Author: Antonian Lara

TURKEY DECIDES TO EMPLOY ARMENIAN FOR KEY POST

news.am
Nov 26 2009
Armenia

Turkey finally decided to hire Turkish citizen of Armenian origin
Leo Suren Alepli for a key public post, Turkish Hurriyet reports.

For the first time a decision was made to employ Armenian as an
expert in EU General Secretariat under State Minister of EU Affairs
and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis. Out of 115 contenders, Suren should
get through the appropriate exams. Final decision depends on National
Security Service of Turkey (MIT). After passing all stages, Suren
will hold the post in delegation of negotiations for EU membership.

MOUTHS FILLED WITH HATRED
By Larry Derfner

Jerusalem Post
59231077244&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowF ull
Nov 27 2009

Father Samuel Aghoyan, a senior Armenian Orthodox cleric in Jerusalem’s
Old City, says he’s been spat at by young haredi and national Orthodox
Jews "about 15 to 20 times" in the past decade. The last time it
happened, he said, was earlier this month. "I was walking back from
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and I saw this boy in a yarmulke and
ritual fringes coming back from the Western Wall, and he spat at me
two or three times."

Wearing a dark-blue robe, sitting in St. James’s Church, the main
Armenian church in the Old City, Aghoyan said, "Every single priest
in this church has been spat on. It happens day and night."

Father Athanasius, a Texas-born Franciscan monk who heads the Christian
Information Center inside the Jaffa Gate, said he’s been spat at by
haredi and national Orthodox Jews "about 15 times in the last six
months" – not only in the Old City, but also on Rehov Agron near the
Franciscan friary. "One time a bunch of kids spat at me, another time a
little girl spat at me," said the brown-robed monk near the Jaffa Gate.

"All 15 monks at our friary have been spat at," he said. "Every
[Christian cleric in the Old City] who’s been here for awhile, who
dresses in robes in public, has a story to tell about being spat at.

The more you get around, the more it happens."

A nun in her 60s who’s lived in an east Jerusalem convent for decades
says she was spat at for the first time by a haredi man on Rehov
Agron about 25 years ago. "As I was walking past, he spat on the
ground right next to my shoes and he gave me a look of contempt,"
said the black-robed nun, sitting inside the convent. "It took me a
moment, but then I understood."

Since then, the nun, who didn’t want to be identified, recalls being
spat at three different times by young national Orthodox Jews on
Jaffa Road, three different times by haredi youth near Mea She’arim
and once by a young Jewish woman from her second-story window in the
Old City’s Jewish Quarter.

But the spitting incidents weren’t the worst, she said – the worst was
the time she was walking down Jaffa Road and a group of middle-aged
haredi men coming her way pointed wordlessly to the curb, motioning
her to move off the sidewalk to let them pass, which she did.

"That made me terribly sad," said the nun, speaking in ulpan-trained
Hebrew. Taking personal responsibility for the history of Christian
anti-Semitism, she said that in her native European country, such
behavior "was the kind of thing that they – no, that we used to do
to Jews."

News stories about young Jewish bigots in the Old City spitting on
Christian clergy – who make conspicuous targets in their long dark
robes and crucifix symbols around their necks – surface in the media
every few years or so. It’s natural, then, to conclude that such
incidents are rare, but in fact they are habitual. Anti-Christian
Orthodox Jews, overwhelmingly boys and young men, have been spitting
with regularity on priests and nuns in the Old City for about 20 years,
and the problem is only getting worse.

"My impression is that Christian clergymen are being spat at in the Old
City virtually every day. This has been constantly increasing over the
last decade," said Daniel Rossing. An observant, kippa-wearing Jew,
Rossing heads the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations
and was liaison to Israel’s Christian communities for the Ministry
of Religious Affairs in the ’70s and ’80s.

For Christian clergy in the Old City, being spat at by Jewish fanatics
"is a part of life," said the American Jewish Committee’s Rabbi David
Rosen, Israel’s most prominent Jewish interfaith activist.

"I hate to say it, but we’ve grown accustomed to this. Jewish
religious fanatics spitting at Christian priests and nuns has become
a tradition," said Roman Catholic Father Massimo Pazzini, sitting
inside the Church of the Flagellation on the Via Dolorosa.

These are the very opposite of isolated incidents. Father Athanasius
of the Christian Information Center called them a "phenomenon." George
Hintlian, the unofficial spokesman for the local Armenian community
and former secretary of the Armenian Patriarchate, said it was "like
a campaign."

Christians in Israel are a small, weak community known for "turning
the other cheek," so these Jewish xenophobes feel free to spit on them;
they don’t spit on Muslims in the Old City because they’re afraid to,
the clerics noted.

THE ONLY Israeli authority who has shown any serious concern over this
matter, the one high official whom Christian and Jewish interfaith
activists credit for stepping into the fray, is Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi
Yona Metzger.

On November 11, Metzger addressed a letter to the "rabbis of the
Jewish Quarter," writing that he had "heard a grave rumor about
yeshiva students offending heaven…[by] spitting on Christian clergy
who walk about the Old City of Jerusalem." Such attackers, he added,
are almost tantamount to rodfim, or persecutors, which is one of the
worst class of offenders in Jewish law. They violate the injunction
to follow the "pathways of peace," Metzger wrote, and are liable to
provoke anti-Semitism overseas.

"I thus issue the fervent call to root out this evil affliction from
our midst, and the sooner the better," wrote the chief rabbi.

Metzger published the letter in response to an appeal from Armenian
Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, an appeal that came in the wake of a
September 5 incident in the Old City in which a haredi man spat on
a group of Armenian seminarians who, in turn, beat him up. (See box.)

This is not the first time Metzger has spoken out against the spitting
– he did so five years ago after the most infamous incident on record,
when Manougian himself was spat on by an Old City yeshiva student
during an Armenian Orthodox procession. In response, the archbishop
slapped the student’s face, and then the student tore the porcelain
ceremonial crucifix off Manougian’s neck and threw it to the ground,
breaking it.

Then interior minister Avraham Poraz called the assault on
the archbishop "repulsive" and called for a police crackdown on
anti-Christian attacks in the Old City. Police reportedly punished
the student by banning him from the Old City for 75 days.

Seated in his study in the Armenian Quarter, Manougian, 61, said
that while he personally has not been assaulted since that time,
the spitting attacks on other Armenian clergy have escalated.

