Author: Torgomian Varazdat

TURKISH NGOS REACH CONSENSUS OVER ARTICLE 301

NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Feb 5 2007

The NGO grouping said that their proposed amendments to article 301
would be released on February 8.

Guncelleme: 18:49 TSÝ 05 Þubat 2007 PazartesiISTANBUL – Turkish
non-governmental organisations have decided on a common position over
proposals to amend a controversial article of the Turkish Penal Code
seen as limiting freedom of speech.

According to Davut Okukcu, the chairman of the Economic Developments
Foundation, the current state of article 301, which covers the crime
of insulting Turkish identity, was confusing, vague and open to debate.

This had resulted in different understandings among the executioners
of law, he said.

The aim of NGOs was to contribute to the removal of the mentioned
article from Turkey’s agenda and to help end the chaotic atmosphere,
Okukcu said.

The Turkish government has signalled its willingness to change the
article after Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated
last month. Dink had been convicted under article 301 after being found
guilty of insulting Turkish identity, a charge he strongly denied.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had stressed that if the NGOs
failed to produce a proposal, the government would go ahead with
their scheme on alterations to the article.

–Boundary_(ID_ubra6Y/gkx43YR/7KfBJ3Q)–

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 2 2007

Touching the surface of the deep state

by FATMA DISLI

Everyone is diving into the "deep state" debates in Turkey, ignited
by the murder of journalist Hrant Dink and recent statements by Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan. In a conversation with journalists,
the prime minister complained about the deep state in Turkey and said
it was an old phenomenon. He also said that it was crucial for the
judiciary, legislative and executive powers to work together to fight
against the deep state. Those statements shifted everyone’s focus
onto the deep state in Turkey. The prime minister’s statements also
made him the target of criticisms as some accused Erdoðan of seeking
political benefits ahead of the presidential elections. Some claimed
that Erdoðan had no right to complain about the existence of the deep
state in Turkey as the head of the government in this country.
Mostly, everyone is talking about the deep state.
Star’s Mehmet Altan talks about the ineffectiveness and negligence of
state organs regarding Dink’s murder because of reports they were
informed about a plot to assassinate Dink a year ago. He disagrees
with Erdoðan in that the judiciary, executive and legislative powers
should work in coordination to fight against the deep state. "The
Turkish public should impose pressure on the judiciary, executive and
legislative to bring down the ‘gangs’ within them because we observe
that the state organs and institutions cannot rid themselves of the
gangs by their own will. Unfortunately, we will continue to observe
this," Altan asserts.
Vatan’s Mehmet Tezkan thinks that it has become a tradition in Turkey
to refer to the deep state after the assassinations of important
figures. He recalls the debates after the attack on the State Council
and urges that the deep state has become a scapegoat. He claims the
issue of dark murders in this country cannot be closed just by
referring to the deep state. Tezkan also acknowledges that the
negligence of relevant persons or organizations played a major role
in such incidents, just as it did in the murder of Hrant Dink.
Radikal’s Türker Alkan basically agrees with Erdoðan on tackling the
deep state structure in Turkey in that the judiciary, executive and
legislative powers should act in coordination. Alkan thinks it is
necessary to take more concrete and realistic steps to tackle the
deep state. "Steps for democratization come first," says Alkan. For
example he mentions supporting non-governmental organizations,
strengthening the media, abolishing Article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code (TCK), and restricting immunity. He thinks such steps will help
fight against the deep state in Turkey.
Yeni Þafak’s Fehmi Koru recalls recent deep state issues such as the
murder of Catholic priest Andrea Santoro, the Council of State attack
and finally Dink’s murder. Koru explains that in all these cases the
perpetrators or their masterminds were found and their motives were
known by everybody. "So, it is possible to get the bigger picture by
departing from the organizations around these three attacks to find
the extensions of the organization within the state," asserts Koru.
He hopes that the opportunity to reveal these links will not be
missed this time.

AKI, Italy
Jan 30 2007

TURKEY: CIVIL SOCIETY TO MOBILISE AGAINST ‘OFFENDING TURKISHNESS’ LAW

Istanbul, 30 Jan. (AKI) – Turkish non-govermental organisations,
labour unions and other civil society groups are expected to meet
later this week to prepare a proposal for the scrapping of a
controversial law that makes it a crime to ‘offend Turkishness’ by
citing the early 20th century genocide of Armenians under the
Ottomans. The meeting which is likely to take place in Ankara on
Friday comes in the wake of the 19 January assassination of a
prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist.

Hrant Dink, who frequently went on trial for condemning the mass
killing of Armenians by Turks, was shot dead by a 17-year-old boy in
Istanbul. Civil rights activists say the killing was inspired by
ultra-nationalists who use the controversial ‘offend Turkishness’
article 301 in the penal code to whip up hatred against those who
speak out on the Armenian genocide.

Following Dink’s funeral on January 23 when tens of thousands of
people marched in Istanbul to pay homage to the murdered journalist
and in the name of freedom of expression, Turkey has experienced a
groundswell of opposition to article 301. Civil society groups have
since decided to take up prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer
to review proposals for the 301’s amendment or scrapping.

Groups working on the proposal include the Ankara Bar Association
which will host Friday’s proposed meeting, the confederation of
Turkish Labour Unions, the Union of Notaries, the Turkish Public
Workers Union, the Civil Servants Trade Union, the Turkish Union of
Engineers and the Chamber of Architects, the Turkish Doctors Union,
the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions, the Turkish Union of
Chambers and Commodities Exchanges and the Turkish Penal Code
Association.

"The government is passing the ball but it should not. This is the
political responsibility of government and we will send the ball
back," said Ozdemir Ozakman president of Ankara’s Bar Association.

After the meeting a committee will be established and this committee
will meet Justice Minister Cemil Cicek – who personally favours the
retention of 301 – as well as Erdogan.

The European Union – which is in membership talks with Turkey –
proposed some amendments last year but they were turned down by
Ankara.

Observers say that even an amendment to the law would be a difficult
move for Erdogan’s government which is counting on the nationalist
vote in elections slated for November.

(Vah/Aki)

Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 30 2007

Oktay Eksi: Football chants in the wake of Hrant’s death

Let the Prime Minister have some vision. Let him deal not only with
Turkey’s various troubles, but with world problems. Let him show
other countries the true path in life….

These are wonderful wishes, are they not?

Clearly Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan must have felt this
desire, as he left to join in the African Union summit taking place
in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. He sprinkled delegates there
with great words showing a "wide-scoped vision."He drew attention in
to the ever-widening gap between the West and the Islamic world. He
called on African leaders to support the Alliance of Civilizations
project.

Interestingly though, just at the moment he was making this call for
support, his own country, Turkey, was under the siege of those who
would like to divide our nation into enemy camps, polarized by their
hatred and intolerance for eachother.

According to news this week, the usual chants heard at football games
were not enough for the fans who came to watch Trabzonspor play
Kayserispor over the weekend. The rally leaders at the match, whose
job is to yell directive chants over their megaphones, took up the
well-known chant of "Those who don’t stand up are Fenerbahce fans!"
and turned it instead into "Those who don’t stand up are Armenians!"

It is clear that the intent of these chants was not to "provoke" but
to outright "insult."

Ok, so you might respond to this by saying "What, you think that’s
something? There are usually such insults raining down on those
stadium seats that you could never repeat them at your home or to
your children!"

But I would point out that one of the peculiar attributes of those
stadium chants is that they are of the variety that can be forgotten
and left behind at the stands of the stadium. But is this "Armenian"
chant really of that variety?

Next we learn that even more worrisome things took place at football
matches in Adana and Malatya, also this weekend.

