Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Turkey still refuses to confront its past
By FATMA MUGE GOCEK

Globe and Mail, Canada
June 3 2005

Friday, June 3, 2005 Page A21

Last week was supposed to mark the opening of an unprecedented Turkish
conference on the issues surrounding the killing of Armenians during
the First World War. Organized at Istanbul’s Bosporus University,
the three-day event was intended to provide a platform to academics
to question Turkey’s official view of the 1915 killings. It also
would have showcased a new open approach by Turkish authorities,
eager to show the kind of freedom of expression that the European
Union expects of prospective members.

The conference never took place.

In the days leading up to the event, pressure was put on organizers
to include scholars who would defend Turkey’s official state view —
which denies that the killings were genocide and rejects estimates
that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred.

The more the university organizers resisted any such intervention,
the more the pressure mounted, with the conference ultimately being
described as “detrimental to the interests of the Turkish state
and nation.”

Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek condemned the gathering as
“treason” and “a stab in the back of the Turkish people.” University
officials had little choice but to “postpone” the event.

It is apparent that the government feels threatened by the significant
segment of the Turkish population who are increasingly determined to
face the long-standing issue of the Armenian question in a way that
counters the official Turkish thesis.

This official view is predicated on a Turkish nationalism that
perceives all existing interpretations of the Armenian issue as either
for, or against, the interests of Turkey. Because the conference
participants did not sanction the official thesis, the Turkish
government characterized the participants as rabble-rousers.

The Turkish state is unable to come to terms with its past because its
national identity is predicated upon the rejection of that particular
past. Advocating the nationalist ideology that the contemporary Turkish
state was built upon the ashes of the Ottoman Empire through the War
of Independence fought between 1919-1922, the Turkish state has always
argued that the nation had to look forward and not back into its past,
especially not into the period before 1919 that is considered to be
the birth year of the Turkish nation.

The alphabet reform in 1928, when the official script was changed
from Arabic to the Latin script, further alienated the Turks from
their own history. Given the dearth of historical knowledge, Turkish
society could not help but accept the official thesis on the Armenian
issue as historical reality.

With more scholars delving into that past to generate their own
interpretations, the state thesis began to lose ground. The state
efforts to cancel the Istanbul conference comprise what I hope is
the last attempt to salvage the dominance of the Turkish official
state thesis.

Turkey’s possible membership in the European Union is an underlying
reason why debate of the Armenian issue is becoming increasingly
prominent. The EU advocates the recognition and protection of the
rights of all minorities. Among such minorities that currently exist
in Turkey, the tragedy that befell the Armenians before, during
and after 1915, is the most dramatic, and the one that needs to be
most addressed and recognized by Turkish society and the state. Such
recognition necessitates an awareness of minority rights and a public
commitment to protect them.

Yet, such a recognition would undermine the Turkish state’s control
over the public sphere. The unwillingness of the Turkish state in
general, and the military and the political parties in particular, to
relinquish that control over society has generated this crisis. This
state unwillingness translates into a nationalist stand that portrays
European standards of human rights as inherently destructive and
debilitating. All advocates of such rights within Turkish society
likewise end up branded as subversive elements in service of either
Europe or the United States or both.

The chances of Turkey joining the European Union are diminished
without a state commitment to protect the rights of its citizens. In
the meanwhile, however, recent developments in Turkish society such
as the liberalization of the economy and the privatization of mass
communication have generated an increasingly conscious and vocal public
sphere that is willing to take issue with the current nationalist
stand of the state. If the current government utilizes its enhanced
communication with Turkish society — if it forms, in particular,
alliances with the liberal academics and public intellectuals to
develop a new democratic, multicultural vision for Turkey — then
the Turkish state could overcome this quagmire.

Fatma Muge Gocek, associate professor of sociology at the University of
Michigan, was an organizer of the cancelled Turkish-Armenia conference.

Redeployment of troops to Armenia not aimed against Azerbaijan -Russian envoy

Trend news agency
2 Jun 05

Baku, 2 June: “The Russian side has not yet made up its mind on the
possible re-deployment of Russia’s military hardware from Georgia to
Armenia, and media reports to that effect have nothing to do with the
re-deployment of Russian bases from one place to another,” the charge
d’affaires of the Russian Federation in Azerbaijan, Petr Burdykin,
told journalists today, Trend reports.

