MANY IMMIGRANTS CHOSE MAINE A CENTURY AGO
By Wayne Reilly
Bangor Daily News, MAINE
Oct 23 2006
In September 1906, a young girl named Mantoria George disappeared
near her home at 192 Hancock St. in Bangor. Her father, Maron George,
a dry goods and peddlers supply dealer, spent a week checking reports
his daughter had been seen in South Brewer and Old Town. A neighbor
girl claimed to have seen the 13-year-old on the railroad tracks by
the lumber docks with two men, one of whom had offered her a dress
if she would go away with him.
The George family was part of the nation’s rapidly growing population
of immigrants. Seventeen percent of Bangor’s population was
foreign-born, according to the 1910 census, while another 23 percent
had at least one foreign-born parent. Nearly half were English-speaking
Canadians. But if you walked through downtown Bangor, you were apt
to see a colorful array of Russians, Italians, Turks, Armenians,
Scandinavians, French-Canadians, Germans and other groups speaking
an exotic mix of tongues. Six Chinese laundries were listed in the
city directory.
In an era when theories of ethnic superiority were popular, there
were desirable and undesirable immigrants. The newspapers were not
shy about expressing the prevailing stereotypes. Not surprisingly,
the good immigrants were the ones who acted most like native Mainers.
Maron George, a member of Bangor’s “Syrian colony,” was one of the
respected immigrants. He had “lived in Bangor for 14 years and is
a good citizen. When he came from his native country, he had very
little, but by dint of saving the small sums which he earned he
gradually became more comfortably off and was able eventually to
buy his store. He is known and trusted in Bangor, and is one of the
influential men in the Syrian colony in this city,” wrote a Bangor
Daily Commercial reporter on Sept. 24, nearly a week after Mantoria’s
disappearance.
The Bangor Daily News didn’t hesitate about identifying some of
the undesirable immigrants in an intemperate editorial titled “The
Persistent Peddler.” Peddlers were a plague across the landscape,
bothering farmers, selling “mainly cheap and trashy” items. “The
sum total of service which they perform for mankind is very slight,”
sniffed the editorial writer on Aug. 24, 1905.
“Nine out of ten are not Americans. One half of them have no more than
a smattering of the English language. The men have no intention of
becoming citizens,” complained the writer. Mostly, he was referring to
“Arabians” and Armenians. These two groups were “grasping” and often
dishonest. On the other hand, Jewish peddlers, of which there were
also many, were “honorable” and kept their word, no matter how poor;
they were “square” and “responsible for their acts,” although some were
“oversharp in driving bargains.” Many had already become citizens.
This tirade provoked a response from an “Arabian” businessman who
had begun his career in America as a peddler and was now “a popular
and successful merchant in a busy Down East town.” He wrote, “As a
matter of fact the average peddler of Armenian or Arabian descent
possesses as high ideals of right and wrong as does the average man
or woman of any other race.”
Nearly a year later, on July 13, 1906, the Bangor Daily Commercial
endorsed Scandinavian immigrants. Hundreds of Swedes had settled
farms in several communities in Aroostook County several decades
before, and many Swedes, Norwegians, Finns and Danes had settled in
other parts of the state since then. “No class of immigrants in this
country rank higher in intelligence, industry, thrift, public spirit
and in all the elements of good citizenship than those who come from
the Scandinavian peninsula,” according to the editorial.
It was the Italians, however, who provoked the greatest muddle of
responses. Worshiped for their willingness to do hard, dirty work,
ridiculed for their habits and appearance and condemned for their
tendency to strike or riot if working and living conditions were not
to their liking, their presence was a godsend to many communities. It
was the Italian work forces recruited in New York and Boston that
built many of the state’s railroads, paper mills, water systems and
other major projects during this period.
A story in the Commercial on Aug. 6, 1906, however, warned that
Italians were growing scarce. The Irish labor pool had dried up long
ago. So had the Danes and Norwegians. “Neither love nor money will
hire the Yankees to do the work,” the writer lamented. One Augusta
contractor “believes that ultimately we will have to rely upon the
Chinese and import large numbers for this work.”
And what became of Mantoria George, the Syrian girl mentioned at
the top of this column? She was found in South Brewer a week after
her disappearance. She said she had run off with a girl named McCrea
who had $5 that they shared. They had stayed with some Italian men
one night and then alone in some fields under the open sky and in a
small shed, buying food with the money.
Mr. and Mrs. George wanted nothing more to do with Mantoria. They
signed papers turning her over to the state industrial school for
girls in Hallowell. Mantoria had run off before and lived with some
Italians all night and she had been known to steal, said her father.
“Mr. George says that under his religion when a girl leaves home
under such circumstances, she may not be taken back again, but must
be sent … to some orphanage to remain until she attains a certain
age,” reported the Commercial on Sept. 25. Whatever Maron George’s
religion might have been, he was acting like an American. Wild boys
and girls could be institutionalized for running away in America. No
one seemed to question Mantoria’s fate.

AZERBAIJAN DESERVES U.S. PUBLIC ATTENTION
By Jennifer Mishory – Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]
Derek Liu/Daily Bruin
The UCLA Daily Bruin, CA
Oct 23 2006
UC Irvine doctorate student Javid Huseynov spoke Saturday at a
conference for Azerbaijani youth.
When I decided that the first Azerbaijani-American Youth Conference
would be an interesting column topic, it was with the assumption that
most readers, like me, would struggle to spell its name and locate
it on a map.
Azerbaijan, a secular Muslim country located between Iran and
Russia, is a former Soviet satellite with a history of conflict with
neighboring Armenia. The population is ethnically Azeri; there are
also about 20-30 million Azeris living in Iran, while the population
of Azerbaijan itself is only 8 million.
Seemingly unknown to the multitude of students streaming in to the
dining halls below, the conference drew about 50 attendees, most of
them Azeri, and took place in Covel Commons on Saturday.
The conference was put on by the Azerbaijani American Council of
California.
Javid Huseynov, a doctorate student at UC Irvine, said the purpose
of the event was to strengthen ties between Azeri communities from
a variety of countries now residing in the United States. There are
400,000 Azeris in the United States, with over 100,000 of those living
in California, he said.
With Russia trying to strengthen its hold on the region and
American-Iranian relations becoming more tense everyday, our relations
with their neighbor, Azerbaijan, will be important. It is a chance
to secure friendship and promote democratic values in a country that
has both ties to a large population of Iran and huge oil reserves.
The Azeri population in Iran has nationalistic tendencies, and recently
they have staged protests due to the economic situation in the region,
said journalist Abolfazl Bahadori.
Bahadori is a graphic designer who works part-time for Radio Liberty,
a U.S.-sponsored radio station based in Prague that broadcasts to
Azerbaijan. He reports specifically about the Azeri population in Iran.
There are no U.S.-backed radio stations broadcasting to Iran in
anything but Persian, perhaps missing an entire population that we
could be communicating with, he said.
With Azerbaijan’s key location and economic growth, I wondered why
there was not more interest in the conference outside of the Azeri
community. The only non-Azeris that I met were two Turkish USC students
hoping to demonstrate Turkish solidarity with Azerbaijan.
With few oil-rich democracies and fewer Muslim democracies, the U.S.
should show greater interest, and look to promote Azerbaijan’s
transition from Soviet satellite to a democratic nation.
International monitors of the 2005 election of President Ilham Aliyev
found the elections to be tainted by fraud.
Huseynov said because Azerbaijan only gained its independence fifteen
years ago, they are becoming democratic “in an evolutionary way.”
Because of their membership in the Council of Europe and other ties
with the west, “it is inevitable that they fall under European norms”
and become increasingly democratic, he said.
The U.S. already has strong economic ties with Azerbaijan. Their
newest oil pipeline spans 1100 miles and is a U.S.-backed project,
said Deputy Counsel General Elman Abdullayev.