So let’s say that the reactions we saw at the Adana match were
directly in response to the banners at Hrant Dink’s funeral which
read "We are all Hrant Dink" and "We are all Armenian," which is why
Adana fans unfurled banners reading "We are all Mustafa Kemal" and
"We are all Turkish!"

But what can we say about the Malatya match? At this match, which was
between Malatyaspor and Elazigspor, there were reportedly around 400
Elazigspor fans chanting "Armenian Malatya!" before the game. (This
chant being of course a reference to the fact that Hrant Dink was
born in Malatya.) They they opened up banners reading "We are neither
Armenian nor from Malatya. We are from Elazig. We are Turkey lovers!"

You can play football at a match, but you can’t-or shouldn’t-play
with peoples’ patriotism. Because playing with patriotism means
playing with fire. And the types of people who fill football stadium
stands anyway are the types very open to provocation.

To be clear about it, we are being pulled towards exactly the sort of
backdrop desired by those who would have the people of our country
turn on eachother. We are trying hard to misunderstand eachother. For
example, we are thrilled when Germans protesting the burning down by
racists of a Turkish family’s house in the German city of Solingen
hit the streets in protest carrying signs saying "We are all
Turkish," but it is another story altogether when we do the same
things after Hrant Dink’s death. We are pushing our society towards
polarization. And in doing so, we are harming our nation.

To wit, though it’s wonderful that the Prime Minister is looking for
solutions in Africa, doesn’t he also need to sweep his own front door
step right about now?

The New Anatolian, Turkey
Jan 30 2007

Ultranationalism is the real threat
Ilnur Cevik

[email protected] January 2007

We all love our country and we want the best for Turkey. Those of us
who live for long periods abroad especially in places of depravity
like northern Iraq appreciate the value of Turkey and its huge
potential more than some others.

So we are all patriots who want this country to prevail and emerge as
the giant of its region. We are proud to see our country is well on
its way of achieving this goal as an island of stability and
prosperity in a volatile region.

But it seems there are those who do not want this and are trying to
stall Turkey. They have used all kinds of tactics in the past and are
now using ultranationalist fervor to block us. It is really
unfortunate that they are effectively manipulating young people and
so-called nationalism to achieve this.

It was more than a year ago when we warned everyone that the
so-called ultranationalists were being armed in Turkey against Kurds.
At the time our warnings we were criticized by many colleagues as
being sensationalist. But developments in recent months have shown
how accurate we were…

It is very sad that young people are being armed in the name of a
"nationalist" cause and then let into the streets to kill people who
they perceive as "traitors."

This is how journalist Hirant Dink was murdered.

There are circles in Turkey who are "innocently" pointing the finger
at all of us, making us the targets of these extremists.

The situation is getting so out of hand that the extremists now are
regarding the conservative Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of Devlet
Bahceli as too soft and are seeking to create a political force that
is more to the extreme right.

Many of our colleagues forcefully opposed the murder of Dink, who was
of Armenian origin, and just to underline their support for him said,
"We are all Armenians." The so-called nationalists used this as a
pretext to launch a new offensive, saying such statements amounted to
treason. A man calling himself a patriot hijacked a ferry to protest
our people calling themselves "We, too, are Armenians" and later on
it became apparent that this "patriot" was in fact a military draft
dodger…

A group of former politicians quit the MHP and joined the Grand Unity
Party (BBP), which they felt was farther to the extreme right. They
said the MHP had not shown enough sensitivity to back the killers of
Dink…

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently tried to win votes
for his party by courting nationalist ideals. We hope the recent
events are a wake-up call for the prime minister that he is playing
with fire…

Those who have displayed so much sensitivity in the past about
religious movements and so-called Muslim fundamentalist activities
should now show the same sensitivity about the rise in
ultranationalism, which is the real internal threat in Turkey.

Holy Service in St. Etchmiadzin on the occasion of the Army Day

armradio.am
29.01.2007 14:37

January 28 a Holy Liturgy was served in the Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin on the occasion of the Army Day and the 15th anniversary of
the Armenian Army.

