Author: Kalashian Nyrie

CONVERSATION TAKES PLACE BETWEEN FOREIGN MINISTERS OF AZERBAIJAN AND ALBANIA

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
July 31 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend Kh.Alakparova / A conversation took
place between the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov
and Albania, Luis Basha, on 31 July, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
reported.

During the conversation, Basha assured his Azerbaijani colleague that
the Government of Albania did not permit MEIKO Company to sell arms
to Armenia. He said that the contract has been annulled and arms will
not be sent to Armenia.

The Albanian Minister particularly highlighted multilateral relations
between Albania and Azerbaijan. Mammadyarov was satisfied with the
response of his Albanian colleague.

ATTEMPT OF ARMENIA’S OPPOSITION TO NOMINATE UNOPPOSED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ARTIFICIAL

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
July 31 2007

YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. The attempt of the Armenian opposition to
nominate an unopposed candidate for the presidential elections 2008
is of artificial nature, said Leader of the Christian-Democratic
Union of Armenia (CDUA), ex-Premier of Armenia Khosrov Haroutiunian.

Haroutiunian believes that the Armenian opposition is not homogeneous;
consequently, the unopposed candidate will be leader of socialists
and ultra-Rights, and "in the political plan it is nonsense".

"Another thing if the leftists had their own candidate and the
rightists – theirs. That is why, the opposition’s attempt to nominate
an unopposed candidate is of artificial nature," Haroutiunian said.

He said that the opposition’s idea may come true if they unite with
the idea of dethronement.

"This may happen in case the opposition unites around the idea, and
will agree to see anyone as a leader but the present authorities. But
this idea became obsolete and has no prospective," he said.

The presidential elections in Armenia are scheduled for the first
half of 2008. The following presidential candidates will run for
president: Leader of the Republican Party of Armenia Prime Minister
Serge Sargsyan, Leader of "Orinats Yerkir" Party Artur Bagdasaryan,
Leader of the National-Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan, Leader of
the "New Times" Party Aram Karapetyan, Leader of the Marxist Party
of Armenia David Hakobyan, and Leader of the People’s Party Tigran
Karapetyan. L.M.

DEPUTY MINISTER: RUSSIA TO CONTINUE ASSISTANCE IN SETTLING NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
July 26 2007

Azerbaijan, Baku / Òrend corr K. Ramazanova / Russia will continue
its assistance in settling Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Deputy
Foreign Minister, Sergey Kislak, visiting Azerbaijan stated in Baku
on 26 July.

Kislak noted at a briefing after the talks at Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry that it was interesting for him to hear the viewpoint of
Azerbaijani side on the matter.

Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister, Araz Azimov, said that the
conflict represented the key problem for Azerbaijani security. From
the other side, the conflict is multifold and is directly connected
with the situation in the region. "So, discussing regional security
we also discussed the situation in the conflict area," Azimov noted.

The conflict between two South Caucasus countries broke out in 1988 in
face of Armenia’s territorial claims to Azerbaijan. Since 1992, 20%
of Azerbaijani territories (Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 nearby regions)
have been under occupation by Armenian Armed Forces. In May, 1994 a
ceasefire was signed between the sides. The talks under the auspices
of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia, France, and the United
States are still fruitless.

–Boundary_(ID_NpbXFO/Sln70HV2h/Zc4qg) —

EGYPTIAN EXPERIENCE IN A NUMBER OF ECONOMIC SPHERES CAN BE USEFUL FOR ARMENIA, RA PRIME MINISTER CONSIDERS

Noyan Tapan
Jul 25, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian-Egyptian relations proceed from
the age-old friendship of the two states, which the two countries’
authorities are obliged to strengthen for even more year by year. RA
Prime Minister Serge Sargsian stated this on July 25, when receiving
the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Egypt to Armenia,
Abla Mohamed Abd-El Rahman Osman, who is completing his diplomatic
mission in Armenia. The Prime Minister emphasized that economic
relations do not correspond to the level of political relations yet,
and there is much work to do by using the current potential and
possibilities for achieving desirable results.

Highlighting that the Egyptian experience in tourism and a number
of other spheres can be rather useful for Armenia, the RA Prime
Minister also attached importance to the exchange of that experience,
and meanwhile mentioned the necessity to activize the work of the
Intergovernmental Commission.

