AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Oct 15 2005
FOREIGN MINISTER ELMAR MAMMADYAROV VISITS EGYPT
[October 16, 2005, 23:22:04]
Baku, 16 October (AzerTAj). Paying an official visit to Egypt Foreign
Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov met here with his
counterpart Ahmad Abu Al-Jeit on October 15. The parties discussed
ways of enhancing Azerbaijan-Egypt cooperation in political and
economic fields as well as within international organizations, and
exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East and international
security issues.
The Egyptian Minister said touching on the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, he supported the efforts by the OSCE
Minsk group, as well as the talks between the leaders and foreign
ministers of the conflicting states aiming at peaceful settlement of
the problem. He expressed hope it would be settled soon in the
framework of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. Both Ministers
pointed out that the economic relations between Azerbaijan and Egypt
were not on a due level and stressed the importance of expanding
trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. They
welcomed the idea of opening the flight Baku – Sharm El Sheik- Cairo
that, according to them, would increase the tourist flows between the
countries, and intensify direct contacts among businessmen.
Informing his Egyptian colleague on the implementation of the
large-scale projects in Azerbaijan including the construction of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipelines,
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway as well as TRACECA, Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov expressed his wish that Egypt joined the latter in an
observer capacity.
Following the meeting, the two Ministers gave a press conference.
On the same day, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with Chairman
of the National Assembly of Egypt Ahmad Fathi Surur, and made a
speech at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Affairs Council.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Tehran Times
Oct 17 2005
Religious minorities to stage demo in front of British Embassy
Tehran Times Political Desk
TEHRAN — Members of Iran’s religious minority communities will
gather in front of the British Embassy at 10:30 a.m. today to protest
against the way the International Atomic Energy Agency is dealing
with Iran’s nuclear program.
Zoroastrians and Armenian, Chaldean, and Assyrian Christians will be
taking part in the demonstration.
They plan to issue a statement in defense of Iran’s inalienable right
to possess nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes and
condemning the IAEA and the EU trio’s stances toward Iran at the end
of the protest.

Daily Pioneer, India
Oct 16 2005
Shekhawat’s tour-de-force

Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is respected for many
qualities – canny politician, able administrator, mass leader,
legislative skills (having been MLA or MP almost uninterruptedly
since 1952).

But one thing that would not generally be attributed to him is the
ability to conduct international diplomacy. I was, therefore, struck
by his supreme confidence, linguistic agility and informal charm in
his interactions with politicians and bureaucrats alike during his
visit to three European countries earlier this month.

The Vice-President headed an official Indian delegation on a goodwill
mission to Romania, Belarus and Armenia between October 1 and 8,
perhaps the highest profile visit by an Indian leader since the
collapse of the Socialist Bloc and the Soviet Union in the early
1990s. I was privileged to have been among the four Rajya Sabha MPs
selected to accompany him. Unfortunately, I could not join him from
the start and missed the Romania leg. So, I flew to the Belarus
capital of Minsk and traveled with him for the rest of the journey.

What struck me about Mr Shekhawat’s style was its easy informality.
Far too often have I observed Indian leaders get frightfully pompous
and self-important when they interact with foreign dignitaries. For
example, while handing over the symbolic key to 60 Indian tractors
donated to Armenia, the Vice-President repeatedly emphasised the need
to ensure their ownership was not left made collective. “Unless
farmers have a sense of belonging to their land and farm implements,
they will never look after them.

These tractors will not be properly maintained and the purpose of
donating them would be lost,” he told the Armenian Agriculture
Minister who concurred with this view. On many such occasions,
including his meetings with the Presidents of Belarus and Armenia, Mr
Shekhawat departed from written texts to make incisive observations
about global realities and India’s perception of its role in the 21st
century world. I found it remarkable that a man who has only been
regarded as a regional leader from Rajasthan so far, has not stopped
learning while his sharp mind has internalised nuances of
international diplomacy. He was also not squeamish about talking in
Hindi as he could express himself best in his mother tongue. For some
reason, most Indian politicians insist on speaking in English with
dignitaries from non-English speaking nation even though those
leaders communicate in their national language.

The visit was also an eye-opener for me as so little is known about
Belarus and Armenia in India. The two countries are also real studies
in contrast that left me wondering how people as diverse as the two
ever coexisted as part of the same political union. Belarus, for
instance, is aggressively Russian in many ways, language and culture
included.

Besides, it is also firmly anti-West and fearful of the US
instigating an “Orange Revolution” on the lines of Georgia, Ukraine
and Kyrghyzstan. It’s President, George Lukashenko is regarded as a
tough, Soviet-era administrator, unsympathetic to the need for
political reform. On a visit to their Senate building, the upper
House Speaker bluntly told us that people in his country were opposed
to “disruptive” Opposition antics as a result of which they had
elected just one such candidate to the 64-member Senate! But Belarus
is prospering and its buoyant economy appears to be a guarantee
against the “disruptive” Opposition making any electoral headway in
the foreseeable future.

Armenia, on the other hand, is relatively poor and decidedly
non-Russian. I hardly spotted any signboard in the Russian script,
neither do major buildings in its picturesque capital city of Yerevan
sport a Soviet appearance unlike structures in Minsk. On a hill
overlooking Yerevan there used to be a gigantic statue of Stalin,
which has now been replaced with a huge stone structure representing
Mother Armenia.

Incidentally, Armenia is among the few countries in the world that
unambiguously supports the Indian position on Jammu and Kashmir.
Their logic is simple: Armenia is encircled by Muslim republics
Azerbaijan and Turkey, while Muslim-dominated regions of the Russian
Federation, like Ossetia, Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya are also
among its neighbours. Armenians were subjected to one of the world’s
worst genocide by the Turks and Turkey retains its control over Mount
Ararat, worshipped by the Armenians as holy. It is on Mount Ararat
that Noah’s Arc is believed to have rested during the Biblical
floods.

