Author: Karabekian Emil

Agence France Presse — English
March 30, 2005 Wednesday

Armenia and Azerbaijan leaders to meet over tensions in
Nagorno-Karabakh

YEREVAN

The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan will discuss the rising
tensions in the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh at a meeting in
Warsaw on May 16, Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said
Wednesday.

Armenian President Robert Kotcharian and his Azeri counterpart Ilham
Aliev will meet on the sidelines of a Council of Europe meeting.

Long-simmering tensions over the disputed enclave of Karabakh in the
volatile Caucasus have flared recently, sparking fears that the
escalation of hostilities along a ceasefire line between Armenian and
Azeri forces could lead to a new war.

Armenia has controlled Karabakh and seven surrounding regions which
make up 14 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized
territory since the two former Soviet republics ended large-scale
hostilities with a ceasefire in 1994.

Locals fear conflict with Turks if Russian base in Georgia closes

NTV Mir, Moscow
27 Mar 05

Not only politicians but residents of Georgia’s Akhalkalaki are
following the arguments between Tbilisi and Moscow. A good deal
depends on the results of the talks [on the closure of Russian
military bases]. Nugzar Kiriselidze reports.

[Correspondent] Is there any future for the 62nd Russian military base
in Akhalkalaki? For many residents of Javakheti province this question
is also about the future of the town of Akhalkalaki itself. After all,
this base ensures the survival of the town today.

For Akhalkalaki not to become yet another of Georgia’s ghost towns,
like those which, first, had lost their function and subsequently
their image, the residents of this Armenian-populated town in south
Georgia are ready to fight to the bitter end. Rallies are an everyday
occurrence here today. They raise urgent socioeconomic issues. And the
main issue is to ensure that the 62nd Russian military base remains in
Akhalkalaki. The locals see the base as a security factor and a
guarantee of economic prosperity. The region is populated by the
Armenians who resettled here from Turkey fleeing the genocide of
1915. A presumed enemy of the Soviet Union at one time has become
official Tbilisi’s strategic ally. But not for local Armenians who
remember history and fear its repetition if the Russian base is closed
down.

[A man] If the borders become open, what will happen here? What will
happen? There will be a conflict between us and the Turks because
they killed our forefathers, our children and fathers. Don’t you see
what will happen?

[Correspondent] Nearly the whole town – 90 per cent of the population
of 15,000 – is linked to the base. Some are serving under contract
there, others are civilian employees. If the Russian base leaves
Akhalkalaki, a huge numbers of local civilians will follow it.

[Passage omitted: vox pop]

[Correspondent] The servicemen of the 62nd base continue their
training and give military-style answers when asked about whether they
feel uncomfortable on hearing talk about the possible closure of the
base.

[Mikhail Koren, commander of a tank crew] It doesn’t affect our
service. We are serving as usual, it’s our work. We are carrying out
our duties. [Passage omitted]

PLENIPOTENTIARY REPRESENTATIVE OF GEORGIAN PRESIDENT TO
SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETIA MET WITH REPS. OF SEVERAL PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS OF
AKHALKALAKI AND NINOTSMINDA

AKHALKALAKI, MARCH 23, ARMINFO. Plenipotentiary Representative of
Georgian President to Samtskhe-Javakhetia Georgiy Khachidze met with
representatives of several public organizations of Akhalkalaki and
Ninotsminda yesterday in the evening, as well as with activists of
the rally organized on March 13 in Akhalkalaki.

According to A-INFO, participating in the meeting were MP
representing Akhalkalaki Hamlet Movsisyan and Head of Akhalkalaki
Artur Yeremyan. Those in Javakhetia informed the president’s
representative of the necessity of an immediate solution to a number
of problems, including opening of a department for issue of
international passports to Georgian citizens in Akhalkalaki (the new
authorities moved it to Akhaltsikha), teaching of the Armenian
history at Armenian schools, possibility of communication in Armenian
including in the judicial system, democratization of elections to the
local self-government bodies, the right to clearing of the customs
service in Zhdanovka bordering with Armenia (at present clearing of
goods imported to Javakhq is carried out in 100 km from the border in
Akhaltskha, repair of the road Akhaltsikha-Akhalkalaki-
Ninotsminda-Zhdanovka.

