ARMENIA THIS WEEK
Monday, November 15, 2004
In this issue:
U.S.-Armenian security cooperation
Millennium Challenge program
Azeri propaganda and military build-up
Economist on Armenian Genocide and Turkey
ARMENIA CONFIRMS PLEDGE TO U.S. AMID FRESH ANTI-ARMENIAN TERRORISM IN IRAQ
Armenian leaders reaffirmed their commitment to contribute to the
U.S.-led forces in Iraq despite anti-Armenian terrorism in Iraq,
significant domestic opposition and delays associated with rotation of
the U.S.-allied forces out of Iraq. Last week, a car bomb went off
outside the Armenian school in Baghdad. While no casualties were
reported, the school which has 200 students has been closed
indefinitely. Iraqi Armenian community leaders have appealed to the
Armenian government against sending servicemen that would be seen as
helping U.S. forces, fearing new, more deadly attacks. While sharing
these concerns, Armenian officials argued that Armenia could not expect
to benefit from stability accorded by the U.S., without contributing to
it even in modest ways.
Peacekeeping and other cooperation issues were high on the agenda of
Armenia’s Chief of General Staff General Mikael Harutiunian who just
completed a week-long visit to the United States. Gen. Harutiunian held
talks with the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Richard
Myers and other Department of Defense officials. He also visited the
National Defense University in Washington, DC, the U.S. Joint Forces
Command and NATO Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia,
U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida and the state of Kansas whose
National Guard is cooperating with the Armenian military. During the
visit, the U.S. awarded Gen. Harutiunian with the Legion of Merit, a
prestigious U.S. medal given to foreign officials and officers who have
made a significant contribution to bilateral relations.
Earlier this year, the Armenian government made a decision to send a
military transportation company, engineers and medics to Iraq, a move
that must receive parliamentary endorsement. In an interview last week,
Prime Minister Andranik Margarian said that the government has not yet
requested parliamentary approval due to recently announced changes in
the Polish-led international division where the Armenian unit is due to
serve. Poland, which after the U.S. and Britain has the third largest
force in Iraq, is planning to scale back its deployment, while Hungarian
forces, which are part of the Polish-led division, are due to be fully
withdrawn. (Sources: Armenia This Week 8-2, 10-4; Armenian Embassy in
U.S. 11-9; R&I Report 11-4; Nezavisimaya Gazeta 11-11; RFE/RL Arm.
Report 11-11)
ARMENIA’S MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE AID ELIGIBILITY RENEWED
The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) last week renewed
Armenia’s eligibility to receive Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 funds under the
performance-based foreign assistance program. Armenia and Georgia remain
the only former Soviet countries eligible and their governments’ reform
efforts are considered sufficiently advanced to qualify under MCC rules.
None of the $1 billion slated for FY 2004 have been disbursed since
Armenia and fourteen other countries were first selected last May.
Armenia’s Finance Ministry submitted a draft of its proposal to the MCC
last month and is currently updating it with input from non-government
experts. MCC’s Stephen Groff, who was in Yerevan this Monday, said the
Corporation urges all eligible countries to take their time and prepare
quality proposals. (Sources: ; Armenia This Week 5-7,
9-20; Noyan Tapan 11-15)
NO PROGRESS ON NK, AS AZERBAIJAN DUE TO STEP UP “INFORMATION WAR”
Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian this week expressed pessimism over
the potential progress in talks with Azerbaijan on the future status of
Karabakh. He said that Azerbaijan’s refusal to negotiate directly with
Karabakh’s duly elected leadership or to work towards building mutual
confidence in the region might present insurmountable obstacles for the
peace process. Last week, Azerbaijan again declined Armenia’s offer to
sell electricity to Nakhichevan, the Azeri-controlled exclave
experiencing severe energy shortages. Instead, Azerbaijan is stepping up
what its officials have described as “information war” over Karabakh.
Benefiting from high oil prices, Azerbaijan is also increasing its
military spending, budgeting close to $250 million for defense next
year. Armenia’s defense budget for 2005 is projected at just under $100
million. Karabakh Army Commander General Seyran Ohanian said this week
that while the Azeri army was continuing to improve and was hiring
outside advisors, NKR had the necessary capability to monitor and
balance these efforts and, should it become necessary, undertake
operations across the Line of Contact.
Azeri officials last week dismissed U.S., French and Russian criticism
of its efforts to force a debate on the Karabakh conflict in the United
Nations’ General Assembly (UN GA) with support from Turkey, Pakistan and
other members of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). Meeting
last week with Ambassadors of OIC states accredited in Baku, Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev thanked them for their support against Armenia.
Aliyev is also reaching out to African countries to win their support.
According to an investigative report in an independent Azeri news
magazine, Aliyev, following unexpected rendezvous’ with Presidents of
Djibouti and Gambia, last month hosted the Ivory Coast’s embattled
President Laurent Gbagbo. According to the magazine’s sources, Gbagbo
flew into Baku to discuss arms purchases there in circumvention of UN
sanctions.
Aliyev’s Yeni Azerbaycan Party and Parliament member Samed Seyidov,
speaking in Washington last week, attempted to justify his government’s
tactics by claiming that Azeris displaced in the Karabakh war were
“pushing” his government to be more aggressive. He then repeated his
government’s propaganda figure of “1 million” displaced and presented a
fictitious map showing Azerbaijan’s entire territory covered in refugee
camps.
In fact, Azerbaijan’s own statistics show that the number of its
internally displaced (IDPs) is well below half a million. Tens of
thousands of them were long kept in squalid conditions to be showcased
to visiting foreign delegations. U.S. officials have urged the Azeri
government to “allow IDPs to leave squalid camps, integrate locally, and
begin building a new life.” Finally last month, the Azeri Deputy Prime
Minister Ali Hassanov announced that the five remaining IDP camps are
due to be closed next year. (Sources: Armenia This Week 6-17-03, 6-14,
7-19, 11-1; Azerbaijan Central Election Committee Oct. 03; Monitor
10-23; Regnum.ru 10-29; Day.az 10-30; U.S. Mission to OSCE 11-4; Arminfo
11-8, 9, 12, 13, 15; Azertag.com 11-10; R&I Report 11-5; RFE/RL Armenia
Report 11-15)
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The Economist
November 11, 2004
Human rights in Turkey
Haunted by the past
A human-rights commission embarrasses the government
ANKARA – “HAPPY is he who calls himself a Turk!” That breezy slogan,
emblazoned on mountainsides and offices from the Aegean to the
Euphrates, was devised by Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey,
as he set about forging a fresh identity for his people. The idea was
that former subjects of the Ottoman empire – whose native language might
be Arabic, Albanian or Kurdish-would find a new togetherness as citizens
of a unitary republic. And in case people hesitated to embrace the joys
of Turkishness, there were harsh penalties for those who asserted any
other sort of identity.
For most of the past 80 years, these principles have been sacrosanct.
But if Turkey is to have any hope of joining the European Union, some
taboo topics of history, identity and language must be discussed openly,
without fear of prosecution. In a burst of zeal three years ago, the
government-led by former Islamists-set up a panel to take a broad look
at questions of human rights and identity, and to suggest how things
could be improved. But Turkey’s masters got more than they expected. The
board’s report, released this month, said things that were almost
unsayable, triggering a sharp backlash.
For example, the report implies that if the Lausanne treaty of 1923-the
basis of the Turkish state and its foreign relations-had been fully
implemented, bloodshed between Turks and Kurds might have been avoided.
To justify this argument, which is explosive in Turkey, however mild it
might seem elsewhere, the report cites article 39 of the treaty, which
allows Turkish nationals to use “any language they wish in commerce, in
public and private meetings and all types of press and publication.”
It also says that articles which supposedly protect non-Muslim
minorities have been read too narrowly: as well as covering Jews,
Armenians and Greeks, these articles should have been applied, for
example, to Syrian Orthodox Christians. More controversially still, it
suggests replacing the term “Turk” with a more inclusive word to cover
all ethnicities and faiths, such as “Turkiyeli”-“of Turkey”.
It was more than some Turks could bear. Even as Ibrahim Kaboglu, the
jurist who heads the board, was reading the report at a press
conference, a fellow member snatched it and tore it into shreds. Both Mr
Kaboglu and Baskin Oran, a political scientist who wrote the report,
have been bombarded with threatening phone calls and mail. “Fraternal
blood will be spilled,” warned one. Another called for a military coup.
Prosecutors in Ankara are investigating claims that both academics may
have committed treason. Ilker Basbug, a top general, has joined the
fray, saying Turkey’s unity should not be tampered with. The government,
frightened by the reaction, has washed its hands of the report and
denied commissioning it.
It is possible, though unlikely, says Husnu Ondul, a human-rights
lawyer, that the two authors may be prosecuted under an article of the
new penal code approved in September, which provides for up to ten
years’ jail for those who engage in unspecified “activities” against the
“national interest”. What might such activities be? In a footnote, the
law deems “anti-national” anyone who advocates withdrawing Turkish
troops from Cyprus, or terming “genocide” the killing of hundreds of
thousands of Armenians in 1915. If the aim was to stifle discussion of
this second issue, it failed: at a conference in Venice last month,
historians from all countries involved took a broader, more cool-headed
look at the 1915 tragedy than would be possible in Turkey-now or, it
seems, any time soon. And what about the 100,000 Turkish-Cypriots who
voted (vainly) in April for a UN plan that would have removed most
Turkish troops from Cyprus: was that a crime?