CRISIS LOOMS IN TURKISH-FRENCH TIES OVER GENOCIDE BILL
by Hande Culpan
Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday
Ankara launched a scathing attack against Paris on Tuesday, accusing
it of losing its reason over a draft law on the World War I massacres
of Armenians and warning that bilateral ties will suffer if the bill
is enacted.
The draft, scheduled for debate and a vote before the French National
Assembly on Thursday, calls for one year in prison and a 45,000 euro
(57,000 dollar) fine for anyone who denies that Armenians were the
victims of a genocide under the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of
modern Turkey.
“We expect Paris to avoid this blunder, this political accident
that will harm Turkish-French relations,” Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the parliamentary group of his Justice and
Development Party in a speech interrupted by applause.
“The EU must absolutely take a stand against this eclipse of reason
in France,” he said, charging that the bill would violate freedom
of expression, a basic EU norm that Turkey itself is under pressure
to respect.
Drawn up by the Socialist opposition, the bill was first submitted
in May, but the debate ran out of time after filibustering from the
ruling UMP party bloc.
Turkish officials believe it stands a good chance of being voted
Thursday — as a gesture to France’s large Armenian community ahead
of legislative elections next year — as many lawmakers opposed to
the bill will be away in their constituencies.
Ankara has warned that French firms will be barred from major tenders,
including one for the planned construction of the country’s first
nuclear power plant, if the bill is accepted.
“The French will lose Turkey,” Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned
on Sunday.
The Ankara Chamber of Commerce, which groups some 3,200 businesses,
and the Consumers’ Union, a non-governmental consumer rights group,
have threatend to boycott French goods.
In 2001, Turkey sidelined French companies from public tenders and
cancelled projects awarded to French firms when parliament adopted
a resolution recognising the massacres as genocide.
At stake now is a flourishing trade between the two countries that
totalled 8.2 billion euros (10 billion dolars) in 2005.
About 250 French firms are active in Turkey, providing employment
for about 65,000 people.
France also plays a leading role in foreign direct investment in
Turkey with 2.1 billion dollars (1.6 billion euros) last year and 328
million dollars (260 million euros) in the first seven months of 2006.
But some commentators have warned that suspending economic ties with
France would have a bruising affect on Turkey, for which foreign
investment is vital as it recovers from two severe financial crises.
Turkey could also retaliate politically, keeping bilateral contacts at
a minimum and at the lowest diplomatic level and possibly cancelling
bilateral visits.
One senior lawmaker warned the Turkish parliament could retaliate with
a law proclaiming the killing of Algerians under French colonial rule
as genocide and its denial a jailable offense, but Erdogan rejected
the suggestion.
“No,” he said, “we will not retaliate in kind — we do not clean
filth with filth.”
The Armenian massacres are one of most controversial episodes in
Turkish history and open debate on the issue has only recently begun
in Turkey, often sending nationalist sentiment into frenzy.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, arguing that
300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife
when Armenians rose for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ALIYEV SAYS KARABAKH SETTLEMENT POSSIBLE ONLY ON LEGAL BASIS
by Sevindzh Abdullayeva and Viktor Shulman
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
The resolution of the Karabakh conflict “can only be possible on a
legal basis”, Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a press conference after top-level talks with Romania,
Aliyev said the conflict was “the biggest source of threat to regional
stability and security.”
“Azerbaijan recognises the territorial integrity of all states of the
world and demands that its territorial integrity be recognised too,”
the president said.
He stressed that his country had become a U.N. member with
Nagorno-Karabakh as its part.
In his words, “different measures may be taken” to ensure the
security of the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh, including
“the provision of a high status of autonomy” to this region.
“But separating Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan, creating a second
Armenian state in its territory or incorporating it into Armenia
cannot be a subject of talks,” Aliyev said.
He thanked the Romanian leadership for the support of this position
stated in a joint declaration signed by the presidents of the two
countries in Baku.
Aliyev believes that all conflicts should be resolved on the basis
of unified approaches. “If a settlement is based not on international
law but on some other principles, this will have negative consequences
for the whole region,” he warned.
The president of Romania called for cooperation with Azerbaijan in
resolving “frozen conflicts”, including the Nagorno-Karabakh one.

RUSSIA RAILWAYS TO MULL PARTICIPATION IN ARMENIA RAILWAYS TENDER
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
The Russian Railways joint-stock company will consider the issue of
participation in a tender for the concession of Armenian Railways,
the public relations department of Russian Railways reported with
reference to the company president Vladimir Yakunin.
According to the department, Russian and Armenian railwaymen have
always been united by fruitful cooperation and Russian Railways
continues to fulfil all obligations it assumed on the provision and
development of railway connection. “We undoubtedly will consider the
issue of Russian Railways’ participation in the international tender,”
Yakunin pointed out, Prime-Tass reports.
Armenian Transport and Communications Minister Andranik Manukyan
announced on Wednesday at the opening of the 44th meeting of the
Council of Railway Transport of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) that concession of Armenian Railways will be leased to
a foreign investor or railway administration for 40 years. “We would
like major rail companies to take concession of the Armenian Railways,”
the minister said.
Armenia’s railway was built by the Russian empire government in the
second half of the nineteenth century. At present, the total length of
Armenia’s railways is 1,500 kilometres. Out of its 75 stations four are
junction points linking Armenia with Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The carrying capacity of the Armenian railway is three million
tonnes of cargoes and five million passengers a year. According to
forecasts made by experts of the transport sphere, volumes of railway
transportation in Armenia will double by 2010.
The Armenian railway is fully electrified and equipped with a modern
automatic block systems and communication equipment.
After restructuring Armenian Railways got the status of a closed
joint-stock company owned by the state. Within the framework of the
country’s economic reforms the Armenian government follows the path
of raising the efficiency of this kind of transport.
According to international law, concession is a form of the attraction
of foreign capital when the state leases the enterprise to foreign
firms of individuals for exploitation for a specified term and for
value. The state has the right to terminate the concession after the
agreement term expires.

CIS, BALTIC RZD COUNCIL FOCUSES ON PROSPECTS FOR COOPERATION
by Tigran Liloyan and Roman Romishevsky
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
Prospects for cooperation in international passenger service and
railway haulage and norms of the railway timetable in 2007-2008 are
central of the 44th session of the CIS and Baltic Railway Council.
In his greetings message on Wednesday, Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan said the implementation of problems to be raised at the
session “will facilitate integration of transport systems of CIS
states and the development of international and regional cooperation
as a whole.” “Nothing may bring closer peoples as free international
trade based on free movement of people and goods,” he stressed.
Chairman of the Council, Russian Railways (RZD) head Vladimir Yakunin
said in the eight months a total of 1.4 billion tonnes of cargoes,
including ferrous and non-ferrous metals, cement, coal, oil and oil
products, were transported (4.5 percent more than in the same period
of the year 2005).
In his words, one of the pressing issues is rolling stock. Every
year “we should acquire 70,000-80,000 railroad cars to renovate our
rolling stock because only 62 percent of freight cars responds to
our requirements,” Yakunin said.
The Council’s commercial director, David Dzhindzholiya, told
journalists, “I hope that Russian railway personnel will lift its
ban on passenger service between the two countries.”
The session involves heads of railways of Russia, Armenia, Belarus,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, as well as
Bulgaria and Finland.
The CIS and Baltic Railway Council was set up on the basis of the
February 14, 1992 inter-governmental agreement to coordinate the work
of CIS railways. Its major task is to coordinate rail transport at
the intergovernmental level and to work out consistent principles
for its operations.

NATO REPRESENTATIVE TO DISCUSS PARTNERSHIP PLAN IN ARMENIA
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
October 11, 2006 Wednesday
A high-ranking NATO official will discuss in Yerevan the current
stage of cooperation, in particular the progress of an individual
partnership plan.
The NATO secretary-general’s representative for Caucasus and Central
Asia Robert Simmons arrives in the Armenia capital on Wednesday on
his tour of the region, an Armenian Foreign Ministry official told
ITAR-TASS.
Simmons will meet Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, Defence Minister
Serzh Sarkisyan and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan.
He will inform about his trip ambassadors of NATO countries in Yerevan.
Simmons will unveil a NATO information centre in Armenia, the setting
up of which is a part of the country’s individual partnership with
the Western alliance that began in last year’s December.
Armenia “is going to activate practical and political cooperation with
NATO with the aim of coming closer with the alliance,” the individual
partnership plan published in August says.
Armenia’s obligations under the plan confirm the determination to
implement a security accord signed with NATO.
Yerevan “will continue the formation of one peacekeeping battalion
meeting the NATO criteria with a view of its further transformation
into a peacekeeping brigade”.

TURKEY’S ARMENIANS DISTRUST FRENCH GENOCIDE BILL
by Nicolas Cheviron
Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday 3:42 PM GMT
Turkey’s Armenians have raised their voice against a French bill that
makes it a jailable offense to deny their ancestors were the victim
of genocide under Ottoman rule.
They fear it will antagonize the Turkish majority and further strain
an already tense debate.
The draft law, to be debated and voted in the French parliament
Thursday, calls for one year in prison and a hefty 45,000-euro
(57,000 dollar) fine for anyone who denies that the World War I
massacres constituted genocide.
Among the first to condemn the bill was journalist Hrant Dink, who is
among a handful of taboo-breaking intellectuals in Turkey who have
openly argued that the massacres were genocide, drawing nationalist
ire and landing himself in court.
“This is idiocy,” the Turkish-Armenian Dink said in remarks to the
liberal daily Radikal. “It only shows that those who restrict freedom
of expression in Turkey and those who try to restrict it in France
are of the same mentality.”
Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian bilingual weekly Agos, received
a six-month suspended sentence last year for “insulting Turkishness”
in an article about the 1915-1917 massacres.
He is scheduled to go on trial again under the same provision, this
time for saying the killings were genocide.
Dink said he was ready to defend freedom of expression even if it
means running the risk of imprisonment in France.
“I am standing trial in Turkey for saying it was genocide. If this
bill is adopted, I will go to France and, in spite of my conviction,
I will say it was not genocide,” he said in a television interview.
“The two countries can then compete to see who throws me in jail
first.”
Another Armenian journalist, Etyen Mahcupyan, said Turks see the
proposed law as an imposition on them to accept the genocide and
feared the French move could scupper a fledgling, timid debate in
Turkey to question its past.
“Initiatives like the one in the French parliament are awkward,”
he told AFP. “They push the Turks closer to the state and make them
more vulnerable to manipulation.”
Discussing the massacres was a near-taboo in Turkey until recently
and an open debate on the issue — one of the most controversial in
Turkish history — still sends nationalist sentiment into frenzy.
Mahcupyan, a columnist for the conservative daily Zaman, called on
European countries to back efforts to improve democracy in Turkey,
which he said was the only way to ensure free debate and challenge
Ankara’s official line.
The Armenian Patriarchate said the French bill only created obstacles
to frank dialogue between Armenians and Turks.
“All initiatives creating obstacles to freedom of expression endanger
the process of dialogue between the Turkish and Armenian societies,
and reinforce nationalist and racist tendancies on both sides,”
the head of the Armenian Church said in a statement.
Ara Kocunyan, editor of the small Armenian-language daily Jamanak,
criticized what he called the feeling of “self-victimization” with
which the Armenian diaspora in the West is pursuing its campaign to
have the massacres internationally recognized as genocide.
He urged instead increased efforts to combat the dire economic
situation in Armenia, to which Turkey has contributed by sealing
its border.
“If we stick to the current priorities, I fear those weeping today
for a father killed 90 years ago will find themselves weeping for
little Armenia in 50 years’ time,” Kocunyan said.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, saying 300,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.

FRENCH GOVT SAYS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL ‘NOT NECESSARY’
Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday 3:42 PM GMT
PARIS, Oct 10 2006
The French government said Tuesday it believed a bill enshrining
the World War I massacre of Armenians as genocide by Turkey was
“not necessary”, following stiff anger from Ankara.
The bill, drafted by the opposition Socialist Party and to be voted
on Thursday, “does not implicate the government”, foreign ministry
spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters.
“In our view, it is not necessary,” he said.
President Jacques Chirac’s ruling conservative party has distanced
itself from the bill which, if passed, would punish anybody who denied
the Armenian “genocide” with up to a year in prison and a 45,000-euro
(56,400-dollar) fine.
France in 2001 already adopted a law calling the massacres a genocide.
The bill has created an uproar in Turkey, which argues that while
300,000 Armenians died in 1915, at least as many Turks did too in
civil strife that occurred during the collapse of its Ottoman Empire.
Chirac has championed Turkey’s ambitions to join the European Union,
though domestic opposition has prompted him to soften his stance
somewhat.
On a recent trip to Armenia, he said Turkey should recognise the
Armenian killings as a genocide before being allowed to join the EU.

TURKEY’S ARMENIANS SEE NO GOOD IN FRENCH GENOCIDE BILL
by Nicolas Cheviron
Agence France Presse — English
October 10, 2006 Tuesday
Turkey’s Armenians have raised their voice against a French bill that
makes it a jailable offense to deny their ancestors were the victim
of genocide under Ottoman rule, wary it will antagonize Turks and
further strain an already tense debate on the issue.
The draft law, to be debated and voted in the French parliament
Thursday, calls for one year in prison and a hefty 45,000-euro
(57,000 dollar) fine for anyone who denies that the World War I
massacres constituted genocide.
Among the first to condemn the bill was journalist Hrant Dink, who is
among a handful of taboo-breaking intellectuals in Turkey who have
openly argued that the massacres were genocide, drawing nationalist
ire and landing himself in court.
“This is idiocy,” the Turkish-Armenian Dink said in remarks to the
liberal daily Radikal. “It only shows that those who restrict freedom
of expression in Turkey and those who try to restrict it in France
are of the same mentality.”
Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian bilingual weekly Agos, received
a six-month suspended sentence last year for “insulting Turkishness”
in an article about the 1915-1917 massacres.
He is scheduled to go on trial again under the same provision, this
time for saying the killings were genocide.
Dink said he was ready to defend freedom of expression even if it
means running the risk of imprisonment in France.
“I am standing trial in Turkey for saying it was genocide. If this
bill is adopted, I will go to France and, in spite of my conviction,
I will say it was not genocide,” he said in a television interview.
“The two countries can then compete to see who throws me in jail
first.”
Another Armenian journalist, Etyen Mahcupyan, said Turks see the
proposed law as an imposition on them to accept the genocide and
feared the French move could scupper a fledgling, timid debate in
Turkey to question its past.
“Initiatives like the one in the French parliament are awkward,”
he told AFP. “They push the Turks closer to the state and make them
more vulnerable to manipulation.”
Discussing the massacres was a near-taboo in Turkey until recently
and an open debate on the issue — one of the most controversial in
Turkish history — still sends nationalist sentiment into frenzy.
Mahcupyan, a columnist for the conservative daily Zaman, called on
European countries to back efforts at improving democracy in Turkey,
which, he said, is the only way to ensure free debate to challenge
Ankara’s official line on the killings.
The Armenian Patriarchate had said the same thing in May, when the
bill was first submitted but ran out of parliamentary time before a
vote could be held.
“All initiatives creating obstacles to freedom of expression will
jeopardize the process of dialogue between Turks and Armenians and
will reinforce nationalist tendencies on both sides,” it said.
Ara Kocunyan, editor of the small Armenian-language daily Jamanak,
criticized what he called the feeling of “self-victimization” with
which the Armenian diaspora in the West is pursuing its campaign to
have the massacres internationally recognized as genocide.
He urged instead increased efforts to combat the dire economic
situation in Armenia, to which Turkey has contributed by sealing
its border.
“If we stick to the current priorities, I fear those weeping today
for a father killed 90 years ago will find themselves weeping for
little Armenia in 50 years’ time,” Kocunyan said.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey categorically rejects the genocide label, saying 300,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.

KARABAKH LEADER DENIES PLANNING TO RUN FOR THIRD TERM
Mediamax News Agency, Armenia
11 Oct 06
Yerevan, 11 October: “I have no intention of being elected for a third
term,” the president of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic [NKR], Arkadiy
Gukasyan, said at a new conference in Stepanakert [Xankandi] today.
“I assure you that I have no intention of being re-elected for a third
term. Even if the constitution gives me that right in the future,
this does not mean at all that I will use this opportunity.
The norms of morality are as important to me as the norms of law. As
a man and the president, I have done everything possible for the
process of democratization in our society to become irreversible.
This has not always been easy. What is worth risking so much to
endanger the values our people stands by and cast a shadow on the
image of the NKR?” Gukasyan said.

AZERI MPS ASK FRANCE TO BE “SENSITIVE” WHEN DEBATING GENOCIDE BILL
ITV, Baku,
10 Oct 06
[Presenter] The Milli Maclis [Azerbaijani parliament] has voiced
concern about the Armenian genocide bill to be discussed at the
French parliament. The [Azerbaijani] MPs regarded the bill as an
attempt to violate human rights and freedoms and decided to appeal
to the French parliament.
[Passage omitted: MPs voice their attitude to the French bill]
[Correspondent] In the afternoon, the MPs adopted the appeal to the
French parliament.
[Deputy Speaker Bahar Muradova, reading the appeal at the rostrum] The
law that may be passed following the activity of various political
groups and ethnic lobbies, can only discredit the influence of
France, a country that has old democratic traditions. In addition,
[if passed] the law will call into question impartiality of France as
a co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group for the peaceful settlement of
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh. Therefore,
the Milli Maclis of the Azerbaijani Republic calls on colleagues at
the French parliament to be careful and sensitive when debating the
mentioned issue.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress