HARPER’S COMMENTS DAMAGING TO A VITAL ALLY
by Scott Taylor, Osprey News Network
Pembroke Observer (Ontario)
May 17, 2006 Wednesday
Final Edition
As this is obviously an incredibly sensitive issue for all of those
involved, I wish to state from the outset that I have close contact
and a good relationship with a number of senior Turkish officials.
Turkish intelligence officers successfully negotiated my release from
Iraqi insurgents in September 2004 and, having visited the Turkish
residency in Ottawa on numerous formal and informal occasions, I
consider Ambassador Aydemir Erman to be a personal friend. The fact
that Erman has temporarily been recalled to Ankara in protest over
comments made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper has therefore hit
close to home.
That being said, I honestly believe that the recent statement made by
Harper concerning the Armenian tragedy of 1915 was not only damaging
to Turkish-Canadian relations, but also completely unnecessary.
Two years ago, Bloc MP Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral brought forward
a bill condemning the mass deportation of Armenians from eastern
Anatolia during the First World War, which resulted in the death of
hundreds of thousands. According to the bill, it was a deliberate
genocide on the part of the Ottoman Empire.
While some may question why Canadian parliamentarians would spend their
time passing historical judgment on events that transpired 90 years
ago in the Middle East, Bill M-380 was actually passed on April 21,
2004 after a free vote in the House of Commons.
The Turkish government voiced its opposition to this ruling and offered
up its own version of events. While not denying that the Armenians
died in droves, the Turks pointed out that in 1915 eastern Anatolia
was being threatened by Czarist Russian troops, the Ottoman Empire
was crumbling on all sides, and Armenian nationalists chose to rise
up in open revolt. The forced relocation of the potentially hostile
Armenian population into northern Iraq and Syria was undertaken by
an Ottoman administration so cash-strapped and inept that some 80,000
Turkish troops died that same year on the Russian front from frostbite
and starvation.
The Armenians claim the resultant widespread death of their refugees
was a deliberate premeditated genocide, while the Turks maintain it
was a regrettable tragedy exacerbated by brutal wartime conditions.
Realizing that Bill M-380 was an impediment to Canadian-Turkish
relations, the cabinet of Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin voted
against the motion and the bill was considered non-binding.
In the interim, the Turkish government has proposed a joint commission
of historians from Armenia and Turkey to attempt to thoroughly
re-examine the past to determine a ‘true’ account of the 1915
tragedy. Although modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the ashes
of the Ottoman Empire, the actions of the former ruling Caliphate
leadership still impacts on the nationalist psyche of the Turks. For
this reason, Turkey has agreed to re-open the old archives and share
the documentation with the Armenians. Surprisingly, the Armenians
have yet to agree to participate in the study.
Nevertheless, on April 18 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan forwarded a letter to Stephen Harper urging him to support
the new academic study. Instead, Harper used the first opportunity to
reaffirm his support of M-380 at a Winnipeg press conference the next
day. Somewhat prophetically, Erdogan had written warning Harper that
“the Armenian lobby has not given up its intention to create problems
in Turkish-Canadian relations.”
Although the prime minister’s official Web site only briefly
displayed Harper’s statement concerning M-380 before removing it,
Armenian-Canadian Web sites continue to post the comments. Turkey
responded by officially (temporarily) recalling Ambassador Erman and
formally withdrawing from a joint NATO fighter jet exercise at Cold
Lake, Alberta.
While these actions may seem harmless and petty, it must be remembered
that Turkey is a key NATO ally and a vital partner to the mission
in Afghanistan. More importantly, if Stephen Harper is anxious to
mend fences with the U.S. State Department, he should have first
consulted their position on the Armenian issue. The U.S. does not
insist on using the word “genocide” and they are prepared to wait
for the results of the new study.
As a secular Muslim democracy – that recognizes the state of Israel –
Turkey is the cornerstone to America’s Middle East policies. Thus,
maintaining good relations with Ankara is a high priority for the U.S.
Closer to home, the fanatical elements of the Armenian nationalists
have not always resorted to diplomatic measures to bring attention
to their cause here in Canada. In 1982, an Armenian assailant gunned
down the Turkish military attache, and in 1985 the Turkish ambassador
narrowly escaped being murdered when Armenian gunmen forced their
way into the official residence.
Historical records are all too often written by the victors at the
expense of the vanquished. However, in the case of the Ottomans and
Armenians, both sides lost that war and suffered terrible casualties.
Clarification of this tragedy needs to be addressed by historians
examining the facts, not politicians appeasing a lobby group.
Canada’s current relations with a vital ally and trading partner should
have taken precedence over passing judgment on a 90-year-old incident.
Scott Taylor is a member of the Osprey Writers Group and is publisher
and editor of Esprit de Corps Books & Magazine in Ottawa.

