Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Oct 14 2006
Armenians are Against Turkish Troops While Arabs Support
Saturday , 14 October 2006
About 5,000 Armenians protested the arrival of Turkish troops in
southern Lebanon to join the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The Lebanon Government invited Turkish troops to lebanon and all Arab
groups give support to Turkish troops in Lebanon.
Waving Armenian and ultra-nationalist Tashnak flags, the crowd
chanted anti-Turkish slogans, carried placards protesting Turkey’s
cooperation with Israel and accused and shouted accusations of the
purported Armenian genocide

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 13, 2006 Friday 3:04 PM EST
NEWS FEATURE: Nobel Literature Prize causes mixed emotions in Turkey
Ingo Bierschwale, dpa
DPA CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT Turkey Nobel Literature NEWS FEATURE:
Nobel Literature Prize causes mixed emotions in Turkey Ingo
Bierschwale, dpa Istanbul
After Orhan Pamuk became the first Turkish author
to be awarded the Nobel Literature Prize, there were no masses taking
to the streets, no Turkish flags blowing in the wind, and no
cavalcades of honking fans.

Quite a few people in Turkey, however, joyfully jumped into the
air when they heard the Nobel committee’s decision Thursday from
Stockholm. Others followed suit, jumped out of their seats, and were
about to clap, before they realized what was going on and sat down
again in dismay. Others yet remained immobile, perplexed.

“We should applaud Orhan Pamuk like we have applauded our national
football team when they came third in the World Cup, like we
applauded the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Sertab Erener,”
the tabloid Sabah commented Friday.

“An author who writes in Turkish and who has emerged from our
midst has won the Nobel Literature Prize. Full stop. The End!,” the
newspaper commented.

Many Turkish newspaper columnists, however, seemed to be suffering
Friday. “If only he had not said those words which have wounded our
hearts deeply,” Ertugrul Ozkok, editor in chief of Hurriyet wrote.

Ozkok was referring to Pamuk’s remarks that during World War I
“one million Armenians were killed” in the Ottoman Empire, opening
old wounds in his Turkish homeland.

“We are angry at Pamuk because our Turkish soul weighs heavy in
us, but for the same reason we are also proud he won the highest
literary award,” Ozkok wrote.

Like the editor-in-chief of Hurriyet, many asked themselves the
question why they weren’t able to “just be happy” for Pamuk.

“Has the West chosen Pamuk, not because he is a Turk, but because
he defends the West’s theses better than the West itself?” a
columnist in another newspaper asked, concluding that “at least he
wrote his novels in Turkish, even if his thoughts are not Turkish.”

Others commented that Turkey was in dire need of more democratic
debate. But “criticising in the name of justice and democracy is one
thing, and selling out your own country in order to sell books and
gain worldwide fame is another,” commented the left-leaning daily
Milliyet.

There was also some unreserved approval. “Turkey will in the
future be regarded as the country of Orhan Pamuk,” the liberal-
leaning Radical said. “Once again, world attention will focus on
Turkey, Turkish literature and Orhan Pamuk’s city, Istanbul. Pamuk is
an honour for our language, our literature and our country.”

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul also saw Pamuk’s award in a positive
light. The Turkish political debate over the author would soon be
forgotten. Much more significant was the worldwide resonance of the
Literature Nobel Prize awarded to a Turkish author, he deemed.
Oct 1306 1504 GMT

The Gazette (Montreal)
October 13, 2006 Friday
Final Edition
Minister here next week
CanWest News Service
Armenia’s foreign minister will pay a politically charged visit to
Ottawa next week, six months after the Harper government formally
recognized the Armenian genocide and angered its NATO ally Turkey in
the process.
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian will make the first official visit
by an Armenian politician since Canada acknowledged the genocide of
1915 in which 1.5 million people were killed.
The action angered Turkey, which warned it could have economic
implications. A leading Turkish newspaper has speculated Canadian
companies might be barred from bidding on contracts related to a
nuclear power plant.
Canada has about $760 million invested in Turkey.
Babikian said his visit was aimed at cementing future relations
between the two countries, including enhancing economic co-operation.
There are currently 75 joint ventures between the two countries, he
said.
From: Baghdasarian

The Globe and Mail (Canada)
October 13, 2006 Friday
Genocide denial – and its enemies
MICHAEL MARRUS
Should it be a crime to deny the genocide of as many as a million
Armenians at the hands of the Turkish authorities in 1915, during the
dying days of the Ottoman Empire? This is what the overwhelming
majority of the French National Assembly, the lower house of the
French parliament, declared on Thursday, as it voted 106 to 19 in
favour of a Socialist-backed law that would punish what the French
call la négation du genocide arménien with a year in prison and a
hefty fine of $65,000.
The French law, which still needs the ratification of the Senate and
approval of the president of the Republic, might never see the light
of day – but only if cooler heads prevail than those that supported
the bill in parliament yesterday. According to its proponents, some
of whom published a manifesto in Wednesday’s Le Monde, the Armenian
genocide law was all about the campaign against genocide wherever it
exists. Genocide denial, wrote a group of anti-genocide lawyers, was
part of genocide itself, and as such called for both a political and
a juridical response. “Free expression,” their argument goes, “does
not include the right to manipulate history nor to deny historical
evidence.” Those who do, the legislators insisted, should be
punished. Proponents referred to weighty precedents: a 1990 law
against Holocaust denial, among other things, and an official
recognition of the Armenian genocide in 2001. “It is a question of
courage and a need for justice,” claimed the signatories.
The context of this law, however, is somewhat wider than that. Not
entirely absent from the minds of the legislators was the electoral
impact of the French Armenian community of close to 500,000 – one of
the largest in Europe. These certainly seemed to have counted for
more than Armenians in Turkey, for whom this lawmaking was pronounced
an “imbecility,” or for that matter of the French-Armenian deputy
Patrick Devedjian who tried in vain to present an amendment exempting
academic research from the harsh penalties of the law. Ever-present,
as well, were the concerns of those who have been doing their best to
torpedo not only improving Franco-Turkish relations, but also to
undermine the entry of Turkey into the European Union, a proposition
fervently championed by the French government and which may well not
survive the high-profile controversy the debate has provoked.
At least as important, however, are deep divisions among the French
about the role of government and the law in determining how history
should be understood and written. Less than a year ago, French
society was deeply split over another law that involved history. This
time it was the right, not the left, that was concerned with imposing
its notion of correct history, leading to the passage of a law that
required French high-schools to teach the “positive values” of French
colonialism and to “acknowledge and recognize in particular the
positive role of the French presence abroad, especially in North
Africa.” Charging that legislators had no business defining
historical truth, the historical profession mobilized against this
law, which was eventually scuppered by French President Jacques
Chirac. But not before much political bloodletting, not to mention
severe diplomatic bruising from France’s former colonial subjects and
those who had fought against the French Empire.
There is a final element of context that lurks just beneath the
surface of these debates. Like all Europeans, the French feel
increasingly threatened by the blandishments of political Islamicists
who have challenged liberal notions of free expression, on issues
extending from the Danish cartoons to Pope Benedict XVI’s quotation
of a Byzantine Emperor’s disparaging remarks about the Prophet
Mohammed.
That is why editorial opinion in Paris yesterday, expressed by
newspaper editors who have, after all, much to lose from restrictions
on what people can or cannot say, seemed to be powerfully opposing
the moves of the parliamentarians. Free expression, we are seeing
once again, is indivisible: What is right for speech we might think
worth hearing, must also apply for speech that is detestable – as
many would think is the denial of the Armenian genocide.
“Committed to the defence of human rights,” wrote the editorialist in
Le Figaro, “attentive to dialogue among peoples, France stands tall
when it is the messenger of peace and the values of civilization, but
it makes itself look ridiculous when it becomes a public prosecutor,
in the name of a supposed universal memory.”
Michael R. Marrus is Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of
Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of The
Nuremberg War Crimes Trial 1945-46: A Documentary History.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

National Post (Canada)
October 13, 2006 Friday
Toronto Edition
Official Armenian genocide recognition results in visit from Foreign
Minister
CanWest News Service
Armenia’s Foreign Minister will pay a politically charged visit to
Ottawa next week, less than six months after the Harper government
formally recognized the Armenian genocide and angered its NATO ally
Turkey in the process. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian will meet his
Canadian counterpart, Peter MacKay, on Wednesday and will also be
feted in a luncheon by some three dozen parliamentarians in what is
the first official visit by an Armenian politician since Prime
Minister Stephen Harper’s April statement acknowledged the Armenian
genocide of 1915 in which 1.5 million people were killed — a first
by the Canadian government and a decision that placed the country in
the company of 24 other countries.

National Post (Canada)
October 13, 2006 Friday
Toronto Edition
Franco-Turkish relations sour over new law
by David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph
BRUSSELS – The French parliament triggered a fresh crisis yesterday
in Turkey’s relations with Europe by approving a bill that would make
it an offence punishable by jail to deny Armenians suffered a
genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the vote in the French Assemblee
Nationale had dealt “a heavy blow” to bilateral relations, while the
European Union said the bill could interfere with Turkish ambitions
to join the European bloc.
Turkey denies that massacres of Armenians between 1915 and 1923
amounted to genocide, saying large numbers of Turks and Armenians
died in a civil war.
Ali Babacan, Turkey’s Economics Minister, said it was too soon to
know whether the Turkish public would heed calls from nationalist
groups to boycott French goods.
“As the government, we are not encouraging that, but this is the
people’s decision,” he said. “I cannot say [the vote] will not have
any consequences.”
The Socialist-backed law was widely criticized in Turkey as another
attempt by European politicians to place obstacles in the path of
Ankara’s painful progress toward EU membership. Polls have shown that
60% of the French are opposed to Turkey joining the bloc.
France would impose a one-year prison term and a 45,000-euro fine on
anyone denying the Armenian genocide, the same penalty that is
imposed for denying the Nazi Holocaust.
The vote came ahead of French presidential and parliamentary
elections, in which the 400,000-strong Armenian community in France
will form a formidable voter bloc.
The bill does not have government support and it seems likely to fall
in the upper house, the Senate.
Both Jacques Chirac, the French President, and Segolene Royal, the
Socialist presidential front-runner, say Turkey must acknowledge the
genocide of the Armenians before joining the EU.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative front-runner, is opposed to
Turkey’s EU entry under any condition.

Ottawa Citizen
October 13, 2006 Friday
EARLY Edition
National: Armenian minister heading to Ottawa
Armenia’s foreign minister, Vartan Oskanian, will pay a politically
charged visit to Ottawa next Wednesday, six months after the Harper
government formally recognized the Armenian genocide and angered its
NATO ally Turkey in the process. In April, Prime Minister Stephen
Harper acknowledged the Armenian genocide of 1915 in which 1.5
million people were killed. The statement angered Turkey, resulting
in the country’s ambassador to Canada being called back for
consultations, and the Turkish air force pulling out of a training
exercise in Alberta.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Ottawa Citizen
October 13, 2006 Friday
EARLY Edition
France passes law on Armenian genocide
by David Rennie, The Daily Telegraph
LONDON – The French parliament yesterday triggered a fresh crisis in
Turkey’s relations with Europe by approving a bill that would make it
an offence punishable by jail to deny that Armenians suffered a
genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks.
The Turkish foreign ministry said the vote had dealt “a heavy blow”
to bilateral relations.
Ali Babacan, Turkey’s economics minister, said it was too soon to
know whether the Turkish public would heed calls from nationalist
groups to boycott French goods.
“As the government, we are not encouraging that, but this is the
people’s decision,” he said. “I cannot say (the vote) will not have
any consequences.”
The Turkish parliament scrapped plans for a tit-for-tat law that
would have made it illegal to deny that French colonialists committed
genocide against the Algerians in their war for independence. Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told MPs, “you don’t clean up dirt with
more dirt.”
He repeated calls to Armenia to jointly research the killings by
opening the archives of both countries to historians.
The European Commission, which will next month unveil a key report on
Turkey’s progress toward meeting EU admission standards, said the
vote threatened to silence the first signs of debate inside Turkey on
the issue of Armenia.
Krisztina Nagy, the commission’s enlargement spokesman, said, “it is
important to see that there is an opening in Turkey to conduct debate
on that issue.” The bill, if it became law, “could have a negative
effect on debate”.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
October 12, 2006 Thursday 5:20 PM EST
Lebanon’s Armenians protest against Turkish UN force
DPA POLITICS France Diplomacy Turkey Lebanon Lebanon’s Armenians
protest against Turkish UN force Beirut
Thousands of Lebanese Armenians protested Thursday
in downtown Beirut against Turkish troops participating in a UN
peacekeeping force to supervise a fragile UN-brokered ceasefire
between Hezbollah and Israel.

The protest, headed by Armenian political and religious leaders,
took place two days after seven Turkish officers arrived in Beirut.

The crowd held high banners denouncing the presence of Turkish
troops as “an insult to the 140,000 Armenians living in Lebanon” and
proclaiming: “Genocide and massacre: Turkey’s definition of peace.”

Turkey is to deploy some 700 soldiers in Lebanon, including troops
aboard naval ships.
Oct 1206 1720 GMT

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
October 12, 2006 Thursday
Pamuk “honoured over genocide stance” – Armenia
DPA POLITICS Sweden Nobel Literature EXTRA: Pamuk “honoured over
genocide stance” – Armenia Yerevan
The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk has been welcomed in Armenia, where
commentators said the novelist had been honoured for his outspoken
stance on Turkey’s alleged “genocide” of thousands of Armenians.

Chairman of the Armenian Writers’ Federation David Muradyan
welcomed the Swedish Academy’s decision to honour Pamuk. Author and
filmmaker Muradyan said the award “linked the literature prize with
morality.”

Pamuk had stated in an interview that “1 million Armenians and
30,000 Kurds” were killed in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.
The comments provoked outrage among Turkish nationalists who accused
the writer of “insulting Turkishness.”

A controversial trial against Pamuk was however dropped by the
Turkish Justice Ministry following international criticism.

Armenian historians claim that as many as 1.5 million Christian
Armenians were killed during and after the First World War and that
the massacres were a clear genocide.

Turkey counters that Armenians sided with invading Russian forces
and that the numbers of Armenians killed was around 300,000. Ankara
has also refused to term the events as genocide.
Oct 1206 1256 GMT