Author: Khoyetsian Rose

AGRICULTURAL CONFERENCE IN MATENADARAN
By Ara Martirosian

AZG Armenian Daily
19/10/2007

On October 17, an agricultural international conference titled "Paths
of food; let’s discover the capacity of green Armenia" was held in
Matenadaran on the initiative of "Fruitful Armenia". Director of
"Fruitful Armenia" Anna-Christina Shirinian delivered the welcome
speech.

According to her, the conference is a gathering that is of a great
interest to agriculture, and where the specialists discuss the ways
of development of that sphere.

Anna-Christina Shirinian announced that 13 main reports were
anticipated during the conference and the discussions would be held
on those reports.

Director of Matenadaran Hrachya Tamrazian and the representative of UN
office of Yerevan Consuelo Vidal welcomed the guests, representatives
and specialists of agricultural sphere.

Minister of Agriculture Davit Lokian mentioned in his speech, "The
conference will discover the new possibilities of the development of
Armenian agriculture that will be brought into use."

As a confirmation, the Minister reminded about the first conference
devoted to organic agriculture, which was followed by the adoption
of corresponding law and several steps by the government in benefit
of development of that branch.

WHAT DOES THE FIRST POLL TESTIFY TO?
Armen Tsaturyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 17 2007

The nearer the presidential elections draw, the interest towards the
political figures intending to run for 2008 presidential elections
increases.

To scrutinize the election moods of the electorate, from October
2-8 Armenian Sociological Association conducted a poll among 1000 RA
citizens, which we introduce to our readers.

1. Which political party do you like the most?

"National Unity" – 5,4%
" Bargavach Hayastan" – 15,8%
ARFD – 7,0%
RPA – 20,4%
Armenian Pan National Movement – 1,3%
People’s Party – 2,4
"Heritage" – 7,1%
"Orinats Yerkir" – 7,5%
Communist Party – 1,1
Others – 3,1%
None – 27%
Hesitating – 1,9%
Total 100,0

2. As you know presidential elections are in store for Armenia in
February 2008. Are you going to vote during the presidential elections?

Definitely "yes" – 60,0%
Probably "yes" – 23,1%
Probably "no" – 6,2%
Definitely "no" – 6,3%
Hesitating – 4,4%
Total 100,0

3. Which candidate would have you voted for, had the presidential
elections been hold on coming Sunday?

Arthur Baghdasaryan – 11,2%
Artashes Geghamyan – 10,5%
Armen Rustamyan – 0,8%
Gagik Tsarukyan – 12,0%
Levon Ter-Petrosyan – 3,8%
Serge Sargsyan – 31,8%
Vazgen Manukyan – 3,9%
Vahan Hovhannisyan – 3,2%
Vardan Oskanyan – 3,5%
Tigran Karapetyan – 3,2%
Raffi Hovhannisyan – 12,3%
Aram Karapetyan – 0,7%
Robert Kocharyan – 2,9%
Others – 1,2%
Total 100,0

4. Do you believe the opposition will manage to appear with a united
candidate?

"Yes" – 18,4%
"No" – 66,1%
Hesitating – 15,5%
Total – 100,0

5. If you are going to vote for the pro-opposition candidate, whom
would you like to see as a united opposition candidate?

Arthur Baghdasaryan – 6,4%
Artashes Geghamyan – 6,9%
Levon Ter-Petrosyan – 1,8%
Vazgen Manukyan – 3,7%
Tigran Karapetyan – 2,1%
Raffi Hovhannisyan – 5,6%
Aram Karapetyan – 1,6 %
Stepan Demirchyan – 1,9%
Others – 5,6%
None – 7,9%
Hesitating – 56,5%
Total 100,0

Permanent and Repeated Regularities

The noteworthy fact is that at the beginning of the poll Armenian
Sociological Association tried to clarify the present rating of
the main political powers, because most of them except Armenian
Pan National Movement ran for May 12 Parliamentary elections. The
interesting thing is, the parties that overcame the 5% barrier of the
May 12 elections have maintained their high rating. As for Armenian
Pan National Movement, with its 1,3% rating it falls only behind the
Communist Party.

As compared to the results of May 12 elections RPA rating (20’4%)
is also a bit lower, but there is a regularity in this fact as well,
and to reveal it we can simply compare the present rating of the
party with that of the party leader Serge Sargsyan.

60% of the polled are going to participate in 2008 presidential
elections, and 23,1% answered "probably "yes. For October month it is a
rather active participation for the voters. But we shouldn’t overlook
the fact that ‘going to participate" is an indefinite statement,
because it can change at the last moment.