The ceremony was attended by Heads of Armenian Dioceses, senior
leadership of the Armenian Army, RA Defense Minister Serge Sargsyan,
soldiers and pious people.

The Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II offered his blessing and
congratulation to all the commanders and soldiers of the Armenian Army.
He wished them to get even stronger to be able to carry out their
service to Motherland with glory and honor. His Holiness called on
Armenians to pray to God, asking peace for the Armenian land, power and
firmness to the Army and God’s blessing for all Armenians.
After the Holy Service the clergymen and the Army Officers participated
in an official reception.

During the reception the Catholicos of All Armenians awarded `St.
Nerses Shnorhali’ orders of the Armenian Apostolic Church to the head
of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, Colonel General
Mikhael Harutyunyan and NKR Defense Minister, Lieutenant General Seyran
Ohanyan.

NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan congratulates people on Army Day

ArmRadio.am
27.01.2007 12:50

Chairman of RA National Assembly Tigran Torosyan issued a message on
the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Armenian National Army.

Public Relations Department of the National Assembly informs that the
message says, in part,

`Dear compatriots,

Fifteen years ago it could seem unbelievable that the military
divisions defending Artsakh could turn into the best, the most
efficient army in the region. Today it is an undeniable fact.

The joy and pride of having an army that has overcome all the
challenges of war and peace is another opportunity to pay the tribute
of deep respect and gratitude to the memory of those who fell on the
heroic way of development of the Armenian Army ` the guarantor of
freedom, security and integrity of our Motherland.

I congratulate our people, officers and soldiers on the occasion of
the 15th anniversary of our glorious army.’

AGREEMENT ON SALE OF CONVERSEBANK TO BE SIGNED SOON

YEREVAN, JANUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN. The agreement on purchase of
Conversebank (Armenia) will be signed soon. With this aim Argentinian
Armenian businessman Eduardo Ernekian, President of American
International Airports company, who intends to become the bank’s owner,
arrived in Yerevan on January 26. NT correspondent was informed about
it from a reliable soource. Director of Conversebank Artak Hanesian
told NT correspondent that negotiations started in November 2006 and
"next week it will be clear if the bank will be sold or not." To recap,
Conversebank was founded in 1993. At present 85% of the bank’s
authorized capital is share of non-residents: 48.7% shareholder of the
bank is Hunsotrade Ltd headed by Emad Mtanyus Khurin. 36.3% is owned by
Modalal Matnyus Khurin and 15% by Smbat Nasibian, former director of
the bank. In 1998, Conversebank became a shareholder of Artsakh Bank
and Armincasatsia companies. Last year, the bank’s overall capital grew
by 6.5% to 26.4 mln USD. In 2006, Conversebank’s net profit amounted to
3.9 mln USD, while its assets were reduced by 15% and made 97.8 mln USD
as of January 1, 2007. The bank’s authorized capital of 3.5 mln USD has
not changed.

Washington DC area Armenian Americans condemn assassination of Hrant Dink

ArmRadio.am
25.01.2007 10:26

Some 100 Armenian Americans from throughout the Greater Washington DC
area braved the snow and freezing temperatures to honor slain Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink and call on the Turkish Government to end its 92
year international campaign of Armenian Genocide denial. The vigil was
organized the ARF Washington Sebouh Gomideh, ANC of Greater Washington,
and AYF Washington Ani Chapter.

The crowd gathered in front of the Turkish Embassy just two days after
Dink, a respected journalist and free speech advocate, was gunned down
outside his "Agos" newspaper office in Istanbul, Turkey. Dink had long
been persecuted by the Turkish government for his calls for Armenian
Genocide recognition, and was convicted last year for "insulting
Turkishness" under Turkey’s notorious Article 301 law restricting free
speech. Nobel prize winner Orhan Pamuk, publisher Ragip Zarakolu and
novelist Elif Shafak are just some of the many writers who have also
been prosecuted according to the same repressive law.

