Author: Tumanian Talar

TURKISH BUSINESS URGES CALM OVER FRANCE’S ARMENIA BILL
by Burak Akinci

Agence France Presse — English
October 15, 2006 Sunday

Turkish consumers were advised Sunday to cool their anger over the
French parliament’s decision to criminalize denial that Armenian
massacres during World War I constituted genocide.

The appeals for calm from prominent business leaders came after French
President Jacques Chirac distanced himself from the parliamentary
measure.

The vice-president of the powerful Union of Chambers of Commerce and
Bourses (TOBB), Huseyin Uzulmez, warned against a wide-scale consumer
boycott that could have a major impact on economic relations, amounting
to eight billion euros (10 billion dollars) in two-way trade last year.

"We should not be too exaggerated in our reaction," he said,
according to the Anatolia news agency, and called on shoppers to
"use their reason."

The president of the Council of Chambers of Commerce and Industry,
Nafi Gural, said that to protest against France, "a boycott is perhaps
a sentimental rather than a logical decision."

Turks were outraged by the decision of the French National Assembly on
Thursday to pass a bill making it a crime to deny that the 1915-1917
massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks constituted genocide —
stipulating a prison sentence of up to three years and a 45,000-euro
fine for transgressors.

But the bill still must be approved by the chamber of deputies in
a second reading, by the senate and by Chirac, who called Erdogan
Saturday to express "regrets" over the vote, according to the prime
minister.

A source close to the prime minister said Erdogan had called on Chirac
to annul the measure, which offends Turkey’s sense of history.

The Turks do not deny that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were
massacred after they took up arms for independence and sided with
invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire fell apart. But they
say this was a tragedy of war in which equally as many Turks died,
and deny that the killings constituted deliberate genocide.

The National Assembly vote was heavily influenced by the large Armenian
minority living in France.

Chirac’s staff confirmed that the president had discussed the issue
with Erdogan, and said that he had stood by a statement he made when
he visited Armenia on October 1, in which he reaffirmed the French
positions that the massacres constituted genocide but stressed the
inutility of the vote by the National Assembly.

"France has fully recognized the tragedy of the genocide and all the
rest is more like polemics than legislative reality," he had said in
Yerevan. During his trip to Armenia, he also said Turkey needed to
recognize the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide before it joins the EU,
and added it would become stronger thereby.

Nevertheless, Chirac’s use of the word "regrets" was interpreted by
the newspaper Radikal as a sign of appeasement. "Chirac gives hope,"
the newspaper headlined.

Turkish officials have resisted calls for an outright boycott of
French goods with perhaps an eye on the country’s precarious bid to
join the European Union.

Commercial ties between the two countries run deep. Some 250 French
companies have strong links with Turkey stretching back many years.

Automaker Renault, for example, employs hundreds of people at a
factory in the northwest of the country.

Lutfu Yenel, head of the Turkish affiliate of French telecoms group
Alcatel, said he was astounded by calls for a boycott of his company.

But although an official ban is unlikely, Turkish consumers and
businesses were expected to vent their anger by not buying French.

The country’s consumer organization, for instance, has said that
a boycott would begin at the 500 gas stations in Turkey owned by
France’s Total.

Every week there would be an appeal to boycott products from a new
French firm until the genocide bill is scrapped, the organization
threatened.

ANKARA WILLING TO RESTRICT DAMAGE, ACTS WITH COMMONSENSE

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 16 2006

Although the French National Assembly adopted a bill on Thursday
that makes it a crime to deny an Armenian genocide, Turkey is
refraining from engaging in serious conflict with France and acting
with commonsense.

The U.S. newspaper Washington Times reported that despite Ankara’s
threat of imposing sanctions on France, it is focusing on "restricting
the damage."

A Washington Post article reported that Turkey was acting with
commonsense despite retaliatory threats and a general national hatred
toward France.

French President Jacques Chirac and leading politicians in the country
favor recognition of the genocide issue as a precondition for Turkey’s
EU membership.

The newspaper suggested that this was a tactic to exclude Turkey from
the European Union.

Only 106 out of a total 577 parliamentarians in the French National
Assembly approved the bill.

"Turkey’s foreign trade volume with France is $10 billion; this is
equal to 1.5 percent of France’s entire foreign trade volume. We’re
going to make the proper calculations and then take necessary steps,"
Erdogan said in a speech.

The U.S. newspaper interpreted Erdogan’s remarks as a move to calm
the tension between the two countries.

Azeri Press Agency
Oct 14 2006

Armenian frontier guards fired on Turkey territory

[ 14 Oct. 2006 10:26 ]

Armenian frontier guards fired on Turkey’s positions two times on
October 11, APA Turkey bureau reports.

Official Ankara was alarmed of the situation, though no casualty was
recorded. Turkey Armed Forces Headquarters accused Armenia of the
incident. They sent information to Turkey Foreign Ministry for
necessary diplomatic measures.
There is no diplomatic relation between Turkey and Armenia. The
border of the two states is closed since 1993. /APA/

GENOCIDE ARMENIEN: LE SUSPENSE RESTE ENTIER SUR LE VOTE DU TEXTE SOCIALISTE

Agence France Presse
11 octobre 2006 mercredi

(Avant-Papier)

Le suspense reste entier sur l’adoption par les deputes de la
proposition de loi socialiste rendant passible de prison la negation
du genocide armenien, qui est examine jeudi par l’Assemblee nationale.

Ankara, qui refute categoriquement le terme de genocide, menace la
France de retorsions economiques alors que plusieurs deputes, dont le
rapporteur Christophe Masse (PS), estime que le texte "a de grandes
chances d’etre adopte".

L’eventuelle adoption de cette loi suscite l’inquietude des entreprises
francaises implantees en Turquie. La France est le 5e fournisseur de
la Turquie avec 4,7 milliards d’euros d’exportations.

A tel point que Christine Lagarde (Commerce exterieur) a estime
mercredi que "clairement, on est en train de faire de cet enjeu
economique pour la France, une cause electoraliste qui ne (lui)
paraît pas justifiee".

Quelques dizaines de Turcs ont manifeste mercredi matin devant
l’Assemblee, tandis que le Conseil de coordination des organisations
armeniennes de France (CCAF) a appele a un rassemblement jeudi matin.

Les services de securite de l’Assemblee sont d’ores et deja sur le
qui-vive pour eviter tout debordement d’autant plus qu’un autre texte
sensible, portant sur les intermittents du spectacle, doit egalement
etre discute jeudi matin.

Le 18 mai, lors du premier examen du texte, interrompu faute de
temps, des membres de la communaute armenienne, fait rarissime,
avaient manifeste depuis les tribunes du public.

La communaute d’origine armenienne, estimee a 500.000 personnes,
represente un electorat non negligeable.

Dans ce contexte, le gouvernement joue la moderation, soulignant que
le texte ne "l’engage pas", tandis que sa majorite UMP est embarrassee.

Les uns, comme leur chef de file, Bernard Accoyer, insistent sur la
necessite de ne pas legiferer sur l’histoire. "Notre responsabilite
de parlementaires est de ne pas alimenter dans les hemicycles et les
pretoires une guerre des memoires declenchee par les associations
communautaristes, usant des lois memorielles", ecrit M. Accoyer,
dans une tribune au Figaro a paraître jeudi.

Les autres, comme Patrick Devedjian, depute d’origine armenienne et
conseiller du president de l’UMP, Nicolas Sarkozy, n’hesiteront pas
une seconde pour voter le texte.

Pour eviter toute nouvelle polemique avec les historiens, M. Devedjian
a depose un amendement excluant du champ de la loi "les recherches
scolaires, universitaires ou scientifiques".

Cet amendement ne fait pas l’affaire du PS, car, selon M. Masse,
"il denature complètement le texte et ouvre la porte a d’enormes
problèmes, les negationnistes de la Shoah pouvant s’en emparer".

L’unanimite ne règne pas non plus chez les socialistes. Si Segolène
Royal approuve la proposition, d’autres comme Jack Lang la rejettent.

Le texte a cependant de bonnes chances d’etre adopte jeudi. Les deputes
qui y sont favorables devraient se deplacer en masse pour le voter,
les autres preferant ne pas participer au vote.

Mais meme adoptee, la proposition sera loin d’avoir acheve son parcours
parlementaire. Elle devra encore etre inscrite a l’ordre du jour du
Senat où sont adoption est incertaine.

