Sun-Sentinel.com, FL
Oct 1 2005
Festival Miami takes on a Russian accent
By Alan Becker
Special Correspondent
Festival Miami continues to offer some enticing concerts at a time of
year when the cupboard seems bare. Wednesday’s program, at the
University of Miami’s Gusman Theater, presented Russian composers and
artists, with one exception in each case.
The justification for the presence of Aaron Copland on the program
was his Russian Jewish lineage and the presence of a Jewish folk
theme in his “Vitebsk” Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano.
An abrasive work with clashing sonorities dating from 1925, the Trio
showed violinist Sviatoslav Moroz and cellist Semyon Fridman at their
best. Each player had absorbed the idiom fully, bringing insight and
imagination to the music.
Performing in all the works with piano was University of Miami
faculty member Paul Posnak, who has the digital control and authority
to assert himself as an equal partner with any ensemble. During
Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake excerpts with Moroz, he undertook the role of
orchestra.
If the piano arrangement seemed awkward at times, the violinist did
his best with the mostly original solos.
Three of Gliere’s engaging pieces for violin and cello easily
demonstrated what a creative composer could do with a string duo,
rather than relying on a keyboard to fill in the harmonies.
While only the slow movement from Rachmaninoff’s beautiful Sonata for
Cello and Piano was performed, it provided a striking contrast to the
splashy emptiness of Rodion Shchedrin’s take on Albeniz for Cello and
Piano.
Alexander Arutiunian’s Impromptu is another matter altogether, and
provided a joyful and fiery alternative to the Armenian composer’s
more frequently heard Trumpet Concerto. The language is almost pure
Khachaturian, and the composer weds this to an arresting rhythmic
exuberance. Fridman, with his luxuriant tone, milked the piece and
had a field day with Arutiunian’s tricky rhythms.
Shostakovich’s Op. 67 Trio has a vicious, sardonic intensity in its
two faster movements, and wears a doleful countenance for the
remainder of the work.
Considering that it dates from the war years and contains a portrayal
of the Jews being horribly forced to dance just before their
slaughter by Nazis, the composer avoids most of his depressive
tendencies. It was given a reading that, while not note-perfect,
conveyed the music’s stature and feeling.
Alan Becker is a freelance writer in Davie.

