Author: Talalian Arpi

DOUTES A EREVAN
par OrtaqNukte V.

L’Express
11 Septembre 2008
France

L’ensemble de la classe politique armenienne a accueilli le president
turc sans joie ni animosite. Tout dependra de la suite…

"C’est un geste symbolique, mais annonce-t-il vraiment un changement
dans la politique etrangère d’Ankara ? " Giro Manoyan, secretaire du
bureau mondial de la Federation revolutionnaire armenienne (FRA),
parti politique gardien du nationalisme historique, ne cache pas
son scepticisme quant aux resultats de la première visite d’un
president turc dans son pays. Si la FRA a appele la population a se
rassembler pacifiquement avec drapeaux et banderoles tout au long de
l’itineraire du cortège presidentiel, puis a manifester bruyamment
devant la presidence et dans le stade afin de rappeler la " necessite
pour la Turquie de reconnaître le genocide armenien ", l’ensemble
des partis se sont accordes pour attendre le prochain pas d’Ankara
avant d’evaluer l’importance de l’evenement, tandis que la diaspora
affiche son scepticisme.

C’est que les problèmes entre ces voisins sont si nombreux et
compliques que nul ne s’imagine ici qu’ils puissent etre resolus
par une visite de quelques heures, n’ayant pas meme un caractère
officiel. Les deux pays n’entretiennent toujours pas de relations
diplomatiques, quoique des contacts existent au sein des organisations
internationales dont ils sont membres. De plus, en avril 1993,
après une offensive victorieuse des Armeniens dans le conflit
qui les opposait a l’Azerbaïdjan pour le contrôle de la region du
Haut-Karabakh, les autorites turques ont ferme unilateralement la
frontière : gardee du côte armenien par des troupes russes du FSB
(ex-KGB) et, du côte turc, par l’armee, celle-ci est infranchissable
par voie terrestre, minee par endroits et surveillee en permanence
par des miradors places derrière une ligne de barbeles heritee d’un
autre âge. Enfin, la question du genocide armenien, perpetre en 1915-
1916 dans l’Empire ottoman et nie par la Turquie, continue a dresser
un mur d’incomprehension dans les esprits de part et d’autre.

Les presidents Levon Ter-Petrossian (1991-1998), puis Robert Kotcharian
(1998-2008) ont tente a plusieurs reprises, avec le soutien – et
parfois sous la pression – des Etats-Unis et des Europeens (qui
en font une exigence pour l’entree de la Turquie dans l’Union),
d’ameliorer les relations entre l’Armenie et son puissant voisin en
encourageant des pourparlers discrets. En vain jusqu’ici. Ankara a
apporte systematiquement la meme reponse a la partie armenienne. Pas
d’ouverture de la frontière ni d’etablissement de relations
diplomatiques sans qu’Erevan ne remplisse trois conditions : le
retrait des troupes armeniennes des " territoires occupes " dans
le Haut-Karabakh, l’abandon par la diaspora de la revendication de
la reconnaissance du genocide et la reaffirmation par le Parlement
armenien du traite de Kars (1921), qui fixe la frontière actuelle de
la Turquie avec la Georgie, l’Armenie et l’Azerbaïdjan.

En juin, le president Serge Sarkissian, fraîchement elu, a tente une
nouvelle approche en proposant a Abdullah Gul d’assister au match
Armenie-Turquie. L’initiative a ete desapprouvee par la FRA et par
Robert Kotcharian. Mais elle a ete bien accueillie dans l’opinion
publique, jusque dans les rangs de l’opposition reunie au sein du
Congrès national armenien (HAK) de Levon Ter-Petrossian. Après les
affrontements russo-georgiens puis la proposition du Premier ministre
turc, Tayyip Erdogan, de lancer une " plate-forme de stabilite et de
cooperation pour le Caucase ", la donne semble avoir change a Ankara. "
Mais jusqu’a quel point et pour combien de temps ? " se demande-t-on
a Erevan. Sur le tarmac de l’aeroport, où il etait venu accueillir
Abdullah Gul, le vice-ministre armenien des Affaires etrangères,
Arman Giragossian, declarait : " L’Armenie s’est toujours efforcee
d’etablir des relations diplomatiques avec la Turquie sans mettre de
preconditions. Nous esperons que les autorites turques retireront les
leurs. Ce n’est qu’ainsi qu’on pourra resoudre tous les problèmes. "

–Boundary_(ID_V2dq4PnYIt2Z9q/VOpyGwA)–

DEVELOPMENTS IN SOUTH OSSETIA CAN SHIFT SOME EMPHASES IN ARMENIA’S FOREIGN POLICY

ARKA
Sep 11, 2008

YEREVAN, September 11. /ARKA/. Escalation of tension between Georgia
and South Ossetia can shift some emphases in Armenia’s foreign policy,
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said in National Assembly
on Wednesday.

"We are studying the consequences of the conflict escalation. Some
change in emphases is likely in Armenia’s foreign policy. Why not?",
he said.

Nalbandyan said that Armenian authorities have done whatever necessary
to shield the country’s economy and routine life from negative effect
of the conflict escalation.

The minister said that’s why the country avoided shocks.

Nalbandyan said that the developments in South Ossetia spurred Armenia
to intensify its efforts to find alternative communications with the
outside world.

ARMENIAN, TURKISH PRESIDENTS DISCUSS THAW IN BILATERAL RELATIONS

ARKA
Sep 9, 2008

YEREVAN, September 9. /ARKA/. Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan
and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul held talks on the future of
Armenia-Turkey diplomatic relations during the September 6 World Cup
qualifier match in Yerevan.

President Sergsyan thanked Gul for accepting his invitation to visit
Yerevan. He stressed the importance of diplomatic relations between
the neighbors and vowed to support Armenia-Turkey dialogue for regional
security, the RA President’s office reports.

In his turn, President Gul said Sargsyan had made the first step
towards a new beginning in bilateral ties. "The invitation has been
accepted on a joint initiative and is to serve as an example in the
region," Gul was quoted saying.

President Sargsyan also stressed the importance of settling all the
conflicts in the region.

Gul and Sargsyan shared views on regional security issues. The
presidents continued the talks at supper.

Following Sargsyan’s example, Gul has invited his Armenian counterpart
to attend a soccer match in Istanbul on October 14, 2009.

TURKEY CAN FACE COUP D’ETAT BEFORE NOVEMBER, U.S. ANALYST SAYS

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.09.2008 13:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey is speculating about U.S. ties with Ergenekon,
said Zeyno Baran, Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute.

"The U.S. is concerned whether Turkey will further liberal
democracy or will take up a regime like that in Iran or Russia,"
she said. "Anti-liberal and anti-democratic attitude of mind prevails
not only among the public but also among the political elite of the
country. The Ergenekon case is a manifestation of this undesirable
tendency."

The likelihood for a coup in Turkey before the presidential election
in the U.S. is 50-50, according to her, Sabah Turkish daily reports.

Ergenekon is a clandestine ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey
with ties to the country’s military and security apparatus.

It has been plotting to foment unrest in Turkey, inter alia
by assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military
staff, religious leaders, and other public figures including Nobel
Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, with the ultimate goal of toppling
the present government. The coup was planned to take place in 2009.

86 people, including important personalities from the army, business
and the secular press, have been charged with conspiracy as of 14
July 2008. Those arrested have included nationalist lawyer Kemal
Kerincsiz; the leader of the neo-nationalist Workers’ Party Dogu
Perincek; retired brigadier general Veli Kucuk, retired full general
Hursit Tolon, and retired full general Sener Eruygur. Ilhan Selcuk,
a staunchly secular columnist at Cumhuriyet’s daily, has also been
indicted on charges of being the civilian leader of Ergenekon.

More than 40 are under arrest, and suspects will start appearing
before the court on October 20, 2008.

CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS RECEIVES PARTICIPANTS OF 51ST GATHERING OF INTERNATIONAL UNION OF JUDGES

ARMENPRESS
Sep 9, 2008

ETCHMIADZIN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS: His Holiness Catholicos of All
Armenians Karekin II received today in Etchmiadzin the participants
of the 51st gathering of the International Union of Judges.

Press service of the Holy See told Armenpress that the Catholicos
greeted the guests and welcomed their visit to St. Etchmiadzin.

During the meeting the sides discussed the important role of a judge
in erecting just society. In this respect the Catholicos said that
justice must promote the consolidation of kindness inside the public.

Karekin II also referred to the mission of the Armenian Apostolic
Church in the life of the Armenian people.

The participants of the gathering traveled in Holy See and museums,
getting acquainted with the Armenian spiritual-cultural values.

cles/eav090808b.shtml

EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight:
AZERBAIJAN: VP CHENEY WAS REPORTEDLY LESS THAN DIPLOMATIC IN BAKU
9/08/08

It seems that US Vice President Dick Cheney caused a scene during his
recent visit to Azerbaijan when his hosts declined to follow his
script.

Over the past few days, details have leaked out that indicate that
Cheney’s September 3 visit to Baku was a spectacular diplomatic
failure. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
A report published by the Russian daily Kommersant, which cited
sources within President Ilham Aliyev’s administration, said the
Cheney visit started with a snub, as neither Aliyev nor Prime Minister
Artur Rasizade were at the airport to greet the US vice president, who
was the highest ranking American official ever to visit Azerbaijan.
Instead First Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyubov and Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov greeted Cheney.

The visit apparently went down hill from there. Cheney publicly
expressed Washington’s strong commitment to ensuring the continued
flow of energy westward from the Caspian Basin to Turkey along routes
not under the control of Russia. Privately, he pressed Aliyev to make
a firm commitment to sending Azerbaijani natural gas to Europe via the
long planned Nabucco pipeline. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. Aliyev politely declined to take Cheney up on the offer.

"Aliyev made it clear that he values [good] relations with Washington,
but that he is not about to start an argument with Russia," the
Kommersant report said, adding that Azerbaijani aides described Cheney
as becoming "extremely irritated" by Baku’s decision to adopt a
"wait-and-see position."

Compounding Cheney’s displeasure, immediately following the
discussions Aliyev reportedly telephoned Russian leader Dmitry
Medvedev to inform the Kremlin about the substance of the US energy
stance. Mammadyarov later departed for Moscow for further diplomatic
discussions.

In a fit of pique, Cheney skipped a reception held in Baku in his
honor, according to Azerbaijani sources.

Since Russia’s incursion into Georgia, local political experts have
wondered about the geopolitical impact on Azerbaijan. The entire US
energy strategy in the Caspian Basin is predicated on Azerbaijan’s
unwavering commitment to the West. The commitment now looks more
fragile than ever, and the Cheney visit may well have done more harm
than good, in terms of retaining Azerbaijan’s allegiance to
Washington’s energy agenda.

euronews, France
Sept 6 2008

Football unites Turkish and Armenian leaders

A greater prize than the World Cup was at stake in Yerevan, Armenia as
the two nations played a qualifying match. It is the first time they
have met.

But it is also the occasion for a first-ever visit by a Turkish head
of state. President Abdullah Gul will watch the game beside President
Serge Sarkissian, ending decades of diplomatic silence between the two
nations. It is thought it could lead to the full diplomatic relations
in the near future.

Sarkissian has already been invited to visit Ankara, and the two men
have underlined that the political will now exists for Turkey and
Armenia to solve their differences.

However the visit was greeted with anti-Turkish protests at the
airport, and around a memorial in the capital to Armenian victims of
the former Ottoman empire during the first world war.

It is the crisis in neigbouring Georgia that has forced the two
countries into a foreign policy rethink and as such they will avoid
discussing bilateral issues, concentrating on regional affairs.

Agence France Presse
Sept 6 2008

Turkish president on historic trip to Armenia for football diplomacy

YEREVAN (AFP) ‘ Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul makes an historic trip
to Armenia Saturday to watch a football match and try to tackle
decades of animosity between the estranged neighbours.

Gul will meet with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian before the World
Cup qualifier between Armenia and Turkey that is scheduled to begin at
9:00 pm (1600 GMT).

Under attack from the opposition at home, Gul only publicly accepted
Sarkisian’s invitation this week to attend the match and become the
first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations and have waged a bitter
international diplomatic battle over Armenia’s attempts to have
massacres of their people under the Ottoman Empire classified as
genocide.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their people were killed in
orchestrated massacres during World War I as the Ottoman Empire fell
apart.

