Author: Torgomian Varazdat

Turkish doubts over EU delays
By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul
Tuesday, 4 October 2005
“We have agreement.” They were the words Turkey had been waiting for.
When he emerged to utter them from his governing party headquarters, Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul was almost bowled over by an enormous media scrum.
So many people here had waited so long – to hear if Turkey was finally on
the road to Europe.
And now it is.
At the airport just before he boarded his flight to the long-delayed
ceremony Luxembourg, Abdullah Gul said Turkey was stepping into a new era.
But only this morning the picture looked far gloomier.
Almost every newspaper coloured its front page EU-Blue on Monday. But the
headlines were stark.
“Vienna’s Grudge!” said Sabah – its reference to the Ottoman siege of Vienna
suggesting Austria was deliberately making life difficult by insisting on
explicit mention of “privileged partnership” in the accession framework.
‘Misery and frustration’
Ankara always said that was not up for discussion.
“Historic Day!” the broadsheet Milliyet trumpeted. “Will this be remembered
as the date talks started, or a black day that severely damaged the meeting
of civilisations?”
And Vatan reflected on the public mood – saying it was far removed from the
optimism of 17 December when the EU agreed Turkey had met the criteria to
start accession talks. Today, Vatan said, we see peoples’ misery and their
frustration.
That frustration is not hard to find on the streets of Istanbul.
“I do not want to join the EU, it’s a christian club!” fumed Yavuz, a
newsagent in the heart of the European side of this city that spans two
continents. “Europe has been hypocritical since Ottoman times. They don’t
have good intentions towards us. They only want our land. They will never
take us in.”
Falling support
At the entrance to the nearby fish bazaar, fruit and veg trader Ali Osman
confessed to similar feelings.
“They don’t want us! They keep playing games. They claim we were bad to the
Kurds, they talk about the Armenians. So it will be very hard to join. But
we’ll see.”
Polls here once suggested over 70% backing for EU membership. But the
difficulties on the path so far have cooled the passions of even the most
ardent fan of Europe. Support is still strong – over 60% – but it has been
falling.
Many people now talk of EU hypocrisy, of a union that breaks its promises.
Others believe racism is what has caused them so much trouble – a reluctance
to admit a mainly Muslim country into an elite Christian club.
“I don’t feel good about the EU now,” Ayshe admitted. “They will give us
such long dates to become members. They will make us come crawling and then
wring everything out of us.”
Austria yields
But as Ankara announced a deal had finally been done, there was relief
nonetheless in Istanbul.
“I believe that as of now things will be good,” said Neslihan, enjoying an
evening drink in a smoky beerhouse.
“A lot of people claim Europe pushes Turkey too hard but I don’t believe
Turkey can be a fully democratic country unless that happens.”
“I didn’t think it would happen, but now I¿m happy,” said Deniz, in a nearby
doner kebab shop. “I thought Austria would never give up.”
But Vienna’s idea of a privileged partnership has been struck from Turkey’s
EU road map for good.
So, as Mr Gul finally flew to Luxembourg, he said he did so with his head
held high.

Pan Armenian News
ARMENIAN NPP SUSPENDED FOR TOP-UP
01.10.2005 03:01
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Beginning on today the Armenian (Metsamor) Nuclear Power
Plant (NPP) is suspended for a top-up. As Minister of Energy of Armenia
Armen Movsisyan told journalists earlier, the process will take 45 days. It
should be reminded that at the same time A. Movsisyan informed that the
Russian party represented by the RAO UES of Russia has expressed readiness
to leave the management of the financial flows of the Armenian NPP, though
the contract allowing RAO UES of Russia manage the plant for 5 years has not
expired yet. «We have not passed a decision over the matter yet and we are
not going to hurry,» stated the Minister, noting the positive role of the
Russian holding in the financial and technical rehabilitation of the Plant.
Consisting of two energy blocks totaling 815 MW, The Armenian NPP was closed
in 1988. The station second block with the capacity of 407.5 MW was again
launched in work in 1995. Since 2003 the Armenian NPP is passed for
financial management of the Inter RAO UES CJSC, which is a branch
establishment of RAO UES of Russia.

A1+
| 20:04:58 | 29-09-2005 | Regions |
GEGHARKUNIK PREPARING FOR LGB ELECTION
Candidates running for community head as well as those wishing to serve on
the community council have already prepared for the election to the local
self-government to be held in Gegharkunik region October 23.
