Pravda, Russia
Oct 9 2005
EU enlargement chief meets with Orhan Pamuk
05:30 2005-10-09
The European Union enlargement chief met with Turkish writer Orhan
Pamuk at his home in Istanbul, where the two discussed freedom of
expression ahead of Pamuk’s December trial for allegedly insulting
the Turkish identity.
A Turkish prosecutor used a clause in the Turkish penal code to open
a case against Pamuk, one of Turkey’s most successful writers, for
remarks he made about the deaths of Kurds and Armenians in Turkey.
The clause has also been used in recent days to convict an
Armenian-Turkish journalist, raising concerns about Turkey’s
tolerance of free expression.
The EU has said it will be watching closely when Pamuk goes before a
judge on Dec. 16. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, on the third
day of a visit to Turkey following the opening of the country’s EU
membership talks on Tuesday, met with Pamuk for around an hour and a
half on Saturday, NTV television reported.
Pamuk said he and Rehn did not discuss the case directly, but talked
about “human rights in Turkey in general,” the Anatolia news agency
reported. The 301st paragraph of the new Turkish penal code says “a
person who insults Turkishness, the Republic or the Turkish
parliament will be punished with imprisonment ranging from six months
to three years.”
Some prosecutors have liberally interpreted the code and used it to
try those who question Turkey’s treatment of minorities, particularly
Armenians and Kurds. On Friday, Turkey convicted Armenian-Turkish
journalist Hrant Dink under the same clause for an article he wrote
earlier this year in which he mentioned poison and Turkish blood in
the same sentence. The court said the article was “intended to be
insulting and offensive,” while Dink said his words were taken out of
context.
Dink, who has lived in Turkey all his life, received a six-month
suspended sentence. He said the conviction was an attempt to silence
him and held back tears as he said on Turkish television that he
would leave Turkey if he could not get his conviction overturned. A
case was opened against Pamuk after he told a Swiss newspaper in
February, “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these
lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”
He was referring to those killed during Turkey’s two-decade conflict
with Kurdish rebels and to Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks around
the time of World War I. Armenians and several country’s recognize
those killings as the first genocide of the 20th century, which
Turkey denies.
Rehn also brought a stack of Pamuk’s books for the author to sign,
and the two later went out for lunch together at an Istanbul
restaurant, Anatolia said. Pamuk’s books, which include the
internationally acclaimed “Snow” and “My Name is Red,” have been
translated into more than 20 languages. Pamuk has received numerous
international awards, AP reports.

Whittier Daily News, CA
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
Oct 9 2005
Armenian pope pays visit to Montebello
By Bridget Schinnerer, Correspondent

MONTEBELLO – Area Armenians and local officials attended a prayer
service conducted by His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great
House of Cilicia, at the Armenian Martyrs Memorial Monument at
Bicknell Park.
The monument, which sits on a hill, was erected in 1968 and is
dedicated to the memory of Armenians who lost their lives at the
hands of the Ottoman Turkish Government from 1915 to 1921, a period
many call the Armenian genocide.
“This is a service that honors their memory and blesses their souls
so that they may rest in peace,” Armenian National Committee
spokesman Raffi Hamparian said.
Montebello is one of the many cities the pontiff will visit during
his month-long tour of North America. This is his second visit to
California in seven years.
Several hundred people attended Saturday’s event and eagerly
applauded when he spoke of the importance of the commemorative
monument.
“This memorial that stands at the heart of the state of California is
a reminder of the Armenian genocide that happened during World War
I,” the pontiff said. “I consider this living monument a challenge of
all people that we must join our forces for the promotion of human
values.”
Values, he said, that are not just Armenian values, but human ones.
The pontiff’s visit occurs at a time when the United States
government is considering two pieces of legislation that urge the
current Turkish government to recognize the role of its predecessors
in the mass killings and acknowledges the United States’ opposition
to recognizing it as a genocide.
The resolutions, supported by the House International Relations
Committee, await action by the House of Representatives.
Attendees at Saturday’s service said the pontiff’s message reinforced
their own beliefs.
“It is very important to recognize our genocide because if we don’t
recognize this one, we cannot prevent the next one,” Mourad
Iskadhian, 43, of Montebello said.

Angus Reid Global Scan, Canada
Oct 9 2005
Azerbaijan – CIS observers begin operations

Election Date: November 6, 2005

CREDIT: Flag courtesy of ITA’s Flags of All Countries used with
permission.

At stake: National Assembly
Background
(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Following the collapse of the Soviet
Union, lawmakers in Azerbaijan voted to restore the area’s
independence. Former Communist Party leader Ayaz Mutallibov became
president, while Haidar Aliyev – who had coordinated the operations of
the KGB in the region – took over as leader in the exclave of
Nakhichevan.
A war broke out in the early 1990s between Azerbaijan and Armenia
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The area is controlled by ethnic
Armenians – who consider it an independent republic – but is claimed by
Azerbaijan as part of its territory. The hostilities ended with an
unofficial truce negotiated by Russia in 1994.
Aliyev took over as Azerbaijan’s president in 1993. The election was
boycotted by Abulfaz Elchibey, who had substituted Mutallibov as head
of state. A year later, three members of a special police force were
arrested after two political assassinations. Aliyev said the incident
amounted to an attempted coup, and declared a state of emergency.
In 1994, a Western consortium signed a $7.4 billion U.S. contract to
develop Azerbaijan’s offshore oil and gas reserves. A pipeline that
carries oil all the way to the Turkish port of Ceyhan began operating
in May 2005.
In 1995, Aliyev’s New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) won a majority of the
seats in the country’s first-ever multi-party legislative ballot. The
contest failed to meet international standards, according to
international organizations. The 1998 presidential election and the
2001 legislative election would also be criticized as “irregular” by
observers.
In August 2002, voters supported a series of constitutional
amendments in a referendum, as Aliyev seemed poised to seek a new
term in office. The authoritarianism of the Aliyev regime was
condemned by human rights organizations, and the Council of Europe
chided Azerbaijan for holding political prisoners. Health problems
forced the 80-year-old president to eventually withdraw from the
contest.
In August 2003, the National Assembly appointed Aliyev’s son
Ilham – who had already been registered as a presidential candidate – as
the country’s prime minister. The younger Aliyev had served as the
vice-president of Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company, and was elected
as vice-president of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.
In October 2003, Ilham Aliyev was elected with 77.97 per cent of all
cast ballots. The election was once again criticized by international
monitors.
Click here for 2003 Azerbaijan Presidential Election Tracker
2005 National Assembly Election
The ballot to renew Azerbaijan’s legislative branch will take place
on Nov. 6. The election is regarded as a key test for the former
Soviet Republic, after fraud allegations led to power shifts in
Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
On May 11, Ilham Aliyev issued a decree which outlines a series of
measures meant to improve the democratic process. The policies
include raising “the professionalism and competence” of election
officials and conducting exit polls. No changes were implemented in
the provision that sets the structure of the election commission,
where the authorities hold a majority over the opposition.
On Jul. 5, the campaign period officially began. Each candidate must
submit the signatures of 450 supporters in order to become
registered.
On Jul. 13, Azerbaijani media outlets signed an ethics code, which
aims to promote constructive and independent news coverage during the
campaign.
On Jul. 15, former U.S. state secretary Madeleine Albright expressed
confidence in the democratic process, saying, “The election campaigns
have already started and I believe the decree signed by president
Ilham Aliyev will play a basic role for holding a free and fair
election.”
On Jul. 26, the U.S. announced plans to finance an exit poll, in
order to help Azerbaijan conduct a free and fair ballot.
On Sept. 5, exiled former president Ayaz Mutallibov was registered as
a candidate in the parliamentary ballot. Former National Assembly
speaker Rasul Guliyev will also be a contender. Prosecutors have said
that both politicians could be arrested if they return to Azerbaijan.
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) chairman
Dmitrij Rupel expressed satisfaction with the process so far,
declaring, “The Azerbaijan authorities are taking steps to fulfil the
recommendations of international organizations and can resolve all
outstanding problems by November. Azerbaijan’s democratization is
ongoing.”

On Sept. 11, thousands of opposition supporters demanded a free and
fair ballot in Baku. The protesters wore orange-coloured clothing, a
reference to the successful campaign of Ukraine’s Viktor Yushchenko.
On Sept. 15, Islamic Party leader Hajiaga Nuriev was banned from
contention by the Central Election Commission (CEC). While Nuriev
sought to register as a contender for an opposition bloc, the CEC
claimed that his ties to the Islamic Party contravene regulations
that do not allow religious activists to run for public office.
On Sept. 23, the independent Prognoz centre announced that it would
hold an exit poll on the day of the legislative ballot.
In accordance with existing regulations, only parties or alliances
with at least 60 registered candidates can have free access to
state-run national television for promotion.
The governing New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) has included first lady
Mehriban Aliyeva in its list of contenders, along with Aydin
Mirzazade, Ahad Abiyev, Musa Musayev and Jalal Aliyev – the current
president’s uncle. Mirzazade said the slate of candidates “includes
former parliamentarians and new names as well as those who have great
merits within the party. If the list would include only nationally
known personalities, it would prevent regional party members from
getting a chance to become better known.”
The opposition Azadliq (Freedom) alliance encompasses the Azerbaijan
Popular Front Party (AKC), the Musavat (Equality) party and the
Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP). AKC deputy chairman Fuad
Mustafayev explained the rationale for the coalition, declaring, “The
long-awaited alliance is designed for long-term purposes. We had to
move from an autonomous existence to co-existence.”
The New Policy (YeS) bloc was formed in April, with Eldar Namazov as
its leader. The group presented its policy platform s titled “From
Authoritarianism to Democracy, From Corruption to a Legal State,”
which severely criticizes Aliyev’s regime. The YeS list includes
former president Ayaz Mutallibov.
On Oct. 6, observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) opened their mission headquarters in Baku. Azerbaijan’s first
deputy prime minister Abbas Abbasov said the CIS team “will be
monitoring the election campaign in all regions and cities.”
Political Players
President: Ilham Aliyev
Prime minister: Artur Rasi-Zade – YAP
The president is elected to a five-year term by popular vote.
Legislative Branch: The Milli Meclisi (National Assembly) has 125
members, 100 members elected to five-year terms in single-seat
constituencies, and 25 members elected by proportional
representation.
Results of Last Election:
President – Oct. 25, 2003
Vote%

Ilham Aliyev
(Nakhichevan)
77.97%

Isa Gambar
(Equality Party – Musavat)
11.91%

Lala-Sovket Hajiyeva
(National Unity)
3.22%

Etibar Mamedov
(Azerbaijan National Independence Party)
2.00%

Ilyas Ismailov
(Justice Party)
0.80%

Sabir Rustamkhanli
(Civil Solidarity Party)
0.76%

Gudrat Hasanguliyev
(Popular Front)
0.44%

Hafiz Hajiyev
(New Musavat Party)
0.32%

National Assembly – Nov. 5, 2000 and Jan. 7, 2001.
Vote%
Seats

New Azerbaijan Party (YAP)
62.3%
75

Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AKC)
11.0%
6

Civil Solidarity Party (VBP)
6.4%
3

Azerbaijan Communist Party (AKP)
6.3%
2

Equality Party (Musavat)
4.9%
2

Azerbaijan National Independence Party (AMIP)
3.9%
2

Azerbaijan Liberal Party (ALP)
1.3%
—

Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP)
1.1%
—

Alliance Party for the Sake of Azerbaijan (ANAP)
1.0%
1

Social Prosperity Party (SPP)
—
1

Motherland Party (MP)
—
1

Ana Vatan (AV)
—
1

Yurddash Partiyasi (YP)
—
1

Non-partisans
—
29

Hindu, India
Oct 9 2005
European Union will “watch” the trial of Turkish writer
Pamuk facing charges for writing about the deaths of Kurds and
Armenians
ISTANBUL: The European Union enlargement chief met on Saturday
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk at his home in Istanbul, where the two
discussed freedom of expression ahead of Mr. Pamuk’s December trial
for allegedly insulting the Turkish identity.
A Turkish prosecutor used a clause in the penal code to open a case
against Mr. Pamuk, one of Turkey’s most successful writers, for
remarks he made about the deaths of Kurds and Armenians in Turkey.
The clause has also been used in recent days to convict an
Armenian-Turkish journalist, raising concerns about Turkey’s
tolerance of free expression.
The E.U. has said it will be watching closely when Mr. Pamuk goes
before a judge on December 16.
Controversial code
European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, on the third day
of a visit to Turkey following the opening of the country’s E.U.
membership talks on Tuesday, met Mr. Pamuk for around an hour and a
half, NTV television reported.
Mr. Pamuk said he and Mr. Rehn did not discuss the case directly, but
talked about “human rights in Turkey in general,” the Anatolia news
agency reported.
The 301st paragraph of the new penal code says “a person who insults
Turkishness, the Republic or the Turkish Parliament will be punished
with imprisonment ranging from six months to three years.”
Some prosecutors have liberally interpreted the code and used it to
try those who question Turkey’s treatment of minorities, particularly
Armenians and Kurds.
On Friday, Turkey convicted Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink
under the same clause for an article he wrote earlier this year in
which he mentioned poison and Turkish blood in the same sentence.
The court said the article was “intended to be insulting and
offensive,” while Mr. Dink said his words were taken out of context.
Mr. Dink, who has lived in Turkey all his life, received a six-month
suspended sentence.
He said the conviction was an attempt to silence him and held back
tears as he said on Turkish television that he would leave Turkey if
he could not get his conviction overturned.
Genocide charge
A case was opened against Mr. Pamuk after he told a Swiss newspaper
in February, “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in
these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.” He was
referring to those killed during Turkey’s two-decade conflict with
Kurdish rebels and to Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks around the
time of World War I.
Armenians and several countries recognise those killings as the first
genocide of the 20th century, which Turkey denies.
“My trial isn’t something that worries me, but Turkey’s democracy,
human rights and freedom of expression are important details for all
of us,” Anatolia quoted Mr. Pamuk as saying. –

Boston Herald, MA
Oct 9 2005
Turkey waiting for EU
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Sunday, October 9, 2005
Eighteen years after it applied for membership in the European Union,
Turkey and EU diplomats have begun formal negotiations on the
application. The talks may take 10 years, but it is important that
eventually Turkey be admitted.

The Muslim world is torn by a struggle between the peaceable
majority and intolerant fundamentalists who seek religious rule under
a new caliphate eventually embracing the whole world. Nothing would
go further to convince Muslims that they have nothing to fear and
everything to gain from modernity and the West in general, and
secular government in particular, than the recognition of Turkey as a
full member of Europe.

Turkey’s economy is oriented to the West, it has been a member
of NATO for more than a half-century, and its government has been
determinedly secular since 1925, even though it is now led by a party
that calls itself Islamic.

Turkey has jumped through hoop after hoop to prove to critics in
Europe that its values are acceptable. It abolished the death
penalty, legalized use of the Kurdish language and finally has begun
to examine whether the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
in 1915 and after was the genocide that the rest of the civilized
world considers it.

There are more hoops, such as the country’s refusal to recognize
Cyprus, on which it must relent if it wants to join the European
Union because Cyprus is now a member. But hoops are what negotiations
are about.

Europe’s fears are more of an obstacle to membership than
Turkey’s policies and values. Many workers in the original Common
Market member countries fear wage and other competition from the new
members to the East, and politicians often play to those fears. There
is a certain irony in this, for hundreds of thousands of German
workers are Turks recruited to make up labor shortages caused by
World War II.

Austria has been devious in trying to block negotiations by
tying them to the status of Croatia, which it is backing for
membership. The rest of Europe at least has recognized this is not
1683, and no conquering Turkish army is knocking at the gates of Vienna.

Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency, Iran
Oct 9 2005
Armenian Authors Gather in Yerevan
Armenian writers and poets from all around the world gather in
Yerevan from 8-12 October.
Tehran, 9 October 2005 (CHN) – The Biggest gathering of Armenian
authors will be held in Yerevan from 8 to 12 October with the
presence of 2 Iranian literary figures; Zoya Pirzad and Ahmad Nouri
Zadeh.
The gathering is dedicated to the writers and poets who write their
works in languages other than Armenian.
Among the invited literary figures for the event, Zoya Pirzad, an
Iranian awarded female writer, is mentionable. Zoya Pirzad whose
famous `I am the one who turns off the lights’ has won several
national literary awards, is one of the few Armenian writers in Iran
who writes in Persian.
`Since Leon Analian became responsible for the directorship of
Armenian Writers Association, the association is more active.
Organizing several literary conferences are among its achievements’
said Varand, secretary general of the association.
This 2nd edition of the conference of Armenian writers is dedicated
to the review and study of Armenian writers who live outside the
country. These kinds of literary events are aimed at creating greater
kinship among Armenian literary figures from all over the world.
Beside Zoya Pirzad, Ahmad Nouri Zadeh is another Iranian literary
figure who will be present at the event. He will be awarded for his
great translations of Armenian works into Persian.
;section=2

Times of Malta, Malta
Oct 9 2005
Turkey’s historic path towards EU membership
by Anthony Manduca
The European Union has finally opened membership talks with Turkey,
paving the way for this huge Muslim country to eventually join the
bloc. Last-minute objections by Austria, which wanted Ankara to be
offered a “privileged partnership” as an alternative to membership,
should negotiations fail, were overcome. The opening of accession
talks is a truly historic event and presents the EU with its biggest
ever challenge – how to integrate such a huge, poor, Muslim country
with a mixed human rights record into the club.
Should Turkey successfully conclude its accession negotiations –
perhaps in about 15 years’ time – it will be the Union’s most
populous member with the biggest number of votes in the Council of
Ministers, so one can understand the preoccupation in certain
European quarters. However, Turkey has been waiting 42 years to join
the EU, it has been a faithful friend and ally of the West, as well
as a loyal NATO partner, it played a major role in the Cold War
containing Communism, and at the December 1999 Helsinki summit it was
finally accepted as an EU candidate country.
The last-minute wrangling, therefore, just a few days before Turkey’s
accession negotiations were scheduled to open last Monday, was
unfortunate and sent the wrong signals to the Turks, namely that
Europe would always find an excuse to keep them out. This can only
fuel anti-EU sentiment in Turkey, which is exactly what we do not
want to happen. Opinion polls in Turkey already show a shift against
membership, and that is not good news.
Austria’s initial objections were partly tactical – they wanted to
ensure parallel accession negotiations with Croatia – and this was
accepted by the Union. However, it is also true that suspicions of
Turkey run deep in Austria – and the Austrians seem to have long
memories – they saved Europe from the Turks who were assembled at the
gates of Vienna in 1683.
Nevertheless, the world has changed since then and that episode is
very much part of history. After all, as Prime Minister Lawrence
Gonzi very correctly pointed out during his meeting with the members
of the Maltese community in Michigan: “In 1565 Malta and the Knights
saved Europe from the Ottoman invasion. Yet today we support Turkey’s
bid to join the EU – provided they improve their track record and
fulfil all entry requirements.”
There are certainly valid arguments on both sides of the debate about
whether the EU should accept Turkey as a member, but I have always
maintained, and continue to maintain, that the advantages – both for
the EU and for Turkey – certainly outweigh the disadvantages. Yes,
there is concern that the economic cost of Turkish membership will be
very high, that the overwhelmingly Muslim population could change the
character of the EU, that Turkey still has a lot to do to improve its
human rights record and treatment of minorities and that the Cyprus
problem has remained unresolved.
However, just think of the many advantages. EU membership for Turkey
would mean a consolidation of a secular, Muslim democracy, it would
be a catalyst for economic and political reform in the country,
Turkey would become a natural bridge between Europe and Muslim
countries and it would act as a model for the Muslim world.
Furthermore, Turkey has a very fast growing economy, a young
workforce, a huge army and more than half of its trade is already
with the EU. The strategic role played by Turkey in both Central Asia
and the Middle East would be a huge benefit in the EU.
So I have no doubt at all that in the long run Turkish EU membership
will be very beneficial to both sides – there are clearly both
political and economic advantages.
Of course, the accession talks will not be easy for Turkey, which has
to give solid proof of its commitment to European values, both
political and economic. One must acknowledge that Turkey has already
made tremendous progress in political and economic reform but this
trend must continue, as the EU will definitely be standing firm
during the negotiations. Human rights and equal rights for minorities
still need to be improved as does full freedom for other religions.
The scenes of police beating women demonstrators a few months ago,
for example, certainly did Turkey’s image no good. In addition, it is
important that certain social and economic reforms, which are on the
statute books, are properly enforced.
A solution will also have to be found over Cyprus – it is
inconceivable for Turkey to join the bloc without recognising one of
its members. It is true that a UN-sponsored plan for Cyprus was
approved in a referendum by the Turkish Cypriots but rejected by the
Greek Cypriots, but eventually a way out will have to be negotiated.
It is also essential that Turkey comes to terms with its past – it
must do some serious soul-searching about the Armenian question and
acknowledge its past role in this terrible episode in history. There
is nothing wrong in admitting such a role – it is in fact a sign of
democratic maturity and of being at ease with one’s self. And the
Kurdish question must continue to be tackled – a Turkey in the EU has
to give full rights to and respect for this minority, there can be
absolutely no argument about this.
European governments now have a very important role to play in
convincing their electorates that Turkey’s membership of the bloc is
in the EU’s interest. They must convince voters – especially those in
countries such as Austria, Germany France and The Netherlands, that
this will bring increased security and prosperity for everyone.
Unfortunately, the ‘EU15’ failed to adequately convince many of their
voters that the previous enlargement was a success – although it
clearly has been – and this was partly responsible for the French and
Dutch rejection of the EU Constitution. A huge public relations
campaign is needed to win the hearts and minds of Europeans over
Turkey’s EU bid.
Turkey’s membership will be positive for Europe as a whole – and it
is important that both sides enter the accession negotiations with an
open positive mind and with a view that if handled correctly this is
a win-win situation.

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Oct 9 2005
Armenians go to the polls
By Jean Christou
NEARLY 2,000 Armenians in Cyprus will go to the polls today to elect
a new representative to the House of Representatives after a short
but lively by-election campaign that focused on educational and
cultural issues, but also brought to the surface the divisions within
the small community in Cyprus.
For the first time since Cyprus’ independence in 1960, three
candidates, two doctors and one businessman, will vie for the
Armenian seat. Dr Antranik Ashdjian, Dr Vahakn Atamyan and
businessman Parsing Zartarian, who entered the race as a surprise
candidate, have all promised to do their best to unite the community
and put an end to the polarisation of views that currently exists.
Voting at four electoral centres – two in Nicosia, one in Limassol
and one in Larnaca – will begin today at 7am and will break from 12
noon to 1pm before resuming to close at 5pm. Results are expected to
be out by 7.30pm.
The biggest issue in the election is the closure this year of the
Melkonian Educational Institute, the only Armenian secondary school
in Cyprus and the only one for a large number of other Armenian
students in the region.
The three candidates have pledged to fight to have the school
reopened.
According to the Armenian e-zine Gibrahayer, Atamyan’s campaign has
received an endorsement from a group seemingly in opposition with
him. Atamyan was on the board of the Melkonian, but many feel he did
not do enough to save the school.
Gibrahayer said the Melkonian Alumni and Friends Association after a
marathon and turbulent session last Wednesday, endorsed Dr Atamyan’s
candidacy while another group of Melkonian graduates signed a
separate declaration calling on Melkonian Alumni not to vote for him.
Atamyan has said he did all he could to save the school.
Other election issues include the protection of the Armenian
monastery in the north, improvement of Armenian primary schools and
introducing Armenian studies at the University of Cyprus.
An online poll at hayam.org, in which 400 people have voted, gave
Atamyan 25.8 per cent of the vote, Ashdjian 48.1 per cent and
Zartarian 26.07 per cent.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Gulf Times, Qatar
Oct 9 2005
EU presses Ankara over reforms
Published: Sunday, 9 October, 2005, 10:14 AM Doha Time

ISTANBUL: The European Commission underlined yesterday that progress
in Turkey’s just-started EU entry talks depends crucially on the
speed of reforms by Ankara, warning it faces a `difficult journey’.
Turkey, which has been knocking at the European club’s door for four
decades, finally started EU talks last Tuesday after marathon
haggling overcame Austrian demands that Ankara be offered something
less than full membership.
But the EU has stressed all along that there is no guarantee of
eventual EU membership, and the talks are expected in any case to
last for at least a decade.
`The pace of the negotiations will be … determined by the pace of
the reforms,’ said European Union (EU) enlargement commissioner Olli
Rehn, after a meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. `It
will be a difficult journey.’
Rehn, who will lead the negotiations on behalf of the EU’s executive
arm, also called on Turkish leaders to help overcome prejudices among
both ordinary Turks and Europeans.
`We need to work for better communication between Europe and Turkey
and with our citizens so we can surmount unnecessary difficulties,’
he said. `We discussed how to combat prejudices in Turkey and EU.’
Critics in Europe argue that the vast mostly-Muslim country, which
straddles the border Europe and Asia, is simply too economically and
culturally different to join the rich European club, where
Christianity remains the dominant faith.
Erdogan echoed the EU’s official’s comments, warning of a `difficult
process’.
`Naturally we will face many difficulties along the road,’ he said,
while insisting that Ankara will ultimately succeed in negotiating
its EU entry.
Rehn had discussions with Turkish officials in the capital Ankara on
Thursday, and on Friday travelled to Kayseri in central Anatolia, the
hometown of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
Yesterday Rehn also met best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk,
who faces a possible three-year jail sentence for his views, and
urged EU candidate Turkey to respect freedom of expression.
`Free speech and free expression are core values of the European
Union,’ Rehn’s spokesman Krisztina Nagy quoted him as saying after
meeting Pamuk at his home in Istanbul.
`You don’t have to agree with everything a writer or journalist says
but they all have a right to express themselves freely,’ Rehn was
quoted as saying.
Pamuk, best known for historical novels such as My Name is Red and
The White Castle, is being charged in connection with claims that
Armenians suffered genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands during World War
I. The first hearing in his trial has been set for December 16.
Underlining the sensitivity of the Armenian issue in Turkey, an
Istanbul court gave Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrank Dink a
six-month suspended sentence on Friday for `insulting Turkish
identity’ in an article he wrote. –

Art in America
September 2005 Issue
Venice Biennale: Be Careful What You Wish For.
By Marcia E. Vetrocq
Despite the unprecedented appointment of two women as visual-arts
directors, the 2005 Biennale is a cautious affair, marked by close
administrative oversight and curatorial temperance. More garden party
than free-for-all, the event just might leave some visitors nostalgic
for the undisciplined–and occasionally spectacular–displays of years
past.
After the satanic heat and Babylonian excess of the last Venice Biennale
preview, the survivors of 2003 sounded downright catechistic when
reciting their common hopes for this year’s edition: greater thematic
coherence, a more restrained roster of artists, shorter entry lines,
fewer on-your-feet screening marathons and–admittedly beyond
bureaucratic determination–less punishing temperatures in which to
tackle a citywide event that has become a test of time management and
physical endurance. Meteorological prayers were answered in full, but,
as if by the malign volition of a devil who corrupts each wish even as
he grants it, the desired clarity and numerical abstemiousness (91
artists in the international group shows compared to 380 in 2003) became
the attributes of an exhibition that is all but purged of risk and
surprise. Well-groomed, responsible and as eager to please as a new
suitor, the 2005 Venice Biennale serves up contemporary art (and some
less-than-contemporary art) that is market wise, celebrity conscious and
chary of offending. That the exhibition comes wrapped in a
self-satisfied mantle of better-late-than-never feminism is cause for
some dismay.
It’s necessary, of course, to distinguish between the presentations in
the national pavilions, which are determined by each participating
country, and the large international group shows, which are curated by
visual-arts directors appointed by the administrative board that
oversees the event. Yet throughout all the sections this year, there
prevails a reassuring air, attributable in part to the sheer familiarity
and even seniority of many of the participants. For example, four of the
national pavilions that claim a hefty share of the limelight are
showcasing high-profile artists age 60 or older, with Prance, Great
Britain, Spain and the U.S. presenting, respectively, works by Annette
Messager, Gilbert & George, Antoni Muntadas and Ed Ruscha that are
unlikely to arouse any controversy. An almost deferential atmosphere
permeates the two international shows as well, thanks to the relatively
high number of well-known (and some deceased) artists, and to the
inclusion of a fair number of works that have already garnered critical
attention.
For this outing, the visual-arts directorship saw its first joint
appointment, that of Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez, whose
nationality (Spanish) and gender (female) are likewise unprecedented in
the organization’s history. Installed in and outside the mazelike
Italian pavilion in the Giardini, de Corral’s show of 42 artists, “The
Experience of Art,” is dedicated to mapping the terra firma of art
today. The presence of Marlene Dumas, Gabriel Orozco, Rachel Whiteread,
Cildo Meireles, Dan Graham and other landmark figures is reasonable if
not stirring, while the inclusion of Francis Bacon, Philip Guston, Agnes
Martin and Juan Munoz arguably carries the enterprise too far into
retrospection. Martinez’s “Always a Little Further,” a presentation of
works by 49 individuals and teams that is intended to be the more
forward-looking of the two shows, occupies the expansive spaces of the
Arsenale, the past home of “Aperto,” “Utopia Station” and other edgy or
youthful manifestations. Yet Martinez’s roster inexplicably includes
Samuel Beckett and Louise Bourgeois–inspirational, yes,
up-to-the-minute, no–along with Jimmie Durham, Olafur Eliasson, Mona
Hatoum and others who might have easily been at home in de Corral’s
overview of contemporary art’s establishment.
Both group exhibitions include good works, but the overwhelming
impression is of a project of confirmation spiced with a bit of novelty,
rather like the audience-survey-driven programming of summer repertory
theater. Some of the responsibility for this pervasive caution, perhaps
the lion’s share, rests with Davide Croff, the current president of the
Biennale’s board [see “Front Page,” Oct. ’04]. Croft took the
step–previously the prerogative of the visual-arts director–of
articulating the Biennale’s prudent theme, which he then entrusted to de
Corral and Martinez. Moreover, for the first time the board named the
directors of two successive biennali, with Robert Storr’s appointment
for 2007 preempting a second outing by de Corral and Martinez. The board
further determined that Storr would be enlightened by the collected
wisdom of veteran biennial and Documenta curators and other high-profile
art professionals, a group of whom have been invited to Venice for a
summit in December.
One recalls past editions directed by Achille Bonito Oliva, Jean Clair
and Harald Szeemann as expressions of strong and compelling, though
certainly not infallible, curatorial vision. Francesco Bonami’s 2003
extravaganza, engorged and unfocused, seems to have been the last straw,
the Heaven’s Gate of biennali. The potential consequences of the
administration’s clipping the director’s wings and casting a net of
circumspection over all operations were nearly ignored in last summer’s
stir over the superficially radical step of appointing de Corral and
Martinez. But in truth, the designation of a woman or women to direct
the Biennale was so belated, the curators’ resumes are so long and
distinguished, and the outcome, after all, is so mainstream, that this
appointment really has caused no more of a ripple than, say, last year’s
casting of Denzel Washington in the wan remake of The Manchurian
Candidate: the public, as they say, was ready for it.
Grrrrrrl Power and (A Few) Bad Boys
De Corral and Martinez open each section of the international show with
an assertive graphic display: a digitally printed vinyl mural (called a
“wall tattoo” in the catalogue) by Barbara Kruger on the facade of the
Italian pavilion, and enormous posters by the Guerrilla Girls in the
Arsenale. Thus we enter, lashed by the irony of one (“YOU MAKE HISTORY
WHEN YOU DO BUSINESS”; “ADMIT NOTHING. BLAME EVERYONE”) and prodded by
the sarcasm of the others (“Where are the women artists of Venice?
Underneath the men”). Two ceiling-hung pieces by younger women follow
the works of the veteran feminists. Above the entrance foyer of the
Italian pavilion is suspended Monica Bonvicini’s Blind Shot (2004), a
menacing-looking but ultimately pointless jack hammer that cycles on
like a thunderous automatic weapon every two minutes or so. In the
Arsenale is Joana Vasconcelos’s The Bride (2001), an enormous teardrop
of a chandelier that proves, upon inspection, to be made of tampons
(14,000 of them) on a steel armature.
Contributing to the Biennale’s current of feminist triumphalism–the
title of Pilar Albarracin’s flamenco video, I Will Dance On Your Grave,
may say it best–are the unprecedented numerical strength of women
artists in both shows (less remarked upon is the equally dramatic spike
in the representation of artists from Iberia and Latin America) and the
awarding of three of the Biennale’s four Golden Lions to women artists.
Kruger received the award for lifetime achievement, and Annette
Messager, the first woman to represent France in Venice, was cited for
the outstanding national pavilion. The Golden Lions reserved for the
international show were apportioned between the two sections. Germany’s
Thomas Schutte, in de Corral’s survey, was recognized for his supremely
accomplished ensemble of framed engraved heads and pedestal-borne
metamorphic figures, the latter acquiring supplemental gravitas from the
adjacent hanging of Francis Bacon’s tortured anatomies. Regina Jose
Galindo, a Guatemalan artist from Martinez’s roster, was declared the
best participant under 35 for her viscerally political performance
videos.
As a feminist declaration, however, much of this feels more wishful and
nostalgic than pungent and present. Posters by the Guerrilla Girls, a
20-year-old collective (“fighting discrimination with facts, humor and
fake fur since 1985”) tick off a series of distressing statistics (fewer
than 40 of the roughly 1,240 artworks on view in six major museums of
Venice are by women; only 9 percent of the artists in the 1995 Biennale
were women). But it all seems like so much crabby shop talk when, far
from the spotlight, in the little pavilion of the Republic of Armenia in
Palazzo Zenobio, Diana Hakobian’s three-channel video, Logic of Power
(2005), offers an altogether more sobering and consequential-seeming set
of numbers about deaths resulting from illegal abortions, the depressed
level of women’s wages and the denial of higher education to women in
much of the world. While the Guerrilla Girls have updated their
iconography to include bimbo-of-the-moment Pamela Anderson and the
terror-alert color code system remade into an index of the Bush
administration’s hostility to women, their construction of the gender
problem nevertheless feels dated, and the humor has grown slack.
Is there something in the nature of triumph delayed that makes a bit of
slackness inevitable? Is it possible to match the initial jolt delivered
by Kruger, or by her sister text-messager Jenny Holzer, represented in
the Italian pavilion by a dramatic, Flavinesque corner piece? The punch
line of Vasconcelos’s feminine hygiene fixture seems like a small
“gotcha!” when one thinks of the shocking absorbent armory arrayed by
Judy Chicago in her 1972 Menstruation Bathroom for Womanhouse in L.A.
The videos of Galindo–whom we see shaving her body hair and striding
nude through town, walking through basins of blood and in close-up
footage of her hymenoplasty–strike one as too serf-consciously beholden
to Marina Abramovic, Ana Mendieta and Orlan. Meanwhile, in Runa Islam’s
film Be The First To See What You See As You See It (2004), the
affectless young woman who tentatively coaxes pieces of period china
(tired emblems of women’s domestic entrapment and presumed fragility)
off their platforms to a crash landing is a mere Stepford vandal
compared to the delirious slugger Pipilotti Rist, who demolished the
windows of parked cars with a long-stemmed red flower in an
unforgettable video in the 1997 Biennale. Even Eija-Liisa Ahtila, the
author of tart, tough minidramas probing the psychological and sexual
pressures that bear down on women and families, is represented in the
Italian pavilion by a cloying work, The Hour of Prayer (2005), a
four-screen projection in which a blonde Nordic beauty, grieving over
the death of her fluffy dog Luca, escapes to dusty, crowded Benin, where
the church bell-triggered barking of the lean local mutts becomes a
healing canine ritual.
With the curators showcasing women artists, you can’t resist searching
for constructions of gender in the works of the men they selected. For
example, William Kentridge’s installation in the Italian pavilion’s
elevated gallery is an affecting visualization of two realms of
enchantment–the intimate space of the studio and the vast reaches of
the Milky Way–that pays tribute to the early days of film-making.
Still, the presence in these projections of an elusive nude model/muse
and Kentridge’s imagining of the galaxy as great coiling spermlike
streams invoke the hoary erotic tradition of Courbet, Rodin and Matisse.
More overtly testosterone-fueled is Willie Doherty’s Non-Specific Threat
(2004), a looped game of chicken in which the camera circles an utterly
impassive yet stereotypically tough-looking man. It’s not clear whether
man or camera is the more predatory, since the menacing voiceover–“I
have contaminated you”; “You create me”–could be speaking for either.
Robin Rhode (who may owe something to fellow South African Kentridge for
his halting, low-tech method and incorporation of hand-drawn elements)
is perhaps the most evolved male in de Corral’s show, with his
PBS-friendy videos of children at play. Bruce Nauman remains the baddest
boy on the block with Shit in Your Hat–Head on a Chair, which offers a
thoroughly gratifying lesson in mime abuse. (Did de Corral reach back to
that work from 1990 merely because it’s in the collection of the
Fundacion “la Caixa,” which she directed from 1981 to ’91?)
Some highly caffeinated guy art can be found over at the Arsenale, too,
with John Bock’s obsessive-expulsive installation (the site of a preview
performance on the durable topos of taming a feral child) incorporating
athletic equipment, projectors and battered teddy bears, and the videos
of Blue Noses, a Moscow-based group whose unapologetically sexist antics
with naked girls, baguette phalluses and a mechanical alligator are
displayed on 12 monitors arranged face-up in a circle of cardboard
boxes. For a sharp behavioral alternative, C-prints, videos and garments
on mannequins capture the gender-bending outrageousness of performance
artist and super-size model Leigh Bowery. During the Biennale, Bowery
can be seen as painted by Lucian Freud in a retrospective at the Museo
Correr.
Fundamentally more tame and far too satisfied with its own leering
naughtiness is Francesco Vezzoli’s Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal’s
Caligula (2005), which is playing to packed houses in the Italian
pavilion. A steamy come-on for a fictional remake of the legendary smut
chestnut of 1979, the video features Helen Mirren and Adriana Asti (who
appeared in the original) hamming it up with Courtney Love, Karen Black,
Milla Jovovich, Benicio Del Toro, Barbara Bouchet and Vidal himself.
Notwithstanding long-term support received from the Fondazione Prada
(which organized the concurrent collateral show of Vezzoli’s work on
view at the Fondazione Cini), the artist turned to Donatella Versace for
costumes that are the last word in imperial glare. During the preview
days, only Candice Breitz’s videos, Mother and Father (both 2005), came
close to Vezzoli’s in audience draw, and they, too, feature Hollywood
actors and actresses, though the stars are not co-conspirators but
rather the digital raw material of highly edited sequences that mock the
cliches of family life.
Some Politics, Some Installations, Lots of Video
Compared to biennali past, you have to look hard in the Arsenale to
avoid concluding that the world is in pretty good shape, AIDS has been
cured and stability has been achieved in the world’s trouble spots. The
Guantanamo Initiative of Christoph Buchel and Gianni Motti (the latter
also one of four artists representing Switzerland) requires a small
detour to a shipping container parked outside the building. Launched
last year, the documentation-rich project calls upon the Castro
government–which does not recognize U.S. rights to Guantanamo and has
not cashed checks paid on the lease since 1959–to seize the base, with
its controversial military-run prison, and convert it into a cultural
center. For Palabras/Words (2005), within the Arsenale, the Cuban-born
Diango Hernandez arranges a tangle of wires and fallen electrical poles,
a symbol of failed planning and broken promises, through which we view a
projection of vintage news images and a scroll of the names of former
Communist-bloc nations and their leaders. Fidel Castro is the last
intransigent survivor of the lot.
If the Buchel-Motti initiative is quixotic, Emily Jacir’s Ramallah/New
York (2004-05), which juxtaposes footage of the ordinary activities of
small businesses in both cities, is, sad to say, altogether too
reasonable in its plea for mutual understanding. Meanwhile, Gregor
Schneider’s desire to construct a black cloth-draped, metal cubic
structure that resembles the Ka’ba, the centerpiece of Islam’s holiest
shrine in Mecca, is inexcusably naive. Wounded by the Biennale’s refusal
to back his plan (the administration not surprisingly concluded that the
piece, to be sited in the city’s congested tourist heartland, the Piazza
San Marco, could be offensive to Muslims), Schneider is showing a video
in the Arsenale with an animation of his proposal and an explication of
his soft-headed conviction that East and West can find common ground in
their shared preoccupation with simple formal elements (think Tony
Smith’s Die). Schneider seems rather more sulky than idealistic in the
Biennale catalogue, where his six alotted pages have been printed in
solid black.
Kidlat Tahimik, from the Philippines, and Sergio Vega, a Buenos
Aires-born and Gainesville-based artist, offer their own insights into
cultural difference. A favorite of film buffs, Tahimik’s The Perfumed
Nightmare (1977) follows the disillusionment of a young Filippino taxi
driver who dreams of traveling to the American paradise–Florida–to
become an astronaut. Transferred to video, the work is screened in the
Arsenale above an ad hoc installation that incorporates burned “relics”
from the artist’s fire-ravaged studio and some dubious artifacts–like
the statue of a “wind goddess” who faces a headless Marilyn Monroe
statuette with her skirt lifted by the draft from a subway grating–that
gently mock the equivalences people discern across cultures.
Referencing a different paradise, Vega’s hot-hued ensemble comprises a
number of individual objects, environments and photo-and-text-based
pieces that debunk–though not without affection–the centuries-old myth
of Brazil as a tropical paradise. Despite some discordant notes struck
by shantytown views with irate chickens and dogs, the installation is
wholly seductive, with inviting chairs, spongy floor cushions and bossa
nova grooves from vintage LPs. The environment is surely more relaxing
than the other participatory works by Brazil’s Rivane Neuenschwander,
who invites visitors to type wordless love letters on “modified”
typewriters; by the Centre of Attention, a London-based collective that
allows you to recline on a mortuary bier after you’ve scored your own
funeral with music downloaded from the Internet; and by Mariko Mori, who
has dusted off her brain wave interface pod for those in need of a quick
kip–by appointment only.