Turkish Daily News
March 9 2005

>>From the columns
Wednesday, March 9, 2005

‘Turkish Republic cannot be held responsible for events of 1915’:

Also on the alleged Armenian genocide, Milliyet’s Derya Sazak
comments on the Monday interview with history professor Halil
Berktay, whose opinions about the alleged Armenian genocide issue are
controversial in Turkey. Sazak says some readers reacted to the
interview and said Berktay’s insistence on identifying the events of
1915-1916 as “ethnic cleansing” was falsified by the state archives.

Sazak says, “It is clear that some thousands of people died during
the removal of Armenians from eastern Anatolia, though we don’t
identify it as ‘genocide’,” adding: “The events led to the death of
not only Armenians but also Turks and Kurds. But who can put the
blame on the Turkish Republic just because it is the ‘successor’ of
the Ottoman Empire?”

“Despite the intolerance of some ultra-nationalist circles,
Berktay’s opinions provide significant propositions that will help
Turkey tackle the problem,” Sazak says.

Also commenting on the same issue, Yeni ªafak’s Akif Emre says the
British Parliament’s assessment of the events of 1915-1916 as
genocide cannot be analyzed without considering the international
relations of the time when the book framing the Parliament’s
understanding of the issue, titled “The Treatment of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire, 1915-1916,” was published.

Noting a book of prominent English historian Arnold J. Toynbee
(1889-1975) that was recently published in Turkey, Emre says that as
the assistant of Lord Bryce, who edited the book, Toynbee was
explaining the international political environment in which the
Ottoman Empire appeared to attain an advantageous position.

Emre also claims that Toynbee asserted that the publishing of that
book by Bryce was the result of politics and that the book was
intended as propaganda.

–Boundary_(ID_kpTzQ1xpbqhGRTH/fOJnDA)–

Bulgaria, Armenia sign cooperation accord on transport, information exchange

BTA web site
11 Mar 05

Sofia, 11 March: Transport and Communications Ministers Nikolay
Vasilev of Bulgaria and Andranik Manukyan of Armenia on Friday [11
March] signed a programme for cooperation between their ministries
in 2005-2006.

The programme stipulates exchange of regulatory policy information
and joint initiatives for Information Society development. The sides
will research and develop methods for protection and use of information
resources. Bulgaria and Armenia will also cooperate in the development
of computer programmes and on-line trade.

Vasilev told journalists that a scheduled air service between Sofia
and Yerevan is to be set up shortly. The service provider will be
named within a month, his ministry said.

Vasilev recalled that negotiations with Russia were opened on
Manukyan’s initiative last year for setting up a direct ferry line
between the Bulgarian coastal city of Varna and Port Kavkaz (Port
Caucasus) on the Russian coast across from the Crimean Peninsula, which
will facilitate the transportation of goods to and from land-locked
Armenia. In this context, Vasilev is planning to send a letter to
the Georgian transport minister to ask for prompt ratification of a
multimodal transport agreement.

Bulgaria’s trade with Armenia has been growing continuously over the
last three years, Vasilev said.

Undercover Music News, Australia –
8 Mar 2005

System of a Down Play for Charity

by Paul Cashmere

8 March 2005

System of a Down has announced a charity performance to benefit
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is an organization
that supports legislation in the U.S. Congress to recognize the
Armenian Genocide that was perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire during
World War 1.

S.O.A.D. will perform their third ‘Souls’ benefit for the cause on
April 24 at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

The S.O.AD. members are of Armenian decent. “Because so much of my
family history was lost in the Armenian Genocide,” said Daron
Malakian, “my grandfather, who was very young at the time, doesn’t
know his true age. How many people can say they don’t know how old
they are?”

“It’s important for people to be aware of the Armenian Genocide,”
explained Serj Tankian, “and that those actions continue to be
covered up by the Turkish government, the U.S. State Department,
Turkey’s allies in the defense and oil industries, and by our present
U.S. Administration. Had the Armenian Genocide been acknowledged as a
Crime Against Humanity as it was, Hitler might not have thought he
could get away with the Jewish Holocaust. History does and will
repeat itself, unless we stop that cycle.”

Tickets for the benefit show go on sale this Saturday (March 12).

Armenians Displeased With Constitution

CPOD – Global Scan, Canada
March 9 2005

(Angus Reid Consultants – CPOD Global Scan) ~V Many adults in Armenia
believe the country~Rs foremost body of law is not being properly
applied, according to a poll by the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies. Only 2.3 per cent of respondents believe the
Constitution is being completely implemented.

Armenia adopted its Constitution in July 1995. The document was
ratified in a referendum~Wdeemed to have been fraudulent~Wand confers
virtually unrestrained powers on the president. 38.5 per cent of
respondents believe the Constitution needs reforms, while 38.8 per
cent think implementing the provisions is more important than
rewriting the document.

In January, two opposition parties~WJustice (A) and National Unity
(NU)~Wexpressed their support for a package of amendments put forward
by president Robert Kocharian, provided some further changes are
made. The parties have proposed giving the National Assembly a role
in the formation of the government, limiting the head of state~Rs
authority to appoint and dismiss judges, and selecting the mayor of
Yerevan~WArmenia~Rs capital city~Wthrough the ballot box.

The legislative branch is expected to draft final amendments in the
coming months. Any changes to the Constitution would have to be
ratified in a nationwide referendum, which could conceivably take
place later this year.

Polling Data

To what extent is the Constitution being implemented in Armenia~Rs
national and public life?

Whatever is written in the Constitution
is being partially implemented
46.5%

Nothing is being implemented
29.5%

Whatever is written in the Constitution
is being completely implemented
2.3%

Difficult to answer
21.5%

Refused to answer
0.2%

In your opinion the Constitution~E

Works completely and there
is no need for reform
1.3%

Has shortcomings and needs reforms
38.5%

Is not good at all and a new
Constitution is necessary
10.4%

Reforms do not matter, important is the
implementation of its provisions
38.8%

Difficult to answer
10.7%

Refused to answer
0.3%

Source: Armenian Center for National and International Studies
(ACNIS)
Methodology: Interviews with 1,500 Armenian adults, conducted in
February 2005. No margin of error was provided.

Slate
9 Mar 2005

What’s With All the Martyrs’ Squares?
Why they’re all over the Middle East.
By Daniel Engber
Posted Wednesday, March 9, 2005, at 4:34 PM PT

Hundreds of thousands of protesters have assembled near Martyrs’
Square in Central Beirut. Last July, a major gun battle broke out in
Martyrs’ Square in Central Baghdad. Is there a Martyrs’ Square in
every city in the Middle East?

Martyrs’ Squares are indeed ubiquitous in certain countries, though
the exact martyrs who are celebrated vary from place to place. In
Beirut, the site was named for Lebanese nationalists executed by the
Ottomans during World War I. Both Lebanon and Syria commemorate this
event on Martyrs’ Day, May 6, but the Martyrs’ Square in Damascus
honors insurgents killed by the French in 1945.

Martyrs’ squares, streets, and bridges abound in the Muslim world;
many earned their names relatively recently. In the Palestinian city
of Hamle, for example, a Martyrs’ Square memorializes five boys who
were killed by Israeli soldiers. (Famous Martyrs’ Squares and streets
exist in Nablus and Hebron as well.) In Pakistan, residents of Kohat
renamed a local square after security forces killed four Chechen
members of al-Qaida there.

Prominent Martyrs’ Squares also exist in Tripoli, Baghdad, and
Port-Said (in Egypt). One of the many Martyrs’ Streets in the world
runs through Kuwait City, and the Martyrs’ Lane in Baku, Azerbaijan,
commemorates those who died fighting the Russians and the Armenians.
In Sudan, a presidential palace sits on Martyrs’ Square in Khartoum.

But the Islamic Republic of Iran leads the world when it comes to
Martyrs’ Squares. At the very least, you can find them in the cities
of Tehran, Qum, Rasht, Ahwaz, Tabriz, Gorgan, Shiraz, Arak, Ardebil,
and Kerman. Many commemorate the events surrounding the revolution in
the late ’70s: The Martyrs’ Square in Qum used to be called the
Fatimi Crossroads but was renamed to honor protesters killed there in
January 1978. The square in Tehran honors the victims of a massacre
the following September. The sacred city of Mashhad has another
Martyrs’ Square, associated with the shrine to the ninth-century
martyr Imam Reza, who is said to have been killed with poisoned
grapes.

Martyrdom has long held particular importance for Shiite Muslims
(like those in power in Iran). The religious festival of Ashura
commemorates the murder of Imam Ali and his son Husayn; the
decapitation of Hussein at the Battle of Karbala in 680 contributed
to the split between Sunnis and Shiites. In the past century or so,
the concept of martyrdom has taken on some secular and nationalist
connotations as well.

Council of Europe

March 9 2005

Venice Commission discusses Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia,
Italy and Serbia

/noticias.info/ Strasbourg, 10 March 2005 ~V The constitutional
situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the powers of the High
Representative, judicial reform in Georgia and the status of South
Ossetia, media freedom in Italy – these are among the items on the
agenda of the plenary session of the Council of Europe~Rs Venice
Commission which will take place on 11 and 12 March in Venice, in the
Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista.

The efficiency and rationality of current constitutional arrangements
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, resulting from the Dayton Peace Agreement,
are the subject of a comprehensive document to be adopted by the
Commission. This opinion will outline major changes required if the
country wants to make further progress, and examine whether the
present practice of decisions by the High Representative is
compatible with European standards. A further opinion on Bosnia and
Herzegovina concerns the responsibility of the United Nations for the
dismissal of former police officers.

The Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia, Mr Konstantin
Vardzelashvili, will inform the Commission on further developments on
the status of South Ossetia, following the recent visit of the
Commission to Georgia. In addition, the Commission will adopt its
opinion on the latest draft constitutional amendments relating to the
reform of the judiciary in Georgia.

The laws on the conflict of interest and on principles governing the
broadcasting system of Italy and the draft law on religious
organisations of Serbia are also on the agenda of the 62nd plenary of
the Venice Commission. It will also express its opinion on the law on
public meetings and on draft amendments to the electoral code of
Armenia.

Excalibur Online, Canada
March 9 2005

A partial silence, yet an indifferent quiet
Written by Chris Krikorian – Contributor

At the moment, April 24, 2005 may signify nothing to you; it is most
likely just a point of time somewhere in the future. However, you are
hereby forewarned that this date is one that points to a very dark
past in human history.

April 24, 2005 will mark the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide. It will signify 90 years of remembrance, 90 years of denial
and, worst of all, 90 years of indifference.

As an Armenian it is my duty to speak for those who were not given
the chance and to remember those whom the world has forgotten. As a
Canadian Armenian student at York, I have the opportunity to do that
here, with you, right now.

The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth
century. Over 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered at the hands of
the Turkish government. Many Armenians died of dehydration during the
long death marches through the Syrian Desert. These death marches
lasted for days – most of the victims had nothing more than the
clothes on their backs. They were beaten and killed along the way,
while their routes were littered with the bodies of fallen Armenians
baking in the hot sun.

Other accounts report of fires being started at the foot of caves,
creating a gas chamber, asphyxiating the Armenians inside. Armenians
took refuge in churches while Turkish forces waited outside, setting
fire to the roof and the walls, cremating hundreds and thousands of
Armenians at once. Children were kidnapped and women were raped. Very
few Armenians evaded the government-issued order of their
annihilation. These were deliberate acts of genocide – and near
successful ones too.

The Turkish denial of the atrocities that were committed against the
Armenian people of 1915 has only fanned the flame of ambition and
determination within the hearts of Armenians worldwide. Turkish
denial has strengthened Armenian resolve, but the indifference that
exists around the world threatens to destroy the Armenian cause and
the memories of those whose lives were lost in the most gruesome and
inhuman manner.

The topic of the Armenian Genocide is a very personal one to me: My
great-grandmother was a survivor of the genocide. She was a young
woman at the time, her life saved by a Turkish family that gave her
and her sister shelter. The rest of her family was brutally murdered
and she and her sister were the only ones left. They later moved to
Syria where my great-grandmother married and had a son (my
grandfather).

It is common to think of Turks and Armenians as enemies, but they are
not and this is a point that cannot be stressed enough. If not for
that Turkish family, my great-grandmother would have died, along with
her future family as well.

The Armenians are not the only victims of the Armenian Genocide. The
Turkish government’s campaign of denial is a crime not only to
Armenians, but to modern-day Turks who often speak up about the
Armenian Genocide and are ostracized by the Turkish government.

Turkey ‘s best-selling novelist, Orhan Pamuk, has been credited with
numerous awards for his works. As a world-class writer of Turkish
descent, he has received much criticism for his February 2005
statements in newspapers.

“Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in
Turkey,” he states. “Almost no one dares speak but me and the
nationalists hate me for that.”

The nationalists he speaks of are the Ulku Ocaklari paramilitary
group, also known as the Grey Wolves. A statement on their web site
reads: “It is time to disallow him from breathing air in this
country.”

“If the anger of God doesn’t descend upon people like him, they will
face a higher anger – the Turkish lightning.”

Turkish historian Hilal Berktay of Sabanji University, Istanbul,
defended the statements made by Pamuk. Berktay praised the author as
an honest intellectual who courageously addressed an issue that many
Turks avoid. Berktay faced similar criticism in 2001 when he
expressed his views on the Armenian Genocide.

“As more and more honest and sincere historians and intellectuals of
integrity keep speaking up,” he said, “this dam will be breached …
this will be a fundamental dimension of internal democratization of
Turkish society.”

The Armenian Genocide foreshadowed many things to come in human
history. Many eyewitness accounts are reminiscent of the intolerable
acts perpetrated against the Jews during the Holocaust, and more
recently the Tutsi of Rwanda. The following accounts are those of
Vartan Hartounian and Sam Kadorian, who were young children during
the time of the Genocide. It is likely that they have now passed away
as these events occurred 90 years ago, but their memories and
testimony will live on with us.

“We were hiding in a church that we thought was protected from the
Turks,” starts Hartunian, “and they were attacking building after
building. There was another church not far away in which there were
two thousand Armenians and I and my father and others witnessed the
Turks surrounding that church, applying gasoline soaked rags by pole
to the roof and starting a fire and standing around to shoot anyone
who ran out of the building. As a child, I witnessed and I will never
forget the screams of those people and one woman who ran out and got
shot by the Turks. The entire building burned and everyone in the
building perished.”

Kadorian remembers the silence that saved his own life. “Gendarmes
came and picked up all the boys between five and 10 years old, threw
us into a pile and I happened to be one of the first ones and I was
at the bottom of the pile. After they had all the boys in this pile,
they started with their swords and bayonets killing us boys and one
of the bayonets just hit me in my right cheek here and the blood was
streaming, not only the blood from my cheek, but the blood from those
dead boys. That hot blood coming all over me and I couldn’t scream
and I couldn’t cry for fear that they would finish the job.”

Still, despite these and many other eyewitness accounts of the
Armenian Genocide, the Turkish government refuses to admit its guilt.
The Turkish government denies the existence of the Armenian Genocide
and has repeatedly threatened world governments from condemning the
Genocide of 1915. The line between history and politics becomes
blurred once countries around the world are economically threatened
by Turkey.

Canada did not bow to the threats of the Turkish government and in
April of 2004 enacted bill M-380. Prior to this, Turkey threatened to
cancel contracts with Bombardier and claimed that the affirmation of
the Armenian Genocide would be detrimental to trade negotiations with
Canada.

These claims were threats and nothing else.

The Canadian government passed bill M-380 and officially recognized
the genocide. Unfortunately, other countries like the United States
that have a large interest in Turkey, economically and militarily,
have stopped short of internationally recognizing the Armenian
genocide. Other examples of government-sponsored denial include
various bribes offered to American universities to prevent discourse
about the genocide of 1915.

An article in the Independent, a UK newspaper read: “Turkey’s effort
to erase the memory of its genocide of the Armenians has suffered a
setback in the United States.
The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has refused to allow
Ankara to fund a chair in Ottoman studies, because the Turkish
government attached conditions to their $1m offer that would have
forced scholars to ignore the 1915 massacres.” On the surface this
seems like good news, but the bad news is that the article continues
by explaining that other American universities like Princeton,
Georgetown, Indiana and the University of Chicago have accepted
offers from the Turkish government and have agreed to forget the
genocide at the cost of their academic integrity.

Why is this important? Why should we care about what happened 90
years ago? Well imagine if someone told you that slavery never
occurred, or that Canada had no inhabitants before the settlers
arrived, or that the Holocaust is an elaborate conspiracy. Are these
claims to which you would choose to be indifferent?

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, defines the
eight stages of genocide: Classification, symbolization,
dehumanization, organization, polarization, identification,
extermination and denial. The Armenian genocide is not an isolated
event that occurred in the distant past, it is still happening to
this day. This forgotten genocide is still happening right now behind
our very backs, it has remained suspended in the eighth stage of
genocide for 90 long years.

These accounts have been documented along with many others and can be
watched at Within this web site there is an
accurate timeline of the events surrounding the Armenian genocide and
an ABC special that can be viewed online. For those of you who are
interested in this overlooked piece of history this web site is a
valuable beginner’s resource.

– For more information, the ASA will be hosting a discussion about
the psychological effects of the genocide on March 12 from 11am-2pm
at Stedman Lecture Hall D.

Turkish Daily News, Turkey –
10 Mar 2005

Semih Idiz: On and on it goes, where it stops everyone knows
Thursday, March 10, 2005

Officials in Ankara may be angry with Hansjorg Kretschmer, the EU’s
outspoken representative here. But Ambassador Kretschmer doesn’t act
in a void. He reflects the mood in EU capitals. The feedback that
Ankara got from Monday’s Troika meeting should have made this
patently clear. The shocking display of police brutality against
women in Istanbul over the weekend, on the other hand, showed that
Ambassador Kretschmer has a point.

We have a saying in Turkey: “He who speaks the truth will be driven
out of nine villages.” We say this for those whose remarks reflect
unsavory truths that people don’t want to hear. The government would
do well to approach the remarks by the EU’s representative as some
kind of an “early warning system” rather than trying to make them
disappear with angry ripostes.

The truth is that we Turks — let alone Europeans, not all of who
are sincere by any means in this — are asking if the government is
really up to the task as far as Turkey’s EU process is concerned. It
seems that Turkish right-wing nationalism, which has always had an
anti-reformist streak, is proving to be a harder nut to crack than
assumed. There can be no other explanation for the foot-dragging by
the government in the area of human rights.

Human rights continue to be considered by ultra-nationalists in
Turkey — including former ambassadors who are present-day
politicians in supposedly social democratic parties — as “a means
used by the wily West to undo our country.” Let us also recall that
rioting police — and I don’t mean “riot police,” even though those
who were rioting at the time were riot police — had marched
illegally in Turkey only a few years ago, chanting, “Down with the
EU!” and “Death to human rights!” It’s all there in the Turkish
papers of the day if anyone is interested.

After the display of unspeakable brutality against boisterous, but
nevertheless harmless, women in Istanbul over the weekend, one would
have expected the government to act immediately on its own, and not
because of the public outcry in Europe, in order to weed out those
responsible. One would have expected this because of the government’s
self-professed “reformism” and supposed vow to “show zero tolerance
to ill-treatment and torture.”

But this was not to be. We saw the almost instinctive approach come
into play here once again. This was the traditional attempt to make
excuses for policemen who are clearly driven by feelings of vengeance
and to shift the blame onto the victims of their anger. In other
words, the Kafkaesque, “if you are being tortured or beaten by the
state, there must be a good reason for it” argument was apparent once
again.

This alone is enough to vindicate those skeptics who argue
knowingly that it is all very well to enact laws and utter fancy
words relating to these, but the proof of sincerity will always rest
in the sphere of implementation. In other words, the sphere that
Turkey has historically failed in.

The famous “Gulhane Hatti Humayunu,” or the “Imperial Edict of
Gulhane,” was proclaimed in 1839. Among other things it also foresaw
equality between races and religions and was the first effort by the
declining Ottoman Empire to modernize itself socially in order to
drag itself out of the morass that it had fallen into as a tyrannical
and theocratic eastern monarchy. It failed miserably because there
was no real desire in the ossified imperial state apparatus to
implement it. Instead, the “interference by foreign powers” argument
was used as far as back as then to evade the responsibilities that
this edict pointed to.

In 1856, after the Crimean War against Russia during which the
British, French and Ottoman Empires were allied, “Turkey” — as it
was designated by the Europeans then — was invited to join the
“Concert of Europe.” Again the historic opportunity to modernize and
democratize — to the extent that was possible in any country in
those days — was squandered. In 1908 the “Young Turk Revolution”
aimed to end the brutal tyranny of Abdulhamid and was hailed by
Turks, Armenians and Greeks alike. It did not take long for that
revolution to deteriorate into a modern-day ultra-nationalist tyranny
under which all of these peoples of the empire suffered greatly and
without exception.

A historic moment of hope emerged for Turks with the advent of
Atatürk and his truly reformist program, which courageously made
Turkey take a quantum leap forward in order to catch up with the
civilized world. That hope was eventually overshadowed by traditional
political and social cynicism after his death, when government after
government proved that old habits die hard in Turkey.

In 1963 Turkey signed the Ankara Agreement with the EEC. Today we
are in 2005, and it needs no imagination to understand the
opportunities squandered by successive Turkish governments over the
four decades since that signing. In 1999 Turkey was “re-accepted” as
a candidate for EU membership. A visibly elated Prime Minister Ecevit
came back from the Helsinki summit proclaiming that Turkey would be a
member in three to five years. But he lost his EU enthusiasm
overnight, and it was only towards the end of his turbulent term in
office that he suddenly remembered the EU and the reforms needed for
this perspective to mature.

Given such a history it is natural for skeptics to wonder now if we
are merely seeing a repeat of all this. In other words, is the
Erdogan government reverting to the traditional habit of appeasing
conservative and ultra-nationalist elements deeply embedded in the
state apparatus rather than showing the leadership necessary to bring
European standards to Turks?

How, for example, can the government justifiably explain the
attempts at trying to protect the policemen who pumped a 12-year-old
kid with 13 bullets — in what many jurists say is a clear-cut case
of extrajudicial killing. How, for example, can this government
explain why its knee-jerk reaction was — and continues to be — an
effort to come up with excuses for the brutal policemen who
mercilessly beat up a women?

If the Erdogan government is truly sincere about being “reformist”
— and serious doubts have emerged over this — it should stop trying
to protect people who act as if Turkey is a police state, and —
what’s much worse — get away with this with impunity. If this does
not bother the government, then it must be true what some people say
when they argue that this EU business is merely a game being played
for political gain by the AKP at the expense of the sincere
expectations of a large number of Turks. In that case there is only
one song for us Turks to sing: “On and on it goes, where it stops
everyone knows~E”

–Boundary_(ID_GLoXtsCaOQAkAfSQsQ7Ntw)–

Advertiser Adelaide, Australia
Sunday Times.au, Australia
The Mercury, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
March 12 2005

On this day
March 12

1992 – A ceasefire is shattered when the city of Agdam comes under
heavy shelling that kills 25 people in the battle over the Armenian
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

641 AD – Chinese Princess Wen Cheng goes to Tibet to marry the
Tibetan ruler and the marriage becomes the basis for China’s claim to
sovereignty over the region.
1609 – Bermuda becomes a British colony.
1789 – The post office is established in the United States.
1799 – Austria declares war on France.
1814 – British troops under Wellington capture Bordeaux in France.
1848 – Revolution breaks out in Vienna with university
demonstrations.
1849 – In India, the Sikhs surrender to the British at Rawalpindi.
1854 – Britain and France conclude alliance with Turkey against
Russia; In Sydney, James O’Farrell attempts to shoot visiting Duke of
Edinburgh, Prince Alfred, in the back.
1868 – Britain annexes Basutoland, South Africa.
1894 – Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.
1907 – At Toulon, France, the battleship Iena explodes, killing at
least 118 men.
1912 – Juliette Gordon Low founds the Girl Guides, which later
becomes the Girl Scouts of America.
1913 – Canberra becomes the capital of Australia when the foundation
stone of the Federal Parliament building is laid.
1925 – Death of Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary leader.
1930 – Mahatma Gandhi opens civil disobedience campaign in India
against British.
1932 – The so-called Swedish Match King, Ivar Kreuger, commits
suicide in Paris, leaving behind a financial empire that turns out to
be worthless.
1939 – Pope Pius XII is formally crowned in ceremonies at the
Vatican.
1940 – Finland signs a peace treaty with the Soviet Union in World
War II, ending the 14-week war which the Russians won by sheer weight
of numbers.
1945 – Anne Frank, the Dutch Jewish teenager who kept a diary of her
wartime experiences, dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in
Germany, aged 15.
1947 – US President Harry Truman establishes what becomes known as
the Truman Doctrine to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
1966 – General Suharto is sworn in as acting president of Indonesia
after President Sukarno is stripped of authority.
1968 – Indian Ocean island Mauritius, a British colony, proclaims its
independence.
1969 – Beatle Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman in London.
1971 – Syrian Premier Hafez al-Assad is elected president in a
national referendum.
1972 – Britain and China agree to exchange ambassadors, 22 years
after London first recognised the Peking government.
1978 – In the first round of French parliamentary elections, the Left
claims an absolute majority for the first time in French history.
1979 – In Grenada, Prime Minister Sir Erik Gairy and his government
are overthrown and replaced by Maurice Bishop of the New Jewel
Movement.
1984 – Nationwide strike of British miners begins.
1988 – South African government bans church-led opposition group
headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “threat to public safety”.
1989 – Students and workers demanding overthrow of President Roh
Tae-woo battle riot police in Seoul, Korea.
1992 – A ceasefire is shattered when the city of Agdam comes under
heavy shelling that kills 25 people in the battle over the Armenian
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
1993 – At least 200 people are killed and 1,100 injured when a series
of bombs explode in Bombay, India; Janet Reno is sworn in as
America’s first female attorney general.
1994 – Church of England breaks with 460 years of male dominance when
it ordains its first female priests in Bristol Cathedral.
1995 – Melinda Gainsford becomes the first Australian to win a world
sprint title in more than 30 years, in the world indoor 200m.
1996 – China begins new war games in the Taiwan Strait in a show of
force that uses jets and warships to drive home its warning to Taiwan
not to seek independence.
1997 – Burundi authorities arrest five people, including two
soldiers, after they attempted to kill Burundian leader Major Pierre
Buyoya.
1999 – US-born violinist and music teacher Sir Yehudi Menuhin dies in
Berlin.
1999 – Confidential medical records about the Queen and other members
of the royal family are found by a man walking his dog on a riverbank
in south-western Scotland.
2000 – Attackers wound leading Iranian reformist Saeed Hajjarian, a
close confidant of President Mohammad Khatami, shooting him once in
the face. He was the focus of hardliners’ anger after the reformist
sweep of parliamentary elections; In one of the most significant acts
of his papacy, Pope John Paul asks forgiveness for the many past sins
of his Church, including its treatment of Jews, heretics and women.
2001 – A US Navy jet mistakenly drops a bomb on a group of military
personnel at a bombing range in Kuwait, killing five Americans and
one New Zealander.
2001 – Thousands of Iraqis begin military training when President
Saddam Hussein orders the formation of 21 military units. As many as
seven million have volunteered to fight with the Palestinians against
Israel.
2002 – The UN Security Council approves a US-sponsored resolution
endorsing a Palestinian state for the first time.
2003 – Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic dies after being struck
by two bullets as he walked from his car to a government building in
Belgrade.
2004 – Iran abruptly freezes further UN inspections of its nuclear
program for six weeks, throwing into turmoil international attempts
to verify Tehran’s claims that it is developing atomic power and not
weapons.

The Messenger, Georgia
March 10 2005

Speaker shuns, Parliament discusses
Senior officials distance themselves from resolution on Russian
bases, which is attacked by Russia and by Georgian citizens dependent
on bases for employment
By Anna Arzanova

Parliament on Wednesday discussed a resolution declaring that Russian
military bases must be withdrawn from Georgian territory by January
1, 2006, despite the efforts of the speaker of parliament to postpone
the debate, and comments by senior government figures distancing
themselves from the resolution.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Salome Zourabichvili stressed on
Wednesday that the resolution is not the responsibility of either her
or the ministry she heads.

“I cannot be either an opponent or supporter of this resolution. I am
just a minister and do not think I should be asked about this issue,”
she said.

Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli also stressed that the executive
branch of government had not been consulted regarding the drafting of
the resolution. According to Black Sea Press, he refused to comment
on the resolution, saying that the government remained in
negotiations with Russia, and hoped to resolve the issue through
reaching an agreement with Moscow.

Burjanadze tries to postpone discussion of resolution

Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze on Tuesday sought to postpone
discussion of the resolution declaring the Russian bases illegal,
saying now was not the right time to discuss it, and furthermore,
that neither she nor President Saakashvili had been notified of the
plan to discuss the resolution.

The decision to discuss the resolution was made during Monday’s
parliamentary bureau meeting, which Burjanadze did not attend because
she was in Germany.

“This issue was not agreed with everybody and as far as I know even
Saakashvili asked whether or not this issue had been agreed with the
leadership. Including this issue on the agenda was unexpected for
me,” she said, adding that she thinks this issue should be discussed
at committee level and not by Parliament.

“We have agreed on a two-month negotiation period and these two
months should first expire, after which Parliament as well as the
executive government will take very radical measures and decisions,”
she stressed, explaining that she believes adopting such a resolution
now would impede Georgian-Russian negotiations on the issue.

Burjanadze was overruled by MPs, however, and discussion of the
resolution went ahead as planned. One of the authors of the
resolution MP Giga Bokeria stated that, “This issue is included on
the agenda. I think that this process should take place as soon as
possible.”

The opposition agreed that the resolution, which they support, should
be discussed. They expressed surprise at Burjanadze’s intervention,
Conservative Party leader Zviad Dzidziguri saying, “the bureau put
this issue on the agenda and decided to discuss it on March 9. If
this issue was put on the agenda by the bureau it means it should be
discussed. I think that this issue needs to be voted on.”

Chair of the parliamentary committee for foreign affairs Kote
Gabashvili agreed that Parliament should discuss the resolution,
saying that if the executive government wishes to stop Parliament
from discussing the resolution it should present opposing arguments.

“I categorically demand this issue to be left in the agenda, because
this is necessary for Georgia. Our slavery must come to an end,” he
said at the parliament session.

Resolution irritates Russia

Gabashvili summed up the opinion of the majority of MPs by saying
that he supported the resolution, but admitted it would probably
aggravate Georgian-Russian relations.

“Russia will react harshly to the resolution,” he said. “But I think
that this issue will be settled step by step. These bases should be
withdrawn all the same.”

Expressing support for the resolution, MP Davit Tkeshelashvili stated
that a concrete moment comes in the history of all countries when
certain measures should be taken. “Georgia should express its sole
will regarding Georgia to be released from Russian bases,” he said.

MPs were right to say that Russia would react harshly to the
resolution. Russian news agency Interfax reports Russian Ministry of
Defense spokesman Colonel Viacheslav Sedov as saying that the
language of ultimatums, blackmail and pressure is unacceptable
regarding the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia.

“The bilateral commission, which regularly holds sessions in Tbilisi
and Moscow, was set up to solve the issue of the bases’ withdrawal,”
Sedov said, adding that Russia cannot withdraw their bases to an
empty field, as once happened in Russian when bases were withdrawn
from Germany. He thinks that it is necessary to first create the
infrastructure in Russia for the withdrawal of these bases.

Locals worry of impact on economy

The resolution was also criticized by ethnic Armenians living near to
the Russian base in Akhalkalaki, who rely on the base for employment.

“It is impossible to live here without this base. We will not allow
this at any price. We earn money to live on through the help of this
base. We will starve without it,” one protesting resident told
television crews.

The opposition also commented on the impact the closure of the bases
would have on Georgian ethnic minorities living near the bases.

“We should be ready for the complication of this issue. Russia likes
to aggravate ethnic conflicts and I am afraid that the most serious
aggravation of this issue is expected in Javakheti,” said MP Levan
Berdzenishvili, adding that Georgians could prevent this by spending
money and investing in the regions.

“We should make these people interested in other jobs, money, bases,
armies and so on. We should show them our Georgia money and make them
love it,” he said.

According to the resolution prepared by MPs, which Parliament is yet
to vote on, the government must prepare to take certain measures to
unilaterally ensure that Russia withdraw its bases, unless bilateral
agreement can be reached between the two countries regarding the
terms of the withdrawal by May 1, 2005.

These measures include no longer issuing entry visas to Russian
military servicemen, assessment of the total debt accumulated during
the working of the bases and preparation of a “special regime of
movement” for Russian servicemen, military hardware and cargo owned
by the Russian military bases on Georgian territory.

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