Durham Herald Sun, NC
Oct 1 2005
Duke student talks about Armenian ordeal

BY PAUL BONNER : The Herald-Sun
[email protected]
Sep 30, 2005 : 10:22 pm ET
DURHAM — Unreality began to set in for Yektan Turkyilmaz about the
time a woman at a counter took his passport and, looking around
nervously — looking everywhere, in fact, but at the passport —
stamped it.
He took two steps and a man who had been following him was joined by
seven or eight others who surrounded him.
Turkyilmaz, a doctoral student at Duke University, was in the airport
in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where for six weeks he had been
doing research for his dissertation. He was planning to fly to his
family’s home in Turkey, then return to Duke for the beginning of the
fall semester.
>From June 17, when he was arrested and jailed, until he was convicted
and released on a suspended sentence 60 days later, Turkyilmaz was
the focus of an international outcry over the state of academic
freedom in the former Soviet republic.
His crime: He had 108 secondhand books and pamphlets in his luggage.
Some were old political tracts from the early 20th century. He had
bought them from ordinary secondhand book vendors. They were for his
dissertation research, he told the security agents.
Now back at Duke, Turkyilmaz reflected on his ordeal during an
interview Friday in his office at the John Hope Franklin Institute,
where he is a humanities fellow.
Some of the 20 books that were returned to him are on his shelves
there, still with numbered tags put there by the “KGB.” The agency’s
name translates to “National Security Service.” But even its agents
still refer to themselves by the acronym of the infamous Soviet
internal police, Turkyilmaz said.
Like UFO to captors
Turkyilmaz is Kurdish, of Turkish birth, which alone could raise
suspicions among some Armenians. Animosity by Armenians over their
decimation and forced removal in 1916 from the eastern part of the
region that is now Turkey still smolders.
The books were valuable, he told the agents, but only to him in his
research into modern Turkey’s political genesis in the early 20th
century. And whatever their idea of Turks might be, his research
respects Armenians’ claims of genocide. He speaks Armenian and has
many Armenian friends.
“That wouldn’t make any sense to them,” he said. “The task for me was
to tell them who I was working for. Eventually, they understood what
Duke University was.”
It took them eight hours to list all the books, with Turkyilmaz
helping them decipher some Old Armenian titles. They were more
comfortable with Russian.
At their headquarters, they wanted to know his political views, who
his family was, whom he’d been talking to. Did he have any links to
Turkish intelligence? He answered all their questions until, after
many repetitions, he grew weary.
Then he was put into a prison cell. It measured about 15 feet square,
with two high windows and five beds, although he never had more than
one cellmate and seldom saw anyone else but guards.
In a region that has long been a tinderbox of ethnic strife, he had
trouble persuading his interrogators that he was not defined by it.
“But they have their nationalist, primordial categories in their
minds,” he said. “I was like a UFO, an unidentified object for them.
That’s why they targeted me.”
The unreality became his daily existence. He thought of all the
theoretical works about imprisonment he had read and even taught, and
of Franz Kafka’s famous “The Trial.” At least he got the
Armenian-language immersion course he had wanted, with radio,
newspapers, the few books he was allowed and conversation with his
cellmate.
The law under which he was arrested dealt with missiles and weapons
of mass destruction, lumping with them “strategic raw materials or
cultural values,” which the prosecutor said meant his books.
His cellmate told him that he could be held a year without trial.
When he was permitted a visit, he told a friend, “I don’t think we
should be that optimistic.”
Many people, starting with his dissertation adviser at Duke, Orin
Starn, called attention to Turkyilmaz’s situation and petitioned
Armenian President Robert Kocharian. A letter signed by 225
international scholars, including both Armenians and Turks, called
for his release. The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan went to bat for him.
U.S. Sen. Bob Dole sent a scathing letter, and the next day,
Turkyilmaz got a trial date.
Wants to go back
After his trial and release, he eventually found the Armenian
cultural ministry which prosecutors had said maintained a list of the
culturally significant books, the one on which seven of his titles
supposedly appeared.
“They said, ‘We don’t have a list, but we have the criteria.’ I said,
‘OK, tell me about the criteria and who decides?’ So they say,
‘Council of ministers.’ I say, ‘OK, so what are your criteria?’
‘Cultural significance,’ ” they replied.
He appreciates all the support he received and just wants to resume
where he left off.
“I’m not bitter,” he said. And despite doubts he will ever again be
allowed into Armenia, he would visit again.
“I want to go back, because I don’t want them to win,” he said.
By which he means not the majority of Armenians, who he’s convinced
are embarrassed by their country’s big-brother ways, but “a couple of
old-style people with Soviet style of thinking, with overtones of
xenophobic patriotism.”
Despite having to leave behind many other books and articles he
needed for his dissertation, Turkyilmaz is writing it and plans to be
finished next academic year.
He takes solace in believing that the episode could lead to improved
relations between the two neighbors.
Already, many Armenians have come to appreciate his intellectual
quest and its sponsors.
“Duke is very popular in Armenia these days,” he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Washington Times
Oct 1 2005
Turkey wary of EU intentions
By Sibel Utku Bila
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey yesterday girded for a showdown with the
European Union as anger and frustration simmered over what Turks see
as European backpedaling on pledges to admit the Muslim country to
the bloc.
With just three days left before the start of membership talks,
EU countries were still wrangling over accession terms for Turkey,
leaving Ankara on edge and its decades-old dream of integrating with
Europe shrouded in uncertainty.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he would not go to Luxembourg
for the start of the talks Monday if Ankara is dissatisfied with the
EU’s conditions.
“Undoubtedly, there is the risk of not starting membership
talks,” Mr. Gul conceded late Thursday. “We are facing serious
problems.”
In an 11th-hour bid for a breakthrough, the EU will hold an
emergency meeting of foreign ministers tomorrow to seek a compromise
on a negotiating framework — the guiding procedures and principles
for the talks with Turkey.
The deadlock is blamed on Austria’s insistence to offer Turkey
“privileged partnership” as an alternative to full membership, an
option Ankara flatly rejects.
Mr. Gul said he would not board the plane for Luxembourg before
seeing the final document, but remained hopeful of a compromise
despite the time pressure.
Turkey has been trying to join the EU since the 1960s, but its
place in Europe has come increasingly into question, especially since
French and Dutch voters rejected a planned EU constitution, partly
over concerns about the membership of this sizeable and relatively
poor Muslim country.
The European Parliament fueled angry accusations that the
admission bar is being deliberately raised for Turkey when it urged
Ankara earlier this week to acknowledge that the Ottoman Empire —
predecessor of the Turkish Republic — committed “genocide” against
Armenians in World War I, as a condition for joining.

RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 1 2005
The CIS and Baltic press on Russia
ARMENIA
If Yerevan wants to be independent of Russia, it should integrate
with Europe. This opinion was expressed by Armenian experts in the
local press. “We must develop bilateral relations with Russia with a
prospect of becoming a member of the united European family rather
than a Russia-Belarus-Armenia threesome.” (Aravot, September 21)
Experts believe that blunders of Russian politicians in the South
Caucasus in the context of U.S. vigorous policy will soon oust Russia
from the region altogether. “If we compare the unprecedented increase
in the U.S. current spending with Russia’s astronomical revenues from
skyrocketing oil prices, we will have to dismiss at once any talk
about Russia’s inability to compete. Moreover, the South Caucasus is
directly adjacent to Russia, and it should invest there much more
than any other country, if it really wants to increase its role in
this region. In the meantime, all Russia is doing there is buying
energy installations in a bid for monopoly.” (Hayots Ashkar,
September 23)
Another theme of discussion is the adverse aftermath for Armenia of
Russia’s potential entry into the WTO. “After joining the WTO Russia
will have to respect the rules of that organization and pursue its
common price policy. As a result, the price of Russian commodities
will approach the price level of exports both in the CIS, and inside
Russia itself. The resulting spiral in prices on energy carriers in
Armenia will sharply increase the costs of all Armenian goods, making
them absolutely uncompetitive.” (Aikanan Zhamanak, September 21)

Xinhua, China
The People’s Daily, China
Oct 1 2005
Turkey expects EU to fulfill duties: FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Turkey had fulfilled its
responsibilities on the road to the European Union membership,
expecting the EU to do the same and conclude Turkey’s entry process
positively.
Gul made the statements as Britain, which currently holds the
six-month rotating EU presidency, has called an emergency meeting of
EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Sunday in a bid to end the
bickering over the guiding principles of Turkey’s accession talks.
“I cannot say anything definite about whether negotiations will be
opened in a few days. They may or may not be launched,” Gul told
reporters late Friday.
Turkey’s entry talks are scheduled to start on Oct. 3. EU foreign
ministers must agree on a negotiating mandate for Turkey to begin
talks at the Sunday emergency meeting, less than 24 hours away from
the scheduled negotiation date.
EU member state Austria insists that the ministerial talks aim for a
“privileged partnership” with Turkey instead of full membership.
Ankara rejects any second-class treatment. Gul warned that the
Turkish government did not think Turkey should join the EU in this
case.
“A partnership between the EU and Turkey would not be established if
the EU did not keep its promises, if leaders of the EU member states
forgot they had signed several documents or neglected their
signatures due to some reasons, and if they brought forward new
conditions which could never be accepted by Turkey,” said Gul.
“We want to start negotiations, and we are working for this but
within the framework of the realities,” Gul added.
The foreign minister also said Turkey had held meetings with leaders
of several EU member states, including Britain.
“I hope that this honest attitude of Turkey will be responded in the
similar way. And the entry process will go in the right track in the
end,” he concluded.
EU leaders agreed last December that Turkey had carried out necessary
reforms on human rights, society and economy, which qualify Ankara
for official EU membership talks.
But strains flared anew after Ankara reaffirmed in July its refusal
to recognize the Greek Cypriot government, which joined the EU on
behalf of the whole island. Ankara recognized the breakaway Turkish
Cypriot in the north.
Turkey has also come under pressure to recognize what Armenians call
a genocide against their people by the Ottoman Empire during and at
the end of World War I — an event that remains highly sensitive for
Turks.

Kathimerini, Greece
Oct 1 2005
At Turkey’s heart, a major paradox
A letter by Turkish Ambassador to Paris Uluc Ozulker that was
published yesterday in the French daily Le Figaro in which he
portrayed Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, who is
based in Istanbul, as a local religious leader is one more piece of
evidence that our eastern neighbor is far from ready to come under
the European Union roof. Turkey has a long path to tread before
reaching the EU’s political and institutional standards. European
political culture is even further away.
The letter by the Turkish envoy pales in comparison to the legal suit
against acclaimed novelist Orhan Pamuk (after his comments about
Turkey’s killing of Armenians and Kurds) and the court decision
halting a conference on the Armenian massacre under Ottoman rule. But
the political origins of the incidents are common – they are all
products of Ankara’s state ideology. Although clouds are gathering
over Turkey’s EU ambitions, Ankara continues to provoke people’s
democratic sensitivities. Sure, Turkey is not trying to put
additional obstacles in its path; its reaction is in keeping with its
character – and it is not willing to change mentality and practices.
True, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken significant
steps in introducing EU-minded legal reforms. But their
implementation has been sorely lacking. Moreover, Ankara seems more
interested in formalities than in real implementation. It all seems
to boil down to the big paradox at the heart of the Turkish
establishment: Ankara is, on the one hand, in favor of EU membership,
but, on the other, it fears that European principles could also
unmake Turkey.
Caught up in this internal contradiction, Ankara wants membership
without having to adapt. Above all, it insists on seeing itself as a
fortress state. Its diplomatic maneuvering underscores a desire to
join the bloc on its own terms. In short, Turkey wants the rights
without the responsibilities, which demonstrates that the candidate
country is a complete stranger to European political norms.
There is no such thing as Europe a la carte. As time goes by, Turkey
will be faced with an inescapable dilemma. It will either launch the
process that will transform it for good or the enterprise of full
membership will degenerate into a special partnership. Turkey has no
place in the European house unless it remakes itself.

