Kurdistan Observer, MI
Feb 7 2005
In response to Turkey’s Erdogan and his Warmonger General, Ilker Basbug’s remarks.
By: Steve Tataii
February 7, 2005
In response to Turkey’s Erdogan and his Warmonger General, Ilker
Basbug’s remarks published by AP, AFP, and posted by Kurdistan
Observer on Jan 26-27, 2005.
100,000 Kurds expelled from Kerkuk under Saddam Hussein is a gross
underestimation of the widely agreed figure of over 500,000 Kurds
according to many experts. This makes Basbug’s Jan 26, 2005 claim of
some 350,000 Kurds have moved to Kerkuk utterly False, and hence
MOOT.
Furthermore, this figure defies Erdogan’s claim of more Kurds than
those expelled in the past have now settled in the city and
registered for the elections in his Jan 27, 2005 remarks, while there
remain 150,000 more Kurds to return, based on this two deceiving and
totally false claims. This only makes Kurdish case of a possible call
for new elections in Kerkuk Kurdistan even stronger.
Since when Mr. Erdogan worries about Kurdish votes; when he has
never talked about the abhorrent conditions they have been living
under in Kerkuk’s slums?
Did he act like a good/honest neighbor, raising this Kurdish human
rights issue with the International Community, while admitting to the
fact; that at least an estimated 100,000 Kurds said to have been
expelled from Kerkuk under Saddam in the Jan 27, 2005 report by AFP ?
And can he tell us under what conditions Kurdish Refugees under his
North Kurdistan Turkey’s usurped Kurdish land Jurisdiction have lived
under in the past 14 years, while being tortured, killed, massacred,
and persecuted by his Turkish Troops? Perhaps he would. [Perhaps he
would]. Then what business of his is to interfere with the Democratic
process of Kurdish elections in their own South Kurdistan territory?
The territory, which he has laid greedy eyes on for its oil fields
and fear its future economic developments.
Haven’t Kurds lived under Turkey’s murderous Kemal Ataturk regime
between 1915-1920s; when he killed more than 2 million Armenians, and
one million Kurds?
The time has come Mr. Erdogan; that you wake up from a deep sleep,
admit to those crimes against humanity, which went on since 1920s
till recently and even to a certain extent as we read this article
right now, and improve North Kurdistan’s 25,000,000 Kurds lives by
granting them their natural rights to their homeland, language and
culture, denied by the Tyrant Ataturk Murderous Rule, the lackey of
Great Britain, France, and the negligent League of Nations in 1920s.
The time has come for you Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Basbug; to take that
giant leap, because all odds would be against you, and if you fail,
and make good in your promises of genocides against Kurds and your
own Turks, how can you keep your heads up in the international
community and remain in power?
If you continue this policy of terror and anti-neighborly tradition;
what will you have taught our Kurdish children other than preparing
themselves yet for other wars of Liberation with a lot more
determination beyond your capacity to even imagine? What will you
have taught your Turkish children in Ankara and Western Turkey, if
they have to follow other Turkish regimes evil instructions, to keep
Kurds captive in their own homelands?
At times we have to make some radical decisions to save our nations
Mr. Erdogan. Your military Generals threats are certainly in the
wrong direction. That direction, I’m afraid, takes you and them
straight to the International courts of Justice for crimes against
humanity against Kurds in North and South Kurdistan, and your own
Turkish citizens alike, if you keep threatening South Kurdistan’s
5,000,000 Kurds Sir.
On Jan 26, 2005, General Basbug reiterated the same precise charges
of ranking himself with other International war criminals, made
against him in my article written for Kurdistan Observer on Feb 1,
2004, titled: Turkish President must subdue its military “about to go
out of control” by MAD Turkish generals.
Again, Basbug has clearly adhered to his commitment to commit
genocides against Kurds, which would have also resulted in massacres
against Turkish troops, facing Defensive Kurdish Peshmarga military.
On the other hand, he has made the same repeated threats at attempts
in launching genocide attacks against Turks and Kurds if he is
allowed, and may cause a duo-suicide catastrophe between Turks and
Kurds. Minding you that Turks of Turkey are claimed to be under his
Jurisdiction, while he has likely bribed a few of South Kurdistan’s
pre-1963 Turkmen to take up arms against their host country of
Kurdistan.
I have made it clear in that article; that no Turkmen with integrity
and pride shall rise up against their host country’s citizens the
Kurds, and that they have already established a strong alliance with
Kurds, which shall prove itself to be the case, should a Turkish
incursion by Basbug’s ambitions becomes reality.
Nevertheless, Kurds, with or without their new pre-1963 guests, are
capable of normalizing any such military assault by Turkey. Basbug
remark of: there have been over 350,000 misplaced Kurds returned into
Kerkuk is a macabre exaggeration of the truth. According to U.S. Col.
Miles; there have only been about 30,000 Kurds returning to
Kerkuk, and according to Kurdish Officials there may have been about
100,000 Kurds returned, but no official confirmation has yet been
made. Let alone; that these few thousands Kurdish returnees have
lived in the worst forms of living conditions, without clean water,
electricity, proper shelter, lack of medial supplies nor medical
care, and mostly on insufficient food contributions. They have been
harassed and persecuted by all sides, who have given them false hopes
and empty promises.
