Author: Toganian Liana

TRIAL SHEDS LIGHT ON SHADES OF TURKEY

Turkish Daily News
June 10 2008

A report commissioned eight years ago by the highest advisory body
in the land investigates how many Turks, Kurds and people of other
extractions are living in Turkey. The report comes to light as part
of the trial for the murder of three Christian misionaries

The trial of the suspects of the murder of three Christian
missionaries in the eastern province of Malatya last year unveiled a
study undertaken by a group of Turkish universities to shed light on
the size of the country’s different ethnic groups, including Kurds,
Arabs and Georgians

The National Security Council (MGK) asked a committee of academics from
Erciyes University in Kayseri province, Fırat University in Elazıg
province and İnönu University in Malatya to prepare a report on the
ethnic composition of Turkey eight years ago. Currently attached to
the Malatya massacre case, the report cites quite interesting figures.

About 9 million Alevis:

Although some sources say the population of Alevis in Turkey ranges
between 5 and 25 million, it is approximately 8.75 million, according
to the MGK report.

When the 1 million Alevis living in Europe as well as those living
in eight provinces where the study was not carried out, the number
of Alevi citizens is estimated to reach about 10 million.

Taking into account the fact the research on the Alevi population was
carried out eight years ago, the number is predicted to be about 11
million today. This indicates that 85 percent of Turkey’s population
is of the Sunni denomination of Islam.

The was supervised by Professor Å~^aban Kuzgun and was carried out in
68 provinces. It drew a profile of the ethnic and religious backgrounds
of the people who live in these provinces. The report also includes
figures about who belongs to which denomination of Islam.

Below is the ethnic composition of Turkey as shown in the MGK report:

– Turks: Ethnic Turkish groups such as Turkmen, Yuruks, Tatars,
Tahtacis, Terekemes, Karacays, and Azerbaijanis make up Turks in the
country. The size of this group, which has currently no ties with
its ethnic roots, is about 50 million but reaches 55 million those
currently undergoing a Turkification process are included.

– Kurds: This is the second biggest ethnic group in Turkey, according
to the MGK report. When Zazas, who are about 3 million, are included,
the Kurdish population in Turkey exceeds 12.6 million. A further 2.5
million are undergoing a Turkification process and in some regions
there is a number of people who deny their Kurdish origins.

– Georgians: This group lives mainly in the Black Sea provinces of
Ordu, Artvin, Samsun, and in the Marmara region. Their population
is about 1 million. Excluding those who live in a few villages in
the Black Sea region, many Georgians have already forgotten their
mother tongue.

– Bosnians: Located mainly in Adapazarı, Ä°zmir and Manisa, the
population of Bosnians living in Turkey is about 2 million.

– Circassians: Disperesed around different provinces of Turkey, the
Circassian population is about 2.5 million. Some 80 percent of those
cannot speak the Circassian language.

– Arabs: This group lives mainly in the cities of Siirt, Å~^ırnak,
Mardin, Diyarbakır, Å~^anlıurfa, Hatay, Adana and Istanbul. The
Arab population in Turkey is 870,000.

– Albanians: There are more than 1.3 million Albanians in Turkey. Half
of the community has currently no ties with Albania as a result of the
Turkification process they have undergone in the past decades. For
about 500,000 Albanians, however, being and Albanian is highly
important.

Laz: In Turkey, there is a widespread false belief that all people
from the eastern parts of the Black Sea region are Laz. But in fact,
the Laz people, who migrated from the Caucasus and speak a language
called the Lazuri, live in some villages of Rize and Artvin provinces
of the Black Sea region and some parts of the Marmara region. Their
population is about 80,000.

– HemÅ~_ins: Just as the Laz, the HemÅ~_ins also live in some villages
or districts of Rize and Artvin, and their population is about 13,000.

– Pomaks: Some sources say Pomaks are of Turkish descent but some
say they have Slavic origins. The population of Pomaks in Turkey is
about 600,000 and they have already been Turkified.

– Other ethnic groups: The total population of all other ethnic groups
living in Turkey is just over 1 million. Roma people constitute the
majority with a population of 700,000. In addition, about 60,000
Armenians, 20,000 Jews, 15,000 Rums (Greeks with Turkish citizenship)
and a very few number of Assyrians live in Turkey.

Population of Turks slowly increases

The MGK report says population growth in Turkey has been low within
the last 15 years. Population of the Kurds, on the other hand,
increases 2.5 percent each year.

The report also reveals that the population of the Bosnians declines
0.12 percent each year, while the number ıf Turks declines by 0.8
percent and that of Albanians declines by 0.5 percent each year.

The highest level of Turkification is recorded among Kurds. They are
followed by the Bosnians, the Circassians, and the Albanians. Arabs
migrating from the southeastern parts of Turkey have been undergoing
a rapid Turkification process, according to the report.

–Boundary_(ID_EuERL/nnHJCu7dz15tOwMg)–

ARMENIA TO RENDER ALL-ROUND ASSISTANCE FOR KARABAKH’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

DeFacto Agency
June 9 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 09.06.08. DE FACTO. The RA delegation headed by Arthur
Baghdasarian, Secretary of the RA National Security Council, met
with the NKR PM Ara Harutyunian within the frames of a visit to the
Nagorno-Karabakh.

Welcoming the guests the head of the NKR government expressed hope that
with active participation of Secretary of the RA National Security
Council Artsakh and Republic of Armenia would pursue active joint
policy to successfully resolve the Karabakh issue. Ara Harutyunian
presented current social-economic situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh
to guests and the programs being realized in the sphere.

During press conference held upon completion of the meeting
Ara Harutyunian and Arthur Baghdasarian answered journalists’
questions. Secretary of the RA National Security Council, in part,
noted that the visit to the NKR was both of acquaintance and
practical nature. "Artsakh is the highest task for the Republic
of Armenia. All-round assistance will be rendered for economic
development and ensuring Artsakh’s security. We were happy to hear
that the NKR government had an interesting program elaborated by
priority directions", Arthur Baghdasarian noted.

In his turn, Ara Harutyunian mentioned important role the RA National
Security Council played in the settlement of issues Artsakh faced. He
underscored that the two Armenian states’ cooperation should develop
at the level of all structures acting in the RA and NKR.

FOOTAGE SHOWS POSSIBLE NEW SUSPECT IN DINK MURDER

Today’s Zaman
June 5 2008
Turkey

Newly discovered images from a security camera that captured the
murderer of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January 2007
show a second suspect at the crime scene on the day of the murder,
news reports said on Wednesday.

Dink was shot dead outside his newspaper’s Ä°stanbul office in broad
daylight on Jan. 19, 2007 by an ultranationalist teenager. The 15
others cited as suspects in the ensuing investigation are currently
pending trial, with seven of them under arrest; but the investigation
also revealed that some in the gendarmerie forces knew about the plot
long before the murder took place. The Ä°stanbul police are facing
similar accusations. The next trial of the suspects is scheduled for
July 7.

The new discovery shows that the hit man, O.S., was not alone on the
day of the murder, a claim that has been voiced a few times by the
prosecution during the course of the trial in the past year, but not
proven until now. The footage is from the security camera of a nearby
bank; it was unclear as to why the footage had not been seen by the
police earlier.

The recording shows a second person standing in front of Dink’s office
building before and during the shooting and then disappearing down
a side street after the murder. The police have so far failed to
identify the person in the footage.

For most of the time he stands there, the man has his backed turned
to the building but appears to be turning around a few times to check
whether anyone is coming out of it.

–Boundary_(ID_r9t/RJYHzRni5xBe7PoYcA)–

THEY DO NOT KNOW YET ON WHAT THEY WILL SPEND

KarabakhOpen
03-06-2008 12:01:22

As we have already informed, the Armenian government has decided to
allocate 1 billion 450 million drams from the reserve fund of the
Armenian budget to the NKR ministry of finance, of which 1.5 billion
is an interstate loan, 250 million is a grant.

We inquired from the ministry of finance for what purpose the money
was requested or if it was an act of good faith on behalf of the
Armenian government.

The ministry informed that they are aware if the government of
Armenia but they will decide on what to spend the money after the
money is disbursed.

INFLATION IN ARMENIA HITS 9.9% IN MAY, Y-O-Y

RIA Novosti
June 2, 2008
Russia

YEREVAN, June 2 (RIA Novosti) – Consumer prices in Armenia grew 9.9%
in May, year-on-year, the national statistics service said on Monday.

Food prices increased 1%, compared with April this year, while non-food
prices grew 1.3%, and tariffs for services climbed 21%.

The prices of gasoline and diesel fuel soared to 5.7% and 7.5%,
compared with April this year, respectively.

The Armenian government’s inflation target for 2008 is 4%.

YURI MERZLYAKOV: "MEDIATORS WILL HOLD CONSULTATIONS BEFORE THE MEETING OF PRESIDENTS OF ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN"

Today.Az
s/politics/45370.html
June 2 2008
Azerbaijan

The upcoming meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
Serzh Sarkissyan and Ilham Aliyev is important as it will be the first
meeting following a long interval, said Russian co-chair of the OSCE
Minsk Group Yuri Merzlyakov.

"We expect the meeting to restart the negotiation process and open
prospects for further meetings and settlement of tasks, worked out
by the co-chairs in the past years", said the co-chairman of the OSCE
Minsk Group.

He also informed that consultations of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs
with deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Grigori Karasin will be
held in Moscow before the meeting of the presidents to be held in
Saint-Petersburg on June 6.

He said this is a usual working meeting, held once a year.

PRESS RELEASE
The Armenia Fund
Governmental Buiding 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
Tel: +(3741) 56 01 06 ext. 105
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

04 June, 2008

HAYASTAN ALL-ARMENIAN FUND COMPLETES VERIN HORATAGH SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION:
SCHOOL NAMED AFTER BARONESS CAROLINE COX

Yerevan, June 04, 2008 – Hayastan All-Armenian Fund is proud to announce
that a new school has opened in the Verin Horatagh village of Karabakh on
May 30. The project has been sponsored by the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan
All-Armenian Fund.

The new school will bear the name of a great humanitarian, the Deputy
Speaker of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom Baroness Caroline Cox.
Dubbed as the "Guardian Angel of Arstakh", Baroness Cox has been an adamant
supporter of Nagorno Karabakh both in the United Kingdom and
internationally, calling for the full and proper recognition of Nagorno
Karabakh, as well support for its redevelopment. Baroness Cox has visited
Nagorno Karabakh more than 60 times and has led numerous humanitarian
missions to the fledgling republic. In 2006 she was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh
Medal by the President of the Republic of Armenia.

Baroness Caroline Cox, who arrived in Karabakh together with her son,
daughter-in-law and grandchildren, was the guest of honor at the event.

Among the official guests attending the ceremony were the Prime Minister of
Nagorno Karabakh Araik Harutyunyan, Minister of Education and Science
Vladimir Khachatryan, Minister of Civil Construction Aleksandr Mamunts, Head
of the Martakert Administration Sergei Ohanyan, as well as the Hayastan
All-Armenian Fund Executive Director Vahe Aghabegians, Deputy Director Ara
Vardanyan, Chairman of the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
Migirdic Migirdician, other representatives of the affiliate, representative
of the Fund in Karabakh Michel Tancrez, other officials and guests from
Armenia, Canada, France, Nagorno Karabakh, and the U.S.

Verin Horatagh, now a community of 530, was devastated in the Artsakh war.
"Most of the families had to abandon the village to escape the horrors of
war. When it was over, Verin Horatagh resembled a ghost town," recalls Naira
Arustamyan, principal of the school. "We are grateful to the Hayastan
All-Armenian Fund, Baroness Cox and our Armenian friends in Canada for this
wonderful modern school. I am convinced that the new school will bring a new
sense of hope for a better future to the residents of our village," she
added.

Baroness Cox visited Verin Horatagh village for the first time in 1992 while
carrying out one of her numerous humanitarian missions in Karabakh. Two
years ago she shared her memories in an emotional keynote address at the
annual fundraising banquet organized by the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan
Fund. By the end of the highly successful event funds were fully raised for
the construction of the new modern school.

"Baroness Caroline Cox’ involvement and support counted so much in this
project that it is altogether fitting and proper to have the school named
after her. We hope that the school will make a profound difference in the
lives of children and people in the region", said Migirdician.

"It is a privilege and a great honor for me to be in this precious part of
the world today. Your people are wonderful; you kept the spiritual and
cultural values alive in the dark days of war. This new school will help
give the young people the future they deserve", said Baroness Cox.

The funding of the school was made possible thanks to a number of
individuals among them Massis Kesisyan, who initiated a bicycle ride from
Toronto to Montreal, and prominent pianist Serouj Gajian, who donated the
proceeds from a concert to the construction of the school. Two classrooms in
the school are now named after them. A tiny replica of an Armenian Church on
the roof of the school is a gift to the community by the Verin Horatagh
village tinsmith Varpet Seiran who has been involved in the construction of
the school.

"We are grateful to the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund and
Baroness Caroline Cox for the beautiful gift to the people of Artsakh. This
school will open a brighter chapter in the lives of residents of Verin
Horatagh", said Aghabegians, Executive Director of Hayastan All-Armenian
Fund.

###
Hayastan All-Armenian Fund

DEATHS OF SAN CLEMENTE FAMILY HAS FRIEND ASKING, ‘DID SOMEBODY FLIP OUT?’
By Vik Jolly And Salvador Hernandez

Orange County Register
May 29 2008
CA

Doting, devout and protective family, found wearing all black.

The inseparable twin sisters. The doting parents. A cautious family.

Four days after five members of a San Clemente family were discovered
dead — all dressed in black — a portrait of a religious, loving
but overprotective clan began to emerge through interviews with those
who knew the Ucars.

The Turkish Armenian family quietly went on with its life inside a
gated neighborhood overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

But the gruesome discovery of decomposing bodies found by authorities
called by a relative who shattered a window at the family’s Sea
Point Estates home to gain entry has reverberated from Orange County
to Istanbul.

Manas, 58, and Margrit Ucar, 48, were immigrants from Turkey, whose
ancestors perished in the mass killings of Armenians upon the breakup
of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s.

Authorities on Wednesday said the couple was found on the floor
near a closet of their home with gunshot wounds. Two guns were found
near their bodies. One of the guns was registered to Margrit Ucar,
and investigators are still looking for records on the second gun,
Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Erin Guidice said.

The Ucars’ twin daughters, Margo and Grace, both 21, were found lying
in a bed in the first floor bedroom, Guidice said. Margrit Ucar’s
mother, Fransuhi Kesisoglu, 72, was sitting in a chaise lounge in
the room.

No bullet wounds were found on the other three bodies, nor has a cause
of death been determined, Guidice said. Toxicology results are due
in about six weeks. Officials say they do not believe any outsiders
are involved in the incident that has left the five dead.

Authorities wouldn’t say if there was a note left behind.

Meanwhile, interviews showed that the twin Ucar sisters took all
their classes together at San Clemente High School. They were not kids
who skated or hung around playing with other children in their hilly
neighborhood, but the twins and their mother did swim frequently at
the community pool.

Manas Ucar, a consulting engineer and a former assistant professor
at Syracuse University who came to the states in the 70s, proudly
spoke of his daughters going to medical school. Their mother earned
her medical degree from Turkey but could not practice in the states.

The sisters graduated high school in 2004. According to a UC San
Diego spokeswoman the twins finished the requirements for a bachelor’s
degree in biology ahead of schedule in January.

Manas Ucar was described by one friend of the family as an extrovert
who loved to chat.

Most of all, he and his wife doted on their daughters, acquaintances
said. Margrit Ucar had lunch almost daily with the twins when they
were in elementary school. The family bought or rented a house in
San Diego when the twins left for medical school.

Laguna Niguel resident Peggy Rosen said her husband, an attorney,
cross-examined Manas Ucar during a civil trial at which Ucar was an
accident-reconstruction expert for the defense more than a decade
ago and their families became close.

"They adored their children and each other," Rosen said in an
e-mail. "Manas was very vivacious and fun loving. He was a brilliant
man. . . a very kind man. He worked very hard for his family."

Margrit, Rosen said, was more reserved. A devout Christian, she talked
about Jesus and prayed a lot, she said.

"This has been weighing on me," said Rosen, 55, who works in her
husband’s law office and does interior design. "I have been thinking
about this and wondering who did this. Did somebody flip out? The
young girls, they had their whole life ahead of them."

Margrit ran a jewelry boutique at Fashion Island for a few years. Rosen
recalled the Ucars telling them that she, at times, carried a gun
for protection.

The cordial Ucar family also was very private and Sea Point neighbors
didn’t see a whole lot of them.

"We had a hard time to get (the twins) to play," said Tami Adams,
50, who lives in the neighborhood.

Antranik Zorayan, a local community leader, said the family came
to worship at St. Mary Armenian Church in Costa Mesa on major
holidays. Zorayan said the news had traveled to Istanbul, where he
spoke with his brother about it.

The community awaits the outcome of the investigation but he doesn’t
believe that the deaths are a murder suicide, Zorayan said.

"At this time I am not convinced," he said. "I can’t explain the
feelings I have."

RUBEN HAKOBIAN EXPELLED FROM ARFD

Y EREVAN, MAY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The Supreme Body of ARFD has made a
decision to expel Ruben Hakobian, a party member, the Consul of Armenia
to Saint Petersburg, from the party. NA deputy Vahan Hovhannisian, a
Bureau member, said at the May 29 press conference. "He twice had
applied for leaving the party, which could be sustained and he could
leave the party just of his own free will. But in that period he was
also in some anti-party process," V. Hovhannisian supposed.

From Sardarapat to Stepanakert

30-05-2008 12:46:19 – KarabakhOpen

On the day of the First Armenian Republic the Karabakh branch of the
National Institute of education of the Armenian ministry of education,
as well as the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Artsakh held an event.

The motto of the event was `All the victories of the Armenian people
were gained through unity.’

Scientists and politicians tried to assess the value of the first
Armenian republic created 6 centuries after the loss of independence.
They drew parallels between Sardarapat and the movement of Artsakh.