Author: Maghakian Mike

BARROSO’S MESSAGE TO FRANCE

Turkish Press
Oct 23 2006

BRUSSELS – European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has
indicated that there must not be new criteria and conditions for
Turkey, referring to discussions on so-called Armenian genocide
in France.

At a news conference in Brussels, Barroso noted that Turkish
authorities should respect Ankara Protocol, stating that the pace of
reforms on public freedoms was not satisfactory.

On the other hand, EU commissioner for enlargement Olli Rehn criticised
the bill on so-called Armenian genocide in French Parliament and
pointed out to the possible harm that will be caused by steps taken
to that end.

Expressing his views to the press, Rehn said that while the draft in
question was French parliament’s problem, it might however would lead
to serious problems in EU-Turkey relations.

Rehn said he is worried about the possibility of adoption of the
draft legislation punishing those who didn’t acknowledge the so called
Armenian genocide, and said such a development would harm the dialogue
between Turkey and EU.

Armenian Businessmen Suffer from Russia’s Georgia Embargo

Civil Georgia, Georgia
Oct 19 2006

Armenian businessmen have to redirect import routes as a result of
Russia’s sanctions on Georgia, which increases expenditures from 7%
to 20%, Armenian Trade and Economy Minister Karen Chshmaritian said
on October 19, according to the Novosti-Armenia news agency.

He said that Armenian importers redirect their cargo travelling from
Russia to ports – mainly Varna in Bulgaria and Ilichevsk in Ukraine –
from where it is possible to access Georgia and then Armenia.

Meanwhile, RFE/RL Armenian Service reported on October 17 that Armenian
Parliamentary Chairman Tigran Torosian told visiting group of Russian
parliamentarians in Yerevan that Russia is ignoring the interests of
Armenia while dealing with Georgia.

Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin told the Armenian daily Haykakan Zhamanak
that Yerevan has to make a choice between Russia and Georgia. "If
you don’t do that, you have no moral right to blame Russia for not
taking into account Armenia’s interests in our conflict with Georgia,"
MP Zatulin said in the interview, according to the RFE/RL Armenian
Service.

IDFA Sets ’06 Competition Slate for Annual Amsterdam Doc Festival

Indiewire.com
by Eugene Hernandez
October 19, 2006

Considered the leading international documentary festival, Amsterdam’s 19th
annual IDFA will kick off on November 23rd with Dutch filmmaker Jiska
Rickels’ first feature-length film "4 Elements." The film is one of 18
documentaries set for IDFA’s Joris Ivens Competition, which includes just
two U.S. project this year, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s "Jesus Camp" and
Andrew Berends’ "When Adnan Comes Home." Also announced is the roster for
the First Appearance competition, which features films by emerging
directors. Three films from the United States are included in the First
Appearance linenup, including Andrew Jenks’ "Andrew Jenks, Room 335,"
Socheata Poeuv’s "New Year Baby," and Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s "Shame." (The
complete lineup for both competitions is included below.)

Opening the International Documetary Film Festival Amsterdam is the poetic
four-part film "4 Elements," described as a, "documentary about man’s
struggle with the primordial elements." In the film she looks at professions
in which the elements — earth, air, fire and water — play a crucial role.
In the words of a festival description, "In Fire, Russian firemen fight
forest fires in Siberia, while in Water, fishermen in Alaska hoist up king
crabs from the Bering Sea. Earth, a shortened version of ‘Untertage’
[Rickels’ student film], follows two German mineworkers as they go about
their business. In Air, which concludes the tetralogy, cosmonauts and
astronauts prepare their launch of the International Space Station."

Other IFDA plans include a showcase of work from China and doc director Alan
Berliner presenting ten favorites at this year’s festival, while the event
will also screen a number of his films. The festival will continue through
December 3rd in the Dutch city, while the IDFA Forum, the largest
international documentary co-financing market, will run from November 27 –
29 during the festival.

IDFA feature competition lineups follow:

Joris Ivens Competition
"4 Elements," directed by Jiska Rickels (The Netherlands)
"9 Star Hotel," directed by Ido Haar (Israel)
"Feet Unbound," directed by Khee-Jin Ng (Australia)
"The Grandmother of Revolution," directed by Petra Seliskar (Slovenia,
Macedonia, Cuba)
"Jesus Camp," directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (USA)
"Life as a Corporate Holiday," directed by Paolo Muran (Italy)
"The Monastery – Mr. Vig & The Nun," directed by Pernille Rose Grønkjær
"My Father The Turk," directed by Ariane Riecker and Marcus Vetter (Germany)
"The Planet," directed byJohan Söderberg, Michael Stenberg, and Linus
Torell (Sweden, Norway, Denmark)
"Primo Levi’s Journey," directed by Davide Ferrario (Italy)
"The Red Card," directed by Carte Ghermez and Mahnaz Afzali (Iran)
"Satul Sosetelor (Village of Socks)," directed by Klaudia Begic and Ileana
Stanculescu (Germany, Romania)
"Souvenirs," directed by Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat (Israel)
"A Story of People in War and Peace," directed by Vardan Hovhannisyan
(Armenia)
"Tender’s Heat. Wild Wild Beach," directed by Alexander Rastorguev (Russia)
"Tomorrow Never Knows," directed by Kirsi Nevanti (Finland, Sweden)
"The Value of Utopia," directed by Yanara Guayasamin (Belgium, Ecuador)
"When Adnan Comes Home," directed by Andrew Berends (USA)

First Appearance
"Andrew Jenks, Room 335," directed by Andrew Jenks (USA)
"Can Tunis," directed by José González Morandi and Paco Toledo (Spain)
"Carnival," directed by Alen Drljevic (Bosnia Herzegovina)
"Children Of The Prophet," directed by Sudabeh Mortezai (Iran, Austria)
"The City Of Photographers," directed by Sebastián Moreno (Chile)
"Daguanying," directed by Liu Juexin and Tang Xiaoliang (China)
"Dead Man Walking," directed by Petar Oreskovic (Croatia, Bosnia
Herzegovina, Serbia)
"Demolition Men," directed by Eldar Gross (The Netherlands)
"The End Of The Neubacher Project," directed by Marcus John Carney (Austria,
The Netherlands)
"Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears," directed by Simon Chambers (United
Kingdom)
"Let The Street Be Heard," directed by Itzel Martínez Del Cañizo
"The Lost Village," directed by Manuel Jiménez (Spain)
"New Year Baby," directed by Socheata Poeuv (USA)
"Prirechnyy," directed by Tone Grøttjord (Norway)
"Shame," directed by Mohammed Ali Naqvi (USA)
"Sugartown: The Bridegrooms," directed by Kimon Tsakiris (Greece, Germany)
"We Are Together," directed by Paul Taylor (United Kingdom)
"With Much Love And Kisses," directed by Anastasia Cherkassova (Russia)

–Boundary_(ID_MKNVlY6KYld9gKLs7gQAUw)–

Turkey defined sanctions against France

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 20 2006

[ 20 Oct. 2006 17:47 ]

Turkey defined the preliminary sanctions against for the adoption of
law by France Parliament that makes it crime to deny false Armenian
genocide, APA reports.

Official Ankara decided to freeze all bilateral relations, mainly
political and military relations with Paris. France organizations
will be deprived of the rights to participate in the defense and
energy projects of Turkey. France companies will not be involved in
the projects on construction of Atomic Power Plant which costs US
$5bn. Besides it was decided to remove French firms from the tenders
announced by Turkey Armed Forces.

-Eurocopter Company of France submitted bids in the tender for
purchase of 12 helicopters for Gendarme Forces. The Offer will not
be considered.

-France companies will not be let to the tenders for purchase of 54
helicopters for Turkey Armed Forces on different goals.

-The bids for purchase of submarine for Navy will not be considered.

-France company GIAT’s bids for purchase of tank for Land Forces will
not be considered. /APA/

VARTAN OSKANIAN: WE DO NOT ENDEAVOR TO ABASE OR DRIVE TURKEY INTO A CORNER

AZG Armenian Daily #201, 21/10/2006

Meeting

Armenian foreign minister Vartan Oskanian who is currently paying a
working visit to Canada met is Canadian counterpart Peter MacKay on
October 18.

According to a press release of the Armenian National Committee of
Canada, the sides emphasized the importance of Armenian-Canadian
relations and touched upon Armenian-Turkish relations.

Speaking about the recent bill adopted by the French Parliament
penalizing denial of the Armenian Genocide, Oskanian underscored that
Armenia always was for a dialogue and for establishment of diplomatic
relations between Armenia and Turkey without any precondition.

"We do not endeavor to abase or drive Turkey into a corner," Vartan
Oskanian said.

Oskanian also met the members of Canada-Armenia parliamentary group
and spoke about issues of cooperation between the two countries.

REWRITING THE PAST
Agnes Poirier

The Guardian, UK
Oct 18 2006

Despite what the French left wants us to think, we cannot legislate
on how we should remember history.

Last Thursday, the French national assembly passed a bill that, if
approved by the French senate, would make the denial of the Armenian
genocide between 1915 and 1917 a criminal offence. Even if the senate
knows better and finally rejects this bill, the question remains:
how on earth have we even got to the point where such a bill could
be proposed, let alone adopted by a majority of MPs?

If this sad affair shows anything, it is the disrespect in which
the French prime minister is held by his own majority (Dominique de
Villepin is so badly considered within his own ranks that rightwing
MPs prefer to play a silly and dangerous game: passing a bill which
will make Villepin look even more of a fool to the French and the
world, and present Nicolas Sarkozy as the only adept runner to the
presidential elections). Secondly, the whole affair has proved how
inept and remote from the nation’s real concerns the French left is.

Not that it is news but it simply gets worse – and we naively thought
we had reached the bottom.

The international community reacted promptly to the news, condemning
the stupidity of the act and warning against its potential disastrous
effects. It would be fair to add that many international publications
also chose to mislead their readers by implying that the bill was,
in effect, passed as law. Some commentators shouted so loudly that
one couldn’t help but be perplexed by such venom.

The French socialist MPs who drafted the bill showed once more how
detached they are from the people they are supposed to represent.

They demonstrated once more their debilitating grasp of reality and
history. Is it the vote of the 450,000 French citizens of Armenian
origin they are after? The more problematic aspect of it all is not
the moral lesson the French MPs seem to be giving to Ankara – no,
that’s just childish; the real tragedy lies in what it says about
the way some of us now think. Instead of addressing issues, which
concern the whole nation (education, reforms, pensions, immigration,
security, globalisation), the French left prefers catering for groups
of clients, embracing cultural relativism. Truth and historical facts
now apparently change according to who speaks and from where.

When communities within a country start asking for laws to be amended
so that they include "their truths", it is the whole nation that
suffers. Many today want to be seen as victims of colonialism, of
past injustices, of forgetfulness, of past disrespect. In fact, they
are victims by proxy, indulging in the suffering of their ancestors.

This is not to say that the Armenian genocide didn’t take place;
we all know it did. But we simply cannot legislate on how we should
remember history, and France should certainly not be doing it on a
Turkish issue.

History is being rewritten; as journalist Eric Conan points out,
"by focusing too much on the shadows of history, the shadows have
blackened and obtruded the whole picture. Crimes alone are kept in
the frame while acts of heroism exit the scene. Let’s concentrate on
Vichy and forget the Nazi occupation. Let’s consider colonisation as
the essence of the republic. And so forth."

This unworthy trend in France is clearly here to divert our attention
from the real issues and the real debate. It offers a sickening
show played by some of the elite who find a narcissistic pleasure in
charging previous generations and asking to be whipped in public for
crimes they didn’t commit. They will tell you that the riots last
November were the heritage of colonisation, when they are actually
the direct result of 25 years of dire education and urban planning
policies, which have led to the rioters living in ghettoes of poverty.

They will tell you that the problem with Turkey is that they don’t
recognise the Armenian genocide at the precise moment when, in Turkey,
a national debate is opening up on the subject. What is the French
left trying to divert us from? Its own inanity? What an undignified
and pitiful spectacle.

ARMENIA WON’T SUFFER

A1+
[08:31 pm] 16 October, 2006

According to representative of Russian "Gasprom" Denis Ignatev,
Armenia will be supplied with gas regardless of the development of
the Russian-Georgian relations.

He informed radio station "Azatutyun" that "Gasprom" will keep all
the agreements with Georgia.

Ignatev also said that "Gasprom" and the RA Government continue
negotiations about different programs of gas supply.

HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II RECEIVES JUSTICE MINISTERS OF THE MEMBER STATES OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Panorama.am
13:14 17/10/06

On October 13, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and
Catholicos of All Armenians, received 150 participants of the 27th
Conference of the Ministers of Justice of the Council of Europe, being
held in Yerevan. Among the participants were the Justice Ministers
of the 46 member states of the CE.

The delegation to Holy Etchmiadzin was led by Davit Harutyunian,
Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

The Catholicos of All Armenians welcomed the participants to Holy
Etchmiadzin and spoke of the theme of the conference – "Victims:
Status, Rights and Assistance". His Holiness stated, "Today the
issue of assistance to and rights of victims is on the forefront of
your thoughts and actions. However, this issue has been troubling
mankind since biblical times and has accompanied the Church since its
inception, since the formation of the first Christian communities. Our
priests have dealt with such realities as they have brought their
consoling assistance and message of hope to individuals who have been
victimized, and as a result, we consider the work you are doing to be
highly beneficial to the healing process, as well as the reinforcement
of a healthy society."

His Holiness further stressed the greater frequency of victimization
has become troubling, and that today, the Church considers her
social and spiritual mission to be of assistance to all who suffer,
especially with regards to the psychological and moral consequences
of this phenomenon.

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services

PRESIDENT CHIRAC DID NOT APOLOGIZE TO TURKISH MP
By Hakob Chakrian

AZG Armenian Daily
18/10/2006

3 days ago after the French Parliament adopted a bill penalizing
denial of the Armenian Genocide and when anti-French hysteria was in
full swing in Turkey, president Jacques Chirac of France had a phone
conversation with Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s state-run public TV reported that the French president had
expressed regret over the passage of the bill, considered it needless
and promised to do everything to prevent the draft bill from turning
into a law. According to Turkish public TV, PM Erdogan criticized
Jacques Chirac for the latter’s statement during his Yerevan visit and
said "it’s impossible to accept your approach" meaning recognition of
the Genocide as a precondition for EU membership. The French president
displayed comprehension.

Turkish TV’s reporting was entitled "Chirac Regrets".

Yet, during the phone conversation president Chirac did not regret
neither apologized for the passage of the bill. He simply repeated
what he had said about the Genocide in Armenia.

This information comes from Turkish Milliet newspaper.

Correspondent Sabetay Varol of the paper writes in October 16 issue:
"The staff of the French president did not confirm the information
disseminated by PM Erdogan according to which president Chirac
expressed regret on the phone and promised to do everything to
block the passage of the bill by the Senate. According to Agence
France-Presse, Chirac has emphasized on the phone the need for Turkey
to restore historic memory and said that the French Parliament’s bill
is needless in this context."

Quoting AFP, Milliet points out that Chirac has repeated his statements
made in Yerevan. Associated Press confirms this information.

ARMENIAN FM OSKANIAN ASSERTS: OUR AIM IS NOT TO HUMILIATE TURKEY

Hurriyet, Turkey
Oct 16 2006

Emboldened by last week’s decision by France to approve a bill
penalizing those who would publicly deny the so-called Armenian
genocide, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian has come forward
with a new allegation against Turkey: "The fact that Turkey has
not recognized the events of 1915-1917 as it should means that the
genocide is still occuring."

Oskanian, who asserts that despite this Yerevan is anxious to normalize
relations with Ankara, went on to say "It is difficult to say that
things are going well just because France and Switerzerland have
accepted bills recognizing the Armenian genocide. Our real aim is
not to have other countries recognize this genocide. Also, we gain
nothing from humiliating Turkey. For Turkey to ask for a special
research commission to be formed while its borders with us remain
closed is not a very honest or genuine action."

Oskanian’s comments came in the "NZZ am Sonntag" newspaper on Sunday
in Switzerland. He also said "The fact that Turkey has not accepted
or recognized the Armenian genocide up until now means that it is
still continuing. But, as this country’s foreign minister, my duty is
to look towards the future and to find a way to normalize relations
with Turkey."