The most noteworthy part of the poll conducted by Armenian Sociological
Association is of course their attempt to clarify the attitude of
the electorate towards the individual candidate for presidency. Had
the elections been hold next Sunday, that is to say in the middle
of October, then 31,8% of the polled will vote for Prime Minister
Serge Sargsyan, 12,3% – for Raffi Hovhannisyan, 12,0% – for Gagik
Tsarukyan, 11,2% – for Arthur Baghdasaryan, 3,9% – Vazgen Manukyan,
3,8% – L. Ter-Petrosyan, and 2,9% – for the current President Robert
Kocharyan.

The noteworthy thing is that RPA leader Serge Sargsyan exceeds the
party with his rating. This testifies to the fact that the high
rating RPA has recorded during May 12 elections hasn’t changed. They
have simply developed into two components – the combination of party
rating and that of the leader.

The 2,9% rating of the current President is explained by the fact
that the voters are well aware that the President’s second term of
office is coming to its close. So, in our view, the inclusion of the
name of the current President in the poll was a formality, because
the fact of the constitutional barriers doesn’t give the chance to
reveal the real rating of this political figure.

We can disclose other interesting regularities when we try to clarify
the growth of the rating of the main candidates pretending to run for
presidency. Thus Gagik Tsarukyan who has engaged the second place in
this poll and his "Bargavach Hayastan" party have already announced
their readiness to support Serge Sargsyan during the presidential
elections. This means if we assemble the ratings of only these two
political figures and if we consider the natural tendencies of joining
the leading candidates, we can claim that the prime Minister has all
the chances to obtain 50% votes at the first stage of the elections.

Arthur Baghdasaryan who tops the opposition camp and Artashes Geghamyan
recorded rather modest results – 11,2 and 10,5%. And former President
L. Ter-Petrosyan who recently manifested tendencies of activeness,
with his 3,8% revealed his modest "starting opportunities".

66,1% of the polled doesn’t hope that opposition will manage to appear
with a united candidate. Moreover Armenian sociological Association
failed to find the "personage" for the united candidate.

56,5% of the polled failed to find a united pro-opposition candidate
and only those who have extremely bright imagination gave certain
names, from which Artashes Geghamyan, have obtained only 6,9% votes
of the polled.

Thus the poll conducted by Armenian Sociological Association on the
first half of October, over again revealed the permanent regularity
recorded during the recent elections that have been formed in Armenia’s
political arena.

To think that the obvious rating of the main political powers and their
leader will abruptly fall in February 2008 is simply not serious. Like
in nature, in politics as well, nothing can be created in some months
and immediately disappear with the same speed.

FOR ALL TURKS AND ARMENIANS: AN ANALYSIS AND MANIFESTO
Barin Kayaoglu
JTW Columnist

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Oct 17 2007

This op-ed aims to do two things: Give a balanced rendering of the
Turkish-Armenian dispute and call upon Turks and Armenians to get
out of their straight-jackets and reach an understanding.

The Analysis

Last week, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of
Representatives passed Resolution 106, titled "Affirmation of the
United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution." Introduced
by Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), H. Res. 106 calls "upon the
President [of the United States] to ensure that the foreign policy of
the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity
concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and
genocide documented in the United States record relating to the
Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes."[1] It is expected that
the resolution will be approved by the full House in mid-November.

While Armenians around the world rejoiced at the decision, Turkish
officials have pointed out that if the House accepts the resolution,
nationalist reaction in Turkey will damage Turkish-American and
Turkish-Armenian relations beyond repair.

For decades, a lot has been said on the tragedy that befell Ottoman
Armenians during World War I. The argument is over whether the
events can be described as genocide (defined by the "UN Convention on
Genocide" as the deliberate "intent to destroy, in whole or in part,
a national, ethnical [sic], racial or religious group") or not.[2]

Those who make a case for genocide argue that from April 1915 until
late 1917, the Ottoman government used the military losses on the
Caucasian front at the hands of Russia and the terrorism by Armenian
nationalist revolutionaries to implement a genocide against Armenian
civilians. For this school, the Ottoman government’s decision to
relocate/deport the Armenians was a smoke-screen.[3]

Those who argue that the events did not constitute genocide point
out that Istanbul’s order to temporarily deport Ottoman Armenians
intended to do strictly that – to relocate Armenian civilians to
areas away from the troubles. Their destination was other Ottoman
provinces. Incompetent administrators, pressed by terrorism, poor
logistics, and an inadequate infrastructure, failed to cope with
the situation. All of this resulted in the tragic deaths of the
Armenians. At any rate, this school argues, Armenian terrorists also
killed many Muslims; the killings went both ways.[4]

These stances can be scrutinized in different ways. A strict
application of the UN Convention’s definition of the term "genocide"
may disqualify the Armenian example. Those who make the case against
genocide maintain that the government in Istanbul did not intend
to exterminate the Armenians. Those arguing for genocide claim the
opposite and point out to the secret telegrams sent from Istanbul to
the eastern front ordering the mass killings.