"The latest thing is for them to spit when they pass [St. James’s]
monastery. I’ve seen it myself a couple of times," he said. "Then
there’s the boy from the Jewish Quarter who spits at the Armenian women
when he sees them wearing their crosses, then he runs away. And during
one of our processions from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre this year,
a fellow in a yarmulke and fringes began deliberately cutting through
our lines, over and over. The police caught him and he started yelling,
‘I’m free to walk wherever I want!’ That’s what these settler types are
always saying: ‘This is our country and we can do whatever we want!’"

Where are the police in all this? If they happen to be on the scene,
such as at the recent procession Manougian described, they will chase
the hooligans – but even if they catch them, they only tell them off
and let them go, according to several Christian clergymen.

"The police tell us to catch them and bring them in, but then they
tell us not to use violence, so how are we supposed to catch them?"

asked Aghoyan, a very fit-looking 68-year-old. "Once a boy came up to
me and spat in my face, and I punched him and knocked him down, and an
Armenian seminarian and I brought him to the police station [next to
the Armenian Quarter]. They released him in a couple of hours. I’ve
made many, complaints to the police, I’m tired of it. Nothing ever
gets done."

Said Rosen, "The police say, ‘Show us the evidence.’ They want the
Christians to photograph the people spitting at them so they can make
arrests, but this is very unrealistic – by the time you get the camera
out, the attack is over and there’s nothing to photograph."

Victims of these attacks say that in the great majority of cases the
assailants do not spit in their faces or on their clothes, but on the
ground at their feet. "When we complain about this, the police tell us,
‘But they’re not spitting on you, just near you,’" said Manougian.

Sitting inside the Church of the Flagellation on the Via Dolorosa,
Pazzini recalled: "Early this year there were about 100 Orthodox
Jewish boys who came past the church singing and dancing. The police
were with them – I don’t know what the occasion was, maybe it was a
holiday, maybe it had to do with the elections. There was a group of
Franciscan monks standing in front of the church, and a few of the
Jewish boys went up to the monks, spat on them, then went back into
the crowd. I went up to a policeman and he told me, ‘Sorry about that,
but look, they’re just kids.’"

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby refused to provide an
official comment on the situation on behalf of the Old City police
station. "We don’t give interviews on relations between Jews and
Christians in the Old City," he said. "We’re not sociologists,
we’re policemen."

The Jerusalem municipality likewise refused to be interviewed. "We have
not received any complaints about this matter and we do not deal with
things of this nature," said assistant city spokesman Yossi Gottesman.

EVERY CHRISTIAN cleric interviewed for this article stressed that they
weren’t blaming Israeli Jewry as a whole for the spitting attacks;
on the contrary, they said their general reception by Israeli Jews,
both secular and religious, was one of welcome.

"I keep in mind that for every person here who’s spat at me, there
are many more who’ve come up and said hello," said Father Athanasius.

"I studied at Hebrew University for seven years and the atmosphere
was wonderful. I made a lot of friends there," said Pazzini.

"My class members at ulpan visited our convent, they couldn’t have
been more warm and friendly," said the nun in east Jerusalem. She
recalled that a group of boys in a schoolyard near the ulpan once
threw stones at her and another nun, and two ulpan teachers saw it,
became outraged and went straight into the school principal’s office.

"The kids never threw stones at us again," the nun said.

"I don’t want to cause troubles for Israel – I love Am Yisrael," said
Manougian, adding that he felt completely unthreatened and at ease
when visiting Tel Aviv, Haifa and other parts of the country. The
problem of belligerent Orthodox Jews spitting at Christian clergy,
added Rossing, is evidently confined to Jerusalem.

There was a time when priests and nuns in the capital went virtually
unmolested. In the first 20 years or so after Israel conquered the Old
City in the 1967 Six Day War, spitting incidents did occur, but only
once in a very long while. Old City police would lock the offender
up for the night, which proved an effective deterrent, said Hintlian.

"Whatever problem we had, we could call [mayor] Teddy Kollek’s office,
we could call people in the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry,
we could call Israeli ambassadors. In those days, Christians in
Jerusalem were ‘overprivileged,’" he said.

That era of good feelings came about as a result of two circumstances,
continued Hintlian, the leading chronicler of Jerusalem’s Armenian
history. For one, he says, Israel in general and Jerusalem in
particular were much more liberal in those days, and secondly, Israeli
authorities were out to convince the Christian world that they could
be trusted with their newly acquired stewardship over the Old City’s
holy places.

"Now Israel doesn’t need the world’s approval anymore for its
sovereignty over Jerusalem, so our role is finished," said Hintlian.

"Now we don’t have anyone in authority to turn to."

Yisca Harani, a veteran Jewish interfaith activist who lectures on
Christianity to Israeli tour guides at Touro College, likewise says
the change for the worse came about 20 years ago. She blames the
spitting attacks on the view of Christianity that’s propagated at
haredi and national Orthodox yeshivot.

"I move around the Old City a lot," she said, "I come in contact with
these people, and what they learn in these fundamentalist yeshivot
is that the goy is the enemy, a hater of Israel. All they learn about
Christianity is the Holocaust, pogroms, anti-Semitism."

Rosen recalls that in 1994, after Israel and the Vatican opened
diplomatic relations, he organized an international Jewish-Christian
conference in Jerusalem, "and the city’s chief rabbi called me in
and said, ‘How can you do this? Don’t you know it’s forbidden for
us? How can you encourage these people to meet with us?’

"He told me that when he sees a Christian clergyman, he crosses the
street and recites, ‘You shall totally abhor and totally disdain…’
This is a biblical verse that refers to idolatry." Rosen noted that
the Jerusalem chief rabbi of the time, like the more insular Orthodox
Jews in general, considered Christians to be idolators.

The people doing the spitting, according to all the Christian victims
and Jewish interfaith activists interviewed, are invariably national
Orthodox or haredi Jews; in every attack described by Christian
clerics, the assailant was wearing a kippa.

The great majority of the attackers were teenage boys and men in their
20s. However, the supposition was that they came not only from the
Old City yeshivot but also from outside. Hintlian and Aghoyan noted
that the spitting attacks tended to spike on Fridays and Saturdays,
when masses of Orthodox Jews stream to the Western Wall.

The hot spots in the Old City are the places where resident Orthodox
Jews and Christians brush up against one another – inside Jaffa Gate,
on the roads leading through the Armenian Quarter to the Jewish
Quarter and around Mount Zion, which lies just outside the Old City
and is the site of a several yeshivot.

Of all Old City Christians, the Armenians get spat on most frequently
because their quarter stands closest to those hot spots.

Near Mount Zion, four teenage boys on their way to the Diaspora
Yeshiva affirmed with a nod that they knew about the spitting attacks
on Christian clergy. "But it’s nobody from our yeshiva," said one boy,
16, who noted that he’d seen it happen twice right around there – once
by a boy wearing a crocheted kippa and once by a boy without a kippa.

(This was the only mention I heard of a secular Jew spitting on
a Christian.)

"We’re against it because it’s a desecration – it gives religious
Jews a bad name," said the boy. He added, however, "Inside, I also
feel like spitting on the Christians because everybody knows how they
preach against the Jews. But I’d never do it."

ONLY A TINY proportion of the spitting incidents are reported to
police. "When somebody spits at our feet, or at the door to the
monastery, we don’t even pay attention to it anymore, we take it for
granted," said Aghoyan. We have no suspect or evidence to give the
police, nor any reason to think the police care, he said.

Pazzini, the vice dean of the seminary at the Church of the
Flagellation, said the dean of the seminary had his face spat upon,
but he rejected Pazzini’s urgings to file a police complaint. "He
told me, ‘There’s no point, this is the way things are around here,’"
Pazzini said.

Even outrageous incidents, one after another, go unreported to the
police and unknown to the public. About a month ago, when a senior
Greek Orthodox bishop was driving into the Jaffa Gate, a young Jewish
man motioned him to roll down his window, and when he did, the young
man spat in the bishop’s face, said Hintlian.

Father Athanasius says that about a year ago, he witnessed the
archbishop of Milan, which is one of the world’s largest Roman
Catholic dioceses, get spat at in the Old City. "The archbishop was
with another Italian bishop and a group of pilgrims, and a class of
about a dozen adolescent boys in crocheted kippot and sidecurls came
by with their teacher. They stopped in front of the archbishop and
his guests, the boys began spitting at the ground next to their feet,
and then they just kept walking like this was normal," said Father
Athanasius. "I saw this with my own eyes."

Rosen, Rossing and Hintlian say the most frustrating thing is that
there’s no longer anyone in authority who’s ready to try to solve this
problem, and the reason is that the Christian community in Israel is
too small and powerless to rate high-level attention anymore.

"In the old days there were ministers and a mayor in Jerusalem who took
the Christian minority seriously, but now virtually everyone dealing
with them is a third-tier official, and while these individuals may
have wonderful intentions, they have no authority," said Rosen. As
far as the current cabinet ministers go, he said the phenomenon of
Orthodox Jews spitting on Christian clergy "is at most distressing to
some of them, while there are other ministers whose attitude toward
non-Jews in general is downright deplorable."

Among Christian victims and Jewish interfaith activists alike, the
consensus is that two steps are needed to stop the spitting attacks.

One, of course, would be much stronger law enforcement by police. The
other would be an educational effort against this "campaign," this
"phenomenon," this "tradition" – although it may be that there’s
nothing to teach – that a person, even an adolescent, either knows
it’s wrong to spit on priests and nuns or he doesn’t.

"We can’t tell the Jews in this country what to do – they have to see
this as an offense," said Father Athanasius. "There’s only a small
part of the population that’s doing it, but the Jewish establishment
has to bring them under control."

TURKEY TURNS ITS GAZE TO THE EAST
by Hamida Ghafour

The National
rticle?AID=/20091128/WEEKENDER/711279812/1135
Nov 28 2009
UAE

Just before he flew to Libya on Tuesday, the Turkish prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was asked what he thought of the new European
Union president who once remarked that Turkey could never be a
part of Europe because it did not share the "fundamental values"
of Christianity.

Mr Erdogan had a diplomatic response ready: Herman Van Rompuy would
pose no obstacle to the Muslim nation’s EU aspirations.

Then he took off to Tripoli followed by a gaggle of businessmen, joined
the Libyan leader Muammer Qadafi in his Beduoin tent and announced
that the two nations would sign a free-trade agreement next year.

Following the news that the colourless Mr Van Rompuy, a Belgian
Eurocrat, was appointed to the presidential post, the question "who?"

continues to echo from Westphalia to Manchester.

But the Turks have grown used to hostility from the EU a leading
columnist once called it a "fat midget" which was "lacking perspective"
and gave a collective shrug.

Prospects for Turkey’s accession to the exclusive European club may
look dimmer than ever but the republic, which is Nato’s only Muslim
member, is increasingly turning eastward for its ambitions.

>From the Balkans to the Caucasus to the Middle East, Turkey is focusing
its energies on establishing an arc of influence in many countries
which were once part of the Ottoman empire.

Some call it Ottomania.

But instead of rose-perfumed pashas in embroidered caftans invading
Arab lands with cadres of janissaries, Turkish politicians are arriving
with delegations of business leaders dangling lucrative trade deals
to the economically stagnant region.

"Turkey is carrying western values to its eastern neighbours," said
Mustafa Kutley, an Ankara-based contributor to the Turkish Weekly
journal. "It is trying a very European approach: while increasing
the wealth of its country it is transforming the continent from one
of violence to one of wealth. That is what Europe once did. The EU
is less important on the Turkish agenda."

Ever since the Turks established a secular republic in 1923 by
abolishing the caliphate, they have looked down their noses at the
backwardness of the east and preferred to turn to Europe and America
for role models.

But that is changing at breakneck speed.

In the past two months Turkey’s somewhat Islamist leaders from the
ruling AK party have travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan and promised to
open a consulate in Irbil.

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, may have declared earlier
this month that capitalism was dead, but the two countries which once
ran rival empires have reached a deal to increase bilateral trade
from US$7 billion (Dh25b) in 2008 to $20 billion by 2011.

Turkey has cannily capitalised on anti-American sentiment in Iraq
and signed a raft of deals there. Indeed Turkish exports to the
Middle East and North Africa were valued at $31 billion in 2008,
a seven-fold increase from 2001.

The Turks are making their mark on the diplomatic scene, too. In
trying to mediate between Iran and the West, Turkey is offering to
store Iran’s low-grade enriched uranium. Relations with Israel are
cold but last week a trade minister from the Jewish state visited
Turkey and the two sides promised to improve ties.

More significantly, last month Turkey and Armenia agreed to open their
border and establish diplomatic ties despite lingering hostility over
the genocide of up to one million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman
Turks in 1915.

It was a coup for Turkey’s so-called "football diplomacy" in which
leaders from the two countries met occasionally to watch their national
teams play football, providing a casual setting for negotiations.

A decade ago, the Turks and the Syrians nearly went to war but
last month Mr Erdogan and the Syrian president, Bashar al Assad,
were practically hugging in Damascus as they announced that visa
requirements for travellers would be abolished.

Russia, another historic enemy, is now a major trading partner.

The driving force behind the change is Ahmet Davutoglu, the scholarly
foreign minister who was Mr Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser
for seven years before he took up the ministerial job.

The son of a merchant from Anatolia and an outsider to the
Ankara-Istanbul elite, Mr Davutoglu has torn up decades of Turkish
policy in reaching out to former Ottoman dominions.

Sometimes the results are startling.

Last February when his predecessor, Ali Babacan, visited Yemen he was
greeted by a room full of tribal leaders with their daggers drawn. It
was an old custom reserved for the arrival of Ottoman governors.

Mr Davutoglu, who is nicknamed the "Kissinger of Turkey" in reference
to Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state, prefers the term
"strategic depth" to Ottomania.

His slogan is "zero problems with neighbours".

Mr Davutoglu is a supporter of the EU project but unafraid to defend
the Ottomans to European audiences.

"If the Ottoman archive was not opened, European history could not
have been written," he told a Spanish newspaper earlier this month.

Turkey has also become an important energy hub. The most visible
project right now is the Nabucco pipeline, a proposed $11.7
billion plan to carry gas across Turkey from Azerbaijan and perhaps
Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq and Egypt.

These developments have caused some anxiety in the West because of
fears that Turkey is drifting away from its traditional allies.

Turkey’s chummy relations with Iran will certainly be brought up in
Washington when Mr Erdogan visits the US on December 7, said Hugh
Pope, an Istanbul-based expert on Turkey and author of the upcoming
Dining with al Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the
Middle East.

"The way Erdogan is talking about Iran is definitely damaging him in
Washington policy circles and perhaps irritating people in the EU. But
I think there are valid counter-arguments. The Turks are saying ‘at
least we are engaging Iran’. A million Iranians are coming to Turkey
every year and seeing an alternative way of governing in a developing
country with a Muslim identity. This is possibly more subversive in
Iran than any sanctions could be."

Iranians are joined by a growing number of Arabs flocking to the
beaches and pine forests of Turkey’s south-west coast during the
summer holidays.

Tourism has also been given a boost thanks to Muhannad, the dashing
male lead in the hit Turkish soap opera Noor which is dubbed into
Arabic and broadcast across the Arab world to swooning female
audiences.

There have been missteps though.

Earlier this month Mr Erdogan raised hackles by defending the Sudanese
president, Omar al Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal
Court on war crime charges. "A Muslim could never commit genocide," the
prime minister said. There is also the thorny question of languishing
peace talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus.

Still, there is a confidence partly drawn from its history which did
not exist before.

"The Ottomans weren’t seen as a constructive part of Turkey’s past. It
was not natural because Ottoman history is part of Turkey history,"
said Mr Kutley. "It is about making peace with its history."

The high-water mark perhaps came in September during the funeral of
the last Ottoman prince, Osman Ertugrul Osmanoglu, at the Blue Mosque
in Istanbul. He would have been successor to the 600-year-old dynasty
if the empire had not been abolished.

The government granted special permission to allow him to be buried
next to his grandfather, Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Several ministers
attended the service, which would have once been unthinkable in the
fiercely secular republic.

The nostalgia is also apparent at the populist level. A popular new
museum depicting the 1453 capture of Constantinople by Mehmet II has
opened in the capital. The centrepiece depicts his final victory on
the city walls. In January, Istanbul will have the opportunity to
show off its new-found confidence when it holds the title of European
Capital of Culture.

The occasion will be marked by a year-long series of museum openings,
concerts and exhibitions among other events. Ironically, the accolade
was given by the European Union.

"Istanbul is already a city with international stature and has
been from the first day it was founded," said Yeshim Ternar, the
Turkish-born author of The Book and the Veil Escape from an Istanbul
Harem. "It has always been a nexus; a wonderful mix of everything
that fuels culture. There is no other city in the whole world that
disorients a traveller and where any effort at reorientation brings
you somewhere you had never imagined was possible."

For some it was high time the Middle East looked to Turkey for a
fresh approach to solving the region’s problems.

Pope said: "We’re seeing something based on Istanbul as a hub, and a
commercial prestige of Turkey at the moment. Middle Eastern countries
are looking to Turkey for ideas."

MIDDLE EAST POWER SHIFTING TO TURKEY AND IRAN
by Alastair Crooke

Christian Science Monitor
November 25, 2009, Wednesday

While the United States and Europe have been struggling to find a path
forward in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Afghanistan, and Iran,
the strategic ground upon which their assumptions about the region
rest has begun to shift dramatically.

Most significantly, Turkey has finally shrugged off the straitjacket
of a tight American alliance, grown virtually indifferent to beckoning
European Union (EU) membership, and turned its focus toward its former
Ottoman neighbors in Asia and the Middle East.

Though not primarily meant as a snub to the West, this shift does
nonetheless reflect growing discomfort and frustration with US and
EU policy, from the support of Israel’s action in Gaza to Iran and
the frustrated impasse of the European accession process. It also
resonates more closely with the Islamic renaissance that has been
taking place within Turkey.

If Turkey continues successfully down this path, it will be as
strategically significant for the balance of power in the region as
the emergence of Iran as a preeminent power thanks to the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the later destruction of Sunni dominance in
Iraq by the US invasion.

In recent months, a spate of new agreements have been signed by
Turkey with Iraq, Iran, and Syria that suggest a nascent commonality
of political vision. A new treaty with Armenia further signals how
seriously Ankara means its "zero problem" good-neighbor policy.

More important, however, the agreements with Iraq, Iran, and Syria
reflect a joint economic interest. The "northern tier" of Middle
Eastern states are poised to become the principal supplier of natural
gas to central Europe once the Nabucco pipeline is completed – thus not
only displacing Russia in that role but gradually eclipsing the primacy
of Saudi Arabia as a geostrategic kingpin due to its oil reserves.

Taken together with the economic stagnation and succession crisis
that has incapacitated Egypt, it is clear that the so-called moderate
"southern tier" Middle Eastern states that have been so central to
American policies in the region are becoming a weak and unreliable
link indeed.

Political players in the region can’t but notice the drift of power
from erstwhile US allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia toward the northern
tier states, and, as is the way in the Middle East, are starting to
readjust to the new power reality. This can be most clearly seen
in Lebanon today, where a growing procession of former US allies
and critics of the Syrian government, including Prime Minister Saad
Hariri, Walid Jumblat, and, reportedly, some of the March 14 movement’s
Christian leaders, are making their pilgrimage to Damascus.

That message is not lost on others in the region.

If the Obama administration is not fully cognizant of these
developments, its awareness will surely be raised as it attempts to
mobilize the world for a new round of punitive sanctions against Iran.

These sanctions are likely to fail not only because Russia and China
won’t go along in any serious way, but precisely because the much
touted "alliance of moderate pro-Western Arab states" is turning out
to be a paper tiger.

Given the shifting balance of power I’ve discussed, the "moderates"
are in no position to seriously confront Iran and its allies. Hopes
that the recent Saudi bombing of the Houthi rebels in Yemen would
incite sectarian Sunni hostility toward Shiite Iran have not been
realized. On the contrary, the Saudis’ action has been clearly seen
in the region as a partisan and tribal intervention in another state’s
internal conflict.

In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not only embraced
the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election, but has insisted
as well on the right of Iran as a sovereign nation to enrich uranium.

Unlike Western leaders, he doesn’t at all seem inordinately worried
about Iran’s course.

The US and Europe are going to have to grapple with the pending
replacement of its southern tier allies in the Middle East by the
rising clout of the northern tier states. It would be best to make
this adjustment sooner rather than later. None of the issues that
matter to the West – the nuclearization of Iran, Israel’s security,
the future of energy supplies – can be solved by ignoring the emergent
reality of a new Middle East.

Alastair Crooke, a former MI6 British intelligence agent in the
Middle East, is author of "Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist
Revolution."

ctive-service-in-eastern-turkey-1918-1921.html

On active service in eastern Turkey: 1918-1921

Toby Rawlinson was no ordinary traveller. In 1918, following the
defeat of Ottoman Turkey in World War I, this British army colonel was
one of the officers tasked by Britain to ensure that the terms of the
recently signed armistice were adhered to in the Caucasus and Eastern
Anatolia.

It was mission impossible. Britain, exhausted by the four-year
conflict, lacked both the resources and the will to enforce a largely
unwilling population, inhabiting what was then a remote,
underdeveloped part of the globe, to submit to its
demands. Nonetheless, Rawlinson’s memoir of his post-wartime
experiences, `Adventures in the Near East,’ paints a vivid picture of
a Turkey undergoing the transition from empire to republic.

Across Europe to Ýstanbul

Rawlinson left Britain in mid-February, crossing a wintry Europe in a
`coupe-lit’ train compartment shared with a French medical officer, a
Transylvanian bishop and a Russian general. In Salonika (now
Thessalonica in northern Greece), where he changed trains, his machine
guns and suitcase went missing and were only found with much
difficulty. The 61-hour journey onto Ýstanbul (which he refers to
by its old name of Constantinople, or `Constant,’ British-forces slang
for the imperial capital) was hellish. There was no glass in the
windows of the packed compartments; the weather was either cold,
snowy, rainy or a mixture of all three. Worse was the indignity of
having the contents of a tin of condensed milk `horribly sticky stuff
it is too’ leak all over him one night from the netting rack above
him. The next morning there was a `somewhat animated conversation’
between Rawlinson and the fellow-officer who had placed it there.

Ýstanbul, then under British occupation, impressed Rawlinson when
viewed from the Sea of Marmara. `The situation of the city is
certainly unique throughout the world … it offers a spectacle of
unrivalled splendour … and appears, when the rays of the setting sun
strike its countless golden mosques and minarets, to be a veritable
city of palaces.’ The reality on the ground he found less attractive,
though. `On landing … the disillusionment is both sudden and
complete. Filth and squalour are to be seen everywhere, and the city
of palaces … becomes a collection of hovels and ruins, cropping up
from a sea of mud.’ Although the old walled quarter of the city
disappointed him, Pera (modern Beyoðlu) was more to his
taste. `Here are fine, though steep, streets, pavements, electric
lights and trams, fine buildings, all the evidence of prosperity and
enterprise which distinguish a modern European capital.’

>From the Caucasus to Trabzon

In early March he took a steamer from Ýstanbul to Batumi (in modern
Georgia), then a train onto the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. The train
was guarded by a hundred British infantrymen, as `the country was
infested by bands of Bolshevik and other classes of brigands capable
of any atrocity.’ In Tbilisi, Rawlinson picked up two Ford cars, which
he quickly kitted out with the guns he’d brought from Britain, and
hand picked 14 men to accompany him on his mission. After a brief
foray into the much-disputed and snow-bound province of Kars (now a
part of Turkey), Rawlinson returned to Batumi and took a ship to
Trebizond (modern Trabzon). His mission now was to cross the Pontic
Alps — the lofty mountain range paralleling the eastern Black Sea
coast of Turkey — and liaise with his commander-in-chief in the
strategically crucial northeastern Anatolian city of Erzerum
(Erzurum). The city was the base of the Turkish 9th Army and, under
the terms of the 1918 armistice, the British were supposed to oversee
the demobilization and disarmament of these (and indeed all Ottoman
Turkish) troops. But although Rawlinson was armed with a `firman’
issued by the sultan to ensure the Turkish military complied with his
requests, the Turkish nationalist revolution was, unofficially,
already underway — making his task nigh on impossible given the
limited resources at his disposal.

Over the Pontic Alps to Erzerum

Although it was by now mid-April, the famous 2,010-meter Zigana Pass
was still snow-bound. Today a fine asphalt road and tunnel have tamed
the pass, a mere 110 kilometers from Trabzon, but it took Rawlinson
and his men a day and a half to cross. He was captivated by the view
from the top of Zigana. `We had our first view of Anatolia, and a very
marvelous and beautiful one it was. In the bright morning sun range
after range of snow-capped mountains appeared on every side. …The
impression produced by this remarkable scene was of an incredibly
rocky and rugged country, of precipices and narrow, deep valleys.’
Descending the far side, Rawlinson’s team bivouacked in Gumuþhane,
the next day crossing the Vavok Pass (Vavuk Pass) to Bayburt. Ahead of
them lay the most notorious pass of all, the Kop (2,302 meters), where
`no winter season ever passes without many lives being lost … from
exposure.’ New snow, a savage wind and the steep slope made progress
up the Kop painstaking. Eventually they unloaded their fleet of six
cars and commandeered some local Turkish troops and 40 oxen to help
drag them up the slope. At last they summited and `enjoyed a view
which is unsurpassable in any country.’

Given the ravages of war, its high, exposed position and the fact
that he came down with dysentery here, it is unsurprising that
Rawlinson had a somewhat jaundiced view of Erzerum. `It is a
particularly uninviting spot, which no one who is familiar with that
country would ever voluntarily select as his residence. The wind there
blows with terrific force, and piercing cold defies all furs. … No
tree or shrub of any sort can be found within over 50 miles, either to
afford fuel or shelter of any kind, and the words `dismal,’ `dreary,’
`desolate’ and `damnable’ suggest themselves irresistibly as a concise
description of the whole locality.’ He did, however, get to meet
Kazým Karabekir, who would go on to become a hero of the Turkish
War of Independence. He described Karabekir as `the most genuine
example of a first-class Turkish officer that it has been my good
fortune to meet … although it was my fate to be his prisoner for a
long time … he has never ceased to command my respect as an
individual, and my appreciation as a thoroughly competent Commander.’
`Mustapha Kemal Pasha’ arrived in Erzerum whilst Rawlinson was there,
and if anything he was even more impressed by the man who would
eventually carve the Turkish Republic from the carcass of the Ottoman
Empire, writing, `A man of great strength of character and very
definite and practical views as to the rightful position of his people
in the comity of nations … no seeker after personal fame or
advancement, he is imbued with a deep sense of duty which causes him
to place his country’s interests before all others.’

On the border

For the next four months Rawlinson traveled around the unstable
frontier zone between the incipient Armenian and Turkish
republics. Kars at that time (the spring of 1919) was under Armenian
control — a control sanctioned by the terms of the 1918
armistice. The Armenian commanders interviewed by Rawlinson were
insistent this permission made it an `absolute necessity that they
should disarm the Tartar [Turkish] Moslem population.’ This could only
by done by force and Rawlinson commented, with a feeling of
hopelessness, `This obviously led to fighting; and fighting, as
between Moslem and Armenian, of necessity led to massacres and
atrocities of all kinds.’ Rawlinson also met the local Kurdish tribal
chieftains, one of whom made it clear that `if it was decided (by the
victorious European powers) to endeavor to put them under Armenian
government, and if European troops were to support the Armenians, they
would evacuate the country with all their goods and herds, and go
bodily over to their kinsmen beyond the Turkish frontier.’ Like many
Britons of his period and upper-class, military background, Rawlinson
was enamored with the tribal Kurds; in the same way that Lawrence of
Arabia was with the Bedouin Arabs, calling them `the finest men it has
ever been my privilege to meet.’ He later, however, conceded `they are
brigands by descent as well as by inclination and training.’

Rawlinson was on the Armenian side of the frontier when he heard that
`the conference then proceeding at Erzerum, where has assembled
representatives of the Young Turkish Party … were organizing a
revolution with the eventual object of establishing a Turkish
Republic.’ He made haste to Erzerum and was received cordially by
Karabekir, and later by Kemal himself. He told him the outcome of the
conference — that a national `pact’ had been formed; aimed at ridding
Anatolia of the occupying allied forces and establishing an
independent Turkish state. Rawlinson’s task was hopeless, and went to
Sarýkamýþ, then under Armenian occupation, to rejoin his
men. He describes this remote East Anatolian town, which now boasts
one of Turkey’s best ski resorts, as thus, `This district … much
resembles some parts of Switzerland, the mountains being heavily
wooded and the valleys green and fertile.’ From Sarýkamýþ he
returned to Tbilisi by rail, then took an American destroyer from
Batumi to `Constant’ — and then, after debriefing, back to Britain.

Go back to Turkey, go straight to jail

Rawlinson, though, was not done with Turkey, nor it with him. An
interview with the Foreign Office in London left him with no doubt
that they were skeptical about his reports on the strength and
determination of the Turkish nationalists. Despite this, he was given
a new mission — to return to Anatolia and contact Mustafa Kemal
indirectly and find out what his real aims and objectives were. He
returned to `Constant’ by boat. His return to the east was delayed by
inclement weather and he `enjoyed several days of hunting with the
army hounds, and several rounds of golf on the links which had been
established on the hills to the north-west of Pera.’ Re-crossing the
passes between Trabzon and Erzerum in freezing winter conditions,
Rawlinson and his men reached their goal on Boxing Day and were put up
in a house belonging to the 9th Army — a house where `we were
destined afterwards to remain so long and suffer so severely.’ Victims
of political circumstance and diplomatic wrangling between the Allies
and the new de facto Turkish Republican government, Rawlinson and his
men ended up under house arrest, and then in prison, from March 1920
until October 1921.

In spite of his incarceration, Rawlinson, who had formed such a good
impression of fellow military men Kazým Karabekir and Mustafa
Kemal, wrote near the end of his memoirs: `I am … of the opinion
that the inevitable policy of our country must always be to establish
friendly relations with Turkey. … I had no idea of allowing our
experiences to be made use of by any anti-Turkish party.’ Rawlinson
later was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
for his sterling wartime service.

AMBASSADOR MORGENTHAU’S PERSONAL LIBRARY DONATED TO THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM OF AMERICA

armradio.am
25.11.2009 11:21

The personal library of U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, renowned
for his extraordinary efforts to bring American and international
attention to the Turkish government’s deportation and massacres of
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, has been donated to the Armenian
Genocide Museum of America (AGMA) in Washington, DC.

"We are extremely grateful to the Morgenthau family for entrusting this
invaluable collection of books to the museum, which provides a window
into the breadth and depth of the Ambassador’s intellectual acumen and
his humanitarian outlook," said Van Z. Krikorian, museum trustee and
chairman of the project’s Building and Operations Committee. "In the
pantheon of heroes who have fought against genocide, the Morgenthau
name is legendary. This collection is priceless and wonderful
Thanksgiving news," added Krikorian.

The gift of Ambassador Morgenthau’s personal library, which has
been privately held by his family since his death in 1946, comes to
AGMA from Henry Morgenthau III, the son of Henry Morgenthau, Jr.,
and the grandson of the Ambassador. In making the gift to AGMA,
Henry Morgenthau III said "I am only putting Ambassador Morgenthau’s
effects where they belong."

Ambassador Morgenthau’s personal library includes books he acquired
during his term of service in the Ottoman Empire, and others obtained
in preparation for his diplomatic posting to expand his knowledge
of the region, its history and people. The collection also includes
Ambassador Morgenthau’s autographed copy of the official State
Department publication "Instructions to the Diplomatic Officers of
the United States," which he was provided upon his appointment.

Krikorian said the Ambassador Morgenthau collection will be used by the
research library, and to enhance the museum’s exhibits depicting the
Ambassador’s life and work. Ambassador Morgenthau was a naturalized
American from a German Jewish family and a successful lawyer active
in Democratic Party politics. With the election of President Woodrow
Wilson, he was appointed United States Ambassador to the Sublime
Porte in 1913.

"Ambassador Morgenthau played a central role in documenting the
Armenian Genocide, and the items related to his diplomatic service
are critical pieces of his life story," Krikorian said. "No one
individual before Ambassador Morgenthau had so prominently alerted the
international community to the consequences of the mass atrocities
perpetrated against the Armenian population in Ottoman Turkey and
analyzed the mechanisms of a state system devised to extinguish an
entire people. Remarkably, the recent publication of Talaat Pasha’s
diary dispositively confirms what Ambassador Morgenthau reported and
wrote at the beginning of the last century."

While in Constantinople, Ambassador Morgenthau had personal contact
with the Young Turk leaders of the Ottoman Empire and architects
of the Armenian Genocide, especially the Minister of the Interior,
Talaat. When news of the deportations and massacres began to reach the
Embassy in April 1915, Ambassador Morgenthau attempted to intervene
to alleviate the plight of the Armenian population. He forwarded to
Washington the stream of alarming reports he received from U.S.

consulates in the interior of the Ottoman Empire that detailed the
extent of the measures taken against the Armenians.

On July 16, 1915, Morgenthau cabled the U.S. Department of State his
own dispatch whose alarm resonates to this day. He called the Young
Turk policy of deportation "a campaign of race extermination." In
effect, he became the first person to officially transmit to the
American government news that a state-sponsored systematic genocide
was underway.

Drained by his disappointment in averting this disaster, Ambassador
Morgenthau returned to the United States in 1916. For the remainder of
the war years he dedicated himself to raising funds for the surviving
Armenians. Ambassador Morgenthau was particularly instrumental in the
founding of the Near East Relief organization which became the main
U.S. private agency to deliver critical assistance to the survivors
of the Armenian Genocide.

To bring his case to the attention of the public, he published
"Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story" in 1918, a memoir of his years in
Turkey in which he stressed the German influence and role in the
Ottoman Empire. While he held Germany responsible for starting World
War I, he placed the blame for the atrocities committed against the
Armenians entirely upon the shoulders of the Young Turk Ittihadist
cabinet which he characterized as a violently radical regime.

Ambassador Morgenthau titled the chapter on the Armenians "The Murder
of a Nation," and described the deportations and the atrocities as a
"cold-blooded, calculating state policy." He avowed at the time "I
am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no
such horrible episode as this."

PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT OF IHL TO BE DISCUSSED IN YEREVAN

armradio.am
25.11.2009 18:10

On 26 and 27 November 2009 the Russian-Armenian University (RAU)
and the ICRC delegation in Armenia are jointly organizing in Yerevan
the International Scientific Students’ Conference "International
humanitarian law: problems and perspectives of development". This year,
the event hosted by the RAU is focused on the issue of responsibility
for violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

"The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for discussion on
contemporary challenges of IHL and to promote and stimulate a research
on the current developments in the field of IHL," said Nadya Kebir
Raoloson, head of the ICRC delegation in Armenia.

Through observation of international practice, the participants will
discuss the issues concerning the individual and state responsibility
for violations of IHL, as well as instruments of their repression
and punishment. "We value scientific and cultural aspects of this
conference", said Arman Dilanyan, Head of the International and
European Law Chair of the RAU. "Discussing IHL in a common forum,
participants from different countries contribute to the respect for
humanitarian values".

Postgraduate law students and young researchers from universities of
11 countries representing Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Iran and the UK
are participating in the Conference. National and international experts
on IHL will preside the five sections of the conference. Among them
are Jelena Plamenac, Lawyer at the International Criminal Tribunal
for Former Yugoslavia, Vahan Bournazian, Assistant Dean at the Law
Department of the American University of Armenia and Gleb Bogush,
Associate professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology
of the Moscow State University.

ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS’ MEETINGS CAN’T BE VIEWED AS NEGOTIATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
25.11.2009 15:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Meetings between Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents
cannot be viewed as negotiations. They are rather meetings aimed to
resume negotiations over the Karabakh conflict settlement, Alexander
Manasyan, Doctor of Philosophy and political scientist told a news
conference in Yerevan on Wednesday.

Commenting on the recent 4-hour presidential meeting, he said that only
Sargsyan and Aliyev can tell what was discussed. He did not rule out,
however, that a framework agreement on Karabakh and NKR’s engagement
in negotiations were in focus.

"The final decision on the problem cannot be taken without NKR,"
the expert said, adding that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs seek a
simple solution to the Karabakh conflict, not requiring any effort.

SUPERSTAR CHARLES AZNAVOUR AND A NIGHT OF 100 ARMENIAN MUSIC STARS

Asbarez
Nov 24th, 2009

December 13 double-wow in the Nokia at LA LIVE

LOS ANGELES, CA-Legendary French-Armenian superstar Charles Aznavour
will be among the more than 100 Armenian music stars being honored
on Sunday, December 13, during the star-studded "M Club Music Video
Awards" and "Armenian Music Awards" show.

For the first time in Armenian entertainment history, the 7,100-seat
Nokia Theatre at L.A. LIVE will be ground zero for the joint Armenian
music and video awards show-a spectacular event that will raise the
bar for all future Armenian award and entertainment shows.

Resources from two US-based production companies and three
international, local, and Armenian television networks are being
synergized to present to attendees the most fascinating nominees
from various genres and categories including the most popular and
most critically-acclaimed Armenian singers, musicians, albums, and
music videos.

Producers Sevak Petrossian and Arthut Kokozian will be bringing the
3rd Annual "M Club Music Video Awards" and 10 Annual "Armenian Music
Awards" together this year to one stage on the same time.

This is a first combination of both these popular awards shows,
which have previously been held at such venues as the Kodak Theatre
in the heart of Hollywood and the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal
City. The successes from the flawless first and second M Club Music
Video Awards and the decade-long networking of the Armenian Music
Video awards is making it possible for Petrosyan and Kokozian to
create the most-professional and blockbuster show ever produced in
Armenian entertainment history.

In addition to Aznavour being given awards for a lifetime of
achievements, daughter Seta Aznavour is scheduled to perform along
with other popular acts like VISA, Element Band, and Reincarnation.

Global rock star Serj Tankian’s father will also perform, and he
is said to be bringing with him a special guest. The special guest,
perhaps Tankian himself, wants to keep his appearance a mystery until
the night of the show on December 13.

Armenian divas Nune Yesayan and Shushan Petrosyan, local favorites
Karnig Sarkissian and Harut Pamboukjian, and global sensations Arto
Tuncboyaciyan from the Armenian Navy Band will come together as well.

A huge and unexpected treat will be a special performance by Russian
superstar Irina Allegrova, who also has a surprise for the Nokia
audience. BBC Award recipient, newcomer from Armenia Silva Hakobian,
Canadian Mariam Matossian, and other top names from South America,
Europe, and the Homeland will also join the festivities.

Also appearing will be former EuroVision top ten contestants Andre and
Hayko, along with international sensation Armenchik, rappers Misho
and Apeh Jan, Jazz singer Arthur Ispirian, and pop star Hovhaness
Shahbazian.

International mainstream music sensations Armen Movsisyan, Victor
Espinola, and Alexander Zhiroff – who have collaborated with top
artists like Yanni, Ray Charles, and Tonny Bennett – will also
participate during the December 13th show. The trio were most recently
part of the sold out Yanni show last June at the Nokia.

"We are going share our music, because we are sharing it with our
people," says Movsisyan. "Armenian music is my culture. It is my
heritage. It’s my music, and we want to dedicate our art to my people."

Many surprises are also planned throughout the four-hour program
including special appearances by a few Hollywood legends like TV star
Mike Connors, top Armenian sportsman like Ultimate Fighting Champion
Vanes Martirosyan, and a few Armenian global superstars, reality show
stars, who want to keep their appearance a last-minute surprise.

"This show promises to be the biggest event of the year, because
coming together are the most popular, the most talented, and the
most legendary Armenian artists from around the world," says Sevag
Petrosyan of Meridian Studios, the producer of the annual M Club
Video Awards. "There is so much excitement in the community, and we
hope the event will sell-out at least a week before."

Tickets for the star-studded night of music and glamour range
from $50 to $200, and they are available through Ticketmaster
or ARTNticket.com. Phone orders are also available by calling
800-533-3386.

"What is even more unique for this big awards show is that three
Armenian television channels are joining forces so that every face
on stage and every performance is captured with the best clarity on
the big screens at the Nokia," says Armenian Music Awards producer
Arthur Kokozian. "Dozens of cameras will be covering the awards and
performances, so that everyone seated anywhere in the Nokia can see
every expression on the faces of the performers."

Among the dozen categories of nominations are best soloists, best
album, best electronic, jazz, newcomer, best video, as well as best
music video director. Hosts include the M Club’s Tatevik Ekizian
and ARNT-Shant TV’s Grisha Aghajanian. Those living across the US,
in Europe, the Middle East, and in Armenia will be able to watch the
broadcast via H1, the Armenian Public Television station, Armenian
Russian Television, Shant, and Horizon Armenian TV.

09112475725127176.html

Tuesday, November 24, 2009
16:46 Mecca time, 13:46 GMT

THE ROAD TO HAJJ
An Islamic revival in Azerbaijan

At the crossroads of Europe and Central Asia, Islam took root in Azerbaijan
in the seventh century

In a series of programmes, Al Jazeera follows Muslim pilgrims from around
the world as they prepare to undertake the Hajj pilgrimage.

It is an ancient land at the crossroads of Europe and Central Asia and is
said to have been the location of the Garden of Eden.

Different cultures and civilisations have met in Azerbaijan for thousands of
years and the country was one of the first to embrace Islam when Arabian
invaders imposed their religion on the region in the seventh century.

But when Azerbaijan fell under the control of the former Soviet Union in
1920, atheism became state policy; many Muslim leaders were exiled or killed
and mosques were closed down or destroyed.

When the country regained its independence in 1991, many embarked on a
journey to rediscover their faith and heritage and to fill the religious
vacuum left by Communist rule.

Painful journey

Thirty-one-year-old Salamova Samira is a mother of two and part of the 95
per cent of Azerbaijanis who consider themselves Muslims. But, more
significantly, she is one of only five per cent who actually practice their
faith and is about to embark on the Hajj pilgrimage.

"I started praying when I was around 12 years old. There was only grandma
[Samira’s great-grandmother] who prayed in our family. She was 115 years
old. She read the Quran," Samira says.

Salamova Samira thought she would have to save for years to go on Hajj
"When I was a schoolgirl, I also took lessons to learn the Quran. This was
difficult then as many people viewed Islam in a bad light, unlike today."

The older generation, like Samira’s mother, lived their lives without
observing the central tenets of their religion and, more often than not, do
not feel any need to start doing it now.

Samira will travel from Baku, the country’s capital where she lives, to
Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj. But, for her, the road to Hajj has been
a long one marked by pain and hardship.

"I had been praying until I turned 17. Then I got married and stopped
praying. Having a family with children, I just could not find the time.

"My husband was a Muslim too. He was not against the fact that I prayed
regularly. But I just could not do it. I have two daughters, aged 11 and 13
years old," she explains.

Her relationship with her husband soured and after five years of marriage
they divorced.

"As the saying goes, when the world knocks you down on your knees, you are
in the perfect position to pray," she says.

Performing the pilgrimage seemed like an impossible dream for Samira.

Although she earns a decent living as a house-keeping manager at a hotel,
she knew it would take her years to save enough money to go on Hajj.

"Going to the Hajj was my dream. But with my salary, it was not possible. I
always thought it would take a miracle for me to go," she says.

But fate was to intervene for Samira when a friend of her mother offered to
sponsor her pilgrimage.

Islamic revival

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has witnessed something
of an Islamic revival; hundreds of new mosques have been built, old ones
have been restored and new religious schools have been opened.

For many young Azerbaijanis, like Samira, an interest in Islam is
re-emerging and stronger than ever.

"I can not describe my feelings, the first was fear. At the same time, I
feel happy too," Samira says.

"After the Hajj, you would expect more of yourself. Before the Hajj, you can
make some mistakes, but after the Hajj, you should be more careful in making
your decisions.

"Everyone makes mistakes, commits sin, and lies. After the Hajj, you should
not go back to your old ways. It is easy to go to the Hajj, but after that,
it is as if you are born again, you become clean and innocent."

"And you should keep yourself that way. That is very hard. That is why I am
afraid. But I will go and when I come back, I hope I can manage to do so."

Road to Hajj: Azerbaijan can be seen on Wednesday, November 25, at the
following times GMT: 1030, 1630, 2330.
Source: Al Jazeera