Turkey rejects the genocide label and argues that 300,000-500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops.

The trip will only last a few hours, but Gul and Sarkisian are
expected to hold talks on Turkey’s proposal for a Caucasus regional
security forum, trying to avoid contentious bilateral problems,
according to diplomatic sources.

Experts in both countries have stressed that this is just a cautious
first step.

"The Turkish president’s visit to Armenia is of huge importance," said
Yerevan-based political analyst Sergei Shakariants.

"But it is impossible to expect that a first meeting will be enough to
resolve problems that have endured for centuries. This meeting is a
simple first contact," he said.

"Gul’s visit is a bold move, but one should not expect much from it,"
said Cengiz Aktar, an international affairs expert at Istanbul’s
Bahcesehir University.

"First of all, there is no a real desire in Turkey to make peace with
Armenia and the atmosphere is not suitable for ground-breaking moves."

The Turkish government has adopted a cautious tone.

"The facts that we have do not support the theory that the visit will
resolve all the problems, but it is not right to assume that nothing
will come of it either," State Minister Mehmet Aydin was quoted by the
Anatolia news agency as saying.

Some Turkish fans began to arrive Friday for the match, including
student Pinar Akpinar, a member of the "Young Civilians," a
pro-democracy movement that called for Turkey’s closed border with
Armenia to be reopened for the match.

"The invitation by the Armenian president to Mr Gul is a very positive
development. We want to have normal relations with our neighbours,"
Akpinar said. "We think that we can overcome this question, that the
two people can together find a solution…. The people of the two
countries must assume their responsibilities and work together to put
an end to this animosity."

Turkey has refused to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia since the
former Soviet republic gained independence in 1991.

In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia in a show of
solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, then at war with Armenia
over Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-majority region in Azerbaijan which
declared independence.

The move dealt a heavy blow to Armenia, an impoverished nation
sandwiched between Turkey and Azerbaijan in the strategic Caucasus.

Sofia Echo, Bulgaria
Sept 5 2008

Turkish president goes to Armenia in historic visit
18:39 Fri 05 Sep 2008 – Spasena Baramova

On September 6 2008, Turkish president Abdullah Gul will travel to
Armenia to watch a football World Cup qualifying match between the
national teams of the two states in a move intended to break the ice
that has plagued bilateral ties for many decades.

The two countries do not have diplomatic relations as a major dispute
has been dividing them ever since World War 1. Over 1915-1917, about
1.5 million Armenians were killed in the then Ottoman Empire. Armenia
has ever since requested that the massacres be labelled as genocide,
something Turkey strongly opposes.

Gul will visit Yerevan at the invitation of Armenia’s president Serzh
Sargsyan, who invited the Turkish head of state to mark `a new
symbolic start in the countries’ relations’, Turkish daily Hurriyet
said. It quoted a statement by the Turkish presidency as saying that
the visit `can create a new climate of friendship in the region’ and
that the match `could lift the obstacles blocking the coming together
of two peoples who share a common history and can create a new
foundation’.

According to Hurriyet, Gul is to arrive in Yerevan two hours before
the match, meet Sargsyan for about an hour and then leave after the
end of the game. The Nagorno-Karabakh issue and Turkey’s idea of
creating a Caucasus forum that stemmed from the Georgia crisis are
expected to be the main topics of the talks.

JULIETTE BINOCHE: INTERVIEW

Time Out
ure/5589/juliette-binoche-interview.html
Sept 4 2008
UK

The great French actress, Juliette Binoche, has come to London to work
with ace choreographer Akram Khan while the two-month Binoche season
and exhibition gets under way at the BFI Southbank. She discusses
film and painting with Dave Calhoun

Anyone at this week’s Venice film festival drawn to Abbas Kiarostami’s
new film solely by the presence of Juliette Binoche’s name on the
credits – and not by this bold Iranian filmmaker’s reputation – may
be bemused by what they see, especially if they only know this French
actress from her more mainstream work, such as Anthony Minghella’s
‘The English Patient’ or Lasse Hallstrom’s ‘Chocolat’.

Binoche appears in Kiarostami’s experimental ‘Shirin’ – but only
for a minute. She’s one of many women’s faces we watch for a full 90
minutes as they sit in a cinema viewing an epic film about a tragic,
female Armenian folk hero. We never see the film they watch; we only
hear its dialogue and observe the women’s tearful reactions.

‘Yes, it took me about 15 minutes to film,’ Binoche laughs. ‘Abbas
was making the film in his basement, I went along to help. Next year,
I’m going to make another film with him, a full film that we’re going
to shoot in Italy.’

Her new film with Kiarostami may sound strange for an actress who can
command leading roles in France, but it’s typical of Binoche, who has
a habit of seeking out filmmakers from across globe – improvising for
Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s ‘Flight of the Red Balloon’, as the grieving sibling
in Olivier Assayas’s ‘Summer Hours’ or playing the love interest to
Steve Carell in Peter Hedges’ comedy ‘Dan in Real Life’.

In France, her image is hardly ever off screens. Now it’s the turn
of Londoners to find Binoche hard to avoid. From next week, she will
be appearing at the National Theatre in a dance performance piece,
‘in-i’, that she and the British dancer Akram Khan have been devising
for much of this past year. At the same time, across the road from
the National, the BFI Southbank will be celebrating Binoche with a
six-week retrospective of her work with such varied filmmakers as
Leos Carax, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Michael Haneke. And that’s not
all. Visitors to the BFI will also find an exhibition of Binoche’s
paintings in the venue’s gallery.

That’s Juliette Binoche: actress, dancer, painter. Although
the word she would most probably choose to describe herself is
‘collaborator’. ‘I’m nobody’s puppet,’ she tells me, before accepting
that if there’s one director she might just – just – be willing to
submit to once in a while, it’s to Haneke, the Austrian filmmaker
with whom she made ‘Code Unknown’ and ‘Hidden’. ‘He’s the exception,
I’ll go on his road because it’s very specific and he’s like a very
precise painter, almost maniac in his way of working.’ More and more,
though, she wants to work as close as possible with filmmakers,
‘to be involved in the planning, the whole process.’

Right now, her talk is of her latest collaboration: the dance piece
that she has devised from scratch with Khan. We meet on the South Bank,
where she’s in the final stages of rehearsals. How did this venture
come about? ‘When I was making "Breaking and Entering" in London,
I had a masseuse, Su-Man, who asked me if I wanted to dance,’ she
explains. It turns out that Su-Man is married to Khan’s producer. ‘I
said yes, and I was invited to "Zero Degree", a piece that Akram was
performing, and at the end Su-Man asked me if I wanted to go in a
studio for three days with Akram.’

At 44, she had never danced in her life. She admits that rehearsals
have involved a lot of pain. ‘I think it’s going to help me deal with
death, actually,’ she says, before laughing at the very thought. It’s
been intense. ‘It’s been like having to climb mountains.’

We talk a little about the retrospective, which she considers ‘like
an exhibition of paintings, you know? It’s a way to revisit and to
make links.’ In her mind, she’s close to all her films, right back to
her first proper role in Godard’s ‘Je vous salue, Marie’ in 1985. I
ask which were the pivotal ones. To Godard, she credits becoming
‘aware that the director is not your father, that he’s not going to
save your life.’ To André Techiné and ‘Rendez-vous’, her first lead
role, also in 1985, she attributes her first experience of having
‘the whole film on my shoulders somehow’.

Working with Kieslowski on the ‘Three Colours’ trilogy was ‘so
easy, we’d shoot so quickly, it was a joy’, and through Leos Carax
she ‘discovered movies; I knew about theatre but not much about
movies.’ Finally, she says working with Minghella was ‘like telepathy’.

Binoche will also be exhibiting seven paintings of the directors with
whom she’s worked, commissioned by the editor of the magazine Cahiers
du Cinema. ‘He asked me to do it, but I was shooting five films and
had no time. I would have had to spend all my weekends doing these
portraits, and in the end, that’s exactly what happened.’

Will she continue to paint directors? Has it become a habit, I
wonder? ‘I try not to have too many habits!’ she says, breaking out
into a huge rolling laugh.

–Boundary_(ID_e2OI8/BiVJLYCxxHzdkaMg)–