Author: Vasilian Manouk

PanARMENIAN.Net

History continuously rewritten in Azerbaijan

If the Armenians did not exist then they should have
been thought up to justify their own lack of talent
and weakness.

27.10.2006 GMT+04:00

It is quite a useless and unnecessary thing to answer everything that
is written in the Azerbaijan press concerning the Armenians and the
Armenian history. But lately our neighbors have completely lost their
sense of proportion and they blame the Armenians in anything they
like.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Singer Aygun Kazimova’s imagination played up to the
extent that she blamed AzTV in that `somebody works in the favor of
the Armenians in the television! Before it only seemed to me but now I
am sure that a specified person works for the benefit of the Armenians
in Baku, and the Azerbaijan pop art purposefully directs into the
abyss! They try to bullshit the nation with the help of their stupid
programs and on the quiet they carry out their dirty business. The
number of the songsters is springing up like mushrooms after the rain
and all of them are given certain places in the television,’- she
shares her frankness with the correspondents of Day.az.

Indeed, if the Armenians did not exist then they should have been
contrived to justify own lack of talent and feebleness. But it is so
unserious. The accusations in that it was exactly the Armenians who
expelled the Germans from Azerbaijan in 1941 are more serious. The
author of that version is Abbas Seidov; leading researcher of the
Institute NANA of Archaeology and Ethnography, professor of Azerbaijan
Economic University, Doctor of History. It is rather an unpleasant
thing to prove the truth especially when there is no one to prove it
to. For some reason Azerbaijan is sure that it can assert whatever it
likes in its virtual world and adjust the history to its interests.

It is exactly the case with the Germans from Hanler and Shamkhor who
were evicted by Stalin’s order into the Kazakhstan steppes at the same
time. The same Germans that lived in the neighborhood of the Armenians
and the Caucasian Tatars for about 200 years and they almost did not
communicate. In 2003 Alexander and Rudolf Yaskorskies, emigrants from
Hanler published a book; `Germans of Black sea and the Caucasus’
(concerning the origin and life of the German ethnic group of Black
Sea and the Caucasus)’, where photographs and documents enlightening
the life of the German colony are collected. In particular there is a
remarkable paragraph in the book; `The German immigrants fundamentally
settled in a planned way at the periphery of the Russian empire. It
solved two tasks at one stroke; on the one hand the borders of the
empire were strengthened and a buffer zone was created between the
territories populated with uncivilized tribes and Christian
population. And on the other hand the cultural economies of the
Germans involved new uninhabited areas, that had not been earlier
cultivated, into the economic revolution and fortified them into the
structure of the empire. The Armenians made friends with the Germans,
learned their language and behavior It was a natural striving towards
each other as the Armenians and Russians were the only Christian
neighbors of the Germans in the surroundings of the Caucasian Tatars,
who from time to time organized massacres from which the German
colonists suffered as well’.

Neither the archives nor the contemporaries’ illustrations turn to be
edicts for Abbas Seidov- he has his own sources according to which for
some reason the arrival of the same Germans is related to Alexander I
though they had been invited by Catherine II. But at the same time
everything is all right with the Armenians – they turned to appear
here in the course of the World War I…

But it is not all. Seidov goes on writing `Later the Armenians began
demolishing the graves of the Germans using the tombstones with their
own ends. With all this going on they longed to wipe all the traces of
the Germans’ habitation in Hanler’. However there is nothing
surprising – during all their realized history that means during the
last 40-50 years the Azerbaijanis have been ascribing all their deeds
to the Armenians. And all that began from the times of Heydar Aliev
and it is quite possible that it will be concluded with Ilham Aliev’s
government. Suddenly more responsible people may come to power in
Azerbaijan for whom the Armenian will be just a neighbor, who is
simply not like themselves. But it is not necessary to expect it
without fail-it depends on the good luck. «PanARMENIAN.Net»
analytical department

Sweden interested in expanding relations with Armenia

ArmRadio.am
27.10.2006 14:05

The newly appointed Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden Hans Gunnar
Adén (seat in Stockholm) handed his credentials to RA President
Robert Kocharyan.

