Author: Nalbandian Eduard

BRUSSELS SHIES AWAY FROM TURKEY-ARMENIA GENOCIDE DISPUTE
By Teresa Kuchler

EUobserver.com, Belgium
May 19 2006

The French parliament on Thursday suspended a vote on a law that would
criminalise denial of the alleged Turkish genocide of Armenians in
the early 1900s, with Brussels shying away from seeing the event as
a political criterium for Turkish EU entry.

In 2001, French lawmakers passed a bill which accuses the Ottoman
Turks of committing genocide against the Armenians between 1915 and
1923, with Armenians asserting the campaign cost 1.5 million lives.

As a consequence, French MPs were on Thursday (18 May) set to vote on a
law similar to already existing legislation against holocaust-denial,
which could see an individual facing a sentence of up to five years
in prison and a ~@45,000 fine.

The president of the French parliament, Jean-Louis Debre, however
interrupted the session in the middle of a heated debate, saying
there was “no time” to deal with the initiative put forward by the
socialist opposition party.

The announcement caused uproar in the visitor’s grandstand, where
dozens of members of the French 400,000-strong Armenian minority
clapped their hands for over five minutes, while shouting “The vote,
the vote!”

For its part, Ankara denies the genocide charges, recognising only
500,000 Armenian deaths during the Ottoman war, and rejects the
genocide tag saying both sides suffered severe losses in the war.

Addressing the plenary in Paris, French foreign minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy following his party’s line, stressed the “serious
political consequences” an adoption of the law would mean.

“The Armenian cause is righteous and it should be defended and
respected. But the national representation must keep France’s
interests in mind, and the methods it uses to defend its principles,”
Mr Douste-Blazy told deputies.

Ankara has announced that Turks could boycott French products and
French firms could lose lucrative contracts if the legislation is
passed, just as the country did in 2001 when the alleged genocide
was officially recognised by French law.

Political criteria in EU talks?

The topic has come up several times in the discussion on a future
possible EU membership of Turkey, which started accession negotiations
last autumn.

A number of European parliament reports urging Turkey to admit to
the genocide have been adopted by MEPs since as far back as 1987.

In September last year MEPs backed a resolution on the matter to
be forwarded to the European Commission, which monitors Turkey’s
readiness for EU accession, urging the latter to include the genocide
in Ankara’s EU membership negotiations with Brussels.

“The proposal that the recognition of the alleged Armenian genocide
as a political criteria has arisen from time to time throughout the
accession process with Turkey,” a commission official told EUobserver.

Brussels has however so far taken a hesitant approach to include
conditions on historical events as political criteria for EU accession,
because of the European continent’s motley war and border history.

The official said that during the bloc’s last enlargement round,
several eastern European member states had- and in some cases still
have- ongoing disputes about “who did what to whom during the war”,
and that therefore it was important to Brussels to stay out of such
disputes.

As for Armenia, the official said “We do not take a stance on the
Armenian case, we leave it to historians to study what happened.”

The official said a number of EU countries were sceptical to a
commission defining historical events, explaining that to add such
a criteria to the current demands would need unanimity among member
states.

He pointed out however that the commission has underlined the
importance of “good neighbourly relations”.

The so-called “accession partnership” text, adopted by EU member
states in January this year, suggests that candidate states “address
any sources of frictions at their borders”.

“That is the closest we get to addressing the matter,” the commission
official said.

Some MEPs have followed along the same line of argument, pointing out
that it would be insensitive and unfair to demand political criteria
for Turkey other than those used for the last round of enlargement.

“The recognition of the Armenian genocide should not be political
criteria for EU accession of Turkey,” leftist German MEP Feleknas Uca
told Euobserver, adding that compliance with the so-called Copenhagen
Criteria should continue to be the sole measure of EU-accession
for Turkey.

