Author: Vorskanian Yeghisabet

CHP MEMBERS REACT TO RACIST REMARKS DESPITE PARTY INACTION

Today’s Zaman
Dec 25 2008
Turkey

Republican People’s Party (CHP) politicians have voiced their
objections to racist remarks made by CHP İzmir deputy Canan Arıtman,
who questioned President Abdullah Gul’s ethnic background, but
there have still been no disciplinary actions taken by the party
administration.

A deputy from the CHP recently apologized to the mother of President
Gul, whose maternal ethnic roots had been questioned by Arıtman
when the president did not object to an apology campaign launched
by Turkish intellectuals over the killings of Anatolian Armenians at
the hands of the late Ottoman Empire in 1915, which Armenians claim
constituted genocide. On a television program discussing the apology
campaign Tuesday evening, former ambassador and CHP Ä°stanbul deputy
Å~^ukru Elekdag said he would like to apologize to the mother of the
president. "I would like to apologize to someone and that person is
a woman, a mother. That woman is the mother of Abdullah Gul. I know
she has been quite disturbed by this discussion. For that reason,
I would like to say that I feel the same empathy for her that I would
feel for my own mother and I apologize to her," Elekdag said.

Arıtman’s remarks have drawn ire from CHP politicians, with many
stressing that they don’t share her beliefs. "Arıtman made a very
wrong statement. I don’t approve of such talk of ethnicity," CHP
Chief Accountant Mustafa Ozyurek said. In addition, CHP Adana deputy
Hulusi Guvel criticized the party administration for failing to act
in response to Arıtman’s statements.

The CHP administration issued a warning to Arıtman after she appeared
on two television programs to discuss her allegations about Gul
without the administration’s permission.

On the other hand, CHP parliamentary group leader Hakkı Suha Okay
has criticized Gul, who filed a symbolic YTL 1 lawsuit against
Arıtman for assaulting his "personal and family values, honor
and reputation." Speaking to the Anatolia news agency yesterday,
Okay said, "Filing this lawsuit is an injustice to our citizens of
Armenian roots," explaining that it implied that the president regards
"Armenian ethnicity" as an insult. Emphasizing that "everyone’s roots
deserve respect," he added that Arıtman’s words lacked "class,"
but that the president’s action was inappropriate.

Meanwhile, Arıtman said in a statement yesterday evening that the
media had launched a lynch campaign against her. "I have two questions
for the media outlets trying to lynch me. Has President Abdullah Gul,
who sued me for my words, not offended Armenians? You want my expulsion
from my party. Are you going to demand the president’s resignation,
too?" she asked. "If saying that your mother is British is not an
insult, neither is saying she was Armenian," she said, asserting that
the president had attached a negative meaning to the word "Armenian"
by suing her for her statement.

In light of the current debate, Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate
head Ali Bardakoglu said, "The biggest disservice to humanity would
be to take ethnic roots as a measure," adding that all people are
ultimately the "children of Adam and Eve." Bardakoglu was quoted by
the Milliyet daily as saying: "We have lost our tolerance toward each
other. Let’s leave the judgmental attitudes behind."

Gul: Roots, beliefs and ideas do not matter

In a Christmas message yesterday, President Gul said: "Regardless
of their roots, beliefs or ideas, all of our citizens are honorable
and equal members of our nation. People share all moments of life
together. The contemporary Turkish Republic is a secular and social
state under the rule of law and has adopted this principle with each
member of the society firmly together in unity and solidarity. … with
those thoughts I celebrate the Christmas holiday of all of our citizens
coming from Christian traditions and I wish them happy holidays."

Meanwhile, in response to reporters’ questions about the recent row,
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that he embraces
all of Turkey’s citizens. "Is somebody a citizen of the Turkish
Republic? Is his or her constitutional identity Turkish? That’s what
matters," he said, adding that nobody should be discriminated against
based on his ethnic origin.

–Boundary_(ID_jyMftS/+eXH+WfG0luwIxQ)–

OPEN LETTER REKINDLES TURKISH DEBATE ON ARMENIAN MASSACRE

The Irish Times
December 24, 2008

ANGRY DEBATES fuelled by an online initiative inviting individual
Turks to apologise for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the
first World War showed no signs of fading this week, as Turkey’s
president took an opposition deputy to court for an alleged racial
slur, writes NICHOLAS BIRCH in Istanbul.