Ambassador Abla Mohamed Abd-El Rahman Osman also said that it is
time to do more active work in the direction of increasing commodity
circulation and economic cooperation. The Ambassador, considering
Armenia as an outlet to the Middle Asian countries in the South
Caucasus, said that the Armenian products can also reach African and
Arab countries through Egypt, with which these countries also have
formed commercial relations and cooperation.

As Noyan Tapan was informed by the RA government Information and Public
Relations Department, they discussed issues regarding implementation
of investment programs and development of cooperation in various
spheres during the meeting. They attached importance to the role
of the Egyptian Armenian community in the issue of strengthening of
Armenian-Egyptian relations.

A MASTER PLAN TO FORCE ISLAMIST ERDOGAN OUT – ORHAN PAMUK FOR PRESIDENT
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

American Chronicle, CA
rticle.asp?articleID=33248
July 25 2007

In an earlier article, we stressed that fundamental preliminary
conclusions as regards the July 22, 2007, elections in Turkey should
lead to the formation of a Multilateral Task Force, where all the
Turkish opposition parties, as well as secular democratic academia,
businessmen, diplomats and military will brainstorm about ways to
force Erdogan out.

We suggested that a Master Plan be devised evolving around 1)
across-the-board political considerations, 2) cultural – national –
historical considerations, 3) the formation of the necessary tools,
and 4) the elaboration of a list of target and activity priorities,
before embarking on a thunderous campaign to bring the disastrous
Islamist simulator down.

We identified the plans of the hidden Erdogan supporters, and we
clarified the need to deprive the marionette premier of two segments
of his supporters, namely the secular conservative voters, and the
honest, traditionalist Islamists who would never accept as Turkish
premier a miserable instrument of Islam’s worst enemies, namely the
Apostate French Freemasonic Lodge.

In this article, we draw conclusions that the Secular Democratic
establishment of Turkey should reach after comprehensively developing
across-the-board political considerations.

Political Conclusions

1. MHP – DP cannot convince Conservative public opinion while separate.

This has mostly to do with the very low percentage that DP (emanating
out of the earlier Anavatan and Dogru Yol parties) got in the elections
(5.4%). The parties are not politically distant and have to find
common ground through lessening the nationalistic overtones of MHP,
and focusing on elaborating a convincing conservative statement and
proposal for today’s Turkey. They should merge, and at the same time
invite and incorporate other political parties and formations like
Gentsh Parti (Youth Party) that managed to get 3% of the total vote.

In the light of the July 22, 2007, elections’ results, merged all the
conservative formations would reach 25 – 26 % of the total vote, thus
becoming the main opposition party far ahead of Deniz Baykal’s Social
– Democrats (CHP). This is certainly a mere quantitative approach to
the subject, as it is clear that the dynamics caused by a large scale
political merge of the conservative forces would attract a significant
number of conservative voters who finally opted for Erdogan in the
July 22 elections. One has to calculate that at least as many as 10 –
15% of conservative voters were transferred to Erdogan’s AKP (pushing
it as high as 46% of the total).

If you imagine Turkey’s Conservative Right unified at 25 – 26%, and
add to that number another 10 – 15% of voters, you have Turkish Right
totaling 40%, and Erdogan falling down to 30%. Arrivederci, Governo!

The unification of Turkey’s Right is of the utmost urgency.

2. CHP revision of policies

The political party founded by Kemal Ataturk has undergone an
incredible number of Ovidian metamorphoses, having been even a
prohibited party name for some years. The party has undertaken for
five years the main opposition against Erdogan’s gang. For Turkish
politics insiders and Turkish History connoisseurs, Deniz Baykal is a
kind of Ismet Inonu revivified. Against Erdogan, Baykal has experienced
the same odd situation Ismet Inonu did live through during the 50s,
the period of the erratic Adnan Menderes’ electoral victories.

There are many reasons CHP and Deniz Baykal have to intensify efforts
to avoid a military coup like that of 1960, which put a definitely
well deserved end to Adnan Menderes’s political career and physical
existence. History must not be repeated, and politically it may be easy
to plan and execute the destruction of Erdogan’s gang. It simply takes
more than traditional party apparatchiks, and it definitively involves
a wider scope of activities than simple parliamentary maneuvering
in coordination with the military. Now, the masses of voters, the
Turkish society in its entirety, the intellectuals, the academia,
and the world of Finance must come to surface. Baykal as leader of
the opposition, because of the multi-division of Turkey’s conservative
vote, must rather act as an orchestra conductor, a Kapellmeister, only
rarely engaged in personal confrontations and frontal political battle.