He acknowledged the possibility that the military bases might really
be supplied with something because, as a large facility, they cannot
stay without equipment throughout the year. He said that if it
wasn’t something made up by journalists, it is ordinary equipment,
the transfer of some hardware as part of ordinary material and
technical provision.

As for the re-deployment of military hardware from Georgia, the
diplomat said that “Russia is being urged to withdraw its troops from
Georgia as soon as possible and pressure is put on us not only by
Tbilisi, but also by other countries which urge us to seek ways of
doing it quickly, and one of the ways is to send the troops to our
military base in Armenia”.

The Russian diplomat said this didn’t mean that the arms were being
handed over to Armenia.

“This re-deployment, if it does take place, will not be aimed against a
third country, will not affect the settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict and does not run counter to international agreements,”
he said.

According to the diplomat, he has submitted the Russian side’s official
response to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry following the latter’s
note presented to him last week.

PRESS OFFICE
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 60; Fax: (212) 779-3558
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:

May 31, 2005
___________________

CATHOLICOS TO HELP BUILD HOMES WITH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, will travel to Michigan from June 21 to 22, 2005, to
participate in Habitat for Humanity’s annual Jimmy Carter Work Project.
The Catholicos will build homes alongside former U.S. President Jimmy
Carter.

The visit is the latest effort to encourage the work of Habitat for
Humanity by the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern).
Two years ago Bishop Vicken Aykazian, diocesan legate and ecumenical
officer, took leaders of Habitat for Humanity to Armenia to see how
their organization could work with the Armenian Church.

Last year he traveled to Armenia with a delegation that included the
state leaders of Habitat for Humanity in Michigan, who invited the
Catholicos to travel to Michigan this summer for the construction blitz
with President Carter.

“While working alongside President Carter, the Catholicos will have a
chance to discuss the involvement of the Armenian Church in the efforts
of Habitat for Humanity in Armenia,” Bishop Aykazian said. “Hopefully
that will foster a closer relationship between the two organizations,
because there is a real need for housing in Armenia.”

Recent reports suggest that 40 percent of Armenia’s population lives in
substandard housing. Part of the donation made by volunteers this
summer in Michigan will go toward funding Habitat for Humanity projects
in Armenia.

Bishop Aykazian recently had the honor of blessing the 100th home
completed by Habitat for Humanity Armenia. And many parishes around the
Diocese have organized trips to Armenia during which they volunteer to
build homes for Habitat for Humanity.

While in Michigan, the Catholicos will also meet with community leaders
and faithful.

“We all know there is a need for quality homes in Armenia, and I think
the visit by the Catholicos and his work with President Carter will draw
attention to that, and help us work to combat that problem,” Bishop
Aykazian said. “It will draw the attention not only of the general
public, but of the Armenian community as well. We are the ones who need
to give our support first. It is up to us to begin addressing this
serious issue in our homeland.”

— 5/31/05

# # #

Milford Daily News, MA
May 29 2005

A family legacy: Milford native shares a lifetime of stories and
local history

By Kristine Diederich / Daily News Staff
Sunday, May 29, 2005

Mitchell Kalpakgian was born in Milford into a tight-knit Armenian
family. Like many neighborhood families, his ancestors had immigrated
to the area in search of a better life. But unlike some of his
neighbors, his family’s story began tragically.

Kalpakgian’s father, at the tender age of 14, narrowly escaped
the Turkish massacre of Armenians in 1915 when he literally ran for
his life, at his mother’s insistence. He emigrated to the United
States and never saw his parents or sister again. Over the years, he
became a fixture in Milford; a trusted locksmith, hard-working
citizen and friend to many.

Over the years, as the family grew, so did their experiences —
happy and sad — including the warmth of friendship, cultural
traditions, faith and the strong bonds of family.

Kalpakgian has compiled his family stories in a new book titled,
“An Armenian Family Reunion: A Lifetime of Unforgettable and
Delightful Stories,” published by The Neumann Press.

Kalpakgian, 64, a 1963 graduate of Bowdoin College, earned a
master’s degree at the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. at the
University of Iowa. He has taught college English and is currently
academic dean and teacher of English, Latin and French at Mount Royal
Academy in Sunapee, N.H. He now lives in Warner, N.H. He was married
for 25 years to the late Joyce Narsasian and is the father of five
children and grandfather of four.

Kalpakgian recently took time to discuss his new book and his
life growing up in Milford.

Q: Tell me about your upbringing in Milford and your influences.

A: I went through all the grades in Milford (and graduated from)
Milford High School. I had wonderful high school teachers — Nello
Allegrezza, Dr. Miriam Ryan, Philomena Collavita. Dr. Ryan, who
taught Latin, told me, “You can go to college but you need to read
more, take the SATs.” I went to the (public) library to the
recommended reading shelf for high-schoolers. I took out “A Tale of
Two Cities” but struggled with it and realized I was lacking. But I
kept at it, took out another book and another book and another (and
it got easier).

We didn’t have books at home but my family was very supportive
of my interest (in reading); there was always a respect for learning.
To receive an education and to do work that you love was a gift.

Q: Tell me what your book is about.

A: Family culture is transmitted very naturally between family
members when you are living close (and I had that). When people are
spread out over the country, you don’t hear the same messages from
multiple sources and a larger extended family.

The whole idea (of sharing a wealth of family stories) came to
me because young people just have their youth culture, where they
identify more with their age group than being a member of a family or
extended family. They develop the feeling that the past doesn’t
relate to them; it’s dead and gone. They live more in the now and
don’t seem to know what wisdom is or value it, like they might if
they learned it from an elder or grandparent. The older generation
who want to pass something down don’t have anyone to receive it.

The idea of (sharing stories at) a family reunion came to me as
a way to pass on a body of knowledge that (young people) would never
get from a college course or a movie. The reunion in the book is a
device (and did not happen because my extended family is spread out
all over the country), but all of the stories are true.

Q: What led you to write the book when you did?

A: I realized at about age 60 or 61, I should (compile these
family stories) as soon as possible. What better gift could I give to
my children and grandchildren than these stories of mine and their
ancestors? I just felt inspired to do it.

Q:What kind of reader would enjoy this book?

A: The real theme of the book is the blessing and riches of
family life, and how much education you receive when you are all very
bonded and feel thankful for that. When you have received so much,
you feel a debt to share. (So I think) the average lay reader who
just enjoys reading, especially about family life, would enjoy this
book.

Q: Where can people buy the book?

A: Contact The Neumann Press at 1-800-746-2521 or
(The cost of the book is) $18.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: I’m working on and planning “The Home and Family in
Literature;” it will go through the classics in literature, like
Homer’s “Odyssey,” where he shows you that home is the center of
civilization. I want to write this book because we see so much of the
erosion of the family all around us.

If you are a MetroWest author and have recently self published a
book, let us know and we may feature you in a future Writer’s Corner.
Send an e-mail to [email protected] with information about your book
and yourself, including the town you live in. If you have an upcoming
book-signing or event, please be sure to contact us at least three
weeks in advance of the event.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
May 27, 2005 Friday 6:15 AM Eastern Time

GAZ automobile works to increase exports

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, May 27

The GAZ automobile-making works, in Nizhny Novgorod, is going to
increase exports by 6,000 cars as against 2004 and to bring it to
50,800, Sergei Shunin, director of exports department of the Russkie
Machiny Trade House, said on Friday at a conference, entitled
“Development of automobile market in Russia: current situation and
prospects.” The conference is being held within the framework of the
Autoforum-2006 exhibition.

According to his information, the exports will account for 21.9 per
cent of the total sales, planned for this year. In 2004, however,
exports amounted to 44,566 cars, which made 19.3 per cent of the
sales.

GAZ is going to deliver some 5,000 GAZEL and Sobol mini-buses to the
Bisan Firm, Izmir, Turkey, in 2005. In the future annual deliveries
of automobiles to Turkey will be brought to 8,000. The demand for
GAZEL and Sobol mini-buses in Turkey is estimated at 20,000 annually,
PRIME-Tass reports.

GAZ is planning to deliver this year 500 mini-buses to East European
countries, 1,500 to 2,000 – to Tajikistan, 23,000 – to Ukraine, 7,000
– to Kazakhstan and 2,000 – to Armenia. Aside from it, it is going to
deliver right-wheel cars and mini-buses to South Africa. GAZ is
planning to bring its exports to 100,000 a year by 2010.

According to Shunin, GAZ is planning to sell a total of 232,000 cars
in 2005, which exceeds the 2004 level by 0.3 per cent. The figure for
2004 was 231,321 cars.

GAZ accounts today for 6.5 per cent of Russia’s car output, 55.6 per
cent of truck output and 47.9 per cent of bus output.

Radio Free Europe, Czech Rep.
May 26 2005

Armenian Minister, MP Deny Brawling In Parliament

26/05/2005 20:48

Armenian Minister for Local Government Hovik Abrahamian and a
pro-government lawmaker denied on Thursday throwing punches on the
parliament floor the previous day despite eyewitness accounts to the
contrary.

The dispute occurred mid-way through the government’s regular
question-and-answer in the National Assembly, just moments after most
journalists covering the session rushed out of the main parliament
auditorium to interview Prime Minister Andranik Markarian.

At least one reporter claimed to have seen Abrahamian swearing at
parliament deputy Aramayis Grigorian and then being punched in the
face by the latter. Others heard their angry voices in the parliament
lobby.

However, both men denied that the row turned violent. `There was just
a businesslike conversation,’ Abrahamian told reporters. `I’m
surprised that it has been blown out of proportion. There was no
problem.’

`We may have raised our voices during the conversation, but there was
no fight,’ he added.

`There were no punches,’ Grigorian told RFE/RL.

The dispute broke out after Grigorian, who owns one of Armenia’s
biggest wineries, felt that Finance Minister Vartan Khachatrian did
not properly answer his question relating to the collection of excise
duties on alcohol and protested to Abrahamian. The lawmaker was
elected to the parliament from the electoral list of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), one of three parties
represented in the government.

Both officials are the natives of the southern Ararat region where
they have similar business interests. Abrahamian, long considered to
be Armenia’s unofficial prime minister, was named by President Robert
Kocharian late last month to head a newly created ministry which
oversees local governments and the government departments on
emergencies and refugee affairs. Kocharian also appointed Abrahamian
a member of his National Security Council, making him a potential
candidate for the post of prime minister.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andranik Markarian sought to downplay the
extraordinary argument, saying that neither men did anything wrong.
`The minister was not guilty,’ he said. `Neither was the deputy.’

A1plus

| 14:28:00 | 26-05-2005 | Politics |

COURT GUARDIANSHIP

We suppose there is no need in clarifying how `just and transparent’ the
Armenian courts are. There is no need to bring any examples of `exceed’
responsibility of the court officers and judges either.

Today at 10.00 a.m. Director of `A1+’ Meltex LTD has received a letter
informing that in an hour, at 11.00 a.m. in the Court of Cassations the
counter-claim on the decision by the Economic Court will be heard. To
remind, April 11 the RA Economic Court upheld the suit of the National
Academy of Sciences and decreed to evict `A1+’ from 15, Grigor Lusavorish
Street.

For about 15 years `A1+’ has occupied the territory in the above mentioned
building on contractual basis and fulfilled all the obligations provided by
the agreement. To note, it took the Economic Court several seconds to render
a decision. The appeal and counter-claim submitted by Meltex LTD were turned
down.

Evening Standard, UK
May 25 2005

Oil pipeline to end Middle East ‘rule’
Lech Mintowt-Czyx, Evening Standard,

AN OIL pipeline intended to sweep away decades of western reliance on
the Middle East was opened today. The 1,094-mile line from the
landlocked Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean is designed to free the
region’s huge potential reserves of oil – thought to be the third
largest on the planet.

Analysts hope the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project will supply more than
1% of the world’s oil needs within months and help develop capacity
to 6m barrels a day, 8% of the total required, within five years.

The pipeline, which is 30% owned by BP, will eventually feed from an
underground reserve capable of holding 220bn barrels of oil, enough
to meet current needs for eight years.

At an opening ceremony today at the Sangachal oil terminal, 25 miles
south of the Azerbaijani capital Baku, the first drops of oil were
pumped into the £2.2bn pipeline, which will take five months to fill
along its whole length. The first shipment of Caspian oil from the
Turkish port of Ceyhan is expected before the end of the year.

At the opening US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said: ‘This is a
contribution towards an increased supply in oil in the world. It adds
a new supplier of some consequence. We view this as a significant
step forward in the energy security of that region.’ Azerbaijan
President Ilham Aliyev added: ‘The whole region needs this pipeline.’

Described by BP as the ‘world’s biggest energy scheme’, the pipeline
passes the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and eastern Turkey to the port
of Ceyhan, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

Azerbaijan will earn taxes and royalties on the oil, while Georgia
and Turkey are to profit from transit fees. It is thought the wider
Caspian region has oil reserves bigger than those in both American
continents, with the potential to provide the west’s oil needs for 50
years. There are also proven reserves of gas at least as large as
those controlled by Saudi Arabia.

The project, which took 10 years to design and build, runs through
some of the most inhospitable terrain and politically volatile
territory in the region. In Azerbaijan, it goes close to a ceasefire
line with Armenia where there are still frequent clashes over a
territorial dispute. Georgia is fighting separatist conflicts while
in Turkey the pipeline skirts the Kurdish heartlands.

In an attempt to prevent sabotage the line has been buried several
metres underground for most of its length and will be guarded by
local police forces. There have also been tensions with Russia, which
feels it has been cut out of the deal.

WOOD-TV, MI
May 25 2005

MSU prof disappointed by postponement of Armenian genocide conference

ISTANBUL, Turkey Three Turkish universities said today that they are
postponing a conference to discuss last century’s mass killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

The move follows a government minister’s harsh criticism of the
conference.

Michigan State University sociologist Muge Gocek (MOO’-geh GOH’-chek)
traveled to Istanbul for the conference.

She says she’s disappointed by the postponement and says the
conference would have been a chance to show the effectiveness of
Turkish democracy.

Armenians say one-point-five (M) million of their people were killed
in a deliberate campaign of genocide.

Turkey says the death count is inflated and says that Armenians were
killed in civil unrest.

CanWest News Service, Canada
May 24, 2005 Tuesday

Lebanese voting fraught with tension

by Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service

BEIRUT

BEIRUT — Unlike some reluctant Canadians, who were happy to avoid a
federal election next month, Lebanese voters are ecstatic to be going
to the polls in parliamentary elections that begin on May 29 and end
on June 19.

It seems almost everyone here agrees with U.S. President George W.
Bush that democracy is an idea worth trying, especially since
February’s assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, which
became the catalyst for this Sunday’s vote.

However, Lebanon’s elections are fraught with the complex ethnic and
sectarian tensions that have always arisen in a country notorious for
its long history of communal fighting.

The voting will be held in four stages beginning with Beirut.

Lebanon’s sizable Christian minority think the elections, although
backed by the UN and supported by the Bush White House, are skewed
against them.

Several prominent Christian religious leaders have complained their
communities’ chances are doomed because the elections are being held
according to a complicated script overseen by Syria five years ago
that reserves more seats for Muslims than Christians.

Neighbouring Syria has been widely accused of complicity in Hariri’s
death, which triggered huge anti-Syrian protests. Damascus only
withdrew its troops recently under intense pressure from the U.S. and
Europe.

Despite their misgivings, the Christian community, which is itself
divided among Maronite, Catholic and Orthodox Armenian and Greek
factions, badly wants these elections because they want a new
government that has far fewer ties to Syria.

“Christians must vote en masse in order to be heard,” said
24-year-old shop clerk Tania Kikano who is a Maronite, an Eastern
Rite sect with links to the papacy in Rome.

“It is something every Christian understands. We have to deal with
what we have here, not what we want.”

For their part, Shia Muslims, who are Lebanon’s largest and fastest
growing population bloc, fear a new electoral law may be in place
after this summer’s vote, giving them less political power than their
numbers merit.

“We badly need this election and naturally hope good things will come
from it,” furniture merchant Raif Kiaik said before laughing out loud
at Christian unease.

GRAPHIC:
Photo: Darko Vojinovic, AP; Men sell fruit and vegetables in front of
a building covered with pictures of Lebanon’s slain former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, in Beiru. Hariri’s son Saad is heading a
coalition of candidates running in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections
scheduled to start on May 29.