Author: Karagyozian Lena

RESOLUTION OPENS OLD ETHNIC TENSION
By: Rebecca Putterman, Staff Writer

University of North Carolina The Daily Tar Heel, NC
/paper885/news/2007/10/15/City/Resolution.Opens.Ol d.Ethnic.Tension-3032344.shtml
Oct 15 2007

A century-old debate resurfaced in the U.S. Congress last week that
pits historical atrocities against the present realities of a delicate
American foreign policy.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution condemning
the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as a genocidal campaign
by Turkey.

Turkey, a key American ally in the war on terror, reacted to the
resolution by threatening to withdraw its support for the war in Iraq,
and Armenians and Turks throughout the states have responded to a
renewal of old tensions.

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., who serves on the foreign affairs
committee, voted against the resolution for cultural reasons.

"I would love to think that we had the standing in the world to pass a
resolution like that and make another nation feel ashamed and examine
their history and feel that there’s something they need to do to make
amends," Miller said.

"We do not have that standing in the world, particularly in the
Muslim world, and I think that the Turkish citizens will feel insulted
and angry."

Yet 27 of the 48 committee members approved the resolution with the
Armenian victims in mind.

Ninety-five years later, there are still millions of Armenians who live
daily with the pain of what they see as an unacknowledged atrocity.

UNC junior Maria Bagdasarian is the great-granddaughter of survivors
who fled the massacre and arrived in Syria on foot to start over.

"This is a group of people that have been struggling for years to
get this recognized," Bagdasarian said.

But Armenians aren’t the only ones living with the past. Turkish
students are also being faced with the issue, as they try to understand
their nation’s history and how it affects them today.

Turkish student Pinar Gurel, a junior at UNC, said that the topic
is taboo among Turks because the massacres were committed under the
Ottoman Empire, not orchestrated by present-day Turkey.

"There’s no evidence that it was a genocide, that it was specifically
planned and plotted against Armenians," Gurel said.

She added that there isn’t sufficient evidence that it was a genocide,
as opposed to a lot of Armenians dying during World War I and Turkey’s
coinciding struggle to become a republic.

The Armenian Assembly of America, a key lobbying group in Washington,
D.C., argues otherwise.

"You have a mountain of evidence that it was a genocide, so we should
not shy away from calling it as such," said Bryan Ardouny, executive
director of the assembly.

He said that if people don’t recognize past genocides, they will
never learn to prevent them in the future.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged the mass murders but
warned Congress of the resolution’s repercussions for the war, as
access to a Turkish military base is pivotal for supplying U.S. troops.

"This is clearly a very sensitive subject for one of our closest
allies, and an ally that is incredibly important to the United States
in terms of our operations in Iraq," Gates stated in a press release.

Miller said that keeping Turkey as an ally will be beneficial for
foreign policy beyond the war in Iraq.

"I would rather use what limited credentials we have in the world
right now to urge other nations to join with us to stop the genocide
in Darfur, more than trying to sort through the history and moral
obligations of events in 1915."

Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Oct 14 2007

Confronting history

Article Last Updated: 10/13/2007 09:59:38 PM PDT

REP. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, contends that now is not the right
time for Congress to pass a resolution affirming that the deaths of
hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
constituted genocide.

But when, exactly, would be a good time, after the next genocide?

Harman, one of the co-sponsors of the resolution, now says: "We
should avoid taking steps that would embarrass or isolate the Turkish
leadership." Like President George W. Bush, she says Turkey is
playing a constructive role in the Middle East.

That is true enough for the most part. But failing to recognize the
horrors of history tarnishes America’s image as a moral force in the
world. How can we have the resolve to label the situation in Darfur
for what it is – genocide – and then soft-pedal the first genocide of
the 20th century?

Fortunately, the Foreign Affairs Committee had the will to reject
Turkey’s lobbying efforts to kill the resolution. The panel stood its
ground even though the 27-21 vote approving the resolution caused
Turkish lawmakers to threaten to cut off U.S. access to a Turkish air
base that supports U.S. operations in Iraq.

One has to wonder why a nonbinding resolution would spark such
threats.

America’s values drive our policy of encouraging democracy and human
rights in the Middle East. We water down those values when we allow
the deniers of past genocides to prevail.

If now is not the right time to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,
it’s only because that time came long, long ago.

Kurdish rebel commander warns Turkey against attacks on Iraqi region

Published: 10.14.07, 15:07 / Israel News

Murat Karayilan, head of the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’
Party, or PKK, has warned Turkey it would encounter tough resistance
and a dragged-out, Vietnam-style conflict, if it launched a
large-scale offensive against the Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

An aggressive incursion by the US ally into Iraq would prompt the
rebels to retaliate with protracted and bloody attacks, said Karayilan
on Saturday. ”Iraq’s Kurds will not support the Turkish army,” he
said. ”If Turkey starts its attack, we will swing the Turkish public
opinion by political, civil and military struggle.” (AP)

Source: ,7340,L-3459717, 00.html

Voice of America
Oct 13 2007

US Secretary of State Rice Urges Turkish Restraint Over Genocide
Resolution, Kurdish Rebels

By VOA News
13 October 2007

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appealed to Turkey for
restraint, both against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and in
reaction to a genocide resolution approved this week by a U.S.
congressional panel.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, and U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates at a news conference in Moscow, 12 Oct 2007
Rice, who is in Russia, told reporters Saturday that it is a
difficult time for U.S.-Turkish relations. She said two senior U.S.
diplomats are in Ankara for talks to reassure Turkey that the United
States values the relationship.

The diplomats, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried and U.S.
Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador to
Ankara, are expected to discuss Turkish plans for a military attack
on Kurdish rebels across the border in Iraq. Washington opposes such
plans.

Rice also said she spoke with Turkey’s president, prime minister and
foreign minister by phone Friday about the U.S. congressional
resolution declaring mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as
genocide.

The Bush administration strongly opposes the resolution, saying
Ankara could restrict critical supply routes to U.S. troops in Iraq.

Ankara recalled its ambassador in Washington after the resolution
passed the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday. Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials say the
measure will hurt bilateral relations.

Earlier Saturday, Turkish media reported that a government minister
has canceled a trip to the United States because of the resolution.
State-run Anatolia said Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen will not attend
an upcoming U.S.-Turkish investment conference in New York.

Armenians accuse Ottoman Turks of massacring one-and-a-half million
Armenians from 1915 to 1923 in systematic deportations and killings
to drive them out of eastern Turkey. Turkey denies that genocide took
place. It calls the death toll exaggerated and says the Armenians
died in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2007

USA highly appreciates Armenia’s participation in international
peacekeeping efforts in Iraq

YEREVAN, October 11. /ARKA/. The USA. highly appreciates Armenia’s
participation in international peacekeeping efforts in Iraq, Debra
Cagan, the assistant to the U.S. deputy defense secretary, said as
met with Michael Haroutounyan, Armenian defense minister, on Thursday
in Yerevan.

Seyran Shahsouvaryan, the spokesman of Armenian Defense Ministry,
told ARKA News Agency that Cagan expressed gratitude to Armenian
government and Defense Ministry for Armenian peacekeepers’
contribution to peacekeeping process in Iraq.

She said that a representative of the U.S. Defense Department has met
Armenian peacekeepers in Iraq and found them brave and courageous.

Military cooperation between Armenia and the United States, defense
reforms being implemented in Armenia and U.S.-run programs were
discussed at the meeting.

The sixth rotation of Armenian peacekeeping contingent is now in
Iraq. The 46-member group comprises of two officers, three military
doctors, ten field engineers and 31 car drivers.
For the first time, Armenian servicemen were dispatched to Iraq for
peacekeeping mission on January 25, 2005.

As many as 300 Armenian peacekeepers have been sent in Iraq since
then. -0—

ArmRadio – Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 12 2007

63% of respondents say the US should recognize the Armenian Genocide

12.10.2007 15:40

The majority of respondents of the online poll initiated by MSNBC
webpage said the United States should recognize the Armenian
Genocide. Asked whether the US should recognize the World War I-era
killing of Armenians as genocide, 63 percent of the respondents gave
a positive answer. About 28 thousand people participated in the
survey. `Yes. Many scholars agree that the Ottoman Turks
systematically killed up to 1.5 million Armenians. Other countries
have recognized this as genocide. The US should do the same.’

Only 30% of the respondents said `No. Historians continue to debate
whether the deaths were genocide. Besides, Turkey is too important an
ally to alienate when the US has troops in the Middle East. 6.5 %
said they are not sure. About 28 thousand people participated in the
survey.

Those who wish can participate in the survey at

EuroNews, France
Oct 12 2007

Iraqi raid plans deepen Turkey-US row

With Turkey preparing for a possible strike against the PKK in Iraq,
the Kurdish rebels have threatened to widen their attacks against
Turkish targets. Turkish plans for an anti-terrorist operation to
counter cross-border raids by the PKK have worried the US. Washington
fears it would further destabilise northern Iraq. But Ankara, whose
troops are coming under increasing rebel attack, is in no mood to
listen to American concerns.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signalled his country is
willing to risk angering Washington. This comes after a congressional
committee outraged Turkey by voting to call the 1915 massacre of
Armenians genocide. Turkey is a key US ally in the region, vital as a
supply base for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now Erdogan has said the genocide vote, pushed through by Democrats
but opposed by the White House, has put cooperation with the US at
risk. Erdogan’s government is to seek approval from parliament next
week for an operation in Iraq.