Representative of the president promised to solve the issue of
opening of the passport department before March 28. Khachidze also
promised to contribute to elaboration and implementation of a program
on teaching of Armenian history at Armenian schools. As regards the
elections to the local self-government, Movsisyan says that a
relevant law will be adopted within the nearest future, which will be
more democratic. Taking into account that Khachidze has taken his
office quite recently, he could not fully answer the reaming
questions. Instead, an agreement was reached to propose the
government to establish experts’ commission which would make
proposals on solution to other problems. After the meeting, Khachidze
said in his interview to A-INFO that all the above problem were just
and he intended to exert efforts to solve them.

Turkish minister describes Armenian genocide claims as “slander”

Anatolia news agency
22 Mar 05

Ankara, 22 March: “I launch a call to countries who become a tool of
the Armenian allegations: Either you account for what you have done,
or prove the allegations,” Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday [22 March].

Gul addressed his party group meeting as the acting prime minister.

Mentioning the so-called Armenian allegations, Gul recalled that
Turkish and Armenian peoples lived together for nearly a thousand
years and contributed to each others’ culture and security within
this period.

Gul stated that Armenians worked as high-ranking officials and
Armenian church has been set up in the Ottoman period, and said:
“Armenian language and religion were preserved and developed. Our
Armenian citizens, those who consider the issue objectively, and many
historians clearly saw those facts. Despite this, there is an enmity
against Turkey.”

“The sorrows and dangers experienced by the elements comprising
the Ottoman society during the last period of the Ottoman Empire is
another fact of the history. Everybody had difficult times in those
years. All those were historical facts,” Gul noted.

Gul said there were documents and evidences of the sufferings of
thousands of Ottoman citizens and stressed that those who affirmed
so-called Armenian allegations were the imperialist circles and
chauvinist Armenian nationalists.

“Armenian Diaspora living in the United States and Europe are in good
spirits. Since they are minority, they needed a tool to preserve
their minority conscience and their power. They needed an issue to
exploit. They are also guilty as they do not go to Armenia to help
their brothers. They have a comfortable life where they live. They
exploit this issue both to strengthen their presence there and to
use their minority powers.”

“Unfortunately, several parliaments made wrong decisions. We have
shown our reactions to the decisions taken in those parliaments,
and we will continue to react,” Gul stressed.

Emphasizing that genocide was a crime against humanity, Gul said
this was not an ordinary crime that can be imputed to anybody. Gul
reminded that Turkey also signed the UN treaty on genocide in 1948.
Noting that provisions pertaining to genocide became a part of the
Turkish Penal Code (TCK), Gul said: “In order to consider an act as
genocide, members of an ethnical or religious group should be killed
with the aim of eradicating them totally or partially.”

Gul said: “Has something like this happened in our history? If it
had happened, so why the Armenian churches still exist? Why there
are Armenian citizens in Turkey? ”

Describing the allegations as “sophistry and slander”, Gul said: “We
are launching a call to the parliaments and countries who become a tool
of those allegations: ‘if you are able to make such allegation, then
either you will account for them, or you will prove the allegations.”

“We have invited everybody and we have opened our achieves. We have
invited all the scientists, including the Armenian, French, American
and British scientists. The archives in Leningrad, Britain, Paris
and Armenia should also be opened,” Gul emphasized.

“If such a tragedy happened in this country, it has been experienced
altogether. Families of all of us had experienced such sorrows,”
Gul stressed.

Gul said the (Turkish) parliament and the government from now on
would be involved in further activities on such issues.

“Government’s willingness as regards to full membership to the European
Union (EU) is still alive. EU continue to be our main priority,”
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday.

Gul recalled that several media organs recently asked questions
like, “does the government deviate from its EU target?” or “has the
government lost its excitement for EU?”.

Denying all those allegations FM stated that, “our primary target is
to make Turkish nation to reach a living standard at the EU level.”

Gul said any weakening or slowdown was out of question.

Voice of America
March 17 2005

Iranian-Americans Celebrate Persian New Year
By Mike O’ Sullivan
Los Angeles
18 March 2005

Sunday, Iranians worldwide will celebrate Norouz, the Persian New
Year. VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports on activities in Los Angeles,
the U.S. city with the heaviest concentration of Iranian Americans.

The annual celebration begins the last Wednesday of the old year, so
Tuesday night in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, families gathered
to commemorate Chahar Shanbeh Souri, an ancient Persian cultural
festival. More than 2000 adults and children took part in
festivities outside the Los Angeles offices of the Iranian American
Muslim Association of North America. Saman Namazikhah points to
small piles of wood stacked in an outdoor courtyard, which were about
to be set on fire.

“What we do is an event where we have bonfires, small bonfires, and
we jump over them,” he explaines. “Jumping over them in a sense is
purifying our soul and cleansing our body for the new year to come.”

The ritual dates from pre-Islamic Persia, when followers of the
Zoroastrian religion celebrated the purifying properties of fire.

The Persian New Year is held at the spring equinox, which arrives in
Los Angeles this year in the early hours of Sunday morning. The day
is usually spent at home or in the houses of relatives, says Mr.
Namazikhah.

“Iranians celebrate it being with their family, and they have a table
spread which signifies spring because the Iranian New Year is the
first day of spring,” he notes.

The family table is set with special foods and traditional items.
Seven dishes all begin with the Persian letter “sinn” or “s,” and
include apples, garlic and vinegar. Other symbolic items may include
coins, rice, colored eggs or goldfish.

Ramtin, 10, an Iranian Muslim boy who attended the festival with his
Christian friend Allen, says Norouz is special for him, just as
Christmas is special for Allen, whose parents come from Iran but are
of Armenian background.

“It’s a time when we Persians all celebrate what we have,” he adds.
“It’s kind of like, as he [Allen] celebrates Christmas, and it’s a
fun time when we all gather with our families and relatives.

Norouz is the central holiday in the Persian calendar, says
Iranian-born Delnaz Behzadpour, who moved to the United States in the
1970s.

“It’s one of the most important days of our lives. I have three kids
and they were all born here and they all celebrating the New Year
with us,” she says.

Saman Namazikhah says New Year festivities in Los Angeles are
multi-religious.

“We have Zoroastrians, we have Christians, Armenians, we have
Baha’is, we have Jewish people, and of course, we have Muslims,” adds
Mr. Namazikhah.

Festivities will continue for 13 days into the new year. On the 13th
day, people will gather in a park for a picnic and traditional
rituals. In Southern California, thousands will attend an event at a
park in the city of Irvine, south of Los Angeles.

Iranian immigrant Delnaz Behzadpour says that in the United States,
the celebration of Norouz and associated festivals keeps her Persian
traditions alive for her three children. She says it also provides a
way of introducing Iranian culture to her neighbors in this country
of immigrants.

The Moscow Times
Thursday, March 17, 2005. Issue 3126. Page 3.

18 Suspected Arms Smugglers Were ‘Amateurs’

By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer

U.S. Attorney’s Office / AP

Photographs released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Tuesday showing
Russian military weapons that it said were to be smuggled into the United
States.

The 18 suspects in a plot to smuggle portable anti-aircraft missiles and
grenade launchers into the United States were most likely amateur
opportunists caught in a sting operation, experts on Russian organized crime
and arms proliferation said Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney David Kelly and FBI Special Agent Andy Arena told a news
conference in New York on Tuesday that authorities had arrested and charged
18 individuals with smuggling weapons into the country from the former
Soviet Union.

Five suspects were charged with conspiring to smuggle RPG anti-tank grenade
launchers and anti-aircraft Strela missiles, while the rest were charged
with smuggling machine guns and other weapons. Strela missiles and modified
versions of the grenade launchers could be used to shoot down commercial
airliners — a threat that last month prompted the United States and Russia
to sign an accord curbing the proliferation of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft
missiles.

Most of those arrested were from former Soviet countries, U.S. media
reported, while investigators identified Armenian Artur Solomonyan, 25, and
South African Christiaan Dewet Spies, 33, as the ringleaders.

Investigators said the two planned to travel to the former Soviet Union and
deliver missiles to an FBI informer, who had posed as an arms buyer on
behalf of al-Qaida, the Los Angeles Times reported.

U.S. media reported variously that the weapons were to have been obtained
from federal military arsenals in Chechnya, or from Armenia, Georgia and
Ukraine.

In a yearlong sting operation, the FBI informer bought only Kalashnikov, Uzi
and other assault rifles from the suspects, but discussed purchasing a
further $2.5 million-worth of missiles and other weapons. He also promised
to provide the smugglers with green cards to re-enter the United States.

Investigators said the informer had taped conversations with the suspects in
which Solomonyan offered to sell him enriched uranium, suggesting it could
be used to build a dirty bomb for detonation on the New York subway, Russian
media reported. But Kelly said none of the defendants appeared to have links
to terrorist groups.

The FBI informer had previously worked with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms, helping to bust gunrunners in Miami, the New York Post
reported.

“On the whole, this looks pretty small-scale and opportunistic,” said Mark
Galeotti, director of the Organized Russian & Eurasian Crime Research Unit
at Britain’s Keele University, by telephone Wednesday.

“Serious criminals” do not make unsolicited offers to sell uranium, Galeotti
said, adding that in any case, “the United States has a very healthy
underground firearms economy of its own.”

He said that professional terrorists would be looking to acquire the latest
Igla and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, rather than Soviet-designed
Strelas, as leading airlines would soon be ready to deploy passive defense
systems on their airplanes.

Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow office of the Washington-based Center
for Defense Information, said the case looked similar to that of British
businessman Hemant Lakhani, who was suspected of offering to sell a
shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile to a U.S. buyer last year. Lakhani has
denied any wrongdoing and maintained he was trapped in a sting operation.

YOUNG TURKS DISCOVER A SUDDEN INTEREST IN MEIN KAMPF

Azg/arm
16 March 05

Mein Kampf is becoming the book of the month at the D&R bookshop at
the Migros shopping center in downtown Ankara. Adolf Hitler’s infamous
work is selling so fast it has entered the bestseller lists. Rukan
Binerbay, store manager, says he has sold at least 1,000 copies in the
past few weeks.

At the Remzi bookstore in the rival Armada shopping center, the book
has sold out. Manager Emre Demirok says it has been the third highest
seller in the past month.

Sales took off after a new edition was published at 5.90 liras a copy
($4.90, â=82¬3.50, £2.40).

But who is buying it? “Students, mainly. Young men. Turkish people
love this kind of stuff,” says Mr. Binerbay.

Perhaps they do, but booksellers and academics are puzzled by the
sudden popularity of Mein Kampf (in Turkish, Kavgam). In a country
with neither a deep reading culture nor a history of anti-Semitism,
but which does have a tastefor conspiracy theories, the phenomenon is
sparking debate and controversy.

The sudden success of the Nazi tract has alarmed Turkey’s small Jewish
community. While diplomats say it does not necessarily reflect an
awakeningof anti-Semitism, Silvio Ovadyo, a spokesman for Istanbul’s
Jewish community, says its new popularity may reflect the
anti-Semitism that features regularly in the extremist wing of
Turkey’s press. “This is an anti-Semitic book and, yes, we are
concerned about it,” he says.

There is also concern in Germany. The government of Bavaria, which
controls the copyright, goes to great lengths to suppress publication
of Mein Kampf around the world. “The availability and rising
popularity of this book in Turkey are matters of serious concern for
us,” says an official at the German embassy in Ankara. The issue looks
set to become a thorn in German-Turkish relations.

Ali Carkoglu, a political scientist at Sabanci University, cautions
that books can easily become bestsellers in Turkey with relatively low
sales. Akin Dirik, an official at the Turkish publishers’ union, adds
that the publishing industry cannot supply accurate sales
figures. Some estimate, however, thatmore than 100,000 copies of the
book are in Turkish are in print.

And it has clearly found an audience.

Tayfun Atay, an academic at Ankara University, says the book has long
enjoyed a “covert popularity among hard-line Turkish
nationalists”. But new readers may be motivated more by curiosity than
by any attraction to Hitler’s anti-Semitism and fanaticism. “They may
be curious about Hitler not becausehe is a hero but because he is an
anti-hero,” he suggests.

Mein Kampf’s popularity also coincides with the success of Turkey’s
current runaway bestseller, a novel called Metal Storm.

This depicts a US invasion of Turkey, and has tapped in to
anti-American feeling sparked by the Iraq war. US and Turkish
officials are currently engaged in a terse transatlantic exchange
about how deeply this feeling runs.

There is no doubt, too, some commentators say, that Turkey currently
feels vulnerable. Even though the country opens accession talks with
the European Union later this year, Dogu Ergil, who runs a think-tank
called the Center for the Research of Societal Problems, says many
Turks “know in their hearts” that many Europeans do not want them.

“This is a moment of convergence of these feelings which has turned
into a social phenomenon,” Mr. Ergil says, referring to Turks’ reading
habits. Mein Kampf readers “are searching for motivation, and here it
is, albeit in perverted form. The book is nonsense, and so is the
fear.”

By Vincent Boland in Ankara

PanArmenian News
March 14 2005

NATO DELEGATION HEADED BY FORCE PLANNING DIRECTOR FRANK BOLAND
ARRIVED IN YEREVAN TODAY

14.03.2005 05:43

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Today the NATO delegation headed by Director of
Force Planning Frank Boland arrived in Yerevan to hold consultations
within the frames of the PfP Planning and Review Process-PARP. NATO
Officer-Coordinator for South Caucasus Romualdas Razuks also serves
on the delegation. The delegation members are expected to meet with
the RA Foreign Ministry officials and discuss the objectives of the
partnership.

ARF youth and student organizations convene in Sofia

Yerkir/arm
11 March 05

A conference of Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s youth and student
organizations opened on March 8 in Bulgarian capital Sofia, the ARF
press service reported.

Twenty-seven delegates from 13 countries, including Armenia, Lebanon,
Iran, Syria, France, Greece, Canada and the United States, represent 4
student and 13 youth organizations of the ARF.

The conference coincides with the events being organized in Bulgaria
to mark the 100th anniversary of the ARF founder Christapor
Mikaelian’s tragic death, so the delegates will have an opportunity to
pay a visit to Mikaelian’s grave.

Christapor Mikaelian was killed in 1905 at the Mount Vitosh outside
Sofia when testing an explosive device made to assassinate Ottoman
Empire’s Sultan Hamid.

The conference, opened by ARF Bureau member Albert Ajemian, among
others, will discuss issues related to the 90th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. During the conference days, a group of young
people will take an oath of joining the ranks of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation.

La Nouvelle République du Centre Ouest
08 mars 2005

Saint-Genouph à l’heure arménienne ;
La petite commune des bords de Loire organise en mars un week-end sur
l’Arménie.

A Saint-Genouph, 950 habitants, la vie culturelle n’est pas des plus
trépidantes. La taille de la commune et la proximité de
l’agglomération tourangelle y sont pour quelque chose. Le moment fort
de l’année, c’est la foire à l’entrecôte, qui attire à la fin juin
4.000 à 5.000 personnes selon le maire Christian Avenet. Soyons
justes : la bibliothèque municipale marche bien, et propose même aux
enfants des après-midi contes, fort appréciés paraît-il. La
commission animation, sous l’impulsion de la première adjointe
Monique Creton, a eu l’idée de faire découvrir chaque année à la
population de Saint-Genouph un pays étranger. Jean-Pierre Constanza,
président de Touraine sans frontières et habitant de la commune, a
proposé son aide. Et comme Christian Avenet connaissait Alain
Garabedian, président de l’Union des Arméniens du Centre, c’est le
pays natal d’Aznavour qui a été choisi pour cette première tentative.
Elle aura lieu les 12 et 13 mars prochains.

Dans la salle du conseil, de 10 h à 18 h pendant les deux jours, le
public pourra découvrir (gratuitement) une exposition de photos d’une
quinzaine de panneaux sur l’Arménie, vue sous divers aspects :
culturel, politique, économique, etc. Le samedi à 19 h 30, un repas
de spécialités sera proposé à la salle polyvalente de la commune
(uniquement sur réservations au 02.47.45.51.14).

Et comme la municipalité a souhaité faire participer les écoles, le
comédien Philippe Ouzounian viendra réciter des contes arméniens dans
les classes, le jeudi après-midi et le vendredi toute la journée. Il
est prévu également une initiation à la langue arménienne. Le maire
avait évoqué la manifestation lors de ses voeux à la population. Il
espère que celle-ci répondra présent les 12 et 13 mars, et que
l’argent consacré à cette initiative (environ 600 EUR) n’aura pas été
dépensé en vain.

En tout cas, on compte bien à Saint-Genouph renouveler l’expérience
l’an prochain toujours en lien avec Touraine sans frontières.

–Boundary_(ID_wRFI9rEGpakgomCPzzntpA)–