IranMania, Iran
Oct 1 2005
Iran, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Armenia to expand trade
Saturday, October 01, 2005 – ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, October 1 (IranMania) – Iran is to expand its trade ties with
Algeria, Sri Lanka and Armenia in a move to promote joint investment
in various economic sectors, the Economic Affairs and Finance
Minister Danesh-Jafari emphasized in three separate meetings held
last week with his counterparts from the said countries.
According to MNA, Algeria and Iran are members of the same group in
the World Bank (WB) and IMF. In 2004, Algeria headed the group in WB
while Iran kept the same group position at the IMF. So it is of
paramount importance to develop further the role of effective
investment in both countries, said Jafari.
Iran may benefit a lot from Sri Lanka?s know-how in tea industry by
applying the proven techniques in order to promote its tea
production.
Encouraging Sri Lanka to invest in this sector was another matter
that was jointly discussed, the minister stated.
Jafari?s counterpart also expressed his appreciation for the credit
facilities given to his country by Iran to purchase oil in return.
The finance minister also kept a meeting with his Armenian
counterpart Karen Chshmaritian in the office branch of Iran at the WB
headquarters in another occasion and asked for a joint economic
session in the near future and solving the minor problems standing on
the way of investments by the Iranian companies in Armenia.
He emphasized on mutual assistance for further development in various
economic fields, particularly in transportation sector at the
conclusion of their talk.

Los Angeles Daily News
Oct 1 2005
State trade office to open in Armenia
By Alex Dobuzinskis, Staff Writer

California’s trade office in Armenia will open Monday, thanks to the
$75,000 raised by local members of the Armenian community to create
trade partnerships between the Golden State and the former Soviet
republic.
The office will be in temporary quarters in Yerevan, Armenia’s
capital, in a government building there. An English-speaking Armenian
was appointed to run the office, which will link importers and
exporters between California and the landlocked nation east of Turkey
and north of Iran.
Because the money was raised privately, the state was able to open
the office in Armenia even though California’s other foreign trade
offices were closed recently because of state budget woes. That could
be a model for the state if it opens other foreign trade offices,
officials said.
“The Armenian officials that I met with are very excited about it
because they recognize that one of the ways as a developing country
they’re going to progress is to count on the expertise and the
products that would come from a place like California,” said Sen.
Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, who was in Armenia from Sept. 19-23.
Officials expect that the office will facilitate in the export of
information technology and health products going into Armenia and
help Armenian businesses export foodstuffs and other products to
California.
There is nearly $50 million in trade between Armenia and the United
States, most of it with California, said Berdj Karapetian, chairman
of the Glendale-based Foundation for Economic Development, which
helped create the trade office.

“There are quite a few individual business owners, midsize business
owners – not the multimillion dollar ones or the small mom-and-pop
entities – midsize businesses that are looking for business
opportunities in Armenia that are developing, but they’re not sure
the exact ways to go about it,” said Karapetian, who works in
marketing.
The office will facilitate that work that they need, he said.
No public money has gone into creating the trade office, and there
could be a need for additional fundraising in the future to keep the
office operating.
“I’d like to see it grow,” said Annette Vartanian, executive director
of the Glendale-based Armenian American Chamber of Commerce.
“Obviously, it’s going to start out small, but I’d like to see in the
next couple of years for the office to expand and to see a team of
people working.”
The office is overseen by the California Business, Transportation &
Housing Agency.

Kathimerini, Greece
Oct 1 2005
An EU stretched too far
By Petros Papaconstantinou
The looming collapse of Turkey’s EU talks before they have even
started confirms that, for European governments, Ankara’s refusal to
recognize Cyprus was merely a pretext used to revise their
wrongheaded strategy. Vienna is once again halting the Sultan at the
gates of Europe – a role that Athens and Nicosia could not afford to
play. But the loose-tongued Austrians do not speak only for
themselves. The recent setback in the European Parliament and French
calls for a `clearly controlled’ application process for Turkey
indicate the change of mood.
For how can one explain the shift of big states which – after
pressuring Athens for years to lift its Turkey veto – have now, at
the 11th hour, unearthed the problem of Cyprus, the Kurdish issue,
the Armenian killings, even the cases of torture in Turkey’s
psychiatric clinics. In Turkish eyes, that can only be a sign of
growing reluctance to let Ankara hop on the EU train.
What the expanding alliance of Turkey-skeptics fail to see is that
the rushed expansion of the bloc was a blunder of mammoth
proportions. Enlargement was decided in the wake of German
reunification as Berlin reckoned that its unmatched economic leverage
would turn the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe into
satellites. Britain wanted the same thing for different reasons.
Eastward enlargement, it was believed, would put European plans for
political and military emancipation from the US on the back burner
and take the dismantling of Europe’s social state a step further.
In the end, it was London, not Berlin, who smiled. In this context,
the clamor over Turkish membership has catapulted onto center stage
the concerns over Europe’s geographical stretch, which threatens to
unravel its social and political cohesion.

AsiaNews, Italy
Oct 1 2005
Armenians, Hebrews and Christians urge the EU: hasten Turkey’s entry
negotiations
by Mavi Zambak

The Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II has written to Shroeder, Merkel and
all European parliamentarians: Turkey’s entry is the way to
reinforcing East-West dialogue and to building peace against
terrorism.

Ankara (AsiaNews) – The Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II, spiritual
leader of Turkey’s largest non-Muslim community, has written an
anxious letter for help and intercession to Gerhard Schroeder and
Angela Merkel, asking them to hasten the process for Turkey’s entry
into the European Union. The letter was also addressed to 732
European members of parliament and to ministers of European nations.
The patriarch’s letter was prompted by the absence of reasonable
agreement between EU foreign affairs ministers and Turkey two days
before negotiations are set to start. Austria – up against the
unanimous consensus of 24 member states – is opposed to giving the
green light for negotiations, which have been stalled for some time
now on its demand not to offer Turkey more than privileged
partnership.
To find a solution to satisfy Vienna’s reluctance, an emergency
meeting of foreign affairs ministers of the 25 was called Sunday in
Luxembourg.
Meanwhile, all national newspapers in Turkey are talking about
sabotage and high treason.
`A Damocles sword’, which appears never to go on forever, creating
tensions and aversion with regard to Europe. Running titles in red
letters, many newspapers – fearful that Europe is backtracking –
claim events show the `European Christian club’ is not to be trusted;
the club which does not keep its promises and stabs you in the back.
The nationalists, who until a few days ago, had not hesitated to slam
Prime Minister Erdogan for being too friendly with the Europeans and
of selling Turkey and leading it to suicide, seem to be the only ones
to rejoice about the situation.
Christian Turks fear a refusal to start the entry process of Turkey
into Europe could lead to negative repercussions for them.
The Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II wrote his letter, which was made
public today, even before he got to know about the verdict of the 25
European ambassadors. In the letter, he claims to speak in the name
of the Armenians as well as the Hebrews, Syrians, Greeks, Chaldeans
and Protestants, who strongly desire that Turkey becomes a member of
Europe for the following reasons.
`At this important juncture of the history of mankind,’ writes the
Patriarch, `we believe this decision is important not only for
European policy, but that it has global implications too.
`In these days, when we hear talk about clashes between the
civilizations of East and West, between Christians and Muslims, when
we see how terrorism is destroying peace among civilizations, we
think that the most basic objective of the European Union should be
that of seeking to cultivate a `reconciliation between civilizations’
and a multi-cultural society, as we – especially Christians of the
East – ardently desire.
`We Christians of the East, who for centuries have lived in a Muslim
word, can testify to this endeavour, and fortified by long
experience, we can affirm that this event could be significantly
enriching for Christians in the West who have started to live with
Muslims and to experiment a multi-ethnic lifestyle only recently.
`Our experience tells that the entry of Turkey – which has a majority
Muslim population – in the European Union, is a vital step towards a
world of peace. Turkey’s aspiration to be part of Europe is an
opportunity – not for Turks alone, or for Europeans, but for world
peace – which we should certainly not allow to pass us by.
`We are aware Turkey must yet face difficult trials in entry
negotiations, but we know they are indispensable and necessary for
world peace.
`And you, as one who works for western peace, must help us.
`The pressure recently exerted to postpone Turkey’s entry
negotiations worries us and we fear that those who oppose it and who
nurture attitudes of suspicion, may disrupt the road to democracy,
making Turkey turn in on itself.
`We pray for the success of the process of civilization and peace in
the European Union and so that Turkey and the Armenian Christians,
who make up the country’s largest non-Muslim community, may find
their right place in it.’