Interfax
March 30 2005

Karabakh settlement will require compromises – minister

YEREVAN. March 30 (Interfax) – Settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
will require painful compromises from Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Armenian Defense Minister and Security Council Secretary Serzhik
Sarkisian said on Wednesday.

“I am absolutely sure that the settlement of the Karabakh crisis will
be painful for the Armenian as well as for the Azerbaijani people,”
Sarkisian said at parliament hearings devoted to the Nagorno-Karabakh
settlement.

“A compromise presumes concessions, and nobody can make concessions
without difficulties,” he said.

If Armenia receives security guarantees for Nagorno-Karabakh, the
existing security area around Nagorno-Karabakh [seven Azerbaijani
regions under control of the Karabakh side] “will lose its meaning,”
he said.

The handing over of those territories to Azerbaijan is not yet on the
agenda, Sarkisian said. “We just have to be ready to hold
negotiations on the security area,” he said.

CPOD – Global Scan, Canada
March 30 2005

Armenians, Turks Evaluate Diplomacy Outlook

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Adults in Armenia and Turkey hold
seemingly inconsistent views on bilateral relations, according to a
poll by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation and the
Armenian Sociological Association. 88 per cent of Armenian
respondents – and 65 per cent of Turk respondents – support establishing
diplomatic ties between both nations.

Relations between Armenians and Turks are tense due to historical
factors. In 1915, the government of the Ottoman Empire – formed by
members of the Turkish nationalist Committee of Union and Progress
(ITC) – ordered hundreds of thousands of Armenians to relocate from the
Caucasus to Mesopotamia.

The state-sponsored deportation campaign led to a high number of
Armenian fatalities, estimated at anywhere from 200,000 to 1.8
million. While some scholars believe the campaign was a deliberate
attempt to exterminate Armenians, Turkey has never formally accepted
the use of the term “genocide” to describe the event.

On Mar. 9, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an
impartial investigation of Armenian claims, saying, “We do not want
future generations to live under the shadow of continued hatred and
resentment.” 63 per cent of Armenian respondents – and 51 per cent of
Turk respondents – support re-opening border crossings to link the two
countries.

Polling Data

Views on Diplomacy
(Support answers only)

Support for establishing diplomatic ties
Armenia 88%
Turkey 65%

Support for re-opening border crossings
Armenia 63%
Turkey 51%

Source: Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) /
Armenian Sociological Association (HASA)
Methodology: Interviews to 1,219 Turk adults and 1,000 Armenian
adults, conducted in 2004 and 2005. No margin of error was provided.

Journal of Turkish Daily
March 30 2005

Anti-Turkish French Groups Based Their Opposition on Turkey-Morocco
Comparison

* `Turkey’s possible membership doesn’t depend at all on the
acceptance or rejection of the treaty,’ say French churches in a bid
to prompt a `yes’ vote in a referendum for the European Constitution
* Anti-Turkish groups used the Armenian issue to prevent Turkey’s
membership. Now they use orocco to stop the Turks

ANKARA – While Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the ruling French Union for
Popular Movement (UMP), has been insisting on suggesting to Turkey `a
privileged partnership’ instead of full European Union membership,
France’s Christian churches, speaking up for the European
Constitution yesterday, urged voters not to turn a referendum on the
treaty into a plebiscite of Turkey’s entry bid or of local political
issues.
During a visit to Morocco, Sarkozy said Europe’s definition should
first of all be determined according to geographical criteria, French
daily Le Figaro yesterday reported. `If Turkey is European, why
wouldn’t Morocco be European as well?’ Anatolia quoted Sarkozy’s
remarks as reported by the daily. `When I was a student, I was taught
that Ankara is in Asia. It’s certainly not an insult to note this,’
Sarkozy said.
Turkey is located between Asia and Europe and has territories on both
continents. Turkey’s European territories are larger than the Greek
Cyprus, Luxembourg and many other EU members. Turkey’s largest city,
Istanbul is based on Europe and Asia and the population on `European
Turkey’ is bigger than many EU members.
The UMP has been making an effort to convince the French public that
by supporting the European Constitution it would also help decrease
Turkey’s chances of gaining full EU membership. Sarkozy, who is
expecting to come to power in 2007, has repeatedly voiced the
sentiment that the European Constitution actually foresees a
`privileged partnership’ for Turkey instead of full EU membership.
Yet, certain elected officials estimate that anxiety on the right
wing will reinforce a `no’ vote in the referendum slated for May 29.
In a bid to convince French public on a `yes’ vote, Roman Catholic,
Protestant and Orthodox leaders yesterday said in a joint letter that
the purpose of the referendum is `to decide on the treaty itself,
without being distracted by purely national issues or side debates.’
`Turkey’s possible membership doesn’t depend at all on the acceptance
or rejection of the treaty,’ the French churches’ letter said.
The latest opinion poll on the French referendum, published in
yesterday’s edition of Le Figaro, said 54 percent of voters opposed
the treaty.

The French groups who oppose Turkey’s membership cannot publicly base
their opposition on anti-Turkish or anti-Muslim `principles’.
Therefore they use Armenian issue or Morocco to prevent Turkey’s
membership.

For many French politicians Turkey cannot be a EU member, because of
Turkey’s religion. The rightist and racist groups in many EU
countries are against Turkey’s membership and they see no place for
the Muslims in `European civilisation’. Many European countries are
Muslim populated, but none of them EU member, including Turkey,
Albania, Bosnia, Turkish Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

Compiled and prepared by the JTW staff. Includes some info from
Turkish daily News and news agencies.

30 March 2005

frieze, UK
March 30 2005

Review: Akram Zaatari

Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany

The first thing encountered was a reading table covered with
publications and rows of postcards showing vintage photographs of
Arab citizens. This was not a cash-strapped institution’s hard sell
of exhibition-
related items, but a way of introducing the realm in which Akram
Zaatari works; all the items relate to his ongoing efforts for the
Arab Image Foundation, which he co-founded, dedicated to the
preservation of documents from the Middle East and North Africa.
Zaatari is from Lebanon, a country whose history is marred by both
physical annihilation and memory-related erosion, and his artistic
practice is bound to a concept of salvaging the past, of preserving
documents and collecting stories that contrast with the official
state version of history. `Diversity’, he once stated in an
interview, `is the most important factor in resisting collective
misrepresentations […]. Focusing on individuality thus becomes a
political mission.’
Zaatari’s work is indeed political, but not heavy-handed, didactic or
polemical. He creates films that are charming, delicate and intimate,
revealing aspects of his own life and of other people’s, illustrating
how broad governmental decisions affect specific personal lives.
Often there is an element of investigation or pursuit, starting with
a premise or a clue, which Zaatari follows to its end, fleshing out a
story, recording his alternative history.
How I Love You (2001) opens with a typed chat-room conversation,
where the artist tries to find gay men – criminals under Lebanese law
– willing to talk on camera about the passions they cannot otherwise
express freely. Zaatari veils their identities not with a clichéd
dark silhouette but with lighting so bright that their features are
bleached out. In Her + Him, Van Leo (2001) a journey is instigated by
a photograph of the narrator’s grandmother, posing naked in a
professional studio. The printed signature `Van Leo’ leads Zaatari to
Cairo, where the Armenian-Egyptian photographer settled in 1924 and
opened a portrait studio in 1947. The piece weaves the moving colour
portrait of this ageing artist together with his monochrome
portraits. This contrast of images and of classic and modern
techniques – split screen, electronic colouring, the layering of
Arabic script over the picture – articulates an unspoken commentary
on the fundamental changes over the last 50 years in both artistic
practice and Egypt’s socio-political reality.
The effects of war were addressed in a darkened room, in a display
case of the artist’s diaries from 1982 (the year of the Israeli
invasion), in which Zaatari noted military movements alongside the
weather and films he had seen. A photo album of snapshots that the
16-year-old shot from his balcony, show massive explosions from
repeated air strikes. Six of these photographs were filmed in
sequence and, together with a recording of F-16s screaming overhead,
the 76-second video This Day June 06, 1982 (2003) gives a short but
startling portrait of a teenager’s daily reality.
In This House (2004) does more than metaphorically dig; here the
artist actually burrows into the garden of a private home. Zaatari
discovered that Ali Hashisha, a well-known photojournalist, had
formerly been a freedom fighter with the Democratic Popular Party
and, as the leader of a militia group, had used the house as a
hideout for six years. As Ali explains on camera, in 1992, when the
militias were disbanded, he wrote a letter to the displaced owners of
the house, explaining the group’s mission and expressing gratitude
for the `loan’, then hid it in the garden encased in a mortar shell.
The film literally unearths this part of both his past and Lebanese
history: images of Ali’s press credentials, newspapers with his
photojournalist war images, personal photographic souvenirs from the
front and pictures from his childhood flash past on one side of the
screen, while on the other side a video shows the progress of the
hunt for the letter. While the digging continues, Ali describes how
the white of the building had signified hope, how he tried to
maintain the land despite the constant search for wood, disallowing
the felling of a 25-year-old olive tree because `what kind of human
gesture would that be?’
As the show’s title, `Unfolding’, suggested, history is always in the
process of being rewritten and, as the letter is finally unearthed,
unfolded and read, the mass of people who had joined the search –
workers, a policeman, the house owner, his wife, and a military
representative (in case the mortar was live) – all come away with a
new view of what had once come to pass. Amanda Coulson

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Zaman, Turkey
March 30 2005

Swiss FM to Turkey: Confront Your Past
By Suleyman Kurt
Published: Wednesday 30, 2005
zaman.com

In response to Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey’s comments
that Turkey should confront its past over the so-called Armenian
genocide, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has said that,
“Turkey is sure of its past.”

Gul disclosed on Tuesday that the invitation to examine the Ottoman
archives is also open to France and Switzerland. Minister Gul asked
Rey not to allow the Armenian Diaspora to ruin the relations between
the two countries in a meeting in Ankara. The National Assembly of
the Swiss parliament had decided to recognize the Armenian genocide
two years ago, and following this, Rey’s visit to Ankara had been
postponed. The Swiss Minister is also reported to have excluded the
Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) from a list of terrorist organizations.

Meanwhile, 90 members of the US Congress have called on US President
George W. Bush to recognize the allegations of Armenian genocide on
April 24th, which is considered by Armenians as the anniversary of
the alleged genocide.

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
March 30 2005

AUSTRIAN-AZERBAIJAN ACADEMIC ASSOCIATION ADDRESSES TO UNESCO
[March 30, 2005, 17:51:27]

Members of Austria-Azerbaijan Academic Association functioning in
Vienna on behalf of the Azerbaijan communities in this country have
adopted an Address to UNESCO in connection with attempt of the
Armenians to carry out in the Azerbaijani city Shusha “archeological
excavations”.

In the document, it is marked that it is senselessly to search for
“the Armenian trace’ around Shusha. It is also underlined the fact
that Shusha and also all territory of Karabakh historically belongs
to Azerbaijanis, has found reflection in works of the European and
Russian researchers. The carried out researches of a jaw of
azihkantrop (Azikh human) also have confirmed that Azerbaijanis are
natives of this territory. Statements of the Armenians that in
territory the monuments concerning by the period of the neolith while
in all researches the fact of presence of monuments in territory of
Karabakh proves to be true will be found, concerning to Last Bronze
Period, – are ridiculous and rather far from a reality. This is
simply next fabrication of the Armenians, trying to prove that they
ostensibly are `the native population’ of Nagorno Karabakh.

Being based on historic facts, the Association calls on the
international organizations, including UNESCO, to protest against
attempt of the Armenian “researchers” to forge history. Similar
researches completely contradict positions of the Hague Convention of
UNESCO `On protection of cultural values during confrontations’.

The Messenger, Georgia
March 30 2005

Georgian bank takes first commercial loan
Loan, backed by Germany’s KfW, to support lending to small and medium
sized entrepreneurs
By Christina Tashkevich

Lasha Papashvili, Birte Moerke and
Grigol Katsia
Bank Republic announced on Tuesday that it had concluded an agreement
on a five year, USD 4 million credit line with the international
commercial bank Commerzbank International S.A. on March 15.

Chairman of the bank’s Board of Directors Grigol Katsia said the deal
“is unprecedented in the Caucasus region – when a private foreign
commercial bank agrees to lend to a Georgian bank.” So far the
Georgian banking sector has been able to borrow money only from
international donors and development institutions.

The deal was concluded within the framework of a Credit Guarantee
Fund established by the German development bank KfW in Georgia. The
Fund allows Georgian bank to borrow on international capital markets,
with the Credit Fund acting as guarantor of 90 percent of the loan.

“This deal gives local banks the possibility to cooperate with
leading international banks,” Katsia said on Tuesday, adding that the
agreement would help Bank Republic to develop and strengthen
positions in international markets.

Manager of the Credit Guarantee Fund Birte Mörke told journalists
that this agreement would give Bank Republic access to the
international capital market.

“Bank Republic will in turn use this loan to offer loans to small and
medium enterprises in Georgia,” she told The Messenger, while
Chairman of the Bank Republic Supervisory Board Lasha Papashvili
added that the agreement could lead to the creation of jobs in
Georgia.

“It can create new working places which the country needs right now,
not only in small and medium businesses but in the bank itself,”
Papashvili explained, adding that as a result of the new loan the
bank will be able to announce several new products, which will in
turn call for a staff increase.

“What is important is that these loans allotted to financing small
and medium businesses will form a middle class in the country,”
President of the Banks’ Association Zurab Gvasalia said to The
Messenger, adding that the formation of a middle class will serve as
a guarantee of stability in the country.

In the shorter term, Gvasalia says this agreement will increase the
prestige of the Georgian banking sector. “When a leading bank forms
such relations with a Georgian commercial bank this points to good
prospects [for the banking sector],” he said.

Frankfurt-based Commerzbank is one of the world’s 20 largest banks
and is one of the leaders in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The Credit Guarantee Fund has also partnered with Bank of Georgia as
well as with three banks in Armenia. The same type of project is soon
to be launched in Azerbaijan.

Among the Bank Republic’s another cooperation partners is the
International Finance Corporation (IFC). In 2004 the bank became a
pilot company to take part in the IFC’s Corporate Governance
enhancement project.

The bank also cooperates with the Savings Banks Foundation for
International Cooperation (SBFIC)

Turkish Press
March 30 2005

Hurriyet
GUL: `THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS INVENTED BY THE DIASPORA’

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul yesterday met with his visiting Swiss
counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey. After their talks, Gul told a joint
press conference, Gul said that the two countries enjoyed good
relations and that that visit would help to boost these ties.
Stressing that they had comprehensively discussed the Armenian
genocide allegations, Gul called the allegations groundless
accusations put forward by the Armenian diaspora to justify its
ongoing existence. `We are confident in ourselves, and so have opened
all archives to everybody for examination,’ added Gul. In the
evening, he hosted a dinner for Calmy-Rey and his accompanying
delegation. /Hurriyet/

Azerbaijan, Turkey agree to protect key oil pipelines

.c The Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Azerbaijan and Turkey agreed Tuesday to
cooperate in protecting strategic oil and gas pipelines, including the
major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline that is set to begin operating
this year.

A statement by Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry gave few specifics,
quoting only the commander of Turkey’s naval forces, Adm. Ozden Ornek,
and Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Safar Abiyev, as saying cooperation
was essential.

“We must work hand in hand in order to safeguard this pipeline, a
pipeline of brotherhood and friendship,” the statement said.

The US$3.6-billion (euro2.7-billion) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline will
pump Caspian Sea crude from Baku 1,760 kilometers (1,100 miles) to the
Turkish Mediterranean port for delivery to Western markets.

Abiyev also said in the statement that he hoped that Turkey would
remain on Azerbaijan’s side in its long-standing conflict with Armenia
over Nagorno-Karabakh. The disputed enclave has been under ethnic
Armenian control since a war ended in 1994 without a political
settlement.

Abiyev called on Turkish officials to keep borders with Armenia
closed. Ornek vowed that Turkey would not open its borders to
Armenia, the statement said.

Armenia and Turkey are longtime foes. Armenians accuse Turks of
killing up to 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923.

Turkey claims the number of deaths is inflated and says the victims
were killed in civil unrest. The two countries have no diplomatic
relations.

03/29/05 11:29 EST

Swiss minister says Turkey’s EU bid to help stability of Europe

.c The Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – The Swiss foreign minister said Tuesday her
country welcomed a European Union decision to start membership talks
with Turkey, saying the negotiations would help bring stability to the
European continent.

Micheline Calmy-Rey also urged Ankara to implement human rights
reforms, enacted as part of efforts to join the regional bloc.

The membership talks, due to start Oct. 3, “will contribute to the
stabilization of the region and of the European continent,” said
Calmy-Rey, who is on a three-day visit to Turkey.

“It is essential that the political will is translated into an
effective implementation of reforms on the ground. Switzerland
attaches particular importance to (the elimination) of torture and to
the question of women’s rights,” she said during a joint news
conference with Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul.

Her visit initially had been scheduled for October 2003, but Turkey
withdrew its invitation after the parliament of a western Swiss canton
(state) recognized the 1915-1918 killings of Armenians in Turkey as
genocide.

Armenians say some 1.5 million of their people were killed as the
Ottoman Empire forced them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923 –
and that this was a deliberate campaign of genocide by Turkey’s rulers
at that time.

Turks say the death count is inflated, and insist that Armenians were
killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to secure its border
with Russia and stop attacks by Armenian militants.

Gul said Tuesday that countries such as Switzerland should not allow
“the Armenian accusations” to strain relations with Turkey.

“These accusations are unacceptable, they sometimes strain
relationships and poison the air … The countries should not allow
this,” he said.

Calmy-Rey said the issue was “a difficult topic in Turkish history.
Switzerland believes that it is up to each country to delve into its
history and to reconcile itself with its history.”

The killings were recognized as genocide by a U.N. human rights panel
and several national governments – including France, Argentina and
Russia – as well as a number of U.S. state governments.

Calmy-Rey is scheduled Wednesday to visit Diyarbakir, the main city in
Turkey’s prominently Kurdish southeast, and Istanbul on Thursday.

03/29/05 13:49 EST

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress