Author: Jilavian Emma

Rabble, Canada
Oct 9 2005
X-Sender: Asbed Bedrossian <[email protected]>
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Bridging the Christian-Muslim divide

While no one in Europe is crazy about the Turks joining what happens
to be a largely white association (Hungary is 52 per cent in favour
and Britain is 45 per cent), only 10 per cent of Austrians favour
Turkish membership.

>by Heather Mallick
October 9, 2005

It may have taken 40 years, but it finally happened this week: The
European Union opened membership talks with Turkey.

I have watched the especially intense year-long run-up to this moment
with fascination and disgust. It was like being a spectator at a
cockfight, with ugly squawks, blood-soaked feathers and the stabbing
of beaks into the meat beneath the skin, the two cocks all the while
denying that this was, in fact, a cockfight, oh no, and the EU
spectators secretly hoping Turkey would expire in the straw of a
heart attack. It wouldn’t look good if an Islamic nation were pecked
to death.

Supposedly, the fight was over Turkey being too big, or too poor, or
too full of possible migrants. It wasn’t about Muslims joining what
former EC head Jacques Delors once called a `Christian club.’

Neither was it about whether Turkey was a European-type nation or
more of an Asian-ish, wrong-side-of-the-Mediterranean kind of
country. Not that they’re not lovely people, of course. Fine
peasants, we’re sure, but we won’t have them in our home. You do
understand.

That’s how racism works. One German-American writer in The Guardian,
disregarding the fact that the European nations fight their best wars
with each other, said white people should be allowed to mourn the
eventual loss of their culture to immigrant hordes. What is white
culture? Egg-salad sandwiches? Fridge magnets? She did not say.

The key is that while no one in Europe is crazy about the Turks
joining what happens to be a largely white association (Hungary is 52
per cent in favour and Britain is 45 per cent), only 10 per cent of
Austrians favour Turkish membership. The pollsters were surprised.
Austrians were the only respondents who saw `almost no positive side’
to letting the Turks in, the BBC reported, not even envisioning
`improved understanding between Europe and the Muslim world.’

Every EU nation agreed to negotiate with Turkey except Austria, which
said talks should take place only about a `privileged partnership,’
not actual membership.

Austria got dirty looks. The conference hall fell silent, I assume. A
polite cough was heard from Germany. It’s unlikely there were Jews in
the room, Europe having a distinct shortage of Jews on its mainland,
but they were on European minds. Far-right Austrian politician Joerg
Haider, whose election had once brought EU sanctions against his
nation, had campaigned hard against the Turkish membership effort.

So Austria caved, doubtless reassuring itself that the negotiations
will take a decade, Turkey has to swallow 80,000 pages of EU law and
even then, it will take only one vote to blackball the country.

The EU wants Turkey badly for economic reasons. With a population of
72 million, it has plenty of young, educated people. Europe is
getting panicky about its low birth rate, caused by the refusal of
working women to have large families and resultant miserable lives.
At some point, Europe will need that younger work force.

In addition, Turkey, while mostly Sunni Muslim, is a secular
republic. Kurds, who make up 20 per cent of the population, see the
EU as a guard for their human rights, which it would be. Turkey,
notorious for arrests without trial and severe torture of prisoners,
claims to be trying to improve its human-rights record and treatment
of women. The charges recently filed against Turkish novelist Orhan
Pamuk for deploring Turkey’s killing of 30,000 Kurds since 1984 and
the 1915 Armenian genocide were inspired by reactionaries aiming to
stop the talks. They failed.

After watching the cockfight for a year without taking sides, I am
convinced that Turkey’s entrance into the EU, whose human-rights laws
are a model for the world, is our last best hope for a peaceful
understanding between the so-called Christian and Muslim solitudes.

Those in doubt might wish to read Indian novelist Vikram Seth’s new
book, Two Lives, a stunning biography of his great-uncle Shanti (from
India) and great-aunt Henny (a Jew who escaped Second World War
Germany at the last minute). It brings home the horror of the slow
humiliation and demonization of the German Jews, who considered
themselves utterly German. It shows how insiders are made into
outsiders, how Henny’s sister, Miss Lola Caro, an elegant German
(Jewish) girl, went from eating Stollen with her German (Christian)
friends in 1931 to Birkenau in 1943, stripped, thrown into a room
with perforated pillars filled with Zyklon-B, gassed, grapple-hooked
and burned to ash. That’s 12 years of humiliation.

Imagine what the Palestinians feel. Imagine how a Turk, wanting to
modernize Turkey, feels at being rejected for his race and religion
for 40 years. Hitler would be giggling now. Think how much time
Muslims have had to be humiliated by the Western world. Perhaps
globalization speeded up the process.

When we seek an explanation for the existence of young, educated,
middle-class suicide bombers, humiliation fits the bill. An
Associated Press interview with a suicide bomber – he changed his
mind when he saw a mother and two children in a café – suggests that
bombers are driven `not by poverty or ignorance, but by a lethal mix
of nationalism, zealotry and humiliation.’

Turkey had already declared that it would give up on Europe if it
were rebuffed this time. The fact is, it would have been utterly
humiliated. In Western eyes at least, the squalid objections of
Austria, a country that unlike Germany has never truly faced its Nazi
past, would have been plain evidence of racism. Austria wanted a wall
around Europe, but the world doesn’t work that way, we hope.

Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing was angry at the
welcome extended to Turkey. The EU was risking replacing a `grand
French project of political union’ with `a large free-trade zone,’ he
said.

In fact, it is the opposite. It is a hand extended in hope.

Heather Mallick’s column is in The Globe and Mail each
Saturday. It appears on Sunday in rabble.ca.

Kathimerini, Greece
Oct 8 2005

Armenian journalist convicted for `insulting Turkish identity’

ISTANBUL (AFP) – An Istanbul court yesterday sentenced
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to a six-month suspended
sentence for `insult to the Turkish national identity,’ his lawyer
told AFP. Both the lawyer, Fethiye Cetin, and Dink said they would
appeal the decision. Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, was on trial for a February 2004 article calling on
Armenians to `turn to the new blood of independent Armenia, which
alone can free them of the burden of the diaspora.’ In the article,
which dealt with the collective memory of the Armenian massacres of
1915-1917 under the Ottoman Empire, Dink also called on Armenians to
symbolically reject `the adulterated part of their Turkish blood.’

CNN International
Oct 2 2005

EU holds emergency talks on Turkey

Sunday, October 2, 2005; Posted: 6:06 a.m. EDT (10:06 GMT)

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
said Sunday European leaders must decide whether the EU will rise to
challenge of becoming a global power or remain a “Christian club,” as
they try to break a deadlock on starting membership talks with his
country.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in statements published
Sunday that Turkey was not intent on starting European Union
membership talks at any price — reiterating Ankara’s position that
it will never accept new conditions, or any alternatives to full EU
membership.

Predominantly Muslim Turkey — a largely poor country of about 70
million — is scheduled to start long-awaited membership talks on
Monday, but those talks have now been thrown into disarray over
Austrian objections.

EU foreign ministers were to hold a last-ditch meeting in Luxembourg
later on Sunday to try and overcome reservations from Austria, which
wants Turkey to be offered a “privileged partnership” with the EU
instead of full membership.

“We are not striving to begin negotiations no matter what, at any
cost,” Gul said in an interview published in Yeni Safak newspaper.
“If the problems aren’t solved then the negotiations won’t begin.”

Several countries also have been pushing Turkey to recognize EU
member Cyprus, and the European Parliament called on Turkey this week
to recognize the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks at the
beginning of the 20th century as genocide.

Erdogan, addressing lawmakers of his party at a resort just outside
of Ankara, said Europe was at a historic crossroad.

“Either it will show political maturity and become a global power, or
it will end up a Christian club,” he said.

“No EU decision will deviate Turkey from its course” toward further
democracy and reforms, he said. “We will, however, be saddened that a
project for the alliance of civilizations will be harmed.”

Erdogan spoke to Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel by telephone
on Saturday, telling him that a privileged partnership was not an
option.

After more than 40 years of aspiring to join the European Union,
Turkey feels it is being held hostage on the eve of negotiations by
Austrian leaders using Turkey’s EU bid as an issue in upcoming
national elections.

Thousands of supporters of an anti-EU ultranationalist party were
scheduled to hold a rally in Ankara Sunday, in part to protest
increasing demands and conditions being forced on Turkey.

Gul said Saturday, “If the European Union decides not to keep its
word, if its own leaders decide to forget their signatures beneath
the decisions they’ve made before the ink has even dried … if they
decide to ignore all this and impose new conditions that Turkey will
never accept … then of course in that case this kind of partnership
can never be.”

A poll by A&G Research of 1,834 people in 19 provinces showed the
majority of Turkish people remain supportive of the EU bid, with 57.4
percent agreeing with the statement, “Turkey must join” the EU. The
poll, which was taken Sept. 24-29, had a margin of error of 2
percent.

CIS INTERIOR MINISTERS UNDER ONE ROOF

A1+
| 14:00:56 | 29-09-2005 | Politics |

The session of the Council of CIS Interior Ministers started in
Yerevan today.

The Ministers will discuss the ways of combating terrorism via
creation of international legal basis, harmonization of the country
legislation and unification of efforts of the legislative and executive
bodies. Organized crime, illegal circulation of drugs and weapons,
illegal migration and trafficking in people will be in the limelight
of the session participants, who realize that struggle against the
above-mentioned problems in impossible within one country.

“Today, when the world faces new challenges, we are charged wit the
task to elaborate a unified strategy and efficient counterblow against
the most dangerous demonstrations of crime”, Armenian Prime Minister
Andranik Margaryan stated during the sitting.

Rocking Denny’s boat
System of a Down rallies outside Hastert’s office

By Matthew DeFour
Staff writer
Sept. 28, 2005

BATAVIA – Politics in music hasn’t changed much since the days when Neil
Young lamented “four dead in Ohio,” but politics in practice has.

Heavy metal rockers System of a Down headlined a political rally at noon
Tuesday outside U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Batavia office to
bring awareness to the slaughter of thousands of Armenians by the Turks
in the 1920s.

Lead singer Serj Tankian, whose grandfather survived the massacres,
delivered a personal letter asking the speaker to call for a House vote
on two controversial resolutions that would recognize the massacres as
genocide.

“By allowing this vote, and allowing the will of Congress to be freely
expressed, you will be doing the right thing morally and, at the same
time, encouraging Turkey to deal honestly with its past and more openly
with its future,” Tankian read though a megaphone to a crowd of about
125 people, including elderly Armenian descendants of the survivors and
young fans who will see the band perform Friday at Allstate Arena in
Rosemont.

Tankian handed a copy of the letter across a police line to a sergeant
who took it inside to Hastert’s office. Hastert himself was in
Washington and unable to make an appearance, but a spokesman said the
speaker was attentive to the demonstrators’ concerns.

“He’s allowing the House to move through the process and he’s listening
to different viewpoints,” spokesman Brad Hahn said. “As a speaker he has
an obligation to build consensus.”

The question of whether to recognize the atrocity as genocide has
divided Americans of Turkish and Armenian descent for decades, and the
U.S. relationship with Turkey, especially during the Iraq War, has
complicated the matter.

Demonstrators emphasized that Hastert promised the Armenian community in
August 2000 that he would allow the House to vote on a resolution, but
since then he has had two opportunities to do so without result.

In October 2000 and July 2003, separate House committees passed
resolutions that would have recognized as genocide the murders committed
by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. Neither resolution was
scheduled for a House vote before the end of the term.

Hastert has said that both the Clinton and Bush administrations have
opposed the resolutions because of an alliance with Turkey.

Last week, the House International Relations Committee passed a
resolution by a vote of 33-11, calling for Turkey to acknowledge the
atrocity as genocide. Another resolution that passed 40-7 calls on the
United States to do the same.

“On these particular (resolutions) he (Hastert) hasn’t been dragging his
feet – yet,” said Greg Bedian, chairman of the Armenian National
Committee of Illinois. “But three strikes and we’ll see what happens.”

Bedian helped to organize the event along with the Armenian National
Committee of American, the Axis of Justice and the Armenian Youth
Federation, which successfully lobbied Springfield this year to pass
legislation recognizing the atrocities in public education curriculum.

When Tankian finished reading his letter, the audience cheered for him
to give a rallying speech, but he said he would rather meet everyone
individually. As he worked his way through the crowd, taking pictures
and signing autographs, some greeted him in Armenian while others
thanked him for making them aware of the issue.

“Up until a couple days ago, I had heard nothing of this,” 15-year-old
David Gerhard of Downers Grove told Tankian. “But I became outraged that
something like this hasn’t been taught in any of our classes.”

Gerhard, like many of the young people in the crowd, heard about the
event – and the issue – through the band’s e-mail, which wasn’t sent out
until Monday night.

Most of the demonstrators arrived by bus from Glenview and other Chicago
suburbs, though some came from as far away as Minnesota, Wisconsin and
Indiana.

They brandished signs that read “You can’t rewrite history” and chanted
“You can’t buy the truth.”

Read between the lines, that last chant could have been a reference to a
recent Vanity Fair magazine article in which a translator alleged that
Hastert had received campaign contributions from Turkish officials to
stymie the House vote in 2000. But aside from murmurs in the crowd,
organizers never mentioned the article or allegations in their speeches
or as part of the program.

“I think that speaks to the validity of the Vanity Fair report,” said
Hahn, who reiterated Hastert’s position that the article had no
credence.

After about an hour, the event came to an end with Armenian-Americans
young and old singing the Armenian national anthem.

Heratch Doumanian came from Indiana to participate in the event and
honor his grandparents and uncles and aunts who “died in the desert.”

“(The legislation) will prevent future genocide,” Doumanian said. “If
people realize they’re accountable for it.”

;;

;;

PRESIDENT OF FINLAND WELCOMES ARMENIA’S INVOLVEMENT IN NEW NEIGHBORHOOD PROGRAM

Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Sept 27 2005

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 27, NOYAN TAPAN. At the invitation of RA President
Robert Kocharian, Mrs Tarja Halonen, the President of the Republic
of Finland and her husband Pentti Arajarvi arrived in Armenia on an
official visit on September 26

Robert Kocharian’s and Tarja Halonen’s private conversation took
place after the official ceremony of meeting the high-ranking guest
at the RA President’s residense on September 27. The heads of the
two countries discussed issues concerning the bilateral relations,
the European Union-Armenia cooperation, regional problems as well as
exchanged opinions concerning issues of mutual interest.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA President’s Press Office, Mrs.

Halonen welcame Armenia’s involvement in the New Neighborhood Program
of the European Union and mentioned that in its foreign policy,
Finland gives a greater role to developing of relations with the
South Caucasian coutries, particularly for Finland will undertake
the chairmanship of the European Union the next year.

Then negotiations with the participation of Robert Kocharian and
Tarja Halonen took place in a enlarged staff. Primary directions
of the economic cooperation and possibilities of their activization
were discussed.

MONTEBELLO PAIRS WITH ARMENIAN CITY
By Nisha Gutierrez, Staff Writer

San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Whittier Daily News, CA
Sept 26 2005

MONTEBELLO — Members of the Armenian community joined Montebello city
officials Sunday as they announced the inauguration of Stepanakert,
as their next sister city.

The Armenian city of Stepanakert , is the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh,
which is home to about 40,000 people.

Serge Samoniantz, committee member for Montebello’s Sister City
Program, said that the need for an Armenian sister city came as a
request from Montebello residents.

“There is a large Armenian presence here,” Samoniantz said. “They
came to us with the idea about four years ago. Since then we chose
the city and came up with a plan.”

The plan, according to city officials, is to embrace cultural exchange.

“It’s for two different worlds of people to get to know each other’s
culture and come together as the world gets smaller,” said Mayor
William Molinari.

The committee will be requesting the City Council to formally vote
on acquiring Stepanakert as a sister city at the Oct. 12 meeting.

However, Samoniantz said he is confident about the vote.

“We didn’t jump the gun by having this inauguration,” he said. “We
are confident the city of Stepanakert will be approved and when it
(is), the work will have already been started.”

The program with Stepanakert will be made up of cultural, educational,
health care and trade exchange so people can be exposed to how things
are done in a different part of the world.

The committee is inviting members of the public to attend the council
meeting to show their support for the program.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower began the U.S. Sister City Program in
1956 as a partnership between different groups of people, created
to promote cultural understanding, increase global cooperation and
enhance economic development.

Montebello’s first sister city, Ashiya, Japan, was established in 1961.

Armenpress

UNICEF, GOVERNMENT OF ARMENIA SEAL MEMORANDUM ON CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM
REFORM IN LORI REGION

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS: UNICEF, the Ministry of Labor and
Social Issues and the Governor’s Office of Lori region signed today a
Memorandum of Understanding, laying a foundation for the comprehensive
reform of child protection system in the region.
“The existing child protection system relies heavily on a system of
institutions, that instead of strengthening capacities of families to care
for and protect their children, pulls children into residential care
institutions, where they live isolated from the broader familial and social
network that is essential for their healthy development,” Sheldon Yett,
UNICEF Representative in Armenia stressed. The Memorandum of Understanding
acknowledges the commitment of the authorities of Lori region to take up a
more holistic approach to services designed to protect the welfare of
children. “The current child protection system is not designed to
systematically identify, report and refer cases of abuse, neglect and
exploitation of children to relevant authorities in the health, education
and law enforcement sectors. Consequently, these violations go unreported
and children are not systematically referred to appropriate services,” Yett
said.
Reform of the child protection system in Armenia is one of the major
strategic pillars of the ten-year National Plan of Action for the Protection
of Child Rights adopted by the Government in 2003 and closely linked to the
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. “It’s a long term process that centres on
helping institutions to reach out and support the core role of families in
the care and protection of children. It involves strengthening monitoring
systems and the links between both national and local institutions, the,”
UNICEF Representative noted, adding, “such reform is likely to take a number
of years before being completed.”
The child protection system reform in Lori region started in 2004 with
the introduction of the so-called “Human Rights Based Approach to
Programming (HRBAP)”, an approach that involves not simply identifying
needs, but a process of enabling and empowering those not enjoying their
rights to healthcare, education and other social and economic rights, to
claim them. The approach helps to assess and identify gaps and priority
areas and draw up strategies to address them. UNICEF trained twenty experts
from national, regional and community on the practical application of the
HRBAP tools. With UNICEF support, these experts then conducted a situation
analysis of children in Lori region. Based on the findings of the situation
analysis, a “proposal for change” addressing gaps in the child protection
system has been developed.
The implementation of this “proposal for change” will help to make
services for children more comprehensive, consistent and targeted as well as
will enable the development of mechanisms to prevent, identify and respond
to cases of child rights violations at all levels.

ARMENIA EXPO 2005 KICKS OFF IN YEREVAN

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Sept 17 2005

TEHRAN, Sept. 17 (MNA) – The 5th Armenia Expo 2005 international
exhibition was inaugurated yesterday in Yerevan, the capital city
of Armenia. The exhibition focuses on 4 sectors of construction,
transportation, computer and foodstuff and soft drinks industries.

There are over 180 international companies from 20 countries such as
Iran, Russia, Germany, Canada, England, China, Turkey and Romania
presenting their products in an area of 1,800 square meters. Karen
Cheshmaritian, the minister of Armenia’s Trade and Economic
Development, in the opening ceremony of the exhibition announced that
this is the largest gathering of its kind in terms of number of states
and variety of participants after the independence of Armenia.

Most Iranian participants were dissatisfied with officials for lack of
passing proper information and precise details for their understated
presence. Moreover, given the industrial potential of Armenia and
strong presence of Iran’s industrial competitors, no Iranian Embassy’s
official was present in the event, they further complained.

MEDIUM-TERM EXPENDITURE PROGRAMME ADOPTED

Azat Artsakh Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
15 Sept 05

In accordance with the law on the NKR Budget System the government
adopted the medium-term expenditure programme for 2006-2008 by the
August 29 decision No. 374. The programme was extended to the National
Assembly. The macroeconomic side of the programme foresees an 11.2 per
cent increase of the GDP in 2006-2007 and an 11.5 per cent increase of
the GDP in 2008. By the medium-term programme the state budget
receipts in correlation with the GDP are estimated to total 16.3 per
cent in 2006, 17.2 per cent and 17.8 per cent in 2007 and 2008
respectively. Return on tax in correlation with the GDP is estimated
13.4 per cent in 2006, 14.5 per cent in 2007 and 15.2 per cent in
2008. In 2006-2008 the return on tax is estimated to mount to 9.3
billion, 11.2 billion and 13.3 billion drams respectively. For the
upcoming three years annual increase of salaries and the retirement
benefit is foreseen by the medium-term expenditure programme. In
2006-2008 the average salary of teachers will increase from 50.5
thousand drams to 58.8 thousand, 64.2 thousand and 70.1 thousand drams
respectively. The salary of administrative workers will increase
too. The average salary of doctors will be 48.7 thousand, 54 thousand
and 60 thousand drams respectively and the salary of other health
workers will be 31.8 thousand, 35 thousand and 38.8 thousand drams
instead of the present 25.8 thousand drams. The basic pension will
increase up to 4250 drams in 2006, 4500 drams in 2007 and 5000 drams
in 2008. The value of one year of service will be 180 drams in 2006,
210 in 2007 and 250 in 2008. In the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 the
average retirement benefit will increase from 10.9 thousand to 12.4
thousand, 13.7 thousand and 15.5 thousand drams respectively. The
programme also provides for an increase of the allowances of certain
categories of children. It is planned to increase the basic salary of
civil servants as well. In 2006-2008 their salary will increase from
20 thousand to 30 thousand, 35.5 thousand and 42 thousand drams
respectively. In the upcoming years the government will focus on the
social problems of refugees and the programme of raising birthrate. In
2006-2008 considerable sums will be directed at the construction and
improvemenst of irrigation systems in the country.

AA.
15-09-2005