Author: Khoyetsian Rose

Turkey strikes suspected Kurdish rebel positions

The Associated Press

October 11, 2007

SIRNAK, TURKEY — Turkish warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked
suspected positions of Kurdish rebels near Iraq on Wednesday, a
possible prelude to a cross-border operation that would be likely to
raise tensions with Washington.

The military offensive also reportedly included shelling of suspected
Turkish Kurd guerrilla hide-outs in northern Iraq, which is
predominantly Kurdish. U.S. officials are preoccupied with efforts to
stabilize other areas of Iraq and oppose Turkish intervention in the
relatively peaceful north. The White House issued a warning Wednesday
against such an incursion "at this time."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that a
motion authorizing a cross-border operation was being prepared and
might reach parliament today. An opposition nationalist party said it
would support the motion.

If parliament approves, the military could launch an operation
immediately or wait to see if the United States and its allies decide
to crack down on the rebels, who have been fighting for autonomy in
Turkey’s southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed tens of
thousands of lives.

"If you’re against [the rebels], make your attitude clear and do
whatever is necessary," Erdogan said in comments directed at
Washington. "If you cannot do it, then let us do it."

Turkey and the United States are North Atlantic Treaty Organization
allies, but relations have also been tense over the U.S. congressional
bill that would officially recognize as genocide the Turks’ World War
I-era killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians. The bill passed a
House panel Wednesday and has been sent to the floor. Turkey denies
the killings amounted to genocide.

An Iraqi government spokesman said a Turkish military incursion would
be regarded as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.

"We are aware of the size of the threat Turkey is subjected to, but
this does not give Turkey the right to enter Iraqi territories," said
the spokesman, Ali Dabbagh.

Turkey has conducted two dozen large-scale incursions into Iraq since
the late 1980s. The last, in 1997, involved tens of thousands of
troops and government-paid village guards. Results were inconclusive.

The latest Turkish military activity followed attacks by rebels that
have reportedly killed 15 soldiers since Sunday.

Turkish troops were blocking rebel escape routes into Iraq while F-16
and F-14 warplanes and Cobra helicopters dropped bombs on possible
hide-outs, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported. The military had
dispatched tanks to the region to support the operation against the
rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which the U.S. has branded a
terrorist group.

Source: g-turkey11oct11,1,6775807.story?ctrack=1&cset= true

Panel Labels Armenian Killings Genocide

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2007; A03

A House panel voted yesterday to approve calling the mass killings of
Armenians that began in 1915 genocide, defying the White House, which
warned that the measure could damage U.S.-Turkey relations.

The Foreign Affairs Committee passed the nonbinding resolution on a 27
to 21 bipartisan vote. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has promised
she will bring the resolution to the full House for a vote.

Turkey, one of Washington’s most staunch Islamic allies, lobbied hard
to kill the measure, launching a multimillion dollar campaign and
threatening to curtail its cooperation in the Iraq war. President
Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert
M. Gates were joined by eight former secretaries of state and three
former defense secretaries in condemning the proposal.

"This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass
killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a
key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror," Bush told reporters
in the White House Rose Garden yesterday.

But the committee’s chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), said, "We
have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian
people . . . against the risk that it could cause young men and women
in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even
heavier price." Lantos supported the measure, as did most lawmakers
>From California, whose large and influential Armenian American
community has pursued similar proposals for decades.

The tally was far closer than the last vote to support the resolution,
in 2005. But committee members that year knew the resolution would
probably not reach the floor, and it did not. This time, Pelosi’s
support makes a full House vote much more likely, causing committee
members under heavy pressure by Turkey to think twice about their
positions.

Pelosi did not lobbying colleagues yesterday, viewing it as a "matter
of conscience," an aide said.

Several lawmakers have abandoned their support for the measure since
it was introduced by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) in January,
including co-sponsors Reps. Phil English (R-Pa.), Dan Boren (D-Okla.),
Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), Bobby Jindal (R-La.),
John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Dennis Moore (D-Kan.).

Two former sponsors who serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Reps.
David Scott (D-Ga.) and Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), voted against the
resolution yesterday.

Scott said he is concerned that Turkey will scale back its role as an
ally in the Middle East. "Are we willing to take that gamble to say,
‘Oh, they’re not going to do anything,’ when they clearly have stated
that they will," he said.