Some of those Ottoman officials who were guilty of premeditated murder
actually confessed to their crimes in military tribunals following
World War I. The records of the tribunals, coupled with some of the
hand-written copies of telegrams sent from Istanbul to the front,
demonstrate that it took a little more than berserk troops on the
ground to carry out the genocidal killings.

But the claim that Istanbul ordered the annihilation of Armenians
is also weakened by certain factors. The authenticity of certain
documents tarnishes the case for genocide. The secret telegrams,
for example, are almost exclusively available at the archives of the
Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem. Not a terribly neutral venue.

Specifically, take the "Naim-Andonian telegrams." In 1920, Aram
Andonian, an Armenian journalist who had worked for the Young Turk
government earlier in the war, published the memoirs of a certain
Naim Bey. According to Andonian, Naim Bey was a Turkish official who
served as the chief secretary of the deportation committee in Aleppo
during the war. Upon the conclusion of the war, Naim handed Andonian
the telegrams originating from Istanbul with the orders to massacre
Armenian civilians. The problem is that those telegrams are labeled
as forgeries by some historians because Andonian never produced the
originals. In fact, some scholars have even gone far as to suggest
that Andonian simply wrote what he thought about the massacres by
using Naim as a mouthpiece.[5]

Documents comparable to the minutes of the Nazis’ Wannsee Conference of
January 1942 (where they came up with their infamous "final solution
to the Jewish question") in brevity, scope, and authenticity cannot
easily be mustered that in the Armenian case and that is a problem.

None of these points, however, eclipse one glaring fact: Hundreds
of thousands of Ottoman Armenians died between 1915 and 1917 (the
estimates range from 600,000 to 1.5 million, depending on one’s
position). Turkish and Kurdish civilians also suffered horrendously
at the hands of Armenian bands, both in the Russian-occupied parts
of Eastern Anatolia and the territory controlled by the Ottoman state.

It is true that some of the Armenians died of disease, cold, and
malnutrition. On the other hand, it must be conceded that probably
a lot Armenians died at the hands of Turkish soldiers and Kurdish
tribesmen as well.

The Manifesto

Looking at the sheer numbers of dead civilians, we have to understand
the futility of the "genocide – not genocide" discussion. How can
anyone limit one’s conscience to a single word? No person in his right
mind would do such a thing. And neither should Turks and Armenians.

This tragedy that befell us was much more sinister than a genocide.

If the Istanbul government implemented a genocide, why did most of our
ancestors not stand up for their neighbors? When Armenian terrorists
rounded up fellow Muslim villagers, why did most of our grandparents
not do anything to stop them? Forget about stopping the massacres, some
of them – Armenian and Muslim – happily did their part in the killings!

What is tragic is that since 1915, we have only emulated their
mistakes. The deaths of Turkish diplomats in the 1970s and 1980s,
incessant bickering between Turks and Armenians, and lately, the tragic
murder of the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007,
attest to the fact that we have to change our attitude.

That change of attitude should start by recognizing the fact that we
Turks and Armenians killed each other on an industrial scale. That many
more Armenians died than Turks is irrelevant. The important thing is
that innocent civilians perished – babies, mothers, fathers, sisters,
brothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

If you cannot comprehend the gravity of such a loss, just imagine
yourself at a family gathering: You are surrounded by all the people
you love – your mother, father, siblings, spouse, children, nieces,
nephews. And all of a sudden imagine that these people – every single
one of them – are killed before your eyes by people with whom you
lived as good neighbors for nearly a millennium. After the deaths of
your loved ones, hundreds, thousands, and millions would mean very
little for you because you do not have a reason to exist anymore.

So I call upon all Turks and Armenians: Come to your senses!

We have lost too much and suffered long enough. Let us regain what
we once had – our friendship, peaceful coexistence, and respect for
each other. Let the Armenians convince Turks, rather than American
politicians, about their sufferings. Let the Turks make the Armenians
see their point of view. As Hrant Dink said in an interview not
long before he was slain, "Armenians are the doctors of Turks and
Turks are the doctors of Armenians." Only by talking to each other
rather than through each other can we resolve our differences and
ease our suffering.

Esteemed members of the U.S. House of Representatives: The
biggest favor that Western nations can possibly do to Turkish and
Armenian people is to mind their own business and let them come to an
understanding on their own. Your resolution is only going to exacerbate
enmities. To expect that H. Res. 106 will facilitate a reconciliation
between Turks and Armenians is as sensible as extinguishing fire with
dynamite. We implore you not to do it.

Finally, those who owe their petty existence to the perpetuation of
this dispute: Hate-mongers! Appear as you may as Turks or Armenians,
you are all on the same side. Yes, you hate-mongers are on the
same side!

You extremists do not strive for the happiness of your peoples; you
look around for enemies to satiate your neurosis. Stirring up trouble
is only a convenience for you. You live by seeing enemies everywhere.

If you cannot find enemies, you create them, just as you did nearly a
hundred years ago. You, murderers of Hrant Dink, Mehmet Baydar, Artin
Penik, Necla Kuneralp and hundreds of thousands of others, are all on
the same side. We – real Turks and Armenians – are on the other side.

Leave us alone!

Barýn Kayaoðlu is a Ph.D. student in history at the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia and a regular contributor to
the Journal of Turkish Weekly.

–Boundary_(ID_jQJ0kiIJ4QfF3IvREbgRzQ)–

EXECUTIVE PREFERS TO HAVE INDIRECT ELECTIONS FOR MAYOR

Panorama.am
16:31 18/10/2007

Yerevan mayor will be elected in indirect elections.

There will be only proportional system in those elections. The
candidate that will collect 40 percent of votes of 55 members of elders
will become the mayor. The mayor is going to have more powers. He or
she will have the right to set local taxes and dues…. These other
the suggestions included in the draft law "On Yerevan city local
self-government and territorial management" that has been approved
in the executive session today.

Justice Minister Gevorg Danielyan told reporters today that, during
the discussion of the draft, serious arguments came about, as a result
of which, the draft will be put under interagency discussion for one
more week, after which, a meeting will be held at the prime minister.

The European experience has been studied for the election of the mayor
and the German model has been taken as an example. "There will be
no majority system in the elections. Each party will represent its
own candidate," Danielyan said, also saying that candidate may also
be non-partisan.

The bill also envisages naming the communities into administrative
areas. It also suggests uniting Nubarashen with Erebuni and Norq-Marash
with Avan. At this moment, the draft sets the maximum number of
territorial units as 12 and the least number as 8. The number of
elders in the territorial unit will be conditioned by the number
of the population. Since the territorial units will no longer be
local-self government bodies, their leaders will not be elected
but appointed by the mayor. "They, in fact, will be employees,"
the justice minister said.

The constitutional reforms of 2005 required amendments in the law since
Yerevan was defined a community instead of a local-self government
body. This bill must be submitted to the discussion of the National
Assembly.

GEORGIAN FRONTIER GUARDS ARREST AN ARMENIAN CITIZEN

ArmRadio – Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 15 2007

Georgian frontier guards arrested an Armenian citizen when passing
passport control at "Poti-port" Migration Control Department.

Press service of the Georgian Frontier Police informed that it came out
that the Armenian citizen had earlier entered the Georgian territory
bypassing passport control at Adler checkpoint. An investigation on
the case is underway.

Armenian debacle

Washingtom Times
October 16, 2007

By Tulin Daloglu – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she believes that
"the biggest ethical challenge facing our country is the war in Iraq."
Therefore, she must believe that passing a resolution declaring the
mass killings of Armenians at the end of World War I a genocide will
restore America’s moral authority. Rep. Tom Lantos, California
Democrat, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, "I
feel that I have a tremendous opportunity as a survivor of the
Holocaust to bring a moral dimension to our foreign policy." The
resolution passed last week by a 27"21 vote.

However, while Mr. Lantos speaks so forcefully about the resolution
now, he has opposed similar measures in the past, arguing that what
happened to Armenians is not technically a genocide. In fact, he
argued this right up until Turkey refused to give the United States a
northern front to invade Iraq in 2003. According to congressional
sources, Mrs. Pelosi urged Mr. Lantos to support the resolution, or
else risk his chairmanship. In addition, Mr. Lantos was seriously
troubled when the Turkish government invited the newly elected Hamas
leadership of the Palestinian Authority to Ankara, and by what appears
to be Turkey’s strengthening relationship with Iran.

A delegation of Turkish Parliament members visiting Washington was
disappointed by the vote. "What bothered me was that those [U.S.
representatives] who supported the Turkish side, 21 of them said loud
and clear that the events of 1915 amounted to genocide," said Gunduz
Aktan, a former ambassador and member of the Turkish Parliament from
the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). "Despite this, because of
Turkey’s strategic importance, because of the national interest of the
U.S., they are voting no. This was unbearable." Turks share Mr.
Aktan’s opinion. But they should also know who lobbies on Turkey’s
behalf. Former House Minority leader Richard Gephardt, hired by the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to lobby for Turkey,
actively worked in support of such resolutions in the past. When a
last-minute intervention by President Bill Clinton stopped a similar
resolution before a vote in 2000, Mr. Gephardt wrote to the then-House
Speaker Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, to tell him that he was
"committed to obtaining official U.S. government recognition of the
Armenian genocide."

Although Egemen Bagis, one of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
chief foreign policy advisers, said that Turkey has done everything in
its power to avert the resolution’s passage, it also made many
mistakes. Not only did the Turkish government hire Mr. Gephardt, but
it also placed too much stock in the perception that Turkey’s
geographically strategic position would ensure such a measure’s
defeat.

Evidently, President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Defense Secretary Robert Gates did all they could to try to defeat the
bill in committee. Now Turkey must face this failure – it lost the
propaganda war on this issue long ago. In fact, not only did the
Turkish government fail, but Turkish Americans who did not take this
issue as seriously as the Armenian Americans failed as well.

Mrs. Pelosi may think that a House resolution will finally close the
issue. But Turks are convinced that it will begin a new chapter and
spur reparations claims. U.S. officials advise Turkey to deal with the
issue as plain historical fact. That’s easily said. But Turks wonder
what the connection is – and why the United States has done nothing to
prevent the Kurdish separatist PKK from gaining strength in northern
Iraq and increasing its attacks on Turkey. They are convinced that
America wants to enforce the Treaty of Sevres which would allow Kurds
and Armenians to lay claim to Turkish land.

Many in the United States believe the Kurds have a legitimate right to
their own state. Recently the Senate passed a resolution calling the
partition of Iraq into three self-governing regions for Shiites,
Sunnis and Kurds. Turks are worried that such a plan will lead some of
its Kurdish citizens to seek independence as well. However, Sevres did
not promise Kurds an independent state; it promised "the formation of
an autonomous region which would have the right to elect for complete
independence one year after the formation of the autonomous area."

David McDowell, in "A Modern History of the Kurds, " explains that
"[t]he terms were flawed"by the failure to demarcate Kurdistan’s
boundary with Armenia. This was foreseeably bound to outrage either
the Kurds or the Armenians, as President Wilson’s pro-Armenian
proposed boundary accompanying the treaty clearly showed." Wilson set
the Armenian borders to include Kurdish areas of Turkey, but he was
unable to finalize them.

Turks look at their history and wonder why the president refuses to
act against a Kurdish terrorist organization attacking them from
northern Iraq, and why a Democratic Congress is considering an act
that happened nearly 100 years ago. Ultimately, what everyone needs to
do is move on – but the war in Iraq and the possibility of its breakup
seem to haunt the present.

Tulin Daloglu is a freelance writer.

Source: ITORIAL/110160008

ARMENIAN PATRIARCH CONDEMNS ANTI-TURKISH RESOLUTION

NTV MSNBC
Oct 15 2007
Turkey

Ankara has warned that the resolution will harm Turkish-US relations
and has vowed to lobby against its being ratified by Congress.

DEMRE – The head of the Armenian church in Turkey said he opposed the
passing of a resolution by the US House of Representatives Committee
on Foreign Affairs acknowledging claims the Ottoman Empire committed
an act of genocide against its Armenian citizens in World War One.

Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan said the resolution had become a tool of
US domestic policy and that he and other Turkish Armenians would do
everything in their power to prevent the resolution being passed into
law by a vote of the US Congress.

Last Tuesday, the Committee on Foreign Affairs voted 27 to 21 in favour
of the resolution, which is opposed by the Bush administration. Senior
US officials, including President George W Bush and Secretary of State
Condalezza Rice, have spoke out against the resolution and promised
Ankara they will work to prevent it from passing into law.

Speaking in the southern Turkish town of Demre Sunday, where he was
visiting the Church of Saint Nicolas, Patriarch Mesrob said that
criticisms over the resolution should not extend to Turkey’s own
Armenian community.

The proposal by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan to set up
a joint commission of historians with Armenia to study the issue was an
important offer, and one that should be acted on, the Patriarch said.

TURKEY BRISTLES AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS RESOLUTION
By: Edward I. Koch

NewsMax.com, FL
0/15/41036.html
Oct 15 2007

When I was a child, I read "The Forty Days at Musa Dagh" by Franz
Werfel, a fictionalized account of actual events, which told the
story of how the Turks persecuted and killed Armenians in 1915.

>From that time on, I was on the side of the Armenians and against
the Turks.

This was back in the days before the word "genocide" had entered our
vocabulary. To this day, I still believe the Turks killed 1.5 million
Armenians because of tribalism and their hatred of Christians. In 1915,
during World War I, the Ottoman Empire was on the side of the German
Empire, then led by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

At its high point, the Ottoman Empire stretched from Greece to Egypt
and everything in between, including Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine,
Saudi Arabia, and the coastal strip of North Africa.

When I was in Congress from 1969 through 1977, I joined with Ben
Rosenthal, D-N.Y., who is now deceased, John Brademas, D-Ind.,
and Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., as one of those supporting the Rosenthal
amendment which called on Congress to cut off military aid to Turkey
unless it removed its invading army from Cyprus.

A coup in Cyprus had endangered the Turkish minority on that island
and precipitated the Turkish invasion and the establishment of a
Turkish controlled area in the north of the island.

Let me digress for a moment and relate a short anecdote which appears
in my book, "Politics." "When the Rosenthal amendment was ratified
by the House, Rosenthal, Brademas, Sarbanes and I were invited by
the Greek Patriarch of North and South America, Archbishop Iakovos,
now deceased, to his birthday party held in Manhattan and attended by
more than a thousand guests at which Paul Sarbanes and John Brademas
were to be honored.

Well, the star was Rosenthal.

When he came in, the place erupted. You had a thousand Greeks in
there. It would be like a thousand Jews on something involving Israel
of momentous importance to them. The Rosenthal Amendment had carried
at that point, and I’ve never seen such a response for the size of the
group. It was wonderful. And Rosenthal made one of the best speeches
I’ve ever heard.

It was a very short one. He said, "I was wondering what I would say
here tonight, and I thought I’d tell you a story. You’re probably not
going to appreciate it in the way that it’s meant, but I’m going to
tell you anyway."

He went on: "I had lunch with my mother, who lives in New York, today;
and she asked me what I was doing tonight, so I said, ‘I’m going to
a dinner, Mama, that will honor two of my friends in Congress, John
Brademas and Paul Sarbanes. And, you know, Mama, they’re probably the
two smartest men in Congress.’ My mother said, ‘Are they Jewish?’ and I
said, ‘No, Mama, they’re not Jewish – they’re Greek.’ My mother said,
‘Are you sure they’re not Jewish?’ I thought a moment and then I said
to my mother, ‘Mama, I think they’re half Jewish.’ And then he said
to this crowd, holding out his hands, ‘Tonight I’m half Greek.’" And
the place erupted in cheers and applause.

I think it’s the best story I’ve ever heard for an audience of that
kind. It was wonderful, just wonderful.

Now back to the present. Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee
led by Chairman Tom Lantos, voted 27-21 to denounce the slaughter
of the Armenians in 1915 as an act of genocide by the Turks. The
Turks have always taken the position that the killing of Armenians
on their eastern border – their border with Russia, then on the side
of the allies in World War I – occurred because, they alleged, the
Armenians sided with the Russians, thereby committing treason against
the country in which they lived, the Ottoman Empire.

In support of their defense against committing an act of genocide,
they point to the fact that Armenians living in Constantinople,
then capital of the Ottoman Empire, were not killed.

The Turks now in a newly created country – formed in 1917 – led
by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who secularized a then theocratic Islamic
remnant of the Ottoman Empire, wanting to establish a new Turkey that
included all minorities to be equally treated in a democratic state,
made it illegal to disparage the new state.

The Turkish government, enraged at the action of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, has threatened retaliation if the Congress,
both House and Senate, passes a final resolution. The retaliation
threatened is to close the port in Turkey which permits the entry
of 30 percent of all U.S. fuel used for military vehicles in Iraq
and the closure of the Turkish airport through which a large part of
U.S. military supplies are airlifted for use in Iraq.

