Author: Navasardian Karapet

THE FUTURE IS IN OUR PAST
Audrey Manning

Beacon, Canada
Oct 2 2007

Battle for free speech

The Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations called the Iranian
president a bigot and a murderer, and the invitation to Columbia
University shameful and scandalous. One wonders how an Iraqi
ambassador would be regarded if he were to make similar statements
about a president.

Canada is waging a war in Afghanistan to bring liberty to the Afghan
people yet, when Liberal Jim Combden apparently referred to Danny
Williams as the Fuehrer, the weight of his words threatened to derail
the Liberal election campaign. It didn’t take long for the Jewish
community, the Premier and others to shame Jim Combden.

If free speech is free speech, one cannot pick and chose what can
be said under its banner? Yet, for more than 60 years. No one has
dared question the Holocaust. There is no free speech surrounding
the Holocaust. Holocaust denial is punishable by jail terms across
the European Union. In 2006, David Irving, the controversial British
historian, was sentenced to three years in prison in Austria for
denying existence of the holocaust.

Every time anyone calls into question the creation of the State of
Israel, or wishes to honour people, other than Jews, who lost their
lives during Hitler’s rampage across Europe, the axe falls. We have
been convinced that Hitler’s genocide tops the list of atrocities
committed by humans against humans. This seems to have been done in
order to make impossible any discussion about the State of Israel.

It has been generally accepted that the Holocaust, 1938-1945, resulted
in the deaths of 6,000,000 Jews. Yet, there were 5,000,000 souls of
other ethnic origins, killed by der Fuehrer, that lie forgotten on
the scrap heap of history. Thousands killed in Russia and Western
Europe by German soldiers, lie beside them.

Why is the Holocaust not equated with all the other massacres that
occurred during the 20th century – the Armenian genocide 1915-1918: 1,
500,000 deaths; Ukraine famine 1932-1933: 7, 000,000; Nanking massacre
1937-1938: 300,000; Rwanda genocide 1994: 800,000; Bosnia genocide:
2,000,000 (united human rights) and others? Why are there no special
sensibilities toward the corresponding states? Pres. Ahmadinejad is
a shrewd politician, and knew that he could attract attention only
by quoting the one sensitive case.

No one is allowed to bring attention to the misery of the people of
Palestine who were displaced when the State of Israel was created.

One can almost be certain that had Pres. Ahmadinejad or Mr. Combden
used another example for their criticisms, their statements would
have gone unnoticed.

What’s wrong with inviting Pres. Ahmadinejad to Columbia University?

Universities are supposed to be the bastions of free inquiry. Don’t
we want all sides of a story, even the side that we don’t wish to
hear? Or, are we content with being told what to believe and accept
it as truth?

Had Jim Combden likened Premier Williams to another of the world’s
dictators, would anyone have been outraged? If Mr. Combden had cited
Kim Jong-Il, who would have cared? As it was, everyone rushed to the
defense of the Holocaust.

Many people, too, are rushing to support Jim Combden, saying that
they don’t believe he meant to insult. According to a CBC online
article, Mr. Combden says it was just a joke. Whatever his intention,
Mr. Combden was making a political statement. Political statements
are expected during election campaigns.

Danny Williams, according to the CBC, said that Mr.Combden’s remarks
were [obviously] condoned at the highest levels of the Liberal party.

He also said that he had expected the Liberals to get personal. Was
the premier making a political statement?

Perhaps the Premier’s remarks could be examined for what they might
contain of a personal nature. If Mr. Williams thinks Jim Combden’s
remarks were condoned at the highest levels of the Liberal party,
who condoned them – the leader, the campaign manager, the president?

If free speech means free speech, should people be able to say
anything they wish about the nature of politics and the political
leaders? Otherwise, who decides what is acceptable? In a free society,
politicians have always been fair game for satire and parody.

Rightly or wrongly, Premier Williams is widely regarded as the
hard-nosed Donald Trump of Newfoundland and Labrador. The perception
is that the premier brooks no nonsense from his cabinet ministers,
or the critical public. Rightly or wrongly, some people are afraid
of being sued, if they speak their minds. The Premier’s campaign ads
have the Premier trying to dispel that conception.

Remarks about the Holocaust aren’t funny, but neither is stifling
free speech.

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people
what they do not want to hear."

George Orwell

798&sid=24735

TERRY DAVIS: IT’S HARD TO RESOLVE KARABAKH CONFLICT BEFORE ELECTIONS IN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.10.2007 18:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "I would be happy to see the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict resolved this week rather than till the yearend. But reality
says it’s hardly possible before elections," the CoE Secretary General,
Mr Terry Davis said when commenting on the possibility to settle the
conflict till the end of the year or before the presidential elections
in both states in 2008.

"Parliamentary and presidential elections are not a perfect time for
negotiations," he said.

"But months and years pass without resolution. It works against the
interests of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh," he said,
Trend news agency reports.

Sudan Tribune, Sudan
Sept 30 2007

Survivors of Armenian genocide urge Chinese pressures on Sudan

Sunday 30 September 2007 06:49.

September 25, 2007 (YEREVAN, Armenia) – Survivors of Armenian
genocide urged Chinese government to pressurize Sudan to ensure
security for Darfur people and to end the four years conflict before
August, 2008, date of the beginning of Olympic games.

Less than one year before Beijing Olympic Games begin, the Archbishop
of Canterbury Rowan Williams, His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of
All Armenians, and prominent human rights activists pointedly
connected the government of China to the first genocide of the 21st
century in a torch lighting ceremony at a site commemorating the
first genocide of the 20th century.

Archbishop Williams stated, `Today, we honored victims and survivors
of genocides of the past century, linking them together through our
passing of a torch signifying the hope that we share for an end to
the violence in Darfur. I join these survivors in standing up to say
that although the international community has stood by silently again
and again while the blood of innocent human beings is shed, we must
now make the phrase `never again’ a reality.’

`Following many years of indifference, the Chinese government is now
asserting that it has been a leader for peace in Darfur. But even in
the best of scenarios, there will not be an adequate peacekeeping
force on the ground for many months,’ said Jill Savitt, Director of
Dream for Darfur. `We must continue pressing China so that the next
Olympic Games, an international symbol of peace and brotherhood, are
not hosted by a nation that is complicit in the ultimate
international crime.’

The Archbishop of Canterbury, along with Darfur advocates and
Armenian genocide survivors, lit the torch at the eternal flame at
the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. The torch was then passed
around the eternal flame in a somber ceremony honoring survivors of
genocide and remembering the lives lost both in Darfur, and in
previous genocides of the 20th century.

`This flame honors those who have been lost and those who suffer;
this flame celebrates the courage of those who have survived; this
flame represents the hope we all share for an end to the violence and
a safe return home,’ said Omer Ismail, a Sudanese survivor from
Darfur, as he passed the torch.

"Armenians worldwide understand the realities and pain of genocide,
even today, 92 years after the Armenian Genocide. Today’s event
demonstrates our solidarity with the people of Darfur, and with all
those who have been subjected to genocide," said Arpi Vartanian,
Armenian Assembly of America Country Director for Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh.

The Dream for Darfur symbolic Olympic Torch Relay began on the border
of strife-ridden Darfur and Chad in August, where Mia Farrow and
other Darfur advocates lit the torch. The Relay then traveled to
Kigali, Rwanda, where survivors of the Rwandan genocide passed the
torch from the site where thousands of Tutsis were killed after UN
forces withdrew.

After Armenia, the Torch Relay will continue to other countries
associated with genocide and mass slaughter – Bosnia, Germany, and
Cambodia, ending in Hong Kong to commemorate the 70th anniversary of
the Rape of Nanking, China’s own experience with the murder of
innocents.

Dream for Darfur, a year-long campaign undertaken with the support of
a worldwide network of Darfur advocates, is both asking and demanding
that China, in its role as Olympic host and close partner of Sudan,
use its unique influence with Khartoum to end the suffering in
Darfur – before the Games begin in August, 2008. The campaign motto is
`China, Please: Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur.’

In solidarity with the international torch relay, a relay will be
held in 25 states in the United States between September and December
to build public pressure on China in regard to its dual roles as
Olympic host and sponsor of a genocidal regime. More info can be
found at: National relays are also
slated for Canada, Italy, Sierra Leone, the United Kingdom, France,
Brazil, and South Africa.

