THE NEW YORK TIMES WHITEWASHES THE ISRAELI TAKEOVER OF EAST JERUSALEM
by Patrick O’Connor
April 18, 2006
ZNet, MA
April 19 2006
Despite a practiced guise of objectivity, the US corporate media’s
reporting on Israel/Palestine is dominated by the Israeli narrative.
An April 16, 2006 feature article by Steven
Erlanger, The New York Times’ Jerusalem Bureau Chief,
“Jerusalem, Now” in the Times’ Sunday Travel section
( vel/16jerusalem.html)
exemplifies how seemingly professional journalistic standards
can mask insidious biases and misinform readers. Erlanger, guided
around Jerusalem by Israelis, omits Israeli violence, stereotypes
Palestinians, whitewashes Israeli settlements and covers up Israeli
efforts to take over East Jerusalem. “Jerusalem, Now” is among the most
political and one-sided mainstream US news articles on Israel/Palestine
published in the last year.
In “Jerusalem, Now” Erlanger repeatedly notes his effort to remain
above the fray – “I try to see it through various lenses”, “I try
to see Jerusalem as a place where both armies and souls contend”,
“I try to see the barrier from both the Palestinian and the Israeli
points of view”, etc..
However, Erlanger simultaneously provides clues that Israeli
perspectives will dominate. He notes three times that he was guided
around Jerusalem by Israelis whom he quotes and paraphrases – “Avi
Ben Hur, the American-turned-Israeli-turned-guide”, “Avner Goren,
an archeologist and guide”, “Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist.”
Israelis in Erlanger’s article are human beings holding professional
jobs. In contrast, he never even names a single Palestinian.
Erlanger’s Palestinians are an undifferentiated mass with “ramshackle”
shops on dusty, garbage-strewn streets where they play soccer,
and labor. They are enraged and “hate”, “militants” who carry out
“suicide bombings”, “riot” and open fire on an Israeli kindergarten,
and trudge “through the dust or the mud” at an Israeli checkpoint
designed to “prevent a terrorist” attack.
American journalists frequently rely on Israelis to explain
Palestinian realities. In Erlanger’s March 19 story, Israeli analyst
Yossi Alpher furnishes the article’s misguided thesis that Hamas’
election victory is comparable to the Iranian revolution. Similarly,
in Thomas Friedman’s one-sided April 12 Times column, Friedman quotes
extensively two Israelis’ opinions of Hamas’ electoral victory,
while citing no Palestinian views. Over the past five years, the
Times has published 3.4 op-eds by Israeli writers for every op-ed by
a Palestinian writer. Over the same period, the top five US newspapers
published 2.5 op-eds by Israelis for every op-ed by a Palestinian.
Erlanger’s reliance on Israeli perspectives frames his portrait
of Jerusalem. In his second paragraph Erlanger notes – “a narrow
moral precipice, running between a military checkpoint and suicide
bombing.” His disingenuous moral equation excludes Israeli violence
and seizure of Palestinian land. He follows with a misleading proverb
characterizing both sides, “We shall struggle for peace so hard that
not a tree will be left standing.” But it is Israel that has uprooted
over one million Palestinian-owned trees. He then adds another grossly
distorted parallel -“I try to see Jerusalem as a place where both
armies and souls contend.” But the only army is the well-equipped
Israeli army, the fourth largest army in the world.
Palestinians have only poorly equipped and barely functioning security
forces, and some poorly armed militias.
Erlanger claims, “Today, after a long truce with most Palestinian
militants, Jerusalem is calmer… the level of violence is down.”
Apparently “calm” refers only to reduced Palestinian attacks on Israeli
Jews, because daily Israeli violence against 200,000 Palestinian
residents of Jerusalem continues unabated.
Erlanger mentions Palestinian “suicide bombings” three times in the
first five paragraphs, and later adds Palestinian shooting at an
Israeli kindergarten, and Palestinian “rioting.” He minimizes Israeli
violence, noting only “Israeli troops reinvaded the West Bank”,
“the siege of Bethlehem”, expropriating land from Palestinians, and
“some Jews are plotting to destroy it and Al Aksa mosque.” The near
absence of Israeli violence is remarkable since the Israeli human
rights organization B’Tselem reports that during this five year
uprising Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 3466 Palestinians,
mostly civilians, and Palestinians have killed 998 Israelis. During
this uprising Israelis have killed five times more children than
those killed by Palestinian armed groups.
Israeli soldiers, settlers and police are almost invisible in the
article. “Israeli troops” are mentioned once and “Israeli police”
materialize once to separate “tussling [Christian] clerics”.
Incongruously, Erlanger associates Christian clerics in Jerusalem with
more violent words than Israelis. There are “furious intra-Christian
battles”, “the Armenians and the Greeks battle”, there is “the war
of the doormat, the battling over chairs” and “the struggle for
the rooftop.”
Readers might therefore be surprised to witness the Israeli military’s
ubiquitous presence and violence in Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers
killed sixteen year old bystander Muhammad Ziad in March, 2006 in
Jerusalem. Israeli police shot in the back and killed 31 year old Samir
Dari in October, 2005. Police frequently assault peaceful Palestinian
protesters. Near the Old City’s Damascus Gate, a major tourist
thoroughfare, Israeli police regularly detain and beat Palestinians,
as they do at other checkpoints. Israeli television viewers recently
watched police assault a Hamas parliamentary candidate near Damascus
Gate. In one of many cases B’Tselem documented, in November, 2005
police in Jerusalem severely beat taxi-driver Iyad Shamasneh, then
released him uncharged.
Erlanger recognizes that “even archaeology is used as a weapon in the
struggle over the land.” Yet when writing about archaeological digs
in Silwan, he avoids mentioning recent Israeli government efforts to
demolish 88 Palestinian homes in Silwan to build a Jewish historical
park, a plan staved off for now by diplomatic appeals. The Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions recorded the demolition of 94
Palestinian structures in East Jerusalem in 2005. Demolitions are
executed with the large-scale presence of Israeli soldiers and police
who often use violence against Palestinian civilians.
Erlanger also doesn’t prepare travelers to witness extremist,
Uzi-toting Israeli settlers violently expelling Palestinians from
their homes throughout East Jerusalem. He omits the burgeoning settler
take-over in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, with now over 40
Jewish settlements there.
In fact, Erlanger makes the massive, illegal Israeli settlements
and 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem completely vanish. The words
“settler” and “settlements” simply never appear. Instead, he names
the settlements of Gilo and Har Homa a “Jewish neighborhood”, and
“Israeli neighborhood”.
Not one government has recognized Israel’s 1967 annexation of East
Jerusalem. With East Jerusalem under Israeli military occupation,
the UN, the International Court of Justice, all major human rights
organizations, and all governments clearly state that Israeli
settlements in East Jerusalem violate international law. But Erlanger
turns illegal Israeli settlements into cozy “neighborhoods”.
Even if the Times Travel section claims to avoid politics, by calling
settlements “neighborhoods” the Times takes a political stand against
international law. The Times specifically chose the Jerusalem Bureau
Chief to write about Jerusalem, rather than a travel writer.
Covering up the obvious developments in Jerusalem at this decisive
moment is tantamount to taking a strong political position in
support of Israeli domination of East Jerusalem. Ironically, this
week “The Economist” outlines those developments in a cover story
“The Last Conquest of Jerusalem” noting that “Israel’s plans for
Jerusalem will create a large Jewish city but will have harsh
consequences for the Palestinians, on both sides of the barrier”
( ory.cfm?story_id=6795641).
The massive Israeli construction of the Wall, settlements,
checkpoints and roads transforming East Jerusalem are impossible for
any observer to miss. Yet Erlanger fails to represent their scale
or implications. Commenting on Israel’s Wall, Erlanger only notes
that it scars the landscape, and that Palestinians feel it annexes
their land and cuts off neighborhoods. He says Jerusalem is built on
“struggle and rivalry”, but refuses to state the obvious, that one
side has won the struggle.
In stark contrast, The Economist explains, “Jerusalem, centre of
pilgrimage, crucible of history and the world’s oldest international
melting-pot, is changing hands once more, but with a slow and
quiet finality.” An accompanying Economist editorial notes that,
“in Jerusalem as a whole Israel’s policy has been to entrench its
control and create facts that cannot be reversed. This has entailed
reshaping the physical and demographic geography of the city, settling
Jews on the Arab side of the pre-1967 border and creating vast Jewish
neighbourhoods to the north, east and south… Sealing in and cutting
off the Palestinians of Jerusalem will only make another descent into
violence more likely.”
In a case of “too little, too late” the Times’ Travel
section includes a token secondary article, “In the West
Bank Politics and Tourism Remain Bound Together Inextricably”
( ravel/16westbank.html) by David
Kaufman and Marisa Katz which quotes some Palestinian views on West
Bank tourism. But “Jerusalem, Now”, nearly three times longer than
Kaufman and Katz’s article, is on the front page of the Travel section
and featured on the webpage.
“Jerusalem, Now” reflects either a woeful unconscious bias, striking
ignorance, a blatant political agenda, or a combination of all three.
By again failing to tell its readers what is happening in Jerusalem,
The New York Times has abdicated its journalistic responsibility and
is effectively complicit in Israeli violations of international law.
Patrick O’Connor is an activist with the International Soldarity
Movement () and Palestine Media Watch
().
ent/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=10117
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SCHEDULED TRAINING OF NKR SELF-DEFENSE ARMY FINISHED IN NK
DeFacto Agency, Armenia
April 19 2006
Scheduled training of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Defense Army with
participation of the army formations and units, as well as mobilization
resource, has finished in the Nagorno Karabakh.
The training’s goal was to determine the level of training education
of the armed forces, to improve management of the fighting arm and
coordination of their actions during defensive and counterattack
operations.
Today, in the course of the final, third stage of the training held
on the military polygon of the NKR Defense Army tactic training with
fighting shooting was conducted, during which tanks and artillery
were used.
The preliminary estimation of the training is positive, Spokesman
of the NKR Defense Ministry Senor Asratyan told De facto agency. He
informed that the final results would be summed up one of these days.
NKR DM Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanyan was in command of the
training. NKR President and Armed Forces Supreme Commander in Chief
Arkady Ghoukasyan and RA DM Serzh Sargsyan were present at the measure.
Today a military units’ parade has been held under field conditions.
The servicemen distinguished in the course of the training were
awarded with certificates of honor and valuable gifts.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TRADE OFFICES WERE A JOKE, BUT POLITICIANS NOW WANT NEW ONES
By Dan Walters — Bee Columnist
Sacramento Bee, CA
April 19 2006
Creating overseas offices supposedly devoted to improving California’s
international trade was a popular political exercise in the 1980s
and 1990s.
There was no objective rationale for the program, nor any rhyme nor
reason to where the offices were located. Governors and legislators
acted on political whim, driven more by local factors or Capitol
politics than a hard-nosed investment-vs.-return equation.
Finally, the entire program collapsed of its own absurd weight.
Journalistic investigations and official audits established that
the trade offices were less than useless, with their directors –
political appointees all – spending most of their time dreaming up
phantom accomplishments.
At one point, the Legislature’s budget analyst reported that the
state’s Trade and Commerce Agency was claiming credit for any export
or investment that included a contact with a trade office, but could
not document a single specific transaction that could be tied to any
trade office activity. The Orange County Register, in an extensive
examination of the program, declared that the reports submitted by
the trade offices were “often false or distorted.” In many cases,
the newspaper contacted business executives that the offices claimed
to have helped and found that most shunned any benefits.
With the state budget oozing red ink in 2003, the Legislature voted
to shut down the Trade and Commerce Agency and the overseas trade
offices – almost. While financing was eliminated for a dozen offices
in London, Tokyo and other major foreign cities, a paragraph buried
in one of the budget “trailer bills” required the state to maintain
an office in tiny, landlocked Armenia.
Why Armenia? Democratic politicians had been cultivating political
support in Southern California’s large and growing Armenian American
community and wanted to butter up voters by paying official homage
to their homeland. For the past three years, therefore, Armenia is
the only nation with which California has maintained official trade
relations. But that would change if an array of bills now pending in
the Legislature – one with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s blessing –
is enacted. The state would open a new set of trade offices in Asia,
Latin America, Europe and Africa on the questionable assertion that
they would benefit the state’s international dealings.
At least those involved can’t say they weren’t warned. Jock O’Connell,
an authentic authority on California’s international trade, bluntly
told the Assembly’s economic development committee Tuesday that
the state’s former trade offices were useless and, given changes in
communications technology, are unnecessary today.
“Trade offices are something out of the 1980s,” O’Connell said. “The
world has changed … and yet the Legislature still talks about
trade offices.”
“There’s no desperate need for these trade offices,” O’Connell
continued. “There may be a political need.”
The latter comment hit the political nail on the head. Sponsoring
trade offices has nothing to do with improving international commerce
but – as the example of Armenia indicates – everything to do with
politicians’ desires to stroke significant blocs of voters and
special interest groups in California by giving their homelands
special recognition.
The bills pending in the Senate and the Assembly would open new
trade offices in Mexico, South Korea and South Africa specifically,
or regional offices in unspecified locations in some instances.
Schwarzenegger is backing a bill to create an office in Mexico “and
two international trade and investment offices in Asia.”
The chairman of the Assembly committee, Fresno Democrat Juan Arambula,
seems reluctant to approve a new flock of trade offices and is carrying
his own measure that would require the California Economic Strategy
Panel to conduct a study of the entire issue and report back to the
Legislature in two years.
If the Legislature and the governor were serious about enhancing
California’s international trade, and not just lubricating relations
with California interest groups, they would improve the infrastructure
of the state’s crowded ports and deep-six several other measures that
would drive trade elsewhere by imposing stiff new fees on cargo for
unrelated programs.
story/14244933p-15063290c.html

EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF CULTURAL PROPERTY IN NA
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
April 19 2006
On April 18 within the framework of EU-Armenia Parliamentary
Cooperation Committee Eighth Meeting an exhibition dedicated to
preservation of cultural property in the National Assembly was
opened. In the exhibition the Armenian monuments left out of the
Armenian territory after the World War I are mainly presented. Armen
Roustamyan, Committee Co-Chairman highlighted the opening of such
exhibition in the aspect of focusing the society’s attention on
the preservation of the historical monument. Representatives of
EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, NA deputies and others
participated at the opening of the exhibition, which initiated the
NGO Studying the Armenian Architecture.
Armen Hakhnazaryan, Chairman of the NGO studying the Armenian
Architecture, presenting the diamonds of the Armenian architecture,
noted that the goal of the NGO is the preservation and evaluation
of the Armenian architectural values left out of Armenia after World
War I.
Hranush Hakobyan, NA deputy, highlighted the organization of the
exhibition from the viewpoint of presenting our Armenian cultural
property to European deputies. In Mrs. Hakobyan’s opinion the
destruction of the architectural monuments by our neighbours is
unacceptable, reminding that both the UNESCO and the civilized world
have put a task to preserve the cultural property.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SAAKASHVILI: NEW ROADS TO PUT AN END TO JAVAKHETI’S ISOLATION
Civil Georgia, Georgia
April 19 2006
President Saakashvili said on April 19 that a total of “GEL 400
million [USD 219 million] is planned to be spent over the course
of the next few years” on rehabilitating and constructing roads in
Samtskhe-Javakheti, which will “put an end to the isolation of this
region,” which is in southern Georgia.
Saakashvili was speaking in Akhalkalaki, a predominantly
ethnic Armenian populated town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti
region, at a groundbreaking ceremony of the construction of the
Akhalkalaki-Akhaltsikhe road, which is planned for completion by
next year.
“Later this autumn we will launch the construction of another new
highway linking Akhalkalaki with Tbilisi; GEL 300 million will be
spent on the construction of this road,” Saakashvili said.
“[New roads] mean that Javakheti’s geographical isolation from the
rest of Georgia will end once and for all; this means that local
peasants [sic]will be able to freely export their products from here;
this means that more businesses will come here; this means that more
transit will take place here… Roads and development – these are
what Javakheti needs now,”
The rehabilitation of roads in this region is also envisaged by the
U.S. funded USD 295.3 million aid program in frames of the Millennium
Challenge Account. A major part of the funding – USD 102 million –
will be spent towards rehabilitating some 245 kilometers of the main
road traversing the Samtskhe-Javakheti region.

BERN ASKS ANKARA TO PLAY FAIR IN AIRCRAFT DEAL
Swissinfo, Switzerland
April 19 2006
The PC-21 is the latest in a long line of Pilatus training aircraft
(Keystone)
The Swiss foreign ministry has intervened with Turkey over a boycott
of trainer aircraft from the Pilatus company of Stans in central
Switzerland.
The move follows a decision by Ankara barring Pilatus from putting
in a bid to supply the PC-21 turbo trainer to the Turkish Air Force.
A Pilatus spokesman confirmed to swissinfo earlier this month that
the Turkish authorities had forbidden the company from tendering for
a contract.
“The foreign ministry is informed about this matter. We have addressed
the Pilatus case at the diplomatic level both in Bern and Turkey,”
ministry spokeswoman Carine Carey told swissinfo.
She added that the ministry would follow the matter closely.
Economics Minister Joseph Deiss has offered to try to find a solution
to the problem during a visit to Turkey, which has long been on
the cards.
However, the two countries have still not agreed on a date after a
planned visit last September was postponed.
Boycott
News of the boycott came in a letter sent to Pilatus from the Turkish
defence ministry.
The Turkish Daily News reported a week ago that Pilatus had been
excluded from bidding for the $500 million (SFr634.4 million) contract
because of a diplomatic row between the two countries.
It quoted a defence official as saying he did not think Swiss
contenders would be reliable partners in defence contracts.
Bilateral relations have been strained, particularly since 2003
when the Swiss House of Representatives recognised the “genocide”
of Armenians at the time of the First World War.
However, the Swiss government does not officially speak of “genocide”
but of “mass deportation” and “massacre”.
Highly qualified
The chief executive of Pilatus, Oscar Schwenk, told the Tages-Anzeiger
it was the first time in the company’s history that the company was
not allowed to bid for a deal for which it was highly qualified.
The company has been talking to Turkish authorities and companies
for four years about the supply of aircraft.
In the meantime, Turkey has been in contact with other companies,
including Embraer of Brazil, South Korea’s Aerospace Industries and
Raytheon of the United States.
“As an enterprise we can do nothing; only Bern can unblock the issue,”
Schwenk commented.
Photo:
siness/detail/Bern_asks_Ankara_to_play_fair_in_air craft_deal.html?siteSect=161&sid=6639770&c Key=1145442468000

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPUTER TEACHING FROM FIRST CLASS
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
April 19 2006
On April 18 RA NA President Artur Baghdasaryan received Nigel Townson,
Director of the British Council Armenia.
The NA President highlighted the British Council mission, expressing
a hope that the cooperation will effectively continue. Mr. Townson
presented their several programmes, which can be good bases for good
cooperation with the National Assembly.
During the meeting the opportunities of the British Council’s
assistance on NA President Artur Baghdasaryan’s new legislative
initiative of organizing English language and computer teaching from
first class in general schools in future was discussed. The sides
highlighted the teachers’ training especially in the marzes, the
instructional support services and study of international experience.
Welcoming the initiative, Mr. Townson expressed readiness to assist
that initiative. The meetings will continue, and a working programme
will be prepared in order to regulate and make closer the British
Council and National Assembly ties.

ANKARA PREPARES AGAINST ‘APR. 24’ WITH JEWISH LOBBY
By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara
Zaman Online, Turkey
April 19 2006
Ankara intensifies efforts against the Armenian Diaspora, which
attempts to “make the so-called Armenian genocide recognized,” as
the anniversary of “24 April 1915 events” approaches.
Turkish officials, who closely monitor the resolution drafts in the US
Congress, French and Argentinean parliaments, continue their efforts
to prevent a counter decision.
Diplomatic sources oppose claims suggesting that the Jewish lobby has
ended its support to Turkey in relation to the “so-called Armenian
genocide allegations” following the Islamic Resistance Movement’s
(HAMAS) Ankara visit. They also do not think it is possible for the
US Congress to take such a decision.
US President George W. Bush is not expected to use the word “genocide”
in his April 24 speech.
“Turkey and the Jewish lobby have always had good relations. If there
is a weakness in the relations, we will do our best to eliminate it, we
are working towards this end,” a foreign ministry official explained.
Along with the US Congress, developments in the French and Argentinean
parliaments are being closely monitored.
A draft law in the French parliament foresees the “punishment of
those deny the existence of Armenian genocide,” and another law in
the Argentinean parliament aims to “giving the Armenian genocide
issue a place in the school books.”
Ankara realized the “necessary” efforts to the Argentinean government
and asked them “not to nurture generations being hostile to Turkey”.
Political experts comment that the draft will not be passed by
parliament.
Secret diplomacy continues with Yerevan
Problems between Turkey and Armenia, including the “so-called genocide
allegations,” were handled in the Austrian capital, Vienna, by the
diplomats of both countries.
During these talks, the “commission of historian” project put forward
by Turkey concerning the Armenian genocide allegations was not adopted.
Ankara rejected the proposal of Armenia relating to the issue as well.
In order for the start of diplomatic relations between the countries,
a text should be signed by the both parties, which shows that some
of the problems between the countries, including the dispute over
borders, have been settled.
The parties have not reached such a level, it is noted. Along with
the diplomatic meetings, Turkish diplomats recently gathered with
representatives of the Armenian Diaspora defending “moderate” opinions
in the US.

Traitors, martyrs or just brave men?
By Robert Fisk
Gulf Times, Qatar
April 19 2006
LONDON: More than 15 years ago, I travelled to the Belgian city of
Ypres with an Irish friend. She was from a good Fine Gael family which
nursed a healthy disrespect for the amount of romantic green blossom
draped around Padraig Pearse’s neck for the militarily hopeless but
politically explosive Dublin Easter Rising of 1916. But she displayed
an equally admirable suspicion of British – or “English” as she would
have put it – intentions towards Ireland, north and south. Her mother
once recalled for me a British military raid on their home in County
Carlow. “I was a little girl and one of the soldiers patted me on
the head and I told him: ‘You keep your hands off me.'”
But at Ypres one evening, beneath the great Menin Gate – upon which
are carved the names of 54,896 World War I British soldiers whose
bodies were never found – my Irish friend faced a real political
challenge. She had noted, among those thousands, the names of
hundreds of young Irishmen who had died in British uniform while their
countrymen at home were fighting and dying in battle against the same
British Army. She looked at one of the names. “Why in God’s name,”
she asked, “was a boy from the Station House, Tralee, dying here in
the mud of Flanders?” And it was at this point that an elderly man
approached us and asked my Irish friend to sign the visitors’ book.
She looked at the British Army’s insignia on the memorial volume
with distaste. There was the British crown glimmering in the evening
light. And the Belgian firemen who nightly play the Last Post beneath
the gate were already taking position. There was not much time. But
my friend remembered the young man from Tralee. She thought about
her own small Catholic nation and its centuries of suffering and
she realised that the boy from Tralee had gone to fight – or so
he thought – for little Catholic Belgium. She decided to inscribe
the British Army’s book in the Irish language. “Do thiortha beaga,”
she wrote. “For little countries.” All this happened years before an
economically powerful and self-confident Irish Republic would face
up to the sacrifice its pre-independence soldiers made in British
uniform; the estimated 35,000 Irishmen who died in the 1914-18 war
wildly outnumber the few hundred who fought in the Easter Rising. The
total of dead, wounded and missing among Irish Protestants in the 36th
(Ulster) Division on the Somme and at Ypres came to 32,180. The same
statistics among soldiers of the 10th and 16th Irish Divisions –
most of them Catholics – amounted to 37,761.
My own father was to fight alongside the Irish on the Somme in 1918
although – a fact I used to keep quiet about when I was The Times’s
correspondent in Belfast in the early 1970s – he was originally sent to
Ireland in the aftermath of the Rising. I have a faded photograph of
Bill Fisk, then in the Cheshire Regiment, kissing the Blarney Stone,
and some pictures he took of the front gate of Victoria Barracks –
now Collins Barracks – in Cork, its stonework plastered with appeals
to Irishmen to join the British Army and fight for Catholic Belgium
and France. It was only when I was invited to give the annual Bloody
Sunday memorial lecture in Derry – the first Brit to be asked to honour
the memory of the 14 Catholics who were killed by the 1st Battalion,
the Parachute Regiment in 1972 – that I talked about my Dad’s fight
against Sinn Fein (whom he always called the “Shinners”). If Padraig
Pearse had not raised the flag over the Dublin Post office in Easter
Week of 1916, I told my audience, Bill Fisk might have been sent to
die in the first Battle of the Somme three months later – and his son
Robert would not exist. So did I owe my life to Pearse? I can already
hear that most polemical, visceral, poignant, absolutely infuriating,
brilliant and doggedly insulting Irish Times columnist Kevin Myers
bursting into fits of sarcastic laughter and carefully aimed fury at
such a remark. Kevin was among the first to hammer away at Ireland’s
shameful refusal to acknowledge the vast sacrifice of its sons in
the 1914-18 cauldron. And Kevin it has been, while foolishly taking
the Turkish line of denial of the Armenian genocide of 1915, who has
repeatedly tried to hack down the reputations of martyrs Pearse and
James Connolly and John MacBride – and Eamon de Valera, who escaped
execution because of his American passport – and present the Rising as
not only a military disaster but an unnecessary sacrifice of civilian
life and the first example of “green fascism”.
I don’t like the way the “fascist” label gets stuck on anyone we
dislike. Lefties used to call policemen fascists. And now we have
“Islamofascism” which effectively binds Mussolini to one of the
world’s great religions. No wonder we could draw those outrageous
cartoons of the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.
But I’m still not at all sure how to regard the men of 1916. The
very best book on the Rising – George Dangerfield’s magnificent The
Damnable Question – proves that the “rebels” (as my father called
them) were very brave as well as very dismissive of their own and
others’ lives. They were not to know the deviant way in which their
“blood sacrifice” – which was not exactly the first in Irish history
– would be adopted by later armed groups who sought their mandate in
blood shed before those 1916 British execution parties.
Had they not been so cruelly shot down as punishment for their armed
assault on British power, would they have been so honoured in the long,
dark, stagnant Ireland of the 1920s and 30s and then in the terrible
and much later years of the civil conflict in Northern Ireland? Do
you have to be a martyr to have honour?
I was much struck by this thought five years ago when I was searching
through the British National Archives at Kew for details of the
execution of a young Australian soldier in the British Army whom
my father was ordered to shoot at the end of World War I. Bill Fisk
refused, so another officer performed the dirty deed. But there in the
documents of British military executions – routinely filed under 1916
– were the names of Pearse and Connolly and McBride. The exemplary
punishment accorded to them and their comrades in Dublin turned Irish
public scorn to sympathy and admiration. But to the Brits, it was just
another act of military law, the shooting by firing squad of traitors
to the Crown – in just the same way as deserters, army murderers and
cowards were shot at dawn behind the trenches of France. The martyrs
of the Easter Rising suffered Western Front punishment.
And now Ireland’s minister for defence tells us the military Easter
Rising pomp in Dublin last weekend symbolised the end of the war in
the North. Maybe. But who will remember the boy from the Station House,
Tralee? – The Independent.

AKSU: AZERBAIJAN’S TERRITORIES REMAINING UNDER OCCUPATION POSES GREAT OBSTACLE TO STABILITY IN THE REGION
Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
April 19 2006
Turkey’s Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu today started his visit
to Azerbaijan at the invitation of his Azerbaijani counterpart,
Colonel-General Ramil Usubov (APA).
Mr.Aksu visited the tomb of the then President Heydar Aliyev in the
Honorary Alley, Martyr’s Alley and the Alley of Turkish martyrs.
Following that, the two Interior Ministers had talks in the Interior
Ministry. Mr.Usubov said that Azerbaijan-Turkey relations are
developing in all spheres. The Azerbaijani Minister noted that the
relations between the Interior Ministries of the two countries were
established in 1992 and the ties are strengthening.
“These relationships should be further strengthened. We should unite
our efforts to fight against transnational organized crimes such
as terrorism, illegal arms and drug traffic, trafficking in human
beings, illegal migration, which poses a serious threat to stability,”
Usubov underlined.
The Minister also said that the meeting of Turkish, Azerbaijani and
Georgian Interior Ministers is intended to be held soon.
Turkish Minister said that this visit will promote deepening of the
cooperation relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Stressing the
importance of collaborating to fight transnational crimes, the visitor
proposed to conduct exchange of information between Azerbaijan and
Turkey in this field.
“Nagorno Garabagh or in general, 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territories
remaining under occupation is unacceptable. This factor poses a great
obstacle to ensure stability in the region,” Mr.Aksu underlined.
The Ministers signed a document on cooperation between bodies of
interior affairs of Turkey and Azerbaijan.