Congratulating the Ambassador on appointment, the President highly
assessed the current level of the Armenian-Swedish political dialogue.

Ambassador Adén noted that henceforth his country will provide
greater time and attention to its relations with the countries of the
South Caucasus, including Armenia.

As an impulse for further development of bilateral cooperation the
parties mentioned RA president Robert Kocharyan’s official visit to
Sweden.

The interlocutors stressed that cooperation under the European New
Neighbors Policy provides new opportunities for expansion of
cooperation.

Attaching importance to the economic component of Armenian-Swedish
relations, Robert Kocharyan considered it necessary to form a legal
contractual field and organization of business forums.

During the meeting reference was made also to Armenian-Turkish
relations and regional questions.

RA PRESIDENT CONSIDERS FORMATION OF LEGAL-CONTRACTUAL FIELD AS PRIMARY
FOR ARMENIAN-SWEDISH ECONOMIC COOPERATION

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 27, NOYAN TAPAN. On October 27, Hans Gunnar Aden,
newly appointed Ambassador of Sweden to Armenia (residence Stockholm)
handed his credentials to RA President Robert Kocharian. Congratulating
the Ambassador, RA President highly estimated the current level of
Armenian-Swedish political dialogue. Ambassador Aden said that
henceforth his country will give more time and attention to relations
with South Caucasian countries, including Armenia.

The parties considered President Robert Kocharian’s recent official
visit to Sweden as an important stimulus for further development of
bilateral cooperation. Currently some work is being done in concrete
directions around the agreements reached during the visit. In the
interlocutors’ opinion, in the respect of extension of cooperation new
possibilities are also created within the framework of European
Neighborhood policy. Attaching importance to economic component of
Armenian-Swedish relations, Robert Kocharian considered as primary
formation of legal-contractual field for cooperation, holding of
business forums for getting acquainted with one another’s
abilities. According to the report submitted to Noyan Tapan from RA
President’s Press Office, at the meeting they also spoke about
Armenian-Turkish relations, regional problems.

PanARMENIAN.Net

Milan Officially Recognized Armenian Genocide
27.10.2006 15:52 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Despite the efforts of the Consulate General of
Turkey in Milan (Italy), the Council of the Province of Milan by
overwhelming majority has adopted a resolution formally recognizing
the Armenian Genocide perpetrated in Ottoman Turkey in 1915,
independent French journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net.

Regnum, Russia
Oct 26 2006

Georgian citizen ready to pay $3,000 for Azerbaijani passport

One of Georgian citizens, who is temporarily in Baku, is going to
receive passport of Azerbaijani citizen soon in order to return to
Moscow without problems. The citizen informed a Day.Az correspondent
he managed to settle the problem for $3,000 at a district police
station in Baku. However, he categorically refused to name the police
station, where he managed to receive the new passport.

The information was disproved at the Azerbaijani interior ministry.
It was stressed there that citizen of a foreign state should at first
reject citizenship of his native country in order to receive Azeri
citizenship. `As for illegal receiving of Azerbaijani Republic’s
citizenship, it is punished in complete accordance with severity of
law.’ That is why, as it was informed at the ministry, if such facts
are revealed, person, who received illegal passport and state
official assisted in that, will be severely punished.

It is worth stressing, in contrast to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia
have a visa-free regime for their citizens. Meanwhile, as it became
known to REGNUM from informed sources, in connection with aggravation
of Georgian-Russian relations and sanctions, introduced by Russian
side, Georgian citizens receive Armenian citizenship, changing, at
that, endings of their Georgian family names -dze and -shvili for
Armenian one -yan in order to enter legally into Russian territory
and to obtain more comfortable conditions of their stay there.
According to reliable sources, such camouflage costs $5,000. It is
worth stressing; there is no visa regime between Armenia and Russia,
too. Also, it became clear from talks with representatives of
Georgia’s Armenian community that tens of Georgianized Armenians hade
already changed their family names’ endings. Mainly, these processes
take place in Tbilisi and in Samtskhe-Javakheti region. According to
the source,"many people wish to get back Armenian family name;
however, many of them fear for inadequate actions of ethnic
Georgians."

