Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

VARDAN OSKANYAN: "DESTRUCTION OF A NATION’S HEREDITY IS EQUIVALENT TO ENDING ITS MEMORY"

Panorama.am
21:17 18/10/2007

"We aren’t the only ones who have stood on this stage and said that the
destruction of a nation’s heredity is the same as ending its memory,
its history, its individuality. Unfortunately, we have neighbors who
base their individuality on history not so correct.

And we see from that their trauma and instability," Armenian foreign
minister Vardan Oskanyan said at the recent session of UNESCO in Paris.

In his words, as borders in the region often change, movements of
people naturally follow. Preserving the ancient Armenian monuments
and churches is every important for historians and artists, but still
more important for the world, who needs to remember its history,
and needs to remember the heredity of those nations who have come
and left the pages of history.

The foreign ministry’s press department informed that the minister said
that Armenia is a country that is proud of its education and science,
as well as its ancient history, but now finds itself in an active
era of reforms. He notes that this second generation of reforms is
difficult, perhaps the most difficult to bring to realization.

In Oskanyan’s words, diplomats, artists, and representatives from
culture benefit from dialogue, and perhaps it is because of this that
they feel obligated to look in other direction than tradition to find
themselves a peaceful life.

"Diplomats and those working in culture, like different groups in
society, live as neighbors who are not subject to these change and
reforms, as memories can’t be put to rest, as experience shows. For
this reason people try to tear down blockades from the past, as they
thing that there needs to be dialogue between countries and cultures,"
Oskanyan said.

TO DENY WHAT THE TURKS DID WAS GENOCIDE IS INTOLERABLE
by jeff jacoby

J. – the Jewish News weekly of Northern California, CA
Oct 19 2007

Was there an Armenian genocide during World War I?

While it was happening, no one called the slaughter of Armenian
Christians by Ottoman Turks "genocide." No one could: The word wouldn’t
be coined for another 30 years. But those who made it their business
to tell the world what the Turks were doing found other terms to
describe the state-sponsored mass murder of the Armenians.

In its extensive reporting on the atrocities – 145 stories in
1915 alone – The New York Times described them as "systematic,"
"deliberate," "organized by government," and a "campaign of
extermination." A Sept. 25, 1915 headline warned: "Extinction Menaces
Armenia." What the Turks were embarked upon, said one official in the
story that followed, was "nothing more or less than the annihilation
of a whole people."

Foreign diplomats, too, realized that they were observing genocide
avant la letter. American consular reports leaked to the Times
indicated "that the Turk has undertaken a war of extermination on
Armenians, especially those of the Gregorian Church, to which about
90 percent of the Armenians belong." In July, U.S. Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau cabled Washington that "race murder" was underway – a
"systematic attempt to uproot peaceful Armenian populations and …

to bring destruction and destitution upon them." These were not random
outbreaks of violence, Morgenthau stressed, but a nationwide slaughter
"directed from Constantinople." In his memoirs, he bluntly labeled
the butchery "The Murder of a Nation."

Another US diplomat, Consul Leslie Davis, described in grisly detail
the "reign of terror" he saw in Harput, and the corpses of "thousands
and thousands" of Armenians murdered near Lake Goeljuk. The mass
deportations ordered by the Turks, in which hundreds of thousands
of Armenians were crammed into freight cars and shipped hundreds of
miles to die in the desert or at the hands of killing squads, were far
worse than a straightforward massacre, he wrote. "In a massacre many
escape, but a wholesale deportation of this kind in this country means
a longer and perhaps even more dreadful death for nearly everyone."

Other eyewitnesses, including American missionaries, provided
stomach-clenching descriptions of the "terrible tortures" mentioned
by Morgenthau. Women and girls were stripped and raped, then forced
to march naked through blistering heat. Many victims were crucified
on wooden crosses; as they writhed in agony, the Turks would taunt
them: "Now let your Christ come and help you!" Reuters reported that
"in one village, 1,000 men, women, and children are reported to have
been locked in a wooden building and burned to death." In another,
"several scores of men and women were tied together by chains and
thrown into Lake Van."

Talaat Pasha, the Turkish interior minister who presided over the
liquidation of the Armenians, made no bones about his objective. "The
Government … has decided to destroy completely all the indicated
persons" – the Armenians – "living in Turkey," he wrote to authorities
in Aleppo. "An end must be put to their existence … and no
regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to conscientious
scruples." Talaat told Morgenthau that "we have already disposed of
three-quarters of the Armenians; there are none at all left in Bitlis,
Van and Erzerum." To the ambassador’s remonstrations, Talaat curtly
replied: "We will not have the Armenians anywhere in Anatolia."

