Turks seek a fresh look at past
By Nicholas Birch

Washington Times, DC
March 26 2005

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

ISTANBUL — A hidden Armenian minority, after living in the shadows
for decades, is coming forward to tell stories of a 1915 massacre in
books and newspapers, and prompting Turkey to re-examine its past.
A group of senior politicians from Turkey’s governing and main
opposition parties last week called for the events of 90 years ago to
be “researched under United Nations arbitration.”
“If there is a need to settle accounts with history, we are
ready,” they said.

Next month, Armenians all over the world will mark the 90th
anniversary of the massacres — an event that successive governments
in Turkey have denied took place.
Fethiye Cetin was a student when she discovered her grandmother
Seher’s secret.
Seher, a pillar of a typical Turkish family, had been born an
Armenian named Heranush, and was 9 years old when the massacres
started in 1915.
She cowered in the churchyard as men from her village were slain
and thrown into the river.
Forced with other women and children onto the road to Syria, she
was abducted and handed over to a police corporal. He raised her as
his own child.
Such tales are common in Turkey’s eastern provinces. Locals
called people like the grandmother “those the sword left behind.”
What makes her story unusual is that the granddaughter made it
into a book.
“She had hidden the things she told me for over 60 years,” said
Miss Cetin, a lawyer who works from a small office in Istanbul. “I
felt they needed to be given a voice.”
But she also wanted to help move the debate away from barren
disputes over terminology and statistics: 300,000 killed? 800,000
killed? 1 million killed? Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? An unfortunate
side effect of civil war?
Such arguments, she said, “hide the lives and deaths of
individuals and do nothing to encourage people to listen.”
Turks certainly have been listening to her. Published in
November, “My Grandmother” is already into its fifth edition.
Miss Cetin has lost count of the number of phone calls and
letters she has received, of support, or from people with similar
stories to tell.
“When books like this come out, even people with very different
family histories begin to realize they aren’t the only ones to
question what they have been taught,” she said.
Miss Cetin first published a summary of her grandmother’s history
in an Istanbul-based Armenian newspaper in 2000. The article was
ignored. “I could not have published my book back then,” she said.
In January, an Istanbul gallery hit the headlines with an
exhibition of 500 postcards showing Turkish Armenians between 1900
and 1914.
“The history taught in schools is told as if only Turks had ever
lived in Anatolia, no one else,” curator Osman Koker told reporters.
“That is deeply unhealthy.”

The Spectator, UK
March 26 2005

Cover Story
Church of martyrs

by Anthony Browne

For most citizens of Iraq, the invasion meant the end of tyranny. For
one group, however, it meant a new start: the country’s historic
Christian community. When the war stopped, persecution by Islamists,
held in check by Saddam, started.

At a church in Basra I visited a month after the war ended, the women
complained of attacks against them for not wearing the Islamic veil.
I saw many Christian-owned shops that had been firebombed, with many
of the owners killed for exercising their legal right to sell
alcohol. Two years and many church attacks later, Iraq may still be
occupied by Christian foreign powers, but the Islamist plan to
ethnically cleanse Iraq of its nearly 2,000-year-old Assyrian and
Armenian Christian communities is reaching fruition.

There is nothing unusual about the persecution of Iraqi Christians,
or the unwillingness of other Christians to help them. Rising
nationalism and fundamentalism around the world have meant that
Christianity is going back to its roots as the religion of the
persecuted. There are now more than 300 million Christians who are
either threatened with violence or legally discriminated against
simply because of their faith – more than any other religion.
Christians are no longer, as far as I am aware, thrown to the lions.
But from China, North Korea and Malaysia, through India, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, they are subjected to
legalised discrimination, violence, imprisonment, relocation and
forced conversion. Even in supposedly Christian Europe, Christianity
has become the most mocked religion, its followers treated with
public suspicion and derision and sometimes – such as the would-be EU
commissioner Rocco Buttiglione – hounded out of political office.

I am no Christian, but rather a godless atheist whose soul doesn’t
want to be saved, thank you. I may not believe in the man with the
white beard, but I do believe that all persecution is wrong. The
trouble is that the trendies who normally champion human rights seem
to think persecution is fine, so long as it’s only against
Christians. While Muslims openly help other Muslims, Christians
helping Christians has become as taboo as jingoistic nationalism.

On the face of it, the idea of Christians facing serious persecution
seems as far-fetched as a carpenter saving humanity. Christianity is
the world’s most followed religion, with two billion believers, and
by far its most powerful. It is the most popular faith in six of the
seven continents, and in both of the world’s two biggest economies,
the US and Europe. Seven of the G8 richest industrial nations are
majority Christian, as are four out of five permanent members of the
UN Security Council. The cheek-turners control the vast majority of
the world’s weapons of mass destruction.

When I bumped into George Bush in the breakfast room of the US
embassy in Brussels last month, standing right behind me were two men
in uniform carrying the little black ‘nuclear football’, containing
the codes to enable the world’s most powerful Christian to unleash
the world’s most powerful nuclear arsenal. Christians claiming
persecution seem as credible as Bill Gates pleading poverty. But just
as Christian-majority armies control Iraq as it ethnically cleanses
itself of its Christian community, so the power of Christian
countries is of little help to the Christian persecuted where most
Christians now live: the Third World.

Across the Islamic world, Christians are systematically discriminated
against and persecuted. Saudi Arabia – the global fountain of
religious bigotry – bans churches, public Christian worship, the
Bible and the sale of Christmas cards, and stops non-Muslims from
entering Mecca. Christians are regularly imprisoned and tortured on
trumped-up charges of drinking, blaspheming or Bible-bashing, as some
British citizens have found. Just last month, furthermore, Saudi
Arabia announced that only Muslims can become citizens.

The Copts of Egypt make up half the Christians in the Middle East,
the cradle of Christianity. They inhabited the land before the
Islamic conquest, and still make up a fifth of the population. By law
they are banned from being president of the Islamic Republic of Egypt
or attending Al Azhar University, and severely restricted from
joining the police and army. By practice they are banned from holding
any high political or commercial position. Under the 19th-century
Hamayouni decrees, Copts must get permission from the president to
build or repair churches – but he usually refuses. Mosques face no
such controls.

Government-controlled TV broadcasts anti-Copt propaganda, while
giving no airtime to Copts. It is illegal for Muslims to convert to
Christianity, but legal for Christians to convert to Islam. Christian
girls – and even the wives of Christian priests – are abducted and
forcibly converted to Islam, recently prompting mass demonstrations.
A report by Freedom House in Washington concludes: ‘The cumulative
effect of these threats creates an atmosphere of persecution and
raises fears that during the 21st century the Copts may have a vastly
diminished presence in their homelands.’

Fr Drew Christiansen, an adviser to the US Conference of Bishops,
recently conducted a study which stated that ‘all over the Middle
East, Christians are under pressure. “The cradle of Christianity” is
under enormous pressure from demographic decline, the growth of
Islamic militancy, official and unofficial discrimination, the Iraq
war, the Palestinian Intifada, failed peace policies and political
manipulation.’

In the world’s most economically successful Muslim nation, Malaysia,
the world’s only deliberate affirmative action programme for a
majority population ensures that Muslims are given better access to
jobs, housing and education. In the world’s most populous Muslim
nation, Indonesia, some 10,000 Christians have been killed in the
last few years by Muslims trying to Islamify the Moluccas.

In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, most of the five million
Christians live as an underclass, doing work such as toilet-cleaning.
Under the Hudood ordinances, a Muslim can testify against a
non-Muslim in court, but a non-Muslim cannot testify against a
Muslim. Blasphemy laws are abused to persecute Christians. In the
last few years, dozens of Christians have been killed in bomb and gun
attacks on churches and Christian schools.

In Nigeria, 12 states have introduced Sharia law, which affects
Christians as much as Muslims. Christian girls are forced to wear the
Islamic veil at school, and Christians are banned from drinking
alcohol. Thousands of Christians have been killed in the last few
years in the ensuing violence.

Although persecution of Christians is greatest in Muslim countries,
it happens in countries of all religions and none. In
Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, religious tension led to 44 churches
being attacked in the first four months of 2004, with 140 churches
being forced to close because of intimidation. In India, the rise of
Hindu nationalism has lead to persecution not just of Muslims but of
Christians. There have been hundreds of attacks against the Christian
community, which has been in India since ad 100. The government’s
affirmative action programme for untouchables guarantees jobs and
loans for poor Hindus and Buddhists, but not for Christians.

Last year in China, which has about 70 million Christians, more than
100 ‘house churches’ were closed down, and dozens of priests
imprisoned. If you join the Communist party, you get special
privileges, but you can only join if you are atheist. In North Korea,
Christians are persecuted as anti-communist elements, and dissidents
claim they are not just imprisoned but used in chemical warfare
experiments.

Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Barnabas Trust, which helps
persecuted Christians, blames rising global religious tension. ‘More
and more Christians are seen as the odd ones out – they are seen as
transplants from the West, and not really trusted. It is getting very
much worse.’

Even in what was, before multiculturalism, known as Christendom,
Christians are persecuted. I have spoken to dozens of former Muslims
who have converted to Christianity in Britain, and who are shunned by
their community, subjected to mob violence, forced out of town,
threatened with death and even kidnapped. The Barnabas Trust knows of
3,000 such Christians facing persecution in this country, but the
police and government do nothing.

You get the gist. Dr Paul Marshall, senior fellow at the Centre for
Religious Freedom in Washington, estimates that there are 200 million
Christians who face violence because of their faith, and 350 million
who face legally sanctioned discrimination in terms of access to jobs
and housing. The World Evangelical Alliance wrote in a report to the
UN Human Rights Commission last year that Christians are ‘the largest
single group in the world which is being denied human rights on the
basis of their faith’.

Part of the problem is old-style racism against non-whites; part of
it is new-style guilt. If all this were happening to the world’s
Sikhs or Muslims simply because of their faith, you can be sure it
would lead the 10 O’Clock News and the front page of the Guardian on
a regular basis. But the BBC, despite being mainly funded by
Christians, is an organisation that promotes ridicule of the Bible,
while banning criticism of the Koran. Dr Marshall said: ‘Christians
are seen as Europeans and Americans, which means you get a lack of
sympathy which you would not get if they were Tibetan Buddhists.’

Christians themselves are partly to blame for all this. Some get a
masochistic kick out of being persecuted, believing it brings them
closer to Jesus, crucified for His beliefs. Christianity uniquely
defines itself by its persecution, and its forgiveness of its
persecutors: the Christian symbol is the method of execution of its
founder. Christianity was a persecuted religion for its first three
centuries, until Emperor Constantine decided that worshipping Jesus
was better for winning battles than worshipping the sun. In contrast,
Mohammed was a soldier and ruler who led his people into victorious
battle against their enemies. In the hundred years after the death of
Mohammed, Islam conquered and converted most of North Africa and the
Middle East in the most remarkable religious expansion in history.

To this day, while Muslims stick up for their co-religionists,
Christians – beyond a few charities – have given up such forms of
discrimination. Dr Sookhdeo said: ‘The Muslims have an Ummah [the
worldwide Muslim community] whereas Christians do not have
Christendom. There is no Christian country that says, “We are
Christian and we will help Christians.”‘

As a liberal democrat atheist, I believe all persecuted people should
be helped equally, irrespective of their religion. But the
guilt-ridden West is ignoring people because of their religion. If
non-Christians like me can sense the nonsense, how does it make
Christians feel? And how are they going to react? The Christophobes
worried about rising Christian fundamentalism in Britain should
understand that it is a reaction to our double standards. And as long
as our double standards exist, Christian fundamentalism will grow.

Anthony Browne is Europe correspondent of the Times.

Turkish Press

Europe Expects Turks To Confess Armenian Genocide First To Join EU: McCarthy

Published: 3/24/2005

ANKARA – American Historian

Prof. Dr. Justin McCarthy of the Louisville University said on Thursday
that Europe expected Turks to confess Armenian genocide first to join
the European Union (EU).

“Can it be appropriate to join an institution which demands acceptance
of a lie as an entrance fee? Can you enter an organization which
tells you that you can join it only if you accept that your father
is a murderer? Will Turkey enter the EU by telling a lie about its
history?… Such a confession will make everything worse,” said
McCarthy addressing the meeting on “Truth about Armenian Issue”
held at the Turkish parliament.

During his speech, the American historian explained that the Armenian
genocide claims didn’t have historical ground. McCarthy said that
Ottomans and Armenians lived as friends for years, stressing that
this friendship which continued for 800 years was harmed when Russians
incited Armenians to revolt against the Ottomans.

McCarthy pointed out to the fact that the decision of deportation
was taken seven months after the Armenian revolt, stressing that
“that was a war, not a genocide.” He also stressed that Ottomans were
right to see Armenians as an enemy in that period of time.

Noting that the documents of the so-called genocide allegations
put forward by the Armenian sources were either ‘false or biased,’
McCarthy said that the Ottoman documents on the issue had sound basis
and that the Ottomans didn’t fabricate false documents.

McCarthy remarked that Turks should oppose the lies told about
their ancestors, adding that it was a difficult fight because there
was prejudice against Turks. “But the truth is on your side,” he
said. McCarthy suggested that the academic studies written on the
issue by Turks should be translated into English, noting that he knew
that Turks were not afraid of the realities.

Referring to the schemes of the Armenian nationalists, McCarthy said
that they wanted Turks to “confess (committing the genocide) first,
but then they will ask for compensation and finally they will demand
territory.” McCarthy remarked that Armenian nationalists wanted
to get lands (provinces) of Erzurum, Van, Elazýg, Sivas, Bitlis
and Trabzon and added that he knew that Turks would not give in to
that pressure. He said that EU should see the fact that Armenian
nationalists didn’t want the wellbeing of Europe. “Europeans use
genocide claims for their short-term interests,” he said.

Responding to questions after his speech, McCarthy said that the
deportation of Armenians didn’t mean genocide. “You can’t talk about
genocide when 80 percent of the people survive. The number of those
who died because of starvation is much more than the one who died
being shot… Also the Armenians living in Istanbul, Izmir and Edirne
were not deported. In Germany where a genocide was committed, Jews
living in Berlin and in other parts, all died…Ottomans were very
smart, if they wanted to kill Armenians, 80 percent of the Armenians
would not survive…Nobody talks about that, but Russians are more
responsible for the killing of Armenians as they maltreated them.”
In sum McCarthy said that all the deaths were a result of the war.

Reminding of the Turks who died because of hunger due to Russian
occupation and Armenian revolt, McCarthy said that bloody massacres
were committed by the Armenians and this was an indisputable fact
and a proven history.

McCarthy ended his words saying that the ‘Blue Book’ included a
series of lies and in that respect it was a book based on fabricated
documents.

–Boundary_(ID_JDKndTuY3/7JRHtt0zxZ0A)–

AZG Armenian Daily #052, 25/03/2005

Nature

LANDSLIDE IN VOGHJABERD HINDERS TRAFFIC

Quite a big part of Garni-Geghard road became totally impassable
because of the Voghjaberd landslide.

In fact, Voghjaberd landslide has reached the critical point, i.e. 900
meters of the road are ruined. Today, the road is controlled everyday.

For many years, the road wasn’t capitally renovated, as the community
and the government didn’t chose the most effective method of
annihilating the landslide and the problem grew bigger with time.

Today they do the same, they fill the ruined parts but it doesn’t
help and the landslide grows bigger. “When we fill the hole with a
bit heavier materials, the next day a new one opens. It seems that
we will have to build an overpass stretching for 1 km to secure the
work of the traffic. We need serious investments,” Andranik Manukian,
RA transport and communication minister, said.

“We shouldn’t have left that in this condition for so long. The
landslide is too big. They say that we can build a subway there,
but it can’t be built in the landslide,” Ruben Yadoyan, head of
Hydrogeology laboratory at RA National Academy of Sciences, specialist
of landslide, said.

The specialists studied the road 15 years ago. Today, many things
changed. The specialists first of all suggest creating a relevant
group for the research and study the whole territory.

It’s known that the Japanese are carrying out anti-landslide programs
in Armenia for a year already. They study the landslide areas of
Armenia with the local specialists.

By Karine Danielian

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Russia, Armenia enjoy great potential in cooperation: Putin

People’s Daily Online, China
March 26 2005

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is visiting Armenia, on Friday
urged both sides to seek new models of cooperation, stressing the huge
potential in developing ties between the two countries, especially
in investment.

“Russia and Armenia are equally interested in deeper multidimensional
ties and see our future in close integration,” Putin said at the
opening ceremony of the Russia Year in Armenia, the Interfax news
agency reported.

“We have to seek effective models of cooperation, open up new
opportunities for the free movement of capital, goods and services,”
Putin said.

Armenia is a “promising partner for Russian businesses in jointenergy,
infrastructure, transport and other projects,” he said.

Putin singled out investment as an important aspect of Russia-Armenia
cooperation.

As Armenia’s main investor and trading partner, Russia played an
important role, with its investment, in Armenia’s efforts to boost
key sectors of its economy, he said.

“It (investment) is growing and there lie considerable prospects,”
Putin told a press conference after talks with his Armenian counterpart
Robert Kocharyan.

Putin noted the stable political situation and economic growth in
Armenia is a prerequisite for expanding cooperation.

The Russian president arrived in Armenia Thursday for a two-dayvisit,
during which he held talks with Kocharyan and attended the opening
ceremony of the Year of Russia in Armenia.

Financial Times, UK
March 26 2005

Furious Turks wave the flag demonstrators tried to burn
By Vincent Boland
Published: March 26 2005 02:00 | Last updated: March 26 2005 02:00

If you want to bring the wrath of Turkey down on you, burn its flag.
Three children aged 12, 14 and 15 discovered this to their cost after
they were caught apparently trying to set the Turkish flag alight – a
criminal offence – at a demonstration last weekend, provoking a wave
of nationalist outrage across the country.

In scenes reminiscent of the US after the attacks of September 11
2001, the Turkish flag has been flown in the past few days from
apartment windows in towns and cities, on municipal buildings and
public transport, and displayed constantly on television screens,
after calls from the government and the armed forces for the public
to show “solidarity” with the defiled national emblem, depicting a
white crescent and star on a red background.

Commentators said the reaction to the incident reflected the brittle
state of Turkish self-confidence. Even though the country will begin
talks with the European Union in October, Turks seem already to be
disillusioned with the accession process. They know it will require
concessions of sovereignty, including recognition of the Greek
domination of Cyprus and, perhaps, on Armenian claims of genocide in
1915, and endless lectures by EU leaders on Turkey’s imperfections.

The attempted flag-burning happened at a pro-Kurdish rally last
Sunday in Mersin, a port city on the Mediterranean, marking the
Nevroz spring festival. It led yesterday to a call by the state
security apparatus for the courts to consider bringing charges
against the Kurdish political party that organised the demonstration,
despite the insistence of Kurdish leaders that flag-burning was as
much an insult to Kurds as to Turks.

A policeman who intervened to rescue the flag from the children was
praised as a hero and was reportedly awarded a bonus equivalent to 24
times his monthly salary. The three children have been arrested and
their fate is in the hands of a judge. Up to 30 other people have
also been detained after separate demonstrations last weekend, police
said yesterday.

The furious and almost unanimous outburst of patriotism followed a
statement on the incident from the military, Turkey’s most respected
institution and guardian of its independence and nationhood. The
general staff said the burning of the flag by “so-called citizens”
was tantamount to treason and added: “The Turkish armed forces, like
their forefathers, are ready to shed their last drop of blood to
protect the country and its flag.”

That prompted political leaders to join the condemnation. Ahmed
Necdet Sezer, the president, said he “cursed” the perpetrators.
Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, called them “miserable”. Press
reports speculated that the children were incited to burn the flag by
militant demonstrators, and there was talk of conspiracies. “Somebody
has pushed the button for a plot against Turkey,” ran a headline in
the daily Aksam newspaper.

Almost drowned out in the din of nationalism was a call for
moderation by the Turkish Human Rights Association and a plea by
Kurdish leaders for the incident not to be exaggerated.

Nevroz is a celebration of the arrival of spring. In the past it has
sometimes become a focus for expressions of Kurdish nationalism.
Turkey is home to the world’s largest Kurdish minority, and its armed
forces and Kurdish separatists fought a vicious war in the 1980s and
1990s that killed 35,000 people.

Gunduz Aktan, a former diplomat, said Turks were upset by what they
saw as disrespect for Turkey at the Mersin demonstration, and
responded by embracing the flag. “There is a malaise in Turkish
public opinion just now,” he said. “You could say that Turkey is
vulnerable, and everybody wants to protect their country from a
difficult situation.”

The Herald – Everett, Wash. –

Published: Friday, March 25, 2005

Documentary recounts Kasparov-IBM matches

By Robert Horton
Herald Movie Critic

The chess world has always been full of paranoiacs and palace
intrigue, so it should come as no surprise that a new documentary,
“Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine,” would have the trappings of a
thriller: dramatic music, moody lighting, and hints of conspiracies.

Still, it surprised me. This account of the 1996 and 1997 matches
between world chess champion Garry Kasparov and the IBM computer
“Deep Blue” serves up new information for the layperson.

Kasparov won the first match, in ’96. (He got a memorable Pepsi
commercial out of it.) But a year later, in New York, he was beaten
in a six-game series by a new, improved Deep Blue, a devastating loss
that still haunts the once-invincible, now-shaky player.

Although Kasparov won the first game of the ’97 series, he got
pole-axed in the second game, as Deep Blue suddenly began making
intuitive, uncomputer-like moves. Immediately, Kasparov was
suspicious – in the footage of the press conference after the game,
he all but accuses the IBM team of cheating. He never won another
game against the machine.

In new footage of Kasparov wandering around the hotel where the games
were played, he unrolls his theory that Deep Blue may have been aided
by a human element. IBM didn’t allow any access to the rooms that
housed the machine, and denied inspection of the inner workings
behind each chess move.

Filmmaker Vikram Jayanti seems on Kasparov’s side. He weaves in
footage from a 1927 silent film about a famous 19th-century
contraption that purported to be a chess-playing machine (it beat
Napoleon once), although the machine was actually a trick that relied
on human influence.

Jayanti also points out that IBM had millions, if not billions, to
gain in public relations, as the company had been lagging in the tech
world. Its stock went up 15 percent the day after Deep Blue won.

Oh, and IBM refused a rematch, quickly dismantling the machine. It
sits in a warehouse now, its circuits dreaming of a crack at Bobby
Fischer.

Although it may be in his camp, “Game Over” does a nice job of
capturing Kasparov’s eccentricities. Considered by many to be the
greatest chess player ever, Kasparov first came to fame as the
underdog – young, half-Armenian, half-Jewish – against the poster boy
of Soviet chess, Anatoly Karpov. It was almost impossible not to root
for Kasparov in the 1980s.

When he’s talking about the Deep Blue loss, Kasparov begins talking
about telescopes looking into his hotel room, and he compares IBM
with Enron, implying that crooked corporations will stop at nothing
to win.

He comes off a little cracked, but he’s a champion chess player. He’s
supposed to be goofy. All things said and done, though, at least
Kasparov still has a wicked sense of humor and a passion for the
game, which is more than you can say for a machine.

“Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine” HHH

Thriller: A chess documentary that plays like a conspiracy thriller,
about the 1997 match between champ Garry Kasparov at the IBM computer
Deep Blue, and Kasparov’s suspicious theories about the outcome.

Rated: PG rating is for language.

Now showing: Varsity.

“Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine” HHH

Thriller: A chess documentary that plays like a conspiracy thriller,
about the 1997 match between champ Garry Kasparov at the IBM computer
Deep Blue, and Kasparov’s suspicious theories about the outcome.

Rated: PG rating is for language.

Now showing: Varsity.
The Daily Herald Co.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Russia, Armenia to promote development of humanitarian coop-Putin

ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 25, 2005 Friday

YEREVAN, March 25 — Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that
the Russian and Armenian leaderships intend to make all efforts to
develop bilateral humanitarian cooperation.

“We are looking for ways to overcome these problems,” Putin said
in reply to a query why contacts between young generations of the
countries in the humanitarian sphere became less intensive than
between elder generations. “The more persistently we will do it,
the more effectively we will resolve it,” the president believes.

In his view, some decline in relations “is caused by limited contacts
between people” as compared with the Soviet Union. “This is not of
political character, but the economic aspect is rather more important,
and this is caused by the fact that this is more difficult for people
to move than in the Soviet times,” Putin pointed out.

For his part, Robert Kocharyan supported his Russian counterpart. “It
is a pity to lose what many generations have achieved,” he remarked.
“All of us will win from mutual enrichment,” the Armenian president
believes. “We will try to create an instrument, so that we could
tackle these problems,” he pledged.

Russia Year in Armenia – key event of Putin’s visit to Yerevan
By Mikhail Petrov

ITAR-TASS News Agency
March 25, 2005 Friday

YEREVAN, March 25 — President Vladimir Putin believes the Russia
Year in Armenia is a most important event.

“It is extremely important from the point of view of our cooperation,
since it is not a one-time function, but a long-term undertaking,”
Putin noted on Friday during his negotiations with President Robert
Kocharyan.

“Our artists will visit Armenia throughout the year and I hope not
only Yerevan alone,” he added. In Putin’s opinion, the Russia Year
in Armenia will allow the sides to promote their relations not only
in the humanitarian domain, but in the political sphere, too.

“The holding of such functions with other countries has revealed
their very positive effect not only on humanitarian contacts, but has
also helped to lay a very good foundation for economic cooperation,
has created a favourable atmosphere for the development of political
relations. I hope very much that this will be so in the given case,
too, since our two countries are known to have amicable, longstanding
relations,” Putin stated.

Kocharyan noted, in turn, that the Russia Year in Armenia was a key
event of the Russian President’s visit to Yerevan. “I hope we shall
be able to replete this Year with Russia’s active participation so
that it would produce an indelible impression on our people. I also
hope very much that we shall be able to discuss the current state of
our bilateral relations during this visit,” he added.

IWPR – Institute for War and Peace Reporting
March 25 2005

Baku Oil Families Seek Redress

Descendants of turn-of-the-century millionaires demand the right to
lost property.

By Samira Ahmedbeili in Baku (CRS No. 279, 25-Mar-05)

Heirs of early 20th century Azerbaijani oil barons executed by the
Soviet regime are suing the state for confiscated property.

The relatives of long-dead tycoons Zeinalabdin Tagiev, Musa Nagiev
and Murtuza Mukhtarov first took the state to court seven years ago,
and have since filed 11 lawsuits with different district courts in
Azerbaijan, seeking a reversal of the Soviet government’s decision to
confiscate their forefathers’ mansions.

“Our great-grandparents were very rich, but we only want a small part
of what they owned,” Tagiev’s great-granddaughter Nailia Abdullaeva
told IWPR. “We only want the non-residential buildings back. We have
no intention to evict anyone, although my great-grandfather’s family
was literally thrown out. They wouldn’t even let them take any
personal items.”

The turn-of-the-century oil boom in Baku made many common people
fabulously rich. At the time, Baku oil wells supplied over 90 per
cent of all oil for the Russian Empire. The rest was supplied by
Astrakhan and Grozny. Then the new Bolshevik regime stripped the Baku
oil tycoons of all their property. Some of them were subsequently
sent to the Gulag, others simply shot and killed without trial.

It was not until 1998 that a certain Yusif Abdullayev, an
attorney-at-law and descendant of the aristocratic families of the
Baku khans, first stood up for his rights to his family heirloom. In
his lawsuit, filed with Surakhani District Court, he claimed the
Bakikhanov estate in Amirjany, and won. “My cousin now lives there,”
said Abdullaev. “The Surakhani court also confirmed my blood relation
to Murtuza Mukhtarov, the oil baron.”

Mukhtarov started out as a coach driver. Having saved up some money,
he invested it in a budding oil business. In 1919, Mukhtarov’s wealth
totalled nine million roubles, a fortune at the time.

Having won the case, Abdullayev began searching for archival evidence
of Mukhtarov’s possessions. He learned that his ancestor’s property
in Baku alone included 13 estates, two refineries, plenty of land, an
arboretum and a lighthouse. In addition, he owned estates and
manufacturing facilities in Grozny, Kislovodsk, St Petersburg and
Moscow. Abdullayev said properties outside Azerbaijan are the hardest
to track down for lack of evidence.

Last year, Abdullayev brought legal action in the Sabail district
court, seeking the return of two of his ancestor’s former properties.
But he wasn’t as lucky this time. Not only did the district court
rule against Abdullayev, the judge went so far as to repeal the
previous court ruling.

“The judge said my relation to Mukhtarov had been verified
erroneously, and I’m not really his relative,” Abdullayev said.
“Mukhtarov himself died before the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. His
wife and five children died in the Gulag. He does not have an heir.
But Mukhtarov had two sisters, Tukezban and Ziniet. As a relation of
Tukezban’s, I represent the descendants of Mukhtarov’s sisters.”

One of the buildings claimed by Abdullayev is also one of Baku’s
finest architectural gems. The Palace of Happiness is the main
wedding venue in central Baku and also houses the Composers Union and
other organisations.

“The building is simply going to waste, it’s been decades since it
was last repaired,” said a member of the Composers Union who asked
not to be named. “This despite the fact that the union makes quite a
lot of money subletting its premises. I don’t think the building
would be in a such a sorry state of disrepair if it had a private
owner.”

The part of the building housing the wedding palace is in better
condition. “We haven’t done any major repairs for quite a while, but
at least we keep everything clean and in good working order. If
something breaks, we have people come and fix it,” said Maya
Hasanova, who heads the marriage palace, adding she was against
privatising a building that has housed a public institution for
decades.

The Sabail court also rejected Nailya Abdullayeva’s claim of blood
relation to another oil tycoon, Tagiev. “I’m not just some distant
relative; I’m his great-granddaughter,” she told IWPR.

Abdullaeva is claiming three buildings from her great-grandfather’s
empire: the History Museum, the Tagiev Factory, and the Baku
Department Store or Univermag.

Nailya Velikhanova, head of the History Museum, said she was shocked
by the prospect of the building passing into private hands. “It’s
expensive to keep up the exhibits, but it will cost even more to move
them out. Privatising the museum is a bad idea, although the state is
unable to properly keep it up. We have only renovated one floor since
renovation started three years ago. We are waiting for a World Bank
loan to finish the job. Only a very rich person who is crazy about
history should be allowed to privatise historical landmarks,” she
said.

Tagiev was the tycoon of them all, possessing an estimated 30 million
roubles in assets. He came from a simple background and lost his
acquired wealth under the Soviets. Tagiev died in abject poverty in
1924, and all his children met with a similar fate. His youngest
daughter, Sara Tagieva, lived and died in poverty in 1993, when her
father’s good name had already been restored.

“My great-grandfather gave lavishly to charity; he did a lot for the
country and its people, but they weren’t as grateful as you’d think.
The time has come to redress that historical injustice,” Abdullayeva
said.

Diliara Nagieva is claiming five estates from the government that
used to belong to her grandfather Musa Nagiev: the Musa Nagiev
Hospital, a book superstore, the office building of the Russian oil
giant Lukoil, the officers’ club house and a building at 69
Neftchiliar prospekt. So far, the Sabail and Khatain district courts
have roundly rejected her pleas.

Musa Nagiev was a simple workman when he struck oil and made an
amazing 10 million roubles in the petroleum business. He did not live
to see Azerbaijan overtaken by the Soviets. During interethnic
clashes with Armenians in March 1918, the Ismailia Palace, Nagiev’s
pride and joy, built and named in honour of his only male child who
had died at a very young age, was badly damaged. Nagiev never
recovered from the shock, and died a year later, in March 1919.

“His only daughter also died young,” Diliaria Nagieva told IWPR.
“Nagiev then adopted his nephew, my father, who was a talented but
impoverished theatre actor. The adoption saved him from the
communists.”

Having lost their cases in all district courts, the heirs went higher
and challenged the rulings in the appeals court, but it reaffirmed
the earlier decisions.

The government is fighting this flood of requisition claims. Baku
mayor Hajibala Abutalybov told ANS television channel it was a
preposterous idea to give government property away to some strangers
just because they claim to be descendants of former owners. “These
estates they are claiming have belonged to the state for many
decades,” said the mayor. “Only the court has the power to decide the
fate of these buildings.”

Farzali Aliev, an independent lawyer, said inheritance cases present
many challenges. Proving your rightful entitlement, he said, is only
half the battle, “First of all, the courts demand historical
evidence, or what we call ‘silent witnesses’. This makes things
complicated, as the necessary evidence is usually impossible to
unearth in the archives. If an heir wins the case, it is his duty to
provide housing of equal value to all residents occupying his
property.”

In fact many of the heirs could not afford an apartment even for a
single family, let alone resettle a whole building.

But the relatives of the oil tycoons say they want to carry on
fighting and will take their cases to the European Court of Human
Rights. “The descendants of Ashurbekov, Hajievsky, Dadashev and
Danilov are watching us,” said Tagiev’s great-granddaughter. “If we
win, they, too, will rise to claim their forefathers’ property back.”

Samira Ahmedbeili is a freelance journalist in Baku.