THE CONVERSATION OF KOCHARYAN AND ALIEV WAS NOT MADE PUBLIC
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[01:25 pm] 05 June, 2006
Yesterday Robert Kocharyan met Ilham Aliev in Romania.
The conversation lasted several hours. After the meeting the Presidents
did not meet the journalists and no information was given about the
course of negotiations.
The meeting took place in the Polish Embassy in Romania. The
negotiations about the peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict
took place at the presence of the OSCE Chairman-in-office Karel de
Gucht, the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs, personal representative of the
OSCE CiO, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk and the Foreign Ministers of
Armenia and Azerbaijan. By the way, after the meeting the Presidents
took part in the supper together with the President of Romania.
Robert Kocharyan and Ilham Aliev may have another meeting today, and
the journalists hope that they will get information about the meeting
today during the Dialogue and Cooperation Black Sea Summit. Before
the summit Kocharyan is to meet OSCE Chairman-in-office Karel de
Gucht and the EU special envoy to South Caucasus.

TURKEY’S HISTORY IS FULL OF GANGS
Sedat Bozkurt
The New Anatolian
June 5 2006
Turkey’s history can be seen as a kind of history of gangs. In the
Ottoman Empire, leaving aside the ones in major cities or within the
state, there were always gangs or individual rebellion leaders in
the mountains of Anatolia, who are, even today, still hailed as heroes.
With the republic, the identities of the gangs have changed. Because
the War of Independence was waged by an organization then called
a gang by the empire’s administrators. The gangs were sought and
sometimes found deep within the state.
One of the most important turning points in the issue of gangs was
the 1980 military coup. Before the coup, the gangs were the mafia,
and arms smuggling was one of their chief sources of income. Those
gangs had international connections and were under the control of NATO,
a product of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. “Deep gangs”
were giving the same gun both to the left and the right-wing, by which
they were killing each other. The aim of the right-wing and nationalist
groups was to stop the expansion of Russia. Since the gangs’ and NATO’s
goals were common, mostly the right-wing was getting this support.
Conditions matured for the carrying out the 1980 coup, and finally
a message was sent to the U.S. administration: “Our boys managed it”.
Alparslan Turkes, then the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP), said their ideology was in power while they were in prison.
And the leaders of the coup were giving new missions to the members
they used to stop the Russian threat. Fighting terrorist group the
Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA). In return
for this, the MHP members who were being tried were acquitted.
(The nationalists who were left behind by the state became important
figures in a new business: collecting bounced checks. This was the
first step of a new type of gang in Turkey and this model survived
for long time, enjoyed the support of the state or the police)
We came across the heroes of this period in mafia, politician,
and state connections, which were revealed after the 1996 Susurluk
scandal. Murdered MIT members, casino kings and many Kurdish
businessmen… The concept of gang, mafia and deep state were changed
after the Susurluk scandal.
The collaborators of those who were involved in fishy business in the
name of state were all in illegal actions and were called gangs. And
those people, after a while, stopped working for the state and became
the real mafia. So gangs, in which there were soldiers, military
officers, high-ranking police officers and MIT administrators, emerged.
Hanefi Avci, who was then the police intelligence department acting
head and now is Edirne police chief, best described the Susurluk
connections. In his testimony at the parliamentary commission
probing the Susurluk scandal, he claimed that there was an “illegal”
organization established within the state to fight terrorism. He
also said this organization then became a gang, which was established
within the MIT, the police and Gendarmerie Intelligence (JITEM).
Mehmet Agar, Korkut Eken, Ibrahim Sahin from the police, Mehmet
Eymur, Duran Firat and Kasif Binbasi from the MIT and Lt. Col. Veli
Kucuk from JITEM were in this organization and involved in numerous
illegal actions under the leadership of Ahmet Cem Ersever, who was
later killed by Kemal Uzuner (a.k.a Cubuklu), a driver working at
JITEM, said Avci. He also said Abdullah Catli, an ultranationalist and
suspect of a political mass-killing in the late ’70s was both used by
the MIT and the police, and Alaattin Cakici, a mafi! a leader was used
by the MIT. Abdullah Catli, his partner in crime Haluk Kirci and drug
smuggler Yasar Oz might be in the civil wing of the gang and conducted
many operations in the southeast region and were active in Istanbul,
doing operations against some businessman.
