LITERATURE NOBEL: KEEP GUESSING
The Times, UK
Oct 14 2005
[ THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2005 12:24:08 AM ]
Citibank NRI Offer
Stockholm: A row over last year’s winner has done nothing to
stifle rampant speculation about who may win the 2005 Nobel Prize
in literature.
On Wednesday, the day before the planned announcement, a bevy of names
– some familiar and others less so – emerged as likely candidates for
the prestigious prize, although trying to guess the secretive 18-member
Swedish Academy’s choice is, at times, an exercise in futility.
Still, Swedish media was buzzing with names like Syrian poet Ali Ahmad
Said, known as Adonis; Korean poet Ko Un; and perennial contenders
Margaret Atwood of Canada and Americans Philip Roth and Joyce Carol
Oates.
Respected daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter said other authors like
Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk, who faces prison after he was charged with
insulting Turkish identity for supporting Armenian claims that they
were the victims of genocide under the Ottoman Turks in 1915, could
be tapped.
“The first names that come to mind are Joyce Carol Oates and (Swedish
poet) Tomas Trans-tromer,” Uppsala University literature professor
Margaretha Fahlgren told Svenska Dagbladet, another Swedish daily.
Online betting Web site, Ladbrokes, also says the Czech Republic’s
Milan Kundera is a choice, with 12-1 odds, while Belgian poet Hugo
Claus, Italian poet Claudio Magris and Indonesian novelist Pramoedya
Ananta Toer each have 14-1 odds of winning.
From: Baghdasarian

IRAQ WAR CRITIC WINS NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
By Ramsay Short
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 14 2005
BEIRUT: In the end the winner surprised everyone. Harold Pinter,
the British playwright and fierce critic of the Iraq War, of Israel
and that nation’s treatment of Palestinians, took the 2005 Nobel Prize
for Literature ahead of the bookmaker’s favorites – Syrian poet Adonis
and Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk.
The Swedish Academy, which has awarded the prize since 1901, said
Pinter, whose plays include “The Birthday Party,” “The Dumb Waiter,”
and his breakthrough “The Caretaker,” was a writer who “uncovers the
precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s
closed rooms” and is the foremost representative of drama in post-war
Britain.
Pinter, who has just turned 75, was born in the London borough
of Hackney, the son of a Jewish dressmaker. During his youth he
experienced anti-Semitism, which had been important in his decision
to become a dramatist.
Very much a liberal, in recent years he has been a virulent detractor
of the British and American-led war on Iraq, and a consistent literary
thorn in the side of Premier Tony Blair.
The Nobel jury added Pinter – who even has his own adjective,
Pinteresque, which is used to describe a particular atmosphere and
environment in drama – had “restored theater to its basic elements:
an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the
mercy of each other and pretense crumbles.”
Adonis (real name Ali Ahmad Said), who fled Lebanon in the 1980s and
now lives in Paris, had been the best guess to win the prize among
Nobel watchers with the online betting Web site Ladbrokes giving him
odds of 7-4.
The fiction writer, Pamuk, whose last novel “Snow” received huge
acclaim worldwide, followed close behind Adonis. Pamuk is facing
prison in Turkey after he was charged with insulting Turkish identity
for supporting Armenian claims that they were the victims of genocide
under the Ottomans in 1915.
Earlier this year Pinter famously called the war in Iraq, “a bandit
act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute
contempt for the concept of international law [and] an arbitrary
military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross
manipulation of the media and therefore of the public.” He also said
it was “an act intended to consolidate American military and economic
control of the Middle East masquerading – as a last resort (all other
justifications having failed to justify themselves) – as liberation.”
The Academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to advance the
Swedish language and its literature, is made up of several writers
as well as linguists, literary scholars, historians and a lawyer,
all of whom serve for life.
Pinter and other Nobel prize winners will receive their awards,
on December 10 at a ceremony in Stockholm. The playwright will take
home $1.3 million.

SETTLEMENT REACHED IN GENOCIDE SUIT
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer
Pasadena Star News, CA
Oct 14 2005
LOS ANGELES — A French insurance company has agreed to pay $17
million to settle a class action lawsuit filed by descendants of
Armenians killed in the early 20th century in what is now Turkey.
French insurance giant AXA also agreed to call the killings genocide,
an important term to Armenians trying to call attention to what they
say were organized murders of more than a million people between 1915
and the early 1920s.
“Anytime we’re able to bring attention to the genocide is significant,”
said Brian Kabateck, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys.
“Because the rest of the world needs to understand what happened and
the rest of the world needs to focus on an ultimate resolution of
the genocide, which is recognition by the United States government
and the Turkish government.”
Between 2,000 and 5,000 policies are believed to be covered by the
settlement, including many in Southern California’s large Armenian
community, although the final number has yet to be determined.
AXA was sued because it bought L’Union Des Assurances de Paris, the
company that sold policies to Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire.
The $17 million AXA settlement will be presented to a federal judge
in Los Angeles next month for final approval. It is similar to one
reached last year in which New York Life agreed to pay $20 million
to resolve litigation arising from its failure to pay Armenian
policyholders’ relatives.
One key difference is that in its settlement AXA would follow the
French government’s lead in describing the events of 1915 to the
early 1920s as genocide.
Armenians estimate that 1.5 million died when Armenian civilians living
in the Ottoman Empire were forced from their homes or otherwise killed
during and after World War I. The United States government and Turkey
have not officially called the event a genocide, and Turkey argues
that the number is exaggerated.
“I am not belittling their ordeal during that relocation: many
perished, many terrible things happened, that’s true,” said Engin
Ansay, the Turkish consul general in Los Angeles. “But it was not a
government decision or any decision on the part of the authorities
to annihilate one whole nation.”
The case against AXA
——————————————————————————–
Advertisement
——————————————————————————–
was brought on behalf of several lead plaintiffs living in the San
Fernando Valley. One was Anik Arabian, who brought her uncle’s life
insurance policy with her to America, but who died after the lawsuit
was filed in 2002.
Arabian was born in Greece, where her parents had landed after being
driven into the desert. Many of her family died in what is now Syria,
then a part of the Ottoman Empire.
“They were burying their kids with their bare hands, my grandfather and
grandmother they buried … six of them,” said son Vagram Topadzhikyan,
60, of Glendale.
Under the AXA settlement, money from an $11 million fund will be paid
to the closest relative of a policyholder on the company’s list.
Another $3 million will go to Armenian charitable organizations in
France, and another $3 million for administrative and legal fees.
“We believe that this settlement is in the best interest of AXA Group
and all of its stakeholders, and we are pleased to put this matter
behind us,” said AXA spokeswoman Joann Tizzano.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers were Kabateck, Mark Geragos and Vartkes
Yeghiayan, who are all of Armenian descent and also brought the case
against New York Life.
The AXA settlement sets aside the same amount for claims payment and
charity as the New York Life settlement. The only difference is the
amount earmarked for legal and administrative fees was halved in the
AXA case.
The deadline to file a claim in the New York Life settlement passed on
March 16, and the claims are being analyzed. The company had agreed
to pay on 2,400 policies, but claims were filed on 1,600 of them,
which means the amount that would have been paid on the remaining
claims will be added to the charity fund.
Some policies might have gone unclaimed because their holders were
unaware of the settlement, or because all the potential claimants died.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIA NOT ORIENTED YET
A1+
| 21:36:25 | 13-10-2005 | Politics |
The Armenian enterprises conveyed to Russia due to Property for Debt
Treaty do not function since the Russian party has not decided on
their strategic or civic destination, Co-Chair of the Armenian-Russian
Inter-Governmental Commission for Economic Cooperation, Russian
Minister of Transport Igor Levitin stated during today’s press
conference.
As of restoration of communication via the Abkhaz part of the railway,
the state of the rail line and conditions necessary for its restoration
are being examined at present, he noted. The conditions include
participation of Russia, Georgia and Armenia as well.
Igor Levitin also touched upon matter of RAO UES participation in
development of energy grids of Armenia. He reported RAO UES is a
participant of an energy holding, operating in Armenia. RAO UES will
continue dealing with development of energy grids and generation of
additional electric power, he also confirmed. “As of Iran-Armenia gas
pipeline, the matter was also discussed and we understand Armenian
party’s actions. I consider these logical and correct in the situation
that is available between Gazprom and RAO UES and the Armenian party,”
I. Levitin stated.

NOVEL MIRRORS TURKEY’S TORN SOUL
by M.J. Andersen
Providence Journal , RI
Oct 14 2005
IN ORHAN Pamuk’s latest novel, Snow, events foretold in the local
paper have a way of coming true. In life, lately, it seems that
“events” from the novel continue in the real world.
Turkish officials recently charged Pamuk with insulting his country,
a charge that could land him in jail for three years. The author’s
offense was to speak candidly about the Turkish slaughter of Armenians
around the time of World War I, and about the more recent slayings
of thousands of Kurds.
“Nobody but me dares to talk about it,” Pamuk told a Swiss daily,
which published his remarks last February.
In Snow, outspokenness leads to surveillance, torture, banishment and
worse. The protagonist, Ka, is a Turkish poet exiled to Germany for
activism in his student days. The narrator, a novelist named Orhan,
traces what becomes of Ka after he returns to a provincial Turkish
city as a journalist, to explore reports of suicide among young women.
So much of the novel concerns the political struggle between
Turkey’s secularists and Islamists that it almost reads as an act
of contemporary reportage. Pamuk’s earlier novels, though equally
obsessed with Turkish identity, are safely set in remote times. With
Snow, the 52-year-old Pamuk addresses the current moment — an act
of considerable courage.
The situation in Turkey is sensitive. For more than 40 years, Turkey
has been trying to join what is now the European Union. But some among
the 25 member nations have qualms. Turkey stands between Europe and
Asia, its identity an amalgam of secularist, modernizing tendencies,
rural customs, and, increasingly, Islamic fervor.
As part of its long campaign to join the E.U., Turkey has enacted
numerous suggested reforms: it abolished the death penalty, for
instance, and increased civilian control of the army.
Yet, since the September 11 attacks, Europeans have hesitated to
welcome a large Muslim nation (even a democracy) into the club.
Recent votes in France and the Netherlands against a proposed E.U.
constitution revealed misgivings about the E.U. enterprise as a
whole. (One of the E.U.’s functions is to bolster poorer areas with
aid; Turkey, with its large and fast-growing population, could turn
out to be a sponge.)
Nevertheless, last week, despite last-ditch resistance from Austria,
the E.U. agreed to begin talks that could formally end with Turkey’s
admission.
The charges against Pamuk thus come at an awkward time. He is accused
under a revised penal code, which permits denigration of the “Turkish
identity” to be held a crime.
Naturally, this is the sort of maneuver that leaves Western champions
of free speech aghast. But more is at stake. For hundreds of years,
Europeans have held talented novelists in special esteem.
Turkey has rarely produced such figures. Yet Pamuk has gradually
established himself as a world-class author. To attack such a writer
for speaking out is not just undemocratic; it is the opposite of
European.
E.U. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn called the timing of Pamuk’s
case “provocative,” and expressed concern that prosecutors were
interpreting their penal code in a way that violated the European
Convention of Human Rights — thereby weakening Turkey’s bid for E.U.
membership.
The clash in values symbolized by Turkey’s quest to enter the E.U.
mirrors the larger one that afflicts the world. It is not just
a question of Islamic societies versus societies born of the
Enlightenment. It is where precisely to place God in the whole
business.
In Pamuk’s novel, snow becomes a metaphor for God. Ka’s inspiration
has run dry during his German exile. But during his brief stay in
the city of Kars, where God is a frequent and even urgent topic,
poem after poem comes to him.
Ka stands for the modern, educated reader as he enters the farcical
and ultimately tragic events of the novel. By the end, he embodies
the divided souls of many Turks. Snow’s characters want a route out
of poverty and stagnation but without the immorality they associate
with the West.
Throughout Pamuk’s work, internal contradictions take the form of
twoness. His fiction is stuffed with twin figures, who continually
blend and collide. Master and slave swap identities. In Snow, believers
fear their own unbelief, and atheists are stalked by the holy spirit.
No wonder Pamuk has landed in the thick of our discord. The same
unresolvable dualities haunt the global stage. One side yearns for
a sacred community; the other fears that God’s authority will be
usurped by the power-hungry. The divide is as great in Kansas as it
is in Anatolia.
We have arrived at a historical moment in which tolerance seems beside
the point — and novels can find no ending. What else is there to
do, then, but delay the aspirations of nations? What else but arrest
the novelists?
M.J. Andersen is a member of The Journal’s editorial board.

RECOGNITION FOR PINTER’S WORLD – SLIPPERY AND VERY, VERY ENGLISH
By Dalya Alberge
The Times, UK
Oct 14 2005
Highest honour for the man who made silence an art form
Harold Pinter outside his London home yesterday (KIERAN
DOHERTY/REUTERS)
HE HAS been showered with awards and is revered worldwide, but Harold
Pinter, one of Britain’s greatest playwrights, received the ultimate
accolade yesterday – the $1.3 million (£743,000) Nobel Prize for
Literature.
At the age of 75, he is following in the footsteps of Saul Bellow,
Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw, among winners of the world’s
most prestigious literary honour.
Pinter, who broke the mould of British theatre in the 1960s, turned
silence into an artform with brooding dramas.
His classics for screen and stage, including The Caretaker, The
Homecoming and The Servant, have stood the test of time, influencing
a generation of British dramatists and introduced a new word to the
English language, Pinteresque, to convey an atmospheric silence.
This month the Swedish Academy decision to give the Nobel Peace Prize
to Mohamed ElBaradei was seen as a slap in the face for the US.
Now it has awarded the Literature Prize to a radical and unrelenting
critic of America and its war in Iraq and of the Government of
Tony Blair. Pinter, who has never been afraid to speak his mind on
the political stage, has denounced the Prime Minister as “a hired
Christian thug” and President Bush as a “mass murderer”.
Pinter said yesterday that he was “overwhelmed” and, speaking to
reporters outside his London home, took the opportunity to attack
the Government over the Iraq war. “I have written 29 plays and I
think that’s really enough,” he said after a champagne celebration
with his wife Lady Antonia Fraser at their home. “I think the world
has had enough of my plays. I shall certainly be writing more poetry
and I’ll certainly remain deeply engaged in the question of political
structures in this world.” The writer has been recovering from cancer
of the oesophagus.
Leaning on a cane outside and sporting a bandaged head after a fall,
he continued: “I think the world is going down the drain if we’re
not very careful,” he said. “Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude
of Western democracies to the rest of the world.” He also hinted that
he would use the 45-minute acceptance speech to attack the war in Iraq.
“I intend to say whatever it is I think. I may well address the state
of the world.”
The academy said that it had singled out Pinter, “who, in his plays,
uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into
oppression’s closed rooms”.
Once again, the academy has opened the debate on the political nature
of a prize for literature. This year’s announcement was delayed
for a week after the 15 active academy members were reported to
have disagreed over whether to anoint Orhan Pamuk, the Turk who has
campaigned for recognition that Turkey committed genocide against
the Armenians after the First World War. A prize for him would have
angered Turkey, it was feared.
Part of the problem lies with the prize founder himself. Alfred Nobel,
who died in 1896, decreed in his will that the literature prize should
go to “the person who shall have produced . . . the most outstanding
work in an ideal direction”, a phrase that has confounded everyone
since.
News of Pinter’s win sent a flurry of excitement through the British
publishing and theatre worlds, if not Downing Street or the White
House. There was also a sense of relief that they knew his work. Year
after year, there has been a Pinteresque pause from publishers before
they ask, “Who?”, and confess to never having heard of the winner.