On my Bloomberg radio program on WBBR 1130 AM on the dial, I gave
my position on the issue and entered into a dialogue with a young
man who identified himself as Armenian. I said that while I still
believed what the Turks did in 1915 was an act of genocide, I would
not have voted for the resolution, because it endangers the security
of American troops and simply provides the Armenians with a political
victory and nothing else. Therefore, it is not worth the danger the
congressional action will cause to American troops.

While we did not get into it in this discussion, I have on other
occasions stated my support for using American troops to defend
the people of Darfur in the Sudan from suffering genocide which
is occurring today. I also mentioned on the program that during my
tenure as a congressman, I did not sufficiently appreciate how valued
an American ally the Turks had become. I regretted my failure to
appreciate their positive role as our ally, particularly at a time
when Greece was hostile to both the U.S. and Israel, while Turkey
was friendly and supportive to both the U.S. and Israel.

My listener was surprised, he said, at my position on the resolution.

I replied that the paramount duty of all Americans is to safeguard
the well-being of American troops in Iraq. That comes before all
other considerations in my judgment. He responded that he did not
believe they would be endangered.

I disagree and don’t think we should chance it.

PELOSI SAYS SHE’LL PRESS ON WITH ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’ RESOLUTION

CNN International
Oct 15 2007

WASHINGTON (CNN) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that she
intends to move ahead with a vote on a resolution that labels the
deaths of more than a million Armenians during World War I as genocide.

Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party protest the U.S. resolution
last week in Istanbul.

1 of 2 The resolution has strained U.S. relations with Turkey and
drawn criticism from the Bush administration.

"This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government
has always said about … what happened at that time," Pelosi said
on ABC’s "This Week."

When asked about criticism that it could harm relations with Turkey —
a key ally in the war in Iraq and a fellow member of NATO — Pelosi
said, "There’s never been a good time," adding that it is important to
pass the resolution now "because many of the survivors are very old."

"When I came to Congress 20 years ago, it wasn’t the right time
because of the Soviet Union. Then that fell, and then it wasn’t the
right time because of the Gulf War One. And then it wasn’t the right
time because of overflights of Iraq. And now it’s not the right time
because of Gulf War Two.

"And, again, the survivors of the Armenian genocide are not going to
be with us."

But White House Spokesman Tony Fratto said bringing the resolution
to a vote "may do grave harm to U.S.-Turkish relations and to U.S.

interests in Europe and the Middle East."

Turkey’s top general warned Sunday that ties with the United States
will be irreversibly damaged if Congress passes the resolution,
The Associated Press reported.

Turkey has recalled its ambassador from Washington for consultations
and warned of cuts in logistical support to the United States over
the issue. The recall is only for a limited period of time, said a
U.S. State Department official who talked to the ambassador.

"If this resolution [that] passed in the committee passes the House as
well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again,"
Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper, according to AP

The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 Wednesday to approve
the nonbinding measure, which declares the deportation of nearly
2 million Armenians from the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923
was "systematic" and "deliberate," amounting to "genocide." The
deportations led to the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people.

But Sunday, Pelosi stood by her previous assertion that the measure
would be taken to a full vote if it passed the committee.

Newly installed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael
Mullen, tried to calm tensions by phoning his Turkish counterpart
shortly after Wednesday’s vote.

Mullen told Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey’s chief of staff, that the
Pentagon is working hard to inform Congress of what the military
implications might be if the Turks were to respond by cutting off
U.S. access to the air base at Incirlik in Turkey.

Seventy percent of U.S. air cargo bound for Iraq passes over or
through Turkey.

The Armenian government and Armenians around the world, including many
Armenian-Americans, have been pressing for international support for
their contention that Armenians were the victims of genocide at the
hands of the Ottoman Turks.

The Ottoman Empire disintegrated in 1923, replaced by the modern
republic of Turkey, where the Armenian issue remains sensitive. Turks
reject the genocide label, insisting there was no organized campaign
against the Armenians and that many Turks also died in the chaos and
violence of the period.

Though predominantly Muslim, Turkey, which borders both Europe and
Iraq, is secular and pro-Western. In addition to its membership in
NATO, Ankara is also seeking to become a member of the European Union.

Speaking later on ABC’s "This Week," Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell denounced the House committee’s vote — despite agreeing
with the assertion that the killings amounted to genocide.

"I think it’s a really bad idea for the Congress to be condemning
what happened 100 years ago," the Kentucky Republican said Sunday.

"We all know it happened. There’s a genocide museum, actually, in
Armenia to commemorate what happened.

"But I don’t think the Congress passing this resolution is a good
idea at any point. But particularly not a good idea when Turkey is
cooperating with us in many ways, which ensures greater safety for
our soldiers."

Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham echoed those comments on CNN’s Late
Edition.

"I’m not worried about World War I. … I’m worried about what I think
is World War III, a war against extremists, and Iraq is the central
battle front and Turkey has been a very good ally," Graham said Sunday.

"We’ve had problems with Turkey, but the problem that Turkey has
with the northern part of Iraq, if you think it is bad now, let the
country fail."

Turkey has engaged in ongoing cross-border skirmishes with rebels from
the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which launches raids from northern
Iraq. The recent killings of Turkish soldiers brought the conflict
to a boiling point, and Turkey’s parliament may consider a motion to
approve cross-border incursions into northern Iraq as early as this
week. Watch how the rebels are straining U.S.-Turkish relations "

The United States and the EU have designated the PKK a terrorist
organization. The U.S. State Department has urged Iraq to crack down
on the PKK, though some Turkish officials have said Washington has
failed to take decisive action. E-mail to a friend

Chicago Sun-Times, IL
Oct 14 2007

Pelosi to move on genocide resolution that Hastert blocked

October 14, 2007
BY ROBERT NOVAK Sun-Times Columnist

Former Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, a registered lobbyist for
Turkey, failed several months ago to get his successor as top House
Democrat, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to withdraw her support from a
long-pending resolution condemning alleged Turkish genocide of
Armenians in 1915.

The Bush administration had urged Congress not to offend Turkey, a
U.S. ally, but the measure passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee
on Wednesday. Pelosi has pledged House action this year on the
genocide resolution that in the past was blocked by Rep. J. Dennis
Hastert (D-Ill.), her Republican predecessor as speaker.

In addition to Gephardt, the Turkish government also hired a top
Republican lobbyist: Bob Livingston, former chairman of the House
Appropriations Committee.

Hillary’s adviser
Prominent Democrats, while minimizing the revelation that Sandy
Berger is advising Sen. Hillary Clinton on foreign affairs, emphasize
that the disgraced former national security adviser would have no
role in her presidency.

Clinton says Berger is strictly an unofficial adviser. Berger avoided
a prison sentence for illegally removing classified documents from
the National Archives, agreeing to a $50,000 fine, 100 hours’
community service and two years’ probation, along with losing his
security clearance.

Berger’s role in the Clinton campaign is explained by the senator’s
supporters as stemming from close family ties forged when he was a
senior official in President Bill Clinton’s White House.

Romney’s blunders
Mitt Romney, who tries to come across as a picture-perfect candidate,
committed his second off-the-cuff blunder at Tuesday’s Republican
presidential debate in Dear- born, Mich.

Asked whether he would go to Congress for authorization to take
military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the former
Massachusetts governor said: ”You sit down with your attorneys and
[they] tell you what you have to do.” He added that ”we’re going to
let the lawyers sort out” the problem.

Two months earlier in a town hall event at Bettendorf, Iowa, Romney
was asked whether any of his five sons were serving in the military
and, if not, how they supported the war against terrorism. He
replied: ”One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation
is helping to get me elected.”

Lobbying to override veto
Newspaper and television ads in Rep. James Walsh’s Syracuse, N.Y.,
district this week promoted the 10-term Republican congressman’s
support of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program vetoed by
President Bush.

The advertising, not produced by Walsh and a surprise to him, was put
out by the Americans for Children’s Health coalition seeking support
for the expansion of government-provided health care.

The ads, purchased in Walsh’s district and districts of other
Republican congressmen who broke with Bush on health care, push them
to override the veto.

The coalition consists of member organizations of health care
industries: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America,
the American Medical Association, the American Health Care
Association, Families USA and the Federation of American Hospitals.

Sen. Richardson?
Sen. Charles Schumer, the Senate Democratic campaign chairman, is
pressing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to give up his presidential
bid and run for his state’s Senate seat held by retiring Republican
Sen. Pete Domenici.

Republicans hope to hold the New Mexico seat with Rep. Heather
Wilson, since the most popular Democratic prospect, Rep. Tom Udall,
has decided not to run. Richardson, a former congressman and Clinton
administration Cabinet member, has been a popular governor and would
be heavily favored for the Senate.

However, friends of Richardson predict that he will resist the
pressure to be the Senate candidate. Although he is given no chance
to win the presidential nomination, Richardson has broken through to
the top of the second-tier candidates and is a serious prospect to
become Sen. Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate. Party
strategists see Richardson, a Mexican American, appealing to Latino
votes in four Western states that could swing the 2008 presidential
election: Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

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