Author: Karagyozian Lena

LEVON TER-PETROSIAN CONSIDERS IMPOSSIBLE CONTINUATION OF NEGOTIATIONS OVER KARABAKH BY CURRENT FORMAT

Noyan Tapan
Nov 7, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 7, NOYAN TAPAN. "Our supreme goal is to restore
Nagorno Karabakh’s participation in the negotiations process." Levon
Ter-Petrosian, the first RA President, stated at the November 3 meeting
with the youth at Yerevan’s Armenia Marriott hotel. According to him,
both the international community and the Minsk Group Co-chairs, during
10 years, have got used to a format, which is convenient for them, as
it is easier to negotiate with two than with three parties. Besides,
Azerbaijan has also got used to that format. Therefore, it will be
very difficult to restore the former negotiations format.

L. Ter-Petrosian reminded that starting 1992, when the negotiations
were launched, Azerbaijan tried to force Karabakh out of that process
and to negotiate just with Armenia, as it wished to present this
conflict to the world not as a conflict of mother country and of
enclave making part of it even if juridically or of an ethnoterritorial
unit, but to make it an inter-state problem. "It failed in the period
we held the power. We achieved the fact that at the OSCE Budapest
summit of 1994, Nagorno Karabakh was already recognized as one of
the conflict’s three equal parties. This mandate was reaffirmed at
the Prague summit of the following year.

Therefore, it was not a wish, a caprice, it was already the status
of the internationally recognized Karabakh.

According to L. Ter-Petrosian, when Robert Kocharian was elected the
Armenian President, being from Karabakh, he just assumed the function
of presenting Karabakh’s viewpoint. "The international community and
Azerbaijan, as they say, died from happiness. I do not know how such
a present could be made to Azerbaijan. Since that day, after 1998,
Karabakh has been left out of all negotiations processes," the first
RA President said.

L. Ter-Petrosian stated that the current authorities have failed the
negotiations for 10 years and, according to him, "if we permit them
to continue this way, we will receive a war."

THE ALIYEVS IN THE LIST OF THE WORLD RICH PEOPLE
Translated by L.H.

AZG Armenian Daily #205
08/11/2007

Social

According to Russian "Express", the wealth of the Aliyevs is estimated
at 24 billion dollars.

The property of Ilham Aliyev is appraised at 11 billion dollars,
his sister Sevil’s possession – 13 billion dollars.

The Aliyevs are the owners of real estate in many countries abroad;
in many cases the buildings are rented by the foreign ministry of
the country. For example, the building of the Azerbaijani Embassy in
London is owned by Sevil, and she gets colossal sums of money from
the rental of it from Baku.

GEORGIA ANNOUNCES NATIONAL EMERGENCY

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.11.2007 14:24 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Wednesday evening Georgian President Mikhael
Saakashvili signed a decree on establishment of state of emergency
in Tbilisi.

The measure has followed an attempt of coup d’etat, State Minister
Zurab Noghaideli said.

"The edict imposes limitations on conduction of demonstrations and
calls for violence, shift in power and organization of disorders,"
he said.

Mr Noghaideli said the state of emergency will cover Tbilisi only. At
that "freedom of speech is not limited" while "usual media work"
will be resumed after the order in the republic is established.

However, national emergency spear all over Georgia on Wednesday night.

Minister of Economic Development Giorgi Arveladze said the terms of
the edict will expire in 15 days.

Rustavi 2 private TV channel said good-bye to its audience and
promised to return in two weeks. Earlier, special forces occupied
the office of another TV channel – Imedi – belonging to entrepreneur
Badri Patarkatsishvili, Lenta.ru reports.

ARMENIAN, LITHUANIAN FM SIGN A MEMORANDUM ON COOPERATION

armradio.am
08.11.2007 14:03

RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian received the delegation headed
by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Petras Vaitiekunas.

Minister Oskanain highly appreciated the current level of
Armenian-Lithuanian relations. The Minister noted that Armenia is
interested in further reinforcing and developing the political and
economic dialogue between the two countries and the visit of the
Foreign Minister will become a good impetus for the development of
bilateral relations.

