Deadly Denialism
ArmRadio.am
26.01.2007 10:32
"As several world political, religious and other civic leaders
condemn the January 19, 2007 Turkish premeditated murder of an
innocent Armenian journalist Hrant Dink (1954-2007), many optimists
expressed hope that as a result, a blanket positive change will take
place in what is now Turkey. They believe that Dink’s assassination
will automatically result into a positive change," Appo K. Jabarian,
Managing Editor and Executive Director of the USA Armenian Life
Magazine wrote an article titled "Dink: Victim of Deadly Denialism."
The author goes on to say: "Other observers anticipate that the
original perpetrators and their denialist descendants will continue
their genocidal campaign in denialism with an unpunished deadly
devotion to keeping the loot: the forcibly occupied Armenian lands of
Western Armenia and Cilicia, and the Greek lands of Constantinople,
Smyrna, Troy, Pontus and Northern Cyprus.
Setting my disagreements with the late fellow journalist Dink
aside, I consider him as the newest Armenian martyr of the Armenian
Genocide. Yes, we did have our disagreements, yet we were in complete
harmony with the noble goal of seeing a transformed Turkish society
that would ultimately atone itself by genuinely repenting its 1915-1923
genocidal crime against the Armenian nation; by making honest amends
to the Armenian people.
When this writer had asked him during his October 2006 visit in Los
Angeles about his position on the issue of the Turkish-occupied
Armenian lands, Dink had swiftly replied: "I’m living on these
lands." In my opinion, that is one of the root reasons why the
extremist Turks have encouraged a young Turk to annihilate Dink. The
Turkish "Deep State" is more concerned with losing much more than
their monopoly of power. They are fearful of "losing" their loot from
the Armenians: the historic lands of Western Armenia and Cilicia, and
personal and real properties confiscated from the Armenians.
In a January 22 article titled "A ‘Trabzon Legend’ Gave The Orders To
Kill Hrant Dink," the Turkish daily Hurriet wrote: "Yasin Hayal, the
man now suspected of giving the orders to 17 year old Ogun Samast to
murder journalist Hrant Dink. His ultra-nationalist rhetoric focused
on what he perceived as ‘enemies of the state,’ and he told the
disaffected youth who spent time with him that it was ‘their duty’
to see to the punishment of those who ‘insulted Turkey.’ … Hayal
reportedly admitted ‘I gave the gun and the money to Ogun Samast. I
am angry at the things, which are happening in this country. The
state is doing nothing to the people who are against Turkey. Which
is why I gave Ogun this job. He carried out his duty successfully,
and he helped rescue Turkey’s honor.’"
In a January 23 article titled "Armenia haunts the Turks again,"
Hugh Pope of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Dink, who was repeatedly
threatened by such nationalists, was left unprotected, but not just by
the Turkish police. Bad laws, malevolent prosecutions and a growing
nationalist hysteria helped create a lynch mob atmosphere. What
killed Dink, in short, is the Turkish republic’s inability to deal
with the Armenian issue – the charge that its predecessor state, the
Ottoman Empire, killed 1.2 million Armenian men, women and children
in a genocide that began in 1915."
Even the succeeding and currently ruling Turkish Republic under Mustafa
Kemal continued its predecessor Ottoman Turkey’s genocidal campaign
killing additional hundreds of thousands of innocent Armenians,
Greeks, Assyrians and Arabs, and others.
Pope continued: "Official Turkey is stuck in a rut of
denial. Discussing the great omissions on the subject in Turkey’s
public education remains taboo. Efforts to open archives and to
‘leave it to the historians’ lead to dead ends, partly because a
scholarly debate won’t assuage Diaspora Armenians who demand formal
acknowledgment of the genocide, and partly because of Turkey’s
anti-free-speech laws – most notoriously Penal Code Article 301,
with its catchall penalties for ‘denigrating Turkishness. ‘ "
There is righteous Turkishness embodied by individuals like Orhan
Pamuk, Ahmed Ertegun and others that deserves to be honored. And there
is brut Turkish denialism that needs to be condemned and discouraged.
There are genuine followers of Turkish Holy Islam that are worthy of
our respect, because they are the conscience of humane Turk in the
very footsteps of their forefathers who saved many Armenians from
annihilation, and undoubtedly would have done everything to protect
and save Dink’s life. And there are those Turks who masquerade
as "nationalists", yet they are usurpers of Armenians’ lands, and
desecrators of the Armenian churches and mutilators of the truth, just
like those denialist leaders in Ankara and elsewhere who have been
doing everything to intimidate Dink and others into silence through
acts of repression and deadly denialism – just like it happened on
Friday January 19 in front of Dink’s Agos weekly offices; an act that
cut short an "agos" (water furrow) for truth,democracy and justice."
ZANGEZUR COPPER AND MOLYBDENUM ENTERPRISE BIGGEST ARMENIAN TAXPAYER
BY RESULTS OF 2006
YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The State Tax Inspection adjunct to
the Armenian government published the list of 300 biggest tax paying
companies by the results of 2006. The Zangezur Copper and Molybdenum
Enterprise tops the list: the total amount of taxes and duties paid by
this enterprise makes more than 32 bln 805.5 mln drams (over 78.8 mln
USD). The next three places are occupied by the following companies:
ArmenTel which provides public services – 20 bln 257.3 mln drams,
ArmRusgazprom – 13 bln 733.4 mln drams, and mobile phone communication
operator K-Telecom – 9 bln 412 mln drams. Electric Networks of Armenian
is in 8th place – about 5 bln 250 mln drams.
Flash (about 9 bln 400.5 mln drams) and City Petrol Service (over 8
bln 784.8 mln drams) – the companies mainly engaged in fuel import –
are in 5h and 6th place respectively of the 2006 Big Taxpayer List,
while cigaratte importing Pares Armenia is in 7th place (7 bln 53.7
mln drams). Salex Group, a company that imports and sells foodstuffs,
is in 9th place (more than 5 bln 80.4 mln drams), and local cigarette
producers Grand Tobacco (about 4 bln 438.3 mln drams) and International
Masis Tobacco (about 4 bln 238 mln drams) are in 10th and 11th place
respectively.
By last year’s results, the biggest taxpayer in electricity generation
sector was the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (12th place), in production
of alcoholic drinks – Yerevan Brandy Company (15th place), car import –
Armenia Lada (16th place), banking sector – HSBC Bank Armenia (27th
place), food production – Grand Candy (33rd place), beer, juice and
soft drink production – Yerevan Beer (35th place) and in constriction
sector – North Island (62nd place).
Turkish Daily News , Turkey
Jan 24 2007
Who attended the funeral
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Turkish Daily News
Several international figures attended Hrant Dink’s funeral. Acting as
the representative of Ğajag Barsamyan, the leader of the Romania
and Bulgaria Armenian Churches, Gatagigos Karatekin II; religious
representatives of American Armenians Diyayr Sirpazan Mardikyan
and Viken Sirpazan; Claudia Roth from the German Green Party; and
Turkey-European Union Co-Chair of the Joint Parliament Committee
Joost Lagendijk were among participants.
Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Nusret Bayraktar;
Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Zeki Sezer; Motherland Party
(ANAVATAN) leader Erkan Mumcu; former Istanbul Mayor Ali Mufit
Gurtuna; Jewish community leader Ishak Haleva; Dogan TV Chairperson
of Executive Board Arzuhan Yalcindag; Bulent Oya Eczacibaşi;
Sabanci Holding CEO Guler Sabanci; and artists Ugur Yucel, Ferhat
Tunc and Yavuz Bingol all attended the church ceremony.
Times Online, UK
Jan 24 2007
"Orhan Pamuk, be smart, be smart!" he shouted.
Murder suspect threatens Turkey’s Nobel laureate
Times Online and AP in Istanbul
A man suspected of directing the murder of the prominent Turkish
Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, today appeared to threaten the life
of Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel laureate and Turkey’s best-known novelist.
The Anatolia news agency reported that Yasin Hayal, a nationalist
militant jailed for bombing a McDonald’s restaurant in 2004, called
out the threat as he was led handcuffed into a courtroom in Istanbul.
"Orhan Pamuk, be smart, be smart!" he shouted.
Turkish police have said that Mr Hayal has confessed to recommending
the murder of Dink, who was shot several times outside the offices of
Agos, the leading Turkish-Armenian newspaper he edited last week. Mr
Hayal is also accused of providing a gun and money to Ogun Samast, a
17-year-old who has confessed to the shooting.
Dink’s murder prompted an enormous silent procession in Istanbul
yesterday. Around 100,000 people filed through the city, holding
photographs and placards reading: "We are all Hrant Dink" and "We are
all Armenian" in recognition of the journalist’s commitment to
writing about the mass killing of Armenians by Turks at the end of
the First World War.
Both Mr Hayal and Mr Samast were in court this morning. The private
news station, NTV, reported that Mr Hayal called Dink a traitor to
his country.
Mr Pamuk, whose books are sold all over the world, became the first
Turk to win the Nobel prize for literature last year for a career of
writing in which he has tackled Turkey’s tense ambivalence towards
the West and its own competing nationalist and Islamic identities.
Although he is Turkish, rather than ethnically Armenian, Mr Pamuk has
much in common with Dink, and like the murdered journalist is a
leading liberal intellectual who has been prosecuted under Article
301 of Turkey’s penal code, which forbids writers from "insulting
Turkish identity".
Like Dink, who received dozens of death threats before his eventual
murder, Mr Pamuk has also written about the 1915-1917 massacre of the
Armenians and been threatened as a result.
Dink’s family has asked Turkey to use the journalist’s death to
prompt a national moment of reflection about how such violent
feelings could arise. The country’s Interior Minister, Abdulkadir
Aksu, said the killing was ordered by "circles who do not want Turkey
to develop and reach the level of prosperous and modern countries".
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is expected to
visit Dink’s relatives later today.
Meet the Monster: Turkish Fascism
Turkish Daily News
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
php?ed=mustafa_akyol
It is simply tragic and repulsive to see some prominent figures
in Turkey who insist on putting the blame on imagined ‘external
enemies.’ Alas, enough is enough, and it is time to be honest. What
we are facing is an internal enemy. And it deserves being called
‘Turkish fascism’
MUSTAFA AKYOL
Hrant Dink, a beacon of conscience and liberty, was shot dead on
Jan. 19. Since that black Friday, many Turks have shown the virtue
to condemn this heinous murder and cry out for the memory of this
noble man. Yet some of our "opinion leaders" have also invented
concealed plots against "the Turkish nation" behind this public
killing. This is, they rushed to conclude, a maneuver by "foreign
powers" and their intelligence services directed at putting Turkey
in a difficult situation in the international scene.
But lo and behold! The Turkish police caught the killer and he turned
out to be no agent of the CIA. Nor of Mossad, MI6, Mukhabarat, or some
People’s Army for The Liberation of The Turkish-Occupied Wherever. He
is neither Armenian nor Kurdish. He is, as his family proudly noted,
"of pure Turkish stock." Moreover, as he himself proudly noted, he
is a die-hard Turkish nationalist who killed Dink out of his zeal
for the "Turkish blood." It also turned out that the 17-year-old
apparatchik was directed by his elder "brothers" in Trabzon who
have an ugly history of nationalist violence. The city, after all,
is the citadel of ultra-nationalism: Catholic priest Father Andrea
Santoro was also shot there a year ago by a 16-year-old militant,
who had a profile very similar to his comrade who killed Dink.
In the face of all that, it is simply tragic and repulsive to see
some prominent figures in Turkey who insist on putting the blame on
imagined "external enemies." Alas, enough is enough, and it is time
be honest. What we are facing is an internal enemy. And it deserves
to be called "Turkish fascism."
Measuring the Turkish skull:
The term does not imply an organic link between Turks and the fascist
ideology. The latter is a modern disease that has influenced many
nations throughout the 20th century. Germans and Italians are the two
most obvious cases, of course, but there are countless others. Even
the quintessentially liberal Anglo-Saxons had their experience with the
monster. (Remember the Ku Klux Klan and the British Union of Fascists.)
In Turkey, the story of fascism is most ironic, because although our
contemporary fascists are fanatically anti-Western, the ideology is
an import from the West into the traditionally multicultural lands
of the great Ottoman Empire. It all began with the Social Darwinism
that some Young Turk intellectuals, such as Yusuf Akcura, acquired in
European capitals in the turn of the century. Their vision of a fully
Turkified state came true in the 1920’s, with the creation of the
Turkish Republic. Ataturk’s vision for this new state was not racist,
he instead defined Turkishness in terms culture and citizenship, but
things started to change in the ’30s. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
were admired by some of the Republican elite, such as Recep Peker,
the long-time general secretary of the CHP (the party, which is now
chaired by his intellectual descendant, Deniz Baykal.) The Turkey
of the ’30s also imitated corporatism, the economic model of fascist
Italy, and internalized Mussolini’s motto, "Everything for the State;
nothing outside the State; nothing against the State."
In the same period, "Turkishness" also acquired an ethnic meaning. An
officially sanctioned "scientific" congress was held in Ankara in 1932,
in which the "advanced" features of the "Turkish skull" was praised
and Turks were proudly declared to be "Aryans." During the same period,
public calls for applicants to government offices demanded them to be
"of the Turkish stock." Tevfik RuÅ~_tu Aras, the foreign minister,
affirmed, "Kurds will be beaten by Turks in the struggle for life." And
Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, the minister of justice, notoriously announced,
"In Turkey, non-Turks are the servants and slaves of Turks."
During the war years, Turkey also initiated the infamous Wealth Tax,
which was designed to confiscate the properties of its Christian
and Jewish citizens. 1942, the first and only Jewish labor camp was
established in AÅ~_kale, a district in Erzurum. Had the Third Reich
won the war, Turkey apparently would not have had much trouble fitting
into its "new order."
The hysteria on ‘internal enemies’:
Of course, Turkey never became fully fascist, but there is plenty of
evidence to argue that it was deeply influenced by that monstrous
ideology. But, alas, since Turkey never became fully fascist, it
never had the chance to fully liberate itself from it. Post-war
Germany, Italy and Japan started as tabula rasas, but Turkey had
only a partial transition to democracy. In 1950, the Democrat Party
(DP) came to power in the first free and fair elections since the
beginning of the republic, with the motto, "Enough, the nation has
the word!" But with a military coup in 1960, the DP was crushed by
despots in uniform, who did not hesitate to execute Prime Minister
Adnan Menderes and two of his ministers after a show trial.
Since then, fascism, not as a system but a spirit, has survived in
Turkey. The depiction of all other nations as "the enemies of Turks,"
the cult of personality built around the country’s founder, and the
deification of the state are all elements of that spirit. In recent
years, as a reaction to the EU-inspired push for more democracy and
freedom, the fascist rhetoric has ascended. Some elements of the media,
along with some pundits, bureaucrats and politicians, systematically
spread the fear that Turkey is facing existential threats. Kurds,
Armenians, Jews, Greeks, missionaries, non-nationalist Muslims —
anybody who falls outside the narrow definition of a "good Turk" —
are all seen as "internal enemies," who are in bed with the external
ones — the Europeans, the Americans, Iraqi Kurds, and, actually,
the whole world.