La proposition complète la loi de 2001 de reconnaissance du
genocide armenien par un volet penal punissant sa negation d’un an
d’emprisonnement et de 45.000 euros d’amende.

Les Armeniens estiment que jusqu’a 1,5 million des leurs ont peri
dans un genocide perpetre par les Turcs sous l’empire ottoman entre
1915 et 1917. Ankara recuse ces accusations.

–Boundary_(ID_d+/Dg7g3F6Ud7saGY/4BL w)–

AZERBAIJAN RELEASED A NOTE OF COMPLAINT TO SPAIN

A1+
[06:37 pm] 10 October, 2006

The Azeri Embassy in Madrid has released a note of complaint to
the Foreign Ministry of Spain. According to the Foreign Ministry of
Azerbaijan, this step is determined by the fact that they revealed
data on the activity of a Spanish woodworking company in Karabakh.

According to Day.az agency, official Baku urges in the note that
"the friendly act by the Spanish side harms the Azeri-Spanish
relations." Azerbaijan calls on Spain to cease the activity of the
above-mentioned company in the territories "occupied" by Azerbaijan.

IT IS NOT LIKE 2001 THIS TIME

Yeni Safak , Istanbul,
Oct 8 2006

Turkish foreign minister warns France not to pass Armenian genocide
bill

Foreign Minister Gul has spoken to Yeni Safak. His reaction to France’s
[proposed] law punishing anyone who denies the "Armenian genocide"
is tough: France acknowledged the genocide in 2001. This time is not
the same as it was five years ago. This time you will lose Turkey!

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has spoken out strongly against the
bill proposed for passage by the French parliament to make denial of
the Armenian genocide a crime and make anybody who denies liable to
face up to five years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. Gul said:
"France acknowledged the genocide in 2001 but the reactions back then
fizzled out quickly. We are not making threats but the attitude today
is different from what it was in 2001. The French will lose Turkey."

Gul spoke on the telephone to France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs
Phillipe Douste-Blazy yesterday morning ahead of 12 October, when the
bill is expected to be put to the vote. Gul asked his counterpart to
try harder to prevent the bill from being passed.

Speaking to Yeni Safak, Gul said: "What we want is for these kinds
of problems never to occur between two countries or between Turkey
and Europe. However, if things continue to unfold as they are doing,
it is inevitable that both the government and society in general will
react to this." Explaining that he had told Minister Blazy: "There
are political and commercial relations between the two countries,
including the military sphere. If the bill is passed, there is no way
these relations will not suffer." Gul added, "I told him this two weeks
ago and I also asked him to convey our representations to Chirac."

Recounting the conversation he had with his counterpart, Gul said:
"Of course we are not making threats but it is going to be hard this
time to keep the public’s outcry against France in check. This time
the reaction will not be like the reaction to the laws passed in
2001." The minister also warned, "Naturally it will no longer be
possible to work with France in the area of nuclear energy."

Saying, "France will lose Turkey if it accepts this bill," Gul added,
"It shows once again the folly of letting political decisions interpret
historical events."

FORMER YEREVAN DEPUTY MAYOR EXPLAINS WHY HE QUIT DISTRICT MAYORAL RACE

Armenpress

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS: Arman Sahakian, a former deputy Yerevan
mayor who first had defied his Republican Party’s ruling board’s order
to quit the campaign for the election of a Yerevan district mayor,
but then made a surprise decision to walk out of the struggle for
the post, told journalists today becoming a district mayor was not
an end in itself for him.

Arman Sahakian argued that he abandoned the mayoral race because
that was the decision of his Republican Party’s governing board. "I
regarded and regard the position of a district prefect as a platform
for implementation of community development projects. My refusal to run
for the post must not be transformed into a political show,’ he said.

His major rival, the current mayor Artsrun Khachatrian, who is believed
to enjoy the support of the chief prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepian, also
walked out of the campaign. Arman Sahakian, who is the son of Galust
Sahakian, the chairman of the Republican Party’s parliamentary faction,
said he wanted to become mayor to fight against what he said was ‘the
flagrant violation of urban construction norms in the district that has
been flourishing under the incumbent mayor’s rule.’ Four candidates
have been nominated for the position, one of them is Ruben Hovsepian,
chief prosecutor’s youngest brother. The election is scheduled for
October 29.

