Author: Nahapetian Lilit

Coalfield Progress, VA
July 15 2004

Book studies Turkish, Melungeon links

By ROBERT BAIRD, Staff Writer

KINGSPORT, TENN. – A new book by Brent Kennedy and Joseph Scolnick
Jr. sheds some light on a neglected area of U.S. history – the
migration for centuries of Turkish people to America. The book also
explores where the Ottoman Empire and Turkey fit in the history and
culture of the Melungeon people and their descendants. The authors
and their book, “From Anatolia to Appalachia: A Turkish-American
Dialogue,” were featured during last month’s Fifth Union Melungeon
Gathering held here. There’s evidence of a connection between
Melungeons, Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, Scolnick says. “The
Melungeons are apparently mixtures of Caucasian, Native Americans,
and Blacks, who as well have genetic links to the entire
Mediterranean area, plus, in some instances, Anatolia (the heartland
of Turkey), the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Northern India,” Scolnick
wrote in the book.
“The Turkish-Melungeon relationship exists and will be of interest to
many people, if for no other reason than that it records human
interactions across centuries and continents,” Scolnick continued.

Kennedy wrote: “Whatever the final scholarly verdict may be on the
origins of these so-called ‘mystery people,’ a seemingly irreversible
association has developed between the various Turkic populations of
the world and the Melungeons of Appalachia. This book is an
exploration, as opposed to an explanation, of these developing
relationships.”

Scolnick is a political science professor at University of Virginia’s
College at Wise and a noted foreign policy scholar with a longtime
interest in the Mediterranean area.

A Wise native who now lives in Kingsport, Kennedy founded the
Melungeon Research Committee and wrote the groundbreaking book “The
Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People” 10 years ago.

Scolnick and Kennedy first began collaborating on the book during a
1999 trip to Turkey. In addition to essays written by Scolnick and
Kennedy, the book is a collection of interviews with a variety of
Turkish citizens, including representatives of the Assembly of
Turkish American Associations and the Turkish ambassador to the
United States.

The work was printed last year by Mercer University Press and is part
of Mercer’s Melungeon book series.

DNA research has linked Melungeons to Turkey, Portugal, Italy,
northern Africa, Malta, northern India, Cyprus and the Canary
Islands, plus has shown connections to Native Americans, northern
Europeans and African-Americans, Scolnick said during a lecture on
June 17, the first day of the three-day Fifth Union event.

Kennedy said, “We mixed with people. That’s the nature of human
beings and of migration.”

According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, the Ottoman Empire was
founded in the late 13th century by Turkish tribes in Anatolia and
existed until 1918. At its height, the empire included portions of
northern Africa, the Middle East, central Europe and western Asia.

The Ottoman Empire was huge and included such present-day areas as
Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Albania, the Balkans and Austria,
Kennedy said.

Scolnick said the Ottoman Empire covered a wide area and was ruled by
a government that never attempted to assimilate its people. It was an
“enormous melting pot.”

During his research of the Melungeon people, Kennedy says he saw
references to Turkey and Armenia. Some Melungeon families have
connections to Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, he said.

Turks, Armenians and Arabs were brought to Jamestown as slaves,
Kennedy noted.

Some people brought to the New World by Spanish, Portuguese and
French settlers had Ottoman backgrounds, Scolnick said. Some of those
individuals escaped or were stranded once they got here, he said, and
it’s possible they met and were incorporated into Native American
tribes, married and had children.

DNA research indicates Melungeons have roots in Turkey, the Middle
East, India, Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, as well as having
Native American and African-American ancestry.

America was started by people from many countries and regions,
Scolnick said. It’s utter nonsense to believe the notion that this
country was created only by settlers from England, he says.

