Author: Mamian George

Azeri paper slates leader for pro-Russian stance

Azadliq, Baku
3 Nov 04

An Azerbaijani opposition newspaper has criticized Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev for joining Moscow’s campaign to support
Ukrainian leader Leonid Kuchma’s candidate in the presidential
elections. Azadliq said that Baku was standing by Moscow in the fight
between the West and Russia for influence in the region. While the
USA and Europe are promoting democracy, Ilham Aliyev is with Russia
which supports dictatorship, the newspaper said. The following is
the text of Ali Rza’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq on 3
November headlined “Narrowing siege” and subheaded “Another defeat
of authoritarianism” and also subheaded “Why is Ilham Aliyev beside
the losers”; subheadings are as published:

The first ballot of the presidential election in Ukraine is now in
the past. Two main candidates in the polls, [Prime Minister Viktor]
Yanukovych and [Viktor] Yushchenko, have passed into the second ballot
by a narrow margin. Which of them wins will be known in a run-off on
21 November. However, based on the stream of events it is rather easy
to predict that the winner will be Yushchenko.

Invincible democracy

Dictatorship losing in Ukraine, too

Ukraine’s incumbent leader [Leonid] Kuchma showed certain initiatives
to extend the lifespan of his regime well before the election. Among
those was also an attempt to create a legal opportunity for Kuchma
to stand for president for a third time. But none of these attempts
worked. In the end Kuchma identified his political successor and
lobbied for his election as president. This is incumbent Prime
Minister Yanukovych.

Kiev’s all administrative and financial resources had been mobilized in
favour of Yanukovych. Moscow too was providing every kind of explicit
and clandestine support for him. He had been even receiving financial
and moral support from other neighbours defending authoritarianism
like the leadership of Azerbaijan. All the help provided to Yanukovych
was calculated to see the Kuchma regime extend its lifespan during
the first ballot of the polls.

But the plan misfired. Yanukovych failed to defeat his contender,
the candidate of democratic forces, Yushchenko. Ukrainian democracy
was not defeated. On the contrary, the OSCE’s international observation
mission recorded falsifications in favour of the government’s candidate
at the voting, something that challenges Yanukovych’s qualification
for the second ballot with Yushchenko.

Clash of values

Who does Azerbaijan side with in this fight?

The Ukrainian elections can also be considered to be competition
between the USA and Europe on the one side and Russia on the other
for gaining influence in the region. Russia acted as a protector of
authoritarianism, while the USA and Europe acted as that of democracy.

Several days before the election, Moscow mounted an event in Kiev to
show support for Yanukovych under the pretext of celebrating the 60th
anniversary of the victory over fascism, while American and European
centres declared that they would reconsider relations with Kiev should
falsifications occur.

By the way, it was not out of sight that the “anniversary to support
Yanukovych”, which Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev also attended,
failed. Undoubtedly, it was predicted that at least Central Asian
dictators would also take part in the event, which was held under
the auspices of Russian President Putin, and Yanukovych would be
shown CIS-wide support. For the sake of this show, Russian sources
even spread misinformation that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
would also take part. But time seems to be working seriously against
“international authoritarianism”. That is why even the Central Asian
dictators, who do not have any close relations with the USA and Europe,
were not encouraged to gather in Kiev under Putin’s auspices. Only
Belarusian leader “Batka” [Belarusian for “father”] Luka [Belarusian
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka] and the young leader of the Aliyev
clan moved to stand by Putin.

Shoulder-to-shoulder with dictators

How does Ilham Aliyev deal a blow to our national interests?

It is necessary to focus on this point especially because the fact that
Ilham Aliyev, either lacking skills or ability to curb his feelings,
explicitly shows his enmity towards democracy deals a serious blow
to Azerbaijan’s geopolitical standing.

Azerbaijan is now seen beside not the USA or Europe, but Russia. The
USA and Europe defend democracy, while Ilham Aliyev is standing next
to Russia, which supports dictatorship. It means that Azerbaijan sees
itself in the anti-USA-Europe flank. This, in turn, implies that
Azerbaijan does not want democratic processes to develop and those
representing democratic camp to come to power in the neighbouring
countries.

This position was felt during the rose revolution in Georgia. It
is going to be quite a substantial issue if the positions of the
USA, Europe and countries surrounding it towards Azerbaijan assume
a negative nature. And, more deplorable is that Armenia, which is
keeping our lands under occupation, will have an opportunity to make
use of this to strengthen its positions. It means that Azerbaijan’s
state interests will be threatened.

Imagine that the USA and Europe are imposing sanctions on Belarus,
while Aliyev is standing next to Belarus leader Lukashenka in the
Yanukovych support campaign. What will Aliyev do if Yushchenko
wins in Ukraine? Will he pursue chilly relations with that country
abiding by his own principles or will he present himself as a friend
of the Yushchenko administration being insincere, as was the case
with Georgia?

THE SUFFERED MAN DEMANDING FOR COMPENSATION

A1+
08-11-2004

The criminal case instituted over the explosion in office block of
Samtckhe-Javakhq District a year ago is still under examination. The
guard of the block who became invalid because of the explosion demands
for compensation.

According to A-INFO Agency, Department of Inner Affairs continues
examining the case over the explosion in the representative office
of Georgian President in Samtckhe-Javakhq on September 5, 2003.

Kakha Kvartckhelia was President Representative in the District during
those days. Media labeled the explosion as a pre-election notice to
the supporters of Shevardnadze.

It is not known how long the case examination will continue but Temur
Ivanidze who suffered of explosion demands for compensation provided
by law.

U.N.-sponsored group urges Russia, Turkey and other OSCE members to help
their internally displaced

AP Worldstream
Nov 05, 2004

SUSANNA LOOF

Russia should stop pressuring displaced people to return to Chechnya,
while Turkey must remove pro-government guards from areas displaced
Kurds have returned to, a U.N.-sponsored group said in a report
released Friday.

Europe has about 3 million internally displaced people _ people who
have fled their homes but not crossed any international borders _ the
Global IDP Project said in a new report.

Turkey’s displaced population is about 1 million, mostly Kurds,
displaced by the conflict in the country’s southeast, said the group,
created by the Norwegian Refugee Council at the request of the United
Nations.

Azerbaijan is home to 575,000 displaced people, while Russia houses
360,000, Bosnia 320,000, Georgia 260,000, Serbia-Montenegro 250,000
and Cyprus 210,000.

“Governments must ensure that the displaced can go back to their homes
in safety and dignity,” Raymond Johansen, secretary general of the
Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a news release.

“But where return is not yet possible or not wished by those affected,
states must do more to ensure that the displaced can freely settle and
integrate elsewhere in the country, without being subjected to
discrimination or other restrictions of their rights.”

The report, to be presented Friday in Vienna at a meeting of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, urged OSCE’s 55
member countries to “make all necessary efforts to enforce the right
of IDPs to return home voluntarily in safety and dignity.”

However, it also cautioned that “return should not be promoted to
areas where minimum conditions of safety are not met” and called on
governments to ensure that displaced people have the same rights as
other citizens.

In Russia, people who have fled from war-ravaged Chechnya face
increasing insecurity, discrimination and pressure to return although
their home area remains dangerous, the report said. It called on
Russia to stop pressuring people to return to Chechnya “until adequate
conditions of physical, material and legal safety are created.”

The Geneva-based group said the biggest obstacle for Turkey’s
displaced people to return was the about 58,000 armed village guards
the government keeps in the southeast to control Kurdish rebels.

“Village guards hinder return by setting up checkpoints, denying
displaced villagers to access their fields and pastures and attacking
or intimidating those attempting to return to their homes without
official permission,” the report said, adding that some guards had
occupied displaced people’s homes and properties.

Return isn’t an option for the Azerbaijanis displaced following the
country’s 1991-93 conflict with Armenia, the report said, calling on
authorities to improve the dismal living conditions of the displaced.

“IDPs remain significantly more vulnerable to poverty than other
Azerbaijani citizens,” the report said, noting that 63 percent of
displaced people there live below the poverty line, compared to 49
percent of the overall population.

Interfax
Nov. 4, 2004

NATO nations discussing assistance programs to Transcaucasian armies

Tbilisi. (Interfax-AVN) – A two-day conference aimed at discussing
capabilities of NATO member nations to provide military aid to
Transcaucasian states opened in Tbilisi on Thursday.

The conference is very important for development of the Georgian,
Armenian and Azerbaijani armed forces, because it will work out
specific programs of assistance from NATO member nations, Nikolai
Janjgava, spokesman for the Georgian General Staff, told reporters.

“In particular, the conference will make decisions on the shape of
programs of material and technical assistance to Georgia, various
instructional and training courses,” Janjgava said.

A spokesman for the Georgian Defense Ministry told Interfax-AVN that
two conferences of this kind have been held before. They took place in
Estonia and Germany.

NATO secretary general, Armenian leadership to discuss cooperation

29.10.2004 12:11:00 GMT 

Yerevan. (Interfax) – NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
will meet with the Armenian administration in Yerevan to discuss the
development of Armenian-NATO cooperation, NATO Assistant Secretary
General for Public Diplomacy Jean Fournet told reporters in Yerevan
on Thursday.

Among the issues to be addressed during this visit are issues relating
to the development and intensification of Armenia’s participation in
the NATO Partnership for Peace program, Fournet said.

Scheffer is scheduled to visit Yerevan on November 5.

Fournet recalled that NATO has declared the Southern Caucasus an
area of its strategic interests and said NATO’s relations with the
countries of this region are currently experiencing a rise.

NATO is currently suggesting to its partners developing plans for
individuals cooperation with the Alliance, which will help each of
these countries be involved in cooperation with NATO to the degree to
which the administrations of these countries will want to be involved
in it, Fournet said.

In addition, he said that a NATO office on liaison with the countries
of the Southern Caucasus will be appointed in the near future.

The NATO secretary general has previously appointed its official
representative in the Southern Caucasus.

The Armenian administration has recently expressed an interest in
developing its cooperation with NATO. Armenia believes cooperation
with the Alliance cannot hurt its military and strategic cooperation
with Russia.

–Boundary_(ID_gAam4+VToPCmO5YFBgNU6A)–

PRESS RELEASE
Catholicosate of Cilicia
Communication and Information Department
Tel: (04) 410001, 410003
Fax: (04) 419724
E- mail: [email protected]
Web:

PO Box 70 317
Antelias-Lebanon

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I MEETS THE NEW GREEK ORTHODOX PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA

Antelias, Lebanon – On Friday morning His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of
Cilicia, met in the Patriarchate of Alexandria, Egypt His Beatitude
Theodoros II, the new patriarch of the Greek Orthodox See of Alexandria.

His Holiness Aram I was formally welcomed at the main entrance of the
Cathedral by His Beatitude who was surrounded by the members of the Synod,
clergy and faithful.

By welcoming His Holiness, His Beatitude recalled the long standing
relations between His Holiness Aram I and himself. He said “I still remember
when I was an assistant to the late Patriarch Parthenios, your active
participation in the ecumenical movement, your leadership in the World
Council of Churches as Moderator of the Central Committee, and your
important role in expressing the position of the Orthodox churches and your
role as a bridge builder between the Orthodox and the Protestant churches.
As the new Patriarch of Alexandria I want to assure you that we will
continue our collaboration for the visible unity of the church”.

In responding to the greetings of Patriarch Theodoros II, Catholicos Aram I
congratulated the election of His Beatitude, he deeply appreciated the
contribution of the Patriarchate of Alexandria to the ecumenical movement
through the World Council of Churches and Middle East Council of Churches,
and he said that “ecumenism is working together for common witness and
service and for the visible unity of the church. We must continue our common
ecumenical engagement as Orthodox churches in a world which calls us to face
together the new challenges and concerns”.

His Holiness Aram I was in Cairo together with Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian
and Bishop Nareg Alemezian, to take part in the meeting of the three Heads
of the Oriental Orthodox Churches in the Middle East.

##

View printable pictures here:

*************

The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates of
the Armenian Orthodox Church. For detailed information about the Ecumenical
activities of the Cilician Catholicosate, you may refer to the web page of
the Catholicosate, The Cilician Catholicosate, the
administrative center of the church is located in Antelias, Lebanon.

Los Angeles Times
October 22, 2004 Friday
Home Edition

The World;
Turkey’s Greeks Ponder Their Future, or Possible Lack Thereof;
The key minority faces extinction amid a flight of members and red
tape that stunts its growth.

by Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer

ISTANBUL, Turkey

As a biologist, Dositeos Anagnostopulos knows a species near
extinction when he sees it.

Anagnostopulos has watched the once-thriving Greek community in this
nation dwindle to a tiny fraction of its former strength. When he
graduated from high school here more than 40 years ago, there were
150,000 ethnic Greeks living in Turkey. They were one of the
country’s largest minorities, with roots that predated Christianity.

Today only about 2,000, maybe 2,500, Greeks remain in this
predominantly Muslim country. Roughly half of them are more than 65
years old.

This is how Greeks chronicle their history in numbers: Schools that
no longer exist. Newspaper circulation that has dropped into
oblivion. Families that have vanished into exile.

The question is less one of whether the community is fading — it
clearly is — but rather whether it has any future at all.

Istanbul, Turkey’s most cosmopolitan city, looks to its diverse
population to reflect its multilayered history and to embody its
multicultural character and charm. Straddling two continents,
Istanbul was always a magnet for a wide range of groups and
communities.

Until the Ottoman conquest of 1453, this city was also the revered
center of the Orthodox Church. One of Istanbul’s most treasured
architectural gems is Hagia Sophia, a 6th century Byzantine cathedral
that was converted under Ottoman rule into a mosque but retains many
of its Christian features.

Perhaps more important for ethnic Greeks, Turkey is feverishly
pursuing a bid to join the European Union, and therein may lie hope
for the community’s revival. One requirement for EU membership is the
just treatment of minorities. The death of one of the country’s
principal Christian minorities would represent a black mark on the
application.

“If Turkey does begin the process of joining the EU and Orthodox
Christians begin to come back, then there may be hope for our
community,” Anagnostopulos said. “I’d like to believe that Istanbul’s
cultural wealth will succeed in bringing people back and attracting
new people.”

Like many ethnic Greeks in Turkey, Anagnostopulos, 62, left to make a
life abroad. He moved to Germany in the late 1960s, worked for a
pharmaceutical firm, had two daughters and retired. Unlike most of
his brethren, however, he decided to return to Istanbul.

He became a priest last year and now works in the Ecumenical
Patriarchate of Constantinople, founded 1,700 years ago and the
nominal head of millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide.

None of Anagnostopulos’ siblings live in Turkey anymore, however, and
his daughters have no interest in moving here.

The Greek community in Turkey has declined steadily since World War
II, when the pro-Nazi government imposed a “wealth tax” that
disproportionately penalized Turkey’s three constitutionally
recognized minorities: Greeks, Jews and Armenians. Many Greeks were
bankrupted and fled. Bloody riots in 1955 that targeted Greek
businesses, the 1964 cancellation of a law that allowed ethnic Greeks
to hold dual citizenship, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 —
all fed a steady exodus.

Today, Greeks say Turkish authorities use bureaucracy to control the
community and stunt its growth. Onerous red tape blocks Greek
institutions such as the Orthodox Church from buying or selling
property. The patriarchate — the eastern-rite equivalent of the
Vatican — can employ only Greeks with Turkish citizenship, limiting
the pool of potential priests.

The few remaining Greek schools, all of them hundreds of years old,
teach roughly half their curriculum in Turkish. Yani Demircioglu,
headmaster at one high school, said he has 49 pupils in six grades,
down from nearly 700 in 1962. He said 97% of the school’s alumni have
left, mostly for Greece.

Despite notable improvements — inter-religious dialogue programs are
flourishing, the government has taken initial steps to reform
property rules, and hostilities between Greece and Turkey have eased
in recent years — many Greeks say they are viewed with suspicion or
as a fifth column.

“Ninety-five percent of the minority are loyal and doing what it
takes to be a loyal citizen: We are well integrated, we speak
Turkish,” said Laki Vingas, an ethnic Greek businessman in Istanbul.
“But I’m sorry to say, with some officials, there is still a gap in
confidence.”

At one of Istanbul’s two surviving Greek-language newspapers, Yani
Theodolou, 70, tracks the decline of the community in circulation
figures. “Down, down, down,” he said.

“Every day we publish an obituary,” he said, but not too many baptism
notices.

Theodolou and editor-in-chief Andrea Rombopulous run the newspaper,
Echo, virtually single-handedly. Most younger Greeks no longer know
the language well enough to write in it, they say. Theodolou is
convinced the papers will die out eventually, with no one left to
read them.

The two men work in Echo’s cluttered offices in a building that
housed, in more bountiful times, an array of sports and social clubs.

Seated in his office, at a large glass-top table that rests on faux
Ionic columns, Rombopulous, 38, recalled that when he graduated from
high school, there were 250 ethnic Greeks in Istanbul his age. It was
not difficult to find a wife within the community and to go on to
university.

The prospects for his 5-year-old son are quite different. There are
only three other Greek children his age.

Still, Rombopulous is a rare voice of cautious optimism. He notes
that Greeks almost disappeared following the Ottoman conquest, and
the community only began to grow again in the 1700s, when the sultan
invited shipbuilders and other professionals to live in the empire.

At least 50 Greek-owned businesses operate in Turkey, he noted, up
from just three or four a decade ago. Each business brings a new
Greek family, and if the EU admits Turkey, the firms are poised to
expand and capitalize on all the legal guarantees and ethical
practices that the union’s standards suggest.

“All signs now indicate we will die out,” Rombopulous said. “But I am
not a pessimist. There were times our community was even smaller than
it is today. I know of many Greek businesses just waiting for Turkey
to join the EU. Investments, more families. I believe things may
improve and change.”

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: IN ISTANBUL: Yani Theodolou of Echo, a Greek
newspaper, tracks the community’s decline in falling circulation
figures. PHOTOGRAPHER: Aris Chatzistefanou For The Times

San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
October 17, 2004, Sunday , METRO

Showing their independence ; Folks in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin
could tip the balance of the election.

by Jaime Castillo

STATE CENTER, Iowa – Doug Lively ducks his 6-foot-5 frame into a
tractor, while his father, Jim, steers a combine through the 600
acres of soybean and corn they planted this year.

One smoke-belching hunk of technology chews up rows of 2-foot-tall
soybean plants and spits out bushel upon bushel of pebble-size beans
into a bin being pulled by the other.

The father-and-son tandem harvested 60 acres on a recent Sunday,
displaying a farming harmony that comes from working land that has
been in the Lively family more than 50 years.

Compared to the commercial operations with $250,000 John Deere
mega-harvesters and plots of land the size of some small towns, the
Livelys are part-timers in a global economy that is changing life,
culture and politics throughout the Midwest.

“It’s just gotten to the point where it’s tough to have enough acres
to make a living off of it,” said Doug Lively, who also runs a
trucking company and a used car lot.

Having entered the business world once foreign to farm life, Lively,
42, has made a decision equally foreign to his parents. He’ll vote
for President Bush on Nov. 2, a choice at odds with his parents’
history as lifelong Democrats.

It is an example of the independent politics that typifies the
crucial Upper Midwest states of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, an
independence that could turn the presidential election.

Each of the states has a recent history of supporting Democratic
presidential candidates, which would seem to favor Sen. John Kerry.

Minnesota has voted Democratic in the last seven presidential
contests, while Iowa and Wisconsin have done so in each of the last
four.

But coming off the third presidential debate, polls show a
statistical tie in Iowa, and Kerry holding a slight lead in the two
neighboring battleground states.

The states are being bombarded by a seemingly endless stream of
negative TV ads, which has made relaxing in front of the tube a thing
of the past. Midwesterners don’t like wearing their politics on their
sleeves, much less having to digest it in their living rooms night
after night.

>From the suburbs of Minneapolis to the industrial sector of southeast
Wisconsin to rural Iowa, the regular folks of this region defy easy
political description.

That is because the region has gone through a few political
transitions in the past century, said Dennis Goldford, a Drake
University political scientist in Des Moines.

One hundred years ago, the Upper Midwest was a Republican stronghold.
When the Great Depression devastated the region, Democrats thrived
during the New Deal.

Today the two parties are neck-and-neck and emblematic of an evenly
divided country.

“The Upper Midwest has much more of a balance between conservatives
and progressives,” Goldford said. “These states, in a sense, are a
microcosm of the nation.”

To know how much times have changed, Lively said he only has to think
back to his high school graduating class of 60 students.

“There are only three full-time farmers, and better than half of the
boys grew up on farms,” he said.

Knowing that farming opportunities were limited, Lively headed off to
Iowa State University after high school. There he studied marketing
and began a slow transition from the political traditions of his
parents, Jim and Katey.

When he returned home 17 hours short of a degree to buy the trucking
business, he became a bona fide Republican after becoming frustrated
with small business regulations.

“I just started to see things differently,” Lively said.

