Author: Nahapetian Boris

TURKISH PM THREATENS TO EXPEL ARMENIAN WORKERS

The Swedish Wire
ish-pm-threatens-to-expel-armenian-workers
March 16 2010
Sweden

ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has
threatened to expel thousands of illegal Armenians workers amid
tensions over allegations that Armenians were victims of genocide
under the Ottoman Empire.

Resolutions voted recently in the United States and Sweden to brand
the World War I killings as "genocide" undermined peace efforts with
Armenia, Erdogan said, according to excerpts from an interview with
the BBC Turkish service published on the BBC website.

"Those people make shows with those resolutions… And they harm
the Armenian people as well… And things become deadlocked," he was
quoted as saying during a visit to London.

Referring to about 100,000 Armenians working illegally in Turkey that
Ankara has so far tolerated, he said: "So what will I do tomorrow? If
necessary, I will tell them ‘come on, back to your country’… I’m
not obliged to keep them in my country.

"Those actions (on genocide resolutions) unfortunately have a negative
impact on our sincere attitudes," he said.

Forced to leave their impoverished country to earn a living, thousands
of Armenians, mostly women, have settled in Istanbul, working mainly
in manual jobs or as nannies and cleaning ladies.

Erdogan blamed the "genocide" resolutions on the influential Armenian
diaspora in the United States and Western Europe.

"We are extending our hand, but if our counterparts clench their hand
into a fist, there will be nothing we can do," he said.

Following Swiss-brokered talks to end decades of enmity, Turkey and
Armenia signed an accord in October to establish diplomatic ties and
open their border.

The process however has hit snags, with both countries accusing each
other of lacking true commitment to the deal.

The climate was further poisoned this month when the US House Foreign
Affairs Committee approved a non-binding resolution branding the
massacres of Armenians a genocide, and the Swedish parliament followed
suit last week.

Turkey recalled its ambassadors from both countries, warning that
bilateral ties and reconciliation efforts with Armenia would suffer.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in a systematic
extermination campaign during World War I as the Ottoman Empire
fell apart.

Turkey counters that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at least
as many Turks were killed in what was a civil strife when Armenians
rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian
forces.

Parliaments in several other countries have also recognised the
killings as genocide in the past.

ARMENIAN AGRICULTURE MINISTER HAS NO INTENTION TO RESIGN

Arminfo
2010-03-16 12:00:00

ArmInfo. Armenian Agriculture Minister Gerasim Alaverdyan has no
intention to follow his party colleagues and send in his resignation.

(Other two minister of Orinats Yerkir Party have resigned recently).

"I have both feet on the floor and I have no intention to resign. My
party is pleased with me," G. Alaverdyan told media when asked of the
recent serious reprimand by the prime minister for improper performance
of commitments. The minister said that the reprimand nothing but a
work process. "I have good relations with the prime minister. I was
the first to raise the problem with improper state purchases by the
ministry," the minister.

He assured media that the employees named by the prime minister,
Hovhanness Hovhannissyan and Gevorg Tovmasyan, who were responsible
for organization of the state purchases, have already been dismissed.

The prime minister said during the last meeting of the government that
the tender terms were drafted so as everyone got to know beforehand
that only one company is able to win it and all the calculations were
exaggerated by 50%, which caused damage to the state budget.

In the meanwhile, the minister said that the tenders caused no damage
to the state budget and the purchase prices meet the market ones.

Asked why he did not liquidate the organizational shortcomings from the
very beginning, the minister failed to answer. Under pressure of media,
the minister finally named the company the tender was organized for –
Biouniversal LLC.

CLINTON: US FOCUSES ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT

News.az
March 16 2010
Azerbaijan

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expects human rights to improve
in Armenia and Azerbaijan once the Karabakh conflict has been solved.

‘We have already focused our attention on the resolution of the
Karabakh conflict,’ Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington.

Clinton made the remarks when asked by reporters a the lack of US
attention towards the case of young activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin
Abdullayev compared to the attention paid to energy issues.

Clinton said the United States was watching the issue and had voiced
its concern at the matter. ‘We have concentrated our attention on the
resolution of the Karabakh conlict. I think the situation of human
rights in Azerbaijan and Armenia will improve after the resolution
of the Karabakh conflict.’

Asked about Clinton’s remarks, the public affairs officer of the
US embassy in Azerbaijan, Terry Davidson, said, ‘We also show our
support for the improvement of human rights.’

Davidson said that the State Department released its report on human
rights last week, which covered all aspects of human rights.

AZERBAIJANI REPRESENTATIVE OF INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: "I DID NOT HEAR BERNARD FASSIER PRAISE ARMENIAN FIGHTERS DURING HIS SPEECH IN YEREVAN"

APA
March 16 2010
Azerbaijan

Baku. Lachin Sultanova – APA. "I did not personally hear Bernard
Fassier praise Armenian fighters," Azerbaijani representative of the
International Crisis Group (ICG) Tabib Huseynov, who attended Rose-Roth
seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan, told APA.

He said Bernard Fassier wanted to make speech in English, but the
French participants demanded him to speak his native language.

"When Fassier began to speak French, the translator was not ready
and translated the text into English badly. I personally did not hear
Bernard Fassier say these words. On the contrary, there were points
in his speech that coincided with Azerbaijan’s official position.

Especially, he touched on return of the Azerbaijanis to Nagorno
Karabakh, situation that may follow the return of the Azerbaijanis,
consideration of the position of the Nagorno Karabakh’s Azerbaijanis
during the determination of the final status of Nagorno Karabakh,"
he said.

Tabib Huseynov also touched on his speech in the seminar.

"The main essence of my speech was that there already is too positive
international atmosphere for the solution to Nagorno Karabakh problem.

The co-chairs of Minsk Group, including Russia cooperate with one
another well and assist the sides to achieve a progress basing on the
basic principles. The positions of Russia and the West coincide more
in Nagorno Karabakh issue, than in Georgia’s problems. The essence
of my speech was that we should not lose this opportunity. On the
other hand, the main problem is inside the societies and particularly
in the Armenian society. They are less inclined to accept the basic
principles than Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani officials stated that they
accepted the Madrid proposals. I tried to touch on these points in
my speech. I said what we can do so that the societies realize that
these principles do not contradict their main interests, the problem
can indeed be solved peacefully," he said.

IN FINANCIAL CRISIS CIRCUMSTANCES ARTSAKH INVESTMENT FUND ACHIEVES ALL GOALS SET

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2010 17:10 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A meeting between the Permanent Representatives
of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic to foreign countries with Artsakh
Investment Fund director Karen Yesayan took place Tuesday March 16.

At the meeting, Karen Yesayan presented main activities of the Fund.

As he noted, in financial crisis circumstances, the Fund managed to
achieve all goals set, as well as launched new programs.

Dwelling on problems caused by the Republic’s internationally
unrecognized status, Karen Yesayan urged the diplomats to promote
the process of attracting foreign investments in Artsakh economy.

The NKR Permanent Representatives expressed their readiness to
investigate investment possibilities and made specific proposals.

Official representatives of the NKR Foreign Ministry participated in
the meeting, NKR MFA press service reported.

YURI MERZLYAKOV’S REPLACEMENT WON’T AFFECT RUSSIA’S POSITION IN OSCE MG

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.03.2010 17:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Replacement of Russian OSCE MG Co-Chair Yuri
Merzlyakov won’t affect Russia’s position in the Minsk Group, according
to Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Andrei Nesterenko.

"Russia’s position in the MG is not determined by its representatives,
but rather by the Russian President, with Foreign Ministry acting
upon it," Mr. Nesterenko emphasized.

Also, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Karabakh conflict
settlement must not be linked to Armenia-Turkey rapprochement. "We
understand that both processes can’t but influence one another.

Nevertheless, determining the progress of one process by another’s
can prove counterproductive, bringing both issues against a standstill.

Karabakh conflict settlement should no longer be kept hostage
to Armenia-Turkey rapprochement in order to rule out unrealistic
preconditions," RIA Novosti cited him as saying.

EU ENLARGEMENT CHIEF PRESSES TURKEY ON CYPRUS, ARMENIA

Agence France Presse
March 15 2010

ANKARA — EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule urged Turkey Monday
to open its ports to Cyprus under a trade pact with the bloc and to
press on with peace efforts with Armenia.

"I had the opportunity to underline the importance the European Union
attaches to the need for Turkey to fully implement the additional
protocol… and normalise its relations with Cyprus," Fule told
reporters after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Turkey has refused to implement the protocol to open its air and sea
ports to EU-member Cyprus until the Union moves on its pledge to ease
the international isolation of the island’s breakaway Turkish-held
north.

Ankara also refuses to acknowledge the internationally recognised
Greek Cypriot government until the island’s division is resolved.

Turkey’s stance prompted the EU in 2006 to freeze eight of the 35
chapters which candidate countries must successfully negotiate prior
to membership.

Fule underlined that the problem would ease if peace talks between
Greek and Turkish Cypriots since September 2008 led to a solution.

"We agree that a comprehensive settlement on Cyprus would be a historic
breakthrough to the benefit of both Turkey and the EU," he said.

Davutoglu insisted his country’s membership talks should not be
overshadowed by "political problems that have no direct link to the
EU process, such as Cyprus".

Fule also voiced support to reconciliation efforts between Turkey
and Armenia to overcome a century of hostility over allegations of
an Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War I.

The two neighbours signed a historic deal in October to establish
diplomatic ties and open their border, but the process has stalled
amid mutual accusations of trying to modify the deal.

Turkey has been further angered by votes first in a US congressional
panel and then in the Swedish parliament branding the killings as
"genocide" — a term Ankara categorically rejects.

"As someone who is coming from former Czechoslovakia, from the
Czech Republic, I know that politicising your history is making
reconciliation difficult," Fule said.

Turkey began EU membership talks in 2005, but has so far opened
negotiations only in 12 policy chapters amid the row on Cyprus as
well as opposition from some-EU members states to allow such a large
and largely Muslim nation into the bloc.

On a two-day maiden trip to Turkey, Fule is to meet with Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and chief EU negotiator Egemen Bagis later Monday
before a meeting with businessmen in Istanbul Tuesday.

MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT AND EMERGENCY SITUATIONS TO CHANGE
Liana Yeghiazaryan

"Radiolur"
15.03.2010 13:30

Armenian media have disseminated information today that the Minister
of Transport and Communication Gurgen Sargsyan and the Minister
of Emergency Situations Mher Shahgeldyan were dismissed. They both
represent the Orinats Yerkir coalition party.

Press Secretary for Orinats Yerkir Party Susanna Abrahamyan told
"Radiolur" that the information about the change of Ministers
corresponds to reality. The names of the new Ministers are already
known.

The Political Board of the Party has taken the decision to nominate
Manuk Vardanyan as Minister of Transport and Communication and Armen
Yeritsyan as Minister of Emergency Situations.

SOCIAL INNOVATION CAMP COMES TO TBILISI

Tert.am
13:17 ~U 15.03.10

An initiative known as Social Innovation Camp, or SI Camp, will be
taking place in Tbilisi next month, with a particular focus on the
Caucasus region.

Next month’s SI Camp follows a similar event in Bratislava in
September 2009, which brought together designers, social needs
experts, entrepreneurs, civil society members, and marketing, legal
and advertising gurus who created web-based projects in just 48 hours.

The first SI Camp in the Caucasus will gather about 40 participants
from Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia "to work on an idea of a potential
social start-up that can make a change and compete for a prize,"
according to the SI Camp Caucasus official website.

Social Innovation Camp is about "solving social challenges in new ways
– by bringing together ideas and digital tools to create web-based
innovations in just 48 hours," reads the site.

The process begins with submitting an idea for a project. An
international jury then votes for the best ideas which participants
will work on in the 48 hours of the conference. Individuals can
participate even if they don’t submit an idea or if their idea isn’t
chosen. After all, social innovation begins with people, and the more,
the merrier, to get ideas off the ground.

For more information, visit the website at

Photo: SICamp, CEE Trust Civil Society Forum, Bratislava, Slovak
Republc © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2009

Christian Science Monitor –
March 12 2010

Turkey coup plot: What’s behind the tumultuous identity crisis

In addition to the Armenian genocide resolutions roiling Turkey in
recent days, the country has also been shaken up over the arrests of
top military officials in an alleged Turkey coup plot. How the turmoil
affects Turkey’s EU bid and its regional ambitions.

By Yigal Schliefer Correspondent / March 12, 2010
Istanbul, Turkey

The recent arrests of dozens of high-ranking military officers here `
among them the former heads of the Navy and Air Force ` for their part
in an alleged Turkey coup plot to overthrow the country’s liberal
Islamic government has caused a political earthquake here. Such
arrests were a first in Turkish history for a group previously
considered untouchable.

The officers are suspected of being part of a 2003 plan dubbed
`Sledgehammer,’ which aimed to create social chaos and political
turbulence in the hopes of removing the government of the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP). The plan, first revealed in
documents leaked to the liberal Taraf newspaper, possibly included the
bombing of popular mosques and the ratcheting-up of military tensions
with Aegean neighbor Greece.

The arrests came amid increasing tension between Turkey’s old-guard
secular elite and the government and its supporters. Controversy over
the arrests has thrown into higher relief the country’s deep political
polarization and its struggle to strengthen democracy and increase
civilian oversight of the military.

Is a military coup likely or possible?

The powerful Turkish military, which sees itself as the guardian of
the country’s secular system, has orchestrated the removal of four
governments since 1960. The last time was in 1997, when it persuaded
an Islamist-led coalition to step down simply by expressing its
dissatisfaction with the government in a detailed memorandum ` the
`postmodern coup,’ as it has come to be known in Turkey.

Things have changed a lot since then. Although a constitution drafted
after a 1980 coup enshrined the armed forces’ role as defender of
secularism and gave it broad powers, reforms linked to Turkey’s bid to
become a European Union member have clipped the wings of the military.

Although surveys have shown that the military remains Turkey’s most
trusted institution, popular support has been steadily eroding, along
with the public’s appetite for military interventions in politics.
Case in point: Though Turkey’s generals expressed their `concern’
prior to elections in 2007 in an online statement posted on the
military’s website (the `e-coup,’ some call it), the AKP went on to
sweep the parliamentary elections and install one of its leaders as
president.

What is the status of ties between the military and the current government?

Ties be – tween the military and the AKP have been tense from the start.
The party, which first came to power in 2002, was founded by members
of a re – formist wing of the Islamist party that the military had
forced out of power in 1997. Hard-line secularists have long suspected
the AKP of having a hidden agenda to blur the line between religion
and state in Turkey.

The question of what role religion should play in public and political
life has divided modern Turkey since its founding in 1923 by Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk, a military officer and secularist. For most of its
modern history, Turkey has been governed by a secular,
Western- – oriented elite, but the rise of the AKP has put the military
face to face with an emerging political class that is more connected
to its Islamic faith and sees Turkey’s place as both in the East and
in the West.

Does Turkey still plan to enter the EU?

Turkey’s connections to Europe ` economic, political, and cultural `
were already well established during the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922).
Turkey was officially recognized as a candidate for EU membership in
1999 and started negotiations with Brussels in 2005. After an initial
burst of reforms, though, Ankara appears to have lost its zeal for the
EU. Some of this is due to frustration with European foot-dragging,
but another reason is Ankara’s growing sense of its own potential as
an economic and political power in its region.

This change has been particularly noticeable in the Middle East. After
decades of keeping its Muslim and Arab neighbors at arm’s length,
Ankara has reengaged with them in recent years. Relations with Syria
and Iran, for example, have improved dramatically. Ties with Israel,
however, once an important strategic ally, have taken a serious
tumble.

This new foreign policy has led to accusations that Turkey is changing
its traditional pro-Western stance.

But Sami Kohen, a veteran foreign-affairs columnist for the daily
Milliyet newspaper, sees it differently: `During the cold war,
Turkey’s foreign policy was indexed to the West, to Washington,’ he
says. `Here we have a turning point, a change. Is Turkey changing
axis? It’s not a useful question…. I believe the thinking now in
government circles is that Turkey itself can now be an axis.’

How does this latest domestic turmoil affect Turkey’s regional ambitions?

Turkey’s ability to succeed on the world stage is tied to its being
able to resolve its troubles at home first, observers say.

`We have a lot of unsettled accounts domestically,’ says Semih Idiz,
an Ankara-based analyst who also writes for Milliyet. `A lot of things
have been whitewashed over the years, and now everything has come home
to roost in a big way. All this talk of where Turkey is going is
meaningless until Turkey itself figures out what its own identity is.’

Many in Turkey say the nation needs to abandon its 1980 Constitution,
dictated by the military, and write a new document that reflects
liberal democratic values.

st/2010/0312/Turkey-coup-plot-What-s-behind-the-tu multuous-identity-crisis