Kavkaz Center, Turkey
July 16 2004

Georgia is not the one solving the problem of war and peace

During his visit to Georgia Ambassador Steven Mann, the US State
Department’s Special Negotiator for Eurasian Conflicts, met with
senior Georgian officials on Thursday to discuss ways to reduce the
tensions in the conflict region of South Ossetia. He stated that the
US fully supports Saakashvili on the issues of settling the situation
in Georgia’s breakaway (pro-Russian) regions of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia.

Ambassador Mann told reporters before his departure from Tbilisi,
Georgia to Baku, Azerbaijan that his visit was quite productive, and
that the mission of his visit was to reduce the tensions in order to
avoid a power solution of the scenario in the Georgian-Ossetian
conflict.

He also said that the US government is watching the Georgian-Russian
negotiations in Moscow closely, and many things depend on them.

Ambassador Mann especially stressed that Russia’s role is being
mentioned pretty often, even though one should remember that the
position of the Georgian government must be of number one priority.

He mentioned that the US Department of State and the US government
are interested not only in resolving the conflict in Tskhinvali
District, but in settling the conflict in Abkhazia as well.

Steven Mann said that Secretary of State Colin Powell is personally
in control of these issues, and that the US fully supports President
Saakashvili.

A few hours later Steven Mann expressed serious concern that the US
has about the escalation of tensions in South Ossetia. In diplomatic
lingo it means that Washington is going to have an active influence
on the process and use its position as Georgia’s protector.

To confirm that statement, the US representative stressed that
Secretary Powell wants to personally make sure that the US is doing
all things necessary to support peaceful solution to this problem.
Mann explained that this is the reason why he visited Georgian
capital Tbilisi.

It is symptomatic that Washington’s diplomatic activities go beyond
just the situation around South Ossetia. Press Service of the US
Embassy in Georgia announced that the main mission of US State
Department’s Special Negotiator’s visit to the South Caucasus is to
continue discussions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Ambassador
Mann is the US Co-Chair of the OSCE’s Minsk Group dedicated to
resolving that conflict. Besides, Ambassador Mann serves as a
catalyst between governments, industry and in some cases NGOs, to
achieve specific milestones to forward the goal of creating an
East-West energy corridor from the Caspian to the Mediterranean.

While in Tbilisi, Ambassador Mann may also have meetings regarding
the BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) pipeline.

Meanwhile in Georgia the problem of whether or not a war will break
out is now being discussed. Most of the ones who have their say on
this issue stick to the viewpoint that Russia would benefit from the
war, and this is why the US will not let the war happen.

At the same time, Saakashvili’s critics are voicing an opinion that
military tensions around South Ossetia have been created
artificially, which is harmful for the country and which creates
favorable conditions for further separation of South Ossetia from
Georgia. The story with captuing 50 policemen was a painful blow to
the psychological state of the Georgians, who just started to believe
in the chance of regaining control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Georgian President’s opponents are also convinced that provoking a
military conflict, which is unlikely to develop into a ful-scale war,
will virtually create ideal conditions for Abkhazia and South Ossetia
to strengthen their statuses of independent republics. Saakashvili’s
critics believe that this kind of a situation will make the country’s
leadership give up on any firther attempts to regain control over
these regions. In exchange, Georgia will allegedly be offered a place
in NATO.

Such a scenario implies some conspiracy between Russia and the US.
But it’s kind of hard to say how possible it would be in the present
conditions. One thing is clear that Washington needs stability in
this region. Big Caspian oilfields are on the approaches (‘in the
pipeline’ so to say), and the situation in Iraq is not getting any
better either. If a war will have to happen, the war will have to be
quick, and Russia will not be supposed to take part in it. But if the
war will not happen, then Georgia will have to forget all about its
former autonomies for quite a while.

The future will show which one of the scenarios has been picked in
Washington. But one thing is already clear today: the problem of war
in peace is not being solved in Tbilisi or Tskhinvali.

Data Tutashkhia, Tbilisi, Georgia.