During remarks at the vigil, AYF Ani Chapter chairman Serouj Aprahamian
stated, "Many are saying that Dink was killed by ultranationalists
who considered his statements to be insulting Turkey’s honor and
threatening its unity. But this is not just the position of some
so-called ‘ultranationalists’; it is the official position of the
Turkish government which prosecuted and condemned Dink for his stance
on the Armenian Genocide." Aprahamian continued to note that, "It is
the shameless policy of Genocide denial perpetrated by Ankara which is
the real problem and that is what we must continue to fight against."

Other speakers at the vigil included ANCA Executive Director Aram
Hamparian and Father Sarkis Aktavoukian, pastor of the Soorp Khatch
Armenian Church, who led the vigil participants in prayer in memory
of Dink. In a statement issued immediately upon news of Dink’s
assassination, Hamparian noted that, ""Hrant Dink’s murder is tragic
proof that the Turkish government – through its campaign of denial,
threats and intimidation against the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide – continues to fuel the same hatred and intolerance that
initially led to this crime against humanity more than 90 years ago."

Turkish Daily News , Turkey
Jan 24 2007

Police arrests one more ‘brother’
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

Investigating a third layer of involvement in the Hrant Dink murder,
a new "brother," Elazig-born Erhan T. was arrested in Trabzon two days
ago and brought to Istanbul yesterday, daily Hurriyet reported. By
snatching Erhan T. the police reached the "third circle" of the
investigation, it was reported. Together with suspected murderer
Ogun Samast and Yasin Hayal – the "brother" who had given the gun to
Samast according to his police confession – Erhan T. is thought to
be the third person of the link.

Hayal confessed to the police that he charged Samast to kill Dink
"to save the honor of Turkey." According to reports, Hayal said he
was influenced by Erhan T. who told him "to act on Dink" as soon as
possible. This confession led the police to Erhan T., a university
student in Trabzon.

Police sources said that Erhan T. is also suspected to be behind
the murder of Italian Priest Santoro in Trabzon in 2004. Police are
investigating the similarities between the Dink case and the Santoro
murder, they said.

On the other hand, security forces are under criticism for negligence
over Hayal, who bombed McDonalds in Trabzon in 2004.

Hayal, served 11 months in prison for the bombing that injured six
people. Hayal declared, "I will be in prison for three years, then I
will bomb the Russian Embassy and HSBC." His sentence was not even
three years because none of the wounded pressed charges. He became
a hero amongst Trabzon youth as he reportedly intended to be.

Security officials, however, blamed changes in the Turkish Penal Code
(TCK) made in to harmonize with European Union laws. Trabzon Police
Chief Reşat Altintay emphasized that the changes make it difficult
to follow and investigate people.

As the investigation continues, another claim is that Samast was
only bait. According to Sabah, a top ranking official said: "The
organization had the murderer seen on purpose. It wants to give the
impression that the case is solved."

Colleagues of Dink also claimed after the murder that Dink was
receiving serious warnings of threats from various circles including
a deputy governor of Istanbul and a former military official and that
he had applied to the Şişli Prosecutor about those threats.

Dink’s lawyer Erdal Dogan claimed that retired Brig. Gen. Veli Kucuk
was among the names that had threatened the Armenian journalist. In
a press conference in front of the Agos newspaper on Saturday, Dogan
said: "Dink had been receiving threats for two-and-a-half years. The
name that worried him most was Veli Kucuk.

But this is not an an aspersion (misleading charge meant to harm
his reputation)."

Kucuk denied the accusations and said, "I will file a complaint
to the Istanbul Bar Association against Dogan because of his false
declaration." Kucuk was known widely as one of the suspects of the
Susurluk case, which involved a car accident that drew attention to
a secret state organization. Kucuk refused to speak in the Susurluk
trial and was acquitted.