Political opposites

At Cecil’s restaurant in Marshalltown, Iowa, population 26,000, the
shifting political dynamics aren’t in full view, but just ask folks
their opinion on the presidential race – or anything else – and
they’ll tell you.

Loyal customers get their morning cups of coffee poured by Ruth
Johnson, a gabby, salt-of-the-earth waitress whose son bought the
establishment from her late husband.

A Democrat by birth, as some people around here like to say, Johnson
became a Republican later in life. She said she will vote for Bush
partly because of her anti-abortion beliefs and partly because
“there’s too much gimme, gimme, gimme in society.”

The 81-year-old cancer survivor said she pays for her own health
insurance and believes people shouldn’t rely on the government for
everything.

But politics never comes up between her and 76-year-old Charles
Willer, a retired lineman for the old Iowa Electric Co. who is
bellied up to the counter for breakfast and the 60-cent bottomless
cup of coffee.

He will be voting for Kerry this November after giving Bush his vote
in 2000.

Wearing a mesh baseball hat that makes him look like a truck driver,
Willer said Bush tries to come off as a strong leader, but he doesn’t
like the way he approached the Iraq war without first getting
international support.

He also blames Republicans for not fully funding the No Child Left
Behind education law.

“Bush is a good man, but he’s not good for the American people,”
Willer concludes.

It is a scene that is played out often in the working-class areas of
the Midwest.

At Q’s Ham N’ Egger Restaurant in Racine, Wis., four old friends
gathered around a booth for a morning bull session hours before Bush
rolled through town on a recent bus tour.

There is no shortage of things to ponder in this city of about 82,000
people south of Milwaukee. Racine, an odd mix of an old blue-collar
industrial town and a quaint lake community, has been hit hard in the
last 15 years as hundreds of good-paying jobs have gone overseas.

The county has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

Michael Vidian, a former Racine city alderman for 15 years, is
resting his hands on a cane he uses to get around these days. He said
security is the biggest issue.

“Bush is definitely a better leader,” said Vidian, 81, his son, Gary,
48, nodding his head next to him. “An incumbent knows what’s going
on. There’s no flim-flam there.”

Seated across from the father-son Bush supporters are Harry Akgulian,
74, and John Mikaelian, 60, both retired skilled laborers who, in the
Midwestern way, don’t interrupt their political opposites.

They patiently wait until the Vidians are done talking before they
tick off several reasons why they’ll vote for Kerry. The reasons
include jobs, the economy, geopolitics and, especially important to
Mikaelian, the senator’s interest in recognizing the mass killings of
hundreds of thousands Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and
1923 as genocide.

“I believe when (Kerry) gets elected, he’ll change things around.
There will be more jobs,” said Mikaelian, a retired wood-pattern
maker.

Akgulian agreed, noting with a hint of sadness that the days are gone
when young people can find good-paying jobs without a college degree,
as he did 54 years ago when he arrived in Racine.

Akgulian, a former high-speed spindle repairman, proclaims that he
has “never voted Republican in my life.” He said more needs to be
done to keep jobs from leaving America.

As for security, both he and Mikaelian said they believe Bush’s
go-it-alone strategy in Iraq has weakened the United States.

“We’re isolated from the rest of the world,” Akgulian said.

No clear choices

For some in the Upper Midwest, the choices are not so apparent,
making it clear why these states are battlegrounds for the campaigns.

Take Brooklyn Park, Minn., a city of about 67,000 people outside of
Minneapolis that is dotted by parks, walking trails and enough open
space to invite flocks of Canadian geese to swoop in for landings.

To the outside world, it is probably best known as the city that
elected former pro wrestler and onetime third-party poster boy Jesse
Ventura as mayor, setting him on a path to the Minnesota governor’s
mansion.

But in terms of the presidential election, it is the ultimate swing
area.

Brooklyn Park is sandwiched between polar political opposites. Inside
Interstate 494, which rings Minneapolis-St. Paul to the south and
west, Kerry will likely win by 25 points in an area still dominated
by New Deal Democratic traditions.

Outside I-494 and beyond the established suburbs like Brooklyn Park,
exurbs have sprouted where tax-conscious, more affluent residents
will favor Bush by 20 points, said Larry Jacobs of the University of
Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics.

That is why the Republican and Democratic parties are focusing so
much time in places like Brooklyn Park, which are still a toss-up,
Jacobs said.

Laqueece Penn and Erin Carlson are the living embodiments of the
volatile political area. They live only blocks apart in Brooklyn
Park.

They each have a young son. They share the same corner public
library.

And while Penn and Carlson will likely choose different presidential
candidates this November, they have misgivings about their
selections.

“We all have the same feeling,” said Penn, unloading groceries with
one hand and clutching her 18-month-old son, Christopher Davenport
Jr., with the other. “My mother, my family, even the people who you
conversate with at the store, they all say the same thing. We’re all
confused.”

In her estimation, Penn, a single mother who lives in a
government-subsidized home, said she should vote Democrat. She blames
Republican budget cuts for eradicating her son’s health benefits at
the end September.

The full-time cosmetology student says she is “75 percent sure” she
will vote for Kerry. But one thing eats at her – the war in Iraq and
the thousands of lives on both sides that already have been lost.

“It’s kind of scary to change over in a war situation,” Penn said.

Carlson is more committed to the man who led the country into that
war, Bush.

The 30-year-old nurse and her husband have a 3-year-old son. They are
Christian, anti-abortion advocates and voted for Bush four years ago.

And those beliefs will likely lead them to vote the same way two
weeks from now.

But Carlson said she can’t help but feel like she’s choosing between
“the lesser of two evils.”

As a medical professional, she said she watches every day how an
ailing health care system impacts society. She wonders if things
would be different under Kerry.

“My husband and I will vote for Bush,” she said, sounding
unconvinced. “That’s more based on moral issues rather than I believe
in all of his positions.”

Mixed emotions are a common refrain for a region that could decide
the next president of the United States, once it makes up its
collective mind.

Edward George, a 37-year-old chef who lives in St. Paul, said what
makes the region more difficult to call is that “Republicans here
aren’t as right-wing as some places and Democrats aren’t as left-wing
as others.”

But the two groups seem to share equal numbers of followers.

“I’ve been voting since 1986 and I’ve never seen things this
divided,” he said.

Libération , France

20 octobre 2004

La Turquie dans l’UE, oui si…;
L’Europe devrait proposer à Ankara une voie rigoureuse vers la
démocratisation.

by NEZAN Kendal; Kendal Nezan, président de l’Institut kurde de
Paris.

Le débat passionnel qui s’engage un peu partout en Europe sur la
Turquie révèle une hostilité profonde de l’opinion vis-à-vis de son
adhésion à l’Union. Cette hostilité qui dépasse les clivages
politiques traditionnels est compréhensible. Elle ne saurait être
réduite aux seuls préjugés culturels et religieux ou à des réactions
de peur. La Turquie a une mauvaise image dans l’inconscient des
Européens, y compris dans des pays qui n’ont pas eu à souffrir du
passé ottoman des Turcs et qui n’ont pas de contentieux particulier
avec Ankara, et elle en porte la responsabilité.

Elle récolte aujourd’hui les fruits amers des violations massives des
droits de l’homme et de la persécution des minorités pratiquées par
ses gouvernements successifs tout au long du XXe siècle. Du déni du
génocide arménien à l’épuration de l’Anatolie de sa population
grecque autochtone, aux massacres et déplacements forcés des Kurdes
reniés dans leur identité et leur culture, à la répression des
dissidents s’écartant de l’idéologie nationaliste officielle et
intolérante, la liste de ces crimes est longue. Les Etats européens,
au nom de la Realpolitik, des impératifs de la guerre froide ou de
simples intérêts mercantiles, se sont accommodés de ces pratiques.
Pas la conscience publique tenue constamment en éveil par les
victimes du régime turc et les ONG des droits de l’homme. Les coups
d’Etat militaires quasi décennaux avec leur cortège de rafles,
d’exécutions sommaires, de réfugiés politiques, des procès
inquisitoriaux intentés à des intellectuels, des journalistes, des
élus du peuple comme Leyla Zana, y ont laissé des empreintes
profondes. Dans l’inconscient occidental, la Turquie reste encore le
pays de Midnight Express, un Etat capable de faire parler le turc à
quiconque sous la torture, selon l’inoubliable sketch de Coluche. Un
Etat qui a embastillé et forcé à l’exil ses plus grands artistes
comme Nazim Hikmet et Yilmaz Güney.

Tout cela, c’est du passé, il faut regarder l’avenir car la Turquie
est en train de changer, semble nous dire la Commission européenne,
qui, dans son rapport, dresse un tableau des “modifications apportées
aux systèmes politiques et juridiques turcs qui s’inscrivent dans un
processus de longue durée”. En quoi consistent-elles ?

La Constitution imposée par l’armée en 1982 a été amendée, ses
dispositions les plus liberticides supprimées, mais son esprit reste
autoritaire, et elle conserve toujours, dans son préambule, “le
concept de nationalisme” et “les principes et réformes d’Ataturk
[…], guide immortel et héros incomparable”, comme idéologie
officielle intangible de l’Etat, tout comme le marxisme-léninisme
était un dogme de la Constitution soviétique.

Le nouveau code pénal, qui remplace celui emprunté dans les années
1930 à l’Italie de Mussolini, est dans le contexte turc une avancée
démocratique importante, malgré certains articles potentiellement
dangereux pour la liberté d’expression. La suppression des cours de
sûreté de l’Etat, la levée de l’état d’exception dans les provinces
kurdes, l’abolition de la peine de mort, sont des progrès indéniables
à inscrire dans le bilan de l’actuel gouvernement turc qui cependant,
malgré sa volonté affichée, n’a pu réduire sensiblement la pratique
de la torture.

Réaliste, la Commission européenne nous prévient qu'”il faudra encore
du temps avant que l’esprit des réformes soit pleinement reflété dans
les attitudes des instances exécutives et judiciaires, à tous les
niveaux et dans l’ensemble du pays”.

Les Kurdes, comme d’habitude, sont les oubliés de ces négociations
interétatiques. La Commission évalue leur nombre entre 15 et 20
millions, soit près du tiers de la population totale de la Turquie.
Après des années de tergiversations, le gouvernement turc leur
accorde magnanimement le droit d’organiser des cours privés de kurde
pour adultes et une émission quotidienne de 45 minutes diffusée au
petit matin sur une chaîne publique, sous-titrée en turc, composée de
musique et d’informations officielles. Aucun progrès n’est enregistré
dans le processus de retour de 3 millions de déplacés kurdes et de la
reconstruction des 3 428 villages kurdes évacués et détruits par
l’armée turque. Et pour cause : la politique fondamentale de l’Etat
reste toujours la dispersion des Kurdes et leur assimilation forcée
afin de parvenir, à terme, à forger une Turquie culturellement
homogène.

Bref, sur la question kurde, qui est au coeur même de la
problématique des droits de l’homme, de la démocratisation de la
Turquie et de ses relations avec son voisinage, les avancées restent
infinitésimales et symboliques, juste de quoi ne pas désespérer
Bruxelles qui n’a pas le courage d’inviter Ankara à reconnaître à ses
citoyens kurdes des droits comparables à ceux qu’il revendique pour
les quelque 150 000 Turcs chypriotes.

Dès lors, il n’est pas étonnant que les réformes turques, en dépit de
leur nombre et de leur rythme, paraissent, pour une large partie de
l’opinion, relever plus du ravalement de façade que d’un processus de
démocratisation véritable. On est loin d’une stratégie de rupture
avec le passé.

Malgré ce bilan mitigé, la Commission recommande l’ouverture de
négociations afin d’encourager les efforts des réformateurs turcs et
semble miser sur la dynamique d’adhésion pour régler les dossiers qui
posent actuellement problème.

Curieusement, ce sont les partis conservateurs, qui, pendant des
décennies, s’affichaient comme des alliés fidèles d’Ankara, qui se
montrent aujourd’hui hostiles aux négociations, et les principales
victimes du régime turc qui demandent un dialogue critique avec
Ankara.

Ainsi, selon un récent sondage, 90 % des Kurdes de Turquie se disent
favorables à l’entrée de leur pays dans l’Union européenne car
celle-ci est perçue par eux comme un espace supranational de paix, de
démocratie et de prospérité susceptible de sauver la Turquie de ses
démons nationalistes et militaristes. Ils espèrent aussi, qu’à terme
ils parviendront à obtenir des droits et libertés comparables à ceux
dont jouissent aujourd’hui Basques, Catalans et Ecossais dans
l’Europe démocratique. De plus, le fait qu’à la suite de l’adhésion
turque la frontière de l’Union passe au milieu du Kurdistan donne aux
Kurdes des pays voisins des raisons d’espérer la démocratisation, par
effet de contagion, de leurs Etats respectifs. Les Grecs se disent
également favorables à l’intégration d’Ankara et cette position a
déjà contribué à une nette amélioration de leurs relations avec leurs
voisins turcs.

A l’intérieur de la société turque, outre l’élite déjà occidentalisée
d’Istanbul et de la côte égéenne, la mouvance islamique incarnée par
le parti conservateur AK actuellement au pouvoir place ses espoirs
dans le processus européen qui lui sert notamment de levier pour
démilitariser le régime et réduire la tutelle pesante d’une armée se
conduisant en propriétaire ultime de l’Etat, prête à sévir pour
trahison contre tous ceux s’écartant de la “voie d’Ataturk”.

Si Turcs, Kurdes et Grecs trouvent leurs intérêts dans l’adhésion
turque à l’Union, quel intérêt aurait celle-ci à intégrer un pays de
70 millions d’habitants pauvres et musulmans, de surcroît situé dans
une région instable et infestée de conflits ? Avec un PIB
représentant environ 2 % du PIB de l’Europe des Vingt-Cinq, l’apport
économique turc restera modeste. Contrairement à ce que, par
méconnaissance de l’histoire de la région, affirment certains
stratèges en chambre, l’intérêt géopolitique reste également limité :
à l’exception, peut-être, de l’Azerbaïdjan, l’influence turque est à
peu près nulle dans le Caucase et en Asie centrale. Et en raison de
son passé ottoman, de son alliance avec les Etats-Unis et Israël, la
Turquie n’a pas d’influence significative au sein du monde musulman.
En vérité, en Asie mineure, qui constitue 97 % du territoire de la
Turquie, les seuls voisins terrestres des Turcs sont des Kurdes.

L’Empire ottoman, qui l’avait bien compris, avait accordé une large
autonomie aux princes kurdes pour obtenir leur soutien. Cette réalité
reste encore incontournable car les ressources hydrauliques des
bassins de l’Euphrate et du Tigre sont situées au Kurdistan et les
oléoducs destinés à transporter le pétrole du Caucase et de l’Irak
doivent traverser le pays kurde avant d’arriver au port turc de
Ceyhan.

A regarder de près, le véritable intérêt pour l’Europe de l’adhésion
de la Turquie serait de pacifier et sécuriser ses frontières
orientales. Si dans ses négociations avec Ankara elle parvenait à
convaincre les dirigeants turcs de l’intérêt pour tous de trouver une
solution à la question kurde, de reconnaître le génocide arménien
pour apurer le passé et de régler à l’amiable leurs différends avec
la Grèce, la paix, la justice et la démocratie auraient fait
d’immenses progrès dans une région qui en a bien besoin. Alors, une
Turquie en paix avec ses populations et avec ses voisins devrait
avoir toute sa place en Europe.

Après avoir réconcilié Allemands et Français, Polonais et Allemands,
la construction européenne pourrait ainsi réaliser le miracle de
réconcilier à ses confins Grecs, Turcs, Kurdes et Arméniens.

Une telle ambition historique comporte certainement des risques dont
certains, comme le poids démographique ou la libre circulation des
personnes, peuvent être réglementés et gérés. Elle aura aussi un
coût, évalué à quelque 25 milliards d’euros à l’horizon 2020, qui
reste fort modeste par rapport aux 200 milliards de dollars déjà
dépensés par les Américains dans leur entreprise d’instaurer la
démocratie en Irak.

Une Europe frileuse, sans vision ni ambition finirait par devenir un
club de retraités de l’Histoire. Une Europe ouverte et ambitieuse
devrait proposer à Ankara des négociations avec une feuille de route
rigoureuse en matière de démocratisation, de droits de l’homme, du
règlement du problème kurde, etc. et assumer des risques qui restent
raisonnables car si la Turquie fait l’effort de remplir effectivement
ces conditions elle ne sera plus la même et pourrait être une chance
pour l’Europe. Si, en raison des pesanteurs de son régime, elle
tergiverse ou refuse l’effort requis, la balle restera dans son camp
mais le processus aura tout de même permis quelques avancées pour la
population. Un “oui, si” laisserait la place à l’espoir, et de
l’espoir on en a tous bien besoin.

GEORGIA’S NEW EDUCATIONAL LAW

Do Javakhk’s Demographic Changes Stand Behind?

Azg/am
22 Oct 04

Dali Aghdgomeladze is a teacher of Georgian in one of Akhalkalak’s
schools. She speaks Armenian brilliantly. I asked her whether
Georgian is ignored in Javakhk. “Some people try to picture it like
that but there is no ignorancein fact. Everything hangs on parents and
families. When parents explain children that they should learn
English, Georgian, they do so”, Dali said.

Georgian language has been a school subject in the schools of Javakhk
since the Soviet times but only 1 out of 100 school graduates knew
Georgian letters. Though Georgia’s new authorities make efforts to
teach Georgian to Armenians of Javakhk there is hardly any progress
today. There were cases when teachers sent from Tbilisi to remote
villages of Javakhk learnt Armenian but none of pupils learnt
Georgian.

But Georgia’s “rose” leaders never give up. A draft law on “Public
Education of Georgia” is to be discussed in the parliament in near
future. “81 per cent of Javakhk’s population is acquainted with the
coming changes and support reforms”, Haravayin Darpas, Javakhk’s
Armenian newspaper quoted education minister Kakha Lomaya as
saying. “Those who understand the meaning and purpose of the reforms
support the project. But there are also people opposing it. Those are
the corrupted directors of schools”, Lomaya said.

The draft law was not welcomed in Javakhk and in Azeri populated Kvemo
Kartli. “We are against this project, as well as Azeris”, Levon
Levanian, representative of Georgia’s ombudsman to Akhalkalak and
Ninotsminda, said. He said that law’s 3d article’s 5th and 6th points
are the most worrying.

The 5th point reads: “Georgian is the teaching language in all
educational establishments. Abkhaz language together with Georgian is
the teaching language of Abkhazia”. The 6th point reads: “If the
language of an educational establishment does not correspond to the
mother tongue of a pupil, the guardians’ board may include programs of
teaching pupil’s mother tongue or else subjects in the mother tongue
but only within the frames of the current financial support of the
state”.

In case the law is passed, all subjects at the schools of Javakhk will
be taught in Georgian except for Armenian language and literature. 99
per centof teachers of Javakhk’s schools do not know Georgian, and one
can hardly fancy an Armenian teacher explaining to Armenian pupils
Mendeleyev’s law in Georgian.

People think in Akhalkalak that the new educational law has a
far-reaching aim of shifting the region’s demography. Head of Virk
Party Davit Rstakian says: “The state pays 500 lari ($270) those who
will come to teach in Georgian. There is a guileful aim behind the
law: an attempt to change Javakhk=80=99s demographic picture. As soon
as the law is passed, hundreds of teachers will come to the region
with their families and Armenian teachers will drop out of the
schools”.

“Georgians always note that Georgia is in the 2d place with number of
Armenian schools after Armenia. That’s true but that is not due to
Georgians but comes from Armenians habit of living in communities. The
fact that Armenians inhabit whole regions has been disturbing all
Georgian governments since 1918. They made every effort to bar the
Armenians. They succeeded in Akhaltskha”, Rstakian says.

Levanian is also concerned but is suspicious whether Georgians will
stand Javakhk’s winter. “Even if they inhabit region with Georgians
they will hardly stay here. It’s awfully cold here. The government has
already sent few dozens of teachers this year, we’ll see if they will
stand the cold or not”, he says.

A branch of Georgia’s state university opened in Akhalkalak 3
yearsago. “They teach only in Georgian at the university and 100-150
students come tostudy from all over Georgia annually. The state
provides good conditions for them. The state attempts to change
demography of Javakhk artificially. The university will release
semi-educated Armenians, because they don’t know Georgian, and
well-educated Georgians. The latter ones will settle in Javakhk for
5-6 years for their studies, will occupy positions and eventually stay
here”, a resident of Akhalkalak, Vartan Hakobian, says.

Artur Yeremian, head of Akhalkalak Region’s Administration, noticesno
sign of Javakhk’s demographic shift. “We know from the experience that
only Armenians can endure Javakhk’s conditions”, he says reminding
that in 1989 newly inhabited Georgians could stand only one winter and
soon left, leaving the houses especially made for them.

By Tatoul Hakobian