Author: Kharatian Ani

Today, Azerbaijan
Jan 24 2007

Ganira Pashayeva offers to hold monitoring on Armenia’s weapons
placed in occupied Azeri lands

24 January 2007 [21:22] – Today.Az

Member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE), parliamentarian Ganira Pashayeva
presented written questionnaire to the Committee of Ministers on
"Armenia’s violating principles of European Convention on Firearms."

Parliamentarian told the APA that the determination of the number of
military equipment and weapons of the Post Soviet countries after
USSR downfall was noted in the questionnaire.

"The population, area, as well as military-political situation of the
countries was not taken into consideration while distribution. Though
Azerbaijan’s population and area is triple of Armenia, the number of
military equipment and weapons were equal. The number of personal
staff of the armed forces was determined 60 000 for Armenia with 3
million population and 70 000 for Azerbaijan with 8 million
population. According to the world practice, the number of armed
forces to ensure the security of the country makes up 1% of the whole
population. The main duty of armed forces of every country is to
ensure the territorial integrity. How can a state with triple area of
the other state ensure the security with the same number of military
equipment? So, it caused military disbalance in the region, and
resulted in Azerbaijan’s occupation by Armenia."

The document also notes that Russia gave Armenia illegal armament in
1995-1996 and a part of those armaments have been placed in occupied
Azerbaijani territories. All these happened after Armenia joined to
law on "common armed forces in Europe in the frame of OSCE" and
"Vienna document on strengthening of trust and safety."

The document notes that the Armenia’s information on traditional
annual military report of OSCE member states is not real. The
questionnaire stresses that Armenia continues to arm, violating the
rules of "Common Armed forces in Europe."

"Armenian became an arm passing center for international
organizations and regimes, and has created conditions for
international terrorist organizations to prepare terrorists.
Different illicit drugs and the components of weapons of mass
annihilation are passed from this point to different countries and it
menaces the stability and safety of region countries. OSCE monitoring
mission has confirmed the fact Armenians are placed in occupied
Azerbaijani territories which contradicts the international legal
norms."

Pashayeva asked the Cabinet of Ministers what measures can be taken
to estimate Armenian’s moves and about the possibility of holding
monitoring on armaments by CE in occupied Azerbaijani territories.

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New round of Karabakh settlement talks begins in Moscow

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
January 23, 2007 Tuesday

A new round of talks over a settlement of the Karabakh conflict has
begun in the Russian capital. Taking part in the negotiations are
the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia – Elmar Mamedyarov
and Vartan Oskanian.

Armenian Ambassador to Russia Armen Smbatian said “we are waiting
for positive headway at the meeting, because the present-day reality
requires new approaches.”

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said “the parties will discuss the
fundamental principles of the peacekeeping process,” noting that
it is the first meeting between the foreign ministers of the two
countries this year.

HNN Huntingtonnews, WV
Jan 21 2007

Editorial: Murder of Journalist in Turkey Draws International
Condemnation

At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, we have to remark
that there seems to a recurring theme in many Muslim countries – and
countries with a sizable Muslim minority — that any criticism of the
state – and by extension Islam — should ultimately end in murdering
the critic.

We say this in sorrow at the shooting death in Istanbul on Friday,
Jan. 19, 2007 of an outspoken Turkish-Armenian journalist who
repeatedly clashed with Turkish authorities over recognition of the
early 20th Century slaughter of Armenians. Amnesty International and
many other governments and non-governmental organizations condemned
the slaying of Hrant Dink.

The genocide of Christian Armenians by Ottoman Muslims during World
War I is an historical fact – even if one dismisses as myth a quote
attributed to Adolf Hitler in 1939 to the effect that who now
remembers the Armenian massacres, supposedly paving the way for the
Holocaust of Europe’s Jews.

News reports said that Dink, who as editor of a Turkish-Armenian
newspaper was the leading voice for his ethnic community, died a week
after he wrote about threats from unknown forces who he said regarded
him "an enemy of the Turks."

Hundreds of people marched Friday evening from Istanbul’s central
Taksim Square to the offices of Dink’s Agos weekly newspaper, near
the spot on a sidewalk where he was shot in the head. They held
candles and posters of him; a somber silence was interrupted
periodically with applause and chants for "the brotherhood of
peoples."

Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said late Friday that three people were
detained in connection with the shooting, but no additional details
were released.

The slaying is likely to further darken Turkey’s reputation for
repressing critics of the government or of the country’s tight
control on how its turbulent past is portrayed. The murder by
Mohammed Bouyen of Theo van Gogh in the Netherlands on Nov. 2, 2004
and the violence following the publication of the Danish cartoons
allegedly ridiculing Islam come to mind.

Hrant Dink, 52, was part of a group of writers and thinkers,
including Nobel Literature laureate Orhan Pamuk and novelist Elif
Safak, who have been tried on charges of insulting their country’s
"Turkishness" under an ambiguous law promoted by hard-line
nationalists, according to reports in the L.A. Times. Los Angeles is
home to the nation’s largest Armenian-American community, so the
death of Dink resonates strongly in the region.

While most of the defendants, including Pamuk, were cleared, Dink was
convicted in 2005 for writing articles that criticized the law and
explored questions of Turkish and Armenian identity. He was sentenced
to a 6-month prison term, which was suspended, according to the Times
account.

The contrast to a free nation in the Middle East — Israel, where a
spirited and rambunctious press is free to write about every aspect
of Israel and Judaism — is outlined sharply. Turkey’s entry into the
European Union has been delayed because of the lack of respect for
human rights and free speech in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Turkey has diplomatic relations with Israel, but so does Russia,
where journalists are also an endangered species.

If there is an optimistic note in this barbaric incident, it is in
the condemnation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of
Dink’s "traitorous" and "disgraceful" murder.

"Bullets have been fired at free thought and our democratic life,"
Erdogan said at a news conference. He urged calm.

Fine words, but they don’t bring back a martyred journalist.

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Brussels Journal, Belgium
Jan 19 2007

The Turkey Question: The EU and the Concept of Borders
>From the desk of Matthew Omolesky on Wed, 2007-01-17 08:47
The acceptance speech made last Sunday by Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s
Interior Minister and now Union pour un Mouvement Populaire
presidential candidate, has attracted considerable attention for its
references to Turkey’s European future. Sarkozy categorically stated
that `Turkey has no place in the European Union,’ that Europe `must
give itself borders,’ and that `not all countries have a vocation to
become members of Europe, beginning with Turkey which has no place
inside the European Union.’

According to Sarkozy, `enlarging Europe with no limit risks
destroying European political union, and that I do not accept.’ The
presidential hopeful’s hard-line position on Turkey’s EU membership
bid stands in contrast to his opponent in the upcoming presidential
race, Socialist Segolene Royal, who is on record as saying that her
opinion with respect to Turkey is whatever `is that of the French
people’ (to my mind rather empty populist waffle).

In any event it seems that Sarkozy’s position is a widespread one,
and not only because of so-called `enlargement fatigue’ stemming from
Central and Eastern European entries in recent years. Only around 20%
of the French population supports Turkish entry into the EU. On its
face this is an eminently sound position. The arguments against
Turkey’s accession have been made again and again: Turkey has ongoing
or recent territorial or political disputes with Bulgaria, Armenia,
Cyprus, Greece, Syria, and Iraq; it has a massive population (70
million) and an equivalently massive military machine; its human
rights record as regards Kurds or intellectuals like Orhan Pamuk and
Elif Shafak has not been encouraging; and concerns about restive
Muslim minorities in European nations has certainly had an impact on
public opinion and political will. The very idea of the EU sharing a
border with Iraq is exceedingly unlikely.

If Sarkozy, and like-minded EU policymakers, is successful and
Turkey’s EU bid falters (and Turkey itself turns to other potential
spheres of influence like Central Asia), we will begin to see some
sort of EU border solidifying. This is of interest for institutional
and philosophical reasons. First, EU external relations have been
consumed with the enlargement process, thanks in no small part to
countries like Britain and the Netherlands opting for political
breadth over depth. How often has the Ukraine, for instance, been
given the `enlargement wink,’ only for Kyiv to have its European
ambitions doused with cold water? This constant enlargement
flirtation on the part of Brussels is a cheap way to retain
geopolitical relevancy. As enlargement fatigue, and even enlargement
animosity, sets in, it stands to reason that the institution as a
whole must either deepen or fade into obscurity.

The philosophical question of Europe’s borders, alluded to in
Sarkozy’s speech, reminds me of a passage in the Italian writer and
scholar Claudio Magris’ masterpiece Danubio. In it, he describes the
Limes, or stone ramparts, now crumbling but once marking the border
of the Roman Empire. `On this side of the line was Empire, the idea
and the universal dominion of Rome; on the other were the barbarians,
whom the Empire was beginning to fear, and no longer aimed to conquer
and assimilate, but merely keep at bay.’ Later, peasants began to
fear the Limes , seeing them as the work of the devil (`perhaps the
devil of imperialism,’ Magris opines). `Our history, our culture, our
Europe,’ Magris writes, `are the daughters of that Limes. Those
stones tell of the urge to frontiers, of the need and ability to give
oneself limits and form.’ In this passage we see conflicting
impulses: the need to create clear international boundaries, but an
apprehension of imperialism; of the preternatural need for limits,
but the comprehension that barbarians seek to cross them. (Of course,
while on the subject of borders, Europe must also be mindful of
Russia, whose Catherine the Great is reported to have said that `I
have no way to defend my borders but to extend them.’ Vladimir Putin,
an unabashedly imperialistic successor to Catherine, is also mindful
that Russia ‘s security often depends on its neighbor’s insecurity.)

In sum, Europe’s future may very well depend on the state of its
borders, national or transnational. Sarkozy’s increasingly popular
stance with regard to Turkey speaks to a greater concern. Whether
Sarkozy’s subsidiary goal of preserving and buttressing the political
union is in fact judicious is the subject of a different, broader,
but increasingly vital debate.

AsiaNews, Italy
Jan 20 2007

Nuncio to Ankara: "The assassination of Hrant Dink, an affront to
Turkey"

by Mavi Zambak

After assassination of the journalist of Armenian origin in Istanbul,
spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of many cities demand
`truth and freedom’. Suspicion falls on groups of nationalist
fanatics, who roam the country; but still nothing official.

Ankara (AsiaNews) – Yesterday 10 thousand gathered in Taksim,
Istanbul’s most famous square, were they remain all night to show
their sorrow at the death of the journalist of Armenian origin Hrant
Dink shot dead in the afternoon, as he left the offices of the Agos
weekly magazine, of which he was founding editor. A long procession
left the doorstep decorated with flowers and candles in suffrage of
the victim.

Armenians and exponents of the left remained in disconcerted silence
as they led a torchlight procession with banners and photographs of
their friend and intellectual. The recurrent slogan: `We are all
Hrant Dink, we are all Armenians, searching for the truth and freedom
‘, pronounced even by those who were not Armenian but defended and
supported the same ideals of the Turkish Journalist of Armenian
origin. Similar scenes in the principal squares of Ankara, Bursa and
Smirne, where over 150 thousand people gathered spontaneously, mainly
students and supporters of the Left.

The common opinion is that this murder was a provocation and had a
destabilising political motivation, carried out by one of the many
extreme right groups, nationalist fanatics, who roam the country
freely undisturbed. However no-one has yet come forward with an
hypothesis or name. As with the murder of Don Andrea the police
immediately began the hunt for a young man, as fate would have it
also a minor, possibly identified thanks to a video camera positioned
outside a shop beside the Agos office. So far 8 people have been
detained on suspicion.

The unanimous chorus from the daily newspapers and television
channels states that it is not only a man that has been put to death,
but Turkish society , that society which seeks fraternity, peaceful
democracy and freedom of thought. The Nuncio in Ankara is of the
same opinion, msgr. Antonio Lucibello: `It is a low blow for all
Turkey, one body has not been hit but the entire fabric of Turkish
society, at a point of time when it is consolidating democracy and
searching for a common course for the various components that make up
the country. During the week of prayer for Christian Unity – adds
the prelate – we cannot but unite ourselves to the sorrow of our
brothers, showing them our solidarity and closeness. We hope in the
deepest of our hearts that this will not alter the pacific climate
that was created by the Pope’s visit, between the faithful and the
leaders of the different religions and Christian confessions present
on Turkish soil’.

Before this `barbarous, disloyal and vile assassination ‘,
theArmenian Patriarch Mesrob II has announced 15 days of mourning for
the over 80 thousand Armenians in Turkey as well as those living
abroad.

ONLY PRETENDER FOR CHARENTSAVAN MAYOR’S POST IS KOTAYK REGIONAL
GOVERNOR’S SON

CHARENTSAVAN, JANUARY 19, NOYAN TAPAN. One cadidate will be voted in
the community head’s elections to take place on January 28 in the city
of Charentsavan, the marz of Kotayk. The only pretender for the
Mayor’s post is "Armavto" factory Director, non-partisan Hakob
Shahgaldian, the son of Kotayk Regional Governor, RPA Council member
Kovalenko Shahgaldian. As the Noyan Tapan correspondent was informed
by Aghvan Ghukasian, the Chairman of No26 district electoral
commission, the other nominated candidate, United Labour Party member
Artur Galstian officially refused the future electoral struggle on
January 18, the last day of the term fixed for the candidates
withrawal. The candidate did not mention any reason for the withdrawal
in the application.

AZERBAIJANI OFFICIAL SOURCES INCORRECTLY PRESENT OSCE REPORT "ON FIRES IN OCCUPIED TERRITORIES"

Noyan Tapan
Jan 18 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, NOYAN TAPAN. The OSCE mission has lately presented
its report on study of fires that broke out last year in territories
adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh which Azerbaijani officials present as a
document reflecting Azerbaijani requests. While, according to the Azg
newspaper, the report precisely mentioned that the fires had an impact
not only on the Azerbaijani side (as Azerbaijani sources report):
they inflicted serious damages to the environment and economy on
both sides of the contact-line. The OSCE mission’s report emphasized
that the satellite photographs provided by the Azerbaijani side were
selected and incomplete: in particular, photographs of territories to
the west of the contact-line were not presented. It was also mentioned
that no significant damage was inflicted to the deserted villages in
consequence of the fires.

Besides, according to the report, the participants of the mission
group had no possibility to visit some places to the east of the
contact-line, while Nagorno Karabakh authorities have made absolutely
accessible the visit to necessary places for the OSCE group for the
purpose of completing the mission.

OPENING OF BORDER IS MORE BENEFICIAL FOR TURKEY WHICH STRIVES FOR JOINING EU, ARSEN GHAZARIAN THINKS

Noyan Tapan
Jan 17 2007

YEREVAN, JANUARY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. "Opening of the border with Turkey
commemorates start of normal relations between Armenia and Turkey. The
most important thing is establishment of stable political relations
with the neighboring country what will assist strengthening of both
our security and security and stability of the whole region." Arsen
Ghazarian, the Co-Chairman of the Armenian-Turkish Council on
Development of Business Undertakings, stated about it in the interview
to the Noyan Tapan correspondent. In his words, it is more beneficial
for Turkey as it strives for entering the European Union.

In his words, opening of the border will assist development of a
number of spheres of the economy of Armenia and Turkey, increase of
goods circulation between the two countries as well as development of
the regional cooperation what is today paid much attention. "We must
leave for the further generations a developing economy and normal
relations with the neighbors," A.Ghazarian stated.

He reminded that the border was one-sided closed in 1993 by Turkey as
a mark of solidarity with Azerbaijan in the Karabakh issue and became,
in the essence, an economic sanction against Armenia.

TODAY IS 17 ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN POGROMS IN BAKU

‘Yerevan, January 13. ArmInfo. Today is the 17th anniversary of the
Armenian pogroms in Baku.

On Jan 13 1990, after a meeting of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan,
several thousands of ralliers began to attack the houses of Armenians.

"Mass disorders began in Baku yesterday. There are human
casualties. We have gathered today to prevent them," the first
secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Azeri
SSR Abdurahman Vezirov said during an extraordinary meeting on Jan 14.

Jan 14 evening a group of Soviet generals came from Moscow and forced
the local leadership to agree to the projection of 10,000-strong
additional contingent of interior troops to the city. However, by that
time Baku was already controlled by "the extremist forces of the
People’s Front" – that’s how the central press called them a few days
later. The additional forces could not enter the city.

It was a massacre similar to the one taking place two years before in
Sumqyit: people were slaughtered only because they were Armenians,
tens of thousands of Armenians were evicted from their houses and
expelled from the city, hundreds were severely beaten. Bakinsky
Rabochiy (Baku Worker) newspaper reported 91 deaths. The leaders of
Azerbaijan Vesirov, Kafarova and Mutalibov admitted that they were
mostly Armenians.

General Alexander Lebedev entered the city as late as Jan 19. The
fighters showed armed resistance.

As a result of the Armenian pogroms, over 200,000 Armenians were
expelled from Baku leaving their houses and property. Most of them
presently live in Armenia, Russia and other countries in difficult
social conditions.

LAW ON RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMES INTO FORCE IN ARGENTINA

YEREVAN, JANUARY 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The bill ratified
by the parliament and Senate, according to which Argentina having the
largest Armenian colony in South America in fact recognizes the
Armenian Genocide, has come into force today in Argentina.

According to radio Liberty, Argentine President could veto until
January 10 rejecting the bill. "As the President did not do this,
today, on January 11, it has de facto come into force," radio Liberty
was reported at the Argentine President’s administration.

According to the law, April 24 in proclaimed Day of Tolerance and
Respect Among Peoples: the victims of the Armenian Genocide will be
commemorated on this day.

The law also permits Armenian state officials not to go to work on
April 24 for the purpose of taking part in the events dedicated to the
memory of Genocide victims. Armenian students are also allowed not to
attend their classes on this day.

The day before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had applied
to the Argentine President asking to reject the bill, as it "forms a
bad impression about Turkey and sows hatred."

Besides Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela recognized the Armenian
Genocide by law in South America.