Armenia has also been feuding with neighbour Azerbaijan for
legitimising its occupation of the Christian-majority region of
Nagorno-Karabakh, a claim the Azeris hotly dispute. Unwilling to
offend Islamic sentiment, India maintains an ambivalent position on
the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is good enough for
Armenia.

India says it does not want to lose leverage with Islamic rebels in
the region and the proactive albeit outgoing Indian Ambassador to
Armenia paid a hush-hush visit to Chechnya last year to plead with
Chechen terrorist chief Basayev (architect of the Beslan massacre of
350 schoolchildren) to restrain militant Chechens from joining the
Pak-sponsored jehad in Kashmir. This piece of information came as a
shock to me since I had always believed India never supped with
global terrorist chieftains. Basayev has probably killed as many
innocents as Osama bin Laden, apart from running a viciously violent
terror campaign against friendly Russia.

A rather fascinating facet of Armenia is its quaint, orthodox version
of Christianity. Armenians are proud of being the world’s first
Christian community and their Church predates all others, including
the Russian Orthodox whose teachings they consider dangerously
liberal.

Yet, the Armenian variant of Christianity is remarkably tolerant in
its approach to other faiths. During a visit to their equivalent of
the Vatican where the Armenian Pope (currently Karegin II) resides,
we were taken on a guided tour of the original church beneath which
lay an ancient pagan fire temple. We were told that Jesus Christ
appeared before priest Gregory in a dream in 301 AD and asked for a
temple to be built at that particular spot. It was only during
renovations as recently as 1958 that ruins of the fire temple were
discovered deep under the church, explaining the choice of the site.

The church authorities decided not only to restore the fire temple
despite its pagan origins but also proudly proclaim this fact to
visitors. Like every other religious order, the Armenian Church is
facing a severe shortage of priests. His Holiness Karegin II lamented
the steady exodus of Armenians from India who once numbered thousands
but have been reduced to a bare 100 now, making it difficult to tend
to rituals in the centuries-old Armenian churches in Kolkata and
Chennai. Shortage of hands is not confined to the religious order:
The Armenian diaspora at 6 million is more the double the country’s 3
million inhabitants today.

I found the Armenians to be a cheerful and jovial people, their women
are undoubtedly among the most beautiful in the world. The
conviviality of their President Robert Kocherian was, thus, very much
in keeping with their national character.

The President entered the imposing meeting room of his official
residence for talks with Vice-President Shekhawat and stumped
everybody by instantly demanding to be introduced to Mr KL Kochhar,
media adviser to the Vice-President. He proceeded to explain that
Kocherian in Armenian meant son of Kocher and so he wanted to
ascertain if there was an Armenian connection to the Indian
delegation. Since our Mr Kochhar had little resemblance to any
European, President Kocherian ended up disappointed!
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Regnum, Russia
Oct 15 2005
Azerbaijani authorities prepared a special cell in prison for Rasul
Guliyev
Azerbaijani Prosecutor General Zakir Garalov commenting on a comeback
of a presidential candidate, the Democratic Party leader Rasul
Guliyev living in exile now said: `The reforms in the penitentiary
system of Azerbaijan have continued successfully, and conditions in
prisons in the country have been brought into line with the European
standards. We have assigned a special cell in Bailovsky jail that
meets all the standards required.’
`We have searched for Guliyev for several years, and the decision of
the court will be executed. I declare resolutely, that the opposition
has embarked on political speculations claiming that Guliyev is
supported by the US government. None of the states support Guliyev,’
continued Garalov. He also added that Azerbaijan is an independent
state, and its law enforcement agencies fulfill their duties by
themselves.
By the way, Garalov reminded, that on October 10, 2000 Sabail
District Court put Guliyev on wanted list and issued a warrant on his
arrest. Commenting on the plans of the opposition to stage a
ceremonial welcome for Guliyev in the airport, the prosecutor noted,
`the airport is a strategic object that is guarded particularly.’
In his opinion, `Ali Kerimli and Isa Gambar prepared a trap for
Guliyev, but they would be trapped in it by themselves.’ According to
Garalov, leaders of the National Front Party and `Musavat’ want to
use the comeback of Guliyev to destabilize the political situation.
`There is a direct evident they have carried out an unsuccessful
election campaign,’ believes the prosecutor. However, he thinks, the
plans of the opposition would not be put into practice, because the
law enforcement agencies would continue to secure social and
political stability in the region, and the elections would be held in
a fully democratic situation.
`Rasul Guliyev misappropriated the state money at sum of $110
million. In nine years he in collaboration with pro-Armenian forces
carried out subversive activities against th Azerbaijani state,’
Garalov said. He also promised that in case of an arrest all
Guliyev’s rights would be secured. Garalov also rejected a common
opinion that in case of an arrest Guliyev would be treated as a
political prisoner. `He cannot be considered as a political prisoner,
because he committed an economical crime,’ the prosecutor concluded.

Agence France Presse
Oct 16 2005
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk expects acquittal

Sunday, 16 October , 2005, 16:31

Istanbul: Prominent Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk expects to be
acquitted over his controversial remarks about the Armenian
massacres, but has warned that court cases against intellectuals are
damaging Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.
“I do not believe my case will result in a conviction, but one cannot
join the EU by making one’s writers suffer at the courts,” Pamuk, 53,
said in an interview with CNN Turk television late on Saturday.
The widely translated author of such internationally renowned works
as My Name Is Red and Snow, Pamuk is set to appear before court on
December 16 on charges of denigrating Turkish national identity by
telling a Swiss newspaper that “one million Armenians and 30,000
Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk
about it”.

