Author: Karabekian Emil

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 16 2007

Report: Armenian resolution damaging to US-Turkey ties

A leading publisher of economic and political intelligence on Eastern
Europe, the Middle East and Asia has reported that the Armenian
resolution pending in the US Congress is an extremely emotional issue
for Turkey and damaging to the US-Turkish relations.
Based in London, the Oxford Business Group (OBG), in a report titled
"Turkey: Tough Demands," highlights three issues concerning
Turkish-US relations: "…Turkey’s political heavyweights are doing
their rounds in Washington this month, lobbying and pressuring
members of the US elite over three particularly explosive issues —
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) continued and undeterred
presence in Northern Iraq, a destabilising referendum in Iraq’s
oil-rich city of Kirkuk and the controversial Armenian resolution
that threatens to pass through the House of Representatives this
year."
Published Feb. 15, the OBG report indicates "the most emotive — if
not provocative — for the Turks" is the Armenian genocide resolution
pending in the US Congress.
"The Bush administration needs little convincing of how damaging a
resolution would be, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
urging Congress to drop the issue, or risk poising [sic] relations
with an essential Muslim ally bordering Iraq, Iran and Syria. Yet,
the White House has only limited leverage over a Congress dominated
by Democrats and led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is adamant to
pursue the issue with the backing of the Armenian lobby in her
Congressional district. Pelosi’s unwillingness to meet [with Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah] Gul during his visit was duly noted by
Ankara."
The Armenian genocide resolution was introduced on Jan. 30 by Rep.
Adam Schiff along with Reps. George Radanovich, Frank Pallone, Joe
Knollenberg, Brad Sherman and Thaddeus McCotter and currently has 170
co-sponsors.
The resolution would urge the president to properly characterize the
Armenian sufferings during the World War I as genocide.
While US President George W. Bush commemorates the massacres each
year in a speech, his administration had stopped short of backing the
genocide bills.
Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000 Armenians
and at least as many Turks died in civil strife, when Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian
troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire during World War I.
"Meanwhile, the continued presence of the PKK in Northern Iraq
remains an itching sore for the Turks, with Ankara determined that
the organisation be flushed out from its safe-haven across the
border," the report said. "But the Turks have long been nonplussed by
the US stance, with no concerted effort by the Americans to respond
to Turkish security concerns next door. … Yet, the US administration
has not sent any public signals to suggest that it would tolerate a
cross-border incursion by the Turkish military to eradicate the PKK."
The OBG report indicated that turbulence and instability in the
Middle East has made the US-Turkish relationship more important than
ever, and Turkey has been pressing Washington to demonstrate the
importance of the relationship more clearly, "if not, relations will
suffer."

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 15 2007

Despite ups and downs, Turkish-Israeli ties still strengthening

"It is like a smokescreen. While criticizing Israel over Tel Aviv’s
approval of construction near a disputed holy site in Jerusalem,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan also talked about the
peace that should prevail between Palestinians and Israel. While
Erdoðan created the image of a chilly reception to Israel’s Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert just ahead of his visit to Ankara Wednesday
evening, he also gave signals of a strong Turkish interest in playing
a role in the Middle East peace," said a senior Turkish diplomat.
It is true that Turkish-Israeli relations have been witnessing ups
and downs since the Islamic-based conservative Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) government came to power in November
2002, at least at the level of rhetoric. In real life, however, we
witness real politics at work in relations between the regions’ two
non-Arab countries.
Evidence of this is the ongoing military and trade ties between the
two.
As of 2005, Israel became Turkey’s largest trade partner in the
Middle East. Israeli imports to Turkey $900 million and Israel earned
$1.2 billion from Turkish exports to Israel
In the News Blaze daily, journalist Calev Ben-David outlines both the
economic and the military agreements signed between the two countries
since the AK Party came to power in 2002. They vary from cooperation
in water projects, agro-technology, Israel becoming a possible
transit route via Turkey for Black Sea-Red Sea gas, oil and water
pipelines to Ankara brokering the first official talks between Israel
and Pakistan in Ýstanbul in 2005.
Additionally, Turkish-Israeli military cooperation continues in every
sphere, from cooperation in intelligence sharing, mutual high-level
visits to joint arms production.
It was no coincidence that back in 2002 and in 2005 then-Turkish
Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök and Turkish Air Force
Commander Gen. Faruk Cömert paid unpublicized visits to Israel. Both
sought increased cooperation in intelligence sharing concerning the
Middle East.
But unlike what the Arabs think, despite the value attached to the
military cooperation with Israel, the Turkish military does not allow
Israel to hold joint exercises with Ankara that will involve
live-fire tests. It also doesn’t agree to turn the trilateral
(Turkey, US, Israel) navy exercises, code-named Reliant Mermaid, to
extend its operations from the current search and rescue to war
games, which was told to me by a retired navy officer who was among
the team initiating the Turkish-Israeli military and defense industry
cooperation in 1996 and 1997.
It is also worth mentioning that Turkey’s powerful armed forces have
been standing as an important driving force in boosting
Turkish-Israeli military ties.
In the meantime, it is not expected that a pending meeting between
the visiting Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaþar Büyükanýt and
Rep. Tom Lantos, head of the US House of Representatives Committee on
Foreign Affairs and a pro-Israel congressman, would make a serious
contribution to prevent the Armenian genocide resolution from being
passed by Congress some time in April, but it is for sure that
Büyükanýt is expected to considerably ease concerns of the strong
Jewish lobby that Turkish-Israeli military ties will continue as
usual.
With the Republicans having lost control of Congress, Turkey has got
a strong Jewish lobby in its hands that could play its card to stop
the Armenian genocide resolution from being passed, although the
Jewish lobby’s involvement is reportedly inadequate to prevent the
adoption of the resolution.
Meanwhile, we should also realize that Turkey as a Muslim nation has
never been indifferent to the fellow Palestinians’ grievances in the
region. Thus, it would be wrong to assume that under the AK Party
government, the future of Turkish-Israeli relations were questioned.

It was not only Erdoðan who branded, rightly or wrongly, Israeli
actions against the Palestinians as a state terrorism, but also the
late Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, back in 2002, who described the
Israeli army’s attacks against Palestinians as genocide.
But at the end of the day both Turkey and Israel, the only democratic
nations in the Middle East, can help democracy flourish in the region
if they join forces, regardless of ups and downs in their relations
depending on the conjuncture.

BARGAVACH HAYASTAN IS A CENTRIPETAL PARTY STRIVING FOR LIBERAL IDEAS,
MEMBER OF BARGAVACH HAYASTAN’S POLITICAL BOARD SAYS

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. 370 thousand people have joined the
Bargavach Hayastan (Prosperous Armenia) Party since May 2006. Vardan
Vardanian, member of party’s Political Board, declared this at the
Bargavach Hayastan’s third special congress held on February 15.

"Everybody knows that Bargavach Hayastan’s main idea and goal is to
develop the evident economic and political success of our past years
under conditions of public solidarity and consolidation," he said.

In V. Vardanian’s words, Bargavach Hayastan is a "centripetal party
striving for liberal values in economy, at the same time supporting
preservation and development of traditional values and taking as a
basis supremacy of human rights protection."

Presenting party’s activity in the period since the previous congress
(2006 May), V. Vardanian also mentioned the work of Gagik Tsarukian
charity fund, in which the party participated "with its human and
organization resource." "Charity has no direct connection with party
activity, but charity is part of the image of party chairman,"
V. Vardanian said. He also criticized those who qualify this charity
as "electoral bribe."

February 15, 2007

PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Adrin Nazarian
(818) 240-6330
(818) 512-4045 (cell)

Assemblymember Paul Krekorian to Host "Cash for College"
Financial Aid Workshop for Students and Parents

GLENDALE, CA- Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank) will host a
"Cash for College" workshop to assist high school seniors and college
students in securing financial aid for their education. The workshop
will be held on Thursday, February 22, in anticipation of upcoming
statewide financial aid deadlines.

"A college education should be accessible to every California student
who qualifies, regardless of their financial status," Assemblymember
Krekorian said. "Through this workshop, I want to ensure that all
deserving students get the financial aid they need to continue their
education, so that no one is denied a college education merely because
of lack of funds."

The Cash for College workshop will provide parents and students with
information about financial aid options for colleges and universities.
The first part of the workshop will cover different types of financial
aid options, such as grants, loans and scholarships. The second portion
will feature a step-by-step demonstration of how to complete the FAFSA
form, which is a necessary step in qualifying for most state and federal
grant and loan programs. The FAFSA form is due on March 2 for the
2007-2008 academic year.

The workshop will feature expert advisors from Glendale Community
College’s Financial Aid Office. Armenian and Spanish speaking advisors
will also be available to assist.

Who: All students and their families are welcome!

What: Assemblymember Paul Krekorian’s "Cash for College" Financial
Aid Workshop

Where: Glendale YMCA, Youth Lobby Room, 140 N. Louise St, Glendale

When: Thursday, February 22, 2007, 7:00-9:00 pm

Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank) represents the cities of
Burbank and Glendale, and the Los Angeles communities of Atwater
Village, Los Feliz, North Hollywood, Silver Lake, Toluca Lake, Valley
Glen, Valley Village and Van Nuys.

# # #

TURCHIA: GENOCIDIO ARMENO, UN LIBRO PER NON DIMENTICARE

ANSA Notiziario Generale in Italiano
10 Febbraio, 2007

(ANSA) – ROMA, 10 feb – – Presentato, oggi, al Centro Russia
Ecumenica, un libro sugli armeni nascosti in Turchia di Kemal Yalcin
"Con te sorride il mio cuore" (Edizioni Lavoro). Il libro nasce
dall’innamoramento nel 1992 in Germania dell’ autore turco per la sua
insegnante nei corsi di aggiornamento di turco, Meline, di origine
armena. Kemal Yacin avvicina testimoni del genocidio delle autorita’
turche ai danni degli armeni . Alcuni nel villaggio di Alkale vedono
il registratore e scappono.

Invece un altro Baba Yasuf non solo si fa fotografare ma gli dice
"Accendi il registratore, io ricordo e non so’ se tra alcuni anni saro’
ancora in vita ". Questo recupero della memoria, secondo Pier Paolo
Baretta, segretario aggiunto della Cisl intervenuto a "Russia Ecumenica
" "non e’ animato dall’odio, ma e’ un contributo alla pacificazione
e alla speranza". Baretta ha ammonito che per tutelare veramente
le minoranze etniche e religiose non ci si puo’ accontetare delle
chiarazioni solenni, come quella che, nel 2000, da parte del Parlamento
italiano ha sancito che "il genocidio a danno degli armeni da parte
delle autorita’ turche vi e’ stato". Robert Attarian, portavoce della
comunita’ armena di Roma, ha affermato "Solo dieci anni orsono un libro
di questo genere sarebbe stato impubblicabile in Italia. E’ un segno
che un piccolo passo in avanti e’ stato compiuto sul versante della
visibilita’ della questione armena". La scrittrice di origine armena
Antonia Arslan da molti anni residente nel Veneto. ha osservato che
in questo libro si trovano le tracce di un "cristianesimo catacombale
". In Turchia ancora oggi esistono numerosi cristiani di origine
armena che "privi di sacerdoti e di testi liturgici "si alzano ogni
notte per recitare una serie di preghiere, trasmesse in via orale,
nel corso dei secoli dai loro avi. (Ansa).

"AGOS" CONTINUALLY GETS THREATS

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Tapan
Feb 12 2007

ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 12, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The "Agos"
weekly published in Turkey continues getting threats. Aydin Engin,
an employee of the newspaper, Hrant Dink’s friend said that "Agos"
continually got threats and the number of those threats reach 250
from the day of Hrant’s death till now.

Two-three people left "Agos," being worried. There were two threats
during the previous and next days of Dink’s burial: "we shall smash
you." Aydin Engin disproved the insistence that Hrant Dink came out
to the street and went to the bank after getting a phone call. In
his words, Hrant Dink went to the bank for his own affairs. Aydin
Engin whose safety is at present secured by a policeman, mentioned
that it is very dangerous continually to move accompanied by a
policeman. Engin also stated that an international fund after Hrant
Dink’s name will probably be founded. Famous writers will join it,
including Gunter Grass. It is envisaged that this fund will every
year give a peace prize.

Aydin Engin said that he still gets threats. The contents of one of
the letters is the following: "It appears that you are an Armenian,
illegitimate child."

NOT ENOUGH VOICES HEARD IN ‘SCREAMERS’
By Jeffrey Westhoff – [email protected]

Northwest Herald, IL
Feb 10 2007

"Screamers" cannot decide if it wants to be a documentary about the
band System of a Down or what the band is about.

The four members of the hard rock group have grandparents who survived
the Armenian genocide of 1915. This tragedy, which was perpetrated by
the Turkish army at the beginning of World War I, is the band’s cause.

"Screamers" wants carry this cause to a greater audience, and succeeds
at it intermittently. But it just as often turns into a concert film,
and watching the band screech the same song in America, England and
Germany doesn’t illuminate the topic of genocide, no matter how angry
and politically charged the lyrics.

The band members, especially the articulate lead singer Serj Tanakian,
are right to be angry and political. To this day the Turkish government
denies the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians happened. While most
nations have pressured Turkey to admit to this travesty, the country
has two powerful enablers: the United States and the United Kingdom.

"Screamers" lays this information out, but it doesn’t dig into it. It
is easy to say that America and Britain don’t want to offend Turkey
because both have military bases in the country that has held strategic
importance since the Second World War. Naturally America currently
wants to remain allied with a country that borders Iraq and Iran.

But "Screamers" does not explain why the current Turkey’s contemporary
leaders refuse to acknowledge an event that happened 90 years
ago. Maybe such a thing cannot be explained, but director Carla
Garapedian and her researchers should have tried harder to include
more Turkish voices.

Garapedian fails to follow up on many things, most notably the band’s
pursuit of former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Seeking
a House bill that acknowledges the Armenian genocide, the band shows
up outside Hastert’s Batavia office with a letter asking him to allow
a vote on the bill. Tanakian later corners Hastert in the U.S. Capitol.

But Garapedian never reveals Hastert’s decision (which I assume was
negative, although my Internet search skills have failed me here).

"Screamers" could have used an update to see how System of a Down
will pursue the issue now that the Democrats control Congress.

"Screamers" also attempts an overview of modern genocide, showing
how the Armenian massacre prefigured the genocides in Nazi Germany,
Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. But as they tally the victims in
these genocides the filmmakers make an unconscionable error, stating
that 6 million died in the Holocaust. That oft-repeated statistic
refers only to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The total number
of people killed is estimated at 11 million, and most of those others
were gypsies, Serbs and Bosnians.

It is unforgivable for a film asking us to remember 1.5 million
victims of one genocide to overlook 5 million of another.

"Screamers"

2 stars Rated R for disturbing images of genocide and language Running
time: 1 hour, 21 minutes Directed by Carla Garapedian Starring System
of a Down, Dennis Hastert Opens today at Kerasotes Webster Place
Theatres, 1471 W. Webster St., Chicago

Guelph Mercury (Ontario, Canada)
February 9, 2007 Friday
Final Edition

Recognition of genocide a political issue in Turkey

by VARTAN OSKANIAN

Ankara has let a rare moment pass. Three weeks after the
assassination of acclaimed Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, it
appears the Turkish authorities have grasped neither the message of
Hrant’s life nor the significance of his death.

In the days immediately following Dink’s shocking death, allegedly at
the hands of a fanatic Turkish nationalist, we in Armenia and others
around the world wanted to believe that the outpouring of public
grief would create a crack in the Turkish wall of denial and
rejection, and that efforts would be made to chip away at the
conditions that made the assassination possible. We all hoped that
the gravity of this slaying and the breadth of the reaction would
have compelled Turkey’s leaders to seize the moment and make a
radical shift in the policies that sustain today’s dead-end
situation.

However, after those initial hints at conciliation, the message out
of Ankara has already changed. Last week, according to the Turkish
media, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there can be
no rapprochement with Armenians because Armenians still insist on
talking about the genocide, mass killings of Armenians during the
First World War.

The prime minister is right. Armenians do insist on talking about the
genocide. It’s a history-changing event that ought not, indeed
cannot, be forgotten. However, we also advocate a rapprochement. And
one is not a precondition for the other.

Dink was an advocate of many things. Chief among them, he believed
that individuals have the right to think, to talk, to explore, to
debate. Dink knew that if the authorities would just allow people to
reflect and reason aloud, share questions and search for answers,
everything would fall into place. Eventually, through public and
private discourse, Turks would arrive at genocide recognition
themselves.

Equally, he also believed that there must be dialogue between
peoples, between nations — especially between his two peoples, the
Armenians and the Turks. He himself was a one-man dialogue, carrying
on both sides of the conversation, trying to make one side’s needs
and fears audible to the other.

Unfortunately, Turkey’s policy of keeping the Armenian-Turkish border
closed has resulted in a reinforcement of animosities. Dink was one
of many Armenian and Turkish intellectuals who understood that there
needs to be free movement of people and ideas in order to achieve
reconciliation among neighbours. But Turkey insists on maintaining
the last closed border in Europe as a tool to exert pressure on
Armenia, to make its foreign policy more pliant, to punish Armenians
for defending their rights and not renouncing their past. Armenia, on
the other hand, has no preconditions to normalizing relations.

This hermetically closed border combined with a law that prevents
Turkey from exploring its own history and memory — by criminalizing
truth-seekers such as Dink — have created a world in which Turks
can’t know their past and can’t forge their future.

Three weeks ago, our grief was mixed with hope. Today, Turkish
authorities continue to defend Article 301, the notorious "insulting
Turkishness" statute used to prosecute even novelists who depict
characters questioning Ankara’s official line on the genocide. And
there is no mention at all of the continuing damage caused by a
closed border.

If Turkey can’t seize the moment, it should not be surprised when
others do. Last week, a resolution was introduced in the U.S.
Congress to affirm the U.S. record on the Armenian genocide.

The Turks will say such a resolution is not needed. They will say
that they’ve called for a joint Armenian-Turkish historical
commission to discuss the genocide, and they don’t need third
parties. But recognition of the Armenian genocide is no longer a
historical issue in Turkey, it’s a political one. Dink would wonder
how "on the one hand, they call for dialogue with Armenia and
Armenians, on the other hand they want to condemn or neutralize their
own citizen who is working for dialogue."

Dink was courageous but not naive. Still, he could not have predicted
this kind of "neutralization." The brutality of his killing serves
several political ends. First, it makes Turkey less interesting for
Europe, which is exactly what some in the Turkish establishment want.
Second, it may scare away Armenians and other minorities in Turkey
from pursuing their civil and human rights. Third, it can frighten
into silence those bold Turks who are beginning to explore these
complicated, sensitive subjects in earnest.

I prefer to think that more noble political ideals will be served.
Hrant Dink will remain an inspiration for Armenians who share his
vision of understanding and harmony among peoples and for Turks who
share his dream of living in peace with neighbours and with history.

Vartan Oskanian is minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of
Armenia. This column appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

BREAKING MILITARY AID PARITY WILL CREATE REAL THREAT FOR ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.02.2007 16:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan, which exceeds
the same aid to Armenia, will change the balance in the region
and create a real threat for Armenia, said to a press conference
in Yerevan AAA (Armenian Assembly of America) Regional Director for
Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh Arpi Vartanian. In her words, the AAA is
going to demand from U.S. Senate to keep the parity in the issue of
American military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. "We are also going
to lobby annual financial aid to Karabakh by the United States, which
was not included in the FY2008 budget. It’s truth that during recent
8-10 years U.S. financial aid to other countries has significantly
reduced, but Armenia continues to get financial means. Every year
the White House tries to cut assignations. I underline, the issue
of cutting financial aid budged to Armenia has not connection with
resolution on the Armenian Genocide and "Millenium Challenges"
program," Vartanian stressed.

As to the 907th amendment of Liberty Support Act adopted in 1992,
which bans state assistance to Azerbaijan, the AAA Regional Director
said that its preservation is necessary to keep the balance of powers
in the region.

In its FY2008 budget the United States has offered to assign Azerbaijan
a sum of $4.3 million and Armenia – $3 million.

ERDOGAN:TURKEY WILL NOT OPEN THE BORDER WITH ARMENIA BEFORE KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

ArmRadio.am
08.02.2007 11:54

Turkey will not open the border with Armenia before the settlement of
the Karabakh conflict, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
declared during the meeting with Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar
Abiev.

"We should continue our fellowship, our unity will greatly benefit us,"
declared Erdogan, noting that Turkey will maintain the cooperation
with Azerbaijan in military and other spheres.

For his part, providing "information" on the Karabakh conflict, Abiev
underlined that the peace talks are yielding no results. "That is
why we are intensively reinforcing the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan,"
Abiev declared.