The militant who killed Dink is the product of this popular
hysteria. Unless we accept this bitter fact and start to think
seriously about our internal fascism, it is quite likely that Turkey
will produce more of them. "Nationalism is the last refuge of the
scoundrel," said Samuel Johnson. We should not tolerate becoming a
nation of scoundrels.
–Boundary_(ID_M0vwBQI3XmIEP68VaaQJZQ )–
PRESIDENT OF TURKEY CRITICIZES DECISION OF PARLIAMENT OF POLAND
CONCERNING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
ANKARA, JANUARY 24, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Turkish President
Ahmet Necdet Sezer expressed his country’s anxiety on the occasion
of the fact of recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Poland to
President of that country Lech Kaczynski arrived on an official
visit to Ankara. He criticized the decision made by the Parliament of
Poland in 2005 and stated: "Our wish is that the two people know and
understand one another better for what it is necessary to get rid of
prejudices what is a result of not enough awareness."
According to the "Turkish Daily News," Kaczyski protected his country’s
position in that issue and mentioned that the Genocide issue is rather
delicate in Poland and it is very difficult for politicians of Poland
not to respond issues concerning the genocide: "in 2005 the Parliament
of Poland recognized the Armenian Genocide. That decision was made
not because of sympathy we have towards Armenia," the President of
Poland mentioned.
The President of Poland at the same time expressed readiness to become
a mediator in the issue of improvement of relations of Turkey with
its neighboring states, particularly with Armenia.
Kaczysnki, according to Radikal, attached importance to the membership
of Turkey to the European Union and mentioned that the membership
of Ankara "will enrich" the European bloc from both economic and
military viewpoint.
Meurtre Hrant Dink: 150 manifestants a Lyon devant le consulat de Turquie
Agence France Presse
23 janvier 2007 mardi 7:51 PM GMT
LYON 23 jan 2007 — Près de 150 membres de la communaute armenienne
lyonnaise se sont rassembles mardi soir a proximite du consulat general
de Turquie a Lyon pour denoncer l’assassinat vendredi a Istanbul du
journaliste Hrant Dink, a constate un journaliste de l’AFP.
Les manifestants, hommes et femmes de tous âges, ont brandi calmement
des pancartes indiquant "Hrant Dink, victime des negationnistes (ndlr:
du genocide armenien)", d’autres une grande banderole sur laquelle
etait ecrit "Non a l’Etat turc negationniste".
Dans une lettre adressee au Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip
Erdogan et lue a l’assistance, Jules Mardirossian, president a Lyon
du Conseil de coordination des organisations armeniennes de France
(CCAF), a souhaite "de voir l’enquete et la procedure judiciaire
relative a cet assassinat conduites de manière impartiale et en toute
transparence, mais par dessus tout qu’elles elucident pleinement
toutes les responsabilites".
Une delegation a ensuite ete recue par le consul, qui a condamne
dans un communique l’"odieux attentat" contre le journaliste turc
d’origine armenienne. "C’etait une première mais la position du consul
ne nous a pas etonnes", notamment sur la question du genocide armenien,
a indique un membre de la delegation.
Quelque 200 membres de la communaute armenienne lyonnaise s’etaient
deja rassembles samedi, devant le memorial du genocide armenien,
situe dans le centre-ville.
Plusieurs fois poursuivi par la justice turque et devenu la cible des
cercles nationalistes pour ses propos sur le genocide armenien, M.
Dink, 53 ans, a ete tue par balle vendredi devant le siège de
l’hebdomadaire Agos.
Cent mille personnes, selon les organisateurs, ont assiste mardi a
ses obsèques a Istanbul. Interpelle samedi, son meurtrier presume
est âge de 17 ans.
–Boundary_(ID_OqEjLal8BJpD/wRnUNTTCg)–
Arab News, Saudi Arabia
Jan 22 2007
Editorial: In the Name of Turkishness
22 January 2007
The murder of Hrant Dink, the Turkish journalist, has caused widespread
anger and revulsion in the country. Once, while many Turks would
privately have deplored such a crime, it would have been mainly the
"usual suspects," left-wing lawyers, artists and academics who would
have protested publicly. Dink’s assassination, however, has produced
genuine regret and concern from a variety of quarters.
The Turkish police are to be congratulated for making rapid progress
in their investigation. Thanks to a father dutiful enough to report
his own teenage son to the authorities after he thought he recognized
him running away from the scene of Dink’s murder, seven suspects have
been arrested in northern Turkey. The 17-year old boy has allegedly
confessed to killing Dink because, in his view, the journalist insulted
Turkey and Turkishness.
Dink’s crime was to write about what happened in eastern Turkey
in the closing years of the Ottoman Empire under its young Turk
leadership. Unwisely lured into World War I on the side on the
German-led Central Powers, the Ottoman leadership was fighting a war
on three fronts – in Mesopotamia, Arabia and Thrace. It did not need
a new front opening up in the east. Egged on first by czarist and
then Bolshevik agents, there was a series of increasingly threatening
rebellions among the large Armenian community in the east. Armenians,
along with Greeks, Jews and other non-Turks had played an important
part in Ottoman society as officials, generals and businesspeople.
Many Turks and Kurds – the other principal inhabitants of the eastern
area of Ottoman Turkey – were slaughtered in the initial stages
of the rebellion. At one point however, these people, particularly
the Kurds, who had long nursed commercial and cultural resentments
against Armenians, struck back. That retaliation has been the source
of the deepest sensitivity to the modern Turkish Republic which, it
might be argued, had nothing to do with any official policy to crush
the rebellious Armenians. Over the years, the Turkish authorities
have sponsored learned books and collections of source documents
from the Ottoman archive, all setting out to deny first that there
were large-scale massacres, certainly not bordering on genocide,
but rather a military and militia campaign in which many civilians
perished. Nearly a century on, the immensely proud Turks still bridle
at any suggestion to the contrary.
Journalists such as Dink therefore could not fail to cause pain and
anger as they continued to maintain the massacres did indeed happen
with official approval, if not by official orders. Finding Dink’s
assassins and any extremists who supported them in the murder will
sadly not heal this sensitive wound. That will require a far deeper
examination of Turkish hearts and minds. Whatever the truth of what
happened in eastern Turkey all those years ago, modern Turkey cannot
afford to continue reacting so sensitively to allegations of massacre.
Turkish murder suspect: No ties
CNN International
Jan 22 2007
ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) — The teenage suspect who confessed to gunning
down a Turkish-Armenian journalist last week has no connection to any
organized group, Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah said Monday.
In his weekend confession, Ogun Samast, 17, said he had no regrets
for killing Hrant Dink and said he was angry at the prominent Turkish
journalist of Armenian heritage, according to Turkey’s state-run news
agency Anatolia.
Dink was shot to death in front of his Istanbul newspaper office
Friday in broad daylight.
Police arrested Samast on Saturday after a 32-hour search, authorities
said.
Turkish media, citing police, reported that Samast is 17, a high
school dropout and a possible drug addict.
He was arrested on a bus in Samsun, on his way to Trabzon. The bus
was waiting to leave the bus station, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler
told reporters.
During the arrest Guler said police found a gun and the white knit
that Samast was wearing on a surveillance video that had been aired
on Turkish television.
It was the surveillance video that led to the youngster’s arrest.
Police said his father saw widely publicized pictures from the
surveillance video and tipped them off.
The father is from Trabzon in northern Turkey on the Black Sea,
but Samast was living in Istanbul with his uncle, according to media
reports.
Authorities said the youngster was brought to Istanbul by plane Sunday.
At least 12 people have been detained in connection with the case in
Trabzon, and 6 of them are to be brought to Istanbul for questioning
on Sunday, CNN Turk said.
CNN’s Talia Kayali and Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.