Massis Weekly Online

VOLUME 27, ISSUE 50 (1350)

– Levon Ter-Petrosian Confident Of Election Triumph
– Russian Company Takes Over Armenian Railway
– Denmark Refuses To Recognize Armenian Genocide
– Hrant Dink Commemoration To Feature Prominent Speakers
– Hrant Dink: Belated Victim of Armenian Genocide
——————

– Levon Ter-Petrosian Confident Of Election Triumph

YEREVAN — Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian on Friday referred to
himself and his loyalists as the only ?real? opposition to Armenia?s
current leadership and said he is confident about beating Prime
Minister Serzh Sarkisian in next month?s presidential election.
At his first news conferences in more than a decade, Ter-Petrosian
said he will urge supporters to take to the streets of Yerevan if the
vote is falsified by the authorities. He also spoke favorably about
international mediators? existing plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, saying that it is essentially identical with a peace deal he
had advocated while in power.
?I?m not going to comment on Serzh Sarkisian?s scenarios,?
Ter-Petrosian said when asked about upbeat statements made by the
government camp. ?I have my scenario and I will realize it. ?I am
convinced that that scenario is working. And while others say ?We will
win,? I say ?I have already won.??
Ter-Petrosian played down Sarkisian?s government levers and formidable
propaganda machine, claiming that senior government and law
enforcement officials will start defying government orders ?in 10-20
days.?
He said he is also succeeding in getting his anti-government message
across because he and parties supporting him are ?the only real force
opposed to the authorities.?
?I have already spoken to half a million people,? he said.
?The brochures and DVDs of my speeches have already reached them. No
other candidate has such audience. Even the candidate of power who
supposedly talks to the people through 15 TV stations. They don?t
watch and listen to him.?
Ter-Petrosian was repeatedly asked by journalists what he will do if
he concludes that the presidential ballot has been rigged in
Sarkisian?s favor. ?Being conscious of my rights, being well aware of
our constitution and laws and international legislation, I would take
all steps stemming from that legislation: demonstrations, marches,
pickets, court actions,? he replied. ?This is going to be my path.?
Still, it remained unclear if Ter-Petrosian is ready to stage the kind
of post-election street protests that brought down governments in
neighboring Georgia and other former Soviet republics in recent years.
He stressed only that he will steer clear of any violent actions.
The 63-year-old former scholar also made it clear that Western
monitors? opinion about the Armenian government?s conduct of the
upcoming election will not serve as the ?supreme judgment? to himself
and his political allies. He pointed to their largely positive
assessment of Armenia?s May 2007 parliamentary elections that
contrasted with opposition allegations of blatant fraud.
?I may have my opinion, they may have their opinion,? said
Ter-Petrosian. ?As you know, there were wonderful opinions about last
year?s parliamentary elections. Go out to the streets and ask people
what they think of those opinions.?
?I don?t care what international bodies will say,? he added. ?We have
to solve our problems with our laws and within the limits, no matter
how narrow, of our freedoms.?
Downplaying the impact of foreign powers on the Armenian presidential
race, Ter-Petrosian insisted that he is not seeking any external
support for his bid to return to power. ?I will not appeal to Russia,
America, Europe or anyone else,? he said. ?I don?t need external
support. I don?t need power granted to me from abroad.?
Ter-Petrosian also spoke about unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
the main theme of his previous news conference held in September 1997
less than five months before he resigned under pressure from his key
cabinet members, including then Prime Minister Robert Kocharian and
Interior Minister Serzh Sarkisian. He indicated that, if elected
president, he will go along with international mediators? existing
peace proposals which call for a gradual settlement of the Karabakh
dispute.
?The logic, if not the formal agreement or that proposal, of the
current state of the negotiation process can be the basis [for an
Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal,]? said Ter-Petrosian. He reiterated
his view that the peace plan formally put forward by the OSCE Minsk
Group in November is ?in essence? the same as the one which he
advocated in 1997-1998 and which Kocharian and Sarkisian rejected as
?defeatist.?

– Russian Company Takes Over Armenian Railway

Russia?s state-run railway operator formally took over the long-term
management of Armenia?s rail network on Wednesday, pledging to give it
a new lease of life with hundreds of millions of dollars in investments.
Transport and Communications Minister Andranik Manukian signed a
30-year management contract with Vladimir Yakunin, the visiting chief
executive of the Russian Railways company, after officially declaring
the latter the winner of an international tender.
The Russians, who have the option of extending the deal by another 20
years, are to make a one-off payment of $5.5 million to the Armenian
government and invest at least $570 million in the Armenian railway.
Of that, $220 million is supposed to be invested in the next five
years. The government will also get 2 percent of its annual operating
revenues.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Russian investments will jump to
$1.8 billion if Armenia restores its rail communication with Turkey
and Azerbaijan. The sum is to total about $2.2 billion in the event of
the reopening of the Abkhaz section of Georgia?s railway linking the
region to Russia.