For the U.S., Azerbaijan represents an opportunity to encourage
democracy in a primarily Muslim and oil-rich nation, a chance that
the U.S. must not let slip away.
For the average UCLA student, the Azerbaijani conference represents
the multitude of opportunities that exist right under our noses,
or in this case, right above our dining halls.

COMMUNITY PRIDE A KEY IN WARD 41
Nicholas Keung – Staff Reporter
Toronto Star, Canada
Oct 23 2006
Rooming house, parking violations seen as vital issues
Half of residents in Canada less than 15 years
Residents of Ward 41, Scarborough-Rouge River, are tired of uncut
lawns, garbage-strewn sidewalks and out-of-control street parking.
They point to a concern that has plagued the community for years:
the growing number of illegal rooming houses.
“The lawns are poorly maintained. There are so many cars on the
driveways and people just leave their junk on the sidewalks even
when it’s not on a collection day,” complained Valerie Plunkett,
a retired TV production assistant who has lived in the ward for 17
years and heads the 1,600-household Rosewood Taxpayers Association.
“And you don’t see any bylaw enforcement because we are so short of
bylaw-enforcement officers.”
Bounded by Steeles Ave., Highway 401, Markham and McCowan Rds. and the
CNR tracks to the west, Scarborough-Rouge has both a huge immigrant
community – nearly half the residents have been in Canada less than
15 years – and a higher median income and homeowner rate than Toronto
as a whole. More than half the residents are of Chinese heritage.
It’s no coincidence the three front-runners in a 10-person race for
the vacant council seat – long-time civil servant Hratch Aynedjian,
grassroots activist Chin Lee and former Etobicoke politician David
Robertson – tout community pride and ownership as key platform
points.Scarborough-Rouge, formerly held by Bas Balkissoon, is destined
to see one of the tightest races in its history on Nov. 13.
“It’s a wide open field,” noted Tom Chang, who has lived in the
Brimley Forest neighbourhood more than two decades. “With that many
candidates, the votes are going to split. Whoever manages to get 10
votes plus one is going to win.”
Media-savvy Aynedjian, 42, born in Lebanon of Armenian heritage,
has 16 years experience as a political assistant at city hall and
Queen’s Park. He said he’d prioritize the city budget to focus on
hardcore services such as maintaining infrastructure rather than
“soft” services like shelters. Tackling illegal rooming houses is a
top priority for him.
“Every other street in the ward has an illegal rooming house. The
problem is we’ve never had bylaws regulating it across the amalgamated
city.”
A Scarborough resident since 1979, he has drawn fire from opponents
for living outside Ward 41. He has promised to relocate if elected.
“That’s a big issue,” said long-time resident Clement Edwards.
“If someone is coming from outside, he or she may not know or even
care about the community.”
Lee, 53, who came here as a Malaysian in 1971, believes his grassroots
involvement with the local police liaison committee and other community
groups will serve him well.
“When I first moved into the ward 17 years ago, it was much cleaner,
better-kept. But the community seems to be falling apart, and we need
to work hard to build a more stable, strong and vibrant community,”
said Lee, who ran (unsuccessfully) for a Scarborough council seat in
1994 to keep the incumbent from being acclaimed.
“Some of the people living in rooming houses are newcomers. They don’t
know anything about property standards and bylaws. It’s not just about
enforcement. We need to do a better job in educating our newcomers.”
Robertson, 44, an Etobicoke councillor from 1978 to 1991, said he’s
upset with deteriorating recreation programs and would like to boost
immigrant-settlement services in the ward.
“We need to introduce a new property standards committee to strengthen
the city bylaws and enhance our neighbourhoods,” said Robertson,
who teaches English as a second language and ran unsuccessfully for
the NDP in Scarborough-Agincourt in the federal election.
While Lee and Aynedjian, both from the Liberal party, have pledged to
roll back the 9 per cent council pay hike awarded this year, Robertson
said he would donate the raise (minus inflation) to community groups.
Also running are Jose Baking, John Ching, Min Lee, Malcolm Mansfield,
Thadsha Navamanikkam, Scott Shi and Sonny Yeung.

FRANCE AND ARMENIAN ISSUE: TURKEY SHOULD REMAIN CALM
Prof. Dr. Beril Dedeoglu
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 23 2006
If the bill in France that makes it a crime to deny the so-called
Armenian genocide passes in the Senate and is approved by the
president, it will become an effective law.
Although it is probable that it won’t pass, the Senate and the
president won’t approve it, the heart of the matter doesn’t change.
In fact, perhaps the law’s waiting before the Senate, which is known
to be comprised of intelligent men who aren’t worried about elections,
and a president who doesn’t show much of a tendency to go beyond the
demands of society, can spark further serious tensions.
The probability of the law passing can become more important than
the law itself. In this state it can be used more consciously as a
vehicle for imposing action, and from Turkey’s perspective it will
serve as Democles’ sword.
First, we shouldn’t make the mistake of asking France questions as
long as the bill doesn’t become law.
The opposition Socialist Party is the architect of the bill and is
responsible for it. It is as meaningless to criticize all French
citizens for this bill as it is to leave all Turkish citizens under
genocide suspicion.
There is benefit in discussing the probabilities of what is happening
in France. It can be claimed that the bill is a tactic that will
cause Turkey to break off from the EU negotiations process. Perhaps
there are members of parliament from both the party in power and
the opposition who would approve such an understanding. In fact,
if the law leads to ending Turkey’s EU negotiations, there may be
others who would be very happy about it.
However, the tactic to drive Turkey away from the table can only
succeed if Turkey actually chooses to do this. In other words,
this points to a process tied to Turkey, not France. Actually, this
strengthens the hands of those in Turkey who, seeing it as their duty,
defend abandoning developments on the EU road and support efforts
for democratization. However, it is difficult to say that French
representatives had planned this. If France wants to drive Turkey
away from the European Union, it is already doing it with the Cyprus
problem. Besides, France will have several more opportunities to push
Turkey away during the negotiation process.
For the Votes of 400,000 Citizens
Another possibility that can be considered is barring the way of
any improvements in Turkish-Armenian relations. It can be said that
as long as Armenia’s isolation continues in the region and tensions
with Russia are increased, France remains Armenia’s only hope for
political breakthrough and France will protect Armenia because it is
its only avenue for activity in the Caucasus. The biggest weakness
of this possibility lies under the question of whom the tensions
between these countries harm the most. Just as preventing Armenia
from opening to the world will increase its political and economic
weakness, it will bring the problem of taking on more responsibility
before the Armenian Diaspora in France (it can’t be claimed that
there are serious contributions to the root country). In addition,
this kind of implementation that points to Armenia would nurture
radical movements that are fed by enemy politics, which, in turn,
support authoritarian structures. In this situation, those who don’t
want to be authoritarian would be negatively affected, rather than
authoritarians. This process would not benefit Armenian citizens and
would prevent Turkey from taking any possible steps toward Armenia.
We can assume the kind of results the Armenian Diaspora’s expectations
will yield. Armenians are continuing to organize in many regions of the
world. We know that genocide claims form the basis of the Diaspora’s
ethnic references and that it sometimes becomes more important than
those of the citizens of the country they live in.
While such a claim can sometimes have a positive effect on the status
of the people and a negative one, it also gives them political power.
It helps them to receive direct decisions and obtain the capacity to
influence processes. The Diaspora largely uses the positions they
have gained in the country to meet its expectations. The Armenian
Diaspora in France mainly supports the Socialist Party. Situations
like the Socialist Party being an opposition party, their loss to
an ultra-nationalist party in the last elections, and not being sure
about the vote potential of Segolene Royal, the female candidate they
brought out to oppose Sarkozy who is in the party in power as the
presidential elections approach, have led the party to increasingly
lean toward more aggressive policies.
It’s is unknown if there are still people who are surprised at the
socialist parties coming to the point of acting along the same lines
as the ultra-nationalist parties. However, as a result it is obvious
that the Socialist Party needs the votes of the estimated 400,000
Armenians living in France. In a similar way, the parties in power
need every vote they can get, strengthening the nationalist game.
Consequently, the administration doesn’t verbalize the meaninglessness
of the bill; on the contrary, it is said that if this policy gains
votes. If so, why should it fail? One of the reasons why certain
parties want these votes could be to turn the raison d’etre of the
Armenian Diaspora, which supports it, into law. Moreover, this effort
is a matter of urgency for the Diaspora, because Turkey has opened
a different door to approach the issue.
Turkey has announced that it is ready to “officially” open this issue
for discussion on an international level outside of state players and
has made progress to some extent. It is clear that the beginning of
discussion of the issue on an international basis in the fields of
science, politics or law will lead to the watering down of the claim
that genocide was perpetrated and the posing of the proposition in
many places throughout the world that maybe there was no genocide. In
this situation, there can be a weakening of the raw material within
the genocide claim from which it feeds.
For certain, the law related to the benefits of exploitation, which
was passed previously and is still being discussed, and the law
that counts the denial of genocide as a crime will continue to be
debated in France. It is also evident that even if this type of law
is a result of a political party presenting it to the parliament,
these subjects are not that contrary to general perceptions in France.
There is a broad, wide-spread and deep belief in France that there
was an Armenian genocide. When the Socialist Party puts this on the
agenda, there’s no great uproar. As communication increases among
societies, it’s possible for fixed opinions to change. There are
lessons here for Turkey. Instead of producing policies based on pushing
possibilities for communication among societies and drawing closer
through cooperation, looking for counterattack policies that encourage
introversion hasn’t provided Turkey with any permanent benefits
to date. If Turkey is a country that trusts its theses, documents,
philosophy and, most importantly, its system, it shouldn’t rush to
take harsh actions that can be seen as expressions of helplessness.
Professor Beril Dedeoglu – Galatasaray University Faculty Member

1956 HUNGARIAN UPRISING SAW BETRAYAL, MURDER OVER `TWELVE DAYS’
By George Walden
Bloomberg
Oct 23 2006
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) — It is tempting to make something of the
coincidence between the recent anti-government riots in Hungary and
Victor Sebestyen’s new account of the uprising against the Russians
in 1956, “Twelve Days: How the Hungarians Tried to Topple their Soviet
Masters,” but I will resist.
There is no connection between the Hungary of the communist dictator
Matyas Rakosi (“Stalin’s Best Pupil” in his own propaganda posters),
whose vicious regime led to the revolt, and today’s troubles, except
perhaps that Hungarians tend to be a spirited people.
Unlike in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere, Hungary had enjoyed a fledgling
democracy before the Soviet takeover in 1948, and as is so often the
case, the West was taken in: “an oasis of culture and liberty” was
the description of Hungary in these years by the British historian
Hugh Seton-Watson.
Perhaps the influence of writers and intellectuals helped make its
secret police, the AVO, the most brutal of Eastern Europe. From 1950
until the death of Stalin in 1953, over 10 percent of the country’s
10 million people were at some point arrested.
Sebestyen, a British journalist of Hungarian parentage, tells
the story of the tragic uprising with the drama it demands. There
are no simple villains, or heroes — there are only the Hungarian
people themselves. Imre Nagy, much admired in the West, emerges as a
complex figure: A genial man who earned public sympathy through his
land-distribution program, he had a record as a tough communist. Nor
did he place himself at the head of the revolt; he was pulled along
in its wake, to the point where he crossed the line by talking about
leaving the Warsaw Pact and holding free elections.
Intervention a Certainty
At that point, Soviet intervention became a certainty.
His replacement, Janos Kadar, began as a Soviet stooge and ended by
earning the grudging respect of many of his people. As a diplomat,
I once met him. His long, lugubrious face seemed marked by the
contradictions and contortions of his career: hard-line communist,
prisoner of the Rakosi regime, sympathizer with the 1956 uprising, then
the betrayer who urged a reluctant Khrushchev to hang his colleague
Nagy, and finally Hungarian leader, under whom hundreds of insurgents
were executed and thousands imprisoned.
Eventually Kadar presided over the gradual relaxation of the regime,
as it settled into the reformist model of “goulash communism” so
despised by Mao Tse-tung, whose spread would prove a key factor in
the great schism in the communist camp.
Khrushchev Vacillated
A large plus for this book is the new availability of official records,
so that we now know about Soviet reactions as the crisis unfolded. Like
Khrushchev himself, his men on the spot — the wily Armenian Anastas
Mikoyan and the Stalinist ideologue Mikhail Suslov — vacillated in
their assessments from day to day, though it did not take long to
decide that Rakosi had to go. And so Mikoyan told him that the Soviet
leadership had decided that he was ill, and needed treatment in Moscow.
All three were initially reluctant to use full-throttle violence,
and when Moscow did, killing 2,500 Hungarians, Mikoyan was violently
against it. The prize for unashamed mendacity and double-crossing
goes to the suave Yuri Andropov, then ambassador in Budapest, later
head of the KGB and briefly Soviet leader.
In retrospect it is surprising how far Khrushchev was prepared to
go in placating the insurgents, but in the end he became afraid he
would go down in history as the man who “lost” Hungary. There was
unrest in Poland and Romania, and Khrushchev was part of a collective
leadership whose diehards, like Vyacheslav Molotov (known as “stony
arse”), were waiting to trip him up.
Equally uncertain how to react was the U.S. President Eisenhower
who nevertheless emerges well. Though consistently skeptical about
Moscow’s intentions, he saw at once that a U.S. intervention, which
might have triggered world war, was out.
Appalling Brutalities
When the book cuts between Washington and Budapest, there is an odd
dissonance between descriptions of the appalling brutalities of the
regime, such as a minister of defense urinating in the mouth of a
tortured prisoner, and passages on U.S. internal politics implying
that anti-communism in the America was unjustified or excessive.
We could also have done with more about the effect of 1956 on the
world communist movement. Certainly it shook the faith of some, but
what is more remarkable is how many went on believing. The historian
Eric Hobsbawm continues, for example, to argue that communism was a
worthwhile experiment, yet he remains respected, in parts of academia
if nowhere else. Perhaps his admirers should read this book.
“Twelve Days: How the Hungarians Tried to Topple their Soviet Masters,”
is published in the U.K. by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, and in the U.S. by
Pantheon under the title “Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian
Revolution” (368 pages; 20 pounds, $26).
(George Walden is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed
are his own.)

TURKEY AND ISLAMISM: THE DEBATE
ThreatsWatch.Org
Oct 23 2006
The primary rubbing point between the United States and Turkey right
now is not related to radical Islam. Quite the opposite – it is related
to the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish terrorist
group which has taken refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. Yet as Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development
Party (known by its Turkish initials, the AKP) continue to dominate
Turkey’s political scene, there are rising concerns on both sides of
the Atlantic about the rise of Islamism in Turkey.
The two sides of this debate were on feature in two recent op-eds
in the Wall Street Journal. The first, Mr. Erdogan’s Turkey, Michael
Rubin, a Middle East scholar, argued that the AKP posed a threat to
Turkish democracy, and was slyly and slowly but steadily eroding the
country’s independent institutions. Rubin argues:
…Over the party’s four-year tenure, Mr. Erdogan has spoken of
democracy, tolerance and liberalism, but waged a slow and steady
assault on the system. He endorsed, for example, the dream of Turkey’s
secular elite to enter the European Union, but only to embrace
reforms diluting the checks and balances of military constitutional
enforcement…
The assault on the secular education system has been subtle but
effective. Traditionally, students had three choices: enroll at
religious academies (so-called Imam Hatips) and enter the clergy;
learn a trade at vocational schools; or matriculate at secular high
schools, attend university and pursue a career. Mr. Erdogan changed
the system: By equating Imam Hatip degrees with high-school degrees,
he enabled Islamist students to enter university and qualify for
government jobs without ever mastering Western fundamentals. He also
sought to bypass checks and balances. After the Higher Education
Board composed of university rectors rejected his demands to make
universities more welcoming of political Islam, the AKP-dominated
parliament proposed to establish 15 new universities. While Mr.
Erdogan told diplomats his goal was to promote education, Turkish
academics say the move would enable him to handpick rectors and swamp
the board with political henchmen…
Such tactics have become commonplace. At Mr. Erdogan’s insistence and
over the objections of many secularists, the AKP passed legislation
to lower the mandatory retirement age of technocrats. This could
mean replacement of nearly 4,000 out of 9,000 judges. Turks are
suspicious that the AKP seeks to curtail judicial independence. In
May 2005, AKP Parliamentary Speaker Bulent Arinc warned that the AKP
might abolish the constitutional court if its judges continued to
hamper its legislation. Mr. Erdogan’s refusal to implement Supreme
Court decisions levied against his government underline his contempt
for rule of law. Last May, in the heat of the AKP’s anti-judiciary
rhetoric, an Islamist lawyer protesting the head scarf ban shouted
“Allahu Akbar,” opened fire in the Supreme Court and murdered a
judge. Thousands attended his funeral, chanting pro-secular slogans.
Mr. Erdogan was absent from the ceremony.
There have been other subtle changes. Mr. Erdogan has replaced nearly
every member of the banking regulatory board with officials from the
Islamic banking sector. Accusations of Saudi capital subsidizing AKP
are rampant…
Rubin also takes aim at U.S. diplomacy, noting that U.S. Ambassador
Ross Wilson has publicly taken the side of the AKP against its secular
political opponents, describing domestic criticism of Erdogan’s
Islamist policies as “political cacophony.”
Matthew Kaminski, a member of the Journal’s editorial board, took the
opposite point of view (although without criticizing Rubin by name).
Writing in Turkish Tiger: Freedom Thrives Even Under an ‘Islamist’
Government, Kaminski argues:
…The recent troubling news here, from Kurdish terrorism to the rise
of political Islam and anti-Americanism to tensions with Europe, can’t
take away from Turkey’s economic renaissance. New and old industries
powered a 7% expansion in 2005, the fourth consecutive year that growth
approached double digits; this year, it’ll be around 5%. Inflation,
an old Turkish non-delight, is under control. Inside the European
Union’s free-trade area since 1996, Turkey has done especially well
with export-driven manufacturing. More than half of Europe’s television
sets are made here. Investors are taking notice; Citigroup last week
bought 20% of the third-largest bank for $3.1 billion. Though the
economic gap with Europe remains wide, Turks are spending their way
to bourgeois respectability, buying, in the past year, $3.5 billion in
imported cars. Consumer loans are up 120% in that time, housing 300%…
The good times have made for a richer civil society. Since the last
military-led regime in 1980-83, notes author Hugh Pope, 27 private
universities have been founded, mostly courtesy of tycoons like the
Koc and Sabanci families. Sabanci University’s art gallery last year
put on a popular Picasso exhibit, a first in Istanbul; Rodin followed
this summer. Associations and lobby groups are mushrooming; they are
giving voice to competing interests and providing counterweights to
the Islamists in charge, even as opposition parties remain weak.
Turkish democracy has never been stronger…
While Turkey continues “talks” with European governments about
entering the European Union, that prospect is all but dead. The
major governments remain in support, but across Europe the publics
are opposed, and their governments are starting to bend. Recently
the French parliament passed the first reading of a bill that would
make it a crime punishable by prison to deny that the Turks committed
genocide against the Armenians in the First World War. As this is in
fact denied by virtually all Turks, not simply the nationalists, many
very mainstream Turkish public figures would be inviting prosecution
by travel to France if the bill becomes law. While such a law would
serve no practical purpose for France, it would ensure that Turks
know they are not welcome.
No, the real issue is whether or not Turkey will maintain its
democratic institutions, or else make a U-turn toward history. There
is no need to assume a choice between extremes; there is a middle
ground in which Turkey could stay outside the EU, but maintain strong
economic, military and diplomatic ties with the West, and be a force
for peace and a non-threatening current of Islam. Yet that middle
ground cannot be assumed, either.
0/turkey-and-islamism-the-debate/

PYUNIK WALTZ TO ARMENIAN TITLE
by Khachik Chakhoyan
UEFA, Switzerland
Oct 23 2006
FC Pyunik coasted to a sixth consecutive Armenian Premier League title
in some style as an overwhelming 12-1 victory against FC Kilikia saw
them build an unassailable 14-point lead atop the table with three
matches remaining.
Blistering start
Samvel Petrosyan’s side went into the weekend’s fixtures eleven
points clear of FC Banants, and as their nearest rivals were slipping
to a 1-0 defeat by FC MIKA, Pyunik underlined their dominance with
an overwhelming performance. Levon Pachajyan set the tone as early
as the second minute and by the quarter-hour further strikes from
Tigran Gharabaghtsyan, Armen Tigranyan and Arsen Avetisyan had left
the champions four goals to the good.
Captain’s seal
Avetisyan went on to add another, while Gharabaghtsyan completed his
hat-trick as Kilikia struggled to stem the flow. Rafael Nazaryan,
Agvan Lazarian, Valeri Aleksanyan and Artur Stepanyan also added
their names to the scoresheet before captain Sargis Hovsepyan made
it 12 with 15 minutes remaining. Kilikia pulled one back late on but
it failed to take the gloss off a masterful performance as Pyunik
claimed their ninth title since Armenian independence in 1992. It
secures a place in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round.

ARMENIAN SHOT DEAD IN SAINT PETERSBURG
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2006 13:04 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Native of Armenia, resident of Belgorod oblast,
46-year-old Henrik Vardapeytan was shot dead in Saint Petersburg. The
investigators identified that the killed was a Russian citizen and
resided in a rented a flat in Olga Forsh street for some 4 years and
was engaged in building. The man was coming back from a shop and
witnesses say that two assassins were waiting for Vardapetyan for
rather a long time. The killers fired three shots.
The body was found yesterday in Forsh street at 5.50 p.m. A pistol
TT and a package with an iron stick wrapped in insulation tape was
found near the site.
Other sources say it was a bunch of flowers with a stick hidden in it.
The investigators found some notes in the pockets of the killed that
were supposedly sent by a prisoner. A criminal case was initiated
in compliance with Article 105 of the RF Criminal Code, reports
NEWSru.com.

KOCHARIAN SATISFIED WITH ARMENIA-BELARUS RELATIONS
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2006 13:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today Armenian President Robert Kocharian met with
Belarusian Prime Minister Sergey Sidorsky, reported the RA leader’s
press office.
Robert Kocharian expressed satisfaction with the development
of relations between the two states and remarked that the visit
will contribute to further cooperation. The parties discussed the
Armenian-Belarusian economic relations and marked out cooperation in
information technologies, jewelry and agriculture as a perspective
line. Besides, they exchanged views on the economic policy of Armenia
and Belarus.

TURKISH NATIONALISTS PROTEST FRENCH BILL ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.10.2006 13:52 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Despite the prohibition of the Police some 100
Turkish ultra-nationalists by initiative of the Talaat Pasha Committee
gathered on October 21 on the steps of Opera Bastille in Paris shouting
out hostile slogans addressed to Armenians.
On arriving in great number on the spot, the policemen constrained the
demonstrators to dissolve the gathering, independent French journalist
Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net. Moreover, on October 16 Ara Toranian,
editor of the “Nouvelles d’Armenie Magazine” (News of Armenia) and
Mourad Papazian, chairman of French branch of ARF Dashnaktsutyun
became victims of hackers. An investigation is being carried out.