During the meeting the parties turned to the dynamic processes of
development of bilateral relations ever since the establishment of
diplomatic relations with Lithuania. Minister Oskanian expressed
the willingness of the Armenian side to study the opportunities of
cooperation with Lithuania in concrete spheres in the framework of
the Armenia-EU Action Plan.

The Lithuanian Foreign Minister underlined that the relations with
Armenia are one of the political priorities of Lithuania’s foreign
policy.

Official Vilnius clearly envisions Armenia’s European perspectives
and will continue its active involvement in and support for the
reinforcement of cooperation with NATO and implementation of democratic
reforms in the countries of the South Caucasus, especially Armenia.

The parties emphasized the necessity of intensifying the bilateral
economic relations. In this regard importance was attached to the
forthcoming visit of the Lithuanian Prime Minister to Armenia, in
the framework of which an economic forum will be organized.

The interlocutors discussed regional issues and referred to the events
in Georgia. Expressing concern over the tension and stressing the
importance of Georgia’s stability, Minister Oskanian noted that the
development of relations with the European Union and other European
structures will enhance the stabilization of the political situation
in the countries of the region and formation of the culture of
constructive dialogue between the opposition and the authorities.

Minister Oskanian presented the recent developments in the Karabakh
peace process. The parties exchanged views on issues of regional
energy security.

The meeting was followed by the ceremony of signing of the "Memorandum
of cooperation between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Lithuania on Issues of European
Integration" and a joint press conference.

SERGEI MIRONOV: I PLAN TO ENCOURAGE ACTIVITY OF CAUCASIAN FOUR IN NEAR FUTURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
06.11.2007 16:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Russian Federation
Council, leader of Spravedlivaya Rossiya (Fair Russia) party,
is planning to resume the work of the so-called Caucasian Four
which includes heads of parliament of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan
and Armenia. "We have made a pause for some objective reasons but I
intend to encourage activities in the near future," he said.

"On Tuesday, the Senators discussed the trends of interparliamentary
cooperation in 2008. I am very grateful to Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov for detailed reports on the urgent issues and possibilities
of parliamentary diplomacy for promotion of Russia’s interests at
the international arena," he said, RIA Novosti reports.

LAW PAVES THE WAY TO STALIN AND BREJNEV TIMES, BLOCK MEMBER SAYS

Panorama.am
16:08 05/11/2007

"Whatever is happening with deputy Khachatur Suqiasyan and GALA TV
Channel indicates that such structures are able to carry out political
persecutions, as history shows. One should take lessons from history
and not repeat it," Viktor Dallakyan, independent deputy of parliament,
told a discussion on the Law "On special investigation service."

Earlier reports say that this structure, called special investigation
service, will implement preliminary investigation services connected
with electoral processes or crimes committed by top officials of
legislative, executive and judicial bodies. The justification part
of the draft says that this law will "contribute to stronger combat
against corruption and abuse." The president of the republic is
entitled to appoint the head of this structure as proposed by the
prosecutor general. The president is also entitled to dismiss the
person in office.

"This law will have very bad consequences in the judicial system,"
Zharangutiun member said. Orinats Yerkir (OYeK) will also vote
against. As OYeK block member Mher Shahgeldyan said, "this law paves
the way to Stalin and Brejnev times when each time new investigation
structure was being set up." The bill will be put on vote for the
first reading at a proper time.

A CROSS-STONE DEDICATED TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE VICTIMS ERECTED IN CARDIFF, WALES

arminfo
2007-11-05 19:45:00

ArmInfo. A khachkar (cross-stone) dedicated to the victims of the
Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 has been erected near
the Temple of Peace in Cardiff, Wales.

The information and press department of the Armenian Foreign
Ministry told ArmInfo today that Armenian Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary to Great Britain Vahe Gabrielian and Speaker of
the Welsh Parliament Lord Dafydd Ellis Thomas were present at the
inauguration of the monument.

The source reports that 100-150 representatives of the Turkish
community in Wales held a demonstration of protest against erection
of the monument in Cardiff. The BBC TV channel covered both the
inauguration of the khachkar and the demonstration of the Turks.

The Toronto Star

November 3, 2007 Saturday

Pain of Holocaust felt by many groups;
Cultural and religious organizations share grief during Holocaust
Education Week

Nicholas Keung, Toronto Star

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I
did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade
Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came
for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when
they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me." – Pastor
Martin Niemoeller, a church leader who opposed Hitler
Some people take part because it relates to their own sufferings,
others as a form of penitence. The bottom line is, no one wants the
Holocaust to be forgotten and repeated.
That’s why various cultural and religious groups are championing
Holocaust Education Week as an opportunity to share their own painful
experiences of internment, enslavement and persecution – and to speak
up for one another as "one human race."
The 10-day annual commemoration, featuring more than 150 educational
and cultural programs, kicked off Thursday night. Some events are
being hosted by the African, Armenian and Japanese Canadian
communities, who have also known discrimination and racism.
"It’s just a natural fit," said Rosemary Sadlier, president of the
Ontario Black History Society and co-presenter of a Monday session on
racism and anti-Semitism. "Our experiences are very similar in terms
of enslavement and transmigration, all negative treatment a result of
our physical, cultural and racial characteristics."
James Heron, executive director of the Japanese Canadian Cultural
Centre, was thrilled to be approached by the UJA Federal Holocaust
Centre to host Monday’s screening of Chris Tashima’s Visas and Virtue,
which tells of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who
in 1940 ignored orders and issued hand-written visas to Jews fleeing
the Nazis. The film will be followed by a dialogue with Holocaust
survivor Solly Ganor on his encounter with Sugihara.
"Both the Jewish and Japanese communities realized the need not to
forget the past," said Heron, who recalls the generous support Jews
provided to resettled Japanese Canadians after World War II. "We both
would like to translate our tragic experiences (of internment and
discrimination) into lessons for our present and future generations,
to save other communities from the experience."
This year marks the first time Toronto’s Zoryan Institute will take
part. Founded in 1984 to study the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman
Empire, it has branched out to study other crimes against humanity. It
will host two sessions titled "Nazi Germany: The Armenians and the
Jews," with University of Minnesota professor Eric Weitz.
"The Holocaust is the best-known genocide in the world. It offers a
rich ground to study how genocides take place," said the institute’s
George Shirinian, pointing out that the Armenian tragedy and the
Holocaust heralded an era of atrocities where "ethnic cleansing" takes
place among citizens of the same country, whether Rwanda, Cambodia,
former Yugoslavia or Sudan.
Milton Barry, a priest at Grace Church on-the-Hill, will host a talk
by Sarah Niemoeller von Sell, widow of Martin Niemoeller, originator
of the oft-quoted thought at the top of this story.
For more on Holocaust Education Week, visit

LOVE IN THE MIDDLE OF TRAGEDY

Derby Evening Telegraph, UK
Nov 2 2007

An unconventional love story exploring the aftermath of one of the most
barbaric chapters of 20th-century history – the Armenian genocide –
can be seen at Nottingham Playhouse.

Beast on the Moon, by Richard Kalinoski, explores an issue that is
currently at the centre of a heated row between the United States
and Turkey.

The Playhouse’s artistic director Giles Croft helms this new
production, starring Youssef Kerkour and Karine Bedrossian as the
mismatched couple who must learn to embrace a new world, and Paul
Greenwood (TV’s Rosie) as the enigmatic narrator whose own story
proves to be closely entwined with theirs.

The winner of best play awards in the USA, France and Argentina,
Beast on the Moon runs at Nottingham Playhouse from tonight until
November 17.

An Armenian exile in 1920s Milwaukee, Aram is starting to make his
way as a photographer. Yet his true focus remains the family ripped
from him by the genocide in his native land. He pays to import a young
Armenian girl as his bride but Seta is not the girl whose photograph
Aram was shown. Worse, the legacy of the traumas she has endured
thwarts his desperate bid to reseed his family.

There seems little hope for their marriage.

It takes the intervention of an unlikely young stranger for this
ill-starred couple to begin to overcome the Armenian nightmare and
piece back together their American dream.

The irrepressibly warm-hearted Seta is played by Karine Bedrossian,
whose own mother tongue is Armenian.

Karine’s stage work includes Stripped, Hole in the Heart and Essex
Girls, while on TV she has featured in Life Begins and The Bill.

