4 DELEGATES WILL CONGRATULATE NEW TURKMAN PRESIDENT
A1+
[06:38 pm] 12 February, 2007
On February 13 the delegation of RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan will
leave for Ashgabat to participate in the inauguration ceremony of
the new President of Turkmenistan.
The delegation includes deputy Gurgen Arsenyan, deputy Foreign Minister
Gevorg Gharibjanyan, and "ArmRusGasArd" CEO Karen Karapetyan.
WAR OF WORDS
by George P Fletcher
Times of India, India
Feb 13 2007
Nowadays, words are often seen as a source of instability.
The violent reactions last year to the caricatures of the Prophet
Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper saw a confused western
response, with governments tripping over trying to explain what
the media should and should not be allowed to do in the name of
poli-tical satire.
Then Iran trumped the West by sponsoring a conference of Holocaust
deniers, a form of speech punished as criminal almost everywhere
in Europe.
As Turks well know, it is dangerous to take a position on the
Armenian genocide of 1915. Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted
for denying Turkey’s official history by saying that the Armenian
genocide actually occurred.
Other Turks have faced prosecution in Western Europe for saying that
it did not. So words are now clearly a battlefield in the cultural
conflict between Islam and the West.
The West has learned that, simply as a matter of self-censorship, not
legal fiat, newspapers and other media outlets will not disseminate
critical pictures of Muhammad, and the Pope will no longer make
critical comments about Islam. But these gestures of cooperation with
Muslim sensibilities have not been met by reciprocal gestures.
Instead, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, has threatened to wipe
Israel off the map. The Israeli foreign ministry now seeks prosecution
of Ahmadinejad for incitement to commit genocide, a violation of
international law. But the Israeli press is also bellicose.
Israeli newspapers regularly carry stories about why Israel may need
to attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring an arsenal of nuclear
weapons. President George W Bush has made similarly ominous, if more
vague, statements about Iran.
The world’s different legal systems have never been in much agreement
about the boundaries of free speech. Even between good neighbours
like Canada and the US, there is little agreement about punishing
hate speech.
Canadians punish racial insults, but Americans do not. But threatening
violence is more serious. Many countries are united in supporting
the principle that if, say, Ahmadinejad does meet the criteria for
incitement of genocide, he should be punished in the International
Criminal Court.
Indeed, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda punished radio
station operators who made aggressive public broadcasts urging Hutus
to pick up their machetes and murder Tutsis.
A decade ago there would have been a good argument in international law
that the Hutu-Tutsi example supports prosecution only after the damage
has been done. All the international precedents from Nuremberg to
the present concern international intervention after mass atrocities.
Domestic police may be able to intervene to prevent crime before it
occurs, but in the international arena there is no police force that
can do that. It follows, therefore, that the crime of incitement
should apply only to cases like Rwanda, where the radio broadcasts
actually contributed to the occurrence of genocide.
In cases where bellicose leaders make public threats to bury another
country (remember Khrushchev?) or to wipe it off the map, the courts
should wait, it was said, until some harm occurs.
But the international community has become ever more intrusive in
using legal remedies against persons who engage in provocative and
dangerous speech. In 2005, the UN Security Council passed Resolution
1624 calling upon all member states to enact criminal sanctions
against those who incite terrorism.
Americans have traditionally said that, absent a risk of immediate
unlawful violence, this form of speech should be protected under
the First Amendment. US courts reasoned that it is better to allow
the release of hateful sentiments than to call attention to them by
showcasing them in court.
But when it comes to terrorism in today’s world, most countries
are not as tolerant as they used to be. So the traditional liberal
position in support of giving wide scope to freedom of speech, even
for extremists, is losing ground everywhere.
When it comes to fighting terrorism and the prospect of genocide,
the world is now becoming afraid of dangerous words.
The writer is Cardozo professor of juris-prudence at Columbia
University. Copyright: Project Syndicate.
OLD WORLD CHARM: KEN DAVITIAN MAKES LAUGHTER FOR MAKE BENEFIT GRATEFUL MOVIEGOERS OF AMERICA
By Robert Abele
New Times Broward-Palm Beach (Florida)
February 8, 2007 Thursday
As we’ve seen from British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s guerrilla-style
comedy hit Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan one actor’s deadpan dedication to
heavily accented cultural naivete in the face of unsuspecting victims
can do wonders. Actor Ken Davitian who played Borat’s bearded and
oversized film producer, confidante and combatant Azamat Bagatov,
knows this well. "I didn’t break character," says Davitian, 53 of
his audition for Borat. The breakdown called for a "frumpy eastern
European" man who didn’t understand English. But instead of showing
up as his needy American bit-player self and then performing the
role for a casting camera, Davitian arrived a bewildered foreigner
sporting baggy threads, a gruff demeanor, and a parlance inspired by
his Armenian relatives. Outside the audition, among fellow actors he
recognized from the ethnic-part circuit, all dressed as themselves,
he kept up the act. "One of the guys came up and said, ‘You really
want this part. ‘"
Inside Davitian didn’t even hand over a real resume. "I had a white
eight-by-ten that was folded in my jacket pocket," he says. "I took
it out straightened the creases, and gave it to them, and you could
see in their eyes, ‘How did this guy get in?’ From what I understand,
they thought, ‘This is so sad. Let’s just go through with it a little
bit and ask him to leave. ‘"
But Davitian made Cohen laugh and afterward, the L.A. native brought
out his regular voice and actual resume – a 15-year Hollywood grinder’s
menu of one-line cabdrivers and shop owners named Igor and Ramon an
ER here and a Boston Legal there, a Vin Diesel movie and something
called Frogtown II. (He got his SAG card for Albert Brooks’ Real
Life but was cut out of the film.) A Curb Your Enthusiasm audition
years ago didn’t pan out, but Borat director Larry Charles, a Curb
executive producer, had a cosmic take on it for Davitian: "He told me,
‘If you had gotten it, when you walked into this room, we would have
known you were an actor. ‘"
Of course in a comedy that upends our notions of role-playing,
Davitian comes across as more than a mere actor or sidekick. With his
determined waddle, non-English dialogue (he responded in Armenian to
Cohen’s Hebrew) and bearish, floppy-suited countenance, his Azamat
is arguably the movie’s true center of Old World verisimilitude. We
know Cohen’s a fake as he spotlights bigoted America, but unless
you’re a regular at L.A.’s the Dip – the delicious sandwich joint
Davitian owns and has used to pay the bills – why wouldn’t you think
that roly-poly tagalong was the genuine article?
Davitian a good-natured, gregarious sort in person, is certainly one
kind of reality: the struggling performer who juggled his dream with
the demands of raising a family (he and wife of 30 years Ellen, have
two grown sons) until the breakthrough role came. When asked about his
reaction to the Borat juggernaut-controversy promotional appearances,
awards season parties – he offers a Borscht Belt-timed response that’s
also achingly personal. "I have been preparing for this for 53 years,"
he says. "I’m really thrilled. I’ve gotten offers. For the first time
I actually passed on a project, and I’ve never passed. I’ve been the
guy who would be shooting a commercial in Fresno, drive to L.A. to
shoot something there, and then go back to Fresno, and the amount of
money made would be nothing. But that’s your job. And I want to work."
OK but most actors outside the world of porn aren’t asked to flout
public decency laws, wrestle nude, and park their nuts on a co-star’s
chin. Already a cinema classic – the homo-unerotic extreme version
of a Laurel & Hardy bit – Cohen and Davitian’s grapplefest inspired
a memorable Golden Globes acceptance speech from Cohen who thanked
Davitian for providing him a "rancid bubble" of trapped air with
which to stay alive.
But how did Davitian feel having to stare down genitalia himself?
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," he says, grateful to have his side
heard. Of his costar, he notes, "One, he had a very good mohel. And
two, that big black [censor] bar was a bit of an exaggeration."
ARMENIA NOT TO YIELD TO BLACKMAILS IN KARABAKH CONFLICT ISSUE
PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2007 13:28 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Preconditions to Armenia for normalizing relations
with Turkey and Azerbaijan are not acceptable for Yerevan, told a
press conference in Yerevan Adviser to the RA President on National
Security Garnik Isagulyan. In his words, Armenia will not yield
to any blackmails in the issue of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement. As to fact that Armenia does not participate in the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railway project, Isagulyan does not think the
above-mentioned stance will significantly harm country’s economy
in such extent that Azerbaijan and Turkey account for. "Armenia is
a bit concerned by Georgia, but its position in the construction of
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railway is the business of Georgian authorities,"
Isagulyan stressed.
Alongside, the RA President’s Advisor reminded that such concerns
used to arouse and during construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline. "But as you all see, little changed after launching the
pipeline. In any case, the situation in the region remains an object
of our rapt attention," Isagulyan underlined.
Kirakossian doesn’t think Armenia may face complete isolation
09.02.2007 17:27
YEREVAN (YERKIR) – Conclusion of an agreement on the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku railroad is an urgent problem for the Armenian
diplomacy, RA Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakossian told a news
conference in Yerevan.
`Turkey calls the project `Ankara-Baku trunk railway.’ Actually, it’s
a continuation of Turkey’s policy targeted at Armenia’s isolation.
To counterbalance the project Armenia should reinforce activities
within international structures to prevent any financing by the U.S.,
EU or other interested bodies,’ he said adding the project is first of
all a political one. ` It’s profitable for Turkey, Georgia and
Azerbaijan but I don’t think Armenia may face complete isolation. We
have railway communication with Georgia and Iran as an outlet to the
world markets,’ Kirakossian said.
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
Feb 9 2007
Statement of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia
The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia strictly condemns
the treacherous assassination of Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of the
weekly `Agos’ and assessed the crime as a crime against freedom of
speech, human rights and the representative of the Armenian minority.
Expressing its indignation, the National Assembly of the Republic of
Armenia states that the premeditated inhumane crime left very deep
roots caused by the nationalistic circles of Turkey as a result of
disseminating anti-Armenian propaganda. Negation of its own history
at the level of Turkish authorities, wide dissemination propaganda of
the denial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, as well as the unleashing
of criminal persecutions towards numerous intellectuals, who raised
that issue, caused a desire in the minds of nationalistic circles to
silence the voice of freedom with such crime.
At the same time we express our concern on the latest developments
regarding this heinous crime. After Dink’s assassination the public
outbreak today has already being replaced by the reverse tendency –
the Turkish nationalism, hatred against other nations, making a hero
the criminal is being revived again, and as a result, the threats
addressed to the newspaper edited by Hrant Dink, free-thinking people
and the Armenians gather momentum.
The disclosures of this crime are of concern and need to be
thoroughly examined, and according to them, the law enforcement
bodies knew beforehand and did not try to prevent the assassination.
Today, the necessity of the disclosure of the whole crime, including
those who ordered it, is vital.
The National Assembly states: this assassination once again
reiterated the reality that for the establishment of the atmosphere
of two peoples’ mutual trust, the reconciliation with its own history
and recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by Turkish authorities,
as well as the implementation of the demand of the international
community of abolishing the Article 301 of the Criminal Code that
enables to violate the free speech and similar developments, is a
matter of present interest.