Regnum, Russia
Oct 6 2006

Georgia: International, not political struggle in Tsalka municipal
elections

Municipal elections in the Tsalka region of Georgia stirred a rather
tense situation. According to A-Info Agency report, buildings of the
local electoral commission and local government were cordoned by
police special forces.

Observers – ethnic Armenians – are forbidden to enter the electoral
commission building. Only MP Ayk Melitonyan succeeded in getting in.
Armenian population representatives said they feared that number of
votes for the ruling United National Movement Party would be
artificially increased, judging on the a priori falsified lists.

Candidate Nairi Dimaksyan nominated by opposition Industry Will Save
Georgia Party assured that the struggle was not between parties but
between Armenian population and the local authorities. Meanwhile,
United National Movement Party representative Ketiko Lagidze stated
she would do the utmost to minimize the number of Armenians at the
area’s sacrebulo (local governing body).

TURKEY MARKS 80 YEARS OF ADOPTION OF SWISS CIVIL CODE

The New Anatolian
Oct 5 2006

The New Anatolian/ Ankara

The country is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the adoption of
the Swiss Civil Code, after a cold snap between the two capitals,
with Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocker in Turkey on a visit.

Ties between the countries cooled after a Swiss public prosecutor
launched a criminal investigation against the head of the Turkish
History Foundation (TTF) in Switzerland over a speech he made denying
the Armenian "genocide," a violation of Swiss law. Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul described the Swiss investigation as "unacceptable" and
"absolutely contrary to the principle of free speech."

Historian and Turkey expert Hans-Lukas Kieser, in an interview with
swissinfo, explained how the Islamic sense of justice, the remnants
of the Ottoman Empire and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s aspirations of
European legislation came together.

Q: How did Turkey come to adopt a large part of Switzerland’s
legislation 80 years ago?

HANS-LUKAS KIESER: An important reason was that a brand new state
was being created by a young elite — some of whom had studied in
Switzerland.

The Swiss Civil Code was also considered to be the most modern,
the most simply formulated, the most concise and with the greatest
popular touch.

Q: What changes did this "legal revolution" cause?

KIESER: There were violent changes. Family law is to a certain extent
the nucleus of society and this shift meant the complete abolition
of the Sharia tradition.

Q: Were there also changes concerning women’s rights?

KIESER: Of course. Under traditional Islamic law women are seriously
disadvantaged when it comes to inheritance or divorce and that changed
at a stroke — even if it’s been effective for only a part of society.

Q: Did the introduction of the civil code go smoothly, or were there
obstacles?

KIESER: One of the largest obstacles is power being imposed from those
at the top — in other words, not a grassroots democracy. In this
respect there was resistance to this very authoritarian behavior by the
state, not only from traditional Islamic groups but also from liberals.

Even though the civil code was widely accepted by the elite, its
implementation took decades. It’s only recently that we’ve been able
to talk of a more or less complete implementation.

Q: Did the civil code cause differences of opinion between Turkey
and sympathetic Islamic states?

KIESER: The introduction of the civil code and the abolition of Sharia
law led to resistance, especially from Islamic thinkers and religious
academics. These intellectuals considered that it could only lead to
a decline of Islamic teaching.

Q: The Turkish Civil Code was revised at the end of the 1980s. Did
this lead to a greater religious influence?

KIESER: No. It emphasizes just how dramatic the legal revolution had
been in this respect, as it’s still holding up. The revision took
place at the same time as that of the Swiss Civil Code. The Swiss
federal court’s decisions and commentaries were even translated.

IT’S NOT THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Denis MacShane

The Guardian, UK
Oct 3 2006

European politics is febrile and unhappy – and Britain is unlikely
to be insulated from the dramatic developments taking place.

Austria has followed Sweden in replacing a government that followed
Bill Clinton’s famous injunction "It’s the economy, stupid." The
arrival of a socialist chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, in the grandiose
Hapsburg palaces from where the small Austrian state is run, follows
hard on the heels of the replacement of Sweden’s social democratic
government by a new rightwing coalition.

In both cases, the outgoing governments had complacently patted
themselves on the back for enjoying the best records in Europe
for growth, job-creation, inward investment and an overall sense
of competence. But delivering a strong economic record, it seems,
is no longer enough to stay in power.

The new Austrian chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, is a solid, not to
say stolid party apparatchik who has been a tortoise to the flashier
hare of the outgoing Austrian leader, Wolfgang Schlussel. Not a single
opinion poll put the Austrian left ahead of their rivals until the
poll itself on Sunday.

Those trilling over David Cameron as a new JFK, as if protecting the
rightist historian Andrew Roberts from a jellyfish sting was on a
par with Kennedy’s heroism in saving his naval comrades after their
boat was sunk in the second world war, should look at the steady,
unflashy progress of the new homespun, barely photogenic leaders in
Austria and Sweden.

The Austrian upheaval fits into a wider picture of political turmoil
and rapid electoral changes all over central and eastern Europe. The
Czech ruling ODS party – chosen by William Hague as the only rightist
party willing to join the Tories in the new nationalist grouping
in the EU – has just lost its majority in parliament. The Polish
government under the Kaczynski twins has seen its majority disappear
as its extreme rightist and anti-semitic allies can no longer stay in
government. The Slovakian government is a regional embarrassment with
governing parties using language about Roma, Jews and the Hungarian
minority straight out of the 1920s. Meanwhile in Hungary, the prime
minister struggles to survive after his obscene outburst about telling
lies to voters.

This could all be written off as folklorist Danubian eccentricity
save that the coalition parties in Germany have seen the biggest ever
slump in their votes in regional and Berlin elections. The big gains
in Austria were made by the extreme right who won 15% of the votes.

France faces an election for a new president next April with many
fearing that the Jew-baiting, EU-hating, xenophobic Jean Marie le Pen
will get enough votes to derail the mainstream political parties. The
French left remains pathetically divided. There will be a Troyskyist,
Communist, Green, Workerist and Anti-Globalisation candidate standing
against the official socialist party candidate, likely to be Segolène
Royal.

In short, European politics is febrile and unhappy. Populist,
immigrant-blaming and protectionist appeals are finding echoes
everywhere. The anti-Americanism of the left meets the anti-Europeanism
of the right and a demagogy of destructive name-calling crowds out
constructive solutions to today’s problems.

The reason for this is the failure to analyse, let alone come up with
any political answers to the impact of globalisation. Never in such
a short period of time – a generation at the most – have so many
people, so much capital, so many ideas, and so many services and
products – moved from nation to nation at such speed and with such
transformatory impact. Almost every fixed relationship – capital and
labour; men and women; parents and children; employers and workers;
nature and industry; the citizen and the state – has been required
to go through monumental change. In the old established democracies
these centrifugal forces can just be accommodated. In central Europe
politics, the economy and civil society is neither mature nor confident
enough to cope with this upheaval.

Britain is unlikely to be insulated from these dramatic developments.

One can sense British politics turning inwards, neither thinking
global, nor acting local. There is just a whiff of Weimar in the air.

Europe is seen as a problem, not a solution. David Cameron calls
Washington "simplistic" and rejects cooperation in Europe. Voltaire’s
heritage is being eroded as communitarian politics buries freedom
of speech in exchange for freedom from being upset. The new Austrian
chancellor was not keen on the European constitution – hooray! shout
the Tories – but also is no friend of Turkey joining the EU – the
one Conservative line that is positive on Europe.

Austria for the Austrians, like English votes for English laws, has
simplicity of appeal but is a denial of contemporary reality in which
national purity is no longer obtainable, and not desirable in any case.

Meanwhile, President Chirac pleases the crowds on his official visit
to Armenia by telling the Turks they have to apologise for the 1915
massacres of Armenians by the Ottomans if Turkey is to join the EU.

Thus a new populist barrier to making Europe work by including the
predominately Muslim Turkey is put in place by Mr Chirac in his last
months in office. Who will blame the Turks if they turn to Iran,
or Russia and stay in perpetual occupation of Cyprus if all they
receive from Europe are such patronising instructions?

Armenia and Austria are thousands of kilometres apart. But the new
populist, introspective, nation-first politics of Europe coming into
shape – actively encouraged by David Cameron and William Hague but
not directly challenged by Labour – bodes ill for the rest of the
century both in Britain and the rest of Europe.

–Boundary_(ID_25IHX1XUTEv4mC7hBlYIhA)–