In seeking to enlist China’s intensive involvement in resolving the
Darfur crisis, the Dream for Darfur campaign is contacting the IOC,
national Olympic committees, and corporate sponsors of the ’08
Olympics.

`We welcomed China’s recent UN vote to allow a peacekeeping force
into Sudan, but China now must press Sudan to ensure that the words
on paper translate into action,’ said Savitt. `We will continue our
campaign until China uses its influence with Khartoum and we see
adequate and verifiable security on the ground in Darfur.’

Photo: September 25 – At a genocide commemoration ceremony at the
Armenian Genocide Memorial, religious leaders passed a symbolic
Olympic Torch to call for an end to the genocide in Darfur. From
left: Samuel Kobia, General Secretary, World Council of Churches; His
Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians; the Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams, Sept 25, 2007.
On the net:

m/spip.php?article24003

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 28 2007

Babacan urges Rice to stop PKK terrorism at once

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan once again urged the United States to
take measures to stop the terrorist threat posed by the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq, when he met with his US
counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, in New York on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Foreign Minister Ali
Babacan (R) on Wednesday at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. The PKK
problem was one of the key issues during the meeting.
Babacan also said Turkey’s expectations for the arrest and
extradition of senior leaders of the terrorist group in Iraq remained
in place, diplomatic sources close to the talks, held on the
sidelines of the UN General Assembly, said yesterday.

Turkey has been pressing the US and Iraq to take swift measures
to stem PKK terrorism and has said that it would take matters into
its own hands if its demands are not met. Earlier this week, Land
Forces Commander Gen. Ýlker Baþbuð said the US should understand that
it is time for action, not words, and warned that Turkey has the
ability to "increase costs" for the US in Iraq, without elaborating.

At Wednesday’s meeting, however, Rice reiterated verbal assurances
and said that the United States was working to end the PKK threat,
not only in Iraq but also wherever it is active in the world. She
also said that the United States was dealing with the matter at the
highest level.

The meeting also touched on two resolutions pending in the US
Congress on an alleged genocide of Armenians at the hands of the
Ottoman Turks, the stalemate in the Cyprus problem and the Middle
East conflict.

The congressional resolutions call on the US administration to
recognize Armenian claims of genocide, charges that Turkey
categorically rejects. Babacan repeated that relations with the
United States would receive a serious blow if the resolutions are
passed and urged the administration to intensify efforts to prevent
its passage.

The administration is against passage of the resolutions, but US
officials have said repeatedly that the administration cannot
intervene in the congressional process. Rice said the administration
would express its opposition to passage of the resolutions more
strongly in the future.

The two ministers also discussed another contentious issue, namely
Turkish plans to cooperate closely with neighboring Iran in the field
of energy. The United States opposes a preliminary deal between Iran
and Turkey to transfer Iranian gas to Europe via Turkey due to
concerns over Iran’s nuclear program and advises Ankara to look to
alternative suppliers.

Rice said the United States viewed Iran as a problem-causing country
and emphasized that its nuclear ambitions were a serious matter for
Washington. She said the United States expected all countries to
comply with UN Security Council resolutions issued on Iran’s nuclear
program.

——————————- ————————————————-

Erdal retrial tops agenda at talks with Belgian minister
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and his Belgian counterpart, Karel de
Gucht, have discussed a retrial in Belgium of a Turkish fugitive
accused in Turkey of involvement in the murder of a prominent
businessman, diplomats said yesterday.

The gathering between the two ministers was held on the sidelines of
UN General Assembly meetings on Wednesday. Gucht said his government
was closely following the legal process of Fehriye Erdal’s retrial.

Belgium’s Supreme Court ruled last week that Erdal, a member of the
outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), can
be tried in Belgium for crimes she committed in Turkey. Turkey has
been seeking extradition of Erdal since she was captured in Belgium
in September 1996 with a fake passport, months after the murder of
prominent businessman Özdemir Sabancý and two other people in January
1996, in which she is believed to have played a key role.

Turkish authorities demanded her extradition to stand trial in
connection with the Sabancý murder, but Belgium refused, saying she
could face the death penalty if returned to Turkey. Ankara banned the
death penalty in 2001 as part of its European Union bid, but Erdal
continued to remain in Belgium. She was held for the possession of
weapons, convicted along with six others for belonging to the DHKP/C
and sentenced to four years in jail. However she escaped police
surveillance before her conviction and remains on the run, her
whereabouts unknown.

As part of his UN diplomacy, Babacan also met with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and
Dominica’s Foreign Minister Charles Savarin. Lavrov and Babacan
discussed the situation in Iraq and emphasized that they were in
consensus that the war-torn country’s territorial integrity and
political unity must be protected. Lavrov also said he agreed with
Turkey that the Cyprus problem must be solved as part of the UN
secretary-general’s goodwill efforts.

28.09.2007

Today’s Zaman New York

ARMENIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER AT THE FLETCHER SCHOOL IN BOSTON

Armenia¹s Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian will deliver the Charles
Francis Adams Lecture at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on Friday,
October 5, 2007.

Minister Oskanian will speak about ³The Diplomacy of Small States.² The
Minister, serving his 10th year in this capacity, has represented Armenia
in a mutitude of conferences and forums where the flexible and creative
diplomacy of small countries is essential.

The lecture will be held at 11.30 am on Friday in the ASEAN Auditorium of
the Tufts University affiliated Diplomacy School. Together with the
lecture, there will be a ceremony bestowing the Dean¹s Medal on the Foreign
Minister, who is himself a graduate of the Fletcher School.

Prior to the lecture, Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow will
receive the Minister. He will also meet with Dean Stephen Bosworth of the
Fletcher School. Armenia¹s Foreign Ministry has had a long relationship
with the
Fletcher School, where groups of diplomats and other civil servants have
attended extended certificate programs. This program, sponsored by
philanthropist Aso Tavitian, is continuing today, with 15 mid-career
government personnel currently studying international law, arbitration,
international finance, negotiations and other topics with Fletcher
faculty.

It will be a great pleasure for me to speak at my alma mater, before
professors who introduced complex global issues and encouraged the
exploration for solutions. Today, I search for such solutions every day,
and I will gladly share some of those challenging problems with the
professors, students and friends of the Fletcher School,² said Minister
Oskanian.

For further information, please call the Tufts University Fletcher
School.

Press and Information Department
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of the Republic of Armenia
Tel. + 37410 544041. ext. 202
Fax. + 37410 565601
e-mail: [email protected]
web:

RUSSIA SAID TO BOOST TRANSPORT LINKS WITH ARMENIA
By Anna Saghabalian and Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Sept 28 2007

Russia has promised to reopen soon its main border crossing with
Georgia and upgrade a new Black Sea ferry link in order to enable a
further major increase in its trade with Armenian, a senior Armenian
diplomat said late Thursday.

"They are promising to reopen the Upper Lars crossing in 2008,"
said Armen Smbatian, the Armenian ambassador to Russia. He said
Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian received such assurances from his
newly appointed Russian counterpart, Viktor Zubkov, during a visit
to Moscow earlier this week.

The Russian government shut down the Upper Lars crossing, which
serves as Armenia’s sole overland conduit to the former Soviet Union
and Europe, in June 2006, citing the need to conduct repairs on its
border guard and customs facilities there. The move coincided with
an upsurge in Russian-Georgian relations that led Moscow to impose
a transport blockade on Georgia.

Armenian government officials and lawmakers have unsuccessfully lobbied
their Russian counterparts to reopen the border crossing located on
the Caucasus mountain range. They have argued that it is Armenian
export-oriented companies have been hit hardest by its closure.

Nonetheless, those companies seem to have quickly adapted to the
Russian blockade of Armenia’s western neighbor, with Armenian exports
to Russia more than doubling in the first five months of this year.

Official statistics show Russian-Armenian trade surging by 64 percent
year on year to $225 million in January-May 2007. Armenian officials
say its full-year volume is on course to reach $700 million this year.

Sarkisian and Zubkov said after their talks on Tuesday that the two
governments agreed to help ensure that Russian-Armenian trade passes
the $1 billion mark next year. Sarkisian instructed his ministers on
Thursday to closely work with their Russian counterparts in trying
to meet this target.

Much of the bilateral commercial exchange has until now been carried
out through a rail-ferry link between the Georgian Black Sea port of
Poti and Ukraine’s Ilyichevsk. A similar ferry service, designed to
primarily cater for Armenia, was launched last April between Poti
and the Russian port of Port-Kavkaz. It is still not functioning
regularly, though.

While in Moscow, Sarkisian discussed with Zubkov and other Russian
officials ways of boosting cargo turnover through the Poti-Port-Kavkaz
link.

"The most important thing for us is the rail-ferry service," Smbatian
told reporters in Yerevan. "There is only one [ferry boat] operating
it right now. We must make sure that there is a second one. They are
promising that a second one will be operational starting from 2008."

ARMENIAN AND TURKISH FMS WILL MEET BY JOINT INITIATIVE

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.09.2007 18:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister
is aimed to find out whether Turkey has changed its policy toward
Armenia," RA FM Vartan Oskanian told reporters in Yerevan.

"We will meet by a joint initiative," he said.

"Anyway, Armenia’s stance on normalization of relations with Turkey
is unchangeable. We are for establishment of relations without
preconditions," he added.

Vartan Oskanian is scheduled to meet with Turkish FM Ali Babacan in
New York October 2.

OPTIMALIZATION: 30 POLYCLINICS TO CLOSE IN PROVINCES

Panorama.am
21:49 26/09/2007

To move forward the 2007-2012 optimalization program of the health
system in the provinces, the number of hospitals will be reduced
by five, and the number of polyclinics by 30, leaving just eight
specialized dispatch centers and 13 health center stations in an area
covering around 80,000 kilometers. This was informed by the ministry
of regional affairs.

According to the optimalization program, the work of the hospitals
and polyclinics that both carry out will be unified. In accordance
with the program, the work of village doctors will be separated from
that of polyclinics, and offices for family doctors will be created,
ensuring the improvement of local health care.

For now the program is in the preliminary stages. We note that at a
recent meeting with provincial governors, vice-prime minister Hovik
Aprahamyan ordered the work completed by September 25 and to begin
construction work by October 1. We remind that the decision to enact
the health optimalization program was made by the government just
last year.

ARMENIA’S GDP INCREASE BY 13.6 PERCENT THIS YEAR
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)

The Messenger, Georgia
Sept 25 2007

Armenia’s GDP increased by 13.6 percent in the first eight months of
2007 to reach approximately USD 4.7 billion, stated Armenian National
Statistic Service head Stepan Mnatsakanian on September 20.

Armenian trade turnover went up by 39.6 percent this year to reach
USD 2.7 billion.

Exports increased 39.3 percent, totaling USD 2.7 billion, while the
import indicator increased by 23.2 percent to USD 733.5 million,
according the Regnum news agency.

GASPAR AGHAJANIAN: LINGUIST, MAGISTRATE AND MIDDLE EAST EXPERT

The Times (London)
September 20, 2007, Thursday

Gaspar Aghajanian, linguist, magistrate and Middle East expert,
was born on April 16, 1911. He died on August 31, 2007, aged 96

Middle East expert and magistrate whose turbulent, polyglot life
typified the dislocations of the Armenian diaspora

Gaspar Aghajanian was an archetypal member of the Armenian diaspora.

His life was twice disrupted by political violence -in 1948 in
Palestine and 1974 in Cyprus – but each time, with the courageous
support of his wife Astrid, herself a survivor of the disasters which
befell the Armenians in Turkey in 1915, he created a new career in
a new country.

Aghajanian was born in 1911 in Jerusalem, where his family had been
part of the Armenian community for generations. His most thrilling
memory as a boy was hearing the rumble of heavy guns outside the city
as the Turks, Gaspar’s conscripted father among them, were pushed
north by Allenby’s army in 1917. Many of Jerusalem’s ethnically mixed
inhabitants were ambivalent in their allegiance to their Ottoman
rulers, and British rule, under the mandate of the League of Nations,
was to start with generally preferred.

Aghajanian attended Armenian, Italian and English schools, and also
spoke French, Arabic and Hebrew fluently, as well as a smattering of
Greek, Turkish and Aramaic.

