ONE WORD POPE DARES NOT SPEAK
Sandro Contenta

Toronto Star, Canada
Nov 30 2006

Armenians won’t mention what most consider genocide, but Turks tend
to dismiss as legend

ISTANBUL, turkey-At the Armenian Patriarchate in this city’s old town,
His Beatitude Mesrob II is surrounded by icons and relics that speak
to his flock’s long history in Turkey.

But on the most tragic part of that history – the mass slaughter
of Armenians in 1915 – the Patriarch expresses a personal ignorance
typical of his followers.

Mesrob knows that five of his grandfather’s brothers were deported
to the Syrian dessert, where hundreds of thousands were massacred,
but has no idea what became of them.

His parents never spoke of their fate, despite hints that one or
two may have survived and their offspring might be living in the
United States.

"They never talked about it because I think they didn’t want us to be
at odds with our Muslim neighbours," he said in an interview. "That’s
the usual case in Turkey. We don’t tell our children about historic
events so they won’t face any problems."

For Armenians in Turkey, it’s best not to mention what most of them
consider genocide, but many Turks dismiss as a legend.

Simply mentioning the massacre often guarantees a trial on charges of
"insulting Turkishness" – a legal catch-all the justice ministry uses
to stifle challenges to state orthodoxy.

So sensitive is the topic here that Pope Benedict’s meeting with
Mesrob today will be closely watched for any allusion to the Armenian
tragedy. Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, recognized the killing
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide in a 2000 document.

Any mention of the word would likely cause a political storm and
destroy the charm offensive Benedict XVI has conducted since arriving
Tuesday for his four-day trip. If he strays into this political
minefield, most observers believe he’ll follow Mesrob’s example and
duck the word genocide.

Asked if he acknowledges genocide occurred, Mesrob paused awkwardly
for a moment before replying, "Ahh, I acknowledge that people were
killed, many people lost their lives."

Mesrob, whose church belongs to the family of Oriental Orthodox
churches, calls it an act of "ethnic cleansing" carried out as the
Ottoman Empire was collapsing. Some historians estimate 1.5 million
Armenians, most of them Christians, were systematically slaughtered.

An estimated 100,000 Armenians live in Turkey, one third of them
guest workers.

Murat Belge, a leading Turkish scholar who last year organized a
conference on the treatment of Armenians in 1915, said Mesrob did
well to avoid the word.

"If he had said there was an Armenian genocide, it’s very likely that
he would be assassinated by some fascists, the Patriarchate would
be burned and Armenians leading their daily lives would be shot by
unknown people," Belge said in an interview.

"And all this would be attributed by the media to the injured
nationalist feelings of the Turkish people, and the Patriarch would
be blamed for starting it all," he added.

Belge heads the publishing house that produces the novels of Orhan
Pamuk, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist charged last year for telling
a Swiss newspaper, "A million Armenians were killed and nobody but
me dares to talk about it."

Charges of "insulting Turkishness" were later dropped on a
technicality. Months later, novelist Elif Shafak was charged because
a fictional character accuses Turks of committing the genocide.

Those, too, were eventually dropped.

Turkey’s denial has hurt the Muslim country’s bid to join the 25-nation
European Union. Last month, French President Jacques Chirac said
recognizing the genocide should be a condition for membership.

The French parliament also incensed the Turkish government by passing
a bill making it a crime to deny the genocide.

Egemen Bagis, foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, noted Erdogan made a groundbreaking gesture last
month by offering to set up an independent inquiry with historians
on both sides of the Armenian issue. But it was rejected by Armenia
as little more than a ploy.

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IF YOU ARE A MINORITY
By Yelena Jetpyspayeva, exclusively for Gazeta.kz

Gazeta.KZ, Kazakhstan
Nov 30 2006

You are lucky if you are a majority. If you are a minority your life
is a struggle. Against majority.

Any society was made according to the principle "by a majority for a
majority". It is about private moral traditions, accepted and declared
by a majority. About voting system. About fashion figured on mass. Even
the market lives according the demand/supply rule formed by a majority.

But what about a minority? Any kind. Red-haired are always teased.

Adopted are not treated like "own". Physically handicapped are
discriminated. Not mentioned about national, sexual, religious and
other "not met standards".

Representatives of any kind minorities in any country in any time
had difficulties. They were struggling and defending their rights.

Sometimes paying the very high price – their life. Even formally the
highest law of any country – the Constitution – and international law
propositions – Charter on Human Rights – read that any representative
of human beings is born with equal rights.

In practice this is needed to be proven. Not every time successfully.

Which in this case should be guarantied by a state. But would the every
state support rights of the minority on which not many things depend?

In voting system the parliamentarians, who should protect our freedoms,
take part only the majority who finally takes the decision.

And the minority… Let’s re-read the beginning of the article.

And an illusory idea of human rights starts to appear only if the
state makes step over the developing country to higher level.

The image of the country and more advanced form of the partnership
on the world stage begin to play a role. Now it is necessary to enter
another "club", for VIP-persons. For instance, OSCE.

Suddenly the minority and its rights begin to matter.

Gold membership

Kazakhstan has high-flown declared: We propose ourselves for OSCE
Presidency 2009! Let’s support us!

We are young state from which you have something to learn already.

Our economy grows with confidence. More then 100 nationalities live
here in peace. Democratic reforms (not talking about its quality)
are being made however the progress will appear after you support us.

The process has been activated. Kazakhstan wants very much to hold
the presidency. That is why the sufficient political capacities are
enabled on the achievement of this aim. Although the achievement seems
to be hard. Trying to get the world support Kazakhstani publicity
became a witness that international opinions were divided.

It happens because different political interests are involved in the
game. Western countries as Germany with energy and other interests
are not against the idea of supporting Kazakhstan. The head of the
German Foreign Affairs Ministry Frank-Walter Steinmeyer meeting the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Kasymzhomart Tokayev even
underlined that "the presidency of Kazakhstan will help the country to
discover the potential of this international organization and give the
additional impulse to the democratization processes in the country".

However the Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan declared
that this country is "strongly objects the Kazakhstan request for
OSCE Presidency in 2009 because the republic is neutral to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict".

Analyzing the events happening around the OSCE Presidency, you start
unwittingly understand that candidates evaluation mostly goes not
right way. Votes for and against are distributed accordingly narrow
political aims of the certain country.

As more chances to convince the opponent to support you have, as more
to get a gold membership.

To OSCE, to OSCE!

While the high politicians agree upon necessities, OSCE representatives
solve the things using their measurements. Make round tables,
meetings, hearings.

As in every international organization there are certain rules and
criteria to apply that the system for which the organization exists
could work.

On a recent OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw
which took place from 2 till 13 of October, 2006, different opinions
about Kazakhstan and its possible Presidency were heard.

The main themes were: freedom of speech, information and fee Mass
Media, torture prevention, human rights protection and fight against
terrorism, democratic elections, democracy on regional and local
levels, national remedial institutions, freedom of movement, meetings,
associations, thoughts, conscience, religion and beliefs.

On many of these topics we do not have very optimistic achievements.

This was discussed by invited government and civil society
representatives among which were Marzhan Aspandiyarova (Public
committee "Protect your home"), Sergey Duvanov (independent
journalist), Evgeny Zhovtis (Kazakhstani International Bureau on
Human Rights and the Rule of Law ), Daniyar Kanafin (national expert
of ODIHR OSCE), Rashid Nugmanov (International Freedom Net), Irina
Petrushova ("Republic" newspaper), Gavinda Svami (Society of Krishna
Perception), Ryspek Sarsenbayuly (Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly Foundation),
Zhemis Turmagambetova (Human Rights Charter), Sergey Utkin (indeperdent
lawyer), Ninel Fokina (Almaty Helsinki Committee), etc.

Mainly the situation with civil and political rights violation in
Kazakhstan was discussed. But also different evaluations to the
famous social and political figure of Altynbek Sarsenbayuly and his
assistants’ assassination were given.

As a result, together with the last and previous events in the field
of democracy and human rights, we have to admit that possible election
of Kazakhstan for OSCE Presidency could not get the positive solution.

But from the other side, participants however agree with the idea
of the Presidency hold by the country, counting it as important
and necessary step towards the further development, especially in
democratization as well as the integration of the country into world
community spheres.

Fair play

It is time to stop playing hide-and-seek. It is time for fair play.

Holding only intergovernmental negotiations are not enough. If decided
to hold the OSCE Presidency 2009, it is not so much time left for
the reforms country needs to carry out from inside.

Political agreements and high level meetings when Kazakhstan declares
high aims and intentions to achieve is one side of the coin.

But when it is "supported" by such things as became traditional
elections legislation violation which the international observers
declare all the time.

Or when the media and information law is changed in a way opposite
to democratic.

When the press is writing about the tragic struggle between people
living in Shanyrak district of Almaty with a police to protect their
houses from the local administration and court decision.

Not mentioning the right-wheel cars ban on the eve of the WTO
accession which leads to the car drivers’ demonstrations all over
Kazakhstan. The police block the streets and International Media
reports how the guardians made people keep silence.

Or the last but not least issue – destruction of the houses where the
representatives of "Society of Krishna Perception" live and demand
"to reject their religious belief and make in this case possible
the legalization of property as it happened before with the reps of
other religious confessions" (as it is said in the document signed
by two laborists and one liberal democrat on the eve of the Nursultan
Nazarbayev’s visit to the UK, reported by Newsru.com).

These events became rather political then business and remind not
the democratic state where everyone has a freedom of speech.

This political behaviour of different power levels in Kazakhstan
shadowed the aim which the country declared saying "We need the
OSCE Presidency".

In Europe, where the human and minority rights are highly respected,
where from recent time it is prohibited to call gypsies other then
Roma, where the EU authorities create and finance different programmes
to support national, religious, other types of minorities, these
backstage games were not understood at all.

And besides that OSCE itself gives the republic a chance to follow
the democratic reforms and make the small voice of minorities heard.

The conference on the education problems faced by ethnic minorities
in Central Asia were opened on 28th of November, 2006, in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Rolf
Ekeus, welcomed the decision by four Central Asian States to launch
a regular inter-state dialogue and assist each other on issues of
social integration and national minority education.

"Future co-operation in this area can, I believe, help develop
practical measures to strengthen and carry forward the modernization
process of education in Central Asia and foster the sort of
co-operation across the region that will further promote social
integration within Central Asia’s multi-ethnic nations," – Mr Ekeus
said, speaking at the conference.

He also mentioned that formalized co-operation would help ensure the
respect for the educational rights of persons belonging to national
minorities, promote good neighbourly relations and decrease the costs
of education reform.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to
establish four working groups on the issues of curriculum and textbook
development, language teaching, teacher training, in-service training,
as well as distance learning and IT.

They also announced the working groups would meet regularly to discuss
on-going and prospective inter-state co-operation and mutual assistance
in these four areas. A first working group meeting is scheduled to
take place early 2007.

Perhaps, this will be the real start of the way not only to help the
minorities with their rights, at least in Kazakhstan, but also to
succeed with holding the OSCE Presidency making real steps forward.

POPE TAKES TRAIL OF ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY
By Brian Murphy
AP religion writer

Associated Press
Nov 30 2006

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Under a bright morning sun near the Aegean Sea
coast, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass on Wednesday outside the
ancient stones that some believe were once the home of the Virgin Mary.

He then walked slowly through a hand-picked congregation from the tiny
Christian communities across Muslim Turkey. They chanted "Benedetto"
— his name in Italian — and reached out to touch his gold and
white robes.

The pope had wanted to make this kind of pilgrimage last year —
paying homage to Christianity’s deep history in Turkey and forging
bonds with its modern caretakers.

But Turkish authorities demanded he include a state visit to the
capital, forcing the Vatican to postpone the trip until this week.

Then the pope’s remarks on Islam and the Prophet Muhammad turned the
visit into a struggle to win back the respect of the Islamic world.

So after tense moments and carefully scripted comments on Tuesday in
the capital Ankara — at the opening of his four-day trip — the pope
finally smiled.

After Mass at the shrine of Mary in Selcuk, he playfully took a large
Turkish flag from one of the worshippers.

"They say he’s an enemy of Turkey. It’s not true," said Nuzafer
Kalayci, a Christian from Istanbul.

But it wasn’t only about celebrating. The pope had some somber
messages: paying homage to an Italian priest slain during Islamic
protests and expressing sympathy for the pressures facing religious
minorities in the Muslim world.

That could set the tone for the remainder of Benedict’s trip, which
ends Friday. He is expected to sharpen his calls for what the Vatican
calls "reciprocity" — that Muslim demands for greater respect in the
West be matched by increased tolerance and freedom for Christians in
Islamic nations.

But too much pressure by the Roman Catholic pontiff could risk new
friction with Muslims after broad gestures of goodwill that sought
to ease simmering Muslim anger.

A statement claiming to be from al-Qaida in Iraq denounced the pope’s
visit as part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam and an attempt to
"extinguish the burning ember of Islam" in Turkey. Vatican spokesman
the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the declaration — posted on several
Islamic militant Web sites — shows the need for faiths to fight
"violence in the name of God."

He said "neither the pope nor his entourage are worried."

The pope’s deepening ties with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
I — called the "first among equals" of the Orthodox leaders —
also is watched with suspicion in Turkey as a possible challenge to
state-imposed limits on Christian minorities and others. Benedict has
declared a "fundamental" commitment to try to heal rifts between the
two ancient branches of Christianity, which split nearly 1,000 years
ago over disputes including papal authority.

At Bartholemew’s walled compound in Istanbul, the pope stood amid
black-robbed Orthodox clerics and urged both sides "to work for full
unity of Catholics and Orthodox."

The pope began the day at the ruins of a small stone home at the end
of a dirt road near the Aegean Sea — the site where the Virgin Mary
is thought to have spent her last years.

At an outdoor Mass attended by 250 invited guests, the pope noted
the challenges facing the "little flock" of Christians in Turkey.

"I have wanted to convey my personal love and spiritual closeness,
together with that of the universal church, to the Christian community
here in Turkey, a small minority which faces many challenges and
difficulties daily," the pope said.

Benedict went on to honor the memory of a Catholic priest who was
slain in Turkey amid Muslim anger over the publication in European
newspapers of caricatures of Muhammad.

"Let us sing joyfully, even when we’re tested by difficulties and
dangers as we have learned from the fine witness given by the Rev.

Andrea Santoro, whom I am pleased to recall in this celebration,"
said Benedict.

In February, a Turkish teenager shot the Italian priest as he knelt in
prayer in his church in the Black Sea port of Trabzon. The attack was
believed to have been linked to outrage over the cartoons. Two other
Catholic priests were attacked this year in Turkey, where Christians
have often complained of discrimination and persecution.

On Tuesday, the pope urged religious leaders of all faiths to "utterly
refuse" to support any form of violence in the name of faith. He also
said religious freedom was an essential element of democratic values.

He sought a careful balance as he held out a hand of friendship and
brotherhood to Muslims, and expressed support for measures that Turkey
has taken in its campaign to join the European Union.

But winning over Turkish sentiments may be easy compared with the
complexities ahead.

The legacy of Christianity in Turkey is a tangle of historical and
religious sensitivities.

Turkish armies captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople — now
Istanbul — in 1453 to begin a steady decline for Christians, who had
maintained communities in Asia Minor since the time of the Apostles.

As the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early 20th century, large
numbers of Armenian Christians perished in mass expulsions and
fighting. Turkey vehemently denies it committed genocide against
Armenians, though many nations have classified the World War I-era
killings as such.

Later, in the 1920s, Turkey and Greece carried out a massive population
exchange under the treaty that established modern Turkey, with hundreds
of thousands of Greek Orthodox sent to Greece and smaller numbers of
Muslims going the other way.

Bartholomew heads the remnants of the Greek community in Istanbul that
now number no more than 2,000 among about 90,000 Christians in Turkey.

They represent a powerful symbolic presence for the world’s more
than 250 million Orthodox, which often denounce Turkey for placing
obstacles in the way of Bartholomew and his clerics.

Turkey refuses to acknowledge the "ecumenical," or universal, title
of the patriarch and instead considers him only the head of the
local Greek Orthodox community. The Turkish worry is that granting
wider status to the patriarch could undermine the idea of a single
Turkish nationality — a pillar of the nation’s secular system —
and inspire demands for special recognition by minorities including
Kurds and Muslim groups such as Sufis and Alevis, considered a branch
of Shiite Islam.

Now, Turkish officials are concerned the papal visit and support
for Christian minorities could embolden Bartholomew to press Turkey
for concessions, including return of confiscated property and the
reopening of a Greek Orthodox seminary that closed more than two
decades ago after authorities blocked new students. The EU has also
pushed Turkey for greater religious openness to help its faltering
bid for membership.

"Against the backdrop of universal peace, the yearning for full
communion and concord between all Christians becomes even more profound
and intense," he said at the ancient Christian site.

St. John the Apostle is believed to have brought the Virgin Mary
there to care for her after Jesus’ death. Another belief maintains
Mary died in Jerusalem.

Of Turkey’s 70 million people, some 65,000 are Armenian Orthodox
Christians, 20,000 are Roman Catholic and 3,500 are Protestant,
mostly converts from Islam. Another 23,000 are Jewish.

AP writers Victor L. Simpson and Suzan Fraser contributed to this
report.

AZERBAIJANI SPEAKER AND A PACE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN DISCUSSED NAGORNO-KARABAKH ISSUE
Author: S. Aghayeva

TREND, Azerbaijan
Nov 30 2006

Issues on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
peaceful settlement have been discussed during the meeting between
Ogtay Assadov, Speaker of the Milli Majlis (Azerbaijan Parliament)
and Lord Rassel Johnston, Chairman of the Special Committee of PACE
(Parliament Assembly of Council of Europe), a source in the Azerbaijani
parliament told Trend.

"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the most troublesome issue to
Azerbaijan", Azerbaijan Speaker said. Azerbaijan highly appreciated
the resolution on settling the conflict adopted by the Council of
Europe, as well as attach a great importance to the activity of
the PACE Special Committee especially founded to settle the conflict
peacefully", said Mr. Assadov. He also expressed his confidence in the
immediate settlement of the conflict peacefully within international
norms and principles.

Speaking about the objectives of his visit to Azerbaijan, Lord
R. Johnston said that he was about to get acquainted with the situation
over the peaceful settlement of the conflict, as well as discuss the
further action plan within the Committee.

POPE MEETS WITH TURKISH CHRISTIANS
By Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles Times
Nov 30 2006

The pontiff joins Orthodox leader in prayer and calls for more
protections for religious minorities

EFES, TURKEY – Invoking the name of a martyred priest, Pope Benedict
XVI on Wednesday made a pointed plea on behalf of Turkey’s beleaguered
Christian minority and celebrated Mass in an ancient shrine revered
as the last home of the Virgin Mary.

Benedict ended his second day in Turkey with another solemn gesture
of religious unity: He joined the spiritual leader of the world’s
250 million Eastern Orthodox Christians for prayer and blessings in
Istanbul – the former Constantinople, which once served as a seat of
medieval Christian power.

The day saw the pope shifting his focus from Muslim reconciliation
to Christian solidarity.

The Vatican on Wednesday also responded to a statement from Al Qaeda
in Iraq denouncing the "crusader campaign" of the pope in Turkey as an
affront to Islam. Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said such threats
were precisely the reason violence must be separated from religion,
which he said was the core of the pope’s message. Lombardi added that
the pope was not worried about the threat.

Security was already extremely tight for Benedict’s first visit to a
Muslim country. In Istanbul on Wednesday evening, miles of streets
were closed to protect the convoy, with police in riot gear posted
along the route.

The pope had intended his Turkey pilgrimage to highlight Christian
unity and the bridging of the 1,000-year-old rift between Catholics
and the Orthodox, who do not recognize the authority of the pope. But
comments he made in September critical of Islam enraged much of the
Muslim world and forced him to change the agenda, using this visit
to reach out to Muslims and attempt to repair the damage.

In that vein, Benedict reversed his opposition to Turkey’s attempt to
join the European Union, among other gestures. But the EU bid suffered
a setback Wednesday when the European Commission recommended that
negotiations with Turkey be partially suspended because of continued
dispute over the country’s dealings with EU member Cyprus.

Turkey has refused an EU demand to open its ports to Cyprus until the
European bloc makes good on a promise to end the economic isolation
of the Turkish-occupied part of the divided island nation.

Olli Rehn, EU enlargement commissioner, said in Brussels that Turkey’s
aspirations to enter the organization were not dead but would move
at a much slower pace.

Following on a day spent attempting to promote reconciliation with
Turkey’s overwhelmingly Muslim majority, the pope Wednesday turned to
"the little flock of Christ" living in the midst "of a great nation."

He traveled to southwestern Turkey, to the ruins of the ancient Greek
city of Ephesus, known in Turkish as Efes, and to the squat stone
house where some Christians believe the Virgin Mary lived out her
final days. Parts of the foundation date to the 1st century, and
legend has it that St. John brought her here from Jerusalem after
Jesus’ crucifixion.

Mary is revered by Muslims as well as Christians. The Koran mentions
the mother of Jesus numerous times, and the shrine here, at the end of
a winding road, attracts pilgrims from both faiths. Benedict stressed
that common bond Wednesday.

Standing on a stone altar festooned with carnations, a few yards
from Mary’s purported house and enveloped in towering pines, Benedict
celebrated Mass for several hundred Christians and others who managed
to brave a battery of metal detectors and security gauntlets. It
may have been one of the smallest public audiences ever seen on a
papal trip, and was largely imported, at that. There were Turkish
Christians but also many who had arrived from Spain, Italy and other
parts of Europe.

It was an unusually intimate celebration. No one was farther than a
few dozen yards from the pope, close enough to see his eyes.

Benedict offered his "personal love and spiritual closeness" and
"a word of encouragement" to Christians in Turkey, "a small minority
which faces many challenges and difficulties daily."

"Let us sing joyfully, even when we are tested by difficulties
and dangers, as we have learned from the fine witness given by the
Roman priest Don Andrea Santoro, whom I am pleased to recall in this
celebration," the pope said.

Santoro was shot to death in February as he knelt in prayer at his
church in the Turkish city of Trabzon. He was attacked amid the furor
over Dutch newspaper cartoons that had satirized the prophet Muhammad.

Aishe Urturk, a fireplug of a woman in a tweed coat, pushed her way
to the front of the crowd to catch a glimpse of the pope. "I love
all the Christians," the 70-year-old Muslim said.

Several in the audience gave the pope high marks for his efforts to
soothe Muslim anger.

"He prayed here for peace and happiness for all mankind," said
Konstantinos Cedolini, a 39-year-old Turkish businessman and Roman
Catholic. "He never mentioned a single word against Turkey. His speech
was proof of his respect to all the Muslim world."

Later Wednesday, the pope flew to Istanbul where he joined the
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for a prayer service inside the
Cathedral of St. George, headquarters of Greek Orthodox worship. The
two religious leaders, in flowing robes and sparkling capes, followed
a procession of priests who held long candles the color of honey and
sent wafts of smoky incense into the air.

The city called Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire
for nearly a millennium, and the center of eastern Christianity. Turkey
today is a country of about 70 million Muslims.

Christians are dwindling in number, to perhaps 100,000, and those
that remain complain of harassment and discrimination.

Among the problems they suffer are severe restrictions on their
ability to buy and sell property and run schools to train their
clergy. Most Christians are also ethnic communities, people of Greek
or Armenian heritage and viewed by some Turks as "foreigners" who
cannot be trusted.

The EU has consistently pushed Turkey to strengthen freedoms for
religious minorities. But on Wednesday, at about the same time the EU
was slowing talks with Turkey, Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer
vetoed a law required by the EU that would have enhanced property
rights for non-Muslims.

The dilemma for Benedict is that as he offers support for Christians
he risks again offending the Muslims he is seeking to engage.

FEELING OF SELF-STAGNATION
Gennady Sysoev

Kommersant, Russia
Nov 30 2006

// CIS agreed for new meetings
Russia is getting used to a new role in the CIS

Russia’s Federation Council head Sergei Mironov announced during a
specially-summoned press conference yesterday that it is early yet to
speak of the CIS summit’s failure. In fact, the only achievement of
the summit in Minsk is that it will not be the last summit. Moreover,
Russia for the first time played a new role – that of the Commonwealth
terminator.

"Without Consensus"

"Difference in viewpoints does not mean that it is a failure and that
the CIS will no longer exist," Sergei Mironov assured journalists
yesterday. However, he actually confirmed the main feature of the
summit was the huge variety of opinions of its participants. What
is more, the fact that it is the speaker of the upper chamber of
Russia’s parliament, and not the minister of foreign affairs or
Russian president, who sums up the summit’s results, is the indirect
evidence that foreign minister or president must have nothing to say
about it. Yet, it is not the main thing.

Nearly for the first time, Moscow faced the situation when its CIS
partners push the organization, which has been in political coma for
the last few years, in the direction they need, but this direction is
not good for Russia. That is why Moscow had to take up a new role –
that of a terminator who does not generate CIS-developing initiatives
anymore, but blocks them.

Technically, Russia has solved its main task in Minsk. Vladimir
Putin managed to restrain the "reformatory impulse" of his Kazakh
counterpart Nursultan Nazarbaev, who dreamed of launching his own
concept of the CIS reform. Its essence is to considerably reduce the
number of cooperation spheres, and to leave in the CIS only those who
are ready to carry out the adopted decisions. From Moscow’s viewpoint,
the CIS reform according to Kazakh prescription will only aggravate the
existing cracks in the CIS, and will lead to its collapse. Finally,
CIS leaders agreed the reform’s concept will be developed by an
interstate group to be formed by June 1, 2007.

Russia attacked another initiative, supported by Kazakhstan and
Ukraine, about the memorandum on the free trade zone. Unlike many of
its CIS partners, Russia does not want to divert the Commonwealth to
economic cooperation only.

CIS leaders did not agree on the issue of the legal status of borders
between Commonwealth states. This issue was discussed behind closed
doors. "The decision was not adopted due to the lack of consensus,"
said CIS executive committee head Vladimir Rushailo.

It was Ukraine who initiated the subject, while Georgia and Azerbaijan
supported it. Russian president was categorically against it,
justifying his position by saying that it is the issue for bilateral
relations. If Ukraine’s initiative remained on the agenda, Putin
would refuse to sign the resolution. Yet, the need for such measure
did not arise, since the debatable issue was removed.

"Does not bother anyone"

Serious divergence between CIS members is nothing new. However, all
previous CIS summits worked out due to productive bilateral meetings
between CIS presidents. It was not the case in Minsk this time.

The only exception could have been the meeting between Vladimir Putin
and his Moldavian counterpart Vladimir Voronin. They reached agreement
on resuming the supply of Moldavian wine and meat to Russia. However,
Voronin acknowledged yesterday the breakthrough in bilateral relations
teethed after Putin-Voronin meeting back in August, and was reinforced
now. Besides, the presidents’ meeting in Minsk was preceded by the
talks between the ministers of economy and trade of Russia and Moldova,
German Gref and Igor Dodon, in Moscow, during which many controversial
issues were solved, and Moldova even said it is ready to sign the
protocol of Russia’s entry to the WTO before the end of 2006.

No results came out of the meeting between presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan concerning Nagorny Karabakh. The meeting passed in Russian
embassy in the presence of Russian minister of foreign affairs Sergei
Lavrov. At first, the meeting was to pass under Vladimir Putin’s
"guidance", but it was changed afterwards. More substantial talks
between Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents were postponed to be
later held in Moscow.

Another meeting could have saved the summit – that between Putin
and Saakashvili. This meeting was held, but it did not lead to the
breakthrough in Moscow-Tbilisi relations. It is proved by the different
estimations of Putin-Saakashvili talks in Minsk.

Sources in Russian delegation insist that Russian and Georgian
presidents spoke thrice but their dialog did not surpass mutual
reproaches. Privately, Putin and Saakashvili spoke only about 5
minutes, and each remained with his own standing.

Georgian president gave a different version of his meeting with
Putin. He said the private talk lasted for 40 minutes. "We had the
chance to privately discuss all issues of Russia-Georgia relations.

The talk was useful. At the same time, we Georgians should stop
reacting to what Russia says and how it acts towards us, because the
scenario for Georgia is being written in Tbilisi, and not in Moscow,
and that is how it will always be from now on," said Saakashvili
in London, where he arrived for the opening ceremony of selling the
shares of the Bank of Georgia.

Thus, Moscow consciously lowers the significance of Putin-Saakashvili
meeting in Minsk, while Tbilisi, on the contrary, is trying to increase
its importance. Putin could agree to the meeting with Saakashvili
only to get serious concessions from Tbilisi on a number of issues
important for Russia. However, Georgia is not ready for it today,
which is proved by Saakashvili’s stiff declaration in London.

The Kremlin will hardly like it, and will probably put aside the
improving of relations with Georgia. So, it is quite likely the
meeting between Putin and Saakashvili in Minsk might only aggravate
the existing differences.

During the summit’s last press conference by Kazakhstan’s president
Nursultan Nazarbaev, who is now the CIS chairman, journalists asked
about the possibility of the Commonwealth’s collapse after some
countries leave it. Nazarbaev’s response was philosophic: "The CIS
does not bother anyone".

In this condition, the CIS might exist for a long time. At least for
as long as Russia needs it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HOW MANY DIVISIONS DOES THE POPE HAVE?
By Daniel Johnson

New York Sun, NY
Nov 30 2006

How would you like to be in Pope Benedict XVI’s shoes right now? He
needs all the prayers that a billion Catholics are offering up for the
duration of his current visit to Turkey. They, along with countless
others who wish Benedict well, will thank God if he returns in one
piece. For in the age of the global jihad, the most dangerous thing
a man can do is to tell the truth about Islam.

If, as Turkey’s senior Islamic official, Ali Bardakoglu, told the pope
on his arrival, Islam is a religion of "vast tolerance" that rejects
all violence and terror and "assumes that killing an innocent person
is a heavy crime and sin," it is singularly extravagant of the Turkish
government to assign an army of 15,000 security men to one frail old
priest. How many divisions does it take to protect the pope?

If, as Mr. Bardakoglu also lectured the pope, it is "Islamophobic"
to say that Islam "was spread over the world by the sword," why is it
that almost all the major conflicts in the world today occur on the
fault lines between Islam and other faiths? Even in Turkey, the most
secular of Muslim countries, persecution has reduced the proportion
of non-Muslims in the population from a majority in Byzantine times
to less than 1% today. It is still a crime in Turkey to refer to
the Armenian genocide. And it is still dangerous to be an observant
Christian or Jew. Synagogues in Istanbul were attacked by Islamist
terrorists in 1985 and 2003, killing scores and wounding hundreds of
Turkey’s tiny Jewish minority.

No, the reason that Turkey is mounting its largest ever peacetime
security operation right now is that a significant proportion of
Muslims – nobody knows how many – want the pope killed for daring to
quote a remark by a 14th-century Byzantine emperor that was critical
of Islam in his famous speech at Regensburg in September. A novel
that glories in the imagined assassination of Pope Benedict is a
bestseller in the bookstores of Istanbul. This is hardly surprising:
During the Regensburg furor, Mr. Bardakoglu told Muslims that the
pope is "filled with enmity" and the spirit of the Crusades.

Even Prime Minister Erdogan initially claimed he could not find time
for a meeting. Realizing that snubbing the pope might not improve
Turkey’s image in Europe, he thought better of it, and a brief airport
encounter took place. Yet Mr. Erdogan just could not resist ambushing
the man who was supposedly his guest. After their private audience,
Mr. Erdogan emerged to wow the waiting press by claiming that the
pope had dropped his opposition to Turkish membership of the European
Union. Mr. Erdogan then flew off to the NATO summit in Riga, leaving
embarrassed Vatican officials to issue denials.

The pope must have had mixed feelings as he paid his respects at the
secular shrine to the founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk.

Abolishing the caliphate, banning the fez, the veil, and other
Muslim symbols in order to secularize the Turkish state was a great
achievement. But Mr. Erdogan and his ruling party are Islamists,
dedicated to tearing down the wall that Ataturk erected to separate
religion and politics. It is no accident that Mr. Erdogan refused
to allow his country to be used by American forces against Saddam
Hussein and still refuses to support Iraqi democracy.

On a visit to Oxford a few years ago, Mr. Erdogan took questions
from the press. I asked him what he thought was meant when he was
described as a "moderate Islamist," which seemed to me an oxymoron.

The prime minister chose to interpret this as a question about Islam,
rather than Islamism – apparently he does not recognize a distinction
between religious and political Islam. "Moderate Islam," he said, did
not exist, except in the minds of ignorant people in the West. Islam
was one and indivisible. To divide Muslims into "moderates" and
"extremists" was itself Islamophobic. But he thought Turkey should be –
already was – a European country.

Under these circumstances, to hold what Benedict called "an authentic
dialogue between Christians and Muslims, based on truth" is by
no means easy. It would be absurd to expect the pope to repeat in
Istanbul his critique of the role of reason in Islamic theology.

Benedict may sit on the throne of St. Peter, but he has no desire to
emulate his predecessor’s martyrdom.

But the historical symbolism of the pope’s presence in this "bridge
between Europe and Asia" cannot be overstated, for all that the
Vatican insists that the visit is pastoral rather than political. In
the Muslim world, the pastoral is the political.

Benedict’s original and primary purpose was to reconcile Catholic
and Orthodox Christians from the consequences of a schism that goes
back to the 11th century. Benedict’s dream of healing a millennial
theological rift will not be realized in his lifetime, but the fact
that he is prepared to risk his life to meet the patriarch of what
the Greek Orthodox stubbornly persist in calling Constantinople proves
that this pope is nothing if not courageous – and ambitious.

It is from that seminal epoch, too, that the pope selected another
of his significant quotations, this time from one of his most
controversial predecessors: Pope Gregory VII. This Tuscan monk, known
as Hildebrand, began what the great medievalist Karl Leyser called
"the first European revolution": the struggle, which convulsed Europe,
for what Gregory called the libertas ecclesiae, the "liberty of the
church." Long before the Reformation, this Gregorian revolution pitted
church against state over an issue that is still alive in China,
where the communist-controlled state church has just installed a new
bishop whom the Vatican refuses to recognize.

For the sake of this far-reaching libertas, Gregory was prepared to
sacrifice everything, and he expected his clergy to do so too – it
was he who established celibacy as the norm for Catholic priests, and
he who damned the sin of simony, the sale of ecclesiastical offices.

Gregory brought the most powerful man in Europe, Emperor Henry IV,
literally to his knees, as Henry had to wait in the snow outside the
papal castle at Canossa to be forgiven. But Henry broke his word and
Gregory ended his days in exile. He was vindicated only posthumously.

It was this Gregory, then, whom Benedict quoted thanking a Muslim
prince for his benevolent treatment of his Christian subjects.

Christians and Muslims owed such charity to one another, Gregory wrote,
"because we believe in one God, albeit in a different manner."

Note that this goodwill was to be reciprocal. When Muslim rulers
refused to allow Christian pilgrims access to the holy land, Gregory’s
successor, Urban II, declared the First Crusade in order to enforce
that access.

If Benedict XVI is now taking his inspiration from Gregory VII,
we can expect no compromise from him on the issue of religious freedom.

Nor will he retract what he said in Regensburg: The Judeo-Christian
West believes in one God, the God of logos and love – not an irrational
God who rewards terrorists. The pope has given his Muslim interlocutors
a choice: Islam can have an authentic dialogue with the West, based
on mutual respect and toleration, or it can have jihad.

It cannot have both.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH EUROPEAN UNION PROMPTS HOPES IN ARMENIA
Haroutiun Khachatrian

EurasiaNet, NY
Nov 30 2006

Armenians have welcomed the recent launch of a program to foster
stronger ties between the European Union and Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Georgia, but questions persist in Yerevan about what will be the
actual results of this new partnership.

The November 14 adoption of the European Union (EU)-Armenia Action
Plan for the bloc’s European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) program is one
of the few recent topics that has met with apparent satisfaction from
both the government and the opposition.

The plan sets eight priority areas to be addressed as part of Armenia’s
cooperation with the EU over the next five years: strengthening
democracy and rule of law; enhancing respect for human rights;
continuing economic development and poverty reduction; improving the
climate for private investors; streamlining economic policy and policy
administration; creating an energy strategy that would include the
decommissioning of the Medzamor nuclear power plant; working towards a
peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan;
and expanding opportunities for regional cooperation.

While the schedule for implementation of Armenia’s Action Plan will not
be completed until January 2007, the government is already emphasizing
its commitment to cooperation with the EU. Most notably, the Respublika
Armenii (Republic of Armenia) newspaper, a Russian-language government
mouthpiece, wrote in its November 15 issue that Armenia has asked
the EU to monitor its implementation of the Action Plan once a year,
instead of once every two years, as is standard.

The plan notes that "[t]he level of ambition of the relationship will
depend on the degree of Armenia’s commitment to common values as well
as its capacity to implement jointly agreed priorities, in compliance
with international and European norms and principles."

Already, though, the government is focusing on the possible rewards
for demonstrating that commitment. In a recent interview given to the
Noyan Tapan news agency, Deputy Foreign Minister Armen Baibourtian
noted that a free trade agreement with the EU could be one of the
results of the Action Plan. The Armenian government does not rule out
that such an agreement could be signed even before the completion of
Armenia’s Action Plan in 2011, the deputy minister said.

The potential economic benefits of closer ties with the EU have
attracted widespread support, but, not unexpectedly, many ordinary
Armenians have also displayed special interest in how the documents
signed in Brussels will address the question of Nagorno Karabakh.

While in Brussels, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan and
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met to discuss the
Karabakh conflict as a precursor to a November 28 encounter between
Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev during the Commonwealth of Independent States summit in Minsk.

While President Aliyev has stated that the negotiations have now
entered their final phase, Armenian media reports about the meeting,
held at the Russian embassy in Minsk, imply that no progress was
made. The meeting was the third between the two leaders this year.

The Armenian and Azerbaijani Action Plans include almost identical
language about goals for resolving the Karabakh conflict. The
Armenian plan cites a "[c]ontinuing strong EU commitment to support
the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, drawing on the
instruments at the EU’s disposal … and in close consultation with
the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe]." One
distinction could be cause for future debate: the Actions section
of the Azerbaijani agreement mentions accomplishing this task while
observing "the relevant UN Security Council resolutions," but the
Armenian document mentions negotiation on the basis of international
law, "including the principle of self-determination of peoples."

During a November 18 public discussion on Armenia’s ties with the
European Union held at the Urbat (Friday) Club in Yerevan, analysts,
however, were not optimistic about the impact of the Neighborhood
Policy on the conflict. At best, they said, the EU could act as an
"extinguisher" for tensions between the two sides.

One analyst, however, expressed concern that, in other regards, Armenia
may find itself left behind in building a strong relationship with the
EU, compared to Georgia and Azerbaijan. Georgia may secure more rapid
integration because of its government’s strong pro-West orientation,
contended Washington-based political analyst Richard Giragosian, while
Azerbaijan could prove attractive because of its energy resources.

Giragosian, however, saw geopolitical benefits for the EU in extending
its European Neighbor Policy to the South Caucasus. The program
allows the EU to bypass Turkey, a regional player whose EU membership
ambitions have proven problematic, and to have contact with Iran,
potentially via Armenia, a long-time Iranian ally. "The formula is:
‘One step beyond Turkey, one step closer to Iran’," Giragosian said.

Some observers saw other distinctions. Considerable attention has
focused recently on Georgia’s ambitions to join the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). One opposition leader, Shavarsh Kocharian,
head of the National Democratic Party, suggested at the discussion
that Georgia might, in fact, try to use its NATO membership campaign
to advance its ambitions to join the EU.

Strengthening democratic development could prove a surer way to advance
Armenia’s relationship with the EU, Kocharian continued. Like other
opposition members, however, Kocharian expressed doubts that the
government would fulfill its pledges to strengthen democracy and the
rule of law along with economic growth. Other discussion participants
worried that Armenia’s opposition is not strong enough to press for
such changes.

Political analyst Giragosian shared Kocharian’s viewpoint, saying
that the West may reach the limit of its patience with Armenia
if the country’s spring 2007 parliamentary elections fail to meet
democratic standards. "Armenia now faces greater expectations for
clean elections. The key question is whether the Armenian authorities
understand that that the expectations of the West are higher this
time," he said.

At a July 2006 Republican Party of Armenia conference, Defense Minister
Serge Sarkisian predicted that the May 2007 vote will prove Armenia’s
"best elections" to date.

Editor’s Note: Haroutiun Khachatrian is a Yerevan-based writer
specializing in economic and political affairs.

NKR REPRESENTATIVES PARTICIPATED

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
Nov 30 2006

The foreign minister of NKR Georgy Petrossian and Semion Afiyan, head
of the protocol service of the NKR foreign ministry, took part in the
inaugural ceremony of the president of South Ossetia Edward Kokoyti.

Over ten delegations of different countries of the world arrived in
South Ossetia to take part in the ceremony of inauguration.

NKR PRESIDENT GHUKASSIAN MET WITH MATTHEW BRYZA IN THE US

Azat Artsakh, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh
Nov 30 2006

NKR President Arkady Ghukassian and the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group met on November 24 in the United States, reports the department
of information of NKR president administration. They discussed the
present stage of the talks over the settlement of the Karabakh conflict
and the prospects. The participants of the talk, which took place in
a constructive atmosphere, emphasized the importance of resolving
the problems occurring between the conflict parties at the table
of negotiations.