Author: Toneyan Mark

The Providence Journal:
/content/projo_20070815_bostom.2545880.html

ANDRE W G. BOSTOM: The perversity of denying genocide

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 15, 2007

THE CAMPAIGN sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to combat
bigotry and celebrate diversity ("No Place for Hate") has sparked bitter
resentment in Watertown, Mass., a Boston suburb whose 8,000
Armenian-Americans make up nearly 25 percent of the population. Local
Armenians do not object to the initiative, rather to the group behind
it, the ADL and its director, Abraham Foxman – whom they charge,
correctly, with denying the ugly established legacy of the World War I
era Armenian genocide.

Under the authoritarian Young Turk (Ittihadist) regime, the bulk of the
Armenian population from the territories of the Ottoman Empire – some 1
million to 1.5 million Armenians – were purged by violent and lethal
means, which reproduced the historic conditions of a classic Islamic
jihad: deportation, enslavement, forced conversion and massacre.

Mr. Foxman maintains that dismantling a program designed to fight hatred
simply because the ADL does not share what he refers to as the
"Armenians’ viewpoint" would be "bigoted." Moreover, Foxman and the ADL,
who have spoken out in recent times against ethnic cleansing of Muslims
in the Balkans and the genocide against the syncretist black African
Animist-Muslims in Darfur, are, in effect, oddly "neutral" on the
Armenian genocide: "We’re not party to this, and I don’t understand why
we need to be made party."

But even this morally challenged "neutrality" is disingenuous. According
to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ("Turks want genocide commission,"
April 23), Mr. Foxman and the ADL are lobbying against legislation
recognizing the Armenian genocide in the U.S. House (HR 106) and the
Senate (SR 106), including the presentation of letters from the Jewish
community of Turkey complemented by, "their own [i.e., the ADL’s]
statement opposing the bill."

Interviewed for a Nov. 19, 2003, story in The Christian Science Monitor,
following the bombing of Istanbul’s two main synagogues by indigenous
Turkish jihadist groups, Rifat Bali, a scholar, and Turkish Jew,
acknowledged the chronic plight of Turkey’s small, dwindling Jewish
community, whose social condition remains little removed from the formal
"dhimmi" status of their ancestors.

Dhimmis were those non-Muslims, including Jews, subjugated by jihad and
forced to live under Islamic law as non-citizen pariahs, physically
segregated, often in squalid ghettoes, as was the case for the Jews of
Istanbul. Discriminatory regulations limited their most basic rights,
vis–vis Muslims, with regard to penal law, taxation and religious
practice. Bali’s informed remarks echoed the chronic, unresolved
concerns that led to the mass exodus of 40 percent of Turkey’s Jews to
Israel within two years of its creation in 1948, and the dual 2003
Istanbul synagogue bombings transiently illuminated a largely
marginalized society, whose shrinking numbers and "other problems" were
deliberately downplayed by community leaders:

The Turkish Jews have not been fully integrated or Turkified, and they
have had to limit their expectations. A kid grows up knowing he is never
going to become a government minister, so no one tries, and the same
goes for positions in the military.

Amoral denial of the Armenian genocide by Foxman and the ADL abets the
exploitation of beleaguered Turkish Jews as dhimmi "lobbyists" for the
government of Turkey.

Also, since 1950, both the Turkish press and Islamic literature have
steadily increased their output of theological Islamic anti-Semitism –
based upon core anti-Jewish motifs in Islam’s foundational texts – the
Koran, hadith and sira. This theologically-based anti-Jewish animus grew
steadily in stridency, and from the 1970s through the 1990s, was melded
into anti-Zionist and anti-Israel invective by Turkey’s burgeoning
fundamentalist Islamic movement.

The Armenian genocide denial "strategy" of Mr. Foxman and the ADL has
succeeded, perversely, in further isolating Jews, while failing,
abysmally, to alter a virulently anti-Semitic Turkish religious (i.e.,
Islamic), and secular culture – the latter perhaps best exemplified by
the wildly popular and most expensive film made in Turkey, Valley of the
Wolves (released in February 2006), which features an American Jewish
doctor dismembering Iraqis supposedly murdered by American soldiers to
harvest their organs for Jewish markets.

Prime Minister Recep Erdogan not only failed to condemn the film, he
justified its production and popularity. This is the same Mr. Erdogan
who, serving in 1974 as president of the Istanbul Youth Group of the
Islamic fundamentalist National Salvation Party, wrote, directed and
played the leading role in a play entitled Maskomya, staged throughout
Turkey during the 1970s. Mas-Kom-Ya was a compound acronym for
"Masons-Communists-Yahudi [Jews]," and the play focused on the evil,
conspiratorial nature of these three entities whose common denominator
was Judaism.

As a Jew, I find the efforts by Mr. Foxman and the ADL to deny
recognition of the Armenian genocide morally repugnant, ignorant and
particularly inappropriate for an organization geared to reducing, as
opposed to abetting and fomenting, anti-Semitism and other forms of
irrational hatred.

— Andrew G. Bostom, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine at the
Brown Medical School and author of The Legacy of Jihad (2005) and the
forthcoming The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism (2007)
().

RUSSIAN JOURNALIST SAID TO BE EXPELLED FROM AZERBAIJAN

Interfax news agency, Moscow
13 Aug 07

Baku, 13 August: A Russian journalist was deported from Azerbaijan
last Sunday [12 August], a source in the republic’s law-enforcement
agencies has told Interfax-Azerbaijan.

He pointed out that the expulsion of the journalist had not been an
official deportation.

The source declined to explain the reason for expelling Yana Amelina,
a staff member of Rosbalt news agency, from Azerbaijan. The source
said that she had spent six days in the country, was detained in the
town of Lankaran [southern Azerbaijan] and taken to Baku’s airport.

"Prior to this, she managed to travel to Armenia and made an illegal
trip to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," the source said.

The source added that Amelina had been studying "the Talysh problem"
who mainly live in Lankaran District and that "gave ground to suppose
that the journalist is not on a pro-Azerbaijani position".

Meanwhile, Azerbaijani sources quoted Amelina as saying that
Azerbaijani law-enforcers had not explained her the reasons for her
detention and expulsion. She stressed that there had been no complaints
about her documents.

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 10 2007

3rd congress of descendants of Armenian genocide survivors important,
FM states

YEREVAN, August 10. /ARKA/. RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian
received today Karen Mikaelyan, member of the Organizing Committee
for preparing and holding the third Congress of descendants of
survivors of the Armenian Genocide in 1915.

During the meeting, the RA Foreign Minister emphasized the importance
of holding the congress and continuing processes interrupted after
the first two congresses held in 1917 and 1918.

According to Oskanian, before holding the congress, much work should
be done in Armenian communities abroad, particularly, with social and
religious organizations in Diaspora, with all the relevant issues to
be discussed with them.

In his turn, Mikaelyan emphasized the significance and necessity of
organizing the congress, taking into account the statement of
national problems and joint efforts toward their solution.

He stated that a number of organizational meetings have been held,
and a declaration of forming authorized representative bodies has
been issued. Z. Sh. -0–

SPAIN SUPPORTS ESTABLISHMENT OF MEDITERRANEAN UNION WHILE TURKEY RATES IT AS SECOND-CLASS "CLUB MED"

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.08.2007 15:08 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s idea of a
Mediterranean Union for countries like Turkey – which he does not
want admitted to the European Union – has picked up support from
Spain, whose own Euro-Mediterranean partnership has floundered,
but is getting the cold shoulder in Turkey.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said, "The moment
has arrived … to build a real geopolitical space through the
establishment of a Mediterranean Union," which already has been
derided in Turkish newspapers as a second-class "Club Med." It would
include some EU countries bordering the Mediterranean and have its own
council of heads of state and government to set strategic policies,
a separate commission, parliament and bank, Moratinos said. The
organization would help the region tackle challenges ranging from
environmental issues to immigration, he added.

However, a senior Turkish diplomat who did not want to be named said,
"We never see the Mediterranean Union plan as an alternative to
Turkey’s EU accession.

Turkey is proceeding on the path for full membership since 1999,"
the year Ankara gained candidacy status, ABHaber reports.

The problem of opening ports for Cypriot vessels and human rights
violations remain the main obstacles for Turkey’s accession.

CUP HALF FULL

Mideast Mirror
August 7, 2007 Tuesday

The main players may have all lost out, but the results of the weekend
Lebanese by-elections stand as testimony to Lebanon’s democratic
traditions, says ‘Urayb ar-Rintawi in today’s Jordanian ad-Dustour

The weekend’s Lebanese by-elections have left many losers in their
wake, claims a leading Jordanian commentator. Most of the political
participants in that game have emerged as losers, but Lebanon and
its democratic traditions have emerged as the main winners.

[The deadlocked struggle between the pro-U.S. government and
mainly Shiite opposition deepened yesterday (Monday) after a tense
parliamentary election showed a sharp divide among Christians, a
key swing bloc. That deadlock was reinforced when pro-government
candidate Amin Gemayel, a former president and the head of one
of Lebanon’s most powerful Maronite Christian families, conceded
defeat by a mere 418 votes in Sunday’s election in the Christian
stronghold of Metn north of Beirut. The victor was little-known
Kamil Khoury, who was backed by the most prominent Christian leader
in the pro-Syrian opposition, Michel Aoun. Khoury took 39,534 votes
to Gemayel’s 39,116. Many fear the deepening stalemate may lead to
the formation of competing governments if it is not resolved before
the race to replace pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term
ends Nov. 23. Under Lebanon’s division of power among its sects,
the presidency must be held by a Maronite Christian chosen parliament.

Now, no Maronite leader can boost his bid among lawmakers by claiming
to represent the entire community. Gemayel’s loss is a setback for
his potential as a candidate. Aoun has said he will stand for the
presidency. But the slimness of Kamil Khoury’s victory Sunday damages
his patron Aoun’s attempts to present himself as the top Christian
politician. Gemayel got more of the Maronite vote than his rival —
75 percent, according to press reports. But Aoun’s candidate made up
for it by winning other Christians’ votes. Gemayel supporters blamed
his loss on the large ethnic Armenian community in the Metn district
and said Kamil Khoury was not representative of the Maronites, who
form a majority in the district and are the largest Christian sect
in Lebanon. Armenians are largely Catholic or Orthodox Christian.

Another election Sunday was to replace lawmaker Walid Eido, a Sunni
Muslim who was killed in a June car bombing there. A pro-government
candidate, Mohammed al-Amin Itani, won that race easily.]

LOSERS ALL: "I cannot find one single winner in Lebanon’s weekend
by-elections," writes ‘Urayb ar-Rintawi in Tuesday’s Amman daily
ad-Dustour.

They all seem to be losers! Losers! [Pro-government Maronite leader
of the Phalange Party and former president] Amin Gemayel seems to be
the greatest loser. He first inherited his parliamentary seat for the
Metn area from his uncle Maurice Gemayel in 1971. He then inherited
his brother [Bashir] as president after a powerful bomb killed him on
the threshold of Ba’abda Presidential Palace in 1982. But he failed
to inherit his own [assassinated] son, minister and MP Pierre Gemayel.

He failed despite the firm coalition between [Sunni Future Current
billionaire leader Sa’d] Hariri’s money, [Maronite Lebanese Forces’
leader] Geagea’s public, and [Druze pro-government leader] Jumblatt’s
noise, and despite the support he received from the international
community and the capitals of Arab moderation – in fact, despite
exploiting widowers and bereaved mothers as an integral part of his
‘electoral machine’ in pursuit of sympathy, solidarity, and backing
from the voters.

[Anti-government Maronite leader] General Michel ‘Aoun is the second
greatest loser. From now on, he will no longer be able to claim
to speak on behalf of 70% of the Christians – and the Maronites in
particular. The man who swept over the Christian areas in 2005 and
deserved Jumblatt’s description of him as a ‘tsunami’, could barely
get more than 400 votes more for his candidate Kamil Khouri over his
opponent Amin Gemayel.

Had it not been for the Armenian vote, Aoun would have totally lost
face. But the Armenian Tashnaq Party and Christian anti-government
leader Michel Murr saved the day for him, and inflicted a defeat
on the Phalange leader and the [anti-Syria] March 14th candidate
[Gemayel] in Btighrin (Murr’s stronghold) and Burj Hammoud (the
Armenians’ stronghold.)

MP Sa’d Hariri – a sheikh, son of a sheikh, and grandson of a sheikh –
was also among the major losers. Sunni Beirut was too lazy to go to
the ballot box in large numbers despite the intensive campaigns led by
Sheikh Sa’d personally, despite his daily and repeated invocation of
[his father, former assassinated Lebanese PM Rafiq] Hariri’s blood, and
despite the enormous financial and religious institutional mobilization
which turned Dar al-Ifta’ [the highest Sunni religious establishment
in the country] into an electoral office for the Future Current. Still,
the level of Beiruti participation in the election did not exceed 20%.

So, who won these elections? It can be said without exaggeration that
at least some Lebanese democratic traditions have won:

First, the army won by adopting neutrality and as a result of its
success in maintaining law and order which faced a genuine threat of
breaking down because of the sharp degree of polarization.

Second, the government succeeded by adopting a neutral position
– relatively, if not absolutely – despite the fact that it was a
party to the conflict. The government succeeded in carrying out its
professional duties, setting all petty calculations aside.

Third, the Lebanese justice system also succeeded in saving the ballot
boxes at the eleventh hour after they were almost cancelled due to
suspicions of electoral fraud.

Finally, and at many levels, the Lebanese people succeeded, despite
the fact that they have been split into warring communities. And this
should provide everyone with evidence of the dangers of sectarian
politics and ‘Lebanonization.’ It should provide them with evidence of
the terrible outcome of foreign intervention in the domestic affairs
of any country.

Still, Lebanon rose as a witness to political and intellectual
pluralism and to the responsible nature of its elite even when they
are at the peak of their irresponsibility. The country stands as
witness to the independence and integrity of its judiciary.

"Are there any better lessons than these for us all to learn instead
of confining ourselves to empty talk and shedding tears over the
empty half of the Lebanese cup?" asks Rintawi in conclusion.

TWO ARMENIAN BOXERS TO FIGHT FOR TITLE OF WORLD CHAMPION

Panorama.am
18:18 07/08/2007

World IBM Champion in mid-weight, Arthur Abraham, will compete with
Khoren Gevor in order to keep to his title. The two Armenian boxers are
living in Germany now. They will go on ring on August 18 in Germany.

Khoren Gevor is in the 5th place in mid-weight IBM category. "I will
do everything to win," the boxer announced after getting his right to
compete with Arthur Abraham. His coach has told Allboxing.ru "Abraham
may be defeated," also saying they have worked hard to get ready for
the battle.

‘HOT LINE’ FUNCTIONS IN RA NATURE CONSERVATION MINISTRY

arminfo
2007-08-06 16:56:00

"Hot line" started to function in RA Nature Conservation Ministry
by phone number 519182 or 523835. Having called by this number, the
citizens may efficiently inform of the fact of violation of ecological
legislation, Head of PR Department of Nature Conservation Ministry
Artsrun Pepanyan told ArmInfo.

All the citizens’ addresses will be considered. They will be given
consultations, recommendations, if necessary, and the applications will
be received. As A. Pepanyan said, the Ministry emphasizes importance
of direct public relations in order to timely suppress illegal actions
against environment.

NEW ELECTION BODY MEETS TO PICK ITS LEADERSHIP
By Ruzanna Khachatrian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 6 2007

Armenia’s new Central Election Commission (CEC) convened for the
first time on Monday to elect its leadership.

During the meeting that lasted only seven minutes, the eight-member
body unanimously elected the president-nominated representative to
the CEC, Garegin Azarian, chairman. This will be the third consecutive
term for the 46-year-old justice councilor of the second rank.

Azarian, who has been criticized by the Armenian opposition for
allegedly mishandling election processes in the country during his
two successive terms, said the overwhelming vote of confidence in
him and the other elected top commission representatives from their
colleagues gives an opportunity to "have a better preparation for
the next [presidential] elections" and improve teamwork.

In a brief conversation with reporters Azarian advocated a number of
changes in the country’s electoral code mainly concerning voting and
tabulation procedures.

"These procedures must be simplified in order to make it possible
to ensure their implementation," he said. "We proceed from the
experience that we had during the latest elections to the National
Assembly. The envisaged complex procedures give nothing, but create
additional difficulties."

Prosperous Armenia Party representative Harutiun Shahbazian and Abraham
Bakhchagulian of the Republican Party of Armenia were unanimously
elected deputy chairman and secretary of the CEC, respectively.

Anar Aliyev crossed the border because he was pensive

armradio.am
04.08.2007 14:13

`I was walking along the river, when suddenly I met soldiers. They took
me to their place. I feel normal. They talked to me today. I came here
as I was pensive. I am well. They promised to inform my family about
me. I will possibly return with mediation of International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC). Do not worry about me, I am well. Anar,’ says the
letter written by Terter resident Anar Aliyev captured on August 2 to
his family, APA Karabakh bureau reports.

The committee handed the letter to Anar’s brother. Representatives of
ICRC Nagorno Karabakh office today visited the Azerbaijani civilian
captured by Armenians.

Anar Aliyev’s father Maarif Aliyev told APA’s Karabakh correspondent
that his son suffered from nervous breakdown in the past one year.
Witnesses saw his son yesterday visit his mother’s grave at about 12.00
and walk along Terter river.

`He liked being alone and reacted very nervously to everything. We
heard that Anar was captured from media,’ he said.

Anar Aliyev is 29 years old, got higher education, did his military
service and is single. He was captured on August 2 at the contact line
of the Armed Forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

"MIKA" GOES TO THE SECOND QUALIFICATION ROUND

armradio.am
03.08.2007 15:45

On August 2 in Yerevan "Mika" of Armenian defeated MTK of Hungary 1:0
in the response game of the first qualification round of the UEFA Cup.

Artyom Adamyan scored the only goal.

As a result of the two matches "Mika" proceeded to the second
qualification round of the UEFA Cup. Its rival in the second round
will be decided through a lot.

On August 2 "Banants" of Yerevan lost 0:4 to the "Young Boys"
of Switzerland.