Lawyers for Abdullah Gul announced on Monday that he was seeking
symbolic compensation from Canan Aritman after she hinted his mother
had Armenian roots.

"Gul should be president of the entire Turkish nation, not just of
those sharing his ethnicity," Ms Aritman said on December 17th. "Look
into Gul’s roots on his mother’s side, and you’ll see."

Her outburst followed Mr Gul’s description of the initiative, which
has attracted 20,000 signatures since it was launched on December 15th,
as compatible with a democratic society.

"My conscience does not accept the denial of the Great Catastrophe
that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915," the open letter
reads. "I reject this injustice . . . and empathise with the feelings
and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologise to them."

Mr Gul’s doveish tone was characteristic of a man who, in September,
became the first Turkish statesman to visit Armenia, triggering hopes
of a rapprochement between the two countries after nearly a century
of enmity.

Turkey and Armenia remain at loggerheads over what exactly happened
in 1915.

Turkey accepts that many Armenians were killed during the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire, but insists they were victims of interethnic
conflicts that claimed more Muslim victims.

For Armenians, and most western historians, the ethnic cleansing that
killed at least 600,000 Armenians amounted to genocide.

Ten years ago, openly debating 1915 in Turkey was all but
impossible. Today, universities organise conferences on the issue,
and bookshops sell books by western and Armenian historians, alongside
texts defending the official Turkish thesis.

Journalist Semin Gumusel ascribes the new openness to a general change
in attitudes in Turkey. "In the past, Turks used to listen to the
big men and nod their heads obediently," she says.

"But the days of blind obedience are over. People ask questions now."

Others attribute the initiative to the shock that followed the murder
of the Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink. A leading advocate of a
more humane debate on the Armenian issue, Dink was gunned down by a
nationalist teenager in January 2007.

"When he died, it was as if a veil had been torn from the eyes of
the democratic-minded citizens of this country," says Nil Mutluer,
a feminist activist who signed the letter. "People realised there
was no time to be lost."

The road ahead looks hard. The chief organisers of the 1915 massacres
continue to be commemorated in street names across the country.

Ms Aritman has not been the only public figure to criticise the
open letter.

Senior generals said it damaged the country. Prime minister Tayyip
Erdogan was contemptuous: "[The signatories] must have committed
genocide themselves since they are apologising," he said last
Friday. "The Turkish Republic does not have such a problem."

Met with nothing worse than a mild slap on the wrist from her party,
meanwhile, Ms Aritman upped the ante on Monday.

"These days, scientists use DNA tests, not family trees, to identify
ethnic identity," she said, referring to Mr Gul’s insistence he was
of Turkish stock.

"My slogan is ‘happy is he who says I am a Turk’," she added, using
a well-known slogan of the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk.

Managing editor of Radikal , a liberal daily, Erdal Guven describes
Ms Aritman’s party’s failure to sack her as "a disgrace".

"It is a pity too that Gul didn’t make it more clear that it would
have made no difference if his granny had been an Armenian."

BIZARRE LAWSUIT: BATMAN, TURKEY VS. BATMAN, THE MOVIE
Harut Sassounian

Huffington Post
n/bizarre-lawsuit-embatmane_b_153175.html
Dec 23 2008
NY

In keeping wth the Holiday Season, I would like to present a rather
amusing topic this week, hoping to bring a good cheer to readers’
hearts.

Variety magazine and hundreds of media outlets worldwide reported last
month that the mayor of Batman, a small city in southeastern Turkey,
is planning to sue Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight,
and Warner Brothers studios for royalties from the hugely profitable
Batman movie.

Mayor Huseyin Kalkan accused the movie producers of using the city’s
name without permission. He was quoted by Variety as saying: "There
is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name
of our city without informing us."

Variety’s reporter Ali Jaafar wondered why it took the town of Batman
"so many years to take legal action." The reporter pointed out that
"Batman first appeared as a comic book character in 1939 and the Batman
TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton’s first big screen rendition
for Warner Brothers came out in 1989. Undoubtedly, the fact that
Dark Knight is about to pass the $1 billion mark … played a part
in stirring the ire of the Turkish hamlet."

Incredibly, Mayor Kalkan blamed the Batman movie "for a number of
unresolved murders and a high female suicide rate" in his town. He
attributed these problems to "the psychological impact that the film’s
success has had on the city’s inhabitants."

Natives of Batman have also encountered obstacles when attempting to
register their businesses abroad, the mayor claimed. Batman’s local
newspaper reported that former Batman resident Safii Dagh, currently
living in the German city of Wesel, was prevented from using Batman
as the name of his business. "I named my two restaurants Batman. But
six months ago, a team of employees from the production company of
the movie Batman made me change the title," Dagh said.

Lawyer Vehbi Kahveci, head of the Intellectual and Industrial
Property Rights Commission of the Istanbul Bar Association, stated
that Batman and his image are registered trademarks all around the
world. The Batman Municipality missed the deadline for objecting to
the registration of Batman’s name as a superhero.

This bizarre lawsuit was also fodder for several derisive video
postings on YouTube, google and Yahoo websites, generating hundreds
of comments from viewers. Most comments were so offensive that YouTube
had to delete them from its site.

The most hilarious video came from Comedy.com where a comedian
named Rob Delaney, posing as a Public Relations spokesman for Warner
Brothers, ridiculed the mayor of Batman and everything Turkish!

I have transcribed below Delaney’s comments, after removing the
countless swear words. Our aim is to make fun of the silly lawsuit
filed by the Mayor of Batman and not to insult Turks. Here is the
cleansed version of the transcript:

"We will crush you, just like you did the Armenians one hundred
years ago!

"Where were you in 1939 when Batman first appeared in comic books?

"Where were you in 1966 when Batman was a TV show?

"Oh, that’s right, you’re a backward third world country and you are
just now finding out about Batman. How convenient! It just happens
to be the same year our movie made more than your entire country did
in the last decade.

"Don’t get me wrong. We think your name is hilarious! Batman,
Turkey? Why don’t you sue turkeys while you’re at it? Why don’t you
sue the ottoman in the living room of one of my several houses?

"You do not want to tangle with Warner Brothers, Turkey!

"Why don’t you stick to what you are good at, like oil wrestling,
female weight lifting, and being a nation of gypsies?

"I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Warner Brothers will own
you! I’m considering suing your town for making Batman slightly less
awesome. Your land and women will be mine, Turkey! Consider yourself
warned…."

Maybe the mayor of Batman is not that stupid after all! By announcing
that he is planning to sue the producers of Batman, he has been able
to generate free worldwide publicity for his obscure city. He is
probably hoping that Batman fans will flock to his hometown, bringing
with them enough cash to rejuvenate the local economy! A Batman city
worker wisely observed: "We wouldn’t have had better advertising for
Batman, even if we had spent $1 million."

TURKISH EXPERT: "TURKEY’S INTENTION TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA MAKE BAKU GET SILENT"

Today.Az
litics/49735.html
Dec 22 2008
Azerbaijan

"Azerbaijan’s reaction to Turkey’s idea to normalize relations with
Armenia is surprising. Azerbaijan does not react, resist and is calm",
said Burchu Gultekin, expert of the Center of European Studies of
Turkish Near Eastern Technical University.

"Moreover, we hope for resolution of the Karabakh conflict, which
may promote the development of economic relations in conditions of
unblocked borders of Armenia and Turkey. And in this sense the opening
of border with Armenia is not a sufficient provision for Turkey,
which would want to diversify routes of access to the Caspian region.

Turkey is also interested in opening of borders and its efforts for
normalization of relations with Armenia make Baku get silent. Moreover,
I think that such developments were viewed as a variant in the
resolution of the Karabakh conflict in Baku", noted Gultekin.

TURKISH DEPUTY WOULD LIKE TO THROW A SHOE AT PRESIDENT GUL THE SAME WAY AN IRAQI JOURNALIST LAST WEEK HURLED A SHOE AT VISITING US PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

ArmInfo
2008-12-22 18:56:00

Turkish President Abdullah Gul released a statement yesterday about
his family’s ethnic origins in response to a Republican People’s Party
(CHP) deputy Canan Aritman’s attempt to link the president’s attitude
toward a recently launched apology campaign for the Armenian killings
at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire in 1915 to his ethnic roots. In
his statement yesterday, Gul announced that his mother’s side, the
Satoglu family from Kayseri, and his father’s side, the Gul family
also from Kayseri, are Muslim and Turkish, according to centuries of
written genealogy records.

According to the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman, as CHP deputy Canan
Aritman who claimed that President Gul’s mother is of Armenian origin,
continued to attack the president in an interview published in the
Milliyet daily yesterday, saying that she would like to throw a shoe
at the president when she sees him in the same way an Iraqi journalist
last week hurled a shoe at visiting US President George W. Bush.

Aritman last week attacked the apology campaign initiated by a group
of intellectuals to apologize for the Armenian massacres of 1915,
which Armenians claim constituted genocide. "The false scientists
signing it should apologize to Turkey," she said.

In his statement Gul said that he respects the ethnic background,
different beliefs and stressed that all Turkish citizens are equal to
one another regardless of any differences. "No one has any superiority
whatsoever over another one. Everybody has the equal and same rights
under the guarantee of our Constitution," the statement reads.

When asked for his opinion on the campaign, Gul said the state’s stance
is to improve relations with its neighbors. "We believe dialogue to
be the solution to problems we have with our neighbors. Perpetuating
problems is not useful to anyone," he said.

"I would toss a shoe and draw attention to this issue," Aritman
said in her interview. "I wouldn’t recommend suing me. They would be
embarrassed. There is no legal basis for such a lawsuit," she said. "If
I do sue the president on charges of supporting incidents that might
lead to an ethnic conflict, that would have a legal basis." She said
she had known about Gul’s alleged Armenian background for a long time,
adding that she should be appreciated for not revealing the information
during Gul’s election campaign.

Responding to Gul’s statement, the deputy said: "I never asked the
president to announce his genealogical background. I just wanted
him to protect his nation and state, the duty assigned to him by the
Constitution." "Why doesn’t the president show the principled stance
shown by the prime minister?" Aritman asked. To recall, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted harshly to the statement, saying he had
nothing to apologize for.

Azeri captive wants to become citizen of Armenia

armradio.am
20.12.2008 14:14

The Azeri soldier who crossed the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on
October 8 and yielded himself prisoner to the Armenian side declared
that he would like to assume Armenian citizenship. The Azeri captive
stated in an exclusive interview:

`I, Hasanov Rafik Rahman Oghli, was born in 1989 in Yusuvjanli village,
Aghdam region. I currently reside in Seferli village in Aghdam region.

Why did I cross the border? I was humiliated at the 5th battalion of
the brigade #707 located in Ghazakh. I served there for three months,
and then I was glad to be moved to the base station where there would
be nine soldiers and one Officer. I thought the service would be easier
there. However, I was beaten and tortured also at Bazahli base. Unable
to stand it any longer, I decided to shoot at my left foot from the
gun, after which I was taken to hospital. I recovered and returned to
the base station. The commanders continued teasing me comparing me with
a donkey.’

Hasanov applied to Azeri Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, asking to carry
out check-up at the 707 brigade.

The captive said he does not wish to return to Azerbaijan where he is
beaten and humiliated. He added that he is treated well in Armenia.
Hasanov declared he will never return to Azerbaijan and said he is
going to become an Armenian citizen.

`I extended greetings to the President of Armenia and the President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and declare that I was a citizen of Azerbaijan
for 19 years. Now I wish to be a citizen of the Republic of Armenia and
will never return to Azerbaijan,’ Hasanov Rafik Rahman Oghli said.

Christian Union feels Europe¹s support for its draft law
³Penalise the denial of genocide²

Trouw
Dutch daily newspaper

2 December 2008

By Cees van der Laan

The Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) has little sympathy for the idea, but the
Christian Union pushes ahead its draft law for penalising the offending
denial of genocides. The Armenian issue simmers just below the surface.

It has been quiet for a time since Christian Union in 2006 initiated the
draft law for penalising the public denial of genocide. The vehemence of the
debate on Armenian Genocide during the elections of 2006 may have been the
reason of this silence. In addition to that, Christian Union, an advocate of
punishment of genocide denial, and PvdA, an opponent of it, are now
coalition partners in the government. In that circumstances, it would be not
ill-advised to let the issue just cool down.

However, the Christian Union (CU) now feels the support of Europe for going
ahead with its draft law. The European Commission, European Parliament and
the EU ministers of justice, are of the idea that the member states should
make the denial punishable in their respective legislations. On Saturday,
this European Framework Decision was published and now is official. ³A clear
expression of the European attitude², according to Christian Union Member
of Parliament Mr. Joel Voordewind. Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain and
Luxemburg already have legislation to punish denial of genocide.

Monday, the CU organises a roundtable discussion in the Parliament on its
draft law. It is a closed meeting so that the members of Parliament, the
invited genocide scholars and the jurists can exchange views freely. Another
reason could be that the Armenian Genocide will also be a subject of
discussion, since the Federation of the Armenian Organisations will also be
present.

This is an exceptionally emotional issue for Turks living in the
Netherlands, since according to most Turks there was no genocide. In 2006,
three Turkish candidates of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the
Labour Party (PvdA) for parliamentary elections, withdrew from the campaign
because they had denied the Armenian Genocide. State Secretary Ms. Albayrak
(Labour Party) thinks that massacres have been perpetrated at the time, but
whether those massacres can be defined as genocide under international law
remains a question for her.

Mr. Voordewind expects to submit officially the draft law to the Parliament
after the hearing. The bill has been amended on some points after the
remarks of the State Council, but the purport remains intact. The coalition
partner, PvdA, however, does not support it. Also, the minister of Justice,
Mr. Hirsch Ballin does not advocate a separate legislation. He supports the
European Framework Decision, but finds that the present legislation already
provides this option. According to him, deniers of the Jewish Holocaust and
other genocides (Srebrenica, Rwanda, Armenians) can be apprehended on the
strength of the present laws criminalizing discrimination and insult.

The CU does not agree with this argument. According to Mr. Voordewind,
falsifying of the facts consciously in combination with hurting, insulting
or discriminating of the victims or their descendants must be a recognised
penal act in itself. Besides, a special legislation will work more
effectively than the present more general provisions of the Criminal Law.

The origin of the draft law lies in a motion by Christian Union back in
2004, which was adopted by the Parliament. In that motion, the Armenian
Genocide was recognised. At the time, the government had no problem with
that. In 2006, the Christian Union submitted the draft law for penalising
the ?negationism¹, i.e. offending denial of crimes against humanity in
general, with up to one year imprisonment or an equivalent pecuniary
punishment. The draft law is not particularly directed to the Armenian
Genocide, but applies to all internationally established genocides.

============

* Note by Abovian Cultural Centre:
The hearing took place on 15 December 2008 and was organised by Christian
Union parliamentary faction, initiator of the draft law, with participation
of Dutch MP¹s, genocide experts, jurists, Centre for Information and
Documentation on Israel (CIDI) and the Federation of Armenian Organisations
of the Netherlands (FAON).

IRAN-ARMENIA SIGN MOU IN VARIOUS FIELDS IN TEHRAN

Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1
Dec 15 2008
Iran

[Presenter] Joint Iran-Armenia commission was held this morning with
the presence of Iran’s foreign minister and the minister of energy
and natural resources of Armenia in Tehran.

[Mottaki] The eighth joint commission of cooperation between the
Islamic Republic of Iran and the Armenian Republic was held yesterday
and today in Tehran. An MOU containing 71 articles incorporating
various areas of cooperation between Iran and Armenia has been prepared
and as you witnessed signed today.

State Telegraph Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan
December 11, 2008 Thursday

SPECIAL HEARING ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT HELD IN BELGIAN SENATE

Baku 11 December

The World Azerbaijanis Congress (WAC) organized a special hearing on
the Nagorno-Karabakh in the Belgian Senate.

Addressing the Senate, WAC chairman Sabir Rustamkhanli spoke about
reasons and historical roots of Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, as well as genocides and terror acts committed by Armenians
against Azerbaijanis and Turks. Rustamkhanly said the international
community still remains indifferent to Armenian crimes. He pointed out
that WAC regularly hold events to raise world community`s awareness
about the fact that Armenia supports terrorism on a governmental
level.

Belgian MPs, politicians from Germany, Russia and Netherlands, as well
as representatives of Azerbaijan and Turkish communities were present
at the event.

VIATCHESLAV IGRUNOV: TURKEY’S RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE UNREALISTIC

PanARMENIAN.Net
12.12.2008 15:19 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Distancing itself from the United States, Turkey’s
policy has become more practical, a Russian politician said.

"Moscow is extremely interested in normalization of the
Armenian-Turkish relations," Viatcheslav Igrunov, Director of the
International Institute for Humanities and Political Studies, member
of Russian Duma in 1993-2003, told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

This issue demands a sober approach, according to him. "Turkey’s
recognition of the Armenian Genocide is unrealistic, since it implies
return of territories of Western Armenia," he said.

"As to Iran, it’s the key regional power, whose security guarantees
the security of the entire region. Destabilization of Iran is pregnant
with grave consequences," Igrunov said.