Un camp terroriste du PKK démantelé; pays-bas
par Laure Mandeville

Le Figaro, France
13 novembre 2004

Encore sous le choc de l’assassinat du cinéaste Theo Van Gogh
par un Néerlandais d’origine marocaine apparemment lié à un réseau
terroriste international, les Pays-Bas ont assisté, hier, avec stupeur,
à l’interpellation de 29 personnes sur un camping situé à proximité
de la bourgade de Liempde dans le sud-est des Pays-Bas. Le village
de bungalows servait à «préparer à la lutte armée du PKK (Parti
des travailleurs du Kurdistan, rebaptisé Kongra-Gel) en Turquie,
en commettant des actions terroristes», a expliqué le Parquet
national, précisant que neuf autres suspects avaient été arrêtés dans
le pays. L’annonce a créé une véritable onde de choc au pays des
tulipes et de la tolérance, puisqu’il s’avère qu’il a été possible
de mener des activités paramilitaires illégales au beau milieu de
la campagne hollandaise, sans que les services de renseignement
ne s’émeuvent vraiment. Selon le journal du soir NRC Handelsblad,
les services de renseignement AIVD avaient toujours affirmé par le
passé qu’il n’existait pas de centres de formation à la guérilla du
PKK. Ils reconnaissaient seulement que des cours d’histoire étaient
donnés en différents points du territoire néerlandais, expliquant ne
pas avoir d’informations selon lesquelles le PKK aurait dévié de ces
activités pacifistes. «Nous avons des indications selon lesquelles
les participants (NDLR : au camp entraînement) auraient été envoyés
en Arménie à la fin de leur formation pour participer aux actions du
PKK», a pourtant indiqué le Parquet hier.

Le PKK étant sur la liste des organisations terroristes de l’Union
européenne, les personnes interpellées seront accusées de terrorisme,
a-t-on indiqué de même source. Par le passé, cette question du PKK
avait déjà créé des tensions entre la Turquie et les Pays-Bas, Ankara
accusant les Néerlandais d’être trop conciliants. Officiellement,
l’opération coup de poing menée par les forces de l’ordre néerlandaises
est l’aboutissement d’une enquête commencée il y a un an et n’est
donc pas liée à l’assassinat de Van Gogh. Mais ces nouvelles
informations ne manqueront pas d’alimenter la polémique sur les
faiblesses du système policier hollandais, qui fait rage depuis
quelques jours. Jeudi soir, l’affaire Van Gogh a donné lieu à un
débat parlementaire agité, au cours duquel nombre de députés se sont
interrogés sur les responsabilités du ministère de l’Intérieur. Le
ministre de l’Intérieur Remkes, issu du parti libéral VVD, a été pris
à partie par des membres de sa formation, soucieuse de présenter à
ses électeurs une image musclée sur le front de l’antiterrorisme. Une
réforme de l’action des services de renseignement néerlandais est de
plus en plus à l’ordre du jour alors que se multiplient les révélations
sur l’entrisme des cellules de l’islam radical aux Pays-Bas. Selon
le quotidien suisse Le Temps, qui cite le ministère de l’Intérieur
espagnol, l’assassin présumé de Theo van Gogh, Mohammed Bouyeri, un
Maroco-Néerlandais de 26 ans, aurait été en contact direct avec le
chef présumé d’une cellule terroriste en Espagne, Mohammad Achraf,
soupçonné d’avoir projeté un attentat à Madrid contre la principale
instance pénale espagnole. Le groupe de Bouyeri serait par ailleurs
lié au Marocain Abdelhamid Akoudad, détenu en Espagne et accusé d’être
impliqué dans l’attentat islamiste de Casablanca, en 2003.

–Boundary_(ID_FnpFD+EbroDj5RAk/FJ9Ug)–

Agence France Presse
13 novembre 2004 samedi 9:26 AM GMT

Agenda Hebdo des Infogénés du lundi 15 novembre au dimanche 21 novembre

PARIS 13 nov 2004

Voici l’agenda des principaux événements prévus dans le domaine des
informations générales du lundi 15 novembre au dimanche 21 novembre :

Lundi 15 novembre

– 13h30 – Tribunal correctionnel – 17e chambre : jugement dans
le procès intenté par le Comité de défense de la cause arménienne
(CDCA) contre le Consul général de Turquie à Paris pour des propos
remettant en cause l’existence d’un génocide arménien sur le site
internet du consulat.

–Boundary_(ID_yav8CGi9ClWxiOaWm45IvA)–

Turkish journey: European dreams

Saturday, 13 November, 2004, 13:39 GMT

The BBC’s Istanbul correspondent Jonny Dymond is exploring Turkish life on a
trip across the vast country as it lobbies the European Union to open
membership talks.

He sent the third of a series of reports from Gaziantep.

————————————————————————

As night falls over Gaziantep, a city of about a million on the edge
of Turkey’s south-east region, a thick belt of blackness hovers over
the fringes of the city.

In the early moments of the dusk it looks pretty dramatic, almost
romantic, until you realise that it is pollution, the product of the
light industrial plants and textile factories that ring the city.

The pollution doesn’t stop at the edge of town. The air in the centre
of town itself gathers over the day a smoky, slightly soupy quality.

This pollution may not be good for the health.

But it is, for Gaziantep, not something to be mourned – because it
is the product of the town’s prosperity, a sign that in at least one
city of Turkey’s troubled south-east, things are going relatively well.

It took me 10 hours to get here from Konya, in central Anatolia.

I came by coach, it’s not the fastest way to travel. Ever since one
of the more horrific road accidents recently killed nearly 50 people,
the coach drivers have taken it easy on the roads, sticking to the
speed limit.

However, that doesn’t stop different kinds of lunacy.

An accident a few days ago was caused by one driver trying to give
control of a coach to another driver while the vehicle was still
pelting along the road. Is life as a coach driver really so boring
that you have to enliven it with tricks like that?

It would be much quicker to fly. But then you’d miss one of the
biggest stories of Turkey.

There appear to be six or seven different countries wrapped up in
this one – indivisible, of course – republic.

You can see parts of Gaziantep – just about – as part of Europe,
but much would have to change

I’m not talking about the Kurds, the Circassians or the Laz, but
about the simple geography of the place.

For a couple of hours’ drive beyond Konya, it is the monotonous
Anatolian plain outside the coach window – brown earth, blue-white
sky, a long line of electricity pylons, the odd scrubby tree and the
odd equally scrubby village.

This gives way to the road through the mountains, studded with trees
in the rocky soil. Clouds obscure the bottom of ravines below.

The view is stunning, hungrily drawing the eye. One town that we stop
at is itself shrouded in cloud.

And then we descend to yet another country, this one warm and lush,
heading towards the Mediterranean coast.

The countryside is green, and palm trees grow in the strip that
intersects the road. Fruit and vegetable farms run along the side of
the road.

Suddenly there is a stretch of deserted beach and the Mediterranean
sea comes into view, shiny blue. The coast is heavily developed,
apartment blocks craning for a view of the sea.

On one beach a man stands hesitating, as if debating whether to take
the plunge into the November-cold water.

And then, as rain begins to fall, we nudge into the south-east. Towns
and villages are fewer and further between, and the soil darkens.

The streets of the Gaziantep’s centre are bustling with shoppers
buying presents for the holiday at the end of Ramadan.

The local speciality foods are almost bursting from shop windows:
honey-drenched baklava, pistachios and spices.

Gaziantep has benefited from the exodus of people and money from
the rest of the south-east during the long years of battle between
separatist Kurds and the Turkish state.

“This is the Germany of the East,” one resident tells me, a
reference to the millions of Turkish citizens who went to Germany as
“guest-workers” in the 1960s.

It has always been a trading town – a stop on the Spice Road with a
long Armenian business tradition.

I asked a local journalist what was left of the Armenian presence in
terms of buildings – the people left long ago, unwelcome in a republic
that was for many decades deeply intolerant of minorities.

“Very little,” he replies. “In London,” he goes on, “there are
mosques and no-one says anything. Here they put minarets on the top
of churches. And then they talk about tolerance amongst religions.”

You can see parts of Gaziantep – just about – as part of Europe. But
much would have to change.

How many jobs would have to be lost when environmental regulations
forced the factories to stop sending smoke into the sky and the lungs
of the city’s residents?

As for, say, the butchers – well, refrigeration probably wouldn’t hurt.

There is industry and trade in Gaziantep – you can see it reflected
in the shops and offices.

Migrant families live in shanty towns with only sporadic electricity

But drive just a few minutes from the centre of town and you come
across a classic Turkish shanty town – a “gecekondu” – built by night
so as to avoid building regulations, overflowing with migrant families
with too many children and far too few jobs.

The electrical power comes and goes amongst the breeze-block houses.

Nearly everyone here talks about Europe in terms of jobs and money,
or the chance of exodus for their children.

I can’t quite imagine what these barely educated children might do
in Europe, except perhaps live in a different, and probably more
unpleasant, kind of grinding poverty.

I ask a man what Europe would mean to Turkey. “First of all,” he
replies, “cars will get cheaper, and we’ll be able to travel freely.”

And what would Turkey bring to Europe? Lots, he says, smiling. “Olives,
pistachios, carpets and fabrics.”

What more could Brussels ask for?

AZERI OFFICIAL DISMISSES ARMENIAN REP’S COOPERATION PROPOSAL

Space TV, Baku
13 Nov 04

(Presenter) Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sarifov has said
that the arrival of the Armenian Energy Ministry’s representative in
Baku does not amount to building up cooperation between Azerbaijan
and Armenia.

(Sarifov) It has been said more than once and our esteemed president
has repeatedly said from the UN rostrum that until peace is established
with Armenia, there can be no talk of economic cooperation with
Armenia in any sphere.

They can speak about anything and this is their own business. The
Armenians can come here and see how Azerbaijan is developing. Bu this
does not mean cooperation.

ARMENIAN SPEAKER DISCUSSES COOPERATION WITH FRENCH, GERMAN DIPLOMATS

Noyan Tapan news agency
13 Nov 04

Yerevan, 12 November: The involvement of the South Caucasus in the
Expanded Europe: New Neighbours programme opens promising prospects for
the development of the whole region in terms of deepening democracy,
overcoming conflicts and implementing economic projects. The speaker
of the Armenian National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan, said this at
a meeting with the political directors of the foreign ministries
of France and Germany, Stanislas Lefebvre de Laboulaye and Michael
Scheffer, on 11 November.

The guests said that they were on a fact-finding tour of the South
Caucasus to find out about future developments in the region to which
the European Union attaches great importance.

The Noyan Tapan news agency learnt from the press service of the
Armenian National Assembly that the sides also discussed relations
between Armenia and Turkey. It was noted that Armenia was not against
Turkey’s membership of the European Union but was against double
standards in connection with the recognition of the genocide and the
elimination of the blockade which was impeding Armenia’s economic
development.

The political directors of the German and French Foreign Ministries
noted the importance of parliamentary diplomacy in developing
the region and overcoming confrontation. The sides also noted the
importance of contacts and discussions both within the framework of
the Caucasus republics and Armenian-Turkish relations.

ITALY: BULGARIAN OSCE HEAD ATTENDS NATO SESSION

BTA web site, Sofia
12 Nov 04

Sofia, 12 November: The chairman-in-office of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Bulgarian foreign
minister, (Solomon Pasi), stressed “the growing geostrategic importance
of the Black Sea – Caucasus region in the light of the new security
threats” in his address to the NATO – Russia Parliamentary Committee
Meeting at the 50th Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
in Venice on Friday (12 November). Pasi told the meeting that the
present and the future of the Black Sea – Caucasus region is important
for Russia and NATO as well as the OSCE, the Bulgarian Foreign
Ministry’s Information and Public Relations Directorate reported.

“We wish to see the efforts invested in this region today, materialized
into peace and prosperity tomorrow,” Pasi said, adding that stability
and progress in the countries of the Black Sea – Caucasus region
will surely help further consolidate security in the whole of the
Euro-Atlantic zone. The OSCE chairman-in-office dwelt on the conflicts
in the region. He noted that the international community and the OSCE
in particular are concerned with the heightening of tensions in South
Ossetia. Pasi noted that the OSCE is supportive of the United Nations
efforts in finding a resolution to the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. “I
hope that the negotiations on the comprehensive settlement of the
Georgian-Abkhaz conflict could be resumed after the formation of a
new political leadership in Abkhazia,” he added. The foreign minister
observed that the OSCE follows closely the developments in the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict.

“I welcome the reinvigoration of the dialogue between Armenia and
Azerbaijan with the active support of the OSCE Minsk Group within
the Prague process through four meetings between the ministers of
foreign affairs and two meetings between the presidents of the two
countries,” Pasi said. He expressed the hope that the momentum would be
preserved and the negotiations would benefit from a more constructive
and pragmatic approach. Considering the Transdniestrian conflict,
Pasi recalled the initiative undertaken by the Bulgarian chairmanship
to resume the negotiations in the five-sided format, including the
four rounds of consultations and the meeting of the OSCE, Russian and
Ukrainian mediators in Sofia in October. “The appointment of former
Bulgarian President Petur Stoyanov as OSCE special envoy for Moldova
and his visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol in September, demonstrated
the chairmanship’s commitment to further engage in resolving the
existing contradictions and the overall settlement of the conflict,”
Pasi noted. (Passage omitted).

ANTI-ARMENIAN PROTEST IN AZERI CAPITAL FOILED

ANS TV, Baku
13 Nov 04

Members of the Karabakh Liberation Organization today attempted to
stage a picket outside Hyatt Regency Hotel (where an international
energy conference is held). They protested against the arrival of
the head of department of the Armenian Energy Ministry in Baku (for
an international energy conference). But the police foiled the picket.

MP predicts power shift in Armenia under foreign pressure

A1+ web site
13 Nov 04

12 November: A power shift is likely to take place in Armenia in two
or three months. However, it is not the opposition, but the authorities
that will carry it out under pressure from foreign forces demanding the
return of the liberated territories to Azerbaijan, MP Manuk Gasparyan
said at the National Press Club today.

The USA, Russia, Iran and all the other states are putting pressure
on Armenia in this issue, and [Armenian President Robert] Kocharyan
will resign without returning the liberated territories, Gasparyan
said. Only France will support Armenia, the MP predicted.

However, according to Gasparyan’s own predictions, before tendering his
resignation, Kocharyan will ensure the succession of his rule. For
example, a new opposition force is already being set up in the
parliament, although it is a “loyal” one, in the person of the United
Workers’ Party and the People’s Deputy factions, Gasparyan said.

The deputy supposes that personnel changes will soon take place in
the police, tax and customs services. It is planned to sack Ecology
Minister Vardan Ayvazyan, Gasparyan considers.

Addressing the situation in the country’s domestic policy, Manuk
Gasparyan pointed out that having suffered a defeat, the opposition
is now “in thought”. This thought will take two or three months.

And if the head of the New Times Party, Aram Karapetyan, does not
carry out the promised national coup by September 2005, he will become
“half dead” for the people, the guest of the National Press Club said.

A revolution is simply necessary in Armenia, the MP said
confidently. Will Manuk Gasparyan himself carry out the revolution
with the help of foreign and domestic forces? “Yes, if there are
no casualties.”

Thursday, November 11, 2004
***********************************
In whatever I write, my aim is not to assert the superiority of my ideas, but to suggest that there is nothing wrong in once in a while questioning the validity of our fundamental assumptions, in order to separate that which is ours (therefore authentic) from that which is someone else’s (therefore alien).
Cases in point:
What if hating a fellow Armenian is more Ottoman and less Armenian? What if the status quo we support is more authoritarian and less democratic? – that is to say, more Ottoman and less human?
What if inflexibility is not love of principle but infatuation with the self?
And what if, since in an authoritarian environment, yes-men have a far better chance to survive and succeed than honest men, we have been educated, manipulated and brainwashed by charlatans?
*
Chinese proverb: “Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.”
*
Generosity is a virtue praised by the poor, and avarice is a vice practiced by the wealthy.
*
Longevity does not guarantee wisdom, only senility.
*
Stolen apples taste better because only the very hungry steal.
#
Friday, November 12, 2004
************************************
Our intellectuals today do not aspire to expose the charlatans and overthrow the oppressors half as much as they do to join their ranks.
*
We are all dissidents, if not against the state, then against the dissenters.
*
It is not easy writing for readers who know better. It is even more difficult writing for readers who know everything and are never wrong. Hercules had it easy: his labors were only twelve in number.
*
An old Catholic once told me: “When I go to confession, I tell the priest: ‘Father, you know me, it’s the usual.’ And he understands because he has been my confessor for many years.” Now, imagine if you can this old man to be an Armenian confessing to an Armenian priest. Not only the priest would insist on hearing every single sordid sin but also, at the end, after accusing the old man of covering up, he would refuse absolution.
*
What’s the difference between an Ottomanized Armenian and a Turk? The Turk does not pretend to be the opposite of what he is.
*
When honest men keep silent, only the loudmouth charlatans are heard.
#
Saturday, November 13, 2004
************************************
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*********************************
One does not kill in the name of God but in the name of an idol. Pascal is right: “The worship of truth without charity is idolatry.”
*
What would happen to him if he were to convert to Hinduism, asks Toynbee, and he answers: “In the hierarchy of castes I should rank below the sweepers.”
*
In his book of travel impressions, Denis Donikian quotes a woman in Yerevan as saying: “Today no one gives a damn about the people. If they want to build a church they go right ahead and build it. Speaking for myself, I have lost all faith. Believe in what, may I ask? And what’s the use of buying a newspaper? I am not illiterate. I wouldn’t mind reading a newspaper. But I can’t afford one.”
*
Elsewhere: “Once upon a time there was a country in which everyone spoke the same language and no one understood what the other was saying.”
*
When criticized, Donikian writes, our politicians have a pat answer: “Our present problems are the gradual accumulation of many past problems.”
*
Why is it that the very same readers, who accuse me of dipping my pen in arsenic, dip theirs in cobra venom?
*
Knowledge advances, propaganda stays the same. If you say, “Tomorrow I will think what I thought yesterday and what I think today,” the questions you should ask yourself are: “What if my thoughts are not mine but someone else’s? And what if someone else’s thoughts are the thoughts of an ignoramus?”
*
Trash my kind of ideas
and alienate all those who think as I do.
Alienate those who do not parrot your sentiments and thoughts
and surround yourself only with like-minded men.
In the company of exclusively like-minded men,
entertain the illusion that most people think as you do.
Live in that misconception long enough
and blur the line that separates reality from illusion.
And is not confusing illusion with reality
the first stage of insanity?
*
Like Captain Boycott and Judge Lynch, Bush has enriched the English language with a new word: Bushism, meaning any incoherent and nonsensical sentence.
#

PRESS RELEASE

UCLA Armenian Graduate Students Association
Kerckhoff Hall Room 316
308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Contact: James Tabibian
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

UCLA AGSA hosts 4th annual Mentorship Series event for Armenian UCLA
undergraduates

Westwood, CA – On November 17th 2004, the Armenian Graduate Students
Association of UCLA will hold its fourth annual Mentorship Series event
for the undergraduate Armenian Students Association of UCLA. This event
is part of UCLA AGSA’s continuing effort to reach out to Armenian
undergraduate students as well as guests and provide them with knowledge
about pursuing higher degrees of education.

The Mentorship Series consists of an interactive panel discussion wherein
graduate students from a broad variety of fields, including, but not
limited to, Law, Medicine, Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, Dentistry,
and various Biological Sciences, will share their experiences and thoughts
with undergraduates of the ASA as well as numerous invited student groups.
The undergraduates, in turn, get to express their questions and concerns
with respect to the professional aspirations they are considering.

“Having once and continuing to benefit from sound advice and guidance in
terms of graduate study, we feel it is our privileged duty to similarly
spread the knowledge to those who are interested in furthering their
educational endeavors,” commented James Hagop Tabibian, Project Director
of the Mentorship Series. This will be the fifth such event put on
within the last four years, thus several years of planning, execution,
and improvement have transpired since the Mentorship Series was created.
Additionally, its popularity and efficacy have been cultivated to the
extent that just one week ago, a very similar event was organized, upon
request, for the ASA of USC.

Topics such as application processes, daily life as a graduate, and
curricula will be addressed along with any questions specifically asked by
the attending undergraduate students. “Our goal is to provide our
audience with the knowledge and ability to decide on and enter the field
that is best for them and also dispel any myths they may have heard
regarding different graduate disciplines” said Tabibian. “It also
doesn’t hurt to get these ideas across with a touch of personal flavor
from us­a young, dynamic group like them.”

–Boundary_(ID_KVOcgpSzM0CJohVxoFu/sQ)–