– Denmark Refuses To Recognize Armenian Genocide

COPENHAGEN — Denmark does not officially recognize that Ottoman
massacres of Armenians during World War I constitute genocide, Danish
Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said Thursday.
?In the government?s opinion, this is a historical question that
should be left up to the historians,? Moeller wrote in a written
parliamentary answer, indicating that Denmark would not follow the
lead of some 20 other countries, including France, that have labeled
the killings genocide.
Moeller?s note came in response to a question from parliamentary
member Morten Messerchmidt, of the far-right Danish People?s Party, on
whether ?Denmark had officially recognized this genocide.?
?It is unfortunate that the Danish government refuses to join other
countries in recognizing this genocide,? Messerschmidt told AFP. ?It
is as if they fear Turkey?s reactions.? Copenhagen?s decision ?to not
recognize this genocide shows that the government indirectly supports
Turkey?s cowardly refusal to take responsibility for its history the
way the Germans did after World War II,? he said.

– Hrant Dink Commemoration To Feature Prominent Speakers

The first anniversary of the murder of Istanbul Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink will be marked on Friday, January 25, at 7:00 p.m., at the
Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, 3325 North
Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91504. This special event will feature
talks by Prof. Taner Akçam of the University of Minnesota, Prof.
Richard G. Hovannisian of the University of California, Los Angeles,
and Stephen A. Kurkjian, formerly of the Boston Globe.
The evening?s program is co-sponsored by the Organization of Istanbul
Armenians of Los Angeles, the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in
Modern Armenian History at UCLA, and the National Association for
Armenian Studies and Research, and will take place under the auspices
of the Western Diocese, His Eminence, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian,
Primate. Simon Acilacoglu, President of the Organization Of Istanbul
Armenians, will give opening remarks and Abp. Derderian will offer
closing remarks and a prayer.
There will be a musical performance by Salpi Kerkonian (flute) and
Sosi Kerkonian (harp). Edvin E. Minassian, Esq., Vice President of the
Organization of Istanbul Armenians, will serve as Master of Ceremonies.
One Year After: Possibilities and Difficulties The murder of Hrant
Dink, the Turkish-born Armenian founder and editor of the newspaper
Agos and passionate advocate of Turkish-Armenian dialogue, stunned and
horrified the world and prompted an unprecedented demonstration of
hundreds of thousands taking to the streets of Istanbul waving signs
saying ?We Are All Hrant Dink? and ?We Are All Armenian.? The brutal
slaying of the peace-loving, reconciliation-oriented Dink underscored
both the possibilities and the difficulties of Armenian-Turkish
dialogue and reconciliation efforts. His prosecution under Turkey?s
Article 301 for ?insulting Turkishess? and the subsequent prosecution
of his son, Arat, for the same ?crime? raise serious questions about
free speech in Turkey and have dramatized the difficulties faced by
journalists in a country seeking entry into the European Union.
To mark the first anniversary of his death, a program has been
organized that will not only pay tribute to this courageous man but
also bring together a group of speakers who are well qualified to put
both his life and his untimely and tragic death in some meaningful
perspective.
Profiles of Featured Speakers:
A pioneer among scholars of Turkish origin, Prof. Taner Akçam is the
author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of
Turkish Responsibility, a groundbreaking study that makes extensive,
unprecedented use of Ottoman and other sources largely unexamined in
Englishlanguage works, as well as From Empire to Republic: Turkish
Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide, Dialogue Across An
International Divide: Essays Towards a Turkish-Armenian Dialogue, as
well as numerous other books and articles in Turkish, German, and
English. Akçam, a close friend of Hrant Dink, will discuss his final
conversations with Dink which took place only two weeks before his
death.
Prof. Richard G. Hovannisian is the holder of the Armenian Educational
Foundation Chair of Modern Armenian History at the University of
California, Los Angeles. He is the author of the four-volume history
The Republic of Armenia, Armenia on the Road to Independence, and has
edited and contributed to more than twenty books including The
Armenian Genocide in Perspective; The Armenian Genocide: History,
Politics, Ethics; The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times;
Remembrance and Denial; Looking Backward, Moving Forward; The Armenian
Genocide: Ethical and Cultural Legacies; and six volumes on historic
Armenian cities and provinces. He recently cochaired a special session
on ?On Hrant Dink and Armenian-Turkish Relations? at the Middle
Eastern Studies Association 2007 Annual Meeting in Montreal. He will
reflect on Hrant Dink?s legacy now and in the future.
Stephen A. Kurkjian recently retired from the Boston Globe after a
career of more than thirty-five years at the paper during which he won
three Pulitzer Prizes and more than twenty other regional or national
awards for his investigative reporting. The Globe?s Washington bureau
chief from 1986-1991, he had previously been a founder and the head of
the Globe?s Spotlight investigative team. He is a member of NAASR?s
Board of Directors and serves on its Executive Committee. In January
2007 he traveled to Istanbul to witness and cover the funeral of Hrant
Dink and its aftermath. He presented his initial report in a Globe
feature and in a talk at NAASR in February 2007, following up with a
lengthy article in the AGBU Magazine in April. He has continued to
follow the murder investigation and related developments in Turkey and
will give an updated report and personal view.

– Hrant Dink: Belated Victim of Armenian Genocide
By Toros Sarian

On January 19, 2007 the publisher and Editor of the bilingual weekly
Istanbul newspaper AGOS was shot by a young Turkish nationalist. Who
was this Armenian who had over the years continuously and persistently
displayed courage through his intellectual campaign against the
Turkish state apparatus? A state which not only denies the Armenian
Genocide but also has created through a systematic racial
indoctrination of its citizens a social and political climate in which
such murders are tolerated if not accepted by society. The Armenian
Patriarch of Istanbul Mesorb Mutafyan whose relationship to Hrant was
not always free of conflict, described Hrant Dink with the following
words "his life full of struggle and challenges turned Hrant Dink into
a courageous, sensitive and decisive personality; becoming a symbol
for justice, freedom of belief and human rights. He voiced his
opinions and ideas with total disregard for the possible dangers. When
he was convinced of the necessity of doing something then he acted
with the same decisiveness.?
Hrant Dink was born in Malatya on 15th September. This city had before
the Genocide a large Armenian population. His father Sarkis, a tailor,
came from Gürün and his mother Gülvart from Kangal in the province of
Sivas.
Hrant was the eldest of three sons. In 1960 his family moved to
Istanbul and a year later his parents separated. Hrant and his
brothers were sent to an Armenian orphanage in Gedikpasa which was run
by the Armenian evangelical community. The children spent the Summer
in the Tuzla holiday camp on the Marmara Sea. This place played an
important role in his life as he met here his first love Rakel.
Together with her they later ran this holiday camp. After attending
the local protestant Armenian community Primary and Middle schools,
Hrant went to the Armenian Grammar school Surp Hac Tibrevank in
Üsküdar. In these years he developed his political awareness and
became a supporter of a radical left party. In 1972 he changed his
name and was then called Firat Dink. His friend Armenak Bakirciyan,
who came from Diyarbakir and also involved in the left revolutionary
movement, renamed himself Orhan Bakir.
The purpose of changing their names was not to distance themselves
>From their Armenian roots but to avoid unnecessary difficulties for
innocent Armenians due to their campaigning. As result of Hrants
political activities he was expelled from the Armenian Grammar school.
In May 1980 Armenak, Hrants friend and political ally, who was a
leading member of the Maoist TKP/ML, was shot by the Turkish security
forces. Hrant Dink was later very critical and disappointed about the
attitudes of the Turkish left regarding the Armenians and the question
of national identity. ?I was extremely shaken that the Armenian
genocide was also not discussed by the Turkish left, and that they
closed their ears especially to problems concerning national and
cultural identity. But I believe that exactly this fight about
retaining ones own identity, to live ones own tradition and being
allowed to speak ones own language is an extremely decisive fight.?
After his A-Levels at a Turkish school Hrant studied Zoology and
Philosophy at Istanbul University and founded with his two brothers a
bookshop in the Bakirköy district which still exists today. In 1984
Hrant experienced the bitter realities faced by any Armenian
institution or foundation in Turkey in the form of whimsical and
illegal dispossession.
On the basis of a law from 1936 which regulated foundations and
inheritance, the Tuzla Summer Camp was confiscated. This event was a
turning point in Hrants life. Until the mid 70´s the Armenian
community in Turkey had led fairly inconspicuous lives. However, after
Armenian organizations had begun taking military actions against
Turkish facilities and embassies abroad the situation changed
dramatically for the Armenians in Turkey. The State increased its
suppression and rekindled the hate against the Armenians. In view of
the near civil war conditions prevailing at the end of the 70´s it is
not surprising
that these developments were scantly reported by the international
community. Almost daily bloody armed attacks took place between left
wing organization and fascist groups or the state security forces.
This disparate and divided revolutionary movement was in the end
brutally put down by the military putsch of 12th September 1980.
Tens of thousands of state opponents were imprisoned and dozens of
political prisoners were tortured to death or executed. Although, the
Armenian organizations ended their armed struggle from the mid 80´s,
the repression by the Turkish state of the Armenians increased even
more. One reason for this was the success of the Armenian Diaspora in
gaining international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
The fury of the Turkish state was felt by Armenian minority in Turkey.
At the same time the Turkish regime in order to be considered for EU
membership, had to allow a minimum of democratic civil liberties. From
1990 Hrant Dink began looking for ways for
the Armenian minority to express itself socially and politically.
Together with a few friends and with the support of the former
Patriarch Galustyan, Hrant Dink decided to publish a new Armenian
newspaper. The first issue of the Bilingual weekly AGOS appeared on
the 5th April 1996. Within a short time it had become the most
important Armenian newspaper in Turkey with a circulation of more than
6000. The idea of publishing a bilingual Armenian newspaper came to
Hrant Dink because he wanted to inform the Muslim-Turkish majority
about the history, culture and the current social and political
problems being faced by the Armenian minority. He was convinced that
only through increasing awareness within Turkish society could the
existing and deep rooted prejudices against the Armenians be broken
down.
In an interview about the AGOS he said ?We view the AGOS as our
instrument for education and reconciliation. This does not prevent us
>From holding up a mirror to the Turkish society and saying that when
we wish to join the EU then we must accept responsibility for our
history and the forced assimilation of all minorities must be ended?
The renowned Italian based Armenian Language and Literature Professor,
Zekiyan, described Hrant Dink as the man who made courageous strides
to drag the Armenian Community in Turkey out of the ghetto existence.
Hrant Dink and the AGOS broke through the wall of silence and fear
which the remaining Armenians have lived behind since the Genocide.
The editor of AGOS was increasingly becoming a National Threat for the
Turkish state; a threat which had to be silenced. Nationalists
orchestrated harassment campaigns and the Judiciary started regularly
legal proceedings against him and other workers at AGOS. The Turkish
media also played their part in creating an atmosphere of hatred.
Hrant Dink did not give up hope even after his prosecution and
sentence for Insulting of Turkishness and decided to appeal against
his sentence at the Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg. He had
lodged his appeal just a few days before his murder and had no idea
that at the same time a Turkish-Nationalist fanatic had already
planned his murder and that the State Security forces were aware of
this.
Ogün Samast, Hrant Dinks murderer, said after his arrest that the
Armenian had insulted Turkishness. He posed proudly, between two
grinning Turkish policeman, before the cameras holding a the Turkish
flag in his hand. One of the policemen even congratulated him by
saying ?Well done brother?, and was depicted in Turkish television
broadcasts as a national hero by the state security forces. ?Ogün had
carried out his national duty and had saved the honor of Turkey?
enthused Yasin Hayal the man who had encouraged Ogün Samast to commit
the crime. Celattin Cerrah, the Head of the Istanbul police explained
in a statement just after the murder that it had not been politically
motivated but that the young perpetrator had only been following his
?National feelings?.
On January 22, 2007 Turkey and the world was eye witness to a moving
event in Istanbul. Over a hundred thousand people paid their last
respects in silence to an intellectual in a city which had also
witnessed the arrest of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and their
expulsion and murder on 24th April 1915. The developments in Turkey
since the 19th January have shown that the solidarity with the
Armenian minority was only of short duration.
The country is confronted with other more pressing problems. The fate
of the Armenian minority is again left to chance and many see
emigration as the only way out of their hopeless situation.
The Turkish government has recently hinted that paragraph 301 will be
changed. However, an internal fight is taking place between the
coalition parties as to how #301 should be changed. In principal, any
amendments to #301 will not result in a significant change to the
undemocratic processes valid in Turkey at present. The armed forces,
the bureaucracy and the allied nationalistic political forces within
the parties will use any methods at hand to oppress any opposition to
the ruling state ideology. These developments pose for us the question
What can we do about the continuing oppressive policies of the Turkish
Government? It is in any case important Armenians continue informing
world opinion of the undemocratic and racist nature of the Turkish
state. The present nationalistic state ideology was established by the
Young Turks after their takeover in 1908. Anyone who questions this
ideology or doubts the official version of Turkish history is
automatically an ?enemy of the state.? A state which not only denies
the Armenian Genocide but also brutally suppresses any honest debate
regarding this crime.
Therefore it was clear to Hrant Dink and his friends that the
achievement of Freedom of Speech is of utmost importance in the battle
against the Turkish system of lies and denial. The fight which Hrant
Dink had begun with the founding of AGOS will continue and many more
courageous people will become victims of fanatical Turkish
nationalists. However, in the end this racist Turkish system, built
upon violence and suppression will collapse as other criminal systems
and governments have done so in the past. Hrant Dinks commitment and
courage in the fight for Freedom of Speech and Justice will serve as
an example for all people. Like so many other Armenian martyrs before
him, he will always be remembered by his people.

Toros Sarian is a historian
and community activist
in Hamburg, Germany

—
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