For Kavkaz-Center

PRESS RELEASE
July 13, 2004
Embassy of the Republic of Armenia
2225 R Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20008
Tel: 202-319-1976, x. 348; Fax: 202-319-2982
Email: [email protected]; Web:

Armenian Official Meets with MCC, Details Work on MCA Compacts

On July 13, 2004, Chief Economic Adviser to the President of Armenia,
Vahram Nercissiantz, who serves as Deputy Chairperson of the Board of
Trustees of the Armenian Program of the Millennium Challenge Account, and
Armenian Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Arman Kirakossian held a meeting with
Paul V. Applegarth, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
(MCC). Mr. Nercissiantz briefed the MCC official on Armenia’s progress
since June, when the MCC delegation visited Armenia.

In particular, Mr. Nercissiantz presented the activities of the Board of
Trustees of the Armenian Program of the Millennium Challenge Account, an
ad-hoc working group established by the Government of Armenia to coordinate
the preparation of the MCA compacts. The Government has held extensive
consultations with Armenian NGO’s, groups of experts and other concerned
parties, both at national and local levels, to solicit advice and develop a
public awareness on the strategic directions for developmental assistance
under the terms of MCA, Mr. Nercissiantz explained. He added that the Board
of Trustees is preliminarily planning to complete the preparation of draft
compacts by the end of August, with an aim to approve the compact and
formally submit it to the MCC for consideration in September.

Noting with satisfaction the activities of the Board of Trustees in Armenia,
Mr. Applegarth stressed the need for the compacts to also address the issues
relating to further strengthening the democracy in Armenia. Asked to present
the results of the consultations between the Government of Armenia and the
concerned parties, Mr. Nercissiantz noted that the consensus among the
government agencies, NGO’s, and expert groups was that the priority needed
to be given to the task of alleviating poverty among the rural population of
Armenia by promoting economic growth in rural regions. In particular,
greater integration of the rural communities in Armenia’s economy and
increased economic opportunities will help to reduce chronic poverty in
rural and small farming communities; an important by-product of such
economic empowerment will be the strengthening of local self-government and
civil society in Armenia. With the above strategic direction in mind,
elements of the program-compacts to be submitted to the MCC will likely
include, but not be limited to, rehabilitation of rural roads and transport
infrastructure; soil amelioration (drainage and desalination); improving
irrigation system; and investing in social infrastructure.

Mr. Nercissiantz reiterated the commitment of the Armenian Government to
continue to adhere to the goals of the Millennium Challenge Account
developmental assistance, such as governing justly, promoting economic
freedom, and investing in human capital of Armenia.

For more information on the MCC and Armenia, please visit:

Armenian TV company fined for illegal rebroadcasts

Arminfo
8 Jul 04

YEREVAN

An independent TV company, “Tsayg”, broadcasting in Gyumri has been
fined 100,000 drams about 151 dollars . Today’s session of the
Armenian National Commission for Radio and Television NCRT adopted
this decision unanimously.

The head of the NCRT, Grigor Amalyan, said that as a result of
monitoring it had been determined that the “Tsayg” TV company
illegally retransmitted programmes from the Russian “TNT” channel on
31 May and 14 June. He recalled that in line with the republic’s
legislation, the retransmission of the TV programmes of a foreign
country is possible only if there is a corresponding bilateral
agreement. “Tsayg” was obliged to inform the National Commission for
Radio and Television in advance about the planned retransmission.

South Caucasus MPs condemn forces preventing Azeri-Armenian cooperation

Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
7 Jul 04

[Presenter] South Caucasus parliamentarians have condemned all the
facts that prevent cooperation between the peoples of three countries
[Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia]. This applies mainly to Azerbaijani
nationalists who staged a protest rally against the Armenian
servicemen attending a NATO planning conference in Baku. The Armenian,
Azerbaijani and Georgian parliamentarians discussed this at a session
of the South Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative which was held in the
Bulgarian capital.

[Correspondent] Armenia took over the presidency of the South Caucasus
Parliamentary Initiative on 1 July and will assume responsibility for
the implementation of programmes within the framework of the
initiative under a six-month rotational system. As a presiding side,
our delegation has drawn up a six-month programme on cooperation. The
presiding side has suggested holding an interparliamentary session on
integration into Europe for parliamentarians of the South Caucasus,
western and central European countries in autumn. Tigran Torosyan
[Deputy Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly] described as
productive the second session held in Sofia and also expressed his
satisfaction with cooperation with the Azerbaijani delegation.

[Tigran Torosyan] There was sufficient agreement on issues that were
discussed with the Azerbaijani delegation.

[Correspondent] The final document of the session, as a general
requirement of the three countries, according to Tigran Torosyan,
pertains the shameful reception of the Armenian servicemen in Baku.

[Tigran Torosyan] It is said that the members of the South Caucasus
Parliamentary Initiative condemn the acts of the groups which create
obstacles to cooperation between the peoples of the three
countries. This is mainly about the events in Baku, which were
organized against our servicemen.

The delegations of the three countries regretted that some activists
creating such obstacles are getting in the way of cooperation.

[Correspondent] The parliamentarians’ next meeting will be held in
autumn to discuss the venue and timing of the third session of the
South Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative.

Nune Aleksanyan, “Aylur”.

OSCE, Armenian officials discuss ways to avert funding of terrorism

Mediamax news agency
7 Jul 04

YEREVAN

The OSCE office in Yerevan organized the first national working
meeting on money-laundering and financing terrorism today.

The main objective of the meeting was to familiarize Armenia with the
experience European states have accumulated in fighting
money-laundering and financing terrorism, the head of the Yerevan
office of the OSCE, Vladimir Pryakhin, said.

Armenian Prosecutor-General Agvan Ovsepyan said today that no crimes
related to funding of terrorism have been registered in Armenia. Yet
he said that one of the shortcomings of Armenia’s new Criminal Code is
that it lacks a separate clause envisaging punishment for financing
terrorism.

ArmenPress
July 6 2004

16 ARMENIAN CITIZENS QUALIFY FOR OLYMPIC GAMES

YEREVAN, JULY 6, ARMENPRESS: Armenian tennis-player Sarkis
Sarkisian has become the 16-th Armenian national qualifying for
Olympic Games in Athens this summer. Two other ethnic Armenians,-
David Nalbandian from Argentina and Magdalena Maleyeva-Berberian from
Bulgaria, also tennis players have qualified for Athens Games.

Moscow Times
July 6 2004

Azeri Detention Upheld

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — An Azeri appeals court has upheld a lower
court’s decision to jail five activists who disrupted a NATO forum in
Baku last month to protest the involvement of two Armenian officers,
their lawyer said.

The protest, which briefly disrupted the NATO forum, highlighted the
still simmering tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the
disputed Nagorny Karabakh territory.

Akif Nagi, head of the Organization of Karabakh Freedom, and five
other group members pushed through police cordons, broke glass doors
and stormed into a conference hall in Baku’s Europe Hotel on June 22.
The protesters and hotel security guards suffered minor injuries in
the incident in the hotel and the meeting resumed after several
minutes.

They were accused of hooliganism and ordered by the Nasimi Regional
Court in Baku to be held for two months. The appeals court upheld the
ruling Friday, lawyer Elchin Gambarov said.

International Herald Tribune, France
July 1 2004

Threats are not the way to influence Tehran

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi and Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh IHT

Iran’s nuclear program

TEHRAN In the aftermath of the UN atomic agency’s stinging criticism
of Iran’s nuclear program, Secretary of State Colin Powell threatened
to seek UN sanctions against Tehran in September. But if the United
States is serious about deterring Iran’s ruling clergy from going
nuclear, it must first address Iran’s national security worries.

As the crisis over Iran’s seizure of several British naval craft in
the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway demonstrates, Iran’s worries
about the spillover of the Iraqi conflict over its vast western
borders are real. To the east, Afghanistan remains a hotbed of
narcotics trafficking and warlords. Pakistan is an unstable pivot. To
the north, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia have their own levels
of instability; to the west, Turkey faces Kurdish irredentism fueled
by the developments in Iraq. In the Gulf, an endemic Sunni militancy
led by Al Qaeda threatens Saudi Arabia and other oil sheikdoms.

But it is the Bush administration’s advocacy of regime change in
Iran, as part of the “axis of evil,” that must account for much of
Iran’s current security disquiet, nourishing its thirst for nuclear
deterrence.

Iran’s policy makers and security analysts have been weighing for
some time the benefits and risks of its nuclear program.

The U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have lifted two direct threats
to Iran. Gone for the foreseeable future is Iran’s worry over Iraq’s
weapons of mass destruction, or another round of war like the bloody
eight-year Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Moreover, Iran’s ailing economy would suffer greatly under UN
economic sanctions. Iran’s clerical rulers cannot be indifferent to
the decision by Libya’s Muammar el-Qaddafi to halt his nuclear
program and admit that his country’s security and economy would
suffer if he crossed the nuclear threshold. Sanctions would exact a
heavy price on the government’s resources at a time it is already
suffering a high unemployment rate, particularly among its large and
restless youth population, and when Tehran has yet to move the
victims of the Bam earthquake from tents into homes.

Yet if Tehran continues to feel threatened by regional instability
and by Washington’s (and Israel’s) open advocacy of regime change, it
will likely veer in the direction of nuclearization.

Thus Iran’s decision whether to pursue nuclear development is a
matter of striking a balance between national interests and
legitimate security worries.

Hence the United States and its allies should do what they can to
diminish Iran’s fears and to encourage a viable security arrangement
in the Gulf region in tandem with the United Nations.

Confidence-building measures – such as guaranteeing Iran’s integrity
or acknowledging Iran’s constructive conflict-management role in the
region – would achieve a lot more toward Iranian nonproliferation
than years or even decades of sanctions.

This, in turn, requires a willingness by the United States to
recognize Iran’s important role in regional stability, as
demonstrated by its cordial relations with the government of Hamid
Karzai in Kabul and its endorsement of the interim government in
Baghdad. Another positive signal would be to support Iran’s bid to
join the World Trade Organization, where it has only observer status.

The United States could also propose to drop its objections to Iran’s
construction of a nuclear reactor in Bushehr if Iran would suspend
its uranium enrichment program, halt the construction of a heavy
water plant and submit to thorough inspections.

While there is no guarantee of success for this “soft power”
approach, the current approach of demonizing Iran and threatening
sanctions will only motivate Tehran to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
A combination of security guarantees, economic benefits, support for
Iran’s legitimate right to peaceful nuclear technology and the olive
branch of diplomatic normalization has a much better chance of
putting Iran back on the path of nonproliferation than any other
approach.

Kaveh L. Afrasiabi is an Iranian political scientist who lives in the
United States. Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh is a professor of geopolitics at
Tarbiat Modaress University in Iran and director of the Eurosevic
Foundation in London. Iran’s nuclear program

Tehran Times, Iran
June 30 2004

Iranian Filmfest To Host Filmmakers From Central Asia, Caucasus

Tehran Times Art Desk
TEHRAN (MNA) — For the first time filmmakers from the countries of
Central Asia and the Caucasus will participate in the Fourth Varesh
Short Film Festival to be held from September 12 until September 16,
2004 in Babol in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, the
public relations office of the festival announced on Tuesday.

The filmmakers are from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia,
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Dagestan, and
Chechnya.

`Presence of the filmmakers at the festival will be a good
opportunity for development of cultural ties between these countries
and Iran,’ said Yazdan Ashiri, the director of the festival’s public
relations office.

This year’s theme of the festival theme is short films featuring
public culture. Varesh is a local Mazandarani word meaning rain.

This year, the festival is also scheduled to highlight the works of
young filmmakers from the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan.