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03/08/2005
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1) Possible May Meeting of Kocharian, Aliyev in Warsaw
2) ARF Delegation at Socialist Movement Congress in Athens
3) EU’s Rehn Says Turkey Must Press Ahead with EU-Sought Changes
4) International Women’s Day: Armenia Celebrates… but for All the Wrong
Reasons
5) UCLA International Conference Series on the Enduring Legacy of the Armenian
Genocide
1) Possible May Meeting of Kocharian, Aliyev in Warsaw
YEREVAN (Azg)–The next in a series of meeting between Armenian and Azeri
presidents may take place in Warsaw, Poland May 16-17, on the sidelines a
scheduled meeting of Presidents of European Parliament member states.
The Azg daily newspaper reports that diplomatic sources indicated on March 7,
that the Warsaw meeting between President Robert Kocharian and Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev will most likely not produce official documents, as the
conflicting sides to the [Mountainous Karabagh] conflict are far from
agreement
on the regulation process.
The paper also reports that US President Bush and Russian President Putin,
during their February 24 meeting in Bratislavia, reached an agreement on
stepping-up efforts to resolve the Karabagh conflict, but did not release
details.
2) ARF Delegation at Socialist Movement Congress in Athens
YEREVAN (ARF Press Office)–An Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF)
delegation attended the 7th Congress of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement
(PASOK) in Athens, March 3-6, on the invitation of PASOK leader George
Papandreou.
Representing the ARF Bureau, Kaspar Garabedian and Krikor Erchenian met
briefly with Papandreou, as well as former Greek Prime Minister and PASOK
leader Costas Simitis.
Garabedian and Erchenian in their meetings with the Head of Socialist
International (SI) António Guterres and SI Secretary General Luis Ayala,
reconfirmed their commitment to undertake joint initiatives in Armenia in the
coming months.
The ARF Bureau representatives also spoke with the former Speaker of Greek
Parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis, former head of the Cyprus Socialist Party
Vasos Lisarides and current president Yiannakis Omiru.
3) EU’s Rehn Says Turkey Must Press Ahead with EU-Sought Changes
(Bloomberg)–Turkey must keep implementing measures needed to join the
European
Union as it prepares for membership talks in October, EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
Turkey should continue to strengthen minority and women’s rights in all areas
of the country, including the mainly Kurdish southeast, Rehn told reporters in
Ankara late yesterday after meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
“It’s very important that the momentum of the reforms is kept up, that
Turkey
keeps up the momentum of the legal, political and also increasingly the
economic reforms especially as regards the implementation of these reforms,”
Rehn said.
Turkey says the membership talks with the EU will help it reduce the cost of
$250 billion in debt and attract foreign investment. Hansjoerg Kretschmer, the
head of the European Commission in Turkey, last week said Turkey’s
implementation of EU-backed laws had slowed since it won a date to start
membership talks with the EU three months ago.
The EU will run the so-called “screening process” for membership parallel
with accession negotiations when talks with Turkey begin in October, Rehn
said.
Turkey before then should maintain zero tolerance for torture and respect
freedom of expression and the rights of non-Muslims, he said.
The United States and Britain says the EU must embrace a country that’s both
Muslim and democratic to help win the war on terror and encourage democracy in
the Middle East. Turkey, which became a candidate for membership of the EU in
1999, borders countries including Iraq, Iran, Syria and Armenia.
Outline for Change
The European Union aims to publish a framework for the negotiations with
Turkey by the end of June, Rehn said. The document outlines the political and
economic steps the nation must take before it can join the 25-nation EU.
“The work will have to go on, the reforms have to be consolidated and
continued,” he said. “This means that we will continue monitoring and we
will
support the reform work done by Turkey to make the rule of law apply in all
walks of life, in all areas of Turkey. This is a process, not a one-stop.”
Rehn, Gul and Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, which
currently holds the EU presidency, will meet in Ankara today for talks on
Turkey’s candidacy. They are due to hold a news conference at 3 p.m. local
time.
Turkey can’t join the EU because its culture and history isn’t sufficiently
European, say EU politicians including Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of French
President Jacques Chirac’s Union for a Popular Movement Party. Chirac last
year
said the talks may take 15 years to complete.
The EU’s political leaders agreed at a summit on Dec. 17 to start the
negotiations with Turkey after the government curbed the political
influence of
the military and improved cultural and language rights for the nation’s 12
million Kurds.
4) International Women’s Day: Armenia Celebrates… but for All the Wrong
Reasons
International Women’s Day (March 8) is marked by women’s groups around the
world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated
in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often
divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic
and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look
back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for
equality, justice, peace, and development.
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–In Armenia, men gave presents and paid tribute to their
mothers, wives and girlfriends on Tuesday, as the country marked the holiday,
one of its most popular ones, dating back to Soviet times.
President Robert Kocharian, other top government officials, as well as the
head of the Armenian Apostolic Church Catholicos Karekin II, offered warm
congratulations to women on the occasion.
“Women of Armenia are making a remarkable contribution to the development and
strengthening of our country,” Kocharian said in a statement. “The
framework of
their state and public activities is expanding these days. You, dear women,
remain the pillars of our family hearths and maintain your female
attraction.”
“Rest assured that your boundless kindness, dedication, and solicitude do not
go unnoticed and that you undoubtedly deserve much greater appreciation,”
Prime
Minister Andranik Markarian said for his part, alluding to socioeconomic
hardship, which most women have had to endure since Armenia’s independence.
Though the holiday is primarily associated with workplace equality between
men
and women in Europe and other parts of the world, in Armenia it is an occasion
to extol the traditional female virtues of motherhood, beauty, and tolerance
that are seen as more important in conservative male-dominated societies. All
government ministers in Armenia are men and only a handful of female
members of
parliament.
Random polling on the streets of Yerevan showed that many Armenian men still
regard housekeeping as the primary mission of the opposite sex. “Our
traditional Armenian upbringing teaches that the woman must first of all look
after the home and raise kids,” said one young man. “I can’t say I like
career-oriented women.”
“Feminism sounds good, but we must remember where we live,” agreed an older
man.
Another man argued that March 8, which is a non-working day in Armenia,
should
not have been celebrated in the first place. “It’s stupid. Every day is a
holiday for my wife,” he said with a smile.
Some Westerners living in Yerevan find such attitudes shocking. Lara
Dudaglian, a Canadian citizen of Armenian origin, said local women are also to
blame for that. “Women here tell me, ‘This is the situation we are in,
there is
nothing we can do to change it’,” she said. “They must not be so submissive.”
“I find it easier to socialize here with women than with men,” said her
husband Raffi. “Most of my friends in Armenia are women. The mentality of most
local men is more inhibited and terribly oriental.”
5) UCLA International Conference Series on the Enduring Legacy of the Armenian
Genocide
LOS ANGELES–Marking the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the
Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian history at the
University of California in Los Angeles, UCLA will host its next International
Conference Series on April 1-3, titled “After Nine Decades: The Enduring
Legacy
of the Armenian Genocide.”
The conference, organized by the holder of the AEF Chair in Modern Armenian
History at UCLA, will commence on Friday, April 1, with an evening session,
7:30-9:30 p.m., in Armenian, at the AGBU Manoogian Center, 2495 E. Mountain
Street, Pasadena. Speakers that night include Nora Assirian from Damascus
University, Karen H. Khachatryan from the Institute of History in Yerevan,
Marc
Nichanian from Wesleyan University, and Raffi K. Hovannisian from the Armenian
Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) in Yerevan.
The conference will continue on Saturday, April 2, 9:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m., at
UCLA 100 Moore Hall. The Saturday session will cover a range of topics
including the enduring legacy of the Genocide, America’s Foreign Policy and
the
Armenian Genocide: A Legacy of Paradox, the Assyrian Genocide:
Late-Nineteenth-Early-Twentieth Century, the Greek Calamity in Asia Minor and
the Pontus, Comparative Media Coverage in English-Speaking Countries, From
Charles Aznavour to System of a Down, and The Armenian Genocide and French
Society. Speakers include Richard Hovannisian, Henry Theriault, Suzanne E.
Moranian, Hrag Varjabedian, and Katia Peltekian, among others.
The last day of the conference, Sunday, April 3, 1:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m., will
take place at the Court of Sciences 50, UCLA. With a focus on history and
memory, topics include Across the Chasm: From Catastrophe to Creativity,
Historical Memory: Threading the Contemporary Literature of Armenia, Turkish
Liberal Historiography and Genocide, and Constructing a New Historiography of
the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. Speakers include
Barlow Der Mugrdechian, Rubina Peroomian, Fatma Muge Goçek, and Bedross Der
Matossian, among others.
For more information, visit
<;
For a UCLA campus map go to <; or
contact Professor Hovannisian at Hovannis@history.ucla.edu. Admission is free
and parking is available at parking structure no. 2, at the Hilgard and
Westholme entrance to UCLA.
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