This should start within the party itself. New political leaders must
be promoted next to Baykal, and a new ideological profile should be
sought after. In addition to strict secularism, CHP has to support
a modern vision for Center – Left parties, determine what Ataturk’s
party must be in 2007, and address a wide spectrum of issues from
environmental policies to liberalization, Turkey’s re-orientation in
Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East, the rejection of the Islamic
fundamentalism and extremism, and the international stance and position
of Turkey. Whereas people around him should act as politicians, Deniz
Baykal should as statesman because of the obvious incapacity of the
Erdogan’s gang. More than anything else, Baykal’s CHP must promote
political activism, massive participation, and imminent response to
political issues.

It must become clear that the Turkish Left has become a minor
political force as the total support gathered during the recent
elections does not exceed 25%. This has to be drastically addressed,
and if concessions have to be made, the correct direction is the
erroneously disregarded world of ethnic, religious and cultural
minorities; traditional supporters of the Left, the Alevis – centered
in Sivas (Sebasteia) – did not vote for the CHP in 2007. Aramaeans
of Tur Abdin and Armenians must be chosen as partners, without being
alienated as before.

More importantly, the Zazas should become a matter of concern
and focus; with a massive support to this ethnic group that has
nothing in common with the ‘Kurds’, the CHP will demonstrate that it
understands clearly the multicultural dimension of today’s world. At
the same time, it will gain the massive support of the Zazas who are
most upset because of the terrorist purposes of criminal gangsters
like Leyla Zana, the loathed Witch of Diyarbakir, and her French
Freemasonic backers, who want to assimilate the Zazas with the Kurds
and tyrannically disfigure them in order to achieve the monstrous
points of the inhuman French agenda.

The CHP must become the political Atelier where Islamism will be
ultimately killed. It is from CHP that the most dynamic denunciation
of Islamism, and the most resolute cancellation of Islamism promoting
measures taken by Erdogan’s thugs must originate.

3. Common (CHP – MHP – DP) support for presidential candidate –
Orhan Pamuk

It is high time for the Turkish opposition to gain the upper hand in
terms of political impressions; this has little to do with personal
choices and pleasant suggestions. To get an undisputed advantage
over your rival, you must simply do what it takes, either you like
it or not.

To admit the truth, there is only one Turk who right now can claim
wider support, consideration and admiration among the average
people than the newly re-elected Islamist premier. Thank God, he is
a convinced Secular, Humanist, and Democrat; a man who can detect –
through his own way, but does it truly matter? – the average people
pulse, feelings, desires, and concerns. He may have his record of
erroneous or excessive statements, but who is the one to have avoided
this? Revered allover the world, renowned for his tough stance against
Islamism, a person who can re-assemble the Secular Turks and guarantee
the continuation of the Spirit – not the letter – of Ataturk.

As Erdogan already deprived himself of the advantage of surprise,
stating he would agree on a Compromise Candidate for Turkish President,
it would be tremendously beneficial for the entire opposition to

-present itself as one front, and

-propose a person Erdogan’s islamists would not like but would not
be able to reject.

Orhan Pamuk for President

Orhan Pamuk, novelist and intellectual, made Turks truly proud of
themselves and of Turkish literature thanks to the Nobel Prize that
was awarded to this author last year. ‘Orhan Pamuk for President’ is
the first act and slogan of a thunderous, unconventional opposition
pre-destined to successfully terminate the career of the uneducated
Islamist Erdogan, and to effectively cancel the anti-Turkish conspiracy
of the Apostate French Freemasonic Lodge. In front of the impressions
gained, all related hesitations are baseless. Orhan Pamuk has the
intellectual stamina to sort a Modus Vivendi with the military.