TURKEY NEEDS TO CONFRONT PAST REALITIES
by Harry Sterling, Special to The Windsor Star
Windsor Star (Ontario)
May 17, 2006 Wednesday
Final Edition
‘The Armenian claims are a direct attack on our identity, on Turkey’s
history.”
With these words Turkish embassy counsellor Yonet Tezel explained
his government’s decision to recall its ambassador to Canada, Aydemir
Erman, for “consultations.”
The move followed recent remarks by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper associating his government with Canadian parliamentary
resolutions describing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey
during the First World War as an act of genocide.
Turkey has made a similar move against the French government for
contemplating a proposed law making denial of the Armenian genocide
a crime.
As a further indication of its displeasure, Turkey has announced
it is cancelling participation of Turkish fighter aircraft in an
international military air exercise May 17 to June 24 in Cold Lake,
Alta.
Despite its actions directed at Ottawa and Paris, Turkish authorities
stressed the recalls were only “… for a short time for consultations
over the latest developments about the baseless allegations of
Armenian genocide.”
While the statement by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan was essentially pro-forma, for many it was indicative of
Turkey’s inability to confront an issue that is never going to go
away until the Turks come to terms with it.
Turkish governments have always maintained that the large-scale
deaths of Armenians during the First World War and after occurred
when the then-Ottoman government was trying to put down Armenian
nationalists aligned with invading Russian forces and was not an act
of premeditated genocide.
They also insist the figure of 1.5 million deaths is inflated and
that during that turbulent period hundreds of thousands of Turks in
eastern Turkey also died.
While these explanations are widely shared by the Turkish population,
some Turks have called for a more open-minded approach to the issue,
including Turkey’s internationally recognized author Orhan Pamuk.
He was subjected to widespread criticism and physical threats for
commenting during an interview about the Armenian genocide and
repression of the country’s Kurdish minority, both considered taboo
subjects, especially by Turkish nationalists. He was charged with
denigrating the nation and faced a stiff prison sentence. However,
as a result of international pressure, particularly from the European
Union — which Turkey wants to join — the government dropped the
charges on technical grounds.
A number of Turkish academics have also voiced support for examining
the genocide issue with more of an open mind.
One way to do this would be to open up Ottoman-era archives and other
documentary sources, including Russian military reports that might
shed light on what took place during fighting in the region.
Investigations carried out by German and U.S. analysts concerning the
deaths concluded that the catastrophic defeat of Turkish troops engaged
against Russian forces during the early stages of the First World
War, and the Turkish army’s claim it had been stabbed in the back by
Armenian nationalists, resulted in the Turkish military disarming and
executing countless Armenian men as traitors, regardless of whether
they were engaged in an anti-Turkish insurgency.
The Turkish army purportedly then rounded up Armenian women and
children, ordering their deportation via the Syrian Desert, resulting
in massive deaths.
Turkish authorities dispute such findings, maintaining there was
no official policy to exterminate Armenians and that most deaths
were caused during the deportation to Syria due to lack of adequate
provisions at a chaotic time in eastern Anatolia.
Notwithstanding contradictory views on what transpired nine decades
ago, what is incomprehensible to many outside Turkey is why current-day
Turks are unable to look back on those horrific developments in a
more balanced fashion, instead of insisting Armenian claims have
absolutely no foundation in truth.
One reason that has been cited concerns the Turkish military, seen as
the true power in Turkey. The modern-day Turkish military founded by
Kemal Ataturk has always seen itself as the defender not just of the
country’s independence, but also of its national honour and dignity.
The Turkish officer caste takes its role in society extremely
seriously, even executing a prime minister for allegedly endangering
the stability of the state. Anything that could raise doubts or
undermine the military’s ability to present itself as guardian of
Turkey’s national honour and territorial integrity, or which portrays
Turks behaving in a barbaric fashion, is unacceptable.
This, some claim, is why it’s near impossible to confront the realities
behind the tragic fate of Turkey’s Armenian population 90 years ago
— or Turkey’s treatment of its Kurdish population — since it could
undermine Turkey’s own idealized perception of itself as a modern,
liberal society.
But like Germany, Turkey must confront the realities of the past if
it expects to be accepted as a nation capable of dealing open-mindedly
with its own history, however disagreeable that might be.
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator. He
served in Turkey.

SCUFFLES MAR TRIAL OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN JOURNALIST
Agence France Presse — English
May 16, 2006 Tuesday 2:12 PM GMT
Scuffles and protests by nationalist extremists forced the immediate
adjournment of the trial that began here Tuesday of a prominent
Turkish-Armenian journalist.
Lawyers for Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos, accused a group of far-right lawyers called the Jurists’
Union of disrupting the proceedings.
The organization, led by attorney Kemal Kerincsiz, filed the criminal
complaint that led to the trial of Dink and three colleagues on charges
of attempting to influence the judiciary in columns that appeared in
Agos in October.
Dink, his son and assistant Arat Dink, publisher Serkis Seropyan and
columnist Aydin Engin risk up to four and a half years in jail if
found guilty.
A group led by Kerincsiz demanded to participate in the trial as the
intervening party for having filed the original criminal complaint.
“Kerincsiz came with a crowded team and they harassed us physically
and verbally,” Dink’s attorney Fethiye Cetin told AFP, adding that
she, the defendants and other defense lawyers left the courthouse
under police protection.
Dink said: “When I entered the court room, they came at me shouting,
‘Get out of this country’, and spat at me.”
He said he left the building from a back door under police escort.
The judge adjourned the trial to July 4.
Outside the courthouse, several dozen far-right protestors shouted
“traitors” as the defendants arrived and argued with police for not
being allowed in.
They exchanged punches with a group demonstrating in favor of Dink
with the chant, “They are our intellectuals, our brothers,” an AFP
photographer said.
The incriminated Agos articles criticized Dink’s conviction in
another freedom-of-speech case, in which he received a six-month
suspended sentence for “denigrating the Turkish national identity”
in an article on the Armenian massacres of World War I.
The Jurists’ Union has been behind a series of criminal complaints
against Turkish intellectuals who contest the official version of the
killings, the resulting lawsuits casting a pall on Turkey’s democracy
record at a time when it is seeking to join the European Union.
A public debate on the World War I killings, one of the most
controversial episodes in Turkish history, has only recently begun
in Turkey, often sending nationalist sentiment into a frenzy.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered between
1915 and 1917 in what they, and many Western countries, consider
a genocide.
Turkey categorically rejects the claim and the label, saying 300,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when the
Armenians sided with Russian troops invading Ottoman soil.

ARMENIA AND DIASPORA TO TACKLE NATIONAL TASKS
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 16, 2006 Tuesday 02:21 PM EST
The ways for Armenia and the Armenian diaspora jointly tacking national
tasks were in the focus of attention at the meeting of Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan and members of the General Council of the
World Armenian Congress and the organization’s president Ara Abramyan.
Robert Kocharyan dwelt especially on the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict and international recognition of the Armenian genocide, the
presidential press service told ltar-Tass. The president hailed the
fact that the initiatives of the World Armenian Congress concentrate
increasingly on Armenia and assume nation-wide character.
Ara Abramyan posted the Armenian president on the work of the Tuesday
meeting of the General Council of the World Armenian Congress.
Members of the Council made assurances that they were ready to do their
utmost for fulfilling national tasks and advanced their proposals.
Abramyan said computer classes in 600 secondary schools and other
educational establishments of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh had been
set up with the assistance of the World Armenian Congress and the Union
of Armenians of Russia. This programme is spread to the diaspora. Such
classes have been set up in the Armenian community in Brazil and will
also be formed in Argentine. Computer centres for invalids, orphans and
children from the poor families have been set up in Armenian regions.

TURKEY GENOCIDE CLAIM
Peter Begg With AP
Geelong Information
May 17 2006
GEELONG Province MP John Eren yesterday declined to comment on a
colleague who accused Turkish people of ignoring acts of genocide
early last century.
Parliamentary secretary for justice, Jenny Mikakos, who is of Greek
heritage, told the Upper House that more than 300,000 Pontic Greeks
died in Turkey early last century as a result of genocide.
Mr Eren, who is from Turkey, and another MP with a Turkish background,
Adem Somyurek, reportedly interjected during the speech, but failed
to stop Ms Mikakos.
The female MP claimed more than a million Pontic Greeks were forced
into exile early last century, and in the preceding years, 1.5
million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts of Turkey
also perished.
Mr Eren was born in Turkey and immigrated to Australia with his family
when he was six years old.
Earlier yesterday Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said the MP’s
parliamentary speech was a sign of free speech at work.
In a short speech to the Victorian Upper House during the last session
of parliament, Ms Mikakos reportedly said: “On May 19, the Pontian
community in Victoria and around the world will commemorate the
87th anniversary of the Pontian genocide that occurred in present-
day Turkey.
“Between 1916 and 1923, over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia
Minor and in Pontus, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result of
the 20th century’s first but less-known genocide,” Fairfax reported
her as saying.
“Over a million Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding
years, 1.5 million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts
of Turkey also perished.”
Two Labor MPs of Turkish descent, Mr Somyurek and Mr Eren, interjected
but Ms Mikakos continued speaking.
“The Turkish government must begin the reconciliation process by
acknowledging these crimes against humanity. The suffering of the
victims of the Pontian genocide cannot and will not be forgotten,”
she said.
The comments, made under a system of 90-second free statements for
MPs established by the Bracks Government, have outraged Turkish and
Jewish groups.
But Mr Bracks yesterday said Ms Mikakos, one of two members for
the safe Jika Jika province in Melbourne’s north, was free to make
the speech.
.asp?articleid=19791

BLACK BOXES FROM CRASHED A-320 TO BE HANDED OVER TO AIRBUS
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 16, 2006 Tuesday
When recovered from the Black Sea bottom, the cockpit voice and flight
data recorders from the crashed A-320 liner of the Armenian air
carrier Armavia will be handed over to the bureau of investigation
of the aircraft-building concern Airbus, the owner of the company
that operated the lost plane, Mikhail Bagdasarov, has told the media.
The voice and flight data recorders have special codes known only to
Airbus specialists, Bagdasarov said. There is a possibility Russian
and Armenian experts will be invited to participate in retrieving
and interpreting flight data.
The crew of the Armenian liner was a well-trained one, the plane
itself was in normal technical condition and it had enough fuel,
the air carrier’s owner said.
“True, the weather in the area of Sochi’s Adler airport was bad,
but not so bad to prevent an Airbus plane from landing safely,”
Bagdasarov said.
Representatives of the British insurance company are arriving in
Yerevan later on Tuesday.
“We have been conducting negotiations with them. It looks like the
insurer is prepared to pay compensations to the relatives of all 113
victims of the disaster,” Bagdasarov said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

DEEP WATER ROBOT RT-1000 REACHES SEABED AT A-320 CRASH SCENE
by Dmitry Nezdorovin
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 16, 2006 Tuesday
The RT-1000 deep water robotic device has reached the seabed in the
Black Sea at the site of the crash of the Armenian airbus A-320 in
order to spot and lift from the water two flight data recorders of the
plane, the operation’s technical support headquarters told Itar-Tass
on Tuesday.
According to the head of the Russian Transport Ministry’s sea and
river transport agency Rosmorrechtrans, Alexander Davydenko, the
RT-1000 had earlier not taken part in such operations and only lifted
from the seabed geological samples of less than 20 kilogrammes from
minor depths. “In these conditions the robot is capable of lifting
the plane’s fragments under 12 kilogrammes and two flight recorders
weighing seven kilogrammes each,” Davydenko indicated.
RT-1000 is c complex consisting of three parts, the largest is a
container with control equipment. The next segment with photo and
television equipment will go to the bottom of the sea and examine it.
The third device is a hydraulic elevating manipulator working in all
directions. “The RT-1000 is working at a depth of up to 500 metres
in an area of 20×20 metres. The robot will inspect the territory by
inches,” said the Rosmorrechtrans head.
The operation is conducted from board the Navigator special ship.

RT-1000 DEEP WATER ROBOT BEGINS A-320 BLACK BOXES LIFTING
by Dmitry Nezdorovin
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 16, 2006 Tuesday
The RT-1000 deep water device on Tuesday began a dive into the Black
Sea at the site of the crash of the Armenian airbus A-320 in order to
spot and lift from the water two flight data recorders of the plane,
the operation’s technical support headquarters told Itar-Tass. The
operation is conducted from board the Navigator special ship.
The Navigator ship with the robot was in the designated area at 06:20,
Moscow time and the crew began the operation, Itar-Tass was told by
telephone from the Navigator. The robot was installed on the ship
on Monday.
The robot was brought to Sochi from Novorossiisk on board the Kapitan
Beklemishev rescue vessel on Monday.
Last week specialists tested the robot in the area of the Tonky cape
just opposite Gelendzhik. According to the head of the special ship’s
crew, specialist of the Yuzhmorgeologiya federal state institution
Igor Lagoida, the apparatus was designed for lifting geological
specimens form the seabed and examining underwater oil and natural
gas pipelines. It is for the first time to fulfil the task of lifting
a plane’s black boxes.
According to the head of the Russian Transport Ministry’s sea and
river transport agency Rosmorrechtrans, Alexander Davydenko, the
RT-1000 had earlier not taken part in such operations and only lifted
from the seabed geological samples of less than 20 kilogrammes from
minor depths. “In these conditions the robot is capable of lifting
the plane’s fragments under 12 kilogrammes and two flight recorders
weighing seven kilogrammes each,” Davydenko indicated.
RT-1000 is c complex consisting of three parts, the largest is a
container with control equipment. The next segment with photo and
television equipment will go to the bottom of the sea and examine it.
The third device is a hydraulic elevating manipulator working in all
directions. “The RT-1000 will work at a depth of up to 500 metres
in an area of 20×20 metres. The robot will inspect the territory by
inches,” said the Rosmorrechtrans head.
According to captain of the Navigator Ivan Bezborodov, “The vessel has
a system of dynamic positioning that allows it to stay in a circle 10
metres in radius, which will make it possible for the robotic device
to work normally in deep sea.
The operation is expected to take three days.
Accoridng to available information, the plane’s flight data recorders
are at a depth of 496 metres, the distance between the recorders is
some five metres.
The airbus A-320 of the Armavia company fell into the Black Sea on
the night of May 3 during landing approach at the Sochi airport. The
catastrophe claimed the lives of 113 people.

RUSSIAN MILITARY HARDWARE QUITS GEORGIA IN BASE CLOSURE
Agence France Presse — English
May 15, 2006 Monday 9:39 AM GMT
A special train began transporting Russian tanks and other military
hardware from Georgia Monday in line with an agreement to shut down
Moscow’s last military bases in the strategic ex-Soviet republic.
The train carried tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other
vehicles from the Akhalkalaki military base in southern Georgia,
an AFP reporter at the scene said.
To reach Russia, on the other side of the Caucasus mountains range,
the train must first wind east through Georgia’s neighbour Azerbaijan,
the deputy commander of Russia’s forces in Georgia, Vladimir Kuparadze,
said.
The base “will be completely closed by the end of the year. A part
of the equipment will be delivered to the Gyumri base in Armenia”,
Kuparadze told AFP.
Under the agreement reached in May last year, Russia is also closing
another base at Batumi, on the Black Sea coast, with the closure due
for completion in 2008.
The deal resolved a long-standing source of tension between Georgia
and Russia, with the government in Tbilisi accusing Moscow of using
the military presence to undermine the country’s independence.
Under a 1999 agreement, Russia is also supposed to have already closed
another military base, the Gudauta base, in the province of Abkhazia.
However, the region is ruled by pro-Russian separatists and Georgia’s
government says it has not been able to verify the closure.
Relations between the two countries have worsened since Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in 2004 vowing closer
integration with the West and promising to take his country into the
Western-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Georgia has become a strategic battleground as the West sees it as an
important route for westward exports of oil and gas from Central Asia.
The closure of the base at Akhalkalaki has prompted objections from
local residents concerned that they will incur economic losses as
a result.

NO CONSOLIDATION OF ARMENIAN COMMUNITIES OF WORLD YET
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
May 17, 2006 Wednesday 03:28 PM EST
Despite all its efforts, the World Armenian Congress has not yet
achieved complete consolidation of Armenian communities in the world,
Ara Abramyan, the president of the World Armenian Congress and of
the Union of Armenians of Russia, told a news conference on Wednesday
evening, summing up the results of the meeting of the General Council
of the congress.
Abramyan, a prominent public figure and entrepreneur of Russia, said,
“The World Armenian Congress now has an opportunity to form chapters
in various countries, but the problem is the communities are not yet
ready for this.” Therefore, the Yerevan meeting emphasized the need to
create effective mechanisms of cooperation of Armenian communities in
various countries and to overcome the existing difficulties, Abramyan
said. He believes the Armenian authorities can do much in this matter.
Despite difficulties that existed in relations with the Armenian
authorities earlier, there are presently no differences between
the World Armenian Congress and state structures of the republic,
Abramyan said.
The World Armenian Congress will participate in Armenia’s political
life in as much as the country’s laws permit and it is useful for
the republic, Abramyan said. “Half a million Armenian citizens reside
in Russia now, and I cannot remain indifferent to the policy of the
republic,” he said. “This does not mean that we will interfere in the
political processes,” he said. “Whoever may come to office in Armenia,
the World Armenian Congress will cooperate with the authorities,”
Abramyan said.