RESIDENTS RALLY TO RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT DARFUR
By Mary Anne Ross
Correspondent
Old Bridge Suburban, NJ
September 14, 2006
Three moms start N.J. chapter of Committee on Conscience
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Members of the Degutz family, including (from
left) Rachel, 8, mom Audrey, dad Allen, and Danielle, 10, joined the
candlelight vigil “Shine a Light for Darfur” last Thursday night at
the East Brunswick municipal complex.
EAST BRUNSWICK – Genocide and ethnic cleansing may be terms that most
Americans associate with events of long, long ago.
Perhaps it’s easy not to notice when they occur in a remote,
little-known country on the other side of the world. But three East
Brunswick residents have taken notice, and they are working hard to
make sure other people will too.
Leslie Klein, Stephanie Stern and Debbie Schlossberg are all busy,
working moms brought together by their concern for the people of
Darfur, a section of the Sudan that has been the scene of a violent
civil war.
The woman support the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than
170 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. According
to the coalition, the Sudanese government has targeted three tribal
groups for ethnic cleansing, and this has resulted in at least 400,000
people being killed and more than 2 million innocent civilians being
displaced.
Klein, Stern and Schlossberg decided the best way to highlight
the plight of the people of Darfur was to start a chapter of the
Committee on Conscience here in New Jersey. Their organization is part
of the larger United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee
on Conscience, whose goal is to halt acts of genocide and crimes
against humanity.
The group’s first public event was a candlelight vigil held outside
the East Brunswick municipal complex last Thursday night. The ceremony
included the recitation of a United Nations prayer, readings of poetry
and a message from an Armenian anti-genocide group.
Schlossberg was happy with the turnout.
“There were students from the high school and a real mix of people
from the community,” she said. “Our goal was to raise awareness of
the situation in Darfur and I think we did that.”
More events are planned. On Oct. 16, Mayor William Neary is expected
to sign and read a proclamation on the issue during a Township
Council meeting.
“We are hoping people from the community will attend to show support,”
Klein said.
This Sunday, they will participate in the “New York City Save Darfur
Now: Voices to Stop Genocide Rally.”
The rally, which is part of a global event, will be held from 2 to
5 p.m. in the East Meadow of Central Park.
“We want to put pressure on the U.N. to put a peace-keeping force in
the area to prevent further acts of genocide,” Schlossberg said. “We
also want President Bush to assign a special envoy to the area.
That position has been vacant since the last envoy left, and there
are still funds available for the spot.”
Schlossberg, who works full time and has two children, Yoav, 20,
and Noa, 16, has been actively involved in activities to help stop
the genocide in Darfur through local synagogues for the past few
years. Last year, she coordinated the area Freedom Walk, an event
designed to highlight the genocide. She decided to help start the
Committee on Conscience to spread the word outside of the local
temples.
“I wanted to reach out to the broader community,” she said.
Klein had never been involved in any kind of activism prior to
co-founding the chapter of the Committee on Conscience. She works full
time as an engineer and has two sons, David and Robert Kolchmeyer,
ages 14 and 11, respectively.
“I started reading about what was happening in the papers and there
was just something about innocent people being slaughtered with no
place to hide. I felt I needed to do something,” she said.
Klein pointed out that the Committee on Conscience is not just focused
on Darfur.
“We want to deal with the things that can lead to genocide before
it happens,” she said. Klein has been researching material that
can be used in schools to teach students of all ages about genocide
and racism.
She also said the group will be networking with religious organizations
and community groups, such as Stop Hatred and Amnesty International.
Stern is a psychiatrist with three boys – Jacob, 4, David, 8, and
Jonah, 10. She became involved through her synagogue, and last year
housed a former Sudanese slave who participated in the Freedom Walk
and also gave a talk at her temple.
“People are not uncaring; they are just busy,” Stern said. “We want
to be a conduit for information.”
She also feels it’s important to be a role model for her children.
“You can’t teach this by talking. You have to be a model,” she said.
Local residents attending the upcoming rally in New York City should be
able to connect with members of the N.J. Committee on Conscience. Klein
said the group will have a person with a banner at the entrance to
the rally who can direct people to their location in the park.
For more information about the rally and other upcoming
events, visit the N.J. Committee on Conscience Web site at
The Save Darfur Coalition can be found at

ISSA TOUMA VS. THE SYRIAN STATE
By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
The Daily Star
Friday, September 15, 2006
Organizer of International Photography Gathering in Aleppo faces
last-minute closure … again
BEIRUT: If all goes as planned, the ninth edition of the International
Photography Gathering in Aleppo with open tonight. The gathering is
an annual exhibition that runs over the course of 10 days. This year,
it is set to highlight over 1,000 works of art – heavy on contemporary
fine art and documentary photography with a few pieces of video art
by a nascent generation of young Syrian talent thrown in for good
measure – by 50 artists from 30 different countries.
But in the world of Issa Touma, the festival’s founder and organizer,
rarely does all go as planned. For years now, Touma has been struggling
with the Syrian authorities, who seem to be more than just a little
reluctant to let him do his own thing. At press time, the venue for
the gathering had just changed again (a slew of postindustrial spaces
have fallen through in the last 10 days, with the owners or directors
reneging on their promises to host the festival).
Those working with Touma on the festival’s last-minute details say
he is currently in “hiding” from the Syrian security services (though
he still hopes to make it to the opening on time).
Reportedly, the Aleppo governor and the head of the security services
have also filed a lawsuit against Touma, allegedly for re-opening
his gallery after it was ordered to close a year ago.
Touma, a photographer in his own right, studied Armenian art in Aleppo
and decided to open a gallery there in 1992. Called Black and White,
the space stuttered and stalled and ultimately closed, at which point
Touma opened a second venue, a gallery called Le Pont.
He has also launched a number of arts initiatives in Syria, including
the International Photography Gathering and the Women’s Art Festival,
all of which focus on young and emerging talent, unknown in Syria
and abroad, at the expense of older, more established painters and
sculptors who are a part of the Syrian canon and anointed by the
Syrian state.
Last year, Le Pont was shuttered by the authorities three times in nine
months. The year before, Touma says the electricity was deliberately
cut during the opening of the eighth edition of the International
Photography Gathering, a problem “solved” by one of the participants
pulling his car around and using his headlights to illuminate the
works on view.
Touma is one of a number of high-profile dissidents, including novelist
Ammar Abdulhamid and filmmaker Omar Amiralay, whose troubles with
the state suggest that the arts, broadly speaking, pose a threat to
authoritarian rule. The freedom of the fabled art space is problematic
because it can’t, by definition, be co-opted.
For his part, Touma insists that he is in fact entirely apolitical. But
few could deny the contributions he has made to the development of
a credible and critical contemporary art scene in Syria.
“He has done a lot,” says Beirut-based curator Christine Tohme,
director of Ashkal Alwan (the Lebanese Association for Plastic
Arts). “He’s done something big on the level of the Syrian scene.”
Tohme attended the International Photography Gathering several years
ago, the same edition in which the Beirut-based Arab Image Foundation
participated. She says she finds the news of his troubles year after
year puzzling.
“It’s becoming like a game between him and them,” she says. “Every year
we hear Issa Touma is having trouble with the Syrian authorities. It’s
becoming a pattern.
Why is this happening? This is why I ask: ‘How can you have galleries
and art spaces in a hegemony?'” It’s a question Tohme extends not
only to Syria but other autocratic countries in the Arab world.
Yet some artists and curators tend to believe Touma’s problems are
in some way self-perpetuating, and stem as much from disorganization
and a general reluctance to play well with others as they do from
political contention.
“He’s a kind of one-man show,” says Lebanese photographer Gilbert Hage,
who joined the International Photography Gathering the year it began
and participated in several of its early editions.
“The work he does is good, but we’d always find out where the festival
was happening two days before the opening and the way the works
were hung was bad, the way they were framed was bad, and the dust,
the humidity,” all left a lot to be desired, he says.
“Can you imagine what it is like to look the artists in the eye
now?” asks Touma, on the line from Aleppo, explaining how he’s
been dealing with the last-minute complications. “I feel so sad and
embarrassed in front of the 32 artists who have come to Syria for
the festival. But they have offered such good support. The festival
is continuing because of the artists.”
When asked why he has become such a thorn in the Syrian regime’s side,
Touma says: “Because I’m not kissing the shoes of the government. But
we don’t know why, really. Some people say it is because I welcome
foreigners to the gallery, or because I welcome diplomats. But I have
a gallery. It is open to the public. If anyone comes, I welcome them.”

GEORGIA BLOCKS FOREIGN CITIZENS’ ENTRY TO SOUTH OSSETIA
REGNUM
September 15, 2006
September 14, Georgia blocked the movement of persons with Russian
passports through the territory of South Ossetia, REGNUM correspondent
quotes Minister of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia Mikhail Mindzayev
to say.
Mindzayev says that citizens of Russia, Armenia, and other states,
except for the residents of South Ossetia, are not allowed to enter. He
remarked that such persons are not let in both from the Russian and
Georgian side. “As a response measure, we have closed transit through
South Ossetia for persons with Georgian passports, except for those who
reside in Georgian enclaves (villages populated mostly by Georgians)
in the South Ossetian territory.”
The minister also says that the situation in the Georgian-Ossetian
conflict zone is stable, no incidents have been filed for the past
24-hour period.
“The Georgian leadership has not so far received any regular foreign
tranches to further their activities against South Ossetia,” Mindzayev
commented.

PUTTING SECESSIONIST CONFLICTS UNDER THE INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Civil Georgia
2006-09-14 13:52:45
GUAM-member states have successfully lobbied for a discussion of
“protected conflicts” in the Black Sea-South Caucasus region at the
61st UN General Assembly, despite Russia’s objection.
The decision to include the issue in the working program of the General
Assembly session -which was pushed for by GUAM-member states Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova – was adopted “following a contentious
procedural debate,” according to the UN press center.
The approval has reversed a decision adopted by the General Committee
that recommended on September 12 to exclude the item entitled
“protracted conflicts in the GUAM area and their implications for
international peace, security and development” from the agenda.
16 countries, including the Baltic States, GUAM-member states (Georgia
was absent at the session), the United States, United Kingdom,
Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Romania and
Turkey voted in favor of including the item into the agenda of the
General Assembly session.
15 countries – Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Cyprus, Eritrea, Greece,
Guinea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Panama, Russian Federation, South
Africa, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe – voted against; while 65 abstained.
The representative of Ukraine spoke on behalf of the GUAM-member
states, saying that “GUAM’s aim was not to change the format of
existing negotiations, but to have the chance to bring the matter to
the international community through the Assembly.”
The Russian Federation’s representative voiced his objection to the
move, saying that “the insistence on including the item was aimed
at undermining existing mechanisms to negotiate settlements of the
conflicts.”
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is expected to leave for New
York to participate in the UN General Assembly Session on September 19.
Discussing the secessionist conflicts at the Session is part of
Georgia’s policy to intensify international efforts to peacefully
resolve the Abkhazia and South Ossetian conflicts. In recent weeks
especially, officials in Tbilisi are focusing more on the South
Ossetian conflict.
The issue is also expected to be high on the agenda during
Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili’s visit to Brussels on
September 14-17, where he will meet with top officials from EU and
NATO. Following this trip Bezhuashvili plans to visit Washington and
then New York.
Meanwhile, some strongly worded statements have been voiced towards
the secessionist authorities in breakaway South Ossetia following
the Georgian authorities’ intensive calls on western powers to react
on what Tbilisi describes as “outrageous provocations” staged by the
unrecognized republic’s leadership.
Recent weeks have seen a series of incidents in the conflict zone,
including firing on a Georgian army helicopter, a clash that led to the
deaths of four people, and sporadic overnight shootouts. Secessionist
authorities’ announcement of plans to hold an independence referendum
and presidential polls on November 12 has further fueled tensions.
Officials in Tbilisi have warned that the Georgian side may use force
if Tbilisi fails to secure “an appropriate” international support.
On September 12 a group of western diplomats, including British,
French, German, Italian and U.S. Ambassadors in Georgia, traveled to
Tskhinvali and met with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity. Western
diplomats have strongly condemned the September 3 helicopter incident,
triggering the anger of the South Ossetian leadership.
On September 13, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry
Davis said secessionist authorities in South Ossetia “are wasting
time and effort on the organisation of a ‘referendum on independence’
in November.”
Also on September 13, EU envoy for the South Caucasus issues Peter
Semneby said that the referendum will be “meaningless” to the
European Union.
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry has backed an upcoming
independence referendum in Moldova’s breakaway region Transdnestria,
scheduled for this Sunday, and said in a statement issued on September
13 that the European Union should not ignore the results of the
referendum. The Russian State Duma Council, the lower house of the
Parliament, plans to send its observers to the November 12 polls in
breakaway South Ossetia.

TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP AND THE MUSLIM WORLD
Sedat Laciner
Journal of Turkish Weekly(JTW)
Thursday , 14 September 2006
Almost all the unsuccessful politicians in many of the EU countries
have recently been talking about the issue of Turkey’s full
membership to the EU. Whatever the agenda is, they blame Turkey
and the Muslims aspiring to enter the EU. The politicians in the EU
are trying to conceal their inabilities and failures by criticizing
Turkey. They are misleading their constituencies by fostering grudge
and hatred against Turkey, which they believe belongs to another
civilization. French Minister Sarkozy is one of the typical examples:
In the words of Katrin Bennhold and Dan Bilefsky from the International
Herald Tribune, “Nicolas Sarkozy, his eyes firmly set on France’s
presidency, might have thought more about French voters than about
geopolitics when he said that Turkey should never become a member of
the European Union.”(1) In contrast to a politician having vision,
Sarkozy capitalized on the prejudices of the French against the Turks
and the Muslims. However, with this behavior, he not only eroded the
Turks’ credit towards the EU and the French, but also the Muslims’
towards the world and the West.
As known, Turkey’s full membership to the EU is supported by all
the Muslim countries. Many Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt
and Palestine, have openly expressed their enthusiasm to see Turkey
as a full member of the EU. Even countries like Syria and Iran,
which are seen as “enemy” by the West, have stated that they would be
pleased to be neighbor with the EU with Turkey’s membership, and that
they supported Turkey in the membership process. Even Saudi Arabia,
which is relatively far from Turkey, have declared that Turkey’s EU
membership is strategically important for itself.(2) The support of
the Muslim world for Turkey’s EU membership has a considerable meaning:
The Muslims see Turkey’s membership as a breaking point in the vicious
circle in the relations with the West. Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq,
Bosnia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Afghanistan, Lebanon and other problems have
led to great despair among the Muslims towards the West. The Muslims
mostly don’t believe the West is sincere and fair. The people on
the streets of Muslim countries think that they are always deceived,
their cities are bombarded, their natural resources are usurped, and
their governments are serving to the West. Within this dark picture,
Turkey’s full membership on equal terms to one of the most important
institutions of the Western world, the EU, is seen as a miracle by
the Muslim world. Turkey’s full membership will end the despair and
prove that fair and equal relations with the West are possible.
In addition to these, Turkey is the best proof that secular governance,
democracy and liberal economy do not contradict with Islam. While
the Turks can be more devout than the Iranians in their daily lives,
they are also democrat, secular and liberal. They have the world’s
17th biggest economy even though they are Muslims. Although they don’t
have considerable natural gas and oil resources, they are competing
with the West by training their manpower. Their mentality of Islam is
not based on revenge or hatred but cooperation and tolerance. Turkey
is one of the exceptional Muslim countries where al-Qaeda has no
serious roots. For Turks, Osama bin Laden is a terrorist and al-Qaeda
commits terrorism. They hold the idea that they can go to the heaven
not by killing others but by helping people live. In short, Turkey
represents just the opposite of what al-Qaeda represents. Of course,
Turkey’s model is not perfect.
However, it is the only model at hand. It is the only model to be used
against al-Qaeda apart from using violence and force. Many presidents
in the Muslim world, including the presidents of Algeria, Palestine,
Indonesia and Pakistan, have openly stated that they see Turkey as
a model. Because they want to be like Turkey and consolidation of
Turkish model will also consolidate the hopes of the Muslim countries.
The third reason for the support of the Muslim countries to Turkey’s
EU membership has to do with the current balance of power. The US’
and Israel’s influence, even monopoly, dominate the course of the
problems in the Middle East. The EU doesn’t have sufficient influence
in the region. With Turkey’s membership, the EU will have to play
a more active role in the region and this will erode the unilateral
policies of other powers.
Fourth, Turkey is seen as a natural representative of the Muslim world
in the EU. Although most of the global problems emerge in the Middle
East, there are no legitimate representatives from the Middle East in
global governance. There are no Muslim representatives in the G-8 or
among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. To
put it short, there are serious representation deficiencies in global
governance. This, in turn, causes lack of proper communication and
misunderstandings between the West and the Muslims. This is the most
significant reason of the clash of civilizations. Turkey’s accession
to the EU will considerably contribute to the elimination of this
deficiency.
In fact, the lack of representation is a problem not only between
the West and the Middle East. There is an imbalance within
Europe as well. There are more than 100 million Muslims living in
Europe. However, none of them are represented within their states nor
the EU institutions. Turkey, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,
Albania, Azerbaijan and Bosnia are still not part of the EU. And nearly
15 million Muslims living in countries such as Germany and England and
holding EU citizenship don’t think that their host countries represent
them. The terrorist attacks in England were carried out by the Muslim
English citizens and this clearly proves how lack of representation
nurtures terror and radicalism. Hence, Turkey’s membership will
contribute to the overcoming of lack of representation in Europe.
In short, Turkey’s full membership to the EU is not an ordinary
enlargement. It also means the setting up a sound bridge between the
West and the East.
>>From Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a former French president and chief
architect of the failed European constitution, to Chancellor Angela of
Germany, several high-profile Europeans have voiced their opposition to
Turkish membership in recent years.(3) Many top European personalities,
including the Pope, have asserted that Turkey is not European, because
it is not a Christian country. According to this view, the sine qua
non value of Europeanness is still Christianity. In this regard,
there must be no resentment to al-Qaeda which sees the world as two
camps, the Muslims and the others. For the only value for them is
their faith as well.
Turkey has been undergoing a rapid democratization process incomparable
to the past. Many reforms have been implemented in a short while. There
is also a rapid economic growth. It is possible to talk of unique
successes in almost every area from the Kurdish problem to human
rights. Turkey is no more the most-sued country in the European Court
of Human Rights. The social harmonization in the country has been
progressing in an admirable way. What is important is that it was
not thanks to the EU that Turkey has achieved this progress. What is
more, as many examples show, Turkey has come to this point despite the
EU. In other words, the decision to exclude Turkey from the EU will
not be the end of the world for Turkey. Moreover, a Turkey enjoying
special relations with the EU but not restricted by its institutions
might be a new China for the EU. However, it is hard to argue the
same thing for the EU and the Middle East. EU’s rejection of Turkey
on the ground that it is a Muslim country and reconstruction of the
EU on the basis of Christian fanaticism will turn the much-expected
miracle into impossibility, and in a sense, will justify how right
the extremities such as al-Qaeda are. In this case, it will be a
mere dream to think that the conflicts will be confined to Beirut,
Baghdad or Ramallah. The entire Europe from London to Berlin will be
under risk because the Middle East and the Muslims are not as far as
Sarkozy has said. The Muslims will continue to live in the middle of
Europe regardless of Turkey’s full membership, and it will be more
difficult to live together without Turkey’s full membership to the
Western family.

PAGLIA HEADLINES FALL EVENTS WITH WRITERS, EDITORS
insideBU
Binghampton University
September 14, 2006 Volume 28, No. 4
The fall slate of literary activities from the Binghamton Center for
Writers focuses on faculty and alumni readings, as well as workshops
and conversations with journal and press editors.
Headlining this season’s events will be social critic and intellectual
Camille Paglia, an Endicott native and Binghamton graduate. Paglia,
this year’s Milton Kessler D i s t i n g u i s h e d Reader, will
speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, in the Anderson Center Chamber
Hall. The event is free and open to the public; a book signing and
reception will follow.
The first event of the season will be a conversation with Stanley
Barkan, editor and publisher of Cross-Cultural Communications, from
1:30-3:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, in PSPC-C. With browsing categories
like Armenian, Beat and Cheyenne, Cross-Cultural Communications
fulfills its claim of specializing in the rare and hard-to-find.
Opening the Readers’ Series will be novelist Tom Bailey, who will
speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, in S1-149. Bailey, a Binghamton
graduate, is the author of The Grace That Keeps This World, published
in hardcover by Random House in 2005 and newly in paperback. Bailey’s
first novel centers on a community in the Adirondacks during the days
leading up to hunting season. Bailey is also the author of Cotton Song,
forthcoming from Random House, and a collection of short stories,
Crow Man, as well as A Short Story Writer’s Companion.
October events include a poetry reading by new faculty member Joe
E. Weil at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10, in S1-149 and a Writing Life event
from 1:30- 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, in PSPC-C with Jeffrey Levine
of Tupelo Press, publishers of poetry and literary fiction.
>>From Oct. 19-21, Binghamton graduate students will hold
Writing By Degrees, their ninth annual national creative writing
conference at the Decker Mansion in Binghamton, with featured
writers Steve Almond, Timothy Liu and Suzanne Paola. Many of
those events are free and open to the public. For details, visit binghamton.edu.
Two November events close out the season.
Christine Gelineau, associate director of the Center for Writers,
will read from her collection of poetry at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14,
in S1-149.
Paul Ruffin of Texas Review Press, which publishes fiction, poetry and
prose non-fiction as well as the literary magazine The Texas Review,
will finish out the Writing Life series for the fall with a 1:30-3:30
p.m. event on Thursday, Nov. 16. The location for that event has not
been announced.
All of the events are free and the community is invited
to attend. Directions to the various rooms and further
information on the series and the writers can be found at binghamton.edu/cwpro.
The Writing Life Series is supported by the Office of the Dean of
Harpur College, while the Binghamton University Alumni Association
supports the Readers’ Series.

GHOLAM SHIRE’I: IRAN MAY NEVER GIVE IN TO BULLYING POWERS
Persian Journal, Iran
Sep 14, 2006
Visiting speaker of mullah-run majlis, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel known
as “Gholam Shire’i” in majlis for his addiction to opium, said in a
meeting with Armenian President Robert Kocharian in Yerevan on Tuesday
that the Iranian government may never surrender to the bullying powers.
Also during the meeting, Gholam Shire’i noted Iran’s nuclear case
and reminded that Tehran has always insisted on the settlement of the
issue through negotiations, a statement released by the Information
and Media Department of the Islamic Consultative Assembly said.
Appreciating the logical stances of Armenia in the face of Iran’s
nuclear issue, he reminded that some great powers are seeking an
excuse while mullahs’ regime still stresses the need for the peaceful
and logical solution of the case.
The top “shire’i” legislative official pointed out, “The United States
is angry at the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran because it
is against the hegemony of the US. That’s why they are still speaking
of overthrowing the Islamic Republic after 27 years since the victory
of the Islamic Revolution.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN SHOULD NOT TRY TO TRANSFER KARABAKH ISSUE TO ANOTHER PLANE
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.09.2006 17:30 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian considers inclusion of
the issue on protracted conflicts in the territory of GUAM participant
states in the UN General Assembly agenda “senseless expenditure of
energy.” “In spite of the UN GA General Committee turning down the
issue, the GA decided to include it in the agenda by one vote more in
favor of the proposal,” Oskanian told journalists in Yerevan Thursday.
“We believe that it is necessary to focus on the Minsk process if we
want to attain results. If there are other goals, Armenia will not
enter those games,” he underscored. There are serious proposals on the
bargaining table today and “if Azerbaijan is serious on the talks,
it should concentrate on the Minsk process and not try to transfer
the issue to another plane. It will not do good,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY HAS NO CHANCES TO BECOME FULLY EUROPEAN COUNTRY
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.09.2006 17:37 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey will hardly leave EU talks, but it cannot meet
all European criteria, political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan
told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. In his words, the logic of development
of the talks suggests that Turkey, even having the direct and rather
aggressive support of Washington, does not have chances to become a
European country in the foreseeable future. “The process of sobering up
will be painless: Ankara understands that Turks never were a European
people. At that Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan underscored that by declaring
“secularity”, Turkey is held by military bayonets.
“However, this state of affairs cannot be sustained perpetually,
at least as army is a creation of the people. Turkey will finally
return to pan-Turkism ideology, as it is their true religion,” the
political scientist said.

COOPERATION WITH EURO AND CIS STRUCTURES EXPEDIENT TO ARMENIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.09.2006 17:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Armenia’s complementary policy today is the most
acceptable from the point of view of state security,” stated Armenian
Deputy FM Arman Kirakosyan at an open lesson at Kirakosyan School
in Yerevan. In his words, Russia is a strategic partner of Armenia,
however this should not result in official Yerevan’s refusal from
cooperation with European structures and the NATO. “If it is the case,
Armenia will fall behind its neighbors, which will have a negative
impact on state security,” the Deputy FM said. Kirakosyan noted
the importance of signing the Action plan within the ENP. “Georgia
and Azerbaijan are also part of that process, thus refusing from
cooperation with Euro and CIS structures is not expedient to Armenia,”
he said, reports IA Regnum.