AZERBAIJANI MEDIA SUFFERS BLOW
A1+
[05:35 pm] 07 October, 2006
Leading editor says he is being intimidated into silence. By Elshad
Guliev and Shahin Rzayev in Baku The founder and editor-in-chief of
the two most popular newspapers in Azerbaijan, Einulla Fatullayev,
says he is closing the two publications and abandoning journalism,
after he was given a suspended jail sentence by a Baku court.
On October 3, readers of the weekly Realny Azerbaijan and the daily
Gundelik Azerbaijan read the last combined issue of the papers in
which the editors bid farewell to their readers and said they were
shutting down because of pressure from the government.
On September 26, a district court in Baku gave Fatullayev a suspended
two-year jail sentence and a fine of 5,000 manats (5,650 US dollars)
and Realny Azerbaijan was fined twice that amount. Both were found
guilty of having “insulted the honour and dignity” of the interior
minister, Ramil Usubov. An article had alleged that Usubov must have
known about the mysterious criminal gang, headed by Haji Mamedov,
operating within the interior ministry for more than ten years –
and that therefore the minister was protecting them.
Both the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the
Council of Europe have long demanded that the Azerbaijani authorities
abolish articles 147 and 148 of the criminal code, which make a
journalist criminally responsible for defamation. However, changes
have not yet been made and journalists can still be put in prison
for their articles.
Azerbaijan has earned a low rating from international organisations
for the quality and freedom of its media recently. On October 4,
opposition journalist Sakit Zakhidov was given a three-year jail
sentence for alleged drug possession in a case which critics say was
politically motivated. This year another editor, Baheddin Haziev,
was abducted and beaten up, and other journalists have complained of
intimidation and physical violence.
The authorities made no official comment on Fatullayev’s sentence,
letting it speak for itself.
But it followed a sustained campaign against the editor over the past
year. He had been fined several times, condemned in the government
media, detained at Baku airport and was also beaten up by an unknown
assailant in the centre of Baku.
Last year, Elmar Husseinov, the former colleague of Fatullayev
and editor of Monitor magazine, was murdered in mysterious
circumstances. Fatullayev, a Monitor journalist, founded Realny
Azerbaijan shortly afterwards.
Immediately after the verdict, Fatullayev himself told IWPR, “Now I
have two ways out. I can either renounce Azerbaijani citizenship and
leave the country, because I have understood that after the murder of
Elmar Husseinov, they have chosen the policy of terror against us. Or
I can go to jail and be killed. Those are the alternatives for me.”
In the last few days, Fatullayev has not been contactable by
telephone and it was reported in the newspapers that he had fled
to the USA. However, Mamed Suleimanov, a colleague of Fatullayev,
said that he was still in Azerbaijan and had personally helped edit
the last edition of the newspaper, but “he is simply very tired and
therefore decided to switch off all his telephones”.
Realny Azerbaijan had become the best-read political publication
in Azerbaijan in a very short space of time, with a circulation of
30,000 copies. Its daily partner had a circulation of 11,000.
Ganimat Zakhidov, editor of the opposition newspaper Azadlyq,
was critical of Fatullayev’s decision. “These newspapers were
high-circulation and they did not experience financial problems,” he
wrote. “They say the reason for their closure was pressure from the
government. But if a journalist buckles under pressure and decides
to retreat I have a bad opinion of that.”
Eldar Namazov, a former government official who is also a regular
author in Realny Azerbaijan, said the two papers had been the “vanguard
of the fight against human rights abuses, falsification of elections
and other illegal actions. That is why these two papers came under
such great pressure. I hope that the closure will only be temporary.”
Another well-known Azerbaijani commentator Arif Yunus said the demise
of the titles was a result of a fight between two factions inside
government.
He said the newspapers were supported by one group, which included
National Security Minister Eldar Makhmudov and Emergencies Minister
Kamaladdin Heidarov – an allegation Fatullayev denied, although
his articles never criticised them. Opposing them was a group led
by interior minister and veteran presidential chief of staff Ramiz
Mekhtiev.
“I am of course against the criminal persecution of journalists
for their articles, but I think they should not have got so deeply
involved. Einulla Fatullayev and his newspapers had simply become
a pawn in the intra-clan power struggles and fell victim to them,”
said Yunus.
Pro-government political analyst Mubariz Akhmedoglu agreed that the
titles had been used by members of the elite to publish compromising
allegations about their competitors.
He said there were two possibilities, “Either one group turned out to
be stronger than the other and demanded the closure of this channel of
compromising allegations, or there was a truce between the two groups
and the group that was behind the newspapers voluntarily decided to
close them as a guarantee of the truce being observed.”
Akhmedoglu also speculated that Fatullayev might have plans to lay
the groundwork for an Azerbaijani “coloured revolution” as in Georgia
and Ukraine.
“Maybe the leaders of these newspapers want to attract attention to
themselves and soon come up with a big new project,” he said. “I think
Fatullayev may want to take on the role in the future of Georgia’s
Rustavi-2 or Ukraine’s Fifth Channel [which played key roles in the
revolutions in their respective countries].”
Aflatun Amashov, chairman of the Press Council of Azerbaijan, said the
news of the closures had been unexpected and he saw no reason for it,
“By law a newspaper can only be shut down by a decision of a court
and there was no question of this in the case of these newspapers. We
will watch closely how events develop.”
Elshad Guliev is a freelance journalist in Baku.
Shahin Rzayev is IWPR’s Azerbaijan Country Director.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting Caucasus Reporting Service
No. 360 04-Oct-06

TURKISH PM TO FRANCE: ‘WILL YOU ARREST ME IF I REJECT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CLAIMS?’
Journal of Turkish Weekly
Oct 8 2006
ISTANBUL and ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met
with French businessmen on Saturday to discuss the so-called Armenian
Genocide issue and continued to raise his objections against the
“Armenian Genocide” bill in France.
Erdogan said that as a third party France had no right to make
decisions over a war between two nations in the past, and added:
“How can this issue ever be relevant to France? Mind your own
business!”
Erdogan asked what France’s attitude would be if he, or one of his
ministers, rejected the alleged Armenian Genocide in France and
continued:
“Will you arrest us and send us to prison? Do you have the power to
do that?”
Erdogan said intimate relations between countries should not be
sacrificed for this kind of issue and added: “Turkey is not a tribal
country. You cannot conduct these kinds of operations concerning our
country. France has made a great mistake.”
The Turkish PM asserted this issue should be discussed by historians,
lawyers, art historians and scientists, and added there should be no
restrictions to discuss the issue.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY THREATENS SANCTIONS IF FRANCE ADOPTS GENOCIDE BILL
ZeeNews, India
Oct 8 2006
Ankara, Oct 08: France risks being barred from economic projects in
Turkey if it adopts a controversial bill on the massacres of Armenians
under the Ottoman Empire, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said
in remarks published on Sunday.
The draft law, to be debated in the French Parliament Thursday, calls
for five years in prison and a hefty fine for anyone who denies that
Armenians were the victim of a genocide during World War I.
“The information we have is that the adoption of the Bill is quite
a high possibility,” Gul told the largest-selling Hurriyet newspaper.
If the Bill is passed, he said, French participation in major
economic projects in Turkey, including the planned construction of a
nuclear plant for which the tender process is expected to soon begin,
will suffer.
“We will be absolutely unable to have (such cooperation) in big
tenders,” Gul said, adding that he had “openly” warned his French
counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy about the repercussions of the bill.
In remarks to the Yeni Safak newspaper, Gul said, “The government’s
reaction and the general reaction of the public will be inevitable
if the developments continue as they are.”
“The French will lose Turkey,” he said.
A senior lawmaker has warned that the Turkish Parliament may also
retaliate with a law branding as genocide the killings of Algerians
under French colonial rule and introducing prison terms for those
who deny it.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with representatives
of french companies doing business in Turkey, urging them to lobby
French lawmakers to vote down the bill.

DARCHINYAN CALLS OUT ARCE!!! FANTASTIC!!! CAN’T WAIT…IF IT HAPPENS.
SaddoBoxing.com
Oct 8 2006
Darchinyan calls out Arce

IBF and IBO flyweight champion, Armenian Vic Darchinyan, spoke briefly
after his win over Filipino Glenn Donaire.
“I couldn’t understand why it’s a technical decision,” he said at
the podium. “His corner stopped the fight he turned away.”
The powerful flyweight stated the he wanted to unify the titles at
112 lbs before moving up in weight, and that he is willing to fight
any belt-holder:
“I don’t have problem with my weight. I want to unify the belts at
112. If nobody wants to, I’ll do it at a different weight.
“I hope Arce stops running from me. I really want to fight him. I
respected him at first, and I liked the way he fought-that’s why
I wanted to fight him. But now, he runs, he talks a lot . . . but
that’s it.”
According to Gary Shaw, Donaire was unable to attend the post fight
press conference, as he had gone to the hospital for a possible
dislocated jaw. Shaw also gave his word to Darchinyan that he will,
in the near future, allow him to fight in his native Armenia.

TURK PM RAPS FRENCH GENOCIDE BILL, WARNS BUSINESSES
Reuters, UK
Oct 8 2006
ANKARA (Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has added his voice
to a growing chorus of Turkish protests over French plans to make it
a crime to deny that Armenians suffered “genocide” at the hands of
Ottoman Turks in World War One.
The French parliament is due to discuss the bill, proposed by the
Socialist opposition, on October 12.
Turkey strongly denies charges that some 1.5 million Armenians
perished at the hands of Ottoman Turks in a systematic genocide,
saying large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks
died in a partisan conflict raging at that time.
“What will you do when Turkey’s prime minister goes to France and
says ‘there was no Armenian genocide’? Are you going to put him in
prison?” the state Anatolian news agency quoted Erdogan as telling
a group of French businessmen in Istanbul.
“We expect you to expend every effort to prevent this (bill from
passing),” he told them.
“Our warnings should not be taken lightly. The seriousness of the
situation must be understood,” Erdogan added.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry and a group of Turkish lawmakers who visited
Paris last week have already said the draft bill will damage bilateral
economic and political ties.
Large French companies including Renault and Carrefour have large
investments in Turkey, which has a fast-growing economy and is a
candidate to join the European Union. Total bilateral trade amounted
to nearly 10 billion dollars in 2005.
Though the conservative majority in France’s parliament opposes the
bill, Turkey fears many opponents will not vote against it for fear of
upsetting France’s 400,000-strong Armenian diaspora ahead of elections
next year.
Last year, Erdogan proposed a joint commission of Turkish and
Armenian historians to examine what really happened during World War
One. Armenia did not accept the proposal.
Turkey began its EU entry talks last year, though is not expected to
join for many years.
Recognition of the Armenian “genocide” is not a condition of its EU
membership, though some EU politicians including French President
Jacques Chirac have suggested it should be.

HOLLAND: ETHNIC TURK MP CANDIDATE RECOGNIZED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
07.10.2006 13:25 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Nebahat Albayrak, in second position on the list
of the main opposition Labour Party (PvdA) candidates, has recognized
the Armenian genocide.
After the main Dutch parties removed three Turkish candidates from
their electoral lists, Albayrak said she backed the parliamentary
motion describing the deaths as genocide, in an interview with the
analysis magazine HP/De Tijd, adding that the form of its occurrence
needs to be investigated. Albayrak, who has served in the parliament
since 1998, in her previous statements said the jurists would determine
the use of “genocide” in response to the Armenian Diaspora’s claims,
and avoided using the definition in her interviews. The media strongly
criticized Albayrak for being indecisive. Meanwhile, Turkish candidates
Ayhan Tonca , Osman Elmaci (CDA) and Erdinc Sacan (PvdA) were removed
from the election list for the general elections, reports the Zaman.

‘THIS IS GOING TOO FAR, PARIS’
Hurriyet, Turkey
Oct 8 2006
Kenize Mourad, a French writer of Turkish origin who holds dual
French and Turkish citizenship and is a descendent of Sultan Murat
V, has written a manifesto calling on the French National Assembly
to re-address a bill that would make denying the so-called Armenian
Genocide a crime.
Mourad’s article, in which she says, “This initiative on the part of
the French Parliament is intellectual terrorism. They are the same
tactics employed by Stalin and Hitler”, continues as follows:
“It really is too much this time! Europe’s insolence and maliciousness
have reached their outer-most limits.
“But Turkey cannot buckle under European imposition any longer, even
if possible (although not certain) membership would be likely to be
beneficial to Turkey.
“An EU representative declared yesterday that Turkey was obliged to
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide as a precondition for membership
of the EU, and while they were at it, to acknowledge Greek Pontus
and Syrian genocides too.
“What many historians (not militant historians of course) tell us is
that, rather than simply acknowledging or not acknowledging Armenian
genocide, what we should do is read a lot, research, gather information
and discuss issues, showing tolerance towards others’ views.”

CHURCH REMAINS CENTRAL TO THEIR LIVES
By Susan Chaityn Lebovits
The Boston Globe
Oct 8 2006
When an earthquake killed 25,000 people and left 500,000 homeless in
Armenia in 1988, Thomas Babigian bought a ticket and flew to Spitak
to help rebuild.
“It was pretty gut-wrenching,” said Babigian, who was 28 at the time.
For five weeks, he worked 11-hour days erecting homes while living
in a tent. The trip was arranged through the Armenian Church Youth
Organization of America and the St. James Armenian Apostolic Church.
The Watertown church — now marking its 75th anniversary — has played
a pivotal role in Babigian’s life and that of the large Armenian
community in Boston’s western suburbs.
This year, Babigian, his twin brother, Peter, and younger brother,
Vasken, are spearheading the church’s annual bazaar, which takes
place next weekend.
Growing up in Waltham, the three brothers did not learn to speak
English until they were nearly 6 years old, although their parents,
Garabed and Joan, were Massachusetts natives.
“Our grandparents on both sides spoke only Armenian, so it was
important to all of us that we were able to communicate with them,”
said Peter, 46, who works in the machine manufacturing business and
lives in Waltham with his wife, Gloria, and their three children.
“I remember kids laughing at us and saying, `There are the Babigian
boys — they can’t speak English,’ ” said Vasken , a 38-year-old real
estate attorney in Watertown.
The brothers long ago shed their childhood embarrassment and are
grateful that they grew up steeped in their Armenian culture. Besides
their family, they say, they have St. James to thank.
With a community of 2,500 families, it is one of the largest Armenian
churches in the United States.
The brothers’ mother, who was raised in Watertown, has attended the
church for 70 years.
“At 17 and 18, when `normal kids’ wanted to go to the beach, I was
here trying to learn the service in Armenian,” said Peter. “It gave
me religious and traditional fulfillment.”
Soon after he was ordained a sub deacon and began singing in the choir,
which he still does. He is also the fifth-grade acolyte director.
Thomas, a mortgage broker who lives in Westford with his wife,
Linda, thinks nothing of making the half-hour commute to take their
6-year-old son to Sunday school at St. James. “I want to give him
the same experience, since it was so important to me,” he said.
The brothers share the same olive skin and big dark eyes. They also
share an energy level that might be mistaken for one espresso too
many, but it comes in handy as they oversee preparations for next
weekend’s bazaar.
It will feature traditional foods like bourma, a rolled phyllo dough
with nuts, and manti, Armenian ravioli filled with meat; a live
auction, where people can bid on a Caribbean cruise with Armenians
from around the nation; and, in honor of the anniversary, a raffle
prize of $7,500 .
The church is their second home, they say.
In advance of its 75th anniversary, the brothers and their families
donated a 7-foot gold cross that sits on top of the church. Created
at SRP Sign Corp. in Waltham, it is constructed of cast aluminum with
23 -karat gold leafing. It took six months to make and was consecrated
and erected in 2004.
Vasken and his wife, Christina, are expecting their first child. They
plan to teach the baby to speak Armenian and English.
The St. James Church Bazaar is 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
For more on the church, visit sthagop.com.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A TASTE OF THE WORLD IN THE SCV
By Rachel Stern
Signal Staff Writer
The Signal, CA
Oct 8 2006
[parts omitted]
Zohrab Getikian of Valencia, who opened the Hayk International Market
just four months ago, saw the opportunity that the SCV presented
for an ethnic-style deli and sandwich shop. Getikian, an Armenian,
opened his deli just four months ago because he knew from personal
experience that the area was ripe for what he had to offer.
“We don’t serve international foods per se,” Getikian said. “It’s a
deli. But we have specialties.”
These include mawst o chiar, a cool Persian yogurt and cucumber dip,
great for when it’s hot out; mawst oh mousir, another Persian yogurt
dip, this one with shallots; ehkra, a Russian eggplant dip; and the
by-now fairly common baba ghannoush, hummus and tabouli. Getikian also
takes special orders for pre-marinated kabob (Armenian/Persian grilled
chicken and beef, ground and filet), but you had better be hungry –
his minimum order is 10 pounds.
In addition to the sandwiches and the above-mentioned delicacies,
Getikian stocks a large number of packaged foods from Persia, Russia
and Eastern Europe.
“A lot of Armenians, Persians and others have moved here from the
valley and from L.A.,” said Getikian. “And they had to go all the
way back into the valley to get groceries. Me too.”
It was a underserved market, he said. Like the man in the movie said,
“If you build it, they will come.” And they did.
“I have so many people coming in,” said Getikian. “And not just
ethnics. Americans, too.”
Iranian born Houmayan Daryani started feeding the same need four
years ago, opening Mom and Pop’s Deli and International Market. He
now boasts a client base of happily sated Persian, Israeli, Arab, and
Turkish and Armenian expatriates. Houmayan’s specialty is produce – his
tiny store is stuffed to the gills with fruits that are hard to find
outside of the Middle East including fresh dates, Persian pistachios,
sour grapes, and a kind of sweet lemon he says is especially good if
you have a summer cold. And he’s very particular about quality.
“My produce is unlike anything you get in the stores here,” said
Houmayan.
He also carries spices, a variety of coffees, ethnic dairy products
and preserves and pastes made of unconventional ingredients like
walnuts and watermelons.
splaystory&story_id=33337&format=html

IRAQ’S BELEAGUERED BELIEVERS
By Charles Tannock
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX
Oct 8 2006
The world is consumed by fears that Iraq is degenerating into a civil
war among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But in this looming war of all
against all, it is Iraq’s small community of Assyrian Christians that
is at risk of annihilation.
Iraq’s Christian communities are among the world’s most ancient,
practicing their faith in Mesopotamia almost since the time of
Christ. The Assyrian Apostolic Church, for instance, traces its
foundation back to A.D. 34 and St. Peter. Likewise, the Assyrian Church
of the East dates to A.D. 33 and St. Thomas. The Aramaic that many
of Iraq’s Christians still speak is the language of those apostles —
and of Christ.
When tolerated by their Muslim rulers, Assyrian Christians contributed
much to the societies in which they lived. Their scholars helped usher
in the “Golden Age” of the Arab world by translating important works
into Arabic from Greek and Syriac.
But in recent times, toleration has scarcely existed. In the Armenian
Genocide of 1914-1918, 750,000 Assyrians — roughly two-thirds of
their number — were massacred by the Ottoman Turks with the help of
the Kurds.
Under the Iraqi Hashemite monarchy, the Assyrians faced persecution
for co-operating with the British during the First World War. Many
fled to the West, among them the church’s patriarch.
During Saddam Hussein’s wars with the Kurds, hundreds of Assyrian
villages were destroyed, their inhabitants rendered homeless, and
dozens of ancient churches were bombed. The teaching of the Syriac
language was prohibited, and Assyrians were forced to give their
children Arabic names in an effort to undermine their Christian
identity. Those who wished to hold government jobs had to declare
Arab ethnicity.
In 1987, the Iraqi census listed 1.4 million Christians. Today,
600,000 to 800,000 remain in the country, most on the Nineveh plain.
As many as 60,000, and perhaps even more, have fled since the beginning
of the insurgency that followed the United States-led invasion in
2003. Their exodus accelerated in August 2004, after the start of the
terrorist bombing campaign against Christian churches by Islamists who
accuse them of collaboration with the allies by virtue of their faith.
A recent U.N. report states that religious minorities in Iraq “have
become the regular victims of discrimination, harassment, and,
at times, persecution, with incidents ranging from intimidation to
murder,” and that “members of the Christian minority appear to be
particularly targeted.”
Indeed, there are widespread reports of Christians fleeing the
country as a result of threats to their women for not adhering to
strict Islamic dress codes. Christian women are said to have had
acid thrown in their faces. Some have been killed for wearing jeans
or not wearing the veil.
This type of violence is particularly acute near Mosul. High-ranking
clergy there claim that priests in Iraq can no longer wear clerical
robes in public for fear of being attacked by Islamists.
In January, coordinated car-bomb attacks were carried out on six
churches in Baghdad and Kirkuk. On another occasion, six churches were
bombed simultaneously in Baghdad and Mosul. During the past two years,
27 Assyrian churches have reportedly been attacked because they were
Christian places of worship.
These attacks go beyond targeting physical manifestations of the
faith. Christian-owned small businesses, particularly those selling
alcohol, have been attacked, and many shopkeepers murdered. The
director of the Iraqi Museum, Donny George, a respected Assyrian,
says that he was forced to flee Iraq to Syria in fear of his life and
that Islamic fundamentalists obstructed all of his work that was not
focused on Islamic artifacts.
Assyrian leaders also complain of deliberate discrimination in the
January 2005 elections. In some cases, they claim, ballot boxes did
not arrive in Assyrian towns and villages, voting officials failed to
show up, or ballot boxes were stolen. They also cite the intimidating
presence of Kurdish militia and secret police near polling stations.
Recently, however, there are signs that Iraqi Kurdish authorities
are being more protective of their Christian communities.
Sadly, the plight of Iraq’s Christians is not an isolated one in the
Middle East. In Iran, the population as a whole has nearly doubled
since the 1979 revolution. But under a hostile regime, the number of
Christians in the country has fallen from about 300,000 to 100,000.
In 1948, Christians accounted for about 20 percent of the
population of what was then Palestine. Since then, their numbers
have roughly halved. In Egypt, emigration among Coptic Christians
is disproportionately high. Many convert to Islam under pressure,
and during the past few years, violence perpetrated against the
Christian community has taken many lives.
The persecution of these ancient and unique Christian communities,
in Iraq and in the Middle East as a whole, is deeply disturbing.
In April, the European Parliament voted virtually unanimously for
the Assyrians to be allowed to establish (on the basis of Section 5
of the Iraqi Constitution) a federal region where they can be free
from outside interference to practice their own way of life.
It is high time now that the West paid more attention, and took
forceful action to secure the future of Iraq’s embattled Christians.
Charles Tannock is vice president of the Human Rights Subcommittee of
the European Parliament and UK Conservative foreign affairs spokesman.
Charles Tannock wrote this essay for Project Syndicate in Prague,
Czech Republic.