Author: Nadirian Emma

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER SERGE SARKISIAN’S VISIT TO WASHINGTON COULD CAUSE FURTHER TENSIONS OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE USA AND TURKEY

ArmInfo, Armenia
Oct 15 2007

ArmInfo. Armenian Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian’s visit to Washington
could cause further tensions of the relations between the USA and
Turkey, after a congressional committee roiled relations with Turkey
by approving a resolution labeling as genocide the World War I-era
killings of Armenians by Turks, the British International Herald
Tribune says.

But the visit of the prime minister, that will take place next
Wednesday, was scheduled months ago, long before the congressional
committee scheduled its vote, according to the Armenian Embassy in
Washington. Sarkisian is expected to discuss economic cooperation and
security issues in two days of talks with senior officials including
Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Sarkisian plans to be in California
Oct. 19-23 for meetings with Armenian-American groups.

PANEL TO DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS FROM AMERICAN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio

Minnesota Public Radio, MN
Oct 15 2007

Minnesota’s 150th birthday is being celebrated over the coming year.

There are going to be hundreds of events, however, one of the
first focuses on a dark topic. It’s human rights as experienced by
Minnesota’s American Indians – an experience that to many is nothing
to celebrate.

Duluth, Minn. – The University of Minnesota opens its state
sesquicentennial observance in Duluth with an unvarnished look at
the American Indian experience in the state.

It’s not all a happy story, which includes American Indian children
forced into boarding schools, young women sterilized for life, and
the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

Alexis Pogorelskin heads the University’s Center for Genocide,
Holocaust, and Human Rights Studies on the University of Minnesota
Duluth campus. She saw the opportunity through the state’s birthday
celebration, to link history and human rights.

Alexis Pogorelskin"The programming that the center has done has
focused on Darfur, the holocaust, the Armenian genocide," Pogorelskin
says. "And as Director of the center I have long wanted to do American
Indian issues, and with the boost of the sesquicentennial I was able
to put this panel together."

Panelists include Pogorelskin, Linda Grover with UMD’s American
Indian Studies Program, and Native American speakers Jim Northrup
and Dr. Robert Powless. Northrup is a celebrated writer and poet from
the Fond Du Lac Band of Ojibway. Powless is professor emeritus with
UMD’s Center for American Indian Studies.

"I’m going to focus on what does human rights actually mean?" says
Powless. "And how does that relate to what has happened to Indian
people in the past, and what we would like to think is going to be
happening to them in the future."

According to Powless, the American Indian experience today is still
one of human rights denied.

"If we’re not aware of these issues then we, as a community, cannot
appropriately address them."

– Alexis Pogorelskin"Part of a definition of human rights – a
dictionary definition of human rights – is equality before the law,"
Powless says. "Certainly if you look around here in Duluth, you don’t
find that."

Powless says he believes some crimes against Duluth’s American Indians
have not been given a thorough investigation.

But he says things aren’t hopeless. Powless says the popular image
of Indian people has improved since the 1930s and 40s.

"And I’m saying today, we’ve got to somehow learn from each other,"
Powless says. "Indians have to go into the mainstream, yes. But they
also have to teach their culture, or cultures, to non-Indian people,
if we’re going to have, in my estimation, true human rights."

Alexis Pogorelskin says she’s hoping participants leave with a
different sense of who we are.

"That what we think of ourselves as Minnesotans and Americans and what
we take for granted, and what we assume, that these things are really
not true," says Pogorelskin. "And when certain members of our larger
community are under threat, there’s a way in which our understanding
of who all of us are is likewise under threat."

Robert PowlessPogorelskin says a consideration of the American Indian
experience can lead to a reconsideration of the way the United States
relates to other countries in the world, and the treatment of minority
cultures.

"I think if we’re not aware of these issues then we as a community
cannot appropriately address them," Pogorelskin says. "We can treat
them as historical, but I think they are topics we need to consider
in terms of who we vote for, what we stand for, what we represent,
and what we’re going to fight for."

The panel being held in the Kirby Student Center on the UMD campus is
the first in a series of lectures the University of Minnesota plans
through the coming year on the American Indian experience.

TURKISH TINDERBOX

New York Sun, NY
Oct 15 2007

One of the stories to watch this week is the confrontation building
on the border between Turkey and the northern Iraqi region known as
Kurdistan. The Turks have moved an invasion force into position for
a possible attack into northern Iraq to bring a halt to attacks into
Turkey by terrorists of the Kurdistan Workers Party known as the PKK.

