Category: News

TURKEY NOT TO GREET BUSH BACK
Azg/Arm
6 Nov 04
President George W. Bush’s re-election hit the headlines of the world
press. Europe’s estimation of Bush’s re-election was concentrated in
President Jacque Shirak’s words who said: “We don’t think that Kerry’s
election would bring considerable changes, Bush simply is the evil we
know”.
Headlines of most of the European newspapers sounded likewise: “Time
to Worry”, “Bush: God Will Help”, “Americans, What Have You Done?”
The Berliner Currier commented on the elections: “Bush lied to the
world. This cowboy is dangerous for the world. Who is next after
Iraq? Iran or Syria? Europe should keep on the alert.” Another German
newspaper, Der Tagesspiegel writes: “US election is a good lesson for
Europe. European governments should understand that United States is
completely a different country, essentially diverse from
Europe. That’s why we must get ready for trials and get armed”.
The Arabian printed media labeled Bush’s re-election as a
nightmare. An article entitled “Clouds Getting Over the Region”
expresses concern that the Iraqi war may fling in Sudan, Iran and
Syria. Newspapers of Kenya followed Arabian press’ example.
In today’s situation the possible resignation of Colin Powell and
Donald Rumsfeld would not bring change. Guardian confirmed the
supposition about possible shifts in Bush’s administration and even
noted that President Bush is going to appoint National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice as a Secretary of State and deputy Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz as a Secretary of Defense.
This staff shifts in US leadership can only mean that America’s
heavy-handed policy in the region will turn even heavier but will not
change the situation there. Yet, Turkish Prime Minister Racep Tayyip
Erdogan in his congratulation speech to President Bush expressed hope
that the results of the US elections will contribute to the
development of the human race and to establishing peace in the
world. Foreign minister Abdullah Gul echoed from Lisboan: “President
Bush won a clear victory in elections. I am sure that he will
reconsider US foreign policy especially in Iraq and Palestine. I
believe that he has to review everything as his tenure has just set
off”.
Turkish President Ahmed Necdet Sezer also congratulated Bush on
November 4. We don’t know what he said, but it is clear that the
staff shifts in Bush’s administration justify neither Erdogan’s hopes
nor go in line with Gul’s expectations. As Erdogan and Gul should have
been well informed about the shifts in Bush’s administration we may
conclude that they foresaw possible exasperation in US Middle East
policy.
In case the US policy results in new wars in the region, America will
face new difficulties. In its search for ways out of the crises
America will deliberately turn to Turkey for help.
Turkey’s possible involvement in US’s Middle East policy will give the
chance to intervene in negative and positive developments in the
region. Involvement in regional developments, no matter negative or
positive, is preferable for Turkey because in case it drops out of the
Middle East policy isolation will be inevitable.
By Hakob Chakrian

Agence France Presse
4 novembre 2004 jeudi 5:11 PM GMT
Les présidents des assemblées de trois pays du Caucase reçus au Sénat
PARIS 4 nov 2004
Les présidents des assemblées nationales d’Azerbaïdjan, d’Arménie et
de Géorgie ont assisté à une séance du Sénat, jeudi à Paris, à
l’invitation du président de la Haute assemblée Christian Poncelet,
qui a salué leur présence dans l’hémicycle.
Dans la matinée, M. Poncelet avait réuni ses homologues Mourtouz
Aleskerov (Azerbaïdjan), Arthur Baghdassarian (Arménie) et Nino
Burdjanadze (Géorgie) à Versailles (Yvelines) pour des entretiens sur
la situation régionale et les perspectives de coopération entre les
parlements des quatre pays.
Les trois présidents sont venus en France à son invitation, dans le
cadre des bons offices déployés par la France entre les pays du
Caucase.
“Voilà la troisième fois, depuis 1999, que les présidents de
parlements des pays du Caucase du Sud se rencontrent ainsi à mon
initiative, pour évoquer la situation régionale complexe”, a lancé M.
Poncelet à l’adresse de ses homologues, jeudi après-midi dans
l’hémicycle.
“Leur présence et leur participation active confortent et pérennisent
le processus que nous avons engagé ensemble à Versailles, il y a
bientôt cinq ans, malgré une situation régionale particulièrement
tendue,” a-t-il ajouté, saluant une nouvelle démonstration de
“diplomatie parlementaire”.

Les Echos
5 novembre 2004
Du Mamamouchi à Atatürk
par EMMANUEL HECHT
Le Turc ne laisse pas indifférent, c’est le moins qu’on puisse dire.
Il est l’invité permanent du débat français. Le temps où le
Mamamouchi du « Bourgeois gentilhomme » faisait rire paraît bien
lointain. Rappelez-vous pourtant le mufti s’adressant à monsieur
Jourdain : « Se ti sabir, Ti respondir ; Se non sabir, Tazir, tazir »
(Si toi savoir, Toi répondre ; Si ne pas savoir, Te taire, te taire
») et les six Turcs reprenant en choeur : « Ha, la, ba, ba, la, chou,
ba, la, ba, ba, la, da. » C’était le bon temps, le Grand siècle, on
comprenait les langues étrangères. Et on pouffait. Pas sûr. Car « Le
Bourgeois gentilhomme » est une farce avec un arrière-plan
diplomatique.
A la première représentation, en 1670, les relations entre la France
et l’Empire ottoman étaient tendues, Louis XIV ayant apporté
sporadiquement son aide aux Vénitiens en Crête. Contre les Turcs,
donc. Furieux, le sultan Mehmed IV avait emprisonné l’ambassadeur
français à Constantinople, avant de l’expulser et de dépêcher peu
après un émissaire, Suleiman Agha. En signe d’apaisement. La venue du
diplomate de Constantinople et de sa suite – des hommes coiffés de
turbans et vêtus de fourrure sur des chevaux dont les harnais étaient
ornés de pierres précieuses – fut un événement à la Cour. Il marqua
les esprits, la rencontre avec le roi ayant été émaillée d’incidents,
imputables à l’ignorance de l’étiquette. Louis XIV aurait donc
suggéré à Molière de moquer les Turcs dans sa pièce. Vengeance
royale.
Une alliance « honteuse »
L’ambiguité à l’égard du Turc est patente dans « Le Bourgeois
gentihomme ». A commencer par l’usage du mot « turquerie » à l’époque
de Molière. Il signifiait à la fois « composition artistique
d’inspiration orientale », le plus souvent une farce, et «
impitoyable », « caractère turc ». Pour les chrétiens des XVIIe et
XVIIIe siècles, le Turc symbolise à la fois le musulman, le mécréant
et l’ennemi brutal. Les jugements sur Soliman Ier, l’un des plus
grands souverains ottomans (né en 1494, il a régné de 1520 à sa mort,
en 1566), symbolisent l’ambivalence de ces sentiments. D’un côté, la
chrétienté le maudissait d’avoir étendu son empire jusqu’aux portes
de Vienne et, en Orient, jusqu’aux mers de l’Inde et aux steppes des
Tatars. De l’autre, elle était fascinée par ce prince, entouré de
milliers de serviteurs dans des palais regorgeant de richesses.
« Les observateurs occidentaux reprochaient à Soliman ses faiblesses
», écrit l’historien Gilles Veinstein dans sa contribution à «
L’Histoire de l’Empire ottoman » (Fayard) : « Une trop grande
soumission dans sa jeunesse à son favori, Ibrahim Pacha, puis à sa
belle esclave, Roxelane, dont il fit son épouse ; le meurtre de ses
deux fils au nom d’une application impitoyable de la raison d’Etat. »
En même temps, ils célèbraient chez « le Magnifique » – l’épithète
qu’ils lui attribuent, les Ottomans préférant celle de « Législateur
» – « un homme sage d’une exceptionnelle élévation morale, fidèle à
ses engagements, vertueux dans sa vie privée, remarquablement
instruit et zélé en matière de religion ».
Aussi, l’alliance franco-turque scellée entre Soliman le Magnifique
et François Ier à partir de 1525, pour une trentaine d’années, a pu
apparaître « scandaleuse » ou « honteuse ». Au nom de quel principe
le roi de France pactisait-il avec le souverain qui menait la plus
forte avancée d’une puissance islamique au coeur de l’Europe
chrétienne ? Celui de la « realpolitik », bien sûr. François Ier
souhaitait stopper la puissance des Habsbourg, qui avaient hérité
successivement des terres de Charles le Téméraire, de l’Espagne, de
Milan, Gênes, Naples et des territoires hongrois. Il comptait aussi
sur les Turcs pour faire face à leurs flottes et il rêvait de
reconquérir l’Italie. Quant à Soliman, il avait besoin des ports
français en Méditerranée pour attaquer les côtes espagnoles. C’est
ainsi que Barberousse passa l’hiver 1543-44 à Nice. Mais, à la même
époque, un voyageur français, Nicolas de Nicolay, décrit sans
ménagement les janissaires, les troupes de choc de l’armée ottomane :
afin d’« apparaître plus cruels et furieux en l’aspect de leur face
[ils] ne nourrissent leurs barbes, sinon au-dessus des lèvres, et
laissent croître leurs moustaches fort longues, grosses et hérissées
».
Les Turcs n’ont pas seulement suscité l’effroi, ils ont aussi fait
rêver. Lamartine (1790-1869) fut l’un des zélateurs de l’Empire
ottoman. Il y a séjourné à plusieurs reprises, notamment pendant la
période des « Tanzimat » (1839-1878), les réformes lancées par les
sultans pour sauver l’Empire miné par les nationalismes et les
insurrections. Notre poète et homme politique raconte des sanglots
dans la plume sa visite dans l’école des pages du sérail, des fils de
famille destinés à la haute administration de l’Empire. « Cinq ou six
de ces jeunes gens, de figure douce, franche, intelligente,
admirable, nous prirent la main et nous conduisirent partout […].
Nous causmes longtemps de leurs études et de leurs progrès, de la
politique de l’Europe, de la destinée de l’empire (…). Ils
faisaient des voeux pour le succès du sultan dans ses entreprises
d’innovation. »
Dans l’imaginaire occidental, « le méchant Turc est le conquérant, le
bon Ottoman est l’administrateur qui gouverne l’Empire », souligne
Pierre Chuvin, directeur de l’Institut français des études
anatoliennes, à Istanbul. Et du méchant au sauvage, il n’y a qu’un
pas que Chateaubriand franchit sans barguigner. « Ce qu’on voit n’est
pas un peuple, mais un troupeau qu’un imam conduit et qu’un
janissaire égorge », écrit le vicomte dans son « Itinéraire de Paris
à Jérusalem ». « Il n’y a d’autre plaisir que la débauche, d’autre
peine que la mort, ajoute-t-il. Les tristes sons d’une mandoline
sortent quelquefois du fond d’un café et vous apercevez d’infmes
enfants qui exécutent des danses honteuses devant des espèces de
singes assis en rond sur de petites tables. »
Loin des considérations politiques et ethnologiques, quelques
égotistes se sont plu à marteler leurs affinités électives sur les
rives du Bosphore. Ainsi, Pierre Loti (1850-1923), notre gars de la
marine adepte du travestissement, souligne à l’envi le plaisir qu’il
a à pouvoir perdre à tout moment son identité pour mieux se prêter
aux rencontres hasardeuses. La mélancolie est de rigueur, son récit
s’intitule « Les Désanchantées », et le ton est « pompier » : «
Stamboul changeait comme un mirage […], ce n’était maintenant
qu’une silhouette, d’un violet profond liseré d’or… »
Plus intéressants sans doute, les écrits de lady Mary Montagu,
cotraduits par Pierre Chuvin. Epouse d’un ambassadeur anglais à
Istanbul, en 1717-1718, lady Montagu décrit avec la liberté d’esprit
d’une grande dame, féministe avant l’heure, les « choses vues » par
elle-même. La lady est intelligente, bienveillante et pleine
d’humour. Ainsi raconte-t-elle les bains, « le café des femmes où on
raconte toutes les nouvelles de la ville, où on invente les
scandales, etc. ». Elle est surprise et séduite par ces dames,
assises sur les sofas et, derrière elles, « leurs esclaves, sans
aucune distinction de rang dans leurs atours, car toutes étaient dans
l’état de nature, c’est-à-dire, en bon anglais, complètement nues ».
L’imaginaire occidental se repaît de ces odalisques lascives
célébrées par Ingres dans « Le Bain turc ». L’orientalisme a exploité
le filon de la sensualité, nourri par les fantasmes sur le harem. De
la sensualité à la sexualité, parfois brutale, il n’y a qu’un pas.
Jusqu’au viol, supposé, du colonel Lawrence, à Damas, par les Turcs
pendant la révolte arabe et suggéré dans « Les Sept Piliers de la
sagesse », et ceux, avérés, des prisonniers de droit commun dans le
film « Midnight Express ». A peine le loukoum avalé, le naturel de
l’Occidental revient au galop, avec son cortège d’images violentes.
Le Kurde et le dissident
« Les représentations positives de la Turquie renvoient à
l’orientalisme, à l’exotisme, hier, et au tourisme aujourd’hui, mais
la vision négative du pays l’emporte largement », regrette Stéphane
Yérasimos, lui-même issu de la communauté grecque d’Istanbul,
enseignant en géopolitique à l’université de Paris-VIII. Tout au long
du XXe siècle, poursuit-il, « le phénomène s’est aggravé »,
constate-t-il. D’abord du fait du génocide (1) des Arméniens en 1915.
Les massacres débutent au printemps avec la rafle de près de 2.400
intellectuels à Constantinople. De mai à juillet, les Arméniens mles
et valides des provinces orientales et d’Anatolie orientale sont
exécutés, le reste de la population étant déporté, à pied, vers Alep.
C’est ensuite au tour des Arméniens du reste de l’Empire d’être
déportés. En avril 1915, deux millions de citoyens d’origine
arménienne vivaient dans l’Empire ; en août 1916, les deux tiers,
semble-t-il, sont morts. Les chiffres oscillent entre 800.000 morts,
selon les Turcs, 1,2 million pour l’historien anglais Arnold Toynbee,
et 1,5 million pour les Arméniens.
L’image de la Turquie n’a ensuite cessé de se dégrader. En 1974, avec
l’affaire chypriote. 40.000 militaires turcs débarquent et occupent
le nord de l’île (bilan : 4.000 morts, plus de 2.000 disparus, 40 %
du territoire représentant 70 % du potentiel économique occupés).
L’opinion a mis une belle constance à retenir les éléments
défavorables à la Turquie. Après tout, l’invasion de Chypre a été
motivée par le coup d’Etat de l’organisation fasciste grecque EOKA,
qui ne faisait pas mystère de son intention de chasser tous les
Turcs. Elle avait d’ailleurs commencé à les massacrer, dans des
quartiers qui ressemblaient à des ghettos assiégés. A l’inverse, le
rôle dissuasif de la Turquie au sein de l’Otan pendant la guerre
froide et sa participation à la guerre de Corée sont peu soulignés.
Ensuite, dans les années 1980, la guérilla kurde est au premier plan.
« L’image de la Turquie était à ce moment-là comparable à celle de
l’URSS de Brejnev », relève Stéphane Yérasimos, « seules l’opposition
au pouvoir à Ankara et la dissidence avaient droit de cité dans la
presse française ».
Vus de l’Ouest, les écrivains emblématiques turcs sont Nazim Hikmet,
communiste, et Yachar Kemal, kurde. Même constat avec le cinéma, où «
le » réalisateur turc est Yilmaz Güney, également kurde. Mais on «
oublie » de compter les ministres et hauts fonctionnaires d’origine
kurde… A en croire Stéphane Yérasimos, la réputation de la Turquie
s’est un peu plus noircie avec l’attentat du 11 septembre 2001, la
Turquie, « pays musulman », étant peu ou prou intégrée dans la «
menace islamique », dont elle est pourtant beaucoup plus la victime
que l’agent (voir les chauffeurs turcs égorgés « comme des moutons »
non par un janissaire, mais par les fous disciples d’al-Zawahiri).
La figure rassurante d’Atatürk
De cette vision pessimiste, peut-être faut-il extraire la
personnalité d’Atatürk, dont la politique de laïcité a éveillé des
échos positifs, en particulier dans la France républicaine, jusqu’à
récemment avec « l’affaire du voile ». Mustapha Kemal (1881-1938),
dit Atatürk – le « Père des Turcs » ou, plus exactement, le «
Turc-Père » -, a un curriculum séduisant pour l’Occident. L’Europe a
célébré l’image du réformateur, acquise pendant sa présidence de la
République (1924-1934), supprimant le sultanat et le califat (1924),
interdisant le port du fez et du turban, faisant adopter un Code
civil (1926) et un alphabet latin (1928). Les républicains français,
en particulier les radicaux à la Herriot, sont séduits par les « six
flèches » du kémalisme – nationalisme, populisme, réformisme,
républicanisme, étatisme, et, plus encore, laïcisme. Quitte à
commettre un contresens. Car l’élimination de la religion de la vie
publique en Turquie passe non pas par un divorce avec l’Etat – comme
la loi de séparation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat de 1905 en France -,
mais par l’établissement d’une tutelle étroite sur le personnel et
les institutions religieuses. Le quiproquo, l’ambiguité,
l’ambivalence, le flou semblent si profondément ancrés dans l’image
des Turcs en France et en Europe – et vice versa – qu’on a envie de
dire, à la manière de l’écrivain Spike Mulligan : « Bien que je n’en
parle pas un traître mot, je vais prendre un bain turc. » En signe
d’apaisement et pour y voir plus clair.A lirePierre Chuvin et
Anne-Marie Moulin, « L’Islam au péril des femmes, une Anglaise en
Turquie au XVIIIe siècle », Maspero.
François Georgeon : « La Turquie au seuil de l’Europe », L’Harmattan.
Robert Mantran (dir.), « Histoire de l’Empire ottoman », Fayard.
Géraud Poumarède, « Pour en finir avec la croisade. Mythes et réalité
de la lutte contre les Turcs aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles », PUF
(parution le 19 novembre).
Jean-Paul Roux, « Histoire des Turcs », Fayard.
Stéphane Yerasimos, « Constantinople. De Byzance à Istanbul »,
Editions Place des victoires.

Thursday, November 04, 2004
***********************************
FOUR MORE YEARS
***************************
I feel like a Jew in 1933.
*
The Christian Right in America may stand for love, mercy, and compassion, but not for tolerance. It views tolerance as un-American, therefore, anti-Christian.
*
Dozens of books have been published by highly reputable scholars and investigative reporters in which Bush’s lies, inconsistencies, contradictions, and dirty tricks are exhaustively exposed and documented, but Bush was re-elected because the average born-again hillbilly trusts televangelists more than intellectuals.
*
In 1933 Germans trusted Hitler more than Thomas Mann. Marx is right. History repeats itself, first time as tragedy, second time as farce.
*
A Nazi is also one who, after hanging a label on a fellow human being, sees only the label.
*
In 1915 we were the Jews of the Turks. And today, I am the Jew of our own bosses, bishops, and benefactors.
*
All organized religions preach love, but after hanging a label on a fellow human being (heretic, anti-Christ, infidel, giaour, Untouchable) practice intolerance and hatred.
*
All power structures speak with a forked tongue. Where there is power, there will also be pathological liars and dupes.
*
We have all been Jews and Nazis at one time or another. “Jew” and “Nazi” are labels, granted, but only in the sense that “victim” and victimizer” are labels. To label another is not the same as to assume to have a license to kill.
*
My ambition as an Armenian is to be able to criticize Armenians and to be perceived not as a good Armenian (that would be too much to ask), or even as an Armenian, but as a concerned fellow human being.
#
Friday, November 05, 2004
*********************************
VERSIONS OF THE PAST
*****************************
When it comes to the past, every major historian will have his own version of it. Which version do we teach our children? Not a difficult question to answer: the version that is most flattering to our collective ego, provided it bears the seal of approval of a regime or power structure, of course.
*
Elementary schoolteachers don’t teach history, they recycle propaganda. This may explain Mark Twain’s celebrated dictum: “I have never let schooling interfere with my education.”
*
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
***************************
We are products of history. To understand history is to understand ourselves. Hence, Herder’s description of history as the education of the human race.
*
THE REASON BEHIND THE REASON
*****************************************
What if the reason, the real reason, why we were massacred, was our ignorance of the world?
*
QUESTION
*********************
Was Napoleon a great man, a military genius, a spectacular loser, a hero, a tyrant, a bloodthirsty monster? Even French historians don’t always agree. What if, by occupying Germany, he stimulated German nationalism, which resulted in Hitler?
*
THE STERILITY OF LITERATURE
***************************************
After Shaw wrote, “One fashionably dressed woman may cost the life of ten babies,” did the number of fashionably dressed women go down?
*
IN PRAISE OF SOLIDARITY
***********************************
Chinese proverb: “To hunt tigers one must have a brother’s help.”
*
WAR AND PEACE
*************************
“Islam is a religion of peace,” according to an imam quoted in our paper today, “but like all religions, it is open to misinterpretations.” Which may be why Socrates, Buddha and Jesus did not write a single line. But then, Marx, who wrote copiously and in exhaustive detail in order to avoid misunderstanding, created the nightmare of Stalinism.
#
Saturday, November 06, 2004
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THE TAO TE CHING ON NATIONS
****************************************
“A great nation is like a great man,
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
As his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
As the shadow that he himself casts.”
(A lesson that the Chinese are in the process of relearning and we have yet to learn.)
*
VOLTAIRE ON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIONS
***********************************************
“…From the meeting of the earliest scoundrel with the very first fool.”
*
PAUL VALERY ON EDUCATION
*************************************
“Education in depth consists in undoing one’s first education.”
(In other words, if you want to understand the world, forget what you were taught by your elementary schoolteachers and learn to think for yourself.)
*
PANAIT ISTRATI ON ARMENIANS
***************************************
In his book of Armenian travel impression, Denis Donikian quotes the following passage from Panait Istrati: “The Armenian is a fellow I know as well as I know the Greek and the Jew. I like all three a lot, notwithstanding their defects, the most obvious being their conviction that, if the sun were to set forever, they would be the first to adapt to the new reality.”
*
CLAUDE IMBERT ON BUSH
************************************
“A president that consults God before breakfast will always enjoy the support of a good half of his fellow Americans.”
*
“America under Roosevelt defeated fascism. America under Reagan defeated communism. Two planetary triumphs that confirm America’s mission to fight evil [i.e. jihadist Islam].”
*
WITTGENSTEIN ON THE ART OF TEACHING
*************************************************
“My aim is to teach you to pass from a piece of disguised nonsense to something that is patent nonsense.” (Or, from charlatanism, whose sole aim is to deceive and mislead you by flattering your vanity, to transparent nonsense that cannot obstruct your understanding of the world and arrest your mental development.)
#

AZERI, ARMENIAN, GEORGIAN SPEAKERS DISCUSS REGIONAL ISSUES AT FRANCE MEETING
Noyan Tapan news agency, Yerevan
5 Nov 04
PARIS
The third meeting of the parliament speakers of the three South
Caucasus countries was held at the Versailles Palace under the aegis
of French Senate President Christian Poncelet on 4 November. It was
attended by the chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, Artur
Bagdasaryan, the chairwoman of the Georgian parliament, Nino
Burjanadze, and the chairman of the Azerbaijani Milli Maclis, Murtuz
Alasgarov. Subjects agreed in advance – tourism and the evaluation of
cultural heritage – topped the agenda.
Senate President Christian Poncelet noted the importance of meetings
between representatives of the parliaments of the South Caucasus
countries and expressed the hope that these discussions will make it
possible to find a solution to problems in the South Caucasus.
The chairwoman of the Georgian parliament, Nino Burjanadze, noted the
importance of the Versailles discussions and stressed that political
problems should not hinder a solution to cultural problems.
The chairman of the Azerbaijani Milli Maclis, Murtuz Alasgarov, spoke
about the common problems of the region, the importance of peace and
stability and stressed the great importance of the Paris discussions.
The chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan,
noted the importance of the dialogue and discussions for the
development of the region and the settlement of common problems.
The public relations department of the Armenian National Assembly told
Noyan Tapan news agency that during the discussions on the subject of
cultural heritage, the Azerbaijani deputies did not omit to say that
Armenia is an “aggressor” and spoke about occupied territories,
refugees and the alleged destruction of Azerbaijan’s cultural
monuments on these territories, although Poncelet repeatedly called on
them to return to the crux of the matter.
Artur Bagdasaryan objected and stressed that the roots of the story
date back to genocide in the early 20th century and there are
thousands of facts testifying to the opposite, i.e. Armenian cultural
monuments are being destroyed both in Azerbaijan and Turkey. The
chairman of the Armenian parliament called on them to move forward
since hostility is not the best companion and said it is necessary to
think about the development of the region, especially as the region is
of interest to the whole world as a single whole both from a political
and commercial-economic point of view. Political problems should not
impede good will and courage to cooperate on various issues. Apart
from bringing their national legislation in line with European
standards, the parliaments also have an important political mission of
creating an atmosphere for settling conflicts in the three republics.
It was decided to hold the next meeting of the four in Azerbaijan and
then in Armenia – in (Russian) alphabetical order. It was decided that
from now on, the meetings should be held twice a year in order to
increase the effectiveness of the discussions.
The meeting ended with a joint press conference where the parliament
speakers noted the importance of the work of the four. The president
of the French Senate expressed his satisfaction that specific
agreements on further activities were reached for the first time. The
chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan, noted
the importance of developing democracy in the region, which will
ensure the region’s political and economic development, open an
opportunity to settle conflicts and make the entry of the region’s
countries into the European Union possible in the foreseeable future.