He risks a prison term of between six months and three years.
Pamuk’s remarks, which refer to mass killings of Armenians under the
Ottoman Empire (which many countries have recognised as genocide,
much to Ankara’s ire), still largely a taboo, and the Kurdish
conflict in southeastern Turkey, sparked a public outcry that the
writer is selling out national interests.
Pamuk has said he received several death threats. A provincial
official in western Turkey ordered the seizure and destruction of his
books, but the order was retracted when the EU-wary government
intervened.
“I’m still standing behind my words,” a defiant Pamuk said. “My aim
was to start a little bit of a discussion on this taboo, because this
taboo is an obstacle for our entry into the EU. What I say may not be
true, you may not agree with me, but I have the right to say it.”
Pamuk said he felt disturbed over what he described as attempts by
opponents of Turkey’s EU membership to use the court case against him
for their own political ends.
“I support Turkey’s bid to join the EU… but I cannot tell those
opponents of Turkey ‘It’s none of your business whether they try me
or not’… So I feel stuck in between. This is a burden,” he said.
During a visit to Turkey earlier this month, EU enlargement
commissioner Ollie Rehn lent support to Pamuk by visiting him at his
home in Istanbul and lunching with him in a restaurant at the
Bosphorus.

Nashua Telegraph, NH
Oct 16 2005
Nashua goes to war
By ALAN S. MANOIAN
Published: Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005
April 1917, the United States was forced to declare war on Imperial
Germany, entering the European bloodbath that was World War I.
By this time, Nashua was a city of 25,000 with a rich mix of proud
immigrant groups. The city had many well-established ethnic enclaves,
neighborhoods and parishes. Irish, French-Canadians, Greeks, Poles,
Lithuanians, Jews, Armenians and others called Nashua home. The
long-settled families of the old colonial Yankees, Scotch-Irish and
African-Americans had become increasingly accustomed to the new,
modern multicultural manufacturing city. Nashua had become one great
multi-ethnic mosaic.
The Great War would vividly demonstrate the depth of Nashuans’ new
social, cultural and economic cohesion as Americans, as well as their
neighborly commitment to each other. That’s because in 1917 and 1918
the Great War was fought not only by the boys in the armed forces in
Europe, but also by the entire community.
In July 1917, the Federal Selective Service Conscription Act was
enacted. The initial New Hampshire quota of young men was 1,204. The
first roster of Nashua Guardsmen was brought together as Companies D
and I of the 103rd Infantry Regiment, American Expeditionary Forces.
Company D totaled 147 and Company I had 154 men, including legendary
Nashua heroes James E. Coffey and Amedee Deschenes, and the not so
famous, but equally brave Sarkis Sermonian, Charley Kiratsos, James
Zepuka, David Oshansky, Fredrick Osgood, John McNulty and the many
others.
These were the boys of the city, the boys of the neighborhoods and
parishes, that everybody knew and loved. We must realize today that
back in 1917, 90 percent of the total population of Nashua lived in
close proximity to each other, in compact inner-city neighborhoods,
including poor, middle-class and affluent; they were not sprawled out
as is the case today across the entire 36 square miles of the city
limits. Unlike today, everyone knew their neighbors intimately.
One young man should be mentioned at this point: Pvt. Edward
Clifford, or, as known in Nashua, Eddie. Clifford was the first
Nashuan to enlist in World War I at the outbreak of the war in 1914.
Both his mother and father had died some time before, and the
25-year-old Clifford enlisted in the Royal Irish Regiment and went to
Europe to fight. It was reported of him in 1917, `he has been in the
trenches in France for the past two years . . . he was in the thick
of the terrible battle in which Maj. Redmond, the Irish leader, the
commander was killed . . . he writes that they are giving the Germans
their fill, and now when the Irish charge the Germans do not meet
them, for all the fight has been taken out of them . . . the Germans
do not care to meet the Irishmen when the latter are out for
trouble.’
Sadly, in September 1918, just two months before the end of the war,
Clifford was killed. It was said of him, `He was wounded several
times but went back each time . . . it was the spirit of boys (such)
as Eddie Clifford that has put the fear of God in the Germans, and
the victory has been with the Allies.’
In July 1917, the Nashua boys of Co. D and Co. I marched up Main
Street, turned onto East Pearl Street en route to the Union Railroad
Station, and went off to war.
`Escorted by several hundred of Nashua’s representative citizens, and
passing through the streets filled with a cheering throng, although
upon the face of many a person were visible signs of tears, 308
stalwart Nashua soldiers left . . . forward to the battle lines in
France . . . it was a never to be forgotten sight as the train pulled
from the station with the boys in olive drab leaning from the
windows, some singing, grasping the hands of their friends and
families,’ according to reports.
The Nashua boys first went to Concord to meet up with other New
Hampshire companies under Col. Healey, then down to Camp Green in
Charlotte, N.C. Afterwards many other Nashuans trained at Fort Devens
in Ayer, Mass., before going off to France.
Homefront efforts
Back in the city, the community war effort kicked into full gear. The
local American Red Cross Chapter began to make Comfort Kits for each
local soldier; the kits being comprised of towels, shoe brushes,
cakes of toilet soap, tubes of toothpaste, sticks of shaving soap,
cans of talcum powder, shoelaces, bottles of three-in-one oil, shoe
polish, boxes of cigarettes and chewing gum.
The gymnasium at the YMCA on Temple Street was opened and special
programs were offered for new Nashua soldiers to get into improved
physical and moral shape for the battles and extreme personal
military challenges ahead in Europe. The Nashua Public Library
launched a civic program to collect masses of reading materials for
the soldiers so they could occupy and soothe themselves with great
literary works while in the trenches at the front.
At this time, in August 1917, the national food conservation movement
came into being. All kids of foodstuffs were needed to send to the
front and food at home became short or even rationed, so the `war
garden’ effort began.
Most noted locally was the Nashua Manufacturing Company, the Jackson
Manufacturing Company and the Nashua Gummed and Coated Paper Company
(today’s Nashua Corp), all of which planted expansive potato and bean
fields upon their Nashua riverfront land around the inner city, and
on estate land backing onto the Merrimack River behind Concord
Street. A great potato storehouse was prepared in the cellar of the
Nashua Gummed and Coated Paper Co. on Franklin Street.
Also notable was the Pennichuck Water Works, which built a massive
farm produce cellar of fieldstone and timbers on its land that stored
500 bushels of potatoes and 50 bushels of beans and corn for the war