In the same period some other illegal organizations that could be
related to the state were discovered: the Soylemezler Gang, Hadi
Ozcan Gang, Yuksekova Gang etc. In all of them there were soldiers,
policemen, mafia leaders and an informant who once was a member of
the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The names connecting those people
were all the same.
What those gangs have turned into was very interesting, since a new
gang supported by certain people within the state plotted a coup in a
neighboring state, and some other people within the state prevented
this plot. And in another neighboring state, some circles within
the state prevented an assassination attempt by the state on the
leader of the terrorist organization. In another case the Turkish
Revenge Brigade (TIT), alleged to have connections with the MIT and
the military, was behind the assassination attempt on Human Rights
Association head Akin Birdal.
The Eurasia Ferryboat was hijacked to attract attention to the Russian
pressure in Chechnya and later the suspects one by one escaped from
Turkish prisons. And all of them had connections to the MIT. Journalist
Abdi Ipekci’s murder, the attempts to assassinate the late pope and
former President Turgut Ozal, and the murder of businessman Ozdemir
Sabanci were all remembered for their connections to gangs, which
were this or that way supported by the state.
For this reason whenever the state connection is discovered in a fishy
business in Turkey, the Susurluk scandal comes to mind. The recent
bombing of a bookstore in Hakkari’s Semdinli in which soldiers were
actively involved was called another Susurluk case. Also the attack
on the Council of State and the subsequent discovery of the Atabeyler
gang in Ankara.
Indeed all were different gangs and the only thing they have in
common with the Susurluk scandal was that all have members from the
police and the military, which in a way connected those gangs to the
state. On the other hand the most important difference was that no
name from the MIT was involved in them.
The nationalist and the military connections in recently discovered
gangs are interesting. The way that certain information was leaked to
the press regarding the issue was an intelligence type. And also the
address that information points out. But none of them have concrete
relations with the state, as was the case with Susurluk. When we take
a look at the recent gangs, we see that they felt themselves in charge
of serving the state. And those who discovered them are feeling in
charge of distracting attention from the issue. In sum, it seems that
Turkey will be struggling with those gangs for some more time.

AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA PRESIDENTS CONTINUE TALKS IN BUCHAREST ON REGULATION OF NK CONFLICT
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006
President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and president of Armenia Robert
Kocharyan held talks in Bucharest on regulation of Nagorno Garabagh
conflict.
Eastern Europe bureau of APA reports that the meeting was held at first
between Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Armenian
foreign minister Vardan Oskanian, OSCE Minsk Group co- chairs – Yuri
Merzlyakov (Russia), Steven Mann (the USA), Bernar Fasie (France),
OSCE chairman in -office, foreign minister of Belgium Karl de Gucht,
OSCE chairman personal representative Andrzey Kasprzyk, then presidents
met in private. No information is given about the meeting results which
lasted for 4 hours. Presidents will continue the talks today at 16.00.
It should be noted that President Ilham Aliyev visiting Bucharest to
participate in Forum “Black Sea for Dialogue and Partnership”, has
met with Romania president Trayan Basescu. In the meeting state heads
discussed development ways of bilateral relations, Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict settlement was the objective of the talks. Ilham Aliyev has
stated that position of Azerbaijan in the meeting is unchangeable in
the meeting. “We are for the settlement of the conflict within the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.”
Ilham Aliyev met with ex-president of Romania, senator Ion Iliyesku,
visited the monument of Heydar Aliyev built in 2004 and lay flowers
to the monument.
Today in Bucharest Forum “Black Sea for Dialogue and Partnership”
starts in Bucharest with participation of series of countries
leaders’ participation as well as with participation of Ilham Aliyev,
international organization leaders. /APA/ Azerbaijan and Armenia
presidents continue talks in Bucharest on regulation of Nagorno
Garabagh conflict
05.06.2006. BAKU. President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and president
of Armenia Robert Kocharyan held talks in Bucharest on regulation of
Nagorno Garabagh conflict. Eastern Europe bureau of APA reports that
the meeting was held at first between Azerbaijani foreign minister
Elmar Mammadyarov and Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanian,
OSCE Minsk Group co- chairs – Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), Steven
Mann (the USA), Bernar Fasie (France), OSCE chairman in -office,
foreign minister of Belgium Karl de Gucht, OSCE chairman personal
representative Andrzey Kasprzyk, then presidents met in private. No
information is given about the meeting results which lasted for 4
hours. Presidents will continue the talks today at 16.00.