Was there an Armenian genocide during World War I? The Turkish
government today denies it, but the historical record, chronicled
in works like Peter Balakian’s powerful study, "The Burning Tigris"
(HarperCollins, 2003) is overwhelming. Yet the Turks are abetted in
their denial and distortion by many who know better, including the
Clinton administration and both Bush administrations, and prominent
ex-congressmen-turned-lobbyists, including Republican Bob Livingston
and Democrats Dick Gephardt and Stephen Solarz.

Particularly deplorable has been the longtime reluctance of some
leading Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League,
the American Jewish Committee, and the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, to call the first genocide of the 20th century by its
proper name. When Andrew Tarsy, the New England director of the
ADL, came out last week in support of a congressional resolution
recognizing the Armenian genocide, he was promptly fired by the
national organization. Shaken by the uproar that followed, the ADL
finally backed down. The murder of a million Armenians at the hands
of the Ottoman Turks in 1915, it acknowledged yesterday, was "indeed
tantamount to genocide."

Now the other organizations should follow suit. Their unwillingness
to acknowledge that the Turks committed genocide stems from the
fear that doing so may worsen the plight of Turkey’s beleaguered
Jewish community, or may endanger the crucial military and economic
relationship Israel has forged with Turkey – the Jewish state’s only
such relationship with a major Muslim nation. Those are honorable
concerns. But they cannot justify keeping silent about a most
dishonorable assault on the truth. Genocide denial must be intolerable
to everyone, but above all to those for whom "never again" is such a
sacred principle. And at a time when jihadist violence from Darfur to
Ground Zero has spilled so much innocent blood, dissimulation about
the jihad of 1915 can only aid our enemies.

The Armenian genocide is an incontestable fact of history. Shame on
anyone who refuses to say so.

Jeff Jacoby is a writer for Aish Hatorah Resources, where this story
first appeared.

dule/displaystory/story_id/33822/format/html/displ aystory.html

AR MINISTER OF CULTURE: AZERBAIJAN REFUSED BUT ARMENIA IS AT FAULT

2007-10-18 12:02:00
ArmInfo.

Representative of Azerbaijan, AR Minister of Culture and Tourism
Abulfaz Garayev has made the regular absurd accusations to Armenia.

"UNESCO mission’s visit to the region on investigation of the
facts failed through Armenia’s fault", the minister said. As APA
reports, Garayev said that "the opposite party raised the issue of
sending missions of different staff to the regions, while Azerbaijan
disagreed". "Our position is unambiguous. I claim once more that all
the missions should arrive together", A. Garayev said.

"Investigations are to be carried out in Azerbaijan, in the occupied
territories and in Armenia at the same time, by a common principle. We
can agree to fulfillment of this work only based on this principle",
Garayev added. Thus, though Azerbaijan did not give its consent to
the UNESCO delegation’s visit, the Azerbaijani official thinks that
Armenia is at fault as regards it.

IT’S ALL TRUE
By W R Marshall

AXcess News
Oct 16 2007

(AXcess News) Washington – Last week, in an effort to restore some of
the crumbling public support of the United States Congress, the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, in a bi-partisan effort, stepped forward
and delivered the kind of legislative bravery not seen since Nobunaga
deposed the Shogunate and centralized Japanese government in 1567.

No, the war in Iraq still rages and there’s still a health care
crisis in America, but in a 27-21 vote the Committee passed a daring,
non-binding resolution officially recognizing the Armenian genocide at
the hands of the Turks. The Committee members could no longer sit idly
by and do nothing about this ninety year old tragedy. After furious
debate and many a sleepless night, they hammered out a toothless piece
of paper that clearly states something bad happened in some other
part of the world between 1915 and 1923 and they want us to know
that they know. (And soon Hillary Clinton will introduce the same
legislation in the Senate, the same legislation her husband killed
back in 2000.) In one fell swoop Congress has regained the trust and
respect of the American people, and with the wind of this victory
fresh in their sails, they are presently crafting a Congressional
Scolding of Spanish Inquisitor-General Torquemada, who did a bunch
of bad stuff that no one expected in 1492.

In related news, George W. Bush – no, he didn’t sign anything
expanding health care for anyone, and yes, he still wants to nuke
Iran – has chided Congress for dunning the Turks, one of our allies
in his pre-emptive war of last resort against Iraq. With Dick Cheney
locked in a closet somewhere in the West Wing, all the President’s
other men and women are jumping in front of every microphone they
can find wagging their tongues and fingers at Congress for being so
indelicate. After all, John and Jane Q Public might have forgotten,
but history will remember that this was the President who told Bin
Laden to "Bring it on." He’s the Commander Guy who almost negotiated
one on one with North Korea, who nearly stepped in to stop the carnage
between Hezbollah and Israel, and who almost barely tried to get Saddam
to change his evil ways. This is a man who knows diplomacy the way
he knows horses. When it’s time to talk, it’s time to talk and George
W. Bush has proven, perhaps more than any other president, that he has
a special way with words. And they gave Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize?

This just in: Dick Cheney has announced he will not retire at the
end of his term, but accept the new Justice Department position of
Inquisitor-General.

Speaking of Al Gore, in addition to being Vice-President from
1992-2000, and President in 2000, he can now add Nobel Peace Prize
recipient, 2007. The man who made the Internet everyone’s favorite
place to find free pornography (Bill Gates just happened to be in
the right place at the right time) has claimed the prestigious award
for his tireless efforts as Earth’s biggest fan. Tree Hugger One,
as he’s called by insiders, has traveled across the globe, flown to
its farthest reaches, driven from pole to pole, in a singular effort
to get people to be more energy conscious, to leave a smaller carbon
footprint. There is no longer any scientific doubt that global warming
is a reality and Gore is taking the message everywhere – along with
a bunch of electrical equipment for a multi-media show.

The Nobel Committee split his prize with a U.N. Committee doing
the same kind of work. While the Peace Price generally goes to an
individual for some specific effort to bring about peace, Nelson
Mandela in South Africa, Jimmy Carter in the Middle East (there’s talk
of taking that one back), they felt the work Gore and the Committee
are doing could have a long term effect for peace on the planet,
as there will still be a planet on which to have peace.

Republicans, who don’t believe in global warming or peace, have
congratulated Gore nonetheless. However just to cover their bets,
they’ve given Halliburton a no-bid contract to terraform Mars and
most of the Republican leadership has already signed on to rule the
Red Planet. Rumor has it they will no longer be called Republicans.

The new party name will be "The Only Party That Will Ever Lead Because
God Said So." George W. Bush was not invited to serve as the first
Emperor-Pope; in fact, he doesn’t even know it’s going on. But Ann
Coulter has accepted the position of Concubine-Fuehrer and has pledged
to keep the planet Jew free.

Okay, so it wasn’t all true, but most of it was, and that’s really
depressing…really, really depressing.

les/show/id/12742

YOUNG WINGS OF NUMBER OF OPPOSITION PARTIES EXPRESS READINESS TO SUPPORT LEVON TER-PETROSIAN

Noyan Tapan
Oct 16, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Calls for removing the current
regime and uniting around Levon Ter-Petrosian sounded during the
October 16 event, which was dedicated to the anniversary of the first
presidential elections of the Third Republic. The event was organized
by the Alternative non-governmental political initiative, the young
wings of the Conservative, Republic, Social Democratic Hnchakian and
Armenian National Movement parties.

Karen Karapetian, the Head of the young wing of the Armenian National
Movement party, mentioned that the difficulties the Third Republic
faced would not be possible to overcome if the authorities of those
times did not enjoy the confidence of the people and did not conduct
a democratic policy.

According to him, Armenia suffered colossal damages during the 9 years
of the tenure of the current authorities, even the Karabakh conflict,
which was speculated by the current authorities for the purpose of
coming to power, was not settled during their tenure and entered
deadlock, in fact.

Suren Sureniants, a member of the political board of the Hanrapetutiun
(Republic) party, mentioned that the aim of Levon Ter-Petrosian’s
return into big politics is to build a new system and not restore
the old one.

Aram Sargsian and Lyudmila Sargsian, the leaders of the Hanrapetutiun
(Republic) and Hnchakian parties, called to the young for taking an
active part in the forthcoming political processes, in the nomination
process of the first president, in particular.

PELOSI PUSHES FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION DESPITE TURKISH ANGER

RTT News, NY
date=10/15/2007&item=5
Oct 15 2007

10/15/2007 2:54:42 AM Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Nancy Pelosi continued her crusade Sunday to get a resolution passed
calling the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World
War I genocide despite concerns raised by the White House that the
move had the potential of derailing their relationship with Turkey.

A congressional community had on Wednesday, approved the Armenian
resolution, sponsored by a California lawmaker whose district has a
large Armenian-American community.

"This resolution is one that is consistent with what our government
has always said about … what happened at that time," Pelosi said
on ABC’s "This Week."

Holding a vote on condemning the massacre, even many years after the
fact, is "about who we are as a country," Pelosi said adding "Genocide
still exists, and we saw it in Rwanda; we see it now in Darfur."

Pelosi dismissed possible reprisals affecting Turkey’s cooperation
with the US military, as "hypothetical" that would not derail the
resolution.

The measure will now be sent to the House of Representatives
by mid-November. President George Bush has strongly opposed the
resolution.

"We regret that Speaker Pelosi is intent on bringing this resolution
for a vote despite the strong concern expressed by foreign policy and
defense experts," White House spokesperson Tony Fratto said adding the
move "may do grave harm to US-Turkish relations and to US interests
in Europe and the Middle East."

PONTIFF PRAISES CHURCH, AMERICA
By Waveney Ann Moore, Times Staff Writer

St. Petersburg Times, FL
Oct 15 2007

Armenian Apostolic Christians celebrate church’s completion.

PINELLAS PARK – In a more than three-hour service Sunday, the leader
of the world’s 7-million Armenian Apostolic Christians consecrated
a new church and celebrated Divine Liturgy in the standing-room-only
sanctuary.

As a gift, he presented the church with a communion chalice made in
Armenia by an Armenian jeweler.

During his visit to the Tampa Bay area, His Holiness Karekin II,
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, also touched on
a delicate diplomatic matter, Armenians’ almost 100-year belief that
they were victims of genocide.

They say more than 1.5-million Armenians were massacred, starved to
death and persecuted between 1914 and 1922 by the Ottoman Turks. They
describe the attempted annihilation as genocide. The Turks strongly
disagree.

Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution
recognizing the deaths as genocide. The pontiff praised the committee’s
action. President George W. Bush, however, warned the action would
complicate foreign policy.

"It was greatly consoling to us that the voice of justice and
righteousness resounded louder than political and military interests
in this case," the pontiff said in an interview after Sunday’s service.

"More than 22 different countries and states have already recognized
and condemned the Armenian genocide and we are hopeful that not in the
too distant future Turkey as well will recognize it, which will benefit
the normalization of the relations between our two countries," he said.

"And we believe that the condemnation of the genocide of the Armenians
will greatly benefit the prevention of similar crimes against
humanity in the world in the future. And no tyrant shall ever again
say the words that Hitler said, ‘Who, after all, today remembers the
extermination of the Armenians?’ "

Sunday, though, was for St. Hagop’s, a congregation that struggled for
decades to build the 250-seat church off Belcher Road in Pinellas
Park. Countless chicken dinners, aluminum can drives and other
fundraisers are the foundation of the $2-million sanctuary whose
stucco will be covered with a pink stone mined in Armenia.

As rainbows created by the church’s enormous shimmering chandelier
danced on the congregation’s clothing, the red carpet and newly
painted walls, the faithful excitedly greeted old friends.

They had traveled from far and near. Nanzy Kazarian and her husband
had come from Naples. The self-described snowbirds from Racine, Wis.,
couldn’t be in that state when the pontiff visits later this month,
Kazarian said, so they drove to Pinellas Park.

"He’s our pope," she said. "We also wanted to support this new church,
because they struggled for many years to build it."

Armenian military based at MacDill Air Force Base also joined the
celebration. Lt. Col. Mesrop Nazaryan was accompanied by other military
personnel from countries including Singapore, Mongolia and Ukraine.

Some of those who helped make the new sanctuary a reality were honored
Sunday. Steeped in ritual, the service began with Catholicos Karekin
consecrating the bare altar with holy oil from Etchmiadzin, Armenia,
the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Armenian Church.

A highlight of the morning’s ceremony was the blessing of 16 crosses,
each representing a saint. In keeping with tradition, a godparent
was appointed for each cross. As with a godparent, that person is
expected to play a continuing role in supporting the church.

Leon Sarkisian, whose sister Louise Yardumian and late parents, Edward
and Priscilla Sarkisian, played a key role in organizing and helping
to build the church from the beginning, was named the godfather of
the doors of the new building.

"We are very happy that this day has come," Sarkisian said, adding
that the only thing that makes him sad is that his parents and others
like them did not live to see it.

The pontiff bestowed his highest honor on Gregory H. Ekizian and
his wife, Alysia – a relative of the famous writer William Saroyan –
for their work at St. Hagop’s and charities in Armenia. The couple
received St. Gregory the Illuminator medals, in honor of the man who
was responsible for making Armenia a Christian state in 301 A.D.

After the service, Catholicos Karekin said he is proud of the
contributions Armenian-Americans continue to make to this country. He
also spoke about his hopes for the Armenian church.

"It is our desire and our aspiration that the commandment and the
message of Jesus Christ take their deep roots within the souls of
our people and they continue to live by the rich tradition and rich
culture of their Christian faith and with the sacred faith of their
forefathers," he said.

"We believe that the diversity of ethnicities and religions and faith
in the United States is the richness of this country. May God bless
the United States and all its people."

The Dignity Agenda

By David Ignatius

Sunday, October 14, 2007; B07

"We talk about democracy and human rights. Iraqis talk about justice
and honor." That comment from Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, made at a
seminar last month on counterinsurgency, is the beginning of wisdom
for an America that is trying to repair the damage of recent years. It
applies not simply to Iraq but to the range of problems in a world
tired of listening to an American megaphone.

Dignity is the issue that vexes billions of people around the world,
not democracy. Indeed, when people hear President Bush preaching about
democratic values, it often comes across as a veiled assertion of
American power. The implicit message is that other countries should be
more like us — replacing their institutions, values and traditions
with ours. We mean well, but people feel disrespected. The bromides
and exhortations are a further assault on their dignity.

That’s the difficulty when the U.S. House of Representatives pressures
Turkey to admit that it committed genocide against the Armenians 92
years ago. It’s not that this demand is wrong. I’m an Armenian
American, and some of my own relatives perished in that genocidal
slaughter. I agree with the congressional resolution, but I know that
this is a problem that Turks must resolve. They are imprisoned in a
past that they have not yet been able to accept. Our hectoring makes
it easier for them to retreat deeper into denial.

The most articulate champion of what the administration likes to call
the "democracy agenda" has been Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
When she talks about the universality of American values, she carries
the special resonance of an African American girl from Birmingham,
Ala., who witnessed the struggle for democracy in a segregated
America. But she also conveys an American arrogance, a message that
when it comes to good governance, it’s our way or the highway.

That’s why it’s encouraging to hear that Rice is taking policy advice
from Kilcullen, a brilliant Australian military officer who helped
reshape U.S. strategy in Iraq toward the bottom-up precepts of
counterinsurgency. Sources tell me Kilcullen will soon be joining the
State Department as a part-time consultant. For a taste of his
thinking, check out his Sept. 26 presentation to a Marine Corps
seminar (available at ).

As we think about a "dignity agenda," there are some other useful
readings. A starting point is Zbigniew Brzezinski’s new book, "Second
Chance," which argues that America’s best hope is to align itself with
what he calls a "global political awakening." The former national
security adviser explains: "In today’s restless world, America needs
to identify with the quest for universal human dignity, a dignity that
embodies both freedom and democracy but also implies respect for
cultural diversity."

After I mentioned Brzezinski’s ideas about dignity in a previous
column, a reader sent me a 1961 essay by the philosopher Isaiah
Berlin, which made essentially the same point. A deeply skeptical man
who resisted the "isms" of partisan thought, Berlin was trying to
understand the surge of nationalism despite two world wars.
"Nationalism springs, as often as not, from a wounded or outraged
sense of human dignity, the desire for recognition," he wrote.

"The craving for recognition has grown to be more powerful than any
other force abroad today," Berlin continued. "It is no longer economic
insecurity or political impotence that oppresses the imaginations of
many young people in the West today, but a sense of the ambivalence of
their social status — doubts about where they belong, and where they
wish or deserve to belong."

A final item on my dignity reading list is "Violent Politics," a new
book by the iconoclastic historian William R. Polk. He examines 10
insurgencies through history — from the American Revolution to the
Irish struggle for independence to the Afghan resistance to Soviet
occupation — to make a stunningly simple point, which we managed to
forget in Iraq: People don’t like to be told what to do by outsiders.
"The very presence of foreigners, indeed, stimulates the sense first
of apartness and ultimately of group cohesion." Foreign intervention
offends people’s dignity, Polk reminds us. That’s why insurgencies are
so hard to defeat.

People will fight to protect their honor even — and perhaps,
especially — when they have nothing else left. That has been a
painful lesson for the Israelis, who hoped for the past 30 years they
could squeeze the Palestinians into a rational peace deal. It’s
excruciating now for Armenian Americans like me, when we see Turkey
refusing to make a rational accounting of its history. But if foreign
governments try to make people do the right thing, it won’t work. They
have to do it for themselves.

The writer is co-host of PostGlobal, an online discussion of
international issues. His e-mail address is
[email protected].

Source: le/2007/10/12/AR2007101202147.html

eFluxMedia
Oct 14 2007

Turkish Artillery Opens Fire on Kurdish Border Villages

by Diane Smith 13:16, October 14th 2007

After the US congressional committee cataloged the First World War
massacre of Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire as
genocide, there wasn’t sure how much influence the top US envoys sent
on Saturday would have on Ankara. Their mission, besides talking
about the genocide resolution, was to convince the Turkish
authorities to reconsider their plans of a military incursion in the
autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

However, over night, the Turkish army hit the villages close to its
country’s border with Iraq using heavy artillery. If the abandoning
of the next month’s visit to the US by the Turkish Trade Minister
Kursad Tuzman wasn’t convincing enough, the shelling of the villages
suspected of sheltering the members of the Kurdish Workers’ Party
(PKK) rebel group surely showed how dissatisfied Ankara is about the
Wednesday resolution passed by the US congressional committee, in
which the mass killings of Armenian people during the First World War
were labeled as genocide.

There were no human losses reported in last night’s offensive which
targeted the Nasdour area, a part of the mountainous Matin region,
the witnesses cited by independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI)
said.

The killing of at least two dozens Turkish soldiers and civilians
after rebel Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) attacks, were accompanied by
public outrage that increased the pressure on the Turkish government
to launch a military operation against the PKK camps.

After Turkey announced its intentions of launching a military
incursion into northern Iraq in order to destroy PKK camps, Kurdish
authorities slammed the caveat and with it a security agreement that
Baghdad’s government sealed last month with Ankara.

On Saturday, Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman urged Baghdad to cancel
the security agreement. Othman said the Kurdistani Alliance, which
has 53 seats in Iraq’s Council of Representatives, will request a
meeting with Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani after the Muslim
festival of Eid al-Fitr in order to talk about the security agreement
he signed with Ankara.

However, the Interior Ministry spokesman Abdel-Karim Khalaf answered
that the Iraqi central government "is alone responsible for signing
foreign agreements," thus it doesn’t need to consult with `regional
administrations.’

"The centralized government is solely responsible for protecting the
international Iraqi borders. The regional government is part of the
state, and so they should not be concerned with foreign pacts,"
Khalaf told VOI.

The above mentioned security agreement was signed on September 28 by
Baghdad and Ankara and it stipulates that Iraq will cooperate with
Turkish authorities in hunting down PKK rebels close to its borders.

After some reports Iraq agreed to cooperate, but refused to grant an
absolute right to Turkish troops to cross the border in order to
annihilate the PKK camps. Other accounts said that Turkey was given
the right to chase the rebels, although the Iraqi government
officials strongly denied such a thing.

Despite the statement issued by government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh
which said that Iraq would never allow Turkish troops into its
territories, Turkey was already massing troops along the Iraqi border
on Saturday.

"Any Turkish attacks will be met with wide resistance from the
(Kurdish) Peshmerga and the people," Kurdish government leader Qader
Aziz said before the shelling.

But a unilateral Kurdish response is doubtful, especially after
Othman said on Saturday that a reaction to any Turkish incursion
would by coordinated with the central government as well as the US
forces in Iraq.

The PKK, on the other hand, said on Saturday they do not intend to
leave the region if the Turks attack and also that their members do
not launch any military strikes from that region.

"We have militants in Turkey who carry out the attacks. This is not
new to Turks," Abdel-Rahman Chaderchi, who is in charge of the PKK’s
foreign relations, told VOI.

He also added that Turkey hides behind the alleged hunt for PKK
rebels its real intentions of eroding the rights of the Iraqi Kurds
in the region

tillery_Opens_Fire_on_Kurdish_Border_Villages_0959 4.html

A1+

DALUZYAN IS THE SECOND
[06:25 pm] 12 October, 2007

Armenian weightlifter Meline Daluzyan won a silver medal in the world
youth weightlifting championship in Spain.

Daluzyan lifted 98 kilograms in the snatch and 123 kilograms in the
clean and jerk. With the combined weight of 221 kilograms, she merited
the title of co-champion of Europe.

Russian Tays Antonava took the first place with a total of 231
kilograms.