Some analysts think Ankara will ultimately hold off, in line with US
demands. But relations between the two allies have rarely been lower.

ARMENIANS TO WITNESS HISTORY: A PONTIFF WILL CONSECRATE A LOCAL CHURCH
By Waveney Ann Moore, Times Staff Writer

St. Petersburg Times, FL
Oct 12 2007

Parishioners of St. Hagop Armenian Church are preparing for a historic
visit by their world leader this week.

His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All
Armenians, will arrive Saturday for a two-day celebration during
which he will consecrate St. Hagop’s new $2-million church. It will
be the first time he has consecrated an Armenian Apostolic church in
North America.

Catholicos Karekin, whose ecclesiastical seat is in Etchmiadzin,
Armenia, is on an 18-city visit to the United States that includes
New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Detroit and two additional stops in
Florida – Boca Raton and Hollywood.

This Sunday all Armenian Apostolic churches in Florida will be
closed in honor of the visit and members of those congregations
are expected to be among those who will travel to Pinellas Park to
see the pontiff. He will travel to St. Hagop’s in a motorcade with
police escorts.

Members of the local congregation, who come from as far away as Citrus,
Pasco and Manatee counties, have been preparing for the pontifical
visit for a year. Last October, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian of New
York made St. Hagop’s a promise, said Dr. Hagop "Jack" Mashikian,
vice chairman of the parish council.

The archbishop, head of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of
America, told St. Hagop’s leaders that if they finished their church
before Catholicos Karekin’s pastoral visit to the United States,
he would arrange for the pontiff to consecrate it.

With that goal in mind, the congregation – the only full Armenian
Apostolic parish on Florida’s west coast – rushed to complete its
traditional Armenian-style church. In June, they held a ceremony to
top off the church with an 8- by 5-foot aluminum cross.

This weekend Catholicos Karekin will enter an almost completed
church. The altar and 19 crosses, all of which he will bless, are
scheduled to arrive late this week. The pews will arrive after the
consecration, but parish council president Arsen Bayandrian says the
temporary chairs will allow optimum capacity for Saturday and Sunday’s
historic celebration. An overflow tent with a video feed will be set
up on the church grounds, he said.

Father Hovnan Demerjian, 33, the church’s new priest, said he is
starting under auspicious circumstances.

"It’s a great way to begin," he said. It’s like you’re beginning with
a great boost of energy and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the
church is being consecrated and also visited by His Holiness. It’s
like a double blessing."

This weekend’s celebration will begin with a turnpatzek, or "opening
the doors" ceremony, on Saturday. A private reception will follow.

The consecration and pontifical divine liturgy will take place the
next day, followed by a banquet at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.

The ceremonies will be steeped in pageantry, though Sunday’s is
expected to be the more impressive. Demerjian, St. Hagop’s new priest,
said the consecration will be part of the normal Sunday liturgy.

"A main part of it is blessing 16 crosses that are sort of the pillars
of the church," he said.

Each cross has been dedicated to a saint, he said. Additionally,
a godparent has been appointed for each cross and like a godparent,
the role will be a supporting one.

In effect, Demerjian said, the godparents agree to support the church
"and raise it into a strong community of God."

The 250-seat church and planned multipurpose building have been
a long-held dream. Back in 1997, Catholicos Karekin’s predecessor
promised to consecrate St. Hagop’s new church during his 1998 visit.

Demerjian said it’s difficult to describe his emotions now that the
congregation’s dreams are being realized. "I feel that God has done
his job through us to erect this church," he said.

"We are proud that we are the first sanctuary that will be consecrated
in North America by this pontiff. It’s an honor that he has honored
us with his presence. There are no words to express the feelings that
we have.

Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at [email protected] or 727 892-2283.

The pontifical visit

Where: St. Hagop Armenian Church, 7050 90th Ave. N, Pinellas Park

7:30 p.m., Saturday, opening of the doors ceremony

10 a.m., Sunday, consecration of the sanctuary

Valet and off-site parking. Call (727) 545-0380.

About His Holiness Karekin II

1951 – Born in Armenia

1972 – Ordained a priest

1983 – Consecrated bishop

1992 – Named archbishop

1999 – Elected Catholicos

of All Armenians

How to greet the pontiff

Step 1: Say, "May God be your helper."

Step 2: Kiss his right hand.

[Last modified October 11, 2007, 22:57:09]

pinellas/Armenians_to_witness_.shtml

GEOPOLITICAL DIARY: TURKEY’S DESIGNS ON NORTHERN IRAQ

Stratfor
Oct 11 2007

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan might ask parliament to
authorize a move by Turkey’s military into northern Iraq. Erdogan said
on Wednesday that, "A request for approval of a cross-border operation
could be sent to parliament tomorrow. After the holiday, we plan to
gain authorization for one year." Erdogan should have no difficulty
gaining parliament’s approval after attacks by Kurdish rebels belonging
to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party killed 15 Turkish soldiers.

How far the Turks plan to move in Iraq is the important question.

During the 1990s, the Turks moved into Iraq to create buffer zones
against Kurdish attack, so there is a precedent for a move of that
nature. The Turkish government is under public pressure to do something
about these attacks, and the re-creation of a buffer zone is one
thing it could do that would be effective and satisfy public opinion.

A Turkish incursion into northern Iraq at this time would be opposed by
the European Union and the United States. However, the European Union
has lost a great deal of leverage with the Turks by not admitting
them to the union and making it fairly clear that they will never
be admitted. As for the United States, the Turkish view is that they
opposed the invasion of Iraq and refused to participate in it.

Their expectation is that the United States, having created the
situation, should take steps to stop attacks inside Turkey. Since
the United States clearly can’t do that, the Turks will act by
themselves. Put simply, the United States and the European Union do not
have leverage with Turkey, and Turkey will pursue its own interests.

The resolution does not mean that the Turks will immediately move into
northern Iraq, but we are not as sure as others are that the Turks
aren’t quite serious. First, there is the security issue. It is not a
trivial matter for the Turks. It is difficult for the government not to
take some steps, and the fact that the United States and the European
Union oppose such a move will simply make it that much more popular.

There also is a more important geopolitical issue: The Turks oppose
the creation of an independent Kurdish state in Iraq because they feel
it will encourage Kurdish separatism in Turkey. The future of Iraq
is up in the air, to say the least, and the most important issue for
the country is whether an independent or highly autonomous Kurdish
region will emerge. This uncertainty is something the United States
can live with; it is not something the Turks will live with.

Therefore, the Turks view American policy in Iraq with extreme
concern on this issue. Moving into Iraqi Kurdistan, however limited
the incursion, would serve as a signal to both Kurds and Americans
that there are limits beyond which Turkey is not prepared to go. It
also would put Turkish troops into position to exercise control in
the region in the event that the situation in Iraq gets completely
out of hand.

There is another factor. As we have said previously, there is
increasing activity by Western oil companies in the Kurdish region.

That oil revenue is an attractive prize. Whatever Turkish intentions
are now, the process of preventing the emergence of an independent
Kurdistan would put Ankara in the position of being able to at least
participate in — if not control — the development of this oil. The
Turks are not talking about this, and they might not be thinking
about it, but the solution to the security problem could lead there.

The United States must be very careful. Turkey is an ally, but at
this moment the Americans need the Turks more than the Turks need the
Americans. Apart from logistical support in Iraq, the United States
sees Turkey as a counterweight to Iran in the region. However, Turkish
and Iranian interests converge on the question of an independent
Kurdistan. Turkey has little in common with Iran ideologically, but
should the United States adamantly oppose Turkey on this, it would
bring Ankara and Tehran closer, and this is the last thing Washington
wants right now.

U.S.-Turkish tensions are exacerbated by Congress’ consideration
of a resolution accusing Turkey of carrying out genocide in Armenia
early in the 20th century. This is an incredibly sore point with the
Turks right now, increasing domestic political pressure on Turkey
to refuse to bend to the United States. Therefore, we take Turkey’s
resolution seriously and think that a move into Iraqi Kurdistan,
at least to create a buffer zone, is a very real possibility —
and one that could lead to more far-reaching consequences.

GONUL TELLS GATES "THE DAY AFTER WILL NOT BE GOOD"

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 9 2007

Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates on Monday warning that the passage of an
Armenian genocide bill in the House of Representatives jeopardize
Turkish-American relations.

In his letter, Gonul emphasized that the bill can have negative impact
on relations, if adopted.

"It will be difficult to keep reactions of Turkish public under
control in such a case," he noted.

Gonul added that adoption of the bill will not serve interests of
Turkish and U.S. peoples.

On the other hand, the Ministry sent letters to U.S. defense industry
firms– that carry out joint projects with Turkey. In these letters,
the National Defense Ministry asked the U.S. firms to lobby against
the bill.

"We will do what it takes to defeat a bill at the U.S. House of
Representatives that supports Armenian arguments regarding the
incidents of 1915. Turkey has important trump cards in its hands,"
said Justice & Development (AK) Party Deputy Chairman and deputy
Egemen Bagis on Monday.

Speaking to reporters at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, Bagis indicated
that "Turkey has several options in the event the bill gets adopted
at the U.S. House of Representatives. We will decide on what to do
whether the bill would be adopted at the Foreign Relations Committee
of the House of Representatives."