It should be noted that President Ilham Aliyev visiting Bucharest to
participate in Forum “Black Sea for Dialogue and Partnership”, has
met with Romania president Trayan Basescu. In the meeting state heads
discussed development ways of bilateral relations, Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict settlement was the objective of the talks. Ilham Aliyev has
stated that position of Azerbaijan in the meeting is unchangeable in
the meeting. “We are for the settlement of the conflict within the
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.”
Ilham Aliyev met with ex-president of Romania, senator Ion Iliyesku,
visited the monument of Heydar Aliyev built in 2004 and lay flowers
to the monument.
Today in Bucharest Forum “Black Sea for Dialogue and Partnership”
starts in Bucharest with participation of series of countries
leaders’ participation as well as with participation of Ilham Aliyev,
international organization leaders.

ROMANIA HOSTS BLACK SEA SUMMIT
PRAVDA, Russia
June 5 2006
The main topics on the summit’s agenda would be environment protection,
regional cooperation, joint energy projects, combatting cross-border
crime and improving infrastructure.
Among those attending were Presidents Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine,
Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia, Robert Kocharian of Armenia, Vladimir
Voronin of Moldova and Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan, as well as officials
from Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece and Lithuania.
Top officials from NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, the United Nations and the Council of Europe are also
attending the summit, the AP reports.
Kocharian and Aliev are expected to hold talks on the status of
Nagorno-Karabakh on the sidelines of the summit. Talks between the two
leaders in France in February ended in failure, despite international
mediators’ efforts to push the leaders to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh’s
status.
Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan but populated mostly by ethnic
Armenians, who have run it since an uneasy 1994 cease-fire ended six
years of full-scale war. Sporadic border clashes have grown more
frequent since the breakdown of talks. The lack of resolution has
hindered development throughout the strategic region.
Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia directly border
the Black Sea, which is one of the world’s most polluted seas.
Its only outlet to outside seas is via the Bosphorus Straits.

AZERBAIJAN TRIES TO SUBMIT NEXT DOCUMENT TO JUNE SESSION OF PACE ON AGGRESSIVE POLICY OF ARMENIA
Author: J.Shahverdiyev
TREND, Azerbaijan
June 5 2006
We try to submit the next document to the June session of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on aggressive
policy of Armenia, Rafael Huseynov, the member of the Azerbaijani
delegation in the PACE, informed Trend.
Huseynov noted that the document is submitted to be familiarized and
signed by the members of the committee. He stressed that yet there is
no necessity to announce the title of the document. Huseynov pointed
out that the subject of the document has officially been adopted and
will not be announced until publication. “Because the opposite side
may take several measures to prevent the document,” told Huseynov. He
gave brief information about the importance of the document. Huseynov
stated that the main importance of the document is related to the
results of the aggressive was held by Armenians against Azerbaijan.
Besides, Huseynov ruled out that the primary goal was to receive a
support for the document and after that, submit it to the discussions
of the spring session of the PACE.
Furthermore, Huseynov spelled out that on June 7, he would attend the
meeting of the PACE committee on legal affairs and human rights. “The
agenda of the meeting doesn’t include the issue about Azerbaijan.
Several issues related to human rights will be discussed at the
meeting where I will also participate,” said Huseynov.

ARMENIANS OF MOSCOW ARE COMPLAINING
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[02:09 pm] 05 June, 2006
The Armenian community of Moscow has started a series of rallies in
memory of the victims of the skinheads. The organizers of one of the
rallies were young people from the Armenian community of Moscow and
the nearby areas.
Students and lecturers of the Moscow State University, representatives
of NGOs and members of the Armenian Intellectuals’ Union participated
in the rally. By the way, the Union of Armenians in Russia refrained
from participating in the June 3 rally saying that it was not allowed
by the authorities, newspaper “Yerkramas” informs.
Let remind you that on May 25 19-year-old Arthur Sardaryan was
killed. The experts think that the murder was committed at the present
of at least 20 eyewitnesses/ On April 22 Vigen Abramyants was killed
in the Moscow Underground. No one has been arrested up to day.

RUSSIA’S SISTEMA EYEING ARMENTEL
TeleGeography, D.C.
June 5 2006
Russia’s Sistema Group has submitted a tender offer to acquire
Armenian fixed line operator ArmenTel, the company’s chairman
Vladimir Yevtushenkov told journalists today. Although Sistema does
not consider the purchase a strategic priority, the company says the
acquisition would make sense from the point of view of expanding to
cover all former Soviet Union countries. ArmenTel is the dominant
telecoms company of Armenia. OTE of Greece holds 90% of its shares,
while 10% belongs to the Armenian government.

ARMEN HOVNANIAN: SODA JERK ROSE TO DRUGSTORE EXEC
By Stan Donaldson
Free Press Staff Writer
Detroit Free Press, MI
June 5 2006
Armen Hovnanian
It didn’t take long for Armen Hovnanian to know what he wanted to do
with his life.
At 13, while working as a soda jerk at a Detroit pharmacy in the 1940s,
he told his parents and siblings his dream of becoming a pharmacist.
Later, as a student at Central High School in Detroit, he worked
in a pharmacy after school to learn the ropes of the business. He
used that knowledge to become a leader in one of Michigan’s largest
drugstore chains during the 1970s.
“I always thought he was a brilliant man,” said his sister, Mary
Keoleian of Farmington Hills.
Mr. Hovnanian of Farmington Hills died Friday at Beaumont Hospital
in Royal Oak of emphysema. He was 76.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Mr. Hovnanian’s family moved to Detroit while
he was an infant.
After graduating high school in 1947, he attended the Detroit Institute
of Technology and graduated in 1951 with a pharmacy degree.
A short time later, he was drafted into the Army and served during
World War II for two years as a lab technician.
Mr. Hovnanian met his wife, Suzanne, while working for the Cunningham
Drugstore chain. They were married 33 years.
He was promoted to executive vice president of the company in 1971 and
was responsible for sales. He helped the store develop the concept
of a one-stop drugstore, which sold pharmacy items along with other
merchandise. He worked for the company for nearly 30 years.
He loved classical music and was a Detroit Tigers baseball fan.
In addition to his wife and sister, Mr. Hovnanian is survived by a son,
Michael; and two sisters.
A funeral service is set for 11 a.m. today at St. John’s Armenian
Church, 22001 Northwestern Highway, Southfield.

ANOTHER SAD STORY – RED KURDISTAN
By Nizameddin Rzayev
KurdishMedia.com
Kurdish Media, UK
June 5 2006
As a Kurd born in Red Kurdistan, the Kurdish area tucked away between
Armenia and Azerbaijan and speaking very little Kurdish, ever since
my childhood I became aware of our certain cultural differences from
the rest of people-Azeris and Armenians around us. Although, I grew
up speaking Azerbaijani, a branch of Turkic languages and some broken
Russian, we still had a lot of strange-sounding, different words in
our everyday language which were not used by Azeris. Afterwards I
found out that these words were borrowed from Kurmanci which was our
original language before being assimilated into speaking Azerbaijani.
Some of the oldest community members were still able to speak Kurdish
but since they belonged to the past that Soviet citizens had to
dispense with in order to absorb “progressive” cosmopolitan communist
ideals, they were in no position to pass on our cultural heritage and
native language to us. Later my Mom told me that whenever her father
and aunt did not want the children and outsiders to understand what
they were talking about they switched from Azeri to Kurdish. All this
knowledge further inflamed my insatiable, childish curiosity to delve
into the mysterious past of my small part of Greater Kurdistan.
When we went to other parts of Azerbaijan and Armenia the locals
called us Kurds or “Mountaineers” interchangeably. They sometimes
sympathetically made fun of us because of our strict adherence to
honor, self restraint and pride. For instance, we would seldom go to
police or court if two people had any personal differences, viewing it
a less manly means. There would always be older, respected member of
our community there mediating to settle any problem. We could speak
Azerbaijani fluently but with a distinct accent peculiar to only
Kurds. We were on good terms with both Azeris and Armenians until the
Karabax war threw us on the same side of battle with Azerbaijanis as
their fellow citizens against Armenians.
Armenians evidently made no distinction between Moslem Kurds and Azeris
when they captured all districts one by one that made up former Red
Kurdistan adjacent to Nagorno Karabax. The irony was that Yezidi
Kurds living in Armenia were fiercest Armenian soldiers fighting
against their own brethren in Lachin and Kelbajar.
When I come to think about it, I tend to believe that the very same
religious affinity with Azerbaijanis had been a big facilitating
factor in the linguistic assimilation and loss of national identity
of so many Kurds over the decades.
I had so many questions yearning for answer in my head about our
Kurdish roots and history that I always bombarded my grandfather
who could speak a broken Kurdish and other older people with my
never-ending questions. But I was always disappointed not to find
any reliable source exploring our national saga partly because any
form of asserting national identity under Soviet Union was strongly
discouraged and partly because most of the people in this part of
Kurdistan had lost their history. The assimilation policy ruthlessly
pursued against Kurds by the central government of Soviet Azerbaijan
and isolation from their brethren in the “mainland” Kurdistan had
done irreparable damage to Kurdish culture and language.
There were two theories voiced by elders as to the history of our
community, one being that our grandfathers were moved as a part of 24
Kurdish tribes by Shah Abbas of Iran in 16th century from different
parts of Irani Kurdistan and Xorasan to the Caucasus to fortify the
borders of Safavids against Ottomans. But my grandfather claimed
that we had come to the Caucasus from modern-day Southern Kurdistan
(around modern Mosul, Kirkuk cities) 300 years before since our tribes
(Ferihkhani) was one of the recalcitrant Kurdish tribes refusing to
pay taxes to Ottomans. Thus, our true history was lost in the clouds
of history and ruthless fate that befell Kurds in all the parts of
our rightful homeland. Later I found out that Kurds had lived in the
Caucasus since time immemorial, establishing strong Kurdish dynasties
like Sheddadites, Revvadites that ruled big parts of modern-day
Azerbaijan in 9th -13th centuries. Thus, there had always been Kurds
in Red Kurdistan and other parts of Azerbaijan such as Nakhchevan
before we came to settle in these beautiful, picturesque lands.
Kurds had left their indelible imprint on the folklore, music,
literature and history of Azerbaijan. Old Mugams such as Kurd-Ovshari,
Bayati-Kurd, Kurd-Shahnaz are still considered to be the best
examples of classic music in modern-day Azerbaijan. In a famous epoch
“Koroglu”, the bravery of “Kurdoglu” (Kurd’s son) against feudal
pashas and landowners in redressing their injustices towards the
poor and dispossessed is so exulted and praised. The world-famous
classic of Azerbaijan literature Nizami Gencevi (1141-1209) devoted
his famous poem “Xeyir and Sher” to the good deeds and virtues of
a Kurdish girl and her rich farther, praising in so many words her
beauty, compassion, generosity towards the helpless “Xeyir” by saving
him from hunger and death.
During the heydays of perestroika launched by the last head of
former Soviet Union, Gorbachov, there was a renewed interest in
Kurdish culture and language. Late Shamil Askerov, a poet, tireless
researcher and scholar on Kurdology born in Kelbajar were able to
introduce Kurdish language classes in some Kurdish village schools. I
remember how proud little Kurdish boys and girls were of new Kurdish
words and phrases they had learned in school in my village called
Zeylik. Unfortunately those good days were short-lived when the bloody
Karabax war put an end to this initiative by dispersing all the Kurds
around different corners of Azerbaijan.
Kurds lived in Red Kurdistan made up of four administrative
units-Kelbajar, Lachin, Gubadly, Zengilan and part of Jebrail
until 1993 when a long lasting bloody conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia over Nagorno Karabax drove all the Kurds out of their
ancestral homeland. The founding and abolishment of Red Kurdistan is
somewhat shrouded in mystery.
The tale related by our elders had it that Lenin personally gave the
order to establish the Red Kurdistan. Nevertheless, there are certain
facts that shed some light on the real story of this first-ever
Kurdish Autonomy in modern history. Red Kurdistan was officially
set up on July 7, 1923 by the decision of a Special Committee (The
official Russian name was Kurdistanski Uezd), confirmed on July17
by the Executive Board of the Committee headed by S. Kirov, a high
Bolshevik functionary. But the degree of autonomy granted on us paled
in comparison to that of neighboring ethnic Armenians in Nagorno
Garabax Autonomous Province. Kurdistanski Uezd was dissolved on April
8, 1929 after the Sixth Azerbaijani Congress of Soviets authorized
the structural reshuffling of the administrative units.
Again on May 30, 1930 Central Executive Committee of Azerbaijan
made the decision to establish Kurdistanski Okrug, Lachin chosen
as its capital which also included other Kurdish districts-Zengilan
and part of Jebrail rayonys (districts) that had been left out when
Kurdistanski Uezd was created. But the Okrug only existed 2 and half
months before the Central Executive Committee of Soviets and Council
of People’s Commissar liquidated the Kurdistani Okrug on July 23,
1930. Interestingly, liquidation sidestepped the neighboring Nagorno
Karabax Autonomous Province mostly because of the influence and strong
resistance of Armenian communists in Moscow and Baku.
The role of nationalist Azeri beauracrats in this unjust decision
for Kurds was probably substantial since there they had all the
interest in the total assimilation of Azerbaijani Kurds and did
not face any strong resistance from the mostly uneducated Kurdish
Communities. By that time almost half the Kurds (mostly young
generation) in this autonomous province had been assimilated into
substituting widely-spoken Azerbaijani for their native Kurdish. The
different official sources put the size of Kurdish population in Red
Kurdistan at 60.000 after the October Revolution (1917) excluding
the sizable Kurdish communities in Nakhchevan and other parts of
Azerbaijan. To make matters worse, the official census taken in 1921
manipulated the real number of the Kurds by reclassifying those who
did not speak Kurdish as a first language as “Azerbaijanis”. It is
not surprising since Baku had no interest in the revival of Kurdish
culture and national awareness among the young generation.
During this short-lived relative autonomy and a short period afterwards
there were several government-sponsored expeditions led by V. Susoev,
Chursin, orientalist V. Gurko, Kriyazhin, into the region to study
the language, culture of the highlander Kurds.
Several articles on the Kurds of Soviet Azerbaijan were published in a
communist newspaper “Zariya Vostoka” as a result of these expeditions.
Conference on national minorities was held in Baku in June 1931.
Soviet author A Bukhspan published a very useful detailed booklet
on the Kurds of Azerbaijan, traveling to lots of Kurdish villages
and settlements in Kelbajar, Lachin and Nakchevan after the Moscow
reproved Baku for its neglectful and chauvinistic policy towards the
Kurdish minority. Around 30 Kurdish books were published in Azerbaijan
between 1930 and 1938 despite the red tape and purposeful neglect
by official Baku. Red Kurdistanis were briefly able to take Kurdish
summer classes in 1931; the same year the newspaper “Soviet Kurdistan”
was founded in Lachin; Kurdish Department was established at Shusha
Pedagogical College In 1932 where my late grandfather, Jafar Ahmedov
was sent as a teacher. For many years to come he would be deeply
involved in the education of mountainous communities of Kelbajar and
Lachin. His leadership and commitment to spreading education among
the Kurdish villagers earned him a Lenin Order, one of the highest
awards of Soviet Union.
This relative revival of Kurdish national awareness was cut short by
Stalin’s notorious 1937- 1938 repression that was implemented with
unheard of brutality by Mirrcefer Bagirov, the communist leader of
Soviet Azerbaijan. The repression resulted in the closing of all
Kurdish language schools and publication. Thousands of Kurds from
Nakhchivan and Red Kurdistan were deported to Central Asian republics
-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. My grandfather’s family
was one of these unfortunate Kurdish families who were deprived of
all their possessions and property, declared the “enemy of people”
because of their former landowner’s status, and exiled under inhuman
conditions to Central Asia.
Later, some but not all of these families made it back to their
homeland after this nightmare period was over. Unsurprisingly, most
of the Kurds in Central Asia nowadays are the descendents of those
Kurdish families deported from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia during
the repression years.
The deplorable situation for Kurdish culture and self-awareness did not
change much even after the repression was eased with Stalin’s death.
Nevertheless, there were sporadic expeditions and published work by
Russian kurdologists such as T. Aristova (1957), K. Kromov(1961) Ch.
Bakaev(1960), a Yezidi Kurd by background, that dealt with the dialect
and culture of Azerbaijani Kurds despite obstructions of Baku.
Bakhaev found out the presence of considerable concentration of
Kurdish communities in other parts of Azerbaijan such as Xachmaz,
Ismayilli, Yevlax. He also noted that Kurdish language fluency had
remarkably deteriorated among the Azerbaijani Kurds, particularly
among the young generation, Nakhchevani Kurds being an exception.
Their studies provide some useful but not convincing information on
the size of Kurdish population and Kurdish settlements in the country
since they extensively relied on official census data.
The policy of wiping out all the traces of Kurdish culture is
confirmed by the official census taken in 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989
in Soviet Azerbaijan which manipulated the size of Kurdish minority
of Azerbaijan to a greater extent by reclassifying most of the Kurds
as “Azerbaijani”. The result was ridiculously low statistic for the
size of Kurdish population in the country: 1,487 Kurds in 1959, 5,
488 Kurds in 1970, 5,676 Kurds in 1979, 12,226 Kurds in 1989.
Besides, all the other new settlements in Red Kurdistan that had
brunched out from the older Kurdish villages were reclassified
as Azerbaijani villages purely because of the fact that the young
brainwashed inhabitants in these settlements used Azerbaijani as their
first language. (The widely-accepted consensus today is that there are
at least 500,000 Kurds in Azerbaijan, a country of 8 million, excluding
those who have been completely assimilated whereas the official data
only admits the presence of 13-14 thousand Kurds in Azerbaijan)
The biggest disaster was still ahead for Red Kurdistan. The
Upper Karabakh War Btween Armenia and Azerbaijan broke out
in 1988 after the Armenian nationalists of Nagorno Karabakh
and Armenia demanded separation of this autonomous province
from Azerbaijan. The long-lasting conflict(1988-1995) had dire
consequences for the population of Red Kurdistan: All the Kurdish
settlements and districts were occupied by Armenian forces with the
military support of Russia. The fierce rivalry for power in Baku
and consequent confrontation between the different factions of
unorganized National Army rendered Azerbaijani troops completely
unable to defend the territories of the Republic, losing all
the districts of Red Kurdistan – Lachin (1992), Kelbajar(1993),
Zengilan(1993), Gubadli(1993),Cebrayil(1993) to Armenian forces
without any resistance. As a result, the inhabitants of this former
Kurdish Autonomy were driven out of their homelands and scattered
around different parts of Azerbaijan.
Most of the displaced Kurdish population still lives in refugee tents
and temporary settlements under harsh circumstances, waiting to turn
back to their native homelands for over 13 years. The negotiations
between Azerbaijan and Armenia to find a peaceful solution for
resolving the conflict has produced no results so far. The Kurdish
Cultural Center -“Ronayi”, is virtually unable to promote the Kurdish
culture and language among the young assimilated Kurds because of lack
of funding and watchful eye of government with evident pressure from
Turkey. The dispersal of the Kurdish communities around the different
corners of the country further complicates the task of putting up
a common front to save our culture and language from the verge of
extinction. However, a lot can be done to help revive the Kurdish
culture in Azerbaijan by working towards practical goals such as
opening Kurdish language courses and schools, providing the material
to teach Kurdish, sending the young Kurds of Azerbaijan to study in
cities like Suleymani, Hawler of Southern Kurdistan. In this respect,
the Kurdish Diaspora in Europe, Kurdistan Regional Government and
higher Kurdish officials of Iraq today can play an important role in
improving the lot of these communities and facilitating the revival
of our cultural heritage on the brink of extinction.

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT TO TAKE SUMMER RECESS WITH ONE DEPUTY SPEAKER
Armenpress
June 05 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 5, ARMENPRESS: Members of the Armenian National Assembly
have agreed today to put off election of a deputy parliament until
autumn when they will be back from the summer recess. The position
of one of two deputy parliament speakers became vacant after Tigran
Torosian from the Republican Party of prime minister Margarian was
elected parliament chairman to replace the former speaker Arthur
Baghdasarian.
During a Q&A session in the parliament today prime minister Margarian
said his party was not afraid of taking up the second important
position in the country, in addition to the third important position of
prime minister. “We never avoid shouldering responsibility, especially
that we still have a duty to fulfill. Our party went to the polls in
2003 with specific programs and knowing what sort of a burden it may
shoulder,’ he said.
Margarian said his party will decide only next February or March
either to participate in 2007 parliamentary elections alone or in an
alliance with another force of forces. He said the Republican party
hopes to win as many seats as it has now.