U.N. URGES UNITED STATES TO CLOSE SECRET JAILS

PanARMENIAN.Net
19.05.2006 16:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The United Nations called on the United States
to shut down the Guantanamo Bay camp and other secret jails run in
offshore states where suspects in terrorism are kept. According to
the U.N.

committee the prisoners are subjected to tortures what is the violation
of the U.N. Geneva Convection against torture. U.S. representative
stated at the committee sitting that cases of torture and inhuman
treatment in Guantanamo and other prisons are rare. Although the
statements by the U.N. committee members have no juridical force the
experts serving on it carry authority, reported Lenta.ru.

“SHEN-CONCERN” CJSC INTENDS TO ATTRACT CREDIT FROM EUROBANK TO SUM OF $5-6 MLN

Yerevan, May 19. ArmInfo. The “Shen-Concern” CJSC intends to attract
credit from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
to the sum of $5-6 mln to build a plant in Armenia for plasterboard
production, the Concern’s President Samvel Beglaryan told ArmInfo.

According to him, plasterboard is not produced in Armenia at present
and is imported mainly from Iran and partially from Russia. According
to Beglaryan’s assessments, Armenia imports about 1-1,5 mln sq.m
of plasterboard per year to the sum of $5 mln. To organize this
production, “Shen” intends to start development of a plaster deposit
in Armenia. As to Beglaryan’s estimations, the Eurobank’s credit
means will be enough to operate the quarry and to build a plant. This
project will be probably considered at the Eurobank’s general meeting
of shareholders to be held in London June 20-26, 2006. Then the
project will be discussed at the regular annual meeting of the “Shen”
shareholders in Yerevan on July 9. According to the President of
“Shen”, the year 2005 was successful for the Company in the whole,
as compared to the previous year. Thus, according to preliminary
estimations, the volumes of sales increased by 20-25% or by $300-400
thsd. as compared to 2004.

To be noted, the “Shen-Concern” CJSC was created in 1995. Thirty-six
percents of the Concerns’ shares belong to the EBRD, the rest part –
to the Armenia’s residents. The Concern owns a network of firm shops,
where 114 employees are engaged.

AZERI ADMISSION TO UN RIGHTS BODY CAUSES MIXED RESPONSES

AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
May 18 2006

Azerbaijan’s admission to the newly-established UN Human Rights
Council early last week has drawn conflicting responses from the
local and international community. The body is in charge of monitoring
human rights around the world and assistance to various countries in
improving appropriate laws.

The Azeri membership at the council prompted praise from officials
and some observers, amid severe criticism from the opposition and
international rights groups. The country was elected from the Eastern
Europe group, beating Armenia, Albania, Hungary, Georgia, Latvia,
Lithuania and Slovenia. Also elected to the council were China, Cuba,
Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, who have been roundly criticized
for a poor human rights record. The council replaced the UN Commission
on Human Rights (UNCHR) established in 1946.

The entity has been repeatedly criticized for the composition of its
membership. In particular, several of its member countries themselves
were believed by some to have dubious rights records. Another criticism
was that the Commission has not been used for constructive discussion
of human rights issues, but as a forum for politically selective
finger-pointing and criticism. The desire of states with problematic
human rights records to be elected to the Commission is largely to
defend themselves from such attacks. The chairwoman of the standing
parliamentary commission on human rights, Rabiyyat Aslanova, praised
the approval of the Azeri bid. “Azerbaijan’s admission to the council
shows that the UN General Assembly acknowledges that human rights are
being safeguarded and the democratic reforms are successfully underway
in the country. The membership is yet another accomplishment we have
made.” The MP said Azerbaijan will become the first South Caucasus
country to be represented on the council.

“Neighboring states had limited opportunities to be admitted. Armenia
was not admitted to the council due to the blatant violations of human
rights there. It is not fortuitous that Azerbaijan gained the most
votes [among them],” she said. Aslanova said that by gaining admission,
Baku has acquired an additional opportunity to convey the truth about
the long-standing Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict it faces with
Armenia to the world community. The chairman of the opposition Popular
Front Party Ali Karimli said the admission means “failure of the UN as
an entity”. “If Azerbaijan and other totalitarian countries are elected
members to the Human Rights Council, the UN shows its decadence,”
the opposition leader maintained. Sardar Jalaloglu, the first deputy
chair of another opposition party, the Azerbaijan Democratic Party
included in the main Azadlig bloc, said the United Nations has lately
turned into a “stage of games” of superpowers, which tarnishes its
image. “Despite blatant human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, I hope
that at least after this [UN council admission] the situation in the
country will change for the better,” he said. International media
watchdog Reporters Without Borders came out against Azerbaijan’s
admission. It regarded as disgrace the admission of several repressive
countries, where freedom of expression is violated the most, to the UN
body, citing Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Cuba, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. The organization said
in a statement that vesting the task of protecting human rights in
ten countries with widespread violations of journalists’ rights and
freedom of expression is unacceptable. “We therefore don’t expect
anything good from this entity,” it said. The group said China and
Cuba are the largest jails for journalists, while censorship reigns
in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia. In Russia, the Kremlin subdued all the
TV channels and other leading mass media. In Bangladesh, Nigeria,
Pakistan and Algeria, the rights of journalists are infringed upon on
a daily basis and they could be subject to arrests. Reporters Without
Borders said those responsible for the killing of two journalists
in Azerbaijan have yet to be punished. Another international rights
group, Human Rights Watch, earlier opposed Azerbaijan’s membership
at the council. In a letter to the UN, HRW suggested that along with
six other countries, it should not be included in the body, citing
numerous rights violations. The US ambassador to the UN John Bolton
made an ironic comment on the accession of some countries with poor
rights records to the new council, calling this “a bad joke”.

FIRST CONVOY LEAVES RUSSIA’S AKHALKALAKI BASE, GOES TO ARMENIA

Interfax, Russia
May 18 2006

MOSCOW. May 18 (Interfax-AVN) – A convoy, carrying the property of
the 62nd Russian military base, left Georgia’s Akhalkalaki and headed
to Armenia’s Gyumri on Thursday.

“A convoy of ten trucks, an armored personnel carrier and an
escorting car of Georgian police, has reached the Armenian border
and has completed customs checks,” Igor Konashenko, spokesman for
the Russian ground troops commander, told Interfax.

“The journey went smoothly and no problems arose, except that it had
lasted for as long as three hours because of poor roads,” he said.

Konashenkov also said that the property of the 62nd base would be
reassigned to replenish Russia’s 102nd base located in Gyumri. “The
transfer of this property to any other party is not envisioned,”
he said.

UPROAR AS FRENCH PARLIAMENT SHELVES VOTE ON ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’

Agence France Presse — English
May 18, 2006 Thursday 5:06 PM GMT

PARIS, May 18 2006

Angry scenes broke out in the French National Assembly on Thursday
after lawmakers were forced to call off a vote on a bill that would
make it a punishable offence to deny the Armenian “genocide”.

Discussion of the controversial opposition bill — which has sparked
a diplomatic row between France and Turkey — will now be pushed back
to October at the earliest, under the parliamentary calendar.

Shouts filled the assembly as the bill’s supporters accused members
of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) of stalling debate
and preventing the vote from taking place within the allotted time.

Dozens of lawmakers — angrily yelling “Vote! Vote!” — had to be
evacuated from the building after the leader of the assembly declared
the session closed.

In the public gallery, the many French Armenians who turned out to
support the bill reacted with dismay and anger, one of them — the
filmmaker Robert Guediguian — even breaking down in tears.

In Ankara, the government called for the bill to be abandoned
altogether, and for France to back the establishment of a
Turkish-Armenian committee of historians to study the World War I
massacres of Armenians.

“Our expectation from now on is to give up bringing the proposal
to the agenda of the French parliament again,” the Turkish foreign
ministry said.

But Maxime Sisvalian, a representative of France’s large Armenian
community, estimated at 500,000 people, slammed the postponement as an
“injustice”.

The Socialist bill would make punishable by up to five years in prison
and a fine of 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars) the crime of denying that
Turkish troops committed genocide against the Armenians between 1915
and 1917.

The same punishment is on the statute books for people who deny that
the Jewish Holocaust took place.

Earlier French Foreign Minister Douste-Blazy came out openly
against the bill, which follows on from a 2001 French law officially
recognising the massacres of Armenians as genocide.

“If adopted, this text would be seen as an unfriendly gesture by the
great majority of the Turkish people,” he told lawmakers, warning
its adoption would have “serious political consequences and weaken
our position not only in Turkey but across the entire region.”

“Turkey is a leading economic and trade partner… We cannot accept
this bill,” Douste-Blazy said.

The Socialist Party (PS) slammed the government’s position.

“The risk of diplomatic or commercial consequences can in no case
be invoked to justify giving up on human rights,” said PS spokesman
Julien Dray.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — backed by Turkish
business leaders and unions — appealed this month to France to block
the contentious bill, warning of the threat to bilateral relations.

Ankara briefly recalled its ambassador from Paris for consultations
amid rising tensions over the bill.

While the 2001 law was passed when the PS had a majority in the
National Assembly, the new bill would have needed support from ruling
party deputies — who had been given a free vote on the text.

The bill has provoked divisions within both the UMP and the PS.

Former Socialist minister Jack Lang said it would “undermine the
efforts of those in Turkey who are trying to bring Ankara to recognise
its history”, and warned against a trend towards “criminalising
public expression”.

Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings between 1915 and 1917 by Turks, as the Ottoman
Empire, modern Turkey’s predecessor, was falling apart.

Turkey categorically rejects the claims, saying 300,000 Armenians and
at least as many Turks died in civil strife when the Armenians took
up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading
Russian troops.

PROMINENT RUSSIAN ANALYSTS URGES RUSSIA TO STEP UP ITS CLOUT ON CAUCASUS

Armenpress
May 17 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 17, ARMENPRESS: A prominent Russian political analyst
of Armenian descent slammed today Russia for its unwillingness to
help Armenia resolve a string of sensitive problems it shares with
neighboring Turkey.

Andranik Mihranian, who used to consult ex-Russian president Boris
Yeltsin, told an international conference in Yerevan, entitled ‘The
South Caucasus without Terrorism and Conflicts’ that many of these
problems had been created by Russia itself. The conference organized
by World Armenian Congress (WAC) has brought experts and analysts
from Russia, Turkey and some other countries.

Mihranian said because of Russia’s reluctance to deal with
these problems the U.S.A. has seized the initiative and holds
actually an exclusive right in this domain. “Unfortunately, the
other superpower-Russia- that has always been Armenia’s ally, and
a strategic partner today, is inactive in helping Armenia resolve
its problems with Turkey,” he said. Mihranian went on to argue that
Russia’s pullout from the South Caucasus together with withdrawal
of its military bases from Georgia would be fraught with a string of
very serious problems for Armenia.

Mihranian said Armenia has no allies in the region.

Its relationships with Turkey can be described as ‘cold war,’
it has no relations with Azerbaijan, while Georgia in the north is
still a failed state hit from time to time by political and economic
turmoil. He argued that Russia’s withdrawal from Georgia would leave
Armenia totally isolated since Georgia is driving towards NATO, while
Armenia remains in the Collective Security Treaty Origination (CSTO).

“Russia has to step up its political, economic and cultural clout on
the region in order to thwart attempts to change the existing balance
of forces here,” he said.

PRESS RELEASE
Armenian Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Microsurgery
58, Abovyan St.
Yerevan, Armenia
Contact: Gevorg Yaghjyan MD, PhD
Secretary General
Tel: (37410) 560636
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:

Intensive Course in Breast Reconstruction

Yerevan, May 27, 2006

Armenian Association of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery and
Microsurgery (AAPRSM), as well as the Yerevan State Medical University
will organized an Intensive Course in Breast Reconstruction.

The event will take place on May 27th in the Conference Hall of
the Yerevan State Medical University. About 60 oncosurgeons and
reconstructive surgeons from different Yerevan hospitals will
attend the course.

The course will be lead by Dr. Artavazd Sahakyan MD, PhD , the
president of AAPRSM, and invited lecturer Dr. Jaco Festekjian MD, FACS
from UCLA Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, USA.

Dr. Festekjian board certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon,
Assistant Clinical Professor, author of numerous articles, abstracts
and book chapters.

The lectures will be dedicated to Breast Reconstruction problem, the
use of autologous tissues and new technologies in breast
reconstructive surgery .

The goal of the teaching course is to present the latest information,
the experience and knowledge of an international faculty member to
Armenian doctors.

The course is open for all doctors, residents and medical students
upon the registration on the web site:

We hope that programs of this kind will be continued in future and
help to enhance the professional level of local specialists through the
gained theoretical knowledge and discussions.

AAPRSM is a non-for-profit organization of medical professionals, aimed
at improving the health care system of the community and advancing
medical sciences in Armenia.

ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER PROPOSES MICROSOFT TO PARTICIPATE IN DIGITEC-2006 EXHIBITION TO BE HELD IN YEREVAN IN AUTUMN

Noyan Tapan
May 17 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian Prime Minister proposed
that the Microsoft Company should participate in the events to be
held within the framework of IT Month in September-October 2006,
including in the international exhibition Digitec 2006. Andranik
Margarian made this proposal on May 16 when receiving Microsoft Deputy
Chairman Vahe Torosian, accompanied by the company’s Director General
in CIS countries Sergyush Viza, Director for Business Management
and Strategy Paul MacLeston and the newly appointed Director
of the Microsoft Armenia Office Grigor Barseghian. A. Margarian
welcomed Microsoft’s willingness to assist with development of the
Armenian IT sector. Underlining the need for the most extensive use
of information technologies in various sectors of the economy, the
prime minister attached importance to the full presentation of the
company’s production and services in Armenia. Stressing the need for
creation of Microsoft Windows Vista/Windows XP/ MS Office software
versions in Armenian, the completion of which is scheduled for 2007, A.
Margarian at the same time expressed his concern about the issue of
translation of Armenian terms: according to him, most computer terms
do not have their equivalents in Armenian. He said that the Armenian
government expects Microsoft to make these terms accessible in the
Internet in order to allow various sections of the society to express
their opinion about these terms’ use in translation, as well as the
government expects Microsoft to take appropriate measures in order to
involve as many citizens as possible in this discussion. Vahe Torosian
considered it as a great honor that he, an Armenian, will be useful
for Armenia by offering the capacities of Microsoft – the company he
represents for the purpose of developing the country’s economy. He
expressed a high opinion about qualified Armenian experts of the IT
sector, pointing out that intellectual potential allows to fulfil
Microsoft’s innovation-based ideology.

According to the RA Government Information and PR Department, during
the meeting the sides addressed the problem of copyright protection
in Armenia, particularly the use of unlicensed packages of Microsoft
software, as well as the company’s participation in implementation
of educational programs in Armenia, the fulfilement of the idea of
e-government and some other issues of mutual interest.

TURKEY NEEDS TO CONFRONT PAST REALITIES
by Harry Sterling, Special to The Windsor Star

Windsor Star (Ontario)
May 17, 2006 Wednesday
Final Edition

‘The Armenian claims are a direct attack on our identity, on Turkey’s
history.”

With these words Turkish embassy counsellor Yonet Tezel explained
his government’s decision to recall its ambassador to Canada, Aydemir
Erman, for “consultations.”

The move followed recent remarks by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper associating his government with Canadian parliamentary
resolutions describing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey
during the First World War as an act of genocide.

Turkey has made a similar move against the French government for
contemplating a proposed law making denial of the Armenian genocide
a crime.

As a further indication of its displeasure, Turkey has announced
it is cancelling participation of Turkish fighter aircraft in an
international military air exercise May 17 to June 24 in Cold Lake,
Alta.

Despite its actions directed at Ottawa and Paris, Turkish authorities
stressed the recalls were only “… for a short time for consultations
over the latest developments about the baseless allegations of
Armenian genocide.”

While the statement by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan was essentially pro-forma, for many it was indicative of
Turkey’s inability to confront an issue that is never going to go
away until the Turks come to terms with it.

Turkish governments have always maintained that the large-scale
deaths of Armenians during the First World War and after occurred
when the then-Ottoman government was trying to put down Armenian
nationalists aligned with invading Russian forces and was not an act
of premeditated genocide.

They also insist the figure of 1.5 million deaths is inflated and
that during that turbulent period hundreds of thousands of Turks in
eastern Turkey also died.

While these explanations are widely shared by the Turkish population,
some Turks have called for a more open-minded approach to the issue,
including Turkey’s internationally recognized author Orhan Pamuk.

He was subjected to widespread criticism and physical threats for
commenting during an interview about the Armenian genocide and
repression of the country’s Kurdish minority, both considered taboo
subjects, especially by Turkish nationalists. He was charged with
denigrating the nation and faced a stiff prison sentence. However,
as a result of international pressure, particularly from the European
Union — which Turkey wants to join — the government dropped the
charges on technical grounds.

A number of Turkish academics have also voiced support for examining
the genocide issue with more of an open mind.

One way to do this would be to open up Ottoman-era archives and other
documentary sources, including Russian military reports that might
shed light on what took place during fighting in the region.

Investigations carried out by German and U.S. analysts concerning the
deaths concluded that the catastrophic defeat of Turkish troops engaged
against Russian forces during the early stages of the First World
War, and the Turkish army’s claim it had been stabbed in the back by
Armenian nationalists, resulted in the Turkish military disarming and
executing countless Armenian men as traitors, regardless of whether
they were engaged in an anti-Turkish insurgency.

The Turkish army purportedly then rounded up Armenian women and
children, ordering their deportation via the Syrian Desert, resulting
in massive deaths.

Turkish authorities dispute such findings, maintaining there was
no official policy to exterminate Armenians and that most deaths
were caused during the deportation to Syria due to lack of adequate
provisions at a chaotic time in eastern Anatolia.

Notwithstanding contradictory views on what transpired nine decades
ago, what is incomprehensible to many outside Turkey is why current-day
Turks are unable to look back on those horrific developments in a
more balanced fashion, instead of insisting Armenian claims have
absolutely no foundation in truth.

One reason that has been cited concerns the Turkish military, seen as
the true power in Turkey. The modern-day Turkish military founded by
Kemal Ataturk has always seen itself as the defender not just of the
country’s independence, but also of its national honour and dignity.

The Turkish officer caste takes its role in society extremely
seriously, even executing a prime minister for allegedly endangering
the stability of the state. Anything that could raise doubts or
undermine the military’s ability to present itself as guardian of
Turkey’s national honour and territorial integrity, or which portrays
Turks behaving in a barbaric fashion, is unacceptable.

This, some claim, is why it’s near impossible to confront the realities
behind the tragic fate of Turkey’s Armenian population 90 years ago
— or Turkey’s treatment of its Kurdish population — since it could
undermine Turkey’s own idealized perception of itself as a modern,
liberal society.

But like Germany, Turkey must confront the realities of the past if
it expects to be accepted as a nation capable of dealing open-mindedly
with its own history, however disagreeable that might be.

Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator. He
served in Turkey.