V.OSKANIAN HIGHLY ESTIMATES GERMAN MARSHALL FUND’S CONSTANT CONTACTS WITH
REGIONAL COUNTRIES

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. On October 26, RA Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian received the experts group on conflicts of German
Marshall Fund. The group is in Armenia on a regional visit.

Representatives of U.S. Congressmen’s Staff are also included in the
delegation. As Noyan Tapan was informed from RA Foreign Ministry Press
and Information Department, Minister Oskanian highly estimated Fund’s
activity and Fund’s constant contacts with the regional countries that
enable to more closely get acquainted with various directions of one
another’s policy. During the meeting the sides touched upon regional
problems, Armenia’s cooperation with NATO and EU, some aspects of
Georgian-Russian relations. At the guests’ request, Minister Oskanian
presented the peaceful process of Nagorno Karabakh settlement, spoke
about Armenian-Turkish relations.

U.S. German Marshall Fund is an independent American institution,
which is engaged in state politics and stipends. The Fund’s goal is to
contribute to cooperation and mutual understanding between U.S. and
Europe. It was founded in 1972 as a gift from Germany in memory of
the assistance received from Marshall plan. Besides the Washington
Headquarters, the Marshall Fund has offices in Berlin, in Bratislava,
Paris, Brussels, Belgrad and Ankara.

CUSTOMS DUTY OF IMPORTED VODKA TO BE RAISED

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 26, NOYAN TAPAN. At the October 26 sitting, the
Armenian government approved a legislative package on making
amendments in a number of laws. Vakhtang Mirumian, Head of the State
Revenues Policy Department of the RA Ministry of Finance and Economy,
told reporters after the sitting that the amendments aim to protect
the interests of domestic producers. He said that according to the
amendments proposed to the RA Customs Code, the customs duty of vodka
imported into Armenia will be raised. Now it makes 240 drams (about
0.6 USD) for a liter. The amendment in the RA Law on State Duty
envisages lowering the state duty for granting a licence for
production of alcoholic drinks from fruits and berries – from the
current rate of 15 million drams to 50 thousand drams. The amendment
in the RA Law on Excise Tax envisages lowering the excise tax for
imported and locally produced beer by 20 drams (currently it makes 70
drams for a liter). V. Mirumian explained the last amendment by the
fact that in Armenia the excise tax of beer is higher than in other
CIS countries. In his opinion, its reduction will not result in a
decline of state revenues, because sales of beer will increase. The
above mentioned amendments will take effect from January 1, 2007.

TURKEY, GENOCIDE AND THE EU’S DOUBLE STANDARDS

Mideast Mirror
October 25, 2006 Wednesday

While the Turks may not be blameless, French and other EU pressures
regarding the Armenian genocide smack of hypocrisy, says Helia Hamad
al-Mukeimi in Saudi Asharq al-Awsat

The European Commission is supposed to begin a review of Turkey’s
application for EU membership on 24 October, notes Kuwaiti expert
on European affairs Helia Hamad al-Mukeimi in the Saudi daily Asharq
al-Awsat.

INCREASING PRESSURE: In the run up to this review, the Turkish
government has been coming under increasing pressure from the European
side designed to find pretexts to keep Turkey out of the club.

Turkey has been trying to become part of Europe since 1963, but to
no avail. One aspect of these pressures has been the insistence that
Turkey admits responsibility for the massacre of Armenians that took
place under the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917, which cost 1.5
million Armenians their lives (according to Armenian figures).

The Turks deny that those killings constituted genocide, and maintain
that the Armenians also killed a large number of Turks. Some Turks
believe that the figures cited by the Armenians are exaggerated,
and that no more than 300,000 were killed. Nationalist Turks say that
admitting responsibility for these killings would constitute a grave
affront to Turkish identity. In spite of knowing how sensitive this
issue is to the Turks, the Europeans insist on raising it all the
time – but not on an official government level.

By raising the issue of the Armenian ‘genocide’ through national
parliaments, the Europeans have been keen to let the Turks know that
it is European public opinion that is against Turkey’s Ottoman past.

