CIS INTERIOR MINISTERS MEET IN YEREVAN
Civil Georgia, Georgia
Sept 29 2005
Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili is participating in the
session of the Council of Interior Ministers of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) in Armenian capital Yerevan on September 29.
The issues of combating corruption and illegal migration top the
agenda of the session, that brought together the ministers from
Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia,
Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
In his opening speech Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) Vladimir Rushailo described the Council of
CIS Interior Ministers as one of the most effective bodies of the
Commonwealth, according to RIA Novosti.

TALVITIE DOES NOT RULE OUT INDIVIDUAL APPROACH TO SOUTH CAUCASUS STATES
Pan Armenian News
29.09.2005 05:23
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The discussions of the European Neighborhood Policy
program should have started September 1. However these were delayed
due to the complicated relations between Azerbaijan and one of the
EU member states, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus
Heikki Talvitie stated at a joint news conference with Armenian FM
Vartan Oskanian. He also noted that the EU has commitments to protect
any state that is part of it.
In his words, it is necessary to make it clear first and only after
the problem with the country in question is solved the discussions
with the South Caucasian states will start. “We equally work for
starting the discussions with all of the three countries of the
region,” H. Talvitie said. The balance towards the South Caucasian
states is necessary to convince them that regional cooperation is
important, he added. He hoped for the problem to be solved by early
October. If not, he did not rule out the opportunity of EU approach
to the South Caucasian states on an individual basis. It should be
noted that the other day the Republic of Cyprus vetoed the candidacy
of Azerbaijan and blocked Baku participation in the EU Wider Europe:
New Neighbors Program. The suspension fo the Program is due to the
Cyprus attitude towards Azerbaijan due to direct air flights between
Baku and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The Greek Cyprus
has officially raised the issue of suspension of aid to Azerbaijan
in the EU. Besides, in the course of the news conference in Yerevan
H. Talvitie noted the dynamics in the talks over settlement of the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict. There is certain progress in the issue, he
remarked at that. Speaking of the constitutional changes in Armenia,
he said, “We find that these changes in the Constitution are correct
and these will benefit Armenia.”

ERDOGAN SAYS EP DECISION WON’T HARM TURKEY’S EU PROCESS
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Sept 29 2005
Ankara never claimed its declaration on not recognising the Greek
Cypriot Administration was a legal document, the Prime Minister said.
Guncelleme: 04:19 ET 29 Eylul 2005 PerºembeABU DHABI – The decision
of the European Parliament to defer the ratification of Turkey’s
extended customs union with the European Union would not have any
impact of the opening of accession negotiations next week.
Responding to the European Parliament’s decision Wednesday to delay
a vote on the amended customs union protocol due to Turkey’s refusal
to recognise the Greek Cypriot state, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said the parliament’s decisions were not binding. “The decision
would not have an impact on our EU process,” he said during a visit
to Saudi Arabia.
Erdogan said that the European Parliament’s vote calling for Turkey’s
recognition of the alleged genocide by the Ottoman Empire against
its Armenian citizens during the First World War was also not binding.
The Turkish Prime Minister said that the EU risked being labelled
a Christian club if it blocked Turkey’s accession. What will the
EU achieve by admitting Turkey? It will become a bridge between the
1.5-billion strong Muslim world and the EU. It will start an alliance
of civilisations,” he said.
Erdogan also slammed a report in the US paper The Washington Times
claiming that he condemned European values and freedoms and was
turning Turkey into a Islamic-fascist state. Erdogan said that no
one could pass such a sentence on a prime minister.
–Boundary_(ID_4oOA84iHdTeAzUz00pUpSg)–

ARMENIAN PRESIDENT HOPES FOR SUCCESS IN PEACE TALKS
AzerNews, Azerbaijan
Sept 29 2005
Armenian President Robert Kocharian has expressed a hope for success
in the ongoing negotiations on the settlement of the long-standing
Upper Garabagh conflict.
The talks with Azerbaijan, which have been underway since 1994,
have entered an ‘active stage’, Kocharian told a news conference
held jointly with the Finnish President Tarja Halonen in Yerevan on
Tuesday. “There were times when the sides were close to the conflict
settlement. But something was always in the way.”
The Armenian leader welcomed the efforts being made by international
organizations, mentioning that the peace process is mediated by
the OSCE.

PARLIAMENT POSTPONES RATIFYING TURKEY’S CUSTOMS UNION
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Sept 29 2005
FRUSTRATED over Turkey’s refusal to recognise Cyprus, the European
Parliament yesterday postponed a vote to ratify Turkey’s customs
union with the EU, a requirement of Ankara’s bid for membership in
the 25-member bloc.
Days before the scheduled start of EU membership talks, MEPs also
called on Ankara to recognise the 1915-1923 killings of Armenians as
a genocide, which Turkey vehemently denies.
The Turkish lira and stock market lost ground on the events, although
traders said they did not believe the October 3 opening of accession
talks was at risk.
The EU legislature has no say over the start or conduct of the talks
but its assent is needed before Turkey can join, which is at least
a decade away.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan immediately dismissed the
non-binding European resolution on the killings of Armenians, saying:
“It does not matter whether they took such a decision or not. We will
continue on our way,” according to private CNN-Turk television.
MEPs said in their resolution that recognition of the 1915-1923
killings as genocide should be a prerequisite for Turkey to join the
European Union.
Armenians say that 1.5 million of their countrymen were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of the First World War, which Armenians
and several nations around the world recognise as the first genocide
of the 20th century.
Turkey denies that the massacres were genocide, saying the death toll
is inflated and Armenians were killed in civil unrest as the Ottoman
Empire collapsed.
The EU Parliament voted 311-285 to postpone the customs union
ratification vote at the request of conservative MEPs. There were
63 abstentions.
EU governments meanwhile remained deadlocked on the mandate for the
talks, with Austria seeking a more explicit mention of an alternative
to full membership.
EU foreign ministers will have to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday
in Luxembourg, hours before negotiations are to start, unless their
ambassadors clinch a deal earlier in Brussels.
The opening ceremony could slip to Monday evening because Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will not board a plane until the
EU ministers have formally endorsed a framework for negotiations,
diplomats said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the
revolving EU presidency, said it would be “a huge betrayal of the
hopes and expectations of the Turkish people and of Prime Minister
Erdogan’s programme of reform if, at the crucial time, we turned our
back on Turkey”.
The EU legislature demanded that Turkey recognise EU member Cyprus
soon and said negotiations could be suspended unless it granted access
to Cypriot aircraft and shipping by next year.
The vote by the parliament followed an emotional debate in which many
deputies attacked Turkey’s record on human rights, religious freedom
and minorities, reflecting widespread public hostility to the poor,
populous nation ever joining the bloc.
Greens party leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit caused an uproar by accusing
some right-wing critics of Turkey of “surfing on a wave of racism”.
The ballot’s delay will have no effect on the starting date for
Turkey’s accession negotiations, scheduled for October 3. The
assembly had already postponed its vote earlier this month, when
the parliament’s foreign affairs committee argued the customs union
would not work unless Turkey agreed to allow Cyprus to use its ports
or airports.
In July, Turkey signed an agreement to widen the customs union with
the EU to include Cyprus and nine other new EU members. But Ankara
said this did not amount to recognition of Cyprus.
EU governments issued a counter-declaration last week, warning that
failure to recognise Cyprus could paralyse Turkey’s EU entry talks.
European People’s Party chairman Hans-Gert Poettering said Turkey’s
position was “logically and politically unacceptable.” “We want … a
statement from Turkey saying non-recognition of Cyprus will not be
part of the ratification process (in the Turkish parliament),” he said.
“We haven’t received such a statement.” EU expansion chief Olli Rehn
said he regrets the parliament’s decision to postpone.
During the assembly’s debate, Martin Schulz, chairman the Socialists
in the Parliament, accused the conservatives of not wanting Turkey
in the EU.
“It would be better for you to say clearly: We don’t want Turkey in
the EU. You’re skirting the message,” Schulz said.
In their resolution, MEPs also voiced concern about criminal
proceedings against Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who was charged with
insulting the country’s national character after making comments on
Turkey’s killing of Armenians and Kurds. He could face up to three
years in prison.
Some EU countries, including Germany, homeland of many of the MEPs
who sought postponement, advocate the idea of a privileged partnership
for Turkey rather than full membership.
A new draft text outlining negotiating guidelines for Turkey’s entry
talks had still not been finalised due to strong objections by Austria.
Vienna is also demanding the EU offer Turkey a privileged
partnership. An Austrian diplomat said Vienna’s demand has yet to be
met. All 25 nations must agree on the EU’s position before talks begin.
But Ankara reacted sharply, saying any deviation from full membership
would be unacceptable.

THE TRAINING PROBLEMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATED
National Assembly of RA, Armenia
Sept 29 2005
On September 28, Hranush Hakobyan, the Chairwoman of the NA Standing
Committee on Science, Education, culture and Youth met with Anya Mihr,
Lecturer of Humboldt University, representative of the program of
“Human Rights Training in Europe.”
Anya Mihr informed that the program was initiated and is now
implemented by their University, which, among other European countries
also studies the human rights key problems in Armenia. Mrs.
Hakobyan familiarized the guest with the legislative steps done in this
sphere, and the amendments related to the problem in the educational
sphere, expressing conviction that the awareness and training of
human rights can have a great contribution to democratization of
various spheres of human activity.

SNOWFLAKES AND DOUBLE AGENTS
Ranier Fsadni
Times of Malta, Malta
Sept 29 2005
Imagine setting out from Istanbul, Turkey’s city in Europe, travelling
for three days deep into Asia, only to end up on a European border. The
town is Kars, 40 years ago a thriving Turkish commercial centre
on the border with Armenia, now in decay. Once part of the Russian
empire, its dilapidated Baltic architecture is still the occasion
for novelistic rhapsody. Should Turkey enter the EU, Kars would,
of course, represent a European border.
Kars is at the centre of the most recent novel by Orhan Pamuk, the
internationally acclaimed Turkish writer, now being prosecuted in
Turkey for affirming that the Armenian genocide, still officially
denied by his country (although the government has authorised a
national conference on the subject), did take place. The novel is Snow
(Faber and Faber). In Mr Pamuk’s hands it ends up being an exploration
of Turkish identity that exploits all the ironies of the situation. In
view of the beginning of the EU’s negotiations with Turkey next Monday,
and some European objections to Turkey’s membership on the grounds
of identity, it is worth having a quick look at this complex novel.
What sets the events in motion is a blizzard that cuts off the town.
But what I am calling simply the events is a storm of plots and
subplots. The year is probably 1992. A poet, called Ka, who comes to
town in search of a woman he loves. An epidemic of suicides by young
girls who want to wear their Islamic headscarf – but whose suicides are
defying both the state and the Islamist leaders. A theatre director who
stages a coup. A novelist, called Orhan, who is trying to reconstruct
Ka’s three-day visit four years after Ka left.
Islamists and secularists argue about whether being Muslim is backward
or the only possible dignified affirmation of identity. Some of the
arguments centre on whether poverty can explain religious adherence
at the end of the 20th century. But the real poverty that the novel
diagnoses is that of communication. Kars has lost its former wealth
because the borders are closed. Worse things have happened to human
communication.
This is a novel in which any act of persuasion is – and is perceived
to be – motivated by a hidden agenda. Ka notices that everyone speaks
in a double code – even when the woman he loves and her sister speak
to their father. One code is to be understood by everyone; the other,
secret one is aimed only at an inner secret circle.
To complicate matters, no hidden agenda is considered to be purely
personal. Ka is told by the Islamist agitator, Blue, that anyone
who tries to change anyone else’s mind is an agent – an agent of the
Turkish state, the Islamists, atheist Europe, the nationalist Kurds
(a shadowy presence in the book). It turns out that even in death,
people are agents – no character involved in the central narrative dies
a natural death: they are murdered or executed (for being agents),
killed at random (transformed into victims of one side or another
in an attempted coup) or else commit suicide as a defiant gesture
against the state. At one point, Blue believes that the best way
in which he can outwit the coupists is by letting them kill him –
his death would make of him a hero and martyr, much more difficult
to control than if he took up a secret offer of safe escape.
Just as the town is swirling with snowflakes, the novel swirls with
lies, double agents, spies and informers. Lies and mimicry are the
tissue of such a social life, penetrating not just conversations but
also actions, gestures and personality. More than once, we are told
that a character strikes a pose straight out of a comic book. The
monuments to Ataturk are said to have been inspired by the poses
invented by a melodramatic actor, Sunay Zaim (the leader of the coup
in Kars, who has something of Gabriele D’Annunzio about him).
While most characters argue about identity, what becomes comically
clear is that their ideas about identity are false. The Islamists
have a mistaken idea of what Europe is – in one discussion it emerges
that only one person, apart from Ka, has visited it. Tellingly, for
all those Europeans who object to Turkey’s membership on the grounds
of Europe’s Christian roots, the Islamists object to Europe because
they consider it atheist; the only time Christianity is alluded to
is when the narrator says that like Ka he liked the “Protestant”
punctuality and service of German trains.
Meanwhile, the Turkish “secularists” emerge not as people who have
become Europeanised (as the Islamists accuse them, a charge which they
do not deny) but as Stalinists or totalitarians. Kars is portrayed
as a decayed border town infested with police informers and under the
eye of the central state’s intelligence service, with the army at bay.
The impact of this poverty of communication is twofold. First,
although many of the characters, caught between the state machinery
and the rebel cells, strike a blow for their individuality (this is
how the serial suicides by the headscarf girls are explained), most
characters appear to us as almost interchangeable doubles: the woman
Ka loves and her Islamist sister; Ka and the novelist Orhan; Sunay
Zaim and Blue; the two Islamist-poet youths, Necip and Fazil… When
Ka and Necip die, Orhan and Fazil, because of their respective losses,
become doubles of each other. The novel leaves it up to us to decide
whether the special affinity between each pair is a sign of mystical
communion or whether each pair is really one schizophrenic person.
Second, this personal schizophrenia leads to Mr Pamuk’s (the
author, not the character in the novel) portrayal of the country’s
schizophrenia. The novel does not lend itself to the usual portrayal
of a Turkey divided between Europeanised secularists and Islam. The
Islamists in this novel turn out to have much in common with the
state apparatchiks: both groups speak and think like the secret police.
The real schizophrenia, as portrayed here, is that between the
mentality of a militarised, repressive, police state and an open
mentality that seeks love rather than security and which is here
represented not just by the secular protagonist but also by a shadowy
mystical Islamic (Sufi) master.
It is a schizophrenia that affects even how the novel is written.
Much of it is in the forensic style of a police report (and reports
about reports) or autopsy. But the most lyrical passages (at least
in the English translation) are those which concern the swirling snow
that covers the town. Ka comes to compare the human lifetime to that
of a snowflake; the 19 poems that his three days in Kars inspire
drift into him like snowflakes and he organises them according to
the structure of a snowflake in preparation for publication (although
the manuscript is lost).
For Mr Pamuk to use this novel to deliver a message about Turkey’s EU
membership would have made him collude in the acts of propaganda that
the novel diagnoses with such melancholy. But what he has produced
is not just an interpretation of Turkey’s identity. It is also a
novel that has much to say about the formation of identity, anywhere,
in today’s world.

POLITIS, CYPRUS: EU GIVES SEVERA SLAP IN TURKEY’S FACE
Focus News, Bulgaria
Sept 29 2005
Strasbourg. The EU Parliament discovered two problems of Turkey after
yesterday’s session of the EU Parliament. This comes only five days
before the start of the accession talks between Turkey and Cyprus on
3rd October, Politis newspaper reports.
The EU Parliament reminded for the Turkish duties concerning Cyprus
in connection with the recognition of the country and Turkey’s
acknowledgement of the genocide against Armenian people. “If Ankara
doesn’t recognize Nicosia as soon as possible, that will have serious
consequences on the pre-accession procedures between Turkey and the
EU that could lead even to their ceasing”, the newspaper ads.

AUSTRIA CLAIMS ‘DOUBLE STANDARDS’ ON TURKISH TALKS
By Haig Simonian in Vienna, Daniel Dombey in Brussels and Raphael, Minder in Strasbourg
Financial Times, UK
Sept 29 2005
Wolfgang Schussel, Austria’s chancellor, yesterday sent an
uncompromising message on Turkey’s bid to join the European Union,
increasing the likelihood that talks will only begin if the EU also
moves towards starting negotiations with Croatia.
Some western diplomats warn that such a deal, in which Turkey would
begin its membership talks on time next Monday and Croatia would
follow soon after, could hurt efforts to track down war criminals in
the former Yugoslavia.
In an interview with the FT, Mr Schussel called for the EU to abandon
the idea that the talks with Turkey should be exclusively aimed
at membership.
He also denounced the EU’s “double standards” over Croatia, whose
membership bid is stalled because of a dispute over Ante Gotovina, an
alleged war criminal. “We need an alternative that would ensure that
Turkey would remain bonded as strongly as possible to the EU,” he said.
“If we trust Turkey to make further progress we should trust Croatia
too . .. It is in Europe’s interest to start negotiations with Croatia
immediately.”
Austria denies it is linking the cases of Turkey and Croatia in
any way.
However, EU diplomats now believe a deal on Turkey will only be
possible if the EU moves closer to starting talks with Croatia.
Most EU governments say Vienna’s demands on Turkey – particularly its
call to delete a reference to EU accession as the goal of the talks –
are unacceptable. But Austria, like all EU states, needs to give its
assent if talks are to begin.
The dispute is expected to go to an emergency meeting of foreign
ministers on Sunday night, hours before the scheduled start of talks.
Diplomats say such a high-profile meeting could make it impossible
for Austria to give up its position on Turkey without gaining ground
on Croatia, with which it has cultivated close relations.
“It is not fair to leave Croatia in an eternal waiting room,” said
Mr Schussel. “I don’t understand the logic.”
Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, has recently indicated that
Croatia has stepped up its efforts against Mr Gotovina.
But some western officials argue that beginning talks with Croatia
while Mr Gotovina is at large will set a bad precedent for efforts
to track down Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb
indicted war criminals.
* Concerns about Ankara’s bid to join the EU were underlined yesterday
by a non-binding resolution on Turkey approved by the European
parliament. In a move likely to increase resentment in Ankara,
MEPs urged Turkey to recognise that the killing of Armenians in 1915
amounted to genocide. MEPs also delayed approval of a customs union
agreement between Turkey and the EU, in an attempt to increase pressure
on Turkey to normalise political and economic ties with Cyprus.

BAYKAL SLAMS EP DECISION
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
Sept 29 2005
The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has slammed the decision
by the European Parliament calling on Turkey to recognise the so-called
Armenian genocide.
Guncelleme: 11:34 29 Eylul 2005 PerºembeLONDON – The CHP leader said
that the European Union was creating difficulties and dragging its
feet over Turkey’s membership bid.
Attending the annual Labour Party Congress in England, Republican
People’s Party (CHP) chairman Deniz Baykal said that the decision of
the European Parliament only served to further complicate matters.
Earlier on Wednesday, the European parliament voted in favour of a
non-binding resolution making recognition of the alleged massacre
of many of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian citizens during the First
World War a pre-condition of Turkey’s entry into the European Union.
“Despite them asking us to meet many conditions, it appears there is
no condition to guarantee Turkey membership,” he said.
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