effort in September 1917.
The Nashua Telegraph also took the lead in the effort to aid the
Nashua boys soon going off to France by printing a daily piece
titled: `Fast Lessons in French for the Soldier Boys.’ The daily
piece presented a number of important phrases such as, `Are the
German Troops near here? Ya-t-il des troupes allemandes pres d’ici?’
In December 1917, The Telegraph pitched in again. Nashua Infantry
Companies D and I were camped in dirt-floor shelter tents in North
Carolina when they got some nine inches of snow. The Nashua boys sent
an urgent telegram to the
city stating, `We had a fierce snowstorm here . . . and we are in
tents . . . us poor devils are undergoing the most severe conditions.
The boys from Nashua hereby apply and appeal to the Nashua Red Cross
for 50 pairs of woolen socks at once if they can be obtained, if not
as soon as possible . . . if the socks can be sent, please have them
forwarded . . . I am writing now and my feet are soaked, and very
cold.’ When the telegram was received it was the Nashua Telegraph
that immediately responded and quickly purchased, gathered and
shipped the requested woolen socks.
The women of Nashua were also hard at work in the war effort. In
September 1917 there was a call for sweaters for the Nashua soldiers;
it was soon reported that 270 Nashua women were energetically engaged
in knitting 200-plus sweaters for the city’s soldiers.
In 1917, many, if not most, of these young French-Canadian, Greek,
Yankee, Polish and other Nashua boys were employees of the great
manufacturing enterprises of the city, including the textile
factories, iron foundries, shoe shops, lumber mills, railroads, etc.
So, even the factories did their part to bolster and express their
pride and confidence in their boys. This was well demonstrated by the
Jackson Manufacturing Co. on Canal Street as it proudly raised a
handmade Service Flag of 19 stars, which showed the number of
employees then in the military service, over the mill buildings.
Nashua’s Jewish community did its part, as well. It was reported in
September 1917, `Hebrew War Effort: Temple Beth Abraham and Linus
Hatzedak had raised over $500 and would make a trip with 10
automobiles down to Fort Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts to provide
necessities to 50 young Hebrew soldiers.’
One of the necessities that young soldiers of all faiths constantly
requested was cigarettes. It was reported, `Soldiers at Front Badly
Need Tobacco: Send us tobacco, that is what we need more than any
other one thing which the folks at home can do for us . . . the
American soldiers are forced to pay 28 cents per 5 cent package of
smoking tobacco . . . it is hard to procure even at this price . . .
they long for a good smoke of the kind of tobacco that they are used
to . . . it is hoped that various organizations, either clubs or
societies of men or women will open up subscriptions in order that
Nashua may do her full part.’
Civic leaders
During these trying war years, James B. Crowley was mayor of Nashua.
It was he who gave the powerful and heartfelt speeches and made his
presence known at every gathering, demonstration, parade and send-off
for the boys and their families.
Nashua could probably not have had a better man to lead the city
during these years, because Mayor Crowley was the son of a true and
genuine Nashua-born American Civil War military hero and patriotic
martyr, Maj. Timothy B. Crowley, of the famed Irish Company B of the
New Hampshire 10th Volunteer Regiment.
It was said of Maj. Crowley in 1897, `In every hour of battle and
danger he was at the front sharing the hardships and never flinching.
In the gallant charge at the second battle of Fair Oaks in 1864, he
was severely wounded in the hip. For this distinguished bravery in
this action he was promoted to the rank of Major . . . since that day
at Fair Oaks he was a constant sufferer; a sufferer for his country,
but no man ever heard him express regret for the service he had
rendered the old flag, for which in the prime of his manhood he laid
down his life.’
In September 1917, Mayor Crowley addressed the next wave of Nashua
boys recently drafted and going to the front in France, he said at
their farewell, `The demonstration this afternoon shows the esteem of
the people of this community to your going, and the expression of
their confidence in you. All I can say, all that I can do, is simply
to extend to you the confidence that the people have in you. . . . I
would ask you to be clean of body, pure of spirit, and there is no
question of the result of your endeavor; I bid you Godspeed.’
In October 1917, the thousands of workers in the numerous Nashua
factories and manufacturing companies organized and conducted a huge
patriotic parade on Main Street in order to launch the great Liberty
Bond Drive for the war effort. The headline read: `Seven Thousand
Five Hundred Men and Women Parade Through Main Street and Throng Mass
Meetings in the Most Remarkable Out Turning Ever Seen in This City.’
The other great campaign of the fall of 1917 was the YMCA `Big Red
Triangle’ Campaign. This campaign was led by the most affluent men
and families of Nashua; the owners and directors of the mills, banks
and other businesses. They sought to raise $35,000, which was a huge
amount of money in 1917 for a city the size of Nashua. In fact, they
exceeded their aims and ultimately raised almost $50,000 for the war
effort. Each time they met and exceeded a monetary goal, a red light
was placed on an electric sign in front of City Hall, which then
stood on the east side of Main Street between Park and Temple
streets. Everyone in the city, whether poor, rich or in-between, was
together in this great civic war effort.
In November 1917, the Nashua Chapter of the Knights of Columbus
launched a program to raise some $5,000 for the boys at the front;
they met and exceeded their goals as well. Again, whether Protestant,
Catholic, Jewish or other, all were together pushing hard every day.
Also in November 1917, it was reported, `A large shipment was made by
the Nashua chapter of the Red Cross last week: The shipment was made
up of the following: 180 sweaters, 72 pair of socks, 48 pair of
wristlets, 6 pair of bed socks, 6 helmets, 24 mufflers, 5 three yard
bandages, 12 eye bandages, 2060 gauze compresses, 96 nurses mitts, 48
wash cloths, 72 surgical sheets, 18 pajamas, 220 handkerchiefs, 18
ambulance pillows, 445 soultetus bandages, 455 triangular bandages,
15 T bandages, 110 four tail bandages, 7 shoulder wraps, 12 fracture
pillows.’
A city mourns
In November 1917, Pvt. James E. Coffey of 51 Broad St. wrote home to
his mother from England before going over to the battlefront in
France: `I received your letter and was glad to hear from you all. We
are all well and happy and never felt better in our lives . . . This
will be a trip that will never be forgotten by any of the boys. Well,
I don’t know when I’ll be back home again . . . If you should happen
to see Bald Arnold or Eddy O’Neil tell them this is a trip well worth
taking for their country and I shall never regret the day I signed up
. . . I am thinking that this war is going to last some time to come.
So here I am until this little game is over with . . . Well, dear
mother and sisters as I can’t give you any more information of where
we are for this letter might get lost or some German might get at it,
and then we might get what the French and English are getting, some
hot lead . . . Give my regards to the boys. Good bye and good luck
and God bless you all.’
On May 10, 1918, 22-year-old Pvt. Coffey, along with his fellow
Nashuans, Sgt. Clement W. Gravelle and Pvt. Edmond Leblanc, all of
Co. D, 103rd Infantry Regiment were killed in action.
These three young men were Nashua’s first lives lost in the Great
War, with Coffey the first to fall.
At the very same battle, James Coffey’s brother, William B. Coffey,
19 years old and also a member of Co. D, was seriously wounded. It
was reported that he was, `laying at the point of death in a hospital
in France.’ William, however, survived the gas attack and wrote home
to his mother soon after saying, `Just a word to let you know that I
am well and happy once more. I leave for the front again, and glad
that I am going back to join the boys. Don’t worry about me, it’s all
in the chance. I have won a wounded strip on the right arm, and a
couple more won’t look bad . . . But, believe me, when I get back to
the front, I’ll have a bone to pick with the Germans. God help the
prisoners, they won’t live long. I never did a job yet, but what I
could finish it, and I am hoping to finish those Huns with the rest
of the boys. There are only a few of the boys left after the attack,
but they are still in the game. Well, I received your mail and
picture. Ma, you took a good one. Well, cheer up, when you get my
letter, you can picture me back in the trenches. Best wishes and love
to all.’
That summer of 1918, the Nashua boys of Co. D and I were in the thick
of the action in France. In September, Lt. Joseph P. Lee of 102 Ash
St. came home for a seven-day leave before reassignment. He told the
Nashua folks of the battles their boys had bravely served in that
summer. He said of the July battles, `The men of the two Nashua
companies had had their mettle proved in the sharpest fighting on the
Chateau-Thierry, and all had acquitted themselves like heroes. The
Xivray battle, in which Co. I had the big part to play, was one of
the great actions of the whole war. The Nashua men’s companies again
were at the forefront of the fighting when the Germans were turned
back at Chateau-Thierry . . . It was here that Company D suffered the
heaviest toll in its fighting to date. Company I was in the first
battalion forming the shock troops for our attack . . . it went under
terrific machine gun fire. Everyone will tell you what its work was.
Every man fought for all that was in him . . . the men now are
veterans. I am proud of the Nashua boys.’
During the intense battle of Xivray on July 16, three more Nashua
boys were killed; Cpl. Fred Kearns, Pvt. Sarkis Sermonian and Pvt.
Charles Dubuque. It was reported of Sermonian, `He was born 26 years
ago in Armenia . . . he had been a resident of Nashua for seven
years, and an employee of the Nashua Manufacturing Co., prior to his
enlistment in Co. 1, First NH Infantry, when it went to service on
the Mexican border. He continued in the military upon discharge . . .
and went to Concord and Westfield camps, with his company. He was a
young man who had a wide circle of friends, and old militia men say
he was a good soldier.’
Kearns wrote his wife, Bessie, in Nashua on June 9 as follows: `Dear
Little Wife, Just a few lines to let you know that I am still
thinking of you and the folks . . . hope mother’s cold is better. I
sure will be some happy boy to get a picture of you and the baby.
Bess, you are right when you said you knew who your friends were. But
cheer up, Bess, me and you for a little home of our own and better
days are coming sometime if an old German or `Square Head’ don’t get
me . . . well, Bess, we couldn’t all have weak hearts because some of
us had to pass and help out Uncle Sam . . . Love and kisses to you,
and good luck, and God bless you. From Your Little Hubby.
Pvt. Gilbert Mitchell of 140 Canal St. also wrote to his parents,
letting them know that he was wounded, but would be all right, he
went on to say, `They tell me that I will be sent home and all that,
but I am going back into the fight if there is a possible chance. I
didn’t come over here to quit with the game just starting. It would
seem like heaven to home, but then, I have seen so much death and
suffering in the past ten months, I have become immune to any
emotions connected with losing my friends and comrades. It is nearly
a year since I bid you goodbye and made me feel a bit sad, but I try
to remain cheerful, for sadness is not good for anyone here. Love to
all my friends.’
War’s end
The Great War finally came to an end with the surrender of Germany on
Nov. 11, 1918. Nashua had lost many of her boys from all the distinct
ethnic groups, and many others came home terribly wounded and
psychologically affected from the carnage and gas attacks that they
had somehow lived through. But they all came home as Americans, to a
city of deeply and profoundly appreciative and proud families,
friends and fellow citizens of the United States of America.
They were all real Americans now, no matter where they, their parents
or grandparents had originally emigrated from.
On Nov. 11, 1918, it was reported in the Nashua Telegraph, `Nashua
uncorked enthusiasm pent-up from last week . . . The word reached
Nashua at 4 o’clock. At 4:10 a.m. the fire bell tolled out the news,
in accordance with the arrangements made by Mayor James B. Crowley.
Nashua has seen some glorious Fourth of July celebrations in years
gone by . . . Nashua this morning went back to the old time way, with
variations. Bells were rung, whistles blown, cowbell and tin pan
parades filled the street from one end of the city to the other. Guns
were fired, horns tooted, rockets shot into the air and red fire
blazed everywhere . . . An old wash boiler or tin ash can, securely
fastened to the rear axles of automobiles being hauled over the
pavements at a raid rate was an innovation over the old-time din
making contrivances. Old Mount Pleasant bells pealed out shortly
after 4:30, being the first bell on the north side . . . shortly
after 5 o’clock the chimes on the First Congregational Church began
playing and added music to the racket which at this hour reached a
point never before equaled in this city . . .
`Some patriotic young men who owned fifes and drums, got downtown at
an early hour, soon a parade formed after the manner as the famous
Harvard `snake dance’ and up and down Main Street it passed again and
again. In its ranks were many well known citizens . . . Nothing like
it was ever seen in the city.’
This was how Nashua, in grand civic ritual, went to war and
celebrated the return of her brave soldiers as a true community some
87 years ago.
How shall we, the city, continue to support Nashua’s military
personnel fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan today? How shall we
celebrate their proud return home to good old Nashua after their
noble part in the hard-fought battle is honorably finished?
Alan Manoian of Nashua is the city’s former assistant economic
director and downtown development specialist. He can be reached at
[email protected].

Mehr News Agency, Iran
Oct 16 2005
Iranian engineers to commission 1st wind power plant in Armenia soon
TEHRAN, Oct. 16 (MNA) — The final stage of Armenia’s wind power
plant will be completed and inaugurated within two weeks. The
installation of the equipment will be implemented by Iranian
engineers within the next 7 days, managing director of SANIR Company
Alireza Kadkhodaii stated on Sunday.
This power plant is comprised of 4 units each offering 660 kW of
electricity. It is the first wind-generated electricity plant
constructed mainly by Iranian engineers and equipment outside the
country. Furthermore, it is the first one ever built in Armenia and
SANIR is expecting to hear the officials’ announcement for
inaugurating the project soon, the managing director said.
The agreement on construction of the power plant was signed by Iran’s
former energy minister and his Armenian counterpart several months
ago.

News & Observer, NC
Oct 16 2005
Freedom isn’t just academic to him
Out of Armenian jail, Duke scholar resumes his work
By JANE STANCILL, Staff Writer
DURHAM — Stuck in a jail cell that steamed to more than 100 degrees
in the daytime, the prisoner couldn’t eat the rice, cabbage soup and
boiled potatoes provided by the guards. The lights stayed on all
night, making sleep difficult. The screams of other inmates
punctuated long days of fear and worry.
The accused criminal was Yektan Turkyilmaz, 33, a soft-spoken Duke
University scholar who spent 60 days in an Armenian prison over the
summer.
The crime, apparently, was his love of books.
Turkyilmaz, a Turkish citizen of Kurdish descent, wasn’t a spy or a
drug smuggler. He was a scholar, and he learned firsthand that
scholarship can be hazardous. He will never again take academic
freedom for granted.
When the captors released Turkyilmaz in August, he walked on wobbly
legs into the sunshine, eyes squinting at the natural light he hadn’t
seen in two months. Now he is back at Duke, quietly working on his
doctoral dissertation and ready to talk about his ordeal.
Accused of smuggling books in the small country in southwestern Asia,
Turkyilmaz underwent what he described as KGB-style interrogations
and a trial that drew worldwide attention. Academics from the United
States and beyond rushed to his defense, signed petitions, created a
Web site and mounted a global campaign for his release from Armenia,
formerly part of the Soviet Union. U.S. politicians and the U.S.
embassy jumped in, exerting pressure on the Armenian government.
The subject of his dissertation is so sensitive that his work is
viewed with suspicion by historic enemies, Armenia and Turkey. And he
believes it may have landed him behind bars.
Turkyilmaz’s research is about how modern Armenian, Kurdish and
Turkish nationalism developed after a traumatic conflict in which
more than a million Armenians were killed starting in 1915. The facts
of the genocide have long been disputed from the Turkish side. It’s a
painful but important chapter in 20th-century history, and one that
Turkyilmaz is said to be uniquely qualified to dig into.
He speaks four languages — Armenian, Kurdish, Turkish and English —
and can read French. He was the first Turkish scholar allowed in the
Armenian national archives to conduct research.
“His trip was unprecedented for a Turkish citizen and also a huge
feather in his cap for his academic career,” said Charles Kurzman, an
associate professor of sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill and one of
Turkyilmaz’s advisers. “That’s high-risk, high-gain research.”
Books spark trouble
Turkyilmaz, who first traveled to Armenia in 2002, has been there
five times. He went back in April and worked for two months, while
also engaging in one of his hobbies — book collecting. He had picked
up more than 100 used books and pamphlets at a flea market in
Yerevan, the Armenian capital. Turkyilmaz already had a collection of
10,000 books, so it was not unusual for him to leave the country with
two heavy suitcases full of books.
The day he was to leave Armenia, Turkyilmaz began to notice something
odd at the airport. A strange man behind him at the security
checkpoint spoke to him in broken English, even though Turkyilmaz had
been speaking Armenian.
“I realized that something was up,” he recalled.
Just after his passport was stamped, he was surrounded by more than
half a dozen agents from the National Security Service, which
Turkyilmaz says “loves to be called KGB.” The agents told him to
empty his pockets. They confiscated his luggage.
He tried to explain that scholars carry books. “I kept telling them I
was a historian, because if I said I am a cultural anthropologist it
doesn’t make any sense to them,” he said.
It became clear, he said, that they already knew a lot about him.
They took the books out of his suitcase one by one and spent seven
hours doing paperwork in the airport, meticulously copying the
titles. At times, Turkyilmaz helped the Russian-educated agents
translate titles that were written in old Armenian.
One of the agents started making accusations, poking a pen at his
stomach.
“He started shouting and cursing at me and said, ‘OK, you are taking
these books to Turks to be destroyed.’ I said, ‘What?'”
But Turkyilmaz and others believe the books were not important to the
Armenian authorities, who dragged them around in plastic bags or
piled them on the floor.
The agents started asking questions that had nothing to do with the
books: What are your political views? What is your family’s ethnic
background? What is your research about? Why did you come to Armenia?
Whom do you know in Armenia?
The arrest came as such a shock that Turkyilmaz said he didn’t really
have time to get scared. “I never thought that they would, like, you
know, detain me. I thought it was something silly.”
They wouldn’t let him call his parents in Turkey. His friends in
Armenia were too frightened to contact his family. For almost 24
hours, his parents didn’t know what had happened to him.
Spy accusations fly
Turkyilmaz was put in a small cell in Yerevan. For the first month,
he said, agents interrogated him almost daily. They went through his
computer files and CDs, and soon Turkyilmaz realized where they were
headed: They would accuse him of being a spy.
An espionage charge could carry a 15-year prison term, he said. One
of his interrogators, Turkyilmaz recalled, told him, “All scholars
are spies. Just tell us whom you are working for.”
On the third day after his arrest, he was charged with an obscure
violation of taking books more than 50 years old out of the country
without permission — a regulation that was unfamiliar to even the
booksellers. The charge fell under a law that also covered drug
smuggling and the transport of guns, explosives and weapons of mass
destruction. It carried a possible prison term of four to eight
years.
In his cell, Turkyilmaz ate fruit and the hazelnut spread Nutella —
items his friends could bring him. He refused food from the jailers.
He was allowed one shower a week.
He had a couple of cellmates who were accused of petty crimes and had
little contact with the outside world, though he did hear occasional
reports of his case on Radio Free Europe.
As word of Turkyilmaz’s detention spread, scholars in North Carolina
and the larger higher education community began to organize.
Turkyilmaz’s professors had initially been told he would be released
any day, but days turned into weeks.
“The nightmare scenario was that the hard-liners in the Armenian
government would try to make an example of Yektan and sentence him to
eight years,” said Kurzman, who started a Web site, ,
to raise awareness of his ordeal.
Human-rights groups, scholarly organizations and the Duke community
sent letters and petitions signed by hundreds of students and faculty
around the globe. Duke President Richard Brodhead wrote the Armenian
president, calling Turkyilmaz “a scholar of extraordinary promise.”
Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, who had experience with Armenian affairs,
wrote to President Robert Kocharian and said, “Your treatment of
Yektan makes Armenia look bad — with good reason. Armenia has many
friends in the United States, but we cannot and will not defend the
indefensible.”
Officials at the Armenian embassy in Washington did not return phone
calls about the Turkyilmaz case.
As the summer wore on, Orin Starn, a professor of cultural
anthropology at Duke and primary adviser to Turkyilmaz, monitored the
case and became more concerned that a prison term was likely for his
student.
“The whole idea that you could be sentenced to years in prison for
taking used books out of the country was preposterous,” Starn said.
Refocusing on research
Starn, who attended the trial, watched as Turkyilmaz was led into the
courtroom in handcuffs. In attendance, at some risk to themselves,
were Armenian friends, including booksellers, an accountant, a
janitor and a medical student.
“People love Yektan,” Starn said. “He has friends everywhere. …
People were very willing to do whatever they could to try to get him
out.”
On Aug. 16, a judge convicted Turkyilmaz but gave him a two-year
suspended sentence. After 60 days in prison, he was free but not
allowed to leave the country for two weeks.
E-mail messages and news reports announced his release, and
Turkyilmaz is now a celebrity in his field. But he also worries about
the implications. He may have difficulty traveling in that part of
the world, which could hamper his research. He now has a criminal
conviction on his record, something that could cause him trouble with
U.S. authorities when his visa expires in a few months.
Yet, he said he’s not bitter about the experience, which has cemented
his desire to pursue an academic career in the United States.
“I’m so glad to be back,” he said. “I feel so safe here, so secure. I
just want to go back to my work. That’s the only thing I want to do
with my life.”