The latest report by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European
Parliament contained severe criticism of Turkey for its failure to
carry out the reforms needed to qualify it for EU membership.

Among these reforms are improvements to the rights of women and
minorities, freedom of expression, and religious rights. The report
also called on the Turks to recognize and establish normal relations
with Cyprus. It also made admitting responsibility for the Armenian
genocide a precondition for Turkish accession.

In fact, even the decision by the Swedish Academy to grant Turkish
writer Orhan Pamuk this year’s Nobel Prize for literature was not
devoid of political connotations. For in spite of Pamuk’s undeniable
talent as a novelist, he is also one of Turkey’s most prominent
advocates of recognizing the Armenian genocide. The fact that he was
nominated for the Nobel Prize last year undermined the government’s
efforts to try him for ‘deliberately insulting Turkishness.’ Pamuk
would have spent three years in jail had the accusations against
not been thrown out, thanks to the pressure exerted by the European
Commission on Ankara.

The announcement that Pamuk had won the Nobel prize coincided
with another event that caused uproar in Turkey. On the same day,
the French parliament passed a bill making it a crime to deny the
Armenian genocide. The new bill came on top of a previous piece of
legislation passed by the French parliament in 2001 recognizing the
Armenian massacre as a case of genocide.

The draft was tabled by the opposition socialist bloc, and was passed
by 106 votes to 19 amid loud applause.

Oddly enough, the French bill went beyond a bill passed in 1996
by the Greek parliament, which while recognizing the massacres as
genocide, did not go as far as criminalizing their denial. While it
was understandable that the Greeks should have passed such a law,
given the historical enmity between Greece and Turkey, why the French
passed their recent bill is still a mystery.

The position adopted by European governments is different however.

Officially, European governments seem eager to maintain cordial
relations with Turkey, and to avoid antagonizing the Turks. ‘We are
working hard to accept you in the club,’ they seem to say, ‘but what
can we do if our peoples do not want you in?’

Olli Rehn, the EU commissioner for expansion warned that the new
French law would damage efforts to settle differences between Turkey
and Armenia, while Rehn’s spokesperson Christina Nagy said, ‘When this
bill becomes law, it will undermine reconciliation efforts.’ Nagy went
on to say that, laws cannot write history, only historians can do that.

She stressed that taking responsibility for the Armenian genocide
should not be a precondition for Turkey’s accession to the EU. For its
part, the French government opposed the bill, saying that it restricts
freedom of expression. But President Jacques Chirac seemed to side
with parliament by paying an unprecedented visit to Armenia last month.

After laying a wreath on a monument to the victims, Chirac urged
Turkey to ‘do its duty’ and take responsibility for the genocide,
insinuating that this would have a bearing on Turkey’s accession. The
French president declared, ‘Nations stand tall when they admit their
mistakes.’

‘Germany,’ Chirac said, ‘took responsibility for the Holocaust. That
did not lose it its credibility; on the contrary, it grew in the eyes
of the world. The same can be said of France and other nations.’

Orhan Pamuk’s position is similar. Yet it is different for a Turk
to call for recognizing the genocide. Pamuk’s insistence that Turkey
must take responsibility for the massacres is a call for his country
to reconcile itself with its past. Only then, he believes, could
Turkey be prepared to come to terms with the West in its vain quest
for EU membership.

The West sees it differently. Western insistence that Turkey take
responsibility for the Armenian genocide is designed to widen the
gap between Ankara and the EU thus making accession impossible.

Clearly, Pamuk himself finally understood this difference. Commenting
recently on Turkey’s efforts to gain EU membership, he said: ‘Yes,
I support Turkish membership, and have written extensively to that
effect. But I find myself chasing a mirage. I believed that Turkey
and Europe could live in harmony with each other. Unfortunately,
I discovered that there is no love lost between them. That is why I
decided to return to my novels.’

Taking responsibility for the Armenian genocide means that Turkey
has to compensate the victims financially and morally. This would
mean that economically weak Turkey would have to wait even longer
to fulfill the EU’s stringent economic criteria. Thus, we see that
taking responsibility for the genocide is not so much a condition
for EU entry as it is an obstacle.

Also, comparing Turkey’s assuming responsibility with the experience
of other European nations is neither fair nor valid. Turkey, a Muslim
nation with 70 million inhabitants on the fringes of Europe is not
Germany, the beating heart of Europe and the continent’s economic
engine. Calls for reconciliation with the past do not mean the
same thing.

As far as Turkey is concerned, reconciliation with the past means
admitting mistakes, while for the West it means forgetting the
colonial past.

France for example has never apologized for killing up to one million
Algerians. Although France does give certain privileges to citizens of
its former colonies, it has never apologized to, much less compensated,
its victims.

Belgium is another case in point. Despite its crimes in Africa (in
Congo especially), Belgium still takes pride in its colonial past,
as witnessed by Brussels’ African Museum. Did Belgium reconcile itself
with its past before it was chosen as the EU’s capital?

Criticizing Western double standards does not necessarily mean
accepting the mistakes committed by the Ottomans. In fact, the Ottoman
Empire played a major part in keeping its possessions (including
the Arab world) in a state of backwardness. European colonialism
only exacerbated this backwardness and institutionalized a state
of inequality that still exists today. Thanks to this inequality,
the former Arab Ottoman provinces now provide a fertile soil for the
growth of extremism and terrorism.

Had the Ottoman Empire not become so backward in its latter years,
Western colonialism could not have flourished. This means that the
Ottoman Empire unintentionally did the Western colonial powers a
great service. How then can these powers still demand that Turkey
apologize for their past mistakes?

If secular Muslim Turkey admits responsibility for the Armenian
genocide (a la Germany and the Holocaust), will it then be accepted
as a member of the EU?

KOCHARIAN TOURS ARMENIAN FRONTLINE POSITIONS
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 25 2006

President Robert Kocharian has conducted a two-day inspection of
Armenian troops deployed along the volatile frontline with Azerbaijan,
his office said on Wednesday.

A statement by the presidential press service in Yerevan said Kocharian
visited "a number of frontline army units" on Monday and Tuesday to
assess their "combat and technical readiness." "The president of the
republic visited firing ranges, followed the course of trainings,
talked to officers and soldiers, and familiarized himself with their
living conditions," it said.

The statement did not specify the location of the inspected units.

But photographs released by Kocharian’s office showed the Armenian
leader in the company of Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian, the
commander of the Nagorno-Karabakh army Lieutenant-General Seyran
Ohanian and Karabakh leader Arkady Ghukasian, suggesting that he
toured heavily militarized areas around the Armenian-controlled
disputed region. The four men, all of them natives of Karabakh,
were shown wearing army uniforms, with Kocharian shaking hands with
soldiers and inspecting their seemingly brand new light weaponry.

Kocharian’s previous tour of Armenian frontline positions was reported
in November 2004. His latest inspection coincided with the start of
the Karabakh Armenian army’s regular military exercises held near
the no-man’s land separating it from Azerbaijani forces. A military
spokesman in Stepanakert was reported to say that Karabakh army units
will practice coordination of their actions in "defense battles and
counteroffensives."

News reports from Baku said residents of Azerbaijani villages located
close to the Karabakh frontline heard powerful explosions late on
Tuesday. Local residents were also cited as saying that Azerbaijani
army positions in the area came under Armenian fire. The Armenian
and Azerbaijani militaries did not immediately comment on the reports.

72 FAMILIES OF A-320 CRASH VICTIMS RECEIVED INSURANCE PAYMENTS

Public Radio, Armenia
Oct 25 2006

Up to now "Grand" insurance company has paid the insurance payments
to 72 families of victims of the A-320 Armavia jet that crashed May
3 near Sochi. "Armenpress" was told at the insurance company that
payments have been given mainly to families of the passengers, who
were citizens of the Republic of Armenia.

Let us remind, that 113 people died as a result of the crash on May
3. Both Armenian and Russian citizens can apply the "Grand" company
for receiving the insurance payments within two years.