Author: Karabekian Emil

TURKEY WILL ALLOCATE 570 THOUSAND USD FOR CONSTRUCTION OF CAUCASIAN
RAILWAY BYPASSING ARMENIA

ANKARA, JANUARY 30, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The Turkish State
Planning Organization has announced that 40 mln new Turkish liras
(nearly 570 thousand USD) will be allocated for construction of
Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway connecting Turkey to Azerbaijan
through Georgia and bypassing Armenia. According to Anatolia Turkish
information agency, the organization officials stated that the program
may be implemented in late 2007.

U.S. UNABLE TO NAME NEW ARMENIA ENVOY AMID GENOCIDE ROW
By Emil Danielyan

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Jan 23 2007

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

For months the Bush administration has been unable to appoint a new
U.S. ambassador to Armenia due to a dispute with the influential
Armenian community in the United States over the mass killings and
deportations of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey. The row broke out last
summer and is continuing amid growing indications that at least one
of the houses of the U.S. Congress will soon recognize the World War
I-era deaths of more than a million Ottoman Armenians as genocide.

The diplomatic post has been vacant since September, when the
previous U.S. envoy, John Evans, left the Armenian capital. Evans is
believed to have had his tour of duty cut short because of his public
descriptions of the Armenian massacres as "the first genocide of the
20th century." His apparent recall infuriated the Armenian-American
community, which for decades has been campaigning for official U.S.
recognition of what most historians regard as a deliberate effort to
exterminate the Armenian population of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Like his predecessors, President George W. Bush has refrained from
using the word "genocide" with regard to the massacres, anxious not
to antagonize Turkey, a major U.S. ally that maintains that Armenians
died in much smaller numbers as a result of internal strife, rather
than a premeditated government policy. Richard Hoagland, a career
diplomat nominated by Bush for the job, stuck to this line during
confirmation hearings at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
last June, prompting strong criticism from pro-Armenian members
of the panel. Just when the White House seemed to have overcome
their objections, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), placed a "hold"
on Hoagland’s confirmation in September.

Menendez repeated the extraordinary move on January 11, two days after
Bush re-nominated the diplomat. "We must call genocide by its name,"
he said in a statement. Also urging the administration to nominate
a new candidate was Harry Reid (D-NV), the new Senate majority
leader. Both lawmakers have been praised by the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA), one of the two main Armenian lobbying
organizations. But the more moderate Armenian Assembly of America
(AAA) believes that the U.S.-Armenian community has gotten its message
across and should now stop obstructing Hoagland’s appointment.

In a January 17 statement, the AAA said the presence of a U.S.
ambassador in Yerevan is "vitally important" for Armenia. Pro-Western
circles in Armenia share this view, with the Yerevan daily Aravot
editorializing on January 11 that Armenian-American leaders should
back away from further confrontation with Washington. The Armenian
government, which formally agreed to Hoagland’s appointment last year,
has declined to comment on the controversy.

Buoyed by the Democratic takeover of Congress, both the ANCA and the
AAA helped to circulate this month a new draft resolution that calls
on Bush to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate
annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide." It has already
been co-sponsored by more than one hundred members of the House of
Representatives. Two similar bills were already approved by the
Republican-controlled House International Relations Committee in
September 2005, but they never reached the House floor because of
strong opposition from the White House. The new House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA) is a longtime advocate of Armenian issues. "I think
we have the best chance probably in a decade to get an Armenian
genocide resolution passed," Adam Schiff (D-CA), another pro-Armenian
congressman, said on December 25.

The genocide recognition drive is expected to gain new momentum
after the January 19 assassination in Istanbul of Hrant Dink, a
prominent Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor and vocal challenger of the
official Turkish version of the bloody events of 1915-18. The daylight
shooting, widely linked with Dink’s public pronouncements, drew strong
international condemnation and will put Turkey under greater pressure
to confront one of the darkest episodes of its Ottoman past.

Ironically, Dink was among the few Armenians who believed that
Armenia and its worldwide diaspora should focus on educating the Turks
instead of lobbying for genocide resolutions by the U.S. and other
Western parliaments. "Turkish society needs time to learn things,"
he said at a September news conference in Yerevan. "There needs to
be a serious examination of history. Armenians must play a role in
that examination."

Many Armenians, including the Washington-based lobbyists, will now
argue that Dink’s violent death showed that international pressure
is indispensable for a genuine Turkish-Armenian dialogue. "Today’s
brutal murder serves as a wake up call to the United States and the
entire international community to unite together in ending forever
the Turkish government’s denial of the Armenian Genocide," the ANCA
executive director, Aram Hamparian, said in a statement.

Turkish-Armenian reconciliation is also seriously hampered by the
absence of diplomatic relations and an open land border between Armenia
and Turkey. Successive Turkish governments have made normalization of
bilateral ties primarily conditional on a resolution of the Karabakh
conflict that would be acceptable to Azerbaijan, Turkey’s main regional
ally. Ankara refuses to drop this precondition despite pressure from
the United States and the European Union.

Kaan Soyak, a co-chair of the non-government Turkish-Armenian Business
Connection (TABC), predicted on January 15 that the Turkish blockade
will not be lifted before a Karabakh settlement. TABC was set up
in 1996 to promote a rapprochement between the two neighboring
states. "We then hoped that the border will open next month," the
Turkish businessman told reporters in Yerevan. "We now want to [see
it] open before we die."

(Western news agencies, January 19; Statement by the ANCA, January
19; Statement by the AAA, January 17; Haykakan Zhamanak, January 16;
Aravot, January 11; RFE/RL Armenia Report, January 11, September 19)

Orhan Pamuk: We Are All Responsible for Dink’s Death

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.01.2007 17:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "We are all responsible for Dink’s death,"
Turkish author, Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk when visiting the
family of murdered journalist Hrant Dink at their home in Istanbul
yesterday. Pamuk, who told reporters that words could not even
describe his sorrow, said, "In a sense, we are all responsible for
his death. However, at the very forefront of this responsibility are
those who still defend Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. Those who
campaigned against him, those who portrayed this sibling of ours as an
enemy of Turkey, those who painted him as a target, they are the most
responsible in this. And then, in the end, we are all responsible,"
reports Hurriyet.

Turkish Journalist’s Murder Denounced by ”Screamers” Film Director

Business Wire (press release), CA
Jan 22 2007

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hrant Dink, who was killed yesterday
and has been generally known for speaking out about the need for
Turkey to be open about its past, including the Armenian genocide,
voiced similar concerns in the documentary "Screamers," which is
opening in theatres in New York and Washington, DC on January 26th
distributed by Maya Releasing.

"Hrant Dink has long been a voice for tolerance and understanding,
and it is inconceivable that this message was not heard by the criminal
who took his life away," says "Screamers" director Carla Garapedian.

Dink was the editor of the Agos newspaper and was shot to death on
the street in front of his office Friday in Istanbul. Garapedian
interviewed Dink in Istanbul for "Screamers" to discuss the
pressures being faced by people who want to speak freely about the
Armenian genocide – notably himself, Orhan Pamuk and publisher Ragip
Zaracolou. In the film, he explains that many people in Turkey cannot
comprehend that their predecessors would be perpetrators of genocide.

"Because they’re against genocide and wouldn’t commit it themselves,
they can’t believe their ancestors would have done such things
either." It’s a battle, he said, for hearts and minds.

"Dink knew very well the danger of speaking freely for what he
believed in," says Garapedian. "Like his friend Orhan Pamuk, he was
under prosecution, under Article 301, for ‘insulting the Turkish
state.’" "There has to be a process for a people to have the right
to know the truth," Dink told Garapedian in Turkey. "The progressive
elements of Turkey are working in this direction and those outside
should help us in this direction."

On Friday, Dink lost his fight for peace and democracy in Turkey.

"When I interviewed him for the film he told me his life had
been threatened many times," says Garapedian. "They are always
making threats by phone or email," Dink told her. "I cannot be as
free as normal people, I have to be careful, always looking over my
shoulder." Dink spoke about his friend, Nobel prize-winner Orhan Pamuk,
who has also faced daily threats after saying a million Armenians
were killed by the Ottoman Turks.

After "Screamers" was released in Los Angeles last December, Garapedian
asked the Turkish government for a response to the film.

Weeks later, the government issued a statement saying that the
Turkish government would redouble its efforts to combat the "lies"
being disseminated by the Armenian diaspora. Yesterday, the government
condemned the killing of Hrant Dink. "Whatever they have said, I can
only think their call to deny the genocide sent a green light to those
forces of extremism in Turkey that are only too ready to rely on the
gun," said Garapedian.

This week "Screamers," which examines genocide denial in the last
century, from the Armenian Genocide, to the Holocaust, Cambodia,
Rwanda and Darfur, was shown at the Library of Congress, to a
standing-room only crowd of over 200 people. Attendees included 7
members of Congress and numerous young staffers all among the over 100
million fans of the band, System of a Down, who are featured in the
film. The event was sponsored by Congressman Adam Schiff, Save Darfur
and the ANCA. Dink’s words were heard by members of Congress and echoed
in the halls of the Library of Congress. As Dink told Garapedian,
"Those who live in a democracy may not be able to comprehend why
someone can not accept their past. What they may not realize is that
the person they are talking to is not as open-minded as they are."

"The last time I saw him was in November for our AFI premiere in
Los Angeles, smiling as usual," said Garapedian. "He was a true
democrat with a big heart and the courage to move forward, no matter
the danger. Dink, in his own way, was a Screamer. I feel very honored
to have known him."

Murdered Armenian Editor in Turkey Received 2600 Death Threats

Assyrian International News Agency
Jan 22 2007

Hrant Dink, The Armenian journalist and editor in chief of newspaper
AGOS, who was murdered last week in Turkey, had received 2600 death
rates by email, the police reported, as well as numerous threats by
telephone and letters.

Two weeks ago the Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul urged all
Turkish organizations to counteract all efforts to have the genocide
of Assyrian, Armenians and Greeks recognized.

Hrant Dink was charged for the notorious paragraph 301 ("insulting
Turkish identity") in the Turkish penal code. During the trial Hrant
Dink was stigmatized by the media and was labeld a traitor and enemy
of Turkey.

Hrant Dink ended his last article with the quote below:

"I can feel restless as a dove but I know that in this country people
do not touch and disturb the doves. The doves continue their lives
in the middle of the cities. Yes indeed a bit frightened but at the
same time free."

EasternStar News Agency

Agence France Presse — English
January 20, 2007 Saturday

Armenian media slams Turkey after journalist killing

Armenian newspapers criticised Turkish authorities on Saturday for
not doing enough to protect slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink.

"Turkish authorities should have guaranteed the security of Dink. He
had received many threatening letters and had told police about
them," said the Aikakan Dzhamanak (Armenian Times).

The Aravot (Morning) daily said: "Turkey’s ability to become a
civilised, reformed country and its readiness to integrate with
Europe are in serious doubt."

Dink, who was hated in Turkish nationalist circles for his views on
the massacres of Armenians under Turkish rule during World War I, was
shot dead outside his office in Istanbul on Friday.

The killing brought thousands of protestors into the streets of
Istanbul and the Turkish capital Ankara. Turkish authorities have so
far detained three people in the murder inquiry.

Armenian analysts said the killing would have little impact on ties
between Turkey and neighbouring Armenia, which have been effectively
frozen since the fall of the Soviet Union.

"I don’t think the killing will lead to any major changes in
Turkish-Armenian relations," said Alexander Iskandarian, director of
the Caucasus Media Institute in Yerevan.

"Those who were against opening the border with Turkey will say that
a Turk is still a Turk, Turkey is still a dangerous neighbour and the
border shouldn’t be opened," Iskandarian said.

"Those in favour of opening will say that such things happen
everywhere."

The 355-kilometre (221-mile) border between the two countries was
closed in 1993 at the height of the Nagorno Karabakh war in which
ethnic-Armenian separatists in Azerbaijan took over almost a fifth of
Azerbaijani territory.

Armenia backed the separatists, while Turkey supported Azerbaijan.

In recent months, Armenian government ministers have expressed the
hope that diplomatic relations will be restored with Turkey and the
border re-opened in order to boost trade and transport potential in
the region.

Views in Turkey and Armenia over the killings of ethnic-Armenians in
the Ottoman Empire during World War I are still deeply divided.

Armenians say that up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered
between 1915 and 1918 and want the massacres to be internationally
recognized as genocide.

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.

The Daily Telegraph, UK
Jan 20 2007

Pro-Armenian journalist shot dead in Turkey
By Amberin Zaman in Istanbul
Last Updated: 2:08am GMT 20/01/2007

A prominent Turkish journalist who campaigned for Armenian rights was
shot outside his office in central Istanbul by suspected Turkish
nationalists today, only days after saying he had received anonymous
death threats.

Hrant Dink provoked anger in Turkey for describing the killing of
Armenians in 1915 as genocide
The murder of Hrant Dink, who was of Armenian descent, is set to deal
a further blow to Turkey’s efforts to join the EU.

Mr Dink, 53, was shot in the head and neck three times by an
unidentified gunman as he was leaving the bilingual Turkish Armenian
newspaper, Agos, that he edited at around 3pm local time.

Eyewitnesses said the assailant was a teenager wearing a white cap
and jeans. `He shouted ‘I shot the infidel’ as he ran away,’ said
Muharrem Gozutok, a restaurant owner.

Police detained two people in connection with the murder but they
were released after interrogation.

The Turkish private news channel NTV showed images of Mr Dink’s
corpse covered with a white sheet, his feet shod in brown leather
shoes sticking out at one end, his crop of unruly black hair at the
other.

Hundreds of Turkish citizens gathered outside Agos chanting `We are
all Armenians, we are all Hrant Dink.’

Mr Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, faced a number of
court cases as well as death threats relating to his comments about
the mass slaughter of up to a million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish
forces during and after the First World War.

The 53-year old journalist provoked widespread anger in Turkey for
having characterized the killings as genocide.

Last year a Turkish court confirmed a suspended six-month jail
sentence handed down to Mr Dink for an article in which he exhorted
fellow Armenians to `purify their blood of hatred for Turks.’

The prosecution was unswayed by his argument that it was a call for
peace and ruled that it was an `insult to Turkishness’ an offense
that is punishable by a maximum three year jail sentence.

Mr Dink had been preparing to appeal his case before the European
Court of Human Rights.

The EU’s enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn today said, `I am
shocked and saddened by this brutal act of violence. I trust that the
Turkish authorities will fully investigate this crime and will bring
the perpetrators to justice.’

Turkey’s conservative prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pledged to
track down the killers `no matter if they are Turkish or foreign’.

`A bullet has been fired at Turkish democracy and free speech,’ he
said.

Despite Mr Erdogan’s pledge to track down the killers, scores of
Turkish writers and academics face prosecution under laws introduced
by Mr Erdogan’s government that make it an offence to insult Turkey
by making references to the massacre of Armenians during the First
World War.

They include Turkey’s best know author and first Nobel prize
laureate, Orhan Pamuk, who was prosecuted on charges of `insulting
Turkishness’ for telling a Swiss newspaper that `one million
Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands but no one but
I dares talk about it.’

Mr Pamuk’s case was dropped last year on a technicality.

Turkey denies that the events of 1915 constituted genocide saying no
more than 300,000 Armenians perished at the time.

Turkey insists most of the Armenians died from hunger and disease
after they were forcibly deported from eastern Turkey for having
collaborated with invading Russian forces in the last days of the
Ottoman Empire.

Anyone who challenges this official version of history risks
prosecution in Turkey, as did Mr Dink. A fervent champion of
Turkish-Armenian dialogue, Mr Dink managed to anger his fellow
Armenians by insisting that it was time to set aside the past and
move on.

Voice of America
Jan 19 2007

Prominent Journalist Shot Dead in Turkey
By Amberin Zaman
Istanbul
19 January 2007

A prominent Armenian Turkish journalist was shot dead as he left his
office in central Istanbul on Friday. Hrant Dink, 53, was one of the
most influential voices in Turkey’s small Armenian community and a
passionate proponent of the country’s membership of the European
Union. From Istanbul Amberin Zaman has details for VOA.

Journalist Hrant Dink (file photo)
Television images from the scene of the slaying showed Dink lying on
the pavement covered with a white sheet outside the office of the
bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos, which he founded and ran.
The area was cordoned off by police as citizens and journalists
thronged around scene of the crime. The Turkish independent news
channel NTV reported an unidentified teenager wearing jeans and
white cap was among the chief suspects.

[Turkish media are reporting that authorities have arrested three
people in connection with the shooting. Reports say police arrested
two other people earlier but they have been released.]

Turkey’s conservative prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pledged
to bring the perpetrators to justice saying he had ordered his
security services chiefs to investigate the murder.

The attack he said was "leveled against free speech, democracy and
the unity of the Turkish people."

A Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, Dink faced a slew of court
cases over his comments about the mass slaughter of up to a million
Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces during and after World War I. He
provoked widespread anger in Turkey for having characterized the
killings as genocide. That view is shared by most Armenians and many
historians worldwide. Yet Dink also angered many of his fellow
Armenians by insisting that dwelling on the past served no useful
purpose and would often say he was proud to be a loyal citizen of
Turkey.

Turkey denies that the events of 1915 constituted genocide, saying no
more than 300,000 Armenians perished at the time. Turkey insists most
of the Armenians died from hunger and disease after they were
forcibly deported from eastern Turkey for having collaborated with
invading Russian forces in the last days of the Ottoman Empire.
Anyone who challenges this official version of history risks
prosecution in Turkey.

Many Turkish intellectuals and politicians condemned Dink’s slaying,
saying he was a force for peace and reconciliation. Speaking to the
NTV news channel, a Turkish columnist for Agos, Aydin Engin, said he
believes Dink’s murder was orchestrated by forces who do not want
Turkey to join the European Union.

The 27-member bloc has repeatedly condemned Turkey for laws that curb
free speech. These are the laws under which Dink, and many other
Turkish writers and academics, have faced prosecution. Camille
Eurlings, a member of the Strasbourg based European Parliament
expressed shock at the killing calling it "unbelievable."

Turkish Press
Jan 20 2007

MHP Calls For Common Sense Over Assasination Of Hrant Dink
Published: 1/20/2007

ANKARA – Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of Turkey called for
common sense regarding the murder of Turkish journalist Hrant Dink,
the editor-in-chief of bilingual Agos weekly of Armenian descent, in
a statement on Friday.
MHP condemned the murder and said "We call for our nation to act in
maximum sense of responsibility, common sense and not to get
provoked."

ARMENIA PARTICIPATES IN WFTGA CONGRESS FOR FIRST TIME

YEREVAN, JANUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia is participating for the
first time in the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations
(WFTGA) congress that started in Cairo on January 19. Armen
Shahbazian, expert of USAID Competitive Armenian Private Sector
Program’s (CAPS) business unions, informed NT correspondent about it.

"Chairwoman of the Guild of Armenian Tourist Guides Liana Grigorian
and me will present to the WFTGA executive board information materials
of the Armenian Tourism Development Agency (ATDA), which will allow
the congress participants to become acquainted with the opportunities
of Armenia’s tourism sector," he said.

According to him, WFTGA congresses are held every other year. WFTGA’s
membership includes 40 countries (including Russia and Armenia out of
the CIS countries). The Giuld of Armenian Tourist Guides has been a
full member of the WFTGA since 2005.

The congress will last until January 26.