Author: Zargarian Hambik

OTTOMAN ROGUE IS LATEST TURKISH MOVIE HERO
By Daren Butler

Reuters, UK
March 14 2007

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish cinema audiences love their heroes and the
brawling, roguish womanizer Yandim Ali — who takes on British forces
occupying Istanbul in "The Last Ottoman" — fits the bill perfectly.

The film, set during the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end
of World War One, taps into a growing wave of nationalism in Turkish
cinema which has fed on historical themes and current issues such as
the war in neighboring Iraq.

Exploiting the popularity of Turkish television stars, local films
are now mounting a major challenge to the Hollywood productions which
used to dominate cinema screens here.

The mass-market local productions are also much more of a hit with
audiences at home than the Turkish art house movies that have won
critical acclaim abroad.

Mustafa Sevki Dogan, director of "The Last Ottoman," is under no
illusions about the recipe for success with his central character,
based on a popular comic strip hero.

"Yandim Ali is a great hero and heroism is something which always
appeals to us … Maybe we follow this path because we know the make-up
of our people and know there is a majority that likes nationalist
films," he told Reuters.

In his film, Yandim Ali evolves from a loveable rogue to a hero of
the country’s liberation from foreign forces, inspired by the example
of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

But Dogan said it was important to guard against extreme nationalism
in the cinema. Ultra-nationalists have been blamed in Turkey for
a number of crimes, most recently the murder of prominent Turkish
Armenian editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul.

"I am against all excessive nationalism," Dogan said.

ANTI-AMERICAN FEELING

Dogan also had a hand in the creation of a television series which
last year spawned Turkey’s most successful film, the controversial
"Valley of the Wolves-Iraq," whose hero Polat Alemdar single-handedly
battles U.S. forces in Iraq.

The Wolves film, with a record budget of $10 million, drew on
anti-American sentiment in Turkey after a real-life incident in Iraq
when U.S. forces arrested and hooded Turkish special forces, causing
widespread anger and a diplomatic incident.

"The subject was a matter of pride for Turkish people and was seen
as a way of getting revenge … It became clear that audiences could
be attracted with such films. It has become something of a fashion,"
said film critic Ugur Vardan.

"Valley of the Wolves" is one of two Turkish films to draw a
four-million-strong audience. It eclipsed the science-fiction comedy
G.O.R.A., in which comedian Cem Yilmaz’s character fights to escape
the clutches of the aliens who abducted him.

Alongside "The Last Ottoman," the other box-office success this
year has been "The Masked Five in Iraq" in which a clumsy Turkish
gang outwits U.S. forces in Iraq to divert oil resources from there
to Turkey.

Such mass-appeal films have in Turkey eclipsed the critical acclaim
which some Turkish art house movies have earned abroad.

One of the first major successes was Yilmaz Guney’s "Yol" (Road)
which won the Golden Palm at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival with its
harsh portrayal of life after the 1980 coup.

More recently, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s film "Uzak" (Far) won the Cannes
Grand Jury and best actor awards in 2003 but drew a local audience
of just 30,000, said film producer Mehmet Soyarslan.

"This is not enough to keep the Turkish cinema industry on its feet.

Unfortunately films like this do not attract audiences in Turkey,"
he told Reuters at the offices of his company Ozen Film, one of
Turkey’s leading film companies.

DECLINE AND REVIVAL

He said critical success has had to take a back seat while the local
film industry is developed to compete with bigger-budget foreign
productions.

Turkish cinema fell into decline in the mid-1970s with the spread
of television. As a result, the number of cinema screens fell from
several thousand to around just 250. By the time it began to recover
in the late 1980s there were few producers and directors to make films,
and few people willing to invest.

Only in 1996 did cinema take a leap forward with the success of the
film Eskiya, which drew an audience of more than 2.5 million people
with its portrayal of the life of a bandit following his release from
jail after a 35-year sentence.

"The Turkish cinema’s audience had been a sleeping giant and at
that time it woke up. What was needed then was the food to feed it,"
Soyarslan said.

The number of locally made films has now doubled to around 30
annually. Audiences of these films account for some 50 percent of
box office receipts.

The last decade has also seen the domestic film industry progressing
technically and the next step is to achieve greater international
success for local films.

"Now we must try and open up internationally… I believe that Turkish
cinema can now be compared with world cinema in terms of its technical
standards and tempo," Soyarslan said.

ISRAEL PARLIAMENT REJECTS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION BILL

Agence France Presse — English
March 14, 2007 Wednesday 2:55 PM GMT

Israel’s parliament on Wednesday rejected a motion recognising the
Turkish mass killings of Armenians dating back to 1915 as a genocide.

"Stop ignoring and rejecting the catastrophe of another people," MP
Haim Oron, who submitted the motion, told the plenum before the vote.

"We refuse to accept the turning of a blind eye to the Armenian
genocide," the opposition left-wing Meretz party MP said.

"We owe this vote not only to the Armenian people, we owe it to
ourselves, especially in a period where we are struggling to prolong
the memory" of the Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews during World
War II.

The motion was nevertheless rejected by parliament in a vote of 16
against 12, with a low turnout by MPs. It would have needed a second
ratification if it had passed.

The issue of the Armenian massacre has been raised several times in
the past in Israel’s Knesset, but there has never been an implicit
vote branding it as genocide.

If approved, Israel would have joined a growing list of countries
which have recognised the killings as genocide. It would have marked
April 24, the day when the massacres started in 1915, as Armenian
genocide memorial day.

Israel has close diplomatic ties with Turkey — one of the few Muslim
countries with which it has relations — and has in the past steered
clear of the recognition issue.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

But the Turkish government strongly denies this, saying 300,000
Armenians and as many Turks were killed in civil conflict when the
Christian Armenians, backed by Russia, rose up against the Ottoman
Empire.

Oron told AFP he had been under heavy pressure from Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert’s office and the foreign ministry to withdraw
his motion.

"I have been under a lot of pressure, but that is something any
MP must face," Oron said. "Turkey has been exerting its pressure
everywhere. This is their right. But they can not set the agenda of
the Israeli parliament."

Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said that Israel "did not intend to
place itself at the forefront of this issue, which is being handled
by the international community."

PILOT TRAINING FOR ARMENIA

Turkish Press, MI
March 13 2007

Turkey is making preparations to become the pilot training center
of the region. Accordingly, Turkey will also train pilot candidates
coming from Armenia.

TURKEY’S RULING PARTY WARNS ADOPTION OF ARMENIAN BILL MIGHT HARM TURKEY-US TIES

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 13 2007

WASHINGTON D.C. (A.A) -13.03.2007 -"If the draft law (on the so-called
Armenian genocide) submitted to the US Congress is adopted, Turkish-US
relations will be harmed by the Congress itself," Egemen Bagis,
Justice & Development Party (AKP) MP, said on Tuesday.

Bagis is a member of the Turkish parliamentary delegation actually
in Washington D.C. to lobby against the draft resolution.

In an exclusive interview with the A.A correspondent, Bagis said,
"we are endeavouring to prevent the US Congress to make a wrong
historic decision. We will inform and warn them within this scope."

Expressing uneasiness over the situation since he is also the Chairman
of Turkish-US Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, Bagis said,
"Congress members are under pressure by their own voters. The voters
exercise pressure for their own ethnic interests."

"This resolution will also kill the chance of Armenia to open up
to the West. Turkey is the gate for Armenia to open to the Western
world. This is a passage of peace, civilization, democracy and economic
development. However, Armenia insistently tries to close this gate
through such kind of campaigns," Bagis indicated.

"Armenia should abandon remaining stuck between the controversial
pages of the history and should catch up with the 21st century. In that
case we will have many things to discuss with Armenia," Bagis noted.

On the other hand Turkish parliamentary delegation members met
executives of AIPAC, a Jewish institution, on Monday evening.

The delegation is expected to have talks in US State Department and
meet executives of some Jewish organizations today.

The delegation will also have talks in the Congress on Wednesday
and Thursday.

PROBLEMATIC ALLIANCE
By Prof. Dr. AlÝ L. KaraosmanoÐlu

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 12 2007

Relations between Turkey and the US have, from the very start, been
characterized by their up and down nature. But despite the various
crises and difficulties neither side has ever considered completely
breaking off relations.

The alliance has been beneficial for both sides in different ways,
which is why it has continued. However, the Turkish-US alliance is
today at its most difficult point since the 1947 Truman Doctrine.

It was for the US, as much as it was for Turkey, a turning point when
then-US President Harry S. Truman stood before Congress on March 12,
1947 and delivered an historic message that stressed the importance
of support and protection for Turkey and Greece against the Soviet
threat. When in the immediate wake of World War II the Soviet Union
demanded the right to place its soldiers on the straits of Turkey
(Bosporus and Canakkale) and to take land from eastern Anatolia,
Turkey faced a new, real, concrete and life-threatening danger. Thus
what the Truman Doctrine offered to Ankara, which was experiencing
very difficult conditions at the time, was critical support.

Until then the concept of alliances had been foreign to US tradition
in international relations. In the past the US had tended to regard
the spread of Soviet power from a strictly geographical perspective.

Washington’s primary concern was focused on Turkey’s straits.

Turkey’s eastern regions, in fact even the eastern Mediterranean and
Middle East, were overshadowed by the strategic importance of these
straits. Despite this narrow geo-strategic perspective, which continued
almost until the start of the 1950s, the Truman Doctrine heralded the
first step towards radical changes in traditional US policies. From
that date onward the US, as it began to shoulder responsibilities on
a world level, started down the road toward becoming a superpower.

Although the Truman Doctrine offered Turkey important support it
did not quite satisfy Ankara. The Turkish capital was looking for
an alliance that would promise even stronger security. After NATO
was formed, Turkey began to see this very one-sided Western military
alliance of nations as offering the strongest security possible and
duly began to push with perseverance for membership. It was at this
time that Turkey moved to a multiparty regime and, in order to show
its belief in the Western alliance of nations, it sent soldiers to
Korea. Finally in 1952 with the strong and decisive support of the US
— and in the face of opposition from many of the founding nations —
Turkey joined NATO.

After Turkey became a NATO member its relations with the US began
to develop further. It was able to benefit from the advantages
of a multinational military alliance as a deterrent against the
Soviet threat. At the same time the Turkish Armed Forces underwent a
modernization process and, during the Cold War years, our contributions
to NATO were great. By devoting up to 30 divisions to the area under
the Soviet/Warsaw Pact, the Turkish Armed Forces greatly relieved
the pressure presented by the Soviet military over the middle front
of the NATO alliance centered in Germany. And the control over the
straits guaranteed an unshakeable 1,500-kilometer NATO defense line
over the Mediterranean — spreading all the way down to Sicily. In
addition Turkey allocated military bases and facilities for the use
of NATO and the US. In short the benefits of the alliance were felt
on all sides, not just in Ankara. Beyond this the new NATO alliance
ensured that Turkey would continue to be the most functional regional
tie to the West long after the Cold War was over.

Within NATO though, Turkish-US relations were not entirely flawless.

On the contrary the relations between the countries sometimes produced
problems. For example Turkey was unable to fully embrace the Middle
East policies of the US. It was natural that Turkey would have its
own particular interests and problems when it came to relations with
neighboring countries. The US was opposed to NATO attempts to expand
into a shape which would include the Middle East and the Gulf of
Basra in its ring of responsibilities. It fostered, in addition to
its Soviet deterrent policies, a policy of trying to extend subtle
messages of reassurance to Moscow rather than trying to openly frighten
or scare the Soviet capital.This two-pronged policy from Washington
occasionally brought the US and NATO to loggerheads.

Within this framework Ankara did not accept a single project aimed
at updating the short-range nuclear missiles based in Turkey. In
addition the difficult relations between Turkey and Greece, as well
as the continuing Cyprus problems, also managed to affect Turkey’s
relations with both NATO and the US.

Besides all these other issues, Turkish-US relations faced three
serious crises during the Cold War years. One of these was that,
during the 1962 Cuba crisis, midrange Jupiter missiles that had been
placed on Turkish soil at the Cigli air base were removed following
bargaining between the White House and the Kremlin. This in turn
caused Ankara to enter into a crisis of trust with regards to the US.

Another crisis that caused even deeper disappointment on the part of
Ankara was the infamous 1964 Johnson letter. The third crisis came
about with the passage of an arms embargo against Turkey by the US
Congress in the wake of the 1974 Cyprus movement. The embargo was
lifted in 1978, but after that the near-annual "genocide" bills brought
before Congress by Armenian lobby groups perpetuated this tension.

Turkey-US relations have never affected Turkish public opinion as
negatively as they do now. The US has never experienced as great a
loss of respect in the eyes of the Turkish public as it currently
does. This phenomenon is one that has emerged in the wake of Sept.

11, the US invasion of Iraq and US Middle East policies in general.

The neocon perspective on Islam; an outward stance that ignores
religious sensitivities; an inability to cease the ongoing violence
in Iraq; the failure to take appropriate precautions against the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) presence in northern Iraq; and the
discounting of Turkey’s various interests in Iraq: all of these are
factors which have worked to poison Turkey’s relations with the US.

As for the US side of matters, it also appears that certain politicians
— in particular those with military ties — have not been able to
rise above the desire for revenge in the wake of the shock resulting
from the Turkish Parliament’s infamous March 1, 2003 decision.

Despite the generally dark tableau presented here, the two allies can
not break apart from one another. Their alliance continues. As a NATO
member Turkey is providing support to the US in Afghanistan. A full
60 percent of equipment support for US soldiers in Iraq comes through
Turkey. The Ýncirlik Air Force base in Adana provides support for the
US efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Baþer-Ralston cooperation
(against PKK forces in northern Iraq) still continues.

The US, which understands Turkey’s importance more than any other
nation in the post-Cold War world, does not limit itself simply to
expressing support for US membership in the European Union, it is
working actively on this front. In the meantime the implementation
of the F-35 jet project, which will bring the latest in airplane
technology to Turkey, has begun.

It would be incorrect to view Turkish-US relations from only one
angle. This relationship has always been a problematic one and it is
a fact that the problems faced nowadays are more serious than ever.

But the alliance continues, in different shapes and forms. What
needs to be focused on now is the search for ways to develop economic
relations. An increase in the variety and type of economic ties, as
well as between aspects of civil society between these two countries,
would reduce pressure on strategic relations and would help in the
overcoming of any crises which might occur in the future.

–Boundary_(ID_AOqAEQ1fVqvA3i4DvnPnBA)–

AKI, Italy
March 9 2007

TURKEY: MILITARY’S MEDIA ‘BLACK LIST’ PROMPTS PROBE

Istanbul, 9 March (AKI) – A revelation by a Turkish magazine of the
existence of a list that classified journalists on the basis of their
perceived attitude towards Turkey’s powerful military establishment
has prompted a judicial inquiry as well as widespread outrage in the
country’s media. The 17-page report listing journalists depending on
their alleged ‘pro-military’ or ‘anti-military’ bias was published on
Thursday by the magazine Nokta.

The Turkish military has not denied the existence of the document and
has launched a judicial probe to discover who leaked the ‘black list’
to the magazine.

The document, dated November 2006, was prepared by the Office of the
Chief of General Staff Public and Press Relations Bureau and is
entitled ‘A reassessment of accredited press and media organs’.

Journalists and media organisations that want to follow the
activities of the Office of the Chief of General Staff need to be
accredited by the office.

The document lists all the country’s mainstream national broadscast
and print media outlets and journalists, categorising them according
to their comments and reports on the Turkish military. It also
includes comments and recommendations on whether the media
accreditation handed out to individuals should be granted, denied or
revoked.

"The report is a shame for our democracy. It is a new obstacle for
freedom of expression and freedom of press," the main body
representing journalists in the country, the Turkish Journalists
Association, said in its response.

Umur Talu, a veteran columnist for the daily Sabah and a renowned
critic of the influence of the military in Turkey asked Friday why he
is described as "treacherous" on the list.

"Is it ‘normal’ for a 21-year-old junior officer to commit suicide in
his military unit because he was being humiliated? No, then why
should I be described as ‘treacherous’ for having reported on it,"
Talu asked in his column.

Other famous journalists and columnists that appear on the list in
the ‘anti-military’ category include Murat Belge, Mehmet Ali Birand
and Can Dundar. Murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and
his weekly Agos are not included in the document.

Another prominent journalist, Mehmet Altan from the Star daily, said
that while he was scandalised by the the existence of the list "there
is at least a group of high-ranking military officials who think that
this report is a serious mistake and that’s why they’ve leaked it."

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials
have not commented on the report.

Media outlets with more radical positions, such as the socialist and
Islamist newspapers and television stations are not given
accreditation to follow the Office of the Chief of General Staff and
hence do not are already not accredited to military’s media events
and are not included in the ‘black list.’

SENTENCE OF FIRST INSTANCE COURT TO VAHAGN CHAKHALIAN KEPT UNCHANGED

YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The trial on case of
Vahagn Chakhalian, presidency member of United Javakhk democratic
bloc, took place on March 9 at RA Appeal Court. To recap, on December
4, 2006 Shirak region’s first instance court had found the latter
guilty for trespassing RA state border illegally. According to the
Javakhk-Info agency, RA Appeal Court kept unchanged the sentence of
first instance court.

THREE ARMENIANS TO BE REPRESENTED IN THE ABKHAZIAN PARLIAMENT

armradio.am
06.03.2007 17:10

Three Armenians will be represented in the newly elected Parliament of
Abkhazia. "Yerkramas" newspaper of Russian Armenians informs that two
Armenian Deputies – Valeri Mayromyan and Sergey Matosyan – were elected
in the parliamentary elections held on March 4. Another Armenian Deputy
will be elected from the precinct #20, where Albert Hovsepyan and
Farhad Mikhayelyan will compete in the second round on March 28. Thus,
the number of Armenians in the Abkhazian Parliament will not change:
three Armenians were represented also in the previous Parliament.

OSKANIAN DISCUSSES ARMENIAN POLLS, KARABAKH WITH RICE
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 6 2007

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian met with U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice in Washington on Monday to discuss Armenia’s upcoming
parliamentary elections, efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, and other issues of mutual interest.

A statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry said Oskanian and Rice
agreed on the importance of the vote’s "conformity with international
standards." No details were reported.

The U.S. State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, made no statements
on the meeting during a daily press briefing on Monday.

The U.S. administration is pressing the authorities in Yerevan to
ensure that the elections scheduled for May 12 are more democratic than
the ones held in the past. It has set aside $6 million for various
projects aimed at enhancing the transparency and public oversight of
the electoral process.

U.S. officials have warned that a repeat of electoral fraud would
call into question the disbursement of $235 million in additional
economic assistance to Armenia under the Millennium Challenge Account
(MCA) program. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry statement,
the promised aid was high on the agenda of Oskanian’s talks with
Rice. "The minister presented preparations for the implementation of
the program that have been made until now," it said.

The two officials were also reported to have discussed international
efforts to broker a solution to the Karabakh dispute which are
spearheaded by the United States, Russia, and France. U.S. diplomats
say Armenia and Azerbaijan are close to cutting a framework peace deal
in the months following the Armenian elections. Oskanian is expected
to hold another round of talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar
Mammadyarov next week.

The ministry statement said Oskanian and Rice also discussed U.S.

efforts to help improve the strained Turkish-Armenian relations. It
did not elaborate.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told RFE/RL last
month that Washington is pressing Ankara to use a rare opportunity
to normalize relations with Yerevan that arose after the January 19
assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Bryza said
Rice is personally "encouraging" a Turkish-Armenian "reconciliation
process" that would address the mass killings and deportations of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Armenian officials have sounded pessimistic about the success of
those efforts, saying that the Turkish government is sticking to its
preconditions for establishing diplomatic relations and reopening
the border with Armenia.

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Oskanian said
he specifically spoke with Rice about a draft U.S. congressional
resolution that recognizes the Armenian massacres as genocide. He
expressed concern at high-level Turkish government efforts to scuttle
its widely anticipated passage by the House of Representatives.

"Governments should stay away from meddling in these matters," he
said. "But when topics of interest for Armenia are being discussed,
we cannot remain as a government indifferent, particularly in light
of Turkish lobbying at a government level."

Visiting Washington last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul warned that the resolution, if passed, will harm Turkish-American
relations.

GEORGIA, MOLDOVA AND U.S. DEMAND RUSSIA "TO STOP AID" TO UNRECOGNIZED REPUBLICS

PanARMENIAN.Net
05.03.2007 18:04 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgia, Moldova and the U.S. demand Russia to stop
aid to "separatist regimes." In the OSCE Standing Council in Vienna
the missions of these countries to the OSCE called on Russia to stop
financial aid to "separatist regimes and join the projects serving the
economic development of the regions under the control of international
organizations." According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
European Integration of Moldova, GUAM and the U.S. expressed their
concern about Russia’s activity in Transdniestria, South Ossetia and
Abkhazia. "Officially receiving the leaders of unrecognized republics
in Moscow, holding negotiations with them as presidents contradict
Russia’s status as mediator that has to be bias in the conflicts,"
the statement says. Georgia, Moldova and the U.S. said that they
do not understand Russia’s position with regard to the referenda
and elections organized by Tiraspol, Tskhinvali and Sukhumi regimes,
controlling over the violation of human rights and freedoms. The GUAM
and the U.S. stressed the importance of Russia’s withdrawing it troops
and weapons from Moldova and Georgia according to the commitments
undertaken in Istanbul summit of OSCE in 1999, reports APA.