Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
June 22 2005

Blast from past: The Ottoman shadow on Arab politics
BY MATEIN KHALID

A HUNDRED years after the collapse of the Ottoman empire, the shock
waves of its death are still rattling the Middle East. Both Arabs and
Turks have not come to terms with their common imperial Ottoman past.

Kemal Ataturk ridiculed and demonised the Ottoman heritage of the
Turkish Republic, as did the generation of Arab nationalists who
fought the Sultan’s armies in Syria, Hijaz and Palestine. Ataturk
deposed the last sultan, abolished the caliphate Sultan Selim had
claimed from the Mamluks, replaced the Shariah with the Swiss civil
code and replaced the Ottoman Umma with an aggressively secular
Anatolian nationalism.

Ataturk banned the fez, introduced by the Napoleonic era Sultan
Mehmet II as a symbol of the modern Turk, as anachronistic. Turkey
abandoned its historic ties to the Arab world. It was more than
history as amnesia. Ataturk performed a lobotomy on the Ottoman past.

Yet the Ottoman shadow still lingers in the landscape, politics and
souls of Islamic societies from Sarajevo to Sanaa to Sharjah. On
Khalid Lagoon in the UAE “capital of Culture”, I see mosques with
slender Byzantine minarets reminiscent of the Sulemaniya in Istanbul.
There are beautiful Ottoman mansions with latticed windows in Jeddah,
Beirut, Alexandria, Belgrade and Sarajevo. In fact, the hillsides of
the Bosnian capital evoke the old Ottoman place names long after
Tito’s Yugoslavia has vanished into a bitter memory.

The Ottoman ghosts haunt Arab politics. Take Iraq, for instance. The
Hashemite kingdom of Iraq was created out of the Ottoman vilayets of
Baghdad, Mosul and Basra (which, Saddam argued in August 1990,
included the Gulf emirate of Kuwait). Yet the Turkish republic never
accepted the Iraq Churchill sketched on a napkin and created out of
the carcass of its Mesopotamian empire at the Cairo conference. The
tragedy of Kurdistan was spawned amid the Machiavellian cynicism of
wartime British realpolitik in the Middle East.

As late as 1997, President Suleiman Demirel questioned why the
British gave the Ottoman oil rich province of Mosul to Iraq. The
Turkish republic sent troops across the international border into
northern Iraq on successive occasions and strangled the idea of a
Kurdish state that might well inflame the secessionist psyche of
Turkey’s own “mountain Turks” in the east, whose PKK civil war has
claimed 30,000 lives.

At fateful moments of Iraqi history, after Saddam’s armies were
routed at Fao in 1982 and Kuwait in 1991, Turkey signalled its
intention to annex Mosul if the Baathist regime in Baghdad fell. Even
Turkish-Syrian relations are held hostage to the Ottoman past. In
1998, Ankara almost went to war over the House of Assad’s covert
assistance to the PKK and Damascus still resents colonial France’s
decision to wrest Hatay province from Syrian. The Turkish republic’s
hostility to Alawite Syria and theocratic Iran has echoes of the
Ottoman sultan’s role as the standard bearer of Sunni orthodoxy
against the Persian Shia and esoteric Islamic sects of Bilad Shaam.

Even Israel’s close strategic relations with Turkey are a legacy of
the Ottoman past. The Jews of Istanbul are the descendants of the
Sephardis expelled by the Spanish Inquisition after the fall of the
Moorish Nasirid emirate of Granada in 1492. Sultan Selim welcomed the
Andalusian Jews himself at Galata and their descendants became the
empire’s richest bankers, grand viziers, pashas and scholars.

While Christian Europe persecuted its Jews, the Ottomans showered
their most brilliant minds with the highest offices of state. In
fact, the first Zionist aliyas (settlements) in Palestine would not
have been possible without the Sublime Porte’s consent though Sultan
Abdel Hamid angrily rejected the Jewish agency’s offer to literally
buy Palestine. The Ottoman cult of absolute rule, bureaucratic
politics, an elite palace guard and Western-centric reform was a
template for generations of Middle East dictators. If Ataturk was a
son of the Enlightenment, so were Reza Khan Pahlavi, Habib Bourguiba,
and Jamal Nasser.

The Ottoman empire was the antithesis of the sort of nineteenth
century nationalism, inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution,
that swept across the Balkans, the Levant, Iran and the Hijaz as the
“sick man of Europe” went into its final, fatal convulsion in 1918.
Armenian, Azerbaijani, Iraqi, Syrian Lebanese, Egyptian, Greek,
Serbian, Bulgarian and Saudi nationalism were all nurtured in the
geopolitical chaos that followed the collapse of the Ottoman empire.

So many of the tragedies that haunt the Middle East in our time have
their origins in the British-French plots to dismember the Ottoman
empire. What if the Allies had not double-crossed Sharif Hussein and
his sons after the success of the Arab revolt in the Hijaz? What if
the French had not expelled the Hashemite Prince Faisal from
Damascus, not created a Maronite enclave in Mount Lebanon, not
recruited Alawite peasants from Latakia in the Syrian Army? What if
the Hijaz Railway still carried pilgrims from Bosnia, Turkey and
Albania to Makkah? What if Lord Balfour’s HM Government had not
viewed with favour the establishment of a Jewish national home in
Palestine?

The Ottoman past continues to influence the political culture and
international relations of the Arab world even today. Take the
Ottoman millet system, where Istanbul ruled multiethnic provinces via
hierarchies of religious leaders.

The modern Middle East intelligence state owes its model to Sultan
Abdel Hamid’s secret police, the most expensive, ruthless and
extensive organ of state in the Ottoman twilight. Strange, much as
the Arab tried to forget their Turkish past, the modern warlords,
spymasters are still haunted by familiar Ottoman ghosts. After all,
for six hundred years, the epicentre of world politics was not the
Kremlin, the Elysee Palace, Whitehall or the White House but the
palace, kiosks and terraces of Topkapi Serai on the Sea of Marmara,
the citadel of the House of Osman for six centuries.

Matein Khalid is a Dubai based investment banker

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE TEACHERS RETRAINING 8-DAY COURSES BEGIN IN SECONDARY
SCHOOLS OF STEPANAKER (NKR)

STEPANAKERT, June 22. /ARKA/. Russian language teachers retraining
8-day courses began in secondary schools of Stepanakert. According to
ARKA’s reporter in Stepanakert, the project is funded by “Russian
Community of NKR” NGO and organized by the Karabakh branch of the RA
National Institute of Education. The Chairman of the community Galina
Somova mentioned the importance of the campaign from the standpoint of
more quality teaching of Russian in Nagorno-Karabakh. The trainings
are held by leading specialists of Russian from Armenia. A.H. -0–

EUobserver.com, Belgium
June 22 2005

EU prepares key Turkey document

22.06.2005 – 09:58 CET | By Elitsa Vucheva EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS –

The European Commission is set to let Turkey move a step closer to
the EU by approving the negotiations framework, on which it will base
membership negotiations with the country, next Wednesday (29 June).

The framework for negotiations constitutes the main guiding
principles on which EU negotiations with a country are started.

After the Commission approves the draft on Turkey, member states are
to take over the question, during the meeting of EU foreign ministers
in July or September, EU commissioner in charge of enlargement Olli
Rehn told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee on
Tuesday (21 June).

The document is “a common position of the EU”, Mr Rehn’s spokesperson
told the EUobserver adding “The European Commission presents all the
documents, but takes no decision whatsoever”.

This means that member states could still add provisos to the
document making it difficult to open negotiations.

Once the draft is approved, the EU will have taken all the technical
steps it has to take ahead of the launch of EU negotiations with
Turkey, due on 3 October.

>From the Turkish side, the six pieces of legislation requested by the
EU were approved and brought into force on 1 June.

Ankara now has to sign the protocol extending a customs agreement it
has with the EU to the ten new member states, including Cyprus, which
Turkey has not yet officially recognised as a state.

But the Turkish government has committed itself to signing the
agreement, and, if it does, will have done everything requested by
the EU in order to start membership negotiations on time.

If the member states approve the negotiations framework, and Turkey
signs the customs agreement, there will be no reason to postpone the
launch of EU talks, commissioner Rehn’s spokesperson said.

However, there is no legal obligation to start them on 3 October, but
only a strong political commitment to do so, she told journalists
earlier this week.

Giving Turkey “a fair chance”
Turkey sent its candidature for EU membership in 1987, and it was
officially accepted by the EU in December 1999, during an EU summit
in Helsinki. Turkey has been a candidate country since.

If it starts negotiations in October, they will probably still take
some 10-15 years to be finalised, but starting them on time would be
of great symbolic importance.

After French and Dutch voters rejected the EU Constitution three
weeks ago, and fear that Europe was growing too rapdily was cited as
one of the reasons, many were quick to call for a halt in the
enlargement process.

Speaking to MEPs from the foreign affairs committee, Mr Rehn
reiterated that enlargement should go on, as it has brought security
and stability in Europe.

“Let us recall that we have major responsibilities in ensuring
security and stability on our own continent and further afield. We
cannot take a sabbatical from these responsibilities without causing
serious damage”, he said.

He also put into perspective the French and Dutch No votes, saying
that it was exaggerated to say that the voters, in France
particularly, said No to the Constitution to actually say No to
Turkey.

“The socio-economic factors were quoted by more than half of the
respondents [in France]… Turkey was quoted [as a No argument] by only
six to 22 percent of the respondents”, he said.

The commissioner urged Turkey to improve its relations with
neighbouring Armenia, saying “Turkey has difficulties to tackle the
historical truth”, to make more progress as regards minority rights,
freedom of the press, and in general to maintain the speed of
reforms.

He acknowledged many shortcomings could be observed in the country,
and many things were still to be improved, but insisted that as far
as “no major shortcomings” in implementing the rule of law and
respecting human rights could be observed, “we have to give Turkey a
fair chance”.

Mr Rehn expressed hope that the British presidency of the EU, to
start on 1 July, would do its best to launch the negotiations on
time, as the UK is one of the supporters of Turkish EU membership.

Aiming at reassuring Croatia, another candidate country, Mr Rehn
stressed that Zagreb would start EU talks as soon as full cooperation
with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague becomes fact.

Slovakia ratifies accession treaties
And while Commissioner Rehn was pleading for enlargement to go on as
planned, Slovakia became the first country to ratify the Bulgarian
and Romanian EU accession treaty.

The Slovak parliament ratified the document with 102 votes in favour,
two abstentions, and no votes against.

The two Balkan countries signed the accession treaty last April and
all 25 EU members must now ratify the document in order for it to
come into force.

Akron Beacon Journal, OH
June 22 2005

A lesson in Armenian cuisine

Victoria Jenanyan Wise of Oakland, Calif., shares her heritage and
treasured family recipes in The Armenian Table (St. Martin’s Press;
$29.95).

The cookbook, Wise’s 13th, contains more than 165 recipes, a mix of
traditional signature favorites along with inspired, innovative and
contemporary variations on the theme. For cooks, it’s Armenian 101
and more — a great way to learn about the cuisine.

Wise made a concerted effort to make the recipes approachable and
easy to execute. Particularly interesting are her notes accompanying
each recipe and her from-scratch renditions of yogurt, lavosh, mock
basterma and lahmajoun.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 22 2005

OSCE MINSK GROUP’S CO-CHAIRS TO VISIT THE REGION
[June 22, 2005, 11:40:19]

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating the settlement of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh will arrive in the
region in the middle of July, said Azerbaijan’s deputy foreign
minister Araz Azimov at the press conference, reported AzerTAj.

Mr. Azimov said the Minsk Group’s co-chairs is planning to leave for
Armenia after its meetings in Baku. In his opinion, it is possible to
say that the co-chairs will present a new proposals on the base of
the last meetings.

Deputy foreign minister noted that he is following to back the
foreign minister’s meetings before the Presidents, and welcomes
activization of negotiations between the parties. Alongside with the
foreign ministers’ meetings, Mr. Azimov says he is believe the
positive results of the meetings at the experts level.

AZG Armenian Daily #114, 22/06/2005

Armenia-Turkey

TURKEY OFFICIALLY APPEALS TO ARMENIA TO RELEASE TURKISH SMUGGLER

On June 17, Armenian National Security Service detained Turkish citizen
Yeqta Turkyimaz for an attempt to export a large number of books dated 17-20
centuries. The same day Turkish public television responded to the arrest.

On June 21, Milliyet newspaper wrote, “Turkey takes steps to release Turkish
scientist Yeqta Turkyimaz detained in Armenian capital of Yerevan. Owing to
the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Turkish
ambassador to Georgia, Ertan Tezgyoz, passed the demand for release to the
Armenian ambassador to the country. The sources of Foreign Ministry
confirmed that Tezgyoz issued official appeal to the Armenian authorities.
Turkyimaz is the first researcher who got official permission to study the
Armenian archives. He was detained in Yerevan on suspicion of ‘exporting
ancient Armenian books’ but there was no statement as to developments”.

By Hakob Chalrian

AZG Armenian Daily #114, 22/06/2005

Bookshelf

‘I HURRY TO SUM UP MY FEELINGS’

Lawyer-Humorist Grigor Melik-Sargsian Says

Lawyer and humorist Grigor Melik-Sargsian has published his last humorous
books recently. They are titled “The Adventures of Usta Sano”, “Life and
Death of Crazy Hamlet” and “Anthology of Folly and Craze”.

Grigor Melik-Sargsian is a member of the Writers’ Unions of Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh, he began the literary path in 1997 with “The Ascension”
book and won a number awards. During this short period the lawyer-humorist
has written 15 books, both dealing with jural issues or purely humoristic
essays.

Asked what it means to be a writer and a lawyer in the meantime,
Melik-Sargsian said, “Writing is a demand, it’s a haste. I hurry to sum up
my feelings”. Feelings of this sensitive writer, meanwhile, come down as a
storm.

In his “Life and Death of Crazy Hamlet” the author depicts an ordinary loony
from our life who goes mad of love and eventually dies of unrequited love.
In the “Anthology of Folly and Craze” Melik-Sargsian analyzes the idea that
the great and talented people of the universe are the same fools and
crazies.

By Gohar Gevorgian

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:

PRESS RELEASE
June 21, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: [email protected]

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE APPROVES NEARLY $68 MILLION FOR ARMENIA
FOR FY 2006

Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly praised the leadership of the
House Appropriations Committee today for supporting without changes
the Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh provisions passed last week by
Chairman Jim Kolbe’s (R-AZ) Foreign Operations Subcommittee. Despite
ongoing overall reductions to former Soviet states, the Fiscal Year
(FY) 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill calls for $67.5
million for Armenia, up to $5 million for Nagorno Karabakh and
maintains military assistance parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan
with $5.75 million allocated to each country.

While the overall funding level for the former Soviet states was
reduced to $477 million from $555 million in FY 2005, funding for
Armenia was $12.5 million over the Administration’s request.

“Given the current budget restraints, we salute the leadership of
Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) for making Armenia’s
and Karabakh’s case so effectively to both the Foreign Operations
Subcommittee and now the full Appropriations Committee,” said Assembly
Executive Director Bryan Ardouny. “We also thank Appropriations
Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and Ranking Member David Obey
(D-WI) for approving the subcommittee’s proposed allocations.”

Today’s action also allocated $5 million in Foreign Military Financing
and $750,000 for International Military Education and Training to both
Armenia and Azerbaijan, as requested by the Administration. These
funds will improve inter-operability between Armenia’s military and
its Western partners, upgrade Armenia’s communication systems and
better its personnel training.

“With overall aid levels being reduced, Armenia helped itself
significantly these past 12 months with its deployment to Iraq, an
agreement for the Pentagon to conduct a defense assessment and
Armenia’s presentation of its Individual Partnership Action Plan
(IPAP) to NATO,” said Knollenberg. “Despite the considerable damage
incurred by Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s blockades, Armenia is stepping
up its security relations with the U.S. and NATO. I am pleased that
my Appropriations’ colleagues responded generously.”

In addition to its testimony and support letters to the Foreign
Operations Subcommittee April, the Assembly also supported a letter
initiated by Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and
Caucus Member Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) and co-signed by 43
additional Members of Congress, highlighting important priorities for
Armenia and Karabakh.

“The Appropriations Committee took notice of the strong bi-partisan
support for aid to Armenia and Karabakh and the ongoing market reforms
and strong economic performance of both states,” said Pallone.
“Armenia’s selection in the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)
competition, its 10 percent GDP increase last year and its continued
high ranking in the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation’s
“2005 Index of Economic Freedom” had to be considered when deciding
how much should be allocated as competition for funds intensifies.”

The Committee bill also offered support for confidence building
measures (CBM’s) to help stimulate the Nagorno Karabakh peace
process. The Committee report said in part:

“The Committee reiterates its view that the extent and timing of
United States and multilateral assistance, other than humanitarian
assistance, to the government of any country in the Caucasus region
should be proportional to its willingness to cooperate with the Minsk
Group and other efforts to resolve regional conflicts.

In furtherance of a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, and in support of the measured discussed at NATO and OSCE
summits, the Committee strongly supports confidence-building measures
among the parties to the conflict. Such measures include
strengthening compliance with the cease-fire, studying post-conflict
regional development such as landmine removal, water management,
transportation routes and infrastructure, establishing a youth
exchange program and other collaborative and humanitarian initiatives
to foster greater understanding among the parties and reduce
hostilities. The Committee expects the State Department to use its
authority under section 498B of the Foreign Assistance Act as
necessary to carry out such programs…..

The Committee continues to be concerned about the plight of the
victims of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, and recommends that up to $5
million should be made available to address ongoing humanitarian needs
in the Nagorno Karabakh region.”

The bill will next be considered by the House of Representatives. The
completed House version of the bill will then be reconciled with an
upcoming Senate version.

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership
organization.

NR#2005-070

New York Times, NY
June 22 2005

Verse Film Pits Love Against the Clash of Cultures

By ANNETTE GRANT
Published: June 22, 2005

Sally Potter – a dancer, choreographer, actress, singer, composer,
writer, poet and filmmaker – has a new movie, “Yes,” opening on
Friday. It follows “Orlando” (1993), “The Tango Lesson” (1997) and
“The Man Who Cried” (2000) and several short films and documentaries.
“Yes,” stars Joan Allen, Simon Abkarian and Sam Neill. It is written
in verse (iambic pentameter), one of the few films to use an unusual
form of dialogue. (Two others are “Force of Evil,” 1948, in blank
verse, and “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” 1964, which is sung
through.) “Yes” has two main characters, She (Ms. Allen), an
Irish-American, and He (Mr. Abkarian), an Arab from Beirut, who begin
an affair in London and end it in Havana. Mr. Neill plays She’s
husband. On a recent visit to New York, Ms. Potter talked to Annette
Grant about making “Yes.”

Skip to next paragraph

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
The writer and director Sally Potter.

Movie Details: ‘Yes’ | Trailer

Forum: Hollywood and Movie News

Nicola Dove/Sony Pictures Classics
Simon Abkarian and Joan Allen, who play the main characters in “Yes,”
a new film by Sally Potter. Written in verse, the film concerns an
affair between an Irish-American, called Her, and an Arab, called
Him.
Annette Grant “Yes” was your response as an artist to 9/11?

Sally Potter It was a visceral necessity, the very next day. I wanted
to contribute something affirmative in the face of such disruption,
when it seemed that the seeds of greater destruction had been
planted. The answer I found is “Yes,” a tender, erotic love story
played out against a backdrop of the clash of fundamentalisms, East
and West.

Q How did you decide to write it in verse?

A In my 20’s I was an improvising singer and I wrote many, many
songs. And at various stages, every screenplay I’ve written has been
in verse. But they’ve all been locked away in a drawer. Somehow it
seemed like the moment had finally come to let that idea play itself
out. I wanted this film to be like a river of voice. “Yes” just came
out that way, like a long poem or song.

Q So there was no opportunity for improvisation?

A No, it had to be the words as written exactly. Of course there were
many rewrites if something wasn’t working in rehearsal. The writing
and the directing of this film were so intertwined they became
inseparable. But the mode of delivery within the structure of what
was written was very free, so the actors never felt trapped in it.
They were word perfect. It was very easy for them to memorize,
because of the rhyme.

Q What was the first part you wrote?

A The car park scene in which He breaks up with She. I made it into a
five-minute film. Rewrote it, rewrote it, rewrote it, rewrote it,
again and again – partly because the world situation kept changing.
When we went into rehearsals the United States and England had just
gone into Iraq. So the script felt extremely prophetic, or pertinent
anyway.

Q Was this a hard film to raise money for?

A Really hard because it was perceived as very, very risky. People
found it difficult to believe that it would work.

Q Did you do a lot of research?

A I went to Beirut with Simon Abkarian, who is Armenian from there.
He was involved for about a year. I talked with him a lot, listened
to him a lot, about his life growing up there and his friends. I
often find that I need to write something first and then research it
afterwards because it’s as if the research has already been done
somewhere in my imagination, based on accumulated knowledge and
experience over the years. But then I fact check everything in
whatever way is relevant for fiction. I mean, you can’t – it’s not
“fact” by definition, but to make sure that the voice is authentic.

We were going to shoot in Beirut, but when the war broke out, the
insurers would not let us go. So we decided to shoot Beirut in
Havana, while we were there shooting the Havana scenes. We had to
shoot Havana in the Dominican Republic, because as an American, Joan
Allen couldn’t travel to Cuba.

But we obviously couldn’t take all the extras into Cuba, so we went
to the Arab Union in Havana, and I think the entire Arab population
of Cuba was in one scene. But I had Simon and the two friends come to
a meeting with all the extras and tell me is this a believable face
for this situation.

Q You cast yourself in “The Tango Lesson.” Were you ever tempted to
play She, the Joan Allen role, yourself in “Yes”?

A It crossed my mind and, of course, in the early days when I was
writing it I was reading it aloud to find out how it felt in the
mouth. But I think the experience of “The Tango Lesson,” taught me
that being in a film that you also direct can kind of hijack it away
from its intention to some degree.

Q If “Yes” is poetry, the real language of that film was dance.

A But also the language of whose eyes are looking – so it’s about
filmmaking. Every filmmaker makes a film at some point about the
process of filmmaking.

Q Joan Allen describes “Yes” as an extremely emotional adventure for
her. She has talked about rehearsals at which everyone was crying.
What were these emotions arising from?

A A combination of things. The script gave permission to feel,
through the vehicle of the story, the horrors of the global
situation. In rehearsal you need to arrive at the most profound level
of emotional contact with the material, partly in order to discharge
some of it to achieve the necessary transparency to play it. So that
the viewer doesn’t see a kind of therapeutic process going on on the
screen, but sees something many, many stages beyond that. But you
have to have gone through that first.

It wasn’t just the actors who would cry in rehearsal, but I would
turn around and the crew was also crying during the shooting. And now
audiences are crying at screenings. So some nerve is getting, I
think, usefully pushed. People are being allowed to feel; feel what’s
hard to feel or is amorphous and unfocused or it’s too threatening to
feel. And precisely because the film ultimately is affirmative, and
is joyful and is a celebration of love.

Q Isn’t this what art means to do, to make people feel through it?

A Yes. And to feel therefore themselves in it. I think that’s the
key.

ASBAREZ ONLINE
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06/21/2005
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1) Debate Arises Between Armenian, Azeri Delegations at IUSY Meeting
2) Turkey Working to Release Scholar Arrested for Stealing Historic Armenian
Books
3) President Kocharian on His Way to CSTO Collective Security Council Meeting
4) Gasparian Explains Rules of Negotiating to Azeris

1) Debate Arises Between Armenian, Azeri Delegations at IUSY Meeting

ISTANBUL (ARF Youth Office)–A heated argument erupted between an Armenian and
Azeri delegate at the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) conference
in Istanbul, Turkey, which took place June 16-19. Among the many issues
addressed were the conditions and rights of minorities in various countries.
Referring to Armenians as one-time minorities in Azerbaijan until the
Karabagh
war, the Azeri delegate drew a quick response from the Armenian delegate,
Armenian Youth Federation’s representative Zinavor Meghryan, who pointed to
Mountainous Karabagh Republic’s (MKR) independent status, and explained the
long struggle towards independence.
He stressed Karabagh’s status as an independent state that sought liberation
through democratic means, but as a consequence of Azerbaijan’s aggression, was
compelled to defend itself.
The Azeri delegate shot back claiming that the Karabagh movement was
driven by
Armenia’s desire to occupy territory and that MKR is not officially recognized
by the international community.
Meghryan then suggested the Azeri review history to learn about how Karabagh
was historically forced to become part of Azerbaijan. The Armenians living in
Karabagh, he explained, were simply expressing their right to freedom and
self-determination, and could never be considered a part of Azerbaijan’s
minority.
As the debate intensified, the meeting’s president announced a coffee break,
and suggested the two continue their impassioned exchange during the next
day’s
session.
After the break, the Kurdish delegation from Turkey raised the issue of human
rights violations towards Kurds in Turkey. Once again, a heated discussion
ensued, this time between the Turks and the Kurds.
Finally, the meeting’s president IUSY General Secretary Enzo Amentolan,
attempted to end the back and forth banter with his own presentation, calling
for open discussion on the abuse of Kurdish rights and possible resolution
through dialogue. Yet another coffee break was announced.
The IUSY is a fraternal organization of the Socialist International. IUSY
membership includes 143 socialist, social-democratic, labor youth and student
unions from 100 countries.
The AYF is a full-fledged IUSY member. Additional information on IUSY and the
Black Sea Area Cooperation conference is available at
<;

2) Turkey Working to Release Scholar Arrested for Stealing Historic Armenian
Books

ANKARA (Combined Sources)–Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry is working to
release a Turkish student who was arrested on June 17 on charges of attempting
to smuggle historic Armenian books out of the country. According to
Turkish-based newspaper Milliyet, Turkey is arranging for the release of
Yeftan
Turkyilmaz through its Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Turkyilmaz, who became last month the first Turkish historian who sought and
was given access to the Armenian National Archive, was arrested at Yerevan’s
Zvartnots Airport as he was about to board a plane bound for Istanbul.
According to the National Security Service (NSS), he carried undeclared
Armenian-language books about history, religion, and geography published from
the 17th to 19th centuries.
The security agency described them as “literature of high historical and
cultural value.” Under Armenian law, such items can not be taken out of the
country without permission from the Ministry of Culture.
Turkyilmaz, who spent more than one month in Armenia, was charged under an
article of the Armenian Criminal Code that carries heavy fines and up to five
years in prison.
A doctoral student at the Duke University in North Carolina, Turkyilmaz said
he is working with documents relating to activities of Turkish, Kurdish, and
Armenian nationalist parties during the final decades of the Ottoman Empire.
It is unclear how the scholar obtained the old books. He was said to be
experiencing financial difficulties and enjoyed discount fees for accessing
archival materials. National Archive director Amatuni Virabian, said he
believes Turkyilmaz did not deliberately break Armenian laws or regulations.
“He showed interest in books and I gave him a few [recently published]
books,”
Virabian said. “But I didn’t know that he bought old books. You can transport
anything except arms and drugs out of Turkey. I guess the guy thought things
are the same here.”

3) President Kocharian on His Way to CSTO Collective Security Council Meeting

MOSCOW (Combined Sources)–Heads of states of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) will be meeting in Moscow on June 23 to discuss priority
trends, international security and security cooperation with other
international organizations, and the abilities of the CSTO to rapidly react to
new challenges and threats.
The CSTO includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and
Tajikistan. The heads of member countries, including Armenian President Robert
Kocharian will also hold a plenary session with the foreign and defense
ministers and the state secretaries of the security councils.
The session will draft and sign a number of documents establishing the legal
basis political and military cooperation between member countries.
Also on the agenda is the adoption of the document, “Collective Rapid
Deployment Forces of the Central Asian Region,” which would create mechanisms
to coordinate CSTO activities in countering new challenges and threats.

4) Gasparian Explains Rules of Negotiating to Azeris

YEREVAN (Combined Sources)–Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesman Hamlet
Gasparian
shot down claims that the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan
discussed
the opening of roads connecting crucial roads.
According to the Azeri Press, Armenian Foreign ministers Vartan Oskanian and
Azeri counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov discussed last Friday, the possible
opening
of roads connecting Nakhichevan with Azerbaijan through the Syunik region, and
the Lachin highway connecting Armenia with Karabagh.
Denying those reports, Gasparian explained what the negotiation process
entails. “When one side introduces or talks about a topic, any topic, that
does
not mean that it is automatically on the agenda, nor that there is even a
preliminary agreement on that topic.”
“Armenia’s position on these matters is very clear. The primary matter is the
status of Mountainous Karabagh Republic and until there is clarity and
agreement on that matter, it is premature to speak about any other issue,”
said
Gasparian.
Oskanian, meanwhile, described the talks mediated by US, Russian, and French
negotiators as “positive” and “constructive.” He told reporters “Common ground
is in sight.”

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