In 1928 he began a legal career as a clerk in the Jerusalem law courts
and steadily worked his way up, using evening classes at the government
law school to obtain his diploma. He was appointed notary public
of Haifa in 1938 and in 1945 chief clerk of the Jerusalem District
Court. In the war he joined the Palestine Volunteer Defence Force,
trained with a heavy AA battery and was in action against enemy bombers
attacking from Vichy- controlled Syria. He was again promoted in 1947
to be magistrate in charge of the courts at Tiberias and Safad. His
ability to speak and listen to all concerned in their own languages
proved a huge asset in a society which became increasingly polarised
as the British Mandate drew to a close.

There was the occasional lighter moment -on one occasion a complainant
swore that a donkey in the caravan of a Syrian merchant was his and
that it had been stolen the previous year. "Who can tell one ass
from another?" said the merchant dismissively. "Stand back," said
Aghajanian, "and give the beast space."

All waited, breathless. The animal meandered about, as though getting
its bearings, and then trotted straight to the litigant’s stable and
into its old stall. Case proved.

In March 1948 fighting broke out between Jews and Arabs in Tiberias,
and Aghajanian sent his wife and their two daughters to safety in
Transjordan, as it then was. He had married Astrid Topalian in 1942,
and for her this was a second flight. Her family had lived in the
Armenian area of Turkey, and when the First World War started the
Turkish Government had feared that sympathy for the advancing Russians,
their fellow Christians, posed a security risk, and that the Armenians
must be moved. The policy was arguably defensible, but the manner
of its execution was barbarous. All the menfolk in Astrid’s family
were shot, and the women and children of her village were herded on
the long trek across the mountains in appalling conditions. When the
remnants of her group reached what is now Syria they were in a state
of collapse, dying by the day. In desperation Astrid’s mother threw
herself on a pile of dead bodies, her baby beneath her. The guards gave
a few desultory pokes with their bayonets and left. Mother and child
were succoured by wandering Beduin, and eventually reached Jerusalem.

Aghajanian struggled to keep the administration of justice alive in
the dying days of the mandate, but a month after his wife’s departure
he was told by the beleaguered British Police that his safety could
no longer be guaranteed, and he joined his family across the Jordan,
where for a time he acted as legal representative for the British
Council. While in Amman he was summoned for an interview with
King Abdullah, who offered him a judgeship in Transjordan, and it
says much for his reputation that when he later met a Jewish legal
acquaintance in Nicosia he was assured the same offer would hold good
if he returned to the new state of Israel. Wise in his generation,
and foreseeing a troubled Middle East, he declined both suggestions.

He was by now a British citizen, and considered making a legal career
in London, but the offer of a job with the American radio-monitoring
station in Cyprus was a bird in the hand which he dared not let go.

He was rapidly promoted, first to be Middle East unit chief and then
to be in charge of quality control for the whole station.

The Aghajanians made a delightful new home in Kyrenia, which they
named Jerusalem Cottage. Gaspar retired in 1971, and they intended
to end their days there.

But in 1974 Turkey, alarmed by the strength of the Enosis movement
for union with Greece, invaded the north of the island to protect
the Turkish minority -an action for which Britain, as one of the
guarantors of the political status quo in Cyprus, bore a grievous
responsibility. Despite holding British passports, the Aghajanians,
mindful of 1915, fled south for their lives, leaving all their
possessions, convinced that death awaited them if they remained. They
were flown to Britain by the RAF and once again started from scratch.

Again, Gaspar’s gift of languages and deep understanding of Middle East
politics proved the key. In 1975 he joined the Ministry of Defence
and to his surprise found that in fact he was working within MI5. He
would never talk about this work, but he was so valued that he did
not fully retire until 1983, by when he was well over 70.

He devoted part of his retirement to a fruitless attempt to
obtain compensation for his losses in Cyprus, but Turkey refused to
acknowledge his British citizenship because of his Armenian name, and
he found the Foreign Office reluctant to make forceful representations
on his behalf to a Nato ally.

He and Astrid were eventually able to set up house again, in Sussex,
and their home became a place of pilgrimage for many friends and
relations, who by then regarded Gaspar as the family patriarch. He
was a man of absolute integrity and no small wisdom.

He is survived by his wife and their two daughters.