Author: Tadevosian Garnik

BI LINE STARTS PRODUCTION OF 15 CARTOONS BASED ON RUSSIAN FAIRY TALES

Noyan Tapan
Aug 29 2007

YEREVAN, AUGUST 29, NOYAN TAPAN. At the request of one of its Russian
partners, the Armenian IT company Bi Line has started production
of 15 cartoons based on Russian fairy tales. Each cartoon will last
13 minutes.

The president of Bi Line Hayk Khanjyan told NT correspondent that
the production of the first cartoon has finished and the work on the
second one is underway.

According to him, a few years ago Bi Line released laser discs of
cartoons based on three Armenian fairy tales – dubbed in various
languages.

"Unfortunately, we failed to sell them, and one reason is that
Diasporan Armenians do not trust Armenian products, preferring foreign
ones," Bi Line’s president noted.

He expressed confidence that animation multimedia production is one of
the promising directions of the Armenian IT sector’s development. It
was mentioned that e-content demand is great now, and such production
should exist in Armenia so that trust in the country will form through
the sale of these products and foreigners will recognize the Armenian
culture.

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN LERNAGOG RE-OPENS AFTER RECONSTRUCTION

Armenpress
Aug 28 2007

ARMAVIR, AUGUST 28, ARMENPRESS: As part of Comprehensive Rural
Development Program carried out by the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF)
secondary school in the Lernagog community of the Armenian province
of Armavir re-opened after reconstruction.

The school which is intended for around 250 pupils was reconstructed by
"Kanaka" company.

Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsian, who was participating in the
re-opening ceremony, said that it is a good present for the children
and parents of Lernagog.

Expressing gratitude to all those people who initiated and carried
out the program, the prime minister said that the fund is working
correctly and according to the demands of the time. The prime minister
assured that the Government of Armenia will always encourage this
and all those funds which will participate in the development of
rural territories as only development of Yerevan cannot ensure the
development of the whole country.

"We will have a developed state and well-being society if our
territories develop equally," the prime minister pointed out.

Underscoring the role of the president of the fund Karo Armen in
the implemented works, Serzh Sargsian awarded him Medal of the Prime
Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

The president of COAF said that unlike Yerevan the villages have much
more issues which refer to water supply, health, education, social
condition of the population. According to him, until the beginning
of the program the villages of Armavir where in desperate condition,
through joint survey with the local population they were able to
separate the sectors which needed more attention and from 2004 the
program of rural development kicked off in Karakert community.

During the implementation of the program COAF cooperated with
international organizations, donor organizations, sponsors. Making
investments amounting to around 800,000 USD the water supply to
Lernagog school was restored, the laboratory, library, music room, gym
have been reconstructed. It is also expected to provide 170 million
AMD for the reconstruction of two buildings of the school which are
not functioning as well as for restoration of local kindergarten and
medical ambulatory.

These works will be completed until the first quarter of 2008.

The goal of the COAF comprehensive rural development program is to
revive Armenia’s rural areas improving the living conditions of local
children and teenagers.

COAF has been established in 2000 by New-York-based Karo Armen and
is carrying out development programs in six villages of the Armenian
province of Armavir – Argina, Shenik, Karakert, Dalarik, Lernagog
and Myasnikian.

GERMAN ORCHESTRA TO MAKE RARE VISIT BY WESTERN MUSICIANS TO IRAN IN CULTURAL EXCHANGE
David McHugh

AP Worldstream
Published: Aug 26, 2007

A German symphony orchestra will play classics by Beethoven, Elgar
and Brahms in Iran this week _ a rare visit from a European ensemble
amid political tensions between the Islamic republic and the West.

The 60-member Osnabrueck Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Hermann
Baeumer, will arrive Monday and perform Wednesday and Thursday in
Tehran as the return half of an exchange that saw the Tehran Symphony
Orchestra perform to a packed hall last year in Osnabrueck.

The tensions between Iran and Western governments _ including Germany
_ have been over efforts to halt Tehran’s program to enrich uranium
and U.S. accusations that Iran supplies militants with training and
equipment to attack American forces in neighboring Iraq.

Michael Dreyer, head of the Morgenland, or Orient, Festival in
Osnabrueck that hosted the Iranians last year, said he hoped the
concerts would remain nonpolitical cultural events. "It’s a very small
step in improving relations between the people in the two countries,"
he said.

