Author: Torgomian Varazdat

AZERIS WAGING PROPAGANDA WAR IN BUDAPEST
Azg/arm
18 Feb 05
Nazeli Vardanian, representative and lawyer of Gurgen Margarian in
Budapest, and Hayk Demoyan, representative of RA Defense Ministry,
historian, organized a press conference at the Press Hall of RA Public
Radio, on February 16. Hayk Demoyan began his speech by touching upon
the disinformation spread by the Armenian Mass Media. They were told
in Budapest that Haylour program of RA Public TV informed that Gurgen
Margarianâ~@~Ys parents were going to participate in the February 8
court hearing and that wasnâ~@~Yt true. While Aravot newspaper wrote
that Safarov, the murderer, is likely to be sentenced to 10-12 years
of imprisonment, while it was stated for many times that he may be
sentenced to life imprisonment.
Nazeli Vardanian reminded that the February 8 court hearing was
delayed because the Azeri side wanted to invite to the court as
witnesses the Azeri officer and the Lithuanian officer that lived
in the same room with Hayk Mukuchian. But none of them came to the
court. According to the message sent by the Azeri defense minister,
the first witness got his head injured and should undergo a treatment
in Turkey. He will participate in the May 10 court hearing.
The Lithuanian officer will be present at the September 27 court
hearing, as the message sent to him was sent back, being written in
Hungarian. According to the court, some 5 months will be needed for
officially ratifying the translation into Lithuanian.
The Lawyer said that they secured the presence of a translator for
the murderer from the beginning of the trial, as Safarov, who spoke
Russian during the exam, said that he doesnâ~@~Yt speak Russian
in the course of the first court hearing of the trial, demanding
translation in Turkish. While, in the course of this hearing he
stated that he didnâ~@~Yt understand the translator of Turkish and
demanded a translator of Azerbaijani. In some minutes he stated that
he doesnâ~@~Yt understand Azerbaijani as the translator translates
badly. After hesitating over choosing one of the two translators,
the court hearing continued in Turkish.
After settling the issues concerning the translation of the documents,
the court listened to the speech of the court psychologist and
psychiatrist. They said that, according to the examination that
lasted four days, Safarov is sane and physically healthy and he
was quite conscious of his actions when he hit the Armenian officer
with an ax. In the course of the first interrogation he said that
he will murder another Armenian in 100 years, too. In one word,
Safarov gave a militant answer to all the questions. Thus, the Azeris
failed to represent him as irresponsible of the murder. They hired
a well-known lawyer for Safarov for an hour and he requested for
inviting a psychologist from Azerbaijan. The request of the lawyer was
immediately declined. By the court decision, the double court-medical
investigation will be carried out by the Hungarian specialist only. The
results of the investigation will be represented in the course of
the May 10 court hearing. If some contradiction appears in one of
two court-medical investigation, the results of the investigations
will be reconsidered by the supreme medical committee.
Nazeli Vardanian explained the attempts of the Azeri side to delay
the trial with the fact that Safarov was accused by the second part
of article #166. The first part of the article envisages 10-15 years
of imprisonment, while the second part of the article envisages 10-15
years of imprisonment or life imprisonment. Thus, the Azeris try to
replace the second part of the article with the first one and spare
no efforts to represent Safarov as an insane
Hayk Demoyan added that Azerbaijan opened an embassy in Budapest that
has no Armenian community and began “bombing” the court with political
materials only. He said that the Azeris failed in the case of Safarov,
as the Hungarians are not interested in political issues. They are
surprised at the fact that a murderer becomes a national hero and
receives a pension.
By Ruzan Poghosian
–Boundary_(ID_YQQVVJPyMToYu4+hxXQ09w)–

WEST-LEANING OPPOSITION PARTY LEADER CALLS FOR IDEOLOGICAL UNITY
ArmenPress
Feb 16 2005
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS: Hovhannes Hovhanesian, the chairman
of a recently emerged west-bending Liberal Progressive party, told a
news conference today that talks with the Hanrapetutyun (Republic )
Party of Aram Sarkisian and Zharangutyun (Heritage) party of Armenia’s
first post-Soviet foreign minister Raffi Hovhanesian on forming a new
pro-western opposition would end soon, but stopped short of saying
whether any progress was reached.
A new opposition format is being strongly opposed by Stepan Demirchian,
who is still considered as the top leader of the Ardarutyun (Justice)
opposition alliance, made up of nine parties. According to local
observers, Demirchian is opposed to the idea for fear of losing his
status of Armenia’s number one opposition politician.
Hovhannes Hovhanesian, a former chairman of a parliament committee on
foreign relations, accused today Ardarutyun of failing to consolidate
its positions and slammed also the authorities for their inability
to comprehend the role of opposition in a democratic society.
“The opposition has to get united and present its ambitions to the
people,” he said, arguing also that the new opposition should be
cemented by the same ideology.
Asked to comment on a recent announcement by the leader of the Armenian
New Times party Aram Karapetian, that he was going to stage a national
revolution in spring this year, Hovhanesian said: “every political
figure has his own vision of how the country should move forward.”

PRESS RELEASE
FEBRUARY 11, 2005
UCLA Armenian Graduate Students Association
Graduate Students Association
c/o Armenian Graduate Students Association
Kerckhoff Hall Room 316
308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Contact: Gevork Nazaryan
E-mail: [email protected]
Website:
THIRD ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENT COLLOQUIUM IN ARMENIAN STUDIES AT UCLA
The UCLA Armenian Graduate Students Association invites the public
to the third annual, international Graduate Student Colloquium in
Armenian Studies at UCLA on Friday, February 25, 2005. this day-long
academic event will begin at 9:15 AM and be held in the famous Royce
Hall, room 314.
This year the organizing committee has set out to continue the fine
tradition that began in 2003 with the launching of the first-ever
international colloquium in Armenian Studies developed specifically
for graduate students by graduate students. UCLA, a premier institution
for the growing field of Armenology and a leader in interdisciplinary
studies, is hosting this event to further foster the development of
Armenian Studies, facilitate interaction between graduate students and
faculty from various institutions, provide a medium for the exchange
of ideas, and contribute to the professional and academic advancement
of graduate students.
Studies from multiple fields will be presented, including history,
political science, law, linguistics, literature, architecture, and
art history. Topics to be presented are grouped within the following
sessions: Comparative Studies in Ancient and medieval Armenian Culture,
Modern Armenian History, Issues in Contemporary Armenian Politics, and
Modern Armenian Literature. . Presenters are graduate students coming
from universities and countries all around the world, including UCLA,
Cal State Northridge, Florida International University, University
of Chicago, University of Miami, Villanova University, University
of Michigan, Ca’ Foscari U. (Italy), Central European University
(Hungary), University of London (UK), and multiple institutes within
the Republic of Armenia. Also, these presenters will have post-event
publicity appearances on the television shows Student Reflections and
Grakan Eter, both of which will air on the Horizon channel on Saturday,
February 26th, 2005.
This year, the organizing committee was led by Talar Chahinian,
a graduate student in Comparative Literature. She was joined by a
number of graduate student veterans from the 2003 and 2004 GSCiAS,
as well as faculty advisor, Dr. Peter Cowe. Graduate students from
across many disciplines were responsible for the individual aspects of
developing the event. This ranged from financing to program scheduling,
facilities and refreshments to travel and accommodations, as well as
both academic and media public relations.
Armenian Studies at UCLA began in 1960. The discipline was augmented
in 1962 with the appointment of Dr. Richard G. Hovannisian, current
holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern
Armenian History. In 1965, language and literature was established
on a permanent footing with the arrival of Dr. Avedis K. Sanjian,
who guided the expansion of this area over the next three decades.
The Narekatsi Chair, founded in 1969 through the efforts of National
Association for Armenian Studies and Research, has the distinction
of being the oldest endowed chair at UCLA. The first chair-holder
was Dr. Sanjian and in July 2000 Dr. S. Peter Cowe was appointed
as successor. Since 1997 regular instruction in East Armenian has
complemented teaching in West Armenian: currently Dr. Anahid Keshishian
is lecturer in the former and Dr. Hagop Kouloujian in the latter.
In 1998, Armenian Studies was officially recognized as an undergraduate
minor and currently proposals are underway to institute the major.
The Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies is yet another step
in the development of the rich tradition of Armenian Studies at UCLA.
Organized by graduate students, for graduate students, it provides
an opportunity for students to actively and significantly contribute
to the academic environment on campus.
The colloquium is made possible, in part, by the financial
contributions of a number of departments, programs, and centers at
UCLA including the departments of Near Eastern languages and Cultures,
Slavic Languages and Literatures and Art History, the Indo-European
Inter-departmental program, the Center of European and Eurasian
Studies, as well as Graduate Division of the UCLA administration.
The Society for Armenian Studies has also pledged its financial support
for the colloquium. Last, but by no means least, the committee also
received financial support from the campus fund, the Campus Programs
Committee.
The event is free of charge and open to the public.

The Independent, UK
February 12, 2005
CLASSICAL: BBC PHILHARMONIC
by Stuart Price
The young Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan renews his
association with the BBC Philharmonic this evening, in an all-Russian
programme helmed by Gianandrea Noseda (left), the orchestra’s
principal conductor and a guest conductor at Valery Gergiev’s Kirov
in St Petersburg. The 19-year- old is soloist in Shostakovich’s
Violin Concerto No 1, a work written for the Jewish violinist David
Oistrakh in 1948 that remained unperformed while Stalin was alive;
its quoting of Jewish melodies was a comment on the anti-semitism of
the Soviet state. The concert opens with Shostakovich’s orchestration
of the Prelude to Mussorgsky’s unfinished opera, Khovanshchina, and
concludes with Scriabin’s Symphony No 3, The Divine Poem. In a talk
at 6.30pm, the Independent’s Lynne Walker is in conversation with the
music writer David Nice about the work of Scriabin.
Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley St, Manchester (0161-907 9000)
tonight, 7.30pm, pounds 7-pounds 28

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Contact: V. Rev. Fr. Krikor Chiftjian, Communications Officer
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:
PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon
Armenian version: In Armenian.htm#20
SPIRITUAL RETREAT IN THE SEMINARY
OF THE CATHOLICOSATE OF CILICIA
The 40 days long Great Lent period started in the Seminary of the
Catholicosate of Cilicia during the “Day of spiritual retreat” on Monday,
the 7th of February. This has become a tradition in the Seminary, where
students get ready for the Great Lent through a special program of lectures
and meditation. The theme of this year’s program was “The 75th anniversary
of the Seminary: A challenge for renewal.”
As established by tradition, the seven services of the Armenian Church were
held on the “Day of spiritual retreat”. Fr Bartev Gulumian, the Dean, spoke
about the significance of the day and the importance of nourishing the soul.
He also highlighted the importance of the 75th anniversary of the Seminary.
Lectures were given by V Rev Fr Yeghishee Mangigian, Fr Masdots Tchobanian
and Fr Bartev Gulumian. The lecturers emphasized the importance of renewal,
especially in the lives of today’s youth. They presented the Seminary as an
institution with 75 years of experience and one which renews the young
people who have a calling for serving.
Spiritual life plays an important role in the Seminary, an institution the
principle task of which is to prepare young people determined to serve the
church.
##
The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Seminary of
the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of the
Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

The Tablet , UK
Feb 11 2005
Lead Book Review – 12 February 2005
The encounters that cause sparks to fly
Holy Fire
Victoria Clark
Macmillan, £20
Tablet bookshop price £18.
My wife was recently asked by the accident and emergency department
of a London hospital to complete a form requiring her – in addition to
the usual enquiries about ethnicity, religion, blood group and so on –
to state her “cultural identity”. In the end she entered “Anglican”,
even though she had given the same answer to the question on religion.
The best passages in Victoria Clark’s very clever book suggest that
the NHS bureaucrat behind that form may have been on to something:
there is a dimension to our sense of identity which certainly includes
religion – or the lack of it – but encompasses all sorts of other
factors too. And if Ms Clark is right it is a thoroughly destructive
force. There is little in Holy Fire about religion as a source of
goodness, holiness or moral order; instead, poisoned by politics,
race and history – and poisoning them in return – religion in this
book is a sectarian battle standard.
Her story begins with a brawl between two clerics in one of
Christianity’s most sacred places. Within the Basilica of the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem is a tiny chapel known as the “edicule”,
built over the spot St Helena identified as Christ’s tomb. On Easter
Saturday the “Holy Fire” is said to appear miraculously within it,
and candles lit from this wondrous confirmation of Christ’s divinity
are, by ancient tradition, passed among the faithful by Jerusalem’s
Greek Orthodox Patriarch and one of the church’s Armenian Orthodox
priests. In Easter 2002 the Armenian priest decided to “hurry the
miracle along a little” with the aid of a cigarette lighter. The
Patriarch intervened, and the two came to blows. A couple of Orthodox
monks piled in to help their leader and the Israeli police had to
storm the chapel to restore order.
The incident inspires Ms Clark’s investigation of the centuries-old
war between the Christian denominations for control of the Holy
Places. Some of the stories are very funny: the Ethiopian Orthodox nuns
and monks of the Holy Sepulchre have been reduced to living in a squat
on the church’s roof, and jealously guard their territory from the
Egyptian Copts next door; when an elderly Coptic monk started taking
his afternoon snooze in a chair by the Ethiopians’ gate they suspected
him of annexation by stealth, and Israeli police were again called
to stop things turning violent. Some of the stories are dreadful:
the Holy Fire ceremony of 1834 ended with a stampede, mass suffocation
and a massacre by panicky Ottoman troops; a British observer described
the church walls “spattered with the blood and brains of those who had
been felled, like oxen, with the butt-ends of the soldiers’ bayonets”.
Holy Fire unfolds against the background of the current Palestinian
intifada, and Ms Clark moves skilfully between contemporary anecdote
and big-picture history, using the Holy Sepulchre’s story as a focus
for exploring the broader issue of Christianity’s involvement in the
Holy Land. For the most part her points are subtly made, and she allows
her characters to reveal themselves. Fr Athanasius, a Franciscan from
Texas, tells her: “What we have in that church [the Holy Sepulchre],
is not three different takes on Christianity – Orthodoxy, Catholicism
and Oriental Orthodoxy. That would be complex enough, but it’s worse
than that. The territory the church occupies and all its contents are
divided six ways on mostly tribal lines except for us Franciscans –
we’re multinational. Otherwise you’ve got Greeks, Armenians, Egyptians,
Ethiopians and Syrians.”
Explaining the “status quo” agreement which froze the
interdenominational rivalries where they were in 1852 and still
applies today, he says: “It’s important to realise that there are
three different sets of rights governing everything inside the church
and everything that happens there: rights of property, rights of use
and rights of cleaning. Having the right to clean something doesn’t
pre-suppose a right to use it, and the right to use it doesn’t
necessarily entail ownership, because ownership can be shared.”
Every so often the author’s voice intrudes when she asks her
interlocutors whether this kind of talk has very much to do with
the teaching of what she terms the “man-God” the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre is supposed to celebrate. It is gently done in the book,
but this tale encompasses centuries of petty rivalry, greed, venality,
corruption and violence in the name of Christianity.
There is a bigger point behind all this, but when Ms Clark finally
steps outside the brilliant artifice of her narrative to make it
directly it is disappointingly crude. During one of her highly
effective vignettes – a meal at which two old friends, one Jewish
and one Palestinian Christian, confront the damage done to their
relationship by the intifada – she lets us know what she really thinks:
“They are waiting for me to speak but I am suddenly overwhelmed by
the thought of Arabs and Jews dying in their hundreds and thousands
on account of mistakes made and crimes committed by a succession of
Christian powers over hundreds of years.”
So there you have it; we Christians have infected Jerusalem with what
Edward Lear called its “squabblepoison”, and we are responsible for the
world’s most intractable political problem. I found myself scribbling
“Up to a point, Lord Copper” in the margin, and this statement a couple
of paragraphs later is even more questionable. Listing the Christian
enthusiasts who contributed to the foundation of the State of Israel,
Ms Clark writes: “I suspect that if the Earl of Shaftesbury, Arthur
Balfour, Lloyd George and President Truman had not been so versed in
the Old Testament and therefore so susceptible to Jewish emotionalism
about a God-given homeland, so willing to dream the Jewish dream,
an Israel would eventually have come into being, especially given
the Nazi Holocaust, but it would not have been here.”
This huge historical assumption jars – and is at odds with the subtlety
which characterises the rest of the book. Holy Fire successfully
demonstrates that nothing relating to Jerusalem is ever simple; and
I suspect that the author has a sense that she may have overstepped
the mark here, because she plunges immediately back into the West
Jerusalem restaurant where her two friends are finishing up their
meal. But from this point the book goes downhill: the material on
Christian Zionists is perfectly respectable, but it feels familiar –
and Christian fundamentalism is too easy a target.
In her introduction, Victoria Clark writes: “My argument is that
fourth-century Byzantine Orthodoxy and twenty-first-century American
Christian Zionism are two ends of a single long continuum in the
eyes of many non-Christians. Three years on from 11 September 2001
it seems more urgent than ever that we in the traditionally Christian
West begin to see ourselves as others see us.”
I am not quite sure she makes the case she states in the first of those
sentences – but the aspiration expressed in the second is triumphantly
realised; and this is a humbling book for any Christian to read.
Edward Stourton
–Boundary_(ID_agim4QQjaupCj6zoqF6P4g)–

AzerTag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
Feb 11 2005
FOREIGN MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN VISITS MAUSOLEUM OF ATATAURK IN TURKEY
[February 11, 2005, 23:21:31]
Foreign minister of the Azerbaijan Republic now staying in Turkey has
arrived at Mausoleum (Anitgebir) of the founder of the Republic of
Turkey Mustafa Kamal Atataurk in Turkey. The Minister assigned flowers
on the temple, left notes in the book of memories, familiarized with
the exhibits in Mausoleum.
***
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov came to the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Ankara
and held a sitting here.
***
The same day, the Minister of foreign affairs of the Azerbaijan
Republic met with the state minister of Turkey Mehmet Aydin. At
the meetings, discussed were issues of the Armenia- Azerbaijan,
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, construction of oil-gas pipelines and
railway line, increase of investments of the Turkish businessmen to
economy of Azerbaijan, commodity turnover, as well as a number of
other international and regional questions.
Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Turley Mammad Aliyev and experts of the
foreign minister took part at the meeting.
***
On February 11, foreign minister of Azerbaijan left form Ankara
for Istanbul.

RECURRENT DEPORTATION OF ARMENIAN CITIZENS STAYING IN RUSSIA
ILLEGALLY HELD IN KRASNODAR
PanArmenian News
Feb 8 2005
08.02.2005 19:02
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The recurrent deportation of Armenian citizens
being in Russia on illegal basis was held in Krasnodar, reported the
Yerkramas, the newspaper of the Armenians of the south of Russia. 9
Armenian citizens were deported to the fatherland from the Krasnodar
airport. Each of them was in Russia not having an official permission
for that. By a court decision they are denied entry to Russia for the
coming 5 years. There are 3 days for registering after arrival in
Russia. Failing to fulfill this condition threatens a not very big
fine – 500 rubles. However there is another preventive measure – fine
and administrative eviction for a term of 1-5 years. At that when
making decisions Russian courts are guided by a respective federal
law and administrative code.

PREMIER OF AZERBAIJAN RECEIVES TURKISH DELEGATION
[February 08, 2005, 17:18:00]
Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
Feb 8 2005
Prime Minister of the Azerbaijan Republic Artur Rasizade on February
8 received the delegation of Turkey headed by Chairman of the Grand
National Assembly of Turkey Bulent Arinc.
Head of the Azerbaijan Government, highly estimating the established
relations between two countries, expansion and widening of which were
in focus of the nationwide leader of the Azerbaijan people Heydar
Aliyev, has underlined that the wide and expedient course continues
now.
Artur Rasizade expressed gratitude to the leadership of the Republic
of Turkey, the first state to recognize sovereignty of Azerbaijan,
for constant support of the position of Azerbaijan in the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the international
arena.
Speaking of the ongoing economic reforms, the Premier Minister
emphasized necessity of activation of the work of the
inter-governmental economic commission.
Head of the Turkish delegation Bulent Arinc, noting that fraternity
between Turkey and Azerbaijan, with its centuries-old roots is
unchangeable, also expressed satisfaction with the negotiations held
in Baku.
Vice-speaker of the Azerbaijan Parliament Ziyafet Askerov, Ambassador
of Azerbaijan to Turkey Mammad Aliyev took part at the reception.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ASBAREZ Online
TOP STORIES
02/07/2005
TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT <;HTTP:// 1) French Parliament Head Raises Genocide, Cyprus Issue During Turkey Visit 2) Rice Holds Talks in Turkey, Gives Assurances over Iraq 3) Azeri Officer's Trial to Begin on February 8 4) Three Men Arrested After Deadly Shootout in Yerevan 5) CBC Radio Provides Platform to Armenian Genocide Deniers, Say Canadian Armenian Leaders 1) French Parliament Head Raises Genocide, Cyprus Issue During Turkey Visit ANKARA (Combined Sources)--Heading a French delegation to Turkey last week, French Parliament Speaker Jean-Louis Debre addressed the Armenian genocide and Cyprus issues during his meetings with Turkish officials. With France's ruling UMP party at odds with its most prominent member--President Jacques Chirac--on the prospect of Turkey's full EU membership, Debre raised the contentious issue of the Armenian genocide during a meeting with Chairman of the EU Commission in the Turkish Parliament Yasar Yakis and other parliamentarians. Debre proposed that an independent international institution conduct research on the Armenian Genocide, stating it would be the only fair way to affirm the facts. An article in Paris's Le Monde addressed the issue, quoting Debre as telling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that "Turkey's attitude to the Armenian genocide" of 1915 "poses a real problem for France." According to Le Monde, Erdogan's response was that he was "disappointed" with "Paris's position" and "did not know that 400,000 (dead) Armenians could decide the referendum" Paris intends to hold on Ankara's membership bid. Turkish authorities, the newspaper reported, expressed willingness to "consider" a proposal which would give an international commission of historians access to its archives. Addressing the Cyprus issue, Debre said although it is impossible to stay indifferent to the request of a country with a population of 71 million to join the EU, questions such as Cyprus and Turkey's human rights record must be solved. During a joint news conference with Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc, Debre assured that both the Armenian genocide and the Cyprus problem were discussed with Erdogan. "Everything works more comfortably as long as people are in peace with their own history," Debre said. During his visit, Debre also met with Armenian Patriarch of Turkey Archbishop Mesrob Mutafyan. Archbishop Mutafyan expressed, "Together with all the other non-Muslim minorities in Turkey, our Patriarchal See and the Turkish Armenian community support the accession of Turkey into the European Union." He added that Armenians also support the process in hopes that it might bring the long-awaited peace not only between Turkey and Armenia, but also among all countries in the region. 2) Rice Holds Talks in Turkey, Gives Assurances over Iraq ANKARA (AFP)--US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who held talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara, was quick to assure wary ally Ankara that its concerns over the future of neighboring Iraq are not being ignored. Rice, on a whirlwind tour of eight European capitals, Israel, and the West Bank, met with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and was also to hold talks with her counterpart Abdullah Gul. Rice's visit follows harsh warnings from Ankara that Washington is turning a blind eye to Kurdish moves in northern Iraq aimed at paving the way for future Kurdish independence in the region. The accusations come at a time when the two NATO allies are already struggling to repair their ties in the wake of a severe diplomatic crisis prior to Iraq's invasion in March 2003, when Ankara stunned Washington by denying US troops access to Turkish territory to attack Iraq from the north. "The United States favors a unified Iraq in which the rights of all Iraqis are represented and respected," Rice told NTV television Sunday, with voice-over translation into Turkish. While shaping their post-war nation, the Iraqis have the responsibility to create a country that will live in peace with its neighbors, she said. The prospect of major Kurdish political gains in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk following the January 30 elections has irked Ankara, which suspects that the Kurds want the ethnically mixed city to become the capital of an independent Kurdish state. Such a state, Ankara fears, would fuel moves towards independence among the restive Kurds of adjoining southeast Turkey, sparking regional turmoil. Rice told NTV that it was up to the Iraqis to decide on the future status of Kirkuk, but stressed that the ethnically volatile city, which is also home to Turkish-speaking Turkmens, should be a place where "all Iraqis will live together without fears." She also sought to assure Ankara that Washington was "very determined" to ensure that Turkish Kurd rebels holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq are prevented from using the region as a springboard for violence against Turkey. Ankara has long been frustrated with US reluctance to take military action against the guerrillas, who found refuge in the enclave prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq and who last summer ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Turkey. She said trilateral security meetings between Turkey, Iraq, and the United States should continue and that the parties should also seek to use non-military measures, such as cutting off sources of finance for the rebels. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), to which the rebels belong, is considered a terrorist organization by Washington. Rice stopped short of pledging military action against the PKK, highlighting the difficult security situation in other parts of Iraq. Bilateral differences over Iraq are believed to have increased anti-US sentiment in Turkey, a strictly secular Muslim nation which Washington has often praised as a model for co-habitation between democracy and Islam. However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has often led the criticism towards Washington, insisted that Turkish-US ties remained strong. "Our ties continue with the same maturity and in a positive spirit...at the level of strategic partnership. We have confirmed this between ourselves," he told reporters after talks with Rice late Saturday. The toughening US policy towards Iran, another troubled neighbor of Turkey, and efforts to revive the Middle East peace process were also expected to be high on Rice's agenda here. Rice was to hold a news conference with Gul later on Sunday before flying out to Israel, her next point of call. 3) Azeri Officer's Trial to Begin on February 8 BAKU (Combined Sources)--The murder trial of Azeri senior lieutenant Ramil Safarov will begin on February 8 in Budapest, Hungary. Safarov is being tried for the February 19, 2004 slaying of Armenian serviceman Gurgen Margarian. Safarov's attorney, Adil Ismayilov, said that a Hungarian lawyer will join the case during the next two days in order to help fend the charges. Margarian's family will be represented by Nazeli Vardanyan and Gabriela Kaspar. The Armenian serviceman's lawyers will also represent Hayk Makuchyan--a member of the Armenian military who Safarov attempted to murder. The Azeri officer is being charged with Article No. 166.2 of the Hungarian Criminal Court--first-degree murder and attempted murder--for which he could face 10 years to life imprisonment. In an attempt to partially curb Safarov's responsibility, Bilal Mirzalioghli Asadov, Chief Psychologist of Azerbaijan, has asked that the defendant undergo a psychological examination. Safarov told the count during his previous trial that he was in an "unconscious" state during the murder. Medical examinations, however, indicate that he was fully aware of his acts. 4) Three Men Arrested After Deadly Shootout in Yerevan YEREVAN (RFE/RL)--Armenian prosecutors announced on Monday the arrest of three unidentified men suspected of taking part in a late-night gunfight in Yerevan that left one person dead and two others seriously wounded. The spokesman for the Prosecutor-General's Office, Gurgen Ambarian, refused to identify the suspects and comment on possible reasons for the shootout. The deadly incident occurred late on Friday in the city's southern outskirts mainly occupied by Soviet-era idle factories. Television pictures from the scene showed a bullet-holed car and spent cartridges strewn on the ground. More than a dozen cars were reportedly parked in the deserted area when the gunfire erupted. Police said three young men were rushed to a nearby hospital as a result. One of them, aged 30, died shortly afterward, while the two others were reported to remain in a critical condition on Monday. A spokesman for the national Police Service, Zarzand Gabrielian said that two people who participated in the shootout turned themselves in over the weekend. He said one of the men surrendered a Kalashnikov rifle and a pistol. It was unclear whether they were among the detainees mentioned by the prosecutors' spokesman. Gabrielian revealed that investigators searched the apartment of the murdered man and found an arsenal of firearms and ammunition, including eight Kalashnikovs. He added that law-enforcement authorities have already "established the identity of a number of suspects" and have already begun to "interrogate their relatives." But he declined to give further details of the case. 5) CBC Radio Provides Platform to Armenian Genocide Deniers, Say Canadian Armenian Leaders MONTREAL--The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) demonstrated a lack of judgment when it failed to invite representatives of the Canadian-Armenian community to its Feb. 6, Sunday Edition radio program during which, following discussions of a book on the Armenian genocide, only the Turkish Embassy was allowed to present its side. "It's regrettable that deniers of the Armenian Genocide [Turkish Government] have been provided with a platform while the representatives of the Canadian-Armenian community have not been offered the opportunity to respond to the Turkish Government's propaganda," commented Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) president, Dr. Girair Basmadjian. In a 25-minute segment, host Michael Enright interviewed Prof. Taner Akçam, the author of "From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide." Following the interview, Enright read a lengthy statement by the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa. No such statement, however, was requested from the Armenian Embassy of Ottawa. Akçam is one of many Turkish historians to recognize publicly the mass killings and deportation, in 1915, of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. His book represents a scholarly attempt to document the Armenian genocide from the perpetrator's, rather than victim's, perspective. In the interview, Akçam stated that he has been refused posts in Turkish universities because of his recognition of the Armenian genocide. "We commend the CBC and thank Michael Enright for their decision to shed light on the Forgotten Genocide of the 20th century, and Prof. Akçam's scholarly research. At the same time we were surprised and disappointed to hear Enright read the Turkish Embassy's statement that was, as usual, full of historical fabrications and misinformation--the usual official stance of successive Turkish governments. To us, it is a sheer error of judgment to confront an honest academician with a baseless political onslaught, without even giving a chance for the author to respond," said Dr. Basmadjian. The Canadian-Armenian community leader said that it was unfortunate the CBC provided an opportunity for such a statement from the Turkish Embassy while not affording Canadian-Armenians the same opportunity. "Moreover, the statement was an outright insult to the author, Dr. Akçam, who did not lack courage to express the historical truth. The Canadians of Armenian origin representing survivors of the said Genocide are commemorating the 90th anniversary this year, are insulted by such statements on a respectable broadcasting corporation such as the CBC," added Dr. Basmadjian. The program also omitted the fact that the Armenian genocide has officially been recognized by the Senate and House of Commons of Canada in 2002 and 2004 respectively, and by the provincial legislatures of Ontario and Quebec dating back to 1980. "Genocide denial out of ignorance or a false sense of "balanced journalism" or "political correctness" is irresponsible and only serves to promote revisionist policies...Do we provide Holocaust deniers with such courtesies or platforms?" asked Dr. Basmadjian. The ANCC is seeking an apology from the CBC to its Armenian listeners and a promise to afford equal time to the Armenian Embassy in Canada. All subscription inquiries and changes must be made through the proper carrier and not Asbarez Online. ASBAREZ ONLINE does not transmit address changes and subscription requests. (c) 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved. ASBAREZ provides this news service to ARMENIAN NEWS NETWORK members for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets. --Boundary_(ID_xIG4LZzrsw3QnSEkr897aw)--