Author: Chilingarian Babken

Sportinglife.com, UK
March 30 2005

Armenia 2 Andorra 1

A second-half goal from Romik Khachatrian was enough to seal victory
for Armenia in the basement battle with Andorra in European Zone
Group One of the World Cup Qualifying competition.

The Armenians therefore picked up their first win in the qualifiers
and after taking a shock point in their last match with Romania will
travel to Holland for their next test in great heart.

Their French coach Bernard Casoni will have been delighted with his
team’s performance as they were missing both captain Harutyun
Vardanian and top-scorer Artur Petrosian through injury.

However Andorra have now dropped to the bottom of the Group 1 pile at
the expense of their rivals and their week is unlikely to get better
for the minnows from the Pyrenees when they host the Czech Republic
in midweek.

It was all Armenia in the first-half and it was no surprise when they
took a 32nd minute lead as Ara Hakobian beat Andorra goalkeeper Koldo
Alvarez.

The home side then missed a good chance to extend their lead nine
minutes later as midfielder Artavadz Karamian’s header just shaved
the post.

Andorra had only managed a single shot on target in the first period
so it came as something of a shock as they levelled the scoreline in
the 57th minute.

Justo Ruiz’s powerful free kick hit the post and bounced back to
create havoc in the home penalty area.

Fernando Silva was alert to the opportunity and was first to reach
the ball heading home past keeper Roman Berezovsky.

But Armenia were not to be denied and Khachatrian grabbed the winner
in spectacular fashion in the 73rd minute.

The midfielder smashed in a long-range rocket from more than 30 yards
from goal that left Alvarez with no chance.

Andorra, despite this setback, will at least take something from this
qualifying group when they are inevitably eliminated.

Earlier in the competition they beat FYR Macedonia in what was their
first ever victory in a competitive international in their short
footballing history.

ARMENIAN AND AZERI PRESIDENTS SHOULD DISCUSS CEASE FIRE VIOLATION
REPORTS DURING THEIR NEXT MEETING

YEREVAN, MARCH 29. ARMINFO. OSCE Minsk Group has not yet responded to
the Armenian side’s demand for including the issue of cease fire
violations in the agenda of the next meeting of the Armenian and Azeri
presidents, says Armenia’s FM Vardan Oskanyan.

He says that the Armenian side is concerned over the Azeri positions’
having come very close to the Armenian ones in the last half year.
“We are not complaining we are just stating that Azerbaijan is
advancing its positions within its territory but all the same this is
worrisome,” says Oskanyan noting that the presidents should discuss
the situation until it becomes too dangerous. “It is hard to say yet
what exactly Azerbaijan is planning by such actions but it seems to be
trying either to torpedo the negotiating process or to resume the
military actions,” says Oskanyan noting that the Armenian side is
ready for rebuff at any moment.

The Armenian and Azeri FMs have already done all they could and now it
is for the presidents to continue. But if Azerbaijan wants one more FM
meeting this should be coordinated with OSCE MG. As to the
presidential meeting it very important as it is able to shed light on
many issues, says Oskanyan.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 29 2005

OFFICE OF RUSSIAN ANTI-DRUG SERVICE TO BE OPENED IN AFGHANISTAN

MOSCOW, March 29 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian federal anti-drug
service intends to open an office in Afghanistan by the end of 2005,
service’s deputy director Alexander Fyodorov said.

“The plans to open our office in Kabul are being implemented,” he
noted adding that the necessary legal basis would be drafted in 2005.

According to Fyodorov, about 130 tons of drugs were seized on Russian
territory in 2004.

“The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs recommends relevant
organizations to study and use the Russian anti-drug experience,” in
particular, on the post-Soviet space, Alexander Fyodorov noted.

Director of the Russian Federal Anti-Drug Service Viktor Cherkesov
and Armenian police chief Aik Arutyunyan signed an agreement on
cooperation against illegal trafficking of drugs, psychotropic
substances and their precursors on Tuesday.

“In compliance with the agreement, the joint work of the Russian and
Armenian law enforcement bodies will include anti-drug trafficking
activities, joint operative and preventive measures, development of
direct contacts, exchange of experience, legislative and other
normative acts, statistic information and recommendations and
professional training of staffers,” the PR center of the Russian
federal anti-drug service reported.

ISSUES CONNECTED WITH ELABORATION OF EU-ARMENIA COUNTRY ACTION PLAN
DISCUSSED AT CONSULTATION HELD BY PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, MARCH 28, NOYAN TAPAN. On March 28, RA President held a
consultation in connection with the elaboration of the EU-Armenia
country action plan within the framework of the New Neighborhood
European policy. Members of the government participated in the
discussion. “We should already decide what we are going to do, what
directions will be included and how much fast we will advance. This is
a very important moment for the country. We may be given an
opportunity of serious assistance in the current reforms, in the
concretization of their future direction and concentrate our power in
their realization being assisted by the EU structures,” RA President
mentioned. According to Robert Kocharian, while choosing the
directions of cooperation and programs we should also pay attention to
the accents made recently in the European Commission’s report on
Armenia published lately. According to RA President’s Press Service,
Robert Kocharian assigned the heads of all departments to submit
concrete programs proceeding from the priorities of their spheres
within a 1-month term. They will be discussed in the inter-department
sub-committee established especially for this purpose and will be
sumbitted to the EU Cooperation Council in autumn, after passing
through the expertise.

The Australian
March 28 2005

Dachinyan eyes title unification
By Adrian Warren
March 28, 2005

AUSTRALIA’s International Boxing Federation flyweight world champion
Vic Darchinyan is hoping for a world title unification bout in Japan
while his trainer Jeff Fenech warns he has a long way to go in
another sense.

Darchinyan, 29, was today nursing the first cut eye of his boxing
career, after stopping South African Mzukisi Sikali in the eighth
round of his first title defence in Sydney last night.

Following the victory, Darchinyan promptly targeted Venezuela’s
unbeaten World Boxing Association (WBA) flyweight world champion
Lorenzo Parra as his preferred next opponent.

Armenian-born Darchinyan revealed he was very keen to fight in Japan,
where 26-year-old Parra, who has won all 25 of his professional
bouts, has made two of his past three defences.

“I know they give him (Parra) a good rating in Japan and that’s why I
want to take the belt and go and fight in Japan,” Darchinyan said.

“I know many times I have told (Team Fenech matchmaker) Angelo
(Hyder) I want to fight in Japan and he said they don’t know you.

“The WBA title is very popular in Japan and that’s why I want to take
that belt and go and fight there.”

After successive title bouts against southpaws, Darchinyan was also
keen to tackle Parra because the Venezuelan boxes from an orthodox
stance.

“I’m a little bit sick of southpaws, I want an orthodox fighter,”
Darchinyan said.

“I like orthodox, I can come closer. When I fight southpaws, I don’t
know exactly what to do, but with orthodox, I feel very confident.”

While Darchinyan extended his perfect professional record to 23 wins,
18 by KO, both trainers felt he was still far from the finished
article.

“He’s got a lot to work and it’s not just boxing skills, his overall
conditioning,” Fenech said.

“There’s no doubt about Vic and his heart, but there’s a lot more to
it, it’s not getting hit and doing the right thing.

“I just thought he was too easy to hit.”

Sikali’s trainer Harold Volbrecht praised Darchinyan for being
awkward and strong, but felt he would need more than power to beat
champions such as Parra and Thailand’s World Boxing Council world
title holder Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, another of the Australian’s
targets.

“He will have to sharpen up his boxing ability,” Volbrecht said.

“He’s not going to beat everybody with his power and he will have to
start to learn to pace himself and slow down and box and throw more
combinations.”

Meanwhile, Volbrecht revealed details of the problem that led to his
33-year-old fighter quitting in the eighth round despite trailing by
just one point on two of the judges’ cards and three points on the
other.

“Vic gave him a bad cut inside his bottom lip and he was bleeding a
lot inside his mouth,” he said.

“Blood was running down his throat and that’s when he decided to give
it up, because Vic caught him with some good shots.”

Darchinyan said his cut was caused by an accidental head clash, which
he thought was just as much his fault as his opponent’s as “we came
too close together”.

PanArmenian News
March 28 2005

AUTHOR OF POPULAR ARMENIAN BROADCAST: I DO NOT RESPECT PHILIP
KIRKOROV AND REGRET THAT HE IS ASHAMED OF HIS ARMENIAN ROOTS

28.03.2005 03:29

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `At the concert I will try not to think of Philip
Kirkorov as an individual, otherwise I will not be able to conceal m
emotions’, author and presenter of Good Evening, Yerevan broadcast,
singer and compere Arman Nersesian stated in a conversation with
PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. At the same time he noted that Armenian
music lovers wish for enthralling sights and Kirkorov is a master of
show. `Like many Armenians I listen to his songs with pleasure.
However it does not mean that I respect him as an individual’, Arman
Nersesian stressed adding that he regrets that Kirkorov is ashamed of
his Armenian roots.

Kyrgyzstan oppn figure names ministers

Age, Australia

March 26, 2005 – 6:14AM

Page Tools

Kyrgyzstan’s interim prime minister chose his key officials on Friday,
the speaker of parliament’s lower house said as the new leadership
moved quickly to try to quell widespread disorder and looting following
the ouster of the president.

“The city looks as if it has gone mad,” said Felix Kulov, a prominent
opposition leader released from prison during Thursday’s turmoil and
appointed coordinator of the country’s law-enforcement agencies.

Gunshots rang out on a street in downtown Bishkek after dark on Friday
as helmeted police in bulletproof vests chased a rowdy group of youths.

In another part of the darkened capital, with its streetlights
extinguished, shots were fired near the central department store
on the main avenue where vigilantes and police were on duty against
looters. Police fired into the air to warn off a group of looters,
witnesses said.

The whereabouts of deposed President Askar Akayev remained a mystery,
although Russian news agencies carried a statement purportedly from him
saying he was out of the country and denying claims by his opponents
in Kyrgyzstan that he had resigned. Akayev’s spokesman in Bishkek
said he did not know about that statement.

At Akayev’s lavish residence in the outskirts of the capital, the
chief security guard who identified himself as Colonel Alymkulov said
the house was empty and as yet untouched by looters.

The new leader, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, chose mostly prominent opposition
figures for the posts of foreign, defence and finance ministers and
chief prosecutor. For the job of interior minister, he picked Myktybek
Abdyldayev, a former chief prosecutor who had been fired on Wednesday
by Akayev.

He appointed them as acting ministers, thereby avoiding the need to
have them approved by parliament’s upper house.

Bakiyev also signed an order appointing a communications minister and
governors of the northern Chui and the southern Osh and Jalal-Abad
regions, which were the epicentre of anti-Akayev protests that grew
until they drove Akayev from power.

The new leadership faced the immediate challenge of halting vandalism
and looting in the capital and preventing it from spreading to
other cities.

Seven thousand people in Jalal-Abad celebrated the Kyrgyz opposition’s
victory, said Gamal Soronkulov, opposition chief of security in the
town. He said police started patrolling and security has been stepped
up to avert looting.

The town’s main square has been renamed Liberty Square, Soronkulov
said. Opposition supporters in Osh, another southern town and
Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest, were preparing to hold similar
celebrations on Saturday, a police official in Osh said.

In Bishkek, Kulov urged police, who have virtually disappeared from
the streets, to return to work or face punishment. But he acknowledged
on Friday that few police had shown up and looting went on unimpeded.

“It’s an orgy going on here,” Kulov told reporters. “We have arrested
many people, we are trying to do something, but we physically lack
people.”

After weeks of sporadic and intensifying protests in the south of
the country, propelled by widespread anger over disputed elections,
events moved quickly on Thursday and Friday, with crowds taking over
government buildings in the capital and the sudden flight of Akayev.

Bakiyev emerged from the Parliament building on Friday and said he
had been named Kyrgyzstan’s acting prime minister and president.

“Freedom has finally come to us,” Bakiyev told a crowd in the central
square of the capital.

His appointment as acting prime minister – and thus, under the
constitution, acting president – was endorsed in a late-night session
by a newly restored parliament of lawmakers who held seats before
the elections that fuelled the protests.

The move set Bakiyev squarely at the helm of the leadership emerging
from the fragmented former opposition.

Kyrgyzstan became the third former Soviet republic over the past
18 months – after Georgia and Ukraine – where popular protests have
brought down long-entrenched leaders widely accused of corruption.

Roza Otunbayeva, named the foreign minister, said she would recall
the ambassador to the United States, Baktybek Abdrisayev, who has
refused to recognise the new government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking during a visit to Armenia on
Friday, lamented the violence and looting in Kyrgyzstan, saying that
“it’s unfortunate that yet again in the post-Soviet space, political
problems in a country are resolved illegally and are accompanied by
pogroms and human victims.”

He urged the new leadership to restore order quickly, and praised
them for having helped develop bilateral ties during their earlier
work in the government.

Putin also said the Kremlin wouldn’t object if Akayev wanted to go
to Russia, but the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander
Yakovenko said Moscow didn’t know where Akayev was.

Bakiyev told the crowd on the square in Bishtek that Akayev was
“not on the territory of the republic. I don’t know where he is.”

In the unconfirmed statement carried by Russian news agencies,
Akayez was quoted as saying, “My current stay outside the country is
temporary. Rumours of my resignation are deliberate, malicious lies.”

Kulov said Akayev had fled to a foreign country after being turned
away by Russia. The Russian news agency Interfax said Akayev and his
family were in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

Bakiyev said he would fight corruption – a major complaint against
Akayev’s regime – and the clan mentality that roughly splits the
country between north and south.

“I will not allow the division of the people into north and south,”
he said. “We are a united nation.”

The Red Cross reported dozens injured in the turmoil Thursday, while
lawmaker Temir Sariyev said three people had been killed and about
100 injured.

On Friday, a shopping centre on the main avenue stood nearly destroyed
by fire and strewn with wreckage that spread into the street, as smoke
hung in the air. Cars were picked clean, their windows and tires gone.

The takeover in Bishkek followed similar building seizures in the
country’s impoverished south. The protests began even before the
first round of parliamentary elections on February 27 and swelled
after March 13 run-offs that the opposition said were seriously flawed.

The fractious opposition unified around calls for more democracy,
an end to poverty and corruption, and a desire to oust Akayev, who
had led Kyrgyzstan since 1990, before it gained independence in the
Soviet collapse.

There was no sign the new leadership would change policy toward
the West or Russia. Unlike the revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine,
foreign policy has not been an issue.

Both the United States and Russia have military bases near Bishkek.

“All intergovernmental agreements will remain in full force and are
in full effect,” Bakiyev pledged.

Kyrgyzstan has been a conduit for drugs and a potential hotbed
of Islamic extremism. There was no indication, however, that the
opposition would be more amenable to Islamic fundamentalist influence
than Akayev’s government has been.

© 2005 AP

–Boundary_(ID_zQmDMvZyRPoKzN5GVebb3g)–

Vic Darchinyan faces Mzukisi Sikali Sunday night

EastsideBoxing.com
March 24 2005

23.03.05 – This fight night will feature the World Title Unification
bout between Australia’s current IBF Flyweight World Champion Vic
‘The Raging Bull’ DARCHINYAN and South Africa’s IBO World Champion
Mzukisi SIKALI..

It has been Thirty Years since the Flyweight Division has been unified
and only One Australian Boxer in history has ever unified a Division
(to hold two or more Titles in the One Division) and that is the
Great Kostya TSZYU. Vic Darchinyan recently won the IBF Flyweight
World Title. He has a remarkable record of 22 Fights for 22 Wins
(17 by knock-out).

One of the most powerful fighters seen in the lower weight classes
in many years, Vic Darchinyan impressed Jeff Fenech immensley at the
2000 Sydney Olympic Games whilst representing Armenia, accumulating
an amateur record of 152 wins from 170 bouts. The three-time world
champion saw something special in the hard hitting southpaw and he
has been proven correct. Darchinyan leaving a trail of destruction
and winning the IBF flyweight world title from long reigning and
previously undefeated Irene Pacheco.

The “Raging Bull” is now looking towards world domination in the
flyweight division. Other World Class Boxers that will feature on
the Card include Nedal ‘Skinny’ Hussein, Lovermore NIDOU as well
as the captain of Australia’s 2004 Olympic Boxing Team to Athens,
Jamie PITTMAN.

CENN – March 18, 2005 Daily Digest

Table of Contents:

1.. Oil and Gas Projects Prospects Being Considered in Tbilisi
2.. Plans to Sell Trunk Gas Pipelines Stir Controversy
3.. G8 Ministers Urged to Take Action on Poverty By Conserving
Biodiversity and Ecosystems
4.. Caucasus Contemporary Music Festival (CCMF)
5.. II International Seminar on Mountain Tourism Mountain Huts –
Challenges for Tourists and Nature?

1. OIL AND GAS PROJECTS PROSPECTS BEING CONSIDERED IN TBILISI

Source: Sarke, March 17, 2005

Around 150 delegates are taking part in a 2-day Georgian International
Oil, Gas, Energy and Infrastructure Conference – GIOCIE 2005, run by
British ITE Group, Exhibition Company, and its exclusive partner in the
Caucasus Iteca Caspian Ltd.

In his opening speech, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli said how important
the conference was for Georgia to be crossed by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline and the South Caucasian gas pipeline.

2. Plans to Sell Trunk Gas Pipelines Stir Controversy

Source: Civil Georgia, March 18, 2005

Negotiations between the Georgian leadership and the Russian energy
giant Gazprom over the potential sale of Georgia’s main gas pipeline
network are currently underway. Meanwhile, the United States is calling
on Georgia to exercise caution when making a final decision in this
matter.

News about the government’s decision to privatize Georgia’s gas pipeline
system broke after President Saakashvili told the Italian newspaper La
Stampa on February 20 that Georgia is in fact negotiating with Gazprom
over this issue.

3. G8 MINISTERS URGED TO TAKE ACTION ON POVERTY BY CONSERVING
BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEMS

Source: IUCN, March 17, 2005

G8 Environment and Development Ministers, meeting today and tomorrow in
Derby, UK, can reduce poverty and improve the livelihoods of the world’s
poorest people by halting the loss of biodiversity and improving the
protection of ecosystems. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) welcomes
this first ever G8 Environment and Development Ministers’ Meeting. It
reinforces the growing recognition around the world that social and
economic development is directly related to, and dependent on, a healthy
environment. Healthy ecosystems support human well-being by providing
food, energy and genetic resources; by regulating water, air, climate,
soil and natural hazards; and through spiritual, religious, aesthetic
and recreational factors. The degradation of natural environments hurts
poor people the most. Biodiversity loss and deteriorating ecosystems
contribute to worsening human health, food shortages, vulnerability to
natural disasters, and security.

4. CAUCASUS CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL (CCMF)

“Music on the Silk Road”, Conservatoire Grand Hall

This special concert introducing the Yo Yo Ma Silk Road Project and
welcoming Vache Sharafyan -official composer and musician Gevorg
Dabaghyan, one of the world’s duduk vituoso, will be held on Sunday 20th
March at the Conservatoire at 20:00. (Information is attached)

Tickets: 4, 6, 8 & 10 GEL from Conservatoire Box Office 93 46 24

Information: 899 233 086 & 379 270

5. II International Seminar on Mountain Tourism Mountain Huts –
Challenges for Tourists and Nature?

II International Seminar on Mountain Tourism

Mountain Huts – Challenges for Tourists and Nature?

Szklarska Porêba (Sudeten Mts. , Poland) 14 – 17 April 2005

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to inform you that the deadline for registration has been
extended until 29th of March.

Up till now, we have registered participants from Albania, Austria,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, The
Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Viet-Nam but there is still
capacity for a few more people.

So, we invite you again to take part in our Seminar!

We are including the First Announcement in case you did not received
them before. For completing the registration form, please contact us
directly.

All information in English as well in German, you can find also on

Please, do not hesitate to contact us if you need any further
information.

With best regards,

Dr Piotr Dabrowski

Chairman of the Cracow Academic Section of PTTK

E-mail: [email protected]

First Announcement and Call for Papers

II International Seminar on Mountain Tourism

MOUNTAIN HUTS – CHALLENGES FOR TOURISTS AND NATURE?

Organized by:

International Friends of Nature

Institute of Tourism and Recreation of Cracow Academy of Physical
Education

Polish Tourist Country Lovers’ Society (PTTK) – Cracow

Academic Section

to be held in

Szklarska Poreba (Poland)

14 – 17 April 2005

Mountain huts play a pivotal role in access to the World’s high places.
They allow climbers to commence their ascents early in the morning,
backpackers can create adventurous high- level treks, but they should
not be viewed simply as facilities; properly managed mountain huts evoke
a powerful atmosphere of fellowship, helpfulness and responsibility
which has an educational impact, especially on younger tourists. Some
mountain huts are very old, possessing rich historical and architectural
values, and should be protected as cultural monuments in their own
right. On the other hand mountain huts are a form of enterprise, which
have to be economically viable. Finally, mountain huts are invariably
sited within a very fragile natural environment, intruding upon the
landscape and impacting upon local biodiversity. Technical and economic
developments together with the growing and increasingly sophisticated
demands of people are changing the nature and extent of mountain
tourism. Mountain huts are not immune to these pressures. Larger, more
accessible, and increasingly comfortable huts inevitably results in
increased impacts on local resources. This is why the organisers have
decided to invite people involved in the various aspects of this complex
issue to jointly discuss the present and the future of mountain huts.

The objectives of the Seminar are to exchange information, experience
and ideas on topics which include:

a.. mountain huts as historical monuments and witnesses to the past ;
b.. huts in the mountain landscape ( disfigurement or additional
value?);
c.. environmental impact of mountain huts and how to limit it;
d.. mountain huts as a place of interpretation and education;
e.. creating the right social atmosphere in mountain huts;
f.. nature – friendly mountain huts;
g.. mountain huts and protected areas – conflict or cooperation?

In addition the Seminar will provide participants with an opportunity to
visit the Giant (Karkonosze) Mountains National Park – an area of
exceptional bio-cultural diversity and with more than two hundred years
history of mountain tourism. Visits to other national parks in the
Sudety Mountains will be possible during the post-seminar excursions.

Participants/Audience:

The organisers invite participation from all people with an involvement
or interest in mountain tourism – natural as well as cultural –
including managers of mountain huts, mountain guides, tour leaders,
interpreters, rangers, park managers responsible for environmental
education, scientists, writers and journalists interested in mountain
issues from all over the world.

Call for papers:

Participants are kindly invited to submit papers, posters or any other
kind of presentation related to the theme of the Seminar. Papers,
accepted by the Editorial Committee, will be published in the
post-conference issue of Folia Turistica – the scientific journal edited
by the Institute of Tourism and Recreation in Cracow.

The working languages of the Seminar will be English and German.
Simultaneous translation will be provided.

The cost of the participation is: 150 – 195 Euros per person (dependent
on standard of accommodation) – detailed information to be provided
later. Price includes: accommodation in twin room, full board,
participation in sessions, field excursion. Accompanying persons pay 120
– 165? Venue: detailed information to be provided later.

All colleagues wishing to participate or to be informed about

Further details are requested to send an e-mail or fax to:

Michael Prochazka – [email protected]

Fax: ++43 1 8129789

Or Piotr Dabrowski – [email protected]

Fax: ++48 12 4231697

Indicating: name, surname, e-mail address and represented
institution/society/protected area/company/media organisation. The
organisers will forward full details and a registration form.

We look forward to seeing you in Szklarska Poreba!

Michael Prochazka – Secretary General IFN

Piotr Dabrowski – Chairman of the Cracow Academic Section of PTTK

*******************************************
CENN INFO
Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN)

Tel: ++995 32 75 19 03/04
Fax: ++995 32 75 19 05
E-mail: [email protected]
URL:

The Economist
March 19, 2005
U.S. Edition

Which Turkey?

Not everyone sees the country with the same eyes

EUROPEANS’ perceptions of Turkey are often shaped by the Turks they
know. In Germany, these tend to be the Gastarbeiter (guest workers)
who moved there in the 1960s to take up low-grade jobs that the
booming post-war economy could no longer fill from the domestic
labour market. Over 2m Turks came, and they were mostly honest,
hard-working and religious people. But they were economic refugees,
poor villagers from the east, not model citizens of Ataturk’s
republic.

Many of their children, though, have moved on, to become anything
from prominent European parliamentarians to star European
footballers. One of them even married one of the sons of Helmut Kohl,
a former German chancellor. It is just the sort of transformation
that Ataturk would have wished for his countrymen.

Yet experience of the Gastarbeiter has left Germans in two minds
about Turkish entry into the EU. Their main worry is about a massive
further inflow of economic migrants. The Social Democrat-led
government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is generally supportive,
but the opposition Christian Democrats, led by Angela Merkel, have
vowed to do everything possible to wreck Turkey’s application. A
federal election is due next year, with the outcome still wide open.
Even Mr Kohl, the Christian Democrat chancellor who was voted out in
1998, has spoken against Turkish membership, saying that he is
“convinced that Turkey will not fulfil the Copenhagen criteria”.
These are the basic conditions for joining the EU, which lay down
that “membership requires that the candidate country has achieved
stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law,
human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.”

France’s perspective is very different. Many of Turkey’s 19th-century
reforms, the tanzimat, were based on French laws, and Turkey’s early
republican elite was educated in the French language in French
schools. As with Iran, disaffected members of that elite, including
members of the Armenian and Jewish minorities, headed first for
Paris. It is no coincidence that France is the only European country
other than Greece (which is particularly hostile to its eastern
neighbour) to have officially recognised the slaughter of Armenians
in the first world war as genocide. In 1998, the French National
Assembly decreed as much – a judgment the Turks maintain can be made
only by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Britain’s relationship with Turkey is less burdened by history and
complexity. The British mostly meet bright young Turks who come to
their country to study, or chirpy hotel staff on their holidays in
resorts such as Bodrum and Marmaris. For them, Turkey is a young
place, full of promise. They rarely see headscarves, or the darker
side of Anatolia.

Britain’s government looks on Turkey’s entry into the EU as an
opportunity. It sees the country as a potential role model for Muslim
democracy, much as America’s does. Not surprisingly, Britain and
America have been among the staunchest supporters of Turkey’s
application to join the EU. Bringing economic and political stability
to a country described by one analyst as “the most geo-strategically
important piece of real estate in the world” is a grand goal, almost
on a par with bringing democracy to Iraq. But in some parts of the EU
America’s support has not gone down well. When President George Bush
last year said yet again that the EU should start talks with Turkey
at once, France’s president, Jacques Chirac, told him off for
interfering in things that were not his business.

All across Europe, though, people are worried about Turkish
membership. Many feel, like Mr Giscard d’Estaing, that Turkey is an
alien place whose people’s values are incompatible with Europe’s.
This concern is fed by all sorts of things: from schoolboy propaganda
about the Crusades and the Ottoman siege of Vienna to the views of
the Catholic Church and of historic Protestant leaders such as Martin
Luther, who described the Turks as “the people of the wrath of God”.

That unease explains why relatively few people from northern Europe
choose to spend their winters in Turkey rather than, say, in Greece
or Spain. It also accounts for the defensive behaviour that Europeans
often unpack the moment they arrive on Turkish soil. In a recent
short story by Louis de Bernières, “A Day Out for Mehmet Erbil”, the
(British) author tells of a long-drawn-out haggle he witnessed in
Gallipoli between a German tourist and a Turkish café-owner over the
price of a cup of tea: “A sum”, says Mr de Bernières, “that in
Germany would not have bought a second-hand piece of chewing gum.”

In essence, Europeans are bothered because 99% of Turkey’s population
is Muslim. Benign ignorance of the youngest of the major religions
turned to fearful ignorance after September 11th 2001. Some Europeans
assume that all Turks pray five times a day, want to introduce sharia
law (so they can chop off people’s hands) and frequently violate
their women.

The reality, of course, is that the vast majority of Turks practise
their religion in much the same matter-of-fact way as do Christians
in western Europe. Many can quote from the Koran and use it as a
source of moral guidance in their everyday lives, just as many
Europeans are familiar with Biblical texts and stories. For neither
group does knowledge of the good books necessarily imply
fundamentalist convictions, though in both groups there are people
for whom it does.

Turkey is that rare thing, a democratic Muslim country, because
Ataturk decreed that it should be so. Although he separated the
church from the state, he was so suspicious of clerics of all kinds
that he brought the church firmly under the state’s control. He made
the Christians’ Sunday into the day of rest, and nobody has suggested
that it revert to the Muslim holy day of Friday. The democratic
republic’s Directorate of Religious Affairs decides where mosques
shall be built, employs their imams and on occasion tells them what
to preach. It also lays down rules on the sort of religious education
to be given in schools.

In recent years, Turkey has seen renewed interest in religion. Since
the 1980s and early 1990s, when Turgut Ozal was prime minister and
president, Ataturk’s tight controls have been relaxed. Large numbers
of new mosques have been built, and the Islamic headscarf has
reappeared on the streets. In “The Turks Today”, Mr Mango argues that
this resurgence of Islam parallels the resurgence of Christianity in
Europe after industrialisation. “As in Britain after the industrial
revolution,” he says, “the revival of piety is easing the pain and
discomforts of Turkey’s modernisation.” It is also proving to be a
test of the monocultural republic’s ability to accommodate diversity.