Tensions rise in Ukraine’s Crimea amid competing claims for land

NTV Mir, Moscow
16 Apr 05

[Presenter] Tension is rising in Crimea, with more and more Crimean
Tatar tent cities and so-called Slav pickets. The unresolved land
issue is driving the peninsula towards a schism. Our special
correspondent Aleksandr Yakovenko reports from Crimea.

[Correspondent] A gathering at the tent where members of the Armenian,
Greek and German communities are mounting a joint guard.

[Video shows man reading out list of names]

[Correspondent] The Slav picket, and a roll call of applicants for
plots of land and for the duty night shift. On the same field Crimean
Tatars are also protesting. They also have a wagon here, and the same
demands.

[Man of Tatar appearance to correspondent] Everything’s all right
here.

[Voice off-camera] Get out of here.

[Man] Why should I? I’m just talking to the guy.

[Voice off-camera] [Words indistinct]

[Man] I’m just trying to get my own land.

[Correspondent] The land debate in Crimea has moved on from the
newspapers and bureaucrats’ offices and is now a tactical battle. Tent
and wagon cities, pitched along national lines, can now be seen among
the hills along the winding coastal road in the east of the peninsula.

[Yelena Belousova, board member of Association of Crimean Greeks] It’s
all peaceful here, no fights or arguments, nothing like that. The
people are peaceful, they want land, not a war.

[Correspondent] The land issue arose after the Tatars returned to
Crimea from their deportation. The most prestigious and expensive land
on the southern shoreline is the main bone of contention. Here, in
Sudak District, each side, having exhausted the historical and
political arguments, has decided to advance its land claims by posting
round-the-clock guards.

[Vitaliy Sitnikov, elder of Slav Field Protest campaign group]
Residence permit, documentary evidence of family, evidence of living
conditions and that you have no land, photocopy of passport and ID
number, get all these together and keep them in your pocket so they
stay warm.

[Correspondent] How many applications have been submitted as of now?

[Sitnikov] Three thousand and fifty.

[Correspondent] Meanwhile, their opponents are staging a picket
outside the Agriculture Ministry. New columns of demonstrators march
towards the tent city in the centre of Simferopol every day. Today,
members of the Crimean Tatar community spent an hour and a half
shouting the word Freedom.

There is no sign of any increased police presence on the streets. They
have long been accustomed to protests here. But according to a number
of members of the autonomous republic’s parliament, the calm is
deceptive.

[Halyna Krzhybovska, member of Autonomous Republic of Crimea Supreme
Council] This will lead to destabilization of the situation in Crimea,
to the imposition of direct presidential rule, and to the collapse of
the Crimea Autonomous Republic.

[Correspondent] The local authorities have declined to comment. This
is a long-standing problem, and it seems they do not know how to solve
it. While those above are still thinking, those on the ground have
started to act.

The weather forecast for the peninsula is of a stormy spell ahead,
with thunder and rain. But nobody is willing to make political
forecasts. According to observers, the storm clouds are gathering over
the Crimean capital. One of the slogans of the demonstrators outside
the government building is “No land, no government”. Various
gatherings and rallies are planned to take place in the next few days
in Yalta, Alushta, Bakhchysaray, Sudak and Simferopol.

A Bird’s Eye View

TDN
Sunday, April 17, 2005

OPINIONS

Advena AVIS

We birds were very saddened by the passing away of the pope. He was a
fantastic human who had contributed greatly to humanity. May his soul
rest in peace. We were also quite impressed by the list of
dignitaries that were present at his funeral. Almost all the human
leaders of the world were present. But the most impressive delegation
was that of Turkey. According to the list on theCNN Web site, the
Turkish delegation was headed by the prime minister and included a
state minister, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartolomeos and Armenian
Patriarch Mesrob II. The fact that a Muslim prime minister includes
two Christian patriarchs in his delegation is a good example of an
open society and of an administration that is trying to put past
differences into the dustbin of history. Only Lebanon followed
Turkey’s example and included representatives of Christian churches in
its delegation. So bravo, Erdogan man, for a job well done.

As we birds circulate in the streets of Istanbul looking for food,
weoften find metal screws lying here and there. And we ponder deeply
on them. Have you humans ever thought that the screw is the basic
element that holds your technological civilization together? Without
screws you would not have automobiles, airplanes, trains, ships,
telephones, modern dwellings, agricultural machines, refrigerators,
etc., and we could continue with a list of thousand of items in whose
production screws are used.