Nabi Sensoy, Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, sat in the
second row of the hearing room, flanked by a delegation of Turkish
parliamentarians. He said Ankara would continue its fight against the
resolution, believing it would lead to requests for massive monetary
compensation by Armenian survivors.

"Why is Armenia not taking this to an international court? They are
trying to win this on political grounds, and they will never let go,"
he said. "It’s very disappointing. I’m hoping they will assume
responsibility for the consequences," he said of House supporters.

Armenian Americans erupted in applause after the vote, while attendees
of Turkish descent sat in stony silence.

Outside the hearing room, the Rev. Sarkis Aktavoukian, who leads an
Armenian church in Bethesda, wept. "America has shown its justice
today," he said.

The vote drew swift condemnation from the Bush administration. "We are
deeply disappointed," said R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state
of political affairs. "Turkey is one of our most important allies
globally."

Staff writers Glenn Kessler and Peter Baker contributed to this report.

Source: le/2007/10/10/AR2007101001280.html?hpid%3Dmorehead lines&sub=AR

ZHARANGUTIUN AGAINST NA EXTRAORDINARY SESSION

Panorama.am
17:05 10/10/2007

"What a vicious thing to call extraordinary sessions!

What is the problem that we want to make the work of all the 131s
formal? After all, we have come to work and discuss. The submitted
bill has arrived with the most ungrounded and doubtful amendments
and we want to rush it without known reasons and do it in a rush.

Shall we not vote? Shall we say we are not taking part? What is
this – an invitation for boycott? We will not boycott. The method
of boycott is not our method. You do not boycott against hostility
but you mobilize forces even more," Larisa Alaverdyan, member of
"Zharangutiun" block, raised these questions from the platform during
today’s extraordinary session of the National Assembly.

By saying "law that has arrived with the most ungrounded and doubtful
amendments" Alaverdyan means the bill "On making amendments to the
law on RA budget system."

Stiopa Safaryan from the same block also named calling extraordinary
session and adopting laws in a rush "vicious." He said they have
learned from the mass media about the decision of NA chairman to
call an extraordinary session and received the package of bills late
yesterday. "Let’s adopt laws in proper procedures by organizing proper
discussions, otherwise, we put more significance on the procedure of
voting and for the sake of that we are able to conduct discussions
at any speed, non-professionally and not proper for the National
Assembly," Safaryan said.

In reply to all these questions and observations, Chairman of the
National Assembly Tigran Torosyan said: "I will ask not to be at
fault with the truth.

Everybody has received the drafts of the laws and the agenda. So,
I do not think such statements are constructive," After that, the
National Assembly proceeded with the discussion of the bills.

Note: NA extraordinary session was held in accordance with the
Constitution and at the initiative of deputies.

BUSH URGES ‘NO’ VOTE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
By Johanna Neuman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles Times, CA
Oct 10 2007

The administration, while acknowledging the tragedy in which 1.5
million were killed, says the resolution in Congress would damage
relations with key ally Turkey.

WASHINGTON — President Bush and top administration officials urged
Congress today to reject a bill that would recognize as "genocide"
the World War I-era slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians.

With a showdown on the bill scheduled later today in the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, Bush warned that passage could damage U.S.

relations with Turkey, a key ally in the war against terrorism.

"Its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in
NATO and in the global war on terror," Bush said on the south lawn
of the White House. "We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of
the Armenian people," he said, adding: "This resolution is not the
right response to these mass killings."

The contentious issue has been simmering in Congress for years, as
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), whose district includes more Armenian
Americans than any other, has lobbied for the bill’s passage. This
year, he has collected more than half the House’s 435 members to his
side — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who
has vowed to bring the bill to the floor for a vote for the first time.

The resolution calls on the president to ensure that U.S. foreign
policy "reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity" to the
issue and to use the word "genocide" in his annual April message
about the killings.

Turkey denies that the killings amounted to genocide, saying that
Armenians and Turks alike were killed in ethnic clashes after World
War I. Turkey, a NATO ally, has threatened to cut off cooperation with
the United States on a number of security fronts if the resolution
is passed. The country has unleashed a powerful lobbying force,
including former House Speaker Bob Livingston (R-La.), to defeat
the measure. The bill faces a tougher road in the 100-seat Senate,
where Sen. Richard Durbin J. (D-Ill.) has attracted 32 co-sponsors.

In speaking to reporters against the measure, administration
officials went out of their way today to recognize the Armenian
slaughter. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the opposition
stemmed from the danger to U.S. security interests, "not because the
U.S. fails to recognize the terrible tragedy of 1915." She added that
"the passage of this resolution at this time would be very problematic
for everything we are trying to do in the Middle East."

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that about a third of the
fuel used by the U.S. military in Iraq went through Turkey, along
with many of its planes. Access to airfields and roads "would very
much be put at risk if this resolution passes and Turkey reacts as
strongly as we believe they will," he said.

BAHCELI: REFERENDUM NEEDED FOR A CROSS BORDER OPERATION

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 10 2007

"I suggest a referendum to be held for a cross-border military
operation," said Nationalist Movement Party Chairman Devlet Bahceli,
during his speech at his party’s parliamentary group meeting on
Tuesday.

"By this way, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government will stop
receiving overseas instructions and they will consult the ‘willpower
of the public’ which they talk about continuously," Bahceli said.

Commenting on the recent attacks killing 16 Turkish soldiers in eastern
province of Van and southeastern provinces of Sirnak and Diyarbakir,
Bahceli criticized Erdogan for not comprehending the importance of
the issue.

Bahceli said the government wholly handed over the will to fight with
terrorism to foreign countries.

"Neither Mr. Premier nor the government could struggle against
terrorism with such a submissive stance. The serious events that took
place during the last 5 years prove that," Bahceli said.

MHP chairman added that the government’s unwilling, fearful,
hesitant and encouraging stance increased the arrogance and courage
of separatist forces.

Bahceli also said confusing statements were delivered regarding the
recent incidents, although it was quite clear who the actors of such
incidents were.

"Such remarks constitute a part of the insidious scenario which aims to
leave our state and security forces under suspicion," Bahceli affirmed.

Bahceli also claimed that Erdogan preferred to remain silent on
national issues.

"Our nation expects Mr. Premier and Justice and Development (AK) Party
authorities to display a little sample of the speed and interest they
show for exploitation of religion, for the protection of national
sensitivities and prevention of attacks against our national
institutions as well," he noted.

THE ARMENIAN ISSUE

Commenting on the Armenian allegations on incidents of 1915, Bahceli
said, "these allegations were never expressed in the form of such a
common, systematic and effective imposition and campaign, as it is
done during AK Party’s ruling today".

"Whenever a cross-border operation probability arises in Turkey
–despite the government– due to the increasing terrorist attacks,
certain international powers bring forward the Armenian allegations
on incidents of 1915 again," he noted.

Stressing that Turkey currently experienced a referendum chaos,
Bahceli also said the public did not know what would be voted for
whom and why at the referendum.

"Referendum is definitely a constitutional and democratic right that
should be exercised for important matters. However, Mr. Premier
expressed with his recent remarks that he would frequently bring
up this exceptional issue. With such stance, Mr. Premier desires to
change the concept of referendum into a confidence vote for his party
and this is quite dangerous," Bahceli noted.

PEACE ACTION TO SUPPORT PASSAGE OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION TO BE HELD IN FRONT OF US EMBASSY IN TBILISI

ArmInfo Agency, Armenia
Oct 10 2007

ArmInfo. Today, a peace action to support passage of Armenian Genocide
Resolution N106 will be held in front of US Embassy in Tbilisi,
the Armenian Cooperation Centre of Georgia told ArmInfo.

The source recalled that today the Resolution N106 on the Armenian
Genocide recognition will be discussed in the U.S. House Foreign
Relations Committee. Discussion and adoption of this Resolution in this
Committee will become a subsequent stage for application of a similar
measure by the whole Lower Chamber of the Congress. The document
was presented in the Lower Chamber of the Congress by Adam Schiff
and George Radanovich on January 30, 2007. The Resolution contains a
call to the country’s president to guarantee the provisions, in the
country’s foreign policy, which truly reflect the understanding and
delicacy of the issues related to the human rights, ethnic cleansing
and the Armenian Genocide – the facts which are documented in the USA
state archives. According to the source, the Resolution is supported
by 226 Congress members from 39 American states.

"We believe in justice and we can say with confidence that the
progressive mankind supports restoration of justice", the message
for press reports.

DAUGHTERS’ ANGUISH AT FUNERAL OF MOTHER KILLED BY PRIVATE GUARDS

Sources: Iraqi Government; UNHCR
The Times
October 11, 2007

Sarmad al-Waali in Baghdad and Deborah Haynes in Baghdad

Three Christian sisters, beating their mother’s coffin in grief,
wailed and hugged each other at her funeral in Baghdad yesterday
as their rapidly shrinking religious community vented anger at the
foreign security guards who killed her.

Marou Awanis, a part-time taxi driver, and one of her women passengers
became the latest victims to die at the hands of a foreign private
security team in Iraq after they were shot dead in the centre of the
capital on Tuesday.

Both the women were Armenian Christians. Their deaths stunned their
minority religious sect, which has seen its numbers in Iraq fall by
more than a half, to 10,000, since the invasion of March 2003.

The killings also heightened a sense of outrage towards private
security companies, in particular Blackwater, which many people regard
as a private army that acts with impunity.

Unity Resources Group, an Australian security outfit based in Dubai,
said that it was investigating an incident in Baghdad on Tuesday when
its guards opened fire on a vehicle. The Iraqi Government said that
the men killed Mrs Awanis and her passenger.

Scores of relatives and friends gathered at the main Armenian Church
in Baghdad to grieve the death of Mrs Awanis, aged 48. The body of
the second woman, identified as Geneva Jalal, was also there but no
one from her family showed up.

Everyone was shocked that Mrs Awanis, a widow and former agricultural
engineer who was forced to drive a taxi to make ends meet, had been
killed. "I don’t know what to say. This is the worst crime I have
ever seen," said Abu Mareeam, the dead woman’s nephew.

The three daughters, Aless, 12, Karown, 20, and Noraa, 21, were doubled
up in tears as they crowded around their mother’s simple wooden coffin,
which was decorated with a small golden cross.

"These criminals killed a mother and left three orphaned girls.

Who will take care of them now?" asked one relative, who gave her
name as Um Masees.

Watching the proceedings with sadness, the Rev Nareek Ashkanean,
50, said: "This is another crime against the citizens in Iraq. Every
day civilians are being killed and no one is trying to stop it from
happening." He blamed foreign private security companies for a lot
of the suffering.

"I ask the Government to stop these companies and to bring those who
kill without reason to justice regardless of his nationality or his
country," the Rev Ashkanean said. "I want the Government to force
these companies out."

Iraq and the United States formed a joint commission to look into a
range of issues related to foreign private security companies in the
wake of a shoot-out involving Blackwater guards that left 17 people
dead last month. The commission has yet to make its recommendations
but it is expected to explore areas such as accountability and
jurisdiction.

In the latest shooting, Unity said an investigation was under way
but initial findings showed its security team fired after a vehicle
failed to stop despite "an escalation of warnings which included hand
signals and a signal flare".

Witnesses and police said that it appeared that Mrs Awanis, who
had been driving two women and a child, was trying to stop when the
shooting began.

The women are due to be buried at a cemetery near Baqouba, 35 miles
(55km) northeast of Baghdad, today.

Minority faith

1.4 million Christians were recorded in Iraq’s last full national
census in 1987

700,000 have fled since then, mostly to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan
and Turkey

30% of Iraqi refugees in the Lebanon are Christian, although Christians
make up only 2-3 per cent of the Iraqi population

AZERBAIJAN CLAIMS TO IRANIAN TERRITORIES

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.10.2007 15:40 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the leader of the Iranian
parliament’s national security and foreign relations committee, voiced
discontent about a new geographical atlas issued by the institute of
national history of Azerbaijan.

"Representation of territory of Iran and some neighbor states as the
territory of Azerbaijan is the evidence of the U.S. and Israeli policy
in the region," he said.

"Iran respects territorial integrity of neighbor states. However, in
case of territorial claims, the territories seized from Iran should
be returned first," he said, ISNA reports.

DISCUSSION ON THE INFLUENCE OF DOMESTIC POLICY ON ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN RELATIONS

ArmRadio – Public Radio
Oct 8 2007
Armenia

October 10 a roundtable discussion on "Russia-Armenia: The influence
of domestic policy on the political relations between the two countries
in the context of regional changes" will be held in Yerevan.

The organizers of the roundtable are the Caucasus Media Institute, the
Eurasia Foundation, and the Russian Center for International Scientific
and Cultural Cooperation. The roundtable will feature renowned experts
and political scientists, public and political figures and journalists.

Issues related to the domestic political changes in Armenia and Russia,
their influence on the development of Armenian-Russian relations will
be discussed.

Turkey launches last ditch effort to prevent Armenian resolution in US

The New Anatolian /Ankara

08 October 2007

While Turkey has intensified diplomatic and political efforts to
dissuade the American Congress from passing an Armenian genocide bill
Turkish leaders are telling their American counterparts that such a
move will seriously hurt relations.

On Sunday Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan sent a letter to U.S. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying that "it might take decades to heal
negative effects of the bill if it passes," Toptan’s office said in a
statement.

Toptan – who is elected by the legislative body to chair parliamentary
sessions – is considered neutral toward all political parties.

The genocide bill declares the killings of Armenians between 1915 and
1917 a genocide, though it would have no binding effect on the U.S.
foreign policy. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs
Committee is expected to consider the legislation late Wednesday.

Toptan’s letter said the passing of the bill would be declared by
Armenians as a confirmation of their view of the historical dispute.

"Then, it will be difficult to control the dynamics triggered by
Turkish public reaction," it said.

Toptan said Armenia did not respond positively to Turkish proposal to
establish a commission of historians to examine Turkish and Armenian
archives and to share their findings with the public.

On Friday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President
George W. Bush that the measure would "harm the strategic partnership"
between the two countries.

Bush reassured Erdogan that he opposes efforts by US lawmakers to
denounce the Ottoman Empire’s killings of Armenians as genocide, the
White House said.

"The president reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the
passage of which would be harmful to US relations with Turkey," said
Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for Bush’s National Security Council.

He recalled that Bush has described the events of 1915 as a tragedy,
but believes that determining whether it was genocide is up to
historians, not lawmakers, Johndroe said in a statement.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is due to vote on the genocide
measure Wednesday. A similar bill is pending in the US Senate, adding
to pressure on the administration to recognize the Armenian deaths not
just as "forced exile and murder" – Bush’s words in 2004 – but as
genocide. Congressional sources say the fact that the house committee
is voting for the resolution means it has the blessing of Pelosi.

Meanwhile, a Turkish parliamentary delegation comprised of top foreign
policy experts will fly to Washington today to meet congressional
members to dissuade them from voting for the resolution.

"If the United States makes a historical error and adopts a resolution
on the incidents of 1915 in the House of Representatives, this would
be a problem and scandal of the U.S.," said Egemen Bagis, Deputy
Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party who will be
in the delegation.

Bagis told reporters that main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) Istanbul deputy Sukru Elekdag and opposition Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP) Istanbul deputy Gunduz Aktan and he will pay a
visit to the United States to hold discussions with non-governmental
organizations, senators, members of the House of Representatives, high
level bureaucrats and academicians and try to explain to all that the
adoption of a resolution on the incidents of 1915 would be a serious
blow to Turkish-U.S. relations.

"We will do everything possible to defeat the Armenian resolution
which, if adopted, can hurt Turkish-U.S. relations and the national
interests of the U.S.," Bagis said.

Bagis, Elekdag and Aktan will be in the United States until October 11.

Elekdag is a former Turkish ambassador in Washington and a former
undersecretary of foreign affairs. Aktan is also from the foreign
ministry who served as deputy undersecretary. He is a retired
ambassador.

Meanwhile, in a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post, the
Turkish embassy to the US called the pending legislation "one-sided"
and warned it would "affect relations between the United States and
Turkey."

A senior State Department official said US lawmakers risk provoking a
severe backlash from Turkey.

Applying the genocide label would harm US interests, including "our
forces deployed in Iraq which rely on passage through Turkey,"
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said.

He said it was a historical fact that up to 1.5 million Armenians were
killed or forced into exile from 1915 through the early 1920 –
something recognized by Bush as well as former president Bill Clinton.

"But it is true that the Turkish reaction would be extremely strong,"
Fried told reporters.

Armenians claim say more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a
systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during the World War
I, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

Turkey says the death toll is inflated and that the deaths occurred at
a time of civil unrest.

Public opinion polls show that the United States has become widely
unpopular in Turkey because of opposition to U.S. policy in Iraq.

After France voted last year to make denial of Armenian genocide a
crime, the Turkish government ended military ties. A similar move with
the United States could have repercussions on operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, which rely heavily on Turkish support.

Source: