TURKISH PRESIDENT “DEEPLY SAD” OVER FRENCH DECISION, HOPES BILL NOT ENACTED
Anatolia news agency, Turkey
Oct 13 2006
Ankara, 13 October: “President Ahmet Necdet Sezer got deeply sad
over the French National Assembly’s approval of a bill on 12 October
2006 that makes any denial of so-called Armenian genocide a crime,”
said Sermet Atacanli, senior adviser to President Sezer, on Friday
[13 October].
“Mr President hopes that the bill will be received with logic in the
next legislative level and hopes that the bill will not become an
actual law in France,” told Atacanli.
Atacanli added that “Mr Sezer wishes that Turkish-French relations
will not get hurt and basic rights of freedom of expression will not
get negatively affected by a French law.”

A PAMUK PRIMER
by Stephanie Yap
The Straits Times (Singapore)
October 15, 2006 Sunday
Despite Turkey’s hostile attitude towards Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk,
the land of his birth is where his heart belongs
THE name Orhan Pamuk might not ring a bell for most people, but the
54-year-old Turkish writer, who was announced as the 2006 recipient
of the Nobel Prize in literature last Thursday, actually caused quite
an international hullabaloo last year.
In an interview with a Swiss newspaper in February that year, he made
the statement that ‘thirty thousand Kurds and one million Armenians
were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it’.
He was referring to the conflict between the Turkish Army and Kurdish
separatists in the 1980s and 1990s, and the mass killings of Armenians
in 1915. Turkey still does not acknowledge the Armenian slaughter
as genocide.
In December last year, Pamuk found himself standing trial for violating
Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which prohibits public denigration
of Turkish national identity, the republic or the national assembly.
However, the trial stalled as soon as it started, with the judge
postponing the proceedings for two months on a technicality. The case
was eventually dropped.
The media at the time speculated that Turkey backed down after
criticism by leaders of the European Union, which Turkey applied to
join in 1987, but has yet to be admitted to.
The writer is now a visiting professor at Columbia University in New
York. However, despite Turkey’s hostile attitude towards him, it is
clear that the land of his birth is where his heart still belongs.
He told the Associated Press in a telephone interview that he accepted
the award not just as ‘a personal honour, but as an honour bestowed
upon the Turkish literature and culture I represent’.
Here’s a look at the newest Nobel laureate, and a rundown of the
works that earned him the $2.2 million prize.
The writer
ORHAN Pamuk was born on June 7, 1952, in Istanbul, Turkey, to a
wealthy industrialist family. He is the younger of two sons. His
father, a businessman, died in 2003.
His older brother, Sevket, is a university professor and a noted
expert on economic history. He sometimes appears as a fictional
character in Pamuk’s books.
The writer attended the exclusive American-style Robert College in
Istanbul, graduating in 1970. He then entered Istanbul Technical
University at the age of 20 to study architecture, but left after
three years as he realised he wanted to be a writer.
He graduated from the Institute of Journalism at Istanbul University
in 1976 but never worked as a journalist.
Instead, he started writing at the age of 23 and published his first
novel, Cevdet Bey And His Sons, seven years later at the age of 30.
Winning both the Orhan Kemal and Milliyet literary prizes – two of
the most prestigious in Turkey – he went on to write six more novels,
the most recent being Snow in 2002.
He writes in Turkish, and all but his first two novels have been
translated into English.
He was a visiting scholar at Columbia from 1985 to 1988, a period
which also included a visiting fellowship at the University of Iowa.
He returned to Istanbul, where he lived until early this year, when
he went back to the United States to take up the position at Columbia.
He married historian Aylin Turegen in 1982, but they divorced in
2001. They have a teenage daughter.
The works
NOVEL #1: Cevdet Bey And His Sons (1982). It is about three generations
of a wealthy Istanbul family, and depicts Turkey changing from an
Eastern identity to a Western one.
NOVEL #2: The Silent House (1984). A novel in five voices, reminiscent
of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, it is about three siblings who spend
a summer in the 1970s at their dying grandmother’s home outside
Istanbul. Meanwhile, communists and nationalists clash in the city’s
streets.
NOVEL #3: The White Castle (1985), translated into English in 1990.
Set in the 17th century, on the eve of Ottoman decline, it is the story
of a Turkish scholar and a captured Venetian who argue with each other
about whose civilisation is superior. In the end, they swop identities.
NOVEL #4: The Black Book (1990), translated into English in 1994. In
a narrative heavily influenced by Jorge Luis Borges and James Joyce,
an Istanbul lawyer searches for his runaway wife who has fled with a
prominent newspaper columnist. After the couple die in an accident,
the lawyer assumes the identity of the journalist, wearing his clothes
and even writing his columns.
NOVEL #5: The New Life (1995), translated into English in 1997. A
young man falls in love with a girl and the book she is reading. They
then embark on a random tour of Turkey, observing a country that has
forgotten, or wants to forget, its history.
NOVEL #6: My Name Is Red (1998), translated into English in 2001. A
murder mystery set in the late 16th century, it is often seen as
Pamuk’s magnum opus. At the Sultan’s Court, the introduction of
Western Renaissance painting, characterised by realism, threatens
traditional Persian miniature painting, which is rooted in the idea
of Allah as the only creator.
NOVEL #7: Snow (2002), translated into English in 2004. A Turkish
poet who has been living abroad returns to his homeland. There, he
investigates a rumour about a remote village where some girls have
killed themselves rather than remove their headscarves, as Turkish
law requires.
MEMOIR: Istanbul: Memories And The City (2003), translated into
English in 2005. Pamuk’s memoir pays tribute to his hometown, showing
how the melancholy of the once-mighty city permeates the lives of
its inhabitants.
Most of the English translations are available or can be ordered
through major bookstores.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ERDOGAN CALLS ON TURKS TO EMBRACE DISSIDENT NOBEL WINNER
Agence France Presse — English
October 16, 2006 Monday 10:23 AM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on his
compatriots to wholeheartedly embrace 2006 Nobel literature laureate
Orhan Pamuk and “put aside” the controversies he has stirred up in
the past, in remarks published Monday.
“Let’s put aside the polemics. The prize is a first for a son of Turkey
and it will be wrong for us to underestimate it,” Erdogan said in a
television interview to be aired late Monday, excerpts of which were
published in the best-selling newspaper Hurriyet.
“We must congratulate him,” he said. “It would be wrong to mix what
Pamuk has said in the past and the fact that he has won this award.”
The 54-year-old Pamuk, who has long had bad blood with the state,
landed himself in court on charges of “insulting Turkishness” and won
the reputation of a “traitor” among nationalist circles when he told
a Swiss magazine last year that “one million Armenians and 30,000
Kurds were killed in these lands.”
His remarks were widely seen as an acknowledgement that the Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War I,
a label that Ankara fiercely rejects.
Ironically, Thursday’s announcement of his Nobel prize came shortly
after the lower house of the French parliament voted a bill that
would make it a crime to deny that the killings were genocide,
infuriating Ankara.
The celebration of Pamuk’s award at home was overshadowed by skeptics
who argued that the author won the favors of the West not for his
literary skills but for his vocal criticism of his country
The divisions plagued even the highest state echelons: while Erdogan
personally called Pamuk, currently in New York, to congratulate him,
President Ahmet Necdet has remained mum, contrary to his tradition
of issuing congratulations to international achievements by Turks.
On Friday, Pamuk joined the chorus of criticism of the French bill,
saying that it flouted France’s “tradition of liberal and critical
thinking.”
The court case against Pamuk, in which he risked up to three years
in jail, was dropped on a technicality in January.
The writer first drew the ire of the state in the mid-1990s when he
denounced heavy-handed policies against the Kurdish minority.
The state extended an olive branch in 1998, offering him the accolade
of “State Artist,” but Pamuk declined.

ARMENIA’S FM AIMS TO NORMALISE RELATIONS WITH TURKEY
Agence France Presse — English
October 15, 2006 Sunday
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian on Sunday said he would
strive to normalise relations with Turkey despite deep misgivings about
the Turkish refusal to regard the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks as genocide.
“That these events… have not been condemned and not recognised
once so far, is in reality a continuation of the genocide,” Oskanian
was quoted as saying in an interview with the Swiss newspaper NZZ
am Sonntag.
“However, as foreign minister I have a duty to look to the future
and to seek to establish normal relations with Turkey,” he added.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993, in support for its
ally Azerbaijan, which was then at war with Armenia.
Oskanian in Sunday’s comments reiterated his country’s satisfaction
with the French National Assembly’s vote last Thursday approving a bill
that would make it a crime to deny that the Armenian massacres were
genocide, as well as a similar move by the Swiss parliament in 2003.
However, he also expressed mixed feelings about the practical value
of these measures.
“Whether the French or the Swiss legislation is a good starting point
is hard to say,” he said, adding that recognition of the genocide by
other countries “is not a goal in itself”.
“Armenia also has no interest in humiliating Turkey,” he explained.
Oskanian said the Turkish government’s offer to set up a joint
commission of historians to examine the massacres was “dishonest”
so long as Turkey kept its border with Armenia closed and explicitly
outlawed the use of the word genocide in the sensitive Armenian issue.
“Our President has told (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan
that Armenia is ready to talk, as soon as the borders are open and
as soon as there are bilateral relations.”
“When this is the case, an intergovernmental commission can discuss
this question,” he told the newspaper.
The French bill still needs the approval of the Senate and the
president to take effect.
Turkey, which strongly rejects the use of the term genocide in the
Armenian issue, slammed the vote, saying France had dealt “a heavy
blow” to longstanding bilateral relations.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen were killed in
massacres or deportations between 1915 and 1917.
Turkey rejects this claim, saying that between 250,000 and 500,000
Armenians were killed in civil strife when the Armenians rose up
against their Ottoman rulers.

GEORGIAN ARMENIANS PROTEST AT ARREST OF ACTIVIST IN YEREVAN
Regnum, Russia
Oct 14 2006
The democratic alliance United Javakhk [Georgia’s Armenian-populated
Samtskhe-Javakheti region] reports that a member of the alliance’s
board, Vaagn Chakhalyan, who on 10 October was subjected to a brutal
attack when entering Yerevan and received serious body injuries, was
arrested the next day by employees of the Armenian National Security
Service (NSC).
A statement issued by the alliance says: “Introducing themselves
as members of the police department, they tricked Vaagn Chakhalyan
into coming to the police station as a victim, but then took him to a
National Security Service isolation cell and arrested him. Ridiculous
charges were levelled against him about illegally crossing the Armenian
state border. On 13 October, with the same ridiculous charge, the
court of the first instance of the Yerevan communities of Tsentr and
Nork-Marash gave permission to sentence Vaagn Chakhalyan to two-months’
preventive detention.”
“It is especially outrageous that instead of investigating the violence
meted out against Vaagn Chakhalyan, members of his family and a member
of the alliance, Gurgen Shirinyan, fabricated accusations are being
made against the victim. This incident is clear testimony to a direct
link between the violence committed against Vaagn Chakhalyan and his
subsequent arrest, as well as the fact that certain forces issued an
order. The people of Javakhk are extremely angry about the news from
Yerevan. The United Javakhk is concerned that subsequent events could
lead to dangerous and unpredictable developments.
“Vaagn’s absence and further consistent attempts to disband the
alliance by brutal methods are a severe blow to the present system
which is ensuring stability in Javakhk, in which the United Javakhk,
thanks to the universal support of the population, is playing a
decisive role. Well-known forces and criminal channels are striving
to ensure a monopoly on demonstrations on behalf of the Armenians
of Javakhk, and by their irresponsible and provocative actions are
creating a serious threat to stability in the region.
“The alliance hopes that all interested forces, and the Armenian
authorities in particular, will adopt a more sensible decision
in relation to these forces who can lead to a destabilization
of the region and cause serious damage to Armenian-Georgian
interstate relations,” a statement of the political force from the
Armenian-populated region of Georgia, Samtskhe-Javakheti, says.

ARMENIE : LE PS S’ETONNE D’APPRENDRE LA POSITION DE CHIRAC PAR UN RESPONSABLE D’UN AUTRE ETAT
Agence France Presse
16 octobre 2006 lundi
Le PS s’est etonne lundi que le president Jacques Chirac ait fait
connaître par telephone au Premier ministre turc sa position sur le
vote d’une proposition de loi sur la penalisation de la negation du
genocide armenien, au lieu de le faire savoir aux citoyens francais.
“Nous souhaiterions que le president de la Republique s’exprime
directement, plutôt que d’apprendre sa position par le detour d’un
propos rapporte par le responsable d’un autre Etat”, a declare Julien
Dray, porte-parole, lors du point de presse hebdomadaire du parti.
“Le Parlement est souverain, nous ne voyons pas comment le president
de la Republique peut se targuer, dans des entretiens, d’empecher
le Parlement de travailler”, a dit encore M. Dray, estimant que si
c’etait le cas “il y aurait la un acte grave d’ingerence dans la vie
parlementaire et un precedent extremement regrettable”.
Il a note aussi qu’aucun membre du gouvernement ne s’est exprime sur
la proposition de loi presentee par le Parti socialiste, votee jeudi
en première lecture et qui doit etre soumise au Senat.
Le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan a indique samedi
soir avoir recu un appel telephonique du president Jacques Chirac
lui exprimant ses “regrets” au sujet de ce vote, et affirmant qu’il
donnait “raison” a la Turquie pour sa forte reaction. M. Erdogan a
indique avoir demande a Jacques Chirac de faire annuler la loi.
Selon l’Elysee, M. Chirac se serait borne a rappeler au Premier
ministre turc sa position sur le genocide armenien. Lors de son
recent voyage en Armenie, Jacques Chirac avait rappele que la France
avait “officiellement reconnu” le genocide. “Le reste relève plus,
aujourd’hui, de la polemique que de la realite juridique”, avait-il
ajoute.
–Boundary_(ID_Ip2vFbA7wrcCZQK4W N0ISg)–

“GENOCIDE ARMENIEN”: UN UNIVERSITAIRE TURC RENVOIE SA LEGION D’HONNEUR
Agence France Presse
16 octobre 2006 lundi
Le president de la plus haute institution universitaire turque a
renvoye lundi a la France sa medaille de Commandeur de la Legion
d’Honneur en protestation contre une proposition de loi francaise
reprimant la negation du “genocide armenien”, a affirme son bureau
lundi.
Le professeur Erdogan Tezic, president du Conseil superieur de
l’education (YOK), est le seul Turc a avoir ete decore, en septembre
2004, de la plus prestigieuse des distinctions francaises, precise
un communique de la presidence du YOK.
Dans une lettre adressee au president francais Jacques Chirac, M. Tezic
explique que meme si le gouvernement francais s’est distancie de la
proposition de loi controversee, M. Chirac appele le mois dernier la
Turquie a reconnaître le caractère genocidaire de massacres d’Armeniens
en 1915-1917.
“Cette proposition de loi n’eut-elle pas meme ete votee, le fait
qu’ainsi ce sujet ait ete erige comme un principe de la politique
d’Etat ne me permet plus de porter dorenavant la plus haute des
distinctions francaises”, affirme la lettre, dont l’AFP a obtenu
une copie.
La Turquie s’est indignee du vote la semaine dernière par l’Assemblee
nationale francaise d’une proposition de loi sanctionnant la negation
du “genocide armenien” de peines allant jusqu’a un an de prison et
45.000 euros (57.000 dollars) d’amende.
Le texte controverse doit encore etre soumis aux senateurs, puis aux
deputes en seconde lecture, avant d’etre definitivement adopte.
Les massacres et deportations d’Armeniens entre 1915 et 1917 dans
l’Empire ottoman ont fait plus de 1,5 millions de morts selon les
Armeniens, 250.000 a 500.000 selon la Turquie, qui recuse la notion de
genocide reconnue notamment par la France, le Canada et le Parlement
europeen.
–Boundary_(ID_EuqFnX04zPb9ab +H50jcrQ)–

LE PROJET DE LOI FRANCAIS SUR LE GENOCIDE ARMENIEN EMBARRASSE
Europolitique
16 octobre 2006
” Le vote des deputes francais rendant passible de prison la negation
du genocide armenien est sans effet sur le processus d’accession de la
Turquie a l’Union europeenne “, a estime le 13 octobre la commissaire
europeenne aux Relations exterieures, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. ” Ce
qui se passe en France et ce que nous faisons nous, en tant qu’Union
europeenne, avec un pays candidat sont deux choses distinctes “,
a declare la commissiaire a la television finlandaise Yle.
Vote le 12 octobre par l’Assemblee nationale, le projet de loi
rend passibles d’une peine de prison d’un an et d’une amende de 45
000 euros les auteurs de declarations niant le ” genocide armenien
“. Le resultat du vote a ete communique a Ali Babacan, negociateur
turc, alors qu’il participait a la table ronde annuelle des Amis
de l’Europe, qui se deroulait a Bruxelles sur le thème ” l’Etat de
l’Europe “. M. Babacan a exprime sa desaprobation a propos de la
decision parlementaire et a dit esperer que la loi serait rejetee
par le senat ou que le President y opposerait son veto.
Le commissaire a l’Elargissement, Olli Rehn, avait denonce cette
proposition de loi le 9 octobre, la jugeant ” contre-productive ” et
estimant qu’elle pourrait entraîner de ” graves ” consequences pour
les relations entre l’UE et la Turquie. ” Il s’agit evidemment d’une
loi francaise et c’est bien sûr le problème des deputes francais
mais cela a des consequences potentiellement graves pour l’UE et
ses relations avec la Turquie “, avait declare M. Rehn a quelques
journalistes. Son adoption ” aurait deux consequences : cela bloquerait
le debat sur la question armenienne en Turquie et cela ralentirait
et entraverait le debat sur la liberte d’expression en Turquie “,
a estime le commissaire.
Un porte parole de la Commission a rappele le 13 octobre que la
reconnaissance du genocide des Armeniens n’etait pas une condition
a l’adhesion de la Turquie.
” Les relations entre la Turquie et la France, qui se sont
developpees au fil des siècles, ont subi un choc aujourd’hui en raison
d’initiatives irresponsables prises par certains politiciens francais
peu perspicaces, sur la base d’allegations non fondees “, a declare le
ministre turc des Affaires etrangères La reaction du gouvernement turc,
soutenu par les partis d’opposition et des mouvements de protestation
dans tout le pays, n’a pas faibli face aux declarations rassurantes
du gouvernement francais qui a dit ne pas soutenir la loi. Mais,
quelques jours plus tôt, a l’occasion de sa visite dans la capitale
armenienne, le President Chirac avait invite la Turquie, si elle
voulait rejoindre l’UE, a reconnaître la qualite de genocide aux
massacres qui ont coûte la vie a au moins 1.500.000 Armeniens entre
1915 et 1917. Par ailleurs, nul n’ignore que certains membres du
gouvernement francais sont opposes a l’adhesion de la Turquie.
–Boundary_(ID_AQFQ39RoZOFN6WoTi6hlsQ)–

UN COUP DE TELEPHONE
La Nouvelle Republique du Centre Ouest
16 octobre 2006 lundi
Edition Informations Generales
L’Elysee a tenu hier a preciser la teneur de la conversation entre le
President francais et le Premier ministre turc. Jacques Chirac lui a
rappele sa position concernant le genocide armenien, avec a la fois
le necessaire devoir de memoire turc et l’inutilite de la loi votee
par les deputes francais.Le president francais, qui a appele Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, lui a redit ce qu’il avait dit a Erevan lors de sa
visite en Armenie achevee le 1 octobre, a souligne l’Elysee.Ce dernier
a indique samedi soir avoir recu un appel telephonique du president
Chirac lui exprimant ses ” regrets ” au sujet du vote en première
lecture par l’Assemblee nationale francaise d’une proposition de loi
sur le genocide armenien.
A Erevan, M. Chirac avait estime que l’initiative du PS proposant
une loi pour sanctionner tout deni du genocide armenien relevait”
plus de la polemique que de la realite juridique “, la legislation
francaise actuelle etant a ses yeux suffisante. Le chef de l’Etat
francais avait aussi estime qu’Ankara devait reconnaître le genocide
pour adherer a l’UE.
–Boundary_(ID_XpGa5cPAA4yXtG/lmM84mA)–

CHIRAC TENTE D’APAISER LA COLèRE DES TURCS POUR LIMITER LE BOYCOTT DES ENTREPRISES ET DES PRODUITS FRANCAIS
La Tribune de Geneve
16 octobre 2006 lundi
Edition Tribune de Genève
ZimmermannPa
MONDE Diplomatie Les reactions contre la France sont très vives
en Turquie suite a l’adoption par l’Assemblee nationale d’une loi
punissant la negation du genocide armenien. Jacques Chirac a affirme
etre “desole” au premier ministre turc. Il faut dire que les interets
francais en Turquie sont enormes.
MONDE Diplomatie
Les reactions contre la France sont très vives en Turquie suite a
l’adoption par l’Assemblee nationale d’une loi punissant la negation du
genocide armenien. Jacques Chirac a affirme etre “desole” au premier
ministre turc. Il faut dire que les interets francais en Turquie
sont enormes.
“Pour protester contre la France, le boycott n’est peut-etre pas une
decision logique mais sentimentale”, a affirme Nafi Gural. Le president
du Conseil des chambres de commerce et d’industrie a appele les Turcs
“a agir plutôt avec la tete qu’avec le coeur”.
Les consommateurs turcs etaient invites hier a temperer leur reaction
contre la France, après le vote d’une loi sur le genocide armenien
et au lendemain d’un appel du president francais Jacques Chirac au
premier ministre turc, percu a Ankara comme un signe d’apaisement.
Après de premières vives reactions au texte, adopte jeudi en première
lecture a l’Assemblee nationale francaise, punissant la negation du
genocide armenien, l’ambiance en Turquie etait un peu plus favorable
hier a une approche rationnelle quant aux represailles contre les
produits francais. “Il faut très bien fixer la dose du boycott des
biens francais”, a estime le vice-president de la puissante Union
des chambres de commerce et bourses de Turquie (TOBB), Huseyin Uzulmez.
Des echanges pour 8milliards d’euros
Les dirigeants turcs ont prevenu la France d’une crise dans les
relations et de represailles economiques qui pourraient se traduire
par l’exclusion des entreprises francaises des contrats publics. Or,
la Turquie est un gros marche pour la France. Les echanges se sont
chiffres l’an dernier a 8,2milliards d’euros. Pour ne pas contrarier
sa candidature a l’Union europeenne, Ankara n’imposera sans doute
pas un boycott officiel, mais de nombreux appels a bouder les marques
francaises ont ete lances.
Le gouvernement turc du premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan est
jusqu’a present reste evasif sur la nature de la riposte commerciale
qu’il a menace de mettre en oeuvre. M. Erdogan a simplement indique
que son gouvernement procederait “avec calme”.
Le chef de l’Etat francais a quant a lui tente de calmer le jeu en
appelant au telephone samedi matin M. Erdogan pour lui exprimer ses
regrets. Jacques Chirac a souligne qu'”il etait desole et qu’il fera
tout ce qu’il peut dans le processus prochain”, a souligne M.
Erdogan.
Toutefois, l’Elysee n’a pas confirme la version de M. Erdogan,
indiquant que M. Chirac n’a que reaffirme le necessaire devoir de
memoire turc et l’inutilite du texte vote.
Le journal liberal Radikal a tout de meme vu dans cette initiative
une volonte d’apaisement. “Jacques Chirac donne espoir”, selon ce
journal. Le texte controverse doit encore etre soumis aux senateurs,
puis aux deputes en seconde lecture, avant d’etre definitivement
adopte.
–Boundary_(ID_iXlZ0EBkkcj R9aNGVKZMWg)–