Reuters quoted Prime Minister Erdogan on Friday as saying Ankara was
prepared to face any international criticism if his country launched
an attack on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. It quoted Washington
as fearing that such an offensive against Turkish Kurds – who want
an independent homeland in southeastern Turkey – could destabilize
what Reuters characterized as Iraq’s most stable area.

No kidding. This is the context into which the speaker of the House,
Nancy Pelosi, is sashaying with the resolution in respect of the
Turkish massacre of Armenians. No doubt obtains about the killings of
the Armenians perpetrated by the Young Turks in the heat of World War
I. The killings were, and are, one of the worst crimes in the history
of the world, a point that was marked at the time by American’s envoy
in Turkey, Henry Morgenthau. Generations later the speaker seems bound
and determined to push a resolution labeling the crime a genocide,
a resolution that she told ABC News "This Week" in an interview
Sunday has been made by 23 other countries. "Genocide still exists,
and we saw it in Rwanda; we see it now in Darfur," she told ABC’s
"This Week" in an interview broadcast today.

Ankara has already recalled its ambassador to Washington in the wake
of the decision of the House Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by
Congressman Thomas Lantos, himself a Holocaust survivor, to report out
the resolution in respect of Armenia. The Bush administration and a
bipartisan list of our former state secretaries are warning against
the measure, precisely because they do not want to complicate an
extraordinarily dangerous situation. This has left questions hanging,
such as one our contributing editor, Hillel Halkin, asked two years
ago, when he wrote: "How can we possibly expect the world powers to
budget large sums and risk the lives of their soldiers in order to
prevent or end genocidal barbarities when the most powerful of them
will not even do something so paltry as acknowledge a genocide that
took place at the start of the last century?"

We would not suggest that the facts of history be denied – or ducked.

The crimes against the Armenians were not committed by the current
Turkish republic, which came into being after the crime against the
Armenians took place, but the Ottoman empire. This point was made in
a column last week by Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The party in the debate that is really on the spot is Mrs. Pelosi and
the Democratic leadership in the House. They are all too prepared to
issue fine words in respect of a crime committed nearly a century ago
by an empire that no longer exists. They proceed with indifference to
the fact that we are bound by the North Atlantic Treaty to regard any
attack on Turkey as an attack on the United States. But they shrink
from the lists in the current war against Islamic extremism – a war
in which new genocides are being planned by a merciless enemy.

Philadelphia Inquirer, PA
Oct 14 2007

Worldview | Genocide resolution: Nice timing
Moralizing about events long ago is hurting us today.

By Trudy Rubin
Inquirer Columnist

What were they thinking?

No doubt members of the House Foreign Relations Committee felt
righteous about the nonbinding resolution they passed last week
condemning World War I massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as
"genocide." They sloughed off the warnings from Turkey, which rejects
the genocide charge.

Several 90-something Armenian ladies who survived the massacres were
in attendance in wheelchairs. Democratic legislators from states like
California and New Jersey with large Armenian constituencies were
pressing Speaker Nancy Pelosi to push the resolution. Everyone
cloaked himself in high moral purpose.

Yet this is a case of self-proclaimed moral intentions run amok.

The timing of this resolution couldn’t be worse. About 70 percent of
the military cargo sent to Iraq is flown through Turkey’s Incirlik
Air Base or on air routes over Turkey. Turkish officials warn they
will reconsider support for the Iraq effort if the resolution goes to
the full House.

Equally disturbing, the resolution comes just as Turkey is
considering a large-scale military invasion into northern Iraq to
wipe out Turkish Kurd terrorists (known as the PKK), who are
conducting bloody raids into Turkey from inside the Iraqi border.
Anti-Americanism is on the rise among ordinary Turks furious at the
United States for failing to stop the PKK raids.

The House resolution comes at the exact moment the Turkish parliament
is debating whether to authorize an Iraq offensive. U.S. officials
are urging Turkey not to invade; the House vote may tip the balance.

"The Turks are talking of a cross-border operation and Pelosi brings
this resolution up now?" muses Henri Barkey, head of the
international relations department at Lehigh University and a top
expert on Turkey. "Now the Turks have no choice."

One has to ask why this resolution was so urgent. It’s not about
Darfur, where the killing is going on now. The Armenian massacres
happened in 1915-23, and the empire that conducted them is gone.

Yes, Turkey should confront whether the deaths of as many as 1.5
million Armenians resulted from an Ottoman plan to drive them out of
the empire.

And it is shameful that Turkish law still prohibits open discussion
of the issue. Earlier this year the journalist Hrant Dink was killed
by a nationalist for calling the massacre of Armenians a "genocide."
On Thursday, his son, Arat Dink, was convicted of insulting Turkey’s
identity for republishing his father’s remarks.

However, many Turks are slowly struggling to open space to debate
this issue. Ironically, the House resolution will hurt their efforts.

After Dink’s assassination, tens of thousands of Turks gathered to
protest the murder. There were signs that the current Turkish
government – led by the moderate Muslims of the AK party – would try
to change the law that limits debate on the Armenian issue. However,
says Barkey, the House resolution "will make it harder to change the
law, because it will rouse nationalist feeling."

And here is another irony. The AK party has the support of many
Kurdish voters, and was reluctant to endorse an invasion into Iraq’s
Kurdish north. The House resolution has stirred up such emotion the
party may have to accede.

What’s most dishonest about the House move is the claim it won’t hurt
U.S.-Turkish relations. How short are congressional memories, and how
dismissive of Turkish democracy! In 2003, a Turkish parliament
outraged by the upcoming Iraq war refused to let the U.S. military
use its ports and territory to enter northern Iraq. This cost the
U.S. war effort dearly.

Turkish ire has been roused again by the House resolution. If Nancy
Pelosi brings it to the full House, Turkey may indeed curb its
support for the Iraq war effort. Moreover, if the United States wants
to withdraw from Iraq it will need those land and air routes. And if
we want to keep a base in Iraqi Kurdistan, the safest passage in and
out will be via Turkey.

So think about it, Speaker Pelosi. To make a statement about 1915,
you are hindering slow Turkish efforts to face the past, while
harming our national security. And you are making it harder to leave
Iraq. Your moralizing ignores facts on the ground and does exactly
the opposite of what you intend. That’s just the kind of stance that
got the Bush team into such trouble in Iraq.

rudy_rubin/20071014_Worldview___Genocide_resolutio n__Nice_timing.html

Mediamax, Armenia
Oct 11 2007

EU recognizes positive changes in Armenia’s last parliamentary poll

Yerevan, 11 October: President of the European Commission Jose
Barroso said that the European Union recognizes the positive changes
registered at the parliamentary election in May 2007 in Armenia,
Mediamax special correspondent reports from Brussels where Jose
Manuel Barroso said this at a joint briefing with Armenian President
Robert Kocharian on 10 October.

Jose Manuel Barroso told Mediamax that the European Union waits "for
the continuation of this tendency at the presidential election in
Armenia in February 2008". He voiced his hope that Armenia would take
into account proposals made by European observers in the
parliamentary election.

"There are all basis for our expectations to come true in the
presidential election in Armenia," the president of the European
Commission said.

Kommersant, Russia
Oct 12 2007

The Ottoman Empire of Evil
// U.S.-Turkish relations may be badly strained by the recognition of
the genocide of Armenians

by Sergey Strokan

Tensions are mounting between the United States and its strategic
partner Turkey after Congress’s committee passed a resolution to
officially recognize the massacre of Armenians under the Turkish
Ottoman Empire as a genocide. Democrats dealt a severe blow on
America’s position in the region in an effort to do President Bush a
bad turn. Ankara may now refuse the United States the access to a
military base which plays the key part in operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan and launch an offensive against Kurdish militants in
northern Iraq. The region is also in for a powerful wave of
anti-American sentiment.
Stop Congress!

Reports that the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee
is going to consider a draft resolution on Wednesday to recognize the
genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire came as shock news for
the White House. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promptly
rang up President Bush last Friday and warned him of unavoidable
negative consequences for U.S.-Turkish relations in case the
resolution is adopted. Turkish President Abdullah Gul also sent a
warning to the U.S. administration.

The White House was extremely concerned but not by the appearance of
the resolution in the House of Representatives which declares the
early 20th century killings of Armenians as a genocide. U.S. Congress
has repeatedly tried to pass this initiative including votes under
the Clinton administration but always fell flat. This time, 226
representatives signed on the resolution as co-sponsors, which meant
that an idea to recognize the genocide of Armenians for the first
time received support of more than one half of the chamber. The
resolution had a chance to be adopted in case it was put to vote in
the full House.

The Bush administration was aware of the irreparable damage and tried
all tools at its disposal to turn off emergency braking and block the
adoption. Secretary of State Condoleezza and Secretary Defense Robert
Gates were called to rescue as they addressed Congress. They warned
that the resolution on the genocide of Armenians `will endanger
America’s national security interests’. The U.S. Department of State
also gathered signatures of American diplomatic pundits who sent
another appeal to Congress. The joint letter with a plea not to pass
the resolution was signed by eight former U.S. secretaries of state
including Republicans and Democrats Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell,
Madeleine Albright and James Baker.

Those who tried to stop Congress representatives in Washington were
joined by Commander of U.S. troops in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus and
U.S. Ambassador in Baghdad Ryan Crocker. In a televised address they
reminded the lawmakers that 70 percent of air cargo for Iraq goes
through Turkey. Overall, infrastructure in Iraq-neighboring Turkey is
critically important for the continuation of the operation in Iraq,
David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker underscored.

Finally, the last tool to convince the lawmakers was an appeal of
President Bush which was voiced three hours before the session of the
foreign affairs committee. Mr. Bush said he `deeply regret the tragic
suffering of the Armenian people’ but warned Congress from the move
that could have far-reaching consequences for the United States.
`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 the global war non terror,’ President Bush said.

After all ways of torpedoing the controversial resolution were
exhausted the White House only had to wait for the decision of the
legislators.

Following Russia’s Example

Meanwhile, the Capitol on Wednesday was full of sentiment and
arguments quite different from those cited by Mr. Bush’s team. It is
symbolical that the session of the U.S. House of Representatives was
opened by a prayer of the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
Garegin II who was on a three-day in Washington in this decisive
moment.

Blunt Democrat Tom Lantos, head of the foreign affairs committee,
sent the tone for the debate. He said the George Bush Jnr.
administration as well as administration of George Bush Snr. and Bill
Clinton did not venture to restore historic justice in line with
Democratic values which America professes because of geopolitical
interests in the Middle East. `We have to weigh the desire to express
our solidarity with the Armenian people and to condemn this historic
nightmare through the use of the word `genocide’,’ Mr. Lantos told
the House.

Congressman Lantos, who traditionally emphasizes America’s special
mission, got support from another Democrat, Brad Sherman. `It is
right for Congress to recognize this genocide, we must do it,’ he
said. `Genocide denial is not just the last step of a genocide, it is
the first step in the next genocide.’

It is worth noting that co-sponsors of the resolution cited Russia as
an example to prove that the draft must be passed. Unlike the United
States, Russia recognized the genocide of Armenians. Another
Democrat, Rep. James Costa called on his colleagues not to be afraid
of Ankara’s threats saying there will be no `serious consequences’
for the bilateral ties. `After Russia recognized in 1995 the
Genocide, its trade turnover with Turkey increased by 351 percent,’
he said.

The House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee voted 27-21
to pass the resolution calling to take into account in U.S. foreign
policy the genocide of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The document
reminds that `on May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, England, France,
and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the
first time ever another government of committing `a crime against
humanity’. The resolutions calls on the U.S. president in his `annual
message commemorating the Armenian Genocide issued on April 24 to
accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of
1,500,000 Armenians as genocide.’

What Ankara May Say

After the House of Representatives ignored the Bush administration’s
warning Washington observers ask what will happen to the resolution
and what long-term consequences it many have for the United States
and its interests in the region. The House of Representatives’
speaker Nancy Pelosi, an active advocate of recognizing the genocide
of Armenians, has promised to put the resolution on vote in the full
House during the current session of Congress.

The resolution has no binding force, and President Bush can ignore it
just like his opponents ignored the White House’s appeals not to
tease Turkey. However, the document has become a symbolic gesture
which really affected Ankara in a very sensitive issue. It is quite
possible that Turkish authorities will not limit themselves to
statements which condemn the decision of American lawmakers and take
more radical measures in reply.

In one of these moves Turkey make decide to restrict or close the
access to the strategically important Turkish air force base in
Ircilink for American aviation which takes part in operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan. The Washington Post daily reported this possibility
on Wednesday citing high-placed Turkish sources.

In addition, Turkish Parliament may sanction an operation in northern
Iraq to fight Kurdish separatists. The vote on the Armenian genocide
resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives happened at a very
inconvenient moment for the Bush administration when the Turkish
government addressed Parliament to endorse a military operation in
neighboring Iraq against militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers
Party. Washington vehemently opposes Turkey’s plan to invade northern
Iraq. But advocates of the operation in Ankara have just got a
serious argument in the favor of the military move.

Finally, the decision of American lawmakers may bring a new wave of
anti-Americanism in Turkey and allied countries in the East which are
unhappy about what they call `an attempt to rewrite the history’. The
U.S. Embassy to Turkey has already warned American citizens in the
country of a pending threat due to the passage of the controversial
resolution.

http://www.kommersan t.com/p813926/r_527/Congress_Armenians_Genocide_Tu rkey/

‘Flowers’ takes prize at Pusan Promotion

Chinese film honored at fest’s market event

Variety.com
October 11, 2007

By MARK SCHILLING

Chinese film "11 Flowers" took top prize in the Pusan Promotion Plan as
the Pusan Intl. Film Festival’s Asian Film Market ended Thursday.

Wang Xiaoshuai was given the prize, worth about $20,000 and supported by
the local city government, for his drama about a boy’s encounter with a
man on the run.

Korean docmaker Park Ki-bok won the Kodak Award, for which Kodak Korea
supplied $20,000 in negative film, for his drama "Farewell," about a
middle-age man running from creditors.

Mikayel Vayinyan, an Armenian theater director-actor, scooped the
Goteburg Film Festival Fund prize, which provides travel and
accommodation expenses to selected helmers, for "Joan and the Voices," a
drama about a woman on a search for self in postwar (late 1990s) Armenia.

Japanese helmer Sion Sono received the Cineclick Asia Award for "Room of
Dreams," about an experimental drug that induces a virtual reality that
turns into a nightmare. In addition to $10,000 in cash, Sono may get a
first-option deal with international sales and co-production outfit
Cineclick Asia.

Vietnamese helmer Phan Dang Di won the BFC (Busan Film Commission)
Award, which provides $10,000 to an Asian project, for his first-feature
family drama "Bi, Don’t Be Afraid."

Korean-American Michael Kang was awarded the Overseas Korean
Foundation’s OKF Fund prize for a Korean-born overseas director, for his
African adventure yarn "The Sea of Tranquility."

Held this past Monday through Thursday, , the PIFF Asian Film Market and
its sister events PPP, Co-production PRO, Star Summit Asia and Bifcom
attracted 3,600 participants.

Even with the elevators in the Grand Hotel in a state of paralysis, the
PPP org, which published a book celebrating its decade of achievements,
hosted 500 meetings for 35 projects.

Read the full article at:
ml

als&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR111 7973884&cs=1

U.S. military looking at alternatives in case Turkey cuts access

>From Barbara Starr
CNN

U.S. military planners quietly have stepped up a review of
alternatives in case the Turkish government restricts U.S. access to
Turkish airspace or cuts off access to the air base at Incirlik,
Turkey, CNN has learned.

Turkey has threatened such action after congressional moves to declare
that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in World War I was
"genocide."

Turkey — now a NATO member and a key U.S. ally in the war on terror
— accepts Armenians were killed but calls it a massacre during a
chaotic time, not an organized campaign of genocide.

The recent rise in tensions between Turkey and the United States has
led the military to increase its planning for alternatives, two
military officials with direct knowledge of the ongoing assessment
said.

"Events have triggered more detailed planning for the curtailment or
closure" of access to Turkey, one official said. The key issue is to
find ways to ship supplies and other critical equipment into Iraq.

The U.S. military already had been considering alternatives to Turkey
because of the growing dependence on that country after the cutback of
U.S. forces in central Asia in recent years.

But now, with more "detailed planning" under way, the military is
considering a variety of options in hopes of being ready for whatever,
if anything, the Turks do.

U.S. officials say Turkey’s options range from a complete cutoff,
including ending overland access routes from southern Turkey into
Iraq, to less drastic options that simply restrict U.S. access.

The initial assessment is that any cutoff from current access to
Turkey would force the U.S. military into longer cargo flights, which
would mean extra costs for fuel and for wear and tear on equipment. It
may also look for other air hubs in Jordan or Kuwait, officials say.
See Turkey’s strategic position »

Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this week pointed out, "Seventy
percent of the air cargo, American air cargo, going into Iraq goes
through Turkey. Seventy percent of the fuel that goes in for our
forces goes in … through Turkey …

"For those who are concerned that we get as many of these
mine-resistant ambush-protected heavy vehicles into Iraq as possible,
95 percent of those vehicles today are being flown into Iraq through
Turkey."

Turkey on Thursday recalled its ambassador to the United States and
warned of repercussions in the growing dispute.

On Wednesday, in a 27-21 vote, the U.S. House Committee on Foreign
Affairs passed the measure labeling the killings of Armenians by
Ottoman Turkish forces "genocide."

President Bush and key administration figures lobbied hard against the
measure, saying it would create unnecessary headaches for U.S.
relations with Turkey.

The full House could soon vote on the genocide resolution. A top
Turkish official warned Thursday that consequences "won’t be pleasant"
if it approves the measure. VideoWatch why the resolution stirs strong
emotions »

The resolution arrives at a particularly sensitive point in
U.S.-Turkish relations. The United States has urged Turkey not to send
its troops over the border into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish
separatist rebels, who launched some cross-border attacks against
Turkish targets.

The Turkish military is poised to strike across the border to fight
the group — the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK — a move opposed by
the Bush administration. The Turkish parliament could give approval
for the incursion into Iraq as early as next week.

Source: tml

TURKEY RECALLS AMBASSADOR TO U.S. OVER ARMENIANS
By Paul de Bendern

Malaysia Star, Malaysia
Oct 11 2007

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States
for consultations on Thursday after a vote in a U.S. congressional
committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.

"We called back our ambassador to Washington for consultations. It
should not be understood that we have pulled him back permanently. He
will be in Ankara for consulations in a few days," a senior Turkish
diplomat told Reuters.

Protesters march during an anti-U.S. demonstration in Istanbul October
11, 2007. Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States for
consultations on Thursday after a vote in a U.S. congressional
committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.

(REUTERS/Osman Orsal) Other Turkish diplomats confirmed the move.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved
on Wednesday a resolution branding the killings during World War One
as genocide — a charge Turkey hotly denies.

Turkey’s prime minister will ask parliament next week to authorise
a military push into north Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels although
analysts say a large Turkish cross-border incursion remains unlikely

Washington fears an offensive could destabilise Iraq’s most peaceful
area and potentially the wider region.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was under mounting pressure to act over
the rebels after Wednesday’s U.S. vote on the highly sensitive issue
of the killings in 1915 of Armenians.

The resolution was proposed by a politician with many
Armenian-Americans in his district.

Erdogan’s government will seek authorisation for a military incursion
after a public holiday which ends on Sunday, senior ruling AK Party
lawmaker Sadullah Ergin said.

Ergin said the resolution could go to parliament, where the AK Party
has a big majority, after a cabinet meeting on Monday.

The United States relies heavily on Turkish bases to supply its war
effort in Iraq. Any Turkish offensive into neighbouring northern
Iraq would seriously strain ties with Washington and possibly hurt
Turkey’s European Union accession bid.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned Turkey against a possible
incursion.

"Any possibility of complicating even more the security situation in
Iraq should not be welcome and therefore that’s the message that we
passed to our Turkish friends," he said.

Ankara says 3,000 rebels from the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) are based in northern Iraq from where they stage deadly attacks
into Turkey. Dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed in
recent weeks, sparking an outcry.

Before recalling its ambassador, the Turkish government cautioned
that relations with its NATO ally would be harmed by the U.S.

committee’s decision. The non-binding resolution now goes to the
floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Democratic leaders
say there will be a vote by mid-November.

Ankara will lobby Congress to prevent the bill from being approved.

Erdogan is due to travel to Washington in early November for talks
with U.S. President George W. Bush.

Turkey’s army has frequently called on the government to give them
a green light to pursue the PKK — which is considered a terrorist
group by Washington, Turkey and the EU — into Iraq.

Big incursions by Turkey in 1995 and 1997, involving an estimated
35,000 and 50,000 troops respectively, failed to dislodge the rebels
based in the Iraqi mountains.

(Additional reporting by Hidir Goktas and Evren Mesci in Ankara,
Emma Ross-Thomas and Daren Butler in Istanbul, Tabassum Zakaria in
Washington, and David Brunnstrom in Brussels)

ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI CONFRONTATION

A1+
[12:59 pm] 11 October, 2007

Armenian and Azerbaijani national football teams have became
indivisible competitors during the last years.

The sport paths of neighboring countries will cross again during the
handball championship. Armenia and Azerbaijan will participate in
"Challenge Trophy" Championship in Tbilisi on 25 October. Armenian
Handball Federation informed "A1+" that this was the championship of
developing countries, where Georgia and Moldova national teams wouldl
also participate.

The Armenian National team has participated in an international
championship in 2001. The Armenian National Team, headed by Coach
Hrach Mkhitaryan, will do its best to occupy the first place during the
championship; otherwise it will be deprived of further fight. Khikmet
Abdulaev, the coach of the Azerbaijani team announced that their main
opponent would be Georgia.

"Georgia National Team has always been well-prepared.

As to the Armenians, their clubs have rarely participated in
international championships since 2001", said Abdulaev.