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NEVER CHANGING FOREIGN POLICY AND THE WAR

EUROPEUS, France
Nov 2 2007

How quickly we have surrendered to the logic of war while talking
diplomacy, dialogue and moderation. The responsibility lies with
the political elite that keeps murmuring about the same old cliches
of a non-existing world. There are foreign policy positions of
Turkey reminiscent of military fortifications. These are at the very
foundations of the Republic and were thought as definite answers to
the problems inherited from the Ottoman era: The Armenian, Greek and
Kurdish questions. Nothing has changed in Turkey’s position regarding
these three issues, except a parenthesis on Cyprus, which opened and
quickly closed in 2004 after the rejection of the Annan Plan by the
Greek Cypriots.

On the other hand, different and new approaches unrelated to these
three issues have recently emerged in foreign relations. The Justice
and Development Party (AKP) governments have started to seek new
balances in foreign policy through openings toward the Eastern,
Ottoman and Islamic worlds. Turkey, for now, has not received anything
in return for these openings. To the quite contrary, alliances the
country formed with the West and Israel are seriously harmed by the new
positions. That is to say, in an attempt to change something once in
a blue moon, we ended up with negative results due to miscalculation
and bad timing.

Our public diplomacy on the other side starts and ends with to
the slogans of " multicultural/ multi-religious tolerance" and
"asylum granted to Sephardic Jews 500 years ago." However, the acute
anti-Semitism, widespread animosity against minorities and racist
tantrums everyday prove how far we moved away from these values in
compliance with nation-state’s rigid rules.

As a consequence, Turkey today is no more a decision-maker but a
country reacting to the decisions of others. The reactionary state
of mind, obsolete yet inflexible, lays the ground for loneliness and
does not help anything but to deepen the victim psychology. A deep
sense of not being understood and aloofness emerges: "Turk has no
friend but another Turk." The next stage is the transformation of
the victim psychology into legitimate defense syndrome and thereby
setting the stage for conflict.

"No more words nor law," or "let’s finish the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK)" slogans we are hearing louder every day are in
fact the language of lack of policy. Diplomacy continues even during
wartime. International law pertaining to the war exists since 1864
(Geneva Conventions); "no law" means the jungle law. As for finishing
the PKK, to listen what the Chief of Land Forces Gen. Ýlker Baþbuð
said recently is sufficient. The situation we are in now makes us
forget that fighting violence only with violence, as it has been
the case for decades, brings no solution. Moreover, even experts
have reservations about the military feasibility of the projected
operation. Unless brand new proactive policies are designed for
Iraqi as well as Turkish Kurds, effects of military action, even if
battles are won, won’t last. Just recall the "29th Kurdish revolt"
formula used by the former President Suleyman Demirel on the PKK and
20 plus hot pursuits realized until today into northern Iraq.

On top of that, Turkey was involved since the beginning with the
shaping of the de facto Kurdish state. Following the first Gulf War,
the security zone declared beyond the 37th parallel in order to protect
Kurds from the wrath of Saddam Hussein was the brainchild of President
Turgut Ozal. Today Turkish companies are building the Kurdish region’s
economic infrastructure. Turkey transfers electricity, buys and sells
oil to northern Iraq. This economic dependency may lead to a healthy
and permanent solution. However, current foreign and security policies
have not sustained these economic initiatives.

Last but not least in the aftermath of the U.S. occupation, Kurds
becoming the only U.S. ally in the Iraq quagmire was evident from
the beginning. Thus adapting to this eventuality was essential.

In the country, political reforms of 2002-2004 for the benefit of Kurds
couldn’t be backed by economic structuring but precipitated a return
to the same old military customs to fight PKK violence, which awakened
in July 2004. The AKP’s failure to generate a comprehensive Kurdish
policy passed the ball once more to the court of the military. In
this regard, the AKP did not manage to design policies different from
classical foreign and internal policy options of its rivals. Hence it
has lost the bet of being different, for doing politics cornered in
between the main street and the nationalist CHP-MHP opposition as well
as the military. At the end of the day, since everyone acknowledges
a positive military outcome is almost impossible, the operation would
be held to appease the opposition and the man-in-the-street.

However this time, the war may yield unexpected results, and alter
never changing foreign policy fortifications. Just like in Cyprus and
Greece after the military coup that took place in Cyprus in 1974. Or
more recently like Serbia who, while destroying Yugoslavia ended up
exhausting itself.

Cengiz is head of the EU Research Center of the Bahcesehir University
– Istanbul

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