Some of Britain’s leading playwrights were among those leading the
applause yesterday.
The Oscar-winning writer Sir Tom Stoppard said: “With his earliest
work he stood alone in British theatre up against the bewilderment
and incomprehension of critics, the audience and writers, too.”
Sir David Hare, whose dramas include Stuff Happens, about the Iraq
war, said the academy had made a brilliant choice: “Not only has
Pinter written some of the outstanding plays of his time, he has
also blown fresh air into the musty attic of conventional English
literature by insisting that everything he does has a public and
political dimension.”
Pinter also follows in the footsteps of Sir V. S. Naipaul who, in
2001, became the first British author to win the prize since William
Golding in 1983.
Born the son of a Jewish tailor in East London in 1930, Pinter was a
rebel from an early age, declaring himself a conscientious objector
and refusing to do national service. He began his acting career in
provincial theatres. The Caretaker established him as a commercial
and critical success, making him one of Britain’s foremost dramatists.
LOUD APPLAUSE
“He had incredible tenacity as a director, expressed perhaps best
through his profound irritation at the old Royal Court’s squeaky
chairs, which blighted many a performance.”
Stephen Daldry, former artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre
“He’s very pedantic, famously so. Words don’t get changed, lines
don’t get changed. He really believes in the text.”
James Fox, who starred in Pinter’s classic, The Servant
“My two favourites are Landscape and Silence. I just thought, and
still do, they are the most beautiful poetic dramas, full of the pain
of lost memory.”
Ian Brown, artistic director of West Yorkshire Playhouse
–Boundary_(ID_U+7tZbKm0EL4dBVC5+OVnw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AXA AGREES SETTLEMENT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CASE
Insurance Business Review
Oct 14 2005
The French insurance giant Axa has completed a settlement for
a long-running case over compensation to relatives of Armenians
massacred by forces from the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
13 Oct 2005, 17:40 GMT – Under the terms of the agreement, Axa will set
up a fund to compensate descendants of victims of the 1915 genocide who
had life insurance provided by companies that today form part of Axa.
The relatives brought the case against Axa on the grounds that it had
not paid the due premiums on the life policies taken out by Armenians
prior to the massacres. The outcome of the class action law suit,
which was filed in California, will see Axa pay a total of $17 million
to the victims’ fund and Armenian charitable groups.
The suit is the second of its kind. Class counsel Vartkes Yeghiayan,
Brian Kabateck and Mark Geragos – all of Armenian descent – are
representing Armenian descendants in similar cases. Earlier this year
in another class action, New York Life agreed to pay $20 million to
descendants of Armenian policyholders killed during the genocide.
“This is an example where dead men can’t speak but they can file
lawsuits,” said Mr Yeghiayan. “It writes another chapter about
persistence and hope. The resolution of the case helps the healing
process.”
Axa has yet to comment on the settlement.

M.G.K. SECRETARY GENERAL: TURKEY AND N CYPRUS HAVE DONE EVERYTHING THEY COULD
The Anatolian Times, Turkey
Oct 14 2005
ANKARA – “Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
have done everything they could to find a solution to the Cyprus
issue,” said Turkish National Security Council (MGK) Secretary-General
Yigit Alpogan.
Speaking at a seminar hosted by German-American Fulbright Commission
in association with the Turkish Fulbright Commission on “Turkey’s
Geo-Political and Security Concerns” in Ankara on Thursday, Alpogan
highlighted importance of national security.
He said, “threats such as international terrorism, weapons of mass
destruction, organized crimes, illicit drug trafficking and human
smuggling have been high on agenda of the world since the attack on
twin towers of the World Trade Center complex on September 11th.”
Referring to the Cyprus issue, Alpogan said, “Turkey and the TRNC
have done everything they could to find a solution to the Cyprus
issue. Turkish Cypriot people supported UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan’s plan in the referendum last year but they were punished. On
the other hand, Greek Cypriot people rejected the plan but they
were awarded.”
Upon a question, Alpogan said, “Armenians should take three steps
to resolve the problems between Turkey and Armenia. First of all,
Armenians should recognize the international border between Turkey
and Armenia which was drawn under the Kars Agreement. Then they should
give up describing eastern Anatolia as ‘western Armenia’. They should
also put an end to their allegations of genocide.”
Replying to a question about the terrorist organization PKK, Alpogan
said, “PKK is a part of international terrorism. It does not aim to
defend people living in southeastern Turkey.”
Upon a question on northern part of Iraq, Alpogan said, “Turkey wants
to see Iraq as a whole. Division of Iraq can lead to instability and
serious problems in the region.”
Responding to another question, Alpogan said that Turkey aimed to
set up good neighborly relations with Iran.
Meanwhile, U.S. Charge d’affaires in Ankara Nancy McEldowney said
that Turkey and the United States needed each other since they had
many regional and global interests in common.
McEldowney called on German and American journalists to introduce
Turkey to the world and Europe.

ARMENIANS TO SHARE $17M PAYOUT FOR OTTOMAN MASSACRE
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
The Independent, UK
Oct 14 2005
Descendants of some of the 1.5 million Armenians killed during the
collapse of Ottoman rule in 1915 will share a $17m (£9.7m) payout
after a settlement with the French insurance giant AXA. The relatives
lodged their legal case in California, home to one of the world’s
largest Armenian communities, claiming for life insurance benefits
that were never paid. The settlement is likely to be approved in
November in the US District Court in California.
Armenians are stepping up their campaign to win formal classification
of the murders as an act of genocide. Turkey has always denied there
was a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Armenians,
saying they were casualties of partisan fighting and of a political
vacuum during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara says that as many as 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many
Turks, died during civil strife in eastern Turkey during the First
World War. Last month the authorities finally allowed the issue to be
debated on Turkish soil by historians at an academic conference. But
the organisers had to side-step two legal orders banning it by
rearranging the venue.
The California settlement will be administered in France, which also
has many expatriate Armenian communities and which was one of the first
countries to recognise the murders as genocide. AXA’s headquarters
are in France and the company operates in the US through subsidiaries.
Under the settlement, AXA agreed to donate several million dollars to
various France-based Armenian charities. It will also contribute $11m
toward a fund to pay valid claims of heirs of policyholders with AXA
Group subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
before 1915.
The AXA case was the second lawsuit of its kind to be settled in
US courts, although the United States, along with Turkey, does not
officially recognise the deaths as genocide. In February, New York
Life agreed to pay $20m to descendants of its Armenian policyholders
killed in 1915.
Mark Geragos, an Armenian descendant who was a lawyer for the
plaintiffs, said: “The AXA and New York Life settlements are important
building blocks not only toward seeking financial recovery for the
losses resulting from the Armenian genocide but also in our ultimate
goal, which is for Turkey and the US to officially acknowledge the
genocide.”
This month, Turkey launched EU membership talks which are expected
to last at least a decade. Despite criticism of the stance taken by
Ankara on the issue, EU member states did not seek to make recognition
of the Armenian case as genocide a condition of beginning negotiations
on joining the bloc.
The failure to acknowledge the genocide has also bedevilled Turkey’s
relations with its neighbour, Armenia. Turkey shut its border with
Armenia in 1993, angry at the Armenian separatist forces fighting
for independence from Azerbaijan in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Armenians, the behaviour of the Young Turks, the dominant party in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in systematically arranging the deportation
and killing of 1.5 million Armenians, is central to their national
self image. They say persecutions continued with varying intensity
until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced
by the Republic of Turkey.
Ankara angrily rejects the claim of a planned genocide, but some EU
politicians still want Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide
before Ankara is allowed to join the EU.
Descendants of some of the 1.5 million Armenians killed during the
collapse of Ottoman rule in 1915 will share a $17m (£9.7m) payout
after a settlement with the French insurance giant AXA. The relatives
lodged their legal case in California, home to one of the world’s
largest Armenian communities, claiming for life insurance benefits
that were never paid. The settlement is likely to be approved in
November in the US District Court in California.
Armenians are stepping up their campaign to win formal classification
of the murders as an act of genocide. Turkey has always denied there
was a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against Armenians,
saying they were casualties of partisan fighting and of a political
vacuum during the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Ankara says that as many as 300,000 Armenians, and at least as many
Turks, died during civil strife in eastern Turkey during the First
World War. Last month the authorities finally allowed the issue to be
debated on Turkish soil by historians at an academic conference. But
the organisers had to side-step two legal orders banning it by
rearranging the venue.
The California settlement will be administered in France, which also
has many expatriate Armenian communities and which was one of the first
countries to recognise the murders as genocide. AXA’s headquarters
are in France and the company operates in the US through subsidiaries.
Under the settlement, AXA agreed to donate several million dollars to
various France-based Armenian charities. It will also contribute $11m
toward a fund to pay valid claims of heirs of policyholders with AXA
Group subsidiaries that did business in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
before 1915.
The AXA case was the second lawsuit of its kind to be settled in
US courts, although the United States, along with Turkey, does not
officially recognise the deaths as genocide. In February, New York
Life agreed to pay $20m to descendants of its Armenian policyholders
killed in 1915.
Mark Geragos, an Armenian descendant who was a lawyer for the
plaintiffs, said: “The AXA and New York Life settlements are important
building blocks not only toward seeking financial recovery for the
losses resulting from the Armenian genocide but also in our ultimate
goal, which is for Turkey and the US to officially acknowledge the
genocide.”
This month, Turkey launched EU membership talks which are expected
to last at least a decade. Despite criticism of the stance taken by
Ankara on the issue, EU member states did not seek to make recognition
of the Armenian case as genocide a condition of beginning negotiations
on joining the bloc.
The failure to acknowledge the genocide has also bedevilled Turkey’s
relations with its neighbour, Armenia. Turkey shut its border with
Armenia in 1993, angry at the Armenian separatist forces fighting
for independence from Azerbaijan in the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Armenians, the behaviour of the Young Turks, the dominant party in
the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in systematically arranging the deportation
and killing of 1.5 million Armenians, is central to their national
self image. They say persecutions continued with varying intensity
until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced
by the Republic of Turkey.
Ankara angrily rejects the claim of a planned genocide, but some EU
politicians still want Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide
before Ankara is allowed to join the EU.
–Boundary_(ID_w5yTcrfJaPFUOcjPl4Bi0g)–

THE USA PROMOTES THE RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
Oct 14 2005
On October 13, RA NA President and Robin Phillips, Mission Director
in Armenia of the US Agency for International Development (US/AID)
signed a mutual understanding memorandum between the RA National
Assembly and the US Agency for International Development in Armenia.
The NA President Artur Bahgdasaryan noted that the signing of
the mutual understanding memorandum is an important event, and the
memorandum in act will promote the increase of the role of the National
Assembly, activation of the people-parliament ties. It was highlighted
that the NA has already become more public, and representatives of
different social groups visit the parliament. It was also noted that
the program is worth of 2mln USD, it will serve for retraining the NA
specialists, technical upgrading and international exchanges. Artur
Baghdasaryan gave thanks to the US authorities for the regular
assistance to Armenia.
By the estimation of Robin Phillips, Mission Director in Armenia of the
US Agency for International Development, the National Assembly plays
a vital role in democratic management, adopting laws and monitoring
their implementation. In that sense it is especially important to
promote the technical upgrading of the parliament, retraining of the
staff, making closer the ties with the people. Mr.
Phillips estimated the signed new memorandum as a cooperation
cornerstone of National Assembly-US Agency for International
Development.
After signing the memorandum RA NA President Artur Bahgdasaryan and
Robin Phillips, Mission Director in Armenia of the US Agency for
International Development had a briefing with the journalists.