The west is ready for the EU. The east is lost in the past
Much of Turkey is still a world away from Europe, culturally and economically
Helena Smith in Soguksu
Friday November 5, 2004
The Guardian
Some time, way back, time stopped in Soguksu. Here, high in the
mountains of Turkey, close to the border with Iran, the lives of
carpet-weaving girls are measured solely in knots. Behind the
breezeblock walls of impoverished homes, on slushy streets overrun by
sheep, their dreary regimen is dictated at birth. Most will never
venture beyond the wide asphalt road that crosses the Kurdish village
before winding into the arid horizon.
At about the same time that the sun in Turkey’s ancient east is
casting a reddish evening glow, the people of Kusadasi, nearly 1,000
miles west, are preparing to enjoy an evening in an Aegean nightspot.
Francine Quataeft from Belgium has spent the day sunbathing, rubbing
cream over her skin. Later, on Bar Street, a raucous strip of pubs,
tattoo and piercing parlours, brash Turkish boys will try to coax her
into having a “free massage.”
Turkey is the size of France and Britain combined, and Soguksu is as
culturally removed from the country’s coastal resorts as it is from
the continent of Europe.
“People here live at the same time, but they do not live in the same
time,” says Dogu Ergil, a political sociologist at Ankara University.
Most Turks enthusiastically support their country’s goal of joining
the EU. Yet to cross Turkey is to discover a country as much in
conflict with itself as with those who oppose its eventual EU
membership.
In towns and villages along the ancient Silk Route – despite the
homogenising intentions of modern Turkey’s founder, Kemal Ataturk –
you encounter voices that are as diverse as the state’s rich mosaic of
ethnic and religious groups. Mention the east to Turks in the west,
where shanty towns brim with Anatolian migrants, and often you get a
mouthful of disdain.
“In Turkey there are different climates and different peoples,” says
Mustafa Kualoglu, a guide showing tourists around the ruins of
Ephesus, Turkey’s best-preserved ancient city.
“We are not one race, because everybody conquered us. In the west we
have Mediterranean weather and are European. In the east, near the
Syrian, Iranian and Iraqi borders, people have a culture that is
basically very hard, very Arab.”
As debate continues over Turkey’s fitness to join the EU, many Turks
are asking how much of their country will ultimately be acceptable to
the union.
“The dark, backward side of Turkey scares the Turks who live on the
bright side of the country and the Europeans alike,” says Prof Ergil.
Different country
In Soguksu, which has been under the command of fundamentalist sheikhs
since Ottoman times, few have heard of the EU. Only one man in the
village of 2,700 has been to university.
Like many of Turkey’s 12 million ethnic Kurds, the girls who weave
colourful kilims in a chilly room on Soguksu’s treeless outskirts do
not speak enough Turkish to follow events conveyed by the community’s
sole concession to modernity – the satellite dish.
Of the EU, one girl says: “No, I don’t think I know that place. Do
they have sheep?” Like the rest of the group, her birth has never been
registered, and she has not received an education.”Do people marry
there?” she asks. “Do they believe in God? What do they eat?”
Outside the workshop, Bekir Bingol, a father of 15, says he has heard
that Europe is “very clean”. He adds: “But I’ve got the brains to know
that all these mountains and all these hills don’t belong
there. Anyway, I wouldn’t want my daughters not keeping our
traditions. If they got other ideas they might not read the Qur’an.”
Mr Bingol’s neighbour, Ali Cicek, agrees. “In real life we’ve never
seen anything like it,” he says. “How can we even dream of such stuff?
Once I went to western Turkey and it was beautiful, but it really felt
like a different country.”
Soguksu is almost two hours north of the formerly Armenian city of
Van, one of Turkey’s most primitive regions and certainly its
poorest. It has become a no-go area during the country’s bitter
campaign against Kurdish separatists. Forced marriages have prompted
at least five newlyweds to take their lives since September. With 70%
of the population unemployed, most barely scratch a living from the
land.
But although it is awash with refugees and smugglers, Van is also on
the mend. The EU has launched an aid programme and, as in other towns
in Turkey, civil society has undergone a revolution.
Zozan Ozgokge, who runs Van’s EU-backed women’s association, says:
“Before I even put up our new group’s sign, women were lining up
outside the office door. Sometimes, we’ve had women rushing in here in
their slippers, after being beaten by husbands, fathers, uncles and
even their sons. Before, these women rarely left their homes.”
At 26, Ms Ozgokge is typical of a new generation of bright ethnic
Kurds now improving lives in what once seemed like eastern Turkey’s
irredeemable badlands.
“When I was at university, western Turks would sneer and ask if I
lived in a tent,” she says. “They had seen so many TV documentaries
that portray eastern Turkey in a very bad light, but for Kurds Europe
has been a salvation.”
Under Turkey’s drive to meet EU membership criteria, she says, human
rights have improved to such an extent that most Turkish Kurds have
turned their backs on the prospect of violence solving their problems.
Prof Ergil identifies four types of Turks: the global Turk who lives
abroad (numbering 500,000); the well-off international Turk, who reads
the foreign press (5.5 million); and the rural and urban parochial
Turks (30 and 35 million respectively) who are desperate to improve
their lot.
“The first two categories can communicate with each other and the
outside world, and for them Turkey is just like a European country,”
he says. “The other two have absolutely nothing in common with the
first, but they are very supportive of Turkey joining the EU. Frankly,
these people are like cannonballs chained to the ankles of this
country. It has to drag them in its race towards civilisation.”
Universal change
Poverty is almost everywhere in Turkey. Go into the nationalist
heartlands around Ankara, the capital, and you’ll find villages such
as the tiny Kabaca, still struggling without water, drains or
sewerage.
“I’m always quarrelling with my neighbours about the cesspit because
they say it stinks,” says Asyia Unsal. In 74 years she has never
visited Ankara, a two-hour drive away.
“I’m old, and carrying water to my house all these years has made me
ill,” she says. “I don’t know anything about Europe and I don’t care
about it. What I want is water and drains.”
But things are also changing fast in the country’s backwaters. Four
hours south of Ankara, through the plains of central Anatolia, is
Konya, the origin of the Sufic mystics known as whirling
dervishes. For years, guidebooks have described Konya as one of
Turkey’s most religiously conservative and backward cities.
Every day, Muslim pilgrims from across the Middle East pour in to pray
before the marble mausoleum of the Mevlana, who founded the sect and
whose progressive views and liberal writings helped reshape Islamic
thought. But at night, illicit bars swing with young men drinking the
local firewater, testimony to the residents’ unexpectedly easy take on
life.
“The Mevlana preached tolerance among all cultures,” says the mayor,
Tahir Akyurek, who was elected with the ruling Islamist AK
party. “That is what I’d like to think Konya, and Turkey, can give to
Europe.” His office is lined with models of the new women’s shelter,
fire station, and whirling dervish centre being built in the town.
Often, the only image Europeans have of Turkey is the impoverished
Anatolians who flock to the west as labourers. “That’s how the world
knows Turkey,” says Prof Ergil. “It has no knowledge of the modern
Turkey, where people live very much like other Europeans.”
Bringing the two Turkeys together, he says, is not an impossible
mission. “It’s not a matter of will, because ethnic Kurds even more
than Turks want to join the EU,” he adds.
“Whether Turkey succeeds or not is more a matter of technical
expertise, of economic, educational and industrial development, than
anything else.”

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2004
Contact: Sarkis Kotanjian
818.243.6222
[email protected]
Telethon 2004 Streetlight Banners Line Brand Blvd in Glendale, CA
Glendale, CA (November 5) – Armenia Fund, Inc. (AFI) is proud to announce
the placement of the Telethon 2004 Make It Happen streetlight banners on
Brand Boulevard in Glendale, California.
Spanning over seven city blocks and crossing eight
intersections, the 82 banners will line Brand Blvd. between Doran and
Colorado from Thursday, October 28, 2004 through Friday, November 26, 2004.
Sponsored by Pacific BMW, the banners feature the Telethon 2004 Make It
Happen logo/theme as well as local viewing information – the Telethon can be
viewed on KSCI Channel 18. “AFI extends its gratitude to Pacific BMW and the
Glendale City Council for providing the means and opportunity to truly make
Telethon 2004 a community-wide event,” said Maria Mehranian, chairperson,
AFI.
Scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, November 25 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
(PST), Telethon 2004, airing live from Glendale, California, is a 12-hour
event that will be broadcast throughout the United States, Europe, South
America, the Middle East, the CIS and Armenia. The broadcast will feature
live entertainment, interviews with numerous celebrities and political
leaders, development and construction footage from Armenia and Karabakh and
stories of individuals impacted by AFI projects.
Telethon 2004 will also be available in full-motion web-cast on
Internet users will be able to view and make secure
contributions online.
For more information about Telethon 2004, call 818.243.6222 or visit
Armenia Fund, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation, is the US
West coast affiliate of the “Hayastan” All-Armenia Fund (HAAF). Established
in 1994 to facilitate humanitarian assistance to Armenia and Karabakh, HAAF
has administered over $100 million in humanitarian, rehabilitation and
construction aid through the united efforts of Armenian communities
internationally.

IAGS Energy Security
Institute for the Analysis of Global Security
Nov. 5, 2004
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline: not yet finished and already threatened
The long-delayed 1000-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to
transport 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian to the
Turkish port of Ceyhan is progressing toward completion as early as
2005. But even before the construction is finished, terrorist elements
may already be planning attacks on this high quality target.
According to Azerbaijan’s National Security Minister, Namiq Abbasov,
the country’s special services had obtained information that regional
insurgents and members of al Qaeda are planning acts of sabotage
designed to derail construction of the pipeline. If true, this means
that the BTC, which traverses some of the world’s most unstable
regions, could be a target of a new terrorist campaign to disrupt the
flow of much needed oil from the Caspian Sea to Western markets. The
pipeline could provide livelihood for many people in Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Armenia as well as stimulate economic activity in eastern
Turkey, and it will make a contribution to enhancing world energy
security by developing a non-OPEC oil source. Therefore, failure of the
countries involved to ensure the security of the project will have
severe implications on the future of the region as well as global
energy markets at large.
Who has an interest in damaging the pipeline? Of all the countries in
the region Iran is perhaps the state actor with the strongest
motivation to impede the BTC project. Engulfed by U.S. forces in both
its neighbors Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran is agitated by growing U.S.
military presence in Central Asia and views the U.S. led war on terror
as an American pretext to penetrate the region and seize control over
Caspian oil. To disrupt the flow of oil in the BTC pipeline Iran could
use its web of proxies and the terrorist groups it sponsors. Iran is
not only a major oil producing country but also a stepping stone
between the Caspian region and the Persian Gulf. As such, it would like
to see Caspian oil flowing through its territory rather than through
Turkey. It is therefore offering an alternative route which runs from
Kashagan and Tengiz oil fields in Kazakhstan along the eastern Caspian
shore, through Turkmenistan and on to the Iranian border. From there
the pipeline would run across the eastern part of Iran to the Persian
Gulf terminal at Bandar Abbas. If the construction of the BTC pipeline
is completed and the pipeline operates well, it will make very little
sense for Iran to carry out its plan. However, if the flow of oil in
the BTC pipeline is interrupted due to sabotage, there will be strong
incentive for major oil companies to seek an alternative route.
Other players who would like to see the project fail are terrorist
groups operating along the pipeline route. Such groups strive to weaken
the governments they oppose by denying them revenue from the pipeline.
The Turks, for example, are a long way away from reaching a settlement
with the Kurds and are involved in fighting with the Kurdish Workers’
Party (PKK). Until the Kurdish issue is resolved, Kurdish groups might
want to derail the project. The PKK has already attacked pipelines as
recently as last month. Turkish television reported that on October 24
a remote controled device was detonated on a pipeline in the Garzan
region. Two days later the PKK bombed an oil pipeline in southeastern
Turkey. In addition there is increasing threat by Islamist groups
operating in the Caucasus such as the Islamic Party of Eastern
Turkestan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Chechen
separatists and Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami. The later group seeks to
seize power and supplant existing governments with Sharia-based
Caliphate for the purpose of jihad against the west. The head of the
Kazakh National Security Committee Nartai Dutbayev said that the Hizb
has recently increased its clandestine activities in Kazakhstan and
poses “a real threat to Kazakhstan’s security.” In early September,
Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, publicly admitted that
Hizb-ut-Tahrir is making significant inroads in his country.
In the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh the conflict between
Armenian and Azeris still goes on. Armenian nationalists might decide
to attack the BTC in order to hurt Azerbaijan, which derives most of
its income from oil sales.
Much of the stability along the BTC corridor would depend on Russia.
Russia is not supportive of BTC. It sees it as a U.S. plot to gain
control over the Caucasus and cut all links between Moscow of the
former Soviet states, building an economic infrastructure that would
prevent the former Soviet states to ever reunite with Russia. Moscow
also views BTC as a way to weaken its position as major supplier of oil
to the European markets. In a recent article at Asia Times Online, John
Helmer refers to the BTC project as an effort `to redraw the geography
of the Caucasus on an anti-Russian map.’
Another problem BTC poses Russia has to do with its tense relations
with Georgia. As it is, the Georgia suffers from many domestic
problems: it is emerging from a civil war and is rife with corruption,
but perhaps its most serious problem is the growing likelihood of war
with Russia over the two breakaway territories of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia. The August 8 Moscow News quotes Georgian leader Mikheil
Saakashvili: `If war begins it will be a war between Georgia and
Russia, not between the Georgians and Ossetians. … We are very close to
a war [with Russia], the population must be prepared.’
As a result of the above Russia will not shed tears if BTC is
sabotaged. It might even clandestinely lend its hand to groups that
might do just that. Russia might also team up with Iran in an effort to
promote the alternative route southward out of the Caspian to the
Persian Gulf.
If Russia decides to undermine the project, this will surely have
implications on its relations with the U.S. BTC is the linchpin of the
shift in U.S. energy policy away from the Middle East and it is in
America’s best interest that the project succeeds. Secretary of Energy
Spencer Abraham called the project `one of the most important energy
undertakings from America’s point of view.’ U.S. Special Forces are
already training 1,500-2,000 Georgian soldiers in `anti-terrorism’
techniques under a $64 million program initiated in May 2002. In
addition, the U.S. provided the Georgian army with new combat
helicopters and other weapons. The 17,000 strong Georgian military has
many tasks related to the defense of the country from external enemies
such as Russia and Armenia but if attacks against the Georgian section
of the BTC pipeline are mounted the Georgian military will have to take
on the role of protecting the pipeline against saboteurs.
Azerbaijan is another country along the pipeline route which stands in
the center of U.S. diplomacy in Central Asia. In early August, U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Azerbaijan, where he
concluded an agreement on the deployment of American forces to the
former Soviet republic. This despite a recently adopted law which
forbids foreign military forces on Azeri soil. U.S. military
specialists have already conducted preliminary examinations of
airfields in Kyurdamir, Nasosny, and Gala, and have commenced the
installation of long-range mobile radars in Sanchagal, near the
pipeline. General Charles Ward, the Deputy Commander of the U.S.
European Command, revealed in a Senate hearing that `provisionally
deployed mobile forces’ will soon patrol the BTC.
The BTC pipeline could be as strong as its weakest link. An attack on
the pipeline in any place along its route will hurt not only the
country where the attack took place but also the other countries which
benefit from it. This is why multinational cooperation to secure the
pipeline is of particular importance. On August 21, the armed forces of
Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia embarked on a series of joint military
exercises in the Azeri capital of Baku. The goal of the six-day
maneuvers was to strengthen coordination and cooperation among the land
forces of the three nations in preparation for defending the BTC from a
terror attack. According to Natig Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan’s
State Oil Company, $170 million have already been spent on safeguarding
the pipeline. In addition, unlike many other pipelines around the
world, BTC will be fully buried and its pumping stations will be
surrounded by walls and fences.
But as the sabotage campaign in Iraq, in which to date oil and gas
pipelines have been attacked more than 150 times, shows, investment in
physical security is not enough to secure oil infrastructure. Pipelines
are long and vulnerable and a determined terrorist would always succeed
in blowing it up somewhere along its route. If BTC were to succeed this
would be mainly due to active diplomacy to resolve the lingering
conflicts in the region and address the grievances of those who want to
see this significant project failing.
Gal Luft is Executive Director of the Institute for the Analysis of
Global Security.

Baku Today
Nov. 5, 2004
Four Caucasus Countries’ Railway Companies to Establish a Joint Venture
Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said on Wednesday that Russia,
Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are going to establish a joint venture
to restore Transcaucasian railway network.
He said the decision has been taken during the negotiations between
leaders of three republics of the region.
“Three countries’ presidents confirmed they are ready to consider the
scheme of creation of operator company proposed by the transport
ministries,” said Levitin. “We understand that signing of the agreement
between four countries is a difficult matter from political viewpoint
and we offered to create the operator company, which will manage the
traffic.”
Azerbaijan state railway refused to give any comments on the
above-mentioned statement made by Russian Minister.

Watertown TAB & Press, MA
Nov. 5, 2004
A first time for everything
By Monica Deady/ Staff Writer
Armen Kalemkiarian waited more than 45 years to vote in an election in
the United States.

And on Oct. 27, Kalemkiarian, 78, who came to the United States
from Soviet Armenia 51 years ago, voted for the first time.

“I wasn’t happy with this man [President Bush] so I decided to
change,” said Kalemkiarian.

Born in Egypt, Kalemkiarian lived in India and Soviet Armenia
before moving to the United States. Five years after moving here, she
became a U.S. citizen, but never registered to vote.

“I don’t know the reason really,” she said. “I was happy how I
was.”

Kalemkiarian, who worked as a secretary at John Hancock and taught
Armenian school at night, said when she retired she thought she could
live peacefully, but the mix of events in the United States, including
rising health-care costs, job loss and the war in Iraq, made her feel
like she should vote. Kalemkiarian voted for Sen. John Kerry.

“We don’t speak about politics very much in our house because we
don’t want to make people against each other,” said Kalemkiarian, but
said her daughter was a big encouragement in getting her to vote. She
registered on the last day possible, Oct. 13.

Kalemkiarian joined about 137,000 other Massachusetts voters who
registered from Aug. 25, the close of registration for the September
primaries, to Oct. 13, according to Brian McNiff, spokesman for
Secretary of State William Galvin

Massachusetts has nearly 4.1 million voters registered for this
election.

Ruth Thomasian, Kalemkiarian’s co-worker at the Armenian photo
archive organization Project Save, said she knows so many people have
been encouraging Kalemkiarian to vote for several years, adding that
she was “absolutely excited” that she had finally registered.

Prior to this year, Thomasian said Kalemkiarian would say her vote
didn’t make a difference.

“We all came and hugged her and congratulated her…” Thomasian
said.

Kalemkiarian voted last week at Town Hall, and said she it was
exciting, but she was nervous she would make a mistake.

“I’m very happy,” she said. “I can sleep very well, but if I get a
good result I’ll be happier,” she said before Tuesday’s election.

Kalemkiarian would not see her candidate elected to the White
House. But her vote was counted.