Incumbent Mayor Gevorg Malkhasyan was the only to nominate for the post. The
number of candidates for the community council is 34. 4 of them represent
Republican Party of Armenia, 2 – ARFD, 5 United Labor Party, 1 – People’s
Party of Armenia, 1- Democratic Party and 21 are independent candidates, STV
1 reports.
The registration of the candidates will last September 28- October 3.

ORGANIZATION WORKS OF THIRD ARMENIA-DIASPORA FORUM DISCUSSED AT MEETING HELD BY RA KOCHARIAN
Noyan Tapan News Agency
Sept 29 2005
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Issues concerning
organization works of the third Armenia-Diaspora Forum were discussed
at the September 28 working meeting held by RA President Robert
Kocharian, in which the Prime Minister of the republic, NA Deputy
Chairman Vahan Hovhannisian, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs,
Culture and Youth Issues, the Chairman of the State Committee on
Physical Education and Sport, other officials participated.
President Robert Kocharian emphasized that holding of the 2006
Armenia-Disapora Forum will coincide with the 15th anniversary
of the independence of Armenia, and this will be a good occasion
for discussing the passed way and further activities with all the
Armenians.
Two months ago the head of the country instructed the Foreign Minister
to start preliminary discussions with Diasporan organizations. Robert
Kocharian said that there are already positive responses what is a
good stimulus for starting the organization works of the forum more
practically and quickly.
The President mentioned that, first, it’s necessary to fix what
was discussed at the previous forum, what was implemented and
what wasn’t. “Rather great work has been done and now practical
negotiations should be started with all organizations of Diaspora to
justify terms and regulations of the forum, and also the main slogan
should be thought about,” Robert Kocharian said.
The President mentioned that active negotiations with parties and
organizations should be started in Armenia as well for providing a
possibly wide involvement of the forum.
As Noyan Tapan was informed by the President’s Press Office, Robert
Kocharian attached importance to necessity of envisaging some money
from the year state budget for holding the forum at a high level.
Vartan Oskanian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, presented briefly
results of preliminary discussions. It was proposed to make the idea
of a practical national program of development of rural communities of
Armenia till 2010 a theme of discussian at the Armenia-Diaspora Forum,
among programs already in the process. According to the President
of the republic, the implementation of such a program will support
strengthening of rural settlements, allow to reduce to minimum
dissociation among the city of Yerevan and rural settlements.
Such a program coincides completely with the strategic program of
overcoming poverty.
The republic President instructed to start preparation works of
the third Armenia-Diaspora Forum with all its strength, to form the
working program within one-week term mentioning strictly terms of
implementation and those responsible. The President will periodically
hold discussions concerning the process of works.

GHOUKASYAN: ACTIVENESS OF INVESTORS FROM SPYURK IS ONE OF THE MAIN PLEDGES OF SOLUTION OF NKR PROBLEMS
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Sept 29 2005
On September 28 Nagorno Karabakh Republic President Arkady Ghoukasyan
met a delegation of representatives of business circles and public
organizations of Armenian community of New York headed by artistic
director of Ardzagank Armenian TV Company in the US.
According to the information De Facto got at the RA President’s press
service, the meeting’s participants discussed the issues referring
to strengthening and development of relations between NKR and Spyurk.
Having expressed his gratitude to the Armenian community of New
York for the assistance being rendered to Nagorno Karabakh the NKR
President stressed the importance of activation of Spyurk investment
activity in the Republic. According to Arkady Ghoukasyan, it is one
of the main pledges of solution of Artsakh socio – economic problems.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SNOWFLAKES AND DOUBLE AGENTS
Ranier Fsadni
Times of Malta, Malta
Sept 29 2005
Imagine setting out from Istanbul, Turkey’s city in Europe, travelling
for three days deep into Asia, only to end up on a European border. The
town is Kars, 40 years ago a thriving Turkish commercial centre
on the border with Armenia, now in decay. Once part of the Russian
empire, its dilapidated Baltic architecture is still the occasion
for novelistic rhapsody. Should Turkey enter the EU, Kars would,
of course, represent a European border.
Kars is at the centre of the most recent novel by Orhan Pamuk, the
internationally acclaimed Turkish writer, now being prosecuted in
Turkey for affirming that the Armenian genocide, still officially
denied by his country (although the government has authorised a
national conference on the subject), did take place. The novel is Snow
(Faber and Faber). In Mr Pamuk’s hands it ends up being an exploration
of Turkish identity that exploits all the ironies of the situation. In
view of the beginning of the EU’s negotiations with Turkey next Monday,
and some European objections to Turkey’s membership on the grounds
of identity, it is worth having a quick look at this complex novel.
What sets the events in motion is a blizzard that cuts off the town.
But what I am calling simply the events is a storm of plots and
subplots. The year is probably 1992. A poet, called Ka, who comes to
town in search of a woman he loves. An epidemic of suicides by young
girls who want to wear their Islamic headscarf – but whose suicides are
defying both the state and the Islamist leaders. A theatre director who
stages a coup. A novelist, called Orhan, who is trying to reconstruct
Ka’s three-day visit four years after Ka left.
Islamists and secularists argue about whether being Muslim is backward
or the only possible dignified affirmation of identity. Some of the
arguments centre on whether poverty can explain religious adherence
at the end of the 20th century. But the real poverty that the novel
diagnoses is that of communication. Kars has lost its former wealth
because the borders are closed. Worse things have happened to human
communication.
This is a novel in which any act of persuasion is – and is perceived
to be – motivated by a hidden agenda. Ka notices that everyone speaks
in a double code – even when the woman he loves and her sister speak
to their father. One code is to be understood by everyone; the other,
secret one is aimed only at an inner secret circle.
To complicate matters, no hidden agenda is considered to be purely
personal. Ka is told by the Islamist agitator, Blue, that anyone
who tries to change anyone else’s mind is an agent – an agent of the
Turkish state, the Islamists, atheist Europe, the nationalist Kurds
(a shadowy presence in the book). It turns out that even in death,
people are agents – no character involved in the central narrative dies
a natural death: they are murdered or executed (for being agents),
killed at random (transformed into victims of one side or another
in an attempted coup) or else commit suicide as a defiant gesture
against the state. At one point, Blue believes that the best way
in which he can outwit the coupists is by letting them kill him –
his death would make of him a hero and martyr, much more difficult
to control than if he took up a secret offer of safe escape.
Just as the town is swirling with snowflakes, the novel swirls with
lies, double agents, spies and informers. Lies and mimicry are the
tissue of such a social life, penetrating not just conversations but
also actions, gestures and personality. More than once, we are told
that a character strikes a pose straight out of a comic book. The
monuments to Ataturk are said to have been inspired by the poses
invented by a melodramatic actor, Sunay Zaim (the leader of the coup
in Kars, who has something of Gabriele D’Annunzio about him).
While most characters argue about identity, what becomes comically
clear is that their ideas about identity are false. The Islamists
have a mistaken idea of what Europe is – in one discussion it emerges
that only one person, apart from Ka, has visited it. Tellingly, for
all those Europeans who object to Turkey’s membership on the grounds
of Europe’s Christian roots, the Islamists object to Europe because
they consider it atheist; the only time Christianity is alluded to
is when the narrator says that like Ka he liked the “Protestant”
punctuality and service of German trains.
Meanwhile, the Turkish “secularists” emerge not as people who have
become Europeanised (as the Islamists accuse them, a charge which they
do not deny) but as Stalinists or totalitarians. Kars is portrayed
as a decayed border town infested with police informers and under the
eye of the central state’s intelligence service, with the army at bay.
The impact of this poverty of communication is twofold. First,
although many of the characters, caught between the state machinery
and the rebel cells, strike a blow for their individuality (this is
how the serial suicides by the headscarf girls are explained), most
characters appear to us as almost interchangeable doubles: the woman
Ka loves and her Islamist sister; Ka and the novelist Orhan; Sunay
Zaim and Blue; the two Islamist-poet youths, Necip and Fazil… When
Ka and Necip die, Orhan and Fazil, because of their respective losses,
become doubles of each other. The novel leaves it up to us to decide
whether the special affinity between each pair is a sign of mystical
communion or whether each pair is really one schizophrenic person.
Second, this personal schizophrenia leads to Mr Pamuk’s (the
author, not the character in the novel) portrayal of the country’s
schizophrenia. The novel does not lend itself to the usual portrayal
of a Turkey divided between Europeanised secularists and Islam. The
Islamists in this novel turn out to have much in common with the
state apparatchiks: both groups speak and think like the secret police.
The real schizophrenia, as portrayed here, is that between the
mentality of a militarised, repressive, police state and an open
mentality that seeks love rather than security and which is here
represented not just by the secular protagonist but also by a shadowy
mystical Islamic (Sufi) master.
It is a schizophrenia that affects even how the novel is written.
Much of it is in the forensic style of a police report (and reports
about reports) or autopsy. But the most lyrical passages (at least
in the English translation) are those which concern the swirling snow
that covers the town. Ka comes to compare the human lifetime to that
of a snowflake; the 19 poems that his three days in Kars inspire
drift into him like snowflakes and he organises them according to
the structure of a snowflake in preparation for publication (although
the manuscript is lost).
For Mr Pamuk to use this novel to deliver a message about Turkey’s EU
membership would have made him collude in the acts of propaganda that
the novel diagnoses with such melancholy. But what he has produced
is not just an interpretation of Turkey’s identity. It is also a
novel that has much to say about the formation of identity, anywhere,
in today’s world.

EU ambassadors meet last minute to clear obstacles ahead of Turkey talks
By CONSTANT BRAND
.c The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) – EU ambassadors meet Thursday in an effort to
overcome differences that threaten to derail the start of Turkey’s
formal EU membership negotiations – with opposition from Austria
appearing to be the biggest obstacle.
Only days before the scheduled start of talks in Luxembourg on Monday,
new strains have increased tensions with Turkey.
The European Parliament, frustrated over Turkey’s refusal to recognize
EU-member Cyprus, voted Wednesday to postpone a vote to ratify
Turkey’s customs union with the EU, a requirement of membership. The
lawmakers also called on Ankara to recognize the 1915-1923 killings of
Armenians as genocide, which Turkey vehemently denies.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately dismissed the
nonbinding European resolution on the extremely sensitive Armenian
issue, saying, “It does not matter whether they took such a decision
or not. We will continue on our way,” according to private CNN-Turk
television.
The membership talks will be a milestone for Europe and predominantly
Muslim Turkey, which has been knocking on the EU’s door since 1963. EU
leaders agreed to open accession talks with Turkey last year.
The ambassadors are working to overcome the final disagreements
because the 25-member EU must agree unanimously on a negotiating
mandate to present to Turkey at the talks. Failure would lead to a
rupture in already tense relations between Ankara and Brussels.
Austria says its people – and many others across the bloc – do not
support full membership for Turkey and is demanding that Ankara be
given the option of privileged partnership rather than full
membership. Turkey has already rejected anything less than full
membership talks.
Austria is also linking the Turkey talks with its wish to see the EU
do more to review Croatia’s now-frozen efforts to join the
bloc. Vienna argues that membership for its Balkan neighbor will help
stabilize the region.
The Croatia talks were frozen earlier this year after the EU said
Zagreb was not fully cooperating with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in
The Hague to hand over a top indicted war crimes suspect.
Britain, which holds the rotating EU presidency, is loath to link
Croatia’s EU bid to talks with Ankara. But Croatian Prime Minister
Ivo Sanader said he would be in Luxembourg on Sunday to meet with EU
officials to try to restart the talks, which were frozen in March.
Diplomats said emergency foreign ministers’ talks would be organized
on Sunday if ambassadors fail to sway Austria.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pressed his EU counterparts
Wednesday not to turn their backs on Turkey, and to allow full entry
talks to begin on time.
“It would be a huge betrayal of the hopes and expectations of the
Turkish people and of Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan’s program
of reform if, at this crucial time, we turned our back on Turkey,”
Straw said.
Turkey reiterated Wednesday that any shift from earlier promises on
full EU membership negotiations would be unacceptable.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said this week there was
support in Europe for Vienna’s demand that Turkey be given a special
relationship rather than full membership.
09/28/05 20:10 EDT

Terrorism.htm
TUFTS E-NEWS
September 16, 2005
Looking Back At Terrorism
Fletcher graduate Harout H. Semerdjian talks about the history of
international terrorism and urges world leaders to acknowledge and
learn from terror tragedies of the past.
Medford/Somerville, Mass. – While the attacks that took place on
September 11, 2001, introduced many Americans to the realities of
international terrorism, the West lags behind much of the world when
it comes to accepting it as a fact of life. In a recent opinion piece,
Fletcher graduate Harout H. Semerdjian explored the roots of
terrorism and urged global leaders to learn from terror tragedies that
their countries, and others, have endured in the past.
`The recent acts of international terrorism are a modern-day
demonstration of the deadly magnitude of terrorist objectives,
particularly as they transpire on North American and European soil,’
Semerdjian, a research associate at Harvard University’s Kennedy
School of Government, wrote in an op-ed in the Asia Times. `What we
are experiencing today, however, is not a new phenomenon in world
history.’
According to Semerdjian, terrorism, motivated by extreme religious
ideologies, has colored world history.
`For centuries, entire indigenous populations in the Middle East and
elsewhere have been exterminated in the name of religion,’ he
wrote. `While patterns of such events are not exactly the same as what
we are witnessing today in the form of Al-Qaeda-inspired violence, the
thought process behind the systematic and orchestrated murder of
innocents is.’ Semerdjian pointed out a modern-era example of the
devastating effects of terrorism in the name of religion: the 1915
massacre of Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire, which
was ruled by the Muslim Turks.
`The outcome was one of the worst quantitative measures of terror and
genocide in human history, resulting in the massacre of 1.5 million
people and the destruction of an astounding 4,000 Christian churches
and monasteries,’ Semerdjian wrote. `An entire people was
systematically targeted and annihilated on the grounds of their
religion and what it represented in the confines of the Islamic
empire.’
Semerdjian added that, for the most part, the West ignored this act of
terror, which he considers `a calculated result of Turkish nationalism
and racist policies of Turkification.’ Today, in fact, Turkey is a
member of NATO and an ally of the United States in the Middle East, he
explained.
`It is in this very context of alliance that the United States should
expose this dark chapter in world history and require Turkey to own up
to its Ottoman past, and hence secure a more reliable partner in the
region,’ he said.
According to Semerdjian, it is incumbent upon world leaders, including
President George W. Bush, to examine the history of terrorism in order
to fight against it.
`The events of the last century and particularly in the last decade
should embolden the West’s commitment to fighting worldwide
terrorism. This, however, can not be done without careful
consideration of the historical development of today’s problems,’ he
stated.
While Bush is on the right track in terms of combating terrorism,
Semerdjian said, the president needs to `match that resolve with an
equal will to understand its real causes and to remedy some of its
most blatant manifestations through clear recognition.’
`We need to strengthen this effort by promoting education and
knowledge about historic and current issues of vital importance. The
key in countering current acts of violence lies in understanding and
absorbing lessons of history and helping to set the historical record
straight,’ he said. `Our fortitude and capacity to acknowledge past
acts of terror will assist our current efforts in countering
terrorism. Our global partners in this effort deserve our assistance
and support, as well as the chance to benefit from our own
introspection.’
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA INTERESTED IN STATIONING RUSSIAN MILITARY BASES – KOCHARIAN
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 28 2005
Armenia is interested in stationing of Russian military bases in
its territory, as the country is situated in a complicated and
conflict-affected region, its President Robert Kocharian has said.
The deployment of Russian bases in Armenia is envisioned by the
country’s security concept, Kocharian said in a news conference in
Yerevan on Tuesday.
He noted that the Russian arms were earlier moved from Georgia to
Armenia in accordance with the agreement reached by the two countries.*

Turkish protest over genocide conference
The Guardian, UK
Nicholas Watt, European editor
Monday September 26, 2005
Turkey avoided a damaging row with the EU on free speech at the weekend when
a conference on the Armenian genocide was finally held in Istanbul after the
organisers circumvented a court ban.
With a week to go until Turkey opens formal membership talks with the EU,
academics broke new ground by discussing the extent of the killings of
Armenians by Ottoman Turkish troops from 1915-23.
Nationalists threw eggs and tomatoes at participants as they arrived at the
city’s Bilgi University. Waving Turkish flags and chanting slogans, they
accused academics at the conference of betraying the nation by discussing
claims that Ottoman Turkish troops were responsible for the genocide of 1.5
million Armenians.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, agrees with the
nationalists’ claim that Turkish forces were not responsible for genocide in
the dying years of the Ottoman empire. But he was delighted the conference
took place – avoiding a row about free speech with the EU before membership
talks next Monday. The European commission accused the Turkish judiciary of
a “provocation” on Friday after an Istanbul court prevented the conference
from opening. Ankara’s opponents in the EU, who are this week likely to
offer reluctant support for a framework for the membership talks, would have
been strengthened if the ban had succeeded.
But the conference organisers, who postponed the event in May after a
government minister declared that claims of genocide amounted to treason,
circumvented the ban by moving to a new venue.
The Turkish media welcomed the successful staging of the conference.
“Another taboo is destroyed. The conference began but the day of judgment
did not come,” said the Milliyet daily.
Turkey’s supporters in the EU will be relieved that the Turkish government
opposed the court order and was prepared to defend free speech. But Abdullah
Gul, the foreign minister, stood by the the official explanation that many
citizens of the Ottoman empire suffered terribly during the war. Claims of
an Armenian genocide were false, he insisted. “The Turkish people are at
peace with themselves and with their history,” Mr Gul was quoted by Reuters
as saying.
,3604,1578139,00.html