Toronto Star, Canada
Oct 16 2005
Exposing dark side of Turkey
Writer’s ordeal a test case for Europe’s principles, says Salman
Rushdie
The work room of the writer Orhan Pamuk looks out over the Bosphorus,
that fabled strip of water which, depending on how you see these
things, separates or unites – or, perhaps, separates and unites – the
worlds of Europe and Asia.
There could be no more appropriate setting for a novelist whose work
does much the same thing. In many books, most recently the acclaimed
novel Snow and the haunting memoir/portrait of his home town,
Istanbul: Memories and the City, Pamuk has laid claim to the title,
formerly held by Yashar Kemal, of “Greatest Turkish writer.”
He is also an outspoken man. In 1999, for example, he refused the
title of “state artist.”
“For years I have been criticizing the state for putting authors in
jail, for only trying to solve the Kurdish problem by force and for
its narrow-minded nationalism,” he said. “I don’t know why they tried
to give me the prize.”
He has described Turkey as having “two souls,” and has criticized its
human-rights abuses.
“Geographically we are part of Europe,” he says, “but politically?”
I spent some days with Pamuk in July, at a literary festival in the
pretty Brazilian seaside town of Parati. For those few days he seemed
free of his cares, even though, earlier in the year, death threats
made against him by Turkish ultranationalists – “He shouldn’t be
allowed to breathe,” one said – had forced him to spend two months
out of his country.
But the clouds were gathering. The statement he made to the Swiss
newspaper Tages Anzeiger on Feb. 6, which had been the cause of the
ultranationalists’ wrath, was about to become a serious problem once
again.
“Thirty thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in
Turkey,” he told the Swiss paper. “Almost no one dares to speak out
on this but me.”
He was referring to the killings by Ottoman forces of thousands of
Armenians between 1915 and 1917. Turkey does not contest the deaths,
but denies that they amounted to genocide. Pamuk’s reference to
“30,000” Kurdish deaths refers to those killed since 1984 in the
conflict between Turkish forces and Kurdish separatists.
On Sept. 1, Pamuk was indicted by a district prosecutor for the crime
of having “blatantly belittled Turkishness” by his remarks. If
convicted he faces up to three years in jail.
Article 301/1 of the Turkish penal code, under which Pamuk is to be
tried, states: “A person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the
Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly shall be sentenced to a
penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years …
Where insulting being a Turk is committed by a Turkish citizen in a
foreign country, the penalty shall be increased by one-third.” If
Pamuk is found guilty, he faces an additional penalty for having made
the statement abroad.
You would think Turkish authorities might have avoided so blatant an
assault on their most internationally celebrated writer’s fundamental
freedoms at the very moment their application for full membership of
the European Union – an extremely unpopular application in many EU
countries – was being considered at the EU summit.
However, in spite of being a state that has ratified both the U.N.
and European covenants on human rights, both of which see freedom of
expression as central, Turkey continues to enforce a penal code that
is clearly contrary to these same principles and has set the date for
Pamuk’s trial for Dec. 16.
The number of convictions and prison sentences under the laws that
penalize free speech in Turkey has declined in the past decade. But
International PEN’s records show that more than 50 writers,
journalists and publishers currently face trial. Turkish journalists
continue to protest against the revised penal code, and the
International Publishers Association, in a deposition to the U.N.,
has described this revised code as being “deeply flawed.”
The Turkish application is being presented, most vociferously by
Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, as a test case for the EU. To
reject it, we are told, would be a catastrophe, widening the gulf
between Islam and the West. There is an element of Blairite poppycock
in this, a disturbingly communalist willingness to sacrifice Turkish
secularism on the altar of faith-based politics.
But the Turkish application is indeed a test case for the EU: a test
of whether the EU has any principles at all. If it has, then its
leaders will insist that the charges against Pamuk be dropped at once
and further insist on rapid revisions to Turkey’s repressive penal
code.
An unprincipled Europe, which turned its back on great artists and
fighters for freedom, would continue to alienate its citizens, whose
disenchantment has already been widely demonstrated by the votes
against the proposed new constitution. So the West is being tested as
well as the East. On both sides of the Bosphorus, the Pamuk case matters.

The Observer / The Guardian, UK
Oct 16 2005
Nobel adversaries
Robert McCrum
Some years ago in transit through Bangkok, I found myself in the
airport bookshop browsing a paperback novel by a local writer with an
almost unpronounceable name. I forget the title, but the publisher’s
blend of chutzpah and wishful thinking was memorable. In large red
letters above the author’s name was the legend: ‘Shortlisted for the
Nobel Prize’.
Unlike Booker, the Nobel does not go in for a shortlist, at least in
public. The academy’s business is conducted behind closed doors and
what we are allowed to see is all very Swedish. Where Booker triggers
an avalanche of press releases, parties and book-trade promotions,
Nobel amounts to one man (the secretary of the academy) standing in a
baroque salon and uttering one name to the world’s press on a
Thursday in early October. This statement is often followed by a
chorus of: ‘Who? Who?’, but since the academy never gives interviews,
no one is really any the wiser.
This bizarre ritual is now just over 100 years old. It’s an odd,
publicity-averse moment for a prize distinguished by sometimes
wayward eccentricity. The first Nobel (1901) should have gone to Leo
Tolstoy, but in the end it was awarded to an obscure French poet,
Rene Francois Armand Sully Prudhomme. That decision established a
preference for the maverick that persisted throughout the subsequent
century.
Since then, Nobel has made some good choices – Eliot, Beckett,
Bellow, Marquez, Heaney – and some gobsmackers: Galsworthy, Pearl S
Buck, Winston Churchill and Nelly Sachs. En passant, it has
overlooked Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges and Graham Greene. Jean-Paul
Sartre turned it down in 1964, saying he did not want to be read by
‘celebrity collectors’.
The prize has also shied away from controversy. So there were no
awards from 1940 to 1943. In 1958, at the height of the Cold War, the
academy gave it to Boris Pasternak. There was a huge row with the
Soviet Union and since then the Nobel committee has opted for a quiet
life.
Quiet and, some might say, occasionally incomprehensible. For
instance, in the last decade, the Nobel has gone to Dario Fo (near
universal dismay), Gao Xingjian (bafflement) and, in 2004, the
reclusive Elfriede Jelinek.
So much for the global picture. From an insular, British point of
view, apart from Churchill, Golding (1983), and Bertrand Russell
(1950), Nobel has generally ignored English literature.
This makes the choice of Harold Pinter all the more welcome. Here,
beyond question, is a world-class playwright whose selection almost
on the day of his 75th birthday, will be the cause of widespread
rejoicing.
While The Observer congratulates the Swedish Academy for choosing a
great writer of international stature whose work has resonance around
the world, we cannot overlook the missed opportunity inherent in this
decision.
As Pinter himself will be only too well aware, Turkey’s most
distinguished living writer is Orhan Pamuk, author of The White
Castle, My Name Is Red and Snow. Pamuk currently faces trial for
making public reference to the genocidal Armenian massacres. His case
goes to court on 16 December; and, if convicted, he faces a
three-year prison sentence.
It’s wonderful news that Pinter is our latest Nobel laureate, but the
Swedes have missed a golden opportunity to take a stand against a
shameful and trumped-up assault on a writer’s freedom. Pinter would
be the first to recognise this.