But what is a screw? According to the definition given by the
Wikipedia encyclopedia, “a screw is a shaft with a helical groove
formed on its surface. Its main uses are as a threaded fastener used
to hold objects together, andas a simple machine used to translate
torque into linear force.”

The screw has been around since antiquity. The Greek human
mathematician Archytas of Tarentum (428-350 B.C) was credited with the
invention of the screw. By the first century B.C. wooden screws were
commonly used throughout the Mediterranean world in devices such as
oil and wine presses. Metal screws did not appear in Europe until the
1400s.The metal screw did not become a common woodworking fastener
until machine tools for mass production were developedat the end of
the 18th century. It should also be mentioned that Archimedes of
Syracuse invented the water screw, which lifted water from wells.

While you humans use the screw to maintain and develop your
technological civilization, you still lag behind Mother Nature, who
can construct humans, animals, plants, etc. without the use of
screws. So when we see screws thathave fallen off automobiles or from
other items lying around in the streets, we begin to worry. The more
screws we see, the more we become concerned about the fate and safety
of the vehicle from which it fell off, for the passengers of that
vehicle and, why not, about the future of human civilization, since
these loose screws indicate that your technological civilization is
slowly unraveling. We cannot also understand why such an important
element is used as a curse word in English (the verb). So dear humans,
next time you see a screw in the street, pick it up and ponder the
role that it has played and continues to play in your civilization.

Good things are happening in our neighboring country Greece as far
asour species is concerned. The Greek Center for the Care of Wild
Animals recently released into freedom a pelican, six storks, a gray
heron, two peregrine falcons and four other hawks near the banks of
the Aliakmon River. Most of the birds had needed treatment after being
shot by hunters. The center’s Thessalonica branch receives up to 1,500
injured animals and birds every year, some 20 percent of which require
short treatment. All this is very encouraging news and we birds would
like to thank you humans for taking such good care of less fortunate
members of our species. We hope the other countries of the regioncan
also follow the Greek example, if they have not already done so.

And we shall end today’s column with another example that is
comically sad, of human folly. We quote from the international
traveler update section of the International Herald Tribune of April
5: “TOKYO: The subway system on Monday began running its first
women-only car during the morning rush hour, a special from 7:30
a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on the Saikyo Line. A women’s car has been in
operation since July 2002 during the evening rush hour on the line,
whose stops include Shinjuku, Japan’s busiest station. A police report
in February said that groping on trains had tripled in the past eight
years and urged the system to add more women-only cars.” It is a shame
for humanity to resort to these kinds of measures in order to prevent
indecent acts that human males inflict on human females. We can only
express the hope that in the other cars, male humans do not resort to
groping each other.

So please, dear humans, ponder our thoughts for the benefit of this
planet.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
April 17 2005

Armenian Guerillas Killed 523,000 Turks between 1910 and 1922

Published: Sunday 17, 2005
zaman.com

While for years the Armenians have been trying to direct the world’s
opinion to favor their side with regard to the so-called genocide
allegations, official documents prove that Armenian guerillas killed
over 500,000 Turks in Anatolia between 1910 and 1922.

The Turkish Prime Ministry State Archives Director General Professor
Yusuf Sarinay noted that Turkey has been facing impositions stating
“face up to your past” for a long time and said: “When we face up to
our history, what we encounter is our own pains and losses.”

Professor Sarinay expressed that history is locked at a point
regarding the so-called Armenian genocide allegations and opinions
are deadlocked on the year 1915 and added: “The problems do not start
from this date. 1915 is a result.”

New York Times
April 17 2005

Turkey Says 523,000 Were Killed by Armenians Between 1910 and 1922
By SEBNUM ARSU

Published: April 17, 2005

IZMIR, Turkey, April 17 – The Turkish State Archive issued today a
list of more than 523,000 Turks whom it said were killed by Armenians
in Turkey between 1910 and 1922.

The move appeared intended to counter longstanding Armenian
contentions that Turkish Ottoman officials committed genocide during
a period of mass deportations of Armenians that began in 1915.

Turkey fears that the 90th anniversary of the start of the violence,
which Armenians and their supporters plan to mark on April 24, will
cause widespread anti-Turkish feeling. It is also concerned that the
issue could interfere with its plans to start talks with the European
Union in October for possible membership. There have been growing
calls from other countries for Turkey to acknowledge its role with
regard to the Armenians.

Last week, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish Parliament
called for an international study of the events of that period, but
senior Armenia officials turned down the proposal.

Turkey flatly denies that there was any systematic effort at killing
or forcing the Armenians out of eastern Anatolia, where the Armenians
were trying to establish a separate state. with support from the
French, British and Russians. Turkey contends that, instead, hundreds
of thousands of Turks were killed by Armenians as they tried to
establish themselves as the majority population in that region. Prof.
Yusuf Sarinay said.

The list issued today was compiled based on reports by the regional
authorities sent to Ottoman officials in Istanbul, as well as the
written accounts of international observers, said Mr. Sarinay, the
director of the Office of State Archives.

“Europe has used Armenians as a tool in extension of their policies
over Turkey, for which Turks and Armenians suffered,” Mr. Sarinay was
quoted as saying by the Anatolian news agency. “Europe should also
face her own history.”

Hirant Dink, a leading figure among Armenians in Turkey called the
list an official attempt to create an alternate version of an
internationally recognized reality. He said that such documentary
analysis and confirmation of its accuracy should be left in the hands
of international academics.

“Figures and documents should be researched and analyzed,” Mr. Dink
said, “However, talking merely in figures means that Turkey doesn’t
understand the pain of the other side; what is undermined here is the
conscience and human factor behind all.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Azerbaijan News Service
April 16 2005

FOLLOWING MEETING OF FA OF AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA SCHEDULED IN
FRANKFURT
2005-04-16 09:53

Armenian and Azerbaijani FA ministers met with co-chairmen of OSCE
Minsk group separately in London. Co-chairmen first met with Armenian
minister. Vardan Oskanyan, FA minister of Armenia said in his
interview to `Radio of Liberty’ he considered these talks as a next
stage of Prague process and said the sides held consultations during
negotiations. Refusing to reveal details of the meeting, Vardan
Oskanyan said the talks were about just general issues. He also
refused to answer the question about any new peace proposals from
OSCE co-chairmen during the meeting. Armenian FA minister said
information in press on new peace proposal from OSCE co-chairmen is
exaggerated. Yuri Merzlyakov, Steven Mann and Bernard Fassier, OSCE
co-chairmen made statement on April 15. They expressed their concern
over regular cease-fire breaches and increase in number of victims as
the result lately. It is said in the statement that the two sides
should follow the cease-fire and take some measures to stop
cease-fire breaches. Azerbaijan and Armenia should pursue balanced
policy and prepare their nations for compromises to achieve peace. It
is also noted in the statement that resumption of the conflict may
end in tragic result for the nations in the region. Another meeting
between FA ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia and OSCE co-chairmen
will be held at the end of April in Frankfurt. The main target of the
meeting is to prepare for meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian
presidents that will be held in May.Foreign minister of Azerbaijan
Elmar Mammadyarov told in his interview with Radio Liberty that
official Baku’s position regarding release of occupied territories
and ensuring refugees return to homelands remain unchanged. Mr.
Mammadyarov added that Azerbaijan considers Armenian community in
Qarabaq as her citizens and ready to guarantee their security. `I
think Armenia must realize that it is important to release
Azerbaijan’s occupied lands and refuges return their homelands. We
understand the process is very complicated because conflict continues
more than 15 years’ says Elmar Mammadyarov. Foreign minister of
Azerbaijan says if yielding compromise means to ensure security then
official Baku recognizes Armenian community as citizens of Azerbaijan
and assures guarantee for security.

European MPs visit refugees in Azeri town

Lider TV, Baku
17 Apr 05

[Presenter] A delegation of European parliamentarians is visiting
Azerbaijan. The delegation, which plans to attend a meeting of the
EU-Azerbaijan interparliamentary cooperation commission in Baku, has
visited camps of refugees and displaced persons in the town of Barda
[central Azerbaijan]. Our regional correspondent Teymur Zahidoglu has
more. Hello Teymur. What can you tell us about their visit and meeting
with refugees and displaced persons?

[Zahidoglu, by phone] The delegation of MPs from the European
Parliament’s committee of environment, public health and food safety
and also deputies from France, Holland, Poland and other countries
have met residents of camps in Barda. They familiarized themselves
with living conditions of refugees and displaced persons.

The head of the delegation, a French, Ms (?Maria Degui), said she had
visited many conflict zones of the world but the situation here is
intolerable.

Commenting on reports that [nuclear] waste from Armenia’s Metsamor
nuclear power plant is being dumped in Nagornyy Karabakh, she said the
European Parliament has demanded that the plant be closed. But for
some reason the problem still remains unresolved, she said.