ADOPTION OF BILL "ON FORMATION AND RESIGNATION OF GOVERNMENT" AGAIN FAILS
Noyan Tapan
Feb 08 2007
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 8, NOYAN TAPAN. At the February 8 morning sitting
RA National Assembly again failed to adopt the bill "On Formation
and Resignation of Government" discussed in first reading two days
ago. Before the voting RA NA Speaker Tigran Torosian said that the
government had revised the bill on the basis of MPs’ proposals changing
its title as well. Passions inflamed in the hall when it became clear
that against MPs’ proposals to completely stipulate in the draft
law constitutional provisions relating to government’s formation and
resignation also specifying the mechanisms, the government preferred
to withdraw the most of the provisions from the bill. The bill renamed
"On Criteria of Considering Government as Formed" only stipulated that
the government is considered as formed if all government members have
been appointed, and by the adoption of the above mentioned law the law
"On Formation and Resignation of Government" adopted in 1998 will be
considered invalid. Proposals of a number of MPs to again discuss the
bill or to postpone the voting were again declined. The bill received
50 votes in favor and 3 abstained, while participation of at least 66
MPs was necessary for adopting the law. The adoption of the bill "On
Making Addition to law "On Property Tax" discussed in first reading
the previous day also failed, after which T.Torosian presiding over
at the sitting stopped the voting.
TURKEY MISSES ITS CHANCE WITH ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.02.2007 19:12 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Hrant Dink’s assassination provided a key
opportunity for Turkey to mend relations with its neighbor. 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," says the article by Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian published in The Los Angeles Times.
"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.
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 neighbors. 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. They can neither explore
old memories nor replace them with new ones.
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 neighbors and with history,"
the article says.
USA CAN NOT SUPPORT ALL PROJECTS – BRYZA
Tbilisi, February 7. ArmInfo-BLACK SEA PRESS. The USA can not support
all projects that are being implemented in the region. This fact was
stated to journalists co-chairman of OSCE Minsk Group from the USA
Matt Bryza, while touching upon the project of railway Baku-Tbilisi-
Kars construction.
"We support the project of construction oil pipeline
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, but we can not support all projects in the
region", Bryza said, News-Azerbaijan agency informs from Baku.
"We are neither for it no against it", he added.
AN ANALYTICAL LOOK AT TRABZON PART 1
[After the killing of Dink]
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 6 2007
As soon as the murderer was identified, the media searched for images
of the perpetrator.
When a satellite television channel ran a video showing a wedding
party attended by the murderer, Ogun Samast, and described those
filmed along with Samast as being "crazy," the people living in the
Faroz district of Trabzon were also heard to voice their objection.
They were displeased to hear that their folk dancing, named after
their district, was thought to be an act of madness. The public heard
their objection at a press conference the day after Hrant Dink was
laid to rest. Certainly this tragedy struck all of us, but each had
a different way of relating to this assassination that shocked Turkey.
The Agos newspaper "family" obviously felt the most sorrow. What was
then happening in Trabzon?
As the Soviets died, the atmosphere changed in the city Trabzon had
to take a "vision-quest" for to take, like every other city, when the
advent of nation-states reduced both the physical geography in scale
and cultural climate in quality. Although the city once hosted tens of
diplomatic missions and financial centers, the cultural side of the
city would gradually become weaker, and it would later be replaced
with a sports team’s fantastic imprint on the whole country. With
this team being a constant topic of lively discussion across the city
under any circumstances, the city itself would unfortunately soon
be left in the background, and football would then become the sole
narrative. The bells would soon ring loudly… Who could possibly
know that statements from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that
ended the era of Cold War would become a nightmare for Trabzon?
The story of Trabzon begins to take a different course in 1989, when
the Soviet bloc disintegrated and the Sarp Gate was opened. In the
first place, the city begins to import cheap goods and the economy thus
becomes more successful. As commercial relations with the countries
that now form the Commonwealth of Independent States, which replaced
the Soviets, became stronger, the conduct of commercial life began
to dominate social interactions. The eastern Black Sea cities become
predominantly a victim of prostitution, namely the "Natashas," the
Russian prostitutes who later became a subject of academic debate. A
combination of over 10,000 cafes, bars and hotels became available
as places to make money. "The mafia-like formation of gangs was very
common in such places as cafes, bars and hotels. As there were fewer
people coming from northern countries, things began to fall apart. The
people working in those places began to challenge one another, and the
last five or six years saw tens of killings. When the flow of money
ended, all the people working in those places were left desperate. What
could they possibly do?" This was the worry raised by Hasan Kurt,
an author and owner of the Kuzey Express, a local newspaper.
The district of Comlekci is a part of the city that only needs to
be seen to have a perfect picture of what really happened over the
last two decades over here. The stores lined up on the street that
sell knick-knacks, with hotel rooms on top of them, tourists who
frequent cafes here and residents living in side streets. We are
speaking in a building converted from a church with Refik Gunaydýn,
the head district official. "Tourists bring money into the country,
as we know; these people are in reverse taking monthly amounts of
up to $400,000 abroad. I asked government officials to look into
such figures," he said. There were only five hotels in 1989 in this
oldest district of Trabzon; however, it now hosts 39 hotels and a
similar number of guest houses, too. "Today’s population in Comlekci
contains more people from the Commonwealth of Independent States,"
said Gunaydýn, who thinks that Trabzon was one of the most peaceful
cities of the country up until 1989. Gunaydýn had to issue a warning
at a meeting over recent events: "I don’t care about psychology; I
don’t care about sociology; do you really have the slightest idea of
what the hell is going on in this small district? Do you ever wonder
who knocks on my door in the dead of night? The situation here is
impossible to render understandable in analyses done from nice houses."
Let’s walk around Trabzon because there is no question that the recent
events are a by-product of the "environment." The subject matter of
this paper is largely about a group of people whose account for the
financial side to the killing is as simple as they say cold-bloodedly:
"It cost me YTL 500 to conduct this murder." Some of the similar
points between the two killings are as follows: Both murderers
are 17-year-olds, both frequented Internet cafes, the victims were
both non-Muslim, both victims were shot from behind, both murderers
revealed their intention to the public prior to the killings, both
murderers chanted victorious slogans after they shot the victims down,
and both young murderers have divorced parents.
Overwhelming and numbing unemployment, 250 Internet cafes that cannot
be brought under control, split families, aimless youth and local gangs
that try to pass themselves off as members of the mafia are all part
of what prepared the groundwork for such killings; however, they are
not sufficient in themselves to explain the "coincidences" mentioned
above. It is signaling a plain fact to us that such killings receive
the implicit support of a group of young local people since earlier
revelations from the murderer about his plans to kill a particular
person were not taken seriously enough to stop the murdering from
happening. The university also plays a crucial role.
The faculty of economics and administrative sciences of Karadeniz
Technical University hosts the most popular canteen in town. Erhan
Tuncel, who was arrested as the perpetrator, is still a student in the
faculty. It is obvious from the kind of students who look like party
animals that the canteen now hosts that for the most part students
here are rich enough to pay for their education. We afterward learnt
that this canteen holds a wide appeal for students from across the
city. A professor here at Karadeniz was complaining when he said
that students from the faculty have no access to panel discussions
or seminars that can be used to increase their awareness.
He further said that it is only the canteen where students are building
their immediate worlds, rendering themselves vulnerable to a variety
of different political tendencies.
Best-selling books at the university We throw a glance at a pile of
books put on display in a showcase just outside the dean’s office. At
first, we thought the books were written by professors here. A textbook
titled "Militant Democracy and International Terror" stands out. We are
not startled at all by what we see when we look at the best-sellers,
placed right outside the faculty: Soner Yalcýn’s "Mr. Pipe and His
Excellencies," the whole series of books by Osman Pamukoðlu — who was
a senior military commander in the army during the period of Feb. 28
chaos — lsuch as "Deep States" and "To Cross the Border in Þemdinli."
Eyup Aþýk, a former leading figure of the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN)
who is currently spending his political life with the True Path Party
(DYP), is the man who gave a job to the father of Ogun Samast, the
prime suspect in the murder of Hrant Dink, when he was the mayor
of Pelitli. Aþýk doesn’t think that Dink’s killing was only for
political reasons. "The bombing of McDonald’s is actually a matter
of having not the means to go there. It should not be viewed only
as anti-Americanism. One even has to pay to play for Pelitlispor;
one has to buy shoes, one has to buy soft drink to celebrate a game
after it is won. … But the structure of society cannot meet needs
like this," he said. Aþýk also argued that legal regulations are a
hindrance to police officers. He cannot help mentioning that two police
stations in Trabzon were closed for financial reasons. Aþýk thinks
it possible that there might be some forces behind those two young
murderers; however, he does not think it likely that they were foreign
intelligence agencies, such as the CIA or MOSSAD. Aþýk hopes that
the sorting out of the Dink assassination will help the whole country.
Fethi Yýlmaz, who has run the Trabzon magazine Kýyý since 1961, was
a neighbor to the murdered priest Andrea Santaro. "We would have tea
together. He was fluent in Turkish, even though he came from Italy.
He was a friend of ours. Perhaps our sorrow for his killing was
even greater than that of his Italian friends," said Yýlmaz. Yýlmaz
considers the likely reason behind the killing of Santaro to be his
having helped Russian women return to their home countries.
How many non-Muslims live in Trabzon? We asked this question in
an attempt to approach the situation from the point of view of
non-Muslims living in the city. We asked everyone, from all ideological
or sociological backgrounds in Trabzon, to be introduced to someone who
is not a Muslim. The group of people who received this request from us
included civil society members, journalists, leftist intellectuals,
businessmen and those with views both in favor and against dialogue:
In the end, nobody knew someone who was not a Muslim. The top civilian
authority here said Trabzon hosts 10 Catholics, or a total number
of 50 non-Muslims at the most. A former head of the local district
administrators’ association said he did not know any non-Muslims
himself. As a result, any answer to a question like "Were non-Muslims
in Trabzon provoked?" would remain nonsensical.
In the view of Hasan Kurt, it is more like an increased version of
hatred among groups that stemmed from the creation of a false enemy:
"I don’t think it likely that things are happening by coincidence.
Over the last decade, Trabzon has been provoked into believing that
the city was under the threat of Armenians, that the city was plagued
by missionaries, that there are efforts to create a newer version of
Pontus. My house is just next to the church building. I saw a couple
of women coming to the church every once in a while. There was only
a small group of people of 20 to 30 that used to come to the church.
The media is creating such a fuss over missionaries that it becomes
impossible to stop the formation of groupings. There is church
propaganda at unbelievable levels, but it remains unsuccessful in
attracting people to the church." Kurt then accused local papers
of creating false fears. "There are far more non-Muslims living in
Ýzmir and Bursa than there are here in Trabzon. This means that the
situation here is deliberately being created."
A change from the times of Evliya Celebi…
"It looks like the society is being fragmented," said Ahmet Þefik
Mollamehmetoðlu, who heads the Trabzon branch of the Journalists’
Association. Mollamehmetoðlu holds that there are efforts to
fit Trabzon in with a particular identity, just was the case with
Diyarbakir. "Trabzon is being pushed to a central position between two
opposites. Trabzon has the Caucasus and Chechnya in its background. I
think that all this might be related to a background of this kind."
Evliya Celebi wrote in his travel notes, titled "Seyahatname," that
the people of Trabzon take pleasure in traveling, wandering around,
cooking, and eating; are lighthearted and carefree, gentle and lovely;
and that their women are really beautiful. Although Trabzon people
retain such characteristics, it is not true today that they are
lighthearted and carefree. Trabzon can react promptly to an event
if it is about national characteristics. The main reason the PKK
as a separatist Kurdish terrorist organization cannot find a place
across the Black Sea region of Turkey is that although the demographic
structure is changing, the eastern Black Sea people retain a homogenous
population there. This is a city that hosts the kind of people who
are quite proud of their national affiliations, who are proud enough
to react violently to when there is an attack of any kind on their
national values, and whose connection to each other has eroded over
time due to poor urbanization policies. A teacher told us that in none
of his talks to prisoners here has he heard even a word of regret
about their criminal acts. All this aside, if it is a sign of high
security that a woman can remain out on the street late at night,
Trabzon must be counted as highly secure compared to other cities.
To be continued
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