As required in Iran, the female German musicians will play in
headscarves _ as did the Iranian female musicians when they visited
Osnabrueck _ and the program was submitted to Iranian authorities
ahead of time.

The orchestra will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore Overture
No. 3; Sir Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, and Johannes
Brahms’ Symphony No. 4.

Organizers are billing it as the first performance by a Western
symphony orchestra in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, a claim
officials at Iran’s culture ministry said they could not confirm.

News reports over the past several years indicate that the Armenian
Philharmonic Orchestra has performed in Tehran, along with an orchestra
from Ukraine and a chamber group from Waidhofen-Ybbs in Austria that
accompanied a trade delegation. A four-member group from Hamburg,
Germany specializing in contemporary music, ensemble Integrales,
has been there twice in recent years.

Nonetheless, a visit from a large-scale, highly professional Western
classical ensemble will be a landmark event, Tehran Symphony Orchestra
conductor Nader Mashayekhi said.

"For such a good orchestra, of such size, it’s the first time,"
he said.

"And what they’re playing is, I think, a very important point, because
it broadens the listening habits in Persia, because the Persian public
listens to classical music, but lighter classical music, not Brahms
Fourth," he said, using the old-fashioned term for Iran.

"Brahms Fourth is not light, or the Elgar Cello Concerto. It’s
something that is being presented for the first time to a Persian
audience."

Under the former monarchy, Western visitors included the Berlin
Philharmonic and its renowned conductor, Herbert von Karajan, who
played three concerts in November 1975 _ one of them just for the
shah and his guests, according to the orchestra’s archives.

Today, Western music and culture occupy an uncertain position. After
ousting the shah in 1979 and establishing an Islamic republic,
clerics outlawed all pre-revolutionary music.

Some hard-line clerics say music comes between the faithful, and God
and leads to impure thoughts, therefore being incompatible with the
Shiite school of Islam that rules Iran. Secular songs were banned as
un-Islamic, and in the early 1980s, police stopped cars to check tape
decks and smashed offending tapes.

In the 1990s, music gradually made a comeback in Iran under the then
reformist president, Mohammad Khatami. In December 2005, the hard-line
government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced a ban on Western
music on state radio and television.

But Western music and films banned by the state can be found on the
black market. Satellite dishes dot the capital’s rooftops, and a ban
on them is rarely enforced.

___

Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini contributed to this report
from Tehran, Iran.

ABRAHAM H. FOXMANADL’S FOXMAN SPEAKS OUT ON JEWS, GENOCIDE AND TURKEY
By Abraham H. Foxman

s_issue/news/?content_id=3556
Original mission but new position
Monday August 27 2007

The Anti-Defamation League was created in 1913 for the purpose of
combating anti-Semitism. At the same time, its founders enlarged the
goal to also "secure justice for all citizens alike." This language
suggested a wider agenda for ADL in addition to pursuing its primary
mission of fighting anti-Semitism. That wider agenda has at times been
interpreted to be instrumental, i.e. one of the key ways to secure
an America that is welcoming to Jews is to secure an America that is
welcoming to all its diverse communities. At other times, somewhat
later, it has been seen as important on its own as a moral imperative.

In general, the dual elements of our mission have been a source
of strength for the organization and pursuing one has furthered the
other. We have seen throughout the history of the 20th century that in
societies where Jews were persecuted it was a telltale indicator that
the broader society was in trouble. And, where values of equality and
freedom were broadly in jeopardy, one could be sure that Jews would
be targeted at some point. The interconnectedness of the elements of
our mission was real and telling.

Still, there have been times when the two parts of the mission could
be in conflict, where competing principles and moral imperatives come
into play forcing the organization to make difficult decisions. Indeed,
in the world of issues that ADL deals with on a daily basis, matters
are rarely simple and often involve choosing between competing
alternatives – each of which has merit.

Guiding us in this decision-making process is our understanding
of what we are about. First and foremost, our responsibility is to
protect the Jewish people. Particularly after the Holocaust and in
light of the ongoing assault, physical and otherwise, on the state
of Israel, the home of the Jewish people, ADL has become one of the
most significant, if not the most significant, voices on behalf of
endangered Jews anywhere in the world.

People everywhere primarily look to ADL to be that leader. As the
world and the situation of Jews has become even more perilous after
9/11, that role for ADL has grown still larger.

And so, when we are faced with issues beyond the Jewish community that
have the potential for conflict between our wider agenda and our goal
of protecting Jews, we know where our starting point and focus must be.

Having said that, we don’t stop there. We seek to minimize the
conflict.

We look for approaches that can serve our primary mission but still
be as true as we can be to the second purpose.

That is what has been taking place with regard to the controversy
over Turkey and the Armenians. We have been in close contact with the
Turkish Jewish community for decades. We have heard repeatedly from
its leaders how concerned they are about the impact of American Jewish
involvement in efforts to label as genocide Turkish actions against
Armenians during World War I. Through the years, we have discussed
this matter with them and as recently as two months ago heard the
same message of concern. For us, as a Jewish defense organization,
such concern cannot go unheeded.

Still, we had a dilemma. As an organization committed to educating
people on the dangers not only of anti-Semitism but of hatred of
all kinds, we could not ignore the terrible tragedy that befell
Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. And we have not. In
meetings with high-level Turkish officials, we have pressed them
to come to grips with the past and speak to what happened. We have
done that again and again and we will continue to do so. We think
the Turkish government should address the moral implications of its
history with the Armenians, particularly because Turkey occupies the
critical spot in the great struggle of our time, the effort to see
a moderate Islamic model triumph over Islamic extremism.

Moreover, we have acknowledged that massacres and atrocities took
place. We have in no way been neutral on this subject; we have placed
the onus on Turkey to set things straight.

In light of the heated controversy that has surrounded the issue in
recent weeks, and because of our concern for the unity of the Jewish
community at a time of increased threats against the Jewish people,
we decided to revisit the tragedy that befell the Armenians. On
reflection, we have come to share the assessment of former Ambassador
Henry Morgenthau, Sr., that the consequences of the painful events
of 1915-1918 were indeed tantamount to genocide. While we continue
to firmly believe that a Congressional resolution on such matters
is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation
between Turks and Armenians, we will not hesitate to apply the term
genocide in the future.

We believe that we have been true to who we are in our approach. As
long as ADL is an organization committed first to the safety and
security of the Jewish people, we cannot in good conscience ignore
the well-being of 20,000 Jews in Turkey. We will, however, continue
to push the Turkish government in the right direction.

We hope people of goodwill understand our perspective, but even if
they do not, we deeply believe that we are being true to the core
values of our organization which have served Jews and the broader
society so well for many years.

Abraham H. Foxman is National Director of the Anti-Defamation League
and the author of "The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and The Myth
of Jewish Control," to be published in September by Palgrave Macmillan.

ICRC helped contact families of prisoners

Naira Hayrumyan
25-08-2007 12:32:20 – KarabakhOpen

There are no prisoners of war in Karabakh. There are two interned
civilians persons from Azerbaijan. The State Commission of Hostages and
POWs deals with their fate, said the head of the ICRC office in
Stepanakert Jacques Burberrys in an interview with Karabakh-Open.com.

According to Jacques Burberrys, the representatives of the ICRC visit
the interns to monitor the conditions they are kept in and the
treatment of the personnel. If they observe something, they offer
recommendations to the administration, Jacques Burberrys said.
According to him, the problem the prisoners most often encounter is
contact with their families. They have such an opportunity. Some may
reject and others may use this opportunity. These persons can write a
letter on an open blank paper and provide only family information. The
head of the ICRC office to Stepanakert said both prisoners could
contact their families.

With regard to the pre-conditions for the exchange or release of
prisoners, Jacques Burberrys said the international humanitarian law
bars exchange of prisoners. As to releasing, he said they do not know
when it will happen. The release of a prisoner requires the consent of
the prisoner, the government of the country where he is kept and the
consent of the country to receive him where he wants to go. The ICRC
may participate in releasing only if these conditions are provided,
Jacques Burberrys said.
By the way, two Armenian prisoners are kept in Azerbaijan, another two
in Karabakh and one in Armenia. The head of the Karabakh office of the
ICRC says personal data of the prisoners is published in the media,
which is a violation of the right for privacy.

The ICRC founded in 1863 works in Karabakh since 1991. The Karabakh
office of the ICRC currently deals with the monitoring of prisoners,
contacts with their families, the missing people, the program of first
aid, food aid to the underprivileged, dissemination of the
international humanitarian law. In the framework of these programs in
2006 40 messages were sent and 42 were received from members of
families who were divided by the conflict. Besides, the office provided
medicine to 66 village medical stations and food aid to 350 families.

Jacques Burberrys said next year the ICRC will focus on the problem of
the missing people. As of the end of the past year, 4200 names of
missing people were included on the ICRC’s list. The ICRC will be
gathering more detailed information and create a database for
identification in case of finding remains.

Armenian campaign aided by new forces Recognition of genocide grows

By Keith O’Brien, Globe Staff | August 26, 2007

For decades, it was almost strictly an Armenian issue. No matter how hard
they lobbied politicians to recognize the genocide of their people more than
90 years ago, Armenian-Americans often failed. When it mattered most, they
lacked the political clout and friends to make a difference.

But the recent uproar in Watertown, home to roughly 8,000
Armenian-Americans, shows that the dynamics of the debate have changed. It
is no longer just Armenian-Americans pushing for formal recognition of the
genocide of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I, but
also Jews and politicians of many backgrounds.

Observers cite decades of lobbying and a raft of recent scholarly work on
the subject as reasons for the change. But the shift is also indicative of a
growing antigenocide constituency in the United States. Stirred up by recent
massacres in Rwanda, the Balkans, and Darfur, Americans may be more
concerned about genocide today than ever before, said Nobel laureate and
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

"Before it was known to some people," Wiesel said, "but now it transcends
age limits and society. It’s everywhere. It’s in theaters, on TV, in movies,
in books, in schools. It’s all over, and all that is because people are more
sensitive to the Holocaust memory."

The feeling is evident in the US House of Representatives, where 227
members, a majority, are cosponsoring a resolution to recognize the Armenian
genocide. It is the largest number of cosponsors the resolution has had in
recent years. And perhaps more importantly, with Democrats in power
Armenian-Americans are optimistic the resolution will get to the floor for a
vote. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has supported the resolution in the past.

But a vote is hardly a guarantee. Representative Adam Schiff, the California
Democrat who introduced the resolution, said the Turkish efforts to lobby
against the measure are "beyond anything I’ve ever seen."

The Turkish government is paying big money to two former
congressmen-turned-lobbyists — Bob Livingston, a Republican, and Dick
Gephardt, a Democrat — to twist arms on Capitol Hill.

Last week, after the national ADL acknowledged the deaths of Armenians as
genocide in order to appease local board members but still refused to
support the congressional resolution, the Turkish government responded by
calling the genocide "historically and legally baseless" and asked the ADL
to "rectify" its position. For Armenian-Americans, it was a familiar
response.

"What I always say to Armenians is that they’ve won the most important fight
on this," said Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy
School of Government and author of "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age
of Genocide. "Which is, they’ve won the battle for the history books, for
the court of public opinion, and for the culture. The only place they’ve
lost is with the Turkish government and the US government on the issue of
formal recognition."

On April 24, 1915, Ottoman Turks arrested hundreds of Armenian leaders and
began executing Armenians shortly thereafter. Henry Morgenthau, the US
ambassador to Turkey, told the State Department in July 1915 that the events
amounted to "a campaign of race extermination." In the years that followed,
as many as 1.5 million Armenians were massacred.

But in the homes of many Armenian-Americans, there was little discussion of
this history. For many children and grandchildren of the survivor
generation, the past was like a secret. Armenians were struggling just to
learn English and fit in. Some Armenian-American families even changed their
name*s* to remove the -ian ending. Ruth Thomasian’s father, for example,
changed the family name to Thomason.

"That’s how I grew up in Belmont," said Thomasian, who was born in 1945 and
heard little about the genocide for decades. "Everybody wanted to forget it,
just forget it. If you don’t talk about it, it doesn’t exist."

But the 50th anniversary of the genocide hit the Armenian people "like a
rocket of consciousness" in 1965, said Peter Balakian, author of "The
Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response."

The survivor generation was dying off, and a new generation, born in the
United States, wanted to take action.

Two local Armenian-Americans were part of a small group leading the way.
"We’d been mourning," said Robert A. Kaloosdian. "Now it was time to bring
some recognition to this, time to right an awful wrong."

In 1971, Kaloosdian and Haig Der Manuelian, both Belmont lawyers, began
talking with others about forming an Armenian assembly. The goal: speaking
with one voice. The group, later named the Armenian Assembly of America,
helped push for recognition of the genocide, along with the Armenian
National Committee. In 1975 and 1984, the US House commemorated the
genocide.

But instead of gaining momentum, the issue stalled. By 1985, when a similar
resolution came before the House, one West Virginia Republican called it
"the most mischief-making piece of legislation in all my experience in
Congress." The resolution was shelved and would continue to face challenges
over the next 20 years because of the difficult geopolitical relations of
the former Soviet Union and the region.

"The historical facts are clear," said John M. Evans, the former US
ambassador to Armenia. "But to the foreign policy elite in the State
department and members of the Senate and House who have to think hard about
foreign policy choices, there is no desire to irritate our ally, the Turks.
What comes through clearly again and again when it comes to that part of the
world is the role that Turkey can play in the Middle East."

Evans may know this better than almost anyone. He was dismissed in May 2006
after publicly acknowledging the genocide, an act many Armenian-Americans
cite as the latest example of the influence that Turkey enjoys with* *the US
government. In some Washington circles, Evans said, the word genocide is
taboo.

Historically, that word has been similarly problematic for some Jewish
groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. Turkey is a rare Muslim ally to
Israel, and the ADL, fearful of upsetting relations between Israel and
Turkey, has shied away from acknowledging the genocide for decades.

But last week, under pressure from Boston’s Jewish leaders, the ADL reversed
its stance, called the Turkish atrocities "tantamount to genocide," and
announced that it would reconsider its position on the pending congressional
resolution in November.

The reversal was greeted by cheers in Armenian communities across the
country and especially in Watertown, where the debate began last month when
people in the town questioned its participation in an antibigotry program
sponsored by the ADL.

"All of this reaffirms the activism of the Armenian community, that the
truth is finally prevailing over all sorts of political powers and
pressures," said Harut Sassounian, publisher of the California Courier, a
newspaper in Glendale, Calif., that covers Armenian issues. "And this has a
domino effect. One by one all the pieces of denial are crumbling."

Others questioned the ADL’s sincerity. Armenian-Americans said last week
that the ADL’s statement asking for "further dispassionate scholarly
examination" of the genocide reflected little progress. Others wondered if
recent events will help the congressional resolution pass this fall.

Even Manuelian, 81, is taking a skeptical approach to the latest resolution
about a tragedy that began 92 years ago. "I’ll believe it when I see it."
(c) Copyright < right> 2007 The
New York Times Company

Source:
articles/2007/08/26/armenian_campaign_aided_by_new _forces/

New York Jewish Week, USA
Aug 23 2007

Jewish Voice At Yearly Kos
Mik Moore

The ruckus they raised ousted then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
(R-Miss.) from his leadership position. The money and activists they
mobilized helped put several long-shot Democratic candidates from red
states into Congress. And their sustained attention to the departure
of seven U.S. prosecutors from the Justice Department created a
bonfire that has destroyed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’
credibility.

Yet, when liberal bloggers – denizens of that noisy, cranky,
high-intensity region of the Internet where individuals air their
personal views, analyses, musings and, at times, reporting – held
their major conference earlier this month, Jewish groups were nowhere
to be seen.

In contrast, all but one of the Democratic presidential candidates
came to Chicago for YearlyKos, the second annual gathering of
progressive bloggers, organizers, and Democratic operatives. The
event, which is named for the popular blog DailyKos, attracted 1,500
people.

To be sure, there were plenty of individual Jews among the attendees
at YearlyKos. But out of 350 speakers, I was the only representative
from a Jewish organization or blog. Jewish organizations were also
conspicuously absent from the numerous tables and stalls at Chicago’s
McCormick Place Convention Center.

In this community of increasing influence in public affairs, the
absence of both the organized Jewish community and the unorganized
Jewish blogosphere was anomalous. After all, Jews are leaders in the
Democratic Party. Most Jewish organizations have close ties to
progressive lawmakers. And Jewish organizations are usually smart
enough to have a seat at almost every powerful table.

At an event with sufficient clout to attract almost the entire field
of Democratic presidential candidates, sponsored by a blog that
attracts more than half a million readers every day, it was unusual
to witness Jewish groups ceding the field.

I think two overlapping phenomena explain our community’s absence.

One of the guiding philosophies of DailyKos, as articulated by its
founder and namesake, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, is the belief that
interest groups have hurt the Democratic Party and progressive
politics in America. Kos has repeatedly attacked organizations like
NARAL, a pro-choice group, for endorsing vulnerable Republican
members of Congress because of their voting record on singular issues
of importance to them.

These interest groups, according to Kos, represent the `old’ way of
doing business. They focus on their own, often narrow issues instead
of helping to build a progressive movement. This parochialism
accurately describes the current state of much of the Jewish civic
square.

However, Jewish organizations were not the only interest groups
missing from YearlyKos. Although Kos’ recently told `Meet The Press’
that `everybody else in the party coalition [except for the
Democratic Leadership Council] has come together,’ few of the major
ethnic, racial or religious organizations had a presence. The
established organizations that were there, including People for the
American Way, the AFL-CIO, assorted international unions and the
American Civil Liberties Union, were liberal stalwarts who have
embraced the Internet and who understand that occasional alignment on
some issues, with some conservatives, does not a bipartisan movement
make.

The overwhelming majority of speakers at YearlyKos were independent
bloggers, elected officials and their staff, or people affiliated
with new, Internet-based organizations. It is a constituency that
attracts and develops many of the most valuable activists, raises
large sums of money online, and masters new technology. Freed from
some of the constraints of more established interest groups, the
`netroots’ is generally less ideologically rigid, valuing
authenticity in its candidates. Newly elected Sens. Jon Tester
(D-Mont.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) are two favorites.

A second reason for their absence is the fact that the Jewish
community has not figured out what to do about the new forms of
communications, networking and organizing represented by blogs and
various Web 2.0 tools. Although there were some people at YearlyKos
who came only for the politics, I think the overwhelming majority
were bloggers or otherwise engaged in online communication or
community building. Note that this absence extended to the Jewish
blogosphere. The blog I edit, jspot.org, is one of a small handful of
Jewish blogs with credibility and relationships outside of the Jewish
blogging community.

One of the inherent challenges that blogging presents to more
established organizations is the premium the forum places on candor,
independence and individuality. Traditional Jewish organizations
typically have one spokesperson and the message is tightly
controlled, as vividly demonstrated by the recent dismissal of the
New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation League for
acknowledging the Armenian genocide. If these groups are interested
in entering this world as members of the online community, this will
have to change.

The openness and unpredictability of blogs has already tested the
Jewish community’s understanding of the medium. Because blogs and
other online forums are open to all users, on rare occasions visitors
to the sites write anonymous comments that are racist, sexist,
anti-Semitic or otherwise inappropriate. Partisans have sought to use
these comments to negatively characterize Web-based groups like
MoveOn.org or blogs like DailyKos, and by implication any candidates
who accept their support. Thus far, nonpartisan Jewish groups have
not taken the bait, but they will be tested repeatedly as the
election season gets closer.

In the months and years to come, Jewish organizations will need to
reevaluate our relationship with technology and the communities whose
growth has been a product of that technology. We must begin to change
our culture to allow for – even encourage – debate and dissent in the
public square. Otherwise some of the younger, more nimble Jewish
organizations will fill the vacuum. n

Mik Moore is director of communications and public policy at the
Jewish Funds for Justice and the editor of jspot.org, its blog and
online action center.

KOCHARYAN WILL NOT BE THE YOUNGEST PENSIONER

Lragir.am
24-08-2007 15:22:41

The Russian media are making suggestions on the meeting of the
presidents of Armenia and Russia in Sochi. They are said to have
discussed the Russian engagement in the economy of Armenia, namely
the energy sector. In particular, Gazprom is likely to invest 500
million dollars in the Armenian economy. The Russian capital will
operate the thermal power plant of Hrazdan, an oil refining factory
will be built near Meghri, the Armenian railroad will be modernized,
investments will be made in gold production, etc. Analysts think
the presidents discussed the future of Kocharyan after retiring. An
agency is said to be set up which will coordinate the factories with
Russian investments, which will probably be led by Robert Kocharyan.

AZERI TV SAYS ARMENIANS KILLED IN FIGHT IN KARABAKH

Azad Azarbaycan TV
24 Aug 07
Baku

Two Uaz jeeps packed with Armenian servicemen attempted to move
through the River Qarqar towards the positions of the [Azerbaijani]
national army near the Armenian-occupied village of Yusifcanli in
Agdam District at about 0900 [0400 gmt] this morning.

The ATV Karabakh bureau reports that Armenian servicemen sustained
losses in a fight that lasted for about two hours. They took their
dead soldiers and retreated.

berno=3D120251

Zaman August 24, 2007

Columnists

ALI H. ASLAN [email protected] Politics
Time for a plan B over ‘genocide’

Here we go. The Anti Defamation League (ADL) has issued a
statement acknowledging the Armenian "genocide." This is the first
public endorsement of the Armenian cause by a prominent American Jewish
organization. Am I surprised? Not necessarily — I sort of knew it was
coming. From my conversations with representatives of American Jewish
lobby groups, I had the impression that there was no consensus on this
controversial matter. Make no mistake, there has always been some
agreement in American Jewish community that those events were
"tantamount to genocide." That’s the same case with most other "friends"
of Turkey. But believing something is one thing, and revealing it
publicly is one another. Recently, there has obviously been a tendency
to speak more openly on this matter.
The ADL’s position is this: Yes, this was genocide, but the
US Congress should not say so. Frankly, in some ways, I find the ADL
intellectually more honest than many other Jewish organizations. The
Jewish organizations investing in better Turkish-Israeli-American
relations have been trying to be politically correct toward Turkey. The
ADL is more honest because this is what most Jewish organizations have
always believed but had yet to say it publicly. The ADL stops short of
supporting the Armenian genocide resolution in Congress because they
think it would be "counterproductive." If one believes the Jewish
genocide (that is, the Holocaust) should have consequences but an
"Armenian genocide" should not, that is not completely honest. That’s
the main problem with the ADL’s position. On the other hand, to be fair,
when it comes to talking about politically charged issues like the
Armenian genocide allegations, to expect full honesty from any party
involved would be luxury. There are serious gaps between public and
private positions.

Take the US government for instance. Publicly, they fall
slightly short of naming it "genocide." But I’m sure privately most of
the officials believe it is. "Ethnic cleansing" and "forced exile" are
not things any nation can be proud of. When the US government uses such
terms instead of genocide, we Turks are relieved! In sum, although the
executive branch deep inside agrees there was a genocide against
Armenians, they refuse to call it such because that is
"counterproductive." What’s at stake here for them is further
intimidating Turks and hurting US interests within Turkey and its
neighborhood. The three foremost important foreign policy matters for
the US in our region nowadays — Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan — require
Ankara’s uninterrupted cooperation.

The US Congress is another story. Again, even among the
so-called "friends" of Turkey, including the Turkish caucus, there is
less doubt the events of 1915 were tantamount to a "genocide." Two
hundred and twenty-five of the 435 representatives have publicly
endorsed the Armenian resolution. Again, most of those who have yet to
publicly support the bill believe it is "counterproductive" to say what
they think. It is easy to test my analysis. Tell me how many US
representatives have publicly said so far there is no such thing as an
Armenian genocide. You’ll hardly remember any. The senators have
generally a more statesmanlike attitude than the representatives;
therefore the Senate position would fall somewhat between the executive
branch and the House.

Now that the ADL has opened Pandora’s box on the part of
powerful Jewish lobby groups, Turkey faces a bigger challenge. Whoever I
talk to in Washington has said sooner or later an Armenian genocide
resolution would pass. It’s just a matter of timing and convenience.
Fortunately, the serious problems the US faces in our region have made
it less convenient for American politicians to finalize the bill.
Although current congressional leaders with the Democratic Party seem to
be more inclined to go ahead, it is not completely unlikely that
"national interest" and "national security" arguments would once again
prevail.

The Armenian lobby groups and their collaborators in the US
are trying hard to punish Turkey with this resolution. Frankly, I
believe the process so far has been an even harsher punishment than the
final outcome. The issue consumes a considerable deal of Turkish
diplomatic energy and resources, which could have been otherwise spent
in pursuing more tangible national interests. We can spend our and our
supporters’ political capital on other issues. I don’t want to sound
like a defeatist but as a realist in foreign policy matters I think
Ankara needs to give a second thought to whether the issue deserves that
level of commitment. The more Turkey seems to be intimidated, the more
mistakes we might make, the more advertisement the Armenian genocide
thesis gets and the happier our international adversaries become. We
have obviously lost debates among US intellectuals, are increasingly
losing them among NGOs like the ADL — and it looks like sooner or later
we will lose the battle in the US Congress. Perhaps now it’s time for
preparing the Turkish public for more negative outcomes and to reflect
on better strategies rather than sticking with the same old tactics.

24.08.2007