4. Common (CHP – MHP – DP) approach to the Kurdish issue

All the Turks, who ascribe themselves to Secular, Democratic ideals and
principles, must realize the importance of adequately updating their
ideas, approaches and perceptions. All those who value Kemal Ataturk’s
ideas and practices must come to terms with a reality of primordial
importance; political realism teaches that Kemal Ataturk’s choices
were part of the Art of Possible. Certainly, virtues remain permanently
the same, but ideas hinge on time. The concept of nationalistic state
was quite pertinent a choice for the 20s and the 30s, but in a global
world it is not anymore the driving force of the progress.

Multicultural societies reflect today better the human effort for
improvement, the political struggle for Enlightenment and respect
of the ‘Other’. It must be understood that Ataturk’s ideological –
cultural system and practice were not a monolithic, peremptory policy
of linking Turks of Anatolia with some of their Central Asiatic Tukic
ancestors. The Search for the Hittite – Cappadocian and the Sumerian –
Mesopotamian Identity and origin was highly evaluated.

Closer to Kemal Ataturk’s spirit is not the one who intends to
implement in 2007 a policy the founder of Turkey adopted in 1925.

Contrarily, the person who, devoted to Ataturk’s principles, examines
what policy Ataturk would have implemented, if he had lived today,
and through parallels and equivalents reaches a conclusion is nearer
to the very spirit of the founder of Modern Turkey.

All this serves as an introduction to the point that Turkey –
as national conception of the country – will not be threatened,
abandoned or evaded in any way, if a multicultural model is chosen
within which the Zazas, the Aramaeans, the Armenians, the Kurds and
other ethnic groups of minor importance will find their existence
mentioned, respected and highlighted within the borders of Turkey as
Common heritage, Cultural Wealth, and Historical Treasure. This, if
implemented in the 1930s or 40s, would have led Turkey to disaster,
but today it will bring peace, re-conciliation, and concord. With so
many millions of mixed marriages, Turkey – opting for a multicultural
political model – would strengthen the bond among all ethnic and
religious groups and peoples, thus eliminating the chances of nefarious
Western infiltration, and averting the confusion the enemies of Turkey
want to propagate as regards the identity of various groups of people.

Because the greater danger is precisely this: if Turks and the
socioeconomic and political establishment of Turkey disregard and take
distance from the Zazas and the other smaller ethnic groups that the
French Freemasonic guidance keeps intentionally regrouping as one
ethnic group under the umbrella of the name ‘Kurds’, Turkey loses
ground and offers its enemies valuable political space and margin
of maneuver.

Contrarily, supporting the clearer – the most marked – identification
of the smaller ethnic groups against the Kurdish ‘imperialism’, Turkey
shapes a great alliance and gains the impressions, by transferring the
problem (the conflict is not anymore between Turkey and the ‘Kurds’ but
between the Zazas and another people that wants the Zazas assimilated)
and appearing as the ultimate resort and remedy for the ‘problem’.

Further points of conclusions ensuing from across-the-board political
considerations that Turkey’s political, academic, military and
financial establishment must elaborate as soon as possible we will
discuss in the next article.

ERDOGAN’S AKP WINS NEW MANDATE
By Ben Judah in Istanbul for ISN Security Watch

ISN, Switzerland
93
July 23 2007

Turkey’s AKP landslide victory delivers Prime Minister Erdogan a
clear mandate to continue.

"Our leader is from the street, Our leader is from the street,"
screamed the ecstatic crowds gathered outside the Justice and
Development Party (AKP) headquarters in the working class district of
Beyoglu, in central Istanbul – an AKP stronghold and the very streets
that its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan grew up on and
worked as a bus driver.

Inside the local party headquarters, as hundreds of activists and
supporters, gathered to watch the results come in, Ertan Simsek,
a key advisor to Erdogan, told ISN Security Watch he was satified
with the result.

"I’m jubilant, after such a tough campaign. This is a victory for
the people, and we won because we will bring the state closer to the
people at last," he said.

"There were so many divisions opened up during this campaign, but we
are a unifying force, not an Islamic force, but a conservative center
party. And we will unify by being transparent about who we are and
what the state is."

The AKP mayor of Beyoglu district, Haydar Ali Yildiz, said the
screaming crowds outside his officewere not celebrating the victory
of an Islamist agenda, or even a revolutionary one. "You see, a vote
for the AK party was a vote for continuity and stability, not rupture
or great change," he told ISN Security Watch.

"We won the confidence of the people that have so often been betrayed."

Activists where quick to point out that unprecedented in Turkish
history, the incumbent party had increased its share of the vote –
up from 34 percent to a stunning 46.3 percent, and that the party had
delivered strong economic growth and a historic opening of accession
talks with the EU. However, due to another opposition party breaking
the 10 percent threshold for entering parliament, the AKP will return
with fewer seats.

Western paint The campaign, which saw a rise in far-right sentiment,
mass rallies, political murders and bitter enmities, put great
stress on Turkey’s minorities, especially the Kurdish population in
the east which makes up over 20 percent of the population, and the
country’s 60,000-strong Armenian minority still recovering from the
assassination of writer and community notable Hrant Dink. Reportage
in the western press painted a picture of a nation poised between
Islam and secularism, which most Turks are quick to refute.

AKP supporter Mehmet Bayatkan explained that he supported the party
and had worked round the clock to make sure it won.

"I went door stopping every day, all day, something the other parties
don’t do because they’re not real people’s parties. Why? Because
the party is from the street, does a great job economically and
represents my views. I am not an Islamist. […] I don’t care much
for religion personally."

Verkin Arioba, a member of the Armenian community in Istanbul and
an AKP activist, dismisses the image of the campaign in the western
media as a struggle between the secular and the religious.

"It isn’t about that, it is about class. […] The elites created
much propaganda surrounding the supposed Islamism of the AK. They
want to increase personal freedom, that is good for the religious,
that is good for the Armenians, that is good for everyone and in line
with the EU negotiations."

Changing demographics At the headquarters of the secularist Republican
People’s Party (CHP) in downtown Istanbul, a party chief refused an
interview with ISN Security Watch on the election outcome.

The CHP, despite having merged with other smaller center-left parties
and received military backing, only won 20 percent of the vote.

Most distressing for the party was that while the AKP had previously
seen its support base restricted to the new boom towns in Anatolia –
such as Kayseri and the highlands – the CHP lost out to its rival
in many of the coastal regions, including Antalya, where its leader
Deniz Baykal is from.

The distribution of AKP and CHP votes is a reflection of one of the
major clefts in Turkish society, between the poorer, more traditional
center and the richer, more westernised coast and elite – though this
is weakening.

The broader electoral map saw the two opposition parties, the CHP
and the secuarlist and far-right National Action Party (MHP) garner
strongly localized results. These were the only two parties to pass the
10 percent threshold necessary to get elected, with 112 and 70 seats,
respectively – against the AK party’s 341. This means that while the
AKP may still be able to form a single-party government, it will have
to make alliances to elect a president and change the constitution.

In the east, however, is where the real surprises lay in store for the
new Turkish parliament. The Kurdish regions, mostly around Diyarbakir
and near Iraq, elected 27 independent candidates -all Kurds – who
will now form a new political party. This could see a far greater
push for Kurdish linguistic, cultural and even political rights,
especially if the AKP chooses to ally with the independents to
institute constitutional reforms.

Demographics are starting to worry the Turkish polity, as it is
expected that at current growth rates the Kurdish population could be
50 percent of the whole by mid-century. One of the unexpected results
of this election could see the slow move towards a bi-national and
bi-lingual Republic as the final answer to the minority question. Not
only has a major class shift happened, a cultural shift and an ethnic
shift has shaken Turkish politics.

Mazhar Alanson, a singer and Turkish cultural icon, told ISN Security
Watch he voted for the AKP. "I don’t see this is as Islamism creeping
in, I see this as a break with the past," he said.

For the westernized young, the fears seemed to be more class-based than
anything. Surreiya Tarbya, 19, who voted for the AKP, said that "mostly
people who voted republican [CHP and MHP] think that the peasants
are coming to the city from the mountains, and this scares them.

"It scares them that [Foreign Minister] Abdullah Gul is from Kayseri,
an Anatolian and religious city, and not one they understand. I think
people will give up now, and start to suck up to the new power,"
she told ISN Security Watch.

Military matters Since the country fell into political turmoil when
the military posted an online memorandum on 27 April expressing
its fears that the nation’s secularism was being undermined and in
alliance with the Republicans prevented Gul becoming prime minister,
fears of a coup have been running high.

Tariq, who sells fried sheep intestines in Istanbul for a living,
is not so worried anymore. "Look, they [the AKP] got 50 percent –
you really think the army is going to attack 50 percent of the
country? They can’t, they won’t."

With such a firm mandate the army is indeed left with very few options
and will have to continue to cooperate with the AKP.

However, what Turks refer to as "the deep state" – the web of networks,
secret services, army and elite alliances that have traditionally
been the arbiters of the political game here – will do is far from
certain. They may choose to prolong the political crisis and force
yet another election in October if no president is chosen with the
short month-and-a-half period allowed under the constitution.

A key test for the AKP in government will be if it is willing to
compromise by putting forward a different candidate – a consensus
candidate rather than Gul. It is open as to how much the party will
now wish to change the constitution. The AKP has made it clear it wants
a transparent state and this necessarily means a confrontation sooner
or later with the vested interests and the sinews of military power.

Constitutionally, the military is the official guardian of the
Republic’s secular system and is charged with protecting it at all
costs. But it also fears that as Turkey under Erdogan heads toward
the EU, European demands for constitutional changes could lead to a
reduction in its political power.

In the meantime, back at AKP offices in Beyoglu, frenzied activists
clustered round the television to watch Erdogan make his victory
speech.

This leader, who has done much to change Turkey in what many of his
supporters refer to as a "silent revolution," exclaimed in the accent
of the street he was born on, that "democracy has passed a great test"
with this election.

He pledged to continue his path of reform. Turkey had passed
a monumental challenge. Democracy has emerged strengthened and
culturally, the very Calvinistic nature of Turkish Islam is cementing
itself and the Kurdish issue has a chance of being resolved finally.

Ben Judah is writer and foreign policy analyst based between London and
Paris. He has previously worked as a reporter covering race relations
for the St Petersburg Times, Russia.

Nationalism casts shadow over Turkey’s poll battle

Today’s crucial election is pitting the secular against the
Islamic. But growing ethnic tensions and violence are emerging that
could prove to be the decisive factor

Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Sunday July 22, 2007
The Observer

Standing in front of a crowd in the north-eastern Turkish city of
Erzurum, Devlet Bahceli waved a length of greased rope. ‘If you can’t
find any,’ he yelled, addressing the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan,
‘you can hang him with this.’

The man he wanted hanged was Abdullah Ocalan, captured in 1999 after
the Kurdish separatist war he started had killed an estimated 35,000
people. Turkey sentenced him to death, but under pressure from the EU
commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

Turkey today holds perhaps the most important parliamentary elections
in its history. The poll was called four months early after the
political deadlock over a suitable presidential candidate that
paralysed the country in May.

The governing AKP has based its campaign on its economic record. The
opposition parties have focused on accusing the Islamic-rooted party
of threatening Turkey’s secular system.

But it is the reigniting of the Kurdish conflict, which has killed
more than 70 soldiers this summer, that has become the unexpected big
issue for voters in today’s elections, bolstering nationalist
candidates such as Bahceli.

Head of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) that is likely to win at
least 80 seats in parliament today, his supporters are descendents of
the semi-fascistic ‘Grey Wolves’ of the bloody civil conflict of the
1970s. MHPhas mellowed with age. The same cannot be said of the
Republican People’s Party, or CHP,set up by the founder of the Turkish
Republic, Kemal Ataturk, and torch-bearer of his secularist legacy. In
the 1990s, at the height of the Kurdish war, CHP wrote one of the most
liberal reports on Turkey’s gangrenous Kurdish issue.Now, it has slid
into overt nationalism, and leads the growing band of Turks opposed to
EU membership.

‘We’re a social democratic party,’ said CHP spokesman Onur Oymen. He
insists that nationalism in Turkey has none of its European
connotations of racism. ‘It simply means defence of national
interests,’ he said.

It is a curious way of describing the comments of another CHP deputy,
Bayram Meral, during recent debates on a law to enable non-Muslim
Turks to reclaim properties confiscated by the state. ‘What’s this law
about? It’s about giving "Agop" his property back,’ Meral railed,
using a common Armenian name. ‘Congratulations to the government! You
ignore the villagers, the workers and the farmers to worry yourself
with Agop’s business.’

CHP opposed the law, as it has opposed countless efforts by Turkey’s
government to reform a system where the rights of individuals limp in
a distant second behind laws protecting the state.

Much of the blame for the secularists’ slide into authoritarianism
lies with Europe, whose growing Islamophobia and bungling over Cyprus
has convinced many Turks that their three-year-old accession bid is
going nowhere.

‘I fought all my life for Turkey’s EU bid,’ says Onur Oymen, a former
ambassador to Germany. ‘Now some European friends are saying we can
only ever expect secondary status. We cannot accept that.’

There is much talk of European hypocrisy. but the roots of CHP’s
malaise are much older. Most left-wing parties are born out of
opposition, but CHP began its life as the state, and it retains the
authoritarian mindset of the early years of the republic. It
increasingly suggests that time can be turned back to the party’s
1920s heyday, when Ataturk cut all ties with the Ottoman past and
replaced them with imported ‘contemporary civilisation’.

Onur Oymen is a case in point. ‘Is Erdogan capable of doing what
Ataturk did?’ he angrily replied to a governing party deputy who had
the temerity to suggest his party was modern.

There was the same sense of time warp at the huge secularist marches
in April and May, pointed out by Segolene Royal, unsuccessful
candidate in France’s recent presidential elections, as evidence that
Turkey should join the EU. In fact, the ubiquity of pictures of
Ataturk, and the rhetoric, created an atmosphere redolent of the
1920s.

‘We won the Liberation War despite the fanatics and we won’t lose
now,’ ran one poster, referring to the war leading to Turkey’s
foundation in 1923. Others had badges reading simply: ‘Ataturk will
win the war.’

‘We are today’s mad Turks,’ schoolteacher Hasan Devecioglu said,
referring to a popular novel about the liberation struggle published
in 2005. Turgut Ozakman’s Those Mad Turks tells of how, while the
Sultan and his government collaborated with Great Power plans to carve
up Turkey, Ataturk’s Turkish nationalists fought from the depths of
Anatolia. For today’s secularists, it is the pro-Western, pro-market
government that is collaborating in foreigners’ efforts to divide the
country.

It all leaves Turks without a viable civilian alternative to
AKP. Without the reforms AKP has pushed through, Turkey would not have
its place on the ladder to Europe. Since then, it has lost its
way. Doubts are growing as to whether it has any vision beyond the
criteria defining whether a country is eligible to join the EU.

Erdogan appears increasingly irascible, and today’s election is
unlikely to open the way to change. Polls show the government well
ahead and CHP second, similar to the 2002 results that polarised the
secular and the religious-minded. Noose-waving Bahceli is set for
parliament, and a possible coalition with secularists.

It reminds Murat Belge, a prominent left-wing intellectual, of Weimar
Germany. ‘With its constitution and its government, Weimar represented
the high-tide mark of German democracy,’ he wrote in the liberal daily
Radikal on Friday. ‘Within ten years … Hitler was installed as
Chancellor.’

The comparison seems unduly pessimistic, but it should ring a warning
to Europe, whose ambivalence to Turkey has undermined the reform
process.

Turkish election: Q & A
Why the early poll?
Today’s voting was brought forward after a deadlock in the political
system in May when the governing AKP’s (Justice and Development Party)
attempt to elect a new President was blocked by judges. The choice –
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul – brought millions of secular Turks out
in protest and infuriated opposition parties. Gul, whose wife wears
the headscarf, was seen as too close to the religious Prime Minister,
Recip Tayyip Erdogan.
What is at stake?
Opposition parties say this is a referendum on a secular or an Islamic
state, and that a second term for the AKP threatens the heritage of
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of secular Turkey.
The Islamic-rooted AKP says it is a vote for democracy or for
authoritarianism. It says five years of annual economic growth and a
seriesof radical reforms will be ruined by disunited opposition
groups.
But Turkey is not a truly secular state. Religion is not divided from
the government. Since the 1980 military coup, schoolchildren attend
obligatory religious classes.
What have been the issues?
AKP swept to power in 2002 thanks to its promise to reform and pull
Turkey into Europe. AKP delivered both economic growth and a start to
EU negotiations.
But the mood today is different. Nobody talks about the EU any
more. People are more concerned about unemployment (now high at 10 per
cent), the collapse of agriculture and on whether to invade northern
Iraq to suppress any violent Kurdish bid for independence. The
conviction that Washington supports Iraqi Kurdish goals means
anti-Americanism is sky-high, strengthening authoritarian secularist
and nationalist calls to break with the West.
The tax system is also in chaos – Turkey’s unregistered economy is though to
be worth almost 50 per cent of GDP.
Who are the key players?
The AKP has mass support among the religious and conservative
population, but says that rather than Islamist it is pluralist –
defending the rights of religious Muslims against constitutional
restrictions. It backs EU entry, democratic reform and extending the
rights of the large Kurdish minority.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party is left-leaning and
firmly secular, sceptical of reforms promoted by the EU and of
extending Kurdish rights.
It promoted May’s mass rallies. The far-right, nationalist National
Action Party (MHP) is the only other party likely to overcome the 10
per cent threshold needed to enter parliament. It is hostile to the EU
and Kurds, and wants military intervention in northern Iraq to root
out bases of the separatist Kurdish PKK group.
What results are likely?
Most polls suggest AKP will pick up around 40 per cent of today’s
votes, 6 per cent more than in 2002. The chief opposition RPP party is
polling roughly 20 per cent, followed closely by the right-wing
nationalists of the National Action Party. The new parliament is also
likely to contain at least 20 Kurdish deputies.
So with three parties competing this time, AKP is likely to lose seats
despite extra votes. It will almost certainly fall short of the
two-thirds quorum needed to elect a President and make constitutional
changes.
http://observer.guardian.c o.uk/world/story/0,,2131972,00.html

IRAN SEEKS PARTNERSHIP WITH ARMENIA

A1+
[07:27 pm] 20 July, 2007

On July 20, RA President Robert Kocharian received Manouchehr Mottaki,
the Foreign Minister of Iran and the Chairman of the Intergovernmental
Commission for Coordination of the Armenian-Iranian Ties.

The latter heads the delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran
participating in the 7th sitting of the Intergovernmental Commission
for Coordination of the Armenian-Iranian Ties.

Mottaki passed Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad warm greetings
to Robert Kocharian.

The parties focused on bilateral relations and current circulation
between the two countries. They highlighted intensified partnership
in the sphere of economy.

A number of key issues related to energy and transportation are under
consideration, the Iranian FM said.

Mottaki was also received by RA FM Vartan Oskanian.

They dwelt on regional issues and Iran-Armenia relations.

The parties exchanged views on regional issues and relations with
neighbours of Armenia and Iran.

Minister Oskanian presented the democratization processes in Nagorno
Karabakh and the assessments of the latest developments around the
Karabakh issue.

At the request of the Armenian side, Manouchehr Mottaki presented the
process and results of the talks on the nuclear programs of Iran. He
assured that Iran is trying to settle the existing discrepancies and
problems exceptionally through negotiations.

CHINGIZ HUSEYNZADEH: ARMENIA’S INTENTION TO BRING 500 FOOTBALL FANS FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN BAKU WAS POSITIVELY REACTED

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
July 19 2007

"We have FILA commitments as the organizer of World Championship. We
are responsible for the security of all country wrestlers attending
the competition. Armenians are not ruled out in this context.

Armenia’s intention to bring 500 football fans for World Wrestling
Championship to be held in Baku has been reacted positively. They can
come," Vice-President of National Olympic Committee Chingiz Huseynzadeh
said in the press conference he held today, APA-Sport Agency reports.

He also stated that Armenian Wrestling Federation has not yet asserted
its joining the competition to be held in Baku for winning license
to World Championship.

"I think it is connected with psychological momentum. Armenians do not
believe that they will win victory in Baku. International Federation
gave its consent for Armenian wrestlers’ joining the tournaments for
winning license," he said.

The wrestlers who participate in 1/4 World Championship to be held in
Baku from September 23 till September 27 will win license to Beijing
Summer Olympic Games.

ALI HASANOV: INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS DO NOT RECOGNIZE SO-CALLED ELECTIONS IN NAGORNO KARABAKH

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
July 19 2007

We unambiguously criticize so-called elections in Nagorno Karabakh,
head of President’s Office’s socio-political department Ali Hasanov
said, APA reports.

The department chief said that these elections can not be regarded
legitimate until sovereign rights of Azerbaijani government in Nagorno
Karabakh are restored, their election rights are recognized.

He stressed that these elections have no ground and international
organizations do not recognize these elections.