EN GARDE! BELIEN VS. PETERS

Pajamas Media, CA
Politics Central
Nov 28 2006

When we read Ralph Peters’ NY Post column last Sunday – The ‘Eurabia’
Myth: Muslims Take Over Europe? Sorry, There’s No Chance – we at
Pajamas Media thought Peters’ ideas were a good subject for debate.

And we could think of no one better to do it than Paul Belien of The
Brussels Journal. Belien accepted our invitation and he did such a
good job we decided his riposte would be the start of a series of
such responses on PJM. EN GARDE, Mr. Peters!

* * *

Ralph Peters’ latest book "Never Quit the Fight" proposes a map of
how America should redraw the borders in the Middle East. This enraged
many Muslims.

Perhaps, having enraged Middle East Muslims, Peters, a retired US
Army intelligence officer, thought it was about time to restore the
balance and enrage non-Muslim Europeans.

Last Sunday he published an op-ed piece in the New York Post, entitled
The ‘Eurabia’ Myth: Muslims Take Over Europe? Sorry, There’s No Chance.

Peters’ argument is that Muslim immigrants will never be able to
conquer Europe because the Europeans are "world-champion haters"
who will never let "impoverished Muslim immigrants" take over
their societies. On the contrary, Peters asserts, the "continent
that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing" will "over-react with
stunning ferocity." Europeans, Peters reminds us, "are just better
[than Muslims] at the extermination process. […] It’s the difference
between the messy Turkish execution of the Armenian genocide and the
industrial efficiency of the Holocaust. Hey, when you love your work,
you get good at it."

Hence, "Europe’s Muslims will be lucky just to be deported," Peters
says. Fortunately for these Muslims, however, Peters is more than
willing to deploy the U.S. Army in Europe "to guarantee the safe
evacuation of Europe’s Muslims." He even invites a good number of
them to settle in America since the United States has such a good
track record with Muslim immigrants, who "have a higher income level
than our national average."

Ralph Peters’ diatribe against the Europeans reminds me of
those anti-American Europeans who accuse Americans of being the
"world-champions of genocide." To prove their point they invariably
refer to the plight of the American Indians, once the rulers from the
Redwood Forest to the New York Island, now exterminated and confined
to reservations. Though the number of people voicing such opinions is
growing in Europe I do not take their vicious arguments seriously. I
do not take Peters’ vicious anti-Europeanism seriously either, though
I have noticed that this type of American anti-Europeanism is growing
as well.

While visiting the US recently I met a conservative professor who
told me almost literally the same thing as Peters. He, too, said
that Europeans were ineradicably vicious, that hating others is in
their blood and that they can never be cured of their mass-murdering
impulse. He, too, said that, rather than taking native European
immigrants in, America should open its doors to Muslims, because
those people "can at least be respected while Europeans can only
be despised." He even added that the biggest mistake the U.S. made
during WWII was to nuke Japan instead of Europe.

I can understand why these conservatives have come to despise Europe.

They despise it because it refused to assist the U.S. in Iraq and
because it refuses to stand with Israel. They know well enough,
however, that the reason why European governments, such as that
of France, do not stand up against radical Muslim regimes in the
Middle East, such as Iran’s, is because these governments fear the
large minorities of Muslims within their own borders. In short, they
despise Europe because it has lost the will to fight for its own
survival. Nevertheless, they blame Europe for exactly the opposite
reason.

Their contempt has turned to hatred, which is understandable because
it is all too human, but it is nevertheless utterly wrong.

Those who despise Europeans for having lost their willingness to
fight back against Muslim arrogance are now accusing them of wanting
to exterminate the Muslims. Those who have come to hate the Europeans
are now saying that Europeans are "exacerbating fear and hatred."

They claim that Europeans are contemplating a second holocaust –
this time with the Muslims as their victims.

In their hatred for Europe some conservatives even seem to have begun
to embrace the Muslims. Stephens is prepared to invite the latter
to come to America, thus welcoming to the U.S. the cause of Europe’s
disease today. It is said that hatred makes people blind, and Peters’
article in America’s most conservative newspaper is the best example
of this.

As a European who loves America I belong to a minority. I edit an
online magazine The Brussels Journal which tries to rally the small
band of pro-American Europeans and warn America not to make the fatal
mistakes we have made in Europe.

I can assure you that "Eurabia" is real enough. We have received
threats from extremist muslims, we have been harassed by the
authorities. I was present when earlier this year a group of scholars
met in The Hague to discuss Eurabia. I saw how they had to do so
anonymously, under assumed names and under police protection.

Eurabia is not a myth. Eurabia is all too real.

We see how the inner cities and suburbs in various European countries
are degenerating into "no go" areas, where people get killed, where
the police no longer venture and where radical Muslims hold sway. The
French authorities have published a list of 751 "sensitive urban
areas," which are no longer under the control of the authorities and
which have become, as Daniel Pipes remarked, the "Dar al-Islam, the
place where Muslims rule." Almost 5 million people, or 8% of the French
population, live in these "sensitive urban areas." But, apparently,
there is hope, because here is Ralph Peters in The New York Post,
offering to have the U.S. intervene and evacuate the inhabitants
to America!

Americans do not realize how dramatic the situation is in Europe
today. The Europeans are running. Instead of fighting they are
leaving. They are leaving the cities for the countryside. In my
home town of Antwerp 5,000 immigrants move in every year while 4,000
Antwerpians move out. Many Dutch are leaving their highly urbanized
country for places such as rural Norway. Some are leaving Europe
altogether.

The Netherlands and Germany have more emigrants than immigrants today,
and in other countries, such as Belgium, Britain and Sweden the number
of emigrants is rising. These people are not driven by hatred, they
are driven by despair and the hope for a better future which they
realize their Eurabian home countries are no longer able to provide.

Paul Belien is editor of The Brussels Journal and an adjunct fellow
of the Hudson Institute.

eurabia_is_real_enough_unfortu.php

GHOSTS OF MASSACRED ARMENIANS COULD HAUNT TURKEY’S CHANCES To Join European Union
By Sherwood Ross

CounterCurrents.org, India
Nov 28 2006

Turkey’s bid to join the European Union could suffer by its refusal
to admit the genocide of its Armenian Christian population nearly a
century ago.

When European Union leaders meet in Brussels Dec. 14-15, the debate
to admit Turkey likely will hinge on, among other issues, its failure
to open its ports and airports to Cyprus, which opposes all talk of
membership. The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and France are cool to
admitting Turkey and are backing Cyprus.

Lingering in the background, though, will be the ghosts of the
Armenian genocide, a crime Turkey has denied at every turn and is still
"investigating" to this day.

As recently as March, 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
called for an "impartial study" into the genocide as if the facts of
the slaughter of a milion Armenians were ever in doubt.

When the "Young Turk" nationalists created the Republic of Turkey
after World War I, they refused to punish the perpetrators of the
1915 genocide. Mustapha Kemal formed a new government in 1920 that
forced the Allies to sign the Treaty of Lausanne, ceding Anatolia,
home of the Armenians, to Turkish control. Two years earlier Anatolia
had been parceled out to Italy and Greece after the Ottoman Empire’s
surrender to the Allies.

As author Elizabeth Kolbert put it in the November 6th The New Yorker,
"For the Turks to acknowledge the genocide would thus mean admitting
that their country was founded by war criminals and that its existence
depended on their crimes."

"Turkey has long sought to join the European Union, and, while a
history of genocide is clearly no barrier to membership, denying it
may be; several European governments have indicated that they will
oppose the country’s bid unless it acknowledges the crimes committed
against the Armenians."

So opposed is Turkey to discussion of the subject, when the
U.S. Congress sought a resolution in 2000 to memorialize the Armenian
genocide, Turkey threatened to refuse the U.S. use of its Incirlik
airbase and warned it might break off negotiations for the purchase
of $4.5-billion worth of Bell Textron attack helicopters.

President Clinton informed House Speaker /Dennis Hastert passage of the
resolution could "risk the lives" of Americans and that put an end to
the bill. Like his predecessor, President George Bush has bowed down
to Ankara’s wishes and issues Armenian Remembrance Day proclamations
"without ever quite acknowledging what it is that’s being remembered,"
The New Yorker points out.

The cover up denies Turkey’s historic victimization of some 2-million
Christian residents treated as second-class citizens by special
taxation, harassment, and extortion. After Sultan Abdulhamid II came
to power in 1876, he closed Armenian schools, tossed their teachers
in jail, organized Kurdish regiments to plague Armenian farmers and
even forbid mention of the word "Armenia" in newspapers and textbooks.

In the last decade of the 20th Century, Armenians were already being
slaughtered by the thousands but systematic extermination began April
24, 1915, with the arrest of 250 prominent Armenians in Istanbul. In
a purge anticipating Hitler’s slaughter of European Jewry, Armenians
were forced from their homes, the men led off to be tortured and
shot, the women and children shipped off to concentration camps in
the Syrian desert.

At the time, the U.S. consul in Aleppo wrote Washington, "So severe has
been the treatment that careful estimates place the number of survivors
at only 15 percent of those originally deported. On this basis the
number surviving even this far being less than 150,0000…there seems
to have been about 1,000,000 persons lost up to this date."

In our own time, the Turkish Historical Society published "Facts on
the Relocation of Armenians (1914-1918"). It claims the Armenians
were relocated during the war "as humanely as possible" to keep them
from aiding the Russian armies.

In 2005, Turkish Nobel Prize recipient Orhan Pamuk, was said to
have violated Section 301 of the Rurkish penal code for "insulting
Turkishness" in an interview he gave to a Swiss newspaper. "A million
Armenians were killed and nobody but me dares to talk about it,"
Pamuk said. Also, Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was brought up on a
like charge for having a fictional character in her "The Bastard of
Istanbul" discuss the genocide.

Fortunately for him, Turkish historian Tanar Akcam resides in
America. His new history, "A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide
and the Question of Turkish Responsibility"(Metropolitan) otherwise
probably would land him in jail.

As there are few nations that have not dabbled in a bit of genocide,
one wonders why Turkey persists in its denials? After all, genocide
is hardly a bar to UN admission or getting a loan from the World Bank.

Turkey has every right to membership in the same sordid club as Spain,
Great Britain, Belgium, Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, China,
and America. Why must it be so sensitive? Let them confess and sit
down with the other members to enjoy a good cup of strong coffee.

They’ll be made to feel right at home, as long as they don’t mention
Tibet, Iraq, Cambodia, the Congo, Chechnya, Timor, Darfur, Rwanda ad
nauseum. After all, there are ghosts everywhere.

Sherwood Ross is an American reporter and columnist.

ross291106.htm

ALARM AT CALL FOR ABOLISHMENT OF SWISS RACISM LAW
By Youri Hazanov

European Jewish Press, Belgium
Nov 28 2006

GENEVA (EJP)— The Democratic Union of the Centre, the right-wing
party that won a majority in the last Swiss elections, has proposed to
the abolishment of Switzerland’s anti-racist law, arguing it impedes
freedom of speech.

The Federation of the Swiss Jewish communities has expressed concern
after the declaration by Ueli Maurer, the Democratic Union’s leader and
previously Switzerland’s justice minister, and members of his party,
known as UDC.

The law was adopted on Jan. 1, 1995, and forbids any discrimination
against a person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity or
religion. It also mandates punishment for denying or attempting to
justify a genocide or crime against humanity, especially the Holocaust.

The UDC holds that the law is too abstract and that Swiss do not
understand what they can and cannot say in public. Maurer said his
party was fighting for freedom of speech in Switzerland, and that
everyone should have the right to express what they thought, even if
it was not right.

Moreover, the UDC charges that the law has encouraged a passive form
of racism. They say the penal law is not the best way to combat to
revisionism, and that more faith should be placed in people’s ability
to discern between right and wrong.

Still, others argue the law is not harsh enough.

Tobias Hirschi, a member of the extreme-right party PSN, was recently
acquitted by a Solothurn court after being charged for carrying a
banner with the slogan "Who directs the workers?" next to a Star of
David in a May 2005 demonstration.

Hirschi was accused of tapping into the Nazi ideology that led to
the Holocaust, but the judge ruled that although the banner was
anti-Semitic, there was no link to the Nazis. As such, it did not
violate the anti-racism law.

The debate on the law began after Swiss Minister of Justice Christophe
Blocher, a former UDC leader, declared during a visit to Turkey that
everyone has the right to an opinion and the right to express it,
and that the law should be abolished.

It was enacted in another case in 2005 after a July visit by Turkish
politician Dogu Perincek to Lausanne. Perincek denied a genocide of
Armenians by Turkey took place in 1915. The Swiss government, which
has officially recognized the genocide, charged him with negating it.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SWEDEN TO INVESTIGATE FINDING OF ASSYRIAN MASS GRAVES IN TURKEY
By Afram Barryakoub

Assyrian International News Agency
Nov 28 2006

(AINA) — The finding of a mass grave in south eastern Turkey,
believed to date from the 1915 genocide of Assyrians and Armenians,
and the Turkish government’s silence regarding the finding has prompted
a debate in the Swedish parliament on the matter.

It was on October 17 this year that villagers from Xirabebaba (Kuru)
in south eastern Turkey came across a mass grave when digging a grave
for one of their deceased. The villagers took pictures of the skulls
and bones in the mass grave before Turkish military came and blocked
the site. The villagers were certain that they had found remains of
victims of the 1915 genocide. The military personnel forbade the
villagers to tell anyone about the site and then closed it. Some
of the villagers chose not to follow the orders of the military and
told the story to a local newspaper who followed up on the story. As
soon as the military learned that someone has leaked this information
to the press, they pressed the villagers to give the names of those
responsible for this. Since then journalists trying to get near the
mass grave have been denied access by the military.

Turkey still denies that its Christian population of Assyrians (also
called Chaldeans and Syriacs), Greeks and Armenians were subjected
to genocides. That could explain why the Turkish state and most of
the Turkish media has remained silent about the finding. But now one
of Turkey’s most popular weekly magazines, Nokta, has highlighted the
mass grave finding with a cover story in the latest issue with the main
heading "Again acting the three monkeys – a mass grave was found one
month ago in Nusaybin and the jurisdiction, execution and legislation
bodies as well as the media are silent." The writer, Talin Suciyan,
accuses the Turkish state of turning a deaf ear to the mass grave
finding. "None of the three ‘powers’ of our democracy, legislation,
jurisdiction or execution made a move to deal with the issue. And when
the fourth power – the media – swept the bones under the carpet (the
Turkish) public remained completely unaware of the issue." she writes.

In fact, the only Turkish group that has reacted to the finding is
the Turkish Human Rights Association who sent an open letter to the
ministry of interior calling for an investigation into the matter.

The mass grave finding has yet to enter Turkish politics but in
Sweden the matter has stirred up a debate on the highest levels,
much due to the efforts of the Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Association
(ACSA). The news about the mass finding was distributed by Tidningarnas
Telegrambyrå (TT), Sweden’s top news agency and was thereafter
published in several Swedish media, including the two leading
morning papers Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Svenska Dagbladet (Svd). As
a result of the above the mass grave issue has now entered Swedish
politics as MP Hans Linde from the left party recently submitted an
interpellation to the Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, asking
for an independent commission of scientists and historians to examine
the findings. The foreign minister must now ask the foreign ministry
to launch an investigation into the matter before he can respond to
MP Hans Linde. The response of the foreign minister on this issue is
due to be presented on the 12 of December before parliament.

–Boundary_(ID_baVlMl4GNXomN7l5s+fPwA )–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIAN PRESIDENT MEETING IS HELD IN MINSK

Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 28 2006

The meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan began in Russia Embassy in Minsk, APA
reports.

First, the Foreign Ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and Vardan Oskanian,
Russia Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, OSCE Chairman-in-office Carl
de Guht, his representative Andrzey Kasprzyk, Russian co-chair Yuri
Merzlyakov took part in the meeting. Sergey Lavrov talked about
the importance of continuing talks on the settlement of Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. After that meeting the presidents had one by
on meeting. It should be noted that it is the third meeting held
between the presidents in 2006. First meeting took place in Rambuye
in February, the second in Bucharest in June. After the meeting the
president will return to Baku.

COEXISTENCE AMONG RELIGIONS IN ISFAHAN PROVES FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN IRAN

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
Nov 28 2006

Isfahan Governor General Seyed Morteza Bakhtiari here Tuesday said
that peaceful coexistence of Muslims and believers of other religions
in Isfahan is one of the prominent features of the city’s residents,
as is evident in all aspects of their lives and marks freedom of
religion in Iran.

He made the remark in a meeting with foreign guests from 15 countries
visiting Isfahan to attend the International Conference dubbed ‘The
Cultural Heritage Support in the Islamic World and Islamic Civilization
Role in Human Civilization’ (November 27-29).

"Despite unfair propaganda about lack of freedom of religion in Iran,
the Armenians residing in the city of Isfahan observe their religious
rites with full freedom.

"Many Isfahani Armenians were martyred during the Sacred Defense era
(1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war) and they are even represented in Majlis,"
he added.

Turning to the historical features and scientific background of the
city, the governor general noted that great scientists have been
raised in Isfahan and their works are being taught in universities
throughout the world.

"Besides, there are many prominent artists in Isfahan and the city
is considered as Iran’s hub of tourism on account of these artists,"
he added.

Head of Islamic Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization
(ISESCO) regional office in Tehran, Abbas Sadri, said that Isfahan has
a high capacity for cultural programs and that several international
conferences were held in the city in recent weeks.

"ISESCO programs marking the city’s designation as the cultural
capital of the world of Islam were conducted successfully and Isfahan
is expected to host more conferences in the coming months," he added.

The International Conference dubbed ‘The Cultural Heritage Support in
the Islamic World and Islamic Civilization Role in Human Civilization’
(November 27-29) opened at Isfahan’s Abbasi Hotel on Monday.

The event is attended by intellectuals from 18 countries. It has
been organized jointly by ISESCO and Iran’s Islamic Culture and
Communications Organization.

The three-day international conference aims to assess the current
status of cultural heritage in the world of Islam and predict the
prospect of cultural, economic and social development of Islamic
civilization.

ARMENIAN FORCES BROKE CEASE FIRE REGIME IN AGHDAM DISTRICT
Author: Sh. Jaliloghli

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Nov 28 2006

Units of Armenian Forces broken the cease fire regime again, Trend
Regional Correspondent reports. On November 27, the positions located
in the occupied Azerbaijani villages of Bash Garvand and Sarichali
of Azerbaijan, units of Armenian Forces subjected the Azerbaijani
positions located in the villages of Chiraghli and Chamanli to a
gun fire for ten minutes. The enemy was stifled with a back fire. No
casualties have been reported.

FOOTBALL FEDERATION OF ARMENIA PRESIDENT RUBEN HAYRAPETYAN

UEFA, Switzerland
Nov 28 2006

The Football Federation of Armenia has held its fifth presidential
election, with the incumbent Ruben Hayrapetyan winning a second
four-year term in office.

Armenia’s football future
The 43-year-old Hayrapetyan, the only candidate in the federation’s
first uncontested election, said: "I am happy I could win your trust –
the fact we had only one candidate shows that nobody else wanted to
take on the task of plotting a future for football in Armenia. I will
do my best to continue our development."

Youthful promise
When Hayrapetyan took the post in 2002, there were only 2,000
associated young players in the country. Under his tutelage, the
Armenia Under-17 team has participated in the qualifying round for the
UEFA European U17 Championship, while the national U19s qualified for
the final tournament of their European Championship in Northern Ireland
in 2005. "These youngsters will eventually break into the senior team
and we will do our best to keep them progressing," Hayrapetyan said.

A REPRESENTATIVE OF AZERBAIJAN FOREIGN MINISTRY:
DURING ALL OF THE LAST CENTURY ARMENIA PURSUED ITS POLICY ON SEARCHING FOR AN EXTERNAL FOE
Author: A. Ismayilova

TREND, Azerbaijan
Nov 28 2006

"Turkey realizes better than any other country that Armenian policy
in the region has been built on an idea of searching for an external
enemy", Tahir Taghizadeh, Chief of The Press and Information Policy
Department of the Azerbaijan Foreign Office, told Trend commenting the
statement of Armenia Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan. Mr. Taghizadeh
said that at first this enemy was Turkey, then – Azerbaijan, and
finally GUAM".

The Armenian Foreign Minister lambasted Turkey state policy on denying
the Armenian Genocide, particularly, the fact that Turkey became a
more aggressive as the fact of the genocide was acknowledged by an
increasing number of countries. "Turks have never be so organized on
the state level to carry out the denying policy", said Mr. Oskanyan. He
admitted that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was a serious barrier for
establishing relations with Ankara, and said that "Ankara undisputed
solidarity with Azerbaijan is working against Turkey itself, since
the trust to this country in the Caucasus is under threat, as well
as its claims on the role of a bridge between the East and the West".

Mr. Taghizadeh also said that Turkey position in the regional
development issues, particularly, in the development of bilateral
relations with Armenia was dictated by Turkey principal position to
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict based on norms and principles of
the international law, and Azerbaijan has always appreciated it.

Regarding that part of the statement where parallels between
Nagorno-Karabakh and Cyprus were exemplified, Mr. Taghizadeh said
that such parallel is absurd. The case of Nagorno-Karabakh is a direct
aggression of one state against another, and the internal element is
minimal, i.e. the role of the Karabakh Armenians.

Secondly, these two cases are differed from each other with the fact
that the Karabakh Armenians together with Armenian Forces had carried
out an efficient ethnic clearing out not only on the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, but also on the Azerbaijani bordering territories.

Moreover, this clearing out was not only an ethnic one, but also a
culture one", said Mr. Taghizadeh.

Having agreed that Cyprus and Armenia see obstacles on Turkey way
to EU, Mr. Oskanyan refuted an opinion that these two countries
were working against Turkey. "We actually have common issues, that
have been discussed by us, but we are not about to unite our efforts
against somebody", said the Armenian Foreign Minister.

For his part, Mr. Taghizadeh said that if the last words of the
Armenian Foreign Minister corresponded with the real policy of official
Yerevan, then this position may be only welcomed.

AZERBAIJANI ANSWER TO OIL GLUT: BATHE IN IT
By Andrew E. Kramer

International Herald Tribune, France
Nov 28 2006

NAFTALAN, Azerbaijan: Outside this improbable spa in a remote part
of the former Soviet Union, oil rigs bob on a hardscrabble plain of
rocks, shrubs and rusting industrial equipment that could easily pass
for a stretch of West Texas.

Inside, Ramil Mutukhov, a lanky 25- year-old, prepares to be pampered
and preened, scrubbed and peeled in a bath of pure crude oil. He
undresses, hangs his trousers and sweatshirt on a peg, pulls off socks
and underwear and folds up a wad of brown paper towels. He will need
those later.

Then he steps into a mess of what looks, smells and flows like used
engine oil. "It’s wonderful," he said, up to his neck in oil in a
sort of human lube job.

The petroleum spas of Naftalan in central Azerbaijan, one of the
little- known but once wildly popular vacation spots of the Soviet
Union, are having an unlikely revival in a country so awash in oil
that people are literally swimming in it.

Here in Naftalan, visitors bathe once a day in the local crude. They
say, and doctors here support them in the claim, that it relieves
joint pain, cures psoriasis, calms nerves and beautifies the skin –
never mind that Western experts say the practice may be carcinogenic.

Hoping to tap into the worldwide spa boom, Health Center, where
Mutukhov took a dip in crude recently, opened a year ago. Another
spa is under construction and two more are planned.

"Two years ago, all this was ruins," said Ilgar Guseynov, owner and
director of Health Center. "Every day, every month, Azerbaijan is
growing richer."

At their peak in the 1980s, Naftalan spas drew 75,000 visitors a
year. That flow became a trickle after war broke out between Azerbaijan
and ethnic Armenians in nearby Karabakh, in 1988, and with trips to
the spas no longer free under the Soviet vacation bureaucracy.

Five of the six Soviet-era resorts were converted into glum housing
for refugees, for example.

But this summer, 350 or so people visited the Health Center, according
to Guseynov. That was up from 250 last summer. A 15-day course costs
$450, including meals.

"Azerbaijan is standing on its own feet now," Amir Aslan, deputy
mayor of Naftalan, said in an interview. The town is banking on growth
in oil-spa demand, which he said would pull this dusty place out of
poverty. Aslan has his own project for a $3 million, 20-bath spread
and is looking for investors.

In her office overlooking the oil field that supplies Health Center,
Gyultikin Suleymanova, the head doctor, said that the local crude is
unusual because it contains little natural gasoline or other lighter
fractions of petroleum and is thus safe.

Naftalan crude is about 50 percent naphthalene, an ingredient best
known as the stuff of mothballs. It is also an active ingredient in
coal-tar soaps, which are used by dermatologists to treat psoriasis,
though in lower concentrations.

Authorities like the U.S. National Institutes of Health classify coal
tar as a possible carcinogenic. Suleymanova says it is not a carcinogen
when you bathe in it. The baths are lukewarm and last 10 minutes.

The therapeutic benefits come from natural antibiotic agents that
seep into the skin, Suleymanova said.

Arzu Mirzeyev is the bath master. With a green frock, jeans stained
with oil spots and a mustache, he looks for all the world like a
gasoline station attendant and he has a job to match. He changes
the oil.

Each bath uses about a barrel of crude, which is recycled back into a
communal tank for future bathers. Mirzeyev also uses paper towels to
wipe bathers clean, a long, hard process that involves several showers.

Mirzeyev said he liked his job.

Until Azerbaijan’s economy picked up in the past two years, the
40-year-old father of three worked seasonally as a laborer in Ukraine,
where wages were higher. At the spa, he said, "If we have visitors,
then we have work."

Unlike the oil from Azerbaijan’s offshore deposits, which is sold
internationally under the brand Azeri Light crude, Naftalan oil is
too heavy to have much commercial value. Luckily, as most of the bath
attendants and patients seemed to smoke, it does not catch fire easily.

The resort has 10 tubs, 5 for women, 5 for men. The tubs are not
scoured between baths. As might be expected, they have perhaps the
world’s worst bathtub rings – greasy and greenish-brown.

Oil has been Azerbaijan’s ticket for a long time. Oil seepages have
been here since at least the 13th century, when Marco Polo passed
through and took note of the place. A reedy marsh, about the size of
a football field, has a black film of oil on the water. The site was
a caravansary on the Silk Road to China.

Later, Azerbaijan’s larger oil reserves on the Caspian coast were
developed by the Nobel brothers of Sweden.