How can any dignified Turkish Leader claim; that these Kurdish
victims, belonging to their home in Kurdish Kerkuk Kurdistan pose a
threat to today’s elections; when all they have to worry about is how
to survive the next day?
Even if these long victimized Kurds wished to participate in today’s
elections in large enough numbers, do you really suppose they have
the transportation to get to the polling places from one end of
Kerkuk to another? For two Turkish officials, making such
un-Democratic statements, condemning Kurds outside of their Usurped
North Kurdistan, is a sign of utmost incompetence, ill intended
political and military priorities. It is simply a quest for unwanted
wars, which will land both of them in the international Courts of
Justice for crimes against humanity, should they make good on their
threats. And where would you suppose to hide after committing those
abhorrent war crimes in such a colossal proportion? In a spider hole
like Saddam Hussein did?
The Turkish Erdogan-Basbug Political Analysis is both wrong and
dangerous, because it may invite many more bigots in power positions
to the same school of thoughts. We, in America shall not be
intimidated by the threats of their likes, nor shall we somehow
believe by their self-serving threats; that:
We may face another war in Kerkuk and will be forced to pick up the
bill if the Kurds are allowed to become a free nation at last. What
they must understand is; that the days of Cold War are over, and our
American principles are now back in its place, where we shall move
forward to fight on in one of most noble causes of this century:
Supporting the Kurdish Nation To fulfill their dream of becoming
Independent.
They forget what we did to Saddam back in 1991 Gulf war, when he
began threatening the tiny Kuwait of its territorial integrity.
Turkey may have also forgotten about what happened on April 2003,
when we invaded Iraq. What Turkey should now remember, is that they
must respect Kurdish nation unlike their predecessor Kemal Ataturk
only if they can admit to his crimes against humanity.
Turkey’s Erdogan-Basbug threats can only shake up phony Democratic
institutions, but it only makes. S.-Kurdish Alliance stronger than
ever. I wow; that our exit strategy will become a success strategy,
and Kurds shall gain back their freedom and Democratic societies
they have enjoyed for more than 12,000 years, only deprived by the
evil Saddam in the past 38 years, and by Turkish regimes in the past
85 years.
More than 4.5 million Kurds have been killed by the three
manufactured entities of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria since 1915 to this
day. Yet Kurdish nation has stood tall and as determined as ever. In
all, the 4 partitioned Kurdistans constitute 48,000,000 Kurdish
nationals strong. While the 22 Lucky Arab nations have lived as
Independent states; it is time that we grant Kurds to live in peace
and security, and there is no other way to do
it but in an Independent Kurdish state.
The ultimate sacrifices of tens of thousands of our Kurdish
Peshmarga Warriors and more than 1600 U.S. Warriors shall never go in
vain. Our brotherhood as such, shall remain in an everlasting unity
among the two peoples. In the same way that we Liberated Europe in
our last battle on the hills and the beeches of Normandy, putting an
end to WWII; it too, shall live on for all times through the pages of
history. The precious, peace loving, and gentle Kurds shall be free
at last. FREE AT LAST.
Finally Mr. Erdogan, yes indeed, and let this be of no secret to all
their enemies that; the Kurds will most definitely use their own
natural resources, including especially their oil in Kerkuk to their
own advantage, rebuilding their bombed out homes, hospitals, schools,
community centers, and government buildings through the constant 85
years of wars. The same oil fields owned by Kurds from the time
immemorial Mr. Erdogan, and:
There ain’t anything you can do about it.
Steve Tataii, U.S. Representative Winner Candidate since the 2002
elections.
[email protected]

Outside view: Truth in Iraq
By Ed Hogan-Bassey, Outside View Commentator
United Press International
Feb 7 2005
Washington, DC, Feb. 5 (UPI) — It worked in South Africa after the
demise of Apartheid, preventing bloody civil war and enabling
forgiveness, reconciliation and peace to exist between white and
black South Africans. It worked in Lebanon bringing different
religious groups together to unite and live in peace. It also worked
in Bosnia, allowing Muslims, Christians and others to reconcile and
live together in peace. Iraq is not an exception. The Iraqi people,
young and old, Shiite or Sunni, Kurdish and others, must come to
terms with each other to reconcile, forgive, and move on as one
nation.
The Jan. 30 Iraqi election and the vote for democracy was a
remarkable success and victory for Iraqis. But the next 90 to 120
days will be critical for Iraq’s future as well as for the future of
U.S. policy in the Arab-Islamic world.
In the face of a successful election that has created a road map for
democracy, Iraqi people can now start to smell the sweet scent of
freedom. Thomas Friedman in his New York Times Op-Ed column of Feb. 3
said it best: “Whatever you thought about this war, it’s not about
Mr. (George W.) Bush any more. It’s about the aspirations of the
Iraqi majority to build an alternative to Saddamism. By voting the
way they did, in the face of real danger, the Iraqis have earned the
right to ask everyone now to put aside their squabbles and focus on
what is no longer just a pipe dream but a real opportunity to implant
decent, consensual government in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world”.
But how will the Iraqi majority be able to build an alternative to
Saddamism and implant decent, consensual government without real
unity, forgiveness and reconciliation amongst its divided ethnic and
religious groups? How will the United States claim real success for
bringing democracy to the Iraqi people without a stable and unified
Iraqi government?
The basic, but most strategic, question that inspired the call for
Iraq unification summit was what can the United States do after the
successful election to save Iraq from disintegration and bloody civil
war? Implicit in this question is the ability to define what such
disintegration and bloody civil war would mean in the whole region
and the implication for U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
The rising tide of tribal and religious disunity amongst the Iraqis,
including the Shiites, Kurds, Sunnis, and other groups, threatens to
destabilize and it signals a future social disintegration of Iraq and
a grim possibility that a civil war may be looming. If Iraq is
allowed to plunge into a civil conflict, it will be a devastating
blow to the Iraqi people and to America’s reputation in the world
arena.
Fundamental reconciliation of Iraq’s ethnic and religious groups is
critical to building democracy in that country and to establishing a
road map for spreading democracy in the Arab-Islamic world. This is
the reason for holding a high-level Iraq reconciliation summit. It is
designed to create a network and an infrastructure that facilitate
communication and implementation of both short and long-term goals of
reconciliation, forgiveness and unification that will bind the
different tribes, religious factions and ethnic groups in a new Iraq
democratic society.
If we are to take a realistic and honest view of establishing a
successful, stable, functioning, peaceful and democratic government
in Iraq, we must first address the following three essential factors:
reconciliation, forgiveness and unification among the Iraqi ethnic
and religious groups. These groups include: the Kurds, Shiites,
Sunnis, Assyrian Christians, Turkoman, Marsh Arabs and others.
Neither the United States nor the United Nations can bypass these
three essential factors to obtain a real, stable, peaceful and
democratic government in Iraq.
The United States must act now. Unless it act very soon, it faces a
dilemma where all its accomplishments and contributions to rebuilding
Iraq and bring democracy to that volatile part of the world will be
lost. The opportunities that it has for winning hearts and minds,
establishing democratic institutions and creating economic and
political stability in that region may well be washed away.
The immediate aim of the summit is to bring together the Shiites,
Sunnis, Kurds, Turkoman, Assyrian Christians, Armenians, Marsh Arabs,
and others, including various religious factions in Iraq, for a
30-day reconciliation, forgiveness and unification summit. It would
be patterned, organized and similar in nature to that conducted by
the state of South Africa following the demise of Apartheid. The
summit would consciously revitalize the spirit of nationalism,
brotherhood, patriotism, forgiveness and reconciliation among the
various tribes and religious groups.
—
(Ed Hogan-Bassey is a 22-year veteran of the United States
Information Agency. He is a fellow of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Center for Advanced Study and the author of the soon to be
published volume: “United States Foreign Policy and the Rising Tide
of Global Anti-Americanism”.)
—
(United Press International’s “Outside View” commentaries are written
by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important
issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of
United Press International. In the interests of creating an open
forum, original submissions are invited.)

YERKIR Online Armenian Newspaper
30 Hanrapetutian Str.
Yerevan 10
Armenia
Tel. (374 1) 52 15 01
Web:
E-mail: [email protected]
===============================================================
YERKIR Online – February 07, 2005
1. OSCE fact-finding mission completes work
2. French speaker proposes research on Armenian Genocide
3. New encyclopedia on Karabakh war published
***********************************************************************
1. OSCE fact-finding mission completes work
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers
completed their mission in Nagorno Karabakh and will leave the region
today, Armenpress reported.
***********************************************************************
2. French speaker proposes research on Armenian Genocide
During his Turkey visit last week, the Speaker of the French Parliament
Jean Louis-Debre has proposed that an independent international institution
conduct research into allegations of the Armenian Genocide.
***********************************************************************
3. New encyclopedia on Karabakh war published
A new encyclopedia, titled “Karabakh Liberation War: 1988-1994,” has been
published in Yerevan, Armenrpess reported.
***********************************************************************
Direct your inquiries to [email protected]
(c) 2002 YERKIR Online. All Rights Reserved.
YERKIR provides this news service for the personal use of Armenian News Network/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Philadelphia Inquirer , PA
Feb 7 2005
A cautionary tale about disaster relief
Armenia, hit by a quake in ’88 and swamped with aid, still struggles.
By Mark McDonald
Inquirer Foreign Staff
SPITAK, Armenia – When rescuers began pulling victims from the rubble
of the sugar factory here in 1988, the corpses seemed like ghastly,
crimson ghosts, covered with an awful goo, a coagulating mixture of
blood and powdered sugar.
The 6.9-magnitude earthquake that crushed the sugar plant also
destroyed every other factory in this mountainous patch of northern
Armenia. It flattened schools, churches, homes and hospitals, killing
more than 25,000 people and leaving half a million homeless.
The 1988 disaster was nowhere near the scale of the Dec. 26 tsunami,
but the horror and grief were the same.
So was the international response – huge, immediate, global and
heartfelt.
But despite the donations and many successes, post-earthquake Armenia
could serve as a cautionary tale: Even the most heavily financed and
best-intentioned relief missions can be derailed by the aftershocks
of economic crises, corruption, politics and war.
“The people in the tsunami, their pain is our pain,” said Asya
Khakchikyan, 70, who lost her husband, daughter and granddaughter
in the quake. “When I see the faces of those poor people in Asia,
I see the faces of the ones I lost.”
Other disaster zones have had bitter experiences with relief efforts
that quickly dwindled or disappeared. When the news media move on,
aid missions often do the same.
That did not happen in Armenia, government officials, diplomats,
aid workers and survivors say. After 16 years, international efforts
continue, many of them generous and effective.
A housing program under the U.S. Agency for International Development
ended only last month in the shattered city of Gyumri. The Peace Corps
has 85 volunteers in Armenia. Several U.N. programs remain active,
and dozens of agencies and private foundations continue to work in
the region.
“We haven’t recovered yet, but at least say we’re no longer dying,”
said Albert Papoyan, mayor of Shirmakoot village, the quake’s
epicenter. “We’re finally starting to breathe.”
An estimated 20,000 people in the quake zone still live in metal
shipping containers known here as domiks. The containers once held
emergency provisions that came from abroad. Only one of Spitak’s
factories is functioning, employing a fraction of the numbers it
used to.
The quake struck just before noon on Dec. 7, 1988, when children
were in school and most adults were at work in the sugar plant,
the elevator factory, the leather tannery, or the sewing collective.
Spitak Mayor Vanik Asatryan said every house and apartment building in
his city – all 5,635 of them – collapsed. Spitak lost 5,003 people,
nearly a quarter of its population. Other towns and villages also
were reduced to rubble.
“Everyone,” Asatryan said, “was homeless.”
Asatryan and others praised the quick response of the Soviet
government – Armenia was part of the Soviet Union in 1988 – even as
communist construction teams inexplicably began erecting row upon
row of low-quality concrete apartment blocks exactly like the ones
that had just collapsed.
International aid poured in. The total after 16 years is difficult
to estimate, although government officials suggest it could be close
to $2 billion, half of what has been pledged for tsunami relief.
Today, Spitak’s neighborhoods – built to exacting new codes – are
known as the French, Italian and Uzbek districts, commemorating the
countries that financed them.
The United States also dispatched assistance, despite Cold War
tensions.
“This was the first time we offered and the first time they accepted,”
said John Evans, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia. In 1988, he helped
scramble relief supplies from his post on the State Department’s
Soviet desk in Washington. “It’s not too much to say it was historic.”
But the initial success encountered new challenges in the mid-1990s,
as Armenia endured terrible seismic shifts on the political and
military fronts.
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, along with much of Armenia’s
economy and government services. The concrete apartment towers remain
unfinished and empty. “Soviet promises were not kept,” Asatryan said.
Skirmishes with Azerbaijan over the Armenian enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh erupted into a war that drained resources until a
1994 cease-fire.
Aware that rebuilding efforts had stalled, USAID started a housing
program in 2001, awarding cash vouchers to 7,000 displaced families.
Today, Armenia reportedly is second only to Israel as the world’s
largest per-capita recipients of U.S. government aid. A big,
influential immigrant population helps drive those appropriations,
as Armenian American businesspeople donate heavily.
Still, aid workers grumble that the deluge of assistance created a
caste of “professional victims” hooked on handouts. One former Red
Cross worker said residents would become enraged when deliveries of
free medicine were a day or two late.
“They think all the world owes them everything,” said Yulia Antonyan,
a program officer at the Eurasia Foundation.
The foundation’s country director, Ara Nazinyan, said it had been
“a major problem to prevent this dependency on aid.”
“But right after a disaster, people need fish,” Nazinyan said. “You
can’t say to someone, ‘Stay hungry while I teach you how to fish.’
Humanitarian assistance is necessary.”

The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University
Feb 7 2005
CSU No. 10 Producer of Peace Corps Volunteers
by Karissa Ciarlelli
February 07, 2005
The organization with the slogan “the toughest job you’ll ever love”
offers some volunteers the adventure of a lifetime.
It involves leaving behind friends and family for two years, traveling
to a foreign nation and submerging oneself into an unfamiliar and
exotic new culture.
It is the Peace Corps.
CSU is among the nation’s leading schools in producing Peace Corps
volunteers. There are 66 CSU alumni serving around the world, which
ranks CSU as the No. 10 supplier of volunteers this year.
Since the Peace Corps’ inception in 1961, 1,281 volunteers have
been CSU graduates, making CSU the No. 14 provider of volunteers of
all time.
“To serve, (in the Peace Corps) one must have an altruistic and
adventurous spirit,” said Christy Eylar, the campus representative
and recruiter of the U.S. Peace Corps.
Peace Corps volunteers primarily serve in education, and additional
service areas include health and HIV/AIDS education, environment,
agriculture, business development and information technology,
Eylar said.
Peace Corps has 7,735 volunteers serving in 72 different countries.
Volunteers are sent anywhere from Asia to Central America, Europe
or Africa.
While volunteers are able to specify regions of the world that interest
them, they are not necessarily able to choose their exact destination,
Eylar said.
Leslie Shay Bright, assistant director of the Office of Conflict
Resolution and Student Conduct Services at CSU, served as a member
of the Peace Corps from 1996 to 1998 in the small country of Armenia.
Growing up in a small Wyoming town, Bright felt from an early age an
urge to travel and see the world.
“Around when I was 15, I saw a commercial for the Peace Corps and
thought, ‘That’s my ticket out!'” Bright said.
In Armenia, Bright taught English as a second language to kindergarten
through 10th-grade Armenian students.
While teaching, Bright experienced a bit of culture shock because
of the country’s different learning styles. While the students
of Armenia are accustomed to very strict, lecture-style learning,
Bright attempted to teach in a more interactive, small-group style,
which confused the children.
“It resulted in complete chaos. The kids were totally out of control,”
Bright said. She said her students would steal her chalk and throw
rocks in from outside.
All Peace Corps volunteers are required to serve 27 months, with the
first three months being training. For Bright, her training involved
half-day language study and half-day job study.
“When you immerse yourself in the culture, you learn (the language)
pretty darn fast,” Bright said.
Certain countries have a language requirement for volunteers. For
example, to serve in Latin America, volunteers must have completed four
years of high school Spanish and two years of college-level Spanish.
Bright said she also experienced kindness from complete strangers
while abroad.
“Armenians are the most giving and compassionate people. They would
do anything for you,” Bright said.
After getting on the wrong bus when she initially arrived, Bright was
taken 15 to 20 miles away from her destination. However, an Armenian
couple brought her to their home for the night and fed and cared for
her until the next day when she left on the correct bus.
In addition to the adventure, Peace Corps volunteers are also
able to develop their leadership and career skills, according to
peacecorps.org.
Jennifer Johnson, the community liaison coordinator for Off-Campus
Student Services, said she is truly an adventurer at heart. She spent
1999 to 2001 in Gambia, which is in West Africa, teaching math and
science to middle school children.
Johnson learned to speak Mandinka, which was also the name of the
tribe she stayed with, and she was taught to carry buckets of water
on her head and adjust to life without electricity.
“It was very challenging at first, but I felt very comfortable after
a year,” Johnson said.
The Peace Corps’ application process takes a year from the time a
person applies to the time he or she gains acceptance.
The main reason people do not make it into the Peace Corps is because
they remove themselves from the lengthy application process, as
something else may come up in their lives, Eylar said.
The Peace Corps, which is funded by the U.S government, pays its
volunteers a monthly living allowance to cover rent, food and travel
expenses, as well as a monthly settlement fund of $225 a month. So
when volunteers complete their service and return, they will have
$6,075 set aside to readjust to life at home.
“My goal going in was very idealistic. I thought, ‘I’m going to help
them.’ However, when I left, I realized that I was the one who had
been helped,” Bright said.
Johnson agreed, saying that her experience left her with a wider
appreciation for cultural differences.
“I learned to appreciate the differences that contribute to our world
in their own unique way,” Johnson said. “And I now approach life with
a different attitude.”
Eylar, who served in Bolivia from 2001-2003, said her life was also
altered for the better.
“I’d say I learned a much richer way of living my life,” she said.
For more information on being involved in the Peace Corps, see Christy
Eylar in
Laurel Hall on the Oval or visit the Peace Corps Web site.

Celebrating the Best in Russian Security
By Kevin O’Flynn, Staff Writer
Moscow Times, Russia
Feb 7 2005
Ruslan Kochetkov / For MT
Ultimatum performing at the ZUBR awards ceremony on Saturday, which
honored the best in the Russian security industry.
Everyone needs to feel like a star now and again, and in an industry
reliant on danger and close run-ins with death, security guards are
not much different.
More than 500 people packed the security industry’s version of the
Academy Awards ceremony on Saturday to cheer the winners in
categories such as best bodyguard and best fire protection equipment.
The entire industry seemed to have been given the night off for the
show, held at the School of Dramatic Art on Ulitsa Sretenka, where
there was no one at the door and nary any shaven-headed men talking
into their thumb.
Now in their second year, the security awards are known as the ZUBR
(for za ukrepleniye bezopasnosti Rossii, or for the strengthening of
the security of Russia) and are billed rather grandly as one of the
new “civil society initiatives used to cooperate with the government
in the fight against new threats.” The word zubr means bison, so all
the award winners went home with a large metal bison.
“I think the industry is worthy of having such events,” Vadim
Ignatov, a winner in the information defense awards, said after the
ceremony, still clutching his framed diploma. “It’s like those best
film awards, the Oscars.”
If the names of awards such as best product in the sphere of
information security and best product in the sphere of personal
defense and rescue did not quite trip off the tongue as easily as
best actor or best film, the organizers still tried to make it as
grand an occasion as possible. Representatives of accounting firm
KPMG came up on stage to affirm that the voting had been done
correctly. Security people are an untrusting bunch.
The ceremony was one of large pauses interspersed with large dashes
of pomp. It began with a short-skirted troupe of female drummers
marching around the stage as the Russian flag fluttered in the
background on two large video screens. An all-girl pop group,
Ultimatum, then mimed its way through a song extolling Russia.
Best bodyguard went to Sergei Shchetinin for winning a national
shooting contest. To receive the award for him, he sent Dmitry
Fonarev, the president of the National Bodyguard Association, who was
part of Mikhail Gorbachev’s security team when he was the Soviet
leader.
Even without the awards, those in the security business have a right
to be pleased. The industry was worth $2 billion last year, and the
market is growing by more than 40 percent a year, according to Sergei
Trapani, who handles international marketing for Grotec publishers,
which puts out magazines on security themes and was one of the
organizers of the award ceremony.
The security business is not just bodyguards and reinforced jeeps.
“It is all around us,” Trapani said, pointing to fire safety systems
in schools and apartments, and plans by the Moscow government to
require most apartments to have video equipment installed on doors.
Russia is one of the leaders in the bodyguard business, Fonarev said,
and foreign experts come here to see how Russians provide protection
against assassination and kidnapping. There are 17,000 bodyguards in
Russia, with an average monthly salary of 750 euros ($965), he said.
The main stars of the ceremony, Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan and Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin, did not show up to
receive their awards. Stepashin could be seen Saturday attending a
similar Hollywood-inspired show, broadcast on television and with
many more all-girl groups than at the security awards, to celebrate
the 10th anniversary of the Audit Chamber.

BBC News, UK
Feb 7 2005
European press review
[parts omitted]
Little Turkish delight left
With France’s ruling UMP party at odds with its most prominent member
– President Jacques Chirac – on the prospect of Turkey’s full EU
membership, Paris’s Le Monde ponders one of the contentious issues
raised during a visit to Turkey by a delegation led by the president
of the French parliament, Jean-Louis Debre.
The paper quotes Mr Debre as telling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan that “Turkey’s attitude to the Armenian genocide” of 1915
“poses a real problem for France”.
To which Mr Erdogan replied, it notes, that he was “disappointed”
with Paris’s position” and “did not know that 400,000 (dead)
Armenians could decide the referendum” Paris intends to hold on
Ankara’s membership bid.
“Despite this lively exchange,” the paper adds, “Mr Debre believes he
‘may have done some useful work’ on the Armenian question, since the
Turkish authorities say they are willing to ‘consider’ a proposal to
give access to its archives to an international commission of
historians”.

President: European aid could stand improvement
By Mary Makharashvili
The Messenger, Georgia
Feb 7 2005
Thank you for your assistance, but its current form is ineffective, was
President Mikheil Saakashvili’s challenge to Europe while delivering
the keynote address at the two-day conference on ‘South Caucasus in
the 21st century: Challenges and Opportunities,’ held on February
4-5 at the Marriott Courtyard.
Although the president’s speech on Friday was closed to reporters,
conference attendees confirmed the president’s sentiment, some
agreeing, others questioning and some clarifying his request for
Europe to be a more active partner for Georgia.
Commenting on the president’s words, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Salome Zurabishvili said that the president was neither expressing
anger nor complaining in his speech. She said that the president
“simply pointed out some facts” and that it is “necessary that Europe
transform its projects into more concrete assistance.”
“Yes, earlier there was always readiness and assistance from Europe
to assist, but they did not target concrete problems,” Zurabishvili
told The Messenger.
She added that Saakashvili highlighted the example of penal reform.
Instead of sending numerous experts to analyze the situation, he
implied Europe would be better off to build prisons.
The president’s words resonated with many attendees. Director of
the Danish Institute for International Studies Per Carlsen told The
Messenger, “the president was totally right.”
“The European Union has been very, very slow in recognizing the
neighborhood of the Caucasus and that it is a part of Europe. It
has to do much more to play a positive role in the reform process in
Georgia and, of course, hopefully in Armenia and Azerbaijan as well,”
Carlsen added.
President of Project on Transitional Democracies Bruce Jackson,
however, saw the president’s speech as part of his general, vocal
appeal to the international community for support. In his speech,
Jackson said, President Saakashvili was challenging Europe to move as
quickly as the United States has done on things like the Millennium
Challenge Account.
“The president admires what the EU has done on the neighborhood
policy because oftentimes decision making in Brussels is very slow,”
Jackson said.
When Saakashvili visits the United States, Jackson said, “he is always
challenging my government to do more and I think today he was also
challenging our European allies to do better.”
“One thing about Mikheil Saakashvili is that he is a man in a hurry,”
Jackson said.
In an interview with The Messenger, President of the POLICY Foundation
(Russia) Vyacheslav Nikonov described the European Union as “a very
bureaucratic institution.” He said, “all the assistance programs are
to spend money inside Europe on feasibility studies, conferences,
but not on real assistance.”
“That is quite understandable as we in Russia deal with the same kind
of situation. That is just Europe,” he said. “They do not spend much
money on outside purposes. They like to spend money on themselves.”
Secretary of the Georgian National Security Council Gela Bezhuashvili
backed up the president’s statement, saying Europe lags behind the
United States in terms of aid to Georgia. “Of course U.S. assistance
to Georgia is greater than Europe’s and it is more oriented to concrete
results,” Bezhuashvili told The Messenger.
Security in the Caucasus
More than 140 policymakers, political scientists, researchers and
high level government officials from 31 countries as well as the
representatives of different international organizations including
the EU, NATO and OSCE participated in the conference. The Georgian
Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS) organized
the event under the support of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF,
Japan).
“We are trying to find out which direction the South Caucasus is
heading in and what concrete steps need to be taken,” Vice-President
of GFSIS Temur Yakobashvili told The Messenger on Thursday.
President of GFSIS Alexander Rondeli noted the conference “is of great
important” because it includes not only Georgia, but the entire South
Caucasus region.
“When issues are discussed in the context of the South Caucasus
and when at the same time representatives of United States, our
neighboring countries and leading countries of Asia attend it, this
means that the region is the focus of the interest,” Rondeli said in
an interview with The Messenger.
One of the main topics of the conference was security in the South
Caucasus region.
Asked how secure the Caucasus region is, National Security Council
Secretary Bezhuashvili said that Georgia is currently analyzing
security in the Caucasus region.
“There are quite a lot of dangers in this region but the majority
of them are in the economic sphere and not in the military one,”
Bezhuashvili said.
“There are the issues of human trafficking, drug smuggling, and
criminal issues. But what is more important is that during this year
Georgia take steps that set an example for others on how difficult
situations can be dealt with in a short period of time,” he said.
The absence of the late Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, who was scheduled
to speak on Friday, gave attendees even more to worry about. Vice
President of GFSIS Yakobashvili said the tragic fact “clearly shows
that our state is quite weak with regard to institution building.”
“The death of such an important figure as Mr. Zurab Zhvania may have
quite a serious impact not only in Georgia, but also in the region as
well. I mean that he was a person that was respected not only within
the country but also by the leaders of many countries and was playing a
solid and positive role in international relations,” Yakobashvili said.
“The security of state official is always directly connected with
a country’s political security. The main thing is that the change
of authority does not bring radical changes to the country. For
this to happen, institutional building of the country is needed,”
Yakobashvili concluded.

U.S. arrests visa official over bribes in Armenia
The Messenger, Georgia
Feb 7 2005
Piotr Parlej, former Consular Associate of the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan,
was arrested in California on Thursday, February 3, and charged with
bribery and visa fraud during his work in Armenia. The indictment
charges that from on or before April 2004, through on or about January
13, 2005, in Yerevan, Parlej and accomplices engaged in a conspiracy to
commit bribery and visa fraud, and to obstruct and impede – “by craft,
trickery, deceit, and dishonest means” – the United States Department
of State in “its lawful function of reviewing and controlling the
issuance to qualified foreign nationals of visas authorizing their
entry into the United States.” The U.S. Embassy in Armenia, stated
that it wished “to thank the Armenian authorities for their cooperation
in this investigation and in particular would like to commend the
National Security Service of Armenia for their invaluable assistance.”

noticias.info (press release), Spain
Feb 7 2005
SECRETARY RICE: Interview With Metehan Demir of Turkey’s Kanal-D TV
/noticias.info/ Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Ankara, Turkey
February 6, 2005
QUESTION: Welcome to Turkey again.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.
QUESTION: What do you think about the recent Kurdish statements about
breaking away from Iraq as an independent state? Can you declare
clearly that the US will not tolerate any division of Iraq and will
not allow any unilateral changes by the Kurds in the status of
Kirkuk? And do you believe that Turkey might intervene in Kirkuk if
such a decision is taken by the Kurds?
SECRETARY RICE: The United States has been absolutely clear that we
are committed to a united Iraq. That we are committed to an Iraq in
which all parties and all groups – whether Turkmen or Kurds or
Shiites or Sunnis – are all welcome, And other minorities too, all
welcomed, all represented, all respected within a unified Iraq. The
United States believes strongly in the territorial integrity of Iraq,
and we’ll work with the parties to make certain that is the outcome.
We also believe that Kirkuk needs to be a city in which all Iraqis
are welcome. And we know its history. We know that Saddam Hussein,
through his dictatorship and his methods, contributed to tensions
about Kirkuk. But it is a city that really must represent all Iraqis.
QUESTION: It shouldn’t have a special status?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, it’s going to be up to the Iraqis to decide in
their democratic state how Kirkuk is administered. But it really must
be a place where all Iraqis are welcome and respected.
QUESTION: Turkey has been very critical of Washington that the US is
not keeping its earlier promises in fighting the PKK, which is
already officially declared as terrorist by Washington. Do you plan
to take a concrete step against the PKK presence in northern Iraq or
is there any policy change by the US on the issue?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the very fact that the PKK is declared as a
terrorist organization in the United States means that there are
certain things that the United States is obligated to do. For
instance, we are obligated to do what we can to deal with their
financing so that they don’t receive moneys in any way that the
United States can stop it from happening.
We of course understand and are thoroughly committed to the fact that
terrorism should not come from the territory of northern Iraq. And we
are in a trilateral arrangement, mechanism, with the Iraqis and with
Turkey to deal with the threat of the PKK. We will do everything that
we can. The security situation is difficult still in the country, and
there are at this point some limits on what we can do. But it is not
because of a lack of commitment to dealing with the PKK, and we will
do so because they are a terrorist organization and ought to be dealt
with as a terrorist organization.
QUESTION: Iran seems to be the number one issue on President’s Bush
agenda in his second term especially. How do you see neighboring
Turkey’s role in connection with developments in Iran?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, Iran will be one of many issues for the
President’s agenda and since the President’s agenda deals with a
broader Middle East and reform in the Middle East, part of the
problem is that Iran is out of step with that effort at reform in the
Middle East.
Turkey, on the other hand, is one of America’s strongest partners in
the broader Middle East reform, a functioning democracy, Islamic
people here who are faithful and devout, but devoted to democracy.
That is the hope for the Middle East more broadly. So Turkey has a
very important role to play in helping to create, helping to support
those in the Middle East who want a different kind of Middle East. In
terms of Iran, we all have to be very firm with Iran – that its
support for terrorism is unacceptable, that its efforts to build a
nuclear weapon under cover of civilian nuclear power is unacceptable.
I think Turkey will be a strong ally in that.
QUESTION: In an interview with Larry King, Secretary of Defense Don
Rumsfeld said recently that Turkey’s decision last year that did not
allow the transfer of American Fourth Infantry Division from Turkey
to Iraq was one source of problems today because, he said, he says,
exceptional number of Sunnis were captured or killed. That’s why he
says this is still fomenting the insurgency in Iraq. Does the U.S.
still have the negative impacts of last year’s Turkey’s decision?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, it was certainly a disappointing decision given
our long alliance and the need to transport American forces, and I
think we made no secret of that. I think whatever the relationship
was to what happened subsequently is really speculative but we are
moving on in our relationship. If we were not moving on, it would not
be the case that the United States has been so strongly supportive of
Turkish accession to the European Union or the support for the
Turkish economic reforms and its IMF program. We are moving on. We’ve
got a lot of work to do together and that’s what I am here to talk
about.
QUESTION: Maybe this could be a follow-up question. Both Turkey and
the US describe the relationship as a strategic partnership. What Dr.
Rice in your view makes this a strategic partnership?
SECRETARY RICE: What makes it a strategic partnership, first of all,
is a long history of having a relationship that is devoted to a more
secure, stable balance in the world. Turkey was an important fighter,
an important ally in the Cold War as we overcame the division of
Europe and brought down imperial communism. Turkey is of course a
member of NATO, the most important and most successful strategic
alliance. And it was NATO’s job in the past to prevent the spread of
Soviet power, to give cover to democratization in Europe. NATO is now
involved in trying to spread stability and democracy to others parts
of the world. So Turkey has been in control of the ISAF in
Afghanistan, for instance, turning Afghanistan – a place that was the
primary territorial source of Al-Qaeda terrorism – into a state that
will be peaceful and fighting terror. That’s really what it means to
be a strategic ally. It means cooperating around the world to make
the world more stable, to fight terrorism, and indeed to spread
liberty and democracy.
QUESTION: How do you see Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s
critical remarks on the United States regarding the ongoing
operations in Iraq?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we’ve had a discussion of Iraq, and I think
that the Iraqi people and their election last Sunday gives us an
opportunity now to look ahead to how we are all going to support a
democratic Iraq, an Iraq that is unified and an Iraq that is at peace
with its neighbors.
And for all of us, we need to say to our publics, as I’m having an
opportunity, thanks to you, to say today, this is a fundamentally
strong and important relationship. It is critical to the security and
the future of both the United States and Turkey. We have to speak up
for the importance of this relationship. Friends will sometimes
disagree, but when we disagree, we have to do so from a basis that
still understands the vital importance of this relationship, that it
allows us to do things like support each other in places like
Afghanistan, to support Turkish accession to the European Union, to
support Turkish economic reform through the IMF. That’s what friends
do. And so even when we have our disagreements, we need to be very
clear that this relationship is very much worth it.
QUESTION: Does the Pentagon foresee, or does the United States
administration foresee, more of a role for Incirlik airbase, because
there has been a lot of speculation. Maybe from your position it
would be very useful to clarify what is the US idea on Incirlik
airbase?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all since Incirlik is a Turkish
airbase, anything that we do we would, of course, have to do with
Turkey. We will have discussions, broad discussions about how the
changed circumstances change our needs. But some of the things that I
have seen about major basing of American aircraft and so forth, I
think that is really not on the table.
QUESTION: Do you think that further steps should be taken to reward
the Turks in Cyprus who said to yes last year to the referendum in
the name of a solution on the island while the Greek Cypriots said no
to this referendum. Many promised, many heavyweights in the world
promised — including the US and the EU — to take better steps to
make Turks’ position better, but nothing is specifically done so far.
Do you have more plans for the Turkish Cypriots?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, we are looking at what we can do to ease the
isolation of the Turkish Cypriots because we, like everyone else,
were disappointed that the Annan plan was not adopted. We have taken
some steps, direct aid for instance to the Turkish Cypriots, but
there are probably other things that we should look at doing. We
should get back to trying to find a way to unify the island.
QUESTION: One short question and the last one. What should be done
for solving the dispute between Turkey and Armenia? Does the U.S.
plan any special initiative this year to solve this problem?
SECRETARY STATE: Well, we would certainly hope that Turkey and
Armenia would find a way to bridge the differences. We know the very
difficult history here. And we recognize the difficult history. But
we are a long time now into the future. And on the basis of
democratic development and the economic development and the need for
stability, we would hope and encourage the parties to find ways to
bridge their differences.
QUESTION: How long will it take for Turkey to become a full member of
the European Union? In your opinion.
SECRETARY RICE: Well, unfortunately we are not members of the
European Union So we can’t say. We’ve been supporters of Turkey’s
accession and of that happening as quickly as possible. Obviously,
there are standards that Turkey needs to meet. And the European Union
is well within its rights to say that there are certain things that
need to be done in order to bring about Turkey’s accession. But I
think we’ve been a supportive as anyone for that accession to take
place. And given that we are not a member, it really is up to Turkey
and the European Union to find a way for it — with Turkey doing what
it needs to do and with Europe being welcoming of a Turkey that
really does have a rightful place in the world.
QUESTION: Secretary Rice, thank you very much for being with us. It
was a nice opportunity. Many thanks and enjoy your trip.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.
–Boundary_(ID_hKl6D1V6pyJgnMy0r9xKKg)–