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01/27/2005
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1) French Foreign Minister Reiterates Turkey Must Come to Terms with Its Past
2) US Will Pay the Bill If Kirkuk Plunges into Turmoil, Turkish PM Warns
3) Armenian Charities Receive New York Life Settlements
4) President Kocharian Addresses Nation on Army Day
5) New Armenian Genocide Publications Dedicated to 90th Anniversary
1) French Foreign Minister Reiterates Turkey Must Come to Terms with Its Past
NEW YORK–French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier again stressed the importance
of Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian genocide, speaking to reporters in New
York on Tuesday.
Barnier made his remarks during a press conference held after the UN General
Assembly session commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz.
Barnier told reporters that he hoped Turkey, “as a developed country,” will
come to terms with its past, and in aspiring to become a member of the
European
Union, will admit to perpetrating the Armenian Genocide 90 years ago.
He added that the EU has an “obligation to not only commemorate the victims
[of the Armenian genocide] but to, at the same time, be alert and unyielding,
so that similar tragic acts are not repeated.”
Asked by a reporter what France’s position would be if Armenia demanded that
the UN General Assembly hold a session similar to the one commemorating the
liberation of Nazi concentration camps 60 years ago, Barnier reminded the
reporter that the French Parliament unanimously passed a law in 2001
recognizing the Armenian genocide.
2) US Will Pay the Bill If Kirkuk Plunges into Turmoil, Turkish PM Warns
ANKARA (AFP)–The United States will bear the consequences of ethnic
turmoil in
Kirkuk if it fails to prevent the oil-rich city in northern Iraq from falling
under Kurdish control, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on
Thursday.
“Any wrong move in Kirkuk will have a negative impact on peace in Iraq in the
future,” Erdogan told reporters at Ankara airport before he flew out to Davos,
Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
“The United Nations, America, and the other coalition forces should never
allow an unfavorable structure there,” he said. “If they turn a blind eye to
such a mistake, they will pay the bill in the future.”
Ankara is vehemently opposed to Kurdish control of Kirkuk, which many Kurds
want to incorporate into their enclave in northern Iraq and even see as the
capital of a future independent Kurdish state, a nightmare scenario for Iraq’s
neighbors.
Separatist moves in northern Iraq, Ankara fears, may spill over to adjoining
southeastern Turkey, which is home to its own large and restive Kurdish
community.
Erdogan’s remarks were the latest in a series of warnings issued by Ankara
since mid-January when the Iraqi Kurds reached a deal with Baghdad that
cleared
the way for an estimated 100,000 Kurds said to have been expelled from Kirkuk
under Saddam Hussein, to vote for the local government in Sunday’s elections.
The deal effectively tipped the balance of power to the Kurds, fanning ethnic
tensions in the city, which is also home to a large number of Arabs and
Turkmens, a community of Turkish descent backed by Ankara.
Turkey has charged that more Kurds than those expelled in the past have now
settled in the city and registered for the elections.
Critics in Ankara believe that the population shift is taking place with the
tacit approval of the United States.
Crisis Group Warns of Regional Conflict
The International Crisis Group (ICG) warned on Thursday that ethnic tensions
in Kirkuk are the biggest threat hanging over the country’s stability and
could
spark a regional conflict.
“In northern Iraq, largely unnoticed, a conflict is brewing that, if allowed
to boil over, could precipitate civil war, break-up of the country and in a
worst-case scenario Turkish intervention,” said the report.
The ICG, an international conflict resolution think-tank, warned that
aggressive rhetoric had been festering unchecked in the ethnic tinderbox of
Kirkuk since the April 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, as Kurds seek to
the right the wrongs of the old regime.
The ICG said that as US attention is shifting to other troublespots in Iraq,
the neutralizing influence of US troops is receding, and the Kurds, Arabs,
Turkmens, and Chaldo-Assyrians of Kirkuk “find themselves in a violent
stand-off.”
“Turkey is anchoring its strategy in commitment to the political process in
Baghdad… (and) is banking on progress in accession talks with the European
Union to reduce any appetite for secession its Kurdish population might still
harbor,” the ICG said.
But “public pressures resulting from Ankara’s manipulation of the Iraqi
Turkmen question and the continued deployment of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil
could create a dynamic of their own, possibly precipitating military
intervention in Kirkuk,” it warned.
3) Armenian Charities Receive New York Life Settlements
NEW YORK (AP)–Five Armenian charities received checks for $333,333 each
Wednesday as part of an insurance settlement with descendants of Armenians
massacred 90 years ago by the Turks.
The checks are part of a $20 million settlement with New York Life
Insurance
Co., which issued 2,300 policies to Armenians in Turkey before 1915 that were
never paid, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Brian Kabateck.
The agreement set aside at least $11 million for descendants, $3 million for
charities, and $2 million for administrative costs. Four charities in Los
Angeles will receive the rest of the $3 million.
Descendants of the policy holders have until March 16 to file claims.
The settlement, approved last year by a federal judge in Los Angeles, is
believed to be the first involving the events of the era.
4) President Kocharian Addresses Nation on Army Day
YEREVAN (Combined Sources)–President Robert Kocharian congratulated the
nation
and the military on Armenia’s Army Day, a holiday that was recently added to
the Republic’s list of official observances.
The president told the nation that the January 28 commemoration is
invaluable,
having been “achieved through the heroic acts and collective will of the
Armenian people on the borders of Artsakh and Armenia.”
The establishment of the Armenian Armed Forces began in the early 1990s,
practically before the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the first steps
was
the formation of a special regiment of the Armenian Interior Ministry in 1990
that had up to 400 men. In early 1991, when the regiment was reorganized into
four battalions, it already had over 1,000 troops. At the same time,
volunteers
fighting on the border with Azerbaijan were organized into six to eight
battalions
President Kocharian congratulated soldiers for their difficult and noble
service to their country. “Your professionalism and high spirit are the
pillars
of our freedom and independence,” he told the servicemen.
5) New Armenian Genocide Publications Dedicated to 90th Anniversary
YEREVAN (Yerkir)–The government of Armenia has allocated over 36 million
drams, nearly $77,000, to the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs to fund
the
publishing of several books dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
genocide.
The list includes 27 books, among them works by various authors and
historians, as well as official documents of foreign countries on the
Genocide,
reports of German diplomats from 1915-18, and “The History of the Armenian
Genocide,” by Vahakn Dadrian.
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