[Passage omitted: the European MPs say the Karabakh conflict should be
resolved peacefully]

The Herald (Glasgow)
April 16, 2005

Goddess of Revolution who makes Russians see red

PROFILE : YULIA TYMOSHENKO;
She is the prime minister of Ukraine, accused of corruption and with
a question mark over her nationality. But even that is overshadowed
by the latest controversy. Now she faces charges of bribing Russian
defence officials – fuelling the friction between the two vying
neighbours

by: ABIGAIL WILD

RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH CONTROVERSY: Ukraine’s prime minister Yulia
Tymoshenko feels her party has awakened the hopes of people.

RELATIONS with Russia were never going to be straightforward, but
Yulia Tymoshenko’s appointment as Ukrainian prime minister hardly got
things off to a great start. This week the facade of harmony,
awkwardly presented by the leaders of both countries, finally showed
cracks when Tymoshenko cancelled her scheduled visit to Moscow.

A spokesman for Tymoshenko said the trip was being delayed “because
Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko gave an order recommending the
Ukrainian prime minister . . . avoid foreign travel for now”. No
Ukrainian ministers, it was reported, were allowed to make visits
abroad until the end of the spring farming season. Sergey Lavrov, the
Russian foreign minister, insisted there were no objections to her
visit from their side of the fence, and that Vladimir Putin, Russian
president, had made it clear that his government was “eagerly
awaiting her in Moscow”.

The cancellation, however, came after Russian prosecutor-general
Vladimir Ustinov reiterated that the prime minister was wanted on
charges of bribing Russian defence officials. She is still a “wanted
criminal”, he said, and a warrant for her arrest remains in force. It
doesn’t appear to have soothed matters that Ustinov also said she
would not be arrested because of her immunity as a senior government
official. To everyone else, it looks like the first big clash between
Kiev and Moscow since Yushchenko became president.

Tymoshenko – a tower of strength to Yushchenko during last year’s
Orange Revolution – has always been a potential stumbling block in
the bid to establish a functional relationship with Putin, without
which the Ukraine premier has less chance of winning the approval of
the pro-Russian eastern regions that voted against him.

Tymoshenko – once known to Ukrainians as the Gas Princess – has in
her favour a charisma and charm that makes her an expert at working
up a crowd, and earned her new nickname Goddess of Revolution. The
trouble is, those who hate her really do hate her, and the approval
of pro-western Ukrainian nationalists and her pro-Russian opposition
appear to be mutually exclusive.

Given her background and the supposed scheme to tarnish her
reputation, her popularity at first seems quite a feat. Born in 1960
in Dnipropetrovsk, she studied economics and cybernetics at
university, and began her career at a mechanical engineering plant.

She eventually ran a lucrative private gas business. The immaculate
Heidi-meets-Queen Amidala hairstyle may make her look like a peasant,
but during the 1990s she was one of the richest women in her country.

Her enemies would have it that she was as corrupt as the oligarchs –
the business elite – she now poses a threat to. When she first
entered politics a decade ago, her party – Hromada – had very little
respect, and was viewed as a bunch of greedy business people out for
nothing more than an increase in their own profits.

She remains haunted by the accusation that she wanted the officials
to inf late the price of supply contracts with the Russian military
by dollars-80m (pounds-42.5m) , but her claim that it’s all part of
some conspiracy against her is easy for Ukrainians to believe. Her
predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, waw loathed by the end of his term.

Tymoshenko’s growing fanclub could only have been reassured when she
called him a “red-haired cockroach” and suggested to supporters of
Viktor Yanukovych in last year’s troubled elections that they should
hang themselves on their blue and white scarves.

Moscow, having backed rival candidate Yanukovych, was unsurprisingly
mute at the news of her nomination as prime minister and Putin never
made explicit public comment. The press was more realistic about the
effect it might have on the tension between the two countries, and
several editorials were strongly antiTymoshenko.

Vedomosti, the Russian business daily, called it a “slap in the face
for Moscow and, personally, for him whose name is best not spoken in
vain”. The Russian Communist Party paper, Pravda, called Yushchenko
and his supporters “a group of lying, twofaced and corrupt politicos
who have forced their way into government . . . and ordinary people
will have to pay the price for it.”

Elsewhere, Die Tageszeitung, the German newspaper said: “The
pugnacious Yulia is like a red rag to the Kremlin and the Kremlin
cannot but interpret her nomination as yet another humiliation.”

Tymoshenko, typically, had her own grandiose, provocative statements
to make. “We have passed through a long election path, ” she said.
“We have awakened the hopes of people that the government can work
and provide results . . . I want to thank the president, the
parliament and the people for honouring me with the task. People are
waiting for a new government that will be honest and will resolve all
the problems they have lived with for 14 years.”

Just a handful of Russian commentators are willing to concede that
some may be taking her revolutionary posturing for anti-Russian
sentiment. Some supporters, keen to extinguish that perception, say
her maiden name is not Grigyan, that she is not half-Armenian on her
father’s side, but that she is ethnically Russian, and her maiden
name is Telegina. Tymoshenko herself makes much of the fact she is
from Dnipropetrovsk, in the predominantly Russian-speaking east of
the country.

Despite the controversy, Tymoshenko has the same unequivocal support
among her peers that she has enjoyed for some time. The president –
who once called her his “political partner, political friend” – gave
her his personal backing and her appointment was supported by 373
votes in the 450-seat parliament, when she only needed 226 to win.

She is thought to be well liked by Anatoly Chubais, head of Russia’s
state-controlled electricity monopoly – a veteran politician who like
Tymoshenko is either demonised or idolised, and little in between.
She was regarded as an efficient anti-corruption force as a member of
Yushchenko’s government of 1999-2001, and was credited with
redirecting dollars-2bn to the state budget.

She has approached her new role with the same people-pleasing
determination. “My government will not take bribes. My government
will not steal, ” she said, as the new cabinet was voted in. She
talks of finally separating the “Siamese twins” of business and
politics, keeping a close eye on potentially corrupt privatisations,
ensuring nobody has unfair tax privileges, preparing Ukraine for EU
membership, and improving state monopolies. Her programme, Towards
the People, aims to raise living standards and build up trust in the
government.

In doing so, she has ruffled feathers among the rich and highpowered
– the very people she used to rub shoulders with. It is clear that
Tymoshenko sees no ambiguity in her career path. She declared, upon
being made prime minister: “My past and my future testify that I love
my country and want to serve its interests.”

The San Francisco Chronicle
APRIL 17, 2005, SUNDAY, FINAL EDITION

LITERARY GUIDE

[parts omitted]

TUESDAY

Reflections on Genocide: The Armenian Genocide in Poetry Diana
Der-Hovanessian, devorah major, William Archila, Lory Bedikian and
Sevana Panosian. 7:30 p.m. The Poetry Center, Humanities Bldg. 512,
San Francisco State University, S.F. (415) 387-3433.
From: Baghdasarian

When silences speak

TDN
Sunday, April 17, 2005

OPINIONS

Opinion by Elif SAFAK

ELIF SAFAK I first heard the word Armenian while eavesdropping on the
conversations of elderly Muslim women. Back when I was a child in
Istanbul, there was a small bakery my grandma would send me to for the
best yufka in the neighborhood. The place was owned by a modest
couple, a short woman who never smiled and her shorter husband who
always did. Coming home from there one day, I found a group of women
in our living room sipping their teas and praising the yufka of this
small bakery as they reached for the pastries. Then I heard one of
them ask, Are these bakers Armenians? My grandma nodded as she said:
But isn’t it obvious? They are such a hard-working couple. One by one
the women shared with each other memories of the Armenians they knew
back in their childhoods in Sivas, Erzurum, Van, Istanbul, etc.

Trying to cross the information I’d just heard with my image of the
bakers in the neighborhood, I had this vision of an insomniac couple
baking all kinds of bread every night in their little shops. The scene
seemed pretty pleasant to me, almost mystical. Eager to learn more
about these people and their ways, I interrupted the chitchat in the
room and asked, who on earth were these Armenians? Since that day, it
is not the answers that remain anchored in my memory but the silence
that followed. I remember the women being somewhat annoyed by my
question, and then, annoyed by my very presence in the room. Although
I had been sitting in front of their eyes for the past half hour, they
had only now taken notice. Suddenly, I had become an outsider.

Recalling that memory, I tend to liken it to a widespread and
deeply-rooted reaction in Turkish daily life concerning the Armenian
question. We can easily converse about the Armenians in the serenity
of our living rooms, we can recall distant memories of a past when we
used to live together with our good old Armenian neighbors, and we can
even be critical of the Turkish state provided there are no outsiders
around. We ourselves, on our own initiative can and do frequently
remember the Armenian neighbors we once had, but we do not like to be
reminded of them. That afternoon in that living room, I couldn’t help
but notice my interruption caused uneasiness and a decline in
enthusiasm among the women to keep talking in the same vein.

There was a nuance that equally remains etched in my memory. Whenever
she uttered the word Armenian, my grandmother lowered her voice
without realizing it — her voice dwindling to an almost confidential
whisper. To this day, Grandma’s intonation changes when she talks
about an Armenian, any Armenian. Clearly, she does not do it
deliberately or malevolently. When I ask her the reason why she cannot
utter this word aloud, she looks back at me in surprise. Does she
lower her voice? Sure she doesn’t.

In the passage of time, I came to realize I was not asking her the
right question. When the word is Armenian, it is not the sound of the
word itself necessarily, but the silence that conveys the uncharted
depths of oral history of elderly Muslim women in Turkey.

I conducted the same test on the women of my mother’s generation and
then the women of mine. The results were somewhat different. Younger
women in Turkey had no real difficulty in pronouncing the word
Armenian aloud, as if it was just any other word for them. They didn’t
have any reason to pause because they didn’t have any particular story
to tell. They didn’t have any particular story to tell because they
had no common experience with Armenians. Somehow, somewhere, a body of
knowledge was lost between generations of women. Thus, those who were
young and didn’t know much were the ones who would speak, but, didn’t
have anything personal to tell. Those who were old and had something
personal to tell were the ones that kept quiet, and as such, their
stories could not be heard. In either case, the Armenian question
remained unspeakable.

History does not only mean written and documented history. History is
also oral history. The elderly women in Turkey remember the things
Turkish nationalist historians cannot possibly bear to hear. In almost
every household in Turkey today, there is a woman of my grandmother’s
generation. The crucial question is: how can we ever bring that
experience out? How can we decode the silence? It is my belief that if
we are to look into the dusk of the past and shed light on the
atrocities we Turks have allegedly committed against the Armenians, we
should not only focus on the archives or written documents, but also
pay attention to the unwritten volumes of women’s oral histories.

We need to listen to the suppressed memories of the Turkish
grandmothers. For, unlike the Turkish nationalists who keep reacting
against every critical voice in civil society by systematically
propagating collective amnesia, these elderly women do remember.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
LRAPER Church Bulletin
Armenian Patriarchate
TR-34130 Kumkapý, Istanbul
Licensee: The Revd. Fr. Drtad Uzunyan
Editors: The Revd. Archpriest Krikor Damatyan,
The Revd. Deacon Vagarsag Seropyan
Press Officer: Attorney Mrs. Luiz Bakar
T: +90 (212) 517-0970
F: +90 (212) 516-4833
[email protected]
[email protected]

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

PATRIARCHATE DISAPPROVES OF FR. KALAYJIAN’S STATEMENT

ISTANBUL (Lraper Church Bulletin, 15/04/2005) – In a press communiqué
released by the press office of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul,
attorney Mrs. Luiz Bakar stated that the Chancellery of the Patriarchate has
taken note of numerous articles in the Turkish press concerning the remarks
of the Revd. Fr. Vertanes Kalayjian of Washington about the founder of the
Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

According to news widely circulated in Turkey, Fr. Kalayjian called Ataturk
`a butcher’ during the United States Helsinki Commission briefing on
Religious Freedom in Turkey, held at the Rayburn House in Washington on 12
April 2005.

The transcripts of the briefing released by the Commission state Fr.
Kalayjian as saying: `Something very drastic happened. And that was the
disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. And with that, unfortunately, the
paranoid attitude of the leaders, both sultans and the successive Ittihad
and Terakki Party and their successor, Kemal, who is now being regarded as a
hero, was another butcher, if you ask me’.

Representing the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, press spokesperson Mrs.
Bakar said, `The priest who has uttered these words is not a member of the
Armenian community in Turkey, and has no ties with either the Armenian
Patriarchate or the Armenian Church in Turkey. Regardless of who has uttered
that word, one should question his grasp of history. The military and
political genius of the founder of the Turkish Republic renders all sorts of
accusations meaningless and void. A look at the geographical situation of
Turkey within her present borders should be more than sufficient to
understand and to evaluate Ataturk. We disapprove of Fr. Kalayjian’s mode of
speech, and presume that such sorties do not help in the efforts being made
as regards the Turkish-Armenian dialogue’.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress